Links for 2012-04-24

"I started a fire with flint and steel." Often heard, at least in some circles. But, what does this really mean? Well, there are two very different processes that might be being talked about: Traditional Flint and Steel: Striking a hardened piece of carbon steel with a very hard rock, often flint, to generate sparks. Ferrocerium: Scraping a "magic" stick (trade names: Fire Steel, Blastmatch, Metal- Match) with something "sharp" to generate sparks. Why do we care about making a distinction?

Over the centuries, Facts became such a prevalent part of most people's lives that Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said: "Facts are to the mind what food is to the body." To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official cause of death was from injuries suffered last week when Florida Republican Rep. Allen West steadfastly declared that as many as 81 of his fellow members of theU.S. House of Representatives are communists. Facts held on for several days after that assault -- brought on without a scrap of evidence or reason -- before expiring peacefully at its home in a high school physics book. Facts was 2,372.