Flying Spaghetti Monster

It seems like a reasonable request to me. If you're going to teach Intelligent Design, you should admit that there are alternative views of how Intelligent Design took place:

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

This guy sent his letter on the subject (including the empirical evidence in favor of the inverse relationship between the number of pirates on the earth and global warming) to the Kansas school board. He received responses from some board members, my favorite including this snippet:

Your web site is fascinating. I will add your theory to a long list of alternative theories I intend to introduce when it is appropriate. I am practicing how to do this with a straight face which is difficult since it's such a ridiculous subject; it is also very sad that we are even having the discussion.

Onward to the sixteenth century, but laughing on the way!

The guilt is killing me

When Steve posted that weather map and noted the fate of New Orleans ,I commented how the people that didn't evacuate were probably to drunk, ha ha very funny, whats going on there is no laughing matter now. Having spent some time in N O I can't believe the devistation I see on T V the pictures remind me of the recent sunami. One of the memories that stuck with me from my time there was playing softball in a city park, the participants simply called the park "the levee", after the game I climbed to the top of the grassy bank maybe a 30 - 40 foot tall levee, then crossing the flat top about 200 feet to look at the river that was only about 6 feet from the top of the levee. I remember thinking then the river is higher than evry thing I could see on the low side. The concept of city lower than surrounding water seems to be working against them now in a big way.

Jury Duties

I spent about 6 hours today in the San Mateo county jury selection process. Since you're only required to do jury duty once a year, they seem to have conveniently scheduled my notices at 366 day increments. This time I was sent with 54 others to sit in the courtroom as part of the pool for a DUI trial. How can a DUI charge be contested in a trial by jury? Since in the end I did not have to sit on the jury, I can only tell you how it was going to shape up. First, the guy on trial was cited back in 2002. Clearly he has enough money to tie this thing up. Second, he had retained an attorney who many jurors recognized from the Peterson trial. In fact, during questioning, several basically said that anyone who hired an expensive hired gun lawyer clearly had something to hide (and were then dismissed for their candor). The way it was shaping up, the prosecution would put on the breathalyzer evidence, witnesses to drunken behavior, the arresting officer, and their forensic toxicologist to testify to the accuracy and quality of the breathalyzer test. The prosecution would throw out a bunch of highly paid "experts" to testify how error prone and faulty the breathalyzer is. We present, you decide.

The other thing that went on is that people were asked if they had family or friends who had been arrested for DUI or somehow affected by a drunk driving incident. In a lot of ways, this is a kind of six degrees of separation exercise, because by the time you're done, everyone has some kind of story. Similarly, "do you have family or friends who are in law enforcement." With all these relations and friends providing great excuses for getting rid of jurors, I was contemplating pulling out the fact that my uncle's second wife's uncle was J. Edgar Hoover, fondly known in the family as Uncle Super Pig. Alas, I never had the chance. A card to be played on another day.

That Was Close!

Not looking good for N'awlins.

Vacation over

I spent the last week enjoying the living at Oak Island NC . Its not a big place I would say it resembles Front Royal more than it does Ocean City. Our home there is very small but comfortable. We spent most of our time at a beach on the very end of the island, the inland waterway dumps into the Atlantic there and creates a strong current when the tide is going out, this makes for some fun swimming with the current as it takes you along the edge of the beach at a surprisingly quick pace you can hike up the beach as far as you want and jump in for a quick ride back, a favorite with Dan. We also took a day trip to Myrtle Beach and took in the famous Alligator Adventure, I have never seen so many gators packed into such a small area, its kind of a walking tour on wooden pathways over gator infested waters. They have quite a veriety of gators including, Albino, Pigmy, and Yutan an 18 footer, They even had one with somekind of birth defect that has no tail which they call BOB. I read a couple of books including Shadow Divers which Steve reccomended and I thoroughly enjoyed. I usually do a lot of biking while there but a nagging back injury kept me off my bike. Now that I am home I seem to have recovered just in time for work. All in all it was quite relaxing. Quite an interesting spread of blogs appeared while I was gone. I was considering buying an old beater car for the beach untill I saw the amphibous models Missy intrduced me to, the idea of car and boat fits into my plan nicely but maybe cost prohibitive. I must admit I never really wondered about the spegetti thing.

