No Watermelons Allowed

Homeschool her

2011-03-29T23:03:00.000-05:00

Some parents in FL seem to think that it's safe to send their kid to school when she has a very severe peanut allergy. They are willing to leave their child's welfare in the hands of a bunch of other children who might or might not observe precautions to protect their little girl. Isn't that reckless endangerment?

They can't depend on the rest of the world to be competent to observe the precautions needed to protect the girl. Certainly they can't depend on kids who ordinarily wouldn't be permitted to cross the street without a crossing guard. I know I went to school with some idiots who would have thought it would be really cool to see an ambulance come to the school.

IMO they should homeschool her. Whether they think society owes them public schooling or not, they can't be sure that the schools can provide it safely. And all the cries of the bleeding hearts can't change that.

Shut up and sing

2011-02-28T00:16:00.000-06:00

"Justice will come. I'm sure," Shakira told The Associated Press after the award ceremony. "Wherever there is ... a kid, who could be the son or the daughter of a Latino immigrant, who cannot attend a school in the United States of America, that kid should be a concern to all of us and our responsibility."No sweetie. What should be of concern is that he can't attend a school in *his own* country.

Deepwater Horizon's final hours

2010-12-26T21:23:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times.

Lame hall of fame

2010-10-10T14:58:00.000-05:00

I wonder what the reality-based community will make of this - Marcy Kaptur can't tell a reenactment from real life.

Vote her out, so we can stop the Democrats' ongoing Depression reenactment.

A permanent solution to a temporary problem

2010-10-03T23:57:00.001-05:00

When I first heard of the Tyler Clementi suicide I thought it was time for a Singapore style caning of the perps who thought it would be cool to put a webcam on him. As for Tyler Clementi...

I've known more suicides than I care to recall, and a bonus one that only failed because of a major last-minute intervention at an emergency room. Incidentally, that survivor lived another 30+ years.

Thanks loads to all of you. Yeah, your problems ended. And you left a bunch of people behind who wonder what they might have done about it and various other messes. Including, in one case, a mess of blood, skull fragments and brains on the outside of a house. Some kids got to see that, including his own.

Or there was the high school kid I knew who was scared to death after he wrecked the family car. His father was strict - what would he do? As it turned out, he buried his son with the top of his skull blown off.

What could the father have done to deserve that? Should he have gone out and killed himself too?

Yep, some people have terrible diseases. They're helpless, in physical pain beyond what I can imagine, etc. OK, it's your life, do what you want. Having watched someone die from brain cancer, I'm on board with that.

I know someone else who's done time and has had a drug habit. His father had a failed suicide attempt, but all his mother's brothers succeeded (I knew them all). He spent months out of work looking every day at a little boy he couldn't support, and being an ex-con doesn't help his prospects. He doesn't have a gun that I know of, but there's always poison, ropes, knives, gas, electricity, cars, windows, bridges... Gosh, what's he hanging around for?

And then there's someone who's mortified, like Tyler Clementi. Yeah, he sure got his privacy invaded. I can see him being pathologically ticked off, pursuing all kinds of legal relief, and making sure that everyone on earth knew what a snake he roomed with. Or maybe transferring to another school. But suicide?

Am I being hard on him and his family? Maybe, but he's already gone. Let's think of the living - the people who might make a better decision if this were presented as a monumental mistake, and a very cruel trick on everyone who cared about him that went far beyond what was done to him.

It certainly wasn't inevitable. After all, the other guy in the video stream had his privacy invaded too - did he kill himself?

And the perps? They got outed too, in the New York Times and untold links, mortification far beyond anything that happened to Tyler Clementi before he killed himself. Should people back off lest they should kill themselves too? Maybe some people will think twice about playing mean tricks now, but let's not overdo it.

Oh yeah, the ex-con. He finally found a job even in this economy. He's not a model citizen yet, but he knows that I and others will kick his butt with gusto he fouls up again, and he's trying.

Because where there's life, there's hope...

Sam the sponge

2010-09-09T06:31:00.000-05:00

My Silent Business Partner

Plan B

2010-09-09T06:04:00.000-05:00

Claudia Rosett has much to say about Imam Feisal. No doubt she could have gone on for much longer, but only had so much space to work with.

The jaw-dropper was this: "How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?" How about renouncing terror, stating that it is inconsistent with Islam and thus terrorists are infidels, apologizing to the victims, and using his Ground Zero site as a Victims of Terrorism museum?

Imam: Moving Mosque Could Ignite Violence

2010-09-09T05:39:00.000-05:00

Exactly what is it besides getting their way that *doesn't* enrage extremist Muslims?

Of course about now even the tamest observant Muslims must be a little cranky, after almost a month of starving all day for Ramadan. I haven't been around enough Muslims for long enough to know what percent really observe it. I doubt that they're any better at living by their book than other religions are at observing theirs.

But one custom that's really easy to observe is Eid al-Fitr, which is at the end of Ramadan. Yeah, you'd do something special too after spending a month of long summer days without eating during daylight, whether you really observed it or not. It lasts 3 days, and this year those three days happen to include 9/11.

Ramadan and thus Eid al-Fitr are based on a lunar calendar, and thus effectively were scheduled for this year long before 9/11. So there's nothing deliberately provocative about the timing of Eid this year.

Even so, I'm hoping nobody does anything to enrage extremist Americans.

Carnival of Nuclear Energy 17

2010-09-07T06:07:00.000-05:00

Back when I started blogging years ago I used to write fairly often about nuclear power. Much has happened in blogging since, and I'm glad to see stuff like Carnival of Nuclear Energy 17.

Link via Glenn Reynolds, whose hit counter surely must start smoking every time I link to him. Especially after I haven't blogged anything for over 8 months - what have you poor people been doing?

If you think health care costs an arm and a leg...

2010-09-07T05:51:00.001-05:00

...consider that this woman didn't take advantage of it, and it cost her an arm and two legs.

Required reading

2010-09-06T19:54:00.001-05:00

Amazon.com: More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite (9781594202551): Sebastian Mallaby: Books

Disrespecting the dead

2010-09-06T18:15:00.001-05:00

FOXNews.com - Tennessee high school teacher arrested after teens say he held them at gunpoint at cemetery

This story sounds incomplete to me. I'm willing to believe that there are wacko teachers. But I've seen plenty of desecrated cemeteries too.

Which reminds me of this class act. Why there, when there's a much more deserving target here?

I'm not saying I'll never complain again

2009-12-30T00:43:00.000-06:00

But I should feel kind of sheepish about it after reading about Martha Mason

The dark side of Dubai

2009-12-18T21:54:00.000-06:00

Amazing

Stolen from The Urbanophile

Boston College: Ability to Use a Command Line is a Sign of Criminal Activity | Tech FAQ Blog

2009-07-12T05:05:00.000-05:00

How sad is this?

This is why neighbors call them "massholes"

2009-07-02T10:21:00.000-05:00

The people of Massachusetts owe it to the rest of the country to throw Barney Frank out. Not just at the next election. Now.

Not content with his role in screwing up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he wants to grab repaid TARP money for one of his latest housing schemes, as mentioned
here.

I have a better idea. Set up a fund to be used to recall Congressmen. We can start with Frank. Then how about Nancy Pelosi?

Or how about a new tax proposal? We'll calculate how much in taxes each Congressman votes for each year, and we'll fine their campaign funds accordingly. And we'll tax their donors at the rates their candidate would have imposed.

Or better yet, how about a change in the rules such that the House and Senate automatically expel the members who voted for the most spending each fiscal year? We might finally start getting more turnover. And maybe some hope for a change.

Yep, I've had enough. I haven't managed to hit a Tea Party yet. I also missed a local event to notify a RINO that he had no business voting for that "cap and tax" abomination that he couldn't possibly have even read, much less assimilated.

No more.

At least he wasn't a lacrosse player

2009-06-27T16:11:00.001-05:00

Duke Official Charged With Offering 5-Year-Old Son for Sex - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Too obscure? See this

Margaret Sanger's nightmare

2009-06-21T13:42:00.003-05:00

I guess it's easier to write 1 story than 11 or more, but this is just a tad unbalanced. Someone allegedly fathered 21 kids by "at least 11" different mothers, and it takes until the last paragraph to note that "one has to wonder about the women who chose to have his children".

