If dogs could speak...
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Keep on thinking happy thoughts
A team of five adventurers reached the Notth Pole on Tuesday in 36 days 22 hours. They had traveled with a pack of 16 Eskimo huskies nearly 500 miles starting from the northernmost point of Ellesmere Island, near Greenland. Their goal was to show that Robert Peary may have been telling the truth when he claimed to have completed a similar 37-day dogsled run in 1909, becoming the first person to reach the Pole. Peary's account was disputed, and some skeptics questioned whether such a speed was possible. Since then, many expeditions have tried to duplicate the feat, but none had come closer than 42 days until now.
I saw a video on the news that showed the team navigating around frozen water and ice blocks the size of cars that were constantly shifting at incredible speeds. The dogs were straining in their harnesses to pull a huge sled over even larger boulders that were bobbing up and down like boats in rough seas, and the humans were pushing hard to prevent the sled from tipping over. It was amazing that anyone could be doing that for several weeks straight, but one member of the team was Matty McNair, a 53-year old woman and mother of two. When she was interviewed on television, she said simply that yes, it was tough and she was exhausted and aching all over, but "you just have to keep on thinking happy thoughts." Those are truly words to live by.
McNair leading the team through rough ice. Click on above picture for a larger image.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 8:07 AM 2 comments
I have a large burrito
A call about a possible weapon at a middle school in Clovis, NM on Thursday prompted police to put armed officers on rooftops, close nearby streets and lock down the school. Someone called authorities after seeing a boy carrying something long and wrapped into Marshall Junior High.
The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt. The burrito was part of eighth grader Michael Morrissey's extra-credit assignment to create commercial advertising for a product. "We had to make up a product and it could have been anything. I made up a restaurant that specialized in oddly large burritos," he said. When he recognized that he was the reason for the panic, he took the burrito to the principal's office and explained. "The police saw it and everyone just started laughing. It was a laughter of relief."
"Oh, and I have a new nickname now. It's Burrito Boy."
- posted by Woofwoof @ 7:30 AM 0 comments
Thursday, April 28, 2005
On a slow boat to... Norway
Jon von Tetzchner, the chief executive of Opera, a Norwegian software company, promised last week that he would swim from Norway to the US if his latest software release, Opera 8 was downloaded a million times in its first four days. When the target was exceeded, it fell to his public relations department to devise a plan to extract the CEO's foot from his big mouth. Their little scheme was to have him start his trans-Atlantic swim outside Oslo, with a PR manager following him on an inflatable canoe. By plan, after they had gone a short distance, the canoe "accidentally" developed a puncture, putting the PR guy in danger of drowning, and the heroic CEO had to intervene to save him, thus aborting the swim. The whole thing was about as lame as can be.
Actually I am not really that upset about it. But I'll make this counterproposal: If the CEO ever completes his swim to the US, I'll return the favor by swimming from New York to Norway. And once I get there, I'll eat a large plate of rakfisk and swim all the way back. I promise.
The CEO and his soon-to-be-all-wet PR man
- posted by Woofwoof @ 10:27 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Japan calamity
The death toll from Monday's train derailment in Amagasaki, Japan (about 250 miles west of Tokyo) has now reached 102, with another 450 people injured. The crash sent the two front carriages slamming into an apartment building just 20 feet from the track. Speculation was that the train was traveling at more than 100 kilometers per hour, going around a curve with a speed limit of 70 kph. The train had just overrun a stop at the previous station by about 10 feet and had to back up, and it was thought that perhaps the driver was trying to recover the roughly one-minute delay. The accident was the worst in Japan since 1963, and also the worst since the Japan Railway group firms were created from the privatization of the state-run Japanese National Railways in 1987.
The disaster has me both sad and shocked. Two things didn't surprise me though: First, the railway is a mere 20 feet from a residential building -- in Japan, it sometimes feels like you can stretch your arm out and touch houses as you pass them by. I wonder how people living there tolerate the noise and vibration, not to mention the loss of privacy as they have train passengers staring into their homes all day long. The second thing is that the train driver was even trying to make up for the one minute delay. Here in the US, I consider the San Francisco BART system to be pretty reliable, but we think nothing when the train is 5 or 10 minutes late; in Japan, you count on the train arriving and leaving the station at the precise minute.
