tim's journal

Are you on the "Standard American Diet"?

I read today in Linda Berry's Internal Cleansing that a person on the Standard American Diet holds eight meals of undigested food and waste material in the colon, while the person on the high fiber diet holds only three. Which one are you? No, don't tell me.

Organic Oatios, better than Cheerios

We've been getting Oatios at Andronicos since #1 started solids, and I'll have to admit, they were never my favorite. They used to be white and have really sharp edges to them. Strangely, #1 seemed to like it. All that has changed. They've set a new standard for micro-donut shaped oats cereal. The new Oatios taste great! Sonja says, "good, likeable texture". I would say that they taste even better than Cheerios - certainly better for you. It's made of organic whole oat flour, organic oat flour, organic brown rice flour, organic evaporated cane juice, organic oat bran, sea salt. Pretty reasonable.

Ahh, the tongue ring

Can you believe that in April 2004, Overture had 37814 searches for "tongue ring(s)"? That's really something.

Dremel Multipro

Amazon is the best place to buy a Dremel by far! I thought for sure that that I could get a good deal elsewhere. No, check Froogle. With free shipping, nothing even comes close. Sheesh, they even have a low price guarantee. Just be careful with the model numbers. I'm going for the Dremel 3956.

1. Dremel 3956-02 Variable Speed MultiPro Super Kit With 77-Piece Accessory Kit - $71.24
2. Dremel 3962-02 Variable-Speed MultiPro Tool Kit - $59.99

I'll also be getting some cup burs from Sante Fe Jewelers Supply.

Where not to get it: Newark InOne for a whopping $161.02. Oh man, these guys are pirates! You would have to have beyond a 50% discount with them to even get close to Amazon. What's up with that. Maybe you get two-for-one? They aren't the most expensive... or are they? I think $12999.00 is a typo.

Command GPS in Mercedes

I'm interested in who manufactures the Command GPS system for Mercedes Benz. Anybody know? I found a few links on installing the system, as well as a firmware update but virtually nothing approaching full details.

60K service

I need to get 60K service on my Toyota Camry. I did some sleuthing for authorized service centers close to Stanford, and found three that could give me a ride home. The confusion? Price. It isn't standard at all. At first I was just going to take it to Toyota of Palo Alto, where I got a quote of "about $1000". On a hunch, I called a couple other places and got quotes ranging from $299.99 to $444.99. Here's what I have so far:

service center	address	phone	dist	notes
Toyota Of Palo Alto	690 San Antonio Rd Palo Alto, CA	650.494.2100	3.0	Eileen says it'll cost ~1000, can give ride to Stanford. I spoke to Val at the service department: $850.
Toyota 101	525 E Bayshore Rd Redwood City, CA	650.365.5000	6.3	444.99, anytime this week (check if ride), spoke to Al, replace engine oil/filter, drain plug gasket, fuel conditioner... too much, platinum spark plugs, nuts and bolts, fuel tank. May need a flush. The will determine that if needed, $129.95. You don't need to replace the timing belt until 90K.
Toyota At Sunnyvale	898 W El Camino Real Sunnyvale, CA	408.245.6640	7.2	299.99 basic, 699.99 premium (transmission/cooling flush), recommend timing belt replacement 349.99, platinum spark plugs 11.00 each, usually 10 miles will give ride.

Update
Ok, I'm getting a bit concerned. Tustin Toyota in SoCal has a coupon for 60K service - $294.65 including one day car rental.

Tin and Zinc Whiskers

All lot of times when we deal with electronics we think that things will last forever, or at least several lifetimes. Of course, mechanical parts wear out, but electronics? Looking for information on electroplating this afternoon I landed on NASA's Tin and Zinc Whisker Photo Gallery. The gallery has a series of close up images on whiskers that form between capactitor plates and relays. Over time, these can cause shorts with serious implications (think Phoenix Missles and F-15 radar systems). Jay Brusse has a related article on zinc whiskers being "cited as the root cause of costly computer system failures". In addition, the zinc filaments, with diameters in the micrometers (thousandths of millimeters) when knocked off could be breathed in. These whiskers can grow as fast as 1 mm/year. Why zinc? Zinc plating is often used to protect against corrosion. Interesting, I bet that in some cases, whacking the electronics does make it work better because it knocks the filaments off. You can bet, though, that the trunk of the filament serves as a base for even faster growth next time, so that the electronics fails more and more until you give up and throw it out the window.

Waters & Kraus mesothelioma verdicts

A Google search afternoon for Waters & Kraus asbestos verdicts ended up at my site. Of course, they only show you the victories. Courtesy of John at VerdictSearch, here's what I found.

