World's Shortest Fairy Tale...

Jim M. continues his theme from last week:

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl 'Will you marry me?' The girl said, 'NO!' And the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and drank beer and scotch and had money in the bank and left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted.

Pocket Taser...

Don G. passed along this little story:

Pocket Taser Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife. A guy who purchased his lovely wife a pocket Taser for their anniversary submitted this:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 22nd Anniversary,  and I was looking for a little something "extra" for my wife.

What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on the assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety...WAY TOO COOL!

Long story short, I bought the device, and brought it home. I loaded two triple-A batteries in the thing, and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs.

Awesome!!! Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to the Wife what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all THAT bad, with only two triple-A batteries, right?!!! There I sat in my recliner with my cat, Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions, and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target.

I must admit, I thought about zapping Gracie, (for only a fraction of a second) and then thought better of it. She's such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong? So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top, with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms, and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would just be wasting the batteries.

All the while, I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5" long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; (pretty cute really, and loaded with two little bitty, itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, "NO possible way!"

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best. I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as if to say, "Don't do it master," reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't POSSIBLY hurt all that bad...

I decided to give myself a one-second burst, just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION @!@$$!%!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over, and over, and over, and over again.

I vaguely recall waking up on my side, in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs.

The cat was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, and undoubtedly thinking to herself, "do it again, do it again!"

Note: If you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is NO SUCH THING as a "one-second burst", when you zap yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative. SON-OF-A-%#&**%#... that hurt!!!

A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up, and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. (How did they up get there???) My triceps, right thigh, and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still looking for my testicles. I'm offering a significant reward for their safe return.

Hah!

That image of Gracie saying “Do it again!” will ring true to any animal owner. I'm positive that all of our seven cats and four dogs would do exactly that!

Paroled Arsonists in Our Midst?

Now comes word that authorities are suspicious that a paroled arsonist was responsible for setting “several” fires in East County:

On Monday, CAL FIRE Battalion Chief and acting Boulevard Fire Chief John Francois informed Boulevard Fire Board members that a paroled arsonist had been living in the community.  The arsonist is now back in custody for violating his parole terms.

“Several suspicious fires are still under investigation,” Donna Tisdale, Chair of the Boulevard Planning Group informed East County Magazine. Tisdale expressed shock that community members were kept in the dark about a potentially dangerous arsonist in their midst at the height of fire season—and she is now calling for reforms in the law to require that neighbors be notified if an arsonist is turned loose in their neighborhood.

So this sorry sack of poop is back in jail.  Good, though not good enough – some idiot might let him out again.

A few questions come right to mind:

• What the hell were those “authorities” thinking when they released a convicted arsonist into a giant pile of fuel like East County?
• Why are those aforementioned “authorities” still in a position where they could do this again?
• How many more of these arsonists live amongst us?
• Individuals in government need to be held accountable for their actions or inactions, just as individuals in companies are held accountable.  Who are the individuals in our government responsible for this kind of terminal stupidity?
  

Where Our Oil Comes From...

There were some surprises for me in the chart at right (click to enlarge).   For instance, I had no idea we imported significant amounts of oil from Angola and Columbia.

But the big surprise was that our (U.S.) total oil consumption declined last year.  It makes sense, given the recession, but somehow that little factoid had escaped my eye...

Accidental Shooting in Lawson Valley...

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

A man accidentally shot himself in the hand and his wife in the knee as he was taking apart his gun to clean it Thursday, sheriff's officials said.

The shooting was reported about 3:30 p.m. in a home on Lawson Valley Road in Jamul.
The 27-year-old man told deputies that he was taking apart his .40 caliber Springfield Armory semi-automatic pistol to clean it. In order to remove the barrel, he had to pull the trigger. He removed the magazine, but a round filled with "snakeshot" ammunition, similar to BBs, was still in the barrel and it went through his hand and into his wife's knee, the Sheriff's Department said.

Both were flown to Sharp Memorial Hospital for treatment. Authorities said the incident appears to be "purely accidental."

Anybody know anything more about this?

An Inspiration To Us All...

Via my cousin Mike D.:

As we get older we sometimes begin to doubt our ability to make a difference in the world.  It is at these  times that our hopes are boosted by the remarkable achievements of other Seniors who have found the courage to take on challenges that would make many of us wither.

Harold Sclumberg is such a person.

"I've often been asked, 'What do you old folks do now that you're retired'?   Well, I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background, and one of the things I enjoy most is turning beer, wine, Scotch, and margaritas into urine – I'm pretty good at it, too."

Cult of Personality in the Making?

More of my readers have written me about this video than anything else I've ever published.  On one level it seems perfectly innocent; just a bunch of schoolkids singing a song.  But then when you think about the words, and think about the influence this has on the kids, it seems very creepy.

As I watched it, the first thing I thought of were the videos that came out of North Korea a few years ago.  Those videos had many scenes of North Korean citizens paying homage to their leader, but the one that struck me hardest were the classroom scenes with the children mechanically singing the praises of their fearless leader. 

Then I thought back to my own school days.  I cannot remember ever being asked to sing the praises of Eisenhower, Kennedy, or Johnson.  Nope, didn't happen.  We recited the Pledge of Alleigance in the mornings; we learned about Eisenhower's service in WWII; we learned about PT-109.  But no creepy paeans to our leader.  No cult.

