Not that any cute stalker girls in dungaree skirts are ever likely to inquire...but in case any of the rest of you  were wondering.

5 days till the first of 2 Japanese exams...Japanese is currently kicking my arse, so these are crucial. I'm also doing an extra shift at work, some minor repairs around my parents house and looking at further extensive repairs to my highest level artifact....the +4 trailer of money banishment.

Anyway, As I'm bleeding from the eyes from kanji induced wounds I'm vegging for a few hours before bed, here are a few random thoughts, observations and links from around the web.



 Steven has a post on a forlorn lawsuit that is nevertheless worthy of lowbrow comment.

Colleen Doran posts on the aftermath of a presumed Whooping Cough outbreak at  the  New York Comic Con....namely her....with whooping cough...ugh.
 The whooping cough vaccine does wear out after time, so all Brickmuppeteers should get boosters. In the meantime, hit the Colleen Doran store and partake of the art.

Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of links concerning the man who is reported to have regrown a finger with an experimental treatment.

The anniversary edition of Carnival of Space is up, and is the biggest ever with scads of space related news.

Via RLV News comes information on an Austrian suborbital spaceship design, as well as this Russian effort.

In the world of naval matters Eagle One has an extensive primer on the threat of sea mines. And SteelJaw Scribe reminds us that a proud warrior had a birthday yesterday.

Yay...growth....

Don has good things to say about Kaiba.

Wonderduck has posted a Swedish anime video (!?) that is superbly edited...

... and leaves me strangely intrigued about an odd show concerning a duck that is granted her wish of becoming a human ballerina......This despite my deep aversion to any show with the words "Princess" or "Tutu" in the title.

Also well edited and absolutely astonishing in its execution is this fan-produced J-Pop music video concerning a alternate Star Trek history where the...well...watch...

Wow...just wow...

Anyway....that's it for now....enough time wasted back to the books.

Inquisitive Stalkergrrrl is, Misaki Nakahara of from the delightfully dark Welcome to the NHK, one of the best shows in recent years which is driving me mad as I await the release of volume four on May13th. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 396 words, total size 4 kb.

Not much in the way of posting for a bit....but to celebrate the licensing of Gurren Laggan, here is a pic of Yoko to tide you over....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:49 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

I have just noticed that some posts are appearing in categories in which they do not belong. (Chun Li's birthday is not actually rocket science).

For anyone offended by the appearance of an anime review in a collection of science posts or a right wing political rant in the alternate energy category, rest assured Brickmuppet Blog is working to correct the issue ASAP.

We regret any offense or bruised sensibilities this may have caused.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:22 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 76 words, total size 1 kb.

Thank you all for the kind thoughts.

I have a few posts pending  concerning my usual uninformed rants.

"Stuff", however, is happening, so aside from a post operation post tomorrow, I'm going to be lying doggo for a bit.



I leave you with but one request.

Never never never do this....



Promise me....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:53 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 55 words, total size 1 kb.

Testity Testity Test

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:16 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 7 words, total size 1 kb.

One of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes ^(tm)points the way to better living through chemistry with this report from Brian Wang on recent carbon nanotube developments. It looks like commercial grade resins may be able to significantly bring down the cost of these light strong structures! w00t!

Chemistry doesn't always lead to breakthroughs...sometimes it just reminds us of the bleedingly obvious and tries to dissuade us from doing something stupid...like burning food. Yes, it seems that...(shock!!)....using food crops for fuel is bad...even if you are a green. More here.

Chemistry is founded upon the first law of thermodynamics which enables chemistry to point out even more fundamental stupidity. Like passing a law that violates...said law. Sacramento...meet science. California homes are NOT going to be able to generate as much power as they receive from the grid...even if you pass a law.  

But enough chemical idiocy....

Chemistry happens on a nano-scale and now we are approaching the ability to do chemistry sort of like an erector set. Via the Blogfather comes this report on DNA scale pliers and construction equipment that will enable nano-engineersand future chemists to create nano-scale machines and exotic compounds...one molecule at a time (hopefully in very rapid succession or it'll take ferever').....and they will be able to look at their handy work with this atom scale microscope!

Good Lord look! Those little dotty things...they are ATOMS! Its an actual picture of ATOMS! Unbelievable! Of course Atoms can be split and that segues into one of the favorite topics here at Brickmuppet Blog,

You see, while atomic power is not strictly speaking chemistry, (it's physics) it involves doing physics stuff to chemicals...like uranium (or preferably thorium)...Said elements, in order to be used in most reactors must be refined...and refining is...a CHEMICAL PROCESS. Well, not all reactors are alike in this regard as the Mysterious Dr. Buzzo tells us with this post on the many merits of the Canadian CANDU reactor. This is a nuclear reactor which can actually run off unrefined uranium. This is a huge advantage! In fact the CANDUs are virtually flexfuel reactors in that they can run off a fairly wide range of nuclear fuels including some types of nuclear waste (!!) as well as abundant thorium. Here is CANDU...the motion picture! 

Finally, unrelated to space or energy matters, comes this bit of chemical innovation. 

A professor at UC Berkeley has invented a tape-like substance that has so much adhesive strength that a person clothed in such a sticky suit could conceivably scale a building like Spider-Man.

_{Sorry, Brickmuppeteers, I've no idea who the miniskirted science babe is....but she cried out for a chemistry post.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:24 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 462 words, total size 13 kb.

