Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD, Dies at 102
Albert Hofmann, the mystical Swiss chemist who gave the world LSD, the most powerful psychotropic substance known, died Tuesday at his hilltop home near Basel, Switzerland. He was 102.From Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD, Dies at 102 - New York Times
I used to work in a university polymer chemistry lab. Every chemist I knew became a chemist because of explosives, brewing or drugs.
Less or More
Less Or More
Originally uploaded by karmakazesal.
Everything is either more than or less than 99 cents.
Gilligan's Food Network
If Gilligan's Island was remade for the Food Network.
| Gilligan's Island | Food Network |
| Thurston Howell III | Emeril Lagasse |
| Lovey | Paula Dean |
| Ginger | Giada De Laurentiis |
| Marianne | Rachael Ray |
| The Professor | Alton Brown |
| Skipper | Mario Batali |
| Gilligan | Bobby Flay |
150-Year-Old Computer Brought to Life
Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2, designed in the late 1840s, weighs five tons, is 11 feet (3.4 meters) long and seven feet (2.1 meters) high, and has 8,000 bronze, cast iron and steel parts.150-Year-Old Computer Brought to Life [Slideshow]: Scientific American Slideshow
Needless to say, it doesn't run Vista. I remember reading about this design in college. I didn't think anyone could actually build one. Brings back memories of my attempt at an difference engine emulator. I joked that it would be an upgrade for the X11 abacus emulator I wrote.
propaganda pundits
Worth watching. This is clear evidence that this administration was running tax payer funded covert propaganda campaign on US soil in clear violation of US law. Screw impeachment, it's time for a war crimes tribunal.
Clinton, Obama and McCain on WWE
Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain will appear on World Wrestling Entertainment's live "Monday Night Raw" (8-11 p.m. EST on cable's USA network) but instead of smacking each other down, they separately will deliver some wrestling-themed stumping in taped messages before Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary.The Associated Press: Clinton, Obama and McCain on WWE's `Monday Night Raw'
Just one of those days where the AP reads like the Onion.
socks and flags
socks and flags
Originally uploaded by karmakazesal.
Can you spot what's wrong with this flag?
rotary phone
rotary phone
Originally uploaded by karmakazesal.
Real live rotary pay phone in building lobby. A working rotary pay phone. In 2008.
Obama, get ready for the Clinton rules
And as Barack Obama should have learned during the debateâs first 45 minutes, if not before, the same fuzzy but obsessive focus on "character" that plagues Bill and Hillary Clinton will be turned on him with equal or greater ferocity by those who once claimed to admire him. He is now subject to the "Clinton rules," which have long permitted pundits, editorialists and reporters to indict the former president and first lady for sins that other politicians, mostly Republican, may commit with impunity (see Gingrich, Newt, first, second and especially third marriage).From Salon.com | Obama, get ready for the "Clinton rules"
Those slanted rules have guided coverage of Sen. Clinton during the past several weeks, notably in the controversy over her inaccurate version of her arrival in Bosnia a decade ago. How the game works can best be understood by comparing the firestorm over her remarks with the placid acceptance of blatantly self-aggrandizing falsehoods by certain venerated politicians of the other party.
Conason hits the nail on the head with this one. The focus on trivial nonsense in the Democratic debates and the press giving McCain a free ride on lack of support for a Modern GI Bill. Or on his multitude of flip-flops.
Sauerkraut juice
sauerkraut juice
Originally uploaded by karmakazesal.
Sauerkraut juice. Organic sauerkraut juice. Really.
self warming cat cushion
cat cushion
Originally uploaded by karmakazesal.
Self warming cat cushion. Isn't that normally called a lap?
Ben Stein's Expelled
In the new science-bashing movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Ben Stein and the rest of the filmmakers sincerely and seriously argue that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution paved the way for the Holocaust. By "seriously," I mean that Ben Stein acts grief-stricken and the director juxtaposes quotes from evolutionary biologists with archival newsreel clips from Hitler's Reich
Expelled frequently repeats that design-based explanations (not to mention religious ones) are "forbidden" by "big science." It never explains why, however. Evolution and the rest of "big science" are just described as having an atheistic preference.From Six Things in Expelled that Ben Stein Doesn't Want You to Know...: Scientific American
Actually, science avoids design explanations for natural phenomena out of logical necessity. The scientific method involves rigorously observing and experimenting on the material world. It accepts as evidence only what can be measured or otherwise empirically validated (a requirement called methodological naturalism). That requirement prevents scientific theories from becoming untestable and overcomplicated.
And Ben Stein's Expelled: No Integrity Displayed: Scientific American
Haven't these people heard of Godwin's Law? While debate by Hitler comparison seems to be par for the course in conservative politics, its just annoying for those of us that view these tactics as an admission of the lack of an argument rather than proof of of the strength of an argument. If your argument is based on things that would get you laughed out of a high school debate club, then you shouldn't be taken seriously.
Worst. President. Ever.
Bush has established himself as the torture president, the basis for his invasion of Iraq has been exposed as a fraud, the Iraq War itself has gone disastrously, the nation's network of alliances has faded, and the economy has gone into a tailspin-not to mention the bungled handling of relief for victims of hurricane Katrina.More here: "Worst. President. Ever." by Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine) with a nod to kottke