Alabama: An Iliad of Woes

Ale addled legislators and a suds challenged governor have combined to raise the legal limit of alcohol for beer in that formerly idyllic state. Chaos has therefore ensued.

I now have a new favourite website. If you scroll up for more recent posts you will discover that, legally, there is no actual fruit known as a 'crunchberry'.

Most Vital News, Indeed

Sir Ian McKellan's King Lear is available online.

{H/T Instapundit}

+1 literary geekery points for anyone who can identify where the headline came from.

Free Money!

History Lesson

Maximum PC has put up a neat photo essay about the history of the personal computer.

Lose Weight at Wal-Mart

Instapundit links to a Forbes article that discusses a study linking access to Wally World with weight loss. Areas that have access to Wal-Mart have populations that weigh less than areas without such access, in brief. They discuss many reasons for such a correlation.

I can think of two more. First, with the poor, who are the focus of the study, most poverty stricken areas do not have what the rest of us would consider to be 'real grocery stores'. Because of the increased risk of loss due to theft, vandalism or other factors, merchants in such areas charge more per item. They also have much smaller inventories. They therefore tend to stock junk foods, which have longer shelf lives than fresh meats, fresh fruits or fresh vegetables.

The second, less serious, reason is that Wal-Marts are frickin' huge. If you go there to buy a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, some socks and some touch up paint, you're going to walk all over the planet to get those items. Whereas if there is no Wal-Mart, you're going to drive to A&P for the milk and bread (typically A & P's are fairly small), then to Belks (also small), then to Ace Hardware (ditto). That's a lot of driving, but very little walking.

Does the second reason mean that in addition to helping us lose weight, Wal-Mart is reducing greenhouse gases?

The World, Explained

Peter Schiff explains what's going on with the world, at least the economics of it all.

{Hat tip to Samizdata}

The Older I Get, The Less I Understand

Brave New (Safe) World

A very nice essay on why Digital Rights Management are a bad idea.

I would have thought the Baen Books model would have been enough, but obviously I am wrong.

The Federal Budget

From here. That site is going on my blogroll right now.

Thursday Rouser

From the Fox television show "Glee". Sally and I loved it. The bad news is that there will not be another episode until the Fall.

Government in a Nutshell

The problem with government is that it typically rewards failure and punishes success.

From Wikipedia: "In July 2006, the IRS confirmed that it planned to cut the jobs of 157 of the agency’s 345 estate tax lawyers, plus 17 support personnel, by October 1, 2006. Kevin Brown, an IRS deputy commissioner, said that he had ordered the staff cuts because far fewer people were obliged to pay estate taxes than in the past. Estate tax lawyers are the most productive tax law enforcement personnel at the I.R.S., according to Brown. For each hour they work, they find an average of $2,200 of taxes that people owe the government." (emphasis added)



Here endeth the lesson.

My Latest Obsession

Is goo, "World of Goo" to be exact. It's nicely challenging, fun and physically sound. It's also divided up into tasty bite sized morsels so you can play during a work break.

Cat and Mouse

Hail Mary

Ave Maria- Farther Along

Deep Irony

Part three of Breda's TSA epic.

Quote of the Day

"Sir, if I knew what it did I wouldn't be working here. I just know that you need it."

From here.

Blog Stats

Earlier this week, I passed 50,000 page loads.

This is staggering and humbling. I'm just a guy at his computer rambling on about this and that.

Thanks for reading me.

When Cars Meet Technology

OK, Ford has lent 100 of its Euro Fiestas to 100 lucky American stiffs. Today one of them was stolen. The bad news is that the car is so new that it isn't in the police database. The good news is that it has a GPS tracking system. Ford has been tracking it in real time.

Here are two little demo videos of just how cool this car is.

Blast From the Past

I came across this video in my Youtubing:



I miss TechTv. Some of their shows were lame, but "The Screensavers" with Patrick and Leo was fun and informative. It's no accident that my tv watching went into a precipitous decline when TechTv went away.

Vacation Plans

Not sure when we are going on vacation, but this cruise does look tempting. Check out their testimonials!

Kingston Reflection

Here's to our lord of Canterbury,
whose word no one relies on.
Who never said a foolish thing,
and who never did a wise one.

Original here.

