February 24, 2004
February 22, 2004
What's the threat condition, Kenneth?
If you're building your own threat-condition monitor, the folks in charge of making sure you don't feel secure in your homeland have provided a couple of handy hooks: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/getAdvisoryCondition returns an XML element with an attribute describing the current level, and http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/getAdvisoryImage provides an image for putting on your page, thus: <img src="http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/getAdvisoryImage"/> yields
The image defaults to large, but you can ask for it to be smaller, thus http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/getAdvisoryImage?size=small:
February 20, 2004
Monday Morning Info-Quarterbacking
A lovely analysis and opinion of US jobs ending up overseas, but days late for my snappy comeback to that guy I didn't really feel like debating. The article also makes the unpopular points that
a. in a healthy economy there will still be unemployed people, usually around 5% and
b. the new jobs created as the labor market shifts will require people able to use and analyze information which requires some education and inclination, quite a lot more than was needed on the ole widget factory line.
As always, unpopular points lose out to shiny promises that can't be met, especially in an election year.
Is that a word?
In that blog-feedback loop that we all thrive on, Ursula's post has caused me to find this on-line word checker. Sadly, since they make money on SMS interactions with the phone, they're unlikely to WAP-enable the checker.
I wants me a tiny car!
When gigantic vehicles are all the rage, I want a tiny car! How about a Vespa? Or a Messerschmitt? I would feel like the girl from the future in this one. And a girl from Italy in this one.
February 19, 2004
Rock n Roll Knitting
Sick of knitting sweaters and hats? Knit yourself a rock video!
Brought to you in Surround Smell (where available)
For less than $500, you might soon be able to acquire a peripheral that would allow your correspondents to release scents when you display their messages. Why you would want to pay so much to give others control over your environment (and why the device requires a broadband connection) is somewhat beyond me.
February 18, 2004
February 12, 2004
Patchouli and BBQ Sauce
Are you a smelly hippie type who can't shake the old blood-lust? Check out pasture raised meat in your area, with the added bonus that you can see if you and your pals can eat a whole pig.
Find that song
Trying to find out who wrote, or who else performed, that song? Try BMI's Repertoire search, or ASCAP's ACE search. The Cover Songs Database appears to have its heart in the right place, but is very sparsely populated right now. On the other hand, The Covers Project has a mystifying desire to create "cover chains" ("A cover chain is a set of songs in which each song is a cover of a song by the band who covered the preceding song."), but the one spot check I did yielded better results than the Songs Databse, so it looks like a fine resource.
Funny, cause it's true
Have you read Unshelved? You totally should. It's even better than User Friendly, but I may have a professional bias.
February 11, 2004
No comment
Halliburton jumps 30 slots in dollar volume of defense contracts. It's now number 7. With a bullet.
February 09, 2004
Where is the Toilet?
Just in case you have to go, basic Icelandic phrases.
February 06, 2004
Oh, the things you can get at IKEA
Take for example this lovely Saddomo Table (partial nudity, probably not work-safe). Might be funnier to someone who reads Russian.
February 05, 2004
Science or Art: You Decide
One can make a really cool alcohol stove out of pop and beer cans. But one can make stoves and ovens that look much less elegant and burn fuel that is easier to scrounge from all sorts of materials. The best ideas can be found in places of great necessity: areas that are usually or temporarily without a lot of infrastructure. Take a look at news photos of disaster areas, refugee camps, and the middle of nowhere. Human ingenuity wins over adversity almost every time.
February 04, 2004
Hope for Mil Millington?
Alyson Hannigan shows good taste in comic actors in an interviewette in Entertainment Weekly:
"Your favorite moments during filming [of American Wedding]?"
"Working with Eugene Levy and Fred Willard, I was in hog heaven. I threatened to kidnap them and put them in my basement and make them teach me everything they know."
February 03, 2004
Another Exhibit in the Museum of the Hard to Believe
Truckers ignore traffic advisories, claim ignorance.
"Barry Brecto, a Federal Highway Administration bridge engineer based in Olympia, said he found it 'hard to believe' that truck drivers didn't know the height of their loads.
"'Drivers are licensed and subject to drug tests and regular inspections. I don't know why some truck drivers are not obtaining proper permits for their loads and following the law,' he said. "
On an unrelated note, from the book Colonial American English: Words and Phrases Found in Colonial Writing, Now Archaic, Obscure, Obsolete, or Whose Meanings Have Changed:
"hippocras (n.) A wine with cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg added. From latin vinum Hippocraticum 'wine of Hippocrates,' as it was filtered through a flannel hippocrates bag."
Unfortunately, hippocrates bag is not defined. But Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable comes to the rescue:
"Hippocrates' sleeve. A woolen bag of a square piece of flannel, having the opposite corners joined, so as to make it triangular. It was used by apothecaries for straining syrups, decoctions and the like and formerly by vintners."
February 02, 2004
A "time of new beginnings"
Happy Candlemas. I seem to have observed it on the following Monday last year.
February 01, 2004
Top Ten Names (distasteful)
Top ten toxic substances listed in ToxFaq that could be good female first names, possibly good gaming names.
10. Ethion
9. Toluene
8. Toxaphene ("Toxie" for short)
7. Beryllium
6. Cadmium
5. Phosgene/Phosphine (tie)
4. Mirex
3. Endrin
2. Dichlorvos
(drumroll)
1. Antimony