Dataman55

Dubai plans 'moving' skyscraper

2008-06-27T20:49:00.001-04:00

The world's first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape, will be built in Dubai, its architect says.

The Dynamic Tower design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another.

"It's the first building that rotates, moves, and changes shape," said architect David Fisher, who is Italian, at a news conference in New York.

"This building never looks the same, not once in a lifetime," he added.

It's like they have money to burn.

George Carlin

2008-06-24T21:29:00.002-04:00

George Carlin has passed on. He has shucked off his mortal coil and joined the Choir Invisible. I don't think he rates a "Raise a Glass", but I did think I would add a few funny quotes from him.

"You can tell a lot about a person by what they'll do FOR $10 and what they do WITH $10"

"Ever wonder why at the end of every package of bacon there's always one weird piece of bacon? "

"Ever notice when you blow in a dog's face he gets mad at you, but when you take him in a car he sticks his head out the window?"

"What do dogs do on their day off? They can't lie around--that's their job."

--"I like using words that have never been used together before, like 'hand me that piano.'"

Quote of the Day

2008-06-24T21:27:00.001-04:00

"Remember, good ideas never enter through the mouth."

NPR Still Lamenting 'American Concentration Camp' in Hollywood

2008-06-24T21:05:00.003-04:00

Mass murder in real concentration camps in the Soviet Union are ancient history to National Public Radio, but the cause of poor, blacklisted communists in Hollywood charging America was a concentration camp is still a fresh and poignant soundbite. On the June 17 edition of All Things Considered, anchor Melissa Block championed a forthcoming new documentary about communist screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, made by Peter Askin and Trumbo’s son Christopher and featuring big celebrities like Michael Douglas. It amazes me that 50 years after the fact, the leftist media is still denying that there were communists in this country during the cold war who were trying to use our guaranteed freedoms to destroy our country from within.

Quote of the Day

2008-06-18T20:07:00.000-04:00

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."

--Mark Twain

The end of blogging?

2008-06-18T19:57:00.002-04:00

It might happen if the Associated Press has its way. They want to begin charging blogs that quote directly from them. We aren't talking long, direct copies mind you, the charges start at 5 words. Each little clip I use on this blog would cost me $50 - $100 to re-print. What ever happened to Free Use you might ask? Well Michelle Malkin has the answer. To quote her article, Mainstream Media (MSM) is the disease, mockery is the cure. Michelle totals up the reverse charges for every time the AP has quoted her blog. This will be a fun battle to watch. It is certainly the Goliath of the News World against every little David on the block.

Raise a Glass

2008-06-02T20:58:00.003-04:00

Raise a glass and remember a true Rock and Roll pioneer, Mr. Bo Diddley.

The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.

Diddley appreciated the honors he received, "but it didn't put no figures in my checkbook."

"If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey," he quipped.

The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview.

"I don't know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name," he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow.

His first single, "Bo Diddley," introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as "shave and a haircut, two bits." The B side, "I'm a Man," with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080603/D9129F680.html

Cool Pic

2008-05-27T19:53:00.002-04:00

Indiana Jones Mistakes

2008-05-27T19:46:00.002-04:00

OK. We saw the movie during opening weekend. At first I was a bit disappointed, but it grew on me. I think the main reason I didn't like it was that I was comparing it to the earlier films. Compared to many recent and current films, it simply rocks. I'm sure that I'll see it again in theaters and own it on DVD by Christmas.

Here is a site I have talked about before. It is a blog that tracks mistakes for films (and TV shows). As I write this there are 42 mistakes. Some are really nit-picky. I like the visible equipment and the trivia.

Happy Memorial Day!

2008-05-26T19:59:00.002-04:00

Thanks to all who served and sacrificed for our freedom.

Youth Voters are backing The Wrong Candidate

2008-05-24T20:57:00.002-04:00

This boomer generation is easily frightened. Whether it's global warming, the economic crisis, the war, the Chicken Little boomers are a far cry from the Americans who built this country on fortitude and faith and had a can-do attitude.

It may be too late for this crowd but the young have a shot if they only learn to wake up and think for themselves. They're Internet savvy and can do their own research to discover that global warming is a natural phenomenon; that the term carbon footprints was invented to line the pockets of pseudo climatologists; that the foreclosure hysteria only involves two percent of houses and these can be attributed to credit fraud and stupidity; and that tax breaks benefit everybody. As for the issue of Iraq, read Michael Yon's, " Moment of Truth In Iraq" for the real story of the war and the phenomenal heroism of your generation.

The young voter seems to be enthralled with the idea of change. How about the electorate changing to one that will finally use common sense to select our leaders? The next president should be one who believes this is a great country that he or she would be willing to die for. Nuff said.

Gore Celebrates Israel's 60th with Some Whoppers

2008-05-24T20:53:00.001-04:00

After delivering a scientifically inept global warming lecture in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, greenhouse gasbag Al Gore presented Israel with a 60th birthday gift of custom tailored, regionally-targeted Globaloney.

