The Count for 2005 is: 10

There is no substitute for intellectual honesty. Because if there is, then Ted Rall is in desperate of some. Please recall, Ted Rall is the one who drew a cartoon depicting former NFL player Pat Tillman as a racist who joined the army solely to kill arabs.

This time, he has issued a challenge to conservative bloggers to find postings or comments from the left that are as offensive as the ones he finds daily from the right. He even provides an e-mail address for people to send in their finds.

The finds have been rich indeed. Now it seems that many of these examples are not getting through. I might have given Rall the benefit of the doubt and said that his server couldn't keep up with the load, but he has taken a snide attitude about having received only one by this morning. The only thing that I am left with is that Rall is looking for statements more extreme than his own. If they are what he considers reasonable, evidently, then they are not that bad. Pretty high standard there, Ted.

I apologize for having taken up so much time on this. As a commenter at Patterico mentioned, it is best not to feed the trolls, and I do feel somewhat dirty as to having sent traffic Rall's way. Please continue on with your day without thinking anymore on this post.

Nannies to the Rescue!

Just a couple of days ago I praised the FDA for allowing people to make their own decisions regarding Cox-2 inhibitor pain killers. Evidently, some people would like the FDA to take an opposite tack, to create more regulation in order to protect "the public" from the dangers of excess salt consumption. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has filed suit to force the FDA to make a statement as to the safety of salt in food.

The name "Center for Science in the Public Interest" borders on oxymoron. Anything with the words "Public Interest" in it's name will inevitably have an agenda, and agendas are antithetical to good science. Agendas create a "right" answer, prior to evidence being collected. Any evidence that is collected will be viewed through a prism.

The agenda in this case is clear. While the lawsuit is intended to force the FDA's hand at releasing a study, it is clear that the CSPI has established what is the correct answer.

The CSPI says that packaged food nutrition labels have failed to reduce Americans’ sodium intake to recommended levels, and that cutting the nation’s sodium intake could substantially reduce the incidence of health problems associated with high blood pressure.

“Those innocent-looking white crystals are causing tens of thousands of premature deaths every year,” Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, the group’s executive director, told reporters Thursday.

Just for the sake of argument, what would happen if the FDA were to say that salt does not need to be regulated? Somehow I don't think that the FDA's word would be sufficient for the CSPI all of a sudden.

Secondly, the CSPI has stated in this article that it is the responsibility of food providers to limit the salt intake of their consumers. They seem to be missing something here, namely the consumer's decision. Who really thinks that people don't know that too much salt is a bad thing, or that fast food isn't good for them for a variety of reasons? The main reason that nutrition labeling hasn't been completely effective is that most people aren't completely interested in their salt intake. I know this is the heartless avenue of libertarianism, but let people reap what they sow. Fail to take care of your health, and you get poor health as a result.

So to the CSPI, thanks for your concern, but, please, butt the hell out of my life.

Sing It, Brothers

I did the pizza delivery thing for several years. A friend of mine did the same while she lived back east, and she says that people in California don't know how to tip the pizza guy. Amen to that I thought. Still, anyone who has had that job for any length of time can appreciate the true tales told by a group of drivers in Minneapolis. Very frank, and not for the easily offended.

Personally, I didn't mind the deliveries I made to hospitals. I remember one to the maternity ward. Another time was to a sick kid. I remember it not being depressing, rather I felt like I had some good karma coming my way. The pizza guy is second only to Santa Claus in the world of children, so delivering the pizza really made that kid's night.

Via Hugh Hewitt

My Soft Spot for Shakespeare

Andrew Sullivan links to an article in the Guardian featuring the thoughts of five authors on Shakespeare the man. In that spirit, I wish to add my two cents (pence?, not here in the States) worth.

Back when I was at UCLA, all engineering students had to take three upper division humanities courses within a single department or on a theme (Italian history, art and literature would be a good example). I wanted to take three semesters of Shakespeare. I got two down, but the third wasn't offered until I was due to graduate, so I ended up taking a course in detective fiction, which was surprisingly good in its own right.

Back from the digression, I really got started in following Shakespeare back in high school with the obligatory memorize-a-soliloquy assignments. That year is was Julius Caesar. Almost everyone did the funeral oration (Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears...), while I went with Antony's lamentation over the body of Caesar. The next year, our English class was given passes to see Mel Gibson's production of Hamlet. Not bad, most definitely a envisioning for a mass audience. Kenneth Branaugh's version a few years later was more cerebral, which was good because after four hours or so, you weren't feeling anything below the neck.

The big attention grabber for me was participating in a production of As You Like It. I saw the flier announcing auditions and thought, "What the hell, I don't have a job, let's go for it." I ended up getting the role of Silvius, which in this production called for some physical comedy. I'm still looking for a practical use for the skill of drooling on cue that I developed for the scene involving Phebe's contemplation of Rosalind's male alter ego. No luck so far.

My favorite part about the writing of Shakespeare is how he wraps the meaning of words around one another and guides the reader to precisely the symbolic interpretation he desires. Of course, I could be mistaken, as many people seem to get different reads than I do. Still, Shakespeare's writing, especially the sonnets, seem to play with meanings more cleverly yet clearly than any other author I have studied. The need to be able to comprehend both line and totality adds levels to his works that make them constantly new. That is Shakespeare's genius, he doesn't need to be alive to keep coming up with new stuff, because his existing works can become something else with just a shift of perspective.

Unknown Risks/Unknown Rewards

There have been many instances where a medication has been found to be more hazardous than thought (or let onto) in research and trials. The latest of which has been Merck's Vioxx and other Cox-2 inhibitor pain killers.

The fact that Vioxx had been pulled from the market is hardly an odd thing. What is unusual is that it has been given, if not a green light, at least a yellow light to return to the market. Despite the risks, the FDA has declared Vioxx to be safe enough provided sufficient warning is given.

I'm sure there are some knee-jerk anti-corporatists who think that Big Pharmaceuticals must have spread around a big chunk of dough to keep their product on the market. I prefer to believe that it was the sincere response of Vioxx users who stepped forward and said tht they have gotten relief due to the drug that is worth the extra risk of coronary failure related death.

That the FDA has allowed a medication to return to the market is rather heartening. With respect to medications, it has been the reason for existence for the FDA to decide on what level of risk is appropriate for consumers. More than drugs, as the banning of silicone breast implants shows. That Vioxx had been on the market long enough for not only the drawbacks but the benefits to be evident, it allowed the consumer to make a truly informed decision.

This makes me wonder how many drugs that some people would consider worth the risk have been killed by regulation. Every time a new drug comes out on the market, its effects and side effects are only known to a best guess. The variation on that best guess is the risk inherent in any medication. I am personally glad that the FDA has left the choice to consumers rather than removing that choice "for our protection".

Lastly, the publicity surrounding the safety of Cox-2 inhibiters should also be of benefit to their makers. After all, how can anyone say they didn't know the risks after so much media attention?

Fear the Man Behind the Curtain

As a rule, I don't believe in conspiracies, largely because I don't have much faith in large numbers of people to keep a secret. Of course, when the other side is flat out evil, such as Bush Administration guru Karl Rove, then anything is possible. Here we have a United States Congressman making the allegation that Karl Rove planted the fake memos that Dan Rather et al. got caught with.

This is just sad.

Audience Member: Don’t you think it’s irresponsible to make charges like that?

Congressman Hinchey: No I don’t. I think it’s very important to make charges like that. I think it’s very important to combat this kind of activity in every way that you can. And I’m willing — and most people are not — to step forward in situations like this and take risks.

It would seem that for Congressman Hinchley, the guilt of the Bush Administration is evident, and all that is needed is the allegations. There is no room for the rational discussion of fact when fact is entirely optional:

Congressman Hinchey: ...once they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush’s draft dodging. Once they were able to say, ‘This is false! These papers are not accurate, they’re, they’re, they’re false, they’ve been falsified.’ That had the effect of taking the whole issue away.

Audience Member: So you have evidence that the papers came from the Bush administration?

Congressman Hinchey: No. I — that’s my belief.

Belief. So who is it again that is supposed to be trying to turn the country onto a path dictated by belief unsupported by fact? Which side is it that refers to themselves as the reality based community?

A Correction That Took Too Long

Major revisions to the Ice Age history of man will have to be made due to the discovery that the scientist responsible for most of the work was a long running fraud. Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten had been systematically misrepresenting the ages of relics for years, sometimes by as much as a factor of ten. I would like to make a few points about this:

1. I agree that this is a black eye for the study of anthropology. What should be kept in mind, however, is that the fraud was discovered through the process of outside verification. While Professor von Zieten managed to ride his credibility for far too long, that credibility still could not hold out over the long term.

