Chicken Denied Entry to Taj Mahal: Security Risks Cited

We travel with the rubber Chicken. I spent a lot of time in India in 2007 and during one extended trip Linda joined me for about 10 days. I was based in Mumbai for work, and we also visited Goa (beach), Delhi, and Agra. The Taj Mahal is in Agra – a several hour drive from Delhi via the ‘highway of death‘.

There is a reasonable level of security at the entrance to the Taj Mahal (metal detector and a pat down). Since the Chicken is not metal, we passed the first test. I had the Chicken in the pocket of my shirt, so it was visible (it did not occur to me that maybe I should hide the Chicken). Following the metal detector, you encounter a security officer who performs a physical inspection (separate for men and for women).  The security officer saw the Chicken, grabbed the Chicken, looked at the Chicken, laughed at the Chicken, pulled on the Chicken to ascertain its composition, and then promptly told me I could not enter the grounds with the Chicken. He informed me that I would need to check the Chicken in the bag storage facility and pointed me in the appropriate direction. I argued the Chicken was safe and not a threat to the Taj Mahal or any visitors – ‘pictures only – rubber’. The security guard laughed and again pointed me to bag storage, where I paid about US$1 to check the Chicken (note on exit I was solicited for a bribe to recover the Chicken – since we have two I would have left the Chicken – but a very brief but loud and animated display quickly resulted in the prompt return of the original Chicken).

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New Theme

Hope you like the new theme (thank you, Gaby). I had not intended to get a new theme but disaster struck the blog on Thursday night. After about 8 to 10 hours of work (and much frustration) we are back up and going. Thanks to all those who emailed me to tell me the site was down (all zero of you frequent readers).

I still am not sure what happened but suspect it was related to a minor version upgrade early in the week. Fortunately, I back up the database before such changes and though I have never previously needed the backup, it averted disaster (i.e. loss of everything) this time.
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Kilimanjaro 2010

One of my life ‘to do’ items is to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Linda and I have begun planning a trip for 2010. If anyone would like to consider joining us, please let us know. A small group of friends is organizing a ‘planning session’ this fall, probably in Seattle. Current thinking for the actual climb is sometime over the summer of 2010, coinciding with the next World Cup to be hosted in South Africa. While more crowded, this (June to October) is one of the two ‘best’ times to climb the mountain (the other being January to March).

Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania and stands just over 19,000 feet, with a vertical rise of approximately 15,000 feet. The Wikipedia details are here. As a reference, Colorado ski resorts peak at approximately 9,000 to 10,000 feet (Arapahoe Basin is 10,800). The climb is not considered technical – the danger and the challenge to the human body is generally the altitude. Approximately 35,000 people a year attempt to summit Kilimanjaro, with a casualty rate of approximately .02%.

Leading trekking agencies include:

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In preparation, we have acquired a couple of books: Kilimanjaro – The trekking guide to Africa’s highest mountain (Stedman); Altitude Illness – Prevention and Treatment (Bezruchka); Northern Tanzania – The Brandt Safari Guide (Briggs). The NY Times also had a short article in the Travel section in January 2008.

Physically and mentally, in addition to regular exercise, we are planning our next few ski trips to Colorado (altitude), a summer 2009 hiking trip in the Rocky Mountain National Park (Long’s Peak is at 14,225 feet), and a possible hike up to Machu Picchu (about 8,000 feet). Depending on interest at our planning session, short excursions to non-technical sections Mount Ranier National Park and North Cascades National Park may also make the preparation agenda.

More to follow.

Economist #3

The Economist kindles the spirit and potentially extricates me from the blogging doldrums. Is it the subprime credit crisis emoting intellectual allure? The US presidential primary process and Obamamania? No – as usual, just sex.

Why are Bikini’s in Brazil So Small?

