Recently in Random Thursday Category

The theme of today's post could be "Around the Web," as I don't have anything noteworthy to write about, not that that's ever stopped me.

• Ever wonder how a sewing machine works? How about a rotary engine or a Maltese Cross mechanism? If you're a visual learner, this website has some very simple animated examples that might clear up some of those mysteries. I'm now considering the possibility of building my own constant velocity joint, as soon as I can figure out what it's used for.
  
  
• If your vehicle is lacking charisma and charm, try applying a set of Car Lashes. If you're of the female persuasion, these will enhance your overall feminine wiles. If you're a guy, however, you might want to avoid bowling alley parking lots.
  
  
• I recently had my eyes tested and was pleased to find that my vision has not appreciably deteriorated during the past five years. Fortunately, the vision test didn't involve this chart. I barely qualify for 20/200 on that test. If it's truly a measure of geekiness, then I'll have to turn in my pocket protector. (Source: Neatorama)
  
  
• This is pretty cool. It's a project called Like Mom, Like Dad, where people re-create photographs from their childhoods. Some of them are amazingly successful in replicating not just the poses but also the moods.
  
  
• One of the pressing issues of our time is how to ensure that everyone on earth has access to clean drinking water. One possible solution, the Aquaduct, is a pedal-powered filtration system. It's a great concept although it has some significant shortcomings for application in the poorest and most remote regions of the world. Here it is in action (Source: iBike.org):

• Here's some background on the cover art of four Beatles albums. You remember cover art, right? How about albums? Well, surely you remember the Beatles?
  
  
• Last, but certainly not least, for those who are not from Midland and who have a mental picture of a sleepy, unsophisticated backwoods - well, this might shake up your stereotypes. Or, affirm them. Take your pick. (Note: The comments on this story are pretty entertaining. My favorite is this one, from "tigerland": Looks like I DO have time to help you move this weekend after all, grandma.)

OK, we've got some pretty serious stuff to go over today, so I hope you're appropriately caffeinated.

• Cynicism Alert: I want to propose a new law, similar to Murphy's Law or Godwin's Law. My new law would read thusly: "You've lost the argument in the precise instant that you resort to 'just because you have the right to do something doesn't make it the right thing to do'." Really, is there anyone, anywhere who is willing to give up their rights in order to do the right thing? *cough*Ground Zero Mosque*cough*
  
  
• Speaking of rights and doing the right thing, Midland's City Council unanimously hiked next year's tax rate over the vocal protests of as many citizens as could be fit into a marathon hearing. A couple of local bloggers who are more astute and plugged in than me have weighed in on the process and implications. I recommend this post by Ospurt over at  Jessica's Well, and George over at Sleepless in Midland has a couple of good articles on the subject, one serious and one less so (but still insightful).
  
  
• Of course, one has to be naive to think that hearings immediately before a final vote would result in any budget cuts (which is the only way taxes get cut). If the Council truly wants meaningful citizen input to the tax rate, the time to get the public involved is at the beginning of the budget cycle...and good luck figuring out how to do that.
  
  
• OK, on to more interesting topics, such as whether the internet is making us stupid. (We must blame someone or something.) By the way, number 2 on the list is awesome.
  
  
• Here's another list: Some reasons you might not want to become a web designer. Thanks, guys; you're about ten years too late. Actually, the writer left off the best reason to stay away from website design, and it was picked up on by a commenter: Internet Explorer.
  
  
• However, there are a few things that are making designers' lives easier, and one of them is Adobe's recent announcement that it is partnering with Typekit to bring some of its classic fonts to the web. If the implications of that announcement escape you, don't worry. It just means that whereas before we designers could fill your screens with ill-advised combinations of crappy fonts, we can now do the same with high-quality fonts. Seriously, though, this is a big deal, especially since Adobe has optimized those fonts for screen display. It's even convinced me to sign up with Typekit, and I'm now using that service on a new project.
  
  
• In addition to the new law above, I want to suggest a new bumper sticker: "Friends don't let friends use their browser's search bar instead of the address bar." Pretty catchy, huh? Anyway, if you're in the habit of typing a URL into the search bar, my advice is simple: STOP IT! That's not what it's designed for.* (Of course, if all browsers would follow Google Chrome's lead, we wouldn't need two input fields anyway. But, apparently, Google is the only browser maker smart enough to figure out whether you've input a URL or a search term.)
  
