Baltimore Squirrels

I know because one of the little fatties found it’s way into my kitchen, which of course drove the cats bonkers. It stumbled through the air between the window and the overhead light for an hour or so while I cautiously tried to catch it in a glass so I could re-integrate it into the wild like the caring liberal that I am. Eventually it bumped into the cabinets and basically fell out of the air, making it easier to catch on the ground.

Clumsy bumble.

Now that I think about it, it must be hard to be a fat little mockery of a honey bee with undersized wings. Isn’t that what they are really? Bumbles can sting, but I think it’s uncommon, and they’re fuzzier than honey bees, which makes it look like someone’s 8 year old kid sister saw a bee and decided to cuten it up a bit. “I want him fat and soft, and shrink his wings because they make him harder to hug, and no stinging!”

I imagine early bumbles looked like this:

(drawing by me, age 31)

Somehow I can’t find a t-shirt that just says “NERD ALERT” in big red letters.

It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to be readily available.

I’ve always enjoyed his work but this is one of those less common cases where I’m actually a fan of the person too (at least after watching this).

This ‘glass armonica’ a banned musical instrument apparently “causes insanity” – I’m not sure about that but it’s gorgeous looking and sounding… (more about it at the Wikipedia too).

From the linked article:

The glass armonica�s sound is perceived by human ears differently than other instruments because its range is between 1,000 and 4,000 hertz. When sounds are below 4,000 hertz, the human brain compares �phase differences� between the left and right ears to triangulate the origin of the sound rather than comparing volumes. This causes hearing disorientation and a �not quite sure� feeling about where the sound is coming from.

(Via Make.)

This is why Microsoft annoys the crap out of me.

Microsoft plans to offer PC makers steep discounts on Windows XP Home Edition to encourage them to use that OS instead of Linux on ultra low-cost PCs (ULPCs). To be eligible, however, the PC vendors that make ULPCs must limit screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard drives to 80G bytes, and they cannot offer touch-screen PCs.

This irks me because Microsoft has no interest in providing quality low-cost computers, they only have an interest in making sure that people don’t use something else

Granted, most computer makers don’t have much interest in making low-cost computers either because they know what 90% of users out there don’t care what they use so long as they can read their email and browse the web. Regardless, whenever I hear news like this it reminds me that Microsoft is the king of the mountain not because they make a great product that everyone wants to use but because they make “back room” deals to make sure that everyone has to use their product.

(Via Daring Fireball.)

The Best TIME Covers.

Observations:

• By a large margin (12,900 votes compared to 2,700 for the runner-up), Ellen’s “Yup, I’m Gay” cover is ranked as #1, above the striking 9/11 cover and the Challenger disaster (as of this writing). Take from that what you will.
• The “best of the year” covers for 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 document the… well, let’s be honest, the legacy of the Bush administration.

Dear Zachary is a documentary made by Andrew Bagby’s filmmaker friend Kurt Kuenne. Andrew was murdered a few years ago and this documentary was made to capture the memories of Andrew in order to show his son Zachary the kind of man he was. That’s all you need to know going in, because the less you know, the more you’ll gain coming out of this. It moved me to tears and left me astounded at the end – this is a film that deserves more appreciation than it’s getting.

iPhone mod:

On a cold november morning I set foot in the clean room with the sole purpose of determining what the heck my $500 iPhone was really made of. This may not seem like a big deal at first but let me again describe what goes into taking SEM images. The sample is placed in a small chamber which is pumped down to an operating pressure of .00005torr. Normal atmosphere is 760torr…. So you are basically subjecting whatever you put in that camber to the vacuum of space. iPhone LCD, battery electronics…

Microhoo: Sergey Brin is Annoyed, and Unnerved:

(Note: Quote is from another Google employee, not Sergey.)

(…) Google’s marketshare is so large in terms of the eyeballs that see it, and so synonymous with the Internet, the best way to really grow the core business is to get more eyeballs on the Internet. The best way to do that is to make the Internet more easy and fun to use.

(Via Mashable!.)

I know it’s stereotypical of me to dislike Microsoft (since I’m an Apple geek that used to be a Linux geek), but you know that Microsoft would never think like this. The Microsoft stance has always been to be the only choice for consumers, not to make themselves more appealing. If Microsoft was in Googles shoes here, they would go and strike very friendly deal with Honda that required anyone who purchased a new car to create a Passport account to before they could drive it (for some supposedly beneficial reason).

I like Apple because they have a “make a sweet product” business model. I dislike Microsoft because they have a “you have to own our product to get anything done” business model.

Election design:

When, oh when will some politician break the mold and hire a real graphic designer? I’d really love to see what someone like Kit Hinrichs could do

(Via Monoscope.)

I suspect the real problem is that the people in charge meddle with the designs too much. Granted, a good designer can deal with meddlers…