The Amazing Race 6--"Phil Is a Choo-Choo Charlie"

What?

I'm putting this up--safe from broadband-ilicious Alexandria--just in case anyone wants to discuss the clip show. I caught some of it while my grandparents were visiting, but was only half paying attention.

Spawning Update

No, not me, morons. I harken back to this post, as the Kellers are now proud parents of a baby boy. According to Don's wishes, this makes me Rich Uncle Steve. To help me fulfill this role, you may send donations to me I will be sure to spend wisely.

The world is enriched by one more geek. I helped ensure that with my shower gift.

The Amazing Trip Home--"If a Stranger Approaches You About Carrying a Foreign Object..."

A domestic Wisconsin cheese, I take it, is ok to carry for a stranger. :)

So here I am in Detroit Metro airport, spending $6.95 to access the wireless network (grr...that should be a service at this point), in a very lousy terminal because my connection has been delayed. Better than missing it I suppose. It's not clear if the crew has not made it from someplace else, or there are weather issues in Traverse City (a native heading home tells me they land there in just about anything), but while giving detailed updates on all sorts of other flights (South Bend's plane isn't here, Evansville's needed maintenance, Cincinnati passengers are being put on a bus if they want tonight), we got nothing until 20 minutes after the scheduled departure time. And little detail at that.

C concourse at Detroit Metro is a hallway, essentially, for gates 9-39. No seating. There's a large lounge out by gates 1-8 where we're supposed to wait until 30 min. before departure, and where they do make all the relevant announcements. But it's really poor design. (So is their wireless signup--it keeps telling me the username is in use, while I paid for 3 accounts. At least it's a known bug and a phone call to customer service got me straightened out, appropriately uncharged, in two minutes.)

I got up at 5, the shuttle came at 5:40 (ten minutes early), and I got to Dulles by 6:45 and out to the gate by 7:15. For a 9:20 flight. Yeah, next time, I drive myself or remember that the departure time means I need to be moving a lot earlier than that--and book a noon flight. Zzzzzzzzz.

I will update this post as necessary. I'll going to put it up now and maybe linkify it a little before I leave, but I want to surf around a little, since I'm paying for it.

The Pit Stop--Manistee, MI

Shortly after the initial blog post, the board out in the lounge said we were boarding...but no, as it turned out, that must have been an automatic reaction to the posted (new) departure time. We didn't actually leave until 3:45, for a nice little hour-long jaunt in a Saab 340 Turboprop. 33 Seats, and 8 empty despite the fact that they got 4 or 5 volunteers to change their plans. So weird. And yes, the delay was the crew had not made it in from Wisconsin. Probably debating theology with Bartleby and Loki.

Oddly enough, my cousin Mark was on the plane, connecting through from Raleigh. Had I only known, I could have bummed a ride to Manistee in his rental car.

When we got there...we got out on the tarmac. I haven't done that in a long time. Ah, out-of-the-way airports. What a joy.

In Traverse City, I was worried because there were fifty people who were waiting for the luggage when we got there. But something must have been really wrong with theirs, because ours came out first.

Drive home took us a while because it was snowing. Including the stop for dinner we got in about 8:15. Which means it was about 14 1/2 hours from door to door. I could almost drive that (Mapquest says 12:37 of actually driving time), although it would be far more exhausting. And, of course, it shouldn't have taken that long, but welcome to high-volume air traffic in the midwest winter. C'est la vie.

Thus endeth the travelogue. Merry Christmas, all y'all.

The Amazing Race 6--"They Should Probably Have Some Counseling"

Programming Note: The Race moves to 8PM EST this week, due to the Kennedy Center Honors, I think. I haven't seen the Race schedule beyond this week.

And CBS sucks, as they gave away the next locale in their commercials. But not as much as Jonathan and Kendra.

Cold Builds Character

Actual Special Weather Statement on Weather Underground tonight:

... Potential winter weather late this weekend...

Cold air moving into the region late Friday will set the stage for the possibility of some winter weather Sunday and Monday. A low pressure area moving down from the Great Lakes combined with low pressure developing off the Atlantic coast will likely bring enough moisture for snow at some point between Sunday morning and Monday afternoon.

At this point it is to early for specific details on exact timing or amounts. This is only a statement to alert you to the possibility of snow late this weekend. Stay tuned for updates on Friday and through the weekend.

I've moved to a land of wusses. I had to actually enjoy putting on my gloves and my Canadiens toque this morning to scrape the frost of my car windows--just to spite these heat-craving losers.

"I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

Not to suggest Be'elzeBud deserves to be identified with even as sympathetic a figure as Lando Calrissian--or that Linda Cropp is remotely as cool as a Sith Lord--but that quote struck me as the right headline for my DC Baseball Shenanigans post.