If that man had never been born, does anyone really think none of this would have happened? But for him, these women would have been virgins?

Is a 29 year old with a minimum wage job so devastatingly attractive to those women that they were simply incapable of resisting? Even though all the women allegedly knew about his large family?

Or was he just a bottom feeder who'd hook up with any loser who wanted her ticket to the govt gravy train?

Gravy train? It's true that many of us wouldn't want to live on govt programs. But I went to school in small towns, and in small towns everybody knows of everybody. Including the trash. I wound up knowing plenty of people that were very pleased to live in ways I wouldn't have chosen. If it takes popping a kid to get benefits they wouldn't have otherwise, then come and get it!

Raising kids is cheap if they're just a means to an end. Just take care of them well enough to keep off the radar of govt family services types, who are probably too busy to investigate much anyway, and it's years of freebies!

Cynical? No, just experienced. I've seen it more times than I care to recall - I can only imagine what social workers see. We can't project our own aspirations on others.

More from the last paragraph: "In the end, the children and the taxpayers of Tennessee will pay for their choices for years to come."

Perhaps the word "choice" wasn't a code word (as in "why didn't the mothers kill them? - we must not have enough abortionists!"). Pardon my suspicions - the pro-abortion types don't seem to address that choosing started long before the pregnancies, and Planned Parenthood makes a lot of money performing abortions.

But even abortion were free and available within 5 minutes, they're missing the point. It's all about having the kids to qualify for benefits.

And the only thing that will stop that is reducing or ending the benefits.

I'm sure Margaret Sanger, exalted saint of Planned Parenthood, would agree.

Remedial education

2009-06-12T08:10:00.001-05:00

Cue "I Will Survive" - Contessa Brewer has been called "slutty" in public and lived to tell. Which apparently explains her incredulity at anyone, such as Sarah Palin, objecting to such a characterization. It's just comedy!

Maybe that's not an issue on the left. But I don't recall anyone on the left calling Bill Clinton or Nina Burleigh slutty. At least if they'd called Clinton slutty they could say they weren't being sexist. (and if he doesn't merit this, what does it take?)

I know nothing of Contessa Brewer's conduct, and I'm only quoting her from a video above. But somehow it wouldn't bother me a bit if Googling "slutty" showed Contessa Brewer at the top of the list.

2009-05-06T00:57:00.001-05:00

Andrew Sullivan must really miss all those fact checkers from his days as a journalist. The latest folly is from his claims that Winston Churchill didn't condone torture. Here is one site calling BS: there are many more.

But it gets better. Our Churchill also gassed Kurds with mustard gas.

Maybe next we'll hear that gassing isn't torture. Maybe if it kills people fast enough...

But no:

Make no mistake, mustard gas can be lethal. But it doesn't kill quickly. Rather fatalities primarily result from secondary broncho-pneumonia. Approximately 2 percent of all casualties who wore a respirator died from their injuries in World War I, compared to a death rate of 50 percent of those exposed without a respirator [source: The Medical Front]. The highest number of fatalities occurred after the third or fourth day of exposure, with the most extreme cases taking up to three to four weeks

Too bad Barack Obama bought Sullivan's nonsense. And now, having sold the CIA down the river, he might have to pay a price for that.

Coming soon to a health provider near you

2009-05-03T04:39:00.002-05:00

Setting: doctor's office.
Receptionist: Sorry sir, you have no health insurance.
Patient: What do you mean? Barack Obama socialized medicine, we're all covered now.
Receptionist: Yes, but you didn't make your health insurance payments.
Patient: What payments? It's free!
Receptionist: My records show that you haven't made donations to the Democrats.

Far fetched? I sure hope so. But to suggest that govt controlled health care won't be influenced by politics is impossibly naive.

Hey, I'm not dogmatic. But I think that people who would give the govt more responsibilities would do well should insist that we get rid of the existing corruption and improve the performance of existing functions first. Is there something partisan about that?

How conveeeeeenient

2009-04-28T20:41:00.002-05:00

Shortly after mass gatherings across the country to tell Congress that they're sick of pork, we have warnings about swine flu.

That's one way to try to suppress future rallies, anyway. How nice it is to know that after hundreds of billions for bailouts, there's one thing this administration won't waste. Crises.

If you've ever considered eating a gun....

2009-04-16T01:40:00.001-05:00

How can Glenn Reynolds not link to this? It's about pork, bacon and guns.

Stolen shamelessly from The Corner.

Lemon Aid?

2009-03-24T19:17:00.000-05:00

Concert aims to break record, boost support for U.S. auto industry

No watermelons allowed

2009-02-27T07:26:00.000-06:00

Calif. Mayor Who Sent White House Watermelon Patch E-Mail Quits - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com

Inexperienced Arrogant President Street?

2009-01-26T09:16:00.000-06:00

Renamed schools, streets mark early tributes to Obama - USATODAY.com

Multipliers?

2009-01-26T09:11:00.001-06:00

Remember what happened once Bill Clinton got into office? One of the first things on the agenda was a "stimulus package", which had an uncanny way of winding up benefiting his Democrat supporters.

Now the Dems have a new scheme dwarfing Clinton's. Read this for some background.

There is much to question, but my favorite is the Keynesian "multiplier" - the theory that every buck the govt puts into the economy results in $1.50 of greater output.

Does it not follow that every dollar govts suck out of the economy costs $1.50 of output? Worse yet, you have to support the drones who take the money and reward their buddies, so things are even worse.

Unless there's something magical about dollars after they've passed through the govt, like that rare expensive brand of coffee that is collected from civet scats in the Philippines.

No, I'm not an economist. I'd like an explanation of why this multiplier effect doesn't work both ways.

Or if it does, why we shouldn't have immediate tax cuts, which would have immediate impact rather than some pork project starting years from now.

My Way News - Blagojevich: I'm the victim of plot to raise taxes

2009-01-24T07:39:00.000-06:00

First there was chutzpah. Then there was Bill Clinton. Now there's Blago, the victim of a plot to raise taxes. Anything but that!

Well, there is something that would offend his Democrat buddies more. He could be honest.

I figured Blago was looking for a new pet cause now that he's stuck Roland Burris to Harry Reid and the Senate (nothing against Burris - based on what I know now he's as tolerable as an IL Dem can be). No doubt Blago noticed the machinations of the last prosecuted (and preceding) governor of IL, George Ryan, who suddenly discovered Injustice! on IL's death row once he needed some good PR.

My favorite plague

2009-01-19T07:45:00.000-06:00

The plague kills 40 al-Qaeda | The Sun |News

Heh. Wouldn't it be terrific if we found it was spread via beards and those rags the terrorists wear over their faces?

Conflict of interest

2009-01-18T21:10:00.002-06:00

Planned Parenthood helps coordinate sex education in Orange County schools, so they already have the kind of program Deutch wants for the whole state, said an official with Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando.

Terrific. An organization that gets a huge amount of revenue from performing abortions coordinates sex education programs.

The usual dishonest rhetoric

2009-01-05T07:50:00.000-06:00

Maybe you can blame the headline writer for this alleged "stem cell ban". But it wouldn't be inconsistent with past NYT coverage of the issue.

There is no "stem cell ban". There are only some restrictions on getting money from the federal govt for stem cell research. Next thing we know we'll be hearing from the steel industry (or whoever else that wants a bailout next) that failing to give them govt money amounts to a "steel ban". Heaven forbid that there should be restrictions on federal spending on anything any time anywhere.

The debate about the "stem cell ban" supposed rests on whether it would be attacked via executive order or legislation. Wouldn't it be hysterically funny if legislation were presented to Barack Obama and he vetoed it? Not likely, but still...

Via Glenn Reynolds.

Nobody rides for free

2008-12-14T18:01:00.000-06:00

Blagojevich Might Step Aside Monday.

Rod Blagojevich has shaken down a children's hospital and tried to sell Barack Obama's former Senate seat. Now he has a chance to sell his own effing job as governor of IL. It will be interesting to see where he winds up.

Great idea!

2008-12-07T19:04:00.002-06:00

Dodd: General Motors Executive Should Resign in Exchange for Bailout

Hmm. We had Senators and Congressmen like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank insisting that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lower their standards, and they insisted that regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was at least adequate if not excessive. I'd like to see them resign too.

