Update: The New York Fly-by Fiasco

The New York Post reports they've released the picture that scared the bejabbers out of New Yorkers and dumped the guy who dreamed the whole stunt up. It would seem to me you could do an awful lot of Photoshopping for $328,835.00.

"... And The Lion Will Lie Down With The Lamb..."

In today's Globe and Mail hilarity by one of Newfoundland's most erudite sons: Rex Murphy makes a biblical connection between trying to make a statement about carbon neutrality and being rescued by a big stonking oil tanker.

Decriminalizing Pot

Ace of Spades makes a compelling counter-argument to decriminalization because organized crime would simply move from pot to other criminal work. "These points don't make the case against decriminalization; but it is nevertheless important to debate in terms of reality, not the unicorns-and-ice-cream fantasies the decriminalization proponents usually offer."

The article ignores the possibility that the marijuana industry could be modeled on Big Tobacco. The taxes would then be collected at the retail level like in a Canadian smoke shop.

Marijuana would also come under federal health inspection regulations - today the millions of people who buy their pot from anonymous sources have no clue what poisons are lurking in their stash. In order to be safe, pot would have to be graded like good steak. Canada Grade A. But that's industrial scale.

What if - as a way of broaching this subject - we simply allow folks to grow their own pot without fear of prosecution. The same way we allow people to make their own beer. At least it's a start.

How To Get A Million Hits On Your Blog In Less Than A Year

So have we found the Bloggy Secret of Life? The Holy Grail? The Ne Plus Ultra of driving traffic to one's blog? Here's the rules according to Robert Stacey McCain (The Other McCain):

It's the Underpants Gnome Theory of Blogging:

• Phase 1: Get a Blogspot account.
• Phase 2: ?
• Phase 3: One million visitors!

Wolfram Alpha Update

PhysOrg.com reports about a "media webinar earlier today where Wolfram Alpha's creator, Stephen Wolfram, said the site should be launching "in a bit over a week." Wolfram also showed off his ambitious project by demonstrating a variety of search queries and answering questions from journalists. As most people who use the Internet a lot know, there are times when you search Google, and times when you search Wikipedia or YouTube - and soon there will probably be times when you know that the type of information you want is more appropriate for an Alpha query."

Cheap, Reliable Surgical Lighting

Elliot Hwang, an undergraduate biomedical engineering student, shows off the working prototype of the surgical lamp he helped design and build. The battery-operated, low-cost surgical lamp is made for developing nations where electricity is unreliable. Earlier this month, members of Michigan Health Engineered for All Lives, or M-HEAL, sent their prototype lamp to Uganda where it will undergo testing.

Why The Flu Is Worse For Some But Not Others

Once again I have not been perusing the Journal of Leukocyte Biology but it's a good thing I was reading KurzwelAI.net where I saw this: "Researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have discovered important clues about why influenza is more severe in some people than it is in others. The influenza virus can paralyze the immune systems of some otherwise healthy individuals, leading to severe secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia."

Are Parasite Bloggers Killing Big-J Journalism?

"This (past) Wednesday, newspaper representatives met with the US Congress about the ailing state of the print business. Some like David Simon, noted author and the creator of HBO's The Wire, complained that online news and news aggregators (like Google News) are killing the business. He states, "High-end journalism is dying and it won't be reborn anywhere else without a new model. The parasite is slowly killing the host. High-end journalism is a profession." He dismisses bloggers, stating, "A neighbor with a garden hose is not a firefighter." But Ariana Huffinton, co-founder of the left-wing news weblog Huffington Post said "The future of journalism is not dependent on the future of newspapers." Read the whole thing.

Crazy Loud Sound Pressure Levels

I've never really understood the whole car audio subculture. I mean I have put aftermarket stereos in my cars over the years. But I have never done anything like this: "Alan Dante's concrete filled Volvo is louder than dynamite, jet engines, gunfire, NASA rockets and pretty much any sound you can imagine for that matter aside from nuclear bombs and natural disasters." His subwoofer requires 26,000 watts (!) and generates 180.5 dB of er... sound pressure. But it's only purpose is to be really really really loud.

So here's an automotive/audio mashup that actually served a purpose. Robbie Coltrane and 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits fire up a 1952 Chrysler Hemi V8 powered air raid siren. Watch the reaction from the bystanders when this monster spools up indoors.

Of course everybody involved here has suffered irreversible hearing damage. Just sayin'.

