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Wednesday, January 31, 2001
Sad Story of an Attempt to Install Windows 2000 Professional
Blow away the old Linux installation that worked without a problem for 4 years, and try to install a spanking new Windows 2000 Professional system. Should be a snap.
Windows 2000 Professional's Minuses Outweigh Plusses in Five-Day Ordeal
"I decided to see whether I could successfully install Windows 2000 Professional on a computer that had been running Linux quite nicely, thank you, for nearly four years. I moved all my data off Lothlorien, my well-loved but somewhat elderly Linux-powered PII-400, wiped out Linux and installed Windows 2000 Professional. I mean, I tried to.
The experiment failed."
posted at 1/31/2001 02:22:07 PM
Tuesday, January 30, 2001
This site has several photos of skulls for each of a large number of animals. Check out the huge fangs on the Mandrill or the American Red Squirrel. See the bizarre frontal view of the Hamadryas Baboon - it likes like an alien.
Will's Skull Page
posted at 1/30/2001 05:34:56 PM
This fascinating site has descriptions of and plans for many different aeolian (sounded by the natural wind) instruments. Included in the descriptions are pigeon flutes, classic aeolian harps, singing kites and the interesting Wolf Tiles of rural France. You will have to listen to the many sound files of the always eerie aeolian music.
Kite Musical Instruments, Aeolian Instruments, Drachen-Musik-Instrumente, Musiques Éoliennes pour Cerfs-Volants, kite whistles, kite flutes, musical kite bows
"The Wolf-Tile is acting as an indirect warning- or announcing instrument for signalling the imminent invasion of the wolves. It doesn't serve to frighten the animals or keeping them away."
posted at 1/30/2001 02:49:21 PM
Saturday, January 27, 2001
Around 1970 scientists discovered a new group of life forms in the ocean, sort of like bacteria. At first thought to inhabit only very extreme environments, they have now been found to possibly make half the biomass of the ocean. So here is perhaps the dominant life form in the ocean, and no one even knows how they feed or reproduce. It is amazing that a discovery like this could happen in this day and age. And not just a new species, but an entire new domain of life.
NSF PR 01-05: New Group of Microorganisms Discovered in the Open Sea
"Archaea, one of three separate domains of life on our planet, were undiscovered until 1970."
"Now, scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have found unexpected, astounding numbers of archaea living in Earth's largest biome, the open sea."
"These organisms could make up 50 percent of life in the open sea."
" Very little is known about these life forms. "
"Marine scientists have yet to understand how archaea take in nutrients, multiply, or what ecological role they play."
posted at 1/27/2001 08:22:56 PM
Friday, January 26, 2001
Here you can find all the information you ever wanted to know about volcanoes. It includes up to date news on all the latest eruptions and lots of photos. You can also subscribe to eruption alert mailing list.
Volcano World -- The Premier Source of Volcano Info on the Web
posted at 1/26/2001 11:24:00 AM
Thursday, January 25, 2001
From a satellite 677 km in space, here is a view of the Maha Kumbh Mela Hindu spiritual festival. You can easily make out the people in their red robes. It makes Woodstock look like a neighborhood block party. The photo is from SpaceImaging.com.
Maha Kumbh , 640x480
Maha Kumbh , 800x600
Maha Kumbh , 1024x768
"This tightly-cropped, one-meter resolution, satellite image of the Maha Kumbh Mela was collected by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 23, 2001 at the start of the most sacred and busiest bathing day (Mauni Amavasya) of the festival. IKONOS is the world's highest resolution, commercial Earth imaging satellite. The image clearly shows masses of worshipers bathing in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. Also notice that the shape of the sand banks in the river has changed from the before image. A reported 30 million people bathed in the rivers during the day to wash away their sins"
posted at 1/25/2001 10:43:10 PM
This site has a comprehensive introduction to sushi, including video clips and a glossary with sound files for pronunciation.
Surviving the sushi bar: help in making choices that fit your tastes
posted at 1/25/2001 04:24:01 PM
Wednesday, January 24, 2001
I knew that the north magnetic pole was not in the same place as the geographic north pole, but I did not know that the magnetic pole moves up to 15km per year, and that its position can vary by over 80km when the earths magnetic field is disturbed. The site includes maps showing the position over the past few hundred years.
GSC North Pole
"During the sixteenth century, mariners believed that somewhere in the North was a magnetic mountain that was the source of attraction for compasses, and, unfortunately, for any ships that strayed too close to it."
posted at 1/24/2001 02:40:31 PM
Tuesday, January 23, 2001
Hear the sounds of natural radio waves. Sferics, Tweeks and the aptly named Dawn Chorus, all produced within the earths atmosphere. You can listen to the earth 24 hours a day at Spaceweather.com, or you can order an inexpensive kit to build your own sferic receiver from the Inspire Project page.
Earth Songs: NASA News Release
SpaceWeather.com: NASA online VLF Receiver
Inspire Project Home Page
"Our planet is a natural source of radio waves at audio frequencies. An online receiver at the Marshall Space Flight Center is playing these songs of Earth so anyone can listen."
"If you have an internet connection you can now listen to a VLF radio anytime you wish. Gallagher and colleagues recently installed an INSPIRE VLF receiver at the MSFC Atmospheric Research Facility in Huntsville, AL. It's broadcasting the peculiar songs of Earth live on the web 24 hours a day. "
posted at 1/23/2001 09:14:13 PM
I've lived in Canada, around Halifax, Nova Scotia, for years and never dreamed what curiosities lay beneath the surface of the harbour. Old wrecks, strange rock circles, remains of the original old bridges from the 1800s, the swirling bottle hole collector and remains of the old submarine nets are just a few of the side scan sonar images documented here.
