You can call me Rick

Hobbes for the Holidays

2011-12-16T23:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a wonderful short film that pays homage to Calvin & Hobbes and their creator Bill Watterson.

This was created by by Jim Frommeyer and Teague Chrystie. For some details about how it was done, visit this site.

Time for a little holiday flash mob.

2011-12-15T00:39:00.000-08:00

The Carlson School of Management received a surprise visit from a saxophonist...and nearly 300 of his friends from the University of Minnesota's School of Music this November. Here's the result.

Vigilante Gardner

2011-11-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

Two video about a Vigilante Gardner. If you haven't seen them before, they are in the theme of doing random acts of kindness.
First the Beginning.

Next is the conclusion.

The guy's voice sounds like he should be working on NPR.

Courage

2011-10-18T23:07:00.000-07:00

This video mashup is about courage. Success isn't always about winning. Sometimes it is about having the courage to continue despite all the obstacles in your way.

We can't always be a winner. We can't always be special. However, we can try.

Then there is the good news. Here is what can happen if you keep on trying.

Never, never, never give up.
- Winston Churchill

pet jellyfish

2011-08-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

The people at Jellyfish Art are making it possible for you to have your own pet jellyfish. Historically the problem with having jellyfish in a regular fish tank was they keep getting sucked into the filters. So Jellyfish Art is creating new types of fish tanks made just for jellyfish. They currently sell eight and forty gallon tanks. Now through Kickstarter they have this interesting 7 gallon version.

A few pricing details:
Their new Desktop Jellyfish Tank and Starter Kit costs $350 though Kickstarter. It comes with everything needed to have your own pet jellyfish. The jellyfish are sold separately from Jellyfish Art for about $40 apiece. Buying through Kickstarter gets you a $50 voucher towards their $150 beginner’s package, which is 3 jellyfish and a six month supply of food.

Here's a video showing how to feed the jellyfish. With proper care, they say pet jellyfish can be kept alive and healthy for at least 2 years.

Interesting, but I'm not sure this is the right pet for me.

A beautiful sad, sweet song

2011-07-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful sad, sweet song. The title is Our Town, it's by Iris DeMent from her 1992 Infamous Angel album. It was played in the closing moments of the last episode of the popular CBS TV series Northern Exposure.

It's not often that good shows have good endings, with a good final score. This was pretty much a bulls-eye on all counts.

Hard to believe it's been over 15 years since this show was aired.

I'm 30% hippie

2011-07-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Does anyone even use the word Hippie anymore? If you know the word, take the quiz, see how you rate.

You are 30% hippie.

You're not in the lowest bracket of non-hippie-hood, but you're close. I advise a field trip to a food co-op or a farmer's market. Do a few interviews and take notes, because there will be a quiz next week to see if you've learned anything.

Are you a hippie?

A good spoof is hard to find

2011-06-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

There have been many spoofs of the Priceless credit card commercials. This parody by Wikileaks is very well done. In case you didn't already know, last year MasterCard, Visa and PayPal all pulled the plug on processing donations to the whistle-blower organization. So now they have to try a little harder to get people to donate.

What Does it Cost to Change the World? from WikiLeaks.

I need to go to Hamburg

2011-06-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

I need to go to Hamburg. Not just for the 31 theatres, 6 music halls, 10 cabarets and 50 state and private museums,4,000 restaurants in Hamburg (2,400 offering foreign cuisine), or to walk along the banks of the Elbe and the Alster rivers. No, I want to go there to see the Miniatur Wunderland. That means a Miniature Wonderland, which has nothing to do with a Minotaur's labyrinth. Although one of those would probably be cool to visit too, once.

The Miniature Wonderland has a railway which consists of 12,000 metres (39,370 ft) of track in divided into seven sections: Harz, the fictitious city of Knuffingen, the Alps and Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. Of the 6,400 square metres (68,889 sq ft) of floorspace, the model takes 1,150 m². That was all very good. However, now they have opened an airport. It's Amazing.

Quiz Time: Are you science-savvy

2011-06-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

Here is another Pew Research Center Quiz. You might want to skip this one. It's the easiest one I remember. This time the quiz is about science.

If you do take it, at the end you can see how you did in comparison with the 1,000+ randomly sampled adults asked the same questions. You'll also be able to compare your Science IQ with the average scores of men and women; with college graduates as well as those who didn't attend college; with people who are your age as well as with younger and older Americans.

The good news is Americans like science. Overwhelming majorities say that science has had a positive effect on society and that science has made life easier for most people. Most also say that government investments in science, as well as engineering and technology, pay off in the long run. And scientists are very highly rated compared with members of other professions.

Further good news is the test results reflect American's attitude towards science. Most did pretty well on the quiz with 10% getting all the right answers, myself included.

Quiz Time: Mexico

2011-05-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Most Americans know Mexico for its food, drinks, beach resorts, and more recently it's drug war violence. But beyond that lies a profound history, a land of legendary indigenous civilizations. Mexico today is a major economic power and home to the world's richest man. How much do you know about Mexico? Let's take a quiz.

Allow yourself some time. There are 17 questions and these are hard.

Sadly, I didn't even get half right. I'm sure you will do better.

What is an Arduino, and why do I want one?

2011-05-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

I guess that includes me.

Home computers are great at communicating with other computers and (sometimes) with us, but they have no idea what is going on in the world around them. The Arduino is a way to take computer programming into the physical world

In theory, one of these could monitor the current flowing between two nails in the soil of a potted plant. When the soil gets dry, the current drops and the Arduino sends a signal to open a valve which would water the plant.

In a sense it reminds me of my first computer, an Apple II, where 30 years ago I spent over $1,000 and still needed to connect it to a tape recorder and an old TV to make it at all useful.

The Arduino Uno is the latest revision of the basic Arduino USB board. It connects to a computer with a USB cable and contains everything else needed to program and use the board. By itself it costs $30, or $27from Amazon. However, to move this project into my comfort zone, I will probably buy the SparkFun Inventor's Kit for Arduino (which costs $95 plus shipping; or get the Arduino Professional Kit from Amazon which is exactly the same thing, but costs $90 and eligible for free shipping). The kit is nice because it includes lots of the bits needed to build a dozen basic circuits. Plus, not that I'm afraid of soldering, these projects all have no soldering required.

All in all, this should be cheap fun and a little educational.

Update: Change of plans. Ordered the SparkFun Inventor's Kit for Arduino with Retail Case. It cost more, but this version includes a plastic carrying case to organize all the components (see the video at the link). Keeping all these small parts organized seems worth the extra bucks.

Political Typology

2011-05-10T23:25:00.000-07:00

Take the 20-question Pew Research Center quiz on "political typology" to see where you fit politically. I'm not sure this truly qualifies as a quiz. It's more of an ideology survey. The Pew Research Center's Political Typology divides the public into eight politically engaged groups, along with a ninth group of less engaged Bystanders.

Based on my responses, I am "Post-Modern". By their definitions, this means I am an independent, moderate, and liberal on social issues. Probably no surprise to those who know me.

If you take this quiz and want to share, post your results in the comments section.

Fugaga

2011-05-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

In music, a fugue is a composition in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition.

This is the Lady Gaga Fugue.

I like it better than the original. However her version, called Bad Romance, is more fun to watch.

Being Wrong

2011-04-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

This is a really great and different TED video. As you probably already know, TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading." Part of what makes this presentation stand out above the others is that the subject is not about Technology, Entertainment, or Design. This talk has Kathryn Schulz speaking on the subject of being wrong. In a humorous and almost meta-philosophical way, she describes how the way we perceive things as wrong, is wrong.

If you like the video, you might also want to read her book, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.

News IQ

2011-04-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Once again it is time to test your News IQ over at the Pew Research Center.

