The Netherlands' Delta Committee rocks. Click through to read an amazing article about the Dutch 200 year plan to protect their country from rising sea levels on account of global warming. Amazing diagrams and interesting pictures. Now that is prudent and rational planning. Now this makes me want to visit Amsterdam and the surrounding countryside of the Netherlands even more.

risk = (probability of failure) x (projected cost of damage)

Maybe if they had actually USED this equation for New Orleans, the damages and horrifying results of Hurricane Katrina wouldn't have occurred. This equation has been in used by the Dutch and for high-end engineering risk analysis since the 1950's, by the way. Other than the Dutch, it is usually only used by fields like nuclear power, aerospace, and chemical manufacturing.

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In the never-never land of created wants, enter the Mitsubishi LaserVue 65" Black DLP HDTV - L65A90 which is a laser-powered television with a starting price of $7K. Yowch! But it is capable of producing a 3D image… and it's got the best color, clarity, high contrast, etc. of any television out there… and it runs on 1/3 the energy of an LCD, 1/4 that of a plasma television… Maybe I'll be able to talk myself into the purchase of one of these someday, after the price drops considerably. With a 10.1" screen, 12.6" in depth with the stand and 136 lbs… Wow. Would need to upgrade the furniture too. At least other flat panel television prices are plummeting.

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Ummmm… What?! What's that you say? Pay especial attention to the comments below the article ginmar; maybe you can use them on the various stereo people you encounter in your life. *no hugs here* There are also a lot of insightful comments about the use, misuse, and worth of torture further down in the comment stream.

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Gives another layer to the meaning of the term kissing cousins, doesn't it? Dispassioned analysis of the genetic affects of intermarrying with your cousins as well as a handy-dandy figure showing where first-cousin marriage is outlawed. Very interesting. Genetically, I think it becomes a problem when the intermarriage of cousins happens multi-generationally. Meaning the first set of cousins' children marrying and then their children, etc. When the gene pool is limited by locality, this can be the outcome because the offspring tend to stay close to the epicenter of their birth, and their choices are narrowed further by having intermarriages between cousins above them in the family tree. Of course, all this reminds me of discussions of family trees in the Harry Potter novels. There are implications of everyone being related to someone, somehow, over the centuries. But, the most interesting comment in the article itself comes very quickly: "laws against the unions are a socially legitimized form of genetic and sexual discrimination." Who's the finger of blame going to be pointed at when the neochristians hear this tidbit? I bet they (as well as all the middle-aged couples looking to get their sprog on) get severely tweaked over the comment that it is comparable to restricting women over the age of 40 from childbearing because of an equivalent risk of birth defects.

I find it interesting that some of the articles linked to below this one are: Women, Trust Your Nose: Inbred Men May Smell Bad. And Calling Jerry Springer: Embryo Mixing Could Make Three-Parent Children where the term (new to me) trinogomous relationships is used. I think, in the case of the latter article, the more genetic mixing the better… Look at what it could do for mitochondrial based diseases! Are we on the edge of the reproductive freedom forefront? Between all of the above and gay marriage - I would say a resounding yes. I also would say that any child that is born wanted and is well cared for should be welcomed. Not as many commentors in this one, but the few ignorant dissenters are thoroughly trounced by the intelligent folk.

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Did anyone on my f-list know that you could auction off this little Monopoly rule:

"The main rule that tends to get ignored is the auction. If you land on a property and don't want it, it goes to auction. That's what tends to slow things down and put a lot of people off. If you don't get houses built it will go on forever."

Interesting BBC article about board games, where Monopoly is touted as a game that takes social interaction to "new heights" by placing a premium on negotiation. Hell. I didn't realize you could make deals to waive interest, exchange property, or form strategic alliances. Well maybe the latter… Tactics that are said to be common in multiplayer games. Maybe I just never played a game with enough people. Another game highlighted, Diplomacy, is touted as a game requiring the playing of the opponent as much as the game which is finding favour outside the home as an "educational tool." Interesting. I didn't know that a game that's central attraction lies in the negotiations, alliances, betrayals, poker faces and backstabbing… where you are expected to lie at every turn and constantly second guess your opponents intentions would be used as an educational tool. Yeah. Who am I kidding? Sounds a lot like life in the worst circumstances - circumstances that all of us must face at one time or another. For the unlucky, they face those circumstances constantly. The final sentences of the article separate the skill sets acquired nicely. Soft skills that games teach us:

"How to win and lose with grace, how to play nicely with our families; and how to dissemble, cajole, and gull our way to victory."

