No user-serviceable parts inside.
Name: The Rt Hon KJP
resistance is useless
today
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visited *loading* times
[hair dryer in disguise]
If you were inventing a hair dryer (drier?), what would you make it look like? A brush maybe? A hand? Something that might have a pleasant association with hair?
Not for the good folks at Bathroom Graffiti. They made theirs to look like a HANDGUN. Just the thing you would normally point at your head first thing in the morning.
http://www.bathroomgraffiti.com/article.php?rubrique=5&article=155&pos=1
Malheureusement, cet article n'est pour le moment pas disponible à la vente. You will have to wait till Avril2005. mes petits choux.
[Copyright, patents and trademarks go wild: Cadbury takes out trademark on the colour purple]
Now this has just gone too damn far: Cadbury have a trademark application for the colour purple.
"The trade mark consists of the colour PURPLE the said trade mark being adopted as the substantial colour of packaging used in relation to the
nominated goods. The colour is the shades of purple corresponding to the following references in the 1997-1998 PANTONE â Colour Formula Guide: 2597c, 2607c, 2617c, 2627c, 266c, 267c, 268c, 269c, 2685c, 2695c, 273c,
274c, Violet C, 2735c, 2745c and 2755c"
"The trade mark consists of the colour purple, as shown on the form of application, applied to the whole visible surface or being the predominant colour applied to the whole visible surface, of the packaging of the goods"
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/pdfs/trademarks/hearings/779336.pdf
[artist smuggles his own art work into Museum of Modern Art]
...and nobody noticed for 3 days.
Many a visitor to New York's Museum of Modern Art has probably thought, "I could do that."
A British graffiti artist who goes by the name "Banksy" went one step further, by smuggling in his own picture of a soup can and hanging it on a wall, where it stayed for more than three days earlier this month before anybody noticed.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/24/art.prank.reut/index.html
[How to Defy Gravity in Ten Easy Steps]
http://www.livejournal.com/users/zestyping/97476.html
Amuse your friends, and probably scare your pets and relatives.
[highlights of Creation Science]
You really do have to hand it to the Creation Science fundamentalists. Some of the dumb things they say really do make me wonder if they evolved from lower primate forms, or sprang fully-formed from a barnacle. Which is, of course, evidence in their favour.
However, I really worry about some of their educational approaches.
One example is their Science Fair (think Science Talent Search gone wildly wrong). http://objective.jesussave.us/creationsciencefair.html
The winners this year include:
1st Place: "My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)"
Cassidy Turnbull (grade 5) presented her uncle, Steve. She also showed photographs of monkeys and invited fairgoers to note the differences between her uncle and the monkeys. She tried to feed her uncle bananas, but he declined to eat them. Cassidy has conclusively shown that her uncle is no monkey. That's science at work, folks.
1st Place: "Life Doesn't Come From Non-Life"
Patricia Lewis (grade 8) did an experiment to see if life can evolve from non-life. Patricia placed all the non-living ingredients of life - carbon (a charcoal briquet), purified water, and assorted minerals (a multi-vitamin) - into a sealed glass jar. No life evolved. This shows that life cannot come from non-life through natural processes. Simple huh?
2nd Place: "Women Were Designed For Homemaking"
Physics shows that women have a lower center of gravity than men, making them more suited to carrying groceries and laundry baskets; biology shows that women were designed to carry un-born babies in their wombs and to feed born babies milk, making them the natural choice for child rearing; social sciences show that the wages for women workers are lower than for normal workers, meaning that they are unable to work as well and thus earn equal pay. Case closed your honour.
Honorable mentions included someone using the Ancient Greek approach to science: "Rocks Can't Evolve, Where Did They Come From Mr. Darwin?"
But all is not lost.
2nd Place: "Maximal Packing Of Rodentia Kinds: A Feasibility Study"
Jason's project was to show the feasibility of Noah's Ark using a Rodentia research model (made of a mixture of hamsters and gerbils) as a representative of diluvian life forms. The Rodentia were placed in a cage with dimensions proportional to a section of the Ark. The number of Rodentia used (58) was calculated using available Creation Science research and was based on the median animal size and their volumetric distribution in the Ark. The study lasted 30 days and 30 nights, with all Rodentia surviving at least long enough afterwards to allow for reproduction. These findings strongly suggest that Noah's Ark could hold and support representatives of all antediluvian animal kinds for the duration of the Flood and subsequent repopulation of the Earth. Well at least it had some mildly scientific content (but this kid had 12 years of education to get this far)
And who said Creation Science can't be fun? If, as the website URL claims, Jesus Saves Them, I think He will have a fairly big job on His hands. There's a lot of saving required in that lot.
