FHA Refinancing

Fell 1 basis point to 5.48 with a range of 8 to 4.88.

We Love Basketball Stories

A pure jump shot is hard to come by. This one is spectacular.

FHA Refinance

Rates rose two basis points today to 5.49 with a range from 4.88 to 8.0.

One Man Star Wars

Check this guy out (Charlie Ross)! I found out about him from this blog on Wired Magazine, Geek Dad.

Apparently, he does theater shows where he reviews all 3 original Star Wars movies. Sweet!

Stimulus Package Analysis

NY Times has an article regarding the stimulus package which the House passed yesterday. The article breaks the package down into its components, and describes how each piece may help the overall component.

1. Tax Cuts - question whether people will spend tax breaks or payoff debt or save.
2. Aid To States - relatively effective for struggling states (consideration: states cannot print their own money, the federal government can).
3. Infrastructure - question value to economy, may just increase deficit
4. Education / Health Care/ Alternative Energy - little near term help for economy
5. Automatic Stabilizers - Food stamps and unemployment benefits

Song For My Lover and My Son

Everywhere you can run, but with you its much more fun. So let's run.

FHA Refinancing Bank Rates

I'm trying to measure changes in the FHA Refinancing Rates in order to time a mortgage refinancing. They are at historic lows; however, the stimulus bill being voted in the house today aims to lower them even more.

Trying a daily post to track these using BankRate.com. Wouldn't it be nice if they had a RSS feed (maybe someone does, but I haven't found it).

Fell 3 basis points today to 5.47 with a range of 8 to 4.88 percent.

DIY: Make Your Own Hula Hoops

Our fire juggling friend we met at rugby also makes these hula hoops. Here are the instructions on making your own. The trick is, you can make heavier hoops so adults can more easily remember how to move their hips.

Art: Jackson Pollack's Birthday

Today is Jackson Pollack's Birthday. Watching the video, the most interesting thing to me is his commentary on texture. He uses broken glass, pebbles, string, and other objects, as well as the paint to create the texture.

Picture: Space Shuttle Panel

Check out this large image of the space shuttle control panel.

60 Minutes: Obama Commentary

Dad pointed out this commentary by Andy Rooney last night on 60 minutes.

Inauguration: Makers

Not sure I posted this quote in its entirety, but I love it. Seems to be speaking to the do-it-yourselfers. Reminded from a Make magazine article.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom. President Obama

Games: Scriball New Physics Game

New flash physics game, Scriball. You'll have to learn to work the mouse, and develop the hand-eye coordination.

Happy Year of the Ox

The Ox is meant to bring prosperity through hard work. Happy New Year!

Flat Screen Monitors

While working from home this morning, I noticed we probably need a new monitor. Maybe Denise can find one more inexpensive than this one.

Here's another with built in speakers.

Happy Friday!

Physiology: Endurance Improves As You Age

I got this article from a road bike newsletter I receive. It comes from issue number 337.

The article describes why older people seem to get better in long endurance sports than younger. For example, many of the ultra-marathon winners are over 40 or 50. See the Badwater Ultamarathon, where the average participant was 47.

This is a good review of muscular physiology. Older people show more endurance, because they lose nervous innervation of fast twitch muscle fibers.

ED'S NOTE: I just heard from an excited Gabe Mirkin, M.D. He often rides more than 200 miles a week. He's 74 years old. So the news he sent to RBR is vitally encouraging to him and, I suspect, will be heartening to you too.

Here's Dr. Mirkin's message:

"I have noticed that younger riders can easily pull away from me in short bursts, but I keep coming back on them and seem to be better able to keep up with their accelerations as the ride progresses.

"The January 2009 issue of Exercise and Sports Sciences Reviews investigates the entire world's literature to show that endurance improves as you age. Wow!

"Maximal muscle contraction force occurs when you do a single muscle contraction with all your might. Even though older people are not as strong as younger ones, many studies show that they can retain maximal force after many contractions far longer than younger people can.

"Here's the theory and evidence to explain why aging improves endurance:

"Muscles are made up of millions of individual fibers just as a rope is made up of many different threads. Each muscle fiber is enervated by a single nerve. As you age, you lose nerves throughout your body. And when you lose the nerve that enervates a specific muscle fiber, you also lose that fiber.

"Muscle fibers are classified as type I endurance fibers [also called slow twitch] and type II strength and speed fibers [fast twitch]. With aging, you lose far more nerves that enervate the strength and speed fibers than those that enervate the endurance ones.

"So, with aging, you lose strength but you retain a greater proportion of endurance fibers.

"Muscle fatigue comes from the accumulation of waste products that occurs while food is converted to energy to power muscles. With the same percentage of their maximal muscle force, older people accumulate far lower levels of these end products than younger people do. Therefore, even though older people are relatively weaker, they can maintain their forceful contractions far longer and they have greater endurance.

