It's been a long time since I've had a German Shepherd, nearly twenty years. For a while, it was too soon, and Jack held a place too special in my heart to even think about another. Then we had small kids, then I was traveling all the time. Then life got disrupted like I had never imagined it could, and that's no place to bring a puppy. Then I was in Austin for a year. An apartment is no place for a puppy to be all day long.
But now I'm back, and not traveling very much. I live close enough to the office that I can get home at lunch to let him out. And Wolfgang is four months old - we'll see how well housebroken he is, but I'm not expecting problems.
He seems quite friendly, very laid back, which is in great contrast to his brother who would jump up on you and nip at your trouser cuffs. Not good - Bear needs to be de-bounced. But Wolfgang is so relaxed that he napped on the drive back to Camp Borepatch. He's had quite a big day - his brother and older sister came trotting after the Jeep as we drove away. The loyalty of the breed is one thing that I love, and in fact see in myself, and so while it was sad to see (they'll not see him again) it was a reminder of why we so love our four pawed companions.
It's been a big day for him - he was raised on a farm, and despite the breeder's best efforts needed a flee bath. Not fun, although he bore it with a stoic dignity that once again reminded me of why I love this breed.
He's as big already as Ivan the Terrier who seems happy to have another dog in our pack - he's seemed like he's missed little One Eyed Dog quite a bit, and so hopefully this will fill some of that void. Crash the Wondercat seems less than pleased (Do not want!) but Crash is as laid back as Wolf seems to be. We'll know in a few days.
Watching him nap reminds me of my Jack, though. It's an interesting feeling to have my own dog once again - Ivan the Terrier is a good ol' dog, but he's the family's. It's good to feel like I finally can have my own dog, after all these years.
Yeah, yeah,Godwin's Law. RTWT. And it's not like there are big policy differences. SCOTUS. I get it.
I still LOLed and LOLed. I guess I won't be doing this in March when all y'all are wondering when they're going to repeal Obamacare. I guess that my expectations are so low that I am unlikely to be disappointed.
The family of [3 year old, deaf] Hunter Spanjer, the preschooler asked to change the way he signs his name, said the support has been tremendous.
"The encouragement and support is amazing," Brian Spanjer,
Hunter's father, said. "It's been more than I could have asked for and
it's been extremely helpful."
But, that's not the case for Grand Island Public Schools.
They said they've been receiving hundreds of angry calls and emails, even death threats.
A statement from GIPS Communications Coordinator Jack Sheard said there's more to the story.
...
The school's statement goes on to say, "Grand Island
Public Schools is not requiring any current student with a hearing
impairment to change his or her sign language name."
A more cravenly and contemptible ass covering is quite frankly hard to imagine. The Grand Island, Nebraska school organization combines petty tyranny with cowardice in equal measures. They thus demonstrate for everyone to see that they are, in every meaning of the word, small. Well done to the Internet (err, other than the death threat thing) in making your disapprobation known.
And welcome to the Internet, Grand Island Nebraska Public School System. You seem to think that by aping the prejudices of your coastal "betters" you will win their respect. Sadly, nothing will win their respect for you because you remain "Flyover Country" and thus will never be more than useful tools to them. But for the rest of us, aye, we will notice, and give you the respect that you have earned.
And the good Burghers of Grand Island have found out they way your mind works and the kind of men (and women) your are. They know your plans and expectations. You've burbled every scrap of strategy that you have. They know exactly what you will and what you won't do.
Bootnote: It may be that this is the greatest film ever made. Maybe not, but as the Mythbusters would say: plausible. But there is no doubt that Peter O'Toole is the greatest film actor who never won an Oscar for any of his many brilliant performances (eight nominations, including this film, all passed by - except for a consolation prize late in life).
I'm so very, very happy to report that Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife has just passed her US Citizenship exam today!
...
As my wife approached
the date last year when she qualified to apply for US citizenship, she
discovered a stronger desire to be American, and not just a
hyphen-American.
Congratulations to Mrs. Paul, Dammit, and welcome. As I understand it the next step is the swearing in (at least, I hope so). And I would offer this as a welcome: all of us that you are joining are either Revolutionaries (as you are) or descended from Revolutionaries. Either we or our ancestors made that break, to come to a foreign land and make it our own.
To make it great.
As I said, welcome. And Paul mentioned a song that our sophisticated Intellectual Elite shudders to hear. Well in honor of the occasion, here's another.
But if you got pride and you're proud you do we could use some more like me and you ...
Anyone who doesn't take Truth seriously in small matters can't be trusted in large ones either.
- Albert Einstein
The Intellectual Class has seen itself go from success to success, taking over the Universities, the Media, and all the "chattering class" organs of the Republic. The Long March through the Institutions has been, to their minds, a complete success. And so they have commenced using the power granted those institutions by the People as a tool to reshape the People.
As the Church Lady used to say, "Well isn't that special?"
There's a word that this Intellectual Class dares nor speak. Words have power, as they well know, and to voice the spectre is to summon it. And so they stumble dumbly past the graveyard, eyes averted, hoping to once again cheat fate. They do not see the gulf between their supposed virtues as thought leaders, and their flinching from facing the thoughts so common today throughout this Republic. Talking only to themselves, in their own petty, closed circles, they have become incompetent to actually deal with the Truth as it really is.
I speak as the offspring of that same Intellectual Class, once who grew up immersed in that mindset. Seeing yourself as the Intellectual Vanguard. As Monty Python once put it, I got better.
