for_sv's blog

If you try a jigsaw puzzle that is too hard, don't go to pieces.

how is the weather there

Darkest hours

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. - James Beard (1903-1985)

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago. - Christina G. Rossetti (1830 - 1894), A Christmas Carol

When you jump for joy, beware that no-one moves the ground from beneath your feet. - Stanislaw Lem (1921 - ), "Unkempt Thoughts", 1962

The future's not ours to see

food for plate

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. -Henry Van Dyke

I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond. - Mae West (1893 - 1980) American actress

Take Nothing but Pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time. - Motto of the Baltimore Grotto (caving society)

Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong. - George Carlin (1937 - )

gross national happiness is more important than gross national product - King of Bhutan

A film is never really any good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. - Orson Welles

On cable TV they have a weather channel - 24 hours of weather. We had something like that where I grew up. We called it a window. -Dan Spencer

games people p(l)ay

There is no gravity. The earth sucks. - Graffito

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.- Sir Richard Steele

spam wham

December 31, 2004 in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 30, 2004

Top Science Stories of 2004

Mars Exploration

Researchers Unveil New Form of Matter

Cloned Human Embryos Yield Stem Cells

Chemists Report New Superheavy Elements

Ancient Shells May be Earliest Jewels

Ringed Victory: Cassini Gets Up Close and Personal with Saturn

NASA Identifies "Likely Direct Cause" of Genesis Crash

Mini-Human Species Unearthed

Fixing the Vote

Holes in the Missile Shield

Monkey Protein Blocks HIV

Newly Discovered Galaxy is a Record-Breaker

continue reading

December 30, 2004 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ugly Christmas Lights

When it comes to decorating your house for the holidays, nothing says "Christmas" like an inflatable SpongeBob SquarePants. To many homeowners, capturing the spirit of the season involves an enormous number of lights and an enormous utility bill. Those whose homes don't quite epitomize the spirit of goodwill to all manage to embrace the spirit of "too much of a good thing is still too much." In a stunning departure from traditional decorations, a decked-out T. rex lurks in the wilds of suburbia, while a lonely trailer park Santa greets visitors. Operating under the pseudonym of "Santa," the owner of this site has found some of the most over-the-top Christmas lights ever perpetrated on a neighborhood. If you're pining for the tasteful seasonal decorations of yesteryear, you'll find them here -- among the glitter and glitz of today's excesses.

December 30, 2004 in Reality | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 29, 2004

Jim Lewis: A hard, simple problem

If you are interested in sliding puzzles try this one

If you want to read about the puzzle: Has an inventor found the hardest possible simple sliding-block puzzle?

Not as simple as it looks

Below is my solution, you can see the blocks (that may help)

December 29, 2004 in Fun, Games | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Can you solve this one in 5 tries?

You have to move all brown frogs to left and yellow to right.

December 29, 2004 in Fun, Games | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 28, 2004

Where Everbody Knows Your Name

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.

You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

You want to go where people know, people are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

- Cheers By: Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

December 28, 2004 in Reality | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

i love you

classic movie dialogues

December 28, 2004 in History | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 27, 2004

10x10

Described as "an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time," 10×10 is the brainchild of graphic designer Jonathan Harris. The site automatically collects and graphically displays the most important words and photographs from three of the Internet's top news sources (Reuters World News, BBC World Edition, and New York Times International News). The result is a grid of 100 images, each connected to a single word. Click on an individual photo, and the image enlarges in a pop-up window that includes a series of related headlines linking to the day's news reports. Images and articles are updated hourly, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Because it runs without human intervention, it reveals the most important issues of the moment -- free of bias, politics, and hidden agendas. Take ten for 10×10 and see what's happening now.

December 27, 2004 in Photography, World News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 26, 2004

Tidal waves kill thousands across Asia

Magnitude 8.9 quake in Indonesia triggers deadly flooding

The world’s most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 5,600 people in six countries.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world’s fifth largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 quake hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.

'Ring of Fire'
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the “Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.

