Here Comes Science - TMBG, Awesome!

Back in September I mentioned here that They Might Be Giants had released "Here Comes Science" on DVD & CD. We'll, Dr. Desert Flower and I looked for it as a Christmas present at Target, and here in Western Phoenix, we were not able to find it. But at a Barns & Nobel one afternoon earlier this month, a helpful perky sales person asked "Can I help you?" and I grumpily said "you don't have TMBG's 'Here Comes Science'" ... and she walked over to the Children's Section, and Viola, there it was! A CD for the car, and a DVD with videos for every song. Very cool.

I got it for Christmas this morning =) ... Christopher and I just finished watching it, and laughing hilariously at many of the insightful and catchy tunes & videos.

If you have a child in your home under the age of 12, who has even the slightest interest in Science, you NEED to have this DVD. I will be playing it for my grandchildren someday, years from now. Even if you don't have a child in your home but you know a Scientist, enjoy facts, have a disdain for fundamentalist belief systems, or know a niece, nephew, neighbor, or other child who you'd like to have a positive effect on their development as a citizen, or a positive effect on their grade point average, This is worth the $19 (retail, B&N) or $12 at Amazon.

Dr.Z's Osama Bin Neocon

This link from Dr Zaius, earlier this week, is wonderfully (and frighteningly) true.

Joyeux Noël

LOL
I found this rather silly (and slightly disturbing, as it animates) this morning.

Christmas Eve's Afternoon Hike 09

The purple line is last January's solo hike.

The black arrows are yesterday's hike with the family, wherein Dr Desert Flower's not feeling well kept us from going further.









Below is the park department's map. Getting under AZ51 there is a tunnel.

Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia!

I am actually embracing Christmas much more this year than in any other year of my adult life, I think. I even sent out Oplatek to many of my relatives in Christmas cards that I'd never sent a card to before in my life.

Oplatek are rather tasteless, bland, dehydrated wafers that you break, and share with other Poles at Wigilia (Christmas Eve Dinner). I hated the tradition as a kid (let's get to the toys!) and hated the meat-less meal with duck's blood soup (Czarnina, ew!) and cold borsch ewww even more! But my wonderful non-Polish wife is baking a ham, making sweet potato souffle, and many other delicious fixins, and I am looking forward to the evening, tremendously.

Maybe, it was finding the Oplatek at the Warsaw Market Deli last week, that was the moment when my Grinch heart grew 3 sizes... I dunno. I DID enjoy return addressing all the Christmas cards I sent out "Dr Traci & Mr Joe" - inordinately so. =)

250 Rounds

This is what 250 rounds look like, discharged at a shooting range, over 1 hour yesterday.
2 persons range fee for an hour: $14 each
2 boxes of 100 Winchester 9 x 19 rounds, from Cabelas: $13.99 each
bought at the range box of 50 Remington 9 x 19: $16
ink jet print outs: $1
Standard NRA bulls-eye targets (Dad's on the left, son's on the right): $1.50
Father & Son bonding experience handling firearms responsibly: Priceless

On the "Mugger" home-made target, Christopher immediately shot at the drawing's crotch, then hand, then gun, then each thigh. I aimed for the mouth, then added "buttons" down the zip up hoodie. I tried to hit his eyes (at 25 feet) but kept putting rounds at the bridge of his nose or into his cheeks instead. The "over the shoulder" holes were a clip of "groupings" to see how close we could get each 'cloud' to be. The boy's a natural with a Glock 17.

3 bottles with dinner

Last night, my son and I had 3 wonderful bottles of wine with our dinner. The first and last, we've already discussed here.
Château Nénine started off with Thai stir fried broccoli, snow peas, and tofu in a spicy peanut & coconut milk sauce.
Then was a new treat, Trentatre Rosso 33, $6 from Trader Joes. (reviews here, here, here, here, and here, all enjoyed the same wine as well - one of them in the UK not buying it from Trader Joes!).
Ended with the $5 Nero Avola from Trader Joes.

Not even the tiniest hang over this morning. We're going to tackle Page Spring Arizona Wines, tonight, which we mistakenly purchased last year. We'll see if the bottles are drinkable.

It's nice to have my son over to help me drink wine (and appreciate the different varietals as well!), so I don't feel bad having 3 glasses while his mother has just-a-one-or-so.

