Beware of Rubik’s Cube-solving robots

Greetings.

Jewish date:  16 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Emor).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Hairstylist Appreciation Day, Queen’s Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “We want the DISCLOSE Act - A project of Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Patrick Leahy, and Senator Chuck Schumer” and action.firedoglake.com | Sign the petition to President Obama: End plans for offshore drilling“”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The mystery of the mega-selling floppy disk”:  Don’t look at me.  I can’t remember the last time I used my USB floppy disk drive.
  
• “New maps show how 1889 Russian flu rode the rails to circle the globe in months”

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is “Lego Robot Solves Bigger and Harder Rubik’s Cubes (video)”.  They now have robots made of Legos which can solve cubes as large as the V-Cube 6 (6 × 6 × 6).  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Do not beware of cow tippers

Greetings.

Jewish date:  15 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Emor).

Today’s quasi-holidays:   International Dance Day, Duke Ellington Day, Poem in Your Pocket Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Break Goldman Sachs' Republican filibuster”, “Save BioGems: Take Action: Protect Yellowstone's Wild Buffalo”, “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”, “Save Funding for Interstitial Cystitis - The Petition Site”, “Take Action: TrueMajority.org:  Stand Against Racism”, “Ask Eric Holder to block Arizona's racist law”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Stop Racial Profiling:  Tell Arizona's Governor that SB 1070 is wrong”, and “Don't let big banks gamble away our money! | Progressive Change Campaign Committee”.


Today’s news and commentary:

• “Underage, Overweight: The Federal Government Needs to Halt the Marketing of Unhealthy Foods to Kids”:  Protest all you want about freedom of choice.  We have a public health crisis and cannot afford to do nothing.
  
• “Ancient artifacts revealed as northern ice patches melt”
  
• “Extinction Countdown: Giant spitting worm not so giant--or prone to spitting--after all?”
  
• “One Person's Trash Is Another's Technology: Recycling or Donating Discarded Electronic Equipment Help Reduce E-Waste Pollution”
  
• “Do Chimpanzees Understand Death?”
• “Feathers developed differently in dinosaurs' life cycles than in those of modern birds”
  
• “Water Ice Found on the Surface of an Asteroid for the First Time: Scientific American”

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is cow tipping.  Apparently it is a lot more legend than reality, with it being physically impossible for a single human being to accomplish.  Two humans might be able to tip over a rigid cow, but since cows are not rigid, four would actually be necessary.  Someone even went to the trouble of creating a diagram with calculations of the physics relevant to tipping over a cow.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and rest assured that your cows are safe.

Aaron

Beware of pretty colors

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Emor).

Today’s quasi-holidays:   Hug an Australian Day, World Intellectual Property Day (UN), Shuffleboard Day, National Pretzel Day, Landscape Architecture Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Close the Gun Show Loophole - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “HDTV”:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  You know, this cartoon makes a good point.  For comparison, my computer’s screen has a resolution of 1,440 × 900, not much less than 1080p, which translates into a resolution of 1,920 × 1,080.
• “Facebook privacy changes: Five can't-miss facts”
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum:  Not actually news or commentary.  Project Gutenberg came out with a new edition with all the color pictures, which is cool enough to deserve mention.

Today’s weird thing is “Colours In Cultures”, which gives a handy diagram of what colors different cultures use to symbolize various ideas.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

How to stop the Machines when they try to take over

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Emor).

