Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Reason magazine -- Dave Barry Interview

"All I Think Is That It's Stupid --
Dave Barry on laughing at Very Big Government"

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Flour, Eggs, Sugar, Chocolate . . . Just Add Chemistry

"'When you add water to flour and stir,' she says, 'these two little proteins - glutenin and gliadin - grab water first, and each other, to make these springy elastic sheets of gluten.'"

Monday, December 27, 2004

Catallarchy � What Does The Free Market Require?

"Does the free market require intelligent thought and predictive ability among its participants to function"

Coyote Blog: Latest NEA School Report is Absurd

"Latest NEA School Report is Absurd"

Coyote Blog: Fisking the NEA's Improvement Ideas

"Fisking the NEA's Improvement Ideas"

Sunday, December 26, 2004

The NitPicker's Guide to the Lord of the Rings

"The following is a lengthy list of deviations to be found when comparing the text of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and the translation of those texts to film as undertaken by Peter Jackson, et.al."

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Tales of the Shanghai Ikea

The FTC's website on Credit

"Soon you'll be able to get your credit report for free. A recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months, from www.annualcreditreport.com. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, has prepared a brochure, Your Access to Free Credit Reports, explaining your rights and how to order a free annual credit report."

The Banty Rooster - The Banter - A Must Read Email From an American Soldier!

"Then, after a routine for here but hardly routine day in the OR, my day was made. I'm referring to the interaction I witnessed and helped facilitate between a young injured soldier and a high ranking official. Here is how it happened:"

King William's College general knowledge quiz

"King William's College quiz

Pupils at King William's College on the Isle of Man have suffered this fiendish general knowledge quiz for 99 years. The average score is just two. Answers in the new year
"

Friday, December 17, 2004

Eat 'Supermeals' to Protect Heart

"Eating meals that include all ingredients known to improve cardiovascular health could add years to your life, according to new study findings released Friday."

Monday, December 13, 2004

Monument to fallen mouse erected

"China has erected a monument for a little thought of, but important martyr -- the mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and monkeys who gave their lives to science, especially the testing for SARS vaccine."

Harbin Pictures

The temperature in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both farenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. So what does one do here every winter? Hold an outdoor festival, of course!

In Damascus, they voted for George W. Bush

While the results of this year's American election may have liberal Democrats and much of the extended international community shaking their heads in disbelief, a surprising number of Arabs seem to have not only expected President George W. Bush's return to power but also supported it.

Caltech Michelin Lecture

"Aliens Cause Global Warming

A lecture by Michael Crichton
Caltech Michelin Lecture
January 17, 2003

My topic today sounds humorous but unfortunately I am serious. I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be my task today.
"

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Belfast Telegraph

"Alexander the Great was one, as was Billy the Kid and John McEnroe. Now scientists believe they can explain why some people are left-handed, and it's all to do with coming out on top in a fight."

Telegraph | News

"Men and boys who use laptop computers on their knees could be risking their fertility, according to new research."

The Original Code

"Standards of the Comics Code Authority for editorial matter as originally adopted"

CNN.com - Dude -- professor studies 'dude' - Dec 8, 2004

"A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word 'dude,' contending it is much more than a catchall for lazy, inarticulate surfers, skaters, slackers and teenagers."

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / Friedrich the Great

"Dismissed by critics as a free-market extremist, economist Friedrich Hayek is gaining new attention as a forerunner of cognitive psychology, information theory, even postmodernism. A reintroduction to one of the most important thinkers you've barely heard of."

Monday, December 06, 2004

How birthrates color the electoral map

Despite the endless verbiage expended trying to explain America’s remarkably stable division into Republican and Democratic regions, almost no one has mentioned the obscure demographic factor that correlated uncannily with states’ partisan splits in both 2000 and 2004.
Despite the endless verbiage expended trying to explain America’s remarkably stable division into Republican and Democratic regions, almost no one has mentioned the obscure demographic factor that correlated uncannily with states’ partisan splits in both 2000 and 2004.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

The New York Times > Business > Your Money > Everybody's Business: My Favorite Mistake? Not a Million-Dollar One

"MY mother's mother, God bless her soul, used to say when a mistake was made, 'Don't worry, you'll do it again.' By that she meant that the human animal is so constructed that we barely learn from our mistakes, so let's not let them get to us. We're all human, and we all make mistakes."

Eminem Is Right by Mary Eberstadt - Policy Review, No. 128

If yesterday’s rock was the music of abandon, today’s is that of abandonment. The odd truth about contemporary teenage music — the characteristic that most separates it from what has gone before — is its compulsive insistence on the damage wrought by broken homes, family dysfunction, checked-out parents, and (especially) absent fathers

TCS: Tech Central Station - Stem Cells and Philosophy

TCS: Tech Central Station - Stem Cells and Philosophy:
"What this is, it seems to me, is not science but scientism; and when men argue that philosophical or theological objections to theory X or procedure Y ought to be discounted, and the decisions about its use made purely on the basis of 'good science,' it is very difficult for a detached observer to conclude that they really mean what they say."

