A quiz about Davis

Reposted from my older blog that is about to disappear.

The following is a quiz about Davis that I made for a party where we said goodbye to some close friends who are leaving Davis after living here for the last six years. I think 12 was the highest score out of 20. If you use the internet, then you are cheating! Answers are included at the bottom of the post.

1) Which of these streets does not exist in Davis: 

A) L St

B) M St

C) N St

D) O St

2) Which of these roads does not exist on campus: 

A) N Quad 

B) S Quad

C) E Quad 

D W Quad 

3) The famous ‘Toad Tunnel’ in Davis was built in 1995 to allow toads to cross from south to north Davis. But how much did it cost to build:

A) $1,400

B) $14,000

C) $140,000

D) $1.4 million

4) Prior to prohibition, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Davis tried banning the sale of alcohol within a 3 mile radius of campus. This was to prevent the ‘corruption’ of young farming students. They succeeded in getting the state legislature to enact this ban in 1911. When was this ban finally lifted: 

A) 1919

B) 1939

C) 1959

D) 1979

5) In 1994 a woman was found guilty of violating Davis’ infamous noise ordinance. What activity was she doing that caused her neighbor resort to calling the police? 

A) Sneezing

B) Whistling

C) Snoring

D) Clicking her fingers

6) The name ‘Davis’ wasn’t the first name for our town. It became known as Davis in 1907…what was it known as before that? 

A) Davisville

B) Davistown

C) Davisland

C) DavisDavis

7) Before there was UC Davis, there was the University of California University Farm and then the Northern Branch of the College of Agriculture, but when did it become UC Davis?

A) 1957

B) 1958

C) 1959

D) 1960

8) In 2007, a customer was accidentally overcharged for the Pita that they had bought at Pita Pit. How much was the customers credit card charged with? 

A) $50

B) $500

C) $5000

D) $50,000

9) On 21st July this year, a woman robbed a bank in Davis. However, she then ran into a problem when she tried making her getaway. What happened? 

A) She left the bank to find that her getaway car had been stolen

B) As she left the bank she was robbed by another robber who had independently planned to rob the very same bank

C) Her getaway vehicle was actually a bike and was arrested by the police who found her frantically trying to unlock her bike. Turns out she had forgotten the combination of the lock.

D) She found that she had locked herself out of her getaway car and the police caught her trying to get into it by breaking the window

10) In 1984 the Davis City Council declared the city to be a what? 

A) Beard free zone

B) nuclear free zone

C) Republican free zone

D) Parrot free zone

11) After the toad tunnel was built what problem affected the toads that tried using it? 

A) They were killed from the heat of lights that had been installed in the tunnel? 

B) The tunnel became a home for a population of wild ferrets which ate the toads? 

C) Someone forgot to move a temporary concrete wall in the tunnel, so the toads couldn’t use it

D) A large number of toads that were using the tunnel to reach north Davis encountered a large number of toads that were trying to reach south Davis, and they all got stuck.

12) The Davis Police Department produce and distribute trading cards featuring what?

A) Pictures of local police officers

B) Pictures of cars that have been stolen in Davis

C) Pictures of criminals arrested in Davis

D) Pictures of their pet cats and dogs

13) Picture round. What is the name of this sculpture which can be found on the UC Davis campus

A) Stupid pipe thingy

B) Map of Davis

C) Bum, bum. You’ve been here before

D) Cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, dog!

14) Every March 1st, Davis Farmer’s market observes what important day?

A) National Pig Day

B) National Vegetarian Day

C) National Lactose Intolerance Day

D) National Mountaineering Day

15) What is the Social Sciences and Humanities Building on the UC Davis campus better known as?

A) The Moonbase

B) Battlestar Galactica

C) The Death Star

D) The Starship Enterprise

16) David Pyles, is a post-doc in the UC Davis Biometeorology program but how is he better known?

A) Scooby Doo - he dresses in full Scooby Doo costume on the first day of every month

B) Tarzan Guy - he regularly dresses as Tarzan while walking about Davis

C) The Beard - he claims to have the longest beard in Davis (it is below his waist)

D) Fluffy toes - he wears pink fluffy slippers *all* the time

17) In 1870, what was the approximate population of Davis?

A) 4

B) 40

C) 400

D) 4,000

18) In July 2003 what was found in a dumpster at Slatter’s Court Mobile Home Park on Olive Drive?

A) 25 lbs of stolen cheese

B) 58 lbs of stolen bacon

C) 93 lbs of stolen yogurt

D) 157 lbs of stolen human body parts

19) Which country keeps it’s diplomatic mission to the California State Government based in Davis?

