I was angry enough this morning about the AIG bonus payouts. And then Mike blogged about it and mentioned a petition against the bonuses sponsored by moveon.org, just about the only organization I detest more than the financial mismanagement industry. So here I sit in my study with my cup of coffee and a full head of righteous indignational (?) steam...and need to write about something else to get myself centered again.
Let's talk about disappearing languages.
This very interesting article appeared in yesterday's Washington Post: Preserving Languages is About More Than Words. Today is, of course, St Patrick's day, when everyone in the country thinks he's Irish...but the Irish language, known as Gaelic, is actually disappearing. The article notes that Gaelic is one of thousands of endangered languages around the world...although it is Ireland's official language, there are only about 30,000 fluent speakers left, down from 250,000 when the country was founded in 1922.
Everywhere, languages are dying out. Most of the traditional American Indian languages are all but extinct, and most of the rest are considered "endangered," and on just about every continent there are languages which are disappearing as they are crowded out by English, Spanish, Chinese, and the other "mega-languages" that are widely spoken. In Indonesia, for example, 147 languages are threatened with extinction and one - Lom - had only ten speakers remaining in 2000. You can find an interactive atlas showing the various endangered languages here, and download a .pdf file of the UNESCO Map of the World's Languages in Danger (speaking of danger, this is a 19MB file, so don't try to download it if you have a slow connection).
Why is this important? Language is an integral part of who we are, what we think, and how we act. If a language dies out, so does the world of those who spoke it. We may never know the history of that people, or understand how they viewed the world around them. For my own part, I don't think you can really understand the stories of Franz Kafka unless you read them in the original German, and I'm sure that the literature of other languages is much the same.
Language is important. It helps define us. We admire those who speak and write well, noting that the good use of language is a mark of education and culture. If we lose the language, we lose a little bit of ourselves.
So do your part to keep your langauge from dying out. Practice by writing to your senator or congressman to complain about the AIG bonuses, or whatever is on your mind.
You could even write me a letter. Mike.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Minnesota - The Land of 10,000 Lawsuits
One of my favorite radio programs is Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, which is funny and entertaining and derives a lot of its fun from its satirization of the joys of living in the little town of Lake Woebegone, Minnesota ("where the men are strong, the women are good-looking, and the children are above average"). If you're looking for some good-natured fun, it's the show to listen to.
There are other things about the state of Minnesota, though, that I find a lot less entertaining and fun, such as the endless wrangling over the results of the closest, most bitterly contested senatorial election in American history.
For those of you living outside the United States who may not be aware of the backstory, here's the Readers' Digest version: Democrat Al Franken opposed Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in Minnesota's senatorial election last November, and the initial results were - quite literally - too close to call. While it appeared that Mr Coleman was the winner, the vote was so close (477 votes out of some 2 million cast) that a recount was conducted. This was duly completed, and showed that Mr Franken was actually the winner...by a margin of 225 votes. You can see an interactive graphic of the recount saga from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune here.
As you might suspect, both sides of the issue are desperate to win this contest. The Republicans are happy to tie the case up endlessly in court as a way of limiting the size of the Democratic majority in the Senate, while the Democrats are equally anxious to improve their position. The result is an unsettled election which leaves the people of Minnesota with only one senator in an ongoing political circus.
This is stupid.
Yes, it's important to ensure the integrity of the election process and the proper counting of votes. Yes, I understand the political motives driving each party's position.
But it's still stupid.
The only real winner here is the lawyers. Can you imagine how much money is being made by the army of lawyers carefully examining and arguing over every single ballot? Now, can you imagine how many schools could be improved with the same money? Or how many other public services could be sustained or improved? The political bosses care very much about keeping this case going as long as possible, although the people of Minnesota are starting to get understandably frustrated about it, arguing that there are a lot of problems Congress needs to be working on, and they are at a disadvantage as long as they have only one working Senator (Note: I use the term working Senator with my tongue buried deep in my cheek)
There's no end to this three-ring political circus in sight. Both sides are ready to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court, regardless of the effect on the critical business of the people. If you needed a better example of the shameless corruption of the political system in this country, you'd be hard-pressed to find it.
Note to all those #$! lawyers, and to the Republican and Democratic political bosses: you had your recount. One guy won, one guy lost. Shake hands, move on, and show the people of Minnesota and the rest of the country that you can solve the nation's problems, not compound them.
