Thursday, February 4, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Economic stimulus needed in Vietnam?
The latest figures on the value of various currencies against the US dollar show that Iranian rial is only stronger than [the] dobra of Sao Tome and Vietnamese dong.Aw, poor Vietnamese dong.
Why I love math
What do you get when you graph the following equation?
PolarPlot[(1 + 0.9 Cos[8 t]) (1 + 0.1 Cos[24 t]) (0.9 + 0.1 Cos[200 t]) (1 + Sin[t]), {t, -Pi, Pi}]
See it here.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year - And Beware Farting Turtles
Staff at the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in Norfolk give turtles a seasonal treat of brussel sprouts at Christmas which provide a healthy dose of vitamins, minerals and fibre.
However, the turtles, like humans, are prone to heavy bouts of flatulence after eating the vegetables.
Last year a turtle at a Sealife Centre triggered overflow alarms in the middle of the night after the splashes from gassy bubbles hit overflow sensors.Gotta hate that. Good thing Godzilla never raided the produce department.
The rest of the story at the Telegraph.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Laser Beam Cats
Oh, NO! Not the Christmas Laser Beam Cats! Beware the Thermonuclear Furball!
Merry Christmas and may God bless you all.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Talk about a lotta bull...
A traditional aphrodesiac – for obvious reasons – bull's penis is eaten in various parts of the Far East. It was revealed last year that China's Olympic athletes even requested bull's penis soup on their weekly menus. Whether this contributed to their record haul of 51 gold medals, we'll never know. (From the Telegraph.)
Moo!
Beyonce violates Sharia = grumpy Islamists
No wonder Islamic extremists want to blow themselves - and everyone else - into eternity. They think this is a violation of Sharia Law:
(Sorry, fellas, this is as big as the piccy gets.)
AP didn't get the memo - It's ok for the Dems to lie
Those darned health insurance companies! Greedy bastards! Just listen to what Senator Pelosi said:
I'm very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who also welcomed the attention being drawn to insurers' "obscene profits.Figures they're Bu$h's friends. Just like MoveOn.org said:
Health insurance companies are willing to let the bodies pile up as long as their profits are safe.There's just one problem. They lied and continue to do so:
Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.None of this surprises me. Of course insurance companies aren't making the big buck, or else everyone would be starting an insurance company. And of course Nasty Pelosi and MoveOn.org are lying. They need a villain. Hey, there was 'Big Oil' and Big Tobacco', why not 'Big Insurance'? People fell for it at least twice before and sure enough, they're falling for it again.
What does surprise me is that this actually appeared in the mainstream press. My only explanation is that this AP writer never got the Hopey-Changey memo.
Must be a Fox news reporter in disguise.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Where's Waldo's camera?
Check out this 360-degree view of the Chinese National Day parade. Navigate around. You can see in all directions, including straight up and straight down.
Now tell me just one thing - where's the camera or the camera's support?
It's not easy being sleazy
Well, we're being lied to again. Still. Forget about Iraq's Weapons Of Mass Destruction.
First Energy, the local electric power monopoly, wants to send all of their customers two Chinese-made compact florescent light bulbs. I guess America doesn't have the technology to make CFLs.
Not only do you get then even if you already use them and don't need any more since they last for years (as do I) or just don't like them for whatever reason but First Energy wants to charge their customers for them.
There's no way that I'm aware of to say 'No, thanks anyway' and opt out. We would be forced to pay for them even if we don't use them.
Oh, but wait, there's so much more! Not only is First Energy forcing their customers (who are already forced to be First Energy customers in the first place) to pay for CFLs they may not need or want - they're forcing the same customers to pay for the lost revenue First Energy will incur because their customers will be using CFLs that use 75% less of the electricity they're forced to buy from First Energy.
Truly a WTF, Duct Tape Turban moment.
Think about it - the electric company wants to charge us for using less electricity.
Not only that, but they're forcing us to pay for the means by which we may use less electricity.
The public squawked and First Energy has postponed the program until they can double-talk better wrapping around it. They're looking for another shade of lipstick for the pig. Here's an example:
Neal Elliott, associate director for research for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), said customers ultimately pay for energy-efficiency programs.
''A lot of people have this idea that energy efficiency is free. The reality is it's not free,'' he said.
