Flutterby™! From 2011-09-01 to 2011-09-30

QOTD:

"Advice: Be nice to your neighbors and townsfolk, most likely they'll be on your jury someday." — Russell Lester (high school classmate of mine)

[ related topics: Children and growing up Quotes ]

9/11: The Winners: For some people, the terrorist attacks have been a gold mine.

(Via MeFi)

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Hey, other people are banging this drum now: Hugh McLeod: “Reclaim Blogging”: Why I’m giving up Twitter and Facebook.

A decade ago, blogging seemed more powerful, more revolutionary, more disruptive… more like the way we wanted the web to be, as opposed to how the corporations wanted it to be.

There are people on Facebook and Twitter with whom I still want to communicate, but RSS of my IdentiFaceTwit updates is at http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke_status.rss , some of those end up here.

[ related topics: Music Content Management ]

I liked today's Calamities of Nature.

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

Mark Leno: Bill Ending Warrantless Cell Phone Searches [In California] Passes Assembly

[ related topics: Wireless California Culture ]

Remember the cyberpunk era of SciFi, when we were optimistic about our dystopian future?

California Watch: See who is lobbying any bill in California. Crowdsourcing data entry of Form 635 disclosures and putting that in a searchable database.

[ related topics: Movies California Culture Databases ]

I was talking politics over beers with a friend last night... I know, bad idea. But he's still my friend!

Anyhow, the discussion got around to immigration. He threw out the statement (not a direct quote) "23 hospitals in California closed because of illegal immigrants using their services." I called "bullshit" but we lacked the bandwidth to find verification.

Today I did a quick search and found this document from the California Attorney General's office describing the 23 hospital closures from 1995-2000. I don't have the free time to go any further, but the number of closures matches my friend's statement. The report notes that a disproportionate number of for-profit hospitals closed (for profit hospitals made up 48% of closures versus > 33% of hospitals in California). The vast majority were < 200 bed hospitals (i.e., smaller) that were relatively close to larger hosptials.

The main reasons for closure cited were:

• declining reimbursements due to MediCal and MediCare
• lower utilization due to improved technology and shortened stays
• competition

Some hospitals did site "an increase in non-paying patients" but also cited factors like loss of insurance network status and proximity to major fault lines.

The language of this document makes me question if it is misreporting the facts or trying to present a particular spin on the closures. This report drafted during Bill Lockyer's term as AG. Despite it being a very official looking document on a ca.gov site, I feel like I'm not getting the whole picture.

Does anyone else have references for hospital closures in California, especially anything that directly correlates illegal immigration usage with closures? (Not that correlation equates to causation...)

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics broadband Invention and Design Law California Culture Community Furniture ]

Another aspect of the debate last night centered on the good ol' Gold Standard. My friend has been reading various books stating that taking the dollar off the Gold Standard was a bad idea. He also mentioned that various countries, China, Russia and France, have voiced strong opinions about the US economic policy. I simply stated "Since when did China and Russia become experts in capitalism? And France? Criticizing our economic policy?" But that wasn't the best part of the discussion...

My friend kept saying how much value the dollar has lost. But I kept calling "bullshit". I mean, a pint of beer costs pretty much the same now as it did 10- 20 years ago. In terms of the stuff I actually buy, some things have gone up a little (like bread and gas) and some things have gone down a lot (like computers and airfare). Overall, the dollar seems fairly steady.

If you look at the price of gold, you see some wild fluctuations. Recently, the price of gold has just gone crazy. It's been threatening to break $2000/oz!

But I kept asking my friend "what good is gold?" According to WikiPedia, 50% of the demand for gold is for jewelry, 40% for 'investment' and just 10% for industrial purposes. That made me think "If the world economy really goes belly up, how many people are going to continue buying jewelry?" That means real demand would drop to 10%. You would have an enormous supply relative to demand and you know what that should do to price! Even as it is, there is only a 60% real demand placed on the supply. If supply is outstripping demand, why is the price going up?

Gold is a fiat currency. It's price is derived from its perceived, not intrinsic value.

