This is why I dont goto Newfoundland in the winter.
A Marine Atlantic passenger ferry finally broke free of pack ice off
Cape Breton on Thursday, after a Canadian coast guard icebreaker helped
clear the way. It had been trapped in the ice since Tuesday, prompting at least one serious anxiety attack that resulted in a really dramatic air rescue.
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Fifty years of peace
Wow! The “peace” sign is fifty years old today. Here’s a great article about its history and origins.
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Arthur C. Clarke 1917-2008
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey has died at the age of 90.
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Ice ice baby
I didn’t know until this morning that icebergs could be striped. However, apparently that’s just one of many variations. Here’s where to find some and learn more.
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Handmade mechanical dragonfly
Etsy seller JesseDanger’s $15,000 “Anax Imperator Machina” is a
hand-made, precision clockwork dragonfly whose wings flap — made from
gold and silver.
Modeled after the largest modern species of dragonfly, this is a
functioning creation whose wings flutter up and down when the very tip
of the tail (really the abdomen, but tail sounds cooler) is turned. The
inspiration for this complex mechanical insect originated from many of
the fantasized gadgets of Leonardo da Vinci and other mechanical
creations once thought futuristic in times long before our own.
Inspired by these designs I set out to recreate nature using classical
engineering and an elegant form. My intentions are to develop and
continue making more of these mechanical insects.The internal mechanisms, gears and moving parts were painstakingly
hand-milled and hand-calibrated with absolute precision from 14k gold.
The body, mechanical frame and wings were handcrafted from Argentium
Silver, far superior to Sterling or fine silver. The body opens up to
reveal the intricate inner movements, and fine details that just could
not be left forever covered up! The eyes are each large 10 carat Swiss
Blue Topaz cabochons and the 14k gold bezel on the tail contains a 4mm
Amethyst bullet shaped cabochon.
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Adventures in Rechargeable Batteries
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Elfquest! heh.
ElfQuest for free…gradually.
The complete ElfQuest comic oeuvre (about 6000 pages) is being released
online in batches every friday. The first five issues (a complete 150
page arc in itself), along with some other EQ series’s first issues,
are already up.
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Isles of Scilly
Castles, shipwrecks, smuggling and mystical lands buried deep beneath the sea. Scilly’s history is crammed full of amazing facts, folklore and fantasy.
So, where does the name ‘Scilly’ come from? It is thought although uncertain, that the Vikings called the islands ‘Syllorgar’ and the Romans ‘Sully’ (meaning the sun islands). The ‘c’ was added to the name some time in the 16th Century.
My family’s hometown of Winterton was orginally called “Scilly Cove” named after the islands, I think I’d like to visit there sometime.
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Watercolor sketches of late 19th/early 20th cen. Japanese toys
Here’s part of the Ningyo-Do Bunko database of late 19th/early 20th century watercolour sketches of Japanese toy designs. There are more than 100 albums all told.
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Vintage photography from China and Australia
Two historic photography collections from Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum: The Tyrell Collection – glass plate negatives from the Sydney studios of Charles Kerry and Henry King from 1884-1917 depicting a local record of the times; and the Hedda Morrison Collection – photographs from China, 1933-1946. The collection also includes personal papers and objects, such as Chinese papercuts, belt toggles, and photos from a 1930s-era folk festival in Germany.
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The Wonderful World of Snus
This Is ‘Snus’. Snus is a form of smokeless tobacco with a very long history in Sweden. Snus is gaining a bit of popularity in America; both Camel and Marlboro are launching their own brand. It is touted as a more discreet way to use tobacco in the wake of increasing bans on smoking, especially bacause it does not require spitting. A few Swedish compaines, such as Northerner and BuySnus.com ship it worldwide affordably. The Anti-Tobacco crowd is already manning the trenches and claiming that Snus is as dangerous as any other tobacco. However, the science that has been done to date appears to reach a very different conclusion.
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Beautiful skeleton advertisement
This Craftsman advertisement drives me wild. I wish I had this skeleton made from tools hanging in my house.
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There’s more truth to “7 minutes in heaven”
So what do you think? Did they get the timing right?
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Settlement in case of child who developed autistic symptoms after being vaccinated
Hannah Poling is a nine year old girl with mild to moderate symptoms of autism, which developed three months after she received vaccinations. The Department of Health and Human Services announced that her family will receive a settlement from the vaccine compensation fund. Autism activists are encouraged, but the DHHS officials insist they are not admitting a link between autism and vaccines and maintain that for most, vaccines are safe. Rather, they say, the series of vaccines Hannah received exacerbated an underlying mitochondrial condition, causing the symptoms of autism.
