Nice, from XKCD.com

While you’re waiting for the NOVA disk to arrive, check out these photos from National Geographic.

This is what a case of smallpox does do you.  Luckily, smallpox has been pretty well eliminated from the earth due to a massive and effective vaccine program.  So, your kids don’t have to live with that horrible disease.  However, there are still lots of super nasty, deadly diseases that childhood vaccines protect against.

Not only do vaccines prevent horrible diseases, they also don’t cause autism.  The so-called vaccine-autism study was fraudulently conjured up by Andrew Wakefield and it’s not only been shown that he was a fraud, but there have been many, many studies that show a total lack of any causation between vaccines and autism. Vaccines of course, are not without risk, but the risk of the diseases far outweigh the risk of vaccine injury.

Click through to read more…

Meet the sloths from Lucy Cooke on Vimeo.

It seems that when one girl takes a drink, the other girl can feel it.

Thanks for the link rob.

Click for more bad slides. Thanks for the link dean.

Click The Photo for more!

I like Richard Dawkin’s Reply:

Q. Family Radio evangelist Harold Camping believes that he has calculated the exact date of the rapture: May 21, 2011. While many are laughing at the suggestion, Camping’s followers are taking him seriously, bringing his message of impending doom to billboards and public spaces around the country. What does your tradition teach about the end of the world? How does end time theology impact real world behavior?

A. Why is a serious newspaper like the Washington Post giving space to a raving loon? I suppose the answer must be that, unlike the average loon, this one has managed to raise enough money to launch a radio station and pay for billboards. I don’t know where he gets the money, but it would be no surprise to discover that it is contributed by gullible followers – gullible enough, we may guess, to go along with him when he will inevitably explain, on May 22nd, that there must have been some error in the calculation, the rapture is postponed to . . . and please send more money to pay for updated billboards.

…

 

Click image for the original site.

Kepler-11 solar system

The Kepler mission recently found a really wild solar system with 6 transiting planets.  The 5 innermost planets orbit within mercury’s orbit.  These ain’t Earths, but they are really neat nonetheless.

Nasa released two powerpoint presentations that are really interesting.   I converted these to PDF to make them more accessible.

• Bill’s Presentation
• Jack’s Presentation

Dang, that’s a great show.

I now have wifi tethering — my phone acts as an access point for my computer. That’s really cool. In addition, I’ve got 2mbps download speed, and 200kbps up. That’s *way* faster than I imagined. My DSL is only 3mbps down and 300kbps up. Maybe I should just punt on AT&T and get another android phone

http://www.m2film.dk/fleggaard/trailer2.swf

Fight over beer leads to arrest of former KKK leader, son. Click the image to go to the original article and read the rest of the details.

A report from my friend Rob’s hometown in Florida.  His comments: “Where i grew up, It ain’t a real redneck weekend without a fight over who gets to drink the budweiser, domestic abuse, klu klux klan hats, and awesome police mug shots”

A fight over who gets to drink the “good beer” led to the arrest of a former Ku Klux Klan leader and his son in rural east Osceola County, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Troy Hixon, 45, his girlfriend, another woman and his father, George Hixon, 73, were drinking Wednesday night when Troy Hixon threw his girlfriend down and began shooting into the ground near her, a sheriff’s report states.

Click the image to check out xkcd for some more fun.

If true, that’s really super cool.  Unfortunately, it may be a mistake.  We’ll have to wait and see what further study turns up to see if this really is a new life form.

This cricket's testes are 14% of its body weight, as compared to only 0.06% for humans. The large size suggests that the females are very promiscuous. Click the image for a more detailed description (as if you need more).

What do you know?

The Pew center for somethingorother performed a poll on over 3000 folks of various religious backgrounds and found that — what do you know — atheists come out on top in general knowledge of world religions.  With Jews and Mormons running a close second.

This correlates with my own experience.  I took the poll myself, and I forget my exact score, but it was something like 85%, as compared to about 50% average.

Interestingly, even though I’m an atheist I find religion very interesting, and I’ve studied it quite a bit.  Regardless of your religious bent, I highly recommend some of these lectures from The Teaching Company:

• Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication
• American Religious History

(Thanks R&T for turning me on to The Teaching Company — I love them)

Anyway, I don’t really have a point.  It’s just interesting I think that that the least religious among us seem to know the most about religion.

