Bill Rawlinson's Blog

Gadgets of the Year

4 min read

I've actually already talked about this briefly on facebook but I thought it deserved a more lasting and dedicated home. Each year we here in the developed countries get to experience the benefits of some pretty amazing gadgets. However, to be honest, most of these benefits are just ancillary to our actually living needs. They don't provide heat, food, water, or anything else that we absolutely need to sustain life. Don't get me wrong, I love my gadgets, but they are nothing more than perks of living in a place where I'm able to have the luxury time to enjoy them.

Thus, instead of naming things like the Galaxy SIII, iPhone 5, or the really neat Nest Thermostat as my gadgets of the year I want to focus on three amazing devices that, while maybe not invented this year, have the potential to vastly improve peoples lives and even save lives and which I just discovered this year.

The first is the LifeStraw. This thing is pretty neat. It is basically a really big straw that you can carry around and use it to drink out of really nasty water. It's got some kind of cool filtration system in it that doesn't use chemicals or power and which will provide a single person a years worth of clean water. You just stick one end in the muddy waste laden water and suck through it and you have clean water. It's pretty amazing. You can't use it to filter salt water - but if you have a fresh water puddle or stream filled with debris you can use it there to get a safe drink. They have a larger version that uses gravity, instead of your sucking, to draw the water though it as well which can be setup in your home and can filter water for a full family (of four I guess) for a year.

Second on the list is the Biolite Home Stove. It is a word burning stove that filters out the smoke that would otherwise pollute the room it is being used in. Plus it has a cool system built into it that converts the generated heat into electricity. Undeveloped countries are the worlds largest cell phone markets - so this stove can charge their cellphones (which are often their sole way of transmitting money or for any kind of banking). Plus it generates heat and can cook your food. On top of that it will pair wonderfully, I think with the third and final awesome gadget in this list.

20,000,000 babies are born premature every year. Of those 4,000,000 die - that is a horrendous statistic and it is sad because many of those deaths can be prevented if the baby had access to an incubator. Babies use up a ton of energy keeping themselves warm and premies barely have any energy in the first place. However, there is an amazing low cost incubation system out there called The Embrace. It is a sleeping bag that comes with a small electric heater and a revolutionary pad insert. You heat the pad in the heater, then insert the pad into a slot on the sleeping bag. The pad will maintain a constant temperature of about 98F for 4-6 hours. Thus you could plug the heater into the biolite stove, heat the pad while making your meal, and then keep your baby warm for about 5 hours until you next use the heater.

Thus with these three inventions people with limited infrastructure can drink, heat their food and homes, and keep their babies warm and alive. They are all pretty amazing products and I think it is cool that people are out there coming up with inventions like this. Kudos to those inventors and the organizations that are attempting to get them into the hands of people who need them.

#filtration #technology #heating #inventions #babies #saving-lives #gadgets #water #cooking

Bill

Web DNA

2 min read

Today I received a message from a friend pointing me to some artwork based on DNA. It's a pretty cool idea. However, when I looked at it I thought that it looked very familiar because I had used a web tool to create a similar image based on my website back in 2006.

It turns out that tool is still online and they even cite DNA 11 as the inspiration behind the idea. No wonder it looked familiar! Curious, I decided to create a new DNA image for this site.

It's changed quite a bit these past six years!

While I was checking out my old DNA image I also came across this other cool graphic representation of the site from back in 2006; this one is a tree.

I really like that one. It uses different colors to represent different html tags used within your website. Curious I revisited the tree building tool (warning, uses a java applet) and recreated it for 2012 as well.

It has gotten a lot more complicated and the branches and leaves look a lot smaller - that's because there are so many of them. Here is the color key:

blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

Bill

Blog Moved ... Again

1 min read

If you're getting tired of seeing my blog move just imagine how tired I am of moving it. Posterous has been acting wonky the past couple weeks and not loading properly. Clearly twitter isn't supporting it anymore so I've moved it over here. I seriously hope I don't have to move it again.

I have no idea if old links will work but all the old content is here (with the exception of inline images and videos for the most part).