Or maybe we should get Senators and Congressmen to resign before they get tax increases?

There might well be a great case for getting rid of Waggoner. And if CEOs think they're going to get unconditional bailouts they're crazy. But the suggestion that anyone in the Capitol knows more about managing auto companies than the Big 3 CEOs is beyond insulting, and from Dodd in particular it takes chutzpah beyond comprehension.

He's no Jackie Robinson

2008-11-01T12:58:00.002-05:00

One of the hazards of getting older is that it's less likely that people will know what I'm talking about when I mention things I remember. I certainly hope people haven't forgotten about Jackie Robinson.

But if you have, Jackie Robinson was the player who re-integrated Major League Baseball in 1947 (yes, there had been blacks in the major leagues before, but there hadn't been any for decades when Robinson showed up).

There's no doubt that Jackie Robinson was chosen for his historic role because he was black. But it wouldn't have worked if he hadn't also been chosen because he was good.

And now there's Barack Obama. It's hard to imagine anyone with more hype relative to his accomplishments. You'll look long and hard to find anything worthwhile he's actually delivered, whether as a "community organizer", lawyer, student or legislator.

In short, he's no Jackie Robinson.

If Jackie Robinson had failed, it could have set desegregation of Major League Baseball back for years.

And if Barack Obama is elected and follows the policies he has run on, it might be a very long time before we ever again see a black President.

And now a word from our sponsor

2008-10-18T22:57:00.000-05:00

Right here

Recycled lies

2008-10-18T16:10:00.000-05:00

Apparently the focus groups have told Barack Obama to say he's for tax relief for the middle class. Of course it's not going to happen.

Bill Clinton did the same thing and then reneged when he actually got to the White House.

Seeking to explain why he is backtracking on a campaign promise to cut taxes for the middle class, President-elect Bill Clinton said Thursday that the plan was never a major theme in his race for the White House.

Mr. Clinton, speaking at a news conference a day after saying he would have to "revisit" his tax-cut plan, said Americans voted for him because of the "big things" he wanted to do.

The middle-class tax cut, he said, was not among them.

He said he was "absolutely mystified" that the news media had perceived it as a major pledge. In interviews Wednesday, Mr. Clinton said that, because of worsening deficit projections,"I have to put everything back on the table."

Mr. Clinton spoke throughout the campaign of the need to redress declining middle-class incomes during the 1980s. He proposed a tax cut for the middle class nearly a year ago, in New Hampshire, and repeated the pledge frequently.

For Joe the Plumber

2008-10-16T22:23:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama must be insecure in his asshood, or else why would he say what he said about John McCain fighting for the plumbers? How appropriate it would be if this lands him in deep shit.

Maybe if Barack Obama knew some actual plumbers instead of a menagerie of lefty creeps, he'd understand a little about the economy. But he asks "how many plumbers do you know who make $250,000 a year?" Actually, if Joe has other plumbers working for him $250K isn't a whole lot of revenue. Is Obama really stupid and out of touch enough to think that a plumber in rural Ohio would take home $250K/year by himself? Wow, just wait until he sees a supermarket checkout!

I'm not sure I'd want to live in a world without plumbers. Politicians, OTOH....

In homage to plumbers I offer this NWA Classic Post

My personality disorder is better than yours

2008-10-15T23:13:00.000-05:00

Maybe instead of the debates, we should have had Obama and McCain take this Personality Disorder Test that I stole from Bigwig.

Why Barack Obama doesn't want to be associated with ACORN

2008-10-14T07:38:00.000-05:00

SPREADING THE VIRUS - New York Post

Let's see how long this link lasts

2008-10-12T15:43:00.001-05:00

YouTube - OBAMA CAUGHT SAYING ACORN AND FRIENDS WILL SHAPE HIS PRESIDENTIAL AGENDA

From DirectorBlue, who also has some snapshots from the video.

Liberal abuse

2008-10-12T13:54:00.001-05:00

If you disagree with ACORN and its recurring attempts at election fraud, don't expect them to respect you when you attempt to speak.

Of course Barack Obama goes back a long way with ACORN. Sheesh, if they're doing God's work registering the disenfranchised, why doesn't he embrace them?

If Obama is elected you'd better get used to the rudeness and worse. Michael Barone demonstrates here.

Or check out Michelle Malkin's compilation here.

The real thing, live

2008-10-11T19:22:00.000-05:00

If you like PBS's America's Ballroom Challenge series you have an opportunity. Just show up in Columbus, OH in a few weeks to see the 2008 Ohio Star Ball. This is the event that they record for the series, and it attracts the top pros from across the country.

There are a couple of hotels that are physically connected to the Columbus Convention Center where the competition is held, and there are many others nearby. But this year it turns out that nearby Ohio State University has a home football game on that weekend, so it could be harder to find rooms than usual.

The competition goes on for almost the entire week, but the top pros historically are seen on Friday and Saturday nights.

The real Fitzmas

2008-10-11T13:29:00.000-05:00

URGENT: Big story about to break, we are one step closer to Rezko giving Obama up to federal prosecutors « HillBuzz

Alaska panel finds Palin abused power in firing - Yahoo! News

2008-10-11T11:27:00.002-05:00

The Associated Partisans are back at it again, with this nonsense:Alaska panel finds Palin abused power in firing - Yahoo! News.

Let's flip this around. Here's a state trooper with disciplinary issues that is related by marriage to Sarah Palin. If she had done nothing, then the story would be that she failed to protect the public from some loose cannon state trooper because he was married to her sister. And perhaps she had done so for financial gain - Wooten had financial liabilities to Palin's sister.

It's likely that none of this would have happened if Palin had not reassigned Walter Monegan, leading to his resignation. Monegan says this was because he wouldn't fire Wooten. It couldn't possibly be because of insubordination as detailed here, right?

Among other things, Wooten was accused of domestic violence. Monegan might have sympathized - after all, he had had some domestic violence issues himself as detailed here. Is it dirty pool to mention that? Awwww.

Monegan suggested that the state would have some legal exposure to Wooten if they mishandled his case. Of course there's no legal exposure for keeping a trooper with disciplinary issue on the force either, right? A guy who tasered his 10 year old stepkid couldn't possibly have any judgment or impulse control issues. Sheesh, if you can't taser stepkids or drive your police car while drinking beer what rights do we have left?

It would be interesting to see whether the people fussing about Palin now had any opinions when Bill Clinton's gang fired the White House travel office staff. And for those who are outraged that Todd Palin got involved, does anyone remember Hillary Clinton?

As for legal aspects, check this out. Shorter version - the report is BS. The kind of crap that gets published in October of election years.

Enough for now. I want to save some rage for a Palin rally.

UPDATE: More here

Obama is not a socialist?

2008-10-09T22:39:00.000-05:00

Not sure what's going through Rick Moran's head with his assertions that OBAMA IS NOT A SOCIALIST.

Maybe he isn't. But how can Mr. Moran tell, when Obama has a different message for each audience each time?

The only constant in Obama's campaign is banalities about "change". Yep, just "change". Lest he should limit his options, Obama isn't even willing to hold out for "improvement". So Mr. Moran isn't totally out in left field when he suggests that Obama is non-ideological.

But if that's true, wouldn't you expect Obama to have friends more broadly distributed across the ideological spectrum?

And what about his wife? Even if Obama is nonideological, he's going home to a woman who apparently is not.

And does Rick Moran really think that Obama fooled unrepentant terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn? Would they have picked just anyone to administer their pet Chicago Annenberg Challenge project? Sheesh, it's not as if there aren't any other leftists in Chicago.

If it makes Mr. Moran feel better, I guess we can use another word. I for one would like to keep "socialist" from going the way of "fascist" and becoming a non-specific epithet. But the word is at least as useless if we can't use it when it applies, and IMO all that stands between Obama and full-blown socialism is how closely and rapidly he dares to approach it without endangering his election chances.

Filipino fast food

2008-10-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

Betcha haven't been to Jollibee. I stumbled across one in National City, CA just south of San Diego a couple of weeks ago.

