Category: General
The 3 key parts of news stories you usually don’t get
Someone finally helped me understand why I don’t enjoy watching the news. It’s well worth the read, as is the linked article by Atul Gawande on the high cost of health care, which I linked to previously because I thought it was so excellent.
physi-cally fit
Biking 10 miles to work is almost fun. After all, it’s downhill nearly the whole way. Riding that same 10 miles home is not as fun, because it’s nearly uphill the entire way. But it keeps me in modest shape as it’s a challenging ride. But for the last 4 rides home, I’ve had a headwind all the way home. Tonight it was 6 mph steady with gusts of double that. I’ll sleep well tonight.
Texting While Driving: How Dangerous is it?
According to the research done by Car & Driver, it’s MUCH more dangerous than drunk driving. Wow.
Math Nerds, rejoice!
Ben Ruetz, Michael Surls, et al.
Been considering dropping $250 to pick up an old HP-15C on eBay? Consider it no more! HP just released iPhone versions of several classic calculators. Now you just buy an iPhone or iPod Touch, and the HP-15 app at the App Store.
Summer in Seattle.
Average temperatures in the 60s. Thirty straight days of sunshine (fantastic climbing weather). Completion of my ‘required’ climbs. Weather that begs and screams, “Go Play Outdoors, NOW!”
Fresh local produce, especially strawberries and bing cherries. (California strawberries don’t cut it). Berry bushes everywhere, laden with fruit. Halibut and salmon, fresh from the docks. It’s so good to be back.
The Myth of Prevention
A Doctor’s View of Obama’s Healthcare Plan.
In short, he agrees our healthcare system is broken. Obama’s plan is a step in the right direction, it isn’t enough to fix the problem. I’m sure glad fixing health care is not my problem to solve. In addition to two wars and a financial meltdown.
Iphone 3.0 + MS sync?
Are you wondering if upgrading to iPhone 3.0 will let your iPhone play music through your Microsoft Sync equipped car stereo via Bluetooth? The answer is yes!
TV in the 21st century
Projector technology finally became bright enough to use in daylit rooms (~2000 lumens) and dipped below $1k for HD models. I picked up a projector last year and then an AppleTV over the holidays. My entertainment center is now miniscule compared to times past.
- Epson Powerlite 720P HD projector
- 26″ LCD HDTV
- HDMI 4 x 2 switch
- Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speaker system
- Apple TV
- 4 HDMI cables (projector cable is 30′ long)
- 1 Toslink cable
The only ‘analog’ cabling is from the Logitech amp to the speakers. The HDMI switch is a splitter with one cable going to the Projector and another to the TV. It drives both simultaneously with no hiccups. It has 4 inputs, with one from the AppleTV, another for my laptop, and 2 for future use. Audio is routed to the TV via HDMI and from the TV to the Logitech control center via Toslink.
The only fiddling with cables required is when using my laptop. I have to connect a HDMI<->DVI adapter to my MacBook Pro for video, and connect the Toslink cable from the Logitech to my laptop. Between the Apple TV and laptop, I can stream iTunes, NetFlix, and Amazon movies to both screens.
Why Spending Cuts Aren’t The Answer
…
Although it is extremely hard to cut existing programs, it is easier to avoid launching new ones. But much of the new spending proposed by the president is for public investments with high rates of return. Failure to make these investments will actually make us poorer. For instance, if the government borrowed a trillion dollars at 4 percent and invested the money in projects with an annual return of 7 percent, we’d actually be richer each year by $30 billion than if we hadn’t made those investments. And because investment in the public sphere has been neglected for decades, there are thousands of shovel-ready projects with extremely high rates of return. — Robert Frank
Thank you Robert, for helping me see the silver lining in that $700b stimulus package.
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