A) Mexico

B) Paraguay

C) New Zealand

D) North Korea

20) In 2006, someone erected an April Fool’s Day sign in Davis that proclaimed that *what* was coming to Davis soon?

A) A Super Walmart store

B) A maximum security prison

C) A nuclear waste processing facility

D) An amusement park that would have a Richard Nixon theme

Scroll down to see the answers.

The Answers

All answers were taken from http://daviswiki.org so I make no claims as to their actual veracity (c) Andy Jones

1) Which of these streets does not exist in Davis: 

A) L St

B) M St

C) N St

D) O St

2) Which of these roads does not exist on campus: 

A) N Quad 

B) S Quad - This side of the quad is flanked by Peter J. Shields Avenue

C) E Quad 

D W Quad 

3) The famous ‘Toad Tunnel’ in Davis was built in 1995 to allow toads to cross from south to north Davis. But how much did it cost to build:

A) $1,400

B) $14,000

C) $140,000

D) $1.4 million

4) Prior to prohibition, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Davis tried banning the sale of alcohol within a 3 mile radius of campus. This was to prevent the ‘corruption’ of young farming students. They succeeded in getting the state legislature to enact this ban in 1911. When was this ban finally lifted: 

A) 1919

B) 1939

C) 1959 

D) 1979 - I guess this is when Picnic Day celebrations started getting a little out of hand

5) In 1994 a woman was found guilty of violating Davis’ infamous noise ordinance. What activity was she doing that caused her neighbor resort to calling the police? 

A) Sneezing

B) Whistling

C) Snoring

D) Clicking her fingers

6) The name ‘Davis’ wasn’t the first name for our town. It became known as Davis in 1907…what was it known as before that? 

A) Davisville - wonder if Vacaville residents ever considered renaming their city to ‘Vaca’

B) Davistown

C) Davisland

C) DavisDavis

7) Before there was UC Davis, there was the University of California University Farm and then the Northern Branch of the College of Agriculture, but when did it become UC Davis?

A) 1957

B) 1958

C) 1959 - Remember those 50th anniversary celebrations last year?

D) 1960

8) In 2007, a customer was accidentally overcharged for the Pita that they had bought at Pita Pit. How much was the customers credit card charged with? 

A) $50

B) $500

C) $5000

D) $50,000

9) On 21st July this year, a woman robbed a bank in Davis. However, she then ran into a problem when she tried making her getaway. What happened? 

A) She left the bank to find that her getaway car had been stolen

B) As she left the bank she was robbed by another robber who had independently planned to rob the very same bank

C) Her getaway vehicle was actually a bike and was arrested by the police who found her frantically trying to unlock her bike. Turns out she had forgotten the combination of the lock.

D) She found that she had locked herself out of her getaway car and the police caught her trying to get into it by breaking the window

10) In 1984 the Davis City Council declared the city to be a what? 

A) Beard free zone

B) nuclear free zone - and there is still no nuclear-waste reprocessing facility in this town to this day

C) Republican free zone

D) Parrot free zone

11) After the toad tunnel was built what problem affected the toads that tried using it? 

A) They were killed from the heat of lights that had been installed in the tunnel? - the lights had to be added to tempt the toads into the tunnel

B) The tunnel became a home for a population of wild ferrets which ate the toads? 

C) Someone forgot to move a temporary concrete wall in the tunnel, so the toads couldn’t use it

D) A large number of toads that were using the tunnel to reach north Davis encountered a large number of toads that were trying to reach south Davis, and they all got stuck.

12) The Davis Police Department produce and distribute trading cards featuring what?

A) Pictures of local police officers

B) Pictures of cars that have been stolen in Davis

C) Pictures of criminals arrested in Davis

D) Pictures of their pet cats and dogs

13) Picture round. What is the name of this sculpture which can be found on the UC Davis campus

A) Stupid pipe thingy

B) Map of Davis

C) Bum, bum. You’ve been here before

D) Cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, dog!

14) Every March 1st, Davis Farmer’s market observes what important day?

A) National Pig Day

B) National Vegetarian Day

C) National Lactose Intolerance Day

D) National Mountaineering Day

15) What is the Social Sciences and Humanities Building on the UC Davis campus better known as?

A) The Moonbase

B) Battlestar Galactica

C) The Death Star - that’s no moon!

D) The Starship Enterprise

16) David Pyles, is a post-doc in the UC Davis Biometeorology program but how is he better known?

A) Scooby Doo - he dresses in full Scooby Doo costume on the first day of every month

B) Tarzan Guy - he regularly dresses as Tarzan while walking about Davis

C) The Beard - he claims to have the longest beard in Davis (it is below his waist)

D) Fluffy toes - he wears pink fluffy slippers *all* the time

17) In 1870, what was the approximate population of Davis?