We had just eaten somewhere else but I had to check it out. The menu isn't something you'll confuse for McDonald's, that's for sure. But it must work in their home in Southeast Asia, where they have close to 600 outlets in the Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Brunei, and they have about a dozen stores in CA, NV and NY here in the US.

Coming soon to a town near you?

He knows the score

2008-10-07T02:25:00.000-05:00

You know, there just aren't enough musical comedies involving mine disasters.

Some years back a mine collapsed at Beaconsfield, Tasmania. Now to commemorate it we have "Beaconsfield - a Musical in A Flat Minor."

Well, not anymore apparently. Upon further review it appears that the playwright responded to outrage at the title and has renamed it "Beaconsfield - The Musical". Such a sensitive guy!

Original link from where else but Fark.

St. Louis style Gooey Butter Cake

2008-10-06T22:54:00.000-05:00

Right here. Try it quick before the health police ban it.

Tying it all together

2008-10-06T11:44:00.001-05:00

American Thinker: Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Read it.

Incidentally, let's recall that Barack Obama's mother is white. Lest I should be called a racist for daring to criticize him in any way, let me assure you that all of my critique has been directed at the maternal side of his ancestry.

More here.

The Midway :: San Diego's Aircraft Carrier Museum

2008-10-05T23:29:00.000-05:00

I recently found myself in San Diego looking for things to do when I found out about the USS Midway. It's a diesel-powered aircraft carrier that has been decommissioned and turned into a museum in San Diego Harbor.

I enjoyed it thoroughly. If you go, be prepared to climb a lot and don't expect air conditioning.

Eat your heart out, Ponzi!

2008-10-05T20:01:00.000-05:00

That Charles Ponzi sure was a sucker. He should have done Credit Default Swaps.

Wanna play? You come up with something you want to insure against, I agree to assume the risk for a premium. If things go well I get money for almost nothing. But if your fears come true and you try to collect from me, I fold up shop and leave you hanging.

The cool thing is, I don't have to do much research. In the worst case scenario, all I need is enough time to get your money out of the country before your catastrophe happens and you try to collect.

Stuart Buck links to this which has a lot more details.

Genetically engineered birth defects are a good thing...

2008-10-05T16:59:00.000-05:00

in mosquitoes

If you follow the link, look around. Olivia Judson always has something interesting to say.

Printout homes

2008-09-07T14:17:00.000-05:00

What do you get when you cross an inkjet printer with a concrete pump? Something like this.

The Gravina Island Bridge

2008-09-05T09:06:00.000-05:00

You've heard of this project. Really. But it's more popularly known as "the bridge to nowhere".

I've heard so much about this I finally decided to look it up to see what all the fuss was about. The most recent inspiration was a conversation I had recently about how Senator John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin, currently Governor of Alaska, had been "for it before she was against it", as if it's realistic to expect executives of any govt level to refuse money for a project like this.

It turns out that "nowhere" is the airport for Ketchikan, Alaska (pop 8000), which is located on Gravina Island (pop 50).

It's funny how the airport never gets mentioned. The Salon article linked above notes that it has "fewer than 10 commercial flights a day". Sounds pretty lame until you consider that Ketchikan has only 8000 residents. How many other towns of comparable size have *any* commercial service, much less 10 a day? Yes, air transportation is more important in Alaska than in most of the rest of the country.

A resident of Gravina Island notes that there is a ferry and that she can get from home to the local hospital in 5 minutes. OK. But it's still a ferry, limited in size and speed, and my guess is that anyone who lives on a place like Gravina Island didn't go there so they could have lots of neighbors. That is, the residents probably prefer the isolation and thus would oppose the bridge even if it were significantly cheaper.

Would Gravina Island ever be developed to the extent that this would make sense as an investment in infrastructure? That's hard to believe. Suppose the population of the island rose to 1000 people, and they paid $4000 per capita in federal taxes (just to have a number, probably right order of magnitude). If every time of those federal taxes went to paying off a $223M bridge to an island with no paved roads.... This is by no means an adequate evaluation, but my guess is that we'll get a lot more bang for the buck elsewhere.

To hear the overheated rhetoric, you might be thinking that this is the worst example of pork ever. In fact it's probably because it was in the budget at the time of Hurricane Katrina, and people were looking for funds that could be diverted to Katrina relief. I don't keep track of these things, but a far better candidate might be the Army Corps of Engineers' Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway that connects the Tennessee River with the Gulf of Mexico via the Tombigbee River. Many more are discussed a WaPo article here.

The article notes that the Corps of Engineers had already spent more in Louisiana in than in any other state, with spectacularly unsuccessful results - "The Corps has eluded the public's outrage -- even though a useless Corps shipping canal intensified Katrina's surge, even though poorly designed Corps floodwalls collapsed just a few feet from an unnecessary $750 million Corps navigation project , even though the Corps had promoted development in dangerously low-lying New Orleans floodplains and had helped destroy the vast marshes that once provided the city's natural flood protection."

That article goes on to note that "Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) are pushing a Corps reform bill that would require independent reviews of large projects, but they aren't getting much traction."

We will continue to have pork as long as the federal govt is empowered to do so. Sheesh, if there are "penumbras and emanations" from the Constitution that guarantee a right to choose to kill fetuses (and even live births, if you vote like Barack Obama), isn't there one to protect us from nonsense like this?

Women being abused!

2008-09-04T06:25:00.004-05:00

I thought maybe I could make it through a political season without blogging, but no. I managed to sit still as the lamest candidate ever managed to game the system to the point where he beat someone who's forgotten more than he'll ever know, but enough about Barack Obama - this time it's about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Good grief, the crap we're hearing already. What is there not to like about this woman?

Yet look at this video - apparently someone is trying to paint her as stupid for asking what the vice president does on a day-to-day basis. It's a fair question, because no two administrations are the same. Does anyone think that, say, Al Gore did the same things from day to day in the 1990s that Lyndon Johnson did in the early 1960's? The Constitution doesn't have much to say about day to day veep work - most of that will be determined by John McCain and Ms. Palin if he wins.

And really, how many veeps can you name who weren't elected in your lifetime? The job isn't a big deal unless you think the Pres is likely to keel over during his turn or you're worried about close votes in the Senate. It's true that McCain is in his 70's and has been treated for cancer. But he kept campaigning while Obama had to stop and rest, and McCain's mother was robust enough to show up at the Republican National Convention. He must have some good genes.

Oh yeah, her daughter is knocked up! Obviously Palin must have failed as a parent! That's arguable, but I would say no (I'm having a hard time imagining what it must be like to be a teenager in small-town Alaska with long cold winters). But it is interesting how parenting talent didn't come up while Al Gore's kid was getting busted for speeding and drugs, and if he knocked up any girls there are always plenty of abortionists willing to kill the baby cheap.

Heavens, she'll be distracted by her family! Maybe. I hope so. Every minute she's worrying about them is one more she won't be spending looking for things to meddle with or laying the groundwork for becoming filthy stinking rich after she leaves office. And I'll bet that lots of parents would like to have free help from the Secret Service in looking after their children.

Then there's her husband, who has a DUI conviction that dates back before they even married!

She wasn't adequately vetted! I have no idea, but then neither do the jackasses who are asserting this. They appear to be making the assumption that if they don't approve of something, McCain wouldn't either, therefore vetting must have been inadequate. Contrast this with Bill "you'd better put some ice on that" Clinton and his "bimbo eruptions", among other things - did he get vetted at all?

It would be nice if in fact the media had decided that *all* candidates' backgrounds should be investigated, not just Republicans', but that's not a change I can believe in.

I could go on, but really, this stuff is absurd. Come on Barack Obama, grow a pair and call off your lickspittles in the media. That doesn't sound like a new kind of politics to me.

It's not news, it's Reuters

2008-09-03T02:55:00.000-05:00

The headline says Shooting spree leaves six dead in Washington state.

They did note that "Local media reported that the suspect has a history of mental illness and a criminal past." One might suspect that this might account for the man's rampage.

But no, this is Reuters. We must be told that "The incident is the latest in a series of mass shootings over the last few years in the United States, which is estimated to have the world's highest civilian gun ownership rate, leading gun control advocates to push for tighter restrictions."

