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Wednesday’s Roundup

I forgot to mention this, but I updated the Links page last week. I got rid of a bunch of dead links, axed some abandoned sites, added some new ones, and re-organized the whole thing. And now… on to the news!

– Apparently the US government has decided that any and all .com domains can be seized.

– I guess at this point we’re little better than Russia… where voter turnout for Vladimir Putin was 107% in some parts of the country.

– I’m a fan of neither Rush Limbaugh nor liberal columnist Michael Kinsley, but Kinsley has this great op-ed piece about the shallowness of the attack on Limbaugh after his Sandra Fluke gaffe:

People have the right not to buy a product or service they don’t wish to buy. Limbaugh’s advertisers are free to transfer their loyalty to Glenn Beck if they wish, and Limbaugh’s critics are free to deny themselves the rapturous comforts of Sleep Number beds.

Nevertheless, the self-righteous parade out the door by Limbaugh’s advertisers is hard to stomach. Had they never listened to Rush before, in all the years they had been paying for commercials on his show? His sliming of a barely known law student may be a new low — even after what he’s said about Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama — but it’s not a huge gap.

– And here’s an interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson from The Atlantic. I’m a Tyson fan, and generally like his view on American science education and NASA funding. But it’s also hard to argue with this rebuttal of the interview.

– And here’s a GREAT op-ed piece by Philip K. Howard about the need to “clean house” in Washington DC. No, not by “throwing the bums out”, but by overhauling the millions of pages of federal law on the books. For instance, a law have been passed in 1935. Instead of simply removing the old code and replacing it with new code, random amendments to the law were passed in unrelated laws in 1953, 1966, 1973, 1987 and 1998. Trying to keep track of it all is a nightmare. As Howard says, “[r]unning government today is like trying to run a business using every idea every manager ever had.”

– Click it here to read a short piece about the “10 Tech Laws that define our modern world”. It’s interesting!

– Speaking of “interesting”, my homeboys (and homegirls!) at Georgia Tech have converted the seismic readings from last year’s Japanese earthquake in to sound files. It’s cool to actually “hear” an earthquake and all the resultant aftershocks. GO JACKETS!

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Ketchup vs. Catsup

We’ve all done it at some point in our lives. Maybe you were at a restaurant that had an unfamiliar brand. Maybe you were looking in the fridge at a friend’s house. Most likely, you were standing in the condiment aisle at the grocery store. And you asked yourself: what is the difference between ketchup and catsup?

mr_burns_ketchup

The sauce we know today as ketchup originated in China around 1690. And the original Chinese recipe contained no tomatoes. In fact, it was more like a soy or Worcestershire sauce. The first ketchup recipe in the English language, published in an English cookbook called The Compleat Housewife in 1727, lists vinegar, white wine, shallots, anchovies, cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg, pepper and lemon peel as primary ingredients.

Things quickly get complicated, however.

This sauce was supposedly known as ketsiap in China. According to some Internet sites, the sauce became popular and made its way to Malaysia, where the recipe was changed slightly and became known under the Malay name kecap. Some Internet sources say that it was the British who found the sauce in China and the Dutch who found it in Malaysia. So the Brits pronounced it “catchup” in imitation of the Chinese, and the Dutch pronounced it “ketch-up” in imitation of the Malaysians. There is evidence for this. In a 1690 book called Dictionary of the Canting Crew, English author Charles Lockyer spells it catchup, while Dutch sources from the same period call it ketjap, supporting the different origin theory. Incidentally, it was Jonathan Swift who almost single-handedly changed the English spelling from catchup to catsup. Why he preferred that spelling is not known.

On the other hand, some Internet sources say that the Dutch weren’t involved in the “ketchup vs. catsup” debate at all. These folks say that the sauce was known as both kôe-chiap and kê-chiap in China, and the resultant confusion comes from different British traders who discovered the sauce in different places under different names.

Still others say that ketchup comes from the French word escaveche, which itself comes from the Spanish escabeche, which comes from the Arabic iskebey. Frankly, I’m not at all convinced. Although the Arabic term does mean “pickling with vinegar” and the Spanish term means “sauce for pickling” (which is how the first ketchups were made), I think anthropologist E.N. Anderson and food historian Karen Hess are reaching. The two claim the word was Anglicized to caveach. But most other food historians think that caveach was a short-term English word which was replaced by the Spanish ceviche, as early recipes for caveach are suspiciously similar to ceviche.

