We are having sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph right now!

chuckle

Just so we know who we are dealing with...

I just received one of those hoax e-mails that incorrectly tries to attribute something awful to John Kerry, John Edwards, the Democrats, the liberals, etc. In this case it was saying that John Edwards indirectly caused the flu vaccine shortage because of a lawsuit he brought against an American flu vaccine manufacturer in the '80's.

Here are multiple sources disproving the story:

Snopes
about.com
TruthOrFiction.com

One point lead over the incumbent three days before the election? Victory! Victory!

If you thought the campaign was dirty and ugly, I predict that post-election will be even worse.

At least Bush doesn't try to manipulate the facts to make himself....oh, never mind.


[story]

I do feel safer that Bush immediatly went into Afghanistan after 9/11 and took care of Osama Bi.... oh, never mind.


[story]

Liar liar pants on fire!

A senior scientist at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that is an international authority on image analysis prepared these images. (I guess NASA is going to lose a lot of funding if Bush gets reelected!)

You can read the whole store here.

Dear ESRI User Community:

The U.S. elections are quickly approaching, and we want to tell you about an exciting project that ESRI has been working on with CBS Evening News. ESRI has created a vast collection of demographic and results maps that are scheduled to be displayed several times during election night by correspondent John Roberts. On November 2, you can tune in to CBS to see many firsts for geographic information systems (GIS) and TV media such as:

• First use of GIS to report U.S. presidential election results on election night
• First maps showing up-to-the-minute county-level results
• First maps showing results in 3D
• First maps showing detailed demographics

The election maps highlight the use of ArcGIS 9 in the following ways:

• We used the new geoprocessing tools for data processing.
• We will use ArcGlobe to show which presidential candidate is leading in each county by extruding the polygons as the votes come in. We will stitch the frames together to form an animation.
• Enhanced cartographic tools gave us out-of-the-box TV quality maps.
• ArcGIS Engine will enable us to generate hundreds of maps each hour on election night. In the past few weeks, we used ArcGIS Engine to generate thousands of demographic maps.

Visit www.esri.com/elections to learn more about how GIS is used to support election mapping.

This is the software I use everyday! Yeah GIS!

ArcGIS 9 will be used to visualize the U.S. Presidential Election voting results during the election evening coverage on November 2. John Roberts, a correspondent for CBS Evening News, will use ArcGIS 9-based maps several times during the evening broadcast.

I interviewed for a Customer Engineer position yesterday at a professional mapping company providing clients throughout the United States with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), tax parcel maps, digital aerial orthophotography, soil computation, tax map atlases and a variety of special services. Our firm provides GIS solutions that fulfill the mapping requirements of both government agencies and the private sector.

Aerial of the University of Toledo.

[click for larger image]

It looks like this will be a huge part of what I will be doing next year, and probably a good part of 2006.

I idolize Jon Stewart.

I just heard with my own ears Rev. Falwell, in regards to terrorists, say “we should blow them all away in the name of the Lord!”

It was at 12:43 PM CDT on CNN’s Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer.

Excerpts from the results of a national survey. Amazing! [full story]

Supporters of President Bush are less knowledgeable about the president's foreign policy positions and are more likely to be mistaken about factual issues in world affairs than voters who back John F. Kerry, a survey released yesterday indicated.

A large majority of self-identified Bush voters polled believe Saddam Hussein provided "substantial support" to Al Qaeda, and 47 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the US invasion. Among the president's supporters, 57 percent queried think international public opinion favors Bush's reelection, and 51 percent believe that most Islamic countries support "US-led efforts to fight terrorism."
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The polls results, said Steven Kull, the head of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, which conducted the survey, showed that Americans are so polarized two weeks before the election that many lack even a common understanding of the facts.
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On other international issues, the survey found that around 70 percent of Bush supporters responding believe that the president supports participation in the land mine treaty and the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, and a narrower majority believes he supports the International Criminal Court and Kyoto Accords. In fact, Bush opposes all four treaties.
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Kull said it is common for voters to tailor their views on particular issues to those of the candidate they favor overall, but the extent to which Bush supporters are filtering out news from Iraq that might reflect poorly on the president is unprecedented.
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And many of the Bush voters surveyed knew that the Duelfer report said Hussein had no WMDs, but continue to believe that he did regardless.

