Clipmarks | ericskiff's Pops

Schoolboy's TV aerial disrupted airport

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:49:17 GMT

Schoolboy's TV aerial disrupted airport

Government officials raided the home of a 12-year-old schoolboy - because his TV aerial was interfering with planes landing at Luton Airport.

Nickie Chamberlain had used the booster device for two years to watch cartoons, music channels and Big Brother on his 14-inch television, reports the Daily Telegraph.

But an Ofcom official turned up at his home in Linslade, Beds, and confiscated the £15 aerial which he said was affecting planes landing at the airport.

According to Ofcom, pilots coming into land at the airport had lost contact with the control tower because the faulty aerial was transmitting on the same frequency as the cockpit radios.

His father, DHL operations manager Dave Chamberlain, 46, said he could not believe a tiny aerial could affect aeroplanes flying over his house.

He said: "The engineer was waiting outside the house when I came home from work and told me pilots had been complaining and they had traced the signal to our house.

Learning to read? Try talking to a dog

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:15:16 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Meet Bailey. She's a registered therapy dog, but you won't find her in hospitals or nursing homes. Instead, Bailey makes weekly visits to libraries and schools. She sits quietly or snuggles up to kids as they read her a book. And no, she's not napping, and the kids don't have treats in their pockets. She's actually helping these children learn to read.

It sounds implausible. After all, dogs can't read. How could they possibly help someone learn a skill that they themselves can't grasp? But it's a growing trend, and it seems to be working.

The philosophy is simple. Children who are just learning to read often feel judged or intimidated by classmates and adults. But reading to a dog isn't so scary. It won't judge, it won't get impatient, it won't laugh or correct if the child makes a mistake. In a nutshell, dogs are simply excellent listeners. And for shy kids or slow readers, that can make all the difference.

Tags: reading, children, dogs, teaching, books

Who is on Amplify?

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:40:32 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: I'd like to connect with you on Amplify if you're on it. I can't seem to figure out how to do it directly at Amplify (unless I stumble upon people on my own through its home page). So go ahead and add your Amplify page in the comments, here is mine: http://arif.amplify.com/

Clip Source: amplify.com

Tags: amplify, clipmarks, blogs

Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:13:49 GMT

clipped by: brightlight4
clipper's remarks: More at source, if you have the stomach ....

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination - and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year

The 'ghost fleet' near Singapore. The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies

They are a powerful and tangible representation of the hurricanes that have been wrought by the global economic crisis; an iron curtain drawn along the coastline of the southern edge of Malaysia's rural Johor state, 50 miles east of Singapore harbour.

'We don't understand why they are here. There are so many ships but no one seems to be on board,' said local fisherman Ah Wat

BREADBOX64, a twitter client for the C64.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:11:18 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar

Clip Source: www.vandenbrande.com

BREADBOX64 is a twitter client for the C64/128 which allows you to tweet from a real C64 and show your friends timeline. It uses Contiki, a very nice embedded OS, and the MMC Replay cartridge with the RR-Net add on for the physical connection to the net.

The commodore 64 will always have a sweet spot in my heart. Although not my first computer - that would be an ADAM Coleco - the C64 was the first system on which I really started to develop software in assembler. Now, some 20 years later I still tinker with it and so why not combining a 21st century phenomenon, called social micro-blogging with a 20th century vintage computer!

The C64

The Ethernet adapter

http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/MMC_Replay

The Compiler

CC65 is a Small C compiler or the 6502. The 6502 is the CPU found in the C64 and a lot of other computers of that era, e.g. the Apple ][. It is a complete compiler tool chain with C compiler, assembler, linker and archiver.

http://www.cc65.org/

The result

Twittering from a C64

Tags: c-64, twitter, computers, 80s, commodore, technology, tech, internet

Business investment falls sharply

Sat, 23 May 2009 18:36:01 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.ft.com

Business investment fell sharply in the final quarter of last year as credit restrictions and slumping demand prompted companies to slash their expansion plans, data released on Tuesday show

Business investment by manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies in the three months to December was estimated to have fallen by 3.9 per cent on the previous quarter and was 7.7 per cent down on the same period in 2007, according to the Office for National Statistics. For manufacturing, the drop was 11 per cent from the third quarter.

The slump was particularly acute in investment in vehicle production, which fell more than 50 per cent compared to the third quarter of 2008, as new cars piled up unsold.