The DC sports punditry is frickin' ballistic over the DC council--in particular, Linda Cropp--performing its democratic function to try to keep DC from being the next locality to hand out oodles of corporate welfare to a sports franchise. Read the Washington Post for your updates. News items mentioned below won't have links; you can find them at the Post or ESPN or what have you.

Latest word is that MLB, in a fit of pique, has suspended all promotional operations in DC (baseball operations--e.g. player signings--continue.) They are also offering refunds on season ticket deposits. Someone needs to explain to them that this is how a democracy works--I know in Chicago, if the Mayor-pharaoh gives you his word, it's done. But Mayor Williams didn't have his ducks in a row here.

Linda Cropp is among those positioning her self for a mayoral run, and some have accused her of grandstanding--in particular, by wavering between support and sabotage. The first vote (bills have to go through two readings) was postponed from November, as is her power as Chairperson. Then she stuck this private funding amendment in very late in the session--she certainly could have put it in early, when it could be debated by less weary councilpersons. Some interesting takes by a local political reporter are in this Post online chat transcript from today.

Be'elzeBud isn't going to want to take any deal with private financing, even if it is somehow found. But here's why I think they end up in DC anyway:

1) No viable alternative. This is the biggest, richest market--they really wanted someone else to come through with a stadium for free so that they didn't have to deal with Angelos's territorial issues, and no one did. No one will now either--there's no sudden upswing of political will, plus MLB is over a barrel. And with the Marlins casting about, looking for a home, the last thing needed is to try to develop two viable options where none exist.

2) This isn't Portland or Vegas screwing with them, it's DC. Various political critters have cast their eyes at steroids, the anti-trust exemption, etc. Unless MLB controls the spin so that the DC city government takes all the flak--so far, so good on their part, btw--they may have to worry about irking people in a position to cause them other troubles.

3) The players association wants a permanent home found. That was part of the push to be out of Montreal by 2005--players were getting tired of the Montreal/San Juan nomadic existence. Taking them back to Montreal will draw howls from them, at a time when they really need the union to come along peacefully on the steroid issue. This is minor, and MLB is stupid enough not to act sensibly on this, but it's there.

4) Contraction can't occur until 2006. I don't think they can get the Twins out this time--the popular and political will in Minnesota will prevent that--but the Marlins might be a option, since Loria is at the heart of this mess anyway. But I can't imagine baseball is willing to take crowds of 300 for a doomed team for two years--certainly not in Washington, and if they go back to Montreal now it'll be even worse. They do hold an option on Stade Olympique that needn't be exercised until Dec. 31--the stated date that an agreement in DC must be settled. But they're not going to want to let this fester, with 29 owners paying to prop up a dummy team. It's already, after only two years, beginning to smell as bad as it looks.

The Amazing Race 6--"Quit Following Us"

"All I wanna do is race, Daddy."

Geee-mail

I have five (5) (v) gmail invites. I will send to the first people who post in this thread who want them.

If you don't want one, well, enjoy your worthless, miserable life.

The Amazing Race 6--"What If It Isn't Sanitary?"

"Then you'll die a horrible, disgusting death, before the whole world, on CBS tv."

Ok, some of the things they are doing aren't entirely safe, but you've got to figure the producers aren't going to put people in any real danger. The worst injury of TAR 5 was on the pier, for goodness sake.

Maybe the roadblock is "contract cholera."

Here we go...

The San Francisco Chronicle claims to have gotten a copy of Jason Giambi's grand jury testimony in the BALCO investigation.

In it, he admits to use of steroids and human growth hormone.

Pop some popcorn, sit back and watch. We're going to be here a while...

UPDATE:Bonds too. Although he claims he didn't know he was being given steroids, while prosecutors had documents that would indicate otherwise. Not that I necessarily believe the fuzz...this is still very disappoointing to me.

The Amazing Race 6--"Counting Bears is Not Rocket Science"

Is this the most Scandanavian race ever?

I'm curious what people think about the new Roadblock rule. Teams are going to have to be very strategic about who does what. And at least one team is going to use its stronger member once too often just to survive, I'll bet. And we'll have to see some weakling scale a cliff or something.

Apartment starting to look presentable

It looks a lot better than it did when I took the pictures indexed on this page. I dare say it would even be fit for company, if I wall up the boxes of books still in the office. I'd do that, but I'm waiting for Fortunato to get over here.

The Amazing Race 6--" I'm Not His Wife -- He Doesn't Need to Scream at Me"

Who will be Philliminated...

next?


Edited to add visual representation of below mentioned 5-second pause.

I just thought you ought to know...

Uranus is a low-friction environment. (Read through the whole article).

Is that joke ever going to get old?

