6/20    http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/20/mit-solar-dish-holds-promise-for-low-cost-energy-production
        MIT STUDENTS RECREATE DEVICE FROM 4000 YEARS AGO
        THEY MUST BE GENIUSES
        \_ If you are referring to Archimedes' supposed defense of Syracuse,
           that was about 2200 years ago, not 4000 years ago. And most people
           think that the story is untrue (mythbusters ran a piece on it a few
           years ago).
           \_ MIT recreated the stunt right after that episode was aired.
              they did it using $1 mirrors.  So, Mythbusters proof on TV >
              actual demonstration?  You watch too much TV!
              http://tinyurl.com/yu7e5x
              \_ Actually I have never seen an eps. of mythbusters. Wikipedia
                 mentioned the eps. re Archimedes, which is how I knew about
                 it. In any event, I think it is still an open question if
                 this would work against a non-stationary target.
                 \_ You should.  It isn't good science but it is amusing.
           \_ What is the important thing about this dish? Clearly the basic
              idea of a concentrating dish is pretty ancient and the blurb
              didn't go into what is unique here.
              \_ "Another standout feature of the dish is its small size, and
                 furthermore, the material required to build it is relatively
                 inexpensive and accessible worldwide"
                 \_ Still not sounding very interesting to me, sorry.

6/20    6 ways mushrooms can save the world
        http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/258

6/19    Dumbest liberal evar!
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6CLxpFuSmA

6/20    Hinchey still thinks nationalization of refineries is a good idea, but
        doesn't think it's likely
        http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,369321,00.html
        \_ It's a stupid idea.  He should be shot.  Building more refineries
           and not having 8 zillion different blends for ego stroking reasons
           is a good idea.
        \_ I'm amazed the communists state it openly.  Last I checked there
           were property rights in this country.  Besides, the government
           doesn't do /anything/ well, I don't see why anyone would think
           they'd manage the energy industry better than the actual owners.
           \_ The government does lots of things well, you just don't
              appreciate them. The military kicks ass, public schools,
              especially at the post-secondary level (think UC) are good and
              Social Security is the greatest anti-poverty program ever
              created.
              \_ The government is "good at" huge expensive bureaucracies.
                 That doesn't mean those are really good things. While it's
                 tough to find a good alternative to the military given the
                 current situation in the world, I find your other examples
                 entirely unconvincing. For one thing, it does not compete
                 on a level playing field: we are forced to pay for it while
                 private alternatives have to earn your $'s. Considering the
                 money spent it does not do most things well. Greatest anti-
                 poverty program eh? Ok... how is it better than the Euro
                 socialist systems?
                 \_ SS administrative costs are 0.6%. Where else are going to
                    see costs that low? Part of that is precisely because of
                    the economies of scale. It also costs much less than
                    the European systems.

6/20    The future price of petrol is f***ing expensive!
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZlT4w2tZmg
        \_ So is the current price.

6/20    Since I'm sure the rest of you are as sick as I am of soda dinging
        about a reboot every hour for the next few days, I think I'll go
        ahead and set one for a little bit from now. Any objections? I'll
        check this at 14:00 PDT, then set a timer for 15:00 as long as nobody
        complains. -kimbrel
        \_ Excellent, thanks. -ausman

6/20    "About six months ago, they decided to put a hunch to the test.
        Janikowski merged his computer map of crime patterns with Betts's map
        of Section8 rentals. Where Janikowski saw a bunny rabbit, Betts saw a
        sideways horseshoe ...  Otherwise, the match was near-perfect. On the
        merged map, dense violent-crime areas are shaded dark blue, and
        Section8 addresses are represented by little red dots. All of the
        dark-blue areas are covered in little red dots, like bursts of gunfire.
        The rest of the city has almost no dots."
        http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/memphis-crime
        \_ The conclusion here is depressingly obvious.  If you take people
           who want to get out of the project out, they do well.  If you push
           out people who don't want to leave, they do poorly. Suprise!
           out people who don't want to leave, they do poorly. Surprise!
           \_ There's another inteteresting issue:  what do you do when your
              research points to results that are ugly, un-pc or unpopular?
              \_ You publish them.  Why is that interesting or an issue?
                 \_ Tell that to the global warming drones.
                    \_ That's right: global warming's a myth, and The Man is
                       preventing the truth from coming out. Also see:
                       Flat Earthers and the Lone Gunmen.
        \_ One interesting verified implication of this article is that
           the inner cities are becoming safer while some suburbs are starting
           to have more crime. I wonder if this is already accellerating the
           return of middle-class/affluent non-minorities to the inner cities.
           I think this is already happening in some cities (maybe Oakland and
           Chicago?)
           \_ What is a "non-minority"?
        \_ And therefore... what? The implication seems to be that Section 8
           leads directly to crime, and the not-so-subtle inference drawn
           therefrom seems to be that poor people are criminals. Cf. theories
           of moral turpitude in the Bowery circa the 19th century for more
           unsupported suppositions.
           \_ If we had less poverty, we would probably have less crime. This
              theory works in Northern Europe.

6/20    Australia fatter than US:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/64llss [gadling]
        \_ Woot!
        \_ Because someone else doing worse than you makes your own faults ok.
           How about making the world a better place instead of cheering when
           someone else sucks more?

6/19    I love this blog
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/548kv8 [photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com]