Ed Hintz

Easter Island compound increases lifespan in old mice

2009-07-09T23:46:45Z

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090708132800.htm

The cool bit? The 28-38% increases in lifespan were on mice with a human age equivalent of 60. So they've got 20 years to get this sorted properly and tested and it'd still in time for me to benefit. Nice.

NIST study on wildland/urban crossover fire

2009-07-06T04:08:26Z

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617123429.htm
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/21/1n21fire225923-07-wildfire-study-focuses-devastate/?uniontrib
http://www2.bfrl.nist.gov/userpages/wmell/PUBLIC/TALKS_PAPERS/NIST_Witch_Fire_TN1635.pdf

The concept is to do a detailed analysis of the crossover between rural and
urban fire spread (generally studies focus on one or the other, but not the point at
which they merge). There's more to be done, but the idea is to
investigate what worked and what didn't, in regards to housing density,
construction materials, etc. Dense, but interesting reading (though I suppose there's only a few folks reading this that are likely to find it as interesting as I do).

The subject studied is the 2007 Witch and Guejito fires on The Trails community in Rancho Bernardo (San Diego).

IE 6

2009-07-06T02:30:28Z

http://www.oxyph.net/YOSPOS/ie6_1.jpg
http://www.oxyph.net/YOSPOS/ie6_2.jpg
http://www.oxyph.net/YOSPOS/ie6_3.jpg

Kiwi-ized

2009-07-05T23:36:28Z

Sat night we got an invite from another FF family to do dinner at Denny's. On arrival, they pointed out that Denny's seemed appropriately American for the 4th of July.

Whereupon Sam, Hunter, and myself all went "oh, wow, right, it's the 4th..."

All good. We'll get our fireworks fix on Guy Fawkes... :)

Epic win

2009-06-25T02:16:15Z

Short story of an episode in a training flight over California in an SR-71...

http://www.fromtheinside.us/thinking/Groundspeed_Check.htm

A Black encounter

2009-06-20T21:17:09Z

Iveco makes the chassis that the fire service is converting into fire trucks for vollys. We're in the process of a massive refit, where nearly every brigade is getting a nice new truck. Iveco is also a major corporate sponsor of rugby. So Iveco decided to give a handful of tickets away to vollys, and I happened to win a pair.

So, last night Hunter and I went to see the All Blacks playing France. 'Twas good fun. I won't claim to have much comprehension of rugby, but I understand enough to watch the game and grok it. Interestingly, I've come away with the observation that (for me anyway) rugby is easier to watch in person from up in the stands, while American Football is just the opposite. A lot of the finesse of football is lost when you're a gazillion miles up in the stands, and you have to rely on the jubmotron for it, but rugby was fairly comprehensible without the bigscreen.

Since NZ actually won the thing (unlike last week in DUD), I naturally felt it my god given duty to log in to the company chat server and crow about our victory. :) Speaking of crow, however... I must say, the FR fans pulled off a rather nice prank at the beginning of the match. Somebody smuggled in a white chicken/rooster (couldn't tell which from up in the stands). They'd dyed it blue up front, and red at the back. Nice touch. And they let it loose onto the pitch. The resulting incident, wherein the security staff hopelessly chased said fowl about trying to detain it, was comedy gold. Extra points for mostly disrupting the NZ national anthem (credit where credit is due). They finally nabbed it at "God Defend New Zealand", the very end of the anthem. The rest of the anthem, lost in cheering for the bird on the lamb...

So, probably a forlorn hope, but a guy can dream... Next goal, try to catch a San Diego Charger home game with Hunter this year (yeah, I said forlorn).

Don't stop...

2009-06-17T22:20:30Z

Why NZ rocks, reason #145042

2009-06-17T02:41:59Z

TV commercial shows brief clip of horses getting it on. Punter whinges (won't someone think of the children?!). Advertising Standards Agency rejects the complaint, noting:

"The humour is admittedly rather juvenile and of dubious taste but the footage is not gratuitous and does not depict anything not seen daily on farms up and down the country."

"To take offence seems rather prudish and curiously anthropomorphic (it is not technically possible for animals to 'fornicate')," the bureau said.

WIN.

Here's the ad for those overseas or without tv.

(Try that in the US. The Jesus freaks would have a heyday and Fox News would run a 30 minute segment on why it's Obama's fault for ruining our gawd feern chllen)

Sweet Georgia Brown

2009-06-17T01:09:11Z

With a true hillbilly twist:

All kinds of win

2009-06-16T04:38:51Z

Coworker was in Virgina for about a mo on a custy install. Stopped by WalMart and grabbed himself a copy of Rockband 2. Got home, found out it doesn't work on his NZ xbox. Ooops. Then he remembered me going on about buying a US xbox for just this reason... We now have Rockband 2. Win.

