French Fallout
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No this isn't some pithy analysis of the ramifications of the French vote against the EU Constitution yesterday. Sorry.

Steven Den Beste retired from political blogging some time ago. He still writes about Anime at Chizumatic. Occasionally when the mood strikes him he includes something a bit more political, like his post from May 29th. In particular, I'm referring to the picture of the Frog. (I'm including the link to the original source, as Mr. Den Beste rarely includes permalinks on Chizumatic)

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 30 2005 11:51:58 PM

Verbal Action
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(Via MetaFilter) If you've never heard a livestock auctioneer in action you might want to check this out. These are recordings of all but one of the World Livestock Auctioneer Championships going back to 1963. I'm kind of partial to 1996's winner, but that may be because he appears to be a not-terribly distant cousin.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 30 2005 11:39:21 PM

Churchill Re-visited
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I was raised to believe that taking pleasure in other people's misfortune (even when self-inflicted) was bad. I am not, however, quite as nice a person as I used to be. So, it is with only a tiny sliver of guilt that I blatantly and somewhat gleefully allow myself a certain amount of smirking about the misfortunes of one Ward Churchill.

I wrote about this guy in January (he's the one that called the victims in the World Trade Center on 9/11 "little Eichmans" and said they deserved to die because they worked for companies that are part of "America's Global Financial Empire") One of his "claims to fame" (so to speak) was that he is a member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians.

Now, in addition to allegations of academic fraud, The United Keetoowah Band has stated on their web site (you may have to hit the "more news" button to get to the articles) that Churchill was offered an honorary associate membership several years ago because he promised to write a tribal history, but that he is not a member of the tribe and any such claim is fraudulent. The UKB says that Churchill might have some Cherokee blood, but they have seen no evidence of such and at any rate, he ain't one of them. Churchill, of course, says the tribe's statements are false.

I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be laughing while I write this. It makes me a bad person. But, it is what it is, and it couldn't have been (self-)inflicted on a more deserving person, and it seems to me to be an excellent example of the tendency on the far left to insist that things are true simply because they want them to be.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 22 2005 02:25:05 AM

Go Read This Now!
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I am a big fan of Bill Whittle. If you've never been to the Eject!Eject!Eject! web site, you should wander over there. Mr. Whittle has a new essay called Sanctuary up. It is, I think, well worth the time to read, but be prepared to invest some time. You might want to grab a cup of coffee (as Bill suggests on the site) before you start. (It runs something like 14,000 words).

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 22 2005 01:50:57 AM

Plogress? and Squirrels
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(Via the Agitator) There is a new web site called Plogress.com . The site lists each of the members of the US Senator and House, grouped by state. Available for each individual is a list of all the bills, resolutions and other squirrely business that that individual has sponsored. The webmaster of the site says:

There are plenty of political sites out there that list current legislation. Most of those gave me a headache with their busy designs. Many of them also only included "selected legislation", causing me to question their objectivity. I couldn't seem to find a site that would just keep me up to date with my elected officials activity, so I created one. As long as I was going to the trouble, I added all the congressmen.

Apparently there are plans to include voting records, etc. If the site can be maintained, it could be a really valuable resource.

On a lighter note, the Washington Post has an article about the black squirrels from the Washington area expanding their range. It is interesting, but what caught my eye was a paragraph about Vagn Flyger, a retired University of Maryland professor.

Flyger devoted himself to studying squirrels because, as he explains it, they weigh less than a deer and don't bite like a polar bear. He used to smear a tree behind his Silver Spring home with a mixture of peanut butter and Valium and then tattoo the squirrels that he found passed out below.