As adaptable to his surroundings as any desert snake, the shameless Nobel laureate told conference attendees that plunging water levels in their lakes and rivers were the result of -- guess what?

Gore's baloney aside, it was - in fact -- the diversion to farmland, hydroelectric projects and cities of 90 percent of the rivers that feed it that was responsible for the Dead Sea's dramatic declines.

ThinkWeek

2008-05-24T20:46:00.002-04:00

In Secret Hideaway,
Bill Gates Ponders
Microsoft's Future

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, appearing eager for company after four days alone at the waterfront cottage. He was there for his "Think Week," a seven-day stretch of seclusion he uses to ponder the future of technology and then propagate those thoughts across the Microsoft empire.
It's a twice-yearly ritual that can influence the future of Microsoft and the tech industry. A Think Week thought can give the green light to a new technology that millions of people will use or send Microsoft into new markets. One week in 1995 inspired Mr. Gates's paper, "The Internet Tidal Wave," that led Microsoft to develop its Internet browser and crush Netscape. Plans to create Microsoft's Tablet PC, build more-secure software and start an online videogame business were also catalyzed during Think Weeks.

Quote of the Day:

2008-05-24T20:45:00.000-04:00

Bill Gates earns $250 every SECOND; that’s about
$20 million a DAY and $7.8 billion a YEAR! If he drops a
thousand-dollar bill, he needn’t even bother to pick it up
because in the four seconds it would take him to pick it
up, he would’ve already earned it back.
“Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Leaders—
Bill Gates,” a June 22, 2007 post from the
AchieveMax blog

Electron Traps That Compute

2008-05-24T20:43:00.001-04:00

ScienceDaily (May 23, 2008) — ETH Zurich physicists have used a semiconductor material to create superimposed quantum dots that “trap” single electrons. Not only can these dots be studied with lasers, their energy can be influenced as well. Another point: the state of one of the dots governs that of the other above it. This has taken the researchers another step closer to quantum computers.

Miracle Leaves That May Help Protect Against Liver Damage

2008-05-24T20:38:00.003-04:00

ScienceDaily (May 23, 2008) — Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) berries are well known for their cholesterol busting properties, but scientists in India say that its leaves are also rich in anti-oxidants and may help ward off liver disease, according to new research due to be published in the Society of Chemical Industry's (SCI) Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

Why Did These Liberals Lie About Weapons of Mass Destruction?

2008-05-24T20:35:00.000-04:00

As the war in Iraq becomes more unpopular with an increasing number of Americans, Democrats in collusion with the liberal mainstream media, continue to politicize the war by blatantly distorting the facts.

For example, a popular refrain is that President Bush lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in order to implement a grand strategy fashioned by neo-conservatives well before Bush actually took office. Said strategy was supposedly aimed at using military force to install democratic regimes friendly to the U.S. throughout the Middle East.

However, the left has never adequately answered the following question. If Bush knew there was no WMD, why would he send 150,000 troops into Iraq since his “lie” would be immediately exposed by invading coalition forces and reported by a large contingent of media embedded within those forces?

Liberals also choose to ignore United Nations Resolution 144I, which clearly established that Iraq had WMD. That resolution was approved unanimously by the UN member nations.

Besides the illogic in claiming that President Bush lied about WMD, the liberal argument is discredited by comments by Democrats themselves in the years and months leading up to the 2003 invasion.

Herewith a substantial collection of quotes from responsible professionals about Saddam Hussein and WMD in Iraq.

Obama criticizes absent McCain on Senate floor, McCain hits back hard

2008-05-24T20:30:00.002-04:00

Jim Webb's GI Bill passed the Senate today with a bipartisan majority, 75-22. Clinton and Obama were both there, but McCain is in California today on the fund-raising trail.

Obama used the opportunity to once again tie his rival to the president.

"I respect Sen. John McCain's service to our country," Obama said on the Senate floor this morning. "He is one of those heroes of which I speak. But I can't understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition to this GI Bill. I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans. I could not disagree with him and the president more on this issue."

The McCain campaign responded by issuing a sharply worded and lengthy statement in the senator's name. McCain notes his support for an alternative to the Webb measure, but points out his own military service and points out Obama's lack thereof.

Thwapp!

It's Out!

2008-05-22T21:11:00.003-04:00

It's here. 19 years in the making. I plan to see it over the weekend.

The History of Computing Project

2008-05-22T21:05:00.003-04:00

Self Explanatory. Lots and lots of links in here. I like the biographies of the pioneers.

http://www.thocp.net/index.html

Quote of the Day:

2008-05-22T20:57:00.002-04:00

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” - Mark Twain

Barack Gaffes

2008-05-21T19:50:00.002-04:00

The Obama machine.

All it takes is one gaffe to taint a Republican for life. The political establishment never let Dan Quayle live down his fateful misspelling of “potatoe.” The New York Times distorted and misreported the first President Bush’s questions about new scanner technology at a grocers’ convention to brand him permanently as out of touch.

