Category: interesting

And what’s the problem?
Computer scanners diagnose increasingly complex vehicles.
Dealers get the codes but not mom & pop shops.
You pay more because dealers charge more.

The Right to Repair Act forces automakers to give data to small shops.

But Consumer Reports is worried. They say too many “unscrupulous” mechanics will alter secret door locking codes and override pollution sequences.

Bogus solution to high auto-repair costs
Gaining steam in Congress, the “Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act” sounds great on the surface. Backed by four leading consumer groups, including AAA, the aim is to keep car-repair costs in check.

However, this bill may compromise vehicle antitheft systems and allow unscrupulous mechanics to retune vehicles to crank up performance–and tailpipe pollutants.

Information causes crime?
Run! The Luddites are coming.

FunFact from joe:
The retina of a 60-year-old receives 25% of the light absorbed by a 10-year-old child in the same environment, a result of gradually increasing opacification of the eye’s lens with aging.

The BBC eulogizes Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett dead at 60.

Summer of Love

“Over the subsequent months, everything changed.

“The record was a hit on the charts, even though the BBC banned it. What had been underground became mainstream, and suddenly became the exciting scene of 1967 and the Summer of Love.

“I think Pink Floyd were really at the heart of it – the songs, the guitar-playing and the personality of Syd were, in a way, the spearhead of so much of what went on, the aesthetic of what happened in London in 1967.

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London Free School

After the 1965 beat poetry happening, the next key event in the history of British counter-culture was the London Free School.

This community action group has been described as an ‘anarchic temporary coalition’ of housing activists and the new hippy generation. [… and included the Beatles manager Brian Epstein plus RD Laing.]

… it was “an idea – it lasted for a few months and so many interesting things came out of it.

“Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act”

“One of the problems we have is that people feel comfortable, at times, in trying to take a shortcut to success in the business world,” President Bush said prior to signing the bill into law.

“They feel like they can copy existing products, instead of designing their own.

“In order to keep this economy innovative and entrepreneurial, it’s important for us to enforce law, and if the laws are weak, pass new laws, to make sure that the problem of counterfeiting, which has been growing rapidly, is arrested, is held in check.”

“Counterfeiting costs our country hundreds of billion dollars a year,” he added.

The transportation sector is using 30% of the aluminum on the market.

Musing optimism, Anil Dash pushed me to read some profound musings when he asserted that Snarkout is one of the finest blogs on the web.

I caught this thought,

“…that in an amazingly wealthy world,
it’s possible to find almost anything.”

You see?

optimism. optimusing.

Go to water.

Visit the Liquid Sculpture website.

Intriguing high speed photos of water in motion.

Clear water. Not brought water.
Clear water. Given water.
‘would trickle.
‘would bubble.
‘would pour.

Better than these,
water appears.

Walk water.
Better said,
Flow.

I’m not saying life is buoyant.
I’m saying life is water.

Does water float?
Will water wait?

Our brain naturally reacts to images of faces and eyes. FuturePundit points out that “pictures of eyes make us more honest”.

Researchers monitored an Honesty Box as a way of paying for hot drinks in a staff room at a campus in the United Kingdom.

A poster featured an image banner across the top, alternating each week between different pictures of flowers and images of eyes looking directly at the observer.

The team recorded money collected and the total drink consumption.

On average, people paid nearly 3 times more for their drinks on the weeks when the poster featured pictures of eyes.

People behave differently when they believe they are being watched because they are worried what others will think of them.

Walking a dog is an unmet need and a healthcare cost savings states the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of NSW, Australia.

For human health, they have identified potential health gains if more dogs were walked. If all dog owners walked their dogs, substantial disease prevention and healthcare cost savings might accrue.

In their study, The Epidemiology of Dog Walking, the college recommends that “Dog walking should be promoted through national strategies.”

About one half of households in New South Wales have a dog. About one half walk their dog.

It’s time for politics to become more intelligent, and for democracy to really involve the people. Broadcast media tells you what to think and doesn’t let you get involved. It’s time to focus on what you need, what you care about, and the messages you want to get out.

Are you involved with a political campaign? Are you passionate about a cause?

Start contributing to the Campaigns Wikia, or find out how to get started.

While US policy focuses on immigration from Mexico and Latin America, a new Migration Policy Institute study identifies a reverse trend: increasing numbers of senior citizens from the United States moving to Mexico and Panama to retire.

With the US Census estimating that the population over 65 in the United States will double by the year 2030, understanding new and growing trends in international retirement migration will become increasingly important as baby boomers age.

Executive Summary

There are two stories we tell ourselves in life.
One is that things are getting better. The other is that things are getting worse.

The truth is the beauty that things are as we see them.

via jackzen

Contrary to public perception, fresh water supply is scarce and finite.