----------------------------------------

Earlier today, I met with CoB, his brother and nephew - and they were laughingly teaching the toddler Chinese phrases and joking about preparing for our "Chinese overlords" a la Firefly universe beginnings. I was reminded of the conversation, over lunch I might add, when reading the following article, especially when I hit this part:

"In hindsight, many economists say, the United States should have recognized that borrowing from abroad for consumption and deficit spending at home was not a formula for economic success."

Can't everything be seen in hindsight when you are looking for it? Hrmphf. Now it is being said that Chinese Savings Helped Inflate American Bubble… No. Us greedy grubs did it to ourselves, you blighter.

On another Chinese note: a traveler's perspective of feeling like going from the Jetsons' to the Flinstones' when coming back o Kennedy Airport from Hong Kong. No kidding. Time to reboot our infrastructure indeed.

"My fellow Americans, we can’t continue in this mode of “Dumb as we wanna be.” We’ve indulged ourselves for too long with tax cuts that we can’t afford, bailouts of auto companies that have become giant wealth-destruction machines, energy prices that do not encourage investment in 21st-century renewable power systems or efficient cars, public schools with no national standards to prevent illiterates from graduating and immigration policies that have our colleges educating the world’s best scientists and engineers and then, when these foreigners graduate, instead of stapling green cards to their diplomas, we order them to go home and start companies to compete against ours.

we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover."

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Thought provoking article about for-profit charitable aid companies in the sin of doing good deeds. When they get more done for the charity in question, I applaud them. When they defraud the people donating to the charitable cause, this is when I have a problem. Hell. I loved it that Barnes and Noble did the "buy a book to be donated to needy children drive" this year… LOVED IT. I hope whoever gets the copies of The Hobbit and Ramona Quimby - Age 8 enjoy their first reading of them as much as I did. When businesses do things to help other people, when they (and no, I don't know if B&N fits into the whole category here) make it a point to act in ethical, sustaining, world/community building ways - while reigning in the business propensity for over-compensating the upper echelons of the business - good things happen. Businesses can do good even as they do well. That should be drilled into our children throughout their lives. Every person's actions have an effect in the world that can ripple out and affect people half a world away. Just because you aren't aware of that consciously does not mean it doesn't occur.

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Goo Goo! May B.H.O. go the way of F.D.R.

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Wish I had been able to be around to give the service people (mailman, firehouse, police station, the mechanic, etc.) boxing day gifts. I've done it a few times in my life. Usually it is a tin of home-baked goods or something like that.

"It is on Boxing Day, after all, on the “feast of Stephen,” that “Good King Wenceslas” looked out and saw the snow, “deep and crisp and even.” The cold was notable not for its beauty, but for the hunger that it brought with it. The king calls for food, wine and “pine logs” not for his own feast, but that he and his page may “bear them thither” to give to the poor… In the 19th century, the “boxes” of Boxing Day were either literally boxes of gifts or money, given by employers to staff and servants."

However, boxing day isn't just about giving to the poor, it is (I gather) about giving to those who work for you - either directly or indirectly. I got a bottle of wine from my manager before he left for holiday vacation. Yay! Just remember, today, your "servants" are out-sourced workers. The housekeepers, the dry cleaners, recycling and garbage collectors, delivery people and so forth… It is also a time for what is termed "duty visits" where you go and visit that obnoxious relative that you would never usually go and see. Ha! Don’t just keep “the Christmas of the belly: keep you the Christmas of the heart. Give — give.”

Must remember as well when Maundy Thursday rolls around. It is supposed to have a similar purpose - giving alms to the poor.

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Gorgeous house in the background, neh?

The article that it is associated with, however, has a stupid title that is contradicted throughout by itself. Oh noes! You have to clear off the solar panels! You knew there would be a trade-off during the changing of the seasons when you installed the darn things, and no amount of poo-pooing in an article can make it seem like no one would know that days are shorter during the winter in the northern hemisphere. And, no, ice is not flung like javelins from spinning wind turbines. Sheesh.

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More cheers for the Kindle and the beginnings of the passing of the "early adopter" phase of the e-book craze. Bring it on! Go paperless, people! Someday, the only books people will own on paper will be their ultimate favorites - or maybe even those won't need to be paper anymore. The easiest way to turn fetishist bibliophiles on to ebooks would be to start making/selling book/paper scented candles to burn when reading so you can elevate the ambiance of the moment.

In related news, and my last bit of writing… Finally... Crowdsourcing your tech support needs. It is something that I've done more and more often over the last few years. In addition to all the sites mentioned in the article I would like to applaud the advent of YouTube and the helpful how-to videos have helped immensely as well as being able to use Google to search for help using a short description of the problem. Way cool. Keep it up, internetz!

