The sound of solitude

November 5, 2007

Hearing Fish Lake Valley advertised on the radio this morning was pretty fun. The valley has the small town of Dyer, Nevada which is home to a few small businesses. To hear the ads put in the best real estate terms the Mountain Water Ranch Development is just a hop skip and a jump from the slopes in Mammoth, California. Well it might be in the summer, in the winter it could be quite a drive.

Hearing that 10-acres can be yours for only $70,000 must be attractive to some who have challenges reading a map or don't mind being a few (hundred) miles from doctors, dentists and much of civilization. On the other hand it is about the closest thing to Deep Springs College.

Colorado State University leads initiative to protect antiquities

November 2, 2007

While America's troops are deployed abroad the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands at Colorado State University is finding ways to help them protect priceless artifacts. The center created playing cards with reminders about ways to protect antiquities. The center is distributing 50,000 decks of playing cards to the troops in the field.

Original or a copy?

November 1, 2007

My wife is in the midst of studying for the nursing boards, the NCLEX exam. To help prepare we ordered some flashcards. One question in the set asks the student to describe the structure and function of the kidney. The answer it suggests is in part "The kidney is composed of several years and is covered with a fibrous capsule, the renal capsule." So it is pretty likely that the kidney is composed more of layers than years but what's a little spell-check error between friends.

What is interesting is the answer on the flash card (which is printed with the copyright "Morrison Media" is verbatim the description of the kidney from Jim Swan's webanatomy.net.

In fact the sample flash card on the ECG bears a strong resemblance to this page. In this case, however, there is a modicum of re-writing going on.

I guess one question now is did this 'author' copy the right stuff to help one pass the NCLEX?

Cowboy Christmas 2007 in Las Vegas

October 26, 2007

It is that time of year again. The leaves are turning and the pumpkins are dotting the streets. With the World Series underway folks are starting to look towards Cowboy Christmas along with the 2007 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Here's a roundup of the gift shows going on around Rodeo Time.

  • The Las Vegas Convention Center hosts the Cowboy Christmas Gift Show which is open 10AM - 5PMdaily from December 6 through December 15 at the Las Vegas Convention Center this show bills itself as "longest running and ONLY “Original” gift show of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo"
  • My personal favorite the Ariat Country Christmas Western Gift Expo returns for the 14th year at the Sands Convention Center and runs from December 6 - December 16. Their site doesn't give hours but it's safe to assume they will be similar daytime hours.

A terrific week in tech

October 24, 2007

What a week it's been and it is only Wednesday. This holiday-shortened week is turning out to be a fantastic week in tech and elsewhere. (For those of you in less fortunate states Friday is Nevada Day which we celebrate by not going to work and having parades instead). Where to start?


One of the first great moments was Google's announcements Tuesday evening of the availability of IMAP availability in Gmail and the hosted Google Apps. It makes my recent decision to move to Google Apps Premium look even smarter. About the same time the annual support agreement on my mail server is up. Sure a lot harder to think about keeping the annual expense when I get all that and more from Google Apps. It was just last week that a colleague reluctantly got .Mac to have IMAP mail for their iPhone as they grew tired of the pop-Gmail re-downloading too often.

And of course there is the world of sport. Colorado State's impressive upset of UNLV (though why UNLV was favored is beyond even the most seasoned Las Vegan). Today, though, the Colorado Rockies begin their first ever World Series and could well be four games away from the season of a generation.

On a personal note I began to play with You Tube for the first time. It is a very satisfying experience and one I'm sure I'll be repeating.

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