Motorola Barrage, of Merde

Last week, before sojourning to Arizona, my son replaced his broken Verizon cell phone with the Motorola Barrage V860. Hailed as "sporting a submersible design that is built to survive in 1 meter of water up to 30 minutes" (on Motorola's own website, link here, seriously). Motorola claims that it meets MIL Spec 810F (link here to the spec) for humidity, salt fog, sand & dust, altitude, high & low temperatures, thermal shock, vibration, impact (shock). Editor Kent German at CNET is ardently in-love with Motorola (link here). Perhaps he's never actually used one, or he gets massive kick-backs from Motorola? I don't know. I do know my son's experiences, my friends' experiences, and my personal experiences are not congruent with Motorola's claims, the MIL spec, or Kent German's perspective.

Since first mass manufacturing the StarTAC phone in 1993, Motorola has sunk to a new global standard for lows in quality and reliability. Their RAZR phone in 2004 broke within the first 2 years (mine and several of my colleague's experiences), usually much less than a year (my family's and their friends' experiences), yet it was hailed as a product development and global manufacturing break through. Many other companies tried to follow it's example. To keep costs down, Motorola compromised on design, materials, durability, and produced a small, thin, flip phone that did not last. It "looked cool" but like so many products Americans embrace, it was vacuous, low quality, disposable junk. Now, the Barrage is out, and it should be called the "Garbage", following in the RAZR's footsteps.

I do not understand how a 1 week old phone, made in China, that is supposed to be SUBMERSIBLE in up to 1 meter of water, can SHORT OUT when the key pad is pressed with wet fingers, poolside, at the Show Low Arizona Hampton Inn on Monday night. The Verizon lackey at the local Phoenix store said "oh, it was the steam" (adjacent to the hot tub). Really?? 50 C is 122 F, scalding temperature for most humans. The steam, by the laws of thermodynamics and heat transfer will not be hotter than hot tub's contents that produced it. The phone was Not submersed. It was not even pushing the limits of MIL Spec 810F.

The store clerk began to give my son resistance, and Dr Desert Flower was 'loaded for Bear', when the store branch manager pulled up our "VIP" Verizon account, and said to our son "we'll replace the phone". You're damn right you'll replace it.

What's even more disturbing to me than this shoddy Chinese made, barely-capable US designed quality electronics, is that such pieces of garbage are being purchased by government agencies and sent to places like Afghanistan, to be given to locals ('call us if you see any Taliban') by the thousands. There's no convenient Verizon store, across from a COSTCO in Kandahar... but if the dern thing worked, there should be no need for one!

In contrast, my Nokia 6015i is now 6 years old (still has a retractable antenna) and still works just fine.

We're going on a our 2nd annual Christmas Eve afternoon hike, to look for a nesting pair of falcons. Enough Blogging for now!

Suisse Reciprocity

Earlier this month, the Suisse (Swiss, for Anglophiles) passed a constitutional referendum that banned the further construction of minarets in their country. The new amendment does not affect the existing 4 minarets, or the existing 150 mosques, it just halts the construction of any additional minarets.

Now, out-cry against this amendment passing was wide-spread. This included such strange bed fellows as the politically correct left wing, and Fundamentalist Muslim Nations, like Saudi Arabia & Iran (who do not allow the construction of ANY churches of ANY religion other than the one the state sanctions) and political pundits, like The Daily Show. Originally, I had a negative initial reaction to the news of the law passing, with the random man-on-the-street reports in Zurich, Basel, Bern and elsewhere that I saw or heard on the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR et al, where they picked The Most racist, most negative, most sensational citizens to interview.

Then today, I get an email from my friend John, a kindly engineer retiree with whom I regularly correspond. He's a Francophile / Francophone / former Vietnam Vet officer who splits his time between SE France and Florida each year, and a rather enlightened chap. He was applauding the passage... which took me off-guard and aback... so I did some digging on Google, and found this helpful Lexis-Nexis article (link here), which helps to put the hypocrisy in perspective.

The one time I thought I would have to go to Saudi Arabia for work years ago, and saw all of the affidavits you have to make & sign, and pledges to NOT bring in Bibles or to proselytize... it was appalling. Not that I would... but to have to sign a legal document saying you know you cannot do it, and if you do it is punishable severely under the law (up to, and including Capital punishment) was as over-board as Senator Ensign of Nevada defending the sanctity of marriage, or Senator Larry Craig of Idaho railing against the evils of homosexuality. Why you so vocal and afraid of it, hmmmm boys?