Do you suppose I'll live long enough to see Reuters report on massacres of civilians in places like Darfur and note that "this is the latest in a series of mass shootings by governments or criminals, leading self defense advocates to push for more arms for civilians"?

See how easy this is, Amy?

2008-08-27T16:08:00.001-05:00

Seeing is believing.

Conflict of interest?

2008-06-28T11:04:00.000-05:00

Margaret Sanger's defenders all have one thing in common - they weren't aborted.

I can't say if they all believe in fantastical moral equivalences too, but one who read Jonah Goldberg's writing clearly does. He reproduces her screed here. She manages to find similarities between Margaret Sanger and Helen Keller and various other historical figures. Thus in her world Justice! demands that if anyone condemns Margaret Sanger as Goldberg has for her views, he must do the same of Helen Keller and the others.

Helen Keller might not be well remembered today, but she was famous for overcoming both deafness and blindness to become a prominent American. She was in fact very liberal, as anyone else might be if they were as limited in their ability to experience the real world as she.

What's interesting is that Mr. Goldberg was demonstrating the historical ties between liberals and eugenicists. Mr. Goldberg's critic apparently did not say where Ms. Keller stood on eugenics. What do you suppose eugenicists would have done with a girl who was both blind and deaf?

Was Einstein an atheist?

2008-05-28T12:24:00.000-05:00

I'm not arrogant enough to be an atheist. Apparently Albert Einstein wasn't either.

Dinesh D'Souza has more, with quotes from the man himself.

But surely President Bush had something to do with it

2008-05-28T07:32:00.000-05:00

Sharon Stone: Was China quake `bad karma?

The website is down because someone removed the X-Box

2008-05-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

Right here.

Stillborn

2008-05-18T19:56:00.001-05:00

Maybe the kinds of lawyers who defend abortionists are too busy representing terrorists nowadays, but this is interesting:

Exactly one year ago today, the Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart rejected a facial challenge to the constitutionality of the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003. Confronting “documented medical disagreement whether the Act’s prohibition [on partial-birth abortion] would ever impose significant health risks on women,” the five-justice majority ruled that such disagreement about health risks in particular circumstances did not warrant invalidating the act in its entirety. Instead, the Court virtually invited practitioners of partial-birth abortion and their allies to bring so-called as-applied challenges that would carve out from the Act’s scope any circumstances in which partial-birth abortion might be shown to be necessary to preserve the mother’s health. (See my essay “The Face-Off Over Partial-Birth Abortion” for a fuller discussion of the distinction between facial and as-applied challenges.)

In dissent, Justice Ginsburg predicted that these as-applied challenges would “be mounted swiftly, to ward off serious, sometimes irremediable harm, to women whose health would be endangered by the [Act’s] prohibition.” According to Ginsburg, “the record already includes hundreds and hundreds of pages of testimony identifying ‘discrete and well-defined instances’ in which recourse to an intact D&E [i.e., partial-birth abortion] would better protect the health of women with particular conditions.”

So how many as-applied challenges have been filed over the past year? Zero.

In short, they've got nothing, and at last they're outed.

No, I'm not a lawyer, so I don't appreciate the full ramifications of the above. Nor do I appreciate how big a burden has been placed on those who would show that partial birth abortions offer unique medical benefits - maybe that's the real issue.

And no, I'm not a physician either. But just how much medicine do you need to know that creating a situation you would ordinarily avoid (delivering the baby feet first) and stopping delivery of the live baby after all but its head is outside the birth canal would somehow help the health of the mother? If the idea was to avoid labor, just what has she missed?

And how much law do you need to know to condemn someone who, given a choice between moving the baby another few inches outside the womb or choosing to kill it, opts for the latter?

Aside: did anyone ever go to med school intending to become an abortionist?

UN priorities

2008-05-18T19:52:00.001-05:00

U.N. racism investigator to visit U.S. from Monday

I wonder if they investigate anti-Semitism? Being the UN, if they did, they'd only do it in Israel.

No comment from Obama yet

2008-04-18T08:01:00.001-05:00

FOXNews.com - Alicia Keys: 'Gangsta Rap' Created to Convince Black People to Kill Each Other

Stupid college tricks

2008-04-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

Back in college a few lunatics I knew used to have beer chugging contests. Except they'd do it while hanging upside down from the railing of a stair landing.

It was only half a flight up, but it probably would have been enough to break their necks or even kill them if they slipped.

And now we have this -
College Student Dead After Apparent Fall Over Balcony.

Don't get shook

2008-04-18T07:59:00.001-05:00

An earthquake rattled southern IL and environs last night. It won't make the history books so much because it wasn't that strong, but it's still creepy.

People unfamiliar with the area might not associate it with seismic activity. But know that one of the worst earthquakes in the US happened within a couple of hundred miles to the southwest near New Madrid, MO. It was also in the news around 1990 when a prediction of an earthquake by Iben Browning was picked up by the media but did not pan out.

You can see more about the area's seismic history on an episode of A&E Network's Mega Disasters series, which examines consequences of a major earthquake there on Memphis, TN and St. Louis, MO.

Anybody who's thinking "all the nukes there will melt down now!" can relax. No operating commercial nuclear power facilities are particularly close. There are none in IN or KY. In IL the closest is Clinton Power Station, around a couple hundred miles north. Calloway in MO is about that far west. LaSalle County, Dresden and Braidwood are about 80 miles on the far side of the Clinton site in IL, and farther yet are Quad Cities and Byron. The next closest is probably in AR. The closest in MI is DC Cook near Michigan City, or in OH it would be Davis-Besse near Toledo, or in TN it's either Sequoyah or Watts Bar. That's from memory - maps are for wimps.

I was working as an engineer at an operating nuclear power plant back in the late 80's when I felt a small earthquake. The civil engineers and others on staff immediately got to work looking for seismic damage wherever they could onsite. I don't recall any issues arising.

Old men on the make

2008-04-11T08:50:00.001-05:00

Oh boy, New Kids on the Block are back! You remember them - they were once scheduled as an opening act for Tiffany!

Security personnel sleeping at Turkey Point

2008-04-11T08:35:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'm lucky that in my nuclear power days I never caught a security guy sleeping on the job. The first time I might just make some noise, but I doubt it. For while I don't necessarily think it's a huge security compromise (if someone has made it to your reactor building already this isn't your only security issue), it's definitely something that'll get the plant busted bigtime by any NRC inspector who happens upon it.

Fines are the easy part. Then the usual braying idiots would trot out their usual claptrap, and the clueless buffoons who pass for media would publicize it far beyond its significance. So as a minimum I would have been tempted to make a beeline for his supervisor.

OTOH this security person is probably positioned to make your life miserable too. He and whoever might have been covering for him could say that they'd caught you doing something and guess who's in trouble now?

Security is outsourced at many facilities. If that's true at Turkey Point, there definitely ought to be blisters all up and down their local management's backside. They ought to know how to keep their staff awake - this isn't exactly a new problem with security firms.

But they might have fewer options than you think. One obvious one is security cams at strategic areas. This isn't trivial for a number of regulatory and other reasons that I don't have time to discuss now (some of which involve security...), whether the system is wired or wireless. I'd expect newer plants to have such things in the design, but backfitting them to today's fleet would be awfully expensive.

I haven't set foot inside a nuke plant for over a decade now, so maybe things have changed. But while I was there, NRC inspectors didn't exactly swarmed over the facilities. There was no need to really - day to day operation isn't exciting and shouldn't be. So inspectors would show up in the plant once in a while, but mostly they did paperwork and went to meetings. So if they caught someone sleeping it's pretty sad.

I don't want to hear any excuses for the security guys sleeping. But let's not get too excited about this either.

It's never too early...

2008-04-11T07:46:00.000-05:00

...to choose your child's gang.

Video made simple

2008-04-10T00:18:00.003-05:00

About a year and a half ago I went to make a fairly simple video production and failed miserably. It would have helped if I hadn't waited until the last minute, but I didn't expect my software to put up so much of a fight, especially with syncing sound to video.

So lately I've been reading good things about the Flip Video device and thought I might check it out. Then when I happened upon them in stock at a Sam's Club for $140 when I had some money burning a hole in my pocket, I bit.

Wow, it couldn't get much simpler or easier.

