I swear my inbox is getting weirder and weirder stuff in it. At least the penny stocks and anatomically-correct (and graphic) penis enlargement/viagra/horse tranquilizer ads I can deal with. These weirdo "come meet me online" ads are getting really strange.

No really! Please to be meeting me online? I am being not native English speaker: first!

You don't say. I would've never guessed.

So I read this article on CNN about a planned 640 acre (1 square mile) solar farm that is being built outside of Fresno. So I got to thinking: If one square mile generates 80 MW, the power requirements of the entire country could be supplied in about 1/3 the land area of Arizona.

Click "read more" to see the calculations.

There hasn't been much to really talk about on schmong.org recently, so I thought I'd pop up a bit about two movies Andrea and I have recently seen. We PPV'd Flushed Away the other day, and just got out of Ratatouille earlier tonight. Both are great films for very different reasons, and both proudly feature the best animated rodentia since the Mickey/Jerry/Speedy power trio of last century:

Well, it's yet another semester in the can, and here's the results:

They were both morning classes, so I guess I shouldn't complain about the A- in my 7:30. My instructor and I didn't see eye-to-eye all that much, so I'll just count my blessings and move on.

Ethics paper number two is below on the ethics of the (illegal) practice of abandonware distribution.

ObDisclaimer: This paper does not constitute legal advice, nor is it the opinion of my employer.

Click "Read More" to see it in its full Utilitiarian glory.

One of my classes this semester is CS 154: Formal Languages and Computability, which includes a number of computing "machines," including various automata and Turing Machines. Until very recently, my section was proscribed from using the JFLAP tool to simulate these various machines. Without it, there is no terribly good way to check one's work (i.e. I would write an automata and have no real idea whether it works or not). With it, however, these machines can be tested and debugged easily. It's a great tool with just a few downsides:

Clicky.

Charoset is a Passover thing for those Jewish types, but it's tasty and good for all:

Ingredients

• 1 c chopped apple
• 1 c chopped nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, etc)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp sweet red wine (Manischewitz or similar)

Combine and refrigerate.

My wife hates leafy vegetables. As a result, she doesn't really eat too many salads. But she likes this one:

Click "Read More" to see the recipe...

It all started with a challenge on IRC. Could a not-thoroughly-gross cookie be made with mushrooms in it? Taking an existing oatmeal cookie recipe as a base and assuming that sweet must be replaced with savory, I was able to concoct a reasonably edible thing that resembles a cookie and has mushrooms in it:

Click "read more" below for details.