Silly nerds... these guys took a few memory cards containing 4 gigabytes worth of data, strapped them to homing pigeons who flew 100km away, and then compared the data transfer rate to that of ADSL (the pigeons were faster). Full pigeon write-up here.

"On Friday, March 12, 2004, a group of several dozen Internet addicts from Israel and abroad, gathered in the large grass yard of the OHALO Center near the Sea of Galilee. The purpose of the gathering was to witness a live test sending 3 homing pigeons to 100 km distance (see a map), each carrying tiny memory cards containing, in total, 4 GB of data."

Perhaps the next step for these nerds should be to ship a crate full of hard drives via FedEx overnight delivery? Surely that would exceed the data transfer rate of a few pigeons.

A group of really mature Iraqis decided they would set an example for other Iraqis (and perhaps people in general) by directing their frustrations at some American workers, killing them and hanging their burnt bodies from a bridge. Way to go, guys.

Here's an excerpt from a New York Times article ("Enraged Mob in Falluja Kills 4 American Contractors"):

"An enraged mob attacked four American contractors here today, shooting them to death, burning their vehicles, dragging their bodies through the downtown streets and then hanging the charred corpses from a bridge over the Euphrates River."

This post might be more at home in a category called "things crazy people do", but the closest category I've got is "fun". Check out the Niles Monorail and see for yourself (quick summary: a guy built a monorail in his back yard).

Finally, some good evidence that the RIAA is a bunch of money-hungry, lying bastards, thanks to this article from the Washington Post ("File-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales").

"Internet music piracy has no negative effect on legitimate music sales, according to a study released today by two university researchers that contradicts the music industry's assertion that the illegal downloading of music online is taking a big bite out of its bottom line.

Songs that were heavily downloaded showed no measurable drop in sales, the researchers found after tracking sales of 680 albums over the course of 17 weeks in the second half of 2002. Matching that data with activity on the OpenNap file-sharing network, they concluded that file sharing actually increases CD sales for hot albums that sell more than 600,000 copies. For every 150 downloads of a song from those albums, sales increase by a copy, the researchers found."

If you use Yahoo Messenger on Windows, here are some hidden emoticons. Some of them are animated, too.

Ghost Town is a photo-journal of what's left of the Chernobyl disaster. A Ukrainian woman named Elena rode her motorcycle from Kiev down to Chernobyl, snapping photos all along the way.

Snopes is such a great site. Cokelore - Bite the Wax Tadpole

Check out the results of this dialect survey. They asked ~30,000 people about various pronunciation and word choice questions, then tallied their answers up, and even drew distribution maps based on the results. I copied some of the more amusing ones below. I think I'm going to eat some shpitzel tonight.

111. What do you call the end of a loaf of bread?

1. end (17.29%)
   
2. heel (59.15%)
   
3. crust (15.21%)
   
4. nose (0.17%)
   
5. butt (3.53%)
   
6. shpitzel (0.05%)
   
7. I have no word for this (1.97%)
   
8. other (2.63%)

118. What do you call a drive-through liquor store?

1. brew thru (3.44%)
   
2. party barn (0.71%)
   
3. bootlegger (0.13%)
   
4. beer barn (2.84%)
   
5. beverage barn (0.81%)
   
6. we have these in my area, but we have no special term for them (31.35%)
7. I have never heard of such a thing (48.26%)
   
8. other (12.45%)

120. What do you say when you want to lay claim to the front seat of a car?

1. dibs (20.99%)
2. shotgun (69.04%)
   
3. hosey (0.33%)
   
4. high hosey (0.11%)
   
5. I have no term for this (6.57%)
   
6. other (2.96%)

Sigh... I'm still suprised that people don't understand simple concepts.

I found an article at CNN ("Study partly blames fructose for obesity jump") that says the current obesity problems are partially blamed on the increased use of fructose during the past two or three decades. Is this serious? Doesn't this imply that without fructose in our diets, people wouldn't be fat? Hello! Fructose or not, we're still talking about the same society that doesn't exercise at all, eats few (if any) fresh fruits and vegetables, and instead consumes huge quantities of salty, fatty snack foods and overly-processed fast food. How could it possibly make any difference if we removed fructose from the equation?