But what about Barack Obama? The guy’s a perpetual gaffe machine.

Quote of the Day

2008-05-21T19:47:00.001-04:00

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

George Orwell

Cool, Quirky Eco Gadget Site

2008-05-21T19:40:00.001-04:00

A follow on to the Nanotech site. This has some cool, and sometimes silly (wooden TV?) eco inventions. I like the ultrasound mosquito repellent.

NanoVIP

2008-05-21T19:38:00.001-04:00

The international Nanotechnology business directory. This is the Who's Who of nanotech. Lot's of wild articles on future technology. Clothes that clean themselves. 60 page per minute inkjet printers. Nanobiotechnology. Cool Stuff in here. Come in and meet the future.

10 Health Breakthroughs - Coming Soon

2008-05-09T21:23:00.001-04:00

Health care has come a long way since whole-body bloodletting. But medicine of the future will make even today’s broad-based therapies obsolete. Breakthroughs such as cancer-hunting nanoparticles, virus-busting lasers and featherweight heart monitors have begun to usher in a new era of targeted treatment—one in which drugs go directly where they’re needed, leaving healthy body tissues intact, and the slightest sign of illness is detected in real time.

Quote of the Day

2008-05-09T20:21:00.002-04:00

“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.” -- Arthur C Clarke.

Fast IT Facts

2008-05-09T20:17:00.002-04:00

1. Today, more information can be sent over a single cable in one second than was sent in one month over the entire Internet in 1997.
2. This year, for the first time, tube televisions will sell fewer units than flat panel displays. Computer CRT screens are following the same trend, falling from an estimated 14.4 million units in 2006 to 10 million in 2007. The number is expected to fall sharply.
3. In the mid-1980's, it was predicted that by 2000 there would be 900,000 mobile phones worldwide. That year came and there were 900,000 phones sold every 19 hours!
4. This year there will be 200 million new PC’s sold, and 800 Million new mobile phones.
5. The CPU in the first IBM PC, the Intel 8088, ran at 4.77 Megahertz and contained 29,000 transistors. The current Intel CPU, the Core 2 Duo, runs at 3.0 Gigahertz and contains 291 Million transistors.
6. The world’s fastest computer has its speed measured in petaflops, which is 1,000 trillion calculations per second (flops are Floating Point Operations).
7. The year 2006 saw the demise of the VHS video tape. In less than 30 years, this format went from introduction, to widespread acceptance, to being replaced by the DVD format. It is already difficult to find VHS tapes for sale anywhere other than remainder bins or dollar stores.
8. Along the same lines, on January 29, 2007, the British computer retail chain PC World issued a statement saying that only 2% of the computers that they sold contained a built-in floppy disk drive and, once present stocks were exhausted, no more floppies would be sold.
9. You can now buy a terabyte hard drive for your home for under $250. Hard drive maker Seagate said recently that they expect to market a 300 terabyte drive by 2012. As a point of reference, we currently run our entire company on well under 100 terabytes. Ten years ago we did it with less than one terabyte.
10. OLED TV's are the next big thing. Sony has these in development. The screens are 4 mm thick! They are thin enough to slide under a door. Good HD TV's have a 2500:1 contrast ratio as a measure of screen sharpness. State of the art TV’s run about 10,000:1. These new systems clock in with an incredible 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
11. As of January 11, 2007, 1.093 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats.
12. Spam now accounts for 85-90% of the inbound email messages we receive.
13. Ink Jet ink costs an astonishing $1,500 per liter!

How Soon?

2008-05-09T20:06:00.002-04:00

Bought a diamond? Get a refund

2008-05-09T19:57:00.002-04:00

This sounds like something from Snopes, but I found it on MSN, so I thought I would pass it along. Apparently DeBeers has settled a lawsuit related to them running the world's diamond monopoly. As part of the settlement, $135 Million is set aside for refunds to purchasers of diamonds from 1994 to 2006. The article explains the refund process. It might be cool to get a grand or two back from a monopoly, now wouldn't it?

And here is the actual settlement site:

https://diamondsclassaction.com/

U.N. Suspends Aid to Myanmar After Government Seizes Shipments

2008-05-09T19:56:00.001-04:00

The U.N. World food Program has suspended aid shipments to Myanmar after the country's military government seized all the food and equipment that had been flown into the country for cyclone victims.

WFP spokesman Paul Risley said Friday that all "the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated." The shipment included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits. He said the WFP "has no choice" but to suspend further aid shipments until the matter is resolved.

The man-made disaster in Myanmar

2008-05-09T19:53:00.002-04:00

By Michelle Malkin • May 9, 2008 08:26 AM
A monstrous cyclone in Myanmar has been followed by monstrous inhumanity by the country’s military dictatorship. The UN announced this morning that it was suspending food aid after the junta seized humanitarian shipments. This comes after the regime refused to issue visas to international aid workers.

