Random
catdynamics | October 9, 2007
There's this thing, where you can donate money to a good cause - funding for K-12 teachers looking for specific items, mostly in rural areas.
There's matching funds from SEED!
This has been bouncing around the sciblogs for a week, and I'm afraid I have not been keeping up with the details:
so.... read all about it at Chad's place
and, for maximum leverage make him write some more dog fyzzix entries
catdynamics | October 9, 2007CollegeScholarships.org is offering $10,000 to the student blogger who
Gets the most votes
I don't know who is the best, go browse the blogs, or just take the easy way out and vote for Shelley!
catdynamics | October 7, 2007It is the season for the Swedish Academy to ponder, and we ask the Mighty iPod, what is your prediction for who will win the Nobel Prize this year?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Waiting for the Great Leap Forward - Billy Bragg
The Crossing: Heroes and Villains - Beach Boys
The Crown: St Swithin's Day - Billy Bragg & The Red Stars
The Root: Skyttan - Mx-21
The Past: Song to the Siren - Tim Buckley
The Future: O Soave Fanciulla - Pavarotti
The Questioner: Grafir og Bein - Bubbi Morthens
The House: Perfect Day - The Saints
The Inside: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine -…
catdynamics | October 5, 2007Army's most deployed brigade coming home
2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is packing up and headed home.
Finally.
catdynamics | October 5, 2007"Life goes on as it did before
As the country drifts slowly to war"
The Torygraph is getting worried: Drum beaters for Iran war should think again
"Those in favour of war are now apparently contemplating including Syria, opening not one door into the dark, but two.
We should all hope that serious people in Britain are weighing up whether these ventures into the unknown are in this country's deepest and widest interests, a theme crying out for comment from anyone bidding to govern us."
Mad.
They're all completely bonkers.
Seriously.
catdynamics | October 5, 2007Hot and sultry friday. Happy, happy autumn.
So, we ask the iPod, in commemmoration of yestarday's anniversary...
This whole space travel thing, what will come of that?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Fantaisie de Concert II: Lento assai - Perlman
The Crossing: Hestavísur
The Crown: She's Lost Control - Joy Division
The Root: I Really Like You - Melissa Etheridge
The Past: Dawn Chorus - Modern English
The Future: Shut Down - Beach Boys
The Questioner: Wadidyusay? - Zap Mama
The House: Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy - Tchaikovsky
The Inside: Blood of the Lamb - Billy Bragg…
catdynamics | October 4, 2007"Girls go to College
to get more knowledge;
Boys go to Jupiter
to get more stupider"
by Á. age 6 1/4
catdynamics | October 3, 2007anyone know who was first to use avatar in fiction to describe the virtual persona representation of a real person either in cyberspace or as telepresence?
It is not in True Names, which would have been my first guess. I have vague memories of it being used in new wave science fiction in the early/mid seventies.
Quick google suggests Poul Anderson used it first. Figures.
(From "Call me Joe" - really?).
catdynamics | October 1, 2007Ugh.
Outfit is wrong.
Flag colour is wrong (shade of blue, dood)
And no no no hockey sticks! You think we're Finns or something?
Funny though
catdynamics | October 1, 2007
"ten dead American soldiers and four burned trucks"
'Let's do it if the Iranians stage a cross-border attack inside Iraq.'
"Shifting Targets" a Sy Hersh article in the New Yorker.
Speculative but interesting read.
Wonder what our Brit readers think of the "shame" and "desire for revenge" the Royal Navy is supposed to feel. Doesn't quite ring true to me.
Of course if there were some nasty evil group out there who wanted to start a war between two nations, they would now have an explicit goal for what incident to stage to trigger it.
I am of course thinking of al Qaeda and the faintest…
catdynamics | October 1, 2007unconfirmed report that Russia pulled all its technicians out of Bushehr
the ever unreliable DEBKA is passing along a report from Iranian opposition group that the Russians pulled their technical people out of the almost completed Busher nuclear reactor in Iran this weekend
DEBKA floats a lot of false rumours (the USS Nimitz, for example, is back in San Diego this weekend, not in the Persian Gulf as DEBKA claimed recently), so big pinch of salt on this.
If true, they speculate 1) Russian-Iran relations broke down - one possibility is the Russians made a deal to support UN sanctions which…
catdynamics | September 28, 2007iRobot the makers of the Roomba robot vacuum have new toys...
we have a Roomba, 2nd generation, which works great in the smaller rooms, or it would if we didn't have books piled everywhere, interspersed with occasional toys, cats and laptop accessories
I like the look of the Looj - robot gutter cleaner - our gutters are a serious pain-in-the-ass to clean and have to be done spring as well as autumn because of the 70+ year old giant oak and its pollen.
But... the ConnectR telepresence robot strikes awe and fear in me...
It is basically a small autonomous robot with audio and video link, (here…
catdynamics | September 28, 2007Off-season, but still two proposals in two days.
So, oh Mighty iPod - given them vagaries of panels and those who run them, how will they dispose of what we propose?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: World is Full of Crashing Bores - Morrissey
The Crossing: A New England - Billy Bragg
The Crown: Learning My Shapes
The Root: Komdu Kisa Mín
The Past: Stay Up Late - Talking Heads
The Future: Big Eyed Beans from Venus - Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
The Questioner: Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz - Three Tenors
The House: Lost John - Lonnie Donegan
The Inside: Now Get Busy -…
catdynamics | September 26, 2007Now there's an insult: they must have put Ahmadinejad in one of those annoying fancy hotels that charge for internet access, 'cause he still hasn't blogged the Columbia visit, and no liveblog of the UN speech, either!
In fact he hasn't updated his blog in like six months. Deadbeat.
And it is not Safari compliant, must be using IE. Typical politician.
Like it'd kill the guy to pop down to starbucks, or even mcdonald's for a half hour to keep his blog up to date... don't they have wi-fi in Iran?
catdynamics | September 25, 2007New banner image and design, courtesy of Josh Gemmell. Thanks.
I like it.
May redecorate eventually. We'll see how it goes.
catdynamics | September 24, 2007Tom Friedman on the Colbert Report has terminated the legendary Friedman Unit!
No longer can we wait six months to see how things are going to develop in Iraq.
It is decision time...
catdynamics | September 24, 2007Michigan has beaten PSU in football every year that I've been here
This is clearly just so hos can taunt me, again.
Normally I'd remind myself that "it's only a game", but a) I tried that on Mike McQuery two years ago, and he was so fucking not amused and b) there is nothing like a plaintive little voice saying "but, daddy, I wanted Penn State to win!"...
last year she so did not care.
'course the li'l munchkin stares intently at the screen and then, outraged, says "daddy, that boy just hit that other boy!".
It is very nice of the PSU team to be so good at
sharing though.
I mean, we do try…
catdynamics | September 21, 2007foggy cool autumnal friday, and so we ask the Mighty iPod, cryptically, are worm micelles the key insight?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Are You Satisfied? - Jesus Jones
The Crossing: Mommy Daddy You and I - Talking Heads
The Crown: Spam Song - Monty Python
The Root: Riders on the Storm - Doors
The Past: Recondita Armonia - Three Tenors
The Future: LA Woman - Doors
The Questioner: Hún Ræ&r og Hún Ræ
The House: L'escalier - Spliverk Þjóðanna
The Inside: I Only Have Eyes For You - Billie Holiday
The Outcome: Seven and Seven is - Billy Bragg
It is? It is!
Art…
catdynamics | September 18, 2007ties 'cause cooties
Told you so!
Some of us are just ahead of our times.
catdynamics | September 17, 2007If the Iraqi police move against Blackwater, would the US Army fight?
There is a curious situation developing, where the Iraqi interior ministry has "revoked the license" of Blackwater corporation contractors to operate in Iraq, asked they leave, and surrender for trial people involved in a shooting in Baghdad, in which apparently 9 people killed and 14 were injured.
Blackwater does a number of things in Iraq, not all of which I know, nor apparently the does the US Congress who pays for this. But, among other things, they provide State Department security, an function normally provided by…