RIP Tristram Cary (1925-2008)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/news/080424_news_01

Film and television composer who scored electronic and orchestral music for cult BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who and the Alec Guinness Ladykillers.

First honorary blackbelt in veterinary jujitsu?

People should know how to defend themselves from animals. This is one of the basic primitive skills. (See, e.g., the wolf attack in Conan the Barbarian. Then stop after the wolf attack. The rest of the movie is bad for you.) I refer to this art as veterinary jujitsu, though I have yet to actually assemble any instructional formula (and probably am insufficiently motivated to actually do so...).

In the following article, however, you will see an example of someone who excels at this art:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7327984.stm

It kind of sticks in your craw...

"What doesn't happen when you are drunk?"  --A great Russian (click for story)

Superlaser coolness

Article at http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/texans-build-wo.html

Scientists at UT/Austin, with help from the National Nuclear Security Administration, have built a petawatt laser (1*10^15 watts) which they intend to ramp up to about 1.5 petawatts.  They report that is enough power to simulate the inside of a supernova, and they can maintain it for a few femtoseconds.

Swedish Authorities to Help Virgin Galactic with Regulatory Barriers

I love how far a little ingenuity goes in law. "Spaceships are basically hot air balloons. Have a tax cut."

Swedish Authorities to Help Virgin Galactic with Regulatory Barriers

via Res Communis by PJ Blount on 4/1/08

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

From Space.com:

PARIS - Swedish authorities planning to host flights of the Virgin Galactic suborbital space plane hope to lower the costs and regulatory barriers to the operation by having it classed as a sounding rocket and given the tax advantages of hot-air balloon flights, Swedish and Virgin Galactic officials said April 1.

The press release from the Swedish Space Corporation is also available.

Regarding the medical profession

I recently ran across an aphorism describing the other great profession thus:

Internists know everything but they don't do anything.
Surgeons aren't supposed to know anything, but they do it all.
Pathologists know everything and do everything, but it's all too late.

Poll results

I am a big fan of David Morgan-Mar's generally Lego-based Irregular Webcomic.  One feature of Mr. Morgan-Mar's comic is a poll, the topic of which changes periodically.  I find it an amusing commentary on the generally geeky makeup of the comic's audience that in one recent poll, his readership voted, with a margin of nearly 25% more votes, to save semi-obscure mathematician Evariste Galois from an untimely death over doing the same for Princess Diana.

The Waldo Ultimatum

For one who grew up on these books (not the Ludlum books!), here's some quality entertainment.


http://view.break.com/465843

Do YOU trust your water?

Ever wondered what prescription and nonprescription drugs you drink and brush your teeth with every day? Some answers here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031000621.html?sid=ST2008030901877

Mood stabilizers in Fairfax County Virginia; Estrogen in New Orleans; heart medications in New York, etc.

The amounts are trace and we are told not to panic...

Global warming followup

I posted recently on global warming guessing here.

Since then, another stellar article has come out indicating that there is a significant new tool for climate change modeling.  Try to follow the trail of made-up information and guesswork: the scientists here have guessed backwards about sea level changes to create hypothetical data.  They then indicate that this data is useful for modeling future climate change.  In other words, by drawing a line from a guess in the past through what we think we know about the present, we will be able to definitively state what the future will be like.  Given the certainty with which we can state the outlook and causes of this future, we should make state-mandated policies to control the effects we state this future will hold.

Sure, that much guesswork inspires confidence.

Technology to watch

A byproduct of Scotch distillation appears to have significant environmental cleanup uses.  Although the nature of the product is (understandably) a closely held secret at this time, I don't mind saying, "Save the earth.  Have another shot of the good stuff."

Article Here.

Bizzare but fun link of the day

Telephone Touch Tone Tunes

Now you too can play "Joy to the World" on your phone.  Just be careful of any tunes that start with '1'...

With two-tone dialing, you get (roughly) the notes F, G, A, and B-flat on the rows (starting with 1, 4, 7, and *, respectively) and the notes D, E, and F-sharp on the columns (1, 2, and 3 respectively).  Chords are created by combinations thereof:

1 = D over F
2 = E/F
3 = F#/F
4 = D/G
5 = E/G
6 = F#/G
7 = D/A
8 = E/A
9 = F#/A
* = D/Bb
0 = E/Bb
# = F#/Bb

Because the notes are not exact, there is a bit of leeway regarding sharps and flats and so forth.

Reference:
Tone Dialing
Frequencies

A Night on the Town, Riyadh style

Blogger "Saudi Jeans" describes the difficulty of finding a jazz concert in Saudi Arabia.

I know intellectually that there are significant restraints on personal life in much of the Arabian Peninsula, and always sort of felt a sense that "Wahabiism is a rough way to live" (see here), but somehow the idea of having to go to the U.S. Embassy to hear any live music at all in the Kingdom puts a visceral realism to it for me. Or maybe I am just messed up enough that it takes something like this to get to me on a personal level.

Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Taxes Ruled Unconstitutional

Loudoun County, Bob Marshall, and the handful of other defendants have won the court fight against regional taxation authority.  The decision stated that it was an unconstitutional delegation of taxing power to an entity which is not a local government, and therefore all taxes imposed by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) are null and void.  Opinion (22 pages) available at the Virginia Supreme Court website.

And there was much rejoicing.

Clinton ad

Hillary is running an ad calling on her "experience" theme.

I think it really does beg the question, though, as to whether, when
that call comes, you really want her to be the one taking that call.
Even if you grant that a few years as a senator and some surrogate
terms as spouse-of-executive count as experience, do you really trust
the answer she would give when she picked up the phone for whatever
domestic or international emergency was going on?