Flutterby™! From 2011-03-01 to 2011-03-31

Yowza! Seeing the reports of tornado activity, hope all my Chattanooga friends are comin' through it okay.

[ related topics: Chattanooga ]

Huh: Not only are passenger jets more efficient per passenger mile than cars, the % of that cost spent on fuel is less. Despite the speed.

You know what would make the iPad 2 awesome? If they put a keyboard in that cover, and made the hinge strong enough to hold it up...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Interesting MeFi thread on efficiency and price in solar panels.

[ related topics: Photovoltaics ]

The Daily Show: — Diane Ravitch: "I don't think America is overrun by bad teachers, I think America is overrun by too much poverty...". This is why we need to keep funding Planned Parenthood (even if they're on my shitlist right now because of the way they treat their benefactors...), and why we need to make sure that poor women have contraception options, and that they don't feel like kids are a way to keep the men around.

And then this is why we, individually (because government cannot fill the role of actually caring about what happens to individuals), need to be working with poor kids to give them more opportunities and a wider outlook of what's possible.

Relatedly, Rafe had a link and commentary on a study which shows that rich and well educated people live longer. In Canada, where, presumably, everyone has their health care needs met (and, yes, snark about this will be tolerated if you can give me statistics about how many rich Canadians really do come to the U.S. for major medical treatments). He's referencing Ezra Klein's comments on Health Affairs: Lesson From Canada’s Universal Care: Socially Disadvantaged Patients Use More Health Services, Still Have Poorer Health, David A. Alter, Therese Stukel, Alice Chong and David Henry.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Sexual Culture Microsoft Health Movies moron Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment Television Mathematics Pop Culture ]

The Daily Northwestern: Class sex toy demonstration causes controversy (NBC Chicago alt link).

Professor John Michael Bailey sent email to the class afterwards:

I recruited Ken MelvoinJBerg (Ken MB henceforth) because past speakers covering similar topics had not been very interesting—they had merely given powerpoint presentations, of which students get too many already. They were also unwilling to answer questions about their sex lives, which defeated the purpose of that particular presentation. I had met Ken and believe he is articulate, open, knowledgeable, entertaining, and yes, kinky. ...

Summary: Teacher arranges for relevant discussion inducing guest for college level class, taught to adults, administration responds negatively. You wanna know what's wrong with higher education today? In a nutshell.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture History Current Events Community Education ]

Sean Leather linked to a blog post where different C compilers and the standards were compared based on a nasty piece of C code:

int foo (char x) { char y = x; return ++x > y; }

I'm not going to rehash the discussion but I commented to Sean that the real problem here is just plain bad code - bad style. The C language was originally designed to stay out of the way of the programmer. Give her enough rope to shoot herself in the foot. That the programmer needs to write better code.

Sean's reply was that maybe you should use a language that doesn't let you write bad code. Which really got me thinking...

Some people, I'm guessing like Sean, prefer languages that impose discipline on the programmer. Others prefer languages where the programmer has to be the discipliner. Gives a new meaning to Top-down vs. Bottom-up programming.

[ related topics: Books Weblogs Invention and Design Software Engineering Community Archival ]

Maddy Myers: Gaming, rape culture, and how I stopped reading Penny Arcade. Really thoughtful look at the controversy inspired by this comic and the reactions to it.

And I haven't been a Penny Arcade reader for a while, and actually found the "Dickwolf" t-shirt funny because I interpreted it in a context where it was geek culture pointing at jock culture, but there's a lot of deeper back-and-forth here which I think deserves some complex thought.

[ related topics: Games Sociology California Culture Currency Clothing ]

RT @grumpygamer: I'm tried of people asking me if I'm on Facebook. I'm going to start asking everyone if they're on CompuServe.

(hat tip to @DodgerWA )

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Video of Toys - Apparently this was seen from a ways off, even through the pouring rain. We had two fire departments and the police show up to the house. They were fairly polite and no charges were filed. WinterSun has been invited to put up a small effigy at Burning Man to represent Transformus and we were playing with toys in the rain in celebration/preparation.

