Etcetera

Long Odds

What was that survey a few years back that announced that women over a certain age had a better chance of being struck by lightning than meeting a guy and getting married?

It seems there's little hope for us, "really nice", guys too.

Philip Greenspun writes about the "Efficient Market Hypothesis" as applied to the prospects for us single guys.

...if the guy were actually worth dating one of the millions of women who live within a 30-mile radius of his house would have figured it out.

It occurred to me that all of the really nice mature easygoing people that I know are married.  If one looks carefully at a single person it is usually not hard to find an explanation for why they are not happily paired.  One might be able to find an exception in an isolated fishing community in Alaska but in a major metro area within the Lower 48 it seems improbable.

Survivor Palau Ep #11

I've now watched Survivor on the same night that it's first broadcast THREE weeks in a row!

Spoilers after the jump, and in comments.

We've seen this Survivor episode before.

At the start it's painfully obvious who is next to go. But the editors make the whole episode about how two other people are really the ones at risk. By the time TC happens we're almost surprised to find that there was never any real question who was going home.

The Survivors:

1. Jonathon, 23
2. Wanda, 55
3. Jolanda, 39 (blue = Ulong)
4. Ashlee, 22 [James]
5. Jeff, 21 [Stephanie]
6. Kim, 25 [Jeff]
7. Angie, 24 [Ibraham]
8. Willard, 57 [Caryn] (brown = Koror)
9. James, 33 [Kim]
10. Ibrehem, 27 [Ashlee]
11. Bobbyjon, 27 [Jolanda]
12. Coby, 32 [Jenn]
13. Janu, 39 [Tom]
14. Stephenie, 25 [Bobbyjon] (was Ulong)

El Nino? Global Warming? The Wrath of God?

San Jose California Mercury News:

With all this stormy weather, local weatherman Rob Mayeda has been coming in early and staying late. He gets to use every weather icon on his pallette -- even the puffy cloud with the lightning bolt through it.

On air at KNTV, instead of a typical April forecast of sunny skies and 70s, Mayeda gets to say those rarefied words guys like him dream about. Hail. Thunder. Strong gusty winds.

Zzzzzzztttttttt Slap!

It's that time of year again.

While we were out on our bike ride the other day, whenever we would pause, we were quickly swarmed by black flies. They weren't biting yet, but it's just a matter of time. And after black flies, comes mosquitoes.

I don't like the idea of chemical insect repellent, but I've resigned myself to the comfort and health safety of using DEET sprays when doing outdoor stuff throughout the season.

Now the CDC has blessed a new substance that sounds interesting. Picaridin, the oil of lemon eucalyptus. AP via Yahoo! News:

After years of promoting the chemical DEET as the best defense against West Nile-bearing mosquitoes, the government for the first time is recommending the use of two other insect repellents.

Repellents containing the chemical picaridin or the oil of lemon eucalyptus offer "long-lasting protection against mosquito bites," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding that repellents with DEET remain on the agency's recommendation list.

Apple mistake

I am pretty troubled by Apple's recent attempts to squash information that they don't like.

The blogger lawsuits, where Apple wanted to know who leaked early info, was unfortunate, and this latest, an attempt to block the publication of an unauthorized Steve Jobs biography, is downright embarrassing.

Overly optimistic

The Rockingham Recreational Trail is a retired railroad right-of-way which is now used as a biking, hiking, snowmobiling trail. It stretches from the edge of GreatBay in Newmarket, to Manchester. Locally it passes through Raymond, which is about the midway point.

Janice and I have been talking for awhile about biking this trail from here to Lake Massabesic, which is near Manchester. Today we did it.

If I'd thought about it, I would have realized how long it was gonna take, but we just went for it, and I was a little surprised to discover that it took 2 1/2 hours EACH WAY.

Nice ride though. Many scenic views, burbling brooks, passing by historic villages, and lunch at the shore of Massabesic was nice.

