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7 Actually Anticipated Summer Camps @Regretful Morning

michdelorme — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:32:57 +0000

7 Actually Anticipated Summer Camps @Regretful Morning

Now that summer is drawing to an end, a lot of our youth are coming home with a sigh of relief and a lot of parental resentment. You see, most summer camps suck ass. We know this, you know this, parents know this, but kids are oblivious. Toward the end of spring, their parents usually start hyping them up to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. For example: Parents sending their child to “fat camp” will make it sound like “camp awesome with kids who like M&M’s just as much as you.”

Our heart goes out to these bunk bed warriors. Thus, we’ve come up with a few summer camps of our own that might actually appeal to our youngsters…

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7 Actually Anticipated Summer Camps (via @Regretful)

Source: Regretful Morning – http://regretfulmorning.com

Inventing Green « Adventures Inside the Atom, GE’s Nuclear Power Propaganda Comic

michdelorme — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:31:33 +0000

for a forthcoming book by Alexis Madrigal

Adventures Inside the Atom, GE’s Nuclear Power Propaganda Comic

I tell you this up front because it’s true: if you love energy and 50s naivete, you are going to love Adventures Inside the Atom, GE’s nuclear power propaganda comic.

It tells the “thrilling story of man’s greatest adventure in the unknown…and his discovery of nature’s greatest secret” through a nice Platonic dialogue between Ed, a besuited company man, and his eager beaver learner, Johnny. It is also hilarious.

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Source: Adventures Inside the Atom, GE’s Nuclear Power Propaganda Comic http://www.greentechhistory.com/2009/08/adventures-inside-the-atom-ges-nuclear-power-propaganda-comic/

How to Move Heavy Objects – Stone Sleds, Ramps, Rollers, Fulcrums, and Levers – Popular Mechanics

michdelorme — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:34:42 +0000

How to Move Heavy Objects With Simple Tools Popular Mechanics Online

Big loads don’t always call for big machines. Basic know-how backed by simple tools can move almost anything. Here’s how to move boulders, lift fences and haul logs without relying on heavy machinery.

The human race is industrious, but we don’t like to work any harder than we have to. The details are lost to history now, but somebody, somewhere, noticed that sliding a mammoth haunch was less tiring than carrying it. (In fact, I’m willing to bet that he noticed it slid even better fur side down.) Whether you’re bringing home dinner or tearing up a concrete sidewalk, easier is still better. And while some jobs might require a backhoe or a winch, you can do a lot with basic levers and rollers, built in a few minutes using some hand and power tools. The crummiest 2 x 4 stud, properly applied across a fulcrum, moves a 150-pound rock with about 10 pounds of force. The improved version of this lever is even more capable. We’ll take brains over brawn any day, and the basic methods we show here will help you easily move the rocks, slabs, stumps, rubble and tree branches that you’re likely to encounter.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/how_to/4328372.html

John Deere in Black & White | John Deere MachineFinder

michdelorme — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:54:38 +0000

Everyone seemed to enjoy our “John Deere: An HDR Gallery” post so much that we decided another collection of John Deere images was in order. More befitting of our heritage and modest roots, these black & white photographs lend a certain sense of nostalgia to the John Deere name. Many of the photos aren’t simply of our equipment, but of the people who owned them, who maintained them and who likely passed on their affinity for everything John Deere. If you, our readers and loyal fans, have any black & white photographs in your possession featuring John Deere equipment, perhaps even your grandfather sitting astride it, please drop us a line and we’d be happy to include it.

