Isotropic is …
... my personal blog. Anything I write here is simply my personal, probably ill-formed, opinion and does not represent the views, beliefs, positions, or opinions of any other person or entity.
Monthly Archives: May 2008
26 May 2008
Pot Luck
According to this BBC News article, “An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan’s Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say.”. Against regulations, an agent hid the training sample in a real passenger’s bag rather than a training bag. Apparently he has been doing this regularly. Imagine the scenario […]
26 May 2008
Vista Vista
Steve Ballmer is in no way disappointed with Windows Vista. It is selling “incredibly well”, he told a press conference in Herzeliya, Israel today. “Vista sells on almost 100 per cent of all the new consumer PCs around the world,” the Microsoft CEO proclaimed. He added that the operating system was also selling on, “45 percent […]
26 May 2008
Uniquely Human
I couldn’t miss the chance to refer to an article titled “Critters with attitude”. (Critter is one of my favorite words.) To accompany the article So you think humans are unique? we have selected six articles from the New Scientist archive that tell a similar story. We have also asked the researchers involved to update […]
24 May 2008
Contemporary Theater of Contrition
I’m sorry you’re likely to get hit. I’m sorry you were hit. I’m sorry I hit you. I’m sorry I got caught hitting you. I’m sorry if my hitting you was misconstrued as an attempt to cause you pain. “The news is full of headlines about Senator Clinton’s “apology” for her tone-deaf comment about the […]
24 May 2008
Parrot Prodigies
Language Log’s ongoing ridicule of the BBC’s science reporting continues with Parrots and children: still silly season at the BBC: There are people writing purportedly serious stories for the British Broadcasting Corporation who think that a grey parrot has the cognitive ability of a normal six year old human child. Have these people never met […]
23 May 2008
Sweet Irony
After following an ever more tenuous chain of links, I ran across a multi-screen screed of character destruction, only to find the sweet irony of this signature: ‘”If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa’ I’m often surprised that humanity has survived as long as it has. Viewed through […]
22 May 2008
How Delightful
“The key point is this: You are not Microsoft’s customer. You are not the person they want to delight.”
