It is possible to build a “speech jamming gun”

/ Shane / 1 Comment

It is possible, in fact simple, to build a device that can jam speech.

It turns out that there is a known psychological phenomenon that sort of disrupts your brain and prevents you from talking. When your words are relayed back to you with a tiny delay, your brain just sort of shuts down and you can’t talk. It’s painless, but disruptive (and I’d imagine confusing). The technology is almost too simple, more or less just a microphone and speaker. Luckily, the article provides a simple way to defeat the device:

Sadly, they report that it has no effect on meaningless sound sequences such as “aaaaarghhh”.

So the question is, when would the device be useful? The obvious suggestion is in a library or church or even in a meeting or something, when you need someone to shut up. But, even though it is painless, it still seems unnecessarily aggressive. You have to target the person you want to stop from talking, and that person has to be rude enough in the first place that they won’t stop talking even though you ask them to. So we’re already talking about a showdown between two people who are resorting to some low down measures. I don’t think you can force someone to be quiet. Even if you prevented them from talking, I’m sure the talker can find other ways to be disruptive. And if they’re already trying to be disruptive, they’re not going to calm down because you physically forced them to stop talking, that’s for sure. The gun doesn’t prevent them from slamming a book down on a table repeatedly.

So what good is it? I suspect it is no good, and it would just be a funny party trick. On the other hand, if Sara could get her hands on it, I think our house would be a lot quieter. Evie and I would have to find something else to do with our time.

Oh yeah, this part is supposed to be difficult isn’t it?

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Lately Evie and Ollie have been fighting like cats and dogs. At times, it is difficult to leave them in a room together. Evie certainly has her share of the blame, but I would say the big difference seems to be Oliver.

It’s like he suddenly woke up and realized he wanted his say. He has very strong opinions on things. Everything in the house is arranged JUST THE WAY HE WANTS IT! Don’t you dare touch anything or move it or hand him the wrong thing or try to take something away. It doesn’t matter that it was on the floor and he hadn’t even looked at it twice in the past week. If you touch it (or especially if Evie touches it), there’s going to be a meltdown.

Understandably, this is sort of hard for Evie to take. First off, she’s used to doing whatever she wants, whether Oliver likes it or not. Second off, she’s often an innocent bystander, maybe picking up some abandoned crayons only to be suddenly attacked by a furious maniac. She often gets the short end of the stick when we have to take something of hers and put it away because she simply cannot play with it without Oliver being physically restrained.

Then it occurred to me: the terrible twos! Oliver is just about to turn two, and that’s how a two year old is supposed to act.

Honestly, it really hasn’t been that bad. Looking back, it seemed a lot worse when Evie was doing it. I guess it’s a lot easier to deal with now because 1) we’ve been through it before, so we’re more prepared, 2) we know it doesn’t last long, and 3) having two kids means we’re busier now than we were back then. And having an older kid helps out too, both from the fact that they do *sometimes* get along and play, and the fact that he can watch her and learn how to behave a little bit.

Still, when you combine his new attitude with the fact that he’s getting molars and waking up many, many times at night, this whole parenting thing definitely got turned up a notch.

As far as I can tell, this is for real

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Warning, the following baby-tossing video is extremely difficult to watch:

It absolutely seems fake, but Gawker has covered it extensively, and it seems to be legit, as far as they can tell.

It’s amazing how you just have this gut reaction to seeing a baby treated in such a fashion. I think it is something biological; it’s like we see it and we fear for the survival of our species (both for that individual baby, and society as a whole to have produced a person that would even want to throw a baby around like that!). Sara said it made her feel sick to her stomach.

The thing that’s not really covered in any of the information I’ve read about it, is why you would even want to throw your baby around like that. Even if you somehow convinced me that it was safe, that it didn’t hurt the baby, and in fact the baby didn’t mind (which is not what it sounds like from that video), you still haven’t convinced me that there is any benefit to it. What’s the purpose? To get your baby used to roller coasters? Prevent a fear of heights? No other form of weight training can give you quite the same rippling biceps? Even if it brings you and the baby “closer together”, isn’t there about a hundred better ways you could have accomplished that?