Cougars vs. The Obscenely Rich

It does make you wonder who to root for. We get the occasional cougar out here on the SF peninsula, although we've never seen one in our neighborhood. The closest I've come is chasing deer through the yard and away from a peach tree. A few months back, the Fish and Game people actually shot a cougar out of a tree in a Palo Alto neighborhood. People wrung their hands a bit and wondered why they couldn't have just tranquilized it. It seems it's not quite as reliable as you might have been led to believe by watching Marlin Perkins on Wild Kingdom.

So here comes the New York Times to report on the cougar population on the peninsula. They pick one of the most obscenely rich neighborhoods in the bay area, Atherton, the town on the south side of Redwood City. Larry Ellison just put his Atherton home on the market for $25M. Ray Lane, who made billions as Oracle president for a while still lives there and is apparently unhappy he has to deal with cougars in his yard. Still, the Atherton police chief

traces the recent fear to a man named Matt Thomas, a 54-year-old retiree who has been known to ask permission from his neighbors to comb their yards in search of cougar droppings.

Last summer, after his gardener said he saw a mountain lion strolling down the street, Mr. Thomas placed a letter in scores of mailboxes describing what he said was a spike in sightings. He warned them to keep closer watch over their children.

Since then, Mr. Thomas has devoted countless hours each week to his cause. He constantly reads about mountain lions, plays amateur tracker and generally serves as a thorn in the side of local officials.

The fact of the matter is that neither the residents nor the police department have enough to do with their time over there. I love the police blotter in the local paper, and comparing Redwood City crime with Atherton crime is always worth a chuckle. Here is Atherton:

DISTURBANCE Residents complained to the police that juveniles, some on scooters, were "playing a yelling game" at 9:47 p.m. Sunday.

Redwood City is usually more like Grand Theft Auto in comparison.

Spaghetti Enigma

I expect the puzzling problem of why dry spaghetti breaks into more than just two pieces has been keeping many of you awake at night. Apparently it bothered Richard Feynman, too. Well, sweet dreams await you now that structural analysis and high-speed photography have conclusively proven that

the initial break sends waves rippling down the length of the pasta. This wave boosts the curvature of the already bent pasta, triggering a cascade of other breakages, which, in turn, trigger more waves, causing the strand to fragment.

This makes me nostalgic for the days when I had to write a computer program to predict the speed at which a construction worker backed into a steel cable across an elevator shaft before the eye bolts in the concrete would bend enough to let the cable slide off, sending him to his death 10 stories below. Those were the days. And if you find this study fascinating -- and I doubt you do, but what the heck -- you might also be interested in why the shower curtain billows inward instead of outward.

Hurricane Report?

I'm hoping Mom and Dad were up in the Kuzma refuge, sipping Margaritas or something equally peaceful. If the DSL is up, give us a report!

California Travelers

I've been on the East coast for a whirlwind trip to (in order) CT-NY-NJ-NY-CT-NY-NJ-PA-NJ-PA in four days, returning Thursday night. Well, those are the actual states I've been in or am going to, although I'm only in meetings and dinners in CT, NY, and NJ. Dara and Kyla left today to move Kyla in to her new digs on campus. Garrett is holding down the fort and the dogs. I don't have much blogging energy when I'm working two shifts. I'll be back to my normal entertaining self on the weekend, no doubt.

Good Doggy?

I am not sure whether even Missy, consummate animal rescuer, would have stepped up to this beauty. The dog has a "hairless frame, littered with blackheads, brown warts and moles. Even his hindquarters have a large hernia lump. Then, there's his right eye, left a reddish-purple from cataracts, which stands out from the other, which is a milky white." Runt Guy and Dances with Cars finally have some real competition.