I had thought about reverting back to my self hosted wordpress site but I just couldn't do it. There was a good reason for leaving that in the past and I'm sticking too it. So hopefully Blogger will stay around for a nice long time and performance will be sufficient.

I'm not keen on their editor so if anyone has a suggestion for a good editor client that I can use please let me know in the comments.

Bill

Learning To Sing

4 min read

Last night was our first rehearsal for Scrooge, The Musical. The first half was right up my alley we read through the script and I got to try out my Mr. Fezziwig voice. I have always loved reading and doing voices for different characters so I had a blast with my two paragraphs worth of lines (plus, maybe, some little unsolicited sound effects as per the script while others read their parts).

I'm really looking forward to that part of the play. I really wish I had gotten around to finding a play sooner in my life.

The second half of the rehearsal was singing. We just worked on the opening number which, I think, is called "The Opening Number." It's pretty complicated to me. At first there are three or four different groups singing different bits of christmas carols at the same time. Then we separate into our vocal range groups and sing this really awkward non-flowing part where we aren't all singing the same words; they are close to the same but they are different and each vocal group has slightly different timing to what they are singing.

I was totally lost.

I think I'll get better with a lot more practice - I just hope I get enough practice. Otherwise I'll just lip sync through that part.

I don't really know what vocal range I'm supposed to be in so I just joined the two other men who were singing as bass so they would have some help. I can sing deeply I'm just not sure it's my natural range. Lisa insists it isn't. Anyway, it really wouldn't matter which group I had joined last night because I kept switching groups as we sung. Whichever group happened to be singing the loudest or most clearly in my ear won. I just jumped onto their lyrics. It wasn't even intentional - it just happened subconsciously.

For instance there is this one part where the lyrics kind of go like this (we'll see how well this formatting works:

yadda yadda yadda see__________________ blah blah blah blah blah

foo doo doo doodly bop wop doo see____ foo na na la de foo blah

The top line is the sopranos and the altos. The bottom is the tenors and bass. So I'm in the bottom group but I can hear the top group reach see__________ before I reach my see_______ so I'd rush through my lyric to reach see___ with the sopranos and altos. Then I'd be all messed up with the timing of the rest of my lyrics.

This is not easy.

Oh, and I can't read music either. It turns out that would be helpful. I always figured you didn't really need to know how you could just sing the words and kind of get a feeling of the timing based on the space between them or those long underscores. You can't. You actually have to change notes while singing a single word sometimes. Who knew? Not this guy. So yeah, I ended up off key quite a few times.

I think it will be an interesting experience (and experiment) to see if I can figure all of this out by the end of November. I certainly hope I do. I think the acting and dancing will be easy enough for me - but the singing will be an enjoyable challenge that will push me the entire time.

If you want to see if I succeed you'll have to come and watch the show. I think we ar performing at City Hall the last weekend of November and the first weekend of December. I'll post the official dates and times when I'm sure of them.

#acting #dancing #singing #performing

Bill

Hexaflexagons

1 min read

There is this lady, Vi Hart, who makes these really enjoyable and quirky videos about math. They teach you some cool stuff about math in the world and her voice sounds like she is 17 so I constantly wonder how dumb I am listening to her.

Anyway, she does some cool and amazing demonstrations of math. I don't have a favorite but I thought these two videos, which are part one and two of a series, would be both entertaining and fun for my daughters thus they are getting a special post here. So, without any further ado I present Vi Hart talking about Hexaflexagons. They are pretty bad ass.

Part 1

Part 2

Anyway it would be cool if you made a hexaflexagon and shared a photo of it - or better a video as a response to Vi Hart's; I bet she'd get a kick out of seeing folks building these and discovering some of their cool properties.