A) 4

B) 40

C) 400

D) 4,000

18) In July 2003 what was found in a dumpster at Slatter’s Court Mobile Home Park on Olive Drive?

A) 25 lbs of stolen cheese

B) 58 lbs of stolen bacon

C) 93 lbs of stolen yogurt

D) 157 lbs of stolen human body parts - Very gruesome. Stolen from the autopsy department at UCDMC as I believe

19) Which country keeps it’s diplomatic mission to the California State Government of California based in Davis?

A) Mexico

B) Paraguay

C) New Zealand - technically it’s in El Macero

D) North Korea

20) In 2006, someone erected an April Fool’s Day sign in Davis that proclaimed that *what* was coming to Davis soon?

A) A Super Walmart store

B) A maximum security prison

C) A nuclear waste processing facility

D) An amusement park that would have a Richard Nixon theme

Please do not read this

Reposted from my older blog that is about to disappear.

This is a test, a little psychological play thing. I’m just curious as to how many people will proceed with reading this even though I have (kindly) asked that you refrain from doing so. Most people will come across a link to this blog post from Twitter or App.net and therefore will see nothing more than the following text: ‘Please don’t read this’ along with a shortened web link.

And yet…and yet you are here, reading these very words which I asked you not to read. You disregarded my instructions and if you are still reading this then you have thrown caution to the wind and are willing to risk the possible destruction of your computer in order to see what I had to say (have you people never heard of clickjacking?). From a psychological viewpoint, you might be interested to know that you are now a victim of my (successful) attempt at using the Pique Technique.

Of course it is entirely possible that the brave souls who have clicked on the link to arrive here actually know me (at least in a virtual way) and therefore trust that I would not do something so malicious as to cause them (or their computer/internet device) any harm. However, who is to say that I am not a sleeper agent that has been recently ‘activated’ to carry out a mission of inflicting chaos and mayhem on an unsuspecting world?

Okay folks, here is your final test. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page you will find three words waiting for you. However, I strongly suggest with all of the urgency that I can muster, that you DO NOT READ THOSE THREE WORDS! I can take no liability for what damage, psychological or otherwise, may arise from the reading of those three words. These three words have been carefully chosen for their potential to cause grave offense and so I will end this post by once again urging you that you should not, under any circumstances, scroll down to the bottom of this post to read those three words.

Moist muffin flaps.

Why I deleted my Facebook account

Reposted from my older blog that is about to disappear. Originally posted May, 2010.

 

Once upon a time I was a happy facebook user. But that was before the dark times, before the Empire. The first wave of facebook annoyance came with the arrival of applications. Leaving aside the annoying applications where a friend would invite you (and everyone that they know) to be a zombie or a pirate, the arrival of applications seemed to trigger a big switch in how people fundamentally used facebook.  In the ‘post-application’ era, people started writing less about themselves and instead resorted to revealing their personality via applications such as ‘What type of fruit are you?’ or quizzes such as ‘Keith named 4 out of the 26 most popular sexually-transmitted diseases, how many can you name?’.

 

This was a change that I sad to see. In the ‘good old days’, people spent more time adding information to their profile. I could actually learn something about someone’s interests. Now however, people seem to rarely write anything, and the ‘info’ section on people’s profile pages is often a barren expanse of nothingness. There is still plenty of ‘face’ in facebook, but much less ‘book’. Even status updates are often auto-generated via plug-ins from other applications.

The next big set of problems with facebook came with the succession of poorly implemented design & policy changes. I’m not opposed to change but I think that even facebook will admit to having rushed through changes without properly explaining in advance what was going to happen. This seems to a recurring feature and one might depict the facebook development cycle like so:

If you are a recent convert to facebook then you may have forgotten about their first big PR issue over their Beacon technology which tracked your visits to sites outside of facebook. Like many of facebook’s missteps, they had to apologize and backtrack a little bit. It didn’t take long before Zuckerberg et al. created more controversy by silently changing the terms of service to allow them to keep any content you had created (even if you deleted your account). The backlash was swift, as was facebook’s move to revert to the prior terms of service.

 

Hopefully, many of you are aware of some of the latest problems that have arisen from facebook’s changes which are an attempt to let them dominate the entire galaxy be the central hub of all social interaction on the web. On Wednesday April 21st 2010, Mark Zuckerberg introduced facebook’s new Open Graph Protocol. This software makes the outcry over the Beacon technology look like a storm in a teacup. If I visit a site such as Fandango or the New York Times and I haven’t logged out of facebook, then facebook can track my browsing of those sites. In a way, this is not any different to what other web sites do, but the big issue here is transparency. How exactly are facebook and their partner sites using this huge amount of information? Do people realize the consequences of clicking the new facebook ‘like’ buttons that are beginning to adorn web pages everywhere?

