Lawsuit against Google

Techdirt: Handwritten Lawsuit Accuses Google Having A Name Similar To Accuser's Social Security Number

Amazing. This person is suing Google because if you turn their Social Security number upside down, and scramble it, it spells Google.

He is asking for $5 Billion.

Tony's for Dinner

For our anniversary dinner, we decided to go someplace we have never been before. It is sort of hard, for while we don’t go out every week, we do not hesitate to go out when we feel like it. So we thought about all the old favorites, and then decided on Tony’s – one of the old line fancy places to eat in Houston.

Now, Tony’s is one of the places where the movers and shakers eat. That means that the tables are pretty far apart (so that you can have a private conversation) but the place is relatively well lit (so you can see who walks by. This is a place for your business, not your mistress). The décor is quite nice (be sure to check out the link above) and we even saw a mover and a shaker while there. David Dewhurst, the Texas Lt Governor, came in while we were there for supper.

I had called the place earlier in the day (Doreen made the reservations) to find out about a dress code. They said “No athletic shoes, no shorts, coats preferred, ties optional”. I went with my chinos and a blue blazer. Doreen, as always, looked much better than I did in her Pucci skirt, scoop necked blouse, and little pink sweater. (it was chilly)

In spite of my sartorial banality, we were greeted with much pomp by the valet. Doreen’s door was opened and she was “handed out”. My door was opened, as was my rear door. The valet grabbed my sport coat (too hot to drive with it on here in Texas) and helped me on with the coat. Nice. He then stepped in front of us both so that he could get the automatic door started and then pulled the interior door open. The Maître‘d was ready and waiting for us. As it was a week night, we were eating rather early (7:00 PM) and the place was not too crowded.

They led us to a nice table with a view of the room. Doreen also had a view into the kitchen, which was visible through a large glass window. It is always nice to watch a kitchen work. The waiter came by asking about a drink, and we each ordered a coup of the Nicolas Feuillatte, Brut Rosè from Epernay. We both love champagne, and pink champagne is always a delight.

But much to our chagrin, about five minutes later, the waiter came to tell us they had sold out of the Feuillatte last weekend. We had to “settle” for some Taittinger. It did its job nicely.

After a while the menus were brought by and we started looking at what was available. There were some special appetizers and entrées, and we thought about each of them.

We had preordered the Whole Salt Crusted Gulf Coast Snapper, which I had read about as being their signature dish. I had no real idea what it was, but it sounded good. But we still had to decide on appetizers.

Doreen chose one of the specials – which was Burrata Cheese with Prosciutto and Figs. I ordered the Beef Carpaccio. At the same time, the waiter wanted to know if we were going to have a soufflé for dessert. You need to order these well in advance as well. We decided “What the heck!” and Doreen ordered the Pralines Soufflé, and I ordered the Bananas Foster Soufflé.

We also had to order a wine for the meal. I am a big fan of white Burgundies, so we chose a 2004 Meursault, “Les Clous” from Domaine Bouchard. A nice, deep minerally chardonnay.

The wine came and was poured. Very nice. The appetizers followed. My Carpaccio was outstanding, but Doreen’s Burrata was unbelievable. The cheese, a mozzarella type cheese was rich and flavorful. Almost nutty. It peeled off in strips that you would then wrap with the prosciutto and stab a fresh fig. The play of salt, fat, sweet, and savory exploded in your mouth. An outstanding treat.

We cleaned our plates and chatted some more, watching the room like a couple of tourists. Oddly enough, Doreen is certainly a mover and a shaker in the park world of Houston, so she knows many of the politicos in town.

As we were talking, the waiter came by our table and set up a serving tray. On the tray he placed a mallet and a chisel. Ha! I though. Tough salt.

About five minutes later, Doreen almost gasped, and then broke out laughing. From the kitchen, a waiter held a platter that was about 3’ long. On that platter was a brown fish shaped mound about 18” high. It was in flames. He walked slowly around the entire room, while everyone “ooed” and “ahhed” at it. It was then placed next to us as the table directly behind us broke into applause.

The fun began as the Maître‘d came by to crack the salt with the chisel and hammer. It was quite a spectacle, and the whole place watched. Underneath was a beautifully cooked red snapper that was quite large. He skinned it and extracted the choice bits for our plates. (the plates were full of fish). He then spooned some Barolo red wine reduction on the fish. There were four asparagus spears on the plate, and for side ordered we had French Whipped Potatoes and Sautéed Roman Artichokes.

The Maître‘d then made a small plate of the fish for the table behind us. One of the fellows there said that they had wanted to order the fish, but were deterred by the hour it would take to prepare. So they got a taste anyway. (I fussed jovially at the table and the waiter for stealing our fish)

The Potatoes were good, but they were no Joel Robuchon. That is a hard standard to live up to.

Finally the Soufflés came. They were both great, the Bananas Foster a bit better. They had sparklers on top to honor our anniversary, along with a complimentary Berry Tree. They table behind us clapped.

We were stuffed full as we waited for the evening to wind down. The table behind us ordered a big Chocolate Soufflé to share, and had the waiter carve us off a bit. Chocolate is a great way to end a meal.