Take the Quiz Here

Let me know how you score

BTW for my friends, I can loan out some of my Teaching Company courses.  I’ve got some good ones.  Also, FYI, the prices on TTC web site are crazy high — except that all of the courses go on sale at least once a year, and they come down to a reasonable, though not cheap, price.

Go here for more animations.

In physical terms, that’s a wavelength of about 1/8 inch.  I’d hate to have to build a loudspeaker for them that covers the full 10.5 octaves from 60 Hz to 80 kHz.  Or an artificial ear with good response.  It would be tricky.

Incredible.

Check out the Brooklyn Space Program website.

And watch this video!

Alternative Medicine Flowchart. Nice Work Crispan Jago.

Check out Crispan’s Web site here.

I found this on Bunnie’s Blog.  It’s worth a look too.

Click image to click image to enlarge

• Frequent tiredness and low energy
• Flatulence, gas & bloating
• Impaired digestion
• Irritability, mood swings
• Bad breath & foul-smelling stools
• Occasional constipation
• Protruding belly (“pooch”)
• Powerful food cravings
• Skin problems
• Metallic taste in mouth

That’s right, if you’re tired, if you ever fart, if you’re grouchy, if you’re 5 lbs over weight, have non-perfect skin, or, get this, if your shit stinks, you need Dr. Natura.  A cleanse that is 100% guaranteed to make your shit not stink any more.

Where can I sign up?   Oh here: http://www.drnatura.com/colonix_program.php.

Sweet, only $99, and I’m on my way to thinking my shit don’t stink.

Apparently, the only reasonable way out of the current mess is genetic engineering.  Breeding is just too slow.

Check this out Mythbusters Turd Polishing.

Okay, okay, I didn’t use turds, but I did use plain old dirt from the back yard.   Check out some instructions here.

Here’s my first attempt at dorodango:

From this

To This!

But this one is excellent too:

Clearly, this is going to work. Click the image for a whole collection of, well, interesting, treatments.

What's up with this weird face?

Touch the snail for more information.

Apparently methanphetamine helps memory in humans and rats (I guess in limited amounts).  But researchers wanted to know if it works on snails, which store there memories in, get this, a 3 neuron network.  That’s 3 neurons!  We’ve got what, a billion?  Or is it a trillion?   I think a trillion.  Snails get by with 3.  That makes it easier to study how the meth works.

Here’s an interesting article on how key recovery can be done by looking at chip power consumption.

I sure don’t want to be the one designing the next voting machine if it’s not going to be open to public scrutiny.  Yikes.

Check it out at the ULC.

Important highlights in the exhibition include linen socks worn by King Charles I during first half of the 17th century, Napoleon Bonaparte’s socks worn by him during his exile on St. Helena, exquisite pale pink silk stockings worn by Queen Victoria during her reign and teeny, tiny hand-knitted socks made by talented knitter Althea Crome who created all of the clothing worn by Coraline, the figurine in Tim Burton’s 2009 stop-motion film by the same name.

Read more: Bata Shoe Museum Explores the History of the Sock

Check out Episode 17 if you’re interested in extreme knitting.

Watch this video

So him, Al Franken, did what most reasonable people would do:  He said, “There should be a law against that.”  Thus was born said amendment.

In typical modern Republican style, fully 75% of the republicans voted against the amendment, and for protection of companies that cover up and protect rapists!  Seriously.

The Rapist protector protectors are:

And the sane (for this vote anyway) republicans are:

So, yeah for Utah — both senators Bennett and Hatch are republican and voted for it.  It’s great when people allow their interal moral compass override their political affiliation.  I’m no great fan of these guys in general, but they get some props from me this time around.

Why is it that the party that claims to be more religious, is clearly less moral?  The less religious party (democrats) have a straighter moral compass?

I suspect it’s that the republicans think they have a direct mandate from God, and therefore whatever they do is right.  Whereas democrats have to answer to people, not God, and thus think through their actions.

I dunno.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And if you believe that, I’ve got some beachfront property to sell you in Florida.

In any case, he makes a compelling case that W. should be tried and convicted of Murder for taking the nation to war on a lie.  Bush and friends said over and over in the lead up to war in Iraq that we were performing a pre-emptive strike, and that Iraq was linked to 9/11.  Turns out… well… those were both lies.  It was well known by the administration that Iraq posed *no* threat to the US, unless provoked by an imminent attack by the US.