 

Of course, if you understand the privacy policy and privacy settings of facebook then maybe this isn’t an issue. Just change your settings to whatever they were before facebook quietly changed them behind your back. The problem is that no-one really understands facebook’s privacy policy anymore. It has grown in size by nearly 600% since 2005 and now contains more words than the US constitution. That factoid is part of an excellent New York Times article which also points out that there are now 170 different options within the privacy settings. If you want to see how facebook has slowly eroded your privacy, then this page has a fantastic graphic on the evolution of privacy on facebook.

What annoyed me more than the new Open Graph Protocol is the change to my profile page. I had written a lot of text in all of the categories so that my friends could get some insights into my personality. The recent changes to facebook now require that this information must be linked to something called Community Pages. It is not enough to say that you work/study at Institute X or like Film Y. Instead, you must now link to a page for Institute X so that everyone can see that you are a member. This may well be a good idea, but I would have preferred a way of opting out of this.

 

There are so many changes that facebook have introduced in the last few weeks, it is a little overwhelming, but this article does a great job at going through them  all and explaining the potential risks. All of these changes had made me consider whether I wanted to stay a part of facebook, but in the end it was reading this article on 10 reasons to delete your facebook account, that persuaded me to commit facebook suicide.

 

I am now cut off from facebook, and am therefore no longer one of its 400 million users. Maybe I will return, but I don’t think so. I feel that I have much better social interactions with people via my twitter account than I ever did with facebook. Indeed, there are many twitterers who I have never met in the real world, but whom I now consider to be more of a friend than many of the ‘friends’ that I had on facebook. Farewell facebook, it was fun while it lasted.

 

 

Update (added 13th May, 2010)

Of course I should have also pointed out that facebook doesn’t make it easy to leave. It’s a bit like trying to leave the clutches of a cult. Here’s a good piece about  what happens when you (try to) deactivate your facebook account.

10 rival social networking sites that may spell the end of Facebook

1. Farcebook - people recount hilarious episodes of their crazy lives
2. Acebook - Veterans of aerial combat recount their tales of dogfights in the sky
3. Faceliftbook - exactly the same content as facebook, but with a new, younger look
4. Twofacebook - sign up to praise your friends (and then bitch about them when they log off)
5. Plaicebook - where people write their own recipes that feature everyone’s favorite fish
6. Facecook - only for people who resemble TV chefs
7. Macebook - people hook up to discuss their experiences with tear gas
8. Faceoffbook - each week two site members pair up to battle to death in unarmed combat
9. Visage de livre - Facebook for French people
10. Face2facebook - people actually leave the computer behind and meet people in real life (not sure if this one will ever catch on)

Reposted from my older blog that is about to disappear.

My Life Revisited — Part 4: 1979

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1979.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s SuperNod! Brandon Routh eat your heart out. One year after my last primary school fancy dress contest (when I entered as a matchbox), it was time to go for something a little more dramatic. My mum did great work in stitching together a very impressive Superman logo and making a cape. The rest of the costume was as follows:

1. Blue polo neck top (turtle neck if you are of a USA persuasion). These seemed to be a lot more popular when I was younger. Can’t remember the last time I wore one.
2. A pair of blue girls tights (I felt very awkward about wearing these)
3. Red swimming trunks
4. Red wellies (or rain boots if you prefer). These were borrowed from my neighbour’s sister as I recall

I remember that I kept the cape for several years after this which was great for an instant Superman effect. The Man of Steel was very popular around that time (the original Christopher Reeve Superman film had come out the previous summer), and such popularity ensured there was another Superman entrant in the fancy dress contest. I think I won a prize for my costume, though I think that they were fairly generous in giving out lots of prizes. I don't think you actually received anything at all, just the honour of being chosen as a winner.

My hair was still quite blonde at the time, and I would still be sporting the ‘pudding bowl’ haircut style for a few more years to come. Note that I'm standing on our 'crazy paving' patio. This seemed to be all the rage in the 70's though it's not particularly crazy by most definitions of the word. I bet it was invented by people who realised that there was a market for people who couldn't afford to buy paving stones that are all the same shape. And speaking of irregularly shaped, cheaper versions of things...do people remember buying bags of broken biscuits at the supermarket?

