Archive for the ‘In the news’ Category

A date which will live in infamy

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

It’s the 70th anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. There are few veterans of the attack remaining; the Pearl Harbor Survivor’s Associations is disbanding because of it.

It was a terrible day for the United States, but it could have been much worse. Note that the comments, however, state that some of what Admiral Nimitz said was incorrect.

There doesn’t seem to be as much notice being taken of it this year as there was the last time it was a “round number” anniversary. Freeberg has some things to say about the subdued nature of the remembrances this year.

I presume turnips wouldn’t have worked

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

Scientists use genetically-modified rice to produce human blood.

Via Dyspepsia Generation, which, for some reason, doesn’t seem to accept comments from me anymore.

The tooth, the whole tooth, and …

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

A couple days ago I ran across a news story about emergency dental care for soldiers.

Not this Dentist in a Box:

This Dentist in a Box.

Of course, I’ve always enjoyed this dentist:

As the old joke asks: Who does what, and to whom?

Friday, October 28th, 2011

Headline: Transgender lesbians who fathered five children between them tie the knot.

It puts me in mind of the Mark Graham song, Rufus and Beverly. Not quite the same situation, but …

There are three renditions of the song on Youtube (one, two, three), but none by Mark himself.

Miscellany 20

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Running into a booby trap can ruin your entire day.

This is good news for me.

Watching this video makes me want to buy an iPad, just to take advantage of the deal. Not quite enough to actually make the purchase, though. However, if I ever do acquire an iPad, I may buy it, even at the normal price.

You know, I’ve never had a really impressive Halloween costume like this.

Where are they now?

Scientists and the public both speak English, but not quite the same version, which leads to misunderstandings.

It’s been a bad month for computer people. Following the deaths of Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie (creator of the C programming language and co-creator of Unix), we now have the death of John McCarthy, creator of the LISP programming language.

I had known that blue-screen technology had been largely replaced by green-screen technology, but I’d never known why. Now I do.

It sounds to me like this guy is a jackass.

Sure, kids will be able to make their own toys with this, but I’m not sure how much of a positive step it is. After all, kids have always been able to make their own toys; this is just a high-tech method. That’s not to say I wouldn’t want one, though.

This is worrisome. The Yellowstone supercaldera is closer to me, though.

You knew it had to come to this someday.

Does a zombie apocalypse change your criteria for who to date?

Speaking of zombies, this is some pretty effective makeup. At the last wedding I attended, the bride could have made good use of it.

Your underwear-fu must be strong to wear these.

I love candy corn. I’ll have to try this recipe.

I like H. P. Lovecraft’s writings, and they’ve apparently had some effect on me. Recently, I watched this documentary on his life, which I found to be quite interesting.

These are interesting photos of the progress made cleaning up after the tsunami in Japan.

I have to admit, I don’t understand how this works. Not that that’s unusual, or anything.

Somewhere, I have a button that reads, “I don’t need a weapon. I have a banjo.” It’s a paraphrase from a novel. I’ve never had anything quite like this happen to me, though.

I’ll bet that her mother has definitely had better days. Speaking as a father, I must say that this is one of the nightmares that parents of girls have, even if they know their daughter would never do such a thing.

And how is your daughter, Dr. Rappaccini?

Friday, October 7th, 2011

I thought of Hawthorn’s story the moment I read this.

Via Ghost of a Flea.

Miscellany 19

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

I’ve been accumulating a lot of links. Time to clear the tabs out.

A good overview of corruption in Obama’s DOJ here.

Interesting discussion of poverty here.

This must have something to do with truth in advertising: a supermarket chain has been forced to withdraw ads that show happy customers.

Useful knowledge: How to avoid going to jail for violating 18 USC 1001.

Not, perhaps, the best dietary choices.

It’s been a long time – I haven’t read much about spontaneous human combustion since I was in high school.

I’ve seen photos of people with elaborate facial tattoos before, but never in this context.

This is interesting – a section of Idaho where major crimes can’t be prosecuted.

Time for Science and Technology:

Carbon nanotube cables that conduct electricity as efficiently as copper? Bring it on!

This is a bit old, but … we can now measure the magnetic properties of a single proton.

This is also a bit old … a new type of car engine. These come around every so often. I was quite taken with the Wankel rotary engine, but it had problems with manufacturability. Maybe this one will work out better.

