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I found this excellent tutorial for new users of IMatch looking to import their photos. It’s far more detailed than mine (Image category management with IMatch) on setting up the asset management workflow.

This BBC article (via Slashdot) describes the fascinating discovery of batteries in Baghdad dating to 200 BC. They were basically clay pots with copper cylinder cores that were to be immersed in some electrolyte such as wine or vinegar. Their purpose is still unknown.

Eat your heart out, Energizer bunny!

Charlotte Observer

Rep. Coble (R-NC) stated on radio he feels the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was justified and appropriate given the circumstances. He justifies his position with the bogus argument that this was done for their own protection.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) was interned as a chld with his family at a concentration camp like Manzanar. I had the privilege to hear him speak a few months ago, and he recalled his father saying: “Mike if it’s for your own protection, you have to wonder why you’re inside barbed wire with machine guns pointed at you.”

The problem is, Rep. Coble is not just another faceless bigot disgracing Congress. He is the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. Like Trent Lott before him, he should be made to resign as his positions show just how unfit he is for that office.

Western Europe has very moderate winters compared to North American coastal regions at the same latitude, with a whopping 15°C (27°F) difference. New York is at about the same latitude as Rome, but its winters are considerably colder than those of Paris or London, which are at the same latitude as Québec or Newfoundland.

Conventional wisdom claims this is due to the regulating effects of the Gulfstream, that acts as a heat pump between both sides of the Atlantic ocean.

New research from Columbia (more details available from The Independent) debunks this theory. Apparently, most of the difference is due to atmospheric effects, and half of that due to global wind patterns whose meanderings are shaped by the Rocky Mountains (in simulations where the Rockies are flattened, Western Europe gets 9°C colder).The Gulfstream actually has only a very minor and almost negligible contribution to the difference.

I find it really amazing how mountains 9 time zones away can influence the climate so dramatically. It is a small world, after all.

Yamaha announced they will exit the CD-RW drive market. They make the excellent CRW-F1 drive, which is unique in that is capable of imprinting messages such as titles in the unused portion of the disc. The user interface for this “Disc@T2” feature is somewhat clunky, but this is a great feature that is easily worth the price premium in my opinion. Unfortunately, it seems my opinion is not shared and most people would rather pay less for a commodity than pay for innovation.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, Kenwood discontinued its line of 72x CD-ROM drives a year or two ago. When mine failed, I had no spare and no alternative but to get a noisier, slower Sony 52x. The Kenwood drives managed this by using a Zen Research beam splitter head to read multiple tracks in parallel, and thus did not need to rotate the disc as fast and induce as much vibration as conventional designs.

This time, I am prepared and I am hoarding 2 of these Yamaha drives before stocks run out…