2. Did this guy have grad students working for him? I wonder what they were thinking through all of this.

3. I found this article through Scrappleface. The last shot about this creating a weakness in the theory of man's evolution was uncalled for. The current theories regarding modern humans and neanderthals have them as evolutionary cousins, not of the same line but different branches of the evolution "tree".

4. This is a serious blow to the world created by Jean Auel. Of course, those books made no bones about being fiction.

A Good Idea, In Theory

American scientists have isolated a chemical that acts as a powerful sex signal for male cockroaches. The idea is ultimately create a trap that would draw the males in and infect them with a disease that they will carry to the rest of the colony. You know, like a Tiajuana whorehouse, or so I've heard.

I see one problem with this idea. If the pheromones are strong enough to draw the males in, why would they then leave? Perhaps the lack of actual females around would piss them off enough for them to leave. That presumes that the males would not be so besotted with pheromone that they won't care that the roach they're shacking up with is another male. The story goes that roaches can live a week with their heads cut off and that death results from starvation. Given that, just how much would that head be good for in getting the male out of the trap?

Link via Dave Barry

All Hail the Intelligence Czar!

America finally has a Cappo di Tutti Cappi for all of America's intelligence agencies. At last, America shall have a key figure with whom all of the previously feuding elements of alphabet soup can rally behind and share all of their information.

Yeah, right.

If that actually works, I'll gladly lead the first verse of Kumbaya. In the meantime, I'll just sit here and not watch (secrecy y'know) each of the agencies keep as much information as possible in their own purview. As would be typical of Washington, the game will be to provide just enough information to justify the current budget but not enough to make pleas for more money completely implausible. Oh, yes, and to prevent terrorist attacks on the US. Almost forgot that part.

I Really Hope This Movie is Good

If not, then heads will roll. I mean, what do you think the fan reaction would be if the movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were to suck? Now, a small amount of campy suck would be fine. If it is the takes-itself-far-too-seriously type of suck, then there will be hell to pay. Of course, it will be interesting to see just where the editorial decisions were made to go from book to movie length. Somehow I think that Douglas Adams will be fine. Seeing that he is dead and all.

No Gain For Lobsters

At least that is what a Norwegian study implies when it reports that lobsters and other ivertebrates are too developmentally primitive to feel pain. This has been a running battle with animal rights activists over whether it is cruel to toss crustaceans into boiling water. A few thoughts occurred to me while reading the article:

1) How much can one truly understand the sensory world of an invertibrate? There must be some limit to which the experience of a human can be mapped onto that of a lobster. Both probably have a sensation that informs the brain to avoid that which caused the signal, but it is fundamentally impossible to compare the experiences. There might be a way to compare the processes, but I don't think that anyone has found a way to get a conscious lobster to sit still for an MRI.

2) The science has gotten messily political on this issue. A quote from a spokesperson from PETA was sited thusly:

PETA's Karin Robertson called the Norwegian study biased, saying the government doesn't want to hurt the country's fishing industry.

"This is exactly like the tobacco industry claiming that smoking doesn't cause cancer," she said.

Robertson said many scientists believe lobsters do feel pain. For instance, a zoologist with The Humane Society of the United States made a written declaration that lobsters can feel pain after a chef dismembered and sauteed a live lobster to prepare a Lobster Fra Diavolo dish on NBC's "Today" show in 1994.

So on one hand, the Norwegian study is biased and can't be trusted, but we can trust a Humane Society scientist's word on the issue. Evidently Ms. Robertson distrusts economic bias more than ideological bias. At least when the bias is of her ideology.

3) Got butter?

Who Wants to Live Forever?

Inventor Ray Kurzweil is taking care of himself in order to make it to the day when immortality is delivered.This guy has come up with some really cool gadgets, but I'm not sure that a plan for healthy living, in itself a good thing, should be focused on making it to the point where science has progessed enough to put old age off indefinitely. I don't doubt that such an advance will happen within the llifetimes of today's toddlers. It is usually safe to bet that a technology will accomplish a goal sooner rather than later. (Unless the government is involved, in which case kiss your money good bye.)

What nags at my mind with respect to living forever is, "Why?" My biggest fear is that I would exhaust all of the avenues of my interest and I have years and years of boredom stretching before me? Would I have the courage to say, "Enough"?

Another angle is if the world became bored with me. Would the tendency to lose the ability to embrace change be halted by the anti-aging advancements? If not, then I fear the coming gerontocracy and a world saddled with ideosclerosis (the harding of opinions). Bruce Sterling wrote of such a world in Holy Fire. What happens to the young in such a world? If the gap between physical maturity and social maturity is bad now, imagine what it would be like when you can't get any respect until you've hit the big 9-0? I still haven't decided if I want to be around for that. At least I'll probably be one of the oldsters who refuse to give up their grip on the world.

Be Responsible for What You Write

As a Libertarian (member of the party so that Republicans and Democrats can't take me for granted) I know that the Bill of Rights regulates my rights with respect to the government and the government only. I do not take it as a matter of civil rights that my employer may not react to what I write. I hold the same view with repect to individuals, if I write something, then I am willing to deal with anyone who takes offense at what I write. Everyone has a right to react to what they read. That is the critical element of freedom of speech: the right to judge information for themselves.

For that reason I do not comment in this public forum about specific individuals who are not already public figures or are at the center of an already occurring debate. If I blindly do write about such a person, and should they take reasonable offense, I will post an apology. That is just the type of person I wish myself to be. That and be grateful that the whole pistols-at-dawn thing is out of vogue.

Second, I don't write about specific issues at work, only in generalities, such as the posts about the drive I was making that were as interminable as the drive itself. Should an issue come up where a knowledge of materials and metallurgy be center stage, then I stand ready to throw in what I can. In the meantime, I'll be just another pundit pitching my pennies.

I have this blog on my resume. In fact, the first gentleman who interviewed me for my current position let me know that he enjoyed what he saw. The upside of that interaction was obviously good, and I take it gladly. By the same token, I will take what heat may come. You have every right to do so civilly. Thanks for the hits, and I'll strive to keep your good estimation.

One last note, I found it curious that the author of the linked piece got a quote from Eugene Volokh without referencing his well respected blog The Volokh Conspiracy.

The Backside of the Slippery Slope

I can understand Andrew Sullivan's passion regarding gay marriage. I for one don't consider the proposition tantamount to the doom of our world as we know it. I'm a little disturbed, however, by his frequent referrences to this being the "civil rights struggle of our time". This and the point that heterosexuals have not exactly maintained the sanctity of the institution are both the other side of the old slippery slope argument. The charge that the first compromise on an issue, for example loosening divorce laws and allowing bi-racial couples to wed, will ultimately result in the entire demolition of the practice was and still is being trotted out. For example, if the requirement of one man one woman were to be removed, then what would stand in the way of polygamous marriage? To say that bigamy won't necessarily follow from gay marriage runs into a hypothetical of if someone said back in the miscegenation days that allowing colors to marry whites might someday lead to men marrying men and somesuch.

Again, my opinion on the issue is to allow anyone who wishes to extend rights over themselves to others to do so as they wish. I'm more concerned with empowering a sloppy rhetorical practice.

Resurrecting Star Trek

Caution: High Geek Quotient Ahead

I have to agree with Adam Yoshida on this one: the Star Trek franchise has pretty much sucked since Deep Space Nine. I gave up during Voyager with Captain Katherine "Let me toss a coin to see if we stick to the Prime Directive this week" Janeway. I kept wanting to send a memo to the writers: Guys, take a meeting and figure out who the hell Janeway is before her next command decision.

I gave Enterprise a chance purely because I am a fan of Scot Bakula (Capt. Archer) from his Quantum Leap days. Too bad the show couldn't keep me interested. Not even Jolene Blalock stripping down to her skivvies on a regular basis kept me tuning in. Then again, Jeri Ryan in a really hot bodysuit barely kept me interested in Voyager either.

Adam proposes three ideas that combine concepts from other hit shows and splices them to the Star Trek universe. Star Trek: Smallville, where we get to see the adventures of Academy Cadets, is his first. Whether we see new characters or the school days of later characters, there will still be the problem of having the faint odor of "Wesley Crusher saves the day" all over again.

His third idea is CSI: Vulcan. Not a chance. The entire concept of CSI relies on cutting edge verisimilitude, while technology in Star Trek has already solved just about every problem there can be. The techniques that an investigator for the United Federation of Planets would use would have to be invented by the writers, and it would be impossible for viewers not to end up feeling gypped by a plot that is resolved by a technology that only exists for that purpose.

