So, I decided to do a little research on the safety features of our cars after seeing what happened the other day to the Ford Explorer that flipped over and ended killing a woman. Since we just bought another SUV, I thought it appropriate to get the hard numbers on it. Well, safety and security ratings are based on a 1-5 Star scale, with 1 being the worst, and 5 the best.
According to the 2006 Honda Pilot Ratings, it rates 5 stars in everything except rollover. I don’t believe there is an SUV on the market that gets 5 stars on this, which is perfectly understandable given the fact that SUVs have a higher center of gravity, thus increasing the likelihood of a tip over. However, what does the 4 stars actually mean? Well, it is based on the percentage chance that it will roll over in a single car accident. Anything under 10% is given a 5 star rating, and 10-20% is a 4 star rating. Our Honda Pilot got a 15% rating, so we are at 4 stars. Now, to give some insight, Ford Explorers, as the one that flipped over on Sunday, are notoriously bad for flipping over, and come in around .22-.35 on the scale. So, as you can see, our Honda Pilot doesn’t do too bad as far as SUVs are concerned. So chalk one up for safer driving.

p.s. There are no ratings for our 2005 Lexus RX330, but I did find some ratings for a 2004, but it doesn’t have rollover ratings: 2004 RX330 Safety Ratings

Yesterday, we had our fantasy football draft up north by the SFO airport, so afterwards we were heading home south on highway 101. Everything is going smoothly, when all of the sudden the people in front of me start to brake fairly hard, and my friend who is the passenger seat says something like “Whoa!!” On the opposite side of the highway we see that a SUV has flipped over and there are people running. Sure enough, there in the middle of the road, about 30 feet in front of the flipped SUV, is a person lying lifeless with another younger man screaming while looking at the body. We went by at about 50-60mph, so there wasn’t a lot of time to see much, but you could definitely tell the person was in serious condition, if not already dead. This morning, after doing a little research, I came across the article below explaining what had happened. Apparantely, the SUV only had a flat tire, and was trying to move to the side of the road when the car flipped over, flinging the passenger in the backseat out of the car. Of course, she was the only one of three in the car hurt, and eventually killed, as she was the only one not wearing a seatbelt. So, for all of you who think “I’m a safe driver and won’t get in an accident, and therefore don’t need to wear a seatbelt,” well this is your wake up call! This person died, not because of a car wreck caused by negligence or some fluke, but simply b/c a tire went flat, and she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt.

Woman dies after being thrown from SUV in Peninsula crash

By Kimra McPherson
Mercury News

A woman was killed Sunday when the vehicle she was riding in overturned on Highway 101 in San Carlos, ejecting her onto the freeway.

The woman, whose name has not been released, was sitting in the back seat of a white Ford Explorer when the sport-utility vehicle’s left rear tire went flat at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday, the California Highway Patrol reported. The driver, a 21-year-old South San Francisco man, started to steer the Explorer onto the right shoulder just south of Holly Street, but the SUV flipped over and landed on its roof. The woman, who apparently was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the Explorer, the CHP reported.

The driver and two other passengers were taken to Stanford Hospital with minor injuries.

The Explorer was traveling at the speed limit at the time of the crash, according to the CHP.

Traffic along Highway 101 was backed up for miles while emergency crews worked at the scene.

Anyone with information on the crash is asked to call the CHP office in Redwood City at (650) 369-6261.

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though
we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.
We take English for granted.
But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that
quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing,
grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one
of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian
eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and
play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
So if Father is Pop, how come Mother isn’t Mop
And if Mum is Mummy, then Daddy must be Dummy!!

It is a sad day when we lose a planet, especially the famous Pluto. Pluto was probably my favorite planet, although I am not quite sure why. Perhaps it was b/c it was the underdog, the little guy trying to hold on and make it with the big boys. Well, the scientific world has given up hope on poor Pluto.

Pluto no longer a planet

Much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s.

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets,” similar to what long have been termed “minor planets.”

A mother is driving a little girl to her friend’s house for a play date.

