On Vacation

I'm of with my wife for a little trip. Posting will be light to nonexistant.

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Merry Christmas!

Best wishes for you and yours. May the joy of Christ fill you now and through the new year.

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A Banana Catastrophe

I personally am not that fond of bananas. I think they're a bit too gushy and a bit too sweet. The biggest problem for me is that when I eat one, it makes my mouth and throat feel furry and itchy. I must be a little bit allergic to them. My boys love bananas and I know most of you do too.

Did you know that bananas are the 4th most eaten food in the world? Only rice, wheat and maize are consumed more than bananas. That is amazing to me. You guys sure do love your bananas.

I bet you didn't know that you may not be able to get bananas for much longer! Some experts predict that within 10 years the banana as we now know it could disappear.

Hogwash, you say! There is no way that a crop of such enormous value could just disappear that quickly. They (ag companies, governments, whoever) would spend whatever money it took to protect the crop. My answer to that is this- it already happened once before.

A wild scenario? Not when you consider that there’s already been one banana apocalypse. Until the early 1960s, American cereal bowls and ice cream dishes were filled with the Gros Michel, a banana that was larger and, by all accounts, tastier than the fruit we now eat. Like the Cavendish, the Gros Michel, or “Big Mike,” accounted for nearly all the sales of sweet bananas in the Americas and Europe. But starting in the early part of the last century, a fungus called Panama disease began infecting the Big Mike harvest.

The growers tried everything, and resorted to basically chopping down large swaths of rainforest to get uninfected land on which to grow their bananas. This finally failed during the 1950s. The banana companies turned to a new variety, the Cavendish, which was nearly as good as Big Mike and had the additional bonus of not being extinct. The Cavendish is the common banana that you all know and love today.

Once a little-known species, the Cavendish was eventually accepted as Big Mike’s replacement after billions of dollars in infrastructure changes were made to accommodate different growing and ripening needs. Its advantage was its resistance to Panama disease.

So things have been great in banana land since then. We've all forgotten about Big Mike and the banana is more popular than ever. But tragically, a new fungus has emerged and has started decimating banana harvests in Asia, Australia, and Africa.

But in 1992, a new strain of the fungus—one that can affect the Cavendish—was discovered in Asia. Since then, Panama disease Race 4 has wiped out plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Taiwan, and it is now spreading through much of Southeast Asia. It has yet to hit Africa or Latin America, but most experts agree that it is coming. “Given today’s modes of travel, there’s almost no doubt that it will hit the major Cavendish crops,” says Randy Ploetz, the University of Florida plant pathologist who identified the first Sumatran samples of the fungus.

This sounds to me like the exact same scenario as the end of Big Mike. One difference is that the banana industry has not been able to come up with a good replacement variety. And it sounds like they are really trying. One group is attempting to cross-breed different varieties to get a banana that still tastes right, but is resistant to Race 4. Another group is using genetic engineering to change the Cavendish plant to resist the new fungus. The problem with the genetic engineering approach is that a lot of people reject this sort of science out of hand. In many countries it is illegal to sell any genetically modified food. So the best hope is the cross-breeding. Here's one man's first taste test of the cross-bred bananas.

None of our snacks are Cavendish, or descended from Cavendish—and none taste much like the banana I’m used to. Just as importers were afraid that consumers would reject today’s most popular banana when it replaced the Big Mike, they worry that a fruit that isn’t creamy and sweet, like the Cavendish, will destroy markets. “We can make bananas that could be equal,” Aguilar says, “but not the same.”

Is that good enough for you banana lovers out there? Some of the new varieties don't taste anything like a banana- one tasted more like an apple. Some had a light raspberry flavor. Those actually sound interesting to me. What about for you banana purists? Is a raspberry flavored banana good enough?

So how long does the Cavendish have? There seems to be a lot of disagreement. It seems to depend on how quickly the South American banana fields stay uninfected, but it doesn't look good.

Some scientists say five years; some say 10. Others hold out hope that it will be much longer. Aguilar has his own particular worst-case scenario, his own nightmare. “What happens,” he says, with a very intent look, “is that Panama disease comes before we have a good replacement. What happens then,” he says, nearly shuddering in the shade of a towering banana plant, “is that people change. To apples.”

My advice to you is to enjoy your bananas while you can. Give me a good Braeburn or Jonagold apple any day.

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How to Destroy the Earth

I found this website a few years back. I'm not really sure what I was searching for that led me to a site about methods to destroy the earth. I'm also not really sure what would inspire someone to spend this much time thinking about methods of destroying the earth. Here's the preamble to his presentation.

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.

Fools.

The Earth is built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will be easy.

The author of the site has tried to include every conceivable method of actually destroying the earth. One of the more feasible ideas:

Annihilated by an equivalent quantity of antimatter

You will need: An entire planet Earth made from antimatter

Comments: With a significantly smaller amount of antimatter, you can simply blow the Earth up - see later.

