Sunday, September 12, 2004
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Coming Soon! - Latest News
Coming Soon! - Latest News: "
MARK HAMILL TALKS STAR WARS EPISODES 7, 8, & 9
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Thursday, September 09, 2004
Elevator 2010 Challenge
Elevator 2010 Challenge: "In the coming months, Elevator:2010 will announce a Space Elevator challenge of unprecedented scope.
The challenge will require exceeding by far the state-of-the-art in technologies such as tether strength, beamed power transfer, and electric motors, to build what will truly be the first major step towards the Space Elevator
Stay tuned for details..."
Naked Came The Stranger
Naked Came The Stranger: "Newsday columnist Mike McGrady was convinced that standards of literary and artistic taste were plummeting rapidly in the United States, driven down by a relentless flood of media sensationalism that catered to the lowest common denominator. So he decided to design an experiment to test the depths of the American cultural morass. He would commission the writing of a novel lacking in any redeeming features: no plot or character development, no social insight, and definitely no verbal skill. It would possess only one feature that could possibly hold a reader's attention: lots of kinky sex scenes."
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Princess Blogonoke
Princess Blogonoke: "Tita Ding Ding's Lecheplan
Required items:
8 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk
1 can condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
a strainer
a double boiler or large steamer (with metal containers small enough to fit inside the steamer)
1/2 cup caramelized sugar syrup or 1/2 cup dark Karo syrup
Caramelize the sugar first, because that will take a while. Here's a recipe that contains instructions for caramelizing sugar (because I haven't been successful in my attempts to attain sweet golden perfection.)
Place the syrup in a layer in the bottom of the containers or the top half of the double boiler. If the double boiler is the kind with holes in the bottom, place tin foil around the inside so the syrup doesn't leak out. Place the containers or double boiler in the refrigerator to cool.
Place ingredients in a bowl and mix with a whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into the containers or the top part of the double boiler through a strainer to get all the little eggy bits out.
Cover the containers or double boiler with tin foil. Place the containers in their respective places, cover, and steam for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cool, then flip the molds unto a plate. Be careful, because the syrup might spill all over the counter. If it does, start licking the counter, because it's really good. Grab forks and enjoy the rich, eggy goodness with impunity.
So that's it, Really simple, huh? I usually save this recipe for special occasions, because if I made it all the time, I'd be fat and full of cholesterol.
# posted by Princess Blogonoke : 3:19 AM"
Winning Argument
Winning Argument: "Elections come and go but arguments are forever: Nominate Winning Argument in the Washingtonpost.com's best political blog competition as the blog 'Most Likely To Last Beyond Election Day.'"
Dangling Participle
Dangling Participle: "A Personal Journal of the Evolution of the Design of the Space Elevator (or Bridge)"
pratings of a no-life
pratings of a no-life: "pratings of a no-life
when you might as well, but really shouldn't...when you didn't have to, but did...when you must, but can't.."
Gone South
Gone South: "Life on the Mississippi, Lucifer's little acre, and Lucy, the blogging adolescent parrot"
Science Blog
Science Blog: "According to a new report, complex cells like those in the human body probably resulted from the fusion of genomes from an ancient bacterium and a simpler microbe, Archaea, best known for its ability to withstand extreme temperatures and hostile environments. The finding provides strong evidence that complex cells arose from combinations of simpler organisms in a symbiotic effort to survive. Scientists refer to both bacteria and Archaea as ''prokaryotes''--a cell type that has no distinct nucleus to contain the genetic material, DNA, and few other specialized components. More-complex cells, known as ''eukaryotes,'' contain a well-defined nucleus as well as compartmentalized ''organelles'' that carry out metabolism and transport molecules throughout the cell."
SCIENCE BLOG CENTRAL
SCIENCE BLOG CENTRAL: "Start your own science blog
Posted by bjs on 30 June, 2004 - 12:13
For two years, Science Blog has reported on what we think is important in the world of science. Now it's your turn to mouth off. As part of several new offerings, Science Blog is providing free blog hosting to science-minded individuals. The goal is to create a well of insights on everything from energy and the environment to computers and chemistry. It's free, easy and a fun way to get more involved with the global science community. To get started, create a new account over on the left, and away you go!"
