Lunchtime Chat: Prisons

There were so many things we talked about today:
* Bush is a great guy
* AP: Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison
+ 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison
+ one out of every 99.1 adults
+ one out of every 30 males between the ages 20 and 34
+ one out of every 9 black males between the ages 20 and 34
+ 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year
+ http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org
The solutions mentioned at lunch today have all been tried before: let them go, let them work, let them fight, send them to the moon, give them land, kill them all, etc,... But there is a real problem, and what is a real solution?

There were some other interesting things discussed too, right?

--Tom

Lunchtime Chat: Apple & Iraq

Today at lunch we talked (predictably) about Apple and Iraq.

The lunch opened with "What do you think about the new MacBook and MacBook Pro computers?". [I like the multi-touchpad on the Pro but I thought the upgrade to the Santa Rosa chipset that allowed full access to all 4 Gigabytes of memory was more exciting that yesterdays change to the penryn processers.]
Then I was asked "Have you bought your iPhone yet?" and that started a silly discussion about the religion of Mac and ended when I said "if I was elected president that I would take the oath of office with my hand over a MacBook Air or an iPhone." I like to tease me too! :)

But we got back to a much more interesting discussion when someone asked "Did you watch the debate last night?". This started a rapid chain of topics that flowed something like this:
Clinton vs Obama
Democrats vs McCain
McCain and the Iraq war
Exit stratagies from Iraq
Turky into Iraq
Splitting up Iraq (Kurds in north, then Shia/Sunni, ...)
Splitting up Germany
North/South Korea
soft/hard landing of North Korea
China's involvement with North/South Korea
China's involvement in the middle east
The global escalation of military forces to control oil and other resources
...and back to our current choices for President

At which point I said "Our current choices for President were like asking me if I want a regular Big Mac Meal or the Super Size? Where are my other choices!". So I finished my lunch of salmon and steamed vegetables, and we went back to work.

Red Cross Wilderness First Aid

I believe EVERYBODY should take a Red Cross First Aid class.
And, if you want more than the basics, take Wilderness First Aid.

There is a Standard First Aid class almost every Saturday from 9:00-4:30
in San Jose. And there are many daytime and evening classes as well.

Here are the next three sessions of the Wilderness First Aid class:
* Mar 4,6,11,13,18 (Tu,Th) 6:00-10:00
* Apr 14,16,21,23, 28 (Mo,We) 6:00-10:00
* Jun 12,17,19,24, 26 (Tu,Th) 6:00-10:00
I am currently planning on attending the April class.

Register online with the Red Cross - Santa Clara Chapter or call 408-577-2178.

Which class is right for YOU? Look here.

Here is a description of the Wilderness First Aid class:

Wilderness First Aid (32290) This course is intended to serve as an educational resource for those involved in activities that take them beyond the scope of traditional urban emergency medical services. In these cases, emergency care is delayed until help can be notified and rescuers can reach the intended patient or the patient is evacuated to safety. This course helps provide the knowledge and skills necessary to deal with these emergencies until more advanced care can be provided.

This course will teach you how to respond to emergencies in delayed emergency help situations, identify causes of injuries and how injuries can be prevented in wilderness areas, learn proper advance preparation for journeys into the backcountry, learn basic and more advanced first aid techniques to use when an injury occurs, learn the Emergency Action Steps for First Aid Response to be used when EMS is not readily available, learn how to respond to an emotionally upset victim, learn short distance transfer and evacuation techniques, and practice providing wilderness first aid through the means of scenarios and simulated rescues that test knowledge and skills.

Fee: $ 80.00
Length: 20 hours
Certificate: Wilderness First Aid basics (valid 3 years) this also serves as a Basic First Aid certification as well.

Letterman: Barack gives the Top Ten

Letterman: Barack gives the Top Ten

iPod Nano ad with 1234 by Fiest

Here is the iPod Nano ad with the song "1234" by Fiest:



And the original Fiest 1234 video:



And the Mad TV parody of both:



Ha! :)

Computers are not temperamental...they just act that way

Today I wrote "Computers are not temperamental...they just act that way".

Then I read the following in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

Main Entry: tem·per·a·men·tal
Pronunciation: \ˌtem-p(ə-)rə-ˈmen-təl, ˌtem-pər-ˈ\
Function: adjective
Date: 1646

1: of, relating to, or arising from temperament : constitutional "temperamental peculiarities"
2 a: marked by excessive sensitivity and impulsive mood changes "a temperamental child"
2 b: unpredictable in behavior or performance "a temperamental computer"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=temperamental

Was the example for 2b written in 1646? :)

Third-World Myths presentation

Presenting complex data is difficult. Here is a great example of presenting very complex data in interesting and informative ways:

"Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen"

Very effective.

Thanks for the link Chandra.

Steve Rings the NASDAQ Opening Bell

My brother-in-law, Steve Tirado, President and CEO of Silicon Image, Inc., Rings the NASDAQ Opening Bell




http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/200711/market_open_111207.stm

There are a few more photographs (with Teresa!) at the NASDAQ site above.

The little bird

Last night I had a dream that a little bird landed on my shoulder. I stayed very still so that I would not scare it away. After a few moments the little bird realized that it was perched on me, but it also realized that I meant it no harm. And so the little bird relaxed and got comfortable on my shoulder. When I felt that I could move without scaring it away, I walked slowly to our house to show Gina.

This morning, when I remembered my dream, I thought about how I want to share all of life's miracles with my wife and partner. Happy Birthday Gina! I love you!

non-fat half and half...

non-fat half and half...is just half.

