AeroGarden Reset - Day 3

As predicted by the instructions, all 7 of the salad greens have sprouted. The bio-domes have been removed and we're on our way to tasty salad goodness.

How Old is the Grand Canyon?

Don't ask the National Park Service because they've been asked not to say. Apparently, our administration doesn't want to offend the creationists. They've even started selling a book at the Grand Canyon gift shop that suggests it was created by Noah's flood. Hard science at work. At the risk of offending my creationist readers, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Noah and the great flood had nothing to do with the creation of the Grand Canyon. Everyone knows it was Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Get a clue.

AeroGarden Reset

The herbs are officially gone. The folks at AeroGrow claimed I'd get 4-5 months out of them and I got just under 4 so, not bad. The herbs were a victim of their own success as they began to compete for a limited amount of space and sun. The bigger herbs simply choked out the smaller ones. The dill never did sprout and the single lonely chive wasn't enough to season a single potato but, the basil did quite well. Cleanup was as simple as advertised and, the salad greens are now "planted". They should sprout in 1-3 days.

i-Dog, be Quiet!

After digging ourselves out from under the mountains of wrapping paper and healing from multiple poke wounds inflicted by those twisty metal things used to hold toys to the package, Christmas 2006 is in the history books. The hit toy this year? The i-Dog. My shuffle has been commandeered and attached to a small plastic dog for the foreseeable future. We're doomed to experience the same song blasted in stunning mono quality as a dog's head lights up in rhythm to Crazy for the six hundredth time. I think I am crazy, and that song is what did it. At least the i-Dog doesn't i-poop.

Festivus Reminder

I know its easy to get all caught up in this Christmas fad but don't forget, Festivus is Saturday, are you ready? The Feats of Strength and Airing of Grievances should be a blast this year. I understand if you forgot, but don't despair, you can still get your authentic Festivus pole in time if you're willing to drive to Milwaukee. Serenity Now!

Santa Cleared for Takeoff

Transport Canada has officially cleared Santa for his upcoming flight. His eyesight and blood pressure are good although his physician recommended he cut back on the cookies. He has also installed a new instrument panel in the sleigh, including GPS, as a backup to Rudolph's nose.

Before the big day, be sure to keep track of Santa's progress with NORAD.

Transformers

Transformers the movie. Optimus Prime is going to own your geek summer. While I'm happy to see the Autobots and Decepticons getting the big screen treatment, why are there so many great books out there being ignored? Where's my Neuromancer movie? Snowcrash, Ringworld, Altered Carbon, Pattern Recognition, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Mote in God's Eye. There is so much untapped material out there yet we get a remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and another Rocky? Come on rich old guys who run Hollywood, pick up a book once in a while that you can't buy in the checkout line at the grocery store.

What book would you like to see made into a movie?

Gastroenteritis

Having this sucks! There aren't that many people who would take care of someone in this condition. Wives and mothers are among the few. So I'll just say thank you to both for both this latest and past bouts. Honey, I'm just glad the first time one of us slept in the guest bedroom, it was due to illness and not some latent stupidity on my part! Now that I'm healthy in time for Christmas, I'm free to foist my culinary concoctions on everyone. This year, for Christmas Eve, it's a never before attempted recipe: meatballs. For Christmas, I'll have to dream up something to top the pumpkin cheesecake. Stay tuned.

The Lost Room

Sue and I stayed up way too late last night watching The Lost Room. It's a 6 hour mini-series on the Sci-Fi Channel. If a show on the Sci-Fi Channel manages to get Sue hooked, I know its good. I'm hoping it turns into a series. I must know the secret of the objects! I'm sure they'll be re-running it. There are 3 parts, each 2 hours in length. If you get a chance, set your DVR to record it.

Teaches + Guns = Education?

I've touched on this topic before but, now a Republican in Nevada is pushing for teachers packing heat. I'll say it again, teachers are dedicated people but kids are frustrating little beasts. Being armed while in the presence of the people in charge of making your life miserable is not good. The solution to gun violence is not more guns. Maybe we should start arming people in other occupations. Driving a cab seems pretty dangerous. How about bus drivers? I'm sure the UPS guy would feel safer if he could bring the pain. The mailman? Oh ya, you better keep your dog in the back yard. Now the day they give guns to the IT staff, watch out. What do you mean you got an error message but you don't remember what it says? Hands away from the keyboard and reach for the sky!

Santa gets Wired

Thanks to Windows Live Messenger, you can now chat with Santa over IM. All the good little boys and girls can get instant feedback on their chances of getting that big gift this year and verify they've been listed on the nice list. Just add northpole@live.com to your IM contact list. Get all the details here.

200 Posts

This is my 200th post. What better way to celebrate than with a re-run? For those of you who missed it the first time, here's Real Camping.

Pretexting Redux

I wrote about pretexting and how the MPAA successfully lobbied against it in California in a previous post. Well color me surprised. Our very own US Congress passed a law outlawing pretexting. What this means for consumers is that their phone records will have the same level of protection as financial records. It will be illegal to trick people or companies into giving up phone records and it will be illegal to sell them. All that remains is for George W. to sign it into law.

