A great quote amidst hundreds of other gems of this book:

When I think of formal scientific method an image sometimes comes to mind of an enormous juggernaut, a huge bulldozer-slow, tedious, lumbering, laborious, but invincible. It takes twice as long, five times as long, maybe a dozen times as long as informal mechanic's techniques, but you know ( Read more... )

These larvae are deliberately introduced to the cheese, promoting an advanced level of fermentation and breaking down the cheese's fats. The texture of the cheese becomes very soft, with some liquid (called "lagrima") seeping out. The larvae themselves appear as transparent, white worms, about 8 mm (1/3 inch) long. When disturbed, the larvae can ( Read more... )

"A specialized variation of the index mode is the base-register mode. In this mode, the contents of a base register are added to the address part of the instruction to obtain the effective address. This is similar to indexed addressing, except that the register is called a base register instead of an index register."

-- Mano and Kime, Logic and ( Read more... )

For the last few months I've been entertaining the thought of getting a Concealed Handgun License (CHL) when I turn 21. To that effect, I've been reading these two great resources:

• Packing.org-concealed carry database which features Texas laws and summaries relevant to owning a weapon, and
• Texas Penal Code, specifically Title 2, Chapter 9: ( Read more... )

A few days ago Graham, his roommate, and I went to Suma Veggie Cafe on Arapaho. As we were leaving, I noticed a large photograph of a woman in her 40s-50s above the cashier/manager, who was probably in her 60s-70s. Thinking that perhaps it is her in her young days, I inquired about it. Turns out that it was a photograph of Suma Ching Hai, the ( Read more... )

An excerpt from Dava Sobel's book Longitude, "the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time":

Surely the most colorful of the offbeat approaches was the wounded dog theory, put forth in 1687. It was predicated on a quack cure called powder of sympathy. This miraculous powder, discovered in southern France ( Read more... )

The Fayette County Board of Education in Tennessee specified in 1994 that any paddles used to discipline students must be:

• Not less than 3/8 inch or more than ½ inch thick
• Free of splinters
• Constructed of quality white ash
• Three inches wide (except the handle) and not more than 15 inches long for grades K-5
• Three and a half inches wide (except the ( Read more... )