We waddled out the car and drove slowly home. It was a fun evening.

Six Years

Today is our sixth anniversary.

We got married one week after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington DC. That was not the original plan (I had hoped for a 2/2/02 wedding. You would never forget that date! 9/17/01 on the other hand is not notable numerically)

But one forgets the emotions involved during and immediately after the attacks. We decided that it would be better to be married rather than not married.

Additionally, since we have the option to be married, an option that many of our friends do not have, we felt it would be the right thing to do.

Being married is a good thing. I am a very lucky man

Oslo again

I am in Oslo just winding up a quick business trip. This wasn’t too bad, but I got almost no sleep last night. Oh, and the internet connection in my room doesn’t work. That is a pain in the butt.

I remember when you didn’t always have a phone with an RJ11c connector in your room. That made it very difficult to plug in your modem. Heck, I remember traveling to countries where they only had rotary dial phones! I had to carry a little “tone machine” that I bought at a Radio Shack so that I could check my voicemail.

Those were the days…

Moray Eel

A Moray Eel has two sets of jaws.

Below is a quicktime movie (also referenced above) showing them in action.

Creepy!

moray_sm.mov (video/quicktime Object)

Lights in the Sky from the Earthquake in Peru

Watch this. Notice at about 46 seconds into it, the sky lights up. This is from that big earthquake that hit near Pisco, Peru.

This is why you don't want to fly on Third World Flag Carriers

Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Lasagna

We cooked some Lasagna last night.

See the photos here.

It was a Cook's Illustrated recipe. It had little meatballs instead of meat sauce. And it had six, SIX, layers of noodles. That's a lot of noodles. And a lot of working making all those tiny meatballs.

It was quite tasty.

Mark Trail Likes Squirrels

Squirrels

Cats in Sinks

Cats in Sinks - for all your cat and bathroom needs

Where is MY 2 and 20???

Workin' private equity. - By Michael Kinsley - Slate Magazine

Don't Let's go to the Dogs Tonight

I just finished reading Alexandra Fuller’s book about her childhood in Africa entitled Don’t Let’s go to the Dogs Tonight. She was born in 1969, so she really catches only the end of the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean conflict, and she was just a child. But she does an excellent job of evoking the desperation and harshness that the war and its aftermath created.

After Rhodesia lost the war, her family stayed in Zimbabwe for a short while and then moved to Mali, (Malawi), Tanzania, and Zambia. It is a sad trek across a sad continent.

Great Map Site

Maps For Us

Lucy

Last night Doreen and I visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see the exhibit which includes the actual fossilized bones of Lucy, the most famous Australopithecus afarensis that exists in the world today.

We arrived a bit early for the 6:00 PM open, and had a plan to get in before the huge crowds that we anticipated. We were both surprised at how few people seemed to be there. We got 6:15 entry times (as with many exhibits these days, you get a ticket for a specific time. This helps to reduce crowds) and settled back to wait.

While waiting, Doreen spotted the special events director for the museum. (Did I mention that the museum is inside Doreen’s park?) We talked about the exhibit and the controversy it has engendered. He said he feels that this exhibit will be twice as big as Body World 3, the plasticized bodies exhibit. It was interesting talking to him.

Here, here, here, here and here are links to article about the exhibit, and the controversy surrounding it.

The doors finally opened and we walked in. As we wanted to spend as much time with the fossil as possible, we skipped the food and went straight to the exhibit. We were the only people to do so. We wandered about the Ethiopian Treasures part of the exhibition for a while, completely alone. But we quickly wandered back to the fossil itself.

It was amazing to see this in real life. It is 3.2 million years old, and quite remarkable. We were alone with the bones themselves (I felt as if I could reach in and take one as a souvenir. I don’t think that Doreen would have approved) But something was wrong. We were just TOO alone.

We stayed in there about a half hour, and as we were starting to leave a couple of folks started wandering in. It just seemed that nobody was really that interested in the exhibit. There were plenty of people eating and drinking in the museum proper, but the exhibition was almost empty. Now, it may have gotten crowded later, but we didn’t stick around to find out.

I really don’t think that this is going to be a blockbuster show. I really wanted to see it (and have been bugging Doreen for months to make sure we got these tickets. She is very patient with me) but I don’t think that it has grabbed the popular appeal that something like Body World did. After all, only 40% of people in the US “believe in” evolution! (I wonder how many of those people “believe in” gravity). So the broad appeal of a fossil like this may not be forthcoming.

I hope I am wrong in this assessment. The museum has put a lot of money and pride into getting this thing going. I am very happy that they did, for my own sake. I just hope others in town will be as moved as I am.

Lunar Eclipse

This last Tuesday morning here in Houston we were in the path of a Total Lunar Eclipse. I love these sorts of astronomical events.

Our alarm went off as usual at 5:00 AM. We usually listen to the news until 5:30, when NPR tells there little funny story of the morning. But that morning, our local weatherman mentioned that the total eclipse was in progress (unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse stays total for quite a while. In this instance, it was total from 4:52 AM to 6:22 AM.).

SO I rousted Doreen out of bed and we were treated to a beautiful red moon as the clouds parted long enough for us to enjoy the sight.

