A Wednesday Miscellany
For some reason Ive been on a things-in-space-with-cool-pictures kick this week, so why stop now? Heres a picture of the aurora australis, as seen from Antarctica: 
Thats one of two images from a post at Canadian hard-SF author Peter Watts blog. Read the post for a higher resolution version, another picture, and a very disturbing mental image. Of course there are even better vantage points for seeing the aurora australis. Consider this image: 
That ones from the NASA Earth Observatory site images from the IMAGE satellite, from shortly before it stopped working.. They have a movie as well, and its a bit freaky in that it reminds me of those lightning balls I had in my bedroom back in the day. 
Every time I think I am ridiculously elitist and egotistical in my conception of the masses I see an article on results of polling people for common knowledge, and I fear. This weeks example, at MSNBC/Newsweek, has a ridiculous number of frightening statistics in it. Here are some examples: Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, as many as four in 10 Americans (41 percent) still believe Saddam Hussein?s regime was directly involved in financing, planning or carrying out the terrorist attacks on 9/11, even though no evidence has surfaced to support a connection. Less than half (42 percent) of the public was aware that Iraq only existed as an independent nation since 19203 Roughly half (53 percent) are aware that Judaism is an older religion than both Christianity and Islam (41 percent aren?t sure). - This boggles my mind. You can see other examples and the full results at the link. Apparently at least one person feels that the BBC is too hard on Americans. (I am sure this is unrelated to the last item). While I dont buy into most of the argument, I thought this part was interesting: The international shimmy from anti-Bush sentiments to blanket anti-American sentiments has been widely noted, especially since the President was elected a second time and so, say critics, the refusal of the nation to bow to experience means not just they have only themselves to blame but that we, by extension, may play the blame game too. Ive seen a lot of that myself, but havent seen it expressed so concisely before. The comments on the piece are also interesting (at least the ones that reach beyond knee-jerk reactions are). Hey, I didnt know they were making a movie of Steven Goulds Jumper. I remember really liking that book at the time , although I havent read the sequel yetits in the To Be Read pile. Jumper was one of the books that presaged the current YA flood. Of course the movie version has Hayden Christensen, so it will most likely suck even if the adaptation beat the odds and turned out decently. Ill ZipList it though, just to see. 
Speaking of books, the new Matt Hughes book is coming out soon. Ive mentioned Hughes here before, but if none of that has convinced you yet, let me quote a little bit from Rick Kleffels review of the new book: I mentioned the prose, right? Incredibly witty and funny, it rolls trippingly through your mind as you read it. But given that the prose is so tremendously funny and gorgeously, ornately well-written, how do the ideas, plots and characters fare? Well, theyre all mind-bogglingly able to keep up with Hughes prose. Now, look, from the get-go you?re going to have be OK with some really weird settings, characters and concepts. This is not simply some TV detective franchise in spaceship drag. Hughes offers us a complex vision of magic and science, of reason and wonder separated at birth and in close competition. You?re going to encounter all manner of sorcerers and mad scientists, monsters and men in here. Rest assured that conceptually it all hangs together. But be certain as well that getting to the point is going to be more fun than you can possibly imagine. Hughes website also has some background info, but hasnt been updated with information on the new novel yet. You know, back before I knew anything about girls.()Was it really 15 years ago? Wow, I am old.()
Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:19:38 EDT
Corey and Joel Radio Show #133: TV Party>
Your Podscope hits are at 31:28 and 31:36
For probably the first time, there’s really only one topic today - TV. Not that the show hasn’t been TV heavy in the past, but now it’s like Rosie O’Donnell heavy with TV. In fact, it’s so morbidly obese and filled with nerdy references to shows and characters from TV’s past we recommend that you open Wikipedia and try to follow along. We learn that Corey can remember intricate plot details about Colombo from 35 years ago and that Joel feels the Three’s Company’s writers were lazy by reinventing Dean Travers as Mr. Angelino. Also discussion of Blossom, My Two Dads, Hogan’s Heroes, American Inventor, Flight of the Conchords and tons more. When should Corey delete some of this old info from his brain and make room for current stuff? You decide. Listen and laugh - this is a good one.
Right click here to download - 77 minutes, 36 megs
Wed, 8 Aug 2007 04:29:27 -0400
Ferrari adds XM Radio, NavTraffic to 612 Scaglietti
Autoblog: Filed under: Audio , Etc. , Ferrari The satellite radio option is about as common in new cars as the near-omnipresent AUX jack for portable music devices. You can argue that the presence of the latter essentially eliminates the need for the former, but some people like being able to tune in to …
MICRODYNE SATELLITE/TV RECEIVER 1100-FFC BROADCAST - $25.00
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Dell to add some Zing to its lineup - news.com.com
All Gadget: Dell said it would be doing some interesting things this year, and lo, it has: the company announced Monday it will purchase Zing Systems, maker of streaming audio technology.
Zing currently licenses its technology to SanDisk, for the Sansa Connect, and Sirius, for its Stiletto 100 product. Privately …
posted by Administrator at 7:47 am
& filed under Sirius |