This time there are 11 questions. Sadly I missed one, which I blame on moving too fast through the possible answers. They seemed easier this time.
Post your answers in the comments section. I expect to see a couple 11s.

a beat poem

2011-04-09T04:09:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you heard a good beat poem? Tim Minchin is an Australian, musician, actor, comedian and writer. In this ten minute short he displays his unique brand of musical comedy. While it's would be fanstastic to see him perform live, this video is a good substitute for now.

Official animated movie of Tim Minchin's 9-minute beat poem Storm. Written and performed by Tim Minchin. Directed and animated by DC Turner. Produced by Tracy King.

Budget matters

2011-02-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

Good budget news at the state level:
An investigation revealed California agencies spent $7.5 million on pens and other gift items between 2007 and 2010. The Business, Transportation and Housing Agency was, by far, the biggest offender having spent $5 million. In contrast, the Department of Verterans Affairs spent just $4,968 on such swag.

"Not a cent of taxpayer money should be spent on flashlights, ashtrays or other unnecessary items, most of which likely end up in landfills," Brown said in an official statement.

Sad budget news at the national level:
At some point in the last decade, each branch of the military had a partnership with NASCAR racing. The Marines axed their racing team in 2006 because of a smaller ad budget and because there was no way to know if it actually boosted recruiting. Today, only the Army, the National Guard and the Air Force still sponsor race cars. The Army spends $7 million a year on its NASCAR team. Apparently the military thinks the same kind of people who like to watch NASCAR are those they would like to be soldiers.

In the big picture these million dollar decisions are nothing compared to the Billion and Trillion dollar problems the government has to solve.

small things

2011-02-19T14:35:00.000-08:00

The charity Donors Choose knows how to keep you involved. A few months ago I donated some money to a project which was labeled "High Poverty - Kentucky". This was to help a school teacher buy some books for her AP Biology students while studying Evolution. She described it as a difficult and controversial topic to cover with students.

The teacher was good at acknowledging the first donation and the progress from that point. Now, in today's email was a set of pictures showing her class holding and reading the books.

Between the teacher and the organization the end result is a feeling of money well spent.

Who's who in Silicon Valley

2011-02-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

How to know if you are somebody in Silicon Valley? One way is if you get invited to have dinner with President Obama when he is in town. It's even better if you get to sit next to the POTUS, like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg in this picture.

Also in the shot are: Cisco's John Chambers, Twitter's Dick Costolo, Netflix's Reed Hastings, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Stanford University president John Hennessy, Genentech's Art Levinson, Eric Schmidt the soon-to-depart CEO of Google. and "cleantech" entrepreneur Steve Westly.

Or maybe it's not who you are, but how much money you donate to the cause. (the first column is Lobbying (2010) the second is Contributions to Obama (2008) )

Apple	$1,610,000.00	$ 92,141.00
Google	$5,160,000.00	$803,436.00
Facebook	$ 351,390.00	$ 34,850.00
Yahoo	$2,230,000.00	$164,051.00
Cisco Systems	$2,010,000.00	$187,472.00
Twitter	$ 0.00	$ 750.00
Oracle	$4,850,000.00	$243,194.00
NetFlix	$ 130,000.00	$ 19,485.00
Stanford University	$ 370,000.00	$448,720.00
Genentech	$4,922,368.00	$ 97,761.00

"Bohemian Rhapsody on the ukulele

2011-02-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Jake Shimabukuro strums monster sounds out of the tiny Hawaiian ukulele, as he plays a cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." A sensational performance from TED2010.

To Jake Shimabukuro, the ukulele means more than grass skirts and loud shirts. He's on a mission to revolutionize our perception of the four-string, two-octave instrument.

This shows how almost any instrument in the hands of a master can produce truly wonderful sounds.

Are You Smarter Than a Politician?

2011-01-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better?

The ISI Civic Literacy survey was not designed to test the civic knowledge of elected officials, but it did discover evidence of an interesting pattern that may merit further exploration. Of the 2,508 people surveyed, 164 said they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office.

I answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %
Average score for this quiz during January: 75.5%
You can take the quiz too if you like. Let me know how you do.

Ready for Christmas?

2010-12-22T21:48:00.000-08:00

Maybe some music would help. Here is the Christmas Can-Can

I think this will be a classic for many years to come.

Here's a fun theory

2010-12-07T00:32:00.000-08:00

Not just that. It was the winner of The Fun Theory award.
The winning idea of the fun theory award was can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do? Their idea was to use a speed camera not just to issue speeding tickets, but to enter everyone who was going the speed limit in a lottery, using some of the speeding ticket money as the prize. Thus making it fun to do the right thing. In their three day experiment the average speed on the road went down 22%.
The answer was so good that Volkswagen, together with The Swedish National Society for Road Safety, actually made this innovative idea a reality in Stockholm, Sweden.

Cute idea, and a good example of thinking of creative ways to solve problems.

Be sure to visit their site for the other creative ideas, like:
Bottle Bank Arcade Machine
Piano Staircase and
The World's Deepest Bin

O.K., You Fix the Budget

2010-11-21T23:10:00.000-08:00

In the news: The federal government began this fiscal year with a deficit of $140.4 billion in October. That's the third-highest on record.

Also in the news: 'America cannot be great if we go broke,' says the 50-page draft proposal from President Obama’s bipartisan commission on reducing the national debt. It outlined an ambitious package of spending cuts and tax increases.

The document makes five basic recommendations:
1) "enact tough discretionary spending caps" and find $200 billion in savings by 2015.
2) Tax reform "that dramatically reduces rates, simplifies the code, broadens the base and reduces the deficit."
3) Reforms of the health system.
4) Mandatory savings from farm subsidies and civilian and military retirement costs.
5) Reform Social Security to ensure its solvency "while reducing poverty among seniors."

During the run-up to the past election the tea baggers were all talking about the national debt. Now in front of us is a solution from a bipartisan commission. Will the newly elected Republicans give this report their full support? How about the Democrats? We all know what will happen. The right will be saying don't raise taxes, the left will be saying don't cut essential services, and both will avoid touching earmarks, because that's how they keep getting elected.

How hard can it be to balance the budget? You can give it a try. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. I did this without much trouble. It's relatively easy for one person to agree with his or her self. However, once you get a hundred-plus politicians in a room who are worried about getting reelected, that's when it gets tough.

What's Your Political News IQ?

2010-11-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

Test your knowledge of prominent people and major events in the news. Take a short 12-question quiz. Then see how you did in comparison with 1,001 randomly sampled adults asked the same questions in a national survey of Americans conducted this month by the Pew Research Center. This is the exact same quiz administered on their telephone survey

This is a difficult quiz. Americans answered an average of five out of these 12 questions correctly. That means the public averaged fewer than half right answers (42%). Illustrating the difficulty of some questions, less than one percent of the public answered 12 correctly while 4% missed them all.

I'm getting better. I got 12 for 12 correct this time.

The summary of the results is here.

Each question has four possible answers. This means random guessing would give you 3 correct. So, can anybody explain how 21% of those polled got less than 3 correct answers? I'm guessing they are Fox News viewers.

Drugs and their harm ranking

2010-11-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

The Lancet this week on behalf of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs released findings on the relative harm various drugs. They ranked 20 drugs on 16 measures of harm to users and to wider society. They scored each drug for harms including mental and physical damage, addiction, crime and costs to the economy and communities. (You can read the BBC version of this story here)

The exercise concluded that heroin, crack and methylamphetamine, also known as crystal meth, were the most harmful drugs to individuals, but alcohol (beer), heroin and crack cocaine were the most harmful to society. When the scores for both types of harm were added together, alcohol (wine) emerged as the most harmful drug, followed by heroin and crack.

It shows alcohol (martinis) is more harmful than heroin or crack. The study also said tobacco and cocaine are judged to be equally harmful, while ecstasy and LSD are among the least damaging.

"Our findings lend support to previous work in the UK and the Netherlands, confirming that the present drug classification systems have little relation to the evidence of harm," the paper says.

The US is equally at fault in its drug classification.

Marijuana (Cannabis) is listed as a schedule I drug along with Heroin and methylamphetamine.

