10 Thoughts for April 21, 2014

1. I've been on a tear lately, ordering small things from Amazon.  US Postal Service has done an excellent job of getting two packages delivered to Hawai'i before Amazon's shipping window even opened up.  DHL, not so much.  Sadly, DHL's shipping protocols required that it send my package to its Auburn, WA facility, then transferred to the USPS, and now on its way down in a truck to Portland.  If the package had been sent directly through USPS it would have arrived Saturday as was the case with the package that arrived in Hawai'i on Saturday.
2. Make no mistake about it, Russia is trying to undermine Ukraine.  All that Russian subterfuge may eventually result in blowback from China, one might expect.  China, after all, would be upset if the US were using military inside of Hong Kong trying to undermine Beijing, right?
3. Speaking of which, Crimea is apparently finding the transition a lot tougher and scarier than simply changing countries overnight.  
4. Portland truly is weird.  Why just the other week people got upset with the City's water manager's decision to dump 38M gallons of water because a guy peed into the reservoir.  So in Portland it's okay to pee in the drinking water, but no way is fluoride allowed.  So of course, I asked the question online at many sites: What concentration of human pee is acceptable?  Extrapolated, the EPA says it's okay for 166,666 people to pee into the reservoir every 40 days.  So maybe the answer is to have 166,665 people pee into the reservoir every 40 days, to save the 1.5 gallons per flush, per pee session, until the 38M gallons are recovered.  Maybe we should allow swimming, too.
5. Check out these concealed drawer slides.  Way cool stuff.
6. Seattle Seahawks traded a 2014 7th round pick to Oakland for Terrelle Pryor.  I don't get it.  Carroll beat Pryor's Buckeyes in the Horseshoe in 2009 with a true freshman starting in his first road game in college.  Pryor can sometimes throw ducks under pressure (though nothing as bad as Tim Tebow).  Then there's the way he weaseled his way out of punishment for his NCAA violations, by promising to return for his senior year to sit out the first 5 games in return for being allowed to play in his bowl game, only to make a swift exit thereafter when the full extent of his violations were publicized. And finally, let's not forget that he had to take the Wonderlic score multiple times.
7. Speaking of USC and Pete Carroll, to this day I still believe that 2008 defense was one of college football's finest: Fili Moala, Christian Tupou, Everson Griffen, Brian Cushing, Rey Maualuga, Kaluka Maiava, Clay Matthews, Taylor Mays, Kevin Ellison, Kevin Thomas, Shareece Wright, Michael Morgan.  That team had 3 shutouts and 3 games with just a field goal allowed.  Quarterbacks feared Maualuga.
8. The National Science Foundation issued its Science and Engineering Indicators 2014 report, and it has gained some buzz.  Particularly, that just 48% of Americans believe in evolution and that just 39% believe in the Big Bang.  But it turns out, Russians fared worse, with only 44% believing in evolution and just 35% believing in the Big Bang.  It's worth noting that the number of Americans in 1992 who believed in the Big Bang was the same as today, so intellectually we're not getting worse.
9. One hilarious -- yet extremely sad -- portion of the NSF's report, reveals that just 47% of Americans and EU residents understand that lasers do not utilize sound waves...and that was the highest rate among the group of 8 peers (US, EU, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea)!
10. Surprisingly not an easy quiz question: How long does it take for the Earth to make one full revolution around the Sun?  In 2000 -- the last year they asked this question -- only about half of Americans polled got this right.
11. Netflix is going to raise prices in the next few months on new subscribers in the US.  When there is stiff competition, margins shrink and prices drop; when there is limited competition, margins grow and prices increase.  Guess where Netflix is.