Month: November 2007

[An ex-Playschool presenter says TV is akin to child abuse](http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/14/2090814.htm). Like many cranky people, her point isn’t clear other than ‘not happy’.

[A home arcade cabinet with built in beer keg](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/11/05/gamerator-arcade-cab.html). Awesome. Of course, it would probably be a lot to cheaper to have your keg separate.

[A wind dam straight out of a film like Waterworld](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/wind-dam/wind-dam-design-for-russian-lake-is-spooky-awesome-323062.php). One is pretty. More than one is going to get pretty ugly pretty quickly.

[An explanation from the writers of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart](http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2007/11/not-the-daily-s.html). Funny and accurate. Of course, you need to see [the response from the Colbert Report writers](http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/2007/11/videologblog-writers-strike-colbert.html) as well.

[A pocket sized doomsday device button](http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/japanfan/9806/). I often wish for one of these during long meetings…

[WW2 code breaking computer Colossus is making a return](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/code_breaker/colossus-back-to-crack-codes-after-a-60+year-absence-323006.php). Great stuff, but I fear it’s going to be trounced in the competition with a modern PC. It’s hard to overstate just how much computer power has increased.

[A clearly mad (or malicious) person sues NASA](http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/11/15/nasa-ticks-me-off-sometimes-too-but-cmon/). Lots of great claims. Personally I found the claim that Neil was hanging around with cousin Louis playing Jazz instead of going to the moon to be the best.

[A UK school is using a curriculum based on Harry Potter](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=493455&in_page_id=1770). The most amazing thing is that it seems to be working. I do worry for the students who get assigned to Slytherin house, though.

[Edison’s direct current electricity system will be turned off after 125 years](http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/off-goes-the-power-current-started-by-thomas-edison/). The Tesla v Edison fight is one of the great ones of all time. It’s also a good example of even apparently substantial ‘lock in’ can be overcome if one product is clearly superior. I’m looking at you, Microsoft!