Category: Interesting Reads

Crushed milk – better than pasteurized

I’ve never even heard of this before, but apparently the process of crushing milk results in longer lasting milk.

Crushing milk at high pressures could help it last for seven weeks in the refrigerator without the unfavorable flavors associated with other long-lasting milks, researchers now report.

Conventionally, milk is pasteurized, or heated at high temperatures to kill harmful germs, at roughly 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds. While pasteurization kills most germs, it does not wipe out bacterial spores, the dormant versions of the germs, which are extremely resistant to any form of destruction. Bacterial spores and remaining germs eventually spoil conventionally pasteurized milk, which is why it typically has a shelf life of only about 20 days when refrigerated.

. . .

The researchers found pressurizing milk at 85,000 pounds per square inch for five minutes at about 130 degrees kills germs while retaining the taste of fresh milk. The result is milk that stays fresh at least 45 days in the refrigerator. If the researchers can make this process commercially viable, Torres anticipated such milk could appear on the market in three to five years.

The article also mentions heating milk to as high as 300 degrees, resulting in milk that lasts up to 6 months unrefrigerated, but that this milk has not done well in the US due to associated strong flavors the process generates.

[tags]Crushed milk better than pasteurized, Milk purified via pressure lasts longer[/tags]

Will Wright – gaming’s god of god games

For the past six years, Wright has been working on a new game, which will be released in 2007. It is anticipated with something like the interest with which writers in Paris in the early twenties awaited Joyce’s “Ulysses.” At first, Wright called the project Sim Everything, but a few years ago he settled on the name Spore. The game draws on the theory of natural selection. It seeks to replicate algorithmically the conditions by which evolution works, and render the process as a game.

Covering briefly the start of videogaming and the god-game concept, this New Yorker article about Will Wright has information about how Wright works, what meeting with him is like, what he does to get creative, and so on. Anyone who has interest in the backgrounds of gaming’s better known creators will probably like this, long though the article is.

There is also some information on Wright’s new game, Spore, and its published, Electronic Arts, but for me, the real interest to the story is Will Wright himself. Beware – this is a long one, running 4 pages and many thousands of words.

[tags]Will Wright – game god, The New Yorker on Will Wright and Spore[/tags]

On 9/11

I’ve been reading a lot of 9/11 information – official government reports, cospiracy theorist musings, average joe thoughts, and so on. While looking for the official 9/11 commission report on Amazon, I came across this post concerning the 9/11 report and a question on why the WTC tower 7 collapse was not mentioned in the report. Here’s a big chunk of the (prettified by me) unformatted first post of one discussion.

You could buy “The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions” – but do you really need to? One little picture named wtc7.gif, you can easily find it on the web, makes it perfectly clear that WTC 7 was blown up in a controlled demolition. That one picture is worth way more than the couple hundred thousand lying words in this flagrant government cover-up.

wtc7.gif (I’m posting the image, so you don’t have to search for it)

If WTC 7 wasn’t an inside job, then why did the report cover it up? Because they have not even the shadow of an explanation for the WTC7 implosion.

Continue reading “On 9/11”

Quantum physics – the nature of stuff

Today’s educating bit of the day – learn a few tidbits about quantum physics and how everything ties together (not really). Learn a bit about light, matter, gravity, and more.

When small cannot get any smaller, you enter the quantum world of quarks, photons, and space-time foam. You’re welcome to take a look at this indivisible side of nature, but just remember to leave your common sense at the door.

. . .

If you split a banana, and then split it again, and again, and again… you eventually get down to cells, molecules, atoms. Each atom has a nucleus of protons and neutrons, with tiny electrons buzzing around. Both protons and neutrons contain three quarks.

But the dissection stops there: electrons and quarks are the smallest pieces of ordinary matter.

Then again, that’s what they said first about the atom, then the proton/neutron/electron. Is that really the smallest piece? Or does the answer to that depend on what “ordinary matter” is? That’s not answered in the article, but I think it’s a question worth asking. I suppose in a few years, we’ll learn there really is something smaller.

[tags]Quantum physics in brief, On light and matter and other quantum things[/tags]

1999 war games under Clinton indicate potential Iraq invasion issues

After some talks by Marine General Anthony Zinni (ret.) about these, the folks at George Washington University’s National Security Archive have gotten their hands on post Iraqi invasion war game documents from 1999 via a Freedom of Information Act request. If I’m reading things correctly, these war games performed under President Clinton detail some possibilities of what would be required for a successful Iraqi invasion and post-invasion rebuilding program.

A series of secret U.S. war games in 1999 showed that an invasion and post-war administration of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, nearly three times the number there now.

And even then, the games showed, the country still had a chance of dissolving into chaos.

In the simulation, called Desert Crossing, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence participants concluded the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs.

Continue reading “1999 war games under Clinton indicate potential Iraq invasion issues”

Screeners protect flyers from diabetic mans insulin – sends man into coma

Participating in the worldwide task of protecting flyers from implausible security risks, screeners at an Auckland airport denied a diabetic man the right to take his clearly labeled insulin on a plane with him. Thank goodness all the other passengers were spared the risk of a man preventing himself from suffering severe medical problems.

Mr Russell said check-in staff at Auckland Airport told him he could not take his medication on board because it was dangerous.

When flight crews found out that Mr. Russell was having medical problems but that he had been denied the right to take his medicine on the plane with him, they were upset with airport screeners and worked to give him what care they could.

He started feeling ill during the flight last month and called a flight attendant.

“They asked where the insulin was, and they weren’t very happy when they found out I wasn’t allowed to bring it on board.”

Mr Russell praised cabin crew who tried to keep him conscious and gave him oxygen until they arrived in Christchurch.

But he fell into a coma shortly before the aircraft landed and spent two weeks in Christchurch Hospital.

But at least airline officials apologized

Qantas yesterday apologised to Tui Peter Russell, who had a severe attack on the plane and was in hospital for two weeks.

I just wonder how many times this sort of thing has to happen before the sheep who support the current anti-liquid, anti-traveller, screw-safety-but-put-on-a-good-show for folks-who-don’t-realize-this-is-not-security “security” will accept that the false positive rate for this security method exceeds the old way’s false-negative rate by such a huge margin that we are likely to lose more lives to this than to actual attacks. I don’t understand how people can support putting human lives at risk every day because doing so might (but probably won’t) prevent an attack every few years (or hell, let’s say every few months, which still leaves the lives risked far worse with current security than with old security).

The story isn’t totally negative, though.

Mr Russell said Qantas had offered him a free return flight from Auckland to Christchurch, but he also wanted help from the airline to recover $500 in hospital and medication bills.

[tags]Liquid security threat causes diabetic to suffer coma, Thanks for keeping the water off the plane – I’ll fly again after I get out of the hospital[/tags]

Microsoft – Bought DRM music from us? Fools!!!

Hmmmm, I haven’t had a good Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) story in a while. Let’s fix that now.

Microsoft, 2 years after launching MSN music store, is now moving its anti-consumer-technology efforts into making the Zune as unfriendly as possible for restricting consumer rights. Continue reading “Microsoft – Bought DRM music from us? Fools!!!”

Hologram theory

While perusing boingboing today, I followed a link to a site called wikidumper, which tracks some of the best rejected content from Wikipedia in case it should eventually be removed. The first item that stopped my reading was this post title Hologram theory. According to hologram theory, there were no planes on 9/11. This is really one of the more worthwhile posts I’ve ever put up. You really should read on… Continue reading “Hologram theory”

Coulter facing possible felony charges

I don’t know how I missed this when it first happened, but apparently Ann Coulter is facing possible felony charges after it was discovered earlier this year that she voted in the wrong precint using the wrong home address (and verifying her incorrect address as correct). Normally, I wouldn’t care about this nearly as much as whether someone voted more than once in an election. Given all the hateful lies (one of many good resource on blogspot) Coulter spews about liberals and things like their hatred of America and their fraudulent voting methods, I felt it necessary to point out that it’s not only the liberals who have wrongful votes happening at the polls. Oh, and Coulter will not help in the investigation, which I suppose is understandable given our protection against self-incrimination (found in article V of that Bill of Rights thing that some conservatives seem to want to discount these days and liberals won’t stand up to them)

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has refused to cooperate in an investigation into whether she voted in the wrong precinct, so the case will probably be turned over to prosecutors, Palm Beach County’s elections chief said Wednesday.

Knowingly voting in the wrong precinct is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said his office has been looking into the matter for nearly nine months, and he would turn over the case to the state attorney’s office by Friday.

. . .

In July, Anderson said, he received a letter from Coulter’s attorney, Marcos Daniel Jimenez D’Clouet. The letter said the attorney would only discuss the matter in person or by telephone because, he complained, Anderson had given details to the media. Anderson said the matter had to be discussed in writing.

See, we all have things we do wrong. Just most of us aren’t so publicly well known that when we accuse others of something and then do it ourselves, we don’t get caught.

[tags]Ann Coulter facing possible felony charges, Those voting laws don’t apply to me[/tags]