Viewing this video, I thought “This may not end well.”, meaning Obama's presidency.  Think about this...think about the combination of this video and the proposal being floated to remove the restriction on the number of terms an American President may serve.  That starts to smell a lot like Hugo Chavez.  Or imagine a few years from now some close associate of Obama announcing his run for President – while promising to retain Obama as (say) the Secretary of State (like Putin in Russia).  The kind of personality cult building shown in this video inclines people to be worried about such things.

As they should be.

Have You No Shame?

An excellent speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.  My favorite moment is when he asks the delegations gathered at the U.N. “Have you no shame?”

Grandpa...

From my cousin Mike D.:

An elderly man suffered a massive heart attack. The family drove wildly to get him to the emergency room.

After what seemed like a very long wait, the ER Doctor appeared, wearing his scrubs and a long face. Sadly, he said, "I'm afraid he is brain-dead, but his heart is still beating."

 "Oh, Dear God," cried his wife, her hands clasped against her cheeks with shock!
 "We've never had a Democrat in the family before!"

Quote of the Day...

This will resonate with any software engineer who has ever been responsible for shipping a product:

Shipping is a feature. A really important feature. Your product must have it.

Joel Spolsky, at Joel on Software.  This is a “don't miss” post for any developer...

It's amazing – and completely predictable – how many engineers forget this rather obvious fact.  To them this quote will seem like a revelation.  To others – those that Joel calls –duct tape programmers” – it will seem obvious.

Photo of the Day...

From a Tea Party, of course...

What Obama Didn't Do...

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, yesterday:

Ahmadinejad's declarations, particularly recently, particularly...not just the detention of Canadian citizens, not just the flagrant abuse of human rights, but his recent declarations - just disgraceful, insulting declarations denying the holocaust - there is no way I'm going to permit any official of the Government of Canada to be present and give any legitimacy to remarks by a leader like that.

President Ahmadinejad has said things, particularly about the state of Israel, the Jewish people, and the holocaust, that are absolutely repugnant. It is unfitting that somebody like that would be giving those kind of remarks before the United Nations General Assembly. Canada does not want to be equivocal at all in terms of our view on that; we find it disgraceful, unacceptable, and we're going to be absolutely clear on that. There are other things that bother us as well beyond these repugnant comments; also, obviously, the crackdown in Iran on all kinds, any kind of legitimate dissent; the fiasco around the elections is quite disturbing. As well, the holding of a Canadian journalist - Mr. Bahari, I think it is - without charge continues to be unacceptable (and) we continue to demand his release. But as I say, there are times when things are being said in this world that it is important that countries that have a moral compass stand up and make their views known, and our absence there will speak volumes about how Canada feels about the declarations of President Ahmadinejad.

No such condemnation passed Obama's lips – only words of conciliation and appeasement.

Later yesterday, the Canadian Foreign Minister walked out of Ahmadinejad's U.N. speech.

The U.S. delegation sat and listened.

I'm damned proud of the Canadians today...

About Obamacare...

An Atmosphere of Violence...

Mexico is a very unsafe place these days.  These stories rarely makes the news here, despite the number of casualties (over 3,000 so far this year).  Many Americans have been injured or killed as well.  Along our border, the Border Patrol has seen a huge increase in the number of incidents involving gunfire, and especially those involving automatic weapons.  Naturally, this has made the Border Patrol – mainly armed with pistols – quite nervous.  So I'm not surprised to read this:

Four people were injured and the busiest border crossing in the U.S. was closed to northbound vehicle traffic for hours Tuesday after federal agents fired shots across nine lanes of traffic to stop three vans suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants from Mexico, authorities said.

But I sure don't like it.

So far as I've been able to discover, the violence in Mexico is 100% driven by the illegal drug trade with the U.S.  And there's a very simple and instantaneous cure for that: legalize these drugs.  Overnight the drug cartels will be out of business, much to the benefit of both Mexico and the U.S...

The Walking Wounded...

I spotted the chart at right in an article about Hyundai's recent market success – but there's something much more interesting visible in there.

To wit: the Big Three American auto makers have been steadily losing market share to the Asian Big Four for over ten years.  Most businesses that have lost market share for even a couple of years are in big trouble; to lose share for ten years is an extraordinary record of failure. 

And companies that have been failing like that are certain to be in very poor health.  The falling market share translates directly in to less cash on hand, less ability to borrow, lower share prices, etc., etc.  All bad.  The Big Three were in very bad shape before the recession ever started, which of course meant they were in worse condition to weather it.  Ford's little uptick last year is completely explained by the combination of their refusal to take bailout money and the cash-for-clunkers theft of our money.  Ford's current numbers (now that the cash-for-clunkers theft program is finished) are in the toilet.

In any righteous business environment, the Big Three would have been left on their own to flounder, or to weather the recession if they could wangle a way.  If there were to be any government involvement, it should only have been to somehow put them out of their misery.  Instead, our government has stolen a vast amount of our future earnings by borrowing to “bail out” these losers that will almost certainly fail anyway – probably taking even more of our stolen cash with them.

There's a reason why politicians so often make me think of trees, rope, and knot practice...

How to Hide a Ship of the Line...

