Angry Engineer

Charlie Wilson Would Approve

2007-02-13T20:59:00.000-05:00

Now, I think that it's terrible that Iran is killing American troops in Iraq, but how different is this from what we did to the Soviets in Afghanistan? I know some will think that this comment reeks of moral relativism, but frankly, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the Iranians are participating in such actions - they had a great teacher.

Those looking for more background would be well-advised to read Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile - it's a chilling example of what a billion dollars or so in well-selected small arms can do to a modern superpower. I suspect that no one in the current administration has a clue as to this piece of recent history.

Oh, The Hypocrisy

2007-02-06T12:35:00.000-05:00

As you know, "Talking Points" believes NBC News has taken a sharp turn the left.
It is a business decision made by three men: NBC Universal executives Robert
Wright, Jeff Zucker, and Steve Capus, with their approval elements at NBC News,
spew out far left propaganda on a daily basis and direct vicious, personal
attacks at people with whom they disagree.

Wright, Zucker and Capus believe this is a responsible way to run a news division but students of journalism know this kind of garbage is unprecedented at the network level.

Does Bill O'Reilly believe the shit that comes out of his own mouth, or is he secretly laughing hysterically at any audience member dumb enough to buy into such an asinine statement?

Random Thoughts

2006-11-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

- I am getting rather sick of Republicans forcing Democrats to shoulder the burden of developing a plan for Iraq, though. The perspective of the average Repub seems to be "my party fucked things up royally in Iraq, but the other party is weaker because they haven't yet figured out how to unscrew the pregnant lady". Or something like that.

- In the interest of pursuing free-market solutions, I would like to see the TSA back off on dumbass requirements such as the not-quite-a-ban-on-liquids, and the ridiculously stupid requirement to take off one's shoes. Any passenger that then feels the need for additional layers of security could then have that need fulfilled by any airline that will undoubtably subject its passengers to additional screening, since I'm sure there's so much pent-up demand out there for greater security. I'm thinking that such an airline would need to survive solely on the sales of tickets to loudmouth pundits such as Sean Hannity.

That just about covers any "meaningful" thought I've had since my last post six months ago. Come back sometime around next May for additional content.

A Surprise From Cato

2006-05-23T18:21:00.000-04:00

Let's just cut to the punch line - Cato, the de facto voice of libertarians (in so much that such a thing can exist), states that low taxes actually increase the rate of government spending.

Such a statement may sound like a 180-degree turn from conventional conservative thinking, but when viewed from the perspective of a free market, it makes perfect sense:

It is most implausible that reducing the tax burden of government spending on current voters would reduce the level of government spending that Congress would approve. In private markets, there is a consistent negative relation between the price of a good or service and the amount demanded.

$5 says that Grover Norquist won't sign up for this line of thinking.

Paging Emmanuel Goldstein

2006-05-17T22:30:00.000-04:00

The Instapunk would have us believe that Bush's sliding poll numbers are the result of... wait for it... the evil mainstream media! How unoriginal. And how inaccurate.

First of all, I'm not going to deny the fact that the MSM is loaded with idiots who carry a variety of prejudices. But consider this - the media took its best shots at Bush right up until Election Day of 2004, and the man still squeeked by with 51% of the popular vote. But we're to believe that in the following 18 months, the media somehow cracked the secret code of conservatives and won them over to the dark side?

I suspect that what really happened is quite simple - roughly 40% of the people who voted for Bush are now finally fed up with his shit and bailed out. They've simply woken up to the same reality that was discovered by a handful of conservatives a few years ago - the man just is not the heir to the legacy of Reagan and has driven a spike right through the concept of Goldwater conservatism.

Further proof of this is found in the congressional polls. Yes, the Republicans in Congress only get a 25% approval rating, but that happens to be closely mirrored by the performance of Democrats as well. So, you see, it's not the media's portrayal of Tom Delay, it's the fact that he's a slimebag. And despite the fact that we haven't been bombarded 24/7 with negative stories about the likes of Pelosi, Schumer, McKinnley, Kennedy, and Feinstein, the American public is smart enough to see them for what they really are - totally incompetent.

Anyone who doesn't view Bush's poll numbers in the context of the public's general discontent with politicians is missing a huge point, and it's really one that should be trumpeted by those conservatives who fear that the movement has lost its bearings. The bottom line is that people are just not very happy with anything that the government does, and that should be good news to any small-government conservative - even if the Republican golden boy is left twisting in the wind. The problem is that conservatism is no longer about shrinking the role of government, but rather using it as leverage to maintain a grip on Washington power.

Oh Lord, Please Stop The Stupidity

2006-05-17T18:23:00.000-04:00

I think I've made myself clear on illegal immigration once before (and that was back in November, when we didn't even have a problem!), so I'll spare everyone the waste of breath. Now, if only Michelle Malkin would do the same.
You see those people? Michelle states with authority that "day laborers gather here, congregate here, out of the shadows, out in the open, without fear of arrest". Um, well, it's entirely possible that it's due to our lax immigration enforcement, or maybe its just because standing on a street corner in Virginia with brown skin has been legal for several decades, and is no longer a reason to fear for one's freedom.

Seriously, how can someone state with any conviction that any ol' Hispanic person who's standing around is automatically a wetback? I mean, that's just ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I've occassionally had the same thought before when I see a group of Hispanic men standing outside of the local grocery store, but there's a huge gap between a prejudiced thought that's kept to one's self and making a claim on a psuedo newscast.

Oh, yeah, then there was Bill O'Reilly last night accusing the NY Times of "flawed thinking", and then following up that accusation with the "fact" that nearly 100,000 illegal aliens are currently in US prisons. Well, there are also 1.9M US citizens in jail, which is about 0.6% of the population. Assuming that the US illegal immigrant population is 11M, that puts the illegal alien incarceration rate at a whopping 0.9% - hardly a reason to panic, considering that the crime-income correlation is biased against them.

There are already plenty of reasons to worry about illegal immigrants without a lot of blustery talk, and a full 77% of Americans view illegal immigration as "a very serious problem". With that in mind, it'd be nice to see the pundits trying to kick around some solutions instead of trying to convince people of a viewpoint that they already hold, but then again that'd require some serious consideration of a problem rather than a lot of bluster and chest-thumping.

UPDATE: Sorry, I forgot the batshit-craziest comment that O'Reilly made last night:

According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a rainbow coalition, if you will. This can only happen if demographics change in America.

I don't know what he's on, but don't bother passing it over to me. But this is what I get for switching over one of the TVs in my gym's cardio room to Fox News.

Net Neutrality = Chinese Oppression?!?

2006-05-16T18:40:00.000-04:00

I'm on the GOPUSA mailing list (as RATM one said, "Know Your Enemy"), and I just received an message from a group calling itself the "Center For Individual Freedom" that attempts to link Yahoo!'s desire for net neutrality to the imprisonment of Chinese dissidents:

Yahoo is bankrolling the Network Neutrality Coalition in hopes that you won't learn about their other high-profile activity - helping to lock-up Chinese dissidents. We question what Yahoo and Moveon.org's real definition of "network neutrality" is.

The Chinese may love American jeans, entertainment, and free speech, but they do not have equal access to these by-products.

So, just how the hell does the censorship activities of Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! in China (actions I find deplorable, by the way), relate to the carrier's interest to exert their leverage over internet bandwidth? Hell if I know. This seems like political pandering of the worst type, but that's exactly what we should expect with the current collusion between Big Government and the telcos. In fact, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to find that AT&T and its brethren handed over their call records to the feds in exchange for favorable legislation regarding preferential treatment of the 'net.

Oh, and I gotta comment on the now-mandatory mention of "Moveon.org" in discussions regarding net neutrality. Yeah, sure, I bet that particular PAC has interest in a level playing field on the 'net, but what about the Gun Owners of American and Parents Television Council? Why, I bet those groups are right there alongside Moveon in trying to hand over control of the internet to the UN (a claim that was made in a GOPUSA email last week).

An AE Album Review - Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Stadium Arcadium"

2006-05-16T18:06:00.000-04:00

There have been three types of double albums in the CD era:

True movie-length epics of related songs, such as the Drive-By Truckers' "Southern Rock Opera",
Two contrasting albums, one being more mainstream work for a band and the other showing a different (usually softer) site (the Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" and the Foo Fighter's "In Your Honor").
The work of egomaniacs who are too proud of everything they produce and feel that every track deserves "A" status; Guns 'n' Roses' "Use Your Illusion" I & II being the prime example.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Stadium Arcadium" doesn't really fit any of those categories. The first type wasn't going to happen, as the Peppers rarely find a theme that's sufficient for a single track, much less a complete album. Option #3 requires someone such as Axl Rose, and we're all fortunate that there's only one of him. That leaves the ying-and-yang sort of double personality double album, but SA doesn't quite fit that model, either. Sure, maybe with different sequencing of the tracks, maybe we'd get something with more of a black-and-white flavor, as "Californication" and "By the Way" showed that the band is capable of transforming its punk-funk style into something closer to that of the Beach Boys and the Beatles.

But the melodiac tracks find themselves sprinkled amongst others that could have been outakes from 15 years ago (almost like a Supersized edition of "Californication"), and the result is a bit of a jumbled mess. As a single work, SA frankly falls flat. But there are individual songs that are among the best ever recorded by the Peppers, such as "Dani California", "She's Only 18" (with a guitar solo that's damn near Hendrix-like), "Especially in Michigan" (probably recorded to win back Midwesterners like Oberon and I who have gravitated towards Local H), and "Readymade" (maybe the closest thing to a straight-up southern rock song that RHCP has every laid down on tape).

On all of the album's tracks, the bass pops with the the style that Flea has refined over the years, bridging Chad Smith's drumming together with John Frusciante's amazing guitar work, and Anthony Kiedis actually sings half-way decently. Even on the some of the weaker songs (which are by no means terrible), the band member's individual attributes shine through and still lead to an enjoyable listening experience.

Much like the other albums that fall into categories 2 and 3, though, I'm left wishing that a single, super-strong 70-minute consolidated work was the end result. Fortunately, we have iTunes playlists to take care of this problem. A few more listens through the whole thing, and I should be able to pick out my 10-12 favs and create my own ideal album, just as I finally had the chance to do last fall with "Use Your Illusion".

An AE Album Review - Tool's "10,000 Days"

2006-05-16T16:44:00.000-04:00

Attempting to review a Tool album after only a few listens - or a few hundred spins, for that matter - is much like attempting to drive at age five. It's not an impossible task, just one that's likely to end in disaster. Therefore, I really shouldn't even be sharing my thoughts on this album for at least another year, since it'll take that long for my to properly evaluation the work as it stands on its own and in relation to the rest of the band's catalog.

That being said, I can indeed say that "10,000 Days" carries along in the tradition of "Lateralus", in that it further moves the band away from the nu-metal that it's so oftenly (and mistakenly) catagorized with, and cements the band's status as a prog-rock act for the ages. Really, there's little about the album as a whole that identifies it as a work from 2006AD - with the exception of the lead-off track "Vicarious", which follows in the tradition of "Aenima" and releases the band's anger towards the stupidity of mass media and its effects in one 7:06 chunk. From there, the album launches into a catharsis of sorts for Maynard regarding the passing of his mother (a stroke victim who was paralyzed for the last 27 years of her life, hence the album's title). It's the album's meandering path along emotions other than anger that really set it appart from previous works, and it's an impressive progression from the days of "Prison Sex" and "Crawl Away". Have no fear, however; songs like "Rosetta Stoned" still contained the sort of fucked-up lyrics that we're used to.

Speaking of what we're used to getting from Tool, here's the album cover:

Unfortunately, its 3D trickery isn't properly captured by my camera. It also doesn't work well for those who wear eyeglasses. That takes nothing away from the fact that it's damn cool, although I'm still not sure if it lives up to the prismatic cover of "Aenima" - it's hard to top an animation of California falling into the Pacific Ocean.

This One's For You, Oberon

2006-04-06T21:57:00.000-04:00

I got one hell of a mindfuck from reading the Bruce Sterling short story "We See Things Differently" that was linked to via a Manifest Destiny post. As retribution, I hope that Oberon sees this post and checks out Dan Simmons' April 2006 message*, which I thought was very much along the same vein; i.e. sci-fi futurist predictions of a Caliphate. Weird stuff for sure, and definitely food for thought, considering that sci-fi writers have a reputation for being better predictors of the future than just about any politician. It's a dim worldview, certainly, but better to figure out a strategy now for adapting to such a situation than to worry too much about Tom Delay's threat to bring ethics charges against Cynthia McKinney before the former Speaker checks out of his congressional office.

*After April, the post will probably be found at in Simmons' message archive.

VH1's 2006 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Broadcast

2006-03-22T17:02:00.000-05:00

Just a few quick notes from last night's broadcast of the 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony:

- My goodness, Debbie Harry does not have the energy she used to have. And what the hell is up with the red hair - does she not remember the name of "her" band? I have to say, my enthusiasm for this summer's Blondie/The Cars tour was greatly diminished by her performance. Maybe she was distracted by the debate about who should be in "her" band.

- Why the fuck did it take so long to get Sabbath into the HoF? I honestly don't have a reason for this.

