December 30th

Indian Ocean Earthquake Changed Earth's Rotation

Scientists are saying that the 9.0 earthquake in the Indian Ocean was large enough to have an effect on Earth's rotation. The "Sunda Trench" is a tectonic plate subduction zone where the Indian Plate dives underneath the Burma plate along a 750 mile front. The Indian plate pushed further under the Burma plate, causing the massive earthquake. Scientists say that enough of the crustal mass of earth was pushed inward that the rotation of the planet was most likely sped up very slightly, possibly hastening the next leap second adjustment to earth time.

The plate subduction also probably altered the geography of the region, shifting local islands laterally, as well as vertically.

Discuss here.

                                             Dr. John

December 26th

More Schools Fall Prey to the Religious Right

Well into the 21st century, you would think that the US was the undisputed champion of science in education among the worlds developed countries. But no, the US is instead more of a religious fundamentalist country than any developed country, and is nearly as religious as places such as Iran. One of the tactics of religious zealots in the US is to get elected to the local school board, and influence the education of our children by indoctrinating them in religious rhetoric at a very young age. This also means eliminating pesky science from the curricula that might contradict the religious indoctrination of our children, namely, evolution.

The latest weapon in religious fundamentalist's attack on evolution theory is "intelligent design". Intelligent design, however, is not a theory and bears no relationship to any science. It is pure religion dressed up as science. Supporters of the idea of intelligent design say that life on earth is too complicated to have evolved naturally. The only other conclusion they say, would be that some superior force created everything. So the basic rule of intelligent design is that anything which is complicated cannot arise by itself.

This little rule of intelligent design poses a major problem for religious fundamentalists. Obviously, anything or anyone who was complicated enough to create life is far too complicated to arise by himself or herself. That then leaves the question of the origin of God, and who created him/her. Logically, an infinite regression of creators would have to be envisioned to create all those complex creators. Look, it's so obviously a clumsy attempt to popularize an anti-evolutionary religious/political campaign that everyone should see it for what it is. Censorship. The religious right loves to complain that their views are being censored in science classes, and so their response is to try to censor the actual science that disagrees with their religious rhetoric.

It's time for Americans to stand up against this movement and say enough is enough. We want the best educated children on earth, not the most religiously indoctrinated children on earth. Science and math scores for US students are among the lowest of all developed countries. If we start to force religion into the science classroom, that trend will only continue, and the situation will worsen. I still don't see why evolution is such a threat to religious people in the United States, it is not considered a threat to religions in other developed countries. There is something inherently wrong with religious zealots who have no training or interest in science trying to determine the science curriculum for our children. It would be like having atheists give sermons at church on Sunday. It's just a really dumb idea.

Discuss here.

                                             Dr. John

December 25th

Happy Holidays to All!

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays, and a healthy and wonderful New Year!

                                             Dr. John

December 23rd

Motherboard Maker Abit May Go Out of Business

According to rumors, Abit can no longer pay it's debts, and  its bank may be forced to freeze Abit's assets.  Abit was one of the first motherboard makers to cater to overclockers, and came up with the jumperless design known as "Softmenu".  We used Abit boards exclusively for years, until a bunch of batches came out with very inferior (exploding) capacitors. Also, Abit never expanded its supply chain like the other motherboard makers, such as Gigabyte, Tyan, MSI and Asus, who's boards were available from major distributors. We could only get Abit boards through lower tier distributors, and returns were almost impossible.

So it's no surprise to me that such a business model would eventually fail. Too bad, they have made some very nice boards over the years.

Discuss here.

                                             Dr. John

SCO Losing Money and Top Execs

The latest financials for SCO indicate a quarterly loss of $6.5 million, as compared with a $1.6 million loss the same time last year. Along with the big loss of cash, SCO's parent company, the unscrupulous "Canopy Group" booted its two top executives: Ralph Yarro, Canopy's president, chairman and chief executive, as well as Chief Financial Officer Darcy Mott.

I'm glad to see Darl and friends at SCO and Canopy getting their lumps of coal for Christmas. Santa knows who's been naughty, and who's been nice.

Discuss here.

                                             Dr. John

December 15th

Cool Concept Cars

New concept cars are being shown at the 2005 Expo, including an 8-wheeled electric car that goes 0-60mph in 4 seconds, and cruises at 230mph.

Link to photos

Discuss here.

                                             Dr. John

December 6th

SLI Motherboards Soon

The rumors are spreading that SLI-capable motherboards (with two-PCI-express graphics slots) will be available this month. Asus and Gigabyte have boards almost ready. I don't have any information on whether these will be 754 or 939 pin motherboards, but we may see both varieties. I'm not sure how many people will cough up $1000 for two X800XT PCI-e cards for their system, but at least the option should be available shortly. I assume that availability will be terrible, and prices high before the holidays. My recommendation is to wait for next year, when prices will be lower, availability and choice will be better, and the bugs might even be worked out. Plus, AMD will have its improved 90nm chips out by then, along with new and improved motherboard chipsets. My guess is that everything will be in place for a really spectacular system upgrade by early Spring.  

Discuss here.

                                             Dr. John

December 3rd

George W Bush Arrested in Canada for War Crimes

It's a headline that could make half the country burst into celebration, and the other half threaten war with our good northern neighbor.

But it was only a joke, and yet one that was automatically picked up by Google's News Bot, and posted as real news.

If we're lucky, it gave Karl Rove a heart attack.

photo courtesy Information Clearing House

Discuss here.

                                             Dr. John