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Well, that was interesting…

So, the few of you who check this blog occasionally may have noticed that it wasn’t there for a few days… Here’s the story:

I had Xgl/Compiz installed on my Linux box. When it’s running, it gives Unreal Tournament 2k4 graphics problems, so I decided to remove it. While removing it, I ran into various issues such that I figured it’d just be easier to reinstall Linux, instead of fight with the removal of the program… So, I back up the WordPress database(s) to my laptop, move over the pertinent files to a different hard drive on my desktop, and begin the format. No big deal. Done it many times before.

I walk out to the living room and look at my laptop. It has lovely colored bars running up and down the screen. This isn’t normal, of course… It actually happened earlier in the day, again while I wasn’t looking at it and not really doing anything…but earlier, it restarted and worked fine…this time, not so much… I don’t know if the screen saver somehow triggered the problem (unlikely…) or what, but it went nuts…

Anyway, I tried turning it off and on…no help…  It wouldn’t even show the BIOS screen, let alone get to Windows… I tried plugging it in to my desktop’s monitor to see if it’s just the laptop LCD. No dice. Soooooooooooo…that didn’t sound good…and to make matters worse, some of my music library wasn’t backed up to my Linux box (the music from iTunes) and the most recent WordPress databases for the website(s) were on it as well. Not cool.

So, I pull the hard drive out of the laptop, only to find that it doesn’t have a standard IDE connection…thus, I can’t just open ‘er up on the Linux box and pull files off. Thankfully, there are adaptors that exist to convert a 2.5″ laptop hard drive to a 3.5″ desktop hard drive. I ordered one from Newegg, got it working, and pulled the files off. (Note: that also rules out the hard drive as being a problem for the laptop).

Soooooooooooooooooooooo, to make a long story short(er), the laptop has some issues but I’ve got all the data off of it and my desktop works just fine. Thankfully, the laptop still has a year left on its warranty (w00t!), so I’m going to take it by a repair place tomorrow and will hopefully have it back by Christmas. If it isn’t the LCD screen and isn’t the hard drive, then I’m afraid the problem lies somewhere on the motherboard…and that could take awhile to fix…who knows…

At least it’s under warranty…  If you’re in the market for a laptop that’s worth anywhere near $1000, please get a warranty!!!  It’s worth it!!

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Who exactly is “rich?”

So, a study was released today from the U.N. and mentioned on plenty of different news sites, but the Bloomberg article brought something a little more interesting to my attention. Essentially, the study says that the richest 1% of the world’s adult population comprise 40% of all global wealth. I mean, that alone is pretty nuts, but further on in the article, they get a bit more specific…

Apparently, if you have $61,000 in assets, you’re in the top 10%. That’s not $61,000/yr…that’s assets…so if you own a house, chances are that you’re in the top 10% of all global wealth. These figures come from the fact that the average adult wealth in the U.S. is $144,000, while in places like India, it’s $1000.

Now, my man, Ben, made a similar point on his blog a few days ago, and I’ll reiterate: what exactly does this mean? I mean, isn’t it rather depressing that owning a house means you’re richer than 90% of the world’s population? Billions of people? Can anything be done, or will the rich keep getting richer and the poor continue to get poorer?

I guess we should all just keep stuff like this in mind as we head through the Christmas season… As you think about financial gifts you give to the needy, realize just how good you have it compared with 5.4 billion other people…

Posted on

Who exactly is "rich?"

So, a study was released today from the U.N. and mentioned on plenty of different news sites, but the Bloomberg article brought something a little more interesting to my attention. Essentially, the study says that the richest 1% of the world’s adult population comprise 40% of all global wealth. I mean, that alone is pretty nuts, but further on in the article, they get a bit more specific…

Apparently, if you have $61,000 in assets, you’re in the top 10%. That’s not $61,000/yr…that’s assets…so if you own a house, chances are that you’re in the top 10% of all global wealth. These figures come from the fact that the average adult wealth in the U.S. is $144,000, while in places like India, it’s $1000.

Now, my man, Ben, made a similar point on his blog a few days ago, and I’ll reiterate: what exactly does this mean? I mean, isn’t it rather depressing that owning a house means you’re richer than 90% of the world’s population? Billions of people? Can anything be done, or will the rich keep getting richer and the poor continue to get poorer?

