My wife, Holly, is walking in the Memory Walk to raise money for fighting Alzheimer's Disease. Won't you please make a donation? She wants to raise at least $100, and it's obviously going to a worthy cause. You can donate online (securely) via that link using your credit card, or feel free to PayPal a donation to me at seth.bokelman@uni.edu and I'll make sure it gets there.
I just got 6 more Gmail invites. If you want one, leave a comment below with the e-mail address you'd like the invitation sent to, along with your first and last name.
I really wish that someone at my old high school would get a clue when it comes to the web page. I could overlook the fact that they used a 180KB imagemap for that main page. I could even possibly get over the fact that trying to read vertical text on those books to select what part of the site you want to visit is difficult, and really dumb considering even real books don't display their titles that way. And, if I try really hard, I might get over the .pdf newsletter looking like the clip art folder threw up on their document. What I absolutely can't forgive, however, is having a 1.5MB photo file included in the main page, making it at least a 5 minute download for anyone on dial-up. I know most people have broadband now, but use an image manipulation program already!
This Washington Post article explains the reason for the annoying commercial that plagued the HDTV coverage of the Olympic games. Apparently, NBC did Sony a "favor" by running it so often, without checking with Sony first.
"We supplied all of the high-def equipment NBC is using for the games," Stringer said. "Then it turned out that NBC was unable to sell any ads on their HDTV channel. So somebody thought it would be a nice way of saying 'thank you' to Sony to drop in Sony commercials during some of the breaks. Unfortunately they didn't notify us and ended up using just that one spot. Our guys didn't know about it, but of course we're very embarrassed."
Which, begs the question, what the hell were his parents doing taking a three year old to see Alien vs. Predator?
Anyone else watching the Olympics in HD and want to swear off purchasing all Sony products for the rest of their lives? They're apparently the only company who bought time on the NBC HD feed, so at every single break, you get the exact same annoying commercial over and over and over again. Not to mention, in the ad, they're advertising an HDTV... to people who already own HDTVs! Quite possibly the worst demographic selection you can think of...
Looking for Weapons-Grade Uranium? Try your local research University.
I'm going to break with the Democratic Party here, and say that I'm for sending our nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Why? Because, despite what the protesters will tell you, Nevada is largely a wasteland. I should know, I lived there for 5 years.
Nevada is largely desolate, and, with the exception of Las Vegas, it's not the kind of land that people are clamoring to live on. The Federal government still owns a large chunk of the state, and they used to detonate nuclear bombs on it and under it. If you were given the task of choosing a location for the nation's nuclear waste, you'd want to choose someplace with a small population, stable seismic history, and ability to be defended from sabotage. Nevada meets all those criteria, and is practically the only place that does. Due to its legacy as a nuclear testing ground, it's perfect.
My parents live in the state, and they're against the Yucca Mountain plan. Why? When I asked my mom why, she said Nevada didn't produce any of the nuclear waste, so they don't think they should store it. While Nevada is blessed with the Hoover Dam, and all the electricity that comes with it, occasionally you have to look at the greater good, and in this case, that means putting all of our nuclear waste into one highly defensible and stable location, where it can be properly stored, monitored, and handled. Yucca Mountain is the best location we have.
A lot of the other fear-mongering comes from the job of transporting the nuclear waste to the storage location. This has been done for years, the DOE has been shipping nuclear waste around for a long time, with no problems. The casks that have been developed to contain the nuclear waste are almost indestructible, they're designed to survive horrific crashes, drops from large heights, fires, being submerged in water, you name it.
This is the legacy of nuclear power, you get nuclear waste, but it's relatively small and easy to contain, compared to what you get from burning coal, or other non-clean energy sources. I'm also a proponent of expanded nuclear power within the U.S. It's (relatively) clean, it's efficient, it's safe, and reliable. After Chernobyl, the thought of a nuclear plant in their state fills many with dread, regardless of the fact that our light-water reactors simply aren't possible of that type of meltdown. When our water boils off, the reaction stops, it doesn't escalate out of control, it's a fundamentally different design.
Until we've got more efficient clean energy generation capabilities, nuclear power is going to remain necessary, and we're going to need someplace to store all the waste. Yucca Mountain is the best place.
The Economist has an interesting bit on the "Manliness" competition that this election has turned into.
I was walking down College Street today, on my way to El Mariachi, the new Mexican restauraunt open near UNI in Cedar Falls, and I saw a store window with a big picture of a sub sandwich in it, and on the paper in the picture there was a familiar logo. It seemed too good to be true, so I stuck my head in and asked a guy installing drywall what was going in there, and he told me it was going to be a Jimmy John's. I was so happy, I was walking on air the rest of the way to lunch. Ever since I moved to Cedar Falls, I've missed Jimmy John's, which was practically a staple of my diet when I went to ISU. They have the greatest french bread subs, and they deliver, and they're reasonably priced. Every time I'm in Ames, I go eat at the store there, I think their bread has addictive ingredients. Now, I just have to wait for it to open...
