Auto Bailout

Unless we want to continue to have to bailout the Big Three, who have repeatedly proven themselves blind to the writing on the wall, we need to start investing money in encouraging the growth of other American car companies that might eventually make an automobile people actually want to buy.

Say whaaa?

Canadian Prime Minister Dissolves Parliament

What is this, feudal England?

Wow, Mini Me had an interesting perspective on the world

So, I am going through all my childhood electronic files to convert them from Wordperfect to Word before I lose them forever. I came across this grade school report I did on Australia. Here is how I chose to end it.

"In 1850 the Australian gold rush began. With the California gold rush in mind men rushed of to find their fortunes! Since then Australia has participated in both World Wars and many other wars besides. Australia is a great place and I hope you enjoyed this report."

Even though my version of Australia's last 150 years seems to indicate a ferocious war crazed nation, I still gave it the ol' thumbs up!

Now THAT'S a great quote!

Listening to NPR’s Fresh Air, I just heard a rather apt quote from Evangelical lobbyist Richard Cizik on why his views on Global Warming differ from the typical party line. (My bro-in-law will appreciate this one).

“We can’t claim to love the Creator and abuse the world in which we live. To do so is like claiming to be a fan of Shakespeare and then burn his plays.”

Overheard

I like wine bars. Unlike most bars in LA, you can actually hear each other talk. Unfortunately, you can also hear your neighbors. Which is how I heard this gem of a comment made by a woman on a first date with a rather anemic looking young man.

“I tell my parents EVERYTHING about my dates.”

Yikes. He MUST be desperate.

Yikes

I think Born Loser says it all when it comes to the news lately.

Topic: Sir Edmund Hillary

Remember Sir Edmund Hillary? He's the British guy who first reached the top of Mount Everest. Most people have never heard of his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, who deserves credit alongside him as being first to the top of Everest.

Other little tidbits:

• Hillary was by profession a beekeeper, of all things.

• Hillary left a crucifix at the summit in honor of George Mallory who had gone missing on Everest 30 years before.

• Hillary continued to love adventure long after Everest, venturing to the South Pole in 1958 and battling up the Ghanges to its source in 1975.

• He maintained a deep connection to Nepal and its people, serving as ambassador to India, Nepal and Bangladesh,  and founding the Himalayan Trust to build schools, hospitals, and airfields in Nepal.
  

Wanna know more?

Britannica

Encarta

Wii Fit

So, my boyfriend managed to nab one of the last Wii fits available on opening day in Los Angeles. He was so excited that he took it quite good naturedly when the Wii Fit baldly called him overweight and made his little Wii character look quite pudgy. On the other hand, my wii mii looks quite anemic and the Wii keeps trying to fatten me up.

There has been some outcry because the Wii Fit is not all that accurate when evaluating kids (there are so many factors in the health of a growing child) and will often end up calling a quite normal child "fat." Perhaps the wii needs to restrain from making BMI judgments on children. Should be a simple fix since the game asks for your birthdate anyway.

However, all in all, my take is that the Wii Fit is the most powerful tool we've seen in a long while for fighting childhood obesity. In a society obsessed with TV and video games, it's nice to see a video game that gets people up and moving. I wouldn't say that the Wii Fit offers a vigorous workout routine but I'd say it's probably just about perfect to get a typical couch potato's blood moving. Hey, every little movement helps!

Keeping your computer organized

I have the bad habit of saving everything to the desktop so I can find it easier. Of course, that means I can't find anything. If I'm good, I have a To Org folder in my documents where I stick things if I don't have time to organize it into a folder in my documents. Every couple of days I make sure I organize everything out of that folder. Another idea that works for me is to organize everything in my documents in a logical file structure. Then I have a folder on my desktop called Current Projects. In it are links to all the files and folders that I'm currently using regularly. That way the game show I'm developing stays filed with all the other gameshows I've developed previously and the schedules I'm working on stays with all the past schedules but their shortcuts are easily accessible to me without having to dig through all the past projects. Anyway, I like it! Everyone works differently of course!

Continued learning

Education these days can be massively expensive. What happens then when you have that degree and venture out into the workforce, but still want to keep on learning? It can be hard to justify spending the money if the classes won't in someway further your career (and as far as I know, modern philosophy rarely does). Yet look at it another way. Since you wouldn't be taking the classes to put a degree on a resume, you don't need to pay big money for a big name in education. Community colleges are amazingly inexpensive (in California, a 3 credit class can range between $60 and $80) and you'll still get a good overview of whatever topic you are interested in. Some community colleges even offer online classes so you can learn at your leisure.

An unwelcome guest

Don’t you just hate it when you are scrambling around at the last minute finishing the food and trying to beautify yourself you hear that knock on the door twenty minutes early? An early guest is almost worse than a late guest.

