Cyanbane.com

IT MAY TURN OUT that the medical doctors are right and the trial subjects are wrong. Calorie restriction — or simply living a life of less in a culture of more — is extremely difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain. Americans’ seemingly inexorable slide toward obesity tends to indicate as much: for the majority of us, the desire to eat can easily overwhelm personal willpower and (so far) any messages from public-health campaigns. At the same time, debates over the viability of calorie restriction might ultimately seem academic. Why spend time worrying over whether normal-weight subjects or slightly overweight subjects should lose weight, anyway? These are generally the healthiest of Americans. Perhaps the dollars would be better spent on cancer or heart research.

Jupiter's Moon Europa Has Enough Oxygen For Life

Sounds like they are thinking along the same lines as Earth's geothermal vents for life under the miles of ice. Still an awesome prospect though.

Building a Shortstacking Poker Bot – A Visual History

Building the bot is hard enough, short stacking takes it to a whole new level.

Weather Geeks Champion New Armageddon-Worthy Cloud

Astonishingly cool localized cloud formation in Scotland. Luckily enough there were some pics taken over the years and it seems as though this might be an entirely new type of formation that will be certified. Very cool pic.

Chart: Cities Getting Richer

Interesting chart showing the movement of wealth into city centers for a few major metro centers in the U.S. (Atlanta included). Makes me feel bad for Philly and Detroit.

Gaming Geek Links:

AMD deal for 'Xbox 720' makes sense for backwards compatibility

Rumour: Project Phoenix (Xbox 720) and the X-Engine

Coding Geek Links:

IMAGE RECOGNITION WITH NEURAL NETWORKS HOWTO

Deep Packet Inspection Engine Goes Open Source

Creating A Google Wave Extension In 5 Steps

PowerCommands for Reflector

Clojure Geek Links:

A Genetic Algorithm Framework in Clojure

A C# REPL (in Clojure)

What I'm Listening To:

Amazon.com Widgets

Reading and Playing:

Amazon.com Widgets

Pulp Fiction (via Google Wave)

Cyanbane — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:46:00 -0700

Img

The Gervais Principle

Cyanbane — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:58:00 -0700

Today, for the first time ever, I donated to a website because of an article I read on it (the first article I had ever read from the website at that).

Such a great idea and piece of writing. Do your self a favor and give up 15 min for it:

My neighbor introduced me to The Office back in 2005. Since then, I’ve watched every episode of both the British and American versions. I’ve watched the show obsessively because I’ve been unable to figure out what makes it so devastatingly effective, and elevates it so far above the likes of Dilbert and Office Space.

The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”

Doers

Cyanbane — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:42:00 -0700

I remembered back in 2007 writing about a Malawi boy who put together his own windmill for his family. I remembered posting something about it here on this blog but I couldn't remember what. I saw an article today about William Kamkwamba that was talking about a book that he helped write about his struggles both pre and post windmill. I already picked up the book on my Kindle and hope to start reading it as soon as I finish up at least one of the other books that I am in the middle of right now. I just got done reading the article from William and Bryan Mealer have in designobserver which rekindled some of my amazement at William's accomplishment. I then saw that he had a TED talk up from the TED2009 Global conference so I just went and checked that out:

I definitely felt inspired after reading that so I went back to see if I could find the blog post I put up in 2007 about William and read it: William's Humbling Windmill.

Still just as humbled.

Amazing story. I can't wait to read the book.

The Doers Club

Growing up we had a dog named T.K. Hardy...

Cyanbane — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:35:00 -0700

Ripped from somewhere, not sure who wrote it (found source - see update), I received it in an email. Regardless, everything clicks with the stories I was told growing up. I actually did have a dog named T.K. Hardy. I think my parents might have been Track People of the past..

The "Track People" - circa 1979

Sanford Stadium, home of the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team, and now, perhaps, home to the newest and possibly most sinister curse in all of organized sports.

Chicago has their billy goat. The Red Sox suffered under the voodoo of the Babe for decades. The latest sports team to fall victim to other worldly influences of bad luck could be the Georgia Bulldogs. Its shunned name is currently being circulated in hushed whispers amongst the Georgia faithful. It has become known as “The Curse of the Track People”.