The Amazing Race 6--"The Game's Afoot"

Sherlock Holmes never said that in the literature, by the way.

Welcome to the Spoilerrific discussion thread for the Tuesday night, two hour premiere of TAR6.

New Hatblog Feature

Spoilerrific Discussion Threads!

These will be posts specificaly designed for discussion shared entertainment options so that you can post your thoughts free of worry that accompanies e-mails that someone else may not have seen/read it yet. And unlike big ol' generic forums you have some predictability here on who's actually posting.

I had the thought to do this for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (if that ever comes out), but I'm actually going to start with the sixth season of The Amazing Race.(premiering Tuesday night on CBS, 9-11 EST I believe.) So every Tuesday I'll get a post up, with nothing spoileriffic on the front, and then when you get around to watching it on your DVR you can check in and share your thoughts.

Tell your friends. We'll see how this goes. Feel free to initiate in this thread with discussions of this year's teams. For you non-watchers: what the heck is wrong with you?

One of those employees you hate

Tommorrow is Veteran's Day. (Go hug a Veteran.) As a result, NRL is closed. That's right, I'm finally one of those people who gets every federal holiday off. I couldn't go to the base without an after-hours pass, which requires an extra security clearance. I don't care to get that because a) it's a lot of paperwork and b) if I can go to the office on the weekend, I'll sooner or later have to do it. As it stands now, if I try to work later or on the weekend, I get shot. That's a hell of an incentive/excuse not to do so.

There needs to be a word...

For that guilt/conflict you get when you have two opposed, but equally good-hearted, impulses.

As an example, take this article in today's Washington Post (soul-sucking registration required). It tells the story of kids going on diets to make weight-restricted football leagues. (Not always in an unhealthy manner, but still...) The idea behind the weight maximums seems like a good one--keep the kids who hit their growth spurts early from dominating leagues. But if it's encouraging the sort of weight-crashing that leads to horrible physiological practices and even to psychological body-image disorders, it's bad. What's a person to do?

Anyway, I want a word for that.

Ignoreland

I know that this is vitriol, no-solution, spleen-venting.

But I feel better having screamed.

Don't you?

Woohoo!

As expected, they did nothing inside, spent 15 minutes outside and now I have connection. Pardon the Interruption is emanating from my TV screen and I am posting this. I have rejoined the 21st century.

I say? What is this "Internet" of which you speak?

So I here I sit at a Panera bread with wireless access, because I still don't have my cable or cable modem working. Supposedly, they've been by twice to turn it on at the outside hookup, but I saw no evidence of today's visit and Wednesday's, when I was told to be home (although I wasn't expecting to have to be, and yesterday's tech-on-the-other-end-of-the-line was surprised they told me back) only produced a scribbled-on receipt in my door (something like "bay di dooo" was written on it. I have no idea what the intent was, and they didn't knock, b/c I didn't get farther than my bedroom.)

Anyway, the battery life should hold long enough for me to get caught up here.

I am in my place, and my stuff arrived successfully on Friday. I think the only things left to unpack are things I don't know quite what to do with, and things that I may be buying more furniture for. For example, I want another bookcase, and I figured I can leave all the books in boxes until I get it. Also, I want to be damn sure the bookcases are where I want them.

If you look at my floor plan, I've currently got the living room and dining room reversed. The (nonfunctional) cable connection is over on a wall near the kitchen, and the window on the "top" end of the living room is a floor-to-almost-ceiling deal. So I currently think that's a nice place for the dining room table, to encourage me to eat on it instead of in front of the tv. (Well, that's not a problem right now, but...) There's also the place's only ceiling fan in what is now the living room area, and the circulation is nice while playing Madden (busted about $200 at Best Buy yesterday, getting that, the B5 movies, REM and Mary Chapin Carpenter CD's I'd missed, and various cables. Paychecks are cool.)

The "living room" is somewhat cramped, but I can get the love seat in there while still leaving a walking corridor past the kitchen. I don't know what happens when I invest in a couch so I can watch football horizontally the way God intended, but nothing is so heavy it can't be rearranged.

There's no medicine cabinet, which astounds me. How can you omit this basic unit of bathroom storage? I have no idea where to put my band-aids.


What else have I been itching to blog about...I'm ashamed to admit I couldn't tell what compass direction my windows were facing until I saw my neighbor's satellite dish. (It was cloudy, but still....) I think my commute will be about 20-30 minutes, and so far I scoff at anyone who calls this "traffic". They tell me I will eventually be caught in a true jam for no rhyme or reason, but I just moved from a town where you could get caught in unmoving traffic for an hour on a Saturday afternoon. If I can leave work at 5:30 and have a 20 minute commute home, over a supposedly bottleneck bridge which is under construction to widen it, it ain't that bad.

