The 12 Worst Cars on the Road

Forbes.com has a survey of the "12 worst cars on the road" drawn from a number of performance-reliability studies. Might'ave known -- the car I've been thinking about the last couple years -- the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (pictured) -- is on the list. Oh well -- good reason not to spend money.

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Beauty and the Beast

Pros call the Paris-Roubaix six-hour bike race "The Hell of the North" because of its bone-rattling, filling-loosening ride over cobblestones. This gorgeous video was shot on a 4,000-frames-per-second camera allowing for high-def slow-motion that is starkly beautiful. If there's a way to find beauty in the belly of a beast, this is it: (read the full account of the video here)

Beautiful Signs of Spring

Gorgeous photos of spring unfolding all over the world. 

Saying the Same, Only Better

(Thanks to Robert in Atlanta for this link.)

Back Porch Groove Music

I don't know of these artists -- Raphael Saadiq (and here) and his ax-man, Rob "Fonksta" Bacon -- but I've rarely heard two guys produce this kind of groove with just two guitars. And it's mainly Rob Bacon -- the amount of music he produces from his Taylor guitar is astounding -- and so effortless. Shot at NPR headquarters, I take it -- cool setting for a concert. Gotta love the Blues Brothers look -- black suits, sunglasses. I also love that he had to ask the [I'm guessing mostly-white] NPR staff-audience to clap along. Just sayin' . . . :-) But thanks to NPR for making this available! (I would not have been able to watch this at 480p, full-screen on my old computer. But now that I can -- wow -- like watching a concert on DVD. NPR shot this beautifully.)

My Favorite Video

This is one of the coolest music videos I've seen: singer-songwriter-ukulelist (yay, ukes) Sophie Madeleine starts to sing one of her amazing songs and is "joined" by fans doing their own version of her song. Very cool -- and great song! Every time I watch this I see new things. People are so funny!

A Little Embarrassing

This is a great exercise in Middle East geo-politics. An interactive exercise in identifying the countries most in the news of late. There were quite a few (all the "-stans") I couldn't place.

Is This a Good Idea?

A new iPhone (and soon Android) app will soon allow hundreds of your "closest friends" (whether you know them or not) to see any photos and videos you take with your phone.

The app is called Color and works like this: As soon as you open the app, you'll start receiving on your phone photos and videos of other Color users within 150 feet of where you are -- in a crowded bar, for instance, where you're looking to meet people. You can annotate a comment to someone's photo and use it as an intro to a conversation, etc.

The app was created by a smart tech guy with a couple other very successful startups under his belt (one purchased by Apple, the music service LaLa), and he's received big-time venture capital support as if this is going to be the next new social networking phenom.

Of course, you don't have to turn Color on -- then no one can see your pics/videos and you can't see those of other Color uses. But how many people are going to resist? The same number who resist looking at train wrecks, is my guess.

Poor Old Dirt Farmer

Fans of The Band will recognize Levon Helm's name; others, his voice if not his name. He was the drummer for the group and sang the lead vocals on many of their best-known songs: "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." His voice has changed now due to age and a near-fatal bout with throat cancer. In 2007 he released a Grammy-winning solo album, Dirt Farmer, and the video below is from the title track. This video -- the life and the people and the musicians -- are what keeps the dream of rural living alive in my heart. Here's hoping Levon Helm keeps livin', drummin', and singin'.

Mac Mechanics

Our lives have become so entangled with computers -- in more ways than one:

My current Mac -- a G5 PowerPC tower -- has been pulling steadily for me since 2003 but has been showing its age the last year or two. Primarily, its chipset (PowerPC) won't run the latest version of the Mac OS (Snow Leopard), and its 1.8 ghz processor and eight-year-old graphics card (driving two 21" monitors) often labor to process the increasingly large (HD) streaming video off the web. So I decided it was time to upgrade. (Hey, it's a business deduction.)

After no small amount of research I opted for the latest Mac Mini. It's just the "computer" -- no monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. -- which is all I need. It comes with a 2.66 ghz processor, a way faster graphics card, two gigs of RAM, and a 500 gig drive (5,400 rpm -- why doesn't Apple offer a 7,200 rpm drive?). To upgrade the Mini, I ordered eight gigs of RAM (4 gig chips x 2) and a faster (7,200 rpm) 500 gig drive to replace the drive that comes in the Mini. (I ordered these parts from Other World Computing from whom I've bought Mac stuff over the years -- highly recommended -- except for -- see below.)