Of course, I'm not holding my breath. And, unfortunately, neither should you. Vote for your favorite contestant on Dancing with the Stars - you know where they stand, and they wear better costumes.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
There are other things about the state of Minnesota, though, that I find a lot less entertaining and fun, such as the endless wrangling over the results of the closest, most bitterly contested senatorial election in American history.
For those of you living outside the United States who may not be aware of the backstory, here's the Readers' Digest version: Democrat Al Franken opposed Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in Minnesota's senatorial election last November, and the initial results were - quite literally - too close to call. While it appeared that Mr Coleman was the winner, the vote was so close (477 votes out of some 2 million cast) that a recount was conducted. This was duly completed, and showed that Mr Franken was actually the winner...by a margin of 225 votes. You can see an interactive graphic of the recount saga from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune here.
As you might suspect, both sides of the issue are desperate to win this contest. The Republicans are happy to tie the case up endlessly in court as a way of limiting the size of the Democratic majority in the Senate, while the Democrats are equally anxious to improve their position. The result is an unsettled election which leaves the people of Minnesota with only one senator in an ongoing political circus.
This is stupid.
Yes, it's important to ensure the integrity of the election process and the proper counting of votes. Yes, I understand the political motives driving each party's position.
But it's still stupid.
The only real winner here is the lawyers. Can you imagine how much money is being made by the army of lawyers carefully examining and arguing over every single ballot? Now, can you imagine how many schools could be improved with the same money? Or how many other public services could be sustained or improved? The political bosses care very much about keeping this case going as long as possible, although the people of Minnesota are starting to get understandably frustrated about it, arguing that there are a lot of problems Congress needs to be working on, and they are at a disadvantage as long as they have only one working Senator (Note: I use the term working Senator with my tongue buried deep in my cheek)
There's no end to this three-ring political circus in sight. Both sides are ready to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court, regardless of the effect on the critical business of the people. If you needed a better example of the shameless corruption of the political system in this country, you'd be hard-pressed to find it.
Note to all those #$! lawyers, and to the Republican and Democratic political bosses: you had your recount. One guy won, one guy lost. Shake hands, move on, and show the people of Minnesota and the rest of the country that you can solve the nation's problems, not compound them.
Of course, I'm not holding my breath. And, unfortunately, neither should you. Vote for your favorite contestant on Dancing with the Stars - you know where they stand, and they wear better costumes.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Visualizing Really, Really Big Numbers
A week or so ago over at Out of My Hat, John tried to put the enormous numbers we hear about in the context of the economic crisis into some perspective, relating a trillion dollars to how long ago a trillion seconds was ... if you're too lazy to read his very interesting post, a trillion seconds is "just over 31,688 years."
Well, Numeric Life he isn't, and he's certainly not as beautiful as our fill-in number lady Amanda (in my opinion only, of course, not wanting to incur Chris's wrath), but he's done a very respectable job of trying to make an unimaginable number somehow understandable. Nevertheless, I am a visual - not a numeric - person, and I could use a bit more visual explanation of a trillion dollars. Happily, John thoughtfully provided that, too, offering a link to this gem at a site called pagetutor.com: What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
If you don't want to actually visit the site (although you should, because it's worth it), the idea is this: we begin with a single $100 bill, the largest in general circulation. We then move on to a standard bank package of 100 Benjamins, or $10,000, which is about a half-inch thick and easily carried. A million dollars would take 100 packages of C-notes - a relatively small pile that can easily be carried in an ordinary shopping bag....
...and it goes up from there to visualize a hundred million, then a billion, and finally a trillion dollars. At each level starting with $1,000,000, a normal-sized person is shown standing next to the pile of money for comparison.
You will probably be as amazed as I was.
Nowadays we are bombarded with sums so vast that they're beyond comprehension, so huge we often don't even bother to say the entire amount. Real estate signs advertise homes "from the low 400's," knowing that saying "four hundred twenty-five thousand dollars" might scare off some people. Or not.
In the Pentagon and other government offices, we often talk about "a hundred K," with each K meaning one thousand dollars. Small numbers of millions (as if a million is a small number in itself) are sometimes referred to as rounding-off errors or decimal dust.
In his novel Hannibal, Thomas Harris imagines a conversation between venal FBI official Paul Krendler and multi-billionaire Mason Verger, in which Krendler is seeking Verger's help in funding his Congressional campaign:
"Are you saying you can help me?"
