Am I losing my marbles?

[Rhisiart]

I just came across this little app (http://toastycode.com/cuckoo/). I can't tell you how much joy it gives me.

Who says Switzerland has nothing to offer the world (stereotypical simplicity aside)?

[reed]

I don't know about your marbles Rhisiart but I could go cuckoo if I had to listen to a .....cuckoo every 1/4 hour. Then again.... Ding Dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong every half hour could be a religious experience or very helpful for happy hour.
Fun app.

[VirtualTracy]

Your marbles are perfectly intact Rhisiart :) I just downloaded then purchased the license so I can enjoy the old grandfather clock chimes that remind me of saner daze ....

[Rhisiart]

Ah! So I am not alone.

Anyhows, whether I am losing my marbles or not, it probably won't matter come 10th September when they turn on the Large Hadron Collider over at CERN.

Some scientists believe it will create a black hole that will swallow the earth whole.

If I can still hear my cuckoo clock on the 11th I know I'm safe.

[VirtualTracy]

I paid for Cuckoo via PayPal then haven't received an email from the developer so I can unlock my cuckoo ... usually the email is instantly sent off ... cuckoo!

[Rhisiart]

It took a while for mine to arrive (also have you checked your spam filter?).

[VirtualTracy]

(also have you checked your spam filter?).

Thanks Rhisiart, not in mail.apps spam folder but I logged onto webmail and notice that Mail.app hasn't fetched the license key for cuckoo from my ISPs Server ... strange that? It has had no trouble fetching "new post @ macosx etc" mail but had given the cuckoo mail the cold shoulder.

Anyway I'm going to configure the clock to go off with a 'bong' every half hour.

[Rhisiart]

Bong it is then.... well, until the black hole forms.

[fryke]

It's "scientists" who "believe" it'll swallow the Earth. Scientists actually think there won't be a problem. But I, too, find it very interesting that the end of the world could be so near and start in SWITZERLAND of all places. I mean: We're sweet, aren't we. (I'm Swiss.)

As an atheist, I tell people who talk to me about the collider that all they have to do is go to bed on Sept. 10 with happy thoughts. ;)

[Rhisiart]

As it happens, my parents are in Switzerland right now. They won't be pleased if a singularity occurs before they get to see the Matterhorn.

[reed]

should I close my Swiss accounts now? Gulp.

[fryke]

If the black hole grows to eat Switzerland, I think you'd have other worries than bank accounts. ;)

[nixgeek]

If the black hole grows to eat Switzerland, I think you'd have other worries than bank accounts. ;)

Black hole?!?

Well, that sucks....

Badum Psshhh!

Thank you! I'm here all week! Try the veal! :D

** /me now runs and hides from the ensuing mob. **

[Rhisiart]

Pimp my LHC (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/08/26/scirap126.xml).

[fryke]

Word.

(Version 12, I guess.)

At the Mac store I'm working, we were kidding around that Apple would announce aluminum MacBooks only the day before the world would end. (Kinda like "when hell freezes over".) So they'd never have to actually deliver an inexpensive notebook with an aluminum shell.

Reminds me: I still haven't downloaded the app this thread is about... Off we go... (http://toastycode.com/cuckoo/)

[VirtualTracy]

Reminds me: I still haven't downloaded the app this thread is about... Off we go... (http://toastycode.com/cuckoo/)

I love this app! I've got bonging set to go off each 5 min interval then bong the hour as per the time .... I'm waiting for my partner to come into the room to investigate where the bonging is coming from but she hasn't heard it yet.

We have a smallish mantle-clock of which it's bonging mechanism has become unreliable so I'm loving this ....

Thanks Rhisiart again for this gem.

All I can offer in return is my gratitude and this tip:

Using the tiny remote that comes with most Macs, one can boot into Boot Option Mode (hold Opt at startup to detect available startup discs) and select an available option to continue the boot process ... to do this press and hold the play button upon hearing the Startup Chime and using the left - right arrows to navigate ... ;)

[VirtualTracy]

Ah! So I am not alone.

Anyhows, whether I am losing my marbles or not, it probably won't matter come 10th September when they turn on the Large Hadron Collider over at CERN.

Some scientists believe it will create a black hole that will swallow the earth whole.

If I can still hear my cuckoo clock on the 11th I know I'm safe.

