funs tuff

I can't help it. this stuff is fun/funny. A stealth car and a Jubologist speaks out and a computer that can do nearly 6/1000ths of a giga-spud in calculations.

Enjoy!

On solar power, weather prediciton and work

If it is to be believed:
Solar power for all is around the corner. but before you run out and sell your stock in that old coal firing power plant down the block, please remember that several things will keep this from becoming the end all be all. First is the crony-ism and protectionism rampant in the US and the world. Second is that this is likely not as good as they claim. Third is that even if they could hit the marks they have set for themselves, production in required quantity will be a ways off and in the end, standard fossil fuel plants will be needed anyway. If it is as good as it sounds then we might see a small blip of older coal facilities going bye-bye as a nice nod to the EPA, but I doubt it.

All hail the holy grail of perception. Perceived work is more important than completed work. an example from my own job: "knowmad!" yells my manager "Why were you not at the planning meeting for the 3rd floor move project?" A quick mental inventory returns an all thumbs up, I am in full mental health, and I know for certain that... "Because the project finished last week, so the weekly planning meeting is unnecessary, and I thought it was canceled" says I. "It was most certainly not canceled" huffs the boss, "we are being paid by the client to complete the move over a 6 week period. We are expected to hold planning/progress meetings every week. You are expected to be there." Hmm, thinks I, what might be going on at such a meeting. "Excuse me" I query, "what was planned at this weeks meeting?" "This week we discussed what to do with next week as all the items to move have been moved." replies the bossman. "It is important" he continues "that the client see us working, we are after all getting paid for it." And there you have it, it is more important that the client see us working, even if there is no work to be done, than have them know we finished the work and will be simply collecting the rest of our fee and getting out of the clients way. This conversation did not in fact actually happen. It is an extrapolation of many conversations I have had over the years, culminating today in an annoyance that prompted me to write this. I hope you enjoyed this piece of semi-fiction.

Now lets talk about the weather, you know... small talk. This morning, knowing nothing about the weather other then what i saw outside my window, i got up and started to drive to work. I listen to a classical station when driving to work to keep me from being annoyed too much at the (other) idiots on the road (did you know that most of america can't drive, they either mozy along at 2 feet an hour or they try to drive in the actual space currently occupied by another car). They paused the music to give news/weather/traffic. "The snow will continue all day until 1 am with a total accumulation of 6 to 10 inches".... the snow will continue? I stop at the next red light and carefully look up into the sky, the bright blue empty clear sky. I change the channel. "We will be hit by a massive storm, and we are expecting the majority of the accumulation by 9am this morning. If you are not yet at work, think twice about going." I check my watch, its 7:25 (got up late). Right, majority of the snow by 9am, total of 10 inches. At 3pm the snow finally started. I wonder if the people in the other cars that morning were as bemused by this as I was, probably not, they were all driving like there was an inch on the ground already.

science and yammering

Good morning folks.

wanna see something frightning?

Hillary Swank between treatments .... wow! what a face. thats the face that launched the contents of a thousand stomachs. plus when they posted the picture the first time it was a little squashed which made it even worse.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! tey changed the pic without changing the link so now this link points to unfrightning and rather boring pictures of other people in the news.... its too bad, that pic was soemthing to see.

And here is what happens when something frightening gets a life of its own. unwanted stardom which is no fun. I always wondered about the 'star wars kid' and if anybody ever took him under his wing and said "ok, you made an ass of yourself unintentionally. lets learn from this. Lesson one, never tape the early attempts. Lesson two, if you do something, do it right." and then teahc the kid how to dress, how to move and how to make a movie. I guess ia m just a softy, can't stand watching some one get smacked down for no good reason.

and now for something completely different.

This morning driving to work I saw a guy (here-to-for known as car1) make a right hand turn and come to a complete stop. The car behind him (here-to-fore known as car2) narrowly avoided smashing into him and hit his horn. I (here-to-fore known as all kinds of weird things) was behind car2 and also narrowly avoided an accident. Then car1 starts moving only to slam on his breaks again this time waving his middle finger out the window. Car2 did not respond except to stop. For the rest of the 300 feet between that corner and the next light car1 slammed on his breaks at random, swerved to cut off car2 when the lanes diverged, and screamed profanities out the window. I was stunned. What kind of idiot would rather start a fight and waste time then simply get to work and declare it a silly stupid incident. Seriously, I understand getting upset over someone honking at you when in your own head you did nothing wrong (to heck with reality). But to slow down, mess up your own commute and send your blood pressure through the roof over getting honked at..... not passed, not clipped, not cut off, just honked at? America is made up of idiots.

we now return you to our regularly scheduled yammering.

damn I miss the days when I had time and inclination to actually play a really good immersive game all the way through..... this looks like it might be such a game or at least a game concept. I have no time for such things. Lets see what my schedule (stripped of all personal info) looks like these days.

