Sophont

toledoblade.com : "On a bright Sunday morning nearly 43 years ago, a ramshackle Buick crept through the posh streets of Palm Beach, Fla., toward a sprawling, Mediterranean-style mansion. At the wheel was a disheveled, silver-haired madman. His aged right hand rested near a switch wired to seven sticks of dynamite. Inside the two-story stucco home was his target - president-elect John F. Kennedy - readying for morning Mass. Richard Pavlick stopped a short distance from the house and waited, unnoticed by U.S. Secret Service agents outside. It was decades before today"

Mars and GW Bush : "The following is from page 116 of Dear Visitor: Voices of McDonald Obsevatory (ISBN 0-9742535-0-2; I can't find it on Amazon.com, but the publisher is here), which I purchased while in Ft Davis on vacation in September. The book is a compilation of interviews conducted, for the most part, by its editor, Karen Stewart Winget, the wife of astronomer Don Winget, who I heard give an amazing talk at the 1997 Texas Star Party -- but that's a subject for an entirely different post. The interviewee is Tom Barnes, a former associate director of the observatory and presently a senior research scientist there. Emphases added: Now, one more favorite story. It was in August of 1997 [that is, the month after the Mars Pathfinder/Sojourner landing -- JDM], when President Bush was Governor. President George W. Bush and the First Lady came out for a tour of McDonald and I got the job of giving the tour. They came out late one afternoon, spent the night in House A [VIP...

The ceramic sculpture and metal sculpture of Clayton Bailey : AN EXHIBITION OF AMAZING CERAMIC WONDERS OF ART, SCIENCE, EDUCATION, and ENTERTAINMENT. : "MUSEUM MISFORTUNE ! IT LOOKS AND SOUNDS LIKE A VIRTUAL DISASTER ! INSTRUCTIONS: (MAKES SOUNDS LIKE BREAKING GLASS.) 1- DROP PIECES ON THE FLOOR WHEN NO ONE IS LOOKING. 2- ACT SURPRISED, AND ENJOY THE EXCITEMENT. 3- UNBREAKABLE - CAN BE DROPPED OVER AND OVER AGAIN. This practical joker's object is Clayton Bailey's way of disrupting the peace at art museums or gallery openings. Irregular pieces of tempered aluminum are painted to look like fragments of decorated porcelain sculpture; (possibly a Jim Melchert or Robert Hudson ceramic sculpture?) When dropped on the floor, they sounds like a large, valuable, ceramic object has broken. Bailey takes this in a box to show his ceramics class at Cal State, Hayward , and just as he is about to show the treasure from his great grandmother's china collection (whi...

Mistaril : "With Space Station Manager your goal is to advance the space dream by successfully building and managing a manned space station. You will intuitively connect modules together to create your desired layout and design. Then you select research projects to be conducted on the station, the projects providing revenue for further growth. To make your task easier you get constant feedback from the simulation about your progress. Or you can just sit back and relax while the spectacular scenery from high above the atmosphere gently flows by. Using detailed imaging data from NASA, the view shows our very own earth. The game is constantly developed and has a friendly community at our forums. Just join in and influence how the game will evolve. Our updates are free to those with the full version."

Recycled Russian Brides : "Tired of Dating Spoiled American Women? Russian Women are Unspoiled, Devoted and Grateful! Tired of trying to marry the Russian woman of your dreams only to find out she's already been taken? Well, now you have a second chance at love. Russian women are often seeking rich men to marry in order to gain citizenship in the U.S. and access to a large bank account in order to get the full experience of the American Dream. But often times these dreams shatter. Bank accounts are emptied, boredom sets in and when the first husband is no longer of use, they divorce and take as much money as they can on the way out. A beautiful Russian bride is now rich, single and independent. She was looking for money, achieved that goal and now she's looking for love. Your love. Recycled Russian Brides is looking to set you up with the one that got away."

Reversing a Tide of Clutter : "Reversing a Tide of Clutter * Facing jail because his house is filled to the brim, a hoarder finds hope in a woman with a talent for organizing -- and a big heart. By the time Dorothy Breininger dropped — miraculously, it seemed — into his life, Lloyd Drum, at 75, had pretty much resigned himself to going to jail. The reasons lay in the odiferous piles of moldering, rodent-infested clothing, furniture, books, expired coupons, bikes and bike parts — thousands of bike parts — that crammed his two-bedroom house and flowed over the yards, porches and garage. Inside the house, a person had to turn sideways to navigate pathways through clutter that, in places, almost reached the ceilings. Unable to eke out space for even a bed, and bothered by the dust, Drum slept in a broken recliner on his front porch. Drum is intelligent and well educated, a churchgoing vegetarian who likes to help others. He is also a hoarder, a seemingly indiscriminate a...

