The Bench
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Where to get good information about swine flu
There is reason to be concerned, but there are a lot of ignorant people talking online about the flu outbreak. Here are some primary sources for scientific information.
The main reason this flu is different is that it seems to be killing a higher percentage of those infected, and it seems to be killing strong people in the prime of life. If that turns out to be the case, these are pandemic signs and we cannot ignore them. The good news is that some of our antiviral meds are effective, so if you or your children become ill, seek medical attention immediately. Avoid contact with sick people.
Mexico has closed all of its schools until the danger passes.
The main thing we can do to make ourselves safer is to buy and store extra food (and pet food) so that we can avoid contact with other people if a wave of sickness comes to our cities.
http://twitter.com/CDCemergency
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/swine-flu/
http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/
http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/
Google maps of swine flu cases
Labels: safetytips, science, travel
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Hubble telescope: wallpaper from our galaxy and beyond
I met someone the other day who had not seen pictures of the galaxies we can see (so far) with our telescopes. Go look, even if you have seen them. Where we live is actually very BIG and the piece of it we're most concerned with is so small. Some days it helps to have the perspective. I'm going to put a nebula on my desktop to remind me, because I can.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Video roundup
Paris Graffiti Artists (JonOne) -- CBS Sunday Morning 4/5/09 (via Denz)
Faith47-The Cape Of Good Hope with music by Inge Beckmann, from Rowan on Vimeo.
Kaws
Graffiti Boss OBS Crew Hamburg Germany
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Keath Sodapop
Keath Sodapop PRESENTS!
A look into the life of Keath Sodapop and the people who help inspire his work. The movie is 2hours and 30minutes long.
Featuring writers from the Southside of Chicago.
The movie drops April 28, 2009!
info: [email protected]
Labels: chicago, documentary, movie, videos
RIP Afroe 42 - Chicago
Afroe was killed in a freeway accident on April 10th
He was in a disabled car that was struck by another vehicle driven by an allegedly drunk off-duty cop.
Sincere condolences to his friends and family.
An investigation is underway.
Update: Kane is helping raise funds for Afroe's family.
giant gay repellent umbrella
giantgayrepellentumbrella.com
This is a satire on a real advertisement running on US TV that tries to convince people that somehow something bad will happen to the quality of their marriages if other people marry -- which doesn't make any sense.
Because being gay is innate, rather than a "lifestyle choice," it makes no sense to fight against it. No change is possible except whether to pretend or not and whether to be prejudiced or not. Pretending and prejudice are not good lifestyle choices, no matter who is doing it. If people want to get married that's their problem, their business, who cares.
As a species, we really need to get over this and deal with reality.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
MacHeist Bundle - 3 more days only - Mac apps for charity
The MacHeist bundles are always a good deal, but this one is the best ever. Buy hundreds of dollars worth of new, full Tiger and Leopard apps for only $39 (Tiger apps also work on Leopard. If you're running Tiger, download the Leopard apps too for later on.)
No joke. $25 bucks from each sale goes to important humanitarian and conservation charities.
Things you may find interesting in the bundle include:
- iSale for making eBay pages (Tiger)
- Kinemac for making 3D animations (Tiger)
- PhoneView which lets you work with your iPhone or iPod Touch like a hard drive (Tiger)
- Little Snapper (Leopard) and Acorn (Tiger) image editors
- WireTap Studio (Tiger) which can record and convert any audio your Mac plays
There are also some games, a newsreader and other good stuff.
You get 12 applications today for your $39 and 3 more are possible, depending on how many people buy the bundle in the next 3 days. BoinxTV is the next one to be unlocked, a TV studio program that sells for $199 normally. These are full versions too, not demos.
You can download the 12 free and unlocked apps immediately after you pay. Everyone who buys the bundle is entitled to all the apps that unlock during the event, so there's no reason to wait until the end to buy them. Remember to print your receipt with your unlock codes and bookmark the receipt page so you can go back and get any apps that unlock over the next couple of days.
Labels: animation, Apple, charity, music, phones, podcasts, software, videos
Thursday, April 02, 2009
How to tell if your Windows computer is infected with Conficker
More info about the worm
Easy, non-invasive visual test to see what's up with your computer at a glance.
Mac and Linux computers are not in danger from this one.
Experts say it is the worst infection since the SQL Slammer. Estimates of the number of computers infected range from almost 9 million PCs to 15 million computers, however a conservative minimum estimate is more like 3 million which is more than enough to cause great harm.
Another anti-virus software vendor, Panda Security, reported that of the 2 million computers analyzed through ActiveScan, around 115,000 (6%) were infected with this malware.
Why you should care whether your computer has it or not:
* because nobody knows which bad things it will do to you, your networks, and the people you know
* because it could cause your computer to become part of a botnet, spamming everyone
* because infected computers could get locked out of internet access
* because in the past worms have exposed private information to bad guys who sell and exploit it for profit and fun
* because worms tend to open back doors to your computer, allowing bad guys in to steal your data or plant dangerous files on your computer
Labels: howto, safetytips