Mercury Light-Bulb craziness...

This is one crazy story…$2000 because some lady broke a light bulb. Blows my mind.

Filtering Immoral txt messages?

I typically stay away from topics like these, because in many ways religious-based governments are actively supported by the populace in preference of other forms of government. But this most recent development from Iran is really starting to freak me out. Not because I’m surprised, but because I could see it being done elsewhere; maybe a future provision of a new/improved Patriot Act or something equally ludicrous. I mean, was this law enacted I would have probably 90% of my txt msgs blocked…

New Undersea Cable to Asia

Seems to me that this new cable will function primarily to enhance the attractiveness of the mass data storage and hosting centers so common in southeast asia. Sounds good to me…

India Joins Space-Competition

So now that India has joined the small list of nations that can sustain a space presence (in terms of satellites, anyway), this begins to really beg the question: With the advent of all these rising regional superpowers, what does this mean in terms of power shift? Will we be faced with even more drastic globalization, as industrial and technological centers arise in every area of the world? I would assume this draws power away from the tradition American/European centralization, and distributes it across a broader spectrum. If these various technologies become available to just about anyone, then we will see far greater competition in the high-tech areas that we are used to enjoying total dominance in. This in turn shrinks our relevance, as grassroots solutions are formed in power bases that want to shrug of the chains of dependence on the western solutions; (read: China’s development of it’s own operating systems, chips, and internet). It’s fascinating to watch unfold, but you have to wonder what the long-term outcome of it is….

 

Surprise: Food ads increase obesity.

Well, at least it’s written down, now. Same thing we always knew from basic common sense.

 

Carbon Nanotubes for Solar Power?

Ahhh, very interesting. This is one of those fascinating times when seemingly unrelated advanced technologies find room to cross-over and assist each other, eventually leading to a more relevant technology synthesis.

20 tons of cocaine. Sure.

And we just sort of got randomly tipped off about that? Interesting. Well, if nothing else, we can fuel KISS on maybe a six-day tour if we stretch the supply thin…

Bovines and the Towns They Ravage.

I’ve never really trusted cows…and here’s a great reason why.

What's next, we verify adamantium claws (Wolverine) and the Batmobile?

So we’ve discovered kryptonite. Wonderful. I can’t even begin to contemplate what this is going to do for comic book geeks everywhere…be prepared for the mass exodus of reason and scientific rigor as they embrace the teachings of Stan Lee and espouse Star Trek as science-faction. I can’t wait.

Stigmata Tampons.

Yeah. The title pretty much says it all.

Watch it here.

Springtime, for Hitler...and Germany!

Ahhhh, spring. The fresh flowers…the scent of a warm breeze…the sight of naked men with swastikas attached…

Do I really even want to know? Yes. Yes I do.

Short-Round meets his cousin Mojo...

This crazy representative from the Indian version of the Lollipop Guild has some real dance-crazy mojo. I think we've found the act for my bar mitzvah...

It's a flying prophylactic?

I am always in favor of zeppelins, by virtue of my near worship of the greatest rock band of all time: LED ZEPPELIN. Of course, manufacturing a zeppelin from lead probably doesn’t solve much in the way of economic problems… but in any case I am fascinated by the decision to use un-manned zeppelins to patrol Caracas. I can imagine these being all over the place, since they’re pretty cheap to operate and provide continuous coverage, especially with the continuing cheap availability of highly accurate camera and communications equipment onboard. You could probably even connect them with Wi-Max or something, IP-based, and have them interlace their feeds for redundancy or 3-D effect…. I’m getting giddy just thinking about it.

Then again, <insert paranoid rant of 1984-esque spying>. So there’s that. But there’s always give and take with this crap. And I just want more zeppelins.

 

Gun Control

Yeah, I don’t really think this is something that we’re ever really going to get very far on. I read some source recently (can’t remember where exactly) that said the reason this issue has been largely ignored by the politicians is that pro-gun control advocates will not vote it as a lead issue, and anti-gun control advocates would vote it as a lead issue; so it’s just largely ignored by the political machine, except for a little grand-standing here and there during emotional situations like the VT shootings.

 

But to help confuse the issue, here are two opposing op-ed pieces posted on cnn.com; Ted Nugent against gun control, and Tom Plate for gun control.

 

Certainly doesn’t solve it, but provides some interesting background for each of the extremes. As usual, the real-world solution is a balance somewhere in the middle; I just hope that with the recent (last ten years) trend of emotional political polarization we can still find the room in our ranting and raving to assemble a reasonable compromise in the world of the moderate middle ground…

Dirty Monkey Prositutes...