Cocaine, Crack, and amphetamines are listed as a schedule II drugs.

Alcohol and tobacco are not even listed on the DEA drug schedules. I would like to see DEA's release a study justifying their drug scheduling system.

To understand the US position on alcohol and tobacco visit the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. There you can see they have given a lot of thought on taxing these drugs. Alcohol brings in over $5 billion every year in revenue, and tobacco brings in over $16 billion.

Maybe if a drug (Marijuana) less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco was made legal and taxed, the overall harm to individuals and society would be reduced. Wouldn't that be nice.

Read carefully

2010-11-01T00:09:00.000-07:00

It seems Fred Phelps and those illiterate idiots at the Westboro Baptist church misread their bible. The message in the bible is really that god hate figs. Read it for yourself, Mark 11:12-14 (King James Version)

¹²And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: ¹³And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
¹⁴And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

Fred must be feeling so embarrassed now.

George W. Bush jumped out of the car

2010-10-31T23:48:00.000-07:00

Senator Al Franken is good with words. Here he describes how the US economy got to where it is today. (a 12 minute version of his speech can be found here)

For those of you who would rather read the text of his speech, here it is:
When the President took office, not only had the car gone into a ditch, the car had flipped over and was rolling down a steep embankment. We, the American people, were in the back seat, and the Bush Administration had removed all the seat belts, so we were all flying around the interior of this car as it was rolling and flipping and careening down this steep embankment, headed to a 2,000 foot cliff. And at the bottom of that cliff were jagged rocks. And alligators.

Now, at noon on January 20th, 2009, as the car was careening toward the cliff, George W. Bush jumped out of the car.

President Obama somehow managed to dive in through the window, take the wheel and get control of the thing just inches before it went over the precipice. Then, he and Congress starting pushing this wreck back up the embankment. Now you can’t push a car up an embankment as fast as it careens down the embankment, especially if some people are trying to push against you. But we got it going in the right direction. And slowly we’ve gotten ourselves up the embankment, out of the ditch and onto the shoulder of the road.

There. That’s what happened.

The 99ers and other employment trivia

2010-10-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

I had never heard the term "The 99ers" before, but then I never thought 60 minutes would be making a show like this about Silicon Valley before either.

What's happened to the economy? By the time Obama became president the economy of the United States was actually shrinking for the first time in about 60 years. During 2008 the GDP actually dropped 1.7 percent compared with the year before. Looking back, before that there were only upticks in the GDP from 1959 to 2007.

Where have the private sector jobs gone? According to the BLS website, there were 111,634,000 Americans employed in the private sector at the start of George W. Bush's first term, in January 2001. Eight years later, in January 2009, there were 110,961,000 Americans employed in the private sector. So the United States lost 673,000 private-sector jobs on Bush's watch.

Under Obama, private-sector employment in January 2010 was 107,123,000, that number that grew to 107,970,000 by Septmeber 2010. That works out to be 847,000 jobs created.

Do we have too many people in government jobs? Thank Bush for that. Federal and state government jobs increased by 1.7 million in eight years under Bush. Since President Barack Obama took office they have fallen by 357,000.

Does the United States had a debt problem? A trillion dollars of that is due to Bush/Cheney taking us halfway around the world to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.

Do people really have such short memories? Do they only see what is in front of them today and have no memory about the day before and how they got to where they are?
American voted the scoundrels out at the end of Bush's term, and it looks like we are about to do it again two years later.

It will be be ~~interesting~~ predictable to watch it happen again in two more years.

Language

2010-10-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

There are times I could listen to Stephen Fry talk endlessly. Here are six and a half minutes of him talking about language.

I expect we have all met people like he described here.

I'm not a witch

2010-10-10T17:43:00.000-07:00

I love spoofs, especially those of political wannabes. This is one from SNL, featuring Kristen Wiig as Christine O'Donnell.

After this, chances are good there won't be another politician claiming they are not a witch for years.

Defend your Freedom of Speech

2010-09-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

The Center for Inquiry recently had a Campaign for Free Expression Video Contest which asked contestants to submit short videos in the form of a public service announcement that addresses the importance of free expression. This is the winner. There is no dialog, only a guy flipping cards with short messages on them. If you don't find at least a couple of these messages offensive, you weren't paying attention.

Remember, freedom of speech is for everyone. It is easy to defend free speech when you agree with the position. The true challenge comes when you have to defend free speech for a position you find repugnant.

Amendment I to the United States Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

How much do you know about religion?

2010-09-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Take this short, 15-question quiz, and see how you do in comparison with 3,400 others who were asked these and other questions in the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey. This national poll was conducted by Pew Research. Or, if you like, you can take this even shorter 10 question version of the quiz over at CNN.

When you finish the quiz, you will be able to compare your knowledge of religion with the participants.

I answered 14 out of 15 questions correctly for a score of 93%, 10 out of 10 on the CNN version. (granted there is some overlap. So your score should improve on the second quiz you take)
The overall population scores only about 50%. This is lead by people who say they are; Jewish at 65% and atheists at 64%. I may have been lucky on one or two of the questions. Still, it interesting to see who knows what about this aspect of society.

One last note, It's not just schooling that helps in this quiz, as Pew points out , "Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons perform better than other groups on the survey even after controlling for differing levels of education."

Be here now

2010-09-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Does this 2 minute video remind you of anyone you know? Yourself perhaps?

While I do enjoy my Droid Incredible I could be better at leaving it in my pocket.

Bike ride

2010-09-25T16:48:00.001-07:00

I went for a bike ride today and saw a few things that I had only read about.

The Friends of Stevens Creek Trail are getting ready for their Trailblazer race tomorrow, which I will be running.

It was Coastal Cleanup Day and people had been out pulling trash out of Stevens Creek.

Rode some of the newest segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail. This stretches 2.4 miles behind Moffett Field and connects Mountain View (Google) to Sunnyvale (Yahoo). It's a dirt path, but a nice ride nonetheless. There were a lot of white pelicans in the ponds next to the trail.

Tried to find the Google Hiveplex, but couldn't. Suspect I know where it is now though.

All in all, a nice day for a ride to the bay.

Humor, Immigration and Agriculture

2010-09-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

Stolen from Comedy Central, with their permission, here is Stephen Colbert testifying before the congressional subcommittee for Immigration and Agriculture. Certainly worth seeing if you haven't already.

Nicely done.

Populations helping others

2010-09-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

In a first-of-its kind survey the Charities Aid Foundation released a paper ranking 153 nations on the willingness of their citizens to donate time and money to charity. Australia and New Zealand shared first place, and the United States tied for fifth with Switzerland.

The report revealed the sheer variety and complexity of ways in which individuals contribute to their communities in 153 countries around the world. Huge variation can be seen in how countries and regions ‘give’. Each country has its own unique footprint and its own way to give.

The incidence of giving money to charity ranges from a low of 4% in Lithuania to a high of 83% in Malta.

The incidence of volunteering lies in a range from 2% in Cambodia to 61% in Turkmenistan.

In Liberia, less than 8% of the population give money to charity every month. Yet 76% of Liberians help a stranger every month, more than any other country in the world.

Overall, 20% of the world’s population had volunteered time in the prior month, 30% of the world’s population had given money to charity, and 45% of the world’s population had helped a stranger.

The top 10 countries had World Giving Index scores of 52%-57%. Listed in order they are: Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, USA, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Austria

And because people like to know these things, the bottom 10 countries had scores of 12%-16% They are: Romania, Rwanda, Bangladesh, China, Lithuania, Greece, Serbia, Ukraine, Burundi, Madagascar

The whole (.pdf) report can be found here.

Friday food idea - Currywurst

2010-09-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Currywurst is a fast-food dish of German origin consisting of hot pork sausage (German: Wurst) cut into slices and seasoned with curry sauce (regularly consisting of ketchup blended with curry).

