Shiny craft in sky

At 7:27 AM Saturday, I was running late to meet my brothers and dad for breakfast downtown. As I hurriedly turned south onto Blount Street from Peace Street, I spotted a very bright object in the eastern sky, roughly above Oakwood Cemetery. It seemed to be stationary and extremely shiny. The bottom half glowed brilliant amber. It could’ve been catching the morning sun that was rising behind it.

Was it an airplane? Normally I’d say so, but in the second it took me to look back at the road and then back to the sky it seemed to vanish. It wasn’t shaped like an airplane but was more spherical, perhaps even oblong or diamond-shaped. It was so reflective to be almost mirror-like. There were no visible navigation lights, either, nor was this airplane on any flight path to or from RDU airport.

There are general aviation planes which are silver but these are rare in my experience. Most small planes are painted. Helicopters are normally painted as well. I don’t ever recall seeing one so reflective – certainly none of the usual TV news helicopters common around here.

Am I a little spooked by the other weird lights I’ve seen recently over Raleigh? You bet. That doesn’t mean what I saw yesterday is anything but some shiny, everyday aircraft. Even so, I sure wish I would’ve had some extra time to investigate it.

Facebook echo chamber

I’ve written before about the Facebook echo chamber where, like karma, like-minded Facebook friends are drawn towards you. This becomes an echo chamber as one only hears from those who share your views.

Yesterday I was shown again just how much filtering Facebook does, when my friend Tanner Lovelace commented on an update Kelly made to Facebook.

“Wait, are you and Tanner Facebook friends?” I asked Kelly.

“I am,” she answered.

“How come I’m not Tanner’s friend?”

“Well, the only way I know Tanner is through you,” she said, “so you must be his friend.”

I checked my list of Facebook friends and, sure enough, there was Tanner. Then I checked Tanner’s page and saw how many of his updates I haven’t been getting because for some reason Facebook never thought to show them to me.

Without me knowing it, Facebook was steering me towards some friends and away from others. I never knew what I had been missing.

This is what I find really frustrating about Facebook: the view it gives you of your world is highly distorted. And you might not ever realize it.

Flu shot effectiveness below 50 percent

My friends are making noise about getting a flu vaccine. I am not anti-vaccine at all, but not all vaccines are the same. And not all flu vaccines are the same, either. Each season’s flu vaccine is a coin toss whether it will actually work. According to CDC statistics, patients 65 or older who got a flu shot during the 2012-2013 season were only protected from flu an abysmally-low 9% of the time.

There is also evidence from the CDC that repeatedly getting flu shots makes you more susceptible to getting the flu.

There are a lot of claims being made about the flu vaccine, including a lot of hype. I think it’s important to pay attention to what the science tells you.

The flu vaccine was 47% effective against medically attended flu for all influenza strains in the 2011-12 season, and being vaccinated the year before lowered effectiveness, according to a study yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

US researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and elsewhere looked at complete data for the season, which was relatively mild and peaked late. They found an overall vaccine effectiveness VE of 47% for preventing medically attended flu.

VE against 2009 H1N1 was 65%, but against H3N2, which was the predominant strain during the 2011-12 season. VE was only 39%. Its effectiveness against type B strains was 58% but was actually lower against the Victoria strain included in the vaccine 52% compared with the Yamagata strain not included in the vaccine 66%.

The investigators also noted a statistically significant difference between VE for those who received a flu vaccine the year before 33% and those who did not 56%.

via Flu Scan for Nov 14, 2013 | CIDRAP.

Consultant: Aiken is considering run for Congress

Gary probably can’t say this because he’s working with Clay and most likely is bound by what he can say. That doesn’t stop me, though.

District 2 is a conservative district and Clay has no political experience, but he can’t be counted out. He has name recognition, his own money to fund a campaign (I assume), and the brains to grasp the issues. As Kelly said to me, “I’d hate to run against him,” and she’s right. A lot of right-wingers are flipping out about this and for good reason.

RALEIGH, N.C. AP — Pop singer Clay Aiken, who first made a name for himself as a contestant on “American Idol,” is considering a run for Congress in North Carolina’s 2nd District, a state Democratic Party consultant said Friday.

