Archives - June 2005
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June 30, 2005
NextFest
From Wired's NextFest in Chicago last weekend. Click the image to visit the NextFest site.
CHICAGO -- This photo provided by Wired Nextfest shows Rob Innes skimming across the Chicago River in a bionic dolphin to call attention to Nextfest, a futuristic technology show in Chicago on June 25-26, 2005. The dolphin, a submersible developed by Innespace, can power two people to 40 m.p.h. on the surface and 20 m.p.h. below. (06/23/05 AP photo/Wired Nextfest)
I want one of these!
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June 29, 2005
Aerobatic Maniac?
Click the image to see a clip of a stunt pilot flying inverted under a low bridge. Wow!
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June 28, 2005
Day of the Comet
After a voyage of 173 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles), NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft will get up-close and personal with comet Tempel 1 on July 4 (EDT).
The first of its kind hyper-speed impact between space-borne iceberg and copper-fortified probe is scheduled for approximately 1:52 a.m. EDT on Independence Day (10:52 p.m. PDT on July 3). The potentially spectacular collision will be observed by the Deep Impact spacecraft, and ground and space-based observatories.
Click the image to visit NASA's site and read the whole article.
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June 27, 2005
It's a Quagmire...
Teddy and his buddies are right, they just have the wrong local:
If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in theater in Iraq during the last 22 months, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.
The rate in DC is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are more likely to be shot and killed in our nation's capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.
Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington...
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June 25, 2005
Eminent Domain proposal for D.C.
Bush may condemn and seize Supreme Court
A day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local governments may seize private property to promote economic development, President George Bush said he may soon move to seize the high court under "the executive branch's power of eminent domain."
The 5-4 court decision broadens the reasons for which properties can be taken under the Fifth Amendment beyond the traditional 'public use' (such as schools and highways) to include 'public purposes' such as...
• increasing tax income to a municipality,
• returning a favor to a wealthy developer who supported your city council campaign,
• improving the view of the waterfront from the Mayor's house, or
• getting rid of grumpy old people who have lived in their homes long enough.
"In the spirit of the new government takeover of American homes and businesses," said President George Bush, "we may have to seize the moment to condemn some aging, faded and blighted elements of the Supreme Court. Then we can replace them with something that will serve public purposes."
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June 16, 2005
Dog Ticketed Under Leash, License Laws
NEWTON, Mass. - Police in Massachusetts have a bone to pick with a four-legged criminal. His name is Murphy Dean and his crime was failing to wear a leash and not having a valid license.
Murphy is a 3-year-old golden retriever who resides in Newton, Mass., with his owner, Steven. During a walk earlier this month they were ticketed for violating the city's animal laws. But when they received the court summons in the mail, it was mistakenly addressed to Murphy instead of his owner.
"Murphy's never really gotten mail before, so he seemed surprised, and I've never seen a ticket made out to a dog. I don't believe he has a job, so we're not quite sure how he's going to pay for the ticket," Stephen Dean said. "One of the boxes says 'unable to obtain signature from defendant,' so I think Murphy refused -- wouldn't give his paw print."
So far, Murphy isn't talking about the charges.
Can’t say I blame him. Where's the ACLU when you actually need them?
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June 14, 2005
Well, duh...
Anti-BB Gun Project Deemed Too Dangerous
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) - Two eighth-graders who spent months working on a science project to prove how dangerous BB guns can be were disqualified from the state middle school science fair. The reason for the dismissal: BB guns are too dangerous.
Nancy G. Degon, vice president of Massachusetts State Science Fair Inc. and co-chair of the middle-school fair, said fair rules prohibit hazardous substances and devices.
"The scientific review committee does not consider science projects involving firearms to be safe for middle school students," Degon said.