date	award	result	case type	case	court	state	description
3/12/2004	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Products Liability; Asbestos, Toxic Torts - Asbestos	Robert Crowley and Ann Crowley v. Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc.	Dallas County District Court, 95th	TX	Plaintiff Robert Crowley, 58, a former construction worker, learned that he had contracted mesothelioma in 2002. Crowley had worked in a variety of plants over his work life, including a Massechussets...
2/2/2004	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Toxic Torts; Asbestos, Products Liability - Asbestos	Charles Richard Keefe and Kathleen Keefe v. CertainTeed Corporation, Capco Pipe Company, Kaiser Gypsum, Bondex International, Inc., The Flintkote Company and Georgia-Pacific Corporation	Tarrant County District Court, 96th	TX	In 2001, plaintiff Charles Keefe learned that he had peritoneal mesothelioma. His father had worked at a variety of industrial and commercial sites where he was exposed to asbestos fibers between 193...
7/21/2003	$7,500,000.00	Settlement	Toxic Torts; Asbestos	Jo-Etta Richardson, individually and as personal representative of the estate of Austin Richardson, deceased, Aaron Austin Richardson, Danielle Richardson, a minor, and Bobby Sue Landry v. Du Pont, Carlock Gaskets, Georgia Pacific, Goodrich, KCG, and Texaco Corporation	Orange County District Court, 128th	TX	Plaintiffs' decedent Austin Richardson, 50, worked in a variety of industrial plants as a welder and a shipfitter from the late 1960s and into the 1980s. During that time he was exposed to asbestos pr...
6/27/2003	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Products Liability; Asbestos	Jessie Clancy, Dana Clancy, Ismael DeLeon and Ray DeLeon v. Kelly Moore Paint Company and Sherwin Williams Company	Tarrant County District Court, 67th	TX	Plaintiffs Jesse Clancy, 62, a paint contractor, and Ismael DeLeon, 72, a retired drywaller, worked with paint products produced by Kelly Moore Paint Company of San Carlos, Calif. and Sherwin Williams...
4/14/2003	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Products Liability; Asbestos	Pamela Ward, individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Jimmy Ward, Deceased, Morgan Ward and Michael Ward v. BP Amoco Corporation, Garlock Sealing Technologies L.L.C.	Montgomery County District Court, 9th	TX	The plaintiffs' decedent, Jimmy Ward, 53, was an employee of BP Amoco Corp. from 1968 to 1993. Until the late 1970s , he worked as a roustabout, performing a variety of jobs at Amoco-Old Ocean, a refi...
10/31/2002	$2,749,130.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Product Liability, Products, Negligence, Malice, Punitive Damages	Wade Freeman, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Jerry Freeman, Deceased; Kevin Freeman and Lynette Freeman v. Quigley Company, Inc., et al.	Dallas County Court at Law No. 2	TX	In August 2000, Jerry Freeman was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He died of the disease in April 2001, at the age of 62. His estate and three adult children, as plaintiffs, alleged that he had developed...
7/25/2002	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Asbestos; Wrongful Death, Products	Robert Dalbec, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Margaret Dalbec, Deceased v. Kelly-Moore Paint Co., Inc.	Hunt County District Court, 354th	TX	A lawsuit claiming that exposure to a joint compound caused a Duluth, Minn., housewife's mesothelioma has resulted in a defense verdict for manufacturer Kelly-Moore Paint Co. The estate of Margaret ...
6/13/2002	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Asbestos	Thomas Love and Janet Love v. Kelly-Moore Paint Company Inc.	Orange County District Court, 163rd	TX	An Orange County jury on June 13 found a paint manufacturer not liable for a dry waller''s mesothelioma. Thomas Love worked as a dry waller for 30 years. Love alleged that, in that time, he was exp...
6/11/2002	$1,700,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Toxic Tort; Wrongful Death, Malice	Lavell Moore, Individually and As Personal Representative of the Heirs and the Estate of Willie Moore, Deceased, and Lance Moore and Lanita Moore v. Brown & Root Inc. n/k/a Kellogg Brown & Root Inc.	Angelina County District Court, 159th	TX	An Agelina County jury awarded $1.7 million to the family of a man who contracted mesothelioma because of exposure to asbestos-containing products at a paper mill. However defense counsel contends tha...
6/10/2002	$1,710,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Wrongful Death, Gross Negligence	Lavelle Moore, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Willie Moore, Deceased v. Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.	Angelina County District Court, 217th	TX	For the fourth time in less than two years, Brown & Root was found grossly negligent in a death due to asbestos exposure. An Agelina County jury awarded $1.71 million to the family of a man who contra...
4/30/2002	$5,550,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Wrongful Death, Negligence, Gross Negligence	Patti Kilough, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Herrel Wayne Kilough, Deceased v. Brown & Root, Inc. n/k/a Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.; Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. f/k/a Brown & Root, Inc.; Brown & Root I, Inc. n/k/a Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. and Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.	Harris County District Court, 127th	TX	After two weeks of trial, a Harris County jury returned a verdict against Brown & Root saying the company acted with conscious indifference to the rights, safety and welfare of its employees for faili...
1/29/2002	n/a	Settlement	Asbestos; Products, Malice	Judy Radtke, individually and as representative of heirs of the estate of William Radtke, deceased v. Able Supply Co., et al.	Travis County District Court, 126th	TX	The family and estate of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer after years of alleged asbestos exposure as a drywaller settled the last of their claims in Travis County against a manufacturer for ...
1/24/2002	n/a	Settlement	Asbestos; Products, Malice	Olivia W. Greer, individually and as personal representative of the heirs and estate of Lewis R. Greer, deceased; Collen Joyce Long, individually; and Pamela Hooper, as personal representative of the heirs and estate of Elmer M. Long, deceased v. Able Supply Co., et al.	Travis County District Court, 126th	TX	The families and estates of two men who died of lung cancer after years of alleged asbestos exposure in their drywalling work settled the last of their claims in a Travis County case on for an undiscl...
11/8/2001	$3,022,500.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Products, Wrongful Death, Survival	Dorothy A. Lehmann, et al. v. Able Supply Co., et al.	Milam County District Court, 20th	TX	A Milam County jury awarded more than $3 million for injuries that resulted from three men's exposure to asbestos. The trial was designated 26,342B and included four plaintiffs and one defendant. Th...
10/23/2001	$2,819,320.00	Settlement	Products; Negligence, Gross Negligence, Asbestos	Mervyn Skinner and Rosalie Skinner vs. Burns International Services Corporation f/k/a Borg-Warner Corp., Georgia-Pacific Corp., and Honeywell International as successor-in-interest to Bendix	Travis County District Court, 353rd	TX	In December 1998, Mervyn Skinner was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung caused by asbestos exposure. Skinner, who was 65 by the time of trial, worked part-time for Shearer...
10/15/2001	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Asbestos; Products, Wrongful Death, Survival	Jacqueline Cichocki, et al. v. Dana Corp., Dresser Industries, individually and as successor-in-interest to Harbison-Walker Refractories Co., and Owens-Illinois, Inc.	El Paso County Court at Law No. 3	TX	In the fall of 2000, Theodore Cichocki was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos exposure. He worked at Inland Steel in east Chicago for 40 years, from 1952 to 1992, and claimed tha...
8/30/2001	$3,100,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Products	Henry Plummer and Eula Plummer. v. ACandS, Inc. and Garlock	Dallas County District Court, 160th	TX	Plummer served in the U.S. Navy from 1951 through 1977 as a machinist mate aboard numerous vessels and submarines where he was exposed to asbestos on a daily basis. In 1999, he was diagnosed with pleu...
8/28/2001	$5,250,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Products, Wrongful Death (Any WD Case), Survival, Negligence, Gross Negligence	Imogene Harrison, Individually and as Representative of the Estate of Harvey Harrison, Debra Grimes, and Linda McClure v. ACandS, Inc.	Travis County District Court, 98th	TX	The plaintiffs claimed decedent was exposed to asbestos while he worked as a maintenance mechanic for 26 years at Lubbock Power & Lighting Co. in Lubbock. He was diagnosed with fatal mesothelioma in S...
8/21/2001	$11,100,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Malice, Punitive Damages, Products	Robert Hutchison and Joyce Hutchison v. Combustion Engineering, Inc., and Owens Illinois Inc.	Nolan County District Court, 32nd	TX	A Nolan County jury awarded a retired insulator-helper and his wife $11.1 million, including $6 million in punitive damages, for mesothelioma that he allegedly contracted as a result of exposure to as...
7/31/2001	$6,102,222.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Toxic Tort, Products, Negligence	Joseph Breaux and Deane Breaux v. North American Refractories Company	Dallas County District Court, 162nd	TX	Joseph Breaux worked as a pipe fitter and welder, and from 1966 until 1973, was exposed to asbestos insulation products at the Avondale Shipyard and on oil drilling platforms at industrial sites throu...
7/27/2001	$725,000.00	Verdict-Mixed	Toxic Tort; Asbestos, Wrongful Death (Any WD Case), Survival, Negligence, Punitive Damages	Nancy Moore, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Robert Moore, Laura Aslin, Mary Harwell, Margo Knutson, Kristi Lee, Robert Lee Moore, Jr., Karen Lacewell, and Jeri Wood v. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation and Brown & Root, Inc.	Morris County District Court, 76th	TX	Robert Moore worked at the Lonestar Ammunition plant in Lone Star, Texas from 1967 to 1969. He also worked at the Lonestar Steel facility from 1977 to 1985. While working at Lonestar Steel, Moore was ...
6/29/2001	$1,000,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Asbestos; Products, Negligence, Gross Negligence, Punitive Damages	Boyce Innerarity and Carole Innerarity v. ACandS, Inc., et al.	Dallas County Court at Law No. 1	TX	Boyce Innerarity and his wife, Carole, both retired and in their 70s, brought suit last year against a number of manufacturers of and companies using insulation containing asbestos. Innerarity had wor...
5/30/2001	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Product Liability; Toxic Tort, Wrongful Death (Any WD Case), Gross Negligence, Asbestos	Donald Gilbreath, as personal representative of the heirs of LoyPeteGilbreath, deceased, and Larkin Orsburn, as personal representative of the heirs of Jerry Dale Orsburn, deceased v. AK Steel Corporation, formerly known as Armco, Inc.	Cooke County District Court, 235th	TX	The two men worked for more than 25 years using asbestos products to produce machined parts for the oil drilling industry. When they became ill and died, their estates pursued claims against their emp...
3/5/2001	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Toxic Tort; Medical Malpractice - Wrongful Death	Agripina Saenz as Personal Representative of the Estate of Rafael Saenz, Mike Jimenez and Elvia Jimenez v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., Kaiser Aluminum and North American Refractories Company	Nueces County District Court, 319th	TX	...
1/1/2001	$4,010,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Toxic Tort; Asbestos, Medical Malpractice - Wrongful Death, Negligence	Shearon Shelton vs. Brown & Root	Smitth County District Court, 241st	TX	...
8/14/2000	$5,425,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Toxic Tort; Negligence, Medical Malpractice - Wrongful Death	Vickie Looman, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Robert Looman vs. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation	Gregg County District Court, 124th	TX	...
3/27/2000	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Toxic Tort; Asbestos	Gwendolyn Grey Luce, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Robert Thomas Luce, Deceased vs. AC&S, Inc., et al.	Milam County District Court, 20th	TX	...
2/14/2000	$19,300,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Toxic Tort; Gross Negligence, Wrongful Death	Glenda Durham, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Heirs and Estate of Robert Lee Durham, deceased, et al. vs. Able Supply, Inc., et al.	Gregg County District Court, 124th	TX	...
6/14/1999	$340,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Toxic Tort	Charlene Hardwick, Individually and As Representative of the Estate of John Dwight Hardwick and John Dwight Hardwick, Jr. vs. Owens-Illinois and Guard Line, Inc.	Cass County District Court, 5th	TX	...
5/24/1999	n/a	Verdict-Defendant	Toxic Tort; Asbestos, Products	Jessie Monroe Riggs vs. Pittsburgh Corning Corporation	Grayson County District Court, 15th	TX	...
1/25/1999	$100,000.00	Verdict-Plaintiff	Toxic Tort; Negligence, Product Liability	Phillip Bartlett vs. Pittsburgh Corning Corporation	Orange County District Court, 163rd	TX	...

Yoshino No. 1 - Food of the Gods

The Taipei Times has a nice piece this morning on Yoshino No. 1, a variety of rice that was grown exclusively in Taiwan for Japan's Emperor Hirohito about 70 years ago. Yoshino No. 1, said to be the best rice in the world, is extremely difficult to grow. Wind, rain and fertilizer all affect cultivation. Harvesting is critical, if it is too late, the taste changes and the rice is only fit for chicken feed.