Swapping out RAM (taking out the two one-gig chips and replacing them with the two 4-gig chips) is easy enough. But changing out the hard drive is probably above my pay grade. Fortunately, OWC has excellent step-by-step videos on their web site for how to do everything. The video for swapping out my hard drive said the job was "four out of four" on the difficulty scale -- rated "Challenging." But the video is really clear, so I decided to tackle it myself. (The video said "30 minutes," but I spent two hours. Story of my life.)

Macs seem to be as beautifully designed on the inside as on the outside. Amazing that just a few weeks ago the deft hands of several Chinese assemblymen/women put this little marvel together. (Wired magazine recently did an article on the massive Foxconn factory in China where Apple, and other, products are assembled. It's like a small city, complete with workers taking their own lives -- 17 of the one million workers last year. If folks spend all their waking hours doing what I did for two hours, one can see how the frustration could mount.)

With the bottom cover of the Mini removed. The hard drive sits under the grill in the top of the photo; the round black circle is the Wi-Fi antenna; I had already removed the two RAM chips from the rectangular slots on the right side. Not a centimeter of wasted space:

I would take pics along the way to make sure I remembered how things fit -- in this case, the antenna wire going underneath the cowling when reconnected and reinstalled:

After doing this for a while, I grabbed my box set of McGuffey's Readers to set the Mini on. The magnifiers I'm wearing have a focal length of about six inches, so you have to be right down on the subject. Raising the Mini up off the desk provided needed relief:

This is why I took pictures -- so I'd know where to reconnect these and other plugs:

I also wrote down the steps as they appeared on the video and taped the pieces and parts -- and the TINY screws -- next to each step -- then worked backward to reassemble everything (the video, of course, goes through reassembly as well):

The hard drive itself after being removed -- I remember when 20 megabyte drives looked like a brick. Now you get 500 gigabyte drives the size of an old 3.5" floppy:

With the new drive and new RAM installed, and no leftover parts, it was time to format the new drive and install the Mac OS. Then, connect to the router and download lots of software updates from Apple -- without a hitch. Amazing:

When I bought the faster hard drive from OWC, that meant I would have the original hard drive left over. So I bought a drive enclosure from them and turned the original Mini hard drive into a 500-gig external drive to use for backups, etc. Very nice -- draws power from the USB connection so it powers on and off with the computer. Is completely portable -- toss it in a briefcase and go:

The Mini and new external HD are now connected to one of my two monitors, with its own keyboard and mouse. The next challenge will be move all my existing files and apps from the old Mac to the Mini, done my connecting the two Macs with a Firewire 800 cable and using Apple's Migration Assistant utility program -- with fingers crossed:

Everything went slowly, but smoothly. My only complaint was the toolkit I bought from OWC with Torx screw drivers (five-pointed male and female instead of slots or Phillips), tweezers (invaluable, though the guy on the video didn't need them!), and nylon pry tools. The tips of the Torx drivers are too soft -- one didn't fit at all, another's points wore down quickly. I had a great set of mini-drivers, for fixing computers, etc., that I had bought from ifixit.com, a number of months ago, and that set contained all the right sizes of Torx drivers I needed -- hard tips, magnetized -- great tools. (ifixit.com is an amazing how-to site for fixing tech stuff.)

I have no idea where I would have had this work done. I figured if I was going to void the Apple warranty by replacing factory parts, I might as well void it myself instead of paying somebody else to do it. So far, so good.

And the new Mini, compared to the old G5, is WAY fast -- especially streaming off the web. Things will slow down after I move everything onto the new drive from the old computer. But right now, it's a poppin' machine.

"Diligent Efficiency"

The NBC Nightly News tonight had a brief report on a stretch of highway in Japan severely damaged in the earthquake:

The news said it was repaired in three days -- other news sources I read online said six days:

Note the power line tower and green sign in the before and after photos for verification. This is the same stretch of road. Whether it was three days or six days -- or 16 days -- can you believe the "diligent efficiency" that restored this road in such a short time? And can you imagine how long it might have taken in the U.S. to accomplish the same thing? Brian Williams on the NBC news show told New York City residents to take notice regarding the potholes that have been in their streets for ages: "It doesn't have to be that way."