- Metallica sure kicked ass on Sabbath's "Iron Man"; so much ass-kicking occurred that it nearly made up for the wussy-ness displayed during their Some Kind of Monster documentary.

- Why the fuck did it take so long to get Lynard Skynard into the HoF? OK, that's a rhetorical question; rock snobbery is the only logical answer - 'cause, ya know, only hicks and southern bigots listen to Skynard.

- Kid Rock should be required by law to sing vocals during every performance of the current Skynard line-up.

- Watching James Hetfield play air guitar during Skynard's "Free Bird" was pretty cool. And even Matt Pinfield was bobbing his head during the solo. The band should be issued some sort of congressional medal for the wretched excess of the 3-guitar attack, because I can't think of anything more American. Whoa - now Lars Ulrich is air drumming.

- Wow, the production values of this show really sucked, especially given that there was a full week to pull this broadcast together.

The Wisdom of Buffett

2006-03-20T12:12:00.000-05:00

Uh, that'd be Warren, not Jimmy. The genius investor speaks out on the danger of "professional" account management and excessive trading:

And that's where we are today: A record portion of the earnings that would go in their entirety to owners -- if they all just stayed in their rocking chairs -- is now going to a swelling army of Helpers. Particularly expensive is the recent pandemic of profit arrangements under which Helpers receive large portions of the winnings when they are smart or lucky, and leave family members with all the losses -- and large fixed fees to boot -- when the Helpers are dumb or unlucky (or occasionally crooked).

[SNIP]

Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac's talents didn't extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, "I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men." If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the fourth law of motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.

Interestingly enough, my employer has been sending out polite invitations to sign up for a new 401(k) account management service. I finally got around to looking over the paperwork, and quickly shit-canned it when I found that the service came at the price of 0.6% of the fund's value each year. WTF? At a 10% rate-of-return, that would eat up over 1/20th of my yearly gains (we haven't seen 10% average annual returns in the time that I've been investing, so the actual impact would be much worse).

The Greek Phone-Tapping Scandal

2006-03-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

The cell-phone tapping story from Greece seems to have totally disappeared in the US media, but the UK's Guardian follows it up with an interesting article that dives deeper into the potential role of Vodaphone, and raises questions about the US's involvement:

Because the antennae that relayed the calls to the recording equipment were close to the US embassy, many believe 'Big Brother' is the CIA.

Koronias appeared to confirm those suspicions, telling the parliamentary committee that the surveillance system required people with expertise in a number of hi-tech areas 'as well as plenty of money'.

More tellingly, the US embassy's former political counsellor, John Brady Kiesling, also pointed the finger at Washington. The CIA's fingerprints were all over operation, he said.

'Everything points to the US embassy,' said Kiesling, who left the State Department in disgust over the Iraq war. 'Nobody else would have, or be interested in, a list [of people tapped] that would look like that.'

Have we so quickly forgotten about this?

Regardless of who's at fault here, the technical details of the operation certainly will be interesting, once they are revealed. I'm also curious to learn more about Vodafone's involvement - was it the unwilling participant in an operation by a foreign government, or did the company go along willingly?

Time To Stock Up

2006-03-13T13:42:00.000-05:00

Any time the government suggests creating a stockpile of non-perishables, it's bound to be interesting:

In a remarkable speech over the weekend, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt recommended that Americans start storing canned tuna and powdered milk under their beds as the prospect of a deadly bird flu outbreak approaches the United States.

Ready or not, here it comes.

It is being spread much faster than first predicted from one wild flock of birds to another, an airborne delivery system that no government can stop.

It's nice to see some rational thinking coming from our leaders in Washington, even if it will be met with ridicule.

What I'd really like to see is someone from Homeland Security come out with a recommendation/requirement that every American household contain a suitable amount (say, two weeks' worth) of food and water along with other supplies and a means of defense, but that's not nearly as sexy as spending billions on computer systems that don't work.

Short Memories

2006-03-13T13:27:00.000-05:00

The current meme amongst many conservatives is now whether or not is possible to spread democracy in the Middle East, since it's apparently a lot easier to write off an entire region as being hopelessly backwards than it is to accept the fact that Our Dear Leader has irrepairably fucked up his crusade.

I do find it interesting that folks like Richard Lowry have now decided that perhaps only "strains of Islam" (nice selection of words there) are compatible with democracy, and in the same breath he has the audacity to trace the current problem of radical Islamism to the Iranian revolution of '79. Lest Mr. Lowry and his associates forget, the history of the Middle East might have been very different indeed had a democratically-elected prime minister not been overthrown and replaced by a pawn of the West. In this case, democracy was not compatible with our energy needs, and so we pissed on it to get cheaper gasoline. Now we have the audacity to look back on fifty years of meddling and ask if we haven't just been dealing with some sort of incorrigible savages? That's pretty fuckin' rich, if you ask me.

There are a hell of a lot of things wrong in the Muslim world, and not all of them begin or end with mistakes that the West has made in the region. I do find it interesting that so many are willing to overlook a half-century's worth of intanglement when attempting to write off entire cultures, though.

Coincidence?

2006-03-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

Fact 1: The USA PATRIOT Act renewal will place into a federal law a requirement that medications containing pseudoephedrine be placed behind the counter.

Fact 2: V For Vendetta debuts next weekend.

For what it's worth, there's already some bullshit in Michigan that requires products containing pseudoephedrine to be placed behind the counter. What this means is that stores which don't have a pharmacy have simply stopped selling products with that active ingredient, while those stores that do have a pharmacist can only sell those products when the pharmacy is open. Go to the store late at night to get medication for a family member (as I tried to do for my wife last month), and your selection is greatly limited.

For as much as I get uptight about Bill Of Rights stuff, it's really these sort of issues that represent a real loss of freedom in our country. What was that about the law of Unintended Consequences?

Greenspan Predicts Third-Party Prez Candidate

2006-03-10T10:13:00.000-05:00

Noted libertarian and retired Fed reserve chairman Alan Greenspan apparently thinks that the "vast untended center" of American politics will span a third-party candidate in '08 or '12. The "idological divide" of the Republican and Democrat parties is said to be at fault.

I agree that there's a huge difference in the idology of the two parties at this time, but frankly, is there much difference in the policy? If we look at the so-called "controversial issues" surrounding Bush's tenure in office, we find that, in large part, the Democrats have supported his plans. Where was the resistance to the USA PATRIOT Act? The Iraq war? Defense spending? The confirmation of Bush's cabinet and Supreme Court nominees? There has been plenty of talk from the left side of American politics, but very little backing up that talk in the way of a voting record.

Then, of course, we have the Republicans, who for all their talk of conservatism and responsible spending have irrepairably smeared the reputation of drunken sailors and have yet to apologize for it.

I certainly welcome a third-party option, but frankly I'm not so sure that it'll do much good if it comes from the center of American politics.

Fitness Challenge Conclusion

2006-02-24T21:35:00.000-05:00

We concluded the 12-week fitness challenge this evening. Interestingly enough, I managed to gain weight but yet still drop body fat percentage since the previous update. I ended up at about 173 lbs - a total gain of about a pound - and dropped my body fat down to 17.8%. That represents a loss of approximately 20 lbs of fat, while gaining 21 lbs of lean body mass. I have to say that I'm satisfied with that progress, especially considering the amount of travel that I did during the last three months.

When We Lose William F. Buckley...

2006-02-24T20:29:00.000-05:00

So, if the founder of National Review says that the Iraq war is lost, does that mark a significant event?

Mr. Bush has a very difficult internal problem here because to make the kind of concession that is strategically appropriate requires a mitigation of policies he has several times affirmed in high-flown pronouncements. His challenge is to persuade himself that he can submit to a historical reality without forswearing basic commitments in foreign policy.

He will certainly face the current development as military leaders are expected to do: They are called upon to acknowledge a tactical setback, but to insist on the survival of strategic policies.

Yes, but within their own counsels, different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat.

Holy shit. Oh, yea, and the Fox News guys are asking if an "all-out civil war" could be "a good thing." Nice. This must be compensation for O'Reilly's Murtha moment, in which we learn that the difference between lefist cowardly defeatism and a pragmatic patriotic call for withdrawl from the right is, erm, about three months.

Household Net Worth Growth Slows

2006-02-23T14:34:00.000-05:00

Surprise, surprise - this country's addiction to debt is starting to show its nasty side effects:

Americans' net worth grew between 2001 and 2004, but not nearly as strongly as it did between 1998 and 2001, according to the Federal Reserve's triennial Survey of Consumer Finances released Thursday.

The big reason: while household assets increased, thanks largely to increased home ownership and higher housing prices, debts – especially home debt -- rose considerably more.

I think there are a few key stats in here. First, median income grew only 1.6% when adjusted for inflation, while median wages actually fell. That's not good. Mean net worth grew more than median net worth; obviously, this points towards a widening of the wealth gap.

Probably the worst stat in here is that the percentage of families who are investing in the stock market or mutual funds actually fell by 3.3%, to 48.6%. We're supposedly living in an "ownership society" (and our tax code has been adjusted to reflect that desire), but this trend would seem to indicate otherwise.

I suspect that these numbers will all continue to move in undesirable directions.

Death Of Neoconservatism

2006-02-22T22:18:00.000-05:00

Oh, that's not my declaration - it's the opinion of Francis Fukuyama:

"The most basic misjudgment was an overestimation of the threat facing the United States from radical Islamism," he argues.

"Although the new and ominous possibility of undeterrable terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction did indeed present itself, advocates of the war wrongly conflated this with the threat presented by Iraq and with the rogue state/proliferation problem more generally."

Mr Fukuyama, one of the US's most influential public intellectuals, concludes that "it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention [in Iraq] itself or the ideas animating it kindly".

Going further, he says the movements' advocates are Leninists who "believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practised by the United States".

Well then, OK. If this actually means anything in the short term, I'd be surprised, as administration insiders who offer criticism has not yet been effective at all in actually effecting changes.

Now, on the other hand, the impending social breakdown in Iraq might actually force some people to pay attention to what's going on.

DIY Biowar... Made Easy!

2006-02-22T10:22:00.000-05:00

I'm really starting to get on this Army Of Davids bandwagon, as I'm seeing more signs every day that we're poised to use technology to make some sort of quantum leap into individualism. The whole concept of "fab labs" is closer than I had previously realized, as rapid prototyping machines and CNC equipment isn't far away from being as affordable as a KitchenAid mixer (or, simply hit emachineshop.com and save yourself the mess). Countertop plastic-injection machines probably aren't far off, and there's a few injection-molding proto shops that are popping up and promising 48-hour turnarounds for simple parts. Oberon and I spent some time last weekend discussing electronics and just how much power that a moderately-educated electrical engineer (or hobbyist) has available at his or her fingertips. Then of course there's the "new media", which I think has not yet really flexed its muscles.

But of course this has a downside; frankly, I had no idea that mail-order and DIY DNA sequencing was so easy:

Eventually, we fumble our way to a plastic dish full of translucent goop. If I’d been working on smallpox—and really committed to my cause—this would have been the part where I’d inject a lab animal with the stuff to see if it got sick. Then I’d give myself a dose and head off on a days-long, multi-airport, transnational suicide run. But it was just yeast. Set on top of a black light, it glowed an eerie bright blue, like a Jimi Hendrix poster. My creation ... lived.

[SNIP]

DNA synthesis is following a kind of accelerated Moore’s law—the faster and easier it gets, the faster and easier it gets. Last year, a group of researchers synthesized DNA strands of more than 300,000 base pairs—longer than the smallpox genome—using a method that eliminates most of the shake-and-bake lab steps I’d spent weeks learning.

Now, let's keep in mind the timeframe revealed in that last sentence - weeks, not months, not years. And this is for someone who had no lab training.

Jack Black's Latest Project

2006-02-22T10:13:00.000-05:00

OK, let me get this straight - Jack Black will play the role of a Mexican priest who wrestles on the side to raise money for an orphanage. Yea, I'll show up and pay $7 to see that.

If 50 Cent Was Crossed With Queen...

2006-02-20T16:55:00.000-05:00

...well, there's no need to ponder that question too much further, as someone's already done it:

Q-Unit

All I can say is that this is fuckin' brilliant. "We Will Rock You In Da Club" is probably my favorite so far.

Rollins Vs. The Australian Government

2006-02-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

Nice:

I just got a letter from a nice woman who told me the man I sat next to on the flight from Auckland to Goldcoast Australia reported me to the Australian Government because of the book I was reading.

[Correspondence between Rollins and Australia goes here]

I really don’t take kindly to that kind of shit. I like it though. Love it. Confrontation. Tension. Adversarial relationships. More please. It’s the only time it gets real.

I love this guy.

Policing Your Own

2006-02-20T13:24:00.000-05:00

I'm sure that this will get Dennis thrown off the reservation:

My concern is, primarily, with my camp. With my tribe. I'm happy to let Marc Cooper act like a fool because nobody can pin his politics or his opinions on me or mine. He’s shitting in his own blighted house. That isn’t the case with morons like Charles Johnson or, for that matter, even bigger morons like Ann Coulter. They’re taking dumps where I live, which means either I live with the shit or I clean it up. I choose the latter. It is just that simple. The argument that I should leave it be because Marc Cooper does the same is the argument of a five year old child: “But he did it, too!” Sorry, fellow VRWC minions, but if we’re supposed to be the adults in the room, then cleaning up after ourselves goes with the territory.