December 26, 2004 in World News | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 25, 2004

FraudFrond.com

​ ​​​​With more than 130,000 cell towers in the United States, you'd think we'd be spotting one every time we hit the road. They sure can be a blight on the landscape. So why aren't we noticing more of them? Actually, you may be seeing them without even realizing it. Those technological eyesores that keep your cell phone ringing are cropping up across the country as pines and palms. Can you spot the faux fir? The "Danger. Keep Off" sign may be your first clue that you're not gazing at an ordinary conifer. Still unsure? Just look for the cables and chain link fence for confirmation. Then take a photo of the fraud frond and send it in to this "growing" collection.

December 25, 2004 in Info | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 24, 2004

Leite's Culinaria

​ ​​​​Leite's Culinaria is David Leite's elegant and tasty online food 'zine -- a collection of delightful articles about the history and mystery of culinary pleasures. We found mouth-watering recipes, book reviews, and resources for cooks, foodies, and all who enjoy eating well. We lingered longingly over recipes from the James Beard House, where chefs test recipes on their hard-to-impress culinary peers. We made a mental note of Cape Verdean pastry with the devil inside, imagining a festive table set for fallen angels. Dreaming of a Dickensian Christmas? The seasonal cover story, The Goose of Christmas Past, is entertaining and instructive. Shopping for a literate cook? Don't miss the best books of 2004, with volumes by culinary celebs like Tony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson, and focused tomes on chocolate, spice, toast, and other essentials.

December 24, 2004 in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 23, 2004

Lake Effect Snow on Earth

Credit: SeaWiFS Project, NASA

Explanation: What are those strange clouds stretching out from these lakes? The clouds are caused by cold air moving over a warm water and result in bands of lake-effect snow. The rising bands of moistened, warmed air that drop lake-effect snow alternate with clear bands of falling cold air. During a winter, such bands can create hundreds of centimeters of snow more than upwind areas only a hundred kilometers away. During this lake-effect snowfall of 2000 December 5, practically all of the state of Michigan, USA got covered. A cold northwesterly wind over Great Lakes Superior and Michigan created the unusual clouds. The above image was taken with NASA's SeaWiFS satellite.

December 23, 2004 in Photography | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 22, 2004

Blingo

Blingo is a new search engine with a twist: you can win a prize every time you search (if you're an adult US citizen, that is). Current prizes include a $250 Amazon gift certificate, an iPod, or a one-year subscription to Netflix.

December 22, 2004 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

U.S. Slips in Attracting the World's Best Students

U.S. Slips in Attracting the World's Best Students
By SAM DILLON (New York Times)

Published: December 21, 2004

American universities, which for half a century have attracted the world's best and brightest students with little effort, are suddenly facing intense competition as higher education undergoes rapid globalization.

The European Union, moving methodically to compete with American universities, is streamlining the continent's higher education system and offering American-style degree programs taught in English. Britain, Australia and New Zealand are aggressively recruiting foreign students, as are Asian centers like Taiwan and Hong Kong. And China, which has declared that transforming 100 universities into world-class research institutions is a national priority, is persuading top Chinese scholars to return home from American universities.

"What we're starting to see in terms of international students now having options outside the U.S. for high-quality education is just the tip of the iceberg," said David G. Payne, an executive director of the Educational Testing Service, which administers several tests taken by foreign students to gain admission to American universities. "Other countries are just starting to expand their capacity for offering graduate education. In the future, foreign students will have far greater opportunities."

Foreign students contribute $13 billion to the American economy annually. But this year brought clear signs that the United States' overwhelming dominance of international higher education may be ending. In July, Mr. Payne briefed the National Academy of Sciences on a sharp plunge in the number of students from India and China who had taken the most recent administration of the Graduate Record Exam, a requirement for applying to most graduate schools; it had dropped by half.

Foreign applications to American graduate schools declined 28 percent this year. Actual foreign graduate student enrollments dropped 6 percent. Enrollments of all foreign students, in undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral programs, fell for the first time in three decades in an annual census released this fall. Meanwhile, university enrollments have been surging in England, Germany and other countries.

Some of the American decline, experts agree, is due to post-Sept. 11 delays in processing student visas, which have discouraged thousands of students, not only from the Middle East but also from dozens of other nations, from enrolling in the United States. American educators and even some foreign ones say the visa difficulties are helping foreign schools increase their share of the market.

