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Saturday,
December 26, 2009
Merry Christmas, everyone. Deck us all
with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo! Nora's freezin' on the trolley, Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo! Don't we know archaic barrel, Lullaby Lilla boy, Louisville Lou? Trolley Molly don't love Harold, Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo! Bark us all bow-wows of folly, Polly wolly cracker n' too-da-loo! Hunky Dory's pop is lolly gaggin' on the wagon, Willy, folly go through! Donkey Bonny brays a carol, Antelope Cantaloup, 'lope with you! Chollie's collie barks at Barrow, Harum scarum five alarum bung-a-loo! Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Science:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009 Just started using Mozilla's excellent Seamonkey 2.0 today as a webpage editor to generate this page. It's completely free and works beautifully. Humans are becoming more domesticated. Now for the science: the process of "domestication" consists of arresting the development of a critter at earlier stages. A fully-grown adult wolf makes a lousy pet; unmanageable, ungovernable, aloof, skittish as hell, with an instinct to wander hundreds of miles and chase down and kill anything that looks edible. A wolf pup, however, is cute, adorable, compliant, bonds strongly to older "pack members" (pet owners) and is a homebody. An adult wolf's face has a long snout that tapers to a point, the ears are sharp and tall, the body is long, tall and lean, the teeth are long and sharp. A wolf pup's snout is short, rounded and fat, they have big eyes, the ears are rounded and floppy, the body is short, wide and chubby, the teeth are short, and the personality is eager to please, since that's what a pup needs to do in a pack. Hence, the most "domestic" dogs are those with puppy features: short, round noses and floppy ears make for sweet, submissive critters. Long thin snouts and sharp ears make for twitchy, ungovernable animals. A look at the rest of the "domesticated" animals will confirm the hypothesis: sheep, cows, pigs, chickens: all of them are arrested at early stages of "childhood" development. And therefore, more compliant, less autonomous, less aggressive. Horses and cats are the exception; neither have become fully "domesticated;" either species, released into the wild, can survive and thrive, although they are admittedly a little bit less "twitchy" than completely wild cats or horses. Either wild species (or the closest thing left in the rapidly shrinking genetic pool on our beleaguered planet) can be made domestic by the simple procedure of raising them from the earliest survivable infancy. We have learned that the intrinsic nature of these two critters is very useful without the need of being rendered infantile, and they can be completely compatible with human life if we make a few adjustments. More "domesticated" infantalized versions of those animals do exist, but they are actually much less useful for any functional purpose, and lousy pets, besides: Shetland ponies are stubborn and nasty, and snout-less Persian longhair cats are irascible, fearful and standoffish, and couldn't catch a mouse if you duct-taped it to the kitchen floor. So we choose only slightly altered versions of these very useful wild animals and learn to work with them. But back to the process of "domestication." A critter becomes domesticated as its physical development is arrested at progressively earlier stages, until human masters can easily control the animal and lead it placidly to slaughter. The downside is that the animal becomes so incompetent that it can no longer feed itself and no longer knows how to reproduce without artificial help. It has become so stunningly stupid that it can no longer attend to its most basic bodily functions without assistance, and is prone to a host of diseases and physical infirmities. Any predator has a field day among domestic animals, because not only are they unable to defend themselves, they can't even remember how to try and escape. There is a species of parrot that will land on a domestic sheep's back, and peck its way into the living body of the sheep and eat the fat around the sheep's kidneys -- and domestic sheep are so stupid that they don't know how to roll over and shake a parrot off their back. They just stand there and bleat. And that's what is happening to Homo Sapiens. If you happen to have a long face, an angular physical build, a prominent jawline, a significant nose, a furry body and a lower voice, then you are a "throwback" to the fully "adult" versions of our species. Step into the time machine, go forward 20,000 years and you'll see a race of pasty, doughy, tittering ninnys that all look like toddlers, and are incapable of surviving outside of a catered tropical resort spa. One wonders who will be the masters of such a race, or if it will simply die off as the artificial environments of "civilization" all collapse. Science and health:
Recipe of the day: Jjajangmyun -- hard to pronounce, but very tasty. Famous movie star, jogging in public, in real life, in the company of a terribly-serious-hard-ass-burly-looking bodyguard who appears to be on a very dangerous and serious Secret Service detail, protecting the President in a very dangerous and serious place, instead of merely babysitting a trivial douchbag in sunny California. Schools now impose Mandatory Attendance at night class -- for parents. Online scams -- at "mainstream" websites. Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Some helpful computer stuff:
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Using Photoshop to find missing kids: it works. The American Chestnut was once a very important source of food and splendid dark red hardwood with unique properties. And we may get them back in another 100 years or so. Quantum Mechanics for... well, not for dummies. Even the "easy introduction" version is pretty dang thick reading. But it's fascinating. The airline I want to fly on. An entirely new form of energy is discovered. This is one of those things that doesn't seem like a big deal when it happens, but it could change everything. Bao, wow. Chimps are so cute and cuddly. And dangerous. Complain about an airline that treats you badly, form a group for Flyer's Rights, get your email hacked by Delta. Take one of those cute online "personality tests," get stalked by a dangerous psycho stranger who ruins your life, but turns out to be a "Marketing Prank" by Toyota. Microsoft attacks your Firefox browser, renders it vulnerable to malicious websites. Gee, thanks, Bill. "Born To Run" : How feet are supposed to work. The art of knots. Wednesday, October 14, 2009 How private equity firms make billions by driving companies into bankruptcy. A nasty new malware virus called "URLZone" not only empties your bank account, but uses your computer to hide and shuffle money while it empties other bank accounts. Have they finally -- once again -- figured out who Jack The Ripper was? It's not like there's any shortage of possible suspects. The best places to live: 1. Norway