Also,

Cooked in a solar oven

You will need: Means for focusing a good few percent of the Sun's energy output directly on the Earth.

Preliminary calculations suggest you would need roughly two trillion square kilometres of mirror.

So, yeah, it's pretty hard to do. He does make a distinction between destroying the earth and killing off all the people on the earth. Killing off the human population is much easier.

Poke around his website. He's got a lot of interesting articles to read, like Things to consider when naming your child.

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Talking to a 4-year old

I really love being a Dad. I have three really great kids who are a lot of fun and really want to be good. I have nothing to complain about.

Even with good kids, parenthood can still be pretty frustrating. As an example, I'd like to share a discussion that I had with my 4-year old last evening. It must be a phase he's going through, because this sort of conversation is happening a lot.

open scene

A father is kneeling down surrounded by his three young boys. They are playing basketball with a fisher-price toy basketball hoop. A 4-year old (4yo) walks over to the father (Me).

4yo: Dad
Me: Yes?
4yo: ( somewhat agitated) DAD
Me: Yes, 4yo?
4yo: (very agitated) DAD!
Me: 4yo?
4yo: (throws himself on the ground in a rage)
Me: What do you want?
4yo: (crying hysterically)
Me: What's wrong?
4yo: (red faced)YOU'RE SO RUDE!!
Me: why am I rude?
4yo: I'M TRYING TO TALK TO YOU!!
Me: I'm trying to listen to you
4yo: DAD!
Me: yes?
4yo: (screaming in frustration) AAAHHHHHGGG!!
Me: what do you want?
4yo: I'M TRYING TO TALK TO YOU!
Me: (with growing irritation) I'm sitting right here, my ears work fine, no one is stopping you. Go ahead and ask me!
4yo: YOU ARE RUDE AND I WON'T EVER PLAY WITH YOU AGAIN!!
Me: why not?
4yo: (red faced) I'M TRYING TO TALK TO YOU AND YOU WON'T EVER SAY "WHAT"!!
Me: OK, "what"?
4yo: (pause with his face in his hands)
Me: What do you want to ask me?
4yo: You made me forget!
Me: I'm sorry! When you remember, ask me.
4yo: Dad!
Me: (forgetting to say "what") Yes, 4yo?
4yo: DAD!
Me: (remembering to say "what") what, 4yo?
4yo: I want you to throw me that ball
Me: OK, catch!

The 4-year old misses the ball, which then hits him in the face. He finds that hysterically funny and collapses on the floor with infectious, unstoppable giggles.

end scene

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Finger Length

No, this is not some profane post about flipping people off. It's science, people! Now- take your hand and put out in front of you. Stick the fingers together. Look at the length of your ring finger(4d). Now look at the length of your index finger(2d). Which one is longer? It really does matter. Click in to find out why.

It turns out that the ratio of the length of those two fingers gives an indication of how much testosterone and estrogen you received while in the womb. If your index finger is shorter than your ring finger, you received extra testosterone. If your index finger is longer than your ring finger, you received extra estrogen. In general, men tend to have shorter index fingers, and women tend to have longer index fingers.

The interesting thing about these studies, is that this ratio is a pretty good indication of ability in sports and science.

Sports
A study looked at 607 female twins, to evaluate any link between this finger ratio and sporting ability. Guess what they found?

The researchers found women with longer fourth fingers were significantly more likely to be among the top achievers in all the sports listed. In particular, they were likely to excel at running, and sports such as football and tennis, which require running prowess.

I remember watching a Discovery Channel (or equivalent) program about this a few years ago. A researcher performed an interesting, if terribly nonscientific, field study. He grabbed 5 or 6 random teenage boys from a group playing soccer. He measured their 2D/4D ratio and predicted who would be the best athlete from the ratios. He then had them run a footrace. Guess what? They finished in the order he predicted. Cool, eh?

Science
Another study looked at male and female scientists. They found that scientists had roughly equal index and ring fingers, indicating that they received about the same level of estrogen and testosterone. The study postulates that the scientist's left and right brains developed equally because of the dual prenatal hormone boost.

A survey of the finger lengths of over 100 male and female academics at the University by senior Psychology lecturer Dr Mark Brosnan has found that those men teaching hard science like mathematics and physics tend to have index fingers as long as their ring fingers, a marker for unusually high estrogen levels for males.

Any guesses as to my finger length ratio? Well, I'm not terribly athletic, and I'm pretty good at math and science. So, if these studies are correct, my fingers should be about equal. Take a peek. They look pretty equal to me.

An informal survey of the other engineers at my work shows similar finger length ratios to mine.

What's your finger ratio? Does it match these studies in indicating your skill in sports and science? Have your say in the comments.