Recent studies have shown that Germans, who gobble down millions of currywurst every year, suffer from one of the highest rates of obesity in Europe. So German officials have created a labyrinth in the shape of a giant sausage to help people learn about the health risks associated with this popular fast food.

Seen from the air, the "Currywurstfeld" shows a smiling curried sausage slathered with ketchup and mayonnaise and accompanied by chips. (use your imagination)

Visitors are asked questions on the way round the maze and if they give the wrong answer, they are led down the wrong path so that they learn from it.

Compared to us though, German's are slackers when it comes to delicious fattening food (yummm, deep fried pop tarts) However, if you must try one you will want to visit San Francisco for some Currywurst.

Test time

2010-09-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

What is your brain age. Here is a quick memory test. Or go here for the original Japanese version.

Instructions:
1. Touch 'START'.
2. Wait for - 3, 2, 1...
3. You have a second to memorize the number's position on the screen.
4. Click the circles from the smallest number to the biggest number.
4. At the end of game, the computer will tell you the age of your brain.
[I scored a 31 on a Friday after 2 drinks on my first try]

Coffee cup cozy

2010-09-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

Finally. An embroidery project that makes something useful. Why isn't everyone making these?

If I'm reading the web page correctly, each one is hand made in Oshawa, Ontario.

Hand embroidered and stitched on a sewing machine. Fabrics are muslin on the outside and inside brown cotton with white polka dots. Machine washable but I'd recommend a quick rinse in the sink and hang to dry.

San Jose is #1

2010-08-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Forbes rated America's most innovative cities and San Jose came out on top.

Forbes started with the top 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S. and used data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to determine the number of patents per capita. They combined it with venture capital investment per capita, along with those cities' ratios of high-tech, science and "creative" jobs. They weighted patents higher than other categories because patents are most directly tied to innovation. The results put Silicon Valley on top, with Austin and Raleigh close behind.

#1 was San Jose.
Rankings (1 is highest)
Tech and science jobs: 1
Creative jobs: 1
Patents per capita: 1
Venture capital investment per capita: 1

No. 2: Austin, Texas
Tech & science jobs: 5
Creative jobs: 7
Patents: 2
Venture capital investment: 8

No. 3: Raleigh, N.C.
Tech & science jobs: 4
Creative jobs: 10
Patents: 4
Venture capital investment: 5

No. 4: San Francisco, Calif.
Tech & science jobs: 6
Creative jobs: 9
Patents: 7
Venture capital investment: 2

No. 5: Seattle, Wash.
Tech & science jobs: 9
Creative jobs: 4
Patents: 6
Venture capital investment: 6

Rounding out the top 10 are: San Diego, Calif.; Madison, Wisc.; Boston, Mass.; Provo, Utah; and Portland, Ore.

The next ten in order are: Palm Bay, Florida; Minneapolis, Minn. Washington, D.C.; Rochester, N.Y. Albany, N.Y.; Boise, Idaho Oxnard, Calif.; Denver, Colo. Tucson, Ariz.; and Bridgeport, Conn.

Wave goodbye

2010-08-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I wrote about getting a golden ticket. That's when people were excited about Google Wave. Unfortunately it was product without a purpose, best described as a mashup of email, documents, and social networking. So Google announce it's demise, and I agree with their decision. After sending invites to many peers nobody found a good use for it. It has been mostly dead for months.

No problems though. I will survive. Google will survive. Hit and miss. Trail and error. The world moves on.

What's next?

Bicycling is becoming

2010-08-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

Bicycling is becoming social that is. More and more cities are adding shared bicycles to their transit options.

Bicycling magazine recently named the City of Lakes the #1 bike-friendly city in the country, dethroning the strong bike scene in Portland, Oregon. Portland still has the highest percentage of commuters that ride, but Minneapolis is a close second, which is pretty incredible considering the harsh winters of there.

The program in Minneapolis is called Nice Ride. It is now the nation’s largest bike share program (700 sturdy two-wheelers available for hire at 65 locations) It is in its first phase of development, which when completed will feature 1,000 unmistakable lime green bikes stationed at 75 metro kiosks. Minneapolis’ program arrived on the heels of other major cities who have had great success with bike-sharing such as the Montreal-based Public Bike System Company, BIXI.

London just started using BIXI as their social bike sharing system. Thus adding their name to an impressive list of world metropolises including Montreal, Melbourne, Boston, and Washington that have adopted the BIXI public bike system as an active and environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional modes of urban transport. A similar approach is being tried in Denver (400 red Trek B-cycles at 40 B-stations) and Hawaii. This system is called B-cycle.

Both of these system use a subscription model. There are daily ($5), monthly ($30) and annual ($60) subscriptions available. Once you have a subscription, you pay nothing for the first 30 minutes, $1.50 for the second half hour and $3 for the third. Each additional half hour over 90 minutes costs $6. For example, a two-hour session will cost $10.50. This system also requires you leave the bike at a similar station.

A different approach is being tried by The Social Bicycle System, SoBi. They are planning a test in New York City this fall. SoBi is novel because it uses GPS, mobile communications, and a secure lock that can attach to almost any bicycle and lock to any regular bike rack. SoBi will allow a user to find bikes using a smart phone. Once you find a bike, you unlock it with your phone and ride away. If you don’t have a smart enough phone, you can just punch an unlock code into the unit or unlock it via SMS. There are obvious advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. The basic ones being achieving critical mass in the number of bikes, and stations and having a loss prevention program in place.

For even more variation on social bikes, check out the results of the Copenhagen Bike Share Competition. I can't wait until this idea is available in major cities everywhere.

Healthy happiness habits

2010-08-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

What does it take to be happy in a relationship? Psychology Today offers these 10 habits of happy couples.
1. Go to bed at the same time
2. Cultivate common interests
3. Walk hand in hand or side by side
4. Make trust and forgiveness your default mode
5. Focus more on what your partner does right than what he or she does wrong
6. Hug each other as soon as you see each other after work
7. Say “I love you” and “Have a good day” every morning
8. Say “Good night” every night, regardless of how you feel
9. Do a “weather” check during the day
10. Be proud to be seen with your partner

If you want more details, you should read the original article. It's not too long, and besides who doesn't want to be in a happy relationship?

Law enforcement's opinion on drug prohibition

2010-08-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's hard not to write about America's failed drug war every week. Articles calling for the end to drug prohibition are everywhere, including conservative sources like the Wall Street Journal and the Economist. The U.S. has fueled its policy of a war on drugs with over a trillion tax dollars and increasingly punitive policies. We have made more than 39 million arrests for nonviolent drug offenses. The United States has 4.6 percent of the population of the world but 22.5 percent of the worlds prisoners. Every year we choose to continue this war costs the U.S. another 70 billion dollars. With this knowledge, even current and former members of law enforcement are speaking out. They have created a drug-policy-reform group called LEAP. Their membership believes that to save lives and lower the rates of disease, crime and addiction, as well as to conserve tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition.

Cops, prosecutors, judges. clergy, and everyday citizens are joining together to fight back against the failed, dangerous and expensive "war on drugs."

LEAP's goals are: (1) To educate the public, the media, and policy makers about the failure of current drug policy by presenting a true picture of the history, causes and effects of drug use and the elevated crime rates more properly related to drug prohibition than to drug pharmacology and (2) To restore the public's respect for police, which has been greatly diminished by law enforcements involvement in imposing drug prohibition.

With LEAP's help and other supporters, maybe Proposition 19 will pass this year in California.

Science Saturday - Cats

2010-08-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered if big cats like Tigers, Lions & Leopards like catnip? The answer is; Yes, most appear to. You can verify this yourself in this entertaining 4 minute video.

This video is from the good folks at Big Cat Rescue, in Tampa, Florida. A very respectable charity.

Nutrition information

2010-08-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Do you know Chipotle had this great nutrition info generator on their site? It's one of the best I've seen. Too bad everything I like (e.g. Guacamole) adds tons of calories.

Other companies also try to help you make good choices.