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Chuck Colson: The Prophecy of C. S. Lewis

Chuck Colson: The Prophecy of C. S. Lewis: "C. S. Lewis was born on this date in 1898, and forty-one years after his death, one thing has become startlingly clear: This Oxford don was not only a keen apologist but also a true prophet for our postmodern age."

Interesting optical illusion

Interesting optical illusion

Friday, November 12, 2004

Teleflip Home

Teleflip Home

The next time you need someone to email you directions, a recipe, sales information, or maybe just a few sweet nothings... tell them to TELEFLIP™ it, at:

(yourcellphonenumber)@teleflip.com.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Instapundit.com - election day reminders

Instapundit.com - election day reminders

Funny NTY Quiz

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/politics/campaign/31points.html
gas station on the corner of w. grand and market.
$10 a block.

Praxair

gas

supply place on the NE corner of Gilman and the frontage road in
Berkeley

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Homemade Bottle Cap Tripod

http://www.fiendishthingy.org/tripod/

Friday, August 06, 2004

Thursday, August 05, 2004

don't cheat

No fair using image manipulating or viewing software. Just see if you

can see the difference between these two photos:

http://members.home.nl/saen/Special/zoeken.html


Friday, July 23, 2004

Best animated gif ever

http://j-walkblog.com/blog/docs/platform.htm

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

The illusion with explanation

http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html

Interesting illusion

http://winterwolf.co.uk/illusion/check

Friday, June 18, 2004

another great game

http://www.lanceandeskimo.com/flash/quest.html

spot the fake smile

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/

Best flash game ever

http://web4096.message.sk/round2/flash/9/tennis2.swf

Switch to Linux ad

http://www.ubergeek.tv/article.php?pid=54

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Microsoft releases Expression 3.3 update (paint prog) for free

http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/
http://northlite.50megs.com/expr/

trashcan game

http://game.panlogic.net/

Ed Catmull's recipe for success

> http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/05212004/business/168356.asp
> "It is really the people, and the way they work together."

os x optimization tools

> The bottom of this article has a list of helpful OS X
> optimization and monitoring tools.
> http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/apme/optimizations/
> I find fs_usage quite helpful.

os x free sound editing

Bias Peak has a freeware version.

TCWorks has a version of Spark, (Spark ME) which is free.

stitching together pdfs

PDFJoiner
http://qetipadgu.org/software/

joinPDF
http://www.mac4ever.de/software/

Create, a cool OSX app that actually is older than OSX.
It was first written for the Next.
http://www.stone.com/

Combine PDFs freeware
http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/Freeware/CombinePDFs.shtml

os x, screenshots from a dvd

Snapz Pro http://versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11530

command+shift+4 to grab screenshot
screenshots are disabled during dvd playback or pause.
works via timbuktu from a remote computer, however.

Pull up a command-line terminal and use screencapture.

command+shift+4 works if you use VLC for playback:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Redhat Visual Explain

http://sources.redhat.com/rhdb/visualexplain.html
Follow the directions under CVS / Contributing to download.

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

The Scribbler

http://www.zefrank.com/scribbler/

Friday, June 11, 2004

Great domain name OTD

http://3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.com/

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

freeware to combine pdfs

http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/Freeware/CombinePDFs.html

Thursday, May 20, 2004

lego rubik's cube solver

http://jpbrown.i8.com/cubesolver.html

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Cheap OAK parking

www.expressoparking.com

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Monday, May 17, 2004

reverse dictionary

http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

Friday, May 14, 2004

amazing food

http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Emsittig/bento/

The Elements

The Tom Lehrer song, with flash animation.
http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elementloader.swf

Thursday, May 13, 2004

how stopmotion is made

http://www.carlsfinefilms.com/reel/Others.../Orson_Rat.mov

Emeryville nearby music stores

Best Music at 1716 Broadway in Oakland.
http://www.bestmusicco.com

Tupper and Reed in Berkeley: 2277 Shattuck Ave
http://www.tupperandreed.com

Emeryville oil change

> I would like to take my car to get an oil change at lunch. Any
> recommendations?

Pro Lube
6301 San Pablo and 63rd

It's even a drive thru! Locally owned and operated so they can do a
good job for only $25 bucks in 10 - 15 minutes max.

Emeryville tire store

Big O Tire
810 W MacArthur Blvd
Emeryville, CA 94608-3925
Phone: (510) 653-0119