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Odds and Ends ...
Odds and Ends …
Remember all those interesting items you see as you "surf around the 'net," and perhaps desire to bring back here for others to view ... in some form. But then you may also discover there is no place to put them. At this point, like it or not, you are suddenly faced with a dilemma: does the material merit a new thread; or is this a one-timer that you will likely discard. As one of your last resorts, consider this thread as an alternative, but only if any given item you wish to post, still satisfies a couple of parameters that will prevent this "corner of the world" from deteriorating into a theme-less repository. Specifically, I insist that your "find" broadly fall into a category which can be considered a "curiosity" and/or something that contains a strong element of humour (ranging from silly to ironical). I hope through examples to illustrate what is being sought. But don't be alarmed if my particular topical concerns don't match yours. Afterall, we come from different perspectives, and often react to curiosity or humour accordingly. I close with the following, just to make certain matters more plain:
-- Zephyr |
A wonderful idea for a thread: but why the oversize type? Why the triple+ spacing?
It quickly uses up pages and makes viewing the thread a chore. Can't we use the same normal font size that every other poster here uses? |
"OfficeSpam" Web Source
…This is a case of photographer photographs photographer. The following photographs were taken by photographer Hans van de Vorst at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. The descriptions are his own. The identity of the photographer IN the photos is unknown. http://officespam.chattablogs.com/ar...er-1-thumb.jpg great place for a photo I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock IN the Grand Canyon. The canyon's depth is 900 meters here. The rock on the right is next to the canyon and safe. Watching this guy on his thong sandals, with a camera and a tripod I asked myself 3 questions:
http://officespam.chattablogs.com/ar...er-2-thumb.jpg This is the point of no return http://officespam.chattablogs.com/ar...er-3-thumb.jpg After the sun set behind the canyon's horizon he packed his things (having only one hand available) and prepared himself for the jump. This took about 2 minutes. At that point he had the full attention of the crowd. After that, he jumped on his thong sandals... The canyon's depth is 900 meters here. Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher so he tried to land lower, which is quite steep and tried to use his one hand to grab the rock. http://officespam.chattablogs.com/ar...er-4-thumb.jpg We've come to the end of this little story. Look carefully at the photographer. He has a camera, a tripod and also a plastic bag, all on his shoulder or in his left hand. Only his right hand is available to grab the rock and the weight of his stuff is a problem. He lands low on this flip flops both his right hand and right foot slips away... At that moment I take this shot. He pushes his body against the rock. He waits for a few seconds, throws his stuff on the rock, climbs and walks away. This nifty piece of OfficeSpam was submitted by Tim. |
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left - © 2007 OnMyList, LLC; right - © 2008 Loqu.com / Courtesy Zzappple's Space http://farm1.static.flickr.com/100/3...aae51530_o.jpg Courtesy flickr / mxlanderos http://www.subtire.com/wp-content/up...arapaty_35.jpg Courtesy Linkinn http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.onmyl..._list_view.jpg http://www.hemmy.net/images/automobi...ccidents01.jpg left - © 2007 OnMyList, LLC; right - Courtesy hemmy.net |
More of a curiosity than anything else. We start with the fact that spiral escalators (also known as helix escalators when extended) are engineering marvels in themselves. As far as I know, Mitsubishi is the only company making them at this moment.
