Out of Idaho

This is an odd week, first, Seattle gets odd weather, and then we get a unique character modeling his ex-wife's wedding dress on ebay and stirring up a different type of storm.

40% of people agers 40 to 74 are pre-diabetic, we are increasingly overweight, and modest diet and exercise instead of drugs is a much more cost effective way to stay healthy.

That's all for today, I am going for a walk.

Last fall, I took a drive out to Port Angeles. This summer I want to explore a little further west. Seiku should be easily reachable by noon if I leave early. Cape Flattery Trail appears to be the most northwest place I could visit and it looks like it would be a great place to take pictures. If I don't want to spend my whole vacation in one place, this Five Day Trips list sounds great too.

To re-cap my participation of the 10th annual turn off your TV week, I unplugged my two televisions, moved them to a corner of the apartment, and I went for a week without captain Janeway, colonel Potter, Malcom, or Brisco and Green. I found a great used stereo receiver and CD changer. I bought a few CDs, walked more, read more, and started to clean out the clutter that I had been accumulating.

I am so happy with the change that I am getting rid of my TV sets.

I love this quote from the TV-Turnoff week website:
"The networks have for the most part abandoned people with functional I.Q.s." -- Dean Valentine, president of UPN, in The New Yorker, May 13, 2001

One article in this edition shocked me: "The deep-six fix".

The idea is to take Carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants and pressurize it and put it either in deep saline aquifers or creating a compressed carbon dioxide lake in the deep sea. This isn't just a wacko idea...people are actually testing out the idea in the real world.

So here is the problem that I see:
Assume we take this approach on a global scale and store 10 years worth of CO2 in a giant deep-ocean lake.
Now, what happens if the water pressure above this lake is ever greatly reduced? For example if a vein of solid methane is turned to gas?
Would we be setting the earth up for a super tsunami and a sudden release of 10 years of CO2 all at once?

I think the better approach is to change our behavior to reduce our dependence on energy sources that result in large quantities of additional CO2. Either that, or start re-foresting the land.

It is nice outside, go outside and enjoy the flowers.






Still not interested? Is your neighborhood conducive to walking?
Perhaps walking would help reduce crime in your area. If nothing else, it will give you some of the exercise recommended by the surgeon general.

More and more, I think we need to unplug all of our televisions and actually talk to our neighbors. I was out walking a couple weeks ago, along a busy street, and as I passed an apartment complex, I heard the distinct sound of an alarm. I stopped to investigate, walking around the building and I found the apartment where the noise was coming from. It was the noise of a fire alarm, but seeing nobody inside and no acute signs of trouble, I knocked on the door of a neighbor and asked them to call the landlord so that someone could investigate and make sure that there wasn't a hidden problem. The neighbor responded "Oh! So that is what that noise was. That has been ringing for hours," and then after some prodding she agreed to call the landlord to make sure that everything was okay.

Sometimes I wonder if watching the next episode of "24" or "Who wants to go on national TV and be tricked into prostituting yourself with someone that you think is a millionaire but really has no money" is more important to people than their neighbors are.

I have a hypothesis, and I am looking for more evidence, that walking around the neighborhood and talking to your neighbors improves your physical and mental health, provides a larger social support network, decreases crime, decreases abuse, and improves community involvement and relationships. As a result of this hypothesis, I am taking a stand today to work with my neighbors to help clean up the graffiti near my home.

My rant for today:

Copy protection just gets in the way. I went out and paid cold hard cash for a CD that I wanted to listen to, and I like to listen to music at work, but I don't want to carry around a stack of CDs...I want to listen WHILE I work without interrupting my work pattern to switch CDs every song for the mix that I work best with. The solution? Well, I copy the music to my computer of course! Well, maybe not. Every time I make a copy and replay it, the audio skips horribly and is massively distorted in the best sections. It plays fine straight off the CD. Apparently, some companies don't realize that people ALWAYS break copy protection schemes and that they are just de-valuing their product.

