Where did I go?

I have taken over another spot on the web! (It was getting aggrivating to have to log out of gmail, and log in using another id, do a post, log out again, go over to gmail again.... life, don't talk to me about life.)

For all future posts see:

42babelfish42.blogspot.com

And this does show up in the old blog... I just felt like confusing myself and anyone else who reads my blog this afternoon!

Why do busses have numbers on the back?

It's almost guaranteed that, if you need to catch a specific bus, it will be the one that arrives at the bus stop early, and leaves before you get to it. It's a Murphy's Law kind of thing.

But why do they need to put the numbers on the back of the busses so you know which one it was that you wanted as you see it leaving?

Isn't this just a bit sadistic? Can't we have non-specific busses that just may have been the one you wanted? The suspicion that you wanted the bus that you just missed is less painful than the realization that you did indeed blow it.

Or is it? It's nice to know where you stand. If you did miss the bus, and you know it, you have time to make alternate plans. Or you can set off on a tirade of curses and spitting. It may help to blow up and get it out of your system. And if there are other people around to witness your blow up they can call for the ambulance that you will need from the heart attack you just had.

It's at times like this, when you've missed your bus, that your true character really comes out.

If you are me... you sit and ponder some of life's questions as you wait for the next bus, and call for the ambulance.

What was the question?

Douglas Adams wrote the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything was 42. The question is still not known.

I've just spend the year - my 42nd year - searching for the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

From the quirks of evolution, odd parking signs and construction signs, colliding submarines, sound distortions caused by fog... to ghosts and mountains that sneak up on you, I've been finding all sorts of really fun questions this past year. (See the Favourites labeled posts in the Labels Archive on the right for a few of my most fun ones.)

So did I find the ultimate question? ehrm, no.

Did I have fun searching? Yes! I've greatly enjoyed the life view from a questioning position. I think this may be habit forming.

I've let the blog go for about a month now, and I've missed it, so I think I will resume the search for the Ultimate Question... and if I find one that fits the answer 42, I will highlight it in big bold letters for everyone to enjoy!

Is that why otters always seem so happy?

A missing link in the evolution of sea otters and seals has evidently been found. The newly found link shows the ancestors of otters and seals walked on land before becoming sea animals. Is that why otters always look like they are playing all day and just having fun with life?

Douglas Adams wrote that the decision of human ancestors to come out of the sea was the big mistake. In one episode of the old Hitchhiker's Guide TV shows Douglas Adams actually appears in the buff walking back into the ocean. Was he right? Darwin thought it was a natural progression - the transition from land to fresh water to the sea.

Did we get it wrong by leaving the ocean, and sea otters got it right by going into the ocean? Have we missed something? Are we supposed to be somewhere... else?

See this link for more information on the progression to the sea: BBC News

If I watch that plant long enough, will I see that flower bloom?

Glorious sunny days are here at last, so I've been sitting in parks, taking pictures of flowers. Well, many flowers are out, but there is a notable lack of tulips flowering. So if I sit there long enough, will I see the tulips bloom? It's been warm and sunny enough that it seems to be possible. Most of the flowers are late this year and they are all coming out at the same time, which is unusual, so maybe they are willing to pop out while someone is looking!

For those who lack the patience to sit and watch flowers come out, there is a solution I've just read about: a Timelapse Garden Video Camera!

You can set this little camera to take pictures of your plants at intervals from every 5 seconds to every 24 hours. It will make a little AVI movie for you. So you can have a little movie of your tulip blooming.

As yet, there have been no signs of plant protests about violated personal - or plant - liberties against this monitoring.

Of course, if it takes time lapse pictures of plants... it could take time lapse pictures of anything really, or anyone. I can see how some people would complain about this surveillance.

There could even be a time lapse video of me sitting and watching the tulips, waiting for them to bloom... thus defining what would be even more boring than sitting and watching plants bloom. I don't think I have anything to worry about, but it does make you think.

April 23 Update: They came out while I was gone! Sneaky little... I've added a photo of one to this post!

Will I ever eat microwave popcorn again?

I'm thinking NO!

It's not that the chemical laden bags of genetically suspicious popcorn kernels are that bad, but we've found a fantastic alternative: organically grown popcorn dried on the cob from our local farmer's market!

