A thrice-weekly webcomic written and illustrated by Reza Farazmand. New comics every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Source: Poorly Drawn Lines – Motivated

Long before the rising waters from Greenland’s glaciers displace the desperate millions, [glaciologist Jason Box] says more than once, we will face drought-triggered agricultural failures and water-security issues—in fact, it’s already happening. Think back to the 2010 Russian heat wave. Moscow halted grain exports. At the peak of the Australian drought, food prices spiked. The Arab Spring started with food protests, the self-immolation of the vegetable vendor in Tunisia. The Syrian conflict was preceded by four years of drought. Same with Darfur. The migrants are already starting to stream north across the sea—just yesterday, eight hundred of them died when their boat capsized—and the Europeans are arguing about what to do with them. “As the Pentagon says, climate change is a conflict multiplier.”

His home state of Colorado isn’t doing so great, either. “The forests are dying, and they will not return. The trees won’t return to a warming climate. We’re going to see megafires even more, that’ll be the new one—megafires until those forests are cleared.”

However dispassionately delivered, all of this amounts to a lament, the scientist’s version of the mothers who stand on hillsides and keen over the death of their sons. In fact, Box adds, he too is a climate refugee. His daughter is three and a half, and Denmark is a great place to be in an uncertain world—there’s plenty of water, a high-tech agriculture system, increasing adoption of wind power, and plenty of geographic distance from the coming upheavals. “Especially when you consider the beginning of the flood of desperate people from conflict and drought,” he says, returning to his obsession with how profoundly changed our civilization will be.

How Climate Scientists Feel About Climate Change Deniers

[My god, if I had only known. -egg]

It’s listed on WD-40 official website as a myth. They say that it’s technically a lubricant, it’s job is to clean things. For some tasks around the house, WD-40 offers the job of both cleaning and lubricating. However, using WD-40 on a job that specifically needs lubrication will not yield the results you desire. I only recently learned this and wish I knew it before wasting time spraying door hinges to keep them from squeaking. You should have 3-in-1 oil along side of your WD-40. Just as versatile.

[…]

This is a common misunderstanding. It does have an oily texture, but it does dry out and it won’t keep things lubed up forever. Now, cleaning a surface that had oil or grease on it with WD-40, and then using some Tri-flow is probably your best bet.

YouShouldKnow subReddit

Just had a tintype done — I like it, although less than the other tintype we’ve gotten, because it turns out that photochromic lenses don’t behave well with this technology. Still, definitely fun 🙂

In Paul Graham’s 2001 essay Beating The Averages, he convinces you that:Viaweb succeeded because Paul Graham and Robert Morris were better at programming than the other guys.PG & RTM were better at programming than the other guys ‘cuz Lisp.You should use Lisp to start shellacking the competition today!So, 14 years later, what’s changed? Can writing your company’s product with Lisp still be an advantage?

Lisp is still a secret weapon

[Here’s a mighty silly country song. -egg]

[Dang, story of my life. Been thinking about this one and looking for parts I can cut out…-egg]

Source: xkcd: Tech Loops

I just got a Gerber Dime from Amazon. I gotta say, for a $13 multitool, it’s pretty dang awesome. It’s replacing the Guppie as my everyday-carry multitool.

Surprisingly [given Gerber’s recent record of lousy multitools], the Dime is very good.  Not just very good, but probably the best keychain multitool on the market.  It’s design is nice, its fit and finish is quite good, and its tool selection is the best ever for a keychain multitool.  Not just the best Gerber ever (after all, one of the Hilton sisters has to be the smartest), but probably the best ever regardless of maker, including the vaunted and beloved Leatherman.  The Dime is a premier tool at a bargain basement price.

Excellent, thorough review: Everyday Commentary: Gerber Dime Review

Anyone who has watched a child have an animated conversation with a doll — or a stuffed animal, a toy car or a Lego brick for that matter — has probably wondered what that child is really thinking. As the pioneering developmental psychologist Jean Piaget wrote in his book ‘‘The Child’s Conception of the World,’’ published in 1929, ‘‘Does the child attribute consciousness to the objects which surround him, and in what measure?’’

This question has only grown more intriguing with the advent of toys that, rather than waiting for a child’s imagination to animate them, use technology to seemingly attain consciousness all on their own. In the late 1990s, Noel Sharkey, a professor at the University of Sheffield in England who studies the ethics of robotics, saw how this could play out when one of his daughters, who was around 8 at the time, started interacting with one of the first-ever artificial-intelligence-powered toys — a virtual pet called Tamagotchi. An egg-shaped computer that fit in the palm of her hand, the Tamagotchi had a tiny screen to express what it needed and wanted. Sharkey’s daughter periodically pressed a button to give the Tamagotchi food; she played simple games to boost her pet’s happiness levels; she took the pet to the toilet when the screen indicated that it needed to relieve itself. Tamagotchi’s creators had programmed it to demand an ever-increasing amount of attention, and a failure to deliver this caused the pet to become sick. ‘‘We had to break it away from my daughter in the end, because she was obsessed with it,’’ Sharkey says. ‘‘It was like, ‘Oh, my God, my Tamagotchi is going to die.’ ’’

…

‘‘Hey, new question,’’ Barbie said. ‘‘Do you have any sisters?’’

‘‘Yeah,’’ Tiara said. ‘‘I only have one.’’

‘‘What’s something nice that your sister does for you?’’ Barbie asked.

‘She does nothing nice to me,’’ Tiara said tensely.

Barbie forged ahead. ‘‘Well, what is the last nice thing your sister did?’’

‘‘She helped me with my project — and then she destroyed it.’’

‘‘Oh, yeah, tell me more!’’ Barbie said, oblivious to Tiara’s unhappiness.

‘‘That’s it, Barbie,’’ Tiara said.

‘‘Have you told your sister lately how cool she is?’’

‘‘No. She is not cool,’’ Tiara said, gritting her teeth.

‘‘You never know, she might appreciate hearing it,’’ Barbie said.

Barbie Wants to Get to Know Your Child – The New York Times

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero’s decision invalidated the gag order in full, finding no “good reason” to prevent Merrill from speaking about any aspect of the NSL, particularly an attachment to the NSL that lists the specific types of “electronic communication transactional records” (“ECTR”) that the FBI believed it was authorized to demand. The FBI has long refused to clarify what kinds of information it sweeps up under the rubric of ECTR, a phrase that appears in the NSL statute but is not publicly de

Source: For the first time ever, a judge has invalidated a secret Patriot Act warrant / Boing Boing