« October 2005 | Main | December 2005 »
November 30, 2005
Inflation greater than income growth destroys incentives to work
The good news is that the average paycheck — in theory — should keep up with inflation, which is expected to be about 3% next year.The bad news is that most employees will get less than 3.5%. That average is driven up by very high raises — as much as 9% — expected in a few fields with acute staff shortages, including nursing and financial services.
"If you're not in a high-demand position or covered by a union agreement, maybe you'll get 1% or 2%, if anything at all," said John Putzier, president of FirStep Inc., a Pittsburgh-area human resources firm. "It's going to be spotty."
The sad part is I can probably calculate my exact inflation as well as my exact income change; and wince when I do it. My US$.50/hour raise leaves me with less purchasing power than I had last year. Fortunately our congress people won’t have to deal with this indignity. Congress gets an annual cost of living adjustment...
Now, if it’s not inflationary for congress to fluff their own salaries, why is it inflationary for the minimum wage to go up? Not to mention wages which-- *ahem* like mine-- are tied to minimum...
Posted by Andrew at 11:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Firefox 1.5
Well, Firefox 1.5 is out. End users won’t notice a huge difference, thought there are a couple of UI enhancements that are nice. Tabs for pages you’ve not yet read are italicized, for instance. Also, when they patch it users will no longer be required to download the whole thing and reinstall the program, you’ll only get the new code...
But it’s a bit more stable, and a bit less resource intensive, and has a bunch of new backend features that web designers will love you to have. I could list them off, but they mean almost nothing to me and probably not to you. Anyway, Go get it...
Oh, and before you do, check and make sure that any of your favorite extensions are 1.5 compatible. They all ought to be by now, but there is all the difference in the world between "is" and "ought"...
Posted by Andrew at 10:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 27, 2005
Catlike Grace
So my cat, like, all others, enjoys running back and forth for no reason. I decided to try it myself to see what all the fuss is about. Is that weird?
Posted by Andrew at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 26, 2005
John Scalzi makes some changes...
Whatever: The Editorial Process, Revealed, Kinda
It’s number 5 & 6 that kill me...
Posted by Andrew at 11:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 23, 2005
Warning!
Posted by Andrew at 05:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
So True
Posted by Andrew at 11:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 22, 2005
How do you keep a city from charging?
Take away it's credit cards
Startling Visa bill makes sense, cents for Port St. Lucie
Posted by Andrew at 12:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 19, 2005
Feast for Crows.
Well, I've just finished reading the new one by George R. R. Martin. If you’ve not read the series, start with Game of Thrones...
I won’t do too much review of the latest book, save to say that the Author didn’t want to write it, and it shows. It isn’t that he did a bad job, it’s just that he wanted to write about the next events in the character’s lives, rather than these events. As a consequence of that, the story is a bit bare. There is an entire political movement, and we readers only find out about it afterwards. This is ordinarily something that we readers would have seen forming, or at least heard whispers of. But since the effect was more important to the Author than the story, we’re left out. Not to say that the story is bad, or unimportant, just that the book suffers from middle-child syndrome.
The difference between a good author and a great author is the ability to show characters being clever—and doing it believably. Martin is a great author. Just as a contrast: Robert Jordan’s character’s cleverest moments all happen off stage. Fiest’s character’s aren’t believably clever. With Martin, Characters behave reasonably, and their actions always have realistic and unintended consequences. Not only do characters do clever things, they do them while we watch through their eyes...
To put it a different way, when I was growing up, I’d read everything I could get my hands on. In many books, I’d walk away thinking but how does politics work. I took a bunch of poli-sci classes and found out. With Martin, I’d not have had to do so...
Anyway, I can’t wait for book 5. Hopefully it’ll be sooner than 5 years...
Posted by Andrew at 11:01 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 18, 2005
Another Dirge for Diggory
In honor of the 4th movie (go see it), I am reposting this song:
(to the Tune of Eleanor Rigby, with apologies to the Beatles and J.K. Rowling)
Ah, look at all the Hogwart's People
Ah, look at all the Hogwart's People
Cedric Diggory picks up his broom from the field where a game has been
Lives only to play
Looks out the window, wearing the tie that he keeps on the knob on the door
For Dumbledor
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all come from ?
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all belong ?
Arthur Weasley writing the words of a law that no one will hear
No one cares.
Look at him working. Raiding Malfoy in the night when there's nobody there
What do muggles care?
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all come from?
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all belong?