When the final tally was in, the ride was 13.5 miles each way. 27 miles total. Because it's along former railroad tracks, there are no really steep parts, so the ride was not so hard, although there were occasional stretches of muddy ground. But the seat on my bike got very hard by the time we were done. Now my butt is very sore.

More on the first inning

Here's another view of the results at the end of the first "inning" of the 2005 baseball season. Here are the AL East standings for each team after its 18th game.

AL EAST STANDINGS
After 18 games each.

TEAM          W   L
BALTIMORE    11   7
BOSTON       10   8
TORONTO       9   9
TAMPA BAY     8  10
NY YANKEES    7  11

Pop references

I heard these two references today. I can't quite figure them out.

"Napoleon Dynamite" It appears to be a cult movie, but the ref I heard made it sound like a series.

"Forties" "OK Boys, put down your forties, and..." A new gadget? Something else?

Anyone?

Thousands and thousands

Some people get all excited when they reach a birthday that ends in zero. For me, the birthdays ending in eight have always been more notable, for some reason. But that's a different blog post. Today I'm more interested in my age in DAYS.

Measuring age in days, today my age ends with exactly three zeros. I'll leave it for the peanut gallery to amuse itself with a discussion of how many thousand days old I am.

15,000 days. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

Interesting facts about your birthday...

End of the first inning

Last year I came up with the idea of tracking the baseball season's progress by dividing it into nine "innings". 18 games each.

Yesterday's game marked the end of the first inning.

We won 10 games, which puts us on track to win 90 games for the season. This result includes the disappointing first roadtrip, where we went 2-4. And of course we just lost two against Tampa Bay where we should have won at least one.

So all-in-all, 10 wins in the first inning is not too bad. We could just as easily be at 13 wins, which would be a pace to win 117 games.

Now it's time to take it up a notch.

Bam!

NNE Population Density

Data and graphic from US Census Bureau website.

UPDATE: Here's an even better colorization of the map data.

Survivor behind-the-scenes

I wish we could have seen all this. Apparently the Tribal Council went on for hours, as Janu agonized about whether she would quit. Yahoo! News:

Viewers didn't see Tornell's concern about whether she would be on the jury if she quit the CBS reality show. After going back and forth for several hours, Tornell said Probst asked for a break in the filming.

"The cameras stopped," said Tornell. "Tribal council got really heated. You guys didn't even get any part of that. (Probst) goes, `This is off the record. What's going on, Janu? What are you worried about?' And I said, `Basically, I don't want to lose my place in the jury. I don't know where this takes me."

Tornell said Probst left the tribal council area and consulted with producers. (The three players who quit "Survivor" in previous seasons departed before juries were formed.)

"It was all a new drama situation for everybody involved," said Tornell.

Probst returned and assured Tornell that she wouldn't forfeit her place on the jury by quitting. The cameras started back up, and Tornell did just that.

Another one

Rude of me not to mention that this is also the Birthweek of Gone East Forum regular, Jo Ann. Yay!

Wide awake

"If you don’t know what you want, you probably need a nap."

-- unknown

Alone in First

The redsox swept the Orioles tonight in their short two-game series, and are now in first place of the AL East all by themselves.

As of right now the Yankees are beating Toronto 4-3 in the 8th.

Birthweek Day Three

For today's celebration, I had Thai Food.

I love Chinese Food. I could eat it every day. But I've never really gotten into Thai.

But a friend has been raving about this place in Exeter -- it's across the street from the old Ferlita's Sub Shop, but that's a different food story -- and today I got to give it a try.

I'm not 100% on its name, but I think it was Sara Thai Restaurant, 1 Portsmouth Ave.

Very tasty.

Survivor Palau Ep #10

I've now watched the ep on the same night that it's first broadcast two weeks in a row!

Spoilers after the jump, and in comments.

Lame!

I think the most disappointing development on any season of Survivor has been the times when someone quits. If she wanted to go home so bad, she could at least have done the honorable thing, and fallen into her fire when she had a chance.

