The principle of the lever appears to be a concept that is unknown to the most powerful person in the world. I find this worrying.
-
The Pterosaurs’ Trick
Interesting new research reported on in this week’s New Scientist over how pterosaurs may have been able to fly.Leave a comment
-
Present Ideas
Do you have people in your life who are difficult to buy presents for? Are you completely bereft of ideas of what to get them for their next birthday/anniversary/bar mitzvah?Well, here’s a suggestion – a coffee stirrer; although you’ll probably have to think of another use for the walrus baculum.Leave a comment
-
A Logical Fallacy
There’s currently a debate about euthanasia going on in the UK. The Archbishop of Canterbury has recently weighed in on the debate. I think Ophelia, over at Butterflies and Wheels, puts her finger squarely on what is wrong with his argument.Leave a comment
-
Bombing’s Too Good For ‘Em
I do realise that that is not supposed to be the appropriate reaction, but I confess that it was my first reaction when I read this story. I never did like the Smurfs – irritating little creatures without any redeeming features whatsoever as far as I’m concerned.Leave a comment
-
Bad News For Chocoholics
This research article suggests that manfactured chocolate has disturbingly high levels of lead contamination. This is not the sort of message that a chocoholic such as myself wishes to hear.Leave a comment
-
Homework
Your homework for today is to read this material. In particular, Dr. Woodson’s excellent guide to what you need to know and what you need to do.Leave a comment
-
The Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker is a high-profile prize for English literature. Last night the results for the 2005 competition were announced and John Banville has won it for his novel The Sea. I’m not sure whether to acquire a copy or not. The story synopsis does not really appeal to me. I’d much rather go for a copy of the runner-up: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The synopsis of that novel sounds really intriguing: cloned children whose sole purpose in life is to end up as organ donors. I always like stories where the game of "what if?" is raised to the next level.Leave a comment
-
The Slippery Slope of Choice
I mentioned last week that the word "choice" tends to make my hackles rise. It’s because I often think it’s used in false circumstances. For example, New Labour apply it to services in the public sector. Well, I’m sorry, but to me, a public hospital should be the best that it can be, and funding should not be driven by a mythical sense of choice. When I’m ill, I don’t want to consult fucking league tables, I want to go to my local hospital and be rest assured that I am getting good treatment. Anything else is a travesty, and poking free market practices into places where I don’t want them to be. Eddie explains this very well over at The Sharpener.Leave a comment
-
Gosh, That Was Quick…
It looks as though we’ve sold our current house. We had four viewings of the house yesterday, and two people immediately put in bids – and we’ve accepted one of them. The formal contract gets drawn up this week, and once it’s signed, we should be well on our way to moving to the country next March.Leave a comment
-
What If…
…plants had eyes? There’s a weird version of a natural history film showing just that. The film has been made by 1st Avenue Machine – a computer graphics company working in the field of advertising.(hat tip to BoingBoing)Leave a comment
-
Who Owns The Root?
In the Unix operating system, the Root user is the equivalent of god, with absolute power over every aspect of the system, including all other users.There’s a somewhat similar concept in the Internet itself – there’s a bunch of servers – the root servers – that dictate Internet addresses, and how the numerical addresses are mapped to domain names such as www.google.com or www.bbc.co.uk.Up until now, these servers have been very firmly under the control of the US government. Not surprisingly, since the Internet has its origins in a US military network project. Equally not surprisingly, now that the Internet is a global phenomenon, other governments have started voicing concerns about the degree of control that the US has over the Internet. Those voices have gradually been getting louder, until now it seems as though some sort of inter-goverment body is likely, according to this report in yesterday’s Guardian.Personally, I would prefer to see the political governance of the Internet invested in some form of UN-related body. Naturally, some people see that as a very bad thing, but then, Mandy Rice-Davies Applies…2 responses to “Who Owns The Root?”
