Sunday, July 4. 2010
Apart from it being America's birthday, it's also the birthday of the irrepressible Rube Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970). (note the second date) There are some excellent tributes (including videos of Rube Goldberg contest winners) here and here.
Continuing in this spirit, here's an entire Honda taken apart and converted into one huge Rube Goldberg device. More info here. Happy birthday, Rube!
 Happy American Independence From The Tyranny of Great Britain Day, everyone. Personally, I'm glad we finally got those Limeys out of our hair. Just between you and me, I thought those foreign accents were really annoying. Hey, if you're going to come to America, at least learn how to speak American, right?
Pictured: Pretty perky Patty Patterson pointedly presses proper patriotic power persuasions per personal preference post ponderously pontificating portentous premonitions precipitating prior pulsating palpitations.
Regular News
It's always nice to start off with a little good news, so here we go.
Are you worried that the massive government spending is going to eventually dip into your wallet and rob you of your last thin dime?
Well, you're right, it is — but here's the good news:
There's still plenty of time left to live it up! Almost half a year! Yippee!
Six Months to Go Until The Largest Tax Hikes in History
Hot, Hotter, Hottest Dept:
Little-Known Fourth of July Facts
How Fireworks Pros Make Brilliant Pyrotechnics
Celebration: 25 Red, White & Blue Bikinis
Sunday Science:
New Look at Apollo 17 Moon Sample Reveals Graphite Delivered by Lunar Impactor
Watson, the Computer that Could Play Jeopardy
Artificial Butterfly Reveals Secrets of Swallowtail Flight
How to Mow a Lawn: Rows or Spirals?
Just Rewards, Digital Dept:
Well, for all the bad things that can be said about California, one true shining note is at least their computer systems are as modern as it gets. With Silicon Valley sitting right there, how could they not be?
For the second time in two years, Schwarzenegger has ordered most state workers' pay cut...
A state appellate court ruled in Schwarzenegger's favor Friday, but the state controller, who issues state paychecks, says he can't comply. One reason given by Controller John Chiang, a Democrat elected in 2006: The state's computer system can't handle the technological challenge of restating paychecks to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.
He said a fix to the state's computerized payroll system won't be ready until October 2012.
So...it can raise people's paychecks, but it can't lower them back down? It'll take two and a half years before it can perform this monumental task?
Every now and then someone mentions Popular Mechanics and the outstanding post-Katrina article they did, so here it is:
Debunking the Myths of Hurricane Katrina: Special Report
Finally! It's nice to see that somebody out there still takes the serious things seriously:
Wonder Woman's New Costume Sparks Interdimensional Ire
I would have used the word "Condemnation", given the severity of the crime, but "Ire" works. Now that they've finally got her lower extremities covered up, I suppose a partial burka for her upper arms and neck will be next. You know how trendy that Hollywood crowd is.
Political News
Breaking: Lady Gaga Beats Obama for Facebook Record
Saturday, July 3. 2010
Card tricks are always fun. And they're especially intriguing when you're actually told what to look for ahead of time — and you still don't get the trick.
I've got the perfect example right here. While you're focusing on the card she drew, it turns out the entire deck has changed color. All I can tell you is, it's possible to figure out the Amazing Color Changing Card Trick — but you'll have to watch very carefully.
Very carefully.
 Regular News
Well, let's start off on a high note.
Finally! Too long have innocent people been brutalized by angry, hurtful words, and one country is finally stepping up to the plate and doing something about it:
Psychological Violence a Criminal Offence in France
So watch those bad thoughts, ladies and gentlemen.
We'll be listening.
I agree wholeheartedly with this guy, and he didn't even touch on everything.
The near-future of TV? It's not on the Web
Just Rewards Dept:
The scoundrels at Dell Computers are finally getting a comeuppance. I remember hearing about this nightmare way back in the day:
From 2003 to 2005, Dell sold computers with faulty capacitors that allegedly caused most motherboards on two Dell Optiplex models to break, rendering the computers useless. Dell was aware of the issue, according to recently unsealed court documents from a pending lawsuit, yet continued to sell the computers anyway.
