Are these two separated at birth?

By Herb Everett | Published: 6/19/2010

Of course, they weren’t even born the same year. Jaden Smith is the same age as Camille’s older sister, Abby. But several people have commented that there’s an uncanny resemblance. What do you think?

Jaden Smith (left) and Camille.

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Science night

By Herb Everett | Published: 3/22/2010

With only a few days left before Abby has to turn in her second set of science work/projects, we wrapped up a couple of experiments tonight.

The first was a spectroscope. Using a few simple items, we wanted to see how different light bulbs (halogen, incandescent, florescent) delivered different light spectrums. (The key is in the amount of heat produced. We didn’t look at efficiency). Notice the use of the Girl Scout cookie box. We had plenty left over. And we have more cookies if you need some.

Click to see larger.

We also did an experiment related to aerogel using gelatin with blue food coloring and Nerds candy. You can see the results below.

Click to see larger.

It makes me almost want to go back to school again… as a student. Almost.

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Broken pan. Broken heart.

By Herb Everett | Published: 3/13/2010

Several weeks ago, my wife was cooking a meal on the stove in our Pampered Chef deep covered baker when she added some cold broth. The resulting gunshot sound signaled a crack in the bottom and an end to our coveted cooker.

This weekend it was my turn.

With Susan out of town, I was putting together a quick calzone for the kids, when I experienced the same cruel result. A little more obvious than the crack in the baker, but totally unexpected. I’m chalking this one up the the oven being too hot.

We’ll replace them at some point, but this marks a sad day in my cooking life.

Posted in Cooking Life | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Squeezing in a little “fun” time

By Herb Everett | Published: 2/5/2010

Mac Blue G3My idea of “fun” lately has been to repurpose an old Mac G3 tower I bought for $5 more than three years ago into a Linux server.

It’s been a valuable learning experience. The scary part is I’m actually enjoying the command line. I’m considering dropping a GUI interface on top to use from time to time.

It’s fitting in nicely to our all-Mac home network. Well for me it’s fitting in nicely. I don’t think the rest of the family gives a flying FTP. I still haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to use it for beyond a dev box for some of the web stuff I’m doing. I’ve read a little about using it as a media server (iPhoto and iTunes primarily). I don’t really need it as a backup solution.

But it’s been a lot of fun dusting it off and taking it for a test run.

What’s up next? Playing with Virtual Box, free from Oracle, and creating multiple VMSs. I’ve got a WindowsXP VM set up that’s not screaming, but actually has been useful in testing various browsers.

Yes, I’m letting my geek flag fly.

Posted in Digital Life | Tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Scared crooked

By Herb Everett | Published: 2/5/2010

One of the reasons I like reading Paul Krugman is that he can hit the nail on the head in very plain language:

To me — and I’m not alone in this — the sudden outbreak of deficit hysteria brings back memories of the groupthink that took hold during the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, as then, dubious allegations, not backed by hard evidence, are being reported as if they have been established beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now, as then, much of the political and media establishments have bought into the notion that we must take drastic action quickly, even though there hasn’t been any new information to justify this sudden urgency. Now, as then, those who challenge the prevailing narrative, no matter how strong their case and no matter how solid their background, are being marginalized.

Come on my media friends. Stop the groupthink. This is so much like when I covered pro sports. If one of the big papers had it, you (meaning your smaller paper) had to report it too.

Read his full column here before you have to pay for it.

Posted in Cultural Life, Financial Life | Tagged , , | Comments closed

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