It was a bit of a PITA the first time I used a particular computer with it because it needed to load a codec, and the first time I used it at all I had to sit through a firmware upgrade. But since then it's been a real trouper with both XP and Vista.

It's about as self-contained as you can get. You don't need to install any software with DVDs or downloads - everything you need is already loaded on the device. Plug it in to an available USB port, wait for the system to recognize the device and go!

Likewise there are no cables to lose on the run. The USB male connector is built in rigidly - you just extend it from the case, plug it in, let the system recognize it and you're in business. I did have trouble trying to plug it into the USB ports on a couple of different machines because of funny geometry in one case and an EVDO card in another. But for most it will work fine, and for the rest there's A-A USB extension cords (which shouldn't cost more than $10 no matter what Radio Shack or Best Buy say).

So when someone of longish tenure left the company recently, I wound up going around shooting quickie goodbye videos. The picture and sound quality were far better than I expected, and loading the videos onto the PCs was more or less idiot simple. So with nothing but miserable past experience, no talent, a device I'd had for 2 days, and a newish Vista laptop with a DVD burner, I produced some tolerable output from a bunch of people in no more than a couple of hours, and most of that time was probably data transfer time while I multitasked.

It's not perfect, and it certainly doesn't have advanced features. But it's $140, for crying out loud. It's self-contained, small, runs on AA batteries so there's no wall wart (I don't want to know how many of those blasted things I have), and the learning curve is nearly nonexistent (with the caveat that I'm a gadget geek with an engineering background). It's roughly the size of a candy bar, so it can go anywhere. You can take still pictures. The model I bought at Sam's has 2GB of RAM which allegedly will hold an hour's worth of video (haven't really challenged it yet). And I've only had it since Sunday, so I probably don't know a lot of things it can do yet.

Bottom line - I'll be buying more of them.

Suckers?

2008-04-10T00:18:00.000-05:00

More than once I've heard companies described as "the best first and third job you'll ever have". The idea was that if you stuck around nothing would happen, but if you left and came back you could jump a couple of grades ahead.

Today just happens to have been the last day for someone who had been with the company for several years. The joke is that they'll be back in a couple years in a much better job. At least two people in my org chart have done that that I know of.

And now today Glenn Reynolds links to this. Hmmm.

The history of computer data storage, in pictures

2008-04-09T21:14:00.001-05:00

Right here.

Unpresidented authority

2008-04-07T08:28:00.000-05:00

Glenn Reynolds notes how some people think the next President ought to seize greater authority to fight global warming, to avoid having to work at Congress's pace.

Well, there's another way to avoid Congressional nonsense, and that's to avoid using the govt in the first place. All they can bring to the party is coercion.

Oh yeah, they can write big checks too. But how did they get that money, anyway? Yep, coercion. No matter what willfully obtuse technical jargon Harry Reid might hide behind.

Lots of private citizens can write big checks too. Unfortunately they seem to be writing them to the Democrats. Obviously, rather than addressing problems yourself, it's far better to spend money on people who a) might not get elected, b) might not be able to deliver, and c) might not really have any intent to deliver in any case. Right? Maybe the answer is to start selling lottery tickets in larger denominations.

Lost arts

2008-04-05T02:02:00.000-05:00

I'm not *that* old, doggone it. But even over my time things have changed so much with the way things are done mathematically and otherwise, I have to wonder what most people would do without calculators and canned software.

Then again I went to engineering school, so what I thought of as normal turned out to be unrealistic for most people. Sheesh, a couple of days ago I told someone what the sine of a certain angle was off the top of my head and you would have thought I'd performed a miracle.

Even technical people are deteriorating because calculators are inescapable. Can you still do math in your head? If you want to see where you stand with impromptu mental calculation, try this. How did you do?

And then there are simple graphical constructions. Do people still know how to use a straightedge and compasses nowadays? I haven't talked into any newly minted engineers lately, but it wouldn't surprise me if they knew much about how engineering graphics were produced before the CAD era.

Or would they even know what a nomogram is? And slide rules - we don't even speak of slide rule calculators any more. But surely they still use Moody diagrams and psychrometric charts.

Nomograms and lots more are to be found at Dead Reckonings - Lost Art in the Mathematical Sciences, which is such a great find I have no idea what to link in particular.

Snark today, science tomorrow

2008-04-03T09:15:00.001-05:00

I was being sarcastic on an earlier post referring to removing tonsils rectally. But it could be closer than we think.
Appendix Removed Through Vagina: U.S. First
Appendix removed through mouth
Gall Bladder removed through vagina
Kidney Removed through Navel
And on a more depressing note, remember that little girl who got stuck on a pool drain and had her insides yanked out rectally? She died recently

Liary

2008-04-03T07:25:00.001-05:00

Remember Josh Steiner? He's the young Clinton aide who was said to have "lied to his diary". He allegedly regretted that his diary was not "more accurate".

Now along comes another diary that Hillary Clinton won't like. It seems that one Jerry Zeifman recalls HRC's work on the Watergate investigation and wrote of problems with her. (You have to follow that link - it's not too long).

For instance, she didn't get a recommendation afterwards. Why?

"Because she was a liar," Zeifman said in an interview last week. "She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality."

As shocks go, finding documentation that HRC is a liar doesn't rank too high. But what got me were the details. She took some files from the committee and hid them in her office, then proceeded to work as if they hadn't existed. Hmm, Hillary hiding files? Where have we heard that one before?

Yes, believe it or not the fact that Hillary Clinton lies and hide things is well precedented. But what makes this priceless is that on that particular occasion she was trying to show that there was *no* precedent for something - that Richard Nixon was entitled to counsel during an impeachment proceeding. The files that she hid that time showed how William O. Douglas was granted counsel when he faced an impeachment attempt in 1970. (Of course Douglas was a liberal. He couldn't be held to the same standards as a Republican like Richard Nixon.)

As for her own defense, she might try to cite the case of Steiner. How vast a right-wing conspiracy must be to get a lifelong Democrat to lie about her in his diary over 30 years ago!

Was this pettifoggery? Mr. Zeifman didn't think so -

The brief was so fraudulent and ridiculous, Zeifman believes Hillary would have been disbarred if she had submitted it to a judge.

Hmmm.

I haven't seen a response from the Hillary camp yet. Can she dodge another bullet?

Original link from Powerline.

Medical breakthrough!

2008-03-24T22:53:00.001-05:00

Scientists have come up with a method for removing tonsils rectally. They conceded that it might be safer and more effective to do it the usual way, but you know, they just had to show that they could do it.

Believe it or not, the above is a total fabrication. But then there is this headline: Cloned cells treat Parkinson's in mice - Yahoo! News.

All well and good, but then read this passage from it:

But they found that a mouse's own cloned stem cells were far less disruptive to its body than cloned cells taken from other mice.

"It demonstrated what we suspected all along -- that genetically matched tissue works better," said Viviane Tabar of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York, who worked on the study.

Ya think?

But hey, let's suck in lots of federal dollars for more of this. It might not give us any really useful results, but then it gives some researchers something really cool to fool with. We'd be money ahead if we just gave the researchers free phalloplasty.

Advice for politicians

2008-03-24T01:08:00.001-05:00

I hate to disagree with Soccer Dad, but I offer some different ideas on how to handle a sex scandal.

For one, Eliot Spitzer should have captured the whole thing on tape. Then he could have said that he was making a porn movie, and you can't bust people for prostitution when they're acting in a porn movie.

What's more, he should have used this opportunity for campaigning. Maybe have him making campaign speeches on a TV in the background or something. He could sell the tapes to raise funds, and no one would dare complain about the campaign messages because everyone knows that only bluenoses could possibly object to mass distribution of porn.

Spitzer's failure to do these things can only be explained as a lapse in judgment. Surely it's not because he wasn't cynical enough.

Random Easter venereal disease post

2008-03-23T13:40:00.005-05:00

Overheard back in the early 80's - "you know the difference between true love and herpes? Herpes lasts forever"

It so happens that a few weeks ago I was talking to a pharmacist who was amused by some of the TV ads for pharmaceuticals. She was particularly amused by one for Valtrex, in which one person would say "I have herpes" and their presumptive bedmate said "and I don't" To which our pharmacist said "but you will".

