“Chads” are those little circles of paper left when you punch a hole in it. You may know of the controversy chads caused in the 2000 USA election. It seems to have become quite a problem.

You see, in the USA, some voters are required to punch a hole on their nominated vote. When the small circle of paper remains stuck to the sheet, this is called a “hanging chad.” Obviously problematic when counting votes.

Chads are now a problem for us in the tally room.

Because the paper used for printing the running tallies of votes for each seat has arrived at the tally room, but the chads haven’t been punched out.

- The Poll Vault

We now have our very own “chad puncher.” Gary, is there to ensure all the chads are clear from the paper so that printers don’t jam during the election coverage on Saturday night.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qymxCMz3Uzo[/youtube]

Straight out of a Wallace and Gromit film (actually, it’s from France) comes this automatic pet washing machine, that “eliminates the stress produced by current pet cleaning methods.” Yes, they actually say that. Not only does the Pet Spa safely wash your pet with hydro massage jets, it’s also able to deliver “a variety of medications and chemicals” (like flea powder, I’m guessing). After the wash, your pet gets to enjoy a nice relaxing blow-dry.

It’s designed to be totally safe for your pet, with continuous air circulation and water jets that come out of the floor to avoid eyes and ears. Designed for large pet stores, the Pet Spa costs over $30,000. Suggested cost per wash is $15; actual cost in shampoo and stuff is only 45 cents. Although you can stuff yourself inside the compartment to keep your dog company, based on the video, I would not recommend doing the same thing with your cat.

Hat tip to OhGizmo!

First I bumped into this through Digg. Pretty amazing images but also pretty fake (check the link at the bottom of the page).

Then I found the video below on YouTube. Now that’s pretty amazing. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYM__s3R5q0[/youtube]

I watched a fair amount of the recent space walk by Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock on NASA TV last night. It was a pretty amazing and difficult walk involving the entire ISS and Discovery crew. Parazynski spent a few hours repairing a solar array which hard torn during deployment. This was part of the recent STS-120 shuttle mission to the space station.

It was a dangerous walk because of risk of electrocution (they couldn’t turn off the solar array) and the fact that Scott would be one hour away from the safety of the station. He needed to ride on the end of a robotic arm which was outstretched as far as it could possibly be in order to reach the array.

This video on the NASA site will show you the movement the arm had to undertake to get Scott to the damage site.

During the telecast, I noticed how amazingly the team worked together. There were no egos, not frights and plenty of great banter. Everyone (including those back on Earth) were happy to defer decisions to those people with the most reliable information at the time. It was quite a pleasure to watch a team work so well together.

I took a heap of screen shots of the cast so here they are each with a brief description:

• Start of the ride
• Discovery docked to the ISS.
• Parazynski attached to the end of the OBSS.
• At the solar array.
• Putting the first cufflink in place.
• View from Doug Wheelock’s wireless camera.
• View from an ISS cameras.
• About to cut the damaged ropes.
• The five cufflinks in place.
• Taking a photograph of himself.

I’ve wanted to do something like this for 11 years now. I could have waited until after the election but I just couldn’t help myself …

And then this. Ahhhh, relief at last!

Not much blogging lately. No doubt I’ve now lost my very loyal following of 3 and need to spend some quality time rebuilding my audience.

This isn’t going to be a good start however as I don’t have very much to write about. Lots has been happening, but nothing terribly exciting. Here’s a quick run-down:

• I got a year older
• Work is crazy busy
• Home life is good fun - still planning the wedding and then some
• Keenly watching the election coverage although it has been quite boring this time ’round
• Entertained my family in our home today. All went well (I think!) Had my uncle and his family drop by too which made for a bit of a squeeze but much enjoyment for Stanley
• Started daylight savings so I’ll be traveling to work in the dark but have plenty of daylight hours to enjoy once I get back home

Hat tip to Joe for this one.

An accidental discovery by a cancer researcher has shown that we can burn salt water using radio frequencies. If this can be harnessed appropriately, just imagine what it could do for our future energy needs. I wonder however if it costs more power to fire the water than what they can harness from it.

Roy explained to the Post-Gazette, that the water itself doesn’t burn. His best guess is that the energy from the radio waves breaks the bonds between the molecules, releasing hydrogen that can be ignited with a flame. The temperature of the flame was measured at 1,650 °C.

Cosmos Magazine

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6vSxR6UKFM[/youtube]

At a Web 2.0 Business Lunch today, one speaker played the following clip. Watching it, I had some serious mixed emotions. Worried, excited, inspired and humbled all mingled together.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fUHtc37MC8[/youtube]

I am unsure yet how I would go about engaging in this new media culture and maintain a sense of the real world at the same time. Certainly very interesting.

From the Museum of Media History.

I finally got around to finishing up our paving on the weekend. What a task - much harder than I initially expected it to be but our yard is all the better for it.

Getting everything nice and square and level was definitely the tougher part of the gig. Plenty of detail work involved in that part.

Unfortunately though, it’s shown up a few other things I need to now get done. Have to get the garden bed in, raise the washing line (’cos I keep head butting it) and build in one more step on the drop into the garage.

Here’s another shot from the other side:

… but I’ll keep watching anyway.

“So You Think You Can Dance?” started airing today. I totally love this show. Not only because of some of the most incredible human feats you get to see, but for the collection of complete freaks.

There was one guy, Jamal, who just made me laugh. A “breaker”, they asked him to quickly learn a swing dance and come back to show them. It was one of the funniest things ever. The clip below shows Jamal’s dance, and then a couple dancing to same song from last season.

The great thing is, they’re both totally crap for many different reasons. At least Jamal is entertaining…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKu3L36SVfI[/youtube]

For those that haven’t seen any real swing dancing (lindy hop), try this on for size…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZviUhPdsiI[/youtube]