March 2008 Archives

Richie Sambora was arrested on a DUI charge in Laguna Beach, Calif., Tuesday night after he was pulled over with his girlfriend and 10-year-old daughter in the car.

The Bon Jovi guitarist was stopped around 10:52 p.m. after police said they spotted him weaving on the road, according Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jason Kravetz tells PEOPLE. Sambora was driving a Hummer and was with his girlfriend, daughter Ava (whose mother is ex-wife Heather Locklear) and another unidentified juvenile girl.

Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: everyday objects underpinned with clockwork.

Earth Hour For one hour tonight, turn off the lights and help conserve energy. Supporters of the plan say it is the equivalent of taking nearly 50,000 cars off the road for an hour. Critics say it's equivalent to taking 6 cars off the road for a year, and claim that media coverage of the effects is greatly exaggerated.

With revolutionary graphics, a classic score, and creative platforming gameplay, the Donkey Kong Country series was one of the most popular games for the SNES, outsold only by the packaged Super Mario World. After another decade, however, the games are considered among the most overrated of all time.

ABC3D is an elegant pop-up book featuring the letters of the alphabet. Plus: a flip book that generates a rainbow.

A man cut off his finger tip while working on a model plane. His brother, a medical research scientist, sent him a vial containing powdered pig bladder and told him to sprinkle on the severed finger tip. It grew back -- "flesh, blood, vessels and nail" -- in four weeks. Mmm Pigs, is there anything they cant do?

That powder is a substance made from pig bladders called extracellular matrix. It is a mix of protein and connective tissue surgeons often use to repair tendons and it holds some of the secrets behind the emerging new science of regenerative medicine.

"It tells the body, start that process of tissue regrowth," said Badylak.

Badlayk is one of the many scientists who now believe every tissue in the body has cells which are capable of regeneration. All scientists have to do is find enough of those cells and "direct" them to grow.

"Somehow the matrix summons the cells and tell them what to do," Badylak explained. "It helps instruct them in terms of where they need to go, how they need to differentiate - should I become a blood vessel, a nerve, a muscle cell or whatever."

Dressing a dog up as a person is I think not a very good thing. But when I do it, it's fine. illiam Wegman's Early Videos. Short Films. Trio/Metropolis/Guitar. Clips from his feature, The Hardly Boys.

Calpernia Addams is the star of the subversive new competitive dating show "Transamerican Love Story", this seems like an apropos moment to point to her hilarious how-not-to video about rude questions transgendered people are often asked. The video's a little long, but it's full of great material, and highly edumacational. Thumbs up. When you're done with that -- brace yourself, whore, you're about to get a stunning

"He nice, the Jesus. He make the good things, and on the Easter we be sad because somebody makes him dead today." Enjoy a little short story about cultural differences and Easter from David Sedaris.

Last of the Summer Wine and Porridge actor Brian Wilde has died aged 80.     Wilde played Foggy in the long-running comedy series Last of The Summer Wine and Barraclough in prison sitcom Porridge, alongside Ronnie Barker.

Lindsay Lohan has made it onto the small screen, the small screen allegedly being that of a naked Calum Best's mobile phone.

Reports claim that footage has been 'circling the internet' which shows someone who resembles Lohan performing oral sex on a man that is allegedly George Best's lothario son, Calum.

One website claims that Ms. Lohan is now 'freaking out because she can't remember it being filmed.'

I'd just like to say that I find this disgusting and horrible... if anybody has the clip please, let me know.. i'd like it for.. uh.. archive purposes...

A Marine Atlantic passenger ferry finally broke free of pack ice off Cape Breton on Thursday, after a Canadian coast guard icebreaker helped clear the way. It had been trapped in the ice since Tuesday, prompting at least one serious anxiety attack that resulted in a really dramatic air rescue.

Wow! The "peace" sign is fifty years old today. Here's a great article about its history and origins.

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey has died at the age of 90.

I didn't know until this morning that icebergs could be striped. However, apparently that's just one of many variations. Here's where to find some and learn more.

Etsy seller JesseDanger's $15,000 "Anax Imperator Machina" is a hand-made, precision clockwork dragonfly whose wings flap -- made from gold and silver.

Modeled after the largest modern species of dragonfly, this is a functioning creation whose wings flutter up and down when the very tip of the tail (really the abdomen, but tail sounds cooler) is turned. The inspiration for this complex mechanical insect originated from many of the fantasized gadgets of Leonardo da Vinci and other mechanical creations once thought futuristic in times long before our own. Inspired by these designs I set out to recreate nature using classical engineering and an elegant form. My intentions are to develop and continue making more of these mechanical insects.

