"Murphy was an optimist!"
BRAINS! Braaaainnns! September 29, 2007 9:54 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Health, Of Interest, ScienceSince you do not have enough to worry about, I suppose you probably want to hear about the Zombie Amoeba. That’s right. There is an amoeba that wants to eat your brains! If I recall my science lessons correctly, an amoeba is a single celled organism. This simple thing is taking people down.
According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL’-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases — three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s. [Source]
Where does it thrive? Heat and stagnant water. So as global warming worsens and people flock to the lakes to cool themselves, the Naegleria is going to eat their brains.
Though infections tend to be found in southern states, Naegleria lives almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even dirty swimming pools, grazing off algae and bacteria in the sediment. [Source]
How do you know your brain is being eaten? Basically you have the same symptoms as everything else.
People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches and fevers. In the later stages, they’ll show signs of brain damage such as hallucinations and behavioral changes… [Source]
And how does it eat your brain? Through your nose!
Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up the nose — say, by doing a somersault in chest-deep water — the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory nerve. … Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up the nose — say, by doing a somersault in chest-deep water — the amoeba can latch onto the olfactory nerve. … "Usually, from initial exposure it’s fatal within two weeks," [Source]
Can this be prevented?
"You’d have to have water going way up in your nose to begin with" to be infected … The easiest way to prevent infection … is to use nose clips when swimming or diving in fresh water. [Source]
Thanks to BoingBoing, my wife will never let the children near water again.
add a commentToday’s linkbait September 28, 2007 1:35 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Daily Life, MusicHow to tell your friends have quit reading your blog. Ahem. And Knoxville’s Youngest Blogger (personally I think he had a better time than his post implies).
1 comment so farI want to work for iRobot! September 28, 2007 8:02 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, House, Of Interest, Robotics, TechnologySince a child, I’ve had a fascination with lasers and robots. My path steered away from those. iRobot rocks! iRobot will bring us closer to the Jetsons much sooner than I could have hoped. They have now introduced the Looj gutter-cleaning robot! What a great reason to put guttering on the house!
Makezine explains that iRobot is also accepting applications to beta test their next robot which will have a web camera built into it allowing people on the Internet to control your robot and speak to you. It’s iRobot meets Nabaztag meets Childrenview meets Camstreams.
2commentsI had a blast at the Orchestra! September 27, 2007 11:57 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Daily Life, Family, Music, Noah, Of Being Dad, Of Interest, Publishing
Let me tell you. Maestro Lucas Richman is cool! I mean he’s just fun to be around. Stand beside him and you just feel better. Hug him and you won’t need your Prozac for a year! Top all that off with an energy on the stage that is captivating to watch. (I did joke with him that I thought there were a couple of times he was just plain having fun and perhaps channeling Jack Black.) Today’s featured performer was Jeffrey Biegel. He’s a pleasure also. He has personally worked with two of my heroes, Pete Fountain and Jerry Louis! To be in the same room with such talent as Maestro Lucas Richman and Jeffrey Biegel is very humbling. To banter with them almost felt like a breach of social protocol but we did get to share some laughs.
I have an official review of my evening at the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra to get from mind and paper to blog post but I think I am a bit too tired to be coherent tonight. If you don’t want to wait, in short, if you don’t make time to go see the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, you need to make the the time! I can come up with all sorts of reasons to not go-the kids, money, deadlines, blah blah (just excuses!)-, but honestly, what a great way to spend an evening! Details tomorrow (or maybe Saturday).
Bloggers I saw tonight included Frank Murphy (review), Lissa Kay (review), Rich Hailey, Doug and Faye McDaniel, Byron Chesney (his review), Tish, Craig Thomas and Noah Caldwell. Who did I miss? The bloggers had 50 tickets allocated!
5commentsGetting Cultured Tonight – How many ways? September 27, 2007 3:25 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Music, Noah, Of Being Dad, Of InterestThanks in part to Frank Murphy, Noah and I will be participating in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra‘s blogger’s night.
Afterwards, thanks to Barry, in response to Cathy, I may be further cultured or drugged or just working.
Noah is particularly interested because of his new found love of percussion. I really hope he gets to interact with some of the percussionists during the post-concert reception. Noah will certainly be the youngest blogger in the crowd but I assure you, he will blog about it! In the realm of "it don’t get smaller than Knoxville" Frank Murphy performs with Einstein Simplified. I was one of the founding members of Einstein Simplified and performed at Manhattan’s for 2 years before life got in the way.
