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On the original version of Star Trek, Our Heroes were rather fond of Romulan Ale, and Scotty in particular demonstrated on more than one occasion that he had a leg more hollow than an open Jeffries Tube. So clearly in the 22nd Century synthehol wasn't around, but in the 23rd Century those wussy jumpsuit-wearing tree-hugging feel-gooders aboard the Enterprise-D wouldn't THINK of drinking real alcohol. Miss Whoopi's Bar & Grill served up hangover-free synthetic alcohol drinks as fast as a six-armed Aldebaran Slime Devil could suck 'em back.
Well, once again our timeline deviates from Jim Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard, because some scientists think it's possible to develop synthehol right now using existing technology.
This is probably not good news to those of you with substance abuse issues, but at least you don't have to wear those silly jumpsuits.
Permalink |The Marburg virus is similar to Ebola: terrifically lethal (though apparently a bit less so than Ebola), causes the body to bleed itself to death (hemorrhagic fever), spreads quickly, etc. It was documented as early as 1967, earlier than Ebola, and is named after a town in Germany where the disease was initially found among lab workers who had dealt with infected monkeys.
This New York Times article discusses a recent successful monkey-based trial of a vaccine that not only prevents Marburg, it also eradicates Marburg in patients whi have already contracted the disease if it is administered soon enough. Human trials have not yet occurred, but the results are hopeful, and also lend hope to finding a similar effective vaccine for Ebola.
You can all go back to panicking about bird flu now.
Permalink |Here's a useful page someone has put togther: it lists over 400 different pieces of freeware you can download that will do everything from process pictures to manage your finances to edit video and then some.
Note that the page doesn't tell you much about the programs, and there's no guarantee that any of them are any good, but what do you expect for free?
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You've often heard that old adage "April is the cruelest month".
This April we are celebrating several anniversaries of varying degrees of disastrousness:
The 21st anniversary of the introduction of New Coke
The 20th anniversary of the meltdown at Chernobyl
The 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
and today's milestone: my wife's mumble-mumble-th birthday
Happy Birthday, Bridget!
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MacGyver would be proud: here's a site that tells you how to make a tiny flashlight out of an empty TicTac box, three AAA batteries, and an LED.
And if you look through the comments on that page, you'll find some other home electronics gems, too.
(via Digg)
Permalink |Last week, MSNBC reported that Philips Electronics announced a new technology that enables television broadcasters to freeze the channel selection on your television, preventing you from the time-honored tradition of channel surfing during the commercial breaks.
Even the Philips people realize that this development has the likelihood of drawing some serious fire from consumers, but their suggestion on how to bypass the system is even worse: they recommend a pay-to-skip-the-ad fee for viewers to pay broadcasters to opt out of the technology.
Sure is shaping up to be one hell of a fantastic future, isn't it?
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The Queen of England with a tape recorder up her nose.
(P.S., Happy 80th Birthday, Your Majesty)
If you're a fan of the public radio program "This American Life", you might be interested to know that they've finally gotten their wits about them and have converted all of their program archives from the execrable RealAudio format to streaming MP3.
It's sort of a two-steps-forward-one-step-back move. You can't download the MP3s directly; licensing issues prevent them from offering the programs as downloads. That's not a huge challenge for anyone who knows how to subvert those mechanisms, but it will deter the average listener who can't be arsed to try, so it represents a good faith effort on the part of the producers to thwart the evildoing radio pirates. The perspicacious but technically disinclined among you will perhaps go the route of searching the various BitTorrent sites, where you can benefit from someone else's nefarious deeds. Or you can just listen to the streaming files.
If you are not familiar with the show, I heartily recommend it to you. My only real reservation is that the snarky tone that characterizes 99.97% of blog posts is another whole notch more annoying when you hear it spoken out loud from some of the show's regular contributors. (Those of you who are already regular listeners know who I mean.)
Permalink |Adam "The Amateur Gourmet" wasted no time in whipping up a recipe suggestion for Tom Cruise, who seemed quite ravenous the other day.
(Be glad I didn't include a picture for this one)
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In case you've somehow managed to miss all the other links to it, here is my due diligence on getting out the word on the Sean Wilentz article appearing in the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine: George Bush Is The Worst President Ever.
I don't think we've seen the bottom of the barrel from this fucknozzle yet, sadly. 2008 is a looooong way off.
Permalink |There was a time on this blog, back in the mists of antiquity, when I devoted much real estate to keeping you up to date on the incursions of those Evil-Doers, the office park geese and their equally shiftless cohorts, the wily wild turkeys.
Well, just because I've moved on doesn't mean the Threat To Our Freedom from these insidious wildfowl has lessened. And I am pleased to see that good old Adam at Universal Hub has carried on in my absence, keeping the citizenry alert to the infiltrations of these feathered fiends. Git R Done, Adam!
Permalink |Having worked with both mechanical engineers and software developers for a number of years, I got a kick out of this little story, courtesy of MonkeyFilter: The Parable of the Object-Oriented Toaster.