Work...they left the 75 gallon tank full of water for 3 months while no one was working on it. If you've ever owned fish, you know that's not going to look pleasant. Just for kicks someone stopped pumping it through the UV sterilizer. Now to be fair, it wasn't green, but a layer of slime/ectoplasm of visible thickness (a few hundred microns) had developed. So I've spent a week scraping that off. I think it's pretty clean now. Actually, this turned out to be a decent first thing to have to do, since it allowed me to get settled in and no one exactly expects results from it. Next step is probably to design some precision into the test tank, since the previous postdoc was only in the "see-if-this-works" stage.

I can faithfully report that not all experience with movers are bad. This actually went pretty well, with people being confident and working reasonably quickly. They still brought a huge semi to this end, but fortunately my "street" is a long drive with a straight entrance that they could fit in. And cars were actually not parked there during working hours on Friday (when they came) so it wasn't so imperative to make sure no one was blocked in.

I did discover however they used way too much paper to wrap things. It actually makes it less secure, because I have no idea what I'm trying to unwrap or where I should be holding it. Also it slows me up, and I just want to finish so I can get back to playing Madden.

All right, I really don't intend to only update my life in this space, but when connection requires the purchase of a $1.49 pop I'm not anxious to email everyone individually. With better access will come more personal communication, I swear.

Edited immediately thereafter:

Of course, I totally forgot my cool Wed. night. First night in the apartment, I drag my lawn chair, my walkman, and a beer (until the security guy waved that off) out to sit and watch the eclipse whilst listening to the World Series end. Cloud cover came in, but not until about 1/2-3/4 of the way through totality. So it was a pretty cool way to spend a fall evening.

Homeless Now

Well, here I am in DC, ready to start work tomorrow. This will be my fourth bed in four nights (my own, air mattress in my apartment, Pete Ganeff's spare bed, Brad Andresen's couch.) I will be ensconced here until Wed., and if my stuff isn't here it will be back to the air mattress.

The drive out was as cool as 13 hours in 2 days can be. Coming from Morgantown, W. Va. through Western Maryland on 68 was really beautiful. I know it took me longer to get out here than I wanted, but it resulted in me coming through the Appalachians in beautiful fall color. It was perfect except for the 2 mile fogbank, and the westbound accident that apparently caused. Oops. I didn't stop to gawk.

To commute to work from Brad's place near Georgetown, I have to cross to Virginia, then back, then damn near back again. But it's only three work days.

More later.

Congratulations I'm Sorry

I haven’t blogged in a while, but it’s been a crazy October.

My grandmother passed away and I defended my thesis in close proximity to each other.

When I went home to the funeral services, I got a bizarre dose of the above headline. I understand everyone’s sentiments, but it really added the worst elements of a graduation party (“Where are you going next? What are you doing now? I don’t understand that…”) to the already depressing aspects of a funeral.

All this has delayed my move to DC, as it took me away from beating at bureaucrats for a while. But I’ll be there soon enough. At least my new advisor is understanding.

I may not blog much in the near term, either, as I try to get packed up and out to D.C. After that it may get a little more journal-like as a way of keeping tabs with people, but I’ll still try to find good stuff to rant about.

You Have Got to Be Kidding Me

Wal-mart was was selling the long-dismissed as hoax anti-Semetic tract The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Wal-mart.

F'ing Wal-mart. F'ing Middle-America Wal-mart. And not as some document of historical interest, but as "this might be true".

I weep for this nation. It turns my stomach. I mean, I first heard of the Protocols from playing Illuminati: New World Order, a tounge-in-cheek trading card game spoof of conspiracy theory and paranoia from Steve Jackson games.

And people are taking this seriously? Does Wal-mart know they now have something in common with Islamic extremists?

And Wal-mart doesn't even seem to care what immoral morons they've been; only that they're taking flak. Sad. Just sad.

Wow

I think most people were alerted by email, but here goes anyway:

I sent my dissertation to my committee yesterday. I defend on Oct. 5, 2004, at 2:30 p.m. CDT.

Brian Wilhite defended yesterday , and that coupled with the finale of The Amazing Race made it a momentous occasion for beer consumption. I'm proud to report that beat Wilhite back to the blogging world, but then again he had to drive to scenic Champaign-Urbana today.

Hopefully all will be well. I don't anticipate trouble writing the defense talk, but I anticipate all kinds of trouble actually defending the thesis, which everyone assures me is crazy and paranoid. But I find a healthy dose of paranoia about these things makes one more prepared for what does come. Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get me.

Take a good look to the right...