I'd like to arrange a meeting between Flyger and my father, who is currently discussing with his doctor whether he needs the rabies shot series after being bitten by one of the "bushy-tailed rats" (as he refers to them). My folks live in a small town and love bird-watching. They have feeders all over their yard, and have engaged in a 30 year battle to find a way to make bird seed available for birds without having the squirrels eat it. In the last couple of years, Dad has been trapping them (live traps only) and driving them a couple of miles out into the country, where he "liberates" them. Today he got bit while opening the trap. I'm pretty sure Dad has never thought of using peanut butter and Valium.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, May 19 2005 09:06:06 PM

Excuses
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The Head Rat has been very ill the last few days, so between work and exercising my (poor) nursing skills, there just hasn't been time to write. I have been following some items I find interesting. Here are a few links. (It's the best I've got at the moment.)

A cranky piece about tsunami relief.

The constitutional crisis in Canada. (here and here) (actually, it is kind of interesting to read both Small, Dead Animals and the Captain's Quarters.

And finally, the Integrated Marketing Department at the University of Kansas can't think of anything better to do than come up with a stunning new logo for KU. (I'm embarrassed that someone got paid for this.)

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, May 18 2005 12:25:21 AM

Imaginary
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There is a guy in Wichita who puts together a little synopsis of the local news for online distribution. He also publishes reader rants and opinions. Since we've had the State Board of Education holding hearings about whether to include other "theories" along with evolution in the state science curriculum, there have been lots and lots of rants on the subject. Most have been forgettable re-hashings of the typical, tired arguments on both sides. I thought this, however, was kind of clever (although I never had that much respect for imaginary numbers).

"I have no problem with the presentation of the idea of Intelligent Design at the public schools, as long as it is presented with no relationship to religion.  Take God out of the picture and simply state an unknown Intelligence may have had a hand in the design of the universe.  Simple and succinct, of course totally unscientific but then that doesn't seem to bother Intelligent Designers.  And while we're at it, I never really liked that the square root of negative one is 1i, I think that should be changed to 1I, it deserves more respect, even though it is imaginary."

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, May 11 2005 09:53:45 PM

A fresh perspective on Endangered Species
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I don't know much about Electric Eel's Mental Arc author Antone Roundy other than he appears to write the first thing that pops in his head and his thought process appears to be different enough that it's worth my checking it out. Here is today's post. (I've included the link, although this is the whole thing.)

The case for driving species to extinction

Advocates of protecting endangered species often assert that the species may be the source of a discovery or a chemical or something else that saves millions of lives. Well, what if the existance of a species is suppressing the rise or evolution of another species that would be the source of a chemical or something that would save billions of lives? Perhaps the world has been relatively stagnant for too long, and we need to make room for new developments by killing a few species off.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, May 11 2005 09:36:44 PM

Round and Round
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Since I have two computers running in my office and, in an absolute stroke of genius, I put my office in the warmest room in the apartment, I leave the ceiling fan running all the time. I also rarely use the overhead light, as I don't like the glare on the monitors and am kind of a trog anyway. Consequently, I don't pay that much attention to the ceiling fan in an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of way.

The Head Rat has been learning to use the computer after years of active resistance. Although she appears to be overtly interested in "Ratlands" and some of the other stuff I write, I suspect it is all a front to cover easy access to on-line shopping. Anyway, she tends to have a more critical eye when it comes to interior decorating. Where I see notebooks and textbooks I may need again someday, she sees clutter that should be thrown out (or at least dusted). Tonight she decided I needed to clean the ceiling fan. I tried to explain that if the dust had become attached to the fan while the fan was spinning at full speed it was probably safely attached and unlikely to come off accidentally. I tried to explain that dislodging dust would be bad for the computers and that leaving it attached to the fan was just my way of protecting my investment.

Now that I've cleaned the ceiling fan, I've got a crick in my neck.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, May 11 2005 09:20:43 PM

Searching for Mr. (or Ms.) Right
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I've lost another employee to law school. Given my love hate/hate feelings about the legal establishment, you might imagine that this galls me to no end. But, that is the nature of the beast, so the best I can do is get on with the interviewing process. Unfortunately, after we complete a day's worth of interviews we still have a day's worth of work to do. I've been working on a couple of essays, but I don't make much progress when it is just notes jotted on my PDA.