"Myanmar’s generals now join the ranks of history’s great tyrants – despots like Stalin, Mao, North Korea’s Kim dynasty – who were willing to allow the masses die of hunger and disease rather than yield the least bit of control."

One of the commentors in this article asks a pertinent question: "If Myanmar is not accepting money and aid then WHY is Google trying to collect money for the victims and where is that Google money being held?" Inquiring minds indeed.

Volkswagen to produce 1-Liter car in 2010, should get over 200 MPG

2008-05-09T19:51:00.001-04:00

More from Engadget. According to Motor Authority, the automaker will be producing said vehicle and pushing it to market as early as 2010, and while the minuscule engine will only take you to 75MPH, it will still seat two people -- one in front of the other, though -- and get around 235MPG. No word on a price.

Cool Looking Wii Knock off

2008-05-09T19:42:00.004-04:00

Meet the Vii. It is a cheap knock off from Communist China (remember when they advertised themselves as that?) that claims to have games that are "similar to those on the Wii, but more cheaper".

Cool Troll Pic

2008-05-08T20:08:00.000-04:00

Think Outside the Bottle

2008-05-08T20:04:00.001-04:00

"Bottled water corporations are changing the very way people think about water. Corporations like Coke, Nestlé and Pepsi are manufacturing demand for an essential resource that flows directly from our taps. What's more many bottled water brands actually come from the same source as public tap water though these brands are sold back to the public at thousands of times the cost.

Plastic bottles also require massive amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture and transport. Billions of these bottles wind up in landfills every year."

OK. I'm no longer an enviro-nut hippie (really Dave?). But this is a cause I might try to learn more about. It just drives me nuts to see the waste that lurks behind bottled water. What do you think? Before you ask, I have no interest in a petition, a march, or anything of the sort. I just might re-think my use of water in bottles. It is convenient, but at a cost.

Wii's success fills coffers of Japan's richest man

2008-05-08T20:01:00.001-04:00

A report out from Forbes magazine indicates that the tremendous popularity of Nintendo's Wii video game console has filled the coffers of the company's former chairman, Hiroshi Yamauchi and made him Japan's richest man.

On Thursday, Reuters cited the Forbes study, and said that Yamauchi's wealth had increased $3 billion in the last year, making his current net worth $7.8 billion. That meant he had passed real estate baron Akira Mori for the country's top wealth slot.

According to Reuters, Yamauchi owns 10 percent of Nintendo, which has seen its market capitalization rise to about $79 billion on the strength of the Wii's performance.

Top 10 Geniuses in History

2008-05-08T19:37:00.003-04:00

First off, you may be surprised to find that Albert Einstein is not included on this list. The reason is that I have used a table of IQ estimates for historical geniuses to determine the members and order of this list, and Einstein’s IQ (around 160) did not make the grade. Despite that, he is still the first person to pop in to most people’s minds when thinking of a genius. Having said that, here is a list of the ten greatest geniuses in history:
10. Madame De Stael IQ: 180
9. Galileo Galilei IQ: 185
8. Bobby Fischer IQ: 187
7. Ludwig Wittgenstein IQ: 190
6. Blaise Pascal IQ: 195
5. John Stuart Mill IQ: 200
4. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz IQ: 205
3. Emanuel Swedenborg IQ: 205
2. Leonardo Da Vinci IQ: 205
1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe IQ: 210

Interesting List.

Quote of the Day

2008-05-08T19:34:00.001-04:00

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling that thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself".

John Stuart Mill (You should know who he is/was).

Once-secret Memos Question Clinton's Honesty

2008-05-08T19:29:00.003-04:00

Here is a rather involved article that outlines the dishonesty that runs though the bones of Hillary Clinton. It describes her attempts to cover up the Whitewater investigation. In fairness, prosecutors too eight years and spent millions of taxpayer dollars without coming up with an indictment. It has always been questioned whether Mrs. Clinton pulled the strings. In fairness also, no one reaches the White House without having the entire world second guess every move.

Great Gift Idea for Father's Day

2008-05-07T22:13:00.002-04:00

Is This Offensive, or Just Funny?

2008-05-07T22:11:00.001-04:00

Lazy Duck

2008-05-07T22:03:00.001-04:00

Hippy-Crites

2008-05-07T19:25:00.002-04:00

OK. I know I said I was going to move all the anti-Global Warming stuff over to my new blog at http://No2Gore.blogspot.com. I decided to include this article because it discusses how our favorite Hollywood celebs have been caught not doing what they preach. Not only do they rarely practice what they preach to you and me, but they do it in such a huge way that the rest of us would be outright embarrassed to be caught behaving in such a way.

Extreme Instability

2008-05-07T19:12:00.001-04:00

Unbelievable photos from a seriously dedicated storm chaser. After viewing these pics I almost want to take it up as a hobby. Almost. He doesn't really talk about the extreme danger he puts himself in to get such incredible pictures.