Get over it.

[SNIP]

So... when I see people yucking it up over at Little Green Footballs over the deaths of 300+ religious pilgrims – innocent human beings whose crime was, evidently, that they weren’t Christians and just like us... and whose deaths are therefore something to gloat over – and Charles Johnson doesn’t think it appropriate or necessary to remove those comments and ban those people from his site, then I’ve got one mother of a problem on my hands. That’s because Charles Johnson styles himself as a ‘former Liberal’, which means he thinks of himself as being part of my political party and my political faith... he wants to live in my house.

[SNIP]

Does anyone want to argue that a collective lack of knowledge of, and a persistent misunderstanding of, of the religion, culture, politics and history of the Middle East didn’t play a huge part in facilitating the success of al-Qaeda on September 11? And if our ignorance of the peoples, religion, history and politics played into the hands of Osama bin Laden and his followers, just how do the actions of “thought leading, tipping point” bloggers like Charles Johnson and columnists like Ann Coulter help to rectify that situation? How does the mocking of the faith of over a billion souls serve our interests in winning the War on Terror? How does the dehumanization of those same billion souls make us stronger - either materially or morally - in the fight against al Qaeda?

Answer? They Don't.

They perpetuate the precise weaknesses we must work to eliminate if we are to win either the War on Terror or the Iraq War. They perpetuate the same sly arrogance that we can and will prevail without effort because we are what we are and they are the ‘Other’; the inferior.

I think that Dennis makes two excellent points here. The first is one of those "meta" sort of things - from a political standpoint, criticizing one's own party and the lunatics within is time better spent that throwing barbs at the other party.

The second - and much more important, in my opinion - is that the mindset favored by many in the War on Terror is fundamentally fucked-up. There's a big difference between pointing out flaws of "the other side" while also acknowledging one's own, and simply outright mocking your adversary. I mean, it's not like Coulter or Johnson are dumb, but I'm not sure if there's ever been a better opportunity to use the word "ignorant".

Anyways, read all of Dennis' piece - if I could explain his point better than he, I would have written it in the first place.

Cheney's Inability To Handle His Gun

2006-02-13T23:11:00.000-05:00

I'd like to note that the following is stated with the least amount of partisanship possible - Dick Cheney should be going to jail for reckless endangerment for the criminally negligent act of discharging his firearm into another human being. The fucking idiot just set back a whole lot of work done by gun advocacy and pro-hunting groups. And he did it while on a private "ranch" hunt, too. Fucking hack.

For anyone that disagrees with this, I'd only ask that they consider what they'd say had John Kerry shot someone during his photo-op hunting trips in the fall of '04.

Flame War Supreme

2006-02-13T22:36:00.000-05:00

Man, there's not just one but two lovely flame war threads over at John Cole's place right now.

I can definitely say that I enjoyed a rousing argument much more before the Autoblog gig brought with it the duties of comment moderation. Nowadays, I'm far more likely to just blow off an idiot than I am to actually engage someone in a proper torching. Props to John and Tim for getting down-and-dirty in the comments section over at Balloon Juice.

Gasoline for breakfast, napalm for lunch...

2006-02-13T22:18:00.000-05:00

...No need, no need to ever burn out. I'm scorching and torching no time for front porching.

And a big round of applause goes out to Henry Rollins for providing the intro to this post.

Before hitting the gym tonight, I decided to try out this GNC carb-heavy drink mix. Basically, it's 50 grams (200 calories) of carbs that are supposed to offer a variety of burn rates, but the big deal is that it has 90 mg of caffeine. There's basically your bottom line on what the stuff contributes to a workout.

And man, what a contribution it makes. I did 35 minutes on the exercise bike at 80% maximum heart rate (160 BPM), and then hit the weights. I'm shaking things up a bit, eliminating leg press and leg extension in favor of more "realistic" exercises such as lunges and deadlifts.

I started my lifting tonight with squats, doing 8 reps at 45 lbs, 8 at 95, 8 at 135, 6 at 185, 5 at 205, and 4 at 225. The last two sets are more than I've squated before, so I'm happy with the results of pushing myself a bit harder than before (previously, I'd hold back a bit on squats in favor of leaving something in the gas tank for max-effort leg presses).

Next, on to the lunges - something I haven't done in a long time. Here, I started with 8 reps (4 for each leg) with two 25 lb dumbells, then 8 with two 50 pounders and finally 6 with two 55 pounders. This left my quads as quivering piles of jelly. Mission accomplished, I'd dare say.

Finally, deadlifts - another lift I haven't done since, say, high school. Using a barbell, I did 8 at 45, 8 at 95, 6 at 135, and 3 at 155. My back has not yet forgiven me, but I think it's high time it gets a bit of a workout.

Then I went back for another hard 20 minutes on the bike, this time at 90% MHR (180 BPM).

My post-workout meal consisted of a heaping scoop of soy protein in milk, and half of a Subway cold-cut sub. I think there's probably one more snack left before bed, which will probably be the half-package of tuna in the fridge.

A fair guess says that I pay for this tomorrow, but due to some traveling this week I'll have to hit the gym in another 21 hours.

Another Reason To Dislike This Area

2006-01-30T22:23:00.000-05:00

Nice to see that Ottawa County, MI - home to yours truly - ranked a healthy 302nd of 316 counties in the latest salary growth survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average growth in gross wages was 2.44%, or a lovely -3.26% when adjusted for inflation.

I'm not sure, then, who the hell is buying all the McMansions that are springing up all over the place, but I'm sure those folks are busy patting each other on the back over the nice job they've done keeping down wages.

Oh please oh please oh please, can we get that lovely Toyota engine plant that's being rumored? No, probably not, and once Delphi goes tits-up and the Coopersville injector plant gets closed, I'm guessing that things will only get worse.

Un-friggin'-believable

2006-01-26T07:23:00.000-05:00

Someone needs his ass kicked up above his ears:

ICG President Ben Hatfield accused the union Wednesday of "trying to insert itself into the investigation in a self-serving attempt to boost their organizing efforts."

Yea, I can't figure out why the union should have any part in this investigation; after all, the 12 guys who died were part of the management team, right? Oh, wait...

I'm pretty sure that the union has larger concerns than "their organizing efforts". Of greater priority might be tasks like "reducing the number of men that come out in body bags" and "avoiding conditions that turn our workers into vegetables".

There are a lot of reasons I think that unions are of vastly decreased importance in this day and age, but this case certainly convinces me that they still have their place.

Supersizing Gets Out Of Control

2006-01-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

I'm as interested in bulk purchasing as the rest of the American public, but this is getting out of control:

16 OZ.BOTTLE OFMODEL GRADE SUPER GLUE WITH 8 OZ. SPRAY BOTTLE OF INSTANT ACTIVATER.BONDS ANYTHING INSTANTLY.JUST APPLY ADHESIVE AND SPRAY ACTIVATOR. REPAIRS WOOD,PLASTIC,METAL AND SO MUCH MORE.NO TOOL BOX SHOULD BE WITH OUT!!! THIS IS A ONE POUND BOTTLE, ENOUGH TO LAST FOR HUNDREDS OF PROJECTS.COMPARE TO A 1 OZ.TUBE THAT SELLS FOR $ 3.99 AT YOUR LOCAL SUPER CENTER.

Now, if someone could tell me how to get through a standard 1 ounce bottle of CA adhesive without clogging up the tip, then maybe I'd be interested in buying a full pint (I just got done throwing away about a half-dozen tubes and bottles that had dried up while languishing in my toolbox). I am curious, though, as to how much stuff I could, say, glue to a wall if I had this much superglue at my disposal.

General Zod Takes On Valentine's Day

2006-01-18T20:30:00.000-05:00

I'll let him take it from here:

You humans actually rip flowers from the ground, the same plants that provide you with your life-sustaining oxygen, and give them to your loved ones? Why is it that you choose to give your loved ones the carcasses of befallen vegetation? Is this love? Perhaps I am beginning to understand and even relate to it after all. The way to express your "love" for someone is to demonstrate that you are willing to kill another life form for them.

Zod rules. So does my wife, who is largely unenthusiastic about this particular holiday.

NSA Wiretapping Backlash Makes For Some Strange Bedfellows

2006-01-18T14:59:00.000-05:00

The Patriots To Restore Checks And Balances released a statement yesterday calling for a broad congressional enquiry into the NSA wiretapping situation. Seeing retired representative Bob Barr among those making this request isn't surprising (he apparently hasn't been sipping from the same Kool-Aid as other Republicans), but what's this - Grover Norquist is part of this crowd? That's, shall we say, somewhat shocking - and encouraging.

And then there's Christopher Hitchens, who has joined the ACLU lawsuit against the NSA. Granted, maybe this just marks a return to his liberal roots, but giving the oral service that he's provided to the current administration for the last four years, I'm just a bit shocked that he'd so quickly turn against his new friends.

UPDATE: Hitchens speaks out at the Huffington Post:

The better the ostensible justification for an infringement upon domestic liberty, the more suspicious one ought to be of it. We are hardly likely to be told that the government would feel less encumbered if it could dispense with the Bill of Rights. But a power or a right, once relinquished to one administration for one reason, will unfailingly be exploited by successor administrations, for quite other reasons. It is therefore of the first importance that we demarcate, clearly and immediately, the areas in which our government may or may not treat us as potential enemies.

Well stated. He's going to get thrown under the bus by the rest of the neocon writers, methinks (HT - John Cole).

Justice Roberts Fails His First Test

2006-01-17T21:26:00.000-05:00

I had high hopes for Chief Justice Roberts, based upon what I thought was a sterling performance during his comfirmation hearings. Those pretty much went down the drain with his dissent in today's ruling on Oregon's Death With Dignity law.

As BlueOregon points out (HT: John Cole), his opinion in this case runs, shall we say, somewhat contrary to the views he professed to hold during his confirmation hearings. It, in my opinion, certainly isn't an opinion that's respectful of state's rights, but as we've seen from Scalia in the Raich case, that seems to matter little to certain "strict constrictionalists" when it comes to certain topics of morality.

I'm not quite understanding why Thomas dissented to the ruling in Raich (siding with the right of the state to control medicinal use of controlled substances) and yet dissented in this case (side with the right of the feds to say what is and isn't a medicinal use of a controlled substance). That seems, well, totally inconsistant.

Definition Of "Torture Test"

2006-01-17T21:21:00.000-05:00

You gotta love any product review that includes the following:

We felt it was time for a more comprehensive & impartial analysis, geared toward the paranoid survivalist mountainbiker of discriminating taste & special needs.

And thusly, the Mountainbike Militiamen Movement brings us their exhaustive product testing of the Cannondale DD60 fork. Hilarious.

Fitness Challenge Follow-Up

2006-01-17T21:04:00.000-05:00

Back in December, I commented on my pathetic state of fitness, and mentioned that I'd joined a fitness challenge at the gym that my wife and I attended.

Well, the first six weeks have passed, and so it was time for a mid-point weigh-in and body fat test. On the weight side, I managed to drop just under two pounds, and now I'm just a bit above 170. The more remarkable - and somewhat unbelievable - transformation was on the body fat measurement, where I managed to drop from 31.4% to 19.7%. If both of those numbers are accurate, that represents a loss of approximately 21 lbs of fat, and a gain of 19 lbs of muscle. As I said, I'm not sure that's plausible, and I'd have a lot more faith in the results if I had, say, weekly data showing a trend of this magnitude. But I don't, and so I'm just looking forward to the last weigh-in in another six weeks to see if I can maintain the same progress.

My dinner after tonight's workout, you ask? A real gutbomb - a can of tuna mixed with a bit of shredded cheddar cheese, and two scoops of soy protein in twenty ounces of water (I ran out of reasonably fresh skim milk). That's a bit over 60 grams of protein, which hopefully my digestive system puts to good use.

A Statement Of Fact

2006-01-17T20:41:00.000-05:00

Just in case anyone was wondering, getting food poisoning just before boarding a 7-hours trans-Atlantic flight is not much fun. That was way too much time spent in an aircraft bathroom. On the plus side, those air sickness bags hold at least a couple of pounds before they start to leak. My apologies for anyone seated around me.

The flight back home was far less eventful, thankfully.

Shorter Russ Feingold

2005-12-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

"I'm the only member of the Senate that supports the full Bill of Rights, and I'm naive enough to think that I can parlay this into a Presidental run."

I gotta admit, this guy is pushing all of my right buttons at this time. Combine him with a Republican congress that finds itself with a renewed sense of purpose, and things might go very well if he's not afraid to whip out the ol' veto power.

Reaction To Code Red

2005-12-19T18:29:00.000-05:00

So, it's been interesting to see how blogs have responded to Code Red, the NSA's authorization to intercept communications between US citizens and suspected foreign terrorists without a warrant.

From the left, we have a convienent reminder for conservatives and libertarians about the danger of unlimited government. Yes, thanks. Remind me again who was in charge when Waco went down? I think that served as a reminder for anyone who gives a crap about "due process". Those that forgot will probably not be inspired by a blog post. And who was President when Echelon was exposed?