Kull suggested the dissonance among Bush voters reflects the country's difficulty coming to grips with the discrediting of the rationale for the Iraq war.

"This period will really stand out as when the US went to war on assumptions that turned out to be incorrect," he said. "The body politic is still struggling to come to terms with that."

This is where Mom and Dad keep their boat now.

To zoom in and out of these pictures look to the left side of the screen under the compass rose. Click the "-" button to zoom out, and the "+" to zoom in. You can also zoom in by just clicking on the picture. I already have them zoomed in as far as you can go, so when you first get to the pictures you can only zoom out.

This is an aerial photograph of the area on the Ottawa River in Toledo where we docked our boat when I was growing up. Our docks where the single row that extends out into the river and is directly south of the largest complex of docks, which was River View Yacht Club. Our club was called the Jolly Roger Sailing Club.

The first only utility-scale wind farm in Illinois is about an hour's drive west of us. It is called Mendota Hills Wind Farm, and they have 63 wind turbines. The height of the hub of each turbine is 213 feet. The rotors have a diameter of 171 feet, which means the total height of each turbine is 298.5 feet, which is about the height of a 30 story building. This farm produces enough power for about 15,000 homes. I think I would like to take a day-trip there to take some pictures. I think this is very close to Dixon, Il which is where Ronald Reagon grew up. That could be interesting too.

Don't you hate it when you try to lick the jam from a knife and you cut yourself?

I think Jon Stewart started it and set the tone by calling them hacks, but it was disappointing that a comedian could get under the skin of supposedly world class CNN commentators.

I think it is very telling in the country that what could technically be the most conservative organization in the US, the ACLU, has been successfully portrayed politically as extreme liberal.

The reason for this is people assume traditional conservativism and the current Republican party both stand for the same thing. They do not.

"Guinea pig: it's what's for dinner."


A super guinea pig with her litter looks on at Agrarian University in Lima, Peru on Friday, Oct. 15, 2004. After 34 years of patient tinkering, researchers at Peru's most prestigious agrarian university have bred a new culinary export they hope will scamper onto dinner plates throughout America and the world: the super guinea pig.

[They definitely need to work on their catch phrase.]

If a politician says he/she is "personally opposed to abortion, but supports a woman's right to choose," incurs automatic excommunication from the church, shouldn't the same be true if a politician supports the death penalty?

[full story]

The Selective Service has been updating its contingency plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in case of a national emergency that overwhelms the military's medical corps. [full story]

Bush did say that he would not draft soldiers. He didn't say anything about doctors and nurses!

"...The combination of the vaccine shortage, more than 80 million Americans at high risk of flu complications, and a nationwide emergency department crowding crisis, means America's emergency physicians and nurses are faced with the prospect of the 'perfect storm' -- a surge of critically ill flu patients and no resources to care for them..."

[full story]

Everyone that has seen Team America: World Police has said it is the funniest movie of the year, or maybe even ever.

[official site]

I am admittedly not much of a baseball fan, but I don't understand how anyone can get excited about the New York Yankees. From what I know about baseball (I could be wrong, so please correct me if I am.) the Yankees have the highest payroll of any other team. Therefore all of the best players that the Yankees want are going to get hired there.

So to me watching the Yankees would be like watching the Chicago Bears play the Ohio State Buckeyes. If the Bears win, big deal; what did you expect. If they lose it is such a pathetic embarrassment.

Please agree or disagree with me, and if you disagree, please explain why I am wrong.

(P.S. No Bears or Buckeyes jokes.)

Sheri's doctor wants her to take an enormous (in RDA, not in physical size) B12 supplement. I was reading the bottle and one pill has 16,667% of the RDA of B12! That means that only three tablets provide an entire years worth of B12.

So I looked up B12 and it turns out I think I agree with her doc. I think I will start taking one of these every day as well. Below is what I found. (I have bolded what I thought were the most important points in case you want to skim, Lisa.)

