Ebola Outside The Hot Zone

Stopping (October 20, 2014)

Well, there has been no news for 3 days of new "Ebola Scares" as they've come to be known. On Friday, AP said they would no longer move stories about Ebola Scares, because "Often the fact of an unconfirmed case isn’t worth a story at all. On several occasions already, in the U.S. and abroad, we have decided not to report suspected cases. We’ve just stayed in touch with authorities to monitor the situation." In other words, the AP has decided that we don't need to know. Because they are, in essence, suppressing these stories, I suspect it is going to become very hard to build and maintain data about them. It was fun while it lasted. If I see stories, I may come back and update the list, but don't hold your breath. Well, unless you find yourself in the same room as somebody with Ebola...

Overview

This is a list of suspected Ebola cases outside the West African Hot Zone. My intent in maintaining this list is not to be alarming, nor to be calming. I just want a collection of the information available. The counts and test results here are based on news reports. I have not collated all of the test results, as sometimes I don't see the reports. I'll try to keep this up-to-date as I come across information, but I do have a day job, so this could fall out of date.

Note, when I say "Unknown" in this table, I don't necessarily mean that nobody knows. I mean that I haven't seen a report one way or the other.

Lessons Learned

One of the things I have learned while trying to maintain this list is that journalists are really awful at making it easy to correlate one story to the next in a precise manner, and Indian journalists in particular are terrible about following up. Only one of the Indian incidents as of 9/24/2014 had any follow up as to the condition and test results of the patient - Alip Das. Because of this, I'm going to have to set some rules for myself as to when it's okay to presume a patient is negative under the notion that "no news is good news." I'm thinking that a full week is probably reasonable if the original story suggested they were getting testing, and three full weeks otherwise.

Another conclusion I've drawn is that hospitals can not let down their guard, and must train their staff to write down and read all information provided by incoming patients, even though there will be a lot of false positives. This list contains 152 people as I write this, with 74 positive cases. That's a roughly 2:1 ratio. If we discard the auxiliary outbreak in DR Congo, we get 78 people and 3 positive cases, or a 26:1 ratio. The problem with a ratio like that is that it breeds complacency. It's not difficult to believe that the Dallas hospital let down their guard - prior to Duncan, the ratio was even higher, and there had been zero positive cases in the US. And that complacency led to Duncan being sent home with antibiotics.

Please Help

I have a day job as a programmer. I spend breaks on maintaining this list, but ultimately it has become too much for one person to hope to track accurately. I do my best, but I could really use some help. To that end, I have set up a project at github. Github is a site centered around using git to collaborate on files (typically, source code). In this case, I've set up the incident database as a JSON document which is fairly easy to edit in any old text editor. If you see an error or omission, please submit an issue there, or better yet, use git to edit the json file and submit a pull request. The source code for the statistics generation is in that repository, too.

The List of "Uncontrolled" cases.

This list only includes "uncontrolled" cases - ones where the person became suspected or confirmed of having Ebola outside of the West African nations already in the hot zone. Patients listed "deceased-suspected" are not included in the total deceased until it is confirmed they died of Ebola.

† - Patients in DR Congo are left out of the statistics, because that was a separate outbreak altogether, and appears to be under control.

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Legend:

• suspected
• negative
• total patients
• positive

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Additional Ebola Information:

• Ebola transmitted via semen up to 7 weeks after recovery. [source:WHO]
  "Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness."
• Incubation Period up to 21 days [source:WHO]
  "The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is 2 to 21 days."
• Whole Blood of Recovering Patients May Reduce Fatality Rate to 12.5% [source: Journal of Infectious Diseases]
  "The 8 transfused patients had clinical symptoms similar to those of other EBO patients seen during the epidemic. All were seriously ill with severe asthenia, 4 presented with hemorrhagic manifestations, and 2 became comatose as their disease progressed. Only 1 transfused patient (12.5%) died"
• Ebola Health Map [source: HealthMap.org] Fantastic resource covering the 2014 Ebola Hot Zone

Vote NO on Tuesday

I am a fairly hardcore libertarian, so it should come as no surprise that I oppose the so-called "Pennies for Parks" tax that is slated for a special election on Tuesday, August 5, 2014.  The proposed tax is a 3-year 2% tax on all restaurant and hotel sales. Here are a few reasons that I oppose the tax:

