Oliver

Last week, I offered Gmail invitations to anyone who wanted one. My new buddy Oliver added a comment to ask for one. A bit odd, since I don't know Oliver. But, flattered that Oliver actually reads my blog, I sent him and invite. (I still have 7 more, so it's not like Oliver took an invite from someone more deserving.)

Today, Google tells me that:

Oliver has accepted your invitation to Gmail and has chosen the brand new address warezmexico@gmail.com. Oliver's new address has been automatically added to your contact list so you can stay in touch with Gmail.

This is a side of Oliver that I've never seen: The illegal distribution of software from Mexico. Just when you think you know someone ...

2029 is safe

From this:

It's now official. NASA's Near Earth Objects page lists 2004 MN4, the
asteroid that's been covered on slashdot recently, as having a 1 in 56,000
chance of hitting earth, and even then only in 2037. It seems that earth was
near the edge of the cone of probability of when it could go. As the cone
kept closing, the probability of hitting earth grew [to as high as 1 in 37], but it kept getting closer to the edge. It's now outside the cone, and we can be safe.

Now that that's over, maybe I'll try to discuss some less morbid topics ...

More disasters

Since I talked about the Bhopal disaster, you might imagine that I'd talk about yesterday's earthquake and resulting tsunamis. And you'd be right. Articles are starting to come out about the lack of a warning system that might have prevented some of the deaths (23,5000 as of right now, and sure to rise.)

Think about this. The tidal wave moved at about 300 miles and hour. That's fast, and when it gets close, you're in trouble. But 12,000 people died in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is 1000 miles away from the earthquake. You can do the math to find out that there is a period of 3 hours or so where someone in the world knew that something very bad was heading for Sri Lanka.

Doesn't bother you? Then think about Somalia, 2,800 miles away from the epicenter. There's an extra six hours of time after the waves hit Sri Lanka! 9 hours of total time ... and still hundreds of people died. Probably thousands.

There's no early warning system-- I get that. It's expensive, and this kind of thing doesn't happen every day. But can't this world at least get a guy with a cell phone to run to the beach and tell people to get the heck out of there?

Oops ... forgot to mention

There's a 1 in 37 chance that an asteroid is going to hit the earth on April 13, 2029. Have a great day!

Congratulations - You didn't lose!

I love headlines like "Dow hits 3 1/2 year high". Isn't that just a nice way of saying, "If you invested in the Dow 3 1/2 years ago, you haven't made any money at all"?

Gmail?

I've been using Gmail (Google's e-mail service) for a couple of months, and it's pretty nice. It's invitation only, and it was tough to find an invitation as of a few months ago.

I was just given 10 invites for accounts. It looks like the invites might be losing their value, but apparently there is still some demand. If you want one (free, of course-- why would you go through the effort to sell something on Ebay for $1.54?), let me know.

-Eric

Kill-a-what?

Every once in a while, I think about energy and money. A large subset of those times, I think it would be cool to have a fully solar-powered house, and sell electricity back to the power company on sunny (but not overly hot) days.

Anyway, despite the dorky name, I bought a Kill A Watt which measures electricity usage of anything that is plugged in. I tested my TV (and VCR and DVD and speakers) and found that it uses about $30 a year. That's when everything is off and just sitting there. My computer (and printer and cable modem and USB port and monitor) uses about $60 a year when everything is off.

It's not a ton of money, and I don't know if I'll try to fix it. But my computer is basically the equivalent of a 60 watt blub that is on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Am I a big dork if this bothers me? (Don't answer that.)

There's always someone who collects something ...

... and that's why I love eBay.

Disasters

It's natural to care more about things that happen closer to you; a robbery at a bank down the street from you is more interesting than a bank robbery in Tulsa. But it made me a bit sad to learn that today is 20th anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster. Up to 15,000 people died and maybe another 500,000 were injured. Those are just crazy numbers. And I don't think I'd heard about it until today. Had you?

Of course, I knew about Three Mile Island. That also took place in my lifetime. And it didn't kill anyone.


Side note: As I was writing this post, the text of the Wikipedia article changed from:

The MIC leak began shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984. The vapors killed more than 2,000 people outright and injured anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others, some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries.

to:

The MIC leak, which began shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984 killed more than 3,000 people outright and injured anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others, at least 15,000 of whom died later from their injuries. Some sources give much higher fatality figures.

That's the good and the bad of a public encyclopedia, I guess.