Robert Hare, creator of the Psychopathy Checklist, has recently been applying his test Is your boss a psychopath
to businessmen and has found some disturbing results. From the article: Why wouldn’t we want to screen them? We screen police officers, teachers. Why not people who are going to handle billions of dollars?
Citing Enron and Worldcom management as an example, it seems a reasonable argument. The same source also has a quiz which allows you to test your own boss
The Federal Opposition says students will be left stranded because the Federal Government has withheld TAFE funding for state and terrorities
Had an interesting trip home on the train yesterday.
Few things annoy me more than wankers holding really loud conversations on their mobile phones, but yesterday’s moron at least managed entertainment value.
Not content with sharing his conversation with the top floor of the carriage, he headed down to the doorway where he could be properly heard by the entire carriage. In less than six seconds I’ve guessed that this guy is either a compulsive liar or the world’s dumbest undercover cop.
I once spent a rather enjoyable lunch hour with a compulsive liar. It helped that I had been forewarned ahead of time for the novelty aspect of watching a wingnut in full swing. Train Guy
was much the same, but his insanity revolved around law enforcement instead of the music industry.
Train Guy
was loudly whinging to Sarge
that his nine month undercover drug operation had been screwed up by Constable Kay Campbell (who may or may not be two different people) and he now had to deal with a million dollar legal bill.
There were lots of drug references thrown in, a carefully spelled out Lebanese name and mention that the parents of the owner of said Lebanese name had been unwittingly driving about for a week with a large quantity of heroin hidden in the boot of their car.
It seems that the arrival of Constable Campbell (added to the mix at Sarge’s
request against the loud protests of Train Guy
) tipped the drug guys off and the heroin got flushed.
There were a couple of highlights to the phone conversation.
One being that Dumb Teenager
, sitting a couple of seats in front of me, had a panic attack and departed the train early. He wasn’t much smarter than Train Guy
, as he left in quite a fluster. He could have taken the exit at the other end of the carriage, but Dumb Teenager
insisted on walking past Train Guy
and yelling Fucking cops
at the top of his voice from the platform.
The other gem was Train Guy
trying to explain to Sarge
that he’d had a tip off that just might bail his worthless arse out of this mess and it involved something going down at: the docks… You know, the wharves. Where the containers ships come in.
I’m really hoping he’s a compulsive liar, because I’d hate to think there were cops out there who were this mind-numbingly stupid.
The Genetiate‘s people claim that with over 500,000 collisions between cars and deer every year, the cost in lives and money is staggering. While insurers pay over a billion dollars in claims annually, over 200 people are killed. Countless other drivers and passengers suffer injuries and other serious medical complications. Many deer and their young suffer the same fate. By implanting the gene of a special jellyfish into deer, the transgenic NightSave deer produced by Genetiate (patent pending) have fluorescing hair and skin when illuminated by car headlights. The implanted gene has no other effect on the deer, who appear normal in daylight. The NightSave project aims to reduce the number of night time deer/auto collisions, saving the lives of both deer and people — via Improbable Research
Xirrus’ XS-3900 Wireless LAN Array consists of 16 Integrated Access Points and a wireless switch all in one device. According to their web site, Xirrus can achieve 800+ Mbps of bandwidth and handle 1000+ users
Telstra announced a trial of the technology back in January, saying it would allow DSL to be connected to people who were up to 20km from a central exchange. DSL Extenders work by splitting an existing copper phone line into eight separate ADSL lines using a tiny, ruggedised remote DSLAM. The drawback is that it will not be able to handle ADSL2
Using human fetal cells, Swiss scientists have developed a new type of biological bandage for severe burns that appears to dramatically speed and improve the healing process and may well prove an effective treatment for other serious skin wounds. But the novel type of therapy is likely to generate some controversy in countries like the United States and Italy, which restrict the use of human embryos in scientific research, since the bandages are derived from the skin cells of aborted foetuses
Fluidlens is a new type of camera lens made of liquid that is no bigger than a contact lens, but can still achieve up to ten times optical zoom by changing its shape similar to the human eye