And fire season is here… early… Not that we really enjoy it when it shows up on time, but we should get at least a little more time! But, alas, record high heat has sped up its arrival. I’m used to fires being from Idaho. But the difference in LA is that the fires actually rage in the middle of the city. Which is dang inconvenient. When the hill between you and work is ablaze it puts a crimp in your commute. And air quality is certainly not helped when you are living next to what amounts to a ginormous barbeque of smoke.

However, in true So Cal fashion, my Pasadena neighbors (who have been blessed with the first blaze) are keeping wary eyes on the fire making its way towards their homes with mochas and martinis in hand. If you gonna stay home from work to make sure your house doesn’t burn down, you might as well do it in style!

Need healthcare? No problem! Oh wait, you might actually need it? On second thought…

It’s stupefying to think that in our first world country those who need healthcare the most (i.e. people who are actually sick) often can’t get it because no insurance company will insure them! And, on top of that, we now have the ability through genetic testing to find out if we are at more at risk to BE sick in the future. From a medical standpoint this is huge since then preventative measure can be taken to, well, prevent these ailments from occurring. Who wouldn’t want to get this testing done? It could save your life! But, here’s the catch, now the insurance companies ALSO know that you have a greater risk of getting sick than the lady sitting next to you and they just may refuse to cover you. It’s freaking insane! Fortunately, the senate has passed an Act today that will ban genetic discrimination. So, your health plan can’t deny you coverage or boost your rates based on your genetic profile. Oh, and your employer can’t fire you because of it either. The House is expected to approve the legislation next week and even President Bush seems to be on board. Finally, something sane to come out of Washington! Though in the long run, a lot more than this will need to change.

Seriously here people, I’m all for capitalism but I have to agree with the commentators, bloggers, and Europeans who are starting to call America “the richest third world country in the world!” We are ranked 42nd in life expectancy, our babies are more likely to die in the first year of their life than if they lived in Cuba, and, this just came out this week, life expectancy has actually dropped for some US women for the first time since the freaking influenza in 1918 infected 25% of the world’s population! Something is horrifically, horrifically wrong here. Perhaps we need to stop treating medical care as a perk for well-off Americans but as necessary a public service as a well-run police force and fire brigade!

Itty bitty elephants!

In news of things really little and really cute, a heretofore thought extinct species of miniature elephant has been found docily munching their way through Borneo. Ok. They’ve always known these tiny pachyderms lived on Borneo, but now they’ve found out that it’s the same species as a species thought extinct that used to roam Java, sending waves of excitement through the apparently easily overjoyed scientific community. Anyway, it looks like some Asian kings in yesteryear decided to exchange gifts of tusked Mammalians and, thus, inadvertently saved the species from an untimely end. Ironically, the tiny tuskers are facing a new threat from the… biofuels industry. Yes sir, in the ironies of ironies, the new environmental bonanza is causing the destruction of the docile Dumbos’ habitat by farmers razing their forests for palm oil plantations. Humanity never ceases to amaze me…

Just a small token of the UN's affection

Australia is now 2.5 million kilometres bigger! No, they didn’t invade Antarctica. They are now the proud owners of a slightly larger piece of the ocean floor. The UN has granted the Down Under country the rights to exploit the resources in their new watery land. So, say goodbye to any oil and gas in the area. And coral… fish… blue water… Dang. We’re cannibalizing our planet from the inside out.

What’s in a name?

I am NOT one of those girls who has a scrapbook of wedding plans or is already planning playdates for my future kids with friends’ future kids. I do, however, love name meanings and so, I frequent baby name websites. Whenever a project requires me to create characters, I like them to have names that reflect the attributes I picture them having. Babynames.com has a great search system. Of course, the feature I use the most is the search by meaning one. But I can also search for a certain nationality, names that start or end in a certain letter, have a certain number of syllables, and, of course, are a certain gender. If you ARE trying to name a child might I suggest some lists on the site to check out? Try out: Reality Show Name List, Gilligans Island Name List, or, the ever popular, Lord of the Rings Name List (guys, you’ll have an easier time convincing your baby mama to name your child Eowyn then ,say, Boba Fett).

Listen up, guys!

Flowers are a great way to get on a girl’s good side. Well, you’ve probably always known that (hopefully). But now it’s scientifically proven! A study has shown that not only do flowers improve a girl’s mood more than other gifts, it improves it for a long time afterwards. Sounds like a good investment to me!

Depressed? No, just lazy eye...

A study has come out saying that prozac may treat lazy eye. It apparently corrects the neural wiring defect that causes the disorder by encouraging “the visual cortex to return to a juvenile state.” Uh oh. This information better not get out in Southern California. If the women here learn what the word “juvenile” means, they’ll be trying to inject prozac directly into their foreheads.

Update: More ways to get rid of excess bookage!

Here are two more book cleansing sites!

Bookmooch is a way to trade your books for someone else’s books. Ok, not the best way to cut down on your book collection but a great way to get books that you’re interested in reading/having in exchange for books you don’t want anymore.