1. Lowered Standard of Living - Any time you introduce a tax, you're taking money out of the private sector and putting it into the public sector. This means that your money will be spent less efficiently than it would have been had you been allowed to allocate it to the things that you want. In other words: your standard of living decreases because your cost of living increases. There was a story recently about an Austin, TX resident who had voted in favor of every plan to "improve" that city, only to find out that she could no longer afford to live there, because the taxes had increased so much:
   

   “It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”

   Now, the current proposal is not for a property tax increase - instead, it's for a sales tax increase. Quick aside - there are plans to build a huge new park, Renasant Park, which Chip Johnson says will have an operating budget which cannot be sustained on Hernando's current sales tax revenue, expanded sales tax revenue, and property tax revenue combined. So don't kid yourself if you think this one tax will support the construction goals of the current gang running the city. Sales taxes, we are often told, affect the poorest among us disproportionately. In fact, they will not be able to expand their budgets and will have to dine out less, which leads me to...
   
   
2. Will Harm Local Restaurants - Some on the supporting side say that this tax will have no impact whatsoever on local business sales. I say balderdash. Mayor Chip Johnson says in the comment stream on this post that "It should raise a little over $400,000 annually". Where does he expect this money to come from, if not from local business sales? Does he think that residents will spend $400,000 more than they currently do, which is the only way that it would not affect local business sales? In point of fact, I submit that this $400k will mostly come from reduced restaurant sales.  Here's why:
   
   If my budget for dining out each month is, say $400, and you increase my costs by 2 points, I have three choices: (1) dine out less frequently to stay in budget, (2) dine out at less expensive establishments to stay in budget, or (3) increase my dining budget.
   
   There is no other choice.
   
   I cannot dine out with the same frequency at the same establishments and stay within my budget. This is elementary home economics - if the money isn't there, I don't have the option to spend it.
   
   Now - we are "only" talking about an $8 increase in the cost (if that's my budget). That does sound fairly modest, and *some* people might be able to increase their dining budget to maintain their current dining-out frequency. But to make the claim that everybody, or even most people can afford to go with option (3) is unrealistic and just plain wishful thinking.
   
   The reality is that most people will go with options (1) or (2) above. Option (2) is fairly troubling, as well, because by setting our tax rate to the highest in the county, we invite people to dine outside of Hernando in order to stay in budget.
3. Where is the Current Money Going? Hernando Mayor Chip Johnson, in this email exchange posted to the Citizens Against New Tax Facebook Page, says, "The current year budget is about $708,000." So where is that money going? Why is Conger Park's kid area in desperate need of repair? Why is the map at Church Park fading away? Why is there no mulch there? Why is it that the ground cover under the jungle gym was changed from gravel to mulch to, well, not much of anything, over the past 5 years? That one seems fairly wasteful. They have almost 3/4 of a million dollars to spend, can't keep the current parks maintained, and want to build more parks? This doesn't seem reasonable. Become efficient at maintaining the current parks, and then let's talk about expanding the park system.
4. Where Will the "New" Money Go? Many of the proponents of this tax have a fantasy that the money will go towards their pet project - the piece they think it should go to. I've seen comments about how the city's going to build a dog park, or a swimming pool, or put in a fancy new BMX trail. As a skateboarder, I hope that if my view does not prevail and the tax passes, that the money will go towards building the skatepark (something I might actually use). But guess what? Nobody knows where the money will go, not even the mayor:
   

   No decision has been made on the specifics of how the money will be spent.  After the election, the Mayor and Board of Aldermen will gather public recommendations on ideas, place estimated dollar amounts on those projects, and then vote on which ones will be funded.  The money received from the 2% tax will be placed in a separate fund and will be spent only on those items.   (This fund will be audited by Williams, Pitts & Beard as part of our annual audit) This is spelled out in Senate Bill 2964 which authorizes this special election.

   Here's a link to Senate Bill 2964.  Here's what the law which allows the tax says it may be spent for:
   

   For the purpose of providing funds to promote tourism and parks and recreation within the city,

   Okay, but... what does that mean? Are we going to run cheesy "visit Hernando" ads on Memphis TV? Start building Renasant Park?  Host recreational water balloon fights?
   
   
5. Three Years? Doubtful! Proponents tell us not to be worried, because even if the tax passes, it will expire in three years. The MS legislature wrote the law that way, so you know we can trust that it'll expire, right? WRONG. In the comment stream on this post, the 38632 page moderator asked Mayor Chip Johnson the following question. He never responded:

   Chip Johnson: You said, "The tax would be a three year tax as authorized by the legislature. It automatically expires."
   