At right is the Dutch man o'war Abraham Crijnssen during its passage through the East Indies in 1942 (World War II).

While we often think of camouflage as mainly colors and patterns, the experts say the most important element is the visual texture – illustrated quite nicely here...

The Tiny Cabin...

Via my mom:

A  government social worker from Washington, DC recently transferred to the Mountains of Kentucky.  She was on the first tour of her new  territory when she came upon the tiniest cabin she had ever seen in her life. Intrigued, she went up and knocked on the door. "Anybody  home?" she  asked.

"Yep," came a kid's voice through the  door.

"Is your father there?"  asked the social worker.

"Pa? Nope, he left afore Ma came in," said the kid.

"Well, is your mother there?" persisted the social worker..

"Ma? Nope, she left  just afore I got here,"  said the kid.

"But," protested the social worker, "are you never together as a family?"

"Sure, but not here," said the kid through the door. "This is the outhouse!"

Heh!

And doesn't that level of competence somehow ring true for a government worker?

Hard Work, Not Luck...

Here's a great example of the interesting things that happen when you can successfully meld several different sciences and technologies.  At right is the Bunburra Rockhole, a meteorite recently discovered in Australia.  Finding this meteorite was the product of this fine collaboration.

A while back, some scientists had a clever idea: to set up a network of cameras in a remote area, and wait for them to capture a meteorite's trail of fire in the sky as it plunged through Earth's atmosphere.  Each camera would have a different perspective on this fiery trail, and by combining the information from all the cameras (using some clever software), the scientists could do two things.  First, they could predict with considerable accuracy where the meteorite fell to Earth.  And second, they could determine where it came from – something that is usually impossible to know.

The Bunburra Rockhole is the first product of this quest, and a very successful one at that:

The new meteorite, which is about the size of cricket ball, is the first to be retrieved since researchers from Imperial College London, Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic, and the Western Australian Museum, set up a trial network of cameras in the Nullarbor Desert in Western Australia in 2006.

The researchers aim to use these cameras to find new meteorites, and work out where in the Solar System they came from, by tracking the fireballs that they form in the sky. The new meteorite was found on the first day of searching using the new network, by the first search expedition, within 100m of the predicted site of the fall. This is the first time a meteorite fall has been predicted using only the data from dedicated instruments.

The meteorite appears to have been following an unusual orbit, or path around the Sun, prior to falling to Earth in July 2007, according to the researchers' calculations. The team believes that it started out as part of an asteroid in the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It then gradually evolved into an orbit around the Sun that was very similar to Earth's. The other meteorites that researchers have data for follow orbits that take them back, deep into the main asteroid belt.

Way cool!  Read all about it here...

Scott Adams Strikes Again...

I am in complete awe of Scott Adams' ability to find humor in the current business (and technology) world.  As a former (and recovering) manager and executive, I've been on all sides of this issue.  I was CEO of an enterprise software company when the “dot-com bubble” burst, and how to present the issue to employees was one of the many issues we wrestled with.

My favorite frame is the next-to-last one.  Getting middle-level managers to agree on which employees would be laid off in a downsizing was agonizingly difficult, and almost always required me to decide for many of them.  Scott Adams' solution to this challenge seems very attractive in the abstract...

Conservative Puppies For Sale...

So says Mark Steyn, in his inimitable fashion.  These golden retriever puppies are being sold by a friend of his.  One sentence in his puppy endorsement particularly caught my eye:

They're fun for young and old, and are genetically programmed to savage Howard Dean if he shows up late at night to push government health care on you.

Heh!

Small Fire Near Jamul...

Update:

Here's a news article on the fire.  If it's accurate, the fire was started by someone burning brush (without a permit, of course).  Should this turn out to be true, I suspect the neighbors will be doing a bit of education on the culprit.

The fire was near Millar Ranch Road, which happens to be where some of my friends and co-workers live.  One of them (Aaron B.) took these photos from his yard.  In one you can see the fire plane dumping retardant; in the other you can see two fire planes flying by near his house.  Yikes!

Aaron tells me that the fire fighters were right on it, with two planes, and two choppers.  I'm sure there were ground firefighters involved as well.  The news report says it burned 14 acres.  I'm not sure if it burned any of the wildife sanctuary in the vally north of Millar Ranch Road.

Click to enlarge these photos.

This map shows the approximate location of the fire.





Original post:

According to KPBS, police had 94 closed between Steele Canyon Road and the bridge just north of Steele Canyon High School.  I drove through the area just after 2:00 pm, and it appeared the police were opening the road back up.  KPBS reported that there was a “small brush fire” but gave no further details.  I didn't see any fire personnel or aircraft, nor did I see any smoke (though it's a bit hazy today, so I might not have been able to see dispersed smoke).

Does anybody reading this know any more?  Please leave comments if you do...

Idea of the Day...

From my mom:

We need to start limiting all U.S. politicians to two terms: one term in office and one term in prison.

Illinois already has begun that plan.

Essentially, this is a presumption of guilt on the part of politicians.

Sounds right to me!

The Cowboy...

Via my mom:

A cowboy  appeared before St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. 'Have  you ever done anything of particular merit?' St. Peter asked.

'Well, I can think of one thing,' the cowboy offered. 'On a trip to the Black Hills out in South Dakota , I came upon a gang of bikers, who were threatening a young woman. I  directed them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't  listen.