Peet's has tables like this. Some are pdf files. Not quite as convenient, but nice.
Subway is also pretty good at showing how healthy their sandwiches are.
McDonalds has links to nutrition info when you look at their burgers.
... Let me know if you find any other good sources.

There is an iPhone app for this kind of thing. So far, I can't find an Android version.

At the other end of the spectrum, provided for humor value only, here are the 50 Fattiest Foods in the States. Some sounds very temping, others are quite resistible.

Word of the week: Sharrows

2010-07-31T09:58:00.000-07:00

No, this is not a bike lane for Corporals only.

Shared lane pavement markings, or “sharrows,” are bicycle symbols carefully placed to guide bicyclists to the best place to ride on the road, avoid car doors and remind drivers to share the road with cyclists. Unlike bicycle lanes, sharrows do not designate a particular part of the street for the exclusive use of bicyclists. They are simply a marking to guide bicyclists to the best place to ride and help motorists expect to see and share the lane with bicyclists.

What do sharrows mean for motorists and bicyclists?

Motorists:
• Expect to see bicyclists on the street
• Remember to give bicyclists three feet of space when passing
• Follow the rules of the road as if there were no sharrows

Bicyclists
• Use the sharrow to guide where you ride within the lane
• Remember not to ride too close to parked cars
• Follow the rules of the road as if there were no sharrows

Foursquare is not all there

2010-07-27T23:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I posted something about Foursquare, one of the location-based social networking thingies out there. Since that time I've been using it fairly regularly, 'checking-in' to venues as I visited them. It's rewarded me with 8 badges and mayorship of 6 places.

My conclusion is there is not much there in Foursquare. Other than over-sharing with your friends (there's a badge for that) or cyberstalking, it's truly a waste of time. Time that can be better spent interacting with live people.

So tonight I'm checking-out of Foursquare and deleting my account. If I feel the to 'check-in' while waiting for a grande latte, there are better apps out there, Yelp for starters. It's a much more full featured product, and not such a one trick pony.

Udder contentment

2010-07-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

This cow is enjoying the cow wash, which, according to its designers DeLaval, is comforting news for farmers as well.

A spokesman said the cows enjoy the sensation of being brushed and it can boost milk production by 3.5per cent.He said: "The swinging cow brush is a self-grooming device that keeps cows happier, healthier and more productive.
The brush starts to rotate on contact at an animal-friendly speed. It swings freely in all directions, smoothly up, over and alongside the cow."

Adding: "It is very popular among dairy farmers. Cows using the swinging cow brush are cleaner, calmer and therefore more balanced."

Who among us doesn't want to feel cleaner, calmer and more balanced? It's the weekend. Do something to make yourself feel good.

Cool engineering

2010-07-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

This is just cool engineering. A combination bike and stroller.
Taga combines a premium stroller and a carrier bicycle to create a new transportation modality.
As a bicyclist I like it, and since strollers can cost hundreds of dollars this is almost reasonable.

Note that while this lady converts the bike to a stroller in 20 seconds, there is no baby involved. I'm guessing with a baby it would take a bit longer.

Job hope

2010-07-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

For a couple years there were a lot of jobs lost (everything below the zero line). At least now, for the past few months there has been job creation. From this graph you can see today's unemployment problem started with Bush. However, with 14.6 million looking for jobs (an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent) the recovery is going to still take awhile.

Viewing viral videos

2010-07-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

This has to be one of the best viral videos of the year. It's great, not because of the product, but because of the football player turned actor Isaiah Mustafa. His personality make this string of videos special.

Month at the Museum

2010-07-15T21:02:00.001-07:00

Not just a night. The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago is looking for somebody to spend a month in their museum. What they want is an adventurous, outgoing person with a strong interest in learning about science and the world around her or him, plus the ability to write very well about their experiences.

Amenities: Five-story, domed, wrap-around theater. Sleeping accommodations in a human-size hamster wheel, coal mine or WWII submarine.

Rent: Free. All meals included. Added bonus, a package of tech gadgets, an honorary lifetime membership, and $10,000.

Your application is due by 11 August. So hurry!

News quiz time

2010-07-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Pew Research Center has a quiz for you. How well do you know what the story behind all the news and politics?

Click Here.

Let me know your score. I only got 10 of the 11 right. I fumbled on one of the questions about international events.

After you take the quiz you can compare yourself to their detailed results from a poll conducted July 1-5 among 1,007 adults.

The buzz at the White House

2010-06-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

What's the buzz these days at the White House?

When the White House carpenter told some of the First Lady’s staff about his latest hobby in beekeeping, the chef asked him if he knew how to make honey that could be used in the White House kitchen. Not only did he know how to make the honey, but he also donated a spare beehive that he had at home. So, in March 2009 the first-ever White House beehive was installed. Now he is the White House’s official beekeeper tending a hive of approximately 70,000 bees near the new Kitchen Garden.

What the world needs now.

2010-06-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

What the world needs now is more alternative (non-carbon based) energy. Here's a good 23 minute discussion of the alternatives. The topic is "Does the world need nuclear energy?" However you will find it does a good presentation of solar, wind, and nuclear.

In a way, 23 minutes is a long video to watch. On the other hand, after watching it you will feel like you wish is was longer and talked more about all the options outlined.

Enjoy.

The price of addiction

2010-06-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

This video shows part of the price of America's addiction to oil.

After watching this you probably won't want to visit Pensacola.

Silly, successful, and banned

2010-06-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

Foursquare, the somewhat silly, definitely successful, social networking application was banned in China last Friday. Seems people there wanted to mark the 21st anniversary of the Tian'anmen Square massacre by using FourSquare to "check in" at it. Their repressive government wanted none of this.

If you think the Texas school board is bad, they have nothing on China in the effort to rewrite history.

Weekend humor

2010-06-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

Here's why I don't have kids. It's because I think this book would be fun. B Is for Beer is a story about six-year-old Gracie, who craves time with her beer-loving, non-conformist Uncle Moe. When Moe disappoints Gracie, she reaches for a drink and is visited by the Beer Fairy, offers an education about life and beer.

And here is where society finds me strange. I like this Bearded Beanie. If I lived some place where it snowed, I would probably own one, and wear it.

Cold brewed coffee

2010-05-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of talk on the web about cold brewed coffee. The quick summary is cold brewing takes time (~12 hours). This method creates a coffee concentrate which collects all the flavor, but has only about 15% of the oils and acids.

Being a fan of coffee myself, and now that is it summer, I'm temped to try making some. You can buy the setup called the Toddy Cold Brew System. Many die-hard coffee fiends swear by systems like Toddy, which retails for $35, or the similar Filtron.

However, this seems like a very single purpose solution. Another popular way mentioned is using a French Press. Since I already own one I will use it for my first attempt.

In a day or so, I should know the results of this food experiment.

In another life

2010-05-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

I would have been an astronaut. Or at least had a job that let me see scenes like this.
Watch this stunning, one-of-a-kind, four-minute chronicle of Discovery’s trip from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the pad, beginning with the "rollover" to the Vehicle Assembly Building on February 22 and ending with the STS-131 launch on April 5.

What do you think? Cool, eh?

Search me

2010-05-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

I found this funny. Yahoo is giving advice to Google.

Yahoo which has been called "the place startups go to die". Yahoo which trails poorly in the search business with only 17% of the US market, compared to Google's 65%, according to Comscore.

To be sure both these companies have many good people working for them. And Google does make its share of mistakes. Still, of the two, Yahoo shouldn't be giving advice how to grow. Yahoo should be used as an example of mistakes not to make.

Play piano like Rachmaninov

2010-04-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how great piano players did it? Well wonder no more.

Never watch Fox

2010-04-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

This is why I never watch Fox.
Bill 0′Reilly takes Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) to task for telling a town hall audience that they shouldn’t believe everything they hear on Fox News. In particular, Coburn told the town hall they should not believe it when Fox tells them that President Obama wants to put them in jail for failing to buy health insurance. “We researched to find out if anybody on Fox News had ever said you’re going to jail if you don’t buy health insurance,” said O’Reilly. “Nobody’s ever said it.”