1

Sounds to me like that hypothetical spiderman could at least take the first step up the side of the building.

But if that adhesive is as strong as described, how does he get his hands and feet loose to take step 2? He wouldn't be "spiderman", he'd be "flypaperman", and he's the one who would get stuck to the first thing he ran into.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wed Feb 13 01:35:13 2008 (+rSRq)

2 Hi Brickmuppet.

That URL seems to make the BBCode parser choke. I should be able to fix it, but in the meantime, you can shorten it to

youtube=-YhHNjjFqb0

Let's see if that works:



(I hate Youtube video IDs.  I know they're base-64 or something like that, but bleah.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wed Feb 13 08:31:10 2008 (PiXy!)

3 Wow...problem fixed from the other side of the world in just a few hours!

Thanks Pixie! 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Feb 13 13:03:51 2008 (ZRqDn)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Just some tests of the new system here at school and Pixies recent tweaking.

大学のコンプタアはあたらしですね。そして私はODUのコンプタアでmee.nuをブログをします。

　　ゴジラは日本にいます。でもバトボイイはアメリカにいます。　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

スカイさんはいかをたべますとバトボイをみます。

 Well then...everything seems to work except the kana in the title..

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:05 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 37 words, total size 2 kb.

The crackerjack staff of Pixy the Wonder Techie at Mee.Nu has fixed the blog-bug that was causing problems. It turned out not to be an issue with their Software at all but some program being beta-tested for some barbarians outside the gates of Mee.Nuvia.

Quick courteous professional service such as this is just one more reason all bloggers should move to Mee.Nu!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 64 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:24 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 2 words, total size 1 kb.

Which, being really boring is below the fold.

No more blog tweaking tonight as I've got duty tomorrow and a bit more homework.

But I've gotten 333 comments at Menuvia!

Yay!

 _{Update: 24 hours later I realize I've been demonstrating to the entire interweb my inability to spell "meta" and "at".}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 116 words, total size 1 kb.

I didn't SAVE the long unfinished post...I posted it...
All will be better soon....

more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.

Beta/Meta Bloggage: Keep scrolling citizens, nothing to see here....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 158 words, total size 1 kb.

Yes, Meta Blogging is a terrible faux-pas, but, as I'm (obviously) tweaking the look of Brickmuppet Blog comments on readability and appearance in non-Firefox browsers are welcome.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

There is one third of a duck contaminating my banner!

Its not even the edible portion!

whaaaa!

ahem 

Update: You fixed it...or the Duck just left....anyway all's well!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 32 words, total size 1 kb.

I fear that I be indebted to ye.

Me ship was dismasted, adrift and had no borders or footers, and you saved the day as surely as if Old Neptune himselfe'd taken mercy upon me.

To celebrate, I'm careenin' the ole girl an' overhaulin' her from stem to stern.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:25 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 50 words, total size 1 kb.

The trip is going great, though I'm having some issues with uploading pictures.

I head for Kyoto/ Nara tomorrow.

I spent most of last night (Tokyo night/ Virginia day) trying, apparantly in vain, to clear up an issue with my tuition assistance and find out about my grandmothers condition as she was rushed to the doctor. (she's OK)

So I was on the internet a bit last night and as I make my train reservations I feel I should post something here.

A few completely unrelated things caught my eye that I have no time to comment meaningfully on here.  

There is a facinating and scary post on creepy obsessive Munchausens and other vermin over at Colleen Doran's blog.

Hitchens has an interesting and typically merciless piece on the "real war". I've a few minor quibbles regards the difference between Alquaeda and their franchisees but thats a post for later.

Over at Volokh Conspiracy Ilya Somin looks at the iconography and reality of Che' and the teflon that seems to coat his sucsessors.

Dr. Helen looks at  self defense and the limits of nonviolence and links to a news story of women that just wouldn' be robbed.....and in a related story...you go girls. (Both via Instapundit)

Via Jerry Pournelle. Freeman Dyson shares thoughts on global warming and the importance of heritics. Pournelle himself has a great letters page today.

Finally, these two stories are causing me a bit of unease...

Oh dear...

This is also worrisome...

Back in a day or two...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:45 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 255 words, total size 3 kb.

やた！：）

私は日本語でブラグイングをします！

ピクシ先生ばんざい！

　　　　　　　　　　　　　

hhhhhh

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:33 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 7 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Thanks ピクシ先生, you were right changing the title fixificated it.

Posted by: Ken Talton at Fri Jul 27 16:42:16 2007 (V5zw/)

2

Yes and no. If someone is running a blog entirely in Japanese, or Arabic, or Thai, then their individual blog entries won't be linkable.

What you did was a "workaround", not a "fix".

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Fri Jul 27 19:17:33 2007 (+rSRq)

3 What I did was type on a magical black box and try to appease the spirits within. 

Posted by: Ken Talton at Fri Jul 27 20:33:54 2007 (V5zw/)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

...but I'm beat.

This was my drill weekend with the Coast Guard Reserve and despite the fact that the drill weekend once again involved no helicopters, motor lifeboats, or dramatic camera angles... I'm beat.


No sea-stories as none of the ships we boarded had any violations...any of them!
Now that I think about it...that might indeed be a sea-story in itself.

To bed with me....
 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 69 words, total size 1 kb.

It looks like the Help Forum is up!

Let's go make snow angels!  

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 140 words, total size 2 kb.