The location of Jeopardy! daily doubles

The distribution should be intuitive to anyone who regularly watches the show.  This table offers a little more precision.

As a reminder to enthusiasts, here is the link to the JArchive and its 277,000 questions with answers.

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Let's visit Siberia

Those of us living in Wisconsin have been spared the incessant and record-setting snowfalls suffered by residents of the Northeast.  What we have is bone-chilling cold.   This week our normal high temperature would be at the freezing point, but we have had nights when, if the temperature rose 40 degrees, it would still be below freezing.

This seems like an appropriate time for me to post the material I've been collecting about Siberia.  Several months ago I started doing some online research about those "mysterious craters" that were appearing near the Arctic Circle in Siberia.  That reading very quickly led me to a new favorite source - The Siberian Times - a remarkably diverse and well-written news site with some refreshingly different material from that which is usually shared endlessly in the blogosphere.

I've written ten posts, with in retrospect a bit of an emphasis on archaeology, one of my hobbies.  But we'll start with those craters...

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Marlene Dietrich

Photographed at Edith Piaf's funeral in 1963.

"Dietrich's family raised her to follow the Lutheran religion, but she lost her faith due to battlefront experiences during her time with the US Army as an entertainer, after hearing preachers from both sides invoking God as their support."

Via Vintage Blog and Marlene Dietrich, the Last Goddess.

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This would be a good time to raise the gasoline tax

It's very seldom that I agree with opinions expressed by Charles Krauthammer, but I do agree that state legislators should be raising the gasoline tax during this nadir in fuel prices.

...the price at the pump has fallen in the last three months by more than a dollar to about $2.20 per gallon. As a result, some in Congress are talking about a 10- or 20-cent hike in the federal tax to use for infrastructure spending. Right idea, wrong policy. The hike should not be 10 cents but $1...

We’ve blown this chance at least three times since the 1980s. As former French foreign minister Jean François-Poncet said a quarter-century ago, “It’s hard to take seriously that a nation has deep problems if they can be fixed with a 50-cent-a-gallon” — 90 cents in today’s money — “gasoline tax.” Let’s not blow it again.

Krauthammer then suggests countering this tax by decreasing the Social Security tax, which he considers a "disincentive for work."  I disagree on that, and would use the windfall funds for infrastructure improvements in the roadways and bridges used by the drivers paying the tax.  Those funds need to come from somewhere, and the repairs can't be postponed indefinitely.

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Incoming !

I'll grant it's difficult to think rationally when your skull is being pelted with baseball-sized hail, but I should think the best strategy in this situation would be to wade deeper into the water and then squat to get your head 6-8" below the surface.

Photo credit Nikita Dudnik/AP via the Washington Post.

Addendum: Video - of the same storm/same beach - here.

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An iPhone app that blocks texting while driving

"The AT&T DriveMode app for iPhone is now available on the App Store – making it the first free no-texting-while-driving application offered by a major U.S. wireless carrier that works on the iPhone. The app is easy to use. It silences incoming text message alerts, turns on automatically when one drives 15 MPH or more and turns off shortly after one stops. When activated, it automatically responds to incoming SMS and MMS text messages so the sender knows the text recipient is driving. It also allows parents with young drivers to receive a text message if the app is turned off."

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Helping a blind dog - updated

One of our neighbors' dogs has suddendly developed blindness, so I've been searching the 'net for applicable resources and tips.  Pictured above is a home-made dog collar that incorporates cable ties to provide the equivalent of a cat's whiskers.

I found this item at Blind Dogs.net, which has a variety of other resources for owners of blind dogs, including a long list of tips to help both dogs and owners cope with the impairment.

5) Sew 1 or 2 "jingle bells" onto an elastic pony tail band (used for hair) to slip onto your own ankle, or attach bell to shoe laces, so your blind dog can hear where you are walking. 

12) Get down on the floor and crawl around at the dog's eye level to find anything that might be dangerous. Do the same in your yard... look for low growing branches etc. that could poke the eyes & trim.

16) Remember to speak to your dog when you are approaching to touch (especially while sleeping) to prevent startling him/her. 

19) Use a short lead to avoid tripping over the leash. Not usually needed, but you can thread the dog's leash through a few feet of PVC pipe to make rigid leash for "directing" in a specific direction. 

20) Sharp corners on coffee tables, furniture legs etc. can be padded with bubble wrap, fabric batting, or foam pipe insulation from the hardware store. 

22) Scent important areas....doorway/doggie door to go outside (vanilla extract, citrus, pine or furniture polish) place "scent" down low on the door or molding for best "sniffing". Scent any "danger" areas.

30) Carpet sample squares are "cheap" and while your dog is learning the layout of the house put carpet squares in the doorways going into each room to make it easier to find the door openings.

Dozens more tips at the link.  If you have experience in this regard and would like to offer helpful tips (or good links), to other owners, please feel free to leave comments.

Addendum:  Reposted from 2012 to add this video showing that more sophisticated "haloes" for blind dogs are now commercially available:

YouTube link.

Via Neatorama.

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Television. Watching.

A columnist at Salon has trepidations about the newest video technology:

I am now the owner of a new “smart” TV, which promises to deliver streaming multimedia content, games, apps, social media and Internet browsing... The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message.” It records “the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content.” It ignores “do-not-track” requests as a considered matter of policy...

More troubling is the microphone. The TV boasts a “voice recognition” feature that allows viewers to control the screen with voice commands. But the service comes with a rather ominous warning: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.”..

According to retired Gen. David Petraeus, former head of the CIA, Internet-enabled “smart” devices can be exploited to reveal a wealth of personal data. “Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvester,” he reportedly told a venture capital firm in 2012...

Of course, there is always the “dumb” option. Users may have the ability to disable data collection, but it comes at a cost. The device will not function properly or allow the use of its high-tech features.

More at the link.

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