Here's a video of Bill saying it, followed by clips of practically everybody on Fox saying Obama wants to put people in jail for not buying health insurance.

It's not like O'Reilly mentioned this casually in passing. This was his top story. He invited Tom Coburn on his show, acts indignant and nearly accuses Senator Coburn of lying. He said he researched the story, yet as the video show his position couldn't be farther from the truth. What credibility does O'Reilly have now? Did he ever have any?

Happy Birthday Twinkie

2010-04-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

Ah, Twinkies. More than just the prototypical snack cake, Twinkies are an American icon. They were invented in Chicago during the Depression. Today, their popularity creates a demand for a half-billion Twinkies every year.

Hostess Twinkies turned 80 this week, and they are still as eatable as they ever were.

The unadorned Twinkie is a simple snack. It's a spongy yellow cake 4 inches long and an inch and a half wide. Inside is a creamy white filling that tastes more or less like vanilla cake frosting.

For the adventurist type, Hostess has a page with 23 Twinkie recipes. So far, I've only made the Twinkie Sushi, shown above. I guess I'm just waiting for somebody to ask me to bring dessert to a party. I may just get creative.

Food injury

2010-04-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

Only in America.

Hungry because he hadn’t eaten all day, a guy ordered his favorite sandwich – one called the “Wicked,” which has five meats and three cheeses. But, he was so hungry he ordered it with twice the meat.

“It was just more than I could handle, clearly,” Ettmueller said. Clearly.

He opened his mouth and couldn’t even take a bite – his jaw had dropped opened and then locked up on him. Seriously. The problem? Double dislocation of the mandible.

He has a very sympathetic and understanding wife. “My wife, in all honesty, was just about slap happy after about 36 hours, and she sent an e-mail to the Which ‘Wich restaurant and said, ‘You guys won’t believe what happened … ‘”

Everyone seems to have a good sense of humor. They made this video telling the story.

Anesthesia dreamimg

2010-04-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a bit of surgery. While I was under anesthesia I had a strange dream. Fortunately, I was able to capture it on YouTube.

Health care coverage and taxes

2010-03-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

The new health-care law will change the way millions of Americans get health insurance and require nearly everyone to have health insurance or face penalties. A number of factors will determine how it impacts your life. This tool estimates what it could mean for your health coverage and taxes based on your income, family size and current insurance status.

The quick summary is that unless you are making lots of money (>$200k) you will not pay any additional taxes, and if you are currently getting insurance through your employer there will be no change to your insurance coverage.

Seems like a lot of fuss over something that helps those who need help and has no impact on most of the others.

3D dragons beat out 3D rabbit and cat

2010-03-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

How to Train Your Dragon (DreamWorks) was the winner this weekend at the weekend box, grossing $43.3 million for the three-day frame. This beat Alice in Wonderland (Disney) which in its fourth weekend in theaters claimed $17.3 million of box office gross.

Both are on my must see list, but I'm rather burnt out on the whole 3D, wear special goggles and pay $5 more to watch a movie thing.

All the president's pens

2010-03-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

Why do presidents use so many pens to sign legislation? White House Staff Secretary (a.k.a the Pen Lady) Lisa Brown explains.

President Obama sat down in the White House on March 23 and signed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law with a stroke of his pen, and then another pen, and another. By the time he was done Obama used 22 pens to sign the landmark billion health care bill.

"I've got to use every pen so it's going to take a really long time," said Barack Obama at Tuesday's historic signing of the health care bill.

I wonder if pens used for different letters are more valuable than others.

Water water everywhere, but not enough to drink.

2010-03-22T03:22:00.000-07:00

Today is World Water Day. Why do we need a day set aside to focus on water? Mostly because we take it for granted.

In Mountain View clean, safe water is virtually free. Residents pay about a penny for 5 gallons. On Amazon, people can pay as much as $12/gallon for water, nicely packaged in 1.5 liter bottles. Yet today, 1.1 billion people around the world still lack access to improved water supply and more than 2.6 billion people lack access to improved sanitation.

Worldwide water quality is declining mainly due to human activities. Increasing population growth, rapid urbanization, discharge of new pathogens and new chemicals from industries and invasive species are key factors that contribute to the deterioration of water quality.

Deterioration of water quality occurs when existing municipal and industrial water treatment and/or sanitation infrastructure is overloaded or the relevant infrastructure is absent or outdated and waste and waste water are discharged directly into the environment from where they find their way into surface or groundwater.

Sufficient quality of water is critical to ensure a healthy environment and human health. The basic requirement per person per day is 20 to 40 liters of water free from harmful contaminants and pathogens for the purposes of drinking and sanitation, rising to 50 liters when bathing and kitchen needs are considered.

Something to think about next time you let the tap run.

The latest internet concept

2010-03-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

File this under internet attractions I don't understand. Chat Roulette. The concept is simple: The site pairs you with a random video-chat partner. You can click "next" any time, or stay with your current pairing. Personally, I don't see a reason to try it. However, here's a guy, Merton, who uses it with his own piano freestyling. The combination is amusing and a PG introduction to this new fad.

Smart or Stupid?

2010-03-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

This is fun and quick.

The Smart or Stoopid test is purely meant to be a fun quiz to see how your IQ rates alongside the average, based on the scores of other people who have taken the test. Naturally, only stupid people would take it as a true indicator of intelligence.

You are shown 30 questions and get 8 seconds each to answer them. Try it, and share your first score.

Rube Goldberg music

2010-03-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

How do you make a video of a the Rube Goldberg machine more interesting?
-or- How do you make a music video more interesting?
Whatever your question, the OK Go guys have the answer.
You will want to watch this more than once.

Too much sex...

2010-02-27T19:38:00.000-08:00

...can be a bad thing if you are famous.

Tiger Woods went from being known as a great golfer to being known as a great philanderer.

This then left the door open for many, many jokes. PETA also saw an opportunity to use this to bring attention to their cause. Unfortunately, Tiger doesn't lend his name to causes freely.

After unveiling their plan for a spay-and-neuter billboard featuring Tiger Woods, their phones rang and their in-boxes were inundated with feedback from supporters and skeptics alike. Among the rapid responses? A courteous call from Tiger's lawyers asking that they pull him from the ad—a request that PETA quickly honored.

Good bye Tiger. Hello Mark Sanford.

Now that They have left Tiger off the billboard, they are looking to replace him with another oh-so-familiar face: the continent-hopping, scandal-producing Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina. Their new slogan? "Your dog doesn't have to go to South America to get laid."

Don't look!

2010-02-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

This image is banned in Colorado Springs!

Puppet cleavage has been ruled out for advertising posters on bus shelters in Colorado Springs. The bus ad company rejected posters for a touring production of the Broadway show Avenue Q because they show the cleavage of a fuzzy pink puppet.

The show bills itself as ''60 per cent adult situations and 40 per cent foam rubber'' and features the adventures of puppets and humans in New York.

Of course for those with a real Muppet fetish, you can learn how to make your own here.

The survey says...

2010-02-20T19:26:00.000-08:00

Currently, I'm a registered as a republican voter. I don't give money to any political party, but I do have a couple motives.

First, as a registered republican I can vote for their more liberal candidates. As a registered democrat I would be voting for their conservative candidates. Being registered for any other political party, or as an independent, is staying too far on the political fringes, since the U.S. is pretty much a two party country.

Since my first motive is pretty much a wash between the major parties, my secondary motive comes into play. That being, which party do I want wasting their money trying to sway my opinion. For the past decade that's been an easy decision. Let me be a drain on the republican coffers.

As a person on the republican's mailing list I get a lot of surveys from the RNC. It averages out to about one survey every week. Sometimes as many as three will arrive in a single week. I take this as they are very interested in my opinion. They get a lot of credit for this, as I think my opinion is very important and should be listened to.

