Factless

After reading yet another story about home / amateur chemistry becoming less than welcome from government officials I have to admit I am more than mildly annoyed.

Continue reading "Chemistry, the illegal science?" »

I believe I have linked to Shop Class as Soulcraft in The New Atlantis web-zine before, but I keep running across in various venues, and it is too good to miss.

Anyhow, what I really wanted to mention was a couple of very readable articles written by Jim WIlliams, a famous analog (electronics) designer at Linear Technologies, the first of which you don't need to be an electrical engineer or a geek to understand. Try fixing it yourself is as much philosophy as electronics, and I think anyone can appreciate the lesson Jim is trying to share. The second is "Tripping the light fantastic: a case study in circuit design" which although more technical is still an insightful essay on process (the good kind) and is a wonderful description of what engineering really is. You can browse more of Jim's writings at EDN, including Somthing from nothing.

Continue reading "classic articles by Jim Williams" »

Aza Raskin ported Chris Coyne's Context Free to Javascript / Canvas.

The result, Algorithm Ink is dangerously fun. It uses a simple scripting language or design grammar called CFDG. It can use recursion and (pseudo-) random numbers to implement IFS fractal or fractal-like images.

Caveat: Canvas is (currently) only supported in Firefox 3 (Mozilla), Safari, and Opera. Sorry for anyone using Google Chrome or MS Internet Explorer.

First off, I just found out that Greene King IPA (India Pale Ale, you know like Keith's) is available the LCBO in Ontario. Sweet. The Green Dragon pub around the corner from my place in Cambridge was a Greene King pub, so I'm familiar and fond of their IPA. It's on sale even, fifty cents off a bottle. So that's today's mission.

Lately I've been trying to learn a bit about cocktails, which is funny in so far as I drink very little lately. Anyhow, my latest "lesions" was learning the difference between various American and Canadian whiskey / whisky's. From Bourbon, rye, Canadian rye, Tennessee, Scotch and Irish, and terms like sour mash, sweet mash, malt, wort, and 'bottled in bond'.

Continue reading "Imbibe " »

I have to admit I didn't expect this, Lorette Luzajic's article at Gremolata, Spilling the beans, about soybeans, and how there may be a lot of popular misconceptions about their ultra-healthiness and traditionalism in Asian culture. Oops.

It turns out that Soybeans are Goitrogen, they suppress the function of the thyroid gland by interfering with iodine uptake, which may cause hypothyroidism. :-(

One of the early advocates of soybeans in North America was Dr. Earl Mindell's 1994 book, Soy Miracle. Dr. Mindell is no stranger to being associated with questionable advocacy of "natural health food" products, in some cases he was found to be have a vest interest (personal financial gain) in what he was promoting as healthy. (Reference: CBC Marketplace, originally aired on January 24, 2007 "Getting Juiced")

Too much hype is generally a sign of somebody working to create a perception. At least in my opinion, but I don't work in media / corporate relations or the Ministry of Truth.