3commentsWarning to cat owners! September 25, 2007 10:52 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cool Sites, Humor, Love, Of Interest, Pets, PhilosophyKeep your cats indoors at night if you are in Columbia SC! I’m sure we will see this announced on the Psychozilla Tribune soon. (Russ?) I have seen the photographic evidence! Columbia, SC has a cat vampire! Remember, vampires cannot enter your house unless you invite them in so as long as kitty stays indoors, they will be safe from Catdrakula. Oh the humanity!
3commentsCool! AIR meets Analytics September 25, 2007 6:54 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AIR, Announcements, Cool Sites, Of Interest, Programming, TechnologyProgrammers, particularly those Adobe fans, know about AIR apps. People who deal with websites know about Google Analytics. Now AIR meets Analytics and you can get in on the beta!
add a commentMyQuire only wants links to the front page September 25, 2007 6:50 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of InterestIf you sign up for MyQuire and actually read the Terms of Service, you might notice the section forbidding "deep linking." This means they only want you linking to the top level of the website, like http://realityme.net/ rather than directly to functionality or articles like http://realityme.net/2007/09/22/warning-on-blogrush/. I am sure their intent here is to prevent people from using MyQuire functionality within their own domain but it is phrased such that if MyQuire has a discussion forum, you will be in violation of the terms of service if you link to a forum discussion.
4commentsWARNING ON BLOGRUSH! September 22, 2007 10:59 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Blog, Daily Life, Of Interest, Publishing, TechnologyI was reading 99 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free and liking the suggestions. Perhaps it would be fun to promote a little extra traffic to the site. I despise watching websites get overloaded with Javascript widgets and gizmos. However, I am guilty of doing that to Reality Me. It is bogged down with useless, behind the scenes Javascript. My list of round tuits includes cleaning up Reality Me and Domestic Psychology. Things like RobotReplay and PhpMyVisites are no longer of use to me but they remain behind the scenes slowing the site down. The Twitter widget and the MyBlogLog widget I find enhancing to the functionality of the site. I see Google Analytics as a necessary evil and I still debate the value of Adsense on a blog such as Reality Me (although apparent it protects – Can someone help me find that citation? I think Michael Silence carried it a while back. Some law was passed saying that if you run ads on your website you are protected the same was as traditional journalists.).
When I read 99 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free, BlogRush was in the number one or two position. I should have taken a warning when I noticed the author was not using a referral link. Today I noticed that the Javascript code I put in my sidebar to validate Reality Me with Blogrush had changed from a box of links to other sites to become a Google Adsense box. Now, I have Google ads that run on Reality Me (when the ad isn’t encouraging you to buy the shirt off Cathy’s back) so I think Blogrush put me in danger of being in violation of my TOS with Google. Granted, I was supposed to read the Blogrush TOS and I’m sure they revealed that putting ads on my site is part of the agreement. But I do not agree with that! So I will be parting company with Blogrush. I wonder what is in the #3 position on 99 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free?
2commentsDo you see the dirty picture? September 20, 2007 4:12 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of Interest, Publishing, VideoAnyone remember the phallus on the cover of the Little Mermaid? Like the dolphins, our eyes are trained to see beyond the innocent pictures. I bet we see more raunch in Disney flicks and kids shows than we give the artists credit. (link broken again)Watch an artist start with an apparent dirty picture and make it innocent. (could be construed as NSFW but it shouldn’t be)
Update: Youtube killed the video but you can find it by searching Blingo (aka Google with prizes) for "ne to chto podumali". I’ve also updated the link.
Update: link updated.
1 comment so farAvast! Arrrr ya havin’ a hard time with yer pirate talk? September 19, 2007 10:12 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Of InterestRemember! Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Special thanks to Aaarrr mate at file under awesome.
add a commentHigh School Football Idn’t Bad! September 16, 2007 8:22 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Health, Of InterestAs a teen, I went to two high schools. Only going to one wasn’t challenging enough. Okay, maybe that’s not it. I went to 9th and 10th grade at Lenape High School in Medford, New Jersey. I went to 11th and 12th grade at Germantown High School in Germantown, Tennessee. In the 9th grade I was on the track team doing pole vault, high jump, hurdles, and the 400 meter relay. That was fun! I gave it up because I learned that if you work for someone they give you money. I started washing buses for $3 per hour under the table. That was the end of my high school extracurricular activity. What a mistake! Between working and being absorbed with computers, I never went to a high school football game.
Since my daughter Sarah is now on the flag team at her high school, we are going to the games as good band parents should, to support the school. I have to say I have enjoyed the games very much (despite what Cathy’s pictures would have you believe)! I like bumping into friends, and the teams play really well! I’ll be going to many more.
