An open PostIt to myself: NeighborNode, a way to share a bb with locals in your area, and to share internet access as well.

I know it makes me seem about twelve years old, but I can't help but snicker at the fact that San Francisco's city hall had to be evacuated on account of suspicious packages.

I wonder how many volunteers the package inspectors had to beat out trying to get to the head of the line to inspect the suspicious packages?

Great article on Wired about how government regulations & (realistic) fear of liability are serving to lessen both amateur and education chemical experimentation.

Don't Try This At Home

“Kids are being robbed of the joy of discovering things for themselves.” Compared with students in previous generations, he says, undergraduates raised on hands-off science seem passive: “They want someone to do things for them. Even those who become chem majors and grad students are not as versatile in the lab, because their experiences in middle school and high school were so limited. This is a terrible shame. By working with real substances, you learn how to ask the right questions about the physical world, which is half the battle in science.”
-- Bassam Shakhashiri, the author of a four-volume guide to classroom chemistry, who has taught for 36 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In response to this post discussing Al Gore's movie's box office take for the weekend, I did the following quick analysis of the number of showings at each theater.

Here's a quick survey of the number of showings at each theater. Some of the theaters are clearly using more than one screen since the start times don't allow for the movie to end on each screen before the next start time.

AMC Loews Lincoln Square 12 & IMAX
10 Showings each Sat & Sun

Landmark Sunshine Cinema
21 showings per day

Arclight Hollywood
17 showings today

Laemmle Monica 4
9 showings today

57 showings total in 4 theaters.

We Must ALL Stop ManBearPig Bumper Stickers

MORE: ManBearPig video here.

Wells Fargo has a pretty slick program that lets you change a bunch of variables to see how your 401K & others savings might hold up in retirement. It lets you change variables on the fly and see how different situations play out.

It is the nicest program of its type I've seen. If anyone knows of another good one, please post a link in a comment.

The Truth About Cars on U.S. driver training.

As I spun the Viper through a ragged 720, a thought occurred to me: US driver's Ed blows. It's the automotive equivalent to abstinence-only sex-education. Does anyone seriously think that knowing how to parallel park a car is more important than learning how to correct a skid before you slam into a tree?

I don't agree with the whole rant, but it is a fun read.

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

The Upper Falls is one the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more than 200 feet across. A maximum flow of more than 50,000 gallons of water per second has been recorded cascading over these falls.

The Mackinac Bridge from south.

The Mackinac Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac to connect the non-contiguous upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. It connects the cities of St. Ignace on the north end with Mackinaw City on the south.

The deck is a bit rusty. -->

The Burns Harbor as it finishes entering the Poe Lock at the Soo Locks.

Not being able to catch whole shots like this, without attempting mosaic, really make me miss my old Canon FD 20mm Super W I D E angle lens.

(Click image for a larger version.)

The icebreaking US Coast Guard Cutter Katmai Bay entering the MacArthur Lock of the Soo Locks.

(Click image for a larger version.)

The Cross in the Woods Shrine claims to have the largest crucifix in the world.

It is pretty big, I'll give it that.

(Click image for a larger version.)

Commanchamino?


Spotted today on I-94 West headed towards Grand Rapids, MI.

In case you can't read it on the photo, the text on the left quarter panel says "H3 1/2 Bummer".

UPDATE: I stand corrected by a sharp eyed comment poster, this is in fact a Cherokamino, since it started out as a four door SUV, not as a two door pick up.

For several days now I've had a thought floating around about the NSA's collection of phone numbers, but I couldn't find the time to write anything about it.

Here goes:

In law enforcment, there was an allowable type of warrantless search of phone records that isn't a wire tap, it was a piece of gear that collects all the numbers dialed from a phone number without gathering any of the content of the calls. It's called a "pen register."

Since 1979 the warrantless use of pen registers has been explicitly constitutional as a result of SMITH v. MARYLAND (442 U.S. 735), which held:

The installation and use of the pen register was not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and hence no warrant was required. Pp. 739-746.

