On occasion I send out interesting or extremely funny urls to friends. I collect them here ... Send me a note if you would like to be on (or removed from) my rarely-used email list which I use to announce the funniest of these.
06/05/04 03:02:01That will never happen again!
The Time Traveler Convention May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC) (event starts at 8:00pm) East Campus Courtyard, MIT 42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W (42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)Be sure to be there. If you can't make it now, you can always go later. NPR story All Things Considered, May 2, 2005.
In the force if Yoda's so strong, construct a sentence with words in the proper order then why can't he?(from the web)
The inside label carries instructions on washing and caring for the bags. Because the bags are sold in Canada, the instructions are also printed in French. The French version, however, contains an additional phrase: "NOUS SOMMES DESOLES QUE NOTRE PRESIDENT SOIT UN IDIOT. NOUS N'AVONS PAS VOTE POUR LUI."
2004 May 13. I learned of the early independent coining of the word plurk.
2004 May 10. Have A Kitten Break, www.kittenbreak.com
2004 May 8.
As you may know, there is another computer worm running around:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/05/08/sasser.arrest.ap/
It occured to me that the 18 year old responsible for making the worm
is not responsible for the problem. That's because the Windows series
of operating systems are continuously (it would seem, hopelessly)
vulnerable. Because it's written into the software use agreement,
people who buy that OS can't sue the people responsible. However
people who get the flak (email bounces from virus attacks) might be
able to.
All of my machines (Sun, Mac OS X and Linux) are immune, but you may
be fighting this. I watch the storm go by, you struggle and lose data
and time.
So I did a
search for 'linux virus' and found that there are
essentially none. This is NOT because there are more Windows users,
it's because Unix is BUILT to be immune to these things.
One excellent article explains clearly why Unix (Linux, Mac OS X and
others) is reasonably immune:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/06/linux_vs_windows_viruses/
Dear Dr. deLespinasse:
A friend just pointed out your nice article,
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/01/08/news/opinion/3see8.txt
in which you calculate the answer to an important question, "How many windmills would $87 billion buy?"
Building windmills is indeed important, but we need an economy that supports them. If they were to appear tomorrow, there might not be enough demand. However, it is *trivial* for everyone to create such a demand! To do this, you sign up yourself. Details of how I did it, and a pointer to your article are at:
http://www.fred.net/tds/windenergy/
Regards,
Tom
chmod a+x /bin/laden(There are others, you may not get this one right away.)
Stan Schmidt, EditorPublished in Analog, Brass Tacks, November 2003, page 138.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
475 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016
http://www.analogsf.com/
analogSPAMBLOCK@dellmagazines.com
2003 May 6
Dear Stan:
I immensely enjoyed the Analog serial "Shootout at the Nokai Corral" by Rajnar Vajra (Feb-May 2003). In this story an octopus cloak is used to make people invisible. The cloak worked by projecting what is behind one to the front. I was stunned yesterday to find out that a project which gives this same illusion is well under way in the Tachi Lab at the University of Tokyo in Japan. For spectacular details about their method of Optical Camouflage - including movies! - see http://www.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MEDIA/xv/oc.html, especially the fellow with the rain coat, with people and cars visibly moving behind him. Science fiction is always ahead, but in this case by only a few months!
Tom Schneider
Dr. Thomas D. Schneider
Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201
http://alum.mit.edu/www/toms/
From Janet Kinzler:
I went to school in England for a year and met a budgie who's hobby was sorting the odd buttons in a dish. The owner would put a dish of stray buttons on the table and the budgie would spend the day sorting the buttons into little piles. If he was done he would whistle and the owner would come and give him a treat and then scoop the buttons back into the dish and the bird would start (happily) all over again! It was very cute.Further details are available about Blue Peter.
From Rebecca Merck:
I heard a thing on NPR a few years ago (when I was crow-obsessed, which is an interesting story) about how clever they are. While I was listening, I noticed a crow in a tree with something in its mouth, and at the base of the tree was a squirrel. Why this drew my attention, I'm not sure -- but sure enough, the crow dropped the object, the squirrel darted out into traffic, was hit by a car, and as I passed, the crow was having a tasty fresh snackThe location was in Virginia inside the DC beltway, on route 123, near the post office, just off 66 in Vienna/Oakton.
From Rebecca Merck: In the area of human/bird relations, a friend of mine was visited by an albino crow -- somehow, it came to land on her arm, and spent most of the afternoon with her, in her house, riding along in the car. She returned it to a flock of crows, eventually, and kept an eye on it. Unfortunately, albino crows are also likely to be blind, our ornithologist friend tells us, so it didn't live long. She has some amazing pictures of this fabulous bird hanging out on her kitchen chair, though. And I love the idea of driving around with a big white bird in the passenger's seat.
From Janet Brockett: http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2002-08-08-smart-crows_x.htm Crows exceed expected intelligence levels, by Tim Friend, USA TODAY, 08/09/2002. The original report is Science 2002 Aug 9;297(5583):981 Shaping of hooks in New Caledonian crows. Weir AA, Chappell J, Kacelnik A.
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