Fazal Majid's low-intensity blog

From CNET News.com:

Flat-panel monitors to take market lead

Flat-panel monitors for desktop computers are expected to surpass traditional cathode ray tube monitors in revenue this year, a sea change for the display industry.

And a good thing too. CRT monitors contain large quantities of toxic materials such as lead, and their disposal comes at a terrible human cost. All my home desktop machines now have LCD monitors. If you are in the market for a monitor, please spend the extra $100 or so. Your eyes and the planet will thank you.

I found this excellent tutorial for new users of IMatch looking to import their photos. It’s far more detailed than mine (Image category management with IMatch) on setting up the asset management workflow.

This BBC article (via Slashdot) describes the fascinating discovery of batteries in Baghdad dating to 200 BC. They were basically clay pots with copper cylinder cores that were to be immersed in some electrolyte such as wine or vinegar. Their purpose is still unknown.

Eat your heart out, Energizer bunny!

Charlotte Observer

Rep. Coble (R-NC) stated on radio he feels the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was justified and appropriate given the circumstances. He justifies his position with the bogus argument that this was done for their own protection.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) was interned as a chld with his family at a concentration camp like Manzanar. I had the privilege to hear him speak a few months ago, and he recalled his father saying: “Mike if it’s for your own protection, you have to wonder why you’re inside barbed wire with machine guns pointed at you.”

The problem is, Rep. Coble is not just another faceless bigot disgracing Congress. He is the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. Like Trent Lott before him, he should be made to resign as his positions show just how unfit he is for that office.

Western Europe has very moderate winters compared to North American coastal regions at the same latitude, with a whopping 15°C (27°F) difference. New York is at about the same latitude as Rome, but its winters are considerably colder than those of Paris or London, which are at the same latitude as Québec or Newfoundland.

Conventional wisdom claims this is due to the regulating effects of the Gulfstream, that acts as a heat pump between both sides of the Atlantic ocean.

New research from Columbia (more details available from The Independent) debunks this theory. Apparently, most of the difference is due to atmospheric effects, and half of that due to global wind patterns whose meanderings are shaped by the Rocky Mountains (in simulations where the Rockies are flattened, Western Europe gets 9°C colder).The Gulfstream actually has only a very minor and almost negligible contribution to the difference.

I find it really amazing how mountains 9 time zones away can influence the climate so dramatically. It is a small world, after all.