I guess we should all just keep stuff like this in mind as we head through the Christmas season… As you think about financial gifts you give to the needy, realize just how good you have it compared with 5.4 billion other people…

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Al…most…there…

So, I had my last regular exam of the semester today, and I think it went pretty well… That makes 6 exams I’ve completed this semester (and about a million flash cards)… Regardless, I’m done with classes until January 29th (w00t!) and I have a comprehensive final on December 14th. That test is an attempt to get us “thinking integratively” so that we don’t separate each physiological system and think of them from a “whole body” approach. In particular, it’s because we get a preliminary thesis proposal in about a year when we’re given integrative questions, to make sure we know all that there is to know about physiology. Anyway, I can’t decide if this test will be hard or not, ’cause I’ve done relatively well all semester. It’s just that we haven’t had that much practice on such things this semester. Hopefully it doesn’t hurt much.

Otherwise, Brooke and I are preparing to move to Soulard (neighborhood in the City of St. Louis) from our current apartment. For nearly the same amount we’re paying now, we’ll have two floors (plus basement storage), a washer/dryer in the apartment, a much larger deck (on the roof), a wood stove, and within walking distance of bars and restaurants in the Soulard area. The only real downside is that it’ll be on-street parking, so getting out in the winter will be a bit harder. Oh well! Anyway, our lease starts on Dec. 15th, so we’ll have until the end of December to move everything over…

Other than that, life is good… We’re hoping to publish a paper including the research I’ve been doing for the past 9 months, so I’m going to use the month of January (sans classes…) to get some work done. It won’t be too busy, but it’s still rather daunting to take care of the volume of data I’ll be accumulating, let alone what I’ve already accumulated…

Such is life…

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Silly vegans…

So, we’re learning about the GI tract in class now, and we heard about protein digestion today. Here’s some info from a slide presented to us by our professor today:

  • A normal adult requires around 0.75 g/kg body weight per day of highly digestable, high-quality protein
  • A person that’s ~130 lbs (59 kg) would require around 44 g of protein per day
  • A 3.5 oz filet mignon cut of beef contains ~30 g protein and 6 g of fat
  • A cup of peanuts contain 25 g of protein, but 46 g of fat
  • Plant proteins are digested poorly compared to animal proteins
  • Less processed foods are higher in protein content than processed foods

So yeah, I’ve never really believed in the vegan argument that one can get the same amount/quality of protein from non-animal sources, but I can’t say that I’ve ever really delved into the information… Regardless, I found these figures to be rather interesting.

Any rebuttal on this? I don’t know many vegans, but I know some of you do and have probably had this discussion with them before… One argument is that while peanuts and other legumes have fat, it’s more “good fat” than “bad fat.” Sadly, in either case, it’s still “fat” and you’re only supposed to have a certain amount of it per day…

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Updates…

1. I found porn two nights in a row in the parking lot at work.

2. We’re moving in 20 days.

3. Even though it’s only November, a Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake can put any one in the Christmas spirit.

4. Good old HHS didn’t win the 4A State Football Championship, but at least they’re second.

5. Only one more week of working the 4-12 shift!

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Skip the turkey, have a dinosaur!

For those of us that figured all the true nut-jobs are found in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and, yes, even Missouri…let’s not forget Kentucky!

According to this blurb at Slashdot, there’s a new museum opening next year in Kentucky, close to the Ohio border. It’s going to be devoted to Creationism. The article at The Guardian describing the “venture” states:

The Creation Museum – motto: “Prepare to Believe!” – will be the first institution in the world whose contents, with the exception of a few turtles swimming in an artificial pond, are entirely fake.

And perhaps more amusing:

As you stand in the museum’s lobby – the only part of the building approaching completion – you are surrounded by life-size dinosaur models, some moving and occasionally grunting as they chew the cud.Beside the turtle pool, two animatronic, brown-complexioned children, demurely dressed in Hiawatha-like buckskin, gravely flutter with movement. Behind them lurk two small Tyrannosaurus Rexes. This scene is meant to date from before the Fall of Man and, apparently, dinosaurs.

The museum has a web site, of course…feel free to browse…they have a lovely walk-through of the proposed plans… The thing will cost $25 million, and all but $3 million has been donated. (personally, I think I could find plenty of other things to do with $25 million, like, oh, feed all the poor people in New York City for the next decade?) Apparently, the museum gift shop is done up like a medieval castle…’cause knights used to fight dinosaurs (read: dragons) all the time!