The book lays out a very, very clear, and what seems to me irrefutable, case against Bush.  I can’t figure out any reason he shouldn’t be tried, convicted, and potentially executed, for causing over 100,000 deaths of Americans and Iraqis, because he wanted to.

There is no statute of limitations on murder, and he could be prosecuted in any of the 50 states, or by a federal court.  So, unless some President pardons him, he’s vulnerable to prosecution.  Let’s hope some attorney general has the courage to carry out justice and indite Bush, and let a jury decide if a crime has been committed.  It seems irrefutable to me.

A warning though:  if you read this book, you will be furious with Bush, Rice, Cheney.  It’s not fun to read.  It’s infuriating.

Click imat for more

http://www.loosefilter.com/the_loose_filter_project_/2009/12/what-english-sounds-like-to-italians.html

Definitely worth watching.

First, a little background:  I wanted to buy a new laptop.  Dean says, “Buy a Macbook from amazon.com, you get it next day with free shipping and no tax.”  I say, “Naw, it’s too expensive, and I actually prefer windows — all my actual work is in Windows and Linux, and I can’t get myself used to using the mac shortcut keys.”  So Dean says, “Then run windows on it.”  But nooooooo, I’m too clever for that.   So, I go and buy myself a Dell Studio 15.  It arrives, and it’s stupidly thick and clunky.  And with tax and shipping it costs as much as the Apple.

So, the stupid thing arrives.  I play some sounds from it.  It sounds like crap.  I think, “wow, that sounds like crap”.   So, I rand a 200 Hz sine wave through it, and the internal speakers sound like crap, and when I plug it into external speakers, they sound like crap too.

So, I call customer support.  They’re experiencing ‘heavy call volume’.  It tooks about 25 minutes to get to a human.  That human sent me back into the wait queue to talk to another human.  That one sent me to another.  That one sent me to another.  And that one sent me to another, who was the ‘Returns Desk’ lady.  It was about an hour to get to the Returns desk, who was the FIFTH person I talked to.

The Returns lady only had one question for me:  “Have you  contacted technical support?”   I said no, and she said that I’d have to do that before I could return the computer.

Crap.

So, the Returns lady sends me over to Technical Support guy.  After 20-30 minutes in another queue, technical support guy answers.  Technical support guy is a reasonably competent guy in India, who does a remote desktop session with me.  For 2 hours! Install drivers.  Reboot.  Install Drivers.  Reboot.  Install Driv…. You get the idea.  I tell him, “I’m an engineer who works on this stuff all the time, and it sounds like a hardware problem to me, there’s no way it’s a software problem.”

After 2 hours, and the audio still sounds like crapola, he finally relented and sent me back to the Returns desk.  After waiting about 20 minutes on hold, I get a lady that answers, “Dell switchboard, how can I help you?”  Christ.  I tell her that I want to make a return.  She asks if I’ve spoken with technical support.  I told her that I’ve already spoken to the customer support guy.

She looks into my account.  And after another 5 minutes, says, “The returns desk is closed.  Please call back between 8am and 8pm Central Standard Time.”

Oh for crap’s sake!

So, next day comes, and I call again.  I\ took me 40 minutes to get to a human, and maybe another 20 to complete the transaction.  For a total investment of probably 5 hours on the phone!  AAARRRRGGGGHHHH.

I ordered and received my macbook already — free shipping and no tax.

The moral of the story:  Always listen to Dean.

P.S. before sticking the return UPS label on the package, I installed Adobe Audition and used that to make some measurements…. and guess what?  It worked just great.  No distortion at all.  I guess it was a software problem after all.   Oopsie.  Well I’m glad I finally got rid of the dumb Dell.

Neat, huh?

Do you see something here?

What about now?

I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way.   I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom.

Glad to see he lets them use his bathroom.

Since I will be destroying your computer now, this will be my last post ever.

kthksbai

You have *GOT* to click on this. It's absolutely hilarious.

Hubbard Electrometer, 1968 American science fiction writer and founder of the Church of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard uses his Hubbard Electrometer to determine whether tomatoes experience pain, 1968. His work led him to the conclusion that tomatoes "scream when sliced."

Right?

Click image for full article

Ceiling Cat Created

Oh Hai!  I got an exclusive audio clip of Ceiling Cat reading Genesis 1.  Enjoy.