==================

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is an important water-soluble vitamin. In contrast to other water-soluble vitamins it is not excreted quickly in the urine, but rather accumulates and is stored in the liver, kidney and other body tissues. As a result, a vitamin B12 deficiency may not manifest itself until after 5 or 6 years of a diet supplying inadequate amounts. Vitamin B12 functions as a methyl donor and works with folic acid in the synthesis of DNA and red blood cells and is vitally important in maintaining the health of the insulation sheath (myelin sheath) that surrounds nerve cells. The classical vitamin B12 deficiency disease is pernicious anaemia, a serious disease characterized by large, immature red blood cells. It is now clear though, that a vitamin B12 deficiency can have serious consequences long before anaemia is evident. The normal blood level of vitamin B12 ranges between 200 and 600 picogram/milliliter (148-443 picomol/liter).

A deficiency often manifests itself first in the development of neurological dysfunction that is almost indistinguishable from senile dementia and Alzheimer's disease. There is little question that many patients exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's actually suffer from a vitamin B12 deficiency. Their symptoms are totally reversible through effective supplementation. A low level of vitamin B12 has also been associated with asthma, depression, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, tinnitus, diabetic neuropathy and low sperm counts. Clearly, it is very important to maintain adequate body stores of this crucial vitamin.

The amount of vitamin B12 actually needed by the body is very small, probably only about 2 micrograms or 2 millionth of a gram/day. Unfortunately, vitamin B12 is not absorbed very well so much larger amounts need to be supplied through the diet or supplementation. The richest dietary sources of vitamin B12 are liver, especially lamb's liver, and kidneys. Eggs, cheese and some species of fish also supply small amounts, but vegetables and fruits are very poor sources. Several surveys have shown that most strict, long-term vegetarians are vitamin B12 deficient. Many elderly people are also deficient because their production of the intrinsic factor needed to absorb the vitamin from the small intestine decline rapidly with age.

Fortunately, oral supplementation with vitamin B12 is safe, efficient and inexpensive. Most multi-vitamin pills contain 100-200 microgram of the cyanocobalamin form of B-12. This must be converted to methylcobalamin or adenosylcobalamin before it can be used by the body. The actual absorption of B12 is also a problem with supplements. Swallowing 500 micrograms of cyanocobalamin can result in absorption of as little as 1.8 microgram so most multivitamins do not provide an adequate daily intake. The best approach is to dissolve a sublingual tablet of methylcobalamin (1000 micrograms) under the tongue every day. That will be sufficient to maintain adequate body stores. However, if a deficiency is actually present then 2000 microgram/day for one month is recommended followed by 1000 microgram/day. Some physicians still maintain that monthly injections of vitamin B12 is required to maintain adequate levels in the elderly and in patients with a diagnosed deficiency. There is however, no scientific evidence supporting the notion that injections are more effective than sublingual supplementation.

This is a picture I took yesterday of a goldfinch eating thistle from our thistle sock. Notice how he is not gold right now. They turn this color in the fall and winter. In the spring and summer they are as bright yellow as a canary. Very fun!

[click for larger image]

Last Sunday in Toledo we went to the Grand Rapids Apple Butter Festival. After the festival we stopped at the Isacc Ludwig Mill. It is a working lumber mill and a grist mill. I bought four pounds of freshly milled flour for only $2! Yesterday I made bread dough with it. I let it rise for a few hours, punching it down two or three times. After the last punch down before bed I put it in the fridge.

I will take it out of the fridge soon and let it rise for one or two more punch downs and then bake it. I find that I get a much better, and more complex, tasting loaf of bread when I let it proof for a long time. The texture, crust, and flavor all improve dramatically. Kind of like sourdough bread without the sour taste.

This link will take you to an aerial photograph of the Grand Rapids area and the the mill. The mill is on the north side of the river and west of the bridge. There is a little notch in the river's edge just south of the mill. This is where water that has just come through the mill's turbine exits into the river.

There is a canal on the north side of the river. The canal is higher than the river, and it is this difference in water height that runs the mill. There is also a mule drawn canal boat the operates on the canal and goes through one of the locks. Neat stuff.

This is the mill looking south. The water on the right side of the picture is the canal. It goes under the mill, turns a turbine, and exits into the river.


Same picture but showing more of the canal.