[a very clever screen background]
There are some clever things that can be done with screens and operating environments
One is to make the screens background image identical to the things behind the computer, so the screen appears "invisible" or at least transparent.
A great set of examples is available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/w00kie/sets/180637/ Some are quite beautiful.
[computer key seats]
oh dear. this is just too much.
[how to tell if its sunny outside]
Say you are locked in your office or classroom, isolated fom the real world but (sadly) connected via a computer or PDA. How do you tell if its sunny outside?
You could, of course, shift yourself and actually walk outside. Or if you were a high in geek-ness, you could use Do I Need a Jacket http://doineedajacket.com/main.asp and find out.
Ahhhh...surely this isn't why we need technology?
Coming soon: using a $3000 laptop and a webcam as a shaving mirror.
Now playing: Split Enz: I Hope I Never I'm for living while you can / I'm an optimistic man
[the horror of the 1970s: an old Sears catalogue]
What was the saying..if you can remember the 1970s, you weren't there? Well, maybe, but i remember a bit of it and it wasn't much like this, IIRC. Or perhaps it was, and i was permanently damaged as a result. Hmm, yes...that explains a lot really.
A wonderfully captioned catalogue from The Time that Style Forgot.
http://www.aperfectworld.org/sears.htm
[The Periodic Table of dessert]
This is another parody Periodic Table, but unlike most, this one actually shows pattern and periodicity. Maybe a scientist was invovled in its creation.
http://www.eblong.com/zarf/periodic/index.html
[Australians all let us rejoice, for we are a post-boredom society]
According to A Philosophy of Boredom, (Lars Fredrik Svendsen (translation by John Irons) Reaktion Books,
ISBN 1861892179), boredom was invented in 1760; the word is not found in English prior to this, though related concepts such as melancholy and acedia did exist.
Svendsen does not really go into the historical circumstances surrounding the emergence of boredom. The date 1760 is surely tremendously significant, because it connects the beginning of boredom with the beginning of the industrial revolution. It was in 1764 that James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny and James Watt invented the steam engine. And in 1788 the First Fleet hit our shores.
Before 1760, we neither categorised things as being "boring" nor "interesting"; they just were.
Work in the 19th century duly became unbelievably boring and tedious, and has remained so ever since.
So pour a few beers and throw another philosopher on the fire, for we are proud to be a post-boredom society. We are girt by it I guess.
http://www.newstatesman.com/Bookshop/300000095197
[finger length and aggression]
Dr. Peter Hurd and his graduate student Allison Bailey have shown that a man's index finger length relative to ring finger length can predict how inclined that man is to be physically aggressive. Women do not show a similar effect.
A psychologist at the University of Alberta, Hurd said that it has been known for more than a century that the length of the index finger relative to the ring finger differs between men and women. More recently, researchers have found a direct correlation between finger lengths and the amount of testosterone that a fetus is exposed to in the womb. The shorter the index finger relative to the ring finger, the higher the amount of prenatal testosterone, and--as Hurd and Bailey have now shown--the more likely he will be physically aggressive throughout his life.
"More than anything, I think the findings reinforce and underline that a large part of our personalities and our traits are determined while we're still in the womb," said Hurd.
Start measuring folks. But dont get angry if your index finger is a lot shorter than your ring finger. This could be a source of great hilarity...
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/uoa-flp030205.php
[virtual Zen garden]
http://www.cea2.mdx.ac.uk/lceaSite/gallery/zengarden/index.htm
Take a deep breath.
Tend the Zen garden.
End with peace of mind.
Oh, and breathe out. Don't forget that bit...
[printing real objects: rapid prototyper and replicator]
For years people working in the CAD and design area have designed things onscreen, but at the end of the day all they can do is print pictures onto paper or possibly feed instructions to a computer-controlled machine tool.
But now the ability to physically build a real physical prototype is almost with us.
Examples:
"As the number of the self-replicating machines – there are now thousands of conventional rapid prototype machines – grows rapidly, so the price will fall from £25,000 to a few hundred pounds.
“People have been talking for years about the cost of these machines dropping to be about the same as a computer printer,” said Dr Bowyer. “But it hasn’t happened. Maybe my idea will allow this to occur.”
A machine could, for instance, make a complete set of plates, dishes and bowls out of plastic, coloured and decorated to a design. It could also make metal objects out of a special alloy that melts at low temperatures, making it suitable for use in printed circuit boards for electronics. "
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117318,00.asp
The precision automaton could revolutionise building sites. It can work round the clock, in darkness and without tea breaks. It needs only power and a constant feed of semi-liquid construction material.