Farragut vs Bearden was a loud game! We showed up earlier than last time and thought we’d missed kickoff. From the parking lot the stadium could be seen as packed and it roared with activity. I won’t review the game because there are more qualified people to do that. I’ll just say it was not boring. The Bearden band did not know their routine so the half-time show had no marching and no flags. That was a bit of a let down. I was tickled to see Brian Hornback on the field during Scott Moore’s presentation of a $500 contribution to each school! Cathy knew he’d be there because Brian doesn’t miss Farragut football games but we really didn’t expect to see him much less on the field! During half-time a woman in the Farragut bleachers passed out and several paramedics and police carried her out. I fear it was heart attack. I’d certainly like to know that she’s okay. They almost drove an ambulance into the stadium to get her. The game went into overtime and the teams played ferociously but Bearden ended up losing to Farragut 35 to 28. Despite their great playing, the high schoolers were distraught, some to the point of tears. Frankly, Bearden won the can drive and played an exceptional game. I know its easy to say but they should be proud! Get ’em next time!
Here’s the schools I attended:
- Pre-school, St John’s Episcopal Church, Wilmington, NC
- Kindergarten+2weeks 1st grade: Forest Hills Elementary School, Wilmington, NC
- 1st-3rd: Cary Elementary School, Cary, North Carolina
- 4th and 5th: Not Audubon? (have to look that one up)
- 6th and 7th: Theodore Roosevelt Middle School, Kenner, Louisiana
- 8th: Medford Middle School, Medford, New Jersey
- 9th and 10th: Lenape High School, New Jersey
- 11th and 12th: Germantown High School, Germantown, TN
- 1988-1993: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
More people should follow Tommasz September 16, 2007 4:39 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cool Sites, Of InterestDo you Twitter? You should follow Tom Maszerowski. He also has a great blog through which I’ve vicariously explored Rochester, NY. I enjoy his tumblelog approach to technology posts. They are often ahead of other blogs, and more concise and relevant. Give him a visit and drop him a comment to let him know you were there.
add a commentDo you have a PEACE of chalk for tomorrow? September 14, 2007 10:15 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Activism, Announcements, Of Interest, Politics, Touchy Subjects, World Politics
Do you have your chalk ready for tomorrow? Writing on the sidewalks is not vandalism or graffiti, it’s art! And it washes away.
Campaign to shift the paradigm from conflict to UNITY. From a double negative "No to War" To a double positive "Yes to Peace" [Source]
“Chalk4Peace” is a very simple, fun and inexpensive peace action
that you can implement in your local community [Source]
Get out tomorrow and draw a peace sign or a heart on the sidewalk!
add a commentPanic! September 13, 2007 4:32 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Local Politics, News, Of Interest, Politics, Touchy SubjectsDon’t take hand lotion to the airports! Hand lotion is the next terror substance! Because..well..uh, terrorists have smooth hands? No, that can’t be it. Um… No..can’t publish that thougth.. that would take away the G rating of this blog? What’s that? I lost my G rating? Oh I never had one! So, Knoxville wants to be Boston?
A white substance left in a hospital emergency room, prompting a quarantine of the area may have been a hand lotion. [Source]
Oh NO! Potentially deadly substance found in hospital! What do we do?!
"It smelled good, so we’re thinking it was a hand lotion," [Source]
That’s right! Stick yer nose in that thar anthax and tell me ifn its dangerous. After the spokeswoman for the Knox County Health Department, whose job is apparently to go to crime scenes and shove her nose into unknown substances, you know, like medieval food tasters!, after she lived, it was determined that something had to be done with the substance.
A private contractor that handles the hospital’s wastes will incinerate the bottle and contents, Dougherty said. [Source]
You got that right! We determined the substance to be inert and harmless so instead of having a hospital employee, or the high paid (she does get paid well for shoving her nose into stuff right?) health department employee, or for that matter one of the sick people at the hospital, or a child, to simply throw the container into the trashcan, we are going to pay a "private contractor" (read that as expensive) to dispose of the substance. I had the personal privilege of working with one of the fine companies in Oak Ridge who get paid to move hazardous waste around. You know those spray cans of paint, compressed air, and so forth that you so casually chunk into the trash can? Those are considered hazardous materials and government agencies have to pay to have them "properly disposed of" which means that they are dumped into 50 gallon drums, sealed, and shipped to a landfill at $10,000 per drum. Not tightly packed mind you. Sure, they could fit a lot more cans in a drum if the spray cans were put in an orderly fashion but if you just throw them in the drum you have to create more $10,000 invoices (and it takes less time). So you can bet the private contractor is going to take a vacation on that container of hand lotion.
Does anyone think before they jump anymore? Or has the government just got you that scared! Is this over? No way! For your enjoyment, the News Sentinel promises to spend more money on this horrific event!
More details as they develop online and in Friday’s News Sentinel. [Source]
Anyone know what teenage boys do with hand lotion? That’s what’s happening with your tax dollars right here!
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