New finds

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Three things which will make your time on earth better and more complete: 1. This juicer. This is the culmination of 5,000 years of juicing technology. It juices lemons/limes with such ease that I shed a small tear of happiness each time I use it. It is an engineering marvel nearly as perfect as the pyramids or the Spitfire. I have banned all other juicers from my kitchen. Except the one I use for oranges because this one's not quite big enough. 2. Heroes. Because you need more quality TV programming in your life. We just started seeing this show over here in the UK. After 2 shoes, I am irrevocably hooked. At least until they screw it up. 3. Razorlight. Very, very cool music. Very new British punk meets radio-playability. Buy it. Love it. Play it loud in your car with your windows down so that your neighbors can enjoy it as much as you do.
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Further adventures in hurling

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This weekend, I went back to the garage and pulled out the catapult. I had picked up more wood, and this time around, had a reinforced frame knocked together in no time, with extra bracing all around to ensure that the torsion engine (also known as the 'really tightly wound rope') wouldn't crack the frame again.
No problem, right? I had the rope looped back through in a second, and began the winding. Yeah. The frame wasn't the problem. The rope was. Just a hair past where I had it last time, the rope split. No problem, I thought: I'll use a cotton line twisted double for extra strength. Same thing.
Dammit! When all else fails - do what the Romans did: Go for nylon. This one lasted no problem, and I was able to get a good tension going. I also figured I'd let the sling hang over the edge of the retaining wall to give our ammunition/potato good clearance.
With a little tweaking, we had this one hurling potatos 20 meters or so, and I think I can get a bit more out of it with a some adjustments of the sling mechanism. The neighborhood kids all came by and took a turn as well (which was great, because otherwise, it would've been me having to chase those potatoes, and that would be Quite Wrong). By the twelth or fourteenth launch, though, the whole thing was starting to shake itself apart on every throw. I kept having to bang the braces back together, add more nails, etc. This weekend, I'll head down to the DIY store for some metal strapping to brace the joints. And then? Then we'll go hunting for Visigoths... Who knew science could be so much fun? Click below to see a the 4 year old Critter operating a catapult.
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Privacy is *so* 1964

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This is a mostly interesting article although they focus on the personal, not commercial/financial aspects of data privacy, which have a whole other set of issues and challenges. However, I used to say that if my TiVo could figure out enough about my viewing habits to deliver only commercials about Home Depot, Diet Coke and Barnes & Noble, I'd be just fine with surrendering some degree of privacy. (Note that there is a difference between privacy and anonymity in this case) Glad to know I was ahead of the curve. Or with the curve. Or not sufficiently behind the curve to be lumped in with the boomer luddites mentioned in this article. Kids, the Internet and the End of Privacy
Younger people, one could point out, are the only ones for whom it seems to have sunk in that the idea of a truly private life is already an illusion. Every street in New York has a surveillance camera. Each time you swipe your debit card at Duane Reade or use your MetroCard, that transaction is tracked. Your employer owns your e-mails. The NSA owns your phone calls. Your life is being lived in public whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. So it may be time to consider the possibility that young people who behave as if privacy doesn't exist are actually the sane people, not the insane ones. For someone like me, who grew up sealing my diary with a literal lock, this may be tough to accept. But under current circumstances, a defiant belief in holding things close to your chest might not be high-minded. It might be an artifact—quaint and naive, like a determined faith that virginity keeps ladies pure. Or at least that might be true for someone who has grown up "putting themselves out there" and found that the benefits of being transparent make the risks worth it.
This does put me in interesting contrast to my mother, who makes air quotes with her fingers when speaking of things like "the internet" or a "computer".
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