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UPDATE: Just gave blood

Since the incident, I've been a little nervous about giving blood. I like giving blood. I like the feeling that I'm helping someone in need, and I like eating cookies without any feeling of guilt. (Giving blood uses about 650 calories). It's been probably a year since the incident. Today I was tired of being a wuss. So, I got up my nerve and signed up for the blood drive at work. Everything went perfectly and there was no passing out. I am enjoying my pack of mini Famous Amos cookies at my desk right now.

I got back on the horse, baby!

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Weekly News and Commentary

• The Netherlands have cut the apron strings and are going all digital broadcast. If you want to continue to use your pitiful analog TV, you can. You just need a converter box that you can buy for less than $70. It'll happen here someday, too. When it does, then the analog frequencies will be freed up for WiMax (glorious day)! Imagine a voice over IP (VOIP) phone that you can carry like a cell phone, or using a laptop basically anywhere without worrying about finding a hot spot.
  

• The college dorm where I stayed my freshman year at college is being torn down. I really liked living there the first year. It was a good transition from the excellent care I got at home to the cold cruel world of apartment living. Oh, the memories!

• If the idiocy of the Kyoto treaty wasn't enough, now you can buy some 'carbon credits' to give for a Christmas gift. For a mere $75, you can help the world make up for the greenhouse gasses emitted by Santa's reindeer. No, I am not kidding.

• A robber has a finger severed by a sword wielding victim. The robbers thought they had knocked out Guillermo Tovar Sr. and forgot about him. When he came to, he went all Medieval on them with a sword. A trigger finger was severed and left behind by the robbers in their haste to vacate the premises. Police were able to identify Terence Stewart, 28, from a fingerprint taken from the abandoned digit.

• This one I still cannot believe. A 4-year old was accused of sexual harassment after hugging a teacher's aide. The hug was deemed inappropriate by some politically correct nincompoop. My 4-year old does all sorts of inappropriate things, he loves to pass gas (fart) and giggle until the giggling makes him pass more. This gets the other two boys into a giggling tizzy. This generally happens during dinner. This is all not appropriate. But he is A Four Year Old. How can a 4-year old sexually harass anyone? I think the person with the problem is the one that reported the little guy.
  

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Push the tempo

I have a mountain bike, not one of those feather-lite suspension bikes that you would actually use in the mountains. It's more of a casual "bike around the neighborhood" kind of bike. I rode it quite a bit last summer with the boys. I would definitely not consider myself a "biker". I don't drool over the next season's bikes and I definitely don't shave my legs for the summer biking season.

But even I think this is cool! Check out the ultimate winter bike. It really looks like a lot of fun. Apparently you buy a kit and attach the ski and tread to almost any bike. Nice.


Click in to see some video of it in action.



If you order it before December 31, they'll sell you a kit for $300.00. Now you to0 can Push the Tempo.

And yes, I'm talking to you James!

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"Like Tivo for your work..."

My international readers may not have heard of Best Buy. (How cool is that? I have international readers!) It's a consumer electronics and media company based in Minnesota. They have stores all over the US. It's a lot of fun to visit their stores, because they have lots of Big TVs set up all over. Hmmm... big TVs... There are also lots of movies and games. Don't forget the cameras and mobile phones! It's pretty much a playground for adult men.

Best Buy has instituted a new policy for its corporate employees that I find fascinating. And, no, I am definitely not a socialist!

So, Best Buy. High technology, (kinda)low prices. It's basically a big-box store for technology. Not the sort of place where you'd expect to see new-age, life-balance, family-friendly corporate policies.

But, surprise! They're trying something that sounds pretty good. What they're doing is allowing the corporate employees to come and go as they please, as long as their job gets done.

The nation's leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical--if risky--experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for "results-only work environment," seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.

They even want to expand it, somehow, to the retail employees. Another quote from the same article:

The official policy for this post-face-time, location-agnostic way of working is that people are free to work wherever they want, whenever they want, as long as they get their work done. "This is like TiVo for your work," says the program's co-founder, Jody Thompson.

I really like this concept. At first glance it seems like a dream come true. Just get your job done, thqt's al that matters! The concept also sounds like socialized jobs in France. I've tried to work with people at a French company- you can never get them, because they're always on vacation!

I tried to apply this ROWE idea to my workplace. The idea of being free to "work wherever they want, whenever they want, as long as they get their work done" is also practiced by management my job. It's just that to get the work done you often need to work 10 hours a day.

I wonder how you manage employees who are working on a loose schedule like that. How do you set expectations for results? It would seem to me that if you are able to get your job done in 4 hours a day, you'll be given more work, not more time off.

I'm given a lot of freedom at my job as well. I often leave a bit early, but I also will work late after the kids are in bed. Maybe this new ROWE policy at the core is similar to my experience. You stil have a lot of work to do, but you don't have to do it at your desk from 8-5.

One thing this new policy is doing, is making employees happy.

