Diametrically Opposed Fic Recs

By
2 January 2004
2 min read
Leave a comment
In Entertainment
607 views

Just got a fiction recommendation from Moonbeam for The Galactic Miscellany by Rheanna. Moonbeam swears that the author is channelling Douglas Adams, as the story reads like an excerpt from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Footnotes included.

Sitting at Arthur’s kitchen table, one hand wrapped around Arthur’s novelty serial killer mug, Ford looked suddenly older than Arthur remembered him. Which was odd, Arthur thought, because he was certain he remembered a drunken conversation in a bar on Gargalto Two during which Ford had insisted that Beteguesans lived for many hundreds of years longer than humans. Of course, Ford had drunk several pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters by that point in the evening, which meant that he had been insisting all kinds of things, including that the colour taupe was the root cause of all universal conflict and that the American daytime soap opera General Hospital was written by the CIA. [4] But something had given Arthur the idea he’d been telling the truth about his lifespan…

[4] He was actually right about one of these.

A couple of weeks back I stumbled over this rather sweet story that was the 2001 winner of the University of Canberra National Short Story Competition — The Knitter and Miss Newtown by Claire Stevenson.

Hand Knits for Young Moderns

By
1 January 2004
34 second read
Leave a comment
In Craft
567 views

Houseplant Picture Studio purchased a job lot of mid-60s knitting patterns and have scanned some of the groovy, retro photos as part of an ongoing project.
They aren’t the first to do it, there’s a line a greeting cards using 50s knit and kitchen photographs with witty comments added

Global Dimming

By
1 January 2004
23 second read
In Science
575 views

Each year less light reaches the surface of the Earth. No one is sure what’s causing global dimming — or what it means for the future. In fact most scientists have never heard of it

How to Spot a Terrorist

By
31 December 2003
1 min read
Leave a comment
In Rights
701 views

It seems that farmers have gone to the top of the hit list of potential terrorist suspects because they carry almanacs and buy lots of fertiliser. Which pretty much includes that nice little old lady next door — via Making Light

The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning.

In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning.

It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.

International Spam MoU Mooted

By
31 December 2003
26 second read
In Technology
720 views

Australia has proposed that all national communications regulators develop a multi-lateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) on spam to boost the fight against unwanted bulk email. MoUs are already used to underpin several international internet structures, such as IP address space

Disney Changes Privacy Policy to Auto Opt-In

By
30 December 2003
49 second read
In Rights, Technology
604 views

Disney has revised its online privacy policy to allow the sharing of user information to third parties, the company confirmed on Tuesday. New registrants who accept Disney’s privacy policy during registration also accept all marketing options by default. They have to manually turn them off later if they want to opt out. A Disney representative said the changes were made to help customer service operate more effectively between its offline and online businesses

Family Files Lawsuit After Man’s Head Found in Tool Shed

By
30 December 2003
38 second read
In Weird
694 views

The children of a cancer patient who donated his body for research are suing after their father’s embalmed head was found in a tool shed. It had been there for nearly eleven years. The head was among 150 pounds of human cadaver parts allegedly removed from the University of California-Davis medical centre by a former autopsy assistant

Funeral Interrupted by Corpse’s Phone

By
30 December 2003
32 second read
In Technology, Weird
629 views

The night before the funeral, the family gathered at the undertakers for a final private farewell, when they heard the sound of his mobile ringing from within the sealed coffin. Several distressed members of the family had to leave the funeral home whilst staff rushed to remove the phone

The Joy of Knitting

By
29 December 2003
54 second read
Leave a comment
In Craft
807 views

In a bid to keep the sprogs from getting frostbite during recess in the winter months, Judith Symonds, an instructional aide at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, New Jersey, sat the little monsters on the floor in a hallway and taught them how to knit. The knitting program was so popular that the sessions extended the rest of the year and after school classes were started for parents. Nice to see the old crafts aren’t dying out — via Making Light

Dutch Invention Uses Electric Engines for Wheels

By
29 December 2003
1 min read
In Technology, World
743 views

A Dutch invention is promising to make vehicles at least 50% more efficient and also bring down the soot and carbon dioxide emissions. This is made possible by replacing the conventional wheels by in-wheel electric engines which are normal electric engines turned inside out. No transmission is necessary as the in-wheel engines are powered by battery-packs installed on the vehicle. A diesel-powered generator which replaces the original engine on the vehicle charges the battery-pack continuously. The Dutch company E-Traction has built a bus using this technology that will undergo testing for the next six months

Microsoft Researching Anti-Spam Technique

By
29 December 2003
40 second read
In Technology
715 views

Microsoft’s Research group are working on a technique to combat spam. Dubbed the Penny Black project, it involves making e-mail senders perform a computation taking around 10 seconds, which their recipients can then check for. This delay would limit bulk e-mailing speeds to around 8000 a day, meaning that to spam all of those fresh, guaranteed 25 million addresses would take approximately 8.5 years

Source Code Escrow

By
28 December 2003
1 min read
In Technology
933 views

Software companies in India are embracing the trend where source code for the software being bought or sold is kept safe with an escrow agent with carefully drafted agreements. This allows the buyer to get hold of the source code in cases where software was licensed from a start-up which has now folded or a breach of contract regarding the maintenance services that were agreed upon can be proven. The source code is automatically released upon the occurrence of any of the events mentioned in the escrow agreement and the buyer will be able to study the source code and continue to provide support services for the software bought without relying on the employees of the software supplier

New Zim on Nick

By
28 December 2003
45 second read
In Entertainment
647 views

Nickelodeon are screening previously unaired episodes of Invader Zim on the weekends during double up. I screwed up Saturday’s taping and only got one episode — Gaz, Taster of Pork — but got both on Sunday — The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever and a repeat of Abducted and The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot. Hopefully Nick will loop them until they repeat and I can catch anything I’ve missed

Malamute Subterfuge

By
27 December 2003
2 min read
19 Comments
In Wildlife
1040 views

Malamutes are intelligent dogs, they just have no interest in doing what you want them to do.

I have a suspicion that Malamute may be Amish, the first thing she does with her toys is to snap the eyes off and rip the faces out. To avoid this, I was preparing the pods’ xmas presents earlier in the week by removing the faces from two small toy bunnies. Malamute was sitting patiently at my feet watching bunny surgery and occasionally having a gentle tug at an ear in the hope I wouldn’t notice and she could scarper off with it. Husky was content to watch the proceedings from the comfort of the lounge.

They got their presents on xmas morning and a hot pink bunny got tossed about the backyard for five minutes before Malamute realised she also had a food component to her gift.

Half an hour later, after trying to hide the remaining half of a well gnawed rawhide bone under me, behind the television and under Husky’s beanbag, Malamute finally scoffed it and settled in for a good game of remove Husky’s rawhide bone.

This morning she hit on a winning plan. She went hurtling into the backyard and stood at the side gate barking her head off. Husky went to investigate the barks that sounded very much like there’s a strange dog in the front yard. The moment Husky had joined her, Malamute bounded back inside and stole his bone.
Mission accomplished.

Previous 999 1000 10011002 1003 Next