Yoshino No. 1, unlike other rice varieties, is said to have an appealing smell and unique taste when it's properly prepared. It has a sweet flavor that stays on the palate even after a lot of chewing. Its grains are rounder and plumper than other varieties and are crystal clear, with a white, heart-shaped dot in the middle. Japanese growers claimed the shape of the dot was similar to the sun rising on the nation's white flag and thus cherished the rice even more.

Cultivation actually ceased in World War II, as the cost of production exceeded returns. It was not until 1969 that a Hakka farmer named Peng Yong-chuan reintroduced the seeds. Today six farmers, all mentees of Peng, know how to cultivate this rice. Peng had this facinating anecdote to share:

...when the rice was harvested, Japanese officials would pick a dozen or so local young Japanese girls to pick and package the rice. These young girls were required to take a bath and change into new clothes prior to performing their duties, as a token of their respect for the emperor. They would peel off the husks on the rice, by hand, one by one. No Taiwanese girls were chosen for the job, perhaps because of security concerns.

A traditional Japanese ceremony would be held to bless the rice and to plead for special blessings from the emperor. The handpicked 10kg or so of Yoshino No. 1 rice was then shipped from Hualien to its final destination -- the Emperor's Palace in Tokyo. Whatever was left over was then presented to the Japanese Colonial Governor's Palace in Taipei.

Now that is special rice. Where is rice grown in the United States? Mostly (80%) Arkansas, California and Louisiana. While the U.S.produces only 2% of the world's rice, it is a leading exporter, sending 40% to 60% of its crop overseas. To learn more, check out the USA Rice Federation.

Get myself sequenced?

How long before I can get my DNA sequenced? I'd like to carry a copy around in my wallet. At a party last night, one of the guests was remarking on a huge DNA sequencing project in Iceland. GuardianUnlimited has a special report on the privacy issues bubbling up. As you can imagine, it is quite controversial. The company running the show is deCODE genetics who some accuse has been unfairly profitting from the Icelanders generosity.

How does sequencing work anyway? I found this cool, though a bit dated, Flash tutorial on sequencing DNA at PBS. Hmm, looks complicated.

Los Altos real estate

Los Altos is probably one of the best places to live in the Bay Area - if you can afford it. The Silicon Valley Real Estate Report has a nice blurb on Los Altos. Interestingly, amongst 10,611 residential units: 9,386 single-family homes, 346 attached homes and 876 multiples there are exactly 3 mobile homes. Downtown is quite charming and the schools first class. Los Altos Online has a lot more information, including a list of realtors. As an update to the previous post, according to a California Associaton of Realtors press release, "the 10 cities and communities with the highest median home prices in California during the first quarter of 2004 were: Manhattan Beach, $1,292,0000; Los Altos, $1,257,360; Beverly Hills, $1,250,000; Malibu, $1,112,500; Burlingame, $1,100,000; Palos Verdes Estates, $1,090,000; Laguna Beach, $1,087,500; Calabasas, $1,050,000; San Marino, $990,000; Orinda, $963,500." Where's Palo Alto? Only $792,000. The full report, from Q1 2004, is available here. A comparison from Q1 2003 is also present. Most interesting? Los Gatos. The median sales price went from $669,000.00 to $927,000.00 (~39%).

Alas, Palo Alto - #2

Palo Alto was trumped by La Jolla in the latest CNN/Money listing on the most expensive housing markets. For a 2,200-square-foot house with 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a family room and a two-car garage, you can expect to pay $1,362,375 in La Jolla. Alternatively, you could save the extra dough for a BMW Z8, a Mercedes-Benz CL600, or a Porsche GT2, and live in Palo Alto for $1,179,000. For those who are less fortunate, there is always Beverly Hills for $1,097,250. Hmm... anyone know any good agents in Binghamton?