Are thong bikinis on Rio de Janeiro’s Imapnema beach the result of a dearth of males? Hmm. For every 100 females in Rio, there are 86.4 males. Demand (women) exceeds supply (men) so the price of men goes up (more flesh). Hmm. Seriously, this is micro-economics at its finest!

Alas, the details are more nebulous. The fertility rate in Brazil has dropped from 6.2 births per woman in 1960 to about two today. Combined with longer life expectancy, the population is aging which results in more women (men unfortunately die sooner in Brazil, too). Combined with migration from the countryside (maids) and Rio’s drug-related murder rate (mostly young males) it is possible many of the single, bikini-clad hotties are over the age of 65. Undeterred in the face of conflicting data points, The Economist has suggested the need for further study. Touche.

I Stink, You Stink, We All Stink!

Anxiety is one of the reasons for ED in young pdxcommercial.com purchase cheap viagra men. Men can use this herbal oil to cure erectile dysfunction naturally when you are suffering this condition due to the fear of losing their power of masculinity. viagra 25 mg This emphasizes on adding extra-pressure on leg, levitra cialis viagra back and neck muscles. Impotence is a major issue for millions of the best sildenafil men around the globe who are suffering from any level of ED. Page 34 was not the end of sexual intrigue. It has long been a curiosity why Linda was so attracted to me, passionately so. Professor Claus Wedekind’s page 73 conjecture is that it is because my stink is different from her stink. Dr. Wedekind’s Swiss (University of Bern) pedigree should sniff out any hint of social or intellectual bias from my Swiss-American lover.

Dr. Wedekind was somehow able to recruit women to whiff men’s 3-day old t-shirts and to then rate the shirt’s scent for attractiveness (a seeming oxymoron). Analyzing the DNA of both the male and female participants he examined the major histocompatability complex (MHC). MHC is known for fending off infections and in mice, excreted via urine, is translated into mating preferences.

Who did the women pick? Men whose MHC was most different from their own. For those of you that believe Darwin had it generally correct (or also for those that believe God had the foresight to make this mouse urine stuff up), this makes sense. Couples with a variety of different MHC genes should produce offspring that have superior immune responses.

For those with a nose for love, www.scientificmatch.com has translated this research into an internet dating site – for only US$1,995 and a cheek swab you can swap spit in the new, but seemingly less stimulating, style.

According to the Swiss, the promise of my stink is that Linda should have better orgasms with me (clearly important to her given her prior posts), is less likely to find an alternate stinker, and is more happy partly as a result of my stimulating and attractive odor. Unless, of course, she finds someone who stinks more than me.

2007 Christmas Card

We posted our Christmas card today, mainly for the benefit of friends too far away to get regular mail.

One post between Christmas cards, and that one about fake orgasms. We will do better in 2008. Please check back.
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Happy Holidays!

2006 Christmas Card

We posted our Christmas card today, mainly for the benefit Get more ideas and beauties from Sea Water Sports! You will love goin to going at least thrice a year. cialis professional online The intense level of intimacy or longing that you can feel towards your loved one can only be provided by sex. in fact a very good cardio workout, as it boosts blood supply to the female reproductive organs, increasing the levitra prescription online sensitivity. After the disorder was affecting a large number of different treatments, as http://martinblaser.com/cialis-4037 buy cheap viagra far as sexual performance is concerned. Once you viagra prescription ingest the jelly, you should take it with a meal. of friends too far away to get regular mail.

Happy Holidays!

iMac

We are now Macintosh owners. I will admit that during my first four days with an iMac I have not been overwhelmed by simplicity and ease of use.

Background

I am a happy Windows user, having started with the IBM personal computer running dual floppies, Microsoft DOS, and an 8086 processor (i.e. pre-x86 processor) in high school. I have always had an IBM Thinkpad except for a few years in the early 1990’s when the company I worked for used Macs. At work, we often build software applications, and while I am no developer, I can play around with some lower level features. I love my current ThinkPad.