Success Is Built On Work Ethic, Not Grievances

2008-05-07T18:58:00.000-04:00

Sometimes unrelated events nevertheless tell a coherent story.

One newspaper story that caught my eye recently was about two high-powered schools in South Korea where Korean girls study 15 hours a day, preparing themselves for tests to get into elite colleges in the United States. Harvard, Yale and Princeton already have 34 students from those schools.

This article is actually about Obama. Interesting subject for discussion. I love stories of immigrants who take the opportunity afforded everyone in America and make it work. Actually, I love stories of anyone making the American Dream come true.

Unclassics

2008-05-04T20:11:00.003-04:00

This is an article that discusses downgrading 10 well regarded "masterpieces" of film making from classic status to something less than that. This is really a discussion for real film fans. As a side note, how many of these films have you seen?

Film School Rejects

2008-04-30T21:59:00.003-04:00

Movie news, opinions, reviews, and all things movies, movies, movies. Plus occasional reviews by my favorite reviewer. Check out her take on the latest Dr. Suess flick in her review titled, "Horton hears a pro-life protest".

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/horton-hears-a-pro-life-protest.php

What's your energy IQ?

2008-04-30T19:04:00.001-04:00

ENERGY IQ: MAN ON THE STREET INTERVIEWS - 4:14 min.
API's John Bisney recently visited the National Mall to ask tourists about their energy knowledge, on the heels of API's upcoming Energy IQ survey. Many people were suprised to learn the true facts about oil and natural gas, energy, and alternatives.

This is straight from the American Petroleum Institute. Your Green friends won't listen to a word of it, but I still think it's interesting.

Climate Speculators

2008-04-30T18:59:00.002-04:00

Climate Speculators have (Robin's) Egg on their Face

"The Inuit language for 10,000 years never had a word for 'robin,'" (John) McCain lamented, "and now there are robins all over their villages." The BBC even titled a program on arctic warming "No Word for 'Robin': Climate Change in the Canadian Arctic."

What a shame! Pretty little birds invading the Arctic, bringing joy with their whoop of spring!

But, of course, it’s not true. Like the tale of the endangered polar bears that happen to be at or near record population levels, the robin story is yet another climate confabulation.

Quote of the Day

2008-04-30T18:58:00.000-04:00

"One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results." -Milton Friedman.

An Inconvenient… Um… Er…

2008-04-28T19:02:00.001-04:00

You may have heard that, as ABC News reported, the footage of the “collapsing Antarctic ice shelves” in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was actually made up of special-effects shots taken from the 2004 sci-fi doozy The Day After Tomorrow.

Well, it’s fake but accurate, you might say. “Just because Big Al manipulated my emotions with spectacular Hollywood fakery doesn’t mean we’re not ALL GONNA DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING!!!” If you really believe that, there’s no point in arguing with you. But you’ll have to forgive me for laughing at the look on your face when you find out what the effects guys used to make all those “glaciers”:

Sculpted from Styrofoam and later scanned into a computer, the ice shelf “flyover” looks real.

That’s right, Styrofoam! You know, the evil, evil stuff that’s being banned all over the place because it’s destroying the environment.

Harrison Ford Waxes Off His Man Fur for Mother Earth

2008-04-28T18:55:00.001-04:00

Harrison Ford, whose fourth Indiana Jones movie is coming out next month, had his hairy chest waxed to make a statement about the environment. Oh, this is sad. Indiana Jones is actually an environmental tool. Sad. Sad. Sad.

Stairs to Nowhere

2008-04-27T21:51:00.001-04:00

13 Photographs that Changed the World

2008-04-26T14:34:00.003-04:00

Great pictures that changed how we look at the world. It's all in how you look at things.

History, Year by Year

2008-04-26T14:24:00.002-04:00

See what happened the year you were born, or any interesting year for that matter. Politics, Sports, Entertainment, and deaths. Neat stuff.

Says it all

2008-04-26T14:20:00.003-04:00

I guess this makes me a cynic.

Best Frasier Episode Ever

2008-04-23T20:02:00.002-04:00

I think this just might be the funniest three minutes on television.

Cool Street Art

2008-04-23T19:46:00.002-04:00

Cool Street Art collected from around the world.

New WDW Theme Park?

2008-04-23T18:55:00.002-04:00

Current plans call for this $520 million niche park to officially throw open its doors in October of 2011, just in time for the start of Walt Disney World's 40th anniversary celebration.

"Why did you call 'Disney's Night Kingdom' a niche park?," you ask. Well, because -- just like Discovery Cove (Which only allows in a thousand visitors each day) -- DNK will be restricting the number of guests that can enter this park every afternoon. Only 2000 people will be allowed into WDW's 5th theme park at any one time.

And -- yes -- I said "afternoon." Disney's Night Kingdom's operating hours will be 4 p.m. to midnight (5 p.m. to 1 a.m. during daylight savings time).

