Your Locks are Not Secure!

Here is an article about bumping, a very simple method of lock picking. It takes almost no training and can open many common locks in under a minute. The article links to a site that shows an 11 year old girl with almost no training doing it easily. It also leaves no trace that the lock was picked. Interesting.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/the-lockdown-locked-but-not-secure-part-i/

Liberalism in the Media Incenses Me

I just froth when I see liberal attitudes pervading everyday life, portrayed by snobbish elites as the truth. They parade their vanity and their false wisdom to the unsuspecting among us, especially to those of us who are the least educated and the least able to see through their guile. Here is the latest example. Although it is liberals (Charles Rangle D - NY and John Kerry D - Mass.) that are touting the idea that only the poor and disadvantaged would volunteer in service to America, a liberal cartoonist can make it appear that this is a widespread belief among the educated, and that disagreeing with that idea is just, well, unthinkable. I notice that he also uses the word "retarded" to mean stupid. This thinking from people who would be the first to claim that they are sympathetic to the "differently abled" and would quake if they heard a conservative use such a term.

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20061122

That's just my tuppence for the day.

Chunky Soup Promotion

It's time once again for the annual Campbell's soup/ NFL promotion. Vote for the team of your choice. The team with the most votes (it always seems to be Green Bay) will get a donation to a food pantry in their area. Go Bills.

http://www.chunky.com/clickforcans.aspx

Nanosolution Halts Bleeding

A biodegradable liquid developed at MIT and the University of Hong Kong offers a new way to quickly treat wounds and promote healing. This breakthrough is being developed for initial use with the military. It should move quickly into commercial use in ambulances everywhere.

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17597&ch=biotech

Quote of the Day:

Hemingway’s famous six word story: ”For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Makes ya think, doesn't it? That's why he was a great writer, and I'm not.

Cost of Christmas: $18,920

The price of the partridge, the pear tree and the rest of the '12 Days' goodies is up 3.1% this year, thanks to rising labor costs.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/CostOfChristmas.aspx?GT1=8792

Shopping Path

Aiming for "total market transparency," ShoppingPath plans to revolutionize online shopping visualization with a new model of product comparison tool that graphically groups products according to their price and features.

http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/consumerist-kit/shoppingpath-eyeball-saving-comparison-shopping-217455.php

Why Megapixels don't matter

Just in time for Christmas, here is an article that explains why bigger isn't always better. Apparently, regular people can't tell the difference between rated megapixel ranges.
Tech writer David Pogue took photos with 5, 8 and 13 megapixel digital cameras, had them printed and blown up to 16 x 24 inches poster size, and asked passersby to pick out which ones came from the higher res camera:

Dozens of people stopped to take the test; a little crowd gathered. About 95 percent of the volunteers gave up, announcing that there was no possible way to tell the difference, even when mashing their faces right up against the prints. A handful of them attempted guesses--but were wrong. Only one person correctly ranked the prints in megapixel order, although (a) she was a photography professor, and (b) I believe she just got lucky

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/21pogues-posts-2/

Meet the Genius that was Walt Disney

Here is a great review of a new bio of the man himself. It tells the warts and all story of a driven man, a perfectionist, and a rare individual.

http://www.americanheritage.com/rss/articles/web/20061121-walt-disney-roy-disney-mickey-mouse-disneyland-animation.shtml

Here come the new coins:

Can George Washington and Thomas Jefferson succeed where Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea failed? The U.S. Mint is hoping America's presidents will win acceptance, finally, for the maligned dollar coin.

The public will get the chance to decide starting in February when the first of the new coins, bearing the image of the first president, is introduced.
Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are scheduled to grace the coin in 2007, with a different president appearing every three months.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20061120/D8LGR0280.html

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/