Monday, March 31, 2008

Superman Al Gore to Save the World

(My mature attempt at humor)


I think the first thing Al Gore should do to stop global warming is to stop talking...

This resurgence reminded me of something I read back in February about a British Judge ruling that "An Inconvenient Truth" was full of "alarmism" and "exaggeration" speech, it was also full of lies, and deemed a "one-sided" politically motivated film. You can read more here.

MS Office's Crafty, Ninja-esce 2nd Cousin

Things have been getting too consistent around here, I had to random it up a bit, so here's something a little more boring =)

Google Docs now lets you work offline, which I think is pretty sweet. Google explains it much better than I, so go ahead and watch the video.

Cuba = 1 divided by USA


So it seems to me like Cuba is the Inverse of America.

In the latest move by Fidel's little brother, Cuban citizens may now stay in hotels that were previously only open to tourists. A few days ago they got cell phones, and a few weeks ago they got microwaves, computers, and dvd players.

Let me unpack my first statement, you see when America was a young nation, we had places like the wild west, and there weren't many laws or restrictions (kind of like Montana still is...), and then slowly we acquired more and more laws, statutes, restrictions, etc. to the point where you need 8 years of schooling just understand the laws, in one state!

Now consider the last few decades in Cuba, they weren't allowed anything, I mean come on, banning microwaves? But now they are starting to receive some of the most basic of freedoms. They initially had no freedom, but are slowly being allowed more. And I hope they continue to move away from communism so we can add Cuba to our list of spring break party countries.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Earth Hour


Candles are made from petroleum too.....

Earth Hour urges homeowners and big corporations to turn off their lights for an hour, not to save energy, but to make people stop and think about global warming.

Well I don't believe in global warming, so my first reaction to this movement was of course negative, but I still think using energy irresponsibly is a bad thing. So I support the movement, but for different reasons.

But I thought it was funny that 'they' were encouraging people to use candle light instead of incandescent light. Last time I checked, candles are made from petroleum (the same thing gas is made from), paraffin is a byproduct of petroleum, and when it is burned it releases Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, and many of the same pollutants that your car produces. So it seems kind of counterproductive....

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Vincent VanElephant

Ok, so I'm really not into animals or anything... you will never catch me watching Animal Planet or carrying a miniature schnauzer around in my purse. I just thought this was amazing...

So, from what I've read, about 10 years ago a couple of artists and an "elephant expert" started an
academy to teach retired elephants how to paint. Retired from what, I don't really know... I mean honestly, they're elephants. Anyway, these elephants can paint shapes, objects, or even themselves. I guess they're extremely smart- their brains are almost 4 times the size of ours so I suppose they would be. Whatever. I'll hold to my theory that an elephant still can't pass Thermodynamics with a better grade than me.



And to top it all off, they make music and can use tools! Hmm... I wonder if they can learn how to use a bench grinder...

Like what you just read? Subscribe!

BigDog Quadruped Robot 2

If you don't remember my past post Mutant Robotic Deer-Puppy! it's about a sweet quadruped robot destined to spawn AI and kill us all... well I found a parody of it, which is quite hilarious (as with any parody, only if you've seen the original). So here are both of them, side by side.

The Original





The Parody

Covet Thine Neighbor's Box



This short film is pretty clever (and I thought it was a little creepy too).

Thanks to Steatopygous Mathophile.

Friday, March 28, 2008

The Prairie Hills of NWI


As of recently, Northwest Indiana is proud to welcome Prairie Hills, the American Motor Club, to its new home in Newton County just off of Interstate-65. The largest Grand Prix racecourse in the western hemisphere will be placed within a two hour commute from Chicago. With its 3600 track configurations, fine dining, spa, clubhouse, and countless other accommodations this facility will be nothing short of high class. The club membership prices clearly reflect it too, with prices ranging any where from $25,000 for the platinum membership to $100,000 for a corporate membership. Yeah, most of us will never get to race a car here unless you have cash insulating the walls of your mansion, but it does look like an exciting attraction nevertheless.
Check it out for more info.

First Youtube Video (Scary Hillary)

Check it out, I made my first video to upload to youtube, I mean... I found it and uploaded it... and.... I'm politically neutral.

Inspired by the Google Blog.



