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August 31, 2005
As usual, the Onion nails it...
Genie Grants Scalia Strict Constructionist Interpretation Of Wish
Which is the exact problem with “strict constructivism”...
Posted by Andrew at 02:35 PM | TrackBack
August 30, 2005
Computer Dumb Ass alert!
Opinion: Five reasons NOT to use Linux
See, this article is actually kinda snarky. He's creating a straw man out 5 reasons people commonly give for not using Linux, and then comparing them to Windows-- in Window's disfavor. For fun and profit, er, fun, I am going to take the arguments apart...
Reason number one: Linux is too complicated Even with the KDE and GNOME graphical windowing interfaces, it's possible -- not likely, but possible -- that you'll need to use a command line now and again, or edit a configuration file.Compare that with Windows where, it's possible -- not likely, but possible -- that you'll need to use a command line now and again, or edit the Windows registry, where, as they like to tell you, one wrong move could destroy your system forever.
With Linux, of course, you need to use the command line to to complicated things like install a program. Windows makes you use the command line when you want to do everyday tasks like editing the registry-- except that there is a graphical interface for that. I don't even know how to access the command prompt, something for which I am profoundly grateful...
Reason number two: Linux is a pain to set up
It's true. After all, with modern Linuxes like Xandros Desktop or SimplyMEPIS, you need to put in a CD or DVD, press the enter button, give your computer a name, and enter a password for the administrator account.
Gosh, that's hard.
On the other hand, with Windows, all you have to do is put in a CD or DVD, do all the above, and then immediately download all the available patches. After all, Symantec has found that an unpatched Windows PC connected to the Internet will last only a few hours before being compromised.
Unpatched Linux systems? Oh, they last months, but what's the fun of that?
True, I haven’t used SimplyMEPIS, but Xandros, SUsE and Mandrake (now Mandriva) all made me do a hell of a lot more than he implies. I had to actually choose between his aforementioned “KDE and GNOME graphical windowing interfaces”-- With no knowledge of what the hell I was choosing between! Also, I have had to figure out how to “mount” the partition and a few other things like that. None of which were explained very well, but all of which had big ‘ol warning signs...
Fun!
Reason number three: Linux doesn't have enough applicationsReally now. I mean, most Linux systems only come with secure Web browsers, like Firefox; e-mail clients, like Evolution; IM clients, like GAIM; office suites, like OpenOffice.org 2.0; Web page editors, like Nvu; and on, and on, and...
Microsoft, on the other hand, gives you Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, the most popular Web browser and e-mail client around -- even though they do have a few little, teeny-weeny problems. Of course, Windows also has an IM-client, Windows Messenger, which, come to think of it, has also had some problems.
And, Microsoft also has Microsoft Office, which -- oh wait, you don't get that with the operating system, do you? You also don't get a Web page editor either, do you?
Well, still, with Windows you get so many more choices of software, don't you? Like Lotus 1-2... oh really? I didn't know that. Or, WordPerfect... oh, pretty much dead too.
Still, so long as you want to run Microsoft programs at Microsoft prices, Windows is the operating system for you!
Yeah, I remember just the other day, I booted up my SUsE partition and started playing Doom 3, until I got bored and installed World Of Warcraft. And- Wow! Google Earth looks so good under OpenGL on Linux. Not to mention the fact that I can always listen to my music whenever I want, right out of the box...
Wait, I can’t do any of that under linux. Not that the applications themselves don’t exist, but I don’t know how to get them working. Actually, many of the applications don’t exist...
Reason number 4: Linux isn't secureIf Microsoft says so, it has to be true! So what, if you can scarcely go a week without reading about yet another major Windows security problem in our sister publication, eWEEK.com's security section! Who would you rather believe -- Microsoft, or your own eyes?
son number 5: Linux is more expensive
Are you calling Microsoft a liar? Those nasty Linux companies, like Red Hat or Novell/SUSE charge you a fee for support. Others, like Linspire sell you the product. How dare they, when you can download free, fully-functional versions of almost all the Linux distributions.
