Many old wives’ tales actually do have a basis in fact, and it’s not a good idea to dismiss them out of hand. For instance, it’s easy to dismiss your grandmother’s warning that you’ll catch a cold if you go out without a coat when it’s cold. The cold is caused by a virus, and …
Continue reading ‘“Gargling with Salt Water Actually Helps a Cold or Cough”’ »
I find this amusing, from the perspective of a modern, logical, Internet-connected Westerner who knows that vampires are myths. But I have to wonder just how many mistaken beliefs I have, that could be used against me in the same way by a more advanced enemy… (Fortunately, any “more advanced enemy” would almost have to …
Continue reading ‘“US military’s use of mythical monster for psy-ops”’ »
You’ve got to wonder what your average comic book super-villain was like as a child… (I think picture number six is my favorite. But ask me on another day and you may get a different answer.)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This isn’t a perfect society, by a long shot, so those who have authority must be held accountable for exercising that authority responsibly. And the best way to do that is to give everyone — especially their superiors and the courts — the ability to see their behavior first-hand. If they …
I’ve always thought that computers could do more to protect themselves from theft. Even something as simple as full drive encryption, built into all hard drives, would at least prevent any thief from getting the data on a machine (and the data is usually worth far more than the machine itself). Apparently someone at Intel …
Continue reading ‘“Intel slips anti-theft tech into hardware to deter thieves”’ »
Wow… I always thought of bugs as little more than self-reproducing low-level biological robots, but I didn’t realize they had bugs of their own. 😉 If this happened in practically any other species, the entire group affected by it (and the genes responsible for it) would essentially cease to exist, because once locked into it …
So take that and blow it out your saddle-bags, reactionary eighties parents! 😉
I haven’t had a chance to use this myself yet, but it looks intriguing. Maybe enough to convince me to abandon my Velcro-fastened shoes, even if they are efficient.
I switched to Thunderbird for my e-mail and RSS a few years ago, because it was cross-platform, open-source (so I didn’t have to worry about the company abandoning it if/when they decided they weren’t making enough money with it), and worked with GPG so I could still have my secure e-mail. I have never been …
That explains a lot: they’re mentally ill. Something we “numerates” have long suspected. (Sorry for the pay-wall, it wasn’t there when I first wrote this post. There’s what seems to be a complete copy of it here, though I don’t know for how long.)