"This exciting recent data will encourage me to train even harder."

DIY: Garage Climbing Wall

Also an interesting idea we've been considering for a while for our resident master climber. Seems like we might require a taller garage however.

Pictures: Missing Tooth 2008

A couple of shots when Isaac had a tooth fall out last year. Also the last of our picture dump from the old camera.

Posting all of the pictures has made me so grateful for my family. Here's a little quote of the day, to celebrate happiness.

Happiness arises in a state of peace, not tumult. Ann Radcliffe

President Obama's Inauguration Speech

Unbelievably, Isaac told me he had not watched any of this at school. We will review later, but an amazing moment.

Pictures: Sleeping and Reading

Some random pictures of sleeping and reading with Isaac. Remember when you could take a nap with the kid on your chest? Can't do that anymore, but this was just as good.

Here's the set.

Star Wars Yoga

Easy to confuse Yoda with Yoga. Here's the Star Wars Yoga version. I like the "Downward Facing Wookie".

DIY: Laser

Check out this instruction for building a laser in a mint tin. Sounds like a potential birthday project.

Inauguration Speech

Here is the text to our President's speech on CNN. While listening to short clips at work, this quote struck me as being inspirational.

... people will judge you by what you can build, not what you can destroy.

Pictures: Summer 2007 Astros Trip

Here's the picture set when Denise got us tickets to the Astros game. Great fun!

Hiking: Lake Texana

We took a trip to Lake Texana State Park on Sunday to go hiking. While I forgot the camera to capture visual evidence, I can report it was a great hike.

When we voted on our favorite parts of the hike, two favorites were selected. Isaac and Leo liked the lake front beach the best. Isaac found an amazing hive of roly-polys under an old tree, and Leo loved splashing into the lake while tirelessly chasing sticks.

Denise and I enjoyed the strip of prairie where the hawks seemed to be hunting. At least 30 to 40 hawks circling the electric easement hunting for rabbits and mice. Leo was extremely energetic to help the hawks hunt rabbits, but we decided to practice his on-leash heal command instead.

This Henry David Thoreau quote reminded me of the hiking.

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.

Online Farmer's Market

I'm sure it is not possible to replace the joy of physically going to a farmer's market, but here's an online version called Foodzie and the article in the NY Times.

At first glance, there seems to be a wide assortment of granola; however, I bet you can't get a picture with that bearded bikini wearing guy named Leslie.

Wikipedia: Just War Theory

I was doing some reading regarding the Israeli / Gaza conflict, and was considering often heard refrains regarding "Just War Theory".

I found a good review of the philosophical history on wikipedia. You've notice how I reference wikipedia quite often, so I was very surprised and delighted to find a familiar name in the Further Reading section. However, the reference I was interested in is one of the few without a hyperlink. I would be happy to donate my services.

Update: Here's further web footprint. Wow, even Amazon (very impressive). Maybe, one day, there will be a blog also.

Longboard Tricks

Wanted to show Isaac these cool longboard tricks. Using a helmet of course!

Hydroponics: Nancy Knows Hydroponics Too

Wouldn't you know, Nancy knows about hydroponics too. She pointed to a website with a ton of information and even supplies. In one article, Dr. Resh even describes how a hydroponic system is perfect for space travel.

All of you studying Latin know what hydroponic means? Hint: the pure form of the science is not necessarily "soilless". The answer is in this introductory article.

Robots: New Robot For Programming

This new robot is designed to help kids learn programming and robotics concepts. Not sure of the cost or anything, but it looks interesting.

DIY: Solar Thermally Pumped Hydroponic System

Interesting project with some physics to make it work (don't they all). I had to look up hydroponic, it is growing plants without soil. This solution uses perlite instead of soil.

How it works (this is my best guess). The bottom bottle holds the nutrients for the plant. Temperature change caused by passing clouds or day to night, cause water vapor and the nutrient to flow up into the top bottle (which holds the plant). The changing temperature creates thermal energy enabling a pumping system which, apparently, illustrates the "Ideal Gas Law" (still need to do a little more research on how this works).

Games: Rockband Online

We had such a fun time at the New Year's Eve party playing rock band. A great way to get the kids and adults playing together.

Turns out Rockband is online for Wii games today.

Pictures: Bristlebot Birthday

Lots of great pictures from Isaac's 7th birthday celebration. Bristlebots and moonwalks were tons of fun!

Here's the set.

DIY: Battery Clip

We needed this one for the bristlebots, but can use it for future projects.

Pictures: Surfing

The longboard pictures are from 2007, the surfing pictures are from Summer 2008. Speaking of surfing, I hope our Surfside Beach is still there next summer.

Here are the sets: longboarding and surfing.