Be sure to bump my rating on youtube =)

Super Finger Saving Table Saw



My uncle sent this to me and I was impressed. I just wonder how easy it is to replace the aluminum brake, (I'm sure it's easier/cheaper than replacing your fingers...)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Would you like Fries with... AUUUGH!!

A little person is filing a complaint against a McDonald's employee because she "shrieked and ran away at the sight of him".

The employee apparently has a phobia of little people. She defended herself by stating, "Imagine if you saw a snake or a spider, how would you respond?". Ethan Wade, who suffers from a form of dwarfism responded, "You can't have a phobia of a person. I'm a human being. You can't have that type of phobia."

Now I think it was probably immature of the employee to respond like that, but I also think Ethan Wade's statement is incorrect, you can have a phobia of a person, yes it's irrational to have that fear, but last time I checked, that's the DEFINITION of phobia.

Well this reminded me of a certain South Park episode, (sorry about the edits in between clips, they removed the original video I had)



Tuesday, March 25, 2008

If Homer Simpson Jumped out of your TV

Homer Simpon in Real Life

This photo needs no comment.

China has Banned Rain from the Olympics

7,113 anti-aircraft guns will be aiming their sights at any cloud near the Beijing Olympics that threatens rain.

"China's national weather engineering programm employs 500 'weather modification professionals' in charge of over 30 aircraft and their crews, as well as 37,000 part-time, mostly peasant, workers who are constantly on call to annihilate clouds with their 7,113 anti-aircraft guns and 4,991 rocket launchers."


Armed with
silver iodide and dry ice, the plan is to make the clouds rain before they near the stadium. And if that doesn't work, they'll fly planes loaded with liquid nitrogen to delay the rain until the clouds pass.

I knew the Chinese government was a little wacky, but this one takes the cake.

Thanks to The Inquirer.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Machines on the Rise


"USA TODAY REPORTS that on an average day, 40 per cent of the 800 million computers connected to the Internet are bots used to send out spam, viruses and to mine for sensitive personal data."

Can you hear that? That's an infant crying, his name is Skynet.

Thanks to The Inquirer.

Spending our Tax Dollars on (or at) the Speed of Light


DARPA is giving Sun Microsystems $44 billion to "explore the high-risk idea of replacing the wires between computer chips with laser beams."

So I've pretty much decided working for DARPA, or for a company contracted by DARPA, would be the best job ever. They fund projects like the Urban Challenge, where independent teams build robotic cars that drive themselves and race for a prize (usually in the millions). And other projects like the robotic dog I posted about earlier.

J-walking Doesn't Work with Caps Lock


When using Google Reader the "j" key does NOT work when you have your Caps Lock on, I found this out after angrily smashing my keyboard after repeated attempts to skip to the next item.

Just thought you might like to be forewarned, it might save you a keyboard or two.

I've commented on this article before, Official Google Reader Blog: J-walking with Reader, and I still think the feature is pretty sweet...

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Remote DEL MUERTE!

This image is so true, why are old people so afraid of messing around with things they don't quite understand?! Just start pressing buttons until you figure it out.




Thanks to Gizmodo.

Mutant Robotic Deer-Puppy!

In the latest Skynet update, this robotic dog's (which looks more like a deer to me) maneuverability is pretty amazing. And it's funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which makes it even more likely that it will spawn AI, become evil, and kill us all.



Thanks to Steatopygous Mathophile for the link.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Air for Sale, Verizon not the only one Paying?


Air for sale? You got it, if you have an extra $20 billion under the mattress....

This recent article explains an auction held by the FCC where they sold a large chunk of bandwidth licenses. The big winner was Verizon, although bidding by Google stirred up most of the interest in the blogging community. It's obvious why Verizon would show interest, but Google doesn't host any wireless communication...... yet.

Last time I checked there are a finite number of usable frequencies used for communication, so where did these new frequencies come from? Well I had an assumption, I did some digging and it proved to be correct. A few months ago I remembered reading about The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005, (see www.dtv.gov to see a website so dull only our government could have possibly designed it). The FCC is making everyone switch to a digital signal, therefore freeing up all those cute little sinusoidal waves. And yes, they're the same airwaves up for auction.

The reason for the switch? As the name implies, the claim is that it "will free up frequencies for police, fire, and emergency rescue communications", and they also said they're doing it for us (yeah right), so we will have a higher quality picture.

So if the FCC's primary reason for transitioning TVs to a digital signal is to free it up for emergencies, why did they just sell a large chunk of it to a cell phone company?

