blivet 2.0

Harvard Dialect Survey #

"A professor at Harvard University has put together a survey of dialects of US English. Results are displayed graphically on a series of maps of the United States." [Kuro5hin.Org]

This is real interesting to me. Perhaps because so many people in Las Vegas are from somewhere else, I seem to frequently encounter the soda/pop and bag/sack dichotomy. I don’t even want to go near dinner/supper.

Of course, I suppose being an Anthropologist might have something to do with it too. 

Bad blogger, no cookie! #

Good grief. I hadn’t been here for so long my cookie had expired.

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Bloggers in Las Vegas #

The three of us had a really nice get together last night with David Singer (Defenestration Corner) and his family at Grape Street, a local eatery. I had briefly rendezvoused with the three of them earlier in the week, but this was the first time that all six of us could get together. Sorry, no pictures, you’ll have to take my word for it. 

Time flies when you’re having fun #

Our son Ian is 16 months old today!

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Jaguar, RIP #

Goodbye, good cat. [Dave]

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Valentine’s Day #

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More bloggers coming to Las Vegas #

There is a very good chance we will get to meet another blogger next week when they vacation in Las Vegas. I’m not trying to be mysterious by not mentioning who it is. Rather, I haven’t asked them if I could blog it.

GeoURL #

I finally got around to setting up a GeoURL for blivet (over there on the right). I don’t know why Mr. GIS seems to be tardy in doing this thing that is an occupational expertise.

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Mike is back #

Mike of blackholebrain is back! I can only echo garret’s sentiment.

Happy Darwin Day! #

"Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin with events and activities which celebrate humanity and the science in our lives." [The Darwin Day Program via MeFi]

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As your attorney #

I strongly advise you to acquire this DVD immediately. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas: Criterion Edition will be out next week. [via Kevin]

“There was madness in any direction and at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing right, that we were winning. And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

This would vaguely disturb my Mother #

But she wouldn’t immediately admit to it. TidBITS hits issue #666. Congrats to ACE and the crew.

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No link to leukemia cluster in small Nevada town #

"”We’ve learned a lot. But we haven’t found the cause of this leukemia cluster,” said Dr. Carol Rubin, head of the CDC’s research team.

Rubin released the study results Thursday at a community meeting attended by about 300 people. Preliminary results, which echoed those announced Thursday, had been released in August.

The CDC announced in August that the heavy metal [Tungsten] was found in unexpectedly high levels in eight out of 10 Fallon residents tested. Nationally, one in 10 Americans has comparatively high levels." [CNN]

Other stuff #

There is a very large (but finite) number of things I would like comment on here, but really don’t have the time to be coherent about them. Some are incredibly bad, like the leaked (was it a trial baloon?) Domestic Security Enhancement Act (aka Patriot Act II) [Bill Moyers' NOW interview], some that is interesting but sad, like additional information about the Columbia tragedy, and some that is wonderfully thought-provoking like Please Don’t Feed the Prophet at killing the buddha. The first two are from all over the place (eg., I saw them on Daypop), but I first saw the ktb link at Eliot’s.

Even more extended blog family #

Further adventures with Susan’s family — today was the second birthday party for her niece, Valerie. It was good to see everyone again and I must say, Valerie is quite the cutie. Ian got excited when it came time to break the piñata but didn’t participate it that part of the party, maybe next year.

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Extended blog family #

One nice thing that happened yesterday afternoon that I couldn’t mention last night due to the modem failure was that Susan’s mother dropped by work. We had a great talk about Native Americans in the Mojave Desert, southern California and northern Mexico. She also turned me on to a fantastic book on indigenous technology that I was previously unaware of.

Hardware Failures #

We are back after having a hardware failure with the cable modem here at home yesterday. It was almost six years old, so I guess it was time. After 90 minutes on the less than stellar phone support last night, things got better once we got to the point of scheduling a tech to come out today. Additional points to Matthew from Cox for arriving right at 10 in the ‘10 to noon’ window. He got things back up in 10 minutes. But then, new hardware will do that.

The Way We Tax:
A 50-State Report [Governing] #

I heard about this report in the current issue of Governing magazine concerning how the various states manage their taxation on NPR this morning. Yep, Nevada is right there at number 50. Way to go again, guys.

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