Cat is fine. Wound is scabbing over nicely and he’s lazy and cranky again. And yes, Joe, should my cat ever die (which seems pretty unlikely at this point considering how long he’ s already lived) you may mock his passing incessantly. Should I feel insulted, I will do the manly thing and re-direct all my incoming voicemail to the program director’s mailbox.
Category: News
Gary Gygax becomes petitioner
Gary Gygax, co-creator and innovator of Dungeons and Dragons has failed his saving throw vs. death and is no longer with us.
On March 4, Gary Gygax died at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, after suffering two strokes in 2004 and being diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 69.
-Ars Technica “D&D cocreator Gary Gygax now beyond scope of healing spells”
 Depending on his alignment, he should be on his way to Elysium, The Beastlands, Arboria, or Ysgard. He’s one of the few people for which I’ve read multiple obits simply because each contains some witty D&D joke.
Monster Coathangers, maybe?
Gizmodo via Audioholics via Consumerist has an article about a head to head test between monster cables and 4 coathangers soldiered together. Based on the title, guess who won?
I will never feel bad buying monoprice.com cables again.
You're not my real father
On the way out the door this morning I caught pre-game coverage of uber Tuesday and Mitt Romney was talking. The announcer mentioned his sons were also campaigning for him and during the sentence cut to a shot of Rick Santorum. I think this could serve as a financial shot in the arm for Romney as anyone who tried to insinuate that Rick Santorum was Mitt Romney’s son is liable for defamation of character, first in effectively stating that Mitt Romney had a child at the age of 11 and second for associating him with Rick Santorum.
You're not my real father
On the way out the door this morning I caught pre-game coverage of uber Tuesday and Mitt Romney was talking. The announcer mentioned his sons were also campaigning for him and during the sentence cut to a shot of Rick Santorum. I think this could serve as a financial shot in the arm for Romney as anyone who tried to insinuate that Rick Santorum was Mitt Romney’s son is liable for defamation of character, first in effectively stating that Mitt Romney had a child at the age of 11 and second for associating him with Rick Santorum.
Improvements in the world, 2007
(Demographics and Statistics Nerds Only)
As a protoactuary, I often talk with people on the train or where ever about things ranging form economics to demographics to environmental issues. Matt Sundheim and I most notably have disagreed over the shape of the world in 2050. I’ve always been called optimistic (I consider it realistic) concerning epic drops in violence, poverty, starvation and disease. I try to cite data where possible and the Economist has done a survey of world health as experienced by humans summing up progress since the 1990s.
If humanity can come up with a way to curb environmental damage and reduce fall-out or possible manage failing states, the world is going to truly kick ass in 2050. 110-year life expectancy here we come.
Improvements in the world, 2007
(Demographics and Statistics Nerds Only)
As a protoactuary, I often talk with people on the train or where ever about things ranging form economics to demographics to environmental issues. Matt Sundheim and I most notably have disagreed over the shape of the world in 2050. I’ve always been called optimistic (I consider it realistic) concerning epic drops in violence, poverty, starvation and disease. I try to cite data where possible and the Economist has done a survey of world health as experienced by humans summing up progress since the 1990s.
If humanity can come up with a way to curb environmental damage and reduce fall-out or possible manage failing states, the world is going to truly kick ass in 2050. 110-year life expectancy here we come.
I've never heard a UFO described in those terms…
A UFO sighting near Stephenville, Texas caused a bit of a brief stir last week and a traditional problem with UFO sightings has been sizing. Airborne objects are damn-hard to size as it could be a small object close or a big object far and getting roughly the same apparent size. One pilot swept this away by using an object metric: “It was bigger than a Wal-Mart”, said a pilot in the area. First heard during an NPR spot, text available here.
In writing the search tags for this post I giggled when I wrote “UFO, NPR, Wal-Mart”
Go Doylestown!
First I thought Bucks’ County Seat was full of pretentious prudes, now I have proof! If cussing on the memo section of a traffic ticket isn’t protected speech I don’t know what is.
Gizmodo Notes on FCC at CES
Gizmodo posted some wonderful notes taken from Kevin Martin at CES. Martin got some baleful glares for his pushing for his views on media cross-ownership. If half the stuff he mentions here is true I’ll be very happy. He’s profoundly outspoken on a la carte channel offerings for cable which would allow subscribers to buy channels rather than packages. Cable has naturally tried to drag its feet and while I don’t quite get as angry about this as DRMed music it’s up there.
I take his statements about improved fiber and broadband backbone with a grain of salt as well as his opinions about the 700MHz spectrum auction. I believe telecoms are inclined to restrict usage and charge more for access rather than build infrastructure and content providers have already encountered problems. A good bit of fiber was laid down with dot.com bubble VC money, a trick that’s unlikly to happen again. While I appreciate the open access provisions beaten into the spectrum auction there are no guarantees that this amazing frequency band will go towards rural broadband.