The private space company SpaceX successfully launched one of its Falcon 1 rockets last night and put an Malaysian optical satellite in orbit. It's the first time a private company has delivered a satellite in orbit, and hopefully it bodes well for SpaceX's next project. The company is planning to launch its much larger Falcon 9 rocket to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. Testing of the Falcon 9 is slated to be done at Cape Canaveral later this year.

In which I discover chiggers

I generally like living in the South, but I am not a big fan of the bugs. Flying cockroaches are gross, but the parasitic ones are the the nastiest. Ticks, for instance, are some of the grossest things imaginable. There are some ticks in the Northern U.S., so I at least was aware of them. But the latest little nasties I have encountered are chiggers.

Friday night I thought I had a ton of mosquito bites. They were all on my thighs and behind my knees, which I thought was weird. I had been outside the night before, but I thought it was unlikely that a mosquito would fly up my pant legs and bite me all over, and that I wouldn't start itching until the next evening. I was right -- it is very unlikely to have mosquitoes do that -- but that's precisely the modus operandi of chiggers. The larvae hide out on the tips of tall grasses and rub off on your legs when you walk past. Unlike mosquitoes, fleas, or ticks, chigger larvae don't suck blood. They actually eat your skin by injecting digestive juices and sucking it out. That's still gross, as far as I'm concerned.

When my bites wouldn't stop itching we did some web research and realized that they looked like chigger bites and the symptoms were spot-on. I was confused as to how I got chiggers on me until I realized that when I was outside the night before I sat on the driveway with my daughter. And in retrospect I remember that the lawn had been cut the previous day and there were grass clippings on the driveway. Putting two and two together, I think I figured out how I got chiggered.

The bites are still a little itchy, but it's finally fading. They are a lot itchier than mosquito bites. I was afraid we might have fleas in the house at first, so I was actually somewhat relieved that it was a one-time outside encounter. But these things definitely take some of the fun out of having a nice back yard.

Photo credit: Sterlic.

Old friends

I had a really vivid dream last night with all of my friends from college. Everyone I knew was there -- roommates, good friends, classmates, coworkers, you name it. We laughed and hugged and caught up on what everyone was doing now.

I was so disappointed when I woke up. I suddenly miss them all terribly.

Slow down

Despite emails discouraging employees from viewing the Michael Jackson memorial service online, it appears that dozens of my colleagues are doing just that, because the network is running like molasses in February.

That's pretty much how it is

 

Via stereotypist.

Why BMI is junk science.

NPR had an interesting article over the weekend about the BMI, or body-mass index. BMI is commonly used as an indicator of fitness, but as the article reveals, it's really "junk science." It's accurate sometimes, but it's often wrong, and it's based on bad math and the formula is rigged to produce the right data. After reading the article, I'm persuaded. Anyone have any arguments in favor of the BMI?

Via reddit.

The weekend of nothing special

I got Friday off work, but we had a decidedly unambitious weekend. We lazed about the house Friday morning, which is always nice. Then we picked up some groceries at Walmart, which apparently was a huge mistake. Walmart is always crazy on the day before a holiday. Incidentally, I just realized that I had typed Walmart instead of Wal-Mart. I guess they officially changed their name to remove the hyphen when they redid the logo. I happened to see a newly constructed Walmart in Ohio last week, and it had the new blue and yellow color scheme with the sunburst design. Our local store, however, is stuck in the mid-90's. It's pretty much the worst-managed store I've ever seen. Nothing is ever in stock and it's kind of shabby. But it's close and cheap, so it gets my vote every time.

We tidied up the place a little bit on Friday afternoon because Becca's sister came to visit. We had been planning to have her visit for a while, so it was fun to see her. She brought a couple Wii controllers and wheels, so we played four-player Mario Kart Wii with her and my daughter. My daughter definitely dragged down the team score, spinning circles and falling into lava the whole time. But she was so enthusiastic that we didn't mind, and we won most of the time anyway.

Becca's mom and brother ended up coming to visit for the weekend, too, so they came around lunch time. We had considered a busy day of parades, boating, and fireworks. But the Firstborn probably wouldn't do too well with fireworks, and taking a 8 1/2-month pregnant woman water-skiing probably isn't a good idea. So we had a more laid-back Fourth of July, doing some shopping at McKay Books, our favorite used bookstore, and Trader Joe's. I actually like Trader Joe's. I hate Whole Foods with a passion, but Trader Joe's is okay. Don't know why I make that distinction, but there it is.