The Survivors:

1. Jonathon, 23
2. Wanda, 55
3. Jolanda, 39 (blue = Ulong)
4. Ashlee, 22 [James]
5. Jeff, 21 [Stephanie]
6. Kim, 25 [Jeff]
7. Angie, 24 [Ibraham]
8. Willard, 57 [Caryn] (brown = Koror)
9. James, 33 [Kim]
10. Ibrehem, 27 [Ashlee]
11. Bobbyjon, 27 [Jolanda]
12. Coby, 32 [Jenn]
13. Janu, 39 [Tom]

Want a soda, pop?

Personally, I seldom drink "coke"...

Former roommate, and new dad, Rob point this out to me. It's a cool map showing the location of people who answered a survey on whether they call a cool-beverage, "soda" or "pop" or "coke".

Let's see if this works.

I'm developing this idea, that when one of my elbows is sore, for no apparent reason, it means it's gonna rain. My left one is sore now. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Touch and Goes

An F-22 Raptor visited Mohave Airport the other day to practice. Pictures here.

Fun gathering

My sister, Beth, organized an impromptu dinner party last night on Day One of my birthweek.

Attending were my other sister, Judy, and my friends Janice and Cindy, and all their kids. We christened the 2005 BBQ season by grilling burgers and dogs.

After dinner, a walk around the neighborhood failed to temper the energy of the kids, but it was fun.

For dessert, I cut up a pineapple, and we had cake and icecream.

Thanks.

First Place

With yesterday's Redsox win over Toronto, and the Baltimore loss, the Sox move into first place (tie) in the AL East.

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
TEAM            WON  LOST  PCT  GB
BALTIMORE         8    5  .615   -
BOSTON            8    5  .615   -
TORONTO           8    6  .571     1/2
NY YANKEES        5    8  .385   3
TAMPA BAY         4    9  .308   4

Canadian Geese a problem everywhere

From Lisa's blog in Watertown Mass.: "Why can't we shoot Canadian geese? "

But goose-related problems go beyond inconvenience and unsightliness (not to mention that creepy beady eyed stare they give H2otown, making her think that they'd happily peck her to death if they didn't have such a busy social schedule). The goose poop is connected with overfertilizing bodies of water like the Charles, causing extra plants to grow, that take up oxygen for fish -- and in the long term, turning ponds and rivers into stagnant algae-beds. Worse, Canadian geese can carry cryptosporidium, a waterborne parasite that can make people with compromised immune systems very sick.

See entire post for some interesting links.

I took the Geek Quiz

MickyD's turns 50

According to Jeff Jarvis, today is McDonald's 50th birthday. He writes about how it is one of his guilty pleasures.

A quarter-cheese was my best hangover cure.

At my worst, I used to have two quarter cheese, a large fries, and a milk shake. It's a wonder I'm still alive.

After my cholesterol tests of later years and after seeing my father-in-law post-bypass, I had to give up McDonald's. My kids prefer Burger King, too. So it's rare that I go there anymore.

But I still like McDonald's. It represents speed, consistency, cleanliness, quality, value, and good, greasy, salty food. McDonald's is America.

So join me today and let's have a quarter-cheese and fries. Oh, what the hell, supersize that.

I agree. I may have to change my dinner plans.

What are our real goals?

I read Jerry Pournelle's website for the tech discussions. His politics make me uncomfortable. But on this one we agree.

The fact of the matter is that the procedures on September 10, 2001, were nearly sufficient to prevent what happened: the taking over of airplanes and the use of them as cruise missiles to destroy specific secondary targets. If the goal is to prevent THAT we do not need a multitude of New Offices and swarms of Officers to harass the people and eat out their substance. What we need is to prevent the potential kamikaze pilot from getting into the cockpit of the airplane. That requires strong doors, and a change in the rules of engagement: even if they are cutting the throats of your passengers and passenger service crew members, do not surrender control of the airplane to anyone, and admit no one into the cockpit; and secondly, tell the passengers they must defend themselves.

There's more.

