Squirrelly little guy flew with the dinosaurs | Chicago Tribune A furry, squirrel-sized creature that soared through prehistoric skies–possibly even sharing the lofty view with birds' first ancestors–suggests that mammals took flight nearly 70 million years earlier than scientists had thought. The evidence comes in the form of a squashed skeleton found in Inner Mongolia that belonged to a tree-inhabiting creature born with a built-in hang glider–a fold of furry skin that stretched between its front and hind legs. This news item sent me Googling around to chase down an old, old memory from college: a professor of evolution who…
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Wessex Archaeology And Flickr: How We Use Web 2.0 – 24 Hour Museum – official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest commercial archaeological practices in the UK, employing over 160 people. We are a registered charity with educational objectives and play a vital role in helping people learn about their past. In September 2005, we decided the Wessex Archaeology gallery (on the web) was looking a little long in the tooth. It was using a proprietary ASP gallery script and the process of uploading new photos was a…
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COUNT DOWN…… 20. "That's weird…" 19. "It's never done that before." 18. "It worked yesterday." 17. "How is that possible?" 16. "It must be a hardware problem." 15. "What did you type in wrong to get it to crash?" 14. "There is something funky in your data." 13. "I haven't touched that module in weeks!" 12. "You must have the wrong version." 11. "It's just some unlucky coincidence." 10. "I can't test everything!" 9. "THIS can't be the source of THAT." 8. "It works, but it hasn't been tested." 7. "Somebody must have changed my code." 6. "Did you check…
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Introducing WMPtunelog | minimal verbosity And now for the final little niggling thing – the applet that puts the currently playing track at the bottom of posts in ecto wasn't working after I built the new profile for WordPress. Let's see if it still thinks it was the last thing I played and posted about before the change in software from MT. UPDATE: I tried to re-install this plug-in, and now I've screwed up iTunes. Some, but not all of my music purchased online is no longer authorized, and although I have access to the iTunes store, some tracks won't…
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Spider (solitaire) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Now the truth can be told: I’m battling an addiction to Spider Solitaire, which I find both oddly compelling and relaxing. Behold teh evul! Dude, you need to deal. Also, you haven’t cleared any “tableaux” (ace through king of one of two suits) and you only have 2 hands left. You won’t be assured of winning until you clear at least 4 tableaux, out of a possible 8 in a 2-suit game. Don’t obsess about “wasted” moves as described in the Wikipedia article; if you want to win, you WANT to have an…
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Dell recalls batteries over fire concerns | Chicago Tribune Citing fire hazards, Dell Inc. Monday said it would recall 4.1 million notebook computer batteries, the largest electronics recall ever unveiled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Dell’s announcement is the latest in a wave of fire-related recalls involving the standard power source for portable electronic devices: lithium-ion batteries. My life is on my Dell laptop. Currently, the laptop is powered off, because my husband David hasn’t had a chance to check whether its battery is subject to the recall. I have a feeling it probably is… a hot, burning…
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Things are not going well in Salt Lake City. I may not be posting much the next few days. Spammers can all go hang. The rest of you, please tawk amongst yourselves. UPDATE: 2 days later, Mom passed away.
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All in all, it was a perfect day here in Suburbia Nervosa. I had friends who were going to be at the Pirate Fest in Port Washington, WI, so my husband David and I had decided to drive up for a few hours. Since getting an early start wasn’t all that necessary, we lolled around drinking coffee, listening to the Saturday lineup on WBEZ (naturally, we listened to WWDTM) and eventually gathered a few odds and ends that included cameras, hats, sunscreen… and books. One of my friends is a writer and would be signing copies of his latest book…
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Yes, after all that, I forgot the damn power supply for the laptop. But not to worry, David says via text message that he’s sending a power supply next day air. And within 5 minutes, I got a delivery tracking number on my cell phone. We are SUCH GEEKS. I had hoped to watch a downloaded episode of some show or other via laptop – I did not watch the Amazing Race finale last night and don’t know who won yet. If I get spoiled, so be it – I had a lot of other stuff to do last night.…
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David sent this link to me just now via email (from downstairs – I’ve been up listening to music and blogging most of the day, we’re weird and wireless like that). He added “These kids have WAY too much time on their hands.” Home Made Light Saber Battle Video Sure, it’s a fan-produced movie with a light sabre battle. But it’s got near professional-grade production values, it’s got extremely good fight choreography, and the camera work, editing, soundtrack, and sound effects are very, very good. The ending… actually almost ruins it. It’s left unexplained in a way that’s very unsatisfying.…