Disclaimer - Don’t be drinking anything when you scroll to the last photo in this list.
I saw the below photo while scanning through Digg while waiting for some software to finish compiling. I think it is pretty telling as to why it seems so many people these days who are watching the various news networks are not as well informed as they once were. In a nutshell we can blame the proliferation and boosting of importance of fluff/celebrity “news” pieces. Oh yeah, and commercials for making sure you dont die/your dick feels big enough for your ego/buy a SUV/etc.
Next up we have a high altitude photo taken from a NASA chase plane of the Space Shuttle Columbia taking off from Cape Canaveral
Here we have a graph of US national debt as a percentage of GDP. Notice the difference in spending patterns of the “new Republicans” verses the supposedly spend-fast Democrats. Just goes to show that sometimes parties change their mantras without people really realizing it. After all, GWB was supposed to be a small government Republican when he ran back in 2000. If we only could have had things gone differently.
I thought this piece of work was interesting because I have seen it used for both sides of debate on wether or not God exists. Atheists look at Nature and marvel at its complexity and beauty that it forms out of the natural laws that man has discovered and began to learn over the course of time. On the other hand, proponents of the existence of God look at something like this and point to it as proof that nature, reality and the whole of being must obviously be the work of a creator.
Ok, last but not least is this riotously hilarious photo from The Onion. I nearly choked on my drink when I saw this and simply had to share it with everyone. Don’t say I didn’t warn you earlier!
School life is still busy here in the land of Dan. Next week is finals so things will get short shrift here till Thursday next week likely. However, I have an urgent need to get rid of the plethora of open tabs in my browser here so allow me to point out some interesting stuff!
Lou Dobb’s not being an asshole for once, and hes right in this case
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/15/dobbs.august16/index.html
Pluto was downsized by the fat cats running the International Astronomers Union (IAU)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060824/ap_on_sc/planet_mutiny
An exchange of views between my friend Jerry Pournelle and Joel Rosenberg about the war in Lebanon
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/JoelLebanon.html
Is windows inherently more vulnerable to malware attacks then OS X?
http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/
2006/08/is_windows_inhe.html
An excellent replacement for the Apple battery monitor on OS X
http://www.orange-carb.org/SBM/
A compelling video from the 5,000 strong “Law Enforcement Against Prohibition” on the never-ending failure of the never-ending “War Against Some Drugs.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LayaGk0TMDc
A look at how hard drives are going to grow beyond Terabit per square inch capacities
http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-6108687.html
Robert Spencer took part in a documentary that was recently in the theaters called, “Islam: What the West Needs to Know.” The documentary discusses the religion of Islam, its main tenants and its relationship with other religions.
http://www.q-and-a.org/Program/?ProgramID=1086
You too can spend 45 dollars on a buger with *54* toppings. Check it out!
http://jimmylin.imeem.com/blogentry/8TViehBk
An interesting concept in airline ticket purchasing can be found at Farecast.com. They use historical pricing data for airline tickets to try and predict when the best time to try buying tickets will be.
http://farecast.com/
In other news the RIAA is trying to get a blanket gag order on all litigation they are involved in with so-called copyright violators. When will these people learn to buy better PR people, its not like they dont have enough money to get good people.
http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/2006/08/10/
riaa-asks-for-blanket-gag-order/
Wal-Mart may contemplate distributing E85 ethanol based alternative fuels at its gas stations. It’s a shame America wont consider sugar-cane based ethanol which is has a positive net energy balance compared to corn based ethanol production.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/08/news/companies/
pluggedin_gunther.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes
Continuing our green trend we’ve got a story in the LA Times about a car shop down in Silverlake that is converting diesel cars into bio-diesel capable vehicles. While I like the idea there is a part of my brain that wonders how you go about doing long trip driving in these converted cars. How would I keep this kind of car fueled if I drove from LA to SF?
http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/
la-et-oilcar5aug05,0,7841765,full.story?coll=la-home-highway1
I’m in work avoidance mode at the moment but I felt like I should write own a list of things that I currently want or desire. Its not in any particular order or anything like that. Anyways lets get this show started:
Remaining parts to finish building my new desktop replacement
Intel mATX DG965OT LGA775 motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU
Seagate 750GB SATA2 HD
Raptor 74GB SATA HD
2GB of DDR2-800 RAM
Whatever DX10 PCI-E video card $299 will get in the next 6 months
Some stuff to complete my photography kit
Nikon SB-800 Flash
Nikon 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR DX lens
Nikon 50mm f1.4 Autofocus lens
A new laptop to replace my almost 4 year old 867Mhz 12″ PowerBook G4
Rev B. Macbook Pro w/Core 2 Duo CPU and large amount of HD and RAM
And a new phone that supports EDGE and Symbian to replace my 3 year old Sony Ericsson T610 with its crappy reception!