It's just the coolest thing! You put a cob of the dried popcorn corn into a paper bag and microwave it on high for about 3 - 4 minutes until the popping slows down. You then get chemical-free lovely bits of popped corn!

Now popping the corn on the cob doesn't pop all of the kernels, but more pops than when we use our hot air popper. And the bits of popped corn are not the genetically enhanced super-size-me bits of tasteless white stuff that you get at a typical movie theatre, but they taste really good! We popped 2 cobs of the corn and had a nice big bowl of popcorn - enough for the two of us.

I highly recommend the on-the-cob organic popping corn! We are looking forward to many cobs from our farmer's market in the future.

Is it better to be in an empty theatre or an over-full one?

Recently we've been to a very well attended movie - Running the Sahara - where the theatre was so full they had to defrag the audience. Groups of people were asked to get up and move down to free up empty seats and some people had to leave their friends and sit in single empty seats. The place was packed.

I haven't seen a theatre that full since Rocky Horror... but in this one they actually served wine! That was definitely a first for me!

And then about a week later we went to see - Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D - in a matinee showing where there were only about 15 people in the entire audience.

Now that was a fun movie! I loved the 3D experience! The story line was pretty much fluff, but the effects were so much fun (trying to avoid meteorites flying off the screen and into your face is quite the giggle)!

So the packed audience was amazingly quiet... and the small audience was talkative. Does the experience of being packed-in make you quiet for the sake of the other people around you, and a lack of people make you act like you are in your own living room?

I do enjoy having my pick of any seat in the theatre, but the other extreme of audience attendance does have its appeal.

Is that rude, or just end-of-term staring into the distance?

I was on the UBC campus yesterday on my way to an appointment when I stopped to have some coffee and lunch. (oooh, she stopped for coffee, that's unusual - I think she may have an addiction going here...) And I was wondering if a woman in the cafe was being rude, or just trying to avoid doing the term paper she was working on.

The front of the cafe had windows that could be fully opened up, and since it was such a gorgeous day they were wide open, so I sat at a table facing outside for the view. There were a few other occupied tables, most with a single person facing outside as well, but there was one woman at a single table who was facing inside.

And she was staring at all the people who were facing the other way. Or was she?

She had a very thick book with her - Don Quixote - and a lot of paper with hand written notes and a computer. Aha! I recognize that, it's a term paper in it's primeval form, on it's way to becoming an end-of-term must... finish... this... damned...paper assignment. I remember those!

So she probably wasn't staring at other people to be rude, she was just desperately trying to avoid the term paper!

I remember being a student. It was great to be able to reduce the world into something to stare at when trying to avoid term papers. But, when you leave school, you have to avoid staring at strangers in case they get upset and think it's a challenge they have to respond to... similar to why you don't stare into the eyes of predatory animals unless you want to be attacked by them.

But for now, in a cafe on campus (right beside a great pub... I love that campus, it would have been so much fun to study there) a student can get away with end-of-term staring into the distance, and at other people.

Life will get more complicated later, so she should enjoy it now! I envy the place she is at in life right now.

Did I just kill off an entire species?

Spring cleaning has started with a vengance in our home.

We have a large couch with feather-stuffed pillows. They can't be cleaned by calling in steam cleaners, the covers must be removed and then washed.

Oh... that's why the typical couch is not made with feathers these days. Removing the pillow cases (10 of them) leaves the place looking like a bird fight was staged here!

There are feathers everywhere!

There will be feathers everywhere for weeks! They worked their way out of the main pillow compartments into the areas between the pillow and the outter covering, which I needed to wash.

The feathers just don't all clean up! And where did that static cling come from?

So I washed the pillow cases in batches, twice. And I think I may have killed off an entire species.

I've seen TV programs that show pictures of microscopic animals that live in beds. They eat dead human skin that naturally comes off and stays on a bed. They look like finger prints with legs.

And I think there must have been some in the couch pillows. They've all been washed away now. I killed them off. I feel kinda guilty.

I've just watched a program on Stephen Hawkings which gave a useful size comparison. If you take a massively huge library stuffed with books, our galaxy would fit nicely inside one period (full stop) in one book. So in that case we're the microscopic ones... lets hope the galaxy doesn't need a wash!

Did more Vancouver residents turn off their lights for Earth Hour this year?