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Top 10 Tunes

As always, from the home office in London, here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending March 4, 2012:

1) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
2) Madonna – “Girl Gone Wild”
3) Saint Etienne – “Tonight”
4) Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
5) Ashbury Heights – “Smile (Marsheaux Remix)”
6) The Ultrasonics – “Perfect Girl (Marsheaux Remix)”
7) Sleigh Bells – “Crush”
8) Marsheaux – “New Life”
9) Marsheaux – “Summer”
10) Marsheaux – “Stand By”

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-03-04

  • Not hungover, but I feel like I got into a fistfight in my sleep. Anyone else ever feel like that? #
  • @DaleMurphy3 Well, you don’t have to have a license AT ALL to drive in NASCAR, so not sure there’d be an age requirement. #
  • @DaleMurphy3 A NASCAR driver was busted in CLT doing 100+mph on a public road; the news said he didn’t need a lic. for races. (more) #
  • @DaleMurphy3 So it didn’t matter to him (career-wise) if his license was suspended or not. #
  • @heyred704 Gluten-free stuff (hurry, 12 hrs.left): http://t.co/1A05IsY9 #
  • @heyred704 Not autobot spam, by the way. It’s me! 🙂 #
  • OMG! The countdown to Gay Super Bowl LXXXIV has started! #
  • @AveryHutchinson Tylenol PM is just Tylenol + Benadryl. Save your liver & money and just buy generic Benadryl. #
  • @FillmoreNC I’ll watch static on the TV before I’ll watch the NBA! #
  • Bittle and I are on the sofa, eating ice cream and watching the Oscars. I love that cat. #
  • @AveryHutchinson Yeah, Lisa buys the generic stuff at Sam’s for sleeping. I could swear it’s like $3 for 400 tabs! #
  • Still have fingers crossed for the #MadMenParty #
  • My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Marsheaux (27), Roxy Music (4) & The Ting Tings (4) http://t.co/6xmXsQXb #

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Friday’s Roundup

– You might have heard that the FDA was planning on requiring tobacco companies to include large and graphic warning labels on cigarettes. On Wednesday, a federal judge declared the rule unconstitutional, as it interferes with the tobacco companies’ first amendment rights to commercial speech. The tobacco companies argued, perhaps correctly, that no other product for sale in the United States was required to dedicate 50% of its packaging to graphic images of the consequences of using the product. However, I think it might be cool if all products were required to use such images. Imagine if table saws and nail guns were required to have pictures of severed hands and nails in skulls on the box! It sure wold make Home Depot trips much more interesting!

– Neowin is asking the question we all have: is Google+ a ghost town? Sure, G+ can claim to have over 100 million users to Facebook’s 845 million… but according to digital business analytics company comScore, Facebook users spend 7 hours a month on the site, while Google+ users spend (wait for it!) three minutes a month on the site.

– Speaking of Google’s failures… how’s Google Music working out? Not very well at all, which is shocking given that Google has a ready-made user base of over 200 million Android users. Google has a long history of starting a dozen half-baked projects, waiting several months, then keeping only the few that stick. This won’t work in the Big Content game, and Google has to know that. The Big G is reportedly working on Google Music specific hardware (uh, don’t you guys have 200 million tablets and phones already?), but analysts think Google may have to pull the plug on Music before the devices (whatever they are) are ready for market.

– Is it possible that the first Native Americans came from Europe instead of Asia? A group of archaeologists seem to think so. They’ve discovered European-style stone tools dating back 19,000 and 26,000 years at various sites on the east coast of North America. Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian, and Bruce Bradley, of the University of Exeter, have released a new book called Across Atlantic Ice, which might re-write the history of North America.

– NASA snapped a cool picture of an underwater storm. It looks a bit like a hurricane, but it’s all happening under the surface of the water. A boat traveling across the water wouldn’t even know the storm was happening. Properly called an “eddy“, such storms are common where two currents meet.

– Ever wonder why progress bars suck so much? It’s because your computer is pretty crappy at predicting the future. Because that’s what progress bars really try to do. Read this blog post at Popular Mechanics for more.

– Guess what, Skype? Vonage is coming for you!

– Ever heard of the “Fan Cost Index”? It’s a survey done every year by sports information company Team Marketing Report. The FCI is the cost of “four tickets at average price, two small beers, four small sodas, four hot dogs, parking, two programs and two adult caps” at each NFL stadium. Guess who “wins” for the most expensive fan experience this year? The New York Jets, whose FCI is a whopping $628.90. I’m turning 41 in a couple of weeks, and I’ve caught myself thinking or saying the old “candy bars were a quarter and concert tickets were $15 when I was a kid” chestnut… but DAMN! $629 to take a family of four to an NFL game??? I know it’s Noo Yawk and all, but back in 2002 I paid $100 less per month to rent a nice 1BR apartment in Alpharetta! Incidentally, the New York Giants, who play in the same stadium as the Jets, have an FCI of “only” $592.26. Read more here.

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Category Maintenance

Just a heads up: I’ve done some pruning to the categories. The “Time Warner” category is gone, and all posts that were in that category have been moved to “Geek Stuff”. I also killed the “Life On Mars” and “Hotel Babylon” categories and moved those posts to “TV”.

– Jim

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DOWNLOAD: Georgia Tech 2012 Football Schedule for Outlook!

The ACC released the official 2012 football schedule today, and I’ve created downloadable versions of Georgia Tech’s schedule that work with both Microsoft Outlook and Gmail or iTunes.

