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Archive: OTHER

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Lenticular clouds

More nice examples can be found here

Spam art?

My (peculiar) friend Rick just sent me a somewhat lyrical body of text found in a penis enhancement spam e-mail. I have to say that I prefer it to some avant-garde art.

stairs ten fire black find husband. reading am studied? knew reply six clear important circumstances.

calling nervous blue trying near bread. window light saying anybody. embarrass went mentioned wood. reply thus dirty mistress.

address love second greater might. course profession might full wine using.

"The Earth is about to catch a morbid fever..."

Scientist James Lovelock provides a broad and sobering sketch of man's relationship with the natural environment:

...you still may ask why science took so long to recognise the true nature of the Earth. I think it is because Darwin's vision was so good and clear that it has taken until now to digest it. In his time, little was known about the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, and there would have been little reason for him to wonder if organisms changed their environment as well as adapting to it.

Had it been known then that life and the environment are closely coupled, Darwin would have seen that evolution involved not just the organisms, but the whole planetary surface. We might then have looked upon the Earth as if it were alive, and known that we cannot pollute the air or use the Earth's skin - its forest and ocean ecosystems - as a mere source of products to feed ourselves and furnish our homes. We would have felt instinctively that those ecosystems must be left untouched because they were part of the living Earth.

Read the full post at The Independent (U.K.) site

Best joke of 2006

I heartily agree with Jonathan Schwarz: this is the best joke of the year thus far.

Squirrel Cop

Whether or not you are already a big fan of NPR's This American Life (as I am), you really should listen to this linked archived show. I especially urge you to listen to Act Two (about 19:30 into the Real Audio show), which is entitled Squirrel Cop. It's one of my favorite segments ever, and you'll thank me for it.

A bit of early Christmas cheer, courtesy of James Wolcott

Reprinted in its glorious, albeit terse entirety:

Scenes from the War on Christmas
by James Wolcott

Today this nice saleslady handed me the blue Tiffany box she had tied with a ribbon just so and, with a twinkle in her smile, wished me a Merry Christmas. So I socked her.

The fossile fuel problem, examined in a different light

Unfortunately–though not surprisingly–the complex questions connected to our dependency on fossile fuels are rarely addressed seriously in the mainstream media. I occasionally come across intelligent and unusual perspectives on the topic, and the following post, written by Dmitry Podborits, falls into that category. It is a bit academic, but clearly constructed and fairly easy to digest. So if the topic interests you, by all means read it.

On The Prospects Of Using AAA Type Batteries As Peak Oil Mitigation Devices, and Other Observations

Squirrelly update!

The blogger who writes under the Defective Yeti banner has a (roughly) two-year-old son to whom he affectionately refers as The Squirrelly. He updates The Squirrelly's progress now and then, and the most recent installment is well worth a read.

In my eighteen month Squirrelly Update I mentioned that the twerp's entire vocabulary consisted of the words "kitty" and "Pooh." Since then, though, he's been cranking out words faster than global warming can produce hurricanes. For a while there we were excitedly phoning each other up whenever a new one debuted and trying to keep track of them all but, honestly, we pretty much threw in the towel we he came out with "precipice." I shit you not. He's become adroit at parroting the last word we use in a sentence, and one evening, after I caught him doing somersaults on the bed and delivered a sternly worded lecture about the danger of this activity, he shouted "precipice!" and did a celebratory somersault on the bed.

Read the full, very amusing entry here

Drug companies engaging in insidious behavior?

The pharmaceutical industry long ago perfected the art of getting its marketing message into other people's mouths. Amgen quietly paid Rob Lowe to appear on a CNN talk show to chat up the company's cancer drug; antidepressant manufacturers routinely underwrite patient advocacy organizations, like the National Alliance on Mental Illness, that pump up their drugs. But "third-party strategy," as it's known in the advertising world, has recently had its perils for PhRMA, the major lobbying group that represents drug manufacturers. The plan was to commission a fictional thriller to hype the dangers of buying prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies. But now the authors have rewritten their novel to make a drug company the villain, and PhRMA wishes it had never heard of the idea.

Read the full article at Slate.com

Stone Phillips joins Sephen Colbert in a very funny bit.

