Frigid Feast of Brigid
Currently Reading: Science Translation Medicine, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3001304 > > (please note EGU is something of a nutter butter)
Imbolc brought a giant blizzard this year! I was rather surprised, I should read more local news instead of getting all of my weather information from HNN. Since snow advisories were keeping everyone from work I settled down for a run through this, probably one of the best new works on the internet (I did zone out for five minutes listening to the menu music by FeastOfFetus- I don't like their albums very much but in the game and its non-required predecessor the tracks are quite contextually awesome). WARNING IF YOU WANT TO PLAY AS WELL: I recommend this work highly but the puzzles are based on the oldest versions of the story, likely unsuitable to those of delicate comportment and/or the inability to think creatively. Let me know what you think!
Also I went here: NewScientist is co-sponsoring a free trip to Norway (where I happen to have wingsuit plans), I present my entry for 'most impressive upcoming engineering project' that I wrote:
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Wireless Supernetwork:
Although preliminary studies from Sweden are finding that WiFi connectivity may cause damage to trees and biological tissue, proponents of universal net access in many countries are beginning to lay the groundwork for "panannecto", omnipresent internet connectivity. This, especially when coupled with proposed innovations like Google's 'self-driving car', promises massive innovation in economic, educational, and industrial productivity rates, the greater exchange of ideas and cultural voice, and (especially in the third world) a drastic improvement in interpersonal relativity past the advances already seen by the spread of cheap cell-phone technology. One might take a trip out into the country with one's laptop and write an e-mail to a friend on the train in India: "Did you hear that the oil company Statoil is sponsoring a contest to go to the arctic to see the last of the polar bears die out as CO2 is burned out of every plane and gas tank serviced by this energy conglomerate? What kind of judges could live with their hypocrisy in sponsoring such a faux environmentalist sham?" "Greenwashing at its worst I'm afraid," the reply might come back "did you hear that they are claiming natural gas will do more to limit emissions than wind, tide, or solar?" "Yes, I think that the Norwegians have bought into the T. Boone Pickens rationalizations for bad science, but then I would too if I had millions invested in such garbage!" "Hey, at least it isn't as bad as what they have done in the past... go look up 'Rotvoll Controversy' :P" "Wow, that is terrible!"...
and so, while ultimately carcinogenic, a global ISP and router network (powered one can only imagine by heavily subsidized dirty energy won by lobbyists in the respective political centers of the world in absence of any reform of the international power supply) can connect us all to watch the next giant oil spill from serious deficiencies in field management or 'Lake Nyos' type disaster from sequestration. Also funny cat videos.
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Unfortunately upon submission I received notification that the entry limit was only 800 characters, so counting I had to cut everything after the mention of cell-phone technology. If I get chosen the required winner's "video diary" the company gets to keep the rights to will be rather different than they expected I should think. The 'deficiencies in field management' references this story just out today- trying to thin out the readers NewScientist ?
Also Cribzero is up again! HOORAY!