It ended up pouring rain while I was trying to grill up hamburgers and grilled veggie-kebabs, but we eventually got the job done on the porch with an umbrella. We didn't see any real fireworks, but we watched some on TV and made fun of a Neil Diamond concert. That was the extent of our ambition for the evening. That's pretty much all the adventure we need right now. And with Little Girl #2 coming within the next two weeks, we'll have plenty of adventure ahead of us.

Small living

Now that we moved into a larger place, I've been thinking about how much space it takes to live comfortably. As anyone knows who has travelled outside the U.S., most of the world's population lives in considerably smaller dwellings than most Americans. A year or two ago I read an article similar to this one that talked about how smaller houses could be a growing housing trend.

The truth is that most people really don't need the size home they have. Most American homes are very inefficient in terms of using space. A European- or Japanese-style efficiency apartment can be 500 square feet or smaller, and yet fit a whole family reasonably well. I've even heard of old shipping containers being converted to stackable apartments, and apparently that trend is coming to the U.S. We were at an IKEA store last week, and they had several small model apartments furnished with their space-saving furniture that looked quite comfortable. We actually got a new kitchen table and chairs there that fold up and save a lot of space in our small kitchen.

I am actually quite used to smaller living spaces. I grew up in a large family, so I almost always shared a bedroom with one of my brothers. In college I lived in absurdly small and crowded dormitories and apartments. Even after Becca and I got married, our apartments were small, especially the tiny studio apartment that we rented off Pennsylvania Ave. in D.C. It had two rooms -- a main room and a kitchen -- with one closet, a mini-fridge, and a fold-down Murphy bed.

To be honest, I enjoyed the small places we lived. They were all efficiently organized of necessity, so we could pack a lot into the small space. Whether by habit or by nature, we still function in a relatively small space. We spend most of our days in the upstairs of our apartment, going downstairs only when we do laundry or watch a movie. My major problem with small living is all of my stuff -- I have quite a bit of camping and hiking gear, books, and clothes. I think I could live comfortably in a micro-home -- as long as that home had some macro-closet space.

I deserve a medal

Today I got a call on my cell phone while I was in a public restroom. And then I did something that no one else seems to be able to do.

I did not answer the call.

The King of Pop's patent

It turns out that Michael Jackson invented more than dance moves and catchy tunes. He actually has a patent for a device that let him lean out beyond his center of gravity. The patent involved shoes that clipped into a pin in the floor, keeping the feet in place no matter how far the wearer was leaning. The result was a pretty cool look. You can see it in action here:



It's actually a slick device. The same effect could be achieved by cables, but that didn't work for live shows. As you can see in the video, Michael Jackson and his dancers did the amazing gravity-defying tilt and then simply continued with the rest of the dance, which would be impossible with cables.

The patent is pretty interesting too. Thanks to Google Patents, you can see the whole patent application here. The shoes had ankle support that helped the dancers lean out and come back in. Still, even with ankle support, it looks like a very difficult move. They make it look easy in the video.

Web Site Story

This is one of the best comedy videos I have ever seen online. Period. Seriously, check it out. I usually don't like CollegeHumor videos, but this one is hilarious and quite clever.

How to alienate your fans

Blizzard has confirmed that there will be no LAN (local area network) mode for StarCraft 2. That sucks. I often have difficulties with Blizzard's servers. I don't want StarCraft to go the way of WoW, or I won't buy it. Sometimes I just want to sit down with my wife and have some quality frag time at home without dealing with the hassle of Battle.net. Is that too much to ask?

Fun on Monday: The Best of Jay Leno's Headlines

I'm really going to miss Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. Don't think I'll watch it with Conan O'Brien. He's not really funny to me. But most importantly, he doesn't have the two major things that made me watch Jay Leno: Jaywalking and Headlines. As he wrapped up his 17-year stint as the host of the Tonight Show, Jay Leno reviewed some of the best Headlines. My favorite one is the awkward lawyer reference below, but there are plenty of good ones in this collection. Check it out here!

Car maps

I have been on a maps kick lately. My latest one is from a NY Times article about what cars are really "American." It turns out that a lot of American auto makers have the parts made in Mexico or Canada, so they aren't really "American." And some foreign auto makers actually produce all of their cars in the U.S. So this map breaks it down by brand and model so you can see where everything is made. Cool, huh? Thanks to Soren for this one.

Whoa. First Farrah Fawcett passed away, and now Michael Jackson is dead. White female celebrities are dropping like flies.

Obligatory Michael Jackson joke: Michael Jackson converted to Islam before he died. So does he get 70 virgins in the afterlife if he already had them in this life?