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July 29, 2005

FOUR FOR FRIDAY

Q1: How does your current boss compare to others you've had?

Q2: On this day in 1958, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that formally established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). At the time, NASA's inauguration was a sign to the rest of the world that the United States was fully committed to winning the space race against the Soviets. Do you think NASA has outlived its usefulness? If so, do you think our space-related interests would be better served in the hands of private, profit-driven enterprises?

Q3: If you could be a contestant on any past or present television game show, which show would you choose to be on? (If you need a little help identifying all of the possibilities, click here for a list of shows.)

Q4: The first half of the new millennium's inaugural decade is now over. What stands out in your mind as the biggest societal shift since the turn of the century?

Posted by Mikal at 12:02 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

July 26, 2005

THINKING CAP TIME

A friend of mine assured me that each of the following questions are not 'trick questions' (meaning, each has an honestly straightforward answer, which you can find by clicking on the "Click Here to Continuing Reading" link below question #12.

Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.
What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?
Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons (all other vegetables must be replanted every year). What are the only two perennial vegetables?
Name the only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defense, and the offensive team can score without touching the ball?
What fruit has its seeds on the outside?
In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?
Only three words in standard English begin with the letters "dw" and they are all common words. Name two of them.
There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?
Where are the lakes that are referred to in the sports team named The Los Angeles Lakers?
There are seven ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit. Taking a base on balls (a walk) is one way. Name the other six.
Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never solid frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.
Name six or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "s."

If you think you know the answers to some or all of these questions, click on the "Comments" link below, leave your answers, and then pop back in for the answer key.

Answers To The Quiz:

The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends....Boxing.
North American landmark constantly moving backward....Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)
Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons....asparagus and rhubarb.
The only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defines, and the offensive team can score without touching the ball...baseball.
The fruit with its seeds on the outside....strawberry.
How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)
Three English words beginning with dw.....dwarf, dwell and dwindle.
Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar....period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.
The original lakes referred to in Lakers....in Minnesota. (The team was originally known as the Minneapolis Lakers, and kept the name when they moved west.)
Seven ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit....taking a base on balls (a walk)....batter hit by a pitch, passed ball, catcher interference, catcher drops third strike, fielder's choice, and being designated as a pinch-runner.
The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh....lettuce.
Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with "s" ? ...shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings and stilts.

Posted by Mikal at 12:28 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

July 25, 2005

One of the more difficult situations faced by paramedics and emergency room nurses and doctors is how to locate an emergency contact or next of kin for a person who is unconscious or otherwise unable to respond to questions in an emergency situation. Even if you're carrying one or more forms of identification, those items don't necessarily provide information about where and how relatives or other interested parties can be reached if you're seriously injured.

But now, thanks to a U.K.-based paramedic named Bob Brotchie, all of us with cell phones have a relatively simple way of sharing In Case of Emergency (ICE) contact information with anyone who may need it. Simply enter your emergency contact person's phone number(s) into your cell phone, and label the entry "ICE-[NAME HERE]". That's it; that's all you have to do. It's a convenient and universal way of alerting paramedics, police, fire, Red Cross, and other emergency services personnel to the name(s) and phone number(s) of who you feel should be contacted in the case of an emergency.

Mind you, in order for this to really work, your cell phone has to remain with you at the time of the emergency. While most people's wallets and purses do contain some items bearing photographs that can be matched to their owners (such as driver's licenses), a cell phone doesn't necessarily provide any direct means of identifying its owner. And while any form of ID can become separated from the person bearing it, a cell phone is an object frequently carried in hand or on the waist, greatly increasing the chances of its loss in an accident.

In the case of serious blunt-force accident, a cell phone can be damaged to the point where the information stored in it is no longer retrievable. This is also true of other forms of identification (a piece of paper or a card can be rendered unreadable by fire or water damage), but non-electronic devices will generally survive falls or impacts that might otherwise render cell phones non-functional.

Still, whatever the drawbacks, carrying some form of ICE information is better than none, so if this cell phone-based campaign prompts some people who aren't already doing so to start, I'd say it's a worthwhile effort.