Nokia E61 Quad GSM Smartphone
Saw this over on John Dvoraks blog and cant help but repost it. Someone has a blog of photos of cats that look like Hitler. I’m surprised the page doesnt have a link off to the Hitler..^H^H^H^H..History Channel on it. Here is one of the more hilarious examples:
The Internet is full of wierdos man.
Here is a roundup of cool news stories and other items of interest that everyone should find something worth checking out.
The “Billion” Dollar Space Pen
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/021306Roberts.shtml
How you can save gas RIGHT NOW
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/driving/
articles/106842/article.html
The Web Developer’s Handbook (awesome resource)
http://www.alvit.de/handbook/index.php
Howto Download Photos from Webshots.com
w/out a Premium Account
http://myxinh.com/webshots.php
Light Moving Backwards!
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/lights-most-
exotic-trick-yet-so-fast-it-goes-backwards-10590.html
Signs You Might Be a Crappy Programmer
http://damienkatz.net/2006/05/signs_youre_a_c.html
Companies don’t know how to write technology job descriptions
http://www.oreillynet.com/sysadmin/blog/2006/04/employers_
get_a_grip_on_your_j.html
Want a fuel efficent car? Don’t buy a hybrid then!
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
/20060424/FREE/60417021&SearchID=73244466514443
The coming Video Game Crash, or not?
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/crash.html
Is gamer opinion of Sony faltering? Check this video from E3 out. Looks like the running of the Geeks.
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/e306-clips-e3-morning-
stampede-173469.php
Information on Microkernel’s and Reliable OS’es
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/reliable-os/
AT&T Whistle Blowers Evidence that the NSA is engaging in wholescale domestic phone survillenace.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70908-0.html
Some of you are old enough to remember this, to others this is going to be brand new. In either case all of you needs to go check out the remastered version of Another World! Another world came out in 1996 and all of its graphics were vector based, but painstakingly done and resulted in a game that was challenging, fun and engrossing all at the same time. I can still remember playing this on my Amiga 2000 and then later on the PC. This game is worth your time to download and check out!
http://forums.idlethumbs.net/showthread.php?t=3995
http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/index.htm
Also in other gaming related news female students in UCI’s Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences got written up in the OC Register for a female oriented game they designed. Overall its not a bad article.
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1111208.php
Apparently, fast food in Denmark is actually healthy for you! According to this AP news story
“The low Danish levels are the result of low-fat legislation introduced in 2004. Under the new law, no more than two percent of fats in foods sold to customers can be industrially-produced transfats. Food producers violating the law risk two years in prison.”
Hmm, now I wonder why that hasnt happened here in the US? You’d think with all the health nut craze and the coming “War against Obesity” that something of this like would be done? Oddly enough, Denmark is looking like a bad-boy in the EU for this law because not allowing fast food and other establishments to use trans-fatty acids represents a trade barrier. Sheesh!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060413/ts_alt_afp/denmarkushealth
Looks like BMW is coming out with a new improve iPod interface for their cars. The new adapter will display artist, album, and song titsle on the display according to the story. This comes along with improvements in how the iPod deal with playlists and playing random songs when integrated with the BMW’s.
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=6183
So last night I went to a screening for Mission Impossible 3. This was about the only way I was going to see this film since I don’t want to materially contribute to the Church of Scientology or that no-talent assclown Tom Cruise. That and at screenings is one of the few times I get to write down my opinion on a sheet of paper about how much Tom Cruise must like it in the ass and have some decent assurance that the producers will read it. Alas however at last nights screening there was no survey to fill out so I guess they are testing out this cut of the movie.
In a nutshell, the movie was “ok” at best. The best scene in the movie is about 2/3rds of the way in and involves fulcrums. As for the plot, well, it felt a tab contrived and after reflection and talking to my friend Rob I realized it was very similar to the plot of the first awful MI movie with Cruise. All in all, I’d say wait till it hits Netflix to see it.
Why a spider hanging from a thread does not rotate - Very cool stuff!
http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/476.htm
Worlds strongest glue is made by bacteria - Mother Nature, materials Engineer Extraordinare!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060410/sc_space/
worldsstrongestglueavailableonlyfromnature
A 100% efficent light emitter? Looks promising if it can be developed.
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2154049/perfect-power-source-invented
Apparently recently California has seen two chunks of ice just fall out of the size. Clear skies that is! And no, these werent “blue ice” incidents from planes since the ice was clear like normal ice. Apparently this is a phenonmenon that happens around the world and its got scientists puzzled. Can’t say I blame them for being so either!
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/15/MNGN5I9OUE1.DTL
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Michael Goodwin think its WWIII:
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