The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( /usr/sbin/cron ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: /usr/sbin/cron: PID 3248: (ron) CMD (/usr/bin/getmail -q).

This Microsoft KB Bulletin helps explain what the message means generally, but doesn’t help solve it in this case.

So, on a hunch, I started syslogd (which I had installed but never run), restarted cron, et voilà, problem solved.

Now, cron’s informational messages appear /var/log/messages, as they should, and the Windows Event Viewer–bless its little heart–has stopped whining.

(Note: I used syslogd from the Net/inetutils Cygwin package, but syslog-ng from Admin/syslog-ng also seems to solve the problem.)

Here’s a transcript that summarizes how I solved the problem:

14:04:20 !598 ~>cygcheck -cd | grep inetutils
inetutils               1.5-4
14:04:22 !598 ~>syslogd-config
*** Query: Overwrite existing /etc/syslog.conf file? (yes/no) yes
*** Info: Creating default /etc/syslog.conf file

*** Warning: The following function requires administrator privileges!
*** Query: Do you want to install syslogd as service? (yes/no) yes

*** Info: The syslogd service has been installed under the LocalSystem
*** Info: account (also known as SYSTEM). To start the service now, call
*** Info: `net start syslogd' or `cygrunsrv -S syslogd'. Otherwise, it
*** Info: will start automatically after the next reboot.

*** Info: Check /etc/syslog.conf first, if it suits your needs.

*** Info: Keep in mind that any file mentioned in /etc/syslog.conf
*** Info: must exist and be readable and writable for the SYSTEM account.
*** Info: Oh and, use tabs, not spaces in /etc/syslog.conf...

Configuration finished. Have fun!
14:04:32 !599 ~>cygrunsrv --start syslogd
14:05:04 !600 ~>cygrunsrv --stop cron
14:05:12 !601 ~>cygrunsrv --start cron
14:06:02 !602 ~>tail /var/log/messages
Aug 30 14:05:03 blake syslogd: PID 6048: `syslogd' service started
Aug 30 14:05:14 blake /usr/sbin/cron: PID 1596: (CRON) STARTUP (V5.0)
Aug 30 14:05:15 blake cron: PID 1100: `cron' service started
Aug 30 14:06:01 blake /usr/sbin/cron: PID 5792: (ron) CMD (/usr/bin/getmail -q)

Someone was kind enough to post a hack which works around the problem. That hack had a small bug, which I’ve fixed; you’ll find the revised code below.

UPDATED Forget the hack; I’ve found another, better solution. See below. And please leave a comment if you find these workarounds helpful, or if you come across a better solution.

METAUPDATE Since writing this post, I’ve started using lxml for all my xml processing Python. Incidentally, it fixes the pretty printing problem with toprettyxml, but the actual reason I switched was for performance: lxml parses xml significantly faster (an order of magnitude faster) than minidom. So my new recommendation is: consider using lxml instead of minidom.

The Problem

First, a short summary of the problem. (Other descriptions can be found here and here.) Feel free to jump ahead to all the workarounds, or straight to my solution of choice.

toprettyxml adds extra white space when printing the contents of text nodes. This may not sound like a serious drawback, but it is. Consider a simple xml snippet:

<Author>Ron Rothman</Author>

This Python script:

# python 2.4
import xml.dom.minidom as dom
myText = '''<Author>Ron Rothman</Author>'''
print xml.dom.minidom.parseString(myText).toprettyxml()

generates this output:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<Author>
        Ron Rothman
</Author>

Note the extra line breaks: the text “Ron Rothman” is printed on its own line, and indented. That may not matter much to a human reading the output, but it sure as hell matters to an XML parser. (Recall: whitespace is significant in XML)

To put it another way: the DOM object that represents the output (with line breaks) is NOT identical to the DOM object that represented the input.

Semantically, the author in the original XML is "Ron Rothman", but the author in the “pretty” XML is [approximately] "    Ron Rothman    ".

This is devastating news to anyone who hopes to re-parse the “pretty” XML in some other context. It means that you can’t use minidom.toprettyxml() to produce XML that will be parsed downstream.

Workarounds

UPDATED If you’re in a rush, skip ahead to the best solution, #4.

1. Don’t use minidom

There are plenty of other XML packages to choose from.
But: minidom is appealing because it’s lightweight, and is included with the Python distribution. Seems a shame to toss it for just one flaw.
UPDATEI’ve started using lxml and I highly recommend it as a replacement for minidom or PyXML.

