In the Eastern part of the United States bald-faced hornets are pretty common. They make large, spherical nests in trees and elsewhere. The are black with white faces and are quite scary looking. But before you go to try to wipe them out, consider this - they are generally pretty docile, don't harass people, and have cool looking nests.  Not enough? Okay, they eat pests, most notably, they eat yellow jackets. A lot of them. Yellow jackets are one of the most annoying bugs out there.&n...

Remember all that data showing how 1998 was the hottest year on record.  NASA, which was a major source for this data, quietly updated their stats due to a measuring bug.  No press release about it (for obvious reasons) and they haven't bothered to correct most of the graphs on the NASA site. But here is the latest from NASA's site on average temperatures: Yea, the great depression when everyone was driving in those big old SUVs.  Meanwhile, temperatures during the boom...

I have never smoked a cigarette. I never had any alochol until after I was 21. And I've never tried any illegal drugs.  But amazingly, as I get older, the number of pills that I seem to take grows.  When I was a teenager, I might take a vitamin. But now that I'm 36, the list of things that I either do take or can take or should take is considerable. I can't even imagine what'll be like by the time I'm 60. In the beginning, there was the Multi-vitamin. And it was good. But th...

Why aren't planets in GalCiv Ii to scale? What about accuracy. Below gives you an idea if things were to scale... zooming out... zooming out. zooming out... It would be cool to be able to look at a map with things drawn to scale correctly. But i wouldn't want to play the game that way.

Whether it be talking with friends, relatives, or just casual acquaintences, if the subject of politics comes up, I have noticed very specific behavior patterns between those who tend to be left of center politically versus those who are right of center.  There are plenty of things that annoy me about political conservatives too but not as consistently as "regular" people who are politically left. The list below is not a list of annoyances of politicans or public figures but rather trai...

While on vacation, I read the last Harry Potter book.  It was very difficult to wait until vacation to read it given the challenges of avoiding spoilers.  I actually received spam that listed who died in the book.  I only read the first couple lines so it wasn't completely spoiled but it is amazing how loathsome some people are. I don't want to give anything away in the book but I felt it did a fine job tying up loose ends and giving readers a satisfactory and even surprising c...

I recently got the results back on a routine cholesterol check. eGads, I'm dying.  My total cholesterol was 260 which isn't great but the really awful number was the HDL "Good" cholesterol number -- 19.  Any amount lower than 40 is considered bad and normal is 60 or higher.  At 19, I'm at the 1%tile of HDL. Unlike bad cholesterol, good cholesterol is hard to improve.  Diet has little effect on it.  Excercise can help and there are some natural suplements that may help...

I've taken vacations in the past but never anything like the vacation I'm on.  It's pure duration.  Even when I've gone to Disney World, it's been a 5 or so day trip with 2 of those days traveling. But this year, for the first time since I've had a company, I've taken a serious vacation -- 10 straight days (2 of them traveling).  What a difference a few extra days can make.  I don't know about you, but for me, the first 72 hours of a vacation are spend decompressi...

Understanding liberalism The earth's temperature has not gone up in 10 years The honey bee is already basically extinct Medical Report: Arafat died of AIDS Vista user gripes on MSNBC (featuring our friend Chris Pirillo) Likely scenarios should the US leave Iraq early Moore's Sicko is "Sickening"

http://theprogrammingblog.com/jokes/things-computers-can-do-in-movies/  (scroll down) http://www.physorg.com/news82299918.html  (air showers) http://consumerist.com/consumer/cable/itunes--netflix--cancel-cable-231216.php  (Do we still need cable?) http://extreme-geek.blogspot.com/2006/11/fire-starter-flashlight.html  (fire starter flash light) http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/31/powder_turns_bathwat.html  (mmm.. slime)  

Here are some interesting articles I've found from around the net. Famous women and their aging process...  (Oooh, no wonder men like younger women..<ducks>) Worst website service names  (Who comes up with these website names?) Ridiculous overseas ripoffs of American films  (You have got to see this, oh..my..god, particularly the Palestinian version of Mickey Mouse "Let's annihilate the jews") Russia claims North Pole   Types of sleeping Earth w...

To say my boys are comfortable around bees is an understatement.  It probably helps that they are largely immune to them. My youngest son got a good lesson on the difference between domesticated bees and feral bees (and a healthier respect of bees in general) after getting stung by a feral bee (after the pic of the bee on his ear).  He had gotten into the habit of picking up worker bees (which can sting) and letting them crawl on him.  Our bees are pretty docile but he tried to...

Just got back from up north at our new cottage. With pictures to prove it! Ashely and daddy Paddle boat on the beach. Main room at the cottage View from back door of cottage

The wife, kids and I are going up north this week to move stuff into the new cottage.  We built a cottage up in northern Michigan and after nearly a year of anticipation, it's done! We're very excited to see how it turned out (I've only had time to check on its progress one time). So I'll be a bit out of touch for the next week or so.  Don't burn the place down!