Henry Imler July 3rd, 2008
Utah Rocks. Well, working for Utah rocks - along with Cleveland I have to say, because Cleveland definitely rocks. They shorted the # of days in the workweek and lengthened the number of hours in the days that made the cut. Oh, and it turns out that it is environmentally healthy to boot. Utah Four Day Work Week Environmentally Friendly from Sustainablog.
11 Celebrity-Inspired Fads We’d Like to Forget
Spandex was developed in 1959 by a DuPont scientist who wanted a way to display the genitalia of male bicyclists without violating public nudity laws. By the late ’80s, spandex bicycle shorts could be seen across the music community, from headbangers to pop stars to the female dancers in pretty much any rap music video.
Scott showed me this one: Review of Ultimates vol 3, Issue 3. This is priceless. Hunt dissects why Jeph Loeb’s Ultimates run is ruining the legacy of a beyond-wonderful Ultimate vol 1 and 2. Perhaps what I enjoy the most is Hunt pointing out how Loeb has taken the women from the Ultimate universe and transformed them into hollywood shells.
Luckily for Wolverine, Jeph Loeb has never read an Ultimate Comic. Wanda, as written here, is so far removed from the way she was as introduced in Ultimate X-Men that it’s hard to know where to start. Where’s the smart, sensual, confident women who attempted to seduce Cyclops and was a major part of the Brotherhood’s plotting? All we’ve got here is a wet, soppy, poor, whining excuse for a character. “Oh, I don’t WANT to conjure that! I don’t LIKE dinosaurs! These clothes are too restrictive!”
and this from his review of issue 4:
Incidentally, notice how yet again a woman can’t do anything without being rescued by a man…Incidentally, female characters in this series so far : whiny moaning Wanda, boobs-hanging-out Valley girl Valkyrie, boobs-hanging-out cavegirl Shanna, and Jan the [dunce]. Well played, Loeb!…
Henry Imler June 16th, 2008
Mental Floss Blog :: Battlestar Galactica vs. Star Trek - I love me some sci-fi comparisons. Scott Miller looks at how BSG differs from STNG. Star Trek explores our hopes and dreams, a vision of why humanity wants to be; while Battlestar Galactica explores our flaws and our realities, a vision of what humanity is. It is a really good read. While you are at it, check out the following peices of lesser quality:
Wikipedia :: The Resoration Movement - When is a denomination not a denomination? When it says denominations are morally wrong, as the body of Christ is to be a unified body. This is the religious tradition in which I grew up. There are three wings of this denomination movement:
- Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
- Churches of Christ (a cappella)
- The (instrumental) Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ
I link to this movement because it came up several times this past week in our 14 hour van rides. One of my friends, has some history in the Churches of Christ (a cappella) movement and I have a long history in the Independent Christian Churches movement. I often get blurry when recalling the differences between thevarious movements within the larger Campbell-Stone movement. As I was telling some of my friends in the van, I really like most of what the C-S movement has to say on paper, but I have huge problems with the application of those values and secondary beliefs.
The Times UK Online :: Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol - The first line gives me great hope: “Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide ‘renewable petroleum’” What?! Wait, even if this is as good as they promise, isn’t it just more of the same environmentally devastating oil? Nope, for “[t]he company claims that this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made.“
I am all down for stuff like this. As a matter of fact, I think I remember reading about the early phases of a similar project in Discover a few years ago: Anything Into Oil. While it is great to see the progress made on this front, pessimism rises within me. As my buddy Jake Jones put it when I emailed this article to him, “that is pretty cool. I wonder how long it will before the big oil companies buy the tech and screw it all up.”
Henry Imler July 3rd, 2007
Click to read the text (new site)
No,
this is not a test to see if you have the right opinion in solving the
current immigration debate, which is secure borders combined with
accelerated path to citizenship for illegal aliens residing here
combined with a reformation of the current naturalization process. On
this day before the day that we Americans set aside to celebrate our
luck of living on the overall best country to live in the history of
the world (seriously, what would you pick?) and on a day where people
will set forth examples of her greatness and her mistakes I won’t give
either, for I am too lazy.
Instead, MSNBC has 20 questions from the actual civics test that
must be passed before the naturalization process is complete. I got a
95%, I missed number 8.
MSNBC :: Do you have what it takes to become a citizen?
via Digg.
Henry Imler June 29th, 2007
This was incredible.
H/T: This Modern World via Kyle.
Ok, I know that Hannity is not on the same network as the clip,
but I think that his show is symptomatic of the media at large; that,
and Hannity rhymes with sanity. Besides, it just “pops” better than saying “one drop of sanity in a sea of inconsequential gossip masquerading as journalism,” don’t ‘cha think?
Henry Imler June 20th, 2007
Simulation finds 9/11 fireproofing key
A computer simulation of the 2001 World Trade Center
attacks supports a federal agency’s findings that the initial impact
from the hijacked airplanes stripped away crucial fireproofing material
and that the weakened towers collapsed under their own weight.
The two-year Purdue University study, funded in part by the National
Science Foundation, was the first to use 3-D animation to provide
visual context to the attacks, said Christoph Hoffmann, a professor of
computer science and one of the lead researchers on the project.