(a) Application of the Fourth Amendment depends on whether the person invoking its protection can claim a "legitimate expectation of privacy" that has been invaded by government action. This inquiry normally embraces two questions: first, whether the individual has exhibited an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy; and second, whether his expectation is one that society is prepared to recognize as "reasonable." Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 . Pp. 739-741.

(b) Petitioner in all probability entertained no actual expectation of privacy in the phone numbers he dialed, and even if he did, his expectation was not "legitimate." First, it is doubtful that telephone users in general have any expectation of privacy regarding the numbers they dial, since they typically know that they must convey phone numbers to the telephone company and that the company has facilities for recording this information and does in fact record it for various legitimate business purposes. And petitioner did not demonstrate an expectation of privacy merely by using his home phone rather than some other phone, since his conduct, although perhaps calculated to keep the contents of his conversation private, was not calculated to preserve the privacy of the number he dialed. Second, even if petitioner did harbor some subjective expectation of privacy, this expectation was not one that society is prepared to recognize as "reasonable." When petitioner voluntarily conveyed numerical information to the phone company and "exposed" that information to its equipment in the normal course of business, he assumed the risk that the company would reveal the information [442 U.S. 735, 736] to the police, cf. United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435 . Pp. 741-746.

283 Md. 156, 389 A. 2d 858, affirmed.

Now, this doesn't mean that installing warrantless pen registers isn't now illegal. It simply means that the use of pen registers is constitutional, and evidence generated therefrom cannot be excluded under the Fourth Amendment.

I haven't had time to delve into the pen register restrictions put in place by FISA and the ECPA, but quite clearly such data gathering is constitutional.

Placeholder: Google Sketch Up - Freeware 3D modeling software.

Video of a hilarious & cool live action reenactment of a Super Mario Brothers game here.

If you've ever played Super Mario Brothers you'll find this funny.

(Via Puce Attack.)

Cafepress has created an official blog to keep the world up to date on Cafepress goings on.

Team roster found here.

Bridgeport, CT 5-4-2006

Spotted in the wild this morning.

An International CXT "Pickup" truck, in front of the Connecticut Convention Center.

The picture doesn't do it justice, that thing is big enough to host a national convention.

And the Convention Center is pretty big, too.

Just ignore the details?
The Today Show was talking about gas prices and people traveling this morning. They said that over 325 Million Americans will travel this summer.
As they were talking, they put up a big graphic that said "325,000,000".

With a current US population of 298 Million, that seems wrong to me.

I had a feeling that I knew they were talking about: probably a total of 325 Million person trips, but that is not what they said. They said 325 Million Americans would travel. Shouldn't NBC know that many people don't exist? Details, details...

The actual stat seems to be related to an estimate from the Travel Industry Association (TIA) from last year "Americans this summer will take an estimated 328 million vacation trips at least 50 miles from home"

I continued my web search and found a couple of examples of what is out there as news and numbers:
How about what people are reading in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from the AP wire?
"The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Leisure travel will increase more than 2 percent this summer, with 328 million Americans expected to head for a destination more than 50 miles from home, compared to 320 million last summer, according to the Travel Industry Association of America."

Possibly our immigration problem is worse than expected? There are 30 million Americans AP knows about that the CIA doesn't?

I really like this creative Ingersoll-Rand PR release on the subject:
"More than 328 million travelers are projected to be on the road"
"What’s more, 328 million cars means more than one billion tires"

So, these 328 million (supposed) people that are going to travel, are each driving in a car alone? Lets' go to the federal highway administration for a vote on this one. Total motor vehicles registered in the United States? 237,242,616. (This includes 100 Million trucks)

My favorite part of this article is that they quote the National Highway Travel Safety Administration to make themselves seem credible. Maybe they should have asked them about how many cars there are?
(BTW: If Ingersoll-Rand is basing their business plan on Nitrogen filling the tires on 328 Million cars, you would do well to short their stock.)

Heck, don't let numbers get in the way of a good story, market analysis, or news release.

After a long hiatus, I recently updated my list of the Most Expensive items on Amazon.com.

The most expensive item I could find dropped by over $200,000 from last time, but there seem to be more categories than ever of wildly expensive items on Amazon.