Big Dead Place : This site is dedicated to Antarctica and to thinking about Antarctica. Though much of the site is original, some of it is excerpted from the book Big Dead Place, to be published by Feral House Publishing. The site is edited by F. Scott Robert, a pseudonym for an enthusiastic lackey at an Antarctic station who enjoys his or her job and has an excellent work record. Considering the National Science Foundation's record of irritable reactions when its tidy iceberg yarns are marred by unauthorized observations, using a pseudonym is a thin but reasonable precaution when one enjoys the mesmerizing activities of The Program, but feels incapable of showering the great Antarctic circus with the unqualified praise of the professional journalists, who wriggle to Antarctica to spawn omissions. We welcome submissions and we respect anonymity if you prefer. Big Dead Place :: Welcome to the Program : "Many of the early explorers who came to Antarctica died misera...

Report: A third of spam spread by RAT-infested PCs | CNET News.com : "There are lots of people on cable modems and broadband connections that haven't properly secured their computer,' he said. 'They don't know it, but their PC is being used as a relay for sending spam to thousands and thousands of other people. We believe that 30 percent of all spam'--or unsolicited commercial e-mail messages--'is being sent from compromised computers.' Cluley said that if a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), a type of Trojan horse program, is able to get into a PC, an attacker could take full control of that PC, as long as it is connected to the Internet. 'They can steal information, read files, write files, send e-mails from that user's name--it is as though the attacker has broken into the office or home and is sitting in front of that computer,' he said. There is also a very small chance that PC owners will have any idea their system is being used by a th...

AnandTech: Budget CPU Shootout: Clash of the 'rons : " We were particularly curious about what you could get for $100, and it turns out that there are quite a few CPUs that you can get for less than the price of a motherboard. Currently, the budget market is made up of low end Athlon XP, Celeron, and Duron processors. There aren't any Pentium 4 processors that come in under our $100 price point, but we've included the Pentium 4 1.8A (Northwood) as a reference point for the Celeron processors. Performance is always being pushed in the high end market, but it is arguably even more important in the low end systems. If we are trying to save money on a computer system, we want our dollar to go as far as possible, so price/performance is the most important factor when determining components to fill a budget box. Just because we want to save money doesn't mean we want to suffer a huge performance loss. With the price of PCs that perform well dropping all the time, it ...

CBS News | Brits Boast Big Male Fossil Find | December 4, 2003�14:38:02 : "a new member of a large species group called ostracode, was buried under volcanic ash which mineralized and retained an image of its soft body parts. That unique preservation enabled researchers to construct a highly detailed three-dimensional picture of the animal after digging the fossil from a rock bed in Herefordshire. Details revealed include gills, eyes, limbs designed for swimming and the oldest known male organ in the fossil record. It was this last that led researchers to name the new species, Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which is Greek for 'amazing swimmer with large penis.'"

local6.com - Problem Solvers - 'Trampled' Wal-Mart Shopper Has History Of Injury Claims : "Patricia Vanlester, 41, was knocked unconscious and, her sister said, 'trampled by a herd of elephants' by a stampede of shoppers reaching for DVD players that went on sale at 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, according to Orange City police and the sister, Linda Ellzey. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and carried in newspapers and other media as far away as Australia and China, an example -- some commentators have opined -- of American excess during the holiday shopping season. An investigation by WKMG-Local 6 reveals Vanlester has filed 16 previous claims of injuries at Wal-Mart stores and other places she has shopped or worked, according to Wal-Mart, court files and state records. Her sister, who accompanied her Friday on the visit to Wal-Mart, has also filed a prior injury claim against Wal-Mart, with Vanlester as her witness, a company spokeswoman ...

local6.com - News - Soldier Who Married Iraqi To Be Discharged : "An American soldier has been reprimanded and will be discharged for taking a break from a foot patrol in Baghdad to marry an Iraqi woman, his lawyer said Monday. Sgt. Sean Blackwell, 27, is being punished for divulging the time and location of the patrol to his bride and the Iraqi judge who married them, his attorney said. The Florida National Guardsman avoided a possible court-martial for dereliction of duty and disobeying orders. Blackwell received a written reprimand in advance of the discharge, attorney Richard Alvoid said. 'The more they punish him, the more negative publicity the military likely will receive,' he said. 'He is guilty of falling in love.' Florida Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Ron Tittle said he had no word on disciplinary action against Blackwell or a second Florida guardsman, Cpl. Brett Dagen, 37, who married another Iraqi woman in a double ceremony during a break on the ...

Eat Worms - Feel Better : "Every three weeks Anna goes to Dr Weinstock's clinic and takes a drink full of worm eggs. But Anna reckons it is worth it: 'I don't really think of them as being alive I guess, it's almost just like taking a pill or something. 'I try not to think of them as disgusting or anything like that. And I couldn't live the way I was living. I was desperate to try anything. I just wanted to get well'. The worms grow inside her gut and then pass out after a few weeks, but as a result of having these worms in her gut, her ulcerative colitis is in remission - she doesn't suffer from any of the symptoms any more. Dr Weinstock reckons that's because we've evolved with worms and actually need them. Before gut worms were eradicated in the West 50 or so years ago allergies - caused by the overreaction of the immune system - were virtually unheard of, now in the UK one third of us suffers from some sort of allergy...

