Biological Stats

These are some interesting stats I wanted to jot down, so I sent them from my Clie to my blog where they will live forever.

• 98% of the cells (the source said atoms) in your body are replaced every year.
• Cells of brain replaced every year.
• Skeleton replaced every 3 months.
• Liver every 6 weeks.
• Skin every month.
• You have 60,000 thoughts every day.
• 95% of your thoughts are the same every day as they were the day before.

I was thinking about how our thoughts hardwire our cells, specifically your nerve cells. So if you change your thoughts how does that change your physiology, and how long does it take before there will be a significant long term impact?

My lovely wife found these stats for me. Not sure of the source though. 33.5% of statistics are made up on the spot anyway (just like that one), although it is always nice to reference a source, even if they made up the statistics.

On a mostly unrelated note:

I was reading a great essay about Public Relations. They author talked about how a previous employer made a lot of use of PR firms and how they work. Basically the company would write up an article that talked about the industry and spoke favorably of their company. Then the PR firm would pass that article, or a boilerplate of derived information, off to their contacts at the different news establishments. Then the news reporters would basically put their name on it as news.

The effect at one point was they were able to extrapolate the percentage of the industry that used their product. The number was more guess then fact. Then they were able to get that fabricated statistic published, which they then referenced in their marketing material as fact. So they paid a PR firm to use the news media to turn their marketing material into fact.

Next time you see a "news article" that strongly favors one player in the industry, it is a good chance it is a PR piece.

Subject tags: [Biological] [Meme] [Statistics] [Stats] [Thoughts] [Thought Patterns] [Nerves] [Public Relations] [PR] [News] [Marketing]

Blogging in the Dark

So what do you do when the power goes out? Wouldn't that be a great time to update your Blog? That is what is nice about having a portable device. Instead of a laptop I got a Sony Clie ux50. It is like a really small laptop.

Unfortunately I can't post until the power come back up since my wireless access point requires electricity. I guess I could always drive to coffee shop or something.

Why is it when your power goes out you always want to know who else lost their power? Is it to make sure you are not suffering alone? And how do you decide who calls the power company? Does everyone call, or is there some system to determine who it will be. You certainly don' want to waste the power companies tim answering the phone, but at the same time you want them to realise the gravity of the situation.

At 11 PM maybe I should consider going to sleep instead of blogging. . . .

Gmail Storage Space

I've been using Gmail for my email for quite some time now. Not only does it provide plenty of storage space, but I really like the interface. Gmail's debut was on April 1st last year (See post by Paul Buchheit, Gmail'1st Engineer). Some people thought it was an April Fools joke - 1 gigabyte of email from Google - Google is famous for their jokes (e.g., Pigeon Rank and Lunar Jobs.) It was no joke, and it was very popular. Then on April 1st of this year they doubled the storage from 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabytes, and growing. As of today the storage space is 2657.638419 megabytes (and counting).

I am a fairly heavy email user, and I rarely delete things. Gmail encourages you to not bother deleting messages since you have so much space. I don't get many large attachments, so most of my emails are just messages with an occasional attachment. I looked down and was shocked to see that I am using over 20% of my storage space. If they hadn't doubled my space I would be getting close to 50%!

In fact, this is my current usage information as of today, October 24th:

You are currently using 547 MB (21%) of your 2657 MB.

I am curious if my storage space is growing faster then I am receiving new email. I'll check back in a few weeks and see if my percentage is going down or up.

Unfortunately there is no way to sort your message by size. I may have some large attachments in there that might be worth deleting. I am curious if a fowarded attachment is duplicated, or if both messages point to the same attachment. The latter seems more logical.

Subject tags: [Google] [Gmail] [Email] [Storage]

Flu Shot

Seems like ever since the flu shot was introduced there has been a pattern. This pattern may not hold true every year, but it certainly seems to be regularly re-occuring. In about late September, early October I start to see signs going up at the big stores saying they will have a flu shot clinic on a certain date. Flu shots seem abundant and are easily obtainable for a couple months.

Then in about January you start hearing news reports that there is a shortage for flu shots. Panic sets in. People rush out to get their flu shots before they are all gone. Others blame the government! People start to refuse to go outside for fear of an epidimic. Pandimonium sets in.

It amazes me that there can be such abundance for those who get their shots early, then such a shortage later. If it is so important to people then why don't they get them in October. Unless I am missing something then it seems to me that people who wait until January or February and then complain that there are no more available get what they deserve. The shot is good for the whole flu season so why not get it early? It takes a few weeks to be effective anyway, so waiting until flu season may be too late anyway.

But then again maybe I am missing something.

Anyway, I got my first flu shot this year. There were pleanty to go around. We will see what happens come January.

Tags: [Flu Shot] [Politics] [Planning] [Lazyness] [People]

Mini MPEG4 VCR

Just ordered a Pacific Image MPEG4 PV-801 mini VCR off of Woot. I have some VHS tapes I want to get into my PC, plus I have video clips I want to get to my TV. I have a DVD burner, but that seems hit and miss in my DVD player as of late. Short of moving my VCR into the computer room and buying a TV I/O Video Card I figure this is a good solution. Plus it is portable. I may need to pick up some larger CF or SD media to go in it though.