  
• And speaking of Google Chrome, I'm this close to finally making it my default browser. As it stands, I have it open continuously and simultaneously with Firefox, with each running on a different monitor. I have yet to find an area where Firefox is clearly superior, although its web developer plugins are good enough that I'll never let it go completely (until they're ported to Chrome, anyway). If you haven't yet tried Chrome, well, as Mal would say, it's shiny!

*This is more than a philosophical issue. Google's database isn't real-time, regardless of what they've made you think. Relying on a search rather than the actual URL can sometimes give you the wrong results. I've seen it happen.

Can't believe it's already Friday. Seems like yesterday it was only, well, Thursday. Anyway, before we get too cocky, don't forget that it's only three days until Monday.

• I'm sorry, but if you're intentionally running your sprinkler system on an established lawn in the middle of a West Texas August afternoon, you're either ignorant or an idiot*. I can help solve the ignorance (it's simple...quit doing it!) but I'm afraid there's no cure for the latter. Water's just too precious out here to be wasting 30-40% of it to evaporation.
  
  *If there's a third option, please enlighten us. As I said, ignorance is curable.
  
  
• I just finished a bike ride, managing to get out before the heat of the day (but not beating the humidity!). Fifteen miles in 50 minutes, meaning that I hit my normal goal of an 18 mph average. Could have been faster if it weren't for all those pesky cars that made me stop at intersections. Anyway, the highlight of the ride was on the return leg, with a slight tailwind and smooth pavement, and catching a draft behind a UPS truck; I hit 28.5 mph and beat a BMW SUV to the neighborhood turn-in.
  
  
• A TV show entitled World of Whitetail is on Versus as I type this. This is a hunting show, focusing on whitetail deer. I've never watched it before, but I confess that I fail to find it riveting. As much as I intellectually understand the importance of hunting deer, watching as a bullet hits a trophy buck and seeing him drop and twitch until his heart stops (or, worse, run off into the brush before dying) makes me slightly nauseous. Of course, I can't watch Bambi, either, so perhaps I'm emotionally flawed. (The kill I just saw was made worse by the fact that the deer was strolling down the middle of a dirt road when the fatal shot arrived from a nearby blind. The sporting aspects of that seem to escape me.)
  
  
• Stuff Christians Like has turned into my new favorite blog, although I detest the writer, Jon Acuff, because he's so talented and funny, and, really, nobody likes those people. But you should read his advice on "Trying to find a new church," especially if the one time you visited my personal church there was someone dancing with a snake. That was an anomaly. Really. It's usually an iguana.
  
  
• In closing, this morning on The Today Show, during a report on the plane crash that took the life of former Alaskan senator Ted Stevens and several others, the reporter told us that "...accidents are a way of life in Alaska." Finally...a cogent explanation for Levi Johnston!
  

This Random Thursday post is going to be a little different than most, because I'm going to freestyle it, sort of like Kid Rock on the CMT Awards last night. Which, by the way, I didn't see because Debbie was off partying at the country club and didn't remind me about it, but I have viewed a few clips via the CMT website. I know most of you country music purists think that pairing Kid Rock and Hank Williams, Jr. is blasphemy, but it's stuff like that that keeps the genre commercially viable and allows the more traditional musicians to keep earning a living. That's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it. (Whatever happened to Collin Raye, anyway?)

Race Across America (RAAM - Motto: "Where'd that "M" Come From?") started this week (or continues to start...the women started on Tuesday, the men started yesterday, and the team race begins on Saturday). In case you're not familiar with it, RAAM is a bicycle race across...well, you know. People claim that the Tour de France is the world's toughest bike race, but I disagree. RAAM racers ride further than TDF riders, and they do it in days, not weeks. There are no rest days, no drafting, and no team support for the solo riders. Even the teams ride relay-style. The course features a horrifying 100,000 feet of climbing.

A couple of the solo women are riding recumbents. Barbara Butois hopes to be the first French woman to complete the race, and Sandy Earl is an American.

