There's an app for that...

Just in case you need your fix of Hall and Oates, someone created an app. It turns out it started as a project by Michael Selvidge, new corporate communications manager at Twilio, to get familiar with developer tools, but it has gained in popularity. More people than he knew needed a Hall and Oates hotline.

They also made it available on a website in case you don’t want to call long distance. The hotline to hear one of your favorite Hall and Oates songs is 1-719-26-OATES.

Click the above image to go to the Hall and Oates hotline website: http://www.callinoates.com/

Note: The sound quality is not that great… OK, actually, it’s pretty poor, but you never know when you may need it in case of an emergency.

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Christmas cards

If you received a Christmas card from us...

I'M SORRY FOR THE SMALL PRINT!

You could consider it a test whether you need reading glasses yet. But anyway, just in case you didn't feel like getting out magnifying glasses to read our card, here is what it said:


As we all know, time seems to fly by fast. While Thanksgiving and Christmas are enjoyable times of the year to enjoy being with family and friends and to give thanks for all we have, it's also a reminder that another year passes. When looking back at the year, there were many tragedies, including the big earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. Jim and Kyoko's family were not significantly impacted by the disasters, but over 20,000 Japanese lost their lives or are still missing, and almost 500,000 buildings either partially or totally destroyed. Perhaps many lives could have been spared if the magnitude of such an earthquake and tsunami been envisioned, but most people could not imagine such an earthquake. While Japan can gradually recover from such a devastating natural disaster, the biggest risk to Japanese is the radiation from the nuclear power plants. It will take many years until it is known what the actual impact of the radiation leaks. The lack of proper disaster procedures is inexcusable. We're not sure yet what additional suffering and loss of lives will be caused by the government reacting slowly in evacuating the area.

While Japan faces its own challenges, in the US, we have our own disasters with which to deal. Republicans took over the House in the last mid-term election, and as expected, gridlock ensued. While Congress was at a standstill, one piece of legislation the House was able to pass was to define the tomato sauce on pizza as a vegetable. This counters the earlier attempt at making school lunches healthier for the children and makes it easier for pizzas to make it back on school menus at the request of the pizza industry. I guess it doesn't matter that obesity is a problem in the US if the pizza industry is suffering.

Earlier in the year, Kyoko's sisters visited us in Dallas. It was their first trip to visit us, first trip to the US, and first time Kyoko and her sisters took a trip together as adults. It was unfortunately a short trip, but we had a very nice time together, including some sight-seeing in Las Vegas. Kyoko continues her tutoring, and may even start giving lessons over the Internet. Jim is continuing with his project which is based out of Vienna.

We wish everyone the best this holiday season and hope that you and your family are doing well.

One of these days we will figure out how to best share our blog and photos. Please don't hold your breath in the meantime!

Considering it is the season to be jolly

And what better way to convey happiness than how dogs seem to love hanging their heads out the car window.

Someone made a compilation of slow-motion video of dogs with their heads out the car window… Makes me wish I were a dog.

Click on the above image for the video… Also available on YouTube in case you prefer YouTube.

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Whole Foods supports discrimination? "Your job or your religion?"

While I’d much rather focus on the positive this holiday season, there’s just so much injustice going around, it’s hard to ignore them.

This is actually an old article from last month. Actually, I missed it the first time around.

It seems like Glenn Mack Jr was an up-and-coming employee at Whole Foods… until his supervisor found out he was Muslim. Then his manager gave him a hard time for an already approved vacation to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. Then everything went downhill from there, including being terminated from Whole Foods.

At one point, his supervisor allegedly told him “You can choose. It’s either your job or your religion.”

Whatever happened to freedom of religion? Freedom of persecution because of your religious choices?

Change.org has a petition going for Glenn Mack Jr:
http://www.change.org/petitions/dont-fire-employees-for-being-muslim

And by the way, the point is that even though it was an individual (his supervisor) who is in the wrong initially, Whole Foods as a company has not come forward to do the right thing yet for Glenn Mack Jr.

Speaking of muslim, people may have heard recently about the “uproar” over the TV show “All-American Muslim” and how Lowe’s decided to drop advertising from the show because of the “controversy”. The complaints about the show were first raised by an organization called “Florida Family Association”.

