April 2009
134 posts
We’ll need this final long weekend to recover from the proliferation of recent long weekends.
Yeesh. Talk about a chronic day. If only there was ::actual:: chronic.
Jai gots a funny feeling in me tummy :-/
Jai gonna sleep well tonight. Me likey the icey. Mmm :-)
A group of Amazonian ants have evolved an extremely unusual social system: They are all female and reproduce via cloning. Though their sexual organs have virtually disappeared, they have also gained some extraordinary abilities.
University of Arizona biologist Anna Himler orginally began studying the ants, called Mycocepurus smithii, because they had incredible success as farmers. Many breeds of ant keep domesticated “farms” where they breed various kinds of fungus for nourishment. But Mycocepurus smithii was able to breed fungus far more successfully, and in greater varieties, than other ants Himler had encountered.
As she and her team studied the insects, they realized there were no male ants anywhere to be found. Himler told the BBC that it’s possible the ants evolved so as “not to operate under the usual constraints of sexual reproduction.” Interestingly, the fungi that the ants cultivate also reproduce asexually. But why would these ants choose to emulate the reproductive cycle favored by their crops? Himler explains:
“It avoids the energetic cost of producing males, and doubles the number of reproductive females produced each generation from 50% to 100% of the offspring.”
What’s really going on in those block busters. Hillarious.
- 25TH HOUR: White New Yorkers commit crimes against both law and ethics; feel bad for being caught, rather than for doing it at all.
- 300: Gays kill blacks.
- 8 MILE: White man successfully coopts black culture to impress other whites.
- A CIVIL ACTION: Underqualified lawyer doesn’t listen to clients, royally botches case.
- A CRY IN THE DARK: Dogs eat baby, confusion follows.
- ALIEN: Ship fails to deliver cargo, crew don’t get bonus.
- ALIENS: An unplanned pregnancy leads to complications.
- AMADEUS: Man with health problems receives help from rival.
- AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON: Tourist causes riot.
- AUNTIE MAME: Spinster exposes child to sexual fetishists, socialists; thwarts marriage to good Republican girl.
- BATMAN: Wealthy man assaults the mentally ill.
- BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Teenage serial killer destroys town in fit of semi-religious fervor.
- CORALINE: Misfit discovers she is special person in a secret world just beside our own.
- DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: Aging sadist corrupts, endangers minor, facilitates murder, destroys superhero comic books for 30 years.
- DIE HARD: Dysfunctional cop saves marriage by murdering foreign national.
- E.T.: Out-of-control pet causes mayhem, sadness.
- FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF: Amoral narcissist makes world dance for his amusement.
- FIGHT CLUB: Deranged sociopath guides yuppies to their deaths.
- GREMLINS: Distant father ruins son’s life, puts entire town at risk.
- GROUNDHOG DAY: Misanthropic creep exploits space/time anomaly to stalk coworker.
- HARRY POTTER: Celebrity Jock thinks rules don’t apply to him, is right.
- JUNO: Teen fails to get abortion, ruins lives.
- KARATE KID: Boy gains acceptance through violence.
- LARS AND THE REAL GIRL: Retarded man doesn’t know what sex toy is for.
- LORD OF THE RINGS: Midget destroys stolen property.
- MARLEY AND ME: Out-of-control pet causes mayhem, sadness.
- SERENITY: Men fight for possession of scantily clad mentally ill teenage girl.
- SE7EN: Homicide detectives unable to prevent even a single murder by admitted serial killer, killer gives cop head.
- SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS: Layabout stepdaughter shacks up with seven miners.
- STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE: Religious extremist terrorists destroy government installation, killing thousands.
- STAR WARS: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Boy is abused by midget, kisses sister, attempts patricide.
- STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI: Handicapped mass murderer kills septugenarian, is lauded.
- TERMINATOR: An unplanned pregnancy leads to complications.
- THE MATRIX: Hacker is given perfect justification for mass slaughter.
- TITANIC: Crazy old widow disregards lifelong memories of husband, children, and grandchildren in favor of that one time she fucked a bum.
- TWILIGHT: Girl gives up college for stalker.
- WIZARD OF OZ: Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.
A Swedish company has been fined 25,000 kronor ($3,000) after a malfunctioning robot attacked and almost killed one of its workers at a factory north of Stockholm.
