It's Not Called Washing The Car Anymore - Now It's Called Detailing

We are under water restriction here in St. John's because one of our reservoirs is low - no driveway car washes allowed. So I took my missus's car to the commercial car wash, which is allowed. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon waxing and detailing. For a ten year old Saturn it looks, well, cleaner and, well, sort of newish.

And then when I came inside and fell into my chair with my laptop and a cold beer ( a local Quidi Vidi Honey Brown) I laughed because Glenn Reynolds did the same thing today. Only difference was I was not avoiding other work - as he was. At least he admitted it.

It's actually quite a full body workout, washing, waxing and vacuuming a car. When I was a kid I kept my Dad's Pontiac and Buick hardtops spit-shined for allowance money and the knowledge that I could always ask to borrow his bee-yoo-tiful car just about anytime and he would say yes because his car was always spotless and gleaming. I place that up there with learning to play the guitar as one of the smarter things I did when I was dating.

US Senate Delays Global Warming Bill

Via that most sensible website Minnesotans For Global Warming, Elmer Beauregard links to a report that the senate will delay voting on Obama's global warming bill for at least a month.

Don't miss Elmer's excellent satirical videos: If I Had Some Global Warming, and Three Below Honey. The musicality in these videos is outstanding, the production values are hilarious and original and the message is priceless. Watch for Al Gore on drums.

Cadillac Must Die

Robert Farago at The Truth About Cars talks about how Cadillac used to be the standard of the world, but then goes on to make an excellent point about Government Motors and why it needs to kill off Cadillac.

Tall Ships In Boston

I would love to be in Boston this week to see the Tall Ships. Lots of great pictures here.

This is the Dutch barque Europa with every last scrap of canvas aloft. Notice the studding sails (pronounced stuns'ls) rigged out to port and starboard to catch even the slightest zephyr.

By the way, if you love tall ships and tales of the sea as I do then you will positively swoon over Patrick O'Brian's classic Aubrey-Maturin novels.

This series of over twenty historical novels is set aboard ship in the age of Nelson and forms an essential chunk of the historical novel canon.

The acclaimed Russel Crowe film Master & Commander - The Far Side of the World is based on the first and tenth books in the series.

Pets On A Plane

On a routine flight from Ottawa to St. John's on Air Canada some years ago I began to suffer a violent allergic reaction about 20 minutes into the flight. When we landed, the woman behind me pulled a cat carrier out from under my seat. I quietly confronted the cat lady. "You should'nt be on this flight if you are allergic." was her smug response. Pets were banned from the cabin for a while, but now they're back.

From today's Globe and Mail:

“This is the latest of our customer-friendly initiatives that underscores our renewed commitment to listening to our customers and offering a competitive product that meets their needs,” said Ben Smith, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer at Air Canada, in a written statement.

I think allowing pets into the passenger cabin of airliners is a cheap money grab that benefits no one except the airline and could put an unsuspecting passenger into life-threatening shock.

Please go and sign the Lung Association's online petition to ban pets from airplane cabins.

Frost Warnings In July

For the second night in a row we are under a frost warning here in eastern Newfoundland. According to records, our St. John's average daily minimum on this date is 10.5C. Last night's low of 3.5C is one of the lowest temperatures for any day in July since records began to be kept in 1942. The CBC reports that frost warnings were announced last night in Prince Edward Island too.

Update: The frost warning above apparently went down the memory hole.

Reductio Ad Absurdum

For your inner engineering geek: Jalopnik brings us the work of artist Arthur Ganson. In this video we see Ganson's reduction-gear power-transmission device:

It uses an electric motor turning at a modest 200 RPM and mates it to 12 identical sets of 1/50th gear reducers for a total reduction of 1/244,140,625,000,000,000,000.

That's a gear ratio of 1:244 Quintillion. The output shaft is embedded in a block of concrete. The motor will turn at 200 RPM for two trillion years and then the concrete block will turn only 0.5% of one rotation.

Jalopnik:

"So what we're saying is dropping this into a Morris Minor will only slightly diminish the acceleration."

Spectacular Shuttle Video

When the space shuttle Atlantis took off back in May to service the Hubble Space Telescope it carried lots of cameras. Nothing unusual there. But there were two cameras mounted outside on the twin rocket booster fuel tanks. They recorded the blast off, the separation from the shuttle and their fall back into the ocean. Spectacular.

