Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Random charts - drone strikes



"The drones came for Ayman Zawahiri on 13 January 2006, hovering over a village in Pakistan called Damadola. Ten months later, they came again for the man who would become al-Qaida’s leader, this time in Bajaur. Eight years later, Zawahiri is still alive. Seventy-six children and 29 adults, according to reports after the two strikes, are not... 

(Qari Hussain). Hussain was a deputy commander of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group aligned with al-Qaida that trained the would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, before his unsuccessful 2010 attack. The drones first came for Hussain years before, on 29 January 2008. Then they came on 23 June 2009, 15 January 2010, 2 October 2010 and 7 October 2010. Finally, on 15 October 2010, Hellfire missiles fired from a Predator or Reaper drone killed Hussain, the Pakistani Taliban later confirmed. For the death of a man whom practically no American can name, the US killed 128 people, 13 of them children, none of whom it meant to harm..."

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Random pictures - streets

 
 


"... You get a perfect view of how different cities are arranged from these colorful maps by data-artist Steve Von Worley. Through a series of computing tricks, he plotted nine cities according to their orderliness. Right-angled streets aligned in cardinal directions are represented in red (streets that go north-south or east-west) and different colors—in a range from purple to blue and cyan, green and yellow—are used to show different angles..."

Above, L.A., New York, Berlin... Go to the link for the full pictures and more...

Friday, November 7, 2014

Random pictures - apple varieties

 
 
 


"...  At the turn of the 20th century, the USDA commissioned watercolorists to create botanical illustrations of the apple varieties submitted by farmers..."  

Featured above (in order) are the Ben Davis, Esopus Spitzenberg, Pumpkin Sweet, and Black Oxford... Listen to the show, who knew the apple was so complex and marvelous?

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Random pictures - photomicrography

 


Go there and see some amazing photos, including full versions of these -  "Vespula vulgaris (common wasp) stinger (5X)" and "Caterpillar proleg with circle of gripping hooks in red (20x)" respectively...

Saturday, November 1, 2014

BlackBerry Passport - second look


BlackBerry Passport - First Look introduced my new BB. I have had about a week with it and it's growing on me as I get used to its idiosyncrasies... Some further information:

 
 
 
 

Installed Snap, a program that allows you to download and install apps from Google Play. There are several ways to install - an easy method is to download this Windows installer (instructions here) to get Snap on your Passport, and then it's off to the Play store (e.g. I downloaded and installed the Sonos controller app):

 
 

The Passport supports Miracast, so I popped a Miracast dongle into the TV and was sharing the Passport's screen in an instant, along with streaming music and video:

 


Blackberry Support:
BlackBerry Passport Forums - Crackberry
BlackBerry Passport Forums - BlackBerry
BlackBerry Passport Forum - BlackBerrryForums


BlackBerry Help:
BlackBerry help and How-To Videos
BlackBerry Passport Smartphone Users Manual (Spanish)

Snap - Download Apps from Google Play Directly to your BlackBerry 10.2.1+
BlackBerry Passport Tips And Tricks: New BB10.3 Features And How To Use Them

Additional BlackBerry Passport Reviews:
BlackBerry Passport Review: Don’t Believe The Haters 
I typed my entire BlackBerry Passport review on the phone's tiny keyboard