Weight loss is something a government with government-funded healthcare would want to promote, right? After all, if the government is paying for the healthcare, they want to reduce the costs, and having a population which is not obese certainly helps cut the cots.
So, providing gastric bypass surgery as a government-paid procedure sounds like a good idea since it would cut down on the number of obese people and provide health savings in the future as those no-longer-obese people don't have to have as much medicine for diabetes, joint problems, etc. Right?
Well, here comes the unintended consequences: people purposefully trying to gain weight so they qualify for the gastric bypass procedure.
The Unintended Consequences of Government Sponsored Weight Loss Surgery by Freakonomics.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
On the bright side of things
For me, the snow is the bright side of things! Woohoo!!
Now, driving 2.5 hours home never making it over 15 miles per hour in horrible traffic even though I left an hour and a half early ... yeah, that wasn't so wonderful.
But, let's not dwell on the negative. I would like to thank some people.
First I would like to thank whoever the idiot is who parked their car 2 inches behind my car last night. Seriously, I would like to thank them.
It gave me an excuse to brag about my M4D dr1\/iNg Sk1LLz as I managed to get my little Neon out of that parallel parking spot, over a foot of hard-packed plowed snow, without so much as nudging the cars in front or behind!
Oh yeah! Who da' man!?!
Secondly, I would like to thank everyone who stayed off the roads this morning - my normal 45 minute commute was only 33 minutes long! The roads were atrocious, but there was virtually no one on them!!!!
Also, thanks to StG who shoveled our sidewalk after the snow stopped! Many, many thanks!
Now, driving 2.5 hours home never making it over 15 miles per hour in horrible traffic even though I left an hour and a half early ... yeah, that wasn't so wonderful.
But, let's not dwell on the negative. I would like to thank some people.
First I would like to thank whoever the idiot is who parked their car 2 inches behind my car last night. Seriously, I would like to thank them.
It gave me an excuse to brag about my M4D dr1\/iNg Sk1LLz as I managed to get my little Neon out of that parallel parking spot, over a foot of hard-packed plowed snow, without so much as nudging the cars in front or behind!
Oh yeah! Who da' man!?!
Secondly, I would like to thank everyone who stayed off the roads this morning - my normal 45 minute commute was only 33 minutes long! The roads were atrocious, but there was virtually no one on them!!!!
Also, thanks to StG who shoveled our sidewalk after the snow stopped! Many, many thanks!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Good weekend
Jer and I played lots and lots of Star Wars games, finishing up a major story-arc in our two heroes: Obi-Jer and Kooryk. We helped to save Naboo from the evil trade federation and then stopped a group led by a dark side Jedi from assassinating Queen Amidala, though the dark Jedi did escape to cause more challenges! (and our characters made it to level 5!)
Jer's character is a Rodian ex-soldier, and the way this system determines a players abilities is to roll some D20 and you place the numbers where you want. Jer rolled EXTREMELY well, which means his character is very quickly out-pacing my character when advancing.
We also started playing a Star Wars trading card game about which he seems to be very enthused, though he has only played a part of a game so far. He has been asking for years about when he can come stay with me, and his questions have been picking up in frequency over the last several months. Someday I hope for nightly games with him, pitting his giant Star Destroyers against my Mon Calamari cruisers.
Yeah, we did other stuff this weekend too, but Star Wars battles were the best.
Jer's character is a Rodian ex-soldier, and the way this system determines a players abilities is to roll some D20 and you place the numbers where you want. Jer rolled EXTREMELY well, which means his character is very quickly out-pacing my character when advancing.
We also started playing a Star Wars trading card game about which he seems to be very enthused, though he has only played a part of a game so far. He has been asking for years about when he can come stay with me, and his questions have been picking up in frequency over the last several months. Someday I hope for nightly games with him, pitting his giant Star Destroyers against my Mon Calamari cruisers.
