Health care costs...

Coyote has a blog post which discusses health care plans and prices.

One interesting item I had not known is that price increases have been smallest (lower than inflation) in cosmetic surgery - which is generally not covered by insurance.

Style and Condoms

I don't know whether this really is the "best condom commercial ever", but it has got to be the most stylish

Stupid human tricks

Trying to see what you can get past airport security.

I'll stick with amusements less likely to lead to an enthusiastic cavity search. Not that there's anything wrong with you if you like that sort of thing.

Form vs. Function

Language Log has an inspirational post about politics, presidential phrasing, and "prescriptivist poppycock".

I won't have to pee again for a week now.

Quote of the day

In other words, older women are discriminating, which is why so few films are made for them.

New Yorker

I'm guessing this subsidizes the padded bra manufacturers....

This is actually supposed to be a safety measure.

"Klingon Urethra Gutting Device"

Actually, it's a spaghetti fork.

The next crisis....

It's probably not a good idea to take your financial advice from a cartoonist, but here Dilbert's Scott Adams speculates about the next big ripoff.

I freaked out and cried when my mom went shopping for a cute pink skirt....

Yup, that's what my titles would probably look like if I were a woman blogger, at least according to this table of word frequencies by sex. You know, actually it DOESN'T read like my typical title.

On the other hand, I've never blogged about "gb", whatever the hell that is.

Constructive Criticism....

"Stimulus" spending has been in the news lately (seems to me like the crisis has yet to appear that can't be simply solved by the politicians spending more of our money!), but I did not realize the Japanese have been outdoing us all along: apparently Japan spends "three to four times more than what the United States, with twenty times the land area and more than double the population" spends on construction.

Lasered fighting woman ...

Nope, this is not a B movie. We've known that those lovely white statues from antiquity were originally painted, and we have just found an actual example (head of an Amazon warrior) in Herculaneum.

The video here shows how it is laser scanned to capture the geometry.

HT Archaeoblog

Common Writing mistakes...

... are humorously summarized here.

They are self-illustrative: "Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixed metaphors."

Hat tip: Volokh

OK, Pumpkinhead!

This is too weird NOT to point out.

We all want our kids to go to college....

...but Coyote makes a good argument that this is not always wise.

Back when I was still in Germany, there were 3 tracks in education: Volksschule, Realschule, and Gymnasium. You were routed to one of these tracks based on a test you took in 4th grade. Maybe this is a bit early to decide the rest of your life (actually, this was not final, there ARE ways of switching tracks), and Germany has abandoned this system, but it did have its advantages.

Volksschule was for the worker bees. School was only mandatory until you were 14 years old (plenty of time to get a grounding in literacy, math, and civics), and then you were expected to move on. This didn't mean your education was OVER - typically you moved into an apprenticeship that prepared you for a trade.

Gymnasium was a college preparatory school, and the track you took if you wanted to be a teacher, a college professor, a doctor, various highly respected professions.

Realschule I don't really understand that well, but apparently it was a middle ground between the two.

This satisfied both an egalitarian ideology (everybody had the same fundamental first four years of schooling, everybody had a chance at ANY of the tracks) without forcing everybody to sacrifice a large part of their life on preparation they did not want - in the American system there is no way these days to opt out before you are 22 without being labeled in some way a failure.

In Germany, a kid who attended Volksschule and went on to become a Master at his trade was STILL a highly respected person (qualified to lead and teach others - my own father was a Master in 2 different trades (metalworking/plumbing and heating/cooling) and an advanced Journeyman in one other (electrician) although he never finished Volksschule) with no history of failure behind him, even though the respect was of a different flavor from that accorded an intellectual.

In retrospect, I mourn the demise of that system. It should have been improved rather than abandoned.

Finding out you are fired....

This post has some amusing horror stories. My personal favorite:

I walked into the employee's entrance of my building and the security guard said: "Visitors must use the main entrance."

So I had to walk around to the front, trade my (deactivated) employee badge for a visitor's badge, and then walk up to my office to clear out my personal effects - for which the cleaning guy had thoughtfully left a couple black plastic trash bags.

More here. Fortunately, all my horror stories are about the actual work, not the firing.

Quote of the day

The best form of welfare for the troops is first-rate training.
- Rommel

Kissing rules....

I didn't realize it was that formal, but apparently every social group has rules for greeting kisses (as opposed to actual smooching), and sometimes these change. Some of the comments to that post were funny, such as the one speculating on where exactly in a "3 cheek kiss" the third cheek would be.

Careful study of these customs might inform you of where to travel for the maximum number of kisses.

Quote of the day

What about that guy who set up the phony investment company? Can the Treasury make a new one of those, only bigger? He took money away from people and gave it to charities and the needy and the arts and higher education. That sounds like stimulus so why are we sending him to jail? Wasn't he ahead of the curve?

"Tyrone"

Now that it's too late for anybody to get this for ME....

...I can point you to this example of how gift giving can be a form of performance art.



Hat tip: McArdle

Eternal Burning Questions

Such as "Can a Jedi lightsaber cut through Superman?"

(The answer, by the way, appears to be "No" - or at least a convincing argument can be made to support that view.)

Hat Tip? The appropriately named Geek Press.

They need to find a way to plug my fat STRAIGHT into the car....

....instead of only getting it through liposuction. Yes, liposuction fat has been used as fuel for vehicles.

I guess the low tech version of this is called the bicycle.

Statistical Innumeracy

Megan McArdle points out another example of journalists' incompetence with statistics. They reported "Holiday jewelry sales drop 80 percent" when actually 80% of jewelry stores reported some drop in sales.