In an ongoing effort to stop the spread of HIV, scientists in Australia have discovered that crocodiles can fight off HIV and kill the virus. This is a major boon to medicine because the crocodile serum can also fight things that are penicillin resistant such as staphylococcus aureus
Scientists are proposing reintroducing large mammals such as elephants, lions, cheetahs and wild horses to North America to replace populations lost 13,000 years ago. The scientists say that not only could large tracts of North America act as breeding sanctuaries for species of large wild animals under threat in Africa and Asia, but that such ecological history parks could be major tourist attractions
The Encyclomædia is a casemod that puts a PC into what appears to be a set of encyclopædia volumes — via BoingBoing
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is building a single service delivery channel for access to every piece of statistical data held in public databases nationally. Direct marketers need not salivate because the National Data Network will only hold de-identified information. The network, brainchild of former Australian of the Year and child health researcher Fiona Stanley, is under construction
The Sound Guy has developed the Purr Detector [pdf] lighted cat collar. In addition to providing family fun, the Purr Detector can also flash when the cat is outside at night, for improved safety and visibility. The Purr Detector was created by Earl Vickers, who has a patent pending for the technology — via Lucie
Christopher Walken for President 2008. Make of that what you will — via Warren Ellis
They say bad things happen in 3’s:
- My adapter for my ye old clamshell iBook carked it last night. I was not impressed to find that just buying the one they currently sell with newer iBooks would work. Luckily, www.batterymall.com.au seems to have what can help me get a bit more life outta my iBook, and for 50 bucks as opposed to $129 for new adapter. I should get it this week-ish.
- I had a minor car accident this morning with a minibus/van with some teenagers going to school in it. No no it wasn’t a P-plater hooning around in it, I think it was a teacher driving. Luckily no one was hurt, and damage to my car is very minimal. Teacher now knows to look before attempting a u-turn from off the road.
- My cat went in for his dental this morning, which the vet told me he would one day be needing. He also has dandruff on account he won’t eat anything other than dried cat food, so vet suggested an aloe vera bath. I’ve bathed my cat twice before and I think the scars down my back are finally healed, so I figure, yeah go on you guys do it. Jasper was suppose to be ready by 6:30pm this evening, but he’s still drowsy from the anasthetic, so they’ll be keeping him overnight and bathing him tomorrow. So it’s a kitty free night for me :.(
Unrelated: Warning: iPods may damage your hearing [BugMeNot]. Yeah, who’d have thunk that listening to your portable music player or radio in mobile of choice too loud for too long would cause hearing probs? Thanks SMH, you’re the best!
Out of 168 nations in a Harvard study, how many do you think had some form of paid maternity leave? The answer may surprise you. 163 out of 168. That’s how many countries think that new mothers shouldn’t be subjected to discrimination, and that believe women shouldn’t take a career hit because they choose to become a mother. Only two developed nations don’t have paid maternity leave: The United States and Australia — via morons.org
Erik Fitzpatrick did a nice job turning an old Smith-Corona manual typewriter into a functional keyboard, and composed a nice writeup about it, with pictures
Stirling engines are not a neglected or forgotten technology after all. With 20 years of in-the-field fine-tuning, Stirling Energy Systems is now ready to go big — real big. They signed a purchase agreement Tuesday with Southern California Edison, to install a 20,000 dish array that will cover 1,800 hectares and will be capable of generating 500 megawatts of electricity — more than all other US solar projects combined — making this the largest solar installation in the world. Each collector has a 11m diameter array of mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on the Stirling engine, which turns the heat into rotational torque for electricity generation
Spammer Scott Levine was convicted of massive data theft from Acxiom Corporation. Prosecutors say his company, the now-defunct Snipermail.com, stole 1.6 billion customer records from Acxiom and sold the data. He faces a maximum of 640 years in prison under the law, though he will likely be sentenced to far less
Responding to an outcry by publishers, Google has temporarily scaled back plans to make the full text of copyrighted books searchable online. For three months, Google will stop scanning copyrighted books to allow copyright holders to inform the company of objections
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