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This website is pretty crazy.
We Feel Fine / by Jonathan Harris and Sepandar Kamvar
It mines the more popular blog services to see how people are feeling. You can look for people of a particular gender in a prarticular city who are expressing a particular emotion. It also will tell you about the weather in their city at the time that they posted.
Ethanol's rise prompts worries of a corn crunch | csmonitor.com
Looks like the new Ethanol craze could have some pretty nasty effects on the price of all of our food over the next few years. Most ethanol is made from Corn. 20% of this years Corn Crop will be converted into ethanol. This figure is expected to double over the next few years. As a result the price of Corn is increasing pretty significantly. Unfortunately Corn is also pretty vital to raising healthy Beef, Chicken or Pork. So as Corn prices go up, so do meat prices. Also as corn prices go up, more farmland is going to be shifted from producing less profitable crops to make more corn. this shift will increase the cost of other crops.
I am not really opposed to ethanol per se. I think all of the recent mandates and subsidies however are one of the biggest scams in a long time. It doesn't burn much cleaner than Gasoline. It provides less power per gallon. You have to burn about 75 energy units of gasoline in order to produce 100 energy units of corn ethanol. Even if all of the farmland in production where converted to growing corn for Ethanol, we couldn't come close to powering our fleets. The Ethanol reformulations that have been mandated are a contributor to the higher gasoline prices that we have been seeing.
I think we have been hoodwinked..
One of my college fraternity brothers has an interesting set of math videos on Youtube. Here is an example:
Perhaps adding special effects will be required in order to reach the generation being raised by their X-box's.
Be sure to check out some of Bernard Finnigan's other work on his website. He is most famous for being on an E! special for 2 seconds. A video of him in his star trek uniform flashed on the screen as they introducted William Shatner's "Get A Life" SNL skit as being the Seventy first most unforgettable Saturday night life moments.
Today I was bringing the laundry upstairs from our laundry room. (We had a good week's worth down there) On one of my trips, I heard Nathan say somthing from his bedroom. He had gone to bed about 20 minutes earlier. After I had finished my laundry hauling chore, I went to close the door to our stairs. I was kinda surprized to find Nathan soundly sleeping on the floor in the hallway right behind the door that I had propped open.
I picked the boy up to take him back into his room. His eyes shook open.. "Daddy, I can't sleep" he said.
It looks like CoComment has upgraded their system so it should now track comments of non-cocomment users! This will be a big improvement.
If you have a blog, and you haven't tried cocomment, I would recomend it. Basically it is a centralized system that keeps track of the comments that you place throughout the blogsphere. This makes it easy to find all of the converstions that you are having on the web.
My Outgoing comments section on the right is run by CoComment.
Scott Boras Complianed to Ebay that the following item violated his client's marketing rights:
The Ebay merchant, a stay at home mom .successfully defended herself, and Damon's lawyers allowed her to resume selling the item.
The story made the top sports headlines, Damon irked by Internet baby gear-seller - Yahoo! News, So I am guessing she will sell several thousand of them. Now not only will Red Sox fans want to buy them, but also anyone who cares about freedom of speech.
Ted Harvey Invited a Gianna Jessen to Sing the Star Spangled banner before the Colorado House of Represenatives. Ms. Jessen suffers with cerebral palsy, and her story is an inspiring tale of perseverence. After she finished singing, Mr Harvey told her tale, and she recieved a standing ovation from the House.
Then he explained "The Rest of the Story" -- that her condition was caused by a botched Planned parenthood abortion. The chamber went silent. Half of the House was enraged beyond words. They where preparing to debate a resolution celebrating Planned Parenthood's anniversary in their area.
Mr. Harvey's account is definately worth reading: Ted Harvey, not Paul Harvey
HT: @ Large
Well I have been using ViaTalk for a couple of months now, and I am pretty satisified.
I have been very happy with the availability of their network. So far, every time I have wanted to make a call, I have been able to. When I used Broadvoice in the past, there where some pretty big issues with their network going down.
We have a phone number in Eugene Oregon, where my wife's sister lives. Since most folks are using cell phones, it really isn't too much of a hassle having an out of town number. They have numbers in Spokane if we want one, and we could even port over our regular phone if we choose to.
The call quality has been acceptable. It does seem to be a little bit degraded from our land line, but that could be related to the wireless phones that I am using. I have noticed a slight echo once or twice, as well as a pause or two in a call. I have never had one drop.
Overall, I am quite satisfied. We have an additional fully featured phone line with unlimited long distance for less than I was paying for long distance before.
I wish that ViaTalk had a speed dial feature. That seems like a strange oversight.
Next, I plan to build an asterisk box so I can manage my both my land line and the ViaTalk line from my end.
Looks like the last visitor to my geocache has a run in with a Bear!
(GCQCXR) Day Mountain View by fingertoe and daveygravey
Hope that doesn't scare other folks way!
I always liked Jon Kinta when he was playing in Seattle. There was nothing flashy about him, he just did is job, and was an all around good guy. I was sad to see him go. I am glad he is getting another chance!
Kitna discovers faith during reckless college years
HT: Brad Leach
Andee and I finished our study of Philippians last week. That last chapter is something else! I think that there are at least 3 passages worth memorizing.
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -think about such things.
And Philippians 4:11-13
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
As is often the case when I study the Bible, Our pastor used that last passage in his message on Sunday.
We started in on Romans today.
Apparently Myspace is now the most viewed website on the Internet. Quite honestly, it kinda creeps me out whenever I go there.
Imagine if some old friends who you had not seen in several years invited you out to eat with them so you could catch up. You get the the restaurant, and you find that it really isn't a restaurant, but more of a seedy bar. It is so loud, that you really can't have a meaningful conversation. You are constantly being interrupted by people of both genders hitting on you. Then the strippers come out and start dancing on the tables. You feel really uncomfortable being there, but you would also feel uncomfortable walking out on your friends who you haven't seen in a long time. Oh, another odd thing, why are all of these underage kids hanging around a seedy strip club??
That about sums it up for me. I have a profile out there, that links here. Not too excited about spending much more time there.
Yahoo 360 is somewhat better. Not a ton better, but somewhat
Spending way too much time hacking on the Blog lately. Today, I upgraded to Movable Type version 3.31, which was just recently released. At first glance, it appears that the big upgrades are the inclusion of the Apps.feeds Lite plugin and a widget manager.
The Apps.feeds Lite allows you to include any RSS feed in your blog. For example, I have included links to Thinking Christians and the upcoming events at my church in the right hand column.
The widgets manager allows you create little chunks of code and include them on your website. Most everything in the the right hand menu on the front page is handled by the widget manager. I have a widget that pulls my bloglines blogroll, one that pulls my bookmarks, one that pulls the feeds from my church's website, etc. If I want to re-arrange that menu, I can go into the widget manager and it is as easy ad dragging and dropping the components into the order I want them and republishing.
All in all, it looks pretty slick. Well worth the trouble!
Looks like Jeff hit the Jackpot on free web apps!
one step closer… � ZOHO — 12 incredible, free, web applications
Andee and I have started to spend a little time each night studying the bible together. We started this week with Philippians.
We are using the homiletics method taught by BSF. In a nutshell it is a 5 step process for preparing to teach a bible passage. Step one is to list the content of the passage. Step 2 is to divide the content into 2-4 divisions. Step 3 is to write a summary sentence for the entire passage. Step 4 is to define the main idea that you want your audience to take away from your teaching. Step 5 is to write real life applications based on the divisions that you created in Step 2.
We are really pleased with this method. It forces us to actually immerse ourselves in the scripture and think about what we are learning from it. It also teaches us to express what we are learning to each other. Each study is generated from scratch, so we know that what we are learning is what the scripture is teaching us. I like being able to trust God to teach me what he wants me to learn rather than answering leading questions to teach me what the author of the study material thinks I should learn.
This is something else!
I believe that we spend way to much on the here and now. We spend so much energy trying to improve ourselves, that we fail to invest in those around us. When all is said and done, our legacy on this world is not defined by who we are, what we did, and what we had. It is defined by how we effected those who are around us.
The world around us bombards us with the language of justice all of the time. "You have the right", "You deserve it", "You earned it", "You shouldn't have to put up with that". When we accept these messages as being true, we often find ourselves quite self centered. Many times the world would be a much better place if we passed on our "rights".
The currency of Love is our acceptance of injustice. Giving our hard earned money to help those who are in need is accepting injustice. Forgiving our spouse for something hurtful that they did is accepting injustice. Being willing to not get credit for the things that we accomplish is accepting injustice. Letting the Joneses win is accepting injustice. Certainly loving your enemy is accepting injustice.
I find it amazing to go to funerals of people who get this. Often, the entire community turns out. Hundreds of people have had their lives changed just because they had a few interactions with somebody who is absolutely ordinary in every other way.
One of my posts on Thinking Christians got flamebaited yesterday with an off topic comment regarding Christian support of the Iraq war. The church did not support this war. The vast majority of the denominations that took a stand on the war where against it.
The GULLY | Invisible Opposition to Bush's WarIt's not just the firebrands that have been erased. In this most Christian administration, short shrift has been given to the Christian leaders that have questioned a preemptive strike against Iraq. Bush critics include the leadership of the United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Orthodox Church in America, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Christian Church, and the United Church of Christ. The National Council of Churches, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have also asked whether even a "regime change" in the name of democracy will not do more harm than good.
Like most Christians, I trusted the president to do his job. I know that he had a lot more information than I did. I also trust Congress to examine the evidence, and make sure that the war is being conducted for a reason and in a manner that is in line with our values. That vote passed 296-133 in the house, and 77-23 in the Senate. I wouldn't call that a close vote.
In hindsight, the liberals go and blame the church for the war, when in truth the church stood firmly against it long before the democratic party did.
Can you believe I am related to these guys?? (Dad and New Brother in Law)
I got some money for my birthday last month, and I decided to use it to try to appease my appetite for aviation.. I invited my friend Dean along to watch, and he wound up taking a ride as well. He took his digital camera, and taped quite a bit of his flying. I got quite a bit of practice flying the glider. Dean complained when we got there that he had never flown inverted, Which one of the pilots was happy to remedy for him.. (I was pleased to remain right side up for the most part) As you can see from Dean's video, we had quite a blast.