Strawman and strawman. A big company is lying about its competition, fine. But no one else is talking about such things...
In short, I like Linux. I think it’s a great idea, and I really want someone to succeed at making a distribution I want to use. But right now, it simply isn’t mature enough. And articles like this one don’t help the maturity level at all...
Posted by Andrew at 03:24 PM | TrackBack
August 28, 2005
God: a rhetrospective
Don't Drink The Koolaid: This Might Explain A Few Things
Posted by Andrew at 11:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 27, 2005
F8ck
The below motion was filed earlier this month in connection with a criminal charge filed against a Colorado teenager. The boy's troubles started when he was confronted at school by a vice principal who suspected that he had been smoking in the boys bathroom. When presented to the principal, the kid exploded, cursing the administrator with some variants of the "F" word. For his outburst, the boy was hit with a disorderly conduct rap, which was eventually amended to interfering with the staff, faculty, or students of an educational institutional. Faced with what he thought was a speech crime, Eric Vanatta, the teen's public defender, drafted the below motion to dismiss the misdemeanor charge. The District Court document is an amusing and profane look at the world's favorite four-letter word, from its origins in 1500 to today's frequent use of the term by Eminem, Chris Rock, and Lenny Kravitz.
Posted by Andrew at 03:40 PM | TrackBack
August 26, 2005
In case you were curious
Posted by Andrew at 08:01 AM | TrackBack
How much for the lesbians in the window?
How much to check out the Lesbians for an hour?
Actualy, that’s just a free part of a new innititive at one Holland library...
A public library in Holland has been swamped with queries after unveiling plans to "lend out" living people, including homosexuals, drug addicts, asylum seekers, gipsies and the physically handicapped.
No, no, not like that!
[continuing directly] The volunteers will be borrowed by users of the library, in Almelo, who can take them to a cafeteria, and ask them any questions they like for up to an hour, in a scheme designed to break down barriers and combat prejudice.
Basically, these people are being rented so that they can give specialized knowledge that most people wouldn’t have. Quite frankly, “what’s it like to have sex as a woman, let alone a lesbian, is something I’ll never know. This seems like a great program, it just needs to be taking up a notch. How would you like to be able to borrow an astronaut? Or a basketball player? Intriguing idea...
Posted by Andrew at 01:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Friday Cat Blogging
Well, last Tuesday, the GF and I went down to Marine World. The GF mainly just pined after the kittens. And who wouldn’t?
Now, me? I’m not convinced that the guy lounging around with the Tigers and sticking his arm in their mouths was entirely sane. He called it wrestling with them. Of course, he’s still alive, so...
Posted by Andrew at 12:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 25, 2005
What would Jesu say?
What if Christ spoke at a Republican Party fund-raiser? By Tom Peyer
Posted by Andrew at 06:44 PM | TrackBack
Doctors fleeing the country.
The Globe and Mail: Finally, more doctors returning to Canada than leaving
Well, not quite. But Canadian Doctors are leaving the US and heading back north, despite the fact that they get paid twice as much here. Since they also do about three times as much paperwork, perhaps we can understand why...
Come to think of it, there are more doctors per capita in Canada than in the US. Basic supply and demand would thus suggest that Canadian doctors get paid less, yes? And, if Canadian doctors are complaining of overwork, how must our own doctors be feeling? Perhaps that is why malpractice rates are so high in this country. The question then becomes: how does the US system attract as many people into med. School as the Canadian system does? Obviously “more money” isn’t the solution...
Posted by Andrew at 01:38 PM | TrackBack
August 24, 2005
Legoriffic!
Lego is the world's oldest toy company, an analog enterprise wrestling with the more complicated digital world. In the last two years, the fabled Danish toymaker has lost nearly $500 million on $2.3 billion in sales, according to its latest annual report. But by focusing on the reinvention of its core construction toys for kids like Neal, Lego may have found a strategy to help turn around the 73-year-old privately held company beloved by children all over the world.