The Language Log has quite a few examples of the way journalists misreport and distort statistics and science. I guess if they understood this sort of thing, they'd find other jobs.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

...and if you don't want to be faced with the wrong kind of truth, have I got the source for you! Conservapedia is prepared to summarize the facts as well as Wikipedia, while warning you about dangerous myths.

For example, who knew about the dangerous association between liberalism and evolution?

In regards to the theory of evolution and liberalism, in the United States, CBS News reported in October of 2005 that the Americans most likely to believe only in the theory of evolution are liberals.[212]
“ The CBS News reported the following:

Americans most likely to believe in only evolution are liberals (36 percent), those who rarely or never attend religious services (25 percent), and those with a college degree or higher (24 percent).

White evangelicals (77 percent), weekly churchgoers (74 percent) and conservatives (64 percent), are mostly likely to say God created humans in their present form.[213]
”

Given that liberalism is so prevalent in academia, it is not entirely surprising that college graduates are indoctrinated into the evolutionary paradigm via evolutionary propaganda.

Or how evolution might affect your views on homosexuality?

Also, according to atheist philosopher David Stove the theory of evolution was influential in regards to the sexual revolution.[205] An individual's view regarding the theory of evolution may also affect one's view regarding homosexuality. For example, Creation Ministries International states:
“ Homosexual acts go against God’s original design of a man and a woman becoming one flesh — see Genesis 1 and 2, endorsed by Jesus Himself in Matthew 19:3–6.[206]

The Death of Romance

I was just looking through Time's top 10 lists, and was shattered by an event I had not heard reported. I suppose to some people it's not news, but Hugh Hefner and Holly Madison broke up.

To be fair, I'd never heard of Holly Madison before - my guess is she must be Dolly Madison's sister? - but you've got to figure if even Hef can't hold onto a girl (or three, apparently the poor icon was also abandoned by Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt) what hope do the rest of us have?

Jocelyn....do not forsake me, oh my darling!

Quote of the day

Pessimists, we're told, look at a glass containing 50% air and 50% water and see it as half empty. Optimists, in contrast, see it as half full. Engineers, of course, understand the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
-Bob Lewis

Advice from the Vamp

In the unlikely case that anybody has been reading me for a long time, they might remember my post on Trudie, economics professor Tyler Cowen's take-off on the advice columnist Prudie (here "she" is on dating multiple men).

But Cowen wasn't the first professor doing advice columns, not even the first that I have read. That honor would go to Camille Paglia (just happened to be glancing through her book "Vamps and Tramps" in my basement) of "Sexual Personae". She did an advice column in "Spy" magazine, and published some examples in "Vamps and Tramps".

Excerpts:

Dear Camille:
I've been severely disappointed in my lady friends, who come across as intelligent women with common sense but end up making bad choices when it comes to men.
Jolted Joe from Brooklyn

Dear Joe:
You are puzzled by the irrational perversity of sexual attraction. Dionysus is a maelstrom. Love will never be tidy or safe. Jump in the boat and row for your life.

Dear Camille:
I'm a female who has rape fantasies featuring ex-convicts, aliens, postapocolyptic mutant gang leaders, etc. While I invent dialogue for both sexes, I feel more "inside" the male character, even after the female has gained the upper hand, which always happens. Am I bisexual, sadomasochistic, or just strange?
Is This Hell? No, This Is Iowa

Dear Hell-In-Iowa:
Make movies as soon as possible. Surf's up in your sharkish libido. It's the cyberpunk 1990's, so take us for a ride on the wild side.

Quote of the day

"A man has the right to defend himself…even against his own leg."
- — AaronS ( regarding Burress )

Quote of the day

"Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning."
- Rommel

Quote of the day

"We are missing one of the mice. I'm upset!"
- Jocelyn Fiederer (my wife, at Nutcracker rehearsal)

My favorite fictional body part....

Unfortunately, there are no news about the crockus, that part of the brain that makes females more verbally skilled than males.

Even though it doesn't exist, the name is just so damn funny this item should be kept in the news as much as possible.

Kelo in retrospect....

The Kelo decision thoroughly established the principle that a municipality can force you to sell your home for only the flimsiest of excuses (i.e., that the person they want to transfer it to is likely to stimulate the local economy in some nebulous way).

The principle is somewhat at odds with the facts, though.... in reality, for all the money they spent on legal fees, the town achieved only a huge vacant lot and a lot of outrage.

I don't know where Susette Kelo currently lives.

Quote of the Day

Speed, velocity, simultaneity, acceleration, and other mathematical abstractions having to do with the patterns of eternity were part of Martian mathematics, but not of Martian emotion. Contrariwise, the unceasing rush and turmoil of human existence came not from mathematical necessities of time but from the frantic urgency implicit in human sexual bipolarity.

Heinlein, "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Quote of the day

For what we will spend on the Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2008 we could have avoided the war in Iraq and simply bought a controlling interest in Saddam Hussein's country.

P.J.O'Rourke

My clean mind

Anybody who reads this and has seen my "study" in my basement will appreciate my inner purity.

"Young housewives having figures that will turn you on"

A serious scientific journal learns the dangers of meddling in things they do not understand.

I got 100% on this

Civic Literacy Quiz. But I do detect just a hint of libertarian bias.

Quote of the day

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

T.S.Eliot (ending The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock)

Quote of the day

I'm sick of the insipid bourgeois neuroticism in current, careerist American poetry. Bring back the psychotics!
--Camille Paglia, via Language Log

4.0!

That was the text my son sent me just now.

I had to text back to confirm that was for the whole semester.

