http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en dtnelson@mac.com 2005-2009 D T Nelson Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:57:32 -0700 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:57:53 -0700 iBlog 1.4.6 D T Nelson D T Nelson's News for Hominids Observations by D T Nelson. D T Nelson dtnelson@mac.com D T Nelson's News for Hominids Audio Blogs http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20091001185648/index.html While you weren't looking, there were two collisions on Martin Luther King Way between cars and the new Link light rail, one last Saturday afternoon and one early last Sunday.

Nobody has been killed by the train yet, emphasis on the "yet."

]]> Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:56:48 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20091001185648/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090930191020/index.html This post originally said, "Here are some pictures of a mule killing a cougar," but it turns out the mule was just tossing around the body of a cougar the mule's owner had shot.

I didn't THINK a mule could kill a cougar.

]]> Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:10:20 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090930191020/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090930164249/index.html Readers who have never been on an Amtrak long-distance train and want to see what it's like can go to this page and look at all the 360-degree photos this fellow took on his 2007 ride on the California Zephyr.

He took pictures in a roomette and a bedroom (i.e., both main types of sleepers), in the various hallways, in the dining car, in a coach car, and in the lounge car, so you can see the whole Amtrak-riding experience. Unfortunately, he took the pictures of the sleeping rooms during the day, but didn't get any at night, so you can't see what the rooms look like with the beds down. Let me describe it: They look snug. Cozy.

Take my word for it: If you are planning an Amtrak trip, pay the extra amount and get a sleeper.

]]> Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:42:49 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090930164249/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C531572587/E20090927184747/index.html Here is the trailer for the movie "Italian Spiderman."

I'm not sure how I missed that one.

]]> Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:47:47 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C531572587/E20090927184747/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090923192633/index.html For people who miss Seattle, here on YouTube is video of the Bardahl sign.

I expect Bardahl to soon be run out of town by confiscatory taxes, to be replaced by something useful, like a cooperative making organic dog food for nervous chihuahuas. Founded with federal stimulus money.

]]> Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:26:33 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090923192633/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090923191347/index.html Zillah, Washington is having a ribbon-cutting ceremony tomorrow to dedicate the town's first traffic light.

Yellow means stop.

]]> Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:13:47 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090923191347/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090922185917/index.html I am enjoying AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, which is more than I can say for the people in the photos.

Some of them are just excruciating.

]]> Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:59:17 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090922185917/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C381509669/E20090912133956/index.html Here is a video showing the test-firing September 10 by Alliant Techsystems of the first-stage solid rocket motor for NASA's new Ares I launch vehicle.

And what do YOU do today?

]]> Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:39:56 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C381509669/E20090912133956/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1708731573/E20090909151854/index.html Those who chafe at the limits on carrying liquids on airplanes may wish to watch this BBC video showing what a mixed-on-the-airplane liquid-explosive soda-pop-bottle bomb, of the sort the terrorists planned to use to blow up airplanes back in 2006, can do to an airplane. You would not want to be on an airplane that had such a bomb go off on the ground, to say nothing of at altitude.

Three of that set of eight terrorists, British followers of Islam, just got convicted on a second set of charges, in case you haven't been following the case. They hoped to blow up seven airplanes in one day, and kill maybe 10,000 people, found the court.

]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:18:54 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1708731573/E20090909151854/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C531572587/E20090909135714/index.html I am not a big Weird Al Yankovic fan, and this video is about three years old, but I have now watched it about ten times and I laugh every time. See if it doesn't make you laugh. I dare ya.

If you kids out there don't recognize the music video he is parodying, here it is -- it's so old we didn't even have the term "music video" then -- and I hope you recognize that that is Bob Dylan in the original, but the real joke is ... well, if you don't get the real joke, you must have scored very low on the verbal part of your SATs, that's all I've got to say.

[Found at J-Walk Blog, who found it at Change of Subject.]

]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:57:14 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C531572587/E20090909135714/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C925187820/E20090908172049/index.html The Hoosiers for Central Time Coalition has been formed to petition members of the Indiana General Assembly, as well as school superintendents around the state, to work to change Indiana to the Central time zone. Which is where it belongs.

I wrote about Indiana's adoption of Daylight Saving Time (DST) back in 2005, when that happened. The downside of the switch to DST is that the 80 counties that are in the Eastern time zone are now totally out of whack in the summer months, with the sun not coming up until mid-morning, and the sun not going down until almost midnight. I exaggerate, but not by much. And the Coalition is worried because kids go to school in the dark the whole year now.

(The other 12 counties of Indiana are in the Central time zone and are uniformly happy, productive, and non-groggy.)

