Yarrrr!

Look at the horizon
There upon the sea
A jolly roger in the wind
Pirates there they be

And Captain Opus Black
Stands there on the deck
Looking ever treasure bound
Scanning every wreck

Land ho! Goes out the cry
An anchor dropped below
Landing boats now shoreward bound
Each man made to row

But little do these pirates know
This island's mysteries
For in these isles, just out of sight
There the Ninjas be...

Fined for a product being too wasteful?

I read about this story in a Consumer Reports magazine the other day and it angered me to the point of writing about it(obviously an extreme response to anger). The article can be found online at the following link: Consumer Reports Article. The article detailed a UK based company, Hudson Reed, that is being fined $1.9 million by the Department of Energy for violating shower head flow rate requirements. These regulations require that a shower head not exceed a rate of 2.5 gallons per minute at a pressure of 80 psi. The "Shower Tower" manufactured by Hudson Reed has multiple shower heads that can deliver up to 2.5 gallons per minute from each shower head. Tests, however, showed that the rate from the main head was closer to 3.95 gpm. It seems to be clear that the company violated the regulations in question, but the main problem with this situation is not whether the company violated the DOE requirements, but rather that there were requirements to begin with.

First of all, I must say that I am all in favor of conservation. I believe that we should use resources wisely in a manner that best balances our wants and needs with the health of the environment around us. I must clarify "health of the environment," however, to mean the condition of the environment most favorable to human health. Humans should ultimately seek a level of conservation most favorable to themselves, not to any other biotic or abiotic factor.

This being said, the American economy is driven by consumption and balanced by price. If someone wants to buy a shower head that uses 4x more water, I don't see any reason why they should not be allowed to do so. This consumer will simply have to spend 4x the amount on his/her water bill, which I think would be a deterent to a good deal of consumers. I do not, however, think the company should be punished for thinking of and developing new products for human use. As long as consumer safety is maintained, it should be the markets, not the governments, that decide what products will succeed and what products will go down the drain (bad pun intended).

Just How Safe is Flying Really?

It is often quoted that flying is one of the safest forms of transportation available. This is often of little comfort to me when I am soaring several thousand feet above the earth's surface and hit a patch of mild turbulence. This led me to spend the afternoon with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics to quantify just how safe it is to fly compared to other modes of transportation.

First of all I must note that commuter air travel in the US reports very low numbers of fatalities a year, averaging 2.4 deaths per year from 2000-2008. Many of those years had no fatalities reported. When commuter air travel is compared to other forms of transportation on the basis of miles traveled by passengers the added safety of flying becomes even more apparent. The results of these findings are shown as the following:

Commuter Fatalities per billion passenger miles (averaged from 2000-2008):
Air - 0.28
Auto - 14.4
Rail - 0.40

These numbers clearly indicate that one is far more likely (~50x more likely) to die on the road than in the skies. The rates between air and rail are fairly inconclusive as the calculations are based on a fair amount of assumptions that could be massaged to make one look better over the other. I don't know if knowing the numbers really helps, but hopeful you can fly with a little more peace of mind. Personally, I will probably always feel a little more comfortable the closer to the ground that I am.

Assumptions:
-average of 200 passengers were assumed per flight (passenger miles = 200 * flight miles)
-average of 200 passengers were assumed per train (passenger miles = 200 * train miles)
-only driver assumed for auto travel (passengers miles = auto vehicle miles)

References:
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics - http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics

Professionally Groped

I knew it would happen someday, I still just wasn't quite ready. With the influx of females into the medical profession I knew it was only a matter of time before a female doctor would be asking me to cough while prodding her gloves around my unmentionables. I used to think it would be much more uncomfortable having a female doctor perform these kind of checks, but I feel I have been unfair in my view. While not particularly enjoyable, I would have to say that it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be, or at least no more awkward than a day pantless with your doctor can be. In short, testicular cancer and hernia exams are never particularly pleasant, regardless of the gender of the physician administering them.

FYI: testicular cancer checks should be performed once a month if you are a male over the age of 14

A Poem About Nothing

This truly has no purpose
It does not mean a thing
It may contain some simple rhymes
But nothing do they bring

How can I convince you
That these words are meaning free
For if you search for something more
Disappointment there shall be

Why do you keep on reading
When nothing you will find
In visions of importance
These words are truly blind

But if this poem means nothing
Why does it linger still?
And why are you still reading
Though the reading makes you ill

For there are times within our lives
When life becomes a bore
And so we waste the time we have
Until there's nothing more

Foaming Soap

I think foam soap is a pretty great invention - right up there with sliced bread and fainting goats. The foaming action seems to create good coverage over the hands and rinses clean without flaw. However, I find I am often betrayed by this foamy mass, when I clasp my hands together to begin the cleansing ritual, only to send a stream of bubbles directly onto my shirt. Now mind you these are soap bubbles, so the situation could be quite worse, but I often go to the bathroom for purposes other than laundry. Please note I am not advocating the removal of foaming soap from bathrooms, as I do think that foaming soap is better than it's thicker non-foaming brother. I am mostly just expressing a frustration with the operator's affinity toward wearing a greater amount of non-clothing material as the day progresses.

lim (time->infinity) Boredom at Work = Blogging

I definitely cannot say that I ever planned on starting a blog, or that I even particularly enjoy writing, but my boredom at work has caused me to search for new avenues in wasting time. In addition to the hopes of alleviating my boredom, I hope to improve upon my writing skills, which according to my recent MCAT scores are slightly above those of a monkey repeatedly banging his head against the keyboard...and then punching me in the genitals.

Should you choose to waste your time reading this blog (which I highly recommend against), I can promise that it will be filled with pointless snippets of information, boring stories from my unremarkable life, and strong opinions about topics I know little or nothing about. It is likely to be updated seldomly (unless I am at work of course) and read only by myself and all those mysterious government agencies that keep tabs on everyone...I fear I've already said too much.

Hello World

Hello World