So, unless you’ve been formally trained in an EE course, I really recommend the Tangent Tutorials series of videos. Excellent work, Tangent!

RTFA: http://www.tangentsoft.net/elec/movies/

Tangent Tutorials
Getting Started Soldering

TT #1: Basic Soldering Equipment – My advice on the basic equipment necessary for DIY electronics work. 27 minutes.

TT #2: Basic Soldering Techniques – How to solder thru-hole components, plus basic advice for all sorts of soldering. 9 minutes.

TT #3: Surface Mount Soldering Techniques – How to solder surface-mount components using only basic DIYer equipment. Covers SO-8 chips and 2-lead parts in 1206 and larger size packages. 14 minutes.

This first video is “Hedgehog in the Fog”.

An award-winning animation feature by Yuri Norshtein. Winner of the following awards:
- Outstanding Film of the Year (London UK 1977)
- Winner of 2nd Prize (Sydney Australia 1978)
- Winner of 3rd Prize (Chicago USA 1977)
- Tokyo All time animation best 150 in Japan and Worldwide: Hedgehog in the Fog “№1 Animated film of all the time” (2003)

This animation is really excellent. Suddenly, I’m curious about Russian animation, and I find “Polygon”:

An animated film by Anatoly Petrov of 1978. An outstanding feature in term of realistic technique. It won the following prizes:
- Official Selection Oberhausen, Germany 1979
- First Prize Yerevan, USSR 1978

Ah – it becomes clear that these are both from the same production studio: Soyuzmultfilm. From Wikipedia:

Soyuzmultfilm (Russian: Coюзмультфильм, translated as Union Animation) is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union.

…and continuing:

The Studio was founded in 10 June 1936 under the name Soyuzdetmultfilm (Союздетмультфильм – abbr. from Union Children’s Animations). The name was changed to Soyuzmultfilm on 20 August 1937. Initially comprising only a few scattered workshops, Soyuzmultfilm grew quickly, soon becoming the Soviet Union’s premier animation studio. The studio produced exclusively traditional animation until 1954, when a “puppet division” was founded and the first stop motion-animated film released. The puppet division would later also make cutout-animated films.

During the Soviet era, the studio employed a maximum of over 700[1] skilled labourers and released an average of 20 films each year (the highest number was 47, in 1973).

The 60s, 70s and 80s saw the release of many films whose characters became an integral part of Soviet culture: Winnie-the-Pooh (Винни-Пух), Crocodile Gena (Крокодил Гена), Karlsson-on-the-Roof (Карлсон, который живёт на крыше), The Musicians of Bremen (Бременские музыканты), Three from Buttermilk Village (Трое из Простоквашино), Nu, pogodi! (Ну, погоди!), Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане), The Mystery of the Third Planet (Тайна третьей планеты) etc.

The variety of animation styles and the unprecedented degree of artistic freedom given to its many animators made Soyuzmultfilm perhaps the most diverse of the world’s major animation studios.

Soyuzmultfilm’s creativity was fueled in part by the unique conditions of the Soviet Union which made it possible for the studio to disregard the commercial appeal of its films. Because animators were paid by the Academy of Film regardless of how well or how poorly their products sold (though they were not, in fact, “sold”), they were free to pursue their artistic vision without giving a thought to finances.

Whoah!

You might be thinking, “so what!? I’m on the freaking moon as a freaking moon colonist, and I don’t care about some stupid Lunar Internet anyway.” But that’s just your inner Troll coming out in a particularly ironic way, because without the Lunar Internet, you will have no forums in which to Troll. So, obviously, you want the Lunar Internet if you’re a Moon Colonist, and obviously you’re going to care about ping times.

You might be thinking, “what’s a freaking ping time? When I became a moon colonist, they didn’t tell me about the ping times.” Of course they didn’t mention the ping times, because the uncomfortable truth is that they’re freaking slow. Let me explain.