   You also said, "The City of Southaven has the extra 1% tax on restaurants and I have never spoken to one person who even thinks about it when making the trip north to dine out. "
   
   Since we're looking at Southaven for perspective on this tax proposal, then it's also worth noting that Southaven recently extended their Penny for the Parks tax for an additional three years.
   
   It is our understanding that Southaven was able to get the Mississippi Legislature to extend the tax, without any additional consideration from the citizens of Southaven.
   
   Would it be possible for the Mississippi Legislation [sic] to extend the Hernando Pennies for the Parks tax as well, prior to it's automatic repeal, without returning to the citizens of Hernando for another vote?

   Remember: anything we build will have to be maintained. In other words, the $708k we currently spend on parks will not be enough for the additional facilities that will be built. We'll have to clean, paint, mow, water, etc., and those activities are not free. Sure, it'll expire in three years. If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Kennebunkport I'd like to sell you.

UPDATE: Came across this interesting bit in the MS Department of Revenue's list of special tourism taxes (which, by the way, is what the "pennies for parks" tax really is - not a park-benefit tax, but a tourism tax):

Southaven Restaurant Tax

House Bill 1462, 2011 Regular Session

A 1% tax is imposed on the gross proceeds of sales of restaurants in Southaven. This levy is in addition to all other taxes imposed. Effective December 1, 2011. No repeal date.

I added the emphasis. Turns out 38632 was wrong - it wasn't extended for another 3 years. It was extended indefinitely.

The Echo Chamber

I used to have a friend, Keith†, who was about as leftist as they come. I suspect he is actually a full-on socialist, though I was unable to confirm that suspicion when we were still on talking terms. He unfriended and blocked me about a two years ago, after a heated exchange where I pointed out a good half-dozen logical fallacies in a post of his.

We went to high school together, and lost touch shortly after heading off to college. When we got back in touch through Facebook, he was very different than I remembered him. In high school, he seemed to be very freedom-loving. But now, he was very controlling and frankly, quite arrogant. One of the first exchanges I remember having after we became Facebook friends started along these lines (I would go copy and paste, but like I said, I was blocked a while ago.):

Him: I don't read Drudge Report any longer, and neither should you.

This bothered me on several fronts, but the most important was the implication was that he knew better than I where I should get my news.

I pressed him to explain why.  His response: Drudge bubbles up the "fringe" media.

That should've been my cue to unfriend him, or at least tell Facebook not to show me his posts. It was fairly obvious that he wasn't interested in honest discussion of issues, but in sealing his echo chamber.

I have several friends who I vehemently disagree with on a number of policy issues. We have heated arguments online all the time. My wife constantly asks me why I bother to discuss things with them, when we never change each others' stance on anything.

My answer is this: if I were to do to them what Keith did to me — unfriend and block, then I would be creating an echo chamber for myself. I would be creating a confirmation bias feedback loop. Facebook already tries its hardest to help you do that - we all tend to like pages that we agree with and which give us meme images we like. In turn, Facebook shows us more posts from people we interact with, and less from people we don't.

We need to keep in contact with people who disagree with us, if only because all humans are fallible. As we strive for perfection, knowing it will never be attained, we need to know when our biases and assumptions are wrong, and not have them continually confirmed by people and sources who are equally as wrong.

So even though I disagree with my leftie friends, I do not unfriend & block them unless they are flat-out abusive or threatening. For the record, I also disagree with my theocratic friends.

† - no, I did not change his name to protect him. I'm leaving his last name out, though I'm not entirely sure why.

Frankentractor update

My wife and I pulled the ignition coil, and found the relevant parts in the engine's manual on how to test it.

The test procedure goes something like this: check the resistance between the positive and negative terminals, then check the resistance between the spark plug terminals. They should be in the ranges [2.90,3.60]Ω and [14,500,19,800] Ω, respectively.  The resistance at the pos/neg terminals was right at 3.6, but at the spark plug terminals, I couldn't get a reading at all.  So now the hunt is on for an ignition coil.  I'd prefer to buy from a local shop, ideally a new one, but there seems to be a thriving market on e-bay in the worst case scenario.

Once we've got that swapped, I will be able to test the timing. This one's a bit more difficult:

1) Remove spark plugs.
2) Turn ignition on.
3) Connect volt meter to negative terminal on coil and to engine ground.
4) Rotate the flywheel clockwise until voltage jumps from 1V to 12V (battery voltage, actually).

