FDA warns on Zicam use

The FDA is warning that Zicam can cause long term or permanent loss of smell. I know some of you are thinking, it would be OK if you smell less, but this is referring to your ability to sense scents. Here's the story.

via Noel's tweet

Best Car Review I've Ever Seen

Top Gear ‘Thoroughly Tests’ a Ford Fiesta

via DaringFireball.net

Moving

The Haslett Choirs sing this song after their final spring performance each year. It's not a traditional choral performance, they're all sitting on the floor facing the back of the stage while a slide show of captured moments of their times with HHS Choir. They invite alumni to come forward to sing along. It's a sort of send-off for the seniors. I'd cry at the performance every year if I had the courage to.



This is not their performance of the song, but they sound very similar. It's much more powerful live, knowing the people singing it and who they are singing it to.

If Everything Were Math

this New Math would be required material. True and amusing.

Tip of the hat to John Gruber.

Good Passing Makes it Look Easy

via Soccer-Training-info.com

I keep telling my players as our passing improves the game get easier. When you watch these highlights you think a team should be scoring on every possession. Enjoy!

Alpenhorn Hero

I've been hoping developers would extend the Guitar Hero idea to ther instruments. Finally Microsoft's seen the light and announced Alpine Legend. Now I can become the Alpenhorn Legend of my childhood dreams.

Get money to work, don't work for money

“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” - Walt Disney

This Disney quote was John Gruber's muse for his self-described dueling rant with Merlin Mann at SXSW earlier this month.

Another more powerful image John quotes in his summary that you will not quickly forget is from Jonathan Coulton.

But somewhere along the way the bottom line started improving, and I became less obsessed with tracking every little thing. Now I sort of think of the whole engine as a special genetically engineered cow who eats music and poops money — I have no idea what’s going on in its gut, and I have the luxury of not really caring that much about the particulars. […]

The state of the industry makes a lot more sense when you think of it this way, all these new business models rising and falling, internet radio choking on insanely high performance royalties, Radiohead and NIN giving stuff away and making a killing. This is the thing about the new landscape that drives everyone crazy: you can’t see inside the cow; you can only build one, feed it music, and wait for it to poop.

You can listen to John and Merlin's dueling rant here. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but can recommend it because these two never disappoint. John's summary is here.

Mia Hamm

Sarah and I have read a Matt Christopher book about Mia Hamm. She is an amazing person and an amazing player. Last time I went searching for Mia highlights they were sparse and the quality was marginal. Better fortunes today.

She exploited the smallest opportunity with such power. See for yourself.

Rendering

I have been reading on Riverview's chapter a weekday text since it started in January and it's been great. I prefer the hard copy rather to web site.

One of the best parts is reading the chapter before bed with Sarah. I'm not sure who's getting more out of it, her or me. When I read these familiar stories with her, it reminds me of the first time I read them in college and how incredible all of these happenings and Jesus' wisdom are.

Last night as we read we read Matthew 22.

Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested.They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with him. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” he said. “Why are you trying to trap me? Here, show me the coin used for the tax.” When they handed him a Roman coin, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

“Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” His reply amazed them, and they went away.

It's easy to drive right by this one and see it as a snappy answer to a trick question designed to get Jesus arrested, but because the second half of Jesus' answer was pointed out to me in the past, I get stopped in my tracks by "give to God what belongs to God".

If it's made in Caesar's likeness, give it to Caesar. If it's made in God's likeness, give it to God. Our lives, our entire being is God's. Period. Without him, we would never exist. Without his constant aid, we are nothing. How deluded we are to think we can live "our own" lives. It was never ours, and never will be.

Give to God what belongs to God.

If this idea scares you, your not alone, it scares me too. I don't do it. I find every available excuse not to. The greatest help I've had in getting comfortable with the giving myself completely to God has come from John Piper. He passionately argues that God's greatest glory and our maximum joy are a unified point in space, not two ends of a continuum. Christian Hedonism, Forgive the Label, But Don't Miss the Truth is a good summary of the principle. You can spend quite some time plumbing the depth of this point, so be sure to bring your SCUBA tank.

The best error page ever

Adam Richardson says this is the best error page he has ever seen. I have to agree. The tone reminds me Douglas Adams, and Scott Eisensmith.

