iTunes Gift Card...Now What

If you have ever gone with me to a store that sells CDs, then you know that hours will pass before I make a decision.   The worst is when I carry CDs around with the intent of buying them, and I leave the store empty-handed.  This dilemma is facing me now.  I have a gift card to iTunes, and I cannot decide what to purchase.

I have placed a poll to the right that might help make a decision.  Of course, this will do no good if very few people read this blog, which is likely the case.

ithaca medicine prices rise

Beer, the way to cope with dreary winters in Ithaca, will cost more at the first of the year. The cost of barley and hops has increased due to a sudden drop in supply. This means that six-packs of craft beer will rise about a dollar. It's not clear if this will affect the price of mass produced beer like Budweiser or Miller. There could be a slight change in their prices.

See the full article in Ithaca's own newspaper The Ithaca Journal.

Police Officer Calls 911 While High

In Rainbows

Reckoner (Radiohead from In Rainbows)

Reckoner
Can you take it with you
Disavow the pleasure

You were not to blame for
Bittersweet distractors
Dare not speak his name
Dedicated to all you
All your needs?

Because we separate
it ripples our reflections
Because we separate
it ripples our reflections

Reckoner

Dedicated to all you
All your needs?

"packt like sardines in a crushed tin box"

Often I arrive at the bus stop with many other people--a good indicator that this particular bus ride will be packed. The bus is inbound at my stop, and it happens to be the second stop. You'd expect the bus to be nearly empty. This is rarely the case for the morning commute, since this stop is convenient to two apartment complexes.

The other morning I apparently decided to take the bus to school along with most of my neighbors, so we took most of the seats on the bus. Closer to campus there is a similar stop with several apartment complexes near one bus stop. By this point on the route, all of the seats were taken, and a few riders were standing. We arrive at this stop, the bus driver asks the "standers" to make room for the next wave of "standers." If you are unfamiliar with public buses, the engine is in the back. That means that the floor in the back is higher than in the front, since the engine is back there, too. For whatever reason, people do not like to stand in the aisle at the back of the bus. As a result people crowd around the back door (which is just before the steps up to the back section of the bus). It's really amusing, because the ride is really no more enjoyable when you are standing, so standing in the back is no different than standing in the front. Nevertheless, a few idiots (keep in mind that most of these idiots are heading to class at an Ivy League school) refuse to move to the back of the bus to accommodate the bus's newest passengers which makes the ride miserable to everyone standing and humorous to us "sitters."

Corporate Persuasion

A recent study found that children preferred food packaged in McDonald's bag, regardless of the contents. For instance, carrots (a child's favorite food--ha!) presented in a McDonald's bag were accepted and eaten by children, but without the bag, children rejected the carrots. It seems that McDonald's has developed a positive image by eating its food--no surprise there. Their huge ad campaign always shows people enjoying their model sandwiches (How often have you had a Big Mac that even resembles the one in the commercial). Eventually, the thought of eating McDonald's is positive, and it makes their food appealing. What you should ask when you see a commercial for any food is the following: why does this company need to advertise its product? You might realize that it has something to do with the lack of a true need for that product. The company invests in making their product appealing, so you will buy it even if it isn't necessary to have it. Again, no big surprise, but rarely are these thoughts in mind when we watch commercials or search for food in the grocery store. These company's are catering to society's overwhelming concern of self-image--you should buy this product, because it will improve your self-image.

Another upset followed the release of Apple's new iPod Touch, which essentially is an iPhone without the phone and a few other applications. Cool idea, right? Sort of. While I like the idea of having a touch-screen iPod, the limited hard drive space (up to 16GB as compared with the iPod classic 160GB) is a disappointment. It seems the company probably chose to have a thinner iPod, so they sacrificed the hard drive capacity. However, a new partnership with Starbucks is particularly annoying. Now, Starbucks stores will broadcast its playlist to your iPod Touch via WiFi. You can instantly connect to iTunes with the WiFi card in the iPod Touch and purchase a song from that list. Apple has made it even easier (well, you have to initially cough up the $300 for the iPod Touch or $400 for the iPhone) to purchase from iTunes over WiFi. What's the benefit for Starbucks out of this partnership? Do you have to purchase a cup of coffee to see the playlist? Maybe iPod Touch owners will increase their frequency to Starbucks to see the new, hip playlist. There is something appealing about the aura of a coffee shop, but I am not sure you can capture that appeal by having the same playlist pumping into your ears.

"Schoolhouse Crock"

An article by Peter Schrag appeared in the September 2007 issue of Harper's Magazine titled "Schoolhouse Crock: Fifty Years of Blaming America's Educational System for Our Stupidity" (Note:  This link requires a subscription to read the article.).  Schrag's credentials did not accompany his article, but a note indicates that he has written two books regarding America's education system.  Thus, the claims offered by Schrag could result from observation rather than elaborate experimentation and investigation.  Nonetheless, his claims feel compatible with what has happened over the last 50 years.