Though the juiciest details are still sealed by the court, several internal company e-mails show that Dell instructed its sales staff to downplay the malfunctions to customers.
Dell faces fresh threat from old PC failures
Of mild amusement:
6 Famous Women Who Have Been Slapped With Restraining Orders
Before Dennis Hopper passed, he filed a restraining order against his estranged wife, Victoria Hopper, in the hopes that it would extend his life.
Can't blame a guy for tryin'.
One of the biggest disappointments in the global warmalarming hoax has been the response of NOAA and the USGS. While everybody knows NASA runs on politics and it shouldn't be too surprising that they've been corrupted by Jim Hansen and his ilk, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey are supposed to be above the politics of the day and focus on matters at hand. Yet both have been just as bad as NASA when it comes to jumping on the AGW bandwagon.
A few years ago, I would have read the following, thought, "Oh, come on, every agency blows a few bucks on some perks, what's the big deal. Leave NOAA alone!"
Audit: Fishery Cops Misspent Fines on Cars, Boats
But these days, I tend to agree with this guy:
Inspector General Todd Zinser investigated after fishermen complained for years about arbitrary enforcement of the nation's fishery laws, saying the fines amounted to a bounty because NOAA kept the money.
Gloucester fishermen Richard Burgess, who has fought $85,000 in fines, said NOAA should pay fishermen back every dime.
"We've all known that they're criminals," Burgess said of the law enforcement office. "Every one of them has got to go."
What's notable about this is that you've got some guy hollerin' to throw all of the bums out — actually calling them criminals — and all of this is taking place on... the uber-liberal, uber-Obamafan ABC News?
As Tiger Woods' star fades slowly into the sunset, here's a (hopefully last) pictorial tribute to what he had (pictured above), what he gained, and what it cost him. Besides his golfing career, that is.
This Chick Just Got $750 Million Richer
Just asking:
You're a director of operations with the top Russian spy agency. Your assignment is to plant a sleeper cell deep in the United States of America. You assemble two separate teams, one composed of professionals and the other composed of a bunch of bozos who can barely keep their laptops running.
Confirmed: Russian spies really, really dumb (Hot Air)
Dan Drezner follows the trail of idiocy and wonders what possible mission could have been assigned to these morons. Given that they weren’t in particularly close contact with anyone involved in U.S. national defense, their scoops seem to be limited to the sort of stuff you can find on Google.
So, mission accomplished?
Political News
Indonesian Movie on Obama's Childhood Kicks Into Gear
Friday, July 2. 2010
 Well, it appears the blogosphere is here to stay.
As such, it's probably high time you get your little buns in gear and grab a domain name before they're all taken, and think about slapping something — anything! — up there just to prove you're a citizen of the 21st century.
The bottom line is, you're probably going to get online sometime, so you might as well have at least a meager selection of domain names to choose from. Every minute you wait could mean that yourname.com will be taken. And the domain name is free if you go through the link below, and so's the software, and the site, itself, only costs $6.95/mo to host, so it isn't like it's some big wallet-killer. You got any other bills that low?
The software we'll be using is called WordPress, and whether you want a blog site or a standard web site, the stuff can't be beat.
There are two places where it really shines:
— It does a great job of automatically organizing everything. Readers can hunt up older posts a number of ways and it has an outstanding search feature.
— But it's the 'themes' that can change the entire look of your site with a single mouse click, from cool-and-hip to snappy-business-professional, that set this software apart. There are literally thousands of them out there to choose from.
If you're away from home, you can write your posts on the laptop and then email them to the site when you get online, each one scheduled to display at a certain time.
And here's the thing:
Frank, my neighbor, knows almost nothing about computers and never dreamed in a million years that he'd one day set up a personal blog site, much less put photos of his boat on it, much less videos. But, over the course of a few hours, with a little help from moi, he did just that.