So when Saudi Arabia and Iran and other theocratic dictatorships allow the free and open building of religious places of worship and preaching of any religion within their borders (including Atheism, which is punishable by death), the Suisse should again revise their constitution to allow the building of minarets.

I think that is fair.

Time For Target Practice

Ah, the boy has awakened! (11am) We're gonna head to Shooter's World, and get some Glock target practice in this morning. No more time for blogging!

I think we might wear our Obama T shirts to the range... we'll be the only non-Tea Baggers / non-birthers displaying such attire! LOL

Cuties are in season

I have to admit, I love mandarin oranges. About 5 years ago, I began to find it impossible to purchase non-Chinese mandarin oranges in the US while living in South Carolina. I don't want lead, or sub-standard wages, or abysmally low quality going into the citrus I eat, so I stopped buying them.

Living in Arizona however, I'm next door to California. And California, grows and distributes some of the world's most delicious citrus. Cuties California Mandarins (clementine and murcott) are being sold at Fresh & Easy, Frys (aka Kroger), Safeway, and Costco... ubiquitously, as they are in season now. After eating two 3 lbs bags in the last month, I've come across only 2 of the little fruits with a brittle skin, all the others being juicy, peel-able, delicious, healthy little snacks. Yeah, they're not low carb, but full of fiber and micro-nutrients, I think they're better than most Christmas cookies. =)

Greener Planet Tempranillo – Garnacha

My cousin Mike and his wife Marcy got us a bottle of Greener Planet Tempranillo – Garnacha for Christmas, which we enjoyed Sunday evening. It's the 2nd organic wine I've had, and my first from Spain. It's drinkable, not over-bearing, a nice choice for a middle-of-the-road red.

Some tempranillos and many garnachas can have a strong BITE to them, paired nicely with spicy Spanish foods, but the first glass of the Greener Planet on Sunday, and the final glass I had last night after returning from the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest were both smooth and delicious. I highly recommend it.

I THINK they picked it up at Sam's Club... but I am not sure. I sent them home with a bubbly bottle of Zonin Prosecco and a bottle of Château Calage (which we had a bottle with a dinner and everyone enjoyed).

Avatar - Cameron's Visual Masterpiece

James Cameron's Avatar is a Visual Masterpiece. Saw it on a standard non-3D, non-IMAX screen last weekend, to a relatively packed house at the local theater. Graphics are amazing. Plot is a little hokey. My buddy Ryan said he read a review where it said Avatar combined Cameron's "Big 3": Aliens (Corporate Greed & Evil) with Terminator 2 (former enemy turned savior) with Titanic's love story. My son summarized it as "I saw this movie before, when it was called Ferngully". But to compare Ferngully and Avatar, is like comparing Castle Wolfenstein to Quake 4, or comparing a jug of Carlo Rossi with a 1995 perfectly stored Château Margaux.

It's not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination. There's several plot errors and discontinuities. It's quite predictable... but the journey is an enjoyable one, even with all the telegraphed notes laying around. I thought of many ways to have more effective battle scenes / higher carnage ratios, but Cameron's more of a story teller than he is a shootem-and-blow-em-up director. For taking 12 years to put together (and 12 years for graphics to mature to the point where such rendering is possible) it's not a bad movie.

If you don't get a wee-bit motion sick from large IMAX films with rapid motion and flying sequences, or have severe asymmetrical astigmatism as I do (that renders 3D glasses un-focusable, and the 'Magic Eye' Sunday Comics images an annoying blur) then be sure to see Avatar on a massive screen.

The Drying of the Basil

About 2 weeks ago, we had a sudden cold surge here in the Phoenix valley where it got down to 34°F. The organic basil bushes we grow here don't do so well below 36°F - getting black spots on the leaves, so Dr Desert Flower harvested a large quantity the night of the approaching near-frost, in the dark.

We let the basil dry for a week in the relatively high humidity (about 40% RH) that accompanied the Pacific cold front, and when the leaves appeared to have no more moisture in them, I de-leafed them last weekend, pulling leaves from stems carefully, and then Crushing the leaves for compact storage. Basil is delicious - not a ship of the desert, or a chanting of "boosabah, boosabah..." by adolescent males in NW Indiana... but the spice =)

Our friend Tim counseled us that to enhance basil leaf growing productivity, the flowered ends of each stem should be cut off to encourage the plants to leaf out more - a good 5 minute task for the fastidious gardener.

Lo Lo's Chicken & Waffles

mmmmm yummy. 4 large eggs, chicken, cheese, salsa, bell peppers, (hold the) onions. Service was quite slow, but the food was delicious.

