Miscellanea #21

A continuing series of noteworthy tidbits gleaned from all over.

Segway Critics
Many critics of the Segway have been far too quick to dismiss the technology as some sort of crutch for lazy people. But evidence is mounting that the disabled see the Segway as a liberating technology. Disability Rights Advocates for Technology (DRAFT) is a nascent 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that will champion use of Segways specifically for the disabled. I’d be very interested in knowing just how many Segway owners have been diagnosed with some sort of mobility impairment. It’s probably a significant percentage…. (Urbification: Taking the sub out of Calif. suburbs)

Andy Kaufman — Dead or Alive?
Dead…. (Five Live Links)

Voices On Tape
This is kind of like audio voyeurism: Voices From The Thriftshop. Thrift shops and junk stores end up with boxes of old tapes, ‘donated’ by well-wishers who don’t feel right about tossing them in the trash. The bulk of the unmarked recordings are just pirate music, recorded off albums or the radio. Sometimes, there are voices on them…. (J-Walk Blog)

Regular Expressions In 10 Minutes
In conclusion the book provides a painless way into regular expressions. It takes a simple approach and keeps focused on showing how to get the job done. If you’re already a regex regular then the chances are that there’s not much new here for you, but if you’re just starting out then this is a pretty good place to start. (RootPrompt — Nothing but Unix)

The 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board
The 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision is on 17 May, 2004. Some resources… (h20boro)

4000-year-old wood pipes discovered in Ireland
Archaeologists discovered a set of musical pipes believed to have been used 4,000 years ago by prehistoric man in Ireland, making them the world’s oldest wooden instruments…. (Stone Pages Archaeo News)

Salt FAQ
Yesterday, while waiting for the ballgame to start, I watched an episode of my favorite cooking show: Alton Brown’s Good Eats (on the Food Network). It was all about salt. And, from the Salt Institute, the Salt FAQ. (J-Walk Blog)

Now You’re Cookin’
You’ve coveted the impish Jamie Oliver, with his hot cockney accent. Envied the luscious Nigella and her effortless ways. Laughed at those wacky Iron Chefs. All the while thinking, I can do that. Can you really? Didn’t think so. Not yet, at least. Drop the remote and sign up for a Be Gourmet cooking class, taught by chef Tim Ross of the prestigious Ecole Superieur de Cuisine Francaise…. (StellaBites)

Faux Substitutes Are No Substitute
I was recently invited to salon.com to take part in a tasting of “faux-carb” products—packaged and mix-and-serve foods that use carbohydrate substitutes, mainly soy. These items, meant to resemble various starchy foods such as mashed potatoes, noodles, and chips, tasted universally bad. New York Times writer Mark Bittman, author of The Minimalist columns and cookbooks, offered the following assessment: ‘What are we saying? It’s not going to make you puke? That’s our highest praise: If it’s four in the afternoon and you haven’t had anything to eat all day and you’re plotzing, you would eat this!’ Faux-carb taste test (salon.com) (The Food Section)

Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin is Vladimir Nabokov as he might have been in U.S. exile: a quaint, eccentric, sad figure, doomed never to grasp the society in which he finds himself…. (Arts and Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate)

WTF? Anyone? Anyone?
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Famous scientists around the world have mysteriously disappeared and Chronicle reporter Polly Perkins (Gwynneth Paltrow) and ace aviator Sky Captain (Jude Law) are on the investigation. Risking their lives as they travel to exotic places around (the) world, can the fearless duo stop Dr. Totenkopf, the evil mastermind behind a plot to destroy the earth?… (Singularity)

More on the Wellcome Trust report
Research should be free on web, an unsigned story in today’s London Times. Excerpt: ‘Universities currently access research material through subscriptions to journals. But open-access online publishing would scrap subscription fees, leaving the researchers to pick up the tab for the cost of having their work peer-reviewed. A study commissioned by The Wellcome Trust, which spends more than £400 million a year on research, suggests that open access is the only economically viable option for institutions….’ (Open Access News)