Are you following the net neutrality debate? You should be!
Category: Of Interest
Those miscellaneous things that just must be published.
Announcement from The Hanso Foundation
News from Hanso!
It has come to our attention that our site is experiencing some sort of disruption. Our sincere apologies – please read the full press release on our homepage.
Phone number on the press release, 206-861-5017, goes to a full voicemail box. I have fired off an email to Hugh.McIntyre@thehansofoundation.org.
Namaste.
Bring Order to the Blogosphere
Dave Winer has a project trying to bring order to the blogosphere.
Knoxville Shopping Evolution
Michael Silence via Les Jones points out that Radio Shack is closing most of its non-mall stores and doing away with much of the DIY type items in search of volume sales. In positive news, Apple got confused and is putting an Apple retail store in West Town Mall!! I give it 6 months before they realise their mistake. I only wish it had a reason to have a glass staircase.
Get that man a snail!
So, how do you stay in a fishtank for 8 days without doing something embarassing?
Lost thoughts
Since I haven’t done my Lost review this week, I’ll post a comment I made on a forum.
I don’t think Walt ever typed anything on the computer. I think it was in Michael’s mind. I think Walt was trying to communicate telepathically and couldn’t get it quite right which is why he was visible to Shannon and Sayid but his speech was backwards. He found it easier to project the typed text into Michael’s mind.
When Jack walked in on Michael after Michael had been talking to Walt on the computer, the screen was blank although Michael did not touch the keyboard and only a second later had been in mid-sentence with Walt.
I think Fake Henry is a strong telepath. Remember Jack saying “you’ve got good ears.” He wasn’t listening through the door. I think when Michael came into the hatch, Henry finally found a mind weak enough to control. Henry, not Michael, shot the drunks, er, I mean examples, er, partiers, er, no, um, ladies…yes, Henry shot the ladies.
I still think that when Henry said to Anna Lucia, “you killed two good people” that he was looking into her mind and referring to incidents off the island.
Lost Tidbits
My alloted time for blogging is done so here are some quick Lost notes. Possible spoilers! Continue reading Lost Tidbits
$10,000 for your idea; $2million for your robot
Microsoft is having a contest for your ideas. 12 entrants will actually develop their ideas.
It begins with contestants submitting their cool ideas for projects built with Express, and completes when 12 selected finalists complete their projects and compete head-to-head with each other. The Grand Prize winner walks away with $10,000.
Oops. The rules state that the idea phase just ended. "The Idea Phase of the Contest begins 12:01 a.m. (PT) on March 13, 2006 and ends at 11:59 p.m. on April 30, 2006."
You still have time to enter the Darpa Challenge!
Teams will compete to build an autonomous vehicle able to complete a 60-mile urban course safely in less than 6 hours.
For track A, $1million development funds are available; for track B, $100,000 is available.
One way involves teams submitting a detailed proposal for up to $1 million of technology development funds in response to a DARPA solicitation. The Government will obtain limited license rights to technologies developed using this funding.
or
The second track is similar to that used for Grand Challenge 2005: teams will submit applications and participate in a series of qualification activities. Each team that participates as a semi-finalist in the National Qualification Event (NQE) will be awarded $50,000. Each team that is successful at NQE will receive $100,000 and compete in the Urban Challenge final event.
Details on competing for funding are available.
I so want to do this!
Next Darpa Challenge Announced
I swore I was going to participate in the next Darpa Challenge. I actually had discussions with some people when the first one came out. I think we could have done well.
Teams will compete to build an autonomous vehicle able to complete a 60-mile urban course safely in less than 6 hours.
Not sure I can move fast enough. Need funding!
- Urban Challenge Participants Conference will be held on Saturday, May 20, 2006
- Track A proposals are due June 23, 2006.
- Track B applications are due October 5, 2006.
More in the press release.
Thank Stephen Colbert
A site has been started to give special recognition to Stephen Colbert.
Thanks to 10,000 Monkies and a Camera for the link!
Tennessee Makes Yahoo News! Yahoo!
Thieves Steal Trailer Filled With Red Bull
A truck driver reported last weekend that his 53-foot trailer containing containing $100,000 worth of Red Bull energy drinks (2,880 cases) was stolen. … A trailer containing $100,000 worth of Kraft sauces also was stolen in Dyersburg on Monday
Now what can you do with $!00,000 worth of Red Bull and a $100,000 worth of Kraft sauces at the end a college semester? I’m thinking if we see $100,000 worth of cattle and $100,000 worth of chickens disappear that someone is going to be throwing one heck of a finals craming party. This is what happens when you wait until the end of the semester to start studying!
[Source]
Mexico ponders tougher immigration laws
Mexico’s Congress approved a bill Friday decriminalizing possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use – including cocaine, heroin and ectasy
With the latest announcement from Mexico, can we expect to see an onslaught of illegal US immigrants on Mexico’s soil? Is this a conspiracy with the US Right to get more of the Left out of the country? Wait, no! If that was true, they wouldn’t have included cocaine and heroin…
[Source]
Picking Colors
There are many color scheme programs online. This is the latest I’ve checked out.
Rocky Hill Clown Day
Today is Rocky Hill Elementary’s Clown Day. This year Ringling Brothers came during Rocky Hill’s spring break so they missed their annual visit by the clowns. This year Daisy the Clown and Marty the Magician will be entertaining the children. I will do a brief juggling performance and then spend much time trying to teach 2nd graders how to juggle.
This event is always fun and will leave me hoarse and sore. Should make for an interesting time tomorrow when I juggle for Children’s Mental Health Week at the zoo! Tomorrow’s event is from 10am-2pm. Michael Messing will perform magic from 11am-noon (although I think he will end at 11:30). I will juggle from noon to 1pm and, for those that have seen my show, this year will be different!
The Comedy Zone is having a family day tomorrow. I was supposed to arrange to do a 10 minute juggling routine but never made contact with the right person. However, it is a smoke-free, rated G event for anyone looking to do something with the family after spending the day at the zoo–because if there was ever a day to spend at the zoo it’s tomorrow!
Wishes come true and I bet reality comes crashing down
Boyfriend and girlfriend make a bet. At stake? A threesome! Looks like boy wins but I bet their relationship doesn’t last a week afterwards. Win the battle, lose the war.
So, here’s the story… I said to my girlfriend that any stupid website could get tons of hits, simply because people are bored all the time. She said that I was an idiot and couldn’t make a website that could get tons of hits if I wanted to. After a long argument (mostly centered around the fact that she called me an idiot) we made a bet:
If I could not make a website to get 2,000,000 hits, I would agree that I was an idiot; however, if I could make a website to get 2,000,000 hits, she would have a menage a trois (that’s a threesome to you non french-speakers) with me and another girl. I thought she was kidding at the time, but then she said she was so sure of herself, that she would even put it in writing.
At the time of this post–2,010,891–if you can believe the counter. The impressiveness of it is that not 9 hours ago it was around 600,000. Looks like it is going up at the rate of about 100 hits per second. By the time I finished typing this the numbers reached 2,031,379.