Now, his idea of Star Trek: The West Wing has some potential. Adam's request that the viewers be allowed to experience the Federation in itself as opposed to what lies beyond it is on point. A brave crew can only save the Federation so many times before people start to wonder what's so great about the Federation to begin with. A politically themed storyline with only the occassional foreign policy issue would reconnect viewers with the wider quadrant. I'd escpecially interested on how any semblence of an economy could exist with replicator technology providing anything anyone could want.

Sounds Perfectly Fair to Me.

If somone values something greatly, then it is only fair that those who are wealthier in it should share. I love this line:

Mrs. Frush, though, is skeptical of how often the Garrett County lawmaker has been threatened by black bears.
"George Edwards has never seen a bear," Mrs. Frush said. "He's told me that."

I'm sure that Mrs. Frush has never seen a terrorist either. As the old saying goes, "Its the wolf (or bear) that you don't see that is the greater danger." Or something like that at least.

Link via Dave Barry

Its Gruesome Murder Week on CNN

In the past week I have read not one, not two, not three, but four, stories on CNN.com pertaining to particularly nasty murders. Most of them involve family members and are the classic tabloid fare that people believe other people want to read about. You'd almost think that CNN was looking for something to distract attention away from other issues.

The ACLU Picks Up Some Respect

I often say that if the ACLU would get off their backsides and defend the Second Amendment, then I would go right out and sign up. Barring that, this story of the ACLU representing a professor under scrutiny for making a generalized statement about homosexuals in class does add a few points to their tally in my book.

Now if only they stopped using the same First Amendment to block nativity displays. That really reflects poorly on them.

Link via Protein Wisdom

Gamer Is In Da House!!

OK, townhouse to be precise, and with a couple of room mates. No problem at all, since it meets the one absolute requirement that I had, be closer than 80 miles from work, and the closer the better. The job is in Santa Fe Springs (for those of you who know the area) and Irvine is about 20 miles away along some of the worst freeway known to man. This being the greater Los Angeles area, that means all freeways meet that description. Despite the drive, it is still bliss to cut an hour each way off the drive.

What this should mean is that the quality of the blogging should improve as I will have more time and be less punchy when I sit down to write. At least I should spend more time writing, my characters on Star Wars Galaxies and City of Heroes have been awfully neglected of late.

Super Bowl Highlights

Yes, I watched the game in between bites of numerous snacks and sandwiches, not to mention the plentiful beer. Now, for your reading pleasure is my breakdown of the highlights of Super Bowl XXXIX.

No I did not make a mistake, that is a link to an article about the commercials. I live in southern California. We don't have a football team. I might have been able to root for the San Diego Chargers, but that didn't last past the first round of play-offs. So, aside from the aesthetic enjoyment that could be derived from an offensively sloppy football game, the big draws were the commercials.

The first Bud ad with the reluctant parachutist was good, and the frist Ameriquest ad of the guy being mistaken for a robber in a convenience store was better. The first of my favorites was the second Ameriquest commercial featuring the cat, the knife, and the spilled marinara sauce. The other was the Emerald Nut commercial with the childhood characters confronting the father who made up stories like "All the unicorns will dissappear if I give you some nuts." Santa seemed particularly menacing.

The ad that made me sit up and take notice was the Volvo spot that had Sir Richard Branson promoting a contest whose prize would be a ride on Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic is the joint venture between Branson's Virgin and Scaled Composites to offer tourist space flights. Just how much is one of those Volvos? I think I might be able to scrape enough together.

Correct Me If I'm Wrong

Wasn't this question, here applied to academics, previously applied to the United States shortly after 9-11?

"what have we done to precipitate this"?

Not to compare the proposed legislation to the murder of 3000 people, but they are both paths I do not wish to see taken.

I recall a story from the 2000 election cycle about the Bush and Gore campaigns taking notes off of late night monologues and Saturday Night Live sketches in order to determine what characteristics were being picked up on by outsiders. Legislation like this makes me quake in my boots, but it is the only form of feedback that academia has yet to show immunity to.

Change of Domocile

I will be moving this weekend. Two hours to and from work have ripped a huge hole in my day, and my sleep and blogging have suffered for it. Tomorrow I am moving to Irvine which is fifty miles closer to work than Palmdale. Word has it that it will still take me close to an hour to cover the twenty miles, but that is still a total of two hours not spent on the road.

Of course, I'll be doing the move after the game. I still have my priorities, you know.

Kicking Ass and Taking Names

OK, maybe they didn't bother taking the insurgents names, but still the reported ass kicking is a very heartening sign. A person never has power over something until they take responsibility for it. And other resent having the responsibility thrust upon them.

Small, Welcome Bits of Distraction

Glenn Reynolds has been asked about the pressures of blogging, and he admits that it can make an impact on one's time management. He adds, however, that it can be useful in situations where one does not really want to be too in tune with one's surroundings. I can certainly understand the need, having had an experience in much the same vein. I don't think that the human mind can take a steady stream of worry. I saw it in the waiting room of the Intensive Care Unit. Someone would be crying and then reading a magazine ten minutes later. Then he or she would be staring off into space a little later, quite possibly thinking about how different the world would be if the worst happened. My distraction of choice was a travel chess set and a tutorial book that had been collecting dust for months. I finally made it all the way through, but damn if I can remember any of it.

By the way, Dad is doing great. He is slowly getting his strength back and adjusting to the new dietary schedule. Now he gets to spend more time with his granddaughter.

As a side note, I haven't made the mistake of automatically writing '04 this past month. I figure that I'm just that glad to have 2004 over with. Boy did last year blow. Actually, up until the new job starting the first monday of the year, this whole millenia hasn't been that good.

Bad News for Some Members of the Family

It looks like my eighteen month old niece may be in for some sleepless nights. Latest word off of Instapundit has Elmo being held hostage in Iraq.

We all pray for his safe return.

Bummer...

The guys who created the fakeVolkswagen Polo ad have promised to stop promoting the commercial. Too bad, it was certainly one of the most memorable ads that I have seen for some time.

This is Beyond Awesome

The turnout for the Iraqi Election has to this point seemed spectacular. I have heard second hand of reports of Iraqis facing attacks in polling lines only to overwhelm and capture the attackers. If true, it would be as if they were saying, "You are not going to screw this up for us!"

If anything, this has shown how many of the Iraqi citizens are embracing the process toward democracy. Between the number of people voting, and the relative scarcity of attacks, it brings into very stark relief what the friendly/hostile composition of Iraq truly is.

As a friend of mine has put it, "The people of Iraq are finally taking responsibility for their own country." I couldn't agree more.

Update: Another thought that came up about ten minutes late. I kept hearing that it was too soon for elections because the security situation was not well enough established. I think that the participation in this election shows that people are willing to risk the danger in order to take control of their lives. This election has put everyone, American and insurgent alike, on notice about how things really are and what the people want the future to be in that country.

I am looking forward to what the newly elected government will say as to the American military forces in their country. Will they request that the Americans leave as soon as possible or stay indifinitely to finish the job? That will be another big moment of political repurcusion in our country. If the Iraqis invite us to stay and continue to assist them, what will those who call for American pull out ASAP have to say? Will they respect the will of the Iraqi's, or should the US put its good ahead of all the rest of the world? You know, like the thinking that put Saddam in power in the first place.

Update #2: I just realized what the Leftward Fringe would say if the new Iraqi government asked the US Military to stay in-country and help them cut down the insurgents. They would say, "See, this proves that the election was a sham created solely to install an American puppet regime." The entire decision would devolve down to whether or not the Iraqi Government would choose to do what the Leftward Fringe knows is correct. Any other decision would be proof of incompetence to decide. Depressing, yes, but I can see it happening all too easily.

What Will the Iraqi Election Turnout Mean?

I don't think that a foreign election has ever captured this much American attention. So far most of the attention has been focused on how many people will vote rather on for whom they vote. Some predictions have it coming out very high, others quite low. Of course, what has been described as disastrously low would be considered typical for an American off-year state election, and that is without the danger of polling places getting bombed.

If the turnout is low, what would that say about the average Iraqi's desire for freedom? Given that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has released a tape on the internet of which it is reported:

The man identified as Mr. Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for many of the insurgency's most brutal attacks, including dozens of bombings causing mass casualties as well as kidnappings and beheadings, railed against democracy, saying supplanting the rule of God with that of a popular majority was "infidelity itself." The fit punishment for any Muslim "apostates" joining in, he said, was death.

then any turnout will show a great deal of courage. What would the turnout in the US Presidential Election have been if a couple of polling places on the east coast had been bombed shortly after opening? While the faint of heart have just as much right to vote as any other, the strength of the Iraqis who do vote will be demonstrated all the more by the violence they face to make their voices heard.