Recognizing the Truth is a virtue. There's Marketing, and there's what's actually true. As the old saying goes, "Marketing doesn't change the Truth, it just makes it better." The Left may flatter themselves that they can sell anything if they use pretty words, because the People are idiots. We all know better.
And so the Long March through the institutions has turned out to be a disaster for the Intellectual Class, as the People have seen the politicization of those institutions. The Left has turned high trust environments into low trust environments.
Action, reaction.
And now the Internet roars onto the scene, breaking business models as far as the eye can see. Remember Sun Microsystems? They were the "dot in dot com." They couldn't harness the power of the Internet, and they got passed by. Gone, as if they never were.
Information wants to, and will, be free. And the People find that gives them power, power against the chattering classes that thought that they controlled all the communications channels. They watch horrified, cow-like in their lack of comprehension, when the message gets out despite their best efforts.
There's no blocking this signal - it bypasses the (unofficial) Organs Of The State (the Media and the Universities), and spreads from blog to blog, from person to person. It spread from Blue to me. He says that someone should post it every day. Now you have it in front of you: how will you spread it?
Because the message cuts through the pretty words that the Intellectual Elite thought they could get the (dumb, but don't tell them) People to swallow, it cuts through the rationalizations, it cuts through the professorial double talk. It says this:
The People are smarter than the Chattering Classes think. Wile they are willing to be led, they are unwilling to be ruled. They bow to no one, and don't think highly of those that do.
The Elites keep telling us that we should be more like Europe. The People in Europe have never been Citizens, despite the pretty words and fancy rhetoric. They've always been subjects - to Monarchs, or Dictators, or the current EU which is a Dictatorship Of The Elite with a good PR Agency.
Things are different here, and while the People are happy to get government benefits when they're on offer, the American People are still a practical bunch. Who when the chips truly are down, will not flinch from the truth. Who will not cast their eyes down when walking past a graveyard, or when greeting a foreign Monarch.
As I said: now you have it in front of you: how will you spread it?
Truth. It will set you free. The Elites are horrified by this - by a simple truth, stated plainly, without the "allowed" pretty words and spin. Unvarnished. Bare. A truth that they can't convince a "stupid" People to believe.
The Dinosaurs sniff a change on the breeze, and roar their defiance.
Three things cannot long be hidden: the Sun, the Moon, and the Truth.
And by "War" I don't mean "won't pay for some new pandering government program aimed at buying votes." I mean "killed graveyard dead." And it's a war on men and children, too. I refer, of course, to the newly released automotive mileage standards that raise average new car mileage to 54 MPG.
This is the second round of this foolishness. The problem, of course, is Sir Isaac Newton and his inconvenient Laws of Motion. The only way to reach these targets is to dramatically reduce the weight of a car, and correspondingly reduce the horsepower of the engine:
I was trained as an Engineer, which means I had to take a lot of math and science. Despite the government's best efforts, you cannot change laws of nature. If you want a car to go 33% further on a gallon of gas, you have only three choices:
1.
Increase the efficiency of the engine by 33%. Unfortunately, we've had
30 years of research into more efficient engines, and all the big gains
are to be had in the early years. Front wheel drive (shrink the power
train), unibody construction (instead of a frame), and
computer-controlled fuel injection (instead of carburetors) make up the
bulk of the gain to date. Despite the promise of hybrid technology and
regenerative braking, there simply isn't anywhere near 33% gains in this
(for highway driving, at least).
2. Reduce the power-to-weight
ratio. No more V8 for you, Mr. Zette - how about a nice 5 cylinder like
Mr. Volvo? Well, then Mr. Vette drives just like Mr. Volvo. Say
goodbye to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, President Obama! (translation: ain't
gonna happen).
3. Reduce the weight of the car by 33% or so,
while reducing power by an equal amount. Car handles the same, but gets
better mileage. You can have performance and fuel efficiency. You can have it all!
The National Academy of Sciences has linked mileage standards with about
2,000 deaths per year. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration estimates that every 100-pound reduction in the weight of
small cars increases annual traffic fatalities by as much as 715.
And you have to lighten the car weight by a lot more than 100 pounds to hit 54 MPG. The Fed.Gov is condemning a couple thousand people a year to early graves - men, women, and children - so that they can feel good about themselves for being all "green" and everything.
And nothing but dead bodies will satisfy them. Don't believe me? How about a car that gets 80 MPG?
That's a Volkswagen Lupo 3L TDI, which gets not quite 80 MPG using it's turbo-diesel engine. It's not produced anymore, because of poor sales in part related to the fact that it could not be sold in the United States.
So it's dead bodies, and nothing but dead bodies. The Progressive dream has become a modern day Moloch, requiring the literal sacrifice of innocents - literal dead bodies. All so that Progressives can feel good about themselves.
That's all quite a mystery to me, how they sleep at night.
This is the twentieth posting for TheOnesDay®, the semi-regular mocking of the Obama ego. In celebration of post number 20, I am extremely honored to announce that this post is actually a guest post. Even more, it's a guest post by Barack Obama himself. I'm actually verklempt.
I actually could not have mocked the President more brutally than he did. Remember Alinksy's rules - mockery is an excellent tool, particularly when targeting someone as famously thin skinned as the current President.