Frank is 84 years old.
And you know where this is going, right?
If ancient, creaky old Frank can manage this difficult, ponderous task, I'm betting that you can, too.
The jump-off point is Cool-Blogsite. That'll walk you through the entire process from this moment on. If you just want to dip a toe in the pond, it's real easy to get up and running. If you want to jump on in, it's "challenging, but not difficult" to tweak the site to your exact liking.
This would also make a wonderful gift for some not-so-computer-savvy member of the family. They might not have the know-how to set up a site, but anybody can hit the 'Save' button. Install a bunch of themes and watch their eyes light up when they see the big thumbnail preview pics and how easy it is to choose between them.
But back to the domain names, I was in some webmasters' forum the other day and they were bitching about how hard it is to find an unused name these days, even using a person's first, middle and last name. And it certainly makes sense, given the massive number of people getting online and wanting their own domains.
As I said, it's real easy using WordPress just to get online and establish a 'beachhead'. The main idea is to nail down your domain name while it's still available. Click on the above link and just take care of steps #1 and #2. That's your 'beachhead', then you can relax and continue at your leisure.
Any questions, please ask in the comments.
I feel pretty bad after ruthlessly attacking the poor, innocent vegetarians the other day, and now my lawyer informs me that the EEO, the FCC, and the American Vegetarian Liberties Union are considering legal action.
I'm told that in order to avoid any legal repercussions, I must "even the score" and say something specifically nice about vegetarians.
No problem.
Regular News
 Pictured: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke addresses the Washington Bar Association on the current state of the economy.
Well, it's only going to go straight downhill from here, so let's start off with some good news.
Finally! Everybody talks the big talk when it comes to global warming, but these guys are actually doing something about it.
So at least we've got that pesky little problem out of the way.
Under the same heading of Fantasy Made Real, this headline cracks me up:
GM of Europe concerned Asian suppliers will take electric vehicle market by storm
Yeah, that's it.
By storm.
Words Of Warning Dept:
Learn how to spot compromised ATM machines
Billions of Reasons for Banks to Raise Your Checking Fees
How to steer clear of checking account fees on the horizon
That rascal Archimedes is back in the news:
Archimedes Set Roman Ships Afire with Cannons
Junkie linked to the following a few days ago, but I thought it deserved re-mention not because of its content, which was excellent, but its writing style.
Let's say your editor hands you a tough assignment. He wants you to write on one of the most crashingly boring subject in the Southwestern Galaxy, economics. And not just American economics, mind you, but foreign economics. And not some fun, hip place like Japan or China, mind you, but (discrete barf) European economics.
Here's how you do it:
In the private sector, countries like Spain saw huge real estate bubbles develop as home buyers rushed to take advantage of cheap mortgages — and developers enjoyed cheap financing as well.
Central banks are supposed to be the chaperons at parties like this, locking up the liquor cabinet when the guests start getting too happy, but the European Central Bank wasn’t paying attention. That wasn’t a mistake; it was on purpose. The ECB is supposed to think about the European economy as a whole, so it was watching economic conditions in the biggest economies like Germany and France. The ECB sat in the living room, watching Mom and Dad stay sober even while the kids were whooping it up in the basement. Mom and Dad were pretty well behaved so the bankers left the punch bowl alone — but things got a little out of hand down below and now the whole house is on fire.
A superb article and a very engaging style.
Bulldog Grip Dept:
Tenacity is such an endearing trait. The anti-Bisphenol-A (also known by many people as "plastic") nutcases are still hard at work, despite a mountain of evidence that's piled up in recent years discrediting their claims. (You could draw an exact parallel to the cellphone-brain-cancer stories that refuse to die.)
A good starting point on the current battle is Truth Or Scare, a Junk Science counterpart (and winner of this week's coveted 'Clever Blog Title' award), and there's an interview with an expert here.