This is looking north at the mill from the river. You can see the area under the mill where the water enters the river. The first floor is the lumber mill. The second floor is the grist mill. Third story I think just holds machinery, belts, etc. Kind of like an elevator shaft.


Grinding Through Time - The Historic Isaac Ludwig Mill
A short article about the mill and its history.

People don't use the word "shizzle" nearly as much as they should.

Here is this season's first flu activity map. This is going to be a very interesting flu season to watch unfold. Stay healthy; wash your hands.

When we got home Monday we found that the city had removed the light pole in front of our house and replaced it with the worlds brightest street light. It is almost ridiculous. When we go upstairs for the night there is so much light coming in from the front door windows that it looks like we have our porch lights on.

I love it when I can cheer for the bull!

I am obviously not going to try this out, but I would be very interested if a dessert eater would try this out and let me know how it tastes.

I heard on the radio that you can make an amazing chocolate cake from a box mix simply by substituting the water you are supposed to add to the mix with regular (not diet!) Coca Cola. Keep everything else in the directions the same.

Bob Dylan used to be cool. Now I think he looks like a big weirdo.

Sheri forwarded this e-mail to me that was generated from her company's internal employee recognition system.

Sheri,

You have been recognized as a Leader. If your manager was not copied on this e-mail, please forward to him/her.

Recognition Date: 10/13/2004
Recognized By: Roger P.

Improved a customer/client/associate experience by:
We were having problems determing why ESM was failing for over 50% of our Unix servers. Sheri took the time to investigate and determine the service wasn't properly installed and she managed the installation to increase our install rate from 48% to 93%. In addition, Sheri checked and installed Tivoli on several servers. Without Sheri's help, software install and system audits wouldn't be possible.

At work they sent around this picture asking what color we preferred for the wheels of our new snow plows. What do you think?

Oil has passed $54 per barrel today! Sell your SUV's!

Home from a busy week of visiting family, Lake Erie perch fishing, Lake Erie perch cooking, new stereo connecting, programmable-thermostat installing, new PC configuring, fossil digging, apple butter festival attending, tire inflating, Notre Dame University visiting, and probably a half dozen other things I am forgetting. Details to follow.

WOW! This clock will be mine one day!



Get the point? 3,000 precision engineered pins move automatically to display hours and minutes on this innovative clock. As they click into place it sounds just like a European rail station timetable! 8 1/2"l x 4"w x 3 1/2"h.

Mom,

This was the web page I was telling you about that will let you see a map of a latitude and longitude.

I also added it as a permanent link on the right side of my blog page called "Create map from latitude and longitude".

I will try e-mailing it again. Not sure why you are not receiving it.

It is a 62.5 mile round trip every day to get to work. At 27 mpg I use 2.31 gallons of gas per day. At the current price of gas in our area of about $1.91 it costs me:

$4.41 per day
$22 per 5-day work week

Hmmmm...

Someone just told me that my new haircut makes me look mean and scary. Maybe I will post a picture.

Do you see the red pick-up truck that is in the most north-west position in the picture and is right by the corner of the building? That is where I park every day!

Holy crap! Get yours soon. This is going to be serious. This will mean there will be less of a herd immunity. Don't forget how serious the flu was last year. It is only going to get worse.

LONDON Oct. 5, 2004 — Global and U.S. health officials warned Tuesday of major flu shot shortages after British health officials abruptly pulled the license of the maker of half the U.S. vaccine just as flu season was about to begin.

The news means the United States will face "a significant shortage," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health's infectious disease chief.

[Additional stories]

Analog TV broadcasts are scheduled to stop by December 31, 2006, which is less than 2.5 years away. After that date if you do not have a digital TV or a digital TV converter box you will not be able to watch TV.

The only thing that can push back that date is if fewer than 85% of the homes in a given broadcast area have not upgraded to the new digital hardware.

The federal gubmint (FCC in particular) is very anxious to make this conversion happen because they already have a bunch of uses planned for the old analog frequencies. Right now broadcasters are simulcasting on both the analog and digital frequencies during this transition period. The FCC has even set up a web site to get people to convert to digital TVs and answer any questions. The site is www.dtv.gov.

