`One of the most prominent landmarks in the East Village in Manhattan is a statue of a giant steel cube. The cube was built at Astor Place in 1968, and has stood there ever since. The cube can spin on its axis, which is pretty entertaining the first time, and requires a few people to get it moving. [..]
What an amazing place to pull off a prank!’
`Residents in Perth, Australia, saw the spectacular light show Saturday night. The meteor left a bright tail in its wake.
Karun Cowper, who was enjoying a meal with his family at Halls Head, caught the meteor on his video camera.’
Lucky it wasn’t one of those meteors that fall away from the Earth, because then they wouldn’t be able to film it. I can’t seem to find a copy of the video itself, but there are some still pictures attached to the story.
Update: I’ve found a link with the meteor video.
Update again: There’s a slightly longer meteor video at the BBC, with a bit more information.
`One man suffered serious head injuries and another man suffered a minor gunshot wound when they got into a fight with a pair of teenagers Thursday night on the city’s West Side. [..]
Salas then confronted two teens he suspected of stealing the tools with a pistol and fired a shot into the air.
After the teens persuaded Salas to put down his weapon and fight with his fists, one of them tried to pick up the gun, which accidentally went off, wounding Salas in the foot, police said.’
Something Awful recently did a thing where their forum readers could make anonymous confessions.
People are scary.
`The principle of ion generation is fiendishly simple. The electrical charge on an object is greatest at the sharpest point (that’s why electrostatic generators favour big curvy domes for charge retention), so if a high negative voltage is applied to a sharp needle then the charge at the tip is so high that ions are literally thrown off and then repelled by the negative field on the needle. This results in a physical draught and a slight hissing noise. In a very dark room you will also see a faint purple corona glow on the needle tips.
Most technical wisdom suggests that while negative ions make you feel good, positive ions can cause headaches and nausea. This is why a negative ion generator can improve the perceived atmosphere in an office that has an unaturally high positive ion balance.
But enough of the quackery… Here’s the data.’
Apparently the building sank into its basement rather than falling over sideways as planned. Now how are they gonna finish the job? I wouldn’t want to be the one who has to climb into that building and wire up another lot of explosives.
(1.7meg Quicktime)
Update: Much more about the dodgy demolition. Several videos, including a 43 minute live TV broadcast of the whole event, including the leadup.
I had trouble watching this. I don’t think I want to see ver.1 or ver.3. 🙂
`Movie icon Tom Cruise is at the centre of a fresh medical row with experts expressing concern over his purchase of a sonogram machine to perform at-home scans on expectant fiancee Katie Holmes. [..]
But medical experts are warning it is dangerous for untrained Cruise and Holmes to be operating a complex piece of medical equipment such as an ultrasound machine at home. [..]
The ACR issued a similar warning, saying the famous couple could potentially harm their unborn baby by performing ultrasounds without a doctor’s supervision.’
With an excellent picture of the famous midget himself.
I figure, the baby is gonna be fucked up from all the Scientology nonsense anyways, so a bit of ultrasound damage is gonna be insignificant.
A friend of mine moved to Poland a few years back. The other day he had this tidbit to share:
`The average Polish person you meet is fine .. occasional weirdness but nothing to get too worried about .. but when they’re in groups you just have to be happy that Russia took all their nukes home.’
I thought it was amusing. That’s all. 🙂
`A jury convicted a man of murder for fatally shooting a 15-year-old boy who threw eggs at him.
The Marion Superior Court jury in Indiana deliberated for seven hours Thursday before finding Donald E. Ware guilty of killing Brandon Dunson-Taylor. [..]
Dunson-Taylor’s great uncle, Charles Russell, said the incident was a lesson for teens to avoid the actions that led to the shooting.
“A child’s prank can have consequences that no one could anticipate,” Russell said. [..]
Ware’s mother, Donna Ware, said her son was innocent.
“He’s done a lot of dumb things, but he would never kill anyone unless it was in self-defense,” she said.’
Black kids with eggs! They’re coming right for us!
`Before comparing the faces of pre and post 1966 pictures of Paul it would be a good idea to show you just how accurate this process is by comparing two pictures that we already know to be of the same person. First we will compare two photos of John Lennon, taken 11 years apart, and see how much a face changes in this amount of time.
Then we will compare two pictures of Paul’s girlfriend Jane Asher, one taken in the 60’s, the other taken in the 90’s.
Finally, we will compare two pictures that we know to be of the real Paul McCartney, one taken in 1963 and another from 1966 around the time that “Yesterday and Today” was released and see how well they match.’
Or, `Undeniable Proof that People are Crazy and Have Too Much Time On Their Hands’.
`FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.
Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed.
The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit.
FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that’s what it actually was.’
`”I had heard a lot about apparitions and I had been warned by other drivers never to brake or swerve. The maize roaster was just ten metres away. I was cruising at over 100km an hour. So I just ran over him,” he says, flatly. [..]
Sometimes, drivers say, it happens when they’re braking or swerving, to avoid; a “child”, a “gorgeous beauty” or an “old woman”, crossing the road.
“I have seen many apparitions while driving at night. They are mostly children or naked women crossing the road. This happens near a bridge or during a misty night. But I usually hit or drive through them,” says Nyangoro Mong’are, drawing from 20 years driving experience.’
`Unable to battle adult-oriented businesses through legal means, a group called War-Line is trying to put them out of business by intimidating prospective customers. And the man leading the charge is a convicted sex offender and accused murderer. [..]
