--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Nuts about Nuts?
BBC NEWS | Health | Warning of nut allergy 'hysteria':
Professor Nicolas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, notes that the hysteria about nut contamination looks more like mass psychogenic illness. (See: Salem Witch Trials, etc.)
"Measures to protect children with nut allergies are becoming increasingly absurd and hysterical, say experts.
A peanut on the floor of a US school bus recently led to evacuation and decontamination for fear it might have affected the 10-year-old passengers."
Facts: there are 2,000 hospitalizations a year (out of 30,000,000 total) for all allergic reactions. Just 150 people a year die from food allergies.
Professor Nicolas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, notes that the hysteria about nut contamination looks more like mass psychogenic illness. (See: Salem Witch Trials, etc.)
Are we Nuts about Nuts? Yup.
Interesting article about The Role of the Media and Media Hypes from Johns Hopkins.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Accuracy vs Precision
Fiddling with new toys - got a $5 oven thermometer and a $40 meat thermometer. Set the oven to 350 - nice digital display, so it *should* be accurate and precise.
Testing that theory. The $5 oven thermometer reads precisely 10 degrees low - the oven claims it's at 350 degrees; the thermometer reads 340. The $40 meat thermometer shows the initial warmup overshot to 375 degrees, then cooled to 365, even after opening the oven several times to check the $5 thermometer.
After about a 10 minute 'rest' -- long enough to type up this blog post - the $40 meat thermometer has dropped to 351 degrees. I think the oven agrees - I just heard the relays kick on to re-energize the heating elements. The $5 thermometer still shows low - 342 or thereabout.
After a 20 minute 'rest' and a full heat cycle the oven thermometer now shows 160, and the meat thermometer shows 165 degrees.
So, which is right? I don't know. They are all precise - same measurements every time. But until I can find a definitive answer, I'm out of luck for accuracy.
Update: Thought of a new test. We know how hot boiling water is - 212 degrees at sea level. Well, I'm 1,000 feet above that, but I pulled a pan of hot water (less dissolved solids) and set it to a rolling boil. The meat thermometer registered 212 degrees. So it is accurate and precise. The oven thermometer isn't submersible, so no way to test it - but comparing against the meat thermometer it appears to read within 10% or so, just slowly.
The good news is that the oven display is right on the money, at least good enough for home use.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Messy basement
Took this with the panorama feature on the touch pro. Pretty dang fancy.
--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com
--
Will England, 'travellin with the touch pro'
wengland@gmail.com
Saturday, December 13, 2008
CNN misses, Google Hits.
Earlier today (yesterday, now) nuclear armed India invaded nuclear armed Pakistan -- quick action by Pakistani air force jets headed off the attempted invasion. Ok, the news calls it 'airspace violations'. At least some of the news. CNN - not so much. A search at 10:00 PM CST, Dec 13 shows zero hits for Pakistan Airspace on CNN:
The same search on Google News turns up 539 hits.
What's CNN up to? Or are they just bound and determined to go tango-uniform? (toes (tits) up - Dead)
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Kansas City Lunch Spots - great website
Kansas City Lunch Spots advertises that "It shouldn't be this hard to find someplace to eat lunch."
Nice web blog site with reviews and info on local joints for lunch. On my Reader list...
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Alec wins Pack 3094 Pinewood Derby
Alec's had a great time building, racing and winning with Pine Car Derby and Cub Scout Pack 3094 in Overland Park, KS.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Tiny PCs, Full-Size Problems
Rob Pegoraro - Tiny PCs, Full-Size Problems: "What to get instead? If you're buying a netbook as your sole computer, knowing that you'll only use it on the Web, Acer offers the best bet for now. If, however, you're buying it as a third or fourth computer and are willing to tweak it to fit your own needs, look at the MSI.
But it might be better to wait. If these manufacturers have the good sense to steal each other's best ideas, we should see significantly better choices before long."
But it might be better to wait. If these manufacturers have the good sense to steal each other's best ideas, we should see significantly better choices before long."
Monday, December 01, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Magical thinking
Neat: Magical thinking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "magical thinking is nonscientific causal reasoning that often includes such ideas as the ability of the mind to affect the physical world, correlation equaling causation, the law of contagion, the power of symbols, and the meaningfulness of synchronicity."
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Presidential Transition Info
Presidential Transition Team: "this online directory will introduce you to the operation of the Federal government and the resources available to help you begin your service in the new Administration."
Monday, November 03, 2008
Guess Mom's gettin a new mac
Netflix now offers their 'Watch Instantly' feature for the Macintosh, but it requires:
Netflix: Watch Instantly: "Mac
An Intel-based Mac with OS 10.4.8 or later
Safari 3 or higher; or Firefox 2 or higher
1 GB RAM"
Mom's still running a G5 iMac - the original 17" model. She's also a big fan of Netflix. Hmm. New mac? Or Rokku netflix box for streaming over the TV? (and wifi network and receiver and speakers for switching between cable, DVD and Netflix and . . .)
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