- Swedish-Chinese author accused of plagiarism (26 Apr 09)
- Thirsty Swede jailed over snot attack (24 Apr 09)
- Police step up hunt for missing baby corpse (24 Apr 09)
Public prosecutor Leif Johansson mulled pressing charges against the firm but eventually opted to settle for a fine.
“I’ve never heard of a robot attacking somebody like this,” he told news agency TT.
The incident took place in June 2007 at a factory in Bålsta, north of Stockholm, when the industrial worker was trying to carry out maintenance on a defective machine generally used to lift heavy rocks. Thinking he had cut off the power supply, the man approached the robot with no sense of trepidation.
But the robot suddenly came to life and grabbed a tight hold of the victim’s head. The man succeeded in defending himself but not before suffering serious injuries.
“The man was very lucky. He broke four ribs and came close to losing his life,” said Leif Johansson.
The matter was subject to an investigation by both the Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket) and the police.
Prosecutor Johansson chastised the company for its inadequate safety procedures but he also placed part of the blame on the injured worker.
Over the last few years I have seen the general public go from a general ignorance of the existence of Linux to a general knowledge of it being an option on their computers. Over those same years I have seen the momentum building to this point…this point being the perfect time to make the switch from your current operating system to Linux.
Why, you ask, is this the perfect time to make the switch? I have five good reasons why…
The Bible tells us that God created Adam and Eve just a few thousand years ago, by some fundamentalist interpretations. Science informs us that this is mere fiction and that man is a few million years old, and that civilization just tens of thousands of years old. Could it be, however, that conventional science is just as mistaken as the Bible stories? There is a great deal of archeological evidence that the history of life on earth might be far different than what current geological and anthropological texts tell us. Consider these astonishing finds:
- The Grooved Spheres
- The Dropa Stones
- The Ica Stones
- The Antikythera Mechanism
- The Baghdad Battery
- The Coso Artifact
- Ancient Model Aircraft
- Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica
- Impossible Fossils
- Out-of-Place Metal Objects
Google is set to make changes to its search ranking algorithm to combat the spate of links leading to malicious web pages appearing at the top of Google’s search results, according to an inside source.
Yay, a clear and free day to do some writing!
A US woman had a lucky escape when a burglar’s bullet bounced off the metal underwire in her bra.
Police in the city of Detroit said one of three intruders fired a shot when the woman looked out of her window and saw them raiding the house next door.
The bullet smashed the window and hit her, but instead of causing serious injury - or worse - it was deflected off the wiring in her bra.
The unnamed 57-year-old woman was taken to hospital and released the same day.
“It did slow the bullet down,” said a police spokesman. “She sustained injuries but they’re not life-threatening.”
Teenage gang
The woman, who lives on the west side of Detroit, had seen the youths breaking into the house next door while her neighbour was away.
Police believe one of the gang saw her looking out of the window and fired at her.
The suspects then drove away after the shooting.
Local police Sgt Eren Stephens Bell told the Detroit News: “We need to get some bulletproof vests made from that. It is some strong wire.”
you start small, then build stuff up until it looks like a story. Part of this is creative work, and I can’t teach you how to do that. Not here, anyway. But part of the work is just managing your creativity — getting it organized into a well-structured novel. That’s what I’d like to teach you here.
If you’re like most people, you spend a long time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. You may do some research. You daydream about how the story’s going to work. You brainstorm. You start hearing the voices of different characters. You think about what the book’s about — the Deep Theme. This is an essential part of every book which I call “composting”. It’s an informal process and every writer does it differently. I’m going to assume that you know how to compost your story ideas and that you have already got a novel well-composted in your mind and that you’re ready to sit down and start writing that novel.
The act of Googling oneself has become the digital age’s premiere guilty pleasure — an activity enjoyed by all and admitted by few. The phenomenon has even been the subject of scholarly research. Last year, a team of Swiss and Australian social scientists published a study concluding that the practice of self-Googling (or “Egosurfing” as it’s sometimes called) can partly be traced to a rise in narcissism in society but is also an attempt by people to identify and shape their personal online “brand.” The authors of the survey no doubt returned to their cubicles and Googled themselves to see if the study was posted online.