They Must Have Really Good Drugs

in Canada. The CBC has made at least one decent miniseries, "The National Dream". It cost $2 million back in 1971 and is likely one of the costliest things the CBC has ever made. It is also one of the more interesting things they have made as well. The CBC wants $400.00 for the DVD set. That works out to $50/hour for a miniseries that is over 35 years old.

At that rate, I would be shocked if even schools and libraries can afford it.

{H/T Kraalspace)

The Science of Star Trek

Every Star Trek movie some fan writes about where Star Trek gets the science right or where it gets it wrong. This movie is no exception (minimal spoilers).

Best line in the article: "The pressure inside your arteries and veins is kept relatively constant (unless I watch the news or Oprah, and then it skyrockets), so your blood won’t boil." Read the whole thing.

And go see the movie, it's pretty good.

Timeo Episcopos Et Dona Ferentes

Well the big Anglican gabfest in Jamaica has concluded. The bottom appears to be that there will be no meaningful Covenant for now. So we continue to not know what being an Anglican is. This pretty much guarantees that the Anglican Communion will split, with the Global South going one way and the dying North going another.

The architect of all this muddle is of course our beloved Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. He does not want a split, but if there is to be one he will be on the side of stagnation and stasis.

Rowan Williams is an intelligent man, but he is not a wise one.

The Matrix Revealed

Those Pesky Facts

From Clifford.

Important Recall Notice

Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall Of All US Dollars

Just follow the instructions exactly and all will be well.

Stamping the Browncoat Card

From the movie: Serenity.

Compare and Contrast Cliches

Whenever you read something about the real world environment the words 'pristine' and 'fragile' are inevitably used when someone wishes to halt some form of development.

By way of contrast, in the computer environment, the words 'strong' and 'rich' are overused in describing a particular environmental development.

I think the cliche police ought to intervene and bar the use of pristine and fragile for nature and strong and rich for computers until equal numbers of pristine and fragile have been used in describing computers and strong and rich in describing real world environments.

To get things started, I am writing this blog on my pristine and fragile Acer laptop whilst in the midst of our strong and rich weed infested backyard.

Utter Geek Boast

Last monday my main computer decided it didn't want to work anymore. It started showing all the signs of an overheated system with sudden crashes and hanging on rebooting.

One of my main forms of fantasizing is building imaginary computers, so I had a rough idea of what I wanted.

Any computer I built would have to be Linux and Windows friendly. So all components would require support under both OS's.

I had a perfectly good hard drive, graphics card and dvd burner for recycling into the new box.

What was needed was a new motherboard, cpu, power supply, memory, cpu fan and a case. A new hard drive wasn't really needed but would certainly simplify installing a dual boot system.

As for operating systems, I still have a perfectly good copy of Windows XP Pro (32 bit) and I still really like Ubuntu. I did decide to switch from regular 32 bit Ubuntu to 64 bit Ubuntu.

I ordered the parts on Tuesday. By Friday they had all arrived. On Thursday I downloaded all the drivers and did some research. Friday I continued my research in between work assignments.

Saturday morning, I got up, ate a good breakfast fixed my coffee and headed into our living room with my laptop (which turned out to be unnecessary), the old computer, a monitir, keyboard and mouse as well as the new components.

It was easily the smoothest build I have ever had. I highly recommend each and every item purchased. They all had decent instructions. All parts required were provided.

I used a live cd of Ubuntu 64 for boot testing. It booted readily.

For the OS install I used a couple of sleazy geek tricks. I never really uninstalled Windows from the old system. I merely re-wrote Grub so that it wouldn't boot to Windows (I am nothing if not lazy). To get Windows on the new computer, I re-re-wrote Grub on the old hard drive and turned it back into a dual booter. I then removed Ubuntu completely (after backing up all data). Booting back into Windows, I then removed all proprietary drivers, rendering Windows what one poster called 'agnostic'.

When the old hard drive was installed as the primary hard drive in the new system, it booted smoothly into Windows. There were an awful lot of nagging messages about finding new hardware, but the proper application of installation cd's soon cleared them up.

The next step was installing Ubuntu for a true dual boot. The computer had already booted twice from a Live Ubuntu cd so I knew it wouldn't be difficult. It wasn't. All devices were detected and configured. The dual boot was correctly set up.

In the whole process there was only one hitch.

