Ordered my Amazon Echo

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So I'm sure you've heard about Amazon Echo... if you haven't, think Hal 9000 of the Amazon product line. She's basically like Siri or Cortana except the fact she's a standalone device. She exists as a black cylinder that contains dual downward-facing speakers that produce 360 degree omni-directional sound so wherever you are in the room you should (in-theory, let's see how well she sounds... especially with my wood panneling) hear her great. Not only is it a wifi device connected to Amazon's services it can also stream (from your smart device) via Bluetooth so you can use things like your Audible app, iTunes, Pandora etc to stream the audio to her.

Echo also can be controlled via an app available on Fire OS, Android, iOS and traditional desktop browsers. It has features like alarms, music, you can create shopping lists (I'll use this a lot, instead of getting out my phone while watching TV to remind myself of something I'll just say "Alexa add to list"), query Wikipedia etc. The best part is, from my understanding her brain is largely in the cloud meaning Amazon can easily add features and improve the software.

While some fear it will always be listening blah blah blah... I don't care, my phones could be doing that too, so could my iPad... in theory so could my Fire TV's remote!

Right now Amazon Prime members get special pricing on her as obviously the idea is she will be something that will help you shop within the Amazon system and hey that's fine with me I watch Prime daily via my Fire TV, I'm a long long long time Audible subscriber, I do most of my shopping on Amazon etc.

Josh needs your help

http://www.gofundme.com/joshfirerecovery

On New Year's Day my friend was in his apartment bathroom, next thing he knows the room is filling with smoke and his apartment is in flames. He grabbed one dog and got him outside, he then ran back in for the second dog. The second dog did not survive, Josh received fairly bad burns to his hands trying to rescue Jack and had considerable smoke inhalation. He was taken to a top-notch burn unit, put on a respirator & feeding tube and kept sedated. He has since been released.

Josh turns 31 next month and prior to the fire was already disabled, he has zero savings and has lost the vast majority of his belongings, including clothing. While his girlfriend is trying to help raise two-thousand dollars to help him, this is a pretty terrible thing to happen right after Christmas and to start the New Year with. 2 years ago on Josh's birthday he had to have spine surgery to try and help with some of the pain from the incident has left him disabled. I'd really like to see if we can surpass the goal and help him have a bright spot in an already gloomy year. Please consider sharing this everywhere you can.

If you know Josh, he's never had good luck. Life seems to find every chance it can to drag him down and then repeatedly kick him while he's down. Let's help Josh rise from the ashes of this fire, not unlike the phoenix, and use it as a Novus Initium (a new beginning). If you can, give a dollar, if you can give more please do. If you can't afford to give (or don't want to) please consider sharing this blog post or even the link to the gofundme campaign.

 

You will be missed Jack.

You will be missed Jack.

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I have removed this post. It served its purpose and the parties involved are no longer remotely relevant.

 

 

 

 


Paleo friendly ketchup!

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So I know a lot of people love their ketchup (catsup) but hey, it's got a lot of sugar in it usually. Well, I went in search of a good sugar-free ketchup and I found one! I love it! I don't use a lot of it so a 13oz bottle lasts me about 2 months. What brand do you ask? Westbrae Natural Vegetarian Unsweetened Ketchup! 

Ingredients: Water, tomato paste (from red ripe tomatoes), apple cider vinegar, salt, onion, maltodextrin (from corn), spice, natural flavor.

Now, some of you are going to argue that maltodextrin is NOT paleo/sugar-free but I disagree.

Yes maltodextrin has a glycemic index of over 100, however it's in such small quantities in this ketchup that it's not even worth noting, a tbsp or two with your food is going to have a negligible effect on blood sugar levels and insulin activity, if you drink a bottle or two ok yes you might be getting enough to make a worthwhile difference bbbuuuttttttt if you are drinking 26 ounces of ketchup in a meal you have other issues. 

"Oh but maltodextrin from corn! Corn is a grain! Corn isn't paleo!" *facepalm* Maltodextrin can come from any number of sources, likening maltodextrin to corn is like saying "I can BBQ with diamonds instead of charcoal because they are both carbon!". 

