Happy Birthday, Ms. Axe Master

180px-LizzieBorden1893.jpgBorn today in 1860 is the fabulous Ms. Lizzie Borden. She may not have been the prettiest or smartest girl in her class, but she could handle an axe like few others at that time. And, she was quite masterful at telling tall tales as to where she really was when the fateful event occurred.  There is so much to her tale and so much history in there.  Why not learn a little bit more about the dear young lady?

Despite her acquittal, Lizzie Borden remains in popular imagination as a brutal murderess. This is due in part to the following:

  • The murders were never solved.
  • For a number of years, on the anniversary of the murders, the more sensational press re-accused her of the crime.
  • The infamous doggerel endured, insinuating her guilt into the public mind thereafter.

The home where the murders occurred is now a bed and breakfast which enjoys considerable popularity. The house is also open for daily tours. Ongoing work has restored the home to a close approximation of its 1892 condition. “Maplecroft,” the mansion Lizzie bought after her acquittal, on then-fashionable French Street is privately owned, and only occasionally available for touring.

[tags]Happy Birthday, Lizzie Borden, Quality Axing[/tags]

The Vidco Copy Cart – old school video game piracy

(via RetroThings)
copycart.jpg

I actually knew someone who had one of these Atari 2600 cartridge copying things (well, I knew someone who knew someone who had one, but I actually saw the thing in action at my friend’s house). Plug an original Atari 2600 cartridge in one end, plug the erasable and reuseable copy cartridge in the other, push a button, and you have a copy. See – videogame piracy is not new. It’s just taking more clever hackers to make it possible for all you grubby little pirates to steal games. 🙂

[tags]Atari 2600, Atari VCS, Retro-gaming piracy[/tags]

Today in history – July 18th

Random historical tidbits, intended to keep you ahead of the class.

[tags]Today in history[/tags]

Americans With No Abilities Act

AMERICANS WITH NO ABILITIES ACT – CONGRESSIONAL ACT 2006

WASHINGTON , DC (AP) – Congress is considering sweeping legislation, which provides new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislation by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.

“Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society,” said Barbara Boxer. “We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they do a better job, or have some idea of what they are doing.”

The President pointed to the success of the US Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack job skills, making this agency the single largest US employer of Persons of Inability.

Private sector industries with good records of nondiscrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement “warehouse” stores (65%) The DMV also has a great record of hiring Persons of Inability. (63%)

Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million “middle man” positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.

Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given, to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations which maintain a significant level of Persons of Inability in middle positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.

Finally, the AWNA ACT contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Nonabled, banning discriminatory interview questions such as “Do you have any goals for the future?” or “Do you have any skills or experience which relate to this job?”

“As a Nonabled person, I can’t be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,” said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, MI due to her lack of notable job skills. “This new law should really help people like me.” With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Said Senator Ted Kennedy, “It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and also find a place for all illegal aliens no matter how useless they may be.”

From Snopes.  Makes me laugh.

[tags]AWNA, Americans With No Abilities Act[/tags]

1979 review of Cray-1 Supercomputer

Another Modern Mechanix post, this one a 1979 Popular Science review of the Cray-1 Supercomputer.  This little speed demon runs along throwing down roughly 80 million operations per second.

Incredible Cray-1 cruises at 80 million operations a second

It’s 10 times faster than the biggest IBM, with six times more memory

. . .

This was the CRAY-1, the amazing supercomputer designed by a reclusive Wisconsin genius. It’s 10 times faster than the biggest IBM computer on the market. And this particular CRAY-1, installed in a major computer center in Kansas City, was being fed by two giant Control Data computers just to keep it busy.

“You’re looking at the architecture of Seymour Cray,” said a voice floating over the top of the computer.

The voice belonged to Jack Lorenz, president of United Computer Systems and owner of the first commercially installed CRAY-1 system. I saw what he meant. The CRAY-1 is unique, not only in electronic architecture and performance, but in size and shape as well. It doesn’t look like any other computer.

. . .

Standing in the CRAY-l’s chilly center—it’s one of the few computers with built-in refrigeration—I was struck by the wiring. Each of the 12 vertical panels was a thick, solid mass of blue and gray wires. There is no color coding in the CRAY-1. How does one tell the wires apart? One doesn’t.

