Dan/Дмитрий

Just like honey badger.

This is the first of the long-planned and even -promised series of gardening posts. I'll start off easy (no photos).

One of the things we did this year was plant a set of raspberry bushes. Well, bushes eventually. Right now they're about 3" off the ground. Well, mostly. See, there were some problems with the quality of the compost we planted them into. I don't know if you get the same sort of variation in nutrient content with store-bought compost, but when you get it from the farm by way of a long time sitting in the open with stuff growing on the top layer, some variation is expected. In this case, as the yellowing leaves on our six sad, neglected raspberries told us, there wasn't enough nitrogen in the mix.

Cue slow-release nitrogen tablets near the roots of each. Cue an almost full week of rain.

Remember how I said the (now much healthier and sporting new growth) raspberries were about 3" off the ground? That's five of them. The sixth one grew to over a foot. In a week. Bamboo, you got *nothing* on this baby.

As an aside, did you know that it's only the new growth that fruits on raspberry bushes? Apparently, with at least some of the varieties, the thing to do at the end of every fall is to mow them down to the ground.

Another moment of "mother nature don't care" tomorrow, when the rain stops and I can take a photo.

So. Many. Great. Lines! You should all go see it. Though frankly, the 3D added not a whit of enjoyment for me.

When I saw the Kuhn Rikon 3-piece knife set on Woot, I couldn't resist. Lusting for years after Wusthof Classics, I'm used to each of my knives costing upwards of $40 (which is why I have two Classics and a large number of crappy knives -- and one of the Classics was a gift). $15 for three sounded like a steal, and even if I didn't like them, I knew I could give them to someone less knife-snobbish, who'd be perfectly happy to have them.

By complete coincidence, the package arrived the same day I picked up the three J. A. Henkels knives on a Groupon I'd purchased months back. The Henkels went into daily use, while the Rikons, due to my showing off their cuteness to some of my wife's family members, ended up being hidden in a drawer from the toddler and forgotten for a month or so.

I happened across them today. I had a pineapple to cut, so I figured what the hell, let's give them a spin.
( Here be the profanity )

I was planning on a series of gardening posts. Instead, I've picked up a cold that has me unable to look at a monitor for longer than 5 min. at a time. Regular broadcasts will... Oh wait, I wasn't doing any of those anyway. Back in a few days, then.

Rough shelf for storing canned goods in the basement: Built
Circular, three-tier strawberry bed: Built, filled with dirt, filled with (some of the) strawberries
Terraced bed: Fence posts dug in, wall installed, bed just needs dirt and plants. (and the replacement of one fence post, more fool me)
Retaining wall for vegetable beds: Built
Mice: Multiplying, despite ongoing culling efforts :/
Rear bumper: Cracked in four places
Lessons learned: Don't back over the massive lawnmower, you idiot!
(lawnmower: Not even scratched)

Oh hai.

Article, I do not want to write you right now. Which is a shame, because you're actually pretty interesting.


Oh well, back to Echo Bazaar.

Rather sleepy at the moment. Awesome convention. Awesome roommates. Awesome baby, who proved far more popular than both of her parents combined. (Connie Willis *and* Greg Bear both admired the baby and cooed at her. I don't know about Kat, but I can tell you for sure they'd never done that to me)

More when consciousness returns. But first, I think I'll unpack the new suitcase, which arrived about two hours after we'd left for the airport.

After seeing a review of these on Cool Tools, I picked a few up on a whim (while driving to the airport, no less!) I have to say, they are the bees' knees.

OK, now that I've fulfilled my "bees' knees" lifetime quota, back to the point. Eagle Creek came out with a line of polyester (40% post-consumer waste, even!) /mesh, soft-sided "cubes" (they're boxes, really; I don't think any are actually cube-shaped) into which you put your stuff. Then you put them into your luggage, and voila! A portable compartment for each and every thing, from underwear to shirts to the plethora of cords and chargers for your electronics.