Ice tea served in a giant mason jar.

After hiking and climbing for 4 hours, it was a delicious refueling yesterday.

She's a Butte-e'

Today, my son and I climbed every peak of every bluff in Papago Park. It was fantastic! We went up in elevation over 1700 ft elevation, scaling sheer rock walls with barely a toe-hold. There were 2 times (on the way down) that I thought I was going to fall /die / come to my demise... but Christopher guided his decrepit old father to a safe foot hold, and we made it safely back to the car. It was an INVIGORATING hike & climb - I'd show you picture (or a few), but Dr Desert Flower has taken our son to a party full of scientists this evening which I have elected not to go to due to Dr-Lecherous-Baby-Huey being there who I have zero tolerance for his all-too-friendly-behaviour with other men's wives (including motor boating... really.. motor boating other men's wives is supposed to be socially acceptable? really?). Jose Cuervo, he is my friend - after 2 pitchers of margaritas shared with my son! Life is good.

After the hike we went to Lo Lo's Chicken & Waffles - which I also had a picture of an awesome 4 egg waffle I had... locked away in the absconded camera.... more later this weekend. Christopher has 2 waffles, grits, scrambled eggs, and mac & cheese... not like his low carb daddy!

I am very sore, and very tired, but it is good to be alive, and awesome to not have children in diapers (or who still live at home!). Good night!!!!

The Phoenix Public Library - Desert Sage Branch

With my disgruntlement at Netflix at an all time high (late mailings, damaged mailings, many of the movies I want to see not available) we dropped it down to 2 movies a month, which this month, we burned through by December 12th. So knowing a Master Librarian friend in Ohio (or would it be Mistress Librarian?) and the wide variety of multi-media available at public libraries that she has mentioned (as well as all those pesky books), I signed up for a library card last year.

My first full day of vacation this past Monday, I sojourned to the Western most branch of the Phoenix Library system, about a mile and a 1/2 from my home, the "Desert Sage Branch". It's located next to "Desert Sky Mall" - aka "Idiocracy Mall" for the plethora of denizens wearing silk sports jerseys and flatbiller caps, shopping at the many costume jewelry & piercing pavilions, high carb starch walk-ups, and skater-wear / sports-wear / cell phone stores therein, in a neighborhood that one would call "economically depressed". Idiocracy Mall is also a main transfer station for the ubiquitous Phoenix bus system.

I got there at 10:05am, as the library used to open at 10. There were only 5 or 6 cars in the parking lot, but nearly 2 dozen people waiting at the front door. A large posted sign inside the locked doors stated "New Hours: 11am to 7pm". Ah yes, Phoenix's $100 million dollar budget short fall, on a sales tax based financial model, when sales have plummeted. No worries, I had other errands to run - gift cards to buy, pool gate locks to purchase, delicious Polish deli cuisine to pick up from the Warsaw Market.

So I get back to the library at 1130am. The parking lot is packed. Again, as I saw last year, the 10 internet computer terminals are signed up for the rest of the day, at 20 minute slots. The WiFi is being used by 2 retirees who brought in their wide screen expensive laptops, while the cast of 'the remains of humanity' from "The Road" are using the computer terminals. The children's section, once again, is devoid of any living creature, strangely. In the stacks, there are many people perusing the volumes, but in front of the CDs and DVD shelves, it's practically standing room only. Nearly as fast as the librarians can put the returned disks back on the shelves, that citizens are loading up armfuls to haul home. I'd call it "a lively and well used" branch location.

As I went to check out, I noticed the four laser scanning self-check-out stations. Never having used the self scanners before, and enjoying time spent interacting with bibliophiles, I chose to go to the desk with a human being behind it to check-out. No no no! The head librarian would have none of that, as she saw me with a stack of books and DVDs, swept in, and guided me over to the self-check-out line. Hmmmm. Would have been better, if the head librarian actually could get the scanners to work (Her: "you can put 3 at a time on the scanner.... well.... [shifting to 2... which it reads, but she doesn't see them listing.. and she get flustered] this should work..." [shifting some more]. Me: "I have it mame, thank you" [pointing to the screen, where the titles are displayed, to reassure Judi Dench]).