Middle school kids all over the country use BB guns. It's perfectly legal as they are not (despite quips from executives of Science Fair Incorporated) firearms. These two obviously industrious kids conjectured that BB guns, though legal, were not safe. They conducted experiments with ballistic gelatin at considerable cost to try to prove their theory. Ironically, they were dismissed out of hand for trying to prove what a fair organizer decided arbitrarily. Methinks so-called zero tolerance hath run amok.
This is how science is taught today? It seems remarkably like the science taught in 1633.
"And yet it does move." - Galileo
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June 13, 2005
Jackson Found Not Guilty on All Counts
"We the jury, feeling the weight of the world’s eyes upon us all, thoroughly and meticulously studied the rules of evidence. We competently came to our result. We request that the world allow us to return to our private lives as anonymously as we came."
Yeah, right.
I’d managed to avoid following the details of this whole circus too closely, but I picked up the sense from what little I saw that the prosecution's mishandling of the conspiracy count -- in particular the mother's not-quite-plausible testimony -- may have brought down the case. From what a few jurors have said, at least some of them believed Jackson probably molested some of the boys, but they so disliked the mother (and her pointing and snapping her fingers at them) that they, in effect, discounted the validity of the charges concerning her son.
Was Jackson guilty? Innocent? Who knows. Perhaps he was just targeted for being a really, really weird guy. In which case this is a good thing. Think of it this way: we won't have to listen to the endless media talk about the appeals process.
We’ll just await the soul-searching concept album about the ordeal. And, of course, the civil trial…
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June 10, 2005
India Faces Worker Shortage
Andy McCue, Special to ZDNet
India faces a massive shortage of workers with European language skills over the next five years which could see the country needing to recruit up to 120,000 foreigners according to this article. The language skills deficit is revealed in a new report by research firm Evalueserve, which calculates that no more than 40,000 Indians will have a European language specialization other than English.
So, here's my question: Why don't they just offshore?
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June 9, 2005
Secretary of Dominance
Most of you saw the February 24 Washington Post photo of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Germany. It made the local papers. Some of you commented on her, uh, ensemble. A few suggested captions. Here's my favorite:
"Bark, European Dogs! Bark!"
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June 7, 2005
Shades of Frank Zappa - Jillette Names Daughter Moxie CrimeFighter
NEW YORK -- No, illusionist-comic Penn Jillette of the Las Vegas duo Penn & Teller isn't pulling a trick on you this time: He and his wife have given their baby a name you probably haven't heard before. Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette was born on Friday. Jillette said they "chose her middle name because when she's pulled over for speeding she can say, 'But officer, we're on the same side. My middle name is CrimeFighter.''
He didn't give an excuse for her first name, Moxie. Jillette and his wife, Emily, were married last year, and Moxie CrimeFighter is their first child. Jillette's partner-in-comedy, Teller, is being silent about the new arrival...
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June 6, 2005
Macs with Intel Inside?
Years of speculation came to an end Monday, when Steve Jobs announced that Apple will be switching to Intel chips for its Mac line of PCs. Jobs said in his keynote speech at the Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco that Apple has built Mac OS X with the ability to run on Intel chips since its inception, so much of the work in making the switch is done.
But developers will have to work to get their applications running on Intel hardware. Will the switch improve the Mac's performance? Most suspect it will, but time will tell... (more)
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June 1, 2005
Deep Throat Revealed
WASHINGTON - Breaking a silence of 30 years, former FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward Tuesday as Deep Throat, the secret Washington Post source that helped bring down President Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Within hours, the paper ratified his claim. Well, we can all rest easy now. The answer to one of the great mysteries of our time has finally been disclosed. I’m ready for a nap.
Half the population in the country was born after the Watergate scandal. Many read “All the President’s Men” (or at least saw the movie starring Robert Redford) and so they at least know something about it. But many others have no idea how information leaked by “Deep Throat” (code named after a seventies X-Rated movie) to the Washington Post helped bring down a Presidency.
Felt says he always believed that he would be “looked down upon” for leaking the information. “It’s wrong for an FBI man to leak...” he is quoted as saying. read more (pdf download)