Kempt - The Lost Art of the Toast
[E]ver since the 17th century, the custom has been to make eye contact at the moment you touch cups.
For your enjoyment and potentially limited usefulness
Lately, I’ve found myself highly amused by Merlin’s giggly reaction to Dan’s pronunciation of Brett TERPstra’s surname on Back to Work. So great was my amusement that I made a ringtone. In iOS 5, this will work as a text tone as well.
Boom.
Down 35 Pounds and Counting
Earlier today I posted an entry about my awesome new Troy Polamalu jersey. The birthday is a great time to reflect on my weight loss goals as well. I’m really happy with my progress thus far. This is me today:
And this was me at WWDC in June:
So far, I’ve lost 37 pounds, down to 228 from 265. I started tracking my calorie intake and output pretty aggressively (or neurotically depending on your point of view) in August using Lose It! for iPhone. Lose It! tells me that I weighed 257 pounds on August 10, so I’ve lost nearly 30 pounds in 3 months.
I’ve got a ways to go before I make my goal weight of 200 pounds, but six months after my worst state, I am in the best shape I’ve been in since I got married and I’m well on my way to being in the best shape of my life. I’m feeling great and looking forward to whatever life has in store going forward.
New Privacy Concerns in the U.K.
[UK can now demand data decryption on penalty of jail time](http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071001-uk-can-now-demand-data-decryption-on-penalty-of-jail-time.html):
> New laws going into effect today in the United Kingdom make it a crime to refuse to decrypt almost any encrypted data requested by authorities as part of a criminal or terror investigation. Individuals who are believed to have the cryptographic keys necessary for such decryption will face up to 5 years in prison for failing to comply with police or military orders to hand over either the cryptographic keys, or the data in a decrypted form.
Having just given a cursory presentation on government efforts to suppress encryption and legislate or otherwise require the use of encryption that allows government easy access to the plain text, this is a troublesome proposition. I imagine it won’t be long until the States tries something similar. Hopefully, backlash from industry experts, privacy advocates, big business, and other constituents (You hear that, politicians? That means the people that put you into office.) will be strong enough to prevent the passing of such a bill here. It’s always nice when such disparate parties can come together against a common enemy.
(Via [Ars Technica](http://www.arstechnica.com).)