I'm updating my prediction for this year's election. Here are my assumptions that drive the outcome:
1. The polls do not accurately reflect the state of the electorate. There is a persistent over-sampling of Democrats as pollsters base their turnout projections on the turnout rates in the 2008 election cycle. The, Democrats were massively energized and Republicans were somewhat demoralized, and so the cycle was something like D+5 or even more. There's simply no way that we'll see that this year, even with what we can expect to be pretty serious voter fraud.
2. There is a real Bradley Effect in play here. The Bradley Effect is almost always misinterpreted to mean that voters are racist; instead, it shows that voters (rationally) do not want to be accused of racism, and so lie to the pollsters. This inflates Obama's numbers by a couple of points over what we will see in the ballot boxes where the secret ballot will allow people to cast their vote without being accused of being a racist. Given the exceptional nastiness of this campaign - the "dog whistle" accusations of the last day are a good example - this reluctance to tell people their real opinion is entirely justified.
3. Perhaps 10% of the voting population has yet to make up their minds, and will not until a couple weeks before election day. These people are simply not political junkies, and while they take their votes seriously, they just aren't particularly interested in tuning in to the give and take until the big day approaches. Given that the economy is on the skids and people rationally vote their pocketbooks, this group will likely break to Romney 2 to 1.
The result of all this is that there is between a 5% and a 10% over-sampling of the polls, and to get an accurate picture of how the election will turn out we need to subtract between 5% and 10% from Obama's poll numbers across the nation.
Election Projection shows the current latest polling on a state by state basis. They currently say that Obama leads Romney by 303 to 235. However, we've just seen that we need to adjust the poll numbers. When you subtract 5% from Obama's numbers, all of the states shown as "Weak Obama" go to Romney. Even more, we're talking more than 5% (but less than 10%). That category is "Moderate Obama", and half of those will go to Romney.
And that will give Romney nearly 350 electoral votes. Here's my map predicting the race (click to embiggen).
I actually see this as a fairly conservative projection. It's possible that a preference cascade can occur during the final weeks of the campaign, where voters either flee Obama or decide to stay home in disgust rather than turn out for the Democrats. Republicans are showing no signs of being turned off by the negative campaign - indeed, people seem to be getting angrier and more motivated as the mud gets flung and the crazy is dialed up to 11. A R+6 turnout might move all of the Moderate Obama states into Romney's camp. That would make this the biggest victory since 1988.
Now I may be wrong here, and as I've said before we're probably better off in the long term with a 2012 Obama victory. However, this is how I see this developing. You can create your own map, too. Remember, the interesting discussion is not the result, but your assumptions that drive the result.
What's the over/under on how long before the Tea Party types feel about Romney precisely how Democrats feel about Obama. March 2013?
Since Romney is headed to a landslide of epic proportions, I at least have the advantage that I am very unlikely to be disappointed. My expectations for a Romney Administration are exceedingly low. So low, in fact, that they very well might be exceeded.
Somehow I don't think that a lot of Tea Party types will be equally impressed.
Mr. Anthony Ortolani of Westminster, CO found himself facing adversity. An avid mountain climber, he was scaling Mount Bierstadt with his German Shepherd, Missy. Weather rolled in, and they began to descend.
Then Missy hurt her paw, badly enough that she couldn't walk.
We all hope that we will never be tested with a life or death choice, that the cup will pass from each of us. We hope this particularly when we face the choice because of our own recklessness, and our loved ones are facing the outcome. Anthony Ortolani had to decide what to do.
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite
you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.
- Mark Twain
So much for Mr. Ortolani. But have no fear, gentle reader, other climbers heard about the situation and revealed their character, too:
Monday morning, eight days after Missy was left, Washburn led a new
search team of eight climbers. Chase Lindell and Alex Gelb volunteered
to help.
“The thought of a dog slowly dying on the top of the mountain is
tough to stomach,” Gelb wrote about his reasoning for joining the
search.
The group powered through a snow squall near the summit of Mt.
Bierstadt and found the dog right where Washburn had last seen it, on
the treacherous sawtooth. They named the dog “Lucky” and took turns
carrying the dog down the mountainside in a backpack.
Astonishingly, Mr. Ortolani wants Missy back. The rescuers are suing to keep the dog that they saved. Ortolani has been charged with animal cruelty, but is certain to escape the just sentence that would have been his in a younger and less degenerate age of the Republic - namely, being tarred and feathered.
Worst of all, Missy probably misses her master desperately. Her pack is broken, even though she has had a significant upgrade in human companionship. What captures our hearts about our canine friends is that they see us as we would be seen, not as we are. Alas, this applies even to one such as Mr. Ortolani.
But while Missy will always see him as protector, the rest of us see him as he is: juvenile, reckless, and cowardly when the chips are down. Missy may remain true to her breed and look at him with the eyes of loyalty, as she should. I will look at him with the eyes of contempt, as I should.
No man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation.
SACRAMENTO – Large campuses in the University of California and
California State University systems are bracing for the implementation
of new state rules that will force them to cut carbon emissions or pay
as much as $28 million a year to offset their greenhouse gases.
...
"The University supports the creation of a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade
program, but is concerned that it is being disproportionately impacted
by the proposed cap-and-trade rule and that its compliance costs will
ultimately be borne by students, researchers, and patients to the
detriment of teaching, research, and healthcare activities," wrote
Anthony Garvin of the UC Office of the president in a 2010 letter to the
California Air Resources Board, the entity responsible for implementing
AB 32.
