Word of Advice...

Never piss off someone who owns a backhoe.

I own a backhoe.

Miyuki Channels Nancy...

Hukio Hatoyama has just been elected Prime Minister of Japan. His wife Miyuki is about to become Japan's new First Lady.

Remember Nancy Reagan's reliance on astrologers and soothsayers? Well, Miyuki apparently is made of similar stuff. She claims to have been abducted by aliens, flown to Venus on a triangular UFO, and impressed by the Venutian lushness and friendly natives.

Oh, my.

I hope her husband is at least a little better grounded...

Where Obamacare Would Take Us...

Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is often cited by proponents of Obamacare as a model that we should be moving toward here in the U.S. One consequence of centrally-planned health care is the subject of an interesting article in the London Telegraph. An excerpt:

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

As a result the scheme is causing a “national crisis” in patient care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative care experts including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke’s cancer centre in Guildford, and four others.

So it's expensive to try to cure old people, and pointless when they are most likely dying anyway. The bureaucratic fix is obvious (to a bureaucrat, anyhow): identify these resource-wasters, withhold all medicine, sedate the crap out of them, and wait for them to die.

Sound like the kind of health care system you want?

The Things We Do to Our Dogs...

Well, some people do. Via the one and only Rachel Lucas.

Health Care Debate...

Of all the reading I've done on the topic (and that's a lot, including several books), there's one source that stands out: Megan McArdle's blog at The Atlantic. Here's a sample from a post she made yesterday:

I think probably most people would agree that if Rand is right, and price controls shave, say, almost a year off of average lifespans, this is not necessarily a good deal for even the squishiest bleeding heart liberal--for the same reasons that socialism turned out not to be a good idea. No, I'm not calling you a socialist. I'm saying that if nationalizing companies and 90% tax rates on the very wealthy had worked well anywhere, a lot more liberals would be in favor of those things, because if you take away the unintended consequences that they turned out to have, they seem to conform to a lot of progressive priorities about justice, distribution, and so forth. But they didn't, and so most progressives have (or so I devoutly hope) abandoned these sorts of ideas in favor of a less intrusive agenda.

So ultimately I'm saying, I think this is the way that our government works, and this is the way that markets work, and for all the screaming, these are not crazy positions. There's plenty of evidence for government crowding out. There's plenty of evidence for price controls. There's plenty of evidence for what happens to markets that are largely governed by price controls.

You may disagree. You think government works better than I do. You think we'll be able to draw a line in the sand and keep the government from crossing over it to take over more of the market. You think government spending can substitute for R&D, because you don't find the socialist calculation debate compelling. Or maybe you say, hey, yeah, well, 0.7 years off the average lifespan isn't a bad tradeoff for covering the uninsured.

If you want to educate yourself about the health care debate, I don't know any better starting point than Megan's blog over the past few months. Health care is but one of the many topics she covers; her beat is economics and all things related to it, and I've been reading her for quite a while now for the general content.

But her sober, level-headed coverage of (and participation in!) the health care debate really stands out...

Oh, the Government Can!

Excellent!

Great Optical Illusion...

The image at right won the “Best Visual Illusion of the Year” award.

Why?

Because the two halves are identical!

Read all about it here.

Blunt Cards...

This web site has an apparently endless supply of “blunt cards” (like the one at right) that you can just read, or that you can send to a friend (or whatever). Probably the site exists mainly to collect email addresses, but some of these blunt cards are quite funny just to read. Probably NSFW (just the words, not the imagery)...

Resurrecting Ancient Musical Intruments...

Now this is just plain cool – a project melding science and modern computer technology to digitally reconstruct the sound of ancient instruments known only from historical references. The result is a “concert” in which you can hear these instruments being “played” by a computer program.

Here's one sample of an instrument called an epigonion (and I have no idea how to pronounce that). But you really, really should go read about what these folks did. On their site you'll find many more samples.

Al Megrahi Release - More...

The Wall Street Journal is very suspicious about the motives for the recent release of Al Megrahi (the Lockerbie bomber):

But Mr. Straw's distinction is the real red-herring: Regardless of which legal fig-leaf Mr. MacAskill chose to employ in releasing Megrahi, the Brown government made clear to Edinburgh, repeatedly, that the issue of Megrahi was subordinate to the U.K.'s "overwhelming interests" in improving the relationship with the Gadhafis. We also know from Libyan officials that those "interests" included commercial oil contracts.