Wow. It's not easy to impress a dad, but if you can't impress him with perfection, it would be a pretty lost cause!

Life is good.

Quote of the day

I used to think the brain was my most important organ. But then I thought: Wait a minute, who's telling me that? ~Emo Philips. (via McArdle)

Quote of the day

When one linguist says to another "Was that good for you?", at least in a professional context, the phrase usually means "was that sentence consistent with your personal grammatical norms?"

Language Log

What I see when I wake up in the morning before I can leave my bedroom....

And in case you were wondering....no, since Sam has been coming over I am sure she has never seen me without my pants on.

Quote of the Day

"He smokes like a fish!"
-- an InDUHvidual from Dilbert.

Quote of the Day

That's right....I might not have one every single day, but if I try to keep it to one a week they just keep piling up!

On the other hand, "Lyric of the Week" is pretty much a dead feature....sure, there are songs I haven't posted yet, but almost all of them are by Leonard Cohen. OK, here goes:

"When Dad agrees to something with a smile on his face, we have learned to reconsider our request."
- some 12year old

My mother is alive and well....

But this is still the only fat mama joke that ever made me cry.....

My favorite spam....

This is unlikely to be a weekly feature, or even a yearly one. Spam rarely makes me smile. Sometimes, maybe, in a grim way....like when my mother-in-law died and they had me clean out her email (99% spam) in case there was something in there, and one of her spams promised to "increase the distance of ejaculation" as though this were some kind of Olympic event.

Today one got caught by the google mail spam filter, but as I was hitting delete it still caught my eye "we think you deserve more than simple spam".

I'm gathering it must have been rather complicated spam. I didn't read it, but the subject line still made me smirk.

Definition of the week

Maverick: somebody who makes decisions independently of peers.

Said to be an eponym based on a rancher that refused to brand his cattle - since everybody else did brand their cattle, this let him claim any unbranded cattle in the area.

Our two-party system

This article points out some of the difficulty of competing with the major parties. If you've had the feeling that the United States must have some people that would make more inspiring choices for leader than the ones we actually get to vote here, Balko points out:

The system we have now selects for the sorts of people who want to make a career of politics. If, in order to successfully run for high office, you have to spend years culling favors and working your way up through one of the two major parties, the winners in this game are going to be the party loyalists and power-hungry climbers who couldn't hack it in the private sector — frankly, the last personality type we want governing.

Bailing Out Republicans

This item struck me as amusing, in a grim way.

Actually, there is something to be said for it, or going even further. If they could only get enough Republicans into one of the houses so that Obama would have a reason for not being able to get things done, this might stop him from having to do anything harmful.

Hey, it worked for Clinton!

What a lousy job!

I tend to agree with the Onion here, via Reason.

I regret that I am not eligible for the job, but I am glad I don't have to deal with it!

Elections, how to do it right....

Coyote is pretty happy with the way his district runs the polls.

I agree a paper trail is a plus, but I'm not so sure the LED is that meaningful a feedback. Here is my dream setup:

When you vote, by whatever means, you get a paper receipt of your ballot (which might have been printed out for you if you use a machine for input). There is also a paper kept as backup. Your copy has on it an automatically generated random id number, which is electronically stored with your vote. The printed backup does not need this number (to keep votes anonymous).

Later, all the votes are published, with the random id numbers, in a random order. You can type in any id number (but only your own is meaningful to you) and get the votes. They'd better match your receipt, or there has been fraud or error. The total number of votes also better match the number of actual votes (these can be independently tracked).

Why can't they ALL be that dumb?

Probably because of how much I paid for the cellphone that was stolen from me a few weeks ago, this story gave me an unusually strong jolt of epicaricacy (yes, as per the definition of the week about a month ago, that's another word for schadenfreude).

This guy steals a phone from a deaf old woman, and then uses it to take a picture of himself on the phone network. Nice way to get a positive ID!

Quote of the Week

"I am truly saddened for all of you who have allowed sex to be the foundation of your marriages. (And just in case you don’t think that means you, here’s a test: if your spouse having sex with someone else would cause you to end your marriage, sex is the foundation of your relationship.)"
Chris Strom

The election summarized

MR points to this very nice summary, complete with graphs.

I liked the technique of treating individual states as having two dimensions (Democrat share of vote 2004 vs. Democrat share of vote 2008, or polled vs. actual). It made it clear there wasn't much in the way of surprises, but that things shifted on a fairly wholesale level towards the Democrats.

Return to me......

Of the few readers I have, I estimate that approximately zero are going to understand this post - it's mostly for my own reference, about computer programming style.

At work, our coding standards encourage "at most one return statement from a function", and code review showed my code often has more than one. Finding those places in thousands of lines of code so I can "fix" them might be non-trivial, so I was googling to see if I could find an automatic tool (a good thing to do before deciding to write your own).

Unfortunately, this is a particularly controversial "rule", where probably as many people (including me) think of it as unwise as there are that want to enforce it, so pretty much all I found was just philosophical discussion about one or many exits (same as returns).

One comment I found especially apt (at least in part because he agreed with me that it is better to know when to use a tool then to resolve not to use it:

Your argument that sticking with single exits forces you to factor
your code sounds a little like: "I never use my windshield wipers.
That forces me to stop and clean my car more often, and that is a
good thing." ;)

Definition of the week

Borda count - a voting system that allows voters to indicate their preferences among multiple candidates. This system is actually used in a few obscure places (click on the link for the full Wikipedia article).

Of course, it is only useful when more than 2 candidates are viable.

Election - live update

Courtesy of Google

My Endorsement

Well, I suppose since everybody else has taken a stand, I suppose I should take mine, such as it is.

