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Some more videos:

- Dominating Dolphins
- Crazy for the Cowboys
- Bills or Bust
- The Simpsons slam Army recruiting
- AngryNintendoNerd — a guy reviews craptastic NES games like Ninja Turtles. He voiced the same frustrations I had as a kid… with colorful language
- Businessman has a meltdown in a hotel lobby (it has to be staged… the audio quality is way too good for a security camera)

And if you like Rube Goldberg machines, this one is hella long

A couple months ago I discussed a problem that plagues both space tourism and communication satellites: orbital debris.

And while the private sector can be blamed for its small part in leaving upper stages floating around, the vast majority of the new damaging debris comes from military experiments.

According to a recent Popular Mechanics piece, low Earth orbit (LEO) is especially hard hit due to various anti-satellite experiments conducted by both China and the US military which have created hundreds of extraordinarily small pellets that are not just hard to track, but hard to defend satellites against. [Note: 1 2 3]

You see, communication and imaging satellites are designed to maximize their payload weight and are typically constructed of material conducive to this — material that is not usually bullet-proof, let alone debris proof.

And while some of the debris will eventually fly out into higher orbits or disintegrate back into the atmosphere, most will continue to stalk LEO for decades to come.

The goggles do nothing

Unfortunately for those of us on terra firma, according to the article, this unabating trend in creating hazardous materials was not only predicted, but is actually summarized in a dystopic scenario: the Kessler Syndrome.

In a nutshell it means that areas in LEO become so polluted/trashed/crowded with long-living debris, that it essentially makes this geographic region unusable.

What separates this syndrome from say, a genetic disorder like Down, is that it is by-and-large entirely preventable via standard accountability procedures practiced by risk management departments the world over.

Ignoring this preventable problem not only harms future satellite launches that are bombarded by the projectiles, but stymies long-term investments such as space elevators from the likes of LiftPort, and space tourism by Bigelow.

It is a tragedy of the commons in which few, if anyone, is held accountable for their actions. And worse yet, the only real technological solution such as a space vacuum/filter is nowhere close to being off the drawing board.

Anyone up for using giant pieces of fly-paper?

See also: Anti-satellite weapon and Project Starfish

I have to come clean, I sold Barry Bonds steroids.

And a used ant farm.

In other news:

- May the best girl win — I have definitely been visiting the wrong night clubs
- Kebert Xela, if you like Family Guy and Jeopardy, what more can you ask for?
- Bud beer ads: Swear Jar :: Steaming Coffee
- Zeroes, because the show Heroes is retarded
- Drawing with HTML, not designing or laying something out… one should wonder if the author gets enough sunlight each day
- Second Life Lampoon, I’ve spent all of 30 minutes in SL, ’nuff said
- Lichtenstein tests tiny nuclear bombs… for tiny people
- Stoned cop calls 911, like the DEA agent shooting himself in the foot (and sues)
- And if you are in the mood for some prank calls with a sound board, check out Ventrilo Harassment

Thanks to Robin, Ray, and Nathan for some links.

While I may have been critical of his less-than-realistic economic principles found in “Accelerando,” sci-fi author Charles Stross has written a couple of interesting essays which I find myself partial to.

At the beginning of the year Stross suggested that no matter how you spin “global warming,” nerds will figure out and implement the solution for it.

In some ways, Stross touches on the same wavelength enunciated by Ethernet pioneer, Bob Metcalfe. In a recent speech at an energy symposium over in Boston, Metcalfe believed the two sides of the issue are not alarmist versus denier, but rather alarmist/denier versus techies. And I would agree.

I am not entirely worried either way simply because I believe that nerds will triumph once more. And I rationalize this non-traditional mindset with the same prescriptions Metcalfe suggested: free-markets that will foster innovations and inventions faster and more effectively than any bureaucratized top-down approach mandated by the State.

And while Stross does not specifically advocate free-markets, he does not think government regulations or tampering will amount to nothing more than additional headaches.

One remedy he advocates is using bigger jumbo-jets to transport goods and peoples, because they are much more efficient than either commuter flights and sea-going passenger vessels.

Oddly enough, today Airbus held a press conference in which it stated that their new jumbo jet (the A380) will save the earth, because it is essentially more efficient and less polluting than alternative solutions.

So ignoring climate changes wrought by cow flatulence, lack of private property, 5-day forecasts gone awry, or even politics, I think that just as Silicon Valley continues to reshape the medical industry (for the better), so too could a gaggle of geeks successfully descend upon this conundrum.