Clich here. (Requires Quicktime)

passengeR boarding: an interesting scientific perspective

A cadre of experts in the science of airline boarding has upset much of the conventional wisdom about how to get people quickly into their seats. Standard rear-to-front boarding is slower than letting everyone board randomly, they say.

Thanks to Eric Umansky

The London Times on Robert Mugabe

SOME call them the “dust people”, others the “people with no address”. President Robert Mugabe’s government has a more graphic term: “Sniff out the rats who have sneaked back in” is the name of the latest campaign by police and soldiers against the city dwellers whose homes they demolished earlier this year but who have refused to flee.

Thousands of Zimbabweans are now living like animals in the midst of rubble, crawling in and out of hovels less than 3ft high, fashioned from cardboard boxes and broken asbestos.

With no means of earning a living — and with aid agencies banned by the government from helping them — they are forced to forage in rubbish for rotten vegetables or prostitute themselves for the equivalent of 10p to feed their children. A doctor who managed to get in said tuberculosis was rife.

These are the victims of Operation Murambatsvina (drive out the filth), Mugabe’s so-called urban beautification campaign which, according to a damning report by the United Nations, left more than 700,000 homeless or without an income.

Yet last week the United Nations flew Zimbabwe’s president on an all-expenses-paid trip to Rome to celebrate World Food Day in defiance of European Union travel sanctions. Flanked by bodyguards, he proclaimed that there was no hunger in his country and bla med its problems on George W Bush and Tony Blair, branding them international terrorists and likening them to Hitler and Mussolini.

Such hypocrisy comes as no surprise to the people squatting amid piles of debris in southern Harare, who feel abandoned by the outside world.

There have been similar images of devastation from this year’s hurricanes and earthquakes. But this is man-made destruction — the revenge of a president against the inhabitants of areas that dared to vote against him in one election after another.

“This is the most depressing thing I have ever seen in years of working in trouble spots,” a UN official said. “It’s just all so unnecessary.”

Read the full article at timesonline.co.uk

From fruit flies to artificial (spinal) disks.

In a very good example of how cutting edge DNA manipulation might contribute to human health, researchers have isolated the protein which allows fruit flies to jump so high and believe that it may, among other uses, contribute to the creation of better and longer lasting spinal implants.

The springy molecule that gives fleas their amazing jumping ability has been mimicked in the laboratory. The material could one day be used in anything from bouncy balls to spinal implants, hope scientists.

Resilin is a rubbery protein that is found in a range of insects. As well as storing elastic energy in fleas, it helps flying insects' wings to flex without causing damage to the tissue that connects wing and body.

"Resilin is much more resilient than any other rubber around," explains Chris Elvin, a biochemist at CSIRO Livestock Industries in St Lucia, Australia, who led the team that created the synthetic resilin. This resilience means that it can be stretched over and over again without losing its elastic properties.

Read the full article at nature.com

Now that's impressive: Leonardo's drawings trigger an important change in surgical procedures done today!

A leading heart and lung specialist has been inspired by anatomical discoveries made by Leonardo 500 years ago to change the way he conducts certain operations. Francis Wells, consultant cardiac surgeon at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, said yesterday that he had had a “eureka moment” as he pored over drawings and notes by the artist in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.

Mr Wells was studying Leonardo’s intricate observations of all the individual components of the heart — the way the valves open and close, the expansion and contraction of the muscles and the flow of blood in and out. The revelatory moment came as he looked at the artist’s exploration of how the blood flow affects the closure mechanism of the mitral valve, which controls the direction of blood. Leonardo showed an extraordinary understanding of the mechanism of the valve closure and the integrity of the valve structure. Until now, repairs involved narrowing the diameter of the valve, which in turn restricted the flow of blood.

Read the full article in The Times (U.K.)

I'm a sucker for simple solutions, of which this invention is an extremely clever example.

Originally developed for the Swedish Department of Defense, Swedish FireSteel is a flash of genius. Its nearly 3,000°C spark makes fire building easy in any weather, at any altitude. Used by a number of armies around the world, Swedish FireSteel's dependability has already made it a favorite of survival experts, hunters, fishermen and campers. It has also found its way into cabins and backyards as a fool-proof way to light stoves and gas-barbecues. Amazingly enough it also works equally well when wet. We think geeks will appreciate the power of being able to start a fire with such a simple tool.