Why Palin Quit

It should be no surprise that most of the media has missed the real story why Sarah Palin quit. John Fund writes in today's Wall Street Journal:

Since Ms. Palin returned to Alaska after the 2008 campaign, some 150 [Freedom Of Information Act] requests have been filed and her office has been targeted for investigation by everyone from the FBI to the Alaska legislature. Most have centered on Ms. Palin's use of government resources, and to date have turned up little save for a few state trips that she agreed to reimburse the state for because her children had accompanied her. In the process, though, she accumulated $500,000 in legal fees in just the last nine months, and knew the bill would grow ever larger in the future.

The real story here is the tactics used by Palin's political and media opponents (there's a difference?). Karl Rove:

"...her decision "sent a signal that if you do this kind of thing to a sitting governor like her, you can drive her out of office."

Did You Know?

At five minutes and six seconds after 4:00 am this morning, the 8th of July this year, the time and date was 04:05:06 07/08/09. Just thought you might need to know that. For some reason. Hat tip to Joe Sherlock.

Sea Aged Beer Returns

Mysterious recipes, history, the high seas, beer... man, this story has it all. Genuine India Pale Ale aged at sea is coming back on the market in Britain for the first time in 200 years.

BrewDog founder James Watt spent two months aboard a mackerel trawler on the North Atlantic inspired by the 1856 Brewer’s Handbook. He set off on a journey in the North Atlantic with eight barrels on-board, each containing beer brewed from the original recipe.

But let the boys tell the story. Watch for some stunning video on the high seas.



You can buy a beer called India here in St. John's. It's always been thought of as a "Newfoundland" beer and it's quite trendy downtown. But it is no relation to the sea-aged IPA above or to the IPA that was available here years ago. In fact all the "local" brews - India, Jockey Club, Blue Star, Black Horse, even Molson Canadian - are owned by either US or Belgian conglomerates.

If you want a real locally brewed quaff, check out anything by Quidi Vidi Brewery, YellowBelly Brewery and Storm Brewing.

Update: The CBC quotes Dave Rees, owner of Quidi Vidi Brewery:

"One time there were Newfoundland brands like Jockey, Dominion, Blue Star, but now they're foreign owned. So when Newfoundlanders purchase those brands today thinking they're supporting local, they're not. They're supporting the U.S. economy, they're supporting the Belgium economy,"

Large New Sunspot

After 142 days of no sunspot activity whatsoever, a large spot suddenly erupted last Saturday. From SpaceWeather:

Sunspot 1024 is experiencing some decay and solar flare activity is subsiding. Nevertheless, by recent standards it is still a behemoth.

Real time NASA image updates of the sun can be seen here.

More news and sunspot analysis here.

Ford Scores Historic Canadian Sales Increase

Despite the billions of dollars of tax payer's money that has been shovelled into GM and Chrysler by the US and Canada, sales continue to drop. Apparently no one wants to buy a car or truck from a bankrupt company. Who'da thunk that?

Not so at Ford. The company has received no bailout money (so far) and has been rewarded by car buyers. Ford has climbed to the top of the Canadian monthly market in June for the first time in 60 years.

Update: Another historic Ford connection is the passing on Monday of Robert McNamara. McNamara was President of Ford and then Secretary of Defense for Kennedy and Johnson during the Viet Nam years.

Al Gore Jumps The Godwin

OK, so Al Gore made a speech in Britain today wherein he invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill in the fight against global warming. Gore said: “Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to save civilization in World War II.”

Some say Gore has Godwined himself.

Update: The Times has edited their original article to remove their original headlined reference to Nazis. SDA has before and after screencaps here.

Also, if you look at the Page Title of the new page at the very top of your browser window you'll see the page still has its original title: "Video: Al Gore likens fight against climate change to battle with Nazis - Times Online"

Afterthought: Tweeted from Brain Terminal:

...so if you disagree with Al Gore, that makes you a Nazi."

Stephen Hawking: We Have Entered A New Phase Of Evolution

Via KurzweilAI:

Hawking says that we have entered a new phase of evolution. "At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations. This Darwinian phase, lasted about three and a half billion years, and produced us, beings who developed language, to exchange information."

But what distinguishes us from our cave man ancestors is the knowledge that we have accumulated over the last ten thousand years, and particularly, Hawking points out, over the last three hundred.

"I think it is legitimate to take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race," Hawking said.

Tiny Hover-Bot Takes First Flight

From Aviation Week:

AeroVironment video showing progress with testing of a tiny flapping-wing "nano air vehicle" (NAV) designed to fly indoors.

Darpa has given AeroVironment $2.1 million to build a second generation.

MI-6 vs. Facebook: Fight!

The story beggars belief. Life is just not this symmetrical. The new head of MI-6 - Britain's top spy agency - the top spy known as "C" Sir John Sawers - has had considerable detail of his family life posted on Facebook. By his wife.

Remember Compuserve?