The most useful ones (in my opinion, anyway) are the Cube, the Half Cube, and the Tube Cube, for those narrow parts along the side of your suitcase.

The Wallaby toiletry kit is one I'm planning to get next, though possibly not in time for this trip.


And on that note, I think it's time to wash some clothes for the upcoming trip :)

Originally posted by za_me4toj at Научиться рисовать до Нового Года? Да!

OK, body, what the hell?

Went to bed at about 2:30am, woke up at 10:42. Pretty normal.

Worked until about 5:30, gave in to the headache, took painkillers. Went to take a nap at 6pm.

Woke up at 1 in the morning.

Now I'm as disoriented and time-shifted as could be. But at least I don't have a headache.

...

Or dinner.

While I distract myself from actual work, have a brief play script.

The participants
Mongolia A cash-poor, resource-rich country, drawing massive attention from the world's mining companies. Home to the Oyu Tolgoi project. The country owns a 34% stake in the project.

Rio Tinto The world's second-largest mining company, a 140-year-old British-Australian multinational, controlling 4.9% of the global mining productiion. Operating partner in Oyu Tolgoi project, Part-owner of Ivanhoe Mines.

Ivanhoe Mines Canadian mining company, responsible for discovery of Oyu Tolgoi, and currently holding a 66% stake in the project.

Oyu Tolgoi The world's largest undeveloped copper-gold deposit. Largest investment Mongolia's history, projected to contribute more than 30% to the country's GDP and raise the average Mongolian's income by $60. (if it can find an average Mongolian to give the money to, of course)

And now, let the fun begin.
August 4th, 2011 "Ivanhoe chief says Oyu Tolgoi should be worth $30 billion"

August 30th, 2011 "Ivanhoe up 23% in a week as Oyu Tolgoi news just gets better"

September 21s, 2011 "Ivanhoe roiled as Mongolia rethinks Oyu Tolgoi, says partner Rio makes ‘unauthorized’ statements" (looks like the statements in question were about delays in getting power connections to the mine, meaning delays for production start)

September 25th, 2011 "Mongolia wants 50 pct of Rio's Oyu Tolgoi project, minister says"

September 26th, 2011 "Spooked investors dump Ivanhoe despite reassurances - shares crash 21%"

September 28th, 2011 "Rio Tinto pays Can$73 million for 49% of Ivanhoe Mines" *

And that is how it's done, folks.



*did not actually purchase 49% for $73 million. What Rio actually did was purchase 0.5% for $73 million, increasing its total stake in Ivanhoe to 49%. Also, least useful headline ever.

This is a pony generator.

And these are some generated ponies.

Use this power for good, people. Only for good.

I hadn't fully appreciated the troubles of the print media industry. Until now.

Seriously, New Scientist?

Remember the soup I like? Well, this time I made a quadruple portion. That's 24 cups of broth, plus about 6lb of potatoes again. So, all told, probably on the order of 28 cups of soup.

I made it Monday night. katfeete had a bowl. It's now gone.

scott_lynch, who is generally awesome, is rightly annoyed at the right-wing drive against Planned Parenthood. He's putting a number of his books up on auction, with all proceeds going to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Please consider bidding. If you can't, please spread the word (there's this really neat "share" button which I've only just noticed)

Original post by Scott below.

---

Planned Parenthood Benefit Auction: Lots o' My Books

I've been researching a trip to Montreal for the last few days. As of last night, my plan was to fly into Burlington, VT, rent a car and drive into Montreal. The price difference between flying that way and straight into Montreal is impressive -- about $300. Well, it was around $300 when I last looked; we all know that airlines adjust ticket pricing based on projected spikes in demand.

Apparently, so do car rental companies.

To wit: Last night, looking at a rental from Budget Cars at BTV airport starting at 23:45 on August 3 and returning at 18:00 on August 7 was going to cost me $113 before taxes ($148 after). But the catch is, my flight lands at 23:59 -- exactly the time the rental location closes. So I waited until this morning to call them and find out whether they stay open a little bit longer if they know they have a rental reservation. Except this morning, the rate isn't quite the same... It's $272 before taxes. $341 after.

