Florida: God, what a mess.

¶ 3 Posted at 10.33 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | politics )

The Man has come to Rice. They're not getting my money till they fix this. Who cares about Rice Sports anyway? I never did.

¶ 15 Posted at 10.23 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | rice )

I wish The Economist was free. Failing that, I wish I had the money to afford a subscription. Where else can you get such good journalism?

¶ 32 Posted at 04.56 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news | bummer )

His father's son: Bush bombs Baghdad. Our newest President joins the club. He's one of the boys now.

¶ 90 Posted at 03.32 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news | politics )

U.S. Population Has Biggest 10-Year Rise Ever. My favorite part is:

As a result, the population center of the country, as calculated by the Census Bureau, moved to Edgar Springs, Mo., nearly 40 miles southwest of DeSoto, Mo., the population midpoint 10 years ago. The population center is determined as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless map of the country would balance perfectly if all 281.4 million Americans were of identical weight.

[emphasis added]

I'm guessing it would be further south but to the east if they factored in obesity figures. All the fatties live in the East.

¶ 117 Posted at 12.36 PM ⇒ No Comments ( linkage | news )

Judge Rules Fingerprints Cannot Be Called a Match (NY Times).

¶ 253 Posted at 10.35 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news | interesting )

This has been going around: Enron's Cows.

¶ 273 Posted at 12.03 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

NY Times: Supreme Court to Intervene in Internet Copyright Dispute. Here's hoping the court does the right thing and strikes down the Sonny Bono Act of 1998, aka the "Protect Disney's Cash Cow" Act (Mickey Mouse), which retroactively extended copyrights by 20 years. Every day that goes by that I cannot create my own art featuring Mickey Mouse is a day that Disney, through the United States government, is stealing from me and restricting my rights. Granted, this isn't on the same level as, say, stealing my DVD player, or searching my house without a warrant, but it is a completely unjustifiable infringement on my First Amendment rights. In the Constitution, the power of Congress in this sphere is defined so:

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

Clearly the existence of intellectual property was not intended by the framers; ideas cannot be owned. The above (to me) pretty strongly implies that their feeling was that granting such exclusive rights to ideas was an evil necessary to encourage the generation of new ideas. If you asked them, they would say to make the "limited time" as short as possible. Intellectual property isn't one of those inalienable rights an inventor is entitled to, but rather a license granted by Congress as a reward for their innovation. In fact, the whole point is to have inventors and authors to create worthy works that are accessible to all, for the betterment of society at large. The exclusive license is merely in furtherance of that goal, an incentive to create and also a mechanism to enable creation, so ordinary citizens can devote time and resources to invention without falling into poverty. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that there is an inherent right to ownership of ideas. To rephrase Proudhon: Intellectual property is theft.

Incidentally, there's a direct quote by Thomas Jefferson supporting this:

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.

If the Court goes the right way on this, I might start to forget about the coup of 2000.

¶ 287 Posted at 12.18 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news | copyright | politics )

Mee the next Terminator. The "do we have any money left after paying Arnie $30 million?" co-star of "Terminator 3."

¶ 296 Posted at 04.36 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news | movies )

From the "parents who hate their children department:" In my attempts to resolve a finance charge with First USA*, I had occasion to speak with a customer supervisor by the name of Feather Weight.

* Incidentally, if you ever use a 0% interest (or otherwise low) rate balance transfer on a credit card, be aware that when they say "0% interest rate until February 2, 2002," what they really mean is "0% interest rate until the beginning of the billing period including February 2, 2002," which in my case was January 10, 2002. So in spite of claiming 0% interest rate until February 2, it was actually 0% interest rate until January 10, and 13.99% interest rate thereafter. This seems to be an intentionally deceptive practice; I can think of no honest reason to structure their payment schedule this way. I have made a complaint to the FTC, but I expect little to come of it. I've had too many expensive lessons of late; I wish they would stop for a while.

¶ 301 Posted at 12.40 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | stupid people )

Somebody broke into my girlfriend's house today. Broke a window in the back. It doesn't appear that much was taken. We'll see what happens.

¶ 306 Posted at 05.07 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

From this NY Times article on the sniper: "We're not ready to call them suspects, but we suspect them."

¶ 446 Posted at 09.49 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

All of you who didn't vote or voted for Republicans... way to go. I'm looking at you, Missouri. As if you weren't in trouble enough after giving us Ashcroft. This cannot be good. I'm going off to sulk.