"It took us a couple of years to realize we were going down the wrong path," says Soren Torp Laursen, the 42-year-old president of Lego Americas. "We are back to our roots."
What Lego really needs to do is fix its fricking website. But it’s good to see the company still alive and kicking...
Thanks to Dazed and Confucius for the link...
Posted by Andrew at 03:34 PM | TrackBack
This can’t possibly be real.
U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Tyson Sued for Maintaining Segregated Work Areas:..."
In order for this to be real, Tyson would have had to decide that not only is segregation ok (I am doubtful someone would do that, but it’s possible), but also that they wouldn’t be sued (flatly impossible), or if sued, won (likewise). And they would have to get just about everyone up the chain to agree on all these conditions. Frankly, I think it more likely that whoever first suggests such a thing would get fired...
(Via Majikthise)
Posted by Andrew at 03:03 PM | TrackBack
August 23, 2005
Google Desktop search 2.0
Well, google has yet another nifty new toy. In addition to desktop search, Google has added a sidebar to make information management easier. When I say "information management", I mean there’s a panel for weather, one for news, one for CPU usage, etc. If there was only one which would take my RSS feeds and let me know when something new came up, I’d be a happy man...
The thing is, Google is taking 3 of my major programs (Copernic, Desktop Sidebar, and Forcastfox), and trying to put them all in one place. I like the idea, but after a few minutes testing, the execution seems a bit lacking. Though, at this point, I am only picking a few nits. Google has sensibly created a Plugin architecture, which should help overcome some of my issues...
Posted by Andrew at 12:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
Copy, paste, done
slacktivist: You can copy off mine
Copy, paste, done
BAGHDAD (AP) — With a midnight deadline only hours away, Iraq's political leaders met Monday in search of a compromise over a new constitution. Some lawmakers said differences remained over the role of Islam and women's rights, but others reported progress. ...The initial Aug. 15 deadline was pushed back a week after no agreement was reached. Iraqi officials have insisted they would meet this second deadline and present a final document to the National Assembly ... OK, first of all, Don't Panic. You've still got a few hours left. I've written term papers in less time. You folks can still get your constitution written by midnight. And here's the good news: You're allowed to cheat. You don't even have to attribute or footnote or anything. Trust me, I'm an American and this is what we did. We cribbed off of the Iroquis nations for our first draft, the Articles of Confederation. Admittedly, that draft wasn't a keeper, but it got us through an initial rough patch and gave us time to regroup and write the Constitution we're still using to this day -- 216 years later. This is a pretty good Constitution. Feel free to use it. The whole thing is online, so you can just copy and paste. Control-A, Control-C, Control-V and you're done.
Posted by Andrew at 12:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 21, 2005
Jack Johnson
Just saw his show. Opening act was pretty good. Some group called Animal Liberation Orchestra, which despite the name did a fairly good job. They’ve been playing together for a few years yet, and-- given the quality of the music-- I am surprised to have not yet heard them on the radio. A couple of their songs really could be 2006’s number 1 summer hit. I guess we’ll see where they go...
The main course, though, gods! Good show. If you’ve not listened to one of Jack Johnson’s songs before I wonder where you’ve been or what do you listen to. He is a good lyrists, and his guitar comes strait from Hawaii, which gives it a nicely different flavor. But live, man! That guy wails...
There was this little trick he kept pulling, where he would start playing one of his own songs, then work something else entirely in there. But he did it so skillfully, owned the whole thing so well; if I’d never heard either song before I wouldn’t have known there was any funny business going on...
It takes a good ear and a strong sense of self to pull something like that off. Mr. Johnson showed that he has both. I gleefully await the next time he swings into the area...
Posted by Andrew at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 20, 2005
Google, haX0r
Posted by Andrew at 12:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 19, 2005
Let’s see: Soda, Chips and Books...