Boreded Ceiling Cat makinkgz Urf n stuffs

1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.

2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.

3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.4 An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.5 An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1

6 An Ceiling Cat sayed, im in ur waterz makin a ceiling. But he no yet make a ur. An he maded a hole in teh Ceiling.7 An Ceiling Cat doed teh skiez with waterz down An waterz up. It happen.8 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has teh firmmint wich iz funny bibel naim 4 ceiling, so wuz teh twoth day.

9 An Ceiling Cat gotted all teh waterz in ur base, An Ceiling Cat hadz dry placez cuz kittehs DO NOT WANT get wet.10 An Ceiling Cat called no waterz urth and waters oshun. Iz good.

11 An Ceiling Cat sayed, DO WANT grass! so tehr wuz seedz An stufs, An fruitzors An vegbatels. An a Corm. It happen.12 An Ceiling Cat sawed that weedz ish good, so, letz there be weedz.13 An so teh threeth day jazzhands.

14 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has lightz in the skiez for splittin day An no day.15 It happen, lights everwear, like christmass, srsly.16 An Ceiling Cat doeth two grate lightz, teh most big for day, teh other for no day.17 An Ceiling Cat screw tehm on skiez, with big nails An stuff, to lite teh Urfs.18 An tehy rulez day An night. Ceiling Cat sawed. Iz good.19 An so teh furth day w00t.

20 An Ceiling Cat sayed, waterz bring me phishes, An burds, so kittehs can eat dem. But Ceiling Cat no eated dem.21 An Ceiling Cat maed big fishies An see monstrs, which wuz like big cows, except they no mood, An other stuffs dat mooves, An Ceiling Cat sawed iz good.22 An Ceiling Cat sed O hai, make bebehs kthx. An dont worry i wont watch u secksy, i not that kynd uf kitteh.23 An so teh…fith day. Ceiling Cat taek a wile 2 cawnt.

24 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has MOAR living stuff, mooes, An creepie tings, An otehr aminals. It happen so tehre.25 An Ceiling Cat doed moar living stuff, mooes, An creepies, An otehr animuls, An did not eated tehm.

26 An Ceiling Cat sayed, letz us do peeps like uz, becuz we ish teh qte, An let min p0wnz0r becuz tehy has can openers.

27 So Ceiling Cat createded teh peeps taht waz like him, can has can openers he maed tehm, min An womin wuz maeded, but he did not eated tehm.

28 An Ceiling Cat sed them O hai maek bebehs kthx, An p0wn teh waterz, no waterz An teh firmmint, An evry stufs.

29 An Ceiling Cat sayed, Beholdt, the Urfs, I has it, An I has not eated it.30 For evry createded stufs tehre are the fuudz, to the burdies, teh creepiez, An teh mooes, so tehre. It happen. Iz good.

31 An Ceiling Cat sayed, Beholdt, teh good enouf for releaze as version 0.8a. kthxbai.

Their security system asked me, “what’s the username of another eBay member in your household”.

The only problem is… I don’t have another ebay member in my household. Or at least I don’t know of one.

Here’s the second chat I had with a support representative.

It’s long I know. But read all the way. It’s amazing. Well, if not amazing, maddening at least.