The winds of change began with song. We have been very happy with our iPods and have the majority of our music collection on our respective Microsoft Windows laptops. Last year I purchased an Apple AirPort device that allows me to wirelessly stream music from our laptops to our stereo, which has proven enormously convenient and virtually eliminated our use of physical compact discs.

Faced with the temporary loss of my laptop, we decided it was time to get our own home computer. As technology has developed, much of our interaction with a computer is via a web-browser which is operating system agnostic – designed to be used on a variety of different computers and operating systems (Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, etc). Combined with our music collection and the admittedly stylish designs from Apple, we got an iMac.

Expectations and Experience

It does look cool.

Plug it in and it works, right? I booted the machine up and the initial set-up process was fairly flawless. When the iMac could not connect to my wireless network because I had not granted it rights to do so, it gave me an intelligent message, though it was telling me what I already knew. Surprisingly, there are 4 other wireless networks in the vicinity. The television commercials suggest that Windows machines are overwhelmed with patches and updates. The first 20 minutes with my iMac included a 20+ megabyte download to update the operating system, a reboot that included ‘hold down the power button until xyz firmware upgrade starts’. The differences are not immediately obvious.

The file transfer process was efficient, aided by an external hard drive to which I had backed up all my personal files and our iTunes music library.

Since Microsoft does not have a current version of their Outlook email client for the Mac, I wasn’t sure how to capture the loads of personal email messages I wanted to retain. $10 bought me a wonderful little program called Outlook 2 Mac which could not have been easier or more accurate – load it up and it asks you what email folders, address books, and calendar items you want to move, and then precedes to convert them and stick them in a clearly marked folder with intelligent labels. Chalk one up for the Microsoft world.

About this point, the difficulty started. I am an avid user of Quicken, a personal financial management solution. A bit of research suggested that Quicken was also the a leading solution for the Mac. There are differences between the Mac and Windows versions of the software. Instructions for Conversion include limiting certain account names to fewer than 15 characters and converting a whole host of investment account and transaction types that are supported on Windows but not on the Mac. I find it surprising that no Apple users need to track their 401(k) and apparently don’t have any stock options, but clearly the ability to easily take a picture of yourself dreaming of retirement trumps features that actually allow you to understand how your investments are performing.

The instructions on the Quicken web-site don’t include the most recent versions of the software (converting from or converting to) so I took my chances with the most recent instructions I could find. First, I purchased the Quicken for Mac software directly from Intuit’s website for immediate download. After a few frustrating minutes of paying for the software but being unable to download it, I called Intuit’s call center in India. There, a nice woman informed me that my iMac’s web-browser (Safari) was incompatible with the download process. I was instructed to download an alternate browser and try again, which worked fine.
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I then spent about an hour converting account names and transaction codes, exported the data file as instructed, and began the import process on the iMac. As the import proceeded to identify about 150 to 200 import errors, I became frustrated that I had already spent so much time on something clearly destined for failure. A couple more hours of methodical reconciliation (and a few hundred thousand dollars in ‘Move to Mac’ adjustments dated December 1, 2006 for posterity), I got close enough to stop and get a beer.

HP LaserJet

My bank accounts established, I moved on to the more straightforward task of attaching my printer, which is also connected wirelessly. It took me about 15 minutes (following the Apple instructions) to actually get the iMac to find the printer. The process actually required me to move my LaserJet from across the room so I could physically connect it to the iMac. Once found, I quickly printed 27 pages of jibberish. Having duplicated the test print of jibberish about 5-7 times, I began searching HP’s support site, which suggested in numerous posts that my particular LaserJet (3200) was not supported by Apple’s latest operating system (OS X 10.4). This seemed very un-Mac – I have seen the television commercials and it is the Mac that speaks French to the hot little digital camera, not the Windows machine (both of which, one IBM and one Dell, get along well with our LaserJet – have for years).