Where the Sun Don't Shine

Viganella, Italy has been completely dark for most of the winter for the last 800 years. The sun is completely blocked out by the mountains in the winter. This year, thanks to some creative thinking, a few big mirrors, and a computer, they'll have sunlight. Once they realize how easy it is to see all the dust in the sunlight, they'll probably decide to go back to darkness rather than do all that cleaning.

Birthday Party Disaster

I'll just start out by saying that there is nothing funny about this story. A little girl was hurt and I hope she has a speedy and painless recovery. What I just don't understand is the thought process the parents went through while choosing the entertainment for a children's birthday party. Here's a quiz.

Choose one animal to entertain the kids as your next party
a) Lemur

b) Anteater

c) Porcupine

d) Cougar

If you answered d) Cougar, you fail. In the future, I recommend going with the least deadly animal on the list.

Rockford?

The terrorists are either running out of targets or their capabilities have been vastly over estimated. I'm just saying, that if someone was planning a "violent jihad," a mall in Rockford, Illinois is probably not where they'd get the most bang for their buck, no pun intended. I wonder if we've somehow blurred the line between terrorist and idiot because, this guy was clearly the latter. He deserves whatever he gets.

Good Grief

Forget about that pre-lit tree you've been eyeballing. Go ahead an splurge on this pre-decorated Charlie Brown Pathetic Tree. According to the description, it's adjustable so you can make it look super pathetic or just kind of pathetic.

Backscatter

That's the name of a new X-Ray system to be installed at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. It essentially allows screeners to see you naked. According the article the technology has been around for a while but has not been used due to privacy concerns. But rest easy, the TSA claims they have figured out how to blur certain areas to avoid embarrassment. They also said that only people who fail the initial screening will be subjected to Backscatter. I for one feel much better having gotten the TSA's assurances.

Make Me Move

I've written about Zillow before but, they just added a new feature called "Make Me Move". It allows you to post a price for which you'd be willing to sell your house even if it's not on the market. An interesting idea. Its harder than it sounds to come up with a number. Its not so much the house I'm attached to, its the dread over having to put everything I own in a box and move it somewhere else. Now if there was a "Make Me Move and Keep All My Useless Crap" feature, I might be interested...

Santa Beer

As long as we're on the topic of Santa, it seems Santa's Butt Beer has been banned in parts of the US. Officials were afraid it would encourage underage drinking. Won't somebody please think of the children! I guess they'll just have to go back to drinking Fat Bastard.

Run, it's Santa!

I guess to a small child, a fat man with a beard in a red suit must seem pretty scary. That doesn't make this gallery of kids horrified of Santa any less funnny. My advice is if you live in Illinois, head to a different state to visit Santa.

An Inconvenient Truth

It's hard to deny that humans are having an impact on the environment. Even if you only believe some of what is said in this film, it's still a wake up call. But don't listen to me, I'm no scientist. Watch the movie and visit the site. Decide for yourself. One of the things they taught us in the Boy Scouts was conservation and to always leave someplace a little better than you found it. Recognizing that there's an environmental problem does not have to be an indictment of past generations. It's simply a recognition that we can not maintain the current pattern indefinitely. I want to leave the environment a little better than I found it for my daughter.

So, you may ask, as you crane your neck to view me up here on my soapbox, "What have you done to make a difference?" On the theory that a little green goes a long way, Sue and I have started to make a conscious effort to make our lives a little friendlier to the environment:

• LED Christmas Lights - they use 10% the electricity of regular lights
• Compact Fluorescent Bulbs - I can't stand them everywhere but we've replaced as many incandescents as possible. They use 60% less energy.
• Buy organic - believe it or not organic farms capture more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than regular farms
• Lower your thermostat - Put on an extra sweater and suck it up. You could always get a coyote hat.
• Support farmers markets - the less distance produce has to travel, the less energy is used in getting it to your house
• Recycle - look at those little numbers in the triangles on plastic containers and recycle everything you can

Advice

Emma recently informed me that I should snap my fingers more. "Snapping your fingers makes you seem cool to the ladies." If she had only been around when I was in College to give me that piece of advice...

Your Privacy vs. Business

A California bill that would have made "pretexting" illegal has been defeated thanks to lobbying by the Motion Picture Association of America. Pretexting is essentially lying to someone to persuade them into giving you their personal information. You may be wondering why in the world anyone would lobby against a law that would prevent people from being tricked into giving up their personal information. Well, the MPAA claimed it would hurt ongoing piracy investigations. That's right, it's more important that the MPAA be able to find out who is copying movies than for the privacy of citizens to be protected. What bothers me is not so much that the MPAA would be against this but that government officials would place the wants of the MPAA above the well being of their citizens. Its sick.

4.5 Billion Years Old

In January of 2000 a meteor fell onto frozen Taggish Lake in Canada. It was immediately scooped up by a local resident and sold to a university who has since estimated its age at about 4.5 Billion years. That would make it the oldest object ever found! For reference, the sun is thought to be about the same age. What's even more amazing is that it contained organic material. Scientists think this may be a clue to how the ingredients for life arrived on Earth.