Full disclosure: This stretch of highway in Japan is managed by a private company. Perhaps that's the reason it was repaired so quickly. If so, it's another argument for governments outsourcing these kinds of jobs to private enterprise. Governments have no incentive to hurry since they are paying themselves. Private companies, on the other hand, move quickly since they are there to make money. Why don't we do this?

On the other hand, I'm impressed with the efficiency and care displayed by the U.S. military folks who are doing so much to distribute relief supplies to Japanese villages cut off by the quake. On the same newscast there was a report on a military helicopter taking supplies to a village that had received very little support since the earthquake. In spite of their need and the freezing cold, the Japanese residents, instead of mobbing the helicopter like we see in so many other relief situations, formed an orderly line -- a "bucket brigade" -- to unload the supplies from the helicopter. Then a handshake and a bow from one of the Japanese men to the military officer as the chopper prepared to leave.

There's been much in the news about the lack of looting and the quiet dignity with which the Japanese have gone about responding to such a terrible tragedy. Such reports leave me impressed.

Creative Creatures

Quinoa Quandry

Great New York Times article on the surge in popularity of quinoa (keen-wah). Demand is helping raise living standards for Andean farmers in South America but it has put the lowly grain out of the reach of people for whom it has been a staple for centuries.

Possible ≠ Necessary

In this short video interview, novelist Jonathan Safron Foer, author of Eating Animals, talks about food choices while walking through a market in Israel. He is one of the few people I've ever heard raise the argument that just because something is likable or possible, that doesn't mean we should do it. That is, just because meat tastes good is not a reason to kill animals to get it. This is an argument food writer Michael Pollan needs to hear -- he says he eats meat because he likes it.

This argument for self-limiting was voiced in a different context 1,900+ years ago by the apostle Paul: "Everything is permissible—but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible—but not everything is constructive" (1 Corinthians 10:23).

Ten Years from Now

I recently read Guitar Lessons: A Life's Journey Turning Passion into Business by Bob Taylor, co-founder of (now) world-famous Taylor Guitars. It's a book of reminisces -- lessons on life and business learned in the process of pursuing a passion. From the age of 17, when he built his first guitar in high school shop class, to being the head of the fastest-growing guitar brand in the world, Taylor learned a lot and recounts most of it in the book.

I thought the next-to-last chapter was the best: "In 10 Years, We'll Be Glad We Did." He cites numerous examples in the history of Taylor Guitars when they struggled mightily to learn or implement something new; when common sense would have said, "This is too hard." Like when they started a new factory in Mexico -- navigating the maze of a different culture's language, legal requirements, work styles, etc., was a nightmare. His stock answer to such difficult situations was, "In ten years, we'll be glad we did." In other words, everything is hard. But if we can get through the start-up phase, it will pay off in the long-run.

He cites an example of when he failed to follow through with that belief: When he and his wife moved into their third (California) home, his wife wanted to plant an avocado tree. Taylor put it off because they take four to five years to bear fruit and he didn't think they'd be there that long. But they ended up staying in that home for 20 years. So they missed out on 15 years of avocados. If he had just planted the tree(s) when they moved in, "In ten years I'd have been glad I did." (my paraphrase)

Taylor likes to say, "It might take ten years, but time goes by whether you do something or not, so why not start?" Ouch -- I can think of many things I wish I had started 10 years ago. Time goes by regardless. It doesn't wait while we procrastinate or "do more research."

The concluding paragraph of the chapter:

Taking that chance, getting started and seeing new plans and projects through is the ony way you will get to the point where you can look back and say you're glad you did. I blew it on the avocado tree. I passed up my opportunity to start. But with Taylor Guitars I jumped in and started the projects that would change our future and I'm glad I did.

Having celebrated my 63rd birthday this week, the book has caused me to think, "When I'm 73, what will I look back to 2011 and wish I had started when I had the chance?"

There are tons of YouTube videos involving Taylor Guitars, of course, but there's a nice promo video for the book at Amazon here.

Virtual Colonoscopy

Wanna' see a squeaky-clean colon? I'll treat you to a look at mine -- at least a digitally re-created version of it, anyway.