Beware though... upon hearing of this idea, some skeptics may share 'hoax' warnings about ICE. Apparently, someone with too much free time on their hands recently started a rumor that adding ICE to your cell phone's address book would trigger premium charges thanks to malicious text messages or viruses randomly sent to phones to scan for such entries. Not to worry... adding an ICE entry to your cell phone's address book WILL NOT open your phone to a cell phone-based virus, nor will it automatically kick on a premium rate text messaging service. Think about it... if this were true, someone would have already developed a cell phone virus that searched for something way more popular that ICE... namely "MOM" or "WORK" and we'd all paying out our wazoos as a result.

Bottom line,,, if you have room in your cell phone's address book, consider adding "ICE - MOM" or "ICE - EDITH" before the names of the people you want to designate as an emergency contact. In the right situation, it just might end up saving your life.

Earlier this month, the Hilton Hotel Corporation awarded its $40 million advertising account to a major New York-based advertising firm. These days, with companies like General Motors and Proctor & Gamble routinely spending 10 to 20 times that amount on their advertising efforts, Hilton's expenditure seems hardly noteworthy. I only mention it because I have a deep curiosity about the development, management, and stewardship of brands.

Powerful, long-lasting brands are built by owning a word or concept. What�s a Volvo? A safe car. What's Wal-Mart? Cheap. What's Westin Hotels? The Heavenly Bed. What�s a BMW? Fun to drive. What's Google? The best search engine. What's Hilton? That's a good question.

These days, for a generation of teenagers, Hilton means 'rich ditzy blonde'. For Internet users, Hilton means 'rich ditzy blond having sex caught on tape that's available for $3.95 for 30 days of continuous viewing' (or so I've been told). For television viewers, Hilton means 'two utterly stupid reality TV shows, one of which is a copy-cop of The Apprentice'. Finally, for business travelers, Hilton means 'Hilton Hotels', 'Doubletree', 'Embassy Suites', 'Hampton Inn', Hilton Garden Inn', Homewood Suites', and here in Indianapolis the 5-star 'Conrad Hotel'.

For those of you who don't know me all that well, I attended the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management at the University of Houston. I picked the school, in part, because of the Hilton name. Back in the mid- to late-1980s, the Hilton brand was synonymous with the Waldorf-Astoria, one of America's great hotels, and that fact alone was almost enough to convince me to travel all the way from Connecticut to Texas for my college education. While the University of Houston Hilton College has grown to become one of the most respected hotel and restaurant management programs in the country, I wonder what college-bound kids these days think of the Hilton brand.

July 22, 2005

Q1: When you shop for groceries, do you go to a traditional supermarket like King Soopers, Kroger, Albertsons, Marsh, Stop & Shop, or Safeway, a deep discounter like Costco or Sam's Club, or do you prefer specialty stores like Trader Joe's, Wild Oats, or Whole Foods? If you shop at a combination of stores, which items do you tend to buy at which stores?

Q2: Not that you would or even want to, but if you did, what image would you choose to have tattooed on your body, and where would it go?

Q3: Do you feel gender or ethnicity should have been a factor in President George W. Bush's nominee to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's spot on the United States Supreme Court? Despite how you may feel about that particular issue, is Judge Roberts, in your mind, a good choice for the Supreme Court?

Q4: At what stage of life do you think it's okay for children to have cell phones?

July 15, 2005

Q1: At 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning, the next installment in the Harry Potter series will be made available for purchase at bookstores all across the world. Have you ever stood in line for what could be considered an outrageous amount of time for something like concert tickets, the premier of a movie, or the release of a book?

Q2: What's size mattress do you sleep on, and how many pillows do you sleep with?

Q3: Have you ever forgotten where you parked your car, say in an underground parking garage or large parking lot at a shopping mall or airport? If so, how long did it take for you to find your car, and what sorts of techniques do you now use to avoid the same thing from happening again?

Q4: How long does it generally take you to fall asleep? Has that amount of time changed any over the last 1, 5, or 10 years? If so, what do you attribute the change to?