"International education is big business for all of the Anglophone countries, and the U.S. traditionally has dominated the market without having to try very hard," said Tim O'Brien, international development director at Nottingham Trent University in England. "Now Australia, the U.K., Ireland, New Zealand and Canada are competing for that dollar, and our lives have been made easier because of the difficulties that students are having getting into the U.S.

"International students say it's not worth queuing up for two days outside the U.S. consulate in whatever country they are in to get a visa when they can go to the U.K. so much more easily."

American educators have been concerned since the fall of 2002, when large numbers of foreign students experienced delays in visa processing. But few noticed the rapid emergence of higher education as a global industry until quite recently.

"Many U.S. campuses have not yet geared up for the competition," said Peggy Blumenthal, a vice president at the Institute for International Education.

Still, Ms. Blumenthal said, it remains unclear whether the sudden decline in foreign enrollments is a one-time drop or the beginning of a long slide.

Not all educators are expressing concern.

Steven B. Sample, president of the University of Southern California - which last year had 6,647 foreign students, the most of any American university - said colleagues who lead other universities had expressed anxiety at professional meetings.

(Page 2 of 3)

"But we compete no holds barred among ourselves for the best faculty, for students, for gifts and for grants, and that's one of the reasons for our strength," Dr. Sample said. "Now we'll compete with some overseas universities. Fine with me, bring 'em on."

Certainly many American universities continue to be extraordinary global brand names. Shanghai Jiao Tong University has compiled an online academic ranking of 500 world universities, using criteria like the number of Nobel Prizes won by faculty members and academic articles published (ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/2004Main.htm). Of the top 20 on the list, 17 are American. Of the top 500, 170 are American.

During 2002, the most recent year for which comparable figures are available, some 586,000 foreign students were enrolled in United States universities, compared with about 270,000 in Britain, the world's second-largest higher education destination, and 227,000 in Germany, the third-largest. Foreign enrollments increased by 15 percent that year in Britain, and in Germany by 10 percent.

The countries exporting the most students were China, South Korea and India, but the annual global migration to overseas universities involves two million students from many countries traveling in many directions. That number is exploding - by some estimates it will quadruple by 2025 - as economic growth produces millions of new middle-class students across Asia.

In October, the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, an economic forum for 30 leading industrial nations, took note of this global movement in a study. Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin, an analyst at the organization's headquarters in Paris and an author of the study, said that traditionally most countries, including the United States, had tried to attract foreign students as a way of disseminating their nation's core values.

But three other strategies emerged in the 1990's, Dr. Vincent-Lancrin said. Countries with aging populations like Canada and Germany, pursuing a "skilled migration" approach, have sought to recruit talented students in strategic disciplines and to encourage them to settle after graduation. Germany subsidizes foreign students so generously that their education is free.

Australia and New Zealand, pursuing a "revenue generating" approach, treat higher education as an industry, charging foreign students full tuition. They compete effectively in the world market because they offer quality education and the costs of attaining some degrees in those countries are lower than in the United States. Emerging countries like India, China and Singapore, pursuing a "capacity building" approach, view study abroad by thousands of their nation's students as a way of training future professors and researchers for their own university systems, which are expanding rapidly, Dr. Vincent-Lancrin said.

In August a delegation of education officials from Singapore visited Mary Sue Coleman, the president of the University of Michigan, at the Ann Arbor campus. They took over a conference room, set up computers and peppered her with questions about tuition policy, fund-raising, governance and research, Dr. Coleman recalled. They wanted to know how Michigan became a prominent university, and how it was run today.

"Eventually they'll reap the benefits of this work," Dr. Coleman said. "Singapore will create world-class universities. Other countries are taking the same approach. We're going to have enormous competition. We'd better be prepared for it."

The rapid changes in India and China have special importance. The number of Indian students in the United States has more than doubled in a decade, to 80,000, the largest representation of any country. The 62,000 students from China make up the second-largest group. Graduate students and degree holders from those countries play a critical role in American science, engineering and information technology research.

Some 28 percent fewer Indian students applied to attend American graduate schools this fall than last year, according to a survey by the Council of Graduate Schools. This matched the overall decline for all foreign students.

