Postsecret blog: 21st century confession

Via century old technology.

"Mail your secret anonymously on one side of a 4-by-6-inch postcard that you make yourself. That one constraint is a great sieve. It strains out lazy, impulsive confessors."

I am not sure how "anonymous" the mail is, since you have to go out of your way to escape the postmark, but still a cool idea.

Link (via Lifehacker).

I Need a Bigger Bumper

Props to Mike Silverman for this witty new bumper sticker idea. I need more space on my car.



Jeez, we even made reason mag with this event that our governor calls a "black eye" for the state.

Krishtalka said it best here. ("hayseed state populated by morons" I love that.)

And don't forget how unintelligent much of the design is.

Can you make mulch with cheap asian labor?

My local walmart sells 2 cu. ft. of cypress mulch for $1.66. 1 cubic yard is 27 cu. ft., so 1 cubic yard of this is $22.41

The cheapest bulk mulch from a local supplier is $26/cu yard, and that's pallet mulch, which is usually riddled with nails and screws and generally sucky. The next best is cedar which sells for almost twice this wal-mart price.

Stinky Ebay things

when I sold things on ebay I always mentioned that the items were from a non-smoking household. I did this after I bought a phone from someone who clearly smoked, and it made me gag to use the phone.

I see more and more of these showing up on auctions as of late:



This is especially true for things like clothing.

These Are Not the Chicks You're Looking For

A Kansas District Court Judge claims he was viewing pr0n on the job to help counter stress.

$afety

If you think traffic cameras are installed to improve safety, and this didn't persuade you otherwise --

I can't do any better than point to this link.

Hey Big Spender...

Cato has a damning analysis of Bush's spending growth while being in office.

Some highlights:

• Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush'’s first term
• federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton’s last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush’s first term
• 101 biggest government programs that the GOP promised to abolish in 1995. Have instead seen their budgets grow by 27 percent.
• Inflation-adjusted nondefense spending has grown by a total of 23 percent between fiscal 2001 and 2005. That’s faster than the growth over Clinton’s entire presidency."

The Cato Institute is a small government think tank, so do take the source into account.

Diet Coke w/Splenda. [Verdict - good, not great]

I just picked up some Diet Coke* sweetened with Splenda instead of aspartame.

I think if you like Coke sweetened with corn sugar this will appeal to you much more than Diet Coke generally does.

It is, however, a little mouth coating sweet and does have an aftertaste.

[* no link provided to this Flash-only site]

My Candidate for "Most Photoshopped"

I am guessing this picture will become heavily photoshopped and circulated.
I envision mustaches added. Small black ones.

And swastikas.

Sunday Liquor bill- mixed blessing?

I was just re-reading some information about the bill that abolished the ban (love the way we have to un-ban things to think of them as allowed) on Sunday liquor sales in Kansas.

Attached to this bill was a ban on AWOL - Alcohol Without Liquid, a system of delivering alcohol that doesn't involve the calories or hangover of "traditional" intoxicants. Kansas leads the way in being one of only two states (Colorado is oddly conspicuous as a partner) to ban AWOL.

It shouldn't be surprising that the Kansas wholesale liquor industry (if you can call a whopping two companies and "industry") supported this bill, since it lifted the ban on Sunday sales, and simultaneously banned potential competition.

Gotta love Jacob Sullum's quote that bags on liquor dealers for opposing AWOL:

"people who are in the business of helping us chemically adjust our moods and minds have to pretend they're not."

How do you spell irony?

The Blogger.com spell check dictionary doesn't have the word "blog" in it.

Pic.

Cooling Off

The temp might hit the 90's today and Lifehacker has a reference to an article about keeping your house cool on the cheap. (the reference isn't too the blog, it's to this article).

I used to read misc.consumers.frugal-living, misc.consumers.home and alt.home.repair, and grew up with a parent in the HVAC industry. This is based on information from those sources.

There are few misconceptions, debatable points, and omissions in these suggestions.

"Ceiling fans can cool a home up to 8 degrees cooler in minutes"

No, they make you feel cooler. There isn't a significant effect on the temperature of the house, except to make the temperature more uniform. Not cooler.

"Attic fans are great too as they pull cool air through the house at night and exhaust warm air trapped in the attic"

In my experience, the verdict isn't in on attic fans and whole house fans. That is, they do not conclusively save money over operating an air conditioner. Whether or not this is true is affected by a lot of things -- the humidity of outside air, the source of the cold air draw (does it come through a basement?) and the size of the house and whether or not is has soffits. Some house fires have been attributed to poor maintenance on attic fans as well.

"Finally, drink water, not soft drinks or iced tea, and never alcoholic beverages, when the temperature rises to keep as cool as possible."

Stay away from alcoholic drinks in the summer? Unpossible. Also, this is confusing a myth about alcohol. Alcohol makes you feel warm initially, but the blood vessel dilation has a net loss effect of heat on the body. It's one of the reasons they tell skiers not to try to stay warm by drinking.

