Someone from Qatar flew a lamborghini to England for an oil change. I believe that qualifies as conspicuous consumption. Is it more conspicuous than, say, building a vast indoor ski slope? Probably not, but it sure makes for an interesting story. I for one wouldn’t have flown my lamborghini there, I would have driven it. …
Category Archives: News
Bad Selection
Pharyngula once again delivers the fun. Rather than take you to the Pharyngula post directly (link), I’ll take you to the NY Times article that is linked from that post. It’s about how Natural Selection has been observed in recent times and a listing of some of the interesting studies. Why am I linking to …
Iran != Sophisticated
Of course, while I’m saying that Iran does not equal Sophisticated, I’m tacitly assuming that no western government would be caught doctoring their images… …like Iran did with their recent missile test. Tsk tsk. I’m sure plenty of tech-savvy people here in the states are thinking, “those silly buggers! Don’t they know how to use …
The Most Important News Yet This Week
CARPE DIEM covers where some of the estimated 600 Starbucks will be closing. With a map! You can never go wrong if you’ve got a map. It’s a sign of the apocalypse, I tell you. I don’t like their coffee, anyway.
Catholics People are Crazy
Have you heard about the University of Central Florida student who’s receiving death threats for kidnapping the Christ? No? Go to Pharyngula for a good summary. On that note as well, I’m very disappointed to be missing the Pharyngula meetup in Atlanta this weekend. Alas, I’ll be at Meb’s wedding. Meb, next time you get …
Ways to Save Money: DHS Style
The Department of Homeland Security is purportedly open to the idea that aircraft passengers should wear monitoring bracelets (that can also shock the piss out of you). Gadling reports that DHS requested the manufacturer of the stun bracelet submit a letter of proposal. Nice! You see, I’ve been looking for a way to save some …
Exploding Transformers
An incident 30 yards outside my office window has caused me to do a google search on “exploding transformers”. Here’s a good one. There’s also a bunch of YouTube videos which I can’t access right now. I encourage you to go check it out. Apparently it wasn’t an exploding transformer (there’s no transformer on that …
Some Linkage, Science and Otherwise
Researchers from my alma mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, have found that tiny copper rods in your pots may cook your spaghetti with less energy use. That’s not their first envisioned application, though. Higher pitched women’s voices are more attractive than lower pitched ones. It always depresses me a bit when I read research that illustrates …
Starbucks
I heard on the news this morning that Starbucks was planning a closure of existing stores. Approximately 600 outlets will be shuttered and their employees will be relocated to other, surviving, stores, if possible. From a personal standpoint, I’ve never understood why Starbucks has been as successful (to date) as it is. Its stores don’t …
Offline Identity Theft
I read this story today about how security consultants hired by financial institutions are demonstrating holes in the security of their physical files. The hired guns were able to walk into banks and credit unions with threadbare disguises and walk out with documents containing people’s vital info. The same information that identity thieves are stealing …