Student punished for spaghetti beliefs | Metro.co.uk - Arrr..

 

Bryan Killian says that he follows the Pastafarian religion, and that as a crucial part of his faith, he must wear 'full pirate regalia' as prescribed in the holy texts of Pastafarianism.

Source: Student punished for spaghetti beliefs | Metro.co.uk

"Most Valuable Marketing Blogs 2007

Here's a list of the 32 most valuable blogs in the advertising world according to Joseph Jaffe's readers:

1. Logic + Emotion - http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/
2. Russel Davies - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/
3. “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots” - http://www.fightthebull.com/blog/
4. “Eggs, Bacon, Chips & Beans” - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/
5. Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
6. Jaffe Juice - http://feeds.feedburner.com/jaffejuice
7. Cool Hunting – http://www.coolhunting.com/
8. NussbaumOnDesign - ???
9. Beyond Madison Avenue - http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/
10. Wired – http://blog.wired.com/
11. Adverlab – http://adverlab.blogspot.com/
12. BrandAutopsy - http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/
13. Gaping Void - http://www.gapingvoid.com/
14. Hello_World - http://missinglink.typepad.com/hello_world/
15. Mark Cuban - http://www.blogmaverick.com/
16. SpringWise - http://www.springwise.com/
17. PSFK - http://www.psfk.com
18. Adliterate by Richard Huntington - http://www.adliterate.com/
19. http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/
20. http://conversationagent.typepad.com/
21. http://blog.creativethink.com/
22. http://www.scottweisbrod.com/index.php/
23. http://www.micropersuasion.com
24. http://www.toprankblog.com
25. http://www.pronetadvertising.com
26. Where’s The Sausage - http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/
27. Branding Strategy Insider - http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/
28. http://www.ck-blog.com/
29. http://powrightbetweentheeyes.typepad.com/
30. Church of the Consumer - http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/
31. Modern Life is Rubbish - http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/
32. radical Trust - http://www.radicaltrust.ca

27 Marbles Training - Creativity Explained

A friend of mine asked me to publish a link announcing her new business venture. Here you go Leslie...

27 Marbles Training is the insider’s go-to training company for highly effective workshops that deliver a-ha moments to advertising, marketing and related creative industry professionals – and ultimately provide your organization with a true competitive edge.

I'm sure it will be as successful as she is, and I am glad she is teaching others her craft. Leslie is one of the most creative people I know, and has done some really wild things... how many people can say they hosted a television show, was a director at a successful advertising agency, travelled the world, and sang in a movie or two...

Here's a sample course outline from a recent class.

Her business partner, Joan McArthur, helped to pitch (and win) Oglivy's advertising campaign for Microsoft, presenting directly to Bill Gates. Here is

an interesting bio on her... And some comments from another blogger who spent some time with Gates on March 6, 2007 talking about the future of creativity in advertising.

Given a long enough timeframe … all mass ads will be targeted to individuals.
-- Bill Gates, March 6, 2007.

I wonder if Bill means by using his Smart Watch.

Here's a link to the 27 Marbles web site, or contact her at info@27marbles.com to request some one-on-one...

http://www.27marbles.com/

I hope the two of them start a blog - I'm sure they have many interesting stories to tell.

It's who you know, and who knows you

Wild article from May, 2007 issue of Fast Company on how Facebook originated and where it might be going.

Thefacebook.com, as it was originally called, launched on February 4, 2004. Within two weeks, half the Harvard student body had signed up. Before long, it was up to two-thirds. Zuckerberg's roommates, Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, joined in, helping to add features and run the site using a shared hosting service that cost $85 a month. Students from other colleges began approaching them, asking for online face books of their own. So the trio carved out new areas on the site for places like Stanford and Yale. By May, 30 schools were included, and banner- type ads for student events and college-oriented businesses had brought in a few thousand dollars.

Source: Hacker. Dropout. CEO. - Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook - Social Networking

 

When I was in school, I was the first person to setup a game on the school's network that many people could play at once.  I'm afraid it probably cost a lot of people their semester.  The game was called Doom.

Before this I had set up IRC (the first massive chat system) & MUDs (highly addictive multiuser dungeons, think text-based World of Warcraft) on the network.  It was amazing how quickly people found out about these things and how they spread, and how empty computer labs filled up at 3 in the morning with people chatting on IRC.

Ironically, one of the most popular global groups started on Facebook was Students against Facebook News Feed.

In less than 48 hours, 700,000 people had joined the protest, and the blogosphere declared it the end of Facebook. News crews camped outside the Facebook offices, as if a bald Britney Spears were being held captive inside.

Their news feed supposedly distributes more 'news' in 1 day then in the history of conventional media.

Facebooks biggest advertiser? Microsoft.

Esperance bird deaths caused by lead?

 More on the continuing investigation as to why the skies have become eerily quiet after over 4000 birds died in an area of Australia.

Mining and other industries are other sources of lead in the environment. While some of the largest sources of lead pollution – leaded gasoline and lead in paint – have been phased out, lead continues to be mined, processed and transported. Recently, accidental and undetected release of a lead compound during shipping has been suggested as the possible cause of an extensive die-off of wild birds in Esperance, Australia. Such incidents remind us that the fates of birds can be a mirror of human fortunes: lead that is killing birds may be poisoning people and other animals as well. We need to pay close attention.

Source: Lead Poisoning in Birds: How and Why Birds Die from Lead Poisoning

New York Auto Show: Roadster gets 600 HP from lithium - Autoblog

 

Watching a car burning off an inch or two of rear rubber in almost dead silence is eerily unnatural.

Source: New York Auto Show: Roadster gets 600 HP from lithium - Autoblog

Wow. Martin swims the Amazon.

Martin’s health took a turn for the worse last evening as he struggled with dizziness, vertigo, blood pressure jumping off the charts, diarrhea, nausea, and delirium. Despite having difficulty standing and being ordered by the doctor not to swim, Martin is obsessed with making it to Belem, and insisted on night swimming.

Martin fended off disease, dehydration, whitewater, weather, pirates, piranhas, and lost contact with his crew at one point.

He made it to Belem after 5,268KM of swimming, breaking his own world record.

I will make a toast tonight for Martin, to the Piranha I brought back from Brazil.  That is, if my wife hasn't thrown out the disgusting-looking thing like she is always threatening to.

 

Here's Martin looking like he's a character in Pink Floyd's The Wall, or maybe the Invisible Man.

 

Sign Martin's guestbook.

http://guestbook.martinstrel.com/index.php?L=2

Google Maps - Draw on it!

 

Google just launched a facility to draw and annotate on Google Maps.

Great for sending directions or tracking your vacation.

Link to Google Maps

Petoria down under

Did you know that there is a country within Australia?  It's called the Hutt River Province, and it has a Prince, who is also a farmer.

Declaration of war.

Fine strategist, this patient and peaceful Prince, decided that he had enough of the pressures  and harassments from  the Administration and abruptly declared war to Australia.

The geographic situation of the Principality of Hutt River Province, distant of less than 70 km from Geralton's military base, was making the challenge hazardous.

A simple police action would have been enough to put an end to the extraordinary adventure of the CASLEY Family, and to some other families wich followed him.

Nevertheless, on December 2, 1977, the Principality declared very officially war to the powerful Australia. The Australian Authorities ignored magnificently what they took for a bragging.

On the other hand, the Press, more attentive and maybe more amused, once again marked its sympathy for the small Principality.

Some days later, Prince Leonard notified the Governor General of Australia on the cessation of "hostilities".

The Principality overcame the conflict with Australia, what was quite interesting on the legal point of view.

Indeed, international law stipulates that sovereignty is automatically acquired for a country which gets out of a conflict unhurt.

