37 » science http://blog.moopsfc.com/37 the continuing saga of your hero Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:20:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 just some links http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/05/25/just-some-links/ http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/05/25/just-some-links/#comments Thu, 25 May 2006 11:42:45 +0000 brodie bruce http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/05/25/just-some-links/ i really don’t like just posting a bunch of links, but oh well.

the internation fusion project (i.t.e.r.) is going forward. i really think this guy is wrong.

EU science and research commissioner Janez Potocnik said: “We represent more than half of the world’s population, and recognise that by working together today we stand a much better chance of tackling the challenges of tomorrow, so energy is an issue of concern for all of us.”

working together doesn’t get you there faster. if you really want to get somewhere, nothing’s better than a little international rivalry. think spacerace. they’ve already spent some amount of time just arguing over which country it would be built in.

you really  have to miss clint mathis. who will carry the torch this year?

i wonder if the pringles can in this commercial was cgi?

this is funny in a bad way.

yeah, i realize those are all from who ate all the bratwurst, but how would i know if you had already seen them?

btw, after a week or so, i would have to say that using a rss reader is indispensible. you can get through more sights quickly. then i have to sit there wondering what to do. highly recommended. of course, it makes it easier to notice how much overlap there is between tech sites.

]]> http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/05/25/just-some-links/feed/ 0 about last night… http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/05/06/about-last-night/ http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/05/06/about-last-night/#comments Sat, 06 May 2006 16:11:31 +0000 brodie bruce http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/05/06/about-last-night/ i went with loic (the frenchman flatmate), his co-worker yannis (swedish) and 2 of his swedish friends to some mediterranean restaurant last night. it was decent. it had a family run sort of feel. it was also apparently some girl’s birthday (turns out 3 girls) so the staff organized a singing of “happy birthday”. i wonder if they got performance rights clearance for that? of course, after singing, he turned on the music and coerced them to dance. the original girl even got up on her chair. she clearly didn’t have a problem with the situation. it was marginally entertaining. i should have taken my camera.

after eating, we went down to meet another of yannis’ swedish friends (some girl who has apparently just moved here.) and went to o’neill’s. it’s an irish chain pub. there was a decent amount of people in there even with it costing p4 to get in. that’s a little unusual since i haven’t seen any other pubs charging for entry. of course, this was more a bar than a pub since there was a dance floor and incredibly loud music (mostly older american pop crap). they did have a techo-remix of “hey baby” (the original was by bruce channel. . it’s interesting that none of the pages listing the lyrics for the “new” version reference the original author.)

yannis’ 2 swedish friends are in town to see covenant. a swedish electro-pop band apparently similar to kraftwerk. how can you not check out a band reviewed by a site called “vampire magazine”? surely it won’t be sold out on a sunday?
it wasn’t terribly exciting. the area around upper street in islington is fairly busy on the weekends. it’s also been good weather (i think the high over that past 2 days was 73f) the past couple of days so all the restaurants have the fronts open and seats outside. today it’s raining. hopefully, it will be a nice day tomorrow for the final premier league matches.

here’s 2 interesting links that were posted to slashdot.

improv everywhere at best buy. a bunch of people got similar looking clothes to the best buy employees and then filled the store. of course, the real best buy managers start freaking out.

babybot: a one armed robot that learns to interact with objects on the table in front of it. it does seem like the best way forward towards better robots would be simple systems that can learn. the advantage over a human is that once you’ve taught one, you can easily duplicate it.

i have setup liferea, a rss feed reader for linux. it seems like a better way to interact with the daily news sites and blogs. i know this isn’t anything earth shattering since these types of apps have been around for quite some time now. it’s really only good if they post the text of the articles in the feed. maybe this will actually lead to me reading joe’s blog more consistently. there’s obviously feed readers for other platforms, but i wouldn’t know.

i’m sure it’s bad form to slam a bunch of non-related things into a single blog post, but i really don’t care.

maybe i should take the opportunity of this gloomy day to fill in some of the tech posts i’ve been queueing. still haven’t sorted out where to stay in manchester. i did find this “helpful” site. it’s not looking good. maybe i should just go to liverpool and take a short train ride for the match. it probably would have been a good idea to find that site right after i got the ticket. oh well.

update: great, 25,000 celtic fans traveling to the match isn’t a good sign. i guess that’s why all the hotels seem to be booked. looks like it’s near by city or winging it and hope for some crap hotel that doesn’t do internet reservations.

