The official Dreamhost blog has posted an entry with a video called Let’s Save Our Environment. Tavis (the author of the entry) says the video came from a hitchhiker that his uncle picked up a while back. The hitchiker gave my uncle a packet containing a cd-rom video and a few pages of song lyrics and the synopsis/proposal for a movie called “Kathy and Erol”. The video is one of the most frightening thing I’ve laid eyes on in quite a while. It is most likely destined to become another internet fad (much like All Your Base Are Belong to Us) and features a middle aged “man” lip-syncing to a Read more »

I performed a search at google for php htmlentities and the results were returned in a different format than usual. The same search moments later returned the results on the original google design. I guess someone at the google factory jumped the gun. Read more »

The header pretty much sums it up. Sharp Corp. has developed an optical disc capable of storing 100 gigs of space based on Blue Ray technology. I wonder how much it will cost. Currently discs that store about 8 gigs of data go for more than $6 a pop, so I’m thinking around $70 or so. I’ll just stick to my external hard drives. Read more »

NASA has a video up of the Deep Impact collision (no I’m not talking about the movie starring Elijah Wood). This movie shows Deep Impact’s approach to comet Tempel 1. It is made up of images taken by the spacecraft’s medium-resolution camera from May 1 to July 2, 3:50 Universal Time. The spacecraft detected three outbursts during this time period, on June 14, June 22 and July 2. The outbursts appear as flickers or bursts of light. The movie ends during the middle of the final outburst. Medium resolution camera? Can’t NASA afford a high definition movie camera by now? Read more »

I just got home from seeing War of the Worlds, and if you overlook some flaws, it’s a good flick. The good: The special effects were great. The CGI was excellent. Acting was good, even if you hate Tom Cruise. The little girl from Taken (I’m too stupid to remember her name and too lazy to look it up) was really good in it. The sound was nice. I’m a big fan of loud booming noises, and this movie has lots of them. Suspense, action, drama and comedy (small doses) made the story flow well. The bad: There are some major continuity flaws in the filming. If you’re not a Read more »

If you’re looking for something fun to do with your family in Chicago, pack up the kid’s strollers and take them to the Museum of Science and Industry where they can look at real human corpses! Body Worlds is a touring exhibit which will be at the museum through September 5th. It features human specimens put on display so that you can learn more about your insides. From msichicago.org: The exhibition features more than 200 authentic human specimens, including entire bodies, individual organs and transparent body slices that have been preserved through the process of “plastination,” a technique that replaces bodily fluids and fat. BODY WORLDS offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance Read more »

According to nature.com, research was conducted on 76 Tibetan Buddhist Monks, in which their “perceptual rivalry” was tested. Each monk wore a set of goggles that presented two conflicting images (one in each eye). This type of visual makes a normal person’s head spin because your eye can’t decide what to focus on. However, monks skilled in the waste of time art of meditation are able to stay focused on one image. Another test they were given can be found at http://www.uq.edu.au/nuq/jack/bonneh.html in which you are to stay focused on one yellow dot and the other two will disappear. Normal people can maintain the illusion for 2.6 seconds. One monk Read more »

I have a PowerBook G4. When I sit at my desk to type on it I get small electric shocks in my wrists. If I run my hand over the face plate, I feel small electric currents. This has been going on for a very long time now and I just figured that I was imagining things. Yet today I have discovered that I am not entirely insane. It turns out that the electric current only occurs when my barefoot is placed on the air vent under my desk. So maybe my house isn’t grounded? This still leaves two questions: Why does it only affect my powerbook? I’ve experimented with Read more »