"I can help you with half of it."
"Five?"
"Let's not just toss it off like 'five.' Let's say it with the respect it deserves - five million dollars."
Good advice. Let's say our numbers with the respect they deserve, particularly when we're discussing amounts of money so vast that they're nearly beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. And when they represent sums that our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will inherit as our legacy.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Well, Numeric Life he isn't, and he's certainly not as beautiful as our fill-in number lady Amanda (in my opinion only, of course, not wanting to incur Chris's wrath), but he's done a very respectable job of trying to make an unimaginable number somehow understandable. Nevertheless, I am a visual - not a numeric - person, and I could use a bit more visual explanation of a trillion dollars. Happily, John thoughtfully provided that, too, offering a link to this gem at a site called pagetutor.com: What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
If you don't want to actually visit the site (although you should, because it's worth it), the idea is this: we begin with a single $100 bill, the largest in general circulation. We then move on to a standard bank package of 100 Benjamins, or $10,000, which is about a half-inch thick and easily carried. A million dollars would take 100 packages of C-notes - a relatively small pile that can easily be carried in an ordinary shopping bag....
...and it goes up from there to visualize a hundred million, then a billion, and finally a trillion dollars. At each level starting with $1,000,000, a normal-sized person is shown standing next to the pile of money for comparison.
You will probably be as amazed as I was.
Nowadays we are bombarded with sums so vast that they're beyond comprehension, so huge we often don't even bother to say the entire amount. Real estate signs advertise homes "from the low 400's," knowing that saying "four hundred twenty-five thousand dollars" might scare off some people. Or not.
In the Pentagon and other government offices, we often talk about "a hundred K," with each K meaning one thousand dollars. Small numbers of millions (as if a million is a small number in itself) are sometimes referred to as rounding-off errors or decimal dust.
In his novel Hannibal, Thomas Harris imagines a conversation between venal FBI official Paul Krendler and multi-billionaire Mason Verger, in which Krendler is seeking Verger's help in funding his Congressional campaign:
"Are you saying you can help me?"
"I can help you with half of it."
"Five?"
"Let's not just toss it off like 'five.' Let's say it with the respect it deserves - five million dollars."
Good advice. Let's say our numbers with the respect they deserve, particularly when we're discussing amounts of money so vast that they're nearly beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. And when they represent sums that our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will inherit as our legacy.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Cartoon Saturday
As the economy continues its free-fall, the number of registered cars on American highways is projected to decrease this year for the first time since World War II; in France, the credit crunch is being blamed for a dramatic decline in the sale of sex toys; a Brazilian man stole a single-engine plane and crashed it into the parking lot of a shopping mall, killing himself and his 5-year-old child; Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera has been featured in Forbes magazine's world's billionaires report as a "self-made" billionaire; and the Supreme Court in Afghanistan has upheld a 20-year prison sentence for an Afghan university student journalist accused of blasphemy.
Thank goodness for Cartoon Saturday!
Don't show this one to Mike...
Have you seen the masterful evisceration of over-the-top CNBC reporter Jim Cramer by Jon Stewart? You can see an edited version of it here. And you can relate to these two cartoons...
and ...
OCGirl wrote in her blog the other day about some of the things people do in interviews to make sure they don't get hired. Sometimes, you just need to think carefully about the answer to the interviewer's question...
I just liked this one for being so utterly non-PC...
Someone once said that marriage is a compromise entered into by two people, one of whom can't sleep with the window closed, and one who can't sleep with it open. And then there's this take on what really happens in fairy-tale weddings...
The weekend weather forecast here in Northern Virginia is for two days of dreary, rainy, cold. Agnes and I will try to ignore it with some dance coaching this afternoon and a day spent with The Cutest Grandchild East of the Ohio Border tomorrow.
Life can be good.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Thank goodness for Cartoon Saturday!
Don't show this one to Mike...
Have you seen the masterful evisceration of over-the-top CNBC reporter Jim Cramer by Jon Stewart? You can see an edited version of it here. And you can relate to these two cartoons...
and ...
OCGirl wrote in her blog the other day about some of the things people do in interviews to make sure they don't get hired. Sometimes, you just need to think carefully about the answer to the interviewer's question...
I just liked this one for being so utterly non-PC...