When compared with investment cutbacks in previous recessions, the decline from the peak in the fourth quarter of 2007 is sharper than that of any recession since records began in the early 1960s, economists said.

Tags: 1-investment, 1-recession, 2-decrease, 3-record, 4-uk

American taste for soft toilet roll 'worse than driving Hummers'

Sat, 23 May 2009 12:04:54 GMT

clipped by: brightlight4
clipper's remarks: The US could do with our Recycling system in use in Spain where virtually all trash is recycled, from organic to inert, plus paper, glass, batteries AND pc/cell phone materials. We do not simply drop things into the same bin and not feel guilty about it.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

American taste for soft toilet roll 'worse than driving Hummers'

Extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply toilet roll made from virgin wood causes more damage than gas-guzzlers, fast food or McMansions, say campaigners

The tenderness of the delicate American buttock is causing more environmental devastation than the country's love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions, according to green campaigners. At fault, they say, is the US public's insistence on extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply products when they use the bathroom.

"Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution." Making toilet paper has a significant impact because of chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests.

Barely a third of the paper products sold in America are from recycled sources — most of it comes from virgin wood.

Tot, 3, buys £8,000 digger

Fri, 22 May 2009 18:21:58 GMT

clipped by: drgreenfingers

Clip Source: www.ananova.com

Tot, 3, buys £8,000 digger

A three-year-old New Zealand girl bought a mechanical digger for £8,000 while her parents were asleep.

Pipi Quinlan, who lives in Auckland, logged onto the family computer and got on to an online auction site her mum had been using earlier.

She then submitted what turned out to be a winning bid of 20,000 New Zealand dollars for a massive Kobelco digger, the Rodney Times reports.

When her mother, Sarah Quinlan, woke up and logged onto the computer, she saw a series of emails from the Trade Me auction site.

"It wasn't until I went back and re-read the emails that I saw $NZ20,000, and got the shock of my life," Ms Quinlan said.

"I called my husband Reid over to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I asked him what a Kobelco was and he said: 'I think it's an earthmoving digger'.

"I asked him if he'd been buying a digger. He said it wasn't him, and the only other person in the house is our 18-month-old son. That's when we realised it must have been Pipi.

When illusion combines with virtual reality... Virtual Illusion?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:06:19 GMT

clipped by: djkraz
clipper's remarks: This has got to be one of the coolest videos I've ever soon. Not only is this guy an incredible card magician, but also someone has done some incredible work on the virtual reality side of it. Kudo's to all involved!

Clip Source: blog.makezine.com

[Video]

Marco Tempest demonstrates his playing card magic and augmented reality hybrid act using - "100% real-time stuff - No post-processing. Programmed In C++ with OpenFrameworks, OpenCV, ARToolkitPlus, MacCam and other Open Source goodies..." Very cool to see AR tech finding its way into established performance crafts like this. I'm guessing we'll see these techniques combined with live/performance and projection more and more as ARToolkit catches on. [via Create Digital Motion]

Tags: magic, virtual reality

Shocked Russian surgeons find a FIR TREE in patient's lung.

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:27:13 GMT

clipped by: violetnightshade

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

A fir tree has been found growing inside a man's lung by surgeons who were operating on him for suspected cancer.

The tree, measuring 5cm, was discovered by Russian doctors when they opened up Artyom Sidorkin, 28, to remove what they thought was a tumour.

Medical staff believe that Mr Sidorkin somehow inhaled a seed, which later sprouted into a small fir tree inside his lung.

Doctors were convinced he had cancer.

'We were 100 per cent sure,' said surgeon Vladimir Kamashev from Izhevsk in the Urals. 'We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumour. I had seen hundreds before, so we decided on surgery.'

Before removing the major part of the man's lung, the surgeon investigated the tissue taken in a biopsy.

'I thought I was hallucinating,' said Dr Kamashev. 'I asked my assistant to have a look: "Come and see this - we've got a fir tree here".

They believed the coughing of blood was caused by the tiny pine needles piercing blood capillaries

'I'm so relieved it's not cancer.'

Tags: medicine, science, strange

Cure For Honey Bee Colony Collapse?

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:31:01 GMT

clipped by: violetnightshade

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.

In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides), other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies.

