The Man of the Hour: Mr. Flower Power, the King of Flowers, Carl Linnaeus

This Saturday marks the beginning of the Linnaeus 2007 celebration in Sweden for Carolus Linnaeus aka Carl Linneus aka Carl von Linne who was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who gave the world the gift of taxonomy or the method for classifying and naming organisms. This year's celebration focuses on Linnaeus method for classifying tulip bulbs.

Linnaeus was the originator of the binomial nomenclature system, without him there would be no Homo sapiens. His original system had three kingdoms divided into Classes, further divided into Orders, then divided into Genera, then divided into Species.

Linnaeus's work had a profound influence on scientists such as Charles Darwin and the area of research known as comparative biology. Comparative biology is instrumental in our understanding of living organisms. The predictive techniques of biologists become increasingly powerful as more information is utilized comparing across many related organisms. This in turn adds to researchers' abilities to identify novel drug targets and annotate genomes.

There's An Elephant in the Way

If only homework problems worked this way:

A 3 kg object is released on a frictionless ramp and stopped by an elephant.
Who needs the pythagorean theorem? Find x. Here it is.

Trying to use force will only work, if your teacher is willing to negotiate with terrorists for bonus points and an innocent stickman might get hurt in the process.
When all else fails always choose the answer to life, the universe, and everything: 42.

Ellinais (Addition)

Ellinais was founded in 2006 and has 34 official members, mainly academics, lawyers and other professionals. The group has received state recognition of the ancient Greek religion. It is demanding that its offices be registered as places of worship, which could allow the group to perform weddings and other rites. The group believes in world peace, ecological awareness, and the right to education. The group has three high priests, one of which is Kostas Stathopoulos.

The Comeback God, Zeus

About 20 modern pagans from the group Ellinais celebrated Zeus at the 1,800 year-old Temple of Olympian Zeus in Greece. The group ignored a ban by the Culture Ministry, but were not stopped. One of the 3 high priests, Kostas Stathopoulos, said the event was a celebration of the nuptials of Zeus and Hera and that the group's message is about "world peace and an ecological way of life in which everyone has the right to education."

National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2007

President Bush declared Sunday, January 21, 2007 National Sanctity of Human Life Day as a day to recognize America's commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being. The President's proclamation focused on protecting unborn children, but makes no mention of the abuses of Abu Gharib,
the state of emergency that victims of Katrina and Rita continue to face (400,000 continue to live in temporary housing),

a war on terrorism that continues to escalate with the US attacks on Somalia (US ground troops have been seen in the country),

or the US near-muted response towards violence in Darfur (Sudan breaks the cease-fire brokered by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson).

Windows Mobile Smartphone Sound Settings

Many settings on a smartphone can be changed from the registry. PHM has a free registry editor for the smartphone. The settings are often easier to understand in hexadecimal format where number values go from 0-9 and then A-F. The PHM registry editor allows you to see numbers as either binary, hexadecimal or decimal. Decimal values can be converted using the Windows calculator in scientific mode. Entering a number in the calculator then clicking the radio button labeled "Hex" will convert the value.

Changes to the registry will go into effect after restarting the phone.

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\SoundCategories - Various phone sounds including the ring, alarm and system volume. These also found in the Settings. The values go from 0-9. Setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\SoundCategories\InCall\InitVol to zero disables the sound when initiating a call.
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Volume\Volume - Controls the earpiece volume. Its values go from 0-4293967295, in hexadecimal the upper limit is an 8 integer value: FFFFFFFF.
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Phone\Vol - Controls volume during a call. Its values go from 0-65535, in hexadecimal the upper limit is an 4 integer value: FFFF.

The following two entries are for HTC phones:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\HTC\Startup\WAV - Name of the file to play at startup.
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\HTC\Shutdown\WAV - Name of the file to play at shutdown.

A Battle of Wits: Average World IQ

Above are two images taken from Wikipedia showing average IQ around the world. The first (and original image) was put on Wikipedia in June 2006; the second image is from today, and it has been flipping back and forth several times. The IQ of Americans, New Zealanders, and the French has dropped about 30, 30, and 40 points, respectively, and the IQ of Australians has risen by 40 points.

Deathnote & the Ethics of Fansubbing

Viz Media licensed the Death Not in the USA on Thursday this week. Therefore, Live Evil, a principal group fansubbing the series dropped the series and disabled distributing the series via Bittorrent. This follows the self-imposed rules of not selling or renting fansubs and ceasing to distribute animes once licensed, in part due to fear of being sued by American companies who license the series. The self-imposed rules are of course still in violation of the WTO TRIPS agreement. So what happens to a popular series such as Death Note? First, you get the bad news, then the mischief makers, and on the third day, a fansub ready for distribution. Unfortunately for L, justice never stood a chance.

Increase Font Size of GMail Midlet for Smartphones

By default, the font size of the Java GMail midlet may appear to small to read comfortably on a smartphone. The font size can be increased by starting the midlet then going to Menus > Go to > Settings. There you need to uncheck the third box "Use small fonts"; you will need to restart the GMail application to view the larger fonts.

Freshman Congressman to Rove: "I Kicked Your Ass"

Freshman Representative Steve Kagen told reporters he trapped Karl Rove in a bathroom and said "You’re in the White House and think you’re safe, huh? You recognize me? My name’s Dr. Multimillionaire and I kicked your ass". Kagen was in a bitter campaign with brutal attack ads and visits from Cheney and Rove.

Sweet Jebus! Simpsonzu & Super Happy Fun Futurama Show

The characters of the Simpsons and Futurama as anime characters by Space Coyote on DeviantART.

Long story short: Bongo Comics, Matt Groening's comic book company, is hiring me to do the pencils for a short manga-style Simpsons comic. Also, I've been contacted by 20th Century Fox. They want me to do work for them somehow. I might get a design job for the upcoming new Futurama series!

Blue Cascade

Blue Cascade (1280x1024): A subcellular microcosm using basic elements to highlight the simplicity and richness of Nature with various elements to represent DNA replication, bacterial cells, enzyme complexes and signaling pathways.

PWNED! Banished Words for 2007

Awesome words for 2006 that have been pwned for 2007. If you need a second opinion, ask your doctor if chipotle-flavored truthiness is right for you or if you should just classify these words as gone missing in search of something now playing in theaters staring undocumented aliens committing armed robberies of iAnythings gone bad while boasting that they're pregnant and eating healthy. Of course you already know the ending; they'll end up at Gitmo chatting about Bragelina and TomKat.