Testing Mathjax

`E = M*C^2`
sum_(i=1)^n i^3=((n(n+1))/2)^2
`sum_(i=1)^n i^3=((n(n+1))/2)^2`

Nifty!

Find out more about it here: http://asciimath.org/#gettingStarted

Posting Policy

It's nice to have visitors, but SPAM, not so much. I want to allow as much freedom for comments as I can, but there have to be some sort of limits too. Therefore, some rules:

1. Any posts or links which require any significant effort or my part to determine if they may or may not be legitimate or otherwise wastes my time are subject to immediate deletion.
2. If you want to promote your own blog*, do so by posting a relevant comment, or risk wasting my time (see rule #1). Promote yourself by participating.
3. No p@rn. No links to p@rn (see rule #1 again).
4. If you have a site with adult content that is not porn, and you are also legitimate visitor with something to say, then it would be polite to indicate your link is NSFW, Adult, etc.
5. If you must post in some language other than English, please give some indication of what language that is, or use an automatic translation service such as Google translate. I will not attempt to translated messages if there is no indication that it might be legitimate (see rule #1).
6. Be polite. Do not feed trolls. Do not be a troll.

* Good for you! I'd like to help. Now go back and finish reading the rule.

Please note that comments on posts more than 14 days old are subject to moderation, and will not appear immediately.

These rules are subject to my interpretation and may change at any time. If you think you have not been fairly treated, email me your concern and I will consider it.

Weird Search Results

This morning I had fun review my StatCounter results for keyword searches that resulted in hits on this blog. There are some odd and interesting results to be found. I'm reporting these as follows:

"keywords" [results and commentary]
Resulting page is linked if appropriate.

Here we ...

"shake and pour sex commercial" [#1 Google search result. I'm not sure what it is this person is looking for, nor am I certain I should be proud they found me.]

"tomato thrown at someone" [#1 Google search result. I am now the definitive source for tomato tossing!]

"natasha leong" [#1 Google search result. I am now also the definitive source on flying rabbits!!]

"accepting uncertainty in life" [#4 Google search result. I seem to be a philosopher.]

"dating" [Out of over 16 milion hits, this blog is not even in the top 200, therefore if someone finds this blog which searching for dating advice they must really be desperate. However, this blog is the #1 result for the search "dating tomato".]

"song lyrics seven old ladies" [Only #31, but I'm happy to contribute.]

"gnome discrimination" [#1!!! I am the leader in Gnome Rights. Help end the abuse.]

"Coniculous lepin" [#1 and flying rabbits again. However, in retrospect it would have been funnier if I have used "Coniculous Leapin".]

... wow, I had no idea I am so influential. ;-)

Call for Sharing (Google Reader)

There is a box in the right sidebars titled "Vine Ripe Tomatos" (My Shared Items) where you can see some of the article and sites I have found that interest me (I have moved this up temporarily so it is more obvious). I use this as a resource to help keep track of sources for topics I plan to write about.
Google Reader has a nice feature that allows sharing items and commenting on them. This allows sharing of things I find interesting with like-minded friends, and vice-versa. Potential, this allows me to see more of the thing I most like on the web, because people I know have already filtered and shared things they most like. It's really pretty cool, except for one serious drawback:

I need people to share with.

It turns out a lot of people I communicate with regularly don't use Reader, and I haven't made many converts yet. Therefore, this post is an open call for any people reading this to set up sharing between us.
I currently label (tag) items I intend to use on the blog with "DTA", which helps me but probably not anyone else. I will make an effort to use more, and more descriptive labels, in all of my shared items. Topics which I am most interested in reading are typically "Math, Science, Statistics". Items which combine science and humor are of particular interest.

If you use Reader, are willing to share, and have some common interests, contact me by the email in the right sidebar (or through my profile) so I can send you an invitation to my shared items.

Blog Thoughts

I've been considering some changes to my blogs for some time, and it's time to write them down. This is going to be stream-of-consciousness stuff mostly, so if you are going to muck about in this with me you might want to take off your shoes and roll up your pants (otherwise you are going to get my messy thoughts all over your clothes).

I had a great time during the election when a good topics were low-hanging fruit, but this also distracted me from my purpose (such as it is) of humorous commentary on science and statistics. This was not intended to be a political blog, but I have come to the realization that some of my topic are politics (ID, among others) so I should admit that politics/opinion will have a large part to play here. ID itself is a topic I'd like to leave behind - except that I'm not quite done with it yet (I have a take on Irreducible Inanity Complexity Inanity, and a Bozo Behe book to bomb) so there will be a few more posts like this. Of course, I'll always be happy to link to others efforts along these lines.

New Topic: I will be starting a series on posts on aging issues. This has become an important personal issue for me over the past few year, and I think I can contribute useful opinion on a personal and professional basis. Expect a few outright rants on this topic too.

I'm considering some chances to the general appearance of the blog; some color adjustments and perhaps a new banner. I have a secret dream of commissioning Phil Foglio to create a banner and associated icons/images for me. That would be WAY cool.

I have created a new email address for the purpose of blog related management and communications; TomatoAddict42 (presumably Tomato Addicts 1 through 41 have already succumbed to the ill effects). I will monitor this new email from my regular Gmail, so this should be a transparent change.
I may start also posting on others blogs as "Tomato Addict". It's not like I really need another online handle, or that I want to conceal my identity, but in order to establish myself as a blogger I think it helps to have a unique identifier (and "Dan" is far from unique).

I'm also hearing really good things about Wordpress, but having just got settled in on Blogger I'm not ready to pick up and move.

There is one final small addition; I've added my Favicon to my post template so it can appear at the end of every post, as I've always intended.