High Tech Cities

How Did Your City Do? - Popular Science

Tell me things like this happen in Milwaukee...

Man Lassos, Ties Another Man To Bush - Local News Story - KPRC Houston

Scrap Iron is gone...

Astros Fire General Manager, Coach - Sports News Story - KPRC Houston

Airlines hate passengers

Loren Steffy: The Spirit in which it was meant

Ribs

Last weekend we had my lovely and talented niece Josienne and her financé Jared (the vegan) visit us. Jared is thinking of applying to the Jones School (the Rice MBA) school for an MBA. We hope he does.

They generously sent us some Rendezvous Ribs today as a thank you for the visit. What a great deal for us! We heated them up on our charcoal grill, warmed up some Rendezvous sauce and had a delightful (and fattening) meal. We accompanied it with some Argentine Malbec that was recommended by a friend of Doreen’s.

It is a wonderful world.

Real movie of a jumbo squid

Hey Matthew!

THIS is for you!

enjoy.

LA Times doesn't like Google.

Hard to believe:

Techdirt: LA Times: Publishers Think Google Is Worse Than Terrorists

So much for the free market.

Out of Town Visitors

My niece and her fiancé are visiting from Memphis. He is planning to apply to the Rice MBA program. We have been showing them around Houston.

Yesterday morning we had a behind the scenes tour of the zoo, and it was great fun. We were able to pet and feed the elephants (they have a new baby there – it was able to untie Josienne’s shoes! It LOVED untying her shoes), get licked in the face by an Okapi; get a close up view of a Tawny Frogmouth. They also let us into the Meerkat exhibit. That was a blast, they let us feed them mealworms. Josienne and Jared took some photos and videos. I will link to them once they get the online.

Yesterday afternoon we took a tour of the Jones School. That was quite interesting. I have been to many events at the school, but this is the first time I went on a tour. It made ME want to get an MBA.

The first evening they were here we ate at Dolce Vita, our favorite pizza place in town. Then last night we started out at Max’s Wine Dive for a nice glass of wine and some treats. It was our first time there, and the food was great, the wine was a bargain, but it was VERY loud. I am too old for such a place, but I think that J&J were OK with it.

Tonight we are going to my sister’s for a party. That will be fun.

A letter to the Houston Metro

I am contemplating sending the following letter to the Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority, the organization that runs our bus and light rail service here in town.

Am I being unreasonable? Should I let this fellow slide? Comments welcome.

------------------

I had the unfortunate experience of serving on a jury with one of your drivers. His last name was XXXyyy; I do not recall his first name.

The reason I am writing this letter it to convey to you the extremely negative image that Mr. XXXyyy portrayed to me a citizen of Harris County and an infrequent bus rider. I want to explain in detail three things he said that I found extremely offensive.

The first two relate to his job, the third his attitude towards race.

While in jury duty (Judge ZZZZ’s court – the ABC^nd District Court) there is a lot of time to talk. And talk Mr. XXXyyy did.

In the two work incidents he was bragging about how he would “get back at” riders who displeased him for one reason or another. In the first case, he talked about a man who got on the bus brusquely, jostling past two women who were trying to get off the bus. He said he asked this man to just let the ladies off the bus, and the man was somewhat rude to him in his reply. Later, as the man stood up to leave the bus at his stop, he started to light a cigar. Mr. XXXyyy informed him that smoking on the bus is not allowed (rightfully so!). The man snapped something about getting off, and then left the bus.

Mr. XXXyyy said that he then picked up a couple of passengers, and the man with the cigar was walking down the street in the same direction that the bus was heading. He noticed that there was a large puddle on the side of the road, and he made sure that he was driving at full speed as he hit the puddle, subsequently splashing the poor fellow who was walking down the sidewalk. As Mr. XXXyyy put it: “I extinguished his cigar for him!”

The second incident involved a man who got on his bus and was verbally abusive to Mr. XXXyyy. Now, please don’t take from this letter that I believe that people should either smoke cigars on the busses or abuse the drivers. My point is more the actions that Mr. XXXyyy took in reply to these circumstances.

Mr. XXXyyy and this man evidently verbally sparred with each other for some time, with the man in question using especially foul language (which, by the way, Mr. XXXyyy shared sotto vocco with the rest of the jurors). Mr. XXXyyy ultimately ejected this fellow from the bus, (again, rightfully so) and told him that he “Never forgets a face, and payback is hell”.

Two months later, according to Mr. XXXyyy, he was driving the last bus of the evening (I cannot recall which route) and observed this same man burdened with several packages waiting at a bus stop. Mr. XXXyyy said that he slowed his bus, and as he drove by, pointed to his face and shouted to the man “Remember this face? Payback is hell!” and then drove off, leaving the man at the bus stop.

Now, I understand that when some individuals feel that they have a platform from which to expound that they will exaggerate their actions. But my question to you is: Do you want a driver who brags in this way?