In its early days, the east end zone of Sanford Stadium remained open and devoid of seating. This gaping hole created free seats atop the railroad tracks that ran directly across the street from the venue. In the 1970’s, hordes of drunken Dawg fans too rowdy and broke to gain admission enjoyed splendid vistas of Georgia football completely free of charge. The tracks eventually became so popular that fans would often show up early and camp out until game day in order to save a spot.

There were no “visitor’s seats” on the tracks. Opposing fans brave enough to venture near the area were met with raging hatred and alcohol-fueled violence. The Track People were sloshed warriors of the Bulldog Nation, sworn by blood and steel to protect and defend her at all costs.

As a 5-year-old in 1980, I saw firsthand what the tracks were all about when two Track People fought like rabid pit bulls over the affections of a young lady on a hot afternoon. The incident ended up costing my parents hefty fees for my therapy sessions later in life, yet I still look back on that moment with beaming pride.

“It was kind of like the Manson Family,” states William “Skeeter” Carmichael, a former Track Person, “except with football!”

“We’d see some beady-eyed bunch of Tennessee fans walking down near the street level, and then everybody would just start chucking our empties at them from up high on the tracks” says Roger Yearwood, who hung out on the tracks from 1974-80, “I split some Tech fan’s head wide open one year from darn near 150 feet! He said he’d never wear red. Well, I changed the color of his shirt for him.”

A camaraderie of sorts developed among the frequent revelers, and a tradition had been born.

This letter—written prior to the 1980 season by legendary Georgia Icon Erk Russell to his defensive linemen—specifically mentions the “Track People.”

Gentlemen: (linemen) The football season of ‘80 will be my seventeenth as a Georgia Bulldog. During this time there have been many thrilling Saturdays of competition, each with its individual memories, because each game has its own personality.

There are two Saturday traditions and experiences which have remained basically the same throughout the years for me and I would like to share them with you.

The first one concerns the RAILROAD TRACK CROWD. These are my people because they love the Dogs almost as much as I do. Oh, I know they do some crazy things- like turn over our opponent’s buses sometimesand now and then they throw one another down the bank and into the street below. But they stamp out Kudzu and they pull for us to win and that ain’t bad. If you can get off the bus to cheers of THE RAILROAD TRACK CROWDand walk down those steps to the dressing room and not be inspired to play football as best you possibly can, something important is missing beneath the Georgia jersey you wear. It is impossible not to be inspired. They choke me up!

The season of 1980 will be the last for THE RAILROAD TRACK CROWD. A great Georgia tradition will have passed with the new addition to our stadium. The view from the tracks will be no more.

Your team will be the last Georgia Team to be greeted and cheered by theRAILROAD TRACK CROWD. Wouldn’t it be fitting if their last team was also the best Georgia Team ever? Think about it!

Another Saturday tradition which has meant so much to me over the years can be stated very simply. “THERE AIN’T NOTHING LIKE BEING A BULLDOG ON SATURDAY NIGHT—–AFTER WINNING A FOOTBALL GAME.” I mean like whipping Tennessee’s ass to start with, then ten more and then another one.

This is the game plan. We have no alternate plan.

Sincerely, Erk Russell

Old Erk may have been a huge fan of the folks on the tracks, but every Track Person I have spoken to agreed that the UGA fan who most embodied the spirit of the group was a man by the name of Rusty McKay. Rusty had been watching Georgia games from the tracks longer than anyone could remember, and he almost never missed a Saturday in Athens on the tracks with “his folk.”

He claimed to have attended the university briefly in his youth, but had spent the majority of his days serving in the Merchant Marine, until he was finally forced to retire after he suffered a knee injury in Haiti stumbling out of a cathouse. Rarely was he ever spotted wearing any color other than Bulldog red, and he has been credited with having printing the first foam trucker hat that read “Herschel for Heisman” in September of 1980.

He was a true Georgia fan and a decent man by all accounts, although it is widely acknowledged by those close to him that he had an ongoing problem with alcohol. More than one Track Person I interviewed for this piece described him as “The type of guy you would want on your side in a bar brawl.” Many also stated his fondness for taking stray cats into his Tibbets Drive residence.

After the miracle season of 1980, when Herschel Walker and the Bulldogs rocked the world of college football by claiming the national championship with a perfect season, friends recall Rusty’s demeanor as strangely melancholy. When asked why his mood was so somber, given the fact the his beloved Dawgs were now champions, Rusty would ramble on wildly about how the University had “finally done him in” by deciding to close off the east end zone and install more seating, effectively blocking his free view of the Georgia games forever.

