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Planet Dave! Thursday, November 24, 2005
Bush's Spin Doctor
(I got this from a bunch of people.) Celebrate the genius of Dubbya's public speaking abilities with the presidential speak writer.
The Karl Rove Drinking Game!
I'm working through my backlog of stories, here. Back in July, the Rocketboom video blog had an editorial episode regarding the White House's ability to effortlessly dodge reporter's questions!
PlanetDave How-To: Marble Shooting Air Rifle
Here's another fun physics experiment! Long time readers may recognize the guy's name as the same one who made the marble machines I posted about a while back.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Solar Systems With More Than One Sun
It's been thought for a while that planets can only form from debris circling a single star. Turn's out that's not true. The implication of this is that there are a lot more planets in the galaxy than we thought. According to the article, mutliple star systems outnumber solitary stars by about 20%. So this new finding more than doubles the possible number of planetary systems in our little corner of creation.
Did you get the memo?
From J-Walk, "If your boss has been bugging you to redesign the cover sheet for the TPS Report, you can save some time and download it here (PDF file). Just change the company name and logo, and you're in business." And remember to attach that to each report.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Papers Please!
This took longer than I thought it would. Someone else has been arrested for refusing to show her ID to a law enforcement dude. Now, I question the Constitutionality of this rule, but the Supreme Court made its decision. (More or less.) What has me a lot more concerned are the secret laws regarding air travel.
Cool Weird Clouds in Nebraska
Boing Boing had a couple posts (here and here) with links to galleries of Mammatus Clouds. One from last year, and one from more recently. Cool, cool stuff.
How to Build a 17-ft Wind Turbine
From /., "The people over at Treehugger have found an amazing little article on how to build a 17ft - 3kW+ output Wind Turbine. Apparently this is the latest project of OtherPower.com and the site has a variety of other engergy saving/producing projects including a Homebrew Maytag Gas Battery charger."
Nightmare of Sleep Paralysis
From Boing Boing, "This week's issue of Science News explores the creepy world of sleep paralysis, a mental phenomena where someone is about to doze or off or is just waking up and suddenly becomes unable to move. Many scientists believe that sleep paralysis is the biological answer to such mysteries as spirit visitations, alien abductions, incubi/succubi, and out-of-body experiences."
Monday, November 21, 2005
The Dumbasses at Sony
I don't really feel like talking about it, but I feel I must chime in. If you don't know about Sony's attempts to hack its customers' computers, you can read up on it here and here. I just want to say this is why I only listen to pirated music. On the rare occation that I do buy a CD, it's only after making sure that the RIAA doesn't get any money for it.
Update: There's a third roundup of this fiasco. Man, it just keeps coming.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Kansas education board downplays evolution
Found this on /. It's an MSNBC article on Kansas fighting evolution in schools again. Fun quote from a schoolboard member who voted against the new policies, "This is a sad day. We're becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that." And get this, they're actually changing the definition of science as it's taught in their schools. Just amazing.
Knock, knock - who's bear?
Marty sent me this interesting article. Apparently in Croatia, a bear learned that if he knocks on the door, people will let him in. And he's been using this new skill to raid kitchens.
New History Teaching Technique
I think instead of explaining history in the same old dry texts, we should try to re-write things in a format that kids today will understand. For example, perhaps teachers should explain the history of World War II as if it were an RTS.
Water & Air Powered Jet Pack
Gene sent this around a while back. I second his question, when are we building ours? I love the concern for safety. The blow-up ring, the climbing helmet. I guess a life jacket would've added too much weight.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Cometary Fireworks Go Off Without Hitch
From /., "The JPL Deep Impact mission has successfully slammed a sattelite into Tempel 1 at 23,000 mph. (37,000 kph). The autonomous navigation system was primed for up to 3 course corrections in the final 2 hours of flight but only had to execute two of them. The second was so small - expending less than a pound of propellant - that impact would have occurred without it. Initially thought to be shaped like a pickle, it came to resemble more of a banana shape as comet Tempel I drew closer. Impact was estimated to have released 19 Gigajoules of energy, or the equivalent of 4.5 tons of TNT."
Sunscreen Not So Good for You?
From /., "Don't like sunscreen? Maybe that tan is good for you. It looks like people are rethinking the common wisdom of avoiding sun exposure... "research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each one caused by skin cancer". Maybe if Kurt Vonnegut ever does address MIT grads, he will say something else..."
Eric Grohe Murals
This guy has done some really incredible murals. Most of them take an urban eye-sore and make it look like a scenic tourist destination. Cities should be required to do this kind of thing.
Kick Ass Kung-Fu
Ok, this is one of the cooler video game interfaces I've seen. It's for a fighting game. The computer watches your silouette, and puts your movements in the game. Be sure to check out the videos.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Americans Are Dumb
Just in case you needed proof of this, here's a daily dose. Man, that's a depressing read.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Everett Joseph Smith Was a Real Boy
If you've been reading my site for a while, you've probably seen a couple links to the Real Live Preacher. It's a view of Christianity from the pulpit. Man, I don't think that's a job I could ever handle. A while back he wrote an essay for a friend. Here it is. Be warned, he doesn't pull any punches.
Tipping Etiquette
I don't remember how long it took me to be able to calculate 15% in my head. Now that I have a positive cash flow, 20% is just easier. But since then, tipping have become a lot more complicated.
Google Earth Rocks
If you haven't checked out Google Earth, do it now. You'll need a good internet connection, but it's really, really cool. Ars-Technica has a good post about it. I love using it to make sense of driving directions. There's just something cool about zooming into the planet for directions to Oak Park.
Group proposes to build hotel on Justice Souter's house property
From Boing Boing, "Following the Supreme Court ruling allowing private companies to seize people's houses and develop the land for business purposes, a private developer has asked the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire "to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road." That's the address of Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter's home." If you're not up on Eminent Domain, you can read about it over at Wikipedia. Basically, it means that the government can seize your property if they're going to put it to "public use". In the case of Kelo vs. New London, "public use" was determined to include giving your property to a comercial venture, which would produce more taxes that could be put to public use. Quite a stretch, if you ask me. But I'm not a Supreme Court Justice.