Yeah, we did other stuff this weekend too, but Star Wars battles were the best.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Gaming with Jeremiah
Before Christmas, I had gotten Jeremiah some Star Wars Miniatures with which we could battle each other. (In the first pack we opened we got a Yoda on Kybuck character, which turned out to be worth more on Ebay than all the other pieces we got in all three boxes put together! no we are not selling!) It turned out to be a major hit, and so I picked up a couple more boxes from Target (all Clone Wars) while they were still on sale.
Now we have ~40 models and cards with which we battle. But, two weeks ago I tried looking at the Star Wars RPG to see if I could get a bit of an idea for adding in some stories to our battles. Bingo!
Jer is psyched about continuing the adventures of our two characters as we battle the forces of evil across the galaxy. Right now we are on Naboo, helping fight off the Trade Federation. We have a big battle looming ahead of us today as we try to escort Queen Amidala through ranks of droids to the palace where she can confront the Neimoidian Trade Federation president.
Yeah, he's gonna have his work cut out for him since I'm bringing in a droid tank and a droid on a speeder to add in a bit of firepower against him. When I talked with him several days ago, he was full of plans for how we are going to make it, so I suspect we'll be playing almost as soon as we get home, and I'll probably be begged to start the story in the car so we can jump right into the battle when we arrive.
Star Wars stories FTW!
Now we have ~40 models and cards with which we battle. But, two weeks ago I tried looking at the Star Wars RPG to see if I could get a bit of an idea for adding in some stories to our battles. Bingo!
Jer is psyched about continuing the adventures of our two characters as we battle the forces of evil across the galaxy. Right now we are on Naboo, helping fight off the Trade Federation. We have a big battle looming ahead of us today as we try to escort Queen Amidala through ranks of droids to the palace where she can confront the Neimoidian Trade Federation president.
Yeah, he's gonna have his work cut out for him since I'm bringing in a droid tank and a droid on a speeder to add in a bit of firepower against him. When I talked with him several days ago, he was full of plans for how we are going to make it, so I suspect we'll be playing almost as soon as we get home, and I'll probably be begged to start the story in the car so we can jump right into the battle when we arrive.
Star Wars stories FTW!
Monday, January 10, 2011
My techie post
This sounds really good, a bit on the pricey side, but really good - a solid state hard drive to replace a regular mechanical hard drive.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/09/my-best-computer-upgrade-evah/
The typical hard drive has a bunch of platters that are spinning around very quickly, which is why you may be able to hear a softer whirring sound from your computer at times, that is different than the louder sound from the computer's cooling fan. Those platters have a magnetic coating which stores information. To get at a particular bit of information, the disk spins and there is a little reading tip (like the tip on a record player) which can read the data on the disk.
These tips move back and forth rapidly, and the platters spin very quickly, but compared to the speeds at which the rest of your computer operates, that mechanical motion in the hard drive is moving in ssssllllloooooowwwwwww motion.
So, enter the solid state hard drive. Pricier and smaller than a regular hard drive, it is much faster because there aren't any parts that need to move in the hard drive. It is approximately 4 to 6 times faster at getting information in and out of the hard drive. So, things that use your hard drive heavily (opening a large file, booting up the computer, copy-paste large files, etc) will be MUCH faster. On his computer, his computer boots up in 30 seconds instead of 2-3 minutes.
(for techier people - virtual memory should be REALLY sped up by a solid state drive)
It's much pricier though - a 512GB solid state hard drive can cost $1400 whereas you can get a 3TB hard drive (6 times larger) for only $200-$250.
My laptop is doing fine, but eventually I may spring for a 256GB solid state drive and get an external regular hard drive. I'll have to store all my really big stuff (music collection, PDFs, etc) on that drive, but for everything else, the new hard drive should give the laptop a bit of new life for a while. And maybe when that day comes in four or five years, those solid state drives will be a lot cheaper!
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/09/my-best-computer-upgrade-evah/
The typical hard drive has a bunch of platters that are spinning around very quickly, which is why you may be able to hear a softer whirring sound from your computer at times, that is different than the louder sound from the computer's cooling fan. Those platters have a magnetic coating which stores information. To get at a particular bit of information, the disk spins and there is a little reading tip (like the tip on a record player) which can read the data on the disk.