Schrag points immediately to the Russian launch of Sputnik to begin his argument.  He posits that this event forced Americans to doubt their education system, which had publicly been deemed questionable in recent years.  The fear of another country possessing mental-superiority frightened Americans; to abate this fear it is concluded that the education system must be reformed to guarantee America's mental hegemony.  The essay follows the government's participation in the design and redesign of America's classrooms and observes the common feeling that the education system of the last generation saw much more success, yet Schrag reports that people have always questioned the template of the present-day education system.  

Schrag's essay centers on the premise of education reform as a means to resolve present-day obstacles, which unchecked or unnoticed will persist for future generations--or so we think.  He ends with a clever, succinct summary: "[p]erhaps it is time we thought of schools as places where our children might simply learn something--not just for our benefit, not for the nation's, but for their own."

An Analogy Lacking Thought

My wife watches Robin & Company on CNN-Headline News frequently in the morning, so I often receive a dose of what headlines CNN considers most important (or probably most interesting to viewers to captivate the audience). In any case, Robin was off today (a common occurrence, for some reason), and Christi covered "what's on tap" (their words, not mine) for the show. One story is about a Cadillac Escalade found stuck on a pedestrian bridge in Minneapolis. While the story itself sounds entertaining, the analogy offered by local resident Ryan Miller of Miller Towing provided even more amusement. He acknowledged the difficulty faced with the removing of the SUV from the bridge by saying its like "Trying to get 10 pounds through a 5 pound hole." I would ruin the humor in this statement by saying anything more, but fortunately the misplaced vehicle was removed from the bridge. "Trial and error, all you can do. Try, and if it fails, try again, that's what we did," said Miller.

Exposing Office Pet Peeves

An article appearing on The Ithaca Journal website referenced a blog addressing workplace pet peeves. The blog "Civility in the Workplace" seeks to disclose those rude behaviors that take place in the work environment. Even better, the blog does not restrain itself, for it remains true to its cause, identifying even those annoyances many of us refuse to acknowledge in fear of being, go figure, rude to our colleagues.

Naturally, email is a recurrent theme in the "Civility in the Workplace" blog, and there are several entries regarding email that probably should be read by email addicts (e.g. those of us who check our inbox within the first fifteen minutes of our day). Email is a convenience designed to expedite the transmission of information, intended as a surrogate to handwritten letters, yet the ease of composing, typing, and sending an email quickly led to the transmission of dilapidated information. Recipients must decrypt the meaning from poorly written messages (ah! a slip on my part--"messages" naturally replaced "letters"), which, of course, leads to incorrect interpretations. But, we do not have time to compose clear and concise emails; we must stay abreast of the "information" available in our own inbox or some pointless website (like this blog)! How many times have you struggled to understand the purpose of an email sent to you? It would be nice if people would adopt the practice of sending the email you wish to receive.

Bear Consumes Man at Beer Festival

A 23 year old Serbian man was found half-eaten in a bear cage at the Belgrade Zoo during the beer festival. The zoo director said "There's a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage." Check out CNN (here) for the rest of the article.

xkcd

Edison had a better solution than Westinghouse?

In the July 26, 2007 edition of The Economist is an article about alternatively fueled power plants. Wind power apparently is better suited to a DC power grid, rather than the current AC grid. In the late 19th century, the battle between Edison's direct current power lines and Westinghouse's alternating current lines. 

DC lines send electrons flying from the negative terminal to the positive terminal (thank Benjamin Franklin for this somewhat backwards intuition).  AC essentially flips the terminals back and forth, so electrons flow back and forth--this is where the 120Hz comes into play.  Westinghouse's AC lines won over Edison, because it was considered easier to transfer power over longer distances via AC.  However, the article in The Economist mentions that DC lines actually outperform AC lines in terms of how far power may be transfer.  In addition, the lines may be placed closer to the ground without power degradation.  It would interesting to see if DC lines actually replace the well-established AC lines in the coming years.

For all intensive purposes, your competitious behavior need not be so dramastic!

Three phrases/words that I have heard out of place in the last year: "for all intensive purposes," "competitious," and "dramastic."

The first, "for all intensive purposes," is supposed to be "for all intents and purposes." It's highly likely that people who say the wrong phrase have never actually read this phrase in a reliable text. The incorrect usage is at some level a consequence of someone else having either poor pronunciation skills or maybe listening skills. Nevertheless, this should not permit the propagation of a phrase that means nothing: "for all intensive purposes." What the hell is an "intensive purpose"? I mean, I know some purposes can be pretty intense, but c'mon!