Come on, lefties! Welcome to your Green nirvana, now pay up. Sure, it's a regressive tax that will disproportionally impact students, researchers, and the sick. But well crafted Progressive legislation never has unintended consequences, so quit yer bitching.
And the article delightfully slips the knife in to the hilt, in paragraph 2:
For years, businesspeople have been complaining that the Global Warming
Solutions Act of 2006, also known as Assembly Bill 32, will decimate
California's economy and force companies to move out of state.
Maybe the University of California system can move to Texas like all those businesses are. And the absolute best part of the whole hoist on their own petard thing?
At this point, no one knows what the going rate for carbon credits will
be because the market hasn't been established yet. But assuming a cost
of $10 to $40 per credit, several public campuses could face
multi-million dollar bills.
Six years after the statute passed, nobody knows what it will cost. That's one righteous display of Progressive Intelligence, right there.
Reader Marc from the Lone Star State is in town, and I wasn't able to meet up over the weekend.
So it's last minute and everything, but is anyone up to get together Wednesday or Thursday evening to show Marc some southern hospitality? Maybe we can even work a range trip into it, but at least we can have a beer.
Or something. I installed a Blue Ray player with built in Netflix yesterday. Had to get a converter for 10 Base T to WiFi, but everything was working pretty slickly.
Then the uverse connection started bouncing up and down like a final four game. Bah.
Looks like it's back now. Blogging can continue. Forward!
He spake well who said that graves are the footprints of angels.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Beethoven isn't usually remembered for his piano compositions. Usually people think of his magnificent symphonic works, and look to Chopin for black and ivory work. That's unfortunate, because Beethoven pioneered the (then new) pianoforte instrument as he did so much else. As with so much of the Nineteenth Century's music, other composers followed in Beethoven's footsteps.
Neil Armstrong also was a pioneer, one who also had footsteps worthy of remembrance.
This music - played by none other than Vladimir Horowitz - captures the somber beauty called for at the passing of a great man. Indeed, an early criticism of Beethoven's piece was that it was much like a funeral march. Today, that's a worthy sentiment.
Because when the moonlight shines down, it is reflecting off of the footprints left at Mare Tranquillitatis. A brave, humble man left them while turning down any special credit for the event.
Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.
Did you know that Iowahawk is a statistician and an amateur Climate Scientist? I didn't. Did you know that he created a spreadsheet that allows you to try to replicate Michael Mann's famous "Hockey Stick" graph in the comfort and privacy of your own home?
We're taking the kids to the Rodeo tonight. That'll be a first (long story). And it's a shame, because I love the rodeo. I can take or leave the bull riding, but the roping is usually done with such speed and precision as to really show off the athleticism that's needed.
For both the riders and the horses.
Garth Brooks owned the airwaves during the 1990s, selling almost 70 million albums (!). He's the number two top selling solo artist ever in America, only being beat out by Elvis. If you weren't listening to Country music back then, it's difficult to describe just how overwhelming his presence was.
This song is perhaps iconic of his style, a theatrical mix of western images wrapped up in a pop-country format. That's actually a pretty decent description of tonight's plan with the Borepatch clan; while most of the crew aren't really Country, they can pretend for a bit. And have a danged good ol' time doing it.
His eyes are cold and restless
His wounds have almost healed
And she'd give half of Texas
Just to change the way he feels
She knows his love's in Tulsa
And she knows he's gonna go
Well it ain't no woman flesh and blood
It's that damned old rodeo
Well it's bulls and blood
It's dust and mud
It's the roar of a Sunday crowd
It's the white in his knuckles
The gold in the buckle
He'll win the next go 'round
It's boots and chaps
It's cowboy hats
It's spurs and latigo
It's the ropes and the reins
And the joy and the pain
And they call the thing rodeo
She does her best to hold him
When his love comes to call
But his need for it controls him
And her back's against the wall
And it's So long girl I'll see you
When it's time for him to go
You know the woman wants her cowboy
Like he wants his rodeo
Well it's bulls and blood
It's dust and mud
It's the roar of a Sunday crowd
It's the white in his knuckles
The gold in the buckle
He'll win the next go 'round
It's boots and chaps
It's cowboy hats
It's spurs and latigo
It's the ropes and the reins
And the joy and the pain
And they call the thing rodeo
It'll drive a cowboy crazy
It'll drive the man insane
And he'll sell off everything he owns
Just to pay to play her game
And a broken home and some broken bones
Is all he'll have to show
For all the years that he spent chasin'
This dream they call rodeo
Well it's bulls and blood
It's dust and mud
It's the roar of a Sunday crowd
It's the white in his knuckles
The gold in the buckle
He'll win the next go 'round
It's boots and chaps
It's cowboy hats
It's spurs and latigo
It's the ropes and the reins
And the joy and the pain
And they call the thing rodeo
It's the broncs and the blood
It's the steers and the mud
And they call the thing rodeo
The most controversial aspect of Microsoft's new Windows 8 Operating System is the new Metro interface, which completely changes the way users interact with the computer. No more Start button, Metro gives you a "tiled" interface that is reported to be pretty fancy on the new fondle slab tablets, but which seemingly blows chunks on desktop machines. And while the Windows 8 beta allowed you to use the old style interface, this capability has been removed in the RTM version. Get ready for tiles, because that's what Ballmer and company want for you.
