Oh, Nebraska

My home state doesn't make the national news very often. We Nebraskans tend to be staid, good-natured but somewhat vanilla folk. That unremarkable nature can be annoying. When my old junior high was evacuated in 1998 because of a foul, unknown odor, several national news reports gave the city as Grand Island, New York. (Thankfully, when a stray accordion case caused a similar evacuation earlier this year, there was no such confusion.)

When Nebraska does make the news, though, it tends to be entertaining. Take for example the story that broke this week of state Sen. Bill Kintner being asked to resign over allegedly having an explicit sex video starring himself on his state computer. Kintner, of Papillion, is a Tea Party-backed politician with a track record of deriding gays, women, minorities, and the poor. From Joe My God:

Kintner has loudly opposed same-sex marriage, gay adoption, and transgender rights. He has also publicly declared that Christians should let gays know their business isn’t wanted by providing them with bad service.

The good senator appears to have a keen eye for other people's splinters. Pity he can't turn that hawk-like gaze on his own actions.

As I said, Nebraska rarely makes the headlines, but I've managed to compile a fun, if modest, set of stories over the past year or two. Some of my favorites are below the fold.

In which I disown some former homes

Not having been in the country for a while, I'm out of practice when it comes to celebrating Halloween -- or at least marking the occasion with more than watching a horror movie or two. Nevertheless, I was still interested when I saw the results of a recent poll of each state's favorite Halloween candy.

All the usual caveats about online surveys apply, obviously -- questions about a self-selecting user base, representative samples, what questions were asked and in which order, etc. Even so, it makes for a quick, fun read. Some of the main takeaways are:

This is how you do a political ad BETTER

No celebrity endorsements, no Steve Martin or Joss Whedon pushing their preferred candidates.

Just one Canadian man, a dream -- and a green screen.

BEHOLD.



Canada gets this guy, and Americans have to settle for Donald Trump? There's no justice, I tells ya.

Speaking in other tongues

Sometimes you just can't beat a good infographic. Hats off to Joe. My. God. for cluing me into this one -- "What Are the Hardest Languages to Learn?". Perhaps unsurprisingly, the US government has a breakdown of how long it thinks Foreign Service personnel should take to learn certain languages. From the Wikibooks entry:

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the US Department of State has compiled approximate learning expectations for a number of languages based on the length of time it takes to achieve Speaking 3: General Professional Proficiency in Speaking (S3) and Reading 3: General Professional Proficiency in Reading (R3). The list is limited to languages taught at the Foreign Service Institute, minus languages which don't have their own Wikibook. Note that this only states the views of The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the US Department of State, and many language learners and experts would disagree with the ranking. It must also be kept in mind that students at FSI are almost 40 years old, are native speakers of English and have a good aptitude for formal language study, plus knowledge of several other foreign languages. They study in small classes of no more than six. Their schedule calls for 25 hours of class per week with three or four hours per day of directed self-study.

The aforementioned infographic is below the fold.

Russian Navy Seals

Does what it says on the tin.

Um, yikes?

Halloween may have come and gone, but that doesn't mean the scares have to stop. Consider this uplifting news out of Brazil.

South America’s biggest and wealthiest city may run out of water by mid-November if it doesn’t rain soon.

São Paulo, a Brazilian megacity of 20 million people, is suffering its worst drought in at least 80 years, with key reservoirs that supply the city dried up after an unusually dry year.

One of the causes of the crisis may be more than 2,000 kilometers away, in the growing deforested areas in the Amazon region.

“Humidity that comes from the Amazon in the form of vapor clouds - what we call ‘flying rivers’ - has dropped dramatically, contributing to this devastating situation we are living today,” said Antonio Nobre, a leading climate scientist at INPE, Brazil’s National Space Research Institute.

The changes, he said, are “all because of deforestation”.

How bad is it? Real bad.

The severity of the situation in recent weeks has led government leaders to finally admit Brazil’s financial powerhouse is on the brink of a catastrophe.

São Paulo residents should brace for a “collapse like we’ve never seen before” if the drought continues, warned Vicente Andreu, president of Brazil’s Water Regulatory Agency.

