ESPN OTL: Believeland

Really good article, as OTL usually is.


ESPN Outside The Lines: "OTL: Believeland" at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=101201/Cleveland

@Gizmodo, 11/20/10 11:34 PM

Gizmodo Watch the world's fastest roller coaster in action http://j.mp/9xS9xR 150mph, 0 to 62mph in 2 seconds. Christ.

This looks amazing.  Wish I didn't have to go to the UAE to ride it...  btw, Fernando Alonso loses his wallet at :33 lol.

The Jeopardy Question No One Could Answer

My Dad forwarded this as an email to me and I thought it was really interesting.

On Jeopardy the other night, the final question was "How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns"---- All three missed it --

This is really an awesome sight to watch if you've never had the chance. Very fascinating.

Tomb of the Unknowns - interesting facts about the honor guard members


1. How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the Tomb of the Unknowns and why?

21 steps: It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.


2. How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why?

21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1 

3. Why are his gloves wet?

His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.

4. Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and,if not, why not?

He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path,he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.


5. How often are the guards changed?

Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.


6. What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?

For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10' and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30.

They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform or the tomb in any way..

After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only
400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin.

The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt.

There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform.. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.

The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid
to rest in Arlington National Cemetery . A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are:

President Taft
Joe Lewis {the boxer}
Medal of Honor winner Audie L. Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII and of Hollywood fame.

Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.

In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, the US Senate & House took 2 days off in anticipation of the storm.. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of  the Unknowns were given permission to suspend the assignment. They respectfully declined the offer, "No way, Sir!" Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding
the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a service person. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.

Link to offical website:
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/tombofun.htm

Scranton

FINALLY got this Friday!




Way too long of a story to explain fully (took me 10 minutes to tell Kyle when he asked why I was so excited).  But, I'll just say it was a Christmas present from my sister and the sizes by brand "ALStyle Apparel & Activewear" run at least one size smaller than you're used to.  I had to get it from her twice, return it twice for exchange, and spend a lot of time with emails and phone conversations with the NBC-Universal store support.  In the end I have my shirt, it's super nice, and fits very well.  Thanks again Amanda.

Gartner

I know I post enough about mobile OS and the intense market but that's not my intention with this link:  http://gizmodo.com/5664170/.  What's cool is that it references a Gartner chart and press release, http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1434613

Gartner is the research vendor I work with daily in my current position in IT Strategy & Architecture.  Most of their publications are very expensive pieces of intellectual property that are their business model.  So this is a good example of something you might be able to understand and a good example of the type of service we leverage Gartner for.  Still too nerdy?  maybe... lol

Stone Total Tap Takeover Tour

Stone Week!

Charlotte was lucky enough to be one of the seven cities selected as part of Stone Week, named "Stone Total Tap Takeover Tour Two Thousand Ten".  Stone Brewing Company is a fantastic craft brewery and makes some of my favorite beer.  Tiffani really enjoys good beer now so she was more than willing to go with me.



We had a great time.  Greg Koch, the founder/owner of Stone, was the host.  He's super friendly and seems to really enjoy meeting and talking with his fans.  I met him once at an event with Adam in Louisville so when I saw him I said hi and he sat down with Tiffani and I and personally signed a DVD to us, awesome!  We each got a commemorative shirt:



Overall, we had a really great time and I absolutely loved sharing it with my fiancee :)

This One Is On Us

Realized this was saved as a draft since 1/5/10...oops

Another Version of the Truth:  The Gift.  Trent Reznor/NIN and his fans being awesome again.  The main article is here:  http://www.nin.com/?id=95355 and he tweeted about it today because now there are a decent amount of formats available and adequately hosted.

Perhaps more recent NIN/Reznor news is his work on "The Social Network" soundtrack/score.

You should definitely check it out:  http://www.nullco.com/TSN/.  there's a 5 track sampler and I the digital download was $3 on amazon when it released, $5 on that site or $8 for the physical CD.  great music, great deal, great success :)

Verizon iPhone part 92

Actually not really a rumor...but the rumors have been running rampant lately.  This is a good article about the current state and differences of Verizon and AT&T's networks.

"Verizon iPhone: What you'll gain and what you'll give up http://bit.ly/d60NjW"

Yep, current Verizon/Sprint CDMA technology doesn't support simultaneous voice and data communication.  I've been after them for the last couple years asking if/when it would happen.  Their answer just seemed to be LTE.  However, the CDMA standards organization ratified EV-DO Rev. B early last year which provides architecture for voice+data transmissions.  Anytime I saw an LTE presentation by VZW I'd ask them if we could get an upgrade to Rev B while we waited for LTE to be built out across the nation.  After all, the legacy CDMA network is HUGE and it would be awesome if it made it to Rev B so that the fall back technology would be adequate, obviously not as fast as LTE but greater functionality is more important than speed sometimes. 

On the topic of speed… CDMA 3G is not the same as GSM/UMTS/HSPA 3G.  EV-DO Rev A from Verizon is not as fast or capable the speed AT&T's 3G network is capable of.  EVDO does have better building penetration and per tower propagation from Verizon because it's on a lower 800MHz block frequency.  Also Verizon's network is already heavily loaded, they're the number 1 wireless carrier with 92 million subscribers.  Current customers experience speeds about 1/4 of what they could be.  I really think Verizon is just as susceptible to the data deluge that AT&T is/was hit by from the iPhone.  Verizon hasn't really lost any ground in the subscriber base, they've kept customers happy with solid phone offerings including the quite successful DROID series.  Oops, better add (TM) to that DROID… wtf George Lucas? 

Anyways, long story short Verizon getting the iPhone may not be the holy grail of device+carrier that everyone is imagining.  And that's not me hating or loving anyone, it's just the reality of current day wireless technology—all carriers have advantages and disadvantages.  Ok, maybe I am hating on big red fanboys a little bit…   

DEC Lights!

In case you don't know I'm kind of obsessed with the new Duke Energy Center (DEC) and the LED lights it has covering the exterior.  It looks really awesome, kind of like a lava lamp or something in the dark night sky.  Anyways, I guess Monday or Tuesday was national coming out day so they lit up a rainbow of lights on the building.  It was really impressive how clear and vibrant it looked.  the colors didn't bleed together and look mashed or fuzzy, distinct and bright.  Here's a story about it I posted to Facebook before:  http://goqnotes.com/8788/

http://cltblog.com/11109

Simpsons + Banksy

kind of weird but y'all probably know i'm a longtime Simpsons fan.



Kind of funny too.  perhaps a bit awkward with the most recent Foxconn report but I think that was just a coincidence.