I do. It was my first online service provider 20 years ago. Back before Windows. When modems were rare and expensive and eternally slow. I dumped Compuserve in 1992 when that pesky internet thing came along. And I never really thought much of Compuserve again until today when I read this at Ars Technica:

A little piece of Internet history has now been laid to rest, as CompuServe was shut down for good just before this Fourth of July weekend. After some 30 years of service, CompuServe's new owner has finally pulled the plug, leaving us to reminisce about the days when the Internet was young and we were still using modems whose speed was measured in baud.

Compuserve.com is still offering two-month free trials, though. I had no idea Compuserve still existed.

Honduras: Defending The Rule Of Law

The Best Of The Web Today is edited daily by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal. In today's edition:

The Central American nation of Honduras continues its defense of the rule of law in the face of an assault by the Organization of American states, the Associated Press reports from the capital, Tegucigalpa:

Honduras' interim government closed its main airport to all flights on Monday after blocking the runway to prevent the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Clashes with his supporters caused the first death in a week of protests. . . .

Honduras' new government has vowed to arrest Zelaya for 18 alleged criminal acts including treason and failing to implement more than 80 laws approved by Congress since he took office in 2006. Zelaya also refused to comply with a Supreme Court ruling against his planned referendum on whether to hold an assembly to consider changing the constitution.

Bizarrely, President Obama has sided with the OAS and the scofflaw ex-president.

OK, Someone Has Read Waxman-Markey. Uh Oh.

Jonathan Adler of the Volokh Conspiracy asks what's in the 1500 hundred pages (give or take) of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade global warming bill, (known as ACES--the American Clean Energy and Security Act). He links to a breakdown of its 50 most outrageous features posed by Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson at The National Review:

Waxman-Markey creates a permanent new regime in which environmental romanticism and corporate welfare are mixed together to form political poison. From comic bureaucratic power grabs (check out the section of the bill on candelabras) to the creation of new welfare programs for Democratic constituencies to, above all, massive giveaways for every financial, industrial, and political lobby imaginable, this bill would permanently deform American politics and economic life.

If you take the time to read the legislation, you’ll discover four major themes: special-interest giveaways, regulatory mandates unrelated to climate change, fanciful technological programs worthy of The Jetsons, and assorted left-wing wish fulfillment. We cannot cover every swirl and brushstroke of this masterpiece of misgovernance, but here’s a breakdown of its 50 most outrageous features.

Acoustic Imaging For The Blind

Via KurzweilAI:

University of Bristol and University of Laguna researchers have developed a system using video from portable cameras that calculates the distance of obstacles, predicts the movements of people and cars, and generates three-dimensional acoustic maps, compensating for head positioning using a gyroscopic sensor. This information is then transformed and relayed to a blind person as a three-dimensional ‘picture’ of sound.

This would appear to be very similar in principle to echolocation used by whales, dolphins and bats.

Behind The Scenes With A GM Photographer -- Early 60s

This is the 1962 Pontiac Bonneville as shot by GM photographer Edward T. Satory.

A grandson has inherited Satory's collection and has placed a good sampling online. Hemmings Auto Blog links to the collection.

Look for some beautiful or bizarre styling according to your taste, and the same goes for the costumes of the models. As to be expected, the photographs are technically flawless. No Photoshop back then.

The 1965 and 1966 street scenes are pretty good too.

Honduras Updates

News from Honduras is updated frequently at Fausta's Blog, and via SDA, Honduras Abandoned.

Perfect Pitch Is In Your Genes---Or Your Auto-Tuner

People who have perfect pitch are able to name notes they hear and sing particular notes on cue without any outside reference. If you ask someone with perfect pitch to sing an A, they'll nail it every time.

Now geneticists have discovered a particular region of genes on human chromosome eight that is linked to perfect pitch. The finding is an important advance, they say, in their effort to move in on the relative roles of early musical training and genetic inheritance on perfect pitch. In other words nature versus nurture.

That leads me to the subject of Auto-Tune. This is the recording software used by Madonna, Celine Dion, Cher and countless rappers and lesser lights to fix their bad nature and/or lack of nurture. Auto-Tune allows people with even no pitch at all to sing in tune.

Here's a funny and informative video clip from PBS's NOVA that shows how Auto-Tune works.

A Solo Performance Like You Have Never Heard

At TED, organ virtuoso Qi Zhang plays all the instruments in this Prokofiev orchestral suite on the Yamaha Electone Stagea, a rare, imported instrument specially programmed by Qi herself. Close your eyes--you'll swear you are listening to a symphony orchestra.



It is well worth your time to explore the TED website. It brims with stunning music and challenging ideas.