The Associated Press: Oil prices spike close to $139 after OPEC comment
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Friday, June 27, 2008
Tips for Better Blogging - Webmonkey
If you've taken the plunge into self-publishing, you've probably already learned that setting up a blog is the easy part. Tools like Blogger, TypePad and WordPress make it simple to set up your own site with just a few clicks.
It's the next step -- the branding, promotion and the actual writing -- that's the toughest nut to crack.
If you want your blog to hit the big time, you'll need to dress up your site's public presence. Here are Webmonkey's tips for what you'll need to play with the big boys and girls of the blogosphere. Soon, you'll be swapping political commentary with DailyKos, and CoolHunting will be linking to you. Tips for Better Blogging - Webmonkey
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NVDL: These are pretty good, and it's good to know I'm instinctively abiding by most. Think I have too many widgets though...
It's the next step -- the branding, promotion and the actual writing -- that's the toughest nut to crack.
If you want your blog to hit the big time, you'll need to dress up your site's public presence. Here are Webmonkey's tips for what you'll need to play with the big boys and girls of the blogosphere. Soon, you'll be swapping political commentary with DailyKos, and CoolHunting will be linking to you. Tips for Better Blogging - Webmonkey
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NVDL: These are pretty good, and it's good to know I'm instinctively abiding by most. Think I have too many widgets though...
Tyre used by highway gang to trap road users
Members of a Gauteng high school choir spoke yesterday of their 40 minutes of trauma on the N14 highway when a gang robbed them of cellphones, money, clothes and jewellery.
More: Tyre used by highway gang to trap road users
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More: Tyre used by highway gang to trap road users
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
Why Insects Can't Fly Straight at Night - OhmyNews International
I remember a "Garfield" cartoon where Garfield dispassionately watches a moth swinging around a candle in smaller and smaller circles. Then its wings catch fire, and with a bloodcurdling wail, the moth falls to Earth and dies. Garfield, without blinking says, "Well, at least it didn't feel any pain."
Why on Earth can't these creatures fly straight? Actually, most of the time they do. We just don't see them winging their way under the stars to a chosen flower.
The reason we see them swinging around is because their guidance systems are based on a good system that didn't take into account the invention of modern artificial lighting. These creatures have evolved over millions of years, and suddenly, in the space of less than a hundred, the environment changes radically, and now they're ill-equipped to deal with these changes.
The eyes of moths and mantises are geared to steering by the moon or stars, with both objects set at optical infinity. Their basic rule of thumb requires them to fly at a specific angle to an optical stimulus. Science Professor and author Richard Dawkins writes that if this angle is 30 degrees, and the object is not set to infinity, then the rays spoking towards the eyes are no longer parallel, but converge, like the spokes of a wheel. He goes on to point out that one can "produce an elegant logarithmical spiral to the candle" using an angle of 30 degrees.
The science is interesting, but the reality has the proportions of a Greek tragedy. The creature of the night caught into a crazy spiral of light and then death.
A huge thing landed next to my dinner this evening, which I was eating next to a strong bright overhead light. I thought it was a bizarre looking insect, and when I made a movement it sprouted wings, and so I had this big bat like insect swooping around in dizzy circles, flirting first with one light, then the next. It finally landed on my blinds and I got a better look at it.
I found a wide-rimmed wine glass and quickly covered the creature, then inserted a piece of paper between it and the open end. From 1 cm away I could see exactly what this thing was: a gray praying mantis. Now its pincers were exposed, with pink edges almost like grasshopper legs, with barbs, in reverse. As my eyes looked over it, its head swiveled around at me, and its two big bug eyes blipped some alien impulse of me to the brain inside the beaked shaped head.
I'm glad I am the larger than life monster in this scenario. Imagine being a moth sized human, held between the pincers of such a horrible dragon? Having its beak dig into your stomach, like the creature in the original "Alien"!
More: Why Insects Can't Fly Straight at Night - OhmyNews International
Note: This story has attracted 15 655 hits on Ohmynews, and counting.
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Why on Earth can't these creatures fly straight? Actually, most of the time they do. We just don't see them winging their way under the stars to a chosen flower.
The reason we see them swinging around is because their guidance systems are based on a good system that didn't take into account the invention of modern artificial lighting. These creatures have evolved over millions of years, and suddenly, in the space of less than a hundred, the environment changes radically, and now they're ill-equipped to deal with these changes.
The eyes of moths and mantises are geared to steering by the moon or stars, with both objects set at optical infinity. Their basic rule of thumb requires them to fly at a specific angle to an optical stimulus. Science Professor and author Richard Dawkins writes that if this angle is 30 degrees, and the object is not set to infinity, then the rays spoking towards the eyes are no longer parallel, but converge, like the spokes of a wheel. He goes on to point out that one can "produce an elegant logarithmical spiral to the candle" using an angle of 30 degrees.
The science is interesting, but the reality has the proportions of a Greek tragedy. The creature of the night caught into a crazy spiral of light and then death.
A huge thing landed next to my dinner this evening, which I was eating next to a strong bright overhead light. I thought it was a bizarre looking insect, and when I made a movement it sprouted wings, and so I had this big bat like insect swooping around in dizzy circles, flirting first with one light, then the next. It finally landed on my blinds and I got a better look at it.
I found a wide-rimmed wine glass and quickly covered the creature, then inserted a piece of paper between it and the open end. From 1 cm away I could see exactly what this thing was: a gray praying mantis. Now its pincers were exposed, with pink edges almost like grasshopper legs, with barbs, in reverse. As my eyes looked over it, its head swiveled around at me, and its two big bug eyes blipped some alien impulse of me to the brain inside the beaked shaped head.
I'm glad I am the larger than life monster in this scenario. Imagine being a moth sized human, held between the pincers of such a horrible dragon? Having its beak dig into your stomach, like the creature in the original "Alien"!
More: Why Insects Can't Fly Straight at Night - OhmyNews International
Note: This story has attracted 15 655 hits on Ohmynews, and counting.
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Bullshit Report predicts eventual drop in oil prices - The Boston Globe
The Energy Department report also included a "high price" projection, which calls for oil to rise to $186 a barrel by 2030.
"Given current market conditions, it appears that world oil prices are on a path that more closely resembles the projection in the high price case than the reference case," the department said.
More: Report predicts eventual drop in oil prices - The Boston Globe
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