2. Use minidom, but don’t use toprettyxml()

Use minidom.toxml(), which doesn’t suffer from the same problem (because it doesn’t insert any whitespace).
But: Your machine-readable XML will make heads spin, should someone be foolish enough to try to read it.

3. Hack toprettyxml to do The Right Thing

Replace toprettyxml by using the code below.
But: It smells. Like a hack. Fragile; likely to break with future releases of minidom.
On the other hand: It’s not that bad. And hey, it does the trick. (But YMMV.)

def fixed_writexml(self, writer, indent="", addindent="", newl=""):
    # indent = current indentation
    # addindent = indentation to add to higher levels
    # newl = newline string
    writer.write(indent+"<" + self.tagName)

    attrs = self._get_attributes()
    a_names = attrs.keys()
    a_names.sort()

    for a_name in a_names:
        writer.write(" %s=\"" % a_name)
        xml.dom.minidom._write_data(writer, attrs[a_name].value)
        writer.write("\"")
    if self.childNodes:
        if len(self.childNodes) == 1 \
          and self.childNodes[0].nodeType == xml.dom.minidom.Node.TEXT_NODE:
            writer.write(">")
            self.childNodes[0].writexml(writer, "", "", "")
            writer.write("</%s>%s" % (self.tagName, newl))
            return
        writer.write(">%s"%(newl))
        for node in self.childNodes:
            node.writexml(writer,indent+addindent,addindent,newl)
        writer.write("%s</%s>%s" % (indent,self.tagName,newl))
    else:
        writer.write("/>%s"%(newl))
# replace minidom's function with ours
xml.dom.minidom.Element.writexml = fixed_writexml

I just copied the original toprettyxml code from /usr/lib/python2.4/xml/dom/minidom.py and made the modifications that are highlighted in yellow. It ain’t pretty, but it seems to work. (Suggestions for improvements (I’m a Python n00b) are welcome.)

[Credit to Oluseyi at gamedev.net for the original hack; I just fixed it so that it worked with character entities.]

UPDATE! 4. Use xml.dom.ext.PrettyPrint

Who knew? All along, an alternative to toprettyxml was available to me. Works like a charm. Robust. 100% Kosher Python. Definitely the method I’ll be using.
But: Need to have PyXML installed. In my case, it was already installed, so this is my method of choice. (It’s worth pointing out that if you already have PyXML installed, you might want to consider using it exclusively, in lieu of minidom.)

We just write a simple wrapper, and we’re done:

from xml.dom.ext import PrettyPrint
from StringIO import StringIO

def toprettyxml_fixed (node, encoding='utf-8'):
    tmpStream = StringIO()
    PrettyPrint(node, stream=tmpStream, encoding=encoding)
    return tmpStream.getvalue()

Conclusion

One lesson from all this: TMTOWTDI applies to more than just Perl.

Please–let me know what you think.

Blake was born in our home at 3:12 AM on March 3rd, 2008, weighing 35 pounds, 2 ounces.

The labor was long–almost 45 hours–but father and baby are now doing just fine.

I’d like to thank Blake’s godparents, Blaise T. and Jake H., without whom Blake could not have been, um, conceived.

Additional Stats

The Birth Story

For the most part, things went smoothly. Notable exceptions:

1. The first time I powered up, the mobo lights came on, fans started spinning, and… nothing else. No beeps. No POST. [Feeling of dread setting in.]

   After several hours and much head scratching, it turned out that the CPU wasn’t seated properly in its socket. Discovered this incidentally, after, out of desperation, I dis- and re-assembled the CPU/fan assembly.

2. 

   Got BSOD during Windows XP install, even after loading the RAID driver (jraid.sys) from floppy.

   Turns out that the BSOD was caused by my premature BIOS tweaking. I had set the SATA mode (Intel ICH9R Southbridge) to AHCI. Restoring the default (Disabled) solved the problem.

   [NOTE: A floppy drive is required to install Windows XP on a RAID volume. Stupid Windows installer assumes that a floppy drive will be present; the installer has no other way of loading the RAID driver. Shortsighted design.]

3. Installed Windows XP, then got BSOD during subsequent reboots. The crash happened a few seconds after Windows log-on. Turned out to be ASUS SmartDoctor. Booted Windows in safe mode, uninstalled the offending software, and things went smoothly from there.

Internet Sources

Read on, and then you tell me: isn’t it actually more courageous for a low risk mother-to-be to voluntarily walk into a hospital to give birth?