I'll have to change it soon, as I am no longer "Jackass Firstbaseman." My softball team, "A Bunch of Jackasses", lost out of the playoffs today. And with many of us graduating, it's quite the passage. Like the Cubs, 5 outs to go was the point we didn't get through. But it was a much better bouncing than last year, although it was the last swings and the last slides and the last post-game "spread" at Jimmy's and the last Washington Park dirt to be washed off in the shower. Wilhite's blog may eventually have more details when he's done with thesis draft and moving. I should mention that Will and Jon sacrificed hamstring and knee, respectively, for this game. I salute both of you!

This may not seem like too big a deal, but softbal really has been a (too) big part of my time here in grad school. I'll definitely miss playing with everyone. Thanks to all of you.

More Hockey Lockout Coverage

No movement. The Players Association is supposed to make a counterproposal soon; I can't see NHL hockey be played in calendar year 2004 at all now, and only optimism that both sides aren't this stupid would lead me to suspect a January start date.

Shane passes along this article speculating that a pan-European league could spring up if the NHL shoots itself in the foot with a hard salary cap. It would be closer to home for the European players, played on bigger rinks where obstruction is actually called, and that could be a draw even for North American natives.

One Weight Lifted

I just talked to my surprisingly cool landlord, and acquired a month-to-month lease for once my original lease runs out at the end of the month. This is good in that it's one weight that's lifted as it becomes less likely I won't finish by the end of this month. On the other hand, it's one less thing kicking me in the butt to finish.

Overall, I think I'll take the lifting of the pressure. I don't want to (and indeed can't , since I soon need to give a start date for the postdoc) let this get pushed back indefinitely, so I'm sure I won't. Even if I end up paying a month's rent where I leave a week into the month, it will be worth it for the lack of time pressure hassle. I don't function well with medium-time-frame crises--long term I can plan for, and short-term (e.g., stranded and car broke, or presentation in two days) I can just suck it up and go. But something looming in the not too distant future* can paralyze me if I'm not careful.

Stevis

*such as next Sunday, A.D.

TenMillionVoters.com

Remember when the American Family Association's poll on gay marriage got hijacked by the online liberal community? Time to do it
again, as they're taking a presidential poll.

Actually Hired!

The formal job offer has finally come through. Officially, I'll be a self-employed person who sorta happens to work at the U.S. Naval Research Lab. Once I get the paperwork turned around, which might wait until the long weekend as I get my head wrapped around the paperwork I need to do here in Chicago. Maybe I can get a thesis date soon. Maybe I can also get a real date soon. One thing at a time.

Steve

P.S. My grandmother is doing much better already than when I first got home, which apparently was already much better than the few days before I got home. I'm sure my good mood will be cut by something tomorrow, but for tonight it's great.

Bulletin from the Homestead

So here I am at home, visiting my ill grandmother. She's doing better, but I'm glad I came home, thesis be damned. Although I got some decent work done today and expect to get more done tomorrrow. Anyway, my grandmother is enjoying getting cards in the mail, so I thought I'd pull and internet stunt. If any of you would like to send her a card, get in touch with me and I'll get you the snail mail address. I think it'd tickle her.

It was actually good for me to come home, too. I've been able to relax more and sleep better away from the stress. It hadn't been a productive week before that, so hopefully this will be a good kickstart to this week.

Alright. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is coming on. I'm cutting this post off and letting y'all twist in the wind.

Who the heck is voting for Bush, anyway?

This guy took a vacation through the South to find out.

I found this fascinating because I'm in a nice, sheltered academic environment where anyone voting for Bush II is clearly insane. :)

Too Much Information about My Peanut Allergy

Well, I accidentally ingested something peanutty last night. Baaaaad news. As a kid, I usually just suffered nausea and sometimes hurling as a result, but the reactions are getting worse and there's no denying I'm experiencing "mild" anaphylaxis. So far I've ducked the shock going along with it, but it still ain't pretty what else the histamines do.

Mike of goatdogblog saw a bit of the first bad reaction last year, when I swung through his office to get my car from my then-wife who also worked there, to go home after consuming a tainted cookie.

I can be in the same room with peanuts, unlike some people, although the smell makes me queasy. This may be psychosomatic, as I know peanuts make me ill. There are some people who can't even be on the same plane as the peanuts or the same lunchroom where their fellow classmates are eating peanut butter sandwiches. I feel real bad for those kids; choosing between bad allergic reactions and being a collossal dork isn't an easy choice at that age.

Anyway, for illustrative purposes I thought I'd share a rundown of what it's like. However I'm going to put it as the first comment, in order to spare you if you don't want to read the gory details. Click through if you want to see.

That's the same combination I have on my luggage...

The lock code on the Minuteman Nuclear Missles during the 60s and 70s was...00000000.

Link and joke stolen from plastic.