Alas, Apple’s support site came to the rescue, where a number of members of the Mac brotherhood had faced my same roadblock. The expedient solution for about half of them was to just go out and buy a new printer. This also seemed quite un-Mac, though I could see how it could probably fix the problem. Since my printer works fine, I continued diligently to search for a solution. Deep in the bowels of the support boards, a clever man had a suggestion. Apparently, I was experiencing a communication problem – someone wanted to speak PCL and another Post-Script. Very un-Mac, the plug and play universal translator?

The clever fellow’s solution was to lie to the iMac. Instead of identifying my LaserJet correctly as a 3200, I was to tell the iMac I had a Series 6 gimp-print something – beta 2. Yes – that makes sense when you think about it. With the lie established on the iMac hard drive, my test printed ok – though the graphics and clarity were not quite right. I modified the deceitful Series 6 gimp-print something – beta 2 to an equally deceitful but older Series 4 gimp-print something – beta 2, which resulted in satisfactory results from my one test case. The Mac lesson learned? Lying is good.

My beer finished, I decided to pour a bourbon.

Odds and Ends

I miss the two buttons on the Microsoft mouse. The Mac has one button (basically). Windows allows a ‘right-click’ to expose properties of different objects – for example, if I misspell a word, I can right-click the misspelling and correct variations are provided as options (click to replace). I am too dumb to figure out an easy way to do this on the Mac – basically I have to go to the menu bar and select Edit / Spelling / Whatever. Similarly, I wanted to download a graphic of my iMac model to add to this post, but the Mac equivalent of ‘right-click, save image as…’ alludes me. Also, hands down, IBM’s ThinkPads have the best keyboards in the market. The Mac keyboard looks cool, but doesn’t feel quite right.

I am playing with the Apple productivity software though I think this will be short-lived. I have used Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for years. I know how it works and I don’t really feel like the hassle of learning something new. This week I’ll probably plop down the $400 for the suite – I figure I saved that by not buying a new printer.

This post presents my last remaining (known) problem – finding an html text editor. On my Windows machine, I used NoteTab. There is not a Mac version that I could find. The leading text editor for the Mac costs $100 versus the $15 I paid for NoteTab (competition is good). In the interim, I am writing html tags by hand again, prior to posting on the blog. This will take some research and I’ll update you on my progress. NoteTab is a good program.

My initial verdict? In retrospect, I might have bought an IBM or a Dell, even though it wouldn’t look as cool on our desk.

French Bordeaux and America’s Constitution

Since there have not been any recent posts, you may be wondering what we have been doing. We have been drinking and we have been reading.

Sometimes, I do read things other than The Economist. We are daily subscribers to the Chicago Tribune. We get the Sunday New York Times delivered to our door. I read Playboy for the articles, jokes, and – let’s be honest – the lovely pictures. Until recently, I had not been traveling as much as usual. Airplane time is generally personal time for me, so the more I travel the more time I have to read.

constitutionWhen is the last time you read the Constitution of the United States? While it only takes about 25 minutes to read the Constitution, it took me quite a bit longer to complete Akhil Reed Amar’s America’s Constitution: A Biography. The 477 page biography PLUS 150 pages of notes proved a bit more challenging than expected, but the first few chapters aside, this was an enjoyable book. There was interesting and thoughtful analysis of the impact slavery had on the development of our country. It is equally remarkable how little the document has changed over more than 200 years. Recommended. I have always enjoyed history, and completed an excellent biography of John Adams in 2005. I feel more knowledgeable having read America’s Constitution.

Reading a 600 page biography of the US constitution, however, is not something you do over a beer. It requires more sophisticated refreshments. My bourbon addiction is well chronicled and was well matched to the book, though unfortunately sourced from a former slave state – I’ve never seen a Land of Lincoln bourbon. A less obvious match is French Bordeaux. Remember that is was the French who both sponsored the Revolution and sold us large chunks of land as we expanded westward.

