Jim Moriarty

Hello. I’m Jim. This is the latest incarnation of JimMoriarty.com – now with magic sidebars to generate the illusion of constant activity through the modern wonders that are RSS and various social networking sites.

Quick Bio – Devoted husband to Natalie, inspiration (and presumed father) to Evan, Thea and Lyra, kidney doctor to the rich, famous and uraemic, and proud owner of two crates of working USB cables and several fairly rare Pulp boxsets.

If you need to congratulate me on any of the above, email is good.

Created by DeviantArt user Gamefan84, who says all that needs to be said: "Craziest request ever: Chewie riding a giant cute squirrel chasing down Nazis. He needs long flowing fur and a giant roar."

You might stop by his DeviantArt page and tell him how great this is.

(via BB Submitterator / The High Definite)

This is a lovely variation on The Leaning Tower illusion. I can’t believe that these two photographs are identical….

Any idea why it works?

I think the worst offender here is the History Channel and all their programs on the so-called "World War II".

Let's start with the bad guys. Battalions of stormtroopers dressed in all black, check. Secret police, check. Determination to brutally kill everyone who doesn't look like them, check. Leader with a tiny villain mustache and a tendency to go into apopleptic rage when he doesn't get his way, check. All this from a country that was ordinary, believable, and dare I say it sometimes even sympathetic in previous seasons.

I wouldn't even mind the lack of originality if they weren't so heavy-handed about it. Apparently we're supposed to believe that in the middle of the war the Germans attacked their allies the Russians, starting an unwinnable conflict on two fronts, just to show how sneaky and untrustworthy they could be? And that they diverted all their resources to use in making ever bigger and scarier death camps, even in the middle of a huge war? Real people just aren't that evil. And that's not even counting the part where as soon as the plot requires it, they instantly forget about all the racism nonsense and become best buddies with the definitely non-Aryan Japanese.

Not that the good guys are much better. Their leader, Churchill, appeared in a grand total of one episode before, where he was a bumbling general who suffered an embarrassing defeat to the Ottomans of all people in the Battle of Gallipoli. Now, all of a sudden, he's not only Prime Minister, he's not only a brilliant military commander, he's not only the greatest orator of the twentieth century who can convince the British to keep going against all odds, he's also a natural wit who is able to pull out hilarious one-liners practically on demand. I know he's supposed to be the hero, but it's not realistic unless you keep the guy at least vaguely human.

Crochet Robot Droid Hat (Thanks, JMD!)

I suppose if you're going to take handouts from pharmaceutical reps—a practice that's been proven to influence decisions doctors make, even if they think it doesn't—you may as well get exactly what you want out of the deal.

Carmen Drahl, an editor at Chemical & Engineering News who blogs about the cool science that comes out of pharmaceutical chemistry, sent me this example of the industry's less-awesome side. She says:

Even though it's frowned upon these days for doctors to be getting free lunches from pharmaceutical company sales reps, that doesn't mean it doesn't still happen. And at least one medical practice is acting like a real diva about it- specifying everything from what time the food should be delivered to which local eateries are do's and don'ts. Journalist Ed Silverman's Pharmalot blog has posted a memo from a Baltimore practice that reads "like a rider for a concert tour", as one commenter put it.

To be fair, as far as concert tour riders go, this ain't a J.Lo level of detail. But it is amusing/depressing to see a medical practice specify exactly what it takes to buy their loyalty, potentially at the expense of their patients. Especially when that loyalty can be bought, apparently, with lunch from Macaroni Grill.

With a capacity of 5 MB, the IBM 350 disk storage unit could have stored about two MP3 files. This photo, showing a unit getting forklifted onto a plane, is from 1956.

IBM's history website has more information about the drive.

IBM 350 disk storage unit (Thanks, Roy Doty!)

A sinuous green aurora appears above a deck of clouds in this dramatic astronaut photograph from May 29, 2010.