Since the program's implementation, average voluntary turnover has fallen drastically, CultureRx says. Meanwhile, Best Buy notes that productivity is up an average 35% in departments that have switched to ROWE. Employee engagement, which measures employee satisfaction and is often a barometer for retention, is way up too, according to the Gallup Organization, which audits corporate cultures.

I hope this new strategy is not causing this recent headine:

Best Buy Misses Forecast: Stock Tumbles

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Save the Dolphins!

Being tall not only makes you smarter, but it apparently also helps you save dolphins! Being tall is great. If you have any dolphin-related emergencies, give me a call.

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The value of a penny

Did you know that it costs 1.73 cents to make a penny, and 8.34 cents to make a nickel? Even the raw metal in these coins is worth more than the coins themselves.

The treasury department has now implemented rules prohibiting the melting of pennies and nickels and the export of large quantities of coins. They don't want profiteers melting US coins in bulk for the raw materials.

Isn't it time to get rid of these albatrosses? I mean, we don't still use the half-cent anymore, do we? Did the retirement of the half-cent cause huge consumer price increases? Do we miss it?

When the half-cent was abolished in 1857 it was worth more than eight cents in today’s currency. People afterward had no problem living and conducting business, even though the new smallest unit of currency — the penny — was worth more than our dime is today. No major problems with transactions were reported at a time that predated the many cashless means of electronic transaction we enjoy today and which, even after penny abolition, can preserve prices to the exact cent if people so choose.

The only time I carry a penny is when I get it back in change. I really wish they'd go away, and take the nickels with them.

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What happened to Steve and Mary?

My second son is in the second grade. He is doing very well and is breezing through a lot of the material. He is doing especially well with his reading. He's a bit sloppy in his spelling because he's always in a rush to get on to the next thing. He tends to spell out words phonetically. Because of this, I've been working extra with him on his spelling words. He came home last week with this list. How is he supposed to learn these words? Are they even words? Why are they on a spelling test?

Here are the words on his spelling list:

Carli
Baley
Breeanna
Kayitlin
Tasia
Sara
Braxton
Natalee
Abi
Jacob
Alix
Ayzia
Haden
Ryan
Ashlynn
Signe
Kyler
Noah
Miceala
Christmas
cookie
reindeer
snowflake
sleigh
candy cane

According to my son, these are the names of his classmates. So, we sit down to practice spelling these 'words'. I have no idea how to even pronounce 'words' like 'Signe' or 'Kayitlin'. Why are these the spelling words for the 2nd grade class? I have a theory... I think that the teacher had such a hard time learning to spell these names that she wanted to make the people that chose these names suffer a little bit too. How is a 7 year old supposed to learn to spell a made-up word like 'Ayzia'. Won't that make him try to spell 'Asia' incorrectly when he has it on a spelling test? I am glad that there are a few useful words in the mix like 'candy cane'. He really likes candy.

It seems like parents want to make their child unique by giving them a unique name. I don't think it really works. Is it really so terrible to name your child 'Tyler' instead of 'Kyler'? I would really prefer to teach him to spell words that will help him in his schooling and career. Will my son need to use words like 'Ari' or 'Alix' when he's writing a report analyzing the stock performance of the semiconductor industry? I know he won't need them if he's flipping burgers at the Burger King.

I think the only career where you will need to know words like these is if you are a teacher. Of course, by the time that he's old enough to be a teacher, the parents will be giving their children radical names like Steve and Mary to set them apart from their schoolmates with more normal names, Zeezrak and Mishmo.

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How I know she loves me

I've been married for nearly 14 years. It's amazing that it's been that long, because I remember our wedding day so clearly. I loved being married from the first day. It just felt right, like putting on a warm shirt straight from the dryer. I never really had a 7 year itch, or any real doubts about being married. The only times I question being married is those few days a month. You know which days I mean. But no matter what, I know she loves me. Let me tell you how I know.

It was just before our wedding. My sweetheart had an old beat-up Chevy Cavalier that her Dad let her drive. As he said, "It's better than walking!" But not by much. It had a lot of mechanical problems, and it took all of her Dad's significant mechanical know-how to keep it running and passing the state safety/emissions inspections.

We were at the gas station one afternoon. She had gone inside to buy something and I was filling the tank. When the nozzle shut off, I went over to put it away and replace the lid on the tank. I looked down and noticed that there was a puddle of gasoline on the ground under the car. I walked around the car and saw that enough gas had spilled to run out the other side of the car and down the cement. I was a bit worried when I knelt down and saw gas continuing to drip from the car.

I was evaluating my options when she returned. I showed her the gas and mentioned that I thought the tank might have a leak. I told her that it was more likely that the tank had overfilled and had spilled out the top by the nozzle. But the car was old and I couldn't be sure that the tank wasn't leaking.

After a few minutes I decided to move the car to see if gas had just spilled from the top and was dripping, or if there really was a leak. I told her to stand way over on the grass just in case the car blew up. I wasn't really that worried, but anything can happen with a big puddle of gas under your car.

