Sterling Ambivalence

Playing with some other blog...

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:42:32 GMT

It's been quiet here... I've been playing with some other blogging tools. It was just an series of short term flings, honestly. On WordPress, I learned actress Hedy Lamarr holds a cool technological patent. Over at WUSA TV, I was spurred by a newspaper article to wonder if faster communication is poorer communication. I also learned permalinks from WUSA are painfully long. Over three-hundred characters long.

It just suddenly went on up and keeps going up. . .

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:32:29 GMT

Depress yourself. Download the spreadsheets from this Department of Energy page and see how gas prices rose since 1990 to last week.

In summary, they hovered around $1-$1.30/gallon for all of the 90s, before suddenly and dramatically increasing in price around 2002.

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 5-2-2008

Fri, 02 May 2008 04:34:47 GMT

Suffering Sappho. . .

Not a joke. The island of Lesbos is suing a Greek gay-right's group over the use of the term 'lesbian'. This fight has long since lost. Nobody thinks "resident of Lesbos" when she hears the word lesbian. Best case, they think Xena. Or of Xena.

(tags: Bbc Greece article Lesbos Lesbian)

Happy Mission Accomplished Day. . .

Fri, 02 May 2008 03:03:17 GMT

Five years ago today, a president costumed in a flight suit gave a speech declaring mission over, beneath a banner that simply said "Mission Accomplished". That is probably the defining image of his presidency, and not just because this was a photo-op that backfired. George W. Bush's presidency has been all about image. Bush has never sought to govern, or even to solve problems. Bush was the permanent campaigner, and campaigning is all about selling an image of yourself.

When Bush gives a press conference or holds a public event, the surrounds are always dressed with slogans of some such. "No Child Left Behind". "Securing our Economy". "Strengthening Social Security". Beyond that, he used federal documents as campaign propaganda. The 2001 tax rebates had a note serving as a campaign and GOP ad for George W. Bush. Beyond that, Bush does not govern. John J. Diiulio resigned in disgust when he discovered that Bush was more concerned with looking like he was helping the poor with his "Faith Based Initiatives" rather than actually helping the poor. That he treated matters of war and peace the same way is disgusting. I cannot really continue this post. Maybe I can collect my thoughts tomorrow.

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 4-24-2008

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:36:35 GMT

. . .and here's his reward!

Bush is now the most disapproved president in the history of Gallup polling

(tags: GWBush)

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 4-17-2008

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:36:16 GMT

It's near unanimous... Bush is a failure as president.

When you get 98% of historians to declare your term as a failure -- and historians still argue whether or not terms by Buchanan, Grant, Hoover or Nixon were failures or not -- you've achieved something grand. Give this man a prize.

(tags: GWBush history politics)

A Myth to Keep

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:59:31 GMT

I hope you don't have any unused Sharper Image gift cards laying around. . .

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:02:03 GMT

They are all now worthless.

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 3-1-2008

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:19:58 GMT

Sex-Changing Chemicals Make Male Starlings Sing Sweet Songs

Finally, a scientific explanation for the existence of boy bands.

(tags: science Wired environment)

Not Ready for Duty, Sir!

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:32:26 GMT

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a young, callow man was thrust onto a great stage. On that great stage, he made a great many accusations and a great many promises.

We have seen a steady erosion of American power and an unsteady exercise of American influence. Our military is low on parts, pay and morale. If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, "Not ready for duty, sir.". . .

The world needs America's strength and leadership. And America's armed forces need better equipment, better training and better pay.

We will give our military the means to keep the peace, and we will give it one thing more: a commander-in-chief who respects our men and women in uniform and a commander-in-chief who earns their respect.

A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam: When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming.

And that young callow man went on to become a young callow monarch, using his kingdom's knights as playthings for not well-thought-out adventurism. And with that, we have Thursday's story:

'Appalling Gap' Found in Homeland Defense Readiness
National Guard, Reserve Forces Lack Sufficient Personnel, Training to Respond to Crisis in U.S., Report Says

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 1, 2008; A04

The U.S. military is not prepared to meet catastrophic threats at home, and it is suffering from an "appalling gap" in forces able to respond to chemical, biological and nuclear strikes on U.S. soil, according to a congressional commission report released yesterday.

The situation is rooted in severe readiness problems in National Guard and reserve forces, which would otherwise be well-suited to respond to domestic crises but lack sufficient personnel and training, as well as $48 billion in equipment because of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves.

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 1-27-2008

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:23:57 GMT

In The Shadow of Bush

(tags: politics GWBush Reagan conservatism GOP)

Lydia of Long Domain Names. . .

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:05:55 GMT

Just yesterday, I was struggling with coming up with a domain name to register. I can understand the frustration inherent in coming up with a name that has not already been taken, but just wow!

It took me several minutes of scanning to just make out the component words of it.

www.

