our antimetrification friends

Feels good to snub our collective noses at those arugula eating base-10 elitist bastards doesn’t it?

In our strong economy and with help from Burma and Liberia, I’m sure we’ll never have to change our measurement system to remain competitive in the global market. 

posts/articles :: Fahrenheit!?,  Metric usage and metrication in other countries

While it may take longer to get through them, I have a tendency to read a handful of books at the same time. Mixing it up helps me digest the fact-packed books a little easier and it forces me to be more engaged because I have to remember what I read a few days earlier.

With my reading queue in flux it’s unusual for me to finish multiple books in succession, but over the last week I’ve finished three of them:

• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
  • This one has been on my list for awhile now… the book maybe thirty-plus years old but it’s still a great read.
  • Expands upon Darwinism with excellent examples of genes and there effect on the cells they inhabit and the world around them.
• Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge by Jean Noël Jeanneney
  • Interesting read and offered some insight on the massive stream of information on the internet and it’s effects on individual cultures.
  • While I understand the author’s point and some of his concerns, he offers no solutions and seems to want universal information to happen magically everywhere at the same time in multiple independent forms.
  • It did stress however the importance of designing features that can be customized to fit the cultural style of individual locales.
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  • One of those rare books that is both depressing and inspirational at the same time.
  • It will definitely make you pause to put life in perspective.

Here are some others that are in my reading queue:

• The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
• On The Wealth of Nations by P. J. O’Rourke
• How to Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff

Any suggestions on what I should add next?

The seats were a little past three-quarters full last night at the Planetary Society’s Town Hall meeting in Palo Alto. The mix of people was amazing; everyone from scientists to students to enthusiasts were in the audience. My friend Jeff usually tips me off to these events and this time my friend Emily joined us as well.

The meeting started off with some brief intros and the jumped right into Q&A with Bill Nye as the host/audience handler and Chris McKay, Sandra Bodley, and Kevin Stube as the expert panelists.

There were a couple heated questions, but Bill Nye did a great job fielding and provoking the audience to explore the ideas brought up (I was definitely impressed by both his and Chris McKay’s range of knowledge).

While I’ve been to a few of the society’s presentations in the past, this was the first time that it was so audience centric and it was great to see the mix of ideas and opinions being tossed around the room.

View as slideshow

I am creating artificial life, declares US gene pioneer

A little scary, but really exciting at the same time…

We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it…

Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.

Purpose of appendix believed found

So that’s what it does…

…the seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut.

Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix’s job is to reboot the digestive system in that case.

A year from now, capturing a crisp, clear image of a candlelit birthday party could be a piece of cake — even with a camera phone.

Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday it has developed a color-filter technology that at least doubles the sensitivity to light of the image sensor in every digital camera, enabling shutterbugs to take better pictures in poor light…

…Kodak expects to provide samples of its new technology to a variety of camera manufacturers in the first quarter of 2008. The technology is likely to be incorporated first in mass-market point-and-shoot cameras and camera-equipped mobile phones beginning sometime next year. — cnn.com

After living in Rochester for years watching the decline of Kodak it great to hear news of Kodak jumping ahead of the technology curve.

I was truly disturbed after watching Jesus Camp. What is this the crusades? What the hell is it with fundamentalists and their need to brainwash their kids with a militant belief system?

Here are some quotes from the movie:

“[to a group of kids] …this means war, this means war. Are you a part of it or not?” — Pastor Becky Fisher

“How many of want to be part of those who would give up their lives for Jesus.” [crowd of kids cheer] — Camp Pastor

At five I got saved, because I just wanted more of life, uh, ’cause there just was nothing I thought was useful.” — Levi (13 yr old)

“Whenever I run into a non-Christian or something, you know I always, uh, and there is always something that does seem right. There is always something, that uh, makes my spirit feel yucky. This world all it feeds you is trash.” — Levi (13 yr old)

And the simplified version for Kansas:

Family Guy may have put it best with this clip:

Jadarite

‘Kryptonite’ was recently discovered in Siberia, well at least a mineral with the same chemical formula as Kryptonite: Na Li B SiO₂ OH

Sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide doesn’t really roll off the tongue but, unfortunately they couldn’t name it Kryptonite because it doesn’t contain any Kryptonium (yes it’s a real element, it’s symbol is Kr).

Instead they went with Jadarite.

Articles:
Superman beware, kryptonite is real

‘Kryptonite’ discovered in mine

(in full disclosure, I added the glow to the Kryptonite)

The big crescent is the moon and the little one isn’t an alien ship, but rather the planet Venus.

The shot was taken by Iván Éder and you can see a larger version at NASA’s Picture of the Day.

Today we had a wind chill of -40°F here in Rochester and I had a flashback to my old high school chemistry days. -40° is that magic number where the temperature is the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

When I was a kid there seemed to be a nationwide push to convert to the metric system, but it seems to have fizzled away. There are some remnants of the conversion left, but what I don’t understand is why it seems to have stopped and more importantly why people are so resistant to the change.

I understand there are costs involved in changing signs, packaging, and education, but truthfully, its really not that hard people… the majority of the world uses it for a reason.

I’m thirsty… I think I’ll go pick up a litter of soda.