Someone once said that marriage is a compromise entered into by two people, one of whom can't sleep with the window closed, and one who can't sleep with it open. And then there's this take on what really happens in fairy-tale weddings...
The weekend weather forecast here in Northern Virginia is for two days of dreary, rainy, cold. Agnes and I will try to ignore it with some dance coaching this afternoon and a day spent with The Cutest Grandchild East of the Ohio Border tomorrow.
Life can be good.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday the Thirteenth
Yes, folks, today is Friday the 13th. If you have the option (yes, Mike, I'm talking to you), you may want to just go back to bed; otherwise, it's time to get up, shudder, and face the day.
Do not open the door for this fellow, particularly if you are a triskaidekaphobe (that's someone with a fear of the number 13):
People have believed for hundreds of years that Friday is a generally unlucky day. Tradition had it that Jesus was crucified on a Friday (ever wonder why such a dreadful day is called Good Friday?), which was bad enough...but by the 1800s, people with nothing better to do had compiled a lengthy list of things considered unlucky to do on a Friday, including needleworking, writing letters (I'm doomed...), beginning a sea voyage, moving, getting married, and going to the doctor.
The status of the unfortunate number 13 as the premiere unlucky number has developed over many years, and may have originated in the Bible, where Judas Iscariot was said to be the 13th guest to sit at the table at the Last Supper. By the 1700s, it was generally believed that if 13 people sat down at a table together, one of them would die. Eventually the number 13 grew to be considered unlucky in any circumstance...in fact, many hotels and office buildings still do not have a designated 13th floor, going directly from 12 to 14.
I'm not sure when the two superstitions of unlucky Friday and unlucky 13 merged to make Friday the 13th a really unlucky day. Certainly the original Friday the 13th film didn't do the unfortunate day any favors, and the endless series of sequels, prequels, and remakes were lucky only for makeup artists and manufacturers of stage blood, prop machetes, and hockey masks.
But we're digressing again.
Yes, it's Friday the 13th. No, you can't avoid it.
Good luck.
Have as good a day as you can. Don't walk under ladders, let black cats cross your path, break mirrors, or anything else which will multiply the chance of bad luck.
More thoughts tomorrow for those of you who survive, bwah-hah-haaaaaaaa!!
Bilbo
Do not open the door for this fellow, particularly if you are a triskaidekaphobe (that's someone with a fear of the number 13):
People have believed for hundreds of years that Friday is a generally unlucky day. Tradition had it that Jesus was crucified on a Friday (ever wonder why such a dreadful day is called Good Friday?), which was bad enough...but by the 1800s, people with nothing better to do had compiled a lengthy list of things considered unlucky to do on a Friday, including needleworking, writing letters (I'm doomed...), beginning a sea voyage, moving, getting married, and going to the doctor. The status of the unfortunate number 13 as the premiere unlucky number has developed over many years, and may have originated in the Bible, where Judas Iscariot was said to be the 13th guest to sit at the table at the Last Supper. By the 1700s, it was generally believed that if 13 people sat down at a table together, one of them would die. Eventually the number 13 grew to be considered unlucky in any circumstance...in fact, many hotels and office buildings still do not have a designated 13th floor, going directly from 12 to 14.
I'm not sure when the two superstitions of unlucky Friday and unlucky 13 merged to make Friday the 13th a really unlucky day. Certainly the original Friday the 13th film didn't do the unfortunate day any favors, and the endless series of sequels, prequels, and remakes were lucky only for makeup artists and manufacturers of stage blood, prop machetes, and hockey masks.
But we're digressing again.
Yes, it's Friday the 13th. No, you can't avoid it.
Good luck.
Have as good a day as you can. Don't walk under ladders, let black cats cross your path, break mirrors, or anything else which will multiply the chance of bad luck.
More thoughts tomorrow for those of you who survive, bwah-hah-haaaaaaaa!!
Bilbo
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Why Manners Matter
Most of you who have been my digital friends for the last three-plus years have probably at one time or another read the "About Me" piece over there on the left of your screen, if only to wonder if this guy is for real or what. Buried in that little section is this sentence: "I believe in courtesy, common sense, and fair play."
Courtesy. It's one of those things we don't see quite as much as we used to, especially in larger cities. I've gotten used to self-important people whose time is obviously much more important than mine, who shove ahead of me to get just the right seat on the bus, who see nothing wrong with cutting into lines, who have no problem with chatting loudly on their cell phones at the movies, or cutting you off in traffic, or ... well ... you get the idea. The common courtesy, the manners that parents of my generation drilled relentlessly into us when we were young seem to have gone south like a vee of geese honking their way across an autumn horizon.
