just me

Tonight is the first night we’ll be spending the night in our new house. Liz and I both took Friday off and moved some stuff over, but Saturday is the official moving-in day. We’re fortunate to have a bunch of friends who have volunteered to help us in this god-awful endeavor. I’d rather have another colonoscopy than move.

The world was a better place because of him.

George Carlin Mourned as Counterculture Hero – AP

The indescent, not obscene, Carlin dies – CNN

…and a nice bio from Wikipedia.

Anyone have a spare $4,147.50 they want to give me?

http://gozerog.com/

If one guy can do this in his spare time (and $500,000) then why can’t big corporations and/or the government do something half as useful? Democrats tell us the the government can solve all of our problems, while Republicans claim that it’s big corporations and the free market that will come to our rescue. Personally, I think both camps are full of shit. I prefer to believe in people.

Read more about Mike and his home at Scientific American.

Okay, maybe it’s not a commercial espousing one candidate over another, but this Snickers commercial ran back in 2000. Priceless…

This is such a freaking cool idea. Sure, it’s a concept and is largely untested, but it combines brilliant architecture and design with sound science. If I had gobs of money I would throw millions at Mexican-born designer Agustin Otegui and get this on the market. We’re dependent on fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine at the moment, but we won’t always be. Nature is constantly evolving and improving, and so should humanity.

From CNN…

Organic by Design
As a product designer, Agustin Otegui’s has to “think big” about the objects he creates. From novel portable chairs made out of shovels to chrome radiators that look like modern works of art, he recasts the mundane in a modernist and functional new light.

The Nano Vent Skin forms an organic skin around a building providing its energy needs.

Yet when he got thinking about how he could help with solutions to mitigate climate change he started thinking small. Very small, in fact.

His futuristic concept is called the Nano Vent-Skin (NVS) and the design — to wrap buildings in an organic lattice skin made up of micro wind turbines — is radical… read the rest of the article…

His blog & his portfolio site

Each day NASA posts a new astronomy/space-related picture. Today’s is particularly beautiful, in my humble opinion, marking the summer solstice. From http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080620.html :

Solstice Moonrise, Cape Sounion
Today’s solstice marks the northernmost point of the Sun’s annual motion through planet Earth’s sky and the astronomical beginning of the northern hemisphere’s summer. But only two days ago, the Full Moon nearest the solstice rose close to the ecliptic plane opposite the Sun, near its southernmost point for the year. Astronomer Anthony Ayiomamitis recorded this dramatic picture of the solstice Full Moon rising above Cape Sounion, Greece. The twenty-four hundred year old Temple of Poseidon lies in the foreground, also visible to sailors on the Aegean Sea. In this well-planned single exposure, a telescopic lens makes the Moon loom large, but even without optical aid casual skygazers often find the Full Moon looking astonishingly large when seen near the horizon. That powerful visual effect is known as the Moon Illusion.

So my good friend Megaton Maynard posted a video on his blog titled “Why You Too Can Vote Republican.” If you’re a Republican/conservative voter that can’t take a joke, I suggest you not watch the video. I myself found it darn funny, though. I sent the video on to my wife and a few friends at work, and in response one of my co-workers replied with a link to a funny piece on Slate titled “The Truth About Barack Obama: RUMORS THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN SHOULDN’T TRY TO CORRECT.” The next time I get an email about how Obama is a Muslim that hates America I’ll be replying with the Slate article.

Via my good friend, Megaton Maynard…