World Festival France

Here is just a short video of the France table. In the background you can hear Scottish bagpipes.

Zumbro River Cafe

Zumbro River Cafe has been open for a short time now. It's right next to Dunn Bros, in fact they share the same entrance, share the same kitchen, and surprise! are owned by the same people who own Dunn Bros.

I read a recent article in the Post Bulletin by Jeff Kiger -- "Heard on the Street: Zumbro Cafe Opens Next to Popular Coffee Shop". So tonight seemed like a great night to check out the new restaurant and let someone else do the cooking and wash the dishes.

Are Federal Workers Overpaid?

Today is just another average day. As I was checking my email, this was one of the stories that popped up in Yahoo! news. Here's a link to it from the AP:

FACT CHECK: Are Federal Workers Overpaid?

It's an interesting story, so you should go read it. It says the average Federal worker earns more than the average worker in the private sector. Ah, but here's the catch. They're comparing "Apples and Oranges" and that never works.

For example, the article notes that a "disproportionate number of federal employees are professionals, such as managers, lawyers, engineers and scientists." Many of the lower paid federal jobs such as clerical or service jobs have been outsourced to private sector.

So of course, on the average, scientists would make more money that someone working in the mail room.

But when you compare salaries of comparable jobs, such as lawyer to lawyer, it is often the case that the private sector pays more than the Federal Government. And the more that continues, the more likely the best people will leave government jobs and go to the private sector. That's good for them, but perhaps not so good for all of us. We should want our brightest people working for us. That just makes sense.

But here is why I even put this posting about Federal Workers here. It immediately reminded me of my 7th Grade Math teacher, Mr. Gustafson. He was a neat guy and a good teacher. He talked about a book way back then that I still remember and in fact I purchased that book a few years back.

That book is "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrell Huff. Now don't stop reading just because you think you don't like statistics. This is a short book and really interesting. You can still buy this book and you should consider it. You can read the book in one evening and it is important when you think of all the statistics thrown at us every day. We make decisions based on those statistics and we should be interested in making good, sound decisions.

The whole point of the AP article about fact checking the pay of Federal workers was in the use of "average". (Note the title of my blog: Mean, Median, Mode, Just an Average Blog.) You can use averages to get an idea of the whole picture of something, but you need to do it in a mathematically meaningful and honest way.

Here's a few more links about the book, "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrell Huff.

Book review by Jim Loy that lists the chapters in the book.

Barnes & Noble information to order this book.

Now, go buy that book and read it. Or if nothing else, take everything you hear about averages with a grain of salt. Otherwise you might be tempted to believe me when I say that, on the average, my blog is the best blog on the internet.

Happy Birthday, James T. Kirk

It's that time of year again, James T. Kirk's birthday. Technically, he won't be born until the year 2228, but when he is born, it will be on this day.

Riverside, Iowa will be his birthplace and they probably had a great celebration today there. William Shatner did a film there some years back which, while not Oscar material, was funny and well done. I especially enjoyed how well the townspeople played along and participated.

The photo is from the Wikipedia page on James T. Kirk.

Another Year, Another Pi Day

Luckily, someone mentioned to someone else and they mentioned to me so I'll mention to you.

It's Pi Day. Yes, 3/14 is the date and the value of Pi is 3.14.

And, just in case you are wondering what the complete value of Pi is, well of course I can't tell you, but I can get it a little bit better than just the 3.14. This year I'll write 3.14159. Next year, maybe more. Tune in then and see.

I found this article and wish I had thought up the opening sentence.

"Mathematics geeks turned irrational as they celebrated Pi Day Monday, the day of the year which represents the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi --3.14."

Irrational, ooh that is so smart.

Anyway, there's a lot of information about Pi at Wikipedia here if you are interested. It is interesting, so you should take a look.

World Maths Day

It would be a shame to not mention that today is World Maths Day!

We need to have a lot more emphasis on math in our schools and in everyday life. Math is fun and it is important. Everybody do more of it and do it more often.

Here's something else that I would like to see. No more dissing math on news casts. No more saying "Math is hard," or "Math is boring," and things like that.

If nothing else, please practice your multiplication facts today.

1-11-11

Well, I remembered to post at 11:11 on 1-11-11. It doesn't mean anything, it's just a number pattern. But I do like numbers and number patterns and math, so hats off to me plus the person who helped me remember to post something numerical tonight.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year. Time for all those New Year's Resolutions. Most people at least try to make a few. It's a good idea because sometimes you will actually follow through. I gave up chocolate one year. And for nine years I didn't eat any chocolate. Now that is determination and willpower!

Goodbye 2010

It's been a good year.

The Juncos Are Coming, The Juncos Are Coming

I don't necessarily notice when I'm seeing the first Junco of the season, but there are at least a few here. What that means is that they have arrived here for the winter. This is what they consider flying south for the winter. Ooh! It's going to be cold here again, I presume. And they come here for the warmth. I think I would travel to one of the actual southern states for the winter if I was a bird.

That was going to be it for today on the blog, but I found an interesting website all about birds. It's from those good people at Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is called "All About Birds". You should check it out. You can see great photos of birds and hear their typical voice. Really cool.