Then, from the right, a reminder of exactly that last point in an attempt to round up all the voices stating "well, the other side did it, too!". I seem to remember getting quite upset over Echelon, as did many others. The post over at QandO is the only one that gets it right, in my opinion; the assertion by TM Lutas that this was already going on during the Clinton years strikes me as a childish attempt to divert attention from the fact that it's still going on under a supposedly conservative government. And then there's Tom Maguire, who at one moment can be as straight as a arrow (Plamegate), and then the next takes a Powerline-ish veer to wingnutland with the suggestion that this story was originally intended as an October Surprise. It would seem to me that if the Times had honestly wanted to use this story to derail Bush's re-election, then they would have simply said "fuck it!" and ran with it, instead of holding off by a year (or more). To be honest, I would have loved it had this info become public back when the voters had a chance to do something about it, despite the fact that Kerry wouldn't have done a damn thing to improve the situation.

So, how long until someone invokes the name Carnivore?

As a side note, it's kinda interesting that the ACLU's Echelon Watch page now returns a 404 error. Apparently, they've got more important things to do.

Shorter President Bush

2005-12-18T21:11:00.000-05:00

"I'll admit to mistakes, if I'm backed into a corner by low poll numbers."

Woulda been nice to see this same forecoming attitude applied to official communications, oh, say, two and a half years ago.

For bonus Tivo fun, slo-mo'ing the first 10 seconds of NBC's cutaway to the president sure is amusing. There's some weird facial expressions and hand gestures going on there.

Wal-Mart Economic Impact - Follow-up Post

2005-12-18T18:59:00.000-05:00

Back in October, I mentioned that Wal-Mart was sponsoring a debate (of sorts) to determine its economic impact. Sorry about the lack of timely follow-up, but better late than never, right?

To no one's surprise, the report sponsored by WM was positive:

It released a study by Global Insight, a Boston-based economic research firm that Wal-Mart had commissioned to conduct a yearlong study addressing such issues as prices, jobs and wages.

Wal-Mart's study found that Wal-Mart has a largely positive effect on Americans' lives, and that its low prices give consumers more buying power by holding down prices throughout the economy. It also concluded that Wal-Mart jobs generally pay market-rate wages.

And this is certainly interesting:

Global Insight found that Wal-Mart's presence holds down prices of consumer goods in the U.S. by 3.1 percent.

But what about the company's wages and (purported) lack of benefits?

In California, where such fears led to a five-month grocery strike in 2003, a team of urban planners compared Wal-Mart's wages and benefits with those of union supermarket workers in the San Francisco Bay Area. They concluded that union workers received an hourly wage of $15.30, versus $9.60 for Wal-Mart workers. Adding in benefits, union workers earned an equivalent of $23.64 per hour, almost twice the $11.95 earned by Wal-Mart workers.

[SNIP]

Michael Hicks, an economist at the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio, tested that theory and found that for every new Wal-Mart store, roughly 16 Medicaid cases are added to that county's rolls. In a second study, he concludes that, on average, every new Wal-Mart worker costs a state an average of about $900 in new Medicaid costs.

I'm finding it hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from any of this, especially considering that the impact on Wal-Mart's suppliers is not taken into consideration.

Music Musings

2005-12-17T21:19:00.000-05:00

I caught "Mod Squad" on Spike TV tonight, and while the movie pretty much sucked (other than the Claire Dane visuals), it was the first time I heard Alana Davis' cover of "Can't Find My Way Home". Definitely, certainly, it deserves a spot on my unofficial Top 10 Cover List (which means I'll invaribly forget to include it if I ever compile such a list).

I believe I was less than kind to Oberon when he suggested that Fall Out Boy's Under The Cork Tree wasn't half-bad, but, um, he was right. The song writing is honest and sincere, the band has some snap that bands like Hey Mercedes lack, and there's even a bit of serious cred (the band's drummer was in Racetraitor).

I came across Fastball's All The Pain That Money Can Buy on my iTune's playlist - following a common theme, it's a better album than I remember. Clearly, this is a sign of getting old.

Fitness... Or A Lack Thereof

2005-12-05T23:22:00.000-05:00

Our local gym is holding a fitness contest (lose the most weight/body fat % and win three months of membership), and my wife decided that she and I should enter. I treated this as a "just going along" sort of thing.

After going through the caliper-type body fat test last Saturday and seeing my percentage calculated at thirty-one-point-four (it's less painful to spell it out that way), I decided that I need the motivation to work my ass off, and so that has become my "winter project".

I'd like to note that working out and then consuming a package of ramen, 32 grams of soy protein dissolved in a half-and-half mixture of milk and water, some leftover beef and mashed potatoes, and an additional 3 quarts or so of water has really pushed my kidneys to the limit this evening. If I suffer renal failure, I'll let you know how it goes.

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

2005-12-04T18:54:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, with everything else going on lately, I somehow neglected to mention the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Sorry 'bout that. Anyways, I can't say anything better about it than Gordon Lightfoot, so I'll let him take it from here:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

Mirrorball

2005-12-04T08:52:00.000-05:00

It's been literally years (6 or 7, at least) since I've listened to Neil Young's Mirrorball album - damn, I'd forgotten just how good it is.

Irony

2005-11-29T07:30:00.000-05:00

Weeks from the arrest of homicidal dictator Saddam Hussain to the first day of his trial: approximately 96

Weeks from the arrest of American citizen Jose Padilla to the filing of the first indictment:
approximately 183

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. - Amendment VI to the United States Constitution

The Ticking Time Bomb Scenario

2005-11-29T07:16:00.000-05:00

Since it's seemingly impossible nowadays to have any sort of discussion about torture without bringing up the "ticking time bomb" scenario, I'd like to defuse this once and for all.

The scenario itself is simple - if there's an immediately impending disaster, is torture acceptable? It's intended to throw an opponent of torture off-balance (ironically enough, "moral absolutists" such as Sean Hannity are the most likely to employ it in an attempt to inject relativity into this particular topic). As one who generally opposes the idea of torture on both moral and practical grounds, I still think there's an acceptable solution to this.

If we accept the fact that it's OK for both the government and civilians to employ deadly force in the face of an immediate imminent threat to life (the three legs of this threat being the ability and opportunity to do great harm, along with the display of clear intentions to do so), then I don't think it's a stretch to allow someone to use, shall we say, other physical means in order to stop such an event. The key here would be that there has to be an immediate threat - as in, right this fuckin' minute. The possibility that a bomb might be detonated three months later doesn't qualify, just as I can't use a vague personal threat as justification to go shoot someone in self-defense.

But, just as is the case with deadly force, there needs to be a clear review process put into place each time such force is used, with severe consequences for the misuse of such force. The person who orders the "physical coercion", as well as any of those involved with actually applying the torture, need to be held responsible for their actions. If, in hindsight, it is found they acted reasonably, then they should be acquitted. If the policy is abused, well, I'd favor a little taste of their own medicine, but that's taking things too far and probably isn't constitutional.

Gadget Whore

2005-11-25T12:42:00.000-05:00

I'd successfully fending off the siren song of consumer electronics for the past three years or so. My most-recent purchase of that sort was a Fujifilm something-or-another that I bought a couple of years ago for $99 on clearance at Radio Shack. I was still taking an 8-year-old CD player to the gym, and using the Mot V60 cell that I bought around three years ago (props to Mot, BTW, for building that phone to last).

Then I picked up an iPod, and it's been all down hill from there.

Just before going out to Vegas for work (man, I love the way that sounds), I picked up a Sony DSC-H1 digital camera. Features include a 5.1 MP CCD and a stabilized 12x optical zoom. How well does it work? Well, you can see for yourself by checking out Autoblog's SEMA coverage. Or not, since those pics are shrunk down pretty far, the lighting made it difficult to get a decent shot, and I'm a crappy photographer. Take my word for it - this is a nice camera for the money. It's also large, heavy, and a bit expensive, so it's not what I'd choose if I just wanted something nice to take on the occassional hike or sightseeing trip.

Last weekend, I retired the V60 cell for a Motorola E815. So far, it seems like a decent phone. I'm not sure how often I'll use the built-in 1.3 MP camera, but it's there if any spy shots present themselves (and the camera function is actually easy and quick enough to access that I'd have a chance of grabbing a shot of something while driving down I-75). I'm still feeling out this device, but so far, I've at least found that it works superbly as a phone, which is kinda the point. The Bluetooth feature would be nice if I had any other Bluetooth devices, but I think a year from now I'll have a much better chance of taking advantage of this functionality.

So, there we go - nearly a grand worth of stuff that isn't filling my gun safe or making one of my cars go faster. Who woulda thunk it?

Big Dumb Rock

2005-11-25T12:32:00.000-05:00

I'm know that I'm wrong for doing so, but I love Type O Negative's October Rust. While one would probably not call the lyrical content "mature" (the biggest hit was "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend"), the coolness of the thick guitar and fuzzy bass should not be denied. And let us not forget the cover of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl", which has to rank as one of the more unlikley tributes to come from the '90s.

Holy Balls - Winter Is Here

2005-11-25T11:16:00.000-05:00

After the past few piss-poor winters, I guess I was a bit shocked to get 6" or so of snow dumped on us here in West Michigan in the past 24 hours. Yea, that's nothing compared to what the UP got (my wife was on the phone with the in-laws last night, and they reported about two feet worth of snowfall in the previous day), but it definitely qualifies as "something". It's nice to have a white holiday for once, but I'm sure that Ol' Man Winter blew his wad with this one and we'll get a 50-degree rainy Christmas.

Of course, I had decided to tear apart my truck to install a body lift on Sunday, a full-day project that stretched into something more like "a full day, a couple of weeknights, and a few more hours" affair (look for a write-up on Autoblog soon). I'm glad I was able to fit my new tires, but let me tell you, it's quite difficult to do a good job wrapping-up a big project when it's 18 degrees outside, and you're in an uninsulated pole barn with a little Coleman propane heater for company. Brr. Of course, it's my fault for having the main garage occupied with other projects, and I should consider myself fortunate to have an alternative indoor location to use as "overflow". Clearly, though, my Ultimate Garage Project needs to be moved up the priority list. I see no good reason to have 10 acres if I can't cover it with outbuildings.

The Most Recent Concert Report

2005-11-15T21:25:00.000-05:00

Damn, that's a dumb post title.

Good friend Chris J. and myself wandered on over to Grand Rapid's own Deltaplex (home of more gun shows than any other arena in W. Michigan) to catch Audioslave last week.

The only opening band was Seether, a group I had previously figured to be yet another mediocre post-nu-metal outfit. Not only are they exactly that, but they're also overly self-indulgent as well, spending well over an hour going through a bunch of milquetoast mid-tempo numbers. The lead singer's vocal style is best described as someone who's trying to sound like someone else who's trying to sound like Kurt Cobain. The low point is when the band briefly touched on an Audioslave riff; that's a serious opening-band no-no.

Rageslave or Audiogarden or whatever came out and played through something like a half-dozen songs from their new album. I was not impressed. Then Chris Cornell stated that the band wanted to play an instrumental, and he walked off the stage as a picture of a big red star was projected on the backdrop. That distinctive swirling sound arose from Morello's guitar, and then the band crashed into "Bulls On Parade". It felt like things were right again with the world. Cornell re-appeared and did "Sleep Now In The Fire" justice; he proved to be just as effective of a shouter as Zack de la Rocha.

After that, we got some vintage Soundgarden in the form of "Spoonman", where bassist Tim C. filled in the spoken verses. He looked terrible amused with himself, and for good reason. Cornell mis-spoke and stated that the next song was off "the same album", which "Rusty Cage" most certainly is no. That song was released when much of the crowd was barely in kindergarten. After that was a really weird version of "Slaves And Bulldozers", with Cornell delivering the lyrics as one would expect, but the rest of the band was playing as if they were backing a lounge singer. Somewhat amusing, but still odd.

Then there was a new Audioslave song, which sounded far better than anything from Out Of Exile.

A couple more songs brought us to the encore, which was performed mostly by Cornell and his acoustic guitar. He started with a great solo version of "Black Hole Sun", although to be honest I would have liked to hear Morello do the pyschodelic breakdown bridge. Next was an acoustic version of "Fell On Black Days", and then Cornell started off "I Am The Highway" by himself and was joined by the band for the last run through the chorus.

The show ended with Rage's "Killing In The Name Of..." in which Cornell once again performed superbly, and then my favorite two Audioslave songs, "Show Me How To Live" (which was introduced as "a gospel song, of sorts") and "Cochise".

I though that Audioslave's first album was just a bit of a disappointment for such an accomplished group of musicians, but I figured that maybe things would gel for the next album. Out Of Exile, then, was hugely underwhelming when it came out, and seeing the songs performed live does not change my opinion much. The contrast that the classic RATM and Soundgarden songs provided really drove this home. I do hope that the next album provides a chance for this group to perform up to its true capabilities, or else they might be in danger of becoming a glorified cover band.

Mellon Collie Turns 10

2005-11-15T20:41:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit late on the following observation (by 22 days), but I find it absolutely amazing that the Smashing Pumpkin's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is now 10 years old. It seems like, well, not yesterday, but definitely not a decade ago that Oberon and I sat in an MTU dorm room, trying to decipher this overwrought slab of alt-rock. Like so many other double albums, it would have been much better served by being released as one disc with the primo tracks and a follow-up B-side, but there's little doubt that the thickness of the jewel box makes a statement all by itself.