Next on the list is "competitious." A friend of mine said this girl, on their first and last date, told him he was "too competitious." What?! Here's more bad news: if you search "competitous" on Google you find over 49,000 results!!! That means people are using this word. According to UrbanDictionary.com, "competitious" is a synonym for "competitive." The English language contains enough redundancy with numerous alternatives to many words. Why add more alternatives to such a complex language? Even worse, it seems that the uneducated people are the ones offering more words to a language they clearly do not understand.

Finally, we have "dramastic." My sister-in-law heard this from an Ulta cashier. Perhaps she uses shampoo that penetrates her soft skull. Once again, this word appears on UrbanDictionary.com as a blend of "drama" and "drastic." Now, we're adding words to compress the language. This tendency is probably a little more acceptable among scholars. However, "drastic drama" or the reverse does not really make much sense, so I doubt scholars would let this neologism continue without complaint. Interestingly, a new track by the Beastie Boys is called "Dramastically Different." That's the adverb form of "dramastic."

What should we take from this? Stop adding words to the English language! Just because Merriam-Webster shows no listing for some new phrase, that does not mean it will not show up. Continued usage increases the meaning of this word, and then we must add it to the dictionary. That way at least the rest of us will not be left in the dark, too! The other alternative is to make the dictionary required reading in grade school, but that will never happen.

If you're interested in common English error, take a look at Common Errors in English.

Funny or Die

If you haven't been to the website Funny or Die, then you have been missing out of some funny stuff. Will Ferrell has posted a few videos himself that include Andy McKay's (co-founder of Funny or Die) daughter, Pearl. Pearl debuted in "The Landlord"short film, and appeared again in "Good Cop, Bad Cop." Another film by Ferrell is "Third Date with Will Ferrell." Be sure to watch the out takes from "The Landlord" short film. The out takes might be funnier than the original, since Pearl is quite uncooperative. There is another film with Will Ferrell that was posted just a few days ago called "Will Ferrell is USC strength coach Chuck Berry." It's a little different, not exactly as funny as the other films.

Below is another video ranked high in terms of the number of viewers by Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone.

Menomena - Friend and Foe

The band Menomena is a trio from Portland with an interesting style. One of the members wrote a computer program called Digital Loop Recorder, which allows them to layer and loop short riffs to build a track. The results sound great. Although the drum tracks don't always seem to mix well with the other instruments (here, I mean mix in a production sense), this may be what the band intended. Among my favorite tracks are "Muscle'n Flo", "The Pelican", "Air Aid", and "Weird." This list is not intended to suggest that the latter part of the album is less amazing. I just haven't learned the names of those songs.

Below is the Sesame Street clip of Mah Na Mah Na (which is a song that originally appeared in a porno from the 1970s). Read more about Menomena on their Wikipedia entry here.

Taughannock Falls

Julia and I went to Taughannock Falls with our friend Matt this weekend. We have had very little rain lately, so the falls was just a drizzle. The upside is that we were able to walk down the middle of the gorge all the way to the falls rather than on the trail. It's about three-quarters of a mile to the falls. Below I have provided a link to a few pictures from the "hike."

Taughannock Falls June 16, 2007

Farewell to Mr. Wizard

Don Herbert (1917-2007)

LA Times Story

Mr. Wizard Studios

Primary Education

An article in the NY Times "When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?" by Elizabeth Weil (June 3, 2007) caught my attention today on the NY Times list of most emailed articles. There are several interesting points within the article about whether age really means anything about being prepared for school and school systems in other countries. Below are a few paragraphs that were interesting to me:

[Kelly] Bedard found that different education systems produce varying age effects. For instance, Finland, whose students recently came out on top in an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study of math, reading and science skills, experiences smaller age effects; Finnish children also start school later, at age 7, and even then the first few years are largely devoted to social development and play. Denmark, too, produces little difference between relatively older and younger kids; the Danish education system prohibits differentiating by ability until students are 16. Those two exceptions notwithstanding, Bedard notes that she found age effects everywhere, from “the Japanese system of automatic promotion, to the accomplishment-oriented French system, to the supposedly more flexible skill-based program models used in Canada and the United States.”

Friedrich Froebel, the romantic motherless son who started the first kindergarten in Germany in 1840, would be horrified by what’s called kindergarten today. He conceived the early learning experience as a homage to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that “reading is the plague of childhood. . . . Books are good only for learning to babble about what one does not know.” Letters and numbers were officially banned from Froebel’s kindergartens; the teaching materials consisted of handmade blocks and games that he referred to as “gifts.” By the late 1800s, kindergarten had jumped to the United States, with Boston transcendentalists like Elizabeth Peabody popularizing the concept. Fairly quickly, letters and numbers appeared on the wooden blocks, yet Peabody cautioned that a “genuine” kindergarten is “a company of children under 7 years old, who do not learn to read, write and cipher” and a “false” kindergarten is one that accommodates parents who want their children studying academics instead of just playing.

