Quick geek out: Today represent’s the 100th anniversary of the publication of Albert Einstein’s world-turning document on Relativity. As my friends know, I spend great portions of my week reading and thinking about Relativity. One of my favorite uses of relativity is that of our Global Positioning Systems. Without relativity, our GPS calculations would be off by kilometers!
You know it’s high summer when sharks attack and zombie dogs come to life. That’s right. Zombie dogs. I found the story on Slashdot and it describes a new technique for replacing blood with saline in order to induce hypothermia. In other words, they replaced a dog’s blood with cold saline, let it chill for two hours, filled it back up with blood, and then shocked it back to life. Thus, they created a zombie dog because for that two hours, the pooch was technically dead.
I know. I thought it was a crock, too, and it might well be. There are, however, credible sources (unlike news.com.au) that discuss the new method. Check out Pulmonary Reviews and the Post-Gazette. It seems to be a technology 20 years in the making and the actual zombie dog experiment occured years ago (2002). Who knows, maybe they’ve found out the secret to cryogenics?
The other awesome story (also found on Slashdot) concerns the coolest keyboard I have ever seen. Unlike standard QWERTY keyboards, it consists of keys that can be programmed to be anything you want including macros of multiple keystrokes. For programmers and editters like me who have to hit the same 3 keys over and over and over again, this is an amazing tool. Not only can you program the keys of the Ergodex DX1, you can move them around on a panel in order to create the perfect arrangement for your hands. For those of you looking for a Christmas gift to get me, check it out.
Hi Everyone! After putting it off for quite some time, I have finally joined the ranks of those with blogs. This will be the forum for all my thoughts, works, and rantings. It will focus on everything from AJAX technology to scientific breakthroughs to my laundry habits. Feel free to contact me with any thoughts, comments, or questions you might have.
Well, today seemed like a good day to start this blog. For us amateur astronomers, it’s an incredible day…. er, night. Not only is today the summer solstice (a.k.a the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer in the United States) and not only is it a full moon, it is the lowest the moon has been on the horizon in over 20 years. More so, it is the lowest it will be for another 25 years. Take a gander around 11:00pm and you will see an enormous orange Rose Moon on the southern horizon. For more information, check out this link .