But what if the spiral/helix is exceptionally long - which is still relatively short compared to linear escalators. The cost would seem prohibitive, and as to where it might be used, difficult to visualise. Maybe it would be used in an opera house or well-heeled shopping mall. I hadn't considered the following, but it is perfectly logical: Spiral Escalator at Caesar's Palace Forum Shops in Las Vegas – World’s Longest CLICK IMAGE BELOW to Access YouTube Video http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/1ds-4/c...ace-casino.jpg Video – Courtesy YouTube / spoonpiano; Image – Courtesy Caesar's Palace Casino Runtime - 00:24 |
Autoblog cooks ham and potatoes in the engine bay of Saab
CLICK IMAGE BELOW to Access YouTube Video http://hight3ch.com/wp-content/uploa...ook_engine.jpg Video – Courtesy YouTube / Autoblogvideo; Image – Courtesy High Tech Runtime - 06:33 |
Above I kindly ask the following:
Quote:
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http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom....es/logo_ap.jpg Man tries to go home for holidays — by fire truck Tue Dec 23 [2008], 2:55 pm ET SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah – What kind of mileage does that thing get? Police in South Salt Lake, Utah, have arrested a man they say tried to steal a fire truck so he could drive home — to Washington — for Christmas. Detective Gary Keller says firefighters on a medical call heard the $500,000 truck's air horn blaring Monday and ran outside. They found a man in the driver's seat trying to drive away. After a lengthy struggle, firefighters were finally able to subdue the man until police arrived. Police say the 25-year-old man told them he wanted to go to Washington to see his mother for Christmas. Sponsoring Link – Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Story as Written – Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Original Source – Deseret News |
Fab,
Its pointless, Zephyr wont change his posting 'style' its been brought up alot. The content is generally interesting but I cant read it. The Richard Meier thread taught me that. When existing posts were updated and posted again causing them to show as 'unread' so in essence I read that thread about 3 times over. As for the font/colour/spacing, it hurts the eyes, its hard enough reading alot off a screen nevermind when its made a challenge. Re: the cable article, i think there is an existing thread for that from when it happened last time. |
I will remove the cable post, even though I used it primarily as an example (see revised, opening post).
BTW, I do agree with "Zephyr [won't] change his posting 'style'," as you indicated to your fellow member and friend. But the rest of it is your take not mine. Personally, I will always believe that issues with posting are better handled by PMs, clicking on the proper icon, or as a last resort on a thread that you are familiar with - "Forum Issues." Disrupting a thread to do this, is not a very wise alternative, even if it is practised with impunity on WNY. Off to delete yet another post ... |
A PM would be useless as I can tell from when this was brought up before that it would fall on deaf ears. I said so publicly because Fab said it publicly, him being a friend has nothing to do with it. I also said it publicly in the hope that some members who may read this thread could comment also if they had problems with your writing style and perhaps extra support would cause you to make it more readable. I know several other members who do but wish to remain anonymous. Im not asking for a massive change. If you left justify, use black characters and limit the amount of size/ font changes and it would be so much easier on our eyes.
However, I know you wont listen to me, you've shown yourself to be biased, unreasonably so, against me in the past and I doubt you would listen to me or anyone for that matter. I know you want your posts to have extra effort, but if you want a really stunning post you should consider how it is read by the average member. |
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Im not disrupting this thread as it isnt a discussion thread. It is a thread of one post stories. The most continuous conversation is this one. You know well by now threads take on their own direction. Youre a strange character. You obviously want your posts to look great yet you dont care how they are read by real people. |
From this point forward, this "strange character" will post only what this thread was meant to do. Apologies to the "real people" that may be offended by doing so.
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FAZIOLI PIANO BREAKS DESIGN PAST M. Liminal The music of shape and the design of sound are created in the M. Liminal model, designed by NYT Line and Philippe Gendre. Just as consonance and dissonance are organised in music, M. Liminal's shapes and colours are combined in asymmetric but orderly designs. Inspired by the sea, the shape of the side evokes the profile of a wave while the black-silver colour that of a dolphin. The red of the soundboard and black of the cast iron frame filter through the transparency of the plexiglas music stand. http://www.fazioli.com/images/liminal.jpg http://www.fazioli.com/images/liminal_mini.jpg http://www.fazioli.com/images/liminal_mini_1.jpg Copyright © 2005 Fazioli Pianoforti All rights reserved. |
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POSTED 27 NOVEMBER 2008 Ant study deep-sixes favorite theory! Social insects are astonishingly successful – in some habitats the ants, wasps, bees and termites outweigh animals with backbones. This is an insult to the top vertebrates (aren't we totally important?), but biologists have another concern, summed up in a single word: Why? The standard answer is division of labor through specialization. Ant colonies typically contain workers, who forage for food or care for the young, soldiers, who protect the colony or attack others, and of course, the queen, who sits around and lays eggs 24/7. According to conventional wisdom, specialists are better at their jobs, and that allows the whole colony to thrive. And now comes a study showing almost no support whatsoever for this well-accepted rationale. Anna Dornhaus, an assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, established some colonies of an ant species that's widespread in Europe. http://whyfiles.org/shorties/273ant_...us_ants131.jpg Photo courtesy Megan Levardo, UA NASA Space Grant Intern It looks like an art studio, but here's how you paint labels on your ant colony – never know when this skill will come in handy! ___________ She painted the ants to identify them, and timed them doing four tasks:
___________ When Dornhaus compared ants that specialized in one task to those that worked on several, her data refuted the bedrock assumption that specialization raises individual productivity. "There is no pattern at all," she says, "no significant correlation between how specialized I am and how good I am at a task. I was surprised. I absolutely expected to find that individuals were better at the tasks they were doing, either because they picked the work they were good at, or they learned to get better at certain tasks as they specialized." Among ants, the queen is always larger than the workers. The study may not apply to the 15 percent of ants that have specialized bodies, Dornhaus cautions. Among some army ants, for example, the soldiers are much brawnier than the workers. But among 85 percent of ant varieties, including the rock ants she studied, all non-queen females are alike in body size and shape. If specialization does not increase efficiency, what is going on? "Maybe the system is more complicated than I thought, or maybe it is not as optimized," Dornhaus says. Biologists assume that the continual struggle to survive that drives evolution will refine and perfect behaviors, she says. "In many cases, that is true, but not always. Sometimes, animals will stick to a behavior that has become useless." Something new! Specialization has long intrigued social-insect researchers, but they have concentrated on a different question: Why Ant Annie would tend the young while Ant Annette became a soldier. (Among social insects, males are only involved in mating; females do all the heavy lifting -- and everything else). "Social insect people have almost entirely focused on the sensory stimuli that provoke an individual to engage in a task," says Lars Chittka, of the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at the University of London. The question of whether the individuals that are stimulated to perform a specific task are also the ones that do it most efficiently "has not been addressed empirically so far," he says. "Dornhaus shows that there is no link between the animal's propensity to perform a task, and their efficiency at that task." If the result are broadly applicable to social insects, ecologists owe us some explanations. Chittka, who has worked with bees for many years, wrote via email "that just like in human societies, efficiency at job specialty is only in small part a result of 'talent,' or innate tendency to engage in a job: it is much more a result of perfecting skills with experience." The Dornhaus results may have been different, he suggests, if the individuals had time to hone their skills. "In almost all tasks that social insects engage in, there's improvement with experience," he says. Switch hitters Dornhaus, however, found that skill did not seem to increase over time. "Specialists had opportunities for learning, but that did not seem to make them more efficient; they had done tasks repeatedly in the past but were not doing them faster." One possible explanation involves the effort needed to change from one task to another, she says. "It may be that switching tasks is very expensive ... in terms of time and cognitive effort." If so, it could still be more productive to specialize, even if the specialists do not do their jobs faster than non-specialists. We mentioned to Dornhaus that specialization and division of labor on assembly lines have proven to be excellent (if boring) ways to improve factory productivity, and Dornhaus returned to the switching issue. "Most of these tasks do not require a lot of learning, but they are efficient because you save the switching costs, so everybody works faster. It's not that a person from another part of the assembly line could not work on your part." If switching does not explain the superior performance of social insects, however, Dornhaus says a major explanation for their success "falls apart. Then we do not know why ants have a division of labor, why they specialize. We always thought specialization and division of labor is a great innovation of social insects. It's surprising to find it is not as beneficial as we thought. – David Tenenbaum Bibliography
©2008, University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents. |
Sometimes, animals will stick to a behavior that has become useless. Kind of says it all right there.
Dornhaus shows that there is no link between the animal's propensity to perform a task, and their efficiency at that task. This study makes me think of the Peter Principle which afflicts human social structures. |
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The word “photography” has its roots in Greek, roughly trans- lating to “writing of light.” Just as text is most interesting when free of superfluous words, photography using little light is often the most intriguing. Night photographers, consequently, are some of the most captivating “writers” in the medium. Brassa http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/up...07/brassai.jpg http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/up.../brassai-2.jpg http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/up...brassai-31.jpg (images via: Arts Gallery and La Cancion De La Sirna) One of the founding fathers of night photography was Brassai, a Hungarian emigre to France who made his mark on the young art form with his 1933 book, Paris de Nuit (Paris by Night). Brassai’s images drew sharp contrasts between extreme light and extreme darkness, between the pure white of the city’s artificial, electric lighting, and the voids of darkness the lighting did not reach. Brassai’s deft use of fog as a tool in night photography established the technique in the genre, a technique that would be employed by night photographers in every successive generation. Bill Schwab http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/up...07/schwab1.jpg http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/up.../schwab-x2.jpg Bill Schwab is a clear follower in Brassai’s footsteps, using a similar interplay of artificial light and fog in much of his work. But Schwab’s work does not feature the light in the foreground, as Brassai’s did, but piercing through the subject of the photo from the background. This effect gives Schwab’s subjects a sort of hollow, lifeless quality that he manipulates to great effect, especially when focusing on symbols of his native Michigan’s suffering economy. Robert Brook http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/up...8/07/brook.jpg … [A] British photographer specializing in night photography is Robert Brook, who …works … with urban subject matter. Brook is one of the few photographers to do extensive night work in both color and black and white photography. Brook’s color images are often nearly as devoid of pigment as his black and white prints, using harsh, artificial white lights that makes the darkness look almost more inviting than the lighted areas. © 2008 Webist Media |
Close call for me: "News and Politics" or here? May yet make it over to the former, but more likely to stay here.
