Weather reports are complicated. Barometric pressure, precipitation probabilities, there's too much to keep track of. Star Wars Weather takes all that info puts it into terms I can understand: what Star Wars planet the current conditions most closely resemble.
I live in the northeast. All I really need to know for the next few months is that it'll be like Hoth outside. Once it starts turning to Endor, I'll be in the clear.
See? Simple. [Star Wars Weather via Neatorama]
Hello All,
Perhaps some of you good folks in CR4 Forum may have an old oddball or obscure textbook, handbook, paper or what have you that outlines the methodology of the Working Stress Composite Analysis for fully-concrete encased steel wife flange beams and girders.
Shadow Locked makes a great point about how 3D movies don't gel with our perception of the world. If you have trouble with 3D flicks, check out their tips for how to get through Avatar without getting a splitting headache.
The author argues that when we're presented with a limited depth of field in a movie, we're trained to focus on the blurred section of the frame. That's where directors traditionally hide details.
When we're looking at a shot that has a limited depth of field in 3D, though, we expect to be able to shift our gaze and focus on that blurred area. But instead of seeing that part of the frame clearly, it remains out-of-focus.
I can see how that could be disorienting for some people. I've never had a problem with 3D, but I know people who have. Hit the link for a full rundown of how the author managed to control his headache. [Shadow Locked, Thanks Martin]
I never realized we were such pillow fans: iPhone icon pillows, pillow blankets, TV pattern pillows, laptop pillows, pillow rings, extra-terrestrial pillows, wiimote pillows... it never stops. Until now. Here's the pillow to rule them all: The Condom Pillow.
Hand silk-screened, the Condom Pillow has a small pocket to put real condoms inside. Genius? I think so. It's a great reminder, in any case. You don't really want to have to use the undo pillows one day. [Etsy]
My 1997 Dodge Ram 1500 4WD extended cab is acting goofy. First--and this is a continuing problem--it doesn't like to start. It has plenty of battery, but I have to jiggle the shift lever from Park to Neutral and back again, and finally it works. I get power to the starter, and it starts just fine. O
Here's Mario, and he's ready to rescue that pinky amoeba called Princess Peach. Or give you a food intoxication that will tie you to the toilet for a day. It can go either way, because he's made of glowing bacteria.
Those pixels are really genetically engineered bacteria, modified to "express fluorescent proteins and carotenoid pigments" by Team Osaka, at the nanobiology laboratories at the University of Osaka, Japan. [Microbial Art via New Scientist]
The climate change talks at Copenhagen, despite last-ditch efforts by President Obama and many others, went on through the night, into the morning and then into the early afternoon. In the end, no legal agreement, though they do have a “Copenhagen Accord” with a maximum temperature agreement, financial support, deforestation agreements, and lots more that will be analyzed for months. If you have heard that Obama accomplished a lot in Copenhagen, that depends on what you mean by “a lot”. You can download the accord and read it: Copenhagen Accord (182 kB)
Here is the final statement from Yvo de Boer. You can read all the documents and see archived video on the UNFCCC site.
“Briefing the press at the end of the two-week conference, Yvo de Boer said an accord has been reached that has significant elements, but that is not legally binding.
He described the accord as “politically important,” demonstrating a willingness to move forward. It brings together a diversity of countries that have put in place a letter of intent with the ingredients of an architecture for a response to climate change.
The key points of the accord include the objective to keep the maximum temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius; the commitment to list developed country emission reduction targets and mitigation action by developing countries for 2020; USD 30 billion short-term funding for immediate action till 2012 and USD 100 billion annually by 2020 in long-term financing, as well as mechanisms to support technology transfer and forestry.
The challenge now is to turn what is agreed into something that is legally binding in Mexico one year from now.”