Until a few years ago, I HATED MUSIC STORES!!! I had no idea what I was looking for, had no idea how to find what I liked, and for that matter had no idea what I liked. Then some friends SHARED THEIR MUSIC WITH ME and I learned to LIKE music. Or to put it another way: The corporate music advertising and top 20's stations made me ignore the music industry for 10 years, but after listening to illegal copies of music I was able to find something that I thought was good and started BUYING music. If recording companies had their way, I would have never purchased anything from them!!!

Random stuff today:
Software that maps open wireless access points.
The Library of Congress studies how to preserve data on compact discs as they age.
Differences in the cost of living between some areas are surprisingly high, and another cost of living calculator that may be a little out of date but which shows a lot more detail.
Laws from the point of view of an Australian lawyer.

And finally, when the fast-paced life is seems too overwhelming or unhealthy, consider life at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Random stuff today:
A program for mapping open wireless access points. An interesting study by the Library of Congress on how compact discs retain data as they age.
A cost of living comparison that shows large differences between some areas, and another that may be a little out of date but shows a lot of detail on the cost differences.
An interesting article about laws from an Australian point of view.
Finally, when your fast-paced job is seems too overwhealming, consider life at the opposite end of the spectrum.

We increasingly work longer hours even when studies show that when we work longer, our productivity drops.

I wouldn't go quite this far, but some even propose a 4 hour work-day, a 4.5 day work-week, or other plans to move to a 35 hour work week..

However, I agree that working long hours can be damaging to your health, and frequently causes loss-of-life and isn't gaining the employers additional productivity.

It is turn-off-your-tv week...don't sit here, go outside and play!




See, isn't that more relaxing than playing on these?

Today, I started looking into reasons why insurance costs are so high. I didn't uncover much, but these articles provided some interesting bits and pieces.
http://www.das.state.ne.us/personnel/benefits/healthcarecosts.htm


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/02/eveningnews/consumer/main610102.shtml


http://www.startribune.com/stories/745/3447918.html

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/insurance/nw/nw003891.php3



The best explanations so far are that people are abusing the system and putting higher loads on the system with lawsuits, and insurers invest money in the markets and when the markets do well the insurers don't worry about loosing a little money on payouts so they set premiums low, but when markets do poorly, the insurers need to make up the investment losses, their overhead, and the payouts by raising premiums.

1. Using crops to remove heavy metal mining contamination from the soil.
2. Forming gold nuggets.
3. Producing nano-particles.
4. Another project using plants to clean up contaminated soil.
5. Collecting radioactive materials.
6. Using mustard greens to remove lead, sunflowers to absorb radioactive metals, and willows, poplars or bamboo as large organic water filters. Using halophytes to remove salt from soil, tomatos to remove lead, zinc and cadmium....and more. It is all phytoremediation.
7. Thousands of plants and their medicinal uses.

There are some interesting rumors going around that the military draft may be re-instated soon if the current wars that the United States is involved with don't end soon. The military claims that volunteers are signing up quickly enough. With the high use of reservists and the current spike in the casualty rate, I wonder.

How does this compare to Vietnam? Is our continuation of this conflict the best thing we can do, or is it really hurting this country too?

If a foreign power cut off imports for over 10 years, waged war on your country twice in 10 years, was currently occupying your country, removed a bad leader and was currently acting as your government, and in the current war one in every 3000 civilians had died, what would you do?

Have we stopped to consider the cost of our last war in Iraq?

And why are we there? A republican, ex-marine and former UN arms inspector says that 90% to 95% of Iraq's weapons were destroyed long ago, and that our elected leaders knew it.

The 10th annual Turn off your TV Week this year is April 19th through April 25th. For the first time, I think I'll try it this year.

A friend recently asked me how hard it would be to make an electric motorcycle. I started researching and found a pretty cool answer, and another, and a bike with sidecar. Apparently, with some electric vehicle parts, an old motorcycle chassis, some time and some labor, you too can make an electric motorcycle. Although, I hear that sealed lead acid batteries are rather fragile, so don't expect to take it off-roading.

For another interesting alternative, check out this hybrid motorcycle.

Well, it is Tax Day again here in the USA. Once again, procrastinators are banging their heads against a 80-page math problem and wishing that we would move to a flat-tax or some other very simple tax system as they struggle to get their returns in before the deadline.

