Look at this. With the extended family (the "normal" source of information for new parents) being non-existant in America, what's the next best option? Why, text messages of course. It's sad, and fascinating, and I hope it works.
Mothers-to-Be Are Getting the Message - NYTimes.com
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Monday, February 07, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Someone wishes they were an author and not a journalist.
Egypt protests are breaking new ground | Simon Tisdall | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "Those hopes died, like autumn leaves, blown away by a withering sirocco of regressive measures and reimposed emergency laws".
Nice sentence Simon!
Nice sentence Simon!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tethered MyTouch 4G speed test
Just measured my speed while on a Chicago Metra train bound for Braeside. Not exactly full 4G, but still, not bad.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Quote of the day
"Looks like some sort of phenomenon happened"
In Beebe, Ark., 4,000 Dead Blackbirds Drop From the Sky - NYTimes.com
In Beebe, Ark., 4,000 Dead Blackbirds Drop From the Sky - NYTimes.com
Saturday, December 18, 2010
When liver donations go wrong - CNN.com
Our medical industry, which to me seems like just another labor union, is a bizzare collection of old school protectionist practices and it needs a serious overhaul.
Why is it that statistics on outcomes are unavailable, and mistakes are covered up or treated as if they are impossible?
From CNN.com...
When liver donations go wrong - CNN.com: "When a donor has a complication, the hospital is expected to do its own investigation and report to the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, which oversees transplants for the federal government.
'This isn't acceptable,' says Dr. Lloyd Ratner, director of renal and pancreatic transplant surgery at Columbia University.
'Never in a million years would we say to BP, 'Oh, you had an oil spill in the Gulf, why don't you do your own investigation and just tell us about it?' ' he said. 'That would be just crazy. It's not acceptable in other industries to do that, so why is it acceptable in ours?'"
Why is it that statistics on outcomes are unavailable, and mistakes are covered up or treated as if they are impossible?
From CNN.com...
When liver donations go wrong - CNN.com: "When a donor has a complication, the hospital is expected to do its own investigation and report to the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, which oversees transplants for the federal government.
'This isn't acceptable,' says Dr. Lloyd Ratner, director of renal and pancreatic transplant surgery at Columbia University.
'Never in a million years would we say to BP, 'Oh, you had an oil spill in the Gulf, why don't you do your own investigation and just tell us about it?' ' he said. 'That would be just crazy. It's not acceptable in other industries to do that, so why is it acceptable in ours?'"
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Capsule Built by SpaceX Returns Safely From Orbit - NYTimes.com
Capsule Built by SpaceX Returns Safely From Orbit - NYTimes.com
This is big news people! The first privately constructed spacecraft launched a payload into orbit!
This is big news people! The first privately constructed spacecraft launched a payload into orbit!
Monday, November 22, 2010
The scanners are riskier than the terrorists
Check out the math in the article linked below, the quote coming from dosimetry expert Peter Rez.
Protests Mount Over Safety And Privacy Of Airport Scanners : Shots - Health News Blog : NPR:
"Rez agrees the individual risk is still negligible. 'It's a 1-in-20-million chance of dying from radiation for each scan,' he says. 'Your chances of being struck by lightning in the US in any year is 1 in 500,000. But the probability of being blown up in an airplane by a terrorist is around 1 in 30 million. So the risk from the scan is about the same as the thing you're trying to prevent.'"
Protests Mount Over Safety And Privacy Of Airport Scanners : Shots - Health News Blog : NPR:
"Rez agrees the individual risk is still negligible. 'It's a 1-in-20-million chance of dying from radiation for each scan,' he says. 'Your chances of being struck by lightning in the US in any year is 1 in 500,000. But the probability of being blown up in an airplane by a terrorist is around 1 in 30 million. So the risk from the scan is about the same as the thing you're trying to prevent.'"
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Enable ping in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008
Working on a network with Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 is a pain when you just want to ping. I'm sure there are swell reasons these operating systems have ping turned off, but I'm on a protected domain at work, and I'm not worried about a DOS attack or whatever MS is worried about.
Here is how you enable these operating systems to respond to a ping...
Here is how you enable these operating systems to respond to a ping...
- Open a command prompt as an administrator. Go to Start/Accessories/Command Prompt and right-click, selecting "run as administrator".
- At the command prompt, type (or paste) "netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8".
- Hit enter.
- Read the bit scolding you about using a deprecatedcommand, then promptly ignore all that if the command returned "Ok."
- Enjoy pinging your machine.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Shift to Wealthier Clientele Puts Life Insurers in a Bind - WSJ.com
Shift to Wealthier Clientele Puts Life Insurers in a Bind - WSJ.com
As a country that prides itself on individual accomplishment and opportunity, we need to dismantle this tax shelter. All it does is reinforce our tragic income disparity.
As a country that prides itself on individual accomplishment and opportunity, we need to dismantle this tax shelter. All it does is reinforce our tragic income disparity.