In 2005 I decided to have a colonoscopy and investigated "virtual colonoscopy" (v.c.), a technology I had read about. At that time, there was one company that was the leader in the field. and there were hospitals/clinics across the country that had installed their technology for doing v.c.'s. There was one in Greensboro, NC, so I made an appointment and had the procedure done.

Here's the difference between a traditional, invasive colonoscopy and a non-invasive v.c. (both procedures require thorough emptying and cleansing of the colon before the procedure):

Traditional: insert a "snake" with a camera attached into the rectum and thread it through the colon while the doc watches the images returned by the camera on a screen -- looking primarily for pre-cancerous polyps or other abnormalities. If polyps are found, the snake can produce a wire lasso that clips the polyp off the colon wall. Sedation is required meaning a traditional colonoscopy is a tag-team event: you and someone to drive you home.

Virtual colonoscopy: inflate the colon with carbon dioxide gas via the rectum. Lying on a table, you pass through an imaging machine (either CAT or MRI) where 3-D "slices" of the colon are captured and saved to a computer. The computer software then creates a 3-D image of the interior of the entire colon which the doctor can then "fly" through and look at every nook and cranny of the colon wall. The carbon dioxide gas dissipates from the body and you're done. The downside of the v.c. is this: if polyps are discovered, you still have to have a traditional colonoscopy done with the snake, etc., so they can go in and clip the polyps off. Remember that the v.c. is non-invasive, so it can't clip polyps off since it's not actually inside the colon. Knowing that, I took a chance on my colon being in pretty good shape and not having any polyps which turned out to be true.

I didn't choose v.c. for fear of the invasive nature of the traditional method. I just like technology and cutting edge stuff so opted for the v.c. Everything I read about it, and was told pre-op by the clinicians, was that it was virtually "painless" -- just a slight expansion of the diaphragm area as the colon inflates.

That was the understatement of the decade. It turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life -- VERY painful -- and here's what I think happened: I think the technician pumped in WAY more gas to inflate the colon than was needed. I thought I was going to explode. I could hardly even turn myself over on the table to make the second pass through the imager. As much as I don't like to express pain, I was moaning and groaning like a medieval heretic on a rack in the basement of an inquisitor's castle. I spent 20 post-op minutes on the floor of a bathroom waiting to deflate, after which I felt fine.

Time for my next objective: Get the doc to show me my home movie. He was a young internist with sterling credentials and more than happy to show off his high-tech toys. The software had crunched the images together into a movie by the time I was dressed, so we sat down in front of his monitors and watched the fly-through. He commented on what great distention (expansion) I had (that was my first clue that the technician had over-inflated my colon), and said it all looked great -- no polyps or any other problems.

Because the movies were in standard .avi format I asked him if he would burn them to a disc for me that I could keep: "No problem."

There were two different movies on the disc -- the one below is the shorter of the two showing the lower end of the colon (cecum) near where it connects with the small intestine. The other longer movie wouldn't play when I got it home. Apparently there was a glitch when he burned it to the disc. Lucky for you -- you only have to see part of my colon.

Pretty cool, huh? (Remember: these are digitally drawn images, not pictures. There are movies on YouTube of colon interiors taken with the camera used in the traditional method. Needless to say, those movies are a bit, er, messier looking than these.)

Half the People vs. Half the Meals

EdibleManhattan.com has a helpful interview with novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, most recently the author of Eating Animals. Foer is a smart guy—he makes some good points in the interview like distinguishing between half the world becoming vegetarian (not likely) versus half the world's meals being vegetarian (very doable). Good point that I hadn't considered.

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Animal Rules

The New York Times food "Opinionator" Mark Bittman has a great column about inconsistency when it comes to animal welfare. A pet pig is protected by welfare laws whereas a pig in an industrial food factory is not. Basically, factory food farmers are allowed to define "common use" when it comes to how to treat animals they own. Jonathan Safran Foer said to Bittman that giving the factory food industry the right to define cruelty is like "giving burglars the power to define trespassing." Bittman is not a vegan, but he is sensible and smart when it comes to observing "the system." (And a follow-up column here.)

Tinker Toys in Space

USA Today has a great animated piece on the evolution of the International Space Station since 1998. It reminds me of building with Tinker Toys or Legos -- and it's much larger than I was aware of. Pretty amazing. 

Photos from Japan

A growing collection of large format photos from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. And another set of photos here.