Man, I mean if I had a nickel for every time a monkey paid me to have sex with it…well, that’s a story for different time. But the subject is apparently addressed in the sequel to Freakonomics, which is a fascinating book leveraging the mathematical and scientific rigor of economics to assess sociological problems. Crazy stuff…

Raising Cain? Classic...

So my parents are wandering around the country in an old plumber's utility van, seeing sites and taking dorky notes and making sarcastic quips about what they see. This makes for a fantastic blog...and their most recent post is no exception. Most amusing...

OMG, MySpace News! ROTFLOL!

Honestly, yeah. MySpace. Doing “news”. This is like saying that my dog will be reporting on good sources of water to drink: “News Flash! Toilet water is really clean!”

 

I know I know, they’re supposed to be actual news stories or whatever. Sure. It may start out like that, but as the myspace crews spend time rating articles, the J Lo and Brangelina stories rocket to the top, world news dips to inconsequence. I, for one, am thrilled.

New Printing Paradigm

I’m impressed with HP’s maneuver here, because there are a lot of industries where that technology would simply die a quick and silent death because they feel that the development would be unprofitable. Instead, they embrace the new mechanisms and use it to push through a new business-model (service-based as opposed to commodity-based). This is the style of mgmt that will be able to take advantage of the fast-paced innovation available these days in most of the tech fields. Google is one of the poster-children of this style, but it’s good to see that the practice is gaining traction in at least a few other companies…

VT gunman video

Well, for those that haven’t seen it, here it is. I’ll be honest, though; I’m a little surprised by the general response to this. It pisses me off, actually. It’s not like this kind of thing never happens, and it is sort of an indirect result of the surrounding culture. Not like we created and cultured a murderer, but someone who was already off-balance in some form or another was pushed far over the edge because of the actions of those around him. Speaking as someone who in most of his life has moved through social circles decidedly on the fringe, this kind of attitude is common, but it can be easily mitigated by having someone to commiserate with: to share despondency and create a social connection. To my mind, this is far removed from the Colombine shootings, because those kids were very casual and laid back about the whole thing; this guy was much more emotionally isolated and this guided his response.

I have no doubt this will spur all sorts of debate and anger in many arenas, but I think debate is good. Too much we wring our hands, say boo-hoo, and call it “god’s will” or chalk it up to plain old “crazy”. If we resort to just calling him in-human or crazy then we essentially wash our hands of it and reassure each other that we’re perfectly good people and it couldn’t have been our fault. It’s never that cut-and-dry, and people should realize that.

It’s horrible that those kids were killed, and the blood is on Cho’s hands. Just don’t pretend like people couldn’t have helped him along the way to prevent this. The world is never something that rests solely on one person’s hands…

Patent Reform...will this really matter?

So apparently this new legislation has been entered for the purposes of aligning our patent system with the rest of the world. I think that’s probably good, in general. But with all sorts of really heavy hitters getting behind it, you have to wonder if there is a lot of language in there that will specifically reinforce the status quo; how else would it gain so much traction with industry? The angles that are being played are being bet on by such a wide variety of companies, too, will this just further codify the stratifications of industry?

I am no patent lawyer, nor do I have a really great understanding of patent laws, but I feel as though patent law has gotten pretty ridiculous, with Intellectual Property being so closely held onto that seemingly nothing is available for use by the general public without royalties.

So ridiculous. And to me, unnecessary.

So here’s to hoping this will help…

You're going to want to watch this in a quiet place.

good...goood....goooood....SMACK!
oh my goodness, just fell out of my chair. Just watch...




If this doesn't load, try the linked site.

Will Ferrell getting abused by a two-year old girl.

Priceless.

No commentary, just watch it. Quite amusing...

Harlem Pong Trotters

These tricks are absolutely ridiculous. I do not care one bit whether they're real, computer generated, or something that I am literally imagining while drooling on myself at my computer. It. Is. Awesome.

China's gas

I assume that nobody is really surprised, but having some entity actually come out and give a timetable for when China will overtake us as leading CO2 producers really makes you think…I mean, with the irresponsibility we see every day in America, it’s not like we can expect much better in China or India. The only possible saving grace is that China’s centralized government is capable of enacting sweeping, all-encompassing change if it deems necessary, regardless of the individual interests involved. Let us just hope that they will decide it’s in their best interest…and the same goes for us, really.

Those crazy euro environmentalists

And by European environmentalists, I mean *everyone* in the world besides, of course, Americans.