1) get up at 6 to be out of the house by 7 for work. Could be worse. I know lots of people who get up earlier and have less time to get out the door. Of course I have never been an AM kinda person. Even today given two days off my body defaults to late night and late mornings.

2) work from 7:30 to 5:30, maybe take lunch in-between. I really kinds dislike my job. I love the company I work for, most amazing people and organization I have ever come across. but my job is mind-numbingly dull.

3) go home, which somehow takes twice as long as getting to work.

4) eat dinner with my wife and son. Then I get to change him and start on everything else.

5) learn a new language. SOunds silly but I have made a promise to do it.

6) spend an hour working on my patent.

7) study for yet another certification.

8) try to do a half hour on the bike.

9) Read through my weekly/monthly publications, (newscientist, wired, Inc, fast company, etc...)to try and stay current on everything in the world.

10) sleep.

Does not sound like a lot and yet every day something falls by the wayside. I left out a whole bunch of stuff that happens on only some days. I can't blame it on TV, I only watch on wednesday nights.(LOST and West Wing). So what is happening to my time....

Never a dull moment in Israel. Israel is trying to put heat on Syria and the PA to curb militant activity. I wonder if it will work. Funny thing about the current peace plan... Its not much of a plan, and it has little in the way of peace so far but everyone is rooting for it. I wonder what happens when the first stage goes ok and then the two big questions come up for review, Jerusalem and the Palestinian Right of Return. Only time will tell.

Remember my rant on the Avian Flu and the US Preparedness Plan? (look down, its there, its that thing you stepped in). Well here is an editorial on the issue. and there is more (isn't there always?) U.S. tries to limit bird flu impact amid global threat(detroit news) and Spectre of Avian Flu looms (from the bangladesh ndependant) thats it for now. neither is an amazing piece but I figured I would throw them in to the mix and see what pops up. Oh yeah, nearly forgot ,we need more money to fight the flu but you know how politicians work. They can't give money to something that has not happened yet but they can't go on record denying the cash in case it does happen so lets just ignore the whole thing.

In other health news yet another benefit to green tea. I think the thing to do is bathe in the stuff. I remember some time ago they discovered that if you bathe penicillin resistant bacteria (type unknown to me) in green tea, they lost their resistance. Also some item in green tea works to reduce blood pressure and its chock full of anti oxidants and its a natural diarrhetic. Like I said, time to star bathing in the stuff.

This one is for sabrina. safe and friendly shark repellant. Does not hurt them and keeps them from hurting you. I will get you a copy of the full article as they have only a section online. In truth (cue sad music) sharks are misunderstood. they do not go out of their way to attack humans, but humans are removing them from the oceans at such speed that they are in danger of disappearing all together. That and I am told shark fin soup is vile.

Jack mentioned these a while back, I still think they are nasty and icky.

So does this mean that their actions affect their brain chemistry/physical make up or that they are pre-disposed towards feminine behavior and the gay lifestyle is simply one more manifestation of said predisposition..... I am NOT getting into it... just throwing it out there.

the worlds oceans are becoming more acidic. I actually went to that site looking for an article on iron and the worlds oceans. According to more than one thing I have read, Iron is ofte the limiting factor for algea and plankton growth in the open ocean. If you provide the iron, everything blooms and life abounds.... for a short while. Iron is one of my new favorite items to think about playing with. It cleans things up, it makes things grow, and it messes with people's sense of direction. Gatta love it. Oooohhh, I found it. an article on the goodness of iron in the ocean.

I don't get it. I know for a fact that human sexual activity is not disturbed at all by being monitored.... except that its usually disturbed to begin with. It seems that voles don't like being monitored during sex.... or something along those lines. oh well, their loss.

Add this remote control blimp to the toys I cannot afford but want to play with. oh well.

If you have read this far you are a true masochist. So how about something useful to read?

