One of the most attractive aspects of these charming little flying criters is that the have a marvelously colored plumage (and females are usually sharing very similar color patterns). So, wild life photographers are easily attracted to them.

In Indonesia, there is a large number of these species (Islands are very favorable environment to a strong selection leading to a large diversity; They provide long term isolation for species to quickly develop very local characters over long geological eras). During a recent trip, I could assemble a small collection of them. Here is a list of them. Far from exhaustive, but already quite long to my eyes.

Azure kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur à dos bleu (Ceyx azureus)

A nice little kingfisher, somewhat shy though.

Beach kingfisher, Martin-chasseur à tête blanche (Todiramphus saurophagus)

Relatively easy to find on beaches and sea fronts.

Blue-and-white kingfisher, Martin-chasseur des Moluques (Todiramphus diops)

Blue-black kingfisher, Martin-chasseur bleu-noir (Todiramphus nigrocyaneus)

Superb dark blue feathers.

Collared kingfisher, Martin-chasseur à collier blanc (Todiramphus chloris)

Common kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur d’Europe (Alcedo atthis)

The most recognizable one (for Europeans) since it is present thousands of kilometers from Indonesia.

Common paradise-kingfisher, Martin-chasseur à longs brins (Tanysiptera galatea)

Somehow, this kingfisher becomes relatively difficult to photograph if you want to ensure that the tail is appropriately rendered in the picture. And you will easily recognize that it is unting insects instead of fishing in rivers.

Great-billed kingfisher, Martin-chasseur à bec noir (Pelargopsis melanorhyncha)

Green-backed kingfisher, Martin-chasseur moine (Actenoides monachus)

A bird never easily impressed. You could find it anywhere in the forest and it will stay immobile with perfect patience.

Female:

Male:

Hook-billed kingfisher, Martin-chasseur d’Euphrosine (Melidora macrorrhina)

Forget this one, I could not bring any reasonable picture (observed from afar and photographed from a very unflattering low angle).

Little kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur poucet (Ceyx pusillus)

A small guy, always mobile, always impatient to find another place along the river.

Moluccan dwarf-kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur gracieux (Ceyx lepidus)

Ruddy kingfisher, Martin-chasseur violet (Halcyon coromanda)

Spectacular is the word! You would be excused for believing the colors are coming from a failed photography development or from a fake AI-enhanced picture. But it is merely light playing with feathers to give him the looks of a hippie singer.

Sacred kingfisher, Martin-chasseur sacré (Todiramphus sanctus)

Scaly-breasted kingfisher, Martin-chasseur royal (Actenoides princeps)

Female:

Sombre kingfisher, Martin-chasseur funèbre (Todiramphus funebris)

Sulawesi dwarf kingfisher, Martin-pêcheur multicolore (Ceyx fallax)

Sulawesi lilac kingfisher, Martin-chasseur oreillard (Cittura cyanotis)

Yellow-billed kingfisher, Martin-chasseur torotoro (Syma torotoro)

So, here is a condensed list:

The “most useless page” of this web site shows the first million decimal figures of PI (Do you remember your math? PI=3.14, more or less).

All this is a kind of « virtual partnership » with French scientific magazine La Recherche whose December 2005 issue is titled : « Pi, le maître nombre » (Pi, the Master number). There, you will find more about the exact status of research about mathematical constants (including e, square root of 2, square root of 5, and others).

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• Or the best resume for the application you are viewing: StandardResume.
• But, if you are unsure about anything else, you may need to get help: 50 ways to get a job, or GlassDoor to define what kind of position is good for your lifestyle.

Now, this is just the beginning and it will be useful to know what you are worth with PasyScale.com.

On April 17, 2011, Robert Budnitz, Ed Morse and Tom McKone discussed Japan’s nuclear crisis. I recommend their comments (including the web sites they list in the end of the presentation).

Listed web sites:

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA – United Nations) Japan information updated twice a day
• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
• National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP – USA)
• List of various resources to build yourself a personal opinion on events:
  • Guardian
  • New York Times
• Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS – USA)

Today, there is a tidy little collection of solutions to this problem. Most of them use available free sources, but they may not be willing to provide free information.  So, some are free, some provide information for a fee. I tried to build a list of some very significant sources and I will share this list here with you.

Corporate Information (http:/www.corporateinformation.com/)

All key figures are freely available at the tip of a company search engine. Wright Quality ratings are also available freely.

Full reports can be purchased online for $24 to $60 (subscriptions are also possible). They include a financial statement analysis, financial ratio analysis, detailed Wright quality analysis.

Manta (http://www.manta.com)

The information seems scantily available and you must open an account to access to any significant information (anything other than the most basic data like annual sales).

Revere Research Reports (http://www.reveredata.com/reports/)

Even the free overview does not contain much. All reports require a payment, but prices fly quite high (from $75 for a list of competitors to $250 for various M&A scenario analysis).

