OK, I hate stealing ideas from other blogs, but this one, from w=uh is just too cool to miss. Be sure to click on 'view clip.' Canesta, Inc. -- Products

posted by Chris at 12:11 AM Permalink |

 
Out here in California, we have a $35 Billion deficit. That's about $800 a head, which means my family owes somebody about $2400. Of course, that's still less than our $1500+ per capita share of Bush's (probably understated) expected deficit, and he's passin' out checks!

You've probably heard that they're gonna try to recall Gov. Gray Davis, but we don't know who would replace him. Last I heard, Arnold Schwarzenegger says he doesn't want to run, which is good. I mean, that makes as much sense as an out of work actor becoming president, or electing a current president's son a few years later. Oh, wait...

Anyway, I've taken way too much effort to create a nifty little picture thingy, so click on Gray's picture, and I'll show you something kinda cool.

Oh, I had a little fun with some Dubbya pics too...

I've had a problem with Blogger for a couple days now where it won't build a valid archive file, so it looks like the archived blogs are all missing, but the good news is that they're all really here. If you back up to the weblog directory, it'll give you a list, but I'm sure hoping they get it fixed - I sent them a trouble report, but with over a million registered bloggers, I'm not holding my breath!

Here's a decent little poem from the Darwinian Poetry site - I think they're getting better:

twilight eyes self deceive
the soullessness

one wept the glimpsing
one wept enough

posted by Chris at 4:39 PM Permalink

 
Here's a camping update. Janet has e-mailed me two representative pictures from our camp-out:

1. Aftermath of the in-tent tickle fight.
2. Chris flipping Emily's friend.

posted by Chris at 5:38 PM Permalink |

 

posted by Chris at 2:48 PM Permalink |

 
Here's an interesting thing I ran across through a newsletter from New Scientist - a website where 1000 randomly generated poems are forced to evolve and recombine through visitor votes: Darwinian Poetry: Home. Here's a representative sample I happen to like:

old hex nebulosity be excellent
you preclude they excelled sunshine
he he rebellious spinsterish me
down hit muddling restore to
hour

posted by Chris at 10:53 AM Permalink |

 
Last weekend, our family went camping for the first time, overnight, in the woods, in a borrowed tent. I was, how shall I put this? OK, I was so not looking forward to it that I was looking backward to it, but it was a planned outing with the other families from our daughter's home preschool group, and it did turn out to be fun.

A couple of nights before, as I was putting Emily to bed, I warned her that 'it'll be really different from being here at home, like there won't be a TV or VCR,' and she had a good long cry because 'I want to watch Caillou!' - I guess I'm just mean that way.

There was plenty of other stuff to do up there, though. We went to a place around Soda Springs on the small, cold, but pretty, Kidd Lake, and we swam quite a bit and got a little sunburned. Well, Emily had on SPF 1024 sunblock or something, of course, because we're such responsible parents, so her skin didn't change color except for the blue lips.

I'd have to say the highlight of the trip was either a) the posted warning not to interact with the squirrels and chipmunks because they have the plague, or b) one of the other fathers, who's a CHP officer, asking me if I'd ever sniffed a Johnson Pine - turns out they smell like pineapples and vanilla, which is quite a bit nicer a smell than it sounds.

posted by Chris at 6:27 PM Permalink |

 
As if last week's titillating news that frequent masturbation prevents prostate cancer wasn't enough, a new study has revealed that pizza prevents cancer of the digestive tract. I'm going to live forever!

posted by Chris at 6:26 PM Permalink |

 
And today in health news: Google Search

posted by Chris at 10:55 AM Permalink |

 
Here's a pretty cute one: The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation

posted by Chris at 4:55 PM Permalink |

 
I imagine that in the future, we'll finally have nationalized heathcare, so people don't have to go without, but the rich people will be lobbying for vouchers that they can apply to their extravagantly expensive 'freedom of choice' PPO's, and they'll also finance a huge lobby for healthcare re-privatization.

posted by Chris at 12:42 AM Permalink |

 
So I was thinking this morning, as I was reading a book called The Golden Ratio, all about the, um, golden ratio, and it occurred to me to wonder... what would I think about things if I had not been taught what to think all my life, but I still, somehow, had all my wits about me? If I lived to be 50 or whatever, how much would I be able to figure out about how the world works, like the guys back in 3500 B.C. who were just starting to notice that there were patterns to what the moon and the sun and the seasons were doing. How long would it take me to notice pairs of things? How high would I be able to count? Would I settle for the status quo and count 1, 2, 3, 'many?' Would I try to make some marks on something to help me remember things?

The real questions are:

1. What's really 'out there' (epistemology) and what have I just been taught that may or may not be true (pedantry)?

2. How does someone get to look at the world with such fresh eyes that they can invent 'The Calculus' or the Theory of Relativity?

I mean, I never watched a single episode of X-files, but I believe 'the truth is out there.' I also agree with the great Martin Gardner (of Scientific American's Mathematical Games fame) when he says in his book Did Adam and Eve have Navels?, 'I believe there are truths as far beyond our grasp as calculus is beyond the grasp of a cat.'

posted by Chris at 12:20 AM Permalink |

 

Happy Birthday, America!

In the words of the website I borrowed this from, read The Declaration of Independence again for the first time:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

posted by Chris at 11:24 PM Permalink |

 
Well, this is pretty cute. It's the first thing that comes up on Google for a search on 'weapons of mass destruction' (without the quotes). Click it here and read carefully. Weapons of Mass Destruction

posted by Chris at 2:28 PM Permalink |

 
OK. Here's a link to a very pro-glutamate page. Umami.

posted by Chris at 4:53 PM Permalink |

 
I read on Excite today that Kraft is planning to ruin, er, I mean, rework all of their products next year: Kraft to Revamp Products. The article says that Kraft, as the largest producer of processed foods, is worried that with people suing McDonalds for making them fat, someone might try to hold Kraft liable for widespread obesity.

Now maybe it's just me, and I've eaten my share of Oreos and Velveeta in my day, but I think whatever you decide to put in your cakehole is one of those little life decisions that you are solely responsible for. I saw Zig Ziglar speak a few years ago, and one of the things he said was, "I used to weigh over 200 pounds by choice. Now, I say 'by choice' because, to my knowledge, I've never put anything into my mouth by accident."

My real concern is that they're going to ruin things just the way they ruined Lawry's Seasoned Salt a few years ago when they took out the MSG, which was far and away the most important ingredient. When I start my own line of junk food, Sugar Salted Fat™, I will be sure that every product includes plenty of MSG.

Here's what the Accent site has to say about the 'umami' of MSG:

Recent studies show that Accent produces a unique taste that is called "Umami" in Japan and described by Americans as a savory, broth-like or meaty taste. This "Umami is the fifth basic taste in addition to salty, sweet, sour and bitter. The discovery of the "Umami" produced by Accent is likely to increase usage of this already popular product.

It's kinda like those newfangled seedless watermelons, which are an abomination in the site of God. Spittin' the seeds is half the fun!

By the way, I imagine that in the future, they'll figure out a pratical way to make cars that run on water. I say this because the same people who get all bent out of shape when gas tops $2 a gallon will happily stand in line right there at the gas station to fork over $5/gallon for a bottle of filtered tap water.

posted by Chris at 11:24 AM Permalink