Medley of 90's songs - a capella. Clever video edit.

Computerized cars

"The Chevy Volt requires 10 million lines of code, two million more than it takes to run a Boeing 787." - Popular Science, Sept '11, p. 36
"Cars are the most thoroughly computerized machines most of us will ever buy, but unlike phones or laptops they are nearly impossible to upgrade." p.38
"Maybe...car ownership [will shift to a cellphone business] model in which drivers would get a free or highly subsidized car and sign up for a fee plan that includes fuel or access to charging stations." p 85
"Google's seven robotic cars have since logged more than 100,000 fully autonomous miles on California roads...there has only been a single accident, when a human-driven car rear-ended a robot-Prius at a light." p. 85

Change of Address forms - all in one place.

All rock music is the same... (note: contains swear words.)

Vashon in an hour (<--click this link to see a better layout.)

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Seattle, Washington

This trip has dogged me for years! I finally got off one ferry, and made it across the island in time for the other ferry that leaves exactly an hour later. I can't tell you how many times I've done it in 1:05 and 'missed it by that much.' It feels good to finally have a bike fast enough to make that trip in an hour - a lightweight carbon-fiber front-wheel-drive recumbent: Cruzbike Silvio. There are some killer hills across this island, so that's why it's so hard to make 14mph.

Cancer's complexities

New York Times: Recent discoveries in cell biology have complicated the basic principles of the last decade of cancer research. Here's the article.

Just when we thought we knew everything about cancer... Now it appears that 'non-coding' DNA does have functions after all, and RNA and bacterial DNA are more important than we thought. Bacteria are , after all, the most plentiful cell type in the body.TE

Word definitions from Urban Dictionary

Some random definitions from urban dictionary:
(Disclaimer: beware - lots of ribald obscenities on the urban dictionary site...)
protohype - leaking a prototype device to generate buzz about a product you don't quite yet have ready for market.
presponse - To respond to a question before it is finished, often confusing the asker.
NELB - not entirely load bearing - Any plan, concept or idea that is doomed, from the start, to catastrophic failure, usually due to a complete lack of skill and/or knowledge on the part of the planner.
Phobar - Acronym for "PHOtoshopped Beyond All Recognition." 
voluntold - An unpleasant task assigned by your boss.
intexticated - Describes people who drive while sending text messages on their phones.
Googleheimer's - The condition where you think of something you want to Google, but by the time you get to your computer, you've forgotten what it was. 

emailnesia - when you sit down at your computer to type an email but forget what you were going to send and to whom. 

neverendum - repeatedly putting a referendum initiative on the ballot, so that voters will eventually support the proposition because they don't want to hear about it anymore.
nontouchitarian - A person who doesn't let their food touch other foods on the plate so that every flavor remains individual. 

procrastineating - When a person makes it sound like they are apologizing when, in fact, they are just shifting the blame or using twisted logic to argue their way out of responsibility for their actions.

fauxpology - When a person makes it sound like they are apologizing when, in fact, they are just shifting the blame or using twisted logic to argue their way out of responsibility for their actions.

[give the] cold finger - Similar to cold shoulder, except a cold finger is done by ignoring someone's text or facebook message--usually when said person's comment is pointless or uncalled for.

typeless - adj. The state of being so astounded that one cannot type; writing equivalent of speechless

aarping - [AARP is the American Association of Retired Persons] When an elderly person, such as your grandfather, complains incessantly about nothing.

Trading in a gas guzzler may not make cents

With gas going for $4 a gallon and up, you may be thinking of swapping a big car or SUV for something more frugal. Here’s what to consider:

• Will gas savings offset the depreciation of a new car? The answer is usually no, unless you’ve owned the old car for several years. Depreciation accounts for almost half the cost of owning a car over the first five years, with the biggest hit coming in the first few years. So trading in your car early smacks you with a double whammy: You’ve paid the biggest chunk of depreciation on your old car, and you’ll pay it again on your new car.
• How much size can you sacrifice? Fuel-efficient vehicles are often smaller than gas guzzlers. If you can’t fit everyone you need to carry, what’s the point of trading in?
• How much gas will you actually save? We’ve found in our testing that real-world overall mpg is often less than the EPA highway mileage figure that carmakers advertise.

Bottom line

Switching to a frugal vehicle may be a decision of conscience rather than one of cash. It usually makes financial sense to keep an old car for its natural life, then change to a high-mpg model. But if you swap to a high-mpg used car, you miss the depreciation costs of a new car, save more money, and have a greater choice of vehicles for the price.

By the numbers

Keeping an older car can be cheaper. The figures below assume the new cars were bought with five-year loans at current interest rates; the Explorer was used as a trade-in; the older cars were bought with 15 percent down; and gas cost $4 per gallon.

Cool music video

This video is eye candy.  About half way through, develops some clever kaleidoscope-like effects. Took a lot of work, I'm sure. Unfortunately the song is not very good.

The above site fills your screen, but to see a quick version of it, see the youtube version.



Reminds me of a previous video experiment, where you input an address and the climax of the video uses google streetview of that address incorporated into the video. The effect can be quite eerie. Again, the song is so-so.
http://thewildernessdowntown.com/