¶ 452 Posted at 08.50 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | politics )

NY Times television commentary: Forget the Sex and Violence; Shame Is the Ratings Leader. Quote:

A cradle-to-grave network, ABC is also working on "The Will," in which family members compete to be named the heir to a relative's estate.

¶ 462 Posted at 12.36 AM ⇒ No Comments ( linkage | news )

This cannot be a good thing: U.S. Allows Candidates to Pay Themselves. Quote:

The Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) on Monday agreed to let candidates pay themselves salaries using campaign donations, aiming to encourage people who otherwise couldn't afford to give up their jobs to run. Commissioner Michael Toner, who sponsored the proposal, said it would help scale back some of the advantages of incumbency.

I myself cannot help but think that system could be abused, and badly. I mean, one of the counter-arguments against those who believe American democracy has been completely subverted by money is that nobody can give money to a candidate for office. The best they could do is give candidates' campaigns money, which the candidates could never keep and had very limited use. However, now there will be a direct linkage between contributions and a candidate's wallet, which makes me worried. The theory of allowing more middle- and lower-income citizens to participate in the process is laudable, but I am too skeptical that it will actually work out that way. I guess we will just have to see.

¶ 464 Posted at 05.07 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news | politics )

Sign up for your share of the proposed settlement in the music industry's price-fixing case.

Hmm... 22 days between posts. I wonder what I was doing.

¶ 478 Posted at 11.38 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | music )

The Village Voice has a slightly hysterical article on the new hydrogen economy touted by President Bush. It's somewhat disguised, but it's clear that the author has bought into the nuclear power hysteria that many environmentalists engage in. That's really unfortunate, because this country could use a few hundred/thousand nuclear plants.

The article talks about the administration plans to develop a type of reactor called a high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), which concurrently creates hydrogen gas and electricity. What people don't seem to get is that hydrogen is not an energy source. Instead, it's best to think of hydrogen fuel cells as highly efficient batteries. After all, we don't have piles of hydrogen just lying around. There are two main ways of generating hydrogen. One is the energy-intensive process of electrolyzing water into oxygen and hydrogen gas, much like you did in chemistry class. That makes it obvious that you are merely storing energy, not generating it. The other way is by combining steam and hydrocarbons such as methane, which yields hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The latter is easier, as it takes advantage of energy invested by sub-surface heat and pressure over millions of years, but still relies on non-replenishable resources. The hydrocarbons would have to come from petroleum drilling and natural gas. Instead of removing our dependence, it would shift it from our automobiles to our power plants.

Electrolysis, on the other hand, requires all of the energy up front instead of a free ride on geological processes. That makes the process harder, but it also makes it a renewable one. You put water and energy in, you get hydrogen and oxygen. You combine hydrogen and oxygen, and you get water and energy out. Pretty straightforward. Water is plentiful (in general), so as long as you have a source of electricity for the "cracking," you have a complete loop.

Currently coal is the source for most electricity in this country. There are so many problems with that. Mining is a dangerous job, as we learned from the Pennsylvania mine collapse last year. Then there is the environmental impact of the mining process, as well as the tons of soot put into our air. And did they mention that coal contains radioactive elements? Burning coal releases tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere. Comparatively speaking, nuclear energy is clean. Even the Three Mile Island meltdown released very little radioactive material into the air.

Other options are solar and wind energy. As far as I know, the efficiency of solar still leaves something to be desired, while wind energy just doesn't seem to be going very far anytime soon. You'd think they could just put the turbines in empty, windy areas of the country like the Great Plains and generate hydrogen there. I don't know why that's not happening.

Most people are concerned about radiation when they think of nuclear power. Like so-called "dirty bombs," though, there is much more fear than there is real danger. We're all bathed in various kinds of radiation every day. The earth's core stays warm because of the large amounts of radioactive elements (such as uranium); the sun just warms the surface. Nuclear power plants have come a long way since Three Mile Island and Chernobyl (which was a bad design to start with). There are reactor designs that produce considerably less radioactive waste (breeder reactors). There are reactor designs that effectively cannot meltdown (pebble bed reactors); in the event of a coolant failure, the nuclear reaction stops without any intervention. Furthermore, nuclear waste is relatively small, and very dense. Whereas coal burning releases many tons of waste gases and soot a day, by the very nature of nuclear fission, you need a lot less material to generate the same amount of energy. The nuclear waste that is produced is solid, dense, and easily contained; the same goes for the fuel. Most radioactive "waste" is actually things like gloves or pipes that have been exposed to radiation, not drums of glowing plutonium like so many people imagine.

