Random Thursday
Category: Kitchen Sink...
Posted Thursday, July 27, 2006 at 09:40 AM [GMT-6]

It's a humbling thing to behold the generosity of Gazette readers. Your Blogathon pledges are now closing in on $2,500, and as of this morning that total is the second highest of any participating blog. Even better, when you combine that total with Jimmy's over at Sticky Doorknobs, the combined sum (~$3,700) makes Midland Fair Havens the Blogathon leader in terms of pledges. (Don't hold me to that, though; that conclusion was based on a quick eyeballing of the list of charities, which doesn't provide a single total for each organization.) Any way you slice it, you guys are great!

Now, on to more random business...

• Here's something for the "Someone should invent this..." file. Does your digital camera have a little remote control, allowing you to trip the shutter, um, remotely? If it does, I'm willing to bet it works only if you're in front of the camera. Someone should invent a remote sensor for a camera that wraps around to the back so that you can stand behind it and take a photo. Or, even better, make the remote an RF transmitter so that you don't have to aim at the little infrared eye.


• Speaking of good ideas, this one seems to have merit, albeit at a hefty price and with a cumbersome name. The "Kurzweil–National Federation of the Blind Reader" is basically a digital camera designed to take a photo of a page of text and then convert that text to audible speech for the benefit of a vision-impaired user. Walter Mossberg reports that it's pretty good at what it does. I wonder, though...how does someone without sight know where to point the device? Perhaps Reagan could help us understand if this is a practical solution.


• David over at Soccer Dad sent me the link to this WaPO op-ed piece by Robert J. Samuelson in which he attempts to answer the question, "Is There An Oil 'Bubble'?" It's a level-headed discussion of the potential reasons behind the run-up in oil prices, but it's more bad news for the conspiracy theorists. However, I take mild exception to one thing Samuelson writes. In addressing where the market for crude oil fits into the global economy, he says At $70 a barrel, global crude sales would total about $2.2 trillion annually; that's still a tiny share of the $50 trillion world economy. Maybe so, but I can't think of another single commodity which accounts for almost 5% of the global economy (although I confess I'm not sure what the $50T represents).


• Ever since my pal Gene told me that they went "indoor skydiving" in Colorado, I've been curious, and so I googled up the Bodyflight Network, which provides resources about vertical wind tunnels for recreational use. This is probably something I'd do just to say I'd done it, but when I read stuff like this -- Bodyflying is not some "New Extreme Sport", it's a way of life, a way to fitness and spiritual health. It's a fabulous activity for the entire family and no more dangerous than your average contact sport. -- and see the flapping jowls of the participants, it tends to strike me more as a solution in search of a problem. Or, a recreational outlet in search of a rich bored person; SkyVenture in Denver charges $44-$48 for two 60-second "flights" (although the hourly rate of $675-$800 is a real bargain in comparison). OTOH, having experienced the underwater weightlessness of scuba diving, perhaps there's more to it than I imagine.


• I see that Midland Memorial Hospital is buying a PET scan machine for $2.1 million. I applaud that move. The PET scanner is a wonderful diagnostic tool and one provided me with the most interesting (and expensive!) medical procedure of my life.


• I'll close today's little soiree with a link to Deb's intriguing "what if" post, which explores the potential dark side of so-called classic TV shows. After reading the post, I've started worrying. What if...the Osmonds were actually real people? *gasp*