Being a Data Point!

I received notice the other day that my household was selected for the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS is probably the best survey for household data in the U.S., as it is collected annually, is sampled very carefully by the U.S. Census, and can be linked to income tax data. This survey provides a significant amount of information for my field of study, and I'm excited to become a data point in the data set we use frequently!

Trash Can

"Honey, have you seen the trash can?"

 

Cat Car Rider

Yesterday my wife meets me at my parking lot, steps out of the car, and tells me, "My car is meowing." She had driven two miles from work, and said there were intermittent noises that sounded like cat meows, different each time. We searched the car, but found nothing.

But there had been a cat! We noticed about 30 yards down the parking lot, a car idling and people gathered around it. A small kitten was under the car, no more than 8 weeks old. It appears it fell out from underneath her car as she drove over the bump at the entrance of the parking lot. The cat had hidden away in some part of her car, and held on for the two mile trip over!

The kitten was okay! One of the people gathered around the kitten took it home.

New FIFA Goal-Line Technology

FIFA recently announced that it will start using goal-line technology in major international competitions, including the World Cup, so that goals can be better decided upon if they only slightly cross the goal line. This is a great step forward for FIFA, making sure that goals are called as goals. But they could definitely make this decision better and have the goals announced with some awesome lighting and sound.

They could go the hockey route and put a spinning light behind the goal, and a giant air horn, that both go off the moment the ball crosses the line.

Another idea would be to take the basketball route, and have the goal frame light up red when a goal is made, just like basketball backboards do when the shot clock runs out or game ends.

Or perhaps, they could take some inspiration from the video game NBA Jam. I'm referring to the moment when a player makes several shots in a row and the game yells "He's on fire!". I'm not suggesting a flaming soccer ball, but simply a net that bursts into flames the moment a goal is sensed by the new technology!

Surely this would also increase the number of Americans watching.

Hunger Games/District 9

Was in my head all morning. Also seems someone else made the connection.

Settlers Seder Plate

Last summer my fiancee and I had the idea of a Settlers of Catan seder plate. It all seemed to work so well, the brick for the charoset, the sheep for the zeroah (lamb shank), wheat for the bitter herb. We waited until this Passover to share, so that it was more appropriately timed.

Sure, the wheat is kind of out of place since it's forbidden on Passover, but it works well enough as a symbol for other things that grow that could be the bitter herb (maror).

For an broad introduction to the Passover seder plate, see this link from Chabad.

Our Passover seder plate is below:

Charoset: brick

Maror (bitter herb): wheat

Chazeret (bitter herb): pastures hex

Zeroa (lamb shank): sheep

Karpas (vegetable): wood

Beitzah (egg): a real egg