Women and their thumbs

From our South American news desk - Brazil elected its first woman president and voting was done with a biometric fingerprint scan system. No hanging chads in this election! 

2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second.

China claims worlds most powerful computer

"Tianhe-1A is unusual in that it unites thousands of Intel processors with thousands of graphics cards made by Nvidia.
The chips inside graphics cards are typically made up of small arithmetical units that can carry out simple sums very quickly. By contrast, Intel chips are typically used to carry out more complicated mathematical operations."

American Legislative Exchange Council

Another story from NPR that blew my mind. This one frames the scary truth of how mega corporations work around the accountability and records laws to lobby your government officials. Basically this membership club called ALEC offers education seminars on "how to draft a bill" and offers them, with airfare, hotel stay, food, child care etc free of charge to legislators. Conveniently the representatives of major corps have also been invited and the two groups work together to draft "practice" legislation. Shocking, those "practice" bills end up word for word as actual bills up for vote, such as the controversial Arizona immigration law, which was "practice" for Arizona legislators and the largest prison company. And a study done of the legislators records showed not a single legislator reported receiving any of the free benefits from ALEC.

Tiny moving boxes

So due to a streak of bad rental experiences I've decided to take a serious look at the RV/Camper living. I've been pleasantly surprised to find the RV market has piggybacked the car market in downsizing everything. There is a solid selection of ultra light weight trailers designed to be easily pulled by small cars like my 4 cyl.Subaru Forester.  I've been meaning to simplify my life for a while - eliminate the clutter of material possessions and the temptation of a kitchen.This could be a great opportunity and it would be nice to own something rather than flushing away money in a rental.

Healthcare bluebook

Via NPR, a a free web project that helps determine if your doctor or hospital is gouging you. My understand is that the greatest source of "extra" costs come from facility fees and if its at all possible one should rent a place at an outpatient facility  before using the hospital.

Emperor shooting legal

From our lets kill all the beautiful things desk - Emperor, the 9 foot tall giant elk of England has been shot and killed. Experts say there was nothing illegal about the hunting of Emperor, who was considered the largest wild animal in the UK, and that it was likely done for trophy as 12yo elk meat is inediblely tough.

Robots replace teachers in S. Korea

Heard about this story on NPR. Apparently faced with a teacher shortage, the government of South Korea is filling its classrooms with robotic teaching assistants. Kool. The NPR people were wondering what Americans are going to do for work as slowly but surely robotics and computers take human jobs.

Idaho shuts down 6yo's pumpkin stand

Yet another story of seemingly insane behavior by public employees. I'm really waffling between the benefits of a lot more government and the feeling that we'd be better off with none at all.

"A representative for the tax commission in Coeur d'Alene when reached by phone today said it is not the state's intention to shut anyone down but to educate them about state policy. "

Strippers go all out for dogs

The strippers of Rachels, the favored "steak house" of West Palm Beach's political establishment, have raised $3000 for Dog rescue nonprofits. Apparently 3 other companies turned down the strippers offer of aid. 

12yo Bounty hunter earns $3K

From our "this makes me feel old dept" Kool story..randomly reminds me of a guy I met in Australia who drove around the outback with his 2 todders hunting wild pigs for government bounty money. Kid prob deserves more than 3k though.. a lot of people use Firefox..Firefox is the internet browser that sane people use in place of Internet Explorer

Magic of Flight

Apparently the US Airforce has a "Special Program for Religous Education". I'm all for inclusion...but why does our Airforce teach religious education classes?

"Just a few years ago, the Air Force Academy was considered such an evangelical hothouse that the place got sued for its alleged discrimination against non-Christians. Today, the Academy is boasting of its thriving pagan community — and its friendliness towards spell-casters."

My parents have been outdone

 From the disgraceful lifestyles news dept - man in India builds a 27 story 1 billion dollar home. I hope the millions of poor starving people in India storm that place and kill that guy. If murder is a little harsh then we need government to step in and redistribute wealth from selfish asshats with massive entitlement issues. Course there is always the hope Al-Qaida will crash a plane into it.

ExoPlanet Update : Gliese 581d a dud

So it turns out Gliese 581d, trumpeted as the "most habitable planet ever found" isnt really that habitable. To start with Gliese 581d orbits its sun about at the same distance Mercury orbits our sun..you know Mercury right ? That blistering hell hole?

Queensland couple found not guilty of Abortion.

It is apparently against the law in the Australia to abort an unwanted pregnancy. The couple  in question was arrested for possession and use of RU486 aka "the morning after pill". Thankfully the jury acquitted them based on the claim that the woman had every right to poison herself as long as it wasnt an attempt of suicide. BTW this wasnt some tribal court..this was up in Cairns (great barrier reef) and the couple was from Queensland, Oz's version of California.

