ASSORTED NEWS
(Posted 2009-02-13 15:09:58 by ArchPaladin)

Most of the time when I comb through the news there's nothing I find that's
really interesting.  Most of it is just the same old junk, with a couple of
possibly interesting pieces that tend to be just fluff.  Some days this is
different, and there is a lot of different stuff that is interesting.

When I drive along, I will often come across those mobile construction road
signs that usually tell me that (who knew!) construction is occurring
somewhere, and that I should pay attention lest I get in some kind of
accident.  Such signs are often solar powered, and you can see the panels
attached to the back of the sign.  The first time I saw this I thought it
was really cool, and then probably very obvious a thing to do, as those
signs need near-continuous power.  Well, one thing I didn't think of was
that you could put solar panels on telephone poles and streetlamps in a
city and actually use this as a means of power generation.  But apparently
this is exactly what is happening [
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/02/big-solar-power-projects-planned-in-ca-nj.ars
] [arstechnica.com] in many places across New Jersey.  Completely brilliant
use of modern technology to enhance power generation without cutting into
existing infrastructure so deeply.  Can we get that here in New England
soon?  Please?

A crashing plane hits only one house in a completely populated
neighborhood. [
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/13/plane.crash.witnesses/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
] [cnn.com]  We don't yet know how the plane crashed, but it may be due to
weather effects.  It is tactless (and moreso, spiritually immature) to
state that this is an act of God, but it has all the qualifiers.  I am
reminded of the Far Side comic, "God At His Computer".

And lastly, for those of you who know what the Pirate Bay is, their trial
starts on Monday.  And they're playing up the spectacle that it is. [
http://trial.thepiratebay.org/ ] [thepiratebay.org]  It seems very gutsy
and very stupid to flaunt established institutions the way they do.  I
wonder how much of this is intentional.

And how am I, you ask? (since I never say anything about myself anymore) 
I'm well.  Busy.  School continues on.  Work picks up as companies turn
over their budgets.  Sleep is a precious commodity.  Not much else to say.

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