Hulleye Comes By!

so it’s been a while since i posted a nice little flash game to play. tost this one is for you.

find the star in each level. seems simple enough. gets rather intriguingly difficult rather quickly.

oh and there’s also a second version of this game out, i haven’t tried it yet, the first one is hard enough right now.

some of these are frustratingly hard.

UPDATE: WHEN YOU GUYS FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO LEVEL 61, CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO DO IT BECAUSE IT’S PISSING ME OFF!

Where do viruses come from?

Answers in Scientific American this month.

Ed Rybicki, a virologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, answers:

Tracing the origins of viruses is difficult because they don’t leave fossils and because of the tricks they use to make copies of themselves within the cells they’ve invaded. Some viruses even have the ability to stitch their own genes into those of the cells they infect, which means studying their ancestry requires untangling it from the history of their hosts and other organisms. What makes the process even more complicated is that viruses don’t just infect humans; they can infect basically any organism—from bacteria to horses; seaweed to people.

Still, scientists have been able to piece together some viral histories, based on the fact that the genes of many viruses—such as those that cause herpes and mono—seem to share some properties with cells’ own genes. This could suggest that they started as big bits of cellular DNA and then became independent—or that these viruses came along very early in evolution, and some of their DNA stuck around in cells’ genomes. The fact that some viruses that infect humans share structural features with viruses that infect bacteria could mean that all of these viruses have a common origin, dating back several billion years. This highlights another problem with tracing virus origins: most modern viruses seem to be a patchwork of bits that come from different sources—a sort of “mix and match” approach to building an organism.

Via /.

In what can only be considered a bizarre court case, a former nuclear safety officer and others are suing the U.S. Department of Energy, Fermilab, the National Science Foundation and CERN to stop the use of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) until its safety is reassessed. The plaintiffs cite three possible ‘doomsday’ scenarios which might occur if the LHC becomes operational: the creation of microscopic black holes which would grow and swallow matter, the creation of strangelets which, if they touch other matter, would convert that matter into strangelets or the creation of magnetic monopoles which could start a chain reaction and convert atoms to other forms of matter. CERN will hold a public open house meeting on April 6 with word having been spread to some researchers to be prepared to answer questions on microscopic black holes and strangelets if asked.

Canada is seeing a small influx of American deserters who would rather not serve in Iraq.

Most of them, like Colby, say they joined the military in part out of patriotism. “I thought Iraq had something to do with 9/11,” Colby says, “that they were the bad guys that attacked our country.” But unlike Hinzman, most did not apply for conscientious-objector status. They tend to say they aren’t opposed to all wars in principle — just to the one they were ordered to fight. It wasn’t until Colby arrived in Iraq that he started to see the conflict as “a war of aggression, totally unprovoked,” he says. “I was, like, ‘This is what my buddies are dying for?’

The Canadian government will soon decide whether or not to let those soldiers apply for citizenship on the basis that the conflict in Iraq is “a war not sanctioned by the United Nations”.

ever wondered whether a boomerang would work in zero gravity? gotta click to find out.

Another reason never to go to Wal-Mart again.

Debbie Shank suffered severe brain damage after a traffic accident 8 years ago that robbed her of much of her memory. She cries every time she’s told that her son was killed in Iraq, as if hearing the news for the first time.

After winning the lawsuit against the trucking company involved in the accident, her husband put the money in a trust to pay for Debbie’s long-term care.

And now, retail giant Wal-Mart wants that money:

Eight years ago, Shank was stocking shelves for the retail giant and signed up for Wal-Mart’s health and benefits plan. […]

Wal-Mart had paid out about $470,000 for Shank’s medical expenses, but in 2005, Wal-Mart’s health plan sued the Shanks for the same amount.

The Shanks didn’t notice in the fine print of Wal-Mart’s health plan policy that the company has the right to recoup medical expenses if an employee collects damages in a lawsuit.

In fact, they want the money so badly that the sued the family (and won):

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley, who called Debbie Shank’s case “unbelievably sad,” replied in a statement: “Wal-Mart’s plan is bound by very specific rules. … We wish it could be more flexible in Mrs. Shank’s case since her circumstances are clearly extraordinary, but this is done out of fairness to all associates who contribute to, and benefit from, the plan.”

Jim Shank said he believes Wal-Mart should make an exception.

“My idea of a win-win is — you keep the paperwork that says you won and let us keep the money so I can take care of my wife,” he said.

The family’s situation is so dire that last year Jim Shank divorced Debbie, so she could receive more money from Medicaid.

Jim Shank, 54, is recovering from prostate cancer, works two jobs and struggles to pay the bills. He’s afraid he won’t be able to send their youngest son to college and pay for his and Debbie’s care.

“Who needs the money more? A disabled lady in a wheelchair with no future, whatsoever, or does Wal-Mart need $90 billion, plus $200,000?” he asked.

this linerider video is genius. if you don’t know what linerider is, go look it up and play with it and then admire with fascination how long this must have taken to produce.

david attenborough is awesome. check him out narrating this video of slugs. i recently bought ‘planet earth’, ‘the life of mammals’ and was also gifted ‘the blue planet’ this year. attenborough is brilliant. oh by the way, richard attenborough is his brother.

i love that word, ahnentafel. awesome. anyway, since tata was in the news again recently, after purchasing jaguar and land rover from ford, i figured i’d share this family tree of the automotive industry about who owns who and what car you’re really driving. click below to make bigger. it’s interesting to know that the global auto industry isn’t really what you think it is and over the past few years brands really are just that, where is the actual production is something way different.

my bad, been on hiatus for quite a while. was travelling a bit and was a bit busy with my family. back to routine now so back to the blog. will start posting shortly.

A burqa may not be the flirtiest garment ever invented for women. The highly modest head-to-toe robe even shrouds the eyes, so for centuries it’s been difficult for women wearing them to send suggestive signals to men.But now a German designer has debuted a digitally-enabled burqa that can broadcast a photo of the wearer to nearby mobile phones. Markus Kison calls it the “CharmingBurka,” and says it isn’t forbidden by Islamic law.

A model demonstrated a prototype of Kison’s garment at the Seamless 2008 design and fashion show in Boston, a high-tech fashion event run with support from the Masschusetts Institute of Technology.

Kison says the burqa has a “digital layer” that incorporates a Bluetooth antenna, which lets women “decide for themselves where they want to position themselves virtually.” Nearby mobile phones that also use Bluetooth will light up with any small file a woman chooses to broadcast as her identity — a photo, a cartoon, a text file or even a sound clip.

skills that are obsolete. one of ones that touched me was this one. everything from booting off a floppy, to the as/400, programming a vcr, using carbon paper, to star navigation.

pakistan’s finest automobile fleet.