Today's pet peeve

Long-running pet peeve:

People who enjoy getting on elevators without first letting others get off.


Today's pet peeve:

People pushing large carts who enjoy getting on elevators without first letting others get off.

Trouble in Boston

I've read that in Boston recently there was significant havok caused by some electronic advertisements that were misconstrued as explosive/terrorist devices (Ad stunt causes chaos). The ads were for an Adult Swim cartoon aired on the Cartoon Network whose parent company is Turner Broadcasting. Authorities are considering charges against Turner Broadcasting in order to recover costs--I think Turner should just fork over the money in addition to their apology rather than fight it out in court even if they think they'd have a successful defense. Chalk it up to promoting good public relations.

Police have charged two men under a hoax charge and face up to 5 years in prison.

Peter Berdovsky, 27, a freelance video artist from Arlington, Massachusetts, and Sean Stevens, 28, were facing charges of placing a hoax device in a way that results in panic, as well as one count of disorderly conduct, said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. The hoax charge is a felony, she said.--CNN

I don't know the details, but my impression is that they were just doing their jobs and I'm assuming that the possibility their ads might be mistaken for bombs never crossed their minds. Not very smart, sure, but is this enough to send them to prison? I don't know. But I find it scary to contemplate how someone might be happily going through their legal-abiding lives when one unintentional mistake throws all that out the window.

Jumping through hoops

The R's CD player went kaput a while ago and I finally got around to *start* getting it repaired: Getting my music back.

Fuel consumption

It's still only January, but I've had to fill up three times. Ouch. I think my mileage has been slightly lower than usual, recently. I wonder if it's because this winter I've had the heater going, as opposed to warmer months where I turn the climatronic/econo feature completely off.

R32 fuel consumption 2007. Data from previous years can be found here.

Microwave experiments cause sponge disasters

Investigators at the University of Florida found that microwaving sponges for two minutes at full power can sterilize them (Microwave zaps germs). It appears that some, after hearing this, tried it for themselves with less than positive results: sponges catching fire, smoking up the house, and damaging the microwave.

It appears the home experimenters left out a crucial step. The university promptly issued an advisory:

"To guard against the risk of fire, people who wish to sterilize their sponges at home must ensure the sponge is completely wet. Two minutes of microwaving is sufficient for most sterilization. Sponges should also have no metallic content. Last, people should be careful when removing the sponge from the microwave as it will be hot."--CNN

I'm of two minds about trying this myself. Wetting them... no problem. But how the heck do I know if my sponges have metallic content? I don't recall the packaging listing their ingredients.

R32 news

First, earlier this month I needed to replace one of my wheel center caps. I was slightly shocked at how ugly it looked with it missing. Anywhoo, you can check Stargazer's Garage or my website for details and pictures.


Second, a nod to Volkswagen service--scaring customers away from free repairs is a talent only they have (I hope!). This minor epiphany came about when I realized I was seriously contemplating taking the R to my preferred tuner shop rather than a VW dealership for warranty work.

What I watch

I'd been looking forward to the new season of Monk on USA Network (Fridays, 9pm EST). The episode was titled Mr. Monk Makes a Friend and Adrian Monk attends a hockey game featuring the San Jose Sharks and... the Vancouver Canucks!

I'm not sure if they interspersed clips from a real game, but they had obvious shots of the backs of a couple Canucks jerseys: #1 Roberto Luongo and #7 Brendan Morrison. Unfortunately, in this episode the Sharks won 2-1. Boooo!

Anywhoo, this episode was pretty funny, and like most Monk episodes, I liked it. :o)



Another show I'll admit to watching regularly is Psych, another great series on USA Network (Fridays, 10pm EST). Tonight was the start of its second season, and it was worth the wait. Psych is similar to Monk in that it makes use of the 'quirky' detective character. Here, the main character disguises his amazing observational skills by pretending to be a psychic, solving mysteries along the way. This show is light on the mystery, but heavy on the comedy and laughs.

This Sunday is the series premiere of The Dresden Files on the SciFi Network (9pm, EST). I'm really looking forward to this one because this show is based on a series of novels by Jim Butcher that I absolutely enjoy reading. I'm even willing to fork over the exorbitant bucks to purchase these books in hardcover rather than wait for paperback editions! I hope the series does the books justice.