Rabindranath Panda, the education consul at India's consulate in New York, said that huge private investments in Indian higher education in recent years had greatly increased options at home for Indian students, and that those who wished to study abroad were increasingly looking at universities not only in the United States and Britain but also in France, Germany, Singapore and elsewhere.

(Page 3 of 3)

Higher education is undergoing even more sweeping transformation in China. The number of students seeking a postsecondary degree is expected to rise to 16 million students by 2005 from 11 million in 2000 and to keep rising thereafter, according to a recent report by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation. Even if only a small minority of those new students seek a foreign degree, they will enlarge their already important presence at hundreds of overseas universities.

But the new wave of Chinese students may not wash into the United States. Educators say applicants from China face more visa difficulties than applicants from any country outside the Middle East.

One reason, they say, appears to be that many Chinese students pursue the science disciplines that set off a screening process known as Visa Mantis, intended to prevent the transfer of sensitive technology. A Congressional study found that during a three-month period last year, more than half of all the Visa Mantis investigations worldwide involved Chinese students. The especially long visa delays experienced by Chinese students are a major irritant for many university presidents.

"Chinese students are getting heightened scrutiny," said the president of Princeton University, Shirley M. Tilghman. "I've asked many people for the rationale, but I've never gotten an answer that makes sense."

Chinese applications to American graduate schools fell 45 percent this year, while several European countries announced surges in Chinese enrollment.

"We had an especially large increase in Chinese students," said Martina Nibbeling-Wriessnig, a spokeswoman for the German Embassy in Washington.

The United States is also losing some Chinese scholars, partly because of China's strategic decision over the last decade to channel special investments to 100 universities with a view to building them into world-class research giants capable of winning Nobel Prizes.

In October, Dr. Coleman of the University of Michigan visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which created the online university ranking system and has also built a vast new campus. Partly because Dr. Coleman is a biochemist, her hosts took her to visit their new pharmacy school. It had hired 16 professors, she said - all of them returned from American universities.

But not only Chinese universities are seeking to lure top faculty members from American campuses.

"Baseball's World Series includes only American teams," said Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University. "But higher education is truly a world series now, because we're competing for students and faculty against universities all over the world."

December 22, 2004 in Info, Reality, World News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 21, 2004

Fakefunk Jump Project

Some people will jump at the chance to have their picture taken. And for others, the jumping is the whole point of the picture. Displaying a variety of inspired techniques in exotic locations, these jumpers conquer cheerleading's Russian split on an airstrip in Indiana and the hurdler in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. In Stockholm a palace guard remains cool in the presence of one determined jumper. Individuals, small groups, and even newlyweds and their wedding guests are taking part. We don't know if this is the start of a worldwide trend of leaping for the camera, but if so, this site will be the first to take the joy of jumping to new heights.

December 21, 2004 in Photography | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 20, 2004

Que Sera, Sera

When I was just a little girl/boy,
I asked my mother, "What will I be ?
Will I be pretty/handsome ?
Will I be rich ?"
Here's what she said to me :
"Que Sera, Sera
Whatever will be, will be,
The future's not ours to see,
What will be, will be."

Then I grew up and fell in love,
I asked my sweetheart, 'what lies ahead?
Will we have rainbows, day after day?
Here's what my sweetheart said:
Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich?
I tell them tenderly
"Que Sera, Sera
Whatever will be, will be,
The future's not ours to see,
What will be, will be.
Que Sera, Sera"

December 20, 2004 in Reality | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 19, 2004

Salad bar hacking

This is the best thing I've seen in a long while. Robyn Miller sez: "This is a photo from a Chinese PDF manual. The manual explains, via text and a lot of fun photos, how to cram as much food as possible on one of those tiny Pizza Hut bowls at the salad bar. They're only allowed one trip. My cousin lives in Beijing. When he goes to Pizza Hut, he says this is what most people are busy building." (Click image for enlargement)

UPDATE: Kurt Groetsch sez: "Two more photos of salad bowl extensions here and here. They made the rounds of the office when I was working in Beijing."