While songs such as "(Fuck You) An Ode to No One", "Here is No Why", and "Muzzle" still hit me just as hard as they did in Oct. '95, and while I eventually grew to appreciate "Tonight, Tonight", I still have little love for "1979". It just annoys me.

Anyways, in hindsight, this album probably serves as a good mark for the end of the alt-rock/grunge era.

Paris, Immigration, Etc.

2005-11-08T01:02:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Angry and I were discussing the whole Paris mess over dinner this evening, and I share the thoughts evolved during that conversation. Assuming that the riots are indeed sparked by a lack of proper assimilation of immigrants, why should the US be feeling so smug?

It's been claimed that the US is much better than Europe at assimilating newcomers into society, and without a doubt I think that's historically true; it comes with the territory of being a nation founded on immigration.

But considering that much of the recent immigration in this country has been of the illegal sort, I personally feel that there hasn't been a great deal of assimilation of new immigrants into society. I think that's clear with movements in the Southwest such as MECHA, and even here in the Midwest. I don't think that Hispanics, particularly, generally feel all that welcome or attempt to make themselves at home, although I think the same may be true to a lesser extent for the local Asian immigrant population. Maybe it's a sense of shame that comes with having no official status, maybe it's the fact that illegals tend to be paid extremely low wages, and maybe it's just the migrant nature of farming. I don't know. But I think it represents a potential future problem.

The advantage we have here in the US is an economy that is, with all its faults, considerably stronger than in Europe. I think we've got the ability to absorb any reasonable number of immigrants, assuming that they're given legal status and a chance to fully participate in our financial system. That isn't going to come with sub-legal wages, no taxation, and no access to capital.

The solution seems simple - establish sane immigration laws, and enforce them. Somewhere, somebody has an idea of how much immigration is ideal. We need to somehow make sure that we hit that goal and keep out the worst of the worst at the same time. I don't care whether the number is 10 or 10 million; we just need to control the border and make the people that are allowed into the country feel at home.

Of course, it's nearly unimaginable that such reform will happen any time soon. Those on the left don't want to be accused of racism, while those on the right don't want to shut down the supply of cheap labor. Additionally, neither party wants to lose the growing Hispanic vote. And so because of these short-minded goals, we're effectively allowing a large subculture to build up inside our border, with potentially disasterous consequences. Does that mean firey riots? I doubt it. What does it mean? I don't know. But I do think that isolating people in a foreign land is generally a bad idea.

Dean Kamen Deserves A Lot More Respect Than I Previously Thought

2005-11-03T23:06:00.000-05:00

The Segway, I don’t get. It’s expensive, heavy, and uses something like 6 gyros, a couple of really fancy motors, and triple-redundant X-by-wire technology to accomplish a little bit less than what bicycles have done for 100 years. In my opinion, it’s not a solution to a problem, and we’ll get back to that point many words later. The point I’m trying to make is that the Segway has caused me to form an unfair opinion of Dean Kamen. What corrected my flawed assessment of the man was a speech that he gave a the SAE Commercial Vehicle Engineering show that I attended. The topic was innovation.

The first thing that Kamen established was the difference between “innovation” and just “invention”. For this, he brought up the Chinese south-pointing chariot. A series of gears connected to each wheel keeps a pointer aimed in the same direction, regardless of the device’s path or direct of travel. Essentially, it's a mechanical analog computer. It was an early attempt at a direction-finding device, and it doesn’t take long to see that there’s bound to be flaws. A loss of traction by one wheel, just for a moment, could itself cause huge errors. But, hey, this was 500 years ago, and the Chinese are to be applauded, right?

Not so fast. 300 years prior to this, the Chinese discovered lodestone, a naturally-occurring permanent magnet material. Had they not be so fascinated by the potential ceremonial and religious significant of this material, they might have invented the compass. That’s the difference between “invention” and “innovation”. Kamen states that Henry David Thoureu described invention as “An improved means to an unimproved end”. Therefore, what us engineers really strive for is innovation. But how to get there?

Kamen then quotes Winston Churchill – “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” That’s often when innovation is occurring. At this point, he whips out his Innovation Chart – a sort of noisy sine wave (actually, 1 ½ sine waves), with the first positive-going section the beginning of a project (one point near the peak is labeled “Brass bands and fireworks”). But then it trends downward – first with a point just below the X-axis labeled “Affecting existing business”, and then the very lowest point. Kamen calls this the “Dark Night of Innovation”. For anyone that’s ever been there – I think I have, but I’m not sure and probably won’t be without many more years of hindsight – it’s a damn accurate description. Once this breakthrough is made, then the chart starts climbing back up, finally ending at “it works”.

Another graphical method used was showing a typical Gantt chart with its staggered linear chunks of time, and then Kamen’s version – this looping and spirialing line, at one point broken by a big explosion (“something comes out of nowhere”), and finally ending, well, when it ends. This got a huge laugh out of everyone in attendance, not because it was funny (although it was), but because it was so damn true.

At this point, I should mention that Kamen gave this entire preso while wheeling around on stage in his 6-wheeled wheelchair. The awesome thing about this is that it can “sit up” on two wheels, balancing in place and giving the user the opportunity to see eye-to-eye with a standing person. It’s one of those things that has to seem like a godsend to anyone needing the use of such a device, and once viewed in operation, it’s gotta be thought of as an innovation. He shows a photo of himself, dressed in jeans and hiking boots (no need to question his engineering credentials), showing off the device to President Clinton. He then contrasts this with Deka’s other famous presidential experience, where Bush managed to fall off the supposedly uncrashable Segway. How’d that happen? Kamen states that it works better if one turns on the power first.

OK, back to the preso. Now, it’s time to talk about failure. Kamen quotes Einstein as saying “If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research”. So true. He claims that risk, failure, and unpredictability are unavoidable when trying to innovate. At this point, he suggests failing early in the project, so that you’ve got more time to catch up. It sounds like a silly suggestion given to elicit some laughs, but he makes a great point. If you fail 6 months into a five-year project and need more time, no problem. Fail 4 ½ years into the same five-year project, and there’s big problems. Kamen then asks how many people in the audience beg for more time at the very first sign of trouble in the project, and how many wait until it’s nearly too late before raising a flag. His point – recognize when you’re in trouble as early as possible and do something about it before there’s unrealistic expectations and a lot of money sunk into rather inflexible items like tooling.

Since innovation and invention (Kamen doesn’t distinguish between the two at this point in the preso) are so fraught with risk, he recommends not inventing unless one has to, and if it’s necessary, remember that invention is “the art of concealing your sources”. Picasso is quoted as saying “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.” Kamen suggests that most problems have already been solved – just not in one’s particular industry. He gives the example of the heart stint that was developed by Deka in combination with Johnson & Johnson. With the required expansion ratio and life (10 years in a patient’s artery), it was an extremely demanding problem that hadn’t been solved in the medical industry. But a division of Deka had already solved similar problems in doing analysis on rotor blades for the company’s helicopter products. With the FEA tools available to the company’s aerospace engineers, a solution was derived in 3 weeks and has gone on to be implanted in millions of patients. Kamen described both the stint and the helicopter as “drug delivery devices”, drawing the not-so-obvious common thread between the two products.

A common problem, according to Kamen, is trying to “solve the solution”. Another way to put this would be to say that most invention is really applying bandaids instead of fixing the underlying problem. This is where I think the Segway falls so short, using even Kamen’s framework for innovation. The problem here seems to be that people are lazy, not that there’s shortcomings with the bicycle. The Segway attempts to reinvent the bicycle, but doesn’t help change the behavior patterns in place that make people hop into their cars instead of walking or pedaling. That’s just my take, though.

Kamen then debunks the theory that kids learn faster than adults. That’s not the case, he says – it’s just that adults are slower to unlearn obsolete or incorrect knowledge. Quoting himself, he says “It’s not what you don’t know that inhibits innovation – it’s what you know that just ain’t so”. It’s a combination of ego and that nasty human tendency to resist change that keeps us working with information that just isn’t correct, and that’s far more dangerous to innovation than the simple lack of knowledge. In my opinion, that’s 100% correct, although I’d never thought of it in that way.

On the topic of “innovation management”, it’s stated very clearly that innovation is not a spectator sport. It’s either all-in, or get out of the way. Kamen states that projects require management, while innovation requires leadership. What’s the difference? He doesn’t quite know, although he states that managers know how to do things right, while leaders know how to do the right thing. Management is about reducing risk, and it’s already been established that risk is an inescapable part of innovation. Many big companies excel at reducing risk and uncertainty, and he states that this isn’t always a bad thing. After all, he states that one doesn’t want to hear “Let’s try something new!” from a doctor just before an appendectomy. But this isn’t always the correct approach, either; handing a machine gun to an axe murderer might be something a manager should like from the standpoint of efficiency, but it’s not the right thing to do (I wish I could come up with analogies like Kamen does).

Back to the whole risk thing, Kamen quotes “To err is human”, but puts an asterisk by it. The footnote then states “*Unfortunately, it’s not company policy”. In other words, everyone fucks up, but almost every company won’t tolerate such behavior. It’s a fundamental clash of goals vs. reality that ultimately stifles innovation if risk management practices are used.

So, why innovate? Simply, because entire industries can be created from single innovations. They affect people’s lives.

When should innovation occur? Well, Kamen states that it wasn’t raining when Noah started building the ark, and that the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stone. Innovate with times are good, not when innovation is absolutely required for survival.

How to innovate? Kamen doesn’t necessarily know. He just states that one should not define success as a lack of failure, and that change should be embraced.

Who should innovate? Well, certainly, optimists. He gives the example of the Wright Brothers, and says that anyone depending on a lump of cast metal and some wood and fabric to carry them into the air must have been optimistic. But then there are pessimists, too, who invented the parachute in case airplanes didn’t work. Both have their place.

Getting back to the issue of risk, failure, and trying to solve solutions instead of problems, there’s the story of the Deka dialysis pump. The original task was to develop a new valve that would do a better job of pinching off hoses, as the current valves required over 100 lbs of force to stop the flow of liquids (traditional valves weren’t desired due to sterility issues). Deka saw that the problem wasn’t in the pinch valves – it was in the construction of the whole dialysis machine. Using a system that applied a light amount of force directly to the bags of solution, no valves were required. As Kamen put it, the hoses were designed to flow, not to restrict, and in the battle of hose engineers vs. valve engineers, the hose guys were winning. This approach caused the project to run twice as long as scheduled, and at twice the cost. The result was a device that allowed kidney patients to perform dialysis at home instead of being admitted to a hospital, saving an untold (but huge) amount of money and resulting in an immersurable improvement in quality of life. From failure came success.

At a party celebrating the introduction of this new dialysis machine, the CEO of the medical company offered up this quote about Kamen and his company – “If you’re going to ask a pig to go into the woods and shit golden eggs, you’d better stand back while he does it”. This goes back to the point about innovation not tolerating spectators.

So, who should be innovating? Those with a passion to make things better. He quotes sociologist Margaret Mead – “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world… indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

He concludes the main presentation with another Einstein quote – “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits”.

At this point, Kamen plugs his volunteer organization FIRST, which stands for “For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”. It’s basically a competition he organizes that offers the chance for high-school students to build a robot for use in a physical competition (it appears to be a friendlier take on the “Battle of the Robots” idea, and predates that by several years).

He does this because, in his words, “You get what you celebrate”. If society idolizes celebrities and athletes, then that’s what children will emulate. Kamen points out that the US only graduated 62,400 engineers last year, a number that has continued to decline in recent times. More students graduated with degrees in sports management than engineering. Meanwhile, China and India combine to graduate over 400,000 engineers per year (I seem to remember seeing figures even higher than that). If this country was indeed built on technological innovation, Kamen says, then this should be seen as eventually being fatal to our standard of living, and must be corrected. The way to do this is to get students interested in science through a mentoring process. In the process of explaining this, he clearly states that the solution isn’t going to come through politics (“the last thing politicians want are real solutions to real problems”) or any other means. It will take local involvement by members of the engineering community.

Indeed, I have not given Dean Kamen a fair shake. He could have avoided bringing this upon himself by bringing a decent $200 bicycle to the world, though.

More Music Musing

2005-11-03T22:59:00.000-05:00

I tend to reminisce about the “good ol’ days” of music once in a while (surely, anyone that knows me is questioning my definition of “once in a while” right now). That train of thought is derailed, however, once I realize that these so-called good times that I experienced listening to a particular album usually consisted of working my ass off on homework in my senior year, on a slow lonely slide towards insanity. Yea, there’s nothing like listening to Nothing’s Shocking while fighting with my EE453 homework for hours every night. I think it was sometime in May ’99 that I figured out why I slacked off during my first four years of college and spent that time mountain biking instead, and we won’t even go into what was going through my head as a EE who was designing wheels and hubs and doing frame fabrication on the university solar car. I digress somewhat, but I’m trying to frame things properly. For those that I lost somewhere, I’ll summarize by stating that most attempts to associate a particular piece of older music usually ends in the understanding that I should not be attaching any false sense of attachment to those bygone days, at least not on some larger whole-life basis. But this time around, it’s slightly different.

