Odds and Ends, Sun 14 October 2007
1. "Warning: Joke Ahead"
<http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/warning-joke-ahead/>
I'm not pointing this out for the video mentioned (which is mildly
humorous), but rather for the reaction it got. If you have access to
YouTube, here's the video:
"Windows Vista did not steal ideas from Mac OS X!"
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaIUkwPybtM>
2. "25 of the World's Most Interesting Animals"
<http://www.quedat.com/2007/09/02/25-of-the-worlds-most-interesting-
animals/>
3. "Nikon's Small World Contest: A Gallery of Beautiful Tiny Things"
<http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2007/10/
gallery_small_world>
4. "Virtual Slide Rule"
<http://www.engcom.net/index.php?option=com_sliderule&Itemid=73#>
When I was a kid I would often visit my older cousins. They were girls,
so none of their toys interested me much. But they did have these
strange things called slide rules. They said they used them to do
calculations. I was intrigued, but they never showed me how. And
when I asked if I could have one since they had finished school, they
said no :( Later, when I went to high school, we were introduced to
electronic calculators and I don't remember slide rules even being
mentioned. I felt like I missed out on something. Now, thanks to
this site, I have a chance to scratch that itch from long ago.
More info via Wikipedia:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule>
5. "Leopard Tanks free to good homes in Army giveaway"
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/14/2032842.htm>
"The Defence Department is urging war veterans and historical groups
to write in and tell them why they deserve a free decommissioned
Leopard Tank."
6. "Official prototype of kilogram mysteriously losing weight"
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_6872313>
"The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the
metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is
mysteriously losing weight - if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard
Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres,
southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50
micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies."
