Name the Justice League

I started this quiz before I realized they were asking for the original Justice League from the comics in 1960. Thus my recollections of the Justice League from the Super Friends in the early 80's with the Wonder Twins was not helpful. A hint: Zan, Jayna & their monkey Gleek were NOT in the original Justice League from 1960. (Feel free to make that sound that Gleek made as you read this, my twin and I still do that.)

I got all seven in one minute and 39 seconds. I am sure there are some older comics buffs out there that could do better. How about you?

Avoid being the truck in the ditch

This truck being pulled from a ditch slowed my travels up Interstate 95 today. One of my goals in driving is to avoid being the truck in the ditch. I don't drive a truck so I have it half covered. I also try to keep my vehicle on the road.

It appears that this truck went in before the guard rail began rather than over it, but for some reason they were pulling it out this way. It is sometimes hard to figure out what happened in an accident when you only get to see the aftermath.

Superbowl Pool Playoff sheets

You may have heard of those playoff pools where you can try to guess the outcome of a number of events during the game like who will win the coin toss (random) or what player will be named the MVP (usually the quarterback). Last year, I gathered the data from 41 Superbowls and generated some graphs and statistics to help me fill mine out. That data analysis is available here.

For some extra help relevant to this year's contest between Pittsburgh and Arizona, I found that the odds makers have Pittsburgh winning by a touchdown and the over/under is 46.5 points. I am a Steelers fan so I like those odds! I also like the AccuScore forecasts in which they simulate the game 10000 times to generate model results of all kinds of things. It appeals to my mathematical mindset. They have Pittsburgh winning in 68% of their simulations.

Go Steelers!

Prius arbitrary milestone 7000

I missed odometer reading 5555, 6000, and 6666 but did catch 7000. This milestone is one thousand times luckier than 7. The prius still runs well, but I notice lower gas mileage in the cold weather, around 35 to 40 mpg. This is still better than my last car or most cars.

I do miss my heated seats when it is cold however.

Ceaser Rodney in the snow

I think Ceaser Rodney is going to get more snow covering as the day goes on.

Hawks for the birds at the bird feeder

This hawk suddenly lighted on a tree on the creek yesterday. The hawk in flight was much more dramatic than its brooding roost.


I would guess this is a Broad-Winged hawk and not a Red Tailed hawk, but I couldn't see the tail that well. It is not the first one I have seen in my yard or in the area.


I suspects it was there because of all of the dainty morsels of smaller birds that have been attracted to the bird feeders lately. This little blue bird (a White-Breasted Nuthatch) throws out food onto the ground below the feeder that the dark-eyed juncos go after.


The dark-eyed juncos flit from the brush of the fallen tree in the creek to the ground below the feeder and back. You can see one hiding in the middle of the picture below.

The house sparrows feed at the feeder and off of the ground. I think that the sparrow below is a more drab colored female. I might be incorrect in the identification and would appreciate an experts advice.

The Unexpected cost of genetic algorithms in computing

This xkcd.com comic on the correct costs and perils of using a genetic algorithm is timely, given my desire to use a genetic algorithm to find the best fantasy football playoff pool. In all of my discussions of how to approach the problem (simulating the playoffs, games the teams play), I have still neglected to take into account the effect of my excell spreadsheets achieving sentience and trying to take over the world. Let me get right on that.

Snow on Holly Berries

With the snow falling and a camera that does better closeups than regular pictures I couldn't resist these pictures of snow on the holly bushes outside, with some holly berry red for some flash.


The pictures don't do justice to how prickly these holly bushes are. They will draw blood if you brush against them and the prick through leather gloves.

Beauty and peril in the same package.

January Snow on Shellpot Creek

When the creek is frozen the snow stays on the creek and on the rocks.

Except in some spots. I wonder what the hot spot under the bank at this spot is.

The tree is still in the creek.

The birds love the proximity of this tree to the seed thrown on the ground by other birds at the bird feeder. Like a brush pile, it gives them a close hiding place. I still would like it if the tree were gone. It's not my tree, it started on the other side of the creek and fell down.

Extracting a screw - successfully!

As I was putting together the crib, my wife's crib from when she was a baby, that her father built for her, I realized that I shouldn't break it as it might have some sentimental value and we are trying to reuse it to save some money. Of course as I was screwing in one of the screws I twisted its little head right off. This meant that the threaded end of the screw was lost deep in the wood exactly in the pot where a replacement screw would have to go.

I immediately eliminated the thought that one screw would be enough and luckily remembered that I had screw extractors that I had never used. Presumably left over from a tool impulse purchase, I pulled them out and found some useful instructions online (wikihow stripped screw, wikihow screw extractor, and the best, a screw extractor step by step slideshow on about.com).


Miracle of miracles, I was successful. You may never need to do this, I have had these tools for at least seven years and never used them, but it nice to know they work if you need them.


The picture above is a close up of the twisted off head and the screw bit on the extractor. You drill a hole in the screw you are trying to extract and then screw in the screw extractor. The trick is that it is threaded opposite of a screw. Turning it counterclockwise buries it in the screw to be extracted and grabs it even as it turns the screw counterclockwise to unscrew it. Genius.