What brought about my latest music-related funk was reaching the “R” section of my CD collection in the ongoing effort to rip my CD collection (I think this is something like Week 10 of solid effort, although the project in its current form really goes back to April and is the continuation of an effort starting in June 2002 – but I digress, once again, because it’s my blog and and I can, dammit). This led me to WGRD’s RadioActiv collection of music from the southern Michigan area, circa 1997-1998.

Anyone reading to this point is probably saying “So fuckin’ what?” and thinking about going to something far more entertaining, like a personal-finance blog. Stick with me here. Or don’t. This post is for me and me alone, and if you find it interesting, that’s purely coincidental and management regrets the error.

First, the albums remind me of the influence that radio had on local music scenes around this time. Sure, grunge had come and gone, Rolling Stone had declared electronica to be the Next Big Thing (how’d that proclamation work out, dipshits?), and Seattle was now simply a place where rock stars went to die. All of that didn’t bring down GR’s music scene, which was hopping just about every night at locations like The Intersection, back when it was actually located at an intersection (the new venue is cool and everything, but it just ain’t the same). This, of course, was not the era of local radio ownership – that concept had been shot in the head a couple years earlier by the telecom bill that we thought was just about internet censorship, and Big Business had already stepped in and gobbled up every radio station they could – but modern-rock radio still gave a shit about local music.

In the GR area, it was WGRD and WKLQ who where giving big pushes to local bands, holding local-music shootouts, dedicating hour-long blocks to local stuff, and cutting discs like the ones that sparked this whole rant. Turn to either one of those stations nowadays, and you hear what a rock station sounds like when it sucks so bad that it’s only weeks away from switching to the Jack/shuffle format. The corporate fuckers can’t even manage to do a decent concert run-down once a day. And with the death of airplay and promotion, the local scene seems to have disappeared, with only a bit of a murmur when Brian Vanderark makes an acoustic appearance or Sponge comes around for a reunion show. Hitting the “R”s also brought me to Radford, a band that played down on the Grand River during WGRD’s 2000 free concert, which is the last time I recall a decent local show. Actually, that’s not correct – there was a cool streetparty sort of free show in September 2001 that involved Mustard Plug (embarrassingly, I can’t remember who else, even though I was sober), but that was only a couple weeks after a rather tramatic sequence of events and so I don’t recall it being as fun as it should have been.

Summary of the above first point – radios stations around here suck. ~~267~~ 359 words distilled into four, but I think it misses something. And to add, radio stations elsewhere suck, too. I miss traveling around the country and getting a different flavor of modern rock everywhere I went. Nowadays, it’s the same 40 bands grouped into roughly the same ranking on roughly the same playlist.

So many bands “almost” made it. I seem to recall Milkhouse getting some good airplay during one of my downstate trips (rare and significant events when one is going to school 525 miles away in the Upper Peninsula, and music often served as a backdrop of sorts for these seemingly epic events). Mustard Plug never grew beyond cult status, even after covering the Verve Pipe’s “The Freshman”, who themselves couldn’t escape One Hit Wonder status outside of Michigan. Hell, the Pipes’ “Veneer” with it’s chorus of “13 miles on ‘31” makes for far better home-state song than Phantom Planet’s “California”, but then again we don’t get many prime-time soap operas based here in the Midwest. The live version of this song on RadioActiv II (it’s an unlisted track at the end of Disc 2) should be considered Michigan’s unofficial state song (houls of protest from “Fred Bear” fans notwithstanding). Domestic Problems coulda gone somewhere, and I that that 19 Wheels was as good as anything else on national radio in the late 90s (hmm, almost sounds like a backhanded compliment, but that’s not that I intended – they were good enough to open for Our Lady Peace and Matthew Sweet when the latter was going through his fat-and-stoned phase).

Going through my RadioActiv discs brought back memories of other bands that deserved to get a chance – the DTs, Nectar, Knee Deep Shag, Papa Vegas (heck, they got as far as to get signed to Madonna’s Maverick label and then things blew up with the death of a band member, if I remember things correctly), Troll For Trout (“Lost My Balance” has that freshness and sincerity that doesn’t come from big-label recordings), Daphne Blue (with a man/female lead vocal pairing that’s as unique as I’ve heard in rock music, making “Fly Away” a simply beautiful song), The Roswells, Pudgy Chuck, The Julia Set, Monkey Chuck, etc. What about Fat Amy? A great band, but was there a bigger insult to everything I stood for in the 90s than Bob’s appearance on “The Bachelor” a couple of years ago? So fuckin’ disgraceful, it makes me mad enough to spit blood. Hey Bob – your solo stuff sucked even if – or because – it got VH1 airplay, and your former band’s “Break The Ease” is Exhibit Fuckin’ A for that argument. “Temptation Eyes” is a damn fine song as well – affectionate, without being so mushy as to attract the sort of women who religiously watch reality TV. Yea, instead, we got The New Radicals, Hanson, the son of the Bachman dude from Bachman Turner Overdrive, and all sorts of other crap that’s still causing the slow death of radio and MTV to this day. Much of the “failing” of recordings from the above artists results in a post-ground sound that’s too heavy to get categorized into a pop mushy love song format, and yet has way too mature of a lyrical content and a real melody and thus couldn’t break though in the nu-metal crapfest that hit in the late-90s.

I’m not summarizing the above paragraphs and 400+ words, because if you made it this far, you don’t need it.

There’s supposed to be a third point here, in the standard intro-three-argument-points-conclusion style that was driven home in high school. But, uh, I seem to have run out of steam, so I’m not going to force it. I’m not even sure I can bring this train wreck to an appropriate conclusion.

It’s not like there’s a single event that caused the local scene to wither away and for local radio to suck so badly. The shuffling of the Rick/Darla/Scott show from KLQ to GRD pretty much destroyed local morning shows, causing KLQ to fumble around to this very day (this went down eight frickin’ years ago), and then the RDS thing eventually crumbled (Rick and Scott have now regrouped for a new show, but it’s a talk-only thing on a AM news station of all places) and left GRD with a show called “Free Beer and Hotwings”, which happens to be the handles of the hosts’ names (the real genius on the show, Eric Zane, can be identified by his use of a real name as a start, but there’s other reasons as well). There used to be great afternoon shows, like some dude (the name of who I wish I could remember) that was on GRD in the mid-90s who scored all sorts of great interviews with talent big and small that was playing in GR. It was through this show that I first heard Marry Me Jane, and upon seeing the band in concert later that night (opening for God Lives Underwater, who passed around the biggest sheet of acid I’d ever seen), the lead singer had me smitten for life. Bronson and Michael following up the nameless wonder and had a good thing going until Bronson left for parts unknown, and now Michael’s over at KLQ suckin’ it up like everyone else on that God-foresaken hellhole of FM bandwidth. I’m not even sure who’s on GRD afternoons now. Um, I don’t think I could name a single DJ on that station, and that’s true for KLQ as well. I tune in once every month or so (literally) to each station, here the same mix of six-month-old and six-year-old stuff that’s repeated a half-dozen times a day, and then I go back to NPR like the old fart I’m scared of turning into (aside from the fact that old farts don’t know how to properly pogo in a mosh pit when it comes time to do so).

If you’ve read here to the end, I am amazed and flattered, and I probably should send you a $5 gift certificate to Applebee’s or something, but that won’t happen because places like that suck. I doubt that too many folks would be able to take advantage of my offer of a fish n’ chips basket at Turks, so no food freebees with this post unless you’re coming over to help with a transmission swap or something.

When "The Family Guy" Starts To Fade...

2005-11-03T22:56:00.000-05:00

... I have a feeling that "The Boondocks" will become the must-watch cartoon. I'm damn curious to see if the TV show will live up to the comic strip.

Music Musings

2005-10-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

Coheed & Cambria's "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV - Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness" is as wonderful as the title is long. If Mastodon is prog-metal and The Mars Volta is prog-punk, then this might be prog-emo. But C&C is probably closer to prog-metal than Mastodon, who might be closer to prog-hardcore, and The Mars Volta is probably more emo than C&C, even though they maybe belong in the prog-salsa category. Or something like that. Anyway, "Good Apollo" is right up there with the best of Rush and Queenryche. Yea - that good. What's amazing is how listenable it is in the context of modern music, despite the long runtime and lack of verse-chorus-verse songwritting. Maybe that's exactly why it's so easy to listen to.

On the other hand, My Morning Jacket's "Z" has to be the most disappointing pick-up of the year. From everything I've heard about the band, I expected a country-rock blend somewhere in-between that of Son Volt and Drive-By Truckers. Nope - nothing of the sort, and frankly I don't care for the album one bit. The next time I see a band getting such overwhelmingly good reviews and gets name-dropped by so many other muscians, I'm running far away (shoulda learned my lesson on this one after the whole Arcade Fire deal).

Is Wal-Mart Good Or Bad For The Economy?

2005-10-26T05:29:00.000-04:00

The question in the title has been one that's been hotly debated in recent years. Many of those who believe that strong wages drive economic growth believe, of course, that Wal-Mart has been overwhelmingly bad. Those that feel that low prices rule over all else tend to think the opposite. Economic propellerheads have leaned towards supporting Wal-Mart, especially since those sort of people tend to be globalists and like the fact that WM sources goods from low-labor-cost markets. Folks in the pro-WM group often express feelings that the "antis" are just a bunch of pro-union lefties.

To answer the good-bad question, Wal-Mart is sponsoring a debate of economists, who will present papers on the topic on Nov. 4th. While I'm guessing this was assumed to be a slam-dunk for Wal-Mart, previews of the papers are showing that it's not necessarily the case. Not only are some of the studies looking to knock WM off its "we help more than we hurt" pedestal, but additionally, they might even go so far as to question WM's efficiency advantage over mom-and-pop competitors.

Needless to say, I await further info on this, and will attempt to follow up on this as more becomes available.

Expanding The Police State

2005-10-22T11:33:00.000-04:00

As Radley Balko informs us, the apparent correct departmental action to take when an officer is involved in a questionable shooting is to expand the number of sitautions in which the use of deadly force is acceptable.

Betting On Politics

2005-10-22T11:03:00.000-04:00

Seems like everyone's been mentioning Tradesports in the context of the Harriet Miers confirmation (not looking good in the high 20s), but it's also interesting to see what people are betting on happening in the Tom Delay case (doesn't looking like convinctions are likely) and Plamegate (Libby and Rove better get used to spending some time in court).

Update On The London Subway Shooting

2005-10-22T04:53:00.000-04:00

It's interesting how a quick search on Google News reveals that the only source of news on this in the last month or so is being published by sources in far-away places like India or Qatar. A conspiracy? Unlikely - more like a short attention span by most media sources.

Get 'Em While They're Young

2005-10-21T19:54:00.000-04:00

I see the skinhead movement has now moved on to using jailbait to advocate white supremacy.

"We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white. We want our people to stay white … we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race."

Nice, eh? Hopefully these girls will grow up and eventually realize what complete idiots they have for parents.

Is Conservatism Dead?

2005-10-20T12:46:00.000-04:00

Oberon and I have kicked this question around many times before, and I think every time we've had the conversation, it's ended up with us both resigned to the fact that, if given the choice, people will choose the path of less individual liberty.

Anyways, the federal spending data presented here should pretty much kill the idea that there's any conservative moment in modern government.

Quote Of The Day

2005-10-20T12:44:00.000-04:00

Whoa:

George F. Will's next column just moved on the wire. It's about the Miers nomination, of which Will does not approve in the same way that Sitting Bull did not approve of Custer.

I look forward to reading that one in a few days.

EFF Decodes Printer Microdots

2005-10-19T18:34:00.000-04:00

The EFF has found that many color laserjet printers identify themselves and the time and date of the print job via a system of microdots that are printed onto every page. Nice, eh?

If you're going to use such a device to print out death threats or perform counterfeiting, then you may want to consult this list. Better yet, stick to legal activities, and ponder why such encoding systems have been put into place. A bit of arm-twisting by law enforcement, perhaps? They seem like the ones that would benefit most from such a system.

Cali To Regulate Cow Emissions

2005-10-14T06:55:00.000-04:00

This has dramatic consequences for those of us that need to emit noxious gases as a by-product of digestion.

Probably Better Than Anyone Else In '08

2005-10-08T22:42:00.000-04:00

Hilarious.

Notes From Seoul

2005-10-08T08:46:00.000-04:00

My wife is photoblogging our trip at http://mrsangryengineer.blogspot.com.

Misc. comments and observations:

American music rules over here. The cab we got into had Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger" blaring on the radio; I heard early Fountains Of Wayne coming out of some cafe as we walked down the street.

There's lot of Korean cars over here, and little else. I saw a Honda Accord today and it stuck out like a sore thumb. What's shocking is the range of vehicles offered by Hyundai and Kia - everything from microcars to large motorcoaches.

Bicycle traffic is minimal, and there's fewer mopeds than in Europe. Small (<250cc) motorcycles are the two-wheeled transportation of choice, and they even run them down the sidewalks. The riders appear to be wearing knee/shin guards similar to those used by hockey players. There's very few larger motorcycles; I think I've spotted a total of three sportbikes.

My goodness, you couldn't pay me to drive in this city. The traffic is terrible.