A friend of mine is a kindergarten teacher, and she claims that she is overwhelmed with meeting the requirements for end-of-grade testing. In fact, she'd prefer to teach grades without end-of-grade testing. She told me once of the things she would teaching in kindergarten. She was pulling out addition and even multiplication. Multiplication wasn't introduced to me until the end of second grade.

There is probably a huge problem with the current generation, because the school systems start feeding students more academic things too soon. Controlled development doesn't mean good development. It's too difficult with current classroom sizes for younger students to get the attention they probably need to succeed. At the same time, all the time in the world may not help a student who has entered kindergarten prematurely.

2007 Ithaca Festival Parade

This was the craziest parade I have ever seen. Below is a short movie of the Volvo Ballet. A heavy rain storm came before the He-man Chainsaw Marching Band came around. I'll put a few other key pictures up soon. It was quite an interesting experience.

Women and Cars

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B: (the last 30 seconds is the best part!)


Exhibit C:


Exhibit D:

Winter Isn't Finished with Ithaca, NY...

Yesterday:


This Morning:


Rhodes Hall This Afternoon:

The snow report for Ithaca, NY should be updated within a few days; click here to see the reported snow fall and snow depth.

More Snow on the Way?

Here is the latest Winter Storm Watch information:

/O.CON.KBGM.WS.A.0006.070415T0400Z- 070417T0000Z/ NORTHERN ONEIDA-YATES- SENECA-SOUTHERN CAYUGA-ONONDAGA- STEUBEN- SCHUYLER-CHEMUNG-TOMPKINS- MADISON-SOUTHERN ONEIDA-CORTLAND- CHENANGO-OTSEGO-TIOGA-BROOME-DELAWARE- BRADFORD-SUSQUEHANNA- 214 PM EDT FRI APR 13 2007

...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY EVENING...

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY EVENING.

SNOW WILL SPREAD INTO NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA AFTER MIDNIGHT ON SATURDAY NIGHT...THEN REACH ALL OF CENTRAL NEW YORK DURING THE MORNING ON SUNDAY. SNOW WILL BECOME HEAVY...AT TIMES...BY SUNDAY MORNING...THEN PERSIST SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY. PARTICULARLY INTENSE BANDS OF SNOW WILL LIKELY PRODUCE SNOWFALL RATES OF AN INCH...OR MORE...PER HOUR.

SNOWFALL TOTALS COULD WELL EXCEED A FOOT BY LATE MONDAY OVER CENTRAL NEW YORK...AND PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE SNOW IS LIKELY TO BE HEAVY AND WET IN NATURE. AS A RESULT...DOWNED TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES MAY OCCUR.

A WINTER STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT BECAUSE HEAVY SNOW IS A POSSIBILITY... BUT NOT A CERTAINTY. AT THIS TIME... THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 7 INCHES OR MORE. TRAVEL CONDITIONS COULD BECOME HAZARDOUS... SO IT IS IMPORTANT TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS AND STATEMENTS IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO TRAVEL IN THE WATCH AREA.

Photo from Digg

Check this picture out!

http://flickr.com/photos/jeffcarlson/127632129/

Wolfpack!

Thanks to Nik for this discovery!

Google Maps

Over at the McLaughlin's blog, there is a post about one of the steps involved when traveling to Ireland following directions from Google Maps. See the short post and link here. While, step 22 is rather interesting, I really like the "Slight Right" you take after your 3,462 mile swim across the great Atlantic. Another interesting feature is the continued use of miles once the directions start up in France instead of kilometers. That was something that was a little weird when Julia and I drove into Canada a few weeks ago. Using the inner numbers (for km/hr) was a little challenging.

Surprise Snow!

It was raining on the bus ride into campus this morning. Freezing rain fell like needles on my way to my 8:40am class. Class ended at 10am, and I walked outside to find about an inch of snow on the ground. I captured the image below from here at 10:30am.


Last night, as Julia and I were walking back from Ithaca Coffee Company at 7pm, and she said, "I hope its like this tomorrow." She rarely follows the weather forecasts. I disappointedly replied that rain was in the forecast for Thursday and Friday with the possibility of snow this weekend. This morning the weather forecast still claimed rain mixed with freezing rain for today and tomorrow. Now, they predict a ~60% chance of snow. Why not just say 100% chance of snow? I mean, it is snowing right now, and this forecast is for today. If you're going to change gears and "predict" snow after it starts, where does the 60% part enter the picture? Who decides this stuff?

Clearly, there are open problems available in the field of meteorology. In addition, you are a bonafide idiot if you believe you should pay money for weather.com Gold.

Niagara Falls

Julia and I went to Canada this weekend to see Niagara Falls. I had never been, and tons had changed since the last time Julia visited.