Friday, October 01, 2010
5 Things Linux Does Better Than Mac OS X - PCWorld Business Center
5 Things Linux Does Better Than Mac OS X - PCWorld Business Center
Everyone loves to hate the operating systems they don't use. Makes me think of "Imagine" by Lennon.
Everyone loves to hate the operating systems they don't use. Makes me think of "Imagine" by Lennon.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Cosmic Log - Alien planet looks 'just right' for life
Cosmic Log - Alien planet looks 'just right' for life
This is neato news, but when you read with any sort of critical eye, you have to see what a dork this astrophysicist Vogt is. He starts by saying there is a 100% chance the planet has life. That's just ridiculous. The planet has extremely unique properties that we've never examined before and a claim like that is just irresponsible.
Next, Vogt claims this planet, which does not rotate, so it has one side facing it's small sun, and one side pointing away, is "not too hot and not to cold, but just right for water to exist somewhere in liquid form." I'm no rocket scientist, but I would like to point out that any water on the hot side will automatically evaporate, and then migrate in gaseous form over to the cold side of the planet, where it will freeze hard and never be seen in liquid form again. He might want to think about the old, dinky ice cubes in his fridge, which got that way via sublimation, and how even water trapped in surface ice is going to migrate farther away from the sun and pile up high on the cold side, just like those dinky ice cubes disappear and the water migrates to the cooling element in his fridge.
Perhaps he visualizes a planet teeming with life that can live in solid ice, without the benefit of sunlight. Perhaps he detected lots of thermal vents on the ice side, ha.
This is neato news, but when you read with any sort of critical eye, you have to see what a dork this astrophysicist Vogt is. He starts by saying there is a 100% chance the planet has life. That's just ridiculous. The planet has extremely unique properties that we've never examined before and a claim like that is just irresponsible.
Next, Vogt claims this planet, which does not rotate, so it has one side facing it's small sun, and one side pointing away, is "not too hot and not to cold, but just right for water to exist somewhere in liquid form." I'm no rocket scientist, but I would like to point out that any water on the hot side will automatically evaporate, and then migrate in gaseous form over to the cold side of the planet, where it will freeze hard and never be seen in liquid form again. He might want to think about the old, dinky ice cubes in his fridge, which got that way via sublimation, and how even water trapped in surface ice is going to migrate farther away from the sun and pile up high on the cold side, just like those dinky ice cubes disappear and the water migrates to the cooling element in his fridge.
Perhaps he visualizes a planet teeming with life that can live in solid ice, without the benefit of sunlight. Perhaps he detected lots of thermal vents on the ice side, ha.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Global CIO: Larry Ellison Swaps Cloud Rants For Cloud Love With Exalogic -- InformationWeek
Global CIO: Larry Ellison Swaps Cloud Rants For Cloud Love With Exalogic -- InformationWeek
I sympathize with Ellison. A web application is just not cloud computing. I think people get confused because the internet, in diagrams of yore, is depicted by a little picture of a cloud.
Cloud computing, in my mind, is building a computational task that can be distributed across multiple servers, with the precise number of servers changing in an elastic manner, as determined by the task load.
I sympathize with Ellison. A web application is just not cloud computing. I think people get confused because the internet, in diagrams of yore, is depicted by a little picture of a cloud.
Cloud computing, in my mind, is building a computational task that can be distributed across multiple servers, with the precise number of servers changing in an elastic manner, as determined by the task load.
Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says - latimes.com
Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says - latimes.com
Interesting stats on religious knowledge among various faiths.
Interesting stats on religious knowledge among various faiths.
Friday, September 17, 2010
How Haystack endangered the Iranian dissidents it was supposed to protect. - By Evgeny Morozov - Slate Magazine
How Haystack endangered the Iranian dissidents it was supposed to protect. - By Evgeny Morozov - Slate Magazine
People need to remember that lots of technology out there is simply vaporware. It pays to be skeptical.
People need to remember that lots of technology out there is simply vaporware. It pays to be skeptical.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Leonardo's Notebooks
Leonardo's Notebooks: "Vitruvius, the architect, says in his work on architecture that the measurements of the human body are distributed by Nature as follows: that is that 4 fingers make 1 palm and 4 palms make 1 foot, 6 palms make 1 cubit; 4 cubits make a man's height. And 4 cubits make one pace and 24 palms make a man; and these measures he used in his building. If you open your legs so much as to decrease your height 1/14 and spread and raise your arms till your middle fingers touch the level of the top of your head you must know that the centre of the outspread limbs will be in the navel and the space between the legs will be an equilateral triangle."
Now that's someone who knows how to observe. Thanks for changing the direction of the western world Leonardo!
Now that's someone who knows how to observe. Thanks for changing the direction of the western world Leonardo!
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist - Putting Our Brains on Hold - NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Columnist - Putting Our Brains on Hold - NYTimes.com
This guy is right, our nation is falling apart right before our eyes. Why don't we care anymore?
This guy is right, our nation is falling apart right before our eyes. Why don't we care anymore?
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