A metal blade is slowly moved across the Firesteel, generating sparks that can easily be thrown onto a small pile of dry grass, leaves or paper to start a fire. When the fire is becoming established, thin sticks of wood can be added, gradually increasing to thicker ones.

Thanks to ThinkGeek.com

I really admire this kind of creativity: someone has designed a wetsuit with a built-in shark deterrent.

A patent has been applied for, and the design sounds remarkably clever.

The new suit takes advantage of the fact that sharks have sensitive receptors in their snouts which detect electrical fields in the water. This helps them track prey, but if the field is too powerful the shark backs off.

Made of metal and neoprene in the usual way, the wetsuit has thin piezoelectric ceramic fibres woven into its fabric. The fibres extend along the body and limbs, connecting to metal electrodes which harvest any charge generated when the piezo material is deformed by the wearer’s movement.

Read the article at newscientist.com

Are you sick of getting caught in the computer generated customer service maze?

Try this extremely useful list of shortcuts which will help you to connect directly with an actual person!

Thanks to Boing Boing!

The inspiring story of Bill Strickland, "social entrepreneur".

Bill Strickland can tell you when his life began: It was a Wednesday afternoon in September 1963.

And he can tell you how it began: It started with a lump of clay.

Strickland, then a 16-year-old black kid, was bored by school and hemmed in by life in a decaying Pittsburgh neighborhood. He wanted a way out, but he didn't have a clue about how to find it - until that Wednesday afternoon, when he went wandering through the hallways of his high school. It's a moment etched so clearly in his memory that, 35 years later, he can still recall the quality of the sunlight streaming in through the school windows. That's the day he came face to face with hope.

Looking through an open classroom door, Strickland saw something he'd never seen before: a rotating mound of clay being shaped into a vessel by a man absorbed in his work.

"If ever in life there is a clairvoyant experience, I had one that day," says Strickland, now 51. "I saw a radiant and hopeful image of how the world ought to be. It opened up a portal for me that suggested that there might be a whole range of possibilities and experiences that I had not explored. It was night and day - literally. I saw a line and I thought: This is dark, and this is light. And I need to go where the light is."

So Strickland walked into the sunlit classroom, introduced himself to ceramics teacher Frank Ross, the man at the potter's wheel, and said, "I'd like to learn whatever that is." With Ross as his mentor for nearly 20 years, Strickland not only found the way out - one that led to college - he also found the way in: the path that lets one person make all the difference in the world.

Read the full article at fastcompany.com

Even if you have little or no interest in downloadable ringtones (for cell phones), visit the Wolfram Tones site.

This brilliantly conceived site not only allows the user to easily compose custom tones, but does so in a remarkably sophisticated manner. Beyond the obvious application, the site provides an interesting glimpse into the rapidly expanding world of computer generated music. Just playing with the interface for a few minutes is enough to help one understand the power of composition software, and why so many of the current generation of young musicians compose using computers.

Wolfram Tones

Feral Boar problem? A BIG one down under.

Story from The Sunday Mail

Interesting twist: Mosquitoes are attracted to those already infected with malaria.

Mosquitoes are more attracted to people already infected with malaria. And this appears to be because the malarial parasite orchestrates its own onward transmission from within the human body, a new study suggests.

“Mosquitoes aren’t just a syringe, sucking up the parasite and injecting it into people at random, as scientists previously thought,” says Jacob Koella from the University of Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, who carried out the study in Kenya.

Koella surrounded a chamber of uninfected Anopheles mosquitoes, which can carry the malarial parasite, with three tents. In one tent he placed a child infected with the transmissible stage of malaria, in the next a child in the non-transmissible stage, and in the third an uninfected child.

He then wafted the odours from the children towards the mosquitoes using a fan. Twice as many mosquitoes targeted the child in the transmissible stage of malaria than each of the other two.

The full article can be found at newscientist.com.

The Onion provides their version of a USA Today-type visual:

To read the best news satire on the 'net, go to The Onion.