So,  I approached the largest and most heavily tattooed biker and smacked him in  his face. Kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring, and threw it on the ground. I  yelled, 'Now, back off!! Or I'll kick the sh*t out of all of you!'

St. Peter was impressed, 'When did this happen?'

'Just a couple of minutes ago...'

Half-Wit...

Via Jim M. (who seems to have a theme going here):

A man owned a small ranch near San Antonio.  The Texas Dept of Labor claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.

"I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demanded the agent.

"Well," replied the rancher, "there's my farm hand who's been with me for 3 years.  I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board.  The cook has been here for 8 months, and I pay her $150 per week plus free room and board.  Then there's the half-wit. He works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here.  He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night.  He also sleeps with my wife occasionally."

"That's the guy I want to talk to, the half-wit," says the agent.

"That would be me," replied the Rancher.

Southern Wisdom...

Via Jim M.:

Earl and Bubba are quietly sitting in a boat fishing, chewing tobacco and drinking beer when suddenly Bubba says,

"I think I'm gonna divorce my wife - she ain't spoke to me in over 2 months."

Earl spits, sips his beer and says, "Better think it over...women like that are hard to find."

al Qaeda Shows Us Again...

Shows us their true goals, that is: the elimination (by death) of all the “infidels” or their conversion to Islam.  The latest from Bekkay Herrach, a senior al Qaeda leader:

A senior al Qaeda leader has threatened to attack Germany just days before the nation will go to the polls to choose a new Chancellor.

Bekkay Harrach, alias Al Hafidh Abu Talha al Almani, resurfaced Friday in a chilling new video produced by al Qaeda's al Fajr Media Center and distributed across the major jihadi Web forums. Dressed in an ill-fitting black blazer, blue tie, and shoulder-length greased hair - looking more like a teenager dressed for his first job interview - he slammed Germany for its military presence in Afghanistan and warned that if Chancellor Angela Merkel is reelected on Sept. 27, Germany will be directly attacked.

His previous warning to Germany, on Jan. 17, 2009, coincided with a massive car bomb attack on the heavily guarded German embassy in Kabul that was orchestrated by the notorious Haqqani Network. Four Afghan civilians and an American soldier died in the attack.

Read the whole disturbing thing.

“First Light” on Planck...

The Planck microwave observatory satellite has made it's first observations (see image at right, click to enlarge).  The satellite is sitting out at L2, the second Lagrange point in the Sun/Earth gravitational system.

Wouldn't it be fun if we could introduce an ancient astronomer – say Nicolaus Copernicus or Tyco Brahe – to this new kind of telescope and it's results?

Christians and Lions...

Oh, wait – Christian is the lion:




And yes, it's for real.

Scary News of the Day...

The White House will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe.
The U.S. will base its decision on a determination that Iran's long-range missile program hasn't progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental U.S. and major European capitals, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The findings, expected to be completed as early as next week following a 60-day review ordered by President Barack Obama, would be a major reversal from the Bush administration, which pushed aggressively to begin construction of the Eastern European system before leaving office in January.

Not exactly what I wanted to read while drinking my morning tea.

By and large (and to my surprise), the Obama administration's foreign policy has been much like the previous administration's foreign policy – and I've been supportive of it.

This is a major departure.  With this move and other wimpy responses to Iran's belligerance, we've practically been begging them to make aggressive moves in both the Middle East and in Europe.  Once their nuclear capability is verified, I expect Iran to start experimenting with bullying tactics.  There's a long list of potential “first targets”: Turkey, Lebanon, Greece, Cyprus, and of course Israel.

But the really big question is this: how will Israel react to the U.S. visibly morphing into a laughable wimp in Iran's perception?  Will they unilaterally attack Iran?  My bet would be “yes”...

Biotech Violins – Better Than a Stradivarius?

The secret of the sweet sound of a Stradivarius violin is apparently the fungus in the wood:

Violins made by the Italian master Antonio Giacomo Stradivarius are regarded as being of unparalleled quality even today, with enthusiasts being prepared to pay millions for a single example. Stradivarius himself knew nothing of fungi which attack wood, but he received inadvertent help from the “Little Ice Age” which occurred from 1645 to 1715. During this period Central Europe suffered long winters and cool summers which caused trees to grow slowly and uniformly – ideal conditions in fact for producing wood with excellent acoustic qualities.

Horst Heger of the Osnabruck City Conservatory is convinced that the success of the “fungus violin” represents a revolution in the field of classical music. “In the future even talented young musicians will be able to afford a violin with the same tonal quality as an impossibly expensive Stradivarius,” he believes. In his opinion, the most important factor in determining the tone of a violin is the quality of the wood used in its manufacture. This has now been confirmed by the results of the blind test in Osnabruck. The fungal attack changes the cell structure of the wood, reducing its density and simultaneously increasing its homogeneity. “Compared to a conventional instrument, a violin made of wood treated with the fungus has a warmer, more rounded sound,” explains Francis Schwarze.

Remarkable!

No, No, NO – Don't Break the Internet!

The Audacity of Hos...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Audacity of Hos
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Hurt myself laughing...

Quote of the Day...