The folks at Google are well aware that their site handles millions of vanity searches every day, and that users aren’t always thrilled about the results that pop up when they Google themselves.
(A father is letting five kids make a complete mess of the restaurant. They’re ripping napkins and using it as confetti, breaking chopsticks and screaming their little heads off.)
Me: “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to tell them to stop doing that. They are disturbing the other customers.”
Father: *beaming* “No.”
Me: “No, as in, no you won’t tell them to stop it?”
Father: *still beaming*“Yes.”
(I have to get back to work at this point and sure enough, the kids keep misbehaving. Several customers complain to me but I have no authority to throw them out. The last to complain is a table with about eight young guys.)
Customer 1: “So there’s nothing you can do about them?”
Me: “I’m so very sorry sir, but no. I can get you a drink from the house to make up for it.”
Customer 2: “No, that won’t do.”
Me: “Well, I can see if I can get you a free desert…”
Customer 2: “Not what I meant. Can’t you get your boss?”
Me: “I’m afraid he’s not in, sir.”
Customer 1: “Well we won’t accept any free stuff. I bet that would come out of your pay.”
Customer 3: Hold on…”
(The customer gets up and the others immediately follow him to the noisy, messy table. They’re now surrounded by eight tall young men who look mighty pissed.)
Customer 3, to the father: “Tell them to stop it.”
Father: *still beaming* “No.”
Customer 1: “You’re upsetting the waitress.”
Father: “Do you guys even work here?”
Customer 1: “No, we’re from that prison up the street. We’re out on parole. Funny coincidence, we all served seven years for kidnapping and murdering a bunch of noisy brats and a jerk who made minimum-wage waitresses cry.”
(At this point the kids become very, very quiet and the other patrons start giggling and staring.)
Father: “You’re lying.”
Customer 4: “Wanna take that chance, buddy?”
(One more lecherous grin was enough to send the whole bunch of misfits scurrying to the exit. My knights in shining armor actually got applause from the other diners and a free meal from me.)
Jai considers this concept of sleep.
Customer: “Excuse me, but I have a complaint to make.”
Me: “Oh, sure. What’s the matter?”
Customer: “I heard a group of teenagers over there talking, and they said the cake that you serve is a lie.”
Me: “…”
Customer: “What exactly do you have to say for yourselves?! I come in here, expecting to find a decent establishment, only to find out you are selling fake food!!”
Me: “Um, ma’am. They were repeating a popular phrase from the internet. I can assure you, the cake that we sell very much exists.”
Customer: “Prove it! Show me this cake.”
Me: *points*
Customer: “Oh. In that case you should write a letter to the internet about how they’re making up rumors about your products.”
Me: “I’ll… I’ll do that. Thank you.”
Life is one big, long Friday! ^_^ Squeeeee!
Wow. It must be a cold wintery night. Seems ::everyone:: is home on Facebook!
Jai be cold and wet like a puppy dog’s nose.
Feels like my left ear’s in a swimming pool. Wooble. Wooble.
- Mozaic
- Firefox
- Browsershots.org
- Firebug
- Google Code
- Frameworks
- Open Source Projects
- Creative Commons
- Paypal and other payment gateways
- JavaScript Libraries
- Amazon’s S3 and EC2 services
- Anti-RSI Technology
- Advanced text editors
- CSS
- Coffee
The most common reasons that people participate in live action role playing games is to express themselves through a character that they have created, or to be a part of a larger fictional story. Unfortunately these two points of view don’t always go hand in hand. Expressing yourself through your character means that you must stay in character and this isn’t always easy when you have story events, other characters, or aspects of the game that you find interesting on a personal level distracting you from your characterization. I know that for me staying in character is a habitual routine and if I break from that routine I find it hard to maintain the focus required for staying in-game. My resolve to stay in character can be broken down when others fall off the band wagon and make a comment that was purely out of character.
Web developers these days are often expected to know and work in multiple languages. As a result, it’s tricky to learn everything a language has to offer and easy to find yourself not utilizing the full potential of some more specialized but very useful tags.
Unfortunately we haven’t been tapping into the full potential of these more obscure HTML tags as of late. But it’s never too late to get back into the game and start writing code that taps into the power of some under-used tags.
