April 24, 2008
Subway Monster
Below the cut, a Youtube video of a "Sea Monster" on the sidewalk that inflates when a subway train comes by and pushes air ahead and up the vents. Cool!
Posted by Berry at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2008
What's Behind Door Number Three, Carol?
Writing in the New York Times, John Tierney (free registration, or use BugMeNot) had given the best summary of the winning strategy of the Monty Hall Problem I've ever seen:
This answer goes against our intuition that, with two unopened doors left, the odds are 50-50 that the car is behind one of them. But when you stick with Door 1, you’ll win only if your original choice was correct, which happens only 1 in 3 times on average. If you switch, you’ll win whenever your original choice was wrong, which happens 2 out of 3 times.
The article goes on to explain how some psych experiments fell into the same trap most of us do when thinking about this problem Interesting reading, check it out.
Posted by Berry at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)
February 25, 2008
Comma Sutra
Someone made a reference to the "Comma Sutra" in Doranna's SFF.net group, and
in a fit of madness I made a picture of it. Response was positive, so
I made a CafePress store where y'all can buy t-shirts and stuff. I
intend to donate at least half of any profit to the SFWA Emergency Medical Fund
Posted by Berry at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2008
Teh Cute!
There's a whole collection of uber-cute aminals over at Dark Roasted Blend. How long do you think it will take before one of them appears on the front page of "I Can Has Cheezburger"? Whoever guesses closest in the comments will win "the people's ovation and fame forever", which is Berry-speak for nothing at all. Still, it could be fun.
Posted by Berry at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2008
Goths everywhere rejoice!
"Even blacker" is the new black.
Posted by Berry at 11:43 AM | Comments (1)
January 15, 2008
Ten Things I've Done that You Probably Haven't
On the Whatever, Scalzi challenges his readers to list ten things they've done that others probably haven't. Here's my list. What's yours?
1) Flown (as in, my hands on the controls) an airplane through Norwegian Fjords.
2) Photographed Nikita Kruschev.
3) Developed film in Edward Weston's darkroom.
4) Taken bass lessons from Carol Kay.
5) Programmed the worlds first user-steerable webcam. (Now inactive, alas.)
6) Worked at the world-famous Xerox PARC, in the process obtaining a finite Erdös Number.
7) Leaned out the window from which two Bohemian governers were hurled in 1618, in what is known as "The Defenestration of Prague".
8) Watched the inside of my right knee be operated on.
9) Driven a Bentley and served as a Concours judge for the Rolls-Royce Owners Club.
10) Touched Friendship Seven the Mercury capsule that carried John Glenn into orbit, AND climbed into the helicopter that plucked it from the sea.
Posted by Berry at 09:06 AM | Comments (1)
January 14, 2008
Air Force One
OK, no matter what you think of the incumbent, actually spotting Air Force One on final approach is pretty cool.
Today I was driving to lunch when I spotted a blue and white 747 on downwind to Three-Two Left at Moffet Federal Airfield. (The home of the blimp hangars you may have seen on Mythbusters, which happen to be 1-1/2 miles from my office).
This in itself was not so unusual, but there was an F-16 flying in formation with it! "Aha!" I said to myself "This must be Air Force One."
I tried to take a cameraphone picture, but between fumbling the keys, having to actually, you know, drive, and trees in the way, I failed.
Still, it was pretty neat.
(TUESDAY UPDATE): Given that GWB was in Saudi Arabia, it may well have been AF2 instead. Still neat.
Posted by Berry at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2008
Google Streetview
So this morning on the way to work I was two cars behind the Google Streetview camera car. That link goes to a crappy cameraphone picture I snapped; it's the best of three (really!).
So in a few weeks when the data is processed, if you Streetview at the intersection of Charleston and Industrial in Mountain View, CA, you may see my blue MINI Cooper in the shot. How cool is that?
(Friday Update) Spotted it again Friday, in Sunnyvale, northbound on El Camino between Bernardo and Grant, where I was caught by the light. Another place to check for blue MINIs in Streetview.
Posted by Berry at 01:12 PM | Comments (2)