Tinypliny's Journal

09/10/2010 20:39 #52698

I think I now believe...
Category: music

... in reincarnations. BublÃ© is really like Sinatra singing Baroque style (as someone else once said).

Missing Image ;(

Somehow, listening to BublÃ© makes me wish Ella Fitzgerald were still alive to sing a duet with BublÃ©. And while that might not be such an outlandish wish, I also wonder about how BublÃ©'s interpretations of Whitney Houston's most famous hits might be. I wish he would try them someday.

09/09/2010 23:07 #52690

Bethesda - Safe at 11:00 PM?
Category: opinion

I will be visiting the NIH/NCI campus in Bethesda in some days. But the trouble is I will be getting into the Washington, IAD airport around 10:00. I hate taxis. They freak me out. So I plan to take the metro to the campus from the airport. I am guessing it will be close to midnight when I make it to the Bethesda campus.

Do any of you have any ideas about how safe this area might be - say compared with Buffalo downtown at night? I really don't want to get into trouble. The conference is quite important and I want to get there and back without broken noses, blown head etc. Any information would be awesome! Thanks!

PS: According to Neighbourhood Scout
- Bethesda is safer than 62% of the cities in the US.
- Annual Crimes
Violent 42
Property 800
842 annual crimes per 1,000 residents

Chances of becoming a victim
in Bethesda 1 in 1305
in Maryland 1 in 134

PPS: Oh well. I went ahead and looked up Buffalo as well.
Buffalo is safer than 6% of the cities in the US.
- Annual Crimes
Violent 3,804
Property 16,555
20,359 annual crimes per 1,000 residents

Chances of becoming a victim
in Buffalo 1 in 77
in New York 1 in 221

Man. It isn't THAT unsafe here, is it?! Do you believe this??

tinypliny - 09/10/10 20:20
Thanks for the information, (e:Heidi). Very helpful. I hate having to worry about safety all the time and at these times I wish I was trained in some kind of lethal combat.

heidi - 09/10/10 00:09
The NIH campus on Rockledge is completely car-focused. As you can see from the google map, it's tucked in the armpit of the I-270 split.

heidi - 09/09/10 23:55
I'm pretty sure it's not possible to go from Dulles to the NIH at 10pm via Metro system. You'll need to get one of the blue flyer minivans.

09/05/2010 19:17 #52661

Why do people have cellphones?
Category: i-tech

According to a recent study:

91 percent of Americans say that mobile phones "make them feel safer." Some 88 percent of respondents said that they have a mobile phone, so they can "connect to friends and family to arrange plans."

I use it as an excellent and versatile alarm clock. It scarcely leaves home even though the SIM card is now housed in a smartphone. I have never felt safer with a cellphone and hate talking over phones in general. And that is how some surveys are way off mark and unrepresentative [of me! me! me!].

tinypliny - 09/06/10 12:30
There. Happy? :-)

uncutsaniflush - 09/06/10 09:48
(e:tinypliny) - I wasn't forgetting that you weren't "American" but I reckoned that it wasn't my job to mention. I think you forgot that my wife isn't "American" and that by many people's standards, I'm not "American" despite of )or because of me being a naturalized U.S. citizen. So all three of us are foreign born.

As to the definition of "American" in telephone polls, I daresay that an "American" is anyone who answers the phone and consents to be questioned. So, if you ever decided to answer your phone when it rings, you could be an "American" if a pollster calls. No visa required.

tinypliny - 09/06/10 07:22
(e:uncutsaniflush): You are forgetting one vital part. I am not American. I am a gross outlier by default. Very unrepresented, I am afraid.

PS: Using the word "unrepresentative" (or indeed, "representative") in a sentence without a qualifier could get you drawn and quartered in cold blood at a statistics exam. Lucky for me, far from being any kind of exam, my whole "blogging theorem" revolves around perfecting the art of poking as much fun as possible, and not taking myself or anyone else too seriously.

If I were in "work mode", I would have dragged some heavyweight muck along --> :::link:::

;-)

(e:Paul) - Yes, the concept of "phone" needs an update. (e:uncut), I checked sometime back and verizon didn't tell me that they can do a data-access-only plan analogous to the dry-loop dsl.

museumchick - 09/05/10 21:56
I am not a huge fan of talking in phones either... i rather prefer seeing people in person or writing to them. They do make good alarm clocks, though!

uncutsaniflush - 09/05/10 21:32
(e:paul) - "a phone you can't talk on" isn't that the iPhone. More seriously, can't you just get data/messaging plans without voice these days?

paul - 09/05/10 21:09
I wish you could buy a phone that you can't talk on.

uncutsaniflush - 09/05/10 20:57
(e:tinypliny) - are you saying that you think 91% percent of Americans feel as you do? Is that what you mean that "some surveys are way off mark and unrepresentative."

I dislike talking on the phone myself but just about anywhere I go I see people talking on their cellphones sometimes only to say inane things "yeah, I'm at Wegmans next to the ice icecream."

Perhaps cell phones only give an illusion of safety but, unlike you, many people feel reassured if they can call someone (be it friends, family or the police) if their car breaks down or gets into an accident.

If you believe news reports, especially in bad weather, lives have been saved because people were able to tell rescuers their locations because they had cell phones.

So I find the statistic you quoted quite believable. And I have a question for you, why do you think the statistic is "way off mark and unrepresentative?" And, as a scientist, what is your basis for your theorem?

Please and thank you.

ElmwoodEyes - 09/05/10 19:44
i use it for facebook, Huffington Post and NY Times...and will rarely pick up if you call me. That being said, I feel lost without it.

09/04/2010 11:07 #52652

Daniel Craig. Be gone.
Category: the odes

I just spotted your more-than-perfect replacement.

NB: Besides, RPJ really has had MI6 as well as MI5 experience. Minor details such as getting blown to bits the last time he was filmed shouldn't come in the way.

09/03/2010 22:41 #52649

Parkour in Buffalo
Category: the odes

Salsa, tango, hip-hop, whatever, you all just lost out. I find this absolutely fascinating.

I am fairly confident that no one in Buffalo wants to vault over this low wall quite as much as I do.

Maybe I should start local like this bloke at Target.

Don't think I will be ever able to jump over any cart though.

ElmwoodEyes - 09/05/10 19:43
And now I am watching hours of this on youtube. Love it.

metalpeter - 09/04/10 20:27
Didn't watch the 2nd video but watched the 1st one, my understanding is that is a sport, it is called free running, and yes they have had at least one pay per view, I think it is like skate boarding in that it is a street sport and has that same kind of energy.....

mrmike - 09/04/10 13:35
The UB one is too cool

paul - 09/03/10 23:08
That looks super fun but I am not willing to risk breaking my programming arm.