[ related topics: Burning Man Law Enforcement Pyrotechnics Video Real Estate ]

paddle an inflatable kayak around the pacific northwest. Via http://www.metafilter.com/101046/Why-We-Need-Protected-Areas

Charlene is looking for projects for Build Night, and found Jen Stark, paper sculptor extraordinaire.

Dear Diaspora: I'd love to accept the friend request you just sent me, but I can't create an account, and don't see how to link my own site.

Inside the multimillion-dollar essay-scoring business. Some good notes on why "objectively" measuring school performance isn't. Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Theater & Plays Writing Current Events Currency ]

Doing lot layout drawings for my workshop. City GIS (and my measurements) say 52' wide, original map says 40'. Which neighbor lost 12'?

[ related topics: Graphic Design Maps and Mapping ]

Intruder in Portland OR calls police, concerned that homeowner (who came home, with two German Shepherds in tow) might have a gun.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Guns ]

It'll never work! A bunch of amusingly wrong predictions.

[Edit: jims points out in the comments that Snopes has debunked this quote]

The dangers are obvious. Stores of gasoline in the hands of people interested primarily in profit would constitute a fire and explosive hazard of the first rank. Horseless carriages propelled by gasoline might attain speeds of 14 or even 20 miles per hour. The menace to our people of vehicles of this type hurtling through our streets and along our roads and poisoning the atmosphere would call for prompt legislative action even if the military and economic implications were not so overwhelming... [T]he cost of producing [gasoline] is far beyond the financial capacity of private industry... In addition the development of this new power may displace the use of horses, which would wreck our agriculture.

- U. S. Congressional Record, 1875.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Invention and Design Work, productivity and environment Pyrotechnics Economics ]

Yeah, A Day Made of Glass... Made possible by Corning. is a 5:33 concept ad, but if you need a little optimism for you need a little 1950s style "in the future technology will make your world brighter" propaganda, it's a fun little watch.

As the MeFi entry linked it to, AT&T's "You Will" ads, 15 years later.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Weblogs Movies Video ]

What is it about airlines with "Blue" in the name and awesome flight attendants?

Virgin Blue fires flight attendant for putting infant in luggage bin.

[ related topics: Aviation ]

New York Times: When Energy Efficiency Sullies the Environment looks at The Rebound Effect: an assessment of the evidence for economy-wide energy savings from improved energy efficiency (PDF), which has a PDF of their launch presentation here. Via MeFi.

Analogues to the Jevons Paradox are things I've seen over and over again in looking at transportation: Commutes are made faster, so people expand the suburbs out. ABS brakes are introduced, so people brake later.

The last two centuries have been an incredible aberration in human history, and it looks like a short-term one: We grow to the Malthusian population limits, and the thing that raises the standard of living is some event that causes a large-scale die-off.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Invention and Design Space & Astronomy New York Economics Model Building ]

Sho apparently it'sh Ash Wedneshday.

The Atlantic: Can the FAA Get Rid of Air Traffic Controllers? is a little "OMG computers will take our jobs!" hysterical:

I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced of anything -- except that we are playing with fire. Just remember, these guys aren't making a "bet" on your mortgage. They're betting with your life. If this thing goes south it's going to hurt a little more than losing half your 401k.

but I'm linking to it because it's got a good list of the various failed air traffic control automation systems.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Pyrotechnics ]

Shadow forwarded along two articles:

First: An AP article about an independent report to Congress suggesting that there needs to be more diversity at higher levels in the military. That report appears to be from the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (Journalism FAIL!). I know it's been a concern for me that, for instance, the military seems to be increasingly made up of evangelical Christians... From the re port's executive summary:

The commision's recommendations support two overriding and related objectives: (1) that the Armed Forces systematically develop a demographically diverse leadership that reflects the public it serves and the forces it leads and (2) that the Services pursue a broader approach to diversity that includes the range of backgrounds, skill sets anbd personal attributes that are necessary to enhancing military performance.