Bottom of Halifax Harbour
"The following web pages are a combination of multibeam bathymetric maps of Halifax Harbour produced by the Canadian Hydrographic Service and the Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic) and a collage of map-referenced images of the seabed. It has been assembled from data collected during 7 years of marine geological mapping. Together, they tell a varied, complex and colorful history of Halifax Harbour and the surrounding communities of Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, Eastern Passage and Herring Cove."
posted at 1/23/2001 08:38:26 PM
Monday, January 22, 2001
This site is an entrypoint into the shadowy world of urban exploration. Here you can also find a link to the Urban Exploration Web Ring, which links together at least 78 other urban exploration websites from around the world. Visit abandoned buildings, storm drains and much more.
Infiltration
( This worked this afternoon, but now has DNS problems - if it doesn't work, try this )
"Infiltration offers a mix of the practice and theory of urban exploration in areas not designed for public usage. You can find out more about the zine, mailing list, or t-shirt; read the article Approach (to draining), the Infilspeak dictionary or my journal, or jump straight into the FAQs and expeditions"
posted at 1/22/2001 10:30:25 AM
Friday, January 19, 2001
The Infrastructure of a Lost Metropolis
This site is a comprehensive view of New York from a different perspective.
Forgotten NY
"THE PAST is all around us in New York. It's on the buildings high above and in the subways and tunnels deep below. It's even in the paths the streets take. This site is your gateway to a New York City that existed long ago -- and still exists in a hidden form today."
"Waterfalls in the Bronx? Goats in Queens? Houses on stilts? Just a few of the strange street scenes and oddities you'll find in the streets of New York City."
posted at 1/19/2001 04:51:22 PM
Wednesday, January 17, 2001
Updated weekly, this site has graphs and maps tracking the progress of this years various flu strains in the USA. Apparently this years vaccine is well matched to the various strains going around. Interesting to see that there are three different types of the influenza virus going around now, and that they are prevalent in different areas.
CDC Weekly Influenza Summary Update
See also Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Influenza Page
posted at 1/17/2001 10:38:23 AM
Friday, January 12, 2001
For those of us in wintry climes, this is a big problem. Apparently caused by the natural gas crunch, supplies of methanol have dried up, and it makes up about 50 percent of a jug of windshield washer. Due to the harsher winter this year, demand has risen quite a bit. Last weekend I went to the local Canadian Tire store here in Nova Scotia to pick some winter windshield washer and they only had two jugs left, in the middle of winter. Apparently deliveries to gas stations are being rationed.
Montreal Gazette - Wednesday 10 January 2001 - Montreal almost out of the blue
"When you find it (windshield-washer fluid), buy as much as you can because you may not see it again," advises Mark Fell, operations manager for Hall-Chem Mfg. Inc. "
"Unless there's relief from the weather, this is going to get worse."
"Recochem Inc.'s four plants across Canada have been at full capacity since early December. But despite producing 300,000 4-litre jugs of the blue stuff a day, retailers are running out as fast as the shelves are stocked. The situation is the same in Ontario and the Maritimes, where snow hasn't let up in weeks. Auto-parts company Uniselec has had to limit its customers - mostly service stations - to 40 to 80 jugs of the fluid per transaction."
"He said he has simply stopped taking orders and has had to say no to desperate companies in the United States calling for fluid."
posted at 1/12/2001 05:27:33 PM
Thursday, January 11, 2001
This is a very comprehensive site, and basically has a list of links to images, sound clips and web pages for each species. It seems to have listings for every bird in the world.
A Field Guide to the Birds on the Web
posted at 1/11/2001 04:03:29 PM
Wednesday, January 10, 2001
Here is a webified version of the 1840 "First Octavo Edition" of James J. Audubon's complete seven volume text of Birds of America. It includes 500 drawings. This web version adds wav files of bird calls. It was pulled from a cdrom version that is now out of print, and the company that made the cdrom is long gone.
Audubon's Birds of America
posted at 1/10/2001 02:25:23 PM
Tuesday, January 09, 2001
This site has photographs and a few time lapse movies of many interesting weather phenomena. The variety of optical weather phenomena is amazing.
Weather Photography: lightning, clouds, atmospheric optics & astronomy
"On this site you will find photographs, video files and information on how to photograph weather phenomena yourself."
posted at 1/9/2001 01:22:24 PM
Friday, January 05, 2001
This is a nice high resolution image of lake effect snow in clear air, created by NW winds over the great lakes. It comes from the NASA Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Project.
SeaWiFS Captures Lake Effect Snow Image
posted at 1/5/2001 03:48:18 PM
Wednesday, January 03, 2001
This site has details of several interesting cycle designs, including recumbents, tricycles and a childs penny farthing bike.
Timothy Smith's Home Page of (mostly) Recumbent Cycle Projects
posted at 1/3/2001 03:13:39 PM
Tuesday, January 02, 2001
here is a very detailed description of a summer spent hand building a very nice looking carbon fiber bicycle.
How I Built a Composite Bike in My Garage, by Damon Rinard
"I kept careful track of the money I spent, but not the hours. The project took about the whole summer of 1995, not including the time spent beforehand thinking and dreaming up sketches. After I was done, I totaled up $848.78 spent. With hind sight, I see now that I could have spent less. If I were to do it again, I could make the same bike for about $600.00. But who wants to make the same bike over again? I will try a new design next time! "
posted at 1/2/2001 09:50:35 PM