The accord is a political agreement only, not binding, and it’s primarily to reduce emissions on a voluntary basis without legal oversight. The accord is called operational. That means the money pledged by countries to help poorer countries adapt and develop will be available to them. Yvo de Boer calls it “politically significant” but without legally binding requirements I don’t see how the U.S. and China and India will do what needs to be done in reducing emissions. I do believe that most people in the U.S. government want to do what is necessary but there is strong political opposition from some anti-science right-wing Congressmen who are most concerned with protecting their own state interests.
What would have helped get a legally binding document? For one, stronger reliance on the science, and a strong climate change bill (as opposed to a cap and trade, or a jobs and energy bil) passing through the U.S. congress before this conference. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has made a big deal recently of focusing on climate change from the perspective that it’s all about “jobs, jobs and jobs”. No it’s not, it’s about science, the climate, the forces of nature that we will soon be unable to turn around, and the future of humanity on the planet. But such is the intelligence [...]
That weirdly-shaped Sholes Tablet we saw a while ago has an official Chinese press page up. There's also details on the XT800, the much less lumpy handset of the two.
Both of the phones feature Android 2.0 (sans Motoblur from what I can see), Cortex A8 processors and 854x480 displays. The XT800 is a hybrid EVDO-CDMA/GSM handset. Except for the lump on the Sholes (or XT701 if you're a model number kind of person), they both look pretty nice.
Here's to hoping these find their way to U.S. shores soon enough. Check out the link for full specs on both. [Mobile Review Forums via BGR]
Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com
Looking for something to do the day after Christmas? Something that involves nature and walking perhaps? Check out the late December events at the Barrier Island Center web site calendar. They are having a “Who’s Home for the Holidays? hike at the Maritime Hammock Sanctuary pond.
Looking toward January, the Barrier [...]
Continuing the trend of delays, now some Nooks won't even arrive before Christmas. Barnes & Noble is sending a $100 gift card to pre-orderers who aren't scheduled to get one before December 24. A small consolation for ruining Christmas. [Consumerist]
The Ghost 180 reminds me of the war ships from the beginning of the 20th century. Paint it black, and Darth Vader would spend his holidays there, cruising from Málaga to the Adriatic. And splitting other yachts in two.
The 180-foot three-deck ship can fit an helicopter, and would be completed in 2010 for you and I not to enjoy. [Super Yacht Design via Born Rich]
I feel like a broken record writing about these guys week after week, but they just won't go away. Even after this week's ruling that Psystar must cease operations, their attorney is saying the company will be back.
Last week one of Psystar's lawyers said that the company is shutting down for good, but now another lawyer is refuting that claim by saying "Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently."
Apple's injunction against Psystar is permanent, so whatever they do after recovering from this legal firestorm won't involve reselling Apple software. If they're smart, that is. One thing's for sure: It's looking more and more like all this legal action was nothing but an expensive attention grab. [PC World]
The U.S. Droid doesn't feature multitouch, but the European version does. The Milestone's magical multitouch ROM is up for grabs now. If you're willing to risk a bricked phone, head here for the download and instructions. [Redmond Pie, Thanks Taimur]
Statement by Texas Governor Rick Perry Regarding State’s Unemployment Rate Decreasing
Press Release
Friday, December 18th, 2009
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today issued the following statement regarding the state’s November unemployment rate of 8.0 percent, a decrease from 8.3 percent in October:
“A decrease in our unemployment rate, which is a full two percentage points below the national average is a pretty strong validation of the approach we take here in Texas and bears out what employers and national business publications have been saying about our state. Over the past two months while the nation as a whole lost 122,000 jobs, Texas gained nearly 70,000 jobs, which is promising news for those Texans who are seeking employment.
“Unemployment is still an issue for too many families, but our state will keep working to cultivate a job-friendly business climate until every Texan who wants a job can have one.”
From the office of the Governor
Saturday Evening Rock 'n Roll
Featuring "Republitarian" Punk Artist Michael W. Dean of Casper, Wyoming - Gun enthusiast, Constitutionalist, and Cowboy State Freedom Fighter.
LR EXCLUSIVE
BUY A GUN, LOSE ALL YOUR FRIENDS. (A true story of Republitarian redemption.)