Source: History of  Hutt River Province

There's no new news since December, 2005.  Hopefully they made it through 2006 unscathed.

The territory is approximately the same size as Hong Kong, but with 13,000 people (worldwide) instead of 7 million.

After succession in 1970, a drama unfolded when Prince Regent took over most commercial operations.  Throughout the 80's and early 90's, stamps, coins, and knighthoods were issued by the Prince.  There was even an attempt to overthrow Prince Leonard and found a new kingdom on a Pacific Island. (tax haven, anyone?)

See the Wiki article for more info.  Anyone know how to get citizenship for this country?

The Australian government generally appears to avoid any legal challenge to the HRP. While HRP builds its own buildings (without any Australian government approval), offers company registrations, car licences, sells coinage, philately and even runs its own University, many of these activities would seemingly draw the ire of the Australian government on any Australian citizen. However the Australian government has so far not interfered with HRP sovereignty in these matters, and appears to avoid any legal stoush with the HRP

I wonder what emissions standards they have there?

Here's a link to some coins and stamps available from Hutt River.

Ask Pud: April Fools

Apparently Pud didn't sell his web site... or did he.

Many people were confused... if this were an April fools joke, how did we get Wired, Valleywag, and others to play along days before the joke? And with everyone saying FC and Techcrunch should belong together anyway, is it really that funny?
Anyway, odd timing, sort of a clusterfuck, but nobody got hurt. Except maybe all the people who fell for it.

Source: Ask Pud: April Fools

Problogger - 30 steps to a good blog

 

The Problem: Who reads this stuff anyway?

The Solution: Make it readable.

Present a Problem, The Solution, and The Results: Don’t present a solution before the reader understands there is a problem. Present the problem, give us the solution, and then lead us through the results and the benefits of the results. When readers follow along with the process, they better understand how it works and why it works for themselves.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/04/02/blogging-is-about-writing/

Ask Pud: Life in general

There are two types of haters you'll encounter.

1. People who are jealous of your drive and possible success, and make themselves feel better by beating you down.
2. People who are so conservative and afraid to take risks, that they just can't understand your logic and figure there must be something wrong with you.

I'm not saying you should drop your friends, but you should try to surround yourself with like-minded peers -- people who will think what you're doing is awesome and will root for you.

Source: Ask Pud: Life in general

Pud sold his web site to Techcrunch for 1.3 BILLION dollars. (or maybe just some stock and a cow bell for his drum set.).

Consumption Junction, what's your function?

As unobtrusive as a small electric clock, the PowerCost Monitor™ is a powerful real-time direct feedback display device for domestic energy consumers. It tells them at a glance, in real-time, how much electricity their home is using in dollars and cents and in kW.

Source: Blue Line Innovations

Save money & save the environment with this $150 gadget that will tell you how much power your electronics are drawing.

Google Notebook & Microsoft OneNote

Google launched a tool called Notebook last year which is similar to a scaled-down web-enabled version of Microsoft OneNote, less the ink.

If you are looking for a quick, free, and useful tool to track notes from a browser, this is it.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/note-this.html

If you're looking for the best tool to track notes, journal your day, research & documentation  from your desktop then get Microsoft OneNote.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/default.aspx

Toronto Real Estate Wealth Expo

Last weekend I attended Trump's wealth expo organized by Learning Annex. I have attended some pretty amazing events with them in the past (speakers including Lance Armstrong, Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson) and this one, though mostly one big infomercial, had it's pluses and reinforced many of the things I have read about selling, psychology and finance.

There's quite a few postings about the disappointment people felt after attending these events.

• I grew tired of all the “happy go lucky” types.
• All the speakers pretty much told me things I pretty much already knew: buy low, sell high (brilliant)
• One guy pointed to a curve illustrating when to buy a stock (the lowest point of the curve).
• When to sell the stock (the highest point of the curve). I’m going to be rich now
  I almost smacked the person next to me, when they actually wrote that down — maybe some peopledo need help
• I went back on Sunday, late in the day because I can only take so much idiocracy. I toned down my attitude a bit because I realize a lot of people were buying their packages.
• One woman sitting next to me just loved James Ray (the Secret). She was yelling positive re-enforcementsback at him when he was giving his speech — I felt out of place.
• I felt a lot of folks there were willing to try anything to be successful.
• I felt that a lot of people were victimized this past weekend.

http://www.wealthjunkie.com/2005/11/10/should-you-waste-your-money-on-the-learning-annex-real-estate-wealth-expo-one-reader-says-no-way/

I caught myself writing down 'get out of debt' with everyone else before I stopped. For $50, I thought it was an interesting way to spend the weekend. If I had to pay for a hotel or any travel costs, or full price for the ticket it probably would not be something I'd do unless I personally knew someone speaking at the event. Take it with a grain of salt - there's no free ride to getting wealthy and buying someone else's training course probably won't do it.

Out of all the speakers I listened to this weekend, there were a couple of standouts:

• Tony Robbins, an incredibly motivational guy - he is _the_ motivational speaker to listen to, and knows how to hypnotize a huge audience. If it was a hundred years ago, he would be speaking in tents and throwing snakes around. If I had $1 million I would probably go to his training course in Tahiti to kill a weekend.
• Bill Bartmann, the billionaire you never heard of, who started his billion-dollar business from his kitchen with $13,000. (which he borrowed from a bank where he already owed $1m, to start a debt-collection agency). I saw him twice. If you want your kid to become a billionaire, make sure his first name is Bill and his last name starts with a B. Bill's selling a Billionaire Mentoring Program, and is a bit late in getting his reality TV show off the ground. You can sign up for his free evening seminar here. A review is here. He said that he'll be organizing a free concert event for 50,000 students at the Rogers Centre to combat drug and alchoholism abuse. Note to Bill, get rid of those extra exclamation marks and the announcer on your web site. NOW IS THE TIME!!!

And more than a few other "characters":

• Don Burnham, who spoke like someone out of the Sopranos but was signing $1000 training contracts like he was signing autographs. Don't you want to get rich? Fuggeddaboutit.
• The Secret is.... don't watch the secret. I walked out after they started rehashing Tony Robbins' meet-and-greet tactics. blech.
• Free Money from the Government's Chris Johnson, who almost caused a stampede by offering his training materials for free to the first couple of people who rushed to the back.
• Real Free Money from Robert Shemin, who was handing out $80-$100 to people who put up their hand. His was an interesting seminar, since many of the previous speakers, whom he called his mentors, attended, including..
• Dr. Al Lowry. He's 82, looks 62, and shows how working hard and having fun can extend your life.
• Raymond Aaron. He's 61 (I think), lives in Richmond Hill, and has an ego bigger than his paycheque, though it seems to be working for him. The mind can do some interesting things, and his convinced himself to do a 350-mile footrace to the North Pole next week. All the best Raymond, and bring lots of warm socks.

Plus, using his own innovative techniques developed over the last two decades, he shows you how to—step-by-step—take conscious control of your world so you can double, triple, even quadruple your income doing what you love to do.

What if I want to quintuple my income. Guess I'm out of luck with his program. I think to become a millionaire I need to at least tredecaple it.

The surprise for me was Harry Stinson, the condo guy of 1 King West in Toronto. He was probably the most down-to-earth of the bunch, and really spoke out about what he believed in and how others could do what he has done to succeed. He is on his way to billionaire status, just two or more bankruptcies and he'll be there.

This week, Mr. Trump declared he wished all of his competitors were like Mr. Stinson, who he alleged "was talking about how he was going to beat me and then he went bust."
Mr. Stinson fired off his own response, pointing out that Toronto's Trump Tower looks "like a parking lot ... My condo-hotel at One King West is full tonight, by the way."

