Archive for July, 2005

The Big Two Four

Wednesday, July 20th, 2005

Today is my twenty fourth birthday. I remember in elementary school when each student would learn what happened on his or her birthday, and mine was always a slam dunk: Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Twelve years to the day before I was born (July 20, 1969, if you're ...

Google Maps Finds Hitler’s Hideout

Monday, July 18th, 2005

Well, not really. But Google Maps did find an interestingly shaped cluster of buildings at the United States naval complex on Bougainville Road in San Diego. You can see the map in this article from The Register. The article also includes a brief story about one of Hitler's supposed escapes and ...

Will GM Have a Hydrogen Car By 2010?

Thursday, July 14th, 2005

Wired Magazine interviewed Larry Burns, GM's vice president of R&D and strategic planning, to ask about GM's recent investments into an initiative to have a hydrogen fuel cell car on the road by 2010. The article mentions GM's failed one billion dollar investment in the EV1, another eco-friendly design, and ...

Guantanamo Bay Questioning Practices

Wednesday, July 13th, 2005

According to this news article, United States interrogators are using some pretty odd techniques to get prisoners to speak at Guantanamo Bay. In one particular case, they were attempting to get information from Mohamed al-Qahtani, the self-proclaimed 20th hijacker who was planning on boarding United Airlines Flight 93 on September ...

Parrot Understands The Concept of Zero

Wednesday, July 13th, 2005

According to this article, a parrot who lives in a research lab at Brandeis University has developed knowledge of a concept akin to the idea of zero in mathematics. The parrot, Alex, was presented with a number of colored blocks on a tray and asked to count how many were ...

South Africa and AIDS

Tuesday, July 12th, 2005

According to this article, South Africa published a government report yesterday that claims that approximately 6.5 million of South Africa's 47 million citizens have AIDS. This is astounding news for a couple of reasons. The first is the sheer number of people in South Africa that have AIDS. Almost one ...