The Critical Error Of Enslaving Science

John McLean is a climate data analyst and a member of the Australian Climate Science Coalition: "Vested interests now dominate climate science. Whether climatologists, their employers and other people believe the government-approved line has become irrelevant, because they all wish to retain an income stream and whatever reputations they've established. These people advise governments, which subsequently set policy and research funding regardless of any contradiction with observational data (emphasis mine). Climate science is no longer an impartial truth but a slave to the yoke of politics and opportunism. If this continues, society will be the inevitable loser."

I believe society has already suffered losses. We have a generation of children who have been indoctrinated with global warming propaganda in the schools. What astounds and appalls me about all of this is here we are in the 21st century arguing about scientific "beliefs". We might as well have learned nothing.

Memories Of Victory - VE Day

The war in Europe ended 64 years ago today. Here is a retrospective that was published in the British newspaper The Independent on the 60th anniversary. The personal remembrances at the end are especially poignant: "People expected things to get better very quickly. They didn't." Not for a long time.

Man Fights Giraffe.

This is hilarious. And what is that white stuff. Snow?

New Prostate Cancer Prevention Guidelines

"The latest science-based guidelines on nutrition and exercise as they relate to prostate health and cancer prevention are now available in a new publication from The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF). The guide, Nutrition, Exercise and Prostate Cancer, is available in electronic form on the foundation's website, www.pcf.org. Individuals can also order a printed copy of the booklet online."

"Increasingly, scientific findings are indicating that changes in lifestyle--namely better nutrition and exercise routines--have an important effect on survivorship and prevention for many cancers. In some cases, it is now believed that intensive lifestyle intervention can provide a positive contribution to various medical interventions..."

Scape-pigs?

"The intersection of tyranny and superstition"

Canadians Get Hosed By Chrysler?

Robert Farago at The Truth About Cars links to a Time article comparing US and Canadian Chrysler bailouts: “...the Canadian rescue package works out to more than $340,420 for every employee at Chrysler Canada, which has 9,400 hourly and salaried workers on payroll. That’s 15% more than the $295,000 per employee that Washington is shelling out to save about 40,000 Chrysler jobs in the U.S.” I have wondered before if it would just be simpler to give the workers the money.

The Klingons Like It Better

Two Klingon generals review the new Star Trek film. In Klingon. Mercifully with subtitles. Frankly you'd think Klingons would be more annoyed there are no Klingons in the film. At least as annoyed as Bill Shatner.

Star Trek Opens Today

The highly-anticipated Star Trek prequel is in the theaters today. Thanks to Spock himself some Vulcans in Alberta got the first screening. The Tomatometer was running 100% fresh - until Roger Ebert weighed in. Uh oh.

Ratcheting The Rhetoric

"The Obama administration, being put out with the Islamabad government, has decided understatement is no virtue. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently pronounced Pakistan nothing less than "a mortal threat" because it is "abdicating to the Taliban." But is that an accurate assessment?" Steve Chapman questions the escalating language at Reason.

Let My Sensimilla Be

Can national drug problems be better controlled by decriminalization? TIME magazine: "Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does." That Western countries do not regulate and tax marijuana is a great boon to organized crime.

The Promise Of Mosaic

"If Facebook is looking more and more like an Operating System with its app platform, Firefox is too..." To those of us who remember Lynx and Mosaic this is the realization of a dream. But who knew a web browser could compete with Facebook? But then where would Facebook have been without the browsers.

The Dirty Deal In Swat

"I do not think that ceding the Swat Valley to the Taliban was terribly unlike ceding the Sudetenland to Germany; and the backstabbing has been all the more historically repetitive." Excellent analysis of appeasement fallout in Pakistan's Swat Valley from Raphael Alexander at Unambiguously Ambidextrous.

Dom Deluise Has Died.

He was only 75. More from CNN.

Stunning Photoshop Effects You Can Do

You just know nobody looks like this in real life. And yet the aesthetic appeal of this portrait is undeniable. Ahh Photoshop. These detailed tutorials from Smashingapps will help you unlock some of the mysteries of Photoshop and make people you know look, well, better. One word of warning, though - Use the age progression effect with extreme caution.

Songs Around The World Is Number One

On Amazon.com the CD/DVD set has rocketed to number one in sales and rightly so. You can purchase it here. Here's a YouTube video on the making of Songs Around The World.


