The chemical 2,4-D is a primary ingredient in many common home-use herbicides and I always figured that it must be safe. This morning, I was disturbed to find this on OSHA’s Occupational Safety and Health Guideline for 2,4-D (DICHLOROPHENOXYACETIC ACID): Personal Hygiene Procedures If 2,4-D contacts the skin, workers should immediately wash the affected areas with soap […]
Facebook’s Last Straw
Facebook added the proverbial last straw with its latest privacy faux pas. It has demonstrated, yet again, that in pursuing it’s goal of selling advertising, Facebook places very little importance on our personal privacy. Remember that, while Facebook ostensibly is a web site designed to help people connect with like-minded people, in fact Facebook is […]
Infrastructures are Important
Sometimes (often) XKCD hits the nail squarely on the head.
Beautiful Chemical-Free Lawn
My venture into natural lawn care has produced a beautiful lawn, far exceeding my expectations. Let me tell you what I have done and then relate a funny (but true) story from Wednesday evening. I had a soil analysis performed by the University of Missouri extension and, while waiting for the results, I applied some […]
Shopping for a Refrigerator
Candy and I are shopping for a new refrigerator. The good news is that we don’t need to spend as much as I feared we would. The bad news is that shopping for a fridge is worse than choosing a breakfast cereal. The manufacturers and stores seem to create as many models as possible just […]
Ross Sisters, Singing Contortionists
Truly amazing. The song lasts one minute and then, well, just watch.
Free Airplane Rides
Kids of all ages love airplane rides, especially when they get to be in the front seat of a small plane and get to take the controls and do some of the piloting. Have you ever heard the buzz of an airplane overhead, stopped what you were doing, and stared up at the plane? Perhaps […]
Recycling Without Trucks or Gasoline
We have several “tufts” of tall-grass around the edge of our patio. Last year, I tried letting it go au naturel, which is a technical term meaning: I let it be and didn’t tend it at all. I didn’t like that. It looked scraggly pretty much all the time. So this year, I went back […]
Happy Passover from the R&D Institute for Intelligent Robotic Systems (and Me)
May this passover find you free from all bondage and from anything which keeps you from thoroughly enjoying life. L’chaim (to life)!
My Lawn, Naturally
I’ve got over 7,300 square feet of grass outside my house. Who knew? Not me, that’s for sure! Yesterday, I picked up a bag of Concern Weed Prevention Plus from Worm’s Way in Olivette, MO. I did that because, almost a year ago, our lawn care company stopped showing up to care for our lawn. […]
Server Backups are Important
I got a frantic email from a friend this week. One of his subcontractors went crazy and trashed several of my friend’s clients’ web sites as well as my friend’s own business site. The police have been involved but much damage has already been done. I wish I had been hosting my friend’s sites. Had I […]
Trouble’s Brewing
I just read a shocking article in the paper about a newly available intoxicant. It starts on the front page and continues for almost the entirety of page A8. That’s a lot of words for our local rag. Here are a few quotes so you can understand why so many people are concerned: The clerk at […]
Around the Bend
We just watched Around the Bend with Michael Caine, Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas. To say that it was way better than I expected would be a gross understatement. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the family secrets slowly reveal, the characters slowly grow together, and the idiosyncrasies slowly resolve into sense. There were moments when I chuckled […]
Lose Weight, Save Money
I have dropped 24 pounds since last May, which makes me smile. Now, in addition to simply being smaller, I have two more reasons to smile. First, my last blood test for cholesterol levels came back with greatly improved numbers across the board. This means that I will likely be around longer to sponge off […]
Griffin Up! Save Saab
David, my younger son, co-organized the St. Louis Saab Convoy last weekend. Despite miserable weather, the St. Louis Swede Speed club got about 25 people to bring a dozen cars out for the St. Louis Save Saab Convoy, urging GM to sell Saab rather than close down the line. Fox 2 News even covered the […]
199 Pounds!
As anticipated on December 22, today I made it down to 199 pounds for the first time since, well, since heaven-only knows when! To the groans of all, I celebrate with another six word story: One hundred ninety nine pounds. Yipee!
More Bandwidth Than a Station Wagon
Back when I administered VAXen running BSD UNIX at FileNet, “just” 25 years ago or so, we didn’t have a high speed internet connection to use in transferring files between computers. I used a bank of Racal-Vadic 2400 baud modems to run UUCP and shuffle email and usenet articles around. With five modems in the […]
The Comfy Old Shirt
Imagine it’s one of those lazy mornings when you don’t feel like doing much of anything. You woke up and shrugged into a comfy old shirt. You left your cuffs unbuttoned. The left half of your collar sticks up, since you never bothered to look in the mirror. As for the buttons down the front, […]
Goal Achieved!
Today, I celebrate. Since I began exercising and eating less on Memorial Day, I have lost 20 pounds! First goal achieved. 🙂 Next goal, which should be pretty quick if the gods of metabolism cooperate: Weigh less than 200 pounds. I cannot remember the last time I weighed less than 200 pounds. After that, I […]
Congrats, Boeing! 787 Dreamliner Flies
Way to go Boeing!
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- …
- 46
- Next Page »