Technical Info (If you're actually still reading at this point, you might as well continue)
There are 5 frequency "Blocks", A B C D E, that all range in the UHF frequency (redundant, I know) band of 698-746 MHz. The latest auctions were within the C and D blocks, with the D not selling too well. There were a few other auctions about 4 years ago that brought in ~ $1.4 billion, within the C and D blocks. And straight from FCC.org, "Auctions for the A, B, and E Blocks have not been scheduled." Well I'm guessing by the looks of that statement (and by how much the treasury likes auctions that bring in billions....) it's just a matter of time before they hit the auction block.

So what am I trying to get at with this uncommonly long post?

Simply this, why can't our government just tell us how it really is? They just need some quick cash. I have absolutely no problem with the transition, it seems like a win-win, better quality picture for us, free up bandwidth for emergency frequencies, Verizon grows even larger, therefore decreasing chances of competition... (Ok, maybe not that one =/ ) .

All I ask is that they explain it how it really is, "Hey, we're gonna rake in tens of Billions of dollars while slightly inconveniencing everyone with an old TV."

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

US Constitution



You should read up on this, it might help you win an argument or Jeopardy. The US Constitution Online.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Discovering your Inner Blog

So I've been reading a lot about blogs and marketing and all that stuff, and the #1 thing they all say is "produce quality content", a close 2nd to that was to isolate your content, make the main topic of your blog extremely specific.

Well anyone who subscribes to my blog knows that my content is unpredictable at best. When entering the description for my blog I drew a blank, I had no idea how to describe it. And I still don't, my only response to the 'experts' is, "screw it" I like what I like even if it doesn't fit neatly into a box.

Funny

(Darth Vader is Thirsty)


I don’t have any time today for a real post, so this will have to do, it always makes me laugh every time I see it.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Jedis on the Moon


Well, Google Reader came through again with this story.
The UK Church of the Jedi has purchased land on the moon from a lunar real estate agent, and is currently seeking jedis to fill administrative positions in their new nation.

"The nation is called The Galactic States of Jediism, we have our capital city on the moon called Testa City. We are also going to be selling Baron or Lord titles to the public as well."
If interested in becoming a Baron, or federal official, please stop by your local mental hospital for an application.

(If you dig the Wars of the Stars, check out my post on the Destroyer Fan Build, it's pretty sweet.)

Like what you just read? Subscribe!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Israeli Residents Demand Laser Defense

I'm always on the lookout for new projects being developed that are laying the foundation for the inevitable takeover by Skynet. This story caught my eye today, Israeli Residents are suing their government because they aren't providing enough protection from Palestinian rocket fire. The residents are demanding the government buy SkyGuard, a high energy chemical laser missile defense system developed by Northrup Grumman.

Speaking on behalf of "The Machines", I hope they get it, quickly.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Kitty Cat Bounty

With Bounty Hunting still fresh in my mind I came across this article.
Apparently a small Iowa town (I mean SMALL, Population: 200) has more stray cats than it has people, so the local government put out a bounty on the heads of all stray cats, $5 a piece. Now I was a little disappointed to find out they had to be alive (sorry guys, not a cat lover). Latest Career title change: Nicholas Kamm, Professional Bounty Hunter, Specialization: Small Kitties (Preferably de-clawed).

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

In Search of Capsized Bounty


Full Article

The team that saves these sinking ships sounds like the cast lineup of a shallow-plot Hollywood action film. This is probably as close as I could come to being a Bounty Hunter. Basically, if you can save the ship, you get a percentage of its worth, which can be in the tens of millions. So..... New action-film sounding career change for Nick Kamm, On-the-Fly 3D Modeling and Analysis Engineer.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Burning Saltwater



A friend sent this to me to verify its authenticity, and after reviewing several websites it seems to be legitimate. Basically the radiowaves cause the molecular bonds to become unstable, which causes the hydrogen molecules to become volatile and combustible. The hydrogen can burn at temperatures up to 3000 degrees F (which melted several glass test tubes). In the current experimental setup, more input energy is required than can be extracted from the heat produced, but that's not to say it couldn't be made more efficient, especially on a larger scale.

You can read the HowStuffWorks article here.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Let me help you!....to jail.

Go to NWI.com for the full story, or stay here to read my version (or do both, I don’t care).