First, let me point out that:

1. “Home birth” means planned home birth. The process starts at home, but in those cases where a doctor’s intervention is warranted, the mother is taken to a nearby hospital.
2. A planned home birth is attended by a qualified, certified midwife.
3. In this article, I’m simply answering the question, “Isn’t home birth unsafe?” I won’t focus on “Why is home birth better?”

Q. Isn’t hospital birth safer?

A. No. If you’re a good candidate for home birth (and the majority of women are), then a planned, attended home birth is as safe, or safer, than a hospital birth.

Q. Come on, how can a hospital not be safer?

A. Surprisingly easily.

If you’re giving birth and you’re low-risk, then simply checking into a hospital greatly increases the likelihood of unnecessary interventions–pitocin drip, epidural, episiotomy, cesarean section, et al.–with no corresponding increase in safety for mother or baby.

I can also tell you this: my home is more sanitary (with respect to virulent infectious agents) than the cleanest hospital maternity ward [11].

Q. How do you know that home birth safe?

A. Evidence. Sara has searched through the medical literature, and every relevant study she has found has shown that home birth is as safe, or safer than, hospital birth. See references below.

The upshot of the research [1] is this:

Planned home birth for low risk women in North America using certified professional midwives was associated with lower rates of medical intervention but similar intrapartum and neonatal mortality to that of low risk hospital births in the United States.

Q. What if something goes wrong at home?

A. First of all, it’s worth noting that in the majority of cases, nothing goes wrong. Expecting that things will go wrong just isn’t rational. On the other hand, preparing for things that might go wrong, even if they’re unlikely, is wise.

Certified nurse midwives are trained, equipped and experienced at solving the most common (and remember, “common” is relative) problems. They’ll bring with them, into our home, oxygen, pitocin, resuscitation equipment, etc. Using instruments identical to those used in a hospital, they can stop hemorrhaging, perform an episiotomy, stitch tears, etc., as needed.

And, of course, a trained, experienced midwife will know if you need emergency intervention (e.g., cesarean), and in that case she will get you to the hospital and have the staff prepped and ready to receive you once you arrive.

Also, it’s important to note that you’re more likely to have one of these problems just by being in a hospital; birthing at home reduces the likelihood of many of them in the first place:

A study by Mehl compared a group of 1046 women giving birth at home with 1046 women having hospital births and found [8]:

• 9 times as many episiotomies
• 15 times as many women receiving analgesia or anaesthesia
• 3 times as many caesareans
• 2 times as many forceps deliveries
• 3 times as many postpartum haemorhages
• 3.7 times as many babies requiring resuscitation
• newborn infection rates 3 times higher
• respiratory distress 17 times higher
• lower Apgar scores
• mortality figures were the same for both groups.

Q. But I heard a horror story about a home birth…

A. I’ve heard and read lots of scary anecdotes about both home birth and hospital birth. At the end of the day, my decision is driven by evidence, not anecdote.

Q. Midwives?? Aren’t obstetricians the experts at delivering babies?

A. In some deliveries, yes. Obstetricians are trained as surgeons, so that they can c-section a woman who needs drastic intervention. Consequently, that’s what they’re best at. But most women do not need a cesarean, and in that majority of cases, going to a surgeon may not (and often does not) provide the best outcome. (Part of a “good outcome” is avoiding a c-section unless it’s truly necessary. Some are necessary; most are not.)

Certified nurse midwives, on the other hand, are trained to handle healthy, normal births, including several types of non-drastic interventions. This is their expertise. They make sure that things are progressing properly, and know when to transfer you to the hospital if an obstetrician’s expertise is indicated.

Sidebar: “My c-section was necessary.”

Okay, yours may have been. But most c-sections that take place (yes, the majority of them) are necessitated by earlier “routine” interventions, which, in many cases, were not required in the first place. Henci Goer describes this “cascade effect” clearly [3]:

Every intervention into the normal process [of labor] introduces risks as well as benefits…. When intervening becomes routine, meaning there is no reason for it, only risks remain. Moreover, because one intervention tends to lead to another, it produces a “cascade effect.”

So, for example, electronic fetal monitoring confines women to bed, which may slow labor. Doctors may then give oxytocin, which increases pain, causing women to want an epidural. The epidural may slow labor or cause abnormal heart rate patterns, ending the cascade in a cesarean section for poor progress or fetal distress.