Dilma Pena, chief executive officer of Sabesp, the state-owned water utility that serves the city, warned last week that São Paulo only has about two weeks of drinking water supplies left.

More frightful -- though perhaps less life-threatening -- news below the fold.

The Missing Scarf

Uncle George knocks another one out of the park. Enjoy "The Missing Scarf".

The Missing Scarf from Eoin Duffy on Vimeo.

Off the wagon -- for SCIENCE!

Up until tonight, I had been soda- and caffeine-free for more than three weeks. This return to the wagon, like the others, is equal parts cost-cutting and health kick. Long-time readers of this blog have heard this before, of course, but this time it's part of an attempt to bring a bit more consistency and efficacy to my efforts (see: Board of Accountability posts).

Still, I couldn't help but be curious when I saw this green-colored Coke can at the Lulu Express across the street. It was the latest variety, called Coca-Cola Life, available here in the UAE as an import after being released in the UK in August. While I wasn't in the market for a new soft drink or interested in breaking my new streak, I was inspired to spend 3.95 dirhams (about $1.10) and give it a try after hearing the good folks at Skeptics With a K mention it on a recent episode. (Discussion starts at the 5:00 mark.)

How does it measure up? Head below the fold to find out.

I've been visited!

It came to me after I got running a 5k on the treadmill (in pretty decent time, too). This is truly a sign, an omen of good tidings to come.

Pictures below the fold.

Crocodile Chop

Need a little something to wash the bitter taste from last night out of your mouth? I know I do. This should do the trick.

Another one from the 'Privilege Files'

If embassies and consulates did all the things people believe they do, it might be hard to keep people in their home country. Singapore's foreign minister, K. Shanmugam, recently made a Facebook post in which he detailed some of the stranger requests Singaporeans abroad had made of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While those listed are undoubtedly outliers, it may also betray a certain level of entitlement felt by travelers.

In one instance, Shanmugam said a Singaporean sought Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) intervention "for a refund after he had gotten illegal sexual services in a foreign country".

"He wasn't satisfied with what he had gotten. We had to tell him that MFA could not help!"

Shanmugam said the ministry also declined to intervene when a man demanded an investigation over alleged racial discrimination while overseas.

The man had claimed "he received a smaller piece of KFC chicken compared to what the locals had".

"He wanted MFA to investigate this instance and seek justice in that foreign country for the unfair treatment he claimed to have received," Shanmugam said.

Say what you will about eating at KFC while abroad, but sometimes there's just no other option.

As the bottom of the article suggests, Singapore followed the lead of the UK, which released a similar list a few years ago. It's easy to have a chuckle at the expense of these travelers, of course, but given the sheer number of Americans out there and the vast array of embassies, consulates and missions the country has, there must be just as many – if not more – such requests by Americans abroad.

Odds are we'll never hear those stories, though. After all, that's classified information that could be integral to national security.

More fun with maps

Following on from an earlier post, I've found a couple more maps that make for interesting reading. Of immediate interest to me are these maps by eCollegeFinder that highlight the most selective and most desirable college by state -- and there isn't as much overlap as you might think.

The map of most desirable schools is fairly straightforward. Big state schools dominate the list, ranked by which four-year colleges receive the most undergraduate applications, with a handful of notable exceptions for private schools. UCLA is by some distance the overall winner (72,676 applications in Fall 2013), followed by New York University, Penn State, Northeastern and Michigan. Of the 50 schools on the map, Alaska-Anchorage received the fewest applications (3,062), with Wyoming, South Dakota State, North Dakota State and Hawaii-Manoa next on the list.

Some of the exceptions to the big state school rule include Tulane (30,122 applications received, 8,357 total undergrads), Washington University in St. Louis (30,117 applicants, 7,259 undergrads), Vanderbilt (31,099 applicants, 6,796 undergrads) and Marquette (23,432 applicants, 8,293 undergrads). The presence of Ivy League schools and BYU on the list is hardly a surprise.

If the law of supply and demand always held true, one might think that desirable schools and selective schools would be a 1:1 ratio. Looking at which school in each state has the lowest acceptance rate, though, some different names pop up on the list.