Corporations are particularly upset over this, because they (rightly) see huge employee retraining costs in their future. Quite frankly, I expect most corporate IT shops to take a pass on Windows 8 entirely for exactly this reason.
So what's an IT tech nerd to do? How to square the circle of a locked in, fascist OS redesign with the need to provide the familiar to the poor users? Open Source to the rescue:
Windows 8 users need not do without a Start button, thanks to an open
source application titled Classic Shell that can banish the Interface
Formerly Known As Metro (TIFKAM).
El Reg's antipodean lab installed Classic Shell on a Windows 8
RTM virtual machine running under Oracle VirtualBox on Mac OS 10.7.4.
We can report that the application installed without a hint of trouble,
and as soon as we clicked in its shell-like Start button we were offered
a nice set of options to arranged Windows 8 so that it resembled
versions of Windows past.
The irony of Microsoft being saved from the consequences of their arrogant mistake by the Open Source community is about as delicious as anything that I've been seen in ages. It would be like the Tea Party pulling Obama's fat out of the fire of Obamacare.
We live in a strange world, likely one stranger than we can possibly imagine.
No, this isn't an article from The Onion. It's why I love working in the field of computer security. This is awesome:
A little-reported (at first) bit of research presented at this
month’s Usenix conference makes the startling claim that consumer-grade
EEG-based interface devices – like Emotiv and NeuroSky headsets – could
be used to gain private information from users.
The combination of sexy gadget and sci-fi attack was too much for the hipsters over at ExtremeTech, with the headline “Hackers backdoor the human brain”, and CrazyEngineers, which took an axe to language with “Hackers Unauthorizedly Access Human Brain”.
Actually, what the researchers demonstrate might be considered unremarkable when you deconstruct it:
1. A consumer peripheral doesn’t secure its communications with its
host (other peripherals that use unsecured communications include your
keyboard, mouse, and headphones).
2. These particular peripherals actually do what the package says they do.
This neatly captures the nexus of gee wizz - nothing to see move along - quick Robbin to the hypemobile that keeps the industry perennially young. I can't see anything to worry about here, and I've been trained to be paranoid by the finest minds in the Free World.
But hey, we have two way TVs and hackers recreating Neuromancer! It's livin' large, in the future!
Two hundred years ago on this date, British forces commanded by Gen. Ross burned the public buildings of Washington D.C. Showing impeccable manners and breeding, all the city's private buildings were spared.
The White House and the Capitol went up in flames. Sadly, that hasn't happened since.
POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which
the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he
mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As
compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.
Or not, actually. I've been feeling guilty lately, thinking that I'm a month behind on changing the oil* on the Jeep. I mean, the last time I did this was in Texas, and I've been home for months and months.
And so I looked at the data. What was my mileage when I last did the deed? 2,783 miles ago.
This is a meditation on being home with your family. A couple hundred miles in Texas, and then 900 miles home, and then a lot of not much adds up to a lot of time home with the family. I must confess to a sense of discombobulation every so often, as I don't live George Thorogood's song.
I actually think that the longest trip I've taken in the Jeep since April was when #2 Son and I went to an Appleseed shoot, which was only an hour anf a quarter from home. Some day, I may even get used to this.
It will be required of each of us to die in our time. It is who we
were, how we loved, and the relationships we fostered that makes up the
life we had. It not the length of time we were given, or the way it ends
that defines our life.
Love, take the risk and love. To turn
away is to choose the Abyss because you have not the courage to risk the
possibility of loss. You will thrown life away without ever knowing the
joy and sweetness that gives it meaning.
Loving another person
is an act of incredible daring in the face of an indifferent universe.
To love, and to share that love with another in a way that brings
another life into being shows us be creatures of such hope that the very
idea of it is miraculous.
To dare like that is an act of insufferable defiance in the face of a cruel, indifferent Universe. It's an act of insolence, really. It's what, in the end, makes us human.
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength. Loving someone deeply gives you courage.
- Lao Tzu
You might want to go leave a comment at Tranquility Lost, who is in Chemo right now.
On this day in 1485, England's King Richard III died, sword in hand on the bloody turf of Boswell Field, desperately looking for a horse to speed him from the rout of his army - which serves as an excellent example to us all to always have a backup.
Richard's great tragedy was not that he was a mediocre King, nor that he had his moments of ruthlessness and intellectuality. Many monarchs of that Scepter'd Isle shared those defects. No, Richard has gone down in history as uniquely bad - worse even than bad old King John who was so bad that no other English sovereign has borne that name these thousand years. There's quite a simple explanation for that, really.
Richard's opponent was Henry Tudor, who had William Shakespeare write the history. It'd take a powerful PR campaign to top that.
Mysteriously, Dick Cheney does not make an appearance in Shakespeare's play, unless it's maybe the behind the scenes guy who strangles the little Princes and eats their bodies to dispose of them. Sounds like something Cheney would do and hey - does he have an alibi for where he was in 1483? I'm not making an accusation, mind, just raising a legitimate question. Like Mitt Romney's taxes.
I mean, people wouldn't be talking about it if there weren't something to it, right?
R.I.P. Vicki Weaver, shot down by the FBI twenty years ago today. If Lon Horiuchi had been a better shot, he might have got her and her baby at the same time. That would have been a twofer, or something. Wonder if that gets you promoted to Special Agent.