13:54:57 System System: Thank you for contacting eBay Account Security Live Help! Your feedback is important to us. Please take time at the end of this chat to fill out a brief survey letting us know how we did today.
13:54:57 System System Paulene E. has joined this session!
13:54:57 System System Connected with Paulene E.
13:55:12 Agent Paulene E.: Hello and thank you for contacting Account Security Live Help, my name is Paulene . How may I help you?
13:55:30 Customer ccrome: Hi, I *just* went throught this with Christina O.
13:55:38 Customer ccrome: and she had verified my account.
13:55:55 Customer ccrome: for some reason, it’s asking me again to verify this computer.
13:56:19 Customer ccrome: And it’s asking for the ebay account for another person at this address, and there are none.
13:56:47 Agent Paulene E.: Oh Thank you. Let me just pull up your account to verify. One moment please?
13:57:23 Customer ccrome: thanks.
13:59:47 Agent Paulene E.: Thank you for waiting. I have pulled up your account and I have checked the information you have provided. As you have explained, there’s no other member on this account, aside from you.
14:00:29 Customer ccrome: the question ebay is asking is: “Please answer security question below to receive your PIN. What is the user ID of another eBay member in your household?”
14:00:44 Customer ccrome: but I don’t have another ebayer in my household.
14:01:32 Agent Paulene E.: Oh I see. If there is none, then just answer the question.
14:08:22 Agent Paulene E.: Hello Caleb, are you still with me?
14:12:23 Agent Paulene E.: I’m sorry, I’ll need to end this chat in one minute if no response is received.
14:14:40 Customer ccrome: I’m here, you still there?
14:14:54 Agent Paulene E.: Yes.
14:14:55 Customer ccrome: answer what question?
14:15:25 Customer ccrome: the question is “What is the user ID of another eBay member in your household?”
14:15:28 Agent Paulene E.: The security questions they are asking so you could access your account.
14:15:30 Customer ccrome: How do i answer that?
14:15:46 Customer ccrome: *I don’t have another ebay member in my household*
14:15:58 Agent Paulene E.: If you have none, then just answer, ” none “.
14:16:11 Customer ccrome: ah, okay.
14:16:17 Customer ccrome: how am I supposed to know that?
14:16:50 Customer ccrome: It does not work.
14:16:57 Customer ccrome: I entered none.
14:17:03 Customer ccrome: no quotes, no spaces.
14:17:12 Customer ccrome: am I supposed to enter quotes or spaces?
14:17:23 Agent Paulene E.: Just try to finish the process.
14:17:37 Customer ccrome: I am trying to finish the process. it does not work.
14:17:48 Customer ccrome: it keeps going back to the same page asking:
14:17:57 Customer ccrome: Please provide the correct information in the highlighted fields. * Answer to your security question – Please enter a valid user ID.
14:18:14 Customer ccrome: This is in response to the question: What is the user ID of another eBay member in your household?
14:18:30 Customer ccrome: Like I’ve said, I don’t have another ebay member in my household.
14:18:55 Customer ccrome: the computer thinks I do. but I don’t.
14:19:03 Agent Paulene E.: Ok. Let me check on that. May I put you on hold for 2 to 4 minutes?
14:19:22 Customer ccrome: do what you need to do.
14:19:41 Customer ccrome: I’ve already gone through this verification on this computer with Christina O. Why do I have to do it again?
14:20:13 Agent Paulene E.: I do apologize for the inconvenience.
14:20:33 Agent Paulene E.: Let me just review your previous chat.
14:23:03 Agent Paulene E.: Thank you for waiting. may I have your user ID, for verification, please?
14:23:21 Customer ccrome: user id is ‘ccrome’
14:24:48 Agent Paulene E.: Thank you. And when you entered the username and password given to you by the previous agent, what error message do you see?
14:25:31 Customer ccrome: I already typed that in above.
14:25:53 Agent Paulene E.: So what happened?
14:26:09 Customer ccrome: It keeps giving me the same message:
14:26:28 Agent Paulene E.: In regard to the user ID?
14:26:52 Customer ccrome: The question is: “please enter another user at your household”
14:26:58 Customer ccrome: I Don’t Have One!
14:27:15 Agent Paulene E.: Oh sorry. Now it is clear to me.
14:27:27 Customer ccrome: Since I enter either nothing or as you suggested ‘none’ it does NOT accept the answer.
14:27:43 Customer ccrome: Now, I have this:
14:27:53 Agent Paulene E.: Have you tried clearing your cache and cookies? Do you happen to know how?
14:27:58 Customer ccrome: You have exceeded the allowable number of identity verification attempts.
14:28:12 Customer ccrome: no, i didn’t clear my cache.
14:28:16 Customer ccrome: I do know how
14:28:22 Customer ccrome: am I supposed to do that?
14:28:32 Customer ccrome: how am I supposed to know I’m supposed to do that?
14:28:47 Customer ccrome: now, it tells me to ‘click to chat with an agent’.
14:28:51 Customer ccrome: which is what I’m doing now.
14:28:59 Customer ccrome: (for the second time today)
14:29:08 Agent Paulene E.: It is just a way to check if that is the problem why you can’t log in.
14:29:38 Agent Paulene E.: It could be a browser issue.
14:29:49 Customer ccrome: I’ll try a different browser.
14:30:04 Agent Paulene E.: Oh that would be great!
14:30:43 Agent Paulene E.: I’ll wait until you’re ok with your account.
14:31:02 Customer ccrome: aaarrrrgggghhhh. Same thing
14:31:28 Customer ccrome: Please answer security question below to receive your PIN. What is the user ID of another eBay member in your household?