The current survey has 36 questions in it; 37 if you count the last one asking for a donation. Some are straight forward. Most feel biased like they were written by Fox news, e.g. questions that start with lines like "Do you trust the Obama Administration to...". They seem to be trying to tap America's outrage by casting allusions that the current problems are from 1 year of Obama and the Democrats running the government, and completely ignoring the previous 8 years of Republican Rule.

Assuming these surveys are actual attempts to learn their party's opinions, they gain my respect and possibly change their platform to better reflect my opinions. If these are merely fund raising efforts, then I'm wasting my time by completing them. However, then that means I'm also wasting their money, since each survey has to cost them a couple bucks to send out and I never send them a cent.

Pot pun fun

2010-02-20T01:23:00.000-08:00

Nothing's better than a good pun. Especially puns that are tangible and suitable as gifts.

So, what you've got here is a pot holder that LOOKS like a pot leaf! Pot ... pot.

Only $8—which is worth if only for all the potential puns. From Gama-Go.

2010-02-07T20:56:00.000-08:00

The New Orleans Saints pull the upset and march to a victory over the Indianapolis Colts with a score of 35-31 at Super Bowl XLIV. At least that was the prediction from the official simulation run by the Electronic Arts game Madden NFL 10.

This is big news for the software. In the seven years Madden NFL has been used to simulate the big game, it has predicted the winner six times.

The actual score had the New Orleans Saints complete their season Sunday night by beating the favored Colts 31-17.

I think both the New Orleans Saints and the Madden NFL software team should be proud of their accomplishments.

Let's give Sarah a hand

2010-02-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

I thought this was humorous.

Former Alaska half-term governor Sarah Palin delivered a speech to around 1,000 supporters at the Tea Party Convention the other night, but she couldn't get through all of it without a few notes scribbled on her hand.

During the Q&A session after her speech, it got weird. Palin glanced down at her hand during an answer and it became clear that she had notes written on it (the words "energy", "budget cuts", "tax" and "lift American spirits").

Part of what makes it funny is she edited her talking points. She crossed out the word "budget" and put in the word "tax". Is she actually dumbing down her speeches?

If she is one of the Republican leaders, then Obama has nothing to worry about.

The iPad for Luddites

2010-01-30T01:23:00.000-08:00

There is an iPad for everyone. Apple announced one this week, and here is a video of one for us Luddites.

I'll leave it to you to find the iPad for women commercial the Mad TV put together.

Gerrymandering

2010-01-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

Gerrymandering is a form of boundary drawing (redistricting) in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral purposes, thereby producing a contorted or unusual shape.

In California after the 2000 year census, the legislature had to set new district boundaries, both for the state Assembly and Senate and for federal congressional districts (CDs). The Republican and Democratic parties came to an agreement to gerrymander the boundaries. It was mutually decided that the status quo in terms of balance of power would be preserved. With this goal, districts were assigned to voters in such a way that they were dominated by one or the other party, with few districts that could be considered competitive.

The negative results for the effective operation of the political process can be seen directly in California's budget impasse. The high turnover due to term limits combined with "safe" districts makes it more likely that "hard liners" will be elected (via competitive but narrow primary elections) and that the legislators will lack experience in dealing across party lines in a collegial manner — there is now a complete lack of senior leadership capable of creating and enforcing cross-party compromise

Before the Voters FIRST Act, California lawmakers were charged with drawing their own legislative and Board of Equalization districts. But California voters changed all that when they authorized the creation of the Citizens Redistricting Commission (Commission) in the November 2008 General Election. This commission will have 14 members: five members who are Democrats, five members who are Republicans, and four members who are neither a Democrat or a Republican.

This week I applied to serve on this Commission that will draw district boundaries for the state Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization. Wish me luck.

Heart and Health

2010-01-24T14:23:00.000-08:00

The American Heart Association has defined "ideal cardiovascular health," identifying seven health factors and lifestyle behaviors that support heart health. To attain this, a person needs 7 simple things:
1) Don't Smoke - To have never smoked or not smoked for at least a year
2) Eat Better - Eat a healthy diet
3) Be Active - Get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise a week
4) Lose Weight - Achieve a body-mass index of less than 25
5) Control Cholesterol - Maintain total cholesterol below 200
6) Manager Blood Pressure - Have blood pressure below 120/80
7) Reduce Blood Sugar - Have a fasting blood sugar below 100

To help people improve their heart health, the American Heart Association has developed a new online resource – My Life Check. Their national goal: By 2020, improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20 percent. (Oddly to use it requires an email address and agreeing to a Terms & Conditions page.) However once your get past there it's pretty easy and straight forward. I got a 9 out of 10.

If you want to measure your health another way, the AARP has a Longevity Calculator. This has 35 questions to predict how old you will live to be. If you let me know your age, I'll tell you mine.

The wrong Senator

2010-01-23T20:27:00.001-08:00

Here's the Boxer Statement on the Nomination of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke expressing her opposition to a second term: “I have a lot of respect for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. When the financial crisis hit in late 2008, he took some important steps to prevent what many economists believe could have been an even greater economic catastrophe. However, it is time for a change – it is time for Main Street to have a champion at the Fed. Dr. Bernanke played a lead role in crafting the Bush administration’s economic policies, which led to the current economic crisis. Our next Federal Reserve Chairman must represent a clean break from the failed policies of the past.”

Ben Bernanke was nominated 5 months ago. She's raising her vague objection today, less than two weeks before his term expires. By vague, I mean she not mentioning a specific problem and she's not nominating somebody she things could do a better job. She's not faulting Obama's reasons for nominating Bernanke.

He's qualified. Obama likes him. Warren Buffet likes him. He was Time magazine's person of the year in 2009.

Her current position sides with the Republicans. This statement sounds like she is scared for her job and is trying to use the word "change" to sound popular. Maybe she's afraid about the next election and facing moderate Republican Tom Campbell. With moves like this, maybe she should be afraid. Maybe we have the wrong person as our Senator.

Avatar bonus material

2010-01-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

If you watched Avatar and liked it, you will probably want to see this Making of Avatar clip. It's 22 minutes long, but like the movie it doesn't feel long.

This does a fine job of showing how they got the acting to shine through the animation. You can also see how using the latest technology went into making the movie as great as it was.

Whatever happens, keep smiling

2010-01-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

What's the difference between a Flexible Flyer Steel Saucer
and a riot shield?

Don't know? Apparently neither do some officers in the U.K.

The incident happened in Oxford. The clip shows five or six officers in the snowy field, a police van parked in the background. One of the officers plonks the shield on the slope and is advised by another to hold on to the handles. He settles himself, holds tight and then two pals give him an almighty push.

Squealing, the officer slides off, one of his colleagues advising him: "Whatever happens, keep smiling." The shield proves to be an effective sled, even skipping over a ditch at the foot of the hill.

A pint for a pint

2010-01-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

Give a pint of blood, and get a coupon for a pint of beer! In Washington a blood center holds Pint-for-Pint blood drives throughout the year at community restaurants. Cascade Regional Blood Services says the promotion has worked so well at six Tacoma pubs and breweries, it's expanding its "Give blood, get beer" offer.

I've gotten coupons for a pint of ice cream before, but never a beer. Maybe I've been donating at the wrong places.

the Cub Scout's boarding pass

2010-01-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

SSSS

On the way home recently, Mikey’s boarding pass showed four giant red S’s at the airport in Nassau...

Have you heard about the typical travel experiences for 8-year-old Michael Winston Hicks? Described as a “New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent travelerm,” he has not been able to travel hassle-free since time immemorial. According to the boy’s mother she could not get a seat for Mikey at an airport kiosk even as a baby, because airline officials said that his name “was on the list”.

The first time he was patted down Mikey was 2. He cried.

Apparently Mikey is not on the official “no-fly” list. But his name appears to be among some 13,500 on the larger “selectee” list, which sets off a high level of security screening. Less you think this is a minor inconvenience for a few people, remember it's not only the person who's name is on the list who gets hassled. For every person on the lists, hundreds of others can get caught up simply because they share the same name; a quick scan through a national phone directory unearthed 1,600 Michael Hickses.

