Exactly what is all that stuff that the pilots keep looking at, anyway?

Labels: technology

Mt Baker 025
Originally uploaded by vanman_0218.

from here.

Labels: funny, religion

Labels: law

Automobile maker Ford reports a record $12.7 billion loss in 2006. Ford chief executive Alan Mulally says Ford plans to "operate profitably at lower volumes and with a product mix that better reflects consumer demand for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles".

You're telling me American auto manufacturers are just now realizing that consumers want fuel-efficient vehicles? That it has taken this long for them to realize monstrous gas-guzzling SUVs aren't a sustainable technology? Nope, they knew it but they insisted on squeezing as much out of the SUV as possible, and even foisted larger, less economical trucks (like the Expedition: "so large it's silly.") onto the American auto scene. They saw the writing on the wall and they ignored it. Rather than prepare for the necessary trend of sustainability and decreased dependence on non-renewable resources, the Ford execs opted for quick profits ($1.44 billion in 2005). And now they're moaning about massive losses and planning to close 16 factories in North America and cut 45,000 jobs. It's just sad, really. The only upshot is that finally, finally, American carmakers are facing the reality of the not-so-distant post-oil market. But my bet is that their hybrids will suck too.

Labels: technology

"It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true."

-- Bertrand Russell

Labels: quotes

The moon of Dione, with Saturn in the background, from the Cassini-Huygens photo contest results.

Labels: photography

The Hyperbike is the latest creation of Curtis DeForest. It can reach speeds of up to 50 mph and can withstand some rather serious collisions. Eh. Call me when they figure out the mountain bike version.

Labels: bike

The catwasher:

the full video of this crazy machine is here.

Labels: pets

Elite special forces troops being dropped behind enemy lines on covert missions are to ditch their traditional parachutes in favour of strap-on stealth wings. The lightweight carbon fibre mono-wings will allow them to jump from high altitudes and then glide 120 miles or more before landing - making them almost impossible to spot, as their aircraft can avoid flying anywhere near the target.

The technology was demonstrated in spectacular fashion three years ago when Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner - a pioneer of freefall gliding - famously 'flew' across the English Channel, leaping out of an aircraft 30,000ft above Dover and landing safely near Calais 12 minutes later. Wearing an aerodynamic suit, and with a 6ft wide wing strapped to his back, he soared across the sea at 220mph, moving six feet forward through the air for every one foot he fell vertically - and opened his parachute 1,000ft above the ground before landing safely.

Now military scientists have realised the massive potential for secret military missions. Currently special forces such as the SAS rely on a variety of parachute techniques to land behind enemy lines - or else they must be dropped by helicopter. Existing steerable square parachutes can be used - opened at high altitude of 27,000 ft - but jumpers then have to struggle to control them for long periods, often in high winds and extreme cold, while breathing from an oxygen tank to stay alive.

Alternatively they can freefall from high altitude, opening their parachutes at the last possible minute, but that limits the distance they can 'glide' forward from the drop point to just a few miles.

Now German company ESG has developed the strap-on rigid wing specifically for special forces use. Resembling a 6ft-wide pair of aircraft wings, the devices should allow a parachutist to glide up to 120 miles, carrying 200lb of equipment, the manufacturers claim.

Fitted with oxygen supply, stabilisation and navigation aides, troops wearing the wings will jump from a high-altitude transport aircraft which can stay far away from enemy territory - or on secret peacetime missions could avoid detection or suspicion by staying close to commercial airliner flight paths.

The manufacturers claim the ESG wing is '100 per cent silent' and 'extremely difficult' to track using radar. Once close to their target landing zone, the troops pull their parachute rip cord to open their canopy and then land normally. Weapons, ammunition, food and water can all be stowed inside the wing, although concealing the 6ft wings after landing could prove harder than burying a traditional parachute.

ESG claims the next stage of development will be fitting 'small turbo-jet drives' to the wings to extend range even further. According to SAS insiders, very few operational parachute jumps have taken place in recent years, with teams tending to rely more on helicopters or other means of transport.

Supporters of the new mono-wing technology hope it will give a new lease of life to parachute tactics in the special forces world. The Ministry of Defense would not comment on any equipment used by special forces, but is expected to evaluate the new system for use by UK special forces.

Labels: military

Wow. "Every American should have health care coverage within six years, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday as he set an ambitious goal soon after jumping into the 2008 presidential race."

But some are calling this tepid pablum.

Labels: politics

One of the more literate blogs I enjoy occasionally, openbrackets, recently wondered why there aren't more good collective nouns for people. A "group" of guys, girls, doctors, etc. seems to do the trick, but how boring is that? I liked these suggestions much better. A few good ones:
a finger of urologists
a shimmy of strippers
a pyramid of acrobats
a pep of cheerleaders
a swindle of financial advisors
a blur of diplomats
a binge of alcoholics
a house of crack addicts
a probability of actuaries
a plaque of dental hygienists
a spray of exterminators
a blaze of arsonists
a swoon of silent film actresses

Labels: language

Guitar World Magazine recently wrote an article on the 20 greatest guitar solos ever, and these guys have compiled links to YouTube videos of the rocking.