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It's been quite a while since the folks at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream broke any real ground in the realm of must-have ice cream flavors. Ever since they got bought out by Unilever, they've mostly retread over once-innovative ground. Now they've resorted to stealing other people's ideas: Their new "Black and Tan" is a combination of chocolate ice cream and an ice cream made of cream stout ale.
Yep, beer-flavored ice cream. And you might find that weird in and of itself, but I am here to tell you that it's pretty good. And I know this not from trying the B&J product but because back in the heady days of the Dot Com Boom there was a start-up ice cream company called "MicroBatch" (originally "Jeremy's MicroBatch"), which briefly flourished and then went tits-up like so many other companies in those days. MicroBatch only had five or six flavors, but all of them were innovative and original, just the way the ice cream used to be when Messrs. Cohen and Greenfield were churning the ice cream makers themselves in that little storefront in Burlington, Vermont. And the one I liked...no, loved...was "Vanilla Cream Stout".
It took a little getting used to the unexpected sour notes that came from the beer, and the color was not as appealing as you might want, but it sure did grow on a person. I'm not sure why exactly the B&J people decided it needed to be mixed with chocolate ice cream except for the marketing tie-in with Guinness; it doesn't seem like a particularly good flavor match to me, but I haven't actually tried the B&J stuff to know for sure. If I can find some, I'll give it a try and let you know.
Even though MicroBatch is long gone, you can still experience something close to the original flavor yourself if you've got an ice cream maker. Earlier this year, the Boston Globe reprinted this recipe for "Guinness Ice Cream" from Suzanne Goin's cookbook "Sunday Suppers at Lucques". And if you're really in the mood, you can make this Guinness Chocolate Cake to go with it.
UPDATE: I bought some over the weekend and we tried it last night. The cream stout ice cream is totally overshadowed by the chocolate ice cream, so that the net result is that it just tastes like chocolate ice cream. My recommendation is "don't bother".
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NASA is so kind to point out that the planet Uranus will be visible to the naked eye (man, the jokes just write themselves some days, y'know) beginning on Monday, 4/17. You'll have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn (ba-dum-ching), but you'll be able to see Uranus if you can find the much-brighter "morning star", a.k.a Venus (there's another double-entendre to be had here, but I'm just going to move right along).
The NASA folks say that those of you with home telescopes will be able to score an excellent view, but you probably won't be able to see the planet's blue ring that was recently discovered.
The link also points out that the planet was originally named "George" by it's discoverer, William Herschel, in honor of King George III. But somehow it just doesn't have the same comedic punch as "I saw the blue ring around Uranus this morning."
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Not quite, but close: Do-it-yourself home Lasik eye surgery featuring the "Scal-Pal" hand-held excimer laser!
Just think of the hours of fun you and your friends can have while you slice each other's corneas! Makes a great Christmas gift for the whole family! And if you order now, they'll also throw in a free pair of "Stevie Wonder"-brand sunglasses and the home trepanation kit!
Permalink | Comments (1)Career officers in the military know that their duty is to follow orders, but it is reassuring to discover that behind the unquestioning mask of duty often lies a critical and realistic mind able to recognize a good order from a bad one.
In recent weeks, a number of retired top military leaders have stepped out from behind that mask and have joined the ranks of those opposed to the disastrous debacle in Iraq. Some have gone so far as to publicly call for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, while others have been so bold in their assertions as to suggest that Bush has done nothing less than start World War III.
As the Bush Administration's designs to launch nuclear strikes on Iran have emerged over the past week, it is significant and critical to hear these misgivings from the men charged with carrying out what has to be the worst example of American foreign policy in our history. We are already very far down a dark and dangerous path from which there may be no return; we need to hear the concerns of the men we count on to make the path safe when they tell us that we are in danger.
Permalink |Here's an interesting blog post from a fellow named Steve Pavlina: "10 Stupid Mistakes Made By The Newly Self-Employed".
The astute reader of Out Of The Frying Pan will immediately recognize which one of these mistakes I am guilty of. It's not the most egregious error, in my opinion, though it does seem to bother this guy more than some of the other ones. Five points to the first commenter who can correctly identify it.
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"The Reproductive Cycle Of The North American Dirigible" at 9:00 p.m. EDT, brought to you by the makers of K-Y Personal Lubricant.
Permalink |(Okay, so perhaps that's a little redundant...)
CNN reports that a cathedral in Austria has recorded the sound of their bells ringing so that cellphone users can download and use the recording as their ringtone.
Because clearly the world needs even MORE evidence of your superficial adherence to your bizarre cultish practices, not to mention your religion.
Forgive me father, for I have sinned; here is my confession: Though these days the cellphone I have just rings with a rather nondescript tone, my last cellphone was capable of using those highly-annoying MP3 ringtones that people are overly fond of these days. I succumbed to temptation myself and downloaded one that left no doubt as to whose cellphone was ringing (click the first one in that list for a sample sound).
Permalink |You can have my KitchenAid stand mixer when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. Of all the tools, gadgets and appliances for the kitchen that we've bought over the years, none has been as worthwhile. Luckily, I haven't had to bring it with me to any cooking visits to my clients yet because it weighs a frickin' ton, but when that day comes I'll just suck it up and wear a back brace, I guess, because when you need it, you really really need it.
