Deck Chair Hero

Lately all we've heard about is swine flu and pirates.
So, what the fuck was a cruise ship doing here:



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Isn't that just asking for trouble?

any way, there is a mildly cool story to go with it, but frankly, i'm tired of news stories with the headline "...is hailed as a hero". I guess it would be editorialising for them to say, "he's a hero", but, in that case, why do we always get news reports about what people have said about events. Can't we just have the events on their own? Is it really that much different to report that someone said, "he's a hero", than to come out and say it yourself? Case in point, on Fox News, they're always putting the comments of the right wing fringe congresspeople out there as the mainstream response to something the government is doing. Like, "Some Call President's New Program Socialism". Then you read down the page and find out it was only Michelle Bachmann. That's an arbitrary one I made up, but they're always putting up headlines that follow this formula.

It's frustrating to read Google News and see articles from these guys get the same treatment as articles from Al Jazeera, The BBC, and The Boston Globe. But they do this too, well, the BBC and the Globe; I've never seen an article like this out of Al Jazeera.

How's about we go back to reporting events and not simply repeating the speeches and press releases of others on the topic of recent events?

Fourier Transforms in the News!

Back in October, a professor from Dalhousie was trying to figure out what chord is used for a previously elusive chord in "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles.

Eventually, he resorted to a Fourier transform ; )

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/beatles_unknown_hard_days_night_chord_mystery_solved_using_fourier_transform?

EPA House band

This was on Rachel Maddow last night

greatest thing ever.

Goal posts, peanalty for distruction

so, after finding that wonderfully named statute, i was nosing through them and i found this:

Chapter 266: Section 104A. Goal posts; penalty for destruction

Section 104A. Whoever wilfully and without right destroys, injures or removes a goal post on a football field shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars.

a specific law. just for football goal posts. It only includes a fine while another statute covering the broader subject of property destruction includes jail time. I guess they don't want MIT and Harvard students going to jail for pranking one another...

Chapter 266: Section 106. Ice ponds; injury

Section 106. Whoever wilfully, intentionally and without right or license, cuts, injures, mars or otherwise damages or destroys ice upon waters from which ice is or may be taken as an article of merchandise, whereby the taking thereof is hindered or the value thereof diminished for that purpose, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars.

and another

Chapter 266: Section 113. Timber, wood and shrubs; wilful cutting and destruction on land of another

Section 113. Whoever wilfully cuts down or destroys timber or wood standing or growing on the land of another, or carries away any kind of timber or wood cut down or lying on such land, or digs up or carries away stone, ore, gravel, clay, sand, turf or mould from such land, or roots, nuts, berries, grapes or fruit of any kind or any plant there being, or cuts down or carries away sedge, grass, hay or any kind of corn, standing, growing or being on such land, or cuts or takes therefrom any ferns, flowers or shrubs, or carries away from a wharf or landing place any goods in which he has no interest or property, without the license of the owner thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than six months or by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars; and if the offence is committed on Sunday, or in disguise, or secretly in the night time, the imprisonment shall not be for less than five days nor the fine less than five dollars.

pigeons!:

Chapter 266: Section 132. Pigeons; killing or frightening

Section 132. Whoever wilfully kills pigeons upon, or frightens them from, beds which have been made for the purpose of taking them in nets, by any method, within one hundred rods of the same, except on land lawfully occupied by himself, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one month or by a fine of not more than twenty dollars, and shall also be liable for the actual damages to the owner or occupant of such beds.

possession of an infernal machine

possession of an infernal machine - best crime name ever

§ 102A. Possession of Infernal Machine; Notice of Seizure.

Whoever, other than a police or other law enforcement officer acting in the discharge of his official duties, has in his possession or under his control an infernal machine or a similar instrument, contrivance or device shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years or in jail for not more than two and one half years, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment, and the said machine, instrument, contrivance or device shall be forfeited to the commonwealth. The term "infernal machine", as used in this section, shall include any device for endangering life or doing unusual damage to property, or both, by fire or, explosion, whether or not contrived to ignite or explode automatically and whether or not disguised so as to appear harmless. Notice of the seizure of any such machine, instrument, contrivance or device shall be sent forthwith to the commissioner of public safety and the article seized shall be subject to his order. - M.G.L. c. 266 §102A (2005)

The Real Boston Tea Party was Against the Wal-Mart of the 1770s

Green Lady

An exam proctor addressed me as "Mrs. Green Lady" yesterday.

You will all now be required to recognise me this way. Start practising ; )

On Navier-Stokes and Phillips

When you start getting into heated arguments with your text book, it's time to go to sleep. That said, Mr. Frank M. White should probly not write any more texts. he wrote an inaccessable book in a conversational style, so the natural inclination when, say, the index entry for lift points to a page where he says, "We will talk about lift in a bit, but it's vaguely related to x", is to curse him and his publisher.

In other news:
Yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy

Death to Smoochy

"When we were kids and my brothers and I played cowboys and Indians, I was always the Chinese rail road worker"

Death to Smoochy

G20

so, first we hear a man died at the G20 protests in London. Then we hear he was just a man walking home, and he died for unrelated reasons.

Now this comes out.

The authoritarianism of the police in the UK and US has gotten out of hand, well, I guess maybe it always was.

Mr. Berlusconi, you never dissapoint

During a visit to one tent village where thousands who had lost their houses were staying, Berlusconi told German television "they should see it like a weekend of camping."

But, really and truly, this is the sort of thing that you elect somebody like him for. You know he's not going to be the best for the job, he's there for flamboyance points.

"The politics of it are I'm not going to put discrimination in the Iowa Constitution," said Iowa Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs. "That's a horrible idea. The people who are pushing the amendment are saying equal protection under the law -- except. I think that's unacceptable."

If they don't do anything about it now, it will never happen, it will be here to stay. That's what we saw in Mass. in the first vote for a constitutional ban by the legislature (there have to be many yes votes in consecutive years) it passed, but the next year, when the sky hadn't fallen, it failed. No one cared any more except the fanatics.

yes Vermont! keeping it in the New England family! First for Gay marriage: Massachusetts. First to do it through law instead of courts: VERMONT!!!

Really and truly, this should have happened in Vermont a long time ago. It is the hippy state, and it's been lagging on this issue. Three cheers!

I found the perfect fakespanish=realspanish phrase:

And the rest = Y el resto

I just found this amusing. It reminds me in a vague way of some of the tensions here.

Ok, just this last one, i swear

beautiful comics - xkcd

Donald Knulth

Turn Signals
- I so totally do this! well, i'm always watching turn signals to see if they're in sync, I never get out to talk about it...

Nihilism

Movie Seating
- anyone who's ever been to a movie with me and put up with my shit, knows that I am incredibly anal about sitting in the centre of the row.

I just found this web comic and it speaks to my heart.

Automatic Doors
- seriously, I do this.

Not Really Into Pokemon

YouTube
-amen

Hallucinations


I should stop now before I've posted every comic there

Seafood Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

equal parts mayonnaise and horseradish (try not to include too much of the liquid from the horseradish)
powdered chipotle and cumin to taste
salt and sugar to taste (just a pinch for a single serving