state	city	avg sales price, 2003
CA	La Jolla	$1,362,375
CA	Palo Alto	$1,179,000
CT	Greenwich	$1,170,600
CA	Beverly Hills	$1,097,250
CA	San Francisco	$971,750
CT	New Canaan	$963,750
MA	Wellesley	$959,048
CA	Newport Beach	$916,000
HI	Kailua Kona	$906,250
CA	Manhattan Beach	$904,500
CA	San Mateo	$883,500
CA	Santa Monica	$812,875
NY	Nassau	$806,250
CA	Santa Barbara	$801,750
CA	Monterey Peninsula	$763,000
MA	Lexington	$751,688
CA	Long Beach	$740,375
CA	Fremont	$739,000
CT	Westport	$737,400
CA	San Rafael	$710,667
CA	Oakland/ Montclair	$705,317
MA	Boston	$704,480
NJ	Ridgewood	$701,000
CA	Santa Cruz	$690,192
CA	Palos Verdes	$685,250
VA	Alexandria City	$675,000
CA	Walnut Creek	$657,000
NJ	Warren	$651,000
CA	Pleasanton	$650,875
CA	San Jose	$644,000
CA	Pasadena	$625,500
NJ	Westfield	$625,000
IL	Chicago	$610,375
NJ	Montclair	$608,500
CT	Stamford	$598,333
FL	Miami/Coral Gables	$588,000
NY	Queens, (Bayside)	$583,000
MA	Acton	$568,086
CA	Napa	$567,250
NJ	Madison	$560,312
NY	Briarcliff Manor	$555,055
CA	Irvine	$551,000
CT	Ridgefield	$542,600
NJ	Sparta	$539,300
NJ	Basking Ridge	$538,000
CA	Mission Viejo	$530,225
CA	Encinitas	$525,000
HI	Honolulu	$515,947
NJ	Princeton Junction	$515,000
CT	Norwalk	$510,166
FL	Key West	$502,301
CA	Davis	$498,000
HI	Kihei,Maui	$493,025
CA	Fullerton	$492,000
NY	Suffolk County/North Shore, LI	$490,600
MA	Barnstable/ Cape Cod	$485,250
NJ	Bridgewater	$484,375
CA	Santa Rosa	$480,712
VA	McLean/Fairfax County	$471,500
IL	Deerfield	$467,250
PA	Philadelphia County/Center City Philadelphia	$466,225
MA	Framingham	$465,218
CA	Thousand Oaks	$464,500
NH	Hanover	$458,915
CA	Rancho Bernardo	$458,300
NY	Yorktown Heights	$451,233
WA	Bellevue	$450,967
CA	Santa Clarita	$440,500
NJ	Clinton	$431,450
CA	San Diego	$425,332
CO	Boulder	$424,475
NJ	Marlboro/Manalapan	$422,000
VA	Reston/Fairfax County	$413,975
NM	Santa Fe	$407,875
AK	Juneau	$402,833
IL	Barrington	$401,000
NY	Staten Island	$396,500
NJ	Wayne	$394,375
PA	Doylestown/Bucks County	$388,500
CT	Danbury	$365,775
MA	Taunton	$356,923
CA	Grass Valley	$352,875
MD	Bethesda/ Chevy Chase / Montgomery County	$345,050
MN	Edina	$334,000
NJ	Metuchen/Edison	$329,625
WA	Seattle	$326,250
MN	Minneapolis	$324,875
VA	Leesburg/Loudoun County	$323,625
PA	Montgomery County/Conshohocken	$322,000
AZ	Flagstaff	$321,900
PA	Delaware County/Media	$319,725
AZ	Scottsdale	$319,300
PA	Westchester/Chester County	$317,250
NH	Portsmouth	$316,533
DE	Wilmington	$313,250
MN	St. Paul	$311,000
CA	Modesto	$309,000
ME	Portland	$307,775
MA	Worcester	$305,450
CA	Riverside/ Ontario*	$300,250
IL	Carol Stream	$298,875
OR	Bend	$298,411
MI	Ann Arbor	$296,800
NH	Amherst	$296,625
IL	Naperville	$292,625
NY	Orange County	$290,666
MD	Annapolis/ Anne Arundel County	$289,650
MD	Columbia/Howard County	$289,275
MD	Metro Baltimore	$288,475
WA	Tacoma	$287,338
MD	Frederick	$284,634
CO	Denver	$284,225
CO	Highlands Ranch	$282,825
MI	Detroit Metro	$282,600
FL	Ft. Lauderdale/ Coral Springs	$282,334
IL	Schaumburg	$282,200
IL	Orland Park	$281,000
FL	Naples	$278,100
CT	Naugatuck	$276,250
VT	Burlington	$276,250
CA	Fresno	$276,125
NJ	Ocean County/Toms River	$275,950
RI	Providence	$275,100
IL	Aurora	$274,800
SC	Charleston	$274,666
PA	Allentown	$274,320
CA	Sacramento	$273,800
FL	Daytona Beach	$272,250
GA	Atlanta	$271,250
NV	Reno/Sparks	$270,424
MN	Duluth	$270,075
IN	Munster	$268,936
FL	West Palm Beach	$268,300
NJ	Atlantic County/Abescon	$266,333
VA	Lake Ridge/Prince William County	$264,450
VA	Manassas/Prince William County	$264,450
FL	Boca Raton	$260,833
MD	Westminster/Carroll County	$258,793
CT	Litchfield County/Torrington	$258,625
NY	Albany	$257,472
IL	Elgin	$255,000
FL	Sarasota	$253,683
FL	Port Charlotte	$253,487
WI	Milwaukee	$253,000
PR	Puerto Rico	$251,500
OR	Medford	$251,250
MI	Auburn Hills/Lake Orion	$247,875
CO	Fort Collins	$247,093
MD	Bel Air/Harford County	$245,750
OR	Eugene	$245,725
OR	Portland	$245,600
FL	Tallahassee	$243,475
AZ	Phoenix	$242,333
IL	Flossmoor	$240,600
MD	Eastern Shore	$239,737
MI	Petoskey	$239,000
FL	Ft. Myers	$235,625
AK	Anchorage	$234,850
VA	Winchester/Fredrick	$233,225
NY	Rochester/ SE Suburbs	$229,600
LA	New Orleans	$229,350
TX	Dallas	$228,725
VA	Richmond	$227,725
UT	Salt Lake City	$226,941
PA	Pittsburgh	$226,815
WA	Tri-Cities	$225,125
MI	Traverse City	$224,833
NJ	Camden County/Cherry Hill	$224,300
FL	Clearwater/St. Petersburg	$223,625
KS	Overland Park	$223,414
VT	Rutland	$223,000
WI	Fox Cities	$221,825
FL	Tampa	$221,667
GA	Savannah	$221,650
OH	Cincinnati	$221,166
PA	Lancaster	$219,933
MI	Greater Lansing	$219,825
MI	Port Huron	$217,975
IN	Schererville	$217,833
OH	Columbus	$216,100
CA	Bakersfield	$215,842
OR	Salem	$215,725
AK	Fairbanks	$213,300
MD	Hagerstown/ Washington County	$212,521
IL	Joliet	$212,152
KY	Louisville	$212,125
MI	Mt. Pleasant	$211,600
MN	St. Cloud	$211,567
NC	Raleigh	$211,167
VT	Montpelier	$210,500
WI	Madison	$210,166
FL	Jacksonville	$208,975
LA	Shreveport/Bossier City	$207,500
UT	Provo	$207,440
MI	Flint Metro/Grand Blanc	$206,925
NJ	Turnersville/ Gloucester County	$206,000
WI	Wausau	$205,333
FL	Gainesville	$204,975
NV	Las Vegas	$204,975
IL	Champaign	$204,874
TX	Austin	$204,225
PA	Stroudsburg/Poconos	$203,625
OH	Harrison	$202,100
MI	Midland/ Saginaw/ Bay City	$202,000
NM	Albuquerque	$201,166
AZ	Tucson	$201,000
SC	Columbia	$200,850
MD	Waldorf/Charles County	$199,624
KY	Lexington	$199,000
OH	Greater Cleveland	$199,000
MT	Kalispell	$198,250
MN	Rochester	$197,300
VA	Roanoke/Blacksburg	$197,237
VA	Lynchburg	$196,966
IA	Des Moines	$196,600
IL	Peoria	$196,481
MI	Grand Rapids	$195,415
OH	Canton	$195,000
NC	Charlotte	$194,336
MO	St Louis	$193,466
WA	Spokane	$193,039
IN	Valpariso	$192,750
MO	Kansas City	$192,250
WV	Charleston	$190,667
FL	Orlando	$190,000
ME	Bangor	$189,750
GA	Columbus	$188,000
KY	Northern Kentucky/Florence	$187,300
LA	Baton Rouge	$187,125
NC	Wilmington	$186,975
GA	Athens	$186,762
TX	San Antonio	$186,725
IL	Bloomington	$186,700
WI	Green Bay	$186,475
TX	Bryan-College Station	$186,000
PA	Harrisburg	$185,675
NE	North Platte	$185,666
MI	Grayling	$185,625
ID	Boise	$184,958
KS	Leavenworth/Lansing	$184,600
MS	Jackson	$184,250
TN	Nashville	$183,975
VA	Norfolk/ Virginia Beach	$183,300
NY	Syracuse	$183,000
PA	Erie	$182,700
MT	Bozeman	$182,650
MI	Cadillac	$182,500
MI	Jackson	$182,333
IN	Indianapolis	$182,200
AL	Huntsville	$182,075
NC	Winston-Salem	$179,600
AL	Mobile	$179,325
AZ	Mesa	$178,666
NC	Greensboro	$178,500
TX	Lubbock	$178,475
NY	Buffalo	$177,725
WY	Cheyenne	$177,200
NE	Kearney	$177,125
IA	Dubuque	$176,976
GA	Macon	$176,400
OH	Akron	$176,000
IA	Cedar Rapids	$175,723
ID	Coeur d' Alene	$173,800
AR	Fayetteville	$172,350
ND	Fargo	$171,171
PA	York	$171,000
CO	Colorado Springs	$170,505
TX	Amarillo	$170,200
PA	Reading	$169,372
TX	Corpus Christi	$169,027
OH	Dayton	$166,975
TN	Chattanooga	$166,375
GA	Dalton	$166,000
TX	Houston	$165,250
NC	Fayetteville	$164,668
TX	Plano	$164,466
TN	Memphis	$163,425
IN	South Bend	$162,633
FL	Pensacola	$162,333
IL	Springfield	$162,100
MI	Indian River	$162,000
SD	Sioux Falls	$161,475
AR	Little Rock	$161,125
LA	Lafayette	$160,666
SD	Rapid City	$160,225
MS	Tupelo	$160,100
IN	Evansville	$159,375
MO	Springfield	$158,250
WI	Fond du lac	$157,633
AR	Fort Smith	$157,100
MN	Moorhead/ Clay County	$155,800
TX	El Paso	$155,750
ME	Lewiston/Auburn	$155,300
IN	Fort Wayne	$155,075
SC	Greenville	$154,746
WV	Beckley	$153,067
ND	Bismarck	$152,625
IL	Rockford	$151,225
KS	Lawrence	$150,875
MS	Gulfport/Biloxi	$149,520
SD	Yankton	$148,520
TX	Arlington	$147,405
WI	Eau Claire	$146,400
MT	Helena	$144,900
TX	Fort Worth	$144,250
KS	Wichita/Sedgwick County	$142,875
TN	Knoxville	$141,625
WV	Parkersburg	$141,250
IA	Sioux City	$139,500
MT	Billings	$138,725
SD	Aberdeen	$138,000
OK	Tulsa	$136,625
KS	Topeka/Shawnee County	$136,266
OK	Oklahoma City	$132,670
ND	Minot	$129,075
TX	Killeen	$127,175
NY	Binghamton	$121,400

Overture keywords galore

I found a nice little snippet on keywords on Speechbot. Other big search terms, besides asbestos based keywords, are those on conference calling, and time and attendance software.

Here are some term count/bids from Overture:

term	count	max bid
personal injury lawyer	9905	100.00 (next 6.16)
florida personal injury lawyer	2192	30.03
debt consolidation	584115	26.51
personal injury lawyer michigan	1330	25.00
time (and) attendance	5936	16.06
time attendance software	3866	15.51
miami personal injury lawyer	1674	15.02 (next 6.16)
conference call	40817	14.71
conference call services	3357	14.62
conference call service	1517	14.40
web hosting php mysql	20903	12.02 (next 5.36)
angiosarcoma	1177	10.88 (next 0.10)
refinance mortgage	334864	10.58
life insurance	1077193	9.99
time attendance system	1157	9.51
term life insurance	66200	9.00
vinyl chloride	1092	8.88
credit card debt	50087	8.51
iridium	5329	7.00
real estate los altos	746	7.00
patent lawyer	2136	5.50
real estate woodside	51	4.51
real estate palo alto	746	4.00
real estate menlo park	210	3.61
free conference call	1288	3.50
cruise	915613	3.00
ceramic machining	198	3.10
restaurant software	4709	2.92
real estate atherton	224	2.47
real estate atherton	224	2.47

SpeechBot

If you haven't yet, you should check out HP's SpeechBot. SpeechBot is "a search engine for audio & video content that is hosted and played from other websites." It uses speech recognition to generate the data files. Nice! So far 17517 hours of content have been indexed from a variety of stations and sources. Check it out. It's not perfect. But it isn't too bad.