While on the subject of moronitude:
10 Most Stupid Predictions and Statements in History
6 Laws That Were Great On Paper (And Insane Everywhere Else)
Political News
First Dog Opens Blog Site
Wednesday, June 30. 2010
The next time you hear someone claim to be a vegetarian, ask them if they eat fish.
They'll probably admit they do. Fish, being a water animal, really isn't like all of those regular bad animals that they don't eat, being a vegetarian and all.
Then gently ask them if they eat chicken.
They'll hem and haw a bit, but admit that, yes, they'll occasionally have a little bite of chicken, perhaps with a salad — but only if the chicken is organically-grown, of course.
Then gently ask them if they eat turkey.
Well, yes, on Thanksgiving and other special days, they might eat a little turkey. After all, they eat chicken, don't they? It would seem kind of silly to suddenly draw the line between chickens and turkeys since they're practically the same thing.
Uh-huh.
In other words, if it has pretty, human-like eyes...
...then it's bad and evil to eat!
But if it has ugly little beady eyes...
...then it's perfectly okay to eat!
They're not "vegetarians", they're just regular ol' people — except they don't eat animals with pretty eyes. Just animals with ugly little beady eyes.
Or, to properly categorize them, they're the beady-eyed meat eaters.
Sunday, June 27. 2010
 Subway Sandwiches has a really great sandwich — and it's not even on the menu. It's called a "Club sandwich with vinaigrette dressing," and, I'm tellin' ya, it's a slice o' Heaven. The vinaigrette dressing is somewhat like an Italian salad dressing, although French, if that makes sense. It's vinegar-y and garlic-y, tart, tangy and tasty.
I get mine with just meat, lettuce and onions; no cheese or other fixings. So, if you get yours with cheese and a bunch of fixings, and it just doesn't go with the vinaigrette dressing, oh well.
I'd suggest the following:
- Get the vinaigrette dressing 'to go' in a little cup so you can put it on yourself. I've had them ruin sandwiches by putting on too much.
- Get it on their "honey oat" bread. If you already have a favorite Subway bread, go ahead and try it on that, but if something seems off, try it on the honey oat. I've had it on three or four types, but the second I tried it on honey oat, I said, 'That's it!"
- Have it toasted after the meat goes on, but before the fixings. This really brings out the bread flavor.
- If you take part of it home and want to re-heat it later, heat it at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes from a cold start. You just want it warm, not cooked. Take the fixings off first.
- If you like BBQ chips, you'll dig how they go with the vinaigrette dressing. Great combo.
Bon appetit!
 Regular News
As you've probably noticed, one thing that's continually not mentioned in the oil spill articles is why we're drilling in such a precarious spot in the first place. While this isn't how I would have framed it, at least this guy's pointed in the right direction:
Why It's Safer to Drill in the 'Backyard'
Speaking of ecological disasters in the making, this has been predicted for years, and it won't be pretty:
Single Asian Carp Found 6 Miles From Lake Michigan
Asian Carp: They're Getting Near and Why That's Bad News
Any boatspeople out there might want to skim over this:
Boat Safety Tips From the Coast Guard
A nice perspective here:
General McChrystal and the Culture of Exposure
Then came cable, the Internet, and the profusion of media sources. Now you have outlets, shows and Web sites whose only real interest is the kvetching and inside baseball.
In other words, over the course of 50 years, what had once been considered the least important part of government became the most important. These days, the inner soap opera is the most discussed and the most fraught arena of political life.
And into this world walks Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
On the subject, Bruce and I were lamenting in email the other day how sadly different this is going to be for General Prayforus than it was in Iraq.
(H/T Theo) For those of you under, say, 60 or so, this is exactly what happened in Vietnam. If you were looking for one word to sum up our failure there, it would be the word handcuffed.
Update: Well, that was coincidental. I wrote the above last night, dropped by Theo's this morning, and what did I see?
So let's hope this is true:
Petraeus to relax rules of engagement in Afghanistan?