At this stage, one of the screws on the flywheel's chaff screen (the perforated metal plate that protects the air intake from large crud getting blown in by the fan which is cast onto the flywheel's surface), should lie between the timing marks on the blower housing.  These are located at approximately the 10:00 location, and thankfully are stamped in rather than painted or drawn on (unlike the !@#$!@$ serial number).

UPDATE 2014-01-28: Forgot to mention last time - here's what's written on the side of the old one:

166-0781
029700-6461
12V
DENSO
MADE IN JAPAN

From what I can tell, the part is discontinued, and the only new replacement available is part 541-0522.  Amazon has it here.

UPDATE : I forgot to come back and mention this - we ordered a replacement from John Deere, and that did not help.  Looks like I need to pull the engine to fix the timing :-/

Early Party Platform 2014

I thought it would be fun to take an old Facebook note about what I think needs to be done with regards to this grand experiment known as the United States of America.  Over time, my views on politics and policy will naturally change — there's always new information to digest and integrate, after all — so I figure why not update my wishlist from time to time?

During the past few years, I have made a marked shift from being fairly "constitutional-conservative" to being more "voluntaryist libertarian/minarchist/not-quite-anarchist"  I am unconvinced that society can function civilly without the state, but at the same time, I think the answer to almost any problem of public policy is "reduce the scope of government."

Anyway, without further ado, here is my political wishlist:

Constitutional Amendments:

• Clarify the 2nd Amendment with the following text:
• No municipality within these United States shall pass or enforce any law limiting the rights of the people to keep and bear arms. This means that the federal government, the various state governments, county or parish governments, individual townships, cities, or any other government entity has absolutely no authority to:
• stop individuals from owning weapons of any sort, nor from selling them to each other, nor to place undue burden on such sales.
• stop individuals from possessing, carrying, or transporting weapons of any sort, whether concealed or openly
• stop individuals from using weapons of any sort, provided such use does not cause harm to another person.
• register or license individuals for the ownership or carrying of weapons of any sort.
• However, any person may not possess any weapon of any sort while incarcerated.
• However, any person convicted of using a weapon to cause harm to another person for any reason other than defending a person or a person's property against imminent aggression, shall have their right to possess, carry, or transport weapons suspended for a time not to exceed 10 years.
• However, any person convicted of using a weapon to kill another person for any reason other than defending a person or a person's property against imminent aggression, have their right to possess, carry, or transport weapons suspended indefinitely.
• Changes to Congressional Process: 
• No member of Congress shall serve in a house of Congress for a total period longer than two full terms over the course of their lifetime. To be clear, it is acceptable for a Congressman to exhaust their term limit in one house, and then seek election to the other house, and serve two terms there prior to retiring from Congress completely.  Should a member of Congress join Congress in the middle of a term, their tenure shall be treated as though they joined Congress at the beginning of that term.
• The Congressional session shall last 90 days, starting August 1 of each year, except when the President calls an emergency session.
• The President may only call an emergency session in order to request a declaration of war.
• Congress shall maintain an Internet web site where all bills will remain posted for no less than 30 days prior to voting.  Yes, this means that the first 30 days of Congress shall involve writing bills, the next 30 days publicly posting those bills, and deliberating, and the next 30 days voting.
• All votes shall be roll-call votes. Every representative or Senator's vote shall be transparent.
• Modify Government Remuneration
• Remuneration for all government employees, including members of Congress, the President, Supreme Court Justices, military members, and all bureaucrats, shall be in United States Dollars.  The government shall cease providing medical insurance, pensions, peacetime medical treatment, or any benefits whatsoever to any of its employees other than monetary payment.
• Notes:
• The intent here is to force government to pay honestly and openly, and to force Congress to write laws that support the free market as much as possible.  They can buy insurance on the open market like the rest of us; maybe then they'll be more interested in improving the health insurance industry rather than taking it over.
• I realize that this would effectively privatize the V.A. system, which likely scares a lot of military types. I only ask that you consider this: the V.A. system repeatedly comes up with failing grades for providing service to veterans, because it is only accountable when bad press rears its head.  This means that veterans are essentially begging for medical treatment most of the time.  My proposal is that rather than have government-provided healthcare for our servicemen, we should pay them enough that they can buy "Cadillac" insurance for themselves. Further, the "peacetime medical treatment" bit explicitly allows battlefield and MASH style hospitals in time of war.
• Eliminate the tyrannical Income Tax and replace it with the FairTax.