The Head Rat and I went out to eat Saturday night. Neither of us is particularly sociable, and neither of us like crowds, but occasionally we do wander out to a restaurant that doesn't have a drive-thru. This particular restaurant was one of those restaurant/sports bar things and being smokers, we ended up sitting in the bar. Saturday was apparently a slow day for sports, as the TV over my head (the one the Head Rat could see) was playing CSI reruns. I, on the other hand was treated to a spectacular view of some NASCAR race.

Here's the thing; if I wanted to see good ole boys driving around in a circle, I'd go to a Wal-Mart in Georgia on Christmas Eve and watch folks search for parking spots (its more fun, the likelihood of a crash is just as great, and it requires a lot more skill the closer to closing time it gets). In fact, if I wanted to see good ole boys doing anything, I'd rather watch OLN and see the GOB's shoot Bambi or something equally politically incorrect. But, I guess that would be an uncomfortable reminder that that juicy steak folks were scarfing down was once a 4-legged critter that had to be killed and butchered and it might have put some of the more sensitive members of the crowd off their feed. Folks with queasy stomachs don't order any more rounds of drinks.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 09 2005 10:12:13 PM

Real ID, pt. 2
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This is way outside the realm of my normal topic material, but is it just me or does this (from CNET News)

Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you'll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service.

remind you of anything? Say this, from Revelations 13: 16-18?

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead,so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

While this is not the basis of my own opposition to a national ID card, I find it curious that I haven't heard anything about anyone who is bothered by this particular parallel. Surely a kid who grew up in a liberal denomination can't be the only one who noticed this.

When I was young, the kids who grew up in fundamentalist denominations were always quoting this sort of thing and talking about "end times." It just seemed to me to be something that surely some evangelist somewhere would have jumped on. Something like this putting us one step closer to having the mark of the Beast in the form of an ID chip implanted in our hands or foreheads. It just seems like such an obvious idea from that perspective.

Maybe I'm not using Google effectively, but I can't find anything like this out there. If anyone has run into something like this, I would appreciate a "heads-up." The sociologist in me would really like to rummage around it that little corner of the internet for a while.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Saturday, May 07 2005 09:52:56 PM

Real ID
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The Real ID national ID card provision that has been slipped into an appropriations bill really infuriates me. I'm not sure whether I'm angrier at the idea of a national ID card or the fact that it had no chance of passing the Senate until they slipped it into a politically popular appropriations bill. The Smedley Log reminded me that I had intended get to this yesterday. I'm not much on calling people, let alone members of Congress (mostly I just always seem to get tongue-tied and sound like an idiot). So this is the sort of thing that appeals to me:

On issues like this, DownsizeDC.org provides an e-mail petition that is easy to fill out and then gets sent to your legislators. Although some of these things I have seen in the past from other lobbying groups have been obnoxious and pointed to the point of being downright rude, so far the ones I've seen at DownsizeDC have been very restrained and to the point. For example, the petition for this particular issue reads:

"Please stand up to the House. Vote No on the Conference Committee version of the Emergency Appropriations Act because it includes the provisions of The Real ID Act."

Then there is a text box where you can add any specific personal comments.

I don't know how effective these things are, but, if you are like me and have a real aversion to using the phone for something like this, it has to be better than nothing.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Saturday, May 07 2005 09:27:46 PM

Science, pt. 2
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In the 30 years or so that I have been reading Science Fiction, I have gravitated towards the grand. I've always liked the big works. If I find a science fiction universe that intrigues me, I want to get into it and muck about in it for an extended period of time. I started with Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, Heinlein's future histories, and Herbert's Dune series. One-off novels generally leave me wanting more story, more details, just more... It is probably not surprising then, that I really never got into short stories.

