Fed up residents repair road in 8 days — for free: Tired of waiting for government help, business owners and residents on the Hawaiian island of Kauai pulled together and completed a $4 million road repair job — for free. “We can wait around for the state or federal government to make this move, or we can go out and do our part,” said local businessman Ivan Slack.

This is a libertarian’s dream… citizens, when empowered, can solve problems better than the government can, and do it for less. In this case, they accomplished a civil engineering job that the government estimated would cost $4 million, and take 2 years, in just 8 days, and at a total cost to the tax payers of $0!!!!.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

Can Fractals Make Sense of the Quantum World?: Keith found a New Scientist story about fractals and quantum theory. The article says “Take the mathematics of fractals into account, says Palmer, and the long-standing puzzles of quantum theory may be much easier to understand. They might even dissolve away.”

This is the coolest article I’ve read in a long time. I’ve had a hobby for many years of trying to understand (at a very coarse, layman’s level) the nature of various theories in physics today.

I’ve read books by Feynman, and Hawking, and always wondered if there’d ever be a connection between quantum theory and relativity theory. I’ve also read several books on fractals and thought that the nature of our universe had to be fractal in some way. Well, it looks as though it is, and there might be a connection between quantum theory and relativity theory after all.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

Mac Mini Running Inside an Apple Disk II :

How retro and cool is this? Certainly one for the extreme mac geek, creator and no doubt mac fan Charles Mangin created this gem. A Mac Mini encased inside an old Apple Disk II Case. Brilliant. Check out the images below:

http://www.mactropolis.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/macmini-applediskii-1.jpg“>

You gotta love this! Maybe one of these years I’ll end up with a mac mini and be able to find one of these drive cases to do this mod. Imagine, a computer 100’s of times more powerful than the Apple II, in the case for the floppy drive!

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.