When they were asked WHY they found the show offensive, it was because the show did NOT show muslims as extremists and felt it was dangerous to show muslims as normal people!

Seriously! You can see the Daily Show view of the story where they have included a videoclip of an interview from the executive director of FFA.

Click the above image for the video.

And since we are talking about the ridiculous and how the right keeps pushing their agenda, the latest attack by the right are labeling Muppets as Communist propaganda because their nemesis in the latest movie is a greedy oil company executive.

Click on the above image for the video.

See more progress on: fight for truth, justice, and the American way

Thanks to a smaller government

or at least a government which takes less responsibility, two people have died recently in Louisiana from tap water. This is not science fiction, but the people died from a brain-eating amoeba. It is as terrible as it sounds. The Times article seems to lay the blame on the people for using neti pots without properly sanitizing the water. However, if there is the amoeba, known as Naegleria fowleri, in the tap water, doesn’t that mean people and children can get it from taking a bath and/or taking a shower if the water gets into your nostrils.

Naegleria fowleri cannot survive in properly (sufficiently) chlorinated water. Compare that to southern Australia where they had the problem originally in the 1960s, they have not had a case since 1981.

To be fair, the Times article does a poor job of identifying the source of the tap water of the victims. However, as part of the program in Australia, proper education is also a contributing factor to reducing the risk to the general public. I’m sure the government is supporting the education.

Most cases of Naegleria fowleri come from swimming in lakes and other bodies of water. From the Australian article, tips for prevention are:

• avoid jumping or diving into bodies of warm fresh water or thermal pools
• keep your head above water in spas, thermal pools and warm fresh water bodies
• empty and clean small collapsible wading pools and let them dry in the sun after each use
• ensure swimming pools and spas are adequately chlorinated and well maintained
• flush stagnant water from hoses before allowing children to play with hoses or sprinklers
• if you are using unchlorinated water:
  
  • don’t allow water to go up your nose when bathing, showering or washing your face
  • supervise children playing with hoses or sprinklers and teach them not to squirt water up their nose
• potentially contaminated water should not be used for any form of nasal irrigation or nasal lavage including Neti (an Ayurvedic practice of nasal cleansing)

References:

• http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/16/louisiana-warns-about-neti-pots-after-brain-eating-amoeba-infections/?iid=cc-main-mostpop2
• http://access.health.qld.gov.au/hid/InfectionsandParasites/Parasites/naegleriaFowleriQsAndAs_is.asp

See more progress on: fight for truth, justice, and the American way

Easy way vs the hard way...

Self portrait… The hard way.

Throw your multi-thousand dollar camera in the air, spinning it, so that one of the shots will be of one pointing back to the ground. Click on the image for the video.

Easy way… Use an Android app like Morpho Self Camera

Click the above image to see a series of Android phone commercials with the Japanese music group Arashi. The above link starts with the commercial demonstrating the use of Morpho Self Camera. The female voice in Japanese is from the app telling them if “she” sees them in the camera lens or not, or how many people she sees. (Software supports recognizing only one or two people.) Note: The software uses your phone’s language setting so that it will speak English if your phone is set up in English instead. Morpho Self Camera can be found in the Android Market at this link.

Of course, the other way to do it is just to take the picture blindly as we all normally do, but using face recognition software is much more fun! Well, OK, much more fun until you get tired of the phone telling you that she doesn’t see you.

In a similar vain to the hard way, here is a painful video on how to lose $2,400 in 24 seconds:

Click on the above image for the 24 second video. Note, “painful” is more figurative at the thought of losing $2,400. There is a happy ending though as you can see in the comments.

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Who needs a silly robot when you can have your dog bake for you...

Click on the above image for the video…

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"Oh, this is me. Nice!"

He can’t dry the dishes, but here’s a cute robot called Qbo who, due to his programming to recognize objects, was able to learn to recognize himself:

Click on the image for the video.
Additional references:

• Some background on Qbo: http://thecorpora.com/blog/?p=75
• Some information about Qbo recognizing himself: http://thecorpora.com/blog/?m=201111

See more progress on: get the latest gadgets whether they are practical or not