Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Handyman Nailed with His Own Nail Gun
Mon Mar 8, 8:52 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian handyman admitted he was stupid to shoot himself in the head with a nail gun in a misguided prank that left him with a nail lodged in his brain.
Brad Shorten, a father of three from Victoria state, was enjoying a few beers with friends after working on his house when they began joking about industrial accidents.
Shorten, 33, picked up a nail gun that he thought was empty, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger.
He later said he had turned off the gun's compressor and taken out its nail cartridge but did not realize there was still enough pressure in the gun to fire a nail.
"My mates and I were talking about construction site accidents and taking your eye out with a nail gun, and I foolishly put the gun to my head and pulled the trigger," Shorten told the Sunday Herald Sun newspaper.
"I did a very stupid thing," he said.
The bizarre mishap left him with a 1.25-inch nail counter-sunk through his skull just behind his temple.
Royal Melbourne Hospital neurosurgeons removed the nail in a delicate four-hour operation even though Shorten, who was expected to make a full recovery, had offered to take the nail out with a pair of pliers.
I wanted to have a link to the full story about this doofus, but I can't seem to find it, so I just decided to post the whole thing... hope the Reuters people don't catch me!
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian handyman admitted he was stupid to shoot himself in the head with a nail gun in a misguided prank that left him with a nail lodged in his brain.
Brad Shorten, a father of three from Victoria state, was enjoying a few beers with friends after working on his house when they began joking about industrial accidents.
Shorten, 33, picked up a nail gun that he thought was empty, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger.
He later said he had turned off the gun's compressor and taken out its nail cartridge but did not realize there was still enough pressure in the gun to fire a nail.
"My mates and I were talking about construction site accidents and taking your eye out with a nail gun, and I foolishly put the gun to my head and pulled the trigger," Shorten told the Sunday Herald Sun newspaper.
"I did a very stupid thing," he said.
The bizarre mishap left him with a 1.25-inch nail counter-sunk through his skull just behind his temple.
Royal Melbourne Hospital neurosurgeons removed the nail in a delicate four-hour operation even though Shorten, who was expected to make a full recovery, had offered to take the nail out with a pair of pliers.
I wanted to have a link to the full story about this doofus, but I can't seem to find it, so I just decided to post the whole thing... hope the Reuters people don't catch me!
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Tuesday, April 27, 2004
YEAH! I got my gmail account
Oh, yes, yes I did.
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Sunday, April 25, 2004
SodaPlay.com
This is the most addictive site I've found in ages. I recently downloaded the latest Java Virtual Machine so that I could upgrade my FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net) software, and while I was on the java.com site, I tried out the links to various bits of Java software. The one that has blown me away is called "soda," and I can't stop visiting it. The core of it is a little screen where you can use little virtual "springs" and "muscles" to construct mechanisms. The soda creatures react to "gravity," and the placement of the "muscles" to animate themselves. I've finally gotten one to walk, but some of the things in the SodaZoo are almost beyond belief. If you try it out, please let me know if you like it.
Visit SodaPlay...
Visit SodaPlay...
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GMail... not yet
Apparently, some Blogger users got invited to use gmail recently, but nothing for dear old me...
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Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Yahoo! News - Going Wild for the 'Pig Brother' Web Site
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German Web site dubbed "Pig Brother" has attracted more than a million visitors in under two weeks with its 24-hour live Webcam coverage of a family of wild boar, the site's creators said Tuesday.
The site, launched in March by the German Hunting Protection League, offers day and night coverage of three males, three females and more than 50 offspring in an enclosure in their natural habitat of the Eifel mountains in western Germany. Read more...
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Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Scotsman.com News - Lazy Guide to Net Culture: Dotcom Boom II
Stewart Kirkpatrick
skirkpatrick at scotsman dot com
By the time you read this I will be a very very rich man.
Don't let envy lead you to begrudge me my good fortune. (Indeed, as a committed eco-socialist I will be donating a large part of my fortune to organic Cuban cigar manufacturers in return for a small tonnage of their stock).
