Bigger or Better on Craigslist

I decided to try playing “Bigger or Better” on Craigslist. This is a game I played growing up for an activity for a mutual activity. For those who haven’t played “Bigger or Better” this is how it goes – you start out with a small object and then try to trade that object for something “Bigger or Better”. At the end of the night, you compared your ending object with the other ending objects of other groups and had a good laugh. So here's my CL ad. I’m going to try this out for a month and see what I end up with.

Water4Gas and other fairytales...

As most of you know, I bought a Mazda Miata a while back with the intent to tinker around with it. I've done several projects like change the drive belt, replace all four brakes, clean the window channels, change the oil, and change the rear struts. Meanwhile I looked for other things I could do to improve my car (the ultimate improvement will be turning my car into a Monster; but that's not what I'm getting at with this blog.) The purpose of this blog is to make anyone who reads it aware that Water4Gas is a total scam. As I said previously, I was looking for projects to improve my car and I came across Water4Gas. Water4Gas and all similar HHO/Water for Fuel programs are scams. These sites claim that you can improve your car fuel efficiency by adding a water powered hydrogen generator.

Well, in doing my due diligence on these products, I came across a site debunking them (here's the debunking site). What I found is that all of the HHO/Water4Gas products tinker with the oxygen sensor that tells the engine how much gas to use - basically running your car on a very lean amount of gas. Yes, you will be able to go further on a tank of gas, but it's not because you are running your car on water, it is because you are cutting back your car's fuel intake. So what are the side-affects of this practice? According to the debunking site, "you run a very real risk of burning your exhaust valves or suffering from pre-ignition (detonation). This may not happen immediately but before too long you'll find your engine loses compression on one or more cylinders and will need a complete overhaul."

In addition to the information I found on the internet, I spoke with one of my friends who happens to train mechanics for a living. He told me that it is only common sense that these products are scams. Think about it, if the major car company's could gain a competitive advantage over the other car companies by using a device such as those promoted on the HHO scamming sites, wouldn't they do it?

My Kid the Producer

Fred has discovered the art of making movies. Tonight she set-up her doll house like "Big Brother" by borrowing Scoonie's camera (that also does video) and putting the camera on one side of the dollhouse so that she could film what the dolls did. The biggest difference between "Big Brother" and Fred's film was that the dolls knew where the camera was - after 7 minutes of dollhouse "Big Brother" the dolls broke into a fashion show - the ambiance was created by turning off the lights and turned on the spot-light (flashlight). Jr. and Fred then paraded their dolls for the fasion show and took turns jumping in front of the camera! 15 minutes of fun! The encore was a 9 minute space odessey filled with a trip to Mercury and a space fasion show complete with music!

Human Intelligence Tasks

I came across a random internet tool today. Human intelligence tasks (HIT's) are those tasks that only a human can do. Artificial intelligence can not replicate these tasks. Much like laws requiring Home Owner Associations to have annual audits of records secure jobs for accountants in Nevada, HIT's give job security to thousands of human beings throughout the world. So what are these tasks? How much do HIT workers get paid? The answer to these and other perplexing questions like "How do you place value on a human life?" Can be found on Amazon Mechanical Turk. That's right Amazon has a corner on this all important market and you can become a turk and earn between $.01 and $30 per completed HIT! Wow! Now I can quit my day job and really do something meaningful with my life...Thanks Amazon!

To Have Theme Music or Not Have Theme Music...

That is the question. I recently put a playlist on this page so I could have theme music for my blog; after all, life's better with your own sound effects and theme music.

However, I was told that some people can get seriously bothered by theme music on blogs. So I've added a "Poll" asking the all important question - "Should My Blog have Theme Music?" Let me know. You can post your qualitative answers here and also suggest the appropriate theme music for my site (if you think I should have theme music; if you don't think I should, leave some comments so I know why.)