Saturday, July 17, 2010

Which would you rather use to plow a field?

NEWSFLASH: Science proves the chicken came before the egg.  Now they can tackle the really big issue: why did it cross the road?

In billions of years, time will cease to exist and the universe remain frozen like a snapshot, or so say some cosmologists.  (Time seems to stop when reading this blog.)

With all this groundbreaking science, I'm not feeling too bright because I just don't get Truenumbers.  Further contributing to my insecurity, I don't think my parents had a nuclear fallout shelter in our basement back in 1967 when I was 5.

Mashable makes the case for why having angry customers is good.  Like it or not, we all have dissatisfied customers.  So why not use them as a force for good, by finding out what pisses them off and fixing it?  Steve Johnson wants to know whether your CEO takes support calls.  (Ours is too busy playing Minesweeper.)  There are a couple hundred corporate logo and brand guides on Scribd.  Would you want yours on there or not?   Eric Ries probes an entrepreneurial paradox: the attributes that make one likely to be an entrepreneur also hinder one's ability to succeed at it.

An SAE study shows that 61% of engineers use social media like Facebook to exchange technical information.  CAE blogs: Beyond PLM, about engineering software, and Appian Way, about design and engineering.

You can get shorter URLs from Google Maps using their goo.gl URL shortener (for example, http://goo.gl/maps/AErz).  If that's too practical for you, how about Google with kittens?  Or if you want something only slightly out of the ordinary try Uneven Google.  (Note: these last two Google effects don't seem to work if you're logged into your Google account.)

Like aircraft?  Visiting Fort Worth?  Come see the Veteran's Memorial Air Park featuring the aviation heritage of Fort Worth.  Fort Worth's AVX Aircraft, in addition to proposing a cool upgrade to the OH-58D, is designing a flying car for DARPA.  As one commenter put it, this is "space shuttle porn" - a sexy video of Space Shuttle Atlantis' 14 May 2010 launch for the STS-132 mission.  NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will be deciding who gets the Space Shuttles when they're retired.  The Brazos Valley Museum near Texas A&M and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library wants one.  (They might have a better chance getting one from Bolden if they changed their name to the Barraq Wadi Museum).  Seriously, why shouldn't they get one?


Do you want a Mr. Toast plush doll?  (No.  I want Shaky Bacon.)  These bacon cinnamon rolls look amazing.  Apparently, the French have just invented triangular food.  Let's see.  How can you make I sandwich better?  Put it in a can, of course!  Introducing Candwich.

I was a DJ in college (WJPZ, 1am - 4am Thursdays) so I have a soft spot for college radio, like UTA Radio.  They say that Brian Eno will be contributing to Bryan Ferry's new album to be released in October.  The official web site of drummer Bill Bruford.  (Go there and watch the video on the home page.)  Official web page of author Larry Bond.

Peter Fernandez, the voice of Speed Racer, died on 15 July 2010 from lung cancer.  He was 83.  The voice of Yoda is done by Frank Oz, who also voiced Miss Piggy.  Interesting blog post showing Ward Kimball's animation of a sequence from Peter and the Wolf.

Based on this blog, I Write Like Ian Fleming.  On the other hand, when given the text of Old Man and the Sea I Write Like said Hemingway writes like James Joyce.  But if I really do write like Ian Fleming, I should probably outfit myself with these James Bond-ish titanium multi-tool collar stays.


I write like
Ian Fleming
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I wonder where I can sign up to be a donor for this medical procedure.  Did your hometown make the list?  CNN Money's Top 100 places to live.  Attention students: Amazon Student seems like a good deal.  Lost Formats catalogs data formats that have come and gone.   The ones I've used include punched tape, 9 track open reels, floppy, diskette, ZIP, QIC, and DAT.  The oddest one on the list?  ViewMaster.  ViewMaster?!?  Science, art, who cares.  Take some string, a couple motors, and create an art installation of waves that interact with the viewer.


[Note: I managed to lose a couple hours of work on this post when blogger saved a blank draft of the page.  That's why this may looked more hacked together than usual.]

...2 strong oxen or 1024 chickens?  --Seymour Cray

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