TechPopuli Summary

I've added a new feature to the Etcetera sidebar. There is now a list of the most recent post over at my tech blog TechPopuli.

The summary is produced by the cool service at RSSDigest.

Survivor Palau #9

I actually watched the ep when it aired this week. No notes, but I did update the Survivors list. Spoilers in the "continued" and in comments.

The Survivors:

1. Jonathon, 23
2. Wanda, 55
3. Jolanda, 39 (blue = Ulong)
4. Ashlee, 22 [James]
5. Jeff, 21 [Stephanie]
6. Kim, 25 [Jeff]
7. Angie, 24 [Ibraham]
8. Willard, 57 [Caryn] (brown = Koror)
9. James, 33 [Kim]
10. Ibrehem, 27 [Ashlee]
11. Bobbyjon, 27 [Jolanda]
12. Coby, 32 [Jenn]

303 Now.

I just added a bunch of new items to the database of quotes that appear near the top of my front page.

You can sample more of them by visiting this link and refreshing.

Undo

"You can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

-- Unknown

Yay!

Gone East Forums regular Janice's younger daughter, L, has been accepted to CATA, the Cocheco Arts & Technology Academy, Charter School, in Dover NH.

Way to go!

16 by 9

NESN is showing tonight's Redsox game letter-boxed in its full widescreen.

Very nice!

UPDATE: They're calling it "Widescreen Wednesday". I want it every day.

Better now

The whole area was a little weirded-out by yesterday's brief snow flurries. It didn't stick on the ground, but it did snow pretty hard for a few minutes.

It's still pretty cold, down to hi 20s last night, and still only 40 right now.

EEEEaaaaayyyyyaaaahh!!!!

It's snowing out!!!

Meetup to Start Charging Groups

Meetup.com has announced a change.

...we are introducing a required small monthly Group Fee to be paid by Organizers.

Do all members pay? No. Organizers pay the Group Fee to Meetup.com and may ask their members to chip in. It's up to the Organizers. The fee is per group, not per person.

How much & when? The regular Group Fee is $19/month, but Organizers of current groups get a special 2005 rate of $9/month if they pay now.

I think this is a big mistake. And in any event, the amount is too high.

Yankees don't Suck

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't hate the Yankees. I think they are a great team with some great people on it. I just want them to lose every day.

I've told the story about how they were the first to recognize that Cal Ripken had ended his streak, and how they stood at the edge of the dugout in Camden Yard and applauded. Yesterday, they stood in the Fenway dugout and applauded as some of our players received their World Champ rings.

I want them to lose every day, but they are a classy bunch of guys.

[Pic of Yanks at Fenway from BostonDirtDogs.]

Opening Day

I'm watching the beginning of the opening day festivities at Fenway Park.

There's a lot of excitement about the players getting their rings, and a fighter plane fly-by, and who will throw out the first pitch. But the only thing I really want to see is them raise the championship banner.

"Red Sox 2004 World Series Champions"

Pudding Results

I wrote here and here about an experiment in making chocolate pudding. The results are in.

I thought that the outcome would be that the Instant Pudding tasted better, more chocolaty... and that the stove-top pudding would be less chocolaty, but have a better texture. Close, but not quite.

I admit that I like both. I wouldn't turn either down. But the cooked pudding is my clear favorite. I prefer the texture: smoother, creamier... and the chocolate flavor was real nice too. Not quite as sweet as the Instant, but very nice. So cooked is the winner.

Another plus to the cooked pudding was a Mr. Science moment (actually, these days, it's an Alton Brown moment).

Last time I made this stuff was as a kid. I was impatient to have it done. I would set the heat too high, and not stir it enough. Invariably it would burn. But this time I was more patient, and I was enjoying the process. I knew that the pudding would get thicker as I stirred. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the thickening happens pretty suddenly. It goes from thin/milky, to thick/creamy in just a few seconds. It's a state change! Physics in action.

Isn't cooking cool?!

Lake News

Saturday was Ice-Out here on the lake, and Sunday was the first 70 degree day. That concludes the 2005 Ice-Out Date Guessing Contest.