When Tony Robbins was speaking, he showed how a 'demotivational' speaker would walk into a room (shoulders down, head to the floor, "Don't Worry, be Happy" playing) and how a motivational speaker would (head raised, fist pumping, techno music). Harry was walking in to Bobby Mcferrin, though he did admit he wasn't a trained speaker as he read his notes. You could tell that he spent some time getting ready for the event, and even cracked a few jokes at Trump's expense. (tallest nonexistant building in Toronto? Here's your nonexistant award.)

So to me, $50 to attend was better than $50 to go to dinner & the movies (or maybe just the movies nowadays). I'm not rich yet, so I guess I'll probably have to go again next year.

Brohans Video Blog » Blog Archive » VIDEOS: Family Guy Celebrity Cameos from A to Z

 

Link to Brohans Video Blog » Blog Archive » VIDEOS: Family Guy Celebrity Cameos from A to Z

Banknotes.com - Introduction to Collecting of World Banknotes - Currencies of the World

Interesting to note that paper money was introduced because of emergency shortages in coins and metal money. 

When Marco Polo came back from his travels in China (1275-1292), people in Europe didn't believe that the Chinese used paper for money. Paper money in Europe came 300 years later. The use of paper money in China stopped in 1455.

The history of paper money in Europe is interesting. It started as emergency money sustituting for regular money. The first emergency paper bills are from 1483. The first bank notes were printed in the 17th century.

Source: Banknotes.com - Introduction to Collecting of World Banknotes - Currencies of the World

 

Similar to Income Tax, which was collected as a "temporary" wartime measure, and now dominates most fundraising activities by governments.

Of course, there are glitches in the automated tax collection systems from time to time.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) system went down sometime Sunday night or Monday morning and, "We have now traced the source of the problem to software maintenance conducted on March 4, 2007," says a CRA statement. "We are currently working to bring all systems back online gradually."

Source: P2P.NET

This could potentially cost the government, it's employees, and the Canadian economy millions.  The government will lose interest on unpaid taxes.  If nobody gets their refund on time, consumers will be less inclined to purchase items that are non-essential, like plasma TVs or iPods.  RRSP loan borrowers will have to float their loans longer, which may cause some borrowers to default on payments.

Last year the government processed almost 25 million individual and 1.7 million corporate returns, returning $18 billion dollars.  That's over 49 million dollars a day.  Not to mention the cost to H&R Block and other tax professionals who no longer have a way to quickly skim a percent or more off your instant return.  Moneymart & RentCash should be doing well right now...

Whatever happened to backups & mirrored systems?  If this were a bank machine being down for more than 5 days, how many CIOs would last through that one?

On another note, mortgage rates appear to be on the rise.  Here's one way to make your house tax-deductible to offset the pain a bit.

The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff | The Free Geek

 

The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff

Whoever it was that said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch," didn't know about the Internet. There are a lot of free things online, and a lot of it is actually legitimate and valuable. Better yet, many of them won't spam you with additional offers unless you've okayed it.

There are also offline ways to get free stuff, most of which you don't have to pay anything for, or very little (taxes, shipping). So here's our list of ways to get free junk or links to other lists. Most of what's here should appeal to the geek, and since most geeks still drink, eat and bathe, there are some freebies listed in that vein.

Source: The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff | The Free Geek

Carbonmade

 Carbonmade is a site to display your art portfolios, and will shortly be hosted on the ever-expanding Amazon S3 service.  There are some amazing artists here.

I like the way the payment plans are broken out.  I'll pick meh...

Whoo! is our pro plan. For only $12/month you get 50 projects with up to 500 hi-res images and 10 high quality videos.

 

 

Meh. is our free plan. It doesn't cost you a thing and you get 5 projects with 35 images.

Source: Carbonmade: Create an account

Canada's web conference - Toronto, May 30th and 31st, 2007

 

connect

Canada's premier Web conference, being held in Toronto on May 30th & 31st, 2007, is a chance to connect with people who are as excited about the potential of the Web as you are – people who want to know more about how it is changing the way we live, work and interact with the world. And you won't just connect with them in the hallways – at mesh, every panel and workshop is interactive.

Source: Canada's web conference - Toronto, May 30th and 31st, 2007

ScrewAttack - Angry Video Game Nerd: Atari 5200

One of my first video game systems, after my Intellivision, was the Atari 5200, the horribly mutated big brother of the 2600.

Between the 2600 & 7800 was the worst Atari system ever made, but with better graphics than the 2600.   To give an idea of how bad, the Atari 7800 was backwards compatible with the 2600, but not the 5200!  Talk about killing the upgrade path. 

Some of the not-so-memorable games were Jungle Hunt, Centipede, Joust, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, and my favourite, Congo Bongo.  And if you got sick of the 15 games made for the system, you could get the VCS cartridge adapter to play 2600 games - for only $15 more than an Atari 2600.

Here's a positive(ly funny) review on the worst system ever made.

Link to ScrewAttack - Angry Video Game Nerd: Atari 5200

Here's a link to the emulator if you want to bring your computer down to the level of a 5200.

Atariage

Or just buy the thing on e-Bay for $4.99, and pay $200 for shipping the 200 lb bohemith. 

This auction is for a Atari 5200 game console only. It appears to be in good shape it does show wear and scratches from use. I was not able to test it so I am selling it "as is". The game Frogger is in the console but it has no original tag and someone just wrote with masking tape "frogger" so I am not positive if that is the game for sure.

Be sure you're running it on a separate circuit breaker.  Buy lots of extra joysticks.  On second hand, for $4.99 you'll probably get a cardboard box with a hand-drawn Atari logo on it and a Tupperware lid with frogger-labelled masking tape, so don't bother.

Shaving a religion?

My barber is one of the few in Toronto that

still uses a straight razor. 

"Once these guys realize they can switch and in most cases alleviate those skin problems, some of them are almost in tears. It has actually changed some people's lives," Lubrano said.

Joel Ferman also converted because he was "absolutely miserable," his skin red and irritated. He has become a collector in his quest to try blades, and now owns 150 straight razors.

He also runs BadgerAndBlade.com, the largest online forum for wet shaving. After a year in operation, the site gets 200,000 to 300,000 hits per day, Ferman said.

The forum has helped foster a subculture of straight-razor enthusiasts that sometimes borders on religious.

Source: The lure of the straight razor

 

More tips.

Shave after your shower or soften your whiskers with a hot, wet towel for a minute or two before getting started. Apply shaving cream.

Angle the blade 30 degrees away from the face. NEVER slice it across your skin, and try not to use pressure. Also, watch your fingers.

When you're done, dry off the blade with a few strokes on the leather or by stropping it lightly a few times on a towel. Rinse your face with cold water and apply a gentle after-shave appropriate for your skin.

For more information

www.badgerandblade.com

www.classicshaving.com

www.straightrazorplace.com

www.uniclectica.com/conserva/ razor1.html

Coding Horror: The cost of leaving your PC on

 

So leaving my server on is costing me $200 / year, or $16.68 per month. My home theater PC is a bit more frugal at 65 watts. Using the same formulas, that costs me $81 / year or $6.75 per month.

So, how can you reduce the power draw of the PCs you leave on 24/7?

Source: Coding Horror: The cost of leaving your PC on

Google's response to Youtube video ban

Is Google's response to the video ban on Youtube to add torrents to search results?

Web
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,630,000 for crooked 2006. (0.36 seconds) 

Tip: Search for English results only. You can specify your search language in Preferences

fenopy.com/torrent/Crooked_2006_LIMITED_DVDSCR_Xvi...

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www.torrentz.com/c29d1daf2e79c1cc744529d0e787370e7...