2. Australia 3. Iceland 4. Canada 5. Ireland 6. Netherlands 7. Sweden 8. France 9. Switzerland 10. Japan 11. Luxembourg 12. Finland 13. United States 14. Austria 15. Spain 16. Denmark 17. Belgium 18. Italy 19. Liechtenstein 20. New Zealand 21. United Kingdom Saturn has another ring that we couldn't see before, and it's big. "Shall We Play A Game?" Soviet old-school style -- but FOR REAL, and it's still up and running. Health news articles are loaded with BS: here's how to cut through it. Top 25 censored stories of 2009 -- so far. Wind turbine power generators that are quiet, efficient, safe for birds, and easy on the eyes. I'm sorry. For, like, whatever. James Ray, the "Harmonic Wealth" Guru who ripped people off for about $10k each went a bit too far and killed off a few of his customers. Monday, October 5, 2009 Picture of the day: hot tubbing in Montana. Crime and Punishment -- of everybody:
Monday, September 28, 2009 I am way behind here, letting two weeks slip by, but here is a plethora of enticing links and stories: Tool Porn (completely safe for work, or even Church, for that matter.) Just in case you hadn't heard about the huge problems with Zicam, take a look. But if you have used Zicam, you'll notice that as a result of the loss of the ability to smell, you probably gained weight. And someone who noticed the association figured out how an enhanced sense of smell can cause you to lose weight. Just how bad is the practice of denying health insurance coverage? It's bad. Dan Brown strikes again, and the Freemasons explain -- with a fair bit of calm and good humor -- why they aren't actually all that sinister. A good reason to get tested for Syphilis -- get free stuff at America's two most loathsome retail junk outlets. On the other hand, there's a little-known STD that is now linked to prostate cancer. Let's see how fast the Conservative White Men who don't want women to get a vaccine for papillomavirus back-peddle their position into a National Guy's Health Emergency. Ah, green cars. *sigh* Double sigh. Black Tie: do it right, guys. Monday, September 14, 2009 It came to my attention that the link below about humans "teetering on the edge of extinction" was not working correctly. So I looked it up again, and found some more interesting stuff, mainly from the "John Hawkes Weblog," which is always interesting. Richard Dawkins has a good article, too. Warp Drive update: I had a conversation with someone who is in a position to know about such things, and he said, "Whatever they are saying, it won't work. We just don't know enough yet." Hopefully, someday we will know enough. Tuesday, September 8, 2009 How did the news articles about a warp drive spaceship sneak past me? 
Toxic levels of a dangerous pesticide are in our drinking water in four states, and the EPA didn't know how to inform the public. What's a Kindle good for? Well, you can run Linux on it. Now we learn that -- thanks to a super-volcano -- humans were also teetering on the edge of extinction around 70k years ago: the world population of humans dropped to around 2000 people. Tough times in California; a beautiful but scary photograph. "Thought -Terminating Cliché" -- something we need to beware of. I found this on the entertaining and fascinating Best of Wikipedia page. The "North Pacific Gyre" is a mass of floating plastic garbage larger than the state of Texas. America has completely ignored environmental issues for the last forty years -- and legislated and regulated in an actively hostile way toward any environmental responsibility for twenty eight of those years. The results are a chain of messes so huge that it will take a massive effort by the current generation to simply avoid condemning our children and grandchildren to life in a cesspool. I like the Mythbusters show, although it's long-winded. When I discovered this list of every episode with the results, I spent quite a bit of time perusing. Great fun and it shatters quite a few commonly held beliefs. Speaking of commonly held beliefs: I just watched Religulous. It is funny, edgy, sarcastic, thought-provoking and well worth the viewing. Reality shows have now sunk to a new low: here's a casting call for someone who is terminally ill to "donate your body to science" so that they can experiment on you with ancient mummification techniques. I'd like to build this in my back yard. The history of Earth's climate before and during the Holocene. How to keep your obscene profits when your market collapses: get governments to throw people in jail when they stop buying your stuff. The penalty for downloading a song is now more severe than for second degree murder. Another fuel-efficient car I'd like to have. Sunday, August 23, 2009 The best article written on the whole "Professor arrested for being black" thing. A most magnificent rant by George Carlin. We miss you, George. There's something harder than diamonds? PSA poster of the week. Divorce makes you sick, and you never get over it. The CSI effect: DNA is 100% reliable for identifying suspects, right? Not so much, no. The courts need to have a word or two with airlines regarding the civil rights and human needs of passengers. The Mona Lisa in 3D. The creepiest thing you could possibly ask for in your will. I used to work in a mountaineering shop back in the day (way back) and like to keep up on current equipment. Osprey makes the coolest packs I have ever seen. But Mystery Ranch makes very cool packs, too; heavier-duty, specializing in military stuff. Ran across this guy's photos of very cool cars. And I had never heard of this company which makes works of art on wheels. What would a woman look like if she were a Barbie? And what would a fossilized Barbie be doing in your back yard? Your memories are faulty. Coffee is good for you. OK, so maybe it was a meteor, plus a sudden ice age, plus too much hunting. (And how it all happened.) Another way we might be able to get thin quickly and easily. What you eat, matters. Tuesday, August 11, 2009e I've been