And this is another opportunity to remind everyone that not only does Lon Horiuchi walk the land as a free man, but that he gets corporate endorsements.
As it turns out, Janet Reno also walks the land as a free woman. Passing strange, that.
It's said that T-Bone Walker was the first person who ever recorded a Blues song playing an electric guitar. He came from a musical family, where his parents were friends of Blind Lemon Jefferson. You might say that he learned the Blues from Jefferson around the dinner table.
He was a pioneer, and influenced some people you've heard of. Chuck Berry said he was one of the main influencers of Barry's style. B.B. King said he decided to play the electric guitar after listening to Walker. Jimi Hendrix started playing the guitar with his teeth after seeing Walker do it.
And did I mention "influential"? Here's Allman Brothers Band with Eric Clapton doing Walker's "Stormy Monday Blues".
Engineers should refuse to work on killer robots, says Australian ethicist Dr Robert Sparrow.
Sparrow's definition of a killer robot includes the Predator drone, a
weapon he finds objectionable because “Military robots are making it
easier for governments to start wars, thinking that they won't incur any
casualties on their own side."
That means “The ethics of working on military robotics today cannot
be entirely divorced from the ethics of the ends to which military
robots are used,” he writes in IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.
Boy, that was sure easy. Just scoot past thousands of years of philosophical discussion on, say, Catholic "Just War" doctrine and jump straight to drones are bad, mkay?
Not that he might not have a point, but that his facile point recalls the old Economist joke:
Two Economists were taking a hike in the woods when they fell into an abandoned mineshaft. The sides were too steep to climb back up, and nobody heard their cries for help.
In despair, one sat down and said, "That's it. We're going to die. We can't get out."
"Nonsense," said the other. "Assume a ladder."
Well, it made me recall the joke, anyway. Hey, maybe the good Doctor is just trolling:
It seems that it's building a new football stadium. Srlsy.
The argument is that a strong athletics program will raise out-of-state enrollments. In-state tuition is subsidized, meaning a loss to the school. Out-of-state students pay more than their "fair share" (let's ignore the Social Justice implications of young people being encouraged to take on debt that cannot be discharged even in bankruptcy so that they can go to some bitchin' games). So a winning team attracts those lucrative auslanders.
So much for the theory - what does the hard, unforgiving math say? Uh, nazzo fast:
In 2011 CSU received about 16,000 applications of which about 7,000 were out of state.
A top-20 team would therefore boost out of state applicants by 175, a
top-10 team by 210 applications and a National Championship by as much
as 560 applicants. This boost would be for only one year, after which
the effect would disappear. I think it is safe to say that CSU's
football successes simply cannot drive large increases in out-of-state
applications, even with a national championship every year.
A couple hundred students - that's what that shiny new stadium would bring. Maybe.
It's really astonishing to watch a bunch of (mostly) leftie Professors* advance what boils down to Say's Law to justify their Higher Ed budgets. Err, with a bunch of negative social justice implications tossed in, to boot. But hey, it's not working in the private sector! I mean, they expect results!
* Dr. Pielke excepted, of course, who pretty well eviscerates CSU's hair brained scheme. He also has a quite interesting (and recommended - check out the blogroll link) climate science blog. Since most of you are beastly Deniers, his "luke warmist" approach will stretch your thinking a bit, which is always a Good Thing.
Of course, Dr. Pielke is likely a dirty Commie, but hey, aren't we all?
The 29-year-old man who was found beaten on the front porch
of a home in Capitol Hill on Saturday has undergone two surgeries on
his brain but his wife said he was able to squeeze her hand from his
hospital bed Monday morning.
...
District police have released few details of the attack. They said on
Saturday that Maslin was found about 8:30 Saturday morning unconscious
on the front porch of a home in the 700 block of North Carolina Ave.,
around the corner from Eastern Market.
Where is the 700 block of North Carolina Ave, SE? Eight blocks from the US Capitol Building:
Dunno. Maybe Fosetti lives near there. I hope not. In any case, the police are unwilling or incompetent to keep the streets safe even a dozen blocks from our seat of government.
PRAGUE, Okla.– There’s a bit of diploma drama going on between a local high school and that school’s valedictorian.
David Nootbaar is furious his daughter’s school is keeping her diploma.
...
Nootbaar said, “Her quote was, ‘When she first started school
she wanted to be a nurse, then a veterinarian and now that she was
getting closer to graduation, people would ask her, what do you want to
do and she said how the hell do I know? I’ve changed my mind so many
times.’” He said in the written script she gave to the school she wrote “heck,” but in the moment she said “hell” instead.
Nootbaar said the audience laughed, she finished her speech to warm applause and didn’t know there was a problem.
That was until she went to pick up the real certificate this week.
“We went to the office and asked for the diploma and the
principal said, ‘Your diploma is right here but you’re not getting it.
Close the door; we have a problem,’” Nootbaar said.
He said the principal told Kaitlin she would have to write an apology letter before he would release the diploma.
I have a simple solution for this problem. The good burghers of Prague, OK could round the Principle, Mr. Rick Martin (School Superintendent), and the entire School Board and apply a generous coating of tar and feathers and then run out of town on a rail.
I leave it to my gentile readers to decide the expected lifespan of a private school that took tuition for four years and then refused to give the earned (valedictorian) diploma. Personally, I wonder if one of Commodore Grace Hopper's nanoseconds is the right visual aid.
