The Relative Risk of Shark Attacks to Humans

Chain saws 1996 13,458
Shark injuries and deaths in U.S.A. 1996 13

From Shark Attacks – A Comparison with the Number of Injuries Associated with Home-Improvement Equipment

Yes, but a chainsaw doesn’t look at you with black, soulless eyes as it bites.

 

Photo credit:
Source Flickr
Author Mshai

43 Things Personality Quiz

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I’m a

Fun Loving Lifelong Learning Builder

ASPCA Speaks Out Against Michael Vick

ASPCA Blog | Ed Sayres: The Road Ahead for Michael Vick

After careful consideration, we have decided to speak out now about Michael Vick because of the special circumstances involving the ASPCA. Several months ago, Mr. Vick’s PR representatives approached the ASPCA to help educate America about the heinous act of dog fighting following his release from prison. We were the first animal welfare organization given the opportunity to work with Mr. Vick but immediately turned him down due to the unique knowledge we had of his indescribable and barbaric acts of animal cruelty where he and his associates savagely electrocuted and beat dogs to death after they lost their brutal fights.

A big thumbs up to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for daring to speak out against Michael Vick.

On the other hand, the hos at the Humane Society are taking money from the Vick public relations machine and in return are telling the world that 18 months in prison taught him to love animals.

HSUS will never get another dime of my money. I am done with them.

BOYCOTT PHILADELPHIA EAGLES **SPONSORS**

Do Plastics Contribute to Obesity?

Plastics… and other unusual explanations for the obesity epidemic

Weather.com just noticed years of research suggesting that some plastics contain estrogen-like chemicals which can leech out into the contents. Welcome to the REAL world.

If estrogen-like compounds really do leech into your soda, not only could it make you fat, it could also cause breast cancer, precocious puberty and even a class of birth defects known in developmental biology and teratology as Mullerian duct anomalies. The latter are defects in the reproductive organs that can lead to sterility or intersex states.

Until it is disproved, it might be a good idea to avoid drinking acidic substances from plastic bottles. Look for your favorites in glass bottles, and if you can’t find them write to the company. Switch to filtered tap water while you wait for an answer.

Microsoft Dreamspark Student Software

Microsoft DreamSpark

Dreamspark is Microsoft’s program for getting free development tools into the hands of students, in hopes that when they get out in the business world they’ll ask for the tools they’re familiar with. Or in Microsoft’s own words:

It is our hope that the DreamSpark program will spark your creativity and help you harness software’s transformative magic to turn your good ideas into reality, by equipping you with the tools you need to succeed and excel during your academic experience and skills you will need after graduation.

Are you a student? Here’s what you can get:

  • Visual Studio 2008 Professional
  • Microsoft Virtual PC
  • XNA Game Studio

… and more.

That’s right, these are the same goodies that old women like me have to pay hundreds of dollars for.

Tagaroo Issue

Calais Tagaroo › Tagaroo refreshes page too often

Tagaroo is the fine WordPress plugin from OpenCalais that suggests tags and imanges for my posts. It’s a great tool!

There’s just one problem… Tagaroo updates the page every few seconds to change the tags it suggests when I’m writing some posts. Not all, but enough to make blogging with Tagaroo activated become real chore. Each time it does it, my typing is buffered for a second or two. Occasionally the cursor will pop up to the top of the text box, placing the buffered typing in the beginning of the post. It makes it rather difficult to post.

I’ve written about this in a previous version of WordPress and Tagaroo. Does ANYBODY have an idea what to do about this? Maybe an “Update tagaroo” button?

My cat is on Twitter

SayTweet badge

Worse, he’s way more popular than I am.

Sarah Palin quits!

Sarah Palin just quit her job as Governor of Alaska. The 2012 presidential race has begun!


The pundits are going on about whoever coupld have given her such terrible political advice. Since she doesn’t take advice from anyone but her husband, it seems pretty obvious.

Possibilities:
1) She plans to attend MJ’s memorial service.
2) She is going to work with hubby Todd at the oil company, perhaps as lobbyist or in PR – or better yet, in an Energy Industry organization. Heh, I almost wrote “Thinktank.” As if.
3) An inescapable personal or political crisis looming. Not likely, she wouldn’t recognize an ethical or moral failure if it jumped in her lap and called her “Grandma.”
4) Early preparations for 2012 – the Mayans were right! Alaska is too far from Washington so she really has to get there and make some political allies.
5) She’s going to write a book, do a book tour, go on the lecture circuit – and win a Nobel Prize.
6) Unplanned pregnancy?

Let’s start a rumor.

Well Known Canadians

To my friends of the Canadian persuasion, here’s a list of Well Known Canadians to help you celebrate Canada Day.

And a nice video of the flag. :-)

HP 1035NA Netbook

HP Netbook

New toy! It’s an HP Netbook PC. A Netbook is a tiny laptop suitable for everyday use. Email, online banking, writing letters. It’s so small you can carry it in that duffel bag you call a purse, and it can connect anywhere. Most models I investigated had integrated wireless (WiFi). AT&T and Verizon both offered Netbooks with 3G broadband wireless capability. Some models had Bluetooth for mouse or headphones.

I purchased the HP1035NA and really put it through its paces. YouTube videos played without a glitch. I will try Netflix videos in a day for two and edit this… Web browsing, email, and document editing were more than adequate, though if you normally run a high speed machine for engineering apps you’ll notice a difference. I didn’t do any tweaks to speed up the netbook, things like disabling indexing or windows animations.

The downside of the HP 1035NA Netbook is that it has less hard drive capacity and is slightly more expensive than some of its competitors, including the ASUS Eee PC 900. However, the slightly larger 10.2-inch display and the nearly full-size tactile keyboard are what sold me on the HP.

Specs:
OS:Windows XP Home SP3
Productivity: Microsoft Works
Display: 10.2-Inch
Processor: 1.60 GHz Intel Atom Processor N270 with 512KB L2 Cache
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (shared) with up to 128MB Total Available Graphics Memory
RAM: 1GB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm)
Storage: 60GB (4200RPM) Hard Drive
Connectivity: 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth.
Dimensions: 6.56 (W) x 10.3 (D) x 0.99 (H) approx.,
Weight: 2.38 lbs.

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