Granted, the Purdue study had no where near the level of accuracy achieved by this experiment Can a jet fuel/hydrocarbon fire collapse a steel structure? An experiment.:
What I conclude is that a fairly flimsy steel structure
does not distort and bend and collapse very easily from a simple
hydrocarbon fire. And thus, it is not clear why the much stronger steel
columns in the WTC towers weakened so much from fires that the towers
underwent global collapse.
It most certainly is not clear why.
Henry Imler April 18th, 2007
Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Abortion Procedure
The majority upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act,
whose very name can set off heated debate. The procedure addressed is
known medically as “intact dilation and evacuation” and “D and X,” for
dilation and extraction. It involves partly removing an intact fetus,
then destroying the skull to complete the abortion. Doctors and other
abortion-rights advocates who challenged the law maintained that the
procedure is often the safest because it minimizes the chances of
injury to the uterus.
Now if they would abolish the death penalty, overturn Row v Wade, and legalize euthanasia. Then we would be on our way to being actually pro-life. Oh yeah, and something about that whole warring business, I am not sure about that….
Henry Imler January 12th, 2007
Don’t China and Japan own most of our debt? Isn’t that how our world is going to come crashing down in a few years?
Check out the real numbers: The Skeptical Optimist :: Pie Chart of Who Owns the Debt, and Bar Chart of Who’s Been Buying It
Who owns the National Debt
Who is buying the National debt
In that environment, it’s tough to figure out who we’re
supposed to be scared of, isn’t it? I gave up a long time ago; I’m just
grateful they’re helping (indirectly) to fund our economy’s growth, and
helping (indirectly) to keep our tax rates lower than they’d otherwise
have to be to keep our debt burden (debt-to-GDP ratio) from growing.
(Thank you, foreigners! Maybe you should consider immigrating…)
In any case, the two biggest groups of T-bond buyers swamped
everybody else (see the two longest bars at the top of the chart).
Those two groups are made up of you, me, our families, our friends, and
our neighbors.
That gives me an idea: Let’s keep our economy growing, and let’s
keep buying those T-bonds for our children and grandchildren, how about
it?
Don’t get me wrong, I hate the national debt. But just perhaps the sky is not yet falling. What I dislike the most is the percentage of the debt to the GDP:
However, the SO reminds his readers to note the following:
[P]lease don’t miss the most important fact on the
History chart—the moral, which is this: Economic growth reduces the
debt burden. That’s a fact, not an opinion.
Henry Imler January 7th, 2007
Electricity building - Domestics make a run at high-mileage leaders by combining batteries with no-gas fuel sources
DETROIT — If the Chevrolet Volt works as advertised, you could travel for weeks, if not months, without a drop of gasoline.
You can expect from 50 to 525 m.p.g., so get ready to thumb your nose at the gas pumps–at any price.
General Motors unveiled the high-mileage concept at a media preview
of the Detroit Auto Show. The electric, powered by lithium ion
batteries, is designed to go up to 40 miles before the need to recharge
6 to 6.5 hours in any 110-volt outlet.
After 40 miles, a 1-liter, turbo 3-cylinder gas engine fuels a
generator to recharge the batteries. It also goes 600 miles before
having to refill the 12-gallon gas tank.
That’s 640 miles of driving range and better than 50 m.p.g. in fuel
economy with regular unleaded or up to 525 m.p.g. with the E85 ethanol
blend, GM estimates.
Henry Imler July 13th, 2006
Ok, from what I have heard:
- Ha-mas was elected as the majority party in Palestine.
- Hezbollah has a position in the Lebanon cabinet and is in charge of monitoring Lebanon’s southern border.
- Ha-mas captured a Israeli solider.
- Hezbollah has captured two Israeli soldiers.
- Hezbollah wants to fly these captives to Iran.(source)
- Israel
has invaded the West Bank and Lebanon to try to rescue (?) the soldiers
and has bombed at least one of Lebanon’s airports.
- Israel has said the kidnappings are an “act of war”.
- Iran has said that the moment to destroy Israel has come and has called on the Arab countries in the area to attack.
When I heard items five and eight, my heart sank. Until then I
thought that all the other points would just be another spat between
Israel and its neighbors. This might actually be the start of a major
war involving five for six countries, possibly even us. Or it might all
cool off in a day or two, who knows.
This is all what I have heard on the radio and read this morning. I’ll try to get links up.
Here are some articles to read:
Henry Imler June 27th, 2006
cNet Reviews: Top 10 Google Apps from Digg.
A lot of good apps at Google, as I have mentioned before are on that list. What they missed was Google Notebook. I have not really tried it out yet, but you bet I will the next time I take a class. I’ll talk more about it then.
Google Notebook is not the reason for the post. The funny think
about the list was the ratio of released products to beta products.
Seven out of the ten apps are still in beta, yet are used by a much
larger audience than most betas.
In other news, it sucks to be sick. I had an opportunity to see Superman Returns tonight, but I was too sick to go with Henry (T) and Q.
![Hundie Jo [Dot] Com](http://www.hundiejo.com/wp-content/plugins/ttftitles/cache2/7d6a910bbe08845c0836a517a70936d5.png){kind=small}
Scott showed me this one: Review of Ultimates vol 3, Issue 3. This is priceless. Hunt dissects why Jeph Loeb’s Ultimates run is ruining the legacy of a beyond-wonderful Ultimate vol 1 and 2. Perhaps what I enjoy the most is Hunt pointing out how Loeb has taken the women from the Ultimate universe and transformed them into hollywood shells.