At the time of Indiana's adoption of DST, the US Department of Transportation, which controls the nation's time zones, required each county to petition if they wanted to switch time zones, and a few counties in the Eastern zone did ask to moved to Central, and fewer still were actually allowed to switch, but most counties in Indiana want to align with Indianapolis, and until Marion County switches, the state will stay mostly in Eastern.

If the time zones were in the right place, the boundary between Eastern and Central would cut through the middle of Ohio. And it used to. But there has been a westward creep over the years, and it wasn't such a problem for Indiana when most of the state stayed on Standard Time year 'round, but now the flaw of being in the Eastern time zone is apparent.

I hope these folks succeed.

]]> Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:20:49 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C925187820/E20090908172049/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1517481308/E20090907154328/index.html For the benefit of the shopping public, Southern Game Meat Pty Ltd shares a chart showing all the cuts of meat you can get off a kangaroo.

I'm not sure if they will ship to North America, but you can call them and ask. They ship it in vacuum-packed pouches, so it'd probably keep on the boat over.

Kangaroo is very lean and tender and is high in iron and zinc.

[Found at J-Walk Blog.]

]]> Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:43:28 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1517481308/E20090907154328/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C381509669/E20090902131823/index.html Here is the web site SewerHistory.org. Can you guess what it is about? Yes, "Tracking down the roots of our sanitary sewers." And they have some really interesting stuff in there.

You know, the Romans ruled the world in their day because they had aqueducts and sewers and nobody else did.

I had a friend at Purdue who was a Civil Engineering major, in the Sanitary Engineering program, who used to always say, "Your [feces] is my bread and butter." Thirty years later and that still makes me laugh.

I found SewerHistory.org because I was reading in VintageSeattle.com about the great Ravenna sinkhole of 1957, the largest sewer collapse in the USA to that time, in which the main north Seattle trunk sewer, a six-feet wide brick-lined tunnel 145 feet below Ravenna Boulevard, washed out and created a hole 200 feet long, 175 feet wide, and 60 feet deep in Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood. SewerHistory.org has some pictures of it.

]]> Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:18:23 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C381509669/E20090902131823/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090901222546/index.html It says here in the Indianapolis Star that a man and a co-worker were operating a wood chipper in Atwood, Indiana, the other day, and the co-worker went across the street for a while, and came back, and the man was not there anymore.

Yep, the police say they found what they believe to be "evidence" of him in the wood chipper.

]]> Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:25:46 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090901222546/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090831133415/index.html The Daily Beast has an interesting little piece about famous people who roomed together at college. We all knew about Tommy Lee Jones and Albert Gore Jr, but it turns out there were many more such pairings.

None of my college roommates have become famous, but they are all upstanding citizens, as far as anyone knows.

]]> Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:34:15 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090831133415/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C531572587/E20090826133134/index.html In an article on All Things Digital about the latest ads for Macintosh computers, I discovered a reference to this wonderfully funny thing: Someone took the series of iMac ads actor Jeff Goldblum did in 1999 and slowed them down to half speed, and it really sounds like a drunken friend trying to have a conversation with you.

I think they may have used Amazing Slow Downer or something to maintain the original pitch of his voice and the music, but we can overlook that for all the mirth these videos engender.

]]> Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:31:34 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C531572587/E20090826133134/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C381509669/E20090824094310/index.html Wired.com has a gallery of photos of erupting volcanoes, taken from space.

They are all beautiful from up there.

]]> Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:43:10 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C381509669/E20090824094310/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090818125154/index.html Here is an interesting video of a jumbo making a crosswind landing.

Surprisingly short landing rollout.

]]> Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:51:54 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090818125154/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090818094912/index.html Speaking of accidents, check out this video of a head-on collision between two BNSF freight trains last June, taken from the cab of the lead locomotive of one of the trains involved.

If you look closely, you can see a crew member bail out of the locomotive of the other train as it is about to be hit. A wise man.

It looks like the train we are on runs though a stop signal right at the start of the clip, but I'm not sure.

]]> Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:49:12 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090818094912/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090818094005/index.html Every time I drive or ride through the mountains, I think about this happening.

Now I will think about it more.

You know, they put up signs by the highway that say, "Caution, Falling Rocks," or "Falling Rocks," or just "Rocks." But what the heck is the motorist supposed to do about these rocks, other than not drive on that road? You would not be able to spot a rock falling off the cliff above you, and swerve out of its way.

]]> Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:40:05 -0700 http://homepage.mac.com/dtnelson/iblog/C1514238991/E20090818094005/index.html