The first day was a little bit of a bust. It was really foggy, so you could barely see the Canadian side from the American side. We had to walk on ice paths, because they did not bother clearing the walkways yet. I suppose the mist from the falls contributes a lot of that ice.

The Giant Vegetable Growers International Convention took place at our hotel. We heard mostly about people growing pumpkins that weight half a ton! Even better, people were selling their pumpkin seeds for up to $800 a seed! Weird. Pumpkin Jim's wife was having martinis while he attended the convention. She and another pumpkin grower's wife gave us the dirt on growing large pumpkins while they sipped on martinis. Quite an interesting and expensive hobby, eh?

Sunday, Julia and I walked up the edge of the falls on the Canadian side, taking lots of pictures along the way. It was pretty amazing to see the Horseshoe Falls in person. Maybe we'll make it back this summer to do the Maid of the Mist boat tour and the Journey Behind the Falls. For now, check out the pictures below.

Filling the Holes

I was looking for any live videos of The Faint this morning. Apparently, they performed on Jimmy Kimmel's show to promote their album Wet from Birth. If you've never seen them live, watch the video on YouTube. They are an interesting band, especially the lead guitarist--he has a cool dance when he's not playing.

The video below is also from Jimmy Kimmel's show. It's pretty funny.

Pieces from Digg

If you do not read digg.com, you probably should check it out occasionally. For instance, how can you overlook an article with the title:

"Accused Knicker Nicker Says He Was in Bad Elf"

But, I'm not sure what is better, the title or the picture caption in the article--"What a female elf
may look like."

Wind Chill -22 F and I am 26

What is the deal with Cornell? First of all, it's my birthday, so I should have a holiday every March 6th. Second, it is so damn cold outside. Right now it's zero, with a wind chill of -22 F. On top of all of that, Ithaca City Schools have closed, as have most of the schools in the Upstate area. Last time, Ithaca City Schools closed, the snow plows took a break, because there was no need to clean the roads. Now, this time we do not seem to have much snow, but come on!

Well, I had better get ready for the cold. The bus shows up at 7:30. I hope I get there right when it does, so I don't freeze!

Year Zero = 2022 = 2007 + 15

Nine Inch Nails front man, Trent Reznor, is becoming very political. MTV banned a performance by the band on their music awards show when the last album came out, because Reznor wanted to have a huge back drop with President Bush's picture on the stage.

The tour for the previous album, With Teeth, continues in Europe while fans scramble to understand "the meaning" behind his upcoming album Year Zero. To give you a sense of how elaborate the flurry has been, visit the Wiki site for NIN here. The excitement began when fans noticed certain letters/number standing out on their tour shirts. People read off the "highlighted" letters to find websites, numbers corresponded to phone numbers. Calling the phone numbers supposedly allows you to hear a conversation taking place in this dystopia, but it is only 15 years away.

In addition to these supplements to the album, concert goers have discovered small USB drives at four concerts. The drives contained a track from the album and sometimes an image which revealed a new website. Currently, four tracks have been officially "leaked" and one track was played on KROQ, so it has made it's way around the internet, too.

Year Zero is a 16 track album, and five tracks have been leaked. If you remember The Downward Sprial, you probably remember that as the best by Reznor. Sure, The Fragile was a good album, especially since it contained several instrumental tracks. With Teeth is not a great album. The lyrics are cheesy and very predictable. For instance, complete the following lyric "about to reap what ..." Did you finish it naturally with "you sow"? That's right! Many of the lyrics from With Teeth and Year Zero have this quality, and it is very annoying.

One of the things I have noticed about Reznor is how he tends to use very simple rhyming patterns and, as a result, very simple language. There are problems with this combination. Mainly, it's really boring--he's written better lyrics in the past. If you are going to rely on this basic lyric structure, at least make the lyrics less predictable. Throw in a few clever words, so we can feel like you had something worth saying. Instead, Reznor gives us very unclear ideas that often sound like an inarticulate, depressed high school student who seems to always find a place for the word "strife" when writing poems for school.

Suppose we give Reznor the benefit of the doubt and assume that his word choice is deliberate. What then? His words are very colloquial. Maybe he is trying to write from the people's perspective rather than his own, which seems to have started with The Fragile, where he sounded less selfish and more interest in someone else. He's claimed that Year Zero is supposed to be about the perspectives of many people in this future reality. Perhaps so, but I doubt it. The last song, "Zero-Sum," better be really impressive to remind listeners that he can write good lyrics. This could be like reading the Dilsey section of Faulkner's book The Sound and the Fury. After reading tons of writing that's purposefully bad for artistic reasons, Faulkner writes the last section with all the stops pulled out. It's an incredible conclusion for the book, and it vindicates Faulkner's writing abilities if you ever had doubts. Anyway, Year Zero has the potential, because the song preceding it, "In This Twilight," is, lyrically speaking, "better" (just not in a Faulkner sense) than the others that have leaked.

