Oh Yeah, Two ECVT Modes!

I'm not really sure what all this means, but I think its good, and I think I want it. Basically its a new 2-mode hybrid transmission. Complicatedly its got a hi and low Electric Continuously Variable Transmission modes as well as 4 fixed gear ratios that make 6 functions depending on boost/braking and number of motors. If you want more obfustication you can read the article yourself. The jist is that it makes hybrid systems perform better at low and high speeds, up hills and while towing. Take home morsel: better hybrid is coming to a wider range of vehicles.

Chrysler, GM, BMW announce new hybrid system | Leftlane News - Car News For Enthusiasts

Today's WTF.

Alright, I've calmed down.  And I guess I get it now.  I thought Revolution was a fine name for Nintendo's newest game system and didn't really think of all the contributing factors.  And although I have all kinds of problems with Wii (the name they chose) I can see that they couldn't keep Revolution.

"Revolution" was never going to fly in Japan, where the word is nearly unpronounceable. The end. If it's a shock to anyone, it's only to those who can't imagine a world beyond their tiny corner of it.

To better explain this concept lets have a reader participation segment, just to make sure we're all on the same page.  I want to you actually read the following sentence outloud.  "Loom wit da lice cooka"  Seriously read it outloud.  Now try and say "Revolution" with that same ridiculously over the top Japanese stereotype accent.  It had to go.

But come on Wii?  That's going to take some getting used to.  I wonder if I had a problem with the name iPod when it first came out.  Knowing me I probably did.

Game|Life

Freedom Tower

Man, I'm kinda tired of people naming things "freedom" or "patriot" or "liberty" just because they're mushy concepts that tug at American's heart strings.  Honestly I'd get a little choked up too if I wasn't so busy with my suspicions that I'm being subverted.  Any-wow the Freedom Tower is slated for completion in 2011 and is meant to reclaim New York's skyline.  Anyone else think it looks like a giant middle finger?

Construction begins on NY's Freedom Tower - Yahoo! News

No, Not A 747 With Huge Bumpers.

Of course that'd be badass, to have your jet lowered and riced out with a green tinge seeping from the undercarriage. Maybe you could even throw some hydraulics in there for when you're pimpin at the airport. But that's not what we're discussing; we want 'ground effects' as in aerodynamic ground effect lift for planes. Damn interesting has a nice explanation of WIG prototypes in history and details about Boeing's plans for a hybrid WIG plane. Apparently it needs to be a hybrid cause when using ground effect planes have a maximum altitude of about 20 ft.

Damn Interesting » Ground Effect Vehicles

When I Die - Delete My the Myspace Page.

I hate the Myspace right now and I can't imagine I'll feel much differently after I've been through whatever will eventually kill me.  You chumps had better come up with some better memorial to my greatness than a few lame shout-outs on a website.

Rituals of Grief Go Online - New York Times

My Car Doesn't Like Going 80 Anyway.

The mobile information boards around DC today read:

slower speeds save gas.

I actually listened too because I wasn't in any big rush. Its actually kinda nice not having to constantly look out for cops. Lets not go overboard and assume that I'm going to take all the advice they put on those things, this one just happened to be true. Slower speeds do save gas. Of course my first thought was: so does drafting.

Get Your Ass Out Of Bed.

I'll tell you how to get up when you want.  Do it.  No whining, no "ten more minutes", no "just this once".  I'll admit this might not work for some of you, so here's another trick I have: have something to get up for every day.  Like when you were in middle school and had that field trip to six flags all day.  There was no way I was gonna sleep through that junx.  Anyway this article has some tips of its own, like practicing.  Who knows it might even actually work for some of you weaker wakers out there.

How to get up when you really want to - Lifehacker

Throwing Rocks

Doesn't this just seem a little cocky?  We're going to park an asteroid in orbit so that later we can hurl it at another that is headed our way?  I'm not sure we're really ready to be thinking about space lasers and planetary defence quite yet.  I kind of think of our space programs as that plastic tricycle before you get your real two wheel bike.

New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - Taking out a killer asteroid – with a tame one

Re-sharpen That Crap.

