Category: Random Ramblings

Anything that catches my fancy as a topic I want to cover. Truly random crap.

Anti-Ralph activity returns

No, no. It’s not a movement to prevent vomiting (well, not exactly). What I’m talking about here is the revival of people opposed to Ralph Nader running for President. Since Nader announced on Sunday his plans to improve John McCain’s chances of winning the White House, there has been a good bit of activity from those who believe all Nader does in entering the arena is take away votes from the Democratic candidate. Of course, Nader actually appears to consider himself a serious candidate, and I think he doesn’t see his entrance as a “Let’s let John McCain win” event. However, I think most people with political awareness who AREN’T Ralph Nader at least suspect this to be the outcome of Nader staying in the race (although, there are those who will say his presence did not cause the Gore loss in 2000, except the results they use don’t appear to quite support their argument to me). He probably killed an Al Gore win 8 years ago, and seems ready to do the same for Obama or Clinton this go around.

Now, I wonder if he really is after the White House, or if he’d just prefer McCain to win of the candidates we’re getting for the coming election. Sure, sure – he’ll say he’s serious about the run. And he certainly doesn’t seem like the type to support McCain over Obama or Clinton. Regardless, there are anti-Nader web sites lumbering back to life, and I expect we’ll start getting more of the so-called grass roots movement stuff going (door-to-door, pamphlets, TV ads maybe) to try shutting him down.

It should make for an interesting end of campaigning for the party nominations and a fun twist in the lead-up to this fall’s elections, though, wouldn’t you say?

[tags]Nader, Ralph Nader, McCain, Election, Presidency[/tags]

Domino homebrew

I can’t recall having seen any moderate or large scale domino setups lately, but recall them being quite the fashion when I was much younger.  Below is a video done by some kinetic artists for a museum.  The real action starts at around 3:30 mark, with leadup showing the already set up domino string, a bit of interview time with the artists, and a few stills of final domino break inserts (when setting up long domino strings, it is typical that one leaves some large holes in case of an accident along the chain and then fills them in when everything else is finished).

The whole action section gets started by the young attendee who guessed closest to the actual number of dominoes used in the display.  (via boingboing)

[tags]dominoes, museum, kinetic artist[/tags]

Insensitivity

From a former cow-orker:

We all have heard of people talking about so-called “towel heads”. This is quite insensitive; it is also wrong.

You see, what they wrap around their heads is not a towel but, rather, more like a little sheet.

And so let us not be insensitive and call them “towel heads”. Let us be sensitive indeed and instead call them “little sheet heads”.

Thank you.

I support this message of sensitivity.

Woman arrested for DWI, mysteriously bleeds profusely while interrogation video off

Potentially disturbing video warning.

This is a video of a woman being processed in a police interrogation room after an arrest for DWI. Mysteriously, at one point during the processing, the video camera is turned off. When it is turned back on, the woman is lying in a pool of her own blood, and shortly afterwards taken away on stretcher to the hospital.dwi-beating.jpg She ends up with two black eyes, two broken teeth, bruises, and, as noted, loss of lots of blood.

The officer has been fired, but is appealing the firing. His attorney claims the officer turned of the tape …in accordance with normal practice. So far, I’ve found no explanation of what normal practice leads to turning off video taping while processing an arrestee. I suspect it is something like “When beating someone, it is normally wise to do so where no video evidence nor eye witnesses can be used against use.” I could be wrong, though – that’s just a theory. The officer explains what happened, thankfully. Again, through the officer’s attorney:

The suspect again tried to leave the room. In the process of stopping her, she fell and injured herself.

I can’t recall the last time I fell while someone tried to stop me from going through a door and I ended up in the condition shown above, but maybe you other folks can help me out on this one.  Anyone got a similar experience where you fell about 10 feet away from the door you are trying to go through (at least, that’s about what it loos to me in the video) and ended up with such injuries?

[tags]DWI, Police, She fell down[/tags]

Lifting squirrels

From the xkcd blag (I’m a Blahgger, he’s a blagger – we just don’t want to fit in with those filthy bloggers, I guess) comes this fascinating look at using lasers to lift squirrels in to space.photon_squirrel.png Amazingly enough, without taking advantage of reflection, the method described uses the Doc Brown approved 1.21 gigawatts of energy to lift a squirrel. Using a sufficiently focused beam of light along with properly placed lasters, that power requirement can be cut a few orders of magnitude, down around 1 megawatt. dyson_sphere_diagram.jpgThis is a far less interesting number, but much more economically feasible. Understand I’m all for using gross amounts of power to lift squirrels in to outerspace, but I realize the country might not share my willingness to drain from the entire power grid for such a useful pursuit.

Nicely, the blag post transcends merely levitating squirrels, advancing to such necessary topics as generating lasers from the sun, tying them together via Dyson sphere manipulation to create a death ray, and sending a message to our celestial neighbors.

Why settle for interstellar communication when you can have interstellar war? And we could modulate the beam to carry a message — in this case, “FUCK YOU GUYS!”

And ultimately, isn’t that the real purpose of advancing laser studies? Inter-stellar war and Parisian-level offense directed at other galactic entities? Well, that and frikkin’ shark/laser hybrids.

