29.4.05

Bid Now!

Fifty Pounds of Scissors confiscated by the National Transportation Security Administration.

- via Robot Wisdom

28.4.05

Train Tracks
Train Tracks,
originally uploaded by xid0r.
Villainy

The dastardly Zane makes his appearance on flickr.

27.4.05

Coincidence?

David Schwimmer is an actor who played a paleontologist in the TV show "Friends"

David R. Schwimmer IS a paleontologist at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia.

22.4.05

Baishawan reflection
Baishawan reflection,
originally uploaded by Self-D.
Baishawan

Some poorly-built pod houses in Taiwan that didn't survive the first typhoon. Called "Ghost Houses" by the locals, they are currently decaying and Self-D is documenting the process. Fascinating place.

18.4.05

Papal Names Unlikely to be Reused

Agapetus (535-36, 946-55)
Lando (913-14)
Formosus (891-96)
Sisinnius (708)
Conon (686-87)
Agatho (678-81)
Deusdetit (615-18, 672-76)
Hormisdas (514-23)
Simplicius (468-83)
Hilarius (461-68)
Dionysius (259-68)
Fabian (236-50)
Zephyrinus (199-217)
Telesphorus (125-138)
Cletus (76-88)

-source: Wikipedia:List of popes

15.4.05

And that's a Bad Thing?

"I blame Congress over the last 50 to 100 years for not standing up and taking its responsibility given to it by the Constitution. The reason the judiciary has been able to impose a separation of church and state that's nowhere in the Constitution is that Congress didn't stop them. The reason we had judicial review is because Congress didn't stop them. The reason we had a right to privacy is because Congress didn't stop them. "

- from an interview with Tom DeLay in The Washington Times. (emphasis mine)

14.4.05

Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi, Agathidium rumsfeldi

Not a demon-summoning chant, but a trio of newly-named mold-eating beetle species which are grouped under the heading of "Rove Beetles."

Life on Earth:
Eukaryotes:
Opisthokonts:
Animals:
Bilateria:
Ecdysozoa:
Arthropoda:
Hexapoda:
Insecta:
Pterygota:
Neoptera:
Endopterygota:
Coleoptera:
Polyphaga:
Staphyliniformia:
Staphylinoidea (A.K.A. "Rove Beetles") (Latreille 1802):
Leiodidae (Fleming 1821):
Leiodinae (Fleming 1821):
Agathidinii (Westwood 1838):
Agathidium:
(bushi, cheneyi, rumsfeldi)

- news item from BBC News.
- biological classification from Tree of Life

13.4.05

préparation explosion citron

préparation explosion citron
préparation explosion citron,
originally uploaded by no man's land.


This image leads to a small set of photographs of the preparation and aftermath of exploding pieces of fruit.

12.4.05

Unfolded Origami

boat paper equlized
boat paper equlized,
originally uploaded by lexly87.


Flickr makes it tantalizingly easy to blog pictures. So I think I'll start doing that. Here's a good one.

11.4.05

Take an Ego Trip without Leaving your own Land

"By clearing forest so that a pattern would be visible to landing aircraft, a landowner outside Austin, Texas, created a target that is also useful for evaluating spatial resolution of astronaut photographs. The forest was selectively cleared in order to spell the landowner's name 'LUECKE' with the remaining trees. According to local surveyors who planned the clearing, the plan was to create letters that were 3100 x 1700 ft (944.9 x 518.2 m).

"Astronaut-acquired Orbital Photographs as Digital Data for Remote Sensing: Spatial Resolution." Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. 10 Nov. 2004.
(via Google Sightseeing, via Waxy.org:Links)

7.4.05

Pay with $2 Bills, Wait for the Secret Service in Leg Irons

PUT YOURSELF in Mike Bolesta's place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher's car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta's idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too.

For this, Bolesta, Baltimore County resident, innocent citizen, owner of Capital City Student Tours, finds himself under arrest.

Finds himself, in front of a store full of customers at the Best Buy on York Road in Lutherville, locked into handcuffs and leg irons.

Finds himself transported to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, where he's handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service is called into the case.

[...]Finally, Secret Service agent Leigh Turner arrived, examined the bills and said they were legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."

For Baltimore County police, said spokesman Bill Toohey, "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."


Google Cache

5.4.05

I did not know that.

"Under Britain's system, the prime minister can choose an election date any time within five years of the last vote and announce its timing about a month in advance."

- Blair calls for election May 5 - CNN story