looking at the CruzBike line for some time now, and got lucky last week. Good deals do occasionally show up on eBay, and a FreeRider V2 appeared there, and I pounced on it. It arrived yesterday. It took a while to assemble and adjust everything, but before long I was out on the road. The leg length is the easiest to adjust: undo the tube clamp and slide the telescoping section in or out as needed. It only takes a few seconds. The seat position is very adjustable, with positions from seated nearly fully upright to a leisurely recline, by small steps for a whole lot of travel in 1/2 inch increments. The angle between seat and back has a little play but not much, and it's basically ideal anyway so I just leave it at "neutral." Those adjustments entail unscrewing the seat and top tube mounting bracket and messing with an Allen wrench; not difficult but enough of a hassle that it's not something you'd want to do on the road unless it was a pressing matter. I started off in a fairly upright position, which is a little more secure for beginners learning to ride one of these critters. The rest of the machine is standard high-quality modern mountain-bike stuff; excellent fit and finish, great engineering, mechanicals that work pretty much flawlessly, an intelligently designed work of modern art. Now for the ride. The good news: the bike is utterly luxurious. I could see getting on this and riding until my legs gave out without ANY other physical discomfort at all; hands, butt, neck and the rest are just as happy as can be. For those who have reached the end of their rope for putting up with bicycle pain -- and bicycles ARE painful -- a recumbent is the ticket to ride in genuine comfort. The bad news; this thing is as squirrelly as a puppy on peyote. I'm learning, haven't dumped it once, and it's becoming more natural as I go, but it's downright WEIRD, especially at first. Everybody on the CruzBike forums assures us that "you get used to it" to the point where it's just as natural and safe as a regular bike, and in fact you can learn to ride with no hands after a while. I believe that the FreeRider handlebar style -- long, LONG steel "chopper" bars -- contributes to the problem. The front end of a CruzBike is quite a bit heavier than a normal bike, and those big steel handlebars contribute even more weight and very long arms of momentum, making it feel pretty wild. The SoftRider and Silvio both use "normal" handlebars with long stems to get the bars up so you don't whack your knees, and I would guess they feel much more "normal." I will look into changing over to normal bars; it's easy enough to do. (I had an adult-sized "Stingray" bike in college: a Schwinn "Heavy-duty" frame with 24" tires, chopper bars and a banana seat. It was a stitch to ride, but those handlebars made for odd steering.) Not that the weirdness has stopped me from riding; I've been out for hours two days in a row, to the point of having rubber legs, and loving it. It's a very entertaining ride, and EVERYBODY smiles and waves at recumbent riders. Update: later on I changed to a set of Soma "Sparrow"520 mustache bars with a Rans stem, and it made a big difference. About two pounds lighter, much better handling, much more stable steering. The stem, once trimmed to the correct length, fit perfectly. The "Sparrow" has since become available in a 560mm width, and I would probably go with that today. (Rans model #BPHB0028 Riser, Handlebar Stem 10" Top Load, LWB, 1 /1/8") I like it. And I believe I will do much more riding: I've already been on the CruzBike more in two days than I was on the other bike for the entire last year. Wednesday, July 29, 2009 An "Alert Reader" sent me this: Vaccine May Be More Dangerous Than Swine Flu, By Dr. Russell Blaylock. I did some quick checking. This article has been picked up and reposted in literally hundreds of websites; many of them have names like "The-government-is-out-to-enslave-us-all.org" or "Martians-implanted-a-radio-in-my-brain.com." I was unable to find a single reputable news organization that refers to the article. As far as I can tell, there is no confirmation that "Dr. Russell Blaylock" wrote this article. In order to browse his medical newsletters, you need to be a paying member, so I didn't dig into his site, but there was no link to be found using his domain name. Blaylock has, however, had a number of "Hoax" articles attributed to him, notably the mass of anti-aspartame hysteria articles written and disseminated by "Nancy Markle" who is a completely fictional "author." This is a typical run of Internet hysteria articles: a series of hoax, rumor, urban legend and alarum blended together to the point of being nearly impossible to trace, and full of misinformation, but sounding REALLY SCARY. The "swine flu" articles accuse the World Health Organization of attempted genocide via swine-flu vaccine, and several pharmaceutical companies of deliberately distributing poisonous vaccines as part of some undefined racial eugenics program. This is reminiscent of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" garbage that far too many people take seriously. A quick check of the record shows - over the last decade - identical accusations over vaccines against diphtheria, typhus, hepatitis, tetanus, rubella, measles and whooping cough. (The USA is not the only place where such idiotic and destructive rumors get started; Muslim fundamentalists have been spreading the rumor that polio vaccines are being used by the West to render all Muslim women sterile.) "Authors" (compilers, really) of these articles will often ascribe them to an authority, frequently citing the "Center for Disease Control" or a recognizable medical expert. Blaylock has been around for a while, and he gets picked more often than most in an attempt to lend credence to hogwash. Typically, a half-dozen or so companies will make the yearly crop of influenza vaccines. They each have their adherents, and tout various benefits such as "lower adverse reactions" or "Thimerosol-free single dose" (or simply being cheaper, which is a huge factor) but the FDA approves all of them. Last year, my casual research pinpointed one vaccine in particular as being most likely to have the fewest adverse reactions, and I posted it on PapaVox: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 Back to the "Blaylock" article. Statements like this are outrageous: "
... once the vaccine is injected, there is
little you can do to protect yourself — at
least by conventional medicine. It will mean
a lifetime of crippling illness and early
death."