Last year I took a picture of Vancouver from out of our apartment during Earth Hour and it looked pretty much the same as it does every night. This year, there may have been a little less light, but I'm not sure people are getting it yet.

This news article shows the percentage reduction that communities around BC's lower mainland achieved last night.

The media are finally getting it. Last year it was almost a secret when Earth Hour was, and why it was. This year the local TV news actually mentioned it the Friday before it happened, so people could do something about it, rather than mentioning it briefly the Monday afterwards like they did last year!

But we still had glowing streets and people with every light in their apartments on during Earth Hour this year. Maybe next year...

What happens to sandbags after floods?

So the Red River once again is rising in Manitoba and the in states south of it, so once again the news is full of volunteer lines of people moving sandbags to places where they hope to stop the water from going into. But when the flood is over again, where do the sandbags go?

Oddly enough, you can get a ready answer to this question by just googling it! See this news item.

Or, this news item from last July describes how in the U.S. the people who lose their source of income after the flood can get temporary jobs removing the bags that were put in front of the restaurants they used to work at.

The bags are not burlap anymore, they are made up of a plastic that does degrade. After a "few weeks" of exposure to sun they will break down, so you could have a pile of sand on your hands if you don't work fast to remove them.

So you can reuse the sand for gardens, gritting the path in the winter, or mixing into concrete, but some of it does end up in landfill. Great, spend time and effort getting the sand out of the ground and into bags, then put it back in to confuse future archaeologists when they find layers of sand in the ancient dumps. "The ancient people seem to have been wiped out by a desert of sand that covered the planet around the year 2000 A.D."

Who would make their infant park?

Contemplate this sign, found on Vancouver Island, and you will find many questions come to mind.

Does the parent have such undeveloped parking skills that they could be labeled "infant" parkers?

Which parent is the worst parker, the female or the male?

What about same-sex partners with an infant, are they not allowed to park here?

What kind of parent would make their infant park? Can they even reach the pedals and the steering wheel at the same time? From the baby carrier in the back seat, no less!

This sign is similar to a handicapped parking sign. Does this mean an infant is a handicap? Do the physical abilities of the human adult decline to a point of handicap once procreation has been achieved?

Someone must have thought they were being nice to people with this sign, but were they really? Or were they just giving people a way to point out their inadequacies to the world with their choice of parking space?

Did I want that question answered?

On February 17 I pondered the question "What will collide next?" and considered submarines and space craft colliding in what one could consider a vast amount of space. They did that you know, I wasn't just making it up.

So today I read the news that 2 US navy vessels have collided in the Strait of Hormuz off the coasts of Iran, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. One ship spilled 90,000 litres of diesel fuel, the other's nuclear fuel was not disturbed (it would be a whole other set of news if the nuclear vessel blew up, wouldn't it?)

But I haven't been able to find any news stories about the environmental disaster that much spilled fuel would cause. If the spill was around North America, people would be flocking to the coast to help injured birds and other wildlife. Maybe all the wildlife around the oil producing area of the world is already dead. Or mutated to a point where it doesn't phase them. A sad thought any way you look at it.

So these 2 boats, one about 110 metres long, the other 210 metres long, patrolling an area reported to be 7.5 million square miles, or 12 billion square kilometres big collide in one of the narrow bits. They were both US boats this time, so no language barriers to blame, no metric versus American measurements to blame, just 2 little boats trying to defy physics and occupy the same space.

I don't dare ask what will collide next.

Isn't that called "loitering"?

So I was in a coffee shop this morning having a cup of coffee (yes, I do a lot of that), and there was a young Asian couple sitting beside me. The were talking and ... not having coffee. They were also ... not drinking anything else. They were also ... not eating anything. They were just sitting and talking.

So, is it just me, or isn't that called "loitering"?

This couple were there before I got there. I sat down and drank my coffee and read my magazine and got increasingly curious about when they were going to leave.

I remember working with people who couldn't even think about sitting down and enjoying their coffee, it was always something they grabbed and ran with. They were exhausting people who spent much of their lives convincing the world that they were desperately important and needed to run about and stick their noses into everything or nothing would ever get done. As if.

There was a lull in the couple's conversation. It was not in English, so I have no idea what they were talking about. I figured they were about to leave. They stayed sitting and apparently thought of something else to talk about.

