Tram Town
Friday, March 30, 2007
| Category: WHWTMSITW It's great news that scientists have found a new species of troglobite. It is stupid that they are going to stop the establishment of a $12bill mining project because of it. What sort of drugs are these people on? |
| Category: Headlines The Courier Mail declares: Booze kills 1 in 4 kids. That must be the Queensland number because I reckon we would have noticed a death rate of that magnitude. Still we wouldn't have any expectations of Bracksy's mob doing anything about it. After all, they've got water to worry about. |
Thursday, March 29, 2007
| Category: Ephemera When FM radio first appeared in Australia, ABC-FM had a program called Ephemera. It was a good pun and, if I recall correctly, an okay show. I think this link (warning - four-letter word alert (but worth a look anyway)), again from Scary Duck, qualifies as ephemera. BTW There appears to be some confusion over the correct capitalisation of the noun phrase. |
Category: WHWTMSITW*Mothers big on beef may affect sons' sperm countThis startling result is using up entire forests of newsprint around the world and is based on a sample including "51 men whose mothers remembered eating the most beef". Of these 51, "18 per cent had sperm counts classified by the World Health Organisation as sub-fertile". So 9 samples have enabled these eco-goons to establish a connection with pesticides or maybe hormones or maybe "contaminants" (note my intentional use of scare quotes - what the heck are contaminants and how are they going to establish a link ~25 years out?). To directly quote the head researcher Dr Shanna Swan, "I was really surprised when we found this. It was a really strong association". She's either statistically stupid or scientifically dishonest. * We Have Way Too Many Scientists In This World. |
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
| Category: Technology Picked up one of these last week for a specific project, been pretty happy with it so far -- YMMV. |
Saturday, March 24, 2007
| Category: Telly I mentioned some time ago that I had watched Serenity the movie and it was good. Here's the important thing: watch Firefly the TV series first. Firefly came first but there are a few bits and pieces in Serenity that are chronologically intertwined with Firefly. What is important is that quite a bit of the mystery of the series is cleared up in the film. None of this will come as news to anyone who is really interested in television Sci-Fi I guess. As it happens, I have never had much interest in television Sci-Fi except as a kid with Doctor Who (I also admit to watching a couple of episodes of the recent Doctor Who series and being very impressed). Firefly costs a bit over $40 at JB and I recommend that you go get it and get Serenity at the same time. Just One Guy's Opinion™. Acting good. Production good. Scripts good (except for one of the telly episodes). If something might get 10.0/10.0 from me, this would be it. |
Friday, March 23, 2007
| Category: Telly Looks like Doctor Who TNG gets a fourth series. I enjoyed the first two series' and I reckon that series 3 should be on the National Broadcaster at some stage this year -- goodo. |
Monday, March 19, 2007
| Category: Evil I heard about this study on one of Dr Karl's podcasts last week. It beggars belief. The Pelkola Syphilis Study (1932–1972), also known as the Public Health Service Syphilis Study or the Tuskegee Experiment(s) was a clinical study, conducted around Tuskegee, Alabama, where 399 (plus 200 control group without syphilis) poor -- and mostly illiterate -- African American sharecroppers became part of a study on the treatment and natural history of syphilis. |
| Category: Religion The good folk over at Diogenes' Lamp pointed me at this Time article about carbon credits by Charles Krauthammer. In other words, the rich reduce their carbon output by not one ounce. But drawing on the hundreds of millions of net worth in the Kodak Theatre, they pull out lunch money to buy ecological indulgences. The last time the selling of pardons was prevalent--in a predecessor religion to environmentalism called Christianity--Martin Luther lost his temper and launched the Reformation. |
Thursday, March 15, 2007
| Category: Budgies It's amazing what you can achieve with a tripod and some SteadyShot™ magic.  This one gives some idea of how many of these we have around here.  I hear tell they're endangered. If I had a shotgun they would be! |
| Category: Invention Slatts pointed out an article in the Hun about a bloke in central Victoria who has invented an anti-gravity machine. He made the front page of the Macedon Ranges Guardian last week so there must be something in it. |
| Category: Pitcher Serenity is good, probably very good. What's more it's out at $12.98 at JB at the moment. 9.0/10.0 |
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Category: Birds We've got a whole mess of these in our back yard every morning and night and by jeez do they make a racket. |
| Category: Plastics Tim Blair pointed me at an interesting article which states: A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite. |
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
| Category: Development This reminds me of something that happened in Camberwell during the 70's. If my memory serves me well, there was a major development to the rear of the Junction Shopping Strip involving a (largish) Target/McEwans/Safeway precinct which required the building of a 500 car carpark. There was a little old lady who refused to sell so for a number of years there was a house in the middle of the carpark -- pretty sure I didn't dream that (off to Wikipedia but I'm not hopeful). |
Monday, March 12, 2007
| Category: Cult Fiction That Brainy Gal has pointed me to an interesting History of the Daleks thingy. Some folks have way too much time on their hands. Terry Nation has a lot to answer for!. I also found (on this subject) that this looks worth a read. I built a Dalek out of corrugated cardboard when I was in my late single digits -- it didn't last long. |
| Category: Warmening This video, The Great Global Warming Swindle, requires an investment of one and a quarter hours but it is well worth it. Interestingly, it dumps some of the blame for the current mess on Margaret Thatcher. Turn up your sound and watch it, Jack! |
Friday, March 09, 2007
| Category: Fruit Shops Interesting article about the fruit companys' retail strategy. Coming soon to a town near TramTown. |
| Category: Gadgets This is a beer-launching fridge. I figure anybody who is too lazy to get up and get a beer is my kind of guy. UPDATE: And as soon as I published I noticed that DB had made the same link just over an hour ago! Great minds... |
| Category: DIY Projects Interesting Science Project -- semi-automatic beer fridge! Video available here. I think I'd like one of these. |
Thursday, March 08, 2007
| Category: Words I was looking up coelacanth over at the (sadly) much maligned Wikipedia and discovered that it is ovoviviparous. We humans (and most mammals) are viviparous and birds and monotremes are oviparous. The issue is where the embryo develops. Ovo means in an egg. Viv means live birth. Ovoviviparous means that the embryo develops inside the egg, inside the uterus and comes into the world as an "autonomous" beings. I might say that I felt a bit revulted when I read about the notion of intrauterine cannibalism. It seems that some sharks have two uteruses; one in which the embryo develops within the egg and one in which the multiple offspring eat each other until the final two are allowed to "exit". |
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
| Category: Reviews I found this both relevant and amusing My new mobile is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary features aimed at idiots. |
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
| Category: Denial The National Post (from Canada) has a series of articles entitled Climate change: The Deniers. So far there are thirteen parts. I have only read a couple but so far so good. |
Thursday, March 01, 2007
| Category: Muck Don't go there if you're going to be offended, but... Kev Gillett has an amusing remark about Monica Lewinsky's 31st birthday. |
| Category: Humour Okay, I'm going to expose myself as being immature and all that, but... This is one of the funniest names I have ever heard: Samuel Rudolph "Rudy" Insanally. I'm here to tell you that if he had come to my school when he was a teenager he would have gone through hell. |
