Episode II: Attack of the Idiots

Well after some rest on the sidelines after such a breakthrough debut on the blog (followed by a tragic brain sprain), the Bean is back and boy...he is annoyed. I'm pretty sure you are too, perhaps without even realising it! Lets have a look shall we?

This weeks installment: Shopping / basic pedestrian navigation

After losing to The Moff in golf by two shots last night, I was primed for a breakdown today and it came in the form of annoying Asian people (sorry Dylan). Without being racist, how can these people come from such ram packed populations yet still be so shit at navigating public places? I mean seriously, how hard is it to look where you are going? And if I go left, you go right? OK? Thanks! FUCK

Today it finally dawned on me. Lifts / Elevators make people stupid. I say this because each and every time I make use of an elevator, I come across stupid people. What is it with the idiots (I must admit mostly female) who enter your lift car before anyone ACTUALLY IN THE LIFT CAR has disembarked? Today I actually moaned to a woman with her shopping trolley and kid that entered my lift, "AHHH GOD JUST WAIT TILL I GET OUT" - no lie.

Another beauty, the escalator poser. I call them the escalator poser because they choose not to step up the escalator, but stand there (one arm on the rail, one on their hip), simultaneously taking up the entire escalator path and therefore holding me up. GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY DICKHEAD!

Emo's that sit around the Mall's Balls. Yes lets all sit around the crowning achievement of Adelaide and look like fucking idiots. Something has to be done about this, perhaps installing razor blades on the ground much like the bumps that are attached to handrails to deter skaters? Then again, giving one a good swift kick in the back would feel great.

Last but not least, the walkway blocker. These are the most common of all the idiots. Their native habitat being the centre of any pedestrian walkway or threshold of any exit or doorway (otherwise any place where other pedestrians need space to move freely). I cannot tolerate these idiots. If it is that important to stop and chat to someone you bump into in public, please, for the love of god, move to the left / right / where ever you need to go, so that you do not impede people like me who simply want to get from A to B.

Fucking hell.

WYLK

WYLK, also known as Lake 94.7, is a Hot Adult Contemporary radio station serving the St. Tammany Parish area. Owned by former Mississippi congressman C. Wayne Dowdy under the company name Northshore Broadcasting, the station is licensed to Lacombe, Louisiana, and broadcasts at 94.7 MHz with an ERP of 5.4 kW.

94.7 first came on the air in 1996, and the format was country. The station simulcast with 104.7 out of Folsom, as a country combo known as "94.7/104.7 the Lake". The market that both stations catered to was St. Tammany Parish; 94.7 had better coverage of areas in the southern end of the parish (Slidell, Mandeville, Lacombe), while 104.7 better covered the northern areas of the parish (Covington, Folsom, Bush, Abita Springs).

Styles Broadcasting out of Panama City bought the stations in 1999 from Charles K.& Carlie B. Winstanley ( The Radio Company), who were the founders and original owners of both station. Winstanley also owned stations WPCF-FM & WDLP-AM in Florida. While 104.7 moved to a Smooth Jazz format as "Shore 104.7", 94.7 continued as a country station. However, it now simulcasted with 94.9 out of Reserve, as "K94"; the station was an unsuccessful country simulcast to the New Orleans market. This lasted until 2000, when 94.9 was flipped to the Smooth Jazz format itself. 104.7 was eventually divested to C. Wayne Dowdy that same year. 94.7 returned to simulcasting 94.9, albeit with the Smooth Jazz format, in January 2001.

Later in 2001, Wilks Broadcasting assumed control of the stations, eventually purchasing them in 2002. In December 2001, 94.7 and 94.9 were flipped to a Hot Talk/Active Rock format as "94.9 Extreme Radio". This format lasted until November 2002, as the loss of the syndicated Opie & Anthony show, as well as Wilks' acquisition of Modern Rocker "106.7 the End", caused the stations to flip to a Gospel format as "Praise 94.9".

Citadel purchased the combo of 94's in 2003. Only to divest them to C. Wayne Dowdy's Southeastern Broadcasting concern in early 2005. Pittman Broadcasting had announced the purchase of the combo the year before, only to back out due to concerns over tower space for 94.7 because of the state of Louisiana building an interchange for I-10 in the area where the signal is located.

Dowdy continued to broadcast the Gospel format until Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, 94.7 was shifted to "Radio Slidell", providing disaster information for the citizens of Slidell.

In November of 2005, the "Praise" simulcast was officially broken up, as 94.7 switched to a commercial-free format of Hot Adult Contemporary music. This continued until December 31, 2005, when 94.7 took on the name of "Lake 94.7" and programmed a format local to St. Tammany Parish.

"Lake 94.7" is run out of Dowdy's Northshore Broadcasting concern. The programming office is located in Hammond, Louisiana and the station operates a sales office in Covington, Louisiana. The tower is located in Slidell, Louisiana, where it shares space on the tower of AM station WSLA; however, the station plans to move its signal to Lacombe, Louisiana. The current tower had been flooded by Hurricane Katrina; before the storm, the transmitter had already been prone to problems.

Technology Corner (or the Article Formerly Known as the Sound of One Hand Clapping)

Always opinionated; always controversial; and always topical, he’s done it again. Casting off the shackles of our traditionalist administrators I’m putting another brave foot forward.

Will this be another spoken-of-in-hush-tones taboo topic? Only time will tell…

Sliver cells; the smallest commercially available solar cells in the world. They use less silicone and less space, produce more electricity from the same area and are cheaper. Potential to revolutionise the world of solar energy? Who knows.

According to Professor Andrew Blakers, director of the ANU Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems, “Sliver Cell technology needs the equivalent of two silicon wafers to convert sunlight to 140 watts of power. By comparison, a conventional solar panel needs about 60 silicon wafers to achieve this performance.”

They can also be made thin and flexible enough to be woven into fabric. This means your t-shirt could charge your phone and i-pod while you’re walking down the street or laying on the beach!

They are translucent, so they could potentially be placed over the entire surface of a skyscraper entirely covered with glass.

And what’s more, they have the potential to cost about 1 quarter of conventional cells.

I think these things are cool.

Check out the 7 minute video segment available on

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1865651.htm

And there’s also some info in wikipedia:

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Sliver_Solar_Cells