Author Archives: Lorne Beaton
Low gas prices are not good news
Since Standard & Poor’s downgraded U.S. Treasury bonds last week in the aftermath of the debt-ceiling debacle, financial markets have been whipsawing up and down like a demented yo-yo. In the midst of all the turmoil, there is one seeming … Continue reading
How to use ALL the toner in your laser printer
When I first starting working at The Lance (over twenty years ago now, aack!), they had just burned $6,000 — in 1989 dollars, mind you — on a professional desktop-publishing setup. This included a 1200 dpi laser printer, very high … Continue reading
Another week, another set of links
Here are this week’s interesting links: The Daily WTF is a website for IT professionals and programmers to share war stories about strange and proposterous things they encounter in their line of work. Most of them require a pretty deep … Continue reading
Stuff I came across: Week of April 11, 2011
Here follow this week’s ephemera. Things you didn’t know you had to worry about: What to do when your pilot gets sucked out the plane window. Um, I have to sit down now. Oh, I’m already sitting? Ah, I didn’t … Continue reading
A buck-thirty a liter… Ouch!
If you drive a car here in Windsor, chances are you noticed that the price of gasoline jumped yet again last night. The gas station at the corner of Wyandotte and Lauzon was selling gas at 129.9 cents per liter. … Continue reading
News from the Catholic Church
It’s official. The demand for exorcists is higher than ever, and a group of priests and assorted hangers-on at a Roman Catholic university in Rome have identified the source of the problem: it’s the Internet’s fault! With modern communications, it … Continue reading
Things I came across: Week of March 28, 2011
I’m going to start keeping track of cool, fun, interesting, terrifying and/or random things I come across and posting them on a regular basis. Here’s the first collection. An eight-year-long thread (and still going strong) of ER docs, nurses, students, paramedics … Continue reading
Fire in Detroit
Woke up this morning to see a plume of smoke stretching across my entire view: Apparently it’s a plastics-recycling warehouse on fire in Detroit. That would account for the thick black smoke. As I write, it’s been burning for four … Continue reading
The cutting edge of beer technology
Guinness drinkers who drink at home will be familiar with the little plastic ball that rattles around in the can after you crack it open and pour out a pint of dark creamy goodness. If you’ve ever wondered what that … Continue reading
To knock some sense into them
Here’s a nice little meme from the past couple of weeks: Motorists, who feel their progress is being hindered by non-motorists, taking matters into their own hands and plowing into crowds of people. That’s the corner of Tulip and Iris … Continue reading
Lorne Beaton's Blog 