Geek Toys

My friend Nancy, who is about as hooked on recreation geek toys as a girl can be, loaned me her Garmin Geko for the weekend. So Sadie and I took a walk:

Map of neighborhood walk

We walked 1.12 miles at an average speed of 3.24 mph. Given GPS accuracy, I think those numbers are good.

Coal Blog

I’ve rather stumbled into a debate about climate science on a Canadian coal industry blog, of all places.

I had to jump in after I saw posted a newspaper editorial suggesting that the famous Mann et al. “hockey stick” graph is now discredited, and that therefore the whole edifice of climate change science has therefore crumbled. First of all, it’s not true that Mann et al. is discredited. But even if, the whole of climate science is much more rich and complex than a single paper!

Sunshine Spin

For you Albuquerque readers, there’s a fun bike ride coming up Sunday, the Sunshine Spin. It’s a fundraiser for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. There’s an easy ride up the riverside trail or a hammerfest up Tramway. The folks putting it on are great people, the cause is good. The idea that you can live well with cancer and live well after is an incredibly important message.

Look for me. I’ll be the one wearing the yellow wrist band.

Fixing the Dryer

My wife, Lissa, is not only beautiful, but smart and talented. Here’s proof:

Last night I threw some clothes in the dryer that I needed for work today. When I went to take them out, they were still sitting there wet. I figured I’d forgotten to turn the dryer on, so I hit the start button, heard the engine rev up, and left.

An hour later, they were still sitting there, wet. The dryer was busted. Dollar signs flashed before my eyes. “Don’t worry,” Lissa said. “I’ll deal with it tomorrow. We can put up a line or something until we get it fixed.”

This morning, she told me she had an idea what was wrong. Maybe it was just a busted belt. This afternoon, she called me at work. It had been a busted belt, and they had a new one at the store where we bought it. Total cost to fix it: $13, plus a few hours of her time. Lissa completely rocks. But it gets better.

When she had the dryer torn apart, she found a ton of change that had fallen out of various pockets over the years. The total take: $14. That’s a $1 net profit.

Smarter than your average bear

Aaron makes many good points. This is one of them:

Andrea Lafferty, of the Traditional Values Coalition, says, “There’s an arrogance in the scientific community that they know better than the average American.” Perhaps that’s because scientists are are educated and knowledgeable enough that “knowing more than the average American” is actually their job, just like “being better at fixing cars than the average American” is how an auto mechanic gets paid to fix cars by average people who respect that expertise.