If anyone is curious..my understand is that the morning after bill doesnt "kill a fetus" or whatever. Its a steroid that causes horomonial changes which make the uterus not welcoming to any egg being released. So the egg never sticks around long enough to be implanted. 

UFOs or Ballons ?

Look closely at the 4 little white dots..these guys were seen flying over NYC yesterday. 911 operators called them balloons. You decide. 

See the world from your desk

Whenever I get a hankering for travel..but dont really wanna go anywhere..I can always get my needs met at Skyscraper City. Its a sister site of city-data.com that collects photos of cities all around the world.

Chaff

Photo of an commercial airplane testing anti missile systems..thought it was interesting..didnt know they could do that.

VG Spaceship 2 makes first flight

I guess there are two parts to Virgin Galatic's space ship for wealthy tourists. The first part, the mothership as it were, made its debut in the video below. The passenger glider, Virgin Galactic II had its maiden voyage just the other day. Apparently it was quite a success. Tickets start at 200k

Eerie similarity

What is it recently with young college freshman going missing, being found floating in the harbor, and yet the police declaring no fowl play? and what is a crayfish party?

If you read the comments in the article the readers make the same comparison the readers in the B'ham herald did - that this murder could be a Smiley Face serial murder

Fishwall

I havnt literally 'been' to the beach in a while..this area's beaches just arnt very pleasant for walking or swimming. My hammock is better place to rest in the sun and look over the ocean. But today the temperature was in the 60s with no humidity - perfect conditions for a brief beach walk. I really miss being able to walk on the beach every day and sea something new like I did in Daytona. But I got a treat today..there was an incredibly huge run of "bait fish" swimming right in the surf..there were so many of them that when a wave lapped up on shore, another wave of pure fish -100s strong would crash on to the sand. It was the strangest thing to see -them fish must not be very bright...but what was even cooler was the sight off all the people getting up out of the chairs and working together to throw the fish back into the sea. It was really remarkable.

ADC : South American desk

Two short news stories from South American ::

In a 1.3 million vote landslide, the largest city in Brazil, Sao Paulo, elected a proffesional clown to represent them in congress.

The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, who apparently plays organized sports with regular people, was caught on tape delivering a wicked knee to the groin of his opponent, who had tackled him earlier in the game.

Graphene

This year's noble prize for science was awarded to 2 Russian Scientists who invented "Graphene". What is Graphene ? Its basically a new kind of material that " is stronger and stiffer than diamond, yet can be stretched by a quarter of its length, like rubber. Its surface area is the largest known for its weight.”

Apparently its going to replace the materials we use in electronics due to its superconductivity. Course my understand is that the next step in electronics is to calculate on the molecular level. So this might not be a leap forward so much as a shoring up of what we have.

update : I wanted to add that graphene is the same compound found in pencils. Graphene is one strip of graphite that is cut so thin that it literally is 2 dimensional. Without a 3rd dimension to consider the electrons move around much quicker, granting graphene excellent properties for conducting electricity. 

Jesus waves entrance fee

The Orlando Sentinel brings dire warnings of end of days like traffic on tuesday due to free admission being offered to the Holy Land theme park. "the park is required to offer free admission to the public one day each year, under a state law that guarantees Holy Land a property-tax exemption as a religious entity".  If you really need to talk to Jesus - face to face and in person - and couldnt afford it before - this is your day!

Legal weed for sale in Florida

 This sounds like a gimmick..packets of herbal incense sprayed with the chemical compound JWH 018, CP 4797 and HU-210, which are known to cause the "high" in weed. 15$. Pot never did anything for me..but I might give this a try if I can find a store selling the stuff. 

Are we at the point yet were we should be selling and taxing this stuff instead of criminalizing it ? Or will Whole Foods start selling the "organic" version of K2 straight from the plant first ?

10-1-10

Interesting news day..China launched a probe to visit the moon and the US admits purposely infecting the people of Central American with syphilis and gonorrhea The US has also offered a peice of a 10 Billion dollar pie to the mercenary force once know as "Blackwater"..you know..those guys in Iraq who broke just about every law there is.. and the comet Hartley 2 should now be visible to the nekkid eye and we have a probe going out to meet it.

Dont forget to get your toil foil hats ready for 10/10/10 coming up this Sunday, Oct 10th 2010

Guam bombed with Mice

In an effort to kill off an invasive species of giant snake, the US military is strafing the island of Guam with tylenol-lace mice.