I need this. But then i could use a pair of socks to put the nanotech into. SIGH.
Archive for September, 2004
(UPDATED:)
I had the pleasure once again of sitting on a toilet with a national geographic. It’s been a while, my subscription hasn’t caught up with me 
Anyway, I found a copy with another one of their oil reserve maps (the cover story was Oil, but in typical NGS fashion the whole article isn’t online, despite it being from june 2004). Their expert claims oil production will peak world wide by 2040, based on info from Colin Cambell. So when i got online today i tried to find the article, found it was just a teaser, and found that the spin had already begun.
(real audio of the interview Cambell interview here)
Eugene Register-Guard editorial:
“Both prices and technology have important roles to play, Laherrère says – but the oil-supply picture is governed by geology, not economics. (Youngquist jokes that oil companies should fire their geologists and hire economists instead, since economists are so much better at finding oil.) Higher prices and technological innovations will both be required to extract harder-to-get oil reserves, but neither can magically bring new supplies into being.”
“Moreover, given finite supplies, the peak of oil production is a logical certainty – the only question is the date. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration analyzed U.S. Geological Survey data to estimate the date of the peak. Its analysis assumed that new discoveries and technological improvements would significantly increase recoverable world oil reserves. The administration’s mid-range estimate shows that if oil consumption grows at a 2 percent rate, the peak in production will occur in 2037.”
UPDATED: With all the rant I left off because of lost bandwidth…
I am not going to post anything about the cell phone ring-tone that’s supposed to increase the size of mammaries .
I’m also not going to post anything about Microsoft’s announcement that would no longer provide security updates for any version of windows other then win XP.
I refuse to post anything on Virgin’s plans to offer suborbital space-flights using scaled up versions of SpaceShip One.
I will say that Wednesday marks the beginning of SpaceShip One’s run for the X-Prize. It has to make two flights within two weeks with either passengers or a simulated load. I wish them luck. But…
The more I think about it, the more i think it’s not necessarily a good thing. The more i think about it the X-Prize has been a major failure. Most of the X-Prize entrants smell of fly by night or shoe string enterprise. No new tech came out of the entrants. Almost all the ones i’ve seen are variations of either spam-in-a-can or attempts at retooling some other researched but dropped idea. Balloon launches, hybrid engines and airplane stages, been there done that. And the only one with a chance of pulling it off isn’t a true small timer, but an acknowledged industry leader, albeit a smaller niche player in the aerospace industry. One with a major big money money backer-Paul Allen, the other M$ Billionaire. It’s also obvious likely that the prize money won’t cover his investment (the licensing deal with Virgin will help). The X-Prize has failed in spurring a sustainable industry. All the small timers will close up shop, go away and/or get sued, and Allen’s outfit will license to Virgin and who ever ponies up the money. Scaled Composites will build a few ships, and a bunch of rich turds with the 120 thousand pounds Virgin is projecting it’ll charge will get to take a sub-orbital flight. Another fad of the rich and famous, soon to be replaced by next years big whatever, or quicker if some celebrity crashes and burns. It’s not even tourism, it’s not even remotely sustainable.
As to whether it’s scalable, well, that’s another story. Langley built a powered model that flew, but when he scaled up for maned flight, it didn’t work (Langley was the epitome of the dichotomy of 19th century scientists-his work was based on spending money and making speeches about being right because he was a famous professor–the guys who actually invented the airplane built a wind tunnel, took exacting measurements, then refined their ideas on gliders and models–Langley acted liked he had never heard of scientific method, or engineering). Can Scaled Composites scale the concept to reusable Low Earth Orbit? Possibly. Will they be able to boost a real payload? That’s the real question.
If they can’t, the prize money may have been better spent on endowing libraries with science books. Or instructiional materials in learning chinese.
In the wake of the Cat Stevens incident, where the Muslim singer/songwriter peacenik was discovered to be on the NoFly list only after he was half way to Amerika (causing his flight to be diverted to bangor Maine, inconveniencing a plane load of people, blah blah blah), the US is pushing for more and better terrorization of airline passengers:
“Right now, under the rules, we get [passenger] information at Homeland Security fifteen minutes after a plane takes off,” Hutchinson confessed on the ABC morning talk show Good Morning America.”