In honor of RAAM, let's check out a couple of cycling-related resources. There's something about the bicycle that makes people want to customize or improve on its style. I think it's the inherent simplicity of the basic form, and the direct connection between rider and vehicle that stirs the imagination. Here are two articles that showcase some beautiful and/or bizarre permutations.

I particularly like the model with the square wheels (in the second article), and also the bicycling monorail concept in the first article. Here's the demo video of the latter:

Scattershooting while contemplating a four day weekend...

• It's been a while since I wrote anything remotely Apple-fanboyish, so indulge me for pointing out that yesterday was a red letter day in that company's history, as its market capitalization at the close of trading exceeded that of arch-rival Microsoft. Market cap is for all practical purposes a meaningless number, but it doesn't seem like it was all that long ago that Microsoft was giving Apple a cash infusion to keep it afloat and bolster Microsoft's claims that it wasn't a monopoly. Actually, nowadays the term "arch-rival" probably imbues Microsoft with more credibility than it deserves. It's a competitor, and a strong one, but no longer the one that Apple looks for under the bed before turning in at night.
  
  
• We finally got around to watching Avatar (it feels good to be part of such an elite group of a billion others), and while I'll admit it considerably raised the technical bar for speculative fiction on film, I'm much less impressed with James Cameron's feel for the storytelling aspect of the genre. I can't help wondering how much better Avatar would have been if the science fiction details had been outsourced to the likes of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Neal Stephenson, or David Brin, with those gentlemen being able to pass along their creative visions to Cameron's ace technicians.
  
  Some of the details in Avatar were laughable, like the reference to unobtanium, the mystery substance for which the human corporation was willing to destroy another race to, uh, obtain. Besides being a lame name for such a supposedly precious substance, it's not even original. The vehicle used to bore a hole to the center of the earth in the 2003 movie The Core was constructed from unobtanium. (But even that reference wasn't original; bike magazines have been referring to exotic frame materials by that term for decades.)
  
  
• On the other hand, I'll watch any movie where Neytiri is the starring "actress." That's one hot CG alien chick.
  
  
• Speaking of hot alien chicks, I understand that Megan Fox wasn't invited to the Transformers 3 soiree. There goes the lone reason to watch this train wreck of a film franchise.
  
  
• If you follow me on Twitter (and why wouldn't you, other than it's the most boring thing in the world?), you can skip this next bit since I've already ranted about it there. But I'm getting fed up with those yahoos who think that the federal government is either more competent or more motivated than BP in getting the Gulf oil leak plugged. If I wasn't dead certain it would result in a significantly worse disaster than we're now seeing, I'd be in favor of turning the whole thing over to the Feds just so those folks could once and for all understand that the Feds are not the omnipotent, omniscient force they envision in their dreams (hallucinations?). [And, further, BP and the rest of the companies out there are not the uncaring, reckless, stumbling bozos the media is determined to paint them.]
  
  
• Ever wonder what the guys in the Dyson warehouse do when the boss is away? Me neither, but here's the answer anyway [Link via Neatorama]. I have to admit that those bladeless fans are definitely awesome.
  

• Last but far from least, and just in time for Memorial Day, here's a moving video produced by the Igniter Media Group in Dallas. This was forwarded to me by my pal Gene, who got it from a couple whose son worked on the creation of the video, and who happens to be a former Midlander. Good, powerful stuff.
  

Is this really the first day of Spring? I get confused about the date, and not just because the temperature is 50 degrees colder today than yesterday. I could Google it, but, you know...spring fever and all.

Anyway, now that The Gate is hung, I'm between projects (I'm contemplating trying my hand at building a fusion reactor in my garage next) and the weather is too bad for yard work (yay!) so, what the heck - I'll just do a little blogging.

• You should check out broadband.gov, the FCC's website devoted to that agency's plan to make high speed internet access available throughout the USA. On the home page there's a link to a broadband speed test that allows you to check your ISP's connection speed. According to this Ars Technica report, the FCC is doing this because it distrusts the self-reporting done by ISPs (gee...do you think ISPs would actually fudge their numbers? Say it ain't so!). The FCC's test provides two methodologies, the nuances of neither I'm qualified to explain, but for my cable connection, they provided pretty consistent numbers (averaging 7600kbps down, 1050kbps up, and latency of 43ms). Those numbers were a bit under the national average, but well above the median, at least on the download side.
  