The bottom line: many c-sections are made necessary by the routine protocols followed by hospital practitioners. [2]

Q. But I had my child in a hospital, and we’re both fine.

A. That’s great. Most hospital births go well, and are safe. (Hey, I was born in a hospital, and my mother says I’m perfect, so…)

Q. If home birth is so good, how come more women don’t choose it?

A. You can’t choose something if you don’t know it exists. Most of us in the U.S. (myself included) have been conditioned to go to a doctor when we get pregnant. I didn’t know the first thing about home birth until 12 weeks into our pregnancy; and even then, I thought it sounded crazy. That is, until I read the evidence about home births and hospital births, and their respective pros and cons, and realized that home birth was a wonderful option for us.

In the U.S. today, midwife-attended births are on the fringe. Not so in other developed countries. Holland is probably the best example of a country with a high rate of midwifery (and home births) and an excellent, low mortality rate (lower than the U.S. rate).

Q. Should every pregnant woman have a planned home birth?

A. No. Every woman should learn about the home birth option (and all other options), but home birth only makes sense for pregnancies which meet certain conditions, e.g., low risk, singleton (no twins), no breech. [4] [But see reader comment #3 for an alternate opinion.]

Q. I’ve read what you’ve written. But what if I still don’t want a home birth?

A. Okay. An informed decision–either way–is a decision well made.

Conclusion

In the end, it’s not the location of [a low-risk] birth that dictates how good the outcome will be; it’s who’s running the show. The people running the show in a hospital are well-intentioned, but much more likely to take unnecessary (and unpleasant) actions. Period.

References

1. [1] Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America, British Medical Journal, 2005;330:1416 (18 June)
2. [2] Cesarean Birth in a Culture of Fear, Mothering Magazine, Issue 144, September/October 2007
3. [3]Goer, H., The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth, Perigree, 1999
4. [4] Homebirth 101, ivillage.com
5. [5] Collaborative survey of perinatal loss in planned and unplanned home births, BMJ 1996;313:1306-1309 (23 November)
6. [6] Outcomes of 11,788 planned home births attended by certified nurse-midwives. A retrospective descriptive study., J Nurse Midwifery. 1995 Nov-Dec;40(6):483-92.
7. [7] Young, G. and Hey, E., Choosing between home and hospital delivery, BMJ 2000;320:798 (18 March 2000)
8. [8] Responses to Home births or hospital? It’s baby who knows best by Karen Robinson, The Sunday Times (UK), 29 August 1999.
9. [9] Joint Interregional Conference on Appropriate Technology for Birth, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, April 1995
10. [10] Home Birth vs. Hospital Birth – Issues of Responsibility, March 2006
11. [11] Hospital Birth and Risk of Infection, June 2006
12. [12] Cesarean Fact Sheet, Childbirth.org
13. [13] Normal Birth – What are the Chances?, Sally Tracy
14. [14] Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, Ina May Gaskin

Activities included:

• Visiting friends
• Cycling 100 miles of scenic converted rail line
• Genealogy research in rural Quebec
• Consumption of many and varied animal parts (not to mention: chocolate, cheese, poutine, et al.)
• Ice wine tasting
• Quebecois Folk music concerts
• Watching Beluga whales from the breakfast table
• Niagara falls in a barrel

This week’s vegetables. (Click for larger view.)

Fresh, organic and local. $12.

This week’s take:

• Roma tomatoes: 5 lbs.
• cherry tomatoes: 2 lbs.
• heirloom tomatoes: 4 lbs.
• cucumbers: 7
• bell peppers: 3 purple, 2 green
• summer squash: 4lbs.
• eggplants: 2
• Japanese eggplants: 5
• red potatoes: 2 lbs.
• onions: 1 lb.
• leeks: 1 bunch
• lettuce (Boston): 2 heads
• basil

Not the most bountiful week so far, but not too shabby either.

Value Analysis

Source: Peapod.com, 8-Aug-2007

We’ll post our photos as soon as we sort through [all 1500 of] them.

For this final travelblog entry, I wish I could write something witty or amusing. But ending our trip has me so bummed that all I have to say is: it’s been a magnificent month.

1. have breakfast on our private veranda
2. beachcomb
3. bask by the pool
4. eat as much coconut ice cream as possible
5. get a beachside Thai massage
6. order fruit drinks by the coconut-full
7. lament that this is our last day here

Definitely one of our trip highlights.

A very expensive, long day. I’m glad I went, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to serious birders. (More on this when we get back and flesh out our travelogue.)

