Every so often there are bands that I know I am supposed to like. I hear from fanatical music people how great they are. LCD Soundsystem is one of these bands. I know many people who seem to think they are a great band, yet I never bothered listening to much of them. Since they(or really he) seems to be winding down, I figured I would listen to some of their music. Not sure he will do anything about the perception that no good music has been produced in the past decade, but he at least tries:
Monday, April 4, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Too many leaves
I don't know that I will make it to the end of the day eating nothing but leaves. This is a shockingly difficult adventure I chose. I am both completely full, and really hungry at the same time. I can't fit anything else in my stomach, but by my best guess I have only eaten 500-800 Calories.
At least I cooked most of them, so I shouldn't die.
At least I cooked most of them, so I shouldn't die.
More good news
Traffic Fatalities have hit their lowest levels in decades. The number of deaths on the road last year was 34,000. In 1972 it was 54,000. The last time the total number of people killed from cars was this low was 1949!When you account for the fact the average American drives more today and the population is larger; driving is about a quarter as dangerous as it was forty years ago.
Crime rates this year in LA are about 12% lower than they were last year at this time. This is all the more shocking since this comes on the tail of a twenty year drop in crime rates.
These two stories will have more impact on life expectancies than most medical advances. Car accidents and murders are some of the bigger killers of young people.
On the economic front, 216,000 net jobs were created last month. One of the few months where job growth has exceeded population growth since the crash happened in 2008. We still need this number to increase to 400,000 or 500,000 for this to really put a dent in the job losses of the past few years, but we are clearly moving in the right direction.
Crime rates this year in LA are about 12% lower than they were last year at this time. This is all the more shocking since this comes on the tail of a twenty year drop in crime rates.
These two stories will have more impact on life expectancies than most medical advances. Car accidents and murders are some of the bigger killers of young people.
On the economic front, 216,000 net jobs were created last month. One of the few months where job growth has exceeded population growth since the crash happened in 2008. We still need this number to increase to 400,000 or 500,000 for this to really put a dent in the job losses of the past few years, but we are clearly moving in the right direction.
Dandelion Greens
Dandelion greens are nearly inedible. I tried eating them raw. That failed. So I cooked a few with kale and spinach. I was able to eat the couple of leaves I cooked, but just barely. I may have to give up on eating only leaves, and make the goal only leaves and balsamic vinegar. Wow is it hard to just eat greens.
I feel sick
I woke up this morning and noticed that my pants are once again getting too small for me. The reasons for this are obvious. When I cook for myself, I lose weight. When I eat out, or someone else cooks a lot for me I gain weight. I have had way too much food from restaurants in the past few weeks.
So, I decided that I should try to eat nothing but leaves today. My best guess is that Americans would be a lot lighter if they ate more greens. While getting more sleep, sitting less, and many other hypotheses for the great fattening of America make some sense as well, low calorie density foods have a really good case for them.
So I ate my radish sprouts for breakfast. It is really hard to eat a whole package of radish sprouts. It is almost as hard as when I tried to eat that entire purple korean radish all at once. But I got to the end of it.
Then I went to a grocery store and a farmers market. I bought: two types of Cabbage, two types of Lettice, Parsley, Watercress, Dandelion Greens, Leeks, Kale and Spinach.
I then tried to eat the red cabbage raw for lunch. I ate until I felt sick, and I am still feeling hungry. Sarah's eggs smell really good. We will see if this grand experiment makes it to the end of the day.
So, I decided that I should try to eat nothing but leaves today. My best guess is that Americans would be a lot lighter if they ate more greens. While getting more sleep, sitting less, and many other hypotheses for the great fattening of America make some sense as well, low calorie density foods have a really good case for them.
So I ate my radish sprouts for breakfast. It is really hard to eat a whole package of radish sprouts. It is almost as hard as when I tried to eat that entire purple korean radish all at once. But I got to the end of it.
Then I went to a grocery store and a farmers market. I bought: two types of Cabbage, two types of Lettice, Parsley, Watercress, Dandelion Greens, Leeks, Kale and Spinach.
I then tried to eat the red cabbage raw for lunch. I ate until I felt sick, and I am still feeling hungry. Sarah's eggs smell really good. We will see if this grand experiment makes it to the end of the day.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Meltdown
I am really not sure what to make of the meltdown in Japan yet. As best as I can tell it lies somewhere between Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. It does seem that quite a bit of radiation is being released, but if I had to guess I would say that in a few weeks people will be moving back in and everything will go back to normal.
It is really hard to find information that is neither alarmist, nor clearly propaganda on one side or the other. Surprisingly XKCD has one of the best charts I have seen to put everything into perspective. We really won't know for sure if this is relatively minor or severe until the radiation release drops to near zero though.
It is really hard to find information that is neither alarmist, nor clearly propaganda on one side or the other. Surprisingly XKCD has one of the best charts I have seen to put everything into perspective. We really won't know for sure if this is relatively minor or severe until the radiation release drops to near zero though.
Tin Foil Hat
I wear a tin foil hat. Well, not quite, but close. I do most of my shopping in cash. I refuse to get rewards cards from any company at all. I even go as far as writing bad reviews about places which want me to sign up for their cards to get special deals. If they can't be bothered with giving me a good deal, I can't be bothered with carrying around their card.
This particular habit usually saves me money. Paying data miners is something stores would only do if they make more money off of customers by doing it. I don't want stores to take more of my money, so I don't want to shop at these stores. In my particular area, the cheap stores such as Food For Less, Superior, Henry's, and 99 Ranch don't have rewards programs. The expensive stores such as Costco(yes, Costco is expensive compared to where I shop) Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons all want me to sign up for cards so they can track me.
On the internet I run the track me not, and taco applications in the hopes to make me harder to track as I move around the internet. My bad habit of staying logged into facebook and google probably kills this attempt though.
Still, I doubt if this does more than thwart a handful of companies. I still shop on Amazon.com on occasion. So they have a huge database on my preferences. I still use a debit card on occasion for expenses like car repair and I pay all bills in checks so I am willing to bet my bank account is spying on me. I have hotel and airline rewards programs, although those are almost entirely for business travel so I am not sure they can find any information they can really use to extract more money from me.
Anyways, here is an article about just how large a foe I am up against. They can't track my cash purchases, but I would be shocked if they don't have all the demographic information they could ever want.
This particular habit usually saves me money. Paying data miners is something stores would only do if they make more money off of customers by doing it. I don't want stores to take more of my money, so I don't want to shop at these stores. In my particular area, the cheap stores such as Food For Less, Superior, Henry's, and 99 Ranch don't have rewards programs. The expensive stores such as Costco(yes, Costco is expensive compared to where I shop) Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons all want me to sign up for cards so they can track me.
On the internet I run the track me not, and taco applications in the hopes to make me harder to track as I move around the internet. My bad habit of staying logged into facebook and google probably kills this attempt though.
Still, I doubt if this does more than thwart a handful of companies. I still shop on Amazon.com on occasion. So they have a huge database on my preferences. I still use a debit card on occasion for expenses like car repair and I pay all bills in checks so I am willing to bet my bank account is spying on me. I have hotel and airline rewards programs, although those are almost entirely for business travel so I am not sure they can find any information they can really use to extract more money from me.
Anyways, here is an article about just how large a foe I am up against. They can't track my cash purchases, but I would be shocked if they don't have all the demographic information they could ever want.
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