31 May 2004
Catching Up Again ...

It's been an interesting couple of days. Storms kept us offline for a good portion of the time, and when the storms weren't active, we were - outside. Which explains the lack of posts.

Our meat chicks arrived last week - 201 of them. The company throws in one free "rare breed" chick with every 200 ordered! And being the only colored one, he (or she, I hope) is quite noticeable! They stayed warm in our scratchbuilt brooder until yesterday, when Kris built them a small runout with some poultry wire and temp posts. In another week or so they'll be big enough to be safe from the cats, and we'll turn them out in the east paddock until they're ready to go - should be done about the middle of July, if not a little sooner. We gotta get a picture of the brooder at night up here - it looks like something from an 'X-Files' episode!

While Kris was busy with all that, I was deboning sheep feet. Yes, you read correctly ... Kevyn sent about 20 of his meat sheep to the Muslims last Friday, and delivered their legs (at my request), which request he was quite surprised by, I might add. But I've found a potential buyer for the knucklebones, who manufacturers a medieval games called, appropiately enough, Knucklebones. Waste not, want not! Getting the bones out of the feet wasn;t that much of a problem, but cleaning them properly may be a royal pain. If anyone out there has any ideas ...

This morning we hit an auction and got Donner and Blitzen something to do - we bought a goat cart! It'll take two or three goats, and we'll be using it for several "petting zoo" type projects. More on those later on.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Periodic Table of the Operators

What a cool idea! I might have to get the poster from CafePress, especially if I do much more Perl.

At his code blog Mark Lentcner writes: "A while back, I saw Larry Wall give a short talk about the current design of Perl 6. At some point he put up a list of all the operators - well over a hundred of them! I had a sudden inspiration, but it took a few months to get around to drawing it..."

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Manhattan Stonehenge

From Secular Blasphemy comes this link to the 'Astronomy Picture of the Day' from NASA for May 28th. As you can tell, it's not a space picture at all ... follow the link to find out why, and if you're in New York on July 12th, be sure to watch the sunrise and sunset.


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At (Your Name Here) Arena, Money Talks

I still refuse to call our local stadium by it's corporate name: we Indiana taxpayers built it, and I'll call it the Hoosier Dome until it's rubble. If a company wants a stadium to bear their name, may I suggest that they build it!

There is a fast-growing marketplace in which companies craving public recognition and customers vie for the rights to christen arenas and stadiums after themselves.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Drug Farms Forced Underground

Gee, this makes me feel better ... a lot of the quarrries in question are in the southern part of the the state, right in the midst of the Corn Belt. But of course, it must be safe. After all, it's a bunch of major corporations that are funding it, and we can trust corporations to be forthright and honest, can't we?

Companies that want to make drugs by growing them in plants have met a lot of resistance, but at least one is keeping up the fight -- from an Indiana quarry. By Kristen Philipkoski.

(link) [Wired News]

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Insurance industry warned of nanotechnology risks

I'm thinking this may be a good way to address a lot of other "problems" with technology. Like, for instance, GM foods and plants. How does one begin to measure the risk inherent insuch things?

A major reinsurance company has advised insurance companies that they may need to reconsider covering products manufactured using nanotechnology until more is known about any possible side effects of the technology. 'As a major risk carrier, the insurance industry can only responsibly support the introduction of a new technology if it can evaluate and calculate its inherent risks,' says Swiss Re. 'A risk needs to be identified before its consequences can be measured and a decision can be reached on the optimal risk management approach.'

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link