Second: A New York Post article about an American Airlines worker fired for using a term during a 'a workplace bull session about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."':

The fact that Schmitt was defending gay soldiers' right to serve -- "Back then, a faggot coulda saved my life" -- hasn't changed the airline's decision. Neither has his blemish-free employment record, nor the pleas of former JFK co-workers upset over the axing of their buddy known as "Papa Freddy."

Now it's the New York Post, which is somewhere around the AP in detail and Fox News in veracity, but I'd be interested in a little more depth on the story.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Invention and Design Aviation Theater & Plays Current Events Journalism and Media New York ]

Via Eccentric Flower, Pinboard: Anatomy of a Crushing. On what happens when your load suddenly leaps by 20x:

Pinboard has a three-day trial period, and I was now having nightmare visions of spending the next ten days sitting in front of the abysmally slow PayPal site, clicking the 'refund' button and sniffling into a hankie.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

Scott Rosenberg: Sting culture and NPR’s capitulation to falsehood asks why the press is still reporting on James O'Keefe (and why we keep eating it up), but also points to Jeff Jarvis: NPR's inevitable conflict, which points out why NPR is becoming toothless:

Bottom line: The stations’ interests and NPR’s interests are no longer aligned. That has been the case for some years. It is the elephant in the studio. Schiller tried hard to find ways to improve the stations’ lot. That’s why she created new content initiatives in their backyards, to have them create more value. But in the end, the stations will fear a stronger NPR.

In a world where we listen to NPR in podcast form, what's the function of the local radio station again?

[ related topics: Invention and Design Sociology Law Mathematics California Culture ]

Futzing about with VHS tapes and players. I feel so 1980s. This is a technology I do not miss.

Verifone responds to Square's inroads into their monopoly.

[ related topics: Movies ]

Pictures of roller skating in San Francisco. Way cooler than it sounds.

[ related topics: Photography Bay Area California Culture Skating ]

Finally made my first kerfmaker. Follow-on to this entry.

[ related topics: Archival ]

Dredged from the archives and VHS tape: How not to run Pillow Rock - me guiding on the October 1991 OAR/SE Gauley paddling trip

And a successful run at Sweets Falls.

[ related topics: Movies Travel Whitewater Archival ]

So now that Ash Wednesday is over, I hereby dedicate this Brisco County Jr. Thursday! Then Elvis Presley Friday and Jack Forrest Saturday. (Hat tip to Dave Polaschek, who mentioned Ash Wednesday and Army of Darkness yesterday on Facebook)

[ related topics: Heinlein ]

In the future, we will have Laser Guns! (1MW laser pulse pistol), Direct YouTube link.

[ related topics: Movies Guns ]

thinks that "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was widely accepted because of the time and culture into which it was introduced...

[ related topics: Sociology California Culture ]

Well worth reading if you're in education or test making: How I Passed My U.S. Citizenship Test By Keeping The Right Answers To Myself. Like most tests, an intelligent person has to remember that there's the expected answer and a correct answer, and the teacher/tester wants the expected one.

Which is related to that just posted observation on Thomas Kuhn and so much of what I'm digging through right now.

Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Education Archival ]

The person who was my impetus for first using Facebook has just announced that she's quitting it. I'm seeing various threads about using plug-ins to disable Facebook's cross-site capabilities because of unintended "like"s. I'm deliberately not "Friend"ing people I read in other venues because don't want to be overwhelmed by duplicate updates and conversations. I suspect we're seeing peak Facebook.

Failures of Groupness - This is a good article that discussed things I knew to be true, and have experienced, but did not know the words.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

For you Whedon fans: She Don't Like Firefly.