Turn On The Heater, It's Summer

I thought that you guys baking in the August heat might enjoy reading about San Franciscans complaining about the fog and how cold it is.

"I'm up to my nose in fog,'' said Helen Johnson, who has lived in San Francisco -- "in the fog,'' she says -- for 16 years. Johnson runs the heater in her house in the West Portal district four months of the year, she says -- in January, February, July and August.

While they're shivering in SF, it's just pleasant down here in the Climate Best By Government Test town of Redwood City.

Irreverent "McYoga"

I've been doing various versions of Yoga for almost 10 years now. It has done my heart and soul good, but over the years my practice has morphed into my own basterdized version for a several reasons. I find it very hard to drive 40-50 miles to have someone ask me to chant, visualize, or repeat "Namastay." I can't help it, when yoga starts feeling like a religion I start I've got to move on to a new instructor or a new studio.

A friend of a friend who was feeling the same way and did something about it. Today I received a copy of the Rescue Girl Yoga Deck. Her philosophy is just like mine, "Enlightenment is appealing, but what about more pressing issues, like headaches, hangovers, and jiggly butts?" The site is under construction, but the deck is delightful!

Recently I've found Bikram Yoga. Mike likes to call it, "Sweaty Yoga." On 60 Minutes they referred to it as "McYoga." Class lasts 1 1/2 hours in a room heated to about 105 degrees. I sweat out an average of 3 lbs per class. It consists of 26 poses done 2 times each. The routine never changes. It's kind of like drill instruction - my kind of Yoga. If you guys ever get to feeling you have "jiggly butt" look for a Bikram Studio or give a shout and I'll send you the Rescue Girl Yoga Deck.

Vacation......finaly

I am dropping my cell phone, nail apron, and computer, tonight and picking up a fishing pole,bicycle, and book as we head out to North carolina for a week at the beachhouse I may even try a little golf. I'll blog any eventfull details when I return.

Geek Camping

Or perhaps this nifty gadget would make a great accessory to a four wheeler fishing trip. It was a great moment in our lives when we no longer had to deal with our kids doing science fair projects or the dreaded alternative -- the invention convention. I don't know if they do the invention convention thing elsewhere, but here you got to choose between doing the standard science fair project or inventing something. To this day when we see something like this, Dara and I can nearly chime in unison: INVENTION CONVENTION!!!

Hedging Your Bets

I've been hearing advertisements of late on the local all news radio, KCBS, for something called Hedge Street. Hedge fund investing is not something you want to try at home, but it seems that this startup is bringing to joe six pack the joy of betting on how the economy will perform in various markets:

HedgeStreet can be used to hedge or speculate on the outcome of economic events. For example, if you have a home that could depreciate in value, you might buy Hedgelets to hedge your potential loss. Or if you have insight into the direction of real estate prices, you might want to buy Hedgelets to speculate on your insights.

Just seems like plain old gambling to me. Still, the idea that you can bet against other people on California gasoline prices with a minimum ante of under $10 might suck people in. I'm a bit surprised that Bill Bennett isn't at least in their advisory board. Maybe we could start up the sports hedge fund, Keith. Like any gambling venture, the house always wins in the end, even if a few people have a good time in the process.

Roto football

Extreme pastimes are a bit to dagerous for an old guy like me. I have busted my ass about everyway I want to. 4 wheeler fishing, Mountain biking, and racoon hunting are about as wild as it gets for me. I can accomplish all of those without danger of flesh-eating parisites or 3rd degree burns. With football season quickly approaching I have to turn my attention to my fantasy football league. Draft day is fri 6:15 pm and I am scrambling to rate players and positions for value in my expanding league. With 14 teams this year [up from 10] the draft is probably the most important event all season. Steve those spreadsheeting abilities of yours would make me a sure bet regardless of my position in the rotation. There is a tremendous amount of stats and conditional speculation involved in rating players. Alas I will have to depend heavily on the other componet involved LUCK.

