Abe's rise to force new look at postwar Japan - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:11 pm EDT, Sep 20, 2006
After securing the Liberal Democratic Party's presidency Wednesday, Shinzo Abe will become Japan's first prime minister born after the end of World War II, with a clear eye toward re-examining the postwar era.
Hm. This should be interesting. I'm a bit concerned in truth, but I admit to not being an expert. Some of the verbiage here is worrisome.
Fred Phelps, who you may recognize as the guy who protests dead soldier's funerals with his "God Hates Fags" brigade, takes on Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.
Play carnival music in your head while this runs. This dude is nuts.
Popoholic » Blog Archive » Worst Fight Scene in Movie History!
Topic: Miscellaneous
12:51 am EDT, Sep 3, 2006
Wow, this is so bad that I couldn’t stop laughing. This has to be the worst, homoerotic fight scene ever filmed. Make sure you watch the end; you don’t want to miss how the villain dies.
I don't even know what to say. Really. Just, wow. -k
Platinum today: Scientists make 'amazing' fuel cell breakthrough
Topic: Miscellaneous
2:30 pm EDT, Aug 23, 2006
A team of Korean scientists has developed a new method of storing hydrogen as a solid, easing potential complications associated with the commercialisation of fuel cell technology.
...
Describing the "amazing" breakthrough, PhD student Lee Hoon-kyung said: "The material binds hydrogen with absolutely no energy input and the hydrogen can then be extracted using relatively small amounts of energy."
Color me skeptical.
Then, I'm basically skeptical about the entire concept of hydrogen as fuel. For the billionth time, you need to get hydrogen from somewhere, usually requiring the input of a lot of electricity. The whole thing only works right if we find some clean (e.g. not fucking coal) ways of generating electricity.
Don't get me wrong, there's something to be said for moving the pollution out of the city itself and centralizing it around power plants, but it's not exactly getting the same as eliminating the stuff, is it?
Tabjab is a powerful way to keep track of the interpersonal debts that often arise between friends, roommates, and coworkers. You can use Tabjab to send out bills for dinner debts, bar tabs, rent, utilities, entertainment, or any other expense that people share. These bills are delivered via email, and they are easy to consolidate when it comes time to pay.
My roommate and I have been working on this website since late last year. We've been keeping it under wraps but we decided this weekend to formally make it available. When your friends or roommates owe you money you can input it into Tabjab. Tabjab will keep track of it, send emails out, and calculate reciprical debts. Check it out and let us know what you think!
[ Congrats, Tom and Mark! This is a tool i've had great need for in my life (albeit not lately). Very nicely done. -k]
Steorn: inventors of infinite energy, destroyers of laws of thermodynamics? - Engadget
Topic: Miscellaneous
1:49 pm EDT, Aug 18, 2006
it would seem Steorn, claimers of such an absurdity, has already launched a PR campaign to circumvent naysayers such as ourselves. In fact, the Irish tech company issued an ad in The Economist announcing a challenge to 12 of the worlds' finest scientists -- to be chosen by them (hey, is Hwang Woo-suk available?) -- to step forward and disprove their infinite clean energy technology. And once their technology isn't disproved -- and they obviously believe that it won't be disproved -- they'll begin licensing it to the world's energy companies (and charitably freely licensing it for rural water purification and electricity generation).