Today’s quasi-holidays:   Global Youth Service Day, ANZAC Day, World Malaria Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Reform Immigration For America | Racial profiling? Not in our America!”, “Tell Obama to Further Support Malaria Vaccine Research - Take Action Today @ The Hunger Site”, “Friends of the Earth U.S.:  Tell the Obama Administration to Reject a New Pipeline for the World's Dirtiest Oil”, “CARE:  Child Marriage:  A Promise of Poverty”, “Health Care for America NOW! | Demand Our $$ Spent on Health Care Not Profits”, “Take Action: TrueMajority.org:  WITH WALL STREET OR WITH US?”, “Stop senseless wolf killing in our country! - The Petition Site”, “Take Action | Earth Day Network”, “Take Action: Speak out for Sudan | Save Darfur”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: We need a criminal investigation of Wall Street”, “Tell Big Banks: Party's Over - The Petition Site”, and “Close the Loophole: Help Close the Gun Show Loophole. Keep Guns Out of the Hands of Criminals.”.  (My posting got put off due to working on a review of the Uplift Series, so there is a big backlog.)

 Today’s news and commentary:

• “It's a microbial world”
  
• “China's "robot dad" aims to show inventions to world”
  
• “Antioxidants may not be worth their salt in preventing cancer”
  
• “Join The T-Party. The Mr. T-Party”:  This is an interesting reaction to the modern Tea Party movement.
  
• “Why soldiers get a kick out of killing”
  
• “Britons believe the hills are alive with haggis”
  
• “Impacts of Climate Change Extend to Human Health”
  
• “Subliminal Cues Can Empty Wallets”
  
• “Record breaker: newest new Moon spotted!”
  
• “U.S. Food Still Tainted with Old Chemicals”
• “Public Health: Try the Prevent Defense”
• “The dangers of opponents of science-based medicine”
• “What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain?”
• “Brain-Training Products Useless in Study”

Image of Tetris thingamajigs via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is “First Video of Lego Robot Playing Tetris”.  So now instead of just humans being addicted to video games, robots are also now being subjected to wastes of time.  Intuition suggests this may be a way of defeating the Machines when they try to take over.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Strike back at EULAs with a seller license agreement!

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Aḥare Moth-Qedhoshim).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  World Book and Copyright Day, Laboratory Day, Global Youth Service Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “PETITION: NO "TOO BIG FOR JAIL" | Progressive Change Campaign Committee”, “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Keep the Internet open”, and “World Jewish Congress - Support for Israel”, and “Stop KFC From Destroying Our Forests - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Cows on Treadmills Produce Electricity for Farms”:  I really cannot come up with stuff like this.
  
• “Chemotherapy versus death from cancer”
  
• “Scientists measure atomic nudge”
  
• “Norovirus: Q&A”:  Submitted by someone worrying about these little monsters spreading around.
  
• “Wisconsin Legislators Approve State Microbe”
• “The User’s Manifesto: in defense of hacking, modding, and jailbreaking”
  
• “The Party of No Credibility”:  Interesting use of statistics as applied to politics and rumors.

That last article reminded your humble blogger of something he wrote a while back relevant to the topic of end user licensing agreements (EULAs) while in a state of annoyance.  As such, today’s weird thing, included below, is a draft of the opposite of a EULA:  a seller licensing agreement.  Note that your humble blogger is not a lawyer, so he cannot be sure it is actually legal.  Considering its draft status, suggestions for improvements, including ways of making it legal, would be appreciated.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

---

Image showing where the seller must walk around dressed in a chicken suit highlighted in red via Wikipedia

This is a seller license agreement.  The author of this agreement finds the end user license agreements used on-line and in software so dull and long that he suspects their purpose is to make the end user agree to things he/she would never agree to otherwise.  Therefore he deems them worthy of parody and downright sabotage.

This agreement overrides all end user license agreements, and unless another agreement is specially made in advance with the user, the seller agrees to follow it.  If you do not agree with any of its provisions, do not sell your product to this end user.  Complaining by the seller after the fact is not valid and carries a fine of ten times the what the user paid for the product, including shipping, handling, and taxes.  After all, it was your responsibility to read the seller license agreement, and you failed to do so.  Failure to pay up within three days means the seller agrees to dress in a chicken suit and walk around Peoria, Illinois for three hours straight during business hours while carrying a sign which reads “I DID NOT READ THE SELLER LICENSE AGREEMENT”.