-
Disclaimer: I’m American. Don’t hold that against me.That said, I was under the impression that IPv6 included provisions for distributing the governance of the root servers. I can’t recall a source, however, so I may be wrong.Secondly, do you still see there being a single entity that governs these root servers? I’d be concerned if it were really distributed that there was no single root node in a tree, or that naming conflicts could arise between branches of the tree. Having a single entity helps ensure that names are only registered once, for example.Third, are other country domains (.uk, .de, et cetera) under the purview of these root servers, or a different infrastructure?Anyway, my thoughts so far. At least this isn’t in the hands of a corporate entity.
-
Mike, I don’t know the details about IPv6, so I can’t comment as to whether governance can be distributed – but remember I’m talking about political governance, not the technical governance, or the service governance – which are different things. Actually, I’d be surprised if IPv6 specs even mention political governance – it the latter forms that it’s more likely to cover.Second, I agree that there should be a single root for the reasons that you mention – but again, I’m talking about political governance – that could be invested in a single governing body, whose members consituted representatives from multiple government. That sounds like the UN to me, or maybe ISO…The other country domains are indeed under the purview of the root servers, which are currently totally controlled by the US. That’s the issue.
Leave a comment
-
-
2005 Ig Nobel Prizes
The 2005 Ig Nobel prizes have just been announced. As well as some interesting research on penguins’ pressurized poo pellets (go here for more details), I see that the inventor of Neuticles has also been honoured. I wrote about these back in June, when I observed that their success probably plays more upon the human owners’ feelings of inadequacy than any emotion felt by the animal in question.Oh, and talking of feelings of inadequacy, one wonders about the writer of this piece of fanmail to the organisers of the Ig Nobel Awards ceremony…Leave a comment
-
Don’t Eat This
We were visiting a friend this week, and she pointed out this mushroom growing outside her house. It’s Amanita muscaria – Fly Agaric – a highly poisonous mushroom. The toxins in it attack the central nervous system producing intoxication, hallucination and a euphoria similar to drunkenness. The poison will stay in the system for several months, even though the symptoms generally only last 12 hours.
2 responses to “Don’t Eat This”
-
And yet, you touch the highly poisonous plant….
-
Mike, it’s an optical illusion. I was careful not to let my finger rest on the surface, but I did want to give an idea of the size of the thing… Don’t worry, no Coupes were harmed in the making of this photo…
Leave a comment
-
-
500 Million Years in 51 Seconds
That’s the new Guinness ad: noitulovE (Evolution backwards). Despite the inaccuracies (e.g. we ain’t descended from flying squirrels) it’s a tour de force.Leave a comment
-
It Never Rains…
…but it pours. If you thought that the depressing news around the Avian Flu virus wasn’t worrying enough, here comes news that a bunch of scientists have recreated the 1918 Spanish Flu virus – one of the deadliest ever to emerge. And it that wasn’t bad enough, it appears as though the genetic sequence of the virus is being made available online. Oh, great, now any competent mad molecular biologist can recreate the plot of Twelve Monkeys for real.The thing to remember about scientists is that they’re just fallible humans like the rest of us. A white coat does not guarantee intelligence and wisdom.Leave a comment
-
Not To Worry You…
…but I can’t help returning to the topic of Avian Flu again. Thanks to PZ Meyers over at Pharyngula, I refer you to some excellent posts on the matter by Tara Smith. Start with this one. Sweet dreams…Leave a comment
-
RIP, Ronnie
Ronnie Barker has died. Damn. A comic actor of the highest calibre, who also wrote much of his material. As the obituary in The Guardian points out: There was always a hint of unpredictable bleakness, or even menace, behind Barker’s toothy forensic accountant’s smile. Things were never quite what they appeared to be…Talking of which, one of the other obituaries in The Guardian today was for M. Scott Peck. Bizarre in the extreme, and merely serves to confirm my prejudice against psychiatrists and gurus.Leave a comment
-
H is for Hero
Thanks to Nosemonkey, I’ve now been alerted to the blogging of Mr. H. He maintains two blogs at the moment: Giornale Nuovo and Curiosities of Literature. Both are the artistic and literary equivalents of Cabinets of Curiosities. Fabulous stuff – how am I going to find the time to keep up with all this?Leave a comment
Geoff Coupe's Blog 
Leave a comment