Mind you, when you have clear evidence the company is trying to fleece you, you can get a much better response from the CSRs at the reservation call centre. I was offered a rate of $185 total. Which still isn't $148, so I think I'll pass, and watch the fares.

ETA:The pricing saga continues! Today (Saturday morning) it's $170 before tax, $218 after! I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

That is all.

Holy crap, people! *Angelfire* is still alive!

Better yet, it's owned by *Lycos*!

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (transformer)


(been a long while since I've gotten this excited about new hardware)

Obsessively reloading the UPS tracking page will not make my Transformer get here any faster.

But just in case, I'll go refresh the page one more time now.

I just received an invitation to a web service called "Referral Key." I have some reservations about joining yet another professional social network, but maybe I'm being overly cynical.

Have you had any experience with the site?

( wherein our hero figures out what to measure in the first place )

I'm far from being as sustainable as I'd like to be -- and even farther from being as sustainable as I can be. I think it's time to spend some cognitive energies on this, hopefully improving my real-world environmental record in the process. I'll try and quantify things as much as possible along the way. I welcome any and all help in this process. Recognizing that my ramblings on this topic aren't of universal interest, I will be making future posts on the subject ( under a cut )

Am I completely off-base in saying that
1) We cannot place a monetary value on the life of an individual, but
2) policymakers can -- and must -- place a monetary value on human life in aggregate?

Earlier today, at Ellie's photo session.
icedrake: That fun fur looks like someone skinned a carebear.

Eleanor Rahil' $lastname

And Eleanor (currently codename "Ellie") with tired but happy mom.


Edit: I'm being defeated by the Flickr image embedding scheme, and all I have to work with is an itouch screen. Please let me know if you *can* see the images. In the meantime, have the raw links.
Child of Edit: Embedding fixed.

We have a daughter :)

Also, @_0

Now where's that manual?

Now I wait. More as things develop.

..than waking up, seeing the CBC report a conservative *minority*
...and realizing a moment later that you're looking at the *2008* results.

Circular, three-tier strawberry bed: Finished
Two rectangular potato beds: Filled
Dump truck load of compost: Barely diminished
Volunteer weeds growing *on* the pile of compost: Being fruitful and multiplying
Root mass of said volunteers: I fear nature now
Serviceberry: Flowering! Yay!
Radishes, peas, and something else Kat planted: Sprouting!
Cherry: Aten't dead! Double-yay!

All in all, a good day.

PS. Mulberry: Alive, but bored indoors. Plant it already, Dan!

Hi folks.

I'm missing some hardware, without which my chairs are a tad lower to the ground than I'd like. Specifically, I need the nuts from this photo. (well, I suspect I'll need the screws too, but those are far easier to source)

A number of my LJ contacts are obsessive NY Times readers. I can certainly understand that -- the NYT offers some very high quality content. And yet, time and time again, the NYT shows it's very confused about its goals: The newspaper's leadership wants you to read the paper, yet it doesn't.

Let's start with the good old free registration shtick that the NYT site has been engaged in for a few years now. This likely makes sense for regular readers: You can set up personalized email subscriptions, use your account to buy archive articles, manage your physical paper subscription... And that's it. The NYT never did give much weight to the importance of personalized news presentation, it seems.

Perhaps the most important advantage that regular readers have is that their cookies are refreshed on each subsequent visit -- what, you thought the NYT wasn't tracking your reading habits? -- which, in theory, should keep them perpetually logged in. Not so for the casual reader: Too long between your visits, and instead of the article you came to see, you'll find yourself staring at a login screen, grasping for a username and password you've long forgotten.

In fact, the value proposition for the casual reader has always been lacking. The NYT has basically been saying to visitors "give us a better way to track your browsing habits, and we'll... stop harassing you about it." As a casual reader, I got absolutely nothing out of the free registration, except the ability to read the material. Sort of makes sense, thought, doesn't it? The NYT is a private content provider, and can decide to let me access the content or not, based on whatever arbitrary set of rules it wants to go by.

