Calculating the Distance to California

ByHeather

Something like 90% of the nation’s fruit and vegetables are grown in California’s Central Valley. Here is a simple calculator to determine how far you are from this fertile land:

  1. Buy a 1/2 pint of raspberries from your local supermarket.
  2. Count how many raspberries are moldy.
  3. Multiply the number of moldy raspberries by 250. This is your distance in miles from California.

For example, I am in Northern Michigan this week. I counted at least 9 moldy raspberries in the pack. 9 x 250 = 2,500. This is the approximate distance from my location to California’s Central Valley.

Q.E.D.

Similar Posts

  • Consumers Go On Strike

    ByHeather

    As the economy continues to sour, consumers have gone on strike. For the past few months, I have been contemplating the following economic and social trends that seem to explain why.

    • American productivity has risen almost 20% in the last decade (Source)
    • Real median income over the same period has declined (Source)
    • Executive compensation has risen astronomically (Source)
    • Consumer debt has risen substantially (Source)
    • Consumer spending comprises 70% of GDP

    Rising productivity is what enables companies to increase employee’s pay. Increases in pay result in the overall rise in our standard of living. However, in the last decade, this relationship between productivity and rising employee pay seems to have been fractured.

  • One must not think ill of the paradox

    ByHeather

    One must not think ill of the paradox, for the paradox is the passion of thought, and the thinker without paradox is like the lover without passion: a mediocre fellow.

    — Søren Kierkegaard, from Philosophical Fragments

    At one point in my life I was formally studying philosophy. Not coincidentally, I was also struggling deeply with various aspects of Christianity and religion. Kierkegaard became a hero. He was a troubled soul who was as prolific at journaling as I was, and who shared many of the same intellectual struggles I was contemplating.

    I have always relished the paradox. …

  • Gorilla Marketing

    ByHeather

    I am an avid fan of podcasts. I listen to many hours a week of interesting and compelling content completely on my own schedule. The TWiT Network produces some of the best, including This Week in Tech, MacBreak Weekly and Roz Rows the Pacific. Leo Laporte is a master behind the microphone.

    Leo continues to chase profitability by adding an ever-increasing array of sponsors for his “netcasting” ventures. Drobo and GoToMeeting are recent additions and he is pushing the boundaries of tolerance with the seemingly endless droning on about Visa’s security protection for online fraud. …

  • The Squeaky Wheel – Revisited

    ByHeather

    The other day I posted how the squeaky wheel doesn’t always get the grease. Sometimes, it gets replaced. I found another variation to this delightful adage on the DesignAday web site.

    “Broken gets fixed. Shoddy lasts forever” . . . When deadlines are tight, and there is more work to get done than there are developers or hours in the schedule, it’s not the squeaky wheel, but the jammed one that gets the grease.”

    — Jack Moffett

    So true. This is my frustration with Apple’s iPods. I have a 3rd generation Nano that has a couple of annoying bugs in the software. I listen to a lot of podcasts and I convert many of them to audiobooks so I can listen in the “faster” mode. Unfortunately, the fat Nano has a hard time remembering that it is set on the “faster” setting. I have to hit menu four times to back out of the current podcast and drill forward two settings menus to remind the Nano that it is still set on “faster.” Then back out two menu settings and drill back into the podcast. I have submitted bug reports to Apple at least a half-dozen times but I am afraid that my little bug isn’t broken enough to warrant a fix.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.