It's claimed that Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, packed shark repellent with him on his historic voyage.  Not for space sharks with lasers, as Boing Boing commenters suggest, but for his possible landing in the ocean. #science

It occurred to me on one of my many trips to the car mechanic that certain physical components in mechanical systems routinely wear down and fail.  Such is the case with tires, brake pads, windshield wipers, engines, and really anything that makes physical contact with something else while moving.  It's not a design flaw or a mistake.  That's what's supposed to happen.  I guess the alternative would be to buy a new car every 5000 miles instead of simply getting an oil change. 

This is an especially helpful thing for me to remember, because I tend to think of car repairs as a penalty for driving a certain way or for owning a car for too long.  Needing new tires makes me feel like I did something wrong.  Needing new shocks and struts feels like punishment for driving too fast over speed bumps.  And while that may be true, it's also true that tires, shocks, and struts are some of the components that move and simply wear down over time.  They need to be replaced.  It's not my fault. 

Technically this idea can be carried over into house repairs as well.  Light switches, water pumps, valves, and fans are all mechanical devices.  They won't last forever.  Heck, even roofs, windows, and floors are technically in the same category, since they experience wear and need to be routinely replaced.  If I had known this before buying a house, maybe I wouldn't think home ownership sucks. #technology

For some reason, birds hate us. 



Even though this isn't my vehicle, I hate them back. #nature

I bought a new watch recently, and I was disappointed when it got scratched after a day or so.  It turns out it has an acrylic crystal face, which Amazon says is "made up of plastic composite that is generally less expensive and less durable than a sapphire or a mineral crystal."  My old watch (same brand, same price) has a mineral crystal face, which "is made from what is essentially a form of glass [and is] more scratch resistant than acrylic."  I've had my old watch for about 8 years, and the steel body is dented and worn, but the mineral face is as good as new. #products

There's a series of signs with flashing lights on the highway that say something like, "If lights are blinking, tune to 590 AM for emergency traffic information."  One of the signs near my house has lights that are always blinking, traffic emergency or not, which completely nullifies the purpose of emergency flashing lights.  If the lights are always blinking and it doesn't necessarily mean there's an emergency, that means the lights serve no purpose.  It's the same thing with a local fire house, whose flashing lights are meant to signal an exiting truck, but since no truck is exiting, merely serve as "crying wolf" and wasting electricity.  These things remind me of store security alarms that everyone ignores and warnings about chemicals that cause cancer, which are also largely ignored. #psychology

On the impending federal government shutdown: 

Congress remains hard at work on the budget impasse, confident that if they roll up their sleeves and keep their noses to the grindstone in all-night discussion sessions, they’ll eventually be able to figure out who to blame for not getting anything done.

Yay politics! #politics

The other day one of the pipes sticking out of the top of my water heater sprung a pinhole leak which pooled water directly on top of the water heater where the electrical panel is conveniently located, thus causing a situation that thankfully ended in loss of power but which could've easily ended in fiery death.  My first thought, after that of moving to a tent in the woods, was one of foolproofing:  Who in their right mind designed a water heater with piping and electronics located in such a way as to utterly ensure their eventual fatal interaction?  I can think of at least two ways to get around this specific scenario:  Don't put water pipes near electronics, and/or waterproof the electronics.  I have a hard time believing I'm the only water heater customer that's managed to get water to travel like four inches from the piping to the electrical panel. #technology

I borrow a lot of CDs and DVDs from the library, and I'm always amazed at how poorly people treat optical media.  Not just finger prints and smudges, but deep scratches and thorough abrasions.  What is it, exactly, that people do with these disks?  Give them to their dogs as chew toys?  Use them on their disk sanders to refinish their deck?  As an anal retentive perfectionist, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that those death metal CDs I bought 15 years ago when I was in high school are still in mint condition.  That's how I roll. 

I wonder whose idea it was to store important information in optical format with no sort of protective measures to prevent loss of optical quality.  Remember floppy disks?  They had that little metal door that slid over to reveal the disk when it was inserted in the computer.  Even audio tapes, which fully exposed their ribbon-like tape at the bottom, at least had a convenient plastic enclosure so your big fat fingers wouldn't mess up all the data.  I guess my point is this:  Let's just digitize everything so we can stop dealing with error-prone optical media. #technology

Here's something no one tells you before you make the biggest purchase in your life:  Owning a home kinda sucks.  I mean, sure, you get a roof over your head and some nice tax breaks, so it's not all bad.  But houses in general have a tendency to gradually return to the natural state from which their component materials were taken.  In other words, everything breaks.  Metal piping rusts and corrodes.  Electrical wiring disintegrates.  Wood siding gets eaten by neighborhood animals.  Roofing simply wears down over time.  If you're handy and have lots of free time, owning a home is a great idea.  You'll have plenty of opportunities to fix leaky pipes and spray expanding-foam insulation into every crack and hole you can find.  But if you're like me, and you have a job, and you don't consider "fixing your house" the same as "doing something fun," home ownership sucks.  When I'm at home, I just want to be; I don't want to fix. #lifestyle