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Skandia Cowes Week 2007 - Welcome

When seven yachts signed up for the first organised yacht race at Cowes on 10th August 1826, it is unlikely anyone envisaged that this would become the annual world-class yachting event that we now know as Skandia Cowes Week. With over 1,000 yachts and 8,500 competitors taking part in some very challenging first-class sailing, the Event attracts a wide range of local, national and international entrants, from true amateurs to Olympic and World champions.

Source: Skandia Cowes Week 2007 - Welcome

 

I want to go to this event one year.  Last year we didn't get to make it to the Isle of Wight due to an unfortunate car mishap.  Maybe next year...

This event was also the cause for creating the only 2nd production app launched for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), the new technology launched by Microsoft and embedded in Windows Vista.

Of course, MS doesn't exaggerate their case studies (!) but here is a good quote on how long it took them to build this new app.

Cut Development Time from Months to Days

After developing version 1.0, Middlemiss needed a faster way to build its successor. He got it with the new technologies in Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and Windows Presentation Foundation, along with the XAML-based tool Expression Blend. Using these technologies, Middlemiss created the rendering engine—which had taken three months to develop the year before—in a weekend.

Open Culture: Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

Here is a quick "lifehack" for you. You can now learn foreign languages and stay current on politics all at once. How so?  By taking advantage of a smart podcast concept being used by French and German broadcasters. (See our complete collection of foreign language lesson podcasts.) Radio France Internationale (RFI) issues a daily podcast called Le Journal en français facile (iTunes - feed - web site), which delivers the nightly international news in slow and easy-to-understand French. Along the same lines, the German media company Deutsche Welle (which puts out many great language and music podcasts) also has its own nightly news program — Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten (iTunes - feed - web site). It's essentially the same concept: informative news presented in very simple German, and, in this case, it's spoken very slowly.

Now, what's very nice about these programs is that they also provide a written transcript of the spoken word. So you can read along as you listen and make sure that you're really comprehending. (See transcripts in French and German). Even cooler, with the German version, if you have a video iPod, you can read the transcript on your little portable screen. (See directions).

Finally, check out this offbeat suggestion sent our way by a reader:  Nuntii Latini (mp3 - web site) is "a weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company."

For more, see Open Culture's complete collection of foreign language lesson podcasts.

Source: Open Culture: Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

Strong Bad invents a new word

Closimonies - (n) the closing ceremonies in the 2007 Strongbadiathon competition.

Homestar Runner games now on the WII

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Homestar_Runner_Games_Now_Available_on_the_Wii

Plus, yet another reason for me to buy Guitar Heroes II.

The Fundamentals Of Retailing - Forbes.com

 

The Fundamentals Of Retailing
Edited by Brett Nelson 01.09.07, 6:00 PM ET

Of all businesses, a retail shop might be the most basic. You buy inventory, mark it up and sell it at a profit. Simple.

Source: The Fundamentals Of Retailing - Forbes.com

Is it the wetsuit?

Over the last year I have read two books on extreme achievements that stick out in my mind, and both revolve around the Amazon. Paddle to the Amazon, by Don Starkell & Amazon Extreme, by Colin Angus & Ian Mulgrew tell true stories about unbelievable travels and achieving the unimaginable.

Paddle to the Amazon documents extreme adventure pioneer Don and his sons as they travel from Winnipeg to Brazil in a canoe in 1980.  Yes, that is Winnipeg, Canada.  Yes, that's over 12,000 miles and two years worth of canoeing.  "With minimal supplies, depending on their wits and the good will of strangers", Don has no sponsor and risks his life (and his son's) to achieve his dream.  Afterwards, Don canoed the Arctic, among other places.

Amazon Extreme is no less an amazing book, as three guys substitute two years worth of canoeing with five months of white-water rafting from the beginning to the end of the Amazon.  In typical To-The-Extreme MTV Generation fashion, without sponsors, with limited planning, an underfunded, undersupplied and unprepared journey was successful.  Even though they almost died hiking to get to the river before they even started.  Guys, especially extreme guys, don't ask for directions.

Now what if any of these guys decided to ditch their boat and just swim?

That would be insane.

Meet Martin Strel.

According to Martin, "As a young boy, I was beaten a lot by my parents and schoolmasters. This no doubt contributed greatly to my ability to ignore pain and endure..."  Evidently this included numerous blows to the head.  He has decided to swim the Amazon, from the start near a mountain in Peru to the finish on the coast of Brazil.

Not that this impossible.  If a piranah can do it, why not Martin?  He has millions in funding.  He swam the Danube river twice, the Mississippi river, the Parana river from Iguazzu Falls to the Rio de la Plata, and recently the toxic, multicoloured Yangtze river in China.  After swimming the biohazard that is Yangtze, he probably has superpowers and webbed feet. 

Swimmer Martin Strel has dedicated this swim to the preservation of the rainforest, to raising awareness for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, and to promoting telemedicine as a valuable tool in bringing modern medicine to remote areas

It is for some great causes, he has tons of sponsorship, lots of world records and Jacques Cousteau's old boat tagging along.  He's gotta do it.

His swim starts February 1st, 2007.  Find out more on his web site.  

Let Us Now Praise Crazy Mofos.

Is it the shoes?

DEAN KARNAZES WAS SLOBBERING DRUNK. IT WAS HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY, and he'd started with beer and moved on to tequila shots at a bar near his home in San Francisco. Now, after midnight, an attractive young woman – not his wife – was hitting on him. This was not the life he'd imagined for himself. He was a corporate hack desperately running the rat race. The company had just bought him a new Lexus. He wanted to vomit. Karnazes resisted the urge and, instead, slipped out the bar's back door and walked the few blocks to his house. On the back porch, he found an old pair of sneakers. He stripped down to his T-shirt and underwear, laced up the shoes, and started running. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

more...

 

I don't think this was the old pair of sneakers he found, but these are what he's wearing now.

 

Buy them here

Live from Macworld 2007: Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget

"There's an old Wayne Gretsky quote I love -- 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it's been.' That's what we try to do at Apple. Thank you very, very much." Huge, huge applause, standing ovation.

Source: Live from Macworld 2007: Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget

 

Sure, the iPhone looks cool, probably works well, and may win a bunch of design awards, but it still isn't as cool as having this:

 

 

The FY8850 cell phone is a fully functional redesigned replica of a 1980's cell phone but with 21st century technology. Features 1980's look and feel complete with huge battery and long external antenna. Includes color LCD screen, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, speaker phone and long battery life. True to its root, this cell phone does not have headset, USB connection or car charger jacks. This phone is unlocked so it can be used with any GSM carrier using 900, 1800 or 1900 frequency bands.

Birds fall from sky over town | NEWS.com.au

 

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.

Source: Birds fall from sky over town | NEWS.com.au

Torontoist: Portrait of the Artist as a Vanishing Library

 

On Saturday, at 401 Richmond's Red Head Gallery, artist Robin Pacific began giving away her entire personal library of 1,670 books in a conceptual art installation called "Shelf Portrait." If you heard about this over the last couple of weeks and it occurred to you that a well-publicized giveaway of free, interesting books in downtown Toronto on a Saturday might draw a bit of a crowd, well, you were right. Torontoist is happy to report that the same thing also occurred to the show's organizers, and they were well prepared for Saturday's mob scene. They distributed tickets with times printed on them -- 50 tickets per half-hour interval -- sparing attendees from having to wait in line all afternoon. (I showed up at 1:30 and snagged a 3:00 ticket.) Pacific also imposed a 4-book-per-person limit, ensuring that the show wasn't cleaned out by the end of the first half-hour.