Science Blog - 'Flying' nanotubes are strong and hard
Science Blog - 'Flying' nanotubes are strong and hard: "Diamonds are the hardest known substance. Carbon nanotubes are the strongest. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory tried to combine the best of both worlds by creating a composite nanostructure. They wanted to grow tiny carbon tubes with tiny diamonds. But the results were not as expected. Instead, the experiment altered the surface area of the nanotubes, creating wing-like extensions. Even though the result wasn't what the experimenters were looking for, these modified surfaces may push nanotubes further into the world of practical and applied materials and systems. It also provides insight into how to synthesize an emerging class of material called ''nanocarbons,'' which consist of different allotropes -- the same elements with different molecular structures -- of carbon combined at the nanoscale to yield new materials with unique properties."
NASA Gravity Probe B Mission Ready To Test Einstein's Theory
NASA Gravity Probe B Mission Ready To Test Einstein's Theory: "Gravity Probe B, a NASA spacecraft to test two predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, achieved a major milestone last week with the completion of the first phase of its mission and the transition into the science phase. The GP-B mission is now one step closer to shedding new light on the fundamental properties of our universe."
Genesis capsule crashes in US, damage "extensive": NASA
Genesis capsule crashes in US, damage "extensive": NASA: "NASA's Genesis capsule slammed into the Utah desert Wednesday after its parachutes failed, leaving scientists unsure if they could retrieve the bits of solar dust captured on its three-year mission."
The Space Elevator Comes Closer to Reality
The Space Elevator Comes Closer to Reality: "Forget the roar of rocketry and those bone jarring liftoffs, the elevator would be a smooth 62,000-mile (100,000-kilometer) ride up a long cable. Payloads can shimmy up the Earth-to-space cable, experiencing no large launch forces, slowly climbing from one atmosphere to a vacuum."
USATODAY.com - Tiny CubeSats carry potential for huge payoffs
USATODAY.com - Tiny CubeSats carry potential for huge payoffs: "In addition to overseas launches, CubeSat builders are looking to develop the capability of boosting their satellites within the United States. A campaign is in progress with all major launch providers to assess possibilities for the future."
Home
Welcome to NewMP3Technology!:Below, you will find a full list of our products. To insure compatiblity, you may select your model Jukebox from the left menu, and you will find a full list of products which will be compatible with your model."
CueCat Mirror List
CueCat Mirror List: "The CueCat is a barcode scanner passed out with subscriptions to Forbes magazine and the Radio Shack catalog. The idea is that consumers will install the CueCat software and use the scanner to scan in the bar code associated with certain advertisements. Once the bar code is scanned into the computer, the software will direct the user's browser to the product's web page.
Essentially, this is a way of giving the user of the CueCat immediate and up-to-date information on a product the user is interested in. If I am, say, interested in Radio Shack's televisions, I can scan in the bar code associated with the television I am interested in and be immediately directed to that product's web page. Voluntary, targeted marketing: the CueCat is the retailer's dream device.
There is a hidden side to the CueCat however. With every scan of a bar code, the CueCat gives out a unique serial number. When you receive a CueCat at Radio Shack, or from Forbes for that matter, this serial number can be associated with your name, address, phone number, or whatever else Forbes or Radio Shack happens to know about you. This information could be used in other, involuntary marketing campaigns. You could get junk mail or spam from television companies, for instance. The CueCat could not only direct you to the product you are interested in, it could be used for involuntary data mining. "
CueCat Mirror List
CueCat Mirror List: "Please mirror this page. Please. Your rights that are under attack, stand up or loose 'em. The right to express yourself in code (footnote 1: decss ruling). The right to reverse engineer. The right to distribute other's coded expression (footnote 2: decss ruling, linking). The right to fair use of copyrighted material (footnote 3: vis-a-vie the microcode inside the cuecat. See also the _complete_ control over use, and hence the removal of the right to fair use, given to the copyright holder by the digital millennium copyright act through the act's prohibition of decryption.) By participating you are exercising and strengthening these rights, and, incidentally, standing against false advertising."
CueCat Resources
CueCat Resources: "This page was created when Digital Convergence began issuing Cease & Desist Orders to existing websites dedicated to similar efforts as an attempt to mirror existing material and as a future distribution point for the software I'm working toward.
Digital Convergence is free to send me one of their letters, but unless they specify exactly HOW I'm infringing their IP rights it will only be kept as a trophy, and scanned to include in this section."