July 13, 2005

It seems that I get tagged by one of these things every four months or so. Here's the latest in the series of that Getting to Know Your Friends thinggy:

1. First Name: Mikal
2. Were you named after anyone? Sort of. The first letter of my first name is intentionally the same as a family member who passed away before I was born.
3. Do you wish on stars? Shooting stars, yes. Still ones, no.
4. When did you last cry? Sunday afternoon at the movies.
5. Do you like your handwriting? Generally, no. My signature, yes.
6. What is your favorite lunch meat? Smoked Turkey, I think.
7. What is your birth date? September 19.
8. What is your most embarrassing CD? Somthing by Celine Dion.
9. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Yes.
10. Are you a daredevil? To some degree, yes.
11. Who is your favorite cartoon character? Underdog.
12. Do looks matter? Sad but true, yes they do.
13. How do you release anger? I talk things out.
14. Where is your second home? Southern Vermont.
15. Do you trust others easily? Yes, but not blindly.
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Tennis racquet.
17. What class in high school do you think was totally useless? Algebra.
18. Do you have a journal? Nope, just a blog.
19. Do you use sarcasm a lot? A lot, no; certainly not as much as I once used to.
20. What are your nicknames? Currently, none, that I know of.
21. Would you bungee jump? Yes.
22. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No.
23. Do you think that you are strong? Yes. Physically or emotionally? Both.
24. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal ( Jay's fault!).
25. Shoe Size? 12
26. Red or pink? If I had to say, I'd pick red.
27. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? Too personal to say.
28. Who do you miss most? Ken & Jan, along with their dog, Pepper, and the cats Sam and Cassidy. Also, my Mom and Brother, and friends Renee and Lee.
30. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Green scrubs, sans shoes.
31. What are you listening to right now? Absolutely nothing, and it's divine.
32. Last thing you ate? A shake that included a banana and some blueberries.
33. If you were a color what would you be? Invisible.
34. What is the weather like right now? I think it's raining.
35. Last person you talked to on the phone? The GF.
36. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? The opposite sex part!
37. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes.
38. Favorite Drink? Yoo-hoo.
39. Favorite Sport? [to play]: Tennis. [to watch]: Football.
40. Hair Color? Brown.
41. Eye Color? "BRO" (says so on my driver's license).
42. Do you wear contacts? No way.
43. Favorite Food? Pizza, plumbs, and hamburgers.
44. Last Movie You Watched? Crash, which I highly recommend (thanks, Scott!).
45. Favorite Day of the Year? Birthday, followed by Thanksgiving and X-mas.
46. Scary Movies or Happy Endings? Scary movies with happy endings.
47. Summer or Winter? Oh, winter (but fall's even better).
48. Hugs or Kisses? Yes and yes!
49. What Is Your Favorite Dessert? Snickers� Bar Chunks Cheesecake.
52. Living Arrangements? Two people, two bedrooms, two baths.
53. What Books Are You Reading? Right now, none.
54. What's On Your Mouse Pad? No mouse pad at home; a penguin at work.
55. What Did You Watch Last night on TV? Big Brother 6.
56. Favorite Smells? Fresh cut grass and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
57. Favorite Flower? Tulips of differing colors, cut short, bundled tight, in water.
58. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Neither.
59. Do you believe in Evolution or Creation Evolutionary creation.
60. What's the furthest you've been from home? Sydney, Australia.

July 12, 2005

So, this past Saturday morning I decided it was time to look into the possibility of getting a new prescription for my glasses. Somehow, I don't think it's necessarily a good thing that I've been wearing the same prescription/glasses since the spring of 1997. Along with the new prescription--which I'll receive after a detailed exam later this week--I'm also looking into the possibility of getting entirely new frames.

Help me out, will ya? Please place your vote for which of the following pair of glasses you feel works best for me?

Did you know: By federal law, eye doctors are required to provide an eyeglass prescription, following an eye exam, at no extra cost. Additionally, by law, consumers have the right to receive a copy of their eyeglass prescription, so that we can shop for the best value in eyewear.

Ever wonder what to do with your old eyeglasses? Consider donating them to Lions Club International, a not-for-profit organization that annually donates more than 5 million pairs of eyeglasses to needy recipients in developing countries all across the globe.