It is all too easy to see this a blanket condemnation of ALL immunizations, by a world-famous doctor, who has our best interests at heart, engaged in a holy battle against the evil "Them." And we wonder why diseases that were once considered to be completely eradicated are now making a big comeback, most notably in populations with the lowest level of education. (This was probably more than my Alert Reader expected in response.) Saturday, July 25, 2009 "Vital Votes" health blog, part of Mercola.com; good websites on health issues, home treatments, nutrition and corporate medical malfeasance. My idea of the perfect set of vacation postcards. Build your own high-quality, high-performance geodesic greenhouse. The 1,000 calorie barrier may soon be broken in a fast-food beverage: Burger King already hovers at 950 calories for a chocolate shake. Build a milk-crate toilet composter. More evidence of impact events causing extinction; it may have been a comet collision that killed the North American Pliocene mega-fauna. Might have killed off the Clovis people, too. Sony's new digital stereo recorder is getting good reviews. Kind of pricey at $400. I use a Zoom H2, much cheaper and still excellent sound, and the handiest darn thing you've ever played with if you are a performing musician. Yes, the most expensive recorders do have a very slight edge in recording the highest frequencies, but that does not necessarily translate to a "better" recording. (By the way, the last link has an interesting experiment in "Psychoacoustics." Early on, the site admin accidentally posted the same recording for two recorders, one cheap and one expensive. It is worth noting that many reviewers heard a "huge difference" between the two IDENTICAL recordings. High price = high expectations.) A "License Agreement" to walk into a city park? Yes, and you have to read it to believe it. Neanderthals were never very populous, and the whole species was poised on the "brink of extinction" for most of their existence. On average, there were only 1500 females of reproductive age alive at any given time. Carbon frame bicycles are the top of the game; lighter than all the rest, very elegant, and very expensive. Unless you make your own carbon bike frame, and no, it's not nearly as hard as you'd think. A chart of every known computer port. The Myth of the Rational Market: why Wall Street is a crap shoot. Always has been, always will be. Homemade sunscreen. Cool article on gourmet teas, part one and part two. "The English Can Cook": one of the best food blogs out there. How Sesame Street changed America. And finally: FAIL picture of the week. Friday, July 24, 2009 Feeling pooped? Barely able to drag yourself out of bed every morning, even when you've had what should be enough sleep? It could be your thyroid. Do a "Barnes" basal temperature check; upon first awakening, before you get up, put a thermometer under your armpit. Your temperature should be between 97.8 and 98.2. If it's lower than 97.8, your thyroid is an underachiever, and that makes you feel like one, too. For many people, taking kelp tablets (available at any health food store) does the trick; it has just enough natural iodine that it restores thyroid function, provided you aren't too far out of whack. Don't overdo it, because that can throw you out of whack in the other direction. Sunday, July July 19, 2009 Celebrating Cronkite while ignoring what he did. Tuesday, July 14, 2009 I'm getting to be an old fart and need a bike that accommodates the joys of aging, especially since I have a 1983 Univega Alpina (bought it brand new back then.) I picked up an old "Softride" stem that helped the front end; it cost around $200 new but the bike tech had taken it off his own bike years earlier and he let me have it for cheap. I just now picked up a "NitroPro" gas-shock-absorber seatpost (got a deal on eBay) and I will see if that makes riding fun again. I was torn between the NitroPro and the famous ThudBuster: both are reputed to be genuinely good shock-absorbing posts, and not just a useless gimmick. Not as good as full-suspension, of course, but then again, full-suspension bikes cost an arm and a leg and generally weight a ton: 35 pounds plus is common. Update: The NitroPro arrived and has been installed. Verdict: it's better than a solid post for reducing spinal jarring, but it is not a ticket to instant comfort or a substitute for a full-suspension bike. Not exactly a fawning endorsement, I know, but there you go. I don't know if a ThudBuster would be better; if I get the chance to try one I'll let you know. The upshot is this: no matter how cushy the saddle, or how high-tech the seat stem, unless you have (young) super-healthy, elastic, robust fast-healing body tissues, then riding a bike constitutes "Mongolian Crotch Torture." And so it goes for most riders over 40, and almost all riders over 50. Frankly, riding a "traditional" bike is now simply too painful and compromising to be tenable; having numb hands for two days after a one hour ride is not something that I can live with. The joys of getting older. I continue to consider the merits of a recumbent, and am seriously considering a CruzBike, especially the conversion kit, if I can find a good "donor." (The old Cannondale "Super V" models look very promising.) Their carbon-frame Silvio is truly elegant, but it does cost several limbs, and hence is not an option. If I decide to build a CruzBike from scratch, I'll look for a used carbon full-suspension frame and use the Shimano Alfine internal-geared hub; the hub is a bit heavy, true, but since you are using a single-ring crank, no dérailleurs at all and a much shorter chain, the weight difference nearly disappears, and besides, they are slick as a whistle and make for a very "clean" looking bike. July
25 UPDATE: the "break-even" point for
geared hub weight is about 1400 grams. That's
how much weight you remove when you
switch to a geared hub, if you are replacing
the highest-quality super light modern dérailleurs,
chain rings, etc. Even the heaviest
internal-geared hubs add only about 14 or 15
ounces to a bike -- less than a pound -- so
the argument that a geared hub "weighs a ton"
is not really accurate. On a mountain bike
with more "robust" (heavier) components, the
total weight will likely drop, especially if
you are replacing steel dérailleurs and
cranks.
The Alfine only weighs 1590 grams, the amazing 14-speed Rohloff is 1800 grams (though very expensive -- Oh my God they're over $1k good grief never mind.) Some of the 3-speed Sturmey-Archer hubs come in at only 1010 grams, and an SRAM hub weighs 1960 grams, with the brake disc included. And new Rohloff versions coming out soon will weigh in at 1400 grams, so the weight comes out exactly the same as a racing road bike in "normal" gearing. Here is a great webpage that does the whole internally-geared hub thing, all in one place. Tuesday, July 7, 2009 Recipe of the
day: Almond Pear cobbler
This recipe is actually very fast to prepare, and makes a fragrant, lush, decadent dessert that is redolent with almond flavor, has a chewy, nutty texture, and feeds a whole bunch of people, at least a dozen, even if they are big eaters. I like to serve this with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Open:
(This is the
key to the whole recipe. The almonds must be
fresh
toasted. Do it in a frying pan on top of the
stove, or on a baking sheet inside the oven,
or toast them in a hot-air popcorn-popper,
which is my favorite method. Almonds, by the
way, do not turn very dark when they are
toasted, not on the outside, anyway,
although you will see they are darker inside
when you grind them. I grind them in a food
processor with
the flour, so they don't just turn
into almond butter.)