I assume that the people in the commercials were actors, or at least would claim that they were. Even so, we're talking social evolution here. I can't find a link, but I seem to recall that back in the 80's a couple filed suit because their image was used in a public service ad about herpes.

Such innocent times! We hadn't heard of AIDS yet. Once the acronym appeared it was pretty firmly associated with IV drug users, Haitians and especially gays. Some of my less PC coworkers in hard hats said it stood for "another infected..." and the rest will be left as an exercise.

Hey, while we're at it why not work in something about syphilis too. I understand that you can get it from blood transfusions. And that apparently this was a problem in Mexico once upon a time.

More social evolution: a few weeks ago I took a pit stop at a convenience store and the men's room was out of service. No problem, they said to use the ladies' room. Ah, they have condom machines in here too. But it's been a while since I've seen one that said "for prevention of disease only".

Ha, good luck with that. They aren't 100% effective as birth control when used as directed by competent adults, much less by horny adolescents. It's hard to see how they'd be any more effective against disease. Of course abstinence is always 100% effective when used. It's not very reliable when it's *not* used, but then neither are condoms. Yes, that's absurd, but then why do some people blame abstinence education programs for problems that occur when they clearly aren't being followed? Are programs that encourage condom use ever blamed for problems that occur when kids don't use condoms?

Clearly I've run out of things to write about, so that will be all.

Protect them from themselves?

2008-03-08T03:25:00.000-06:00

Ah yes, someone says that some people need to be protected from their worst instincts.

OK, and I think that one of the worst instincts is to look to the govt for solutions. So let's force politicians and others to quit advocating govt solutions. And if they push big govt anyway, let them avail themselves of govt efficiency and service in a prison.

888-gotta-go

2008-03-07T07:20:00.004-06:00

What to say?

As a result of continued and endemic vandalism, the Finnish Road Administration has developed a system which allows travellers to open the doors to roadside toilets only by sending a SMS message to the number given by the Road Administration.

The new system was introduced in January in the rest areas along Highway 1 in Paimio and Salo near Turku, following numerous breakages, arson attempts, and thefts in the buildings housing public conveniences for motorists.

But what if your cellphone battery is dead? The answer is obvious - this.

The ninny state

2008-03-07T07:13:00.004-06:00

I'm no fan of the nanny state, but I can see why some think we need them. Good grief, now they're putting padding on lampposts to protect texters who walk into them.

UPDATE: It turns out that this was a hoax.

Goodbye Jeff Healey

2008-03-06T23:02:00.002-06:00

When you hear the name Jeff Healey, you might think of a soft radio friendly song called "Angel Eyes" that came out around 1990 or so. I liked the guitar work on the song and liked the rest of the CD even more. That man could play.

Still don't remember him? He was the blind guitarist in "Roadhouse". The blind part wasn't acting - he lost his eyes at an early age to cancer.

Don't go thinking that blindness made him a physically boring performer. I didn't catch him jumping around or duckwalking, but when I saw him live in Peoria in the early 90's he got up and wandered around the stage. It was kind of awkward because he ordinarily played his guitar flat on his lap, and he couldn't find his way back to his seat by himself - the bass player would lead him back.

Now via Colby Cosh I hear that Jeff Healey has died at only 41. What a loss.

Who was Estes Kefauver?

2008-03-03T23:40:00.002-06:00

He was a liberal Democrat Senator who kicked serious butt in the primaries yet wound up not getting his party's nomination for the Presidency.

Green oil

2008-03-01T22:27:00.002-06:00

Yep, you can replace some petroleum with products made from beef tallow. See one here.

Capacitor powered cars at last?

2008-03-01T21:58:00.004-06:00

Some years ago I was a regular on CompuServe forums, and there was a guy who was an utter PITA. Any given thread regardless of topic had to mention his allegedly brilliant idea of an "electronic energy repository", or "EER" as he called it. I think his name was Frank.

It wouldn't do to point out that there were technical complications involved. He seemed to think that he had an idea that had never occurred to anyone else on earth before, and Progress would occur if only he bothered enough people with enough off-topic messages on enough threads back in the days when connect time was expensive.

I suppose he'll be happy to see this, an attempted application of capacitor energy storage to cars. Not that I think it would shut him up - he'd probably just start posting everywhere telling us how he was right all along.

Not so fast - even this application has its shortcomings. Energy density still isn't anywhere near what can be achieved by other means. That's not to say that the technology won't be incredibly useful, just that Frank needn't declare victory yet.

He's not infallible

2008-01-21T07:13:00.000-06:00

As he is only too happy to tell you, Richard Dawkins is an atheist.

Of course being an atheist, it may be too much to expect him to know much about more traditional religions. But he writes about them anyway, as in "The God Delusion".

OK, we don't expect Dawkins to be an expert on non-atheist beliefs, but we *do* expect him to know evolutionary biology. But he can't let science stand in the way of his beliefs. See this for more.

Yes, atheism is a faith. Or at least it will be so until someone succeeds in proving that deities don't exist.

Michael Yon in New York Times

2008-01-21T06:41:00.000-06:00

Right here.

There may be hope for the NYT yet.

Brain power outage

2008-01-21T06:38:00.000-06:00

Some years back (the 70's?) new cars started coming out with an obnoxious alarm that went off when seat belts weren't locked. Fortunately disabling it was a 2 minute job that didn't even require any tools.

Around the same time I worked as a summertime engineering intern for a state govt organization. It was mandated from upon high that in the summer the office could be kept no cooler than 78 degrees. And anyone who ever checked the thermometer in the office would have found us in compliance. But if they looked carefully they'd notice that the little thermometer bulb had been shifted upward against the background markings so that it indicated 78 when it was about 72.

Now we see something like this again - this silly idea of giving the govt an override on your thermostat.

Even if this silliness had gotten off the ground, did anyone think about it at all? Just wait until the first time someone causes a fire trying to stay warm with a disabled heating system, or dies from the heat because the AC doesn't work.

Of course the govt would deny responsibility vehemently, like Ralph Nader groups argued that they couldn't be held responsible for the fact that the airbags they fought so hard for could kill or even decapitate smaller people and children. (Gosh, what could be wrong with having an explosive pointed at your face, anyway? - their hearts were pure!).

Practically speaking such a regulation would probably do little more than cost a few extra bucks and the inconvenience of disabling the old device. Maybe enough ~~suckers~~ good citizens would play along to make it useful for handling peaks.

But there's a far better idea, using price signals, right here.

2008-01-03T22:35:00.001-06:00

2008-01-03T22:31:00.001-06:00

Nuclear rambling

2007-12-23T12:25:00.000-06:00

I suppose it's fortunate that Glenn Reynolds is from Knoxville, TN, which is also the home of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Also, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is nearby, thus assuring that Tennesseeans (notably His Greenness Al Gore) have both awareness of and economic interests in nuclear technology. Anyway, GR links to a Metropulse article here, which has inspired the disjointed ramblings that follow.

TVA has an unequaled record in the nuclear power business - no other US organization has undertaken more nuclear power plants, and no other has abandoned more. Browns Ferry near Athens, AL; Sequoyah, near Chattanooga, TN; Watts Bar*, near Maryville, TN; Bellefonte**, near Scottsboro, AL; Hartsville A** and B**, east of Nashville, TN; Yellow Creek**, near Corinth, MS; and Phipps Bend**, near Surgoinsville, TN. The asterisks denote units started but not (yet?) completed.

Around 1982 TVA recruited at my engineering school. At the time they were looking for people to construct Watts Bar and Bellefonte. They cautioned, however, that Watts Bar would be finishing construction in the near term future and thus there was more work at Bellefonte. Fast forward 25 years - Bellefonte ceased construction sometime around 1985, Watts Bar Unit 1 has not been running for long, and the board has recently voted to finish Watts Bar Unit 2.

The article briefly mentions the Browns Ferry event. A bit of background may be in order here.

It so happens that one of the big issues with fire protection anywhere is compartmentalization - you don't want fires to be able to spread. As it happens, there's not much to burn at any nuclear power plant I've ever worked in (4 different sites, 7 units, 3 different utilities, 1 PWR and 3 BWRs, 2 NSSS suppliers), but then I started in the industry after the Browns Ferry event.