Let's first start with the extraordinary guest service that you'll experience as you enter DNK. Current plans call for Disney's Night Kingdom to be staffed by 4000 cast members. That means that -- for every guest that visits this theme park -- there'll be two cast members to take care of their every need. So expect to receive a lot of personalized attention & pampering once you arrive on site.

Check out the rest of the article. It may just be a rumor, but it sure sounds cool, and pricey. Mickey's leaning toward charging guests $250 - $300 per person in order to gain entry to DNK.

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T18:15:00.003-04:00

Here is a very interesting article on how you can create a "Global Warming" type of hysteria of your very own. Following the lack of logic and rigor that characterizes the global warming debate, the author very cleverly builds a scenario around the super-volcano that lies beneath Yellowstone Park. It is a pretty good story and looks eerily like the arguments used by the global warming crowd. Just the thing to brighten up your earth day celebrations.

Photo Sketcher Software

2008-04-21T19:03:00.002-04:00

Free Photo Sketcher software. Turn your photos into Pen and Ink sketches. Software with this capability used to cost hundreds of dollars. Now you can have it for Free.

This and tons more free software can be found at one of my favorite software sites: the Portable Freeware Collection.

http://www.portablefreeware.com

Climate Skeptic

2008-04-21T19:02:00.000-04:00

Have I mentioned that I am a climate change denier? Here is a good site with lots of interesting, and thought provoking articles on the subject. Just the antidote to the onslaught of green advertising that Al Gore is subjecting us to.

Earth Day Deluge

2008-04-21T19:00:00.002-04:00

At the risk of repeating myself, here's another article about the link between Earth Day and Communism.

In 1955, the then Soviet Premier, Nikita Krushchev ordered that April 22nd be designated a day to celebrate Communism.

Out of all the days in the year, the founders of Earth Day chose Lenin’s birthday. Coincidence? I think not.

As a historical note, I was there for the first Earth Day. I was a hippie who believed in saving the Earth and my fellow man (and women). It took me years to grow out of it. I really care now that you hear the other side of the argument.

Earth Day=Lenin's Birthday

2008-04-21T18:58:00.001-04:00

Why, you might ask, would Americans celebrate the birthday of this mass murderer Marxist, the founder of the is-it-dead-or-only-sleeping Soviet Union?

But the sad fact is that our children in public schools and colleges probably are directed to celebrate Lenin’s April 22 birthday and his values, whether they know it or not.

Ultra-Capacitors

2008-04-21T18:52:00.003-04:00

Ultracapacitors – also called supercapacitors – are more powerful cousins of the basic capacitor. With activated carbon at their core to act as a sponge for electrons, ultracapacitors can absorb power – or send a charge – far faster than batteries. They are also far more durable.

While big Detroit automakers ponder a future plug-in car that goes 40 miles on a battery charge before its gas engine kicks in, Ian Clifford's tiny ZENN Motor, a Toronto maker of low-speed electric cars, announced in March that it will build a new highway-speed (80 m.p.h.) model that goes 250 miles on a charge – and can recharge in just five minutes using these super capacitors. Cool.

Cell Phone Mike Used as an Eavesdropping Tool

2008-04-18T20:57:00.000-04:00

Did you know that your cell phone microphone can be used as a listening device? Even when the cell phone is turned off? It's true. This method was used by the FBI to catch some Mafia guys in NYC. The only way to completely disable this is to remove the battery from the phone. Wild Stuff!

Virtual Bubble Wrap

2008-04-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

Just the thing for a frustrated afternoon.

Quote of the Day

2008-04-17T19:26:00.001-04:00

"A house with no books is not a home."

Raise a Glass

2008-04-17T19:23:00.002-04:00

Raise a glass and remember Ollie Johnston who died today at the age of 95. Ollie is the last of the nine old men, the original group of animators that made the fledgling Walt Disney Studios a big hit in the 20's through the 60's.

"Walt Disney lightheartedly dubbed his team of crack animators his "Nine Old Men," borrowing the phrase from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's description of the U.S. Supreme Court's members, who had angered the president by quashing many of his Depression-era New Deal programs.
Although most of Disney's men were in their 20s at the time, the name stuck with them for the rest of their lives.

Perhaps the two most accomplished of the nine were Johnston and his close friend Frank Thomas, who died in 2004 at age 92. The pair, who met as art students at Stanford University in the 1930s, were hired by Disney for $17 a week at a time when he was expanding the studio to produce full-length feature films. Both worked on the first of those features, 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Johnston worked as an assistant animator on "Snow White," became an animation supervisor on "Fantasia" and "Bambi" and animator on "Pinocchio."

He was especially proud of his work on "Bambi" and its classic scenes, including one depicting the heartbreaking death of Bambi's mother at the hands of a hunter. That scene has brought tears to the eyes of generations of young and old viewers.

"The mother's death showed how convincing we could be at presenting really strong emotion," he remarked in 1999.