Plot: Bush Approval Rating vs. time/terror

This graph shows Bush's approval rating over time, noting instances when the threat level was increased from Mello Yello to Orange Crush. Note that the graph is a little unfair because it doesn't show all the way down to 0% and thus has the tendency to make the changes look larger than they are if you don't look at the axes.

I am distincly curious why it appears about 1/3 of the country decided Bush was doing a good job because we were attacked on 9/11/2001. Oh, I imagine it was mostly "coming together" and "supporting the president and country," but, if you think about it, a horrible blow was dealt to us and people thought better of our leader after it happened on his watch. By that logic, shouldn't my car insurance rates go down when I get in an accident?

Colorization & DVDs--Ahem, sirs

CNN has an article on the "colorized" versions of Three Stooges classics coming out soon. Contained within is this paragraph:

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who testified with Steven Spielberg before Congress in the 1980s against colorization and other forms of alteration, said the process yanks such slapstick performers as the Stooges out of the black-and-white universe they belong in.

Excuse me then, sirs? Could I have Han shooting first and federal agents with guns, please?

To be fair, Lucas's quotes reflect a desire to protect the artist, and he would say it's his right to modify Star Wars, but no one else's:

"Would color distract from their comedy and make it not as funny anymore?" Lucas said. "Maybe just the fact that they're in black and white makes it funny, because their humor is dated. But by putting it in black and white, it puts it in a context where you can appreciate it for what it was.

"But you try to make it in full living color and try to compare it to a Jim Carrey movie, then it's hard for young people to understand. Because you're then thinking you're comparing apples to apples, when you're not. You're comparing apples to oranges. I'm saying it's not fair to the artist."

Of course, I enjoyed Star Wars the way it was, too, outdated effects and all. I guess I really don't have anything to say except "Bite me!"

Hurricane Junkie

Ever since I discovered the wealth of information available at the Tropical Weather page at Weather Underground, I've become a bit of a hurricane junkie. I have fun stopping by twice a day and seeing the state of the art in predicting quite chaotic phenomena. The "discussion" links are relatively informative and rather honest about what the don't know.

I sorta want to see one up close, just once, just to see what 70+ mph winds look like. We may have had a blizzard that bad when I was a kid, I'm not sure. There's some chance of seeing one in D.C. I survived two trips to Disneyworld in September without danger.

There was just a show on the History Channel on the Galveston 1900 hurricane, and the moderate amount of hubris from the US Weather service that made it more deadly then it might have been. The city was on an island only 8 ft. above sea level at its highest, yet their local weather service chief basically declared Galveston safe from storm surge due to the shallow bay behind it. In addition, by Sept. 1900 the US was refusing to allow Cuban storm spotters to wire reports to the mainland, instead trusting the word of less experienced US personell. The Cubans correctly guessed that the storm which passed over western Cuba would turn towards the Gulf, and not across Florida as the US men said. This cost Galveston the chance to watch the skies and be ready, and in fact the hurricane warning flags didn't even fly until after it was far too late to evacuate. The storm intensifed over the heated Gulf and the entire island was underwater at the height of the storm. Death toll: 7000-8000.

I think of all the disasters that plague various areas, I'd have to take the midwest. We get blizzards, but those can be forecast with some lead time, and if you stay inside you're ok. You get tornados, but they generally hit narrow disaster zones. Really disasterous, of course, but of low probability. The west coast has the earthquakes, rare but completely unpredictable and quite devastating. I have similar thoughts on volcanoes, plus add relentlessness of lava flow. And though I do want to see a hurricane, living in the Atlantic or Gulf coast means one is coming sooner or later, and they are overwhelming in power and sheer swamping ability.

Telegraph | News | Eat your heart out, Dracula - scientists turn blood into biscuits and chocolate

I'm never eating in Russia.Ever.

Based on last night's steak, however, Adam is already on a plane by the time you read this.

Random Baseball Posts

ESPN.com: Page 2 - Little incident, big problem: Jim Caple's take on Clemens getting ejected from his own son's under-10 tournament game.

Twins Blogger Batgirl on what might have happened had Kris Benson been traded to the Twins...he of the hot wife who candidly discussed their sex life in Penthouse.

Yankees Find Loophole

It would appear that the rumored new Yankee Stadium, which they offered to pay for themselves, would actually cost the other teams revenue sharing money. Stadium debt has been allowed to be considered a "stadium operating expense" which are deducted from the amount considered for revenue sharing.

Remember: the rich have better lawyers and better accountants.

Tiny Moon is No Space Station :: Astrobiology Magazine

Tiny Moon is No Space Station :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe

This really upgrades Mimas in the next game of Solarquest I play...

Wow, I've been there & done that.

I Drew This: Political jock.