Tags: [MPEG4] [VCR] [Media]

Yahoo! and Microsoft to Link IM Networks

It is about time these networks started linking. Imagine if we still had disconnected email networks (it wasn't that long ago). I wonder if AOL is going to make a consolidating move, maybe with their own ICQ network. For anyone using Jabber or GAIM, then you already have the ability to connect to multiple networks, but you still need an account on each. I am curious if the combined Yahoo! & MSN network will require seperate accounts, or if an account on one will work for both / either.

Tags: [IM] [Microsoft] [Yahoo] [AOL] [AIM]

Pi: The Music Video

190 Digits of Pi, set to music in a video. Wizards, robots, kids in striped shirts, people being disintegrated, break dancing and a little bit of hip hop for good measure.

"That's what I call get'n some π. . ."

BTW, I listened to it again, and although it is made took look like a show off PBS it is not exactly kid friendly.

via [Waxy]

Tags: [Bizarre] [Retro] [Pi] [Math] [Video]

"I Wouldn't Want It"

I was getting some water this afternoon and started talking with a co-worker. He pointed to this poster about how "you could win a Mercedes-Benz C230 Sport Sedan for one year" (same picture as on the site). He was saying how he wouldn't want it since he would have to pay for the insurance for a year, and what if his kids spilt something on it?

I stood there looking at the poster and thought to my self ". . . and that is why you won't win it." How many people are out there talking themselves out of why they want to win things before they even win. Just so anyone knows, if you win something, and don't want it, I'll take it. In fact, if you are trying to give something to someone, and they don't want it, you can give it to me.

Tags: [Prize] [Win] [Attitude] [Mercedes-Benz C230] [Insurance] [Motivation]

Secret Lie

I am sure it is obvious to anyone who knows my wife Dawn and I that I am really fond of her and think the world of her. Occasionally she still impresses me. She has started her own Blog, which she setup on her own I might add. Her latest post "The Secret Lie" is brilliant. I love it. Go read it and check out some of her other posts too.

Tags: [Secret] [Lie] [Blog] [Motivation]

Feed Moved to Feed Burner

I discovered the Blogger is not formatting my newsfeed correctly. I've been looking at FeedBurner for a while now. They provide a free service that enhances news feeds. I ran my news feed through it and discovered it fixed all my complaints.

If you are using the old ATOM feed you will want to switch your subscription to the new feed location. You will probably notice the feed is more readable now too. I will switch the Atom feed off in a while, so be sure you make the transition.

Monitor Meltdown

I had a tech support call one time where their monitor wasn't working. It was a brand new computer, so we had to make sure it was the monitor and not the PC. During the call their monitor started to spark and smoke, then it burst into flames (maybe burst is an exageration). I told them to unplug it and get back. The fireworks stopped once they cut the power. I sent them a new monitor.

I doubt this is that monitor, but it reminded me of that call. . .

Tags: [Tech Support] [Monitors] [Funny Pictures] [Fire]

More on Serenity

HowStuffWorks (one of my favorite sites) has a behind the scenes on Serenity. Really interesting stuff. Especially on the future of Serenity:

The cast is signed for two sequels, which they and Whedon would gladly make. "There are more stories to tell with these characters, so if the opportunity came up, I'd jump. We had a lot of fun and I think it translates on screen. I believe that if people see it, they will like it," says the director. He wouldn't rule out another TV version either, but adds "though I don't know who owns the TV rights."

I think the Sci-Fi Channel has TV rights, but I could be wrong. That would be a very welcoming home I expect. Although usually if a movie does well you see a second movie, not a TV series, especially if the movie is based on a TV series. I guess time will tell. Serenity was #2 at the box office (right after Flightplan) on opening weekend. RottenTomatoes, which aggrogates movie reviews, has it rated at 80% FRESH (Really good). Most everyone involved in the movie has very little "Star Power" with Hollywood as a whole. A lot of them have been in other movies or even top TV shows, but I don't think any of them had top billing on a blockbuster movie. We will see what next week holds. I say the odds of a sequal are very good.

Serenity Review

We went to the 8 PM showing of Serenity at the Boise Edwards. They had it on two screens out of 21. It looks like it was a sold out theater. I must say, Serenity ROCKS! It was fantastic! Exceeded my expectations.

It took a while to get past the changes from the series. Instead of Mal doing the voice over in the beginning they have someone else doing it, which just sounded wrong, and then they didn't use the theme song either. For some reason everyone always looks different on the big screen instead of the TV. Not sure why. They ship was different too.

But you really get into all the characters, even the new bad guy. The whole theater laughed, cried and jumped together. A lot of good action. The fight scenes were not that crazy camera movement we see in most other action movies, so you could tell what was happening and didn't get dizzy.

The script was very tight and all the dialog was really well thought out. Best of all there was no Jar-Jar.

Dawn isn't a huge sci-fi movie fan and she even liked it, although it was a little gorey and had a few too many jump scenes for her.

Recomendation: See it twice if you are Sci-Fi fan, more if you liked FireFly.

Tags: [Movies] [Serenity] [FireFly]