Also, I suspect there is a negligible difference between iced tea (especially decaf iced tea) and water, and if you are more inclined to drink liquids because they are tasty, that's better than drinking less just because its water. I am aware of diuretic effects of soda and tea. They are not strong diuretics and there is at least one study that indicates they are not a net loss of water.

"bowl of ice in front of a fan"

This has never worked for me, unless I am directly in front of the bowl. And are you taking into account the extra time the refrigerator compressor must run -- and add heat to the house and cost money -- to make the ice?

The omissions:

• Don't use heat-producing appliances. Don't cook on the stove, turn off the TV, turn off the lights. Microwaves cook faster with less heat added to the house than convection cooking.
  
• Great time to cook outside as well. Consider cooking breakfast (especially things like a lot of odor things like bacon and sausage) on the grill as well. Charcoal isn't cheap though. Use free wood if available and you know what you are doing.
  
• Use fluorescent lighting whenever possible. Significantly less heat than incandescent, and cheaper (if your bulbs last as long as they should).
• Get a programmable thermostat. A good one will recoup its cost in a year or less. Cool only what you need, but when you need it. Avoid the consumer models at Home Depot and Lowes.
  
• Make sure your thermostat is in a good location.
• Be aware of the humidity. The same temperature with a higher humidity will feel warmer. Just because it is cooler outside doesn't mean you will feel cooler by opening the window. The de-humidified air in the house goes a long way to keeping you cool. Humidity in general is bad for houses.
• Take colder, shorter showers.
• Have multiple thermometers throughout the house so you can see where the hot spots are.
• Spend more time, especially sleeping or physical exertion, in your basement if you have one.
• Your air conditioner isn't the only thing that needs upkeep and upgrade to save money. There is a blower fan in your central furnace that circulates air for the A/C, and electric motors are big consumers of electricity and generators of heat. Make sure yours is working in prime condition. Same applies to all fan motors.
• Clean out your vents and make sure nothing is blocking them (where appropriate).
• Look at how the cold air in your house is vented. Is there one long leg far away from the central fan that goes to a room that is always hot? Maybe it needs more insulation.

Stay cool.

Did she kick him out of bed?

I was reading reviews of the Lightwedge (a booklight) and I noticed this comment.

"I can't live without a good book light (or I'd have to live without my husband). After my last one died, I thought I'd give this one a try."

Timely letter publishing

On the day after the Supreme Court decision, the LJ World publishes this.

And even on the same day as this.

Toast the Supreme Court...

...well 5 of them at least.

Today the U.S. Supreme Court told states they can't prohibit out-of-state wine sales directly from wineries.

The decision [PDF] was only 5-4 though.

Still waiting on Kelo v. New London.

Anti-redneck or 21st century redneck?

I think the question would be answered if it could be programmed to display a peeing calvin.

I can't decide.

Link.

Best Quote ever about GTA

I love the game Grand Theft Auto 3 (all versions). It's better than therapy. Pure escapism.

It is, however, not just an adult game but a game for adults with a very clear and balanced concept of what consititutes acceptable behavior in society, and a clear understanding of where the video game world ends and the real world starts.

That being said, I found the best quote ever to describe GTA:

"morally reprehensible for its overuse of violence and complete disregard for all the social mores that make society work and keep us from beating each other to death and throwing dung from trees"

That's the good part. The bad part is this was in the context of recommendation for game that is worse than GTA with respect to that above.

Link (via TUAW)

Hijacking planes with...empty lighter cases?

The TSA recently prevented an owner of a zippo-lighter camera from taking the case on board.

Note: the lighter is not a lighter -- it's a camera.

Note: just the lighter case was disallowed. The empty case only was prohibited.

I have a new favorite term: the "TSA Mindless Idiocy Scale". (from link).

Link (via Boing Boing)

Sex with Dead Chickens

My score:

Your Moralising Quotient is: 0.37.

Your Interference Factor is: 0.00.

Your Universalising Factor is: 0.40.

Link

My Dogs Smell Like Burnt Plastic

Not a play on words.

I can't figure this one out. Where did they get this smell?

Buddy Can You Spare $4.5 million?

A lot has changed since I took scuba certification training, and it wasn't that long ago.

Three things in particular.

• What is considered a basic level of certification is signficantly lower (this may be to just ratchet up certification fees, since many places require "advanced" certification to dive at their best sites).
• Many of the training practices -- such as piling equipment at the bottom of the pool and making students come back up with it properly outfitted -- just isn't done any more.
• "Buddy breathing" isn't taught at all as far as I know. (for you non-divers, this is a routine for sharing a single air supply mouthpiece). One divemaster said this was stopped due to AIDS fears. In any case, nearly everyone has a redundant mouthpiece that can be shared, so it seemed the lesser of two evils to stop teaching people how to buddy breathe.
  

One foundation principle remains intact for now: Dive Buddies. The principle is simple -- you don't dive alone and you always know where your buddy is (and how to use their equipment, etc.).