My Life Revisited — Part 3: 1978

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This picture might look a bit strange so I’ll explain as best I can. The picture was taken during a birthday party at my house. It would have been my 7th birthday. Check out the lovely patterned curtains, and the general overpowering presence of the colour brown in the furniture and carpet. Brown was big in the 70’s!

I’m sitting on the far end of the couch, wearing the green safari outfit which I just loved (this wasn’t a fancy dress costume by the way). The dapper looking gentleman on my left was my neighbour — and is still my good friend —Tony. He doesn’t wear the tie so much these days though. The next guy has faded from my memory and I would be pushed to even hazard a guess at his name. Sititng next to him is Mark who lived a few doors down the road from me. He had also made an effort to smarten up for the party, well at least he had shiny brown shoes on. The kid nearest to the camera is another old friend, Kevin. We were best buddies for quite a few years and used to both be hugely into Star Wars (well wasn’t everyone back then?).

The strange facial expressions that we all seem to be adopting in the picture is because there was, off to the right of the picture, a magician! It was unbelievably cool to have my very own magician perform for me at my party. I think he was getting us all to blow at something that he was holding. I could be completely wrong, he may have just asked us to make silly faces for his own amusement.

Every seven year old should have a magician perform at a birthday party. You’re at the age where it is easy to be astounded by relatively simple acts of magic. I was very into magic for the next 10 years or so of my life, probably because of this birthday party

My Life Revisited — Part 2: 1978

This is me, in my back garden...in a matchbox. While I was at primary school, there used to be a summer fete held every year, and for at least some of those years they held a fancy dress competition as part of the fete. These fancy dress competitions were not so much for the kids...they were for the parents.

I have to applaud the inventiveness and technical abilities of my mum and dad as they did all the work. As I was only six at the time, I doubt that I personally suggested going as a matchbox, and I further doubt that I had much involvement in the construction process. When anyone goes to a fancy dress party today, it seems that people most likely will just hire or buy their costumes. But in 1978, costume hire was not really an option (at least not in Haverhill, Suffolk) and so there was a need for ingenuity and considerable amounts of glue and tape.

I think that the bulk of this ‘costume’ was fashioned from the cardboard packaging of some self-assemble furniture. There was a quite a bit of attention to detail in that there was - at least as I recall - an inner box that could slide within the outer container. The detail on the front of the box is a fairly good (hand painted) replica of an actual brand of matches that you could buy in 1978 (for just three pence).

My parents also gave me a red swimming cap that I was meant to put on my head so that I would physically resemble a matchstick in the matchbox, though somehow I think I opted to not wear that on the day of the competition. I don’t recall winning the contest, but I do remember there being more than one prize so I may have won something (best costume in the ‘Smoker’s accessories’ category?). As I recall, there were lots of entrants in these contests...but there was only ever one matchbox!

My Life Revisited — Part 1: 1977

This is the first of a short blog series featuring some old pictures of me from the distant past, along with some commentary on my memories of life at that time. Let's start by seeing how my youthful visage looked back in 1977:

This school photo was taken when I was five or six years old, it’s hard to be sure because the photo would have been taken near to the start of the new school year which was also near to my birthday.

At this point in time, I had just started my second year of ‘primary’ school. Different regions in the UK have different systems for schooling. In Suffolk, there were (or still are) primary, secondary, and upper schools. The primary school I went to had an optional ‘nursery’ year (like kindergarten in the US I guess), which I also attended. So technically, this was my third year at the school. My teacher that year was Mrs Jackson and my main memories of her — well my only memories really — were that she seemed very tall and that she wore jeans a lot.

At that time, we were learning to read and write English, but not the form of English that most people would recognize. Our school embraced what seemed to be a widespread (at least in the UK) experimental way of learning English. The system was called the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) and looking back, it was a very strange system, not least because the alphabet has 42 letters! Still, I can’t say that it has caused me any long-term damage in my subsequent education. 

One of my main memories from that year at school was that one pupil — a certain Mr. Todd if memory serves me correctly — was keen to demonstrate to the class that he could generate a cool and somewhat mysterious sound simply by the act of walking around. The teacher allowed him to demonstrate this to the entire class and so he proudly strode up and down the room. Sure enough, as he marched back and forth, we could hear a faint noise that appeared to originate from his lower torso. The teacher then calmly explained to him that this noise was simply due to the fabric of his extensively flared trousers rubbing together as his legs passed each other (

everyone

 wore

flares

back then). I think this factual explanation left him feeling very deflated as he was pinning his hopes on more of a magical reason for his trouser-based emanations.

Sometimes you remember uplifting, or life-changing events from your distant past. Me? I remember noisy trousers.