Nuclear power is safe enough that Germany generates one-third that way. Japan produces a similar proportion, though political pressures seem to be ending the nuclear power industry in both Japan and Germany. France obtains a stunning 77% of its electricity from just 58 nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants cost more to construct than coal plants, but because of the energy density of the fuel and the relatively less-complicated machinery, ongoing costs are considerably less, to the point that nuclear and coal energy costs are roughly the same.

So, in summary, I generally disagree with this administration, but pursuing a nuclear/hydrogen energy solution is the right thing to do. The HTGR type of reactor they propose to develop has all the advantages of nuclear fission power, but combines the generation of hydrogen into the process for greater efficiency. It makes economic, geo-political, and environmental sense to invest in this project and focus on turning it intio the platform for a hydrogen-based economy. I just hope they follow through on the good start they've made.

¶ 558 Posted at 12.36 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

This recent Pew Center media research report indicates that Americans are just plain confused. It is subtitled: "Public Wants Neutrality and Pro-American Point of View." The first part is about the recent FCC decision to relax media ownership rules; the more interesting stuff is further down. For example: "In the current survey, 63% of Republicans say press criticism of the military undermines the nation's defenses," versus 29% for Democrats*. Think about that for a moment. I would like to find these people and make them explain the link from cause "The military is underprepared" to effect "2 soldiers were killed in Iraq today." I'll give them a whiteboard and markers, even. A parallel problem is that many Americans cannot distinguish between the military and the administration, so assume that criticizing military policy (i.e., Iraq) is the same thing as wanting American soldiers to die. I don't even know where to begin with that; all I know is that this administration has done a masterful job of muddling the issue to protect themselves from criticism.

This isn't a Republican vs. Democrat thing; it's a stupidity thing. I'm sure the numbers would be reversed if the political situation was reversed.

¶ 580 Posted at 12.29 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news | media )

I was just telling someone about the colossal power grid failure in the Northeast when it occurred to me: someone is soooo fired. I can imagine their coming job interviews. Interviewer: "So why did you leave your last job?" Candidate: "Well, it's like this...."

¶ 591 Posted at 04.24 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

As you must know by now, they have captured Saddam Hussein. Phew. I hope that eliminating him as a source of fear and inspiration will make progress much easier. Now they just have to track down Osama.

¶ 642 Posted at 10.17 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | politics | iraq )

Who's up for calling him Pope Benedixteenth?

¶ 1068 Posted at 07.33 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

The New Orleans disaster is clearly a tragedy of great proportions. However, we would be setting ourselves up for another tragedy in the future if simply rebuilt the city. Consider: much of New Orleans is at or below sea level. Consider: New Orleans is bounded on the north by a large lake and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Consider: the largest river in North America flows through New Orleans. Consider: New Orleans is frequently in the path of hurricanes. Consider: hurricanes will likely increase in power and frequency due to the warming Earth. Add all that up, and it sounds like rebuilding New Orleans is not something we would have to do just once. There's a legal doctrine called "coming to the nuisance" that is relevant. Basically, if you move next to a pig farm, you can't complain about the smell. If people insist on living in New Orleans, knowing the dangers (especially now), then they should be on their own. If it's worth rebuilding New Orleans, then it's worth doing it right, which means doing it somewhere else.

¶ 1155 Posted at 11.34 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | ideas )

Officials have known for decades that New Orleans was vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding. Just last year, FEMA hired a private company, IEM Inc. of Baton Rouge, to help conduct an eight-day drill for a fictional Category 5 hurricane in New Orleans named Pam. It included staging a helicopter evacuation of the Superdome, a prediction of 15 feet of water in parts of the city and the evacuation of 1-million people. But the second part of the company's work - to design a plan to fix unresolved problems, such as evacuating sick and injured people and housing thousands of stranded residents - never occurred because the funding was cut.

Source: St. Petersburg Times.