Pictures: 7th Birthday Face Painting

Pictures from Isaac's 7th birthday. Uncle Michael gave an awesome technical demonstration on camouflaged face painting. Not sure you can see the boys faces in the picture due to their disguise, but they had an awesome time.

We're convinced Uncle Michael could make a bundle doing this at carnivals and shows. There's even a blog of face painting.

Here's the rest of the set. Not sure we mentioned it previously, but the best method of viewing these picture sets in Flickr is by using the Slideshow.

Books: Another Reading List

Modern's 100 best English language novels of the 20th century.

Pictures: Rock and Roll

Here are various pictures showing our awesome rocking.  As Jack Black says, "One great rock show can change the world."

Here's the set.

Pictures: Hiking in the Big Thicket Park

I just got a large volume of pictures off our camera tonight. I'll give them out a little at a time so we don't bore you too much.

This one shows our adventures on New Year's 2009 at the Big Thicket Park North East of Houston. A great adventure, with new plants and unusual bridges (how about Leo).

Here's the rest of the set.

Songsmith For Creating Music

Microsoft has a new application which creates music for songs which you sing into the PC.  Might be worth a try.

Friday Link Dump

Quote: "He not busy being born is busy dying."  Bob Dylan

Web 2.0 calculator.  Have to admit, I type most of my calculation directly into Google, but this is interesting.

Electro-Harmonix guitar effects.  Looking to enhance the acoustic pickup.

Happy Friday!

Football: The First Down Line

A video describing one method of creating the yellow first down line during the football games.  I agree it is a great advantage to watching games on television.  I would suggest adding a yellow touchdown plane, to see if players "break the plane" when attempting to score a touchdown.

Much easier to judge a try in rugby, isn't it.

Games: Auditorium

This is definitely one of the coolest online games I've seen.  The way it integrates music and design and logic makes me feel brighter after playing it.

I can't wait to show Isaac this one!

Recycled CDs: Card Holder

This instruction is advertised as a paper holder, but I would like to try it for canasta playing cards.  When you take the big deck, it would definitely come in handy.

Great Presidential Picture

Take a look at this picture of the future and past presidents.  Remarkable!  

This picture was taken by the NY Times (not sure how to reference it, or how long it will remain, but here's the link to the article).

The Science of Snot

Seems like a magnificent science project for a elementary student.

The average sneeze can propel a mucus missile and its microbial passengers at up to 100 miles per hour...

Fantastic phrase "mucus missile".

Why Were We Born

From a skit between No Imact Man and his daughter.

"Isabella, Why were we born?"

She answers: "To Laugh"

"Then what is our job"

"To make sure other people can laugh too!"

Seeing this, I can't think of a better name for my child than Isaac.

Cleaning: Clean a Toilet with Coke

This one is for all of the cleaning buffs.  An instruction for cleaning the toilet with Coke.

Apparently the citric acid in the drink enables it to remove rust, clean grease, battery terminals, and more.  Wonder what it does to your intestines?

DIY Instruments: PVC Flute

More possibilities for a homemade band.  Here are instructions to a PVC flute.  The author has also posted instructions on playing a simple flute.  

If anyone can get hold of a cheep saxophone or clarinet mouthpiece, I'm sure we can adapt the instrument to make a reed instrument.

Logic Test

Interesting logic test.  

Try it out and see how you do.  While, I would expect similar results from others in my profession, I scored 15 of 15 correct.

Take a look at the Venn diagrams in the answer section.

Sympathy for the Dark Side

Isaac had a few of these this year, but is now able to construct them with minimal assistance.

Recycling Coffee Cups

I imagined some might find this either amusing or very useful.  What to do when your mother-in-law is in a hurry to get to church, and you need a quick coffee, but want to be green?

I think they used to call this dumpster diving?  However, certainly a new application for all of those unused hand wipes.

Finally, a quote of the day from Dr. Seuss.  "Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple"

Happy Monday!

Science Fiction Reading

Always looking for a new list of books to get at Half-Priced Books.  Did you know they had an online store?

DIY: Cheap Perpetual Calendar

Another project from the evil mad scientist (he's the one that first gave us the bristle bot).  This one involves a binary perpetual calendar.

Here's a review of binary math, if you haven't practiced counting by 1 and 0's lately.

0 - 10, However I guess we need to count to 31 at least for the calendar.

Binary	Decimal
0	0
1	1
10	2
11	3
100	4
101	5
110	6
111	7
1000	8
1001	9
1010	10

DIY: Super Soaker Water Mortar

Who needs to buy super soakers, we can build our own out of PVC pipe.  

We already need to visit the PVC section to repair the potato cannon, might as well get a few extra parts.

CRM: Customer Relationship Management

Web sites for our sales genie.  CRM Mastery, Church of the Customer, and finally, the Best CRM blogs of 2008.

Many happy contracts and happy, satisfied customers.

OverDubbs: Ode To Joy

Overdubbs, Beaker style.