2009-09-02
This mortal coil
Cause of Death Lifetime Odds
All figures below are for U.S. residents.
The more specific figures are based on 2001, the most recent year for which complete data are available. Other odds, indicated with an asterisk (*) are based on long-term data.
| Heart Disease | 1-in-5 |
| Cancer | 1-in-7 |
| Stroke | 1-in-23 |
| Accidental Injury | 1-in-36 |
| Motor Vehicle Accident* | 1-in-100 |
| Intentional Self-harm (suicide) | 1-in-121 |
| Falling Down | 1-in-246 |
| Assault by Firearm | 1-in-325 |
| Fire or Smoke | 1-in-1,116 |
| Natural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quakes, etc.) | 1-in-3,357 |
| Electrocution* | 1-in-5,000 |
| Drowning | 1-in-8,942 |
| Air Travel Accident* | 1-in-20,000 |
| Flood* (included also in Natural Forces above) | 1-in-30,000 |
| Legal Execution | 1-in-58,618 |
| Tornado* (included also in Natural Forces above) | 1-in-60,000 |
| Lightning Strike (included also in Natural Forces above) | 1-in-83,930 |
| Snake, Bee or other Venomous Bite or Sting* | 1-in-100,000 |
| Earthquake (included also in Natural Forces above) | 1-in-131,890 |
| Dog Attack | 1-in-147,717 |
| Asteroid Impact* | 1-in-200,000 |
| Tsunami* | 1-in-500,000 |
| Fireworks Discharge | 1-in-615,488 |
Perhaps 1-in-500,000
2009-05-25
No Fishing
Last weekend my Kids and I went camping at Graves Island. We had a great couple of days. I almost cut off the tip of my index finger with an axe and we got a few mosquito bites, but we nice time in the sun and the rain.
On Sunday, we were saying goodbye to some fellow campers, whom my little boy had befriended, and I saw them quickly through the woods, traveling without any noise, cyclists on touring bikes. It was exhilarating to see them, I don't know why. But it was magical to see the and not hear anything as they headed for their campsite.
Time to get on the road to do some longer distance rides, and camp, for free, somewhere.
2009-05-05
Camping in May
I want to take my kids camping this upcoming weekend (May 8-10, 2009). So I start looking around for a decent campground. I really like Provincial Camp grounds. They are well run and I know what to expect. So I start looking at http://www.novascotiaparks.ca/. Maybe take the kids to Blomidon or Smileys.. but no, they are not open until the middle of May and the middle of June respectively. And you can't camp there if they are not open! I asked... although I did get a response from the webpage note I sent in. Thanks for the response "Park Park Info" :)
So, I think. Well, lets take the kids to Keji. I look at the fees schedule, is this confusing or what? Apparently seasonal here mean, a pass for the entire season, not admission fees based on the time of year...
So I call Parks Canada and speak to someone with a nice accent who tells me how much reservations are going to be, without telling me about the daily admission charge...
So the total for 2 kids and one adult to go to Keji for TWO nights in May is:
| Fee | Days | Price | Subtotal |
| Adult Entry | 2 | 5.80 | 11.60 |
| Youth | 2 | 2.90 | 5.80 |
| Camping / Night | 2 | 24.50 | 49.00 |
| Reservation Fee | 1 | 10.80 | 10.80 |
| Sub-Total | $77 + Tax | Total | $88.01 |
I don't know if this includes firewood, it probably does not.
Compare this pricing to Nova Scotia Provincial Camping
| Fee | Days | Price | Subtotal |
| Adult Entry | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Youth | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Camping / Night | 2 | 18 | 36 |
| Reservation Fee | 1 | 8 | 8 |
| Sub-Total | $44 | Total | $50.16 |
I do have a problem with the reservation structure. Why are they charging for an additional reservation fee. Is this because they have outsourced the reservation system? Also, why do I have to reserve by credit-card. I don't like giving out my credit-card information. How can I pay a reservation fee and then pay the rest of the money on-site.
