Don't tell Bush!

Wow — I just saw this story on boingboing about a man (born biologically female) getting pregnant. What an amazing experience that would be for a man (and I assume that this is psychologically a man) to go through… I wonder what he's doing in terms of hormones (going off them, staying on them?), and what effect that will have on the child? Anyway, click the picture for the article.

Along those lines, let me again recommend the post gender interview I did last year… one of the most interesting interviews on the site I think.

Long Walk

We walked 9km today, down Roncesvalles and across Queen. One thing that struck me is that the majority of people asking for money on the street were old women, at least in this neighborhood. When we got more downtown it shifted to men.

We looked at robots in the window…

We walked down to the old Stainless Studios location that was affected by the giant fire on Queen Street. The building is still standing and is adjacent to the buildings that were completely destroyed, but there's a notice on the door that says it's slated to be knocked down if they can't repair it.

And McDonalds is looking for proof readers…

Flaming Exhaust

I really, really want to build a new truck some time soon (I wish I could afford to get a set of 54″ Boggers), and since Caitlin is a welder, we can now do just about everything in-house and on the cheap… We just to move somewhere inexpensive that has some space to work. Anyway, I was watching rat rod videos, and thought this flaming exhaust was completely crazy

Ice Age Coming: 4 Years To Go

So all this snow has me thinking a lot about the possibility that we're looking not so much at global warming, but climate instability that'll toss us the other way, into a severe ice age (more). I've posted before about the consequences of rising sea levels, but the reality is that in the last half century, ocean levels have dropped significantly (more, more, more), and while many glaciers and ice systems have melted, others have expanded (lots more). While many suggest there's insufficient evidence so far, many climatologists believe that global warming can kickstart global cooling. With mile high glaciers, big enough to gouge out lake-sized holes from the earth, a significant percentage of human cities would be scraped away to nothing, leaving almost no archeological record (Australia may be a good place to escape to — Aboriginal culture was one of the only on the planet that survived — just barely — the most recent ice age). If one has to choose, warming is definitely better than the alternative…

The Mayan calender “ends” in 2012, which is when we go through Solar Cycle 24, a spike which may disrupt satellites, communication, and planes… but Solar Cycle 25, in 2022, is predicted by NASA to be “one of the weakest in centuries”, which may well be enough to tip the scales and again cover the planet in ice…

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
     -Robert Frost

Best Physics Game?

I'm totally into wasting way too much time on this train building game, which is remarkably stressful because of the shattering sound the bridge makes if it fails. Caitlin on the other hand is hooked on this puzzle game which is quite clever. Anyway, I love physics games in general (remember the darkly humorous dismount series?)… Any advice on your favorites is appreciated.

(Original forum unavailable, sorry)*

Other than that, the weather is getting warm enough (finally, I hope) that the next day I feel like spending a couple hours outside I'm going to paint my truck. I know, it's a little goofy, but I'm going for a sort of hillbilly chic and this will only take a little while to stencil… I really can't wait to move to a place where I can actually do work without neighbors complaining, and I can't plug in a welder or anything like that here either… so many things I could do if I could!

Before anyone asks about the decal project I mentioned in the past, I can't afford to do decals, but I can afford a couple cans of spray paint!