Today at the pool, while I was guarding, a patron that is known for having had a seizure while swimming at our pool a few years ago came into swim. He is a regular at the pool and swims about 80 laps (25 yard laps in this old pool) every time he swims. He has a worker that comes with him just to make sure everything is okay and to help him get around. He was the only swimmer in the pool. After about a half hour of laps while he was in the middle of the pool he suddenly stopped swimming with his face down in the water. It was a little odd because he was vertical to the bottom, but nevertheless he was face down. His aide and I were both alarmed, we both figured he was having some kind of seizure even though it would have been just a “partial” (he wasn’t shaking). He lifted his head up for a moment and I called out to him to see if he would respond but then his head went back under. I leaped into the pool — a pretty good stride entry too I might add, and found myself staring eye to eye with a very confused swimmer. I asked him by name if he was ok. He responded that he was; by the look he gave me I think he wondered if I was. It turned out that he had stopped to look at his water sock that was in the process of falling off. He was standing there face down trying to fix it. He never heard me call to him from the deck. I caused myself a lot of worry for nothing, and got wet too, but in the end I’m really glad it was nothing.

For a cool 2.7 billion dollars you too could buy Google. Actually google hasn’t released a price per share but that is the amount of money Google is hoping to raise in its initial public offering which is slated for availability on the stock market in another seven months. The announcement also let the cat out of the bag as to how much money google is actually making (via informationweek.com):

The Mountain View-based company earned $105.6 million, or 41 cents per share, on revenue of $962 million last year. Google got off to a fast start this year, with a first-quarter profit of $64 million, or 24 cents per share–more than doubling its earnings of $25.8 million, or 10 cents per share, at the same time last year.

I’ll bet founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are having a party tonight, aside from all the profit their company is making they have another $2.7 billion heading their way - They’ve got a lot to be happy about, I know I would be.

If you are interested related information can be found in Google’s SEC Filing. Highlights (as determined by John Battelle):

The letter states, among other things, that 1. We don’t need to do this for the money; 2. We have no plans to run our business to satisfy Wall Street’s need for smooth earnings predictability; 3. We plan to give no earnings guidance, not at least as it’s understood on Wall St.; 4. Don’t ask us to do so, we’ll simply decline the request; 5. We’ll do odd things that you won’ t understand; 6. We will make big bets on things that may not work out; 7. We run the company as a triumvirate, so there will not be clear leadership from one person like most other companies; 8. We bridge the media and tech industries (interesting), which are in flux, so we’ve chosen a two-class stock structure similar to the NYT, WashPost, and NYT that helps us avoid being taken over by those forces; 9. We plan using an auction model, as it feels fairer and we understand auctions from AdWords; 10. Don’t invest in us if this scares you at all, or the price feels too high; 11. Don’t even think about asking us to cut expenses with regard to our employees; 12. We believe in the idea of Don’t Be Evil; 13. It’s evil to pay for placement or inclusion (a swipe at Yahoo); 14. We hope to bridge the digital divide through Gmail type free services and a foundation with at least 1% of profits and equity to help make the world a better place; 17. Betting on Google is a bet on Sergey and Larry (this was said multiple times, making me wonder if there wasn’t some odd future blame being assigned here by the VCs or bankers); 18. This letter is our way of answering the questions we can’t answer in the coming months due to the IPO quiet period.

In a nationwide CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, 3,444 Arabic and Kurdish Iraqis were interviewed face-to-face regarding social and political conditions in Iraq since the war began. The data is raw, but it certainly is interesting.

All interviews were conducted in the residences of the respondents. These poll results are based on interviews conducted in all parts of Iraq, both urban and rural, representing about 93% of the total Iraqi population. Nearly all the interviews were conducted between March 22-April 9, 2004. An extremely small number of interviews were conducted between April 16-22.

See the results (PDF).

I loved this movie. Ok, it’s a bit of a chic flick but it’s so good. A family comes to the United States seeking a better life and their story is retold in this great film, “In Amerca”. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 89% fresh rating. It definitely gets a high ranking in my book, but don’t take my word for it, see “In America” for yourself. I’m not sure but I think having been to New York allowed the movie to bring back that overwhelming feeling that the Big Apple has on small town folk like myself. Oh and if you are at all like my mom you’ll need about a box and a half of Kleenex, but I think you’ll like the movie anyway.

Life from inorganic mixture? It’s a science project you can do in a high school chemistry lab. Speculation suggests that maybe “God” used clay after all.

“Graham Cairns-Smith, a chemist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, has speculated for many years that life on our planet may not have started with organic (carbon-based) molecules. He suggests life may have begun with inorganic ingredients, such as clay minerals that can carry heritable information in the stacking sequence of their sheets of atoms. Such ‘clay organisms’ might be able to replicate, Cairns-Smith argues.”

For the serious science geek find out more about “Spontaneous Formation of Cellular Chemical System that Sustains Itself far from Thermodynamic Equilibrium” here (pdf).

It looks as though Jerry Orbach has filmed his last scene in the series Law & Order. Don’t worry though - a friend of mine discovered that a new Law & Order series is in the works. It’s going to be called Law & Order: Trial by Jury and will star Jerry Orbach.

This new drama will feature a kind of ripped-from-the-headlines stories that that franchise has become know for, beginning with a criminal arraignment and continuing through the trial. The show will provide fictional access to prosecutors, defenders, judicial chambers, the jury room and every other nook and cranny of the process.

The show’s format is set up to allow for the possibility of cameos from other actors and characters from within the “Law & Order” universe.

I’m not the world’s biggest fan, but I really do like the show. I’ve been pretty disappointed with the spin-offs Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent, but I’m hoping the new series will be more like the original than these two. Look for it on the air in January 2005.

