Wordle

I recently wrote about 3,500 words describing books I thought were needed in the Christian publishing world dealing with a biblical perspective on diet, health, animals, etc. Feeding those words into the interface at wordle.com produced the following graphic representation of what I wrote using the 350 most-used words. The more frequently a word occurs, the larger it appears in the graphic. It's easy to see what I felt needed to be emphasized in the books I was proposing. (The publisher wasn't impressed, turning down my ideas. If they had seen this cool graphic I bet they would have said, "YES!" jk)



Here's another representation of the 500 most-used words -- different font and colors:



Wordle will also pull words off a blog or website, but the results from my blog were less impressive since there's such a random collection of words.

England's Ron Paul

England's Daniel Hannan is an MEP (member of the English Parliament) who is being called "England's Ron Paul." He speaks with the eloquence of Alan Keyes and the fiscal sanity of Ron Paul. (Of course, these Brits could read the phone book with their refined speech and accent and we would love it, but in this case there is substance to accompany the style.) Here he takes on England's Prime Minister in a March 26, 2009 (yesterday) speech in the European Parliament: (Background: the current prime minister of England is Gordon Brown who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, equivalent to the U.S. Sec'y of Treasury, under the previous P.M. Tony Blair. Therefore, Brown comes under attack here for years of bad policy, first in the Treasury and now as Prime Minister.)

Added later: I've just watched this video again and am just amazed at Hannan's eloquence as an orator -- a typically British trait. Watch how he draws on England's proud maritime tradition of having once ruled the oceans in her sailing ships, as a metaphor for England's leaky and sinking economy. Compare this oratical ability to speak from notes (Hannan appears to have notes in front of him) to the fact that president Obama used a wide-screen television as a teleprompter this past Tuesday night at his prime-time press conference! Granted, oratory is not the same as governing, but it sure builds confidence and gets the attention of listeners.



To get a similar perspective on the idea that debt can be fixed by more debt (the Obama plan), listen to legendary investor Jim Rogers as he takes on one of the talking heads at FoxNews this week. He can't find one thing that Geithner and Bernanke have done right so far in the current crisis. Use this link to see the video.

Water Barrels Connector Video

Pogue-o-Matic Product Finder

Last holiday season, David Pogue, technology editor for the New York Times, created an online shopping guide for technology gifts in four categories: cameras, camcorders, smart phones, and TVs. The Pogue-o-Matic is creative enough on its own (it actually works -- it's not a joke). What I found especially creative is what happens if you don't click a tab to begin shopping after Pogue finishes introducing the process. He stands there patiently waiting for you to choose . . . . Well, just click here to see if for yourself. Very funny.

Second Rain Barrel

Daniel's pics of his connected rain barrels reminded me I had bought the hardware to connect a second one a few months ago and hadn't ever done it. So I finally got it connected today. Can't wait to see how the connector to the second barrel works when we have a good rain.

The two barrels:



The connector -- bulkhead fittings on each barrel connected by a clear plastic tube:



The idea for the connector being at the bottom of the barrels allows both barrels to fill together and empty together with only one outlet hose needed for both barrels. My neighbor, John, suggested this configuration last year when we were discussing rain barrels and it made sense. We'll soon find out!

And btw -- that avocado I discovered that made it through the winter? Not an avocado. After I dug it up and potted it and looked more closely, it's not an avocado even though the leaves are very similar. So that means 100 percent of the avos died during the winter -- glad to have that settled.