On the stupid-fast Terrestrial Internet, the Internet is mostly connected by long-haul fiberoptics, which means your lame-ass racist forum-trolling gets blasted around the Earth via lasers and some copper wiring. Aside from routing overhead, most of this process happens at the speed of light, which is why you see ping times like this:

ping google.com
PING google.com (74.125.67.100): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 74.125.67.100: icmp_seq=0 ttl=54 time=41.112 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.67.100: icmp_seq=1 ttl=54 time=40.746 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.67.100: icmp_seq=2 ttl=54 time=40.468 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.67.100: icmp_seq=3 ttl=54 time=40.158 ms
^C
--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 40.158/40.621/41.112/0.352 ms

In other words, it took 40 milliseconds to get a packet to Google and back. Here’s the part where you throw up in your mouth: the Moon is about 1.2 light-seconds away, meaning round-trip ping times are going to be at least 2.4 seconds due simply to the speed of light (or apparent lack thereof). Let me be clear: 2.4 seconds is 2400ms, which is 60 times slower than the Terrestrial ping times I demonstrated.

As always, Wikipedia has something to say about this. This animation shows a gigantic killer laser being fired at the Moon. Take note: the killer laser beam travels at the speed of light.

Here comes the math. Light travels at 300,000 km/s. The moon is an average distance of 384,000 km from the Earth. Since velocity = distance / time, and we want to know how our ping times will be affected, we solve for time (in seconds).

300,000 km/s = 384,000 km / seconds;
seconds * 300,000 km/s = 384,000 km;
seconds = 384,000 km / 300,000 km/s;
seconds = 1.28 s

When I said round trip ping times would be 2.4 seconds, I was secretly reporting the best case scenario, which only happens when the moon is at its perigee (i.e. minimum distance to Earth). As you can see, in the average case, round trips are closer to 2.56s. Guess what happens when the moon is at its apogee? That’s right – it takes even longer!!!

So while you might enjoy Lunar life toiling in the ice mines (because that water isn’t going to excavate itself) you will certainly not enjoy the high-latency Lunar Internet. Keep in mind: all of the best content will be available from Earth for some time to come. Sure, you might find a few servers that are local to the Moon Colony, but they’re going to be lame like the 1990s Internet, with heavy use of the HTML blink tag and “under construction” icons.

…a moment of silence for those who were murdered…

The morning after (i.e. today, now) the Internet hive mind is piecing together the story behind this tragedy, and what we find is shockingly pathetic. The killer, George Sodini, put his crazed rantings online for all to read after his death, but this isn’t another instance of a society failing to hear these threats or to identify a cry for help. Instead, Sodini’s message was trivially encoded to be revealed only after he was dead.

Sodini’s sobfest probably started in the year 2000, when georgesodini.com was registered. The domain name is registered through August 1, 2010, meaning he had absolutely no expectation of his website being accessible more than a year after his horrible deed.

Browsing through his website, we find all the sophistication of a late-1990s web designer, complete with the revelation that the dude was using wordpad to edit his website. To the technically un-inclined, this is a sure-fire sign that Sodini was hardly a shooting star.

That said, it’s the site’s code comments, which are hidden from plain view, that are among the most interesting. The very first thing you see when inspecting http://georgesodini.com/ is the suggestion that a password-protected section of the website is available.

At the bottom of the page, we can get a little taste of Sodini’s vindictive and single-minded obsession with his love-jilted past. There is some reference to several images (which are no longer online) whose names are suggestive of an ex-girlfriend. There also appears to be a direct message to someone, suggesting Sodini was sharing these pictures.

In the middle of the home page, there is a cryptic section asking us to enter the date of Sodini’s birth and death, but this has been commented out (and is therefore inactive). Apparently, Sodini thought to move this to a separate section of the website, called “Life or Death,” which forms the magnum opus of this man’s trivial cipher.

When the date of Sodini’s death is entered, a “hidden” page is revealed. The direct link is http://georgesodini.com/20090804.htm – which has already been published on the Intarwebs as the blog of his murder plans.