Speaking of guns, here's a revealing little gem from Cracked:
5 Ridiculous Gun Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies)
Political News
First Lady Shows Off Her Jump Roping Skills
Saturday, June 26. 2010
 The first time I heard someone say "global warming is dead" after ClimateGate hit the scene, I thought Oh, brother and started collecting headlines. As noted in Clarion Call, the juggernaut has continued apace.
Since ClimateGate, blog sites such as Pajamas, Townhall and Hot Air have moved on to other, juicier topics, such as heartily endorsing 'attack journalism' of distinguished senators as they casually stroll to their car on a Sunday afternoon, vilifying and excoriating a 90-year-old woman because she dared to venture her opinion on a sensitive subject, and citing The National Enquirer as a definitive news source for a 2-year-old story that everyone at the time agreed was completely bogus.
You know. Juicy stuff.
Well, in the interim, the juggernaut has not been idle. The energy bill is alive and well, and even if it doesn't get passed this year, there's still the EPA and its impending mandates. We're basically screwed, blued and tattooed every which way from Sunday.
One thing is true:
The people in charge of the (delicate cough) "science" sites, such as Nature, Scientific American, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and Live Science, never, ever, read the comments in their AGW articles. Ever.
Because, if they did, they'd be aghast at how mocked and ridiculed the majority of their AGW articles are, and something would change. At least there'd occasionally be an article expressing "some doubt" over the current (another delicate cough) AGW "facts", but there haven't been. Not a one.
The mighty machine rolls on.
The good news is, it's amazing how few comments some of them get. For supposedly popular sites, it wouldn't be surprising to see their latest "Global Warming Alters Orbit Of Planet" article only receive five or six comments, most of them of the mocking variety.
So, the good news is, at least they're (hopefully) not reaching a whole ton of people with the continuing barrage of garbage they spew.
Exhibit A:
From the current home page of Popular Science:
And the juggernaut mercilessly inches forward.
There’s an old, supposedly-true (and totally apocryphal) story that’s been floating around the Internet since the BBS days. Here’s how it’s often told:
Actual radio transcript released by the Chief of Naval Operations 10-10-95:
Station #1: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid a collision.
Station #2: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.
Station #1: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.
Station #2: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.
Station #1: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER ENTERPRISE. WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!
Station #2: This is the Puget Sound lighthouse. It’s your call.
Now see the video!
 Regular News
The writing's on the wall:
Apple Unveils New Marketing Strategy
Apple Computer Inc. unveiled a new strategy Monday: Let customers buy their computers directly from Apple's web site.
Who needed all those pesky middlemen, anyway? Sorry, guys, and thanks for all the years of service and dedication. That's the way it goes.
The article continues:
Jim Browning, Director of Advertising, claimed the new advertising theme would be a winner with potential customers. "As you can see in the accompanying picture, we're trying for a more subliminal approach to woo new customers to the Apple fold. A few strategically-placed stickers are all that's really required with these fools, and I seriously doubt any of them will pick up on the sneaky manner in which we're delivering it. Say, this mic isn't on, is it?"
How the North Korean revolution really started:
Kim Jong-il Blamed for N.Korea's Foolish World Cup Tactics
Grab yer diary — justice prevails:
YouTube Wins Lawsuit from Greedy Asswipes at Viacom
As you may have heard, blind people are very upset that the new electric cars are so quiet and want them to emit noise so they can be heard. The car companies immediately capitulated, of course, and started designing 'noise makers' for their cars, either emitting an engine-like sound or some electronic 'futuristic' beeping sound.
But, as Grandma used to say, "What goes around, comes around..."
Anti-Noise Activists Oppose Sounds for Electric Cars
I have less sympathy for these people than anyone on the continent. Any company that voluntarily makes childrens' products in the Nanny States of America in the year 2010 thoroughly deserves whatever horrific fate befalls it. When will these idiots learn?