The song "Survivialism" has a cadence that reminds me of Marilyn Manson's (Brian Warner) lyrics. In fact, the phrase "I got my violence/in hi-def ultra-realism" sounds a like a line from Manson. Honestly, an interesting album would be Reznor primarily doing the music with Warner's lyrics. A taste of that occurred in the past with Manson's album Antichrist Superstar, triggered more parents around the world to scorn Manson for obvious, but probably superficial, reasons. That's a topic for another day, and I'll probably never attempt it.

In short, the music on Year Zero sounds a little new, but there is a lot of what Reznor has already written that remains. It isn't very new, but there are some catchy tracks, so far. We'll have to wait to hear the whole thing in April.

Problems with 24

Searching "Jack Bauer" on Google summons over 2 million links. The first page listing of links all refer to the character on Fox's hit show 24. So, it's unlikely that you do not know anything about Jack Bauer or 24. In fact, there's a pretty good chance you plan your Monday evenings around Fox's airing of 24 (and maybe even Prison Break).

An article in this week's The New Yorker by Jane Mayer blends an interview with the show's creator Joel Surnow with a discussion of the use of torture in interrogation. If you watch the show, you should read the article. Of course, it could be disappointing to ardent fans of the show. In short, the article indicates that the abusive torture techniques implemented fail in most interrogations. Even worse, a West Point General states that his students are confused with Bauer's practices on the show. This is certainly a problem, and it is not my intention to embellish Mayer's article on torture. I am not fond of all the torture displayed in the show; it is rather excessive, even for a fantasy. What kind of fantasy is this? (By the way, I noticed that a drill was used for three shows last week: 24, House, and Grey's Anatomy. Interesting, isn't it?) Finally, Mayer's article mentions that since Sept. 11th, depictions of torture have become more common in America television.

While the torture seems excessive and unnecessary, what bothers me more is probably overlooked by many viewers. If you have been following the show, you know that Jack Bauer has been blamed for his brother's death. However, all the viewers know that Jack's father killed his brother. What went wrong here? Let me give a quick recap. Jack had an IV placed in his brother, Graem, and had another officer inject a neurotoxin that inflicts pain via the IV. After several injections, Jack ceases the interrogation and orders the IV removed. Jack's father (who it turns out is in on the current conspiracy with Graem) asks for a few minutes alone with Graem, closing the door to his room. The officers allow this (mistake 1). First of all, Graem probably should receive medical attention and have constant supervision over him to cover CTU's (the show's Counter Terrorism Unit) actions. Instead, they allow Jack's father into the room, and he injects more of the toxin into his son, which kills him. He shouts to the officers outside the room that Graem is having a seizure. Then, he blames them for killing his son--well, Jack is held responsible.

Here's my problem with this situation. If you are CTU, then you should know how much of that toxin entered the room. The interrogation was recorded. Jack did not administer the toxin, he ordered certain quantities to be injected. So, the other officer did the injection, which means that Jack could not say one thing and do another. This means they have an indication as to how much of the toxin is used in the interrogation. Finally, if you know that XX amount of this toxin can kill, then do not have that much directly hooked to the patient--unless you intend to kill them.

CTU is flawed. They should without a doubt know that Jack did not kill his brother. In the very least, they should be aware that someone administered more of the toxin after the interrogation. This sloppy record keeping is irresponsible, and it presents CTU as incompetent.

There are many other problems with 24. For instance, in the beginning a suicide bomber boarded a subway train with the intention of setting off the bomb. Which car would you board if you wanted to do more that structural damage? Probably the middle car, because it's a little harder to be removed without succeeding in your original objective. This idiot (which may be the point) boards the last car, which allows Jack to kick him out the back door of the car. The bomb explodes in the subway tunnel. Dumb.

With all of these problems, you would think I would stop watching the show. I probably will not. The overall story is rather interesting, but the details are terrible (which would probably change the overall story). Anyway, check out the video below. The first part is the funny part.

A few more pictures...

A few more pictures before the sun set. We let George onto the porch, and now, he keeps wanting to go back outside. What a crazy cat!!

Snow Pictures

Julia and I went outside to see what was up with the snow. We decided to clean off my car, since our apartment complex likes to have us move our cars so they can clear off the parking lot. It's a little disappointing, because they cleared off the sidewalks around 11am. By noon, the sidewalks were covered with at least an inch, maybe two inches, covering the sidewalks.

Enjoy the pictures below. It's still snowing...

Snow for Ithaca, NY

The snow in Oswego, Parish, and Mexico made headlines last week. Now, Ithaca is getting a little snow of its own. The slick weathermen down in Binghamton, NY expect that we'll see somewhere between 18"-24" of snow in total.

