Biophonies

It somehow doesn't seem quite right that Dr. Bernie Krause bemoans the loss of so much natural recording space in the world and at the same time sells those sounds on the Internet.

Cell Phone Voice Recognition

[For 5/29]

I'm pretty sure my home cell phone is more expensive than the one I got for business use at work this week, but the business phone sports voice recognition without the need for training. I had no idea that this technology had come so far. I don't use it anywhere else regularly. Pretty slick.

The Republic of Nepal

Nepal was a kingdom for over 200 years until today when the people voted to become a republic.

Awesome Auger?

Apparently not everyone is awed by the "Awesome Auger".

Infomercial Ratings

Pissed Consumer

I guess I'll pass too.

I'm Henry VIII I Am

The 2 choice (sequentially) of pre-programmed accompaniments on my keyboard is exactly what is used/needed for Herman's Hermits' rendition of I'm Henry VIII I Am.

Planting Seeds

[For 5/25]

You can work up a sweat simply planting (flower) seeds in a (flower) garden. You wouldn't think that just repeatedly bending down and walking around would be so much exercise that the perspiration would come, but it does for me in 70+ degree weather.

I did get everything planted in the front yard before the rains came. Yea!

Prince Caspian

We just saw the movie Prince Caspian. I had recently reread the C. S. Lewis book, so I remembered the original plot pretty well. Other than an extra needless battle and a mistimed horn blowing, the movie followed the book fairly well -- a lot better than some movies do. The movie even managed to fit in a few of the main messages that Lewis put into his book.

The book itself doesn't have much action and would have been a fairly boring movie, so I don't really fault the producers, etc. for spicing it up a bit.

After hearing the accent given the Telmarines, I kept waiting for Caspian to say, "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Some Days Are Like That

Some days it's really hard to think of something I learned. That's a cop out, and I'll only use it once, but today is just one of those days. Oh well.

Brazilian Beetles and Computers

Who woulda thunk it? Some strange Brazilian beetle can do what computer scientists still can't, so they'll just copy the pattern from the beetle.

This is really awesome to me, but I'd disagree that luck (as mentioned in the linked story) had anything to do with it.

Somebody to Love

In the Queen song, Somebody to Love, Freddie Mercury composed some neat 4-on-3 and 2-on-3 rhythms. I had really noticed them until I saw it in print today.

Trombone Bore Size

Trombones do not all have the same size bore. They might only vary by a few hundredths of an inch, but one model is probably not the same as the next.

Flux

Flux is used when soldering metals. It makes it easier for the metals to join by removing oxidation.

Proofreading Needed?

The folks I proofread for at Two Pilots are getting much better at writing in English. Maybe they won't need my services forever.

Hawk Attack

We have several bird feeders in the backyard. Two of them are open box feeders. Sometimes critters such as chippyrats use them as well. I remember thinking not too long ago that such a feeding chippyrat would make a good target for predatory birds.

Today I learned from our next-door neighbor that such an attack happened this past Thursday. A hawk dove in for the kill on some little critter who was feeding on one of the boxes. We're not entirely sure if it was a chippyrat or a squirrel. The neighbors noticed a scared-to-death squirrel nearby. They didn't see a chippyrat. And they didn't see that the hawk had killed anything. It seemed the hawk was a little surprised at the instability of the swinging box feeder.

In any case, pretty cool. Wish I'd been there.

Waukesha to New Ulm

[For 5/16]

You can drive from Waukesha, Wisconsin, to New Ulm, Minnesota, in 6 hours -- almost to the minute -- with a minimum of necessary stops, if you take highways 94, 52, and 14. And that's done by exceeding the posted limit by no more than 5 mph. The reverse trip can be done in the same amount of time...unless you get stuck behind a tractor on 14.

Self-Sharpening Lawnmower Blades

It is impossible to find someone who will sharpen the lawnmower blades on a reel mower. You know, the "old" push mower that runs on muscle power instead of gas or electricity.

However, it turns out that a reel lawnmower's blades are pretty much self-sharpening. When properly adjusted, the blades hone themselves on the cutter bar of the mower itself. Valve-grinding compound can be applied to the mower to aid in the sharpening if the mower itself isn't doing the trick well enough anymore.

Reading the Whole Bible

It took me just a few days over 2 years to read the whole Bible -- Genesis through Revelation -- this last time.

Chippyrats and Doves

Chippyrats (aka chipmunks or ground squirrels) can scare away mourning doves from a bird feeder.

The chippyrat I saw was on the feeder before the dove arrived. The dove perched on an eave of the neighbor's house. It flew in towards the open box feeder, saw the chippyrat, and decided to flutter to the ground instead. Wimp.

I'm not sure if the chippyrat made an aggressive move towards the bird. I would have thought that the dove, being about twice the chippyrat's size would have at least challenged the little critter for a space on the feeder.

$4.00 per Gallon

Some gas station in Milwaukee started charging $4.00 per gallon for the first time today. The highest price I saw today was $3.95. If gas prices go much higher, I will soon be making less money than I did last year even after getting a raise.

New Apartment

My daughter found an apartment she likes in Des Moines this weekend. If the landlord is agreeable, she'll move in within the month.

AVG Over-Protection

The latest version (8) of the anti-virus program called AVG has a feature which can really slow down the loading of Web pages. It scans the links found on a page to see if they are a potential hazard or not. If a page has a lot of links, it loads significantly slower than usual -- at least the home page of BoardGameGeek.com with some ads enabled does.

Grandma's Wheelchair

[For 5/9]

Grandma Greve is strong enough again to wheel herself around a bit in a wheelchair. When we visited her today, I got to wheel her to the dining room. It's a very nice residence she's living in.

Paragon of Virtue

My daughter surprised her mother with tulips today. They were an early Mother's Day gift.

Arkadia Revisited

Arkadia is a lot more fun when you don't use the suggested setup for beginners.

Flower Bed

At the rate I'm going, it'll take almost two weeks of digging to finish the new flower (and tree) bed in the front yard. The bed is a large hexagon with a circular center for a tree. I've got the circle finished and one triangular "pie piece" too. Plus I have the outer edge of the hexagon and the walkways between the pie pieces dug up and covered with cedar mulch. Hopefully we'll get just enough rain to keep the ground soft for digging and yet dry enough so the earth separates easily from the sod.

Danzig - Gdansk

While playing the game Hansa for the first time, we decided to look up the names of the cities on the map in an atlas. The cities on the boardgame's map are, in some cases, older names of modern-day cities. For example, Danzig (which I new from my stamp collecting days) is the same as Gdansk, Poland. If I new that before, I had forgotten, so it counts as something I learned today.

Burma Cyclone

[For 5/4]

A huge cyclone (hurricane) hit Burma (Myanmar) killing thousands of people and destroying a huge amount of property and landscape. It's probably worse than hurricane Katrina was.

Vibes on the West Side

We got the Web site uploaded for Vibes on the West Side, a benefit concert for Hollyn Peterson, today.

Graphics uploaded to freewebs.com that are located just a couple of layers deep on the server have a tendency to be very flaky and not show up on the Web page from time to time. I can't figure out why that should be.

Late Night Lost Cities

J.B. likes the game of Lost Cities enough to start playing it at about 2:00 A.M. He lost though.

Rummage Sale

I sold some stuff, for lack of a better term, at our rummage/garage/yard sale today. Each of us sold a little something. It all adds up. Tomorrow we each hope to sell a little more stuff. It's not so much the cash income as the stuff outgo that matters.

I wonder if advertising on craigslist.com (Milwaukee) and brookfieldyardsales.com helps.