These tips move back and forth rapidly, and the platters spin very quickly, but compared to the speeds at which the rest of your computer operates, that mechanical motion in the hard drive is moving in ssssllllloooooowwwwwww motion.
So, enter the solid state hard drive. Pricier and smaller than a regular hard drive, it is much faster because there aren't any parts that need to move in the hard drive. It is approximately 4 to 6 times faster at getting information in and out of the hard drive. So, things that use your hard drive heavily (opening a large file, booting up the computer, copy-paste large files, etc) will be MUCH faster. On his computer, his computer boots up in 30 seconds instead of 2-3 minutes.
(for techier people - virtual memory should be REALLY sped up by a solid state drive)
It's much pricier though - a 512GB solid state hard drive can cost $1400 whereas you can get a 3TB hard drive (6 times larger) for only $200-$250.
My laptop is doing fine, but eventually I may spring for a 256GB solid state drive and get an external regular hard drive. I'll have to store all my really big stuff (music collection, PDFs, etc) on that drive, but for everything else, the new hard drive should give the laptop a bit of new life for a while. And maybe when that day comes in four or five years, those solid state drives will be a lot cheaper!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Funny, Thoughtful, and Cringe-worthy
And some of those categories overlap! I seem to have run across a bounty of things that I've thought would make good blog material, so I have a window that has a half-dozen tabs on it that I'm saving. Then my computer rebooted. Fortunately they were saved and I was able to pull them back up, but the warning was heeded and so no more procrastination!
In no particular order:
Game Theory and Raising Kids from the Freakonomics Blog
Got kids who are arguing? Ever told them they have to stay in "time out" until they apologize to each other? It seems that the kids should both decide to instantly apologize so they can get out of the punishment as quickly as possible, right? In comes Game Theory!
Say What? Maybe this "democracy" thing isn't quite all it's cracked up to be
Wow! Our nation's policies are being made by people who are elected, at least in part, by people like the one in this deposition. Maybe Idiocracy really isn't that far off.
Paul’s New Law—Or Our Identity In Christ?
Just a generally good article that spun my thoughts off into several tangential areas. My rabbit trail thoughts aren't much, but the article is good fodder for thought even if you don't agree with it entirely. Some of the comments are good too.
Cake Wrecks!!! These defy explanation. You'll just have to click and see the insane atrocities that are created by professional cake makers.
The Cake Wrecks Hangover Cure
Cakes to help with those New Years Resolutions!
AiG's Jason Lisle's speed of light problem "solution" is still "going strong"
Lisle came up with a theory he claims is untestable, but still an explanation for how light might travel billions of light years instantly. Ignoring the problems with making an untestable theory and then claiming it as an explanation for something, and then also claiming as support of said theory the fact that no one has submitted (in less than six months) a peer-reviewed rebuttal, there are another couple problems.
One, it's not untestable like he claimed.
Two, it's been pointed out to him many times that it is false for multiple reason.
Three, he has refused to accept such counters outside a "peer-reviewed journal".
Four, a scientist offered to work with Lisle to submit to a peer-reviewed journal a counter to Lisle's argument and then have Lisle's reply posted at the same time, but Lisle declined saying he didn't have time for that.
Five, the only journal ("Answers Research Journal") from which Lisle will accept counter-papers disallows papers that do not support a YEC position, which almost by definition does not allow papers disagreeing with Lisle's position.
But, he still boldly proclaims that his position is "going strong". I think he has finally made the jump to full loonie status, or possibly out and out liar status. It's sad to see AiG supporting the guy.
In no particular order:
Game Theory and Raising Kids from the Freakonomics Blog
Got kids who are arguing? Ever told them they have to stay in "time out" until they apologize to each other? It seems that the kids should both decide to instantly apologize so they can get out of the punishment as quickly as possible, right? In comes Game Theory!
Say What? Maybe this "democracy" thing isn't quite all it's cracked up to be
Wow! Our nation's policies are being made by people who are elected, at least in part, by people like the one in this deposition. Maybe Idiocracy really isn't that far off.