The bottom line is if you are thinking about buying a new TV soon, do not buy an analog one. If you do you will have to buy a digital converter box in a couple of years, and the picture won't be as good as if you bought a digital set to begin with.

We have a 36" CRT that we bought three years ago that still has a lot of life left, so we will probably end up buying a digital converter in the next year or two. If we had to replace the set tomorrow I still don't know which technology I would go with. As I mentioned the other day the current options are:

Plasma
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
DLP (Digital Light Processing)
LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon)

You know I will be writing more about this in the future. If you have any questions please ax.

Microsoft has been conducting a national poll to determine America's favorite zoo. Today they announced the 15 finalists, and low and behold, the Toledo Zoo is on the list. In case you have never been there it is the best zoo that I have ever been too. The second best zoo I have been too is also on the list which is here in Chicagoland; the Brookfield Zoo.

The poll is a tie-in for a game they are about to release called Zoo Tycoon2.

Anyway, to cast your vote, hopefully for the Toledo Zoo, go HERE. Thanks!

All Illinois residents can now order prescription drugs from outside the US for way cheaper prices. The website is www.isaverx.net. Go to the site and compare what you currently pay for prescrition drugs with what it would cost if you lived in Illinois.

I checked one of my diabetes drugs and it is about the same price as I pay through the mail order drug program that is part of Sheri's medical coverage through work!

We should get the new aerial photographs of the county in about a month. They have a resolution of six inches! Think of it: 524 square miles that is completely photographed at six inches of resolution! I can hardly wait. Chances are good that my car will be pictured while parked in the building's parking lot. I will post an image if it is. I just looked at the 2001 image of our building and it must have been photographed on a weekend because there are only county vehicles in the parking lot.

We get updates every three years. We commission the photography from The Sidwell Company.

It is once again that time of year for you to get your flu shot, and for me to keep harping on you until you get one.

Here is a link to a national flu shot locator that is run by the American Lung Association.

The following are the people that are considered at high risk of complications from the flu and should defiantly get their vaccine:

• Are a child aged 6-23 months.
  
• Are between the ages of 50-64 years.
  
• Are 65 years old or older. Pneumonia and Influenza are the fifth leading cause of death for people over 65. Only about 69% of Americans 65 years and older receive the flu shot annually. These people should also get the pneumonia vaccine. Unlike the flu shot, this is a once in a lifetime shot and can be given at the same time as a flu shot. Medicare pays for both flu and pneumonia vaccines for people over 65.
  
• Are a resident of a nursing home or other chronic-care facility that houses people of any age who have chronic medical conditions.
  
• Have chronic disorders of the pulmonary or cardiovascular systems, including asthma. Asthma is not exacerbated by the injection of the influenza vaccine according to an American Lung Association study. (N Engl J Med 2001; 345:1529-36.) However, only 10% of children with asthma and 39% of adults with asthma get the flu annually.
  
• Have required regular medical follow-up or hospitalization during the preceding year because of chronic metabolic diseases (diabetes), anemia, kidney disease, or immunosuppression (HIV).
  
• Are a child and or adolescent (6 months to 18 years old who is receiving long-term aspirin therapy and, therefore, might be at risk for experiencing Reye syndrome after influenza infection.
  
• Are a woman who will be pregnant during the influenza season.
  
• Can transmit influenza to those at high risk such as health care professionals, employees of nursing homes and other chronic care facilities, providers of home care, household contacts (including children) of high-risk persons and out-of-home caregivers of children 0-23 months.

Useless Fun-Fact of the Day

An inclined railway is also called a funicular.

I just got done cutting the grass; applying some 30-3-3 lawn fertilizer; and refilling the thistle sock with thistle seed for the goldfinches.

We are going to take Pete the dog that we were babysitting for a friend back home, and then go to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner.

I would never buy a plasma screen (unless the price dropped to something like under $600), which leaves LCD, DLP, and LCOS. I think I am leaning towards the last two (DLP and LCOS).

Do any of my gentle readers have an opinion they would like to share on this topic.

Thanks.