The details in this linked case below are almost wacky (it seems to imply one buddy was trying to kill another), but it certainly is a worrysome issue for divers. A diver's widow is suing the diver's buddy for wrongful death, $4.5 million.

Wanna be my dive buddy? Sign this waiver.


Link via Overlawyered.

Is this what they study in the East?

Well, first we had the Arlington Pediatric Center's wildly inappropriate logo. (since removed, click for archived link)

Now the "Instituto de Estudos Orientais" has a troubling logo as well.

(possibly removed by the time you read this, click for screencap)


props to boingboing.

F*ck Me Pumps

I will drive out of my way to use a pay-at-the-pump (PATP) gasoline service. When this happens, nothing is more aggravating that to have to go in to see the cashier because something has gone wrong.

I feel like I am having my time doubly-wasted by the gasoline station, because I have gone out of my way, learned how to use their system (if it's different, which it often is) and then still have to go inside to see the cashier.

I've been keeping mental notes of the issues, in particular two gas stations I used to go to frequently, and here's what needs to be fixed, in order of importance.

How to Keep PATP Convenient

1. Don't let the printers run out of paper. As far as I can tell, there is no feedback to the cashier when a pump is out of paper. It baffles me when I prepay with credit card and go in to ask for a receipt, the clerks never ask me if the printer has a problem. Not only that, if I mention this, they don't do anything. My speculation is this is a combination of apathy and technical limitations. The pumps don't say when they are out of paper, and the cashiers don't care if they are.
2. Get better card readers. I use the same card for my ATM and most of my credit card transaction. The only time it fails to read is at PATP card readers. What's worse is many of them are programmed to lock out the pump after a certain number of misreads. I think this is combination of crappy construction and poor interface. The card readers that grab your card are very reliable. The ones that require you to insert and pull out or "swipe" your card are not.
3. Quit hanging hoses in front of the control panel. Having to pull aside a wet, oily hose to operate the pump is not pleasant, especially if you are in nice clothes. It also makes it hard to read while you are pumping.
4. Ask all questions about options at the start of the transaction. Do you want a car wash (if I did, I would be at the car wash)? Do you want a receipt? What grade of gas? This is again a combination of bad interface and technology. Fewer "yes/no" and more hierarchical menus with options. It should be read card, pick which package you want (with options, there should only be four: gas, grade, wash, receipt), fill car, go. When the receipt question is posed at the end of a fueling section, a customer can drive off and the next person in line might be able to print their receipt. If you select "No receipt" at the beginning of the transaction, this can't happen. You could still drive off and leave a receipt in the pump, but that's different than not knowing there was an unanswered question.
5. Fix your damn keypads and buttons. This is almost 30 year old technology. It's not hard to get durable and reliable buttons, switches and labels. Banks have figured this out. Vending machines have figured this out. Related to this subject...
6. Don't create homemade labels for the keypad. If the operation is not clear to the user, don't tape over the button with a new function or use a sharpie marker. Fix the root cause of the issue -- the programming of the pump and the keypad is wrong.
7. Don't use the same audible signal for everything. Several of the pumps I use have a beep or even a "triple beep" audible feedback. Audio feedback is always good unless the same thing for every action from "ok" to "waiting for keypress" to "take receipt". This is exacerbated by the badgering series of yes/no questions. Voice feedback -- a technology so cheap it's in greeting cards -- would be the preferred type of audible feedback, but if you can't do voice feedback there should be four distinct audio clues with unique "good" and "bad" sounds: input accepted, input not accepted, transaction done, and "are you still there?" This sort of understanding of interfaces has been around for decades. Why can't pump manufacturers follow their lead?

It's unlikely any of this will change. Gas stations want you to go inside for the profitable items. Gas station attendants aren't exactly known for their customer service either. Gas prices are pretty inelastic and I suspect the quality of service goes right along with this.

More Kansas in the News

"Teachers, Scientists Vow to Fight Challenge to Evolution"

Link

New site

I stopped using movable type at Prohosting and moved to 1and1.com for site hosting, and blogger for blogging. I setup a CMS called mambo and didn't like it. I am still reviewing systems, but I am leaning toward xoops.

There were several reasons for the move and switch.

- prohosting.com was expensive

- prohosting did not offer imap
- prohosting did not offer anti-spam support.

- movable type was prone to blog spam and I got tired of cleaning it up

I did my best to convert blog entries and comments, but many of the original entry dates were lost.

My Latest Endeavor

Right here.

Interested in your comments.

Destroy the Market for this stuff

We should all band together and commit a form of civil(ly?) disobedient fraud to drive up the prices for these goods and fail to pay for these auctions. There needs to be zero market incentive for confiscation of property in this manner. These items should be destroyed.

Better yet, take an innocuous but easily recognizable item that is sure to be confiscated by airport security, and if you see the item up for auction, report it to ebay as stolen.

Or even better yet, have your item laser engraved or painted with hot pink lettering so it says "if you see this item on ebay it is stolen."