Blue suede shoes

Noticed someone wearing blue suede shoes last Wednesday and they really popped.

Zappos: http://www.zappos.com/blue-suede-shoes#!/blue-suede-shoes-men-blue-shoes/CK_XAToCzhBCAp4BegLTBIIBApIWwAEC4gIFGAEPCAc.zso?t=blue+suede+shoes&s=recentSalesStyle/desc/

Cheapest way to eat

What represents the cheapest source of eating healthily?

People seem to follow a variety of health gurus; I have compiled some info, below.

Goals

1. Provides 2000 calories per day
2. Maintains ratio of about 30% Protein : 30% Fats : 40% Protein
3. Meets standard vitamin recommendations for A, C, E, K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, B12, Pantothenic acid
4. Meets standard mineral recommendations for Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Selenium
5. Meets standard fiber recommendation
6. Keeps saturated fat to a minimum
7. Keeps cholesterol to a minimum
8. No coupons; too much of a time sink 

Breakfast

Oats with raisins and banana: about $0.12/serving

Eggs

Lunch

Sandwiches

Salads

Dinner

Rice and beans extravaganza: cook about four cups for a weeks worth

Frozen veggies

Snacks

Whey protein shake, flavored with vanilla, chocolate, what have you

Nuts

Tomato juice

Fruits

Yogurt

Beverages

Tap water

General

Multi-vitamin

Vitamin D3

Michael Pollen: "Eat a variety of fresh, unprocessed foods. Focus mostly on produce and, if you’re an omnivore, choose high-quality meats."

Staples: beans and rice

broccoli and sweet potatoes

olive oil or canola oil

sunflower seeds

calcium and B12: supplement, nutritional yeast (B12),

Via:

Eating healthy for $3 a day

http://www.miketuritzin.com/writing/eating-healthily-for-3-a-day/

How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food

http://andrewhy.de/how-to-live-comfortably-on-36-a-month-for-food/

16 ways to eat healthy while keeping it cheap

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/07/30/16-ways-to-eat-healthy-while-keeping-it-cheap/

Tonsillectomy Confidential: doctors ignore polio epidemics and high school biology

http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/tonsillectomy-confidential-do.html

AnyLeaf

http://www.anyleaf.com/grocery-deals

Extinct surnames

Have tossed about the idea of changing our surname for some time.

The thought crossed my mind this evening of reviving an extinct surname.

One article from 1914 claimed, given an infinite amount of time, all surnames eventually will become the same.

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Listening to electronica via Yellow Magic Orchestra: http://j.mp/yNsphR

Really like the positive energy associated with their music. : o )

"Is war as old as gravity? If I love peace do I have to love trees?" http://j.mp/zTpzjc

Jiskefet - cricket engelse sport

I love it:



High camp. :o) Jiskefet represents a Dutch comedy group.

Via: http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/pkqht/how_cricket_looks_for_most_people/

The reddit community provided an explanation:

Alright let's see if I can break it down a bit easily. Most people get lost at the explanation because they just honestly don't want to try and learn, otherwise, just like any other sport, the rules are not that hard to learn. 

So in cricket there's these things called runs, almost, but not exactly the same as in baseball. In baseball, you have 4 bases, and you always run to the next base. In cricket however, there are two bases, and a person from the batting team is on either base. At each opportunity, they are allowed to run back and forth from their respective base, for each successful crossing, they get a run. Now in baseball, you have people manning each base to get the batter out, in cricket, they have these things called stumps. They're just three wooden sticks out of the ground. You have to hit the stump while the batter is away from the base, just like in baseball. 

Now in cricket, you have a circular field, and 11 players in the bowling/pitching team. How things are done in cricket is, the bowler runs to pitch, while in baseball, they usually just stand in one spot. Now once the ball has been hit, if the ball goes to the boundary while rolling on the ground, it amounts to 4 runs mentioned previously. If the ball goes out of the park like a home run, that's 6 runs. 

