Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. I'm in the skies vicariously now only through Husband and the blogging pilot community! The baby is due in 9 days, and he's certainly ready! This video will remove any doubt...
Showing posts with label off-topic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label off-topic. Show all posts
Friday, August 10, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Dorks
So, how sad is it that this morning on our tour of the hospital and maternity unit that we both kinda perked up when they said there's wifi?
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
[Off-topic] Parental controls
Do your parents decide before you are born when you will die?
(from Quirkology): "In 1999, Nicholas Christenfeld and his colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, uncovered evidence suggesting that a person's initials might affect perhaps the most important aspect of their life - the moment of their death. Using a large, computerised database of death certificates, they identified people whose initials formed a positive-sounding word (such as A.C.E., H.U.G. and J.O.Y.), and those that had very negative connotations, like P.I.G., B.U.M. and D.I.E. Using factors such as race, year of death and socio-economic status as controls, the researchers discovered that men with positive initials lived approximately four and a half years longer than average, whereas those with negative initials died about three years early.
Women with positive initials lived an extra three years, although there was no detrimental effect for those with negative initials. Further analysis suggested that those with negative initials were especially likely to die from psychological causes, such as suicides and self-inflicted accidents."
First of all, "statistics" is such a fantastic tool that it's useless. I prefer to look at the world in terms of binary probabilities, especially for predictive scenarios (but then again, what else is the ultimate use of gathering statistics?): There's a 50% probability that I'll die earlier than people who would be in my peer group in that study (that is, I will or I won't). There's a 50% chance that I'll get a good night's rest tonight (I will or I won't). There's a 50% likelihood that that tree in the backyard will fall over this summer (it will or it won't). Life gets a little simpler, eh? :)
I'm not sure what to make of the death-by-initials correlation for me and for Husband -- my initials are nonsense, and his could go either way (but we'll focus on the positive possibility)!
How about you all?
(from Quirkology): "In 1999, Nicholas Christenfeld and his colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, uncovered evidence suggesting that a person's initials might affect perhaps the most important aspect of their life - the moment of their death. Using a large, computerised database of death certificates, they identified people whose initials formed a positive-sounding word (such as A.C.E., H.U.G. and J.O.Y.), and those that had very negative connotations, like P.I.G., B.U.M. and D.I.E. Using factors such as race, year of death and socio-economic status as controls, the researchers discovered that men with positive initials lived approximately four and a half years longer than average, whereas those with negative initials died about three years early.
Women with positive initials lived an extra three years, although there was no detrimental effect for those with negative initials. Further analysis suggested that those with negative initials were especially likely to die from psychological causes, such as suicides and self-inflicted accidents."
First of all, "statistics" is such a fantastic tool that it's useless. I prefer to look at the world in terms of binary probabilities, especially for predictive scenarios (but then again, what else is the ultimate use of gathering statistics?): There's a 50% probability that I'll die earlier than people who would be in my peer group in that study (that is, I will or I won't). There's a 50% chance that I'll get a good night's rest tonight (I will or I won't). There's a 50% likelihood that that tree in the backyard will fall over this summer (it will or it won't). Life gets a little simpler, eh? :)
I'm not sure what to make of the death-by-initials correlation for me and for Husband -- my initials are nonsense, and his could go either way (but we'll focus on the positive possibility)!
How about you all?
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The easiest hours
I know, I know, I still owe you details about the checkride and I'm working on it! Here's a teaser... the METAR when I showed up at the airport Saturday morning; needless to say, it was a tense hour of go/don't-go fretting leading up to the scheduled departure time:
KJGG 241401Z AUTO 33015G22KT 10SM CLR 02/M16 A3027 RMK AO1
This morning Husband and I went up for the easiest 1.4 hours I could possibly get -- as his safety pilot! :) And so it begins! He did a good job. We did the VOR 9 and VOR 27 approaches with holds and all that down at Franklin (FKN), then a VOR check just west of AKQ at the WAIKS intersection, then the HCM VOR approach to JGG for a very well-executed circle-to-land on 13. Husband is good. :)
As a completely off-topic side note, a warning: I'm trying to resolve some identity theft issues right now and one thing the bastard(s) did was to open a Macy's credit card. Ok, fine. I saw it on my credit report as "MACYDSNB", called them up and they closed it. Today I was giving ye olde credit reports another perusal, and a new account with the same institution information appeared as "VISDSNB." I figured another credit card had been opened, but it turns out that Macy's is just a shady creditor. When they open a store account, they also automatically open a VISA account with a $10,000 credit limit and tie it to the same card so their store card can be used at any retailer that takes VISA. No consumer approval or application required (not that I applied for the Macy's card to begin with!). Shady. So I called them again and verified that the Macy's account was closed and asked that this account also be closed. They complied, but that just seems so wrong. Be advised...
KJGG 241401Z AUTO 33015G22KT 10SM CLR 02/M16 A3027 RMK AO1
This morning Husband and I went up for the easiest 1.4 hours I could possibly get -- as his safety pilot! :) And so it begins! He did a good job. We did the VOR 9 and VOR 27 approaches with holds and all that down at Franklin (FKN), then a VOR check just west of AKQ at the WAIKS intersection, then the HCM VOR approach to JGG for a very well-executed circle-to-land on 13. Husband is good. :)
As a completely off-topic side note, a warning: I'm trying to resolve some identity theft issues right now and one thing the bastard(s) did was to open a Macy's credit card. Ok, fine. I saw it on my credit report as "MACYDSNB", called them up and they closed it. Today I was giving ye olde credit reports another perusal, and a new account with the same institution information appeared as "VISDSNB." I figured another credit card had been opened, but it turns out that Macy's is just a shady creditor. When they open a store account, they also automatically open a VISA account with a $10,000 credit limit and tie it to the same card so their store card can be used at any retailer that takes VISA. No consumer approval or application required (not that I applied for the Macy's card to begin with!). Shady. So I called them again and verified that the Macy's account was closed and asked that this account also be closed. They complied, but that just seems so wrong. Be advised...
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