I originally wanted to make this post about a week ago but I’ve been too busy with other stuff to get to it, so I hope it doesn’t feel outdated right now but anyway…
At the time that I was originally contemplating this, news sources were reporting that there were about 800 cases of tomato-related salmonella. According to the CIA World Factbook the estimated population of the United States as of July 2008 is 303,824,646. It seemed to me that ~800 cases out of 300 million people is actually quite a small number of cases of salmonella, especially when you consider how many other potential sources there could be. Chicken, anyone?
In the midst of all this hub-bub regarding tomato-related salmonella, and all the economic disruption and inconvenience that it has caused, one thing I began to wonder and the one piece of relevant information I could not find in any reports on the subject was this: How many cases of salmonella do we really get in an average year?
Here are some interesting and/or entertaining links that I would like to share with you:
en.wikipedia – Moe_Berg:
Moe Berg was an Ivy League educated Major Leage Baseball player who went on to spy for the CIA in Europe in WWII, then returned to his life in the MLB. (Wikipedia featured article June 27)
redOrbit – Drivers Misled By ‘Miles-Per Gallon’ Rating: This article suggests that switching to a system that expresses fuel economy in gallons per 100 miles would make it easier for people to understand and compare how much money one car would save over another.
Everyone should see this! 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do. From TED:
At long last a film I worked on has been released to the general public! Thus far all of the feature films I have worked on, if they have been completed at all, have only screened in front of festival audiences. But just a few minutes ago I stumbled upon the information that Just Add Water was released on DVD two weeks ago. I worked as a grip for a couple of days on it during the last couple days of reshoots two years ago to the day. That’s how long it sometimes takes to go from shooting on the set to my Netflix queue.
I don’t even know at this juncture if my name is even in the credits but I can’t wait to see the final product even if it was only deemed worthy of a direct to DVD release, haha. I was actually still in film school when I got this gig… so it seemed especially big time to me… hotel and even some gas money paid for, a huge grip truck with everything so no need to jury rig things when you always have the right tool for the job. But man it sure was hot out in the desert in June!
Anyways, it’s good to finally see that something I worked on is actually in a place were some people might actually see it!
-Bryan
UPDATE: I did indeed make it into the credits. Click for a bigger version:
I have included this screen shot to save you from watching the whole movie if you just wanted to see my name in there. Watching it was not exactly the most enjoyable experience of my life, haha.
After reading this article I’m starting to realize just what a rare and beautiful thing free speech is. I was also surprised to see speech limited in this way in countries I thought of as free. As hurtful and damaging as hate speech may be, I do feel it should be protected. Those people on the fringes, testing the boundaries, are the ones are demonstrating for us — reminding us just how free we really are. At least, that’s the way I look at it.