The top asbestos verdict - 2003

VerdictSearch has a facinating top 100 of 2003 from which I extracted my top asbestos verdict of 2003: $250,000,000 in Whittington v. U.S. Steel settled by Randall A. Bono, The Simmons Firm, East Alton, Ill.; Michael Brickman, Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman, Charleston, S.C.

Law.com has the scoop (4/10/2003).

The jury in Madison County, Ill., found that U.S. Steel Corp. failed to warn Roby Whittington, 70, of the risks it knew were associated with inhalation of asbestos fibers. The jury awarded $50 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages to Whittington, who suffers from mesothelioma, an incurable and invariably fatal cancer solely caused by asbestos inhalation.

Note that "all of the other defendants settled except for one trial winner." So the real number could be much larger.

The second largest case last year, also mentioned in the law.com article, was Croteau v. Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc.. $47,136,325 was awarded in this case. The plantiff's attorney was Jerry Kristal, Weitz & Luxenberg, New York. In this case, Robert Croteau, 54, "alleged that his exposure to asbestos while employed at power plants owned and operated by Con Edison and Long Island Lighting Co. caused his mesothelioma." Weitz & Luxenberg have a short New York Times article on the case up on their site. In Brown v. Honeywell Corp. in 2002, Weitz & Luxenberg won $53.5 million for their client from the automotive brake manufacturer.

IMP and Sashimi

I found, quite by accident, a very nice article on IMP Foods (San Mateo, CA). As you might recall, I wrote about them a few weeks ago. Glenn Sakata is the GM at IMP Foods. According to Sakata, handling sushi- or sashimi-grade fish "requires manpower, expensive equipment, an efficient delivery system, discipline, knowledge, experience, dedication and beyond." Oooo.

IMP is a sister company of Japanese-owned seafood wholesaler International Marine Products in Los Angeles. It does $20 million in sales annually and is primary source for seafood for about 75 percent of the Bay Areas sushi bars including Ebisu in San Francisco, Kirala in Berkeley, Chaya in San Francisco, Seto Tempura in Sunnyvale and Akane in Los Altos. You can't buy directly from them, though you can purchase fish from them indirectly at Mitsuwa in San Jose, Nijiya in Mountain View, Suruki in San Mateo and Tokyo Fish in Berkeley.

Many companies say all sushi-grade fish is the same quality, but Sakata disagrees. When a fish arrives at IMP, a thermometer is used to check its temperature. For most fish, the temperature should register 37 degrees, just above freezing and below the level that promotes the growth of toxins and pathogens, Sakata says. The tail meat is cut to check color, and a long probe is stuck into the body to extract a cross-section to determine texture and fat content.

As Sonja had conjectured, indeed, there are different grades of sushi-grade fish. At IMP, seafood is either sushi-grade No. 1 (excellent) or sushi-grade No. 2 (good) and No. 2 is sent back to the supplier. (Wait a second, how does this work?)

This is a facinating piece, you'll just have to read the rest of it. There is a lot of good stuff. I'll close with something interesting though:

Diners and consumers should be aware that there are no state or federal regulations regarding what can be called sushi grade. That determination is made by individual seafood dealers based on subjective assessments of factors such as texture, fat content and color. As a result, fish that one dealer may label as sushi grade another might dismiss as sub-par.

With sushi-grade, you are dealing with both sensory and safety issues, says Michael Hernandez, chief of the seafood safety program for the food and drug branch of the California Department of Health Services. Its the smell, the color, the taste, as well as safety considerations with parasites and toxins.

With regard to food safety, California seafood processors and dealers are required to assess their product and develop plans to ensure the fish is safe to eat raw, using guidelines from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But because those plans are tailored to each dealer and are different for various types of fish, safety plans can vary widely.

For instance, FDA guidelines recommend that all fish to be eaten raw, other than tuna, first be frozen to kill parasites. But California regulations require freezing only if parasites are found. (Tuna is exempt because its not prone to parasites.)

In the United States, human parasitic infections from seafood are rare, according to the National Academy of Sciences. In California, incidents of illness from parasites, toxins or bacteria from raw fish also are uncommon, Hernandez says. Still, because few foods have zero risk, he adds, consumers who plan to eat raw seafood should patronize reputable seafood stores and restaurants that turn over seafood stock frequently.

VerdictSearch

I found VerdictSearch today. VerdictSearch claims nearly 100,000 verdicts and settlements. It's probably where I would look if I were looking for a lawyer for something very specialized, especially for something like Mesothelioma. They charge heavily, $129 per day. Some of their verdicts are posted on Texas Lawyer, though back articles are by subscription only. The most recent case was that of Crowley v. Kaiser Gypsum, No. 02-11183-D in the 95th District Court, Dallas County. It was a win for the defense. The defense attorney was Jennifer Judin, Dehay & Elliston, Dallas and the plaintiffs' attorney David C. Greenstone and Jeffrey B. Simon, Waters & Kraus, Dallas.

Mesothelioma and the law, an academic perspective

Deborah Hensler is a professor of law at Stanford University and co-author of a number of Rand studies on asbestos litigation. In a semi-recent article published June 2002 in the Texas Law Review, she states that "at least 500,000 asbestos workers and their family members have brought claims against one or more defendant corporations." That's a lot of people. Through 2000, U.S. insurers have paid more than $20 billion to resolve claims. Estimates of the final cost are as high as $200 billion.

The chart below shows the number of claims filed against five major companies. You can probably guess where we are now - four years later.

The problems in the U.S., though, are no match for those in the UK. The BBC recently reported that "more than 500,000 non-domestic premises currently contain some form of asbestos." 5,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases in the UK each year.

About Kaygetsu

If you've been following my blog, you've probably already heard about Kaygetsu, the Sakuma's latest culinary attraction. Kaygetsu means beautiful moon as well as September, when many think the moon is most beautiful. Two Kyoto-trained chefs, Katsuhiro Yamasaki and Shinichi Aoki, work magic in the kitchen. (The kaiseki style originated in Kyoto.) Toshio Sakuma continues to refine his 30+ year art at the sushi bar. The menu was spun together by these three as cuisine "that not only satisfies appetite, but also delights the mind and the spirit." They don't have a website yet, so hopefully this post will tide you over until you can get to Kaygetsu.

Here's the menu. Keiko notes that the dinner menu has changed slightly but is generally the same. If you have an update, please email me or post a comment.

Lunch menu
Sashimi Lunch	assortment of fresh sashimi	20
Kaygetsu Lunch	prawn and vegetable tempura and fresh sashimi	23
Chicken Teriyaki	shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, house-made teriyaki sauce	15
Hamachi Teriyaki	yellowtail, shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, house-made teriyaki sauce	15
Tempura Moriawase	rice cracker-coated fried prawns, seasonal vegetables	13
Yasai Tempura	deep fried seasonal vegetables	11
Served with rice, miso soup, pickled vegetables, and a side dish
Una Ju	sliced unagi with house-made sauce over steamed rice	14
Chirashi	assortment of fresh sashimi over sushi rice	15
Tekka Donburi	slices of fresh tuna over sushi rice	15
Sushi Lunch	ten pieces of your favorite nigiri sushi	22
Served with miso soup, pickled vegetables, and a side dish.
Tempura Udon	white wheat noodles with deep friend prawns and seasonal vegetables	14
Yasai Tempura Udon	white wheat noodles with deep fried seasonal vegetables	12
Served with pickled vegeteables and a side dish. Served cold with condiments or as a hot soup.
Dessert
Ice cream sampler		7
House-made ice cream or sorbet		3
Early Summer: Nine-course omakase menu		75
Saki zuke (starter)	sesame tofu with sea urchin, fresh octopus with vinegar flavored jelly
Suimono (clear broth)	steamed minced scallop with white fish and shiitake, clear broth
Tsukuri (sashimi)	assorted seasonal selection
Yakimono (grilled dish)	grilled black cod, glazed with saikyo miso (white kyoto miso), yuzu flavor
Agemono (fried dish)	tempura prawns, fried buckwheat noodle with seaweed wrapping
Taki awase (slow cooked dish)	chilled tender abalone, root vegetable, kabocha squash and Japanese greens
Sake cha zuke	rice with clear fish broth, topped with grilled salmon, iura, seaweed, and wasabi
House-made yuzu sorbet
Seasonal Japanese dessert	red bean in crystal clear mochi, strawberry/green tea sauce
Early Summer: Six Five-course omakase menu		55 45
Saki zuke (starter)	sesame tofu with sea urchin, fresh octopus with vinegar flavored jelly
Suimono (clear broth)	steamed minced scallop with white fish and shiitake, clear broth
Tsukuri (sashimi)	assorted seasonal selection
Agemono (fried dish)	tempura prawns, fried buckwheat noodle with seaweed wrapping
Sake cha zuke	rice with clear fish broth, topped with grilled salmon, iura, seaweed, and wasabi
Seasonal Japanese dessert	house-made yuzu sorbet cherry blossom mochi

Details
Kaygetsu Restaurant
325 Sharon Park Drive
Menlo Park, CA  94025
650.234.1084

Lunch: Tuesday thru Friday, 11:30 am - 2:00 pm
Dinner: Tuesday thru Sunday, 5:30 pm - closing (last reservation at 8:30 pm)
No gratuities necessary. 16% service charge automatically added.

