Winter’s Haven

Rachel Carson was born a hundred years and a few days ago. The New York Times science column has an excellent overview of how Silent Spring’s claims regarding the dangers of pesticides compare to state of scientific knowledge.
The short version: in light of the best scientific knowledge available at the time the book [...]

My laptop has been having power problems. Again. In the past, power problems have caused the plug (the one on the end of the AC adapter which plugs into the back of the laptop) to become very hot, causing the plastic part of it to melt. This has some bad effects: (1) it coats part [...]

I recently discovered some truly delicious cookies on the store self: Kashi Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. The problem is that they are moderately expensive, and I’m hooked. Although I am a decent cook, I have very little experience baking. Does anyone know how to reverse engineer a cookie?

Yes, literally. Read all about it. There are a lot of crazy ideas out there, but this one is my new favorite.

This clipping was taken from the BBC News Front Page on March 31, 2007.

The irony in that juxtaposition is more delicious than a chocolate Jesus.

I’ve been watching the X-Files recently, and I’ve slowly come to the realization that the entire show is one enormous conspiracy. A product placement conspiracy. But how, you ask, can product placement be a conspiracy? After all, isn’t it common knowledge that advertisers pay to have their products appear in movies and TV shows? This [...]

…for people who don’t comment their code. As a user, I admire the developers who built Wesnoth, but as a programmer / theologian, I fear for their souls.

In an attempt to move my several financial accounts to a single bank, I opened a new pair of checking and savings accounts with WaMu.
Banks continually monitor their accounts with a variety of automatic tools designed to detect fraudulent activity. I managed to inadvertently trip WaMu’s fraud detection system, a system which is — quite [...]