Do you feel safer knowing 8 year old cub scouts are getting extra security at airports? Or do you suspect the TSA just might not know what they are doing.

Entrepreneur of the month

2010-01-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

I've heard of medical marijuana dispensaries before, but this is the first time I've heard of medical marijuana deliveries. (although, come to think of it, isn't that part of the plot of the show Weeds?)

Plant Providers Plus is a company that discretely delivers medical cannabis to verified medical marijuana patients in San Jose and surrounding areas.

Here's some news coverage that CBS Channel 5 did on Plant Providers Plus last Friday. This piece highlights their medical marijuana delivery business and the patients who benefit greatly from it. Except for the slightly gray legal standing it is an interesting business. It's a daring business model, but those who take the risks often take the profits.

What makes this story personal is the owner is a friend of mine from years ago. Here's hoping this venture works our well for her.

Polution problems, part 1

2010-01-03T23:24:00.000-08:00

The big problem: reducing carbon emissions and pollution overall.

One part of the problem: More than three billion people, or half the world’s population, cook in their homes using traditional fire and stoves, burning biomass fuels like wood, dung and crop waste. Families breathe in lethal fumes from these cooking fires. Indoor Air Pollution currently claims the lives of 1.5 million people a year worldwide. This contributes to both the Asian brown cloud and to deforestation from the over use of wood as an energy source.

A solution: New cookstoves, which while still burning biomass reduce indoor air pollution by 80%, reduce fuel usage by 60% and decrease cooking times by 50%. Envirofit is selling cookstoves which are designed to meet the unique cooking habits of semi-urban and rural India. The stoves are all portable, require no ventilation piping, and are usable with traditional pots, pans and cooking methods. The stoves ranging in price from $11-47.

Building Bridges

2009-12-31T23:43:00.000-08:00

In the Netherlands you can find a very unusual kind of bridge. Like many small bridges, the bright blue and yellow Slauerhoffbrug is required to retract out of the way to let boats pass by. Unfortunately the Google Earth image was captured while the bridge was acting as a road, so it isn’t yet clear that there is anything interesting about it.

However, if you look at it over at Bing, you get a very different picture. Suddenly it's obvious what makes this bridge so unusual. The middle section of the road is contained on a massive arm that swings up, pulling the middle of the bridge through 90 degrees up into the air.

Built in 2000, the Slauerhoffbrug is a kind of cantilevered drawbridge, but skewed to one side. Apparently it was built like this so that the mechanism could be built beside the road without interrupting the flow of traffic – except for a few days at the end of the construction.

You can find more pictures here, or read more about it here.

New Year's Eve blue moon

2009-12-30T23:16:00.000-08:00

For the first time in nearly 20 years, a bright "blue moon" will grace New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide. If the skies are clear, you can look up and get an eyeful of the second full moon of the month. The last time a blue moon appeared on New Year's Eve was in 1990, and it won't happen again until 2028.

A blue moon isn't actually blue, the name reflects the relative rarity of two full moons in a month and is linked to the saying "once in a blue moon."

It's also been inspirational to many singers. Pick your favorite here. I like the version by the Platters.

Winter Solstice Greetings!

2009-12-21T01:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went to the annual solstice party a couple friends throw every year. The next night we hosted an early Christmas dinner for some local relatives. Last week we sat down for what some would call a traditional Hanukkah dinner of potato latkes and brisket. Then this evening I found this thought on the web which describes the season and why there this common desire to gather together with friends and family at this time.

(I'm transcribing the text for those who may have trouble viewing the image.)

For as long as civilization has existed,
humanity has celebrated the passing
of the winter solstice - the shortest,
darkest day of the year.

Long before Christianity, the gods
Horus (Egypt), Mithra (Persia),
Dionysus (Greece) and many others
were claimed to have been born
on the winter solstice.

In the 4th century AD, after Emperor
Constantine converted to Christianity,
the traditional winter solstice celebration
was replaced with the holiday marking the birth of the Christian god Jesus.

Today, we know that the "reason for the season" has nothing to do with the birth of mythical gods - it is simply the axial tilt of our planet.

Still we celebrate the winter solstice,
with happy anticipation of springtime renewal!

As the authors of the this message say;
Wishes to all for love, peace, and a joyous new year!

Vote for 'Lie of the Year'

2009-12-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

You've heard of the Person of the Year. Now PolitiFact is inviting you to vote on the most important lie of the year. For their year-in-review coverage, they will soon be announcing their Lie of the Year. They are examining the claims and will be choosing the one that reached all-star status and played an important role in the nation's political discourse. They want to hear your choice, so go vote for one of the eight possibilities.

Here's the nominees (*and my comments*):

"When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft."
- Joe Biden on April 30, in an interview on The Today Show
(*ignorant statement*)

Preventive care "saves money."
- Barack Obama on Sept. 9, in a speech to Congress
(*overstated*)

"You lie!" (in response to President Obama saying health reform would not insure illegal immigrants.)
- Joe Wilson on Sept. 9, in the audience at a joint session of Congress
(*rude*)

Seniors and the disabled "will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care."
- Sarah Palin on Aug. 7, in a message posted on Facebook
(*a self serving lie. Does anyone listen to anything she says*)

John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, "has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population."
- Glenn Beck on July 22, in his TV program
(*a self serving lie*)

An amendment to the House health reform bill "puts new restrictions on women's access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market even when they would pay premiums with their own money."
- Nita Lowey on Nov. 7, in a speech on the House floor
(*overstated*)

A birth certificate shows Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
- Orly Taitz on Aug. 2, in an attachment to a lawsuit
(*a self serving lie.*)

Page 92 of the House health care bill "says specifically that people can't purchase private health insurance after a date certain."
- Michele Bachmann on Oct. 30, in an interview on the Fox News Channel.
(*deliberately distorting and misinterpreting*)

In the end I have to give my vote for the lie of the year to Michele Bachmann. As a elected representative she has power and responsibility. To use that power to deliberately mislead the public (and the people who elected her) earns her this special mention. Orly, Glenn and Sarah are also big liars, but they are building their reputation on that skill and they will have to live with it.

Now you can go vote your position.

Happy Hanukkah Humor

2009-12-12T10:37:00.001-08:00

Hanukkah started this week. Here is a picture/project for all my tech/trek friends.

Personally, I see Chanukah as another reason to eat something tasty and different from the rest of the year. Like most Jewish holidays, has its own special food traditions and recipes. Soofganiot (doughnuts) and potato pancakes (latkas in Yiddish and livivot in Hebrew) are popular Hanukkah treats. It is also traditional to eat your potato pancakes with applesauce.

Now if the world could only agree how to spell the name of this holiday, my life would be simpler.

It's holiday time - Halleluia!

2009-12-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

If all Christmas music was performed as humorously as this, I might enjoy it more.

It's nice that they show you the words. It makes it easier to follow along, and shows that the lyrics are as repetitive as they sound.

Shopping season

2009-12-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. Time to buy gifts for friends, fiends, family, and foes alike. But where do you go for the hard to shop for friend that really deserves something super. You can always try the Super Hero Supply Company.

Of course, they are do-gooders too, so you know your shopping is safe. All their proceeds go directly to support 826NYC. 826NYC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

To infinity and beyond!

The Willy Wonka of soda

2009-11-27T08:15:00.000-08:00

John Nese is Obsessive over soda pop. John is the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in Los Angeles. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he converted it into the ultimate soda pop shop. About 500 pops line the shelves, sourced lovingly by John from around the world. John has made it his mission to keep small soda-makers afloat and help them find their consumers. Galcos also acts as a distributor for restaurants and bars along the West Coast, spreading the gospel of soda made with cane sugar (no high-fructose corn syrup if he can avoid it).

John loves his job and has an opinion about everything in the soda pop world, as you can see by watching this video.