Reviews

• Gloria Hsu has a detailed review (5/9) on a number of items from the dinner á la carte menu (which I do not have here). Hmm, interesting, sashimi with gold flecks?
• Jane Knoerle has a review (5/5) in the Almanac News. Here the nine-course omasake is listed at $75, and the five-course at $45. It's mainly on lunch and á la carte items.
• Dave Eisen has a review (4/27) of the five-course omakase. "Everything was carefully prepared and beautifully presented. Subtle flavors, well-designed. Good fish."
• Foodlover wrote up another (4/26) on the five-item set menu. This is probably the more updated version of the six-item set menu on this post. It looks as if the only difference is that the clear broth Suimono is no longer served and the yuzu sorbet replaced with a cherry blossom mochi. Also noted, the nine-course omakase is now ten dishes for $90. Someone get me an updated menu!

Etc.
I am in no way shape or form affiliated with or endorsed by Kaygetsu. I do not guarantee this information, though it is correct to the best of my knowledge. If you have any updates, just comment! Finally, I haven't even been there yet, though I hope to be able to take Sweetie there one of these days.

Macor distributors

A number of Macor distributors are online, though, annoyingly, Corning's website does not list the links. I compiled what I could - hope that it turns out to be useful to someone else out there. Note that Leed Plastics has been purchased by PlastiFab.

Accuratus Ceramics Corp.
14A Brass Castle Road
Washington, NJ 07882
PH: 908-689-0880
FAX: 908-689-8794
Larry Treusch (larry@accuratus.com)

Circle Fabrication, Inc. (website down)
P.O. Box 153
Holcomb, IL 61043-0153
PH: 800-291-4440
PH: 815-562-9620
FAX: 815-562-9622
Nancy Nichols (nnichols@tbcnet.com)

Technical Products Inc.
P.O. Box 189
Hubertus, WI 53033
PH: 800-869-2008
PH: 262-335-3635
FAX: 262-335-3606
Gregg Gumness (gregg@technicalproductsinc.com)

Astro Met, Inc.
9974 Springfield Pike
Cincinnati, OH 45215
PH: 513-772-1242
FAX: 513-772-9080
Frank Gorman (fgorman@astromet.com)

PlastiFab, Inc./Leed Plastics Corp.
793 E Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90021-2105
PH: 800-842-4593
PH: 909-596-1927
FAX: 909-596-3020
Karen Aguirre (kra@plastifabonline.com)

Morgan Advanced Ceramics, Inc.
Fairfield Site
26 Madison Road
Fairfield, NJ 07004
PH: 800-811-4942
PH: 973-227-8877
FAX: 973-227-7135
Kevin McAloon (kevin.mcaloon@morganplc.com)

Ceramic Products, Inc.
P.O. Box 105
275 Hillside Avenue
Palisades Park, NJ 07650
PH: 800-887-3622 outside NJ
PH: 201-947-0336
FAX: 201-947-1773
Susan Marino (ceramicprd@aol.com)

San Jose Delta Inc.
482 Sapena Court
Santa Clara, CA 95054
PH: 408-727-1448
FAX: 408-727-6019
Rosemary Chavez (rchavez@sanjosedelta.com)

Asbestos lawyer or mesothelioma lawyer

According to Overture , in April 2004 there were 2640 searches for "asbestos lawyer" and 6755 for "mesothelioma lawyer", 1249 for "mesothelioma lawyer california". Interestingly, none of the top hits really lead to a list of lawyers, although they seem like they should. Ideally there should be a list of lawyers along with how they were doing in terms of wins versus attempts. Whose gonna make this? Probably a good place to start is in California. The closest thing I found is the Asbestos News site - but this doesn't give you a list, it gives you a form to fill out to "contact a lawyer". Sneaky huh?

Macor - machineable glass ceramic

Macor is a machineable glass ceramic produced by Corning. It has a DC volume resistivity at 25° C exceeding 10¹⁶ ohm-cm. That puts it in the same category as sapphire in terms of resistivity. It can be machined with ordinary metal tools and requires no firing after machining. There are only eight distributors in North America. Astro Met in Ohio has a price list posted online. It ain't cheap. 1/16" is probably the right thickness for my application. A 3"x3" block cost $51. The closest one to me is San Jose Delta.

Unbelievable - Gmail swap

Someone actually went through the trouble of setting up an organized gmail swap. That's really something.

DCR-HC1000

As you can see, the DCR-HC1000 isn't a camera, it is a camcorder. A 3 CCD camcorder. Robin Liss reported early last week on Sony Japan's release of the DCR-HC1000 at 176,000 yen, or approximately $1,554.50 as of about now. 3 CCD camcorders (and cameras for that matter) have three imaging sensors, one each for red, green and blue allowing for much richer, vibrant and accurate colors. Each imaging sensor on the DCR-HC1000 is a "1/4.7 in. 1070K pixel CCD, with 690K effective pixels for video". Incidentally, these are the same CCDs as the ones in the DCR-TRV950. Here's the brief press release.

Buying precious metals

My specifications: 0.050 in. wire/rod, 1 ft. in length.

metal	source	code	price ($)
gold (99.99%)	Surepure	Au-wire051-01	202.60
palladium (99.9%)	Surepure	Pd-wire051-01	265.00
platinum (99.95%)	Surepure	Pt-wire051-01	443.60
platinum-iridium (90/10)	Surepure	Pt-Ir-wire051-01	442.80
silver (99.95%)	Surepure	Ag-wire051-01	40.00

I also found New England Precision Griding's Quick Wire Program, which specializes on medical devices. No pricing though. They have all sorts of crazy things. Probably not the right place for me.

Gmail ups ante!

Woo woo! What will Hotmail and Yahoo do now?

Ok, ok, it could be just a temporary bug. Though, Google is reputedly giving their own employees 1 TB.

Update
It was just a temporary bug. Drats.

For the time already past is sufficient...

How should we live, in light of Christ's example? Today's reading from I Peter 4 is very practical, especially I Peter 4:1-5... "because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased to sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh for no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." What would it look like, if I truly lived no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God?

We had dinner with one of my colleagues tonight. And, as more often than not, ended up talking about things we could do business-wise. "What can we do to make money," I asked. Why? At the core of it, to be honest, is that I want to be self-sufficient - of course, forgetting that God provides all in the end, our health, the air we breathe, the time that we have. God is the ultimate provider - this enables us to live for Him. If I am the ultimate provider, then I don't have time to live for Him, I have to live to provide so that the future can be secure, so that we can avoid "suffering", send the kids to good schools, eat healthy organic food, go to Kaygetsu every once in a while (ok, maybe once), and upgrade my digital camera. Self-sufficiency is one of the lusts of men, you might know it as "power", the power to control the future, the power to dictate my own terms of living. As long as my heart is pursuing this, how can I live for God? I cannot.

Illegal with storage active

When debugging labview programs for the 6430, you might get stuck in with an "illegal with storage active" error. This happens when the device is expecting to store data but you are trying to give it commands that alter, for instance, the buffer size. I have to admit, when I first ran into this I just got frustrated and rebooted the machine. The asterix in the upper right hand corner tells use that it is in storage mode, hence the error. To get out of this, you need not turn the machine off. Just press LOCAL (to get out of remote operation) and then STORE and then EXIT. Whew.

Time to buy NuPrep... again

I'm working too slow, already we have to get yet another shipment of NuPrep. In the past I have purchased NuPrep from Rochester Electro-Medical just based on price. Over the last month I've noticed that their e-commerce system is consistently down. That in combination with their disorienting website is really cause for concern (don't go there if you are epileptic). What's up with that? Anyway, now you can only buy by fax, which is just wierd and a pain. They could at least use Paypal. For a case of 12 tubes, they charge $73.00 ($6.08 ea.). $71.00 for three cases - thought that is a bit excessive. Prices are given without taxes and shipping and handling (which can be a big deal). UPS Ground is $9 for 1 case.

source	size	price ($)	price per unit ($)
Rochester Electro-Medical	1	6.75	6.75
Rochester Electro-Medical	12	73.00	6.08
Rochester Electro-Medical	36	213.00	5.92

Sigh... I'll probably get yet another case. With shipping and handling it works out to $6.83 a tube. Still considerably cheaper than everywhere else. D.O. Weaver & Company makes both NuPrep and Ten20 Conductive paste.