Go to Playingforchange.com

Alexander Ovechkin

I'm not a huge hockey fan anymore, but even this pops up on my radar. Last night Washington Capitals Alexander Ovechkin and Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby both scored hat tricks, as the Capitals won 4-3 to take a 2-0 series lead. Hat tip to Raphael Alexander. It's worth your while to watch Ovechkin in action here. His stickhandling is so good he looks like he's got the puck on a string. The last goal in the video may well be one of the best goals in the history of the game. Outstanding.

More On The Dimming Sun

National Geographic notes the odd quietude of the sun. "[Global warming] skeptics tend to leap forward," said Mike Lockwood, a solar terrestrial physicist at the University of Southampton in the U.K. He and other researchers are therefore engaged in what they call "preemptive denial" of a solar minimum leading to global cooling." So now the warmists are the denialists. Whatever fits the AGW narrative I guess. I prefer this take: "There are many uncertainties," said Jose Abreu, a doctoral candidate at the Swiss government's research institute Eawag. We don't know the sensitivity of the climate to changes in solar intensity. In my opinion, I wouldn't play with things I don't know." In ten years we will know. But will it be too late to roll back the damage caused by the politicization of science?

Update: Kate McMillan's Small Dead Animals blog links to a useful graph showing CO2 as a percentage of the entire atmosphere. Just keep scrolling. And scrolling. And scrolling....

Thoughts On The Flu

The swine flu outbreak seems to be settling down and we've wondered about over-reaction. However history has some harsh lessons. The flu of spring often dies down to return with terrible result in the fall. More from Caleb Hellerman, CNN Senior Medical Producer.

Back To The Future - Turntable Basics

Here's an article from Audiojunkies that would have been a staple of audiophile magazines up until CDs replaced vinyl practically overnight. CDs were easy to use, durable and you didn't have to be a turntable geek anymore. Well plus ca change and don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till its gone. Vinyl is back in a big way and suddenly it's hip to know turntables again.

I've dusted off my old Panasonic Technics SL-D2 direct drive for my new copy of Dark Side of the Moon. Awesome. Get vinyl kids. You don't know what you've been missing.

How To Make Stunning Black & White Images

You probably know you can convert your colour digital photographs or scans to greyscale thereby making them black and white. But, like me, you've probably never been satisfed with the end result. Here's a tutorial from Photojojo that shows how to bring out your innner Ansel Adams.

An Online Car Price Gadget

Lifehacker describes a potentially useful tool in haggling a good price for your new car. "TrueCar collects and analyzes data from 25% of the automotive sales in the US - a sizable portion, and more than enough to paint an accurate picture." Bit of a toy outside the US but interesting to car geeks and possibly even useful.

Name Just Three Clear Signs The Planet Is Warming

Meteorologist Anthony Watts writes Watts Up With That? He likes to keep scientists' feet to the fire when it comes to global warming. Here, he repeats an op-ed by Andrew Bolt that appeared in the Australia Herald Sun. On the science of global warming Bolt says "Time’s up for this absurd scaremongering. The fears are being contradicted by the facts, and more so by the week. Doubt it? Then here’s a test. Name just three clear signs the planet is warming as the alarmists claim it should. Just three. Chances are your “proofs” are in fact on my list of 10 Top Myths about global warming. And if your “proofs” indeed turn out to be false, don’t get angry with me. Just ask yourself: Why do you still believe that man is heating the planet to hell? What evidence do you have? So let’s see if facts matter more to you than faith, and observations more than predictions." Enlightened commentary indeed.

Instapundit Mentions Newfoundland

Newfoundland appears in Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit today. A quick search of his site on the keyword "Newfoundland" reveals that its not the first time. Glenn has linked to Daimnation, Damien Penney's formerly indespensible blog. I say formerly because Damian has gone on hiatus. Anyway, the mention is because of a BBC story on ancient Atlantic tidal waves, and includes the 1929 Grand Banks of Newfoundland tsunami.

Bail Out The "Papers"? Er, No

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration won't bail out the struggling newspaper industry. With The New York Times and the Boston Globe in poor economic condition there's been recent talk of a bail-out. Even Obama realizes the last thing America needs is state-owned media.

Ah Tweety - We Hardly Knew Ye

"I had stopped “tweeting” days, perhaps a week, before I deleted my Twitter account. The novelty had finally worn off, and the knowledge that this had become yet another electronic distraction had taken root. It was time to send this baby to the “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” archive on the dusty shelf of internet fads."

Raphael Alexander at Unambiguously Ambidextrous proposes that Twitter has run its course. And I never even tweeted. Did I miss something?