  The interesting aspect to these tests is that the FCC requires you to provide your address, presumably so they can track how ISPs in your area are measuring up.
  
  
• Speaking of the Feds, the Department of Transportation has issued a statement to the effect that bicyclists and pedestrians will now be placed on equal footing with motorists in federal transportation planning. I may have a lot of beefs (beef? beeves? beauf?) with how the federal government views many issues, but anything it can do to make streets and highways safer and more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians is fine with me. Well, as long as it doesn't inconvenience me when I want to drive somewhere. Or raise my taxes. Or make me give credit to the Obama Administration. But, otherwise, I'm on board.
  
  
• Speaking of non-vehicular traffic, did you know that there's a commercial farm devoted to the planting, harvesting, and sale of tumbleweeds? You can have your very own organically-grown, hand-harvested 'weed for the low price of $25 (large), $20 (medium), or $15 (small), plus shipping, of course. Here's the thing, though: a "large" is defined as "20 inches in diameter and up." In West Texas, that barely qualifies as a "tiny." As I type this, there's a four-FOOTER residing in our neighbor's driveway, apparently trapped for eternity in the wind equivalent of a whirlpool. We've had tumbleweeds the size of Mini Coopers rolling through our neighborhood.
  
  
• Photographic Portfolio Recommendation of the Day: Brian Bloom. Guy has some amazing work on his site. [Link via Seth Godin]
  
  
• If you think a blog devoted to Christianity is probably insufferably stuffy and boring, then you obviously haven't visited Stuff Christians Like.
  
  
• Random photos:
• Extreme close-up of a record album groove (I know; you're too young to know about records. Tell someone who cares.)
• If Superman had a pet, it would be this one. (And if there was any justice in the world, doing this to a dog would be an offense punishable by fine.)
• This is one smokin' motorcycle. 

Finally, in the "Inevitable Technology" category, I give you FujiFilm's latest camera offering, the Finepix Z700, which features face detection for dogs and cats. But not every dog or cat; apparently some breeds are inscrutable to the camera's software. Those with "unrecognizable" pets are bound to get riled over such slights, which brings to mind a similar misstep by Nikon's human face recognition feature.  

Scattershooting while taking a break from what is nowadays my morning ritual: sweeping the sand left by the previous day's windstorm from our driveway. (At least this morning I didn't have to break out the shovel, as I did on Monday.)

• Doing our part to stimulate the economy, we immediately spent our tax refund (and then some) on new bedroom furniture. We didn't need new furniture, but realizing that our old furniture was purchased in 1981 made it seem somewhat more justifiable.
  
  Anyway, we now have a spare set of bedroom furniture (and a media center/armoire that's a bit newer), and we figure we might as well try to sell it, giving us the chance to spend some additional money before finally giving up and donating it. And, of course, I immediately latched onto the idea of doing a website for the task. Interestingly, I was able to secure a unique domain name for a year, and a hosting account for one month, for the total sum of $8.06. Amazing.
  
  If you're interested in seeing the furniture, you can visit the site.
  
  
• This graph has been showing up in various places across the web, but in case you haven't seen it, it demonstrates the zeal with which Canadians follow their beloved sport of hockey. I think this phenomenon has also occurred during recent Super Bowls, except in inverse fashion, as people stay glued to the TV during commercial breaks, and use the game time to take care of, um, other business.
  
  
• And speaking of graphs, where was this when I needed it during Mrs. Hayter's trig class in high school? This is an inverse graphing calculator, and it generates a series of equations that, when graphed, result in the phrase that you type into the form. We did this back in the day in said trigonometry class, drawing by hand a simple illustration, and then producing the equations that would map it out on graph paper. I still remember mine: a train locomotive. And I couldn't graph it today if my life, and those of everyone I know, and everyone I don't know, depended on it.
  
  
• And speaking of lives depending on something else, if you're a bicyclist in Midland and want to use Google's new bike route maps, be forewarned that doing so could be hazardous to your health. I just tried mapping a route from northwest Midland to downtown, and Google's recommendation advises the cyclist to ride down the Andrews Highway, one of the busiest and least bike-friendly roads in the city. Google's new offering obviously wasn't designed with West Texas in mind (or vice versa).
  