I'm not the only person to note this.
Last weekend we were in Borders, where Agnes was busily squeezing the last dime out of a long-lost gift card I'd found in the rubble on her side of the desk in the study. While I was browsing the shelves, talking myself out of hundreds of dollars worth of gotta-haves, I spotted this little gem: Why Manners Matter: The Case for Civilized Behavior in a Barbarous World, by Lucinda Holdforth. I could hardly pass up a book like that, and so it is now my commuting book, and I'm about halfway through it (having started it yesterday morning) - it's only 172 small, but wonderful pages.
This isn't an etiquette guide (Ms Holdforth has nothing but scorn for those), but an essay on the importance of manners, of what we might once have called (and I still do) following the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It isn't a preachy book, but a thoughtful one that ought to be read by the very people who would never think to read such a thing.
"In a gesture combining laziness and pragmatism," Ms Holdforth writes, "How about (a modern template for manners) something like:
"1. Keep to the left (or right, depending on jurisdiction).
"2. Keep your word (especially about time).
"3. Wait your turn.
"4. Look after the weak.
"5. Obey the laws and regulations, unless you are mounting a campaign of civil disobedience.
"6. Watch what you are doing: multitasking is the enemy of manners.
"7. Show appreciation for the kind gestures of others; and,
"8. Most of the time, shut up."
The rest of the book is much like this...a breezy, practical, somewhat sad essay on what has happened to what we once called good manners and what we might do to get them back.
I strongly recommend this book, although I doubt very much that any of my regular readers actually need it. I think most of you will probably read it and end up with a sore neck from nodding your head in constant agreement. It's sad that someone decided it was necessary to write a book like this, but such is the temper of our time. If you read Why Manners Matter and enjoy it, you can move on to something more erudite, like Stephen L. Carter's Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy. It's about twice as long and a lot more preachy, but has the same message.
And he wrote it eleven years ago.
Isn't it a shame that Lucinda Holdforth saw a need to write something similar in 2009?
Have a good day. Be polite...it won't kill you. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Courtesy. It's one of those things we don't see quite as much as we used to, especially in larger cities. I've gotten used to self-important people whose time is obviously much more important than mine, who shove ahead of me to get just the right seat on the bus, who see nothing wrong with cutting into lines, who have no problem with chatting loudly on their cell phones at the movies, or cutting you off in traffic, or ... well ... you get the idea. The common courtesy, the manners that parents of my generation drilled relentlessly into us when we were young seem to have gone south like a vee of geese honking their way across an autumn horizon.
I'm not the only person to note this.
Last weekend we were in Borders, where Agnes was busily squeezing the last dime out of a long-lost gift card I'd found in the rubble on her side of the desk in the study. While I was browsing the shelves, talking myself out of hundreds of dollars worth of gotta-haves, I spotted this little gem: Why Manners Matter: The Case for Civilized Behavior in a Barbarous World, by Lucinda Holdforth. I could hardly pass up a book like that, and so it is now my commuting book, and I'm about halfway through it (having started it yesterday morning) - it's only 172 small, but wonderful pages.
This isn't an etiquette guide (Ms Holdforth has nothing but scorn for those), but an essay on the importance of manners, of what we might once have called (and I still do) following the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. It isn't a preachy book, but a thoughtful one that ought to be read by the very people who would never think to read such a thing.
"In a gesture combining laziness and pragmatism," Ms Holdforth writes, "How about (a modern template for manners) something like:
"1. Keep to the left (or right, depending on jurisdiction).
"2. Keep your word (especially about time).
"3. Wait your turn.
"4. Look after the weak.
"5. Obey the laws and regulations, unless you are mounting a campaign of civil disobedience.
"6. Watch what you are doing: multitasking is the enemy of manners.
"7. Show appreciation for the kind gestures of others; and,
"8. Most of the time, shut up."
The rest of the book is much like this...a breezy, practical, somewhat sad essay on what has happened to what we once called good manners and what we might do to get them back.