Welcome to 2014

Everyone have a good holiday season? I hope so. Things were very quiet around here, save for a nice Christmas dinner at my nearby Korean restaurant. Santa would totally nosh on bulgogi if given the chance.

Just wanted to share two last bits of holiday goodness. During a run to the grocery store across the street, I found these:

My knee-jerk response would be "as opposed to fake fresh eggs?", but these days it might not be such a good idea to ask what goes into your food. The verdict? Save for a slightly eggy aftertaste, they almost matched Vanilla Wafers for blandness.

It could've been worse, though. I leave it to Tom and Cecil of Cognitive Dissonance to give the most accurate summation of egg nog I have found thus far. (Note: the audio is ever-so-slightly NSFW.)

Every man should

"Should" is a dangerous word. "Should" implies an obligation or duty, though to what or whom is often unstated. As such, I'm often bemused when I see these supposed articles online that claim to tell me the "XX Things Every Man Should Have". This 40-strong paean to masculine consumption from Buzzfeed is just the latest example.

If you don't want to give them the clicks -- and why would you? -- this is the list: tailored black suit, black dress shoes, brown dress shoes, stocks, tool kit, nice wallet, cologne, watch, proper bed with proper bedding, flashlight, duct tape, weekend bag, proper glassware, grooming kit, double-hinged wine key, multiple towels, chef's knife, passport, flask, sewing kit, umbrella, ironing board and iron, jumper cables, undershirts, playing cards, lint roller, leatherman, sunglasses, record player, sporting equipment, French press, good socks, good underwear, cast-iron skillet, multiple sheet sets, bar set, matching dishes, decent car, solid book collection, decent bottle of booze.

According to the airtight, in-no-way-subjective estimation of author Justin Abarca, I am only 9/40ths of a man and lacking self-respect -- and even then only if what's on my Kindle counts as a "solid book collection" and my 14-year-old prescription shades tick the "sunglasses" box. Most of this cavalcade of foofery is pointless to me as I don't drink alcohol or coffee, and lugging that much stuff as I move to another part of the world every other year (on average) would just be a pain. Do articles such as these serve any purpose other than to encourage impressionable men with expendable income to buy things? How do they benefit? Some such articles have links to where you can buy the items mentioned and thus may receive a cut of any sales generated, but the Buzzfeed one doesn't, at least as far as I can tell.

Then there are all the different permutations and interpretations of what every man should own. These are just examples from the first two pages of a [search engine of choice] query. Take note of who's hosting these articles.

Esquire: 31 Thing Every Man Should Own (beware: slideshow)

Men's Health: 12 things every man should own

Art of Manliness: Five Things Every Man SHOULD Own

Gentlemen's List: Seven Things Every Man Should Own

The Gentleman's Corner: Things Every Man Should Own

Man Made DIY: Ten Things Every Man Should Own -- winter edition, spring edition, summer edition and fall edition

Vogue: 15 things Tom Ford thinks every man should have

Examiner: 50 things every man should have

PolicyMic: Ten Things Every Man Needs Before He's 30

The Frisky: 30 Things Every Man Should Have By 30

Business Insider: 15 Items Every Man Needs in His Kitchen

Business Insider: Nine Accessories Every Guy Should Have in His Bachelor Pad

All that took about 30 seconds of searching. A man could go broke and lose his home trying to keep up with all the assorted knick-knacks he's supposed to cram into it.

I thought it seemed crowded

In case you needed any further proof urbanization is actually a thing, here's Business Insider with some sobering news for fans of Arnold the Pig: Of the roughly 314 million people in the United States, half of them live in 146 out of more than 3,000 counties. Nebraska made the list!

(HT Joe. My. God.)

Are those grubs in your grub?

Food has been on my mind a lot lately. I know -- just for a change, right? It's due partly to the Personal Health course I just took, and specifically one assignment about 10 days ago where I had to measure my body mass index. That required weighing myself, something I hadn't done in quite a while, and the results were... well, less than inspiring. At the time, my 5-foot-9 carcass weighed 260 pounds, giving me a BMI of 38.4. If you're wondering, 30 is the point where you go from being overweight to being obese. Yikes.