Sums up my feelings nicely.

Losing Kansas

This is a very good article about the Democratic party's dive to the right on economic issues and the resulting social consequences. I think this captures some of the frustrations of the 2000 Nader voters. And also why rural America is voting more Republican despite it being generally against their own economic interests.

Chicago Sports Notes

No links as I'm being lazy; you can hunt around the sources yourself, I'm sure.

• The hot baseball rumor over the All-Star Break was Randy Johnson to the Red Sox, Nomah to the Cubs, and Cubs prospects to the Diamondbacks. The Chicago Tribune is downplaying the notion today. ESPN is reporting that the 5 teams the Big Unit will accept a trade to are the Red Sox, Cubs, White Sox, Yankees, and Angels. It makes little sense for the Cubs to acquire Johnson; they have good starters in both the majors and minors. It would be huge for the White Sox to get him, but I have no idea what they could possibly have in minor league talent that would be a worthy package. It's not a strong system.
  
  
• ESPN was also reporting there's a tiny chance the Bulls could land Kobe Bryant in a sign-and-trade deal with the Lakers. The Lakers would do this to keep him from playing for the Clippers in the same building as they do. I don't see Kobe doing this unless he's gone completely delusional and has started to think he is Jordan.
  
  
• Ditka, as you've probably heard, will not run for Senate. Personally, if he had run, I'd have thought the Democrats could have just bought billboards and ads that just showed the picture of Ditka with Ricky Williams in the wedding dress. ("See! He's pro gay marriage!" That would keep the yahoos away from the polls....)
  
  
• It's the 10th anniversary of the Albert Belle corked bat game. The White Sox suspected his bat--no one knows why--so the umps took it and put it in their locker room. Jason Grimsley, Belle's teammate in Cleveland at the time, pulled a "Mission Impossible" and crawled through the ceiling from the visitor's clubhouse to the ump's room, moved a ceiling tile, and switched the bat for a "clean" one. The White Sox clubhouse manager noticed the ceiling entry, and the umps eventually got the right bat back from Cleveland. It was corked, and Belle drew a 10-game suspension, reduced on appeal. The reason no one remembers this is that a month later the Strike started. Heck, I didn't remember it until I read it in the Trib this morning...
  

Think Like the Enemy for a Minute

UPDATE 7-14 10:20 am: Plastic is now discussing this and the election-suspension contigencies Don has brought up in the comments.

At the risk of pissing off Delenn, let's consider the notion that al-Qaeda wants to influence the US elections from their perspective from a moment.

First of all, which candidate would they even want? Kerry would be less likely than Bush to extend the practice of invading Middle East regimes, but he wouldn't bail on the notion that the US has vital security interests there. He wouldn't yank troops from Iraq and he would probably pay more attention to actually disrupting al-Qaeda and hunting down their leadership. Bush in some ways has been the best al-Qaeda recruiting poster.

Also to consider is which way an attack would influence elections? Unlike Spain, the electorate is not overwhelmingly in opposition to the president's Iraq policy, and isn't likely to change their vote to someone who will make them safer through withdrawal and non-provocation of the terrorists. Karl Rove et al. would no doubt spin the attacks as a reason we need to keep the fasc law-and-order, fightin' the good fight, administration in power. Would the public agree, or come to the conclusion that the Bush administration is not making us safer, and that Kerry could do a better job of it? If you did want to keep Bush in power, you might do well to up the "chatter" but not do anything and let the administration claim they thwarted something.

As a side note, I can't say I'm encouraged that some Democrats are accusing the administration of talking this threat up to distract from the Edwards VP news. That may be the case, but it looks petty for the Democratic leadership to say it. Leave the conspiracy theories to the internet.

These are not very fully formed thoughts, so I'm hoping for your comments on these issues..

Administrivia

All these links, save the movie reviews, blatanly stol...er, "discovered" on Plastic.

1. Cheney admitted he lost an argument, because, after all, first one to swear loses.

2. Brief indication that the administration has "banned" it's employees from going to see Fahrenheit 9/11.
Wilmington (Chicago Tribune) gives it 4 stars; Ebert (Sun Times) gives it 3.5 stars

3. Jon Carroll on the administration in the SF Chronicle:

And, like the most petty schoolyard narcissists, they want to be right all the time. They want to be above criticism. They don't have regrets; they have excuses. The dog ate my country.

Child process spawned

A hearty tip of the Hatblog to reader and dear friend Don, who along with his wife Sally are expecting their first youngin' in January. This finally gives me a reason to buy something from this page. I'm sure Don has already done the required mutations. The staff here at Hatblog offers its best wishes and congratulations.