Epic win: just logged in, new song pack was released about a week ago. Iron Maiden.

I shall have this. Oh yes, I shall have this.

US DHS skunkworks triage tool

2009-06-02T03:09:41Z

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090527174732.htm

Pretty cool stuff, get the vitals at a distance of 1.5-12m/5-40ft, while still in full protective gear. Uses a laser to measure vibrations, then converts that to pulse, temp and respiration.

Only in uhmerika-the Christian sex shop

2009-05-29T21:08:23Z

With a tame selection of "marital aids" (very specifically noted as ONLY for use in marriage), and a policy of removing the usual racy pics of folks getting it on (or covering them with stickers), I give you book22.com. Your source for Christian sex toys. The product line is only updated after rigorous prayer and reflection, ensuring a product approved by Jesus when you call out God's name in orgasmic appreciation...

Viva la France!

2009-05-28T03:12:34Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5383584/French-prisoners-get-their-own-Tour-de-France.html

Nothired.com, your source for epic fail

2009-05-22T02:16:32Z

http://nothired.com/

Oh, and on roleplaying...

2009-05-18T02:04:51Z

We setup a MVA scenario for the arriving pumps. The gas prop car (gutted car with LPG fittings to squirt fire) was fitted with DC license plates. That makes it a diplomatic vehicle, and therefore sovereign territory. The usual rules don't apply, the occupant has to give us permission to help, and if they say no, that's that. We have no legal authority (if they're unable to give consent, i.e. unconscious, then we can proceed based on the concept of applied consent). So that's the obvious prob the arriving OIC has to deal with. But to make things more fun... The other vehicle was mine, and I had a meth lab in the back. They put some powder on the back bumper, and I got to play doper. That was awesomely fun. I put some powder under my nose for good effect, clutched a beer bottle, and bounced around inside like a whirling dervish, occasionally popping out the window all wide-eyed and yelling things like "fuck off fire pigs". When they tried to remove me I scrambled into the back and kept getting paranoid at them. Total comedy. Role playing is so much more fun than being the officer in charge. :)

This is the end, my only friend, the end

2009-05-18T01:56:54Z

The insanity of the first part of the year has finally come to an end. Closed Italian Girl on Sat night, and finished off the occifer course Sun afternoon. That's put paid to fire service training for the foreseeable future; at this point there are only 2 courses left that I've not completed, fire investigation, and executive officer. Since I'm not even a station officer yet, EO is years away. And they just ran the investigation course this weekend (conflicting with my SO course) so that prolly won't happen for as much as a year. As for operas, production starts on Onegin in August. I'm rather looking forward to doing a whole lot of puttering about the house and doing stuff with the fam.

SO course went pretty well. We managed to kill 2 FFs, 1 punter, and an SO, but I wasn't involved in any of those drills(well, I was observer for one, and role player for the other 2, but the point is *I* didn't kill anybody (not even punters). Interestingly, 3 of the 4 fatalities were under the control of the same SO student. Buggah. All my incidents went reasonably well given my relative inexperience, and I generally recognized all my faults on my own and called myself on them during the debriefs before the observers had their say. Overall I managed to avoid the majority of the typical traps, which was gratifying.

Stabat Mater

2009-05-14T02:31:22Z

Right, back on 28 Mar you may recall my going on about singing Stabat Mater. The concert was recorded, so here's me...

http://www.hintz.org/media/stabatmater/

I'd suggest listening in order of: 02, 06, 01, 09. 02 is my big aria, and the others are listed in what I figure is descending order of quality.

Pimpin' large

2009-05-13T00:43:35Z

Well, we got us a pimp ride.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Mitsubishi/auction-217347487.htm

Not that we care about pimping, but it seems like a pretty good value, much lower ks than anything else in the price range, and it's via a brigade member so we have short term credit. Smooth little ride, and lots of power to spare. Prolly gonna be a bit thirsty, but that's fine, I'm trying to cut down on driving anyway, so good incentive there.

Storm cloud, silver lining...

2009-05-06T00:31:18Z

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/2386614/New-car-sales-fall-to-record-low

Apparently last mos new car sales were the worst in 35 years or so. Ergo, the dealers are likely to be highly motivated to make a sale... We've managed loaner cars to cover us for about 2-3 weeks, so after payday on the 20th we'll either try to get a beater for a max of $1k, or get a new econobox and do it on a 5 yr finance. The latter could be an attractive option, particularly as some of them are offering 5 yr warranties and it seems the industry will be more easily beat upon at present.

That Murphy's a right bastard...