Copyright 2009, Michael W. Dean
I’m a peace lovin’ guy. I’d never hurt anyone who did not try to hurt me.
Though I used to vote Democrat. But couldn’t really tell you why. I hated authority and I hated big government. I guess I just wasn’t paying attention. I was one of those folks who thought that following the issues was too much work. So I voted by clipping out the little voting guide from the leftie City Paper.
That’s how, many years ago, I ended up voting for Feinstein and Pelosi. (Don’t tell my friends at the NRA, the GOA and the JPFO. I’m now a card-carryin’ member of all three.)
A couple years ago I was awake late one night in my home in Los Angeles when someone outside tried to pry open our bedroom window. The guy wasn’t very badass. Unarmed, I chased him away just by going outside and confronting him.
But we were shaken. The next day I told my wife, Debra Jean, “Baby, we’re buying a shotgun.” She was very against it. She said, “Buying a gun is admitting that the world is a horrible place.” I said, “Baby, sometimes the world is a horrible place, and I love you, and we’re buying a gun.”
And being the one California Democrat with his balls intact, I bought a shotgun anyway, even though my wife hated the idea.
Turns out, we both really liked guns, and we loved our dates to the range. We soon added his ‘n’ hers 9mm pistols and a couple .22 rifles to our collection. Debra Jean became a good shot in weeks. Took me a little longer.
All of our friends were lefties, and most of them were concerned about the “new us.” But they still kept talking to us, and we even took one of them to the range. Once.
I started reading up on California and Federal gun laws. I’ve never been arrested and intended to keep it that way. Debra Jean (a paralegal) and I decided that the laws seemed designed not to protect people from violence, but rather they were structured to make honest folks into criminals.
Our new view of nanny-state gun laws made us look at California (and the USA) in a whole new way. And that made us both start paying attention to government and politics.
We became Republitarians almost overnight.
I got there from “punk rock anarchist” on one end and apolitical Democrat on the other. I loved the process, but it kinda hurt. Debra Jean didn’t have as far to go…..Turns out she was registered Republican. Which if I’d known years earlier, I probably wouldn’t have married her. But it never actually came up, which shows you how much attention I paid to politics, and shows you how much she loved me to marry me even though I’d made it clear I was “a compassionate liberal, not one of those stuffy old selfish Republicans like my dad.”
My wife really liked my political “spiritual transformation.” (Her dad, by the way, had given her Heinlein books to read as a child, and he’d stumped door to door for Goldwater.)
Debra Jean and I got itchy. Being around leftists suddenly gave us hives. So it was clear what we had to do: GET OUT OF CALIFORNIA AND MOVE TO WYOMING.
Our leftist friends got really worried. The “hipper” ones said, “OK, I guess I can “get” having a shotgun for protection, if you must. But I really don’t feel comfortable coming to a house with handguns in it, and…WAIT….YOU DON’T HAVE THEM WITH YOU NOW, in MY house, do you?!!...”
Or, “Who is this ‘Bob Barr’ person you say you’re voting for? Libertarian? What’s a ‘libertarian’?” And “Obama is so cool and hip and…Wait, WHAT? YOU’RE SELLING YOUR HOUSE AND MOVING TO WYOMING? And you wanna buy a BATTLE RIFLE? What the hell is a BATTLE RIFLE?!”
Let me just say this: our outgoing Christmas card list was a lot shorter this year. And I doubt we’ll get any cards from California, but if we do, the card will not likely have the word “Christmas” on it. And it will probably be colored green and say “Reduce! Reuse! Rejoice!”
I will promptly take that “Seasonal Holiday Greeting Card” at its word and toss it in the recycling bin. (See? We did import ONE of our hippie ways from California. But we would never in a billion years try to force our new friends and neighbors to do the same, out of respect for their liberty. And we love that our new friends and neighbors are far less “in other people’s business” than most everyone we met in California. Which is partly because our new friends and neighbors are nicer people, and partly because most of them own and carry guns, too. “An armed society is a polite society.”)