She started to walk away, then got a scared expression on her face and ran over to the passenger side of the car to get in. She said something to the affect of, "If you're going to die, then I want to die too!"

That's how I know.

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Weekly News and Commentary

• I'm still watching Survivor. This season has been the most entertaining season in a while. They're currently filming the next season in Fiji. At the same time the Fijian military just staged a bloodless coup and replaced the government. Coincidence? I don't think so. Survivor has obviously been subverted by the CIA. We'll have confirmation if they announce a future season of Survivor:Iran.
  

• Great news for gadget geeks like me. An enormous study in Denmark shows no link between cell phone use and cancer. 420,095 Danes who started using cell phones between 1982 and 1995 were studied. Their number of people in the group who developed cancer was 14,249, lower than the expected 15,001 cases. (Isn't statistics fun!) 56,000 of them had used cell phones for more than 10 years, and this longer-use sub-group also did not show any increase in cancer risk.

• The British are working on automated wingmen for their warplanes. This is amazing for so many reasons. I know that Star Wars didn't have drone wingmen, but this seems so much like Star Wars to me.
  

• In other British news, Tony Blair tells immigrants to fit in. England has really let a cancer fester in their attempt to be multicultural and sensitive(70 active terrorist plots being investigated). 25% of British Muslims support the 7/7 bus bombings!

• NASA is planning a moonbase for 2024. I'm not sure why we stopped going to the moon in the first place and I'm thrilled that we're going back. And on to Mars, baby!

• The children of the Warner Music CEO used P2P software to pirate music. I'm sure that the RIAA will be suing him just like they've sued many others. The good news for him is that all he'll have to do is put up a fight, and they'll back off.

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Jimmy Carter has a New Book

I take pride in my ability to see both sides of most issues. I have a goal to be open-minded and moderate with this blog. However, there are certain people about whom I have lost my objectivity. They've proved themselves to me to be consistetly wrong and obnoxious about it. Some examples of people who fit in this category are Jane Fonda, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbara Streisand, and Barbara Boxer. I'm also not fond of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. Probably my favorite love-to-hate personality is Jimmy Carter. He's written a new book about the Israel/Palestine conflict. What did this well-meaning, fair-minded politician have to say? Why did one of his associates publicly scold him? Read below to find out.


Jimmy Carter is such a disgrace. After a miserable presidency where he led the country to what was arguably its lowest point ever, his actions show me that he supports tyrants at the expense of America. He seems to always be on the news supporting one 2-bit dictator or another and criticizing the United States. For an example, see the image to the right with Jimmy and his good friend Hugo Chavez, legally elected president of Venezuela(note the sarcasm).

I started doing some research to write an article about this weak-minded optimist, but I came across an article that does better than I ever could. A quote:

Indeed, Carter's penchant for interfering in US foreign policy is so well known it won him a Nobel Prize. Jimmy Carter will go down in history as the first US ex-president ever to be awarded a Nobel Prize for the sole purpose of conveying an insult to his country from the Nobel committee.

Anyway, Jimmy has recently written a book chastising Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. Lets be honest here and admit that the situation in Israel and Palestine is complicated and fault lies on both sides of the story. However, writing a book full of half truths and omissions is not helpful. The former Middle East Fellow of the Carter Center of Emory University has severed his ties with the Carter Center because of this book. Here is his letter of resignation. A telling quotation:

President Carter's book on the Middle East, a title too inflammatory to even print, is not based on unvarnished analyses; it is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments. Aside from the one-sided nature of the book, meant to provoke, there are recollections cited from meetings where I was the third person in the room, and my notes of those meetings show little similarity to points claimed in the book.

Couldn't Jimmy just stay busy building houses? Now that's a cause I could get behind.

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It's a long way down from up here

I've mentioned before that I am a large person. I'm stand 6 foot 8 inches (2 meters) tall and weigh about 250 pounds (115 kg). There are a lot of advantages to being tall. (one advantage is that you aren't short). There are also some disadvantages. For example, it is difficult for me to find a car that I fit into comfortably. Airline travel can be tortuous in those tight seats. I hate the stupid "how's the weather up there" jokes. When walking through trees, I often get a face full of spiderwebs, because my head is the first one that's been through there for a while. It's also a long way down from up here.

Dizzy
I need to be careful when I get up. You can imagine the massive change in blood pressure that my system undergoes whenever I stand up. When I was a teenager, it was especially bad. I remember several times standing up, then waking up in an awkward position on the ground. It's a long way to fall, Usually, it wasn't that extreme- I'd just feel dizzy, see the black and white static, and grab onto something until it passed. As I've matured, the stand-up-too-fast blackout has faded away.