I'm a registered Republican, although that is mostly to give me a chance to vote in some primary or other. I do believe in capitalism, but since that has already been abandoned by most major parties (Democrats kowtow mostly to the unions, Republicans mostly to entrenched big business interests, neither is willing to just leave people alone). My actual philosophy is libertarian, although I'm not exactly enamored of the party of that name. While I do believe "that government is best which governs least", I disagree with the voices on the anarchist fringe who believe we can do without it altogether. I'd like to abolish the income tax, but not because I don't understand the need for taxes - only because I find it too intrusive.

Painting Obama as a socialist is kind of amusing, because it is so obviously true - but then, it is true of McCain, also. The only question is just how much socialism you want.

I was talking to a friend with similar politics last week, and we were discussing whether it would be better to vote for Bob Barr (who seems to have made a genuine conversion, but has a rather obvious right-wing record behind him) or just write in somebody that really represents our point of view (Penn Jillette is pretty much our dream candidate). I'll hold my nose and vote for Barr.

Minimizing the risks

Would you want the pilot of that 747 take your family to Europe without first having flown a simulator and a smaller plane?

Would you want your surgeon to have your heart surgery be his first time cutting?

Then how can you feel comfortable electing a governor for New York State who hasn't been at least the governor of Mississippi?

(Yes, follow the link, it is cute - unless you are from Mississippi or Alabama!)

Quote of the Week

McCain promises all kinds of crazy stuff too, its just less compelling stuff to voters. He is not losing because he is promising less -- I think he is losing because Obama has a better grasp of what expensive shit people want to be promised than does McCain.
- Coyote

Glamour, with and without shoes

Two great tastes that go great together - Virginia Postrel's blog of glamour, and the inimitable Manolo. Interview.

In case you are one of the dozen people who have not heard of Manolo, all you really need to understand is that the Manolo, he loves the shoes! And of course you read Postrel.

Celebrating the decline of Western Civilization

Hat tip: BoingBoing

Definition of the week

Crux (Latin for "cross", "gallow", or "t-shape") is a term applied by palaeographers, textual critics, bibliographers, and literary scholars to a point of significant corruption in a literary text. More serious than a simple slip of the pen or typographical error, a crux (probably deriving from Latin crux interpretum = "crossroad of interpreters") is difficult or impossible to interpret and resolve. Cruxes occur in a wide range of pre-modern (ancient, medieval, and Renaissance) texts, printed and manuscript.

"So how do you get some people not to vote?"

That's the question that really should be asked.

One of the commentators phrases it justly:

Exactly. This whole get out the vote thing annoys me to no end. I want less voting, not more. I assume that the marginal voter is less informed than the average voter, and thus by expanding the voter pool, the average voter becomes less and less informed. This is not a good thing.

Abortion

This Straight Dope article actually states my own opinion quite well:

1. Human life begins at conception.

2. Big deal.

Even though I do not object to legalized abortion, it has always irritated me when people arguing against abortion prohibition would not admit that, yes, they thought it should be legal to terminate a human life.

The Catholic church is right about this: if you believe that human life is sacrosanct, you can not tolerate abortion, euthanasia, or capital punishment.

If you favor any of those listed, you are speaking against the absolute sanctity of human life, and saying that different human lives have different values. You are saying that you have to think.

Live with it.

To me, abortion is ending a human life, but it is not murder. If it were done without consent of the mother, it would be a grave crime against her, but the interests of the fetus are not the interests of our society. Certainly people who are infertile and would love to have a baby, other relatives (or perhaps boyfriend or husbands), and people generally opposed to abortion may find this disturbing. That's OK - go ahead and bribe the mom and try to make it worth her while to have the baby, but in the end it is her decision.

To me, euthanasia should be a basic human right. If you do not believe your life is worth the pain that it costs, you should be able to end it. The fact that you might change your mind later is really not the issue....you should have that right.

As capital punishment goes, I am sort of against it. A healthy human life must have some value, and ending it against the will of them who would live it seems wrong, a waste. But in the really bad cases, it does not seem much of a loss. I guess I would say that it should be avoided when possible.

Quote of the Week

"That said, a bike is much cheaper to run than a car. In fact, it takes only half a litre of fuel to get from your house to the scene of your first fatal accident."
- Jeremy Clarkson, in his humorous ode to the Vespa

Cool idea for an adult theme park [title updated]

No, not that kind of adult.

An underwater museum.

What will they call it, Egyptland?

Theology and Linguistics

Here is an entry in Language Log that would interest those with interest in the Latter Day Saints.

For those who aren't going to follow the link (sigh), the author compares the divinely translated English with the English of the Book of Mormon, and concludes:

Such evidence presents us with two choices. One is that the omnipotent and omniscient creator of the universe did not control the grammar of Early Modern English. The other is that the Book of Mormon was written by a semi-literate farm boy acquainted with the King James Bible, whose grammar and style he unsuccessfully attempted to emulate.

"Then she was tied to the feet of wild horses and torn apart limb from limb."

Here is a bit of biograpy, the story of Brunhilda. No, not the witch from the comic strip, but the historical Merovingian who might have inspired the female rivalry in the Nibelungen saga.



Women could not rule the country under Salic law, but she controlled it (the area now in the center of Germany) in the names of her sons. When her husband was still alive, his brother married her sister (both sisters came from what is now Spain, at the time controlled by the Visigoths). The sister Galswintha, however, was not much fun and tried to spoil everybody's fun by throwing out the prostitutes and mistresses. Fredegund, one of the mistresses, managed to get her killed and became the new queen - the beginning of a not-so-beautiful relationship with Brunhilda, who apparently resented the death of her sister. The brothers warred.

