trivialities

Wolfram Alpha search engine review: politics equals fail - 5/16/2009

"Wolfram Alpha" (wolframalpha.com) is a new search engine from the creator of Mathematica software. Unlike other search engines it doesn't give a list of links to other sites, trying instead to answer the question. If you ask it "what is the value of pi ^ 100000?" it quickly comes back with "Decimal approximation: 9.7111220720970479180788524703324638313120691510... x ...

News chunklettes for May 10, 2009 - 5/10/2009

* A decade too late! "Pistachio proposal could reduce food safety risks" (link) informs us they want to prevent a food safety crisis, yet several years ago I was driving back from the South Bay and stopped at Casa de Fruita for some pistachios. I then proceeded to the Fresno In-and-Out Burger. I was sick for the next week, and one of those two are to blame. Over the years, I've flip...

Extruded news nuggets for May 5, 2009: Autotune on Aisle Galt! edition - 5/05/2009

* Happy Cinco de Cuatro. * Back in January 2007, when a video of Paula Abdul acting strangely appeared I defended her, pointing out that in 2005 she said she's "not addicted to pills of any kind". Now, I find out (link) that she only got clean on Thanksgiving of last year. How could she do that to me? * A Happy Meal contained an extra (link). * A patch of ground largely unchanged fo...

Michelle Obama wears $540 sneakers to DC food bank - 5/01/2009

On Wednesday, Michelle Obama conducted a photo op at a Washington DC food bank while wearing sneakers that cost $540 (link): These sneakers - suede, with grosgrain ribbon laces and metallic pink toe caps - are made by French design house Lanvin, one of fashion's hottest labels. They come in denim and satin versions, and have been a brisk seller all spring... Michelle has stepped out in Lanvin...

HuffPost: Obama not living up to campaign promises; women, minorities hardest hit - 4/28/2009

Apparently Lloyd Chapman has never heard the old joke about the New York Times publishing a headline called "Comet to hit Earth; women, minorities hardest hit." If he had, he wouldn't have offered "Obama's First 100 Days Disappoints Women, Minorities and Small Businesses" (huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-chapman/obamas-first-100-days-dis_b_192257.html). It's a double fa...

BBC, Jason Kottke rave about Whitehouse *robots.txt* file, reach new low in fawning - 1/23/2009

Jason Kottke raved about the new Whitehouse dot gov robots.txt file a few days ago, completely going around the bend and establishing a new low for fawning (kottke.org/09/01/the-countrys-new-robotstxt-file). Despite how stupid that was, I didn't note it here due to the fact that Kottke isn't important. Now I see that the BBC has joined in.

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