However, there was one book of short stories I got from a friend that changed that. I can't seem to put my hands on it now, but a little googling confirms for me that it was called "The Wind from the Sun," by Arthur C. Clarke. The book title came from the opening story, "Sunjammer," which was about solar yacht racing, done with huge solar sails.

From Wired News:

Scientists working with a synthetic material 100 times thinner than a piece of paper are testing their theory that the sun can power interplanetary spacecraft. They believe that streams of solar energy particles called photons can push a giant, reflecting sail through space the way wind pushes sailboats across water.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has invested about $30 million in space-sail technology, something that existed solely in science-fiction novels a decade ago. Yet the reflective solar sail could power missions to the sun and beyond within a decade.

I don't care what anyone says about NASA, this is cool.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Saturday, May 07 2005 01:45:06 AM

Science. You gotta love it...
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After my little rant about science and religion a couple of days ago, I thought I would stick to something safe like defending greed or UN bashing. Unfortunately, these things seem to have a life of their own, and this bit of scientific news came to my attention tonight.

A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element has been named Governmentium.

Governmentium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Read the rest here.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, May 05 2005 10:37:53 PM

Overload
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I think it is finally beginning to dawn on me that as much fun as I'm having with broadband, there is a downside. Those of you who check this space regularly will have noticed part of it. My RSS aggregator is on all the time. Every time I come into my office, there is something new for me to check out. Things I feel compelled to comment on. Things I want to share. I'm starting to visit all those sites with the flash animations I used to avoid because it was just too frustrating waiting for them to load.

Rat Jr. introduced me to Internet Radio last night. I was cooking dinner and heard the opening credit music from Cowboy Bebop from the basement. Not that I know everything she does, but I was pretty sure she hasn't had the money to buy a Seat Belts CD. So now that she has showed me how to do it, I'm listening to bands like Manitoba, Ounce, Sounds from the Ground, and a whole lot of other stuff I have never heard before, and I find myself making excuses to stay in the office to surf and listen.

I'm supposed to be scoring applications for work tonight. Its time to interview again. I screened 114 of them from the HR webpage today (out of 320+ available). I only ended up printing 74 for scoring. Historically we've found that we average six interviews for each position we fill. We've got 3 openings, so we'll try to get 20 qualified applicants in for an interview. Normally, out of 20 scheduled interviews 2-3 will cancel, so that's about what we need to fill the openings.

Of course, there is really no reason anyone else would want to know any of this, but my headache is too bad to score apps and writing this gives me just one more excuse to sit and listen to new music.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, May 04 2005 10:26:44 PM

Give me more...
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OK, I thought I was done with the Wal-Mart thing, but stuff keeps popping up. This, from Scrappleface: (satire)

(2005-05-04) -- Wal-Mart Stores today surrendered to pressure from labor unions to increase hourly pay for its workers, and began a new corporate campaign to emulate the historical success of the U.S. auto industry.

"Our union critics were right," said H. Lee Scott Jr., Wal-Mart's chief executive, "We have an obligation to behave like General Motors did in the 1960s. And we've come to believe that the discount retail industry is primed for a chain that pays high wages to create the perception of high value through high-priced products. In addition, our focus groups indicate that Wal-Mart customers yearn for the emotional payoff that comes from providing bigger paychecks to the folks in the blue vests."

As part of the reengineering of the company, Wal-Mart will change its slogan from 'Always Low Prices' to 'Always Union Wages'

Update: And this from Cafe Hayek. (not satire)

There's no real news story here. It's not like someone discovered that Wal-Mart is using slave labor or not paying the minimum wage. That would be a news story. What we have instead is what I'd call a fake news story, generated by a press release from activists that plays to the sensibilities of a newspapers editors, reporters and readers.

(Both reference this article)

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, May 04 2005 06:17:51 PM

Here there be Monsters
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I like living in Kansas. Generally the quality of life is pretty good here. People are mostly friendly. All in all, it's not too bad. There are times, however, when it is something of an embarrassment to have to admit that I am a Kansan.