These shenanigans remind me of a show I watched at Brooke’s parent’s house a few weeks ago…I was flipping through the TV channels on a Saturday morning and ran across a show discounting evolution on one of the religious channels…using “real scientists”! Of particular note, one of the historians they had on the show was recounting the story of Beowulf, referring specifically to the description of the monster in the story. This shrub said that the existence of a dinosaur in Beowulf was proof that dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time, thus the Bible must be correct. So now, not only should the Bible be sacred, but so should Beowulf and accounts of sea merchants sighting monsters in the oceans…and how knights of the Middle Ages fought dinosaurs daily…I mean…dragons… (which the historian also referred to…this is a trend, apparently).

So, this Thanksgiving, you should go find a dinosaur and eat it instead of a turkey… Turkeys have too much tryptophan (the amino acid that makes you sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner) and you certainly get more meat out of a Velociraptor…

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Review: Casino Royale

So, I haven’t seen many movies in theaters recently… Before “Marie Antoinette,” the last movie I’d seen was “Pirates of the Caribbean 2,” and that was months ago… I guess I just hadn’t really been excited to see anything that has come out, until now that is…

“Casino Royale” is, as you know, the latest movie in the James Bond film franchise, and features a “back to the beginning” story along with a new Bond, Daniel Craig. The idea is that our hero is given “Double ‘O'” status for the first time and is investigating an organization that is funding terrorism, centering largely on Bond’s duel with the main baddie in a high-stakes game of Texas Hold ‘Em at the Casino Royale. There’s a lot of action involved and Craig seems to be involved in more “active stunts” when compared with Pierce Brosnan… At least, I believed this guy was very believable in the role, and isn’t a guy you’d want to be in a bar fight with…

Overall, I thought the movie was quite strong. It isn’t simply a “good Bond movie;” it’s a good movie, in general. Daniel Craig brings a very refreshing feel to the character, still being suave and sophisticated, yet a bit rougher around the edges. Personally, I think he makes the “James Bond” character more believable. He isn’t relying on gadgets nearly as much, limiting the video effects and props a great deal, in the process serving to get rid of distractions from earlier movies. We get to delve into the character, not all the shenanigans that come along with it.

The story was pretty strong, but got a bit confusing at the end. Granted, it’s a 2.5 hour long movie, and there wasn’t much “wasted time,” but there were still lots of elements kinda thrown together at the end, tying up the loose ends, etc. Don’t get me wrong, the story was still very good…I just think the ending could have been wrapped up a bit more “cleanly.”

So yeah, go see it. You won’t be disappointed. Daniel Craig is a bad-ass and, as in the tradition of “Batman Begins,” this re-invention of the franchise is well worth your time.

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Review: Marie Antoinette

Brooke was itching to see a movie at The Tivoli last night, and “Marie Antoinette” was showing, the new Sofia Coppola film starring Kirsten Dunst. It essentially recounts the rise (and fall) of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, from her marriage to him in her late-teens to their deaths during the French Revolution. Supposedly, the movie has some amount of historical accuracy, but I really have no idea what was true and what wasn’t. It’s actually kinda interesting to watch it in terms of the all-powerful “celebrity,” in that Marie Antoinette is made out as a sort of Paris Hilton of her time…partying all the time and oblivious to everything going on around her (or outside her palace, at least).

While I can appreciate the craftsmanship of the film, I can’t say I was a big fan. Sure, there were plenty of gorgeous landscapes actually filmed on the grounds of Versailles (prounounced in French, not in Missourian…), and unbelievable costumes and decorative detail… The music was more modern (a la “A Knight’s Tale“), which was pretty interesting and not terribly detracting… Unfortunately, it’s a 2+ hour movie with maybe 1 hour of dialogue. It really just felt like an extended music video…mostly with music I’ve never heard (I think I recognized one song out of, like, twenty…).

So yeah, this is one of those movies I can “appreciate,” and by that I mean that it’s a well-done movie that is very beautiful to watch…but so’s Niagra Falls…and who can really sit in a chair and watch Niagra Falls for 2+ hours?

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Heckuvajob, Rummy…

In honor of our fallen comrade:

“There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don?t know that we don’t know.”
— Donald Rumsfeld, trying to clarify the war on terrorism