Stiff: A Book Review

-The maximum speed at which a human being has a respectable shot at surviving feet-first (the safest position) is 70mph. Terminal velocity of a falling body is 120mph and can be reached in 500 feet.
-Without temperature extremes, bodies lose about 1.5 degrees Fahenheit per hour until ambient temperature.
-Necrophilia was not a crime in any state in the US until 1965. To date, only 16 states have enacted necrophilia laws.

These are just a handful of tidbits I learned from "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach.

It was recommended to me by a staffer in a random bookstore in this weekend. One of those little tags on the shelf with handwriting on it got me to pick it up and I talked myself into walking to the register with it for the sake of research for any future mystery novel I might write.

The book starts off with 'fun' fact chapters telling stories of what happens to the human cadavers donated to science, how anatomists of the 1700s and 1800s got their cadavers to dissect (from using executed criminals to using deceased loved ones and finally paid body snatchers pilfering the freshly dead from the graveyards). Later chapters deal with heavier topics such as the debate whether the soul resides in the brain or the heart, medicinal cannibalism, and future body disposal techniques (composting).

This is not a book for the squeamish. I'm a fan of the CSI TV show (the Las Vegas version), but I'm wary of the things I learn there because I've seen plenty of TV 'science'. The author put in a CSI moment addressing how body temperature, rigor mortis and yes, bugs and larvae, could be used to help determine time of death.

I was fascinated by the story of a Dr. Duncan Macdougall, who sought to determine if the soul had substance or more measureably, weight. In 1907, he placed six of his dying patients in beds on scales sensitive to two-tenths of an ounce. He found that upon each patients' expiration, the scales lost three-fourths of an ounce.

Throughout the book, the author uses healthy doses of both humor and respect to explore her subject matter. She also heavily advocated for organ donation, lauding as heroes the cadavers who bequeathed their life-saving organs after death. Although I started reading the book from a sense of curiosity and shock factor, her respectful treatment got me accustomed enough to the topic of human bodies after death that I could ponder the questions she posed without my brain trying to shy away so quickly. I don't think anyone really wants to ponder death, let alone post-mortem logistics, but the book made it a fascinating topic to spend an afternoon with. Yeah, morbid, I know.

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Fantastic Procrastinating

Found a new game to procrastinate on the web with. Or should that be 'Found a new game with which to procrastinate on the web'? Whatever.

I link you to Fantastic Contraption, a physics game where you can build contraptions to move a box/ball into a target zone with obstacles in the way ranging from empty space to objects. I haven't gotten through the 20 or so free levels, but I reserve the right to shell out the $10 for the full game at a later date. It's also available on iPhone/iPod.

Here's an example.

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Paper Stash Reduction

The idea of reducing the amount of paper in my house has been intriguing me for some time. Happily, I have my paper files in a file cabinet grouped in file folders that make sense to me. Unfortunately, I also have paper files going back more than ten years. Cleaning them out at this stage is a daunting process. I didn't have an impetus to start that process until I found the Neat Receipts system on sale on Woot for a significant discount. It was my first (and thus far, only) purchase on Woot and I've been pretty happy with it. Read on for my review.

The Neat Receipts system includes a small scanner and a database system to put the scanned data into. To my mind, the money I spent is primarily for the database (I already own a scanner).

The nice thing about the scanner is that it's a feeder scanner. I have the portable travel scanner although I keep it on my desk at home. It keeps the desk footprint small while still able to scan in long receipts and full 8.5"x11" documents. The larger scanner is able to scan in double sided documents at once. The scanner I have requires flipping over the paper to scan in the second side. It's decent and relatively fast.

But that's enough about the scanner. The real reason I like this is for the software. There are two pieces to the software system. The software that scans in the documents and the software that organizes the data. The scanning software provides options to automatically sense whether the object you're scanning in is a receipt, a business card or a document. I've found that this can be tripped up distinguishing between a receipt and document. I will typically manually set it to the document type to get over that hiccup. Even if I don't, it's easy enough to switch the type in the database afterwards. It also provides an option to import pdfs or images - handy for my online shopping receipts.

I spent the most time trying to figure out how to set up the database fields so that I can find the information easily later. I haven't been able to test how well the system I set up works, because I haven't found a need to go look up information I've already scanned in. The online documentation and tutorials keep talking about pulling out receipts and other documents for tax purposes, so perhaps I'll be testing that functionality out soon.

My Receipts Category has 2 main sections, one for my debit receipts and the other for my main credit card. Each section is broken down into monthly folders.

The Documents Category has sections for the companies I have documents from. For example, I have a section for the telephone, gas & electric, water, and mortgage bills. Each section is further broken down into yearly folders. I've also started a section I've labeled 'Mementos' where I've been scanning in concert and show tickets so I don't have to hang on to the physical tickets.

Thus far, I've scanned in roughly 80% of the relevant daily paperwork I have. I still have the past accounts to scan in, but since I haven't been receiving more statements and bills from them, I gave myself a break once I got the current accounts up and running. The initial scanning and organizing step is definitely a hefty chunk of work. Unfortunately, I have also added steps to my daily paper management regimen. In the past, I would get the mail, pay the bill online and then file the statement in the file cabinet. Now, I get the mail, pay the bill, scan in the statement, then file it into its appropriate section, then shred the paper. To be fair, under my previous regimen, I'd only been deferring the paper shredding event to a later date.

At some point, I'll have to figure out how to set up the data backup so I can still retrieve the information when I inevitably change computers. Right now, the paper database is backed up to my external hard drive along with the rest of the data on my computer.

Overall, I am very happy that I'm no longer adding to my paper stash in the file cabinet. There's still some more scanning and hashing out the details of backing up the database, but I feel pretty good about my new system.

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