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The Meta Man
Unless you’re a computer nerd, you’ve probably never heard of Charles Simonyi. And even if you’re a nerd, you may not know the name of the person behind techniques and tools that are familiar to legions of programmers. Here’s your chance to find out the story behind the name.But forgive me if I remain skeptical about his latest venture. I remember that something similar was touted back in 1981. It was called "The Last One". It wasn’t, of course; the problem is a little bit more tricky than that… -
Comet McNought?
I’m getting the feeling that everyone except me is seeing comet McNaught. Take this picture, for example. I still haven’t seen the damn thing. Now I learn that it’s even possible to see it in the daytime, but, of course, today there is heavy cloud cover so that plan dies stillborn as well.Leave a comment
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Pocket Money
This is prompted by From the Heart of Europe.Count all the euro (and related) coins in your pocket – not by how much they are worth, but by which country they come from. (The full list of coins showing which ones come from which country can be found in many places, including http://www.euro.gov.uk/eurocoins.asp)Germany: 6Netherlands: 3France: 1Italy: 1Finland: 1Now, which country do you live in? GermanyObviously it helps to do this meme if you live in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Monaco, San Marino, the Vatican, Andorra, Montenegro or Kosovo, but people outside those enchanted places can play too.Leave a comment
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Rooms To Let
OK, I promise that this will absolutely be my last comment on the subject, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to draw your attention to this week’s Jesus and Mo…2 responses to “Rooms To Let”
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You turned me onto Jesus and Mo, it’s genius. But I feel you must watch this short clip for intructions on how to purge yourself of this sinful activity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbkIrb5EwF8&mode=related&search=
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Thanks, Gelert. Hmm, sin today and repent tomorrow? Sounds like a logical fallacy in there somewhere. It’s always today, and never tomorrow… 🙂
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Noaberschap
One thing we’ve noticed since we moved to this part of The Netherlands last March is that the sense of community is still pretty strong around here. There is the local custom of Noaberschap (neighbourliness), where neighbours are expected to help each other out when necessary. We were touched when the young farmer across the field formally asked us if we would be Noaste Noabers (literally closest neighbours) to him and his girlfriend. This means that we are responsible for organising the rest of Herman and José’s neighbourhood in times of celebration or need (e.g. weddings or funerals). Hopefully, it’ll be the former, rather than the latter.We’ve just had the first celebration. Today was the day when Herman officially became the owner of the farm. So yesterday, the rest of the neighbourhood was at our house painting signs and making paper roses to decorate a pair of fir trees.Then today, while Herman was at the notary to sign the papers, we set everything in place to officially welcome Herman and José to the neighbourhood.One response to “Noaberschap”
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[…] week, our nearest neighbours had the birth of their first baby, a boy. Since we are noaste naobers to them, it fell to us to organise the decorations in celebration of the fact. So, together with […]
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Ball Lightning
Ball lightning is the name given to a phenomenon occasionally reported during thunderstorms. It takes the form of a glowing ball of intense light that persists for several seconds. There have been several theories as to what causes ball lightning.New Scientist reports this week on a laboratory experiment in support of one of the theories. It’s quite possible that this is good evidence in support of the theory. Watch the video clip. Mind you, unlike one of the researchers, I don’t think I would wear flip-flops while doing this particular experiment.One response to “Ball Lightning”
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I thought your readers would be interested in looking at these energy technologies, and EPS’s theoretic base for ball lighting :
[[http://www.electronpowersystems.com/Images/Ball%20Lightning%20Explained.pdfBall Lightning Explained as a Stable Plasma Toroid]] Aneutronic Fusion: Here I am not talking about the big science ITER project taking thirty years, but the several small alternative plasma fusion efforts.There are three companies pursuing hydrogen-boron plasma toroid fusion, Paul Koloc, Prometheus II, Eric Lerner, Focus Fusion and Clint Seward of Electron Power Systems Vincent Page (a technology officer at GE!!) gave a presentation at the 05 6th symposium on current trends in international fusion research , which high lights the need to fully fund three different approaches to P-B11 fusion He quotes costs and time to development of P-B11 Fusion as tens of million $, and years verses the many decades and ten Billion plus $ projected for ITER and other "Big" science efforts
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Vista Pricing
It’s an interesting exercise to compare the price differences of Microsoft’s Vista operating system between the US and Europe.For example, the price of an upgrade version of Windows Vista Ultimate is quoted by Amazon in the US as $249.99, while the same software is quoted by Amazon in the UK as £249.99 – equivalent to $487, a markup of almost 95%. I thought we’d got away from the days of simply exchanging the currency symbol when goods crossed the Atlantic, but apparently not. Someone, somewhere is indulging in price-gouging.I wonder if I should just buy it from Amazon in the US?Leave a comment
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The Sound of Silence
I hope that this will be my last comment on last week’s gay rights versus religious rights debate in the UK, but I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrow in a very ironical fashion when I read the piece by Giles Fraser, the Vicar of Putney, in today’s Guardian, entitled Atheists: the bigots’ friends.While I grant him the point that many Christians are fully in support of gay rights, it does also seem that most of them have kept pretty quiet about it recently. And then again, there’s the rather telling point that of the 26 Bishops who sit in the House of Lords, only five of them were present in the debate last week, and of them, only one(!) voted against the motion to deny equal rights to gay people. So that leaves four of them who are quite happy to have discrimination continue, and potentially there are a further 21 of them who would agree with them.But then again, perhaps Giles Fraser doesn’t think that the Bishops are representative of the views of many Christians. If so, it’s a peculiar state of affairs indeed.Update: Ophelia, over at ButterfliesAndWheels, has a little chat with Giles.Leave a comment
