Thought this was very amusing…
During the ICEX 2003 naval exercises near the North Pole, the American submarine Connecticut (SSN 22) poked it’s sail and rudder through the ice. When an officer looked around outside via the periscope, he noted that his sub was being stalked by a hostile polar bear. The periscope cam was turned on, and these photos of a polar bear chewing on the subs rear rudder resulted. The damage was said to be minor.
This sort o stuff totally blows my mind.
SmartInsulin contains nanoparticles that release insulin in proportion to blood-glucose levels, according to team member John Hebert, a second-year student at MIT Sloan School of Management.
“These particles will start to slowly break down and release insulin into the bloodstream, regulating (the) blood-sugar level,” Hebert said. “Once the blood sugar is at normal levels, the particles close back up, resolidify and then stop releasing insulin.”
My fiancee (wedding in just over 2 weeks now) is an insulin dependent diabetic as is her mother… I can just imagine what sort of difference this would make to their lives. Unbeleivable.
Wired talks about the visual effects in Matrix Reloaded. Soudes awesome…
The standard way of simulating the world in CG is to build it from the inside out, by assembling forms out of polygons and applying computer-simulated textures and lighting. The ESC team took a radically different path, loading as much of the real world as possible into the computer first, building from the outside in. This approach, known as image-based rendering, is transforming the effects industry.
After suggesting that it was possible, a guy from New Zealand has decided to build his own Cruise Missile.
However, there have also been a number of people who claim I’m overstating the case and that it’s not possible to build a real cruise missile without access to sophisticated gear, specialist tools and information not readily available outside the military.
So, in order to prove my case, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and build a cruise missile in my own garage, on a budget of just US$5,000.
I like to think of this project as the military version of “Junkyard Wars”.
Sounds like a big ask, but a group of enthusiasts built a model aircraft which flew a quarter of the atlantic under its own guidance, and they had a lot of size and weight limitations which do not apply here.
There’s also a Cruise Missle Construction Diary.
British Airways and Air France have announced that the Concorde will be grounded for good at the end of October…
In a statement, BA said Concorde would cease flying in the autumn because of “commercial reasons, with passenger revenue falling steadily against a backdrop of rising maintenance costs for the aircraft”.
Shame to see them go, would have loved to fly on one.
A couple of weeks back I linked to Ole Eichhorn’s prevocative “Tyrany of Email” article. Ole has now revisited the subject, and gives us “Tyranny Revisited”, which addresses some of the feedback he got on the original.
Well, three hours is purely anecdotal, based on personal experience. Your mileage may vary. The central point was not three hours vs. two or four, it was that you need fairly long periods of uninterrupted time to be productive.
I’ve had me email notifications basically turned right down for the last week couple of weeks and found that it helps maintain the flow, but I still get people walking into my office, and the phone ringing.
A few weeks back I even tried putting my phone in “Do Not Disturb” mode, which only caused people to walk into my office to ask why my phone wasn’t working (this despite the fact that the screen on their phone would say “Do Not Disturb” whenever they tried to contact me).
Ole Eichhorn has posted an excelent article titled “The Tyrany of Email”.
I maintain that programming cannot be done in less than three-hour windows. It takes three hours to spin up to speed, gather your concentration, shift into “right brain mode”, and really focus on a problem.
He’s absolutely right too. I found a while ago that to acheive any sort of meaningful productivity I had to turn my email notifications off. The rush of that particular project has passed and I’ve turned them back on again, but I’ve since started to suffer from Outlookitis (that horrible condition where you seem to spend your entire day working in Outlook) again. Think its time to turn off the email notifications again.
Under the headline “Europe Heads for the Moon in July”, slashdot brings us the news that the European Space Agency is planning to launch a mission to the moon in July. Aside from all the typical US chest beating (”so what we went there a generation ago”) comments, there were a few gems…
>Europe Heads for the Moon in July
Damn, they never told me continental drift was that bad.
… and …
>The U.S. is planning to sit around and watch.
No, the US is planning to create its own lunar surface in the Middle East
… and this which has som merit…
One day the history books will read, “While the conquest of space began with the colonization of the Moon by the joint Eurasian Space Agency, a little known fact is that the United States of America actually was the first government to land a man on the Moon in the latter part of the 20th century. Although the USA was first to visit the Moon, it did not have the resources or the vision to stay and make a enduring presence there (Moon jeeps notwithstanding).”
This is basically what the history books say about the Vikings and North America–technically first, but who cares. Columbus and the English (and French, Spanish Germans, Dutch in descending order) get the recognition.
That, of course, begs the question as to what indeginous Moon people Eurasia will replace when they do colonize the Moon, but let’s not go there, shall we?
eicar - Anti-Virus test file just in case I need it again.
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H H*
Jeremy Zawodny has been doing a great job with his flying blog. Today he flew his first solo. Congratulations!
