Happy Burthday!

So Friday night we took Terri out for sushi for her birthday. Terri and I split a "sushi boat" that included a "fuck of a lot of food." Somehow after eating our way through that, Terri was still hungry and wanting something spicy so Jon and Sara suggested the "Kiss of Death" sushi roll (which showed up on the bill as "The kiss of the death" roll"). Terri ordered it. The KoD sushi roll contains jalapenos, wasabi, hot sauce, hot mustard and who know what else. Terri popped one in her mouth and acted like she'd just bit into a scorpion. But she managed to choke it down. Then John (not Jon) tried one. He seemed to get it down ok, albeit with some trouble. Then Shelly tried one and immediatly regretted it, but she too managed to keep it down. I tried one and failed to see what the fuss was about. Sure it was hot, but it wasn't like painful or anything. It had a nice after effect of an oil-like coaring on the back of your throat so that if you inhaled sharply you could get a bit more of the spice. Then Terri ate another one. This seemed to be her fatal mistake. After she ate that one, she spent the next 10 minutes in the bathroom. Everyone was feeling bad for her (except me). I've seen her do this kind of thing to herself before. She was getting no pity from me. I caught a little grief from everyone else for that, but that's OK.

Terri had mostly recovered by the next morning. I explained to her that I thought about stopping her from ordering it, but didn't feel that I needed to try to protect her from herself. After all, I already have a full time job. She agreed that it was probably best to just let her do that to herself because then she'd at least learn a lesson. That's a nice theory, but she knows just as well as I that she didn't actually learn anything that night and is very likely to do it again.

To add insult to injury... Last night we were in the playroom playing with Dee when Terri got up on all fours and asked Dee if she wanted a "horsey ride." Dee enthusiasticly said "Ha Ha" (that means yes) and ran right past Terri to the living room where she jumped on her plastic rocking horse and started riding! The look on Terri's face was great! Fortunately I was running the video camera at the time. I'll see if I can't post the video of this later.

I Have a New Love

I have always loved maps. When I was a kid I have an Air Force aeronautical chart hanging on the wall of my bedroom. It was like 5-6 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide. It covered the central US from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.

I college I didn't have that much wall space, but I still had a rather large world map on the wall.

So sites like MapQuest and Google Maps are lots of fun for me to play around with. And I do play around with them a lot. So I was surprised yesterday when I came across Google Earth. This is a little application that you can download to interact with the online Google maps and satellite imagery. AND IT ROCKS!!!!

Here's a screenshot:

As you can see, it will take the satellite image and stretch it over a terrain. Not as impressive in Fort Worth, but check out Hollywood.

Anyway, you can store favorite locations and even preset the view to a particular angle for each view. Then when you jump from one location to another, you actually get an animation like you launched from one location and landed at another. It's very cool!

Some of the cities also have 3D building objects so you can see the actual skyline. PLus at the click of a button you can see schools, hotels and all sorts of additional information. Even crime stats and census information!

Google Secret Maps

Yesterday I was playing around with Google maps. I was panning around is the satellite view and noticed something weird in DC.

Click on image for the full size image or go HERE to see it on Google.

You'll notice that the Capitol building and several buildings around it have been blurred. Is this supposed to foil some terrorists?

Terrorist 1: Let's bomb the capitol building.

Terrorist 2: Great Idea! Let's google a map of it.

Terrorist 1: Damn! They blurred out the satellite photo. I guess that's the end of that. let's go get a latte instead.

But take another look at the photo. You'll see that there are buildings around the capitol building that are also intentionally blurred. All you've done here is say "Hey! I know you're looking at the capitol building, but what you may not have known is that these buildings over here are also prime targets!"

Take a look at what they did around the White House, though.

Again, click on the image for a larger view or HERE to view the map on Google.

What they've done here is a little less obvious. Here they've colored in the roofs of the building. Now you can see the buildings outlines, but the rooftops have been obscured.

Of course, it's not jsut Google, you see the same thing on Microsoft's TerraServer as well.

For some reason however, they didn't bother blurring out The Pentagon.

Perhaps they should blur out other important American icons as well.

Fire Drill

I was walking through Sears in the mall yesterday when I noticed this sign.

It's nice to know in the event of an emergency exactly what you can expect from the store staff.

Turtles all the way down.

It seems to me that if, as the IDots claim, there is a god (or at least some
form of creator) because anything so wonderfully complex as a human eye could
not have come about by mere chance, then the question must also be asked as to
whether THAT being could have simply come about from nothing.

Surely a being that is so wonderfully complex as to be capable of creating
something so wonderfully complex as a human eye could not have come about by
mere chance and must therefore have been created itself.

Also, a being so wonderfully complex as to be capable of creating a being that
is so wonderfully complex as to be capable of creating something so wonderfully
complex as a human eye could not have come about by mere chance either and myst
therefore have been created.

Therefore, it also seems that a being so wonderfully complex as to be capable
of creating a being so wonderfully complex as to be capable of creating a being
that is so wonderfully complex as to be capable of creating something so
wonderfully complex as a human eye could not have come about by mere chance
either. And it must also have a creator.

Additionally, a being so wonderfully complex as to be capable of creating a
being so wonderfully complex as to be capable of creating a being so
wonderfully complex as to be capable of creating a being that is so wonderfully
complex as to be capable of creating something so wonderfully complex as a
human eye could not have come about by mere chance either. And it must also
have had a creator.

...

"It's turtles all the way down."

Intelligent Design

I don't usually listen to podcasts, but Open source with Christopher Lydon recently did a story on Intelligent Design. You can find it at: http://www.radioopensource.org/intelligent-design/

Give it a listen and see what you think.

Then go read more about Intelligent Design.