The final episode I found especially offensive. The case on which we were jurors involved a young black man accused of theft. As we were discussing the case, Mr. XXXyyy opined that “I work with a lot of black people, and I know how they think. They don’t think like we do (the jury was all white)” He was shouted down by two jurors, myself being one. He persisted in his comments about how “They aren’t like us. I know them” My question to you in this case is: How can a fellow drive a bus in the City of Houston all day long with an Us and Them attitude towards his fellow humans? I found this not only offensive, but almost criminal.

Thank you for letting me speak my mind.

Chiasmus

Good website about an interesting rhetorical technique:

Chiasmus

Jury Duty

I received a jury duty summons about a month ago. The date for my appearance was August 13^th – last Monday. I put it on my calendar, and did not really think about it. I have been called to jury duty three times before, and only empanelled once. I did not think that I would get through the voir dire process.

The day of the summons came, and my sweet ever loving volunteered to take me to the Jury Assembly Room, as there is little parking around that building. Also, it has been very hot here in Houston – highs breaking 100 for the past couple of days. This was a generous offer that I accepted happily.

The assembly process is pretty slow. But at about 10:30 (I arrived at 8:15) we were shuffled off to the courtroom. We were told to wait in the hall (with 130 other potential jurors outside the courtroom. There are exactly 24 chairs on that floor (the 15^th floor of the Harris County Criminal Court Building).

We got called in for voir dire at about 11:30. There were 65 people in the room, and they had to select 12 jurors and an alternate. Again, even though I was juror number 16, I did not think that I would be picked. The defense attorney even called me out to ask what it was my company did.

But yeah, howdy, when they called off the juror numbers, mine was amongst them. I shuffled into the jury box as the rest of the people were dismissed.

It was another couple of hours (they bought us pizza) before the trial started.

The trial was the alleged theft of 760 cartons of cigarettes (worth $21,568.05) from a Grocer’s Supply truck. Well, sort of. It was not really all that simple.

Here are the basic facts of the case:

A Semi-truck with the cigarettes and other grocery supplies was parked in a motel’s parking lot. Sometime during the night, someone (unknown. Not this defendant) broke into the truck and stole the cigarettes. Somehow these cigarettes got from this secured, monitored parking lot to a street behind a 12’ security fence in a residential neighborhood.

That evening, our defendant (Charlie Smith, Jr) was driving down that street behind the parking lot for the motel, and spotted the cigarettes. He and his buddy (to whom he had loaned the truck that day) got out a started collecting the boxes of cigarettes. A roller (police cruiser) happened by and spotted them loading the truck.

The policeman stopped, told them to get on the road (at gunpoint, according to the cop, no gun, according to Charlie) on their bellies. They complied, and some moments later two more rollers showed up. The suspects were cuffed, questioned, and ultimately released.

They were arrested a couple of days later for the crime.

That is really pretty much it.

We, the Jury, decided that the prosecuting attorney did not prove Mr. Smith’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That process took about two hours. (the first vote was 7 to 5 to acquit) It took a lot of jawboning to get the numbers switched to 12-0.

Did I mention that Mr. Smith had been in the Big House several times before for theft? That did not really matter to the jury – it barely came up.

Did I mention that Charlie’s friend plead out? We didn’t know that until we rendered our verdict.

Justice was done, and I am proud of my part in it.

Houston Chronicle article about Google Street View

Some people are dopes. One woman wants the image of her house removed.

Huh?

Does her house have a right to privacy?

Houston's close-up on Google raises privacy concerns | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

This is our 'hood

The Houstonist is a pretty good local blog:

Houstonist: Urbanist: Lower Westheimer

After reading that story, go and read about the Duck Dumping in Hermann Park (Doreen's Park)

Public Images

Google Map has extended their Street View option to Houston. Here is the Street View of the corner of Montrose and Westheimer. I call it the Metaphorical Heart of Houston. Our street is not visible with Street View. The rumor is that they may roll their little cameracars around more of the city, but Houston is pretty big.

Microsoft, however, has a picture of our house on their Live View. Click on the “Bird’s Eye View” and then zoom in (you can’t zoom in TOO far)

Mine Disaster

I hate reading about coal mine disasters. Having worked underground, I can identify with the emotions of the people involved. When you work in a mine, you are trained and trained and trained for safety. But there is no way you can anticipate some of the problems that will occur. You can’t predict an earthquake. You can’t anticipate an unrecorded oil well location (which is what flooded that mine in West Virginia a couple of years ago). You never have a great idea of the integrity of the rock you are digging into. A friend of mine worked in a gold mine in Durango, CO where they “glory holed” (punch through) into a lake. Needless to say, the lake flooded the mine.

But reading about this mine made me wonder what are the most dangerous occupations. As with everything these days, it seems as if the Internet is your friend. A quick Google gave me this link, with this table:

The 10 most dangerous jobs by fatality rate are:

Rank	Occupation	Deaths/100k	Total Deaths
1	Logging workers	92.4	85
2	Aircraft pilots	92.4	109
3	Fishers and fishing workers	86.4	38
4	Structural iron and steel workers	47	31
5	Refuse and recyclable material collectors	43.2	35
6	Farmers and ranchers	37.5	307
7	Roofers	34.9	94
8	Electrical power line installers/repairers	30	36
9	Driver/sales workers and truck drivers	27.6	905
10	Taxi drivers and chauffeurs	24.2	67

Taxi drivers? Who knew. I guess it is because the US 42,636 people were killed in vehicle accidents in 2004 (http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/RNotes/2005/809897.pdf)

The other interesting conclusion that I drew from this chart is that there are not really many more pilots in this country than loggers (91,991 loggers vs 117,965 pilots)

And here is a little tidbit from the report I linked to above:

“Fatal injuries from being struck by objects jumped 12 percent...that is now the third most common fatal event, surpassing homicide on the job, which dropped 9 percent to 551. That continued a steep decline from a peak of 1,080 on-the-job murders in 1994.”