Of course, there are some who doubt Iraqi courage. Then again, this guy also called those who have signed on with the Iraqi police as terrorist rejects, so take it for what it is worth. ("Comic" Links via Roger L. Simon)

The Libertarian Anti-Christ

I speak of Matthew Lesko, the Ron Popeil of getting "free" money from the government. Star of radio, television and infomercials, Lesko is the living embodiment of the let the government pay for it attitude. Just think about those numbers on your W2 form the next time you hear one of his commercials.

Hell, the guy deserves a flogging just for those jackets.

Something I Have Learned at Work

Spanish language radio is much like English language radio. Namely, they play the same damn songs over and over and over again. I may not know the language all that well, but I can sure spot the same lyrics.

At least the accordians aren't as bad as steel guitar.

He'll Wish He Stayed in the Car

They are calling it the deadliest train accident in Los Angeles history. And it was caused by a botched suicide attempt. If there is anything to be said about suicide is that you don't take other people with you. I would have felt no pity for the guy if he had killed himself. Now, I wish that the police didn't have him on suicide watch. Hell, I'd give him my shoelaces if it would help.

My Kingdom for a Link!

I had such a nice head of steam going for a post today. It stemmed from a news report on the radio about a number of celebrities sending a letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger urging him to allow the issuing of drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. Then I get home and I can't find a link to the story anywhere. I was even set to use it as the inaugural of The Count for 2005.

So, lacking that story to work with, I'll just go with this one:

Gates gives $750M to vaccinate kids

It is stories like this that make it hard to keep a non-stop stream of vituperation aimed at Bill Gates. Let's just hope that these vaccines make it possible for the children to fight off viruses better than Windows XP does.

That was a long way to go for a joke. I think I'll go to bed now.

Photoshop and Idle Hands Can Be a Dangerous Mix

Some people just have no respect. They would take historic photos from the Mars Exploration Rovers and twist them for comic purposes. I almost feel ashamed of myself for laughing my ass off (especially the one with the walkers from The Empire Strikes Back).

I do agree with Professor Reynolds as to my favorite.

Sick and Twisted, But in a Good Way

Disclaimer right off the top: VW had absolutely nothing to do with this ad showing a suicide bomber being foiled by the failure to his VW Polo to turn into shrapnel outside of a cafe. Utterly tasteless, but at the same time giving the sense that the terrorists should be derided.

Link via Andrew Sullivan and AdFreak

This Sounds Like Fun...

Have you ever been on a treasure hunt? My friends and I used to play a game like this. We never actually had anything of value at the end, although a couple of Atomic Fireball Candies were much more prized back then. How about a treasure hunt with some real jewels? The clues are hidden in a children's book, and they will lead to gold tokens hidden in public places that can be redeemed for insect figurines encrusted with gems. While the monetary values would be nice, I would like to see the pieces just for the workmanship. If it is as nice as the article suggests, I think that this would really be a big deal for the jeweler who has partnered with this project.

Three Days Already?

Driving 2 1/2 hours each day to and from work really sucks. I think I may have mentioned that before, but my memory is largely shot by the time I get home. So, for you greatly appreciated readers who still check when I'm not around (Bad blogger! - ed.), I shall now catch up by unloading all of the posts I dictated to the voice memo feature on my cell phone. Has anyone else noticed how cell phones have gotten memo and scheduling features, in addition to the voice memo feature, that make them almost as useful as PDA's? Yes, I am so tired that I am that easily amused.

Anyway, on with the data dump:

Bipartisanship Requires Bipartisan Effort

Much like you can't end a war with discussion from only one side, the divide in Congress will have to be resolved by both sides. Democrats and Republicans are both saying that America needs bipartisan cooperation. What I have read between the lines is that each side is saying, "Shut up and enact our agenda. I see four more years of gridlock, with the government not getting many major initiatives through the system.

If it were not for the automatically increasing budgets, I'd almost call it a victory of Libertarians.

"Complaining Witnesses" Just Doesn't Have the Same Ring

Michael Jackson's lawyers are asking a judge to stop the prosecution from using the term "victim" to describe the boy bringing the charges against him. You know, the victim. Somehow I don't think that the jury is going to be fooled. Give it whatever euphemism you want, those twelve people are still going to be thinking of him that way.

Speaking of juries, I got a summons this week for my turn potentially in the box. I know most people do what they can to get out of it, but since complaining about stupid juries is one of my favorite pastimes, it would be hypocritical of me to not attempt to raise the IQ by what I can.

Survive This

Richard Hatch had quickly discovered the rules and best strategy in winning the first season of Survivior. His idea was to divide and conquer while keeping his perfidity honest, everyone knew he was a snake, so no one felt deeply betrayed.

Being obvious with one's plotting doesn't really cut the muster when it comes to the IRS. Those guys have no sense of humor. Especially when you back file, leaving out the small matter of $1,331,139. Evidently, the computers don't forget the previous returns when they get a new one filed. That must have been one sum to large to ignore.

Right There With Flying Cars

So how long have we been promised biodegradable plastics? So maybe we've had them for a while, but what about useful biodegradable plastic? I'd really like to see if this product from Teijin really pans out.

On a side note, I see that they imply that their resins don't need microbe bearing soil to decompose. Then, at the end of the article, they show pictures of samples from tests done in compost. They got rid of the soil, but not the microbes. The insistance on photodegradable does offer interesting options. Rather than requiring burial in a landfill, this material will supposedly decompose even if unburied and left in the sun. Sounds like a good description of litter to me.

Playing Those Head Games

So the wife of a man who worked at an Austrian estate was spending her nights making the owner of the estate think that his home was haunted. It is certainly a better thing for a disgruntled person to act like a ghost than to make a ghost.

Blogger Ethics

So the new bit of news is the two bloggers who were ont the payroll of the Dean campaign. One of whom, Markos Zuniga, can be found through the Daily Kos link to the right. They were exposed by Zephyr Teachout on her blog as having recieved money ($3000 per month) to push Howard Dean in their writings. She said the following:

With the growing importance of blogs -- short for Web logs -- Ms. Teachout said she thinks bloggers need to rethink their attitudes toward ethics.

Not to be a lazy bum, but ethics is not really my job. Sure, I have them. Whether or not they are up to snuff is a decision left to you folks. I thank those of you who spend the most valuable resource you have, namely your time, in reading this weblog. Whether you continue to do so, and your reasons for choosing either way, is entirely up to you.

In the meantime, I'll keep writing. Enjoy it if you like it.

Another Stop on the Inter-Planet Itenerary

Pictures coming back from Titan, Saturn's largest moon. I don't see this as a tourist destination, when the beaches run up against seas of liquid methane I'd pass on the swim. What would really strike me as a big deal is if the scientists can confirm that those boulders are ice, as in water. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first time that a large amounts of water have been found anywhere other than Earth and Europa near Jupiter? Boulders of ice ready to carve and toss in the tanks. What could be better for long range interplanetary travel?

For the Hermit Who Has Everything

Want some out of the way place where you and seven of your closest friends can just get away from the world for years at a time? Then step right up and put a bid in for Biosphere 2, the only scientific experiment to serve as the inspiration for a Pauly Shore movie. I don't recall what the experiment was supposed to prove, but it did show that being cooped up with seven other people in even a 3.1-acre building can send a person right of the deep-end.

Lack of Trust Can be a Good Thing

I just got home from work, and I'll take it for granted that there has been a deluge of pixels put out on the blogosphere about the Memogate report and the firing of Mary Mapes, the producer responsible for the report that relied on fraudulent documents. A quote from a statement about the report struck me:

"The combination of a new '60 Minutes Wednesday' management team, great deference given to a highly respected producer and the network's news anchor, competitive pressures, and a zealous belief in the truth of the segment seem to have led many to disregard some fundamental journalistic principles," the report said, according to the CBS statement. (Emphasis mine)

Let's leave aside the fact that "fundamental journalistic principles" were ignored in preference to a whole list of pressures that professional journalists have been crying about for years and focus on what I highlighted.

"A zealous belief in the truth of the segment..." Ms. Mapes had been working on this story for five years. Surely that type of dedication is going to draw attention from those who would wish her success. It would also be a sign that she would pounce on any evidence whatsoever that would prove her right. And if that evidence would come along with an iron clad deadline, namely the election, then the skepticism that should be a hallmark of a good reporter would be supressed even further. I heard an interview with former CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg where he expressed his opinion that the liberal consensus of the newsroom probably made true skepticism too hard to maintain, allowing for the initial "error" of airing the story to have a sliver of a chance of being in good faith. It is only a sliver because even if Mary Mapes may have been driven by an excess of zeal, there should have been editors and then Dan Rather to look at the story with cold reason. The secondary failure is theirs.