Starting the IV
When I was first married, I underwent my first medically-caused blackout. I was having an outpatient procedure done, and they had to start an IV. They started the IV easily, and everyone left the room to chat in the hall. I started to feel really funny. My vision went blurry and out I went. Apparently my wife found me and ran to get the nurse. The nurse was able to wake me up and calmly stated, "this happens all the time." That's what medical people always say to get the patient to leave them alone. I don't think that starting an IV commonly causes blackouts.

The Epidural Incident
A few years after that, I was 'helping out' at the hospital as my wife prepared to deliver our third child. We men are a lot of help with the birth, you know. Anyway, the anesthesiologist arrived at about 2 in the morning and proceeded with the epidural. He had her sit up on the edge of the bed and lean into me. I was to stand next to her and 'help'. The doctor was behind her on the other side of the bed, and a nurse was standing beside me. I'd never seen an epidural inserted from that close before. It was really cool! I was fascinated by it and was really concentrating on what the doc was doing.

The next thing I knew, I was sleeping cozy in my bed and I couldn't figure out who all these people were in my bedroom. Apparently, I fell over suddenly and the poor little nurse, who was something like 5 foot 4 and 100 pounds, tried to catch me. Luckily neither of us were hurt and everything went smoothly from then on. The doctor told us that a husband had passed out the week before and had to miss the delivery because he was down in emergency getting his head stitched up.

At Least He Had Cookies
My most recent experience happened while giving blood. I've given blood a lot of times without incident, so I was not expecting anything to happen this time, either. I was babysitting my youngest who was 3 at the time. The two older boys were at school, I believe, and were not expected home for a long while. I took the baby over to the church and filled out all the paperwork. When it was my turn to be drilled, I set him down at the treat table and told him to have a couple of treats and to behave. Everything went well until the end. the nurse had just pulled the needle from my arm, and she had me hold a cotton ball on the wound as I held my arm up over my head.

I was in a dark room with thousands of televisions stacked up all around me, kind of like the scene in the Matrix with the Architect. A different scene from my life memories was playing on each monitor. Then this mean man was yelling at me and wanted me to tell him my name. I looked up and there were about 10 people crowded around my reclining chair, looking down at me with worried looks on their faces. Apparently, I had been out for a long time and I hadn't responded to two of the ammonia packets and they were freaking out. They wouldn't let me get out of the chair for a LONG time. I sat there sweating like crazy- something that happened made me really hot. They put an ice pack on my chest to cool me off (fyi: if you want to cool off fast, put an ice pack directly over your heart.)

I'd peek over at the baby every so often. He was happy as a clam eating cookies. I have no idea how many cookies he ate, but there were a lot of empty wrappers when I was finally allowed to go get him. He didn't mind at all.

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Now That's A Television

From Engadget, news of a 103 inch plasma TV. That would look sweet in my theater room.


All this for a mere $70,000. Don't worry, Panasonic has a payment plan.

Please keep your wiimote away from it!

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Hold on to that Wii!

Nintendo has released a new home console with the odd name of Wii. It's new innovation is in the controller. The controller looks like a small TV remote with too few buttons on it. It's wireless so the player can feel free and unfettered. There are a few downsides to the new controller- like when you smash the screen of your TV.

What's neat about the controller is that is senses motion, so as you move the controller, it can control the game. For example, you can swing your arm to swing the racket in a tennis game, or twist the controller to cause a car to turn. It's an interesting idea.


The controller apparently comes with a wrist strap. I thought that was really strange; just hold onto the controller while you're playing! But I was wrong. Be careful with that Wii remote! People are breaking windows, computer screens, and even their big screen TVs when they get wild swinging their arms around and fling the wiimote.


The wrist strap, while a good idea, is apparently meant for quiet, submissive, japanese arm movements. Not ape-crazy american spazziness. It's amazing that the strap breaks! There is even (at least one) website dedicated to tracking damage caused by careless Wiimote flinging. There are some crazy pictures on the site.

I had a hard time envisioning how this sort of thing could happen until I watched this video.

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The Sunni's Predicament

The Belmont Club discussed a fascinating irony that is occurring in Iraq. But first, a little background.

The Sunnis in Iraq
The Sunnis have long been the dominant faction in Iraqi politics and culture, despite being a significant minority of the population. When Saddam Hussein (a Sunni) was removed from power, many of the other Sunni power centers were disbanded, such as the army and much of the government. The Sunnis were left a powerless minority group who had, while in power, mercilessly pushed the other groups down. It is obvious that they were worried about reprisals.

I should say here that I am speaking in broad generalities, and that not all of the Sunnis in Iraq fall under my description in this article. However, I need a descriptive label so I am using 'Sunni'.

The Formation of the New Iraqi Government
It was an amazing sight in December of 2004 when the people of Iraq voted to form their first democratic government ever. Millions of people bravely voted despite serious threats, hoping to achieve peace and stability. President Bush outlined his dream of Iraqi democracy here.