Keji Pricing:
ENTRY
Daily
- Adult $5.80
- Senior $4.90
- Youth $2.90
- Family/Group $14.70
- Commercial Group, per person (whole park) $4.90
- Commercial Group, per person (visitor reception centre area only) $4.15
- School Groups, per student $1.90
- School Groups, Entry and a Heritage Presentation Special Program, per student $2.90
Seasonal
- Adult $29.40
- Senior $24.50
- Youth $14.70
- Family/Group $73.60
Seasonal Early Bird
- Adult $23.50
- Senior $19.60
- Youth $11.70
- Family/Group $58.80
CAMPING
1 Night
- Jeremys Bay - Unserviced with washroom building having toilets and showers, peak season (May 1 to October 31) $25.50
- Jeremys Bay - Unserviced with pit privies, shoulder season (November 1 to April 30) $18.10
- Primitive, with wood $24.50
Group Camping - 1 Night
- Jim Charles Point, without showers, per person $4.90
- Reservation $4.90
2009-01-22
Reflection on the emotions of Cycling
Why do people love to cycle? I think it has to do with the experience of flying. That first gliding moment as your feet leave the pavement and your whole body is alive.
"Riding a fixed gear is fucking as close as you can get to flying" Steve Rawston (Rolly), former courier, rock star.
2009-01-01
Happy New Year
Happy New Year. Now thats out of the way....
Linux on Wireless Routers
This week I have been rebuilding some wireless router used on a network I administrate. OpenWRT and DD-WRT are Linux distributions made for the small memory and flash featured in Linksys WRT-54G and other routers.
OpenWRT is an amazing linux package that is intended for linux Gurus and experimenters.
DD-WRT is ready to use for people who want to other things that learn about all the ins and outs of wireless networking.
OpenWRT also seems to in the middle of a large code update to Linux kernel 2.6. This means development has stoped on the stable 7.0.x Kamikaze in favour of the 8.09 RC1. Of course, that means.. if you want features.. that might not be stable you need to run a release candidate.. and thats not my idea of stable for production. So I went with DD-WRT.
DD-WRT Interface
DD-WRT interface is extensive. Pretty much every wireless tweek has been put into the interface. You don't need to change much to get it to work in normally secure environments.. i.e. WPA Personal and a gateway to the Internet. Just get a stable release..
Oh.. and this is what HAMs are using to do high-speed packet networking...
2008-12-29
Thank God thats overwith
Its no secret.. I hate Christmas. But its overwith now.
Interesting things I learned about over Christmas..
- The Wii Fit is allot of fun for kids and parents.
- HSMM is a cool thing to do with wireless base stations and amateur radio. Like digital voice and other media over high-speed wireless...
- My friends are cool.
- I have allot of friends.
- Christmas day is still ghost-town like creepy!
2008-12-17
Blocking even more traffic, speed up your browsing
Convienietly, cookies and ad largely are delivered by well known servers. Every computer that connects to the Internet has a file for customizing computer name lookups (the domain name system, DNS), and you can customize this file to ensure that your computer never connects to these servers.
Read this page on how to block all those ad sites, including Double Click and Google Analytics.
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
If you already now where your hosts file is, download this file and add it: This http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt
2008-12-15
Ch-Ch-Changes
Want to start a controversial conversation? Ask someone if they have ever heard of "Peak Oil".On a mostly completely different subject, here is a great article about connecting the US with Bike paths: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28178854/
2008-12-11
The degree symbol °
I am on IRC... and someone pastes.
14:29 < irc_hag > then +14° and thunderstorms tomorrow which sounds very fun..
How did he do the degree symbol on the keyboard. Well, of course he is using a Mac. I am using a PC ssh'd into a unix host..
Well, it turns out that on a PC, with the numlock on you press ALT+0176 and this creates the degrees symbol.
So then I go over to emacs.. its not doing what it is supposed to.. its giving me letters instead.
Then I find this post: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/powerbook/34-journal.html#emacslocale
and I find out I need to and the environment variable LANG=iso_8859_1 to my shell, and everything is good.
Finally.. I can say it will be 24°C and sunny!!