chicken bones

Spotted in the Journal of Industrial Ecology (an MIT publication):

Paul Hawken, the noted U.S. author, entrepreneur and social critic, has estimated that the sum of all substances required to support one American for a year, including water used that is no longer available for reuse, totals nearly a million pounds—or roughly 109 truckloads for a family of four. And do we recycle those million pounds of resources? Not likely—Americans discard 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour and enough steel and iron to continuously supply all of the country’s automakers.

Hmm .. this makes me wanna mosey over to KFC, buy a bucket .. and throw chicken bones out the window. That'll grow new chickens, right?

cellphone ICE

someone forwarded a hint about "cellphone ICE" this morning, and being a natural skeptic, I just had to check it out first. Indeed, I found an item on snopes.com about it: "In Case of Emergency" which has lots of details.

The Executive Summary of "cellphone ICE" is simple:

add|edit one|more of your cellphone Address Book entries so that it begins with the letters ICE (In Case of Emergency). Then, when you're found dead/dying, a paramedic can search your cellphone's address book and will know who to call. I personally haven't carried one of those "Emergency Contact Number" forms in my wallet for eons, so this isn't a bad idea.

The Cellphone ICE idea is not foolproof, as the snopes.com article points out: if your cellphone's separated from you, how will an EMT know which phone belongs to you? Also, what if you have a security code enabled (so others can't use it without your permission)?

Perhaps we should all print a custom label for our phones? "Property of Gene Bob. In Case of Emergency, call Beta the Wonder Dog at 555-1212"

Related: one of the A9 hits sent me to a video of an interview on CBS TV's "The Early Show" where Bob Brotchie - the idea's British originator - was interviewed by Julie Chen. Since I'm not a regular viewer, I don't know if she's normally that way, but several of her interview questions sounded like a total airhead. At least she didn't ask "If you could be a tree, what color would you be?" I felt sorry for Bob Brotchie, and would like to apologize (on behalf of all Americans) for subjecting him to that. We're not all mindless bimbos, Bob .. just certain TV Anchors.

cold, battery, crescent

What's with the cool weather - a high of only 74F? Isn't this supposed to be July in Dallas - home of the Poached Egg On A Sidewalk?

My UPS battery arrived via UPS today, and I am speechless with delight .. almost to the point of driving a $20 bill to Plano (yes, Trish-Bob .. that quip's for you). After installing the UPS battery (a task requiring about 30 seconds total) I took the old one to the BatteriesPlus store (Beltline @ Midway) and asked if they'd recycle the old one. Sure!, they said .. and asked how much I paid for the battery (curiosity). Turns out they stock UPS batteries, and even had my prehistoric one in stock .. their price with tax was more than buying via the web and paying shipping, but not by a huge sum.

This afternoon, I moseyed to downtown Dallas to locate the Crescent Office Complex - ha! This 18-story monster's hard to miss, once you've left the Woodall Rodgers Freeway (the mostly nameless thing that links 75-Central and I-35E).

Joe Barton's Witch Hunt

I doubt that Joe Barton's Witch Hunt will be covered by the local press; I'm happy that at least one newspaper (The Washington Post) in this country bothered. As I recall, The Washington Post is the same paper that broke the Watergate Scandal, many years ago, and is still villified by Regressives everywhere. Carry on, Garth.

At least Barton is following Karl Rove's manifesto: if you don't like the message that someone (anyone) delivers, the first thing to do is to attempt to discredit them. "If you're wrong, don't admit it. Next, get personal," says Herr Rove.

Unrelated: another item not covered by the Texas papers: Pastors For Peace Caravan to Cuba Stopped at U.S.-Mexican Border is something I noticed on the Democracy Now show (via LinkTV). This continues to confirm my suspicions that the Dallas Managed News is little more than a mouthpiece of the Radical Right.

The mirror is often a good friend.

As any student of real Chinese food knows, fortune cookies are an American addition (abomination?) to the cuisine. But, there I was, feeding on dim sum at midnight Friday, and was presented with a fortune cookie at the end. Mine read "The mirror is often a good friend" (in bed). These originated from a factory in Houston, and included the obligatory sets of lottery numbers on the back.

As far as I know, Lucky House Restaurant (1301 Custer @ 15th Street in Plano) is the only area place that serves dim sum outside the 11am-3pm Window Of Opportunity. And yes, they serve it waaay outside the normal window. Granted, this place is small -- nothing like Kirin Court or Maxim's (Richardson) or Arc en Ciel (Garland) -- so the dim sum is ordered a la cart .. even if there aren't roving carts prowling the aisles with Chinese delicacies. Having a "dim sum menu" was odd, but it seemed to work.

Lucky House is near a 24-hour McDonalds and an Albertsons grocery, so maybe 15th & Custer in Plano is where the Late Night action happens up there. Outside (trendy) downtown Plano, natch.

meditation

Whoever is in charge of naming stuff at Microsoft could stand a flogging. The new spin of the OS (currently coded "Longhorn", due in 2006) is to be Microsoft Windows Vista with the disclaimer "Clear, Confident, Connected: Bringing clarity to your world". Why does this remind me of the mantra for a religious cult?

I suppose I'd better get in the queue at the nearest CompUSA, right?

Also, if you're in the mood for a Stroll Down Memory Lane, take a peek at Wikipedia's "History of Microsoft Windows". Riveting, indeed!

a UPS from UPS

Having stable electrical power for my computers is a Very Good Thing. In my neighborhood (probably most of Texas), the quality of electricity could be better; my lights dim every few weeks whether there's an electrical storm nearby or not. Since the computers are all on UPS [Uninterruptable Power System] this doesn't make me flinch.

My first UPS - an APC Back-UPS Office 500 - lasted a long time, but last night the battery decided it could hold a charge no longer. After making sure I had the right size UPS (500 VA), I have some choices to make:

0) do nothing. listen to the one-minute beep every 4 hours;
1) disconnect the UPS. use a surge protector instead;
2) discard the UPS in the trash (BAD IDEA!) and buy a new UPS [APC Back-UPS ES 500] from MicroCenter ($64.93);
3) replace the (rechargeable) battery
($26.78 from RefurbUPS.com or $50.29 from APC);
4) upgrade the UPS to a new model ($64.37)
(all prices include sales tax and shipping)

Upgrading to a new model will allow access to modern software (PowerChute plus was written for Windows 98); the old UPS communicated via RS232C (vs USB) and is relatively primitive. But, this PC doesn't get a lot of use, so that's not paramount. If I finally decide to cave in, I can use the prehistoric UPS [with a fresh battery] on my TiVo (secretly powered by Linux), right?

I opted for choice #3 - replace the battery .. but first I needed to know the RBC [Replacement Battery Cartridge] number. Naturally, my 3 UPS have different batteries:

APC Back-UPS Office 500 (aka BF500) - uses an RBC21
APC Back-UPS ES 500 (aka BE500U) - uses an RBC2
Belkin 375 VA (aka F6H375-USB) : no replacement!

Astute readers will note that one UPS is only 375 VA - that's because it's not powering a monitor - CPU only. I emailed Belkin's Tech Support, and got this reply: "The F6H375-USB model has a 3 year warranty and there are no replace [sic] batteries for this unit." That's interesting, because the owner's manual says that if I should ever have to replace the battery, I should remove the old one and look for the manufacturer's name. Yeah, right.

I could've moseyed over to the nearest Batteries+ retail site, but it doesn't open until 8am and I want Instant Gratification! So now, I'll sit by the door, waiting for the UPS [United Parcel Service] Ground delivery to arrive. That shouldn't take long, right?