Sadly, though, Cambodian authorities are misguidedly clearing the jungle from the site. What they don’t seem to understand is that the jungle they’re clearing is the very thing which gives the ruins their unique charm; when they’re done, Beng Mealea will be “just another” excavated temple on the remote outskirts of a city that certainly doesn’t need any more of them.

My personal highlight: the Bayon temple, with its 200 Khmer faces extruding from the sandstone walls, their smiles mysterious, beautiful and eerie.

I’m not sure which of today’s events is more exciting:

• using our Cambodian e-visas (ugh, people with regular visas got through immigration faster than we did; though, presumably, they spent more time/effort getting their visas than we did–at least they better have!), or
• the delicious french fries we had with dinner. (Indeed, we ordered french fries several times in Laos–they’re always made to order and have been invariably yummy.)

(Yes, today was pretty uneventful.)

This afternoon, I finished reading Cambodia: Report From a Stricken Land, which almost made me cry–partly because Cambodia’s past 30 years have been so horrific, and partly because all of those horrors were man-made, and avoidable. I’m feeling emotional about visiting a place and a people that has suffered so much, so recently. It’s akin to visiting someone in mourning: What do you say? How do you act?

When they asked us to sing a song of our own, we were somewhat at a loss. We chose to perform Ose Shalom and The Irish Rover…. not exactly representative of American music. We think it confused them.

Our hosts in Nong Khiaw arranged the ride for us; this morning, they sent their friend to walk us from our hotel to the dock. A “gourmet homemade lunch” was to be included with the ride, and our escort handed us 3 plastic bags as we boarded the small boat.

In one bag was a pair of sandwiches (baguette sandwiches are a popular street food in Luang Prabang). In the second bag, two containers of fried rice. In the third, a pastry box from “Joma,” the local fancy coffee shop and bakery (think Starbucks).

We thought, “This lunch sure is eclectic. But gourmet and homemade, it ain’t.” Disappointed but hungry, we dug in. First the sandwiches, then the fried rice. (Actually, the food wasn’t all that bad; we’d just expected (and paid for) more.)

Finally, we peered into the pastry box. Four large muffins. “Wow, how much do they think we eat?” we thought. But Americans do (justly) have a reputation for overeating, so we didn’t think much of it.

I had a taste of muffin, and while I didn’t really care for the muffin body, the chocolate chips on top satisfied the one craving I’ve been having on this trip–cocoa. Sara didn’t want any, so muffin by helpless muffin, I scraped the chips off the top and shoved them into my mouth. When the “Muffin Massacre of the Nam Ou” (as they call it locally) was over, we left the decapitated muffin stumps in the box, closed it up, and put it back into the plastic bag for disposal when we reached Nong Khiaw.

We arrived, were greeted, and had a lovely and very memorable stay with our hosts, Marko and Chan. But more on that in our travelogue, after we get home. The salient point here is that, when we arrived, all of our bags (including the plastic bags) were carried off the boat for us. Our luggage turned up in our bungalow; the plastic bags (quite expectedly) did not.

At dinner this evening, Marko and Chan were talking about their favorite Luang Prabang eateries. Then they mentioned Joma–home of their “favorite chocolate muffins.” They told us how whenever they can, they have their friend send them a box of those muffins from Luang Prabang. (Oops.)

Had a very Seinfeldian moment. I was negotiating with a boatman for passage across the Mekong river (we wanted to take a short hike to an underground cave temple), and when all was said and done, we were paying more for the ride than he initially offered. (I’m usually an effective negotiator–ask Sara or Danielle; but dealing in three currencies–Lao kip, Thai bhat, and U.S. dollar, all three of which are readily and interchangeably used here–tripped me up!)

P.S., Today we were able to post a random handful of our trip photos.

But my true motivation for getting up early was the freshly baked cinnamon bun I devoured after the monks’ morning ritual. Best cinnamon bun I’ve ever had–ever. (Perhaps the one benefit of Laos’s French occupation.)

Had a long conversation with the interesting couple (Regina and Manfred from Austria) staying in the next bungalow; apparently, Austrians are very upset that the death penalty exists in the U.S. And as the four of us were talking out on our porch, a young blond woman with European looks walked past, heard part of our conversation, exclaimed, “Americans are bad!” and went into her bungalow. How shameful, silly and closed-minded.

We also inadvertantly pissed off a few locals today, by overpaying for the sangtheaw (small public bus) the were in. This had the unfortunate and undesried effect of making the driver take a circuitous , “scenic” route (to make us think we’d gotten our money’s worth, I presume). The passengers started to wonder about the unusual (and inconvenient) route, and we could hear their agitation without understanding their words. They figured out that we were the culprits when we stopped the sangtheaw and paid… we heard them saying “fa-rong” as they rolled their eyes. (Fa-rong literally means “guava,” but it’s slang for an occidental. And we’re still not sure whether it’s derogatory.)