Bordeaux Primer

Time has expanded my knowledge of wine, though French wine has proven a challenge over the years. The real reason for the recent Bordeaux binge is that 2005 had great weather in many of France’s wine growing regions – cool and wet at the beginning so the grapes grow fat, hot and dry at the end so the grapes shrivel up and concentrate the fruit. In anticipation of this great vintage, I resumed effort on deciphering French wine. Purists will not be impressed with my analysis. To educate myself, I buy a lot of wine and use The Oxford Companion to Wine as a reference.

Common to pretty much all wine is the vintner (who makes the wine) and the vintage (the year the grapes were harvested). Technically, vintner means wine merchant – who sells the wine – which isn’t necessarily the same as who makes the wine. Just like a single factory can make a VCR sold by both Sony and Toshiba, a single wine producer can sell their wine via different brands. We will ignore this – it is the same VCR regardless of the label. Vintage is important because the weather plays a large role in the quality of the wine – this is no surprise if you think about it – wine is basically an agriculture product. Some years are better than other years, as any farmer will tell you.

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In many areas of the world, including the United States, wine is often named by the primary grape – Merlot, Cabernet, and Shiraz are all types of grapes frequently used to make wine. Just like at the supermarket, some grapes are red and some grapes are white. The type of grape reveals a lot about the wine. Drink enough wine made from different types of grapes, and you can develop an understanding of what types of wine you enjoy based on the grape. A common question at a wine store is ‘What type of wine are you looking for – Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay?’

Drink even more wine and you develop an appreciation not only for what types of grapes you like, but where your favorite type of grape is grown. Syrah grapes are grown all over the world (called Shiraz in Australia) – drink enough Syrah / Shiraz and you can taste the common differences. Just like at the supermarket, you can get a Florida red grapefruit or one of those wonderful Ruby Red grapefruit from Texas – both red grapefruit but I know which one I buy. Geographic information is almost always found on the wine’s label.

As an example, last night we had a bottle of 2003 (Vintage) L’Ecole No. 41 (Vintner) Cabernet Savignon (type of grape) from the Walla Walla Valley (where the grapes were grown). The Walla Walla Valley is a popular wine growing region in Washington State.

The basic challenge with French wine is that the type of grape is generally not provided explicitly on the label. The reason is that in France, where the wine is from almost always communicates the type of grape as well. An elaborate history of Government-controlled categorization supports this classification system. Champagne, for example, is actually a region in France that produces a lot of – surprise – champagne. Other regions that may sound familiar are Bordeaux, Languedoc, Beaujolais, and Cotes du Rhone. Because I haven’t memorized the types of grapes grown in each of France’s wine growing regions, I carry a cheat-sheet.

Bordeaux is one, important wine growing region and home to approximately 13,000 vintners across 247,000 acres (about 400 square miles). The region is further subdivided into appellations. Most Bordeaux wines are blends of Cabernet and Merlot grapes, with a few additional varieties of various types. Bordeaux is basically separated by the Gironde River. Knowing if one of the 37 appellations is on the ‘left bank’ or the ‘right bank’ of the river is suggestive of the predominate grape. Appellations Saint Emilion and Pomerol generally produce predominately Merlot-based wines, while Appellations Margaux and Pauillac generally produce Cabernet-based wines. Just like knowing I live in Chicago is useful information, knowing I live in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood is even more useful.

As an example, I am planning to drink a 2003 Chateau Vray Croix de Gay Pomerol Bordeaux. Chateau Vray Croix de Gay made the wine from predominantly Merlot grapes grown in 2003 in the Pomerol area of the Bordeaux region. Piece of cake once you have a cheat sheet.