According to Matt Latimer, George W. Bush said this:

If bullshit were currency, Joe Biden would be a billionaire.

Awesome!

Via Powerline...

Sub-Pixel Rendering...

I've run into this a few times before, but this is one of the best examples I've seen.  At left you see two YouTube icons in their natural, tiny state.  If you look closely, you'll see subtle differences between the two – and you'll probably agree that the right-hand version looks better.

At right are the same two icons in a magnified view.  The artist who created the right-hand icon used color to trick our eyes into perceiving crisper letters with better contrast – but without changing the color we perceive.  To the best of my knowledge this process has never been automated (though intuitively it seems like it should be possible); it remains in the realm of art.

To me the process seems almost like magic.  I wouldn't have the faintest idea what colors to try!

Some Healthcare Perspective...

Thomas Sowell has long been one of my favorite conservative commentators.  He happens to be black, and amongst blacks a voice like his is quite unusual.  I just read an excellent piece he did on Obamacare.  A teaser:

There was a time, within living memory, when most Americans did not have health insurance-- and it was not the end of the world, as so many in politics and the media seem to be depicting it today.

As someone who lived through that era, and who spent decades without medical insurance, I find it hard to be panicked and stampeded into bigger and worse problems because some people do not have medical insurance, including many who could afford it if they chose to.

What did we do, back during the years when most Americans had no medical insurance? I did what most people did. I depended on a "single payer"-- myself. When I didn't have the money, I paid off my medical bills in installments.

The birth of my first child was not covered by medical insurance. I paid off the bill, month by month, until the time finally came when I could tell my wife that the baby was now ours, free and clear.

In a country where everything imaginable is bought and paid for on credit, why is it suddenly a national crisis if some people cannot pay cash up front for medical treatment?

Now...go read the whole thing!

Dog Found! Update: Owner Found, Too!

Update:

Pam wrote to tell me that she found the owners of this poor, lost fellow.  Hooray!

Original:

One of our neighbors in Lawson Valley reports that she's found a Great Pyrenees dog that's in desperate need of being reunited with its owners.  Contact her at 619/659-9335 (Pam) or contact Steele Canyon Veterinarian after today.

The photo at right is another Great Pyrenees, not the one Pam found...

They Do Run, Run...

See the lamestream media run.  Run, lamers, run.

Now if only they met the same fate as in the childhood tale...

Click the picture to enjoy the full snarkly goodness.

Via my mom...

Imagine...

TJIC has a story about a bad experience at the post office.  My immediate thought on reading this was “This is the kind of service we can look forward to with Obamacare!”...

Ships at Sea...

When I was in the U.S. Navy last century (in the '70s), we just barely knew where our ship was.  We certainly didn't know where all the ships in the world were.  We frequently encountered other ships – especially private cargo shipping – by complete surprise. 

My, how things have changed. 

Now you can go to a web site and find the location of every ship in the world, along with a lot more information.  For free you can get the position of every ship as of 24 hours ago (in Google Earth!), along with basic information.  For a fee you can get much more detailed, realtime information.  The screenshot at right shows the ships near San Diego as of yesterday.

Amazing!

Gallantry in Afghanistan...

The British award one of their finest, 24 year old Lieutenant James Adamson:

Lieutenant James Adamson was awarded the Military Cross after killing two insurgents during close quarter combat in Helmand's notorious "Green Zone".

The 24-year-old officer, a member of the 5th battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, revealed that he shouted "have some of this" before shooting dead a gunman who had just emerged from a maize field.

Seconds later and out of ammunition, the lieutenant leapt over a river bank and killed a second insurgent machine-gunner with a single thrust of his bayonet in the man's chest. 

Read the whole thing.

I'd sure like to see more about our heroes in the U.S. press...

Forget Waterboarding – Here's the Real Torture...

U.S. Condemned For Pre-Emptive Use Of Hillary Clinton Against Pakistan

Got Em!

Short report from Fox News:

Navy Seals from US Special Operations Forces conducted a raid in southern Somalia on Monday that killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of 4 co-conspirators wanted in the 2002 bombing of an Israel owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, two senior U.S. military officials told Fox News.

Ten days ago President Obama signed the Execute Order for Nabhan, who since 2006 was on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. He was also wanted for the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Kenya in 1998.

They called it operation Celestial Balance: at least two AH-6 Little Bird helicopters deployed from one of two U.S. Navy vessels near Somalia's coast strafed a vehicle Nabhan was using to go back and forth between meetings.

Intelligence operatives had been monitoring Sabhan prior to the attack. The helicopters passed once, firing on the vehicle, and then circled back around to retrieve the body so they could make a positive identification, according to an official.

The attack in Mombasa took place on Nov. 28, 2002 - involving a suicide bomber that blew up the lobby of the Israeli owned Paradise hotel. On the same day the attackers unsuccessfully attempted to shoot down an Israeli owned Boeing 757 civilian jetliner run by Arkia. They fired surface to air missiles and missed.

Nabhan's Somali group, Al- Shabaab, has links to Al Qaeda.

Excellent!

And thank you, President Obama, for taking action on this.

Quote of the Day...

From Shikha Dalmia of the Reason Foundation, in an altogether excellent post about Obama's speech on health care:

If there was anything bipartisan about the speech it was that he embraced every bad big-government idea from both sides.