When I was over there, I liked to ride in the first car where I could look through a glass window into the driver cabin, and see what he was looking at and doing. What I found most amazing was that regardless of the rail lines, the drivers always seemed to follow a very exact, regimented procedure in everything they do: they acknowledged the railway signs and signals with both hand gestures and verbal comments as if they were reading from a script. I never knew if they were being recorded, but they certainly did a lot of talking to themselves if no one else was listening. That's why it baffles me that the train in this case had overshot a station in the first place, and now was traveling faster than the speed limit to get back on schedule. It's all very tragic.
Click on the above picture to get a larger view.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 9:42 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Osama the Terrorist
I was traveling this past week. It's become routine and I don't think much of it, but it's surprising how much the 9/11 attack has changed air travel, probably forever. For me it is now automatic: picture ID and air ticket ready before entering the gate; keys, change, pager, cell phone in the carry-on bag, laptop taken out from computer case and loaded into a separate plastic tray; and shoes removed even if they are only sneakers. I can complete the entire process in less than 10 minutes unless the line is unusually long at rush hours. It's almost sad that we have to get used to this, but I don't see these things ever changing even if the terror alert level drops below yellow. I guess Bert will be around for a while (see sidebar).
- posted by Woofwoof @ 8:25 AM 1 comments
Saturday, April 23, 2005
The new diet
I followed the new food pyramid today. For lunch I had 2 Morningstar Farms meatless hamburger patties on whole wheat bread. The burgers took only 2 minutes to heat up in the microwave and smelled greasy and flavorful just like real burgers. They turned out totally delicious, not dry or flaky like the soy burgers I was used to. Nutrition data (per patty): 170 calories, 9g fat (1g saturated, no trans fat), no cholesterol, 2g fiber, 16g protein.
I even added a sweet potato with skin and a glass of fat-free milk for good measure. Quite reasonable for a Saturday lunch. I wasn't as hungry afterwards as I thought I might be. It was a good start, and I feel pretty confident that I can stick to this new regimen without too much effort.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 8:42 PM 1 comments
The old food pyramid
I thought it was simpler and more intuitive than the new pyramid, but I guess it didn't work since the obesity rate continued to climb in the US. That's not to say that the new pyramid is guaranteed to work better, but I guess it's worth a shot. It was interesting building my own food pyramid today, but the harder test is going to be trying to stick to it. We'll see. Click on the picture for a larger view.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 8:39 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Daiei dying
On Friday the Japanese retailer chain Daiei reported a net loss of $5 billion on revenues of $18 billion for the year ending in February. I remember that when I was in Japan, Daiei was a kind of Japanese superstore much like Walmart -- they had supermarkets, clothing stores, general merchandise stores, even a baseball team that they had to sell under financial pressure in December 2004. Now their sales are dropping everywhere, from old stores to newly opened outlets that try to attract a new clientele. I almost feel bad for them, but then I also take this as a potential good sign of what could happen to Walmart. Or Tri-City. One can only hope...
- posted by Woofwoof @ 8:02 AM 0 comments
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Largest and still shrinking
In Fremont, CA there is a store called Tri-City that used to bill itself as the world's largest sporting goods store. No one seemed to know for sure, but they had a big sign out front proclaiming exactly that, so I guess it had to be true. The store consists of two large one-story buildings side by side, surrounded by a huge parking lot with a yellow gate at the entrance that was always swung open. At one corner of the parking lot sits a small Chinese restaurant, as incongruous as a beach house at the North Pole. Usually we describe these things by saying that the buildings are as large as so many football fields, but I have no idea; I just know that they are large and they are many football fields wide. Fremont is a small, quiet, mostly residential town, so it's nice to know that the city had something to offer that was best or most in the world. Although in this case it was more like the best kept secret.
The store sells all kinds of things, from basketball to football to ski stuff, bicycles and hunting gear and ping-pong tables, and sunglasses and athletic apparel too. And that was before they added patio furniture and barbeque grills and water fountains, although they put that in the second building farther away that got much less traffic. Then several years ago, they suddenly stopped promoting themselves as the world's largest sporting goods store. Even changed the store sign. I don't know if they got smaller or someone else got bigger, or perhaps they did some real research and figured out that it was never true. They became just the "world's largest"; largest what they didn't say. Maybe it's world's largest sporting goods and patio furniture store, but that's like saying world's largest sushi and car repair shop -- who's going to compete with that?