Why do people have such a hard time with the simple concept of balancing caloric intake with caloric burn rate? If you burn more than you eat, you lose weight. If you eat more than your burn, you gain weight. Simple as that. No smoke, no mirrors.

So if you burn 2,000 calories in a day but you eat 2,300 calories worth of food, you're eating more than you're burning and you will gain weight. Sure, that 300 calories isn't going to amount to a lot of weight by itself, but if you do that every day for 10 days you can congratulate yourself on adding a solid pound of fat to your body composition. Similarly, if you eat 1,700 calories but burn 2,000, you'll lose weight.

I don't understand why everyone tries all of the crazy, extreme diets (most of which don't work) without paying attention to the one approach to weight loss that consistently works.

Click to enlarge

Every now and then, I come across a photo of a world champion cyclist wearing much more than the standard rainbow jersey. I found this photo of Igor Astarloa at cyclingnews.com. I think it's fun when they get all rainbow'ed out during their year as world champion. Maybe he'll add some rainbows to his bike, too.

A small group of guys at the office were trying to decide where to eat lunch today, and one insisted on eating at McDonald's. He was really jonesing for french fries. So he went to McD's by himself, and the rest of us went somewhere else. When we were all back at the office, I got him to come over to my computer to tally up how many calories he just ate. Using the Nutrition Facts from McDonald's own website, we came up with the following:

I heard about Spin Sisters on talk radio recently, and it sounded interesting. The full title is Spin Sisters : How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness -- and Liberalism -- to the Women of America, and that ought to give you some idea of what it's about. Here's the description from Amazon.com:

"Blowing the whistle on a job she herself did for over ten years at Ladies Home Journal as editor-in-chief, Blyth reveals the almost institutionalized selling of a liberal/do-gooders message to women through chararacterizing women themselves as victims. Playing on women's compassion and ability to be hooked into "uplifting" stories with a moral or happy ending, American media has convinced the most well-educated, rich and healthy audience in history that they are miserable."

I'm curious to read this, since I'm already against mainstream TV and mega corp radio stations.

Doing a little informational reading at the CDC website, found this article titled Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000. Intro copied below...

"In 2000, the most common actual causes of death in the United States were tobacco (435,000), poor diet and physical inactivity (400,000), alcohol consumption (85,000), microbial agents (e.g., influenza and pneumonia, 75,000), toxic agents (e.g., pollutants and asbestos, 55,000), motor vehicle accidents (43,000), firearms (29,000), sexual behavior (20,000) and illicit use of drugs (17,000)."

Here's a good collection of pranks. Initially, I came across the one where he sends out clones of his Safeway shopping card to anyone who wants one, that way he aims to become the Ultimate Shopper.

William Hung has an album on the way, The True Idol. And somebody at work pointed out that a few exclusive tracks at the iTunes Music Store.

World Cycling Productions has finally started to release some of the older races on DVD, including the 1989 Tour de France where LeMond beat Fignon. I'd really like to get some of the early 90's Tours where Indurain dominated, but they're not available on DVD yet.

I found this recipe for home-made energy bars. I used to have a similar recipe, basically the same thing, only you had to run everything through a food processor.

• 1 cup rolled oats
  
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
  
• 1/2 cup oat bran
  
• 1/2 cup vanilla protein power
  
• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
  
• 1 cup raisins or dried fruit of your choice/chopped
  
• 1 cup chocolate chips
  
• 1 cup light Karo syrup
  

Mix all ingredients well. Pat out on wax paper into a large rectangle. Take a large knife and divide into bar shaped rectangles. Put these in Ziploc bags and freeze ‘til you need them. Simple. Easy.

It looks like things just took a bad turn for Microsoft in Europe. Talks broke down between the EU and Microsoft, and it looks like Europe is going to finally do what the American judicial system doesn't have the balls to do: punish Microsoft for behaving unfairly.

From this article: "The EC is expected to fine Microsoft between €100 million (£67 million) and €1 billion for having broken the European Union's antitrust laws."

Here's the statement from Mario Monti, the European competition commissioner:

Brussels, 18 March 2004

It is essential to have a precedent which will establish clear principles for the future conduct of a company with such a strong dominant position in the market.