WSJ.com - So Your Roomba Vacuums ... Does It Also Take Pictures?
WSJ.com - So Your Roomba Vacuums ... Does It Also Take Pictures?: "Sometimes tinkering can make money. Shortly after the MuVo2, a portable music player made by Creative Labs Inc., hit the market for $199 earlier this year, hackers discovered that its core was a miniature disk drive with massive four-gigabyte storage capacity that Hitachi Ltd. was selling separately to digital-camera users and others for $499. Soon, disk drives stripped out of the MuVo were showing up on eBay for around $250. The empty players -- which could be refitted with standard memory chips -- fetch $35 or so."
RollingStone.com
RollingStone.com: "Should George W. Bush win this election, it will give him the distinction of being the first occupant of the White House to have survived naming Dick Cheney to a post in his administration. The Cheney jinx first manifested itself at the presidential level back in 1969, when Richard Nixon appointed him to his first job in the executive branch. It surfaced again in 1975, when Gerald Ford made Cheney his chief of staff and then -- with Cheney's help -- lost the 1976 election. George H.W. Bush, having named Cheney secretary of defense, was defeated for re-election in 1992. The ever-canny Ronald Reagan was the only Republican president since Eisenhower who managed to serve two full terms. He is also the only one not to have appointed Dick Cheney to office.
This pattern of misplaced confidence in Cheney, followed by disastrous results, runs throughout his life -- from his days as a dropout at Yale to the geopolitical chaos he has helped create in Baghdad. Once you get to know his history, the cycle becomes clear: First, Cheney impresses someone rich or powerful, who causes unearned wealth and power to be conferred on him. Then, when things go wrong, he blames others and moves on to a new situation even more advantageous to himself."
Over at Defense, competent intelligence professionals were purged in order to ease the way to war. Douglas Feith, brought in under Rumsfeld to serve as undersecretary of defense for policy, applied an ideological test to his staff: He didn't want competence; he wanted fervor. Col. Pat Lang, a Middle East expert who served under five presidents, Republican and Democratic, in key posts in military intelligence, recalls being considered for a job at the Pentagon. During the job interview, Feith scanned Lang's impressive resume. "I see you speak Arabic," Feith said. When Lang nodded, Feith said, "Too bad," and dismissed him.
The Flapper
The Flapper: "As far as I know, this is the only paper airplane that flaps its wings when it flies.
No motor, no rubberbands. Just a piece of typing paper, a penny and an inch of tape."
KnowledgePlex: Article: Huge Transit-Oriented Development Planned for Austin, Texas
KnowledgePlex: Article: Huge Transit-Oriented Development Planned for Austin, Texas: "LEANDER -- How do you take 2,300 acres of empty Texas plain and grow a nearly $2 billion, pedestrian-friendly residential and commercial utopia?
City leaders say they've found the answer in transit-oriented development and are planning a mixed-use, high-density commercial and residential project around a railhead in northeastern Leander. If a planned Capital Metro commuter rail referendum passes in November, the railhead will become the start of a commuter rail line connecting Leander to downtown Austin.
The project, ultimately expected to have more than 8,000 homes and 30,000 people, will turn a fallow field into a bustling mini-metropolis. Considering that Leander has only about 12,000 residents now, the project will transform part of Williamson County and turn a poster child for sprawl into the northern rim of the New Urbanism trend settling over Central Texas."
nbc5i.com - News - TEA May Lose Out On Federal Funding
nbc5i.com - News - TEA May Lose Out On Federal Funding: "AUSTIN, Texas -- The U.S. Department of Education may withhold as much as $7 million dollars from President George W. Bush's home state.
Federal officials say the Texas Education Agency has failed to tell parents whether schools performed up to standards under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Parents won't be able to request transfers to move their children from poorly performing schools until the information is released, and the funding may be withheld until then.
State education officials said they may not have final results until February.
A TEA official said the school report cards were delayed because federal education officials did not approve the state's plan for assessing progress until the end of July.
Much of the state's plan was scrapped because it didn't meet the law's requirements.
Under Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, schools must demonstrate year-to-year progress. Students at schools that miss performance benchmarks two years in a row are eligible to transfer to a different school.