Where's Steve?

Steve Garlfield's Off On A Tangent blog hasn't updated in 4 days. I hope everything is OK.

Chris DiMarco is da man!

Years ago I was a huge competitive golf fan. Lately, not so much.

I actually think that Tiger Woods is bad for the game, that he's contorted the game to be something that it wasn't before, and it's not an improvement.

So I was rooting for DiMarco to defeat Tiger in yesterday's final round. I watched the final 9, well actually 10, holes.

Although it must be a disappointment to come that close to winning the Masters and not, DiMarco has nothing to be ashamed of.

This was not a choke, or a failure. He went head to head with Tiger, never quitting, even when Tiger made a couple of miraculous shots. DiMarco played great, solid golf, and if Tiger hadn't made a stupendously lucky shot on 16, or if DiMarco's chip on 18 hadn't bounced off the flagstick, well, he would have won the whole thing.

Congrats to DiMarco. He is good for the game.

Instant Pudding

I just made the second batch of Sugar Free pudding. This is a followup to my earlier batch of stove-top pudding. I want to compare them to see which I prefer.

I'm generally very suspicious of food products labeled "Instant". I think it's one of our unappealing national traits that we feel things need to be quicker. For example, it's not bad enough that we eat so much "fast-food", but now we want to get it through a drive-thru window.

Paul Garabedian used to say, what are we planning to do that we need to save all this time?

Also, as I learn more about food and nutrition, I'm becoming convinced that the more quickly a food can be prepared, the more likely that it is not so nutritious. Instant Rice, instant oatmeal, all these things are not so good for you.

Quality takes time.

But I've made the Instant Pudding, and in a few minutes I'll be able to taste it. More later.

Blog Safely

EFF: How to Blog Safely

Frenzy

I went on a little cooking frenzy last night.

I went grocery shopping late in the afternoon, and when I got home it started.

I had bought a whole chicken, cause I wanted to try cutting it into its parts. That was pretty straightforward, so then I baked the two breasts. I had one for supper, and put the other away for leftovers.

Next I pan roasted some green beans I had in the fridge. Sprinkled with EVOO, chopped garlic and shallots.

After supper I wanted to try making pudding. Nothing fancy, it's the boxed Jello pudding that you heat on the stove. I hadn't made that since I was a kid. Later I will make the second half of that experiment: the "Instant" kind, to see what the diff is.

Sometime this weekend I plan to take the leftover chicken parts and try my hand at homemade chicken stock.

Get 'em while they're hot!

This site claims that you can buy a used copy of Cindy Harriman's book which I helped (a little) write. $2.95! It was only 17 years ago!!!

Yuri’s Night

via BoingBoing:

Yuri’s Night occurs annually on April 12, marking the anniversaries of Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s first spaceflight in 1961 and the first space shuttle mission 20 years later. Each year, a series of space-themed parties, dinners and educational events are held around the world to mark these historic achievements.

www.yurisnight.net

Wildflowers

MaryW taught me how cool California's Wildflowers are.

Doc Searls has put a bunch of wonderful pics on Flickr.

Mistinguett

"A kiss can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point."

-- Mistinguett, singer (1875-1956)

Survivor Pulau Ep#7

OK, well, last night I watched LAST WEEK's ep. So I'm not losing any more ground.

It seems that all sorts of people around here missed this week's ep. So it may have to be the featured entertainment at Sunday Night Dinner (tm).

Look out for Spoilers in Comments.

It's an honor really.

The Papal Conclave will be held during my Birthweek.

AP via Yahoo!:

The College of Cardinals on Wednesday set April 18 as the date for the historic start of the conclave to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II...

Talk about losing control of the news cycle!

Phase One Redux, completed

This morning I completed my two-week return to the SoBeDi phase one. I didn't quite reach my goal. I had hoped to drop 6 lbs during the period, which was actually 16 days. I only dropped 4 lbs.