After Fredegund had Brunhilda's husband assassinated, Brunhilda managed to snag her Fredegund's stepson instead. The stepson didn't make it. However, Brunhilda managed to rule in the name of her son (by her first husband)until the son turned 13.

After her son died, she ruled again in the names of her grandsons. When the oldest was old enough to rule, she managed to get a lover of hers in high position (by getting somebody else killed), and to get her younger son in conflict with the older. Her younger son probably killed the older, and became the ruler until his death - at which time Brunhilda took over again in the name of her great-grandson - until this youngest king was killed.

Then:

Then the army of the Franks and Burgundians joined into one, all shouted together that death would be most fitting for the very wicked Brunhilda. Then King Clotaire ordered that she be lifted on to a camel and led through the entire army. Then she was tied to the feet of wild horses and torn apart limb from limb. Finally she died. Her final grave was the fire. Her bones were burnt.

Technology Tips

Here are a few for the novice.

My favorite (didn't actually know this):

Whatever technology you buy today will be obsolete soon, but you can avoid heartache by learning the cycles. New iPods come out every September. New digital cameras come out in February and October.

The most important (everybody knows this, but who actually acts on it?):

Come up with an automated backup system for your computer. There’s no misery quite like the sick feeling of having lost chunks of your life because you didn’t have a safety copy.

Hat tip: The Dynamistress

Lyric of the week

Life during wartime - Talking Heads

Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons,
packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway,
a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I'm getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstore, lived in the ghetto,
I've lived all over this town

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
this ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain't got time for that now

Transmit the message, to the receiver,
hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas,
you don't even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
everything's ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime,
I might not ever get home

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
this ain't no fooling around
This ain't no mudd club, or C. B. G. B.,
I ain't got time for that now
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peant butter,
to last a couple of days
But I ain't got no speakers, ain't got no
headphones, ain't got no records to play

Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can't write a letter, can't send a postcard,
I can't write nothing at all
This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
this ain't no fooling around
I'd like to kiss you, I'd love you hold you
I ain't got no time for that now

Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock,
we blended with the crowd
We got computer, we're tapping pohne lines,
I know that ain't allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives,
or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now,
I don't know what I look like!
You make me shiver, I feel so tender,
we make a pretty good team
Don't get exhausted, I'll do some driving,
you ought to get some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions,
then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are
notebooks? They won't help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
the burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness,
don't want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don't take no chances,
you better watch what you say

Definition of the week

risible

adj : arousing or provoking laughter;[syn: amusing, comic, comical,funny, laughable, mirthful]

This one is often used in arguments when mocking somebody else's point of view

Signs McCain is Hurting....

After seeing some blatantly racist attacks on Obama such as the Obama Food Stamp and the lynched Obama ghost, it was a bit odd to have Professor Drezner point out that even racists are voting for Obama.

So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin’ for the n***er!”

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: “We’re voting for the n***er.”

Quote of the Week

The Bush administration, having entered office as social conservatives, leaves office as conservative socialists, proprietors of the most sudden large expansion of the state's role in the US economy since mobilisation for the second world war.
Brad De Long, via MR

Shades of Heisenberg!

A story about an attempt to manipulate prediction markets led me somehow to this other story where statistics and real life collided in a strange way.

In this one, a particular Harvard publication ("Who's got the Monkey") was used as a test case. People who didn't know that all the activity with this particular publication was all faked, well....

When HBSP’s marketing department analyzed the sales trends, they noticed a rather interesting trend. Oncken’s 1974 Who's Got the Monkey? was a run-away best seller! And like any marketing department would, they took the story and ran. HBSP created pamphlets and other distillations of the paper. They even repackaged those little plastic cocktail monkeys as official “Who’s Got the Monkey monkeys”. And finally, sometime in 2002, the updated version of Who’s Got the Monkey? was posted to HBSP, which was then picked up by the searching system, which, in turn, caused the “Single Result Search” test case to fail.

Say it ain't so, Joe!

Apparently, "Joe the Plumber" has been practicing without a license.

Also, besides not being a licensed plumber, he isn't a licensed Joe. His legal name is Samuel.

My guess is he is wishing he had stayed in the background right now. Or hoping to do something useful with this sudden fame.

Science Prizes

Now that the Nobel prizes have been announced, it might be a good time to think back on the more prestigious Ig Nobel Prizes.'

Please, despite the findings about the effectivity of Coca Cola (TM) as a contraceptive, please spend the extra pennies on the real stuff.

For Putin fans only

There is now an instructional video out that teaches you to exercise like Putin.

Hey, it worked for Jane Fonda.

Warning: the link leads to very manly pictures of Putin that might make any female readers give up their existing relationships and move to Russia...just in hope.

HT Volokh Conspiracy

Lyric of the week

Nobody's Side - from the musical "Chess"

What's going on around me
Is barely making sense
I need some explainations fast
I see my present partner
In the imperfect tense
And I don't see how we can last
I feel I need a change of cast
Nobody's on nobody's side

And when he gives me reasons
To justify each move
They're getting harder to believe
I know this can't continue
I've still a lot to prove
There must be more I could acheive
But I don't have the nerve to leave

Everybody's playing the game
But nobody's rules are the same
Nobody's on nobody's side
Better learn to go it alone
Recognize you're out on your own
Nobody's on nobody's side

The one I should not think of
Keeps rolling through my mind
And I don't want to let that go
No lovers ever faithfull
No contract truly signed
There's nothing certain left to know
And how the cracks begin to show

Never make a promise or plan
Take a little love where you can
Nobody's on nobody's side
Never stay too long in your bed
Never lose your heart, use your head
Nobody's on nobody's side

Never take a stranger's advice
Never let a friend fool you twice
Nobody's on nobody's side
Never be the first to believe
Never be the last to deceive
Nobody's on nobody's side
And never leave a moment too soon
Never waste a hot afternoon
Nobody's on nobody's side
Never stay a minute too long
Don't forget the best will go wrong
Nobody's on nobody's side

Better learn to go it alone
Recognize you're out on your own
Nobody's on nobody's side

Definition of the week

Epicaricacy: Yes, this is just another word for schadenfreude, the joy at the discomfort of another.