Link via Greg.

Quote Monday toots in the dark

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Evie: “Oliver, you might think that grandma will be here by supper, but don’t count your chickens.”

I don’t know if I say “don’t count your chickens” a lot, but it has become one of Evie’s favorite phrases. Somehow she uses it against you, for example:

Evie: “…and then she’ll walk in, and I’ll run over and give her my present, and she’ll be so excited, and…”
Me: “Evie, don’t get your hopes up, it might not happen exactly how you imagine it.”
Evie: “Don’t count your chickens! I think it *will*!”

Me: “I had a dream that we crashed on a desert island and you became the smoke monster. We all had to go to your house to play board games, but we were all very nervous that you were going to kill us.”
Sara: “Oh, I see where this is coming from.”

Until that moment, I didn’t realize that my subconscious was trying to tell me that Sara is the smoke monster of board games.

::[Anonymous Visitor] is counting for hide and seek. Gas is passed::
Oliver: “Toots in the dark!”

I think it is time to start calling [Anonymous Visitor] by their Indian name, Toots in the Dark.

Cowboy Candy (A.K.A. Candied Jalapenos)

/ Shane / 1 Comment

The Reason:

Well, the main reason is that we had a lot of extra jalapenos from our garden last year, and we had to find something to do with them. We stumbled on this recipe and it sounded just weird enough to try.

The Journey:

They’re not too difficult to make, at least, not compared to other things you might can (in other words, the canning is the hard part, and that’s the same no matter what you’re canning).

The Verdict:

I don’t know. They’re strange. They’re very sweet, but also very spicy. I don’t like to eat them by themselves very much, but they are killer on a barbecue pork sandwich!

They’re also great for getting people to try them and watching their faces, so I’ll let some of the reaction shots speak for themselves:

Let’s See…                          Sort of unpleasant                      Thats…very spicy
Here we go                              ::gulp!::                            Hey, I survived!
I’ll try it if you try it                         Do not like!                       Rinse it out with milk
Yummy!                                     Uh oh…                                    Spicy!

Don’t let him fool you though, he was soon gobbling them by the handful.

The Recipe:

Recipe from Tasty Kitchen.

  • 3 pounds Firm, Fresh Jalapeno Peppers, Washed
  • 2 cups Cider Vinegar
  • 6 cups White Granulated Sugar
  • ½ teaspoons Turmeric
  • ½ teaspoons Celery Seed
  • 3 teaspoons Granulated Garlic
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper
  1. Wearing gloves, remove the stems from all of the jalapeno peppers. The easiest way to do this is to slice a small disc off of the stem-end along with the stem. Discard the stems.
  2. Slice the peppers into uniform 1/8-1/4 inch rounds. Set aside.
  3. In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, granulated garlic and cayenne pepper to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean, sterile canning jars to within 1/4 inch of the upper rim of the jar. Turn heat up under the pot with the syrup and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 6 minutes.
  4. Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices. Insert a cooking chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air. Adjust the level of the syrup if necessary. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp paper towel and fix on new, two-piece lids to finger-tip tightness.
  5. If you do not want to can these to the point of shelf stable, you can simply put the jars in your refrigerator and store them there. I prefer to keep the fridge space free so I can them. If you wish to can them, follow the instructions below.
  6. Note: If you have leftover syrup, and it is likely that you will, you may can it in half-pint or pint jars, too. It’s wonderful brushed on meat on the grill or added to potato salad or, or, or … in short, don’t toss it out!
  7. To can, place jars in a canner and cover with water by 2-inches. Bring the water to a full rolling boil. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints. When timer goes off, use canning tongs to transfer the jars to a cooling rack. Leave them to cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. When fully cooled, wipe them with a clean, damp washcloth, then label.
  8. Allow to mellow for at least two weeks, but preferably a month before eating. Or don’t. I won’t tell!