Food miles
Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7aab7680-f5a6-11db-a3fe-000b5df10621.html
A few months ago I read and referenced an article on "locavores", or the process of eating only what can be sourced from a nearby region. This article from the Financial Times is the other side of the coin in terms of the energy cost of production.
(Via Kotke)
So that's where Giger got the idea...
Link: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/09/jaws_of_the_moray.php
I actually saw this description on the morphology of the moray eel in one of the Calgary free weeklies first, but Pharyngula has a better description plus I can actually link to it.
Cute title aside, I'm pretty sure H.R. Giger came up with his "Alien" design independently given that I've never seen this comparison before.
Goofy, but apt, T-Shirts
Link: http://www.jinx.com/men/shirts/geek/nobody_reads_my_blog.html?catid=1
I gave this one to Ritchie about a year ago; I'm now thinking about repossessing it as based on the referrer logs he's doing quite well on readership by stirring up the creationist stewpot!
The "final" cut of "Blade Runner" is nigh
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070902/en_nm/venice_bladerunner_dc;_ylt=AuqHaAW1EP6pGJwnDBolI6Gs0NUE
Sometimes I feel I'm the only person -- including the director -- who actually liked the film noir narration in the theatrical cut of "Blade Runner". The ending probably did improve with subsequent cuts but I felt stripping Harrison Ford's voice-overs hindered rather than helped the film.
Still, I wouldn't mind finding out what Ridley Scott has done to it this go-around. I'm not so sure about labeling it the "final cut" though...
(Via Daring Fireball)
So how's that prediction going, Dena?
Link: http://blogs.nimblebrain.net/index.php?blog=3&p=395&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more395
They've been awfully quiet over in Annandland. I'm suspicious that there may be great evil brewing... :)
Peeing in The Colours of the Rainbow
Why must it always be the same colour, anyhow?
Well, different colours is usually a bad sign, but who knew there was such variety?
With appropriate health warning provisos, here is a list of things that can make your pee change colour. Doing it on purpose seems, for the most part, to be very nasty.
A few drops of methylene blue seems to be a favourite science prank from time to time, though.
Phenolphthalein... well, it's a laxative on top of everything else.
Safe peeing, everyone.
Kicking Horse Pass bridge open
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/08/30/kicking-horse.html?ref=rss
When I drove through to Golden, BC, a few weeks back the new bridge was mostly built but not open. This meant I got to drive underneath it on the old highway. It's really very impressive to look up and see this huge thing towering above you. The photo on the CBC's site doesn't give a sense of scale -- the bridge is extremely high and those are very substantial pillars holding it up. Once you're on the bridge it'll probably look rather less impressive which is a bit sad. While the old road through the pass is quite beautiful, I would agree that it's treacherous and needed to be replaced.
Happy 1st Birthday to "Ready, Aye, Ready"
It's a bit of a belated wish; "Ready, Aye, Ready" turned a year old some time back in August when I was out of town. Alas I didn't get around to noting it then. Sorry, kiddo.
Come to think of it, I'm not quite sure when the blog turned a year as we lost all the posts from then due to the site being destroyed by a vandal. I do recall that it was some time in August 2006 when I started after getting bored of deleting the spam from Ritchie's comment files.
A year is far longer than I've ever kept a journal or diary active before so perhaps this blogging thing may have some longevity to it. Well, let's see if I can keep going for another year doing this...
An Even Better Moon Landing Anti-Conspiracy Site
I really enjoy Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site, and it has much to recommend it apart from its eminently sensible anti-hoax pages, including its oft-updated blog, notes on good and bad astronomy and really good forums.
My new favourite on the anti-hoax front specifically for the moon landings, though, has got to be the Clavius site. It's even more penetrating than Plait's site, and goes into great detail on the individual photographs, the failure of studio lighting as an explanation, the silliness of presuming flat surfaces, and countering the ever-present "but all the photos look so good" with a bevy of the not-so-good that quite frankly don't make for great newspaper material... and that's just a small sample of the photography section. All that, and it's done without the angry tone I know I'd find it hard not to impart.
It's not just good for the anti-hoax pieces. You get to learn quite a bit about the equipment, how they prepared to take footage of the first step, radiation and how much radiation the Apollo missions got, etc.
Fondly remembering Buzz in one of his more recent, righteous moments.
Apple's iPhoto Books
Link: http://www.apple.com/ca/ilife/iphoto/prints.html
This probably isn't news to the true Mac'o'philes but it was for me: iPhoto, the photo manager that's part of the standard iLife suite included with every Mac, has the ability to generate books of photos. When I say books, I really do mean books and not simply thumbnail sheets or individual pages out of one's inkjet. These are hardcover, glossy and look absolutely amazing.
An unfortunately named product
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/08/31/cookies-walnuts.html?ref=rss
"Death By Chocolate", eh?
End of an era: bye bye MUSE
Link: http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2007/QBlog310807A.html
On QBlog, Richard Bartle has announced that MUSE, his company created to license MUD amongst other things, is closed. For me this is very much the end of a period. I started playing MUD (aka "Multi-User Dungeon", a text-based but extremely sophisticated multi-user fantasy game) back in the early 80's using British Telecom's "Telecom Gold", a proprietary service analagous to Compuserve. MUSE came into existence around the same time. I played MUD on and off for years using various technologies so for me MUSE and MUD represent a growing understanding of computers and data communications which heavily influenced my subsequent career.
I don't play MUD at all any more but I still have a somewhat nostalgic feeling towards it. A seminal part of my youth? Yeah, I think so. Thank you MUD, MUSE and Mr Bartle.
User Friendly on software license activation/verification
Link: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070901
And here's another data point of the general inanity of continuous license verification (not the comic specifically but what it refers to.) I think Illiad makes the point quite well.
TomTom One
Link: http://www.tomtom.com/products/product.php?ID=259&Category=0&Lid=22
Summary: stand-alone car navigation system
I picked up a refurbished TomTom One earlier this year when Future Shop had a special on them. While it's worked pretty well inside the city of Calgary, I wanted to give it a good run for its money and the recent trip around Canada was a good test.
Basically the unit works well but the map data isn't so hot.