Are you guys for serious?  This is kinda like that battery charger that works on all batteries that I haven't bought yet.  Who's gonna try this out?  12 bucks is nothing compared to what I drop for 4 razors.

Sustainable Village - Products - Razor Saver

Stop Restarting My Computer!

Well I woke up again last night because of Microsoft.  They've been pushing through a bunch of auto-updates that require a restart.  Since my computer is idle at 3 in the morning, it thinks there's no problem with throwing in a quick restart.  That would be fine, except that I have a certain un-named peripheral that makes alert beeps when it is connected, disconnected, activated, or deactivated.  The result is a seemingly random 75 second series or blips and bleeps as the computer shuts down and restarts.  Not the nicest way to wake up at 3:07.  Oh and also, since I'm lazy and haven't setup all my auto run crap, all the services I like to run are discontinued.  And I don't usually remember till I try to use them from some remote location.  Argh.

Security Fix - Brian Krebs on Computer and Internet Security - (washingtonpost.com)

Oh, How The World Weighs.

Alright, gas ain't cheap, we all know that. But what are we going to do about it? Bush is hopefully actually stepping up to the plate and doing something about investigating prices. But should we go a step further? How about the idea of lowering or suspending the national gas tax, and closing shelters for oil companies to make up the difference? Its hard to say, but maybe the white house is realizing that spending is out of control and ready to take a stand. Whatever we come up with, its only a stop-gap. We need to think in broader terms. Like getting our cars off gas. I spose hybrids are a good first step at moving transportation onto the electrical grid. (You can convert your car into a plug-charged electric if you want.)

I've been reading about alternative energy sources forever but I still don't see them as a viable alternative for some reason. Its odd, I'm usually all about the bleeding edge, but I'm really not very excited about hybrids (which seem to be the only viable non-homebrew offering from car companies) They don't seem to be different enough and offer enough of a benefit. (especially when you average out the environmental cost of material disposal) So what do I do? I guess I'm back to the diesel option but I really feel I should be thinking further ahead. What's our post-stop-gap solution, and how do I jump straight to that?

The American Spectator
BBC NEWS | Business | Bush plans to tackle petrol price
BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush threatens spending bill veto

Update
Orrrrr... they could go the other way...
BP launches $16-a-gallon fuel! - Autoblog

Update
Nice little supplement from tgbtgbtg. We're clearly a country in denial that is slowly realizing we have a problem. Our lawmakers need to realize this in mass before joe-shmoe will accept it. For now, fine, leave the prices at 3 buck a gal I'll learn to cope by driving less and researching more fuel efficient means. But tax the crap out of those oil companies, just because I'm willing to let price be a deterrent to environmental waste doesn't mean I'm fine with the oil giants running away with ungodly profits.
The Post- going a short way to make a point

I Wish I Was CLEVER.

This little guy was developed to be an efficient city vehicle. "EU project called Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport Vehicle (CLEVER)"  Wait, wait, wait. C-L-E-V-U-T-V.  Am I missing something?  Just cause you guys want a clever acronym doesn't mean you can just cheat. 

New Scientist Tech - Breaking News - CLEVER three-wheeler takes corners at full tilt

Git Yer Gater Gloves.

Nice Cayman S in the wild by the Kirkness. Second shot is a little artsy, like he's launching some kind of teaser campaign for Porsche.

Muscle To Bone? Sounds Dirty.

I did not need to know this was a possibility:

“stone man syndrome”, a rare but devastating condition that turns muscle into bone to imprison its victims in a second skeleton

 Whew, good. Its genetic.  I watched Outbreak last night, so I'm a little nervous.

Rare 'stone man' gene that changes muscle into bone - World - Times Online

You gotta rise above it. You gotta harness in the good energy, block out the bad.

Having bad day? Just hop on over to the greatnewsnetwork and you might not feel like all the world's events are headed for our eventual destruction.

The Great News Network | Great News for a Change™

Water Flows Up Hill

Next on Mr. Dyson's list: turn it to wine and walk on it.