All end user license agreements made by pressing a button are not valid.  All end user license agreements written in legal jargon are not valid.  All end user license agreements presented to the user in such a way as to make it annoying to read the entire agreement are not valid.  All end user license agreements designed in any way, shape, or form so that the end user will probably not read them are not valid.

The user has the right to complete fair use of the product.  He/she is entitled to copy it into any medium for his/her own personal use.  He/she is entitled to copy electronic versions off the Internet for his/her own personal use.  He/she is entitled to break any and all forms of copy protection on the product.  He/she is entitled to make however many backups he/she wishes in any form he/she wishes.

The user agrees to respect the copyright of the product.  The user will not claim a copyrighted product as his/her own, and he/she will not pirate the product.  If the user gives away or sells the product, he/she will erase all copies of the product from his/her hard drive and give to the new owner all the original disks and manuals.

Statistics of the Daleks

Greetings.

Jewish date:  5 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Aḥare Moth-Qedhoshim).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Hanging Out Day, Patriots’ Day (Massachusetts and Maine).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Continue Progress on the Human Rights Council - The Petition Site”.  (And I am fully aware that expecting most parts of the United Nations bureaucracy to do the right thing is like expecting to win the lottery.  But we still have to prod them anyway.)

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Mat of microbes the size of Greece discovered on seafloor”
  
• “JP Morgan Chase Lectures America on the Sanctity of Contracts”

Today’s weird thing is “Ages of Doctor Who actors on their debuts”, which goes to the trouble of using regression to document a trend of decreasing ages of the actors portraying the Doctor in Doctor Who.  While the trend is evident, I am puzzled why the R² of the regression line and confidence intervals for the regression parameters are not reported.  Is the author trying to hide statistical insignificance?  Is there some statistical error being hidden?  And is this all just a plot of the Daleks?  Enjoy, share the weirdness, or go talk to your local statistics teacher.

Aaron

Live long and smell nice???

Greetings.

Jewish date:  4 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Aḥare Moth-Qedhoshim).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Robotics Week, Look-Alike Day, International Jugglers Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Health Care for America NOW! | End unjust, sky-high premium increases”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “How Senator Vitter Battled the EPA Over Formaldehyde's Link to Cancer”
  
• “Microbial Life Found in Hydrocarbon Lake”
• “Cowboys, croquet, insurance in U.S. halls of fame”:  I cannot make something like this up.
  

Image possibly of the guilty parties via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is Star Trek Cologne & Perfume, which logic suggests was invented by someone with way too much time on their hands.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of winged toasters flying around outside

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath Thazria‘-Meṣora‘).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day, National Robotics Week, Metric Mitochondria Day (founded by me, 2010), Emancipation Day (Washington, DC).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Help Eliminate Measles Worldwide - Take Action Today @ The Child Health Site” and “Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) | Co-sign our open letter to Republican Leader Boehner”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Health insurers make big bucks from Big Macs”:  Oops.
  
• “Why We Haven’t Met Any Aliens”:  A novel, plausible solution to Fermi’s Paradox.
  
• “Earth-Like Planets May Abound in the Milky Way”
  
• “Homeopathy – Failing Randomized Controlled Trials Since 1835”
  
• “Genetic Engineering No Match for Evolution of Weed Resistance”
• “Hotel offers "cycle for your supper" deal”
  

Today’s weird thing is Winscape, which is essentially using computer screens hung on the wall to be able to pretend one is somewhere else.  This may have applications for people living in dull places or who just want to have winged toasters flying around outside.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of fake plants

Greetings.

