11.30.09
Posted in Unfiled at 1:06 pm by site admin
Check out this short article about spicing up your life by moving out of your comfort zone. Just a reminder to not simply go through life on autopilot….
If you want a more interesting life then you have to take some risks. If you want to be more adventurous in your thinking then you should be more adventurous in your activities. Deliberately push yourself out of your routine. Try things that you do not normally try. Do things that you have never done before. Do things that scare you.
Here are some ideas for pushing yourself out of your personal rut.
* Take salsa dancing lessons
* Try a new sport.
* Drive a different route to work every day for a month.
* Learn to knit.
* Perform in a karaoke bar.
* Learn a foreign language.
* Talk to somebody new every day. Listen to them carefully.
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03.04.09
Posted in Unfiled at 3:25 pm by site admin
Check out
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09.08.08
Posted in Unfiled, health at 11:40 am by site admin
Found a couple articles about aging and longevity.
First, this article proposes that aging is affected by brake and accelerator genes.
It suggests instead that a combination of factors is at play—that in addition to rusting, there are also certain genes that may carry instructions to start the aging process.
Also, this article talks about how polygamy may extend the lives of men.
If female survival is the main explanation for male longevity, then monogamous and polygamous men would live for about the same length of time. Instead, it seems that fathering more kids with more wives leads to increased male longevity. Men, then, live long because they’re fertile well into their grey years.
Finally, this article talks about how a more active lifestyle can increase your lifespan.
“A sedentary lifestyle increases the propensity to aging-related disease and premature death,” researchers at King’s College London report today in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. “Inactivity may diminish life expectancy not only by predisposing to aging-related diseases but also because it may influence the aging process itself.”
Their findings: the telomeres of subjects who exercised the most (an average of 199 minutes weekly) were longer than those of volunteers who worked out the least (a mere 16 minutes or less a week). The discrepancy was enough, researchers wrote, to suggest that the exercise mavens were on average as much as a decade biologically younger than the slackers.
The scientists speculate that stress, inflammation and oxidative stress (cell damage caused by oxygen exposure) may be responsible for shortened telomeres in physically inactive people. Exercise is among the factors found to help alleviate stress. Previous research has linked regular workouts to lower rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity and osteoporosis.
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10.23.06
Posted in Unfiled at 10:23 am by site admin
Is bigger better?
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06.27.06
Posted in Unfiled at 9:13 am by site admin
Heres an article about string theory. Its titled “Has string theory tied up better ideas in physics?” (and the url filename is ‘notevenwrong’). For those of you who arent familiar with string theory, its a theory in physics that states that the universe is really 10 or 11-dimensional, and that all mattter is composed of vibrations of 1-dimensional strings (in comparision to the traditional view of sub-atomic particles being basically 0-dimensional points.).
But one thing they haven’t done is coax a single prediction from their theory. In fact, “theory” is a misnomer, since unlike general relativity theory or quantum theory, string theory is not a concise set of solvable equations describing the behavior of the physical world. It’s more of an idea or a framework.
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05.14.06
Posted in Unfiled at 4:23 pm by site admin
This article at the BBC talks about a 2,000 year old collection of stones found in northern Brazilian used to pinpoint the winter solstice.
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Posted in Environment, Unfiled at 9:17 am by site admin
Heres a short article at scientific american about why most ground is brown. A fraction of the compounds created from dead organic material (plants, bacteria, fungi) in the soil are chemically resistent to microbial enzymes in the soil.
Many soils are brown in color because they contain large amounts of carbon. In particular, carbon-containing polymers called humic compounds absorb most visible wavelengths of light and give soils a dark brown appearance. Often the majority of soil carbon is present as humic compounds, which means they have a large impact on soil chemistry and fertility.
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04.17.06
Posted in Unfiled at 4:06 pm by site admin
Found this cool java applet comparing the population, density and area of all the countries in the world.
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04.06.06
Posted in Unfiled at 7:41 pm by site admin
I was doing some research on property taxes in the country (Texas countryside). I started my search with terms like “Living in the country Texas Taxes” and “Property Taxes Texas Farms”. I didnt find much information aside from the Texas Property Tax Code 2006. The code states two points of information useful for individual land owners in the country (in otherwords, not a charity organization, religious organization, etc). First, depending on where you live, it is advisable to have your land classified, or if possible re-classified for agricultural use. In this case tax is not based on the value of the land, but on the value based on the land’s capacity to produce agricultural products. The second, which applies to all properties, is of course to apply for homestead exemption and each year you can, haggle the appraised value lower. Also, if you are over the age of 65 or a disabled person there are further exemptions. (You still have to fill out some forms). For a easier to read Q&A about homestead exemptions click here.
I later searched for subsistence farming. This took me to the wrong country- this term is more appropriate for small families in undeveloped, third world countries.
