Archive for December, 2011

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Blog Feature: Daily Money Shot


10 Dec

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New feature this week. On Saturdays, I’m going to highlight a post from the previous week that was put up by one of the blogs I read regularly.

For the inaugural feature, I’ve chosen Managing December Birthdays from Daily Money Shot. This was chosen because I happen to have a December birthday and I love what Jana and her husband are doing to make sure their daughter’s birthday remains her special day, despite the rest of the world’s focus on the major holidays happening this time of year.

Wishing Jana’s little girl, and all the other December babies Happy Birthday!

Walking Again


09 Dec

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I like medical miracles. They remind us that there are depths to the human brain and body that we still don’t understand. I love this story about a former Paralympian who has regained the use of her legs and is now on a pro-cycling team.

On the other hand, I hate medical miracles, because they make too many people think they’ll be the miracle when miracles just do not happen all that often.

I actually think the best part of this story is that Monique was making the best of her life with a disability, not waiting for a miracle.

More MythBusters Mayhem


08 Dec

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No new MythBusters last night so I’m still talking about the accident that had them sending a 30lb softball (I know, what’s soft about a ball weighing 30lbs) into a neighborhood near the bomb range where they conduct many experiments.

Jamie and Adam went to visit the home and help clean up. The show has insurance for exactly this reason. Everyone is grateful for the fact that no one was hurt.

However, some people in the neighborhood don’t want them back if they’re going to be doing “dangerous” things. My response to that- dude, you live near a BOMB range.

Can you say “Oops”?


07 Dec

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Posted in Mythbusters, Science, Technology, Television | 1 Comment »

The surprise isn’t that this happened. The surprise is that it hasn’t happened before, like a hundred times before. In an experiment gone awry, the MythBusters appear to have shot a cannonball through a house near the gun range where they normally test their artillery myths.

Apparently, the cannonball took some weird bounces, and went through two walls of a nearby house. Having once lived near a rifle range, I can tell you, the owners never thought anything like this could happen.

It does, however, make you wonder what happened to Jamie’s perfect period cannonball from the tree cannon myth.

The Goldilocks Planet


06 Dec

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You all know I love space exploration. I am excited by the discovery of Kepler-22, the first potentially human habitable planet discovered by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. But here’s what gets me. Notice how I said “human habitable”. Everyone else just say “habitable”. There is the assumption that life couldn’t have formed on a planet that humans couldn’t live on. Hydrogen based life, perhaps, couldn’t form on a planet without water as we know it, but why are we so certain that all intelligent life has to be hydrogen based? And why are we certain the planets need to be Earth-size?

A Nice Surprise


05 Dec

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I got a bit of a surprise this weekend when I looked at the stats on my blogs. It turns out, a major personal finance blog, The Consumerist, linked to one of the posts I put up on The Dog Ate My Wallet. Since that post was my yearly rant against commercials that claim luxury cars are good gifts, my post also linked to last year’s posts here. Traffic to all my sites went up considerably, though it was most evident on The Dog Ate My Wallet. My previous traffic high had been 35 views. On Friday, I had 1,390.

Happy Birthday, K (one day late)


04 Dec

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Yesterday was the 20th birthday of my cousin K. She is my youngest cousin on my mother’s side and remains, to this day, the only baby I have held on the day it was born. Since it’s been 20 years since that day, when her mother had to assure me I wouldn’t break her, you would think that wouldn’t matter much anymore. But it remains one of the most powerful memories of my teenage years. I look at the amazing young woman she has become and a part of me still sees the tiny pink face wrapped in a blanket.

The Arabian Route


03 Dec

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Every once in a while, I regret my decision not to follow through and become a trained “historian”. The truth is, I wouldn’t have been involved in this kind of expedition anyway, since Paleolithic would not have been my era, and I hate the heat, so tramping around the deserts of Arabia would have been totally off the list.

But still, how cool is this that they are finding a trail of breadcrumbs that indicates humans started leaving Africa earlier than expected and by a different route than most theorize.

The story of humanity is being written before our eyes.

Medical Gag Orders


02 Dec

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Posted in Dental Care, Healthcare | Comments Off

How did anyone every think these medical gag contracts were legal?

In the form, medical professionals promise not to violate federal law as long as you don’t say mean things about them. Go ahead and break the law and see what the government thinks of your excuse “but she said mean things”.

These forms are often signed under duress- the patient needs medical care. With a decent lawyer, that invalidates most contracts.

And hello, Hippocratic Oath. I don’t know if dentists take it, but if an MD refuses to treat because someone doesn’t sign this contract- that violates professional ethics.

MythBusters Season Finale (ep 180)


01 Dec

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I actually think the 48 Hours 2 myth was busted. The reason- pouring liquid nitrogen on a bomb doesn’t give you 2-3 seconds to get safe, it gives minutes- 15 in this case, but I’m sure that varies by how much liquid nitrogen is used. Danny & Mel could have walked out of the house with that much time. As for the cast iron tub being an effective bomb shelter- not surprised.

As for planes, it’s more fuel efficient to fly one big plane flying than 5 little ones, so I don’t think formation flying is the future of aviation.

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