If you follow college football, you probably know that game times and TV coverage aren’t sometimes known until a couple of weeks before the game. So, unlike my famous Steelers schedules (which include the kickoff time and the network airing the game), this schedule has the games starting at 8AM and lists the location of the game instead of the network (so, “Bobby Dodd Stadium, Atlanta, GA”, instead of “ESPN2”). A reminder is scheduled for 13:00 (1:00PM ET) the day before each game.

The download is available two formats: the traditional CSV format (used by Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo! Calendar) and the iCalendar format (used by Google Calendar and iTunes\iPhone). So be sure to choose the correct version when you download!

The CSV version of the schedule is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 98 or later. It might also work with Google Calendar or any other calendar app that can import calendar events from CSV files. However, it has only been tested with Outlook 2010.

The iCal version of the schedule has not been tested at all. I used this handy online tool to convert the CSV to iCal format, so if you experience any problems with it, please take it up with the converter’s webmaster and not me! I did, however, open the iCal file in Outlook and it appears to be correct.

So… pick your poison:

GT 2012 Football Schedule (CSV format)

GT 2012 Football Schedule (iCS format)

*     *     *

Outlook users may follow these simple instructions to import the schedule. Make sure to read the all the directions below before you begin, as there are some options you may wish to change before importing the calendar:

  1. Download the appropriate file to your desktop and unzip.
  2. OUTLOOK 2007 and earlier: In Outlook, select “File” > “Import and Export” > “Import from another program or file”, then click “Next”.
    OUTLOOK 2010: In Outlook, select “File” > “Open” > “Import” > “Import from another program or file”, then click “Next”.
  3. Choose “Comma Separated Values (Windows)”, then click “Next”.
  4. Use the “Browse” button to select the CSV file you unzipped in step 1.
  5. On the next screen make sure to select “Calendar” as the destination then click “Next” and “Finish”.

DISABLING REMINDERS: If you wish to disable the reminders, open the CSV file and change the value of “reminder on/off” (column G) to FALSE for each game before you import the Calendar into Outlook.

CHANGING “SHOW TIME AS”: By default, the entries will display their time as “Free” on your calendar. If you wish to change this to something else, change the value of each entry in Column V (“Show Time As”) from FREE to “1″ (Tentative), “2″ (Busy), “3″ (Free) or “4″ (Out of the Office) – without the quotes.

TROUBLESHOOTING: If you try to import the schedule but don’t see any of the games listed in your calendar, shut Outlook down completely (open Task Manager to make sure that OUTLOOK.EXE is not running) and re-open Outlook and try the import again. If you’re still having problems, leave a comment below and I’ll try to help!

VERSION INFORMATION: These files were tested on February 27, 2012 on a computer running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and 32-bit Microsoft Office 2010. It was scanned with Microsoft Security Essentials 2.1.1116.0 and found to be virus-free. It’s the exact same file I’ve used for all prior versions of the schedule, so it should work for just about everyone.
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Top 10 Tunes

From the home office in London, here’s the Top 10 song chart for the week ending February 26, 2012:

1) Marsheaux – “Ghost”
2) Marsheaux – “Thirteen/True”
3) The Ting Tings – “Silence”
4) Marsheaux – “Stand By”
5) Teddybears – “Punkrocker (feat. Iggy Pop)”
6) Marsheaux – “The Promise”
7) Two Door Cinema Club – “Something Good Can Work”
8) Marsheaux – “Radial Emotion”
9) Cheap Trick – “Dream Police”
10) Discovery – “Missing”

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Quote of the Day

“The poor girl, Star, had been brought up by a stepmother with three children of her own, one an almost grown boy who had taken advantage of her in such dreadful ways that she had been forced to run away and find her real mother. Once found, her real mother had sent her to various boarding schools to get rid of her. At each of these she had been forced to run away by the presence of perverts and sadists so monstrous that their acts defied description. Thomas could tell that his mother had not been spared the details that she was now sparing him. Now and again when she spoke vaguely, her voice shook and he could tell that she was remembering some horror that had been put to her graphically. He had hoped that in a few days the memory of all this would wear off, but it did not. The next day she returned to the jail with Kleenex and cold-cream and a few days later, she announced that she had consulted a lawyer.

It was at these times that Thomas truly mourned the death of his father though he had not been able to endure him in life. The old man would have had none of this foolishness. Untouched by useless compassion, he would (behind her back) have pulled the necessary strings with his crony, the sheriff, and the girl would have been packed off to the state penitentiary to serve her time. He had always been engaged in some enraged action until one morning when (with an angry glance at his wife as if she alone were responsible) he had dropped dead at the breakfast table. Thomas had inherited his father’s reason without his ruthlessness and his mother’s love without her tendency to pursue it. His plan for all practical action was to wait and see what happened.”

– Flannery O’Connor
“The Comforts of Home”

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-02-26

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