Ouch!

Yes.

Stark Raving Mad...

Pete Stark (Democrat, California) is one of the first people I think of when I hear the phrases “idiot politician”, “thick-skulled nincompoop”, or “waste of oxygen”.  Listen to this video and you'll understand why.

But why, oh why, does he keep getting re-elected?

Pedros...

Michael Yon has another excellent post, this time about the medical rescue teams knows as “Pedros”.  Lots of photos at the link...

Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom...

Via Jim M.  Don't miss the last one!

The Female Perspective on Shopping...

Via Jim M.:

A woman was in town on a shopping trip. She began her day finding the most perfect shoes in the first shop and a beautiful dress on sale in the second. In the third, everything had been reduced by 50 percent.  Then her cellphone rang.

It was a female doctor notifying her that her husband had just been in a terrible car accident and was in critical condition and in the ICU. The  woman told the doctor to inform her husband where she was and that she'd be there as soon as possible.  As she hung up she realized she was leaving what was shaping up to be her best day ever in the boutiques.

She decided to get in a couple of more shops before heading to the hospital. She ended up shopping the rest of the morning, finishing her trip with a cup of coffee and a beautiful chocolate cake slice, compliments of the last shop. She was jubilant. Then she remembered her husband. Feeling guilty, she dashed to the hospital.

When she arrived at the hospital, she saw the doctor in the corridor and asked about her husband's condition. The lady doctor just glared at her and shouted, "You went ahead and finished your shopping trip didn't you! I hope you're proud of yourself!"

She ranted on: "While you were out for the past four hours enjoying yourself in town, your husband has been languishing in the Intensive Care Unit! It's just as well you went ahead and finished, because it will more than likely be the last shopping trip you ever take! For the rest of his life he will require round-the-clock care. And he will now be your career!"

Feeling guilty, the women broke down and sobbed.

The lady doctor then chuckled and said, "I'm just pulling your leg. He's dead. Show me what you bought."

Ouch.  But (if you're of the male persuasion)...doesn't it sound, well, plausible?

BPotD, Again...

An American native in Pakistan (via Botany Photo of the Day).

Gorgeous!

More photos at the link...

Taxing Medical Technology...

The Obamacare bills currently wending their way through Congress all have provisions in them that would tax the medical technology that has done so much to extend our lives and reduce our suffering.  Just on the very face of it, this sounds incredibly stupid to me.  Taxes always discourage innovation and development, because they reduce the financial rewards to entrepreneurs.  Our overlords may not like it, but those evil financial rewards really are the engine that drives the amazing economic machine that is America.  The medical technology industry is but one example.

Amazing for now, at least.  The bills, if enacted, will do their bit to make America's economic machine less amazing.  Smart entrepreneurs will gravitate to other industries where they can make more money.  If our policies are bad enough, they may even migrate to other countries with less stupid policies.

2012 can't come soon enough.  Let's hope the mid-term elections next year send such a clear signal to the liberals that our drift towards socialism is turned around...

Good discussion at TigerHawk...

At a Tea Party in Quincy, Illinois...

Courtesy of Instapundit, who attended:

Two Trillion Tons...

Atlas Is Still Going Strong...

When I was a little boy in the late '50s, the Atlas rocket was under development as both an ICBM and as a means to put satellites and men in orbit around the Earth.  The news stories about it had the same aura of wonder that today might be seen when talking about a manned mission to Jupiter.  There was much uncertainty about whether it would work – and when it did work, much joy and pride.  John Glenn rode an Atlas into space, and for those of us who grew up in that time and were fascinated by early space exploration, that event sealed the Atlas' claim to fame.

The initial Atlas of the '50s evolved into an entire family of rockets.  Together, the Atlas family is by far the most successful set of launchers any nation has ever developed, with hundreds of successful launches and very few failures.  The photo here is of the most recent family member, the Atlas V, which just this week launched a satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral.   As with any technology that has evolved over many years, the current Atlas doesn't very closely resemble the original.  But if you follow the history of the beast, you'll see that from the first one to the current one, the Atlas models are a series of incremental developments and changes.

A 60 year old rocket.  Who'd a thunk it?

Remembering 9/11...

Eight years ago, it was.  I still think about it every day – usually, for some reason, on the way home from work.  I still remember my shock, and over the next few days, my dawning realization that the radical Muslims were actually serious about killing us all.

These days I feel like a bit of a minority...

In reading many other rembrances this morning, Peggy Noonan's piece resonated most strongly.  A taste:

They've been marked by 9/11 more than they know. It was their first moment of historical consciousness. Before that day, they didn't know what history was; after that day, they knew they were in it.

It was a life-splitting event. Before it they were carefree, after they were careful. A 20-year-old junior told me that after 9/11, "a backpack on a subway was no longer a backpack," and a crowded theater was "a source for concern." Every one of them used the word "bubble": the protected bubble of their childhood "popped." And all of them said they spent 9/11 and the days after glued to the television, watching over and over again the footage—the north tower being hit by the plane, the fireball. The video of 9/11 has firmly and ineradicably entered their brains. Which is to say their first visual memory of America, or their first media memory, was of its towers falling down.