Can't Wait for a Book? Paris Can Help
Readers craving Homer, Baudelaire or Lewis Carroll in the middle of the night can get a quick fix at one of the French capital's five newly installed book vending machines. [...] "Our biggest vending machine sellers are 'The Wok Cookbook' and a French-English dictionary," said Chambon, who added that poet Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal" — "The Flowers of Evil" — also is "very popular."
Absolutely! My coworkers and I have talked about these sorts of things for years. Indeed, I see the day in the not-so-distant future when all you have to do is tell the machine what book you want, and it will be printed right there for you. Granted, it won’t be as high quality binding or paper as a pre-printed copy, but it would make sure that books never go out of print...
I am a bit curious who buys cookbooks at midnight. Oh well...
(via Ezra Kline)
Posted by Andrew at 01:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 18, 2005
Kitten Games
So, my cats seem to like to chase my cursor around the screen. As we all know, the cursor is controlled by the mouse. I guess it’s just something in their genes...
Posted by Andrew at 01:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 17, 2005
Social insurance
Kip asks:
For the life of me, I cannot understand why these people are so utterly terrified of voluntary partial privatization -- is it the "voluntary" or the "privatization" or both? - A Stitch in Haste Eminent Domain = Social Security?As one of “those people”, I’ll answer: both.
See, the bigger your pool, the better an insurance plan works. The odds of all of us needing it at once goes down the more of us there are. Making social security voluntary means people can pull out, thus diluting the strength of the system. Same thing with “private”-- even if we all had to have some insurance, private plans would split the pool into several smaller pools. Risk sharing doesn’t take place, and we all pay more. Voluntary private accounts would kill the system...
Posted by Andrew at 09:23 PM | TrackBack
August 16, 2005
Karate Cat
Posted by Andrew at 06:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 13, 2005
Iraqi Constitution
The problem in Iraq-- the biggest problem, at least-- is religion. Despite the fact that they all have the same holy book, the same 5 pillars, etc. There are about 2.5 main strains of Islam in Iraq right now, and each of them holds that the others are not quite right...
The challenge for the Iraqi constitutional convention is to not let religion even onto the table. Anything that is on the table is a bone to be fought over. By taking religion out of the discussion, by making the nation officially
agnosticapathetic to the existence of god, or any specific message therein, they remove one gigantic reason for discord...In fact, official apathy about the existence of god is so important that we ought to have included it into our own constitution...
Update:
Apparently, we did include this in our own constitution. Click here for details. I grant that it’s a bit obscure-- a lot of right wingers seemed to have missed this point...Posted by Andrew at 06:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 12, 2005
Would you arrest this man?
In my career at Barnes and Noble, I have been scammed twice (that I know of). The second one was a 30 year old black woman with a ghetto accent and bad checks. The first, though, the first was an 70+ year old white woman who seemed more likely to be giving out apple pie than running a book-return scam (I won’t go into details). Just so that we’re clear, both women were very definitely running scams. Both women were very definitely aware of what they were doing. Only one of them fit any “profile”...
Which is why profiling is a waste of time. In a world where Martha Stewart and OJ Simpson are both criminals, all must be presumed equally likely to be guilty-- until we have specific evidence of specific wrongdoing linked to specific people.
Ultimately, those calling for us to have “common sense” in deciding who to randomly search are engaged in anti-survival behavior. I want to catch the White terrorists too, before they commit their dastardly deeds...
Posted by Andrew at 11:09 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 11, 2005
Separation of what and whatnow?
Forward Newspaper Online: In Mailing%2C Falwell Urging Backers To %27Vote Christian%27 (Registration or Bugmenot required)
As part of a bid to revive his Reagan-era conservative powerhouse, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority leader, is urging Americans to "vote Christian" in 2008."As national chairman of the Moral Majority Coalition, I am committed to lending my influence to help turn out at least 40 million 'faith and values' voters in 2008 to assure that Sen. Hillary Clinton, or someone of her ultra-liberal ilk, will never be president of this nation," Falwell wrote in a recent mass fund-raising letter.