The last major search I did was for “earthship”, which are simply put, “green homes”. This article was at the top of the search results. The article states that unless you have an absolute allodial title(more on this below) you have to pay taxes, which of course can always be mitigate/offset/reduce. The article does mention reclassifying the land for agriculture use:
Or, if you have sufficient land to grow timber, you could have your property reclassified as a tree farm, which drastically reduces your property tax, but when timber is harvested you pay income tax on profits of the sale.
Now I am a bit curious what happens if you never harvest your trees.
The most interesting idea in the previous article concerns “allodial titles”. It was a term I was unfamiliar with. Basically it means you own the land and nobody has a claim on it. This is in constrast to feudal claims where ownership can be “feud”-ed. The wikipedia aticle states that Nevada and Texas have/had limited allodial title. Nevada allows a single family residence to pay the property tax in advance (present value of future property taxes) based on your age. I couldn’t find the info for Texas though.
So what do we really have when we own a property? The property can still be accessed for creditors, taxes, and emminent domain. Furthermore, there are zoning laws and building codes the land owner must adhere to.
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03.21.06
Posted in Unfiled at 8:13 pm by site admin
This is not something I’m typically interested in, but after reading this
article and watching this slide show I thought it was worth of noting.
I had thought rising wealth in the world would eventually saturate the automobile market and the uber rice would move to greener pasture, e.g. private jets, islands, trips to space. I guess I was wrong. Everyone drives a car. And if you have to drive one daily, you might as well get a street-legal race car with all the ammenities.
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11.07.05
Posted in Unfiled at 7:21 pm by site admin
I know its old, but I just stumbled upon this quote. It sounds about right to me…
That’s when you know you found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up
for a minute, and comfortably share silence.
Uma Thurman to John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, 1994
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04.17.05
Posted in Unfiled at 9:23 pm by James
This is the sign for DiHo (mandarin: ding hao) supermarket. Is there anything safe?
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01.08.05
Posted in Unfiled at 5:43 pm by James
I found this semi-humorous article at the Motley Fool about Rise of the Machines at Toyota.
So, now we have machines that are pretty much capable of taking over the business of making other machines. It seems that all we have to do now is get them each an American Express (NYSE: AXP) card and teach them how to max it out, and we can take humans completely out of the loop. It shouldn’t be too hard. In fact, I’ll bet the cards are already in the mail — preapproved.
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12.17.04
Posted in Unfiled at 4:11 pm by James
Ever wonder why Houston is a good place to live?
Some samples from the list:
1137: …you can wear flip-flops all year round! I love flip-flops!
1152: You can have a swimming pool in your backyard and don’t even have to dig a hole!
771: Asphalt as far as the eye can see.
492: You don’t have to shovel humidity!
191: Three words: Concealed handgun law
101: It’s the Wild West of modern metroplex, revealing the good, the bad and the ugly of humankind.
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Posted in Unfiled at 9:35 am by James
Check out these bbc pages. There are new pillows: one for guys that look like a womens lap, and one for girls that is like a guys side and arm. At almost a $100 a pillow, its a bit steep. I must say, the japanese are always one step ahead of the game.
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12.07.04
Posted in Unfiled at 3:23 pm by James
Article on Best Buy hopes to exorcize devil patrons. If you ask me its their own fault.
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12.02.04
Posted in Unfiled at 3:57 pm by James
Check out this article at fastcompany. It talks about a new store that is basically a cereal cafe. They basically build on the brands of existing cereals. Its pretty interesting. Its in my book of fast eats. However, i dont think this would be good in Houston. I wouldn’t want to drive to get cereal. Thats why i buy 2 boxes at a time. Here’s their website: http://www.cereality.com
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11.29.04
Posted in Unfiled at 4:42 pm by James
My friend sent me this url on How much is too much pay?. Basically the gist is that some people get paid enormous sums of money for no good reason. The writer agrees that risk takers and owners should be entitled to benefits, but does not agree with counter-intuitive things like paying off bad CEOs. The writer also makes a good claim about how everyone in a company is important. Granted you have alot of pay going to the big movers and shakers, they wouldnt be able to do their job without the other people in the company..
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11.18.04
Posted in Unfiled at 8:53 pm by James
Article aboue evolution of humans based on ability to run long distances. Of particular insight is that (1) a large
gluteus maximus is necessary to stabilize a forward leaning trunk during a controlled fall (reads run) , (2) Achilles’ tendon releases elastic energy used duing a run (but not usually during a walk), and (3) ligaments in neck that stabilize the head too. #2 i think will require some thought.
“Have you ever looked at an ape?” Dr. Bramble said. “They have no buns.”
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Posted in Unfiled at 3:54 pm by James
Heres an interesting article about how walmart is watching you… Nothing too exciting.. mainly the normal customer profiling, mining basket shopping info, etc. Its a good read (4 pages worth). It talks some about how this data is the art of business. ie. they dont want to have the lowest price on all items.. just the key 1-2 items to attract customers and give the customer a lower overall basket price..
They also talk about the hurricanes in FL. Turns out people buy pop tarts when the hurricane is coming.
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