Paul’s New Law—Or Our Identity In Christ?
Just a generally good article that spun my thoughts off into several tangential areas. My rabbit trail thoughts aren't much, but the article is good fodder for thought even if you don't agree with it entirely. Some of the comments are good too.
Cake Wrecks!!! These defy explanation. You'll just have to click and see the insane atrocities that are created by professional cake makers.
The Cake Wrecks Hangover Cure
Cakes to help with those New Years Resolutions!
AiG's Jason Lisle's speed of light problem "solution" is still "going strong"
Lisle came up with a theory he claims is untestable, but still an explanation for how light might travel billions of light years instantly. Ignoring the problems with making an untestable theory and then claiming it as an explanation for something, and then also claiming as support of said theory the fact that no one has submitted (in less than six months) a peer-reviewed rebuttal, there are another couple problems.
One, it's not untestable like he claimed.
Two, it's been pointed out to him many times that it is false for multiple reason.
Three, he has refused to accept such counters outside a "peer-reviewed journal".
Four, a scientist offered to work with Lisle to submit to a peer-reviewed journal a counter to Lisle's argument and then have Lisle's reply posted at the same time, but Lisle declined saying he didn't have time for that.
Five, the only journal ("Answers Research Journal") from which Lisle will accept counter-papers disallows papers that do not support a YEC position, which almost by definition does not allow papers disagreeing with Lisle's position.
But, he still boldly proclaims that his position is "going strong". I think he has finally made the jump to full loonie status, or possibly out and out liar status. It's sad to see AiG supporting the guy.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Hmmm. Nutrition and workouts
Light workout yesterday, expending 21 Calories (just the raw Caloric expenditure necessary to lift a mass a given distance)
Eaten yesterday:
2 yougurts (240 Calories)
1 ft-long Subway CCC (820 Calories)
1 Moes Homewrecker (892 Calories)
Basically, that's 2000+ Calories after a few extras like pop and chips are added in. I can see how America has an expanding waistline. So far I'm holding steady, but now that I'm over 40, I know that my metabolism will be slowing down eventually and I'm paying a lot more attention to what I'm eating.
I can't say I'm cutting down on what I eat, but I am at least watching it closely as it goes down the hatch. :^)
Eaten yesterday:
2 yougurts (240 Calories)
1 ft-long Subway CCC (820 Calories)
1 Moes Homewrecker (892 Calories)
Basically, that's 2000+ Calories after a few extras like pop and chips are added in. I can see how America has an expanding waistline. So far I'm holding steady, but now that I'm over 40, I know that my metabolism will be slowing down eventually and I'm paying a lot more attention to what I'm eating.
I can't say I'm cutting down on what I eat, but I am at least watching it closely as it goes down the hatch. :^)
Monday, January 03, 2011
Welcome to 2011
Yeah, yeah. I'm a few days late. I blame it on having a wonderful time with family, leaving me not feeling like posting anything.
But, it's now a new year ... and I am still having a writing block. We'll stick with some of the basics, and work from there.
Christmas was spent with family and a wonderful time was had by all. TGM was an incredible trooper and traveled really well. Better than I did, in fact.
No "enhanced patdowns" at any of the airports, in fact the see-you-naked scanners were all shut down and not being used whenever I saw them. So much for them being so vitally necessary for the nation's safety.
Susan and Andrew got C&I a wonderful gift - an evening at Medieval Times! Woohoo! Can't wait to go!
My wife got me a drill that will actually drill! (I've been making do with a drill with a battery that takes a day to charge and then lasts for ten minutes) I got her a new sewing machine that we haven't yet picked out. (I didn't want to try packing it out to KS, and I don't know enough about sewing to pick a good one for her. I actually had to ask what the difference between a serger and a sewing machine was!)
Jeremiah, of course, got quite the inundation of presents, but the one I'm enjoying the most is the Star Wars Miniatures wargame. He and I have played five or six games so far, and I got three more expansion packs so we would have more pieces to play with. I'm considering tracking down some cheap copies of the rules for the roleplaying version so I can tell some better stories in which Jer can participate.