  
• And speaking of design (yeah, I'm stretching here), here are some beautiful examples of creativity, combining art with typography. Margaret Shepherd is a calligrapher who has discovered that a letter or word can do double duty.
  
  
• Ending on a more serious note, Roger L. Simon questions why a couple of noted commentators are refusing to support Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician now on trial for "hate speech." I don't take seriously anything Glenn Beck says, but Charles Krauthammer is a different story, and the implications of mistakenly assuming that Islam and Islamism have little or nothing in common seems to me to be a mistake with deadly consequences. Krauthammer should know better.
  

• You may have seen Rube Goldbergesque stunts before, but I assure you that you've seen nothing like this video from the pop group OKGo.

• Here's a bit of local news you Midlanders might not have yet heard. The pastor of Midland's First Baptist Church, Gary Dyer, is leaving at the end of this month to pastor a church in Austin. Dr. Dyer has been at FBC Midland for about fifteen years; he was just the third pastor my wife and I have had since coming to Midland in 1982. FBC is, in my opinion, at something of a crossroads, and the choice of a new pastor will be critical in determining its future direction. But, I guess you can say that about any new pastor.
  
  
• I found out today that one of my high school English teachers passed away, just short of his 90th birthday. Mr. Skylstad was born in Norway and came to America as a teen. There weren't too many Norwegian immigrants in Fort Stockton. I remember him as having a great love of the English language and literature, and of teaching. I can't honestly say that his class represented a great turning point in my life, but I do believe that he reinforced a love of reading and learning that I was fortunate enough to acquire at an early age. He also tried to teach critical thinking, something that I perceive to be sadly lacking in some of today's educational tactics.
  
  
• The practicality of this gadget for a bicyclist probably depends on the traffic conditions faced by the rider, but it has possibilities. I never ride on the street without a rearview mirror, so the ability to monitor traffic behind me via a video screen isn't something I need. But, of course, when it comes to geeky toys, need is basically irrelevant. Plus, it allows you to record an accident, which should result in some new dramatic YouTube videos.
  
  
• I have never claimed to be a graphic designer, but in my line of work, I can't avoid tasks like coming up with color schemes for websites. Adobe's Kuler is an excellent tool for the job, but it's complicated and a bit of overkill. That's why I'm thrilled to discover Elvan Online, a color generator that provides sliders for varying the colors, and one-click generation of a wide variety of palettes derived from a single color.
  
  
• Finally, while dealing with color palettes is plenty intimidating, riding a dirt bike on a rocky 12" wide trail at the edge of a sheer cliff is downright nausea-inducing. Exhibit A:

There are a dozen places along this trail where I would have plummeted to my death (if I was fortunate), for the sole reason that I have never mastered the art of looking where I want to go instead of at what I want to avoid. And when I look at what I want to avoid, I inevitably ride straight for it. (You know, there's a Bible verse that seems to address this very phenomenon, although it probably wasn't originally intended for mountain bike riders.)

Scattershooting while pondering the email I received overnight with a subject line of "Your income depends on the watch you wear." That would explain a lot, actually, given that I generally wear no timepiece.

• I understand that Elin Woods was so taken with Tiger's contrition during his "public statement" last week that she's given him a present: a Toyota.
  
  
• Speaking of silliness, I for one am enjoying the resurrected Filet-o-Fish TV ad from McDonald's, the one where the guy gets an MMS text from the singing wall-mounted bass while in his buddy's car. I'd like to see those two (the two guys, not the fish...although that would be interesting as well) become the new spokesmen for Sonic Drive-In. When I shared this observation with my wife (a prime example, by the way, of the kind of intellectual content typical of our dinner conversation), she replied "Why? They don't say anything." I nodded and smiled knowingly, confident that I'd made my point.
  
  
• I do wonder, however, how Apple missed the exquisite marketing tie-in, as the ad prominently features a BlackBerry instead of an iPhone. I'll bet Steve Jobs is a big consumer of Filet-o-Fishes. Or is it "Filets-o-Fish"? Anyway, perhaps the thought of seeing a perfectly good iPhone tossed from a car window was too traumatic.
  
  
• Speaking of trauma, it would almost be worth breaking an arm or a leg in order to show off one of these. Well, to be honest, it would be worth faking a broken arm or leg. But what would be even cooler is if your Castoo revealed a Terminator-like framework under your skin.
  