It seems like most of the world is starting to “get it”, yet we’re just sort of twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the next round of American Idol. Infuriating. And a little bit depressing.

At what point do we finally start to look around and say, “Hey, what happened to all those glaciers and shit?” It better be soon, otherwise we’re going to be on the fast-track to self-defeat… because the reality of the debate on global warming is not whether or not we’ve caused it or not. I think we certainly have contributed in large part, but even if we haven’t, it’s not like taking measures to curb greenhouse gases will hurt anything. And the earth’s natural mechanisms for balancing ecosystems will probably be able to counteract this global warming thing, too. But all that’s saying is that life in some form or another will be maintained by Gaia. That’s not to say that humans have a starring role or even a bit-part in the final act.
The earth’s ecosystems and climates shift around to counteract our damage, and the most logical outcome is that eventually the cause of that change is eliminated or marginalized. Way to go, humans. <high five>

You spin me right around, baby. Right around. Like a record, baby.

Phew. Nothing like an article on the physics of space-time to remind you how dumb you are. I thought I had it about two thirds of the way through, but then I started thinking about implications and I started dribbling on myself and mumbling about the integral of a pringle.

The Yuppies are Revolting!

Oh no! The yuppies have lost Blackberry connectivity! What’s next, Starbucks loses latte capacity? Evian’s delivery trucks break down? It’s yuppie Armageddon!

Everyone should just stay calm…wrap yourself in an lamb’s wool wrap and place your cell phones on vibrate; the yoga instructor is on the way…

De Train, Boss! De Train!

How many friends of mine could this have happened to? Probably all of them. But realistically, my navy friends are the ones that fall asleep anywhere, so I would definitely put them top of the list. Led by me. Except that it would have been a Yugo i fell in front of, and it would have totaled the car and given me a sprained ankle. And I'd probably have to pay for the whole thing. Just my luck...

A Dancing Telegram of Hate?

Methinks Vaibhav has finally found his calling…break-up by proxy.

A 5 oz clock cannot carry a 1 lb coconut...

I could have definitely used one of these in college…actually scratch that. I needed a whole herd of migratory alarm clocks to wake my ass up in college. Roommates? Can I get an amen?

Declare War on Global Warming?

The Military Advisory Council definitely hit the nail on the head, here. It really is just a matter of time before more extreme climate change incites violent unrest in many more areas. This same topic was explored extensively in Jared Diamond's book Collapse (follow-up to Guns, Germs, and Steel), and pointed out numerous historical examples of societies that fell apart in destructive civil wars due to competition over resources that was brought on by climate change.

The real question is how we actually "prepare" for these scenarios, since the council advises we couple national security planning with analysis and predictions of climate change. Do we include in offensive and campaign strategies a component of long-term, strategic, environmental influence? Will this just devolve into the creation of more specialized military units intended to respond to the isolated scenarios without addressing the underlying issues? Admittedly, the military has a small role, at best, in affecting wholesale environmental reform, so I'm not sure what exactly this report is going to suggest for changes...perhaps their intention is simply to elevate the importance of the environment in the eyes of defense sector, leveraging the extensive budgets and political influence already dedicated to that sector. I think this would be the most sensible...

Seriously? Sulphuric acid on a kid's slide?

I mean come on, petty vandalism I sort of get. I understand some of the base desires surrounding that. But putting acid on a slide that little kids use? That is just plain f***ed up. I hope those little bastards get hit by a truck.

Average People don't like classical violin...shocker

I'm not sure why anyone was surprised by Joshua Bell not turning heads in the metro station. I mean, most people probably couldn't care less about such things, their focus is much more taken by american idol and US Weekly. America...Fuck Yeah!

Damn You, Monkeys!

Well, to be fair, I don't think my memory extends much past the second sip of beer, so I'm sure I can't get too up in arms about this study...

Mmmm, yummy OLEDs...

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) are continuously promising to be the future of cheap, high-definition TV. Looks like somebody is finally putting some real money behind it ...

Homeric Rhetoric

Ah, Homer. Who *doesn't* know the biting witticism and derisive irony inherent in Homer, our favorite animated nuclear technician...

What's the deal w/ 1080p?

Really interesting article going into the actual science of the HD progressive 1080p format, and when/if we can actually even tell the difference between that and the lesser formats…

Thought-Provoking Piece on Human Future and the Iraq War

This article is a post about the escalating violence of terror, Kurzweil’s “technological singularity”, and an all-encompassing view of violence and politics.