[ related topics: Movies Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

On the Chugalug list, Meuon passed along Make: Is It Time To Rebuild & Retool Public Libraries And Make “TechShops”? I'm vaguely intrigued. I'm about to spend $10k+ to put a shop in my back yard. It'd be great if this could be a social experience, on the other hand I'd also like to share that space and time with Charlene, being out every night at "the tech shop" rather than in the back yard seems counter to that aim, and I'm still not sure how tool sharing really works in practice.

But I can totally see giving a few select friends keys to the shop.

And libraries? Well... Lots of issues there.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Weblogs Space & Astronomy ]

Y'all know that a big earthquake and huge tsunami hit Japan today. Aside from the massive destruction and at least hundreds killed, there are safety concerns at a nuclear power plant.

And, of course, those of us who live on the West Coast made conscious decisions about where we were going to be today. this summary of damage along the coast says:

Near the mouth of the Klamath River, three friends who had gathered to take photos were swept into the ocean. Two of the men made it back to shore, but the Coast Guard is using helicopters to help search for the third man.

What part of "tsunami"...?

A cool picture of what the wave looked like as it came ashore in Emeryville, and from the comments in that thread a video from a guy on the beach in Alameda videoing the draw-down ("I'm gonna run now") and video of the wave sweeping ashore from a high vantage point. Nothing like the devastation in Japan, but worth a little respect nonetheless.

And I want to get some further clarification on what this means, but the Vancouver Sun reports that the Japan coast shifted 2.4 meters and the earth's axis moved by inches. I wonder if our local resident favorite geographer would care to weigh in with a few words on what that sort of shift means for location...

[ related topics: Photography Movies Nature and environment Theater & Plays California Culture Earthquake Video Aviation - Helicopters ]

Question for a networked world: Why haven't we seen cooperative radar detector networks yet?

Spam:

Subject: Learn how Six Sigma could make your company more productive

Body of the email:

Your email client cannot read this email.

To view it online, please go here:

To stop receiving these emails: [redacted]

Yep: Missing the "To view it online" URL. I'd say that's failing at about a five nines level.

[ related topics: Spam Work, productivity and environment Monty Python ]

Charlene is cutting paper in an attempt to make a fan. I thought that involved lots of beer and face paint...

[ related topics: Beer ]

Don't want to give information to the competition, but some pictures from today's boat building competition practice http://www.flutterby.net/2011-03-12_Boat_Building_Practice

[ related topics: Photography Boats Machinery ]

Morgsatlarge: Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors. [Edit: anyone who read that needs to read The Strange Case of Josef Oehmen]

The rain has coaxed the fickle oak logs to sprout once again! Fresh shiitake for dinner.

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

Chattanooga's Electric Power Board has rolled out fiber to their 600 square mile service area: http://www.newschannel9.com/news/epb-999306-fiber-network.html

Meanwhile, AT&T will soon impose a usage cap and overage charges.

[ related topics: broadband Current Events Chattanooga ]

One of Japan's economic problems was trying to maintain all that unused infrastructure. Is that still gonna be an issue?

[ related topics: Economics ]

Out of context: "They need to be 9 inches. 6 inches doesn't give you enough to grab." (talking about making fan handles)

SAAB to start selling Android phones with tires and engine attached:

Users will be able to download a wide range of applications, online services and multi-media functions provided through a Saab IQon store. Saab will issue third-party developers with a vehicle application programming interface (API) providing access to more than 500 signals from different sensors in the vehicle. These measure, for example, vehicle speed, location and direction of travel, driver workload, yaw rate, steering wheel angle, engine speed and torque, inside and outside temperature, barometric pressure and the sun’s position.

And:

“Our open innovation strategy, using the Android operating system, will keep the provision of in-car infotainment up to date,” adds Formgren. “IQon will allow infotainment services to constantly evolve during the lifetime of a car’s product cycle, unlike current in-car systems which are fixed some years before a car goes on sale and then remain static.”

[ related topics: Software Engineering Journalism and Media Automobiles Machinery Pedal Power Bicycling Archival Java ]

TriMet's talking buses, YouTube, sexism, online imposters: It's complicated. When Jeri Ellsworth took on the stupidity behind the Portland bus system's new overpriced mechanism for telling pedestrians that they have just been run over, chaos ensued. Jeri Ellsworth demonstrates her $10 version of Portland's $5k warning system.