I'd never fully realized this: 9/11 was for America's kids exactly what Nov. 22, 1963, was for their parents and uncles and aunts. They were at school. Suddenly there were rumors in the hall and teachers speaking in hushed tones. You passed an open classroom and saw a teacher sobbing. Then the principal came on the public-address system and said something very bad had happened. Shocked parents began to pick kids up. Everyone went home and watched TV all day, and the next.

And her conclusion:

He remembered after 9/11 those who rose up to fight terrorism. Even as a child he was moved by them. There are always in history so many such people, he said. It is always the great reason for hope.

The whole thing is here.

30...

Yesterday was my 30th (that is, 30₁₉) birthday, and we celebrated Jamul-style.  Our friends and neighbors Jim and Michelle took Debbie and I out for a sushi feast and great company.  Then we went home and enjoyed a quiet, relaxed evening whose main events were feeding the hummingbirds and the dogs, having a nice glass of wine, reading (I'm re-reading Lord of the Rings), and sharing some time together.


My kind of birthday party!

How To Drive In New Jersey...

Via my mom, who has spent most of her life in New Jersey but has recently escaped to Virginia:

Seriously, there are only two things needed to drive effectively in NJ: A horn and a middle finger. Everything else is superfluous, including knowing where you are going.

For those of you who live in Jersey or have lived there, these things may come as no surprise. For those who haven't travelled there before, BEWARE!!! Be Prepared!!!

How to Drive in Jersey

1. You must first learn to pronounce the city name; it is Nork - rhymes with Fork, not New-ark. Also, Trenton is not pronounced Tren-ton, it is Trent-in.

2. The morning rush hour is from 5 AM to NOON. The evening rush hour is from NOON to 7 PM. Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

3. The minimum acceptable speed on the turnpike is 85 mph. On the parkway it's 105 or 110. Anything less is considered "Sissy." (Just ask the Governor of NJ)

4. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Jersey has its own version of traffic rules. For example, cars/trucks with the loudest muffler go first at a four-way stop; the trucks with the biggest tires go second;

5. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended, cussed out, and possibly shot.

6. Never honk at anyone. EVER! Seriously! It's another offense that can get you shot.

7. Road construction is permanent and continuous in all of Jersey. Detour barrels are moved around for your entertainment pleasure during the middle of the night to make the next day's driving a bit more exciting.

8. Watch carefully for road hazards such as drunks, illegals, drunk illegals, skunks, dogs, cats, barrels, cones, celebs, rubber-neckers, shredded tires, cell-phoners, deer and other road kill, and the Homeless feeding on any of these items.

9. MapQuest does NOT work here -- none of the roads are where they say they are or go where they say they do and all the Turnpike EZ Pass lanes are moved each night once again to make your ride more exciting.

10. If someone actually has their Turn Signal ON, wave them to the shoulder immediately to let them know it has been "accidentally activated."

11. If you are in the left lane and only driving 70 in a 55-65mph zone, you are considered a road hazard and will be "flipped off" accordingly. If you return the flip, you'll be shot.

12. Do not try to estimate travel time -- just leave Monday afternoon for Tuesday appointments, by noon Thursday for Friday appointments, and right after church on Sunday for anything on Monday morning.

Product Recommendation...

If you have dogs or cats (we have four and seven), you may already have an automatic waterer of some kind.  Recirculating water encourages animals to drink, and in our dry climate it's important for them to get enough water.  

For several years we've had a Drinkwell “Big Dog” fountain.  All of our indoor animals took to it immediately, and we've generally been very happy with it.  However, it had one downside that caused me to go looking for something better: it needed regular and onerous cleaning.  The entire unit had to be disassembled, cleaned in steamy hot water, and reassembled – usually a couple times a week.  Less often (perhaps once a month), some mechanical abrasion was needed to scrape off the accumulated scale left by water evaporating from all the exposed surfaces where it had splashed.

In Our Yard...

Well, not really. But the message is accurate.

Come to think of it, the message on this sign is kind of implicit in the area where I live. Nearly everyone who lives near us (including us) owns firearms and knows how to use them.

I think the burglars understand this. There's very little crime where we live...

A Word of Advice About H1N1 (the Swine Flu)...

If you wake up looking like this...
Don't go to work!

If Architects Had To Work Like Software Developers...

That's the title of an excellent post by Neil Middleton. He's poking fun at a phenomenon that many software developers have run into, nearly any time someone who doesn't understand software development has software developers working for them (either as employees or as contractors).

The issue arises, I think, from a simple fact: many people have utterly no understanding of how a computer works. To them, a computer is essentially magic – and the software developers are akin to wizards with limited social skills. Most other engineering professions don't have this attribute, or at least not with the purity that software development has. For instance, when a civil engineer designs a bridge, anybody can understand the process, even if they don't understand the math. They know roughly what a civil engineer does. For software engineering, however, most people haven't a clue what happens between the idea and the finished product – not even in their imagination.

This is the disconnect that Neil writes about. Imagine that an architect had to work with the same level of disconnect with his customers. Here's part of what they might hear:

Please don’t bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house: get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpet.

However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It

therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers. Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the population in my area that they like the features this house has. I advise you to run up and look at my neighbor’s house he constructed last year. We like it a great deal. It has many features that we would also like in our new home, particularly the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the final cost.