The most recent version of the proposed "Freedom Tower": Who better than William Kunstler to provide a bit of contrast to the official (Bloomberg and Pataki, et al) hype.

Instead of a ground floor that offers connection to the pedestrian life of the street, what you get is a gigantic blank-walled crypto-military fortification -- two hundred feet of steel and concrete bombproof bombast -- while the priapic tower above holds office workers hostage in the world's number one target for shoulder-launched missiles and other weapons of opportunity.

and...

The project should sink from the sheer weight of stupidity that has been heaped into it.

View an image and read further here.

What would we do without the internet?

There's a site called thesmokinggun.com which, among other things, provides real mug shots of both famous people, and noteworthy, though little known people. This gentleman falls in the latter category, and provides an amusing variation on the dangers of not heading the "always wear clean underwear" theme.

Regular visitors to this site know how much I enjoy Zach's Veiled Conceit weblog. He characterizes it as "A glimpse into that haven of superficial, pretentious, pseudo-aristocratic vanity: The NY Times' Wedding & Celebration Announcements". I call it hilarious.

"They became engaged last November in Tulum, Mexico, where Mr. Shand presented Ms. Ruderman with a ring of reeds that he had found and woven together. When they settled on a wedding date, they chose one that coincided with midsummer, as celebrated in Shakespeare's play."

So what's the over/under on him forgetting the ring? It would seem like a sure thing because, c'mon, reeds, but if you've ever been to the area you know there's a surplus of shitty silver jewelry all across the Yucatan. A ring wouldn't have been hard to find, if she'd settle for .925 sterling. So the reed thing was likely a calculated move. I don't know if this is better or worse. The funniest thing is that a Tulum engagement strongly suggests a Cancun vacation. And nothing is more romantic than celebrating your engagement at Señor Frog's then crashing at the Fiesta Americana.

Enjoy the whole thing here.

Interested in learning Japanese?

You might want consider this first:

One note about the number thing. Yeah, French numbers are a bit strange: 94 is quatre-vingts quatorze, or literally "four-twenties fourteen." Japanese numbers, which follow the traditional Chinese system, are just like our numbers except that large numbers are grouped by 104n rather than 103n. In other words, we have ones, tens, and hudreds, then we start over with thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, then millions, tens of millions, and hundreds of millions, and so on; but Japanese uses ones, tens, and thousands, then man (ten thousands), tens of man, hundreds of man, and thousands of man, then oku (hundred millions), tens of oku, hundreds of oku, and thousands of oku, and so on. For example, 500,000 is fifty man. Considering that a yen is worth about one cent, you often need to use big numbers in Japanese, and I found it pretty difficult sometimes when I was living in Japan to make sure I was in the right order of magnitude.

But, as the article points out, the really tricky thing about Japanese numbers is that you need to know which class of things an item belongs to in order to know what words to use when counting it. For instance, if you're counting flat things, you use -mai; if you want to say you have two tickets to a movie, you say you have ni-mai-no kippu ("two flat things of tickets"). For long, basically cylindrical objects (get your minds out of the gutter!), you use -hon, e.g., ni-hon no biiru ("two cylindrical things of beers"). It's not always obvious which category something belongs in, one of my favorites being that neckties go in the -hon category. My favorite category is -hiki, for small animals: to count cats, you say ippiki, nihiki, sambiki, yonhiki, gohiki, etc. Big animals get another category, which IIRC is -dai--a counter that is also used for large machinery. I remember some of my very well-educated English students in Japan debating what the right counter was for rabbits. People get their own word, but that one changes above two people, so if you're counting firemen, you say hitori, futari, sannin, yonnin, gonin, etc.

Meanwhile, my linguistic efforts have now turned away from remembering how to count rabbits in Japanese to how to tell time in Dutch. Q: What time is it if a Dutchman says it's "ten for half ten?" A: 9:20.

In other words, we're all screwed up in our own way. The Tower of Babel must have been a hell of a thing.

Thanks to Arnold P. over at demagogue

Very cool: the Spin-X Centrifugal Clothes Dryer

Drying clothes with centrifugal force is efficient and quick. These Spin-X dryers rotate at 3300 RPM (revolutions per minute) — using 1420 G forces. Most washing machines only spin at 500 RPM.