I strongly recommend this book, although I doubt very much that any of my regular readers actually need it. I think most of you will probably read it and end up with a sore neck from nodding your head in constant agreement. It's sad that someone decided it was necessary to write a book like this, but such is the temper of our time. If you read Why Manners Matter and enjoy it, you can move on to something more erudite, like Stephen L. Carter's Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy. It's about twice as long and a lot more preachy, but has the same message.
And he wrote it eleven years ago.
Isn't it a shame that Lucinda Holdforth saw a need to write something similar in 2009?
Have a good day. Be polite...it won't kill you. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday Pictorial
Once again this morning, I'm all fired up about so many topics that I can't decide what to write about. Therefore, I'll take a twist on Cartoon Saturday and share a few of the odd pictures from my collection...
This one is titled "The Four Ages of Man." Somehow it doesn't seem as funny as it used to ...
When I went off to college many years ago, I wanted to be a chemical engineer; however, my ... um ... modest performance in my chemistry and calculus classes made me decide to change over to Linguistics instead. This was the only chemical compound I really understood:
We have so many books that we sometimes find ourselves buying paperback copies of older books we've forgotten we already read. We need an alerting system like this one:
The ongoing financial crisis is affecting everybody, including the military. Air Force weapons developers have been looking at ways to economize on aircraft armaments...
I just liked this picture...I can relate to it a little more every day:
And finally, this is one of the most clever and original things I've seen in a long time - it's called "Roadside Romance" (click to enlarge it for easier reading):
Just a few ya-ha's for a Wednesday, to get you over the hump of the week. Hang in there - the weekend's on the way!
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
This one is titled "The Four Ages of Man." Somehow it doesn't seem as funny as it used to ...
When I went off to college many years ago, I wanted to be a chemical engineer; however, my ... um ... modest performance in my chemistry and calculus classes made me decide to change over to Linguistics instead. This was the only chemical compound I really understood:
We have so many books that we sometimes find ourselves buying paperback copies of older books we've forgotten we already read. We need an alerting system like this one:
The ongoing financial crisis is affecting everybody, including the military. Air Force weapons developers have been looking at ways to economize on aircraft armaments...
I just liked this picture...I can relate to it a little more every day:
And finally, this is one of the most clever and original things I've seen in a long time - it's called "Roadside Romance" (click to enlarge it for easier reading):
Just a few ya-ha's for a Wednesday, to get you over the hump of the week. Hang in there - the weekend's on the way!Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Debbie Strikes Again!
A few days ago I depended on the contents of an e-mail from my long-lost and newly-re-found-via-Facebook friend Debbie for a clever post on the economy. Since that post got so many rave comments, I decided not to argue with success...I went back to another e-mail from Debbie for this collection of off-the-wall comments. I'd already heard some of them before, but they're worth repeating (with commentary, where appropriate) ...
I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes. (In Indonesia, you can eat unnatural foods - see this post from Amanda)
There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead. (Especially if you have to negotiate the intersection of Frontier Dr and the Franconia-Springfield Parkway at the entrance to the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station here in lovely Northern Virginia)
Life is sexually transmitted. (Question: when all those women told me over the years to "get a life," was it an invitation I was too slow to recognize at the time?)
Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal. (Note: it doesn't work)
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Why does your OB-GYN leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway?
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster? (Note: at least in the Pentagon, it makes the elevator stop)
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
And finally, the person who sends me my Joke of the Day e-mail seems to have read yesterday's post on data conservation. Mike, Gilahi, and I can all relate to this one ...
You know you're getting old when you've bought the same album five times: vinyl in 1965, 8-track in 1975, cassette tape in 1985, CD in 1995, and MP3 in 2005! (Mike, I didn't mention the wax cylinders because I didn't want you to feel too old)
Have a good day. If you're a pedestrian, be quick.
More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes. (In Indonesia, you can eat unnatural foods - see this post from Amanda)
There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead. (Especially if you have to negotiate the intersection of Frontier Dr and the Franconia-Springfield Parkway at the entrance to the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station here in lovely Northern Virginia)
Life is sexually transmitted. (Question: when all those women told me over the years to "get a life," was it an invitation I was too slow to recognize at the time?)
Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal. (Note: it doesn't work)
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Why does your OB-GYN leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway?
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster? (Note: at least in the Pentagon, it makes the elevator stop)
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
And finally, the person who sends me my Joke of the Day e-mail seems to have read yesterday's post on data conservation. Mike, Gilahi, and I can all relate to this one ...
