Homing Pigeon Faster Than Broadband?

What was old is new again.

IT experts at a firm in South Africa said it takes up to six hours to transfer four gigabytes of encrypted data between two of its offices which lie 50 miles apart.

Today staff at the financial services company will save valuable time by instead having the information transported by a homing pigeon named Winston.

Workers will attach a memory card containing the data to bird's leg and let nature take its course.

Experts believe the specially-trained 11-month-old pigeon will complete the flight in just 45 minutes - and at a fraction of the cost.

Click the picture to read the article.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Al Franken Draws Map Of USA From Memory

I am not a fan of Al Franken's politics or his comedy, but I am impressed with this.

Senator Al Franken draws a map of all 50 states from memory during an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio's Midday at the Minnesota State Fair.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Birds On A Wire

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.

I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Big Picture: The Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam Accident

On August 17th, near Sayanogorsk in south central Russia, a catastrophic accident took place in the turbine and transformer rooms of the hydroelectric plant of the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam. The exact cause is still under investigation, but what is known so far is that a tremendous amount of water from the Yenisei River flooded the turbine room, causing at least one transformer explosion and extensive damage to all ten turbines, destroying at least three of them. 74 workers are known to have lost their lives in the accident, while one remains missing. Additionally, 40 tons of transformer oil were spilled into the river, killing an estimated 400 tons of trout in two fisheries. Investigators plan to release findings in two months, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for a nationwide infrastructure inspection. (32 photos total)

Click the image to see the full collection.

A Parable of Political Compassion

An intriguing article. Click the picture to read it.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Jack Webb Schools Barack Obama on Healthcare

I thought this edit of an old Dragnet clip was pretty humorous.

I have always enjoyed watching reruns of Dragnet. Especially how Joe Friday and Bill Gannon would always have the chance to 'preach' to someone about the error of their ways. Who knew the internet would give us all a chance to insert a President into one of their speeches.

In Praise of Car Salespeople

Most people that read this blog know that I sold cars for a few years. The owner of our dealership was a Godly man who never asked his employees to be dishonest or take advantage of a customer. My experience did not match the stereotypes about car dealers and car salespeople. For the most part everyone I dealt with was someone I trusted.

This weekend Ed Wallace wrote a column titled 'In Praise of Car Salespeople'. I thought it was a well written article that I would share here.

Selling cars is not an easy job. It never has been. The great outdoors is where the cars are parked, so a salesperson’s workplace is out in the rain, snow and ice or in the broiling sun and/or wind. More than half of all potential clients come in skeptical, distrusting most in the automotive industry. And this is not because their last vehicle purchase was a bad experience, but because it’s been drummed into the public’s heads that dealers inevitably plot to extract all of a customer’s money in exchange for a new set of wheels. (Fact: The few dealerships known for brutal sales practices are the exception, not the rule.)

Click the picture above to read the full article.

Big Picture: Two Mongolias

Mongolia (the independent nation), and Inner Mongolia (a neighboring autonomous region of the People's Republic of China) share a common history and geography, and have both evolved in recent years, centering much of their growth on their famous culture. Mongolia is a young democracy - its 1990 revolution less than 20 years old now - formerly a Soviet-backed communist republic, and much earlier ruled by many different dynasties back to Genghis Khan in 1206. Inner Mongolia continues to undergo a cultural shift as ethnic Han Chinese now make up nearly 80% of the population, and efforts at retaining Mongolian culture are being undertaken. Collected here are a number of recent photographs of these two Mongolias. (33 photos total)

Click the image to see the full collection.