archshrk

We still haven’t picked a name but we’ve narrowed it down a bit (no, we’re not telling you our current choices). but I came across an interesting article on Slate.com – A Roshanda by Any Other Name How do babies with super-black names fare? which starts off with this story..

In 1958, a New York City father named Robert Lane decided to call his baby son Winner. The Lanes, who lived in a housing project in Harlem, already had several children, each with a fairly typical name. But this boy—well, Robert Lane apparently had a special feeling about him. Winner Lane: How could he fail with a name like that?

Three years later, the Lanes had another baby boy, their seventh and last child. For reasons that no one can quite pin down today, Robert decided to name this boy Loser. Robert wasn’t unhappy about the new baby; he just seemed to get a kick out of the name’s bookend effect. First a Winner, now a Loser. But if Winner Lane could hardly be expected to fail, could Loser Lane possibly succeed?

Loser Lane did in fact succeed. He went to prep school on a scholarship, graduated from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and joined the New York Police Department, where he made detective and, eventually, sergeant. Although he never hid his name, many people were uncomfortable using it. To his police colleagues today, he is known as Lou.

And what of his brother? The most noteworthy achievement of Winner Lane, now in his late 40s, is the sheer length of his criminal record: more than 30 arrests for burglary, domestic violence, trespassing, resisting arrest, and other mayhem.

It then goes on to talk about “The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names,” a research paper written by a white economist (Steven Levitt, a co-author of the Slate.com article) and a black economist (Roland G. Fryer Jr., a young Harvard scholar who studies race). The paper acknowledged the social and economic gulf between blacks and whites but paid particular attention to the gulf between black and white culture. Blacks and whites watch different TV shows, for instance; they smoke different cigarettes. And black parents give their children names that are starkly different than white children’s.

I bring all this up because one of the names I considered (but was vetoed) was Malcolm. Its a name I’ve liked for some time and associate with one real life person, whom I know, and one fictitious person, whom I’ve never met. Unfortunately, most people seem to associate it with Malcolm X and say that its a “black name” even though Malcolm in the Middle is very white – very.

But from that same article comes these lists of the 20 Whitest and Blackest names. My question to you is, are these names really white or black? And how hard is it for the other side to appropriate one of these names?

The 20 Whitest Boy Names

1. Jake
2. Connor
3. Tanner
4. Wyatt
5. Cody
6. Dustin
7. Luke
8. Jack
9. Scott
10. Logan
11. Cole
12. Lucas
13. Bradley
14. Jacob
15. Garrett
16. Dylan
17. Maxwell
18. Hunter
19. Brett
20. Colin

With our second child only weeks away and our first born just over two years old, there wasn’t a lot of things we needed to prepare prior to bringing Jr. home. In fact, we really only needed two things… A name and a double stroller. Unfortunately, we haven’t picked either yet.

We’ve managed to narrow the names down to just three names – Engelbert, Sylvester and Meredith. The stroller, not so much. I’ve waffled back and forth so much i can’t remember which one’s I liked and why I passed on others. Style was never a factor as most strollers look pretty sharp these days. It always came down to function.

Could it fit both our boys? Was it easy to handle fully loaded or half loaded? Did it fold up nicely or was it just as big either way?

Web reviews and comments could only reveal so much and in-store products were hard to find but needed to be test-driven to really get an idea of what to expect. Too bad they don’t have sample babies you can borrow at the store.

Anyway, after some more soul searching and field investigations and the fact that Corbin insisted on sitting forward in the back seat of a display model, we have shifted gears again and have decided on the Baby Trend Sit N Stand Double Stroller (in Green Tea)

Features:
Accepts two Baby Trend infant car seats (which we don’t have)
Younger child in front while an older child can sit or stand in the rear (forward or rear facing!)
Covered parent tray with 2-cup holders
One hand fold is fast and easy to use
5-point child restraint safety harness
Removable/Swing away child tray with cup holder (removable is why this one beat out the other doubles)
Removable rear seat converts stroller to traditional Sit N Stand (longevity)
Foot activated rear brake

Downside – it doesn’t officially support our Britax Companion Infant Car Seat (which has been retired) but I suspect it will still work.

It may look like Tucson got snow last night but closer inspection reveals that, if it was, it was limited to the UMC Hospital. Turns out that what looks like snow is actually Foam from the roof top Heliport Fire Suppression System. Someone activated it last night around 9pm and the foam “runs off” the roof to the street below.