Jewish date:  30 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Thazria‘-Meṣora‘).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Moment of Laughter Day, Don Quixote Day (invented by me, 2008).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Please Include the Temple Mount in the Heritage Plan - אנא הוסף את הר הבית לרשימת אתרי המורשת Petition”, “Support Universal Subtitles -- Allow Everyone to Watch Online Videos! - The Petition Site”, and “Tell Sen. Kerry: Don't sell out the Clean Air Act”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Caterpillars Evolve Ability to “Talk” to Intruders (Video)”
  
• “Backwards Alien Planets Challenge Theories”
  
• “Hey, Is That Me over There?”

Image of the wrong sort of Flip Flop via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is the Flip Flop Solar Plant.  Let me quote the description:

Mini Artificial Plant Wants to be Real

In a perfect world, plants would take care of themselves. They would fetch their own water and get their own food. And always, always, remember to ask you if you wanted anything while they were up. But alas, this isn’t a perfect world. So, we’ve done the only thing possible – found an artificial plant. The Flip Flop only needs light to survive – no batteries required. When it has enough light, its leaves will wiggle and bounce in an oddly organic way. You'll swear it was alive in an oddly 8-bit Mario style way... but alas it is not

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and wonder what the point of this is.

Aaron

Beware of indexing robots

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Thazira‘-Meṣora‘).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Blame Somebody Else Day, National Robotics Week, Jefferson’s Birthday.

Note:  In observance of Blame Somebody Else Day, I blame all the people that get complained about in the worthy causes of the day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: Obama's Supreme Court Pick”, “Equal Pay for Equal Work! - The Petition Site”, and “Take Action: TrueMajority.org:  Bring back the WPA!”

Image of the wrong robot via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is Gååglebot AJAX Controlled Roomba Robot For Indexing, a project which aims to have a modified robot vacuum-cleaner keep track of what stuff is lying around a house.  (Maybe this is an attempt to avoid tagging everything with RFID tags.)  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of oddly familiar situations

Greetings.

Jewish date:  28 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Thazria‘-Meṣora‘).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Licorice Day, National Robotics Week, Look Up At The Sky Day, Yuri’s Night.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Fight Climate Change From All Fronts - The Petition Site”, “Congress: Enact Fair, Ambitious and Comprehensive Climate Legislation Now - The Petition Site”, and “Take Action: Send Congress Your State's Invoice for Foodborne Illness.”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Protecting creativity: Copyright and wrong”
  
• “Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?”:  The title is an outright misuse of terminology.  Bribes are given before desired action is performed.  The article deals with rewarding children for doing well in school, in which case the children perform first and are paid afterwards.  Yes, we want children to learn for the sake of learning, but as correctly noted in this article, the world of adulthood does not work so idealistically; instead, we are rewarded for performance.  (Except in finance and government, which are not covered in this article.)
  
• “5 Axis Robot Carves Metal Like Butter (Video)”
  
• “Augmented reality puts the squeeze into virtual hugs”
  
• “Spectacular South African Skeletons Reveal New Species from Murky Period of Human Evolution”
• “What's in a name? Fly world is abuzz”
  
• “Costlier Cola Cuts Caloric Consumption”
  

Today’s weird thing is “this all seems a”:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Communist party hats

Greetings.

Jewish date:  25 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Cherish an Antique Day, Name Yourself Day.

Note:  I observance of Name Yourself Day, I note the name I plan to go by if I do move to Israel, as I am seriously considering now:  אַהֲרֹן שְׁלֹמֹה אֵדֶלְמָן.

A while back I came up with bizarre notion of a “communist party hat”, which would look something like this:

Little did I realize that other people, parsing the phrase differently, would come up with their own notion of what “communist party hats” were and even try to sell them.  Today’s weird things are Communist Party Hats.  Note that there are also the Democratic Party Hat, Green Party Hats, Libertarian Hats, Republican Party Hats, and (most recently) Tea Party Hats.

NOTE:  I note the existence of such headwear and find them curious, but I DO NOT take responsibility for their messages.  Many of the messages, in fact, display great ignorance (or denial) of what their creators’ opponents actually claim and do.