“on-the-job murders”???

I guess I am glad that I worked underground afterall.

Crazy people online,

I follow a small number of online forums and newsgroups. It is amazing the emotions that can be raised by, say, whether you steam your milk BEFORE or AFTER you pull your shot of espresso. Or maybe the type of waterplants you have in your backyard pond. I have seen numerous threats ("Come down to Atlanta and I will beat your face in") but never heard of anyone actually carrying them out.

Until now:

Techdirt: Taking 'Flamewar' A Bit Too Seriously: Man Drives 1,300 Miles To Burn Down Home Of Online Critic

I guess the moral of the story is: Don't upset crazy people who don't have anything better to do than drive across the US to burn down your house.

Book List

My brother Chas, who recently moved to Wyoming, years ago encouraged me to keep a book list. I have been doing so for about 12 years now.

Through the miracle of Google, I now have that document online. It can be viewed here. This should be (may be?) a live document.

I apologize for all misspelling and typos. This was an unedited document. I’ll fix it by and by.

See how walkable your neighborhood is!

Walk Score - How walkable is your house?

This is why!

A note from my niece:

Go Badgers!!!

Just the fact that I participated in Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge is an enormous reason for why I've been hired at great firms in the past.

Alors, the UW Madison Concrete Canoe team /*follows the rules*/. This may seem quite simple, however, it takes hours of dedication and some nights of sleeping in the lab to accomplish. A hefty packet of rules comes out each year which has various changes from the previous season.
The majority of these changes pertain to the concrete mix itself (the amounts of water, cement, ash, glass beads, etc). We paid a lot of attention to this and up to 40 different mixes were cast into cylinders, tested under ASTM standards, and documented in the technical report - another portion of the competition. A surprising amount of teams do not entirely obey these concrete mix regulations and, thus, get disqualified.

This is all good and proper, but UW takes it 100 steps further with the amount of time each teammate dedicates to the effort. Let's not forget the races. The paddlers on our team practice together as though they were training for the Tour de France. This is clear if you've ever been to a Concrete Canoe competition.

Another thing that always makes us stick out is that our concrete canoe literally feels as smooth as glass. When I was on the team (and I'm guessing they still do this), shifts were set up so that several students were in the lab sanding the canoe - all day long for many days.
This helps with the aesthetics portion of our score.

Beyond that, the technical presentation is practiced many, many times and the co-chairs always put canoe before everything else for that school year. Several sub-committees are set up to allow for more concentrated efforts on each division of the competition as well as _fund raising_! The companies which support the team are really what allow us to be so successful since, without them, we'd never be able to afford all the needed supplies for the mix and mold. UW takes it extremely seriously, but we have tons of fun (for lack of a much less cliche expression).

Joining the team was undoubtedly one of the best decisions I made in my college career, along with my beloved, but far less known, Steel Bridge Team (which demands just as much time and effort).

Well I tried to make this as brief as possible, but there is much to say about the Concrete Canoe team.

Please do not hesitate with more questions! I enjoy reminiscing.

So why does UW dominate in the concrete canoe game?

Badgers do a 'fivepeat' to rule 20th concrete canoe event

Five in a row cannot be a coincidence. One of my nieces used to compete in this event.

So, Domi, why is the UW the big dog in concrete canoes?

Puns

(1) King Ozymandias of Assyria was running low on cash after years of war with the Hittites. His last great possession was the Star of the Euphrates, the most valuable diamond in the ancient world. Desperate, he went to Croesus, the pawnbroker, to ask for a loan. Croesus said, "I'll give you 100,000 dinars for it." "But I paid a million dinars for it," the King protested. "Don't you know who I am? I am the king!" Croesus replied, "When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are."

(2) Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. However, all the Swiss league records were unfortunately destroyed in a fire, and we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled.

(3) A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient."

(4) A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day, his supply of the birds ran out so he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road. Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. Immediately, he was arrested and charged with transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises.

(5) Back in the 1800s the Tates Watch Company of Massachusetts wanted to produce other products and, since they already made the cases for watches, they used them to produce compasses. The new compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California . This, of course, is the origin of the expression, "He who has a Tates is lost!"

(6) A thief broke into the local police station and stole all the toilets and urinals, leaving no clues. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "We have absolutely nothing to go on."

(7) An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide and gave it to the chief, telling him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day. After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling. The chief shrugged and said, "The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on."

(8) A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."

(9) There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin. All three became pregnant, and the first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys. This goes to prove that the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.