Cedric Diggory died in the field and was buried as Voldemort came
The Death Eaters came
Arthur Weasley wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
The rest'll be saved
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all come from?
All the Hogwart's People
Where do they all belong?
Posted by Andrew at 07:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday Cat Blogging
Janus thinks he’s a new flavor of Linux, or perhaps merely a desktop application...
There are a trio of doorways in my hallway, just to give Janus the chance to be the most in the way. Here he is standing in the intersection of two of them...
I’ve taught my cat well, here he is watching Monty Python
Posted by Andrew at 01:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2005
Brownian Motion: a Moderate Proposal*
In this day, it has become an article of faith--even among many liberals-- that Roe V. Wade was poorly decided, and makes for bad law. By imposing the Rule of Law over the whim of the majority, activist judges proved that they could find in the constitution any rights at all—even ones which are not specifically enumerated.
Even more pernicious, however, is another ruling, made by another group of unelected, unaccountable so-called justices. The decision, of course, is BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION.
This decision is pernicious, not in its actual effect, but in the way the constitution, precedent, and the will of the majority is twisted to arrive at that effect. Few would still publicly argue that segregation is a good thing. And yet none were given the choice—segregation was not overcome by a state by state campaign that changed hearts and minds, but rather by judicial fiat.
The bare reasoning is suspect. The court did not rest on the precedent of “separate but equal”, the bedrock of Southern law for generations, but rather upon finding within the Constitution—the 14th amendment— the idea that self-esteem ought to be a goal. The very language of the court speaks not of “tangible” goods, but rather tries to quantify that which is intangible. As if such a thing were not a flat contradiction!
Moreover, the court specifically rejected an originalist reading saying “we cannot turn the clock back to 1868 when the Amendment was adopted, or even to 1896 when Plessy v. Ferguson was written.” If the court can turn the constitution into a “living document”, it won’t be stopped anywhere—they can find any right at all within the clear text of the constitution.
Perhaps worst of all, this decision created a class of rights for some at the expense of the rights of others. For every black parent who now had the “right” to send their child to a better school, the court created a white parent who no longer had the “right” to send their child to a segregated school. What right could be more precious than the rights of a parent to choose how their child is raised? By a single act of judicial activism, the Court stripped every parent of that most basic right.
Of course, it should be noted that even if we overturn the Brown decision, Segregation would not return. No, it would be left up to each individual school district to decide whether they want to return to the traditional moral values of their forefathers. Those of us who oppose segregation would be allowed to present the case to our local school boards, to truly win the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens. After all, that is the principle enshrined within our constitution: majorities getting to do what they want.
*This title is supposed to invoke Swift’s modest Proposal. This is to let everyone know that this post is Satire, and not to be taken literally...
Posted by Andrew at 10:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 16, 2005
Silly quiz thing
Handholder
You go out of your way to build bridges with people of different views and beliefs and have quite a few religious friends. You believe in the essential goodness of people , which means you’re always looking for common ground even if that entails compromises. You would defend Salman Rushdie’s right to criticise Islam but you’re sorry he attacked it so viciously, just as you feel uncomfortable with some of the more outspoken and unkind views of religion in the pages of this magazine.
You prefer the inclusive approach of writers like Zadie Smith or the radical Christian values of Edward Said. Don’t fall into the same trap as super–naïve Lib Dem MP Jenny Tonge who declared it was okay for clerics like Yusuf al–Qaradawi to justify their monstrous prejudices as a legitimate interpretation of the Koran: a perfect example of how the will to understand can mean the sacrifice of fundamental principles. Sometimes, you just have to hold out for what you know is right even if it hurts someone’s feelings.
What kind of humanist are you? Click here to find out.
Posted by Andrew at 01:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 13, 2005
Print your own organs
Posted by Andrew at 03:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 11, 2005
Won’t get fooled again.
Well last Tuesday was the greatest Democratic victory since Al Gore beat G.W. Bush back before the Y2K crisis. We are, understandably, giddy...
However, and I can’t stress this enough, we didn’t win by dint of our own agenda, we won because the public is fed up with the Republican one. Democrats have done a good job convincing the country that the Republican agenda will toss their grandparents on the streets and force their children to get STDs...
The Republican agenda is to take us back to the halcyon days of July 1929. The Democrats (at least the party), by contrast, are trying to hold the line at about 1955. Meanwhile, the public—the voters—rightly want an agenda that meets the needs of 2005. Things to be addressed:
Healthcare costs are going up.