On an aside, I was surprised to find nothing in the WikiPedia gold article that discussed the 1981 peak in gold prices. There's a description of the recent run up in prices but it's like the people editing the article want us all to forget Silver Thursday.

[ related topics: Photography Beer Currency Economics ]

Google Correlate: Draw a graph, see search terms over time that match those trends. Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

Sonic.net CEO Blog: America's intentional broadband duopoly.

[ related topics: Weblogs broadband ]

For all you birthers out there. (Dan: Swallow your milk before clicking)

[ related topics: Children and growing up Economics ]

Guardian admits culpability (and total idiocy) in the latest Wikileaks dust-up:

A statement from the Guardian said: "It's nonsense to suggest the Guardian's WikiLeaks book has compromised security in any way.

"Our book about WikiLeaks was published last February. It contained a password, but no details of the location of the files, and we were told it was a temporary password which would expire and be deleted in a matter of hours.

So: Journalist is given file that's encrypted with a password. The freakin' reason you encrypt a file is so that in case it gets intercepted, it can't be examined. It doesn't matter whether or not the file was deleted from the server in question, it could have been intercepted anywhere. Publishing the decryption key goes beyond stupidity into either gross idiocy, or malicious intent.

[ related topics: Books Law Journalism and Media Cryptography ]

A very early 3d computer rendered and animated film.

[ related topics: Pixar Animation Graphics ]

"Besides, I had a contempt for the uses of modern natural philosophy. It was very different, when the masters of the science sought immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand: but now the scene was changed." -- Frankenstein

[ related topics: Philosophy ]

Standalone Sysadmin: Seriously, stop with the booth babes (ht: Genehack).

[ related topics: John S Jacobs-Anderson Weblogs Net Culture ]

Attention magazine sellers: We are not a friendly neighborhood. Do not be caught here after sundown. (Everyone else: C'mon over for dinner!)

In 2009, transit motor buses moved 18 billion passenger miles, using 421 million gallons of diesel, 138 million gallons of natural gas, 5 million gallons of other. That's diesel, so the carbon load is higher than gasoline. In practice, a bus is less efficient than Charlene's 5 passenger station wagon with a single occupant. http://www.bts.gov/publication...statistics/html/table_04_24.html

[ related topics: Mathematics Public Transportation Furniture ]

Apparently, without government public service announcement ad campaigns we wouldn't have Flash games or video gas pump advertising.

[ related topics: Games moron Consumerism and advertising Video ]

Sexy Prime: SEX, LIES, SECRETS, ENDEARMENT TERMS--& DYING, THE END GAME, Part One: The First Day of the End of My Life.

I said No, No and No. In hospitals, they don't know what to do with a woman who says NO to the standard treatment regiment. In fact, they are taken aback by one who questions the process at all.

Hat tip to Eric Wagoner.

[ related topics: Erotic Games Sexual Culture ]

Institute for Transportation and Development Policy: Our Cities Ourselves: 10 Principles for Transport in Urban Life (continue through to the PDF) includes this particularly clueless bit of scenario building:

-18-year-old:

I wouldn’t think of going on a date in a car. Cars are so 2010. We’ll just pick up a couple of those shared bikes over by the school, bicycle together along the new waterfront promenade, then drop them back near the house.

How clueless (and far from 18) do you need to be to think that the date in the car is about transportation? When those rented bikes supply privacy, then they'll be desirable date transportation for teenagers.

Cluelessness like that, from generally respected academics and industry leaders, makes me despair for the future of our society.

Edit: As Lyn mentioned: the version I found was on the TRB web site, but this is not a TRB report. I apologize for my aspersions against the TRB

[ related topics: Children and growing up Privacy Invention and Design Automobiles Pedal Power Bicycling Real Estate ]

Johnny Quest opening titles done as stop motion (with a little digital compositing and painting).

The "How it was made" page, be sure to click through at least one of the sequences to look at the models.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture tolkien Television ]

Hmmm... Are TODs Really PODs?

For a while now, I've wondered if we have been mislabeling the development around well functioning transit stops as transit-oriented developments (TODs). This may seem odd, because numerous studies have shown that property values can increase by 20% to 40% percent around transit stops, particularly rail stations (although the increases are uneven).