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Source: John Deere Machine Finder

John Deere: An HDR Gallery

michdelorme — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:17:05 +0000

172 years of John Deere: An HDR Gallery (25 Photos) @MachineFinder.com

172 years of manufacturing the industry’s best agriculture and farm equipment has left John Deere with no shortage of loyal customers. John Deere fans worldwide have an unmatched affection for their tractors and our other products. As a result, a simple Google image search can provide you with countless images of John Deere related material. Some of the most impressive are of the HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging) variety and we here at MachineFinder have amassed a small collection of them for our most rabid fans’ viewing pleasure. If these images don’t make you want to escape the confines of your couch, taste the fresh air and give your old John Deere tractor a much-needed crank, they should at least inspire you to snap some shots of your favorite John Deere…

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5 Tips for Raising Your Girl Geek | GeekDad | Wired.com

michdelorme — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:22:46 +0000

5 Tips for Raising Your Girl Geek

Photo: Girl Genius, Studio Foglio LLC

As geek parents, we often have rosy colored notions about our children growing up. We actually want them to be geeks. From the earliest of ages we dress them in WoW gear, teach them to quote Star Wars and wonder when is too early to start reading The Hobbit. We nurture them in the way of the Geek, hoping that, when the time comes for them to choose their path, they won’t stray far.

But being a geek kid isn’t easy; and being a geek girl might even be harder. Here are some things to keep in mind if you are raising a geek girl that might help her–and you–get through the school years.

By Natania Barron @Wired.com/Geekdad

A Brief History of the Hells Angels – @TIME.com

michdelorme — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:22:11 +0000

A Brief History of The Hells Angels

Members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club rally in Muenster, Germany.

A tide of tattoos, leather and thousands of thundering Harleys will surge… Despite its fame and long history, there is much about the Angels that remains shrouded in mystery….

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Source: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C1914201%2C00.html

Ask Ashton Kutcher – 10 Questions – TIME.com

michdelorme — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:03:51 +0000

Ask Ashton Kutcher:

Yuriko Nakao / Reuters / Corbis

He’s been a model, a sitcom heartthrob, the chief provocateur of the candid-camera show Punk’d and Mr. Demi Moore. In April he challenged CNN to see who could garner more than 1 million followers on the micro-blogging site Twitter first — and won handily. He’s still the most popular person on the site, with more people reading his feed than those of CNN, President Obama and Oprah. His new film Spread premieres August 14. Submit your questions for Ashton Kutcher below, then read the interview in an upcoming interview of TIME magazine.

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How to build a desktop WYSIWYG editor with WebKit and HTML 5 – Ars Technica

michdelorme — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:04:01 +0000

How to build a desktop WYSIWYG editor with WebKit and HTML 5Web technologies are increasingly being used on the desktop to bring richer user interfaces to conventional applications. In this tutorial we will show you how to use the WebKit HTML renderer alongside native GTK+ widgets to make a desktop WYSIWYG editor with Python.

A WYSIWYG editor built with Python, GTK+, and WebKit

Software developers are increasingly using Web technologies to build desktop applications. This is because modern HTML rendering engines and emerging standards provide a profoundly powerful foundation for rapid development, rich presentation, and deep Web integration.

Apple’s open source WebKit renderer has become the basis for several cross-platform application runtime environments that are designed to empower this trend, including Adobe AIR and Appcelerator’s Titanium framework. WebKit can also be used alongside native platform user interface toolkits to build software that delivers all of the advantages of Web technology but also allows tight integration with the underlying platform. In this article, we will look at how the WebKit HTML renderer can be used with GTK+ to make a lightweight WYSIWYG editor with Python.

Teaching Kids About Web Literacy | GeekDad | Wired.com

michdelorme — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:33:08 +0000

Teaching Kids About Web Literacy

via Teaching Kids About Web Literacy | GeekDad | Wired.com.

Image: www.freefoto.com

Cory Doctorow has a great essay at Internet Evolution about the problems with censorware and more effective ways to teach kids how to be safe and responsible web citizens. I teach high school and I know first hand how censorware can be more of a burden than an asset. The ostensible purpose of these systems is reasonable: keep kids safe from stuff online that is genuinely harmful to them or to the network and keep them away from distractions that they don’t need when they should be studying or doing research.