My favorite quote in response to Bush’s “acknowledgement” of responsibility for the War in Iraq.
And what the hell does it mean that “the responsibility rests with me”? Not “I take responsibility” or “I accept responsibility,” but responsibility coming, apparently under its own power, to rest in the general vicinity of George W. Bush. It’s his way of saying, “I can’t really get away with denying responsibility, so by default I’ll let it attach itself to me.” It’s really pathetic.
As we sat waiting for our delayed flight in the airport, Chuck Norris was on TV kicking someone’s ass. My manager turns to me and says, “There is no chin under Chuck Norris’ Beard. There is only another fist.” He then points me out to the Chuck Norris Top Ten list.
“He (Bush) should resign straight away and be tried by the same kangaroo court.” – Mahathir Mohamad, former Malasian premier
What is a “kangaroo court”? Turns out it’s a well-known phrase, one that I had never heard before. Although the picture below indicates a better vision of what I thought was meant.
Look closely: the spoon and fork are suspended from the table, balancing across a toothpick on the very edge of the glass. I took the pictures, and they were not manipulated in any way. (I should have taken a picture of the full glass, but couldn’t find the right angle). Can anyone explain how it’s done?
EDIT: Here is a wikiHow article on this stunt. Unfortunately, the explanation is not really helpful.
EDIT: I think the center of gravity of the spork-combination must be directly below the edge of where the toothpick touches the glass. Is this true?
Chirag mentioned that the Department of Veteran’s Affairs has recently released the VA Vista EMR as an application, as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Having studied large-scale EMR systems to some extent, this made me a tad nervous as I hadn’t yet heard about it.
After a bit of research, turns out that I need not worry about this system replacing the likes of Cerner or Eclipsys without government intervention (no pun intended…). At the very least, it is a system that should be watched carefully to see how its use evolves.
The following from a site compiling open-source EMR systems. The bold text is my emphasis. (And, by the way, has anyone heard of the M programming language??)
Two large-name sites have come up with semi- to nearly-fully-independent entities to sell shoes online since Oct 2006.
There are also three other major contenders out there.
It should be interesting to see how Gap and Amazon take on these somewhat entrenched players. Also of note, Amazon’s site offers free overnight shipping. At ~$20/pair, this is a significant investment to drive traffic.
(Note: the link between Amazon.com and Endless.com was noted by TechCrunch. All five outlets are reviewed at Trunkt.net)
I used the Lincoln Penny method of checking the tread on a set of car tires today, to determine if it is time to replace them:
Found this method online here.
The new passports have poorly secured RFID chips installed in each. What does this mean? If someone with a reader happens to walk by you, they may be able to pull down all of your personal information.
Wired has a good discussion on how to disable the passport’s RFID. See it here.
A friend of mine (David) sent me this some time ago, and I thought I would post it for the world. They are hotel regulations from a hotel that they stayed at in Dingri, Tibet. (Bold = my emphasis added)
1. Guests are requested to show their own valid papers to prove their identi-ties and to tell the reason for lodging when they check in at the hotel.
2. Every guest has the obligation to abide by the rules and regulations of the hotel, cooperate with the personnel in carrying out their duties and take good care of the
property in the hotel.3. No guest is allowed to up anyone for the night or let anyone use his/her own bed in the hotel.
4. We are available saft-deposit box for valuables, cash ect at front desk. Entrust local public security bureau to keep your Weapon and important documents. Other wise the hotel will not be responsibility.
5. NO birds, domestic animals or other insanity articles are allowed to be brought into the hotel.
6. NO inflammable, explosive ,poisonous, radioactive or other dangerous articles are
allowed to be carried into the hotel. Nor is burning articles or letting off fireworks and firecrackers permitted in the hotel.7. It is impermissible to install electrical equipments or use electrical heat-ers such as electrical stove, microwave stove, etc. in the guest room.
8. Strictly forbid any illegal and criminal activities such as fighting, gam-bling, drug taking or prostitution in the hotel. No guest should put up or circulate salacious books, pictures, photos, nor play such recording or videos. And drinking excessively making great noise or playing recorder loudly in the hotel is forbidden.
9. The authority of the hotel has right to reason with anyone who has violated regulations mentioned above. Those who violate the “Regulations Relating to the public order, Administration & punishment of the people’s Republic of China” or other administrative laws will be punished by the public security organs in accordance with the law. To those who have violated the “Criminal Laws of the people’s Republic of China” the public security and judicial organs will investigate and affix their responsibilities for the crime in accordance with the law.
DINGRI PUBLIC SECURITY BUREAU
JULY 8,2004
Why would a company upgrade to the new MS Office 2007? This WSJ article discusses the technology, and while the conclusion is positive, MS has created a “steep learning curve”. My favorite quote:
The entire user interface, the way you do things in these familiar old programs, has been thrown out and replaced with something new.
And another:
As if this weren’t enough, Microsoft has also changed the standard file format for Office files. Older versions of Office, on both Windows and Macintosh computers, won’t be able to read these new file types without special conversion software.