The key to the technology is a computer-guided nozzle that deposits a line of wet concrete, like toothpaste being squeezed onto a table. Two trowels attached to the nozzle then move to shape the deposit. The robot repeats its journey many times to raise the height and builds hollow walls before returning to fill them.
Engineer Behrokh Khoshnevis, at the University of Southern California, has been perfecting his "contour crafter" for more than a year. "The goal is to be able to completely construct a one-story, 2000-square foot home on site, in one day and without using human hands," he says.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4764
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/04/1064988452900.html?from=storyrhs
[Tom's Computer Science notes]
See Tom. Tom is in a Lecture. Tom is bored. Tom is writing in his notebook.
Here are Tom's notes. They are much like mine were. I wonder if Tom will pass?
Tom's notes are funny. They make Tom laugh.
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~tom7/csnotes/
[English in other languages]
"if the Queen's English was good enough for Jesus, Joseph and Mary, it shoud be good enough for anyone"
Chinglish = Chinese + English http://www.stanford.edu/~pvermees/chinglish.html, http://www.silverladder.com/literature/chinglish/chinglish.htm and http://www.pocopico.com/china/chinglish.php
Dunglish = Dutch + English http://www.dunglish.nl/
Spanglish - Spanish + English http://www.completetranslation.com/spanglish.htm
Engrish = Japanese English http://www.engrish.com/
Yinglish = Yiddish + Engish http://www.mazornet.com/jewishcl/humor/humor-jokes-03.htm
Late mail: All you need to know about language in Vienna, Viennese for Americans - A Phrase Book
By the Committee for the Expansion and Advancement of Viennese as the Internationally Recognized World Language http://www.abseits-soccer.com/wienerisch.html (thanks fro that, jellysexsoda).
And finally (regrettably putting jelly,sex and soda to one side) no language posting would be complete without The Hungarian Phrasebook
[free e-books from University of Virginia]
1,800 publicly-available e-books including classic British and American fiction, major authors, children's literature, the Bible, Shakespeare, American history, African-American documents, and much more.
Thousands more titles (currently web versions only) can be found in the Electronic Text Center's collections and projects, many of which are publicly accessible.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ebooklist.html
[a Bluetooth sniper rifle]
Hopefully anyone in the IT teaching area is familiar with the Bluetooth communication technology that is commonplace in short-range domestic devices such as phones and PDAs.
Despite the original design being for communicating over short distances, some chaps have built a focussed Bluetooth device to let people snoop on other Bluetooth devices.
The thing, which is called the BlueSniper rifle, can scan and attack Bluetooth devices from somewhere around 1.5 km away. The first version of the gun showed up at Defcon 2004, a hacker/computer security convention held annually in Las Vegas.
The dumb thing is that the device is built to look and handle like a sniper rifle. Of course it might have been more clever to have made it look like something else...people are hardly going to ignore a person aiming a thing that looks like a rifle at them. Although they did test it in LA, where perhaps that's more common?
"John pointed the gun at the Library Tower / US Bank Building, which is the tallest building in Los Angeles. The building was .75 miles (a little over 1 km) from our position.
As more Bluetooth devices started appearing, John said, "This building is full of Bluetooth! Look we got some Blackberries!" He also explained that, with multiple guns, it would be possible to track a single Bluetooth device as the person walked around. In less than a few minutes, twenty devices were detected—all at distances over a half mile away! We decided to quickly conclude the scan, given police activity in the area earlier in the day from a bomb scare. "
These folks seem technically clever but not overly smart... wandering about a bomb-scare area pointing a rifle-like object at buildings doesn't seem to be a good idea to me. But the device itself is very clever, and might get a few people thinking about security.
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article106-page1.php
[the Stonehenge watch}
http://www.stonehengewatch.com/
"Now, you too can hold the legend and ageless wonder of Stonehenge in the palm of your hand by claiming The Stonehenge Watch as your own. By owning The Stonehenge Watch, you will quickly learn that Stonehenge is, at once, the oldest and newest way to tell time.
So take "A Great Leap Backward in Time" with The Stonehenge Watch! "
My thoughts exactly.
[mathematical animated images]
Some of these mathematical figures are very pretty. Some are duds.. "Group Action" sounds like some sort of Mathemaporn, or some twins i used to know, but it's dead dull (well, that figures really...perhaps it IS the twins or the porn.. dull).
The "Tusi Couple" on the other hand is quite lovely. And the "Clean Tile Problem" is not about a drinking session, but a rather elegant chance model. "Square Triangle Picking" sounds silly, but "Witch of Agnesi" is simply lovely.
Roll up ye mathematickal minds, and view them here