And now… I go cuddle with CoB. Huzzah!

It was a long, draining day where I worked very, very hard on difficult problems. Of course, I had a few minutes this morning before the hordes descended to write up a post.


Awesome "synthetic" (bio-) fuel company - Amyris leading the way with plans to make 200 million gallons of synfuel a year at $2 per gallon by 2011. Another plus - they'll generate a lot of real living-wage factory jobs where people are employed making actual products they can afford to buy themselves. But will they be able to pull it off?

USB 3.0 is coming, and man is it going to be fast! It's said to deliver a tenfold increase in data transfer speed when going head-to-head in a USB showdown with the 2.0 tech. This is also likely to signal the death of FireWire/IEEE 1394. Which, I guess, would the the Betamax?

Waiting until Friday for the Google Mobile App so that I can do a voice-enabled search on my NEW iPHONE! Yep. Christmas is around me; I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes.



Oh. And, after seeing Quantum of Solace three times this weekend… did anyone else notice the plethora of hip alternate fuel vehicles? Too bad the vehicles don't actually exist. BAD FORD! Shouldn't tease us like that, you bastards!

However, to be built by Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies and coachbuilder Fisker Automotive (designer of BMWs and Aston-Martins). This new car will use an innovative plug-in hybrid technology called Quantum Drive (come one...meant for Bond), a hybrid electric/gas power plant that can be plugged in at the owner's home garage for easy charging, and also refuel at any gas station on the road.



Building an alt-energy power plant is risky and expensive, but thanks to a new ruling by an Environmental Protection Agency panel, building a coal plant may become riskier and more expensive. So it is good that the EPA Coal Decision Levels Playing Field for Wind, Solar. And that, said the Sierra Club's chief climate counsel, David Bookbinder, is good news for new clean tech companies.

Want to see the new high resolution map of U.S. per-capita carbon dioxide emissions and read the discussion about said map? Go here.


Bad Texans! Or are those emissions floating over from Mexico?

The recession is also driving the greening of the electronics industry. Yay! Driven by saving money, stricter policies on disposal of waste - and who's held responsible for them - and the marketing to retain positive public relations. Bottom line thinking, yes, but we are forcing the industry to comply to make it good for their bottom line to do so. Economics 101 anyone?

Finally, my photog geek friends: turn your flatbed scanner into a giant camera!

OH NOZ! 'Anonymous' Member Unmasked!

An 18-year-old New Jersey man agreed to plead guilty to federal computer hacking charges Friday for participating in a denial-of-service attack against Church of Scientology websites, as part of collective of online troublemakers known as "Anonymous."
( Read more... )

As a continuation of yesterday, most of which occurred via email, here's an icon for my werewolves are better than vampire friends:



Since NPR was doing their fundraising thing this morning, I did some station surfing and heard Miss Independent, lyrics here, music video here. Not that I've seen the video, mind you, I cannot access youtube at work. *sigh* Probably better that way. Oh. Listen to it here. It's nice when you hear semi-pro-feminist R&B. There is still some expectation of beauty upkeep, but it seems like "she" has the money to pay other people to do all her upkeep for her (manicure, pedicure, hair cut and style, etc) which may be construed as a measure of privilege. However, I like it. Opinions?

Click here for a series of 13 images showing "Under the Surface at Monterey Bay Aquarium."

Article to the above slide show "Monterey Bay: An Aquarium for the Ages Opens" found here. The aquarium occupies the site of an old sardine cannery at the edge of Monterey Bay, one of the most fertile and diverse marine environments on earth.



Six Apart CEO speaks out on how the downturn in the economy is affecting blogging over a smooth, cool Belgian beer.

What the heck is "Location-Based Dating" people? Anyone? Apparently, the current article is a follow up to this one about Love: Japanese Style.

RIAA Decries Texas Woman as 'Vexatious' for Demanding File Sharing Trial. Along with the article is one of crabbyolbastard's favorite images:



I love the second comment in the comment string at the bottom of the article:

Vexatious?

"In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved"

OHHHH! FIRST QUANTUM OF SOLACE REVIEWS ARRIVE, UNVEIL DARK ADVENTURE!



If the collection of early reviews is any reliable sign (and the consistent tone in each would indicate it is), the next James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, is an aggressive, tight, grim and moody thriller that leads directly into the next film in the decades-old series.

So far, reviews out of U.K. sources such as the BBC and The Daily Mirror praise the film and the performance of Daniel Craig as 007 for exploring the lead character's depth and motivation in a manner not seen in a previous Bond flick.