Every time some one asks my for ID I wonder what would happen if I refused. Or when they ask for my phone number/address. I have on more than one occasion refused and been told "well then you won't get the discount" to which I have answered "thats fine, my privacy is worth at least that 35cents" but what about the bigger issues? This fellow has been trying to figure out for a while now, what exactly are the rules regarding the need to show ID all the time. he has discovered some scary stuff, like the fact that you the average citizen is considered too much a security risk to be allowed to know why you must present ID when boarding a plane. I have said ti before, we live in 1984 and it has not made us safer, more successful or happier. here is the slashdot story on the same subject.

A side interestof mine is city design. I have a crazy idea of designing and building my own city for the purpose of scientific research and the betterment of all human kind.... and to see my name on the "WELCOME TO" sign out side the city in the position of designer. Any way, it seems that the inclusion of green-ways in an urban setting directly affects the health and activity of the urban settlers which is to say that more peope will walka nd bike to work if they can get there via a park. Neat.

In other health news, never let your spouse care for you... for that matter don't let your children do it either because as it turns out those who love you feel they have the right to hurt you. No real surprise in all this but somehow its nice to know that I am more likely to be well cared for by an underpaid immigrant orderly in a derelict old age home than I am in my children's house.... note to self, change the will.

A few more words (from the NYTimes, free reg blah blah blah) on the situation in israel. First the bombing is covered here along with Sharon's response and second is reactions to the pullout by the 'settlers'. I suggest reading both simply because i often suggest reading such things.

To rap things up, a move in the...right? direction in Kenyan School systems. It seems they are replacing books with computers (handheld and otherwise). I hope this works for them.

TREES

me and my obsession with unusual trees:

American olive trees are unusual and they grow in my region.... i wonder if I can get them to grow indoors.

or how about a pecan tree that is ok in cold weather hmmm.... agfain... indoor growing?

Now if I had a backyard, i would plant a 70 foot tall 6 inch wide piece of grass

Ok this is silly. Here is the web site of at least one unusual nursery from which I would LOVE to order all kinds of things but of course I live in the wrong climate and I do not own any land and I cannot grow all this stuff in my apt.

and for those looking to landscape at low cost this place seems to seel expensive trees at low cost but I do not make any promises as to how long they will live, I have never bought anything from them. I am considering it though, my parents have a house and a piece of property that they cannot really use because it is too open to the road.... maybe some nice evergreen trees.

things I want part the first

am greedy, want these things but can't afford them, so i put them here to drool over.
THINGS I WANT:


Neat little pocket tool, might be willing to pay 5 bucks for it, but not more
here it is


I always carry too much in my bag, this is a useful but SMALL bag that would work wel for me.
http://www.armynavysales.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=01&Product_Code=MA183&Category_Code=BAG


when i was a little kid i wanted one of these, based on the idea that somewhere in my backyard I would find a diamond and this would help me fix it for sale... silly kid
rock shiny thingy


sounds good to eat
choco-tastic food group nibs


cool gift idea for kids, something that teaches too


I remember this series of books from when I was a kid. the great brain and I used to like to think I was that smart but nicer. I'm neither.


for those who cook this makes a cool gift... hey... I cook!


More for the kitchen. tea stuff which is pretty cool.
I like tea but do not have the time to do it properly.


some time ago i decided I was going to build my own marble-coaster-thingy.... a roller coaster for marbles sort of rube goldfarb thing. it never happened, but here is one that you can buy


I love evil geniuses


As many who have visited my house can attest, i like growing unusual trees. I have a date palm, a pink grapefruit, some weird Mediterranean thingy with green fruit that taste like Lichi, and red globe grape vine. Here is one more I would like


I so want to learn a language. preferably starting with hebrew (come on, don't you wnat to know what was really written instead of reading some english translation of a latin translation of a greek translation of the original hebrew?). And Here is a way to learn languages


I have actually seen this one in several places, the Acme Klein Bottle they also sell an eina kleina kleina steina, which is a little klein beer mug, in funny german.


this one and This one are for all the researchers I know who spent thousands on equipment for the lab that does the same exact thing.


well that concludes my first reading of the no more socks web page. More to come from here and other amazing catalogs on the web.

another morning read

No more editors. I am using apple's note pad, it has spell check and I can create custom actions (if i bothered) for placing links. In truth i think i will hand code the half dozen links I do.

So first up, the environment:

Glaciers go bye bye

a series of photos showing glaciers going bye-bye, very interesting.