Kind of unusual for the German word to be better known in English!

Quotation of the week

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer.'
-Dani Bunten Berry

"I hope they didn't have any children"

That was my favorite comment in this thread about a rather solomonic divorce.

Lyric of the week

"Silent All These Years" - Tori Amos

Excuse me but can I be you for a while
My dog won't bite if you sit real still
I got the anti-Christ in the kitchen yellin' at me again
Yeah I can hear that
Been saved again by the garbage truck
I got something to say you know
But nothing comes
Yes I know what you think of me
You never shut-up
Yeah I can hear that

But what if I'm a mermaid
In these jeans of his
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent All These Years

So you found a girl
Who thinks really deep thougts
What's so amazing about really deep thoughts
Boy you best praya that I bleed real soon
How's that thought for you
My scream got lost in a paper cup
You think there's a heaven
Where some screams have gone
I got 25 bucks and a cracker
Do you think it's enough
To get us there

Cause what if I'm a mermaid
In these jeans of his
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent All These...

Years go by
Will I still be waiting
For somebody else to understand
Years go by
If I'm stripped of my beauty
And the orange clouds
Raining in head
Years go by
Will I choke on my tears
Till finally there is nothing left
One more casualty
You know we're too easy Easy Easy

Well I love the way we communicate
Your eyes focus on my funny lip shape
Let's hear what you think of me now
But baby don't look up
The sky is falling
Your mother shows up in a nasty dress
It's your turn now to stand where I stand
Everybody lookin' at you here
Take hold of my hand
Yeah I can hear them

But what if I'm a mermaid
In these jeans of his
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice [x3]

And it's been here
Silent All These Years
I've been here
Silent All These Years

"The car stopped on a dime, which unfortunately was in a pedestrian's pocket."

Definition of the week: Paraprosdokian

A figure of speech where the last part alters the listener's understanding of the first part. The link has some amusing examples.

For spam-free sleep.....

Dream CAPTCHA

Cool milestone....

First meteoroid detected before entering our atmosphere:

Exploded in our sky like a small nuke.

Quote of the Week

"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor." - Fraa Erasmas from Neal Stephenson's Anathem

Glass

Yesterday we took our exchange student Nils to see the glass museum in Corning.

Of course we wandered about and saw the exhibits and the gift shops, and Jocelyn got me a snifter I am planning to leave at the Bug Jar, where they don't have snifters and always serve my Grand Marnier in an on-the-rocks glass.

Among the exhibits, some of those I remember:

A bit of Chihuly, looking (as usual) like a living anemone. We are very familiar with his style, having seen an exhibition in Chicago where his pieces were exhibited interspersed with plants in their botanical gardens (conservatory).

A number of works by Tagliapietra. I had never heard of him before, but he is an impressive artist from the island of Murano (near Venice), where I first saw glass blowing practiced as a little boy. I don't have links to large images of the ones WE saw (the most memorable was a collection of curved glass shells hanging like birds in flight), but here is one from his web site:



(OK, the Corning site DOES have a small image of the one I meant:)


There were also works by Czech artists, some involving interesting pieces done by cutting.

There was a transparent torso of a woman, suggesting something malignant inside.

There was an opaque black cube...the plan exhibited showed that the walls were bulging a bit, as though a sphere inside were straining to escape. Good concept, but I doubt I would have noticed if it hadn't been pointed out.

We also saw four presentations, Magic of Glass (properties of glass, stretching, bending, electrical conductivity), Breaking Glass (types of glass and how it breaks), Flame Working (using glass rods in flames to create ornaments - a fish in our case), and Hot Glass (blowing a glass pumpkin).

Smart people at work

Describing our troubled times (well before our troubled times):



Hat Tip Coyote

Too Late....

Unfortunately, I did not get my Sarah Palin Bingo card until the debate was well under way. I was able to check off six items, but they were unfortunately not in a row.

Why couldn't McArdle have warned me earlier?

East Frisia is no joke

Although many jokes are told about it. It is to Germany what Poland is to an American, except that most of the people in Poland have probably never heard an American Polish joke. In East Frisia, they have a sense of humor and almose seem proud of their "reputation". (It probably helps that most other Germans don't seriously believe there is anything wrong with the area, either. When they joke:
"Why do East Frisian women wear scarves?"
"So you can tell them apart from the cows!"
it is only because they have incredibly beautiful cows in East Frisia. My youngest sister was born there, so you had better agree!

Anyway, we have an exchange student here from that area for two weeks. Erich was over there in July (see blog). He arrived yesterday, bearing fabulous gifts: chocolate, a calendar with pictures of this lovely area, and tea.

Most Germans are coffee drinkers, but in East Frisia there is a tea culture. This is how East Frisians traditionally enjoy their tea:

Small cup....you usually don't drink just one.
In the bottom: Kuntjes (basically rock candy) as sweetener. This is expected to last you for several cups.
Then the black tea.
Top that off with heavy cream.
Don't stir. The idea is that the sensation changes from a "mostly cream" to a "normal tea" to "very sweet" as you go from top to bottom.