I drove by the place the other day and saw a construction fence all around the second building where the patio furniture was. The main building is still open and apparently still doing business, judging by the cars outside. I don't know if they have now decided to downsize themselves to half of what they used to be, or they are building to be bigger than ever before, regain their old title, and maybe add sushi and car repair too. For now, the sign says simply "Tri-City". And the yellow gate is still open, held back by a large concrete slab.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 7:42 AM 0 comments
Sunday, April 10, 2005
It's not cold enough here
I have to admit that like most Californians, I complain a lot about the weather. It's too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, too windy or cloudy. Too sunny even. We want it to be 75F all the time. Plus and minus 2 degrees.
Well today, I was working at home with the TV on showing a Scandinavian cooking show, http://www.scandcook.com/. Now normally when it comes to food, I want to do mostly the eating and not much of the cooking, but this program does more than just teach us how to make Swedish meatballs or reindeer sausage; it's also a bit of a travelogue, taking us to different parts of Norway. It's somewhat quaint, but kind of interesting to see the chef wearing a heavy sweater and scarf doing a barbeque in a log cabin or at a lakeside with snowcapped mountains as backdrop. Except that after a while all the cabins and lakes and mountains start looking the same.
Today they were making this fermented fish called rakfisk (no, it's not Norwegian dog food). The process is quite simple: Pack lots of salmon or trout in a tub between thick layers of salt, weigh it all down with a big heavy rock and let it sit. When it stinks, you know it's ready. The one important trick is that you have to keep it cold, I guess so that it doesn't become too gross too fast, from -20 up to +4 degrees. They didn't say C or F (the dogs probably don't care), but it has to be very cold, so you need a lot of ice. The chef just casually walked out of the cabin, reached up and started pulling down giant icicles hanging from the roof, much like farmers harvesting large ripe fruits from trees.
I was so stunned and impressed at the same time, but I couldn't stop laughing. I so wanted to move to Norway just that very minute. Imagine getting ice free like that, and you don't even have to drive to the Safeway supermarket. I hope the feeling passes quickly. I don't think they understand 75 plus and minus 2 degrees over there.
Here in the US, Old Man Winter doesn't want to give up quite yet. A blizzard scene in Denver today.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 10:02 PM 4 comments
It's a slow news day
so I thought I'd help this little girl find her lost dog. Poor thing. She couldn't run fast enough to catch the dog.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 9:07 AM 0 comments
DMV fun
I was out food shopping yesterday and saw this gigantic Hummer taking up two parking spaces -- this was the original Hummer, not one of those downsized copycat H2s. The California plate was 5BEH5xx. I think maybe someone at DMV was trying to assign a plate that suggested "behemoth", and behemoth this boat on wheels surely was.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 5:57 AM 0 comments
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Stroke the chicken
A professor in Singapore has invented a device that allows you to pet your pet remotely. He built a doll shaped like a chicken with small vibrators and sensors embedded under the skin, and a separate jacket with similar vibrators and sensors that you put over a real pet such as a chicken. Remember that this is Singapore and maybe people do keep chickens as pets over there. The idea is that as you stroke the doll (he calls that "fondling the chicken"), the vibrators and sensors on the doll communicate via internet with the vibrators and sensors on the live chicken, and the chicken feels your stroking and you feel the chicken responding. So if you love your pet but are allergic to it, or are too busy to be home with it, you could use this device to bond with the pet from a distance. Just make sure your neighbors don't see you doing it.
I am sure that the thing could be made to work with people too, and have thought of quite a few applications for it already!
In case you doubt this scientific research, here is more information from the Professor's web site at National University of Singapore:
Poultry Internet
Poultry are one of the most badly treated animals in the modern world. It has been shown that they have high levels of both cognition and feelings and as a result there has been a recent trend of promoting poultry welfare. There is also a tradition of keeping poultry as pets in some parts of the world. However in modern cities and societies it is often difficult to maintain contact with pets, particularly for office workers. We propose and describe a novel cybernetics system to use mobile and Internet technology to improve human-to-pet interaction. It can also be used for people who are allergic to touching animals and thus cannot stroke them directly. This interaction encompasses both visualization and tactile sensation of real objects.