Look, if you want ketchup that's sugar-free this is the best solution I've found that doesn't involve a lot of labor (try making your own, it's a giant time-suck). This stuff tastes wonderful, 2-tbsp takes care of a pound of hamburger for me (two 1/2lb patties) and adds a whopping 10kcals and 2g of carbohydrates (from the tomato paste) to a meal. If you are concerned about the maltodextrin, and just won't listen to me, buy some of the ketchup and get a blood-glucose meter and experiment with a bottle... for the vast majority of people you'll find a negligible change.

Stop saying sweet potatoes are more nutritious than white potatoes!

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I get tired of seeing the Paleo community go

white and sweet potatoes.jpg
“Oh sweet potatoes brah like they are way better than white potatoes, like grok man he only ate sweet potatoes and white potatoes are just the devil! Like uh I saw that they have more of them nutrient things and are healthier for you and just better, sweet potato with butter, sweet potato with cinnamon, sweet potato sweet potato sweet potato!”

I do not care for the taste of sweet potatoes at all, nor do I care for people making claims that have zero basis in reality. Yes, white potatoes are nightshades and a small portion of the population has negative reactions to nightshades... I suspect somewhere, somewhen an individual that had a legitimate nightshade issue found that when they switched to sweet potatoes from white potatoes they had some of their health issues vanish and then someone else saw it and was like "oh man sweet potatoes!" and then another and another and another... and this white potatoes developed a stigma.

The Paleo community is starting to come around to white potatoes with more and more people being adventurous and returning to them, finding they don't have issue with them as they suspected. Still, at least once a week I see someone on a forum or Reddit or a blog demonize white potatoes with comments like "sweet potatoes are more nutritious!" well... why don't we actually take a look at the numbers, because... you know... SCIENCE.

Sweet Potatoes 200g White Potatoes 200g
kcals 160 281
fat 0g 0g
cholesterol 0mg 0mg
carbohydrates 41g 64g
dietary fiber 7g 6g
sugars 13g 4g
protein 4g 6g
Vitamin A 38433IU 29.9IU
Vitamin C 39.2mg 37.7mg
Vitamin D - -
Vitamin E 1.4mg 0.1mg
Vitamin K 4.6mcg 8.1mcg
Thiamin 0.2mg .01mg
Riboflavin 0.2mg 0.1mg
Niacin 3mg 4.6mg
Vitamin B6 0.6mg 0.6mg
Folate 12mcg 114mcg
Vitamin B12 - -
Pantothenic Acid 1.8mg 1.1mg
Choline 26.2mg 43.1mg
Betaine 69.2mg 0.6mg
Calcium 76mg 29.9mg
Iron 1.4mg 1.9mg
Magnesium 54mg 80.7mg
Phosphorous 108mg 224mg
Potassium 950mg 1626mg
Sodium 72mg 20.39mg
Zinc 0.6mg 1mg
Copper 0.3mg 0.4mg
Manganese 1mg 0.6mg
Selenium 0.4mcg 1.5mcg
Fluoride -

Wait, what? I thought sweet potatoes were so much more nutritious than white potatoes?!?! You're telling me the only thing sweet potatoes has over white potatoes is considerably more vitamin A but white potatoes have more of several other minerals/nutrients/vitamins. Fancy that. Now stop saying sweet potatoes are more nutritious.

This just in, you don't matter.

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The U.S. population is 316+ million, while our planet has more than 7 billion people on it and the Milky Way (our galaxy) contains about 500 billion stars.

milkyway.jpg

 

One estimate suggests that the Universe contains more than 100 billion (or 10 to the 11th) galaxies. One can guess that there are likely at least 70 sextillion, stars or 7 × 10 to the 22nd. stars in the Universe (remember, not every galaxy is similar in size and quantity of stars, 70 sextillion is likely a gross understimate). The universe is part of??? The fact of the matter is you don't matter even on a national level (nor do I) and we are a joke in our arm of the galaxy, our arm of the galaxy is a fragment of our galaxy, our galaxy doesn't even begin to matter at a universal level and our universe is potentially a tiny spec in the grand scheme of things.

“Note, my above figures are fairly conservative and made with a lot of liberties. I’ve seen the Milky Way estimated from anywhere between 200 and 500 billion stars for example and the galaxies in the universe figure is likely low too. There could easily be septillions of stars (or more!)”