Bill

Cutting Back

3 min read

This past week or so I decided to give up soda, or pop if you prefer. I felt like I was drinking it too frequently and my younger daughter always gives me grief about it at restaurants so clearly I must have been. Plus, how can I set a healthy example for my daughters if I'm making crappy choices like drinking soda (or beer) everytime we eat out. You'll notice I haven't give up beer (yet) but that might be in the works. We'll see how I do with this soda thing.
Honestly, I don't think it will be that difficult. There aren't many soda's I like and the few that I do seem to have a bad impact on my digestive system and I end up regretting the decision to drink them anyway. The tricky thing is the water here tastes bad. I mean really really bad. It is palatable if I put lemon in it but typically when the waiter brings a refill they don't bring additional lemon so my second or third cup ends up tasting nasty.
I actually picked an awkward week to stop drinking soda. On monday I went to a local calzone joint and I burnt the roof of my mouth worse than I've ever burnt it before. It still hurts and it's thursday afternoon! Sure, I could drink water all the time but it doesn't do a whole lot to get my cylinders firing so in the morning I'll often drink a nice hot tea (earl gray latte to be exact). I just started making my own latte's last week but, after burning my mouth I can't drink anything that is hotter than lukewarm. That just leaves me with water and, quite frankly, it just isn't that inspiring all the time. For instance, right now - I'm sleepy and really need some kind of kick in the ass. Well, a brisk glass of cold water just isn't cutting it. Oh well, c'est la vie. At least next week my mouth should feel fine and I can retreat to tea again.
I guess I should expand on the beer part of this post too. I don't see me cutting it out of my life completely; I like the taste, I enjoy making it with my friends, and I like finding and trying new beers to much to totally just excorcize the beverage completely. However, I am going to cut back - specifically I'm going to stop having it when we eat out. I might still have a drink on occassion when I'm out with friends, but for a while it was becoming my drink of choice when we ate out - that's going to stop. I am also going to cut back on how much I drink at home; I am not sure I'm setting a very healthy example for my daughters in terms of defining a good relationship to have with alchohol in general. I really don't want my daughters growing up thinking I'm some kind of drunk and I especially don't want either of them to end up with alcohol problems.
So there you have it - a sort of early October new years resolution. Good bye soda pop good bye.

Bill

Frothy Goodness at a Fraction of the Price

2 min read

On many mornings since starting work at Marshall University I've made a small pilgrimage to Starbucks to get an Earl Gray Latte - it's Earl Gray tea, frothy milk, and some vanilla shots... It's pretty tasty. I've spent way too much money on them though - they are $3.85 per medium (16oz) after tax!
Today I didn't make that trip. Instead I attempted to make my own with my new Capresso Froth Plus machine, my hot water heater, my own vanilla, and a tea bag. It worked out pretty damn well. The Capresso Froth Plus machine kicked ass (though it is a little noisy), the vanilla is the same that Starbucks uses, and the tea is also a Tazo tea (though I used "Awake" intead of Earl Gray as that is all I had on hand).

Here is the breakdown for me to make a 24 ounce cup:
1 bottle of Torani Vanilla Syrup - $15.50 (free shipping). 3 pumps = 3/4 oz. That means I get about 33 servings per bottle - so it costs me $0.45 in syrup.
I can buy 120 teabags of Tazo Earl Gray for $28.32 which works out to $0.24/bag. More than I expected but not too bad.
I bought a small 1 quart bottle of milk. There are 32 oz in a quart and I used, I think, 4 oz. A quart costs $1.50 I think so $0.19 for the milk.
That makes my single 24 oz cup of tea cost $0.88/cup. For a savings of just under $3/cup plus I get an additional 8 oz. If I were buying the larger cup at Starbucks it would cost me around $4.15.
The Capresso Froth Plus is kind of pricey; it cost $52.53. Saving $3/cup means that I will have paid for the frother (vs going to Starbucks) after making just 18 cups of tea. That's just over 3 work weeks of tea when drinking a single cup per day (I usually have two on Tuesdays due to my late class so it will be exactly three work weeks for me).
That's not too bad plus, I'm reusing my mug (a great mug I was gifted by my mother).

