When You’re Holding the Moon for Ransom…

When you’re holding the moon for ransom, you value stability in an application.  Linux gives us the power we need to crush those who oppose us…

Check out the fun Flash cartoon here

Ubergeek Steve in his Rocket Chair

OK.
I admit it!
I want Steve’s cool Rocket Chair.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Fun, General

This post was written by drknuth on January 25, 2008

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Excavating a Giant Ant Colony

I saw a special titled “Ants! Nature’s Secret Power” on the Science Channel, and was amazed by this scene where scientists excavated a giant ant colony in Argentina.

These ants farm fungus gardens and have built a ventilation system to release the large amounts of carbon dioxide generated by the garden and bring in fresh oxygenated air.

There are only two creatures on Earth that farm: humans and ants!

PS: It appears that this video is/will be available in its entirety at these two URLs:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8115023696779132025
http://www.stage6.com/Ants/video/2090460/Ants-Natures-Secret-Power

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Biology, Fun

This post was written by drknuth on January 21, 2008

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Weather Underground

My brother told me about Weather Underground http://www.wunderground.com/
and recommended it as he can track individual storm cells.  He does this so that he can organize his fishing trips according to the weather. Plus when you live in Wisconsin, tornadoes are a real issue.

Speaking of storm cells, here are some fantastic animated simulations bu Ming Xue of the University of Oklahoma.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Fun, General, Internet

This post was written by drknuth on January 20, 2008

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MESSENGER Flyby of Mercury

The MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) probe is approaching Mercury and is sending back the best images of the planet’s surface ever recorded!

Mercury taken by MESSENGER

The last spacecraft to visit Merury was Mariner 10 in 1975. The MESSENGER probe will flyby Mercury twice and eventually go into orbit around the planet in 2011. Once in orbit, the cameras will be able to resolve detail down to 60 feet across.

Tune into the MESSENGER home page for updates and images.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Astronomy, Exploration, Space

This post was written by drknuth on January 16, 2008

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Introducing BigThink.com

BigThink.com is a new website that is the YouTube of people’s opinions.  They have topics of conversation along with videos of experts and viewers providing their opinions.

This is potentially an exciting new medium for the exchanging of ideas.  However, in a world where we have come to believe that everyone’s opinion is somehow worthwhile, this could also be a disaster.  They have imposed some structure which will most likely avert the problems I anticipate here (with only 5 minutes of thought).

BigThink.com has experts providing their opinions along with a set of unanswered questions.  It will be very interesting to see how this progresses—especially in the areas of hot debate.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Fun, General, Information, Internet

This post was written by drknuth on January 16, 2008

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