Mix together (with the almonds):
Arrange the canned pear slices or halves on top of the batter, pressing down, and then pour the reduced syrup / juice over the top in a random drizzle. Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes. Free fonts for the nascent uber-dictator hiding inside your id. He likes his regular bike, but she wants a recumbent. What to do? Two American kids hike the Andes. All 7800 miles of them. A coffee table book about fancy antique violin cases. Ooh; they are pretty, after all. Retired greyhounds: the tragedy. I know someone who places them in homes all the time, and they are the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet. A new Tarot card. Hot peppers; one I've never heard of and a description of Habañero peppers that make them sound good, although I find them to be bitter and pointless. The cave at Sclayn in Belgium, where daughter-person is digging for a month. Interesting stuff on Neanderthals. Wiki has a nice article. Monday,
June 15, 2009
Lots of catch-up here, and a number of very cool links, starting off with Coffee. I've mentioned being somewhat of a coffee geek before, and just ran across a few interesting links:
Pirate economics: why it made perfectly good sense (back in the early 1700's) to be a pirate. Getting by on WAY less: "The 100 Things Challenge." Here's what TIME magazine said about it. If you live in a place like this, or like this, you really will need to pare down your stuff. But living in a tiny house can be wonderful. Freedom from your own weighty, smothering, encumbering possessions comes at the simple (though exhausting) price of getting rid of them, and from then on, much less of your life is taken up with "stuff maintenance" and much more of your life goes into "living." The things you do keep should be really good things, like these terrific homemade (and cheap) low-inductance, high-capacitance speaker cables. How we know Barak Obama is a rock star: wouldn't you like to have a watch just like Obama's? From the excellent "Word Of Mouth" blog: "Underground
restaurants are becoming a feature of the
culinary landscape - if you can find one.
How would you feel about paying a stranger
for hospitality?"
Has your brain taken a beating? Here's some ways to regenerate. The specific gene for musical ability, and why musicians make better lovers. Blur Studio has some great clips on YouTube. The "Gentleman's Duel" is especially fun. The prettiest desktop wallpaper photos you'll see this year. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but if you want to use a pen for self defense, you'll need a pretty dang tough pen. This one fills the bill, but it's $80 and up, for cryin' out loud. Cold Steel to the rescue (as always) with a $7 version that kicks butt. Pictures of UFOs. Lots of pictures. Lots of UFOs. Great bankruptcies through history. Need to send a message? Use the Bureau of Communication. Need to make a decision? Try "Hunch". It works at least as well as the Magic 8 Ball. Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Coffee Geek stuff. I am hooked on pod coffee. If you've never tried it, you're missing out; absolutely fresh, great quality beans, good variety, and the ultimate in convenience. The Senseo maker is a reasonably-priced way to get into pods, but you can get great deals at Tuesday Morning on various discontinued or overstock makers, like Braun and Juan Valdez.
"Alert Reader" sent me this: This looks just geeky -
science whizy enough to interest you.
http://vimeo.com/4571673?pg=embed&sec= Interesting, yes. Desirable, not for me personally. However, I still think an Aeropress would be fun, as would one of these retro-geek "Royal" tea brewers. The Royal used to be on eBay all the time, but disappeared and are no longer made. It's just about impossible to find one, although there happens to be one currently on eBay from a private seller. However, someone in China now makes copies and sells them on eBay, calling them "Belgium Coffee Maker(Balancing siphon coffee maker)." I wonder if they're worth a dang. In the final analysis, it all comes down to this: you need good beans, properly roasted, fresh ground to a consistent grind size, and brewed with water at the right temperature for the right length of time -- a manual press will work just fine if you are attentive. These factors will make you as good a cup of coffee as can be had on the planet. You can do the whole shebang for under $100 with a Zassenhaus hand grinder and an Aeropress. If you are a nut for perfect crema and foamed hot milk, you're going your own way and nobody can help you or stop you. Tuesday, May 19, 2009 I love recumbent bicycles. I think they are about as cool a playtoy as exists; great fun, very comfortable, good exercise, great for the environment, and downright geeky prestige items. Some of the best:
Native American names in the United States, like Omaha, Kansas, Wyoming... you'd be surprised what they mean. Ford can't be bothered to build a high-mileage car, so a Ford engineer built one himself. It gets 125 mpg. And he sold it on eBay. The "METI" controversy; what if the aliens hear our radio signals? And it's the Borg? (Not this Borg, she's OK; it's this Borg I worry about.) Not only will exercise and diet change your metabolism, body weight, fitness and health, it can actually change your genes. Fail to hold onto the escalator handrail, get arrested, cuffed, and fined $420. For not holding a handrail. Hummer sales nosedive. But do the personalities of former Hummer drivers improve? Why your cat brings you dead animals. CSI magic strikes again! German crime wave solved: same DNA found at 39 crime scenes... An interesting visual color-discrimination test. Are you a tiny bit color-blind? A shocking and effective ad to protest animal testing of cosmetics. Can I borrow that protest sign, please? Westervill, Ohio police have now made it illegal to wear a hat into a bank. Or sunglasses. They sure feel safe now. A study of all gazillion of the UK's CCTV cameras show that they are only marginally useful in parking lots, and only late at night, and pretty much useless everywhere else. What do debt collectors know about you? And how hard will they push you to pay more, even when they've already been authorized to accept pennies on the dollar? Saturday, May 16, 2009 Rant of the day: What the heck is it with pricing on Amazon? Do they actually think we are all complete idiots? Do they think that nobody notices? I've been a Star Trek fan ever since the first series came out; I remember watching it on a black and white TV during the original broadcasts. For some time, I've been thinking about getting some of the boxed sets of various series, but especially The Next Generation ("TNG" for the fans), probably the best of the bunch, although Deep Space Nine was also excellent. (Voyager drove me nuts with lame plots, Deus Ex Machina techno-babble last-second miraculous escapes and faux-feminist pandering of the soap-opera type.) And so, being a savvy consumer, I started checking prices on Amazon, which usually has a price that will at least match most of the better deals out there -- with a caveat: they lie. They lie like dogs, they lie like snake-oil salesmen, they lie like Dick Cheney. They will cheerfully list a greatly inflated "Suggested Retail Price" that is pure bunkum, and then claim they are giving you a HUGE discount off that bunkum price, but in reality, they are charging ABOVE the ACTUAL suggested retail price, which usually isn't difficult to look up, the internet being what it is these days. And then the prices bounce up and down.