Our intellectual property rights are a mess (not so much of concern to the Average American, but definitely affecting everyone)
Balancing security and liberty. Hell, do we even _need_ a balance?
Mounting bin Laden’s head on a pike
Balancing the individual need for expression with governmental need to be agnostic on most forms of expression
Educational systems
These are just a few of the ideas which float to the top of my head. Democrats do fairly well on some of these, fail miserably on others. Neither party is making these issues their priority, preferring instead to fight the battles of the past. Our national rhetoric has evolved, but the debates themselves have stagnated. The first part who makes a concerted effort to address these issues will win and win big...
Posted by Andrew at 12:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Friday cat blogging again
Well, I am down to just one cat. The Roommate moved her cat to her new place last night, and Purrbox got himself adopted. That means it’s just Janus and me kicking it in Davis...
Janus is still a kitten, despite his size. And like all kittens, he likes to explore. So when he wandered into my office garbage, my friend Mike couldn’t help but pick the whole thing up...
I like video games, Janus likes video games. Janus is in the process of Sacking Washington DC. He’s like 1000 times the size of Godzilla, which you can imagine would terrify my virtual citizens...
Here we see Janus chasing his first mouse. Of course, since I live in an area that’s devoid of real mice, Janus is making due with a computer mouse. I am going to guess this isn’t nearly as satisfying as chasing the real thing, so I took out some string and let him chase that around...
Posted by Andrew at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 09, 2005
Actual Conversation:
Me: Come on, let’s get out of her
Friend: ...
Me: Hey ho, let's go Hey ho, let's go Hey ho, let's go
Friend: Don’t you have, like, 24 hours to go?
Me: Well, kind of. What you don’t know is that the KKK took my baby away...
Friend: Were you sniffing glue?
Me: Actually; lobotomy.
Posted by Andrew at 06:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 08, 2005
perhaps a friend for Janus?
This cat has a myspace
Posted by Andrew at 07:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Child's Play
For a coupel of guys who swear a lot—in public!—they sure do run a fine charity...
Posted by Andrew at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I voted
Rolling out of bed this morning, after an all-night paper writing binge, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that I had something left undone. As I sat blinking at my computer, Janus snuggled up against my headrest it, it finally hit me: “Special Election”. I don’t know what’s so special about these; every year in March and November we vote on some damned thing or another. Heinlein made fun of us for it back in the mid 1980s, and it’s only gotten worse since...
My brain was still a bit fuzzy, and I had no idea where to vote. So I hopped on Google and typed in “yolo county registrar voters” From there I was able to quickly find my polling station...
Well, I found where Google said my station ought to be. I still had to get into my car and drive over. The place was easy enough to find, follow the other cars and the American flag. Also the “vote here” signs were a nice clue...
Step into the booth, ballot in hand. Use one of the archaic butterfly ballots, Punch. Punch, Punch, Stuck. Huh? Perhaps I got it. Pull the ballot out. Hm. The @!#$!#$ chad is pregnant! Didn’t they fix this? Put the ballot back in, jiggle the handle, punch again. There we go...
Got my sticker, told them about the problem and went home. Oh, and I recommend Californians Vote NO on everything today...
Posted by Andrew at 11:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 05, 2005
Citizenship test
| You Passed the US Citizenship Test |
 |
Posted by Andrew at 07:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 04, 2005
Friday Cat Blogging
What? Where? That string is mine
Not a real cat. But the GF had never before carved a pumpkin. This what happens to kids who grow up in strict religions...
Posted by Andrew at 12:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 03, 2005
Google hits Microsoft in the wallet
Google invests in enhancing OpenOffice
I get Google’s support for Firefox: an IE-only or IE-Centric web allows one of Google’s search competitors to shoehorn their own services into place, grabbing mindshare that would otherwise be Google’s. What I don’t get is a move by Google to help develop Open Office. If this isn’t a gratuitous stab at Microsoft, I don’t know what it is...
Though I must say that OpenOffice 2.0 is shaping up to be a rather nice product, and if Google helps make 3.0 even better, we as consumers will benefit greatly. But I doubt that Google is so frustrated with MS Office that they would spend money beefing up a competitor. MS Office is a very well designed product...
Posted by Andrew at 03:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 01, 2005
41 baby!
Top 500 World Universities (1-100)
My School (UC Davis) is #41. Take that Rutgers State!
Posted by Andrew at 09:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack