I may soon have the opportunity to provide guest correspondent songs for the Aural Times!

This excites me to no end.

Two anonymous individuals are going to start answering your Advice questions on mikedidonato.com. Similar to Defy McQuaid, except more opinionated, more advice column, and less science.

All this will Start Next Thursday!! So submit your questions today in the comments of this post!

Our team of anonymous advice columnists will surely impress you with their intelligence and common sense.

For a Right Hander*, I have what might be an unhealthy obsession with Handedness. The first thing I often notice about people is which wrist sports a watch, or which hand picks up the pen. For whatever reason, I feel like I have a better window into an individual’s personality once I know which hand they prefer.

I guess what I’m really trying to say here is… Ambidextrous people make me uncomfortable. seriously. Pick a side people.

Is this a normal thing? do other people do this?

*Hander? Is that a word?

I think all men have an image of their perfect workshop. Outside of the epic amount of tools, mine has all sorts of space, a lot of natural lighting, and a clever central vacuum system. Think of a cathedral cieling living room minus the rug. Replace the couches with lathes and presses and the coffee table with an assembly table. No T.V. necessary, but a decent sound system is a must.

one of my co-workers informed me of a really great lathe that a friend is thinking of selling. If only I had a workshop to house it.

as opposed to Russian Spaghetti day, which is on Mondays.

Patrick over at T5T.org is a big fan of big internet games. He’s organized very successful runs of Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail. This time around the game i’s Clue.

if you’d be interested in joining SMcQuaid and I as we co-captain a clue team to glory, just comment on this post and we’ll add you to the mix.

for starters, we have to think of an awesome team name and a creative weapon that we can suggest for this internet game of murder and mystery.

dun dun dun!

I hope you’ll join us!

If you Google “Shaun McQuaid” or “smcquaid”, the “Defy S. McQuaid” section of this web site is the first item returned.

Awesome!

I would just like to point out, that throughout my sickness, travel, and general weak posting… Mr. Shaun McQuaid has been relentless and persistant with his Tuesday Defy Shaun McQuaids.

His regularity is worthy of an award. So I would like to take this opportunity to bestow upon him the first ever Rock Award from Mike DiDonato.com.

Well done SMcQuaid.

The Question

Ben asks:

Shaun, simple question for you today:

If I was to drive the Mass Pike from the beginning (NY border) to the end (Logan Airport) exclusively in the right lane, would i travel a longer or shorter distance than someone traveling in the left lane? (we can ignore the pesky middle lane since it only exists on like half the pike)

The Answer

Taking a quick look at the road map, the casual observer will see that the Mass Pike curves in a gentle “U” shape, starting at the MA border, dipping down to drift through Springfield, staying low through Sturbridge, then slowly drifting back up for it’s eventual end in Boston. Given that this is the case, it’s clear that the left lane is shorter (just like how the inside track in a circular race course is shorter).

BUT WAIT! Have you taken into account the CURVATURE OF THE EARTH?

Well, of course! Would you expect anything less from me?

A “Great Circle Route” shortens the distance you travel on the globe by taking into account the curvature of the Earth. However, because we are in the Northern Hemisphere, any Great Circle Route would curve DOWN, like a frown, not UP, like the Mass Pike. So, even with the curvature taken into account, the left lane is STILL shorter.

Here are some posts from other would-be answerers or commenters on the question.

Mike D says
whoa! I’ve been wondering this same thing for years!

Now you can rest easy, Mike D….

Kurt says
Don’t forget the Right lane at around exit 9 becomes the middle due to the addition of the NYC traffic. So the right lane would become that pesky middle lane. And if you try to go the other way, the right lane would dissappear as it is the exit lane for Exit 9 (Rt84) Don’t forget to keep that in mind while calculating that all knowing Shaun.

No worries. I take all factors into account. Even the gravitational constant. And the X-files (especially the episodes with cameos from current West Wing stars). Please note that we are only concerned with the “left-to-right” journey in this answer…

Patrick says
You’d be driving a longer distance in the right hand lane.

Our conclusions agree, Patrick. As a side note, Interstate 90 would continue beyond the MA border, across the country, and directly into Seattle. Connected by the same road! Ever drive on I-90?

Sander: and it’s not entirely unhealthy, it’s got rice and vegetables…
mike d: that’s good.
Sander: is rice a vegetable?
mike d: ha ha, no!
Sander: a grain?
mike d: yes. it’s a grain. “is it a vegetable?” oh man Sander, that’s going right onto the website.
Sander: you’re a jerk!
mike d: no… you’re just hilariously stupid.

I made a banner for Patrick over at T5T.

Let me know what you think!

I’m finally feeling a bit better. To be honest, I’m pretty terrible at being sick. On Saturday I laid in bed with my barbed wire throat and an extremely profitable mucas production plant with surplus inventory in my sinuses. On the verge of death at 7:30… waiting… waiting for a dosage of medicine to arrive from my all too generous friends.

And then, arriving out of the fog with trumpets blaring and mexican doves swarming, JonAbad appeared riding some sort of holy giraffee rhinocerous lion beast. He dismounted. I swear his adidas had wings.

He approached and revealed a treasure chest that glowed and emitted the warmth of an embrace. He opened it. And there it was. The ambrosia of medicine:

Soon thereafter I slept for 11 hours.

Mandy was grading some WPI student’s tests (I think thermodynamics) and came across one where the student, instead of writing an answer, simply drew a picture of a panda.

Perfect.

I’ve been sick more in 2006 than the past two years collectively. Perhaps this is a sign that I should have invested in the larger benefit health insurance this time around.

This last bout with illness was a trying one. I had intended on defeating it with will power alone, but was quickly humbled as my body decided to go on strike. Special thanks go out to the roommates who dealt with my groveling and brought me water and drugs.

Drugs? pretty great. let’s just get that out there. Whoever invented Tylenol deserves a raise. Chemistry rocks.

It appears I’ve come down with a cold. I intend on defeating this one through pure will power.

Take that cold.

Pictures exist from Sander and my business trip to Texas! check ‘em out here!

We enjoyed some fun things as rockclimbing, mini-golf, DDR, airhockey, bowling, nice restaurants, and sweet hotels. We traveled through 6 cities enjoyed 78 degree weather. It was a fantastic business trip.

mike d: in a land of Stupid, you’d be king.
Jesse: in a land of kings, you’d be stupid.

I am going to try something a little different for MikeDiDonato.com

I’d like to put together a big game of GUESS THAT SKYLINE!

on my recent trip through the south of the US, I was a little bit wowed by the variety of skylines that mankind has constructed.

So here’s my plea.
I would very much love it if you would take a picture of a city skyline that’s close to you and e-mail it to me along with your name, the direction the picture was taken (ex. “From the south” “From the East”) and the name of the city. my email address is:
mikedidonato AT gmail DOT com

It’ll be all sorts of fun. The pictures can be night or day photographs. If you’re feeling gutsy, you can even take paint to paper and do your own artsy rendition of your skyline.

Once collected, I will make some sort of Guess the Skyline game and not only will we have fun, we may even learn a bit about our world’s architecture!

I will remind you regularly of this. Ideally, I’d love all skylines by the end of March. but we’ll see how many I get.

hello!

I’m back from my whirlwind tour of the south. I actually got back this past Friday, but work’s been tough and I’m trying out a new schedule what with it being Spring and all.

I usually modify my goals with the seasons and this spring is no different.
here they are!

Music!
2006 has been deemed the year of music, so I really must push for 30-40 minutes of guitar a day. This will involve 10-20 minutes of scales, and 15-20 minutes on that week’s lesson. By June 21st (first day of summer), I hope to have 4 new songs performance ready.

Fitness!
I will consistently log 3 days of kung fu and 3 days of climbing for the entire spring season. I may be able to move up a belt level and perhaps conquer that 5.12+ that’s been taunting me at the gym. The only exception to this rule is if Business Travel is required.

Financial!
Spring = save. I will save half of my income each month of this season.

Social!
Get 35 people to attend Double Dutch v3.0 Date to be announced soon!

Rock!
Continuous and unrelentless rocking.

yeah, that sounds pretty decent for starters. If anyone has any unique goals that they think I should add to this list, throw it in the comments!

The Question

Becky asks:

Follow-up question.

Given:
-Life on Earth is Carbon based.
-The second most common element in the earth’s crust is Silicon (28% by weight, Oxygen is first).
-Silicon Dioxide is the most common compound (42% by weight).
-Carbon and Silicon both have room for 4 electrons on their outer orbitals, so their affinity for electrons should be equal.

Question:
Why is life on Earth Carbon based instead of Silicon based?

(figures taken from http://education.jlab.org/glossary/abund_ele.html)

The Answer

Another question from the elegant, intelligent Becky. I relish the challenge.

The answer lies in the fact that carbon knows how to party and get along with others of its kind. Silicon is a poor partier and an angry drunk, so it gets left out of the life-shindig. Carbon is very comfortable hanging out in multiple configurations with other carbon molecules (chains, links, etc) - silicon, when put in the same configuration, tends to either fall apart or EXPLODE. While an exploding life form might be interesting, it’s likely to be short-lived.

Carbon likes to hang out in molecules of tens of thousands of atoms. Silicon, being kind of lame and boring, only hangs out at most with 6 other atoms of the same kind, and that’s only in the lab - being such big dorks and all, parties are beyond silicon’s ken.

Finally, carbon has chirility, or handedness. Most organic molecules form in left or right “handed” configurations - and silicon is a big ambidextrous loser. The chirility is what allows carbon molecules to form chains, which are required in organic compounds.

I hope this answers your question, Becky. Carbon likes to get out and party, and silicon stays at home and smells like rotten eggs.

Although I have left the Ultimate Blogging Scene, my new pal Zoe from Brooklyn is still in. And she sending out this Plea. If you have the opportunity to help her out, please do so.

Quick version: GO HERE, scroll to the bottom and type in a description of an article of clothing that should have stayed in your closet. Fill in your name and e-mail, then submit.

Longer Version:

To everyone:

I Need some serious help. But it’s fun! So much fun, I promise.

For the past three weeks, I’ve been in an internet competition to become the “Ultimate Blogger” http://www.urbanhonking.com/ultimateblogger2/ . We started out at 13, and I’m still in at the final 3. I’ve given so much hard work and energy to this “internet reality show,” and I hope you’ll help me stick around to the final 2.

For this challenge, we have to RECRUIT as many people as possible to view a personal page and enter some brief, fun answers to our content. I chose to ask people to describe an AWESOMELY BAD OUTFIT they should have never worn. Think back, because you know you’ve got some! Here’s the link–starting with a picture of my AWESOMELY BAD BAT MITZVAH DRESS! http://www.urbanhonking.com/zoe/

If you have it in your hearts to also then answer the 4-question questionnaire, that will be even more help to me.

THE DEADLINE FOR RESPONSES IS TUESDAY, MARCH 21 at 3PM EST

Finally, if you could pass this email along to even more people and encourage them to participate, you would just make my week. Hell, my year so far.

In advance, thanks so much guys. You are truly rocking.
xx
Zoe

The Question

Becky asks:

Shaun,

Being raised Roman Catholic, and attending a rather strict version of Sunday School, I had a lot of exposure to Christianity growing up. I’m also of a scientific, logical mind-set.

Keeping in mind we can never know anything for certain, there is overwhelming evidence of evolution that a biologist cannot deny. From my experience, the majority of things in science reject any form of intelligent design. Still, all the matter in the universe came from somewhere. Even the big bang couldn’t have started on it’s own.

So, my question is, is it hypocritical to believe that God created everything and also believe that humans evolved from apes?

The Answer

Becky, I believe this is the first time I’ve had a question in this realm. More often the questions are cut and dried, black and white, with answers ranging from the subtle to the gross, but this…this is belief, this is philosophy. And yet there is a teensy bit of research we can do here.

The Roman Catholic faith does not hold with a literal interpretation of the Bible in all cases. In addition, Catholic faith calls for the use of a combination of supernatural revelation in the Bible and natural revelation via the human mind. In the situation we are considering, this means that, as a Catholic, you are entirely within your belief structure when you consider the Creation story to be allegorical to a certain degree, and far from hypocritical when you consider the truth of science in this area and harmonize it with a Creator who got the ball rolling and created the rules under which the universe operates (such as evolution).

No hypocrisy here, Becky. Rest easy.

As a side note, let me just say that I am neither a theologian nor an expert - and that, if anyone finds the content of this answer to be contrary to their belief structure, be assured that I am neither attempting to convince anyone of anything nor advocating anything. To each their own.

Last night Sander blew it again. He mistakenly booked a flight that flew from Dallas to Kileen two hours later than he needed to. As I had smartly booked the earlier flight, we decided to try and see if Sander could get on stand-by so that we wouldn’t have to waste any time waiting around.

Sander got on Stand-by and the plane started to load. I got on first and took my seat at the back. Time passed and so0n I saw Sander’s face appeared in the plane’s doorway. He caught my eye and gave me a smug thumbs up. We were good to go.

He sat down near the front, and started to relax when suddenly over the intercom I heard “Sander Van Twisk?”

“That’s me, What’s wrong?” he asked the flight attendant.
“I’m sorry sir, you’ll have to take the next flight.”
“but there are plenty of seats available!” he stammered
“Unfortunately the plane is over the weight limit.”

HA HA! SANDER WAS KICKED OFF THE PLANE BECAUSE HE WAS TOO FAT!

This trip is turning out to be awesome.

In just a few short hours I will be leaving with Sander for Texas. It will be a whirlwind tour through the Southern state and I’m expecting all sorts of glory.

Unfortunately, this means that posting will likely faulter. But hold tight. I’ll be back thursday and the mayhem will continue where it last left off.