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The Ten-Step Guide
Mr. Eugenides indulges in a spot of "shooting fish in a barrel". Oh, I say, good shot, sir!Leave a comment
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Comet McNaught
I’m still being frustrated by the weather in my attempts to see comet McNaught before it gets too close to the sun. We’ve had cloudy skies for the best part of a week now.Some people have had more luck with the weather, as these pictures show. And here’s the Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, talking about the comet.Leave a comment
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Bad Journalism
The Sunday Times ran a story a couple of weeks ago with the intriguing title: Science Told: Hands Off Gay Sheep. Unfortunately, for the journalists in question, their story was utter rubbish from beginning to end, as Dr. Ben Goldacre points out in today’s Bad Science blog entry. Still, when did a concern for the truth ever matter to a certain type of journalist?Leave a comment
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Tears of the Black Tiger
Walt, over at Inquietudes, draws our attention to the fact that Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah talai jone) is currently showing in New York City. As he says, it is:an overwrought, melodramatic western film that is at once so difficult to take seriously it’s bound to make you swoon and fall in-love with it.If you haven’t seen it, I can also unreservedly recommend it. It’s out on DVD (at least here in Europe), so you don’t have to wait until it comes to your local cinema.Leave a comment
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Five Luminous Towers
I have been known to be a collector of pop-up books. The paper engineering that goes into them speaks to the engineer in me. I particularly like the work of Robert Sabuda.But here’s a pop-up book that, while I may lust over it, I’m never going to get, because it is quite simply out of my reach. It’s Five Luminous Towers, by Carol Barton. It’s being made in an edition of 50 copies, each of which costs $2,000. Gulp. Move along, nothing to see here…(hat tip to BibliOdyssey for the picture of the book)Leave a comment
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How Not To Rant
As I noted before, the issue of gay rights versus religious rights has recently been in the news in the UK. Of course, such things are fodder to the media, and the radio phone-in debate is the perfect platform for some knockabout fun.This BBC Radio Fivelive debate is a good example. There are some gems in here worth listening to. The studio guest, Andrea Minichello Williams of the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, is not the shiniest example. Her "we certainly don’t want to discriminate against gay people, but…" schtick becomes irritating very quickly, as it is blatantly obvious that this is precisely what she wants. If it is enshrined in the law that one can’t discriminate on the grounds of religion, but one can discriminate on the grounds of the fact that someone is gay, then how could it be otherwise?The star of the show is definitely Dr. A Majid Katme, apparently qualified in psychiatry, and spokesman of the Islamic Medical Association in Britain.His contribution, if one can call it that, begins about 29 minutes into the broadcast. A fine example of spittle-flecked invective against gays, and the perfect example of how not to rant. The fact that this man might conceivably be a psychiatric practitioner in the UK gives me pause for thought.Leave a comment
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Good News
Alright, I admit it. I’m a simple person. I always have a feeling of schadenfreude when someone delivers a reprimand to the lovely Rita. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving case.Leave a comment
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How To Rant
While I enjoy having a good rant, I am nowhere when it comes to the masters of the art. Here is an extended nine minute rant from Keith Olbermann on George Bush’s latest misstep in Iraq. Part of me exults at the justness of Olbermann’s rant and part of me weeps at Bush’s idiocy.Leave a comment
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Parent Power
I see that a parent in Seattle has been initially successful in his attempt to prevent local schools from showing the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth. He’s clearly in full possession of the facts and an intelligent rationalist:"Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. … The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD."Wonderful.Update: Apparently Frosty has been moved to give us a deeper peek into his rationale (and I use that word advisedly) behind his objections. Stop digging, Frosty…2 responses to “Parent Power”
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Much better that they don’t show "An Inconvenient Truth" because it has so many factual errors in it – the Kilimanjaro story being one of the worst examples (the snow has been retreating because of deforestation of the mountain slopes – no temperature change has been measured in the area). Gore evidently takes the position that, if you believe something strongly enough, it doesn’t matter what the facts are. I don’t see a great difference between Al and Frosty on that count . . .
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Sorry, no name, but factual errors can be challenged. Fairy tales are simply fairy tales. And if you can’t see the difference then more fool you.
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New Comet
There’s a new comet in the night sky. So far, all I can see are clouds and pouring rain…Leave a comment
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Stereotypes Only
A somewhat disturbing story in the Guardian today about the treatment meted out to Joanne Lees by the media. Her crime? She’s a woman in control of her emotions, instead of the tearful victim the tabloids want. There’s more than one Nicholas Hellen out there…Leave a comment
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I Was Blind…
…but now I see. Take a look at this wonderful photo-essay by Teju Cole. Gawd, I wish I were an artist!Leave a comment






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