Bill

The Insanity of Islam

7 min read

I don't really think Islam is crazy but what's going on right now is insane. The riots, sparked by a crappy dubbed over movie, are completely and utterly crazy. There is really no other explanation for them. Some people will say they have nothing to do with the movie - that they are really just protesting any number of other things (like our ongoing support for Israel, our war in Afganistan, our drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, or who knows what else). I think these apologists are crediting the protestors with more sophistication than they deserve. The more likely excuse is that they are just caught up in the mob mentality of being angry about a stupid and poorly made movie.
Their passions are wasted. Usually I think that protesting one thing and another aren't mutually exclusive. But when you're protesting and destroying things with this much energy your actions can't help but exclude opportunites to get involved with something more important - such as the Syrian problem.
Tonight, on NPR, I heard an inteview with some of the rebels who are fighting to remove Assad. They are disgusted and outraged at the behavior of their neighboring Muslims. These leaders want to know why all of this outrage isn't being directed at Assad who is supposedly destroying mosques, burning korans, and attacking women. The rebels were mocking the Islamic protestors saying that Syria was too real and thus, if it takes a little fake movie to get them riled up, the rebels would make a movie. It's weird. Syria was the source of the biggest uprisings, protests, and greatest destruction after the danish cartoons were published a couple years ago mocking Mohammed. I'm sure there is a word for that; something more powerful than irony but mostly it's just sad.
Supposedly our press is the problem - it is just focusing on the angry face of Islam. We are supposed to remember that it is a religion of peace. We shouldn't paint the billions of muslims based on the actions of the few thousands that are protesting. Well, at this point if you want me to believe that Islam doesn't condone this behavior how about the Islamic people put a stop to this behavior. I've heard plenty of tut tutting about it the violent protests, I've heard the apologies for the killing of our ambassador, but it always ends with something like "but this movie should be illegal, the people who made it should be punished" or some other redirection of blame.
Yes, the movie sucked, we get it, so did all follow ups to the Matrix but geeks the world over didn't kill people and then blame the Wachowski brothers. I know, I'm being flippant now - but just barely - I don't really think any more highly of the story told by the koran than I do the Matrix.
Today I also heard, I believe it was the Indian prime minister (or President, sorry I don't really know the poltical structure of India) calling on the UN to pass a resolution that would ban hate speech in all member nations. Sorry, but that is absurd. How about, as a more pratical matter, the UN pass a resolution that bans the people in all member nations from losing their minds over trivial stuff. Why exactly should religions get special protection just becuase the practitioners of one can't behave like adults when their religion is mocked? Or should we also ban any speech that might make anyone angry enough to get violent? Thus "Your Mamma" jokes would then be outlawed. As would most political punditry - well, maybe that wouldn't be so bad (I'm joking).
Actually, I'm offending kids by saying these pissed off muslims are not acting like adults. Instead their acting like mindless and violent bullies. I don't think any nation anywhere should be working to improve the lives of mindless bullies so perhaps the Indian prime minister should reconsider his request.
Our culture is one where people can say almost anything they want. There are some restrictions on that such as we can't publish lies about someone without the possibilty of a libel suit, we can't yell "FIRE!!" in a crowded room, and it turns out we can't incite violence at a gathering of people via our speach. That last one was new one to me but I heard about it the other day when a constitutional scholar was being asked about the demans for the "Innocence of Muslims" film maker to be punished. The way that ruling has normally worked is I can't get on a stage and get a local crowed fired up to be violent. If I start doing that the police can come in and shut me down and take me away.
But this crappy movie wasn't something that was designed to "incite violence" - it was designed to insult islam. The muslims chose violence as their response to the movie. Had the movie been designed to get christians fired up to go attack muslims then I could maybe, just barely, understand the desire for the guy to be punished for the movie. But, supposedly, there are about 990 million Muslims out there who aren't being violent becuase of this movie. So clearly violence isn't a normal response to the film.
I don't mind our government saying they condemn the movie - but at this point they need to stand up and start telling the world that we won't be considering outlawing movies of it's kind. We need to be responding instead that they need to get their act together and to stop acting like animals when they are feeling offended. It's an elementary school lesson here; "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." It's time for the middle east to learn it or to at least act like they already did.
If you are from the middle east or live there now and are thinking "this is bull, I'm not out protesting, this is just western bigotry.." Well, get your comrades to shut up and to stop destroying stuff. Show the rest of the world you don't tolerate this kind of violent behavior and stop asking us to tip toe around your fragile eggshell-thin egos. If Mohammed was so much of a bad-ass that God decided to talk to him and make him the LAST prophet then he probably has a strong enough spine to handle some insults thrown his way. If he doesn't then shouldn't Islam have started a holy war on Mormons by now? (Again I joke - please, no holy wars.)

