Dave Mancuso dot Com

It’s been a long time, and things at work are hectic as, well, heck, but I have a lot of things to post! More to come….

Since I live less than ten miles from Three Mile Island, I got free thyroid radiation pills for the family at school last Friday. We would use thes in case of an attack on TMI that would cause a release of radiation (e.g., if a plane would crash into the reactor). The pills only cover one kind of radiation sickness, so I think it’s more of a PR thing than anything else, but what the heck–the pills were free. I doubt if TMI would be a real terrorist target, but my plan is to motorvate out of here immediately if something ever happened. Simple and (hopefully) effective.

I’ll post a few pics in a day or so. Guess I have to figure out how to use the Pics folder in my Radio weblog now.

On the first week of our vacation we camped at Otter Lake up in the Poconos. On Wednesday of that week we had a terrible thunderstorm. We all stayed in the tent, but after a while I wondered why we hadn’t taken shelter in the car. We had two very close lightning strikes, one just two campsites away. We smelled the ozone after we saw the blue flash and sparks. In the end we were all OK, though.

But, the next week at Resica Falls Scout Reservation (next door to Otter Lake), a poor 16 year old kid died when lightning struck a tent ten feet away. Freaky. I used to camp at Resica all the time when I was a kid, too. I was at the quartermaster’s store buying a mug and a patch on week to the day before the poor kid was killed. Makes you appreciate that you and yours are happy and healthy.

An article from the New York Times is making a big splash around the Net. It’s a positive article about low carb diets (free registration required). It’s about time. I felt awesome when I was on the diet–I lost 45 pounds, I felt more alert than I’d been in years, my cholesterol went down to normal levels from high risk, and did I mention I lost 45 pounds? I’m glad that a diet that gets so much respect outside of the US is getting a new look here.

Bush Calls Ruling About Vouchers a ‘Historic’ Move. President Bush on Monday hailed last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding the use of public money for religious school tuition as a “great victory.” By Elisabeth Bumiller. [New York Times: Education] I like the idea of choice in vouchers. The big problem in my mind is multifold, mostly revolving around charter schools. Several of the charter schools I’ve seen are frankly very poorly run. No one seems to understand that education is a tough business to run–do we really want to experiment on our kids with charter schools? Secondly, charter schools get to “cherry-pick” their choice of students–they don’t have to serve the varied population or follow the same rules that public schools do, One school accidentally got students last year with learning disabilities that they had to actually–gasp–teach. This year, they plan to be more selective with their applicants so that “this doesn’t happen again.” Finally, the inescapable fact is that vouchers will weaken public schools. Vouchers will make it tougher for public schools to do an already difficult job. The playing field is not level here–it’s slanted against public schools all the way.

Apple to expand iMac LCD display. The company will introduce an iMac with a 17-inch monitor at next week’s Macworld Expo in New York, according to sources. [CNET News.com]

No way. A news leak already–a full week before MacWorld? It makes sense, though. A 17 inch screen would really make the new iMac come of age. I foresee a new form factor for the minitower “Quicksilver” Mac, myself–it’s about time. And I predict that Apple will come out with something surprising in line with its digital hub strategy–a new peripheral or enhanced iPod. Apple didn’t put handwriting recognition technology into the Jaguar OS for nothing–they have a plan.

Yep, armchair prognostication is great, isn’t it?

The irock looks pretty freaking awesome, especially for $29.99.

There is now a demo of the Mac version of realMYST out. I’ll download the demo–I just wish I had time to play the full version again.

I had a tilt table test last week, which confirmed that I don’t have a heart issue. They made me pass out on the table to confirm the diagnosis, which wasn’t a pleasant experience. What I have it vaso-vagal syncope, an exaggeration of the triggers that everyone has to slow down or speed up their heart. My case is pretty mild, so I just need to make sure I drink lots of fluids and eat plenty of salt (no lie–my blood pressure is pretty low, actually–108/72, generally). If I feel faint I need to lie down to get blood to my head. I haven’t had an incident since the one time in March, though. My wife says that a diagnosis involving lack of blood flow to the brain would explain a lot (but she says that males think with another part of their anatomy anyway, so I guess that wouldn’t be a problem).

Seriously, it’s good to define what was happening to me. As I lose more weight and get back to being more active, I think that the symptoms will go away permanently. Lots of camping and hiking this summer for me, which is awesome.