Right now I'm in the middle of a massive, three-part (so far the first two parts have been an hour-plus each on average) story with him in which the intrepid Police Mouse is saving Earth from an invasion from the Empire and has teamed up with Obi-Wan to defeat them. They've stopped the invasion and destroyed the space station complex that was making the secret wormhole generators which could reach Earth from the Empire's area of the galaxy, but are now trapped on the planet with no way to get home and with all the forces of the Empire coming in to capture/kill them. I see lots of lightsaber battles coming and the Police Mouse learning to use the Force.
Joneses - this (referring to the Miniatures game) might be a good beginning for Stuart to be introduced to tabletop wargaming. It's much simpler than Warhammer 40K. If we have a chance to get together somewhere, I would be more than happy to play a few games with him to see if he enjoys it.
TGM, got some of the cutest presents (of course!), including some very cute, homemade clothes from her GrandmaG that have a little squeaker built into the shirt. I LOVE poking her belly to make it squeak!!! And Beth got her an absolutely adorable nightgown - a pale blue with sparkling stars and moons in the fabric and it is beautifully soft and cuddly!
The concentrated cuteness when she wears it has noticeable effects, such as lower my verbal IQ to the single digits where it consists of nothing but "Awww" and "Pretty pretty!"
I'll see if I can get some pictures up and watch the Internet implode as everyone does nothing all day but stare at the pictures and go "Awwww, how cuuuuuute!!"
But, it's now a new year ... and I am still having a writing block. We'll stick with some of the basics, and work from there.
Christmas was spent with family and a wonderful time was had by all. TGM was an incredible trooper and traveled really well. Better than I did, in fact.
No "enhanced patdowns" at any of the airports, in fact the see-you-naked scanners were all shut down and not being used whenever I saw them. So much for them being so vitally necessary for the nation's safety.
Susan and Andrew got C&I a wonderful gift - an evening at Medieval Times! Woohoo! Can't wait to go!
My wife got me a drill that will actually drill! (I've been making do with a drill with a battery that takes a day to charge and then lasts for ten minutes) I got her a new sewing machine that we haven't yet picked out. (I didn't want to try packing it out to KS, and I don't know enough about sewing to pick a good one for her. I actually had to ask what the difference between a serger and a sewing machine was!)
Jeremiah, of course, got quite the inundation of presents, but the one I'm enjoying the most is the Star Wars Miniatures wargame. He and I have played five or six games so far, and I got three more expansion packs so we would have more pieces to play with. I'm considering tracking down some cheap copies of the rules for the roleplaying version so I can tell some better stories in which Jer can participate.
Right now I'm in the middle of a massive, three-part (so far the first two parts have been an hour-plus each on average) story with him in which the intrepid Police Mouse is saving Earth from an invasion from the Empire and has teamed up with Obi-Wan to defeat them. They've stopped the invasion and destroyed the space station complex that was making the secret wormhole generators which could reach Earth from the Empire's area of the galaxy, but are now trapped on the planet with no way to get home and with all the forces of the Empire coming in to capture/kill them. I see lots of lightsaber battles coming and the Police Mouse learning to use the Force.
Joneses - this (referring to the Miniatures game) might be a good beginning for Stuart to be introduced to tabletop wargaming. It's much simpler than Warhammer 40K. If we have a chance to get together somewhere, I would be more than happy to play a few games with him to see if he enjoys it.
TGM, got some of the cutest presents (of course!), including some very cute, homemade clothes from her GrandmaG that have a little squeaker built into the shirt. I LOVE poking her belly to make it squeak!!! And Beth got her an absolutely adorable nightgown - a pale blue with sparkling stars and moons in the fabric and it is beautifully soft and cuddly!
The concentrated cuteness when she wears it has noticeable effects, such as lower my verbal IQ to the single digits where it consists of nothing but "Awww" and "Pretty pretty!"
I'll see if I can get some pictures up and watch the Internet implode as everyone does nothing all day but stare at the pictures and go "Awwww, how cuuuuuute!!"
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