ANTI_TERROR : "BIT ENGINEERS REPORT the Antiterror line has concluded public testing and is ready for use. This service enables every phone [home/cell/booth] to act as a networked microphone. For collecting live audio data on civil liberty infringements and other anti-terror events. HOW IT WORKS You call in and leave a message. Message may be spoken report or in-progress recording of an anti-terror attack. UPHONE uplinks your audio recording direct to the BIT online terror database. An audio accumulation of micro- incidents which individually may be inactionable but en masse could provide evidence for a definitive response."

original at : "http://www.ventureblog.com/articles/indiv/2003/000208.html Economically, trade is no different than other technologies. Economist David Friedman of Santa Clara University puts it most succinctly: there are two ways to make a car -- you can either make it in Detroit or grow it in Iowa. You already know how to make it in Detroit. You get a bunch of iron ore, smelt it into steel, and have an assembly line of robots and workers shape it into a finished vehicle. To grow it in Iowa, you plant car seeds in the ground (also known as 'wheat'), wait until they sprout, and harvest them. Take the harvest and put it into a big boat marked 'to Japan' and let it sail off. A few months later a brand new car comes back. Moose Hunter Pournell: "Sure. And not long after that the people of Detroit are unemployed and you have problems. Then you have a conflict with China and you want to build some tanks. You don't convert General Motors to making t...

TheIndyChannel.com - News - Police: Stolen Video Game Machines May Be No Good : "INDIANAPOLIS -- Police say many of the video game systems that were stolen from a warehouse Tuesday night were in the process of being returned because they didn't work. Authorities said two masked males bound three employees with duct tape before stealing several hundred PlayStation 2 and Xbox video game machines from the warehouse (pictured, left), located in the 3300 block of Pagosa Court. An employee said one of the robbers had a handgun. No suspects were named Wednesday. Marion County sheriff's investigators said the machines were at the warehouse because they had been returned, RTV6's Jack Rinehart reported Wednesday. When the robbers had left, one of the workers managed to call 911. RTV6 obtained a recording of the 911 call. 'When I came to the door, they pulled my hood over my head and knocked me to the ground,' a worker told a 911 dispatcher. 'Then th...

Brownian Emotion -- Chaos, Made to Order : "Patents stifle innovation--software patents, doubly so. That's just my opinion, of course, as is everything in this post. But I feel pretty confident saying this based on my experience and what I've heard from other inventors. The original idea for patents was to do just the opposite--to protect inventors from some greedy corporation coming in and stealing or stifling clever designs. But it seems pretty typical nowadays that some large corporation acquires the patent rights from the true inventor(s) and uses those rights to exploit the market and prevent competition, rather than reward the original innovation or motivate more of the same. When I worked at Disney, for example, patenting something for the company earned the inventor a few thousand dollars and a plaque, while the company could make an infinite amount of money from his or her work. Sure, there's an implicit employer/employee relationship there, but where...

19 Nov 03 Dear Sir, I am writing you from Finland, Scandinavia. I turn to you in a really odd case. For many years I've been fascinated by the idea to get something from me to the North Pole and to the South Pole. Last year, two of my 'teeth of wisdom' (molars) were removed by a dental surgeon and those teeth were after that disinfected and sealed in a bag. Since then I've had this weird idea, that I definitely want to get one wisdom teeth to the maximum South and the other one to the maximum North. So, I would like to know, if there are any chance to get a wisdom-tooth of mine to be buried in the Antarctic? This must be the oddest request you have ever heard of, but I am sincerely asking this. Please keep this email confidenial. Sincerely, Mr [O.H.] Finland Mr. H., We will gladly plunge that disinfected tooth of yours into the South Pole directly. Your seed thus planted in a mountain of shifting ice, it will begin its long creep to the Antarctic coast...

CNN.com - California blocks sales of 'Glofish' pets - Dec. 4, 2003 : "SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- Citing ethical concerns, state regulators Wednesday refused to allow sales of the first bio-engineered household pet, a zebra fish that glows fluorescent. GloFish are expected to go on sale everywhere else next month. California is the only state with a ban on genetically engineered species, and the Fish and Game Commission said it would not exempt the zebra fish from the law even if escaped fish would not pose a threat to the state's waterways. 'For me it's a question of values, it's not a question of science,' said commissioner Sam Schuchat. 'I think selling genetically modified fish as pets is wrong.'"

Army Times - News - More News : 1-shot killer This 5.56mm round has all the stopping power you need — but you can’t use it. Here’s why: By John G. Roos, Special to the Times Ben Thomas and three colleagues were driving north out of Baghdad in an SUV on a clear mid-September morning, headed down a dirt road into a rural village, when gunmen in several surrounding buildings opened fire on them. In a brief but intense firefight, Thomas hit one of the attackers with a single shot from his M4 carbine at a distance he estimates was 100 to 110 yards. He hit the man in the buttocks, a wound that typically is not fatal. But this round appeared to kill the assailant instantly. “It entered his butt and completely destroyed everything in the lower left section of his stomach ... everything was torn apart,” Thomas said. Thomas, a security consultant with a private company contracted by the government, recorded the first known enemy kill using a new — and controversial — bullet. ...