Movable Type, Adsense and the commercial license

I started investigating Movable Type 3 this evening and had a chance to re-read some of the licensing agreements. As some of you might know, I started Adsense way after I started blogging, and I'm not sure why but it didn't really occur to me to check the agreement to make sure that I didn't need to be under a commercial license. I don't. At least for the new agreement. Here's the quote, from How You Can Use Movable Type.

“Non-Commercial Purposes” means use of the Software by an individual for publishing on a personal blog site on a single sever that does not directly or indirectly support any commercial efforts. Use of the Software for any purpose by any non-individual entity, including but not limited to any commercial entity, corporation, non-profit organization, educational institution, governmental body or group, is not permitted under this Agreement. Affiliate or associate fees that are earned by a personal blog site and are payable to a single individual and that are earned through activities incidental to the main purpose of the site are permitted under the Non-Commercial Purposes of this Agreement.

Hmm, so if I start a mesothelioma blog solely to earn Adsense fees, that would probably count as a commercial endeavor. But if I keep blogging for fun and adventure, it'll probably be ok.

Running to be the President

It says in Article II, Section I, that

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

which means I won't be eligible to be the President until 2012, though that doesn't mean I can't run. What does it take to run president anyhow? Scholastic (Scholastic?) has a step-by-step guide. Here's a facinating article on what not to do in preparation for becoming president - don't be a sitting member of Congress. I think one should probably be governor first.

Meeting Keiko

What an amazing coincidence. A few days after my post on Kaygetsu, Sonja actually ran into Keiko at the Stanford Shopping Center. They chatted for a bit after which Keiko offered my wife a card and invited her to visit.

Making images from labview charts

I had a hard time figuring out how to generate an image from a chart in Labview. The supplied help pages were seemingly helpful, but difficult to decipher once you really try to read it. So, my pain, your gain, here's a tutorial.

Let's start with an arbitrary waveform, say sine.

1. Open a new vi and right click on the block diagram. Choose Input and then Simulate Signal. Accept the default.
2. Right-click at the Sine output terminal and then select Create followed by Graph Indicator. You'll generate the graph icon.
3. Right-click the graph, and then select Create followed by Reference. This is the key.
4. Right-click on the reference, and select Create, then Method, then Get Image. You'll generate a box labeled "WFGraph". Note that it isn't connected to anything.
5. Connect the WaveformGraph to the upper-left hand corner of WFGraph.
6. Connect the Error Out of Simulate Signal with the Error In of WFGraph. This is needed so that the image is generated after the sine is made, not before.
7. Right-click on blank area and select All Functions, Graphics & Sound, Graphics Formats, and then your choice of graphic formats to write in. I prefer PNG myself. (Yes, it took a while to find these...)

   

8. Finally, hook up the image data terminals together, and you should be ready to go. Here's what the finished diagram should look like:

   

Run it and you should be able to save something that looks like this:

Beautiful, no? Size is dictated by the front panel size.

Blogger error 550 - permission denied

Since Blogger was relaunched, I've noticed that I've been unable to create new blogs. I finally figured it out today. It has to do with archiving. When publishing a new blog, archiving is turned on by default. However, no matter what the setting is on your root directory, it'll give you a funky error, which looks like:

550 2004_05_01_: Permission denied on file:2004_05_01_

I think it has to do with not being able to access the 2004/05/ directory, which of course, with a new blog, does not yet exist. I'm not sure why it couldn't just create the directory. A simple hack is to turn off archiving, which I did... that'll allow your blogs to post.

Update
To fix the archiving, after creating your blog, go to Settings then Archiving. Fill out the Archive Path, URL and filename, making sure to create any directories as necessary. Select an Archive Frequency and then Republish. It should work now.

Secondhand mesothelioma - a verdict

The Saint-Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Tuesday that the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $5 million judgement on secondhand mesothelioma. Stephanie Foster died at age 43 from mesothelioma resulting from exposure while a toddler in California 40 years ago. Her father, Robert Foster, worked as a machinist on missiles at Aerojet and unknowingly exposed her to asbestos dust on his work clothes coming home.

Verdicts for secondary asbestos exposure are "becoming more and more common," said Ted Gianaris, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers. "In our office, we have been representing some young women with the disease, and they are almost always the daughters of tradesmen, mechanics or laborers."

The $5 million judgement consisted of $3 million for wrongful death, $2 million for pre-death pain and suffering, and $119,000 for lost wages and medical expenses. How much do you think Gianaris' firm was paid? Ted Gianaris works for the Simmons Firm, which handles nothing but asbestos cases.

"We currently have about 1,400 cases," Bono said, "and we are not the biggest asbestos firm. But we are the biggest firm when it comes to mesothelioma."

An article on the original judgement can be found at law.com - from the looks of it Aerojet made some pretty big mistakes. The article (12/2002) also gives some statistics on number of cases:

The Foster case was one of about 300,000 asbestos-related cases now before state and federal courts, experts say. And that number is expected to grow at a rate of more than 50,000 new cases a year as people who fear they were exposed to cancer-causing asbestos -- in many cases decades ago -- but may not even become aware of the health risks.

Google going banner?

I got this in the mail today:

Hello,

Google is very pleased to introduce a new feature to your AdSense account.
Image ads

Now, in addition to text ads, you can choose to show highly-targeted image ads on your web pages. Unlike traditional banner ads, Google's image ads are contextually targeted to the content of your page, providing your users with a high impact, high value advertisement - and providing you with the opportunity to earn more revenue.

For the full details about image ads, please read our What's New page at https://www.google.com/adsense/new.

How to contact us

If you have questions or comments about this new feature, or about the AdSense program in general, please email us at adsense-support@google.com. One of our specialists will be happy to help.

Sincerely,

The Google Team

Shocking.

Blogger templates

The new blogger templates are very nice. I have a couple favorites, but I think it won't be long before everyone starts using the same nice templates. So, where else to go? Fortunately, folks have been hard at work on this front, here are a few links I found.

Blogspot has a variety of fun templates updated each day. A lot of them are animated in moderately tasteful ways. I'd look here first.

Martijn runs blogtemplates.noipo.org, as in "No Initial Public Offering", and, as a photographer-webguy, has put up some visually appealing templates. My favorite one is the Easter Island one.

For you spider-fans, check out Sony Pictures' Spidey-templates. That's smart marketing.

Point of Focus has some fun nature-related ones, though I'm not as keen of the color scheme. Templates are linkware however and there are terms and conditions.

Google blog

How about that, Google has an official blog now! The first post was at 11:40 AM on Monday. Nothing really juicy yet though. CNET has the scoop.

"Google Blog" attempts to capture the casual feel of a typical Web log. "We're going to post stuff here, regular bloggy things," writes Evan Williams, Pyra's founder and now Google's Blogger program manager. "What Larry had for breakfast. What Sergey thinks of that Hellboy movie. Which Dawson's Creek character reminds us most of Eric."

Acquisition update

The source-acquisition system seems to be working properly now. Sometimes the response from :FORM:ELEMents? is slow, so it is important to make sure that GPIB Read does not timeout, which was what was happening. Unfortunately, labview is less than helpful in these instances, providing only a "generic file I/O error". Also, uploading the waveform is slow, since I do it in blocks of 25, communicating with GPIB each time. This can be optimized substantially, though will not affect actually acquisition. The best I was able to achieve was about 1.9 ms. Only two things really make this worse, voltage autoranging (in the case of a current source) and auto-zero. Voltage autoranging makes the timing very erratic, on average it is about 2.7 ms, but can go up as much as 26 ms when the machine is thinking. Auto-zero is not so bad in terms of stability but will add a little more than 2.5 ms to the measurement.

To summarize:

scenario	δt (ms)
all off, just volts, SREal	1.857
all off, all functions,SREal	1.901
all off, all functions, ASCII	1.901
auto filter on (1/5%), rest off, all functions, SREal	1.901
repeat filter on (1), rest off, all functions, SREal	1.901
median filter on (0) rest off, all functions, SREal	1.901
current autoranging on, rest off, all functions, SREal	1.901
voltage autoranging on, rest off, all functions, SREal	2.724
autozero on, rest off, all functions, SREal	4.422

You can pick up the raw data here.