BBC NEWS | UK | How does Dyson make water go uphill?

Say What You Mean.

On This Day In History...

Happy 353rd anniversary of Oliver Cromwell dissolving the Rump Parliment everyone!

Oliver Cromwell Lyrics

Without The Pretty Pink Ribbon...

Yeah, women get what they want from me. Its not my fault though, its chemistry. Like in this study where men who'd just seen picutes of pretty women were more prone to make bad deals with money. This is constantly happening to me. Of course it could be that these women I see are at bars and I always get generous after being at a bar for... ohhh ten minutes.

BBC NEWS- Sex cues ruin men's decisiveness

Yeah, THAT's Why I'm Pissed...

So this is just a patent application, just an idea. But Phillips wants to flag commercials so your set won't change the channel until the ad is over. Oh, and of course they want to cripple your tivo as well. Thing is they acknowledge that people might get upset... because they think their sets are broken. To get around this the wizards at Phillips suggest a helpful pop-up explaining that your stuff's fine, you're just being screwed. Thanks guys, that's much better, you get me.

Engadget-Philips Patent

Blair Witch Vandalism

This is fake with shaky camera work, but entertaining, get it? Link

Viking!

Oh man. I love this show. I was just having dinner at TGIFridays and it was on one of the screens. I know what I'll be watching for the rest of the night.

Ein Minuten Bitte.

Ich habe eine kleinen problemo avec diese besteuerung. So wait... people get taxed for downloading things? That seems messed up, but maybe that's just cause I'm from one of those awesome red states (not to be confused with those red states from 2004). Now, I'll grant that online music downloading is a fairly large resource not to be tapped into by local governments that need to waste money on all kinds of tiger repellent stones. But these state legislators are interpreting all kinds of things that could enter into the whole fairuse/copyright/piracy rigamarole in the courts. Things like: "Music is included because music downloads fit the definition of personal property," So if now when I buy a copy of a song I own that copy and have to pay taxes, could I instead buy the rights to play a song and not pay tax, since I didn't receive the actual download? Whatever, I think mostly this trend means that I'm not going to be paying for any digital content I intend to keep. Freeware baby, that's where its at.

The tax man cometh after iTunes | CNET News.com

Stop Crying.

If you've got 4 minutes and have ever been amused by a juggler this is for you.

Amazing Juggling Finale - Google Video

Transplant Shenanigans.

Is this article confusingly written? The jist I get is that there was a heart transplant done on a 2-year-old in which they added a donor heart, but didn't remove the original one. 10 years later the now-12-year-old's body is rejecting the donor heart. So they took out the donor heart and hooked up her original heart which is now well rested (a nice 10 year break) and ready to rumble. Should I believe this? I think I need more corroborating evidence.

Girl's heart restarted after ten years - World Breaking News - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au

The Beginning Of A New Era.

So I remember the day I learned to tie my own shoelaces. We were getting in the car to drive home from Michigan after Christmas and I just figured it out. And I've never looked back. I never considered that the way I could figure out when I was five might not be the best way to tie your shoes. Don't get me wrong, I don't tie them like a freak with bigass knots and bows hanging out all sillylike. Its the same way that most (well maybe half) everyone ties their shoes. Its never let me down, although I do double knot more than I don't. That being said I'm changing. I'm giving up my old ways and I'm taking a new path. In shoelace tying. That's right, check this badboy out. Its as snug as a double knot but comes untied like the standard. I mean this is like as revolutionary as when I switched to foreign-hand instead of whatever else you do with a tie. (That kind that comes loose in a knot like a chump.) You'll have to make the decision for yourself, I know its a big one. Don't let me rush you into anything.

Ian's Shoelace Site - Shoelace Knots - How To Tie Your Shoes

Sweet, Delicious Scheduling.

The day you've been waiting for is here. Google's calendar is rolled into public use. (well technically still beta, but why should I care?) I've already imported my Outlook calendar from work so I don't have to tell people to wait till I get to work so I can check my calendar. This is perhaps the most important web-app that I've been waiting for (gmail of course, but I've taken that for granted) I would like to see the various events with colored tags, but other than that I'm pretty happy. Now all I need is a sweet way to keep outlook and Gcal synched and I'll be living on easy street. (I wold just drop Outlook, but somehow I doubt everyone at work will be on this wagon.)