Minor officials prove their status with petty displays of authority,
while the truly powerful show their strength through gestures of
magnanimity. People of average education show off the studied regularity
of their script, but the well educated often scribble illegibly.
Mediocre students answer a teacher’s easy questions, but the best
students are embarrassed to prove their knowledge of trivial points.
Acquaintances show their good intentions by politely ignoring one’s
flaws, while close friends show intimacy by teasingly highlighting them.
People of moderate ability seek formal credentials to impress employers
and society, but the talented often downplay their credentials even if
they have bothered to obtain them. A person of average reputation
defensively refutes accusations against his character, while a highly
respected person finds it demeaning to dignify accusations with a
response.
How can high types be so understated in their signals without
diminishing their perceived quality? Most signalling models assume that
the only information available on types is the signal, implying that
high types will be confused with lower types if they do not signal. But
in many cases other information is also available. For instance, wealth
is inferred not just from conspicuous consumption, but also from
information about occupation and family background. This extra
information is likely to be noisy in that the sender cannot be sure what
the receiver has learned, implying that medium-quality types may still
feel compelled to signal to separate themselves from low types. But even
noisy information will often be sufficient to adequately separate high
types from low types, leaving high types more concerned with separating
themselves from medium types. Since medium types are signalling to
differentiate themselves from low types, high types may choose to not
signal, or “countersignal,” to differentiate themselves from medium
types.
The Principal and Superintendent are moderately low status positions - petty functionaries responsible for a couple hundred workers - and not even their workers, since the school isn't their company that they started with their own capital. The result is that we would expect the displays typical for low status officials - this sort of thing, in fact.
Compare and contrast to the "Superintendent" of a private school, who is very likely to be the owner of the school. Not only would that person not be so entirely clueless as to the consequences of his actions to his future prospects of prosperity, as a business owner he would likely be considered a medium status official. His signalling will be aimed at differentiating himself from low status officials.
This is a typically wordy and Borepatchian way of saying that it's all Monkey Brains, anyway.
I've been saying for years that in their rush to add new computerized, Internet accessible features, car manufacturers have been blowing off security. Seems that I'm not the only one, and a well known company is putting their money where their mouth is:
McAfee has hired the infamous Barnaby Jack to hack into cars, reports PC Pro UK.
OK, things are fixin' to get really interesting, really fast. My suspicion is that the design teams are about to go from zero to damn how do we fix that in 5.3 seconds. Never mind their lame denials:
Yet, Ford spokesman Alan Hall said his company had tasked its security
engineers with making its Sync in-vehicle communications and
entertainment system as resistant as possible to attack. "Ford is taking
the threat very seriously and investing in security solutions that are
built into the product from the outset," he said.
Translation: now that it's getting all real and in our faces, the next version will suck at least 50% less. Fortunately for Ford, their competitors are all in the same leaky boat:
Toyota said it was not aware of any hacking incidents on its cars and
said it had built-in protections. "They're basically designed to change
coding constantly. I won't say it's impossible to hack, but it's pretty
close," said Toyota spokesman John Hanson.
And I won't say that Toyota spokesman John Hanson is an idiotic PR flack who spells "security" as S-E-K-U-R-I-T-Y, but his statement is nothing but Bravo Sierra.
Car makers are rushing to make it easy to plug portable computers and
phones to vehicles and connect them to the internet, but in many cases
they are also exposing critical systems that run their vehicles to
potential attackers because those networks are all linked within the
car.
"The manufacturers, like those of any other hardware products, are
implementing features and technology just because they can and don't
fully understand the potential risks of doing so," said Joe Grand, an
electrical engineer and independent hardware security expert.
Grand estimates that the average auto maker is about 20 years behind
software companies in understanding how to prevent cyber attacks.
I would bet big money that every word of this is Gospel Truth. Demonstration attacks have been created that use the CD player, and that come into the car via MP3. It's almost a certainty that WiFi, bluetooth, or (shudder) Internet (hello, 3G!) could be the vectors. A moment thinking like an attacker can give you scenarios galore. How's this: An SMS to a targeted user causes a map to get downloaded from the Internet. The map contains malware that causes one tire to deflate, the throttle to firewall, and the brakes fail, but only when the car reaches 70 MPH. It also wipes any logs so that the accident is hard to reconstruct.
All of my gentle readers can add their own scenarios, no doubt. And so the term "Detroit Coffin" seems to be coming literally true. Drive like lightening to add the Internet and computer control. Mission accomplished!
But both are extremely obnoxious, and you shouldn't use either. Both campaigns have iPhone and Android apps you can install on your phone. Don't:
Last Wednesday, Reuters published
a story that touches on security concerns surrounding President Obama’s
app. Reuters reported, “The app is helping hundreds of volunteers and
staff with the voter drives that the campaign sees as a vital way to
combat a crop of voter identification laws that could reduce Democratic
turnout in swing states… But the implications of having a stranger’s
name and address at one’s fingertips has raised the hackles of privacy
advocates…”
GFI Labs decided to dig deeper and, at the same time, make a
side-by-side comparison of both apps for Android. Here’s what we’ve
found out about the Romney and Obama apps.
So what did they find? A lot:
Riddle me this, GOPman: why does Romney's app need to turn on your camera (CAMERA) or microphone (RECORD_AUDIO)? Riddle me this, Obamabot: why does your app grab contacts (READ_CONTACTS) or your GPS location (ACCESS_*_LOCATION)?