Nice shade of lipstick, but I'm still seein' a pig here. How much does it cost to turn stuff off when it's not being used? How does using less cost more? Call me kooky, but yeah, I have 'this idea' that using less should cost less. Sure, replacing old equipment with gear that uses less electricity costs money, but the idea is to recoup that expense over time with the savings in electricity use. I spent a bucket of cash on CFLs, but the difference in my electric bill paid for them all in less than a year. So, I use less and pay less. That was, after all, the whole idea in the first place.
So this guy's trying to justify us being charged for using less electricity and for the cost of the things that allow us to use less electricity by saying that we have 'this idea', as if we're delusional to think that using less of something should cost us less.
Maybe he'll start singing 'It's Not Easy Being Green' as an encore. That'll convince me.
Not.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Somali quiz - everyone loses
Before you read this, if you don't know anything about Somalia, take 5 or 10 minutes to familiarize yourself. Try the CIA Factbook and/or Wikipedia.
Yeah, great place. Don't ask me why I care. I'll never go there and they'll never attack Der Bunker or threaten Molly's supply of kibbles. Maybe it makes me feel better about myself and my place in the universe to know there are people living - 'living' being loosely defined - in such a place. Or maybe it makes me realize that Hell must be really bad if it's any worse than Somalia.
And the Somalis, having hit bottom, are busy digging:
The winners of a quiz organised by Somali Islamists have been given weapons and ammunition as prizes. Prizes included AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades and an anti-tank mine. The quiz ran during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in the port city of Kismayo, and included questions about the Koran and Somali geography.No word on what the losers got. Or lost. This sounds like just the thing to revitalize the American quiz-show television genre. You know, kinda' like a mix of 'Where In The World Is Friggin Mogadishu?' and "Jeopardy'.
A representative for the al-Shabab militant group said the quiz aimed to stop young men from wasting their time and focus on defending their territory.Ah, yes, doing it for the children. I wonder if they've tried midnight basketball. Worked wonders here. And when (if) they grow up, they'll be fully prepared to join the Somalian Coast Guard. Yay!
The winning team, from the city's Farjano district, reportedly won a rifle, two grenades, a landmine and office supplies worth $1,000 (£613).Office supplies? Maybe a pad of Post-It Notes to jot down reminders of what neighborhoods to terrorize next? Or is there some symbolism at work here, like a stapler+staples = AK+ammo?
But the runners-up did not go home empty-handed, taking away an AK-47 and bullets.Aw, how nice! Bet it did wonders for the losers' self-esteems!
Al-Shabab and other Islamist rebels accused of having links to al-Qaeda dominate much of southern and central Somalia, where they have imposed strict Sharia law.Yeah, that Sharia law sounds like just the thing.
The only thing missing - so far, at least - is the outcry from the decent, peace-loving Islamic leaders denouncing this outrageous misuse of an honorable religious faith.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Skulling
Halloween is coming. Yippee. Well, skulls are cheap now, anyway. So, needing a model for lighting practice in the Certain Ethnic Portrait Studio, I got one. And needing a way of restricting the light from one of my flashguns, I made one of these. Here's what I got with no key light:
(Click for larger image.)
Hey - it works! And with a key light:
(Click for larger image.)
Mark gets artsy-fartsy
When I was in elementary school, I failed my arts and crafts classes. I wore plaid and stripes (still would if I owned any). Let's face it - I am not artsy-fartsy.
But I'm trying to develop an artist's eye and appreciation. As a part of my education (and the fact that it was going on outside my front door) I went to the Highland Square 'Art In The Square' event. How cool was that! And I took pictures, of course.
And I even bought my very first piece of art - yay, art!
(Click for larger image.)
I call him the Little Ceramic Dude. Pretty creative, I know. I suspect the artist, Ron White, had a different name, but I don't know what it was. I also suspect I'll be getting more pieces like this.
A bigger version of the Little Ceramic Dude, pictures from Art In The Square and a bunch of other stuff is on my Picasa site.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Bra as gas masks
The 2009 ig Nobel Awards have been announced. My personal fave:
PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, Illinois, USA, for inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander.Yes, there really is a patent.
REFERENCE: U.S. patent # 7255627, granted August 14, 2007 for a “Garment Device Convertible to One or More Facemasks.”
So, no, I'm not sniffing your boob, I'm just conducting a chemical attack drill. Hey, gotta be prepared.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Google News Fail
News aggregators don't always get it right. I noticed the headline pictured below and couldn't figure out what it meant.
Turns out it was a 'news' story about children who watched 9/11 on television 8 years ago. Google just read the wrong part of the web page.
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