world's tallest man saves dolphins

a bbc article, via things magazine:

The world's tallest man has saved two dolphins by using his long arms to reach into their stomachs and pull out dangerous plastic shards.
[...]
Mongolian herdsman Bao Xishun was called in after the dolphins swallowed plastic used around their pool at an aquarium in Fushun, north-east China.
[...]
Guinness World Records list Mr Bao, 54, as the world's tallest living man at 2.36m (7ft 8.95in).
[...]
The mammals had lost their appetite and were suffering depression, aquarium officials said.

norway offsetting green house gasses

via the bbc:

Norway has announced plans to offset the greenhouse gases produced by public employees when they fly abroad by buying emissions credits.
[...]
The estimated cost of the scheme would be around 2.5 million kroner ($400,000, £200,000) per year [ed: that's it?], according to the Norwegian news agency NTB
[...]
Although the announcement was received favourably by some businesses and environmental groups, at least one organisation reacted with scepticism.

Norway's Nature and Youth environmental group said: "The government should first reduce its ambitions for the oil and gas sector in Norway, which accounts for a third of emissions of greenhouse gases."

Norway is the world's third largest oil exporter and a major exporter of natural gas.

johnny five needs more input

again, via the economist:

...studies show that people read around ten megabytes (MB) worth of material a day; hear 400MB a day, and see one MB of information every second.

kill me now.

chinese cars

via the economist:

n their efforts to break into Western markets, China’s carmakers have stalled. Making a competitive car is not as easy as they first thought, it seems. A small number of Landwind cars shipped to Europe in 2005 failed to make quite the intended impact. German crash-tests revealed they were the most dangerous vehicles ever tested.

excellent. this is exactly what the germans deserve.

for what it's worth, the rest of the article paints a much more positive picture of both chinese and indian car manufacturers.

9/11 Revisited

A little over a month ago, I accused JHC of forgetting about this blog. Being its originator, I felt it his responsibility to continue to post. He quietly reminded me that I too could have posted. I responded that I would guarantee that I would post when we he wrote something that wasn't of the ``me-too" blog style (this is the style of blogging where someone posts about something and everyone else links to that same thing). Anyway, here is my response.

First, I wanted to point to a really tasteless video collage done by Lubos Motl commemorating the fifth anniversary of 9/11. First some background. Motl is a (to the best of my knowledge, non-permanent) Harvard faculty member in physics. Just so that there is no pretense of objectivity on my part, let me say that I dislike Motl, mainly because I consider him a string theory pundit. However, Motl frequently uses his blog to make all kinds of silly claims. I probably shouldn't dignify his presence with a response, but....

oil

interesting article on nationalized oil companies (via the economist):

Yet Big Oil is pretty small next to the industry's true giants: the national oil companies (NOCs) owned or controlled by the governments of oil-rich countries, which manage over 90% of the world's oil, depending on how you count. Of the 20 biggest oil firms, in terms of reserves of oil and gas, 16 are NOCs. Saudi Aramco, the biggest, has more than ten times the reserves that Exxon does.
[...]
Saudi Aramco's proved reserves alone could keep the world supplied for several decades. But it is only exploiting ten of its 80 or so fields, so will be able to pump at the present rate for about 70 years even if it never discovers another drop of oil.

big wheels keep on turning

summer is almost over and i don't know what the fuck i've done with my time.

actually, i know precisely what i've done: gone to the sbarro's in pittsburgh international to the sbarro's in o'hare. way too much travelling this summer: grenada to pit, pit to philly, pit to bangalore, various useless trips within india, and then -- shockingly -- pit to alabama (birmingham).

at the outset of the summer, i was dreading that voyage to the dirty dirty: last thing i needed was to return from the developing world only to spend time in the 3rd world. but it turned out well...submitted a shitload of papers for publication, people were nice, girls dropped it like it was hot, and surprisingly, they had electricity.

no mosquitos. a ridiculous amount of cockroaches.

didn't get a chance to go to the civil rights institute (which i hear is fantastic). spent what little free time i had hustling people at air hockey. i made 500 dollars, unfortunately, all in confederate scrip. the 5 points south area was good dumb fratty fun (they got a ruby tuesday's y'all!!!), and i even drove by talladega.

on the way home, i sat in the back of the 737 despite possessing the coveted 'A' southwest boarding pass just to show my solidarity w/ rosa parks. made a quick stop in kentucky on the way back, and let me tell you, it looks like it sucks.

regards,
a cheese-biscut engorged jhc.

miami vice

just saw miami vice.
perfect 5 out of 10.
a love story with neither love nor story.

however, i am now seriously considering getting a satellite phone.

regards,
a recently repatriated jhc.

Hunting Accident

Alternate headlines to this article:
- Lawyer now lobbying for better gun control laws

- VP Cheney finally gets WMD. I'm sorry, did I say WMD, I meant a quail...and a fellow hunter

- Don't ever piss off VP Cheney, because he will shoot you.