Category Archives: Science/Engineering

Wrangler’s phone pocket

Posted on March 3, 2011 | Comments Off on Wrangler’s phone pocket

It’s been so long since I bought a new pair of Wrangler Cowboy Cut jeans (regular fit, if you must know) that when I bought two the other day, I discovered they’ve made a modern update.

The ancient, little “change pocket” sewn into the top of the deeper right-hand front pocket used to be just the size to carry quarters or dimes in—even a small pocket knife. Now it’s deep and wide and called a “phone pocket.”

Sure enough, a cell phone tucks right in there, eliminating the need for a phone holster or some other such gizmo on the belt to get snagged on things—like saddles and barbed wire fences. Yippee ki-yay.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Texana

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Osama’s Keystone Kop

Posted on February 28, 2011 | Comments Off on Osama’s Keystone Kop

We’re either very lucky or the enemy is very inept.

This young Saudi, living in the windy, isolated West Texas city of Lubbock on a student visa and, therefore, apparently attending Texas Tech University (though they managed to keep their name out of the stories), got caught buying some unusually-toxic industrial chemicals.  To make bombs for terrorist attacks, the feds say.

We’re lucky that Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari isn’t the finest product of human evolution. Or, uh, maybe he is. This could well be evolution at work.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Texana, The War

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Watching the police

Posted on February 27, 2011 | Comments Off on Watching the police

You may have heard, if you read Instapundit, a Tennessee professor of Constitutional law who is passionate on the subject, that some police departments are infuriated when private citizens videotape their officers on their jobs. Some people who refused to stop have been arrested and charged with various things.

Well, the computer age has come to the rescue of those who fear encounters with abusive police who might lie about what they do. Not that I think that most cops would do that, but it’s been documented that some have. The OpenWatch “cop recorder” is an app for the Android smart phone that not only lets you surreptitiously capture audio and video of an encounter with a police officer, but helps you post both annoymously to the Internet.

Via, who else? Instapundit.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

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Rockin’ Roku

Posted on February 15, 2011 | Comments Off on Rockin’ Roku

My Valentine’s gift to Mrs. Charm, a Roku XD, was a hit. She likes Masterpiece Theater and similar Brit stuff, but isn’t always available when the local channel decides to run them. Now, with the various streaming video channels the Roku offers, she can choose her own time. One more reason to read Instapundit.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Mrs. Charm, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

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Light decoder

Posted on February 9, 2011 | Comments Off on Light decoder

het_primarybHobby-Eberly Telescope, a spectroscopy giant, in the Fort Davis Mountains.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space, Texana

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Could Washington shut down the Internet?

Posted on February 8, 2011 | Comments Off on Could Washington shut down the Internet?

You know, like the Egyptian government did during the riots? Probably, if it wanted to, but there’d be an enormous economic and political cost:

“The next few decades will likely be a contest in which the outcome depends on who is exaggerating more: those proclaiming the potential of new technologies, or those proclaiming the power of governments to constrain them.”

So said the Instapundit, in a law review paper five years ago. Worth a read. Download is free.

Plus, ways to fight back, from dial-up (shutting down the whole phone system is harder, even for a government), to shortwave radio.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

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Hot rain

Posted on February 6, 2011 | Comments Off on Hot rain

On good old Sol, where else? It’s an impressive video of plasma on the sun.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Space, Weather/Climate

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