Hurting Horses

While I'm on the topic of quotes, this one made "Quotable Quotes" on Marginal Revolution:

It is really, really difficult to harm a horse with massage, especially if all you're using is your hands.

The lady mentioned is trained to massage both humans and horses, charges the same for either, but was ordered to desist because.....
Well, the article linked said

I asked James Vallone of the Maryland Board of Chiropractic Examiners what the deal was. "The state law says that neither chiropractors nor massage therapists working under the scope of their licenses may work on anybody or anything but the human anatomy," he said. "You can't work on animals, period."

Apparently, you are still allowed to massage your own horse, so I suppose this could be done legally with a transfer of ownership. Or, since Maryland does not offer any license for horse massage, it could be argued that you can massage the horse, it is just not to be considered massage therapy.

Quotation of the week

"Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking."
-- Dave Barry

Civil Rights for Stupid People

Scrappleface has an impassioned plea for action. Pretending to quote Bush:

“If these giant companies fail, then America will be left with nothing but thousands of small to mid-sized financial firms that made prudent investment decisions during the past 15 years.”

Giggle. If it only weren't so sad.
Hat Tip Coyote

Reassignment

Greenwald has a post about deploying American troops within our own borders. I rather agree with his conclusion: the immediate move of a single brigade is probably not dangerous in and of itself, but the precedence is bad.

I don't think this is like Julius Caesar's move in taking his own legions from Gaul to Rome, which brought the Republic to an end, because American soldiers would probably not be willing to pressure Senators and Representatives to vote "the right way", unless they were chosen very carefully. I don't think they can be chosen that carefully, yet. But I really don't like the direction we are heading.

I wonder how long it takes an economist to notice...

Any post with an xkcd cartoon is automatically worthwhile.

One of my all time heroines, Virginia Postrel, not only noticed my comment but QUOTED it!

It doesn't get any better than this.

Gregorius: NMKY (Finnish YMCA cover)

This one is a classic

Updated: sorry, link rot

The best scene from Scrubs

The Kissing Game

Latest from Myspace

Wednesday, April 18, 2007


Lyric of the week
Current mood: sad
Category: Music

Some may argue this is a poem (by Noyes), but when Loreena McKennitt sings it, it brings tears to my eyes every time.

The Highwayman

The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight looping the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.

He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, and a bunch of lace at his chin;
He'd a coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of fine doe-skin.
They fitted with never a wrinkle; his boots were up to his thigh!
And he rode with a jeweled twinkle--
His rapier hilt a-twinkle--
His pistol butts a-twinkle, under the jeweled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred,
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter--
Bess, the landlord's daughter--
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

Dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim, the ostler listened--his face was white and peaked--
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter--
The landlord's black-eyed daughter;
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say:

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart; I'm after a prize tonight,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light.
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

He stood upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair in the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the sweet black waves of perfume came tumbling o'er his breast,
Then he kissed its waves in the moonlight
(O sweet black waves in the moonlight!),
And he tugged at his reins in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon.
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon over the purple moor,
The redcoat troops came marching--
Marching--marching--
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

They said no word to the landlord; they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed.
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets by their side;
There was Death at every window,
And Hell at one dark window,
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

They had bound her up at attention, with many a sniggering jest!
They had tied a rifle beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her. She heard the dead man say,
"Look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way."

She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness,
and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

The tip of one finger touched it, she strove no more for the rest;
Up, she stood up at attention, with the barrel beneath her breast.
She would not risk their hearing, she would not strive again,
For the road lay bare in the moonlight,
Blank and bare in the moonlight,
And the blood in her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love's refrain.

Tlot tlot, tlot tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hooves, ringing clear;
Tlot tlot, tlot tlot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The redcoats looked to their priming! She stood up straight and still.

Tlot tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment, she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight--
Her musket shattered the moonlight--
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him--with her death.

He turned, he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the casement, drenched in her own red blood!
Not till the dawn did he hear it, and his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs in the golden noon, wine-red was his velvet coat
When they shot him down in the highway,
Down like a dog in the highway,
And he lay in his blood in the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.

And still on a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a gypsy's ribbon looping the purple moor,
The highwayman comes riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard,
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred,
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter--
Bess, the landlord's daughter--
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

-- Alfred Noyes


1:32 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove


Neologism of the ....
Current mood: impressed
Category: Writing and Poetry

See, now That Gurl has made me shy away from committing to a timeframe!

Anyway, I really like the aunt of The Defective Yeti, who came up with

e-social: A subset of asocial, where someone is so distracted by electronic devices that he ignores the people around him.

Inspired by watching a high-end SUV pass us one night with both flip down DVD players on for the back seat. I felt sorry for the kids, who will grow up never knowing how to fight with a siblings in the back seat.

This, by the way, applies perfectly to That Gurl, who is often caught madly clicking away on her cellphone, when she could have been listening to me lecture.

Other attempted neologisms you can get by following the links (sorry, if you are a fan of Bush, there is a marked anti-administration bias there) are:

White crayon ('hwIt 'krA-"än), n: A useless person or thing you are nonetheless required to have for the sake of completeness or tradition.

and (somewhat risque)
objerctify v: (clean version) to utilize a person in fantasy
and the excellent:
pathetiquette: really, really, like unfortunately bad manners

12:17 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Wednesday, April 18, 2007


The best war ever!
Current mood: amused
Category: Travel and Places

This might very well be the Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years War, as listed in the Wikipedia:
The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War (1651-1986) was a war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly (located off the southwest coast of the United Kingdom). It is said to have been extended by the lack of a peace treaty for 335 years without a single shot being fired, which would make it one of the world's longest wars and the war with the fewest casualties. Despite the uncertain validity of the declaration of war, peace was finally declared in 1986.
I probably would never have heard of it if I hadn't looked this week on the date of anniversary of the peace declaration!

11:45 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Tuesday, April 17, 2007


(Runnerup) Quote of the week
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Writing and Poetry

Here, after all, is the chiefest joke of the gods: that man must remain alone and lonely in this world, even with crowds surging about him. Does he crave approbation, with a sort of furious, instinctive lust? Then it is only to discover, when it comes, that it is somehow disconcerting - that its springs and motives offer an affront to his integrity.

- H.L.Mencken (writing about Rudolph Valentino, who found little joy in his success)

Currently reading :
Impossible H. L. Mencken, The
By Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
Release date: By 01 October, 1991

9:51 PM - 5 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Tuesday, April 17, 2007


Cellphone tracking - cute
Current mood: amused
Category: Web, HTML, Tech

Hat tip for this site goes to Snopes, a good spot for checking out dubious rumors.

12:22 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Tuesday, April 17, 2007


Quote of the week
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Writing and Poetry

Wisdom seems to come largely from curing childish qualities, and intelligence largely from cultivating them.
- Paul Graham

8:07 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove


Girls gone not-so-wild
Current mood: bouncy
Category: Life

Last night I was dancing at the Bug Jar to 80's music (Manic Mondays), which is my typical Monday night exercise. Typically it is solo-dancing, since I don't ask strangers to dance (I don't want them to think I am trying to pick them up), but occasionally I get asked. I wouldn't turn down a dance for the world.

Yesterday, I actually got asked twice - once not really ASKED verbally (a girl just put herself in position in front of me). The second time, there was a group of girls on a birthday party on stage, and one of them came down to me and asked "Will you come up on stage and dance with us" (the timing was not so good, since there was somebody else just coming to the floor I would have preferred, but she didn't ask). I jumped up on the stage and danced a song with them, thanked her for asking, and went back to the floor.

I think there is something about my style that makes me noticeable, probably its goofyness. As English Matt complimented me once, "You always look so retarded dancing by yourself, but with a partner you're actually quite good!"

7:29 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Monday, April 16, 2007


Shades of Tangy Butt Wars!
Current mood: surprised
Category: MySpace

My little sister, i am 68545783465% mountain dew's butthole!!!! (formerly Claudia), just had her page farmered (somebody other than herself making alterations to it). She no longer has a picture, her "About me" says:
This is my mother.She is oldest woman,of all Kazakastan.She is 43!i love her. She is #6 prostitute in all of Kazakastan. Image and video hosting by TinyPic

The perpetrator was none other than her own daughter.

When she found out, did she go ballistic?

No.

"...actually it's kinda funny,so i decided 2 leave it for awhile...."

8:38 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove


Interracial Dating
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Romance and Relationships

Ilya Somin of the Volokh Conspiracy showcases this study of online dating:

For equal success with an African-American woman [relative to an African-American man], a Hispanic man needs to earn an extra $184,000 [in annual income]; a white man needs to earn an additional $220,000.

For equal success with a white woman [relative to a white man], an African-American needs to earn an additional $154,000; a Hispanic man needs $77,000; an Asian needs $247,000.

For equal success with a Hispanic woman [relative to a Hispanic man], an African-American man needs to earn an additional $30,000; a white man needs to earn an additional $59,000.

For equal success with an Asian woman [relative to an Asian man], an African-American needs no additional income; a white man needs $24,000 less than average; a Hispanic man needs $28,000 more than average.

As you can see, trying to figure out dating success in terms of salary works out a bit strangely. They get similar results with height ("For example, consider a man who is 5' 2'' tall. In order to be as desirable to a woman as a man who is 5' 11.5'' tall and who earns $62,500 per year, he needs to have an additional income of $269,000 (i.e., he needs to make $331,500 per year)" Something tells me that only few can buy height with money!.). They were only able to get results for men, because for a woman income just doesn't much help to get a man. Corresponding results for women's success with men just listed "not feasible". Keep in mind that, as the study points out,

(Whether i sent email to j depends on ATTRACTIVENESS (hotness of the picture), i-'s pickyness, and various multiplicative and additive effects that they wish to study)
This has nothing to do with race, but I thought the factors considered important might be fun to see:

6:05 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, April 15, 2007


Southern Hospitality
Current mood: bitchy
Category: News and Politics

"The Folly of Southern Hospitality" is the article I am currently reading in Reason Magazine. Unfortunately, it is not yet available on their website, but they will probably put it up there eventually (there are privileges to being a subscriber!).

They describe how states and local governments, especially in the South (although I've heard quite a few horror stories about such attempts right here!), try to bribe companies to start operations in their state, often beyond all reason.

Georgia, for example, offered a $420 million dollars incentive package to build a plant there, roughly $168,000 for each of the jobs at the plant. Because the plant is right near the Alabama border, many of those jobs will probably be going to existing skilled autoworkers in Alabama.

Three countries in North Carolina bid against each other to convince Dell to set up operations in their area. In the end, the incentives were three times the cost of the plant!

Of course, politicians don't want to dole out your tax dollars that generously without getting something in return beyond just good publicity. In 2005, nine Tennessee officials were indicted for bribery in an FBI sting operation that pretended they were one of those companies offering sweets for "incentives".

6:54 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove