I’ve got a cheapo “macro” lens for my camera. A macro lens allows you to take extreme closeups; generally used for photos of things like bugs, it has a very limited field of focus. Things quickly get blurry. Still, sometimes the results are interesting:
State Senator Neal Kedzie says his son was attacked while trying to stop someone from stealing his Romney/Ryan yard sign.
LAME.
With 99% of the precincts reporting in, Obama has 40,237,966 votes, while Romney has 38,116,216 votes.
Now, this may seem odd given that the election is actually two weeks away… but a CBS News affiliate has already called it:
[youtube owA6K3o3guo]
You don’t have to be a fan of conspiracy theories to see something kinda fishy here.
Along with the generic “WTF??” there’s also this important question: 43% + 40% = 83%. Who got the other 17%? Ross Perot?
Early to mid 1970’s NASA Langley photos of a hypersonic research aircraft configuration in a hypersonic wind tunnel, demonstrating the shock waves that would be generated at high speed.
This particular configuration was studied at some length. And while I seriously doubt that it led to an actual “Aurora,” I have little doubt that it inspire many in the journalistic and “conspiracy” communities, and became one of the stereotypical configurations depicted as “Aurora.”
Huh.
Male beluga whale mimics human speech
It does *kinda* sound like a human, but a human gibbering incoherently. But as Spock pointed out, we could hardly do any better if we tried to speak whale.
[youtube 14MJXC0h4TU]
One political meme that has been popular these last few years is the “Republican war on science.” Because many Republicans don’t believe in global warming or evolution or abortion, that means that Republicans are backwards anti-science trogs who should be more like the enlightened Europeans.
Gentlemen… behold the enlightened European War On Science:
Scientists convicted of manslaughter for failing to warn of earthquake
In short, seven of Italys best geologists have been sentenced to six years in prison for not providing a warning for a 2009 earthquake that killed a bunch of folks. While sad, the earthquake is hardly the scientists fault… and it’s hardly their fault for not being able to predict the currently unpredictable.
It would have been less silly for the Italian prosecutors to put the Pope on trial for this lack of foreknowledge.
For those unaware, the Babbage Analytical Engine was a design for a mechanical computer, circa 1837. Had it been built, and had it avoided almost-certain breakdowns, it would have been monstrously complex, but also probably spectacularly valuable to the field of mathematics, or any field that would require an actual computer. In a wholly non-shocking twist of fate, the Analytical Engine was never finished due to financial and personality issues, not technological… it probably would have worked.
The analytical engine would have been a true programmable computer, using punch cards to input basic mathematical instructions and data. It would have been something of the pinnacle of Victorian technology, and would have fit into the steampunk stereotype perfectly… a steam-powered machine of steel and brass, clacking away in a dimly lit environment using mechanisms derived from the automated looms of the time.
When I gain dictatorial power, I am going to direct that Babbage Analytical Engines be put into mass production, and used in place of electronic computers at all offices meant to “run things.”
After years of nonsense, we’re down to the final two months of the “Mayan Apocalypse” nonsense. A few things come to mind:
1) I can’t wait for December 22 to dawn with nothing unusual having happened, so society can get on with life
2) I can’t wait for 2013 to get here so that the History Channel and the like will finally shut the frak up about it, maybe run something actually intelligent
3) I can’t wait to hear the excuses
4) I can wait to see what gibberish nonsense replaces this
And of course… how many knuckleheads are going to off themselves either before or after?
This clip has been sorta burning up the Interwebs the last few days. In short, it’s from “Night of Too Many Stars,” a telethon raising money for autism (presumably trying to help the people with autism, rather than promoting autism for everyone). Here Katy Perry is onstage with an autistic little girl, the both of them singing one of Perry’s song, with the girl playing piano. The little girl certainly has some skills with the keyboard. The song may or may not appeal, of course. But stick around until the 7:44 mark or so (or simply skip ahead until about that point) and subsequent.
[youtube QX-xToQI34I]
And then THIS happened:
[youtube lfPkVdK5AqM]
A mid-1970’s graphic from the collection of a former NASA-Langley engineer shows the development schedule for “HTDA.” This I think stands for “Hypersonic Technology Development Aircraft,” and was to be a Mach 5+ airbreathing lifting body research plane that looks strikingly like the supposed “Aurora spyplane” that was so popular in the 1990’s. HTDA airframes 1 and 2 were most likely pure rocket vehicles, with a scramjet being integrated onto airframe 3.
