Monday Poop-Per-Ree Dump

(Someday i'll write about the first time I heard this one...)

So it's Monday, and I can't think of a better time to clean out the tech & other junk drawer of stuff i've been collecting to post about. So here I go... 

First up is this:

http://www.ynetnews.com

I really like the occasional archaeology related mystery novel. I will freely admit seeing the Indiana Jones movies, and reading all of Clive Cussler's books. I will even admit that the one archaeology class I took in college was something of a disappointment (too much blah, blah, not enough digging in dirt & pygmy fighting). Thus, I perked up and paid attention when I saw this about a finding fabulous gold treasure on a dig near the temple mount. What is amazing is the workmanship of the items they pulled out of that site. Imagine the patience and skill required to craft the above with nothing more than primitive tools. Incredible!

Next is this:

50 knots? Pshaw! The Hydroptère  hydrofoil sailboat (H/T Popular Mecahnics via Instapundit) is a testament to marine engineering ingenuity. I suspect that since it is carving the fine edge of engineering that there will be the inevitable breakdowns. With the pacific being a tad unsettled, they are delaying their departure from SF until next year. I look forward to their attempt at a record next year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0

There seems a rule that the more educated you get, the dumber you sound. This guy's thoughts on time travel (H/T Instapundit) is no exception:

"You've got almost total freedom of movement in the future."

On the picture - I have just not been inspired to get into the whole "Dr Who" series. I also have never seen the whole "Lost" series. I have a really hard time investing in a series that builds on previous episodes. I guess you could call me a short attention span viewer.

http://diydrones.com/

I am not quite sure what Texas has in mind for drones. As a tech guy, I like the idea of playing with the technology and seeing what is possible. Thus silly laws that limit that exploration seem a little short sighted. Given the source of the article, i'll remain skeptical as to what the actual impact of the law will be.

When I read about a lady dying due to a propane torch explosion, I thought that maybe somehow she was using the torch to add a crisp layer to a steak or something and the thing exploded in her hand. I first saw a propane torch used by my grandfather to heat up bolts on his machinery (tractor, cat), to get them loose. I had never seen him worry about the thing blowing up. Of course, he didn't worry about too many things blowing up on his farm. As I recall, my brother found some sweating blasting caps he had 'forgotten' and left in one of his sheds. In any case, when looking over the report, it turns out these people were candidates for a Darwin award, as they had left their torch, which they used to light their BBQ, next to the burning hot BBQ. When it got hot enough, BOOM.

This map with all the bigfoot sightings was interesting. I too have seen bigfoot. Here's how it happened. I was backpacking alone in the Washington National Forest, located just west of Shenandoah National Park. I walked a trail which followed the ridge line, and had turned around to walk back to where I was going to camp. I looked up from the trail just in time to glimpse a large black shape moving very quickly through the undergrowth. It was a clear day and there was still sunshine out. While I never got a clear look at it, it was all black, the wrong color for a deer, and moved way too quickly for a bear - both of which I have seen numerous times in the wild.

I actually ended up retreating to my car that trip, not because of the bigfoot, but because a major storm was closing in. It was a narrow escape involving the storm with lightening chasing me down the mountain.

I don't see it beyond the realm of possibilities that an autonomous robot could do rescues. The more interesting question is why? Are we so short of qualified rescue pilots that we need such things? I would think that cost of paying a pilot a salary is the least of your worries with a multi-million dollar helicopter. So again, why? There is a place for such machines, but rescue is not one of them.