Source: Torontoist: Portrait of the Artist as a Vanishing Library

MIT OpenCourseWare | Master Course List

 

Departments

• Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Anthropology
• Architecture
• Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation
• Biological Engineering
• Biology
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• Chemical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Comparative Media Studies
• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Engineering Systems Division
• Experimental Study Group
• Foreign Languages and Literatures
• Health Sciences and Technology

• History
• Linguistics and Philosophy
• Literature
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Media Arts and Sciences
• Music and Theater Arts
• Nuclear Science and Engineering
• Physics
• Political Science
• Science, Technology, and Society
• Sloan School of Management
• Special Programs
• Urban Studies and Planning
• Women's Studies
• Writing and Humanistic Studies

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare | Master Course List

52 game ideas

 

Every week in 2006 I posted a new original game idea. If you like, you can read all about the challenge I issued myself. By the end of the year it was quite cumbersome to sift through the site for find them all. So here’s all 52 game ideas in one easy list!

PublicRadioFan.com

 

Welcome to PublicRadioFan.com

PublicRadioFan.com features schedule listings for thousands of public radio stations and programs around the world. Follow the audio links to hear your favorite programs and discover new ones.

Getting started: Set your time zone, then use the main menu in the left column to navigate the site. Station names (with color backgrounds) link to online audio. Follow the  link next to any station or program to search for schedule listings and information. For more help, see our new user info page.

Customizing: You can customize the design of this front page (basic design, advanced design, custom design) and many other settings.

Podcasts: Our public radio podcast directory has grown to over 800 podcasts.

Source: PublicRadioFan.com

wavesmash (n) - this blog's author

wave

(v) : to move back and forth repeatedly; to wave one’s hand in greeting or departure

smash

(v) : to break (something brittle) violently; to hit extremely hard

"the demolition team smashed the buildings to rubble."

A really fast dictionary... fast like a ninja

Tesla's wireless electricity comes to market

http://www.wildcharge.com/solutions.html

WildCharge is the first--and as yet the only company--to provide a universal solution: a solution that actually works for virtually any mobile device. This is ideal for mobile professionals who can now trade in their multiple chargers and adapters for one streamlined package.

Tesla under rug swept

Interesting site (link here) about a 3rd & 4th grade schoolteacher who has provided over $120,000 worth of $6000 busts of Nikola Tesla to various universities, libraries, and institutions... except the Smithsonian.

 

"This is a photograph of our finished bust we offered to the Smithsonian. Dr. Bernard S. Finn, (Curator of the Division of Electricity and Modern Physics) refused us, claiming he had no use for it.

We could not understand why the Smithsonian would have no use for a $6,000 bust of such a great American and eminent scientist."

More info on Tesla at Wikipedia

Merry Christmas

What rolls down stairs
alone or in pairs,
and over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack,
And fits on your back?
It's log, log, log

It's log, it's log,
It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's log, it's log, it's better than bad, it's good."

Everyone wants a log
You're gonna love it, log
Come on and get your log
Everyone needs a log
log log log

*whistle*
LOG FROM BLAMMO

Download of the Day: Any Video Converter

The program supports just about every video format known to man, including AVI, DivX, FLV, RM, and VOB. It also comes with output profiles for devices like the iPod and PSP, though you can easily create a custom profile with the audio and video specs of your choosing.

Not enough fish in the sea

3. What is the state of fishery resources?

3.1 The quantities fished in seas and oceans increased from 1998 to 2000, and stabilized at a slightly lower level since 2001 (84 million tonnes). This slight decrease is mainly due to lower catches in the Southeast and Northwest Pacific, but trends vary greatly between regions. Tuna is the single most important exploited resource in the high seas, particularly in the Pacific Ocean. More...

3.2 In many areas, traditional stocks have been depleted and less valuable species are being targeted by fishers. About half of all monitored stocks are now fully exploited and another quarter are overexploited, depleted, or slowly recovering. The remaining quarter are under- or moderately exploited. Available data leads to the conclusion that the global maximum potential for marine capture fisheries has been reached and that restrictive management measures are needed. More...

3.3 Fishery policies and management have usually focussed on single fishery stocks. Growing concerns about ecosystems have prompted a call for increased research into processes that affect, or are affected by, fisheries. Much more needs to be known about interactions with habitats, aquatic communities, land-based activities, climatic changes, and so on. However, the current state of fishery resources and their ecosystems allows little room for delay in management actions that should have been taken in the last three decades. More...

3.4 Fish stocks in inland waters are more difficult to monitor and very few countries can afford to supply complete data. Inland fishery resources are often undervalued and under threat from unsustainable fishing activities as well as from habitat alteration or degradation. Many river basins, especially in developing countries, support intensive fisheries, and in many cases catches are increasing. Inland fish are considered to be the most threatened group among all the vertebrates used by humans. Nevertheless, efforts have been made in many areas to enhance fish stocks in inland waters. More...

 

Start with a charity in your own backyard.

nepalese backwhack

nepalese backwhack is a Google Whack. I dug this one up on my 3rd try, right after I finished watching Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure, probably the funniest video I have seen in a long time.

Dave Gorman, whose 15 minutes of fame include trying to track down all the Dave Gormans in the world and meet up with them, decides to take on a bet by his friend, also Dave Gorman, to start a chain. It would be a chain of Googlewhacking that would take him around the world a few times, spending his book publishers advances on a quest to get 2 Googlewhacks from every Googlewhacker.

All these mentions of Google whacking should either get me banned or put me in the first page of search results on Google.

Here's a link to his book that I will probably try and pick up soon.

Another book Amazon suggests customers ultimately buy after viewing this item is:
8% buy The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs $11.20

So instead of buying Dave's book, they picked up AJ Jacobs? I really enjoyed his book, it was another one of those quirky, hilarious, idiotic but strangely purposeful reads. AJ decides to go about reading the dictionary, turning it into an obsession and ultimately a book.

I think I have a similar obsessive personality trait to these two... at one point early this year I was asking everyone I knew 3 ways they thought they could get rich. This was most likely because of the books I was buying at the time: Pay Yourself First, Grow Rich Slowly, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Eat The Rich, and Homemade Money (not a book on counterfeiting) to name a few.

Most people suggested playing the lottery, marrying wealth, or selling real estate. Since I was married and didn't own any real estate, the answer was to buy lotto tickets. I didn't go crazy and spend all my money on quickpicks and scratch 'n wins, but I did use some of my pocket change to pick up tickets on a regular basis. How much did I win?

$3 I think.

I didn't measure how much I lost, which really didn't matter to me that much. It was the fact that so many people think the lotto was the way to gain wealth, and it isn't.

Another obsession of late has been the stock market, which is the king of all gambles. Like the casinos, banks and brokeragehouses all have the upper hand and whether you win or lose they will make money. It is only when you step away from the table that they really do lose.

According to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, "Gambling offers the near-certainty of completely losing the original stake over the long term, even if it offers regular wins along the way."

The "get rich slowly" way, according to all the other books I have read that don't have "rich" in the title is this:

Start your own business
Work hard
Fail, sometimes many times
Get noticed
Become successful.

This seemed to play out well for those with the Youtube view of things. Youtube probably would have been sued into Napster oblivion if it hadn't been for Google coming by with a chunk of change. Google set the trend and opened the coiffers of many venture capitalists who were once-bitten twice-shy about the dot com craze.

Quoting from the story Google's Abject Failure

"In its 21-month life, YouTube has created value at the rate of $80 million dollars a month, sending every venture capitalist and smart kid searching for the "next big thing" in Web 2.0 "

November has seen a huge amount of Web 2.0 sites trying to capitalize on the craze. Remember the Million Dollar Homepage? There's a bunch of copycats. One red paperclip? There's Swapace. Web 2.0?

Well, what really is Web 2.0, but Web 1.0 with less clicks? Youtube's success was probably moving the play button from the toobar to the middle of the screen. The television's success was the remote. The computer's success was the mouse.

Simplification of great ideas and bringing them to life could be the way to success.