[ related topics: Weblogs Movies Invention and Design Public Transportation ]

Beware the IDEs of Visual Studio in March. And other months.

These pages don't render the way the authors intended them in Chrome, but if you're interested in maximum yield of thick veneer or guitar backs from expensive wood, take a look at the Borson Precision Resaw pages.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Music Graphics Woodworking ]

Kevin Rose: Apple's Role in Japan during the Tohoku earthquake:

You know how in disaster movies, people on the street gather around electronic shops that have TVs in the display windows so they can stay informed with what is going on? In this digital age, that's what the Tokyo Apple stores became. Staff brought out surge protectors and extension cords with 10s of iOS device adapters so people could charge their phones & pads and contact their loved ones. Even after we finally had to close 10pm, crowds of people huddled in front of our stores to use the wifi into the night, as it was still the only way to get access to the outside world.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Microsoft Movies Earthquake Flowers ]

RT @Medley: RT @jayrosen_nyu: Another defeat for parody by reality: can it ever recover? Former FCC chair is now the cable TV industry's top lobbyist, talking about LA Times: Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell named to lead cable TV's top lobbying group

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Television Furniture ]

Daniel Suarez - Daemon: Bot-Mediated Reality, a video of a talk for the The Long Now Foundation. Edit: Interesting, but he's got some big blind spots. Not as recommended as it was when I started it. I'll still probably read his book.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Television Video ]

Reminder to people wanting alternative to FaceTwitSpace, my updates in RSS at http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke_status.rss

[ related topics: Content Management ]

Peter Byrne: The Investors’ Club: How the University of California Regents Spin Public Money into Private Profit.

[ related topics: California Culture Currency Education ]

And the disaster profiteers step out: BBC News: European hospitals asked be on standby for Japan's ill is an interesting little story. Who has asked European hospitals to be on standby? The European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT). What does the EBMT know about the circumstances, and how are they communicating with Japanese authorities to know this information? Professor Ray Powles, chair of the nuclear accident committee for EBMT, is quoted as saying "We have contacted Japan directly and have also offered our services to them through the World Health Organization."

This is why modern journalism sucks so badly: We don't know how the BBC reporter was turned on to this story, but it sure looks like the EBMT saw a chance to use the tragedy in Japan to raise their own profile. Seems tacky.

[ related topics: Quotes Health Current Events Journalism and Media Monty Python Furniture Woodworking ]

Who says penguins can't fly? video of penguins marching down the aisle of a Southwest flight from San Francisco to San Diego

[ related topics: Movies Aviation Bay Area California Culture Video ]

Rather than steal the links, I'm just going to link to this MeFi entry which talks about a January 1700 9.0 earthquake off the coast of now Oregon or Washington that wiped out a couple of villages in Japan.

Yet another reminder of how young our knowledge of the earth is, and how things in fast geologic time happen at longer than human scales.

[ related topics: Earthquake ]

More cool government services: http://www.epa.gov/narel/radnet/ provides near real-time radiation monitoring across the U.S.

[ related topics: moron ]

scacchi clay stop motion - chess clay stop motion (YouTube)

[ related topics: Movies ]

One New York Times lifestyle piece is neither a trend nor a statistically valid sample, but: Ohio Town Sees Public Job as Only Route to Middle Class. Remember when we were going to be a service economy, and all get rich doing each other's laundry and serving each other dinner?

[ related topics: Invention and Design Heinlein New York Economics ]

Cooking up piezo crystals at home (Direct YouTube video link). Via Brainwagon.

Also note that you don't have to go to the craft/dye store to get sodium carbonate, you can bake sodium bicarbonate to create sodium carbonate (ref).