He complained even more that all the friendships he had spent so many Saturdays forging over cold beers and Dawg talk would now be lost. A few close friends became concerned about his mental state, so they took up a collection to purchase him 1981 season tickets, taking great care to reserve seats high atop the new east end bleachers in order to try and replicate the view he had witnessed from the tracks for so many years. But it was no use, Rusty refused to accept them, and his pitiful condition only grew worse as the months passed.

The last time he was seen alive was a hot summer night in 1981. Witnesses state that Rusty staggered out of TK Hardy’s Saloon at sometime around 11 p.m. on Thursday, July 17. He was found dead late the next day on the tracks, right in his old spot where he had enjoyed so many free games, an empty bottle of Wild Irish Rose by his side.

Rumors circulated that his eyes were wide open—still gazing at the back side of the newly erected bleachers that had blocked his view and driven him to this horrible fate. It is said that one of his hands, in the first stages of rigor mortis, defiantly extended its middle finger upward toward the stadium. The other hand reportedly clutched in its grasp a crumpled piece of paper, across which was scrawled the words—
The Track People will have their revenge! The Curse of The Track People is upon you! No more national championships for you guys!
Up yours jerks.

Rusty McKay

Rusty was resting deep in the Georgia clay before the start of the 1981 season. The Track People all drifted back to places like the carnival and the various correctional facilities from which they came. And though the Bulldogs have had many a great season since Rusty’s passing, they have never achieved what they did the last magical year the Track People cheered them to supreme victory.

Is the “Curse of the Track People” for real? Is a human sacrifice in order to appease Rusty’s restless spirit? Is a supernatural entity reaching out from beyond the grave to prevent another national championship for UGA? Who can say for sure?

My enduring hope, as a Georgia fan, is that one day the university will pay some sort of penance to old Rusty, perhaps by foregoing the extra money these cursed seats generate by ripping them out permanently, opening a view for all the Track People of this great state, thereby allowing the Dawgs to once again claim a national title. Until that act of cleansing takes place, I fear many dark days are ahead for the University of Georgia football program.

Long live the Track People…

UPDATE: Looks like the original can be found here: Dawg Day Afternoon : Could The Georgia Bulldogs Football Team Be Cursed?

Potpourri (9.23.2009)

Cyanbane — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:17:00 -0700

New Light on the Plight of Winter Babies

Freakanomics touched on this calling it the 'Prom Effect' (9 months after Prom = winter). But I would think that a better method of determination of that would be very easy to see with seasonal variances in maternal age at time of birth. Still it is an interesting phenomenon and people seems to already take at face value, so I assume ample research has been done to show the effect is certainly there, yet there are so many factors involved (both nurture and nature based) that it would be hard as hell to correlate the two factors of Proms/Winter births into the effect they describe.

NYT: Does Exercise Reduce Your Cancer Risk?

A MET of 1 is the equivalent of lolling inertly on the couch. In his study, jogging steadily for 30 minutes or so represented a MET of about 10. The men whose METs reached at least 5 almost every day were the least likely to die of cancer, especially of the lung or the gastrointestinal tract.

I think the article probably should have atleast mentioned the other benefits of exercising, but I find it interesting that it only seems to be certain types of cancers. It almost seems like the best way to guard against cancer in certain organs is to utilize them. Hot

Chicks with Hot Dogs in their Mouths

Not sure if its sister sites might be better, but this was the first one I went to so it wins for its awesomeness.

Time Lapse Battlecat Painting

Absolutely awesome.

Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet

I thought my iphone was my second brain. This might take over.

Norman Borlaug

Cyanbane — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:16:00 -0700

In the 1960’s, Borlaug introduced new strains that absorbed more nitrogen and thus grew faster. Previously, plants that grew faster just fell over and rotted, but Borlaug cross bred them with shorter “dwarf” plants with hardy thick stalks that could stand up to high nitrogen absorption. The result was fast-growing, disease-resistant plants perfect for unstable climates.

He also introduced backcrossing techniques that increased their disease resistance through selective breeding.

Most importantly, he was focused on using these techniques specifically to alleviate starvation in the developing world. His goal was always to attack famine, not merely to improve margins in agribusiness.