Another Odd Pastime

I work with a guy who always seems to have some wacky adventure or other going on. Kind of reminds me of Missy in her sky diving days. Once he took a scuba diving trip to Tahiti (learning while there, mind you), only to come back with both flesh-eating bacteria and a spider bite that dissolves flesh. He also took a stunt driving course once -- the kind where you learn how to turn a car 180 degrees, or screech into a parking space sideways. His latest adventure is going to be to learn how to breathe fire. My advice: 1) breathe out; 2) make sure you do it downwind. Beyond that, I am staying out of it. And out of the way.

4 wheeler fishing

Since I have lived on the river and owned an ATV I have enjoyed something we call 4 wheeler fishing. During late july and through august the water level of the river goes way down, so much so that a canoe trip is more like a hike over slippery rocks while dragging your canoe for exercise. Even the tubbers wind up with a sore ass from rocks just below the surface. During this phase of the river I have proved that large numbers of game fish and bait congregate in the few deep pools of water just below or above the most turbulent water you can find [no spreadsheeting neccessary] I think it may be the oxygen level in that water but whatever it is they find one of those spots and stay in it till the water comes up or till you pull them out. The best way to access those spots and move around the river to other spots is with an ATV. It may seem a little strange as you prepare by securing your rod, tackle box, bait tray, minnow bucket, and 12 beers on ice to your 4 wheeler but thats only the 1st challenge. Negotiating the flood plain with the gear is a little tricky, once my line must have got caught on some brush and I arrived at my destination only to find an empty reel. I can usualy pull it off with no problem. We have some fairly well established trails so getting in the river is pretty simple also. The fun continues by catching bait in the shallow water near some rapids. With a hommade box that has a screened bottom you disturb the rocks upstream and let the water wash through the box usualy with a few tries I can catch a dozen helgramites and some occasional crayfish and madtoms. Its fairly easy to manuever your 4 wheeler to casting distance of some of those deep pools I refered to earliar. If you don't catch anything right away move to another pool sooner or later you find the right one and get ready for action every cast will produce at least a hit and usualy a fish. Large catfish and as well as large and smallmouth bass are usualy plentifull. It is not all glory though manuvering the 4 wheeler around those deep pools can be tricky and the rocks are slippery as well as hard. Its easy to get off course a little and wind up in the drink with the machine. The good news is the 4 wheeler will actualy float because of the air in the tires it will stay just visible in deep water. The bad news is when introduced to deep water on the slightes incline it prefers to float upside down. A few of our excursions have ended in wrestling the machine to the bank and pushing or towing it home for the 27 point water removal procedure. Fishing this year has been pretty slow I have caught some nice ones but nothing to brag about... now getting there is more worthy of a story.

Paris & Nicole Do Skyline Drive

My friend Sue & I met the Callaways, Harrisons, & the Ishak's to watch the culmination of Jeanne's 2005 summer camp; the middle school kids performing "Much Ado About Nothing."

The play was at the Skyland Resort off Skyline Drive Having never been there before I asked Keith about the place. He suggested we try horseback riding. There it was, clue number 1. As quickly as possible, I tossed that tid-bit of information aside and drove out to pick up up Sue. At her house, we spent an hour or so pondering our evening attire before continuing on our way to Skyland. Turning off route 211 onto Skyline Drive should have been clue 2 and another signal that our high heels were a great clothing choice. Oblivious to the warning signs we drove on - in our heels. Never mind we were the only ones at the roadside stands in heels - yet another clue cast aside.

Somewhere between the check in desk manned by women in hiking boots, the forest rangers, and our room with deer hunting decore and a truly spectacular view of the Shenendoah Valley, Sue looked at me and said, "I feel like Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie." What a couple of simps... The outfit Sue planned for the evening included a new skirt with sequins which, in her words, "was not too dressy." Mine included a lovely aqua camisole with matching jewelry and a black suede shirt. BTW, Suede is perfect for a 75 degree balmy evening dotted with unrelenting hot flashes. Brainless but beautiful...