(10) A skeptical anthropologist was cataloging South American folk remedies with the assistance of a tribal brujo who indicated that the leaves of a particular fern were a sure cure for any case of constipation. When the anthropologist expressed his doubts, the brujo looked him in the eye and said, "Let me tell you, with fronds like these, who needs enemas?"

What a difference a comma makes!

Blind, drunk man shot entering wrong home | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

"Corpse closet"?

BA sat corpse in first class - Times Online

DO you think that if you ask nicely they would let you sleep in the Corpse Closet?

Ratatouille

We went to see the movie Ratatouille this weekend. If you have not heard of it, you are probably not a “foodie” or a “wine geek” While it is an animated Pixar film (implying that it is aimed at kids) it is in reality a very sophisticated representation of the modern Celebrity Chef and Three Star (not five as in the movie, oddly enough( restaurant phenomenon.

From what I understand, the restaurant that is featured in the film is the Tour d’Argent, a place widely considered to be over the hill by many critics. This is based on the look, and location of the film restaurant.

Thomas Keller, the brains behind The French Laundry and Per Se was a consultant in the movie. It really shows – people (well, pixels) are really cooking in this movie. Guy Savoy and Ferran Adria also helped.

Here is a review from the San Francisco chronicle.

The movie is about a rat (yes, a rat) who wants to be a chef. He is a “super taster” in the rat world, and knows how to combine flavors to make new, and more spectacular food experiences. All he needs is a place to cook. And so on.

One interesting thing is that the rats in this movie look like RATS! Scary, nasty dirty rats. At least for part of the time. Beady little eyes, brown or black fur, scurrying about on all fours.

It was a fun two hours.

On a scale of 0 to 100...

I enjoy wine. And if you enjoy wine it is impossible to get away from wine ratings. The following blog puts ratings in perspective:

The Point of It All - The Pour - Dining & Wine - New York Times Blog

Empty Space

The link below is a hydrogen atom. In scale. Make sure you scroll to the right.

Hydrogen Atom Scale Model

That's a lot of nothing!

Hot goes on the left.

I always heard that there are only two things a plumber needs to know:

1. 1. Hot goes on the left

2. ((water) flows downhill.

But when you Google this phrase, you get a couple of very funny variations:

1. (water) flows downhill

2. Never, ever lick your fingers

1. (water) flows downhill

2. Don’t chew your fingernails

1. (water) flows downhill

2. Payday is Friday.

So I guess plumbers need to know four things.

This was prompted by the fact that the sink in our new kitchen at the office has the hot on the right.

Yesterday's Birthday

Yesterday was my 50^th birthday. I did not work, and Doreen took the afternoon off. After the requisite napping, we had two events that evening. One was the wedding of the son of a good friend, the other was my birthday dinner.

It was raining so hard that the wedding was delayed for an hour. We got there on time (thank goodness and the Harris County Toll Road Authority for EZTag lanes) but most of the people didn’t. It was inside, but the weather yesterday was cool. The wedding was nice, and it included a martial arts display. The son is an instructor. The food was good, though we just had a taste due to the dinner we were about to attend.

After that we went to eat at Mark’s American Cuisine. Doreen had one last gift there on the table waiting for me. It was Roy Blount Jr’s new book Long Time Leaving – Dispatches from The South. And it was inscribed to me! She wrote his agent and asked if he would autograph it. He said:

To Dan: Happy 50^th. Doreen must love you very much to give you such a great present.

We laughed and laughed about that.

Earlier she gave me the book Timothy by Vernon Klinkenborg

The meal was great. We started with a glass of pink champagne, and it was a seafood medley after that. Fried Puget Sound oysters with some raw oysters as well, covered with some greenery and lump crab meat. I ordered a nice Gruner Veltliner to go with the meal. It was very aromatic. This looked like the photo on this page.

For our main course we had fried soft shell crab. It looked just like the photo on this page. It also had lump crab meat on the side. Oh my, but it was delicious.

For dessert Doreen had a Blackberry and Butter Pecan cake, I had the blueberry tart. My tart looked like the photo on this page. We each had a glass of the 1999 Rieussec Sauternes.

The Ethical Mind

This is a pdf of an article in the Harvard Business Review:

harvard study.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Read and heed!

Rice Biz Plans

I have been a judge at the Rice Alliance Business Plan competition for three years now. I enjoy it more than any of the other organized events I attend.

36 schools from all over the world come to Houston and compete for over $300,000 in prizes. They present real business plans for real businesses. In some cases the businesses are already generating some revenue. In others, they are just getting started.

I participate in several of the events. The first is the feedback round. This is an informal round where teams present their plans to a group of judges and they get (unscored) feedback. This is the best. It is very interactive, and the teams generally take the feedback and make their presentations better.

The next is the Elevator Pitch competition. This is where each team has 60 seconds to pitch their idea and company. Intense! Some of these are quite amusing.

Then I judge the competition itself, followed by the while card round. (The wild card round is the #2 teams from each of the 6 flights). I don’t judge the final round. Too hard to make a decision!

The awards dinner is tonight. I know who my favorite is.

Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

St. Patrick's Day

Today is St Pat's day. I have not really celebrated this holiday for a while. But we do have an Irish Sports Bar down the street from us called Griff's.