“Mommy,” the little girl asks, “how old are you?”

“Honey, you are not supposed to ask a lady her age,” the mother replied.

“It’s not polite.”

“OK”, the little girl says, “How much do you weigh?”

“Now really,” the mother says, “those are personal questions, and are really none of your business.”

Undaunted, the little girl asks, “Why did you and Daddy get a divorce?”

“That is enough questions, young lady, honestly!”

The exasperated mother walks away as the two friends begin to play.

“My Mom won’t tell me anything about her,” the little girl says to her friend.

“Well,” says the friend, “all you need to do is look at her drivers’ license. It’s like a report card. It has everything on it.”

Later that night the little girl says to her mother, “I know how old you are; you are 32.”

The mother is surprised and asks, “How did you find that out?

“I also know that you weigh 140 pounds.”

The mother is past surprised and shocked now.

“How in heaven’s name did you find that out?”

“And,” the little girl says triumphantly, “I know why you and daddy got a divorce.”

“Oh really?” the mother asks. “Why?”

“Because you got an F in sex.

We’ve all seen them, and most of us have been so confused by them that they either lie there never being solved, or they end up being taken apart to be put back together. Well here are some crazy things people are doing to solve Rubik’s Cubes. Some of the most amazing stuff I have ever seen.

First, a computer doing it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6960jAGCkiA

Second, a 5×5 Rubik’s Cube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvuoCxp7Kpw&NR

Thirdly, one handed!:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NJz02Nh99Cs

And now … BLINDFOLDED!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDG6ZTYartI

I recently received a call from AT&T/Yahoo DSL offering 3Mb/s download for only $19.99 per month. Well, we are paying a lot more than that using Comcast since we only have our internet connection through them. They are giving us 4Mb/s guaranteed download, and we have been quite happy with it, excluding the price. So, instead of switching, I decided to give them call and see if they could match or at least make up for the costs difference. After about 5 minutes of explaining the issue, they offered me the same price as Yahoo for a 6 month period, thus save me $200+.

Now, that $200 is way off from the $1600 I mentioned in the title of this post, so where did the rest come from. Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we recently leased a new car, so I had to add the car to our insurance. It just so happnes that recently my dad was looking at getting new car insurance also, and he got a quote from Geico that was considerably less than his current insurance. After seeing the price come back from Progressive, I decided to get a few other quotes from other auto insurance companies to see how they compare. Now, to give you a brief history, I have had Progressive for quite a while and have always been happy, but with new expenses (car, baby, etc), I figured I would at least see what else was out there. Well, everyone came back with a very similar quote to Progressive, but Geico came in $1400 cheaper for the year!! Normally when a great deal like this comes around, it is almost too good to be true, so I had to do some due diligence and research Geico. Well, come to find out they used to be an insurance company for government employees, and they don’t deal with any ‘middle-men’ when providing insurance, so they are able to provide lower rates. Also, when my dad was asking why their rates were so low, they told him it was b/c they only offer auto insurance, whereas some companies offer home insurance, and therefore must make up some of their costs by overcharging for auto insurance. Either way, I couldn’t ignore an extra $100+ per month in savings, and therefore have made the switch to the mighty Gecko, a.k.a. Geico.

For some of you, this may be a slightly uncomfortable, or even perhaps some of you might find it funny , which is intended, but for some reason it has been bothering me lately, so I figured I would get it off of my chest and see what people thought. The story is about the top 10 most annoying things (to me) that a guy does while using the urinal. Some of you may do some of these things, others of you may shake your head in agreement, and yet even some of you may say why in the world would he write about such a thing. Well, I have some spare time right now, so why not.