[ related topics: Movies Invention and Design Food Current Events Video ]

Interesting: Zediva Streams New Releases Through Copyright Loophole

[ related topics: Invention and Design Copyright/Trademark ]

The correspondent formerly known as Chris in Florida mentioned Tiny House Blog: Building with Whole Trees which is a rehash of this New York Times article about Roald Gundersen, a guy who builds houses using whole trees ask his structural members.

His company appears to be Whole Trees Architecture, and I'm gonna be browsing for inspiration.

[ related topics: Weblogs Nature and environment Invention and Design Architecture New York Real Estate Gardening ]

Bunch o' transit links to close browser tabs:

• Parking Network: The Lure and the Limits of New Mobile Apps for Parking
• MeFi thread asking if any major world transportation systems operate at a profit, the answer seems to be "what do you count as externalities?" Of note to people interested in dissecting discussions is this alleged debunking of Wendell Cox that's a good read for all the ways it isn't.
• Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities of In-Car Wireless Networks: A Tire Pressure Monitoring System Case Study, or how to track post 2007 cars by looking for their TPMS transmissions.
• And I'm not sure it warrants its own link, but I did not know that modern cars have sun position sensors.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Wireless Privacy broadband Invention and Design Law Current Events Automobiles Public Transportation Java ]

Discovery News has a nice animation of the Honshu earthquakes and aftershocks. In the description, it mentions:

Virtually all the significant earthquakes recorded on Earth have been in that concentrated area.

Hmmm... Sounds like a great place to put some nuclear power plants!

[ related topics: Animation Current Events Earthquake hubris ]

Colin Peters tweeted:

Sure, they have robots to blow up people in Pakistan, but not one single radiation-proof firefighter robot to fill up a cooling pool.

I've been wondering about the noticeable lack of robots a the power plant from the beginning. I mean, if BP can live stream an oil well a mile below the Gulf of Mexico, can't someone in Japan duct tape a cell phone to an Aibo and send it in so we can actually see what's happening in these pools?

[ related topics: Wireless Robotics Nuclear Disaster ]

NYT going paywall. Fine Woodworking online uses Google ads. I've got friends starting web sites because of direct advertiser demand. Huh?

[ related topics: Consumerism and advertising Woodworking ]

YouTube - ROOM RACERS: GAMEPLAY TRAILER #1!. Apparently you take a messy room, clear out some paths, and then this system projects your virtual cars down on the room floor, figures out where the edges of the cleared bits of the floor are, and lets you drive around (and shoot at your friend's car, and so forth).

[ related topics: Movies Automobiles ]

Many times an otherwise intelligent person will develop a crackpot idea and let it ruin him. And sometimes not. An interesting story from Popular Science about the founder of the Gravity Research Foundation, Babson. A self-made millionaire, in his later years he was so grief stricken by the drowning deaths of two relatives that he determined to defeat gravity, perhaps by supporting the development of a "semi-conductor of gravity" (sounds a bit like Cavorite). Alas, they never made it, but the Foundation continues as a distinguised venue for research into the ubiquitous force of nature. And also some odd, but appropriate rituals at Tufts University.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Education ]

Charlene's birthday surprise: http://www.flutterby.net/2011-03-17_Helicopter_Ride

[ related topics: Aviation - Helicopters ]

The Holy Gospel of the Easter Rabbit (YouTube).

[ related topics: Movies ]

The US Air Force is sending in a Global Haw UAV with infrared sensors to assess WTF is happening with the Fukushima Dai-1 reactor. Finally, someone's realizing realizing that 'bots can help.

[ related topics: Robotics Aviation Current Events Nuclear Disaster ]

No earthquakes and tsunami's... but this simulation works some of the factors in running a nuclear power plant.

[ related topics: Games Earthquake Nuclear Disaster ]

Soundtrack matters. When watching animations of traffic simulator output, I strongly recommend listening to Miki Sugimoto rawk the electric guitar hard.

[ related topics: Music Movies Pop Culture ]

The Cloud is coming: One of the output options of GTK 3 is to run any GTK app in an HTML5 page.