Buying from Amazon is sort of like trying to invest in silver ingots; you need to know the "spot price" nearly minute-to-minute, and be ready to pounce when it drops. Yes, I know that retail stores put things "on sale" for a while, and then put it back to the regular retail price. I know that discontinued items are really cheap for a while, until someone suddenly decides that they've become a "collectors item." But jacking prices up and down on a day-t0-day basis? That's just market manipulation. I'm not trying to buy stock in some high-tech startup company, I'm just trying to buy a manufactured mass-market item, one that happens to have a constantly decreasing production cost, one of millions made by the millions and shrink-wrapped at the factory. It costs what it costs, period. Stop messing with me and just give me a decent price, and I'll buy it, OK? What a racket. Friday, May 8, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009 Just a bunch of cool stuff:
Monday, April 27, 2009 Finally fixed my beloved old IBM M4 keyboard; the one that I spilled a huge mug of coffee on -- twice. The first spill it recovered, the second spill it lost a bunch of keys and never did "dry out" and work again. The IBM "M" series is famous for having an excellent "feel" and writers especially prize them. My "M4" is not a "buckling spring" type, but even so the "dome switch" mechanism on mine is perfectly crisp and the key profile is just right; I rarely hit adjacent keys on the M4, and on other keyboards, it is a constant problem. The pressure is firm and the keystroke is short. OK, so maybe you don't currently have a "relationship" with your keyboard, but after writing a few hundred thousand words, you will, and you'll be cruising second-hand stores looking for an IBM m-model. But mine was not working. Great sadness. I never threw it out, holding out hope, but had to wait (for about three years) until my new Leatherman tool (a juice xe-6) just happened to arrive from Amazon with an extra bit kit with square-drive bits to fit the back of the keyboard. Took it apart and found that all of the dead keys were on one circuit, and the whole shebang fits into a tiny circuit-board up in the corner. Instead of an actual plug, the fit was accomplished by laying the end of the keyboard film leads against the circuit-board leads and holding it in place with a little strip of foam. Corrosion had messed up the connections, and the foam was old and had lost pressure. Cleaned it off with some alcohol and a q-tip, slipped a tiny shim in place for more pressure, and my keyboard works perfectly again. I really need to find a spare; my typing speed is twice as fast on this and I can't live without it. Wednesday, April 22, 2009 More adventures in home-built UHF TV antennas. Having made this and then after reading about this, I ended up with this (an actual photo of the critter in question.) As I wrote below, it worked quite well. But of course, the craze to make stuff had embedded itself into my spinal column, and the lure of the famous exhaustively researched and carefully tuned "Gray-Hoverman" UHF antenna grew strong. However, I don't have the room to hang something that big in my living room (G-H antennas, even single-bay, are LARGE) and the dramatically increased performance gained by simply bending elements into fractal shapes got me thinking. Why not a Fractal Gray-Hoverman? It would be much more compact (even though the wire length of the antenna elements would stay the same) and the performance should be excellent, at least as good as the standard model, if not better because of the increased bandwidth resulting from fractal element shapes. So I did some paper designs, cribbed specs off the original design, and here is the completed antenna. It is very small and handy, lightweight, works beautifully, and was (when it is all said and done) easy to make. It will be even easier for you to make, because here's the complete plans and directions. Wednesday, April 15, 2009 Until a few days ago, I had been using one of these on my TV and my UHF reception was just ok. So I decided to make the DIY digital / UHF TV antenna, posted here. And it improved my reception quite a bit. COST OF CONSTRUCTION:
COST OF MODIFICATION: fifteen minutes work with a pair of pliers. The elements on the fractal antenna in the post are only four inches long, and mine were eight inches long, so I just made the bends every two inches. Worked great, now it takes up a third less space, looks weirder (a plus, IMHO) and the dramatically improved reception was well worth the easy tinkering. Tuesday, April 7, 2009 Tea tree oil and silver (in the form of silver nitrate) are both effective against many micro-organisms. But when you mix them together, there's a synergistic effect. Staph and Candida both respond well. Promising new research in the fight against influenza, including H5N1 avian influenza. Promising new research in hyper-efficient refrigeration. Promising new products: super-efficient washing machines and refrigerators (electric and gas), greener sports cars and cheaper hybrid cars. Chantix, the popular prescription drug intended to help with quitting smoking, has caused some serious problems for some people, including suicide and insanity. Fortunately, you can quit without using drugs. This is why you're fat. Almost going postal, and then pulling back from the edge. One man tells his story. What to be afraid of: terrorism ranks way down the list. Saturday, March 28, 2009 While it's not a sure thing, most book awards are usually an indication of some very good writing. The famous science fiction Hugo and Nebula award winners invariably become classics. Here's Amazon's "Book Awards" page, in case you've never looked, and it's a good place to go if you've "nothing to read" and nary an idea of where to start. RFID's are intrusive and ripe for exploitation. Here's a good podcast on what's what with RFID privacy risks. Sexy Online Dating in Alaska. Astrology is messed up in more ways than you may think. Finally, one (small) step closer to a rational drug policy. Then and now; very creepy pictures of a very creepy guy. Bring back the airship, and you'd better bring back the Zeppelin knot, too. The new extreme sport of Kung-Fu Bullfighting. We. Must. Fix. This. Write your local election officials and congresspeople and raise a stink until these blights on democracy are banned. Wednesday, March 25, 2009 I am often behind the times, so you may have heard all about this, but people are all excited about a "new" method of cooking eggs. It's all about the temperature, not the time. This excellent article in Discover tells you all about it. Here's the highlights: ... when an