Johnston's other credits included "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan" "Lady and the Tramp," "Sleeping Beauty," "101 Dalmatians," "Mary Poppins," "The Jungle Book," "The Aristocats," "Robin Hood" and "The Rescuers."

"(People) know his work. They know his characters. They've seen him act without realizing it," said film historian Leonard Maltin. "He was one of the pillars, one of the key contributors to the golden age of Disney animation."

Immigration Discussion

2007-07-02T20:16:00.002-04:00

Here is an interesting discussion of our current immigration crisis. The speaker uses simple math to illustrate his points about the future of immigration in the US.

Bald Eagle No Longer Endangered

2007-07-02T19:40:00.001-04:00

Bald Eagle No Longer Endangered - Malaria Victims Still Are

You've probably heard that the American bald eagle has just been removed from the federal list of protected species. While this comeback is certainly wonderful news for our revered national bird, those spreading the story are exploiting its opportunity to dust off moldy activist folklore.

Virtually every news organization (including Fox News) reporting this magnificent milestone is erroneously perpetuating the environmentalist lie that the disappearance of the great bird was due to the effects of DDT and that only the 1972 ban of the insecticide saved the eagle from extinction.

OLED TV's

2007-02-12T20:12:00.000-05:00

OLED TV's are the next big thing. These are from Sony. I think they say the screens are 4 mm thick! They would slide under a door. Good HD TV's are 2500:1 contrast. State of the art run 10,000:1. These clock in at 1,000,000:1. Incredible.

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/sony-oled-tvs-razor-thin-million-to-one-contrast-ratio/

Meet Sergei Korolyov

2007-02-12T20:09:00.000-05:00

Meet the man who put Sputnik in the air and started the Space Race:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolyov

Iraq WMD Mystery solved

2007-02-12T20:03:00.000-05:00

Here is an interview with a geopolitical analyst who outlines just what happened to those missing Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Interesting stuff here. Interesting also that don't hear about this on the nightly news.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21489.

Year in Review

2007-02-12T20:02:00.000-05:00

Technology year in review, from MIT. These guys know technology.

http://www.techreview.com/InfoTech/17937/

Are Canadian Coins Bugged?

2007-02-12T19:59:00.000-05:00

It's tin foil hat time people. While this is for real, I doubt that anyone would get much information about me by following my money around.

http://money.netscape.com/story/2007/01/10/canadian-coins-bugged-us-security-agency-says

The Top 10 Astronomy Images of 2006

2007-02-12T19:49:00.000-05:00

OK, it's not an official list, but the pictures are very impressive.

http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/12/27/the-top-ten-astronomy-images-of-2006/

Free Firewall Software

2007-02-12T19:40:00.000-05:00

Free Firewall Software. Keep the bad guys out.

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Meet Eddie Chapman

2007-02-12T19:33:00.000-05:00

Meet Eddie Chapman, safe cracker, womanizer, blackmailer, and a real war hero.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Chapman

http://www.eddiechapman.com/index2.html

and there was a movie made about his life, Triple Cross

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061647/

Top 10 Apollo Hoax Theories

2007-02-12T19:27:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that people believe these are hoaxes. It takes all kinds.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/top10apollohoaxes.html

US History

2007-02-12T19:26:00.000-05:00

I can't wait to spend a few good hours wandering through this site. It is USHistory.org, a site run by the Independence Hall Foundation of Philadelphia. This looks like a great site for anyone interested in US History (and we all should be).

http://www.ushistory.org/index.html

2007-02-12T19:25:00.000-05:00

Interesting Physics page. Higher order stuff indeed. This might take some serious caffeine to wade through.

http://www.universaltheory.org/index.htm

Quantum Foam & Buddhism

2007-02-12T19:20:00.000-05:00

Just an interesting article on the subatomic world from Answers.com. It is amazing how closely the concept of Quantum Foam fits with buddhiism.

When a man considers this world as a bubble of froth, and as the illusion of an appearance, then the king of death has no power over him."
-Buddha, Dhammapada, 170

Quantum foam, also referred to as spacetime foam, is a concept in quantum mechanics, devised by John Wheeler in 1955. It is sometimes likened to the old concept of the ether/aether.

The foam is a qualitative description of the turbulence that the phenomenon creates at extremely small distances of the order of the Planck length. At such small scales of time and space the uncertainty principle allows particles and energy to briefly come into existence, and then annihilate, without violating conservation laws. As the scale of time and space being discussed shrinks, the energy of the virtual particles increases. At sufficiently small scale space is not smooth as would be expected from observations at larger scales.

Foaming through the universe
Quantum foam is theorized to create masses of virtual particles. They are particle-antiparticle pairs, and prior to their annihilation, exist for a short period of time, on the order of the Planck time. They are created randomly from photons; the higher the energy of the photon from which they are created, the longer the time they will exist prior to annihilation.

These virtual particles make their existence known by the Casimir effect. It is thought that there are constant quantum fluctuations in "empty" space, even at the energetic homogeneity referred to as absolute zero. Due to this, quantum fluctuations are often described using the term "zero-point energy".

