lay investiture

Testing web services:

Temp in ALF: The current temperature at 30004 is: 54.0F

Haven't checked on the Long Now Foundation in awhile. Looks like the Rosetta Project has gotten a little more sophisticated:

The container is split into two hemispheres with the three inch Rosetta Disk sitting in an indent on the flat meeting surface of the two hemispheres. The upper hemisphere is made of optical glass and doubles as a 6X viewer, giving visual access deeper into the tapered text rings. The bottom hemisphere is high-grade stainless steel.

The hints for reading the disc are kinda neat:

An external band of Genesis texts in 8 major world languages (English, Russian, Hindi, Spanish, Hebrew, Mandarin, Arabic, and Swahili) begins at eye-readable scale and slowly tapers down to nano-scale. This tapered ring of major regional languages is intended to maximize the number of people that will be able to read something immediately upon picking up the disk, as well as implying the directions for using the disk - "get a magnifier and there is more".

With the spherical container of optical glass they seem to be trying to make this thing into a bauble to ensure it will be preserved. It's an interesting thought that making something beautiful will encourage people to preserve it.

With the glass on top it reminds me a bit of the Alfred Jewel.

AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN

Intel has a backup plan if Itanium is a flop and AMD's Hammer starts to take off, according to the SJ Mercury.

Too bad there's no official Atomic Nuked Veteran Army insignia.

Interesting / creepy Army insignia:

PSYOPS
Chemical Corps (I like how they integrated those condensing flasks)
Chaplains Corps (Buddhist chaplains?? wow.)
Military Intelligence (dig the Tudor-esque rose)

Reading over those Institute of Heraldry pages, it's funny how Heraldic descriptions are like a markup language:

"Flanking the crest two banners, the staffs Light Brown with Silver finials and ferrules passing behind the shield and extending below the motto scroll, the dexter banner Or bordered compony of the like and Azure, charged with a mullet of the last voided Argent, the sinister banner Or bordered compony of the like and Gules, charged with a Tudor Rose barb and seeded Vert."

(from the Coat of Arms description)

Albert Brumley r0x. Cheesy MIDI, however, does not, so I won't link to any of the many web pages featuring the lyrics to these standards.

For the uninitiated, Brumley wrote such old gospel classics as "I'll Fly Away," and "Rank Strangers to Me," (famously interpreted by The Stanley Brothers and lately Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder).

Just heard a great rendition of his "I'd Rather Live By the Side of the Road" by the great Mac Wiseman.

MONKEYS! and COCAINE! YEAH!

The clear light of science shines on wine spot removal:

The study compared the effectiveness of eight different cleaners, from commercial wine-stain removal products to folklore remedies such as white wine and salt.

Possibly the only squeegie in the National Museum of American History.

``When I do go back, I only want to clean windows that I can get to with a ladder,'' he said.

Jew vs. Jew

"I don't talk to him, he's the devil," Mr. Semantov said of his neighbor. "A dog is better than him."

"For a while, pretzels could do no wrong," says Bernie Pacyniak, editorial director of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery magazine.

WSM-AM will maintain its country format. yay!

Country star George Jones showed up one day to offer support to the demonstrators.

That's a very Nashville occurrence. The town is so laid back, and the celebrity density so high they can show up most anywhere and not be totally mobbed. Last week I went to a show at a small musical venue there. Del McCoury, Vince Gil, and Larry Cordle were all in the audience. Gil and McCoury both got up on stage and performed. Quite a deal for the $10 cover.