hardly working

Funny spider documentary from B’s dad.

Computer Glitch Wreaks Seattle Fireworks (from /.): “the crew from Pyro Spectaculars realized that the computer file running the show was corrupted.” WTF? Who would have thought that something like this would happen to your fireworks.

From Salon, just for my dad: Doctors Test Hot Sauce for Pain Relief (thanks B):

Scientists are testing if the stuff that makes the sauces so savage can tame the pain of surgery.

Doctors are dripping the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire directly into open wounds during knee replacement and a few other highly painful operations.

The 6th Man on the Moon says – ‘We’ve had visitors’ (from digg).

For those who might consider his statements farfetched, Mitchell, who has a doctorate in science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, noted that 30 years ago it was accepted that man was alone in the universe. Few people believe that now, he said.

Why does the media so often see this as a binary issue? To me there’s three basic positions one can have: 1) life (or “intelligent” life) does not exist elsewhere in the universe; 2) aliens have landed (or continue to land) on earth to probe our butts and make crop circles; 3) life (or “intelligent” life) exists elsewhere but has yet to visit our planet.

Seems to me that the third is the most plausible but somehow the most frequently ignored by the media. Why? Just because it’s the most boring and least controversial?

A Runaway Situation in Seattle:

He could be the most persistent, most creative and most publicized 9-year-old runaway in the history of the Pacific Northwest. As his mother says, he really hates it here.

Semaj can drive a stolen car 90 mph while leading a police chase, as he demonstrated Sunday. The chase ended only after he blew the engine on a 1986 Acura swiped from a neighbor who had left the car unlocked and running. The boy then refused to get out of the car, which he had crashed into a tree.
…
The morning after the car crash, Semaj came up with a new, improved runaway scheme — one that would transport him to Texas free of charge, get him on all-news cable television and prompt a local congressman to ask angry questions about how a kid could outfox a major airline and slip through federal airport security.

Early Monday, the boy managed to sneak out of his house and travel about 50 miles to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Police speculate he hitched a ride or stole another car.

His mother, Sakinah Booker, who is single and has three other boys, reported him missing at 7:30 a.m., but had no idea where he had gone. She later told reporters that Semaj loathes his life in Washington state, has tried to run away nine times since moving to the region less than a year ago and is “seeking a strong male figure” back in his former home state of Texas. His grandfather lives in Dallas.

At the Sea-Tac airport, Semaj did not have a reservation, nor did he have a means of buying a ticket. But he single-handedly conned Southwest Airlines and the federal Transportation Security Administration into allowing him to board a flight to San Antonio via Phoenix.

The NYT has their Fifth Annual Year in Ideas up. Always interesting.