Bad Recycling

I found this article to be an interesting read. It was written by Lori Brown of Earth911.com. It talks about how throwing your greasy pizza box into the recycle bin actually makes you a bad person. Instead, cut out the greasy sections of cardboard and dispose of them in the trash while you toss the clean cardboard into the recycle. It turns out that the oils in a pizza box are bonded to the paper-fibers in the pizza box and this can ruin an entire batch of recycled paper because when the soak the paper pulp in water these compounds do not mix.

Lori has another interesting article that explains why buying a real Christmas tree is better than buying a fake one.

Balance

Sometimes inflation is good. Something deflation is good. Everybody wants smaller government but most people don't want to give up the safe-guards like medicare and social security that protect us when misfortune strikes. Nobody would argue to end the lives of the less fortunate, but the economy is driven by a survival of the fittest mindset. Many people think the government is corrupt. Many people think businesses are corrupt. I don't know that it's possible for honest and patient individuals to win public offices or climb to the top of corporate ladders. These are positions of power which attract people who are motivated by the desire to gain power. Politicians can at least get kicked/voted out of office for ethically questionable reasons. Businessmen seam to need to be grossly criminal in order to face any backlash from their misdeeds. Nobody has all the answers, but everybody would like to convince you they do. Commuting is usually our least productive time of the day. I wonder what different people would say is the most productive time for them. Cutting taxes for the rich does not create jobs. Creating more opportunities for visionaries does. Does anybody talk on the phone as much as they used to? Are Facebook updates a comparable substitute? When's the last time anybody sat down to write (in pen or pencil) a letter to a loved one? Hallmark cards during birthdays don't count. I am talking lined-paper. I think if I got a real letter mixed in with the junk mail that I'd save it for many, many years. Family is important. Broken families indicate a broken society. If you're having trouble with your spouse seek help from family, friends, or professionals. Find a way to work it out. Find a way to do what you love and let you partner do what they love. Money? It's a zero-sum game that ends in death. Lots of really fulfilling things are free. Many unfulfilling thing are very expensive. Once in a lifetime opportunities are worth it. A couple hundred dollars is a cheap price to pay for memories. I really hope, for my own sake, that twenty thousand dollars isn't too much to spend on a wedding. Flying on airplanes is a hassle, but it usually beats driving. I still drive to Virginia for the holidays with Jen's family. I think the convenience of having a car once we get there is worth it. Everybody wants to be self-sufficient. Being responsible and taking care of yourself is nice. Having people who you can depend on is also very important. Kiss your family goodbye when you won't see them for a while. Enjoy life. Celebrate everyday. Don't be afraid to try new things. Do things you love.

Yearly Devils

I *try* to catch one or two New Jersey Devils hockey games every year. Yesterday evening I was in attendance for this stinker where they were shutout 3-0 against the Boston Bruins in the Garden. Tony, from work, got tickets and I went with him, Jules, and Sean. It was a game that the Devils, to the chagrin of the people I was with, lost 3 to 0. Too many penalties was what, in my opinion, did them in. I think the refs called a bad game, but that's not an excuse for a shutout. Not being able to put the puck in the net is pretty rough.

It also became clear that a (small) fraction of Boston fans are complete jackasses. After the game I definitely got heckled because I was wearing my nice, red Devils jersey. I feel like this is the second or third time in as many weeks where I've been forced to say this, but just like there are sore losers, there are also sore winners. During one sided games, and let's face it - the Devils didn't do much either offensively or defensively last night, neither side needs to say anything. The fans of the losing team know they were beat. I've sat through enough losing affairs to know it sucks enough to sit through seeing your team get shut down to know that heckling after a blowout is in poor taste. Real hecklers save if for after close, well-fought games.

In any case, the game was still enjoyable. I got a nice photo of a New Jersey Devil sitting on top of a Bruin at the end of the games only noteworthy fight. I was disappointed by the concession stands, though. A girl nearby me had chicken fingers during the first period so at intermission I went looking for them. Suffice it to say, I didn't find anywhere that you could buy chicken fingers so I settled on a hot dog.

Coming up next is a trip back to the Garden in December to see the Bruins try to handle the Mighty Ducks. And for that game, I'll be cheering for Black and Gold.

Messiah Complex

I read this yesterday. This is the story in the X-Men world where Hope is born after the event where "most of the mutants on Earth lose their powers". I'm confused why all of the *main* X-Men are still mutants... but that's a storyline for a different day.

I picked it up because I had a Barnes and Nobles gift card and needed to spend it on something. It was a quick, good read. I'll probably follow-up with the Messiah War and the Second Coming, the two other "compilations" in this apparent trilogy.

