San Jose Semaphore

What it's this? The four circles spin around and create the entire text of Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49."

Read about the semaphore here. The people who figured this thing out were obviously very dedicated. They make Robert Langdon look like the chump he really is.

Three And A Half

3.5

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Three and a half. That's the number of the day.

The Cardinals have climbed to within three and a half games of first place.

But three and a half is also the number of years Steve Chen spent at my alma mater, the University of Illinois. He was a year behind me at U of I. He never graduated.

Instead, he moved to California, and a little conversation with a couple of his friends led to a little website called Youtube. Indirectly, that conversation led to Steve having $326 million on Google stock.

So lets see... I started school before him, graduated, even went on to grad school and graduated from that... I could use my $326 million right about now.

I don't want to rain on a dead man's parade...

and I don't want to stand up for the Cardinals' archenemies either, but it has to be said...

Phil Rizzuto's use of "Holy Cow!" in baseball broadcasts is an entirely unoriginal, blatant rip-off of Cubs announcer Harry Caray.



Phil Rizzuto's bigger contribution to pop culture was as the baseball announcer in Meatloaf's Paradise By the Dashboard Light, which Phil didn't like because of the sexual overtones of the song.

That having been said, the baseball world will miss Phil.

The 7 Most Awkward Law & Order Celebrity Cameos

Courtesy of Cracked.

And yes, that is Chevy Chase playing Mel Gibson.

I Don't Really Believe in Karma, But....

What on Earth was the Brewers organization thinking buy staging a reunion of the 1982 Brewers World Series team while the team that beat them, the St. Louis Cardinals, were in town, 5 1/2 games behind them in the division, starting a three game series?

The Cards won last night, and are now 4 1/2 out. As much as I loved seeing my Cardinals win the World Series last year, it would be even more amazing if the Cards reach the playoffs this year, given how poorly they played to start the year. I still think it's a long shot. But if they do manage to pull it off, and, as long as I'm dreaming here, make another run at the World Series.....

Dude.

Happy Macaca-nniversery!

Here's George Allen, one year ago today.

How Much Water Should I Drink? (and an aside on bottled water)

So I was listening an episode of the podcast Skepticality regarding bottled water... Their take on bottled water is similar to mine... I drink it sometimes more as a convenience factor than anything else... I'll take it in with me to a baseball game when I'm not going to want sugary or alcoholic drinks, If I don't have a water bottle handy I'll get one for the gym, etc. But it's naive to think that bottled water is necessarily from a "better source" than any other water... indeed alot of it's from municipal water sources anyway. Rarely is bottled water any purer than regular old tap water, especially if you filter it in a pitcher. And the price of bottled water is often ridiculous, especially when you consider that it's just water. Not to mention the environmental impact of the millions of plastic water bottles Americans use every year.

As the old saying goes, Evian is just "naive" spelled backwards.

But this is all a digression.... What I really want to talk about is how much water I should drink on a given day. Swoopy, one of Skepticality's co-hosts, said she has a jug that holds 54 ounces, and she drinks at least that every day because that's what she's supposed to drink.

I did some searching for other recommendations... Some sites state the "8 x 8" rule... Drink eight 8oz glasses of water a day, for a total of 64 ounces.

But then I found more sites that recommend even more.... divide your weight in half, and drink that many ounces a day.... At 190 pounds, that means I should drink 95 ounces a day. But I figure some people are more active, weather conditions vary, etc, so I don't really like a one-size-fits all measurement.

I like this calculation because it takes more into account. Drink (in ounces) 50% to 75% of your body weight (in pounds), depending on how active you are. Add 16 ounces each for dry climate and strenuous exercise.

So here's how that works out for me. I figure, even though I have a sedentary desk job, I probably walk more on a given day than the average person, so I'll put myself right at the middle.... 62.5%. 62.5% of 190 is 118.75 ounces.

DC is a very humid climate, even when it's hot, so I'm not adding anything for dry climate. When I go to the gym I drink at least 16 ounces anyway, so the gym pretty much accounts for itself and I'm ignoring the gym and the water I drink there in my equation.

So I have a 34 ounce water bottle at work. If I fill it up three times a day, that's 102 ounces. That leaves 16.75 ounces, which I probably get naturally from food and/or drinking water with dinner, etc. So I think I'm set if I drink my water bottle three times a day.

Drink up!

The Following Classic Battles Have Been Decided....

As Chris Rock said....

"Remember when we was young everybody used to have these arguments about who's better, Michael Jackson or Prince? Prince won!"

Prince won indeed, but here are some other classic battles that, in retrospect, have a clear winner (winners in ALL CAPS).....

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MATT DAMON vs. Ben Affleck



Matt has two major movie franchises under his belt (The Bourne movies and the Oceans movies) while Ben seems to make crappy movie after crappy movie. And think about it... with all the people in the Oceans movies, isn't it a slap in the face to Ben that he isn't in them in the first place? I mean, CASEY Affleck can score a role in them, but not Ben?

This Onion article pretty much sums up the debate.

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U2 vs. r.e.m.



vs.



Remember around 1991, when these were basically equally huge bands? Heck, by the mid-nineties, R.E.M. may have even taken a small lead.

Not so much anymore.

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Pepsi vs. COKE



Seriously, did anyone ever really think Pepsi was better?

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Corey Haim vs. COREY FELDMAN



This was never really a battle either.... despite the fact that Dara posted a poll on her blog and it was decided by a mere one vote.

I've caught a couple minutes of The Two Coreys and, despite it being excruitatingly bad, I watched long enough to see that Feldman's life is clearly in better order. But none of this matters. Let's go to the filmographies...

Now, one could argue that Corey Haim had the decency to take a break from 2002 through 2007 and not make movies such as Serial Killing 4 Dummys like Corey Feldman. But this is giving Haim too much credit. I think the truth of the matter is that Corey Haim COULDN'T get roles in movies like Serial Killing 4 Dummys.

Ok, that probably isn't really true, but the truth lies in the rest of their filmographies.

NOTABLE MOVIES WITH FELDMAN, BUT NOT HAIM

Stand By Me
The Goonies
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Gremlins

NOTABLE MOVIES WITH HAIM, BUT NOT FELDMAN

Lucas
Silver Bullet

Game. Set. Match. Feldman wins.