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Trains Public Transportation ]

Project Gutenberg founder Michael S. Hart has died. Obituary on the Project Gutenberg web site.

Slate has a nice little slide show on antique typewriters from a collection in Milwaukee. They show inventors groping toward a practical machine, and mostly not quite getting there. What is interesting is that one of the big problems was the interface; how will you indicate which letter to print? Since the task was entirely new they had no precedent to fall back upon, and you see things with levers, cranks, and even a piano-type keyboard being tried out. Then about 1874 somebody stumbles on the QWERTY arrangement to solve the problem of a too-fast typist, and we are still using it today.

I think the interesting thing here is that we found an interface solution that was just good enough, and have resisted improvements ever since. Obviously there was a huge demand for a typing machine, and the first pracical version exploded the market, and nobody had time to figure out a better keyboard. By the time they did, the established base of QWERTY users was so large nobody wanted to change, since the alternatives, while faster, weren't that much faster. Now flash forward to today and imagine what other inferfaces we might develope for our computers. We've tried text, and while it is very powerful it is a tool for experts. The Xerox drag and drop system was so big an inprovement it helped explode the computer market (once Jobs and Gates got a hold of it) so much that we are pretty much stock with it. It became just good enough at exactly the right time to become locked in place

[ related topics: Invention and Design Interface issues ]

Impending death, whether human or pet, has come up as a topic in my circles a couple of times recently. Something Positive has a few things to say about cats.

Rick Perry's Texas cuts firefighting budget while wildfires burn: But don't worry, they'll demand federal money to make up the difference.

(Via SE)

[ related topics: Politics History Current Events Currency Salon magazine ]

In the "Abolish SSL CAs" thread, Shadow pointed to Moxie Marlinspike's presentation at BlackHat USA 2011: SSL And The Future Of Authenticity. I'm only 13 minutes into it, but so far I'm entertained and have learned stuff.

Edit: Holy cow, I had no idea that SSL/HTTPS was so freakin' worthless. I mean, it's not browsing unsecured in a coffee shop, it's almost worse because there's this veneer of security. Yargh..

Moxie's proposal for a solution to the HTTPS CA problem is: Convergence - A Firefox plugin that implements an agile, distributed, and secure strategy for replacing Certificate Authorities.

[ related topics: Movies Archival ]

More long-form video worth watching, or at least having playing while you're doing something else: Jason Scott at DefCon 19: ARCHIVE TEAM: A Distributed Preservation of Service Attack. Talks about Archiveteam.org — we are going to rescue your shit, and why digital preservation is worthwhile.

Also references "URLTE.AM: URL shortening was a fucking awful idea."

Via JWZ, who references Chris Fenton building a homebrew Cray-1A with FPGAs, and wrote the paper "Digital Archeology with Drive-Independent Data Recovery: Now, With More Drive Dependence!, about trying to retrieve the old Cray OS off of spider and wasp infested drive packs.

[ related topics: Weblogs Movies Video Archival Web Standards Project - WaSP ]

10 Insulting Words You Should Know.

Via MeFi.

QOTD: Elf Sternberg takes on the patronizing Wall Street Journal:

The American People outside of your beltway bubble understand, better than you do, that the kind of protection you've been giving us is domestic security theater that provides little protection and explicitly threatens the essential liberties as provided in our founding principals, and a foreign policy that has generated greater threats than it has promising stabs at peace.

[ related topics: Quotes tolkien Theater & Plays Economics ]

Today's Evil, Inc. seems appropriate to phone shopping....

AAaaagh! LibreOffice just blew away my entire morning's work. M.F.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment ]

Unplugging from social media today. 10 years ago, the terrorists won, the U.S. capitulated, gave them everything they wanted (multiple fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq, huge secondary impacts in the United States), and we relinquished our freedoms and ease of travel for silly security theatre which makes us no safer. And we continue to do so.