(If you want to appear like you?re at the cutting edge of net culture but can?t be bothered to spend hours online, then never fear. Scotsman.com?s pathetic team of geeks, freaks and gimps will do the hard work for you. While you sip wine, read a book or engage in normal social interaction, they will burn out their retinas staring at badly designed web pages and dodge creeps in chatrooms to prepare for you: Scotsman.com?s lazy guide to net culture.) Read More...
skirkpatrick at scotsman dot com
By the time you read this I will be a very very rich man.
Don't let envy lead you to begrudge me my good fortune. (Indeed, as a committed eco-socialist I will be donating a large part of my fortune to organic Cuban cigar manufacturers in return for a small tonnage of their stock).
(If you want to appear like you?re at the cutting edge of net culture but can?t be bothered to spend hours online, then never fear. Scotsman.com?s pathetic team of geeks, freaks and gimps will do the hard work for you. While you sip wine, read a book or engage in normal social interaction, they will burn out their retinas staring at badly designed web pages and dodge creeps in chatrooms to prepare for you: Scotsman.com?s lazy guide to net culture.) Read More...
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Saturday, April 10, 2004
Hmmm... the forces of darkness may have been pushed back
I think that I was having a problem with mismatched capitalization in my CSS...
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I messed around and the code won
Damn. I broke my blogger template, and I can't figure out what happened.
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Photos...
I used to think that I was pretty good at making pictures, but then I realized that I'm not. I stopped taking pictures, but now I understand that even if I'm not good at it, I can still enjoy it. So I'm going to start posting a few thumbnails here. When they are linked to full-size images, I'll indicate that. This first one isn't, by the by.
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Feds Give Private Spaceship Go-Ahead to Expand Flight Testing
From Space.com
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 02:00 pm ET 07 April 2004
The Federal Aviation Administration's Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) has given license approval to Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, permitting the firm to expand flight testing of SpaceShipOne -- a privately-financed rocket plane to carry passengers to suborbital altitude.
SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled Composites is being led by aircraft designer Burt Rutan, who heads the company. The rocket plane and its carrier mothership, the White Knight, were unveiled on April 18, 2003. Since that time, the craft has undergone extensive piloted glide tests and one powered flight. Read More...
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 02:00 pm ET 07 April 2004
The Federal Aviation Administration's Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) has given license approval to Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, permitting the firm to expand flight testing of SpaceShipOne -- a privately-financed rocket plane to carry passengers to suborbital altitude.
SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled Composites is being led by aircraft designer Burt Rutan, who heads the company. The rocket plane and its carrier mothership, the White Knight, were unveiled on April 18, 2003. Since that time, the craft has undergone extensive piloted glide tests and one powered flight. Read More...
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Google Gmail Privacy Concerns? Get Over It
People are complaining about gmail, google's proposed 1-gig storage web-based email service. While I think that being concerned about privacy is a legit way to spend your time, I don't think that gmail is going to threaten my privacy. Having a search engine locate keywords and serve me a text ad isn't very intrusive. I believe google when they say that they aren't going to associate my ID with the keywords that are found. Beyond all that, though... if you aren't using encryption, what makes you think that your email is private now? If hackers, corporations, or the feds want to read your mail, archive it, detect patterns in it... they can. The US government is almost certainly "reading" mail now... certainly overseas email, and I would be very surprised if domestic mail isn't scanned. All in the name of national security, of course! Forget gmail... worry about Uncle Sam.
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Alien Zoo
Alien Zoo is a very, very strange site. I've only watched one of the videos so far, "New York Girl," and it was quite good.
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The Inevitable Sales Pitch
Yup, after failure as a freelance web designer, I've gotta prove to myself that I can make at least a buck or two with all these hard won skills (cough, cough). So... buy something from me, and I'll get a pittance. I'll try to at least make the offers interesting! My first item for sale is a large coffee mug for all you addicts. It is white and has the caption "I can't quit, coffee makes me happy!"
Shop Madstone...
Shop Madstone...
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Tuesday, April 06, 2004
If you could talk to dead people, with whom would you talk?
--- John S wrote:
> If you could meet and chat with anyone that you wanted who was
> deceased. Whom would you choose?