We visited several of Chiang Mai’s temples today, and Danielle realized why velcro shoes are the footwear of choice for Wat-hopping. (Untie laces, remove shoes, enter temple, leave temple, put on shoes, tie laces, repeat.)

Epilogue: We finally had good pad Thai. As with all things, “If you want it done right, do it yourself.” With the help of Yui–our Thai cooking instructor and a veritible wok guru–we learned how to cook pad Thai, tom kha kai, panaeng curry and green curry.

We also made an impression on her. Apparently, I’m the first person ever to ask about the shoes that the giant reclining Buddha of Wat Pho was wearing. As it turns out, the Buddha never wears shoes. Ever. And, Thais seem to find it amusing as hell if you think that he did.

• The King of Thailand (King Rama IX) was born on a Monday
• Monday’s color is… yellow.
• Every Monday, most Thais wear yellow in honor of their king.
• I prefer to blend in seamlessly when I travel.
• I did not bring a yellow shirt with me.
• Ergo, I had to buy the yellow shirt.

Tonight’s dinner gets filed under “Unsuccessful International Dining.” We went to a highly recommended pad Thai restaurant–it was bustling with locals (only) so our hopes were high. Alas, not only have we had better pad Thai at home, but every dish we ordered had shrimp and prawns in it, which, between the 3 of us, we don’t like / don’t eat / are allergic to.

P.S., Hi Danielle!

• …you call a renowned travel clinic to schedule inoculations for your upcoming trip to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, and the nurse asks, “Is that spelled L-A-U-S?”
• …on web pages that list travel hazards, they don’t simply say “leeches;” it’s “large leeches:”
  

  Animal Hazards: Animal hazards [in Laos] include snakes (cobras, vipers), spiders (black and brown widow), tigers, leopards, and large leeches.

• …new research indicates that some elephants–one of the planned highlights of your trip–sometimes attack and kill humans for no reason whatsoever:
  

  Scientific investigation of [this phenomenon] is greatly hindered by the fact that even the most otherwise placid of elephants may actively try to kill any and all humans.

• “…snakes (cobras, vipers), spiders (black and brown widow), tigers, leopards, and large leeches.”

  –Animal hazards in Laos

  …other travellers have blogged about your chosen mode of transportation from Thailand to Laos; their blog entries have titles like “Death Boats Down the Mekong.”
  And from the U.S. State Department’s Consular Information Sheet on Thailand:

  Boat safety has become an increasing concern in Thailand…. In January 2005, three U.S. citizen tourists died when the over-crowded speedboat they were in capsized and sank off the coast of Koh Samui. Three months later, two U.S. citizens narrowly escaped death when their dive boat sank off the coast near Phuket.

• …your destination is under martial law. (But on the bright side, it was a bloodless coup.)

See you whenif we get back!

I’m Cuckoo for Cocoa! (Hold the Puffs)

The first one (chronologically and gastronomically) is the 2006 Chocolate Show. I missed it last year, so I’m doubling my consumption goals for this year.

November 10-12. (We’re thinking of going on the 12th (Sunday). Change of plans: we’re going on Saturday.)

You Are What You Eat… But Do You Know What You’re Eating?

The second one, Food, Ethics and the Environment, is less tasty but more important. I’m not overly concerned with animal ethics; I’m much more worried about the health problems that modern farming techniques create. But the two frequently overlap, since, for example, a happier cow makes healthier beef.

That said, this conference interests me more for its guest list than its topic. Some of my favorite food authors will be there–and I don’t mean the the Ruth Reichl / Peter Mayle kind. I mean the Upton Sinclair kind. Check out this line-up:

• Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation–the book that started it all for me.
• Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics, which I’m reading now.
• And the one I’m most excited about, Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma–the best nonfiction book I’ve read in… ever.
• The conference is run by Peter Singer (author of Animal Liberation), whose recent book, The Way We Eat, presented some useful information, despite its annoyingly polemic tone.

From the conference’s web site:

November 16-17.

So this tidbit caught my eye: it turns out that people who get their so-called news from FOX tend to have a distorted, incorrect and somewhat frightening view of reality. They are, as a group, more misinformed than viewers of any other network.