The letter comes with a car window sticker declaring "I Vote Christian."
Falwell wrote that his goal "is to utilize the momentum of the sweeping conservative mandate of the November 2, 2004, elections to maintain a faith and values 'revolution' of voters who will continue to go to the polls to 'vote Christian' and call America back to God." He added, "Everyone now knows that the stage is set for the church of Jesus Christ to turn this nation back to the faith of our fathers and the Judeo-Christian ethic."
Posted by Andrew at 01:26 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 10, 2005
Ever Wanted to Know?
How To Tell How Gay Your Gay Son Is
Posted by Andrew at 03:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Things are not going well in Iraq
Unless these people were elected by a plurality of the population of Baghdad, and the guns and whatnot are just symbols of the electoral will, this is not a good thing
Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia.The next question is: why was this not front page headline on any of the major news sites as of this writing?
(Via Brad DeLong)
Posted by Andrew at 02:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 09, 2005
Reviews: (Television) Firefly
I liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I liked Angel. So why did I never watch Firefly during it’s production run? Blame fox-- I didn't know it was coming until it was over. Thank the gods for the DVD format...
Yeah, I bought it on faith. And sale. I bought it on sale and on faith, and they were both amply justified. But what the hell is it about? Well, it’s a Sci-Fi show, so that means spaces battles and lasers and faster than light people doing things, right? Not at all...
Firefly is more like the Magnificent 7 than any other Sci-Fi experience. Perhaps the best way of thinking of it is as the show that Star Wars would have had it been about Han Solo-- and were Luke insane. Also replace Chewbacca with a black woman and; and now the analogy has gone too far. The basic idea is that Mal (Malcolm) Reynolds is a freighter Captain who doesn’t really care about the law. In the first episode, he picks up some passengers who turn out to be even more illegal than he is. Any more would be spoilers, so I won’t tell it here...
What I can comment on is style. Fans of Buffy's wit won’t be terribly disappointed, though Firefly tends to go in slightly different directions. Firefly humor tends to be more in the way of physical comedy, or even the sort where the characters make fun of each other. One rather amusing scene involved the captain finding himself married to a local girl-- as payment for saving the village...
Firefly is set in a universe where humanity has basically been dumped on hundreds of worlds, most of which have technology and cultures similar to that of our own "old west". Indeed, Firefly is basically a western-- save that the cavalry is mostly there to arrest our intrepid crew...
The real pity of the show is that only 14 episodes were ever made. Though a movie is on the way, it can’t possibly be as epic a full several year television run would have been. The show was only just beginning to raise questions, and never got around to answering many of them. Still, it was a fun romp; one I recommend highly to fans of offbeat adventure stories.
Rating: 3 Sovereign class starships out of 5 Omega class destroyers. The show did what it wanted to exceedingly well. Sadly, it didn’t do more than stand up and stretch its legs before it was shot to death by a silly silly network. Oh well, I suppose there is always Galactica...
Posted by Andrew at 11:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 08, 2005
Year round schooling:
As I begin my second 6 week summer “session” (at UC Davis, the summer quarter is broken into a pair of sessions.), I am reminded of the carefree days of yore. Ah, the days when summer meant simply lounging about, doing nothin’ at all. Instead today, it’s either school or work-- or both. The weird part is that I am enjoying the hell out of my time in summer school. If I’d done this last year, I might be done by now...
Posted by Andrew at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 07, 2005
Mom wants to know why her Son is dead
Soldier's mother protests near Bush ranch - The Boston Globe
Cindy Sheehan told reporters: ''I want to ask the president, 'Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?' "Sheehan, 48, did not get to see Bush, but did talk for about 45 minutes with national security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin, who went out to hear her concerns.
Appreciative of their attention, yet undaunted, Sheehan said she planned to continue her roadside vigil, except for a few breaks, until she gets to talk to Bush.