From tab-delimited to HTML table

Stephen Travis' tab-delimited file converter is inspirationally clean and useful. It allows you to take a tab-delimited string of text and convert it into an HTML table. The underlying code is quite straight-forward and nothing magical - but still, thumbs up for making a clean interface. Now what I really need is an MT-plugin that does this. Oh, and also missing is a preview, which can be done with Javascript and a CSS div rewrite.

Who is Nachum Kedar?

Wired's Super Organics article had a single paragraph in the introduction on Israeli tomato grandmaster Nachum Kedar.

But the quest for a longer-lasting tomato didn't end there. As the Flavr Savr was stumbling (Monsanto eventually abandoned it), Israeli scientist Nachum Kedar was quietly bringing a natural version to market. By crossbreeding beefsteak tomatoes, Kedar had arrived at a savory, high-yield fruit that would ripen on the vine and remain firm in transit. He found a marketing partner, which licensed the tomato and flooded the US market without any PR problems. The vine-ripened hybrid, now grown and sold worldwide under several brand names, owes its existence to Kedar's knowledge of the tomato genome. He didn't use genetic engineering. His fruit emerged from a process that's both more sophisticated and far less controversial.

Based on how it was written, I expected the rest of the article to give more information, but his name never shows up again. Who is Nachum Kedar?

His website at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem sheds a bit more light. Nachum Kedar, a.k.a. Mr. Tomato, was born in 1920 in Vienna, Austria. Receiving his Ph.D. at Hebrew University in 1958, he continued to lecture there, becoming Associate Professor in 1969, Professor in 1976, and Emeritus in 1988. Ruth Ebenstein, in 1991 [1], described him as "an affable, balding, bright-eyed man... the mastermind of a whole generation of new tomato breeds that stay firm and fresh up to four times as long as the standard fruit." Kedar's obsession with tomatoes was inspired in 1974, after watching a Thai farmer pick his tomatoes green. "The fruit had no taste or smell, but the man said ripe fruit would be quickly ruined in the heat and humidity," remarked Kedar, "That's when I knew we had a real problem." He did not have to wait long. Shortly thereafter, in response to a failed kibbutz attempt to grow tomatoes in the Negev, the Jewish Agency offered Kedar an opportunity to solve the problem. Three years later, after tasting thousands of tomatoes injected with hundreds of combinations of genes, Kedar's four-person research team hit their stride. Over the next decade, the team produced over 400 different varieties of tomatoes were designed, six or seven each year going into the market. The most popular? The DeVine Ripe tomato. Grown in California and Mexico, the DeVine tomato allows farmers to harvest their crop at the vine ripe stage, with no compromise in storage life, thus accomplishing Kedar's original goal [2].

I was able to locate more information on his tomato project at Yissum, the company in charge of technology transfer for Hebrew University under B-1075: Breeding Tomatoes Rich in Vitamins.

Plants with prominent genetic variability, but with no commercial use, are being grown at the faculty's farm. These plants have tomatoes with high vitamin content. To select the desired qualities of these "primitive" tomatoes, classical breeding and molecular biology methods will be employed to result in commercial tomato plants that will produce natural tomatoes with high vitamin content.

His colloborator is Professor Haim Rabinowitch with whom he also worked on long shelf life tomatoes. According to their research blurb,

Israeli tomatoes can now be exported to Europe by ship at a $500 saving per ton over air freight. Furthermore, sale of the fruit or the tomato seeds are at present bringing in more royalty to the Hebrew University than all other commercialized University discoveries combined. Currently, about 40% of European greenhouse acreage, about 70% of tomato production in Morocco and more than 50% of the Mexican tomato acreage is occupied by Faculty of Agriculture cultivars. The value of tomato seed exports is estimated to more than $50 million, annually.

In 1983, Kedar received the National Food Processors Association award (U.S.) for his work on the effect of food-ripening mutant genes. In 1986, he was awarded the Israel's Kaplan Prize for innovative contribution to the economy.

References
[1] R. Ebenstein, "Just call him Mr. Tomato," Jerusalem Report, pp. 14, Aug 8. 1991.
[2] L. Samin, "Turning thoughts into food," Jerusalem Post, pp. 14, Nov 8. 2002.

Going retro with Vodka

Pete Wells has a facinating article in Food & Wine this month on vodka going retro. He gives a nice overview on how vodka is made, with a focus on the transition from pot stills (think bathubs, Chicago gangsters and going blind) to Aeneas Coffey's columnar still. The column strips out all the flavor, nasty or nice, leaving, as the U.S. government defines, "a neutral spirit... without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color." The trend these days is to return to pot stills, or pot-column hybrids in order to put the taste back into vodka. Absolut's Level is example from a major company. Of course, once there is taste, is it really still vodka?

Automation v0.5

The sine generator works now! Special thanks to Dale Cigoy at Keithley for insisting that I could get down to a couple milliseconds per measurement. I'll post more information and the relevant files tomorrow morning, since some sorting needs to be done on the dependencies. For long waveforms (>100 points), I was running out of GPIB buffer, so I ended up rewriting the source generator to send batches of 25 points directly to the 6430, rather than building a huge command to send all at once. With basically everything optimized, sourcing current and measuring just voltage, I was able to achieve 1.8793 ms per measurement on average. This value seemed pretty stable, though, since I don't have an oscilloscope on hand, it is hard to tell whether this is the real value or if some measurements are faster than others. The timestamp resolution is around 1.9 ms.

For the following table, current, amplitude 1 μA, was sourced sinusoidally and 2500 points sent to the 6430.

scenario	avg time per measurement (ms)
everything off, measuring just voltage	1.879
everything off, measuring all functions	1.921

Alas when I tried to change the auto-zero I got a buffer read error. I'm not sure why.

Blogger relaunches!

If it gets any cooler, I'm going to have to dump MoveableType. Check out Biz Stone's "The Great Blogger Relaunch". My favorite? Beautiful, CSS-based templates. Commenting. Conditional tags (just like MT!). Email blogging. It boggles my mind that Blogger is owned by Google.

Header error in Filter Config.vi

I kept getting the annoying buzz error (Error -113, Undefined header) this morning when using Keithley 6430 Filter Config.vi. I finally isolated the problem. The third box down, when false, should have :Sens:Med Off; not :Sens:Aver:Med Off;. When true, it should be :Sens:MED:Rank %d;State On; instead of :Sens:Aver:MED:Rank %d;State On;. It still doesn't improve acquisition times, but at least you can get the error to stop. For more information on configuring the median filter go to 17-61 of the manual.

MIT Club of Northern California hosts RFID panel

Thanks Christine, for sending me the link. Tomorrow MIT CLub of Northern California will be hosting an RFID panel 7:00 PM at Cooley Godward, LLP (Palo Alto, CA). Tickets are $15 pre-registration and $20 at the door. Note that the Register Now button appears to not be functioning at the moment.

Expected panelists:
Blair LaCorte, EVP, Corporate Development and Strategy, Savi Technology
Anurag Mendhekar, CEO, Blue Vector Systems
Jon Chorley, Senior Director, Oracle Inventory & WMS, Oracle Corporation
Raymond Blanchard, President & CEO, Truth Software. Former Business Development Director, Auto-ID Solutions, BSG Manufacturing, SAP

Moderator:
Peter Winer, CEO, Big Chief Partners, Inc.

Bios are available at the event description. Contact mitcnc-sls-organizers@yahoogroups.com for more information.

Why mesothelioma?

I mentioned in an earlier post that mesothelioma-related keywords were up in the $90s in cost per click (CPC). A recent article in New York Lawyer explains exactly why. "Because there is nothing more valuable than one mesothelioma patient," explains Chris Hahn, executive director of the non-profit Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (Santa Barbara, CA). Typical awards in a mesothelioma case is $1 million, with attorneys receiving 40%. A study by think tank Rand Corp. claims that the mean award for cases going to trial is $6 million. Given that fact, and that patients go "on the Web within three or four days of diagnosis", $90 suddenly does not seem like so much for a good lead.

Pros get digital prints at Costco

I had photos from our PowerShot S300 printed at Costco this morning as a gift to Sonja for Mother's Day. I'm happy to report that the results were quite pleasing. I dropped a CD off at around 11 and picked up the prints at around 2. They had quoted me 5 PM which I negotiated to 3. The charge? 19 cents a piece.

Here's the skinny on the setup. Digital prints at Costco Mountain View (Costco #143) are made using a Noritsu QSS-3101 on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper. The machine is calibrated daily and profiles uploaded to Dry Creek Photo. Costco will print your images as is. That means that if you do not Photoshop your photos, you may get some prints