Thursday, January 31, 2008

lilmissnever: One day, when it is safe, I will write a

lilmissnever: One day, when it is safe, I will write a: "A certain government agency's security person had to teach me how to answer the phone, and how NOT to answer the phone; namely, if the caller insists that we are beaming rays directly into his brain, ask him what frequency. (Prompt the caller with 'Low or high?' if necessary.) When you get an answer, brightly inform the caller that those are not our rays, those belong to $OtherAgency. (In your case, I suggest you blame the Chinese.) Therefore, you can do nothing to help them, good luck!"

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Rat & Mouse Gazette: Medical Corner: Rat Respiratory Disease: The Use of Albuterol Treatments

Rat & Mouse Gazette: Medical Corner: Rat Respiratory Disease: The Use of Albuterol Treatments

Mycoplasmosis in Rats

Mycoplasmosis in Rats: "Possible Causes

Ammonia is a contributing factor.� Ammonia build up can come from poor cage ventilation, dirty conditions and over crowding.� If you use an aquarium as a cage, make sure there is a wire roof to let plenty of air in, aquariums must be cleaned more often than a wire cage.�

Older animals are more susceptible, as are those with lowered immune systems for instance, recovering from an operation.� Also rats which are inbred may be more susceptible, so watch out for rats in pet shops!� There may be problems with certain colour strains, such as the Blue, which is more inbred than many other colours, (this is mainly conjecture), but it is good breeding practice to out cross regularly!�"

Our rat is sick and blue.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

On Movies: Warming to this Global news conference | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/13/2008

On Movies: Warming to this Global news conference | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/13/2008: "'Anyway, I don't remember who it was - maybe it was [New Mexico senator] Albert Fall - but someone had to get up there and describe what drainage was, and his way of describing it was to say, 'Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I'll end up drinking your milkshake.'"

Friday, January 18, 2008

Open chess diary 281-300

Open chess diary 281-300

Even the paranoid are sometimes persecuted. The chessworld has always agreed that in the Candidates Tournament of Curaçao 1962, there was a Soviet conspiracy against Bobby Fischer.
Among eight participants, there were five Soviets: Tal, Korchnoi, Geller, Keres and Petrosyan. And in those days you didn't have to be paranoid to think that their first objective might have been to make sure that Fischer would not win.
Tal, who was in bad form and bad health, and who dropped out after 21 rounds, has never been accused of being part of a Curaçao conspiracy, and Korchnoi has always vehemently denied any such thing. But Geller, Keres and Petrosyan only played fightless draws against each other, which helped them to eight extra resting days each.
The Soviet Union does not exist anymore, the sins can be admitted. "Of course it was rigged," Yuri Averbakh has recently said (in an interview with Jules Welling in the Dutch magazine Schaaknieuws). According to Averbakh, who was in Curaçao as a member of the Soviet delegation, it had been decided that Keres, being an Estonian, should not win, and neither should the Jewish Ukrainian Geller. It had to the Armenian Petrosyan. Why an Estonian and a Jewish Ukrainian (and the Jewish Russian Korchnoi!) were not suitable and an Armenian was, Averbakh sadly fails to say, or Welling did not ask.
Well, a conspiracy - but how poorly those evil Soviets managed their conspiracy! With two rounds to go, the disobedient Keres was in first place, and he had to play the outsider Benkö. Had he won, no conspiracy could have prevented an Estonian becoming Botvinnik's challenger - but he lost. Yes, that was a relief, Averbach now says, Benkö's win was a Deus ex Machina which prevented suspicions.
In his famous piece in Sports Illustrated in 1962, titled How the Russians fixed World Chess, Fischer has given this position as proof of the conspiracy.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Steves Digicams - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 - User Review

Steves Digicams - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 - User Review

I just purchased this camera for $87 shipped. I think it was $400 new. It's one of the highest rated (older) cameras on DPReview and some other sites. It has 12x optical zoom and will record video with sound, which is all I need. Kind of clunky, but definitely a step up from our 2002 Nikon Coolpix. Oh, and it has Leica optics.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

newsmap

newsmap

This newsmap graphically represents different breaking stories and their relative popularity. Plus, it looks cool.