We’ve lived in Wyoming for almost six months and WE LOVE IT. The air is clean, the people are sweet and we can open carry a pistol, or have our loaded battle rifle on the car seat next to us. Talk about “breathing in the sweet air of liberty”!
Carrying a gun could literally get you killed by SWAT in California. Here, people just say, “Oh, my husband has that one! Is that the .357 or the .38 special?” or “Nice rifle! Getting in practice for antelope season?”
We feel like we left California and moved to AMERICA.
Our few remaining California leftie friends who still talked to us followed this ongoing transformation in words and pictures on my blog. One by one they STOPPED BEING OUR FRIENDS. Their comments ranged from a good friend of eight years saying “Michael, I love you, but I’m really worried about you” to a good friend of 23 years (a guy I was in a band with) saying, “Michael…..Once someone gets talked into these right-wing ideas very rarely can they be talked back…..This new-found cocky way of life is very wrong, very immoral and very dangerous. I’m older than you so consider my opinion, if you still can…I doubt you will. This makes me very sad. Good luck, dumb fuck.”
Another “friend” actually talked about organizing an intervention and driving out here to “save us.” Didn’t happen though. I guess it’s easier to take the bottle out of a passed-out drunk’s hand than it is to take guns away from people who are more awake and alive than they’ve ever been.
Even strangers chimed in. Typical of the many slams I received was a fan of my older books and music who said “I can’t believe how quickly you went from being a hip, artistic guy to being a fat WalMart redneck Red Lobster-eating NRA asshole.”
The comments from strangers made me laugh, in a dropped-jaw kind of way. The comments from the actual friends hurt. But I remembered what my dear sweet mother would have said: “If they say things like that sweetie, they’re not really your friends.” And my dad told me, “Better to find out now than further down the road.”
I do not cling to my “victimhood” and you’ll never catch me at a support group or on Oprah bitching about this, (nor would she likely have me). All in all it has really just reinforced my resolve to reject idiocy in all its forms.
I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that so many people, including ones I thought were “cool”, cannot wrap THEIR heads around the fact that “social justice” is always accomplished by muggery and thuggery. And they get freaked out if I say “Guns aren’t bad, guns are good….And guns make it harder to be a victim of muggery and thuggery.”
I now have a lot more to talk about with my dad and my father-in-law. I no longer think they’re “square”, and I really love yakking with them now. They “get it.” They get liberty.
Those other folks can just stay in California, me and my wife will be in AMERICA. If you need us, we’re probably on a date to the rifle range. After that we’ll be at Red Lobster, then WalMart.
Michael W. Dean sings in the “feisty libertarian punk rock band” RIGHT ARM OF WYOMING LibertarianPunk.com
His blog is Stink Fight
He writes books and makes documentary films for a living, they are listed here: oreillynet.com
Crispian Jago may be our single greatest weapon against nonsense that exists when it comes to the public. Why would I say that? Just go and read his brilliant satirical page, "The Ladybird Book of Chiropractic Treatment and English Libel Law".
Incredible. He sets the bar pretty high for himself — he did the Skeptics playing cards (he even made one for me), a homeopathic urine video, and much more. He’s hysterically funny, with a laser-sharp wit. When most of us are grinding our teeth and fuming, he is responding with humor that cuts right through the garbage and exposes the fetid underbelly of antiscience nonsense like chiropractic.
If you liked his Young Readers book, then please Digg it! Help spread the word, and show the world that science cannot be silenced.
When someone's spending $300 million on the most technically ambitious film ever, you'd think some of that money would go towards making a custom font. Apparently James had other stuff to worry about, though, because Avatar's subtitles are in Papyrus.
According to the countless tweets on the subject, what may be the second most hated font of all time (because nothing is worse than Comic Sans) spends some considerable time up on the screen. According to this post, it's been the font used in all of the promotional materials up until this point.