My reply:
I think... Einstien. He would be a hoot at a party. If I couldn't get
him, then Uncle Al Crowley. Ooooh! Carl Jung!
Picture this... a dinner party with Nietzsche, Crowley, and Ayn Rand.
Maybe Churchill to provide color commentary?
> If you could meet and chat with anyone that you wanted who was
> deceased. Whom would you choose?
My reply:
I think... Einstien. He would be a hoot at a party. If I couldn't get
him, then Uncle Al Crowley. Ooooh! Carl Jung!
Picture this... a dinner party with Nietzsche, Crowley, and Ayn Rand.
Maybe Churchill to provide color commentary?
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Sunday, April 04, 2004
Spam Poetry
I found this one from the Blogger main page. The first poem I found on Kristin's page seemed amazing to me. I post it here only so that I don't lose it in her archives. She says that all of her poems are assembled from the subject lines of SPAM she gets...
I don't know, I've never noticed interesting stuff like that, but maybe I'll look at my SPAM basket in a different way tomorrow.
Kristin Thomas Spam Poetry: Sunday, March 28, 2004
Its the girl who always loved you
its the one that got away
Its the moment that escapes you
when the predator is prey
its the way to finally take charge
its a question of your hate
its the easiest part of your new life
when you finally seize the day
When the one you want rejects you
When the pain is its own drug
when you can't take another moment
it is time for them to pay.
- by Kristin Thomas
I don't know, I've never noticed interesting stuff like that, but maybe I'll look at my SPAM basket in a different way tomorrow.
Kristin Thomas Spam Poetry: Sunday, March 28, 2004
Its the girl who always loved you
its the one that got away
Its the moment that escapes you
when the predator is prey
its the way to finally take charge
its a question of your hate
its the easiest part of your new life
when you finally seize the day
When the one you want rejects you
When the pain is its own drug
when you can't take another moment
it is time for them to pay.
- by Kristin Thomas
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New e-mail service from Google may top Yahoo!, Microsoft - chronicle-tribune.com
By VANESSA DENNIS
vdennis@marion.gannett.com Copy editor.
Watching Microsoft get beat is always fun. It's like rooting against the Yankees or the Lakers. No one likes them, and when they lose, it is sweet victory.
Google totally has topped Yahoo! and Microsoft by venturing into the e-mail market and offering free accounts that give you one gigabyte of storage.
This is a hundred times what others like Hotmail offer.
I personally have been a Yahoo! user for a long time.
Hotmail deleted my whole inbox once and I have never gone back.
And I am sure others also will be leaving. A free gig should be enough to get anyone to go through the hassle of changing their e-mail address.
Google says its service should be up in a few weeks.
Read More...
vdennis@marion.gannett.com Copy editor.
Watching Microsoft get beat is always fun. It's like rooting against the Yankees or the Lakers. No one likes them, and when they lose, it is sweet victory.
Google totally has topped Yahoo! and Microsoft by venturing into the e-mail market and offering free accounts that give you one gigabyte of storage.
This is a hundred times what others like Hotmail offer.
I personally have been a Yahoo! user for a long time.
Hotmail deleted my whole inbox once and I have never gone back.
And I am sure others also will be leaving. A free gig should be enough to get anyone to go through the hassle of changing their e-mail address.
Google says its service should be up in a few weeks.
Read More...
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Integrated Web Design: Social Networking - The Relationship between Humans and Computers is Coming of Age
by Molly Holzschlag
The interaction between community, computers, and society is now being referred to as "social networking," and it's making a lot of heads turn. But what is social networking, really, and what does it mean to web technologists? In this compelling article by Molly Holzschlag, you'll learn what social networking is, which languages are emerging to support it, and what it might mean for the next generation of web design and development. Read More...
The interaction between community, computers, and society is now being referred to as "social networking," and it's making a lot of heads turn. But what is social networking, really, and what does it mean to web technologists? In this compelling article by Molly Holzschlag, you'll learn what social networking is, which languages are emerging to support it, and what it might mean for the next generation of web design and development. Read More...
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Since My Nephew and His Wife Are Blogging...
...I figured that I might as well start up again. They are at: Dave and Juliet's Universe