The “I believe...” clause in the last sentence above particularly resonated with me. Two jobs ago, when I worked for a CEO who was a stock trading expert but knew utterly nothing about software, I used to hear variants on this several times a day...

Read the whole thing!

Funny Tweets...

I've tried twitter, and my main reaction was to wonder why anyone cares about it. The one useful thing I've done with it so far was to follow the post-election turmoil in Iran.

But now I've discovered the real purpose of Twitter: to deliver one-liners! And at twaxed.com they collect the best of them. Some that made me laugh out loud:

programming is a lot like sex. One mistake and you could have to support it the rest of your life.

Hi. I'm in a staff meeting. There are 83 ceiling tiles in our meeting room. And 8 light fixtures, with 24 fluorescent bulbs. That is all.

I am not a sex addict. I have restless groin syndrome.

My personality test results came back. They're negative.

Just looked up "assiduity" on dictionary.com; definition: "obsequious solicitude." Next up: finding a synonym for "Fuck you, dictionary.com"

When peeing on someone, the element of surprise is everything.

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who have regular sex.

If men had their periods, they would brag about the size of their tampons.

Talking of crap tv, I would rather watch cat vomit slide down the screen than watch the stuff on TV now!

I am absolutely going to dropkick my work computer out a freaking window today. It is not cooperating AT ALL.

Here's To The Heroes...

Happy Labor Day!

The Bridge to Somewhere...

A couple of miles down the road from my home, on Lawson Valley Road, there's a little two-lane bridge over the Lawson Valley Creek. It's been inspected, and it's falling apart. So San Diego County is going to replace it.

Sounds perfectly ok, right? It's such an ordinary sort of thing for a Department of Public Works to do. You'd think they'd have pre-packaged plans for such a thing on the shelf, and all that would be required would be a little adjustment for the local circumstances. Get funding, take the tweaked plans, assign the right people and equipment, and then go build the bridge. Simple.

Ah, but you forget. There's a government involved. Simple, it seems, is just unacceptable.

On the San Diego County web site, there's a page for this project. There's nothing on it except for six links to PDF documents, which you can download (and if you live in Lawson Valley, I encourage you to do so). The documents include:

• Notice of Intent (NOI)
• CEQA Initial Study (IS)
• Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND)
• Natural Environmental Study (NES)
• Visual Impact Assessment (VIA)
• Water Quality Report (WQR)

Some of this government-speak must be translated for us normal humans. The CEQA is the California Environmental Quality Act. A Mitigated Negative Declaration is a document saying that a project has potential environmental impact, but they're going to be addressed by actions (the “mitigations”) that are part of the plan – so in the end there will be no environmental impact.

A question that immediately occurs to Lawson Valley inhabitants who live east of the bridge (that includes me!) is this: how the heck are we going to get in and out of the valley while this new bridge is being built? And how long will that take?

Well, the plan says that building the new bridge will take 18 months (really?), and that one lane will remain open while they build it.

The image at right is from the 36 page Visual Impact Assessment. It's the same as the photo above, but the new bridge is shown. I'm not sure how they made this – it could be an artist, or it could be some kind of computer-generated thing. In any case, someone went to a great deal of trouble to produce it. Then they never showed it to any of the people to whom it might actually matter, like the inhabitants of Lawson Valley. I only found this by accident, and the review period was up weeks ago. You'd think if they were going to go to all this trouble, they might have done something obvious like mail it to us denizens. Sheesh!

In any case, you can see that they're going to straighten the road just a bit. There are more modern-looking rails and the crash-absorbing “bumpers”. It's just a silly little bridge.

I'm still having trouble absorbing the notion that we taxpayers had to pay for a Visual Impact Assessment. This one was made by Vicki Estrada, of Estrada Land Planning. I'm afraid to ask what it cost – and even more afraid of what this cost is multiplied by the hundreds of projects across the county...

But the Visual Impact Assessment is dwarfed by the 154 page Natural Environmental Study. The diagram at right is one of many in the study. I learned a lot just by glancing through this study. For instance, I learned that in 2002 the county paid Nelson Olivas to visit the bridge site and determine that there was no nearby breeding habitat for the Arroyo Toad. Then in 2003, the county paid Nelson Olivas to visit the bridge site and determine that there was no breeding habitat for the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. I read the 17 page “Wetland Determination Data Form” included in an appendix (fascinating stuff). Then there's the two page plant species list, listing about 60 species observed near the bridge – I'm sure we paid someone to take that inventory. Oh, and let's not forget the six page restoration planting plan.

By comparison to the preceding, the 17 page Water Quality Report is a model of brevity and conciseness. Even so, its actual content could easily be distilled to just a few sentences. Basically, it says that the new bridge will not have any significant impact.

Doesn't this seem like an awful lot of time and trouble (and money!) considering that we're talking about a teeny little country two lane bridge? In the end, all these studies and reports accomplished nothing whatsoever that I can see – the county is going to build a new bridge just as it would have done without the studies. A few “best practices” guidelines – like businesses use every day – would have covered things like erosion mitigation and recovery planting. This just seems horribly excessive, and a case of bureaucracy trumping common sense. These sorts of studies are the kind of thing I'd expect if you were going to build another Coronado Bay Bridge – and then I'd be lauding them for taking proper precautions. But for a little country bridge? Come on, folks...