The "foamy" spacetime would look like a complex turbulent storm-tossed sea. Some physicists theorize the formation of wormholes therein; speculation arising from this includes the possibility of hyperspatial links to other universes. As far as realistic phenomena are concerned, it's thought that the hyperspatial nature of the quantum foam may account for such diverse physical principles as inertia, propagation of light, and time flow.

Reginald Cahill has developed a theory called Process physics, which describes space as a quantum foam system in which gravity is an inhomogeneous flow of the quantum foam into matter. According to this theory, the so-called spiral galaxy rotation-velocity anomaly may be explained without the need for dark matter.

Various scientists have theorized that quantum foam is an incredibly powerful source of zero-point energy. It has been estimated that one cubic centimeter of space contains enough zero point energy to boil all the world's oceans. However, estimates of this energy vary widely due to the huge disparity in the calculations of the quantum foam density, which vary more than 1:10100. Physicist Michio Kaku thinks that this enormous uncertainty in the estimation of quantum-foam density would represent the largest disparity for any quantity in all of physics.

See also
Dirac sea
Hawking radiation
Hyperspace theory
Planck time
"Rolling ball" topology
Vacuum energy
Wormhole

What does 200 calories look like?

2007-02-12T19:17:00.000-05:00

This shows lots of foods to help get an idea of portion sizes. Interesting.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm

Seeds of the Left

2007-02-12T19:10:00.000-05:00

Here is an article that follows the growth of the leftist movement in America, from its insuspiscous beginnings at the University of Wisconsin, right on throught to the American Hating left of today. It's a bit long and deep, but it is worth reading.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/12/seeds_intellectual_destruction.html

Now that's BIG hard drive!

2007-02-12T19:09:00.000-05:00

Seagate to offer 300 TB hard drive by 2010

Just in time be installed in the PS4, an Xbox 720, the Wii Wii, a TiVo for masses of HDTV recording, a computer running the successor to Vista or Mac OS X, Seagate wants you to store it all on a massive 300 TB hard drive.

According to an online report from Joystiq, this is enough to store the entire ‘Library of Congress’ without needing to use any compression. It will also be enough to store 6,144 50 GB Blu-ray discs. That would be hundreds of thousands of standard DVD discs, millions upon millions of CDs and probably billions of photos.

That oughta hold me for a little while!

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/8350/52/

Drivl

2007-02-12T19:01:00.000-05:00

Drivl is self described as "Your Daily Dose of Awesome". Anyway, it's a bunch of silly stuff, most of it is safe for work.

http://www.drivl.com/best

Your Name in Japanese

2007-02-02T20:14:00.000-05:00

Here is a site that translates your name into Japanese characters. Cool.

http://www.japanesetranslator.co.uk/your-name-in-japanese/

More Science News

2007-01-01T20:40:00.000-05:00

Compound identified in grapes may fight cancer and diabetes
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture have identified another compound in grapes that they believe shows promise in fighting cancer. The compound, pterostilbene, is similar to resveratrol, an antioxidant recently found in grapes and red wine that has also been linked to cancer-prevention, they say.

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2002/F/2002284.html

Three Pointless Sites

2007-01-01T20:33:00.000-05:00

http://www.pointlesssites.com/default.asp

http://www.thingsyouneverknew.com/website/aspfiles/home.asp?UID=2006122714471689&WT.svl=TopLogo

http://www.strangefacts.com/index.html

Diabetes breakthrough

2007-01-01T20:30:00.000-05:00

Toronto scientists cure disease in mice. In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians. Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=a042812e-492c-4f07-8245-8a598ab5d1bf&k=63970

This is pretty cool news!

Free Notes

2007-01-01T20:25:00.000-05:00

Wiki Summaries

Free online book summaries. Similar to Spark Notes only publicly editable and free.

http://wikisummaries.org/Category:Summaries

I like this because it follows the wiki format. There is an even better site at:

http://litsum.com/

Raise a glass

2007-01-01T20:22:00.000-05:00

Raise a glass and remember Al Shugart

It's hard to imagine a world without hard disk drives. It amazes me that many of the pioneers of modern technology are still with us, and are still working in their fields, dreaming up new and better inventions. Such was Al Shugart.

"(Shugart's) first disk drive had five megabytes. He couldn't get any money then because nobody thought the world would ever need five megabytes of storage. Here's a guy who thought you not only needed five megs, but you would ultimately need a whole lot more. And he was right,"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Shugart

A Little Late for the Holidays

2007-01-01T20:19:00.000-05:00

Here is a heart warming tale of the holidays from the archives of Dave Barry. As Dave says, Happy Holiday Retail Purchasing Season to all.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/16108636.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_dave_barry

Quote of the Day

2007-01-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity."

Christopher Morley

Your Locks are Not Secure!

2006-12-05T21:30:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-05T21:18:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-05T21:16:00.002-05:00

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