egg cooks... not all its proteins solidify
at the same temperature:
"Cooking eggs is really a question of temperature, not time," says Hervé This (pronounced "Teese"). To make the point, he switches on a small oven, sets the thermostat at 65°C, or 149°F, takes four eggs straight from the box, and unceremoniously places them inside. "I use an oven in the lab; it's easier. But if the oven in your kitchen is not accurate, cook eggs in plenty of water, using a good thermometer." About an hour later—timing isn't critical, and the eggs can stay in the oven for hours or even overnight—he retrieves the first egg and carefully shells it. "The 65-degree egg!" he announces. The egg is unlike any I've eaten. The white is as delicately set and smooth as custard, and the yolk is still orange and soft. It's not hard to see why l'oeuf à soixante-cinq degrés is becoming the rage with chefs in France. ... "The 67-degree egg!" At this temperature the yolk has just started thickening up—some of its proteins have coagulated, but the majority have not. "Look, you can mold it," he says, scooping out the yolk and manipulating the pliable orangey-yellow ball like fresh Play-Doh... 158°F (70°C): The 70-degree egg, when it is finally done, has a moistly set yolk and a very tender white. ... If you prefer a firmer egg, cook it at 167°F or 176°F. Bear in mind, though, that the most copious of the egg-white proteins sets at 184°F—hence the rubbery results of the 212-degree bath. (Ed note: Salmonella dies starting at 60°C, or 140°F. So this method is perfectly safe.) So, how do the eggs taste? I got to work using the water method; first I pre-warmed three medium eggs in a 1.5 quart pan by covering them with hot tap water for a few minutes. Then I put the pan on a "simmer cap" burner on an extremely low "pilot light" size center flame, placed a thermometer in the pan, and put the cover on. The water was already at 125°F, and in about ten minutes, it slowly raised to 150°F. I lowered the flame until it was nearly going out, and watched the thermometer while I prepared my English muffin. I fixed the muffin halves by pan-frying them in a little butter until the cut surface was lightly browned and crispy. It's a bit of a hassle to do it this way, but they taste excellent, and it actually uses far less butter than the usual toaster method, where the cavernous holes in an English muffin can easily soak up a full tablespoon of butter per cut half. The pan-fry method uses less than a teaspoon of butter per half. I figured that as long as I was waiting for the eggs to cook using the temp method, I might as well spend the extra time to do the muffins this way, which is how I actually prefer them anyway. Once my little 6" cast iron pan was hot enough, the muffins halves crisped and browned in about 30 seconds each. Meanwhile, the water in the pan was staying at exactly 158°F; what luck. I just happened to hit on a good pan/burner/flame combination on the first try. After the eggs had been in the 158°F water for about 20 minutes, I figured they were probably good. The shells, once cracked, separated very easily, not needing a spoon or any persuasion at all to remove the egg. They just slid out whole into the bowl, with the whites so soft they puddled around the perfectly round yolks. The first impression was a shock; the aroma of these eggs is much stronger and richer than what I would normally be expecting. I suspect that many of the more delicate volatiles "cook off" using the usual methods, and so you never get the chance to smell an egg in its full glory. The whites were so delicate that they have the texture of Junket, or a custard. The yolks were not liquid but still soft, and they squished flat as I cut them with the edge of the spoon. The set had none of the chalky, opaque, crumb of a "normal" hard-cooked yolk; it was a perfect, soft, waxy orange sphere. For soft -cooked eggs intended to be eaten with toast or English muffins, this method is marvelous, although slow and finicky while you are trying to get the heat adjusted. For hard-cooked eggs to be used for potato salad, egg salad sandwiches or deviled eggs, I will be trying the same method, bringing the temp to 184°F to see if I can get the Holy Grail of hard-boiled eggs; fully set, but not cooked until the yolks have become dry and crumbling. Hopefully, this will also save us from the dreaded "green line"around the yolk from degraded sulfur compounds that result from the all-too-common over-cooked egg. I think that someone could make a real killing in the kitchen gadget market with a thermostatically controlled, precise, water-bath counter top egg cooker that allows you to set the exact temperature of the cooked egg with a simple "dial it in, hit 'start' and walk away" design. I suppose one of these would work -- for $660 and up. For restaurant use, it could be worth considering, but for home, we need something in the $50 range. Wednesday, March 11, 2009  The old Pepsi logo is on the left. The new one is on the right. The new logo cost $1.5 million to design. Read the article to see how this silliness happened. Monday, March 9, 2009 Horses were first domesticated (and milked!) 5,500 years ago, over 1,00 years earlier than previously believed. Sometimes the Internet simply has some cool things to look at: futuristic art about cars, spacecraft, flying transports, and the like. Homo ignis: a new hypothesis that human beings are defined by: cooking. Digital cameras will likely plateau at 12 mega-pixels. Fuji just released its new 12mp camera that can produce HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos with one exposure. This is the coming thing in digital cameras, and HDR photos can be gorgeous. The kilt-wearing fanatics will NEVER let this one rest: a Scottish guy from Genoa, Italy, named Pedro Scotto sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety-two. Except by then he'd changed his name to Columbus. Tuesday, March 3, 2009 "Authority" ... Some of the actions seem to be simply silly:
The Surveillance Self-Defense Project, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):
Take vitamin D to stay healthy and, um, non-demential. In six words: Short Sci-f stories. Concise, entertaining, imaginative. Ten essential tools for the inveterate DIY nut. My favorite of these is the Leatherman. Avoid getting mired in their disorganized, confusing website and just start with the basic categories of their multi-tools: How would you have looked as a:
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 In 1968, Stewart Brand invented something very much like the internet; people from all over could submit articles and information, and it could all be accessed in one place. Even better than the "real" internet, every article was checked for accuracy and edited for content. Massively useful and very entertaining, it was called The Whole Earth Catalog, and it was revolutionary. And now, it's finally online. Monday, February 23, 2009 I guess this has been around a while, but I just found it and I think it's pretty darned funny: The Mom Song. This is pretty funny, too: Mrs. Hughes. And now, a really big dog. A while back, some genuine nutjobs put up a show (on Fox, of course) claiming that the Apollo moon landings never happened. They were idiots -- and soundly refuted -- but quite a number of other idiots took up the hue and cry and you know how it all goes. And now there's a new space conspiracy brewing; people claiming that the Chinese Spacewalk was faked. A quick look at this video shows... holy cow... that actually does look fake, now that you mention it. Saturday, February 14, 2008 Think you have bad neighbors? Take a look at these guys. The John Hawkes weblog has some good stuff. This post in particular address how often -- and how badly -- media gets the science wrong. If you've been putting off the switch to HDTV, you'll need a new antenna. You can buy an expensive factory made one, or you can make your own. If you haven't read "Little Brother" yet, go check it out. Monday, February 9, 2009 Dancing with Norovirus; what fun: What are the symptoms of illness
caused by noroviruses?
The symptoms of norovirus illness usually include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days. In general, children experience more vomiting than adults. Looks like I'll live. Didn't feel like it, not for a while, anyway. This is important: dehydration can become a life-threatening concern far more quickly than you might imagine. And it's not simply a matter of making yourself drink a glass of water. You should have this Oral Rehydration information handy (taped to the fridge door is good): Oral Rehydration formula:
How "the world economy almost collapsed in a matter of hours." This was in the third week of September, 2008. I read BoingBoing daily; usually it has something good and it's always entertaining. Here's a collection of some recent gems:
1709: The year that Europe froze. The "Little Ice Age," scientifically described as "a modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during this period of less than 1°C," it shows that a little goes a long way for climate change. Snake. 45 foot snake. Good thing it's not on an airplane. The first ever U.S. case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has been confirmed in Colorado. It's contained, just in case you are panicking. Wednesday, February 4, 2009 There's a theory that the entire reason we have a "cold and flu season" is because of ubiquitous vitamin D deficiency. Being low in D is very bad. It makes you get sick easily, break bones easily, and die of cancer easily. If you run around naked exposed to the sun, you produce 10,000 units of D in about 20 minutes, and then it levels off for the rest of the day. On cloudy days, it takes longer to reach 10,000, but you'll get there eventually, and then level off. We are probably supposed to have about that much in our systems for good health. Most Americans average around 200 units a day. Japanese average about 300 units because of the fish diet, and their health is much better than Americans on average for heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis. The current buzz is to take at least 2,000 units a day. I've been doing so for months, haven't caught a winter cold (yet) and have been tolerating the reduced light and cabin fever better. It's cheap, safe, and will probably make you live better and longer. In Europe, a common medical treatment is to give 300,000 units of D as an intramuscular shot. Picks you right up. Tuesday, February 3, 2009 How many files are on your computer? It used to be pretty easy to list how many files (total) were on your computer, as a number of disk utilities routinely included an app for that info, at least back in the Windows 3.* days. After a quick search, I couldn't find an app that lists files anymore, but a quick DOS command will do the trick: Open a DOS command prompt window (Start / Run / type “cmd” [Enter] Type the following, press Enter, then sit back and wait until it’s finished: dir /s /a-d c:\ Mine= 80,407 files, 18,138,766,911 bytes. Sunday, February 1, 2009 You know how they tell you not to drive through water covering a road surface, even if the water looks really shallow and perfectly safe? There's some very good reasons why they tell you that. How's the weather been where you live? Cancer research: Big Pharma not interested in some potential cures. 650 million years of continental drift in 80 seconds, with Grieg. Stephenson's Warmlite has been around forever, and I was surprised to recently learn that they are still going strong. Not a big company, but they make -- by far -- the lightest backpacking gear in the world, and in spite of it, very durable and comfortable. Their two man tents are lighter than one-man bivy sacks made by others. Big believers of VBL (Vapor Barrier Liners) they will make you a believer, too, when you've read their stuff. And the catalog still has its elements of 70's naturist charm intact. Food frenzy: Eating the tiny Ortolan, eating very strange things, famous last meals in famous places, historical food (including some cool antique recipes.) Food from Star Trek -- and say, did you know that the guy who played Hop Sing (the house cook on Bonanza) published a cookbook? Sunday, January 18, 2009 News update: Six dead, hundreds sick; peanut butter. Over 35 companies affected. They still don't know exactly what to recall, and nearly the entire country is affected. It started in October. We should not be surprised that we are looking at yet another lethal food contamination (the list is long) with months having passed before detection and nothing but neutered bureaucrats fluttering their hands in response. This is what happens after the administration cut funding to the CDC over and over and over. And also cut funding for FDA inspections, even in the wake of food disaster after disaster. I know people who lost pets because of this, and right now my kidneys are giving me trouble. Saturday, January 17, 2009 In brief:
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