 

Here’s my version of the story from the perspective of 20 year old Brandi Goldman from Valparaiso Indiana.

 

“This weed is giving me the munchies, it’s only midnight, I’ll just go pick some up, but I better pop some uppers first.”

“Crap, why is there traffic at midnight?!? I better get in the CENTER lane, it’s moving faster”

“Wow, those uppers are wearing off, I’m feeling tired.”

.

.

.

“Good morning officer, what seems to be the problem?”

(Officer) “Ma’am it’s 1am, you’re in the center lane of the Borman Expressway, and I just woke you up after 20 minutes of trying”

 

Needless to say, she ended up in the hospital…. And then jail. This story fuels the debate, do drugs make you stupid or is it just that stupid people do drugs?

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

This.Is.Pretty.Sweet

See this is why I use Google Reader to subscribe to the Official Gmail Blog, because you find out nifty tricks like these.

Summary of the post, my email address, NicholasKamm@gmail.com, Nicholas.Kamm@gmail.com, or NicholasKamm+Bank@gmail.com are all equal, the operators " . " and "+ " can be used freely in your email address allowing you to take advantage of your filters. This knowledge just opened up a whole new world of email organization for me!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Sarah Connor Chronicles Second Season?



Will the Terminator 2.5 tv show be up for a 2nd season? According to Fox we won't know until May. [edit] the verdict has since been returned, it will be back! Check out my latest post about its return [/edit] If you haven't seen the 1st season (especially the finale) you can check out the last 6 episodes on Fox On Demand [edit] this has been disabled, see below for list of sites to watch videos [/edit], and for the first few, a search on google returns some promising results, but I didn't find anything fantastic (or legal).


So how long do you think it will be before the Governator makes a cameo on the show?

[edit] If you want to do your part to procure a second season, head over to the Official Terminator Site and subscribe to their newsletter (or subscribe to my blog, I'll be announcing Fox's decision as soon as it's released) to show your support, or you can head over to the fan created wiki and post on Speak up for Season 2, hopefully that will get Fox's attention. [/edit]

Watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Episodes*

Here's the last two episodes, 3-7 found below.

Episode 8: Vick's Chip





Episode 9 (Season Finale): What He Beheld



Here's a link for Episodes 3-7 on YouKu (I know, Youku sucks, but it's all I could find.)

Like what you just read? Subscribe

*I take no responsibility for the legality of these videos and am not affiliated with the websites in any way.

(Supposed) Marine Tortures Puppy in Iraq




I'm guessing that video won't be up for long, the guys at youtube are working hard to get rid of it.

Here are my thoughts on the matter.
  1. Let me state right here and now that I DO NOT approve of this act, that being said,
  2. I was reading through the comments and there were quite a few stating they don't want these types of people defending our country. Wrong, you don't want these people REPRESENTING our country, but you by all means want people who aren't afraid to kill fighting our wars.
  3. I've read some responses saying things like
    "I seriously want to see this asshole and his camcorder buddies slowly tortured, crippled, and then left to suffer for the rest of their miserable shitty little lives."
    Now let's face it, cruelty to animals is bad, but what kind of person are you wishing such things on another human being, humans are worth more than animals, plain and simple.
  4. This could be a fake, I don't think it looks like it, but you never know.



With all of that being said, I wanted to balance this out with a positive story about a marine and his dog.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Northwest Indiana Bank Robberies


I was messing around with the NWI.com site, trying to add it to my Google Reader, and I stumbled upon this. Apparently the banks in Northwest Indiana have been robbed a lot more than I expected, NWI Times provides a map of all the banks including the dates that they were robbed, it's quite startling. They note a sudden increase in robberies, stating that in 2006 there were none reported in lake county, compared to 23 reported robberies in 2007. The full story can be read here.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Gibberish Paper Accepted by WMSCI

I've already posted once today, but this one was too funny to pass up, MIT students submitted a paper to WMSCI (the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics) that was written by a computer program they created to generate random "context-free" jargon. See http://www.theinquirer.net/ for the full article, which includes some pretty hilarious phrases generated by the program.

Spam

Check this out. For all of you who have gmail and love it as much as I do, here's another reason. They put a Spam Recipe feed in your spam folder, you can scroll through a collection of recipes that include Spam! Gotta love it!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Places I've been

I didn't have much going on today, so I thought I'd create an album of some of the more notable places I've been.