(Those who do not remember X are doomed to repeat it?)

So Apple's rejected how many porn apps, but approved the Exodus International "Gay Cure" app? #noclosedsystemsforme

[ related topics: Apple Computer Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Got woken up by the storm, did a loop around to secure the house in the wind, came back in and decided to check mail and such before going back to bed. The Twitter feed had @TwoRockFire with a bunch of storm related incident reports, combined with an exchange about Girl Scout Cookies and this response:

@comalliwrites be advised....to drive in this weather for Thin Mints is nuts....but for Somoas, not so much

[ related topics: Real Estate Furniture ]

Shadow forwarded along a news story about a unicyclist who's challenging a New York City ordinance:

New York City says it's fighting a $3 million lawsuit brought by a Brooklyn unicyclist who's taking issue with a technicality in city code. Circus performer Kyle Peterson was issued a ticket in 2007 for violating an ordinance that prohibits riding a "two- or three-wheeled device" on sidewalks.

I know that there were for a while a group of unicyclists riding trails in Marin who claimed themselves protected because of similar wordings in rules that kept mountain bikers to fire roads...

[ related topics: Invention and Design Bay Area Current Events Pyrotechnics New York Bicycling ]

Deaths per terawatt-hour by energy source http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/...hs-per-twh-by-energy-source.html

AT&T bought T-Mobile? We were looking at switching to T-Mobile because they actually had happy customers. Guess that's gonna change...

Overweight Americans throwing off safety of city buses

[ related topics: Current Events Gambling Public Transportation ]

QOTD, in explaining how MrMoonPie came up with the answer to this MeFi question: "Multiple students taking an exam at different times come up with the same baffling answer. Help!":

And I used bing because, of course, google gave the correct answer.

[ related topics: Quotes Invention and Design Mathematics ]

RT @Ihnatko: FARK.com headline submitter wins the Internets: "AT&T is getting married to T-Mobile. There will be no reception afterwards."

[ related topics: Sociology Marriage ]

Via MarkV, Fun with ultracapacitors (YouTube video). 2600F (yep, Farads) 2.5v capacitors.

...and I thought it was fun to make these PCB traces light up like glow wire...

[ related topics: Movies Video ]

Snitching a few on software engineering methodologies from John this morning:

• Programming, Motherfucker:

I think I'm going to create the ultimate software development methodology. It'll be revolutionary compared to others because it will focus on the one thing that gets software done.

• Devops Is a Poorly Executed Scam

[ related topics: John S Jacobs-Anderson Software Engineering moron ]

Shadow passed along a story about Armistead Maupin being insulted with gay slurs in Alice Springs, Australia. Which I don't find terribly surprising, alas.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Food Pop Culture ]

Awesome Travelocity UK ad (YouTube)

[ related topics: Movies ]

Baby Goat Stampede!

[ related topics: Movies ]

Dear Chrome: I like your lower memory footprint, and your speed. However, unless your autofill improves drastically, it's back to Firefox.

Fiona Walker has stepped forward to say that she's the subject of Martin Elliott’s ‘Tennis Girl’

[ related topics: Photography ]

Anti-news: Women's Funding Network sex trafficking study is junk science. More at Feministing, including some great highlights of double-speak from the study's promoters.

via MeFi: I eagerly await the return of Craigslist Adult Services, which is proof once again that when those who'd impose their own moralities on others find a lever, no matter how much they have to lie to provide the fulcrum, it's hard to go back to freedom.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture broadband Current Events ]

Back from Lie-Nielsen event at David Marks' studio. Didn't spend thousands, but forgot to buy a Hock burnishing rod.

[ related topics: User Interface ]

The Mumbai skateboard - spectacular carved skateboard decks. Via SE.

I went to the Lie-Nielsen roadshow event last night. One one room of David Marks' shop had the Lie-Nielsen folks demoing their array of tools, the other room had a rep from Glen-Drake demoing their various tools (and our local Ron Hock had Hock Tools blades and such).