Now would be a good time to point out that FOX reaches a gazillion people (102,565,710 households, to be exact). And 18% of those gazillion people report that FOX is their only source of news (versus 3% whose sole source is PBS or NPR):

And what those gazillion people hear on FOX is the “fair and balanced” truth. Well, except for those inconvenient times when the truth makes FOX’s right-wing, religious allies look wrong; or stupid; or greedy; or downright criminal. Which is to say, frequently.

Take, for example, the invasion of Iraq:

This is hardly news; the survey is almost 3 years old. Plus, all of this borders on obvious to anyone who has spent a few hours watching FOX.

But if we really are what we watch, then don’t be an ignoranus; don’t get your news [solely] from FOX. I love my country. I don’t want it hijacked by misinformed masses.

Our food log is below. It’s comprehensive–nothing that entered my body is omitted (except for copious amounts of water). Vegetables listed below were local or organic (in that order), where possible.

I was hungry for the first couple of days, but by the second half of the fast, I felt hunger only in very short (5 minutes) tolerable bursts, just once or twice a day. Surprisingly easy to bear. The cravings, on the other hand, were harder to bear. I just missed the taste of certain foods; oddly enough, they were mostly meats. Not a single craving for ice cream (my perennial favorite), but I was seeing lamb chops in my sleep.

Most memorable moment? Day 2: Sara passing out on the bathroom floor in front of me. Had I not been there to catch her, she very well could have smashed her head on the sink/toilet/floor. Ugh. (Note to all juice fast detractors: she more than likely fainted due to her strong pain killers and dehydration, not due to the juice fast.)

Without further ado, I present my food log:

Sunday – Transition In (Day 0)

• lunch: guacamole boats in endive, stir fried veggies (cabbage, mushroom, broccoli, onion)
• dinner: sauteed veggies (corn, zucchini, tomato), broiled sweet potato
• juice: carrot, celery, cucumber, kale, ginger, parsley

Monday (Day 1)

• juice: carrot, cucumber, kale, sweet potato, ginger, parsley
• juice: watermelon, grape, strawberry
• juice: celery, cucumber, dandelion, green cabbage, broccoli, turnip, carrot
• vegetable broth: parsnip, green cabbage, broccoli, garlic, barley, corn, cayenne
• herb tea

Tuesday (Day 2)

• juice: carrot, kale, dandelion, cucumber, ginger
• juice: apple, pear
• Odwalla juice
• juice: carrot, celery, dandelion, yellow squash, cucumber, tomato, green cabbage, broccoli, parsley, garlic, turnip
• vegetable broth: from tonight’s juice pulp, plus onion, barley, additional summer squash, additional dandelion, sea salt, turmeric
• juice: orange
• herb tea

Wednesday (Day 3)

• juice: orange
• juice: dried apricot and raisin broth
• juice: carrot, parsley, dandelion green, green bean, celery, beet, garlic
• vegetable broth: same batch as last night
• juice: watermelon, peach, grape
• vegetable broth: from tonight’s juice pulp, plus onion, mushroom, sea salt, turmeric, cayenne
• juice: papaya, pineapple (discarded because it was too pulpy)

Thursday (Day 4)

• juice: orange, grapefruit
• juice: carrot, celery, green cabbage, radish (root plus greens), kale
• juice: watermelon, peach, grape
• fresh ginger tea (with honey)
• vegetable broth: same batch as last night
• juice: carrot cucumber, celery, red cabbage, beet, garlic, parsley

Friday (Day 5)

• juice: apple, pear, peach
• juice: carrot, cucumber, celery, red cabbage, beet, garlic, parsley
• herb tea
• juice: carrot, broccoli, kale, celery, radish, ginger
• juice: carrot, cucumber, sweet potato, red cabbage, celery, garlic
• dandelion root tea (sweetened with dried apricot and raisin juice)
• 1 apple, whole (in preparation for tomorrow)

Saturday – BBQ Detour (Day 6)

• 1 whole-grain waffle with maple syrup
• juice: carrot, parsley, ginger
• bbq: watermelon, pineapple, shepherd’s salad, 1/3 of a hot dog with bun, 1/3 ear corn, grilled chicken drumstick, grilled salmon, lemon tart
• juice: carrot, cucumber, celery, broccoli, garlic
• vegetable broth: pulp from tonight’s juice, plus swiss chard, parsley root, onion, garlic

Sunday (Day 7)

• juice: carrot, parsley root, red cabbage, beet, dandelion green
• Odwalla juice
• juice: orange, grapefruit
• Knudsen’s Peach Spritzer
• juice: carrot, watercress, celery, radish, cucumber, parsley
• vegetable broth: same batch as last night
• juice: apple, pear, grape

Monday (Day 8)

• juice: apple, pear, grape, orange
• juice: carrot, celery, dandelion green, parsley root, ginger
• juice: watermelon, peach
• juice: carrot, celery, beet, parsley, garlic, green cabbage, spinach
• Knudsen’s Peach Spritzer
• herb tea

Tuesday (Day 9)

• juice: carrot, spinach, green cabbage, kohlrabi
• juice: watermelon, peach
• juice: carrot, celery, parsley root, parsley, collard green
• vegetable broth: pulp from tonight’s juice, plus corn, zucchini, onion, barley
• juice: pineapple, orange, grapefruit

Wednesday (Day 10)

• juice: pineapple
• juice: carrot, cucumber, parsley, beet
• vegetable broth: same batch as last night
• juice: pear, apple
• juice: carrot, celery, cucumber, parsley, collard green, garlic

Thursday – Transition Out (Day 11)

• juice: peach, orange
• lunch: salad
• grapes
• dinner: sauteed veggies (corn, zucchini, onion), broiled sweet potato
• yogurt

Friday – Depurification Begins (Day 12)

• 2 whole-grain waffle with maple syrup (pure, dark, grade B, of course)
• several hot dogs
• …you don’t even wanna know the rest

This is a map of our travels through Israel last September–ten months ago.

The purple line shows the routes we drove.

The red diamonds indicate some of the targets of recent Lebanese rocket attacks.

(According to The Guardian,
Hezbollah had fired at least 700 rockets into Israel as of July 18th, so I couldn’t display them all. For a more detailed map of the attacks, see this interactive chronological map from the New York Times.)

Some of the towns/cities we visited that were recently targeted:

• Acco
• Tzfat (Safed)
• Tiberias (Tverya)
• Mt. Ben Tal, 50km from Tiberias, 25km from Kiryat Shmona. Situated on the Israeli-Syrian border, you can also clearly see Lebanon from here.

…the only club you want to get into now is your wife’s book club. (Some things never change, though:
(a) clubs are still full of hotties, and
(b) they still won’t let me in.)

…your friends aren’t students anymore; they’re professors.

…the lead singer of your lifelong favorite band has had hip replacement surgery.

…you don’t think myspace is k00l; you think it’s a piece of shit. (Besides, “Real men host their own blogs.”)

…you stop caring how you look in public.

…you turn… THIRTY.

Let’s face the obvious: yesterday we were nerds, today we’re the cognitive elite. Let’s conquer.

—Chester G. Edwards

Do the words “core dump” make you shiver with fear? (My wife just giggles whenever she hears it.)

If I asked you to “debug an Apache vfork problem” (again, she giggles), would you know that I’m referring neither to an Indian tribe nor to a utensil?

If you answered “yes” to both of those questions, then I’ve got a job opening you may be interested in. (Location: Cambridge, MA (though we may consider some applicants for our Bridgewater, NJ office.))

A copy of the official description follows. If interested, leave a comment below or email me (at $my_first_name . '@mail' . $dot . 'ronrothman' . $dot . 'com').

Details

Senior Software Engineer
Posting Date: 04/19/2006
Location: Cambridge, MA (or Bridgewater, NJ)

Job Description

Play a key role in building the next generation of CNET Networks’ company-wide personalization and targeting services. You will design, develop, and deliver solutions enabling our family of sites to provide a rich and individual user experience. We are looking for a top-notch, hands-on Software Engineer with a passion for data-driven systems and optimization. This position calls for a dedicated and self-motivated engineer who can work either independently or with other engineers through the product development lifecycle in a fast-paced web-development environment. Our services are important to revenue and are performance sensitive, requiring extreme care in specification, coding, review, and testing.

Qualifications

Technical Skills:

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or related subject and 5-7 years professional experience
• Advanced skills in C++, experience with the STL in a Linux/Unix environment
• Practical experience with Perl, including OOP and library development
• Strong understanding of Linux/Unix command line and environment
• Strong knowledge of SQL and data modeling
• Experience with Apache (including Apache2 module development) a big plus
• Experience developing enterprise applications in Java or Python a plus
• Statistics, mathematics, or quantitative science background a plus

Soft Skills:

• Excellent teamwork and collaboration skills
• Excellent verbal and communication skills
• Must be detail oriented and focused on data accuracy