If the answer to that question isn’t obvious, Bush ought to be impeached. As it happens, there is a reason, it is even a good one. But if the president is doing such a poor job of explaining it, well, fuck...
Posted by Andrew at 02:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 06, 2005
Difference between Bush and Clinton:
FCC opens door to ISP wipe-out
At the moment in the US, DSL is sold wholesale by companies owned by the Baby Bells, aka the "ILECs" (incumbent local exchange carriers), such as SBC (formerly Southwestern Bell and Pacific Bell), and Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic). The ILECs are also DSL retailers, of course, in direct competition with independent ISPs who depend on the ILECs for service and in most cases, infrastructure.In a statement today the FCC said it was scrapping the mandatory sharing requirement on incumbents that "caused vendors to delay development and deployment of innovations to consumers."
It isn’t so much that either president did anything. But both of them had philosophies about business, and that philosophy informed their appointees. Clinton’s philosophy was that markets should be open and accessible. Bush’s has been that companies should be allowed to wring every possible advantage from their current position. Clinton’s philosophy allowed hundreds of ISPs to flourish, and compete. When ISPs compete, you win! Bush’s Philosophy will kill off some ISPs, causing competition to die with it. When competition ends, you lose...
Bush may be pro-business, but he sure as hell isn’t pro-consumer...
Posted by Andrew at 02:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 05, 2005
How about some Hot Coffee?
One upon a time there was a game called Medal of Honor. This game took place in World War 2, indeed the first scene of this game involved storming Omaha beach. This first level was particularly difficult, most players (or at least me) dying repeatedly as they tried to reach safety. Somewhere around the 10th attempt at finishing the first level, it hits you: grandpa did this...
This was a real, emotionally impacting moment, the sort of thing that good art aspires to. Perhaps if you’re historically literate, you remember pictures of Auschwitz, and realize that all the death is warranted. Mayhap memories of trying to take that damned beachhead inform your decision as to whether dropping the atomic bomb was a good idea. It did for me...
So, is it art? Of course it is. No real question at all. Given that it is art it deserves the highest level of first amendment protection. And given that this one piece (at least) is capable of being recognizable art, the genera as a whole deserves that same protection. Given that it does, congress needs to stick its nose out of things, and start looking at more important issues-- like perhaps the war we’re in...
Which brings me to Hot Coffee. There is a game call Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This game follows the adventures of a young criminal as he does naughty criminal type things. Like stealing cars. And killing cops. For some reason, none of this actually got a whole lot of outcry. What set parents off was the possibility that their children might see some consensual sex. Clothed.
In order to see this clothed, consensual sex, players must first download a bit of software that alters the programming in such a way that certain content will be accessible. Then they have to play the game in a certain way, and do really well at it, to unlock this content. The content is, by all accounts, lame. So what’s the big deal?
Games have become a part of our culture in a very real way. They are capable of being soaring works of art, and of being dreck. For the sake of the art, we need to protect the dreck...
Posted by Andrew at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 04, 2005
To infinity and beyond!
Should I be studying? Yes. Should I be, if not studying, responding to Email from dear friends and family? Yes. Instead I though I’d take a bit of time to mention Mars again...
A week or so ago the GF and I caught a PBS special on the Mars Rovers. Those guys were fantastic! I mean, they had to debug their software with around a 10 minute communications lag. Fortunately there weren’t any bug-eyed monsters there, or else the lag-frag would suck.* Additionally, many of their problems stemmed from simply being unable to see what was going on; the cameras not being a quite high enough resolution. It occurred to me that the biggest problem was that there were no astronauts on Mars. How do we fix that?
First we need a presence in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Keep the station we’ve got up there, and build a couple more. A robust enough presence would allow for tourists to book passage and even stay up there a few days. I don’t know how much you’d be willing to pay for a night in space, but I bet if the price could be brought down to US$1,500/ night (Earth/LEO round trip not included) there would be enough takers for it to be a self-sustaining industry...
