9RFmdzLCr9k7b8lfx2psnb9L_500.jpg (JPEG Image, 353x500 pixels)

compare and contrast 2 images of relative technological prowess -- two northern polar regions but worlds apart

Waltzing microbots are all the rage at Duke University.

Researchers there today said they made microrobots shaped something like a spatula but with dimensions measuring just microns, or millionths of a meter pirouette to the music of a Strauss waltz on a dance floor just 1 millimeter across. In another sequence, the devices pivot in a precise fashion whenever their boom-like steering arms are drawn down to the surface by an electric charge. This response resembles the way dirt bikers turn by extending a boot heel, researchers said. The researchers said they have also been able to get five of the devices to group-maneuver in cooperation under the same control system.

Dancing microrobots waltz on a pin s head | NetworkWorld.com Community

My best guy friend is sitting across from me as I type this, playing footsie with me under the table. We ve been friends for 10 years, since college, and we ve grown closer with age. We can talk for hours about things big and small; we can also sit comfortably in silence. He makes me laugh, always, but has sincere words when I need a lift.

It s the perfect relationship. Except, of course, for when we split ways and I go home, try to mentally decode the meaning of footsie and then turn to my roommate or my sister or anyone who ll listen and say, UGH! WE RE SO PERFECT TOGETHER, WHY AREN T WE DATING?! And other sane things like that.

Pop culture abounds with examples of friends who ve navigated or attempted to navigate the path to romance. Think Friends, in which Monica and Chandler get together. And Little Women, when Laurie longs for childhood pal Jo March. Or, most famously, When Harry Met Sally . . ., which explores the muddy waters of sexual tension to determine if, in fact, men and women can be friends.

Just Friends? - washingtonpost.com

They're clunky, dirty and can't access the internet, yet every year thousands of people buy typewriters when they could probably afford a computer. Why?

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Why typewriters beat computers

Here's the set-up: one stick figure says to another, “Make me a sandwich,” only to be told, “No.” Thinking quickly, stick figure No. 1 says, “Sudo make me a sandwich,” and the once-recalcitrant stick figure No. 2 must comply.

XKCD makes NYT.

This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix

Stefanie wrote:

David Brooks:
The central political debate of the 20th century was over the role of government. The right stood for individual freedom while the left stood for extending the role of the state. But the central debate of the 21st century is over quality of life. In this new debate, it is necessary but insufficient to talk about individual freedom. Political leaders have to also talk about, as one Tory politician put it, “the whole way we live our lives.”

That means, first, moving beyond the Thatcherite tendency to put economics first.

In other words, their conservatives are becoming... liberals. Although, it's interesting to note that Brooks associates a concern for individual freedom with conservatives, not liberals. Of course, he's referring to economic freedom more than social freedom, but economic freedom is the key to a healthy democratic society. Thatcher was right, and both the U.K. and the U.S.A. could use more of it, not less.

While I think Brooks is correct in assuming that American conservatives would not accept the new British conservatism, he seems to ignore the fact that the Republican Party has already moved closer to the left. That's why so many real conservatives are dissatisfied with the Republicans.

what is regarded as conservative, liberal or socialist has morphed over the decades and centuries
describing any political position as "real" conservatism seems to me simply to indicate a relative idealogical position rather than an objective set of facts

the contempory British Conservative party has certainly moved it's rhetoric to the left and more to the perceived centerground of British politics mostly as a result of its perceived extremism -- failing dramatically electorally will do that -- and as a reflection of Tony Blair's success in moving the Labour Party to the perceived right equally as a result of electoral failure

in British politics first for the left then right there has been a marked shift away from clearly defined idealogical positions and towards pragmatics -- a shift which has caused levels of horror in both major parties -- what has resulted is a softer more amorphous idealogical vision from the ruling elites

it is a real danger for any political movement/philosophy/meme stack when arguments break out about "true" this or "real" that -- the great rallying cry of legitimacy -- the internal struggles within communist parties eg the Chinese; who particularly love these sort of labels with rightists, leftists and splittists; demonstrating a particular sequence almost like a dance sequence or to use a metaphor of something you're more familiar with than I am - chess.

on a personal note i think the assertion that "economic freedom is the key to a healthy democratic society" is dubious when stated as fact

a level of economic freedom goes hand in hand with democracy but the relative levels of economic freedom -- the economic merits of varying levels of unregulated markets and the social effects have been at the center of political discourse since before Adam Smith (1723-1790)(who formalised much of the thinking on the subject) and this discourse completely dominated the history of the 20th century

but there is no such thing as a purely unregulated market - pure economic freedom -- no contract law etc no property -- not much economics would take place in such an enviroment

regulation -- law and the stability it provides is a prerequisite but the optimum level of law and regulation is only provable by time: the success levels of different economic and political models as future and history unfolds
is the only judge

we can argue for different levels but it is a matter of discourse rather than objectivity

RE: The Conservative Revival - New York Times

For years, American and British politics were in sync. Reagan came in roughly the same time as Thatcher, and Clinton’s Third Way approach mirrored Blair’s. But the British conservatives never had a Gingrich revolution in the 1990s or the Bush victories thereafter. They got their losing in early, and, in the wilderness, they rethought modern conservatism while their American counterparts were clinging to power.

The Conservative Revival - New York Times

England is an irritating and insular country full of overweight, binge-drinking, reality TV addicts, a new guide warns tourists.

But in the new Rough Guide to England, the English are also hailed as a nation of animal-loving, tea-drinking charity donors who love nothing better than forming an orderly queue.

English self-important and irritating | Oddly Enough | Reuters

does anyone else think the new flash based dilbert site sucks in the worst way ?

you can't even see the whole 6 panels of the sunday strip without scrolling "the little blue button" for fucks sake