Knowledge Challenge

Learning One New Thing Each Day for a Year

Learning Opportunities are Presented to us Everyday- We Just Need to Recognize Them

Knowledge Challenge Entry #365

My New Year's resolution for 2010 was to learn one new thing each day and record it on this knowledge challenge site. I surprised even myself that I stuck with it and never missed a day. Even when traveling for work or while on vacation, I still completed my posts.

Looking back, it's interesting to see how my posts mirrored what was going on in my life. They were about some of the interesting places I visited, like Kona, San Antonio and Maui or about interests of mine at the time like tea, fitness and food.

Overall, I learned two important things from this whole experience. First, when I say I'm going to do something, I stick to it. I'm dependable and accountable even to myself. Second is that this wasn't really a difficult challenge as we're presented learning opportunities all the time in our daily lives; we just need to recognize them and enjoy them.

This is the last post on this site. I'm off to something new in 2011!

Unprotected Water Pipes are in Danger of Freezing When the Outside Temp Reaches 20F Degrees

Knowledge Challenge Entry #364

We have a rare hard-freeze predicted for the next few nights. Unlike many northern states, the main water pipes into homes here in the southwest are external and exposed to the elements. According to the Building Research Council, the danger of pipes freezing and possibly bursting occurs when the outside temperature hits 20 degrees or below. We may just hit this mark tonight.

The best way to prevent pipes from freezing is fairly intuitive- you have to stop the transfer of heat from the water pipe to the colder surrounding air. The easiest way to protect pipes is to fit them with insulation sleeves or wrapping.

We didn't have anything fancy on hand, but our solution should work. We took an old wool blanket and completely wrapped the pipes from the ground up to where they meet the house. Next we completely encased the wrapped pipes in multiple layers of heavy blue plastic tarp. This should provide multiple layers of insulation, deflect the wind and hopefully do a good job of protecting them.

Another suggestion from the site is that many bathroom and kitchens have plumbing running along the outside wall. They recommend that you keep cabinets open to allow warmer air to circulate around the interior wall where the pipes enter the house.

Another idea is to allow the faucets to drip a bit. The water flow may not prevent water from freezing but it minimizes the chance of pipes bursting because there's no pressure buildup.

Corrupt Fonts used in Apple OS X Tiger can Crash Apps in Snow Leopard

Knowledge Challenge Entry #363

My wife's brand new MacBook Pro was having problems right out of the box. Safari and Mail were crashing. However, using a fresh test user account everything was fine so we narrowed it down to something unique to her account. We did the traditional permissions repair, disk repair and reset all of her preferences and the crashing still occurred. It was really frustrating because we had essentially gotten her profile to the same state as the test account. We gave up and called Apple Care.

After a few hours on the phone with them, we finally figured out the problem. When we got the new MacBook, we had migrated all of my wife's information from her iMac using a time machine backup. The Apple support rep had us enable the root login and use it to rename the fonts directory within my wife's account. When she logged back in, everything was fine. The support rep mentioned that the migration from Tiger to Snow Leopard doesn't remove incompatible font sets. Both Safari and Mail were trying to use a font that had been used in Tiger but was causing the apps to crash in SL. By renaming the directory, the applications had to use their defaults and everything was fine.

(I'm still not sure how fonts will be handled going forward, but at least she can get to her mail and the Internet.)

Seasons 52 Fresh Grill is in the Same Family as Red Lobster and Olive Garden #irony

Knowledge Challenge Entry #362

I ate lunch at a relatively new restaurant called Seasons 52 Fresh Grill. It's a health conscious place and their "gimmick" is that nothing on the menu is over 500 calories. They also have a seasonal menu that swaps 52 times each year that allows the chef to create dishes from the freshest of locally available produce. They also have a gluten-free menu, which is what I used. I had the buffalo burger minus the bun with guacamole and roasted pepper salsa and a side salad. I believe this was "paleo friendly."

I learned that Seasons 52 is actually a chain and is part of Darden Restaurants which includes Red Lobster and Olive Garden. I was surprised. Maybe they can take some of the healthy lessons they have learned at Seasons and use them within their other brands.

Health Care Reform Law Requires Restaurants to Post Nutritional Info

Knowledge Challenge Entry #361

My wife and I went out for lunch at a chain place (I'm withholding the name) and each got salads. Hers was a bit more involved than mine as it had chicken, some roasted veggies, a plop of hummus and a few slices of toasted pita bread. When we got home and were figuring out our nutritional intake for the day (it's something we've both done for years and it's helped us maintain our weight and athletic builds) she learned that it had 1900 calories! Yes, the innocent "salad" which didn't even have anything fried was a huge caloric hit.

This particular chain doesn't print nutritional information in their menu. The healthcare reform act passed by the Obama administration includes a provision that requires all chain restaurants to post the nutritional information on the menu. There is a 12-month planning phase so these probably won't start appearing until 2011.

Vicksburg May Not Have Celebrated Independence Day Until WWII

Knowledge Challenge Entry #360

I was reading a news article about a Civil War era note that was just deciphered by a retired CIA cryptologist. The note simply said "You can expect no help from this side of the river."

There's some brief history provided in the story, but what I found most interesting was a bit of trivia it included at the end of the piece. It states that Vicksburg was so put out by being sieged that it refused to celebrate Independence Day for the next 80 years as the garrison was surrendered on July 4, 1863. Looking at other references, there are indications that this may be more myth than reality.

Yunomi is for Casual Tea Drinking

Knowledge Challenge Entry #359

It was a Christmas full of tea. In addition to more bags and boxes of tea than I may be able to drink in a lifetime, I also got a new glass teapot.

One gift didn't really materialize as expected. Someone said they tried to buy me a set of yunomi but couldn't find one they liked. I have to admit that I needed to look that up.

I learned that a yunomi is an informal Japanese tea vessel designed for everyday use. Unlike a tea bowl, a yunomi is taller than it is wide.

Impaired Proprioception Indicates Alcohol Intoxication

Knowledge Challenge Entry #358

I took my Vibram FiveFingers out for their first miles today. Vibram lists a number of benefits to barefoot sporting on their website including improved "proprioception." This is our perception of where our body parts are in relation to each other.

An interesting fact about proprioception is that this is the physical characteristic tested by law enforcement field sobriety tests. Having someone touch their nose with their eyes closed, a subject can not be off by more than 20mm. If they are, this is a sign of impaired proprioception which is an indication of intoxication.

So I wonder if wearing FiveFingers would help you prepare to pass one of these tests?

Apple Considers Hardware Older Than 5 Years as "Vintage"

Knowledge Challenge Entry #357

The wife's Apple iMac G5 was having display issues so we took it to the genius bar at the local Apple Store.

After doing a few diagnostic tests, the genius looked at us sadly and told us it was a goner. I could have sworn we had just bought the thing and shouldn't be dead yet. Apple keeps such great records, however, that he only needed to scan the serial number to get the full history right on his iPhone.

Apparently we've had it longer than I had recalled; 5 years. What I learned is that Apple officially designates all hardware 5 years or older as "Vintage." Yes, our iMac was "vintage" and therefore could not even be repaired. They simply no longer have the required parts in stock.

She left with an early addendum to her Christmas presents; a new MacBook Pro.

A Single Queue Speeds up Store Checkout by a Factor of 3

Knowledge Challenge Entry #356

I just watched this video that talks about queuing theory and how it applies to holiday shopping. Originally developed to determine the optimum number of trunk lines required for phone systems, the theory can be applied to any similar event.

One interesting fact is that having one single line feed multiple registers will be three times faster than having separate lines for each register. (It's also less frustrating for those of us that always pick "the wrong line.")