Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
Bob Dylan voice on satnav won’t work: Why navigation using Bob Dylan’s voice simply isn’t funny.
From James May’s column at The Telegraph:
There is so much in the world that just isn’t funny, or at least isn’t funny for very long. Humour is a fleeting and nebulous thing that is plucked from the air and carried away by the foolish wind to be lost to comedy entropy, or at least badly reworked to appear on the side of a mug as “Rugby is a game played by men with funny shaped balls” and so on.
Sadly, many baby-boomers will argue to no end that it is funny.
Rare Photo of Snow Leopard in Afghanistan
Just by coincidence the N.Y. Times’ Dot Earth presented a fantastic photograph of a real snow leopard on the very same day Apple Inc. started selling its Snow Leopard:
Dot Earth likes a good animal photo as much as the next blog, particularly when the animal is beautiful and endangered. So we’re pleased to present a photograph of a snow leopard, taken by a camera trap in the Wakhan Corridor in northeastern Afghanistan.
Quantum Teleportation Between Distant Matter Qubits: First Between Atoms 1 Meter Apart
This is truly awe-inspiring:
What distinguishes this outcome as teleportation, rather than any other form of communication, is that no information pertaining to the original memory actually passes between ion A and ion B. Instead, the information disappears when ion A is measured and reappears when the microwave pulse is applied to ion B.
SaR satellite processing of analog emergency distress beacon bands to end in Feb. 2009
Listening to Bernie S. on Off The Hook talk about his local PBS television station’s digital transmission notice reminded me of another analog to digital switch of interest.
If you own or use an emergency distress beacon on a boat or on a plane, you should know that starting on February 1, 2009, the older beacons that transmit only an analog signal (121.5 or 243 MHz) will no longer be “heard” by search and rescue satellites. Just like checking your TV, you need to ensure that your distress beacon is capable of transmitting a digital signal (406 MHz) in order for it to be recognized.
There is more detailed info about this at the U.S. Coast Guard’s website.
ClearviewHwy: Typeface clearer than British Transport, DIN 1451 & Helvetica
The N.Y. Times Magazine article, The Road to Clarity, recites how two designers collaborated to create ClearviewHwy, the typeface that will gradually replace Highway Gothic on U.S. Interstate roadways.
If it were not designed to do so, it would be a shame that such a beautiful typeface will go unnoticed by those to whom it will provide the most benefits.
addendum March 6, 2008
Mike the Actuary has a collection of TrueType fonts, some similar to Highway Gothic & ClearviewHwy, that are freely available for recreational use.
