Monthly Archives: May 2010

This Story Is Oh So Onion-y

Truth really is stranger than fiction, and this story that I would swear came from The Onion (but apparently didn't) is proof:

Enter "Waterworld" star Kevin Costner, who has invented a device that cleans oil from sea water.

British Petroleum - desperate for ideas – gave the okay to test six of Costner's gizmos Wednesday, after the Army Corps of Engineers gave the machine a thumbs-up.

Costner's $24 million centrifuge machine has a Los Angeles-perfect name, "Ocean Therapy."

Placed on a barge, it sucks in oily water, separates out the oil and spits back clean water.


Regionalism

I'm a big proponent of regionalism and I like the idea that some North Carolina and Virginia counties are joining forces to promote their region as a tourist destination, lines drawn on a map be damned.

Several Triad counties are among a group that has formed to promote themselves as a single tourism entity. 


They have branded the areas as Cascade Highlands for the way the Blue Ridge highlands of southwest Virginia cascade into the Yadkin Valley of northwest North Carolina.


The group includes nine counties across two states — Stokes, Surry, Yadkin, Wilkes and Allegheny in North Carolina and Carroll, Grayson, Patrick and Smyth in Virginia.

That Dude Next to You on the Metro May Not Be Sleeping

As someone who spent many a year commuting on the DC Metro I have to say I'm surprised that you don't hear stories like this more often.

A man who boarded a Metro subway train in Montgomery County on Monday morning was found dead in the same train five hours later, the transit system said.

Metro said in a statement that the death was probably the result of natural causes, but no detailed information on a cause could be learned. It was also unclear when the man might have died during a period in which the train traveled much of the Red Line in both directions.

The “Baby” of the Family is 14

This has been a heck of a couple of days.  First, our two oldest had their first prom this past Saturday.  If that's not enough to get the "I can't believe I'm this old" angst cranked up, the fact that our "baby" turns 14 today really hammers the point home.  Below are some of my favorite pics of Justin through the years, but of course they don't do justice to the boy who's growing too quickly into young man status.  They don't tell you that he's an incredible book worm; that he's shy to the point of seeming reticent, but when the flood gates open a whole stream of thoughts come pouring out; that he possesses such an incredible imagination that when he does share his thoughts it's often difficult for us mere mortals to grasp where he's going; that under that soft exterior is a surprising iron will and stubbornness; in short there's no way you can tell what an amazing young man he is.  Happy birthday J.

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The Bridge

Bo Gray has a great pic of the bridge over the Yadkin River at the Yadkin County-Forsyth County line.  He accompanied it with Longfellow's The Bridge, a fine poem, but my attention was drawn to the apologetic graffiti on the right side of the bridge:

Sorry about the paint and what not. My bad.

For some reason that made me laugh.

The Dangers of Living in a Chicken Little Society

Bruce Schneier explains why basing decisions solely on "worst case scenarios" is not a good thing.  

There's a certain blindness that comes from worst-case thinking. An extension of theprecautionary principle, it involves imagining the worst possible outcome and then acting as if it were a certainty. It substitutes imagination for thinking, speculation for risk analysis, and fear for reason. It fosters powerlessness and vulnerability and magnifies social paralysis. And it makes us more vulnerable to the effects of terrorism.

Worst-case thinking means generally bad decision making for several reasons. First, it's only half of the cost-benefit equation. Every decision has costs and benefits, risks and rewards. By speculating about what can possibly go wrong, and then acting as if that is likely to happen, worst-case thinking focuses only on the extreme but improbable risks and does a poor job at assessing outcomes.

h/t to Ed Cone for the link.