Monthly archives: October 2010

links for 2010-10-15

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  • 5 times we almost nuked ourselves by accident
    We spent the Cold War in perpetual fear that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would start an intentional nuclear conflict. The truth is, we came far closer to blowing ourselves up with nuclear weapons than we ever came to WWIII.
    (tags: nuclear)
  • Grow Tomatoes Upside Down – Wired How-To Wiki
    If you've ever been up late watching TV in the wee hours of the morning, you've probably seen those ads for upside down tomato planters. You've probably even asked yourself why anyone would want to grow tomatoes (or anything else) upside down. You obviously do not live in an apartment.
    (tags: gardening)
  • Wrist mounted computers delivered to US army
    Soldiers at Fort Dix in the US are probably pretty jealous of eight lucky testers, who are currently putting futuristic wrist mounted computers through their paces.

    Not just because the cool, curved displays show off strategic information, live UAV video streams and battlefield maps, but because they bear more than a passing resemblance to the iconic Pip-Boy 3000 wrist PDAs of the Fallout games.

    (tags: computing military)

links for 2010-10-14

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  • Why genes are leftwing | Oliver James | Comment is free | The Guardian
    When the map of the human genome was presented to the world in 2001, psychiatrists had high hopes for it. Itemising all our genes would surely provide molecular evidence that the main cause of mental illness was genetic – something psychiatrists had long believed. Drug companies were wetting their lips at the prospect of massive profits from unique potions for every idiosyncrasy.

    But a decade later, unnoticed by the media, the human genome project has not delivered what the psychiatrists hoped: we now know that genes play little part in why one sibling, social class or ethnic group is more likely to suffer mental health problems than another.

    (tags: science genetics)
  • Culture evolves slowly, crumbles quickly
    Societies come together slowly, but can fall apart quickly, say researchers who applied the tools of evolutionary biologists to an anthropological debate.

    Using archaeological records and linguistic analyses rather than fossils and genes, they created an evolutionary tree of political forms once found in Pacific islands.

    (tags: evolution socialevolution)
  • New Humanist (Rationalist Association) – discussing humanism, rationalism, atheism and free thought
    The Catholic Herald reports that the Church has given its backing to a campaign called "Night of Light", which aims to "reclaim Halloween for God so that it is transformed from a night of darkness into a great Christian festival once again".
    (tags: halloween religion)

links for 2010-10-13

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  • Old Weather – Our Weather's Past, the Climate's Future
    Help scientists recover worldwide weather observations made by Royal Navy ships around the time of World War I. These transcriptions will contribute to climate model projections and improve a database of weather extremes. Historians will use your work to track past ship movements and the stories of the people on board.
    (tags: history weather climatechange)
  • Share the Road With Cyclists – Wired How-To Wiki
    Sharing the road is a two-way street: Cyclists must obey road rules as well as drivers. However, because cyclists have so little protection around them, it's up to drivers to ensure their safety on a shared roadway. A collision that would be a fender bender for another car could be a fatality for a cyclist.

    Below, Wired's Autopia blog offers some suggestions for drivers to share the road with cyclists.

    (tags: bike transport)
  • Weeds by Richard Mabey – review | Books | The Observer
    There's something eerie about weeds – their speed, their ingenuity, their almost supernatural resourcefulness. "Shape-shifters," Richard Mabey calls them. Many of the most successful species will slide up a size or down a shade of colour if it helps ensure their survival for another generation. They'll also adapt to an astonishing level of abuse and rough treatment – the harder the better, in fact. Plantain likes to be trodden underfoot. Danish scurvy-grass thrives on the salty turbulence of motorway central reservations. Buddleia relishes vertical surfaces with no apparent soil at all: walls, car park concrete, railway bridges. Dandelions joyride in the windscreen grilles of cars and sycamores sprout in chimney pots. If it wasn't for the fact that they're plants, it would be tempting to wonder whether they have a sense of humour.
    (tags: plants)

Stealing Sheep at the Castle Hotel

This entry was posted in In The City 2010 music on by



Stealing Sheep at the Castle Hotel, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

Rather lovely sound, but a little self conscious. I’d like to see them after a few more performances, when they’re less scared of the audience. (Though I may not have helped matters, stood there in my "I’m your stalker" t-shirt right in the keyboard player’s line of sight.)