The snow has been falling since about 7pm last night. The maintenance guys at my apartment complex has been working to clear the sidewalks and parking lots since about 5am. The snow is still falling, so there is plenty of work left to do.

A live picture of Cornell University is available here.

Apparently it's not just water...

Remember the days when Evian water bottles were the rage and all the "cool" people (no pun intended) drank Evian water? (Now, everyone carries a Nalgene water bottle. If you're unfamiliar with Nalgene, let me just say that it's The North Face of water bottles. What's so great about Nalgene? Unless you loose it, you shouldn't ever need to buy another one. Check out the standard bottle's specifications here.)

What's the new water of choice? If you frequently have lunch at Collegetown bagels, you'll probably find Fuji, Evian, and Nirvana bottled water in stock. The Nirvana brand water has a very creepy and cheap looking label. Of course, you know what that means--there must be something creepy and cheap with the water. I have seen a few people take the plunge and consume a 16.9oz bottle of Nirvana water. Wait a minute! Isn't there something wrong with using Nirvana to describe water? Oh, OK my thesaurus tells me that nirvana is a synonym for paradise, heaven, bliss, ecstasy, joy, peace, serenity, etc... But, wait what's the definition of nirvana? Here it is:

a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and samsara. It represents the final goal of Buddhism.

So, if you have reached nirvana, then there is no desire. Should not desire include a desire for water, too? Why, then, should you reach for a bottle of water instead of plain tap water or, better yet, water directly from a stream (or melt an icicle if you're in Ithaca)? What are the Nirvana people thinking I am after when I look for a bottle of water among all those different brands? Perhaps, I am seeking escape from the mundane drone of the real world. Maybe by drinking this water I'll transcend my current state of being. That's a lot of expect from a bottle of water. Isn't it?

Enter Voss water. Voss is advertised as the pinnacle of water. Voss water was the idea of a student (Christopher Harlem) from Norway who attended the University of San Francisco. He noticed that students always carried bottled water, but he felt that he could never find bottled water comparable to Norwegian water. Eventually, he and his long-time friend (Ole Christian Sandberg) decided to bottle artesian water from Norway and distribute it around the world. Add Voss to the lengthy list of bottled waters.

Have you ever had Voss water? I have a few times, and it's definitely different. The most notable characteristic about Voss water is its smoothness. Of course, you won't find people lugging Voss bottles around, since it is bottled in glass rather than plastic. Plus, why not just dump your Voss into a Nalgene? Is that a sacrilege to bottled water?

You think I'm crazy with this long discussion about water? Check out Via Genova in Chappaqua, NY (just a little north of Manhattan). This is a water bar owned by Diane Felicissimo a proclaimed water connoisseur. I have even heard that people do water tastings, which probably is easier than wine, which impairs the discriminating power of the taste buds of the "non-spit backers."

Well, I suppose people do what makes them happy. If having a keen sense of distinguishing things with no taste is your forte, so be it. I wonder if there is a similar following for saltine crackers? This is scary enough...

Remove White Earbuds Before Crossing the Street

A Senator from New York (Sen. Carl Kruger) has introduced legislation to ban the use of Blackberrys and video game devices while crossing the street.

Let's take a quick look at the motivation for this legislation. To begin, Sen. Kruger claims (according to the Reuters article) that "[g]overnment has an obligation to protect its citzenry." How is this relevant here? First of all, it's not as if some foreign country is targeting pedestrians too impatient to type their next text message at the next curb. What is happening? Apparently, three people have been killed when stepping out into traffic while distracted by their electronic "device." We've managed to remove three people carrying genes that clearly have big faults when it comes to common sense. Sen. Kruger wants to preserve these dumb genes and protect so that we may have more idiots running around doing the same thing. If the public decides that listening closely to the new Akon track is more important than focusing on the rushing incoming traffic, then why should the government interfere? People make plenty of poor choices. Of course, the repercussions might spawn in a few years rather than in the 26 seconds available to cross the street.

People eat terrible food, like McDonald's. By the way, have you looked at the nutrition facts for a Big Mac? (Don't misunderstand me, you Starbucks drinkers should be weary, too). There is a diet called The Zone. Essentially, it encourages a certain ratio between protein, carbohydrates, and fat. In particular, it suggests 3 to 4 blocks of each at a meal. A protein block is roughly 7 grams. For carbohydrates a block is 9 grams, and for fat a block is about 2 grams. A Big Mac has 25 grams of protein (about 3.5 blocks), 45 grams of carbohydrates (5 blocks), and 29 grams of fat (roughly 14 blocks). So, you're getting a full day of fat in one Big Mac. Now, the 3 grams of dietary fiber means we really have 42 grams of carbohydrates (which also means that we aren't getting all 25 grams of protein--don't ask me why). We know that excess fat, and I think a shot with 29 grams of fat is excessive, is bad. Nevertheless, when was the last time you pulled off the interstate for McDonald's on your road trip? Even better, how many times have you seen the drive-thru line at McDonald's wrapped around the restaurant? People are lining up for this terrible food everyday? Has the government intervened here to prohibit people from eating this food too often or ever? No!