New Rules

New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place.

All right, New Rule: If you forgot to buy Halloween candy, just say so. Don't hand out random crap from your kitchen. Last year, there was a guy on our block who was handing out batteries and mini-packets of soy sauce. I got so pissed, I had half a mind to poke him in the eye with my fairy wand. [photo-shopped photo of Maher in fairy costume]

-- Bill Maher

Scott Adams gets his voice back

The day before yesterday, while helping on a homework assignment, I noticed I could speak perfectly in rhyme. Rhyme was a context I hadn’t considered. A poem isn’t singing and it isn’t regular talking. But for some reason the context is just different enough from normal speech that my brain handled it fine.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
Jack jumped over the candlestick.

Darwin Search

This site contains every Darwin publication as well as many of his handwritten manuscripts. All told there are more than 50,000 searchable text pages and 40,000 images. There is also the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published and the largest manuscript catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary texts are also included, ranging from reference works to contemporary reviews, obituaries, descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens and important works for understanding Darwin's context. Free audio mp3 versions of his works are also available.

Name your lane in Toronto

http://www.newmindspace.com/nameyourlane/step2.php

Choosing a Name
The city has prepared an informational document on choosing a name for a street or lane called Street naming/renaming. Its contents are summarized here.

Acceptable Names
In general, street names should reflect local history or the environment. This means honouring great Torontonians, remembering events from local history, celebrating diversity or reflecting local plants and animals.
Certain names are unacceptable, including names that are duplicates or similar to existing streets, offensive and advertising. If you cannot think of a name, we have prepared a short list of street names. The City Surveyor also keeps a list of proposed names on file. You may also consider visiting the Toronto Archives (255 Spadina Rd.) for names of important Canadians or events.

Street Type Designation
The following are recommended when considering what kind of street it is.

Street, Avenue, Road, Boulevard - for major thoroughfares or streets of several blocks in length
Drive, Trail, Way - for streets which are winding or curved
Terrace, Gardens, Grove, Pathway, Heights - for minor or short streets
Lane, Mews, Close - for narrow streets generally used for service
Crescent - for streets which form a crescent
Court, Place - for cul-de-sacs
Circle - for streets that are circular
Gate - for a short street that provides an entrance to a subdivision
Square - for streets that form part of a square
You may also choose North, South, East, West and Upper & Lower if it is appropriate.

World Map of Innovation

This is a Google maps mashup of Alexa traffic.

Wynn elbows away $139 million

"Smack in the middle ... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. 'Oh s---,' he said. 'Look what I've done. Thank goodness it was me.'"

Is Google a God?

Google raises my IQ around 15-20%. Consistently people ask me questions that I would answer with a few key hacking terms against Google.

Windows bluescreen? search for site:microsoft.com BSOD
MP3s? search for filetype:mp3 hendrix (blogsearch.google.com of course!)
Video? video.google.com
What is the population of Tuva? Google "wiki Tuva Feynman"
How much is a stock? Google "YHOO"
What car shouldn't I buy? Google misled

Now you just burn out on knowing the answer to everything. This is what God must be like knowing everything. How many times have I been in a restaurant and wanted to clap my hands and have Google come down from ceiling and solve an argument?

Is Google a God

And why isn't Yahoo considered as smart?

Hard to find 800 Numbers

Google.com (we have been unable to reach a live human at Google. If you have, let us know how!)

650-253-0000 866-246-6453

Main switchboard Advertising

Press 5 for cust. service or technical help. Good luck finding a live human :)

Top 50 Brunch Stops in TO

NOW names T.O.'s top 50 brunch joints, from cheap to chic, plus the five best dim sum spots, our fave all-day breakfasts and four more great places to satisfy your mid-morning to late-afternoon cravings.

Voltron on Robot Chicken

Voltron

Mama packed a sack lunch,
Mama gave a juice box...

Tug-O-War for Household Chores

Tug-O-War for Household Chores: "Task division requires more effort to figure out which tasks are how much work and for whom, but allows specialization. Both approaches are fairly inflexible, however, in the work load required each week. Attempts to allow exceptions, such as for sickness or deadlines, often slip into large-scale shirking.

When both my wife and I were employed, we split the task of cooking (or picking up) the evening meal with a 'Tug-O-War' board, like:

---------------------------------------
|h /#\ | h|
|i 0 0 ### 0 0 0 0 e|
|m \#/ | r|
---------------------------------------

This has a row of seven holes, with a peg sitting in one of them. The rule is that when you cook, you get to move the peg one step in your direction. If the peg gets all the way to your end, the other person *has* to cook. Now you can cook a few nights in a row if you feel energetic, or wait a few nights if you're sick. If neither of you wants to cook, the person farther down is expected to cook."

America's Top Basketball Model

Mercatus Center - Mason Magic Isn't Rocket Science - It's Economics, at Least When An Acclaimed Faculty Theorizes: "Peter Boettke, a George Mason economist and avid basketball fan, offers an outlandish example: 'I can change one rule in basketball and Michael Jordan will no longer be the best basketball player of all time. You could change the rules to require the game be played on stiletto heels. Then Cindy Crawford would be the best player.'"

Nuclear vs. the World, and DC vs. AC

Here is more from the blitz of Chernobyl press releases.

"Villagers Return to Chernobyl's Shadow - Yahoo! News: "You cannot escape your death,' said 70-year-old Ivan Muzychenko. 'It's better to die of radiation than of hunger.'"

Not sure if I agree with that one, death by radiation sounds pretty nasty, but I'm not the one having to farm glowing chickens to eat because the government won't support me, so what do I know.

Bartolomeyevka's neighboring village, Belyayevka, was recently taken off the list of highly contaminated population centers, stripping its villagers of a $20 monthly supplement for living there. Mothers say the payment is still justified because most of the village's 58 children have health problems and need healthy food and vitamins.

Belarusian workers who participated in the cleanup at Chernobyl have also seen their benefits sharply reduced.

$20 a month = $240 a year. That is sort of like the $400 Alberta tax credit and additional jobs & perks that are driving lots of people from Eastern Canada into tar pits and oil sands, though the money is worth much more in the Eastern Europe part of the world, and it does not involve enticing someone to live on an irradiated toxic site.

However, there has got to be something up with all of these press releases and reports coming out all at the same time... Here is another one from Greenpeace estimating 250k cancer cases and 100k fatal cancers as a result of the Chernobyl accident.

I am not sure why this is a debate. Whether it is 4,000 people or 250,000, it is still a massive tragedy that needs to be addressed. Yes nuclear is not safe.

Nuclear technology is inherently dangerous. Today, thankfully, it is also unnecessary. Our energy needs can be met with safe and efficient renewable energy technologies. So, why are so many politicians peddling nuclear power at the very time we need it least, when we have safe and sustainable sources available to power the world?

Unfortunately this is skewed too. What is funny (not funny ha-ha but funny sad) is that coal is probably a larger contributor to deaths and medical illness in the hundreds of years it has been in use than nuclear power. The other sad thing is that wind power supposedly requires up to 95% of its generating power in reserve forms. (eg for 100W of wind you need 95W of coal, nuclear or some other backup generator for the times when the windmills don't run).

The saddest thing is that the Ontario government is shutting down our coal plants and forcing us to reply on "alternative" energy solutions (coal energy imported from the US, and nuclear technology). Apparently there are alternatives (zero-emission coal plants) that could supplement our energy needs safely and with less byproducts than glowing fuel core rods with a half-life of 250 years.

Of course I read that information in a presentation last February by one of the coal mining companies execs to the Teacher's Pension Fund, so it's probably a bit on the skewed side. :)

Googling more information, I encountered this listing of minutes from the BC Government. I thought it was recent since it mentioned topics of the day (inflation, nuclear power), until I saw the date at the top.

