More on Outer Space..

As always, National Geographic as published another awesome map of man’s exploration of our solar system and beyond.

The life of the International Space Station

A nice animated construction timeline of the ISS

This little piggy went to the crayon. This little piggy went to the train brake.

PIG 05049 is a new book by Christien Meindertsma, which documents the 185 end products that utilize some portion of each pig

PIG 05049 is a communications design developed in three years of research to track all the products made from a single pig. 
05049 was an actual pig, raised and slaughtered on a commercial farm in the Netherlands. Rotterdam designer Christien Meindertsma was shocked to discover that she could document 185 products contributed to by the animal. 
Meindertsma’s design includes the publication of her book, PIG 05049, which charts and pictures each of the products supported by the animal.  The surprise is in the fact that elements of production contributed to by pig farming include not only predictable foodstuffs – pork chops and bacon – but far less expected non-food items: ammunition, train brakes, automobile paint, soap and washing powder, bone china, cigarettes.

The caption on the page above reads:

Fatty acids derived from pork bone fat are used as a hardening agent in crayons and also gives them their distinctive smell.

Crayons smell like pig bone fat. Crayons will never smell the same again.

Can you tell me the last president with his own action figure?

Sure, almost all if the former presidents have their own action figures. George W. Bush even has a Top Gun version. But I’m not sure how many come with their own samurai sword, 9-mm pistol and an assault rifle.

Barack Obama doesn’t even need Secret Service protection, he packs his own handgun. Operatives of the  ‘axis of evil’ should also be on alert, he has his own street sweeper …And his own katana and wakizashi!

Say it ain’t so…

It looks as if the lastest victim of climate change isn’t an endangered species of aquatic tree frog living in the Amazonian rainforest, but something very near and dear to my heart (no offense to the endangered species of aquatic tree frog living in the Amazonian rainforest).

IF THE sinking Maldives aren’t enough to galvanise action on climate change, could losing a classic beer do it? Climatologist Martin Mozny of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute and colleagues say that the quality of Saaz hops – the delicate variety used to make pilsner lager – has been decreasing in recent years. They say the culprit is climate change in the form of increased air temperature.

Let’s just buy them out

An interesting suggestion regarding how to win the war in Afghanistan, offered by John McCreary in the August 12 edition of his NightWatch intelligence briefing at AFCEA:

Consider, the US could put all the Taliban fighters on its payroll at twice the daily rate, withdraw all its forces except those needed to guard the paymasters, and buy the insurgency at less cost than maintaining forces, Burger King, Popeye’s, defense contractors and nautilus equipment in Bagram.

The savings in ordnance alone would be enough to buy loyalty of a sort of the insurgents, their families and their clans for as long as the US was wiling to pay. If the Taliban can buy fighters, the US should be able to out bid the Taliban for the same men. This comment intends no disrespect to Afghans; it acknowledges they are among the poorest people on the planet.

For as unorthodox as it sounds to start paying potential Taliban fighters to prevent them from joining the insurgency, when soldiers and innocent civilians are dying everyday, what do we really have to lose??

Don Simpson must be rolling in his grave

Tell me this doesn’t have Days of Thunder written all over it!

Felipe Massa = Cole Trickle
Michael Shumacher = Russ Wheeler

Massa suffers a horrific accident on the track. Thankfully he recovers and is healthy and able enough to race again. But in his absense, Schumacher wins a few races and becomes the hottest thing in racing since, well, Michael Schumacher, and so he wants to come out of retirement. Ferrari gets screwed with 3 drivers and 2 cars. So they tell Massa to find himself another team. Then Massa t-bones Schumacher on his victory lap at Monaco.

Could get interesting….

The English Language

This year China will become the world’s largest English-speaking country…

more about “The English Language“, posted with vodpod

The World’s Biggest Diamond Heist

This is the untold story of the the biggest diamond heist in history

The vault was thought to be impenetrable. It was protected by 10 layers of security, including infrared heat detectors, Doppler radar, a magnetic field, a seismic sensor, and a lock with 100 million possible combinations. The robbery was called the heist of the century, and even now the police can’t explain exactly how it was done.