2 Million Cribs Recalled from 7 Manufacturers
On a couple of different levels, this is historically a major news story, yet I saw no blogger mention it, and the link I saw was only being used as a throwaway joke.
CNN Drops AP Service to Focus on Own Newsgathering
Tough question: Is this good news or bad news? On one hand, any disaffiliation with the loathsome, biased AP sounds like good news, but letting CNN decide what's "news" or not sounds even scarier than the way it was.
Now here's an intriguing headline:
"Giving Poor Kids Computers, Internet Makes Them Stupider"
Doesn't seem to make much sense, right? Assuming they're not spending all of their time reading online comic books, you'd think, in general, their overall world view would be enhanced, their scope of subjects would be broadened, and — especially if they blundered their way onto a professional news organization such as the Huffington Post — their overall vocabulary would improve. And, when they didn't understand something, they'd simply ask.
"Mommy, what's a baby-killing racist right-wing warmonger?"
"That would be the Tea Partiers, dear."
"Oh."
Then, when you read the real reason, it all makes sense:
The profs suggest that this is because a kid in a disadvantaged home given a computer and internet access will tend to be poorly supervised and use it mainly for gaming, social networking or other timewasting online/computer activities rather than buckling down and doing homework. Thus computered-up poor children actually become dumber than they would have been without the tech.
This syndrome was much less marked or absent in wealthier households where kids are more closely supervised, but so severe was the negative effect of technology on North Carolina that overall the state's maths and reading scores dropped by "modest but statistically significant" amounts as digital technology arrived.
What makes the following particularly impressive isn't just the age, but the quality:
Earliest Known Images of Apostles Discovered Under Rome Streets
Political News
Obama, Lady Gaga, Compete for Facebook Fan Record
Wednesday, June 23. 2010
I was drifting around the backwaters of my site a while ago and came across this old gem. Thought it deserved another run through the grist mill.
 The US standard railroad gauge (the distance between the rails) is 4 feet, eight and a half inches.
Why?
That's an exceedingly odd number. Why is that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did the trams use that gauge? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in England for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you're handed a spec and are told "We've always done it this way", and you wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. The Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.
Now a twist to the story.
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.
Bureaucracies live forever.
Friday, June 18. 2010
For a little Friday evening fun I thought I'd cobble together some of the animal videos from my art gallery. Enjoy.
Bird Apes Dog, Horses Around, Pigs Out, Is Catty With Ewe
Here's Einstein the parrot. If you watch him carefully, you'll see that he's got one thing, and one thing alone, on that beady little brain of his:
Her right hand.
I watched three DVDs on training parrots a while back, and they just live for that next snack treat. As with other animals, you find out what treat they like the most and then hold that one back for when they do a trick correctly. The parrots in the DVD were certainly eager to learn — but you can bet it wasn't for learning's sake. Like Einstein, they kept their sharp little eyes on the hand that held the treats almost the entire time.
Which isn't to diminish this bird's exceptional repertoire. Take it away, Einy!
This Dog's No Rummy
Here's 'Gin' and owner doing some freestyle dancing.
Continue reading "Cool Animal vids"
Friday, May 21. 2010
This just in...
and not unexpectedly.
If you're personally concerned about this — and you should be — then please...
Continue reading "The rising tide"
Wednesday, May 19. 2010
I have a small, humble art gallery online. In it, I have a "Fun With Nature" category, full of pictures of animals acting silly and all the rest.
Among the pictures is this one, with my caption:
Idiocy knows no bounds
Yep, just another dumb animal doing something completely incomprehensible to humans.
All of which shows how much I know.
H/T: Theo
Wednesday, May 12. 2010
One very clever idea for a site is GraphJam, which puts our crazy American culture in graph format.
From the silly:
To the serious:
To something every blogger can relate to:
There's also a very funny area on the site called "Lol Celebs", where readers can put captions on pics of celebrities:
There's another celeb example below the fold as well as a few originals I whipped up just for the occasion. Go to the site, slap it in your bookmarks, then save it for a rainy day when you're looking for something to do. I went through every single graph and celeb page and had a great time. Some of the stuff is exceptionally clever.
