Decided to buy a couple of these funny little USB Christmas trees from ThinkGeek. They’re small, cute, lights up in 6 colours and seems like they would be an amusing addition to my desks at home and work for the holiday season. Doesn’t look like the star lights up though, which would have been neat too.
Political Quote of the Day
“They’re scary. You know, the extreme right wing are…are…are scary because they are very extreme in their beliefs” – Alberta Premier Ralph Klein speaking about the Alberta Alliance Party
Is it the calories, or is it the weight?
Today’s lunch time discussion centered on food and weight gain. The question that was posed was this: Neglecting influences such as metabolism, exercise and such, if you eat a pound (or kilogram) of food and nothing else, can you gain more than a pound of weight.
The actual answer to the question itself wasn’t important. What I thought was more interesting was the distribution of answers. One of my friends at work asked a few random people in the cafeteria at lunch. Almost all the men said no, if you eat a pound of food, the most you could gain was a pound of weight.
However, the women that were asked all responded by saying yes it was possible, and that it was the calories that mattered, not the weight. Most of them quoted the rule of thumb saying 3500 food calories = 1 lb, so if that 1 lb of food you just ate had 5000 calories, then you could gain more than 1 lb of weight.
Interesting. So if eating 1 lb of food can make you gain more than 1 lb of weight, where does the extra come from? On the other hand, if calories is the only thing that’s important then eat as much as you want as long as it’s low-caloric density food.
Of course to really answer the question you need to factor in variables such as metabolism, physical activity and the like.
So how would you answer? Based on the trend from my friend’s informal poll, you’d say no if you were a guy, and yes if you were a woman.
On Fedora’s cutting edge
I’m slowly getting my Fedora box resurrected. After spending a couple of weeks and fitful starts getting FC3 Test 2 loaded back on, the box is finally running. Still working on getting it back to useful shape. The last couple of days have been spent downloading and installing the new packages associated with FC3 Test 3.
Problems like the X.org server refusing to start with build 1.603 of the 2.6.8 kernel, but working fine with builds 1.607 and 1.541. Gnome not being able to open the X display. Messy things like that.
Next task will be to get all the server apps reconfigured to the way I like them and installing stuff like needed Perl modules and stuff. And then there’s the task of restoring databases and web pages I was working on before.
Much work ahead that will have to be squeezed in during my spare time between my real work.
In the light of a blood red moon…
Get ready for it! Another lunar eclipse to ooo and ahh over. This one is happening relatively early too, starting October 27 just after 9PM EDT and ending just before 1 AM with totality somewhere in the middle (around 10:23 PM EDT).
I’ve always found lunar eclipses much more interesting than solar eclipses. For one, you don’t need dark welder’s glass to see them. They happen at night when it’s quieter, which isn’t a problem as long as you’ve got a decent supply of coffee or whatever your stimulant of choice is. And I like the colours.
So in two weeks, head out with your comfy lawn chair, some blankets and a thermos of coffee or other caffeinated beverage and find a nice dark field to plop yourself down into. Chill out, watch the moon slowly dissolve into an orange disk and enjoy.
The photo is a lunar eclipse on May 15, 2003, photographed by Loyd Overcash of Houston, Texas nabbed from the Lunar Eclipse Gallery.