www.BrettDaniel.com

A friend complained that I had not posted any new videos since creating a YouTube account for the JUnit Music Box demonstration. So here are some silly videos from several years ago.

The 2006 Winter Olympics curling event provided a convenient target for Nerf suction cup darts.

My grandmother's and cousin's dogs were just puppies in August 2004.

In October 2004, Eric demonstrated his unicycle skills in the hallway of Purdue's Hillenbrand Hall.

In February 2004, my suitemate Matt hung a rope swing from the loft in his dorm.

At my sister's high school graduation party in June 2003, the pinata did not work quite as expected.

Once upon a time, in a small village near a lake, a boy was born. On his first birthday, as was tradition in the village, his mother took him to the village elders to receive his name. Each elder held the child, gave a blessing, then passed him along to the next. The final elder, the oldest and wisest, rose when his turn came. He bowed his head and a look of deep sadness fell across his creased and bearded face.

"This child shall be named Sleeping Heron," the elder began, "for I foresee he will lose a leg. I know not when, but once it comes to pass, the boy will stand like Brother Heron who fishes in our lake."

The elder returned Sleeping Heron to his mother. She clutched him to her breast and wept.

"Is there nothing I can do to stop this terrible thing?" she pleaded.

The elder solemnly shook his head.

Sleeping Heron grew strong and, despite the elder's prediction, came to love running. At seven, he could circle the lake faster than any other boy his age. At 15, he had raced and beaten every man—and several animals—in the village. At 18, he became the village messenger and a scout for the men that protected the village from bandits. He spent his days carrying messages to neighboring villages, patrolling the countryside, and watching the main road into the village.

One day, from his hiding place overlooking the road, Sleeping Heron overheard two travelers speaking of a tournament in the great city three days' travel from the village. It was scheduled to celebrate the fall harvest, just one week away. To Sleeping Heron's delight, there would be several races in which athletes from all over the region would compete in the city's grand coliseum.

He left immediately, running the entire way. The tournament began, and Sleeping Heron quickly rose through the rankings. Some races he won easily, in others he struggled. He reached the final race but did not win. This did not disappoint him. Finally he had the challenge he had always yearned for.

After the race, his exhausted competitors asked Sleeping Heron to explain his name. He told them of the elder's prediction so many years earlier.

"If you are going to lose a leg, why do you run?" they all asked.

He replied, "if you had wings, even for just one day, would you not fly?"

I have an outsider's interest in the unfolding credit crisis. I say "outsider" because I do not have a mortgage, am debt-free, own no stocks, and, since I work in academia, am insulated from most of the volatility in the job market. Nevertheless, I have followed the details of the crisis ever since reading about credit default swaps in a California laundromat during the summer of 2007. That is why I would like to save the following quote from Calculated Risk in case I need a quick summary in conversation.

The most significant causes of the credit crisis were innovation in mortgage securitization coupled with almost no regulatory oversight (because of ideologues who opposed oversight and regulation). This led to lax lending standards (liar loans, DAPs, widespread use of Option ARMs as affordability products, etc.) and excessive speculation.

To find out what some of those terms mean, I recommend listening to the following two (slightly out-of-date) stories from This American Life:

• The Giant Pool of Money
• Another Frightening Show About the Economy

I got my first migraine in high school. A blinding aura exploded in my vision, the entire left side of my body went numb, and I couldn't talk. I was afraid I was having a stroke. It took several years for me to put a name to the headaches. Since then, a migraine has knocked me out for a few hours every few months.

Something changed recently. I am currently recovering from my third migraine in a week and a half. Before this latest string of occurrences, it had been about a month. Before that, three months. I hope this is not the beginning of a trend.

Coincidentally, the most recent Scientific American published an article describing what researchers currently (don't) know about migraines. I was particularly interested to learn that changes in blood flow are now viewed as an effect of a migraine rather than a cause:

It turns out that in many the pain is preceded not by a decrease in blood flow but by an increase—an increase of about 300 percent. During the headache itself, though, blood flow is not increased; in fact, circulation appears normal or even reduced.

...

The phases of hyperexcitability followed by inhibition that characterize cortical spreading depression can explain the changes in blood flow that have been documented to occur before migraine pain sets in. When neurons are active and firing, they require a great deal of energy and, thus, blood—just what investigators see during brain scans of patients experiencing aura. But afterward, during inhibition, the quiet neurons need less blood.