Exasperated Calculator: Star Trek & Economics
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What happens when no one says ‘why?’
[A Jacuzzi party on Mont Blanc](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/jacuzzi-high/mont-blanc-jacuzzi-party-at-15711-feet-was-low-on-oxygen-high-on-booze-309708.php) (4,807m above sea level). It’s safe to say that there isn’t a great long list of reasons to do this, other than ‘why not’. It’s an impressive display of effort to actually make it all happen.
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Outsourcing at Home
[Scan Cafe](http://www.scancafe.com/): we ship your slides and negatives to India for scanning. This is a brilliant idea, and very cheap (24c a slide, 19c a negative). Unfortunately it’s US only at the moment, otherwise I’d be packaging together a big shipment for the company.
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Mobile Web
[Apple’s directory of applications for the iPod Touch and iPhone](http://www.apple.com/webapps/). I’ve just recently acquired an iPod Touch, and there are a lot of useful little applications in this directory.
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Mendeleev v2.0
[Some alternate designs for the periodic table](http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/10/dynamic_periodic_table_an.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890). The periodic table of the elements is such an icon of science it’s easy to forget that it’s a somewhat arbitrary arrangement, that doesn’t include a lot of the complexity of the chemical and physical makeup of the atoms.
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Election07: It’s on!
[Months](http://www.exasperatedcalculator.com/archives/2007/01/year-of-the-election/) after I thought it would start, the 2007 Australian Federal Election is [finally on](http://liberal.org.au/info/news/detail/20071014_November24AustraliasChoice.php). This is going to be a very interesting race. John Howard is a master of incumbency, using every advantage of being in government (from the army of public servants behind you, to fears of change, to the bottomless advertising budget).…
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The Olympics, bought to you by Dow-Corning
[Australian swim coach Don Talbot calls for sports authorities to allow currently banned drugs](http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/let-them-all-cheat-talbot/2007/10/13/1191696232452.html?s_cid=rss_news). I’ve always been a big fan of the idea of removing a lot of the restrictions on sports drug use. Authorities can’t police it adequately. But more importantly, think of the spinoff benefits if drug companies can legally test performance enhancing…
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Redesigned
The new design for the site has just gone live. Hopefully it’s a little bit cleaner than the old design. I’ve mainly tried to simplify the overall design – leave only the main elements that are needed. In particular I’ve removed the whole sidebar, and replaced it with a single archives page link at the…
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Most popular professions
[10 per cent of UK residents want to be an author](http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2153330,00.html). Fewer want to be an astronaut or sports personality.
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Cleaning up
[A guide to cleaning stains out of your carpet](http://www.fabriclink.com/Stains/Carpet.cfm).
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Staying safe
[A bedside table that converts into a baseball bat and shield](http://www.jamesmcadam.co.uk/portfolio_html/sb_table.html).