  
• Of course, Terminators aren't afflicted by broken bones, so that would be a little silly.
  
  
• Speaking of movie characters, I plan frequent visits to the "That Guy - Character Actors" website. It's a visual database of actors who have appeared in many movies and television shows, but who are not exactly household names. Be sure to read the criteria for inclusion at the bottom of the page. I particularly like the "No picture on IMDB" qualifier.
  
  
• And, finally, if you've ever wondered what it would be like to pedal a 5-seat bicycle, complete with three daughters under the age of eight, from Kentucky to Alaska, you should check out the Pedouins (get it? Pedouins...Bedouins? Nomads? OK, anyway...). They're now in the Malibu, California area, on the last leg of their year-long journey. It's quite a picture of "relying on the kindness of strangers."
  

A few random offerings while pondering what life might be like in a country where one's sporting excitement is provided by an activity named "curling."

• Velocologne is not a body scent for cyclists, but a German manufacturer of recumbent bicycles. Their design is rather unusual, as evidence by the following video:
  
  
  
  
  
  Did you notice? The bike's pedals are integrated with the steering mechanism, so you can guide the bike with your feet. (If you look closely, you'll see that there are also underseat handlebars for more conventional steering.) This also means that the bike is front-wheel drive, with a very short and direct drive train, compared to most recumbent designs. The mechanical efficiency appears quite high, but I suspect it takes some getting used to. Makes for a nice, clean rear wheel setup, doesn't it? [Tip via Recumbent Blog]
  
  
• Codeorgan is a web application that goes conducts a rather complex and, frankly, arbitrary analysis of a website and then converts that site's code into music (or, at least, a series of tones and rhythms that might be considered music after a long day of, say, babysitting a roomful of two-year-olds). Here's what the Gazette sounds like. It's got a good beat and is easy to dance to, so I'll give it a seven, Dick. [Tip via Neatorama]
  
  
• Ever wonder about the "last meal request" rules for death row prisoners? I do, sometimes, if only because I once read a science fiction short story about such a prisoner who made a pact with the devil: in exchange for his soul, Old Scratch would ensure that his last meal and ability to eat it would be never-ending (OK, that is sort of illogical), under the premise that the execution couldn't take place until he finished the last supper. The twist was that the dim-witted prisoner couldn't think of anything to put on the menu except beans.
  
  Anyway, Slate ran an article late last year about the topic -- last meals, not infinite beans -- and it has some interesting anecdotes about those last meal requests. As it turns out, most prisons make what can only be termed as reasonable attempts to accommodate requests. If you request filet mignon in Texas, you'll get a steak hamburger; in Virginia, you're limited to whatever's on the 28-day rotating menu (sort of like spending your last hours in a Luby's, I guess).
  
  The article points out that Texas used to post last meal requests on a website, until 2004 when someone protested that the practice was offensive. (How internet times have changed.) But thanks to the apparently immutable law that holds that nothing ever disappears from the web, you can still peruse the old list.
  
  (Long-time readers of the Gazette may recall that I blogged about this list back when it was still a real website. That post was deleted during the last site facelift, but I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll find an archived version. Surely you have better things to do.)
  
  
• Reed.co.uk is a British job-hunting website, and it's sponsoring a short film contest with the rather expansive and ambiguous theme of "Workplace." You can view the shortlist of finalists at the preceding link, but I'll save you some time and embed the best of the lot (in my humble opinion) here:
  
  
  
  
  
  This is worth watching a couple of times, just to catch the nuances of the acting and the script. It perfectly captures the basic dignity of honest work, regardless of where the job falls on an arbitrary social scale. I also recommend clicking over to the "director's cut" to see a slightly extended version, with an alternate ending.
  
  If you agree with my assessment, go vote for it on the Reed website (I just checked and it's got a slight lead over the competition).
  
  
• In closing, I direct your attention to this article at Archaeology entitled Should We Clone Neanderthals? Besides providing an intellectual framework for discussing the practical and ethical issues surrounding the re-creation of a primitive life form, it also allows the imagination to run free with all manner of political and social commentary. [Insert your own Super Bowl ad joke here.]