[ related topics: Theater & Plays Journalism and Media ]

Set aside for later viewing: How to make clear glass printed circuit boards (YouTube video)

[ related topics: Movies Video ]

The Ultimate Work Bench, a cool design for a portable workbench.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Graphic Design ]

If, like me, you are a Mary Anne Mohanraj fan, you might want to check out Mary Anne Mohanraj's Kickstarter for Demi- Monde: an erotic science fiction novel-in-stories.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic ]

Some days I just want to scream "Comcast isn't an internet connection, why should I have to deal with their crap to send you email?"

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

Yesterday evening we tooled around the SF Bay at twilight: http://www.flutterby.net/2011-09-11_Bay_Cruise

[ related topics: Bay Area California Culture ]

Mark Petrovic is a fellow Petaluma resident with whom I have the occasional lunch. When Mark was 18, he wrote to Carl Sagan asking for advice on becoming an astronomer. Here's the response.

Musician Corey Smith writes about Chattanooga police pulling the plug in his recent performance there. Or, you can download Corey Smith's song "Chattanooga" in which he sings about his experiences there (email required for download).

Chattanoogan article about Corey Smith's shortened concert, Nooga.com's article on it.

Bill Dawers writes a great blog entry on the situation, including the lyrics from the song that was shut off (it's about one of those "your papers, pliss" checkpoint stops the South loves so much), and the venue, Track 29, makes a statement that claims:

Unfortunately, the show ended while Corey was playing his last song. Our team made that decision with the intent of protecting our audience, our talent, and the long-term viability of Track 29 to bring great live entertainment to Chattanooga. ...

Unfortunately, this sounds like the Chattanooga I remember from those times long ago. And not even gigabit fiber to the home can override conservative provincial attitudes reinforced by a police force intent on terrorizing the citizens it's supposed to be protecting.

[ related topics: Music Weblogs Free Speech Theater & Plays Law Enforcement Art & Culture Chattanooga ]

More Cargill ground turkey recalled. One of my complaints with some of the music industry's current tactics around draconian copyright measures is that it seems like that sort of tactic is laying the externalities of their particular methods of production and product out on to an audience which doesn't deserve that.

Seems to me Cargill's doing the same thing.

Anyway, more reason to know where and how your meat is being grown and delivered to you.

[ related topics: Music Food Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment Copyright/Trademark Birds ]

Mighty Fudge Studios has launched a war against Boulder's "clipboard zombies", providing free "No, I don't have a minute for..." buttons, and decoy clipboards you can carry so that you, too, look like a canvasser and won't get harassed.

News story with pictures of the "take this clipboard" clipboards, another one, direct link to the Daily Camera's video feature on the campaign. Via Laughing Squid.

Need to do some of these for Petaluma.

[ related topics: Photography Movies Robotics History Current Events Embedded Devices Video ]

Some real Shock and Awe: Racially profiled and cuffed in Detroit:

I hung up the phone and followed the officer out of the cell and into another small room where the male FBI agent was waiting accompanied by another FBI agent–possibly the head honcho on duty. He said the three of us were being released and there was nothing suspicious found on the plane. He apologized for what had happened and thanked me for understanding and cooperating. He said, “It’s 9/11 and people are seeing ghosts. They are seeing things that aren’t there.” He said they had to act on a report of suspicious behavior, and this is what the reaction looks like.

He said there had been 50 other similar incidents across the country that day.

The blog entry links to http://www.lasvegassun.com/new.../us-airline-passengers-detained/

Not only have the terrorists won, the "authorities" seem to believe they didn't go far enough.

[ related topics: Weblogs Aviation Current Events ]

I saw a security advisory today for XSS Vulnerabilities on an FBI Jobs Center website, and my first thought was: Maybe this is an employment test? And then a voice of reason and experience thwacked me upside my head. It's just ASPSESSIONID issues common on many websites.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Woodworking ]

TRUFIG flush mount electrical sockets and switches. Since the installation involves a fairly large piece that's mounted across studs to flush with the drywall, this looks like it might be perfect for a retrofit in our house.

[ related topics: Real Estate ]

The Daily: Pill perception: Study shows birth control affects how events are remembered. UC Irvine press release from which that article was cribbed. I'm just going to copy and paste that into the comments.

Hat tip to Columbine.

[ related topics: Current Events Television ]

"Transportation Security Administration officers worked with police from New York and Florida to ship tens of thousands of oxycodone pills to New York and Connecticut, federal and local police said Tuesday."

[ related topics: Health Invention and Design Law Enforcement Machinery Community New York ]

Nerdy Day Trips.

Wall Street Journal Digits Blog: Steve Jobs's Best Quotes:

“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people––as remarkable as the telephone.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

[ related topics: Apple Computer Quotes Humor Weblogs broadband Phreaking Economics ]

Laugh out loud higher education snark: Washington University photo captions.

Via MeFi, which singles out a few great ones, but they're all pretty good.

[ related topics: Photography Sociology California Culture Education ]

EFF: Post Mortem on the Iranian DigiNotar attack.

And I'm installing Convergence.

[ related topics: Free Speech ]

California police may face stricter rules for DUI checkpoints, under AB1389 authored by Santa Rosa Assemblyman Michael Allen.

“On average, DUI checkpoints impound seven vehicles for every drunk driver arrest, and the number of impoundments is steadily increasing. Despite good intentions, the increase in impoundments for driving without a license creates the perception that the police are misusing their authority in order to generate revenues and are targeting neighborhoods where they are likely to find more unlicensed drivers. This undermines respect for the law and for law enforcement, which is crucial for effective community policing. ...”

Got it in one, Mr. Allen.

Well, okay, there are lots of other reasons we need to cut off the federal funding for encouraging local police to behaving in the "your papers, pliss" crap masquerading as DUI checkpoints, but that's a good start.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement California Culture Community ]

NetPolitik: Nymwars: Parsing the Signal.

So apparently Target.com was down for the past few days. They launched some special with some designer, Missoni?, and the system was overwhelmed.

Brian LaFrance writes about some of the way that Target.com failed: OMG Target. Really?.

[ related topics: Weblogs History ]

Effects of Diet on High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol.:

Multiple dietary factors have been shown to increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations, and HDL-C has been inversely associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Replacement of dietary carbohydrate with polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fat has been associated with progressively greater increases in HDL-C (7-12%) in addition to other lipid changes. Added sugars, but not high glycemic carbohydrates, have been associated with decreased HDL-C. Alcohol consumption has been associated with increased HDL-C (9.2%) independent of changes in other measured lipids. Modest effects on HDL-C (~4-5%) among other lipid and non-lipid CHD risk factors have also been observed with weight loss by dieting, omega-3 fatty acids, and a Mediterranean diet pattern. The CHD benefit of increasing HDL-C is unclear given the inconsistent evidence from HDL-raising pharmacologic trials. Furthermore, pleiotropic effects of diet preclude attribution of CHD benefit specifically to HDL-C. Investigation into functional or other properties of HDL may lend further insight.

Via Healty Diet and Science which points out that this is exactly the opposite from the advice that organizations like the American Heart Association have been giving us for years: Saturated fats are, in fact, good for your heart. This also meshes with the papers I've read about how fructose gets metabolized; if you're going to look at foods which do bad things to your cholesterol balance, point your finger there.

Bonus: Excercise at work boosts productivity.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Work, productivity and environment ]

In Petaluma, camera lens falls from sky, causing $4600 in roof damage: https://local.nixle.com/alert/4731917/?sub_id=373138

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]

Go Kart Racing (Accidentally Masturbating) by Garfunkel and Oates (YouTube).

Cause I'm feeling kinda funny in a biblical way / God damn it's shaking hard on my Georgia O'Keefe bouquet

[ related topics: Religion Movies Robotics Sports Embedded Devices ]

Uber is a cell phone dispatched and billed, pre-ride sign-up credit card billed taxi service. Oscillatory Thoughts: Uberdata: How prostitution and alcohol make Uber better.

In other words: The parts of San Francisco that have the most prostitution, alcohol, theft, and burglary also have the most Uber rides! Party hard but be safe, Uberites!

Of course this isn't in any way causal. I don't think our Uber riders are causing more prostitution. Right guys?

Via JWZ

[ related topics: Wireless Sexual Culture Weblogs Bay Area California Culture ]

Teen driver restrictions a mixed bag:

Overall, since the first program was enacted in 1996, graduated programs were linked to 1,348 fewer fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers and 1,086 more fatal crashes involving 18-year-old drivers.

"The programs reduce crashes among 16-year-olds — if you look at just that, it looks bright and shiny," Masten said. "But there appears to be some negative consequences. Instead of just looking at the targeted group, we need to ask what is going on with all teens."

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Health Software Engineering Pop Culture Government ]

IUDs almost halve risk of cervical cancer, even among those already infected with HPV.

[ related topics: Health ]

RT Nevin Cheung: Learned at offsite: "There's no 'I' in 'team', but there's more than one 'u' in 'fuck-up'."

"Every time someone picks on me for Perl, I ask what alternative they offer, and then I go off and secretly laugh." -- @EccentricFlower

[ related topics: Perl Open Source hubris ]

Your papers, pliss: Petaluma police stop 987 vehicles, arrest 5 for license issues. DUI checkpo... wait, what? http://flutterby.net/ewMVdl

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Cosmig Log - Gamers solve molecular puzzle that baffled scientists is about the success of the game FoldIt in helping to figure out the structure of an AIDS/HIV related protein.Via MeFi, which has more.

But what I found fascinating in light of the Google+ "nymwars" issues and the use of pseudonyms generally, was this, from the statement of the player who is credited with the discovery:

"Many of the people playing the game are known only by their user name, even within a team.

"I would be grateful if you could refer to me as 'mimi' rather than using my full name."

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Games Current Events ]

Yesterday's pictures from our house in 1947 compared with today: http://www.flutterby.net/2011-09-18_Comparing_1947_to_2011

[ related topics: Photography Real Estate ]

Amazon makes shoddy books. Via Eric Wagoner.

[ related topics: Books Weblogs ]

Shadow pointed me to this bicycle bizarreness: $1,200 PowerWheel’s Sole Function Is to Slow Down Your Bike:

The resistance depends upon your speed, not cutting in until you have gotten started, and switching off again once you hit 30mph (the assumption is that at these speeds you are descending a hill and won’t appreciate being slowed down.

It's totally strange, but it did get me pondering: I think the Arai drum brake is now out of production. Wonder if anyone's built a magnetic drag brake for tandems? Couple of magnets on the left side, or even on the spokes, coupled with a set of coils with a resistor and heat fins?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Music Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment Mathematics Pedal Power Bicycling Bicycling - Tandem ]

Yesterday, a car pulled up across the street, someone got out, tossed a six foot long stuffed Orca doll in the dumpster at the house next to us, ran back to the car and took off. Kinda sleezy...

Shortly thereafter, a guy on a minibike stopped by the dumpster, grabbed the doll, and with this 6' stuffed Orca facing forward, took off up the hill. In that moment, I forgave him his annoying noisy 2 cycle motor.

[ related topics: Automobiles Pedal Power Bicycling Real Estate Dan & Charlene's July 2003 San Juan Trip ]

Just when you thought Top Gear was totally played out: Top Gear takes on the 60s spy genre (video). Laughing out loud. Via nonelvis.

[ related topics: Movies Robotics Automobiles Embedded Devices Video ]

Tried to do a little shoveling this weekend, decided the ribs still weren't up to it. Back to the ship model: http://flutterby.net/DDZZ2A

[ related topics: Machinery ]

Samuel L. Ipsum. Placeholder text with attitude.

In honor of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Village People - In The Navy

[ related topics: Music Video ]

After many years of trying, researchers at Rice University have succeeeded in producing carbon nanotube cables that can carry as much current as copper. All this while being lighter and stronger than metal. Maybe I should invest in coal, not to burn but to grow.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture ]

Toddler shoots hole through roof of vehicle

... a loaded Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun in a van ... . The 3-year-old reportedly grabbed the weapon and fired off a round into the van’s roof.

Unconfirmed was whether the 3 year old was actually overheard saying "I want my numnums now, bitch!".

[ related topics: Current Events Guns ]

Confession: I thought Rebecca Black was appreciated as ironic post-punk post-modernism, but I just heard Ke$ha's Tik-Tok. I had no idea.

FIA changes rules about running in mixed sex groups, invalidating Paula Radcliffe's 2005 women's marathon record of 2:17:42.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Sports ]

Bunnie: Why the Best Days of Open Hardware are Yet to Come:

Personally, I’m looking forward to the return of artisan engineering, where elegance, optimization and balance are valued over feature creep, and where I can use the same tool for a decade and not be viewed as an anachronism (most people laugh when they hear my email client is still Eudora 7).

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

The OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) project at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) may have found neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light.

Of Particular Significance: Supernovas and Neutrinos is an interesting read on the topic, although I'm not sure he's up on his timing technologies (his commenters go into more detail).

The MeFi entry, including this cuteness from tykky:

Now is the time to tell your programmer friends that researchers at CERN have discovered something faster than C.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Software Engineering Current Events Monty Python ]

Much as the denizens of AOL claimed "cyber" back in the '90s, I vote we claim "social". For similar uses.

[ related topics: moron ]

Morning has broken, like the first morning. This seems to be an ongoing situation. Why are we continuing to use the same vendor?

Forbes: Flying Drone Can Crack Wi-Fi Networks, Snoop On Cell Phones describes the little UAV that the folks at The Rabbit-Hole have been putting together. It does the usual Wi-Fi snooping, and can present itself as a GSM cell tower which then routes calls normally (using VOIP to the T-Mobile network), listening in on cell phone calls.

Via /..

[ related topics: Wireless broadband Aviation ]

RT @chockenberry:

The White House wants to know if we think software patents should be abolished: http://wh.gov/gEm (Signing up is a pain, BUT DO IT ANYWAY.)

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Software Engineering Race Real Estate ]

CNET: "Physics shocker! Neutrinos clocked faster than light", BBC: "Speed-of-light results under scrutiny at Cern". Did Murdoch buy CNET?

[ related topics: Monty Python ]

The Trend is in the Wrong Direction: Reflections on the Field Trial (part 10 of Diversity and Google+).

The Taga Tricycle/Stroller. Takes those bicycle trailers that transform to pushable stroller one step further.

[ related topics: Pedal Power Bicycling ]

"I don't lack moral fiber, it just gives me the runs..." -- Charles Stross

[ related topics: Ethics ]

GQ talks about Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico and current Republican Presidential Candidate. Worth reading not just for the look at Johnson, but for the looks at how the major news outlets also seem to be covering presidential candidates more for their abilities to stir up controversy than for their electability or even poll standings.

[ related topics: Politics Invention and Design Current Events ]

http://www.jodyculkin.com/comics-2/introduction-to-arduino

A comic book format about Arduino that remind me of the old Forest Mims how-to sketch books.

[ related topics: Books Comics ]

Shadow passed along a soft-ride bike with steel tires. I wouldn't lean it terribly far, and I'd imagine that it has a little bit of a stepping effect, but the concept is cool. I wonder how much longitudinal energy those wheels absorb.

[ related topics: Cool Science Bay Area Bicycling ]

Scientific American: It's time to end the war on salt.

[ related topics: History ]

From Boing Boing: Logan's Run in Origami.

$4 million to make walking to school safer - and few are walking, about the failure of the Safe Routes to Schools program in the Minneapolis area:

But after spending $820 million to promote walking to school and reducing childhood obesity, there is no sign the program has actually added any walkers at all.

Parents say the approach is wrong. They say their children don't walk because of fear of crime, Minnesota's harsh winters, and laziness. Parents like to pamper their kids by driving them.

And many schools are built to discourage walking.

Yep, and rather than doing this in a controlled way where we could actually figure out what worked we blew damned nigh a billion bucks to funnel into the pockets of consultants and who knows what other sorts of political cronies sucking off tax dollars. It's people like former Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar who lead to the sort of spending the Tea Party should really be targeting (once they cut military spending to sane levels).

Also from this Transportationist linkdump, I need to read The Future of Roads: No Driving, No Emissions, Nature Reconnected a little bit more closely before I snark on it solidly, but at first glance: separate high-cost infrastructure requiring multi-purpose vehicles... uh...

I think I need to make a "next generation transportation system bullshit" bingo card generator.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Politics Nature and environment Bay Area Software Engineering moron hubris ]

Austin Police Department postpones "Operation Wardrive":

The operation was scheduled to take place on Thursday as an effort to educate the public about securing their wireless Internet connections. DART unit members were to make contact with residents who have open wireless connections and teach them the importance of securing them.

Uh, and the importance of securing them is... what? A lack of plausible deniability if someone uses your Internet connection for nefarious purposes? Great, they're trying to frame the citizens they're supposed to be serving, apparently.

Via Techdirt via Violet Blue.

And that spare Linksys with DD-WRT I've got sitting on my shelf... yeah, time to turn that into some sort of law enforcement honeypot.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Wireless Weblogs Bay Area Current Events Law Enforcement Net Culture ]

As reported by this MeFi entry, in 1991, Orestes Lorenzo Perez defected from Cuba to the U.S. in a MiG-23, and then launched a large publicity campaign in order to get his wife and sons out. Raúl Castro, then Minister of the Armed Forces, said "If he had the balls to steal one my MiGs, then he can come back and get his family himself!" So he did.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Sociology Marriage ]

Pressthink: If “he said, she said” journalism is irretrievably lame, what’s better?. Via MeFi

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Journalism and Media ]

The more I learn about the issues in transportation systems, the less happy I am with my local "Bicycle Coalition" organizations.

[ related topics: Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Airwolf

(hat tip to Elf Sternberg)

[ related topics: tolkien ]

Men of the Stacks, a 2012 sexy librarian calendar project.

two things happened today that seem to be related.

1. on 7th and Broad downtown chattanooga, the newspaper boxes have papers from thursday last week on them.
2. i got cold called to subscribe at work. my comment was: "the online version sucketh. why subscribe?" her response was a sigh and an "i understand".

the Chattanooga Times ("news") Free Press is dead and it isn't even news.

[ related topics: Current Events Journalism and Media Work, productivity and environment Chattanooga ]

Stolen Bike Could Explode, (Halifax, Canada) Police Warn.

The owner has posted a Kijiji ad offering a $250 reward for the bike, which is equipped with a fuel cell and a highly modified Zenoah GoPed motor.

Thanks, Shadow!

[ related topics: Politics Cool Science Current Events Law Enforcement Bicycling ]

[ related topics: Photography Archival ]

John Cassidy in the The New Yorker: Rational Irrationality: Poverty and Income in America: The Four Lost Decade

To me, what is really, really alarming is this: a typical American male who works full time and still has a job is earning almost exactly the same now as his counterpart was back in 1972, when Richard Nixon was in the White House, O. J. Simpson rushed a thousand yards for the Buffalo Bills, and Don McLean topped the charts with “American Pie.”

Via Rebecca's Pocket.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Heinlein Race Real Estate ]

Martin A. Schwartz in The Journal of Cell Science: The importance of stupidity in scientific research is making the rounds today, and I think it's worth a read:

...Preliminary and thesis exams have the right idea when the faculty committee pushes until the student starts getting the answers wrong or gives up and says, `I don't know'. The point of the exam isn't to see if the student gets all the answers right. If they do, it's the faculty who failed the exam.

Yes! This is not only what's wrong with the way we structure education generally, where we're teaching "the one true way" and assuming that the teachers have the best answers, this is especially what's wrong with the gamification of everything: This notion that there will always be incremental steps which are within reach, that the really hard problems will have a blinking red target area that will be open for some small period and the way to beat it is to dodge the missiles until that moment when you can fire precisely and defeat the boss...

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

Flickr upload with OAuth using C#/.NET and no external libraries: Achievement(?!) unlocked. #learnedthingsIshouldnotneedtoknow

Magic Mushrooms Can Make Lasting Personality Changes, Study Says.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Clowns ]

Boston attorney Ben Seisler, and former sperm donor, uses a spreadsheet to keep track of his over 75 offspring (Via MeFi).

What does that social construct do to evolutionary issues of reproductive success?

[ related topics: Law Community ]