Once again we are the battleground over evolution. The State Board of Education is talking about whether to require "alternatives" to evolution to be taught in science classes here. This should be a non-issue.

The teaching of "alternatives" to evolution in science classes should be a non-issue because evolution is science. It is the current culmination of theory produced by the scientific method. It may or may not be true, but it is the state of the art from a scientific perspective. Creationism is metaphysics/religion. It is the culmination (or foundation, depending on your perspective) of religious theory. It is an article of faith, and it may or may not be true, but it is the state of the art from a religious perspective. Evolution is not religion. Creationism (and intelligent design) is not science. It is wrong to try to force one into the other category.

Maybe I'm stupid. I think science works. The people who designed the computer I'm using to write this post don't rely on religious explanations of whether God makes the electricity flow. It may or may not be true, but it is not relevant to the process of making the computer. You can give thanks to God that he makes the electricity flow if you have that religious perspective, but believing that to be true is part of a religious perspective and not relevant to building the computer from a scientific perspective.

I also think a religious perspective works. When I stand on top of a mountain, I don't care about tectonic plates, volcanic activity, glaciers and erosion. The science isn't relevant when it comes to the awe I feel in such a place. Thinking that the mechanisms of geology are true from a scientific perspective is irrelevant to the spiritual experience.

I guess for me it is all about the questions being asked. If you have a religious perspective that says that God made everything as it is and causes everything to happen as it does, you are in the realm of religion and metaphysics and are talking about a Prime Mover. It seems to me that this is inherently a question of "why?" And in that perspective, God is the answer.

It seems to me that science is about the "how?" How does this process work? How does what I type show up on my screen. Saying God made it happen isn't useful from a scientific perspective.

So, no matter how much my religious friends want it to be so, creationism isn't science. Demanding that it be treated as science is kind of sad. It seems to me that a strong and robust faith shouldn't need the ill-fitting trappings of pseudo-science to reassure the believer. A strong and robust faith should stand alone on its own merits in its own perspective.

Attempting to make creationism into a science is sort of like trying to describe baseball in terms of first downs, line of scrimmage and touchdowns. It makes no sense, and it makes you look silly in the process.

The danger here is not about separation of church and state (although that is another worthwhile debate in and of itself). The danger is that this sort of nonsense impairs our ability to do science and use science as we move into the future. The idea that creationism is "scientific" because we want it to be, hampers our ability to discern valid science from wishful thinking. If creationism is "science" because we want it to be, then any idiot with a half-baked idea and a mouthful of theoretical jargon should be taken seriously. If creationism is a scientific theory that should be taken seriously because some people want it to be, then we should take the scientific theory that the white race is genetically superior seriously, because there are some folks who want it to be. We should also take seriously the scientific theory that communism is the only viable form of government because there are people who want it to be. This seems to me to be something on the order of intellectual relativism: if we want it to be true, it is. At the point we acquiesce to this sort of nonsense, we have entered the area of the map marked "here there be monsters."

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, May 04 2005 02:36:34 AM

More Housekeeping
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I've been having a lot of trouble with my RSS feed generator. More specifically, I couldn't get Blogstreet to generate a feed. So, I've finally installed ListGarden. Now, in an amazing example of things working more or less the way they are supposed to, the RSS button on the left actually links to a real RSS feed.

If I only had some content worth linking to...

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, May 03 2005 01:05:11 AM

Missed it by that much...
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My brush with leftist notoriety left me un-brushed, so to speak. Either they didn't get my response, they actually read my article, or they took me at my word that I'm not an un-capitalist. My article was not included. It's probably just as well.