10/10/10

I've been waiting for this day for a while now and it almost got away before I posted. I was supposed to post at either 10:10 a.m. or 10:10 p.m. or better yet, both morning and night. I'll have to settle for at least getting a post up on the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of the century. sigh

It's been busy around here, always lots to do. Of course that's better than having nothing to do. Weather has been beautiful, record warmth recently. Temperature hit 90 degrees if I remember correctly. Wow.

If only it could be like this on Halloween when all the little ghosts and goblins are out.

Colbert at Congress

This is about Colbert at Congress. This is not about Colbert for Congress. That may happen in the future. It could! He could run for Congress. I think there would be a good chance of him winning.

Moving on.

He was testifying about immigrants who are farm workers in our country. He has done this work for a day and thus is an expert. Here's a link to watch Stephen as he testifies before a Congressional Committee. He brought all the respect and maturity you would expect from him when he talked, as a regular American, to the members of Congress, staff members, press and anyone else who was lucky enough to get in the room before it was full to capacity.

Watch and listen to Stephen Colbert in Congress.

Hurricanes

My gosh but the hurricanes seem to be piling up this summer and fall. It seems every time I turn on the news, we've gone up a letter in the alphabet. I was hearing about Hurricane Danielle and already they are talking about Karl, Igor and Julia. I think I would get kind of tired of all those hurricanes if I lived in or near a coastal region. Yes we have hail and tornadoes and blizzards here, but they don't seem to be as bad.

Now That's a Ring Tone!

As you may know, I'm cleaning.

"But wait a minute!" you all shout at the same time. "Didn't you do that when you were in college?"

Yes, that's right. I did. But, it's time again to clean. Time to add to the recycling center. Time to donate to Salvation Army. Time to let go of some things and pitch them out for good.

It was all sort of a domino effect that's been building. Tired of painting the house so get siding that doesn't need to be painted. As long as that's being done, might as well get new windows. As long as that's being done, might as well get a larger window in basement. That meant moving electrical wiring out of way. It also meant cutting some of the paneling away. And eventually, well, it means the whole room needs to be gutted and started from scratch.

So, all the stuff that has been piling up and stored in the spare room needs to be sorted. Every once in a while there's a surprise to be found. Sometimes a peanut, sometimes a photo, sometimes even something with nice memories.

Wizard of Oz

Google had a nice logo today. It was of Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion heading to the Emerald City.

It's the 71st Anniversary of the movie "The Wonderful World of Oz". I wonder what it will be like on the 100th Anniversary of the Wizard of Oz movie. Will there be a really big extravaganza? Or will people just not care anymore?

If someone is reading this on the 100th Anniversary, please leave a comment and let me know how it turns out.

8 - 9 - 10 11:12

It's late at night on August 9 and you know what that means. This post was posted on:

8 - 9 - 10 at 11:12 p.m.

You know how much I like numbers and this would qualify for a nifty number sequence.

That's all. Nothing earth-shattering (luckily). Just some fun with numbers.

Oh, Happy Birthday to a certain someone.

Book-It

Tonight, SNL was a repeat with Jon Hamm and Michael Bublé. I enjoyed that one. The commercial was Will Forte as Tarkie Fenzington, the Closet Organizer. They also had a sketch where he was at a bar talking to some guy who recognized Forte as the Closet Organizer Guy. But that's not important. What is important is that Will Forte was wearing a "Book-It" T-shirt in this sketch. Book-It is a program developed by Pizza Hut Restaurant to encourage and reward kids for reading.

Thanks, Will for showing your support for reading. In appreciation, everyone go out and get a book to give to a kid to read.

Baby Blue Jay

There have been so many blue jays around lately. I'm assuming that most of them are babies because they have been so vocal. If I understand bird-talk correctly, they are saying "Feed me. Feed me." This little guy was actually on the bird bath last year, so he is now an expert at all things Blue Jay. I've probably even seen him hanging around the bird bath this year and maybe even eating some peanuts during the winter.

Happy 4th of July

But then why am I posting on July 5th? Well, we were very busy yesterday and besides that, it rained here yesterday and the fireworks were postponed until today.

A few days ago we ate breakfast at Perkins. Typically they have a large American flag flying at their restaurants and the sky was such a nice clear blue that I took a few pictures. Plus it was very windy so I could get good photos of the flag showing all the stripes and nearly all of the stars.

I just spent a little time looking at Wikipedia's entry about the Flag of the United States. It is quite interesting. There is an animated section that shows how to fold the flag. There are pictures of all the different flags through the years. Did you know that at one time there were 15 stripes? I didn't know that.

Happy Canada Day

Today is Canada Day, so Happy Canada Day to everyone up in Canada and Canadians everywhere. Some years back we wanted to escape the crowds of July 4th for our vacation. Plus we wanted to go somewhere where the restaurants wouldn't be closed as they often are on July 4th. We should have done our homework. We were in Canada on July 1.

Canada Day has been called Canada's birthday. Everything was closed. Now we know better and so can you if you read a little bit here at Wikipedia about Canada Day.

I don't know if this photo shows the typical Canadian couple, but it was two people we saw in Montreal back in May of 2006 while we were visiting the Montreal Botanical Garden. The girl's hair was quite red, in fact, I'm willing to wager it wasn't actually her natural hair color. But it really looked nice on her and made for a good photo opportunity. Happy Canada Day to the two of them also.