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

Why rubber bands are so important

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Make Up Your Own Holiday Day, Spinach Festival Day.

NOTE:  In observance of Make Up Your Own Holiday Day, I hereby declare the making up of Metric Mitochondria Day, celebrating those symbionts without which we could not exist.  The first Metric Mitochondria Day will be celebrated April 16, 2010, with subsequent celebrations every 100 days.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Repower America | We got next”, “Take Action: Send Congress Your State's Invoice for Foodborne Illness.”, and “MoveOn.org Political Action: Republican Leaders: Condemn the hate”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “A star buzzing through the outer solar system? Bring it on”:  In 1,500,000 years we may have a problem.
  
• “Government 'a Counting: Does the U.S. Census Need a 21st-Century Makeover?”
  
• “H1N1 shares key similar structures to 1918 flu, providing research avenues for better vaccines”
  
• “No Bones about It: Ancient DNA from Siberia Hints at Previously Unknown Human Relative”
• “Child Receives Trachea Organ Transplant Created With Own Stem Cells”:  I cannot make something like this up.
  

Today’s weird thing is “Suddenly, George understood what the”:

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of midnight knitters

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Houdini Day, World Tuberculosis Day, Ada Lovelace Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Take Action: No stolen elections in Sudan | Save Darfur” and “ColorOfChange.org:  Tell the GOP: Stop inciting and supporting hate”.

Questionably worthy cause of the day:  “A Ticket For Rush!”.  (Submitted by Barry.)  Apparently Rush Limbaugh said on the air that if health care reform passed, he would go to Costa Rica.  This site is trying to raise money for his ticket.  While I would not be saddened by Limbaugh leaving the United States, I do not wish to inflict him on another country.

Image of someone who is probably not the guilty party via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is Salty Knits, the Web-site of someone who in the middle of the night goes around a town in New Jersey and knits things on trees and stop signs and such.  (If you are going to do something wrong, at least do something creatively and intelligently wrong so that people will at least begrudgingly admire it.)  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and do not do this at home, at least if your neighbors do not have a sense of humor.

Aaron

WE ARE THE BORG. YOUR LEGOS WILL BE ASSIMILATED.

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  World Meteorological Day, Toast Day, American Diabetes Association Alert Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Protect the Flat-tailed Horned Lizard - The Petition Site”, “Health Insurance Reform: Finish the Job | Senator Harry Reid, Nevada - HarryReid.com”, and “Urge Congress to Increase Funding for Emergency Food Assistance - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Still seething over bailouts”:  There are some good ideas for how to handle bailouts in this article.  I particularly like the notion that executives should have to pay the company if they do a bad job.

Image of an alien craft determined to assimilate our Legos via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is the Brickshelf Gallery of Star Trek ships modeled in Legos.  Whoever created this has a lot more free time than probably most people.  The Borg cube is especially good.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Russian ASCII cats

Image which Zemata somehow thought was relevant via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  7 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Goof Off Day, World Water Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Get It Done”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Macro-Weirdness: "Quantum Microphone" Puts Naked-Eye Object in 2 Places at Once”

Today’s weird thing is “1968 ASCII Animation from Russia”.  I have no idea whatsoever why they made this.  Maybe they were just goofing off.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of armed arthropods

Greetings.

Jewish date:  6 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, World Poetry Day, Flower Day

Worthy cause of the day:  “Stop the Money Train to Washington - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Human ancestors walked comfortably upright 3.6 million years ago, new footprint study says”
  
• “Don't Top Off Your Gas Tank!”
  
• “Library book is returned -- 45 years late”
• “The Evolving Science and Guidelines of CPR”
  
• “Dismiss dinosaurs as failures...and pave a path to a bleak future”
  

Today’s weird thing is “When seafood”:

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and keep your cutlery away from lobsters.

Aaron

Beware of short Daleks

Greetings.

Jewish date:  4 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Wayyiqra’).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Poultry Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Save the Internet: Take Action!:  Stop the Great Internet Rip-Off”, “American Heart Association - Reinventing Healthcare:  Time to Act: Tell Your Representative to "Vote YES"”, “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.:  Tell your Senator NOW is the time to protect South Carolina kids”, and “Save BioGems: Take Action: Stop Pebble Mine”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Thin Wallets, Thick Waistlines: New USDA Effort Targets Link between Obesity and Food Stamps”

Today’s weird thing, which should be instantly understandable to all Doctor Who fans, is “BBC budget gets drastically slashed”.

Note that if things ever get this bad, they can always free up money by getting rid of their news division, which is a waste of money anyway, given its propensity towards publishing fiction about Israel.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of people with land lines connected to their pockets

Irrelevant image which Zemata suggested but which nevertheless is cool via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Wayyiqra’).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Submarine Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “DemocracyForAmerica.com » Speaker Pelosi: The Public Option is in your hands”, “Take Action: TrueMajority.org”, “Health Insurance Reform: Finish the Job | Senator Harry Reid, Nevada - HarryReid.com”, and “Union of Concerned Scientists:”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Vichada Crater”
  
• “Can Smiley Faces (and a 14-Step Program to Stop Overconsumption) Save the Global Climate?”
  
• “It's 2010 - finally my jet pack is here!”
  
• “Paying to pick seats loathsome, many passengers say”
• “Just the Facts”
  
• “Blind soldier uses tongue device to 'see'”
  

Today’s weird thing is the Retro Phone Handset.  Now instead of being one of those people who seems to be talking to no one, you can look like you have a land line connected to your pocket.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of linguistic change

Image which Zemata claimed was relevant just to drive me crazy via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Wayyaqhel-Fequdhe).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Middle Name Pride Day, Girl Scout Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Save BioGems: Take Action: Protect the Spirit Bear”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Arranged Marriages Can Be Real Love Connection”:  Despite the fact that to people in the 21st century USA this sounds very strange.
  