To summarize, the government needs to stop worrying about the decisions people make. Let them blast their iPods while they cross the street. If they choose to blindly assume that any incoming traffic can and will yield to them, then let them. These are probably the same people that refuse to wear seat belts, anyway. So, that's two good chances to eradicate those genes "prematurely."

super bowl xli of corn chips and salsa

With any luck you found the largest bowl in the house to hold your famous salsa to avoid unnecessary trips to the kitchen, because you know you cannot miss those amazing commercials. Unfortunately, we're nearly 15 minutes into the game, and there haven't been any incredible commercials. Sure, Snickers had two guys kiss while eat from opposite ends of a Snicker's bar (an obvious allusion to Lady and the Tramp--which guy was the lady?). Budweiser had a guy throw a rock at another guy's face to win paper, rock, scissors for a beer. That's kind of clever, but now that's going to be to "joke" for upcoming cook-outs. Even worse, if you find yourself at a cook-out where this happens, you should reevaluate your life, because that's a pretty sad situation. Doritos has a commercial filmed across the street from my good old Harris Teeter in Cary, NC (click here). Is it sad that I recognized the Waverly Place shopping center? This guy is blogging the whole damn thing! How sad is that?

No matter what you think of the commercials enjoy your big huge bowl of chips and salsa. Don't read this article if you finish the bowl.

Any comments about the super bowl that you want to share? Probably not.

Winter Has Arrived

Here are still captures from Cornell's webcams this morning taken from here and here. The picture on the left is the McGraw Clock Tower. On the right, I've included a picture of the Engineering Quad.

The other day, the temperature was 4 degrees with a wind chill of -2 at 7am. Luckily, it hasn't been that cold again this week. The best part was that Elmira, about 30-40 minutes
southwest of Ithaca was 5 degrees warmer that morning--twice as warm!

Urine--Your Out

Apparently, the Sacramento radio station KDND-FM held a contest where contestants tried to out-drink one another without going to the bathroom. What were they holding it for?--a Nintendo Wii! The clever slogan "Hold your wee for a Wii" encouraged 20 people to participate in this stupid contest.

According to Reuters, the runner-up Jennifer Strange, 28 and a mother of three, died from intoxication about five hours after the end of the contest. She is reported to have consumed about 7 quarts of water for the competition.

The DJs responsible for the contest have been fired, and one admits in hindsight that they should have researched water intoxication before promoting the contest. DJs are so smart.

See more about water intoxication at Wikipedia. Note that Jennifer Strange now has a page on Wikipedia describing her unsuccessful participation in the Wii contest.

Would you be more likely to pee on a fly or the wall?

Amsterdam urinals have flies etched into the porcelain to captivate the fluid-filled-man and encourage proper pointing of his urinary hose. "Fly-in-urinal research found that etched urinals reduce spillage by 80%."

I must wonder what would happen if those bugs appeared in US urinals. Would the fliers hanging above the urinals at eye-level still receive the same visibility? The smaller endowed are probably already looking down and would appreciate a target. The remaining "readers" may prefer peeing on a fly to reading about next weeks crap band. Of course, when you're drunk, where you relieve yourself is less important, and, depending on your state of inebriation, you may be satisfied with leaving the stall without a wet stain on both your kicks and jeans.

Either way, check out the pictures of these Dutch urinals here.

Snow - None Here

Earlier this week, Syracuse, NY saw about a foot of snow. Ithaca, on the other hand, barely saw a dusting. It seems that the "Ithaca is cold" slogan isn't valid this winter season. However, this might be good for us. Check out the video below. I have no idea where this is, but it's pretty funny.

Choose Your Own Adventure comes to iPod

Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books you read as a kid? I wasn't much of a reader in elementary school, but I did read The First Olympics by Ben Baglio. For some reason, I actually remember reading this particular book (it only took me a few minutes browsing the Wikipedia entry for "Choose Your Own Adventure" to find this story. Remembering I read it has nothing to do with remembering what happened in the book. Plus, I'd have to retrace the adventure I chose when I read the book long ago. (This book sounds like a lot more work as I think about it.)

Anyway, it appears that the Choose Your Own Adventure books have turned towards the iPod for distribution. A sample book The Abominable Snowman is available as a free download
until January 25, 2007. However, according to the website, it appears that you need to have a newer iPod with a color screen and possibly the ability to display photos to read the books.