Stuart Homfray The Weblog

Empire State Human

I’ve not got much to post here this week, as nothing has really caught my eye in the online world (obvious exceptions are the continuing stories surrounding the UK government’s ridiculous betting proposals, the Indonesian ‘Hobbit’ find, the signing of the new EU constitution, and the deeply tragic news of the untimely death of John Peel…)

There was, of course the fascinating story from the Cassini probe:

Little Fluffy Clouds

The Cassini flyby of Titan has produced some fantastically detailed images, but none more strange than the mysterious cloud over the southern polar region - it should be made of methane, but it’s not! According to one hypothesis, the market for little polystyrene foam balls could about to be flooded… - via Astrobiology Magazine

And if you’re wondering about the title of the Cassini entry, the first time that I heard the track ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ by The Orb was on John Peel’s radio show.

Zero As A Limit

It’s a TFIF Sunday Special!

Well, no, it’s not really. In reality, I’ve been a bit too busy to either post or actually stumble across anything worth posting in the past week or so. All that I can point to, is:

Time For Telly Bye-Byes

Television is everywhere isn’t it? Don’t you just hate it when you’re stuck in a queue somewhere and you’re constantly bombarded by adverts coming from some TV on the wall? Even worse, wherever you go, if there’s a TV present, people will just stand staring at it as though it’s some kind of religious icon. But now, there’s TV-B-Gone, Mitch Altman’s fantastic little gadget that can turn off almost any TV with, quite literally, the click of a button. I’m going to HAVE to get one of these! - via Wired.com

Computer Haiku

Joy’s site contains many examples of typical Microsoft error messages rendered as haiku. Just imagine how much better you’d feel if your computer spoke this way (probably not THAT much better - if you’d just lost 5 hours of web design work and the computer came out with some of this, you’d probably smash the smug little ba***rd!)

When summer leaves us
And the computer entices:
There, madness awaits…

It’s short, it’s quick, it’s to the point, it’s… well… time to stop wittering on!

Sound Of The Crowd

I haven’t really seen TOO much this week that grabbed my attention or amused me (at least to the level that inspires a posting within the TFIF category), apart from these two. I admit that they’re probably a little more serious than usual, but it is, after all, my party and I’ll cry if I want to

A Parable from Aryasura

This story, part of today’s Media Lens media alert, is one that I believe everyone should read, and more importantly, think about (please note that it can take a little while for the email content to show up on the media alerts archive.) The story tells of Prince Sutasoma, a man of renowned wisdom and compassion, and his encounter with the violent, man-eating Kalmasha-pada. The prince does not defeat him, but, in a manner seemingly alien to certain governments, causes him to turn his back on his evil ways.

The Iraq Survey Group Final Report

This report detailing the evidence (or not) of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and Saddam Hussein’s attitude towards them, is now available as HTML documents. Apparently, the CIA did actually post 3 documents weighing in at 50 to 75Mb each, but that doesn’t exactly encourage you to read them does it? - via Secrecy News

The Path Of Least Resistance

Phew, hasn’t that week flown by!?! No posts and then it’s back around to another TFIF entry. Before we know it, it’ll be October (too late!)

The Fear Effect

Apparently, whenever the US government issue a terrorist warning, Bush’s approval rating increases. The cynical amongst you might suggest that ANY government suffering with decreased ratings in polls could (maybe already do) apply this strategy - I, of course, couldn’t possibly comment!

Bringing the BBC to the web

Boing Boing reports on Stefan Magdalinski’s wonderful improvement to BBC News online - adding a proxy that links to relevant Wikipedia links, and an extra sidebar of links to blog entries referencing the article. Take a look at this UKIP Q&A page for an example (which incidentally, shows that the former Wolverhampton Wanderers chairman Jack Hayward made a donation of £50,000 in 1999 - a donation that I sincerely hope I didn’t contribute towards!)

…and talking of UKIP

After Kilroy-Silk’s comment earlier this year about Arabs that, quite rightly, got him fired from the BBC, here’s a collection of more idiotic, racist rantings collected from his Daily Express column by Private Eye

…Kilroy, who regards the Arabs as a waste of space. “Few of them make much contribution to the welfare of the rest of the world. Indeed, apart from oil — which was discovered, is produced and is paid for by the West — what do they contribute? Can you think of anything? Anything really useful? Anything really valuable? Something we really need, could not do without? No, nor can I.” - Robert Kilroy-Silk, January 2004

Hey Bobby! You ever heard of algebra, for example?!?!

via linkmachinego.com

Comedy Chemistry - the new rock ‘n roll

A collection of actual molecules with remarkably stupid names. A couple of examples to whet your appetite:

Cummingtonite - This mineral must have the silliest name of them all. Its official name is magnesium iron silicate hydroxide, and it has the formula (Mg,Fe)₇Si₈O₂₂(OH)₂. It got its name from the locality where it was first found, Cummington, Massachusetts, USA.

Fucol - This sugar sounds like it doesn’t do very much! Actually the L-Fucol form is obtained from the eggs of sea urchins, frog spawn and milk. The L-fucol form also goes by the name of rhodeose.

Found on backbytes

The Rise Of The Machines

Brand new from Cyberdyne Systems, we present: the Renault Vel Satis Automatic Speed Regulator! - headline news from The Register

Not ALL ‘Foxhunting is Bad…

Just a little promo piece: I’ve been using Firefox 1.0PR since downloading it on the 15th September (actually, I’ve been happily using a Firefox/bird browser since about version 0.6) and I have to say I love it. If you’re an experienced web user, you can enhance the browser with all sorts of useful extensions (for example, I’m typing this into QuickNote, I’ve got the Sage RSS reader open in the sidebar, there’s the Web Developer extension at the top of the window and, a Gmail notifier, a Google PageRank status bar, and Adblock in the status bar at the bottom). If you’re less experienced, just try out the initial install for a few days, and I’ll be amazed if you feel the need to go back to Internet Explorer - whenever I need to use it, it actually seems rather constraining! If you’re already a user, sign up and help others to find the ‘Fox!

And finally…

A joke I was told literally a few minutes ago - an oldie but goodie!

A man walks down the street is approached by a woman with a clipboard. She asks him whether he can spare a few minutes for Cancer Research. He says, “OK, but we’re not going to get much done!”

These Are The Dreams…

Here’s this week’s democratically elected arbitrarily selected Fantastic Four:

Reverse Engineering God

Where would God lie on the evolutionary tree? If we cannot prove that God exists, can we prove that he could exist? Jonathon Keats aims to answer these questions and more in his project to genetically engineer God in his apartment - Wired.com

Views from the Day After Tomorrow

Some wonderful Photoshopped examples of present-day architecture in the future - Boing Boing

Bestest of The Bestestest

The Daily WTF is an occasionally very amusing place that highlights rather unusual programming ‘techniques’. This entry describes one programmers effort to implement a cheap version control system - and I have to admit to being guilty of carrying out something similar in times gone by…

Giving Customer Support The Fax

You know that feeling when you’re trying to talk to customer support and you just don’t seem to be getting anywhere? Chris Orton does. Here’s a valuable tip that may have been overlooked by many consumer TV programmes - IT Sneak

Have a good weekend, and please, don’t have nightmares!