• “Chicken's split sex identity revealed”:  I cannot make up the fact that there are (rare) chickens which are half male and half female.  Given enough chances, all sorts of strange things are bound to happen.

Today’s weird thing is “Babel 2.0”, a fairly bizarre science-fiction story about linguistic change.  Somebody get me some of the technology described therein; there about a dozen or twenty languages which would make some sense for me to learn…  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of Windows 98 and Windows XP sounds

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Wayyaqhel-Fequdhe).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Day of Awesomeness, Learn What Your Name Means Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “action.firedoglake.com | Tell the Senate: Pass Direct Student Lending Now!” and “End International Violence Against Women - The Petition Site”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Wake up Call”
  
• “Scooting toward Oblivion”
• “Fastest Orbiting Stars Circle Each Other in Mere Minutes”
  

Today’s weird thing is “Windows 98 Jam”, a song composed entirely of Windows 98 and Windows XP sounds:

This may be the most awesome thing to ever come out of Windows.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of algebraic exegesis

Greetings.

Jewish date:  23 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Wayyaqhel-Fequdhe).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Unique Names Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Alliance for Justice:  Call for Investigation of Missing Torture Emails”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: Tell the party establishment to stay out”, and “CARE:  Voices Against Violence”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• Hebrew Spelling Service:  OK, this is not news or commentary, but still it should be useful for anyone doing anything with Hebrew on Mac OS X.
  
• “Another reason vitamin D is important: It gets T cells going”

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s weird thing is “Algebra in Wonderland”, which claims that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll parodies mathematical concepts which were new in Carroll’s day.  I have no idea whether the author is correct, but at least it makes for interesting reading if you understand something of mathematics.   Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of creatures leaving tracks in the snow

Greetings.

Jewish date:  21 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Wayyaqhel-Fequdhe).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Namesake Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Tell Obama: Let us fight for the public option.”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “NASA Uses Fish to Fight Space Sickness”
  
• “Methane Leaks off Siberian Coast, Speeding Climate Change”
• “A Welcome Upgrade to a Childhood Vaccine – PCV 13”:  Included is a reminder of what is so great about vaccination in the first place.
  

Today’s weird thing is “Snow Tracking”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Forward this post to 50 people or else

Greetings.

Jewish date:  19 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Bridge Players Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Join Us for the Food Safety Action Day on the Hill!”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Global Speeding”
  
• “Recycling Some Hospital Waste (Not the Really Gross Kind)”
  
• “Dinosaurlike creature spread in Triassic times”
• “Impact Factor: Can a Scientific Retraction Change Public Opinion?”
  
• “Weaponizing Mozart: How Britain is using classical music as a form of social control”
  
• “Soundless calling: The possibilities are endless”
  
• “Space and Numbers”
  
• “Heavy antimatter created in gold collisions”
  
• “"Extinct" Australian frog reappears 30 years after last sighting”
  

Today’s weird thing is “What happens to me when I don’t send out chain messages”:

(Was anyone expecting anything else?)  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of multicolored flowers

Image which Zemata thought was relevant for absolutely no apparent reason via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s quasi-holiday:  March Forth – Do Something Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell the FDA to Update Nutrition Label Info - The Petition Site”, “DemocracyForAmerica.com » Become a Citizen Co-Sponsor”, This is how we stop Blackwater for good.“”, and “Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) | Tell Democrats We Have Their Backs”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Waste Land: Does the Large Amount of Food Discarded in the U.S. Take a Toll on the Environment?”
  
• “Generation Gap”
• “Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth”
  
• “Galactic Lenses Confirm Universe's Age, Size”
  
• “Down the Hatch(ling): Nest-Raiding Snake Gulped Newborn Titanosaurs”
  
• “Engraved Ostrich Eggshell Fragments Reveal 60,000-Year-Old Graphic Design Tradition”
  
• “Do Stolen E-Mails Show Climate Science Malfeasance?”:  The answer is “no”.
  
• “Gut bacteria gene complement dwarfs human genome”
  

Today’s weird thing is “Rainbow Roses”.  These are not a breed, but rather specially treated flowers.  I had no idea they could work such an effect by injecting a plant with dyes.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Firefox crashing

Greetings.

Jewish date:  16 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, Read Across America Day, Old Stuff Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Help stop expanded logging in the Tongass”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Antidepressants: Do They 'Work' or Don't They?”:  It is not as simple as works verus does not work.
  
• “How slums can save the planet”
  
• “Cyber Bullying Intensifies as Climate Data Questioned”:  Note:  Making the lives of one’s opponents miserable has no effect on what is actually true.  Yes, that sounds mindbogglingly obvious, but some very rude people do not seem to know this.

Today’s weird thing is “Firefocks has Crashed”:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of the known universe

Image Zemata thought was relevant via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  15 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Surf and Turf Day, National Pig Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Strip insurers of their antitrust exemption”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Can greener gadgets save us from e-waste?”
  
• “McKibben on Why Climate Change Denial Is Like the O.J. Trial”
  
• “California Assembly passes resolution for Cuss Free Week”
  
• “Toyota and the price of modernity”:  Note:  Everything we do entails some level of risk.  The question is not whether anything is risky, but what level of risk we are willing to accept and what we can do to reduce the risk.
  
• “We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change”
• “Changing Climate, Changing Infections”
  
• “Are Pesticides from Plants Dangerous to Humans?”
  

Today’s weird cool thing is “The Known Universe Scientifically Rendered For All to See”, which gives some perspective on the size of things.  Enjoy and share the weirdness coolness.

Aaron