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of flakes

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  International Feng Shui Awareness Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “ColorOfChange.org:  Keep the Internet open” and “Save the Critically Endangered Mexican Gray Wolves - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “What The Top U.S. Companies Pay In Taxes”
  
• “Hostile volcanic lake teems with life”:  I really cannot make stuff like this up.
  
• “Animals That Live Without Oxygen”:  Ditto.
  
• “Fruits and Veggies Help Just a Little in Decreasing Cancer Risk”
• “District court overturns patents on breast cancer genes”:  Exactly why would anyone think it made any sense to allow patents on whatever exists naturally?
  
• “Geminoid F: Hiroshi Ishiguro Unveils New Smiling Female Android”
  
• “Who's Counting: Humpty Dumpty's Take on the News”
  

Today’s weird thing is “The Flake Equation”:

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and if you are confused by this joke, look up the Drake Equation.

Aaron

Beware of the metric system

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action (UN), National Repot your Plant Day, National Reading a Roadmap Day.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Find your favorite TV and movie fonts”
• “This Is What Happens When You Let an Amateur Run the Government: How Hollywood Is Ruining America”:  I can’t say I agree with everything in this article, but yeah, “being just like me” is not a good qualification for being an effective leader.
  

Today’s weird thing is “America’s Sacrifice: How the USA Saved Popular Culture by Avoiding the Metric System”, in which the author has gone to ridiculous lengths to convert popular culture references from imperial to metric measurements to show the results of metrification.  (I blame our politicians for us being stuck with a measurement system which is not only different from that used by the rest of the planet, but also markedly inferior.)  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and ḥagh sameaḥ.

Aaron

Beware of murderous cats

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 Nisan 5770.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.  (Great thinking on the part of whoever decided to put it during Pesaḥ, when ’Ashkenazim (such as me) cannot eat peanut butter!!!)

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Say no to off-shore drilling”, “Take Action: No legitimacy for Bashir | Save Darfur”, “action.firedoglake.com | Sign the petition to President Obama: Say NO to offshore drilling”, “Invest in America's Clean Energy Future: Join the Earth Day Revolution - The Petition Site”, “GOP hate intensifies” and Retire Ronald [McDonald].

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Tea Party - Top 10 Alternative Political Movements”
  
• CGOP Scandal, which keeps tabs on scandals by Republicans in office here in South Carolina.

Today’s weird thing is “AH GITZ DEH SHOVEL AN”:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Enjoy, share the weirdness, ḥagh sameaḥ, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of cats with buttered toast strapped to their backs

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  17 Nisan 5770.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  April Fool’s Day, International Dadaism Month.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell Congress to stand up to corporate influence”, “Stop the Hate Speech - The Petition Site”, and “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “war games”
  
• “Awash in Awareness: Knowing a Product's "Water Footprint" May Help Consumers Conserve H₂O”
  
• “Ferocious hot chili pepper to make nasty weapons”:  I cannot make something like this up, and this is not an April Fool’s Day joke.
• “Addicted to Fat: Overeating May Alter the Brain as Much as Hard Drugs”
  
• “Solar at Home: Are old houses doomed? The conflict between historic preservation and energy efficiency”
• “An Absence of Class in the G.O.P.”

Today’s weird thing, which I found this morning when searching for something else, is the buttered cat paradox.  In this paradox, the question is asked what would happen if a piece of buttered toast were strapped to the back of a cat and the combination dropped.  Murphy’s Law demands that a dropped piece of toast must hit the floor butter-side down, but nevertheless a dropped cat is supposed to land on its feet.  A variety of possible answers can be found at “Science Jokes:2. PHYSICS : 2.21 THE BUTTERED BREAD ON CAT PROBLEM”.  Note that since this is Pesaḥ/Passover, experimentally testing what happens violates the prohibition on ḥameṣ (leavened bread).  This experiment also arguably violates the prohibition on wasting food.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and think twice before trying this as a science project.

Aaron