Month: August 2004

New Scientist has an interview with Alexander Yuvchenko, a nuclear engineer at Chornobyl who was on duty the night of April 26, 1986, when the reactor exploded. His story of survival and loss is quite amazing…

The Web Standards Project has started a new browser advocacy program with Browse Happy, a site that offers information and testimonials supporting the switch from M$ Internet Explorer to Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, or Safari. I think everyone knows by now which one I’ve chosen… 😉

Although some of it was before my time, David Carlson’s Online Timeline, a “capsule history of online news and information systems,” brings back a lot of my early memories of computers and online experiences. When did you send your first e-mail? I think mine was in 1990 on a VAX computer at the University of Maryland, although if you count BBS messages then it was probably a couple of years earlier…

ESPN ranks the best sports commercials of the past 25 years. I agree with the “expert panel” list that has the Coke commercial with Mean Joe Greene throwing his jersey to the kid as number 1, although Bob Uecker in the “front row” is a close second in my book… 🙂

Boston.com reports that “when it comes to correcting papers and grading tests, purple is emerging as the new red.” Educators and “color psychologists” claim that the color red is too intimidating for students and that purple makes them feel less “uncomfortable:”

A mix of red and blue, the color purple embodies red’s sense of authority but also blue’s association with serenity, making it a less negative and more constructive color for correcting student papers, color psychologists said. Purple calls attention to itself without being too aggressive. And because the color is linked to creativity and royalty, it is also more encouraging to students.

Royalty?! I hate this PC crap. The fact that this is being overanalyzed to begin with is ludicrous, to say nothing of the fact that “color psychologists” are being employed. I don’t see anything wrong with red. As one teacher in the article pointed out, it’s visible, it’s obvious, and if a student sees too much of it they should strive to do better so they don’t see as much the next time. Enough of this PC coddling…

<!– –>According to PhysicsWeb, “Scientists in the US have developed a novel technique to make bulk quantities of glass from alumina for the first time.” Scotty would be proud…

Although George Lucas has been adamant for some time that there will be no more Star Wars movies after the upcoming Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, TheForce.net reports that “you might be curious as to why everyone at ILM [Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic] just signed NDA’s (Non Disclosure Agreement) saying that they will not discuss Star Wars EP7, 8, or 9.” The speculation is that there would be no need to sign NDAs if there weren’t actually plans in the works for the next trilogy, but for now it is just speculation. New trilogy or not, Revenge Of The Sith better not suck…

As a follow-up to my post about Bowling For Soup’s great song 1985, I had to let everyone know that you can watch the video at Yahoo Launch (M$ IE only, though). Awesome!

CNN reports that “Armed robbers have stolen two classic paintings by Edvard Munch, including The Scream, in a brazen daytime heist in Oslo.” This is quite a shame…

The Spec Spot is a “video library and community site for those engaged in the TV advertising industry,” primarily featuring video clips of commercials created by people aspiring to get into the ad business. Most of them are pretty funny, although a lot of them probably aren’t suitable for TV… 😉