Why is it that oil makes trouble in this case it is olive oil. It seems that not everyone is telling the truth of where their olive oil comes from. makes you wonder a) what are you eating and b) who are you supporting by eating it?

Interesting article touching on an important issue but you must be a subscriber to get the full article. basically it discusses the issue of who to trust in science. I personally think tis issue is no different from who to trust in life/politics/business/etc...

Along the lines of scientists and trust comes an interesting interview that i must admit I have nto yet read. i looked at it but I will wait until i am not at work so i can concentrate and read more than two sentences at a time. The article is another over at newscientitst.com. Its an interview with an Israeli researcher and a Palestinian researcher who work together regardless of the fact that their respective peoples are not exactly friends.

I happen to like nice watches. I have a very nice watch given to me when I got engaged by my fiance. I have scratched it, lost it twice, found it in strange places, and generally mistreated the poor thing. In my own defense i was told to wear it every day, so destruction is bound to happen. Here is an article on expensive watches with a short history of personal chrnography included. I 'know' from elsewhere (where knowing is having heard from one unchecked source) that the first wrist watch was created for an early aviator who complained to a clock making friend that he could not read his pocket watch while flying. The clock maker made a wrist watch for him and the rest is history. The above link disputes these 'facts'. However it does have a link to this article on the worlds most expensive watch (pocket variety)

Do you have a good idea? are you an inventor looking for his big break? Allow me to give you some advice. DO NOT USE ANY 'WE PATENT FOR YOU' COMPANIES! They are a massive rip-off. Having done this (lost 500 bucks to it before I wised up) I can tell you that you are far better off either buying a book and patenting it yourself or else hiring a lawyer/prepairer. Of course that requires money and money is hard to come by right? well maybe not as hard as some would have you think, at according to this article in the NYTimes (free reg, blah blah blah) would have you believe. Also there are some good books out there, one I liked is "crackpot or genius" which covered the basics of inventing and explained that you should do it for fun, not profit. Profit will come maybe and maybe not, mostly not.

Speaking of inventing, Here is a tutorial on microcontroller programming which is something my friend jack has talked about in the past. Now if only i ahd time for all these things... I must give up some of my time wasting to get this stuff done.... maybe sleep can be gotten rid of..... or not.

This is pretty cool: Scientists have regenerated an optic nerve in mice couple that with the recent regenration of the hairs that allow hearing and one day we might be able to cure Helen Keller, course that would require resurection but whatever.... details details details.....

And back to my favorite subject, the environment. It seems that Hydro electric plants are not so nice and warm and fuzzy to the environment as some would have us believe but then again, almost nothing we humans do is actually GOOD for the environment and we must live so maybe we need to look for the least evil. I still like the idea of generate what power you need where you need it, rather than generate tons in one place and try to ship it around. the other option is to generate the power somewhere else, like the moon, and beam it around.... course migrating birds might get a wee bit toasty every now and again but .... like i said before... details details details

Last item for today i think. It seems that nano-particles break down all kinds of pollutants. Recently and by accident they found that plain old iron filings, brought down to the nano size will break down a whole range of deadly chemicals in soil on a time scale of weeks instead of decades as was expected. Now someone has figured out a way to do it for trichloroethene in ground water using bimetallic (gold and palladium) nano-particles. One question, has anyone figured out that gold and palladium are expensive (worth their weight it, ahem, gold. and then some) and that making them into nano sized particles is also expensive, and that it might just be cheaper to NOT POLLUTE IN THE FIRST PLACE. oh well.

a second helping today

Some more stuff going on in the world:

Effort to Identify the 9/11/2001 victims is put on permanent hold. I say permanent hold because they are officially stopping but if new technology becomes available they will start again. Almost half the victims have not been 'found'.

the article

More on bird flu. The US thinks it is ready. I am not an expert but everything in history and the history of the united states tells me we are no where near ready.
Also there is a meeting going on in Vietnam of all places regarding the bird flu.


Score one for the public in the fight to download and use and copy TV shows. It happens to be the only area of media where I condone the act of copying it and sharing it on the web.