As Scottish Nationalists, Mr. MacAskill and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond might seem unlikely to bow to the British government's wishes. But then we don't know what Scottish "interests," if any, Mr Brown may have put into play to persuade the Scots. Or perhaps Mr. Straw figured that if he muttered "who will rid me of this turbulent prisoner" enough times, the Scots would get the message. Mr. Brown's blanket denials of any involvement by his government in the affair have already proven to be false, and the public deserves to know whether there was, or was not, a quid pro quo.

This is starting to look like a major flapadoodle in UK politics...

Fires Near Los Angeles...

Looking at the fire maps (from two different tools below; click to enlarge) reminds us of the fires here in San Diego County in October 2007. Sends shivers down our spines.

Both of these maps are derived from satellite-based thermal imagery.

The good news is that so far the fires haven't massively invaded areas with homes, as they did here. And we are not having a Santa Ana wind storm, so there's some hope that the firefighters can get it under control.

We send our best wishes and hopes their way...

Oh, Jeez...

There's something particularly disgusting and disturbing about a government that trades its first responsibility – protecting its citizens – for money. It appears that this is exactly what the British government has done (via the London Times):

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

I first heard rumors about this a few days ago, but dismissed them...saying to myself “Nah – the Brits would never do that!”

Evidence suggests that I was wrong, dang it.

Californians...

My wife and I both grew up on a farm – she in Indiana, me in New Jersey. We've been entertained over the years by running into people – mainly younger people growing up in California cities – who amaze and amuse us by what they don't know.

Just to cite a few recent examples: someone who didn't know that peanuts grow underground, another who thought that cheese was manufactured from man-made materials, a girl who believed that onions grew on trees (like apples), a guy who simply had no idea where honey came from, and another girl who thought yoghurt was somehow directly emitted by goats.

Los Angeles is talking to these people:

Fire in Lawson Valley!

Update:

A neighbor with police connections got some more information about the perpetrator. The word is that the driver of the truck was a young, blond woman – very drunk. She was arrested at the scene and taken away in handcuffs.

Original Post:

But everything is fine – nobody was hurt by the fire, and no buildings were burned.

The sign at right went up as the firefighters were working, at a home just west of the fire (which was at the intersection of Lawson Valley Road and Sloane Canyon Road). This homeowner's feelings are shared by everyone in the area – because the firefighters were Johnny-on-the-spot, present very quickly, in force and with plenty of equipment.

This fire started about two miles from our home, right along the road we drive several times a day. The cause of the fire was downed high-voltage power wires, brought down by a vehicle striking a utility pole (the replacement pole is in a photo below). This occurred at around 2:30 pm yesterday afternoon.

I talked with two people who live in the area; they both said that the pole was struck by a drunk male driver in a large white Ford pickup. They had no idea whether the driver was injured, or who he was.

One result of the pole being struck was that a number of homes in the immediate area lost power right away. A short time later, a much larger number of people lost power – because SDG&E had to shut off the power to the area to allow the firefighters to spray water on the flames (this would be dangerous for the firefighters if the power were still on).

East County Magazine has a short report about the fire:

A brush fire in Jamul has caused a power outage in the vicinity. The fire, caused by a traffic accident, has been contained at ¾ an acre, CAL-FIRE spokesperson Roxanne Provaznik reports.

SDG&E is on the scene working to repair downed power lines and restore power to area residents. Nine engines, three fire crews, a bulldozer, two water tenders, two helicopters, and two air tankers battled the fire, with 75 firefighters dispatched. The fire burned along both sides of Lawson Valley Road and Sloane Canyon Road. Firefighters will remain on the scene for several hours due to heavy fuels along the creekbed location.

That's a substantial firefighting response for such a small blaze.

We were very lucky on two counts: first, that there was almost no wind yesterday (so the fire spread very slowly); second, that there were no other major fires yesterday (so almost unlimited firefighting resources were available).

