Smartphones (Android, G1, Shadow II) and Google Chrome
Now that I’ve been back from vacation for a few days, it’s time for a lengthy tech post. I will most likely get a new cell phone (and two-year plan) sometime between now and the end of October, probably through T-Mobile because their monthly plans are the least expensive. But what phone to choose? There […]
Free energy, HHO gas fuel and Michael Phelps
Screw hybrid cars and biofuels! I’m going to learn how to run my vehicle entirely on fuel that the vehicle itself creates! I’m making a pollution-free, perpetual motion machine! I’m defying the laws of physics! I can’t stop using exclamation points! Whee! Have you seen online ads that say: Tired of high gas prices? Want […]
Invisibility cloak, 400 freestyle relay, Homestar Ruiner
Invisibility cloaks are becoming reality, or at least progress is still being made. Scientists have created new metamaterials that can bend light the wrong way. CNN reports: “Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects.” Here are two articles: […]
Ice on Mars, Boston center of sports world
NASA’s trench-digging Phoenix lander revealed white ice beneath the surface soil of Mars a couple of days ago. Scientists say they are sure it is frozen water and not salt. Photos have been sent back from the Phoenix lander, which is situated atop Mars’s northern polar plain. Read more: “Lander Finds Ice on Mars, Scientists […]
Flavor tripping with miracle fruit (and Snuff)
Interested in flavor tripping? Try the miracle fruit. It’s a cranberry-sized West African berry (Synsepalum dulcificum) that numbs your sour and bitter tastebuds for a couple of hours after eating it, making certain foods taste weirdly sweet. Flavor-tripping parties are being held in New York City and San Francisco. The New York Times reports on […]
Linus Pauling postage stamp, Max Headroom, Al Gore?
On Thursday, March 6, Oregon State University celebrated its most internationally recognized alumnus, Linus Pauling, as one of four American Scientists being honored on U.S. postage stamps this year. At noon in the Memorial Union Ballroom there was a First Day of Sale celebration. A special commemorative postmark was designed for the occasion as well. […]
Happy Leap Year, Pop Minds, Will Ferrell
Happy Leap Year, everyone! Or perhaps that should be: Happy Birthday to all leaplings! We observe the modern leap year because Earth orbits the sun every 365.242 days, which evidently isn’t an easy number to work out on calendars. Seems to me that the way we count time is a rather sloppy system that’s been […]
The World Within a Sock, rickrolling, doomsday in 2012
Back from San Diego, there was a lot to catch up on from the past two weeks. To aid in my procrastination, a bunch of my favorite Flash cartoon sites released new stuff this month. This includes David Firth posting four short episodes of The World Within a Sock. The selection of cool desktop images […]
Queen wasp in a bottle = new cat toy
Today we found a wasp on the kitchen ceiling. Seems odd for Oregon in January. I captured it with an empty juice bottle easily. I originally thought it might be a paper wasp, because we recently had an open-comb wasp nest on the far side of the building. But this wasp was not slender and […]
Happy New Year: On dying consumer technologies
A few thoughts on dying consumer technologies for 2008: Copy-protected music is almost dead. The demise of copy-protection software has finally almost arrived. Warner is the third of the four major music corporations to move away from digital rights management (DRM) software. In large thanks to the influences of Amazon MP3 and Radiohead this year. […]