Labels: music

Labels: funny

"The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance."

Oswald Chambers

Labels: quotes

Has anyone else gotten this email? If so, please see my comments below.

Subject: Fw: Obama - know your candidates
>
>
> KNOW your candidates
>
>
> Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to black Muslim Barack Hussein Obama Sr. of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and White atheist, Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas.
>
> When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced and his father returned to Kenya. His mother married Lolo Soetoro, a Muslim as well, moving to Jakarta with young Obama, when he was six years old.
>
> Within six months he had learned to speak the Indonesian language Obama spent "two years in a Muslim school, then two more in a Catholic school" in Jakarta.
>
> Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. Mitigating that information, by saying that for two years, he attended a Catholic school.
>
> Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was a radical Muslim who migrated from Kenya to Jakarta, Indonesia. He met Obama's mother, Ann Dunham—at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
>
> Obama's spin- meisters are now attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam, came from his father and that influence was only temporary, which is true. Obama Sr. returned to Kenya immediately following the divorce and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. But,
>
> Lolo Soetoro, Ann Dunham's second husband, educated his stepson Barack Hussein Obama, as a good Muslim by enrolling him in one of Jakarta's Wahabbi schools.
>
> Wahabbism is the radical teaching that created the Muslim terrorists, who are now waging Jihad on the industrialized world. Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United Church of Christ, to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim.

Every American who plans on voting in the 2008 election should know that this email is factually incorrect. The folks over at snopes.com have investigated each claim in this email and refuted it line by line here. If you don't consider Snopes an authority, read the CNN story saying the same thing here. What's really interesting is that Obama has already told his life story and made it available to the general public in book form, but that still won't stop his detractors from unloading these lies onto the unsuspecting (and non-reading) public. Is Obama the best choice for President? I'm still not sure. But he at least deserves a shot without being labeled a 'radical Muslim,' which he assuredly is not.

Labels: politics

"One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children's listening habits, especially in this Internet Age of MP3 piracy."

Bands to watch out for:
[a sampling]

Cole Porter
The String Cheese Incident
The Rolling Stones
Frank Sinatra
The Doors
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Nirvana
Velvet Underground
Phish
Ravi Shankar
Wilco
Elton John(really gay) ...

Labels: religion

and I still do.

Labels: cars

Imagine diving off the coast of Grenada and coming across these.

Labels: art

Labels: nature

Excellent. The new Democratic congress made good on their 100 hour promise Wednesday (see my previous post on the 100 hour promise here), enacting a final piece of legislation that imposes billions in fees, taxes and royalties on oil and gas companies and uses the money to promote renewable fuels. The bill, H.R. 6, can be found here. Hope springs anew, Bush's veto notwithstanding. The previous five bills are as follows:

• Make the government negotiate for lower Medicare prescription drug prices. It passed last Friday.
• Expand federally funded stem cell research. It passed Jan. 11.
• Raise the federal minimum wage. It passed Jan. 10.
• Seek to bolster terrorism-fighting efforts. It passed Jan. 9.
• Change rules governing ethics, lobbying and the budget. These changes were passed on Jan. 4-5.

UPDATE
I meant the House of Representatives. The Senate killed the minimum wage bill on Tuesday, Jan 23.

Labels: politics

Labels: funny

Labels: politics, war

Herbert A. Millington
Chair - Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,
Chris L. Jensen

Labels: funny

More eye candy here.

Labels: art

Damn Interesting article on the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated. You can watch a video of the explosion here.

Labels: war

"Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit."

-- Edward Abbey, Vox Clamantis in Deserto

Labels: quotes

A few gems from my perennial favorite blog in passing, which documents the little snippets of weird conversation you pick up in a big city on any given day.

"I want her to have a going away party, so I can say, 'Oh, I'm not going. I'll be celebrating in private.'"
-- A girl talking to a guy on BART

"It's just that I've yet to really find someone who was willing to commit."
"Too much 'just hooking up, not enough quote unquote together?'"
"No, not commit to me, commit to the drama. Really dive in, you know?"
-- A girl and a guy at Jupiter

"It must be so sad to be a lady with a flower stand. People buying flowers for their girlfriends all day, for their mothers, for their birthdays."
"That sounds really happy, actually."
"Yeah, but no one's ever going to buy flowers for her. They'll think, 'flower lady. Doesn't need more flowers.'"
"I'll bet she's sick of flowers. With a job like that you probably want... waffles."
-- A girl and a guy walking down Durant St.

Labels: funny

I absolutely love Flickr. It's just a great place to store and share photos. But the coolest feature yet is the camera finder page, which lets you see what cameras people are using the most and with the best results. For example, if you're thinking about buying a new Nikon D80 SLR, why not view hundreds of photos taken with the camera? And once you've seen this shot, why not buy one?

Labels: photography

Genius Waitress

Of the genius waitress, I now sing.