It has been said about the blogosphere that you can't trust what is written to be free of partisan hackery or out and out ignorance. They are right. The internet is called a "low-trust" environment, nothing should be taken without an unhealthy portion of salt. Don't trust what I write. Only a scant few of the people who read this blog know what type of person I am away from the keyboard. I really am a decent person who honestly tries to approach a topic honestly, but virtually any politically minded hack will say that about themselves.

By approaching what I offer you with a lack of trust, you stand to become better educated by pursuing thought on your own than by anything I can download to you. By not trusting what anyone writes on the internet, you will be more likely to find the truth.

And you would be more like a journalist than Mary Mapes was with the memos.

Let the Reader Beware

Roger L. Simon offers two competing views as to the best response to media bias and the image of objectivity: either surrender the pretense and honestly state the inclination of the reporter, or hold the line and cut down bias ruthlessly. I am of the first opinion. If you have a photograph of something, you can then get more information from it if you know where the picture was taken. As close to all of the information possible is recieved when image is combined with perspective.

One exchange in the comments is very telling. Miriam asks why can't reporters just report the facts. Ross the Heartless conservative responded:

Miriam,
The trouble with the facts is that there are so darn many ways to interpret them and they often don't make a lot of sense without the context. And context can be everything.

If the dollar falls against other major currencies it can be factually reported as making American products more affordable to the overseas market or as weakening the purchase power of the American dollar.

To paraphrase an old political adage the audience determines whether Bourbon is "that elixer of life that soothes a man's nerves after a hard day at work" or if it is "the demon liquid that destroys families and is the scourge of modern civilization". I could find "facts" to support either position.

Image, perspective.

Way to Go, Gov. S.

Governor Schwartzenegger's first step to fame and fortune came from shoving things around that really didn't want to move. At the far end of his career, he is doing it again. This time the inertia is being provided by the California Legislature. You can tell that your precinct has been gerrymandered when the description of the borders is longer than the ballot. The idea of a 50-50 state is all right at the basic level. Having it as one pure Republican district intertwined with a pure Democratic district undoes that. Only a reactive electorate is going to keep the representatives alert to what the people really want.

Scenes From the Imperial Shipyard

One of my favorite bloggers, Stephen Green aka Vodkapundit, had been away from the keyboard for quite a while without explanation. It turns out that he was pressed into service at the Imperial shipyard. Actually, more like pressed, snapped and clicked in order to complete this huge Lego set. 3,104 pieces big.

Damn it looks cool. Too bad I just don't have the patience or a secure place from a cat who would love to be the kamikaze A-Wing from Return of the Jedi.

And Now For a Word From Our Sponsor

Sorry for the light blogging, although from the sitemeter stats it would seem that you guys seem to prefer it when I'm away. I just started the new job this week. Nothing can take the energy from a body like a two hour commute, not to mention waking up at 4:30 in the morning to do it.

There are two things that will help the situation. One is to move closer to work. (If any of you out there know of a cheap apartment or room for rent in the Los Angeles area, please drop me a line.) The other is going to second shift. I have always been of the opinion that it is better to stay up late than get up early. Must be a holdover from my college days. Plus, it means that I could spend my weekends gaming without throwing my body clock completely out of whack. For some reason, seeing dawn on sunday via a too-long tryst with saturday night tends to make monday morning a real bitch.

So, within the next week, I shall be a night shift metallurgist. Somehow that seems to sum me up quite well.

Never Thought I'd Write This

Congratulations to USC (shiver) Trojans. As a die-hard UCLA Bruins fan, I will take some consolation that my team's keisters were handed to them by the national champions.

Obligatory slam: The dual unsportsmanlike conduct penalties from the celebration after the seventh touchdown were uncalled for. Not very classy, and from the score, you guys have obviously been in an endzone before.

Are We Sure We Want to Pick This Fight?

If this comet has a big brother, we might be in for some serious trouble. Yeah, yeah, sure, we'll get to uncover the deeper layers of a comet's nucleus, not to mention the satisfaction of getting the first shot in. I think that I could come up with a story about how the aliens resident within a comet get more than a little huffy by the equivalent of a window broken by the baseball of the little snot nosed brats on the third rock from the sun.

Time to get to work, I smell a movie deal in this.

The Permanence of Past Moments

Warning: This post includes a spoiler to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. If you have not seen or read it and wish to keep the surprise, stop reading now.

Michele of A Small Victory is waxing poetic about the concepts included in a novel called Time After Time. The key concept being that the past is never truly gone, that it exists side by side with the present. Toss in that the future is here as opposed to being somewhere not yet here, and you have a full picture of Einstein's space-time. The image that I like is that all of the pages of the Book of Days has already been written. While the present for the characters in a book is whatever page you happen to be on, the pages that you have read, have not read, the events those pages carry still exist.

Quantum Leap had a good start on this approach to time. All moments touch on one another. If time travel is possible, then it would only be a matter of disconnecting oneself from one "point" in time in favor of another. It fell apart with the idea that there could be a before and after a change to a time line. If there is only one time line, then there is no where outside of that can contain the concepts of "before" and "after".

The best example I have seen in popular entertainment of time travel has been Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The events of that final afternoon happened exactly the same for Harry and Hermione both times they were there, the only difference being their perspective. How they influenced the world in the second go-round (tossing the rock, howling like a wolf, summoning the Patronus) were already manifested for the first go-round. All influences time travelers have or "will" make to our past must have already happened. If it is in the past, it must have already happened because their isn't another schedule to place it on.

So This is 2005

No New Year's Resolutions this year. I know what I need to work on, and I don't need the pressure of some big fat hairy promise tacked on. 2004 was rough. Honestly speaking, I am not a fan of this whole 3rd Millenium so far. But, I am starting a new job, and I hope that optimism gets easier the more I practice it.

Any Opportunity for a Cheap Shot

Tim Blair has a handy round up of articles pertaining to international aid, in particular the United States' contribution. Polly Toynbee of the UK Guardian shows a particular willingness to make the data fit the conclusion:

"Charity begins at home" is the mean-minded dictum of the right, unwilling to spend on foreigners, unwilling to spend on those outside the family fortress at home, either. But there may be a lot of truth in the old maxim. Countries that tolerate vast wealth gaps are unlikely to concern themselves greatly about the poor even further from their door. Countries that give most - the Nordics - are the ones that have created the most socially equal societies at home first. Can America be anything but unjust in dealing with foreigners when it cares so little about the third world poverty within its own borders?

Ms. Toynbee is evidently operating under the assumption that only charity that comes from the government can truly represent the people of that nation. How about we just let the people decide by sending their own, untaxed, money to help the relief effort. If anything, that money is going to be far better spent than it will as it travels through the corrupt channels of numerous governmental bank accounts.

New Year's Wishes

Here's to hoping that 2005 will establish a more pleasant setting for a "normal" year. So go forth, indulge in your intoxicant of choice (cigars and good whiskey for me), and be sure to tip your designated driver a couple of extra shots when he/she gets home.

Deliberately Obtuse

Yes, blogs have done wonderful things in spreading reports from people who are enbedded in the events of the day. Certainly my betters have done some investigations that put broadcast media to shame. Somehow, that last issue didn't seem all that praise worthy in ABC's decision to name bloggers People of the Year. So they think that Trent Lott was the big story that best defines the blogging phenomenom?

I suppose I could give them a break. I mean, it would be a really tough thing to admit that your personal bull is getting gored. ABC is really trying to be the nice guys by throwing this bone while not admitting that it was one Dan Rather shot out of his own foot.

Tragedy Seen from Above

A pair of satellite photos showing a very stark before and after of the city of Banda Aceh. The city is gone. It is worse than any footage or direct experience I have had with earthquakes. I don't pray much, but in the face of something like this, there is little else to do.

Economic Enivronmentalism

It has been a truism for the anti-free-trade position that opening markets world wide will cause multi-national corporations to farm out their polluting processes to countries too poor to make much of a fuss. A Tech Central Station article by Radley Balko points out data that indicates that this is not happening, however. The "Race to the Bottom" described above is running into a new phenomenom named the "Green Ceiling".

The Race to the Bottom implies that the cost of moving the facility, retraining workers, and transporting materials and finished goods will be offset by the lower wages and savings on environmental technologies. While the salaries being paid are, to many people in the developed world, unacceptably low, they are still an increase in wealth to those getting the jobs. What has been seen in many instances though, is that polluting companies are not leaving developed nations.