This page is a rambling, ranting condemnation of his childhood experiences, complete with an uninterested father, domineering mother, and bully for a big brother. This would be understandable if it were coming from a 12-year-old on myspace, but the fact that it’s a 40-something tech dude at a lawfirm casts the rant in a whole other light.

The note contains all the signs of a deeply depressed individual, complete with willful self-perpetuation of the situation. Perhaps in an attempt to blame his troubles on society, Sodini closes his note with the following code comment, which is hidden from plain view:

Yes, if only that one woman had paid attention, blah, blah, blah.

Getting to the bottom of this, the one thing I can’t believe is how someone could so effectively defeat their own aspirations. It’s almost unreal that this guy talked himself into murdering a room full of totally innocent people. What’s crazier that he believed this would be a better course of action than simply taking steps to directly address his problem.

Let’s see… maybe try speed dating? I hear people get married on World of Warcraft all the time. There’s absolutely no ambiguity that the guy was aware of what he wanted (i.e. a meaningful relationship), but the total unwillingness to try to make it happen for himself is almost heroic in the pathetic extent of its tragedy.

Since we now know Sodini wouldn’t have killed anyone if he had just said “hi” to a few women, we know this is a truly sad situation, because innocent people were killed for what is literally no reason at all. If the guy at least had some convictions, then in an anti-hero sense, there might have at least been a Hollywood aspect to this case. Instead, all we are left with is a sad, shy coward, who did everything he could to ruin other lives just so he could avoid improving his own.

This is really, really sad. My heart goes out to those lives who are affected by this man’s actions. I wish this never happened.

Consider this fact, the first stimulus package has an interest rate of $100,000,000 per day

The blog is run by Credit Bureau Experts, which is a company that does credit repair.

I chose to post the fulltext of the entire resignation letter because it is so rife with grammatical errors that there is virtually no way it won’t be redacted and edited. The closing line is just priceless: In the words of General MacArthur said, “We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”

During this stream-of-consciousness, Palin sways violently from characterizing the United States as the “Outside” (spelled with a capital “O”) on the one hand, to proclaiming that her unique style of politics is just what the United States needs. While this will be interpreted by some as a precursor to her “inevitable” 2012 presidential bid, there is no mistaking the subtext: Palin is an Alaskan separatist who seeks secession from the Outside.

While it is true that quitting so long before the end of her term will spare her further exposure to the media (which she absolutely cannot withstand), this has to be one of the most shameful displays of leadership that any self-respecting representative could conjure up.

We all know that the electorate (A.K.A. the “unwashed masses”) are a fickle group who will have forgotten Palin after a few weeks’ time, so the most damnable part of this spectacle is that it probably would serve to provide a favorable position for Palin, compared to her ongoing humiliation as a public servant. The inescapable paradox lying within this strategy is that it would presumably be in anticipation of further public service, which would apparently be harmed by continuing to serve as Governor of Alaska.

Got that? In order to not harm her chances as a future public servant, she must quit her current position as a public servant in order to avoid fatally damaging her hypothetical presidential aspirations. We’re not talking about quitting on the school board, and we’re not talking about waiting out a difficult term in office. We’re talking about the Governor of Alaska — essentially on a whim — up and leaving office with nothing more than a few weeks notice.

…and she is announcing this in time for July 4th! Srsly, peeps: this isn’t a presidential bid. This reads more like a 4th grader’s stuttering, guilty, and evasive partial apology for getting caught in the act of cheating, then dropping out of school instead of studying for the next test. It’s shameful, but hardly unbelievable.

RTFA: http://www.gov.state.ak.us/exec-column.php

Hi Alaska, I appreciate speaking directly to you, the people I serve, as your Governor.

People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing’s more important to me than our beloved Alaska. Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.