The city of Portland just approved a $145,000 settlement stemming from a 2003 incident where the police knocked down, pepper sprayed and tasered a 71 year old blind woman. Her 94 year old mother tried to come to her rescue, but police pinned her up against a wall - thinking that maybe should would use the water she was carrying to help her daughter as a weapon.

There is a lesson in here somewhere.

A bunch of guys decide it would be a good idea to fire roman candles at a human target. (Via Dave Barry)

An engineer from San Fransico writes an open letter rant to the Crackhead that vandalized his sparkplugs. (Via all over the blogosphere).

On Wednesday morning I emerged from my girlfriend’s building by U.N. Plaza to find that you had sawed the tops off both the sparkplugs on my motorcycle. At the time, I had no idea why anyone would do that. Other than the sparkplugs, the bike was untouched. Some kind of bizarre vandalism? A fraternity prank gone awry? I had no idea. All I knew is that I looked like a huge douchebag riding the Muni to work in a padded motorcycle jacket and helmet.

Because the bike was immobilized I got a $35 street sweeping ticket that night. Thursday I had it towed to the shop ($45) where they replaced the sparkplugs and the boots ($50 including labor). They explained to me that “people” - I use the term loosely here - like you break off the tops of spark plugs and use the porcelain tubes to smoke crack. As an engineer and former MacGyver fan, in a way I think this is kind of cool. But then I remember that I just paid $100 for YOUR crackpipes, and I get angry again.

Submitting a link to the New York Times website? When you input the link you want into The New York Times Link Generator it gives you a URL to a permanent page. That way, your link will go to the NYT archives, and not to a page asking for money.

Here’s an essay I wrote for my New Media Seminar class; it’s called, Creative Commons: Innovating Creation and Culture.

Wired magazine has reported that Japanese and Korean scientists working in collaboration have bred a mouse with two female parents and no male parent. While some may speculate that this is the first step to making men obsolete, I must remind them why the world needs men. Without them, who will mow the lawn, reach things off the top shelf, or open jars?

I want to say Happy Birthday to my girlfriend Anna-Maria.

She has this worked out… the year is 04, the month is 04, the date is the 22nd (2+2=04) and she turned 22 (2+2=04 again). 04040404 Some crazy sign or much ado about nothing? Either way, Happy Birthday Anna-Maria.

I’m making her a marbled cake (two small ones actually—I guess I should have made her four).

Mordechai Vanunu was released from prison earlier today, but will have to live under some very restraining rules. The leader of the Israeli Opposition Party and founder of Israel’s nuclear weapons program Shimon Peres says the heavy restrictions imposed upon Vanunu are justified.

As I mentioned in an earlier post Vanunu betrayed his country, Israel, by telling the world about its atomic weapons program. Vanunu is not allowed to speak with the media, he is not allowed to release any information about Israel’s weapon’s programs including information that has already been leaked. He must give 24 hours notice if he wishes to sleep at a different address and he is not allowed to communicate in Internet chatrooms unless specific permission is given. He is not allowed to speak to “foreigners”, he has no Israeli passport and Israel’s intention is to keep him within their borders preventing him from speaking to anyone about their secrets. Other restrictions will be applied if the government feels he is not cooperating.

After 18 years of prison, nearly 12 of which were in solitary confinement, I hope he’s learned that the government means business. It’s in his own best interest to go along with the rules that have been setup for him, and just try to start living his life. Given the picture of him here, flashing victory signs, I think he has other plans in mind.

Supporters of Vanunu have put up a special website on his behalf. Meanwhile news organizations like The Moscow Times, Jerusalem Post, and many more are running stories about his release and speculating on what he might do next.

When I signed up for my Gmail account, it mentioned that the special invitation would only be on blogger.com for a month. This leads me to believe that it will be at least another month until they open it up to the public. Perhaps June 1st, or maybe they are shooting for an American holiday - like the 4th of July? As far as the dates go though, it’s all speculation on my part. They likely haven’t announced a date yet because they are still doing tests. I have noticed a couple of glitches, but they seem to be intermittent and not that critical.

Oh if you have any questions about Gmail that you’d like answered, feel free to ask in the comments. I’ll do my best to answer them.

Here is something about Gmail you may not have known:
Gmail has the ability to search for your mail based on the following criteria: From, To, Subject, folder, Has the words, Doesn’t have, Has Attachment, and Date (within 1 day to 1 year - you set the term).

I noticed that addresses I emailed are automatically added to my contact book. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand it makes keeping track of any email addresses a snap, but on the other hand I feel like I just gave Google a copy of all my friends and family’s email addresses. (Sorry). I can only justify it by telling myself that it was inevitable anyway, because eventually someone somewhere was going to email them from a Gmail account, besides all the people I emailed were already on my hotmail contacts so its not like one more list is really going to hurt, these contact lists that users create for services like hotmail and yahoo mail haven’t been abused in the past - that I’m aware of anyway, so let’s just hope Google continues the trend.

I do like the fact that when I go to retype an email address that is in my contacts, Gmail brings up the closest spelling match as I type (the same way autocomplete works in your browser). This system is superior though, in that in brings up not just entries that start with same letters you have already typed, but the entries that start with the same letters you have already typed in the order that you email most frequently. It’s complicated but I’ll let Google’s help page explain:

As you prepare to send a message by typing in an email address, Gmail’s auto-completion feature suggests names from your Contacts list based on the letters you type. Keystrokes can add up, and this will save you a few seconds every time you send a message. Gmail orders your auto-complete list by frequency so that the addresses you send messages to most frequently appear at the top of your list. If you would like to view a list of your most frequently mailed contacts, click ‘Contacts’ at the top of any Gmail page, then click ‘Frequently Mailed.’