Well, sort of. This only works as long as you forget that that news are a commodity, and a very time-sensitive one, at that. If I, the casual reader, can't get my fresh news from the NYT, I will happily go somewhere else. The true selling point of the NYT's coverage -- the insightful analysis and commentary -- isn't a draw when it comes to breaking news (both because there isn't enough time for the high-profile writers cover every bit of breaking news, and because there isn't much point -- you want to dedicate your best writers' time to long-lasting articles, not ones people will forget about in a week).

The catch is that once you do get in the habit of reading some of the columnists (say, Paul Krugman), you're no longer a casual reader. You do visit more regularly; you do get some advantages from the email updates; you don't get stuck with a logon nag screen at every visit.

But isn't all of the above suggesting that the paywall, as it's been presented, is a good idea? The NYT is specifically not targeting the casual reader -- 20 article views per month are going to remain free, a number I'm sure the data produced by the reg-wall helped arrive at -- and is instead aiming for the audience that clearly does find added value in the NYT -- the aforementioned regular readers.

As the post title says, I disagree, for a number of reasons. Greg Satell at Digital Tonto has an excellent writeup on why the paywall is really dumb, but I would like to expand on what I consider his most crucial point.

"Marketers are willing to pay more for consumers than consumers are willing to pay for content."

In fact, marketers are willing to pay a lot more: A 2007 study in the Newspaper Research Journal cites advertising as being the largest source of newspaper revenue, accounting for 70-80% of the total. Subscriptions accounted for about 18% of revenue, at best a 4:1 ratio.

So what happens when a service that was previously free starts costing you money? Some people can't go without, and pay the new price, no matter what it is. But even the case of a monopoly offering an indispensible service some people will simply not have the resources to pay. The NYT is neither a monopoly nor is its offering indispensible. It's an unavoidable reality that some of its dedicated readership will not pay the subscription fees; the question is how many will.

Remember the above ratio? The NYT is looking to get both subscription fees and advertising revenue from the same group of people. This attempt is, inevitably, going to shrink that group of people. In order to break even, the NYT must get four people to subscribe for every one person who abandons this for a rotten deal and goes elsewhere. An 80% lead conversion rate? I have some serious doubts.

But it gets worse. Most times, online advertisers pay per click-through or per thousand impressions. The longer you keep a reader on your site, the more page-views that customer gathers per visit, the greater your count of ad exposures per customer and the greater your chance of a click-through on an ad (not to mention, the greater your dataset on that reader's habits and preferences, and the more targeted – and lucrative – the advertising). The 20-article limit actively discourages people from browsing around the site. Those article suggestions that automatically pop up when you hit the bottom of your current story – a brilliant method, in my opinion – have suddenly become much less useful. Remember: Articles you arrive at via a social media link don't count against your monthly limit, but articles you browse to from that point on, do.

The NYT is hoping that its current dedicated readership will continue driving new readers to the site, and that the paywall will then serve to convert these new, casual readers to subscribers. What the NYT fails to acknowledge is that the people most likely to post links on social media are the very same dedicated readers whose numbers it's about to shrink by way of the paywall. And the conversion of casual readers? Let's put it this way: When registration was free, the most popular site on bugmenot.com (which offers dummy registrations for anyone to use) was nytimes.com. I wonder what that means as far as lead conversion rates when money is involved.

I didn't kill it! And I assure you, I'm as surprised as any of you. Also, I need advice, of great gardening hive-mind.

OK, maybe a bit of a backstory on this is in order.
Last year, my mother-in-law gave me a cherry tree for my birthday (end of March). About 30cm tall, potted, from a very reputable nursery. The tree did quite well indoors, but we waited *way* too long to plant it outside and didn't repot it. By the time we did replant it, it was probably six to eight weeks in the pot, and the leaves started yellowing. Over the next couple of months, it lost all the leaves, but didn't dry out, and the nursery suggested it was most likely going dormant early -- not an unknown reaction in young cherry trees.