The whole point of the game is to continue scoring runs, without getting batted out. The batting side has 10 continuous batsmen, and there is only one inning change, instead of 3 batters, and 9 inning changes in baseball. There is also a limit to the number of "pitches", limited to 50 overs in a One Day International game. One over is 6 pitches or rather bowls, that can be done by one pitcher/bowler. The bowler must be changed after every six pitches, and this goes on for either 50 overs. Or until all 10 batsmen are batted out. 

I hope that helps, the rules are fairly similar to baseball, people just fail to bother trying to understand them. 

Edit: Also next to the runs will be something called overs, like Over 20.4 -> that means its the 20th over and the 4th ball in the over. Two more bowls, and there is a pitcher change. 

Edit 2: I am an American, and I learned! It really is possible, and its fun.

40 threads

A cute web site:

http://40threads.com

Google-a-Day puzzles: Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1596)

Via: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/02/agad021212/

The puzzle for Feb 12: 

"Reading one stanza a night, how long would it take to finish the first poem written using Spenserian stanzas?"

The Faerie Queene, written by Edmund Spenser and published first in 1590 (books 1-3) and second in 1596 (books 1-6), seems to represent the first poem to use Spenserian stanzas. He wrote it with the intention of fashioning a "noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline". It represents one of the longest poems of the English language and Spenser died prior to completing it. Only a fragment of book seven remains.

The summary of each canto for books 1-3 makes for fascinating reading.

Books 1-7 total stanzas:

3,810 (stanzas in cantos only) or
3,847 (stanzas in cantos and book prefaces)

3,810 days = 10.4314343 years
3,847 days = 10.5327369 years

Accessing an online edition of the text which enumerates each stanza by canto for books 1-3:

Book one stanza count, by canto

Preface:     4
Canto I:    55
Canto II:   45
Canto III:  44
Canto IV:   51
Canto V:    53
Canto VI:   48
Canto VII:  52
Canto VIII: 50
Canto IX:   54
Canto X:    68
Canto XI:   55
Canto XII:  42

Total stanzas: 617 (cantos only) or 621 (all)

Book two stanza count, by canto

Preface:     5
Canto I:    61
Canto II:   46
Canto III:  46
Canto IV:   46
Canto V:    38
Canto VI:   51
Canto VII:  66
Canto VIII: 56
Canto IX:   60
Canto X:    77
Canto XI:   49
Canto XII:  87

Total stanzas: 683 (cantos only) or 688 (all)

Book three stanza count, by canto

Preface:     5
Canto I:    67
Canto II:   52
Canto III:  62
Canto IV:   61
Canto V:    55
Canto VI:   54
Canto VII:  61
Canto VIII: 52
Canto IX:   53
Canto X:    60
Canto XI:   55
Canto XII:  45 (or 47, via 1590 edition)

Total stanzas: 677 (cantos only) or 682 (all)

Books 1-3 total stanzas: 1,977 (cantos only) or 1,991 (all)

Accessing an online edition of the text which enumerates each stanza by canto for books 4-6:

Book four stanza count, by canto

Preface:     5
Canto I:    54
Canto II:   54
Canto III:  52
Canto IV:   48
Canto V:    46
Canto VI:   47
Canto VII:  47
Canto VIII: 64
Canto IX:   41
Canto X:    58
Canto XI:   53
Canto XII:  35

Total stanzas: 599 (cantos only) or 604 (all)

Book five stanza count, by canto

Preface:    11
Canto I:    30
Canto II:   54
Canto III:  40
Canto IV:   51
Canto V:    57
Canto VI:   40
Canto VII:  45
Canto VIII: 51
Canto IX:   50
Canto X:    39
Canto XI:   65
Canto XII:  43

Total stanzas: 565 (cantos only) or 576 (all)

Book six stanza count, by canto

Preface:     7
Canto I:    47
Canto II:   48
Canto III:  50
Canto IV:   40
Canto V:    41
Canto VI:   44
Canto VII:  50
Canto VIII: 51
Canto IX:   46
Canto X:    44
Canto XI:   51
Canto XII:  41

Total stanzas: 553 (cantos only) or 560 (all)

Book seven stanza count, by canto

Canto I:    not extant
Canto II:   not extant
Canto III:  not extant
Canto IV:   not extant
Canto V:    not extant
Canto VI:   55
Canto VII:  59
Canto VIII: 2