We got ourselves a Sony camcorder for Christmas two years ago at Best Buy. They had a two year same as cash promotion going on, so we did it that way. I just paid the balance of the camcorder off. On the statement is said the deferred finance charges are $290! I bet a lot of people get themselves in trouble forgetting about paying the balance off in time and then get hit with these huge finance charges.

This is our new favorite margarine. It is delicious. It is one of those rare times in life where something that tastes indulgent is also good for you.

They have a regular version and a light version. We got the light one.

One tablespoon-sized serving has 300 mg of omega-3 fatty acids from flax seed oil. The American Heart Association recommends that people with coronary heart disease eat about 1,000 mg of omega-3's per day. The ways that omega-3's help your heart are:

- decrease risk of arrhythmias, which can lead to sudden cardiac death
- decrease triglyceride levels
- decrease growth rate of atherosclerotic plaque
- lower blood pressure (slightly)

There are scores of other non-coronary benefits of omega-3's as well.

Smart Balance also does not contain any trans fats. Trans fats are created when they hydrogenate oils. Hydrogenated oils take a healthy liquid oil and change it into a solid oil. Not only does hydrogenating an oil turn it from a healthy mono- or poly- unsaturated fat in to a saturated fat, the properties of trans fats are much more harmful to your body than naturally occurring saturated fats like bacon fat! Who would have thought?

Our previous favorite margarine was I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light. They made their margarine firm by adding some gelatin.

Smart Balance makes their butter firm by adding palm fruit oil. It is a saturated fat that is solid at room temperature, but it has no trans fat. It also has a lot of antioxidants, including beta carotene, and tocopherols and tocotrienols, which are vitamin E components.

The oils that it contains are:

Palm fruit
Soybean
Canola seed
Flax seed
Olive

The light version only has 5 grams of total fat which equals 45 calories.

Any way, to wrap this up, the main health benefit is that the mix of oils used in this margarine will reduce your bad cholesterol and triglycerides, and increase you good cholesterol. And all the health benefits aside, it is one of the best, if not the best, tasting margarines I think I have ever had. It also won the best tasting margarine category from the American Culinary Institute for 2004.

As a general rule you want your surgeon to have performed at least 50 procedures prior to performing that procedure on you.

I love my XM Radio. I put my ear plug in when I go to bed and listen to about five or six news and talk stations including the BBC, CNN, and Air America Radio. If I don't toss and turn too much during the night I usually wake up with the ear plug still in and listening.

Now that it looks like my daily two hour round-trip drive to work will be a permanent part of my routine, I decided to by the car adaptor kit for my XM Radio. We picked it up at Wal-Mart during the OSU-Northwestern half time. It works great. There is an adaptor that fits into the tape player of the car.

That is fine for the car I take to work everyday, but the van is what we usually take for long trips, and that has a CD player; not a tape player. There is an FM modulator that broadcasts a short range FM signal from the XM receiver that is picked up by the car's radio. I think we will also pick up one of those for our next road trip. It will be really nice to have static-free commercial-free music the entire duration of our next road trip.

Vehicle Adaptor Kit


FM Modulator

Currently my favorite food/cooking show is Good Eats on the Food Network, starring Alton Brown.

A couple weeks ago he had a show about how to make soup stock with a pressure cooker. He said you can get an extremely flavorful stock in only 45 minutes in a pressure cooker rather then four or five hours simmering in a traditional pot.

I am trying it right now with chicken. After only 20 minutes the aroma in my kitchen is just amazing! I mostly smell the chicken and onions, with the garlic and parsley a close second. I also put in some carrot, celery, a turnip, salt, and black pepper.

When it is done I am going to pour everything through a colander lined with cheese cloth. After letting it drip through for a few minutes I will take my waterproof silicon oven mitt and squeeze as much of the remaining juices from the bones, chicken, and vegetable mush left behind. Whether I will try to put some of the meat into the stock will depend on the meat's condition. I think it might be just a stringy mess, but that means that it has given up all of its flavor.

I am going to then make some matzo balls to go with it. Mmmmm...

NEWSWEEK POLL:
BUSH LEAD GONE!

I remember my Grandfather saying this little rhyme:

Let me tell you brother
I'd be happy as a clam
If I were only half the man
My mother thinks I am