You know you're getting old when you've bought the same album five times: vinyl in 1965, 8-track in 1975, cassette tape in 1985, CD in 1995, and MP3 in 2005! (Mike, I didn't mention the wax cylinders because I didn't want you to feel too old)
Have a good day. If you're a pedestrian, be quick.
More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Monday, March 09, 2009
Raiders of the Lost Files
The very fact that you are reading this indicates that you are part of the (more-or-less) computer-literate masses. And the fact that you do anything at all with a computer means that you, by definition, have lost files at one time or another. Or at many times or another.
Yes, there's nothing like the terrible sinking feeling that comes when the screen suddenly goes blank and you realized you haven't saved that gigantic document you're working on since last St Swithen's Day. Or the feeling that comes when you just know you saved some desperately-needed item, but have no idea where it is. Is it on one of your fixed or removable hard drives? Which backup CD/DVD it is on? Or is it on a ... gasp! ... floppy disk (3.5 inch or, worse, 5.25 inch) for which you no longer have a reader? AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
Yep. Welcome to the Lost Data Zone.
I thought about the perils of lost data when I read this recent CNN SciTech blog article a while back. There's also a good overview of data preservation techniques and suggestions at the Library of Congress website.
I had the experience of the "ohmygawd where did I store that file" this weekend when I was desperately looking for the scanned copy of an appraisal I needed for insurance documentation. I looked everywhere I could think of on my Mac and my three external hard drives, and searched my stack of CD backups.
I finally found it on the Mac, in the folder labled "Insurance Documentation."
Duh.
I can't save you from the perils of forgetting where you put things, but I can summarize the most common data preservation recommendations:
* Save your work every 10 seconds.
* No matter what medium you saved your work on, if it's really valuable, re-save it once a year.
* Save your work every 5 seconds.
* If your data is preserved in an off-the-wall, non-standard, or proprietary format, save it again as something else (for instance, if it's a graphic file, consider printing it out, scanning it, and saving it as a .jpeg or .gif rather than a .zpqx or whatever, or save documents as .pdf's).
* Save your work every time you blink.
* If your data is really, really important, back it up in more than one place and format...keep a printed copy, save one on a removable drive or CD, and save another in yet another place.
* And did I mention saving often?
Lost data today are the equivalent of the socks that have gone to the vast and mighty Black Hole 'O Hose over the years - you know, the mates of all those individual socks you keep saving because you know you'll find the other one sooner or later.
Take care of your data. You never know when you'll want to find one of those hysterically funny cartoons you lovingly saved from Bilbo's Cartoon Saturday two years ago.
Have a good day. Save something right now. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
P.S. - My cartoon file is saved in three different places!
B.
Yes, there's nothing like the terrible sinking feeling that comes when the screen suddenly goes blank and you realized you haven't saved that gigantic document you're working on since last St Swithen's Day. Or the feeling that comes when you just know you saved some desperately-needed item, but have no idea where it is. Is it on one of your fixed or removable hard drives? Which backup CD/DVD it is on? Or is it on a ... gasp! ... floppy disk (3.5 inch or, worse, 5.25 inch) for which you no longer have a reader? AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
Yep. Welcome to the Lost Data Zone.
I thought about the perils of lost data when I read this recent CNN SciTech blog article a while back. There's also a good overview of data preservation techniques and suggestions at the Library of Congress website.
I had the experience of the "ohmygawd where did I store that file" this weekend when I was desperately looking for the scanned copy of an appraisal I needed for insurance documentation. I looked everywhere I could think of on my Mac and my three external hard drives, and searched my stack of CD backups.
I finally found it on the Mac, in the folder labled "Insurance Documentation."
Duh.
I can't save you from the perils of forgetting where you put things, but I can summarize the most common data preservation recommendations:
* Save your work every 10 seconds.
* No matter what medium you saved your work on, if it's really valuable, re-save it once a year.
* Save your work every 5 seconds.
* If your data is preserved in an off-the-wall, non-standard, or proprietary format, save it again as something else (for instance, if it's a graphic file, consider printing it out, scanning it, and saving it as a .jpeg or .gif rather than a .zpqx or whatever, or save documents as .pdf's).
* Save your work every time you blink.
* If your data is really, really important, back it up in more than one place and format...keep a printed copy, save one on a removable drive or CD, and save another in yet another place.
* And did I mention saving often?