Come this spring, there are *buds!* It's alive! ... and I have no idea how to care for it.

The original instructions were to not plant the tree in compost, and to water it daily or every other day. Now that it's spent a good eight months in dormancy, do I continue to treat it as a fresh replant, or do I put out more compost on top of the soil (which is incredibly clay-rich, and rather acidic)? Do I still water it daily, or am I likely to cause more problems by doing that?

Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Also? I have a *tree!*

While I have friends and family in Israel, and generally feel having an Israel is a good idea, I do *not* support the current Israeli government.

katfeete

"She's like a blonde Mick Jagger. With boobs."

Too awesome not to point y'all toward it.

---

"First Robot on Earth" by Shay. Age 6
For some reason our kindergartener decided he wanted to sell his artwork to pay for a new skateboard. We are not sure how he came to the conclusion selling his artwork on the internet would be lucrative but there you have it. To give it a proper art auction feel lets say:

"Up for sale is a interesting piece entitled "First Robot on Earth" by Shay. It is signed boldly in crayon at the top by the artist. The title is handwritten in pencil at the bottom. The piece measures 8.5 inches by 11 inches. The artist used both pencil and crayon. This piece would look lovely framed or attached with a magnet to a refrigerator. The artwork will ship promptly and is sure to appreciate in value. This is a remarkable investment opportunity. We will start this sale at the exceptionally low price of just 99 cents."

Many posts brewing in my head, but first, a spur of the moment realization. Background: Yesterday, I made a triple-sized portion of something very similar to this -- though my recipe came from the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook (plus, I added the optional potatoes -- about 6lbs of them -- so it's turned out to be quite the prodigious amount) I'm now on bowl no. 7 in two days. It will be gone by tomorrow night. I'm going to finish this one and go have another shortly. It's official: I'm a moresoupial.

So according to a survey/subtle advertising pitch I just completed, ING Direct is about to roll out or in the process of rolling out the ability for customers to deposit cheques via a home scanner and image upload, or via a smartphone (presumably with a camera).

This is seriously cool, but the perverse imp in me is already wondering how they're going to combat Photoshop.

Well, one of his sketches, anyway.



I highly recommend clicking through here and watching it in full 1080p. The details may yield an important clue.
Edit: I guess I can't link straight to specific resolutions of the video. Sorry, folks, you'll have to switch to 1080p on your own.

That said,
( for the extra spoiler-sensitive )

Some people get chocolate. We got 300-acre, high-wind forest fire.

Shooting in the dark without a tripod ain't easy, and the roads to the site were largely blocked off, so this is what I've managed.

A couple more ( below the cut )
How was *your* day?

PS. The fire was about a 10-min. drive away from our house, or the farm. Other than the risk of stumbling down a steep mountain slope while angling for a better shot, I was in no danger. katfeete, the farm, and the house were in no danger at all.

The order of the day is for an article on mining logistics, with a side order of gold-related logistical issues. Naturally, security presents itself as an area of interest.

Why exactly am I surprised that (virtually) none of the gold producers or secure transport companies have consented to an interview on the subject?

Does anyone know if there's data available on the time spent on various tasks by the average resident of a given country? I got curious all of a sudden about the differences between the average resident of, say, Canada, as compared to, say, Bangladesh.

Of course it may be more useful to talk about the average *urban* resident and the average *rural* resident in the respective countries, as well as the time spent on tasks separated by seasons. I strongly suspect that people in developing nations are far less insulated from the vagaries of weather than we are.

(another major line of distinction would likely be based on gender. There are most likely others that would make the data more meaningful, but before I count any more chickens, I want to make sure there are eggs to hatch in the first place: That is, data to even look at)

When I last moved, I had to change my phone number instead of transferring the old one, which serendipitously resulted in what I originally assumed was a much better number: One digit was repeated four times! Given how often I have to give people my phone number for work, that was a pretty big deal.