I want Alaskans to grasp what can be in store for our state. We were purchased as a territory because a member of President Abe Lincoln’s cabinet, William Seward, providentially saw in this great land, vast riches, beauty, strategic placement on the globe, and opportunity. He boldly looked “North to the Future”. But he endured such ridicule and mocking for his vision for Alaska, remember the adversaries scoffed, calling this “Seward’s Folly”. Seward withstood such disdain as he chose the uncomfortable, unconventional, but right path to secure Alaska, so Alaska could help secure the United States.

People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing’s more important to me than our beloved Alaska.

Alaska’s mission – to contribute to America. We’re strategic in the world as the air crossroads of the world, as a gatekeeper of the continent. Bold visionaries knew this – Alaska would be part of America’s great destiny.

Our destiny to be reached by responsibly developing our natural resources. This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, and oil and gas. It’s energy! God gave us energy.

So to serve the state is a humbling responsibility, because I know in my soul that Alaska is of such import, for America’s security, in our very volatile world. And you know me by now, I promised even four years ago to show my independence… no more conventional “politics as usual”.

And we are doing well! My administration’s accomplishments speak for themselves. We work tirelessly for Alaskans.

We aggressively and responsibly develop our resources because they were created to be used to better our world… to help people… and we protect the environment and Alaskans (the resource owners) foremost with our policies.

Here’s some of the things we’ve done:

We created a petroleum integrity office to oversee safe development. We held the line for Alaskans on Point Thomson – and finally for the first time in decades – they’re drilling for oil and gas.

We have AGIA, the gasline project – a massive bi-partisan victory (the vote was 58 to 1!) – also succeeding as intended – protecting Alaskans as our clean natural gas will flow to energize us, and America, through a competitive, pro-private sector project. This is the largest private sector energy project, ever. This is energy independence.

And ACES – another bipartisan effort – is working as intended and industry is publicly acknowledging its success. Our new oil and gas “clear and equitable formula” is so Alaskans will no longer be taken advantage of. ACES incentivizes new exploration and development and jobs that were previously not going to happen with a monopolized North Slope oil basin.

We cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions; we ushered in bi-partisan Ethics Reform.

We also slowed the rate of government growth, we worked with the Legislature to save billions of dollars for the future, and I made no lobbyist friends with my hundreds of millions of dollars in budget vetoes… but living beyond our means today is irresponsible for tomorrow.

We took government out of the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands – where it should be.

We provided unprecedented support for education initiatives, and with the right leadership, finally filled long-vacant public safety positions. We built a sub-Cabinet on Climate Change and took heat from Outside special interests for our biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance.

We broke ground on the new prison.

And we made common sense conservative choices to eliminate personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, the junkets… the entourage.

And the Lt. Governor and I said “no” to our pay raises.

So much success in this first term – and with this success I am proud to take credit… for hiring the right people! Our goal was to achieve a gasline project, more fair oil and gas valuation, and ethics reform in four years. We did it in two. It’s because of the people… good public servants surrounding the Governor’s office, with servants’ hearts and astounding work ethic… they are Alaska’s success!

We are doing well! I wish you’d hear more from the media of your state’s progress and how we tackle Outside interests – daily – special interests that would stymie our state. Even those debt-ridden stimulus dollars that would force the heavy hand of federal government into our communities with an “all-knowing attitude” – I have taken the slings and arrows with that unpopular move to veto because I know being right is better than being popular. Some of those dollars would harm Alaska and harm America – I resisted those dollars because of the obscene national debt we’re forcing our children to pay, because of today’s Big Government spending; it’s immoral and doesn’t even make economic sense!

Another accomplishment – our Law Department protected states’ rights – two huge U.S. Supreme Court reversals came down against that liberal Ninth Circuit, deciding in our state’s favor over the last two weeks. We’re protectors of our Constitution – federalists protect states’ rights as mandated in 10th amendment.

But you don’t hear much of the good stuff in the press anymore, do you?

Some say things changed for me on August 29th last year – the day John McCain tapped me to be his running-mate – I say others changed.

Let me speak to that for a minute.

Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I’ve been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions.