• Explicitly disallow the government from providing moneys, goods, or services to individuals or corporations unless those moneys, goods, or services are explicitly allowed by Constitutional amendment. 
• Article 1 § 8 is hereby repealed and replaced with the following text:
• The United States may not provide money, goods, or services to any person unless the money, good or service is explicitly allowed by this amendment.
• Congress shall have the following powers:
• To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defense of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
• To borrow Money on the credit of the United States, but only to pay for wars declared pursuant to this Amendment.
• To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.
• To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
• To coin money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; But this power shall not be delegated to any private entity; But this power shall not place any restriction on the right of individuals to trade in alternative currencies so long as said currencies are clearly not attempted counterfeits of US currency.
• To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current coin of the United States;
• To establish transit routes for public use, including roads, rail, waterways, and air routes.
• To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries
• To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
• To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations
• To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water, but this power shall not be delegated to the President, and declarations of war may only be made in retaliation for direct attacks on the United States, its territories, or its citizens.
• To raise and support a military force, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
• To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces
• To provide for calling forth the military to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions
• To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the military, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the military according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
• To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over the District of Columbia (not exceeding ten Miles square), and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Military bases, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;
  
• To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
• All Goods and Services provided by the government that are not explicitly listed here shall be phased out within two years by incorporating each department into a private corporation and giving each citizen 1 share of ownership in that corporation to trade as they please. Programs which provide pensions, like Social Security and Medicare, will have their trust funds immediately repaid in US treasury bonds to be owned by the resulting corporation, and citizens will be given 1 share for every dollar they have paid into the system, to trade as they please.
• The federal government shall not purchase or hold any assets other than roads and such assets as are necessary to the existence and efficacy of the military. It shall not own any interest in manufacturing concerns. Any such interest so held at the time of passage of this amendment shall be sold at auction within 30 days.
• Notes:
• This means that parks, AmTrak, Social Security, the Post Office, etc., would be privatized. Charitable government organizations, like the Peace Corps, would essentially become mutual aid societies.
• This removes much of Congress' ability to trade pork for votes.  About the only opportunity for pork barrel spending would be to get the Feds to buy land to build a military base (yay for defensive preparedness!), to build a huge Interstate in BFE Mississippi, or to improve the waterways.
• This also removes Congress' ability to allow the Fed to exist and eliminates the Federal Reserve System.
•  Surplus amendment, because why should we settle for a balanced budget?
• Congress shall not spend more than 10% of GDP per year, except to pay for wars declared pursuant to the amendment listed above.
• The United States shall not collect more than 200% of spending as revenue per year.
• The taxation cap shall therefore be 10% of GDP, plus 5% for debt repayment, plus 5% for the war fund.
• The first 10% of GDP collected shall pay current expenses, interest, and principle on the United States debt.
• The next 5% of GDP collected shall pay the United States debt.  If the debt is paid off, this 5% shall be removed from the taxation cap.
• The next 5% of GDP collected shall accrue in the war fund.  Once the war fund exceeds 10 times GDP,  this 5% shall be removed from the taxation cap.
• Once 20% of GDP has been collected in a calendar year, the Federal Government shall stop collecting taxes altogether until the start of the next calendar year.
• The war fund may only be used to pay for wars declared pursuant to the amendment listed above.
• Congress may borrow money on the credit of the United States only to pay for wars declared pursuant to the amendment listed above.
• Notes:
• This forces Congress to get out of the "let's try to raise more revenue" game.
• It also forces Congress to live within the A1§8-replacing-amendment - Congress can't spend more than 10% of GDP
• Further, it makes it so that once all of the taxes are collected, prices on everything drop.
• If spending is reduced per the A1§8-replacement, but revenue is kept constant, we would immediately be in surplus.

* Under auspices of Interstate Transit, build a canal system along our southern border to allow shipping from the Texas coast to the California coast. The canal should be at least 500 ft wide and 100 feet deep for the entire length (or larger as necessary to support the largest warships and tankers) and have shear walls on each bank. Benefits: shipping costs to locations in Nevada, New Mexico, and TX would plummet, competition with Panama for shipping lanes, national security enhanced by ability to move warships from Atlantic to Pacific without depending on foreign nations. Bridges over the canal would ensure the ability to continue to travel to and from Mexico.  While we're at it, why not do the same on the Canadian border?

* Legalize all drugs and privatize the FDA. Why privatize the FDA? Well, first of all it doesn't fit in the A1§8-replacement above.  Further, it seems to me that there is no reason to believe that an FDA trademark wouldn't be as trusted as a UL trademark for purposes of designating that a drug is safe to consume. Why shouldn't there be competition when it comes to proving the safety and efficacy of drugs? Why does this have to be a government function? Answer: it doesn't.