While celebrating Solace's tight pacing and effective action sequences, critics also question the film's heavy, moody tone as the grieving, vengeful 007 seeks out the deadly international criminal organization that killed his lover and threatens the world. It seems the fun, flippant Bond of Sir Roger Moore (and even Pierce Brosnan) is long gone.

Quantum of Solace premieres on Halloween in the United Kingdom and Nov. 14 in the United States.

Finally: Future vehicles may be made of 'buckypaper'

Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.

IBM is seeding the iPhone App Store and using users as marketing test subjects. They're research projects are popping up like weeds in the effort to see how users in the real world take to them. The projects include an experimental text-input system and an application to sync multiple devices, the latter so you can virally infect your friend's iPhones.

Blackberry calls the iPhone out at high noon in the BlackBerry Storm vs. iPhone G3 showdown. The article contains a handy dandy reference chart and was deemed the best competitor to date for the iPhone.

Interesting history lesson: Did you know that in 1582 the pope declared that a one time deletion of October 4-15 would occur to fix the Julian Calendar slippage? That's right, in order to keep Easter from being observed in the summer and Christmas in the spring Pope Gregory XIII took drastic steps to reset the calendar.

Wired Science is putting forth a reasonable argument about why biofuels shouldn't be blamed for the food crisis. Placing the blame on biofuels obscures the role that long-held European and American agricultural subsidies played in creating the food crisis.



For you at-home terrorist hunters: data-minin for terrorists not 'feasible,' a DHS-funded study finds.



The government should not be building predictive data-mining programs systems that attempt to figure out who among millions is a terrorist, a privacy and terrorism commission funded by Homeland Security reported Tuesday. The commission found that the technology would not work and the inevitable mistakes would be un-American.

The 376-page report -- entitled "Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Assessment" (which goes for $55)-- comes as a rebuke to the Bush administration's attempts to use high-tech surveillance and data-sifting tools to prevent another terrorist attack inside the United States.

"Terrorists can damage our country and way of life in two ways: through physical, psychological damage and through our own inappropriate response to that threat." This was said by the investigating committee's co-chair Charles Vest -- the president of the National Academy of Engineering at the report's unveiling.

The United States Army is looking to build the world's strongest solar array as part of a far-reaching effort to cut back on the service's dependence on fossil fuels.

Currently, the most powerful photovoltaic array in the country is at Nellis Air Force Base, outside of Las Vegas. It generates about 15 megawatts of power. Other plants are in the works in New Mexico, Arizona and California that could produce up to 300 megawatts. The Army declared that it would "partner with the private sector to construct a 500-megawatt solar thermal plant at Fort Irwin, California, in the Mojave Desert. In an update to the article it was noted that Pacific Gas and Electric recently announced contracts for 800 megawatts of solar energy -- including a 550 megawatt "solar farm" in San Luis Obispo County, California. It's slated to be on line by 2013.

How secret are your secrets? DARPA Launches "Secret" Gandalf Project.

Announced yesterday by Darpa, the SECRET/NOFORN program's goal is to employ "set of handheld devices" to track down a particular "signal emitter of interest," using "radio frequency geolocation." And according to Lew Page, a former Royal Navy officer: "It would appear that a group of undercover operatives… dispersed near a target (perhaps a specific cell or satellite phone) might carry portable gadgets, presumably networked. The netted devices would be able to pick out the phone, radio or whatever they were after and track it. This sort of thing is already done by surveillance aircraft and/or drones; the new wrinkle is being able to do it using handheld devices. So Project Gandalf [is] presumably intended for situations where the spy planes and drones can't be used - perhaps where the local government is unaware of the operation."

Anyone want to comment on that?

In other news: the future of search won't be incremental.



In a play on the title of a great short story book: Do Toddlers Dream of Electronic Pets is about the robotic pets of the now and ruminations about their future use in society. Mainly though, it is a product review of "WowWee Alive" Lions, Pandas, Polar Bears and White Tiger all, of course, appearing as figuratively young as the children who are their intended playmates. Lions, Tigers and Bears… oh my.

For the weapon aficianados: Fighting Umbrella with Knuckle-Duster Handle Do you think the Umbuster is legal with that "brass knuckle" handle? Well, only if you have a license to carry… "The Umbuster has been classified a Class 5 weapon by good and upright men and women of the Victorian Police, and is considered similarly so in many countries. To have and to hold this accessory requires a weapons licence and, or gun licence." On sale now for $330. Not that impressive - really - if you consider how you have to hold the umbrella's handle when using it as rain gear.

Maybe Weird Al: Forefather of the YouTube Spoof should do a video where he uses the Umbuster?