So really, someone tell me why we do nonsense like fight, argue, be petty about the most idiotic things? Why do the Kardashians matter? Why does American Idol matter, why do YOU matter? Why should I like your kid's photos on Facebook, should I really care that you are battling cancer? Should I even get out of bed Monday and go to work because when you think about it the Universe doesn't give a rat's ass and whatever it is part of doesn't either. I dunno, maybe I'm a damn fool for thinking about it but hey... what do I know. All I know is existence is far greater than we can imagine yet we focus and obsess about petty shit in our own lives and think we are all the center of existence when the fact is in the grand scheme of things we do not matter in the slightest.

Don't get me wrong, don't take this as a message to just give up. BETTER YOURSELF! Expand your mind, contemplate existence, find something constructive to do, apply yourself to bettering the lives of those around you. Do something for someone else. Learn something. Stare up into the night sky and think about what you are seeing for a few minutes.

 

If we take a look at our own solar system and count the currently defined planets; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune we know of life on 1 in 8 planets. Let's assume this is actually a high percentage and that 1 in 100 planets has some sort of life.

A septillion is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 so that gives us 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 worlds with at least single cellular life. That's 10 sextillion worlds.

Ok, so let's assume 1 out of every thousand worlds has multi-cellular life. That's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 worlds, 1 quintillion.

Now let's assume out of those 1 quintillion muti-cellular worlds that 1 in 1000 has something resembling animals. 1,000,000,000,000,000. That's 1 quadrillion worlds with animal life.

Let's assume 1 in 10 of those have some sort of sentient life that has developed the use of tools, even if they are primitive. That's 10 TRILLION worlds.

10 trillion worlds scattered among 100 billion galaxies gives an average of 100 tool-building worlds in your galaxy. Then you have 13.8 billion years to spread those out over.

With such a conservative estimate, it is highly unlikely that we will ever encounter a sentient species that originated on another planet.

We could easily change those numbers in our favor though. Say 1 in 2 stars has a planet or moon that supports life. 500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets with life. Say 1 in 2 of those has tool building life, 250,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

250 septillion planets with tool-building life. That gives you an average of 25,000 tool-building worlds per galaxy. That's still only a 1 in 20 million shot that any given star in our own galaxy hosts a planet/moon with a tool-building race on it. Then factor in that the Milky Way is estimated at 13.21 billion years old, consider humans are only about 200,000 years old and that civilization only goes back 10,000-25,000 years old (if you believe that the Bosnian 'pyramid' is a human creation then 25,000 years) and that we didn't land on the Moon until July 20, 1969, and it is the farthest we've ever sent human beings...

Now let's assume that in the first billion years of our galaxy, there were ZERO tool-building species. That leaves you with 12.21 billion years to divide 25,000 civilizations over a galaxy with 100,000-180,000 light-year diameter. Let's assume 140,000 light-years. That's more than 15,000,000,000 square light-years.

That gives us 1 tool-building civilization per 600,000 square light-years spread out over 12 billion years.

It sucks. I want to meet an off-world species sooooo much, better I want to travel to some of their worlds and see them with my own eyes. But, unless we figure out immortality I won't be holding my breath.

And obviously, this figure could be way lower than in reality. If a species develops space technology it could easily begin to spread. Even if a civilization needed a thousand years to spread to a neighboring star in 10,000 years you could have a presence in 512 star systems, in 20,000 years 524,288 star systems.

Tested my Atari 1050's and Atari 850 floppy drives

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atari 810 1050 floppy drives.jpg

So today I finally got around to testing my Atari floppy drives I've picked up lately. The bottom 810 and the middle 1050 I picked up via Goodwill locations, the top 1050 I actually bought on eBay along with another 800xl (4 now and they all run like champs!!!) and an Atari 1027 printer (printhead is rotted, obviously) all in their original boxes with original cables and manuals. Sadly the top 1050 doesn't work, I get boot errors and there was quite a bit of what appeared to be rubber dust on the floppy after I took it out so I'll take it apart probably early next year once things slow down and see what I can do to get her back to life.

atari 1027 printer.jpg

Hey, 2 out of 3 of them work and that's honestly more than I could have hoped for. I was sure the 810 would be DoA as it originally belonged to a high school and presumably saw a lot of use, but man it works like a champ still! Mind you, I don't need these floppy drives to work as I have an SIO2PC and an Atarimax MyIDE-II CompactFlash Interface but it's just nice to have the functional drives, I also picked up 50 new-ish floppies (less than a decade old) from a manufacturer that handles legacy support for the U.S. Government (that's right tax payers, somewhere someone in the government is still using computers that need floppy disks haha).