Gregory Lam sez: I have a friend of mine who currently lives and works in China, described the same phenomenon here. "I quote: 'For one price (I think it's approximately 20 RMB), you get a single trip to the salad bar. You get a medium-sized soup bowl to put your salad in. Of course, this is a challenge any structural engineer would love to take upon: putting the most salad you can in this small bowl. I saw people at the salad bar for 5-7 minutes just trying to force more and more salad into their bowl. The highest salad I saw must have rose 9 inches off the top of the bowl.'

"The reason is, Western food is quite expensive in China. Pizza Hut is actually considered to be upscale dining!"

December 19, 2004 in Reality | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 18, 2004

Newton's Laws Redefined for IT industry

(ORIGINAL)
1. Every body continues its state of rest or uniform motion unless it is acted by external unbalanced force.
(IT)
Every Software Engineer continues his state of chatting or forwarding mails unless he is assigned work by external unbalanced manager.

(ORIGINAL)
2. The rate of change of velocity of a body is directly proportional to the applied force & takes place in the same direction in which force is applied
(IT)
The rate of change in the software is directly proportional to the payment received from client and takes place at the quick rate as when deadline force is applied.

(ORIGINAL)
3.For every action there is equal and opposite reaction.
(IT)
For every Use Case Manifestation there is an equal but opposite Software Implementation.

(ORIGINAL)
Law of Conservation of Energy: Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. It can be converted from one form to another. The total amount of energy in the universe always remains constant.
(IT)
Bugs can neither be created nor be removed from software by a developer. It can only be converted from one form to another. The total number of bugs in the software always remains constant.

December 18, 2004 in Humor | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 17, 2004

With Great Beer, It's All in the Rocks

With Great Beer, It's All in the Rocks (and That Doesn't Mean Ice)

By KENNETH CHANG Published: December 14, 2004 - New York Times

DENVER - The refreshing bitterness of an English pale ale, the clean light taste of a Pilsener, the dark, almost burnt graininess of Irish stout. To Dr. Alex Maltman, these are prime illustrations of the power of geology.

Wine connoisseurs often talk of terroir - a French word expressing the notion that vineyard soils impart flavors to the finished wines. But data to back up the notion is sketchy, said Dr. Maltman, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Wales. And though whiskey distillers often make much of the water they use, there is little correlation between the taste of whiskey and the geology of where it is made, he said.

Beer and geology, on the other hand, are closely entwined, Dr. Maltman said last month at a seminar on geology and beer held at a meeting of the Geological Society of America.

For one, geologists drink lots of beer, typically ending a long day examining rocks with a trip to the nearest bar. Mayor John W. Hickenlooper of Denver, a former geologist turned pub owner, told the geologists how an earlier geology meeting in 1988 bolstered his fledgling microbrewery.

continue reading...

December 17, 2004 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 16, 2004

3 young writers achieve acclaim years after their deaths from cancer

Although cancer got these three young writers before their books were published, their now-acclaimed work -- from children's inspirational to humorous fantasy to coming of age (book and movie) -- was brought to life by the efforts of parents or a brother or friends.

December 16, 2004 in Info | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 15, 2004

Scientists Teach Sparrows to Sing Backward

You wouldn't think sparrows need to be taught how to whistle a happy tune, but Gary Rose wanted to try it anyway.

Rose and his colleagues captured about two dozen baby sparrows -- with permission, honest! -- and separated them so they wouldn't hear any sparrow songs. When the little nestlings were two weeks old, the researchers began to teach them how to perform a basic sparrow jingle using recordings made in the wild.

The music lessons were arduous, two 90-minute sessions every day for two months.

The pupils were treated like any aspiring musician, instructed in step-by-step fashion. Lessons were tailored to the students' instrument and their presumed collective goal, to sing the most common sparrow song, known as "ABCDE."

Here's how it goes: A is an opening whistle; B is bunch of notes; C is a buzz; D is a trill; and E is another bunch of notes. Importantly, the song's segments overlap, like this: AB, BC, CD and DE.

Grown-up sparrows know the number by heart. But how?

Is it genetic, like all human babies knowing exactly how to cry at 3 a.m. just after you've gone back to sleep? Or do sparrow virtuosos rely on short-term memory or, perhaps, on their long-term memories?

continue reading...