Now let me say that I disagree with probably 60-70% of what’s said here, but it is presented in such a format that it provides very good fodder for conversation and debate. In fact, probably half of what I think is wrong is not wholly wrong, just misstated or misinterpreted. But in any case, it’s worth a read, if you have a spare 10 minutes…it’ll get you thinking

Green Engineering from PM

I've never seen this section of their website before, but it really provides some interesting insight into the cutting edge environmental engineering that's going on...

Nuclear Beirut

Yes. For those of you who *didn't* know, beirut is a glorious beer game. And we stepped it up to make it an epic and tragic calamity of drinking excess. See the first round of photos on Facebook, or you can wait until I get my stuff together and build a master archive...

Self-Learning Robots...

I think it's a little bit ridiculous that they sort of gloss over one of the most significant quotes in this entire article, about robots in use now that were able to teach themselves functions and actions, instead of having those capabilities placed inside of them by programmers...

RIAA = boneheads?

Well, that's what a piece posted to the NYT online proclaims... very interesting story, actually. While a little thin on the actual background facts to make their case, the story is very interesting, and makes you wonder how true it is...

China Makes Science

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that is fascinated by the consolidation of China’s focus to specific technological and social development. Especially interesting is the nature of their tech focus, with “dual-use” areas in specifically high demand…

I wish I'd thought of this first...

Man, talk about a successful prank…

Solar Hype, or Organic Solution?

Latest in a long line of green solution announcements, these solar cells stand to make great strides in affordability…if they turn out to be real. 1/10 cost of current silicon solutions is a great thing, as is the shift to a more plentiful mineral source. Here’s to hoping it can be brought to market soon…

Butterfly Affection?

The Butterfly Effect. Unintended changes of future states based on small actions in the present, right? Well, one of the /. crowd informs us otherwise… I could never state it quite as clearly as him, so here’s an excerpt explaining the effect:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"Perhaps you are neglecting the Butterfly Effect."

I am not. I have a degree in Mathematics in which I made a particular study of chaotic dynamical systems. I've written papers about the Butterfly effect; I've constructed physical models that demonstrate it. Let me tell you about the Butterfly Effect, so that you can refrain from bringing it up in discussions such as this in the future:

In a system which exhibits sensitive dependence on initial conditions (such as the weather), you cannot predict the details of long-term behavior (will there be a tornado in Iowa exactly 1 year from today) because tiny variations, well below what your measurement of the system could possibly account for (such as the breeze generated by the flapping of butterfly wings) will cause reality to drift further and further out of synch with your model until there is no resemblance on the detail level.

So the butterfly effect makes it impossible to ever predict what day it will rain months in advance, for example. But it does not prevent predictions about the aggregate, macroscopic behaviour of the system as a whole. In Meterological terms, long term weather prediction is impossible, but short-to-mid term climate prediction is easy.

Lets be ridiculously generous, and say this system takes a thousanth of a percent of the wind energy in the jet stream out. Is it reasonable to suppose this might cause significant changes in the world climate that will make a huge difference in its suitability for humans? No; it is not remotely reasonable. It's just not enough energy to make much difference.

Would it mean sometime in the future there will be a thunderstorm one day and not another? Absolutely. Whether you exhale the next breath you take slowly or forcefully means exactly the same thing; the minute difference in the velocity of a few thousand molecules of air your breathing pattern makes will eventually mean the difference in what day you get a thunderstorm.

The relevance of the Butterfly Effect in deciding whether to build this wind farm is the same as its relevance in deciding how forcefully to exhale your next breath. It means that the exact effect of either cannot be predicted, and that's it. It's not a reason to not do anything. (Well, except things like attempting long term prediction of weather detail.)

Hope that helps.

The Folly of Iranian Attack

The Russians have got it right, if you ask me. Attacking Iran would be roughly the dumbest thing the US could do, right now. Not only could we not win a war against Iran (for many of the same reasons we cannot really win in Iraq), but we would suffer much more significant losses against an Iranian force than we ever did against Iraqi forces. It’s stupid to believe that we can continue expanding the scope of our military operations in all these regions and not pay some serious consequences for it.