In no particular order:

1. The guy who washes his hands before using the restroom as if to say my hands are so dirty, that I can’t just wait until after I am finished to wash them.
2. The guy who doesn’t wash his hands at all, before or after. Then, you see him later shaking hands with other people or eating with his hands and you just can’t stand to watch.
3. The guy who immediately flushes the urinal upon walking up to it, whether or not it needed it or not. Sometimes, he does it after he saw the other guy just flush. WHY? Does he want to waste water? Does he feel like things might overflow if he doesn’t? What is the logic behind this? Just wait, use the restroom and flush afterwards like a normal person! Some guys even go so far as to leave their hands on the flush handle so that can flush at the beginning, middle, and finally the end. What does one of these guys do if he runs into one of these waterless urinals that don’t require flushing?
4. The guy who walks up to the urinal and spits in it. As if urinating on the urinal isn’t enough to mark his territory, this guy feels that a large spit is in order.
5. The guy who feels it is necessary to let out numerous relief moans while doing his business. You would think these people had been holding it in for a week with as loud as some they can be. No one needs to hear this…EVER, much less when that person is only a couple of feet away.
6. The guy who thinks it necessary to practically have a seizure at the end of doing their business in order to shake things out. Not that I am looking, but I do have peripheral vision, and it makes me feel as if I need to check on some of these people because their entire top torso is convulsing and they are practically jumping up and down. As a friend of mine once said, “if you shake it more than twice, you are playing with it.”
7. The guy who won’t use the “short” urinal b/c they feel they are either too tall or too cool for it. I understand some people are taller, and I could understand if Shaq waited, but for those who are below 6′ 5″, just aim a little lower and stop rushing the guy you are waiting for.
8. The infamous guy who is right before you and decides to use the middle urinal, leaving you no option but to choose a urinal right next them. Or, the guy who, despite having 3 other choices, chooses the urinal right next to you. There is a plain and simple rule for guys, don’t do it. Guys have a certain space criteria, and this is crossing the border. My friends put together a nice little video about “ManSpace” that illustrates this point to a tee.
9. The guy who walks up the urinal and feels it is necessary to spread his legs as wide as possible, and stick one hand as high as possible on the wall above the urinal. What kind of pose is this and what does it accomplish? Do things flow better? What does this guy do when at home with only a toilet? Does he do the same thing and just bend way over so his hand can be on the wall?
10. And finally, the guy who feels that they must talk to you while using the restroom. As I said before, there are certain man rules that must be obeyed, and near the top of that list is to stare at the wall directly in front of you, or look down, but never look at the person next to you, and for heaven’s sake never try to strike up a conversation. There is nothing you can say that will make the situation any less awkward, so shut up and finish your business!

So, for the women out there, this is a little insight into the odd behaviour that can exist inside the men’s room. Of course, urinals aren’t all bad. There is nothing better than not having to wait for 20 minutes like the women to use the restroom. Now, for a little humor to finish everything off, here is a funny video about something that will, or should, never happen, but is still quite funny.
Urinal Humor

I’m sure many of you have run into this situation now and again, so I’m wondering what it was that you did. You have an old appliance, TV, or some sort of large piece of electronic equipment that is either broken or old, and you are ready to get rid of it. Well, do you do what a lot of people do and just put it out on the street and assume the city will take care of it, or do you take it to the dump like a decent person would do? Hopefully, you choose the latter, but if have ever done it, I bet you the next time you had to do it all over again, that side of the street sure looked appealing. The reason being that it can cost you a ton of money, well, a decent amount, to dispose of said junk at the dump. I went and returned an old dishwasher we had today, and they charged me $30. Are you kidding me? I was expecting $10 at the most, but $30 is ridiculous. I asked the guy if he was serious and he assured me he was and responded with a sarcastic comment of “Well, at least you only have one.” Who in the world has more than one dishwasher to get rid of? It’s not like they are collectible items and you store them in your house hoping one day they will be worth something. Even if someone did have two, I’m sure that they could afford the disposal fee b/c it meant they had a house large enough to have two kitchens. Anyways, for all of you who just put all your old appliances on the side of the road, I now understand, although I’m not sure I condone it.

As if I needed any more reason to move back to Miami, apparantely the fountain of youth is close by also. I’m not really sure what Copperfield has under his sleeve by making such a bold announcement, but I’m sure we will find out on some ABC primetime special in the next couple of months.

Copperfield says he’s found Fountain of Youth