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May. 17th, 2008 @ 07:03 pm Things you don't want to hear the home-team announcers say
"And there's a change-up from Zito. Oh, wait -- it's at 84. Maybe a fastball."
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[info]captaino
May. 17th, 2008 @ 01:55 pm (no subject)

, originally uploaded by ashleyniblock.

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[info]exoskeleton
May. 17th, 2008 @ 01:18 pm With tragedy comes lawsuits; also, media bias?
Family of boy hit by baseball holds onto hope

The batter rocketed a shot off a 31-ounce metal bat. The ball slammed into Steven's chest, just above his heart, knocking him backward. He clutched his chest, then made a motion to reach for the ball on the ground to pick it up and throw to first base.

But he never made it that far. The ball had struck his chest at the precise millisecond between heartbeats, sending him into cardiac arrest, according to his doctors. He crumpled to the ground and stopped breathing.


Another tragic example of commotio cordis when there is a blow to just the "right"/wrong part of the chest during a very tiny window in the heartbeat cycle which disrupts the heart's rhythm.

I am deeply sorry for the family, and I understand the tremendous emotional and financial burden that has been placed upon them... but, lawsuits?

His family plans to file a lawsuit Monday against the maker of the metal bat that was used in the game, against Little League Baseball and a sporting goods chain that sold the bat. The family contends metal baseball bats are inherently unsafe for youth games because the ball comes off them much faster than from wooden bats.


IANAL, but isn't there something about implied assumption of risk? Commotio cordis is rare, but has made the news a lot precisely because of similar accidents, sometimes fatal, especially in youth sports.

Serious question, mostly directed at [info]schmengie and [info]rcfox for calibration purposes: is the linked AP article biased towards one side or the other in this story?

More excerpts )
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[info]evwhore
May. 16th, 2008 @ 08:01 pm Tired
this morning I did 75 pullups (kipping), 146 push ups, and 210 bodyweight squats in 20min. AKA 14.5 rounds of "Cindy". In retrospect, that seems like a lot of exercise. Especially with the heat. It makes me tired just thinking about, although it didn't seem bad at the time.

We got another air conditioner, but I was too tired to set it up. Maybe dinner will help?

Its gonna be a lazy weekend.
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[info]patrissimo
May. 16th, 2008 @ 10:42 pm NBA playoffs
I have been watching the NBA playoffs and it is just impossible to believe that a major professional sports league, especially one that just uncovered a betting scandal, could tolerate the utter ineptness and inconsistency of its "best" officials. If aliens were trying to figure out the personal foul rules by watching tape, they would have to watch like thousands and thousands of games and still they would probably wind up with empirically derived rules that had all kinds of qualifications and randomness.

Just terrible.
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[info]hgfalling
May. 16th, 2008 @ 06:57 pm Interesting article on gravitational anomalies
This WSJ article is about the search for the cause of the Pioneer anomaly. It also mentions other anomalies I hadn't heard of before (the moon's orbit is seemingly off by 6mm/year, and the Earth-Sun distance seems to grow by a few inches/year, and in neither case do we know why).
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[info]captaino
May. 16th, 2008 @ 04:33 pm Robert Mondavi, RIP
Famed Napa Valley vintner Robert Mondavi dead at age 94

Robert Mondavi, the charismatic Napa Valley vintner whose work helped establish California wines as among the world's best, died this morning. He was 94.


In the I-can't-help-myself department: he will be laid down in an wooden casket and is expected to take on a rich, earthy flavor over the next few decades.
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[info]evwhore
May. 16th, 2008 @ 09:10 am Children's Discovery Museum pics
Are here. Don't have time for detail, but I'll just say: water vortex open at top and bottom is pretty cool. Bernoulli-effect balls is even cooler - and simpler to implement. The balls with the short streams in the picture are totally stable, they just sit there. In the long-stream setup, the balls sit at the top for 1-10 seconds before falling.
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[info]patrissimo
May. 15th, 2008 @ 11:27 pm Stumbleupon
Current Music: Love Hurts - Bon Jovi
StumbleUpon must have gotten really popular lately. Either that or it really likes seasteading - it's one of our top 5 referrers (generating double the traffic of wikipedia). I remember noticing (and skipping it) awhile back b/c it looked like a good way to waste time on the internet. Glad it's sending time-wasting our direction!

Well, or spoofing our logs with bots. You never know.
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[info]patrissimo
May. 15th, 2008 @ 11:21 pm What GE doesn't want you to know
Current Music: Love Hurts - Bon Jovi
I read a fascinating site today about how you can modify your car to run partly on water, and halve your fuel costs (I failed to find it again, but it was very like this one). In that spirit, I have some advice about dealing with the current heat wave.

Whether or not you own an air conditioner, it turns out that an ordinary household appliance can be used as a substitute. Specifically, the refrigerator. So if you need extra cool, just open its doors wide, and harness that cooling power for your house. Save hundreds of dollars by using the secret that big appliance makers don't want you to know.

This is a simple, affordable, Do-It-Yourself technology that anyone can use. And it doesn't even void your warranty! Many people have significantly altered the temperature in their homes through our technology - now it's your turn!

p.s. if my fridge sensibly vented its waste heat externally, instead of dumping it into my already-hot house, the spirit of this post would be rather different.
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[info]patrissimo
May. 15th, 2008 @ 09:15 pm Maker Faire XI

Maker Faire XI, originally uploaded by ashleyniblock.

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[info]exoskeleton
May. 15th, 2008 @ 09:11 pm Maker Faire XI

Maker Faire XI, originally uploaded by ashleyniblock.

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[info]exoskeleton
May. 15th, 2008 @ 08:31 pm i think my eyebrows have been singed off
Current Music: Pixies - Caribou

Keith Olbermann pulls out all the stops on the "rip Dubya a new asshole" pipe organ and delivers a twelve-minute virtuoso performance.  Thanks to [info]drieuxster.

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[info]ronebofh
May. 15th, 2008 @ 08:20 pm Shouldn't have lowered my defenses
Living in a nice artificial world, where I'm protected from nature, it's easy to forget just how much plants hate me. I did some outdoor sprints this evening, when it had cooled off a bit, and on a break I foolishly lay down on the grass with no shirt for 30 seconds or so. Then it started itching, and I realized my mistake.

Half an hour later, Shannon took this picture of my back:



30 seconds of direct contact with nature, and that's what happens to my body. And people wonder why I want to go live at sea where the air is cleansed of biological weapons such as pollen...
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[info]patrissimo
May. 15th, 2008 @ 08:06 pm This is not at all what I had hoped it would be about
via [info]captainparanoid in e-mail:

Bacon Triptych Auctioned for Record $86 Million

Free association: originally it was an idea for dinner
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[info]evwhore
May. 15th, 2008 @ 03:35 pm Hexayurt
Cool.

(inside joke: "Burning Man - free with piece of Hexayurt")

He's also got a good article on saving the world's poor:
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[info]patrissimo
May. 15th, 2008 @ 03:18 pm Whee...
Power outage on our block at work. The new UPSes are getting a good workout...
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[info]evwhore
May. 15th, 2008 @ 01:47 pm Dreams
Last night I dreamed that I got coached by Jesus. He was sort of intense and extroverted and Jew-looking, seemed like he'd be good at being center of attention at a party, although since he was coaching he focused on trying to dig into my problems and visions and inspirations.
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[info]patrissimo
May. 15th, 2008 @ 01:04 pm Who could possibly have foreseen this outcome?
How not to remove a tree from your yard. From a click trail starting at boingboing going through Cracked.com. Fortunately or not depending on your point of view, not Darwin Award eligible.
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[info]evwhore
May. 15th, 2008 @ 11:16 am Puzzle o' the Day 161!
It's hot. Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. Here's a puzzle.

How can you use a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass to measure nine minutes?
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[info]captaino