There’s a pretty good piece over on wired.com about a company that’s developed a strain of bacteria they claim can produce fuel at around $1 a gallon using non-food biomass as the source. It’s pretty interesting and one of the most promising of all the alternative schemes I’m aware of. The article fails to mention that a gallon of ethanol contains much less potential energy than a gallon of gas, but even so based on the comparisons between corn and switch grass based ethanol production this process looks really promising.
Given how my week has been going…
…this faked O’Reilly book cover gave me a laugh. We just rolled out a bunch of new services at work as part of the start of the spring semester, and as per usual, only negative feedback. Needed something to brighten my day and found it.
Friday Fun – Seizuredome
Here’s a friday fun link quickie – Seizuredome, a robotron-esque shooter with whimsical asian pop culture inspired graphics and a soundtrack only a (Japanese teenager?) could love, that you can can download and play on windows in less than 2 minutes. The gameplay is fast paced, simple to understand, and fun in that classic arcade style. Games are quick t00 – at best they last only a couple of minutes. A perfect friday fun link – grab it and get blasting.
Things you don’t want to hear…
…while you’re eating lunch, as a coworker’s dog runs behind your desk and begins kissing your face:
“oh! Don’t let her kiss you, she’s been eating her own poop.”
!!!
Man, was that ever disgusting.
Hats off to the Giants
Longtime readers know I’m a die hard Giants fan. I figured they would be lucky to win 8 games this season, so I’m in complete but very pleasant shock that they’re headed to the Superbowl. The last two weeks have featured two of my all-time favorite Giants games, rivaling only their Superbowl wins and their ’90 NFC championship upset of San Francisco. Both games have been down to the wire knuckle biting finishes, with me pacing back and forth in front of my TV, cursing the miscues (god help tynes if he had not redeemed himself in overtime after missing that field goal at the end of regulation). I also find it especially poetic that the game was basically decided by a Farve interception. I love Farve…just not when he’s facing the Giants.
Anyway, hats off to the Giants for a fantastic season. I don’t think they have a shot at beating New England, but I do hope they play a competitive game. Besides, I didn’t think they could beat the Cowboys or Green Bay either, and I was even worried about the Tampa Bay game, so…who knows 😉
Skitch now publicly available
Skitch is this great screengrab/editing tool with great integration with existing services. It makes it really easy to take a screenshot of something, edit it, and get it posted online to your blog, flickr, wordpress.com, whatever. It’s been in private beta for quite a while, and I use it pretty frequently. At this week’s Macworld Expo they made the beta public. If you don’t already have a copy, give it a try, it’s a great little tool. This is a commercial product but they’re not yet charging. Right now only the Mac version is available, though a Windows version is coming as well.
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I’m not the only one with a new friend
Check out Soolin’s new best bud Nori:
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Nori is Susan’s black lab mix. She’s roughly the same age as Soolin, and as you can see they’re getting along fine.
A pint of Guinness a day keeps the doctor away
And it’s true! According to this piece on the BBC News site covering research from the University of Wisconsin, drinking stout regularly provided dogs with reduced clogging in their arteries. Works for me – I already regularly drink stouts, this just makes it an easier decision to make when I’m choosing what to drink.
USDA database of nutritional contents of foods
Here’s a super handy resource I use frequently – it’s a database maintained by the USDA that lists the nutritional contents of foods, both commercially prepared packaged foods and the raw materials they’re made of. I use it to check the carb counts of foods, but it’s useful to anyone trying to figure out what’s in a given food, from a twinkie to a stalk of celery. The interface isn’t much to look at but it’s speedy and has a ton of content.
Surely you’ll agree – I have the cutest niece on earth
My sister has been blogging since she moved to Australia. She’s also posting a ton of pictures, and this one:
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serves as indisputable proof – I have the cutest niece ever.
😉
(My sister’s blog is linked to at the right, and is at www.aussieizzy.com. Personally, I think she should have gone for awesomeizzy.com).
Dave's Place/Metamusing 