The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
Three months! Wow! Quite a few things have happened, this will be another long and rambling post…
First, some good news: My patent was officially granted on Dec. 29, 2015. You can see it in all its glory here:
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=9222130…
Why so quiet? Well, I got a ‘cease and desist’ email at work. Apparently they actually _do_ monitor our network activity. Anyway, I was told to knock it off, so I knocked it off. That meant, though, that I had …
So no one gets hurt!
Why salad is so overrated
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/why-salad-is-so-overrated/2015/08/21/ecc03d7a-4677-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3_story.html
Tamar is an interesting writer (her blog, the rest of her writing at the Post). She often takes a controversial subject in the world of food and …
Space elevator could take astronauts into the stratosphere
Canadian firm granted patents for elevator designed to reach 20km above Earth
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/space-elevator-could-take-astronauts-into-the-stratosphere-1.2320798
Their space elevator idea has some promise, but I expect it is still $100’s of millions, if not billions, …
The latest on my vanity patent:
After much back and forth-ing with the examiner and his supervisor it seems my claims are being approved. That’s the good news. That’s it. The rest is bad news…
The bad news is …
Study: Can Spicy Food Actually Increase Life Span?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/08/05/study-can-spicy-food-actually-increase-life-span/
Would you eat chili peppers 2-4 times a week to live 10-14% longer?
I love the taste going in, but can’t stand the burn going out. Even with bidets, all I …
Vulnerabilities in Brink’s Smart Safe
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/08/vulnerabilities_4.html
This is far from shocking to anyone who has studied infosec. More of a total yawn, actually. Clueless people racing to claim market segments are naturally going to trip over complex things like security. …
Ancient Viruses as Gene Therapy Vectors
Researchers deploy ancestors of today’s adeno-associated viruses to deliver gene therapies without immune system interference.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43646/title/Ancient-Viruses-as-Gene-Therapy-Vectors/
The interesting thing to me is that the _exact same_ techniques can be used to produce a variant …
The Sum of Our Parts
Putting the microbiome front and center in health care, in preventive strategies, and in health-risk assessments could stem the epidemic of noncommunicable diseases.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43379/title/The-Sum-of-Our-Parts/
This is a really interesting article that sums up the evolving …
8 Dark Life Lessons Kids Learn From Pixar Films
http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-dark-life-lessons-kids-learn-from-pixar-films/
While there are a large number of articles at Cracked that are funny, every now and again you get one that is funny and thoughtful. Actually I take that back: …