Tuesday, February 27, 1973.

In terms of energy studies, we have instructed B.C. Hydro to determine in the British Columbia framework what best route we can go in attempting to meet the growth and energy demands.

I don't accept the energy growth patterns that have been shown to us. That's why I made the initial statement about turning lights out. A lot of people were amused at that suggestion. But in actual fact there are a number of significant programmes going on right now in other jurisdictions to that very end. The City of Seattle has an excellent pamphlet out urging people to cut down on the use of power. I've shown that pamphlet to the two Members we have on the board of directors of Hydro.

Con-Edison of New York has an excellent programme known as "Save a watt, " where the whole question of attempting to significantly reduce the energy demand is being looked at.

The California pattern is one that I am afraid that we will either learn by or perish by. The California demands of electricity are astronomical. It has been predicted by that the year 2000 California will need a nuclear plant every 8 miles on its coast just to meet their demand at the present growth of power.

The only significant decrease in power use in California was during wartime. Interestingly enough, when there were heavy industrial demands, there was an actual, relatively speaking - not an overall figure - but an actual, relatively speaking, lessening of demand for hydro power. Perhaps it could have been the blackouts on the coast during the scare years. In 1942, just before the Battle of Midway took place, there was the impression that the particular Japanese fleet that was about in the middle of the Pacific was going to invade California. They had a series of blackouts.

After the Aleutian invasion and the Midway battle, it went on for another 18 months. During that period of time there was a method of actually controlling the use of electricity on a domestic basis. They showed a relative decrease so in terms of state control there was an example.

The energy demands of California are being looked at by a California legislative committee. It would be worthwhile for Members of this House, perhaps, to correspond with some of those committee members. The amount of research that's available by the Rand Corporation would make very worthwhile reading to every Member. It cost about $5.5 million. We've ordered two copies of the research volumes. I went through all three volumes during ...

Interjection by an Hon. Member.

HON. MR. BARRETT: $5.5 million worth of research and we have it for nothing - well, it cost us $15 for a set of the volumes. I took the volumes with me on my recent vacation.

AN HON. MEMBER: How far did you get'?

HON. MR. BARRETT: How far did I get? I got through all three volumes, much to my surprise. I want to tell you that I was very, very proud of the fact that I got through all three volumes, till I opened the back at the flyleaf and read that these three volumes are a condensation especially prepared for Members of the California Legislature. So the technical data was obviously removed. But the patterns were there and they were clearly outlined.

California is faced with decisions on the use of nuclear power. We don't have the wherewithal to duplicate the research necessary in terms of fission. We hope that either the Soviet Union or the United States, or perhaps even Canada, makes a breakthrough. But for my own part, certainly in terms of the foreseeable future with B.C. Hydro, we don't anticipate nuclear power in the Province of British Columbia.

And they still don't have any. And I'm pretty sure California doesn't have nuclear power plants every 8 miles along its coastline.

Nuclear energy in California (and imported from outside the state) accounted for 36,970 gigwatt-hours, represents 12.8 perecent of electricity from all sources in 2004. The total dependable capacity of California's nuclear-supplied power is more than 5,300 megawatts, including the two operating nuclear power facilities in California and portions of nuclear facilities located in other states that are owned by California electricity companies.

This is really fascinating to read that in the 1973 oil crisis the same arguments about energy conservation and renewable resources were brought up. It's too bad most of it was talk at that time, or we wouldn't be in this situation again. I wonder how it all played out back then, and why the average birthday of most of the world's nuclear reactors is 1982.


In Australia, recent disagreement over nuclear technology has centred on the replacement of the HIFAR at ANSTO. Australia's only nuclear reactor has reached the end of its life after over 45 years of operation. The need for a replacement reactor has been accepted by the Australian government and many Australian scientists, and construction of the replacement research reactor has begun. The new reactor will continue providing hospitals, research institutions and industry with a reliable supply of fresh radioisotopes, and a powerful neutron source for research. It will also expand and improve on some of these functions.

The decision to replace HIFAR was not without argument. Critics acknowledge that at present some medical radioisotopes must be produced fresh in a nuclear reactor (not a cyclotron). However, they have wondered whether further research might solve this problem without the need for a very expensive reactor. At a cost of over $286 million, the replacement research reactor will be Australia's most expensive technological investment! Many groups also oppose the new reactor because of the radioactive waste it will generate, and the risks associated with running a nuclear facility, as discussed above.

I bought a book last weekend on Thomas Edison. According to it, if it weren't for his defrauding investors to IPO his company and raise capital for his lightbulb idea, we would still be burning coal or hydrogen for light. He announced his invention over a year before it was actually invented, which caused his stock prices to explode against gas and other fuels. He used the funds to hire the best and brightest staff, and worked them long into the night to harness their ideas and release them as patents with his name. One of his former employees, Tesla, invented AC power, and after a costly battle with Edison's DC vs. Tesla's AC, Edison lost.

Edison went on to carry out a campaign to discourage the use of alternating current. Edison personally presided over several executions of animals, primarily stray cats and dogs, to demonstrate to the press that his system of direct current was safer than that of alternating current. Edison's series of animal executions peaked with the electrocution of Topsy the Elephant. He also tried to popularize the term for being electrocuted as being "Westinghoused".

After over 100 years, not a whole lot has changed. You still have a light bulb with a filament that runs on AC power.

Low frequency (50 - 60 Hz) AC currents are actually more dangerous than similar levels of DC current since the alternating fluctuations can cause the heart to lose coordination, inducing ventricular fibrillation, which then rapidly leads to death. However any practical distribution system will use voltage levels quite sufficient to ensure a dangerous amount of current will flow, whether it uses alternating or direct current. Since the precautions against electrocution are similar, ultimately, the advantages of AC power transmission outweighed this theoretical risk, and it was eventually adopted as the standard.

I wonder how many people found out the hard way that AC power is dangerous over the years? And actually, with solar, wind power, and efficient DC current, Edison may have been able to win the battle today, though he still sounds like a nasty guy.

Transmission of electric power by direct current became commercially significant again in the context of high voltage direct current systems, used for bulk transmission of energy from distant generating stations or for interconnection of separate alternating-current systems. These HVDC systems use solid-state devices that were unavailable during the War of the Currents era. Power is still converted to and from alternating current at each side of a HVDC link. The advantages of HVDC over AC for bulk transmission include higher power ratings for a given line (important since installing new lines and even upgrading old ones is extremely expensive) and better control of power flows, especially in transient and emergency conditions that often lead to blackouts. Had modern HVDC technology been available to Edison, he might well have won the War of the Currents.

Chernobyl report author slanted?

The Chernobyl disaster and its repurcussions has been lingering around for almost 20 years (the anniversary will be next week.) There seems to be a ton of press releases making front page of Yahoo around this.

A new study was released called The Other Report on Chernobyl (TORCH).

Two UK scientists put together this report. One has some interesting enemies.

LLRC Journal Radioactive Times. Vol.5 No 1: "Fairlie, who admitted to being a great friend of Richard Wakeford, BNFL�s Health Effects Rottweiler, even withheld papers which had been submitted for the Committee�s consideration. The deliberations became so altered by the time the minutes of the early meetings appeared that LLRC had to bring a DAT tape recorder to each session to ensure accuracy. Paul Dorfman was routinely excluded from decisions, paperwork and access to meeting transcripts. Finally, when Marion Hill (about whom we were at first the most concerned in terms of possible bias) began to be excluded from the secretariat loop, she resigned in a letter that accused Fairlie and Goodhead of collusion resulting in a bias to the intention of the committee. She further complained that Fairlie�s invoices would soon amount to �100,000 - four times as much as other Secretariat members - when unsalaried members of the committee like Richard Bramhall (who spent days transcribing the tape recordings) and Chris Busby (writing copious papers for the committee) received nothing. This bombshell letter has been followed by a major re-allocation of work in the secretariat. "

There are 443 nuclear reactors in the world, averaging 22 years old.