In the figure above, the pet owner touches the doll, and at the same time feels the movement of the doll as driven by a positioning mechanism table. The pet (we use a rooster) is shown with a "pet dress" worn on its body. The pet dress consists of electronics that simulates touch (or haptic) sensation. It feels it when the pet owner fondles with the doll. The advantage of this system is to bring the sense of physical and emotional presence between man and animal. It thus attempts to recapture our sense of togetherness with our animal friends, just like times gone by on the prairie, village, or jungle.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 6:30 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
I shouldn't have gone to work
Today was just one of those days when nothing went right. The more I did or looked at things, the more they seemed to need fixing. But the ultimate bummer happened in the cafeteria. To be fair, they have tried hard to make the food better and more interesting. There was the dim sum style food on Chinese New Year's Day, and the occasional buy-one-fruit-get-one-free special. And although I didn't ask for it (I swear) they stopped playing the YMCA song on Friday at breakfast. Of course, it was quickly replaced by Julio Iglesias which right away made me long for a return of the Village People, but that's another story.
Then today at lunch, there was a big sign at the entrance: Special of the Day! Grilled Cheese! Just like that, not a word more. I mean, how bad can things be when a simple grilled cheese gets so much fanfare and attention? I didn't get one but looking back now, perhaps I should have. It probably would have been the special of my day.
I think Calvin understands me. Click on the picture for a larger view.
I borrowed the terror alert level idea (see sidebar above to the right) from http://movingnorth.blogspot.com/. A very cool blog (or totally cold blog, since it's about Alaska). It should be required reading for everyone above 3 years old.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 10:02 PM 3 comments
Sunday, April 03, 2005
The last gasp of winter
Fairbanks, Alaska this morning. It was 17F and snowing.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 7:02 PM 2 comments
Everything atomic
Daylight Saving Time kicked in last night and it's great. Getting up early and staying up late are things that just seem right to me. About the only pain about it was resetting all the watches and clocks around the house.
About two years ago, I decided that was enough and started buying only "atomic clocks", the ones that get the time signal from Colorado and adjust themselves. Both of my wall clocks and the bedroom alarm clock are like that; the programmable front porch light switch is not atomic but it does have a calendar so knows how to adjust itself; even the lowly VCR player (now that's a relic from the dark ages of video) gets its time signal from TV stations, and of course the computer regularly gets sync-ed up automatically too. That leaves me with just 2 things to reset manually: my wrist watch -- I preset 2 time zones, one for standard time and one for saving time, so all I have to do is switch back and forth, and the microwave oven, but that's easy enough that I don't need to fumble around with instructions. Such are the little conveniences of modern life.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 12:47 PM 0 comments
Only in Japan
does the Meteorological Agency (equivalent of the National Weather Service in the US) keep track of the "cherry blossom front" which typically sweeps through most of the country during March and April. Since the blooms are short-lived and this is a celebrated annual rite, it is important that they get it right. This year they are off by about 3 days, predicting that the blossoms would reach Tokyo on Sunday when the first bud actually appeared on Thursday on the top branch of the lone cherry tree behind some little shrine northeast of the city. So I exaggerate, but not by much. Oh, the pressure of being a flower watcher in Japan. Imagine being chased by a mob of angry, drunken haiku writers wielding sharp pens...
- posted by Woofwoof @ 3:27 AM 0 comments
Saturday, April 02, 2005
I saw a liger
and I didn't even go to the circus. A liger is the result of breeding a male lion with a female tiger. It sounds like the stuff of urban legends, but it's a real animal and can sometimes be found in circuses or special zoos. Yesterday at work, I met someone by the name "Liger". He didn't have a mane or stripes, but he seemed real enough. I should know; I even got to shake his paw, er, hand.
Not the liger I met
- posted by Woofwoof @ 5:45 AM 0 comments
It takes a tough man
to make a tender chickenTM. Frank Perdue died on Thursday. He ran a poultry business and was the first to brand his chicken and go on television to pitch his products in the early 70s. His commercials stood out for their folksy style and he grew his business from $50 million in 1970 to nearly $3 billion last year. Perdue chickens were big on the East Coast when I used to live there.
Here in California, the more common brand is Zacky Farms (which was sold to Foster Farms a few years ago); the public face of Zacky Farms at one time was Lillian Zacky, one of the company owners. She also appeared on TV commercials, but her style is friendly and cheerful, and she frequently took on a motherly tone when she told people to buy her chickens because they were raised naturally and were healthy for them. Whereas Frank Perdue was a tough old bird with his beaky nose, thin lips and beady eyes, Lillian Zacky is the exact opposite, trying to look more or less like a spring chicken.
Frank Perdue
- posted by Woofwoof @ 5:38 AM 0 comments