Every one – all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We’ve won! But it hasn’t been cheap – the State has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond to “opposition research” – that’s money not going to fund teachers or troopers – or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the “politics of personal destruction” … Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn’t cost them a dime so they’re not going to stop draining public resources – spending other peoples’ money in their game.

It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with this instead of progressing our state now. I know I promised no more “politics as usual,” but this isn’t what anyone had in mind for Alaska.

If I have learned one thing: life is about choices!

And one chooses how to react to circumstances. You can choose to engage in things that tear down, or build up. I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose not to tear down and waste precious time; but to build up this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic, free people!

Life is too short to compromise time and resources… it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: “Sit down and shut up”, but that’s the worthless, easy path; that’s a quitter’s way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and “go with the flow”.

Nah, only dead fish “go with the flow”.

No. Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time… to build up.

And there is such a need to build up and fight for our state and our country. I choose to fight for it! And I’ll work hard for others who still believe in free enterprise and smaller government; strong national security for our country and support for our troops; energy independence; and for those who will protect freedom and equality and life… I’ll work for and campaign for those proud to be American, and those who are inspired by our ideals and won’t deride them.

I will support others who seek to serve, in or out of office, for the right reasons, and I don’t care what party they’re in or no party at all. Inside Alaska – or Outside Alaska.

But I won’t do it from the Governor’s desk.

I’ve never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title to do this – to make a difference… to help people. So I choose, for my State and my family, more “freedom” to progress, all the way around… so that Alaska may progress… I will not seek re-election as Governor.

And so as I thought about this announcement that I wouldn’t run for re-election and what it means for Alaska, I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks… travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade – as so many politicians do. And then I thought – that’s what’s wrong – many just accept that lame duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck, and “milk it”. I’m not putting Alaska through that – I promised efficiencies and effectiveness! That’s not how I am wired. I am not wired to operate under the same old “politics as usual.” I promised that four years ago – and I meant it.

It’s not what is best for Alaska.

I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is unconventional and not so comfortable.

With this announcement that I am not seeking re-election… I’ve determined it’s best to transfer the authority of governor to Lieutenant Governor Parnell; and I am willing to do so, so that this administration – with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future – can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success.

My choice is to take a stand and effect change – not hit our heads against the wall and watch valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars, go down the drain in this new environment. Rather, we know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time, on another scale, and actually make a difference for our priorities – and so we will, for Alaskans and for Americans.

Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me – sports… basketball. I use it because you’re naïve if you don’t see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can win. And I’m doing that – keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities – smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it’s time to pass the ball – for victory.

I have given my reasons candidly and truthfully… and my last day won’t be for another few weeks so the transition will be very smooth. In fact, we will look to swear Sean in – in Fairbanks at the conclusion of our Governor’s picnics.

I do not want to disappoint anyone with my decision; all I can ask is that you trust me with this decision – but it’s no more “politics as usual”.

Some Alaskans don’t mind wasting public dollars and state time. I do. I cannot stand here as your Governor and allow millions upon millions of our dollars go to waste just so I can hold the title of Governor. And my children won’t allow it either.

Some will question the timing. Let’s just say, this decision has been in the works for awhile…

In fact, this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life – my children (where the count was unanimous… well, in response to asking: “Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children’s future from outside the Governor’s office?” It was four “yes’s” and one “hell yeah!” The “hell yeah” sealed it – and someday I’ll talk about the details of that… I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.) Um, by the way, sure wish folks could ever, ever understand that we all could learn so much from someone like Trig – I know he needs me, but I need him even more… what a child can offer to set priorities right – that time is precious… the world needs more “Trigs”, not fewer.

My decision was also fortified during this most recent trip to Kosovo and Landstuhl, to visit our wounded soldiers overseas, those who sacrifice themselves in war for our freedom and security… we can ALL learn from our selfless Troops… they’re bold, they don’t give up, they take a stand and know that life is short so they choose to not waste time. They choose to be productive and to serve something greater than self… and to build up their families, their states, our country. These Troops and their important missions – those are truly the worthy causes in this world and should be the public priority with time and resources and not this local / superficial wasteful political bloodsport.

