So, today I picked up a 50lb dumbbell with one hand with relative ease. This may not seem particularly impressive, but six months ago, this very dumbbell felt like it was welded to the rack, even when I tried lifting it with both hands.

Now, to lose some of the fat that covers my lovely new muscles.

Tags: muscles, yay

So, in the USA, unidentified persons are referred to as John or Jane Doe.

What is the equivalent in other nations and languages?

Update: Wikipedia knows all.

Update 2: Boy. I love Wikipedia. See Placeholder Names.

Tags: identification, nomenclature

Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas: Ten examples about sleep, mood, health, and weight

Intriguing, but the most obvious problem here is that the plural of Anecdote is not Data. More, structured, large-sample research is required.

Also see “Anecdotal Evidence” as example of oxymoron.

Tags: research

Love this.

The Ladybird Book of the Policeman.

Tags: subversive, awesome

http://failblog.org/

Compare to ICanHasCheezBurger.

via Scott.

Tags: tehfunneh

I. My ride to work likes to listen to the Christian station in the morning, which plays a ton of (endlessly repetitive and repeated) CCM. I’ve gone through a few different stages in my struggle to deal with this. First, it was annoyance, then denial (changing some words of the songs to other, more amusing words), then finally to analysis. A lot of these songs do have positive ethical messages, but are invariably spoiled by attributing all positive characteristics to God. It’s a mash-up of institutionalized low self-esteem and high-nose snobbery, with a good dose of the pedestrian. Also, musically speaking, utterly boring.

II. My ride has this annoying habit of not setting off the motion sensor when he arrives to pick me up in the morning. Every other car that enters the driveway sets off the chime with no problems. Additionally, he always parks himself in a spot where it is impossible to see him without going outside and walking around the corner. As a result, I am constantly paranoid about whether he is outside waiting for me. I can sometimes hear the engine of his car if I open the door and listen, but it’s not reliable. On the one hand, I am looking forward to moving to Portland where I will have to find someone else to carpool with. On the other hand, well, the devil you know, you know?

III. My favorite work sweater has developed holes in the elbows. The yarn is not exactly sturdy to begin with, so it’ll be a bit of work to weave a supporting matrix around and through the hole. After I do that, I’ll apply either leather or cloth patches to reinforce the pressure points to avoid recurrence. For now, it’s hanging over the back of my guest chair and I’ve resorted to wearing a series of backup sweaters, none of which quite satisfy. On a related note, it may be “summer” outside, but it’s colder than ever in here.

IV. I found this neat site yesterday, which co-worker J insists he told me about months ago: ExRx.

V. I’ve bought my Burning Man tickets. I’m really excited.

VI. We’ll probably be moving July 1.

VII. I’ve been completely tired lately, wanting to go to bed by 8. If I give in, I wake up at 4. WTF?

VIII. I’m re-reading Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger, which was one of the first fantasy novels I ever read. It turns out that it completely sucks, but I want to stick it out to the end. On the one hand, I don’t typically go around ruining good childhood memories with inconvenient reality, but on the other hand it bugs me to have wrong information about things, especially about whether a book that I read was *good* or *bad*. On the other hand, I’m not going to re-read Clan of the Cave Bear.

Tags: mishmash, carpooling, burning man, reading, moving, exercise

There is a persistent idea that immigrants take away domestic jobs because they get paid less to do the same work. My question: Can this actually be true, or is it just a myth borne of anti-immigrant sentiment?

From a legal standpoint, (as in, regardless of what your position on immigration is, or what your political stances are) it doesn’t seem possible. That kind of situation would clearly be considered salary discrimination on the basis of national origin, which falls under the same category as salary discrimination on the basis of race or gender. How could a corporation get away with it? If this were true, wouldn’t there be lawsuits?

Assuming that the premise is true, K think this may be due to the virtual indenture between H1-B visa holders and their employer. Essentially, if one of the peons makes trouble, they would be kicked out of the country faster than they could sneeze. I suppose that may account for some of it, but I can’t believe that the ACLU or some other group wouldn’t find some way to craft a lawsuit to that effect.

Thoughts?

Tags: immigration, salary

So, I was listening to the radio on the way back from DEMF. They played an intro to some kind of science discussion show where they mentioned the popular myth that people use only 10% of their brain. They played a clip of someone declaring that Einstein used 13%.

As I often do when I hear patently absurd assertions, I found myself mentally rehearsing the argument I would make to debunk such a statement.

When I was a teenager, I was often accused of being overly argumentative (true).  Over time, I’ve swung the other way, taking a live and let live approach with regard to volunteering my own opinions about how others are wrong. One, I don’t see the point (people are tend to be very attached to their absurdities), and two, hey, I could be wrong.

Even so, I tend to think that if obviously wrong assertions are allowed to slip by unchallenged, that these memes will spread to other defenseless minds, and that the various infections of irrationality will propagate unchecked.

What’s the moral right, here? From a position of larger societal ethics, is it justified for me to challenge these things when they come up, at the expense of being cool?

Or is the entire proposition just veiled narcissism?

Tags: navelgazing

Those needles get bigger every year.

Tags: blood, ouch

Getting ready for DEMF and moving this week.

We are going to try to spend the night at the Lake House tonight. Ideally, by tonight we will be done with our part of the moving stuff: moving the things we won’t need in the next two months into the 3rd stall, and packing and moving the things that we will need (mostly clothes and toiletries) to the Lake House.

It’s like an extended vacation, except we aren’t going anywhere, and I still go to work.

I’ve got about 70% of my DEMF gear gathered and packed. I still need to add var. underwear, toiletries, pajamas, sun-block, etc. I’ve got two evening’s worth of party clothes packed, 3 sets of daytime clothes, plus an extra tank and short-sleeve shirt, just in case. I will be bringing my umbrella this time, since it was such a fabulous idea last time when it rained and was very hot and sunny simultaneously. Oh, and I still need to buy tickets (!).

On Saturday, I’ll be cutting out of my sister-in-law’s bachelorette party early to drive to Detroit. I’ll make it to golf in the morning, but that’s it. K is a little bummed he can’t come, but he will be in Indianapolis at the Indy 500 with my to-be brother-in-law-in-law’s bachelor party. It’s difficult to cut out early when you are in another state.

Ear plugs! I can’t forget ear plugs.

Tags: DEMF, woo!