Saturday, June 28, 2008

What is a crapvendor?

What is a crapvendor?: "

What is a crapvendor? Joel has used the phrase a couple of times to a degree of bafflement, not least from crapvendors themselves. Please update your dictionaries:




Crapvendor
—noun

1. A retail dealer in crap, especially wholesale consumer electronic crap from Asia.

2. Archaic. A physical outlet that sells such items.



[Origin: 1275-1325; middle English crappevendour, from Medieval Latin crappa, Anglo-Norman vendeur]



'It happened one day that a very beautiful woman went to the crapvendor to purchase an acrylic LED remote caddy, and in order to make it fit, he was obliged to look at her gadgets, which were so finely shaped that he felt his eye take an undue pleasure in viewing them.' — The Travels of Marco Polo, 1298










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(Via Boing Boing Gadgets.)

Eight in 10 business now have Macs

Eight in 10 business now have Macs: "800px-Macintosh_Performa_6300.jpgIn just two years, the number of business using Macs has almost doubled to 80%, according to researchers at Yankee Group.

Laura DiDio told Computerworld that a survey of 700 senior IT admins and executives also revealed an increase in the number of actual users. It's remarkable, she says, because 'Apple Inc. has put little to no official effort into that part of the market.'



The odd reason given as a driving force: virtualization. However, in explaining why, the article veers into simply using Macs to run Windows in boot camp. Either way, someone interesting's going on!



8 in 10 [Computerworld]







"



(Via Boing Boing Gadgets.)

Giant chicken sculpture photographed in various locations

Giant chicken sculpture photographed in various locations: "200806261030.jpg

Gallery of photos of a giant plucked chicken sculpture.



Attention Chicken! is a three dimensional version of the collage that goes by the same title.

Nicolas Lampert and Micaela O’Herlihy created a ten-foot rotisserie chicken out of polystyrene foam, hard coated, and then painted with latex paint and final coat of high gloss varnish.



In October, 2006 Attention Chicken! made a number of unannounced public interventions throughout Milwaukee at Bradford Beach, the woods, Walmart, National Ave, and other locations throughout the city. Reactions ranged from laughter to attacks directed at the chicken (three in one day!)


Attention Chicken (via wtbw)








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(Via Boing Boing.)

Harper's Weekly

Harper's Weekly: "Here's the first paragraph from the latest edition of 'Harper's Weekly,' one of my favorite email newsletters:


Oil reached a record $139.89 a barrel. Four Western companies met with Iraq's Oil Ministry to finalize no-bid contracts to tap Iraqi oil fields, and the Nigerian government distributed billions of dollars of windfall to corrupt state officials. Thirty-five countries and 25 oil companies met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to try to fix global oil prices, which have caused strikes, riots, and inflation around the world. Many OPEC countries blamed speculators for the price increase, as did some representatives of oil companies and oil-dependent industries. United States Energy Secretary Sam Bodman blamed supply and demand, as did lobbyists for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. Drivers in the Gaza Strip, where Israel limits fuel supplies and black market gas costs $27 per gallon, used vegetable oil and turpentine as fuel, producing toxic fumes that result in diarrhea and stomach pain. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cancelled four global-warming research expeditions, citing the cost of fuel. American cowboys could not afford to drive their horses to rodeos, and those who lived near the border were filling their tanks in Mexico, where gas is subsidized. Giant iguanas continued their conquest of South Florida, surrounding Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissioner Bob Kanjian at a golf course in Lake Worth. 'I had 25 to 30 iguanas,' he said, 'staring at me while I was playing.'
Link








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(Via Boing Boing.)

Large Hadron Collider probably won't destroy Earth

Probably?

Large Hadron Collider probably won't destroy Earth: "The Large Hadron Collider slated to be fired up in September isn't likely to accidentally generate any Earth-devouring black holes. That's according two new reports, including a safety review by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The world's most powerful particle accelerator may crank out black holes, but they'll be so tiny and vanish so quickly that we shouldn't worry. I wonder if these reports will appease those who filed a lawsuit against CERN fearing that the machine might suck Earth into a parallel universe. From Science News:

...It is possible that the LHC, according to one theory, could be a veritable factory of mini-black holes — no larger than a thousandth of the diameter of a proton.



That theory proposes that gravity is weak, compared to the other forces in nature, because some of it leaks out into other, hidden dimensions folded up into sizes as small as 10-17 centimeters, a tiny fraction of the diameter of a hydrogen atom.



At the high energies and small scales probed by the LHC, gravity would become much stronger than it is in ordinary three-dimensional space. Gravity could then cram enough matter together to form microscopic black holes as often as once a second.



However, such black holes, according to research first reported by Stephen Hawking in the 1970s, ought to rapidly radiate away their energy and evaporate in an instant, before doing any harm.

Link


Previously on BB:

• Lawsuit about risk of collider and parallel universe Link

• Large Hardon Collider Link







"



(Via Boing Boing.)

Action figure: Regan from The Exorcist

Action figure: Regan from The Exorcist: " Exorcist-Spider-Walk-Figure
Over at BB Gadgets, John has the details on this delightful action figure of Regan from the Exorcist doing the spider walk.
Link







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(Via Boing Boing.)

Shipping children by postal mail: illegal since 1913

Shipping children by postal mail: illegal since 1913: "From the Smithsonian's Flickr stream of historic, public domain photos, a shot commemorating the end of being able to ship your children by postal mail:




This city letter carrier posed for a humorous photograph with a young boy in his mailbag. After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.


Link

(Thanks, Marilyn!)







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(Via Boing Boing.)

Dalek toy turned into roving surveillance bot

Dalek toy turned into roving surveillance bot: "


Wil Harris from Channel Flip sez, 'Take one remote control Dr Who Dalek toy, add a state of the art pinhole security camera, pair with wireless transmitter and hard disk recorder - and voila, an incognito security device for the geek office or home. This bot was made by a London security firm for an anonymous client and we got to play with it!'

Link

(Thanks, Wil!)







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(Via Boing Boing.)

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Cylons explain DRM

Cylons explain DRM: "


Z sez, 'LonelyCylon15 (an ongoing YouTube project edited by ChurchHatesTucker) explains why DRM is a bad idea.'

Link

(Thanks, Z!)







"



(Via Boing Boing.)

Saturday, June 21, 2008

John C. Wright Explains Science Fiction For You

John C. Wright Explains Science Fiction For You: "


‘Science Fiction is that genre of cognitive estrangement in a post-Gothic mode, utilizing a willing suspension of disbelief, transcending anthropocentricism and temporal provincialism, where spacemen, raygun in fist, soar through outer space with a glamorous brunette Space-Babes in their brawny arms.


Now I know what I’ve been doing wrong all this time. Note to self: More glamorous brunette Space-Babes. And soaring. And rayguns, now that I think about it. Man, I don’t know what the hell I’m writing anymore.


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(Via Whatever.)