who says science isn’t cool?

Hear me now and believe me later:
This little cell size animation from the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah is most likely the coolest thing you’ll see today.
(Via @StevenGould on Twitter.)

notes from a sunday.

We have a very good friend staying with us this weekend, so Castle Frostbite has been abuzz with all kinds of social activities.  Right now we’re getting ready for dinner while the kids are playing various iSpy games on two of the three computers we’ve set up side by side in the living room for [...]

stolen from the desk of frodo.

So the new computer arrived today. In a fortuitous feat of good timing, the Brown Truck of Happiness came up the driveway right after I got the kids squared away for their naps, and I was able to spend my lunch break putting together the barebones kit I had ordered.
The new system is an nVidia [...]

why does ron moore hate model 0005 centurions so much?

a novel approach to embedded content.

News from the publishing front:  Entertainment Weekly to embed video-displaying LCDs in their September issue.
###
THE SCENE: A horse buggy manufacturer’s office, circa 1909.
HORSE BUGGY EXEC #1:  Those new-fangled motor-cars are getting dreadfully popular these days.  Fewer and fewer people buy our solid and proven technology, and everyone is spending their money on those new contraptions [...]

it’s all that slovakian midget porn.

Here’s what the salesguy said to me when I bought my 120GB iPod:
“I don’t know anyone who can actually fill up an iPod classic.”
Here’s my current iPod status:

Dear Steve Jobs: Please to be making beeger iPod, kthxbai.

freeze! drop that router!

Oh, how awesome is this?
One of my daily reads is the Live Bookmark feed of the newspaper for my old German home city of Muenster.  One of the latest news items is the tale of a Muenster resident who was recently paid a visit by the Muenster police SEK (their equivalent of a SWAT team).  [...]

that book you bought? we’ve decided to un-sell it to you.

Reason #2811 I’m lukewarm about the Kindle:
Amazon deleted previously purchased copies of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 after the publisher changed their mind about offering an e-book version.
That’s pretty ballsy.  Like the article states, it’s like Borders or Barnes & Noble sending someone to break into your house, take a book you purchased from them [...]

socializing is awesome, in moderate doses.

Over at The Atlantic, Jonathan Rauch has a great article up about the proper care and feeding of your introvert.
I’m an introvert myself (shocking, I know!), and I have to say that he’s spot-on.  I’m a selective socializer—I love hanging out with people, but it has to be the right sort of crowd.  Also, sooner [...]

a bleg.

Does anyone have an older Mac they’d like to turn into some ammo or beer money? 
I need one that has at least a factory-equipped Firewire port, which is the base minimum to run OS X 10.4 “Tiger”.  The oldest machines that fit the description are the slot-loading CRT iMacs, 350MHz and faster.  I don’t [...]