Kinda interesting to see Miguel Indurain's speculation at this point. From what I recall, last year Indurain wasn't too positive on the likelihood of Lance winning Tour #6, but now he seems pretty optimistic. It's gonna be tough to wait another 4 months see how things pan out for this year's Tour.

From this VeloNews article:

"As we see him going now, and looking at his rivals, I see him with the capacity to win a sixth Tour," Indurain said. "I see him with the same motivation as other years and his results so far this year indicate he took care of himself over the winter."

"Physically, he looked good even though the last Tour there were a lot of problems," Indurain said. "It's obvious that the passing years don't count in your favor, because you lose your explosiveness and this has always been his strength. But you gain experience at the same time and that's important, too. Every year it's harder to find the form and it takes longer to recover during the races. It's essential to arrive in good form at the start."

The "helmet debate" seems to never die. It's kinda like talking about abortion, gay marriage, or Israel/Palestine - there are good arguments for both sides, and whatever your opinions, it is clear that neither side can convince the other side that they're right.

So yeah, helmets. There was a thread on a cycling forum recently about helmets, whether they should be required, etc. Here's the way I look at it:

Still don't agree? Just ask this guy.

Four U.S. missionaries killed in Iraq

This is definitely not good news, but I don't see why people in the U.S. should be suprised. What else should we expect? There's an extremely volatile situation in Iraq now (political, social, governmental) and a car full of white, American Baptist missionaries doing their best to spread their faith in a region that already has its own strong religious beliefs. I think it's great that these missionaries were over there to help, but it seems like we all should have seen this coming from a mile away.

Look at it another way: what would the Southern Baptists do if there were groups of hardcore Muslims scouring the southern states trying to convert them to Islam? I think it would be extremely likely that a few Baptist crackpots would respond badly. Don't forget, after the 9/11 attacks, there were several incidents around the U.S. where rabid Americans attacked mosques and caused serious damage to both people and their religious structures. But if we send a group of Baptists over to Iraq and they get shot, we act like we weren't expecting it. I guess most of us weren't, which is another good example of how ignorant Americans can be.

Click to enlarge

I found this posted on a bike website, pretty crazy.
Larger version here.

"For decades, the Chinese propagated the myth that their most famous creation was visible from space. Elementary-school textbooks in the world's most populous nation still proclaim that the structure can be seen by the naked eye of an orbiting cosmonaut.

Full AP article at CNN

About two months ago, I ordered a copy of my credit report from Experian. It was an online signup, and I remember agreeing to pay a small fee (maybe ten bucks) to get the credit report. I know you can get a free copy, but didn't know who to go through for that and $10 isn't really worth my time to investigate. So I just ordered a copy through Experian.

While going through the order, I had to agree that I would be automatically enrolled in some nebulous "credit safety" program for $89 per month. The thing is, once I had received the credit report, it would include instructions for me to cancel this automatic service. A little leery, I decided to proceed but made mental notes to keep tabs on this issue.

A month went by without the arrival of a credit report, and additionally there was nothing on my credit card statement from Experian (or any other name). I figured my request had somehow been foobar'ed, and nothing more would come of it.

Fast forward another month (to today), and I saw an item on the credit card statement for $89. Niiiice. I just got off the phone with those clowns, I asked them to remove the charge for their silly "credit safety" service (they did). Just to be sure, I said, "I'm not going to be billed for anything else from you guys, and I'm not part of any other recurring automatic billing thing, right?" To which the operator replied, "There is an automatic renewal in the program after one year. Would you like me to cancel that as well?"

Hmmm... how about yes? Why would I possibly want to stop a service (for $89!), but want it to kick in again after a year? Does anybody say, "No! Don't cancel that! I only want the service to stop temporarily, not forever".

It's like a prompt from the average Microsoft software product, "You are about to close this window, do you really want to close it? Once it has been closed, you cannot open it again! So are you sure you want to close it? Are you sure you're sure? We're serious! Are you really, really sure?"

Moral of the story: always check your credit card statement for fishy stuff.

I wish this were fake. We got into a conversation at the office about strange names, and I went digging for an article about this story. I remember hearing about it a few years ago.

