| Thursday, January 16, 2003 |  |
| Who's gonna speak? |
 "First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me." --Pastor Martin Niemöller [ History | 2003-01-16 13:43 | 2 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| Orange Fruits |
 The grapefruit tree in my backyard mysteriously started carrying oranges. Well, sort of. We had this huge grapefruit tree which had a confrontation with the electricity company. A big transformer on a pole was full of mineral oil, and at some point it shorted, and boiling mineral oil was spewed all over my backyard. And DWP, the electricity company, went through a big operation of cordoning it all off and meticulously cleaning it, buying new garden furniture and that kind of thing. But they ended up cutting down the huge grapefruit tree. Which we were really sad about, as it was bountyful with fruit all year. But after it was cut down, very energetic new shoots started coming out from where the trunk used to be. The main one is now a 12 foot tree already, 2 years later, and it has big fruits already. They're the size of grapefruit, but .... they aren't. They're orange, and smell like oranges. And they taste like a weird kind of sour oranges. Like they're a mix of orange and grapefruit. There's an orange tree standing not too far from it, but it has small oranges that look and taste nothing like this. Its a little mystery of nature. Maybe some errant orange seed got grafted into the root of the old grapefruit tree.[ Diary | 2003-01-16 16:55 | 7 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| Brain surgery robot runs Linux |
| Some engineers and surgeons in Singapore have developed a robot that can do brain surgery. Well, specifically it would be able to drill through the bone of the skull faster and more precisely than humans are able to. It runs on the Linux platform, which is no surprise. But now, I think that anybody who works for Microsoft should be forced to have their brain surgery done by a program running on Windows. That would be cruel, but very fair. Gives a new meaning to the Blue Screen of Death. [ Technology | 2003-01-16 18:10 | 2 comments | PermaLink ] More > |