“It’s designed and built on a from-and-to wire list,” I was told later by engineer Lee Higbie at the headquarters of Cray Research, Inc., in Minneapolis. “First we do all the one-foot wires, then all the two-footers, then the three-footers. There are only a couple of four-footers in the entire unit.” Continue reading “1979 review of Cray-1 Supercomputer”

World’s first 3D crop circle

I forgot to post about this when I first heard it on the radio, but I felt it interesting enough that I needed to track down a good article. On July 10th, the first ever 3D crop circle was discovered in a wheat field in Oxfordshire (in England).

cropcircle100706_228x154.jpgThe world’s first three-dimensional crop circle has been discovered deep in the English countryside, sparking the start of the corn circle season.

. . .

Steve Alexander, a crop circle photographer of more than 15 years, said: “I thought it was a groundbreaking formation. We have not seen anything like it before.

“The floor lay and the way the design appears to weave in and out has never been seen before, certainly not that I am aware.

. . .

“The move from a two-dimensional square into a three-dimensional cube might indicate that these patterns emanate from a dimension of reality we cannot access.

Or, maybe, just that the people dedicated to making these crop-circles have gotten better at fooling all the people who believe crop circles are a creation of some higher-intellect aliens or other-dimension critters.

[tags]Crop Circles[/tags]

Company works to increase American laziness

(via Slashdot)
As mentioned in the Slashdot article, I’m sure this is a sign of the coming apocalypse.  In an eight week trial program labelled “Laundry Time,” the Internet Home Alliance will have nine families test washers and dryers with advanced technology.  This will allow family members to receive laundry status updates and control laundry functions via cell phone , TV, or Internet connection.

Those skeptics in the audience (such as myself), might see this as a heightening of American laziness.

Laundry Time’s high-tech vision: “You settle down to do some Web surfing after a busy day. When you start up your browser, you get an Instant Message alert telling you that the dryer did not start its cycle. You realize that you forgot to press the start button. Laundry Time asks you in the IM whether you would like to start the cycle. With your mouse, you select “yes,” which starts the dryer, and you continue Web surfing without interruption.”

My solution is to not be stupid.  Pushing the damn START button before walking away seems like a given.  Perhaps it’s time we start mandating non-stupidity tests for people who want to be parents?

I’m with the BuzzBlog guy on this one:

BuzzBlog’s low-tech alternative: Wrinkles-schminkles.  If you’re taking phone calls from your laundry appliances while operating an automobile let’s just say that a messy crease in the khakis is the least of your concerns.

[tags]American laziness, Laundry Time, Net-enabled laundry[/tags]

Have so much fun, it’s dangerous

With a site named DangerouslyFun, how could I not post it? There are only a few projects there now, but with dangerous fun, it has to grow. Surely loads of people will be contributing. Here’s a sample:

The premise of this project is catching flamable gas within soap bubbles. You can then transfer the bubbles to any surface you wish and light them on fire. The bubbles burn very quickly, creating an impressive fire ball but generally not burning or igniting the surface they are placed on. Read Disclaimer

Yes, you read that right – burning bubbles!

[tags]Dangerously fun, Dangerous fun[/tags]

UK to outlaw standby power mode?

(via PVR-wire)

“But I live in the US – I don’t care about that!” you might protest. And the truth is, for both of my regular readers, it probably doesn’t matter much (and I exaggerate – I doubt I have 2 regular readers). But this is a preview of a law I honestly expect to see come state-side eventually. Why? Well, check out the reason for a no-more-standby-mode law.

THE Government is to outlaw standby switches on televisions and video and DVD players to cut the amount of electricity wasted in the home.

Refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers will have to become energy-efficient, and lightbulbs that burn too much energy will be phased out.

According to yesterday’s Energy Review, standby facilities use 8 per cent of all domestic electricity.

See that? Standby mode makes for 8% of domestic UK usage. Eliminating standby mode means after you turn off your TV, you’ll have to actually get your rear off the couch and push the power button on the box to turn it back on. This is because the remote-control power-on feature relies on the TV being in standby mode instead of being powered-off.

Of course, what more likely will happen is people will leave more equipment on when possible, thus increasing overall power consumption. But I’m just cynical enough to think people will take the lazy way out instead of the economical way out. Almost no one will notice the extra buck or two leaving on the computer or TV on will cost over a month, but they’ll remember having to drag that lazy ass off the couch to take three steps and turn on the TV with the button on the device.

[tags]UK power consumption, Electronic equipment standby mode[/tags]

Underwater image competition

I’ve already lost the source of this link. I think it’s another boingboing article, but I’ve gotten so many tabs opened to things I want to post about that I lost the original story. That said, go see some wonderful photos of underwater critters, the equipment used to see them, and some videos that go along with all that.

Pictured here – Deep-sea physonect siphonophore from the Arctic Ocean:

physonect2.JPG

[tags]Underwater photography[/tags]