Coffee Klatch

Quite a few years ago, now, I purchased a specific kind of stove-top popcorn popper. The writeup had lots of good things to say about it, including 3 minutes to a full batch and minimal unpopped kernels. After having been using it for years now, I have to say it’s the best popcorn popper I’ve ever used. It does take only a few minutes and all you have to do is stand there and slowly turn the little crank thingy while it’s going. And it doesn’t take much oil to do the job, so you get popcorn that’s not too dry and not too oily.

It’s called the Whirley-Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper. It’s easy to use, easy to clean up, has minimal burning or sticking, and (best of all) it has a 25-year warranty on all moving parts!

Current music: I Will Not Be Sad in This World, by Djivan Gasparyan

Something I thought of this morning while pumping some gas. So many other technologies have cartridge-ized things or developed ways of refilling fuel (or similar liquids or powders) in cleaner, less accident-possible ways. That seems to be the way of technological development. So why hasn’t gasoline done that?

It used to be that copy machines and printers required pouring toner into them when they ran out, but eventually the technology people developed ways of putting the toner into a cartridge, so the end user just replaces a cartridge. No more spills or messes. The same has been true in variety of other media, such as laundry detergent and even coffee. So why not gas?

Gasoline is often touted as bad for the environment. In pollution-sensitive areas, there are stickers on the gas pumps saying “Please do not top off tank” because it’s an environmentally protected area and top-offs can lead to gas spilling out onto the ground. Gas tanks underground are notoriously pollutive and if they leak, all kinds of precautions have to be taken. So for all the dangers of gas spills and for all the millions of people who pump gas and are human, why hasn’t there been a method developed for getting the gas into the vehicle tanks without humans having to actually handle the liquid? I’m not asking why we’re not battery-powered or solar-powered or anything. I’m just saying that some kind of container or even hose that latches on and delivers the gas to the tank would eliminate spills and help protect the environment.

If the foreseeable future involves gasoline-powered vehicles, somebody should develop a cleaner, simpler way of delivering the fuel to the gas tanks.

My $0.02.

Current music: Glassworks, by Philip Glass

Here’s a cool online clock. It’s called the Human Clock and it features pictures of people with numbers. You can set your own time zone and then any time you view the page, you see the time in the form of a picture that someone uploaded. Yes, you can upload your own pictures, too, and add them to the mix. So if you’ve got a favorite landmark, building, pet, person, or whatever, just take a picture of it with a time showing somewhere and submit it.

Current music: Days of Future Passed, by The Moody Blues

I‘m sad to say that I am continuing to lose respect for Indianapolis law enforcement. They seem to do a great job showing up when a crime is reported and even making their presence known in various places around the city. Their philosophy about crime prevention, though, appears to be limited to that.

Call me old school, but it’s my opinion that the role of police officers should be more than showing up when a crime is committed. I still believe (or hope anyway) that police officers should be respected and should be role models for the community, both for children and adults. I know a lot goes on where I don’t see them, but if you don’t live where crimes are committed too frequently, the only times you see them is when they’re driving around town, which is probably the case for most people. And that’s where the role model falls apart.

We have a rather large problem in Indianapolis with people’s general driving habits. If police officers actually enforced traffic laws, this would be a safer and less stressful place to drive. From what I’ve seen over the last three years living in Indianapolis, though, our police officers actually discourage obeying traffic laws. First by NOT enforcing them and, second, by not following the laws themselves. If there’s no enforcement and the example set by the police also ignores the traffic laws, what will the general community do?

I must admit as an aside that I actually have seen some police officers with radar guns pulling people over, both on city streets and on highways, but that is by far the exception and is usually a one-time speed trap, which then is never seen again.

Here is a breakdown of the primary offenses I’ve observed:

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Speeding
Whether on city streets or highways, everyone (including police officers) drives 10-15 mph over the posted speed limits. The typical highway custom for our police cars is to go as fast as they want in the left lane of the highways. Of course no emergency lights or anything; just driving fast without them. I’ve seen police cars actually be “in pursuit,” and that has a different feel to the speed. On the highways, the speed limit is 55 mph around most of Indianapolis. Police cars tend to drive over 70 mph in that left lane and people really make an effort to get out of their way when they see them coming up behind. Which leads to the next topic.

Tailgating
When someone doesn’t get out of the way quick enough, police cars usually ride right up behind the person, figuratively screaming at them to get out of the way. It’s quite a common occurrence. Just this morning I followed a police car most of the way to work and watched them do it to car after car. And that was in one of the right lanes. Eventually they worked their way over to the left lane, but for a while it was busy, so they just rode the bumpers of the cars in front of them until they got out of the way. (I mean, wouldn’t YOU? Imagine looking in your rear view mirror and seeing a police car right on your tail!) Standard traffic guidelines suggest leaving enough room between you and the car in front of you for TWO SECONDS to pass before you arrive where they were. Around here, that’s just an invitation to have people cut in front of you and make you slow down more. Our police officers certainly aren’t a role model in this area.

Running Red Lights
People run red lights around here all the time. It’s not unusual to see two or even three cars go through after the light turns red. Police cars do it too. What really burns me up is when I see a police car stopped at an intersection and doing nothing when people run the red light right in front of them.