His impact was immediate and dramatic.

When his seeds were used widely in 1963, Mexico instantly went from famine-prone to a wheat-exporter. Their wheat harvest was six times greater after Borlaug was done than before he started his work. Imagine the compromised stability of Canada and the United States if Mexico were still endured regular famines threatening the lives of millions.

Amazing.

I somehow doubt he will get a movie.

Norman Borlaug - The death of the greatest human being who ever lived

Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009)

Brewed this weekend -> Classic London Pub Ale

Cyanbane — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:18:00 -0700

Grain bag:

1/4 lb Honey Malt

1/2 lb 2-Row NA

1/4 lb Crystal 90L

1/8 lb Torrified Wheat

1/4 lb Aromatic Malt

Malt Extract:

7lb Amber Extract

Hops:

3/4oz First Gold Hops (bitter)

1/4oz First Gold Hops (flavor)

1 oz Fuggle (aroma)

Yeast:

Wyest London ESB 1968

Spec Gravity: 1.055 (pre-ferminting)

4+ weeks out. Gonna bottle in old fat tire boosters (22oz).

mmm.. gonna be some good stuff.

Great Read on the Topps securing of MLB sole licensee and what UpperDecks future holds..

Cyanbane — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:24:00 -0700

I personally think MLB shot themsevles in the foot with this one. Eisner (Topps) is no stranger to securing lucrative copyrights/licences (just try to figure out how Mickey Mouse's likeness isn't in the public domain after ~80 years).

Regardless, great read on the fall of th baseball card industry: The Last Iconic Baseball Card.

Bokode

Cyanbane — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:41:00 -0700

/p>

Fascinating new form of tagging.

Couple of things that stuck out in my mind:

a.) I think that the light source would detract from whatever is being viewed and info is trying to be obtained from.

b.) From the looks of it it would be mono-colored, thus leaving out the Microsoft tagging infrastructure (shown on top right at start of video) and any other multicolored tagging system out there. (Doesn't matter for the most common form of tagging in place today, barcodes)

c.) I don't think as of today most camera phones would be able to focus enough to see these, that will all change within the next few years.

Regardless, great idea though.

More info on Bokeh

No Offense.

Cyanbane — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:14:00 -0700

Best Painting Ever?

Cyanbane — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:30:00 -0700

(click for larger)

The 60 Second District 9 Review (No Spoilers)

Cyanbane — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:17:00 -0700

So I have given myself a day to workout how I feel about this movie, after replaying the movie over in my head a couple of times and explaining the entire thing to my wife, I am pretty much back to my emotions walking out of the movie theatre, which I couldn't really describe until yesterday after giving my wife a play by play of the movie. The best way to describe District 9 was to say that at the end of the movie I had the exact same emotional state as I did after watching American History X for the first time. After watching it, I realize that I just saw an amazing movie from start to finish, however at the end of the movie I just felt completely bummed. The entire reason for this is that, just like American History X, at the end of the movie there really is no one to root for. The movie is emotionally confusing, especially with the main character. I understand the emotional ebb and flow of the script because he is human and because he deals with things just like everyone else would (and the movie shows this in a great manner), its just that I still have a hard time watching that in a movie (escapism). I may have just been so conditioned by popular American cinema watching, that I need a hero, I might need for every writer to read Hero with a Thousand Faces and follow that 'ordinary guy to hero in 2 hrs' formula. But to be fair, most of the movies in my life that I thought were riveting, didn't follow that formula. Art doesn't follow those rules, I understand this, that is what makes it art but District 9 just crams the 'the movie as a mirror' down your throat. There are the in-your-face Apartheid allusions within the movie (takes place in Johannesburg, catfood etc), but as I watched it I also thought of the Trail of Tears, Japanese Internment camps of the 40s, The Hijra, The Exodus, The South, African Slavery, Nazi Germany, and all sorts of forced movements throughout history, both American and not. I think this movie will stand out because of the fact that the movie was not at all about race, but was everything about race. It took every single race and showed how cruel humanity as a whole can be to some external group (a group which also probably has the ability to destroy us all - so do you really want them to win?), and it only succeeded because of some pretty amazing special fx, that are so absolutely awesome that you don't even notice them.

Great movie overall, I would probably give it a 9 out of 10.