The US Embassy here is guarded on the outside by Korean SWAT officiers, who have a little four-wheeled minitank and some armored buses. Clearly, us Americans have taught them well.

Officers here usually aren't armed, but I've seen some carrying batons of approximately 4' in length. I would not want to get hit by one of those. The one gun that I've seen was near the Korean government buildings, and appeared to be a HK53.

13-hour time adjustments are harder to make than 6-hour ones.

Korean taxi drivers are extremely obnoxious around the airport, and will do everything they can to weasel travelers into a cab. We managed to fight them offer, took one of the "limosine buses" into Seoul, and found that it worked out quite well.

I had some tofu soup today that appeared to have one of everything that's ever been harvested from the sea tossed into it, and the broth was much like Tabasco sauce but without the vinegar. It was pretty damn good soup.

The Wall Of Sound

2005-10-01T23:59:00.000-04:00

I've been a Bob Mould fan ever since, oh, the fall of '94 or so. Given that he doesn't tour very often, I'd not had the chance to see him live. That is, until last night at the Metro in Chicago.

The opening band, Uncut, was billed as a shoegazer outfit in the vein of My Bloody Valentine. While they've got a ways to go before topping the layered, feedback-driven beauty of "Loveless", they're damn good for a young band. Most impressive was how close they came to losing control of "Understanding The New Violence", a slow-burn sort of track that they just about spun into the wall during the second run through the chorus.

During Uncut's set, Mould stepped out onto the floor about 8 feet to my left to catch a few songs and punch out something on his Treo. I resisted to urge to bother him, a move that was validated after watching his reaction when a few others approached.

Taking a step back to the drive to the venue, I had mentioned to Oberon that it'd be sweet to hear Mould do the first five tracks from Sugar's Copper Blue, since on this tour, he's said to be doing not just his solo stuff but songs from his previous bands (the other being Husker Du, of course). Starting with "The Act We Act" and wrapping up with "Hoover Dam", I honestly feel that it's about the best 16 minutes or so in the last 20 years of rock music, but it was more of a pipe dream than anything else.

Well, I didn't quite get what I wanted, but it was much better than I honestly could have hoped for. Mould hit the stage and proceeded to rip out "The Act We Act", "A Good Idea", and "Changes", thus satisfying 3/5ths of my list right off the bat. And as much as I like the faster tempo and through-the-roof intensity that shows up on Mould's live albums, it's nothing like hearing it in person.

After that, he drove right through his new album Body Of Song, hitting "Circles", "Paralyzed", "I Am Vision (I Am Sound)", "Underneath Days", and "High Fidelity" (a song that benefited greatly from the use of keyboards). "Best Thing" was also worked in at some later point, and a faster-paced run through "Bleeding Heart The Prize" was worked into the first encore. The new material comes off very well in a live setting, undoubtably due to the fact that it's totally driven by Mould's guitar playing.

I was then totally surprised to hear him go into Husker Du's "Hardly Getting Over It", since it was such a change of pace from the start of the set. After that was Husker's "I Apologize", and then an absolutely frantic run through "Chartered Trips" that had me wondering what song was being played until a good minute into it. The live-in-the-studio version on Zen Arcade is already a noisey exploration of the speed of sound; the speed achieved on this particular journey left it sounding less like music and more like the launch of a large rocket. "Could You Be The One?", "Makes No Sense At All", and an amazing take on "Celebrated Summer" rounded-out the Husker Du material.

"Egoveride" and "See A Little Light" were the only songs from his older solo records. They're not two of the songs from that body of work that I'd put at the top of my list, but they sounded good.

"Hoover Dam" and "Helpless" came around later, completing the last 40% of my Copper Blue wish list. The band also did "If I Can't Change Your Mind", and ended the show with "Man On The Moon" - a song I appreciate much more now that I did before.

After the show, Mould hung around the exits and was happy to talk with the departing audience and sign autographs. Amazing - I've never seen an artist do that before, not a single time in over 100 concerts that I've attended in the last decade. On-stage, he's a alt-rock god, but when he's not playing, it's clear that he's trying very hard just to be a regular guy. Too cool. I mumbled "thanks" to him and got a signiature on my ticket stub. Oberon at least had the balls to shake his hand.

Was this the best concert I've ever seen? At this point, I'd have to say so.

Tom Delay's World

2005-09-29T16:07:00.000-04:00

Tom Delay, just moments ago on Hannity's radio show:

"I believe I'm one of the first Americans ever to be punished [based only] on an accusation."

Tom - what reality are you living in? The majority of the people that just heard you make that statement are likely employeed in a "at will" situation, and thus would find themselves suspended, demoted, or outright fired if indicted for a felony. Your situation is little different. If I came into work tomorrow after getting indicted, I doubt that it'd be a normal day at the office.

You violated your own party's rules by getting indicted, you unprincipled fuck - you live with the consequences. While you're sitting there and sweating over your future, perhaps it'd be a good moment to reflect back upon the "contract" that helped your party win a majority.

Airbus Front Gear Has History Of Failure

2005-09-26T22:17:00.000-04:00

At least seven A320 aircraft have experienced front gear problems that resulted in the wheels locked sideways. The manufacturer claims that this isn't that many when one considers that there's 2500 of the aircraft in existance, but that's a failure rate of nearly 0.3%! It's a testament to the gear's strength that it doesn't break off in such conditions, but one has to wonder if this can be counted on in every occurence. Better to fix the problem, I would think.

Second Chance Accused Of Cover-up

2005-09-26T21:11:00.000-04:00

While at the gym, I caught a segment on NBC Nightly News about an alledged cover-up at northern Michigan's Second Chance, concerning their recall of defective Zylon-based ballistic armor (AKA "bulletproof vests").

There's little question that the recalled vests have problems, supposedly due to either to excessive residual acid levels in the Zylon fiber used in their construction (Second Chance's claim), or known problems with the fiber when used in hot sweaty environments (the fiber manufacturer's claim). The most recent news surrounds the question of a possible cover-up by Second Chance, and whether that delay (if it occurred) led to the loss of life. At least two officers have died while wearing the suspect vests (one of which who was hit 13 times).

If indeed there was a delayed response, it certainly sucks for those involved. Today's legal atmosphere unfortunately does not encourage doing "the right thing", and the company had to file for bankruptcy protection anyways. Responding earlier would have probably just accelerated the process, and whether it would have saved lives is questionable since many officers were forced to continue wearing the vests anyways. Companies operating under bankruptcy protection are not the best place to look for corrective actions to a problem.

I'm still not willing to vilify the company, though, considering its long history of saving lifes (nearly 1000 to date), and owner Richard Davis' trademark demonstration of confidence in his product. The man has been shot perhaps hundreds of times while wearing his product, which to me does not sound like the mark of someone who's trying to run a scam. And the move from Kevlar to Zylon was to improve comfort, which meant that more officers would wear the vests and thus benefit from its protection. It's also interesting to note that Second Chance was the first vest manufacturer to recall its Zylon-based product.

How the rest of this story turns out is for the courts to decide based on what the fiber manufacturer knew, when it knew it, and when that information was communicated to Second Chance, but in all likelihood the end result will be to deprive wearers of the latest-and-greatest protection. It also shows the difficulty a small company faces when tackling a complex product, and the larger problems that arise when said company has little or no leverage with a supplier that is much larger in financial size.

More On The Tillman Tragedy

2005-09-26T12:24:00.000-04:00

Wow. What a fuckin' shame. Shit happens in war, but cover-ups aren't mandatory.

And, yea, I have to admit that I find it fascinating that he opposed the Iraq war, even after giving up his football career to enlist for the Afghanistan war.

Michigan's "Stand Your Ground" Bill

2005-09-26T08:15:00.000-04:00

This strikes me as a particularly good thing for the law-abiding residents of Michigan:

This bill would do basically three things:

One: It establishes, in law, the presumption that a criminal who forcibly enters or intrudes into your home or occupied vehicle is there to cause death or great bodily harm, therefore a person may use any manner of force, including deadly force, against that person.

Two: It removes the "duty to retreat" if you are attacked in any place you have a right to be. You no longer have to turn your back on a criminal and try to run when attacked. Instead, you may stand your ground and fight back, meeting force with force, including deadly force, if you reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to yourself or others.

Three: It provides that persons using force authorized by law shall not be prosecuted for using such force.

It also prohibits criminals and their families from suing victims for injuring or killing the criminals who have attacked them.

In short, it gives rights back to law-abiding people and forces judges and prosecutors who are prone to coddling criminals to instead focus on protecting victims.

I'll be writing my local reps to encourage that they vote for this bill.

The NRA Rediscovers Its Purpose In Life

2005-09-26T08:09:00.000-04:00

I don't think I've been too kind to the NRA in, oh, the last decade or so, but the gun confiscation in New Orleans seems to have provided the NRA with a renewed sense of purpose. It sounds as if they've been successful at stopping the gun grab there; now it remains to be seen if they can take an active approach and secure post-disaster self-defense rights nationwide.

Economy May Have Been Slowing Down Even Before Hurricanes

2005-09-26T08:03:00.000-04:00

August indicators seem to show that the US economy was slowing down even before Hurricane Katrina hit, although you can just about take it to the bank that if things slide in the next few months, this fact will be long-forgotten.

September is shaping up to be a terrible month for auto sales; it should be interesting to see if that ends up being a broader indicator of market performance.

Next, Sharks With Frickin' Laser Beams

2005-09-26T07:57:00.000-04:00

If this is true, then it has to qualify as the most bizarre story to come out of the hurricane madness of the last three weeks:

Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

[SNIP]

The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them.

Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.

I would normally be tempted to blow this off, but it is the military we're talking about.

Getting Old Sucks

2005-09-20T09:41:00.000-04:00

NIN recently had to stop a show due to their drummer suffering from... chest pains?!? That's not very rock-and-roll. That is, in fact, downright middled-aged.

The next thing we know, NIN will stop singing about the pain of living and instead will muse about the slight discomfort of yearly bloodwork.

Why My Wife Rules

2005-09-19T20:07:00.000-04:00

Because she sent me a cool article on Byzantine errors in X-by-wire systems.

What I don't get is the requirement for having 3n+1 separate entities for true redundancy, where n is the number of possible failed entities. It seems like 2n+1 would be sufficient, and indeed, this is what I've seen in throttle-by-wire systems when redundancy (rather than just fault detection) is required. A few of us kicked this around at work and came to the same conclusion. Is it just the desire to have a supermajority of entities working properly in a mission-critical role? I'm OK with that philosophy.

UPDATE: Ah. The problem assumes that a particular defective entity doesn't always transmit the same incorrect message to all of the other entities; that is, it may "lie" to some but not all. That's why at least 2/3rds + 1 of the entities need to be functioning properly.

A Study In Contrasts

2005-09-19T19:39:00.000-04:00

This is how a pragmatic conservative reacts to criticism of Bush. This is how a wingnut reacts. Can you spot the difference? Ignoring history doesn't help someone's case, either.

And, FYI - Clinton was, and still is, a wanker. But that does not mean that we can blame him for the fact that Bush has performed exceedingly poorly as a president and as a leader, and invoking the unholy names of Bill and Hillary is not going to fix the problem anytime in the next 2 1/2 years. Every once in a while, you gotta look at your man and say, "Ya, he's really pissing it away right now". Some folks just can't reach that level of intellectual honesty, and thus will never be able to offer any solutions for addressing the problems.

Mortgaging The Future, Continued

2005-09-19T19:32:00.000-04:00

Fareed Zarkaria, otherwise known as one of the few sane reporters on Earth, weighs in with his opinion on federal spending in the wake of Katrina:

The worse things get, the more frivolous our response. President Bush explains that he will spend hundreds of billions of dollars rebuilding the Gulf Coast without raising any new revenues. Republican leader Tom DeLay declines any spending cuts because "there is no fat left to cut in the federal budget."

This would be funny if it weren't so depressing. What is happening in Washington today is business as usual in the face of a national catastrophe. The scariest part is that we've been here before. After 9/11 we have created a new government agency, massively increased domestic spending and fought two wars. And the president did all this without rolling back any of his tax cuts—in fact, he expanded them—and refused to veto a single congressional spending bill. This was possible because Bush inherited a huge budget surplus in 2000. But that's all gone. The cupboard is now bare.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm no fan of increased taxes. But put simply, spending must not exceed expenditures, at least not for any length of time. Something has to give - either revenue grows, or spending drops. But that sort of logic seems lost in Washington, which is tragic because not even a decade ago, Congress demonstrated an ability to keep spending under control.

I Prefer My Selective Memory, Thank You

2005-09-18T08:27:00.000-04:00

Go here, and punch your year of graduation into the search box on the upper left-hand side. The first result should be a Top 100 list of songs that year. I'd thought that 1994 was a high point of music, but damn, there's a lot of shitty songs on that list. Personally, I think the list might be a bit knackered - there's no Green Day, Soundgarden, or Stone Temple Pilots, and '94 was a big year for those bands (among many others). And if you hit the list for '92, Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is only #32.

HT: Matthew Yglesias

Tom Delay, Idiot

2005-09-16T10:30:00.000-04:00

OK, so there's this quip:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget . . . Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good."

