I am definitely checking back on christmas day just to ensure of its validity. Anyway - a bit of christmas fun:) I love how subtle it is...

And now....time for christmas antics...

Illustrated BMI Categories

I was explaining to my boss that I am obese the other day and he refused to beleive me. Unfortunately most of the pictures in this archive are of women. They are pretty easy to fit into catagories. Overweight women are not unattractive. There are a few men. The guy who is just shy of normal looks almost malnourished. The overweight guys don't look overweight. Either guys hide fat better than women, or fat is way more dangerous on men 'causing the medical industry to set comparatively different standards.

Illustrated BMI Categories - a photoset on Flickr

- Walk up to random people and say "WHAT YEAR IS THIS?" and when they tell you, get quiet and then say "Then there's still time!" and run off.

- Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell "NOOOOOOOOO"

Sooo pissed I heard about this late!

Koala Wallop :: View topic - Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day: 12-8-7

A bipartisan group of Congressmen (and one woman) yesterday introduced a major bill aimed at boosting US intellectual property laws and the penalties that go along with them. While much of the legislation targets industrial counterfeiting and knockoff drugs, it also allows the government to seize people's computers.

The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP... groan)...

Awesome!! This is clearly needed and not a moment too late. Our intellectualy property laws are so lax in the United States! Is about damn time somebody did something about that! Think of the children!

Congress' copyright reform: seize computers, boost penalties, spend money

This preliminary study found no significant differences in the effect of various combinations of beverages on hydration status of healthy adult males. Advising people to disregard caffeinated beverages as part of the daily fluid intake is not substantiated by the results of this study.

I used to drink a lot of Pepsi. I don't anymore. I stopped doing it to loose weight, although I've been drinking more cola in recent months because I seem to have lost energy since stopping smoking and I need the caffine fix more than I used to.

However, when I did drink a lot of Pepsi many of my friends used to say "Why do you do that? Don't you know that cola dehydrates you?" People are always so sure that random "facts" like this that they've picked up from who knows where are the absolute scientific truth.

This "fact" originally struck me as odd. I knew that if I was thirsty, and I drank a Pepsi, I wouldn't be thirsty anymore. So, drinking Pepsi seemed to serve it's purpose. I always drink cola with ice, preferably crushed ice, and I used to tell people who said this that the ice resulted in a net gain of hydration. The depth of their scientific knowledge of the effects of caffine on hydration was no match for this hypothesis and so it usually ended the discussion, but I always wondered about this.

I've googled around in the past for information clarifying the dehyrating effects of cafinated beverages to no avail, which increased my suspicion about the truth of this fact and my frustration with people who propagate it. I even thought about asking the myth busters. Today I managed to find a scientific study of the question. It's conclusion is that drinking a caffinated beverage does not result in a net decrease in hydration. So this "fact" is wrong. Drinking a Pepsi hydrates you.

Well, maybe. The study was funded by a grant from the Coca-Cola Company, who obviously have a business interest in combatting rumors like this that cause people to reduce their consumption. So perhaps the study is biased? Incomplete? Junk Science fueled by an evil corporate agenda?

I dunno. The next time someone tells me this "fact" I'm going to direct them at this study, which will hopefully top out a MemeStreams search for Pepsi once the indexer runs. I'm open to the idea that this study's conclusions might not be the final answer to this debate, but I think these results must be countered with another study and not simply with "well thats not what I heard..." or "the body building website I like says something different." If you've got a link proving that this study is wrong, biased, or incomplete, please let me know!

Does drinking cola dehydrate you?

Nov. 29, 2007 -- The same microwave radiation that reheats pizza can be used to fry the electrical systems in cars, stopping them dead in their tracks.

This struck me as a bit odd, because what microwave ovens do is vaporize water, and anything powerful enough to kill a car by vaporizing the water in it would probably kill it's passengers. So I dug deeper.

The technology uses the same kind of energy used in microwave ovens, but at a different frequency. Ovens typically operate at 2.45 Ghz, whereas the high-power car-stopping system is at 300 megahertz. In both cases, the radiation is above common radio frequencies and is not harmful to humans.