Red lights are one of the few times that I’ve actually seen the flashing lights used. Last week, for example, I watched a police car that was in the left turn lane. Right before the light turned, they put on their flashing lights, did a U-turn into the opposite lanes, turned off the lights as soon as they were through the intersection, and then they drove half a block and turned into a fast food drive-thru. The “emergency lights” seem to be used more for their convenience than for actual emergencies or making people pull over.

Changing Lanes Without a Turn Signal
Not a very major thing, but it’s the role model idea. When there’s a lot of traffic, it’s just (un)common courtesy to put your turn signal on before you change lanes in front of someone. Probably half the cars I see changing lanes don’t use their turn signals, and that’s also true for police cars.

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Don’t get me wrong. As I said earlier, I believe our police officers should be respected and obeyed. But I also believe they should be examples to us in areas such as obeying traffic laws and showing courtesy to others. That respect has to be earned. I would PREFER that we (all) be expected to obey the traffic laws; if you’re going to make a rule you should ENFORCE it. Either that or change it. That’s part of what made me be an R.A. in college for three years. But when even the “law enforcement” officers don’t enforce or abide by the laws, they discourage the general populace from obeying the law as well.

One of my favorite poems is “The Jabberwocky,” written by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass, which was a sequel to Alice in Wonderland. Carroll invented many of the words in the poem, which is a masterpiece of the nonsense poem genre.

For definitions of the words, as explained by Humpty Dumpty in the story or later by Carroll himself, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky#Glossary (and be sure to look up the definitions for “outgrabe” and “toves”).

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

One of the biggest mathematical miracles in the world revolves around Moses and the people of Israel. Moses and the people of Israel were in the desert, but what was he going to do with them? They had to be fed, and feeding 3 or 3 1/2 million people would require a lot of food.

According to the Quartermaster General of the Army, it is reported that Moses would have needed 1500 tons of food each day. Did you know that to bring that amount of food each day, two freight trains, each a mile long, would be required? Besides, you must remember, they were out in the desert, and they would have to have firewood to cook the food. This would take 4000 tons of wood and a few more freight trains, each a mile long, for one day. And just to think, they were forty years in transit.

Oh, yes, they would have to have water. If they only had enough to drink and wash a few dishes, it would take 11,000,000 gallons each day, and a freight train with tank cars 11.8 miles long, just to bring water. They had no lakes, and only a few wells. How were they to get water?

And another thing! They had to get across the Red Sea in one night. Now if they went on a narrow path, double file, the line would be 800 miles long and would require 35 days and nights to get through. So, there had to be space in the Red Sea 3 miles wide so they could walk 5000 abreast to get over in one night.

But, then, another problem… Every time they camped at the end of the day, a campground two-thirds the size of Rhode Island, or a total of 750 square miles, was needed. That comprises an area 25 miles wide and 30 miles long. Think of it! This space just for nightly camping.

Do you think Moses figured all this out before he left? I think not. You see, Moses believed in God, and that God was going to take care of these things for him.

Let us take courage–we have the same God! And we think our problems are so big.

Facebook has a new chat function now. That must have been what they were installing when the servers were down for an hour two earlier this week.

While you’re in Facebook doing anything, you have a new little status bar at the bottom, with a box for your availability and another box that says how many of your friends are online. You can click that, pick their name, and chat with them right from within Facebook, without having to have any other program. Best of all, you can minimize the chat windows and you’ll get a tiny red box popping up with the number of unread messages you’ve received. That helps keep the chat box from getting in the way while you’re working on your next bingo in Scrabulous or whatever.

Kinda neat, seems to work well, and is a nice value-added feature.

My car got pollinated today! Normally, it’s a black Dodge Neon. When I walked out of work today, I noticed that it was a GREEN Dodge Neon! I was three or four cars from the end of the line and that’s where there was a landscaped area with a big tree that’s enjoying Spring too much. Over the course of the day, the breeze took the pollen from the tree and coated quite a few cars with it.

Even after driving on the highway, my care is STILL green! Well, black-ish green. The way some black clothes look after they’ve been washed too many times. Except Springier!

For those of you with finals approaching, here is an inside look at how professors grade their final exams:

Dept of Statistics:
All grades are fitted to a normal curve.

Dept of Psychology:
Students are asked to blot ink in their exam books, close them and turn them in. The professor opens the books and assigns the first grade that comes to mind.

Dept of History:
All students get the same grade they got last year.

Dept of Theology:
Grade is determined by God.

Dept of Philosophy:
What is a grade?

Law School:
Students are asked to defend their position of why they should receive an A when they really deserve an F.

Dept of Mathematics:
Grades are variable.

Dept of Computer Science:
Random number generator determines grade.

Music Department:
Each student must figure out his grade by listening to the instructor play the corresponding note (+ and - would be sharp and flat respectively). Tone-deaf students fail.

Dept of Physical Education:
Everybody gets an A.

Current music: Orchesographie, by Thoinot Arbeau

I read an interesting story today. It was from Wired Magazine and was called The Mac Guru of Damascus in the Case of the Missing Laptops. It’s an interesting story about an American journalist who was in Damascus, Syria, and got his computers stolen from his apartment. It ends well, is interesting and worth the read.