So, is it actually Papyrus, or a custom-built font that just happens to look exactly like Papyrus? Here's a sample:
You decide. [Twitter, Thanks Michael]
Enter to behold our vast collection of this week's best material. The Avatar review, a story of the Apple Gestapo, an interview with Rainn Wilson and more! Quality weekend reading awaits!
Features
• Orson Welles and His Brief Passionate Betacam Love Affair
• 10 Strange Gadget Situations Caught on Camera
• Avatar Review: Yes, It Changed Everything After All
• This Week's Best iPhone Apps
• It's OK. I Love My Old Gear, Too
• Rainn Wilson on His Nikon DSLR Short Film, and Why Dwight Would Taste Banhammer
• The Physics of Space Battles
• Apple Gestapo: How Apple Hunts Down Leaks
• A Century of Great Gadget Design: Phaidon's Design Classics
• What We Still Need on Blu-ray (And What Should Never Go HD)
Top Stories
• Ultimate Christmas 2009 Shopping Deadline List
• The Economics of a Free Google Phone
• Swedes Camping Outside Apple HQ Asking Steve Jobs to Approve Their App
• The Iron Man 2 Trailer Is Online and My Jaw Is on the Floor
• How Carriers and Phone Makers Are Strangling Android (And How Google Could Save It)
• I Spoke Too Soon, My iMac Is &#;$@ed, Too
• I'm Sorry, But We Blew Up Your Laptop'
• The Graphics Cards You Should Buy at Every Price
• Why We All Need to Calm Down About the Google Phone
Big News
• Google's Hype Generator, The Nexus One, Does Not Have Multitouch (In Browser and Maps)
• Ravaging the Nook, Part II: We Have Apps!
• First Video of the Google Nexus One
• Apple Nemesis Psystar Permanently Banned From Selling Mac Clones
• More Photos of the Google Nexus One
Popular
• You Have Nothing to Apologize For, Panera Bread iMac Man
• The De-evolution of Playstation Gaming Controllers
• Google Street View Spots One Chunky Man's Funky Truck Party
• Prepare to Have Your Brain Exploded by This Known Universe Video
• Canon DSLR Suffers 3000-Foot Fall, Camera and Lens Still Work
• Beautiful Lego in Hoth Photos Have Me in Total Awe
• Google Street View Captures Guy Getting Ready To Do Something Disgusting on a DC Street
• This Naughty Online Clock Has a Girl for Every Minute (NSFW)
• The Master Diagram of Geek Culture
Are you overwhelmed by the Internet? I sure was in 2000. Hell, I still am. But I think I'd be able to navigate everything in a more manageable way if only I had the right... mouse pad.
Last time I used a mouse pad was when I was when I couldn't find my dog's frisbee. But if I had this little wonder, I'd create a little shrine to it and would bow down to its excellence. No doggy teeth marks on this one please! The MySmart, which was made by Keytronic and aimed at novice Web users, was a $20 device with buttons and input ports a go go.
This decade has seen a shift on the button issue: lots of tactile things to press used to signify that something was high tech. Now, anything with lots of buttons just looks like it is trying hard to not look like an iPhone. This thing's buttons could bring you straight to CompUSA! Online, that is. It could also store passwords and bookmarks. On the site was the explanation:
We believe that the Internet experience shouldn't be confusing. So we developed a simple and secure way to access, surf and shop the Internet.
See, I agree. But the Internet is confusing. To use the vocabulary of 2000, it's a network of a billion million interconnected tunnels to computers. A super highway, if you will. I think that if it weren't confusing, I'd be confused.
The MySmart didn't last, even though its site promised that the first 100,000 would be given away for free (shipping not included). [Archived site from 2000]
Anna Jane Grossman will be with us for the next few weeks, documenting life in the early aughts, and how it differs from today. The author of Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By (Abrams Image) and the creator of iamobsolete.net, she has also written for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Salon.com, the Associated Press, Elle and the Huffington Post, as well as Gizmodo. She has a complicated relationship with technology, but she does have an eponymous website: AnnaJane.net. Follow her on Twitter at @AnnaJane.