Who saw our economic crisis coming?

I find it useful to look back and see how the economic and market experts looked down there noses at the few who predicted that our spend and borrow cultur would eventually breakdown.

Peter Schiff was the first one to be brought to my attention but Schiller, Roubini,Larry Burkett, and Harry Dent also predicted economic trouble. It's interesting to look back and review their predictions, and differing rationales.

The most difficult question is how should I invest now? People are predicting 6 months to 10 years of recovery.

Congratulations, President Obama

Congratulations, President Obama. This is a historic moment for ort country on so many levels. I hope your girls like their new home. I pray that God protects you and gives you wisdom and courage.

My favorite recollection of the day came from Tom Brokaw. He reminisced on Reagan's departure, as Bush 43 flew away in the Marine Helicopter today. As Reagan flew over the White House one last time, he said to Nancy, "There's our old shack."

Weather madness

AccuWeather headline tonight read "Storms Target Major Cities Coast to Coast". Really? Really? It's bypassing rural areas, small towns, villages, townships, even lakes and streams, and mid-sized cities and metropolitan regions? It only targeting the Major Cities? This is new. This is scary. Wait till Al Gore finds out about this new phenomena. With this newly developed targeting ability, weather no longer must inflict global or even regional flooding. All weather can placed with surgical precision. Rain, snow, sleet or hail strikes on hand-picked targets, with laser-like accuracy. Amazing!

While I'm on the weather news, does anyone else think the Weather Alarms are getting a little carried away. It seems every time I check the weather there is an AccuWeather Weather AlarmTM. We get Weather Alarms in East Lansing for two and a half inches inches of snow, possible over the next four days. Two and a half inches ... over four days. If that's a Weather Alarm, Weather Alarms are meaningless.

Wait! Now it's becoming clear. These overused Alarms are just another part of the weather's master plan to destroy us all! First they overwhelm us with Alarms, until they're meaningless, then they drown us in a flood, suffocate is in snow, or slush us to death. I'm onto you Mr. Weather.

A Mac Geek's Christmas Wish

I've enjoyed The Joy of Tech cartoons for many years now. Finally, I'm sharing it with you. A Mac Geek's Christmas Wish couldn't be truer.

bicycnical

bicycnical - jaded or scornful skepticism or negativity on two wheels.

Inspired by an e-mail exchange with my good friend, fellow bicycling enthusiast, visual artist, wordsmith, and storyteller extraordinaire, Bob Barrie, a.k.a. Blinker Bob.

Number 16

My brother, Andrew, completed his 12th Free Press Marathon, and his 16th overall, last weekend. This years training schedule included a DIY 3 story addition to his home. Quite impressive.

This year he has the privilege of getting a small deposit on his fifteen minutes of fame. He is pictured on the WXYZ 7 site AND in the video on the right as he receives his medal.

Note: Anyone who knows how to capture this video for future use, please educate me with a comment.

Late Bloomers

In our pop culture, it's easy to think you might as well hang it up after you turn 40. Malcom Gladwell's New Yorker piece, argues otherwise.

Late Bloomers: Why do we equate genius with precocity?

In a nut: Keep working. Your best work may well be ahead of you.

Seth Godin lets you choose where $2 of charity goes

Squidoo, a Seth Godin company, is letting votes decide where to send $80,000. Vote for the charity of your choice here.

I voted for Church! at Bethany. You can learn more about them here.

The Fastest Route to Faster Internet Speeds

I faithfully read Pogue's Posts. David is both entertaining and insightful. And I trust his thorough and honest reviews on everything from PCs to digital photo-capable binoculars. His post on The Fastest Route to Faster Internet Speeds made me check our routers firmware. It hadn't been updated since we bought it 7 to 10 years ago.

After updating the firmware, and running speed tests at SpeakEasy and speedtest.net our download speeds have increased from around 3.6M to 4.6M. That's a whopping 28% increase. Total time invested, five minutes. Total cost, zero dollars. Thank you, David Pogue.

If you're running an old router with old firmware, do yourself a favor and install the update.

Now I'm wondering if the spastic performance of AT&T DSL we tried out last winter was caused by our paleolithic era router firmware.