“There’s a gap there, so obviously the rules have got to be changed,” Hutchinson declared.
“The US will not be lulled into complacency, or distracted by the feverish terrorist activity in Iraq. Regulations must be altered to permit federal authorities to review passenger lists at least an hour before a plane departs, Hutchinson explained; and he vowed that US security apparatchiks would begin working with their overseas counterparts to implement the necessary changes immediately.”
The Induce Act has been modified–it still sucks, and it will repeal the BetaMax decision.
A test from Microsoft to see if your unprotected from the latest virus/worm/attack that uses corrupt JPEGs to infest your system.
News portals bias the news, according to the Online Journalism Review.
US judge strikes down boot leging law, says it provides for infinite copyright duration.
I’m in town for the day, and maybe the night. Insanely busy. Cellphone is clogged with calls. Might be around manana.
E-Vote Fears Soar in Swing States
The Bush and Kerry campaigns, along with a range of advocacy groups, are concerned with the integrity of voting technology — particularly in the states where votes matter most. By Jacob Ogles. (from wired)
So simple a monkey can do it: Black Box Voting shows a monkey hacking the console. Diebold lies outright in this–you can perform the simple alterations from a remote location using Windows remote Desktop, or a number of other hacks.
In which we shamelessly rip off other blogs wholesale for your amusement. You don’t want to read me anyway…
Dems cave on taxes–we’re spineless go alongs and opportunists, says spokesperson.
“In a real estate market gone mad,…Buy my canadian ghost town, please!
Japan has a type of seating referred to as a “gold chair,” whose purpose is purely for pleasure. Cut out chairs used by masseuses in “soaplands,” now where have i seen one of these before?
If you’re in NYC, you need to…
If you’re in NYC, you need to visit Jigsaw:
It’s a gallery, featuring affordable work from new undiscovered artists. It’s a shop, bookshelves chock full of indie press magazines, self-published novels, CDs, zines, and the cream of the crop of small press and mini-comics.
(all from Die Puny Humans)
“I am shaking. I don’t know what comes over me at times like this. I only know that I cannot stay silent. I wish that I had my ukulele with me.” (stopping subway preachers with showtunes in NYC)
gadget review JWZ review the new Leatherman Charge Ti and hobson split bike seat. I’ll take two, please…
Female anatomy done right. Awesome renderings.
(all from JWZ)
Packing Joi on bags and sub bags, must reading for any geek, photog or anal type.
P2P over SIP. Earthlink releases P2P software, that runs over SIP-with source. With notes from their head of research. They get it.
(all from Joi Ito)
Music site: Oddio Overplay. free, downloadable odd, obscure, and out-of-print music.
“Police charity” telescammers’ creepy implied threats. Don’t be bullied and don’t be bluffed.
Xeni on NPR — Kaiju Big Battel. Git yer rubber suit out and trample other kaiju, instead of Tokyo!
Moment of Jimmy Swaggart Zen
During a recently broadcast sermon in which he discussed his opposition to gay marriage, evangelical telepreacher Jimmy Swaggart said:
“I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I’m going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I’m going to kill him and tell God he died.”
RIP, Twinkies, Wonder Bread, Ho-Hos, RingDings… Interstate Bakeries files Chapter 11.
Kevin Sites blog from Iraq: Hilla SWAT
NBC combat correspondent and blogger Kevin Sites is back in Iraq, and posts a new dispatch with some amazing photos on his blog today.
Schwarzenegger signs bill requiring email addresses for filesharing. You must turn your self in…
(all from BoingBoing)
Medbloggers. From Jon Udell.
What an e-waste
John Vidal reports in today’s Guardian on the “Poisonous detritus of the electronic revolution”.
Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
In New York during the Republican convention, independent journalists and activists used text messaging “to coordinate an impressive, groundbreaking campaign of direct action and comprehensive news reporting,” according to this piece at the Democracy Now! web site. Much of the text messaging was organized through TXTmob.com. According to the article, the most complete reporing was via NYC Indymedia, which was monitored by police, who were also being monitored by the activists via a police scanner. (Thanks, Jordan!)
(from smartmobs)