Notarbartolo reflected on his interactions with the diamond dealer, and a thought flashed through his mind: Maybe the dealer wasn’t operating alone. If he tipped off a group of his fellow merchants, they could have pulled their inventory out of the vault before the heist. Each could then claim that their gems were stolen and collect the insurance while secretly keeping their stones. Most had safes in their offices—they could have simply kept the stock there. Notarbartolo realized that the heist he had spent so much time planning might have actually been part of an elaborate insurance scam.

Hans Rosling: Moving Data

Global health professor at Sweden’s Karolinksa Institute, Hans Rosling’s work focuses on debunking myths surrounding the developing world. The presentation of his data is what sets him apart from peers in his field

more about “Hans Rosling: Moving Data“, posted with vodpod

Wave, from the inside out

Interpreting Dreams

I know it’s been way too long since I last posted and I promise I’ll pick up the slack in the coming weeks, but I felt compelled to share with you this random dream I had last night.

Before I discuss the dream I had, I need to mention that Daša and I had a conversation at dinner last night about dream interpretations. She said that night before last she had a dream where while she was smoking a cigarette, she found out she was pregnant. After learning she was pregnant, she tried to put out the cigarette for the sake of the baby, but for some reason she wasn’t able to.

So after she woke up, she referenced an online snář (a Czech dream book), which told her that her dream, with regards to being pregnant and single,  meant that her boyfriend was being unfaithful, which is not the case. Anyways, this led to our next conversation about recurring dreams and their respective interpretations.

I have had two recurring dreams that I can remember. The first is I will be doing some outdoor activity (riding a bike or walking down the street) and all of a sudden I’ll be hit by an ambulance. The second of my recurring dreams revolves around me exploring a house I have never been in before. It’s always the same house and I’ve been inside so many times, I could draw pictures of each room and where they are located within the house. The only catch is that this house is always in a different location each time I visit it. Once it was on top of a mountain; another time it was on a deserted beach, a normal ‘Dennis the Menace’ neighborhood street, and in the middle of a city.

Now, I don’t have the slightest clue as to what these dreams mean. I suppose I could look them up in a dream book and search for some far-reaching interpretation, but I feel as though if I were to do so, I would stop having these dreams. Granted the ambulance recurring dream isn’t ideal, but I find the idea of recurring dreams fascinating and I wouldn’t want them to stop, no matter how disturbing or interesting they may be.

This leads me back to the original story about the dream I had last night and why I hope it will turn into a recurring one. In the initial portion of my dream, my mom, my dad and myself are driving around in a black Suburban. We are all wearing dark suits and sunglasses. My mom is driving and my dad and I are in the third row seats. In the vacant middle seat is Barack Obama, and we’re off-roading in Baja, Mexico. No one is speaking to each other and everyone has a serious look on their face as we’re charging up the front face of a sand dune, lurching the behemoth vehicle into the air, and crashing down the other side. It’s business as usual it seems. After finishing with off-roading, I am dropped off at a swanky dinner party in what feels like Southern California. After some drinks and hor’dourves, I make my way out to the back lawn where the Ghostbusters (in their brown jumpsuits and proton packs. And I’m talking about the live action Ghostbusters: Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. Ernie Winston wasn’t there for some reason. I forgot to ask) are engaging in a lively debate. I join in the conversation and they inform me that they have all been elected as the local mayor but none of them will accept defeat. So what do they decide to do?  Bocce ball, of course. The last thing I remember of this dream is that Harold Ramis went first and his ball was pretty damn close to the jack.

Random as it may seem, I am quite interested to find an interpretation for this dream. I couldn’t even begin to guess what may come from a dream interpretation, but I think it would be worth it in this case. On the other head, I’m not even sure where to looking for an interpretation of a dream of this nature. Would it be filed under Barack Obama off-roading or Ghostbusters lawn-bowling? Maybe it’s a dream that needs no disecting or meaning. It is what it is. I also really do wish this is a recurring dream because I’m dying to know who wins that game of Bocce.

Moose

Acetabular Fracture

So it’s been roughly 11 weeks since my last post, but I swear I have a good reason: I got my ass handed to me at Moonlight Basin just after the new year and I’ve got the scar and x-rays to prove it.

How to Build an Igloo

Eskimos can build an igloo in as little as 40 minutes!!! I think its fascinating that right-handed Eskimos build their igloos in the counterclockwise direction and left-handed Eskimos in a clockwise direction. Too cool.

more about “How to Build an Igloo by Douglas Wilk…“, posted with vodpod