OK, technically a 300 megahertz signal is called "microwave" because anything from 300 megahertz to 300 gigahertz is considered "microwave." However, there is almost no real technical relationship between whatever this 300 megahertz signal is doing to your car, and what microwave ovens do. There is also no relationship between the reason microwave ovens are safe and the reason this car blaster is safe. Microwave ovens are safe because they are sheilded. This blaster is safe because it operates at a completely different frequency that has totally different characteristics. I'm also not sure what they mean by "In both cases, the radiation is above common radio frequencies." 300 Megahertz is in a band reserved in the United States by the government for 2 way radios and meterology. All kinds of radios operate at 2.5 gig, including 802.11b and lots of cordless telephones.

Having said that, this is kind of like a HERF gun. Its a focused radio beam with high enough power and frequency that it has the capacity to fry electronics. Its a cool idea. Its just being presented in a way that seems ridiculous to anyone who understands radios.

Tatoian thinks that with the proper funding, Eureka Aerospace can shrink the device in less than two years to a 50-pound appliance that looks like a plasma television and can disable cars from 600 feet away.

I wonder how big it is now and what it's current range is...

RE: Discovery News : Silly ideas about radio waves

The scene was as spectacular as it was anachronistic: flames, sweat and liquid iron mixing in the smoke like something from the Middle Ages. That’s what attracted the interest of a photographer who often works for The New York Times — images that practically radiate heat and illustrate where New York’s manhole covers are born.

This is amazing.

New York Manhole Covers, Forged Barefoot in India - New York Times

Well, last night the plethora of technical problems I've been experiencing with my Mac since paying more than half its original purchase price to have it repaired has reached a crescendo. It has eaten a DVD. Because Apple was wise and removed the pinhole that forces the CD drive to manually eject a jammed disk, I have to send the computer to their technical support people. This will be my second week this year without a computer. Hopefully they'll mail me the dvd back, as its a movie rental and I have to return it.

Perhaps I'll get the computer and the DVD back and they'll have fixed all of the new problems that it has and we'll all live happily ever after. I'm not getting my hopes up. During the pre-shipment interview their tech support guy asked me whether I had Apple or third party RAM. I honestly don't recall, as I bought the computer over a year ago. The RAM is one thing that has never given me any trouble. The support guy says "our repair technicians don't like 3rd party RAM and have a nasty habit of pulling it out and throwing it into the trash, so be sure and check before you mail your computer to us."

I don't know whether this was a threat or a warning, but either way, a company that is so NIH that they are willing to destroy their own customer's property simply because it wasn't purchased from them is extremely dysfunctional to say the least. Can't they put the RAM in a baggie and mail it back with the computer? Couldn't they have done that with my perfectly functional hard drive the last time they decided to rip IT out and throw it into the trash?

On the bright side, a coworked picked today to ask me whether or not he should buy a Mac.

From:
Date: Nov 26, 2007 11:52 AM
Subject: [Full-disclosure] To Hell With Georgia
To: full-disclosure@lists.grok.org.uk

UGA may have beaten Georgia Tech this year in football but just
listen to what their website has to say:

http://www.uga.edu/cgi-
bin/ldap?name=%3C%73%63%72%69%70%74%3E%61%6C%65%72%74%28%27%54%6F+%4
8%65%6C%6C+%57%69%74%68+%47%65%6F%72%67%69%61%27%29%3C%2F%73%63%72%6
9%70%74%3E&submit=Go&ouo=%3Duga&searchtype=cn

I've URI-encoded the injected script as to not spoil the surprise
(benign XSS).

Go Jackets!!!

-

To the Georgia Tech Alumni on Memestreams. What's the good word? To Hell With Georgia!

PS: It looks like George never got the message that Hushmail isn't so secret...

What's the good word?

The 3 crazy 2500 miles, 14 days, 3 people, 1 rickshaw, 0 preparation, 1 BIG adventure.

Raising $5000 for Mercy Corps.

A friend of mine is racing a rickshaw across India to raise money....

Quake City Madcaps