"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
L’apprenti sorcier, a symphonic poem composed by Paul Dukas in 1897, is the music used for the Sorcerer’s Aprentice section of Disney’s 1943 Fantasia. It’s retasked here in an ingenious setting in the Oberlin College Library as The Resourcerer’s Aprentice:
N.B. Do make sure you play this through a decent set of speakers at a proper volume. 🙂
(Actually, since my Wonder Woman is a librarian, I kinda wondered who cleaned up the mess after the shoot on the “set” at Oberlin… 😉 )
*heh*
A group of Durham (N.C.) residents taking aim at speeders with the threat of a paintball gun said Tuesday that they are “amazed and gratified at the reaction.”
The group, Angry Neighbors With Paintball Guns, posted signs at strategic locations throughout the city, warning motorists to slow down or risk being shot at with a paintball gun.
But, of course, the local cop shop which is apparently NOT ameliorating the problem thinks it’s a bad idea all around. Can’t have citizens doing what they’re unwilling and/or unable to do:
[Kammie] Michael (Durham, N.C. police spokes”person”) said it is a crime to shoot a paintball at a vehicle and that the signs could be a distraction for some drivers and make the problem worse.
Yeh, the sign’s a problem. Could be “a distraction”. *throws the bullshit flag* How will it be any more distracting than the speed limit signs that are being ignored, eh? Now, that’s a stupid cop. *sigh*
Some of my earliest delightful memories of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau are of his Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Here’s a delightful clip:
“Papagena! Papagena!” – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Soooo nice!
(There. Isn’t that so much better than commenting on the passing scene’s insanity?)
Today, June 18, is the Women’s Transatlantic Flight Anniversary. In 1928, Amelia Earhart flew from Newfoundland to Wales in 21 hours. In 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, of course, we have the TSA strip-searching lil old grandmothers. My how times have changed…
For something more on the spirit of flight,
The music is
From the preface to Calculus Made Easy, by Silvanus P. Thompson:
*heh*
I frequently rail against stupid people who can’t–or don’t– count who nevertheless listen to even stupider (though often clever in their stupidity) Mass Media Podpeople, politicians *spit* and Academia Nut Fruitcakes who wittingly or not misuse statistics or other fudge numbers to make a phony point. But. I realized the other day when looking at some numbers that I’d forgotten–through long disuse–the reasons why the statistical formulae I mentally referred to in order to argue with the numbers worked the way they did. After all, understanding the “why” of such things rests on some calculus I’ve not used much, if at all, for about 40 years.
So, in my spare time (ha!) methought myself to drag out an old calculus text and have at it. But. *sigh* I am considerably stupider than I was 40 years ago, and so I tracked down Calculus Made Easy, by Silvanus P. Thompson. While I’ll order and read the revised version from Amazon.com, the 1914 version is the one I recall browsing through briefly more than 40 years ago, and reading it on Scribus isn’t terribly limiting. Perhaps, in conjunction with a beer or two a day, a little exercise for what Hercule Poirot called “the little grey cells” will stave off my growing mental decay a wee tad.
Anywho, it ought to be fun.
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Newly added to my “Redneck Geek’s I just GOTTA get me one-a these gizmos!” list:
A redneck geek’s dream toy…
(Hint, dudes: DDT is easier, cheaper and as safe. Yes, safe, despite Rachel Carson’s lies, as entomologist (that’s “bug scientist”) and mountaineer J. Gordon Edwards demonstrated by eating a teaspoon full–a truly massive amount for one “animal” of human size to ingest at one time–of the stuff weekly for about 30 years with no apparent ill effects. Yeh, he’s dead. Died at age 84… while mountain climbing. You should die so healthy.)
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Saw a link to this at Jerry Pournelle’s and I just can’t NOT post it. Milesof detcord, tons of high explosives and… Rossini! Yeh! Fun!
I use this lil bmp file, tiled, as the desktop background in a Win2K VM I run fairly often, hosted on this Ubuntu box:
The fun thing about this lil graphic on my background is that when I look at it just so, my desktop appears to become three-dimensional, the background “recedes” an apparent two feet or so (to about where the wall is behind my display) while the icons “float” on the surface of my monitor. Move my head and the background appears to move… while the icons stay still.
Weird eyes or just an interesting optical illusion?
I’m going with weird eyes for now.
😉
Anywho, it’s kinda relaxing for these old eyes to ALT-TAB over to that Win2KVM and just let ’em rest in 3-D comfort for a while. A “2/3-yard stare” instead of a 1,000-yard stare” kinda thing.
I’ve been wanting to take a small, light car and convert it to an electric plugin/hybrid*, but several factors have made me put off doing so. Now it looks like one roadblock may be falling:
EV batteries demonstrate 180,000-plus mile lifespan
One of the key points critics have leveled at the electric car movement is that any money saved by switching gas stations for the power point will be lost when the battery fades and needs replacing. With battery costs currently still high, this is a valid concern – but how long can a battery pack last? Battery provider Southern California Edison have been testing a lithium-ion battery subpack for two and a half hears now and have demonstrated a life of more than 180,000 miles without significant performance deterioration.
Of course, battery service life is just one of several factors influencing when/if I’ll actually get to such a project, but at least that’s one excuse that may be knocked down. “May be” since the test wasn’t under real life conditions, just a lab simulation.
*”plugin/hybrid”? Yeh, I’d like to be able to tow a generator on trips longer than the battery pack can handle on its own without recharge, and have the gas- or diesel-powered generator feed the batteries/electrical system on demand if necessary. Kinda like this car:
Although, I do NOT expect to ever do a conversion that can do this:
*heh*
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I could list a tons of benefits eBooks offer, from cost (zero for Gutenberg.org and other PD sites’ eBooks to very modest for a book still under copyright) to readability (yes, readability: I read almost all the eBooks I download in my web browser, often at 200%-300% magnification, nice for older eyes), but one benefit stands out: Googling (or other search engine use).
Example:
Actually, it was a spread spectrum signal that worked a lot like 802.11b wireless data transmission protocol, only it was centered somewhere around 1.42 gigahertz. Roger could not place it but that particular radio frequency meant something to him.
[Edit] OK, what happened to the whole paragraphs following the blockquote? I dunno… Should have said something like,
1.42 gigahertz? Sounded familiar to me, too, so… highlight, right-click, choose my search engine and… SETI. Of course.
Now, how easy would that have been were I reading a dead tree book? Not very.
Fun stuff.
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