Hannah had a mutation in a gene which controlled mitochondrial function. When she received the immunizations, the DHHS concluded, this mutation was aggravated, predisposed her to deficits in energy metabolism, and ultimately caused brain damage with “features of autism spectrum disorder“.
For the nearly 5,000 autistic individuals and their families seeking compensation from the special fund, it is unclear whether Hannah’s case represents an opportunity or not. The cases are reviewed by a special court None of the 950 claims the special fund has paid out since it was created by Congress in 1988 have been for autism. Officials insist that this case is no different from other claims paid out by the fund in the past.
The cases are before a special “vaccine court” that doles out cash from a fund Congress set up to pay people injured by vaccines and to protect makers from damages as a way to help ensure an adequate vaccine supply. The burden of proof is lighter than in a traditional court, and is based on a preponderance of evidence. Since the fund started in 1988, it has paid roughly 950 claims — none for autism.
The document released by the DHHS focuses on the rare mitochondrial disorder. It does not raise the issue of the organomercury preservative Thimerosal used in many vaccines, which many autism activists believe has a link to autism. Instead, the document states that the “five vaccines the girl received on one day in 2000 aggravated her mitochondrial condition, predisposing her to metabolic problems that manifested as worsening brain function with features of autism spectrum disorder”. DHHS officials claim that Hannah’s is a unique case, and that the underlying condition she had is very rare.
Neurologist Jon Poling (MD/PhD), Hannah’s father, who co-authored a paper in the Journal of Child Neurology on his daughter’s case does not agree, saying: “I don’t think Hannah’s case is as unique as many experts believe.” Some believe that autism could in fact be a mitochondrial disease. A study of 69 Portuguese children conducted in 2005 and published in the journal of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology found that five had mitochondrial abnormalities.
Interestingly, Dr. Poling says that he still supports giving vaccines to children. “Each treatment has a risk and a benefit,” Dr. Poling says.
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Funny tech support transcripts
David Pogue of the NY Times visited a tech suppport center, and they gave him a CD with recordings of their favorite funny phone calls.
Caller: Hey, can you help me? My computer has locked up, and no matter how many times I type eleven, it won’t unfreeze.
Agent: What do you mean, “type eleven?”
Caller: The message on my screen says, “Error Type 11!”
—
On one call, the caller seemed to be taking an inordinately long time to complete each instruction she was given.
Agent: Ma’am, I can’t help noticing that every time I give you an instruction, it takes a really long time before you get back to me. Is your computer that slow?
Caller: Oh, no, it’s just the stupid, stupid design of this computer. Every time I want to click something, I have to unplug the keyboard to plug in the mouse. And then every time I want to use the keyboard again, I have to unplug the mouse. Because there’s only one jack.
Agent: Ma’am, you do realize that there’s a jack on the keyboard itself? You’re supposed to plug the mouse into the keyboard, and the keyboard into the computer.
Caller: Are YOU KIDDING ME!? Oh, wait a minute–yes, I see it now! Oh, holy cow. That’s going to be so much easier!
Agent: Just out of curiosity, how long have you been using your computer that way?
Caller: Six weeks!
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Will the 2008 Election Be Cancelled?
“War with Iran – unfortunately, not so far-fetched. The National Intelligence Estimate released in December concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program back in 2003. But when have Bush and Cheney ever based their foreign policy decisions on evidence? Moreover, the most important reason they want to attack Iran is to control the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf, nukes or no nukes.
The assassination of a presidential candidate. Obama evokes memories of JFK and Martin Luther King. The bullet could come from a lone racist, a terrorist, or an agent of a state. The threat is real. The Secret Service knows it and so should we.
A terrorist strike, on the scale of 9/11 or worse. Again, not so far-fetched. Bush and Cheney have been Osama bin Laden’s greatest recruiters, making the U.S. appear to be the enemy of millions across the world. Al Qaeda may consider that regime change in the U.S. is not in their interest.”
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Men who do housework may get more sex
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Red-Eyed Asian Girl Follows Your Cursor
http://www.motionportrait.com/about/TIminoriHair.swf
MotionPortrait.com.. this is prob the best remapping apps I’ve seen in recent years.
RobDurdle.com 
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