The Sunnis, in large part, did not participate. In fact, at least 23 Sunni clerics were murdered for supporting Sunni participation in the democratic government. Many Sunnis stayed home from the elections as a protest, but many others stayed home out of fear of their own people. Having such a large group left out of the government was a terrible problem.

These words from 2 years ago seem powerfully prescient.

A western diplomat in Baghdad said: "The effective disenfranchisement of the Sunni Arabs could have dire consequences for the political security of Iraq. We can't afford to marginalise the Sunnis even further. It will do nothing to stem the rising tide of factionalism and sectarianism."

But Iraq's interim leaders know any decision to delay or skew the result could alienate leading figures among the Shia majority, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. "We are damned if we go ahead, and damned if we delay," said an Iraqi minister who requested anonymity.

It was a difficult decision to make; wait for the Sunnis to feel ready, or anger the Shiites. The bottom line is that the Sunnis chose to not be part of the political process. Of course, after the election, they realized their mistake, and wanted in.

From what I observed, the situation in Iraq throughout 2005 was serious, but slow progress was being made. Sunni attacks against Shiites were constant and deadly, but the Shiite masses were amazingly patient.

For their part, Shi'ite politicians point out that thousands in their community have been killed in Sunni terrorist attacks since the fall of Saddam Hussein. "After every tragedy, every time that the terrorists pour [gasoline] over our emotions, we tell our people to be patient, to remain calm," said Jassim al-Mutairi, a political aide to al-Sadr. "But each time, we worry that the next [terrorist] attack will be the one to light the match."

The Bombing of the Golden Mosque
On Feb 22, 2006, the Al-Askari Mosque was bombed. It seems to me that this was a deadly turning point in Iraq.

Why is this Mosque so important?.

Time Magazine reported at the time of the Al Askari Mosque bombing that “al-Askari [is] one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites, exceeded in veneration only by the shrines of Najaf and Karbala. Even Samarra's Sunnis hold al-Askari in high esteem. The expression 'to swear by the shrine' is routinely used by both communities".

It would seem that the bombing was the last straw for many Shiites. The violence against the Sunnis escalated all year and the situation in Iraq seems to be at the most unstable point since the invasion. There were obviously many other factors that have caused the decline of stability, but I believe that this bombing was critical.

Sunni Miscalculations
The Sunnis made a series of mistakes that has led them, and their entire country, to the brink.

The first and fatal miscalculation by the Sunnis was to think they could drive the US Armed Forces from Iraq, a gamble which they lost. Encouraged by the absence of a crushing campaign in northern Iraq, itself possibly caused by the absence of the 4ID from the OIF order of battle, and alienated by the American decision to "de-Baathize" Iraq, many former military Sunnis chose to continue resistance using guerrilla tactics. By March, 2004 they were ready. The insurgent uprising of early 2004 that culminated in the abortive First Battle of Fallujah, which still saw the Shi'ites in as militarily inferiors.

The Sunni insurgency compounded its military failures by ruthlessly suppressing any attempts by their ethnic leaders to participate in political process sponsored by the Coalition and by murdering any Sunni who came forward to join the new Army and Police. The result was that Sunnis were underrepresented in both the Constitutional convention and in the elections of 2005.

I would add another mistake was the insurgency's focus on violence against the Shiites. This has created a murderous rage among the Iraqi Shia.

And now for the irony
Wretchard at The Belmont Club points out:

In an irony that must rank as one of the most curious in history, the insurgency in al-Anbar finds it must continue precisely because of the threat of a US drawdown. At the end of a sequence of blunders, Sunni strategists have managed to add yet one more. It is a continuation of a failed policy which begun with the Sunnis defying the US Armed Forces; that led to US Armed Forces building up a Shi'ite Army; that resulted in the crushing of Sunni strongholds. It continued in their absurd response to defeat: provoking civil unrest in an internal conflict they could not hope to win. That civil unrest has come within a handsbreadth of politically driving America from Iraq. And now they realize too late that an American withdrawal means their inevitable massacre in a war they are now too weak to win.

So, the Sunnis started the insurgency to get rid of the Americans, but find themselves instead required to keep up the violence in order to keep the Americans in Iraq! They (rightly) feel that if they allow the insurgency to slow or stop, the Americans will leave. The Sunnis are convinced that when the Americans leave, the Shiites will either slaughter them, or drive them from Iraq.

Is there a solution? The Belmont Club proposes this:

What must be done now is give the Sunni population a modicum of the security and prospects that they have thrown away. Only by guaranteeing them the secure retreat guarded by a Sunni force is their any hope of teasing them back into a political process they have ceded on a platter to the Shias.

Give the insurgents a safe haven and a large piece of the political pie? However unlikely to succeed, it seems to be the best possibility. I hope that there are enough wise leaders left in Iraq to lead them out of this mess. It is truly up to the Iraqis to stand up and embrace the opportunity they've been given.