In the end, we managed to tone it down and enjoyed a great but short visit with everyone. The show was fun and the kids did their version of Shakespearian times - right down to a high-five & pinky shake. It was really cute. I believe the Traveling Players Ensemble is even scheduled at the Kennedy Center at the end of the month with the group of older kids. Who knows Steve, you might even see Jeanne directing on broadway. Sue & I would go to that in our sequin skirt and aqua camisole with matching jewelry.

Skyland was quite a treat and for those of us who don't live off Skyline Drive, it would be a fantastic place to hang and hike and ride. Lessons learned... Bring your own beer & snacks in a cooler, wear your hiking boots, and leave the matching jewelry behind. Sequins are acceptable only if on a cute but functional t-shirt.

Location, Location, Location

The Bay Area Center for Voting Research published the results of a study of the 237 US cities with populations over 100,000, ranking them from most liberal to most conservative. Yours truly has boiled this data down to the cities which are somewhat nearby to Harris (and Callaway!) bloggers. (For some reason, the people doing this work seem to think Microsoft Word is an acceptable form for web browsing. If they were so damned liberal, you'd think they'd have figured out how to put together a web site. But, I digress.) For your viewing pleasure, and to stimulate your extensive cocktail party conversations, here is what I did:

• Normalized across the original 237 cities, with zero being the most liberal, 100 being the most conservative.
  
• Eliminated those pesky southern California and central valley cities. I only kept SF Bay Area cities.
• Kept Baltimore and Philadelphia for Missy. Sorry Miss, Cecil County wasn't on the radar screen.
  
• Kept all the Florida ones for Mom and Dad, although only a few are on the lower west end of the peninsula.
• Kept all the Virginia ones for Keith, although it's really only Alexandria, Richmond, and a bunch of cruft around Norfolk as far as I can see.
• Kept the Wisconsin ones for Al. I'm not sure where he's, as he put it, marooned in Wisconsin.
• Kept the only Hawaiian data point, Honolulu, for AJ and Ursula.
• Kept New Haven in just for Kyla.
  
• Color coded them to group them together (CA is blue, FL is red, VA is light green, MD/PA is light blue, WI is yellow, New Haven is purple, Honolulu is some funky color).
  

There is a strong correlation to large minority populations and whatever the heck these people decided constituted liberal vs. conservative. Other than that, I'm not sure what you're supposed to conclude other than the obvious that the SF Bay Area is exceedingly liberal. I thought this comment by the guy who heads the organization was pretty amusing, though:

“While there are a few liberal cities without large African American populations, these wind up being the exceptions. College towns like Berkeley and Cambridge have modest black populations but remain bastions of upper middle-class, white, intellectual liberalism. These liberal white communities, however, are more reminiscent of penguins clustering together around a shrinking iceberg than of a vibrant and growing political movement”

Time to stop spreadsheeting and do yard work!

Who Said There Was Nothing Left to Discover

How is it that a 40 foot waterfall two miles off the road in a national park in California managed only to be discovered recently?

A couple years ago, Weatherbee was cleaning out a cabinet of old maps when he stumbled across one from the 1960s marked with a note reading "Whiskeytown falls" near Crystal Creek.

"I just decided to go looking for it. But I went in and hiked up and never found anything," Weatherbee said. The map had been more than a mile off.

In the spring of 2003, he was looking at global imaging system maps on his computer when he saw a stretch in the creek that dropped in altitude quickly with a sliver of white leading through it.

"I thought, 'That looks like white water to me,'" he said.

That isn't how Dan'l Boone did it.

Food That Fights Back

This blog post, found via Dave Barry's blog, might give the Grouseland Annual Dinner some fresh new ideas. Just a suggestion.

Science vs. Religion

I've been following the creationism-in-disguise path of Intelligent Design for quite a while. Still, the recent hoopla surrounding a, er, certain suggestion that it be taught alongside evolution has stirred things up again. Most of my previous reading on the topic has centered around the scientific community showing how, in contrast to evolution, Intelligent Design is not a theory by any definition, since it cannot be tested. It's always been a bit of an embarrassment by association that a UC Berkeley professor, Phillip Johnson, is always cited as one of the eminent scientists who support Intelligent Design. Tonight I read an article that discusses the home of Intelligent Design, the Discovery Institute. It's very enlightening, but the American Prospect is a bit like the National Review when it comes to unslanted news sources. Still, I learned about something I had never heard of before: the Wedge Document...