Continue reading "Our culture in graphspeak"
Thursday, May 6. 2010
 Ah, there the two of you are: The cat and dog lovers. I can hear you two arguing from here. Cats are smarter than dogs. Dogs are smarter than cats. Cats are smarter. Dogs are smarter. Cats. Dogs. Cats. Dogs. And now some guy's claiming his PIG is smarter! Pretty boring, really. At least, after you've owned the kind of pet I've owned.
Continue reading "The Challenge"
Friday, April 23. 2010
Mr. Spock Set to Hang Up His Pointy Ears
I was there when Spock uttered his first iconic Live long and prosper.
We'd heard about some cool new space series coming up and eagerly tuned in for the first episode. It certainly did not disappoint. The show looks pretty corny now, but everything about it was state-of-the-art for 1966, from the concept to the design of the ship to the aliens.
And over the ensuing half century, while starlets and action heroes rose and fell, one of the true constants in the Hollywood universe was the logical mind of Spock. Whole continents could roil in upheaval, but Spock would know what to do.
He was an anchor. A hope. A symbol that one day mankind would cast aside its petty grievances and jealousies and grow up.
Yes, I was there when Spock uttered his first iconic Live long and prosper.
And his last.
Thursday, April 22. 2010
We're at kind of a juncture right now as different CPU configurations make market inroads. Traditionally, we've just had one big CPU chip and every effort by the manufacturers was thrown into making it faster and faster.
However, because an increase in speed means an accompanying increase in heat, the industry has hit something of a wall lately and now you're hearing about "dual-core" and "quad-core" CPU chips as the manufacturers take a fresh approach.
In brief, a dual-core CPU is basically two CPU chips in one, and certain applications will correspondingly run twice as fast. Quad-core CPUs are another doubling up of CPU power, although in general they only increase certain functions 25% over a dual-core system and are considered something of a 'marketing gimmick' by us geeks.
To note is that it's up to the programs, themselves, as to whether or not they can utilize the multiple CPUs.
Here are two video compression programs that do the exact same thing:
And, as expected, the first one does the chore in half the time, ten minutes compared to twenty. Run it six times and that's an hour saved.
As to identifying your own system, simply right-click on the Task Bar, open Task Manager, click on the 'Performance' tab and look. If you have two windows, like the above, it's a dual-core system.
As such, if you do any kind of routine CPU-intensive process, you might want to take a peek at ye olde Task Manager and make sure the program's up to speed — literally. In the case up above, I had used DVD2One for years, but as soon as I bought the new dual-core rig and saw how DVD2One performed in Task Manager, it went straight to the scrap heap. If it had just been one of those 'percentage stories', where one program outperforms another by a blistering 2.38%, I wouldn't have bothered.
But twice just can't be argued with.
Wednesday, April 21. 2010
Any 'House MD' fans out there?
Dip below the fold for a couple of goodies.
Continue reading "'House MD': A couple o' treats"
Tuesday, April 20. 2010
 I heard the funniest thing back when ClimateGate hit the scene. I actually heard someone say "global warming is dead."
I had to laugh.
Obviously someone didn't get the memo.
So I started collecting headlines on my daily rounds.