I've worked with people who figured all the coffee shop was a stage, and they were on fire with their animated conversation. Entertaining, but spillage can be a problem here.

The couple's conversation was not very animated. I'm sure he was considering leaving, but she didn't seem to have any desire to go.

From what I could tell, everyone else in the coffee shop who had sat down before me was gone now, and I had just finished my coffee, so I got up to leave. But, really, I was still curious about the couple, so I hit the washroom before leaving. On my way out ... they were still there.

There are a lot of homeless people in downtown Vancouver. This couple was obviously not among them. The homeless people would probably love to have a comfy warm chair to sit in for hours and just talk without having to purchase coffee for the privilege. They would undoubtably be thrown out of the coffee shop for illegal loitering if they tried this. So why didn't this couple get thrown out? I'm not about to jump on a soap box and rail at social injustices, but shouldn't that couple have at least considered that what they were doing was not socially acceptable, if not a wee bit illegal?

Where is the most inappropriate place to applaud?

I'm going with a washroom for this one, a public washroom that is. It's the most inappropriate place to applaud. I didn't applaud, but I really felt I should.

No, it's not what you are thinking (and why are earth are you thinking that?).

The community centre where I take a Yoga class on Thursdays has a piano. This piano is well hidden. This piano is down a long hallway. On the way to this piano you will pass both men's and women's washrooms. They quite often leave the main doors to the washrooms propped open (helps with air movement).

So today I found myself in the washroom, listening to wonderful piano music. The person playing the piano really knew what they were doing. They played large portions of about 3 different pieces. Boy, that was a lot of notes. No, I'm not musical but I do appreciate great music, and that really was.

So I felt like applauding... and then caught myself. I didn't venture down the hallway to the piano room because I think it's a really tiny room, and I needed to get to my class, but I didn't want to interrupt.

So whoever was playing such wonderful music should find a better place to do it where more people can listen. What an odd place to keep the piano!

How much food can we freeze?

The multi-coloured and very pretty map of the street closures for downtown Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics is out, and what I want to know is: how much food can we freeze for this event?

See the pretty map.

Yes, we are right in the middle of the colourful lines of pedestrian only traffic and no parking and no driving roads. We don't actually leave the peninsula very often - everything we need is here really, but ... our weekly trip to Granville Island to obtain food will be impossible.

Yes, we do have your basic garden-variety grocery stores within walking distance of our home, we won't go hungry, but it's not the same. We like to make our own food from farm-fresh produce.

So this officially begins the year of finding recipes for food to freeze. Chili and soup are the obvious, but we need more...

Who wants a "Danger: Work in Progress" sign?

It may frequently actually mean "there's a guy with a bucket of soapy water hanging from a rope over your head", but wouldn't this be a great sign for everyone to have?

The weather has warmed up (a little bit) so the window washers are up the sides of the buildings in Vancouver again. That's gotta be a cold job on a cloudy day. They set up these great signs on the ground underneath where they are working.

Danger: Work in Progress

Wow, wouldn't that be a great sign to have? You could put it just inside the door to your workspace. It is ambiguous enough it could mean many things, like:

Don't bother me, I'm doing work and it could be dangerous to bug me.

Don't come in here if you don't want to work - that's what's happening in here!

Don't judge me now, I'm still a work in progress, I'm not done yet!

I'm working here, watch out world, there's something coming!

Or, I just stole a window cleaner's sign, so watch out when you're on the street, there's one missing!

Do yoga mats have built-in ash trays in Quebec?

We had a yoga guru over for dinner last night and the conversation was varied, but a lot of it was about yoga (surprise). The yoga guru was telling us that The Place To Be in the world for yoga was Southern California - no big surprise there. The surprise is: he thinks in Canada The Place To Be for yoga is either Toronto or Montreal - not Vancouver!

I lived in Toronto for 9 years. I escaped Toronto a decade ago, so my knowledge of the area may be old, but I just don't see it. There are no fit-focussed people or communities that stand out in my memory of Toronto. Just a lot of people walking about quickly underneath the buildings: getting off transit underground; walking through the underground tunnels to get to work; eating in food courts in the underground tunnels; and then walking back to transit underground at the end of their day. If they ever saw a window they just squinted and hurried by.

Not really a celebration of life and the wonders of your own body to be had in Toronto.