Lord Stern And Global Warming

"When he came to Canada in 2006 to appear on a podium with David Suzuki (which tells us a lot), The Globe and Mail grovelled that Mr. Stern was “not one of those outspoken academics who have political axes to grind or who love tilting at windmills.” In fact, no assessment could have been wider of the mark. Lord Stern does not just tilt at windmills, he worships them, and regards those who don’t as infidels."

Peter Foster of the National Post writes about Lord Stern, who spoke at the Economic Club of Toronto yesterday peddling his new book, The Global Deal.

Vintage Pontiac Print Ads

Murilee Martin at Jalopnik points us to a treasure trove of Pontiac print artwork from the post-war days up to the ugly '80s. I know. More Pontiac stuff. I just can't help myself. Some of these cars (like the '65 Grand Prix above) were drop dead gorgeous.

The Unknown Susan Boyle

"Even if Susan Boyle wasn't Olivia Newton-John, she was sufficiently attractive that -- with a more flattering hairstyle, a flashier wardrobe, a good backup group and a repertoire that included some up-tempo original tunes -- she might still have made it big as a singer, but . . ." Robert McCain muses on the reasons Susan Boyle went undiscovered for 25 years.

Monitor/TV Combo

With no fancy-shmancy home theater system in the house and none wanted, we've taken to watching DVDs in the living room on our wide-screen LG office monitor. Nice pictures but a bit of a pain to move all the time. What we really need is one of these - a combination monitor-TV tuner from Samsung.

Songs Around The World

So I bought the download copy of Songs Around The World after blogging about it a few days ago. With the slight exception of overmodulation on the native drums in "Stand By Me", this is a wonderful recording of an ingenious idea and well worth your time. I notice the CD/DVD combo has now risen to number 5 in sales ranking on Amazon.com's music list.

Online Videos With Huge Audiences

Over at the Visible Measures Blog the 100 Million Viewer Club. My faves: Jeff Dunham with Achmed the Dead Terrorist (Silence!) and Charlie Bit My Finger - Again.

Merck Mendacity

Pharmaceutical giant Merck publishes that doctor's office essential the Merck Manual. It's the oldest continuously published general medical text in the English language. Recently Merck's drugs products were favorably peer-reviewed in The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine. There's only one problem. The journal doesn't exist. Merck invented it to help tout its pharmaceuticals to doctors. Link goes to the story and a discussion of fundamental ethics.

Russia Nukes The Arctic

Oil drilling - bad. Oil drilling in the Arctic - horrifying. Nuclear plants - catastrophic. Nuclear plants powering oil drilling in the Arctic - Priceless! Slashdot links to well-advanced Russian plans to place small floating nuclear power plants in the Arctic Ocean to power their offshore oil drilling rigs. Oh those pesky Russians. This should put environmentalists into geostationary orbit for quite some time. I just hope that, unlike Chernobyl, the Russians have now learned something about nuclear containment.

White House Press Room A "Blog-Free" Zone?

From the indispensible Glenn Reynolds, a link to Richard Fernandez's blog musing about why the "papers" are done for.

Marketing Global Warming. No, Wait...

Global warming alarmists and other environmental "campaigners" are worried. "Environmental issues consistently rate near the bottom of public worry, according to many public opinion polls. A Pew Research Center poll released in January found global warming last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists." So what's a green communicator to do? Why channel George Orwell of course. The New York Times reports on the need for a new environmental doublespeak.

Why I Never Bought A New American Car

As a baby-boomer I was a logical recruit for General Motors. My Dad owned several 50s and 60s Pontiacs, 70s Buicks and an 1980s Oldsmobile . As a kid I loved Pontiacs, learned to drive on a '62, and would have bought a Pontiac when I came of age. But instead in 1977 I bought a year-old Volkswagen Rabbit. After driving Beaumonts and Falcons and Pintos and Vegas and Chevettes and full sized Pontiacs, Buicks and Oldsmobiles, the Rabbit was a revelation. It was small-scale, light-weight, agile, responsive, fuel-efficient and FAST. Suddenly I understood "throttle response" and what it meant to say "It goes where you point it". Needless to say, I crashed it. The Rabbit was repaired and I never considered an American car again. In 1990, my Dad, a GM man since 1950, finally got fed up with rounded off camshafts, crappy assembly and poor service and bought a Nissan Maxima. Where he stayed. Once he got used to the hard seats he had the same revelation as I. Why was the American auto industry not building such cars? We didn't know at the time, so we voted with our feet. The North American manufacturers never understood who we were and what we wanted. So we bought imports. And Detroit died.