Humans to reach 'physiological limits by 2060'

According to a French study published in the Daily Telegraph, humans are reaching their peak physical performance, and progressively fewer athletic records are likely to be broken.

I predict (and advocate) a future steroid class of athletic events, where performance-enhancing drugs are legalized, and the resulting records set will be truly super-human. I'd personally like to see just how far someone can throw the javelin, or how fast someone can run 100 meters. Of course, the baseball fields will have to be twice as long.

Lung cancer linked to lack of sunshine?

Scientists have discovered a link between the lung cancer rates in a given country and the distance that country is from the equator. Article

Except that I wonder to myself if there isn't more of a link between amount of time spent indoors and lung cancer. In other words, people farther from the equator spend more time indoors. And people who breathe more fresh air are less likely to get lung cancer. That makes more sense to me...

Prove There Is A God

Atheist: Prove there is a God.

Believer: Prove there is a sun.

Atheist (sneers): What do you mean? Of course there is a sun. It sustains all life on this planet.

Believer: Where is the sun?

Atheist: It's in the sky.

Believer: So if I go outside right now and look up in the sky, I'll see the sun?

Atheist: Well, not right now. It's night. The sun's on the other side of the world.

Believer: So I have to wait until daytime?

Atheist: Yes.

Believer: Interesting. So if I go outside tomorrow and it's cloudy and raining, I'll see the sun.

Atheist: No, you have to wait until the sky clears up.

Believer: Sometimes that takes a long time. So when the sky clears, can I look anywhere in the sky and see the sun?

Atheist: No, you have to be looking at the sun in order to see it.

Believer: So I have turn and face the sun in order to see it?

Atheist: Well, even if you are looking away from the sun there are shadows that indicate a large brilliant light source.

Believer: What if I have my eyes closed?

Atheist: You have to have your eyes open to see the sun.

Believer: There sure are a lot of rules to follow to see the sun, which you claim is the sustainer of all life on Earth. You're telling me I have wait until it's daytime, and while there are no clouds to obscure the view, walk outside and look in the sky, facing the direction of the sun, with my eyes open.

Atheist: Yes. It might be hard for you to understand...

Believer: It seems the sun is a lot more elusive than God in my experience.

Atheist: What do you mean?

Believer: If I go outside right now, and keeping my eyes open, say to the sun, "Show yourself to me!", will it turn the night into day, part the clouds and stop the rain, and turn me in the right direction to face it?

Atheist: No.

Believer: God will.

Death By Powerpoint

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How many boring (boorish?) Powerpoint presentations have you sat through? Don't you wish there was a way to make all that data into a dynamic, interactive multimedia presentation? Think Flash is going to solve your problems? Well, you don't need to know complicated software to make a compelling presentation. What you do need is (ta-dah!!!) compelling content. Here is an example by presentation consultant, Alexei Kapterev. (Yes, I know it's a Flash presentation, by there is no animation involved.)

As a designer, I've helped many people make their Powerpoint presentations more interesting by using animation strategically, but how much simpler would it be if they just followed the model shown here?

I Love the Holidays

Look what I found -- Christmas cards for atheists! (FYI, I am not an atheist, which makes these simultaneously funny and offensive.)
Oh well -- gotta serve somebody.

I Love My Apartment

This is a hole, about 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 5 feet deep. It, along with seven or eight of its friends, was created this morning while I was trying to sleep. It is literally right outside my door (I actually stood in the doorway while I took this picture.) I guess this type of thing is going to go on until Saturday. My landlord is a really nice guy, but i think he owes his tenants who work second shift a couple of free nights at a motel.

I Love My Job (cont.)

Today I stuffed 1563 envelopes! And some of them went to Webster, NY!! And two of them went to Ontario!!! Wow!!!!

I Love My Job

Today I stuffed envelopes, 1400 of them! That's 200 more than quota!
I am awesome!

I Love Facebook

I gave them my sex, date of birth, and zip code, but I couldn't get them to accept my street address. Should I give them the real one?

Global Freshwater Shortage?

It sounds crazy to me, but apparently that stuff that falls from the sky is in short supply. The newspaper says so.

If you stop and think about it, barring a literal astronomical catastrophe, a global drought is a bit of an impossibility. But then I'm just an average guy who hasn't studied the numbers. I should just let the experts do the hand-wringing. (For the record, I first read about this "crisis" in Ranger Rick magazine... when I was eight.)

How to make $10 million

I am SO there when Facebook goes public. They routinely sell out of these little "gifts". It's brilliant.

My Portfolio

A short version of my portfolio is now online. Check it out at: http://jimtealdesigner.com/portfolio.pdf

UK Speeder Gets Jail

From reading a lot of car magazines, I have picked up on a bit of the auto-enthusiast culture, and I can tell you for sure that this man is a hero to some. What do you think? Is a 172 mph speeding ticket a badge of honor? (I've never driven faster than 110.)
Jail for 172mph Porsche motorist (BBC)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Pardon the David Bowie allusion. It's the best I could do so late.

Since becoming unemployed at the beginning of July, I have thought a lot about where I would like to go and what I want to do. I am 25, single, renting space from my grandparents, have few major commitments in the Rochester area, and have entertained the idea of leaving the state for quite some time. I think I'm pretty good at what I do, and I'm pretty sure that if I had the chance, I could make a decent living as a designer.

