O-Dark-Thirty

I know I do my links on Wednesdays, but these were so good I just needed to do an update. Yeah, they are all from Wired. I might have to change my Wednesdays to Thursdays if they keep this up. No, this isn't it. Not only did he (or she) make a virtual 3D printer in Minecraft, the video explains in detail how he did it. That's almost as amazing. AND he has a link to download the Minecraft world. How awesome is that? Here's the direct link to the YouTube video where the download is . There seem to be quite a few Minecraft 3D printers on YouTube now. I'll have to peruse them later. Foot fins - even better than flippers. These allow you to swim like Aquaman , but you won't be able to psychically control fish, so don't try that. A Lego Hot Rod that actually runs . Remember the amazing thing about the dancing bear is not that he dances so gracefully, but that he dances at all. There are two amazing things about this hot rod: it's made ...

This is a pretty slim week, and I might skip next week (since it will be Christmas Day and I'll probably be exhausted from those three spirits who always visit me the night before Christmas). Today, three years ago, Darling's Mother passed away in the hospital. She was an amazing woman, though she and I had some tough interactions. That happens when you live with someone so hard-headed for a decade (you decide who I mean). If you're short of Christmas presents, you could give that special someone a copy of my book, My Mother-in-law Misadventures . You can buy the Kindle or get the paperback (and thanks! Let's get sales into double digits!). China landed on the moon. I think that's a most important story. It's all over the internet, but here's one link to the story . China is now the third country to make a soft landing on our natural satellite, the first soft Moon landing in 37 years. You'll read about it anyway, so I might as well a...

Pope Francis was named Time's 2013 Person of the Year , and it's even top news on CNN . Rightly so. I have to admit I like the guy. Maybe I should invite him over to dinner on Christmas. I wonder where I should send the Christmas card? It seems that Curiosity found evidence of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars . A little terra-forming and we could turn the Red Planet into a Green Planet. And people are already volunteering to migrate to the new world! About 200,000 people applied to live on Mars , and I guess the application cost about $40 USD apiece. Crowd-funding a trip to Mars… What a good idea. You can look at some of the profiles of people who applied. Technical and funding problems abound. There will be a two year delay , though, at a minimum. So the first few humans could be on Mars as early as 2025 - but don't hold your breath on that one. This is one of the better financial planning pages on the Internet, in my opinion. Put in your data and you...

I like routine. Doing the same things in the same order at the same time every day is soothing to me, and almost vital to being functional and productive. That's one of the reasons that thoughts of retirement frighten me a little. It's one of the main reasons that I have such a hard time going on vacation. I'm much more comfortable in a vacation tour, like the trip we took to Israel. Everything was scheduled. If I can't have routine, a schedule is a nice substitute. Current society celebrates spontaneity. I have a tough time with spontaneity, unless it's scheduled in advance. Here's my morning routine: Wake up about 5AM. That can vary, but usually not by more than fifteen minutes. I don't set my alarm clock any more. Even my subconscious likes routine. Take care of bodily necessities. (You figure that one out.) In this order: apply deodorant, brush my teeth, fill a glass with water, take my pills with a few swallows of water, p...

How do I gather these links? They are the ones I find most interesting during the previous week, and I don't want to lose them. So - I share! Incoming package! The technology is available to deliver packages by drone , and that is certainly a much better use for drones than seek and destroy missions. However, the procedural problems might hinder the expansion of this idea into the realm of reality. We'll see. Amazon says they are committed to having this ready as early as 2015. I can wait that long to see if it works. I'm more interested in drones that can save lives . Some bits of the comet ISON might have survived the close encounter with the sun. Scientists don't have enough data yet, but we'll keep an eye on that. Three is the charmed number! SpaceX now has a satellite in geosynchronous orbit on its third try. I love this one. Years ago I read a book called Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy , a classic Futurist book where a society defeate...