On one hand -- being a goal-oriented, overly-competitive male -- I'm a little disappointed that I missed the mark. Especially since I was momentarily down 5 lbs, a week ago, before the Easter holiday.

On the other hand. losing 4 lbs in two weeks is nothing to sneeze at. I only lost 3 lbs total in the prior 8 weeks combined. So this is definitely a resumption of progress.

Anyway, [boasting] for the record: Since last August 11, I've dropped 35 lbs. The babes are going wild.

My next step is to get to my "summer weight" goal by Memorial Day. That's 9 more lbs off in the next seven weeks. Doable.

Yahoo! rises?

The Guardian:

Yahoo is the new Google. Google is the new Yahoo. Up is down, and black is white. This spring has been very strange. Google, it seems, has jumped the shark. It has been overtaken, left standing, and not by some new startup of ultra smart MIT alumni or by the gazillions in the Microsoft development budget, but by the deeply unhip and previously discounted Yahoo.

Survivor Pulau Ep#6

Was last week #6? I've lost track.

Anyway, I still haven't watched the whole ep. I started to watch it "live", but a call came in and I missed the rest. I'll watch soon.

But in the meantime, the peanut gallery is getting nervous for a place to dish about the whole thing. So here you go. Comments probably contain spoilers, so I won't be looking.

Now it's for real.

Opening Day 2005.

Redsox are the featured game tonight on this night-before-the-real-opening-day. New Yankee Randy Johnson, vs, new Redsox David Wells. Should be interesting.

The Fenway, home-opener is next Friday, also against the Yankees.

That is assuming they actually get to play. Forecast is for rain.

I saw a Squirrel swimming

It was swimming across the water, from the island, to the shore just south of my beach. At first I though it was a beaver. It climbed out of the water, shook itself off like a dog, and scurried into the woods.

Wow, look. I found a pic of such a thing, on Google.

It's not rocket science

Dr. James O. Hill, author of the "Step Diet Book", and founder of America on the Move, says losing weight, and staying fit, is not a complicated challenge.

He says, "Want to lose weight? Move more, eat less and do it in 'steps.'"

Seacoast Online:

Hill believes that "obesity is the result of a mismatch in biology and environment."

"The body prefers a high level of energy flux; that is, high energy in - food, and high energy out - exercise," he said. "Unless we increase the energy we expend we have no chance of stemming the obesity epidemic."

Not an easy task in a more-for-less society in which most people drive to work, sit for a majority of the day in front of a glowing screen, then drive home to set up camp on the couch until bedtime.

"Food restriction is not a good method," Hill said "You can't food restrict well in the current environment.

"Behavior change is easy," he continued. "Our challenge is changing the environment."

He advocates small environmental changes to support behavior changes and says 90 percent of the population could lose weight simply by walking 2000 steps more per day. Hill encourages his clients to approach weight loss in small steps as well, noting that simply switching to diet soft drinks eliminates 100-150 calories a day.

[Italics added by Etc.]

Gmail increases storages space

I noticed this this morning. The amount of storage space seems to be creeping up.

For the month since I've been actively using gmail it was always "1000 MB". Earlier this morning I noticed it was "1223 MB", and just now I looked and it's "1301 MB".

It's growing!!!

Yahoo!:

A year after unveiling a free e-mail service with a full gigabyte of storage, Google Inc. is doubling the capacity of each account and plans to keep bumping up the limit in the future.

Once the upgrade takes effect Friday, Gmail users will be able to store up to 2 gigabytes of e-mail and attachments for each account. Even more capacity will be made available after that as it becomes feasible, the company said.

I still have privacy concerns about Google's recent plans, but I have to admit that I'm liking gmail more and more all the time.

I currently am using three different mail clients. Eudora, Thunderbird, and Gmail. I have different email addresses for different types of mail, and I have each of them set up to go to one of the mail systems. I've gradually been migrating more and more of them away from Thunderbird, and toward Gmail.

You know, I have up to 50 Gmail account "invites" that I can use. If any friends or acquaintances would like one, just holler.