]]> http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/05/06/about-last-night/feed/ 3 you have to ignore the extremists on both sides http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/26/you-have-to-ignore-the-extremists-on-both-sides/ http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/26/you-have-to-ignore-the-extremists-on-both-sides/#comments Wed, 26 Apr 2006 18:07:04 +0000 brodie bruce http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/26/you-have-to-ignore-the-extremists-on-both-sides/ someone sent this blog post to the london linux users group mailing list. it’s a bit frighteningly uninformed to say the least. i find the comment about his i.b.m. laptop a little strange since it was mostly likely built in china. unless, of course, it’s ancient. the site seems so generally crazy that you wonder if it’s really a democrat trying to make republicans look like a bunch of nationalist wackos.

they had another story about atheists that’s pretty funny too. the video with kirk cameron is ridiculously uninformed. a banana? really? are they just going to ignore every other fruit? i usually associate bananas with monkeys so i guess he’s really saying he believes in evolution.

on a lighter note, here’s a shakespearean insult generator.

]]> http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/26/you-have-to-ignore-the-extremists-on-both-sides/feed/ 4 statistical commuting http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/24/statistical-commuting/ http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/24/statistical-commuting/#comments Mon, 24 Apr 2006 01:49:54 +0000 brodie bruce http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/24/statistical-commuting/ some guy named brandon u. hansen has written an article on his statistical anaylisis of his daily commute. probably more information than most of you will want, but still interesting. you can at least get something out of the intro and conclusion.

i think i was way below the average. my “commute” was a 10-15 minute walk which, obviously, used no gas. i guess it could only be shorter if i only had to walk from the bedroom to the computer.

]]> http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/24/statistical-commuting/feed/ 3 inductrack, maglev: the next generation http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/16/inductrack-maglev-the-next-generation/ http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/16/inductrack-maglev-the-next-generation/#comments Sun, 16 Apr 2006 17:50:38 +0000 brodie bruce http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/16/inductrack-maglev-the-next-generation/ wikipedia has a good article on the various types of maglev trains in existance as well as a bit on inductrack. i’ve always found the two primary forms of maglev trains a bit disappointing in their requirements of electromagnets, superconductors and active tracks. the control systems are too complicated as well. all these cons are removed by inductrack which was originally created at lawrence livermore national laboratory by richard post. the prototype and future commercial implementations are currently underway by a company named general atomics. inductrack is also unique among maglev train designs in that it, according to some articles, could be retrofitted onto existing railways. the prototype was supposed to be finished in 2004 in san diego, but i haven’t found anything about more recent project status.

there is this skytran proposal for a personal transportation system, but no working prototypes or apparent implementation plans as far as i can tell.

now if only we could get vactrains.

]]> http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/16/inductrack-maglev-the-next-generation/feed/ 3 how to make charcoal http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/11/how-to-make-charcoal/ http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/11/how-to-make-charcoal/#comments Tue, 11 Apr 2006 21:08:10 +0000 brodie bruce http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/11/how-to-make-charcoal/ in “collapse”, they keep talking about using cutting down forests to make charcoal for various uses in many different civilizations. so i was curious how you actually make charcoal. i found a couple of links off google. the main part of this site was about making small pieces of charcoal for drawing, but also had this page on making it for home use. it was more interesting for parts near the bottom. this page from someone making their own charcoal for use in a forge seemed much better and less wasteful. i like how it reuses the gas (key components are surely the hydrogen, methane and nitrogen) to fuel the fire. almost like a nuclear chain reaction. it would be great to build one of these. maybe even a more compact, portable design. handy knowledge for when the revolution comes.

i also stumbled across this site on how to bar-b-que. seems like some useful information.

i was going to go to a nationwide conference game today (dagenham & redbridge v altrincham), but it was raining. i pretty much stayed in all day and read. rain sucks just as much as software. we can probably do just about as much to prevent it too.

]]> http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/11/how-to-make-charcoal/feed/ 0 you say you want an evolution… http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/06/you-say-you-want-an-evolution/ http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/06/you-say-you-want-an-evolution/#comments Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:30:26 +0000 brodie bruce http://blog.moopsfc.com/37/2006/04/06/you-say-you-want-an-evolution/ there was an article in the guardian today about a new fossil discovery related to the evolutionary path from fish to land animals. other than the scientific aspect, it was interesting that a cast of the fossils was now on display at the science museum in south kensington right here in london. i went down and checked it out. i took pictures since there were none included with the article. the first is the jaw and the other is the fin.

Tiktaalik roseae jawTiktaalik roseae fin

the museum itself is nice. not surprisingly, it has an extensive set of old stuff. they even had this football game from the 50’s with a nice sign. it doesn’t look like very much fun. does it? u.s.a.! u.s.a.!

master football gamemaster football game sign

whoops!

i forgot to mention this quote yesterday that was in the menu at the porter house (linux meeting).

“i drink to make other people interesting.”
- george jean nathan, 1881 – 1958, american writer

i guess i wasn’t drinking enough.

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