Corpitel

This company seems to no longer provide any such financial service.

Amitel

Analysis to come later.

Amadeus (http://www.bvdep.com/)

AMADEUS is a database of financial information for 250,000 European companies (available by subscription only).

Conclusion

In short, Corporate Information is my preferred source among the sources providing some free data.

I hope they will sell the poster somewhere.

You can join the competition for the beard holding the largest number of wooden toothpicks:

If you feel a pinch, don’t accuse the beard!

In order to stay on the competition field, there was this beard contest in Alaska in May 2009. The new champion: David Traver.

Isn’t it a nice beard?

But must must also know when to be serious about beards. This is why “The Language of the Beard“, published in 1913 in London, presented (and ranked) poets by the mass of their beard.

John Burroughs (1837 – 1921)
Beard type: Claus-esque
Typical opus: Waiting
Gravity (UPI rating): 43

But I was also mentioned a darker side of beards in our society so afraid of terrorism.

But some wanted to tell us about the more troubling side of beards in our society now permanently afraid of the possibility of terrorism.

So, there is no surprise in seeing super-heroes (this epitome of the American popular culture) turning to beards (would you recognize them?):

Last but not least, shouldn’t I mention the attention drawn to facial hair in Mafia Wars (the online game in Facebook)? There, you can collect beards, barber tools, etc.

Source: Software Engineering Tips.

You can’t read Chinese? That’s a pity. You would learn from this official announcement that some foods should not be eaten together (it is not clear how the exact risk was identified, though).

According to Xinjiang, the list of terrible mixtures is:

1. Pork + water chestnuts = a stomach ache
2. Beef + chestnuts = vomiting
3. Lamb meat + watermelon = a decreased vigor for life
4. Dog meat + green beans = poisonous to the body
5. Rabbit meat + celery = loss of hair
6. Chicken + celery = a decreased vigor for life
7. Goose meat + chicken eggs = a decreased vigor for life
8. Turtle meat + amaranth (a nutritional herb) = poisonous to the body
9. Carp + liquorice (not the candy) = poisonous to the body
10. Crab + persimmon fruit = diarrhea
11. Chicken eggs + saccharin = poisonous to the body, potentially fatal
12. Brown sugar + preserved eggs = poisonous to the body
13. White wine (白酒) + persimmon = chest pains
14. Onions + honey = damaged vision
15. Radish + fungus = dermatitis (a skin disease)
16. Bean curd + honey = makes you deaf
17. Potatoes + bananas = (not translated)
18. Bananas + sweet potato = a bloated belly
19. Peanuts + cucumbers = harmful to the body
20. Sweet potatoes + persimmon = lithiasis (formation of stones, such as the kidney stone)

I knew that you wanted to know about it…

Found in an article of DownloadSquad:

• ImgBurn
• CDBurner XP which still is my prefered solution (by far) in the CD/DVD burning category
• InfraRecorder
• NCH ExpressBurn
• Burn CDCC

Knowledge is always free.

• Oscar a.k.a. “Unsinkable Sam”
• Simon, of the Royal Navy
• The Alamo Cat
• Fred, the undercover secret agent
• Tama, train station master

Source: The Pet Blog.

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Good luck trying them all.

• The Scotch Malt Whisky Guide, with an excellent little historic guide to whisky that is perfectly written for those who discover this strong alcohol.
• the web site of the Scotch Whisky Association if you want to share your passion with other amateurs.

But this is not enough for some people (real alcohol geeks). Wired discovered that true US amateurs are pushing sunday afternoon distillery in a country where moonshine is still prohibited. It’s quite easy, and the result is supposed to be very good.

The next one is located at the top of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It’s a small zone of complete quietness in the middle of furious liquid torrent.

For more about this strange location: Fogonazos.

For this last one, excentricity is in the photo itself. Not the pool.

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Hollywood in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s created a long string of cheap horror movies that never reached the top rating lists. However, some of them, despite being left mostly abandonned by their authors, are worthy of some renewed attention. In this context, it is interesting to notice that the Internet Archive has recently pointed to a nice list of these B horror movies. In there, you will find (available for free download):

• Attack of the Giant Leeches
• Attack of the Killer Mushrooms
• Horrors of Spider Island
• Killers from Space
• Bloody Pit of Horror
• The Satanic Rites of Dracula
• Werewolf of Washington
• Killer Shrews
• The Giant Gila Monster

Interestingly, this statement allows to believe that by June 2008 the list will have grown to 1 million terrorists in the US of A. I believe that Americans can be silly, but I doubt that one out of 230 is a dangerous moron attempting to end western civilization next time he or she will take a plane.

I suggest that you have a look at the astonishing list of “unlikely suspects” displayed in this article from ACLU. It includes US Senators and US Congressmen (and their spouses), war heroes, John Does with a common name, dead 9/11 hijackers, foreign presidents (dead as Saddam Hussein or alive like Evo Morales), pop star singers and toddlers.