I know that you're both politicians and so the only reason that you kiss babies is so that you can get closer to swipe their lollypops, but do you have to try so hard to live down to my worst expectations?
Remember Borepatch's First Law of Security, folks: "free download" is Intarwebz-speak for "open your mouth and close your eyes".
We hear this, and the only possible explanation are that these people are evil - determined to seize all guns from the population and ensure a monopoly of force to the government - or tools. Perhaps well meaning tools, but ignorant and easily led by the evil group.
Some nights the wolves are silent, and the moon howls.
A hero is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself.
- Joseph Campbell
On August 20,1944, 168 Allied airmen arrived at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. They were not treated as POWs by the Germans; because they had tried to evade capture and escape back to their own lines they were treated as Terrorfliegeren - war criminals. And so instead of being in a POW camp, they were in Buchenwald.
That's where the 168 found their hero. His name was Pilot Officer Phil Lamason of the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Lamason was senior officer, and knew that they wouldn't live long in that place unless they stuck together, and so he organized them by nationality and appointed commanding officers to impose military discipline. Then he started negotiating with both the German and existing Prisoner power centers. He had no luck with the Germans, and in fact almost got himself shot when he told them flat out that while Buchenwald was a slave labor camp, his men were POWs and would not (by the laws of war) participate in forced labor.
But he quickly won the respect of the prisoner's organization which, while underground was surprisingly wired into the German command structure. Using this, he was able to get a note to the Luftwaffe, via some workers who were detailed to work at a nearby airbase. A couple of Luftwaffe officers came on an inspection to see if POWs were being kept at the camp, and their report went all the way up the chain of command to Hermann Goering, who pitched one of his legendary hissy fits about the situation.
Goering, of course, didn't want his own downed airmen abused by the Allies, and so stared the Gestapo down. The Allied fliers were transferred to one of the Luft Stalag camps a week before the Gestapo was scheduled to shoot them.
Lamason had heard of the scheduled executions, but kept the information to himself to keep morale up, and in the hopes that the Luftwaffe would come through. It was a near thing, but Lamason's coolness and level-headedness in the face of threatened death maintained unit cohesion and inspired his men to survive. Only two died (of disease) under his command.
He turned down a career that would have had him as the first pilot to land at Heathrow Airport because he wanted to return to his native New Zealand. He lived there quietly until his death 3 months ago. A quiet life, without a Press Agent in sight - that was a common virtue from the generation that faced down Nazi and Imperial Japanese Supermen.
Rest in Peace to Pilot Officer Lameson, DFC, and to the other departed veterans of the KLB Club.
We were told to expect higher than usual turnout for last week's
TSPLOST vote. But a turnout of 3300 percent might be a little much.
Fulton
County had four precincts with more than 100 percent turnout, including
one at 3300 percent, Channel 2 Action News reports. The average turnout
across the state was 10-20 percent.
...
The Secretary of State's office -- which has already loudly complained
about a lack of cooperation from Fulton election officials -- says it
would like to know exactly how such a ridiculously high turnout tally is
possible.
Me, I don't support voter ID laws because I'm worried about illegal aliens voting. I support the laws because I don't trust the election officials.
It volunteered to fight against the USSR on the Eastern Front. It was officially known to the Germans as Infantry Regiment (Infanterieregiment) 638.
...
In October 1941, a French infantry regiment (638th), 2,452 men strong, crossed the frontier of the Soviet Union
as part of the foreign contingent of the German invasion force. They
were sent to combat in december 41 around Moscow. They suffered heavy
losses and were soon retired from the front, while a third battalion
were created in France to compensate the losses.
Ultimately, the remainder of the French collaborationist forces were combined into the SS Charlemagne Division. After the war, most of the officers were hanged by the French government.
Weird. Now France had been home to a bunch of fascist movements from the late 1800s. Action Francaise was perhaps the biggest, but was by no means the only one. So I guess it wasn't surprising that you'd find enthusiastic Nazis there during the war; that they'd don the uniforms of les bosches is what kind of floored me.
This music would have come to us via the Musopen project, a 501(c)(3) organization that hires musicians and orchestras to record great music that is released into the public domain. They have a growing library of MP3s from Beethoven to Bartok, all free to download and share. Free as in released under the Creative Commons Public Domain License. If you love classical music, you should stop by and browse.
Sadly, Blogger doesn't seem to let you upload MP3s to your blog posts anymore.
As with the spirit of Creative Commons, if you like the downloads, you might want to consider donating to Musopen. As they get more money, they hire musicians to record more music. They also have sheet music in PDF format, again released to the Public Domain.
Sam links to an interesting post at Not Clauswitz about the history of you as told by the music you listen to. It's a dopey NPR questionnaire, and you have to sort of be a dope to play along. OK then, here goes.
1. What was the first song you ever bought? Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.
2. What song always gets you dancing? I used to be pretty light on my feet, fifteen years ago.
3. What song takes you back to your childhood? Mom and Dad were big Peter, Paul, and Mary fans. This was my favorite when I was little. Used to be able to play it on the guitar in College, where I learned that more than a couple of girls also loved it.
4. What is your perfect love song? I've posted this a couple times before. The best is here.
5. What song would you want at your funeral? A bit young for me to be planning that, but here goes. I just ran across this a few months back, but it's hauntingly beautiful.
6. What is the one song that describes you? I'd like it to be this one. That's a high bar, right there.