The most eloquent documentation of ID’s religious inspiration comes in the form of a Discovery Institute strategic memo that made its way onto the Web in 1999: the “Wedge Document.” A broad attack on “scientific materialism,” the paper asserts that modern science has had “devastating” cultural consequences, such as the denial of objective moral standards and the undermining of religious belief. In contrast, the document states that ID “promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.” In order to achieve this objective, the ID movement will “function as a ‘wedge’” that will “split the trunk [of scientific materialism] … at its weakest points.”

Fascinating. So I went in search of the Wedge Document. I found it on the Discovery Institute's web site as part of their catchily named rebuttal, "The Wedge Document: So What". If you want to read something really scary, read their rebuttal. At least it was to me, your mileage may vary. Interesting stuff.

Hybrid Carpooling

It seems my speculation that hybrids would never be admitted to the carpool lanes in California was wrong, and I think I have W to thank for it. I'm sure if I wait long enough I'll be able to come up with something else to thank him for, too. For $8, drivers of the Prius and two other hybrids get the required stickers to drive in the carpool lane. You also have to use the Fastpass bridge toll thingy (that debits your account as you drive through and which we don't have because we don't routinely cross the many bridges around here). My only problem will be that you have to put a sticker on the front, back, and each quarter panel of your nice new car. Whose bright idea was that!?!

Wickedly Good Musical

Since Missy has outed me on my enjoyment of Broadway, I thought I'd report on yet another entertainment indulgence out here while others are recovering from surgery and nursing duties. We went to see the musical Wicked last night in San Francisco. As quite a few musicals do, Wicked used San Francisco for its first opening as a way to sort out what worked and whether doing it on Broadway would be worth it. Dara and Kyla then saw it on Broadway and came back raving. It was great! It is very loosely based on the book Wicked, although Kyla, who has read the book too, will tell you that it's not close at all. The basic premise centers around the "real story" of the wicked witch of the west. She was really just a sweet, misunderstood do-gooder who was a friend of airhead Glynda and ended up being cast in an evil light by the truly evil Wizard of Oz. Very clever and funny. Great voices and acting in this production, even by the standards of the Tony award winning Broadway version. If you ever get a chance, check it out.

Next up on the Harris Broadway experience will be Spamalot on the way to our final Yale Parents Weekend.

The Ultimate Vacation

I think this this trip would be cool, but the price tag is a killer. That has got to be at least 10,000 Kutchers.

Some Surgery

Keeping with Harris family tradition I have been very tight lipped about Kirsti's recent hystorectomy. We just don't talk about those things. Anyway she is recovering nicely and will be back to full speed soon. I took a week off work to serve as nurse and housekeeper. When I left the job I only said my wife was having some surgery, That should be plenty of info shouldn't it? When I returned that bit of info somehow morphed into Boob Job for Kirsti, anything else and I would have been more forthcoming with the details. I sensed some dissapointment when I told them the real reason and was unable to produce pictures.

Tour De Peninsula

This is one race Lance won't be doing. This low-key bike race has been run for quite a few years here.

The annual Tour de Peninsula, which organizers said is the biggest of its kind in Northern California with nearly 3,000 riders, starts and ends at Sequoia High School in Redwood City. It sweeps riders into a scenic course through San Carlos, Belmont, San Mateo, Burlingame, Hillsborough and Millbrae. It includes the rustic Sawyer Camp Trail in San Mateo, and Cañada Road. The two shortcuts reduce the course to 17 or 21 miles, respectively.

That's right. You can go the full distance or take one of two officially sanctioned shortcuts. It's not about the bike, it's about the tee shirt.