The dryer removes a quart of water from clothes using the same amount of energy a regular clothes dryer uses in the first 15 seconds of operation. In other words, the dryer uses 25WHr for a 3 minute spin.

Read the fulll report at metaefficient.com

Does excellent customer service still exist anywhere?

Yes it does, at Hewlett-Packard. In fact, while the vast majority of major corporations continue to fail miserably in this crucial area, HP consistently provides superior customer service in my experience.

Several years ago I purchased a very inexpensive inkjet printer, which I took along to Saratoga Springs that summer. Something went wrong, HP had a courier pick up the old printer, and two days later delivered a new one. This procedure must have cost them more than their profit on the initial purchase, yet the company had the wisdom to recognize how such service would impact my buying patterns and brand loyalty in the future. It was a very smart investment on their part, and one which countless other companies could (and should) learn from.

I recently bought an inexpensive ($80.00) HP fax machine. When I used the phone, there was a bit of a ringing sound, probably related to the handset. I called HP support, and they overnighted a new handset and cord. Once again, given the relative cost of the device, this was a truly remarkable level of support.

As an aside, for those who do a lot of text printing and have no need for color, the HP LaserJet 1200 series printers are exceptionally reliable.

It's often interesting when an intelligent writer focuses on a troubled athlete.

The fight was the usual chapter in Tyson’s late-mannerist phase. He was generous in referring to McBride as a “C fighter.” McBride’s physique suggested a taste for Guinness and idle afternoons in a lawn chair. And yet, in the first three rounds, he absorbed whatever simulacra of the old power Tyson could project. Tyson would hit him square on the jaw and McBride merely stepped back and blinked a few times, looking more confused than pained. Confused, perhaps, that he was not more in pain than he was. By the fourth round, McBride was emboldened to try some punching of his own, and Tyson was chewing on the thumb of his glove, a sure sign, to experienced observers, that he was tired and looking for a way out.

Read the full New Yorker Magazine article.

Spam fun

Greetings Sirs. Nothing fails like success because we don't learn from it. We learn only from failure.

My idea of superwoman is someone who scrubs her own floors,
Life is a brief, small, and transitory phenomenon in an obscure corner, not at all the sort of thing that one would make a fuss about if one were not personally concerned,

Let's not be narrow, nasty, and negative.

The above is a fairly typical example of how spammers attempt to defeat spam filters. In this case—one which may well have set a new standard for incongruity—it was followed by this:

HORNY FARMER MINK GET FEVER WHEN SEEING A MULL COCK OF HER ANIMAL!

When my arousal subsided, it struck me that I didn't really know how a "mull" cock differed from an ordinary one. Having found a number of different definitions in various languages, I remain perplexed.

Chinese Factory Worker Can't Believe The Shit He Makes For Americans

That's the title of this typically amusing story from The Onion.

FENGHUA, CHINA—Chen Hsien, an employee of Fenghua Ningbo Plastic Works Ltd., a plastics factory that manufactures lightweight household items for Western markets, expressed his disbelief Monday over the "sheer amount of shit Americans will buy."

"Often, when we're assigned a new order for, say, 'salad shooters,' I will say to myself, 'There's no way that anyone will ever buy these,'" Chen said during his lunch break in an open-air courtyard. "One month later, we will receive an order for the same product, but three times the quantity. How can anyone have a need for such useless shit?"

Read the whole thing here.

An interesting glimpse into the life of Hamilton Naki, the "gardener" who helped pioneer organ transplants...

from The Economist.

Though I happen to be rather critical of the Western medical model myself, that didn't stop me from fully enjoying this parody...

of an interview with Tom Cruise.

Here is the genesis of the parody.

How can one tell that the major airlines are really in trouble? When they stop serving free pretzels as a cost-saving device.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Northwest Airlines passengers who said goodbye to free meals in February at least got free pretzels to console them. Now the airline is taking the pretzels away, too.

Beginning June 9, coach passengers who want anything other than soda will have to pay for it. They can get a 3-ounce bag of trail mix for $1. Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said the airline has no immediate plans to stop offering soda for free. He said pulling the free pretzels should save $2 million a year.