The reason for this is that the costs are not offset as well as the figuring would accomplish. Not only are environmental technologies not too costly for large corporations, but the option of doing business in areas that are politically unstable is a particular turn off. Nothing like having the winners of the next coup decide that it would be a good idea to nationalize your industry.

The Green Ceiling is where the wealth of the citizenry has risen high enough to meet survival needs and luxuries become affordable. The Race to the Bottom correctly points out that environmental controls are such a concern. The changes don't even need to be regulations on business. The increase in wealth in Mexico has lead to more people being able to afford better engineered cars with catalytic converters and cleaner burning gasoline. If the industries are hit with new regulations, then the decision has to be made again as to the costs/benefits of yet another move. Sooner or later, the bottom has to be reached as to the last place on earth without environmental regulations, or the wage difference between the pittance and pittance just isn't effective.

Is That What Bile Looks Like?

If this column doesn't make Nick Coleman* of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune out to be the epitome of main stream media elitism, then nothing will. Nothing really shows a writer's professionalism like making snide comments about the other side's endowments:

The lads behind Powerline are a bank vice president named Scott Johnson and a lawyer named John Hinderaker. If you read Powerline, you know them better by their fantasy names, Big Trunk (that's Johnson) and Hind Rocket (Hinderaker). I will leave it to the appropriate professionals to determine what they are compensating for, but they have received enormous attention from the despised Mainstream Media and deserve more.

Interesting that Mr. Coleman concludes that the Powerline guys should be getting more attention from mainstream media, presumably in order to uncover just who pulls the bloggers' strings. At least I think that is what he meant. The sloppy use of the pronoun "they" would make it seem it is replacing the antecedant "appropriate professionals". Then again, I'm just an engineer and not a professional writer.

Back to my point about Powerline getting more attention from the main stream media. I think that it would be a good thing for a reporter or columnist to do research into a story on these guys. Most especially if they do the research before they write the column. I tried to find one fact or snippet beyond mere innuendo that indicates that Powerline got marching orders from anyone. What say you Mr. Coleman? Are you ready to do a little reportage of the pick-up-the-phone-and-call-them variety? Explore the site even slightly (oh, no, work!) and you can find the phone numbers of these gentlemen.

*sorry about the registration requirement. I usually make it a point not to link to such sites, but it is almost worth the hassle of coming up with a fake name and a pre-designated junk e-mail address to take a look at this piece of work.

Been Looking Forward to a Good Headrollin'

Some quick initial reactions on the removal of the CIA Deputy for Analysis.

1. In cases such as the systemic failures that had occurred in the CIA, it is appropriate to fire both the manager and the team.

2. The lady had a hard job, being essentially the only department that actually collected and analyzed data. The other branches, operations and human intelligence, where so hamstrung by congressional and media tsk-tsk'ers that they were reduced to virtually nothing.

3. Anybody who puts out a report that essentially says, "Maybe they do and maybe they don't," should get out of the business in favor of someone who could write a report like that (like me) for a lot less money.

The Count is Now: 120

Talk about ingratitude. I would be curious as to how much the home country of Jan Egeland, the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, gives in those causes. Calling the United States and other wealthy nations stingy hardly seems the diplomatic way of putting things. I wonder if he was looking only at the monies given by the governments or included private giving? I'll take a chance and say the former, which would indicate a true redistributionist mindset at the highest levels of the UN.

I personally think that the truly downtrodden parts of the world would be better off in the long term with less "aid" being sucked up by the corrupt regimes that keep said people downtrodden. Better to have smaller charities dishing the help directly to the people rather than governments blindly air dropping the goods to whomever is strong enough to take it. With the recent track record of the UN with respect to humanitarian causes, I don't think that Mr. Egeland is in a position to talk.

History of The Count below. Looking back at it, it seems that the "Bush voter = stupid" meme has had at least a year to get started.

Maybe the Last Addition to the Storage Locker This Year

Dave Barry's Year in Review with a little equal opportunity slam dancing. Case in point:

Meanwhile, in another blow to the U.S.-led coalition effort in Iraq, Spain withdraws its troop, Sgt. Juan Hernandez. As violence in Iraq escalates, critics of the Bush administration charge that there are not enough U.S. soldiers over there. Administration officials heatedly deny this, arguing that the real problem is that there are too many Iraqis over there.

In the words of one high-level official (who is not identified in press reports because of the difficulties involved in spelling "Condoleezza"), the administration "may have to relocate the Iraqis to a safer area, such as Ecuador." John Kerry calls this "a ridiculous idea," adding, "I wholeheartedly endorse it."

Embrace the absurd: it will be there anyway, so you might as well get used to it.

Link Via The Daily Dish

The Tail of The Power Curve

Welcome to the shallow end of the Blogosphere Power Curve, or as I like to refer to it, the primordial ooze. The latest attention-grabbing idea is The Long Tail, where the trailing portion of the power curve approaches zero but never quite gets there. The article from Wired examines the effect of making the long tail of the popularity curve available to the people whose taste makes them occupants of the tail, but because of scarcity of transportation and retail space were SOL.

Take books: The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are (see "Anatomy of the Long Tail"). In other words, the potential book market may be twice as big as it appears to be, if only we can get over the economics of scarcity. Venture capitalist and former music industry consultant Kevin Laws puts it this way: "The biggest money is in the smallest sales."

Or as I sometimes put it: He who becomes the wealthiest does so in the smallest possible increments.

Blogs are the production aspect of the argument that Wired makes in its article. I hope that I have found a few like minded souls out there who enjoy my work. Maybe someday I'll pop out a post that because of its insight is carried on by some of you and into the positive feedback loop of more and more people saying, "this is a good idea, please take a look at it."

That would be nice. I'm not holding my breath for it, though. Sometimes you're the brilliant idea, most of the time you're the feedback loop. What is really important in the quest for new ideas is that someone, somewhere, is having a great new idea. If they have a blog, even better, because then someone might read the idea and agree. If that person has a blog and advances the idea, then there are two sets of preferably non-identical readerships that are now exposed to the idea. And they'll tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and you get the idea. Where the article talks about pulling consumers down the tail of the power curve, eventually the ideas created in the tail (aka primordial soup) tend upwards. As it goes, the idea is challenged and refined, and ultimately may break out of the 'sphere entirely.

Not a bad outcome for the lone voice in the wilderness. Then again, in the wild west of the blogosphere, you are never really alone.

Good Idea, but Not All That Useful

I am going to need a bit more context to justify my first impression of this article where Mr. Waverley Person suggests that the death toll was so high because the affected nations did not have early warning systems that might have given the victims time to escape.

"Most of those people could have been saved if they had had a tsunami warning system in place or tide gauges," he said yesterday.

"And I think this will be a lesson to them," he said, referring to the governments of the devastated countries.

The context that I would need is the ability to spread information across those regions and the mobility of the inhabitants. I can see this happening in areas where people just don't have the access to information to know even if they need to evacuate. I would be surprised if a majority of them even knew there had been an earthquake if they hadn't felt it themselves. Secondly, what was the area of devastation? Was it a relatively thin ribbon along hundreds of miles of coastline, or was it a shorter front with deeper penetration? In the first case, it would only have been a short run inland to avoid the inundation, and any warning would have been useful. If it was the second case, then a lead time of only "20 minutes to 2 hours" would only serve to catch people on the road.

One last point, this quote, also from Mr. Person:

"People along the Japanese coasts, along the coasts of California - people are taught to move away from the coasts. But a lot of these people in the area where this occurred - they probably had no kind of lessons or any knowledge of tsunamis because they are so rare." Emphasis mine

I have lived in California my entire life, most of it in spitting distance of the San Andreas Fault. I have never heard anything in all of my voluminous education regarding earthquakes about moving away from the shoreline out of concern for tsunamis. Having tried to get out of the Dodger Stadium parking lot after the July 4 fireworks, I know that my fellow Californians do not really grasp the idea of an orderly exit. I shudder to think what it would look like if the word came down that the Big One would hit the next day, and the image of evacuating the coastline inside of an hour is absurd to the point of tragic.

Link via Instapundit.

Ho Ho Frickin' Ho

I wrote before about running out of gas for the holidays. The only thing I really have left is my sense of humor. In hoping that you still have yours, I offer a couple of pilfered links. Did I mention that I'm sick of shopping too?

Prof. Instapundit gets to the true meaning of Festivus with a New York Times article:The New York Times > Fashion & Style > Fooey to the World: Festivus Is Come. I can see where the airing of grievances can lead to the wrestling.

Michele at A Small Victory makes a seasonal offering in her own particular idiom: Weird Al Yankovic's The Night Santa Went Crazy. Sorry about the link chain, if I knew how to link directly to MP3's I would have stolen it outright. Lord knows I'm going to think twice about leaving my flue open tomorrow night.