Did you know: Dogs can see in much dimmer light than humans. This is because the central portion of a dog's retina is composed primarily of 'rod' cells that "see" in shades of gray, while human central retinas have primarily 'cone' cells that perceive color. The rods need much less light to function than cones do. Finally, dogs can see flickering light better than you and I. The only significance to this appears to be that dogs may see television as a series of moving frames rather than as a continuous scene.

Aside from the fact that I can be accused of being a giant 'rod' for posting these pictures, honestly, which one(s) do you think works best for me and my goofy face?

July 10, 2005

Earlier today, while backing into a parking space behind my apartment building in downtown Indianapolis:

July 8, 2005

Q1: If your employer allowed you to work from home, would you? If so, what--aside from your daily commute--would be different about your morning routine? For instance, if you now shower in the morning, would you continue to do so before starting work, or would you put it off until later in the day or maybe not even shower at all?

Q2: Since yesterday's bombings in London, a number of security analysts have been quoted as saying that the attacks were inevitable, and to some degree, unavoidable. Do you agree with that observation? If not, what do you think government and/or private industry needs to do to ensure public safety?

Q4: Have you ever called 911? If so, what were the circumstances associated with the call?

July 7, 2005

We've all heard about the 'Girls Gone Wild' video series, right? For the uninformed, it's notorious for its late-night infomercials pitching DVDs of young women exposing their breasts--and perhaps more--at nightclubs and college parties all across the country. From all accounts, it's a wildly successful business. So much so that according to the Associated Press, Mantra Films, the company that owns and distributes the series, was recently ordered to pay a young woman $60,000 after a jury determined that Mantra's filmmakers illegally used her image in a video. (The $60k apparently represents $1 for each copy of "Girls Gone Wild: The Seized Video" that her attorney estimates sold last fall.)

Okay, Girls Gone Wild is big-time stuff. But wait till you see what's next! In "Philanthropy Gone Wild", staring Oracle's swashbuckling CEO Larry Ellison, Ellison proposes donating $115,000,000 to Harvard University to, get this now, study and monitor the cost-effectiveness of global health initiatives. Yeah, baby... this is a great idea... come to papa... that's right, Larry, just like that... show me whatcha got!

That's right kids, $115,000,000 to fund a research center--complete with five full professorships--that would develop information that would be shared with other organizations that make financial contributions to health initiatives, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, so they can all sleep better at night knowing that their millions of dollars in donations are being put to good use. Ellison also says that the money will be used to publish a journal and employ statisticians to monitor other types of public, private, and philanthropic investments. "We're going to monitor the return on investment in different medical programs," Ellison told the Wall Street Journal. Ellison is also quoted as saying:

Look, I'm no expert, but does anyone in their right mind think that someone really needs to be spending $115,000,000 on calculating ROI (Return On Investment) on global health care efforts when millions and millions of people are dropping dead because of a lack of basic necessities like food, water, shelter, and space? Does anyone really think that this amount of money is justified when Measles, a disease that kills the most children worldwide each year and can be almost entirely prevented by simple vaccine costing $558,750, continues to go unfunded? (The $558,750 figure, by the way, is the cost of vaccinating the 745,000 children who died from the disease in 2001, according to the World Health Organization.)

I don't know about anyone else, but even though I'd surely face all sorts of questions from the gf about it, if forced to choose between the next Girls Gone Wild video and this Philanthropy Gone Wild one, I'm choosing the girly tape. Watching rich dudes like Ellison spend their own money like this just makes me go limp.

July 1, 2005

Q1: If a credentialed security guard approached you after you made a purchase in a mall department store, and asked or demanded to see what was inside of your backpack, shoulder bag, or some other bag that was large enough to contain stolen items, what would you? Would you comply, no questions asked, or would you automatically say no because you know that you didn't do anything wrong?

Q2: When you're driving a car and you find yourself in a position where you have put the car in reverse and back up, which shoulder do you tend to look over as you're backing up?

Q3: Who was the last person you paid to do something for you and what did they do?

Q4: How many chairs or seats do you have in your house, and how long have you had the oldest one?