Which Billmon counters with this graph:Or we can look at it this way:
If this is really the best we can do, we're totally fucked. Since we're running a large deficit at this spending level, then the only thing to do would be to raise taxes, or hold spending constant until economic growth provides enough income at current taxation levels. What are the odds of one or both of those happening? Pretty damn low, I'd dare say.

I feel truely sorry for whatever generation ends up with the debt that's being passed down due to our politician's inability to figure out how to balance expenditures against income. And I'm truly pissed at our citizens, who continue to vote for said politicians.

Can Someone Get This Man An ESD Smock?

2005-09-16T10:25:00.000-04:00

Yikes:

An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked,
leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.

HT: Balloon Juice.

My Take On The Roberts Hearings

2005-09-15T20:38:00.000-04:00

I was stuck in a car for a large portion of yesterday and the day prior, so I got a healthy dose of the Senate's Roberts confirmation hearings. The following are my thoughts:

1) Those are some smart-sounding mofos - both the Judiciary Committee, and Roberts. I think I occassionally lapse into stereotyping all Congressmen as idiots, which obviously isn't giving them enough credit. They, however, are not smart in the way that would tend towards them surviving for more than, say, 10 minutes in the real world.

2) Sen. Chuck Schumer can be an incredibly smooth talker.

3) Schumer can be incredibly smary and annoying, and is apparently in love with himself.

4) If I were John Roberts, there would have been moments where I would have contemplated bashing Schumer over the head with a microphone. The grilling over the "illegal Amigo" memos would have been one of those moments.

5) Sen. Dianne Feinstein is still obsessed with banning guns, and doing it under the Commerce Clause.

6) Roberts did a lot of dancing around the Commerce Clause questions. At time, I felt that he would lean towards limiting the fed's powers under that clause, which is something I tend to agree with. At other moments, he didn't seem so sure of federalism.

6) The only Senator who seemed to care about Robert's take on the 2nd was Russ Feingold, who made it very clear that he sees the 2nd as an individual right. I don't think I share too many political views with Feingold, but I tend to agree with him on a select few hotbutton issues. Roberts said that the issue was undecided, which is generally encouraging. I'd like to see the court revisit Miller, but that probably doesn't have a snowball's chance.

7) What the heck was up with Sen. Coburn and his weird-out about natural law? I think I missed something there. Between that, the crossword puzzle thing, and his tearful opening statement, this guy isn't doing much to dispell the left's criticism that he's not all there (I think I hopped on that bandwagon after his "lesbian epidemic" comment prior to the election).

Overall, it seems like Roberts isn't that bad of a nominee. I think were I'm going to disagree with him is on privacy (I think he leans towards stating that there is no right to privacy), and on issues of the government's ability to detain citizens without charges being filed. Those are just assumptions, of course, as those issues were not directly answered during the hearing.

Frankly, I can't imagine where anyone will have much of a legit reason to vote against confirming him.

Nerd Rock

2005-09-12T09:38:00.000-04:00

This one is for Oberon - Death Cab For Cutie gets a nice write-up in Rolling Stone.

Football Season Is Over

2005-09-12T09:32:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not talking about the Detroit Lions - yet. Instead, it's the title of Hunter S Thompon's suicide note, which apparently will be published soon in Rolling Stone. I normally don't adovcate such practices, but the author would probably want it this way.

Gun Confiscation In NO

2005-09-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

Someone - apparently the mayor of New Orleans - has authorized confiscation of private firearms, stating that only the police and military can arm themselves. This, of course, is a direct affront to the 2nd Amendment, not to mention Louisiana state law. Will we see any lawsuits from the federal government over the violation of the residents' civil rights? I hope so, but I doubt it.

California Smog... From Wine?

2005-09-07T14:33:00.000-04:00

Environmental regulators are going after wineries in California's San Joaquin Valley, as the fermentation process apparently is a source of air pollution. The alcohol that's released into the atmosphere can cause the creation of ozone, which is an pollutant at low altitudes. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District has also asked farmers to keep down dust levels during harvest and is exploring ways to control emissions from dairy cows. Uh-huh. I'm not sure what else goes on in this region, but if wineries and farms are the worst problems, then I'd say they're doing pretty good.

Tom Delay Finally Meets A Tax He Won't Cut

2005-09-07T13:39:00.000-04:00

Apparently, the gas tax is off-limits in Tom Delay's opinion. Curious, but hardly surprising, considering that the gas tax is one of the most regressive taxes in this country.

Are The Feds Blocking NO Communications?

2005-09-07T13:06:00.000-04:00

It's hard to say. But why wouldn't it surprise me if they were? If nothing else, FEMA is certainly making life difficult for those that use anything but MSIE, but that seems like ordinary incompetence.

NO DVD On Hurricane Preparation A Bit Late

2005-09-07T12:49:00.000-04:00

Brad DeLong reports that New Orleans was working on an evacuation how-do DVD titled "Your Poor Ass Is On Its Own" or something like that, but it was never completed before hurricane season. How's that for ironic governmental incompetence? They never were able to even complete a video describing how they're not able to help.

Glenn Reynolds takes the Department of Homeland Security to task in his TCS column. I want the $120B or so that's been spent by the DHS back in my pockets, if this is all they've been able to do. I'm absolutely stunned that our local fire department - serving 6,000 people - was able to get $70K for new equipment, but yet somehow DHS money never found its way into the NOPD for a decent radio setup.

The Rude Pundit takes on FEMA, too, but from a slightly different perspective.

I really hope that every single person involved in this mess, from the lowliest employee of NO that was involved in disaster management all the way up to the President, is totally embarassed of this mess. I bet that not a single firing comes out of this whole ordeal, however. Not like the loss of a job would bring back a single dead person or rebuild anyone's home. But hopefully it'd help prevent such a mess from happening again.

Death Of The Rock Snob

2005-08-30T22:11:00.000-04:00

Is the world of digital music causing the demise of the Rock Snob? It would appear so:

While the term "Rock Snob" has a pejorative ring, the label also implies real social advantages. The Rock Snob presides as a musical wise man to whom friends and relatives turn for opinions and recommendations; he can judiciously distribute access to various rare and exotic prizes in his collection. "Oh my God, where did you find this?" are a Rock Snob's favorite words to hear. His highest calling is the creation of lovingly compiled mix CDs designed to dazzle their recipients with a blend of erudition, obscurity, and pure melodic dolomite. Recently, I unearthed a little-known cover of the gentle Gram Parsons country classic "Hickory Wind," bellowed out by Bob Mould and Vic Chestnutt, which moved two different friends to tears. It was Rock Snob bliss.

In some ways, then, the iPod revolution is a Rock Snob's dream. Now, nearly all rock music is easily and almost instantly attainable, either via our friends' computers or through online file-sharing networks. "Music swapping" on a mass scale allows my music collection to grow larger and faster than I'd ever imagined. And I can now summon any rare track from the online ether.

But there's a dark side to the iPod era. Snobbery subsists on exclusivity. And the ownership of a huge and eclectic music collection has become ordinary.

The end is coming for my music collection as a physical entity, but I'm fighting it off as long as I can. I've yet to purchase so much as a single track as a downloadable file. I'll change that soon, I predict. It'll mark a new low point in laziness.

The worst part about having a few thousand songs at my fingertips is that my finely-honed adherence to complete works is fading fast. I never liked the whole idea of the "shuffle" or "random" buttons on CD players, instead prefering to listen to a complete disc - good and bad, dammit! - as a measure of respect to the artist. The act of physically inserting the disc into a player was some sort of handshake, a promise to digest an album as it was intended. That promise is too easily broken with just a couple touches of a scroll wheel, and I'm not comfortable with that.

American Governmental Work Ethic Invades Iraq

2005-08-30T13:03:00.000-04:00

Sounds just like August in Washington, DC:

Iraq's parliament proposed a law on Monday to sack members of the National Assembly who repeatedly failed to turn up for work -- but the decision was put on hold because too many were absent to hold a vote.

"Intelligent" Design And Stupid Treehuggers

2005-08-30T12:37:00.000-04:00

George Will is one of my favorite columnists, even though (or because?) I don't always agree with him. He's right-on with his latest, "Don't Feed The Animals, Please", which is centered around this summer's pandemic of nature documentaries.

He starts off with using "March of the Penguins" as evidence against intelligent design, which is a pretty strong argument that probably requires no further commentary from me. I still think that penguins are one of the most amusing animals on earth, even if evolution has been somewhat cruel to them.

Then he tears in Timothy Treadwell, who is currently experiencing 15 minutes of post-mortem fame for his role as bear food in "Grizzly Man". I have to admit that I kinda laughed at Treadwell's misfortune when I first heard about it a couple of years ago, and it's still somewhat amusing. Had he made an honest attempt at self-defense in the presense of predators, I'd feel much differently. I've got no interest in engaging in offensive operations on bears or virtually any other predator for that matter, since I think we need every one we can get.

On the other hand, however, I've also got little respect for someone who wants to go play touchy-feely with an animal that's the size of a small car without being capable of self-defense. I don't think the bears respect a lack of self-defense, given their territorial tendencies, and I've got to imagine that they're laughing their asses off at Mr. Grizzy Chow if indeed they possess the humanistic qualities that Treadwell atributted to them. I'd definitely be in the "tread lightly and carry a big gun" camp if I was wandering around in grizzly country, with emphasis on the treading-lightly part.

Greenspan Sees End Of Housing Boom

2005-08-29T20:22:00.000-04:00

Alan Greenspan isn't feeling wonderful about housing costs lately, or to be more accurate, he's concerned that rapidly-rising housing costs are driving too much economic growth. He states that "prices could even decrease", which is about as close to a doom-and-gloom prediction that one is likely to get from Greenspan.

The upside? The Fed chairman thinks that a slowdown in the housing market could improve the national savings rate, decrease imports, and improve the trade deficit. Those would all be great things. It'd be better yet if those same things could be accomplished without immobilizing a large chunk of the population at the same time that jobs become increasingly more difficult to maintain in a particular geographic area.

Ex-Marine Downs Police Chopper

2005-08-28T09:50:00.000-04:00

Hey man, nice shot. Actually, it's not cool to shoot down police helicopters for whatever reason (I've heard that he was upset at the noise), but I've got a lot of respect for the marksmanship required to hit a hovering chopper that's 1600 ft away and 400 ft off the ground. I've heard he used a .30-'06, which simply illustrates just how well that round has performed in nearly 100 years of service.

Arg

2005-08-28T07:55:00.000-04:00

Let me just say that it sucks to be forced into taking a Dremel tool to a brand-new pistol after firing only 100 rounds through it. I traded in my dead-nuts reliable Kel-Tec P11 for a CZ RAMI because I wanted something with a trigger that didn't feel like trying to break a 2x4, and I was hoping to get a firearm that didn't require any work out-of-the-box. I went 1 for 2.

The first 50 or so rounds of WWB 115 gr. 9mm FMJ went through the RAMI just fine, but it only took the first 3 rounds from the 14-round mag for the WWB 147 gr. JHP to highlight a failure to feed (FTF) problem. The nose of the round never came up far enough to climb up the feed ramp. Speer Gold Dot 147 gr. rounds did the exact same thing.

First, I tried cleaning and lubing the mags. No luck. Next, I tried some firmer mag springs from Wolff. That didn't work, either. Finally, I reshaped and polished the feedramp. That seems to have done the trick, but I'll feel better when it runs for a few hundred rounds without stoppages.

Apparently, this is a known problem to CZ, although damn if I could find any mention of this problem during my several hours of pre-purchase research. Why in the world would a compact double-stack semi-auto be sold that can't feed hollowpoints? The assumed mission for this firearm is self-defense, and FMJ 9mm rounds aren't exactly known for their "stopping power".

I can say that the single-action trigger isn't as good as a 1911, but it's a hell of a lot better (to me) than a Glock or Springfield XD "safe action". I love the fact that it can be carried cocked-and-locked like a 1911. When I'm not flinching, it seems to be a very accurate little gun. Why I'm flinching, I have no idea - the recoil is minimal. I think I might just be out of practice in general. In fact, I'm sure I'm out of practice, and the last time I got in any decent amount of shooting, it was with my .44 Mag Redhawk. Maybe that explains my problem...

My FIST IWB holster hasn't shown up yet, so I can't comment on how it will be to carry. I plan on getting one of the 10-round mags (it ships with two 14-round mags that allow a three-finger grip) to shorten up the butt of the gun somewhat, since that's usually the biggest problem I have with hiding something under an untucked shirt. The frame is a bit fat, so I'm not sure how it'll conceal compared to my Kimber Compact. One area where it should be far superior is in weight, but then again most things are lighter than a all-steel 1911. And speaking of steel, hopefully it won't be plagued with corrosion problems like my beloved Kimber (which will soon either be getting a DIY application of GunKote or a trip to Robar).

Why Powerline Sucks

2005-08-27T15:32:00.000-04:00

Hmm, maybe it's because if you check out their post slamming Paul Krugman's prediction of a housing bubble, it contains an advertisment that... warns of a housing bubble:

This, apparently, is the sort of integrity that we're to expect of the Blog Of The Year. For what it's worth, the Google Adsense ad points towards Newsmax.com. Just to be clear, any dire predictions of economic problems from the NY Times are to be mocked, while any similar predictions from neoconservative news sites are potential sources of income.