Yesterday was very hot, as all my local readers will know. It was 106°F in Lawson Valley at the time we lost power. Those of us with no emergency generators were without either air conditioning or fans until 1:30 am this morning, when the SDG&E teams finished their repair work.

It was just plain miserable.

But it was just as wonderful when the power finally came back on, and our fans blew that lovely cool chaparral air over us – and we could take a shower!

I took the photos below at the scene this morning. Click to enlarge any of them. Two of them are marked up with red lines to show the rough area of the fire.

Liberal Reaction to Ted Kennedy's Death...

Sayeth the oracle sometimes called Mark Steyn:

You can't make an omelet without breaking chicks, right? I don't know how many lives the senator changed – he certainly changed Mary Jo's – but you're struck less by the precise arithmetic than by the basic equation: How many changed lives justify leaving a human being struggling for breath for up to five hours pressed up against the window in a small, shrinking air pocket in Teddy's Oldsmobile? If the senator had managed to change the lives of even more Americans, would it have been OK to leave a couple more broads down there? Hey, why not? At the Huffington Post, Melissa Lafsky mused on what Mary Jo "would have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history … Who knows – maybe she'd feel it was worth it." What true-believing liberal lass wouldn't be honored to be dispatched by that death panel?

Honored? Ugh.

Botany Photo of the Day...

Every day, I get a link to a photo like this sent to me in an email. For free.

If you're interested in things botanical, or things beautiful, then signing up for this is a no-brainer. Do it here, do it now. Just put your email address in the upper-right corner.

What IS That Thing?

It's an image of a pentacene molecule.

More on Auschwitz...

More than 60 years after the fact, detailed plans for the Auschwitz concentration camp have been found. Story here.

Just Awful...

The story of Jaycee Lee Dugard is all over the news right now. She was kidnapped as a little girl (just 11 years old) and held captive for 18 years by the two mouth-breathers at right. The man is 58 year old Phillip Garrido, and he's a convicted rapist.

This is yet another example of our government failing to protect us from criminals – arguably the primary purpose of state and local governments in the first place. In this case, it's a known sexual predator released back into society with no practical constraints on his behavior. Examples like this, unfortunately, abound – and not just in California. This is a national problem.

It's hard for me to imagine anyone defending the current state of affairs with respect to how we deal with the Phillip Garridos of the world – but, in fact, there are many defenders of the status quo. Primarily these defenders can be found in two populations: politicians and academics, two groups notable for the isolation from the rest of us.

Personally I think that society's main tool for handling the Philip Garridos should be something like penal colonies, with hard work and short lifetimes the expected outcome. I'd love to see a never-ending stream of news stories emerging from such colonies about the horrors of incarceration therein – sounds like a great deterrent to me!

But I'd be accepting of nearly any change, as I can think of very few possibilities worse than what we do today (we could give them cash prizes, perhaps?)...

Excellent Rant on Customer Service...

Sent to me by Isaac P., and found so many places on the web that I'm unsure where to attribute it:

Dear Cretins;

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone.

During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions.

Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional prerogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties – or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office:

My initial installation was cancelled without warning or notice, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my behind waiting for your technician to arrive.

When he did not arrive at all, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website…. how?

I alleviated the boredom to some small degree by playing solitaire for a few minutes – an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.

The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools – such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum.

Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After several further telephone calls (actually 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks) my modem arrived…

A total of six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it.

I estimate that the downtime of your internet servers is roughly 35%… these are usually the hours between about 6pm and midnight, Monday to Friday, and most of the useful periods over the weekend.

I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 telephone calls on my mobile to your no-help line this week, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled malarky jugglers.

I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that no telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman), and several other variations on this theme.

Doubtless you are no-longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important solitaire to attend to. Frankly I don’t care, it’s far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold music.

Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.

I thought BT were horrible, that they had attained the holy pot of god-awful customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That’s why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn’t anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of jerks you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended intestine – incompetents of the highest order. British Telecom – jerks though they are – shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy.

Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you do likewise, and cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver – any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief – although these feelings will quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps a small measure of bemused rage.

I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit – they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and it’s worthless employees.

Have a nice day – may it be the last in you miserable short life, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of jerks.

Excellent!