China

bonesAs this post suggests, I’ve probably been doing more wine drinking than book reading, though I did finish another excellent book, Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler. This is more of a beer book – ‘wo yao yi bing ping Tsing Tao pi jio’ (I want 1 cold bottle Tsing Tao beer). Prior to moving to China, I read several books on Chinese business etiquette and what I could expect living in China. None of these books prepared me in any way for living and working in China. I like to think that had Oracle Bones been published in 2004, this would have been a superior read in preparation for an assignment in China. Certainly after the fact, the book is full of ‘yes, that is exactly what it is like’ moments that only an American in China would fully appreciate, but that even a novice should be able to comprehend. If you’ve been to China or are planning a trip to China, read this book.

Our Newest Appliance

I have already written about my coffee maker, so, surprisingly, this will be my second appliance post.

Prior to college graduation, I do not recall having many conversations about appliances. The college dorm room had one of those small refrigerators and I eventually moved up to a microwave and a coffee maker.

Upon graduation, my first job required virtually 100% travel and when in Chicago I lived in a shared facility that provided appliances. It is about this time, however, that I recall my first appliance conversation. We were in a bar in St. Louis. Sitting with a large group of college friends immediately before or after the wedding of another friend. I cannot recall the details of the wedding – such as who was getting married – but I remember Jim and Joe and their respective spouses. There must have been others because I remember a larger group sitting around the table. More than 5 and fewer than 10 people. It was a sunny afternoon and we were seated inside.

How the conversation meandered to washers and dryers I do not recall. There were several areas of consensus. It was nice not to have to put quarters in the machine. It was nice to have your own, personal washer and dryer, avoiding the hassle of waiting in line or having to remove some mysterious, absent person’s clothes from one of the machines in order to keep the assembly line moving. All the women and men agreed that washers and dryers represent yet another instance where bigger is indeed better.

There was minor disagreement – best described as difference of opinion – on the relative benefits and weaknesses of front-loaders (water efficiency) versus top-loaders (physical convenience), and gas versus electric.

The extended discussion was a sure sign that we were growing up. While thoughts, opinions and examples were shared with passion and detail, it did not have the same twists and turns as a discussion about who you kissed at last night’s party.

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Since we can all accurately guess who I kissed last night, I would like to introduce you to our new toaster. Before we moved to China, we had a standard, white toaster. Linda had mentioned on numerous occasions that she did not like the toaster because it lacked elegance. She could have used the word ugly – I don’t recall the specific words. When we returned from China, unpacked our boxes from storage, and I discovered we no longer had a toaster, the true depth of Linda’s displeasure was apparent to me. Apparently I listened but I did not understand. We have been living without a toaster since December.

toasterLast Friday, however, a new toaster arrived at our home, a gift from my mother. Ironically, it was my mother who had purchased the original, now missing, toaster. This had been a pre-Linda gift so mom is not held personally responsible. The new toaster, with its vintage curves and charcoal sheen, is attractive, though, as expected, it doesn’t really match the coffee maker, which is white. We will experiment with placement but the new appliance quickly passed the Linda test.

As the user reviews on Amazon suggested, our experience with the Delonghi 800 watt 2-slice toaster (Made in China, of course) confirms it is easy to use, easy to clean, and pops out a nice piece of toast. Linda carefully coordinated gifts and this morning we shared a pair of nicely toasted English Muffins – one Smoked Onion and Garlic, the second your basic, ‘Original’ muffin. This past Christmas I was introduced to Wolferman’s English Muffins – ‘A Tradition of Fine Food Since 1888’. They make an excellent English Muffin, delivered not so discretely to your door in one of the finest cardboard shipping boxes I can recall.

I see poached eggs on toast on this weekend’s menu.

Thanks, Mom.

Chicken, Where Are You?

And The Winner Is

Brynmar Bland accurately identified the location of our first Chicken pic:

The chicken is somewhere in Cambodia, outside of some sort of tomb or tribute to some goddesses of that area. I’m not even close, am I?

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Beautiful and striking even after hundreds of years. Rub their breasts for good luck.

The Next Chic Pic

OK, the next pic is a bit of a trick. Click here to see the next chicken picture and follow the Chronicles of the Chicken.