I've been to Montreal a couple of times. The one thing that comes immediately to mind from there is the huge number of stinky people sucking on cancer sticks. I have seen many people eating and smoking at the same time (a tricky thing to do if you aren't concentrating) and smoking everywhere by everyone in Montreal.

Unless yoga mats come with built-in ash trays for Montreal yoga practitioners, I don't see how that could be The Place To Be for yoga in Canada.

I think this idea is just the symptom of "the grass is greener over there" syndrome for the yoga guru. He has always lived in Vancouver. It's natural to think things are better somewhere else.

It's interesting how prevalent the "over there" pull is for people.

Is that package ticking?

Recently I took delivery of a very annoying hand-held computer. Annoying because it was programmed to trigger an alarm every time I needed to take some medicine. Regular as clockwork, it declared "you're sick, you're sick" when I needed to take the next dose. Ok, so it actually just rang out a couple of notes, but the implied message was there. And after each dose it always tried to connect to this ancient style modem to send off the news that I had indeed recorded taking the medicine. As if this would help. Some drug companies take too much of their own medication and come up with the stupidest ideas... but that's another rant.

So I talked through the problems I was having with the drug company, and they directed me to the people who programed the little WindowsCE device, who said I could stop the alarms but I would still need to send the smidgeon of data through the wireless modem every couple of days to keep the thing going (the connection to the modem kept having to be reset when I left it uplugged for a week or so). They also gave me some incredibly helpful advice: how to return the little blighter to them. Woo Hoo!

So to send this thing back to Texas I just needed to use Federal Express. They gave me an account code and full instructions on what to write where on the forms and voila, annoying thing gone.

Except... it's about this alarm. It's also about this international border. It's also about a device that is continually trying to connect to a modem to send data... em, that's not good.

So I tried to let the power run down completely. You just don't know how many Solitare games I played on that thing trying to run down the batteries. But it was getting in the way and I wanted it gone already.

So I went into the proper menus and turned off all noises it would ever consider making. I think. I hope.

It does still have a little power, but maybe it has given up on trying to find it's modem. I think. I hope.

So I couriered it off yesterday. Hopefully it made it across the border without alarming anyone or anything. The Federal Express person I was getting help from did ask if it might send out signals during shipping and I said yes, maybe. So hopefully I have not set off an international incident. Hopefully they know what to do about this thing.

Hopefully that package is not ticking.

And you thought the world had lost all it's hope.

What will collide next?

Submarines colliding in the ocean. Satellites colliding in space. What will be next?

Early in February 2 submarines - one French, one British - collided somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. One of them was 150 metres long, the other was 138 metres long. The Atlantic Ocean is somewhere around 76 million square kilometres. On a comparative basis, that's 6 1/2 times the size of the US. Getting 2 little boats to hit each other in that much water would seem to be a wild shot, but France and the U.K. have begrudgingly admitted it happened. It seems the boats are so quiet, they didn't sense each other - that's a design point of a submarine, isn't it?

Also early in February 2 satellites orbiting the Earth - one Soviet, one American - collided about 270 miles above the International Space Station. There is some due concern that the debris will hit that expensive little jewel of international co-operation. The Soviet satellite was apparently not in working order, just space junk, but the American one was owned and used by a phone company.

To quote Douglas Adams "Space is big. Really Big. You just won't believe how mindbogglingly big it is." (The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 8)

If human-made objects that are tiny in comparison to where humans put them - either in the water or in outer space - are colliding with each other... what's next? Both the Americans and the European Space Agency have sent human-made objects to roam about on the surface of Mars. The American ones have made it, but the European one - named Beagle 2 - disappeared without a trace. Is it possible there was another collision of human-made objects, or did it just collide with Mars? (Hmm, that was in February as well, a few years back but... is that a coincidence?)

Should humans really be sending these extremely expensive objects into space? Unless it's the same country sending all of the objects, will different countries give enough information to each other about where their objects are to avoid collisions?

Alien 1: "Oh look, they're sending more bits up! Oh look! Those ones collided too! What a mess!"
Alien 2: "No need to contact that planet, if we did they'd probably send junk up to collide with our ships."

References:
Submarine sizes

Ocean size

Submarines hitting each other

Satellites hitting each other

European Space Agency looses contact with Beagle