Disaster averted by Apple!!! They somehow managed to harness the energy and convert it so that it is now harmless. See the new iTunes 8 Visualiser for the result!! Go Apple !! ;)

[Rhisiart]

If I turn on the visualiser will I be in danger of being sucked into a black hole?

Apparently this is what it would be like to enter a black hole:

If you were caught by the pull of a black hole ..... your body [will stretch] until it snapped apart, first at its weakest point and then disintegrating rapidly from there as the tidal force became stronger than the chemical bonds holding your body together. You'd be reduced to a bunch of disconnected atoms. Those atoms would be stretched into a line and continue in a processional march.

Not very appealing, is it?

P.S. Courtesy of Slate Magazine (http://www.slate.com/).

[VirtualTracy]

Ahhh, then that explains the way I felt when I woke this morning ....


Black Holes remind me of the British TV show "Balls Of Steel"
The larger the Black Hole the colder they are, the smaller they are the hotter they are.
Black Holes can evaporate.

[reed]

You know, I remember as a kid the offical US Government ads on TV concerning the possiblity of nuclear attack....from the Russkies. "In case of nuclear attack...."
This is the short checklist version:

"THIS IS NOT A TEST

-keep your radio on for all further information, this is not a test
-Seek your nearest shelter
-make sure you have water & food for five days
- take off all metal objects
-lay flat or put your head between your legs", etc. Then some guy added to the list as a joke years later:


"and then kiss your a*s goodbye!"

[macbri]

Apparently this is what it would be like to enter a black hole:

If you were caught by the pull of a black hole ..... your body [will stretch] until it snapped apart.....

Not very appealing, is it?

Sounds unpleasantly like being drunk (http://www.workinghumor.com/quotes/hitchhiker.shtml) ;)

[fryke]

Drunk? I _am_ right this very moment! :) Hm. Not _that_ drunk, though. I'm currently using that Cuckoo thingie, though. My Mac's been gonging once an hour for a couple of days now.

[VirtualTracy]

GST: Greek Security Team (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/09/12/scicern212.xml)

[Rhisiart]

Back to "Am I losing my marbles?".

If I was American I would vote for Obama this November. McCain would be better than Dubya (well wouldn't anyone?), but Obama has that JFK magic and I think he will make a great President.

What worries me is Sarah Palin. Not her politics, but the fact that I actually quite fancy her.

http://www.orthobase.org/images/Sarah_Palin.jpg

Is this definite proof that I have lost my marbles forever?

[nixgeek]

What worries me is Sarah Palin. Not her politics, but the fact that I actually quite fancy her.

http://www.orthobase.org/images/Sarah_Palin.jpg

Is this definite proof that I have lost my marbles forever?


Heh....you're not the only one, good sir. :p

[fryke]

Fancy her all you want, as long as you vote Obama.

[bbloke]

On a similar note, McCain seemed a little distracted (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RN5xbWtNSU) recently... :D

[Rhisiart]

Fancy her all you want, as long as you vote Obama.
I never mix business with pleasure. Obama's my man for the top job, but alas I cannot vote at all as I am British (although my American-born wife can).

[reed]

take off her glasses and check her local politics....in "the Great North".Too cute for words. Ohhhh boy it's cold up there.
Alaska: Hunting moose, unemployed drunken Inuits, further oil exlpoitation rights, etc. but Washington D.C. was built on a swamp. In a word, Palin will be in her element, though in a little hotter environment and with a little less shooting....with rifles, not pistols. If McCain, of course, doesn't hang in till the end this is what we are stuck with. SIGH.
As we say in Alaska, time to drink.............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCt-iFLWhJg&feature=related

[Rhisiart]

Vote for Obama. At least you'll live to regret it.

P.S. Sorry if this image offends anyone, but it speaks volumes about people who purport to speak in His name.

http://www.orthobase.org/images/republican_jesus.jpg

[g/re/p]

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/funny-pictures-cat-finds-your-lost-marbles.jpg

[reed]

The Governor of Alaska....without the glasses.

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkb9_zB2Pg

[Rhisiart]

So that's how you lose your marbles?

[VirtualTracy]

First your marbles, then before ya' know it ... it's your Lasagne!

http://img.skitch.com/20080927-cj6d2k4n7fibmxjtcgg4eta671.png

[g/re/p]

sfrbgm[ambkmbakkmb[am]]]!!!