All the street parking is full, and you can hear the music pounding in the yard. It is 2:12 in the afternoon.

Erin go Braugh!

Analogy Punctuations

Punctuation in Politics

Skilling gets 24+

Skilling

Lay's conviction vacated.

Vacated

Justice may be served, but it sure doesn't feel right

Hitch Quote

"What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof."

Christopher Hitchens

College Excuses

Top Ten No Sympathy Lines

On the road again

I have been spending too much time at work, and on my other, self indulgent aging blog to post more of my interesting insights (right) here.

And now we will be taking another trip to France – part for work, part for fun (does this seem to be a habit?). During this time, I will be reposting to my Europe 2006 blog, since it is still 2006, and I will be once again in Europe. We will be eating at some interesting restaurants (at least ONE three star!) and I will be posting comments about the food and wine.

Send me an e-mail if you want me to send you a post card.

Hitch on Terrorists and The Left

Stranger in a Strange Land

Science backs up the Pope!

CTV.ca | Long work hours linked to high blood pressure

Pluto a Planet No More.

SciGuy: Pluto's fate has been decided -- NOT A PLANET

So sad.

It will always be a planet in my heart.

Makes you glad to be Catholic!

Pope: Working too hard harms the spirit

Good site for bad science

Not Even Wrong

Not necessarily about Global Warming

The most interesting thing is the heat equation. We are making our cities hotter for sure - that heat has to go somewhere:

The deluded world of air conditioning. By William Saletan

Bad news for secure passports

Wired News: Hackers Clone E-Passports

Summertime

These are really the dog days of summer. It seems as if half of our staff and ¾ of our clients are on vacation. We always forecast a low July, and we were able to meet that. Or even end up lower that forecast! Man oh man.

I recently finished the book Theft by Peter Carey. It is set in Australia and New York City. It is a novel about the art community. What is good, how do agents and galleries work, who is hot, who is not. What gets stolen and why. Oh, it is also a love story. I have read several of Carey’s other books and was fond of them. Well, all except for Oscar and Lucinda. I could not abide that one.

If you like wine, here is a great v-blog worth spending some time with. Very fun.

Poor Andy!

Law Blog � Duck, Andy! (Or Just Stand There and Take it Like a Felon)

Another great Jon Katz dog story on Slate

Can a dog be a workaholic? By Jon Katz

Whining Nuts

Are nut allergies taking over the planet? By Emily Bazelon

You got to hand it to her!

Twist on a Famous Formula: A Severed Hand in a Topless Dancer’s Jar - New York Times

On the Radio

The Business Makers Radio Show

Is Louisiana Sinking?

SciGuy: Louisiana isn't sinking after all? Maybe.

I am uploading this to make sure my "hello" software works 

100 hits a day?

Not a chance.

Who blogs? And why? By Jack Shafer

Probably not even 100 hits a week.

From the NYTimes

You will need a subscription to the NYTimes to read this, but it is a good article:

Talking Points - The Rise of the Super-Rich by Teresa Tritch - New York Times

Income inequality is getting worse in the USA

The link below is to a PDF file discussing income distribution in the USA.

To be in the top 1% of income in the US in 20o4 you had to make more than $315k (that is per household)

pikettyqje.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Screw tops: Bad. Corks: Good!

Vinography: A Wine Blog: Uh oh. Screwcaps Will Ruin the Planet.

The WWF is against screwtops. I find that odd.

Ken Lay and James Byrd???

That is the most absurd analogy I have ever heard:

Chron.com | Lay praised by family and friends

Next thing you know, Ken was walking on water while he fed teh poor with loaves and fishes.

He was convicted. That may be vacted, but the fact is that he was convicted by a jury of his peers.

One of my wife's buddies

Wrote this play.

It is a shame that Bruce won't give us his e-mail address. I would ask for his comments.

I would like to get to Chicago to see this:

Acerbic, sociopolitical farce takes no prisoners, needs soul Chicago Tribune

(You may need to register. It is worth it)

I have posted photos of our house before. But here is a PDF file of the history of the house. It is on the National Register of Hysterical Places. 

Tricks of the Trade

Tricks of the Trade

Houston Crime

This:

Houston Crime Maps

is a Google "mash up" site with the latest Houston crime stats. Interesting - I live in 1A20. AKA "The Crime Free Montrose"

Icehouses

This is a good story about Icehouses in Texas. It is mostly in San Antonio, but Houston is similar.

One of the more famous Icehouses in town is just down the street from us - The Alabama Icehouse.

NPR : Texas Icehouses Melt Away

Interestingly enough, it is illegal to advertise "Cold Beer" in Texas. That is why you always see the signs "Ice Beer Soda" on the stores.

Quote for Today

"To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself."

- Albert Einstein

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

- Thomas Jefferson

In Europe

I am currently in Europe.

Read about it here.

I want my food MY way!

