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Unexplained

A long, strange journey

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It’s been a very bizarre trip for cold fusion.

Odd topic, no?

Well, actually no as I’ve covered it once before.  At the time (March 2010) I was fresh off of watching a video clip that had infuriated me.  60 Minutes had interviewed several scientists who had been involved with the 1980s announcement by Fleischmann and Pons of their – several times now proven – findings with a room temperature fusion reaction.  The general consensus was that maybe, just maybe, the science actually worked and “oh, by the way” Fleischmann and Pons were perhaps the victims of some world class backstabbing.  The resigned look of both bitterness and “I freaking told you so” on Fleischmann’s face says everything.

But, looking back from where the field is now in 2012 does provide a little hope.  Dubbed “Low Energy Nuclear Reaction” or LENR now, cold fusion is bubbling back up to the mainstream.

I started hearing about LENR on some fringe-y sites here and there via the work of Dr. Andrea Rossi.  His E-Cat system caught my eye – and the eye of researchers, industrialists and politicians from Sweden to Massachusetts.  Skeptical myself, you can imagine my surprise when I started seeing it pop up in financial network reports.  And presidential candidate interviews.  And most recently in a ringing endorsement from NASA:

We could really use this one, Universe.  Please don’t let me down.

China, we have to talk

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This is a brand new, absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful museum designed by some truly phenomenal architects in the middle of Ordos, a city in China…with a population of zero people.  Did I mention it’s also in the heart of the Gobi dessert?

China, dear, what are you doing?

I would also like to point out that it’s basically a set from the Charlize Theron reboot of Æon Flux, a fact that I have no problem with but still merits mentioning.

Come to think of it, though, if you were to construct the last city on Earth, you couldn’t really do much better than the Gobi, right?

(io9)

Mystery books

Books, Unexplained by
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These whimsical sculptures made from books have been appearing without much explanation in Edinburgh, Scotland this year.  Kate tipped me off to a blog post about the phenomenon and I have to say I’m going to be much more prone to looking in obscure corners of the libraries I visit from here on out just in case such a treasure lurks there, too.

The saga continues

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The mixing of my email (emailnick) with those of other Nicks expands to the UK where a second email.nick has been losing messages to my inbox courtesy of Google.

See missive to Nick Burgess and his sister after receiving a scanned copy of his birth certificate:

Hello.

I’m not sure how to say this, but I think Google is somehow mixing our mail.  You see, I’m emailnick@gmail.com  and I’ve been receiving emails for email.nick@gmail.com  – mostly from Jessops.com  following an order confirmation from there sometime last year.  It’s not the first time this has happened to me, either:

http://www.nicholasjsmerker.info/2010/03/06/my-australian-email-mystery/
http://www.nicholasjsmerker.info/2010/04/01/australian-mum-writes-again/
http://www.nicholasjsmerker.info/2010/10/14/word-from-australia/

I haven’t got a clue as to what it is that Google might be getting wrong to confuse our email (and I hope it’s not a two way street – my apologies if you are getting my messages, too).  Just thought you might want to be aware.

Best,

Nick

I almost immediately got a reply – as tends to happen when one sends a birth certificate and it ends up in the wrong hands by accident:

Thank you for your honesty I will let my brother know

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

I couldn’t make this up if I tried.  Now, how exactly does one get in touch with Google about their email?  I’d really prefer that my inbox not be eating the mail of every other Nick in the world.

Fair warning

Cars, Unexplained, Want by
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Should this perfectly preserved, weirdly still-stocked 1988 Canadian BMW dealer ever open its doors to the public – and, more importantly, its storage area – I will be taking at least three days off work to embark on a pilgrimage.  We can call it a religious obligation.

(Autoblog)

A.A. (Artificial Artistry)

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If you’ve ever found something strange – or strangely unexpected – on Google’s Street View, then 9-eyes.com is for you.  Its curator, Jon Rafman, collects some of the most arresting images that that the overmind of G has captured accidentally as it roves the land.  You could easily lose hours on this blog, so be warned.

(Autoblog)

This is what I do

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“Desenrascanço (loosely translatable as “disentanglement”) is a Portuguese word used, in common language, to express an ability to solve a problem without having the knowledge or the adequate tools to do so, by use of imaginative resources or by applying knowledge to new situations. Achieved when resulting in a hypothetical good-enough solution.

(Wiktionary)