2009-05-04T05:32:30Z

So. Sat night was the beginning of hell week for the opera, reh every day Sat-Tu with final dress on Th and opening this Sat (2 of those reh being 11 hour calls-Sun and Tu). And to make things more fun, the next 2 weekends are the Station Officer course for the Fire Service. Me heap busy. Naturally, therefore, the car decided to puke itself (though I suppose it's good that it did so *after* reh rather than before)...

Leaving me on SH1, just about 15m shy of the Jville offramp, at 2315 on Saturday night. Couldn't leave it there, so had to drop $120 on a tow. Borrowed the fire brigade van after that was all done, got home at 0100, and had to be back at the theater at 1300 for the 11 hr call. Yay.

Talked to the mechanic today, and it's poked. Furthermore, the engines have a bad reputation(overheating heads), so buying a secondhander is a dubious proposition. Regardless, I need something more or less now, so it seems we'll be buying a car soon. We did see a rather nice looking '96 landrover discovery. 4L V8, so would be a mighty gas guzzler, but would be nice to have a 4x4 to go fishing with; have had to curtail quite a few trips due to the van being unable to go fun places. Anyway. Meh. Off to reh in 1 hr.

Flight 666

2009-05-01T01:39:15Z

As is often the case, while the rest of the world got Flight 666 on 21 Apr, it opened here on 30 Apr.

Being the good little Maiden fan that I am, I drug the family along to the first showing, 2030 at Reading Cinemas(and, Hunter seems to be quite the budding Maiden fan, Daddy is proud of his wee headbanger...). To be fair, Iron Maiden would have to work pretty hard to disappoint me. But even so... Awesome film. Sam Dunn, best known for Metal:A Headbanger's Journey (which redrain clued me into several years back, muy gracias!), did the film, and as one would expect he did it *very* well. Seeing inside the Maiden machine was great, and of course being an aviation geek all the footage of the 757 was fun. Only thing that could have made it more fun would have been if they'd tied it in with Wacken-given that Headbanger's Journey was about Dunn's pilgrimage to Wacken, getting some footage of Maiden playing there would have been nicely symbiotic (and, there would have been the possibility of seeing myself there grinning like an idiot in the front row... :D ).

One of the things Bruce said in an interview was something about how they've had a lot of new fans in the past 5-10 years, and they saw this tour as sort of a present to them. Like "here, have some World Slavery Tour". Which really made me reflect on my good fortune. I got *the* WST in '85 in San Diego(6 days after the epic Live After Death filming at Long Beach Arena), and saw them in '86 and '88 too, which were still in that era. And now I got to see them doing the revised version both at Wacken and Auckland. I'm pretty damned pleased about that.

Definitely one for the DVD cabinet when the time comes.

grumble

2009-04-23T04:24:57Z

I have to work Saturday. Bad enough that it's ANZAC day. But it also so happens that Sat *was* my only day off until 23 May. Grump.

Well, dunno if she sees LJ anymore...

2009-04-23T02:13:38Z

But today is amanda42's bday. Happy bday sis. Bit crazy how old we're getting ain't it? I'm less than a year out from 40 now, and you're hot on my heels...

Walkies

2009-04-22T02:23:04Z

Saturday we had a lovely family hike... Having a look at google maps it looks like somewhere on the order of 5 miles/8ks, which is a pretty good effort for our unfit lot. On that link, the start point is roughly the "A", and the endpoint is where it says Karehana Bay (actually, I went to about where the map labels Plimmerton).

It breaks up into roughly 3 sections. The first is from Ocean Pde, and fairly good trail out to the point (see the map, it'll make sense). The middle section is a long stretch of rocky shoreline, no real trail, fairly tough work at times with some of the rocks being almost sand-like in consistency (i.e. you sink into it a bit, hard going). It ends at the next point (again, see sat image). And the last section used to be Plimmerton Quarry, so there's a gravel road (in fairly poor condition towards the northern end). So, we drove up to Ocean Pde, parked, and got to it about 1230. Stopped about 1/2 through for a nice lunch break and got to the Quarry site about 1530 (high tide was 1600 and we wanted to be off the beach by then, just barely made it). Once we got around the last bend and could see Karehana Bay/Plimmerton, I jogged ahead with Sparky and grabbed the fire brigade's van, then picked up Sam and Hunter, and we sorted out the car situation. Got hope about 1800, totally pooped, but it was a great day. Though Sam and Sparky both developed some blisters for their efforts; actually had to take Spark to the vet yesterday, poor pup is still limping. But hey, being able to have such fantastic scenery on our doorstep is really sweet. NZ rocks.

Here's a piccie, clickie on it for a few more in the gallery...

Bohemian Rhapsody, as performed by old computer hardware

2009-04-21T06:39:59Z

This is the work of a brilliant yet totally insane person. Yeah, I stole it from /., but I'm sure they won't mind.