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Weekend Links
I am out of town for the weekend, but here are a few cool links.
I know I am not the only one confused by the credit crisis. Here is a nice little video that explains it in simple terms.
And for a couple funny links.
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What Happened to Good Music
Today would have been Kurt Cobain’s 42nd birthday. It’s crazy that he has been dead for 15 years already.During my junior year of high school this album with a naked baby on it came out. A lot of people didn’t understand it, but I totally got it. It was something different. I totally related to it and it changed my life. That tape was pretty much glued into my tape deck. Not a bad song on it. There isn’t even a mediocre song on it. All were and still are great in my eyes. That alum opened my eyes to so much great music that wasn’t very popular. Many of those unknown bands would eventually get big and played on the radio. In the mid 90s the radio stations were playing music that I actually liked. Not so much now days.
Maybe I am getting old, but music now days seems watered down. Even the lesser known stuff that I listen too isn’t nearly as good. With the Internet and MySpace anybody with a computer and a guitar can be a band. To find good music now days you have to wade though much more crap. It’s no wonder the radio doesn’t play anything worth listening too. I still find and listen to good stuff, just nothing nearly as good as some of those 90s albums. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins Sonic Youth, and many other bands all had killer albums in the 90s. There have been only a handful of great albums since.
Or, maybe I am just OLD.
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Numb3rs
On Friday I mentioned I have a few lucky numbers. I don’t know why I have them. I don’t believe in luck or anything. I just like numbers. So here are my favorite numbers:
7- It’s a pretty popular lucky number. It’s my birthday. My birthday is 2-7-75. The two numbers that aren’t 7 add up to 7. It was also the number that the best QB for my favorite team, John Elway wore.
22- Growing up in elementary and middle school I played basketball. My best friend and I were huge Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fans. When it was time to hand out our jerseys he beat me to the 33 jersey, so I went with 22. 22 was then my basketball number whenever I could get it.
27- It’s also a take on my birthday 2-7. The great Steve Atwater wore it for the Broncos, and it was also the number worn by the late Darrent Williams.
34- One of my all time favorite football players was Walter Payton. He was great on and off the field. He wore 34. 34 was also worn by Tyrone Braxton. One of my favorite old time Bronco player that also went to college in Fargo.
42- Any geek has a special place for the number 42.
63- Is the number I wore in football from my sophomore year on. It was my second choice, but a good one. It is the card number of John Elway’s Rookie card, and also the last two digits of my social security number.
77- The number I wore my freshman year of football. Also the number of a Bronco great Karl Mecklenburg who went to college in Minnesota. It is also just two of my favorite numbers.
I also enjoy running across palindromic numbers, and numbers like 1024 and 1337 make me smile a bit too for obvious, or not so obvious reasons.
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Response to Cali Lewis on Global Warming
Over the weekend Cali Lewis made a comment about global warming on Twitter. She really stirred up a frenzy of comments. Half for her had half against. I didn’t feel like adding to the chaos, so am just blogging about it. I felt a little sorry for her, but she kind of deserved it. Science doesn’t prove global warming doesn’t exist, just like it doesn’t prove that it does. Science doesn’t prove anything. Science just provides the data and facts. Scientist will be the first to tell you they don’t know everything. They are always finding new and cool things. That’s what’s so great about science. Also, calling global warming a hoax is a little extreme.
Science shows that global warming does exist, and humans may have some blame to it. The real question is how much are humans affecting it, and how much we can really do about it. I don’t think anybody really knows the answers to those questions.
Cali did reply with a blog post that explains herself a little more. She changed he wording to being more skeptical of global warming. That is a big difference. It’s good to be skeptical. Being skeptical means you are looking at the data and coming to your own conclusion and are willing to change your mind if the data changes. I can handle someone being skeptical of man-made global warming. Calling it a hoax, no way.
I think Al Gore did more harm than good bringing global warming more to everybody’s attention with is book and movie. Just by who Al Gore is, half the population isn’t going to believe anything he says. Al Gore is a also little extreme. He is all doom and gloom. In reality it’s not that bad, yet.