Lost data today are the equivalent of the socks that have gone to the vast and mighty Black Hole 'O Hose over the years - you know, the mates of all those individual socks you keep saving because you know you'll find the other one sooner or later.
Take care of your data. You never know when you'll want to find one of those hysterically funny cartoons you lovingly saved from Bilbo's Cartoon Saturday two years ago.
Have a good day. Save something right now. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
P.S. - My cartoon file is saved in three different places!
B.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
News From the Business World
Since I started up my Facebook site, old friends have been coming out of the woodwork - particularly people I knew back in high school. It's interesting to see what happened to them over the years, and especially good to see a few pictures, so that we won't be doing the old jaw-drop when we see each other at the 40th high school class reunion in October.
One of the folks I've gotten digitally reacquainted with is Debbie. Remembering that I won the senior class award for best sense of humor (it was a plastic outhouse...if you opened the door, the little guy inside turned and squirted you), Debbie has sent me some funny things I hadn't seen yet and which, since we all need some relief from the daily terrible economic news, I thought I'd share with you...
News from the Business World...
1. The US has made a new weapon that destroys people but keeps the building standing. It's called the stock market.
2. Do you have any idea how cheap stocks are? Wall Street is now being called Wal-Mart Street.
3. What's the difference between a pigeon and an investment banker? The pigeon can still make a deposit on a BMW
4. What's the difference between a guy who lost everything in Las Vegas and an investment banker? A tie.
5. The problem with investment bank balance sheets is that on the left side nothing's right and on the right side nothing's left.
6. I want to warn people from Nigeria. If you get any emails from Washington asking for money, it's a scam. Don't fall for it.
7. What worries me most about the credit crunch is that if one of my checks is returned stamped 'insufficient funds,' I won't know whether that refers to mine or the bank's.
New Stock Market Terms...
CEO - Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO - Corporate Fraud Officer.
Bull Market - A random market movement causing an investment banker to mistake himself for a financial genius.
Bear Market - A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry.
Value Investing - The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E Ratio - The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
Broker - What investing has made me.
Standard & Poor -- Your life in a nutshell.
Stock Analyst - Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
Stock Split - When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.
Financial Planner - A guy whose phone has been disconnected.
Market Correction - The day after you buy stocks.
Cash Flow - The movement of your money as it disappears down the toilet.
Institutional Investor - Past year investor who should be now locked up in a nuthouse.
Profit - An archaic word no longer in use.
Don't thank me. It's all part of trying to laugh instead of cry.
Did you turn your clocks ahead last night? If not, it's later than you think...
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
One of the folks I've gotten digitally reacquainted with is Debbie. Remembering that I won the senior class award for best sense of humor (it was a plastic outhouse...if you opened the door, the little guy inside turned and squirted you), Debbie has sent me some funny things I hadn't seen yet and which, since we all need some relief from the daily terrible economic news, I thought I'd share with you...
News from the Business World...
1. The US has made a new weapon that destroys people but keeps the building standing. It's called the stock market.
2. Do you have any idea how cheap stocks are? Wall Street is now being called Wal-Mart Street.
3. What's the difference between a pigeon and an investment banker? The pigeon can still make a deposit on a BMW
4. What's the difference between a guy who lost everything in Las Vegas and an investment banker? A tie.
5. The problem with investment bank balance sheets is that on the left side nothing's right and on the right side nothing's left.
6. I want to warn people from Nigeria. If you get any emails from Washington asking for money, it's a scam. Don't fall for it.
7. What worries me most about the credit crunch is that if one of my checks is returned stamped 'insufficient funds,' I won't know whether that refers to mine or the bank's.
New Stock Market Terms...
CEO - Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO - Corporate Fraud Officer.
Bull Market - A random market movement causing an investment banker to mistake himself for a financial genius.
Bear Market - A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry.
Value Investing - The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E Ratio - The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
Broker - What investing has made me.
Standard & Poor -- Your life in a nutshell.
Stock Analyst - Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
Stock Split - When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.
Financial Planner - A guy whose phone has been disconnected.
Market Correction - The day after you buy stocks.
Cash Flow - The movement of your money as it disappears down the toilet.
Institutional Investor - Past year investor who should be now locked up in a nuthouse.
Profit - An archaic word no longer in use.
Don't thank me. It's all part of trying to laugh instead of cry.
Did you turn your clocks ahead last night? If not, it's later than you think...
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
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