One strange thing I noticed... the "new books" cart, was loaded with pop culture books. 'Thrillers', and romances, that I have no desire to read... but which the Desert Sage Branch had just put out 6 or 8 or 10 hard bound copies. My guess is, they 'knew' there would be a demand for these 'best sellers' and stocked up inordinately. But with budget cuts, and reduced hours, I'd hope they'd stock up with less fluff, and more reference / more hard-to-find / more lesser-known titles. Perhaps that is too much to expect, especially since the branch is Right Next To Idiocracy Mall - gotta give the masses what they want.

And it is not just 'liberals' who use / leverage and use and frequent libraries. Our Mistress Librarian friend in SE OH has entertained us with many stories of home schoolers coming in, looking for "the books that show Jesus and the dinosaurs together" and complaining that the library offers this or that book that the narrow black-and-white conservative mind considers fit only to be burned. My godfather in the Chicago suburbs regales me with tales of his ultra-paranoid, ultra-conservative, massively hateful, on-medicare-but-keep-your-government-hands-off-my-health-care-cancer-patient neighbor who parks his van Next To his local library branch so he can send out right wing ranting emails over the WiFi from the parking lot. Perhaps these no-tax-and-invisibly-spend right wingers just want wealthy conservative patrons to write large charitable donations to libraries, to fund them, and then only keep the "right kind" of books and movies in them? I don't know. I Do Know that in Phoenix, the public libraries are functioning as a strong social safety net for the disenfranchised, unemployed, and active-job seekers. Tax dollars well spent, in this citizen's opinion.

Zombieland!

Readers of my blog are familiar with my zombie fascination. My son and I went to see a matinee of Zombieland this afternoon. HILARIOUS! I have not laughed that hard at a movie in a long time. Greatly exceeded expectations. Not only was it funny, but it was also quite pragmatic for the coming zombie invasion.

As Far As I Got...

This was as far as got this afternoon at the shelter where I volunteer. When you find a junction box that is NOT water tight, has melted wire nuts, was previously secured to a spongy roof with a thin bead of silicon caulk, that is driving 2 green strings of 180 lights at 45 watts each... you just Back Away, slowly, as a registered PE.

The duct-taped splices, the lack of water-tightness, the black-melted wire nuts that used to be red (joining two 12 ga neutral lines to the photo sensors seen here, in one big molten ball of copper), the melted foam rubber seal on the cover... crispy!

I did not supervise the reassembly, nor did I assist with my manual labor. I did advise what needed to be done to correct the NFPA 70 NEC (National Electric Code) violations. It's a good thing it doesn't rain often in Arizona. Yikes.

Double Checking my own math
45 Watts x 180 lights = 8100 Watts
then....
P = I * V (Power = Amps X Volts)

8100 Watts / 120 VAC = 67.5 Amps.
(in my head, I came up with "about 65 Amps", as I figured in the parking lot without paper or pencil... it's nice to know I can still do math even at my advanced age.. =P )

A 12 AWG wire, at 30 Deg C, can safely carry 23.1 Amps... 1/3 of what each of the two the 180 light strings are calling for. Again, Yikes. It's been installed for 20 years... I recused myself. The main maintenance guy I work with there said he'll work to get it correct over the next week...

®evolutionary Tea

Dr Desert Flower's company Christmas party was held last Saturday night at the Wyndham downtown, and it was a pleasant evening for employees & their attending guests, carnivores, omnivores, and vegetarians, ludomaniacs and those who don't experience ludomania. I had an introduction to how to play craps, which I find far too arcane for my enjoyment personally, and then played blackjack with an extremely sympathetic dealer who tried to make sure the House always lost. Amusing, to a degree. Interestingly, the band got the most people dancing when they went on break and put on Kenny Loggin's greatest hits CD - LOL! The band was not bad... they played and sounded well, they were just rather mellow / sedated / playing songs my to which my parents would have felt comfortable dancing (sans polkas).

But what was Most Memorable about the evening - other than DDF's stunning gorgeousness in the black satin pencil skirt and Christmas Green silk blouse from White House/Black Market - was the tea. Yes, the tea! The Wyndham coffee station table served a variety of 5 different teas from ®evolution, which I found quite delicious. The Tropical Green Tea was good, but the Sweet Ginger Peach had a savoury blend I'd never tasted before, and want to have more soon. Admittedly, I snuck an unopened single serving box of Early Grey Lavender, which I've tried this afternoon to find relaxing and refreshing after an hour of yoga on the pool deck in this quite humid (45% RH) 64°F Phoenix day. For times when a massive dose of caffeine is not needed, in the future I think I will be turning to ®evolution.