http://images.politico.com/global/v3/homelogo.gif The top ten media blunders of 2008 By MICHAEL CALDERONE 12/22/08 6:29 PM EST http://images.politico.com/global/08...ab_caldero.jpg Photo: AP Terrorist fist jab' or just a way of saying hello? The media took its share of lumps this year, with persistent claims of bias and complaints about often wrong-headed speculation from a seemingly endless parade of talking heads. Of course, there was great reporting, with journalists breaking news and penning terrific profiles of the candidates and the campaigns. TV ratings and Web traffic were through the roof, evidence of huge voter interest. But there were plenty of missteps on the way, and Politico compiled a list of 2008’s greatest blunders (along with a look at how the media responded to each). Were there worse media mishaps we've missed? Politico invites readers — never shy to tell us reporters when we're wrong — to comment below and let us know what should have made the cut. 1) New Hampshire primary: Pundits predicted a campaign-ending, double-digit loss long before the polls closed, and some networks, perhaps disbelieving the results, didn’t call the election until after Obama had already conceded. "I will never underestimate Hillary Clinton again,” Chris Matthews said on MSNBC. Response: The New Hampshire debacle came up again and again, especially when cable talking heads began saying Obama had sewn up the nomination. But many pundits, perhaps wary of repeating their previous mistake, kept up with the claim the race was neck and neck well after the delegate math no longer gave Clinton any opening. 2) The New York Times' McCain-Iseman story: There was so much hype leading up to The Times' front-page investigation of John McCain’s relationship with lobbyists — dating back at least to a Drudge leak two months earlier — that without something concrete, the story was doomed to fail. Executive Editor Bill Keller said there’s more to the piece than the strongly suggested, never outright stated, romantic relationship between the senator with lobbyist Vikki Iseman, but that’s what the public seized upon. The Times put it out there but couldn’t prove it, leading both the right and the left to slam the piece. Response: The campaign sparred publicly with the Gray Lady throughout the campaign, using the liberal media as a whipping boy when it needed to rally the base, and the paper often appeared to return the favor, most notably in an hostile October profile of wife Cindy McCain. 3) Matthews, Olbermann as co-anchors: Having MSNBC stars Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann co-anchor Election Night and convention coverage drew the public ire of conservatives (and many Clinton supporters), and internally network journalists grumbled that the pair tarnished NBC’s established journalism brand. By the time the Democrats reached Denver, Jon Stewart had dubbed the network “lord of the flies.” Response: Even-keeled NBC utility player David Gregory took over as anchor, allowing Matthews and Olbermann to let their opinions run free. 4) “Terrorist fist bump” and “baby mama”: Fox News, in one week last summer, twice took racially tinged shots at Michelle Obama. Host E.D. Hill apologized for calling the playful fist pound between the Obamas at the convention a “terrorist fist jab,” and then days later, the network placed an offensive chyron up next to the future First Lady: “Obama’s baby mama.” Response: Hill’s contract wasn’t renewed when it expired in November, and the producer responsible for the “baby mama” line went to CNBC. 5) “Pimped out”: MSNBC’s David Shuster said that Chelsea Clinton was being “pimped out” by the campaign for calling superdelegates on her mother’s behalf. The Clinton camp and NBC executives became embroiled in a tense back-and-forth, with the Democratic contender threatening to withdraw from a network-sponsored debate. Response: Shuster was suspended for a couple weeks, but the incident wasn’t a career setback. Just last week, MSNBC named Shuster host of “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” 6) ABC Democratic Debate in Philadelphia: Co-moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos faced plenty of blowback following the Obama-Clinton debate for spending the first half focused on what many complained were trivial issues — his relationships with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, and his stance on flag pins. Response: Gibson and Stephanopoulos weathered the criticism, but also didn’t get another debate. Little was heard about Wright after that, or about Ayers until the McCain campaign went hard at the link in the final weeks of the race. 7) National Enquirer’s Edwards story: During the primaries, mainstream media outlets, this one included, declined to report on the National Enquirer’s shoe-leather reporting on John Edwards’ affair, even after their reporters caught him visiting the woman at the Beverly Hilton. Bloggers kept the story simmering while most news organizations ignored the mounting evidence — that is, until Edward finally came clean on ABC after he'd already dropped out of the race. Response: Still more ammo to those predisposed to thinking the establishment media’s days as gatekeeper are numbered. 