14:31:37 Agent Paulene E.: Oh sorry about that. Let us try another option.
14:31:42 Customer ccrome: I don’t have another eBay member in myhousehold!!!!!!
14:32:03 Customer ccrome: I already did that other option with Christina O!
14:32:13 Agent Paulene E.: Do you have access to your personal email that we have on file?
14:32:15 Customer ccrome: this is maddening.
14:32:18 Customer ccrome: yes
14:32:48 Agent Paulene E.: No need to undergo the process Caleb. This another option.
14:33:54 Agent Paulene E.: What I will do is, send you a temporary password. You have to check your mail. One moment please? For clarification, what is your email address please?
14:34:23 Customer ccrome: password? why do i need a password? I can log into my account already.
14:34:29 Customer ccrome: I just can’t sell.
14:34:35 Customer ccrome: my email is
14:34:37 Customer ccrome: cxxx@crome.org
14:36:00 Agent Paulene E.: Thank you. Let me check why there is a restriction on your account, why you cannot sell.
14:38:05 Agent Paulene E.: Would you please try to log in to www.ebay.ca.
14:38:35 Customer ccrome: ebay.ca? okay, i’ll give it a go.
14:38:54 Agent Paulene E.: Thank you.
14:39:45 Customer ccrome: okay, I’m logged in to ebay.ca, and EXACTLY the same thing as ebay.com
14:39:54 Customer ccrome: Please answer security question below to receive your PIN. What is the user ID of another eBay member in your household?
14:40:07 Customer ccrome: Again. I DONT HAVE ANOTHER MEMBER IN MY HOUSEHOLD
14:40:41 Agent Paulene E.: I’m so sorry for all the inconvenience this is causing you.
14:40:51 Customer ccrome: this is different browser, different ebay country even.
14:41:35 Agent Paulene E.: Let me further check your account. May I place you again on hold for 3 to 5 minutes to investigate?
14:42:05 Customer ccrome: i guess.
14:50:20 Agent Paulene E.: Thank you for waiting, Caleb. Can you please check now if you will be able to sell this time?
14:50:36 Customer ccrome: checking…
14:50:55 Customer ccrome: ah, finally!
14:50:57 Customer ccrome: it works.
14:51:12 Customer ccrome: will I have to do this again from each other computer I use?
14:51:21 Customer ccrome: It’s been about 2 hours with you and christan combined.
14:51:22 Agent Paulene E.: yes.
14:51:31 Customer ccrome: seriously?
14:51:51 Customer ccrome: will it ask my again for ‘another ebay member in my household’
14:51:52 Customer ccrome: ?
14:51:58 Agent Paulene E.: Sorry for all the inconvenience Caleb.
14:52:11 Customer ccrome: will it ask me that question again?
14:52:35 Customer ccrome: if so….. WHY?
14:52:40 Agent Paulene E.: Let me just give you a brief explanation of what happened to your account, why there was a restriction.
14:52:50 Customer ccrome: okay
14:52:50 Agent Paulene E.: eBay places an indicator on each member’s computer containing a unique ID number. When an eBay member begins listing or bidding on an item, the member’s User ID is verified against the indicator. If not present, it will recognize that you aren’t at your regular computer and begin the confirmation process.
14:53:14 Customer ccrome: I understand how confirmation works. why is it asking me for another ebay member, when I don’t have one?
14:53:35 Agent Paulene E.: That is a part of the security question.
14:53:45 Customer ccrome: that doesn’t make sense.
14:53:52 Customer ccrome: what if there is only 1 member in a household.
14:54:00 Agent Paulene E.: Sorry. if you feel that way.
14:54:15 Customer ccrome: wait, no, it *REALLY* doesn’t make sense.
14:54:23 Customer ccrome: what was I supposed to answer?
14:54:28 Agent Paulene E.: Sorry but that is what puzzles me.
14:54:37 Customer ccrome: oh… you are puzzled too?
14:55:02 Customer ccrome: you don’t understand why it’s asking for another ebay member in my household?
14:55:05 Agent Paulene E.: You know what I did to help you?
14:55:10 Customer ccrome: no
14:55:25 Agent Paulene E.: I added all the machine on your account that I saw.
14:55:51 Customer ccrome: is this going to be this broken for the rest of my life?
14:56:13 Customer ccrome: this makes no sense. It’s impossible for me to answer that security question.
14:56:21 Agent Paulene E.: What matters now Caleb, you can now sell at eBay.
14:56:33 Customer ccrome: It’s like, “What’s the name of your first child” when you have no children.
14:56:36 Agent Paulene E.: Yes, I do understand how you feel.
14:56:51 Customer ccrome: this isn’t a feeling. something is BROKEN in my account.
14:56:53 Customer ccrome: please fix it.
14:56:56 Agent Paulene E.: If that happens to me also, I’ll get frustrated.
14:57:04 Customer ccrome: will you please fix my account?
14:57:36 Agent Paulene E.: What do you mean by fix your account?
14:57:44 Customer ccrome: so it doesn’t ask me that question any more.
14:57:57 Customer ccrome: the ‘another ebay member at your household’ question.
14:58:12 Customer ccrome: you know, and I know that it’s impossible for me to answer that question
14:58:22 Agent Paulene E.: Yes. As long as you’re using the same computer that we have on file, : )
14:58:43 Customer ccrome: OMG, you’ve got to be kidding!!!
14:58:51 Agent Paulene E.: Yes, I know. If you really don’t know the answer.
14:59:20 Customer ccrome: it’s not that I don’t know the answer. THERE IS NO ANSWER! need to go. this is crazy.
15:00:10 Agent Paulene E.: Sorry. But it is our way to secure your account.
15:00:11 Customer ccrome: my daughter’s been waiting for 45 minutes.
15:00:26 Customer ccrome: ah, make it secure by making it impossible to use.
15:00:27 Customer ccrome: clever.