May we all learn from them!

*((Gotta put First Things First))*

First things first: as Governor, I love my job and I love Alaska. It hurts to make this choice but I am doing what’s best for Alaska. I’ve explained why… though I think of the saying on my parents’ refrigerator that says “Don’t explain: your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe you anyway.”

But I have given my reasons… no more “politics as usual” and I am taking my fight for what’s right – for Alaska – in a new direction.

Now, despite this, I don’t want any Alaskan dissuaded from entering politics after seeing this real “climate change” that began in August… no, we need hardworking, average Americans fighting for what’s right! And I will support you because we need you and you can effect change, and I can too on the outside.

We need those who will respect our Constitution where government’s supposed to serve from the bottom up, not move toward this top down big government take-over… but rather, will be protectors of individual rights – who also have enough common sense to acknowledge when conditions have drastically changed and are willing to call an audible and pass the ball when it’s time so the team can win! And that is what I’m doing!

Remember Alaska… America is now, more than ever, looking North to the Future. It’ll be good. So God bless you, and from me and my family – to all Alaska – you have my heart.

And we will be in the capable hands of our Lieutenant Governor, Sean Parnell. And Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will assume the role of Lieutenant Governor. And it is my promise to you that I will always be standing by, ready to assist. We have a good, positive agenda for Alaska.

In the words of General MacArthur said, “We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”

If I may quote from the amendments to the US Constitution:

“Amendment I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Regarding that last part – the part about assembly and petition? That’s terrorism. See, the reason you can’t protest anymore is that if you do, you’re an enemy of the state, and you’re not protected by the constitution if you’re not really a citizen. Isn’t that a clever way of getting around the constitution?

What? You have a problem with that? Well you certainly can’t protest about it. You want to disappear to Cuba and get tortured? I didn’t think so, citizen.

RTFA: http://open.salon.com/blog/dennis_loo/2009/06/14/d…

The Department of Defense is training all of its personnel in its current Antiterrorism and Force Protection Annual Refresher Training Course that political protest is “low-level terrorism.”

The Training introduction reads as follows:

“Anti-terrorism (AT) and Force Protection (FP) are two facets of the Department of Defense (DoD) Mission Assurance Program. It is DoD policy, as found in DoDI 2000.16, that the DoD Components and the DoD elements and personnel shall be protected from terrorist acts through a high pirority, comprehensive, AT program. The DoD’s AT program shall be all encompassing using an integrated systems approach.”

The first question of the Terrorism Threat Factors, “Knowledge Check 1″ section reads as follows:

Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorism activity?

Select the correct answer and then click Check Your Answer.

O Attacking the Pentagon

O IEDs

O Hate crimes against racial groups

O Protests

***

The “correct” answer is Protests.

My contribution: @petehoekstra I got a little sunburned today. Now I know what Chernobyl must have been like.

I think the term for this is “LMAO-schadenfreude.”

RTFA: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/twitter…

Earlier today, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) put up this astonishing post on Twitter, likening the oppression of the Iranian people to the plight of House Republicans:

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

In the hours since, the Twitter community has responded — with massive heckling. Here’s just a small sample of some of the best ones:

ArjunJaikumar @petehoekstra i spilled some lukewarm coffee on myself just now, which is somewhat analogous to being boiled in oil

chrisbaskind @petehoekstra My neighbor stopped me to talk today. Now I know what it is like to be questioned by the Basij!

UPDATE: what have we here? Oh! Pete Hoekstra is now a meme.

How is it, then, that it’s hilarious? I don’t know, but there you have it. Violence can be funny, if Jim Henson is behind it somehow.