Update
Oh baby. Click on 'quick add' from the right hand side. My example was "easter dinner at mom and dad's on sunday" and it made a new appointment for this coming Sunday for Easter dinner and tried to add a link to "mom and dad's" through google maps. (Obviously this'd work better with addresses or zip codes) I do like semantic processing.

Update
OK, so you have to make separate calendars to get different colored tags. Its kinda a pain in the butt to transition from Outlook, but its kinda nice once its done. So I have my events calendar, an Ultimate calendar, and a financial calendar. You can click them on and off which is nice, and best of all the events are in the color scheme of that calendar. There's also calendar sharing but I'm not quite sure who I'd give access to all that information. I mean I'm not married yet, so anyone knowing that much about what I'm doing is kinda creepy.

What The Hell Are We Doing?

Like as a human conglomerate. What's the deal? Why are there people spending years studying whether eggs jump? They've got nothing better to do?

news @ nature.com eggs caught on camera it a good spin and a hard-boiled egg will start leaping.

I'd Buy My Internet From Google.

I hate Verizon and I don't much like Comcast. So when they (and others) threatened to charge more to high bandwidth users and prioritize traffic, I just took it as another reason why these guys are asshats. Well, now its getting interesting. Speculation is hinting that this move might just force Google, Amazon and Ebay to get together and build their own infrastructure and send a tip 'o' the hat and a nice fat 'screw you' to the telcoms. I know the only thing keeping me from dropping my current Internet service is lack of an alternative. Now I'm going to think about Google running the world like a bond villain and blowing up non-compliants with a laser from space. Strangely enough, I think I'm fine with that. I could make a good henchman.

Networking Pipeline | Blog | Google, eBay And Amazon To AT We'll Build Our Own Network

Damn It Babies.

My first prank call was to myself. It didn't work out well.

Wired News: The Best of Wired on Apple

'Scuse me while I whip this out.

Hope Its Water-Proof.

Check out the Dolphin's new TV. Its a 1,750 inch LCD. Ouch, my 37 sucks all of a sudden. Is there a reason that this needs to be HD? Is someone going to be sitting really close to it?

Dolphin Stadium gets world's largest 720p display - Engadget

I can multitask again!

Awesome. Tired of all the memory that FireFox uses even when you're not using it? Well here's a setting that moves it to disk and out of ram when you minimize it. Go to your about:config page right click and select new/boolean. Name it "config.trim_on_minimize" and set the value to true and restart FireFox. Money.

The More You Know...

I saw the "Relationships" spot during 'The Office' last week and it was pretty funny. I had no idea there were a junx load more. Wonderful. I recommend watching them all but my favorites are: beer, smell, short, jellybeans, invite, and fugitive.

NBC.com > The Office

You can own a town?

Apparently, and not only that you can buy it on eBay.  We're talking about  Bridgeville CA, zip code 95526, 83 acres, and population "about 18."  What do you mean "about"?  You can't be bothered to count all those people?  Is this estimate taken from some kind of statistical sampling model?  Anyway, this isn't the first time Bridgeville has graced eBay.  In 2002 it went up but the buyer backed out because it was dilapidated and full of trash.  Apparently the owner has painted the houses and cleaned it up a bit (Who is this guy, Ewan McGregor?) because he's asking $1.70 million for it.  Of course this is an auction, so you never know what'll happen.  There's only 28 days left, so go get your checkbook and prepare to be supreme monarch of Bridgeville.

Newsvine - California Town Again for Sale on eBay

And That's Why You Don't Participate In Drug Trials.

Sure, it may seem like an easy way to earn a few bucks, and you might be able to trick yourself into thinking you're helping people by turning yourself into a guinea pig.  But bad things can happen when no one knows what a drug will do.  Just ask the six once-healthy volunteers who almost died from multiple organ failure in a mid-march drug trial.  Basically they said that the animal tests hadn't even hinted at this kind of reaction.  So just remember next time a man in a white lab coat offers you 20 bucks from a dark alley, soma dat stuff can f you up.