All of these are since ClimateGate:
Panel Will Review U.N. Climate Work
"Let me be clear, he said. "The threat of climate change is real." (NY Times)
Despite Climategate, IPCC Mostly Underestimates Climate Change
James McCarthy of the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment noted that the IPCC usually errs on the conservative side. (Scientific American)
Climate Scientists Plan To Hit Back At Skeptics
Undaunted by a rash of scandals over the science underpinning climate change, top climate researchers are plotting to respond with what one scientist involved said needs to be "an outlandishly aggressively partisan approach" to gut the credibility of skeptics. (Fox News)
Study: Human Impact On Climate Now Clearer
Scientists say the research shows greater evidence for human impact on the climate now than the data available when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its much-maligned report in 2007, warning of "unequivocal" proof of warming. (CBS News)
EPA, Countering Critics Of Greenhouse Gas Findings, Says 'Science Is Settled'
The EPA says it is going forward with "common sense measures that are helping to protect Americans from this threat" and said its critics are trying to "stall progress." (Fox News)
World Warming Unhindered By Cold Spells: Scientists
The pace of global warming continues unabated, scientists said on Thursday, despite images of Europe crippled by a deep freeze and parts of the United States blasted by blizzards. (Reuters)
Meteorologists: Last Month Warmest January On Record by Far
It is what climate scientists predict happens and will happen more frequently with global warming, according to an authoritative report by hundreds of climate scientists issued this month. (Fox News)
Peru Glacier Breaks Up, Causes Tsunami
It was one of the most concrete signs yet that glaciers are disappearing in Peru, home to 70 percent of the world's tropical icefields. Scientists say warmer temperatures will cause them to melt away altogether. (MSNBC)
Study: Stronger Hurricanes Loom
Top researchers now agree that the world is likely to get stronger but fewer hurricanes in the future because of global warming, seeming to settle a scientific debate on the subject. (MSNBC)
Earthquakes And Tsunamis Just The Tip Of The Iceberg, Say Experts
In papers published by the Royal Society, researchers warned that melting ice, sea level rises and even increasingly heavy storms and rainfall -- predicted consequences of rising temperatures -- could affect the Earth's crust. Even small changes in the environment could trigger activity such as earthquakes and tsunamis. (The Scotsman)
Undersea Arctic Methane Could Wreak Havoc on Climate
Why is the permafrost failing? According to the study, the process occurs naturally over thousands of years but is being accelerated by man-made climate warming. (USA Today)
Climate Change Will Impact Infectious Diseases Worldwide
But as Thompson noted, despite its challenges, climate change can be a relatively solid rock on which to moor infectious disease planning. Many functions of human populations, from geographical displacement to lifestyle changes, that influence disease transmission can be exceedingly hard to track, she said. "Climate is one thing you can actually measure." (Scientific American)
Climate Change May Extend Allergy Season
Sneezing, congestion, and runny noses from hay fever may be lasting longer because climate change may be extending pollen seasons, doctors in Italy said on Monday. (MSNBC)
Darwin Foes Add Warming To Targets
For mainstream scientists, there is no credible challenge to evolutionary theory. They oppose the teaching of alternative views like intelligent design, the proposition that life is so complex that it must be the design of an intelligent being. And there is wide agreement among scientists that global warming is occurring and that human activities are probably driving it. (NY Times)
Coast Guard Sees Increasing Need For Icebreakers
Allen sidestepped a question on whether he believes in climate change, though he said "certain things are undeniable," including a smaller ice cap and changes in ocean temperature and chemistry. (CBS News)
Report: March Was Earth's Warmest On Record
In addition, climate researchers have been reporting rising global temperatures for several years as a result of the Greenhouse Effect, in which rising levels of carbon dioxide and others gases in the atmosphere trap heat instead of allowing it to escape out into space. (USA Today)
Winter Was Fifth Warmest On Record
However, worldwide temperatures have also been climbing in recent years, a warming attributed by most atmospheric scientists to chemicals added to the air by human activities since the start of the Industrial Revolution. (CBS News)
On Global Warming, The Science Is Solid
While aspects of climate change impacts have been overstated, none of the errors or allegations of misbehavior undermine the science behind any of the statements made above. In particular, they do not alter the conclusions that humans have taken over from nature as the dominant influence on our climate. (Houston Chronicle)
US Senate Climate Bill To Be Unveiled April 26
WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - A long-awaited compromise bill to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming will be unveiled by a group of senators on April 26, sources said on Thursday. (Reuters)
To quote Samuel Clemens,
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
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