If you are a Massachusetts resident who has an account with NStar, today is the last day to get a steep discount ($US29.95 vs $CA149.95) on a PowerCost Monitor. This device shows current cost per hour, total usage and peak consumption. The thought behind this is that real-time information can lead to more informed decisions about power usage to lower overall consumption. To illustrate this, take a look at how electricity costs have changed over the last 24 hours.
While this is not as powerful or sophisticated as Maurie Gamze’sEnergy-Smart Pricing Plan being tested in Chicago (which emails homeowners directly when prices hit certain levels throughout the day), but it’s a start. The 2005 ESPP Executive Summary shows they were seeing a 1.8 to 4.5% drop in power usage, depending on time of day and current cost levels. This is less than the 20%-25% being touted by the manufacturers of this and other similar products, but it’s a step towards bringing dynamic information reform to the otherwise inefficient electricity market.
Today’s highlight was the assembly of two Dora the Explorer branded three-wheeled plastic bike things for the baby nieces. I just did a few quick Googleimagesearches to find a picture of the devices I was working on and am astounded at the depth and breadth of the Dora the Explorer child transport phenomenon (none of these results include the particular bikes I have, by the way).
The Dora the Explorer brand is owned by Viacom (owner of Dreamworks, MTV & Stephen Colbert). In 2006, Tom Freston (the then Viacom CEO and current Emerson trustee) said in a conference call that Dora sales would exceed SpongeBob (then ~$1.5 billion for the fourth year in a row). If you find yourself wanting a little piece of that pie, don’t think you can slap Dora stickers on your skateboard collection and join the parade – they’re licensed only for home use.
How many people get cancer by being overweight or obese? How many die?
In 2002, about 41,000 new cases of cancer in the United States were estimated to be due to obesity. This means that about 3.2 percent of all new cancers are linked to obesity.
A recent report estimated that, in the United States, 14 percent of deaths from cancer in men and 20 percent of deaths in women were due to overweight and obesity.
1) I got a check for $x00 today. A complete unexpected surprise.
2) AZ got her full JKC scholarship verified, worth ~500 times the amount of good thing #1.
3) SG got a new job and gave notice.
4) Used two red peppers for dinner.
5) Driving home from Cambridge to Allston, I realized I was randomly directly behind NP.
6) My Adobe Production Studio Premium CS3 upgrade seems to have gone through, though given communication difficultly with telephone rep I might have just ordered a site license for all of Boston.
There are certain expectations a crowd places on the wedding DJ, based on the familiarity of past experience and an underlying genetic need to sing along with Jon Bon Jovi. I was DJ’ing a wedding in Portland Saturday and have been sorting my enjoyable yet acrimonious experience into a generalizable classification structure.
1) The Organizers. In this case, bride, groom and respective immediate families. They’re happiest when the alterna-playlist is adhered to (Morissey, The Smiths, Death Cab for Cutie).
2) The Drunk 78 year olds. They really, really want to hear Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. And turn the bass down.
3) The Drunk 58 year olds. They really, really want to hear Mony Mony (the Tommy James & the Shondells version, not Billy Idol), some GD Motown and Bruce Springsteen would be ok too. And turn the friggin’ bass up.
4) The Drunk 38 year olds. They really, really want to hear some Sir Mix A Lot. Their friend is finally getting married and it’s time for a cacophonous call-response about their love of big butts.
Unfortunately my study is incomplete as sample size and demographic inevitability didn’t allow for the inclusion of drunk 18 year olds. One could presume this group would have had the most interesting and foreign perspective on the current ass-shaking sonic landscape.
Brigham’s – Caramel Brownie Light: Tasty, caramelly, creamy, good. A little to melty, but still.
Brigham’s – Dice-Kream: Fan-friggin-tastic. Choco-covered peanuts, salt on chocolate flavor is great.
Cold Stone Creamery – Shock-A-Cone: Unremarkable.
Cold Stone Creamery – Chocolate Devotion: Either this is gross or I’ve been eating too fast.
Breyers – Strawberry: A familiar flavor, a favorite of my dad, delicious. The Chocolate Devotion must have been gross.
Breyers – Oreo Cookies & Cream: This is no different than any other oreo ice cream. A mistake.
Ben & Jerry’s – Cherry Garcia: I’ve never had this before and love cherry, but this is a low point. Starting to feel sick, craving something non-dairy.
Élan – Non-fat Black Raspberry: Picking a non-fat doesn’t count as a break. Next!
Haagen Das – Raspberry Sorbet: Oh man this is good. Light, flavorful. Too bad they had no coconut pineapple left.
Garelick Farms – Maine Wild Blueberry: Last one – a solid flavor to end on. I’m not too excited by it because I’m preoccupied by the need to puke all this up.
Ten may seem like a lot of ice cream to the objective reader but you have to put it in context of the overall mania of the event. There were scads of little kids putting me to shame, carrying around giant towers of cups. I hear a tall skinny guy say, “When you hit twenty, you just have to stop, no matter what.” I agree.
NP has finally started a blog to document the jetset parts of his b-school lifestyle. His post on buddist temples in Shanghai reminds me of similar temples in Kyoto. Which also reminds me that I really want to go see sleepy keiko again this year.
A couple of people have asked me about this, so here’s a page with a google map of all Boston-area murders over the past six months. Want all murders in 2006? The most recent violent crime in Jamaica Plain was last Saturday, involving two dudes beating two other dudes with a tire iron, pretty much right outside the main JP Licks at the intersection of Centre and Green Streets. Fun.
I’ve been told that this is not a sanctioned version of this song but a proof of concept piece disregarding sensitivities of frame dimensions, resolution and cover image. But I’m putting it up regardless – from the 4th in a continuing series of Pipeline! shoots from WMBR. I will probably take this down once the proper official version goes up tonight.
/*Not anymore*/ As an additional bonus (/curse) – with the new blip player I’ve used below if you play through to the end you get other mothra randomness. But at least there’s full-screen.
I find it interesting that psilocybin has not one but six different ways to be recorded in your medical record should, god forbid, it come to that.
There’s and option for poisoning (969.6), accident (E854.1), for ‘therapeutic’ use (E939.6), suicide attempt (?!) (E950.3), assault (!!??!) (E962.0), and the ever reliable ‘unintentional’ (E980.3). There are also six similar codes for Cannabis, LSD and PCP.
Pleasantly, smog, sewer gas and lighter fluid have no known therapeutic use codes, though each can be used as a weapon of assault in a pinch.
My friend Leigh has been building a post/notecard business (Curly Girl Designs) for the last several years, specializing in what I guess I’d call female empowerment collages. Now she’s expanding her line and has come out with a calendar, available on Amazon. It’s for 2008 so you could, in theory, think about it for a few months, but then you’d miss out on the fun of the collusion to manipulate Amazon rankings. So if you either are female or happen to know one, buy one before June 11th.
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