The internal mechanisms, gears and moving parts were painstakingly hand-milled and hand-calibrated with absolute precision from 14k gold. The body, mechanical frame and wings were handcrafted from Argentium Silver, far superior to Sterling or fine silver. The body opens up to reveal the intricate inner movements, and fine details that just could not be left forever covered up! The eyes are each large 10 carat Swiss Blue Topaz cabochons and the 14k gold bezel on the tail contains a 4mm Amethyst bullet shaped cabochon.

I'm not sure what the exact definition of geek is, but I think "enjoys recharging batteries" has to be very high on that list.

ElfQuest for free...gradually. The complete ElfQuest comic oeuvre (about 6000 pages) is being released online in batches every friday. The first five issues (a complete 150 page arc in itself), along with some other EQ series's first issues, are already up.

Castles, shipwrecks, smuggling and mystical lands buried deep beneath the sea. Scilly's history is crammed full of amazing facts, folklore and fantasy.  

So, where does the name 'Scilly' come from? It is thought although uncertain, that the Vikings called the islands 'Syllorgar' and the Romans 'Sully' (meaning the sun islands). The 'c' was added to the name some time in the 16th Century.

My family's hometown of Winterton was orginally called "Scilly Cove" named after the islands, I think I'd like to visit there sometime.

Here's part of the Ningyo-Do Bunko database of late 19th/early 20th century watercolour sketches of Japanese toy designs. There are more than 100 albums all told.

Two historic photography collections from Sydney's Powerhouse Museum: The Tyrell Collection - glass plate negatives from the Sydney studios of Charles Kerry and Henry King from 1884-1917 depicting a local record of the times; and the Hedda Morrison Collection - photographs from China, 1933-1946. The collection also includes personal papers and objects, such as Chinese papercuts, belt toggles, and photos from a 1930s-era folk festival in Germany.

This Is 'Snus'. Snus is a form of smokeless tobacco with a very long history in Sweden. Snus is gaining a bit of popularity in America; both Camel and Marlboro are launching their own brand. It is touted as a more discreet way to use tobacco in the wake of increasing bans on smoking, especially bacause it does not require spitting. A few Swedish compaines, such as Northerner and BuySnus.com ship it worldwide affordably. The Anti-Tobacco crowd is already manning the trenches and claiming that Snus is as dangerous as any other tobacco. However, the science that has been done to date appears to reach a very different conclusion.

This Craftsman advertisement drives me wild. I wish I had this skeleton made from tools hanging in my house.

 

Hannah Poling is a nine year old girl with mild to moderate symptoms of autism, which developed three months after she received vaccinations. The Department of Health and Human Services announced that her family will receive a settlement from the vaccine compensation fund. Autism activists are encouraged, but the DHHS officials insist they are not admitting a link between autism and vaccines and maintain that for most, vaccines are safe. Rather, they say, the series of vaccines Hannah received exacerbated an underlying mitochondrial condition, causing the symptoms of autism.
Hannah had a mutation in a gene which controlled mitochondrial function. When she received the immunizations, the DHHS concluded, this mutation was aggravated, predisposed her to deficits in energy metabolism, and ultimately caused brain damage with "features of autism spectrum disorder".

For the nearly 5,000 autistic individuals and their families seeking compensation from the special fund, it is unclear whether Hannah's case represents an opportunity or not. The cases are reviewed by a special court None of the 950 claims the special fund has paid out since it was created by Congress in 1988 have been for autism. Officials insist that this case is no different from other claims paid out by the fund in the past.

The cases are before a special "vaccine court" that doles out cash from a fund Congress set up to pay people injured by vaccines and to protect makers from damages as a way to help ensure an adequate vaccine supply. The burden of proof is lighter than in a traditional court, and is based on a preponderance of evidence. Since the fund started in 1988, it has paid roughly 950 claims -- none for autism.

The document released by the DHHS focuses on the rare mitochondrial disorder. It does not raise the issue of the organomercury preservative Thimerosal used in many vaccines, which many autism activists believe has a link to autism. Instead, the document states that the "five vaccines the girl received on one day in 2000 aggravated her mitochondrial condition, predisposing her to metabolic problems that manifested as worsening brain function with features of autism spectrum disorder". DHHS officials claim that Hannah's is a unique case, and that the underlying condition she had is very rare.