According to UNESCO, only 3% of the world’s water is made up of fresh water and most of this is located in polar ice caps. Experts put the amount of available drinkable water at 1%, of which, some two-thirds of this amount is already polluted.

The only renewable source of freshwater is continental rainfall which generates a constant global supply of 40,000 to 50,000 cubic km per year. With the world population increasing by an estimated 85 million per year, the availability of freshwater per capita is decreasing rapidly.

Water as an Investment Theme
The 4th World Water Summit highlighted two important trends in the water industry.

The first is the increasing role of corporate involvement across the entire water supply chain which encompasses water collection and processing, supply and wastewater management, the laying of pipelines and the building of water treatment plants.

The second is the huge demographic pressures that are being felt as a result of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation of highly populated countries like China and India. The World Health Organisation estimates that 35% of the world’s population will live in areas with water problems by the year 2025.

ABN AMRO Private Banking Asia thinks water is a great investment.

via snipURL

37,000 peasants enlisted by the Chinese govt to help produce rain. Together, they will hunt “pregnant” rain clouds and pound them with rockets containing silver iodide.
[ http://snipurl.com/sqq1 ]

I found this while browsing for laptop wireless antenna at dslreports:

“You make me smile and frustrate me at the same time.

“I could be wrong, but I have you pegged as a young man who knows what he wants and isn’t about to let anyone get in his way. When I was your age, I was much the same.

“If you have a problem (and we all do) it is that you are so confident in your abilities that you fail to realize that every person’s efforts are built largely upon the efforts of people who came before them.

“Your problem, if you have one (and we all do), is that you think you can deviate from the learning process and jump straight into genius. You can’t do that. You have to have mentors, tutors, and teachers.

And a bit more:

“Well, while I have you, let me tell you about eavesdropping because that is what a keylogger is…

“I spent a good part of my life evesdropping, it was my job you see.

“It feels really powerful to know things about people that they don’t know you know, but in the end it can make you very sad.

“There are things which you REALLY don’t want to know. A President once said, “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.” In the context in which he said it, he was being naive. Gentlemen don’t, but nations do.

“Here is the best piece of advice I can give you, something that will help you the rest of your life, but you are going to think it is stupid. So just mark it down and think of it from time to time. My father used to say it to me after he got back from Viet-Nam (the second time).

“While the apple is on the tree it grows and becomes sweeter, when it decides it is ripe, it falls from the tree and begins to rot.” It took me a long time to figure that one out.

\ stumblink \ noun; pronounced: stum-bull-link

A link discovered drunk on the Internet without alcohol.

More Japanese access the internet from their cellphone than from a computer.

emergic

The people formerly known as the audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the platform shift you’ve all heard about.

Think of passengers on your ship who got a boat of their own.

pressTHINK

The incredible saga of the FBI’s overbudget $500 million computer system that needed to be scrapped after it turned out it was useless in fighting terrorism.

But wait. There’s more.

In 1958, Joseph-Armand Bombardier designed the modern snowmobile. Bombardier is considered the father of snowmobiling who began commercial production and marketing of the Ski-Doo snowmobile in 1959.

The Ski-Doo Olympique line was launched in 1964. The stylized design took advantage of the increased speed and performance offered by the Austrian made Rotax engine. When the line was discontinued in 1979, over 265,000 units had been sold.

I drove one of these day in and day out across beautiful snowfall in fantasy forests of northern Canada. I often towed a small trailer on skis carrying my chainsaw and survival gear.

The Newfoundland was developed in the province of Newfoundland around 1000AD. They are used to draft heavy fishing nets and possess natural water rescue tendencies (including webbed feet and thick coat for icy water).

It may have been Lord Byron who described them best:

“Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.”

These gentle giants were almost extinct in the 1920’s but fortunately the breed has bounced back.

Dog Developing; a concept, a business, a pursuit that may be in its infancy in spite of more than 1200 years of tweaking.

But Cat Developing? All our efforts will likely fail!

Juice an orange from the inside.

Vital nutrients and fibers survive.

The cup is the orange’s natural sphere.

The Graeme Davies juicer takes only 20 seconds to blend the inside of an orange and makes about 160 ml / 6oz of the freshest juice.

Simply stick a straw in the top and go.

Goodness stays within a biodegradable [ And Free] package.

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Plus, a new essential item for the first-aid box.

The Tongue Sucker literally sucks the tongue away from the windpipe to prevent suffocation when a patient is struggling or unconscious.

Current designs on the market can only be used by a trained professional, but the Tongue Sucker can be used by anyone.

Sponsored by U.S. border security, this new sensor can SMELL the ink used on paper money.

via the RawFeed

The older we get, the more we regret not having more fun, says new study in the September issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. Researchers from Columbia University show that choosing work over play leads to regrets about having missed out on the pleasures of life. Over time, these regrets intensify, while guilt about indulging tends to fade.

more at Science Blog