RTFA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ky7g1lgTwc&eurl=ht…

From Super Punch:

In 1957, Jim Henson was approached by a Washington, D.C. coffee company to produce ads for Wilkins Coffee. The local stations only had ten seconds for station identification, so the commercials had to be lightning-fast — essentially, eight seconds for the commercial pitch and a two-second shot of the product.

From 1957 to 1961, Henson made 179 commercials for Wilkins Coffee and other Wilkins products, including Community Coffee and Wilkins Tea. The ads were so successful and well-liked that they sparked a series of remakes for companies in other local markets throughout the 1960s.

I am amazed by this film; it has it all. The technique is out of this world, the humor is extremely dark, and the story is great. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll watch it at the source. If you are too lazy for your own good, then watch it right here:

Whatever you do, be sure to watch.

RTFA: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227121.500…

If every Windows user had downloaded the security patch Microsoft supplied, all would have been well. Not all home users regularly do so, however, and large companies often take weeks to install a patch. That provides windows of opportunity for criminals.

No one knows the identity of Conficker’s “patient zero” computer, or precisely when it was infected. It was probably a machine that the hackers already controlled. Once installed, the software set to work, surreptitiously scanning the internet for other vulnerable machines to send itself to.

The new worm soon ran into a listening device, a “network telescope”, housed by the San Diego Supercomputing Center at the University of California. The telescope is a collection of millions of dummy internet addresses, all of which route to a single computer. It is a useful monitor of the online underground: because there is no reason for legitimate users to reach out to these addresses, mostly only suspicious software is likely to get in touch.

The telescope’s logs show the worm spreading in a flash flood. For most of 20 November, about 3000 infected computers attempted to infiltrate the telescope’s vulnerable ports every hour – only slightly above the background noise generated by older malicious code still at large. At 6 pm, the number began to rise. By 9 am the following day, it was 115,000 an hour. Conficker was already out of control.

A Kansas State University geography PhD student, Tom Vought, created density maps of the seven deadly sins across the US. The operationalizations of some of these constructs are unquestionably up for debate, but this is a totally fun demo to play around with, anyway. Interesting how the Bible Belt seems to be most deeply entrenched in sinful behavior … if asked for a retort, I bet they would point out that the seven deadly sins is a catholic concept, anyway.

The first article linked below describes the project, including the statistics that were used to index each of the 7 deadly sins. The second link goes straight to interactive maps of the US for each of the seven deadly sins. Classic!

RTFA: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/mar/26/one-na…

The question of evil and where it lurks has been largely ignored by the scientific community, which is why a recently released study titled “The Spatial Distribution of the Seven Deadly Sins Within Nevada” is groundbreaking: Never before has a state’s fall from grace been so precisely graphed and plotted.

Geographers from Kansas State University have used certain statistical measurements to quantify Nevada’s sins and come up with a county-by-county map purporting to show various degrees of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride in the Silver State. By culling statistics from nationwide databanks of things like sexually transmitted disease infection rates (lust) or killings per capita (wrath), the researchers came up with a sin index. This is a precision party trick – rigorous mapping of ridiculous data.

Interactive Graph for the US:

RTFA: http://www.lasvegassun.com/photos/galleries/2009/mar…

“Many units in the SI system are defined relative to the kilogram so its stability is important. After the International Prototype Kilogram had been found to vary in mass over time, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (known also by its French-language initials CIPM) recommended in 2005 that the kilogram be redefined in terms of a fundamental constant of nature.”

I’ve been thinking of what fundamental constants of nature could be used for weight/mass (yes I know weight has a very specific scientific meaning relating to gravity, relax). Then it occurred to me that perhaps using Einstein’s famous formula E=MC2 that energy could be used as a means for standardization.

I began researching and came across a very interesting “movement” called the Joule Standard: http://www.kajul.org/EnergyBlogEN.php?Art=5

The idea is to convert all energy measurements into the base Joule. For example, instead of measuring and buying oil based on barrels, why not measure it based on Joules? It seems extremely logical to me, but we’ll see if it takes hold. Anyway, does anyone have suggestions for a different way of determining the standard measurement of a kilogram that is more reliable than a manufactured product sitting in a vault?