“Now that we know one strain of parasite that could be responsible, we can look for signs of infection and treat

infected colonies before the infection spreads”

Tags: bees, mystery, science, biology

Army reviewing use of troops in Ala. town after gunman killed 10 people, then himself

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:57:03 GMT

clipped by: nuttyriv3r

Clip Source: www.startribune.com

Army reviewing use of troops in Ala. town after gunman killed 10 people, then himself

By JAY REEVES ,

March 18, 2009

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Army said Wednesday it opened an inquiry into whether federal laws were broken when nearly two dozen soldiers were sent to a south Alabama town after 11 people died in a shooting spree last week.

State officials said the deployment of 22 military police officers and the provost marshal from Fort Rucker was requested neither by Republican Gov. Bob Riley nor the White House, which typically is required by law for soldiers to operate on U.S. soil.

Col. Michael J. Negard of the Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va., said officials are trying to determine who ordered the soldiers to Samson, who requested them, why they were sent and what they did there.

"In addition to determining the facts, this inquiry will also consider whether law, regulation and policy were followed," he said.

Samson is about 35 miles from Fort Rucker

Tags: american empire, domestic militarism, police state, conditioning, beast system

Earliest Dinos May Have Been Fuzzy

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:52:18 GMT

clipped by: ofcapri
clipper's remarks: What makes the discovery weird are three patches of what look like filaments or protofeathers along the animal's body and tail. In 2002, scientists working in the same Chinese province described a theropod dinosaur, related to Tyrannosaurus rex, with similar spiky protofeathers

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Earliest Dinos May Have Been Fuzzy

NPR.org, March 18, 2009 · Scientists have been arguing for years about whether some dinosaurs were warm-blooded. Now they've got something else to argue about: Were they fuzzy, too? That's what scientists suspect after analyzing a strange new fossil from Liaoning Province in Northeast China.

The discovery, described in this week's issue of the journal Nature, is a smallish critter a little less than 3 feet long.

Its fossilized bones are splayed out in a piece of stone and date back to the Early Cretaceous period, 99 million to 144 million years ago.

Below is an image of the wispy filaments or protofeathers found in the fossil.

March 18, 2009
Chicken-Sized Dino Discovered In Museum Drawers
March 7, 2009
Tracks Tell A Dainty Dinosaur Tale
Dec. 19, 2008
Dinosaur Dads Cared For Young, Researchers Say
April 25, 2008
T. Rex Protein Evidence Links Dinosaurs to Birds

The dinosaur was named Tianyulong confuciusi by the Chinese scientists who found it in a museum

Tags: dinos

Your Finger is now a USB drive

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:37:56 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: I wonder, if this is soon to become the geekiest way to keep our files..

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

A computer programmer from Finland who lost his ring finger in a motorcycle accident has had it replaced with a USB drive.

Jerry Jalava has built a special prosthetic finger which contains computer storage for photos, movies and other useful files.

While the prosthetic looks like a normal finger Jerry can peel it back from the 'nail' and plug it into the USB slot on his computer using it as an additional hard drive.

When Jerry told doctors what he did for a living they joked he should have a USB 'finger drive' but that was good enough for him, and he set about making one.

Using a traditional prosthetic finger Jerry has been able embed a 'USB key' - like the ones used in traditional flash drives - giving him the world's only two gigabyte finger.

The finger is not permanently attached to his hand meaning it can be removed when plugged into a computer.

"It is not attached permanently in to my body, it is a removable prosthetic which has USB memorystick inside it," said Jerry.

Tags: amputation, usb drive

what didn't the times want you to see?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:07:01 GMT

clipped by: doodleicious
clipper's remarks: when editors panic

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

The Kissinger image below (by David Levine) is one of 320 illustrations – by 142 of the world's most acclaimed contemporary artists – that The New York Times itself originally commissioned for its Op-Ed Pages, but then got cold feet about running, and eventually paid more than $1 million in “kill fees” to hide from public view (sometimes for as long as 38 years).

Can you imagine illustrations so "blasphemous," so "politically embarrassing," so sexually "over the line" that The New York Times gladly paid a fortune just to protect your delicate eyes from being exposed to them?

You’ll find hundreds of such allegedly “not-fit-to-print” illustrations – together with the bizarre and often ludicrous reasons for suppressing them – in a sly and deliciously funny new book called All The Art That’s Fit to Print (And Some That Wasn’t), by Jerelle Kraus, former Art Editor of the Times Op-Ed and Editorial Pages, who reluctantly quit her "dream job" at the Times after 13 years in order to publish it.

Tags: editing