The food blog community are all abuzz because this guy took a tour of the KitchenAid factory in Ohio and has posted about it on his blog. There are a bunch of good photos of the various stages of the manufacturing process, as well as some shots of some original models of the machine. Sounds like a great tour; I just wish it were some place I had some likelihood of ever visiting.
Permalink |It's nice to see that at least one celebrity understands the difference between acting and "reality TV". A Huffington Post article today mentions that a group of Ohio Democrats approached "West Wing" star Martin Sheen about running for the Senate. He politely declined. "You're mistaking celebrity for credibility," he told them.
He needs to have a conversation with his son Charlie real soon.
Permalink |We are barely into the second quarter of the year, and there have been enough electronic duds foisted on the gadget-crazed public already that CNet can offer up a "Worst Gadgets of 2006" article. That doesn't exactly give you a lot of confidence for what the rest of the year has in store, does it?
Permalink |Today's time-waster is a Flash game called "Drifts".
Catch the green bubbles, avoid the purple bubbles, watch your afternoon float away.
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We've all seen this picture by now, haven't we?
Well you knew eventually someone was going to post a picture of the other end.
Here it is. (NSFW, obviously)
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The Aral Sea, formerly the 4th largest lake in the world, has been drying up for years due to Soviet water projects that diverted almost all of the water that fed into the lake to agriculture. It has been an ongoing study of an ecological disaster of immense proportions for a long time; I can recall reading about this in magazines like National Geographic years ago.
But a story in the NYT today says that all hope may not be lost. The government of Kazakhstan has a project that has restored a portion of the lake almost back to a self-sustaining level of viability, and scheduled for completion this fall is a channel that will connect the larger portion of the lake back to a water supply, potentially paving the way to replenish the entire lake at some point in the future.
Permalink |Apparently it really IS the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.
And we might even be on the verge of knowing what the question was in the first place.
(via MetaFilter)
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Found here.
Permalink |Via Digg, here's a short news story from an engineering trade mag about a company that has developed "clockless" integrated circuits.
Translation from Geek to English: the "clock" on an IC regulates the flow of electricity through the circuit (sort of; I'm not an EE, so this is my over-simplified explanation). These clockless circuits can actually stop using electricity when they are not doing something, unlike conventional ICs. This could significantly reduce the power consumption in an electronic device, making this a potentially very important advance for battery-powered items, as well as reducing the overall power consumption needs of other electronics. The new ICs are intended initially for use in small handheld devices (the article cites medical devices in particular).
Permalink |On my "Tasks-To-Avoid" list is cleaning out our kitchen pantry cupboard. It's not the most onerous task on that list, but I've been trying to hone my procrastinating skills to a fine edge.
I keep a well-stocked pantry. There is nothing more satisfying than deciding on a whim to make a new recipe you've just seen and knowing you can open your cupboard doors and have everything you need, and there's nothing more aggravating than discovering at the last minute that you don't have something basic like brown sugar or tomato paste. One also learns that you encounter many of the same ingredients in almost everything you cook, and so it's easy to make sure you always have the most common things.
It must be pantry-cleaning season because I have run across not one, but two lists of "how long stuff lasts" to help you decide what to keep and what to pitch.
Permalink | Comments (5)Charlotte entered her Early Barbie Stage a while back, probably last summer. She hasn't totally let go of the Disney Princesses, but she's definitely transitioning, and the evil geniuses at Mattel have obliged by skewing Barbie to younger children by crossing her over into princess territory. Barbie the fashion model/veterinarian/business executive/beach babe still waits in the future, while these days Barbie gets to be a fairy who transforms into a magical mermaid, plays in her own version of "Prince and the Pauper", and dances ballet in "Swan Lake". This is the stuff 4- and 5-year-old girls are made of.
A few weeks ago, Bridget caught wind of a live theatrical Barbie show that was coming to Boston, so we bought tickets to surprise Charlotte with. She doesn't know that we already have the tickets, but now the show is in heavy ad-rotation on Nickelodeon, so she is well-aware that it is coming soon, and every time she sees the commercial she is careful to point out to me that she wants to go see the show. I don't know how much longer we can keep the secret, because she's obviously made up her mind that we're going.
This morning's New York Times (with its cool new re-design, BTW) has a feature article about the live show and the young woman who plays Barbie. In the piece, the writer also talks about the changes in the Barbie universe as the franchise struggles against competition from both ends of its age demographic.
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Another milestone in our "Annals Of War", the dreaded Japanese War Tuba shattered ear drums across the Pacific Ocean with it thunderous Banzai BLAAAAAAAAAAT.
(Okay, not really, but you can read about what these really were, as well as some other notable examples of pre-radar acoustic detectors at Damn Interesting)
Permalink |Hanan at growabrain passes on this bit of trivia: early in the morning on Wednesday the clock/calendar will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. Unless, of course, you live in Europe, where you won't have that experience until May 4th.
This only happens once a century (not once a millennium, as Hanan says), so it's unlikely you'll get this chance again. Coming soon, though, will be the much-anticipated 06:06:06 06/06/06.
Permalink |© BrianKaneOnline.com 2000-2007