I know a little bit about water treatment and I relate our air pollution to water pollution. Years ago, when our populations were smaller, we just dumped our raw sewage into rivers. It was no problem then. Nature took care of it. As populations got bigger and bigger, nature couldn’t keep up and sewage treatment plants were required. The still pretty much just use nature to treat the sewage, they are just helping it out. As the worlds population grows we will have a similar problem with air pollution and global warming.
I love Cali Lewis and was worried by her tweet. I know I disagree with her on politics, I was hoping I didn’t disagree with her on this. Her blog post cleared things up for me. I still disagree with her, but not as much. I can see where she is coming from.
In the end everybody really wants the same thing. Clean air, blue skis, and green grass (or in our case white snow). Trying to be more green can never be a bad thing.
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How I Roll
I am a big time multitasker. I feel awkward if I am doing just one thing. People wonder why I have four computers at my desk. I wonder how people can get by with just one. Here is what my desk looks like now, and what I am doing.
What does your desk look like?
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Happy Friday the 13th
Happy Friday the 13th. Superstitions are weird. I have them, but I don’t believe in them one bit. I avoid stepping on cracks, I have a lucky number, and I have been carrying around my lucky penny since high school. My superstitions are more out of habit and my OCD than anything. I have never had any problems with Friday the 13th though.
To me Friday the 13th has always been a great day to watch a great movie. Ok, calling the “Friday the 13th” series great is kinda stretching it, but I love the movies. I am a big horror movie fan, and nothing is better than a madman in a hockey mask running through the woods. The last few “Friday the 13th” movies have been pretty bad. I know the whole woods and campers thing has been over done, but those were the best ones.
So I hear they are releasing a Friday the 13th remake today. Why? Why not just go back and make another old school Friday the 13th? Sure they aren’t great movies, but I am sure they have fans like me. I will watch any “Friday the 13th” movie, no matter how bad. They bring me back to my childhood. The first time I ever saw boobies were in a “Friday the 13th” movie. To me it doesn’t get any better than a naked women running through the woods trying to get away from a walking Jason Voorhees.
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Happy Darwin Day
On this day, 200 years ago Charles Darwin was Born. Who would have thought that so many people would still not believe in his theories that makes perfect common sense. I wonder how long it took people to believe in the theory of gravity? There is a great opinion article in the NY Times today about Darwin. I never realized before that Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born the same day. Lincoln gets all the hype, so I am going to spend part of the day reading about Darwin. Learning is fun, and science is cool. -
Windows 7 Beta Tempting
You know me, I love to play with anything new. I downloaded the beta version of Windows 7 as soon as possible. I installed it in a virtual machine, and have loved it from day one. It is so clean and almost Mac like. I am so tempted to replace my Vista install with it. I am not a Vista hater. It has run fine for me. It’s actually ran pretty good for me. I am still using my original Vista install. I could never last this long on an XP install. I am rough on Windows, always installing and playing with new software, so it gets mucked up pretty easily for me. I was probably installing XP every six months. My Vista install is starting to get the point where it could use a little reinstalling. I am going to try and hold out until the release of Windows 7, but the beta is really tempting me.
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Grammys Suck
I am a big music fan, but most of the stuff I listen to isn’t all that popular. I am kind of clueless when it comes to “mainstream” music. I never listen to music on the radio because most of it is crap. I found out on Twitter that the Grammys were on last night. I couldn’t care less to see them. First of all I hate all awards show, and second, I probably don’t know much about anybody involved in the awards anyway.
On another musical note, I have had this damn song stuck in my head all weekend. I don’t really know who Taylor Swift is, but the Forever The Sickest Kids version is so much better.
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You Really Won’t Go Blind
I have a little geek crush on Rebecca Watson. She runs Skepchick.org, and is also on a great podcast, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. She is cute, smart, and hilarious. She just started selling an awesome shirt on her site. Too bad I don’t have to balls to wear one though.