"Kathy and Jason Curiel named their son Espn after the ESPN network that Jason often watches. Espn's room also reflects the family's love of sports. The room boasts a set of goalposts, a chalkboard to diagram game plays on and walls that are painted green with hash marks like a football field."

Full article

From The Wolf Files: Unusual Names for children named in 2000. Source: Social Security Administraion.

Jeeeez, this sounds really dumb. Low-calorie donuts? Come on! Hey people, how about stop overeating.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, long known for its high-calorie treats, says it plans to offer a low-sugar doughnut to attract dieters and diabetics. - CNN article

My buddy sent this article to me about The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964. The force of that quake (or series of quakes, really) is amazing; there are pictures too.

Yucko... "Pork products processed and distributed from the farm of accused Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton may have contained human remains, police and health officials said Wednesday."

Full article

Our neighbors, the crazy married couple, are going at it again. She's been in and out of their apartment over the past few months, leaving when she and her husband get in a fight. He's pretty much there all the time. The thing is, she's been in and out of the local psychiatric hospital more times than we know, but she doesn't take her medicine (not a good idea when you're crazy). So every and again they have a "domestic issue". Tthe cops have visited them 3 times tonight. A lot of the time the cops will directly ask her if she's taken her medicine, then she says no (big suprise), then they say she should, then she starts freaking out agian.

A few hours ago, we heard some rustling at our door. I got up and looked through the peephole and her head pressed up against our door, presumably to listen for signs of us being home (we had a movie on). I made myself comfortable on the couch to continue with the movie when the knocking started. She knocked on our door for 30 or 45 seconds, definitely long enough for us to deliberate back and forth about whether we should answer it. We decided to ignore her, probably for the best.

Don't get me wrong, if I could do anything directly beneficial I would certainly consider it. But we recognize that there isn't much to be done for a lady who routinely acts like a nutball. One night, she sat outside accusing her husband of hiding 4 people (including her dead brother) in the apartment with him while she had been away. That's one time I wish I had a video camera with me. She stood outside the door, yelling loudly, demanding all of these people to come out. When the cops finally showed up, she began explaining to them about these 4 people hiding in the closet (there were no people hiding in the closet). It was funny, strange, and sad to see this poor woman in such desperation. I talked to the police that day (on their way out), and they mentioned that this time of year was always hard on her (around Christmas), she starts hallucinating about her dead brother, and please if we hear any more noise just call the cops and they'll take care of it. They were totally nice about the situation, despite obviously having been through this before. I felt sorry for the cops. I mean, why become a cop? So you can go to the same apartment again and again, talking to a unemployed, overweight, smoking, crazy woman who stands outside her apartment yelling at imaginary people?

From Wired:

New images, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, of a time long ago and galaxies far, far away could shed new light on how the universe began.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field images and data, released Tuesday at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, provide the first glimpses of galactic activity from around 700 million years after the Big Bang, reaching back into our celestial history about 300 million years further than previous observations. Scientists say the UDF may reveal new clues about how galaxies formed and our how solar system originated.

This is pretty absurd. The Register has a brief news clip about the new 400gb hard drive from Hitachi. The claim is that the drive can store "400 hours of standard TV programming, 45 hours of HDTV programming or more than 6,500 hours of high quality digital music."

It's cool to see Julich in the press so much these days after spending the last 5 years in relative anonymity. Bobby Julich profile: Lost and Found. I'm torn between my 'dark horse' for this year's Tour, but right now I'd like to see it come down to Hamilton or Julich. It's still pretty early in the season though, so who knows. One thing's for sure: as the days go on, I'm less and less optimistic that Lance will be able to pull of his 6th victory. Maybe Tyler will win it, and then I'd be able to sell my signed posters on eBay for millions of dollars, then go into early retirement and hang out with my wife all day long.

I'm considering tying and soldering a rear wheel that I'm about to build, so I did some hunting for info (wire gauge, type of solder, etc.). I bought Gerd Schraner's The Art of Wheelbuilding a while back, and he writes that a well-built, tied and soldered wheel will basically last forever. I found a few things here and there, but this article looks like one of the most informative.

If I go ahead with this, I'd like to have as much information as possible. As with most things, I'm pretty sure that patience and care will produce good results. The first wheels I built (for my mountain bike) still stand and have needed only minor adjustments during the past few years.

