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Which way do you go?

So what’s your preference? A-2, A-3, Num, ITU, FIPS, IOC, DS, WMO, or MARC? I think I prefer FIPS.

Here’s a grin. The US designed FIPS. Europe designs NUTS. Both systems are crazy.

Update: I’ve changed my mind. I like ISO_3166-1.

The FIPS 10-4 country list differs from ISO 3166 in many minor and sometimes surprising ways. It has assigned separate codes to Bassas da India (BS), Europa Island (EU), Glorioso Islands (GO), Juan de Nova Island (JU), and Tromelin Island (TE), tiny and mostly uninhabited Indian Ocean islands administered from Reunion; also, Ashmore and Cartier Islands (AT) and Coral Sea Islands (CR), Australian territories; and Clipperton Island (IP), which is administered from French Polynesia. It splits Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands into two countries (JN and SV). * It shows United States Minor Outlying Islands as nine countries: Baker Island (FQ), Howland Island (HQ), Jarvis Island (DQ), Johnston Atoll (JQ), Kingman Reef (KQ), Midway Islands (MQ), Navassa Island (BQ), Palmyra Atoll (LQ), and Wake Island (WQ). It treats Palestine as the Gaza Strip (GZ) plus the West Bank (WE); also, a code is assigned to No Man’s Land (NM), a small and winding band of neutral territory near Jerusalem. The 2004 edition of the CIA World Factbook explains why it has added country listings for Akrotiri and Dhekelia, two British military bases in Cyprus. FIPS codes have not yet been assigned to these “countries”, but the Factbook‘s naming scheme implies that they should be AX and DX, respectively. Finally, FIPS allocates codes to the Paracel (PF) and Spratly (PG) Islands, two island groups in the South China Sea that are claimed by every country within shooting distance; ISO 3166 is noncommital about the Paracels and Spratlys.
[Source]

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Give me calm!

Man, ever have one of those days where you wanted to run to the pharmacy screaming "give me adhd medicine!"? Of course they don’t work that way so I guess screaming "valium" would be more appropriate. The little yellow pill (poetry) really should be over the counter. Shoot, the system is in place for tracking Sudafed; why not use it to make things like Valium otc with monthly limits? I say that having never ever in my life knowingly had Valium. But gee whiz, Mrs. Cleaver sure seemed happy and functional!

Doctor please, some more of these
Outside the door, she took four more

Btw, incase you missed it above, this is a must click link!

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FDA does something really good!

Young ladies, time to get your paps smeared!

The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it has approved the first vaccine designed to prevent cancer. [source]

Bonus!

Gardasil also blocks infection by two other HPV types that cause about 90% of genital warts cases

Some questions remain about the best age for immunization with Gardasil, although the consensus is that girls should be vaccinated before becoming sexually active.

See also The Washington Post:

The vaccine, which works by building immunity against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, was found to be effective in preventing almost three-quarters of all cervical cancers.

The vaccine, called Gardisil and developed by Merck & Co., was approved for girls and women ages 9 and 26. It is most useful if given to younger girls, because the vaccine is ineffective once the virus — which is very common among sexually active people — is already present.

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Keep your baited breath away from me

My Great Aunt Mary taught English at the College of William and Mary, she sat on the Virginia Board of Education, and as a high school English teacher was nick named "Bloody Mary." In short, I was scared to death to write this lady . I do wish I had overcome that fear before her passing. She had traveled the world many times declaring North Africa and Alaska her two favorite places. Moby Dick was her favorite book. Btw, Aunt is pronounced with an ent sound not ant. Probably should be a little nasal. I once greeted her at the airport and she responded with "Good God child! Open your lips and enunciate!" Mind you, I think she was one of the most intelligent and interesting women I had ever met.

Despite the numerous misspellings, run-on sentences, and incorrect word choices you read in this site, I was schooled with very proper writing skills. The ease of electronic publishing makes us lazy. The publishing of first drafts prone to errors. The PalmOS single-handedly destroyed the adult population’s handwriting making us all qualified to be doctors. SMS (aka text messaging), instant messengers, and l33t sp34k have led 2 horrid abbrs the likes nvr b4 seen. Nu Shortcuts in School R 2 Much 4 Teachers (this NYTimes article is from September 2002!) (registration required – BugMeNot.com may help).

Ms. Harding, an eighth-grade English teacher at Viking Middle School in Guernee, Ill., scribbles the words that have plagued generations of schoolchildren across her whiteboard:

There. Their. They’re.
Your. You’re.
To. Too. Two.
Its. It’s.

This September, she has added a new list: u, r, ur, b4, wuz, cuz, 2.

Almost 60 percent of the online population under age 17 uses instant messaging, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. In addition to cellphone text messaging, Weblogs and e-mail, it has become a popular means of flirting, setting up dates, asking for help with homework and keeping in contact with distant friends. The abbreviations are a natural outgrowth of this rapid-fire style of communication.

I am sure you have read down to here with baited breath wondering where I was going with this writing. I wait with bated breath wondering why you are putting worms in your mouth. I have a few pet peeves. One of them is "baited" in lieu of "bated."

The word bate itself, first found around 1300, was once rather common–it appears a number of times in Shakespeare, for example–but is now very rare except in this one set expression. As a result, many people don’t know what bated means, and change it to baited by the process of folk etymology–the unclear bate is altered to associate it with the common bait.

Now that we have mastered bated, it is time to get to work. (…had to be done.)

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The typical day

Tracking my typical day was fun but I’m not going to continue. I accidentally fell asleep between 12:30 and 1am. Since I don’t use an alarm clock and didn’t tell myself when to wake I slept until 6:40! This day is going to be hardcore programming. I’d like to think I could slip a couple of hours into the yard before having to return the riding mower. There will be a pause in the afternoon to celebrate Sarah’s return from camp! I’ve missed her but I have not missed that sassy teenage tongue.

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Let’s track a typical day

Continuing…

8:30pm-11:00pm: Drive to client site. Client discusses distaste for my pricing and we discuss possibly dissolving relationship.

11:00pm-12:30am: Go to Walmart buy diapers, cat food, toilet paper, more diapers, etc and return home to 4 year old trashing the upstairs. Put groceries away and clean mess.

Next, debate a nap vs going straight back to programming. Will share a few moments with estranged wife over an ice cream snack.