Saturday Thoughts

My toes are cold because I am sitting here without my socks on. Where does the inertia to bend down and put them on come from? I am enjoying myself too much to bend down and put them on!? OK. Hit the pause button.

OK.

I was thinking what it would be like if the computer screen followed us around instead of us having to look in one direction towards its face.

I think the iPad is the nearest we have to that - no wires and as long as you are in range of a signal - no restriction on just letting it dangle from one's fingers as we walk around to go and sit on the couch or on the bed or just rest it on the worktop while we make breakfast.

Is that good?

I think there is something 1984-ish about computer screens. Has anyone ever been sucked into one and disappeared?

I read a story about a TV that refused to show any channels. It just had a message across its screen that said 'Feed me.'

Little Johnny goes to bed and in the morning he comes down and his parents have disappeared but the TV message says 'Fed.'

Have a good Saturday.

One Of Things Google Does Well

So many people use Google for search, that seeing this Tsunami alert a couple of days ago seemed just the kind of thing that makes Google good.

Click The Image
Click the image to see it bigger and read the wording about the tsunami.

Close Up

The Florida No Cow Zone - Gotta See The Comments :-)

Original source now deleted

Photographing cows or other farm scenery could land you in jail under Senate bill

Taking photographs from the roadside of a sunrise over hay bales near the Suwannee River, horses grazing near Ocala or sunset over citrus groves along the Indian River could land you in jail under a Senate bill filed Monday.

SB 1246 by Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, would make it a first-degree felony to photograph a farm without first obtaining written permission from the owner. A farm is defined as any land "cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production, the raising and breeding of domestic animals or the storage of a commodity."

We all need to dig just a little bit deeper to understand what this is really about . Farmers across the country have recently noticed that when their farm animals think no one is watching or listening, the animals stand up on 2 legs and engage in open debate and dialogue in clearly understandable English. They talk about a variety of things including the price of corn, soybeans, politics and the weather (they avoid religion). The animals try hard to conceal their behavior (rumor is that they're trying to unionize and contact PETA) and are afraid if they get caught, they'll be immediately slaughtered.

Farmers are trying desperately to make sure no one photographs any animal who is openly displaying higher thought processes or the ability to think or communicate to humans. It would mean a swift end to the "harvesting" of animals for food.

Hence, the "no photography rule". I also understand they're introducing another bill to create a "no fly zone" for animals that can fly. Rumor is that pigs are watching this bill very closely.

White Stork

Fact of the day: Moles can dig 15 feet per hour in good soils

Robert "Red" Robinson, senior vice president of Shannon & Wilson Inc., of Seattle. He was asked to compare the capabilities of moles and "moles," as tunnel-boring machines are affectionately known in the underground construction industry.

He sized up a typical 4-ounce mole versus the 642-ton Emerald Mole, the tunneling machine that recently completed the Beacon Hill light-rail tunnels for Sound Transit.

It turns out that, pound-for-pound, the tiny mole is an astounding 336 times mightier than the behometh Emerald Mole.

"It's all in the weight ratio of the two critters," Robinson wrote. "Anyone for nuclear-enhanced 600-ton, 20-foot-diameter, flesh-and-blood moles?"

Annie Kolb-Nelson at King County's Wastewater Treatment Division — several machines have been digging a tunnel for the Brightwater sewage-system at the rate of about 5 feet per hour on a good day — was similarly awed at the mighty mole, which can dig 15 feet per hour in good soils. Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com

Radiation emitted after just 50 minutes on a mobile phone increases the activity in brain cells

I feel like such a party pooper -

from edition.cnn.com

Cell phone exposure increases brain cell activity

(CNN) -- The radiation emitted after just 50 minutes on a mobile phone increases the activity in brain cells, according to a new government-funded study.

The small study, published in the Journal of American Medical Association, is the first to look specifically at how electromagnetic radiation from cell phones affects glucose metabolism, a normal function, in the brain.

Researchers measured brain activity of 47 healthy adults -- a small but scientifically valid size group for this type of study -- while using a mobile device. The levels were tested when the phone was in use (transmitting radiation) against the head and when against the head but in the off position. Compared with subjects whose phones were turned off, the group whose phones were on had "significantly higher" brain activity in the area closest to the telephone antenna.

Volkow says that since she began working with the National Institutes of Health researching the impact of cell phone radiation, she always uses a wired earpiece when talking on her cell phone. Read more at edition.cnn.com