Of hidden knowledge, buried ambition, and secret
sonnets scribbled on cocktail napkins; of aching
arches, ranting cooks, condescending patrons, and eyes
diverted from ancient Greece to ancient grease; of
burns and pinches and savvy and spunk; of a uniquely
American woman living a uniquely American compromise,
I sing. I sing of the genius waitress.

Okay, okay, she’s probably not really a genius. But
she is well-educated. She has a degree in Sanskrit,
ethnoastronomy, Icelandic musicology, or something
equally valued in contemporary marketplace. Even if
she could find work in her chosen field, it wouldn’t
pay beans–so she slings them instead. (The genuis
waitress is not to be confused with the
aspiring-actress waitress, so prevalent in Manhattan
and Los Angeles and so different from her sister in
temperament and I.Q.)

As a type, the genius waitress is sweet and sassy,
funny and smart; young, underestimated, fatalistic,
weary, cheery (not happy, cheerful: there’s a
difference and she understands it), a tad bohemian,
often borderline alcoholic, frequently pretty (though
her hair reeks of kitchen and bar); as independent as
a cave bear (though ever hopeful of “true love”) and,
above all, geniune.

Covertly sentimental, she fusses over toddlers and old
folks, yet only fear of unemployment prevents her from
handing an obnoxious customer his testicles with his
bill.

She doesn’t mind a little good-natured flirting, and
if you flirt with verve and wit, she may flirt back.
Never, however, never try to impress her with your
resume. Her tolerance for pretentious Yuppies ends
with her shift, sometimes earlier. She reads men like
a menu and always knows when she’s being offered
leftovers or an artificially inflated souffle.

Should you ever be lucky enough to be taken home by
her to that studio apartment with the jerry-built
bookshelves and Frida Kahlo posters, you will discover
that whereas in the public dining room she is merely
as proficient as she needs to be, in the private
bedroom she is blue gourmet virtuoso. Five stars and
counting! Afterward, you can discuss chaos theory or
the triple aspects of the mother goddess in universal
art forms–while you massage her swollen feet.

Eventually, she leaves food service for graduate
school or marriage; but unless she wins a grant or a
fair divorce settlement, chances are she’ll be back, a
few years down the line, reciting the daily specials
with her own special mixture of warmth and ennui.

Erudite emissary of eggs over easy, polymath purveyor
of polenta and prawns, articulate angel of apple pie,
the genius waitress is on duty right now in hundreds
of U.S. restaurants, smile at the ready, sauce on the
side. So brush up on your Schopenhauer, place your
order–and tip, mister, tip. She deserves a break today.

Of her, I sing.

-- Tom Robbins
Playboy, 1991

Labels: poetry

Watch the greatest moments in kung fu, ever.

Labels: violence

Labels: evolution, religion

Call me crazy (ok, you're crazy) but this really does look like fun.

Labels: extreme

Search Google Maps at night.

Labels: maps

Introducing the Thrustpac. This little gas-powered gizmo straps onto the bicyclist's back and provides a thrust of windpower up to 35 mph. It uses about an ounce of gas per mile (roughly 150 miles per gallon) and is controlled by the coolest glove design ever--you simply move your finger up and down and the Thrustpac accelerates or decelerates accordingly. It ain't cheap ($899-$1999) but imagine the commuter possibilities. I wouldn't take it down a trail however.

Labels: bike

Labels: religion

Labels: nature

Jacek Yerka

Labels: art

Death from above.

Labels: war

Now we know where Waldo went.

Labels: advertising

Labels: gadgets

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you've had quite enough.

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.

The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

Monty Python

Labels: montypython

the redneck airplane.

Labels: funny

Fine art, no humans.

Labels: photoshop

Labels: education, evolution, religion

Death Valley

Labels: photography

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."

  --Irvin S. Cobb

Labels: funny

Labels: funny, science

Labels: funny

Theocracywatch.org

Labels: politics, religion

Introducing...the evolution of dance.

Labels: art

Incredible--the entire Star Wars Holiday Special is up on Google Video. I've wanted to see this for years, although I fear it's as bad as they say it is. Enjoy it before George Lucas makes 'em take it down.

Labels: video

Added to Thomas Jefferson's long list of accomplishments was his attempt to purge the Bible of its misinterpretations and supernaturalism. Had the "Jefferson Bible" (as it became known) been more popular perhaps Americans wouldn't be experiencing such a crisis of faith as we are now. This is how he explained the project to John Adams in 1813:

"In extracting the pure principles which he [Jesus] taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations, their logos and demiurgos, aeons and daemons, male and female, with a long train of . . . or, shall I say at once, of nonsense. We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphibologisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill."

Labels: religion

If flight attendants were honest:

"GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust..."

Labels: funny

Amazing underwater panorama photography.

Labels: photography

Speaking of Mat (see post below), it sure must be nice to be here.

Labels: travel

Check out this handy little cliche finder bookmarklet, which highlights hackneyed and wornout language on any website. It's easy as pie.

Also check out the cliche finder, which is cool as a cucumber.

via Mat.

Labels: language

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees.

"In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is 'no comment.' "

Labels: science

Labels: video