Our friend Don and his girlfriend were visiting for a few days, and yesterday around noon we took them to a nearby beach. It was the first time that we’d been to one in several years… we remembered to use sunscreen, so I only got a very mild sunburn on one shoulder, and GoddessJ on …
Some companies are accused of paying people to sit around doing nothing, but this is just ridiculous.
I can’t believe I missed this. I’ve been fascinated by the idea of solar sails ever since I first read The Mote in God’s Eye as a kid.
I never knew that carrots came in different colors: The reason modern Western carrots are orange is because they were bred that way, in the 16th and 17th centuries, in tribute to the Dutch royal House of Orange. I wonder what people would say to yellow or purple carrots. Other than “that’s weird!” 😉
This would be extremely useful, and not just for medical purposes — “cold sleep” is a common plot device in science fiction books and movies, for dealing with decades-long interstellar voyages, just as one example. And since humans obviously can do it, I think it’s inevitable that science will find a way to harness it, …
Continue reading ‘“Suspended-animation cold sleep achieved in lab”’ »
“Be careful: this machine has no brain. Use your own.” One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard in months, and not just for working with powered machinery.
I generally find Verity Stob pretty over-the-top, but she didn’t have to exaggerate this one much, if at all. It’s an old one, but it had me smiling and nodding because I’ve seen more than my fair share of Windows machines with nearly every one of the symptoms she mentions. Far too often they’ve been …
“From the department of unsourced photographic Internet literalisms, an adobe photo-shop.” (Via Boing Boing)
I’ve never had a car that invites theft, so I’ve never even considered buying The Club. It turns out that that’s a good thing… it’s not just useless against professional thieves, it can actually attract them. (My preferred theft-deterrent? Drive a decent-looking older car. It has worked for me for a long time. 😉 )
I started using Ubuntu three years ago, pushed to it by the advent of Windows Vista and Microsoft’s stated intention to force all Windows users to it. It was quite an effort to switch at that point, but it was a lot easier than it had been even a year earlier. And with every new …
Continue reading ‘“Ubuntu Lucid Lynx: free OS that Just Works”’ »