The “American Idol” runner-up from 2003 has talked with him and other advisers and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about whether to seek the seat now held by Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers, consultant Gary Pearce told The Associated Press.

via Consultant: Aiken is considering run for Congress – SFGate.

Cheap Thoughts: Barks and hearing

I came back from dropping a kid off at school today to hear our dog barking his head off from his crate. It made me wonder: how do dogs bark so loud for so long and not have it affect their hearing? I mean, they have huge ears, right? How do they keep from making themselves deaf?

On the Matter of Why Bitcoin Matters — The Magazine on Medium

Glenn Fleishman, frequent contributor to The Economist, takes a closer look at Marc Andreessen’s recent NY Times opinion piece about Bitcoin.

Marc Andreessen wrote an essay for the New York Times about Bitcoin, “Why Bitcoin Matters,” in which he attempts to explain the relevancy of the digital currency for the future of commercial transactions. He uses analogies, allegories, history, and ostensible facts to build his case.

However, I believe he fundamentally misrepresents or misunderstands key aspects of the technology, ecosystem, and impact, despite Andreessen Horowitz, of which he is a founding partner, having just under $50m in investment fully disclosed in “Bitcoin-related startups.” I own no Bitcoins; Marc has a “de minimis” amount. I will note that someone owning Bitcoin investments and not Bitcoins is the same as owning gold-mine investments and no gold.

via On the Matter of Why Bitcoin Matters — The Magazine on Medium — Medium.

Still feeling the pain

Yesterday I had a talk with a business owner friend of mine about how I might help him out. He and I have known each other for over ten years and I’ve done work for him in the past. He should have been the ultimate friendly audience for me to explain where I’m at right now. Even so, I could hear the stress in my voice when I explained my skills and expertise. Losing my job still stings.

I dropped my daughter off at a friend’s house for the afternoon on Tuesday. Her friend’s mom asked if I was working from home that day. Not wanting to go into the messy details, I told her I had the day off. Which I suppose is technically true. My guilt in losing my job overrules my guilt in fibbing about it. Either way, it sucks.

I suppose the pain shows that I really cared about that job. Certainly I tried hard to make it work. And yet, in looking back those last several weeks were not good for my health.

I’m ready for my next chapter to begin. I just hope I can soon put the last one behind me for good.

Workout or job?

On my walk to pick Travis up from school I passed the neighborhood mailman. Wondering what he might think of the frigid weather, I stopped to ask.

“You work outside a lot, right?”

He nodded.

“Which do you prefer: blazing hot or freezing cold?”

Without hesitation he answered, “blazing hot.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said. “When it’s blazing hot I can carry extra water and it feels like a workout. When it’s freezing cold, well … that’s when it feels like a job!”

Forty-five trips around the sun

Family hike pic at Falls Lake. Note the wrist brace.

Family hike pic at Falls Lake. Note the wrist brace.


Yesterday was my 45th birthday. My how time flies. It was a good birthday, though, overall. The only downside is that I seem to have somehow injured my left hand on Sunday. I wasn’t doing anything excessive – just watching The Hunt for Red October on the couch with Travis, but an hour later my hand was extremely sore, especially at the wrist. This mystery injury provided me teeth-gritting pain over the last two days, only now letting up. Since yesterday, my hand has ballooned from the swelling. I hope it will settle down on its own because my former employer has been slow getting the COBRA coverage started on my health insurance and as of now I don’t think I can see the doctor without a lot of reimbursement paperwork trouble.
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Why Bitcoin Matters – NYTimes.com

Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen explains the promise of Bitcoin. I thought I understood these concepts well enough but this showed me new possibilities.

That last part is enormously important. Bitcoin is the first Internetwide payment system where transactions either happen with no fees or very low fees (down to fractions of pennies). Existing payment systems charge fees of about 2 to 3 percent – and that’s in the developed world. In lots of other places, there either are no modern payment systems or the rates are significantly higher. We’ll come back to that.

Bitcoin is a digital bearer instrument. It is a way to exchange money or assets between parties with no pre-existing trust: A string of numbers is sent over email or text message in the simplest case. The sender doesn’t need to know or trust the receiver or vice versa. Related, there are no chargebacks – this is the part that is literally like cash – if you have the money or the asset, you can pay with it; if you don’t, you can’t. This is brand new. This has never existed in digital form before.

via Why Bitcoin Matters – NYTimes.com.