This is especially relevant to me because you see that ramp and stair to the right of the entrance? I did that. Just the stair and ramp part – nothing else. I was brought in at the end of the project’s construction phase to resolve some issues related to a change in parking. Nothing too exciting but sometimes it little things like accessibility that can hold a project up.

On Wednesday, we were over at a friends house and because it was their birthday the next day we all celebrated with some ice cream. Now this was Corbin’s first experience with an ice cream cone so he didn’t even know how to eat it. Julia had to show him and even then he was a little uncertain about how to lick an ice cream cone. Eventually he got into and was enjoying the ice cream like any kid would.

You can see in the video the tentative licking but the ice cream on his face shows that he was making progress. Unfortunately, that excitement you see in the video eventually led to the end of the ice cream as he inadvertently launched the remaining ice cream onto the ground in a fit of gleeful shaking. He didn’t seem too disappointed though. I just told him to focus on eating the cone now. I guess I should have been more specific because he turned the cone upside down to eat the pointy end and the melted ice cream that remained pour out onto the floor just after we had cleaned up the ice cream scoop that he had shaken free.

Note to self: don’t turn of the video too soon or you’ll miss the best parts.

For those of you considering a trip to the Grand Canyon (especially the Grand Canyon Skywalk) you may want to watch this video first.

Aerial Filmworks is working with the Grand Canyon National Park to film the national park using the Cineflex V14HD. This amazing gyro-stabilized aerial system uses an integrated Sony CineAlta HDC1500 camera. The lens is a 42x 9.7mm Fujinon. All footage was recorded 1080/23.98p dual-link 4:4:4 to a Sony SRW1 deck on HDCAM SR tape stock.

For the gamers who frequent my site (especially when at school) I must apologize for the down time earlier today. My wife emailed me to let me know there were some problems with our sites and that I had an email from the hosting company I should read. Here’s what it said:

Recently we have noticed that your web site(s) is consuming a
disproportionate amount of server resources (including memory and/or CPU
time). Because of this, we have had to move your account off of the
shared hosting server to an auxiliary server. We now request that you
consider purchasing a Managed or other Dedicated Server in order to
continue hosting with 1&1 Internet.

The decision to move your account was made by the system administrators
in order to improve the quality of service for the rest of our clients
on the shared server from which you were previously hosted. The
resources consumed by your account threatened the ability of that server
to capably operate as as a shared host, so it was required that your
account be moved in order to mitigate server load. Though we could move
your site back to the original shared hosting server, it is not
recommended. Your account activity has demonstrated that your site
deserves its own server to better suit its performance needs.

Please visit 1and1.com to review the server products we offer. You will
have one (1) month to make a decision and migrate your account over to a
1&1 server or another host provider. You can choose to return your
account back to the shared server, provided that you take steps to
reduce the load generated by your websites. If the account has to be
moved off the shared server system again you will only have the option
of purchasing a dedicated server account to continue hosting with 1&1
Internet.

Please reply to this email promptly. Further questions/comments should
be directed to abuse-team email.

Thank you for your compliance in this matter.

Apparently, the new archive plugin I installed was using over 20% of the resources on the shared server- the entire server. To put it in perspective, shared servers like the one I use can host 1,000 websites or more. That’s entire websites, not just pages.

Found this on They Might Be Giants

This isn’t my area of expertise so I won’t even get into the legitimacy of their “argument” but here’s what the YouTube publisher had to say.

The musicians are wrong: they do need ten dimensions to get rid of the conformal anomaly, as string theory explains, after all. But the song is fun anyway.

The song was included in an episode of the Brave New World – with Brian Greene about string theory.

I don’t need no
Ten dimensions
Ain’t afraid of
Quantum jitter

Cut the strings
‘Cause I ain’t no puppet
And I’m not gonna dance
To your tune

General relativity
Quantum theory
They’ve been put to the test
And Isaac Newton has been laid to rest

But you’re still not satisfied
‘Cause when the two theories collide
All hell breaks loose, and you fashion the noose
To tie it all together with string — NO!

Cut the strings
I won’t jump through your hoops
I don’t believe in your loops

Of string
Cut the strings
Physics doesn’t demand
Any vibrating band Of string

More on the song “String Theory“