Apparently a minor hot topic recently surfaced surrounding the Open Government Act, in which an anonymous Republican Senator placed a 'Secret Hold' on the bipartisan bill, providing its consideration before the Memorial Day recess.
More coverage here, here and primary source here.
It is my personal opinion that said anonymous Republican Senator is nonetheless then our favorite Tube-lovin' Ted Stevens. He's done it before. Link Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act vs. Open Government Act.
I guess this counts as my foray into clairvoyance. Enjoy.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Swimming to London
Apparently Google Maps has a sense of humor these days.
Here are the directions to London from Manhattan:
Check out entry #16
So apparently it's more efficiently to go through France?
[via Download Squad]
Here are the directions to London from Manhattan:
Check out entry #16
So apparently it's more efficiently to go through France?
[via Download Squad]
Friday, January 19, 2007
One-Handed World Record
People still do these Rubik's Cube things? What the hell? What a waste of time. I mean, I just peeled the stickers off. Duh.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Rutgers Incident Continues to Bewilder and Distress
PISCATAWAY - As the leaves continue to fall on this picturesque township, few have begun to comprehend the magnitude of what had happened here a mere eight days ago.
Although specific details are still emerging, we know that the incident happened over a span of half an hour at Rutgers, precisely at one of the campus lounges on the Busch campus. The victim, whose name has not yet been released by the irrelevant authorities, remains in a catatonic state, responding only to yes/no questions and integral by parts problems.
We managed to get hold of James Ouyang, one of the witnesses to this tragic incident. Initially, he was too shocked to comment properly upon the atrocity. Fortunately, he is also our research analyst stationed out of New York City on all things esoteric. What follows is a blow-by-blow analysis of the disaster:
47.85 - Given that this was the first solve, it would be natural for the victim to feel nervous. This however does not explain the +2 nor the incessant jamming while turning. (A penalty of 2 seconds is added if the solve is one trivial move away from completion. Hence, +2)
55.53 - He makes a novice error by swapping opposite edges of the cross without noticing. The continuation of more lockups and an inability to look ahead cost him dearly. At this point, the possibility of a decent average begins to dwindle.
46.54 - He finally manages to overcome his initial difficulties with the cross.... and runs straight into the infamous V (Ice Cream) Permutation. Due to the awkward nature of this situation, he decides to permute the edges and then perform the entire OLL/PLL sequence. This decision is perhaps the single source of the most time wasted. (Afterwards, experimentation by myself reveals that a corner permutation would result in a J Permutation, which is trivial.)
36.69 - Nothing significant to note. For once, thankfully, there is nearly nothing to report.
43.41 - Inserts a middle layer edge in the wrong way. Any attempts to finish on a brighter note have vanished. He would pay heavily for this mistake.
Now that we have shown the extent of the tragedy suffered by our unfortunate victim, we shall examine ways in which such a calamity can be avoided in your own solves:
1) Learn the full 3-look LL. Besides the obvious mistakes mentioned above, the victim also lost valuable time trying to adapt his archaic methods to the OLL situations that were unfamiliar.
2) Breathe. Although the victim thankfully did not die from asphyxiation, the nervousness of the victim caused the aforementioned lockups and quite possibly even the dreaded sweaty palms.
3) Invest in some tiles. Due to some secondhand reporting from some colleagues of the victim, one of the main sources of anxiety from the victim was the state of disrepair of the stickers. Although in reality they were perfectly adequate for the task at hand, the victim fretted over them, squandering time that could have been used learning the aforementioned 3-look LL.
With the advice presented, we hope that you will meet a more fortunate fate than our poor victim in this wretched mishap. (For the curious, the victim had an average of 45.93)
23 Neptunians Die in Bus Plunge
NEW NEW YORK, Earth, April 0 (Daily Supernova) — 23 Neptunians were killed and 36 injured when a bus careened off the highway and into the local black hole singularity, about 10 parsecs from Earth.
Although specific details are still emerging, we know that the incident happened over a span of half an hour at Rutgers, precisely at one of the campus lounges on the Busch campus. The victim, whose name has not yet been released by the irrelevant authorities, remains in a catatonic state, responding only to yes/no questions and integral by parts problems.
We managed to get hold of James Ouyang, one of the witnesses to this tragic incident. Initially, he was too shocked to comment properly upon the atrocity. Fortunately, he is also our research analyst stationed out of New York City on all things esoteric. What follows is a blow-by-blow analysis of the disaster:
47.85 - Given that this was the first solve, it would be natural for the victim to feel nervous. This however does not explain the +2 nor the incessant jamming while turning. (A penalty of 2 seconds is added if the solve is one trivial move away from completion. Hence, +2)
55.53 - He makes a novice error by swapping opposite edges of the cross without noticing. The continuation of more lockups and an inability to look ahead cost him dearly. At this point, the possibility of a decent average begins to dwindle.
46.54 - He finally manages to overcome his initial difficulties with the cross.... and runs straight into the infamous V (Ice Cream) Permutation. Due to the awkward nature of this situation, he decides to permute the edges and then perform the entire OLL/PLL sequence. This decision is perhaps the single source of the most time wasted. (Afterwards, experimentation by myself reveals that a corner permutation would result in a J Permutation, which is trivial.)
36.69 - Nothing significant to note. For once, thankfully, there is nearly nothing to report.
43.41 - Inserts a middle layer edge in the wrong way. Any attempts to finish on a brighter note have vanished. He would pay heavily for this mistake.
Now that we have shown the extent of the tragedy suffered by our unfortunate victim, we shall examine ways in which such a calamity can be avoided in your own solves:
1) Learn the full 3-look LL. Besides the obvious mistakes mentioned above, the victim also lost valuable time trying to adapt his archaic methods to the OLL situations that were unfamiliar.
2) Breathe. Although the victim thankfully did not die from asphyxiation, the nervousness of the victim caused the aforementioned lockups and quite possibly even the dreaded sweaty palms.
3) Invest in some tiles. Due to some secondhand reporting from some colleagues of the victim, one of the main sources of anxiety from the victim was the state of disrepair of the stickers. Although in reality they were perfectly adequate for the task at hand, the victim fretted over them, squandering time that could have been used learning the aforementioned 3-look LL.
With the advice presented, we hope that you will meet a more fortunate fate than our poor victim in this wretched mishap. (For the curious, the victim had an average of 45.93)
23 Neptunians Die in Bus Plunge
NEW NEW YORK, Earth, April 0 (Daily Supernova) — 23 Neptunians were killed and 36 injured when a bus careened off the highway and into the local black hole singularity, about 10 parsecs from Earth.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
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