Day 12 - Disneyland

We were at Disneyland from 10 AM to 10 PM. We rode everything (except Space Mountain and the new Submarine ride). The kids's favorite rides were Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones. We saw Jack Sparrow on Tom Sawyer's Island and in the new Pirates of the Caribbean. And we stayed for the fantastic fireworks.

We had a great day, tons of fun, and after 12 hours we were exhausted and ready to go home. We packed into the car, the kids fell asleep immediately and then woke up at 4:30 at home and crawled into bed.

Thank you Gina for planing such a great trip, and thank you Michael and Michelle for being such great travelers and friends.

Day 11 - Venice Beach

Today everyone was excited to go to Venice Beach! Gina was really happy to be back near her favorite beaches. The kids rented "choppers" and spent several hours checking out the basketball players, weight lifters, beach goers, and all the other unusal (crazy) people. There was a Hare Krishna Festival on the beach which added a flash of color with their saris.

Day 10 - Travel Day

Today we drove 7 hours from Flagstaff to Huntington Beach.
We took no photos. :(
Michael watched 4 movies and Michelle watched 5 movies
in our "moving movie theater" (thanks Seongbae!).

Off to bed...goodnight...

Day 9 - Meteor Crater and Winslow AZ

Gina got up early, finished Harry Potter, and then woke the family at 10:00! After a lazy breakfast we headed out to Meteor Crater.

It is really hard to see in the photo the size of the crater. It is 540 deep, 4,000 feet wide and 2.5 miles around the rim. The crater was created 50,000 years ago and it is the best preserved impact crater in the world. It was raining very hard so we were not able to walk around the rim.

Then we headed down to Winslow, Arizona. We ate at the counter in a cafe off of Route 66 and had (what else but) burgers, fries, and shakes. Here is a picture of Tom standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.

Day 8 - Cliff Dwellings, Lava Fields, and Pueblos

We have settled into vacation mode and therefor didn't venture outside until the afternoon. Despite the late start we enjoyed another full day of sight seeing.

Our first stop was Walnut Canyon where we got to see and go inside 800 year old cliff dwellings. There is a beautiful one mile walk down and around small mesa that projected into the canyon. Michael could not help himself because the acoustics were perfect for clear, strong, echos. This encouraged all other boys in the canyon to do the same. Fortunately, and unexpectedly, we have not had crowds anywhere we have visited which has made for very pleasant sight seeing experiences.

The next stop was Sunset Crater which is the volcano that Michael studied in Science class last year! This area of Arizona has over 600 volcanos and Sunset Crater is the youngest, having erupted just less than 1000 years ago.

It is monsoon season in Arizona which means we have incredibly beautiful cloudy skis in the morning and in the late afternoon there is a 50/50 chance of thunder storms so strong you want to run away and hide in your ark (and read Harry Potter).

Our final stop was the Wupatki Ruins. We had to brave lighting, thunder, and torrential rain to run from our car to the visitor center. After reading about the history of the area, the rain slowed and we walked down to the ruins. We hope the photo shows the splendor of these ruins.

Day 7 - Sedona

We got up early and headed to Sedona for our Pink Jeep Tour. The kids could not wait to get started. We had a great tour guide who told us all about the geology and history as we careened over the red rocks. The kids sat in the back seats to get the maximum lift off on the bumps. We went over some huge boulders and slid down several STEEP portions of the Broken Arrow Trail. The kids said "this is better than the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland" and "This is the highlight of our trip so far".

The views of the Sedona red rocks were astounding.

After some shopping we drove to Jerome and visited a Gold Mine and Ghost Town.

Day 6 - Flagstaff

Our first home-cooked breakfast! Then off to the Northern Arizona History Museum where we learned about the Navaho and Hopi Indians. We also stoped at the Pioneer Museum where we climbed aboard an train. A slow drive down "Route 66", through historic center of Flagstaff, and then off to the Visitor's Center in the old train depot (very cool).

While we were at the train depot a massive thunder storm washed through town and very quickly the sidewalks were turned into small rivers. The street was just covered with a blanket of raindrops splashing into water that flowed into puddles that would send spray up to our window height. After the 9 minute drive home, we pulled into our parking space to cloudy skies, but no rain! "Freaky!"

We went up to the Lowell Observatory from 5:30 to 7:30. It was amazing. We attended a presentation about the night sky, viewed some great educational exibits, and attended a slide show about astronomy and the stars, and then got to see the telescope.

Dad: "Soon you will be going off to college".
Michael: "Sure, and just yesterday we were in diapers!"

Day 5 - Grand Canyon

We had breakfast at the Grand Canyon M... Lodge cafeteria (giant cinnamon roll). Then we drove east along the south rim and stopped at every vista point we could ending in the Watchtower.

The drive from the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff was beautiful. Signs of massive erosion was everywhere, even in the great sweeping plains which were depositing grounds for the soil carried down from the surrounding crumbling mountains.

We have moved into our base camp, a tri-level 2 bedroom townhome. We have a full kitchen, dining/living room, a master bedroom (king sized bed), and a bedroom with 2 twin beds and an attached (tiny) bathroom. The bathroom had only two sets of towels and we considered calling for more, but a few hours later I made an astonishing discovery: a hidden door opened to reveal a huge master bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub. Love it!

Our first home-cooked dinner: baked chicken, stir-fry veggies, "Melissa's Pasta", and a nice red wine. Love it!

Day 4 - Grand Canyon

What can you say...it is grand...

Day 3 - Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam is one of the The Modern Wonders of the World. It is a wonder.

Apparently we have been in a 7 year drought and Lake Mead is at it's third lowest level ever. The view of the dam from the lake side was amazing.

The drive to the Grand Canyon was punctuated with a violent thunderstorm. We saw powerful bolts of lighting and hear booming thunder.