RTFA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbU_Po4sfnw

‘New world order is emerging’ 2:13 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says a new era of international cooperation has resolved.

RTFA: http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2008/09/15/TheSi…

even with having a seat at the table in defining HTML 5 and being a significant sponsor of the second most popular Web browser, Google still did not have a direct way to push the evolution of the Web directly to users. They were still dependent on the pace of innovation of incumbent browser vendors or figuring out how to distribute a browser plug-in by convincing companies like MySpace to take a dependency on it. This was clearly an uphill battle. Thus creating their own Web browser was inevitable.

So why is this significant? It isn’t because “Google Chrome is going to replace Windows” or some other such silliness. As it stands now, Google Chrome is a Windows based application whose most interesting features exist in other browsers. A Web browser cannot replace an operating system any more than an automobile can replace an Interstate highway. The significant end user innovation in Google Chrome is that it is bundled with Google Gears. This means that Google Chrome has a mechanism for delivering richer experiences to end users out of the box. Google can now use this as a carrot and a stick approach to convincing browser vendors to do what it wants. Google can make its sites work better together with Chrome + Gears (e.g. YouTube Uploader using Gears) which could lead to lost browser market share for competing browser vendors if this becomes a widespread practice among Google’s offerings. Even if Google never does this, the implied threat is now out there.

Chrome will likely force Google’s competitors to up their game with regards to adopting newer Web standards and features just to stay competitive. This is similar to what Google did with online mapping and Web mail, and what the Opera browser has been doing by pioneering features like “pr0n mode” and tabbed browsing. So even if Google loses because Chrome doesn’t get massively popular, Google still wins because the user experience for browsing the Web has been improved.

RTFA: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/03/16/tech…

Model of the Newly Discovered Hesperonychus Elizabethae

It had razor sharp claws and its teeth may have been the terror of Alberta 75 million years ago – among animals smaller than a squirrel, that is.

The kitten-sized predator identified by paleontologists at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta is the smallest carnivorous dinosaur ever found in North America. The next smallest meat-eating dinosaur ever found on the continent was about the size of a wolf.

“Until we found this animal, basically we had no evidence for any small carnivores being present in North America,” said University of Calgary researcher Nicholas Longrich, in a video released by the university on Monday.

Longrich and the University of Alberta’s Philip Currie have written an article describing the velociraptor-like dinosaur, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The tiny, bird-like predator ran on two legs and was about half the size of a housecat, weighing less than two kilograms, and standing about as tall as an average wastebasket. It likely hunted near the ground in marshes and forests for insects, small mammals, amphibians and “maybe even baby dinosaurs,” Longrich said.

The researchers have given the dinosaur the scientific name Hesperonychus Elizabethae.

Hesperonychus means “western claw” and Elizabethae is a tribute to the late Elizabeth (Betsy) Nicholls, the well-known Alberta paleontologist and former curator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller who originally unearthed the bones.

So, let it be known: median income data suggests you probably won’t earn $1 million extra just by going to college, and paying off the debt is no walk in the park, either…

The actual site has a better version of this graph, but it shows the cumulative lifetime earning difference… and guess what? the little wedge at the top is the “extra.” Booo!!!

RTFA: http://studentloanbubble.com/2009/03/13/the-lifeti…

Next, Student Loan Bubble presents cumulative earnings, and these results might surprise you. By the time workers are 64, college grads will have earned $1,991,574 while high school grads will have earned $1,258,998. These are median figures, which means that 50% of workers will earn less than these amounts. The difference in median lifetime earning is $732,576, which is less than 75% of the fabled $1,000,000.

RTFA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qPYb2lqi84

A video from the reunion show at Hampton Coliseum. This one is of First Tube in its entirety. What an amazing show. Unbelievable setlist from a well practiced band. For all of you who were not there, this is a taste of what went down inside the mothership on 03/06/09. More videos to follow.