Jim Lipsey » Random

Vintage NASA

Jim — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:07:54 +0000

Absolutely wonderful. More photos here.

Google Charts and Microwave Timers

Jim — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:24:46 +0000

I’ve been playing with the Google Chart API, which is a neat way to graph data using a single URL. Here’s my first attempt:

This plot documents the behavior of our microwave. I even tested it. Your microwave may be different.

CNN Goes Crappy

Jim — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:59:57 +0000

At some point, ‘crappy’ became an acceptable term for headlines from CNN. I’m not sure whether my surprise reflects changing societal standards or my continued descent into curmudgeondom.

I haven’t written for awhile, and claim a broken hip that put me on crutches for two months as an excuse, which is lame. However, I now have a shiny new Tablet PC that allows one to easily clip images from websites and complain about idiotic 23 year-old headline writers for major news outlets. So my six readers have that to look forward to.

I’d tell you all about my amazing new Lenovo X60T, but my wife might read this and she’s been enduring me telling her about all the wonderful details of this great machine for two weeks now, and she just might hit me over the head with it it if I keep carrying on.

update: The headline has been changed. It appears lousy is the new crappy.

Insomniac Bears

Jim — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:15:55 +0000

Insomniac bears are roaming the forests of southwestern Siberia scaring local people as the weather stays too warm for the animals to fall into their usual winter slumber.

I can sympathize. We’ve had a couple of insomniac bears to contend with the last few weeks, too.

Dog Bites Bear

Jim — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 05:13:31 +0000

Here’s how I think the whole thing played out.

Barney goes to K9 boot camp with a bunch of other dogs who are sent off to chase down drug smugglers and battle terrorism while he ends up guarding teddy bears in an obscure London museum. So naturally, one day he snaps.

Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young [Elvis] Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears’ limbs and heads on the museum floor.

update – After finding this photo of Barney, I’m ready to adopt him. We’re already pretty good at handling charges that are inclined toward an occasional messy public outburst.