Northwest, the nation's fourth-largest airline, lost $458 million in the last quarter alone. It is Michigan's largest passenger air carrier and has a hub at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus.

Gee, perhaps they should also look into making some fundamental changes in their business model while they're at it.

Competitive eating is a ridiculous sport, but, in some perverse sense, the accomplishments of Sonya Thomas are dazzling.

The Korean-born Thomas, who stands 5' 5" and weighs 99lbs., is the world's top ranked female competitive eater. Consider some of her recent accomplishments:

-- March 20, 2005 -- 46 dozen (552) oysters in 10 minutes. -- Feb. 12, 2005 -- 25 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. -- Jan. 22, 2005 -- one 9-pound burger with cheese in 48 minutes, 10 seconds. -- Nov. 27, 2004 -- 52 hard-boiled eggs in five minutes. - Sept. 29, 2004 -- 48 soft-shell chicken tacos in 11 minutes. - Sept. 5, 2004 -- 5.09 pounds of buffalo wings (162 wings) in 12 minutes -- Aug. 21, 2004 -- 9.76 pounds of lobster meat (38 soft-shell lobsters) in 12 minutes. -- July 4, 2004 -- 32 Nathan's hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes, a new women's world record (and American record).

If you must know more, click here.

There is a very interesting, not so well-known form of alternative energy called OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION (OTEC).

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) extracts energy from the temperature difference between tropical surface water and deep ocean water. It takes energy to pump the cold water to the surface but there is a net energy yield when designed properly. The economics are improved even more by coproducts. The cold water can be used for refrigeration and condensation yields fresh water.

An overview and link to further material can be found at crumbtrail.

While researching early BMW's in my quest for a '72 2002tii, I came across this photo of a beautiful example of the classic (and rare) model 507.

What a sweet design.

While not a pleasant subject, the dynamics of pedophilia are, because of a current case, illuminated in unusually direct fashion through the intelligence and honesty of Lawrence Lessig.

Lessig, widely regarded (and best known) as as one of the leading lights in both Internet and Intellectual Properety Law, is involved in a case which has apparently opened up personal memories of abuse. The Stanford professor, known as a shy type, is remarkably candid about his own painful experiences while working to help prevent future occurences of abuse.

The article, published in New York magazine, can be found here.

Though I thoroughly enjoy many of them, George Booth has always been one of my favorite New Yorker cartoonists.

click on the cartoon to see a larger version.

An exceptionally beautiful photographic gallery (in the form of a slideshow) depicting African scenes...

can be found here. Be sure to use the volume as the audio compliments the photos nicely.

Where else would someone find something this cool?

Kevin Kelly has a terrific site called Cool Tools, where he features and reviews all sorts of products, many of which are low-tech but quite elegant nonetheless. He has several interesting, recently listed items, including this Artificial Intelligence device which only costs $10.00!

The other day Will Wright, the genius behind Sim City and the Sims, handed me this tennis ball-size orb and said, "It knows what you are thinking." Most of the time it will guess what you have in mind after asking you twenty yes/no questions. It is eerily smart, and slightly addictive.

The full review can be found here.

Those of you interested in the battle of the Titans (i.e. Microsoft and Google)...

Fortune has an excellent overview here.

James Wolcott at his best (which is really, really good):

Standards and Practices

The New York Times is concerned in that mushy oatmeal way only the Times can be concerned about the accuracy and reliability of this exciting new craze, "blogging."

Of course, we're all concerned about getting it right. I try to maintain this blog to the highest standards of borderline libel.

But I would politely suggest that the Times fire Judith Miller before it presumes to lecture lesser mortals in a mealy-mouthed manner.

My favorite blogger with a young child...

is defective yeti. His occasional anecdotes relating to "Squirrelly", his year-old son, are almost invariably amusing.

I took the Squirrelly to the pediatric dentist yesterday. The receptionist was a girl in her mid 20's wearing a push-up bra and an unconscionably low-cut top.

The full post can be found here

It's Plum!

Gill and Mary Peabody's substantial, not to mention friendly cat. He likes to rest often, and has developed a strong preference for down as his choice of bedding.

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