..at least not from glasses in your hotel room. A secret camera operation revealed that none of the hotel chains investigated properly washed the room’s glasses. Yuck! The fancier hotels always have actual glasses, not plastic cups, in the bathroom and near the mini-bar. They simply rinsed the glasses out, perhaps used a dirty bath towel to clean and dry, and placed them on the little paper cup doily for the next guest. The glasses always look clean, and you just assume that they would be, but with all of the things that the house keepers have on their rolling carts, do you ever see the heavy and bulky racks used to carry glasses? In some of the less fancy hotels, you are left with plastic cups individually wrapped in a plastic bag. I used to look at those a bit suspiciously but now certainly appreciate them much more.
If you stop to think about how gross a hotel room can be - stained bedspreads, bedbugs, dirty carpeting, smoke-stenched rooms - you can now add another item of to be skeeved out by.
Make a mental note, and tell all of your friends who travel.
A tree fell in my yard last week. I didn’t see it fall, so I can’t be sure it made a sound. However, I was sure that it was big and I needed to remove it. There was nothing tricky about it that would require any tree “experts”, however, it would require a bigger chainsaw than the small electric one I had used for clearing bushes. Like a true man, I don’t need too much of an excuse to buy a power tool.
Since women think that power tools are the male equivalent to their love for diamond jewelry, my wife assumed that a chainsaw must cost a few thousand dollars. Imagine her shock and disappointment as I showed her I could be outfitted for around $150.
Using the Sears.com site, I searched for chainsaw and got a good sampling of results that demonstrated this fact. However, looking a bit closer at the search results page gave me a bit of an eerie feeling that you can see for yourself:
Kind of an odd juxtaposition, but another example of what can happen on the dynamic and diverse web.
The story ends well, as I purchase the chainsaw and made much saw dust out of the tree. My next endeavor is rent a chipper to clean up the rest of the mess. I just hope I don’t run into that scene from Fargo.
I have never been on a cruise. Those years of watching The Love Boat on Friday nights simply never compelled me to try. As I got older, I heard stories of all the fun people had on cruises. Actually is was mostly about continually eating.
It seems that more and more, cruise ships are turning in to death traps. Maybe it’s not as bad as Titanic or The Poseidon Adventure , but over the past years it seems the list of dangers has made me avoid this form of vacations.
One of the big issues between creationists and evolutionists is the age of the Earth. Adding up all of the “who begot who” in the bible has the age of the Earth being around 6,000 years old. Science tells us that it’s at least “a bit” older than that.
Many of our notions about the Earth’s history are shaped in our early childhood. I think we can all recall toys, stories, and cartoons depicting “cavemen” coexisting (often not very peacefully) with dinosaurs. I mean really–the Flintstones even employed dinosaurs as household appliances. It’s no better today. My son has some toys called “B.C. Builders” built on this very premise. I am trying to figure out how to expain that dinosaurs and cavemen were not around at the same time. How is my 3-year old son to realize this major historical inaccuracy when he doesn’t even appreciate the irony that his plastic parasoralphous is derived from actual dinosaurs? Irony is wasted on toddlers.
Things haven’t changed much since we were kids–except maybe that the Brontosaurus is now the Apatosaurus. And although there actually were flying dinosaurs called Pterodactyls, all I hear about is the Pteranodons. What’s up with that?
I am ready if I every get asked why Noah didn’t bring any dinosaurs on the ark–”there wasn’t enough room.”
We have just moved back into our house after nine months of major renovations. Almost every aspect of the house has been changed in some manner, including a new kitchen and bathrooms. The two upstairs bathrooms both have brand new tubs: a traditional tub/shower in the hall bathroom and a whirlpool tub in the master bathroom.
Although I wasn’t ready to venture into the whirlpool, I did want to check that it at least worked, so I filled the tub with water. As it filled up to about six inches, necessary to operate the jets, I started noticing that the water was a very pretty bluish color. I didn’t think too much of it, focusing on the operation of the tub. The tub worked fine, creating frothy cauldron of water. I turned my attention back to the blue water and considered its source. Perhaps the internal plumbing of the tub has some kind of anti-freeze or lubricating residue that would be washed away. I didn’t think that it was the water as I never noticed this before. The water in the toilets, also white, had no blue appearance, although there is much less water in a toilet.
I checked the hall bathroom which is just a standard white tub and the water in this tub had the same bluish color. It must be the water. Nothing in either bathroom would create any hint of a blue reflection.
Now I had to question if this was new or had always been there? Our old tub was coincidently blue, so we never would have noticed.
My wife called the water department and told them how we had not been in the house for some time. The offered explanation was that perhaps algae had grown during the time of non-use and caused this color. We would not be making soup anytime soon. As a rule, we drink bottled water even when home. Normally, I find this practice kind of silly, but reconsidered this as prudent until I get to the bottom of this issue.
