The Alphabet

A cool animated gif shows the evolution of the alphabet.

via robotwisdom

Ice-ships

An interesting article about a proposal made during World War II to build aircraft carriers out of a special form of ice.

The moon over Yosemite

A nice picture with an interesting article about recreating an Ansel Adams photo.

Airline Security

Computer security guru Bruce Schneier wrote this article for Wired about how airline security is a waste of money. It doesn't really say anything new but does summarise things nicely.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - worth a read.

An air guitar with sound

This article in the New Scientist describes a device that makes appropriate noises when you play air guitar.

A cool picture of Hong Kong at night

Ego-mapping

Some maps of where I've been. You can make your own here.

Online banking protest

This article describes an interesting way to protest the actions of your bank. Note that the headline is a bit misleading as there are no pennies involved.

More google maps stuff

This site puts the data from various weather stations on a google map. The link is for Ottawa, you'll have to scroll around or do a search to find where you live.

More on living forever

This article is another on Aubry de Grey and his theories of how people might live a thousand years. It includes some of the fallout from the last set of articles a few months ago.

via Slashdot

Picture: Soyuz spacecraft arriving at space station

Ramming

This article describes various offensive driving techniques including how to ram another car out of your way.

DVD - Kung Fu Hustle

A very funny movie about the residents of an run down alley somewhere in a large Chinese city. Surprisingly when the alley is invaded by gangsters several of its occupants turn out to be Kung Fu masters. Much hilarity, and some fighting ensue.

The movie reminded me more of early film comedies like the Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello than of more modern kung fu comedies.

An amusing flash jigsaw puzzle

Danny Hillis

A newsweek article on inventor Danny Hillis and his idea laboratory.

via slashdot

Another moon

An awesome picture of one of Saturn's moons together with Saturn and Saturn's rings.

via Astronomy picture of the day

PocketMod

This is an interesting site that is also a gadget. It lets you format your own personal PocketMod - a single page pocket organiser - that you then print out and fold in a very cunning manner so that it resembles a book.

It is worth checking out but I'm a bit unsure about what they are planning to patent.

Giant Squid caught on film

According to this article Japanese scientists have filmed a live giant squid for the first time ever. Apparently only dead squid have been seen before. The article has some pictures.

via slashdot

Military Cargo Airships

According to this article the US military is thinking about building large cargo airships. There are some artist's conception drawings which are kind of neat (though the airship looks a bit small to me).

via slashdot

Space Elevator

This article by Arthur C. Clarke is a good intro to what space elevators are all about.

The article was linked to from this blog post which was linked to from this slashdot article.

DVD - Sahara

A great action flick. It tells the story of two ex US Navy SEALS turned marine treasure hunters as they try to find a Confederate warship in the Sahara. They get involved with a doctor from the WHO who is trying to make her way to a hostile country to find the source of a mysterious illness.

The movie doesn't take itself to seriously but isn't outrageous. The action sequences were good and the cinematography in some scenes was amazing.

Recommended.

Don't let them hear you typing

This article describes a method that has been developed to determine what you have typed from a recording of the sound of you typing it. They need to record about 15 minutes of typing to get it to work but it could still be interesting.

DVD: Sin City

I've never read any of the Sin City comics although I have been tempted. I am even more tempted now having seen the film. The film is worth watching for its "look" (if that's the word) alone. The black and white with occasional colour technique was very intriguing though, as my friend Rick pointed out, if someone else did a film with the same technique it would suck.

The violence in the film is a bit brutal but other than that it is highly recomended.

Google sets

A new thing from google. Google sets lets you enter a list of related items and it then suggests more things that it thinks are in the same set. You can use it to find books or authors that you might like based on ones that you already like.

An easier way to climb

This article describes a new powered climbing harness that can lift 145 kilograms a distance of 250 meters at 1 meter per second. Could be handy.

Pyramid Flypast

Here is a cool picture of a Vickers Vimy flying by the pyramids at Giza.

Another Google maps toy

Have you ever wondered where the exact opposite side of the earth from your house is? Well this site lets you figure it out. Find your house, or where ever, as normal then double click on the location. Click on dig and the application will find the opposite point for you. Note that you may need to zoom back out to see where your new point is, especially if you end up in the ocean.

Little Houses

This site belongs to a fellow who sells houses, very small houses. I'm not quite sure why I like it but I do.

via RobotWisdom

A robot with no wheels or legs

This robot was inspired by the scene in the first Terminator movie where the evil robot has had its legs blown off but keeps after the heroes by dragging itself forward with its arms.

via robotwisdom

Flight Safety

Following the Air France crash in Toronto many people, including myself, have been commenting on how surprising it was that no one was killed. According to this article, even though the rate of plane crashes has remained relatively constant, the chances of being killed have dropped considerably in the last twenty years. This is thought to be due to improvements in technology and crew training.

Star Wars episode III: The Revenge of the Sith

I finally saw this movie last night at the late show and I must say it was better than I thought it would be. I agree with most of the reveiws I've seen that said it was easily the best of the three prequels. The settings and the backdrops were amazing and of course I've always been a fan of jedi fighting scenes.

Unlike the previous two films there weren't any silly characters (well Jar Jar did have a slight cameo) or pointless situations like the pod racing in episode 2. I was a bit surprised at how dated Darth Vader's armour looked.

I would recommend it even at the cinema.

More google maps stuff

This site has google map links for all of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Perfect for holiday planning.

I'm not sure how useful this site is but it certainly looks cool. It basically overlays the map and the satellite pictures so you can see both at the same time. You can adjust the transparency with a slider at the bottom.

This site is a bit more useful. It lets you calculate the lengths of routes on the maps. After you get the map showing the right area, start recording. Every double click after that creates a waypoint and the length of the trip is updated.

I thought I would try out one of these newfangled blogging systems.

My previous attempt at a weblog can be seen here.

This is a test post. Hopefully I'll be able to delete it later.