Month: February 2014

Torus Earth

what a donut planet would be like.

Can toroid planets exist? It is not obvious that a toroid planet is stable.
For all practical purposes planets are liquid blobs with no surface tension: the strength of rock is nothing compared to the weight of a planet. Their surfaces will be equipotential surfaces of gravity plus centrifugal potential. If they were not, there would be some spots that could reduce their energy by flowing to a lower potential. Another obvious fact is that there exists an upper rotation rate beyond which the planet falls apart: the centrifugal force at the equator becomes larger than gravity and material starts to flow into space.

Flash Permadeath

Adobe is aware of reports that an exploit for this vulnerability exists in the wild, and recommends users apply the updates referenced in the security bulletin.

always the same story. if they had any dignity they would commit corporate seppuku.

IRS wasted $4B on identity nonsense

because the identity “infrastructure” in this country (basically ssn) is as laughable as the financial “infrastructure” (checks, lol). funny how you never hear about widespread id “theft” in developed countries.

Songify the news

the gregory brothers still got it

pachamama sacrifice

it is still quite common in bolivia to sacrifice a llama fetus to Pachamama when undertaking construction projects. the persistent rumors about human sacrifices for larger buildings can’t be verified.

Daily Planet

walking through the doors is like traveling back in time to the 1930s.

Mercury II thiocyanate

Mercury(II) thiocyanate.

For-Profit Online University

Russia pretends for the Olympics

the highly inefficient industrial structure of the old Soviet economy, based on misallocation of both resources and people, remains intact. The oil rent reinforced and perpetuated it: it has bought political stability and the loyalty of the population, but has slowed down modernisation. Inevitably, the result is stagnation. During the 2000s the number of bureaucrats almost doubled.