An Off Kilter Holiday Season

I'm just not feeling it this year. With the drama of my Dad's trip to the hospital and some other personal goings on, it seems that too much of the down side of life has been piling on to really get into the spirit. I feel for my sister who hosted her first Thanksgiving dinner. Making time to visit Dad, then starting dinner late without our parents there kind of dampened the whole event. With trypto-coma setting in at 9:00 pm, no one was really in a mood to stick around for pie.

There's another way that can throw off the holiday spirit. That's getting your presents early. The allure of a massively commercialized day of celebration based on a religious observance scheduled to pre-empt an older religious observance, neither of which really holding much reverence for me, is currently nill now that I've already gotten the two things that are really important to me. The first is my Dad back, at home and a fair distance down the road to recovery. The second is a strong dose of self-respect in the form of a job that I have been training for for years.

Christmas 2004? Been there, done that.

Mandatory Vacations for Reporters

Their is one thing that I really don't like about this time of the year. It isn't the over commercialization or the berserk crowds at the malls. I mean, who needs the Ultimate Fighting Championships when there is only one I-Pod left in the store?

No, my problem are the news stories that wouldn't be stories if not for the fact that the holidays (starting with Thanksgiving) are slow news days. Elian Gonzalez, the day after Thanksgiving. Laci Peterson, Christmas Eve. Jon-Benet Ramsey, the day after Christmas. News reports were dominated for months for each of these stories.

So what say we all pitch in and buy vacations for all of the news divisions, CNN and Foxnews? I'm sure we could all use the break.

Tone Down the Hype, Please

I really don't like the way the Daily Dish clumps its posts together. It makes it difficult to set a decent permalink, but I'll work around it for this post.

The news that Google is digitizing the contents of five major libraries strikes me as a good thing. More people with more access to information is the key to a greater rate of innovation.

Much like prognostications of the power of the internet pre-tech stock crash, however, the characterization of the impact is reaching ludicrous proportions. I mean, comparing a Googlized library to "the Mind of God"? Intimating that level of power to this information under his control can backfire. I've already been hearing of conspiracy theories of what is to come. Because the digital format is so malleable with no proper way to identify changes, it will be too easy to alter the data that people see, a la Winston Smith of 1984. And much like Big Brother, that type of information will be used to control the people.

I don't buy it. It is precisely because people already know that data can be changed in a blink online that makes the blogosphere a very sensitive bullshit detector. Whatever particularly useful texts that exist in these libraries will also exist in countless copies elsewhere either online or physically. If changes are made, it will inevitably cross paths with someone familiar with the original. The fact that it is Google and renowned libraries only gives the enterprise a starting reputation. If that power is abused, then the bubble reputation will burst.

Channeling Nelson Munz

You know, the bully from The Simpsons. I just couldn't help but feel the "Ha Ha" coming out of me when I read about Spammers ordered to pay $1 billion. I know, it was in absentia, but if you could put a price tag on all of the aggravation endured, then I think we could all agree that any money coming to that one ISP should be divied up. Haven't we all felt that pain?

How Did I Miss That?

Yesterday was my First Blogiversary! The one thing I've noticed about my writing, concise is good.

Blog of the Year? Works for Me.

Congrats to Power Line for having won the inaugural Time Magazine Blog of the Year.

I don't believe that the blogosphere meritted Person of the Year, but this new award, appropriate for a new thing, is just right. It is major attention brought to the table, but not as The Big Thing with which the curious might come to and be disapointed. Kind of like a movie that all of your friends have raved about, but when you see it all it does for you is, "Eh." This award lets blogs be blogs, not some earth shattering event that comes up short of the hype.

Hot Damn!

I have been unemployed for the past several months. My major is something of an obscure field. I could have taken a hint when I graduated from UCLA when there were 250 electrical engineers, 250 computer scientists, and 14 materials engineers. Then again, that was in '97 and before the tech sector collapse.

That condition has ended. I have found a position with a materials testing firm. Its just what I need at this point, both professionally and personally. WaHoo!!

Press Start and Tune Out

We've all done it. Tuning out of reality while engrossed in a book or a tv show or a video game. There may be some advantage to that. A study has shown that kids allowed to play Game Boy immediately prior to surgical anesthesia experienced less anxiety prior to surgery than those who received tranquilizers or the comfort of a parent.

It reminded me of an article in Scientific American that reported on the effectiveness of virtual reality in theraputic settings. The article described some of the well known applications of VR in treating phobias. The instance I am more interested in is its use as an escape from sensation. Precisely, it was a study of children's experience of pain as they underwent cleanings of severe burn injuries. The process is normally incredibly painful, but subjects reported far less pain when they immersed themselves in an virtual environment where they had snowball fights with snowmen. In general, the more immersive (3D vs. flat screen, playing with friends and family vs. solo) the greater the pain dulling effect. I also think that the cold theme also helped them to separate from the sensations resulting from a hot connotation.

The Boy's Not Right

I firmly believe that great ideas come from the combination of two or more ideas that seem to have nothing in common. In some cases, however, the results can be disturbing. Such as, who on earth would wonder about the skeletal structures of cartoon characters, and then go through the process of drawing them. I guess its a hobby that keeps him off the streets.

Link via Farm Accident Digest

A Ranom Bit of Philosophy

Its always something. When something happens there's no use getting worked up over it. Obviously getting worked up did nothing to prevent something from happening. Save your dander for the important stuff.

This post was brought to you by the guy who almost put his fist through the monitor after Blogspot ate this entry the first time through.

The Real Meaning of Free Speech

Doc in the Box has a few parting thoughts as he leaves the Mojave Desert enroute ultimately to his new assignment in Iraq. Perhaps his best point is about freedom of speech and the need for mutual respect for it to really work. I thought I'd add my two cents.

I'm of the opinion that the Founding Fathers weren't all that into noise pollution or having once-read pamplets littering the streets. That's all speech is without one critical addition: a receptive mind to consider the content. It was that part of the equation that was the focus of the 1st Amendment, not the producer, but the consumer. How can I as a citizen make the best possible choices for myself when I don't know what all of the options are? I can decide for myself what is worthwhile once I have heard it. Everytime you see a speech by someone unpopular get disrupted by protesters, consider that it was the right to decide whether the speaker had a point or not was violated for every member of the audience.

Of course we have freedom to speak (or write). It would all be so much noise, however, without the other person's right to hear it and maybe be swayed by it. That is what the protester fears.

Peterson's Punishment

This is California. The sentencing phase wasn't so much as to whether Scot Peterson should live or die, but whether he would spend the rest of his life in prison or spend the rest of his life in prison waiting to be executed. Given that California has 600+ people on Death Row, and that the state manages to execute them at about one a year, I somehow doubt that Peterson is really going to be waiting around for that date.

Remember, if capital punishment had been legal when he was sentenced, Charles Manson would still be waiting for the needle.

A Fine Way to Get the Dander Up

I mean, really. How can you put up a nativity scene with Posh Spice as the Virgin (ahem) Mary and not expect people to get upset about it. That it was vandalized strikes me as not a good move. What this strikes me as is a situation where some people take this too seriously (the vandal) and some not seriously enough (Madame Tussaud's). Kylie Minogue as an angel? Please.

A Continuing Metaphor

The metaphor being news services acting as public sector intelligence agencies. Instapundit kicks over a couple of links regarding the CBS internal investigation. It seems that some people at the network are fighting against full public release of the report.

There is a certain order that happens when the CIA has investigations like this. Someone even thinks that a report given to the public is incomplete, and eventually the full version is leaked. Ultimately, I have faith that CBS is going to get another lesson in how they have lost control over the flow of information.

Pure Ideas Seldom Work

Andrew Sullivan gives a quick tally of expanding marriage rights around the world. His post touches on how the canadian developments are happening without judicial interference, and he takes on David Frum about whether their process is "democratic". Andrew concedes that sometimes good things happen in ways that are not democratic, ie Brown vs. Board of Education.

To say that something is good only if it was decided democratically is dangerous. It places the definition of good onto the process as opposed to the result. As Andrew implies, school desegregation was a good thing, yet it might not have happened to this day had the Supreme Court stepped in said that it was unconstitutional.

A couple of years ago I was a regular haunter of The Fray message boards over at Slate, where I used the screen name of Synthesist. I got into a running argument over whether the make-it-up-as-you-go-along culture of Los Angeles was a good thing or beneath disdain. I took the pro, and another guy took the con. His argument was that LA's "culture" was so mutagenic that nothing was kept long enough for authenticity to develop. I took the position that the lack of a deep history allowed LA to be a true cultural laboratory where ideas that didn't work could be discarded without the inertia of tradition.