"
CACTUS, TEXAS
CACTUS, TEXAS: "CACTUS, TEXAS. Cactus is on U.S. Highway 287 near Etter and thirteen miles north of Dumas in northern Moore County. It began as a company town to produce ammunition for World War II. The Cactus Ordnance Works, one of the largest plants in the county, was established there as a government project by the Chemical Construction Company in May 1942. About sixteen sections of land were purchased; the cactus and other prickly plants were cleared, and huge dormitories were hastily erected to house construction workers. After its completion in 1943, the plant began production of ammonium nitrate to be used in explosives. Housing was built for the plant employees, who at one time numbered 6,000, and many of whom lived in trailer houses. With the easing of the emergency after several months, officials of the Chemical Construction Company received orders to close the plant. Operations were suspended, and some of the residential structures were sold as surplus before the Shell Union Oil and Gas Corporation assumed control of the plant in early 1944 and began manufacturing aviation gasoline. This arrangement lasted until August 1946, when the Emergency Export Corporation took over and reconverted the plant to the production of ammonia. This company continued production until August 15, 1948, when Phillips Chemical, a division of Phillips Petroleum Company, assumed management. Phillips had erected another plant near the ordnance works in 1943. The Cactus post office was established in 1948, by which time the local population had decreased to 2,000. In the early 1980s Cactus had a population of 898 and fifteen businesses, including a large beef-packing plant. In 1990 the community's population was 1,529.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. D. Minor, The History of Moore County, Stressing Education (M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1949). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).
H. Allen Anderson
Recommended citation:
'CACTUS, TX.' The Handbook of Texas Online.
"
Page Title
Page Title: "The Magnet Web site is dedicated to the 'Magnet' publication. Home to Billy Bunter and Greyfriars School."
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Beyond3D - Which was nice.
Beyond3D - Which was nice.: "NVIDIA announced the new NV43 based GeForce 6600 and 6600 GT graphics boards nearly a month ago now. NV43 is a native PCI Express chip that's designed to bring the features and capabilities of the high end NV40 (6800) to the mainstream market. In the mainstream market segment, while performance is a key element, so too is cost, hence NVIDIA are saying their aim for retail pricing of 6600 GT is $199."
Common Good: faq
Common Good: faq: "What is Common Good?
Common Good is a bipartisan coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to American law. Our Advisory Board is a virtual who's who of leading Americans from across the political spectrum. Common Good grew out of the work of our founder and Chair, Philip K. Howard, the author of The Death of Common Sense and The Collapse of the Common Good. We are a 501(c)(3) public charity and rely entirely on contributions for support."
Common Good: The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn
Common Good: The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn: "CG board member Diane Ravitch's new book, The Language Police, describes a world gone mad in search of fairness and avoiding bad feelings. Her riveting expose describes the bizarre and often scary world of educational censorship. The 'sensible principle of removing racist and sexist language' has turned into an 'effort to delete whatever might annoy or offend the most agitated imaginations.' Merle Rubin of the Los Angeles Times asks:
What do dinosaurs, mountains, deserts, brave boys, shy girls, men fixing roofs, women baking cookies, elderly people in wheelchairs, athletic African Americans, God, heathens, witches, owls, birthday cake and religious fanatics all have in common? Trick question?
No, all verboten.
Bias and sensitivity guidelines routinely used by educational publishers, test development companies, the states, and scholarly and professional associations 'combine left-wing political correctness and right-wing fundamentalism, a strange stew of discordant influences,' explains Ravitch."
Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters
Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that mattersSlashdot's Politics subsection.
The Underground History of American Education - John Taylor Gatto
The Underground History of American Education - John Taylor Gatto
"The true purpose of schooling, according to Gatto, is to produce an easily manageable workforce to serve employers in a mass-production economy. Actual education is a secondary and even counterproductive result since educated people tend to be more difficult to control." -- Slashdot.
Huge magnet pulls world toward a new source of energy - MIT News Office
Huge magnet pulls world toward a new source of energy - MIT News Office: "A 150-ton magnet developed in part by MIT engineers is pulling the world closer to nuclear fusion as a potential source of energy.
Over the last three years 'we've shown that we can design a magnet of this size and complexity and make it work,' said Joseph V. Minervini, a senior research engineer at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center and the Department of Nuclear Engineering."
Elizabeth A. Thomson, News Office
September 25, 2002
• Key Players in the Plame Affair