¶ 1159 Posted at 08.23 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

Reading the media reports of preparations along the Texas coast, you would think that this wasn't some massive suckfest. Turns out you'd be wrong. Yes, they've ordered evacuations, but that smells like an ass-covering move more than anything else. It's not like people can actually leave. Here's a data point. A family friend lives in downtown Houston. She decided to do the prudent thing and bail out. As of 6:30am, she had gone 12 miles west. She left last night at 8pm. Hearing that, my sister has decided to stay put for the time being until they open up both parts of the highways for outgoing traffic and the logjam clears some. You don't want to run out of gas from idling for 10 hours. It's a good thing Houston is not a) below sea level 2) along the largest river in N. America iii) next to a large lake. And this isn't the first time in recent years that Houston has dealt with this, so hopefully they'll be less susceptible.

Please hold for a political message.... This illustrates how utterly inefficient cars are for transportation. Buses and trains would be far more effective in times like these, but our society is car-centric. Scratch that, at least in Texas. Not car-centric. I'm sure the problem would be less severe of the Suburban:Civic ratio was lower. Traffic jams are non-linear; every little bit helps when trying to avoid a breakdown.

¶ 1166 Posted at 10.29 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

I stopped to get gas on the way home yesterday. Our regular station was all out of everything. Luckily, there was another station nearby that still had mid-grade (no economy, though). It was weird. I want this country off its gas addiction, but cold turkey won't work. Still, I hope the two hurricanes will cause sufficient fear and cost increases to lead to permanent demand destruction. It's surreal to think that just 2 and a half hours away, the fourth-largest city in the United States is becoming a ghost town because of a massive hurricane. Yesterday was a warm, sunny, pleasant day. Not a cloud in the sky.

¶ 1167 Posted at 05.59 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

Some web site has a list of the 50 most loathsome people of 2005.

¶ 1211 Posted at 05.49 PM ⇒ No Comments ( politics | news | funny )

Some maniac went on a rampage and shot a bunch of people at a school. It's happened before, right? Well, this time it happened at my old elementary school, and the victim was one of my first-grade teachers 1 and the mother of a girl a year ahead of me in high school. I don't really remember her or her daughter, but it's still a shock.

¶ 1359 Posted at 08.39 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

Did they charge at the sound of alpenhorns? Schuss at the enemy with chilling battle yodels, perhaps? I am not making this up.

¶ 1408 Posted at 10.42 AM ⇒ No Comments ( funny | news )

I take no pleasure in the passing of Jerry Falwell. To be sure, he was a bad man. He was the epitome of the entrenched hard-liner. He spread hatred and bigotry, and did a lot to hold back the progress of civilization. The wheels of progress will move more smoothly without him in the way. Nevertheless, his death is not a cause for celebration. I hate the idea of living in a world where the only way to achieve progress is to kill those holding it back, or at least to wait until they die. I regret that Jerry Falwell didn't learn the errors of his ways while he was still alive, and while it could still do good. Surely humanity is capable of more. A world where everyone's beliefs and views are effectively given to them at birth and cast in stone is a depressing, pointless one. Without the capacity to learn and grow, we are left with little. Jerry Falwell does not seem to have learned or grown much in his time on this Earth, but there was still hope as long as he lived. Now there is no longer that hope, and so I can take no joy in his death.

¶ 1443 Posted at 09.43 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | issues )

Yipe. I can't tell if I'm more or less scared than by the one I linked before (two times!), but still pretty scary.

¶ 1495 Posted at 11.51 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | whoa )

The story itself is unimportant.

¶ 1672 Posted at 05.10 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news | funny )

In all the media coverage of the children removed fron the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints compound, I've seen no mention of the sect's history of banishing teenaged boys to make it easier for church elders to have their pick of the young women for wives. These are some scary people. Note also that the link is a few years old 1; these people have been cause for worry for some time. That is not at all a comment on the wisdom and justice of what the state has done recently, but rather a small attempt to rectify the omission by the media of what seems like pertinent background information.

¶ 1743 Posted at 07.49 PM ⇒ No Comments ( news )

I had a minor complication with the IRS. They want me to send my response to Rulon White Blvd., in Ogden, Utah. Rulon Jeffs was the prophet (until his death) of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints father of Warren Jeffs, recently convicted for accessory to rape, also a former head of the FLDS (though he seems to say now that he was a false prophet), and all-around fun guy. The FLDS is the creepy cult who were raided recently and whose members saw many of their children taken away by the state. Which state? Texas. What is the capital of Texas? Austin. I live in Austin. And I am sending a letter to Rulon White Blvd. DUN DUN DUN DUN!

¶ 1744 Posted at 08.14 AM ⇒ No Comments ( news | fyi )