December 15, 2004 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 14, 2004

LifeGem Human Carbon "Diamonds"

LifeGems are diamonds made from the carbon contained in human ashes. With 8 ounces of "cremains", enough carbon can be extracted to make a synthetic diamond. The process takes several months. LifeGems can be made in sizes from .25 carats (about $2500) to a full carat ($14,000) and come in round, radiant, or princess cuts. Pet LifeGems are available as well.

"I think more people are looking for more-personal ways to remember somebody," says Dean VandenBiesen, LifeGem's vice president of operations. "Rather than having ongoing mourning for someone's loss, people are wanting to celebrate a life. The LifeGem is just another way to do that, versus having a weeping, somber occasion."

From USA Today.

December 14, 2004 in Info, Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Andy Borowitz: nominee vetting shocker

BUSH TO GOOGLE FUTURE NOMINEES by Andy Borowitz

Kerik + Nanny Yields 20,000 Web Pages

After the embarrassing flap over the nomination of Bernard Kerik as the new Homeland Security Secretary, President George W. Bush announced today that the White House would take the extraordinary step of Googling all future Cabinet nominees.

"Looking back on it, I wish we had Googled Bernard Kerik," the president said today. "It would've saved us a lot of grief all around."

Mr. Bush said that he would have Googled Mr. Kerik earlier, but that he only learned of the existence of the Google search engine on Friday, long after the Kerik appointment had been made public.

"I guess I have a lot to learn about the Internets," Mr. Bush said.

Instead of silencing critics, however, the president's comments only emboldened those who had been urging the Administration to Google prospective nominees for months.

According to those critics, a simple Google search using the words "Kerik + Nanny", for example, yields over 20,000 separate web pages, while a search using the words "Kerik + Conflict + Interest" yields over 900,000 pages.

At the firestorm over the failure to Google Mr. Kerik raged, White House spokesman Scott McClellan denied that the Administration did not do a thorough job of vetting the former police commissioner: "We asked Jeeves if he was okay, and Jeeves said he was."

Mr. McClellan added that the White House is now considering nominating only candidates who do not have a nanny, but added, "That would mean picking a Democrat."

Elsewhere, the Labor Department announced that unemployment surged in the last month but attributed much of the increase to the Bush cabinet.

December 14, 2004 in Columnists, Humor | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 13, 2004

Picture Book

Every once in a while there comes a ad which catches my attention. In recent days one such is HP's "Picture Book" (Artist: The Kinks). I think it is brilliantly creative. This is my favorite but you can check all of them out.

Picture yourself when you’re getting old,
Sat by the fireside a-pondering on[? ].
Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago.
Picture book, of people with each other, to prove they love each other a long ago.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Picture book.
Picture book.

A picture of you in your birthday suit,
You sat in the sun on a hot afternoon.
Picture book, your mama and your papa, and fat old uncle charlie out cruising with their friends.
Picture book, a holiday in august, outside a bed and breakfast in sunny southend.
Picture book, when you were just a baby, those days when you were happy, a long time ago.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book.

Picture book,
Na, na, na, na na,
Na, na, na, na na,
A-scooby-dooby-doo.
Picture book,
Na, na, na, na na,
Na, na, na, na na,
A-scooby-dooby-doo.

Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago.
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

December 13, 2004 in Photography | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 12, 2004

National Parks

Picturing America's National Parks

Quang-Tuan Luong became the first person to photograph all 58 US national parks in 2002 and continues to do so, with over 3,600 photographs of them online. Last month, Scott Parker completed his two-year project of visiting all the national parks and documenting them in paint and pastel.

December 12, 2004 in Art, Photography, Travel | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 11, 2004

Reuters 2004 Pictures Of The Year

You can browse your way through the Reuters 2004 Pictures Of The Year over at Yahoo! News. They also have a Slide Show For Easier Viewing. They range from the Puzzling, to the Amusing, and Sad or kinda Creepy. Some took incredible Timing or Good Luck to capture. I only spotted a couple that looked familiar, including the kite surfing Kerry. My favorites, 2 men on fire, one Literally and one Figuratively.

December 11, 2004 in Photography | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Google Suggest

Pretty cool, Google's got an iterative search implementation that offers suggsested keyword terms as you type. This is really cool, because I'm thinking of how much I struggled just to get post filtering working for the search on my blog.