Toward the end of the argument he went ad hominem and pointed to my screen name as proof of my disdain for any lasting value, that I prefered the synthetic to the authentic. He missed the point I was trying to make of the way I come to ideas, namely Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis. (I think that was Hegel, but I'm not sure. The danger of being a part-time philosopher.) An idea, Thesis, is proposed, and a competing idea or negation, Antithesis, arised to challenge it. Finally, the best parts of both ideas are brought together to create a new idea, Synthesis. The Synthesis, being a new idea becomes the new thesis, and the process begins anew.

The Founding Fathers did not trust pure democracy. Hence we have the representative framework. They also added a touch of autocracy to the process. The Supreme Court was to either say No to an idea in light of the Constitution, or allow it by their silence. I do think that anything beyond a strict interpretation would invite the court to overstep its bounds, and the Court has come up with some real howlers over the years. If the Constitution is a contract between the Government and the People, however, then someone has to arbitrate and keep both sides within its strictures.

Democracy is the voice of the People. But if the People are bound by the Constitution, then their actions may be judged unconstitutional as well. And I wouldn't have it any other way, thank you very much.

Now That's Odd

From his amazingly deep library of vintage advertisements, James Lileks posts a rather candid 1943 tampon ad. I'm sure that someone could come up with a doctoral thesis on gender roles in WWII based on the cartoon of the woman in the munitions factory wearing heels. Nowadays, I'm sure that OSHA would have something to say about that.

Sounds Good, But...

I would like to take this pledge from the ACLU to

join with over 400,000 ACLU members and supporters to help ensure that the President, his administration, and our leaders in Congress fulfill their duty to preserve, protect, and defend our Constitution.

I can't because if I really joined them then I'd be with them on the sidelines when it comes to the Second Amendment. All of it is important.

Cart, Meet Horse

In the New York Times (registration required) David Brooks looks at the Red State/Blue State divide in light of fertility rates. His opinion is that the decision to have a large family is a rejection of materialistic and individualistic values. This was reflected in a very strong correlation in the presidential vote:

You can see surprising political correlations. As Steve Sailer pointed out in The American Conservative, George Bush carried the 19 states with the highest white fertility rates, and 25 of the top 26. John Kerry won the 16 states with the lowest rates.

The cost/benefit ratio is calculated very differently when one's offspring are involved. The costs that can be handled by adults would be overwhelming for children. Kids are the driving force in the growth of suburbs.

What I am not so certain about is the implication in this line:

Natalists resist the declining fertility trends not because of income, education or other socioeconomic characteristics. It's attitudes. People with larger families tend to attend religious services more often, and tend to have more traditional gender roles.

This construction, decision for a large family then religious affiliation, only works if the individual was the first generation of believer, the one who was not religious prior to the decision for family. Since families are in the business of generations, this falls flat. How then could it characterise those whose parents had made the decision to family, then religion, and raisbed their children to be religious, who then went on to have large families? By nature of the issue, the number of those raised religious will rapidly come to outnumber those of the first generation.

I may be misreading his demographic terminology, but it does read so that it undercuts his final point that the Red States are not wanting to wage cultural "jihad" on the Blue States. Even the final point can be brought into question:

What they cherish, like most Americans, is the self-sacrificial love shown by parents. People who have enough kids for a basketball team are too busy to fight a culture war.

I would think that with that many kids, who has time to monitor their TV, music, and video games as well? Wouldn't it be so much easier if their weren't those things to worry about? If they had moved out to the suburbs so that their kids wouldn't be exposed to that type of thing, then what would be the reaction to discover that those things had followed them?

via Instapundit

Update on the Dad Front

Dad got home on Friday. Still tired and moivng slow, but only what you'd expect. I asked him how he was feeling yesterday, and he said that he felt like a whipped puppy. Given that he had been feeling like a run-over puppy previously, it is an improvement.

Pardonez moi, Monsieur

So let me get this straight, French security officials were testing their bomb-sniffing dogs by slipping explosives into passengers' luggage. It gets even better when said officials have admitted that they have failed to prevent five ounces of explosives from getting on the plane or to recover those explosives. Worst case scenario: upon unpacking, the owner of the luggage feeling lucky that he got through security after forgetting to remove some of his explosives.

In the same vein, Canadian officials are looking into missing uniforms for security officers. Some have even been found on E-bay.

It's almost vindicating to see that others are as incompetent on security as we are. Almost.

Rampant Self-Esteem

Andrew Sullivan leaps to the defense of Prince Charles in his latest article. The incident he writes about is Charles having written a rather politically incorrect memo regarding a wrongful termination and sexual discrimination suit from a former employee. He has run into the problem that many employers run into, namely how can one make necessary distinctions between people when equality must be served above all else.

I'm agreeing with Andrew, and Prince Charles, that Western Culture has gone overboard in the everyone-can-acheive-anything worldview. So long as one does not know one's limits, the danger of setting expectations beyond one's capabilities is ever present. I recall a parody of Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour in which a complete loser on the dance squad talks about the hostility against those with the disability of being unable to dance. I know that no one is ever going to pay me for a drawing, hence, I don't waste my time.

Speaking of wasting my time, the new season of American Idol is starting soon. I only watch the try-out episodes chock full of people desperate for the message that they are not good singers. Simon may seem to be excessively cruel, but no one said that ripping off blinders would be painless.

I Know What I Wrote

I said earlier that blogging would be light this weekend after my father's release from the hospital. This blogging is basicly me in a holding pattern. My mobile phone is sitting next to the computer. [/Final Jeopardy theme]

Oh, The Poor Dears

The BBC is wringing its hands over the new screen saver put out by Lycos Europe that bombards the servers of a select few spammers with hundreds of data requests. Much like Brian Micklethwait I too am confused by the upset tone of the article. It would seem that two of the servers have gone down completely, and a third is struggling to keep up with the hits. From what I have seen of the BBC, they tend to be pretty hostile to business concerns. Maybe its that it is people taking power into their own hands. As to the argument:

"If you do manage to swamp the spammers then you set yourself up for more attacks in return," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus firm Sophos.

We all know the love of the BBC for decrying anything that looks "pre-emptive", but that is hardly the case here. The invasion of the inboxes has already occurred. This is nothing more than a massive retaliatory strike. Feels good, doesn't it?

Why Be a Nation When You Are Your Own World?

I took this country quiz at Blue Pyramid. I don't know how they came up with this. I'm wondering how my answers became this, but I'm sure there's some people who would nod their heads and say, "Yep, that's him":

You're Afghanistan!

In the words of Bob Dylan, you "haven't known peace and quiet
in so long [you] don't remember what it's like!"  Sad but true.  Boss
after boss has led you around, using you for their nefarious purposes, and dumping you
when the time was right.  You've hurt and been hurt and now you're just sick and tired.
 When will people leave you alone and let you do your own thing?  But you
don't really even know what you want anymore.
Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

Link via Electric Venom

Yee Hah!!

Dad is coming home tomorrow. Blogging may be light through the weekend.

But What Will the Idiots Do With It?

I really don't care what happens to idiots when they do idiotic things. The danger of someone darting out into traffic while playing human Pacman causes me more concern for the damage to the car and potential mental trauma to the driver than for the idiot who did the darting. You roll the dice and you take your chances.

Anoter good on the surface idea is airborne taxi service. I'm all for new ideas for getting into town having commuted into Los Angeles. This one stinks. Problem #1: there is no graceful way to pull over should mechanical difficulties arise. I don't worry too much for the driver (pilot?) and passengers, they chose the risk. Commuting is bad enough, commuting with the risk of someone crashing into you from above is a little too much. Get hit from above, and it won't be a fender bender. Problem #2: Are security officials going to be keen on the idea of privately operated aircraft flying into the heart of the city? This service would be shut down with the slightest hiccup of the security level. Lastly, and not really part of risk assesment, $90 each way. I understand that fares would be route dependant and are comparable to ground taxi fares, but at that price, I can see why more people don't take ground taxis.

Jumping on the Ol' Bandwagon

One of the hallmarks of a successful company is that it lets few opportunities pass by. Given that they were the subject of the Final Jeopardy answer that broke Ken Jenning's win streak on Jeopardy at 74 and $2,520,700:

Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.

H&R Block has announced that they will provide Ken's tax and financial planning services free of charge. Not that he really needs to economize on that, but the publicity is definitely worth more than those fees. Let's see how good H&R Block really is if they can do something about this:

Jennings will probably owe about $1.04 million in federal and Utah taxes on the winnings, Byers said, citing preliminary calculations by H&R Block.