New Scientist Breaking News - Drug trial horror – the official interim report

The Results Are In...

Beer goggles are real, well the beer goggle effect is. Whew, nice to know I've got a leg up on semi-blind people in smoke filled areas. At least till my eighth pint. Its not really a surprise that this effect exists (I know from experience) but the quantification of its extent is interesting. (How long till someone rigs up a pocket PC to compute this on the fly?) Popular Science lists a few other no-brainer studies; I also enjoy the one about swallowing more than one magnet. (In case you're wondering, don't do it) There's a valid point in examining common knowledge from a scientific standpoint, but these guys must feel a little silly when the results come out in the "no shit, Sherlock" category.

Science Confirms the Obvious! - Popular Science

Use Of This Product May Cause Cynicism.

One of my favorite pastimes at a restaurant used to be reading the little red warning on the back of 'sweet n low' packages. I'll never forget the empty feeling I got when one day I looked and it didn't say:

"Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals."

I checked every single pink package at the table. It was very sad. Well, now it seems that aspartame too has received a clean bill of health. Come on, where am I supposed to look for everyday products that cause cancer? Under the kitchen sink? Cause we all know that stuff will kill you. I want surprising, delicious, widespread use. Can't anybody help... oh, sweet. That'll work. Course it might be tough to write a warning on barbecue, but I hear they're doing amazing things with lasers these days.

Artificial sweetener cleared of cancer link - Cancer - MSNBC.com

Looks Like We're Gonna Have To Move The Whole Damn Forbidden City.

Why is it that the man ruins everything? Cool new products and technologies just never seem cool anymore after they're so mainstream that politicians and corporations decide they can't afford not to exploit them any more. Take for example this trend of everyone and their cousin's uncle's sister-in-law offering a blog service. Or (as see in the article) the upcoming use of Smartmobbing and social networks (myspace sucks) in political campaigns. I spose that's the curse of the bleeding edge, things will either be mini-discs or iPods there is no middle ground.

Smart Mobs: Smartmobbing the next US elections

They'd rather have me think it was aliens?

Wow, this seems so plausible I'm pretty sure I shouldn't believe it. Its the second part of the radioactive paint article from yesterday and it goes on to explain why most of the UFO sitings around area 51 are probably classified government flight tests. Shiney and glowing objects are easily explained away as U2 spy planes that reflect sunlight, are surrounded by plasma fields and glow in the dark from radioactive materials. This picture of a stealth bomber kinda reminds me of that guy in Mario who rides a cloud and throws spinneys at you. That guy was a chump; but it would be pretty cool if we could camouflage our aircraft to look like clouds. Then again it might be a dead give away if you spot a cloud going 620 miles per hour.

Defense Tech: Glowing Planes, Hidden Bombers

(bonus fact: the B-2 spirit is literally worth almost twice its weight in gold)

Too Much Sun?

Sunscreen kills rats?  What the hell are these rats wearing sunscreen for anyway?  I guess it'd be good to know which was worse for you, the sunscreen or the sun.  I think I'll keep applying protection in the mean time, if only because it can come in such delicious flavors.

new scientist breaking news - sunscreen chemicals disrupt thyroid in rats>

Can I put this on my car?

Wow, this seems cool; like so cool it might be bullshit.  There's a patent of something called plasma aerodynamics that involves charging the particles around an aircraft.  This greatly reduces friction and absorbs radar.  We're talking about a 30% reduction in drag, which airlines should be salivating over.  The only problem is that it takes quite a large amount of machinery and energy to generate that charged field.  Here's a solution: "Radioactive paint weighs virtually nothing, does not require any power input and can be dirt cheap."  Mostly because every nuclear power station produces the desired goo as waste.  So what do you think?  Has the military been keeping this secret radioactive paint under wraps since 1964 for use in their stealth weapons systems or is this just lone gunmen spinning tales?

Defense Tech: Stealth's Radioactive Secret