Frankentractor Update and a "quick" project.

The Frankentractor is in bad shape right now.  I never got around to replacing or rebuilding the hydraulic pump, and now its leak is pretty heinous. What's worse, I apparently ran it out of oil (stupid! check your oil, folks!) and I think that knocked off its timing. Net result: it won't start. The carb spews gas out of the throat, which I'm told indicates that the float needle is dirty or broken, so I've got to clean that. One of the arms on the front end loader is busted. Seems this spring is going to be all about fixing the Frankentractor.

Except that I've got a higher-priority project I need to get done.  The Mrs has been bugging me for years to build her a Skee-Ball machine.  I've drawn up some plans, and have got to knock that out ASAP.  Look for progress here.

Occasional Roundup of Smart Stuff

Dinosaur Feathers in Canadian Amber

Our friends north of the border have been kind enough to dig up some amber and notice that it had a bunch of what appeared to be feathers embedded.  Research suggests that they're dinosaur feathers showing quite a bit of evolution. Turns out there was a broad array of color as well.

"These specimens represent distinct stages of feather evolution, from early-stage, single filament protofeathers to much more complex structures associated with modern diving birds . . . They can't determine which feathers belonged to birds or dinosaurs yet, but they did observe filament structures that are similar to those seen in other non-avian dinosaur fossils."
http://io9.com/5840854/dinosaur-feathers-discovered-in-canadian-amber

Is Our Universe Really Part of the Membrane of a Collapsing 4-Dimensional Star?

"If a “big bang” event had created the universe, then according to some explanations, there hasn’t been enough time between then and now for it to have reached that temperature equilibrium."

That seems to be a pretty big problem.  One possible solution:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/collapsing-4-d-star-could-have-spawned-universe/

Vomitorium: It Doesn't Mean What You Think it Means:

http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5557717

Linux: It Was Good While It Lasted.  Is This Better?

"At CloudOpen in New Orleans, KVM veterans Avi Kivity and Dor Laor revealed their latest venture, a new open-source (BSD license) operating system named OSv. OSv can run existing Linux programs and runtime environments such as a JVM, but unlike Linux, OSv was designed from the ground up to run efficiently on virtual machines. For example, OSv avoids the traditional (but slow) userspace-kernel isolation, as on the cloud VMs normally run a single application. OSv is also much smaller than Linux, and breaks away from tradition by being written in C++11 (the language choice is explained in in this post)." -- http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/09/17/2113211/new-operating-system-seeks-to-replace-linux-in-the-cloud

http://www.osv.io/

Fun With Compounding Interest

A friend recently wondered on Facebook when she could retire. Somebody joked that the only way to retire before age 65.5 is to win the lottery. While it can certainly feel that way, aggressive investing can provide a faster path to retirement. This spreadsheet shows one possible scenario: take 20% of your earnings and invest it in instruments yielding 20%/yr. If you compound that monthly, you can replace the rest of your income within 10 years.  Of course, that's a hyper-aggressive strategy which takes on quite a bit of risk, but there you go.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvlYQa0ZmrjldDI4M0lfNWZlTmhoVE5aRGNHeVJYMEE#gid=0

Don't Look Now, But Capitalism Has Saved Another Species

A common misconception is that capitalist greed is wrecking the environment. In reality, of course, capitalism is all about efficiency, and it is often in a capitalist's best interest to find less ecologically harmful ways of doing business. Why spew by-products into the nearby river when you can pipe them into some new machinery which converts them into something useful? Anyway, here's one concrete example of where capitalism not only didn't destroy the environment, but it actually saved a species from extinction:

http://perc.org/articles/bisonomics

I'm Man Enough To Admit When I've Been Beaten

A couple of years ago, I built a fairly large fire breathing dragon as a Halloween decoration.  The budget was essentially nil, but the effect was something to be proud of.  Our neighborhood goes kinda nuts for Halloween, with visitors from all over, and this item stood out quite a bit.  But that build pales in comparison to what Zollner Elektronik AG in Germany has done.  They've made a radio-controlled, walking, bleeding, fire-breathing robotic dragon. Weighing in at 11 tons, powered by a 2 liter turbo-diesel engine, Tradinno was made to star in a 500 year old folk play named "Drachenstich."

http://makezine.com/projects/20ft-tall-40ft-long-fire-breathing-dragon/

http://www.ibtimes.com/worlds-largest-walking-robot-fire-breathing-dragon-tradinno-stars-500-year-old-german-play-video