Dubai plans 'moving' skyscraper

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

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

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

NPR Still Lamenting 'American Concentration Camp' in Hollywood

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

"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?

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

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

Indiana Jones Mistakes

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!

Thanks to all who served and sacrificed for our freedom.

Youth Voters are backing The Wrong Candidate

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

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

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:

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

The History of Computing Project

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:

“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

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

"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

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

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

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

“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

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?

Bought a diamond? Get a refund

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

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

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

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

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

Think Outside the Bottle

"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

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

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

"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

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

Is This Offensive, or Just Funny?

Lazy Duck

Hippy-Crites

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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