I spent a while watching the Lie Nielsen folks talk about and demo tuning planes to take off two thousandths of an inch, then wandered into the other room where the Glen-Drake guy was saying that in Albequerque his demo dovetails were falling apart, and in Minneapolis the ones that he'd left together couldn't be pulled apart, and the ones that weren't put together had no prayer of being re-joined. And here in Northern California in the rainy season, they fit fairly tightly.

While the the College of the Redwoods alumni all ooohed and aaahed over the fine shavings, I got to thinking about living in a place where we have no rain for months, and then rain for a few months...

Made me think that it's okay for the moment that my prevision comes from free-flowing cyanoacrylate and good 300+ grit sandpaper...

[ related topics: Religion User Interface California Culture Education ]

Festo SmartBird robotic bird. Animation with not enough details. Via SE.

[ related topics: Animation Movies Robotics Birds Festool ]

Hit the 4H Pancake Breakfast fundraiser in Rohnert Park. 4H looks like a great organization to partner with for Family Build Night...

[ related topics: Sociology ]

Oh look: Adobe's Acrobat update process has managed to move all the awful Windows user experience over to Linux. Sigh.

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft Open Source ]

“Straight Male Gamer” told to ‘get over it’ by BioWare.

Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain last night. Out to get some exercise this morning, if the weather holds.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Went to visit our former neighbors. This dude was hangin' out in their barn: http://www.flutterby.net/File:2011-03-27BarnOwl.jpg

Journal of the American Medical Association: Exploring the Harmful Effects of Healthcare (PDF) (paid JAMA link).

Although the potential for harm is substantial, both physicians and patients generally embrace technology enthusiastically—implicitly trusting in its benefit before adequate assessment is made. However, higher-intensity care generally does not improve survival, and complications of medical care accounted for 1.1 million hospitalizations in 2006—costing nearly $42 billion.10 Medicare spending shows wide per-capita variability across the United States, with pa tients receiving 60% more care in high-cost than in low-cost cities. Paradoxically, patients in higher-cost cities are more likely to die of colon cancer, myocardial infarction, and hip fracture.

[ related topics: Open Source Consumerism and advertising Television ]

Wait! The FBI has an Art Crime Team, and Jeff Koons still runs free? Now *I* wanna join the Tea Party...

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Art & Culture ]

68 Domino Techniques (YouTube)

[ related topics: Movies ]

Grrr. When you use "I" as the object, it makes you look ignorant. Even when you're a professional writer.

[ related topics: Writing ]

I've been watching Nancy wrangle Joomla, and I even took a swing a Drupal for a while. ALL CMS's suck, even ones you build yourself. They abstract out and hide things that should be easy things to change. But at least, when you build your own, you know where things are hidden. HTML, CSS and JavaScript are already abstract enough that they don't need another level of abstraction added.

[ related topics: Content Management ]

Just tried to "Like" an entry, and Facebook told me "You are not permitted to do that." And yet, I still like it...

Family Build Night project! Machete flinging crossbow slingshot like thingie... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSU1jQoGIqo

[ related topics: Movies Sociology ]

Quadracopter ball juggling. More at http://www.flyingmachinearena.org

[ related topics: Movies Clowns ]

This Gadling entry describes the "Valparaiso Cerro Abajo Race" as "insanity at its finest" (Direct Vimeo video link). It's a downhill bicycle race with a tight narrow course, huge jumps, and stray dogs on the path. More pictures of the action here, and there's a picture of the rider who took the video, in action, here, airborne, in a pinstripe suit.

[ related topics: Photography Current Events Pedal Power Video Bicycling Dogs ]

Handbags at dawn: Tesla sues TopGear for libel. GreenTech media version of the story.

[ related topics: Journalism and Media Automobiles ]

Less salmonella in organic chicken

[ related topics: Food Birds ]

Interesting evening doing mock-ups of the workshop with 2x4s. And Charlene figured out how we're getting materials to the roof.