Speaking of recording TV Tivo or someone with an interest in tivo is floating a nice rumor that apple will buy them out. In my personal and useless opinion, this is a very bad idea. The company has no propriatary equipment or technology that apple can use (that I can see) it is far better for apple to create a system similar to Myth TV and sell the hardware based on a modified mac-mini than to try to incorporate the Tivo equipment and services. I was finally happy with how my apple stock was working..... oh well.

a quick discussion on sharing photos online

thats all for now.

attenpting this with word as an html editor

and it failed, so now I am fixing the links.... again

Toys,
yet another area being destroyed by walmart, or at least that’s what the
nytimes (free reg, blah blah) would have you believe. Personally I think its big media and not walmart that is killing the toy industry. Some time ago toys were innovative fun, that allowed kids to expand their imagination and explore whole new fictional worlds. No longer. Now they are all electronic: press this button to make it glow, that button to make it talk. This toy draws for you, that one sings for you, the other makes candy. Its no wonder that FAO Schwartz, once the purveryor of unusual and amazing one of a kind toys, went bankrupt trying to compete with
ToysRus. Hell, Toys R Us is now up for sale too, even they could not make a living selling mass toys to the masses. In truth, with marketing and advertising telling kids what they want and pushing parents to buy “THIS AND ONLY THIS” toy, the natural successor to the toy sales kingdom will be major stores that sell the one popular toy, and make most of their living with other products. Kinda like Target and Walmart. So in my humble opinion, it is not Target and Walmart that are destroying the Toy industry, it is TV and marketing that are forcing an evolution, for which Target and Walmart of the fittest of the pack. There is one upside. Specialty stores, that have truly special toys will become profitable again. As the market thins and toys are reduced to the 30 or so that are popular being sold at major chains, the corner toy store with the model airplanes, wood trains, china dolls and amazing odds and ends will again pull stand out from the crowd and make money, jut not millions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/business/23toys.html?adxnnl=1&8hpib=&adxnnlx=1109163866-UqecCTnCtMLmBdoZHzj2bg

A minor note in the war for retirement. I ‘linked’ (with varying degrees of success) to something on this subject in the past. Here is an article on how that war is being fought and why.

http://nytimes.com/2005/02/23/politics/23social.html?hp&ex=1109221200&en=9fc1fd2c9ca9a83a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Interesting footnote in the history of money making more money. I read about these guys some time ago, and the article back then said a similar thing to this article but from the other side. It said that the only way this company will do well is if it can get people to sign on and trade through it, which only happens if they have people to trade with already signed on. This article says that “trade begets
trade” making this a growing position…. If it grows.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/business/23place.html

Got a cold? Ever had the flu? This might be worse. The last time there was a bird flu pandemic (1918) LOTS of people were unhappy…well, mostly not so much unhappy as simply dead. I can’t seem to find it right now but somewhere out there on the web is an article on how the current form of bird flu has some very un-flu-like symptoms like diarrhea and bloody stool, making early diagnosis harder. Who thinks (like me) that no one is going to be prepared should this thing actually start human hopping round the globe? Three articles for your perusal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4289637.stm

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=azasfozX01xw&refer=asia

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7024

Sean Connery seems to not be the best neighbor in the world. Wonder if its true….

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4289747.stm

A few things: 1) I should really group these articles according to subject. 2) is it my imagination or has the far east still not recovered from the LAST time word leaked out and the bottom fell from the Japanese banks that owned lots of land making all of east Asia work hard to recover from money gone up in a puff of nothing ness? 3) this might be the first in a long line of warning signs that the US is sliding out of the world leadership spot just as England, France, Spain and Rome before it…. Or it could be like the 40^th such hint that will be noted in 100 years when we look back and smack our foreheads and say WTF?

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=7711847

YOU MUST ENJOY THAT um… THING … YOU ARE EATING! New research…. Quick, forget everything you knew and start again based on this. Does this mean that if I enjoy it, ice cream is good for me? Not quite.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2005/02/22/forgetting_to_enjoy_food_may_be_unhealthy/

Really cool new bit of software. But can it understand my pointless yammering or will that set it back in its learning? What if it goes web crawling and hits a huge set of leat speak sites…. Will that really mess it up?