Anyway, compartmentalization means preventing heat, flames, gases and combustion products from leaving the area where they started. This means that penetrations from one compartment to another must be sealed such that they can resist pressure differentials. Such penetrations might be for personnel access, ducts, pipes, wiring and other purposes.

A good way to detect air leaks is by releasing something visible and airborne in the vicinity and watching it - if it moves, then the air is moving too. One such "something" is an open flame from a candle. And one of those open flames caused a fire that demonstrated that the seal wasn't adequate... (if that's not ironic enough for you, wait until you hear how a govt notorious for not being able to manage farms managed to foul up Chernobyl - look for "The aim of this test was to determine whether cooling of the core could continue to be ensured in the event of a loss of power").

TVA is easy to pick on - they're big, quasi_govt, and they have a lot of political clout. At one time at least their top executives were not permitted to make any more money than a Congressman does, so it was difficult to recruit and keep good people. Also at one time at least they were governed by a 3 man board, further complicating governance.

And the incomparable Jimmy Carter installed S. David Freeman as one of those governors. We'll see nothing else quite like this until the Pope starts running Planned Parenthood. During his tenure TVA started abandoning the many sites above, and later he moved on to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), which has shut down their Rancho Seco reactor.

I suppose it sounds like I'm ripping on TVA. Well, the truth hurts, but actually I'm rooting for them. The fact is that TVA has had lots of operating and construction experience and for the most part has stayed out of the newspapers outside their territory. Browns Ferry was expensive and embarrassing, but it was about 30 years ago too under a much different regulatory regime.

No, the ones I'd like to rip on are those who use asininities like "Frankenstein construction" (see the Metropulse link above). Often people like this claim to fear global warming too (when they're not denying associations with Nazis, racists and skinheads - diabolical cheap shot,eh?). Here's a hint - any energy/environmental problems we might have will be solved by engineers and those who support them financially, not those who preen and jawbone for a living.

This is a Google satellite map of Bellefonte site. The large round objects casting shadows to the north are the cooling towers. The smaller round-topped objects to the northeast are the reactor buildings. Between the reactors is the auxiliary building, further yet is the turbine building, and beyond that is the switchyard where the power comes in and out. Southeast of the reactors are buildings for construction staff and fab shops, and further yet past the wooded area is the Tennessee River. To the east about halfway up the map is the intake pumping station which draws cooling water from the river for the condenser, HVAC and other cooling loads.

Another thing about Bellefonte. The original nuclear steam supply (NSSS) was a Babcock and Wilcox design. It's sad but true that whatever their other merits, B&W also supplied the NSSS for SMUD and Three Mile Island. Apparently they'll be replaced with Westinghouse equipment. It'll be interesting to see how this will be incorporated into the site. By the time they're through they may be using little of the original plant besides the intake pumping station and the cooling towers.

The article goes on to mention the reduction in suppliers to the industry. I'll note that the concern about the forges, if accurate, only applies if we keep on applying the technologies used in the currently operating generation of plants - other technologies might not need such huge vessels. Long term NWA readers saw this a few years ago noting how it would be difficult to ramp back up to support a growing industry. IMO there's a moral in there for those who would cut the armed services too deeply too.

An aside about Rancho Seco. I don't know much of its history, but I know that at one time in the early 80's they pulled a good one that certainly took a bite out of their low capacity factor. It seems that they connected a backup diesel generator to a live grid before they started it. If you wanted to do something similar at home, you might try running your car at top speed and then slamming it into reverse. Anyway, I wouldn't be me if I didn't grind my favorite axe and note that it was run by a govt organization (Sacramento *Municipal* Utility District).

Enough for now, so this post doesn't suffer a slow death by editing like so many others have lately.

Even dumber than it looks

2007-11-13T21:46:00.000-06:00

If I absolutely couldn't help myself and were willing to marry a dog, I'd have to go for Leona Helmsley's.

Just a few million more to go

2007-11-13T08:47:00.000-06:00

Behold this article about the brutal murder and dismemberment of a convicted sex offender.

I don't have much use for sex offenders, but I kept reading:

Sorenson was convicted in Tazewell County, Ill., when he was 17 of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, said Northville Township police Lt. Greg Rhodes. His troubled past had nothing to do with the murder, Worthy said.

If 17 on 14 can cause you to be classed as a registered sex offender, I'm guessing we have millions more of them than we think. Dare I suggest that we toss that label around too indiscriminately?

You first

2007-11-06T01:05:00.000-06:00

I know that there are recreational drugs that pass almost unchanged through the urine and thus can be recycled. I realize that space travel might require emergency backups. But now there's this

No, I don't believe everything I read.

Ohio Star Ball coming up next week

2007-11-05T20:54:00.000-06:00

If you like ballroom dancing, the place to be next week is in Columbus, Ohio. Yes, Columbus - the home of the Ohio Star Ball.

It's about as big a ballroom dance event as you'll ever see, and top pros from all over will be there. It's also the event they'll be taping to produce the latest edition of "America's Ballroom Challenge" for PBS.

The event goes on for days, starting out with people as incompetent as me (I was there in 2004 doing standard, rhythm, and smooth) and leading to Friday and Saturday night with the best of the best.

If you've been watching "Dancing with the Stars" you might get the wrong idea about what a competition is like. Amateur women never compete with amateur men. Nobody knows the music in advance. Only the top pros do the stunts like jumping over one another or sliding around on the floor - for the rest of us it's a no-no. Several sets of dancers are on the floor at the same time and you're subject to running into them, especially during the smooth and standard events, and how you deal with this (floorcraft) is considered in your score.

For big events like this one the earlier heats will be going two at a time on the same floor with very little time in between, and event staff are busy distributing and collecting scoresheets from the judges. If you want to see scores you'll have to wait until the staff compiles and posts them. If you'd like feedback from the judges, good luck - they've probably seen hundreds of people that day, and unless you compete regularly it's asking a lot of them to remember you (although if you go to a lot of competitions you'll see the same judges over and over - usually they're ex-pros). Every score I've ever seen was a rank among all of the dancers in your heat.

By now tickets will be available only at the door If I weren't several hundred miles from Columbus I'd be there.

Geek heaven

2007-11-04T11:57:00.000-06:00

Or else Lego Mindstorms for grownups right here. Yep, just snap together some devices, write some code to tie it together and voila! The concept is terrific, now let's see how well they implement it.

No idea how much this will cost, but if it's remotely reasonable I'll have to have it just to play around with it.

Now we can't cough either

2007-11-04T08:47:00.000-06:00

Now let's just suppose that you run a private business and you find out that people are having sex in your public bathroom. Just what can you do to make it stop? Really now, is it unreasonable to ask for people not to have sex in your store? Is it unreasonable to get the cops involved?

For those who like to shout "homophobia!", I'm guessing that Sears wouldn't have liked it if straights were getting it on there either.

Unless some marketing wizard determined that it improved sales, anyway. What do you expect from a place that advertises pants half off?

And what's wrong with the dressing rooms, anyway? A couple of weeks ago a sitcom had a couple about to get amorous in one when they heard a discouraging voice from the next stall. But there was a moral after all - they did eventually go and get a room

Is there some etiquette involved when one encounters public sex? Is it polite to use the bathroom per design when others are so encumbered? Or does it just add to an ambience they're seeking?

I once lived in an apartment that was alone the top of a stairwell. One day I came up the stairs to find a partly undressed and fully excited couple just outside my door. We saw each other and thus had to address a situation that probably never occurred to Miss Manners.

I wonder what they were thinking at that moment. Perhaps they blushed - they were black so I couldn't tell. Perhaps they considered inviting me to join them. If so, would it have been ungracious/racist/homophobic/illiberal of me to decline?

As for me, I suppose I could have stepped over them and acted like it was something that happened to me every day. Instead I said "I'll be back in 15 minutes", turned around and left. When I returned they were gone and I never saw them again.

Maybe the public restroom incident wasn't well handled. But really, why the hell do we have to tell people not to have sex in public areas?

There's a right way for everything

2007-11-04T07:36:00.000-06:00

Some people give wife beating a bad name. Here's how to do it right.

Innovation is not dead

2007-11-03T10:25:00.000-05:00

Twins invent wedgie-proof underwear - Yahoo! News