Except I'm no longer sure it's as convenient as all that. Here's a close approximation of my number (with some changes, but the overall pattern is preserved): 276-236-1636

You'd think this was a good thing, but it took me forever to remember it; almost certainly longer than the previous one (276-236-0491). I'm starting to develop the impression that those sixes focus so much of the listener's attention that they make the rest of the number less memorable. Keep in mind: most of the time this is purely via auditory input over the phone. And to make matters worse, the first grouping and the second differ by one digit, so people are liable to assume I'm correcting them rather than continuing to read off the number.

What do you think? Would you have an easier time hearing/remembering the 1636 phone or the 0491 one?

---

On a related note, I need a shorter last name. I don't even bother to say it anymore -- I just go straight to "I'm going to have to spell it." I suppose that's still better than my legal first name, which contains a phoneme not present in the English language. In case you were wondering why I use "Dan"...

And why they need to suck less.

Web designers, take note. No, seriously -- I can think of at least one occurrence in the last month where I'd encountered *every single one* of the aforementioned issues in one web form or another.


Fair warning: While work-safe visually, the Oatmeal isn't particularly polite. So if you work in a kindergarten, wait until you're home. Or in the break room.

With a hat tip to fallen_ryba

Why oh why is there no sequel to Robin McKinley's Sunshine?

I don't do this often, and I never do this for services I don't like personally, so please don't kill me.

So... Groupon. If you're like me, and have been hiding under a rock this past year or two, then you've never heard of the service. The basic idea is this: Groupon gets businesses to offer massive discount coupons on something, and then advertises the offering to its customers, one business per day. Along the same lines as woot.com, Groupon specials are only offered for one day (though once bought, you usually have anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to use the coupon). There's also a minimum participant requirement -- meaning the deal is only good if a set number of people go for it. I've yet to see one where that number hasn't been exceeded, though I'm sure it happens on occasion.

Anyway. Right now Groupon is offering to give me $20 Groupon Bucks a pop if people I refer sign up and buy a coupon by Jan. 18th. So I'm throwing this out in case someone decides the service is for them.

No, you're under no obligation to buy anything even if you sign up. Yes, the service itself is free (except in time you spend reading the emails). Yes, there are affiliate codes in the links above. No, I won't starve if you decide to pass up on this :)


Note to Torontonians: Until midnight tonight, the GTA coupon is a year-long membership at Zipcar at 76% off. Given what Mr. Ford seems to be set to do to the TTC, I thought you'd like to know.

Facebook does truly strange things when one doesn't tell it what it wants to know.

To wit, I've entered exactly zero information about my birth date into my profile, but recently, the idiot service decided that meant that *every* day was my birthday. ...And I guess more than the usual number of people checked their accounts on January 1st, because now I have a slew of happy birthday wishes on my wall. I'd tell them the app was lying and my birthday wasn't for four months yet, except... I can't get to facebook. In fact, I can't even get the hostname to resolve.

Heaven knows how long it will take me to diagnose the issue and get to my profile, so if you're one of the people who has me among their facebook friends, could you go and post there that it *isn't* my birthday, please?

Oy vey...

Why, yes, very much last minute.

Dear gentlebeinga,

I've just cottoned to the fact that I can still make use of the Energy Efficiency Improvement Tax Credit. The catch is, the improvements must be made by Dec. 31st.

So... What can I do that's a worthwhile improvement, and likely to be feasible within that time frame?

( Some background )

Thoughts? Requests for additional information?

Man, this home owner thing is *hard*. Let's go shopping.

Having spent the morning in the midst of a heated debate about citizenship tests, I ask you, dear readers, to play along.
Go to : http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/
Take the 20-question test.
Post your score here, along with (if you wish), your age or approximate age, whether you're Canadian-born or an immigrant, and if applicable, the age you've immigrated to Canada.

I'll start:

30 years old, moved to Canada when I was 16, got 85% on this run-through. Sadly don't remember what I got on my actual test, but I did pass :)

Comments not screened, by the way.

Edit: Link replaced with a less pop-underish version.