This is just a test.
All posts by Jack
1+1 equals whatever you want it to
This is what happened:
On September 3, 1967, at 04.50 in the morning, the traffic everywhere in
Sweden was directed over to the right side of the road and stopped. Everything
stood absolutely still for 10 minutes, and at 05.00, when it started again,
all road users in Sweden from heavy trucks to cyclists were already on the
right side of the road, and they have stayed there since.
And this is how Dvorak starts a rant on the Digital TV conversion (coming Feb 17, 2009):
BERKELEY,
Calif. (MarketWatch) — There is a story about how Sweden changed from
driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right side back in
1967. The Swedes, being orderly, decided to let the trucks and buses
switch to the right side of the road for the first week of the
transition, and then cars switched on the second week.
Is there a story about Sweden changing the way he says? I don’t know, I never heard of it. But it sort of defeats the purpose of his rant to start off with a lie. If it is supposed to be a joke then it doesn’t seem appropriate since the digital TV cut over is being done in one fell swoop. Of course it might defeat the purpose of his rant if he mentioned that the Swedish car accident rate reached a low point at the time of the cut over.
10 Commandments to give by
A helpful Commentary from Michael Dirda in the WP on the 10 Commandments of Book Giving:
To Summarize
- Look beyond bestsellers
- A classic is always welcome
- Give them what they love
- Give them what you love
- Do not scorn second-hand books
- Be complementary
- Look for special associations
- Expand horizons
- Support the midlist
- Read book reviews
Human Rights Day
I heard on the radio that today was the 60th anniversary of the signing of
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
so I looked them up. Some very inspirational reading.
I would commend them to the Bush Administration. Please read them and take them to heart, especially the first 12 articles or so.
Light it up!
Elaine said the lights were so perfect that we wouldn’t need to put up ornaments.
Hah! She’s not getting out of it that easy.
The nightly feeding
I saw a very interesting sky tonight and after giving the horses their grain I went back inside to get the camera. In that short period, the sky lost interest and this is what I got.
Then I tried to capture the horses-
That’s Hap
That’s Rags
Magic is a bit tricky to catch, even with a flash.
But if you are suitably sneaky and can distract her…
Gray Day
It was another gray, snowy day today. I think the high was 20F. But I did brave the outdoors for a few minutes. The hills were interesting.
That was fast
Elaine posted a link on how to use leftover Netflix flaps and I surprised her 5 minutes later with this:
I have a few extra flaps laying around.
I also wanted to show off my new monitor, a Samsung 943BWX. It has a 16:10 aspect ration and you can rotate the screen so you get a profile instead landscape presentation. Very neat. As you can see on the screen, I was able to get the equivalent of two screens of the origami instructions at one time.
Elaine was rather surprised at how easy it was to configure the X11 file to rotate the display and to have it actually work.
Note to self- don’t use a black-sided flap for the origami if you are going to take a picture of it.
Who Knew?
I found this link at Boing-Boing and it is impressive to see how accurately Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital president, was explaining – two years ago – the underlying financial problems we face today. And it is being polite to say the fellow economic pundits to whom he was trying to explain things only went as far as ridicule.
Gift Giving
As we approach the New Year and ready ourselves to reflect on the past and to ponder, however briefly, the future, it is traditional to gift those with whom we share our lives.
Why not give a gift that will keep on giving? Give them a book.