“We plan to frequent these locations with cameras and if you wish to enter a nude/bikini bar or adult book store, your photo could wind up on our site,” Reneer, who has served time for first-degree sodomy, writes on his site. “How would you like for your mother, wife, father, children, pastor or others to see your photo on the worldwide web as you enter one of these establishments? Think twice before you plan to visit one of these facilities or you could get busted on War-Line.”’
`The scientist who introduced Ecstasy to the world in the 1970s fears the drug’s notoriety and popularity at nightclubs is destroying any chance that it might be used to treat the mentally ill.
“It’s very excellent potential for being used as medicine has been badly jeopardized,” Alexander Shulgin, told Reuters after defending the merits of mind-altering drugs at a symposium on the human brain at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this week.’
Alexander Shulgin is cool. I’ve always wanted to buy hard copies of PiHKAL and TiHKAL but never got around to it.
`There was a scientific method to Daniel Zeiszler’s madness when he tried to extract methamphetamine from his own urine, after smoking the illegal street drug last September in his South San Francisco hotel room.
But Zeiszler’s experiment went dangerously awry when he spilled some solvent on himself, then lit a cigarette while he contemplated his next move, starting a fire that burned his right hand and arm.’
`SNEP and SCPP have told Free Software authors: “You will be required to change your licenses.” SACEM add: “You shall stop publishing free software,” and warn they are ready “to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code” should the “VU/SACEM/BSA/FA Contents Department” bill proposal pass in the Parliament.’
Lots of acroynms. I don’t know what they mean. [shrug] 🙂
`I think the idea of having a 19″ rack at home is every techs dream. This was also the case when I wanted to decomission my power hungry and space consuming server PCs and replace them with a 19″ rack, but it seems that when ever the frase “19 inch” is added to any PC part the price skyrockets.
That was the end of my dream until a friend told me he was going to build a new 19″ rack for his music equipment as his old rack was getting to small. So we looked into it and discovered it used the same dimensions as the PC racks.’
`[A] serendipitous discovery means that a single system of alloys incorporating indium, gallium, and nitrogen can convert virtually the full spectrum of sunlight — from the near infrared to the far ultraviolet — to electrical current.
“It’s as if nature designed this material on purpose to match the solar spectrum,” says MSD’s Wladek Walukiewicz, who led the collaborators in making the discovery.’
`I figure with enough time and effort, anyone could be a System Administrator. Really, it’s not hard, it just takes practice, methodology, and trial and error. A lot of trial and error. These truths will certainly get you on your way. Let’s get started.
`The Push Button House is exactly that: it starts as a shipping container until a button is pushed, and it turns into a house. Motorized walls unfold like a flower, revealing a fully functionaly house, complete with refined, understated furnishings.’
Rules posted on a Chinese beach. Including:
`wine empress is with the body not well cannot bottom sea swimming.’
Very useful advice.
`The Teddy Bear with a BUTTHOLE!
Poke your finger in and listen to the antics
– 2 Modes of operation (Normal and Fart mode)’
`Not content with simply knowingly infecting its customers’ computers with security-hole inducing spyware, Sony is now sponsoring a “guerrilla” graffiti ad campaign to promote the PSP, covering inner city neighborhoods with images of kids playing with its overpriced, crippled handheld.
Reports on the interwebs indicate that Sony or its ad agency has paid graffiti artists to spray paint images of little kids playing with PSPs in at least five U.S. cities: Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.’
Sony is definately making a push for Evil Corporation of the Year this year. Tho, they’re gonna have to do something spectacular in the next three weeks if they wanna nudge Halliburton out of the number one spot. 🙂
‘Officials in at least two nations now suspect the avian flu bug has mutated into a virus that is being transmitted from human to human – a development world health authorities have estimated could result in the deaths of tens of millions.
Thai health officials have expressed concern that the country’s two latest confirmed victims may be the beginning of the much feared human-to-human transmission. [..]
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the disease is spreading so rapidly, particularly in the capital of Jakarta, some health officials strongly suspect the long-dreaded mutation has already occurred.’
Scaremongering or the apocalypse? I s’pose well know in a month or two. 🙂
`Throughout America, local child labor laws were often ignored. On a national level, progress to protect children stalled as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled several times that child labor laws under question were unconstitutional. A subsequent attempt to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed.
In 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was organized by socially concerned citizens and politicians, and was chartered by Congress in 1907. From 1908 to 1912, photographer Hine documented numerous gross violations of laws protecting young children. At many of the locations he visited, youngsters were quickly rushed out of his sight. He was also told youngsters in the mill or factory had just stopped by for a visit or were helping their mothers.’
`Other than a few missing magazines, I’ve got most of the collection since 1996. You’ll note that the Nasdaq (red) lags Wired’s page count (blue) by a few months. I’m not suggesting you go an buy technology shares, but gee, I’m thinking the reports of money pumping back into technology companies might just be true given the big up-tick in this months page count (294).’
`There is no evidence that the weapons-grade plutonium has been stolen or diverted for illegal purposes, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research said. However, the amount of unaccounted-for plutonium — more than 600 pounds, and possibly several times that — is so great that it raises “a vast security issue,” the group said in a report to be made public today. [..]
The report concludes that at least 661 pounds of plutonium generated at the lab over the last half-century is not accounted for. The atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 contained about 13 pounds of plutonium.
“The security implications . . . are extremely serious, since less than 2 percent of the lowest unaccounted-for plutonium is enough to make one nuclear bomb,” the report said.’
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