While I wouldn't necessarily call that a "come to Jesus" moment, it was certainly eye-opening. Since then, I've made a point of cutting out soda and sugar-sweetened drinks from my diet, drinking more water, reducing my intake of heavy foods and getting more regular exercise. I know those are the steps to take if I'm going to undo some of the damage to my body after not thinking about my health during my 20s -- what I didn't expect was how quickly I'd see improvement. I weighed myself today (after a meal, which apparently is a no-no) and found I'd dropped 5 pounds in just less than two weeks, knocking my BMI down to 37.7. Still obese, of course, but surprising progress in so short a time. I read that a healthy rate of weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week, so thus far it sounds like I'm on the right track.

With that in mind, I give you this gem from Scientific American -- your food is covered in insects. Predictably, the author does not mince words:

You’re deluding yourself if you think farming is as clean as making a microchip. We are always on insect territory. Try as we might with insecticides and other engineered poisons, bugs crawl all over our food to feed (and procreate) on it. When we harvest and package our crops, a lot of bugs come along for the ride. Be aware, all the hitchhikers aren’t removed. At least there are limits on how many bugs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lets you unknowingly eat.

The FDA’s Defect Levels Handbook lays it all out. Staples like broccoli, canned tomatoes, and hops readily contain “insect fragments”—heads, thoraxes, and legs—and even whole insects. (I won’t tell you about the rat hair limits…) Fig paste can harbor up to 13 insect heads in 100 grams; canned fruit juices can contain a maggot for every 250 milliliters; 10 grams of hops can be the home for 2,500 aphids.

Feeling hungry yet? I know I am. That article provided a nice counterbalance to another one I found thanks to Alton Brown, a blog post from the USDA advising people not to throw out food just because it's sat forgotten for long periods. That's understandable advice and a good way to cut down on food waste. That said, I know of certain family members whose shelves house items that don't even have barcodes, which came into use in the 1970s. This is the same family member in whose fridge I once found a bottle of barbeque sauce not too many years older than me (and this was within the past decade). Some things get better with age... others most definitely do not.

Map attack

Geography has always fascinated me. As far back as fourth grade, I can remember poking through encyclopedias and being fascinated by entries on countries I never knew existed. Sometimes all it took was a cool-looking flag (Kenya was a particular favorite) to get me hooked. It was right around that time that my school started holding a geography bee -- like a spelling bee, only with less spelling and more geography. After being in the running in fifth and sixth grade, I came in second in my school (to brainiac and all-around good egg Paul Steinbeck) in seventh grade and finally claimed victory the following year.

That love of geography has stayed with me, so I can't help but have my head turned when I see an interesting map. Gizmodo flagged up just such a map this week, a map of the United States identifying each state by the brand for which it is best-known. The map is the work of Steve Lovelace. (HT Joe. My. God.)

For Nebraska, Cabela's might not leap immediately to mind if you're not into hunting or fishing, but with 2012 revenue topping $3 billion, it's hard to question its inclusion. Check the links if some of the states are too small to read. You might not immediately recognize the Hawaiian Airlines logo with so little of it showing. Also, Microsoft might be a better option for Washington than Starbucks, but the creator didn't go into his methodology and, given how far he likely had to dig to find some of these companies, I'm not inclined to quibble.

There's another fun map below the fold.

What dreams have come

Something a little different on the blog today. Normally my posts are rife with links and quotes, letting people far smarter and informed than me tell you what's what. This time, though, it's just me wibbling on about remembering dreams -- a post I've been meaning to write for some time. If that sounds interesting, read on past the jump. If not, check back later as it's an international week so this place will be heavy on soccer.

My eyes!

Oh, West Virginia. How could you?

This does nothing to dispel pre-existing notions about West Virginia or college baseball. Unfortunately, the Mountaineers are in the process of crushing TCU in the Big 12 tournament, so America will be subjected to these monstrosities for at least one more day.

Nerd fight!

What happens when you get Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Brian Greene, Bill Nye and friends in the same room to talk science? This.