Ken Nelson

  
Remember Jimmy Carter?
Just imagine him + GPS monitoring.

The BBC reports that England’s government is considering speed limiting technology that would automatically slow a car down to within the speed limit for the road being driven:

The government’s transport advisers claim the technology would cut road accidents with injuries by 29%.

I’m actually very interested in technology that would warn me that I’m violating the speed limit. This would be useful.  To actually have it slow my car down… no thanks.  What if I’m driving to the hospital? Or passing a slow car. Too many risks.

I’d welcome technology that warned me. I’d also welcome technology that would let me know where my kids are driving and how well they are obeying traffic rules.

No thanks.

As if crime, physical health and descent into addiction weren’t reason enough to not use drugs… how about cocaine being mixed with guano?

Let’s say I was a computer consultant. Wouldn’t it suck if I got a computer virus?

Well how about if I was an anti-kidnapping expert?  Wouldn’t it really suck (beyond the normal suckiness of being kidnapped) if I was kidnapped?

I sense a career change in Mr. Batista’s future. Perhaps “Hostage Consultant”.

With luck, this will all turn out fine. In a perfect world, one of Mr. Batista’s former students will use skills passed on from his mentor to secure his release.

Snow!  From the webcam at Vernon Worthen Park.

Southern California family, 50 years ago

A rare 50 year arctic cold wave is heading towards Southern California:

"Temperatures in Siberia, Russia will be -81 degrees this week, "said Martin. "With those type of temperatures the arctic air mass has to spill somewhere. Our answer of the exact track will become more clear this week. All residents in the mountain communities should prepare this week for very cold, winter weather, with snow."

I know a few families heading to Disneyland for the Christmas break. And, alas, Southern California’s weather on Monday is often our Wednesday weather here in St. George.

Obligatory “what global warming” snide remark.

Henry Gustav Molaison

When I travel I will often read the obituaries in towns I’m not from. They provide fascinating little slices of history. I’m not traveling, but stumbled across one of the most interesting obituaries I’ve ever read – that of Henry Molaison – known only to the world as H.M.

In 1953, he underwent an experimental brain operation in Hartford to correct a seizure disorder, only to emerge from it fundamentally and irreparably changed. He developed a syndrome neurologists call profound amnesia. He had lost the ability to form new memories.

For the next 55 years, each time he met a friend, each time he ate a meal, each time he walked in the woods, it was as if for the first time.

And for those five decades, he was recognized as the most important patient in the history of brain science. As a participant in hundreds of studies, he helped scientists understand the biology of learning, memory and physical dexterity, as well as the fragile nature of human identity.

Amazingly, although every day was new he kept his basic personality and memories from before the surgery.

Read the whole thing.

Press Release from Ann Romney (wife of Mitt Romney):

Last week, following my annual mammogram at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, I was diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma In Sutu (DCIS). While this is commonly referred to as early stage breast cancer, it is technically not cancer but rather pre-cancer, as it has not become invasive. Today, I have had a lumpectomy. This procedure does not require hospitalization. Mitt and I feel fortunate to have caught this so early. And, it reminds us how important it is for women to have regular mammograms. As in all cases of cancer, early detection is critical. Many families are facing medical hardships—our hearts go out to all of you and also our wishes for healing holidays.

Water levels hit a 22 year high in Venice this week. Cool pics at Boston.com – including ones like this:

Apparently the cause is more wind (Scirocco wind to be specific). From the comments:

The high water is NOT so much rivers, but the Scirocco wind that pushes the water up the Adriatic, infact on Dec. 1 the high tide was to be at 9 am and kept getting later and higher as the wind kept the tide up.

The guy in the back…. future hero.

Military are not the only heroes with nametags of late…. the staff of the Taj Mahal Hotel engaged in many acts of heroism and bravery:

"The man in front of my wife shielded us. He was a maintenance section staff. He took the bullets."

and

The staff often proved essential, knowing short cuts to safety and where emergency exits were located.

Just imagined what could have been prevented if they were armed.

Scientists have found a spot in the brain that seems to be related to the ability to stay madly in love with your spouse:

Researchers led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine recruited 17 men and women who still love their spouses intensely after two decades of marriage, then scanned their brains as they saw their loved ones’ photos. When they compared the results with scans of 17 people who had fallen in love in the previous year, they found that the same area of the brain, the ventral tegmental area, lit up.

I know my ventral tegmental area burns when I see my betrothed!

Alan Colmes is leaving Hannity & Colmes.  Maybe Sean wants some libertarian action???  I’m up for it… bring it on Hannity…

 
Balance on TV – equally stupid from left & right.

A murder suspect is released because Big Brother has him elsewhere at the time of the killing.

Of course, somehow, I think the government will mainly use Big Bro to squeeze money out of us. I doubt keeping us from being falsely imprisoned is of much interest to Big Gov.

Famous Florida Oxycontin Use Survivor

The Florida Medical Examiners Commission says that prescription drugs kill more than illegal drugs:

  An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem.

Painkillers Vicodin and Oxycontin killed 2328 people in FL, versus 843 for cocaine.

I don’t know how much of this was suicide. Some of it was dangerously mixing booze and these drugs.

Anyway…. take care and if you have painkillers, lock them up to keep them from your teenagers.

PC Magazine will cease its print edition.

Gone in Jan 2009

I guess a laptop by the toidy isn’t such a bad idea.

Thousands of cars get off the boat and… stay at the port of Long Beach.

For now, the port itself is the destination. Unwelcome by dealers and buyers, thousands of cars worth tens of millions of dollars are being warehoused on increasingly crowded port property.

And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning dozens of acres of the nation’s second-largest container port into a parking lot, creating a vivid picture of a paralyzed auto business and an economy in peril.

Hmm… drop the price. Give me great financing. Treat me with respect at the dealership. Backrub. Years gas. I’ll get back to you.