Thanks Mike

Here’s a really nifty video that shows a glimpse of the art behind making music. And the engineering, of course.

Thanks Dean.

My Mom’s dryer just quit on her. After failing to find a wiring diagram on the web for this dryer, I opened it up to see what I could find. And out fell the wiring diagram. Thanks Kenmore.

Here it is, for anybody who needs this model

Just putting it here so Google can find it later.

BTW, the failed part was the “196F Thermal Fuse, Non resettable”. Let’s hope it just got old and died. We’ll we how the replacement goes.

The white thermostat with the wires disconnected went bad

Markings on thermostat are G4AP0500 TF091C HFM2 3392519

“I don’t mean to brag, but….”

Click for more images

This is a really good talk:  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs.html.  Well worth the 2o minutes if you’re up for it.

Check it’s website here.

Watch and enjoy. Good job Chris.

Check out the poll results:

http://cf.theindychannel.com/ind/sh/con_surveycontest_display/displaySurveyResults.cfm?contentid=19409260&sitekey=IND&questionum=1&answer1=1

Read about it here.

Do you think a native english speaker was making a bit of a joke? Or is this a non-native speaker writing?

Sometimes I wonder wheter it’s westerners or easterners who write for the English language newspapers in China.  I think I know the answer.  I like this byline.

We came

We did a heckuva job

We mission accomplished

Now lets get the fuck outta here

 

Coming to you from Camp Vic….  Camp Let’s Get The Fuck Outta Here, this is Caleb reporting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/31/robert-crumb-book-genesis

A new study in Nature Neuroscience shows that video games really can have a lasting improvement on certain cognative skills.  I’m sure that my fast typing speed has something to do with my pinball skills.

Click here for more info.

Man, that’s sweet justice.  If only some monkey had hurled a coconut at Bush’s head 8 years ago….

Squeezebox Love

Read about the new study here.

Click on image for more

Click for larger image

http://www.whynotchemeng.com/uk-and-ireland/teachers/top-ten-flash-bang-demos

http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=9718863&nav=15MUCBSd

Luckily the kid survived.

See you in hell

When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you

- Ben Stein.

The Portuguese man-o-war is a surface dwelling siphonophore. These things are a sort of super-organism — a colony of individual critters that each specialize in the colony. It’s actually quite incredible.

Check it out at Pink Tentacale.

Check it out. 

Stop wasting your money and risking serious injury and infection.

So, what’s in your gutter? I went out to put up Christmas lights, and found 5 paper airplanes in the gutter.

What’s in yours?  Leave a comment or a photo.

Da Boom!

Well, the Squeezebox Boom found its way into Tom’s Guide, in the hands of this model.  It’s funny to see what people do with your products.