After some thought, I narrowed the alternatives down to a few: I could get a job at a local design firm where I would likely find myself in the same situation a few years down the road. I could look for a job in one of the major design hot-spots around the country (New York, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta) where jobs are plentiful but I wouldn't know anyone. I could go to a city out-of-state where I know people (Nashville, Albuquerque, Minneapolis, Pensacola) but the economic climate might be better, the same, or worse. Or I could get a temporary job in Rochester working part-time, probably for a sign company or print shop, and go to school at RIT and learn the web programming stuff that designers are pretty much required to know (despite it having little to do with design and not being included in most college-level graphic design programs).

So that leads me to now. Two and a half months later I am planning to move halfway across the country to Minneapolis, where my best friend moved in 11th grade, and where there are more and better design jobs than here in Rochester, NY. I am working with a temp agency, with a tentative start date of October 1st, if they can place me by then. I have traded my sports car for a pickup truck that I can fill with all my stuff. My scheduled departure time is my 26th birthday, September 24th. I don't know what the future holds, but I firmly believe that I need this kind of a drastic change in my life in order to progress and to grow as a person. I really can't explain it any more than that. It will be hard to leave my family and friends, but that's why I have to do it. It's probably comparable to when a guy joins the military -- it's about leaving behind the familiar comforts of home and trekking out on his own, becoming the person you know is inside and... well I'm getting all philosophical. Anyways, I'm running out of money and the options are dwindling. This seems like the best thing to do. I'll have another update someday, maybe in a few weeks.

Climate Change and Red Meat Linked

Just in case you had any doubts about the link between liberal ideology and global warming.
Eating less meat could slow climate change, experts say

Under Construction

As you can tell, my blog is currently undergoing a major remodel. I don't know how long it will take to complete.

Nova Scotia Photos

I have already edited and captioned all of my good vacation photos on Facebook. No point in doing it twice. Visit my album here:
Nova Scotia Photos

Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia

Taken on Sunday evening.

Some Cool Videos

Ultimate Canon Rock (JerryC arrangement played by 40 different guitarists)


Will it Blend? -- iPhone

What accent do you have?

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Northern You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Ban Comic Sans?

Hey, like my new typeface? Apparently there's this whole group of people who want to want to ban this overused Microsoft creation. I checked out their website bancomicsans.com, and it seems like they're pretty serious. They say it undermines the rules of typography or something like that. I say it's just a bit overused. Just like Papyrus, or Brushscript, or Copperplate Gothic.

I think I'll stick to Helvetica if I have to use an overused font.

Kellogg's to phase out cartoon characters

Yes, this is a marketing post. I hope to have more of them now that I'm reading more marketing and design news. Anyways, here's the scoop. Apparently, Kellogg's is phasing out their cartoon characters on their sugary cereals, on account of them not wanting to attract kids to unhealthy food (anymore). Here's the link:

Kellogg to Phase Out Some Food Ads to Children

My thought is, if cartoon characters were so successful at marketing unhealthy food (although one could argue kids like it because it tastes good), why can't they market healthy food with cartoon characters! I can see it now, on Saturday morning cartoons. "Hey kids, it's me, Marvin the monkey, reminding you to eat bananas every day! It's part of this complete breakfast!"

Seneca Foods Makes National Headlines

Hooray for Seneca Foods, a processing plant located about 5 miles or so south of where I grew up. They are the latest food processing company to have something strange appear in one of their products. I bet someone is going to get "canned" for this.

Snake head found in green beans (Warning: There is a photo.)

In the meantime, I think I will continue to eat frozen vegetables.

Blog 2.0

As you can see, I've changed my template. Further modifications are imminent, although they might not happen for another year or so.

Oklahoma State What?

Okay this is too funny not to blog. Oklahoma has a new state vegetable, and it is DA-DA-DAHH!! the watermelon. Ha ha ha ha ha....

The Story from the Houston Chronicle.

For the record, a vegetable is any part of the plant we eat that does not grow from a flower and is not a seed. Eg. carrots (roots), celery (stem), lettuce (leaves). I imagine though, that Oklahomans grow a lot of stuff and they know what they're talking about, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. How much do you have to love watermelon to make it the state vegetable? It boggles my mind...

A reminder

This is a reminder (to myself) to do my taxes. Or go to jail.

Blogging is Dead

And in honor of this momentus occasion, I have posted this fine picture of a dead tree. It was once a tall, strong tree. Now it has been dead for a very long time. Actually, my blog has been neglected lately because of two reasons: 1) I haven't been going online very often anymore because my computer at work died, and 2) When I do go online, it's usually too short of a time to post anything. Now I'm at home paying bills online, so I am posting. I don't know when I will post again.

BB King anyone?

I have tickets to see BB King at the Auditorium Theatre this Friday at 7:30 pm, if anyone wants to go with me. It should be a very family-friendly show, I mean the guys like 82 years old right? For those who don't know, BB King is one of the last great bluesmen still hangin' around. He is well-regarded among professional guitarists.

Tomorrow will be a whole month since my last pos.... oh-noooooooo!

Snowball Weather

This weekend has been perfect snowball fight weather, because the snowballs pack together tightly, but still explode on impact. I should have a picture to illustrate here....

Another post! Two in one day!

So this daily Internet comic is vulgar sometimes but occasionally it's really funny.

Hello again.

I'm back from vacation! I haven't been posting but I've been reading most of the blogs in my links section, so I want you all to know that I still love you even though you are not on facebook.
Actually I wasn't on vacation.

Pickles Today

Finally someone speaks the truth! This is going on my wall.