[tags]xkcd, blag, lasers, 1.21 gigawatts, squirrels, frikkin’ shark, Dyson sphere, death[/tags]

On killers named Wayne

I frequently find fodder for my other, briefer blog from my regular News of the Weird emails, but rarely use the weird news on the Blahg. A recurring theme in those emails is the improbably high number of killers whose middle name is Wayne. Being a middle-name-is-Wayne kind of guy, I just like to know to whom I am being compared on the oddities scale. With that information, you can probably understand why I’d want to post a News of the Weird image of 3 guys who killed a store owner in a shooting:

which_is_wayne.jpg

{democracy:6}

Can you guess which one has the middle name of Wayne just from the picture? Read the full article to check your answer.

[tags]News of the Weird, Middle name is Wayne, Guess the Wayne[/tags]

Lasers are old, you know?

I’m not really sure when the brilliant hybrid of frikkin’ sharks and laser-beams came about, but it’s pretty clear from this 1963 article on cutting wood with a beam of light that the frikkin’ sharks didn’t yet have frikkin’ laser-beams on their frikkin’ heads – at least, not in popular culture. There was probably an underground cult-like movement with such creatures. I envision them hosting frikkin’ shark fights in frikkin’ pools in frikkin’ secret underground cabins. All before Michael Vick was even born, most likely.

mm-med_laser_cut_wood.jpgA new technique in woodworking may be on the way. The University of Michigan has developed a tool that cuts through maple and other hardwoods with bursts of light that act like the science-fiction writers’ disintegrating-ray gun. The experimental drill operates with a laser (light amplification by stimulated electron radiation) head that contains a coiled xenon flash tube and a ruby rod. It builds up intensely hot light pulses, focuses them through a lens to vaporize a hole in a block of wood instantly without leaving char. It’s not ready yet for the home workshop.

I have a theory, in fact, that the young man pictured there is the inventor of the frikkin’ shark/laser hybrid, although I haven’t worked out all the details yet.

[tags]Sharks, laser-beams, cutting wood, wood, laser, frikkin’, Modern Mechanix[/tags]

Beef recall? Can it *really* be that bad?

So, maybe you’ve heard about the huge, nation-wide beef recall? Maybe you don’t know just why this is happening. And maybe you are wondering, well just how bad could it really be?

A disturbing video of cows too sick to walk being pulled to their feet by chains in order to pass slaughterhouse inspections has prompted the largest recall of beef in American history.

. . .

The undercover footage, obtained by the Humane Society of the United States, shows workers kicking crippled cows, spraying them with water and using electric shocks, trucks and chains to force the cattle to walk and pass USDA inspection.

. . .

The recall covers beef produced since February 2006 and distributed nationwide to wholesalers for use in products such as burrito filling, meatballs and sausage.

Of course, a lot, probably most of the beef in question has already been consumed. But if you weren’t already wary of beef, maybe this will help you to think about your food before you buy it. I love me some beef, but I rarely eat it any more. This recall is making me appreciate not having any lately.

Oh, and why the hell is it that the best story I can find about a US product recall is from a British news site?

[tags]Beef, Recall, USDA, Mmmmm[/tags]

My littlest singing

Here’s a pic of my littlest one pretending to be grown up and singing in church a couple weeks ago.

daniel_in_church01.jpg

I should point out that he just turned 5 at the start of the month, and can’t actually read yet.  So cute as this is, it’s just him imitating his mother.

[tags]My children, Church, singing[/tags]

If warning label is not in place to warn, do not use?!?

OK, so on this paper cutter at the office, there’s this interesting little cap over the spring attached to the blade handle. Am I the only person who sees a problem with this?

cutter.jpg

So, um, how exactly would someone know they should not use the cutter if the guard weren’t in place when they arrived?  Maybe a label on the cutting board warning against using the cutter if the spring guard is not in place?

[tags]Stupid, Cutter, Do not operate, User interface, Design flaws[/tags]

Floridians against evolution?

tb_evolutionpoll_graph225.jpgResults from a badly worded survey are in, and if the numbers are to be believed (hint: they aren’t to be believed), approximately 50% of Floridians are in favor of teaching creationism in place of evolution as science.

Only 22 percent want public schools to teach an evolution-only curriculum, while 50 percent want only faith-based theories such as creationism or intelligent design, according to a new St. Petersburg Times survey.

Here’s a clue. If you only use penicillin to deal with your occasional infection, you can make a reasonable claim that you don’t buy in to the theory of evolution. If, however, you use such as Azithromycin, Ciprofloxacin, Amoxicillin, or any of the other updated penicillin alternatives or medications which fight some of the same classes of illness, then you are getting medicated based on evolution theory. If there were no evolution, you wouldn’t need to fight penicillin-resistant medications, as penicillin would always work against the class of ailments for which penicillin worked many years ago.

If you want to believe in some higher power, that’s great. But don’t confuse faith issues with science and try to get evolution taken out of school just because the science disagrees with your faith. If you feel children must be taught Intelligent Design or Creationism, take them to church and get your Sunday School teachers to educate them. Because as appealing as these concepts are, they are most certainly not science.

I lack the proper command of the language and sufficient depth in the subject to write a very good post about this, but I do know the difference between science and non-science, and am so tired of people trying to teach one as the other. (via Pharyngula)

[tags]Pharyngula, Science, Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design[/tags]