Diner's Journal by Frank Bruni - The Unseasonal Table - Dining - New York Times Blog

Animal Welfare

Michael Pollan - On The Table - Opinion - New York Times - Profiles in Courage on Animal Welfare

PCWorld.com - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

I like lists like this. I don't know all the products, but I have used enough of them to agree wholeheartedly with the assessment:

PCWorld.com - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

New Orleans Gangs

blogHOUSTON - HPD introduces New Orleans criminals to Texas law

Enron in the Houston Chronicle

Click here

Balzac Loved Coffee

This coffee plunges into the stomach...the mind is aroused, and ideas pour forth like the battalions of the Grand Army on the field of battle.... Memories charge at full gallop...the light cavalry of comparisons deploys itself magnificently; the artillery of logic hurry in with their train of ammunition; flashes of wit pop up like sharp-shooters.

Honore de BalzacFrench realist novelist (1799 - 1850)

What Enron means to me.

The Enron trial is over. And with it goes a piece of Houston history. (I’ll ignore the appeals for now.) It was a spectacular failure that hurt plenty of people. The architects of the plan will be, or have been punished, and justice will be served.

Houston was proud of Enron during those booming energy trading days. I have plenty friends who made a ton of money from Enron, and some made money on Enron stock. It was an audacious attempt to change the rules of accounting. It was an amazing group of smart people who looked at the rules and found ways around them. Some of these were legal (Mark to market was approved by the SEC, after all) but the deception came back to haunt the players.

We could cay we (My sweet ever-lovin’ and I) benefited from Enron sort of indirectly. We bought our house from an Enron coal trader after she skedaddled to New York City in disgrace. That is a great thing for us as we feel our house is the best place we have ever lived.

A friend introduced me to the Photofete group and tried to get me to do some consulting (Jennifer Binder was as arrogant as Jeff Skilling. No work for me there)

I dealt with the Enron Capital and Trade folks briefly when one of the companies I was with was looking for investors. (We were too mundane)

I have friends who worked at Enron, interviewed at Enron, or hoped that they may get a job at Enron. I worked with a woman who was an executive assistant at Enron (and she said those jokers were just as mean and mean spirited as you thought they might be.

Young professionals in school wanted to work for Enron when they got out because they made so much money. Whenever you ran into someone who worked for Enron, whether they were an accounts payable clerk or an energy trader, they let you know it. They really and truly thought they were smarter than anyone they met – and wanted to prove it.

I live in Houston during the last big boom (1980-1984 or so) and there were plenty of people on the make. But they were all trying to build something (dig wells, apartments, strip centers). They all knew it was not a zero sum game, and they could win by coming up with a better idea to deliver something. These Enron jokers were there to game the system.

If Lay and Skilling every get out of jail, it will be too soon.

Good Energy/ Bad Energy

Michael Pollan - On The Table - Opinion - New York Times - The Great Yellow Hope

Are you a Laupe?

Are you a Laupe?

The Bean 

Face 

Face 

Self Portrait with Bean (Millenneum Park) 

Chicago 

This is sort of creepy

Two Splits Between Human and Chimp Lines Suggested - New York Times

Neighbors

It is fun that we are all provincial.

I am sitting on my porch, drinking a glass of (not too good) Chilean Pinot Noir, and I see a guy and his wife walking down the street pushing a stroller mit baby. Blaze for some reason doesn’t bark, and as they turn the corner and get closer to me I see that the fellow is wearing a Green Bay Packer’s shirt.

I ask if he is from Wisconsin, and he says no, they are just fans. I said I am heading up there this weekend and he tells me that they went to school in Chicago (and Blaze starts to bark now).

I think Kurt Vonnegut called these “Granfalloons”

The death of the independent bookstore. By Tyler Cowen

Is it so bad?

Maybe not:

The death of the independent bookstore. By Tyler Cowen

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

I just finished reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It goes into great detail about what we eat, and why we eat what we eat in this country. It is disconcerting on some fronts, sad on others. It does not try to make one a vegetarian (he is not a vegetarian) although I can see how that may be an outcome of reading this book.

It is well written and compelling (He writes for the New York Times Magazine, and I have read one of his other books – The Botany of Desire, which is also very good.)

This book follows the food chain of three meals – one “industrial” one “organic” and one “perfect” (ie hunted and gathered) It is fascinating to see him follow the river of corn that this country produces and turns into any number of products (including, of course HFCS) and how our government encourages that industry (he lays a lot of the credit for that to Earl Butz. You youngsters may not remember him, but he was Sec of Agriculture who had to resign after a ribald and racist joke)

The “Big Organic” part is interesting too. DO you really think that it makes sense to eat “organic” food that was grown in Chile? Talk about energy intensive! And the “free range hens and eggs that I always buy to assuage my guilt are probably treated little better than battery hens.

There is relief in both his “grass farm” chapter, and oddly enough in the hunting and gathering part of the book. While neither are touted as solutions to the problems raised (hard to scale) it is nice to see that these things are possible.

An interesting statistic in our energy hungry world that he points out is that it takes more than a calorie of fossil fuel energy to grow a calorie of corn. Think about that when you think about the energy efficiency of producing ethanol from corn.

Well worth the time invested in the read.

Do you know what a bubbler is?

Dialect Survey Login

Not as secure as you would think...

Wired 14.05: The RFID Hacking Underground