In researching what could be causing the water to be blue, I have found the probable cause to be copper in the water. The copper most likely comes from the copper pipes that transport the water through the house. There are a few reasons why the copper in the pipes could be dissolving:
Low pH: Low pH indicates acidic and corrosive water that can break down the pipes and would cause a higher concentration of copper.
New pipes: The copper in new pipes breaks down more quickly in the first year of usage.
Electrolysis: The water pipe that enters the house is normally used to ground the electrical system. A variety of different scenarios can cause a very small electrical charge to be present in the plumbing. This electricity can cause a chemical breakdown of the copper.
If the contaminant is indeed copper, I will need to find what is causing it and rectify it. I also need to do a bit more detective work to narrow down the mystery.
Action items:
We have emailed our neighbors to see if anyone else has noticed this issue.
I have a spigot right after the water meter in the basement that allows access to water prior to it going through the house plumbing. I will cart some buckets up to the tub to see if this has the same bluish hue. This should eliminate the new plumbing as a cause of the color.
I also have a fire hydrant at the foot of my driveway. If daring, I could check this water for color which would indicate that the issue is not specific to my house.
Get water tested for pH, copper, algae, and other nasties.
Casual games are generally defined as simple to play games that are engaging with no long-term commitment. The classics solitaire and minesweeper are popular examples. Start playing — have some fun — play again — repeat until your eyes are bleeding, fingers are sore, or you just cannot avoid doing what you are supposed to be doing any longer.
I have written about the excellent games at PopCap in the past and still enjoy their offerings. I even broke down and purchased Feeding Frenzy 2 after the demo expired because my 3-year old son also got addicted to the fish-eat-fish antics and excellent graphics. He has my genes, so his interest in computers and gaming are to be expected.
My current obsession is both seasonally appropriate and unexpected. In Rudolf’s Revenge, the object is simple: You start by having Rudolf mule-kick Santa at a strategic angle into the air. Elves in trees have candy canes that you use to give Santa a ”boost” higher through the forest trees collecting presents along the way. Sometime you can really launch Saint Nick like a rocket, and I seem more interested in how high I can get him than the presents or actual score. The upward trend doesn’t last forever though, and if you can’t keep propelling him upward, gravity begins to bring Santa back to Earth. Even though he collects presents along the way, once he bounces on his head on the ground, the game is over, so the trick is to use the elves to snag him and attempt to send him skyward once again.
The whole process probably should last only a few minutes. The flaw with this game however, is when you start to get good the game lasts a long time. Perhaps another flaw is that the game doesn’t get any less fun. The last time I played (which I may vow to be the last time), I bounced Santa Claus around for over an hour, where I found myself tensing while falling and holding my breath when speeding upward. I amassed a score of over 2 millions points (2,443,261), and achieved a maximum height of 8,597.6 meters.
If you enjoy casual and addicting games, I recommend Rudolf’s Revenge, but remember: you have been warned.
Here is a great original creation posted on YouTube. Two guys using stop-action animation for some neat effects. Makes you wonder how long it took to make, and how difficult it is to hover in midair.
Oprah Winfrey was not invited to Tom and Katie’s wedding this weekend. Oprah says she understands there are a limited number of people invited. That limit could be 1,400 based upon the capacity of the Italian castle where the wedding is expected to take place.
I think Tom has some mixed feelings about Oprah ever since his couch-jumping, arm-wrestling appearance on her show. A stylized rendition of that appearance appears below:
Everyone has experienced seeing a huge full moon rising in the distant sky. And we all have our theories on why the moon appears bigger when it is lower in the sky. Some include refraction through the atmosphere, the tilting of our head, etc. But the truth is, the moon’s apparent size remains the same at any point in the sky.
This is hard to believe when you are driving toward this huge orb, but alas it is. If you were to hold a ruler out at arms length and measure the diameter of the moon at any point in the sky, it would be the same. Our minds are playing a trick on us with something called the Ponzo Illusion:
The Moon, when it’s on the horizon, is interpreted by your brain as being farther away. Since it’s the same apparent size as when it’s high up, your brain figures it must be physically bigger. Otherwise, the distance would make it look smaller.
However, tonight’s moon will be about 12 percent larger than other full moons because it is at its closest point to the Earth along its elliptical orbit.
Global warming, melting ice caps, and holes in the ozone have not been a big concern to me. Avian bird flu doesn’t worry me, but I am very concerned if the latest problem becomes an inter-species issue–it seems that the genitals of polar bears are shrinking!
Many of our notions about the Earth’s history are shaped in our early childhood. I think we can all recall toys, stories, and cartoons depicting “cavemen” coexisting (often not very peacefully) with dinosaurs. I mean really–the Flintstones even employed dinosaurs as household appliances. It’s no better today. My son has some toys called “
” built on this very premise. I am trying to figure out how to expain that dinosaurs and cavemen were not around at the same time. How is my 3-year old son to realize this major historical inaccuracy when he doesn’t even appreciate the irony that his plastic parasoralphous is derived from actual dinosaurs? Irony is wasted on toddlers.
