Warren Buffett on investing in Gold

Buffett emphasized the non-productive aspect of gold in 1998 at Harvard:

"It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it
down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around
guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be
scratching their head."

Source: wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett

Dog fights with its own hind leg over a bone

View Video: Hilarious!

1982 Atlantic article on the De Beers diamond cartel

I read this article some time ago. I found a link to it today. Definitely worh a read!

Link (via Boing Boing)

How to call the Police

George Phillips of Meridian, Mississippi was going up to bed when his
wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she
could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go
turn off the light but saw that there were people in the shed stealing
things.

He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" and he said
no. Then they said that all patrols were busy, and that he should simply
lock his door and an officer would be along when available. George
said, "Okay," hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again.

"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people in
my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now cause I've just
shot them all." Then he hung up.

Within five minutes three police cars, an Armed Response unit, and an
ambulance showed up at the Phillips residence. Of course, the police
caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to George: "I thought you said that you'd shot
them!"

George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"

Urban wall climbing - the best video I have seen so far

russian climbing - Google Video this is a bit psychotic: however all nine minutes are compelling.

The airplane and the conveyor belt

An airplane taxies in one direction on a moving conveyor belt going the
opposite direction. Can the plane take off?

If I posted the answer, would you really take the time to think this
riddle out?

How World War I started

The Balkans were a smoldering powder keg ready to explode. The spark was
supplied in the form of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand while he
was visiting Sarajevo (June 28, 1914). Then...

Germany urged Austria-Hungary to retaliate against the Serbia.
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia (July 28, 1914)

Russia came to Serbia's aid.

Germany declared war on Russia.

France pledged support to Russia.

Germany declared war on France.

To access Paris, Germany invaded Belgium. This brought England into the
War. England declares war on Germany (August 4, 1914)

>>>>>
Armistice day celebrates the official end of WWI (11th hour on the 11th
day of the 11th month 1918).

>>>>>
Contributing factors:
* Fervent and uncompromising nationalism
* Unresolved previous disputes
* The intricate system of alliances
* Convoluted and fragmented governance
* Delays and misunderstandings in diplomatic communications
* The arms races of the previous decades.
* Rigidity in military planning

Wine: Sweetness & Weight

One of the main distinctions — after red and white — that is bandied about by wine drinkers is whether a particular quaff is sweet or dry. Though imagining how a fluid can be dry is something of a logical stretch, just bear in mind that dry is nothing more than the opposite of sweet, and we all know what sweet tastes like. A related factor is the weight of a particular type of wine, which refers to the amount of alcohol present in a given sample.

Sweetness
RED
Pinot Noir (sweetest)
Zinfandel
Cabernet
Syrah (shiraz)
Merlot (driest)

WHITE
Riesling (sweetest)
Chardonnay
Chenin Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc
Brut (driest)

Weight
RED
Merlot (lightest)
Zinfandel
Chianti
Pinot Noir
Cabernet (heaviest)

WHITE
Brut (lightest)
Fume Blanc
Pinot Grigio
Riesling

Chardonnay (heaviest)

(source)

Dry air in planes causes colds

From a 2004 study on the increased likelihood of catching a cold after
flying on a commercial plane.

Depending on three different flight scenarios, Hocking and Foster found
that airline passengers in three different scenarios were 5, 23, or 113
times more likely to catch a cold than if they had not flown at all!

...

The most logical reason for infections would seem to be the limited
amount of cabin air shared by the passengers. But Hocking, Foster and
other scientists have found this is only one factor. The very low
humidity in an airplane seems to be much more important.

...

Very dry air dries up the mucous system that captures and expels
bacteria and viruses from our noses. This may be a key reason why
airplane passengers catch more colds

Link

Nathan in Tamworth

 

Mexico city from the air

Chopper pilot who flies over mx city has posted a gallery of stunning photos of the city and environs. Link English Espaniol

tables vs css for html formatting

tables as layout devices are bad becase they confuse content and presentation in a document. they were originally designed to display tabular data (charts, tables, etc) in orderly ways, and their use as layout tools is essentially a hack dating back to the earlier browsers. what happens when you use a table to create the presentational aspects of your page is that you divide the content into chunks based not on what the chunks mean or their function in the document, but instead based on visual characteristics. this makes it difficult for non-traditional devices such as screen readers for the blind or web-enabled phones to display or render your site in any meaningful way. it's better to use CSS for visual presentation because it allows non-traditional devices to make sense of your page and reinterpret it based on the needs of the end-user. it also allows you to create context sensitive versions of a document with a single set of markup (ie, making print-friendly or WAP-friendly style sheets for one single html document).

there's plenty of other reasons, but basically: you're sacrificing the flexibility and accessibility of your document by using tables as a presentational device. Link

The wasp that conducts brain surgery

Ampulex compressa is a wasp that has evolved to tackle roaches, insert a stinger into their brains and disable their escape reflexes. This lets the wasp use the roach's antennae to steer the roach to its lair, where it can lay its egg in it. Parasite Rex author Carl Zimmer tells the story in gooey, graphic detail:

The wasp slips her stinger through the roach's exoskeleton and directly into its brain. She apparently use ssensors along the sides of the stinger to guide it through the brain, a bit like a surgeon snaking his way to an appendix with a laparoscope. She continues to probe the roach's brain until she reaches one particular spot that appears to control the escape reflex. She injects a second venom that influences these neurons in such a way that the escape reflex disappears.

From the outside, the effect is surreal. The wasp does not paralyze the cockroach. In fact, the roach is able to lift up its front legs again and walk. But now it cannot move of its own accord. The wasp takes hold of one of the roach's antennae and leads it--in the words of Israeli scientists who study Ampulex--like a dog on a leash.

The zombie roach crawls where its master leads, which turns out to be the wasp's burrow. The roach creeps obediently into the burrow and sits there quietly, while the wasp plugs up the burrow with pebbles. Now the wasp turns to the roach once more and lays an egg on its underside. The roach does not resist. The egg hatches, and the larva chews a hole in the side of the roach. In it goes.

The larva grows inside the roach, devouring the organs of its host, for about eight days. It is then ready to weave itself a cocoon--which it makes within the roach as well. After four more weeks, the wasp grows to an adult. It breaks out of its cocoon, and out of the roach as well. Seeing a full-grown wasp crawl out of a roach suddenly makes those Alien movies look pretty derivative. (source Boing boing) Link

Kidnappings in Iraq

Two years ago, two Iraqi nationals were being kidnapped everyday.

One year ago, ten iraqi nationals were being kidnapped everyday.

At this time, thirty Iraqi nationals on average are being kidnapped every day.

(source Air America Radio Show Jan23, 2006)