Link Roundup

[winterkoninkje]

Not quite enough time yet to dig into telling my Japan story, but here're a few links I should get off my stack, many of them none too pretty (but read on):

LiveJournal: interdictor

There are a lot of stories out there, and some of them even extend into netspace. I have sort of a love/ hate/abhoration thing about Something Awful, a site where if they say something nice about you it's time to panic and watch your back :). I'm sure most SA readers are aware, but they are hosted in downtown New Orleans by ZIPA.com. Everything online takes up some physical space in the real world, and in SA's case, its a data center on the 10th floor of a building in New Orleans that is surrounded by rising flood waters. Yipes. One of the guys who works in the data center and is trapped there keeping things alive has a blog you can read that really give you a feel for what it's like in Downtown New Orleans right now. Kinda scary, it really is. (from Fred Gallagher's blog on MegaTokyo.)

Bush's Obscene Tirades Rattle White House Aides

While President George W. Bush travels around the country in a last-ditch effort to sell his Iraq war, White House aides scramble frantically behind the scenes to hide the dark mood of an increasingly angry leader who unleashes obscenity-filled outbursts at anyone who dares disagree with him.

"I'm not meeting again with that goddamned bitch," Bush screamed at aides who suggested he meet again with Cindy Sheehan, the war-protesting mother whose son died in Iraq. "She can go to hell as far as I’m concerned!"

Summer of Our Discontent

For the last few months there has been a running debate about the U.S. economy, more or less like this:

American families: "We're not doing very well."

Washington officials: "You're wrong - you're doing great. Here, look at these statistics!"

The administration and some political commentators seem genuinely puzzled by polls showing that Americans are unhappy about the economy. After all, they point out, numbers like the growth rate of G.D.P. look pretty good. So why aren't people cheering?

Disjointed thoughts on the socio-economics of disaster

Look at the reporters who are "incensed" by the rampant looting. Look at the smugness from those distant from the situation who chastise the dumb southerners for not evacuating when they had the chance. It blows their minds how many idiots stayed to wait it out. It makes them shake their heads and make "tsk-tsk" noises into their shiny microphones.

Well, fuck the lot of them.

Teaching of Creationism Is Endorsed in New Survey

In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

And now for some more light hearted ones...

Best 404 page ever?

Cells made to haul tiny cargoes

Harvard University experts say, in future, cells could be harnessed to perform micro-scale mechanical work.

The researchers attached a cargo of polystyrene beads to the backs of green algae cells and used light to guide them up and down the chambers.

Details of the work appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Cures for humans in crocodile blood?

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills the HIV virus.

Design your own LEGO kit

File this under “wish we had this when we were kids”: LEGO is starting a new program called LEGO Factory where you can download a desktop application that allows you to create a custom brick design.

Nano-material is harder than diamonds

A material that is harder than diamond has been created in the lab, by packing together tiny "nanorods" of carbon.

The new material, known as aggregated carbon nanorods (ACNR), was created by compressing and heating super-strong carbon molecules called buckyballs or carbon-60.

Cor blimey

It's true. Pornography can make you blind. Look at a smutty picture and, according to research by Steven Most, of Yale University, and his colleagues, you will suffer from a temporary condition known as emotion-induced blindness.

Think noone checks your creditcard signiture? You're right.

The Credit Card Prank: part 1, part 2.

But when they get the munchies, watch out!

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's long winter will just fly by for a herd of Russian cows which, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, will be fed confiscated marijuana over the cold months.

Most scientific papers are probably wrong

Most published scientific research papers are wrong, according to a new analysis. Assuming that the new paper is itself correct, problems with experimental and statistical methods mean that there is less than a 50% chance that the results of any randomly chosen scientific paper are true. (I don't quite buy it, 'specially given the lack of statistical support, but interesting nonetheless.)

A Hoist to the Heavens

Rockets are getting us nowhere fast. Since the dawn of the space age, the way we get into space hasn't changed: we spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on a rocket whose fundamental operating principle is a controlled chemical explosion. We need something better, and that something is a space elevator—a superstrong, lightweight cable stretching 100 000 kilometers from Earth's surface to a counterweight in space. Roomy elevator cars powered by electricity would speed along the cable. For a fraction of the cost, risk, and complexity of today's rocket boosters, people and cargo would be whisked into space in relative comfort and safety.

Researchers Produce Strong, Transparent Carbon Nanotube Sheets

Richardson TX (SPX) Aug 19, 2005 University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) nanotechnologists and an Australian colleague have produced transparent carbon nanotube sheets that are stronger than the same-weight steel sheets and have demonstrated applicability for organic light-emitting displays, low-noise electronic sensors, artificial muscles, conducting appliqués and broad-band polarized light sources that can be switched in one ten-thousandths of a second.

Nigeria fhtagn R'lyeh

Some Nigerian scammer learns that there are things man was Not Meant To Know.

Scale buildings in a single bound

SPIDERMAN does it, so does James Bond. Now a gadget has been developed to allow US marines to zip up the sides of buildings or ships with virtually no effort.

All you do is fire a rope to the top of the structure using a harpoon gun or grappling hook, and then fit the rope into the device, called PowerQuick, which attaches to your climbing harness. Then just sit back and squeeze a lever. (Spiderman? These folks need to read more comics, or hell go back and watch some of the earlier comic-to-movie adaptations like, oh this little movie Tim Burton did once...)

Tofu ain't bad, though I've never been much of a fan of fungus.

And besides, it's the texture of meat (among other things) which turns me off of it; that's not a selling point folks. Quorn: Wikipedia, Wired, the official site.

With technology, it's easy to break the law

Legally, it's been a gray week for me.

I took apart and repaired a 15-year-old, Freon-filled air conditioner without an EPA permit. I destroyed a wasp's nest with a makeshift flamethrower, using an aerosol can of cleaner "in a manner inconsistent with its labeling."

And then I went hardcore. Well, sort of.

A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that the interception of e-mail in temporary storage violates the federal wiretap act, reversing an earlier court opinion.

the ruling [pdf], summary of the case and implications, a brief, another brief by six different civil liberties organizations [pdf]