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7054

Cool new toy, just one thing, I have not a single Bluetooth enabled device.

http://www.abe-hk.com/english/products/cassette/cassette.htm

HAHAHAHAHA,
bout time someone smacked them for bad business practices. They will fight it, but they shouldn’t. they should use this as a PR coup. Stand up, say “sorry” and then both stop the practice and declaire a sale on all ink cartridges for the next week…. People will buy up ink like crazy, lose it all before they need it, and have
good feelings towards HP. But no, they will fight and fight…

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=1&u=/nm/20050222/tc_nm/tech_hp_printers_dc

If this works it will make chips a LOT cheaper. I hope it works out.

http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/news/2005/2005_02_14_error.htm



Ah, one of my favorite discussions: Pollution and the environment. Our lovely President (honor to the office, even if you don’t like the office holder.) is hell bent
on making current energy companies more profitable. Time and again a sitting president or congress has tried to use protectionism instead of open market competitiveness or research/development/advancement to give US companies an edge. Once upon a time the US was a world leader in international shipping. Then east Asian shipping companies started showing up with newer ships that cut cost and time to move goods world wide. In an attempt to help existing US companies compete the government made high tarrifs for anyone bringing goods into the US on non-US ships. It didn’t work, and now America has less than 3% of world wide shipping business. Had the government given low interest loans to ship owners and shipyards to help upgrade their systems, had America simply stayed out of it and allowed market forces to work their way through and remove the dead wood allowing the stronger US shippers to expand and buy new equipment…. Had the aliens showed up at that time and given everyone wings. Well now we do it again, tis time with coal burning power plants. Rather than clean them up NOW, we allow them to wallow and we will pay for it tomorrow. Note the last link, for the discover magazine, it talks
about mercury poisoning, and guess what puts out more mercury then any other source… you got it, coal fired power plants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/18/politics/18environ.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/politics/17enviro.html

http://www.discover.com/issues/mar-05/features/our-preferred-poison/

blogging so far a faliure

so far my blogging technique is a complete faliure.
takes too long, links don't work, and no one who reads it has anything good to say.

oh well, not my problem.

interesting thing just came to my attention, they have finally built the better roach trap.
roach calogne

trying this ne with word, wonder if the links will work

For the sheer fun of it I am writing this mornings post in word. I want to see if A) better spelling will be appreciated and B) if I can automate the creation of links as I seem to have messed them up before.

First off I would like to note that I tried reading my news via RSS this morning and found it to be an utter failure. I am a very visual person and the lack of sub-headlines, pictures, and other bits made it harder to glean understanding. I read my first group of sites (mac related) from rss and found it took a very long time to do, then I read my second group (news and science related) on the web as I usually do and zipped right through. I guess I am too … stupid? Slow? whatever to utilize RSS properly.

And I hate word’s grammar checker.


So those of you women out there that fight with your husbands…. apparently its good for your heart and other organs. Those of you husbands whose wives fight with you, not only will she make you angry while your alive and give you an ulcer and make you feel guilty over the fight and make you spend money on flowers to make up for the fight…. All that fighting will make her live longer which means if your long lived more fighting and if your not she gets the last word no matter how right you were. Details are here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4274821.stm (for the record, I don’t actually see marriage as a series of fights, but I think the concept is funny as long as its not true).

The Brits think Americans are nuts for the size of the average American car. My British cousin came to visit one time and I told her I would pick her up and would be driving a small green car. It was my mom’s Chevy cavalier (long time ago) and when I did pick up my cousin she said “hat happened to the small car?” The other car in the family was a Taurus, a full size sedan. My cousin thought that was huge. So our obsession with SUVs, which I am not a fan of, makes the Brits think we have finally gone round the bend. And to prove it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4276969.stm

This hack is for my good friend shaun who is convinced that the amiga was ahead of its time and amazing and so worth it and such a shame it disapeered. I think hes nuts ont his account. But that’s just me. http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000230032274/

I got this one off boingboing. It’s a scary thought that so many people are not prepaired for retirement and already over 50. I myself would not even have ten cents saved if it were not for my wife who thinks ahead and has made certain we have some money put away. Now, will I use it for retirement, college tuition for the kid(s), or that Mini Cooper I want so bad……. http://whatretirement.typepad.com/what_retirement/

Earlier some of my friends were discussing the best comics of all time, and then I found this (also from boingboing I think) http://www.moccany.org/nowthen/

Knowing a bit about Pittsburgh I find this very funny http://www.basketofpittsburgh.com/ because there is not much in Pittsburgh I would want in a basket let alone to eat. Hell Pittsburgh is famous as a steel town, and famous in the history/geography books as the only steel town that had neither ore nor coal nor anything else necessary for the creation of steel. (it has three rivers which made moving ore and coal and other stuff easy, that’s how it became a steel town.)

