Miscellany

I did a bit of a mental double-take when I saw this article about Russia planting a flag on the North Pole seabed to claim the land as Russian, because it seemed a century or two out of date. On reading it, it turns out that I am not the only one who thought so: In a record-breaking dive, the two craft planted a one metre-high titanium Russian flag on the underwater Lomonosov ridge, which Moscow claims is directly connected to its continental shelf. However, the dangerous mission prompted ridicule and scepticism among other contenders for the Arctic’s energy wealth, … Continue reading Good thing they didn’t find sea monsters….

I’m back from traveling for a couple of weeks and am digging out from a backlog of real and electronic email and feeds that I’ve fallen behind on. So, that is going to just be a hodge-podge link dump today of what caught more than my passing attention… I don’t think I would use the Polar Clock in a web browser or even on my computer, but this would make an awesome digital clock to hang on the wall. The only thing that is a little odd is that the outer ring is the day of the week instead of … Continue reading This and that….

Over the past couple of days I’ve come across a few things that I absolutely do not need, and absolutely covet – mostly because I am a huge geek: spicelab small magnetic spice rack – display your spices mounted in test tubes! I’d use up the spices that come with it and then use it to store the herbs I grow in my backyard…. blossom lights – led lit branches with faux flowering buds are so pretty pretty much everything at Pololu, a new-to-me robotics shop – I suspect they even sell gears!

I have relatively little to add to this hilarious post from defective yeti about the stupidity of Deal or No Deal except to agree that the show is idiotic, relying on the mathematical ignorance of its contestants and audience. It really makes me crazy that people think “the banker” actually makes decisions about what to offer based on a personal assessment of the contestant, when it is clearly a selection of an amount from an error range around the mathematical expectation of what the contestant might win. Yeti’s proposed game show might be more entertaining – I’m trying to brainstorm … Continue reading Press your luck

It’s the first day of the semester for me, tackling a new class which I am both insanely excited about and having the requisite new-class jitters over. One of the things I love about my school is having the opportunity to totally obsess about just one course for a month – I’ve been lucky and always been able to teach something I was interested in obsessing about for a whole month, which I suspect makes all the difference. But, I’m pretty scatter-brained this morning because of that, so today I’ll just bring you a smattering of random fun stuff – … Continue reading Back to school

If, like me, you never remember to get a new calendar until the start of the new year, you could always just print out a copy of the Classic Pulp Sci Fi Magazine Cover Calendar downloadable from the Website at the End of the Universe. [via Boing Boing] While I would generally object to what is essentially a bikini-girl calendar, I love the old sci fi art and I think it’s really interesting to consider the images as historical artifacts. There are actually four years worth of calendars at the site to browse through, if you are interested in such … Continue reading Welcome to 2007!

Next time someone commits you to making balloon animals, head on over to How to Twist a Balloon Dog for awesome step-by-step instructions and a cute little animated gif of the process in action. Then go twack the person who committed you to making balloon animals over the head with a blunt instrument.

Tomorrow is Museum Day. What is Museum Day? Started by the Smithsonian Institution, it is a day when a number of museums across the country offer free admission to visitors who present the Museum Day Card available on the page I just linked to. For those in Western PA, the Carnegie is participating, so this is a great opportunity to check it out if you haven’t been before.

A faithful reader mailed me the photo below last night, demonstrating the perfect merging of Pittsburgh’s fanaticism about the Steelers and Pittsburgh’s utter lack of interest in helping people get around the city who do not already know what they are doing. Be assured, this is not an off-duty bus, and the over-door route number signs have been replaced with the same message. I’m not sure if this exceeds the insanity of Washington, er, that is, Steeler, PA (damn – was I supposed to change my business cards?). Flipping channels last night, an advertisement showing that a local channel’s entire … Continue reading Local Color