Or maybe I should just title this entry "Lyle Lovett". My sister sent me this story from The New Yorker; it's pretty much about Lyle Lovett and where he lives (Klein, Texas). It's a looooooooong read, but might be worth it if you're into reading long articles about Lyle Lovett.

Hmm... have you ever wanted to Cook Your Way Into Her Pants? I don't know that they could be any more direct that this...

Note: ignore this if you're not into cycling...

Excerpt taken from CyclingNews:

George Hincapie: "The other day we were in Portugal and there was a young Rabobank rider away the whole day," he recalled. "He was away for 150 kilometres, it was pouring rain and it was a really nasty day. So we caught him right before the finish and after I went up to him and said 'hey man, good job, you were really strong today' and he looked up at me and said, 'No chain'. I thought that was pretty funny.

From a Yahoo news feed: "It turns out that Dasani, which is labeled as "Pure, Still Water", does not come from a bubbling brook or a mountain stream. It's tap water from a city water supply processed and bottled in a London suburb. Coca-Cola, the water's manufacturer, hasn't commented on the findings."

Update from The Register: "Tests showed [Dasani] water had high levels of bromate, which is sometimes linked to increased cancer risk. Coca Cola has since recalled the product in the UK. The British press already had a field day with Dasani after learning the product was purified tap water instead of spring water."

I did some reading on power measurement systems for cycling. Great source of info at bike.com. I copied the summary here, just in case the article disappears:

SRM – Best Performance

• Costs the most with little to be gained in the data quality department relative to the PT
  
• Better software/data analysis techniques than the PT and in the same ballpark as Polar
  
• Fairly easy installation
  
• Three models: Amateur ($1500, 2 strain gages, +/- 5% accuracy), Pro ($2300, 4 strain gages, +/- 2% accuracy) < This one was used for the review, Science ($4600, 8 strain gages, +/- 0.5% accuracy)

PowerTap - Best Performance Value

• Lower price with good data quality
  
• Easiest installation
  
• Below average software package
  
• Potential durability issues – rotating seals, wiring harness design
  
• Not campy Compatible
  
• Aero wheel issues during competitions
  
• Two Models: Standard ($699, +/- 1.5% accuracy), Pro ($899, better cadence and software)

Polar – Best Value

• Least expensive at $680 (~$300 if already the owner of the S710 HRM)
  
• Potential data quality issues (especially on trainer and capturing of max wattage)
  
• Difficult installation
  
• Good software package
  
• Lots of additional features (altimeter, pedal balance, etc.)

I learn somethin' new every day. Today I learned that the new $20 bills have RFID (radio-frequency identification) chips embedded within them. I also learned that if you put a $20 bill in the microwave, that chip is gonna explode. these guys put $1,000 (all in $20 bills) in a microwave and each bill exploded right in the middle. They've got pictures, too.

I just found out that my buddy Lowell is doing a Birthday Challenge in a few weeks. Here's the list of things he needs to complete within 24 hours:

• 320 push-ups
• 320 sit-ups
• 32 pull-ups
• Lift 32,000 lbs at the gym
• Run 3.2 miles in 32 minutes
• Complete 2 laps of the "hill of life", with a 32 lb pack, in 32 minutes
• Pet 32 dogs
• Eat 32 thin mint cookies
• Eat 3.2 Freebirds' Burritos
• Drink 3.2 Red Bulls in 3.2 minutes
• Drink 3.2 beers
• Drink 3.2 cocktails

Rockstar Games announced GTA San Andreas today, currently slated for October 19, 2004 release. It's likely going to be the same engine, and targeted exclusively for PlayStation 2. Having just finished Vice City a few months ago, I could easily spend another few months playing through another Grand Theft Auto.

From their news release posted today:

"Rockstar Games is pleased to announce Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the next iteration in the globally successful Grand Theft Auto franchise. Developed by world-class designers Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be available exclusively for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and is expected to be in stores in North America on October 19, 2004 and in Europe on October 22, 2004."

I saw this site a few months ago, and just came across it again. I probably didn't post it before because I didn't know what to say about it (still don't).

Go to the boohbah zone now.