December 11, 2004 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 08, 2004

The Color Of Bhutan

Check out the third exhibition of Audrey Topping's photo artwork of "Bhutan, The Kingdom Of The Thunder Dragon" in New York, capturing her impressions of Bhutanese life, religion and culture in a series a dramatic photographs.

A prize-winning photojournalist and author of six books, Audrey has exhibited her photographs and lectured in numerous galleries and universities, notably: The Metropolitan Museum, Hallmark Gallery, Overseas Press Club, Explorers Club, Harvard University, Katonah Gallery of Art, Royal Ontario Museum and Westchester Community College. Her articles and photographs have been printed in major publications in The United States and abroad. Including two cover stories as photographer and writer for National Geographic Magazine. The New York Times Magazine published 17 of her articles, including 10 cover stories from China and Russia. Her China photos were featured on the covers of Life and Newsweek. Other work has appeared in such publications as Time, Readers Digest, Science Digest, Art in America, GEO, Foreign Affairs Magazine, Toronto Star, Le Temp Strategic. Audrey attended the University of Nanking, China, UBC in British Columbia and studied art in Berlin and London, where she exhibited her sculptures at the Royal Academy of Art. She received an honorary Doctor of Arts from Rider College N.J. In 2000 Audrey and her husband, Seymour Topping, were awarded the first annual Greenway-Winship Award for their significant contribution to a better understanding of world affairs. She is a member of The Council of Foreign Affairs, Asia Society and the Society of Woman Geographers. Toppings have 5 daughters and live in Scarsdale NY.

The exhibit in the Bhutanese Mission on first Avenue is worth a trip to see. Audrey Topping's photographic and photo-oneiric images, as brilliantly colorful as the Buddhist culture they represent, will utterly defeat the endless grey of December. They are full of motion and beauty and humor, and will tell you something about a happy and ancient culture that is worth knowing. All the two hundred images at the exhibit are for sale, and the proceeds go to aid in the Queen's efforts to help Bhutanese children.

The exhibit is at the Permanent Mission of The Kingdom of Bhutan to The United Nations 763 First Avenue United Nations Plaza between 43th and 44th st. NY 10017. Open until December 14th 2004, Monday to Friday from 11AM to 4PM.

(click on the links to view images)

December 8, 2004 in Art, History, Photography | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 07, 2004

Liquid Lens ...!

Camera phones will soon have lenses made from nothing more substantial that a couple of drops of oil and water, but will still be capable of auto focusing, and even zooming in on subjects, says Etienne Paillard, CEO of French start-up Varioptic.

Of course, folks like myself who are keen photographers are going to pipe up with scorn saying nothing new! Sure, Nikon introduced this technology in their cameras way back in 1979; but, it was a closely-guarded secret then and nobody was quite sure what precisely the lens did. All we knew (and were ecstatic about) was that it took the best pictures in the world!

Varioptic was founded two years ago to exploit two core technology patents covering lenses based on the principles of electro-wetting. This is the tendency of liquid to spread on a substrate, Paillard explains. "It means we can tune the shape of the drop to create a lens. Think about a tunable lens, like in the human eye".

The lens has a simple structure: two liquids, of equal density, sandwiched between two windows in a conical vessel. One liquid is water, which is conductive. The other, oil, acts as a lid, allowing the engineers to work with a fixed volume of water, and provides a measure of stability for the optical axis. The interface between the oil and water will change shape depending on the voltage applied across the conical structure. At 0V, the surface is flat, but at 40V, the surface of the oil is highly convex.

There are several advantages to having a lens built like this; no moving parts so less to break and more rugged. Power consumption is very low; 10% of a motorised auto focus lens. It also has the potential to be made very small. Presently, the limit is a few millimetres, but research is on to shrink the lens further. Varioptics is developing the lens for use in endoscopy as well as camera phones. They have a non-exclusive deal with a Samsung-subsidiary to develop the lenses for camera phones and products will be on shelves by Q1 of 2006 or maybe even in time for Christmas 2005. The first product will be the auto focussing lens, but in a year's time Varioptics will have a true zoom capability, using two liquid lenses.

