Don't trust those scientists, trust blogs!

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OTTAWA -- A newly released American study suggests the public often rejects the opinions of scientific experts.

The public tends not to trust scientists, says research from California - but there's a twist. People are mainly reluctant to believe good news, it turns out - such as the message that a flu vaccine is safe. But the public is more likely to trust the researchers who frighten with bad news.

I always give bad news!

Time for a Linux re-install

I do all my work with 2 Linux machines, one does the blog work, and the other takes care of multimedia. After 2 years of running Debian unstable, I was finally starting to screw it up. All sorts of weird things, especially with the new boot loader - grub. These are things you just can't fix anymore.

So, I bit the bullet, backed up everything to a spare hard disk, and used the latest Debian installer. It worked great! All my custom programs had to be re-compiled, but that was a good thing, as well.

I would recommend a 2 year cycle for everybody!

When to give up on history - New Zealand Earthquake

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"THIS is the greatest disaster New Zealand has ever seen," Agriculture Minister David Carter told The Australian yesterday.

I think the biggest lesson here will be what to do with historic brick buildings on swamps. This might stiffen the resolve to tear them down, or lift them on to screw piles. I am constantly amazed that nobody got killed.