Make Sure Things Are Wet Before Sterilizing in the Microwave

It looks like the earlier link I posted need to have some additional information. People are putting dry sponges and dish clothes in the microwave and they are burning. They should be wet when heated in the microwave.

See this story for more information:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2007-01-25T000823Z_01_N24478934_RTRUKOC_0_US-GERMS-SPONGES.xml

Sterilizing Kitchen Objects With the Microwave

I just read a study about cleaning sponges and dish clothes using the microwave. Apparently, they need to be wetted and heated at full power from 2-4 minutes.

Read more about the study at:

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070122_microwave.html

Virtual Painting

I am interested in learning how to paint or draw. So I started using Corel Painter Essentials and a Wacom tablet.

Here is an watercolor that we obtained in Galway, Ireland.

It was painted by Anne Osborne.

I used it as a model and tried to match it with my program. The colors and clarity are not quite there. Need to work on the greens.

Hooker Furniture Plant to Close

The other day I came across a story about Hooker Furniture closing its last wood furniture manufacturing plant by March 2007. We had bought a large multi-piece desk from them in 2005. One of the reason was it was large enough to be used in the office for two people and the other that it was made in the United States. You could find similar furniture (not sure about the quality of the wood) made in China for $1000+ less. Seeing the price difference, it can be seen how the competition on price would get to them.

http://investors.hookerfurniture.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=226208

Well, if you still want to see American furniture made, watch New Yankee Workshop on PBS.

Interesting Wi-Fi Problem

My notebook computer has trouble losing its wireless connection sometimes. Eventually, this problem was traced to when the 2.4 GHz phone was being used. So after running NetStumbler here is what the signal graph shows when the phone is used. Look at how the signal level disappears when the phone is on where the notches show up on the graph. If the phone turns on and dial tone will sound, that does not show up on the graph but when the phone starts to transmit when pressing a button the signal disappears from the graph.

Kentucky Vehicle Fatalities for 2006

Driving into Louisville this morning the TRIMARC signs were showing how many people died on the roads in 2005 and 2006.

They listed the number dead in 2005 at 976 while the deceased for 2006 was 899.

I wonder if increased safety laws, better road barriers, and safer vehicles contributed to this. We have stricter safety belt laws now, the transportation department has been installing cable barriers between roads that have opposite flowing traffic, and more vehicles have airbags and traction control systems.