Random Crap

Today’s Japanese phrase is:　助けて (tasukete) – help!
Basically the phrase you scream when you need help. Sometimes used in conjunction with お願い (onegai) – please or 下さい (kudasai) – please (kana only); (with te-form verb) please do for me;

Someone commented on my All Tea Comes From One Species?:

liam Allen Says:

While it is true that all tea comes from one species, Camellia Sinensis, a look at Yunnan Province and Fujian Province in China will reveal that there are actually hundreds, if not thousands, of sub species of tea, many of which will not cross with each other sexually. Fujian province appears to have the largest number of wild tea sub species of any where in the world, while Yunnan appears to have the three oldest living tea trees in the world. Yunnan also appears to have the oldest tradition of tea use.

Think of tea plants as more like grapes, there are few species but a great many varietals. That is partly what produces the wide range of flavours in tea, but we must not discount the effects of terior and elevation and climate on the flavour of the tea. Certainly processing plays an important part in the tea flavour equation as well.

Non-scientific online references:
Fujian Tea: http://www.fzrm.com/Varieties%20of%20Tea%20tree.htm
Yunnan Tea: http://www.tuochatea.com/history_of_yunnan_tea.htm

Which I thought was an interesting. What the heck is sub species? Is that like the difference between an Asian homosapien and a African American homosapien?

Judge says man too small for prison – A judge said a 5-foot-1 man convicted of sexually assaulting a child was too small to survive in prison, and gave him 10 years of probation instead. In other words, if you’re 5’1″ or shorter, you automatically have a jail free card.

Armless man stopped for speeding – An armless man stopped for speeding was driving with one foot on the steering wheel and another on the pedals, a policeman testified in court. … He told the court he had been driving for years, using his feet to steer, and had never had an accident.

Circus strongwoman seeks phone books to save show – A circus strongwoman who rips up telephone directories as part of her act has launched an appeal for 500 phone books to ensure her show in northern England can go on.

Freegans” forage for food in bins – “Everything I eat comes from dumpsters,” Ash says. “For me it’s a logical lifestyle choice. It’s such a natural thing to use up that waste.” Some call them “dumpster divers”, others brand them “skip lickers”, but Ross Parry and Ash Falkingham like to count themselves among the Freegans — a growing band of foragers who seek to live entirely from the waste of others. … Freeganism, derived from the words “free” and “vegan”, is spreading to Britain from the United States, where one of its founding fathers, Adam Weissman, has set up a Freegan information Web site to persuade others to join him.

Honda says brain waves control robot (from /.) – In a step toward linking a person’s thoughts to machines, Japanese automaker Honda said it has developed a technology that uses brain signals to control a robot’s very simple moves. Neat!

18,000 pounds of fireworks seized in N.Y. – Police officers who stopped a truck that was tailgating a fuel tanker on a highway say they made a potentially explosive discovery — 18,000 pounds of fireworks.

Windows Live Local has added a new feature: real time traffic, however it appears Yahoo! Maps has had this feature for awhile. The only one missing is Google Maps, but they’re probably going to have that soon too. They did reorganize the UI a bit. They still have the funky layout of the Search fo a busines or category before Enter city, address, or landmark, which I find odd and unintuitive. Also, going between Road/Aerial and Bird’s eye is a bit jarring and sometimes like getting directions doesn’t work in Bird’s eye view, but somehow it doesn’t seem to know how to switch back to Road/Aerial view. One thing that I always found neat is that the by holding the ALT key and drawing a box allows you to zoom into that area. No other online mapping software I’ve seen allows you to do that. Also, being able to right click and add a push pin and being able to get directions to that push pin is also quite handy. Often times I know where the location is, I just don’t know the address and would like to find the best route. Then there’s the scratch pad which is awesome and being able to share that scratch pad with anyone. I remember there was a maximum # of addresses you can add to it before, but I’m not sure if that restriction has been lifted. However, it seems if you login, you can save your scratch pad and have multiple scratch pads. For example, here’s the houses I went seeing today. #1 is Microsoft so I can tell the general distance between that house and where I work. The push pins weren’t added in any particular order if you were wondering…

MIT’s US$100 laptop prototype completed – The first working model of MIT’s $100 laptop was unveiled yesterday at the Seven Countries Task Force meeting. With a garish, bright orange and yellow exterior, swiveling wireless network antennae that look like little horns, and an unusually wide touchpad, the first working prototype of MIT’s much anticipated creation is a confluence of unique design decisions. The project is neat, but they really needed someone better in choosing the colors. It looks like one of those kid computers that teach them how to count. The color of the case has also become a target for criticism. Although I am not particularly fond of the specific colors used in the prototype, I do appreciate the way that the unusual colors contribute to the distinctiveness of the OLPC laptop’s appearance.

Interesting comment from /. (#15396325):

We humans are such bonding creatures aren’t we? I actually realized this just last evening when I was playing the sims 2.

I had never played a sims game before, but all the excitement and buzz around spore made me decide to try out some of will wrights designs – so I picked up the highly reviewed sims 2.

I created a family and was amazed at how quickly I became attached to them. I feel so compelled to make sure that they are well fed and happy – and I have become extrememly preoccupied with making certain they all have positive relationships with each other.

Then I suddenly realized that these sims are programmed to age and eventually die! I then started another family which I care much less about and refuse to load my original family because I can’t bear the thought not only of their permanent passing – but of the distress it will cause the other sims!

Someday I will take them out of this suspended “animation” when I discover how to make them live indefinitely – either through game methods or life-saving game modding!