Bookscouter will search all sorts of different places that buy books (like Powells.com) and find you the best offer for your books

Why cannibalism=bad

Don’t be mistaken, I’ve never been pro-cannibalism or anything (though I’ve driven through the Donner pass in a storm and can see why they were driven to eat each other). But I was fascinated to discover that there is a deep-seated, survivalist reason why humans are naturally averse to cannibalism. My educational journey into taboo dietary practices started innocently enough with a morning show puff piece about a book by DT Max called The Family That Couldn’t Sleep. Members of an Italian family have a rare disease called Fatal Familial Insomnia where they cannot sleep and after a year of no sleep their bodies give out and they die.

Being as fascinated by bizarre maladies that have no impact on my life as any other train wreck loving American, I checked the book out from the library. Before I knew it, I was hop scotching from Italian insomnia to British Mad Cow Disease to Papua New Guinean cannibalism. Zounds!

Granted, I wasn’t too up on what Mad Cow was all about in the first place (I’ve always confused it with West Nile). But I suddenly realized why it was freaking everyone out. What binds all these diseases together is a small little thing called a PRION. A prion is a protein gone bad. And once one protein goes bad it turns all the other proteins it comes in contact with bad as well. Prions can be transmitted in several ways. 1. You can get the genetics for mutated prions from your parents. 2. Your proteins could naturally and randomly mutate 3. You can get it through eating meat from a carrier of a mutated prion.

Fatal Familial Insomnia spreads genetically through this Italian family. Mad Cow disease spread because humans were forcing cows to be cannibals by feeding them food mixed with hamburger to boost their protein intake.

The scary thing about this is that a protein is not alive. Conventional wisdom always said that for something to be infectious it must be alive. If it’s alive, we can potentially kill it. So far, nothing has been able to kill a prion (so cooking your hamburger is not gonna help).

The only reason that ¾ of Britain isn’t dead from Mad Cow disease is that it is extremely hard for a disease to cross between species. It has occurred and people have died from Mad Cow disease, but not at the frequency as it would have if we were, say, cannibals.

When Westerners first ventured deep into Papua New Guinea, they discovered a tribe that was dying from a mysterious disease. They ritualistically ate their dead as part of funeral ceremonies. Once convinced to stop the practice, the deaths slowly stopped as the generation that practiced cannibalism died off. Turns out they were passing a prion disease via cannibalism throughout their community.

Archeology has shown that in the distant past cannibalism was not unusual. Genetics research has shown that in the distant past humanity suffered a mass extinction of a majority of the population because of a prion outbreak. Perhaps this is why we have a natural repugnancy to the idea of eating the meat of our own species. To eat our own species is to open ourselves up to a cadre of diseases already tailored for destroying the human body. So much for a future of eating Soilent Green, eh?

The Big One is coming!

Well, sometime in the next thirty years at least. A rather nonsurprising study informs us that California has a 99.7 percent chance of a major earthquake in the next thirty years. When you move to Earthquake Country, you accept the risk as Nature's way of balancing out the perks of perfect weather and constant sunshine. But I suppose this is a good reminder for me to assemble an earthquake preparedness kit. Too bad sushi doesn't keep as long as dried food...

Googled

You gotta admit Google has some cool little gadgets. I have waxed eloquent about gmail and Google reader in the past. In honor of me now using Google's Blog Site, let's look at some of Google's other online applications.
Google maps!!!! Dump Mapquest and any other map site. Google maps is by far the best! It's better at locating places and certainly better at giving directions. It will also link you to the websites of the businesses you are searching for and has reviews from others who've frequented the business.

I would have diiiiieeeed to have Google Scholar while I was in school. It searches scholarly publications for information on your search subject. So instead of searching in main Google and getting the Wikipedia entry (which any student knows is a big no no to cite), you get only scholarly publications with a pedigree to make any paper look snazzy.

I don't use Google Documents often. My excel use borders on programming which Google Documents can't handle. But it would be extremely useful if I was working on projects with others.

I've never personally used Google groups, but my father swears by it. He uses it to get other programmers' help with especially tricky programming problems. I'm sure they also have groups for just about any other topic under the sun as well!

Google Books lets you search for books. If it's out of copyright you can go ahead and read it online. If not, it will give you a link to buy the book. It will also list reviews for the book and other information. I actually like their information setup more than Amazon which I find can be rather disorganized and uninformative.

Other programs they offer: a photo sharing site, a youtube like site, a shopping search, a news site (though I'm a bigger fan of the Yahoo! news site), an image search, a blog search (though I searched for my blog and it didn't find it :( ), a finance site, a patent site (you can search over 7 million patents), a Diigo style bookmarking site, a translating site, and Google Sketchup (I will write another post about this one. An AMAZING free application.)

Welcome!

Welcome to the new and improved A Renaissance Life, formerly known as Learnaday! This new site allows you to comment without being a member so comment away!