Visual cryptography. Interesting, but I’m not sure how easy it would be to extract the information into text form.

A visual reference to computer ports.

Fairly computer-centric, but, then, I am employed in the field of software, and I love the title – Here be dragons: advances in problems you didn’t even know you had.

New and improved wireless technology.

Fossilized feathers found in 80-million-year-old amber.

Here’s a scale model of the solar system. Be prepared to do a lot of scrolling.

On the subject of the solar system, here’s an orrery that I think is pretty damned impressive.

Continuing with science, the Ig Nobel awards are about to be announced.

Scientists are also planning to make an artificial volcano.

Here’s something unusual: placebos are becoming more effective. How’s that work?

Been hearing voices with nobody around? You may not be as insane as you feared – birds are teaching each other to talk.

A Z-machine interpreter and a list of games for it.

Technology keeps on improving our lives – here’s a self-inflating bicycle tire.

The Document Which Used To Be Called The MIT Lockpicking Guide. I downloaded a copy when it was called that. Related: a series of lessons on YouTube.

Some products aren’t well-designed. Here’s one example from a trade-magazine blog on the topic.

Time for a little humor.

Here’s something that’s a staple of Jay Leno’s “headlines” segments: marriage announcements.

Got OCD and like to cook?

Lord of the Strings?

I like some of these modified signs.

Not quite humor, but close … Which Programming Languages Make You Cuss More? More accurately stated: which programming languages have more cussing in comments in the code I looked at?

Ten years ago

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

I was at work when a coworker said an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. After it became apparent that this was something serious, I went home and brought in a small portable TV to set up in the lunch room.

I don’t know how much work actually got done that day; I spent much of it watching what was happening. There’s a saying that goes like this: Once is happenstance, and twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action. When the second plane struck the towers, I said immediately that this was war. The Pentagon was the third strike, but there was no way that what was happening was anything but a result of deliberate actions.

The Pentagon was also my closest brush to a direct connection to the attacks; my father, although retired from both the Air Force and the civil service, had worked in the Pentagon before retirement and still went almost daily to take advantage of their fitness facilities. It was four days before I could verify that he hadn’t been anywhere near the Pentagon at the time of the attack.

I could fill this post with links to the words of those who have said things with which I agree in much better ways than I can or have, but what’s the point? I would either be preaching to the choir or convincing you that I’m deranged and dangerous. I will suggest that you read Blackfive’s post about Rick Rescorla, and sign the petition he links to, if you’re so inclined.

Miscellany 18

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Just some things that have been hanging around.

This is a useful site for learning to play the ukulele. If you want to start from the beginning, here’s the first post. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t have an easy way to access the archives.

Tired of people who don’t know how to spell or which homophone to use? Here’s a potential solution.

Want a guess as to how long you’ll live? This site tells me I can expect about another 27 years.

Can spiraling help you run faster? I don’t have the knees to run for exercise anymore (and I’m still coming back from my broken ankle, besides), but this sounds interesting.

Sometimes, science fiction can be eerily prophetic. A couple more by Heinlein that they could have mentioned are his prediction of the waterbed in Stranger in a Strange Land (which was actually referenced as prior art to invalidate a patent application), and his prediction in the story Waldo that telephone answering machines would be used to screen incoming calls.

I’m not terribly familiar with it yet, but I’m becoming quite taken with the music of Flanders and Swann. It’s certainly more interesting than this concert.

Scientist trading cards. The people behind these also pulled off a neat guerilla art prank.

Oh, wow, man! The colors!

I can’t believe it! (via Theo Spark – the site is possibly NSFW, YMMV)

The rarely-seen arborial moose. Must have been trying to visit Rocky.

And, to finish up, a list of the ten deadliest toys of all time. I’m not sure I agree with all of their choices, particularly with the “of all time” qualifier, but it’s probably a pretty good starting point for the years since about 1950.

This bothers me

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

It fits right in with other things this administration has done, though, such as the fact that President Obama has never issued an Easter statement, but does offer yearly statements on Ramadan and hosts Iftan dinners.

If you’re an American citizen born in Jerusalem, the State Department won’t let you have “Israel” noted as your place of birth.

And, apparently as a result of the prior article appearing, the White House has removed the information noted in that article that Jerusalem is in Israel from its website.

At what point do you have enough evidence to start wondering if he’s practicing taqqiya?