 

I mean, I guess the argument is that if we ignore Iran’s posturing and weapons development, then we are simply allowing a current thorn in our side to grow into a full-fledged world power with nuclear weapons. In that drastically over-simplified scenario, then yes it makes sense to hit them now as opposed to later (ounce of prevention, pound of cure, etc). But when you think of the fact that in stretching ourselves this thin, we lack the dedicated industrial base to replace our material and manpower losses were we to get involved in any struggle that pitted industrial AND motivated war-fighters against us. We would then see a quickly escalating problem in all of our operations, because they would start failing simultaneously. That is simply not something you can recover from. Now, is Iran with nukes worrisome? Yes. Without a doubt. But there is a chance that it won’t happen. Or that some other nations will step up. Or that the future will find different “Great White Satans”. If we wait for the future, there is a chance we will fall, due to attacks from a stronger Iran. But if we attack now, we are virtually assuring it.

power point = bad

Ah-ha! I knew it! Scheming bastards making me compile power point slides all day long… I’m promoting the downfall of the human race! mwahahahha

Like wearing Craigslist on your Head!

Yes. I blatantly stole the exact title of the post I’m linking to. But it was too appropriate not to, honestly…

Touche, Scott Adams...Touche

Ah yes. Dilbert. I'm a little embarrassed to be joining this bandwagon so quickly, but it is really pretty impressive how accurately the strip captures the inanities of corporate life...

Snorting your Father...

Keith Richards. You incorrigible madman…get cranked up on blow and snort your father’s ashes along with some mixings. Unbelievable. Truly. I mean, what do you say about that? Just have to shake your head and wonder…

Fire in the Hole! Poop in the Hand!

I am a little upset that the court injunction would not allow the details of the incident to be released, although it does allow for a lot of imagination to be expended in trying to figure out what sort of scenario would give rise to a teacher throwing feces at a 12 yr old… although realistically, who *hasn’t* thrown poop at a 12 yr old? Honestly…

This just in; sun revolves around the earth. Who knew?

Slashdot is wonderful for many reasons, but as with anything collaborative, the real worth comes through in the discussions that follow the initial news story. I rarely have time to pore through much of the commenting, but I took a minute today to look through the comments on this article about caves on mars (snakes on a plane?), and found some really insightful stuff… for instance this is a minor diatribe posted in response to somebody getting high and mighty about how dumb people were back in yesteryear:

 

“we thought that Earth was the center of the universe, that the sun revolved around Earth

 

I really wish people would stop telling these lies. The Earth *is* the center of the universe, and the sun *does* revolve around the Earth. If you're talking about other planets or galaxies it's not necessary a handy reference point, but there's no technical reason that you can't define Earth as the origin in any coordinate system. Similarly it's just as accurate to say that the sun revolves around Earth as it is to say that Earth revolves around the sun; the sun and Earth revolve around each other, and anything more specific only expresses a frame a reference, not a technical truth.

 

The only part people ever got wrong was the movement of other planets; there were models that showed other planets in revolution around Earth, and those were inaccurate (and quickly discovered to be so as soon as the technology existed to measure the inaccuracies in the predicted orbits of the planets). But in a time before access to high-quality optics it's not entirely unreasonable to suppose that distant non-star objects you observe behave in the same way as the sun and the moon -- that they also revolve around the Earth.

 

I won't argue the "earth was flat" point (much) for the moment, as there were at least some people at some point in history who believed that. Not many people who actually studied the subject, at least not since some year that ended with "BC", but there were some people in the Early Middle Ages who argued for a flat-earth model, and their belief was wrong, so it's a better point than the first two, even if it's based on a misunderstanding of history.

 

And while religion does may bad (fight about stupid things) and good things (organize society in the absence of stable political powers), they can't be blamed for your misunderstanding of astronomy or history, so maybe you should lay off.”

 

Now that’s some good shit…

The French Silver Bullet

This is so cool… I have to admit that I have a minor obsession with our local Acela service, which is the sort of backwoods, ghetto American version of a bullet train. But I have a *major* obsession with the maglev and serious bullet trains that are in use elsewhere. SO awesome. When are we going to get our asses in gear and get some serious train lines? I mean honestly…

Dad, can you make me a diamond? Pleeeease?

Am I the only one who is weirded out by this? Of course, I am weirded out by the burial of people, too. In fact, death in general weirds me out when it comes to humans, simply because of the big deal made of it...

WiiHelm

For those of you who didn’t catch it on /. The WiiHelm is an amusing April Fool’s alternative to tradition Wii workouts…

Watch out...(sigh, yes I went there)

This article was posted by a friend of mine, who works in his spare time reporting and photographing exotic watches and collections. Some pretty interesting photos, and interesting to see how the “other side” lives. And by other side, I mean those that can actually afford to spend from $30,000 to $1M on a watch. Crazy stuff…

Revolution in Voting Technology?

Ahhh, the truth of this makes my heart heavy and my head hurt

 

You gotta love web-dorks with a good sense of humor…

O the folly of fool's april

good times, on april fool's