Fish and Mercury Outrage?

Jvstin says it all:

Why aren’t we outraged that we’ve polluted the oceans enough that we have to have our kids and pregnant women limit their fish intake because of an excess of a pollutant?

(from Blog, Jvstin Style: New FDA Fish Guidelines)

Skiing vs. Hockey

Someone recently recommended that we pull the kids out of hockey, purchase a membership at a ski club, and go skiing during the winter instead. The advantage being that skiing is something that we can all do together, as a family.

I like the idea; I like skiing, and Gareth’s pretty good for an 8-year old. Charlotte has a lot of trouble with skates (she has wonky ankles), so I don’t see hockey in her future. But Gareth really likes hockey, and it’s got all that teamwork stuff going for it, so I’m kinda undecided on the whole issue…

Microwaves and Efficiency

When I read Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything by James Gleick, one of the anecdotes that struck me was about people who would type 88 seconds instead of 90 seconds on microwave keypads, because it’s faster. So I laughed when I saw this:

I read once of a person who would microwave their coffee for some unusual amount of time, like 48 seconds. I think it was a brain teaser: why would the person do this?

Cold

Ok, it’s -22°C right now, colder than it was before sunrise. This is getting silly…

I’m working from home today. After last night’s ugly commute, I couldn’t face another day of slippery conditions and idiot drivers. The plows have been by, but it’s so cold that the salt we normally dump on the roads isn’t working. They’re trying sand, but they’re only really doing the highways right now; city streets (especially side streets) are treacherous.

Ugly Commute

So it snowed all day yesterday. Not a whole lot (between 5 and 10 cm), but it was also cold (around -15°C), so the usual remedy of salting the roads wasn’t working. Apparently I wasn’t paying attention to the weather forecast, because if I had known, I would have stayed home.

It took me an hour to get from work (well, the CNE grounds) to Thorncliffe. That’s almost 16 km/h. Then it took me 30 minutes to get to Lawrence; that’s about 6 km/h. Then it took another 45 minutes to get to the school; less than 3 km/h. No accidents or anything; just traffic volume, slippery roads, and small hills. I felt like I was in Zeno’s paradox; the closer I was to my destination, the slower I was driving…

Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder

My wife and I are sitting downstairs in front of the TV. We’re watching CSI off tape (no TIVO here yet), and working on our laptops. I come across this amusing article on Rands In Repose: N.A.D.D. (Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder), in which I read:

The presence of NADD in your life is directly related to how you’ve dealt with the media deluge of the new millennium. You’ve likely gone one of three ways:

The Commute: an update

So the week before Christmas I drove once and took the subway once, and did a hybrid once (I drove down with my wife, then hopped the streetcar over to the office). It was about 40 minutes to drive; the expected 1:20 on the TTC.

This week I’m picking up the kids, so I leave the house around 7:15, and leave work by 16:20 or so. Commute times (door to door, where the afternoon door is Bayview Glen) were:

Documentation is never accurate…

In a wide ranging discussion about Genesis, M. comes up with:

that doesn’t mean God didn’t create gravity, it just means He didn’t document it!

Keep Microwaves Away

Now this is a cool practical joke.

Friends foil Olympia man’s home

nearly everything else in Chris Kirk’s downtown Olympia apartment was encased in aluminum foil when he returned home Monday night from a trip to Los Angeles.

The walls, ceiling, cabinets and everything in between now shimmer with a metallic glow, thanks to a prank by Kirk’s longtime friend, Olympia native Luke Trerice.

Happy 200th Birthday, Curling!

Curling: Still set in stone after 200 years

Exactly 200 years ago today, on January 6, 1804, members of Duddingston Curling Society approved the first written rules of the “Roarin’ Game” in the Curlers’ Hall in Duddingston, at that time a small village outside of Edinburgh.

(I’ve only been curling for 10 years; I have some cathing up to do :-)

Wind Power and Birds

HoustonChronicle.com - Bird deaths causing concern about true value of wind farm

The wind turbine farm in Altamont Pass, CA has killed approximately 22,000 birds over its 20 year lifetime, so two environmental groups want the operator permits for the farm revoked.

Let’s look at these numbers, shall we? 22,000 birds over 7000 turbines is just over 3 birds / turbine, and 0.157… birds/turbine/year. Wow, are those things safe!

Almanacs are subversive

Oh brother. (Or is that Big Brother?) The FBI has issued an alert against almanac carriers

The FBI said information typically found in almanacs that could be useful for terrorists includes profiles of cities and states and information about waterways, bridges, dams, reservoirs, tunnels, buildings and landmarks. It said this information is often accompanied by photographs and maps.

I guess that means tourists with Rand-McNally road atlases and cameras should be pulled over too.

Our Precious Bodily Fluids

They’re poisoning our precious bodily fluids

In March, California researchers reported that San Francisco-area women have three to 10 times as much chemical flame retardant in their breast tissue as European or Japanese women.

Indiana University researchers reported at the same time that levels in Indiana and California women and infants were 20 times higher than those in Sweden and Norway, which recently banned flame retardant.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) earlier this year released data from 2,500 volunteers tested for 116 pollutants and found such chemicals as mercury, uranium and cotinine, a chemical broken down from nicotine.

Global Dimming

Interesting. According to an article in The Guardian, the amount of sunlight reaching the earth’s surface has decreased by 10% over the last three decades.

“Unlike many of the other symptoms of Global Warming, the evidence for Global Dimming is quite clear: there has been a marked and quantifiable decrease in solar radiation striking the earth every year since records have been kept, there have also been tests on the evaporation rate of water in metal pans and the Dutch (much of whose specialized farming is done in greenhouses) have noticed a definate decrease in their productivity.

Before and After

Before #

After #

Business Card Cubes

Inspired by Ned Batchelder’s How to make business card cubes, I present:

Update 2007-01-30: Ned Batchelder has created a Tabblo showing the constructions steps ; check it out.