That’s all for now.

this mornings read

Every morning i read a wide range of silly information, normally I bug the hell out of my friends with what i think is the most interesting of what i read. yesterday, one of my friends who has a great deal of influence over my thought processesesses suggested that i stop bugging him and instead blog my morning read, that way he can RSS it. I pointed out that RSSing is for the lazy.... and now I am going to blog it all anyway to see how it goes.

Item one, yet another reason to drink coffee. I am a big coffee fan, but not one who believes that caffiene is all good. Like any drug it has its good and bad sides. plus I really like the taste and activity of drinking coffee. anyway, beyond being somehow good for your heart, attention span, stress levels, and cancer risk in general, it has now been shown as ... well just read it: coffee

next up, we have chocolate. Another wonder food, this one gives us things like drugs and temporary happiness and obesity and diabetes and some say zits though the docs say that aint true. now it also seems to be good for your heart....
CHOCOLATE

Onto things that have personal signifigance for reasons I will not discuss cause they are personal and I do not discuss my personal life on live web pages anymore (see first post).

KYOTO: President Bush is still refusing to see the thermometer, or rather he sees it he just does not want to admit what is making it go up. here are some articles on the kyoto protocol coming into effect.
from china daily (no promises on respectability or truth in this one, I do not know the publication at all) and the jappan times (same disclaimer) and the independent which I know alredy is a bush hating rag that does not ususally check facts too losely if it might hurt the story and thats it on that for the moment.

Next up science:

Have you had your 40 year oil change... er ... blood change yet? it seems that 'young blood' makes all the diffarence aging and the aility to heal may be closely attached to our second largest 'organ'. Blood.

the usual doom and gloom warnings about bird flu. not that i would EVER want any human to suffer or die, but sometimes it seems that removing ttwo thirds of the planets population might not be a terrable idea.... maybe we can ship them to the moon. Make space for nature here and terraform there.

GADGETS:

two sites I like and now read are gizmag which i just found today and has a startling array of interesting and amazing and some silly gizmo type stories ranging from a two day log cabin building class to several concepts in personal mobility(cars, bikes, flyers, hovercrafts, you name it) to TVs that are rediculouse and ...well.. cool.

also I like the hack a day web site which gives real world items to build yourself, some useful, some not, most dangerouse like the linear excelerator gun.

ODD NEWS:

EXCORCISM CLASSES! woohoo! I have been waiting so long for these! I have a toaster that speaks in tounges, a microwave that burns a picture of the anti-christ into anything I heat, and computer with a worn out case fan (check the early days of the PVP comic strip).

And this one belongs in both the odd news and the gadget group. its a car that is half the size of the mini cooper. built just for small people and not for Jack(you either get it or you don't). smart car mini thingy oddly enough there was a pick of it on the front page of the chicago tribune website but not in the story. odd that...

ok, enjoy.
tell me how the rssing goes you lazy bums.

mwar movies and john wayne

how did he end up being called "the duke"?

we were discussing the best or favorite war movies of all time... I suggested the seven samurai even though its more of a battle movie than a war.

heres the trailor:
7S Trailor

anyone got another unusual favorite?

personally I would like to see cryptonomicon made into a movie or miniseries.
that or the book hideyoshi (know what that is? extra points if you do).

google shopping and wish lists

this might one day be useful but i doubt it.... too many place already offer this and THOSE places actually sell the items.....
heres mine anyway
froogle wish/shopping list

My first post

Pontless Yammering!

I thought about a meaningful name for my blog, i thought about a pointed barb as the name of my blog, I thought about a quote from a favorite or hated author.... philosopher.... professor.... or political figure. Then I thought about all of it and realised that it all had one thing in common, it was all pointless.

and thats the name of my blog.

My expectations from this:
few. I don't expet anyoen to red this but hopefully soemthing I say will one day show up somewhere useful for ten seconds.

The readers expectations:
gads i hope you have none. I cannot spell and cannot be bothered with proper grammar or punctuation.... logic use is questionable but never questioned and theories are rambling and ...well.... pointless. If you still have any expectations after that, I have a bridge to sell you.

I have a small problem posting things on a blog or web site. Anything posted publicly online is likely to get googled/read/cached/misused. I have already elarned my lesson when someone called me at home to ask about some personal item they had read on my web site. No more personal stuff online for me. So why am I writing a blog?