Total stanzas: 116 (cantos only)

Books 4-7 total stanzas: 1,833 (cantos only) or 1,856 (all)

Hands Down, the Best “It Gets Better” Video You Have Seen

Via:

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/02/11/hands-down-the-best-it-gets-better-video-you-have-seen/

Police sketches of famous literary characters

:o)

Edward Rochester, via police sketch software

Via: http://thecomposites.tumblr.com/

Periodic table of vegetables

I kind of want one:

Via: http://naomiweissman.com/fft.htm

Radio Songs

Heard on 88.9 KXPR out of Sacramento, CA:

Edouard Lalo: Norwegian Rhapsody (Rapsodie Norvegienne) - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Yondani Butt, conductor; Label: ASV; Number: 709 BUY Audio

Felix Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture in B minor Opus 26 - Montreal Symphony Orchestra; Charles Dutoit, conductor; Label: London/Decca; Number: 417541 BUY Audio

Radio Songs

Heard on 88.9 FM KXPR out of Sacramento, CA:

Exotic: Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov: Procession of the Sardar Opus 10 - Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; David Zinman, conductor; Label: Telarc; Number: 80378 BUY BUY

Philip Lane: Suite of Cotswold Folkdances - Royal Ballet Sinfonia; Gavin Sutherland, conductor; Label: ASV; Number: 2126 BUY

Slatkin & Co Candle

A great candle: Slatkin & Co "Winter"

Radio Songs

Heard on 89.3 KQEI out of North Highlands, CA (rebroadcast of KQED out of San Francisco):

Moyers & Company's premiere episode: "The premiere episode explores how America's gross inequality is no accident, but was in fact "politically engineered," with insight from "Winner-Take-All Politics" authors Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson. Also, Bill Moyers reads an essay on how Occupy Wall Street is waking us up to economic inequality."

Heard on 94.7 KKDO out of Sacramento, CA:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Rusted Root's "Send Me on My Way," from their 1994 album "When I Woke," on the PolyGram label. Video. Joyful fun.

Now defunct London, UK Elastica's "Connection" from their 2007 eponymous album on the Deceptive and Geffen labels. Video.

Radio Songs

On 91.5 KYDS out of Sacramento, CA:

Helsingborg, Scania, Sweden natives The Sounds' "The Best of Me" from their 2011 album "Something to Die For," on the SideOneDummy label. Audio. "Oh my love!We've got to save ourselves, if we want to save the world..."

On 88.9 KXPR out of Sacramento, CA:

Křečovice, Czechoslovakia-born Josef Suk's "Fantastic Scherzo Opus 25," performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic, JoAnn Falletta conducting, on the Naxos label.

Wikipedia Editing

Playing with this Microsoft Excel to Wikipedia table convertor:

http://excel2wiki.net/wikipedia.php

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Convert_tables_and_charts_to_wiki_code

Mall Art

Really like this artwork:

Source: Westfield Downtown Plaza Mall, outside store Getta Clue

An Open Letter to KXPR 88.9 Sacramento

Dear Capital Public Radio Classical KXPR:

Please, please, please: select a new on-air tagline to replace "the classical station."

Reasons to select a new on-air tagline

1. It states the obvious
2. It buries "classical" between two dead-weight words
3. It says nothing about what makes KXPR a great classical music station

Compare to San Francisco-based KDFC's "Classical. And then some."

• "Classical" becomes a first-class citizen, out front and center
• "And then some" telegraphs a vitality and positive energy to match the on-air talent
• Listeners hear the tagline in a professionally-produced and packaged sound clip (please also package-up ads)
• Packaging KXPR's sound clips and ads frees on-air talent to talk about the music and connect with listeners

I suggest holding a contest, inviting submissions, and allowing people to vote on your web site.

Thank you.

Ambrose Bierce

Listened to this discussion about Ambrose Bierce on KQED 89.3 FM's "Forum with Michael Krasny"; pointed me to his memoir, "What I Saw of Shiloh."

Still digesting the imagery and new words (for example, "mien"). Powerful.

Revolution Foods

A Revolution Foods truck passed me on the way to work several weeks ago.

I know nothing else about this company.