Why is it that we have a tax system so complicated that I get forms from 6 different organizations and still end up paying money to make sure I don't make mistakes and pay my government thousands more than I am required?

How many people would be more upset with the size of our government if we saw our money before the government took it? The IRS has some interesting statistics on their website. With those statistics and a calculator, I come up with the average taxpayer* having paid the government $660 per month in taxes.

So, what did I pay for? Why don't more people take an active role in making sure that a large percentage of their spending is handled in the way that they want?



*The statistics are grouped by tax return...joint filers would be one person in my calculation.

Now this is the way to work from a list of interesting and somewhat funny efficiency ideas for micro-farming! This is cool too...For those of you that don't know, Project Gutenberg has freely downloadable copies of out-of-copyright books like this one that are still relevant references.

Given the prevalence of chemicals today, I was surprised to see that organic farming is more profitable and I wasn't surprised to see the Economist agree that organic farming is healthier.

While I am on the subject of chemicals, I thought it was a joke or a hoax when I first heard of it, but cremations are thought to be responsible for 9% of airborne mercury emissions! I still haven't found what I would consider to be hard numbers, but there are hundreds of references to mercury emissions from cremations listed in authoritative reports. How did we get to the point where our own bodies are toxic?

I find it funny that McDonalds is now offering a Veggie burger along with dumping the "super-size" and the new salads shortly after a damning documentary came out. At least restaurants are now starting to be more attentive to providing nutritional information, and I can only hope that they start to provide affordable balanced meals complete with fruit and veggies....hmmm...I wonder if anyone remembers what those are anymore.

I myself have been shocked when I stopped and realized that I hadn't had any fruit in over a week of eating in cafeterias and restaurants and I wonder how much of a factor this imbalance is in the nationwide trend towards obesity. The calorie count is definately a large problem, but is the solution more self-control, more regulation, or is there a way to get businesses to care about the health and well-being of their consumers?

While looking up information on alternative power systems like small hydro-electric systems and thinking about off-grid living, I found this interesting response to unemployment. It is more constructive than these responses (note, this was pre-dot-com-bubble).

Are our unemployment problems caused by the attacks of 9/11? The employment trends are interesting. With all of this economic turmoil, is the divide between upper and lower class increasing? Will the current workers jump ship when employment levels increase? Should we get used to the idea of frequently switching jobs?

I wonder what the stress of job uncertainty does to life expectancy...That sounds like a research topic for the future.

Scams seem to be everywhere today. I see so many email hoaxes and scams that I can't begin to count them.

Today, I recieved an interesting one. In itself, it wasn't quite a scam, but under the guise of church outreach, it asked information vital for a scammer to build a sucker list.

We have some laws but scammers are still a widespread problem.

Why we don't do more to prevent scammers from abusing the weak?

Are we too busy with our jobs to care? I find it interesting that scammers find the ederly an easy target because they often are lonely and eager to talk when scammers call. It would seem that we want to forget many of our elderly. I wonder what we would learn if we all slowed down to talk to our parents, grandparents, and other elderly.

While thinking of pedal power, row bicycles, and recumbent bicycles, I started wondering how hard it would be to build a lightweight, all-terrain, human-powered vehicle that could be used for moving materials, plowing fields, and any other "tractor" or "truck" task at a slower pace. Possibly something similar to this but lower to the ground, with a tank-tred, and with much more cargo capacity.

If you aren't using $50,000 pieces of farm equipement, do you need hundreds of acres of crops to make a living? I'm not sure...sounds like a research project for tomorrow.

Why doesn't the news ever report how nice the world is?

"News Flash: "In Ballard today, a woman who was
not brutally raped in her sleep last night woke up,
took a shower, and made breakfast for her children.
The children, who were not abused by their father or
their priest, do not hate their parents and have not
robbed their grandfather or set fire to their cat. The
father, who is not having sex with his secretary or his
wife's best friend, shaved and did not think of
killing himself or his coworkers as he prepared for
his day. His razor had not been stolen during a
burglary."
(Thanks to my creative friend Aaron for the news flash.)


Ah - It is not sensational, not gripping, not frightening, and not keeping you tuned in to watch the commercials.