8) New Yorker’s “Politics of Fear” cover: The Zabar’s set were in on the joke. But some didn’t see the humor in the illustration of Barack and Michelle Obama sharing a terrorist fist-jab and dressed, respectively, as a Muslim and Angela Davis-style black radical, with an Osama bin Laden painting on the mantle and an AK-47 leaning against the fireplace, in which burned the American flag. Response: Both campaigns slammed the cover, and rumors flew that New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza was kept off the campaign’s overseas trip as a result. But now, both Lizza and editor David Remnick — the former whose excellent piece on Obama in the same issue was largely overlooked in the ensuing dustup — are working on books dealing with Obama. 9) Veepstakes mistakes: OK, there probably could be a long list, so we'll settle for a pair of political commentators who were both right and wrong. On “Fox News Sunday,” Bill Kristol repeatedly said that Obama would choose Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, even offering the time and place of the announcement. And Time’s Mark Halperin boasted of having two Republican sources telling him that McCain had “apparently settled on Romney.” Response: They kept on giving predictions. To Kristol’s credit, he was talking up Palin as McCain’s VP long before most of the lower 48 knew who she was. Halperin was on the right track with Obama’s pick, evident in his cryptic “Beau knows… the pick” line on “The Page.” 10) CNN’s Drew Griffin misquoting the National Review: CNN finally got an interview with Sarah Palin, but ran into trouble when Griffin read part of a National Review story to the Alaska governor: “I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above." Turns out the author, Byron York, wasn't taking a shot at Palin, but at the media for portraying her as those things. Response: The incident fed straight into the narrative that mainstream outlets weren’t giving Palin a fair shake. Griffin apologized on-air for taking the quote out of context and personally to both York and editor Rich Lowry. © 2008 Capitol News Company LLC |
Joe the effin' Pumber doesn't make the top 10?!
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http://www.mcburney.wisc.edu/images/logo-wordmark.gif Curiosities: What food was served at the Original Thanksgiving celebration? Nov. 26, 2008 Plucked from his own time in the autumn of 1621 and deposited at a “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner today, a Plymouth, Mass. Pilgrim would have gawked at the foodstuffs, says UW-Madison historian Stanley Schultz. “He would not have recognized mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, bread stuffing of any composition, green beans (alone or in some noxious casserole), corn on the cob, candied yams or sweet potatoes, pumpkin or apple pie for dessert,” Schultz says. “If the meal’s centerpiece was a crown roast of pork or a spiral cut ham, our traveler would stand bewildered because his fellow Pilgrims did not keep pigs.” What, then, did the approximately 50 English settlers, who for three days entertained and feasted with about 90 regional Wampanoag Indians, eat during the celebration? We only know for certain that the celebrants dined on venison provided by the Indians and wild fowl (probably either duck or turkey). Other available foodstuffs included some form of dried maize—“Indian corn” to the Pilgrims—lobsters, oysters, eels, squash, beans (similar to lima beans), strawberries, raspberries, and gooseberries (probably dried) as sweets. “We only can speculate whether the feast included these items,” he says. What is not speculative, Schultz says, is that today we celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November because of Abraham Lincoln. In October, 1863, the President proclaimed a national holiday on which all Americans, bitterly divided by the Civil War, could give thanks with one heart and voice for all that was strong and productive about their nation. “Sound advice then, and today as well,” adds Schultz. © 2008 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System |
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