Armstrong, Discovery Seek New Cycling Star - Yahoo! News

Lance is doing some reality TV.

Armstrong, Discovery Seek New Cycling Star - Yahoo! News: "'Can you imagine the thrill to ride on the legendary Indianapolis speedway with other avid fans, trying out to win a spot on the team for the U.S. championships? That's pretty cool. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lucky fan to actually ride with the team.'
Funds raised will benefit the foundation of Armstrong, a cancer survivor who raises money and awareness to fight the disease. Armstrong compares the experience of competing with the Discovery team at the USA Cycling event to being 'a Yankees fan playing shortstop' in a real game."

I saw Lance speak a few years ago at a Learning Annex event with Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor. He must have left an impression...

TheStar.com - Loblaws settles hepatitis lawsuit

The proposed deal is worth $150 to anyone who received a hepatitis A vaccine, or consulted their doctor, as a precaution after public health officials disclosed the employee's condition to the public. It could cost Loblaws and its insurers at least $3 million.

Give nukes to nature

BBC NEWS | Europe | Wildlife defies Chernobyl radiation: "He went on: 'I have wondered if the small volumes of nuclear waste from power production should be stored in tropical forests and other habitats in need of a reliable guardian against their destruction by greedy developers'. "

GI Joe - Computer - Google Video

Hey kid, I'ma computer!

The pleasure of finding things out - RP Feynman - Google Video

"I know what it means to know something."
--Richard Feynman

Dr. Richard Feynman was one of the smartest people of the 20th century. This video is a really interesting and thoughtful documentary interview with him.

Top 100 - Google Video

Top 100 - Google Video

Search Engine Crawler Simulator

Search Engine Crawler Simulator

Solid State IDE Drive

Blurring the line between memory and physical disk, comes the i-RAM.


Gigabyte's i-RAM storage device - The Tech Report - Page 1: "i-RAM revealed
The i-RAM's greatest asset is easily its simplicity. Just populate the card with memory, plug it into an available PCI slot, attach a Serial ATA cable to your motherboard, and you've got yourself a solid-state hard drive. There's no need for drivers, extra software, or even Windows�the i-RAM is detected by a motherboard BIOS as a standard hard drive, so it should work with any operating system. In fact, because the i-RAM behaves like a standard hard drive, you can even combine multiple i-RAMs together in RAID arrays. "

Something Awful - other things to spend war dollars on

Something Awful: "29 Statues of Liberty that shoot laser beams out of their torch
Bear with me on this one. The Statues of Liberty cost approximately 350,000 dollars to construct, including its base. Assuming all of those bucks are 1884 bucks that's worth 6.9 billion in 2005 bucks. The Statue of Liberty is one of the most enduring symbols of the Freedom and openness in the United States. But, we are living in historic times. We are living in the epoch of the terrorist, when our monuments, buildings and ports are in danger.
Enter the ABL or airborne chemical laser. This huge turret is capable of cooking missiles, aircraft and just about anything else that falls within its beam of death. "

Page counts are meaningless

Having an RSS feed on your site automatically inflates your numbers, as subscribers poll ever 15 minutes on average. Here's another way to screw up tracking.

terrill.ca | Hacking Google Analytics: "Could it really be that simple?
Turns out it is. Want to scew the statistics of a friends website, how about a competitor? Look up their source code, plug it into your website header and laugh. But don't worry you could run multiple accounts, and hit them both on each page. That way you can keep your stats flowing just like normal. "

Inside AdSense: Meet Ivan the optimiser -- but please, no paparazzi

Inside AdSense: Meet Ivan the optimiser -- but please, no paparazzi: "
What are the top 3 tips you like to tell publishers?

1. Use wide ad formats. Many publishers find the 728x90 Leaderboard outperforms the 468x60 banner by about 70%. I particularly recommend using the 728x90 Leaderboard, 160x600 Wide Skyscraper, and 300x250 Medium Rectangle.

2. Embed Google ads in your content, and place Google ads at the end of your articles, news stories and reviews. Placing a 468x60 Banner in the typical slot at the top of page, or a 120x600 Skyscraper along the right-hand side of page, work well for cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) ads. However, for cost-per-click (CPC) contextual advertising, AdSense tends to work best when integrated with your content.

3. Blend your ad colours into your website. After running a test with a bright pink 728x90 Leaderboard on a black background, I learned that complementary colours often work better. Try blending the background and borders of your ads into your site, and use a text colour that stands out but already exists on your site. Blending decreases ad blindness and users are more likely to notice ads that interest them."

Where the Hell is Matt?

Where the Hell is Matt?: "Matt is a 29-year-old itinerant deadbeat from Connecticut. In February of 2003, he quit his job making videogames in Brisbane, Australia to go walk the Earth, like Caine from Kung Fu. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is. Matt realizes that Caine from Kung Fu probably wouldn't make a web site about walking the Earth, but he accepts that there are certain ways in which he and Caine differ."

Check out the Dancing link... this is still the best video on the internet.

Glad I didn't apply for that fake job from Accenture

"+ The U.N. Human Development Index ranks Nigeria as having one of the worst standards of living, below both Haiti and Bangladesh. For all its oil wealth, and after seven years of governance by one of Africa's most highly touted democrats, Nigeria has become the largest failed state on earth."

+ A drive across Lagos — the country's commercial capital and, with 13 million people, Africa's largest metropolis — reveals unmitigated chaos. The government has left roads to decay indefinitely. Thugs clear away the broken asphalt and then extract payments from drivers, using chunks of rubble to enforce their demands. Residents dig up the pavement to lay cables that tap illegally into state power lines. Armed robbers emerge from the slums to pillage cars stuck in gridlocks (aptly named "hold-ups" in regional slang) so impenetrable that the fourteen-mile trip from the airport to the city center can take four hours. Electricity blackouts of six to twelve hours a day are common. "Area boys" in loosely affiliated gangs dominate most of the city, extorting money from drivers and shop owners. Those who fail to pay up may be beaten or given a knife jab in the shoulder.

Next time I get one of those Nigerian emails, I'm going to tell them to keep my inheritance from my long lost Dr. Uncle. They need it more than I do...

Paul Allen was once the Boss of MS

Paul Allen is one week older than me. I have more kids but he has more toys -- a LOT more toys -- including professional football and basketball teams, SpaceShipOne, lots of planes and a HUGE boat. Allen is an enthusiast of epic proportions, but one of my fondest images of him was from the 20th anniversary party for the Altair 8800 computer (arguably the first PC), when Paul Allen-the-billionaire wanted some fast food late at night and -- not having a car -- WALKED through the drive-through as part of a long line of cars.

Interesting article on Paul Allen, and Bill Gates' $10/hr position at MIT.

JAJAH - web activated-telephony

JAJAH - web activated-telephony

So with this service you can set your phone number and call a friend, for $0.0174 USD/min.

Write a book based on your WebLog

Eric Sink's Weblog: "After what seems like an eternity of proofreading, today is the day that my book is being sent off to be printed. The book is essentially a collection of essays from here on my weblog, each one edited and prefaced with an introduction."



Eric is a detailed writer, and his postings are mainly essays, so don't get any ideas about compiling your daily livejournal entries about your cat into a book. This does prove that it is possible to author a book through your blog, and then use existing content to publish your blog in book form.

This entry will appear in Chapter 6 of my book, Wavesmash - Deep Thoughts in a Shallow Pond, titled How to Write a book based on your WebLog.

Get your comments in to the book now...