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Wednesday, 31 August 2005
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You normally need extreme cold or very high pressure to produce hydrogen from water. This technique eliminates the need.
Why is this important?
A hydrogen based economy could save the planet.
At least until we run out of water.
[Scientific American]
10:35:30 PM 
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Adam C. Engst (~290 words)iPods are everywhere, and according to a
posting on the PestNet discussion list forwarded to us by loyal reader
Frank Streeter, some unsavory characters are using the iPod to move
around the world. The bad guys in this case were Singapore ants -
Monomorium destructor. They infiltrated a packaged iPod sold in an
airport duty-free shop, and an individual returning from Fiji to New
Zealand purchased the iPod on his way home. Upon arrival, however, he
discovered the ants, and, acting on instructions from the authorities,
put the iPod and packaging in his freezer to kill the insects (I
presume the iPod emerged unscathed, though its fate wasn't mentioned).
Gets back to the original meaning of bugs really, doesn't it?
By ace@tidbits.com (Adam C. Engst). [TidBITS]
10:24:01 PM
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I've just got home from The Gov, where I saw (and recorded on our field recorder) the TAFESA North finals for the National Campus Band Competition. This Comp is a big deal. Jebediah came to national notice in this comp. There were five bands, all excellent in their way.
First up was Zenyth of Absence, who played an excellent set of contemporary sounds with more than a nod to the prog rock of my youth.
The Battery Kids followed, and were also excellent. I love everything about this band. It too sounds a little on the King Crimson side (more recent KC that is), but is much more modern in approach than the intricate Zenyth of Absence.
Torniket were next; they are a punky, funky band with one of those mike
down the throat grunty singers. They had great stage presence and
energy, but frankly I'm too old for this style...
Then all boundaries were attacked, boarded, seized, and razed to the
gunwhales, when Ventolin put on an extraordinary 25 minutes of free
improvisation (okay, they obviously had a plan, but improvised within
it), with ranting, shouting, chanting and howling from the two
vocalists. To call them singers would be unfair to them and, indeed, to
most singers. It was difficult to tell who they were, as they all wore
masks and disguises of various kinds, but I'm pretty sure they were an
expanded (?) version of last year's winners, Sledgehammock.
Last came Mr Fiction, a more conventional singer and power trio rock combination.
The songs were in a range from aggro throaty rage (a la Torniket) to a
kind of power pop, exemplified by a song written by the drummer, Andrew
Goulding. For me, this lack of consistency in style was a problem, but
it didn't seem to be a problem for the judges, who included old chums
Charli Holoubek (guitar with Gumbo Ya Ya), Dino La Vista (singer
and all round music guy) and Darrell Cole (live sound mixer).
There was another one, Daniel someone. I didn't know him.
Mr Fiction won, with The Battery Kids also going through to the State finals.
Had I been sole judge, Battery Kids would have won and Zenyth would also have gone through.
1:25:29 AM
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Driving home at 5.30 along the Salisbury Highway
I thought I was about to drive into a hazy brown wall. Suddenly I hit
it; it was dust and stones the size of pigeon's eggs flying through the
air at speed! My car was completely battered. Ahead I could see high
tension wires whipping in the wind. They were shaking off their
reinforced horizontal insulators. These are 3 metre pieces of timber
wrapped with striped fabric. They came flying through the air, landing
in front, beside and to the reart of me. I was not hit once.
A few minutes later, on Military Road,
I saw a steel road sign just catching the wind at such an angle that it
was literally shaking itself to pieces. The rivets were popping!
A minute later all the traffic was stopped and diverting itself because of some power lines that had shaken so hard that the stobie pole they were attached to had sheared off at ground level and fallen across the road!
Imagine how pleased I was at the notion of going out again in an hour or two.
12:26:12 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Peter Nixon.
Last update: 27/9/05; 9:56:50 PM.
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