Up and atom

In his most recent essay, Stross details a realistic look at human spaceflight (as found in literature, movies, etc.). After meticulous research and using spot-on assumptions, his findings are quite grim (i.e., it is a waste of bling).

And he is hardly alone.

Back in 2002, I came away from my senior seminar (”History of the NASA”) with a similar conclusion: that it is unnecessary to spend the resources to send humans into space when unmanned, autonomous robots can carry out the same tasks.

It is a fruitless endeavor that is perhaps best punctuated (once again) by the $100 billion money pit known as the ISS. Its sole long-term contribution is that it gives medical doctors a controlled clinical study on bone loss due to a “microgravity” environment.

And based on this timeless quote, Stross and I are in good company:

Some of NASA’s critics say closing down the space station’s science program wouldn’t be such a bad thing. “There is no meaningful research on the ISS to shut down,” said University of Maryland physicist Robert Park.

Perhaps this discussion will lead to a grassroots endeavor to develop self-replicating von Neumann probes. After all, unless you want to spend 10 billion years to survey a mere 4% of the galaxy, what safer and cheaper method is there to trudge through the cosmos? It worked for Vader…

If you haven’t had a chance to read it, or just want an easy-to-access copy, here is a pdf Ray’s magnum opus.

The topic came up at a late dinner with David the other day; we were explaining the potential computational power within an ordinary rock to his girlfriend.

I’m sure most other women would have certainly appreciated that conversation.

Also, if you have any kind of advanced mathematical background, you may enjoy the short academic paper Kurzweil cites in his section on the limits of computation and reversible computing: Universal Limits on Computation.

See also Seth Lloyd: 1 2 3

So while Mim’s has never really explained the foundational reasons for “This is Why I’m Hot,” to paraphrase Rich Boy, I doubt it has anything to do with Throwing D’s on anything.

Perhaps Young Buck might be onto something when he suggests that the champagne is frozen.

Or maybe it doesn’t have to make sense, because The Prisoner still hasn’t divulged anything useful.

One thing is for sure, to the chagrin of “Boy Looka Here,” Aaron Copland probably wasn’t thinking of females when he entitled the rodeo classic “Hoe Down.”

While the rest of his album sucked, Baby Boy Da Prince put together a decent single late last year: The Way I Live

I loathe Fergie. I disdain the name “Black Eyed Peas” being anything other than a sit-down restaurant. But Bebot still is a catchy tune. See also Alanis Morissette’s parody of the nonsensical “My Humps.”

And Summer Love by Justin Timberlake is one of the better club/disco songs for the first half of the year.

More music videos: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

- Ever wonder what would happen if one of those free-wheeling “supernatural” Chi/Ki/Kai/Kiai masters fought a full-contact Mixed Martial Artist? See Exhibit A (here is another angle). Hope none of his customers were watching.
[Note: It reminds me of when the "psychic" Uri Geller was foiled on Johnny Carson years ago.]

- What happens when you add nonsensical subtitles to a serious drama? What if Hitler and XBox Live were involved? This is kind of funny in a morbid kind of way. (It is originally from the film “Downfall“).

- Let Monty Python explain the fallacious obfuscation around the term “Enhanced Interrogation Technique” (aka Torture)

And lastly, WHIT Power 102 FM — a good parody of marketing a radio station

While Yo-Yo Ma may have helped popularize the fine wooden instrument known as a cello, in A Cello Rando the creative composer Ethan Winer shows just how versatile the hollow gizmo is (composed of 37 individual parts/tracks).

Note: as youth, everyone in my family played either the Violin or Cello. My younger sister was pretty much floored by Winer’s performance, as was I.

See also: the all-Cello ensemble called Apocalyptica, whose music you may remember from the dark Orwellian film Equilibrium.

I’ve poked fun of “Incompetent Design” before and even bugged creationists about measuring the Light-Year (1 2 3).

Now David Veksler, an old college friend of mine, dug up an interesting photo-story about the Top 10 Useless Limbs (and Other Vestigial Organs).

Being a flightless bird might not be so bad, you can at least kinda glide, which is more fun than any wisdom tooth provides.

This week The Onion poked fun of deists (specifically Creationists) for using science and empirical proof only in areas that do not conflict with their philosophical sacred cows: I Believe in Evolution, Except for the Whole Triassic Period

See also, Kirk Cameron versus the World