Modest Apparel

Christian Clothing

Lydia of Purple Dresses

Custom Sewing

.com

That particular domain is for sale, but I'm not in the market for it. I won't be able to remember it.

Note... they do have a shorter version of the URL registered at LydiaofPurple.com

New Bush Coins

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:00:28 GMT

Hat tip goes to that guy who wrote Daffy Duck comics.

Wondie, you should have listened to that man who writes Daffy Duck comics...

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:26:47 GMT

He was right about dancing with the devil. Bad Wondie.

Looking at so many comic covers, I bet this is how far to many illustrators learn too draw costumes on people.

How could this possibly be considered a good idea?

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:04:50 GMT

States Consider Privatizing Lotteries

MONTPELIER, Vt. (Jan. 20) - Betting on the state lottery for some quick cash? Get in line: State governments across the country are thinking the same thing.

Courted by Wall Street investment houses, Vermont is one of more than a dozen states where proposals have been floated to lease state lotteries to private investors.

...

Lawmakers in Illinois, Indiana and Texas have rejected lottery lease proposals in the past two years, but governors in all three states have indicated they'll raise the idea again.

In Indiana, the plan was to use revenue from a privatized lottery for a scholarship program to stem a brain drain from the state, according to Tom Osborne, an official handling infrastructure investments at UBS Investment Bank.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, meanwhile, had cancer research on his lottery-earnings shopping list. In Vermont, Douglas wants to split the proceeds between stemming increases in the property taxes that pay for schools and chipping in for school construction projects.

"Not only will this proposal ease the financial strain on homeowners, it will help clear the backlog of school construction, giving our students 21st century learning environments in energy efficient buildings," Douglas told lawmakers in his annual State of the State address earlier this month.

Rachel Volberg, president of Northampton, Mass.,-based Gemini Research, which studies gambling and advises governments about it, said that when states run lotteries, the operations are tempered by concern for what's best for citizens. That could change if private companies were the ones drumming up the games, she said.

"Private operators running lotteries are going to be much more likely to try to introduce games that are going to be extremely profitable, and that could be very problematic in terms of gambling problems," said Volberg.

I'm not a big fan of lotteries, at least not when they are sold as a "new, addition" revenue stream, typically for school funding. Eventually, that additional revenue stream becomes the main revenue stream, replacing what would have come from general taxes. For that reason, many states already have reason to encourage gambling.

He's Not Only the President, He's Also a Client. . .

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:20:10 GMT

This anecdote comes from a book that I'll probably read someday soon. It was posted in Slate yesterday, and it pretty much serves as the defining delusion of this Administration.

In an April 1995 memo, Bush invited his staff to come to his office to look at a painting. … The picture is a Western scene of a cowboy riding up a craggy hill, with two other riders following behind him. Bush told visitors—who often noted his resemblance to the rider in front—that it was called A Charge To Keep and that it was based on his favorite Methodist hymn of that title, written in the eighteenth century by Charles Wesley. As Bush noted in the memo, which he quoted in his autobiography of the same title: "I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves." Bush identified with the lead rider, whom he took to be a kind of Christian cowboy, an embodiment of indomitable vigor, courage, and moral clarity.

He came to believe that the picture depicted the circuit-riders who spread Methodism across the Alleghenies in the nineteenth century. In other words, the cowboy who looked like Bush was a missionary of his own denomination.

Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled "The Slipper Tongue," published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: "Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught."

The Slate article brings to mind the infamous quote from the 2004 NYTimes profile of Bush written by Ron Suskind with this iconic passage:

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out."

And this is the pathology that leads to the actions cataloged here.

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 1-13-2008

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:24:43 GMT

"It Costs Just $2,500. It's Cute as a Bug. And It Could Mean Global Disaster." By Mira Kamdar

India has invented the world's cheapest car. Everybody will want one now. While you chew on that, realize that thanks to that invention, we will all have to chew our air. As an animated friend of Al Gore might say, "we're boned!"

(tags: environment washingtonpost oped India)

Prosecuting the "War on Terror" ™ on the Cheap

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:10:52 GMT

FBI Wiretaps Dropped Because of Unpaid Phone Bills

The thing that will go down in history about the Bush Administration is that the only thing matching its sheer contempt of the law and anything that serves as a check of unfettered executive power, ostensibly in the name of protecting our freedoms and prosecuting the "War on Terror"™, is the incredible incompetence exhibited by this Administration, frequently in the cause of fighting the "War on Terror"™.

So it seems, the biggest hurdle in spying on people isn't the Constitution, FISA, The Democratic Party, the ACLU, Liberals, Hippies, Libertarians, Michael Moore, or Hollywood. It's the guy who is supposed to pay the monthly phone bill in the FBI!

Just when I think I lowered my expectations of them far enough that they can't limbo under, they figure out a way to fall under. I'm in awe.

Crazy Weather Here, Too. . .

