John Colton's blog

I was reading about antenna tuners for my research, and came across this website
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Catergories.php?sec=16

"Catergories"... let's hope their tuners are better than their English! :-)

I just ran across these:
http://echosphere.net/star_trek_insp/star_trek_insp.html

Here are three of my favorites:








:-)

I should have taken a picture but I didn't. Anyway, after nearly exactly 4 years since Emily knocked her front two baby teeth out in the "hammock incident", she once again has her two front teeth! The were about to come in, and the dentist decided to help things along a little by using a laser to break through the callouses on her gums that she had developed.

Leslie and Emily got a kick out of this:

Don't push the button!

At last!!! John
____

McCain calls for building 45 new nuclear reactors
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080618/ap_on_el_pr/mccain

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Sen. John McCain called Wednesday for the construction of 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030 and pledged $2 billion a year in federal funds "to make clean coal a reality," measures designed to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

In a third straight day of campaigning devoted to the energy issue, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting also said the only time Democratic rival Barack Obama voted for a tax cut was for a "break for the oil companies."

McCain said the 104 nuclear reactors currently operating around the country produce about 20 percent of the nation's annual electricity needs.

"Every year, these reactors alone spare the atmosphere from the equivalent of nearly all auto emissions in America. Yet for all these benefits, we have not broken ground on a single nuclear plant in over thirty years," he said. "And our manufacturing base to even construct these plants is almost gone."

Even so, he said he would set the country on a course to build 45 new ones by 2030, with a longer-term goal of adding another 55 in the future.

"We will need to recover all the knowledge and skills that have been lost over three stagnant decades in a highly technical field," he conceded.

[more to the article at the above link]

It's been a while since I posted a "stupid criminal" story. So here you go.

___

Escaped thief asks police to open handcuffs

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080616/od_nm/germany_handcuffs_dc

Mon Jun 16, 2:21 PM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A man caught breaking into a German supermarket late at night escaped despite being handcuffed to railings -- only to be arrested after he ran to a nearby police station to get the cuffs removed.

"It was stupid of him," said a police spokesman in Frankfurt Monday. "They took the cuffs off, but they kept him."

A security guard had cuffed the man and held three others after spotting the break-in. But by the time officers arrived, the man had managed to escape, police said.

Arriving at the police station, the 19-year-old told officers he had been locked up by a friend as a joke, and asked for their help. The officers at first went along with the ruse, "also laughing at the man's apparent misfortune," police said.

However, suspecting he was the missing man from the break-in, they pressed him for details after removing the cuffs.

The man then confessed his role and was promptly re-united with his three accomplices in the station's prison cell.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Matthew Jones)

I just found out that my body could feed 11 cannibals... how many could your body feed??

http://www.oneplusyou.com/q/v/cannibal_lunch

Someone was asking for stock market advice over on jazzfanz.com. I decided to share my perspective there, and then decided it was worth publishing here.

Q. So what are the best 2-4 books to buy out there that I could read to learn about the market and how to play it?

A. Unfortunately I don't have any specific book recommendations for you. I read several books myself, several years ago, but wasn't real happy with any of them. But I *would* recommend you do read several books on the topic since odds are that any particular book will have its own biases. If I were buying a book for a friend today, I'd probably get one of these three (listed in no particular order): (Disclaimer - I haven't read any of the three, myself)

1. http://www.amazon.com/Investment-Completely-Revised-Expanded-Streets/dp/1416556176 - I had some good experiences with the Motley Fool website, back when it used to be 100% free. The writing and info was generally pretty good. Haven't used it in years, though.
2. http://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Business-Personal-Finance/dp/0764599038 - I've had some good experiences with "Dummies" books in the past.
3. http://www.amazon.com/Neatest-Little-Guide-Market-Investing/dp/0452289211 - This one looks like the type of thing you're looking for, and has *amazingly* good reviews on amazon. 90% of people gave it 5 stars--that's nearly unheard of for any type of book, in my experience. Might be a good one.

My advice: Use these types of books to get familiar with terminology and concepts. Don't necessarily use them for stock buying strategies. (For example, one book that I read had a purchasing scheme based on the stock's price. Not price/earnings ratio, just the price. However, a stock's price is not a meaningful number because it's set by the total number of shares there are, an artificial number, in addition to the total worth of a company, a meaningful number. So this was a stupid scheme, even if the book's author was able to find some circumstances where it worked well historically.)

Some more advice:
* Get an account with a discount brokerage. I use ameritrade izone, myself--$5 per trade and reasonably good free stock info. Make sure your charge per trade is as low as possible; it's easy to get killed by commissions.
* Keep up on news about the stocks you have. Don't ignore problems when they start to occur. I lost $1000 or so once because I had my head in the sand about bad news I didn't want to hear.
* Don't "day trade". Unless you really know what you're doing, that's the same as gambling in my opinion. Do "week trade" or "month trade".
* Avoid "dollar stocks" (ones whose price is less than $1/share). I've had nearly 100% bad experiences with them. Despite saying share price doesn't mean anything real, above, in this case it does--a company will never start with a price per share that is that low, so if you're looking at a company with <$1/share, it's because the company has been through some seriously hard times.
* Be wary of "get rich quick schemes". If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Pretty much the best you can hope for in my opinion is to outperform the overall market by a bit. If you do that, you're doing well.
* Hold on to the good stocks, get rid of the bad. This seems to be obvious advice, but it's very hard to have the discipline to follow it. It's human nature to want to "grab your profits" when a stock has done well, and it's human nature to hold out hope that a stock that has gone downhill is just temporarily in the dumper. It's a lot easier from a psychological standpoint to sell a stock when you're making a 20% profit than when you're selling at a 20% loss... but generally speaking the latter is what you really ought to be doing and not the former.
* In the same vein as the last point, the single best strategy that has worked for me is to evaluate my stocks weekly (I have 6-12 at any given time), and make sure that all my stocks are highly rated by various evaluation indices. If one of them stops being highly rated, I ditch it, and replace it with a more highly rated stock. Doing this, I typically buy and sell one stock a week this way, and I've made a ~26% return since the start of the year despite the overall market going down ~6% in the same time period.

I decided to take Leslie and Emily on a hike up to the "Y" today. (For those unfamiliar with Provo, there's a giant "Y" painted on the mountain right next to the BYU campus.) Emily got a bit tired and complainy, but other than that the hike was pretty successful.

Here we are starting off, making the secret Y-sign.

After 55 minutes of hiking, the Y is finally in sight!

We got a random passer-by to take this picture. We're right at the base of the Y, camera facing away from it.

The kids made the secret sign again.

I liked this flower.

Just after we started down again, we got buzzed by a helicopter. It got much closer to us than in this picture, but I didn't think of snapping a photo until the helicopter had started away from us.

There are numbered markers at every switch-back. The base of the Y is at marker 10. We climbed up the Y itself nearly to the top, then started down and came across marker 11.

That's where I work! The physics building ("Eyring Science Center") is the one with two telescope domes on it. You'll likely have to click on the photo to get a larger version; it's just in front and to the left of the tallest tower.

These butterflies were all over the place. So I took this one's picture. He didn't complain.

My dad is involved with the CAMIE Awards. I was wondering which films had won the award a few years ago, so I turned (as always) to wikipedia. I was very surprised to find out that there was no wikipedia article on the CAMIEs! That's Pretty much the first time *ever* that I've turned to Wikipedia for some info and found there to be no article on the topic.

So, I spent several hours today and created an article which among other things lists all of the past winners:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAMIE_Awards

(Happy Father's Day, Dad! :-) )

Our last Utah Baroque Ensemble concert is going to be broadcast on KBYU radio in a few months. That's FM 89.1, I believe. The broadcast is scheduled for Sept 14, 3 pm. So if you're in the broadcast area and want to listen, be sure to mark it on your calendars!

(When they recorded us they used about 9 different microphones set up at various positions. I'm interested to hear how good they can make us sound with the mixing!)

They just posted my second review for RARB.
http://www.rarb.org/reviews/842.html

This album was by an LDS group, Eclipse, and had a lot of interesting and well-sung arrangements of hymns. See my review for more details.

I just got "Snacktime", an kid's album by Barenaked Ladies. Reminds me of "No!", the kid's album by They Might Be Giants. Both are fun albums, not your typical child's fare at all.

Anyway, the last week or two I've been suffering from some severe allergies (and/or a cold), so in honor of my affliction I'm posting the lyrics to the song, "Allergies", from Snacktime.

___

Allergies, allergies, allergies, allergies

Allergic to cats
Allergic to bees
Allergic to dust
Allergic to trees
Allergic to mold
Allergic to weeds

My little brother is allergic to meat
My friend’s brother is allergic to wheat
Allergic to Meat?
Allergic to Wheat?
Gotta be tricky finding something to eat

Allergies, allergies, allergies, allergies

Allergic to dogs
Allergic to frogs
Allergic to nuts—I hate their guts
Allergic to smoke—it makes me choke
Allergic to shrimp—I’ll blow up like a blimp

I get all itchy and I start to wheeze
Even when I see a slice of cheese
A slice of cheese?
It makes me wheeze
Hang on fellas, I’m about to sneeze

Ahhhh-chooo

Allergies, allergies, allergies, allergies

Allergic to dogs
Allergic to frogs
Allergic to eggs
Allergic to legs
Allergic to heads
Allergic to beds
Allergic to bark—it makes me snark
Allergic to face
Allergic to bass
Allergic to guitars
Allergic to the stars
Allergic to you
Allergic to me
Allergic to birds
Allergic to bees

Aiii!

Made me smile!
http://blanksheetofpaper.com/
"BlankSheetofPaper.com is a free online utility to allow you to print a blank sheet of paper from your printer in case you need a clean white, blank sheet of paper to write on. No download required."

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I am now doing reviews for RARB. I've written six reviews so far, but there's a substantial time lag due primarily to the need to wait for other reviewers of a particular album to turn in their reviews. And then for the editors to look over and approve all three reviews. But my first review has just showed up on the website!
http://www.rarb.org/reviews/835.html

I took some time to update my homepage. It was woefully out of date. Here's the link to the updated website:
http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/colton/personal/

Last summer people in the college office gathered genealogical info from faculty and staff, compiled the info into a database, searched for common ancestors to see who was related to whom. For fun, they also included in the database: former BYU presidents, some current and past LDS leaders, signers of the Declaration of Independence, European royalty, Mayflower travelers, US Presidents, etc. I arrived too late to get my "relatives report" last summer, but just got mine yesteday.

Disclaimer: It uses info submitted to Ancestral File, which may or may not be accurate. Here's the website where you can access Ancestral File:
http://www.familysearch.org/

But here are some cool findings regarding my relatives:
(Note: FFMF, for example, = "father's father's mother's father")

Past LDS church presidents:
Benson, Ezra Taft's FFMMMFMMF = my FFFMFFMFFF = T. CADWELL(1679,CT).
     (We are 8th cousins, once removed)
Grant, Heber J's FMFMMFMF = my MMMFMMMFMMF = J. BREWSTER(1593,England).
     (We are 7th cousins, 3 times removed)
Hinckley, Gordon B's FFFFFFFMMF = my MMMFMMMFFMF = J. JENNEY(1596,England).
     (We are 9th cousins, once removed)
Kimball, Spencer's FFFFMMFFF = my MMMFMMMFFFF = A. WOOD(1582,England).
     (We are 8th cousins, twice removed)
Lee, Harold B's FFMFFFMFF = my FFFMFFMMMF = W. CHATTERTON(1640,CT).
     (We are 8th cousins, once removed)
Smith, George Albert's MMFMFMFFFF = my MMMFMMMFFFF = A. WOOD(1582,England).
     (We are 9th cousins, once removed)
Smith, Joseph Fielding's MFFMMMF = my FFFMFMFMFF = J. PETTIBONE(1640,Connecticut).
     (We are 6th cousins, 3 times removed)
Snow, Lorenzo's FFMFFF = my MMMFMFMMFF = R. PHILLIPS(1635,England).
     (We are 5th cousins, 4 times removed)
Woodruff, Wilford's MMMMMFM = my FFFMFFMFFM = E. WILSON(1632,England).
     (We are 6th cousins, 3 times removed)
Young, Brigham's MFMFMF = my FFFFFMMMFFF = J. BENT(1596,England).
     (We are 5th cousins, 5 times removed)

Current LDS church leaders (apostles):
Ballard, Russel's MFMFFMMMF = your FFFMFMFMFF = J. PETTIBONE(1640,Connecticut).
     (We are 8th cousins, once removed)
Bednar, David's MFFFFMFMFF = your MMMFMFMFMMF = M. PRATT(1600,Eng.).
     (We are 9th cousins, once removed)
Cook, Quentin L's MFMMF = your FFFMF = S. MERRILL(1780,Connecticut).
     (We are 4th cousins)
Faust, James's MMMMFMMMF = your FFFFFFFMMF = E. TAYLOR(1642,Eng). (We are 8th cousins, once removed)
Hales, Robert's FMFFMMFF = your FFFFFFFF = B. COLTON(1695,MA). (We are 7th cousins)
Oaks, Dallin's MFFFFMMMFF = your FFFFFMMFMFF = G. BELCHER(1606,Eng.).
     (We are 9th cousins, once removed)
Packer, Boyd's FMFMMMMFFF = your MMMFMFMMMMF = G. ALDRIDGE(1605,England).
     (We are 9th cousins, once removed)
Perry, Tom's FFFFFFFMMF = your MMMFMFMFMMF = M. PRATT(1600,Eng.).
     (We are 9th cousins, once removed)

The Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon
Cowdery, Oliver's FFMMMFF = your FFFFFFMMMMF = P. BULKLEY(1582,England).
     (We are 6th cousins, 4 times removed)
Harris, Martin's FMMMFF = your FFFFFMMFMFF = G. BELCHER(1606,Eng.).
     (We are 5th cousins, 5 times removed)

Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Adams, John's FMMMMF = your MMMFMMMFFFFF = N. ATWOOD(1539,England).
     (We are 5th cousins, 6 times removed)
Carroll, Charles's MMFFFM = your MMMFMFMMFFFMM= M. GRAZEBROOK(1556,England).
     (We are 5th cousins, 7 times removed)
Paine, Robert Treat's FMMMF = your FFFFFMMMFMFF = T. BOURNE DEACON(1583,England).
     (We are 4th cousins, 7 times removed)
Wolcott, Oliver's FF = your FFFFFFMFMF = S. WOLCOTT(1624,England).
     (We are first cousins, 8 times removed)

Travelers on the Mayflower
Brewster, William = MMMFMMMFMMFF
     (my 10th great-grandfather)

U.S. Presidents (I'm tired of counting M's and F's, so I'll let the interested reader figure out the exact relationships from here on out.)
Adams, John's FMMMMF = your MMMFMMMFFFFF = N. ATWOOD(1539,England).
Adams, Quincy's FFMMMMF = your MMMFMMMFFFFF = N. ATWOOD(1539,England).
BUSH, George H. W.'s FMMMMMMFFFF = your MMMFMMMFFF = H. ATWOOD OR WOOD(1620,England).
BUSH, George W.'s FFMMMMMMFFFF = your MMMFMMMFFF = H. ATWOOD OR WOOD(1620,England).
Coolidge, Calvin's FMMMMFMFFF = your MMMFMFMFFFF = J. WHITMARSH(1596,England).
Garfield, James's MMFFFMMFMF = your FFFFFFMMMMFF = E. BULKELEY REVEREND(1540,England).
Harding, Warren's FFFFFFFFFM = your MMMFMFMFFMFM = M. HARDING(1600,Of England).
Hayes, Rutherford's MMMMMMF = your FFFFFFFFMF = T. COOPER(1630,England).
Hoover, Herbert's MFMMFMFMFF = your MMMFMFFFMFF = H. BROOKS(1592,England).
Nixon, Richard's FMMFFFFFF = your FFFMFMMFMMF = J. MOORE(1614,Connecticut).
Pierce, Franklin's FMFFFF = your FFFMFFFFFF = N. MERRILL(1601,England).
Roosevelt, Franklin's MFMMMMMFMF = your MMMFMMMFFMF = J. JENNEY(1596,England).
Taft, William's MFMMMMFFF = your MMMFMFMMMMF = G. ALDRIDGE(1605,England).

European Royalty
King Of ENGLAND, Edward II = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFFF
King Of ENGLAND, Edward III = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFF
King Of ENGLAND, Edward I Longshanks = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFFFMMF
King Of ENGLAND, Henry I = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFFFFFMF
King Of ENGLAND, Henry II = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFFFFF
King Of ENGLAND, Henry III = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFFF
King Of ENGLAND, John Lackland = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFFFF
King Of ENGLAND, William the Conquerer = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFFFFFMFF
King Of FRANCE, Louis VII = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFMFFFF
King Of FRANCE, Louis VIII the Lion = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFMFF
King Of FRANCE, Louis VI The Fat = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFFFMMFF
King Of FRANCE, Philippe Auguste II = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFMFFF
King Of FRANCE, Philippe I = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFFFMMFFF
King Of FRANCE, Philippe IV = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFFMF
King Of GERMANY, Phillipp II = FFFMFMFMMMFFMFMFMMFMMMF
King Of HUNGARY, Andras II = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFFMFMMF
King Of HUNGARY, Bela III = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFFMFMMFF
King Of HUNGARY, Geza II = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFFMFMMFFF
King Of HUNGARY, Istvan V = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFMMMMF
King Of SCOTLAND, David I The Saint = MMMFMMMFMMFMFFMMMFMFFMFFF
King Of SCOTLAND, Duncan I = MMMFMMMFMMFMFFMMMFMFFMFFFFF
King Of SCOTLAND, Malcolm III = MMMFMMMFMMFMFFMMMFMFFMFFFF
King Of SCOTLAND, William I The Lion = MMMFMMMFMMFMFFMMMFMFFMF
Princess Of HUNGARY, Piroska = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFFMFMFMMFM
Princess Of KIEV, Evfrosiniya = MMMFMMMFMFFMFMFFMFFFMFMMFFM


It looks like the the computer science dept has put the database & tool on the web, so if you want to create a similar thing for yourself, try this:
http://roots.cs.byu.edu/digroots/selfafninfo.php

This was sent to me several months ago by a lady in our old ward. JSC

___

A man was being very closely tailgated by a woman on Foothill Boulevard in Salt Lake City.

Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the intersection crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman slammed on the brakes and really leaned on the horn. She opened her window, stuck her hand out and made that familiar gesture, all the while screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection before the light had turned red.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tapping sound on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious SLC Police Officer.

He ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the Police Station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell.

After a couple of hours, another Policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the Arresting Officer was waiting with all her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for the mistake.

You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping the guy off in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I also noticed the 'Choose The Right' license plate holder, the 'Families are Forever' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Angel Moroni emblem on the trunk."

"Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."