Insurgent vs. Insurgent

The Onion sometimes comes a little too close to real life.

Terrorist cells in Baghdad are in mourning for suicide bomber Ahmed al-Khalaf, 19, who was killed by a car bomb Monday, 200 yards from an Iraqi police station, his intended target.

In the past week, over 170 Iraqi citizens and U.S. troops have died in terrorist or insurgent attacks, but al-Khalaf's death marks the first time a terrorist has been killed by another terrorist while on a different terrorist mission.

Terrorist leaders have called the incident a "wake-up call."

"No one likes to see a senseless waste of a willingness to take human life," said al-Qaeda operative Salih al-Shimiri, in a videotaped message aired on Al-Jazeera Monday evening. "However, there are worse problems than having too many suicide bombers on our streets."

Fashion for Missy

Rhymes with Oracle, SF Chronicle (aka The Comical)

Art Cars

More phone pics. Palo Alto is holding a Friday night art walk, and the subject tonight was "art cars". One of these reminded me a bit of the car that AJ and Ursula rode from the church to their reception in. I loved it when the woman who owned that car said "Get in, it's just like taking a vacation to Hawaii!" These seemed mostly just downright weird. I am trying to imagine asking the kid to wash the car. Don't forget to shine the skull, and use that new leather cleaner! Maybe these were the wheels for the anarchists organizing their next rally.

Keith, if the vette doesn't quite work out the way you wanted, you can always start gluing stuff to it.

Overinvolved Parents

Now that Danny is headed toward Randolph Macon Academy, I figured Keith might want to get a jump on being what the Wall Street Journal is calling a helicopter parent.

A new generation of overinvolved parents are flooding campus orientations, meddling in registration and interfering with students' dealings with professors, administrators and roommates, school officials say.

Soaring college tuitions play a role, too. Increasingly, "parents see the institution as a product, and they're consumers. They want to know their investment is being protected," Dr. Mullendore says.

Hmm. We're looking forward to Yale Parents Weekend!

Insult to Injury

I am sure everyone remembers my last and only brush with the law, the infamous unjustified traffic ticket incident. (Al, feel free to enjoy the sordid tale in the link). It took me a while to start traveling that same route on my way home, and even now I carefully turn right on red only from the curb lane in spite of the fact that I know I am right and that judge was an incompetent idiot. So today I am driving home, and whaddya know -- I am at the exact same intersection in the far right lane with a couple of cars ahead of me, and in the right turn lane to my left is a Redwood City cop behind yet another innocent driver. That guy stops at the red light, makes sure nobody is coming, and turns right -- just like I did. Oh great, I figure, I am going to see this cop pull the same stunt with this guy as they did with me. What happens? You guessed it! The cop pulls up, stops, makes sure nobody is coming, and turns right on red himself. Arrrghh!!!

I guess a citizen's arrest was out of the question. Better just to count to ten and breathe deeply.

Out of this World Job Opportunity

Those wacky guys at Google are always looking for an angle. When they offer jobs in their lunar office, you have to wonder what the applicants will look like.

Google is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at our lunar hosting and research center, opening late in the spring of 2007. This unique opportunity is available only to highly-qualified individuals who are willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences as soy low-fat lattes, The Sopranos and a steady supply of oxygen.

You might enjoy clicking thru the "Next" buttons. Or then again, you might just be bored by the whole thing.

Shadow Divers

Shadow Divers is a great book for all you armchair adventurers. It's a non-fiction account of the divers who discover a wrecked Nazi U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey. In 230 feet of water, there are only a few wackos crazy enough to dive something like this in scuba gear. The story revolves mainly around two of the divers who become totally obsessed with figuring out which U-Boat it is. The problem is that there is no record anywhere of a U-Boat going down off of New Jersey. They scour every source, and they go on dive after dangerous dive to try to recover some artifact that will identify the sub. People die, but the search must go on. Terrific fun to read, but I think I'm going to pass on wreck diving as my next hobby. For those of you who read Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, another fun adventure, I thought this one was even better.