Bush Bits

1. According to this analysis, Bush is an agent of Iran.

2. More spin on the 9/11 Commission's finding that no Iraq-al Qaeda link existed, this time from Condi. As I said in the recent Plastic story, "just because somebody comes evangelizing their religion comes to my door, doesn't mean I've converted. That's about the level of "link" between al-Qaeda & Iraq." And that is not what the Bush administration was saying pre-war, and it's good to see the Commission stand by it.

3. Bush2004.com is owned by a Bush hater, and he's not selling. The article also discusess other political cybersquatters.

There and Back Again

SpaceShip One made its successful test flight, into "space" (i.e. an altitude of 62.5 mi) and returning safely, this morning. I'm sure there will be info all over /. and cnn and everywhere else, so no links.

Terry Jones, Concerned Parent

He knows his son's "not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy", but he can't figure out where he goes in the evenings. Thankfully, Donald Rumsfeld is there to rescue him.

Bush Cult

Just on a fit of pure facetiousness, I decided to take this list of "Is it a cult?" questions (found linked in a recent Plastic entry on recent setbacks to Scientology) and see if it applied to Bush-supporting Republicans. Not all Republicans; just the dittoheads and stereotypical Fox News crowd.
The group is focused on a leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.

Here we go:

The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

I suppose so, but what political party isn't? No positive indicator.

The group is preoccupied with making money.

Absolutely. Well, if you count "each making for himself." Not classic cult behaviour, but I'm not feeling generous, so we'll count this one.

Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

"If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists." Check.

Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

Does repeating the same lies and exaggeration over and over again count? That sounds like a chant after a while.

The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).

Ashcroft would like to, but to be fair, they're not doing this. Of course, why I'm worried about being fair when I'm comparing them to a cult is sure locking the door on an empty barn.

The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).

This one's pretty close. Point for cult.

The group has a polarized us- versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.

Do I even need to comment here?

The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).

As seen (by me) on Goatdogblog, the memo justifing torture and asserting that the President, in his Commander-in-Chief duties, is not bound by law or the Constitution.

The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).

It's not clear. I suppose some lawyer in the DoJ may not have believed torture to be justified before being asked to contribute to the memory. This one scores as Not Enough Information.

The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.

Again, if you're not with them you're for the terrorists. This is getting disturbing.

Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.

No. Ashcroft still gets to have his irrational superstitions about calico cats. (Anybody know if these are actually true and not trumped-up rumor?)

Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.

Ehh...not more so than I would expect any staunch politcal supporters.

Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members

As long as they're members of the opposite sex, I guess...



In conclusion of this patently ridiculous exercise, we should watch Bush supporters closely. There's some borderline cultlike behavior here but not enough to sound the alarm just yet.

O.J. Simpson, Ten Years Later

Odd space to see a social retrospective, but ESPN.com's Bill Simmons has a column about the O.J. Simpson trial, 10 years later. I would consider this just a sensationalist look back except for this portion:

If the trial happened in 2004 instead of 1995, Simpson and his gravity-defying noggin probably would be rotting away in prison right now. He couldn't have survived the overwhelming DNA evidence. Thanks to the startling popularity of "CSI" and "CSI: Miami," forensic science doesn't seem nearly as complicated today as it did in the mid-'90s, when doctors wasted entire days of the trial simply explaining the basics of DNA evidence to the jurors. Of course, those efforts were completely wasted, as evidenced by the words of one juror after the trial:

"I didn't understand the DNA stuff at all. To me, it was just a waste of time. It was way out there and carried no weight with me."

...

But this was 10 years ago. Only educated people understood the ramifications of the DNA evidence ... and educated people have a way of being bounced off juries."

I remember at the time being startled that one would think of taking so long to explain DNA evidence and its reliability. But then, even as an undergraduate, I was clearly an educated person. It stunned me that when someone testified, under oath, that there was a 1-in-a-very-large number chance of the blood not being the defendant's, that they could just dismiss this out of hand.

Are juries more educated these days, do you think? Could CSI and the Discovery Channel and A&E actually be mainstreaming scientific police work?

Amazingly, CNN stills seems to have an archive up.

You are likely to be eaten by a grüe

IKEA Walkthrough.

Broken already

At the moment, posting comments seems to be broken. They assure me they're working on it. Of course it worked when I was testing it earlier this week. Figures there'd be a high murphion flux about.

UPDATE: And true to the nature of the Murphy force, as soon as I post that it seems to work again.

I scream, you scream

Forget crude oil prices. I've got the real outrage for you right here--the Chicago Tribune* today is reporting that ice cream prices are rising, driven by increasing milk prices. Oh, the humanity. However will we survive this summer?

And don't anyone tell me "eat less ice cream." I can not drive to conserve gas. I'll be damned if I'm forgoing a bowl of sweet sweet vanilla.

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