December 7, 2004 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 06, 2004

Scientists track footprints of thoughts

Australian scientists have discovered a way to track the electronic footpath of a single thought travelling through the human brain.

The discovery has implications for everything from education to planning the safest way to undertake brain surgery.

The latest developments in scanning techniques allow brain experts to track responses in the brain from particular movements and thoughts, in real time.

"If we ask them to read a sentence we can actually look at them processing a single sentence. In other words we can look at the footprint of a single thought," Professor Keith Thulborn, from Chicago's Centre for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, said.

The technique can be used to monitor how stroke patients are responding to rehabiltation and how well children are learning new concepts.

"This gives you great control over how to plan the intervention and how you can make it most advantageous to the subject to acheive their full potential as quickly as possible."

With this technology doctors can tell precisely what is happening during epileptic seizures.

"It can lead to ideas for new treatments and even the possibility of a surgical cure," Professor Graeme Jackson, from Melbourne's Brain Research Institite, said.

Researchers say the technique can be used to help surgeons map out which parts of the brain to avoid during operations.

"With functional MRI, we can see where their language is and we can see where their motor function is and if we are doing surgery, we can keep well away from that," Professor Jackson said.

So far the new scanning technique is only available in Victoria, but doctors believe it will be widely available within five years.

December 6, 2004 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 05, 2004

BBC: Painting the Weather

​​​​Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it, right? Well, some people paint it instead of just complaining about the wind and rain. The British Museum collected over 100 of the best weather paintings from around the U.K. for this dramatic online collection. Need some sun? Check out Van Gogh's bright yellow Sunflowers or James Thomas Linnell's peaceful Springtime. Looking for rain? Here's a sudden shower at Ohashi Bridge. Choose a theme such as extreme weather to get a different forecast. The museum director is waiting to act as your weatherman with his tour of the exhibit. Kids and wanna-be painters might enjoy making their own weather with the ready-to-color versions of some pictures. These artistic visions of weather quickly turn clouds into sun.

December 5, 2004 in Art | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 04, 2004

world's costliest Advertisement

This Advertisement for the new Honda Accord was shot in real time with no CGI involved in the sequence. It required 606 takes and cost $6 million to shoot.

December 4, 2004 in Info | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Game of the day

Game of the day: Reflex. Very addicting.

December 4, 2004 in Games | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 03, 2004

'Harvard Sucks'

Yale Students Perform Prank of the Century, Almost

In a rivalry that is 121st old, students at Yale University successfully pulled off the most impressive prank in the history of rival pranks.

The students (in a video you can view here and Listen to "Harvard Sucks" the song) faked being members of the "Harvard Pep Squad," passing out pieces of paper to the Harvard side of the stadium.

These Harvard fans were told that the pieces of paper would join together to spell "GO HARVARD." Little did they know, when held up at just the right moment, the pieces actually spelled "WE SUCK."

While this was not an original idea, it was still a great feat in and of itself. The prank was reminiscent of the Great Rose Bowl Hoax on January 2, 1961.

December 3, 2004 in Fun, Humor | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Anti-spam plan overwhelms sites

It seems the Lycos screensaver mentioned in today's Online (Inside IT news) is proving a bit too successful. BBC News reports that "monitoring firm Netcraft has analysed response times for three of the sites the screensaver targets and has found that the campaign is being too successful. Some sites are being knocked out by the anti-spam campaign Two of the sites being bombarded by data have been completely knocked offline. One other site has been responding to requests only intermittently as it struggles to cope with the traffic the screensaver is pointing its way."

December 3, 2004 in Reality | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 02, 2004

All You Can Read

Not suffering from enough information overload? AllYouCanRead.com has "26,500 Magazines and Newspapers from 200 Countries" listed on one site.

December 2, 2004 in Info, World News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 01, 2004

spam for a spam

Screensaver tackles spam websites

Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites

Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.

Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out.

The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data.

Cost curve

"We've never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do," said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe.

"In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users," he said, "but now we are going to go one step further."

"We've found a way to make it much higher cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers."

By getting thousands of people to download and use the screensaver, Lycos hopes to get spamming websites constantly running at almost full capacity.

continue reading...

December 1, 2004 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack