Linkmeister

Digicams & other thoughts

Here's an innovative idea for old computers: use 'em as projectors for all those digital photos. In fact, if a digital camera is calling to you, I recommend the entire NYT Circuits section this week; it's chock-full of potentially useful articles, including one about help for chocoholics!

How can one equate Big Bang theory with the September 11 attacks? Here, a physicist tries to do just that. There's an interesting anecdote in there about Vietnamese immigrant kids seeing Fourth of July fireworks; it reminds me of a story a Vietnam vet friend told me long ago. He and a buddy had just been discharged after a Navy tour on a river patrol boat in the Mekong Delta. After getting out, they went to Disneyland, and were walking by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride just as the cannons fired. Both of these guys were in dress whites, and both immediately hit the ground and rolled under the nearest bench. Imagine his embarrassment, particularly in a crowd of tourists which included his wife. The experience of both the kids and the vets is instructive about instinct and conditioning, I think.