Given the news hype, you would think that Wal-Mart is scared of the unions, individuals, and municipalities who are pushing back because of their worker treatment, supplier strongarming *, and harm to local economies among other things.

I'm not sure that I agree. Spending a million dollars just to overrule the politicians and get the right to place a new store might seem rather high, especially with they way that they pinch pennies, as they do with their employees and the families of their employees. Looking at those pennies again, $1 million is pocket change for the giant.

If my number crunching is right, with sales at the 2,713 Wal-Mart and supercenter stores of $40,900,000,000.00 ($40.9 billion) for one quarter at a 22% profit margin results in a little over $3 million dollars of profit from the average Wal-Mart store in the last quarter!

Maybe the real question should be, why didn't they spend a lot more money on this campaign?

Boycott Wal-Mart and other mega-chains. Support your local small business owners.

*If you only read one link, read this one.

I think it is time for some risks of modern technology. Starting with something we all probably know, TV is unhealthy. Paid hourly? You might want to check your paystubs. Credit and Debit card transactions are even subject to large-scale errors. Even printed bills are not immune to large-scale errors.
If you thought hanging chads were bad, do a quick search of the RISKS archive for "voting".

There are enough issues in software alone for quality to be a serious topic of study and to create a decent line of work for people who test software.

There has been a lot of discussion about gas prices lately, but a recent National Public Radio program got me thinking about the gas prices relative to inflation and I found this graph comparing fuel prices to inflation. Now, if you combine inflation with fuel efficiency improvements in the last 20 years and gas is actually rather cheap right now.

Gasoline may be relatively cheap, but do we really know how much more oil is in the ground? If our fuel is expensive now, consider how much fuel USA uses today, that China wants to emulate and/or surpass what the USA is doing right now, and that we have the earth well-surveyed. We aren't likely to find new large, cheap oil reserves.

Is it time to buy stock in bicycle companies? Maybe not, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure your next car can use biodiesel. Living within easy walking or bicycling distance of your workplace wouldn't be a bad idea either. As I understand it, some European countries even have laws requiring people to live within a few miles of where they work.

How is the economy really doing? I'm not sure I can trust the numbers anymore, or even that I ever really knew what they were talking about in the first place as jobs in candy stores, bakeries, and milk bottlers were already considered manufacturing jobs and high-tech software jobs like those at Microsoft are considered service jobs.

Then again, when economists talk about the economy, they talk in terms of GDP and not in terms of homes, jobs, and lifestyle.

It seems odd that there aren't numbers out there (of if there are, why nobody talks about them) that measure: percentage of income spent on housing, utilities, and food, disposable income, percent time spent working and traveling to work, number of jobs, percent time spent on leisure activities, job satisfaction, personal life satisfaction, and number health related issues.

Some veggie nutrition facts for a nice summer morning. Compare that to the nutrition of your favorite fast food or other boxed, canned, and processed food. And another nutrition facts site.

Even if you live in an apartment in Seattle, you may be able to have your own garden.

Medicinal Herbs, a tour through the University of Washington's Medicinal Herb Garden and links to some neat websites giving historical uses of various herbs.

Here are some pictures of things that seemed either odd or spectacular at the time. (Warning, they are large and will take a while to download over slow connections.) A funny road construction sign. An odd path covered in nut shells with a rebar and wood block edge. A lawn that has been overturned. This guy appears to have an uncomfortable job, the pipe he is sitting on carries hot water to the evaporative cooler that he is repairing. I'm not sure why a recycling garbage can filled with water raining from the ceiling when the sprinkler system on the floor above was accidentally triggered was is funny to me, but it was surreal at the time. I also liked the reversed sign on a local lumberyard. Finally, one of the best sunrises that I have yet to see in Seattle.

Hmm, genetically engineered rice that has been designed to produce drugs. I wish this was an April Fools joke.

Given the history of contamination in corn in recent years, and the allergic reactions that people have experienced, I am increasingly convinced that genetic modification of our food supply is a very bad idea and even if CDC study says that starlink corn is safe, we can see that biotech changes haven't been contained and the uses have not been limited to what was approved.