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Gears of War

This is Gears of War, the new Xbox 360 game! This blurry video doesn't show the beautiful visuals of this game, but it does convey the sheer terror you feel while playing. I just finished the game and it was loads of fun!



(disclaimer- this video is not of me playing)

For those of you who don't know, I love videogames! I just really suck at them. This game is a great example. When I'm playing the game I'm so stressed and scared that I'm almost glad to stop. But as soon as I stop, I find myself thinking about it a lot and wanting to play again.

I'll occasionally post about videogames on this blog, mostly because the industry is so fascinating. I'll also throw in the occasional review for those who are interested.

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Move the Earth

Did you know that our sun is going to die? In the process of dying, it will expand into a red giant type star and engulf most of the planets in our solar system.

Are you worried about the sun engulfing our planet as it becomes a red giant? You shouldn't be, because it won't destroy all life on the planet for about a billion years. But if you are still worried about the traces of your DNA that might still be mixed in some life form somewhere on earth in a billion years, you still shouldn't be. Scientists are already working on a way to move the earth out away from the sun. The gist of the story is that engineers could move a large space rock past the earth every 6,000 years to slowly increase the earth's orbit. The process of moving the earth to a safe orbit will only take a few hundred million years. No big deal, right? There are also the trivial problems of massive tidal forces and losing our moon. But hey, in a billion years our oddly mutated descendants will all have summer cabins in the Horsehead Nebula, so they probably won't mind so much if earth has no moon.

Interestingly, the same process could be used in the (relatively) short term to move Mars closer to the sun. This would aid significantly in the process of terraforming Mars, because Mars is way too cold where it is!

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Weekly News and Commentary

-Researchers are looking at using bees to sniff out explosives. Apparently guards could wave a small cage full of trained bees around people/luggage. If the bees smell explosives, they stick out their probiscus. And if they find explosives, the guard could release the bees to attack the bombers! (That last bit is just my fantasy.)

-McDonalds is trying to patent the sandwich. The way patents are handled in the US is out of control. Dosen't anyone look over patents before they are granted? I realize that this patent has only been applied for, but yikes!

McDonald's said: 'These applications are not intended to prevent anyone from using previous methods for making sandwiches.'

Thanks, McDonalds!

-In case you missed it, it was an extrememly quiet hurricane season. The weather scientists had predicted an extremely violent year, on par with last year. Their prediction was wrong. These guys can't even get a major weather result right that should happen within 6 months. But they want me to believe that their models can predict a more subtle weather change of less than 6 degrees over the next hundred years?

-My brother mentioned this to me a while ago, but here is some cool military news. They're converting submarines to be used in the war on terror. A stealthy sub with 154 cruise missles and 100 SEAL commandos? Sweet! I doubt we'll ever hear about the missions where these are used.

-There is a quiet revolution of sorts going on in Mexico, complete with an underground second government. They are even interfering with the inaguration of the actual president.

-With North Korea and Iran developing long range missles to go with their shiny new nuclear bombs, our limited missle defense shield seems even more important. The newly empowered Democrats don't like it. Bush wants to expand it, and even add an orbital battle station!

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I can do unisex!

I started getting headaches when I was in graduate school. After worrying about brain tumors and stress levels, I decided to actually do something about it and I went to an opthamologist. I've worn glasses ever since.

Glasses can be irritating, especially if I didn't notice that they were dirty until the lights go down in the theater. It's frustrating to have to tilt your head just so for two hours to move the blotch away from Harrison Ford's face.

My latest pair of glasses are rimless, where they drill directly into the lens to attach the ear and nose pieces. I like how light they are and that they are unobtrusive on my face. The picture on the right shows glasses very similar to mine. See how they disappear! But, man, the second I put them on, a powerful force sucks all of the oil off of my face and smears it all over my lenses. yuck! I am constantly cleaning them. I never had this problem with my other frames.

The smudge factor has always bugged me. Also, I've had them for about 2 years, so the nicks and scratches are building up. I am therefore in the market for new glasses. My wife and I went to a eyeglass place a few days back to check out the frames.

Most of the frames in the "men's" section consisted of glasses like these.


Surprisingly, I don't like glasses like those. I asked the helpful girl behind the counter where the men's glasses could be found. She helpfully said, "Well, the men's section is here, but most of our glasses are unisex!" That set me back. When I think of unisex, I think of restrooms and black turtlenecks, not glasses. There were some frames that I liked, but some of them require a high level of fashion confidence (that I do not have).





I've thought about getting contacts, but I feel strangely unsafe when I'm not wearing my glasses. I feel like my eyes are vulnerable. It may have to do with the eye-safety video I had to watch for metal shop in junior high school. Wow, I did not like watching that footage of the kid with a pencil in his eye! The metal fragments were pretty unsettling, too. My glasses are like my little eyeball bodyguards.





I guess I'll have to be secure enough in my manhood to go with the unisex frames. I do like these frames. Maybe I should do the hairdo, too!.

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