Everyone I know who has an iPod struggles with is car connectivity. There’s lots of very imperfect solutions out there, FM broadcasters, cassette tape adapters, but none of them work that well. Someone’s finally come up with a solution, the ice>Link:iPod. From their web page:

ice>Link:iPod is the ultimate car kit for your Apple iPod. iPod audio is routed through your head unit’s CD changer port and keypresses including FF & RW are passed from your head unit (and steering wheel controls in suitably-equipped vehicles) to your iPod resulting in safe control of your iPod while driving.

Combine it with a nice holder for the iPod and you’d have a great solution for listening in the car.

News story of the day:

Girls pummel man who exposed himself

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) — A man described by authorities as a known sexual predator was chased through the streets of South Philadelphia by an angry crowd of Catholic high school girls, who kicked and punched him after he was tackled by neighbors, police said Friday.

Rudy Susanto, 25, who had exposed himself to teen-age girls on as many as seven occasions outside St. Maria Goretti School, struck again on Thursday just as students were being dismissed, police said.

But this time, a group of girls in school uniforms angrily confronted Susanto with help from some neighbors, police said.

When Susanto tried to run, more than 20 girls chased him down the block. Two men from the neighborhood caught him and the girls took their revenge.

“The girls came and started kicking him and punching him, so I wasn’t going to stop them,” neighbor Robert Lemons told The Philadelphia Inquirer. [CNN]

And the lesson here is: don’t mess with those Catholic high school girls. They’re nothing but trouble!

So I’m thinking of showing some anime this weekend. Anyone wanna come by and watch tomorrow night (sat)? If there is enough interest I’ll plan something.

First, a little background. With IPF, your lungs don’t process oxygen real well, which means that any form of exertion can leave you gasping for air. One thing that helps make things easier is being in shape. The more in shape you are, the less oxygen your body needs to get things done. As a result, one treatment they recommend is something called pulmonary rehabilitation. I’d gone through it around one and a half years ago and had kept up on exercising since, but just not with the same intensely and as a result I’d slowly slipped into worse and worse shape. So Last month when I saw my pulmonologist, I asked about going again and he agreed that is was a great idea and set things up for me to go again.

Before rehab starts, I have to go through a few tests just to get a baseline for how in shape I am and make sure that my body can handle exercise. The one I like the least, the pulmonary stress test, was yesterday. It isn’t that the test is that bad, it’s just kind of uncomfortable and annoying. First they wire you up to monitor your heart. Then you climb onto a stationary bike and hook you up to the oxygen. This entails them first putting this thing your head to hold the oxygen tube in place while you are cycling. There’s a part that is a band that goes around your head, and then a piece of metal comes out from it to hold the oxygen tube right at your mouth. Next they put a clamp on your nose, so you can only breath through your mouth. You get a clip on your finger to read your oxygen, and they take your blood pressure. Now it’s time for the actual test to begin.

Now you start pedaling. You first start off slow, with almost no tension, for three minutes to warm up. As you pedal, they also take your blood pressure every minute and ask how you are doing. After three minutes of pedaling, the tension on the bike slowly increases. And then you just pedal until you are either out of breath or your legs can’t do it anymore, then they cut the tension and you cool down and it is over. Then they rip all the pads off for the heart monitor and you can go home.

I did pretty well yesterday. I went for 8 minutes and actually wasn’t too wiped out by the end of it. Though, afterwards I felt ravenously hungry and had the munchies bigtime. I wonder if they are related some :). Now, I’m off to finish my coffee and take a nap.

Last last night I read on a mailing list that Hal Clement had died, and I found confirmation of it this morning. Somewhere I have a book of his stories published as ‘The Best of Hal Clement‘. I probably still have it sitting around in a box someplace. But I really enjoyed his SF. So here’s a big thank you going out to him for his work.

Hal Clement Dies

Harry Clement Stubbs, who wrote science fiction as Hal Clement, died in his sleep earlier today, October 29, 2003, at his home in Milton, Massachusetts.

Born in 1922, Clement was a high school school teacher whose fiction gained a reputation as quintessential hard SF — science fiction firmly based on established physics, chemistry, and astronomy. His novels often depicted highly imagined alien worlds; the most famous was Mission of Gravity, set on a heavy, fast-spinning planet where the force of gravity is several times greater at the poles than at the equator. His last novel, Noise, was published earlier this year. [Locus online]

The SFWA has has a bit more information on him, as does the Wikipedia (updated already amazingly). I may have to pick up his most recent book.

You’d think it would be common sense. You don’t stash your drugs where something could happen to them. Or someone might easily stumble upon them.

Boys and moms OD on ecstasy mash and tea

October 29 2003 at 01:45PM

London – Two four-year-old boys and their 21-year-old mothers unsuspectingly consumed up to 40 ecstasy tablets hidden in a kettle when one of the mothers used it to make tea and instant mashed potatoes, Britain’s Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

The boyfriend of one of the mothers, who are twin sisters, was to appear in court on Wednesday near Manchester in the north of England charged with possession of controlled drugs.

The four victims, Patricia and Joanna Wilson and their sons Leon Wilson and Nathan Read, were taken to hospital after sharing a snack at teatime on Monday. [IoL]

Here’s another tip. Don’t store your pot in the fireplace or the oven.

Tonight was Wednesday night and I was opening down at the club. It went pretty well, but I felt kinda wiped out by it. I think I’m a little overtired and stressed. I’ve got a stress test I have to do tomorrow before starting in on pulmonary rehab again. They hook you up to sensors of various kinds and have you ride a stationary bike. I’m not looking forward to it at all. It’s just kind of uncomfortable and I am way out of shape. And then I have to run over to see my therapist right after that.

On the plus side, I ran into an old acquaintance tonight that I hadn’t seen in ages. So I got to catch up with her and talk about lung stuff. I’m sure I rambled on a bit too long about all that fun stuff. So all in all it was a good night, even if the guest DJ hadn’t shown up by the time I left.

I’ll post more about last night tomorrow after I’ve slept.

First we had the War on Drugs, then the War on Terror. Next up, the War on Pr0n. Because it’s not like there are any other more pressing issues in the country, right?

Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” [Quotes of the Day]