Scaring children to death

Robyn Williams, In Conversation with Bill Durodie, 28th September:

"Going back to what you're saying about risk, I was fascinated the other day to hear something on the BBC concerning the fear of paedophiles; occasionally of course, it's a real, real thing that there is a nasty man in a coat and there is a poor vulnerable child. However for every one of those – apparently now that everyone drives their kids to school, there are 300 fatal accidents – so for each one child that you're saving from the paedophile, 300 are dying in car crashes."

I'd love to find a reference for that...

Related: Fear of paedophiles makes children fat and Fear of paedophiles 'a tragedy'.

Things will get better!

Well, maybe that's not all that positive... treehugger post.

Update: on World Changing.

The Onion: Retired S1Ws Recalled To Active Duty

Too good.

Well put...

An article by Emma Tom on the inconsistent imposition of "Australian values" on different religions.

Nice quote from a post 9-11 article in The Onion:

"Look, I don't know, maybe I haven't made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again," God was quoted as saying. "Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbour. Well, I don't. And to be honest, I'm really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand."

24hrs of searching

roentgenizdat

Ruby and Ocaml

Not sure whether I'll learn either of these properly, but so far Ruby is winning simply because of this book:

Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

Fox #1: Have you noticed this book is basically written by a lunatic?
Fox #2:Yup.

The licensing for the book also permits it's use for cigarette advertising, which may come in handy...

The other (slightly more distant) contender is Objective CAML.

Dabblers and Blowhards

An interesting counterpoint to Hackers and Painters. I'm not entirely convinced, but it does make quite a few fair points.

Death to Caps Lock

See also: http://capsoff.blogspot.com/

Whoa... JavaScript just got scary!

A very clever technique to scan any network using JavaScript (as designed, no bugs required...) And for the pdf challenged.

President George W. Bush vs Governor George W. Bush on The Daily Show

"Strong words from two very different men"!

Smart Pig!

No more eating pork... An interview with Sy Montgomery about her pig and book The Good Good Pig.

The Meatrix

Also reading The Omnivores Dilemma, which is very good.

Travel-time Maps of the UK

Cool maps showing the relative travel times for getting from one part of the UK to another. Just need one for Melbourne now...

THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT by Terry Bisson

Mmmm, nutella!

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRR!!!

An awesome voice-controlled blender!

Computing power!

It takes a pound of coal to create, package, store, and move every 10-20 megabytes of data...

Where's that taxi?

A cool project for San Francisco's Exploratorium graphically mapping the movements of taxis.

Wind Turbines and Birds

A comparison of bird deaths by collision with wind turbines and other man made structures. Summary: We already kill so many birds that any additional deaths as a result of wind turbines are pretty much irrelevant.

NEJM: Should doctors assist with executions?

Another argument, as if one was needed, as to why the death penalty can't be made to work. Chilling stuff.

Idlewords.com: The Collapse of the Perito Moreno

"A glacier forms when more snow falls on it than can melt in a given year. This implies the existence of a point (let us call it point A) where so much snow is falling that it can make up for the spectacular daily losses at the glacier's face (point B). There is also a third point, point C, where it is warm and dry and you can sit at an outdoor table drinking beer in the sun. However, the physics of glacier formation ensure that points A and B are very close together, and point C, if it exists at all, is very far away, most likely in El Calafate, eighty kilometers to the east."

Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly®

Get out of (voice)jail, free

gethuman.com has a database of codes to transfer directly to an operator! They also have (globally) useful tips. (This card may be kept until needed or sold.)

Playing Flickr?