---
EDIT:
This is the kind of response I am glad to see: http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/21/world/africa/libya-benghazi-counter-protest/
Likewise this - http://tribune.com.pk/story/440754/abroad-protesters-take-to-the-streets-sans
I don't mind protests - hell I think people should protest when they think it will help bring about positive change - but violent protests like those in Pakistan today (or in Libya 10 days ago) are just absurd. People should not be dying over this stupidity.
Here is another peaceful protest in Afghanistan (about 500 people):
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtqm2r_afghans-stage-peaceful-protest-against-anti-islam-film_news

#islam #Commentary #politics

Bill

Please Help the Wild Ramp

2 min read

There is this cool little shop that opened here in Huntington, WV this past summer. It's a year-round farmers market but, instead of being something where all the farmers line up and then you wander between their wagons/wares you just go to one shop and the produce is waiting for you just like a normal grocery store.

The farmers still swing by with their goods - they just do it as it is convenient for them. Shoppers still get to pick and choose between different farms produce - they just don't have to do it at sun-up on a Saturday morning. It is a win win for both producers and consumers alike. It's really pretty cool.

However, to do this they needed a space to store the produce and sell it all year long. They've got a great space but it's $750/month. Not the most outrageous rent ever but still a sizable chunk of money. The vast majority of labor done within the market is done by volunteers. Similarly the majority of furniture, storage (fridges), and other display stuff is on loan. Thus the group needs to raise some money to get some more tables, some coolers, a real produce scale, and a few other things. Thus the've turned to kickstarter.com to try and make that happen.

Unlike a lot of projects on Kickstarter you don't have to wait for the proof of concept to become reality. The Wild Ramp already exists - they just want to "Ramp it Up!" to a better level. They need our help though! So please, visit their kickstarter page and donate. Almost as importantly please spread the word. They only have an $11,500 goal and 29 days total to get to it. We can help make this happen! So please, go donate some money to the coolest farmers market you've ever heard of - the Wild Ramp!

Bill

Two Best Albums of 2012 - So Far

3 min read

It's only September so I know there might be some real challengers coming down the road but, so far, the best two albums I've heard released this year are "Boys & Girls" by Alabama Shakes and "The Bloom and the Blight" by Two Gallants.

I feel like a hipster because I had never heard of them and you might not have either. But both groups kick ass and deserve a listen on your part.

"Boys and Girls" is a gritty rocking album that features a lead vocalist, Brittany Howard, with a powerful and soulful voice. Sometimes she sounds like Al Green and sometimes she sounds like Janis Joplin but all the time she sounds great. I really can't recommend this album enough. While the entirety of the album is excellent a couple songs do stand out such as "I Found You", "You Ain't Alone", and "I Ain't The Same"

Where Boys & Girls is a rocking soulful mix "The Bloom and the Blight" is more of a folk-rock hybrid. It also kicks ass. The lead track, "Halcyon Days" starts off slow and for the first 10 seconds or so I was suspicious of the album - but then it instantly picks up and never looks back. When "Boys & Girls" came out this year I didn't think I'd hear another album that I liked even remotely as much. But "The Bloom and the Blight" comes pretty darn close. I'm not sure it surpasses or equals the Alabama Shakes - I love Ms. Howards voice - but these guys know how to bring it.

For instance, going back to Halcyon Days - once it finds its groove it reminds me of Wolfmother - which reminded me of classic rock legends like Led Zepplin. The guitar distortion, the voice, it's all there but it's got a freshness that I can't quite pin down. I ended up liking the first song so much I bought the album before I listend to the rest of it. It rocks that much.

Some of the tracks slow it down a bit and have a folk feel more than a rock one - such as "Broken Eyes" which features a harmonica but the Two Gallants crew doesn't let you relax for too long and you're instantly rocking again with tracks like "Ride Away" which has a grunge feel straight out of the early 90's.

I hope the last third of the year is as good as the first two because if I can get one more album on par with these two it will end up being a very merry Christmas for me indeed.