Bassam's Random Stuff

So true, and so depressing

Disney World seemed very appropriate for this tilt-shift video.

Seemed appropriate for today

By Jesus Diaz, 12:00 PM on Thu Sep 10 2009, 55,993 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

NASA scientists have created an magnetic field powerful enough to make lab mice levitate, which is a big Where’s My Back to the Future Skateboard breakthrough. The only problem is that the mice have to be high as kites too.

Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have created a superconducting magnet that generates enough energy to lift lab rats animals off the floor. While there were experiments with tiny animals like frogs and bugs before, this is the first time they have made a large animal like this fly under these conditions. The magnet pushes the water inside the mice up, making them fly.

The amazing fact is that the JPL magnet works at room temperature (Correction: the space the rat is in is room temp, not the magnet) —not the ultra-cooled down environments typical of these magnets—and it’s powerful enough to make these rodents levitate, something that wasn’t possible before.

The mice were high in more than one way, though. According to researcher Yuanming Liu, the “first mouse actually kicked around and started to spin, and without friction, it could spin faster and faster, and we think that made it even more disoriented.” So they gave a mild sedative to the next mouse, who was happy to float. [Live Science via Yahoo News]

One step closer to use flying around… I’m so tired of Walking!

By Joanna Stern, 9:09 PM on Thu Sep 10 2009, 19,123 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

Remember how we told you that there was a petition to ask the British government to apologize for chemically castrating computer science legend Alan Turing during WWII because he was gay? Yea well, Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally did today!

It was about freaking time. Turing, a father of computer science and WWII code-breaker, confessed to having sex with a man, was prosecuted by the British government for being gay, given experimental chemical castration as a “treatment” and then committed suicide in 1954. Ridiculous, is right.

So after thousands signed the recent petition, UK PM Gordon Brown had this to say:

While Mr Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him.

So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better.

Brown is dead on. It can’t be changed. Nothing will change the fact that this man was physically harmed for his sexual orientation, but acknowledging it happened and saying sorry for it is a step in remembering this incredible geek and his legacy. This seriously makes our day. [BBC]

Alan Turing is one of the fathers of modern computer science. He also was a WWII hero, helping break the codes that the Nazis used.
Unfortunately for him, he was also gay, and was persecuted by the British Government, and chemically castrated as a result. He committed suicide in 1954.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally offered an apology to Alan Turing on behalf of the British Government.

The imagery this letter conjures up is priceless…