Month: January 2008

noted without comment

Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Feb 2002 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Nov 2002 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Oct 2003 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , June 2004 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Dec 2005 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , July 2005 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Oct 2005 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , June 2006 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Sept 2006 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Nov 2006 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Jan 2007 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , May 2007 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , May 2007 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , May 2007 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed , Sept 2007 Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed today, January 31, 2008….This is all very gooey, like how we’ve killed like, nine of Osama Bin Laden’s #3 guys.

Can’t add a thing:

Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Feb 2002
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Nov 2002
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Oct 2003
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, June 2004
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Dec 2005
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, July 2005
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Oct 2005
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, June 2006
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Sept 2006
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Nov 2006
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Jan 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, May 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, May 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, May 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Sept 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed today, January 31, 2008.

It’s like being the drummer for Spinal Tap:

Jen Roth offers an explanation:

John: What, are they counting those for wins? Are they counting guys like Padilla? This is all very gooey, like how we’ve killed like, nine of Osama Bin Laden’s #3 guys.

Tyrone: Being #3 in Al-queda is like being a “creative vice president” at a Hollywood studio. There are dozens of them … and they are expendable.

[From Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed (again)]

The good of people’s bodies and the good of the planet are more or less perfectly aligned.

Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

When the costs are shifted elsewhere, you don’t really know what things cost.

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

[From Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler – New York Times]

So where’s my Prius? Two of us haven’t eaten meat in 15 years and the other two have never had it (more 20 person-years between them).

Good article [thanks to JM for the tip]. When will we see a day when the costs of high-volume industries like this are internalized?

what a deal

Keep your La Fonera online, and on Valentine’s Day, you’ll be eligible to win one of the 50 WiFi Frames….There’s still time to keep your La Fonera online and get your free WiFi picture frame!

So let me get this straight. I get a free wireless AP that I can use to share a public network. And for sharing that, I might get a free wireless picture frame?

Love is in the air and we have a great way to showcase your WiFi love. We’re giving away 50 free eStarling WiFi picture frames amongst Foneros who share their WiFi with the Community.

The eStarling WiFi picture frame allows you to:
1. Link the frame to your favourite online photo album to automatically display your pictures (Flickr, Picasa and others).
2. Set up groups to instantly receive pictures from your friends and family’s email accounts and cell phones.
3. Create your own picture playlists.
4. Create a email address dedicated to sending pictures directly to your picture Frame, even from your cell phone!

Keep your La Fonera online, and on Valentine’s Day, you’ll be eligible to win one of the 50 WiFi Frames. We’ll give them away to those who show their love by sharing their WiFi! Details and official rules here.

Don’t forget to check your La Fonera status! There’s still time to keep your La Fonera online and get your free WiFi picture frame!

Get your WiFi heartbeat pumping and sharing the love!
BigFrame3.jpg

Details and official rules here (PDF).

[From LOVE IS IN THE AIR WITH A FREE WiFi FRAME!]

What a deal . . . .

quote of the day

Maybe we do cut too much slack for the candidate we would, as the saying goes, like to have a beer with . On the other hand, if we perceive that a candidate would happily confiscate our beer and jail us for violating the Open Container Law, it would just be common sense to deny him our support.

It is often counted it a deficiency in our politics that voters rely on personal impressions when they choose a President. Maybe we do cut too much slack for the candidate we would, as the saying goes, like to have a beer with. On the other hand, if we perceive that a candidate would happily confiscate our beer and jail us for violating the Open Container Law, it would just be common sense to deny him our support. [From ” BUT I’M AMERICA’S MAYOR!” “AND WE SALUTE YOU FOR IT. DON’T…]

this scares me

I know that seeing mistakes being made is a great way to learn that mistakes are OK, as long as you learn from them (and no, the lesson is not “never try anything”).

…That’s just one more thing we know without really expressing it, but when you see it as plainly laid out as that and look at reality through that prism, it makes you wonder just how many powerful people are imprisoned in their minds by pain they have never been able to shake off or rise above.

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.

[From Quote Details: Carl Jung: Nothing has a stronger… – The Quotations Page]

So this tells me that the things I want to do that I’m not doing are going to make more of an impression on my kids than the things I am doing. That’s very troubling to ponder, as there is a lot of undone work/unlived life to learn from.

The thing of it is, I’m more likely to do it for them than for myself, whatever it is. And I think I subconsciously know that Getting On With It is what they need to see. I know that seeing mistakes being made is a great way to learn that mistakes are OK, as long as you learn from them (and no, the lesson is not “never try anything”). What I consider a mistake isn’t always something they see as one, so that’s either their more open minds or low standards.

Continue reading “this scares me”

ideas, new and old

In 2004 Dmitriy Plaks and several of his fellow students at the University of West Georgia tested whether sound waves can douse fires in hopes of using sound to extinguish flames in a spacecraft.

…I still think my idea of dropping dry ice into forest fires deserves a try (the intense cold and the sudden appearance of non-flammable CO2 would take away two of the three things a fire needs — heat and oxygen).

It took 150 years to re-open this?

In 1857, Irish scientist John Tyndall recognized that sound waves could extinguish flames. Now, scientists hope that phenomena could lead to the development of new fire extinguishers that would be useful, say, in a spacecraft or terrestrially to avoid water damage from sprinklers. First though, they need to figure out why exactly sound can snuff fire. Most likely, the sound wave causes a drop in pressure that extinguishes the flame. From Scientific American:

In 2004 Dmitriy Plaks and several of his fellow students at the University of West Georgia tested whether sound waves can douse fires in hopes of using sound to extinguish flames in a spacecraft. They placed a candle in a large topless chamber with three bass speakers attached to the walls. The candle was lit and the Canadian rock band Nickelback’s “How you remind me” was pumped through the subwoofers. Within roughly 10 seconds, once the song hit a low note, the flame was out, according to results published in 2005 in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Link
 [From Sound waves snuff fire]

This could be useful. I still think my idea of dropping dry ice into forest fires deserves a try (the intense cold and the sudden appearance of non-flammable CO2 would take away two of the three things a fire needs — heat and oxygen). My guess is the sound solution might not be as effective in an open space or one with odd angles or reflective surfaces (like a forest). And surely figuring out the note in question would be trivial.

Imagine a fire extinguisher that is more like an airhorn than the usual fountain type, especially in a kitchen: what a great improvement that would be.