Aptera says they’ll be delivering their new electric car this year. I assume that the single rear wheel is to save weight, and eliminate any need for a differential (though that’s not really a problem with an electric, if it has separate motors on each wheel). Of course, it’s not like they’re the first to think of it.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
The Bees
Sometime over the past few months or years, our house in California had become a haven for honeybees. They found a tiny hole in the flashing of the roof, and set up shop inside a wall, just below the ceiling of the living room. They managed to find a small crack inside, so once a day or so one would find its way into the house, which was obviously a problem for the tenants.
I got one ridiculous quote of nineteen hundred bucks (this included opening the wall, removing the bees, and restuccoing) to remove them, but I got separate quotes for bee removal and stucco replacement, which got the cost down to six hundred or so total. Anyway, the bees were removed today, and through the magic of the Internet and my tenant’s videocamera, you can watch.
[Update a few minutes later]
Sorry, the video’s been taken down, at least temporarily. I think he wanted to reedit it. I’ll update if it gets uploaded again.
[Update about 8 PM Eastern]
OK, it’s back up and I’ve updated the links.
Virus Alert
This thing looks pretty nasty. Make sure your Windows machines are patched.
Think Horn, Not Meat
Eric Drexler points out that people misunderstand the implications of protein engineering. Somehow, it reminds me of the Monty Python self defense class where they learn how to handle people attacking them with fruit. Proper protein engineering will generate pointy sticks as well as steaks.
Bad News At The FDA
Via Virginia Postrel — Sidney Wolfe has been put on the committee overseeing drug safety. This is a calamity. Many unseen murders, and needless suffering, will ensue. As she notes:
He’s got the “consumer” slot. Well, I’m a big-time pharmaceutical consumer, and this man does not speak for me.
Fortunately, I’m not (yet) much of a pharmaceutical consumer, but he doesn’t speak for me, either.
Comment Spam Question
I’ve noticed a new type of comment spam showing up. It’s a link to a post, that’s aggregated with other links to other posts, which may or may not be related, in a blog that consists of nothing else but links.
Here’s an example. This seems to be a blog that is set up for free as part of a larger blog site (in this case, “localferret.com”), with no restrictions. So, two questions. What is the purpose of such a blog? And is there any harm in allowing it to provide links to my site (probably picked up by a bot that simply watches my feed — I get a lot of Russian spam this way), even though they seem pointless? It does, after all, increase my Google and Technorati (and probably other) rankings. All of them are captured for moderation, but I can’t decide whether to approve them or declare them spam.
Any ideas?
The Geese Have Come Home…To Roost
I should have written this.
It is time — indeed, past time — for us to ask: why do the geese hate us?
Smarter Spambots
This is great news (he wrote sarcastically):
New zombies now routinely request new IP addresses from their ISPs, so anti-spam software that works by blocking spam based the originating IP addresses can no longer effectively halt them, the company said in its most recent quarterly Internet Threats Trend Report.
While some ISPs deny their request to change IP address, others accede, giving them new IP addresses in real time, Amir Lev, chief technology officer at Commtouch (NASDAQ: CTCH), told InternetNews.com. The result is that zombies can change addresses much faster than most security services and software can respond, which means their users are not protected, Lev said.
Why do ISPs allow such a thing? Is there a legitimate reason that couldn’t be handled by a personal phone call? If not, there should be pressure on them to stop this.
I mean, come on. A hundred and fifty billion spam emails a day? Just think how much cheaper bandwidth might be if the majority of it wasn’t spam.
Quackery
Derek Lowe takes on (loon) Deepak Chopra et al.
As a commenter notes, one of the (many) frightening things about nationalizing health care is that these people will probably have a lot of influence over it. All part of the Democrat war on science.
A Spacefaring Society
Jon Goff and Ferris Valyn describe its attributes, and benefits, for the Obama administration. Hope they’re listening.