I liked it. This is also the first time in recent memory where I've knocked off any substantial piece of literature in a self-contained period of 12 hours. I suppose I've listened to audiobooks like Anthem but "listening" doesn't really count as anything. Listening is passive, while reading is active and engaging. I'm a much bigger fan of being engaged in some story. Anyway, I'm impressed with myself for getting through it so quickly.

The previous piece of literature that I recently finished was Anathem and it had taken me at LEAST a year to get through. By the way, I don't recommend it. But if you do read it, get a plot synopsis of the first several hundred pages. From the point where they begin their journey outside of the convent to the point where they make first contact is actually really exciting... but it's just buffered by several hundred pages that aren't that great.

And speaking of recommendation, Messiah Complex does get recommended. I didn't know all the characters throughout... but I kinda figured out things as the story progressed. In the end I more-or-less "got it". I can lend it to anybody if they want it. All you have to do is ask.

Imageless

Imageless turns one-year-old this week. Something about that anniversary is incredibly exciting for me. At the same time, I desperately want to revisit many of my earlier stories and touch them up a bit. Some of the stories could be significantly improved with minor tweaks. I feel the urge to perfect them, even though the reality of the situation is that I don't have the time to devote to such an activity. That's the nature of the beast, though. And I think wishing for idealistic perfection is part of the job description for being in my line of work (i.e. engineering, not writing).

Anyway, I recently fielded a question about where I find the pictures for Imageless. It would be my pleasure to address that for all of my readers, right now. It turns out that there are a few tried-and-true sources out there. I have, to the best of my ability, milked the Wikimedia "Pictures of the Year" since its inception in 2006. Several 2007, 2008, and 2009 POTY images made appearances on Imageless through its inaugural year.

Normal Wikipedia is also a treasure trove of images, though. During the average week it's not uncommon for me to discover something interesting and then try to learn more about it on Wikipedia. For example, the image that I'm using next week of the Seikan Tunnel was discovered after I read an article about an ongoing construction project to build the world's largest tunnel through the Swiss Alps. That's sort of a "one thing led to another" example. There are other times where something on Wikipedia will present itself and I'll instantly know that I need to use it for an upcoming story.

Along that vein, current events can feed into Imageless. I covered both the Haiti earthquake and the underwater Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There was also a terrorist (not Al-Qaida, bombing in a Russian subway which I used. Similarly, I tried very, very hard to find a usable photograph illustrating the volcano that erupted in Iceland this past year but that search proved to be fruitless. And for the record, it proved to be incredibly difficult to find a photo of lightning which had something interesting in the image besides the basic lightning. Anyway, current events are a good source for a handful of the pictures that I've used.

So yeah, Wikipedia is easily the best source of photos for Imageless because anybody who posts anything there is forced to apply a "friendly license" to it. I typical try to find people who gave their images a minimum license of CC-BY which (in layman's terms) means that as long as I attribute the original photographer that I can do whatever I want. I aim to avoid the "ShareAlike" and "Non-Commercial" licenses, but this isn't always possible. These licenses impose potential future restrictions on my ability to earn money from Imageless.

Luckily, Wikipedia actually has MANY images that are in the Public Domain (which means I don't even have to attribute the photographer, but I like to do this whenever possible). Things tend to get labeled with the Public Domain in only two different circumstances. There are a handful of Imageless photos which are digital reproductions of paintings that were done over 100 years ago. Recently I used the Mona Lisa. I've also used a painting of some bears in the woods as well as a really old photo of the Sphinx. The rest of the Public Domain photos that have been used on Imageless were taken by United States of America employees while they were performing their official duties. By definition, these images are the property of American taxpayers and as such no copyright is claimed for them. NASA has delivered some stunning photographs over the years. The Army and Navy have given their share, too. Early on I discovered that Sandia National Laboratory employs a talented photographer named Randy Montoya whose work has been featured on Imageless at least three times. These are a bit harder to find, but adding "site:sandia.gov" or even "site:gov" to Google Image searches is an incredibly powerful technique (as long as you remember to filter it so you only get results that are at least 2 or 4 MB large).

That's another thing... I try to never post photos to Imageless that are smaller than 500 KB at their maximum resolution. The largest images have tipped the scales at 20-25 MB. Typical photos fall into the range of 1-3 MB. The size requirement and the "friendly license" requirement are restricting, but with resources like Wikipedia and the US government the process is fairly uncomplicated.

One final note, I have taken one Imageless photo myself. I saw something in real life and instantly knew a story that I could tell to go with it, so I ran home to get my camera and the rest is history.