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:05:44 GMT

I love these dispatches from the National Weather Service. (via Fark)

Wow - crazy weather over southern Wisconsin for January 6th & 7th!

If you think the weather can’t make up its mind, you’re correct. We seem to have a little bit of everything going on. Let’s try to summarize the recent crazy weather, and make some sense out of it. Get ready, get set, go.....

1. The Milwaukee/Sullivan NWS office issued 3 different Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for 4 counties during the morning hours of January 7th due to the likelihood of penny-size hail stones. This is crazy - in the past 14 years, this office never had a reason to issue a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in the month of January. Winter storm warnings and blizzard warnings - yes, but not Severe Thunderstorm Warnings. Several severe weather spotters reported hailstones up to 1/2 inch in diameter, and an amateur radio operator measured hailstones up to penny size about 4 miles west-southwest of the Capitol Square in Madison at 10:30 A.M. The last time we experienced severe weather in a winter month was February, 1999, when storms in southern Wisconsin produced hail up to golf-ball size and wind gusts to 70 mph. Crazy.

2. Many streams and rivers in southern Wisconsin are running at near-bankfull or bankfull stage, and some have exceeded flood stage. Some rivers are forecast to exceed flood stage. Normally, river flooding is a spring-time event due to snow melt and heavy rains, or perhaps a summer event due to very heavy thunderstorm rains. But in January? Crazy. We’ve experienced a noteworthy warm up the past couple days along with some rain, which caused the 15 to 33 inches of snow that fell in December, 2007 to melt. The Fox River at New Munster in western Kenosha County is forecast to crest at 13.2 feet around the noon hour on Thursday, January 10th. Crazy.

3. We have areas of dense fog this morning which continues a period of several days of dense fog. The worst of the dense fog occurred on January 6th. There was a group of multiple-vehicle accidents (about 100 vehicles) on Interstate 90/39 about 2:25 P. M. just south of the interchange with State Highway 12/18, in which there were two fatalities and around 50 injuries that required medical treatment Dense fog was a factor and had reduced visibilities to 25 to 100 yards in that area. Crazy.

4. Temperatures over southeastern Wisconsin rose to the upper 50s to lower 60s in the early afternoon hours of January 7th, with dewpoints in the mid to upper 50s, while southwest winds gusted to 25 to 30 mph. This is spring-time weather - more typical of April. Milwaukee’s temperature reached 63 degrees, smashing the old record of 47 for January 7th set back in 2003. Madison reached 50, which broke their old January 7th record set back in 2003. Milwaukee tied their old record high for January 6th of 52 set back in 1933. Crazy.

Here, we broke 70 degrees today.

Cosmology in Song. . .

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:59:42 GMT

A quick fun post of two songs with similar aims. . .

First, the Galaxy Song from Monty Python.

Next, the Universe Song from Animaniacs.

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 12-31-2007

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 04:24:23 GMT

How Super-Precise Atomic Clocks Will Change the World in a Decade

It's amazing what you can do with clocks these days!

(tags: article Wired relativity physics science space-time)

That 12 megapixel consumer minicamera from Best Buy will likely be crap...

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:25:03 GMT

Yes, this is too late for Christmas but it's probably worth knowing anyway. More megapixels do not automatically make for a better picture. More megapixels actually could lead to worse pictures! According to a number of testers, the best quality came from around 6 megapixels. The explanation is complicated, but as summarized by Tim Bray: "As you make pixels smaller and closer together, you lose sensitivity and increase visual static." The pictures start looking like a pointillism experiment gone wrong. Remember this, especially now with camera manufacturers using that one number as the "More Power Arrr Arrr Arrr!" number.

Another Questionable Test. . .

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 04:35:28 GMT

The Sci Fi Quiz Test

This particular quiz (You have to go use the link to Vox below to see the test itself.) has a hidden link to this web address -- http://usingthecanons5is.blogspot.com. The weblog is 5 posts on using a particular brand of camera. There is no word as to why that particular link exists in a quiz testing your knowledge of audio clips from Science Fiction Movies, or why that test is hosted on a site called SheGoddess. You get the suspicion that the internet is an elaborate graft machine.

Anyway, the only reason I'm posting this is because improbably, I managed to score a 56 on the test which classifies me as a "Major Sci-Fi Geek." In all honestly, I only knew the answers to the first two questions presented to me and guessed all of the rest.

Originally posted on sterlingnorth.vox.com

Of course they did. . .

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 09:14:28 GMT

Headline at WashingtonPost.com

Warnings Unheeded on Contractors in Iraq

U.S. government disregarded numerous letters of caution over past two years about the risks of using private security firms, officials say.

Why does this no longer surprise me?

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 12-20-2007

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:26:07 GMT

Detroit Revival Vies With Industry’s Decline

Detroit struggles to bounce back.

(tags: Detroit NYTimes article)