So, to celebrate, I made my weekly pilgrimage to the local home of wage-slavery. (OK, I'm tired of the Wal-Mart references, too, but I just couldn't resist, and I really did go.) I used to shop at the local supermarket, but they got bought out by a national chain and they treat their employees like crap, too, and they don't pay as well (ask Rat, Jr.) so, all things being at least marginally equal, I bought my bottle of chocolate syrup and a light switch face plate at the local den of iniquity.

On a more conspicuous (consumption) note, the Scoreboard now reads: Equipment 8, Cziltang 9. I successfully installed the wireless network adapter in Rat Jr's box in less than 10 minutes tonight.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 02 2005 10:58:47 PM

IEEE Virtual Museum
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I found the IEEE Virtual Museum website tonight. If things electronic are of interest to you, you really should check this out. I was especially fascinated by the "exhibit" on electronic music. For me, the highlight is a short clip of an actual performance of a Theremin. I've heard about the eerie quality of the Theremin for years, but had never actually seen or heard one. The piece on the history of electricity is a pretty good refresher if, like me, you've forgotten a lot of your high school science.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, May 02 2005 12:19:38 AM

Majority
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Scott Ott, at Scrappleface, routinely re-writes the news in satire form. He is routinely good, and sometimes brilliant. His tag line is "News fairly unbalanced. We Report. You Decipher." This "news" item caught my eye:

(2005-04-28) -- Republicans in the House and Senate today introduced bills which would redefine the word "majority" to mean "a group compelled to do the will of a smaller group."

Just another of those little shifts in meaning that make our lives so interesting?

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 01 2005 02:32:52 PM

Carnival of the...
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There seem to be a number of these Carnival of the BLANK things going on out in the blogosphere. Vanities, Recipes, Capitalists, just Google for "carnival of the" and see what you get. I mention this because I have been approached by a website called Carnival of the Un-Capitalists. They have asked for permission to include a past entry of mine in a special May Day Labor collection.

I'm not sure how they got wind of this particular piece. Given that there is a "Harrass 'em" section at the bottom of the site that will apparently be hosting the essays, I may have made a mistake. But, it should be interesting.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 01 2005 02:45:58 AM

Duct Tape?
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This, from James Nicoll's More Words, Deeper Hole:

I just entered a brief hiatus in a work marathon. When I am doing reports, I lock the cats out of the office, because they are an impediment to work as I imagine small children are. Unlike small children, one cannot merely duct tape them to an immobile object, so an intervening door is called for.

(Unfortunately, there are no permalinks, so you have to look for the April 29, 2005, 11:58 a.m. entry.)

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 01 2005 01:52:33 AM

Legislation without Representation
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While adding RSS feeds to the reader, I stopped to read this post at Samizdata. That led me to Downsize DC. There are a number of ideas I could get behind on the site, but this struck me as incredibly sensible and having no chance whatsoever of passing: the Read The Bills Act:

To this end we have created the Read the Bills Act of 2005 (RTBA) RTBA requires that . . .

Each bill, and every amendment, must be read in its entirety before a quorum in both the House and Senate.

Every member of the House and Senate must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on.

Every old law coming up for renewal under the sunset provisions must also be read according to the same rules that apply to new bills.

Every bill to be voted on must be published on the Internet at least 7 days before a vote, and Congress must give public notice of the date when a vote will be held on that bill.

Passage of a bill that does not abide by these provisions will render the measure null and void, and establish grounds for the law to be challenged in court.

Congress cannot waive these requirements.

 

Still, it might be worth a shot to demand our legislators pass this legislation. After all, what Senator or Congressman would be willing to stand up and say, "No, I don't want to have to read every bill I vote on..."

Take a few minutes to look through the Downsize DC website. I think you will find it interesting.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 01 2005 12:20:08 AM

Reader
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I've started using an RSS aggregator that is new to me: Sharp Reader. I liked using the one in Thunderbird, but my list was getting so long that scrolling through all my accounts was inconvenient, at best. So far I like the Sharp Reader and it meets my favorite criteria: price.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, May 01 2005 12:14:46 AM