Weird Al on tour - summer 2008.

Yeah baby! Got a glimpse of these things a while back at some conference of geekitude - or just read something on WIRED about them. Then the other day I find this girl geek site called io9 - and there was this woman talking about how, when she went to the dentist's office for some drilling, she wore these glasses to take her to another world while getting drilled on.

If you go to the site - watch out for the German - you can request to be a lead user because it just isn't offered for sale in the U.S. unless you go through serious loop-de-loops, speak German, and are buddies with the Hoff. A lead user is kind of like a tester of the new technology. They send you their device, and you use it for two weeks, send it back, and review it. If you really like it, you have the option to buy at a discounted rate.

Watch video through these little glasses? Yes please! Here's the site's English version.

On the job: End of three weeks and I'm still enjoying myself greatly. Helped to close a 10 million dollar deal with the credit committee. I am the go-to hot prospect researcher.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd world country labels are relics from the Cold War.

The first world were democratic capitalist countries that were industrialized. NATO was the biggest collection of these countries

The second world were Communist, industrialized countries. The Warsaw pact is the biggest collection of these countries

The Third world were non-aligned countries that were not industrialized. Basically the third world was the battleground for the Soviet Union and the US fighting for converts to their ideology. The Cold War was fought for control of these countries either by military conquest, or political influence.

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Having a difference of opinion in a previous post as to the disposition of China. In referring to it in Cold-War Era terms, it is a 2nd World nation. Because it was (oh, still is!) an industrialized nation. Industrialized nations can build things such as factories and power plants without too much trouble, when compared directly to non-industrialized nations.

China just experienced a massive earthquake. One of the ways we get updates about this is all the people in China that are blogging, Twittering, and Flickering about what's going on in their neck of the woods.

And, isn't China like one of the biggest industrial espionage nations out there? Can't use that stolen technology information if you don't have the industrial capacity to make home-grown versions.

Am I losing my mind? Should I accept China being called 3rd world just because they aren't democratic or as up to date on having a clean, environmentally responsible to the planet political stance? It's not like I am comparing them to Switzerland or something... I just think that they could build a cellulose-to-ethanol plant if they really wanted to.

Opinions wanted on this topic. What do you think?

September 2, 2007 12:26 PM PDT
I pity the fool (Windows XP good, Vista bad)
via CNET by Michael Horowitz

It saddens me to think of all the ill advised people buying new computers running Windows Vista, when they could have chosen XP. As Mr. T was fond of saying back in the 1980s, I pity the fool.

Let me be clear, my point is only about the choice between XP and Vista and has nothing to do with Macs or Linux, many of whose devotees feel this way about all Windows users. I'm also not here to defend Windows XP, whose faults are many. My point is simply that if you are buying a new computer to run Windows applications, XP is the right choice, Vista is the wrong choice.
( Read more... )
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And why is it that when a new Mac OS comes out it works perfectly fine? Hrm...

They rule... hahahahaha.

Go and drool here. Yah baby.

Two of the many:

I want this soooo much. It even comes in 17" size, just right for my NEW(ish) laptop, the Tablet PC... and I could get one in a different color for the OLD(ish) laptop, the Macintosh. It reminds me of that (and I cannot recall the movie I saw it in) little furry creature that is dancing around yelling all furry with it's mouth open. It might've been The Dark Crystal.

Yep, it was the Dark Crystal:


CUUUUTTEE factor of infinity. That and many more super-cool items can be found here at Barry's Farm, though the bags are made by Katie.


outside


inside


bigger better laptop bag instead of just a sleeve image! *drool*

Look - I could even have a cookie monster style sleeve/bag for the apple/Mac. Doesn't it look cute? Like it is getting eaten (macintosh cookies) by the cookie monster. Awwwww.

May 30, 2006
Stolen Lives
Technology and Easy Credit Give Identity Thieves an Edge
By JOHN LELAND and TOM ZELLER Jr.

PHOENIX — In a Scottsdale police station last December, a 23-year-old methamphetamine user showed officers a new way to steal identities.

His arrest had been unremarkable. This metropolitan area, which includes Scottsdale and Phoenix, has the highest rate of identity theft complaints in the nation, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Even members of the Scottsdale police force have had their identities stolen.

But the suspect showed officers something they had not seen before. Browsing a government Web site, he pulled up a local divorce document listing the parties' names, addresses and bank account numbers, along with scans of their signatures. With a common software program and some check stationery, the document provided all he needed to print checks in his victims' names — and it was all made available, with some fanfare, by the county recorder's office. The site had thousands of them.
( Read more... )