Kids react to the Walkman, the premiere portable music technology of *my* day…
[youtube Uk_vV-JRZ6E]
Apr 142014
Apr 132014
‘People were polite, parents would shake my hand’: Canadian college blogger who wore a hijab for 18 days to reveal how racist her community is – finds people are actually NICER to her
Well, right off the bat, this is silly for the simple reason that wearing Muslim garb is not restricted to any particular race.
But it gets dumber:
‘It can be that someone actually does harbour [sic] racist tendencies but doesn’t want to look racist to others so they overcompensate in that way,’ she says.
She also says that it could stem from people who might think they have a bias but are trying to suppress it by being overly accommodating to people of other races or religions.
So: by being nice, you’re just proving that you are a racist (against the Muslim race, it would seem). I believe it’s fair to say that someone who was rude, mean or otherwise unfriendly to her would also be declared racist. So, no matter what the actual results were going to be, the conclusion was always going to be that “people are racists.”
Of course, Fark.com has a number of good comments on this story, the first being:
Sure they were nicer. They were afraid she’d blow up the place.
Apr 122014
Nevada Cattle Rancher Wins ‘Range War’ With Feds
The Feds seem to be backing off, without actually killing anybody. Of course, they may be backing off just long enough for the militia-types to disperse., then they’l go back in and whack this fellers cows.
Apr 122014
Sadly… not NASA.
Putin eyes up cosmonaut uniform as his deputy premier sets out plans to colonise space and declares ‘We are coming to the Moon FOREVER’
Accordign to the Daily Mail (yeah, I know…) Putin has a 26-year plan for lunar bases and manned missions to Mars and asteroids. Whether they’ll have the money for it after they get done gobbling up Ukraine and Poland and Finland and Chicago and anywhere else that has “ethnic Russians” is a whole other question.
Apr 122014
It seems the FAA has set up a no-fly zone over the “Bundy Ranch:”
http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_1687.html
From what I can tell, both sides here are asshats. But just like Waco, the FedGuv seems to be intentionally trying to turn a simply-resolved issue into an Example.
Apr 112014
Doctors implant lab-grown vagina
It’s not a silly story… the medical conditions involved are real and deserving of this sort of attention. So… huzzah.
Apr 112014
Lassa virus was unwanted passenger on N.Y.-Mpls. flight
Gee, what to do with someone obviously very ill? Why… put them on a commercial jetliner, of course!
Apr 112014
Child bride kills groom and three of his friends by poisoning meal: Nigerian police
14-year-old girl forced into marriage to 35-year-old scumbag adds rat poison to a meal of rice. Hilarity ensues.
Apr 112014
This election year, it’s Iowa that’s turning out the interesting candidates:
[youtube 8Gl7xcy8ILU]
WOW. So… Bob Quast supports:
1) Term Limits
2) The Second Amendment
3) Using a Glock to blow the balls off the guy who murdered his sister (she was murdered by her husband in Ohio in 1999, chopped up and then the bits were hidden. The guy got a whopping 11 years for that.)
Compare with the campaign ad produced by Joni Ernst.
Apr 102014
I’ve been meaning to buy a copy of “The Feynman Lectures on Physics” for some years, but I’ve just never gotten around to it. Until today, when I found a copy in the $1 box at a hole-in-the-wall bookstore. And since it had a 29 cent price stamped on the cover, that’s what I got charged. Cool.
As best as I can tell, the “Feynman Lectures” were first published in 1963… but this was printed in 1962, a year earlier. I’m guessing it was printed up by the California Institute of Technology for use by students or staff, prior to official publication. Anyone know anything about this? Might I have stumbled across something of value or historical interest? It’s in really good shape for its age, though there are a few notations I’ve found. It’s clearly printed, not photocopied.
UPDATE: The most likely explanation is that this is a collection of printed “handouts” that were provided to the students in 1962-1963, prior to an actual publisher being found. A few pages of “Feynmans Tips on Physics” available on Google Books describes what appears to be this here thingie. It doesn’t say how many were printed; I’d imagine a few hundred, maybe up to a thousand. That’s be a lot for lecture notes, but not so many for a book. My guess is that the pages were provided loose, perhaps three-hole-punched, and the student decided to put them into this pressboard report cover. Even in 1962 money, ain’t no way this was sold for 29 cents… perhaps just the report cover was (less than a tenth the current going rate for the same thing).
I still have hope that one day I’ll find an original copy of “Über einen Raketenantrieb für Fernbomber” or a stash of General Atomics “Orion” reports just sitting on some used books store shelf with “$1” stickers…