Neurologist Jon Poling (MD/PhD), Hannah's father, who co-authored a paper in the Journal of Child Neurology on his daughter's case does not agree, saying: "I don't think Hannah's case is as unique as many experts believe." Some believe that autism could in fact be a mitochondrial disease. A study of 69 Portuguese children conducted in 2005 and published in the journal of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology found that five had mitochondrial abnormalities.

Interestingly, Dr. Poling says that he still supports giving vaccines to children. "Each treatment has a risk and a benefit," Dr. Poling says.

David Pogue of the NY Times visited a tech suppport center, and they gave him a CD with recordings of their favorite funny phone calls.

Caller: Hey, can you help me? My computer has locked up, and no matter how many times I type eleven, it won't unfreeze.

Agent: What do you mean, "type eleven?"

Caller: The message on my screen says, "Error Type 11!"

--

On one call, the caller seemed to be taking an inordinately long time to complete each instruction she was given.

Agent: Ma'am, I can't help noticing that every time I give you an instruction, it takes a really long time before you get back to me. Is your computer that slow?

Caller: Oh, no, it's just the stupid, stupid design of this computer. Every time I want to click something, I have to unplug the keyboard to plug in the mouse. And then every time I want to use the keyboard again, I have to unplug the mouse. Because there's only one jack.

Agent: Ma'am, you do realize that there's a jack on the keyboard itself? You're supposed to plug the mouse into the keyboard, and the keyboard into the computer.

Caller: Are YOU KIDDING ME!? Oh, wait a minute--yes, I see it now! Oh, holy cow. That's going to be so much easier!

Agent: Just out of curiosity, how long have you been using your computer that way?

Caller: Six weeks!

Click on the ad for the rest of the image.

MotionPortrait.com.. this is prob the best remapping apps I've seen in recent years.

Maid doesn't do Windows? no worries.

Lisa Congdon turned her scissor collection into a gorgeous mobile -- think of the incredible mental scars you could leave on your child by hanging this over her crib!

Neil Gaiman's got some good further ruminations on the nature and reason for free ebooks in a post he called "The nature of free." Bottom line: low-risk/low-cost books are how readers discover new authors, and the biggest threat writers face is the overall unpopularity of reading books, not people reading for free. The more barriers there are to reading, the worse the former gets.

During one of the interviews recently, a reporter said something like, "Of course, a real publisher wouldn't give away paper books," and I pointed out that 3,000 copies of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy were given away by Douglas Adams' publisher, with a 'write in and get your free book' ad in Rolling Stone. They wanted copies of HHGTTG on campuses in the US, and they wanted people to read it and tell other people. Word of mouth is still the best tool for selling books.

Also, a nice valentines meal... of sorts...



Damn, I love UK commercials...

Neil Gaiman's publisher Harper Collins has put his magnificent novel American Gods online for free reading as an experiment to see free digital copies sell print books.

This is a great idea -- it's really exciting to see publishers trying to get actual data about the market, rather than simply condemning all copying as piracy and hoping that the Internet just goes away.

However, I think that Harper Collins got this one wrong. They've put the text of American Gods up in a wrapper that loads pictures of the pages from the printed book, one page at a time, with no facility for offline reading. The whole thing runs incredibly slowly and is unbelievably painful to use. I think we can be pretty sure that no one will read this version instead of buying the printed book -- but that's only because practically no one is going to read this version, period.

The fact is that the full text of American Gods has been online for years, and can be located with a single Google query. I managed to buy/download the entire text of the book in less time than it took me to get the Harper Collins edition to load the first page of Chapter One (literally!). The "security" that Harper Collins has bought with its clunky, kudgey experiment is nonexistent: pirates will just go get the pirate edition.

Unfortunately, the "security" has also undermined the experiment's value as a tool for getting better intelligence about the market. This isn't going to cost Neil any sales, but it's also not going to buy him any. We take our books home and read them in a thousand ways, in whatever posture, room, and conditions we care to. No one chains our books to our desks and shows us a single page at a time. This experiment simulates a situation that's completely divorced from the reality of reading for pleasure. As an experiment, this will prove nothing about ebooks either way.

It's a terrible pity

Brief books are in style. "Fine, old-fashioned self-improving middlebrow literature."
Series mentioned:

*Penguin Lives (Penguin Group)
*Books That Changed the World (Grove/Atlantic)
*Eminent Lives (HarperCollins)
*Ackroyd's Brief Lives (Doubleday)
*The Canongate Myth Series (Canongate)
*The art of .. (Graywolf Press)
*Great Generals Series (Palgrave
*The American Presidents Series (Times Books)
*National Geographic Directions (National Geographic)
*Jewish Encounters (Next Books)
*Very Short Introductions (Oxford University Press)