After that, we’d need to build the ships themselves. While light from earth takes at least 4 minutes, I think we would need about 9 months or a year to get humans there. Bringing them back home would take another 9 months or so. Not to mention the month or two there that would be required to actually justify such a trip. So, we’d need our ships to be need self-sustaining habitats before we sent them off. Not too self-sustaining, though. Every woman in the crew would have to be put on birth control.. Men too, if we can figure out how to do it reliably...
Out of all this, humanity would get (at least!) some knowledge of new forms of propulsion, new understanding of environmental concerns. New, light-weight but strong materials would almost certainly have to be invented. And, of course, this would all be a first step towards opening up a whole fricking new planet for human exploitation...
Something else to keep in mind: the asteroid belt is chock-full of the sorts of metals and ores which are running out here on Earth. Mars would be a convenient place to base an asteroid mining operation out of...
Of course, this all presumes the willingness of some government somewhere to foot the bill. The potential benefit to such a country would be enormous. Remember: Portugal decided not to pay for Columbus’ speculative venture, Spain decided to. Spain went from a 3rd rate power to a great empire almost instantly—and stayed there for several hundred years. Which would we rather be?
*this is a video game joke...Posted by Andrew at 10:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 03, 2005
A planet is born!
Er, Minor Planets are Named...
Posted by Andrew at 11:00 AM | TrackBack
August 02, 2005
Like a mushroom,
I’m a fungi
The Ham
(47% dark, 43% spontaneous, 22% vulgar)
your humor style:
CLEAN | SPONTANEOUS | LIGHT
Your style's mostly goofy, innocent and feel-good. Perfect for parties
and for the dads who chaperone them. You can actually get away with
corny jokes, and I bet your sense of humor is a guilty pleasure for
your friends. People of your type are often the most approachable and
popular people in their circle. Your simple & silly
good-naturedness is immediately recognizable, and it sets you apart in
this sarcastic world.
PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Will Ferrell - Will Smith
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 99% on dark
You scored higher than 99% on spontaneous
You scored higher than 99% on vulgar
Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid Posted by Andrew at 05:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Recess appointment
It sounds like something kids would do on the playground. In fact, Bush’s nomination of Bolton is a childish sort of temper tantrum. No one wants to play my game? Fine! I’ll just create a whole new game...
Let us imagine that the year is 1793. President Washington wants to appoint an ambassador to Russia. The first guy goes through the Senate, who then adjourns for the summer to get the hell out of Philly. The newly-made ambassador drops dead of dysentery. Washington could wait another 3 months for the Senate to get back in session, another month to have the new guy confirmed, and then another several months for the new guy to actually reach Russia. Or, you know, the recess appointment...
The example above is what the recess appointment exists for, why it was written into the constitution in the first place. Let’s try this example:
The year is 2005 President Bush sends an ambassadorial nominee to a Senate controlled by his own party. For 3 or 4 months, the guy languishes in committee as questions grow over his basic competency. Bush’s own party are having serious doubts about the guy, and are hoping that the President will pull him. The committee stops holding hearings, saying “more study” is needed. Members of the President’s party who sit on the committee are saying that they won’t vote for the guy, and are sending private messages to the president to pull the plug. The President waits until the Senate recesses and then appoints his man anyway...
Does that sound like what the founders had in mind? No. The problem with John Bolton’s appointment is that it was tacitly rejected by the Senate. Granted, they did not do their job and actually follow through with a formal rejection—yet rejection was plainly what they were in the middle of...
Bush’s abuse of the constitution to appoint Bolton is that of a spoiled child throwing a tantrum. Perhaps if his party gets spanked at the polls, it would inhibit future adolescent outbursts...
Posted by Andrew at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 01, 2005
Oh dear.
What this will mean for the War effort, too soon to tell. But if someone over there gets greedy, this could be bloody...
Posted by Andrew at 04:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