We have a HP officejet 6500 all-in-one that I use almost exclusively as a scanner. The proprietary HP software had crashed when I installed it last week. It worked out of the box in Linux, so that is why I had 'uninstalled' Windows. Reinstalling Windows brought back the old bad installation. To make matters worse, when I installed Linux Ubuntu, it asked if I wanted it to transfer over my Windows files and setting. I foolishly clicked 'yes'. That meant that the scanner was borked in both Windows and Ubuntu.

I knew that it was futzed in Windows so I removed all the proprietary HP software and did a minimal install of just the drivers. Windows XP comes with a photo and scanning wizard that is bare bones but usable. I didn't realize that the printer was unusable with Linux until I tried it late yesterday. After a great deal of aggravation, I resolved the issue this morning.

The great irony is that the scanner was horrible with the HP Windows software. It is decent with the Windows barebones software. It is excellent in Linux. Xsane (a Linux scanning application) is poorly documented, but richly featured. It is fast, very configurable and plays well with others. HP supports their devices very well indeed in Linux.

All in all, it's been a fun, if very geeky, weekend.

Twofer Cute

and



You can blame Breda for this....

Virus Alert

No, not the swine flu.

Pretty viruses. Or are they viruses made pretty?


See more viruses rendered visual here.

And in a deeply ironic semi-related note, some downloads of the release candidate copy of Windows 7 may be infected with a trojan.

Pot Pie

When I was a boy my mother would often make dinner by reheating frozen pot pies in the oven. That's not a criticism. To this day, I love chicken pot pies. The problem lay in that Mom buys things that are on sale or have the lowest price without regard to quality. I am prone to similar behaviour. This apple did not fall far from the tree.

As a child I noticed that the pot pies that were completely encased in crust were usually pretty good. The ones that were chicken cobblers, that is without a bottom crust were always awful.

We recently picked up a large box of pot pies at a discount warehouse. They are fully encrusted and are quite tasty. One of them is a satisfying meal. The other pot pies do not have a full crust and, as was true in childhood, are less desirable. They also do not fill me up. After consuming one, I'm always hungry. Which means that an hour or two after mealtime I find something to snack on. The snack is always something unhealthy and is usually something I do not really want.

I think that modern religion can be analogized to pot pies. Real religion, that is to say historical and orthodox Christianity is self contained and is spiritually satisfying. It provides a varied experience. Modern religion, that practised by many mainline churches, is religion without a complete crust. In an effort to make it available to more people, the ingredients have been reduced and cheapened. It provides less calories and nutrients, so that it can never fully satisfy. Its consumers either abandon it for fast food religion or supplement it with unhealthy spiritual snack food.

Like all analogies, this one breaks down if pushed too far. But it does explain why lowering the cost of faith does not actually result in more adherents.

The Intersection of Enthusiasms

The redoubtable computer review site, Tom's Hardware recently had what they term the "Biggest CPU Shootout, Ever". They held it in Austin, Texas, which just plain sucks, but there you are. To say that I am jealous of the participants is to understate the case.

Limbs Across the Ocean

Andrea Wulf has a fascinating essay about the early history of American and British gardening over at the Wall Street Journal. Go check it out. Anything with Benjamin Franklin in it is well worth reading.

Tough Talk

Ann Althouse has a link to an article about Milwaukee and openly carrying a firearm. In the article is the following quote from the Milwaukee Chief of Police: "My message to my troops is if you see anybody carrying a gun on the streets of Milwaukee, we'll put them on the ground, take the gun away and then decide whether you have a right to carry it".

That statement bothers me. And the point of concern is less about gun laws, than attitude. Even if you believe that citizens should not be allowed to carry firearms, you still should be concerned about the use of the word 'troops' when discussing police.

Troops are properly cavalry soldiers, but modern usage has expanded to cover all soldiers, especially those who are in combat.

Historically, police in America have not been militarized. Other countries do have militarized police (such as the gendarmes in France). These specialized police qare employed to maintain order and to protect the current regime from rebellion. As such they enjoy a special status within the society.

In the U.S. police are regarded at law as deputized citizens. The maintenance of order is a collective responsibility, not just that of the police. More to the point, we believe that they are also to maintain a certain level of justice.

Troops have nothing to do with justice and everything to do with order. The use of military terms when referring to police implies that they are at war with the rest of society, or some element thereof, instead of being part of society at large.

I do not think I would enjoy living in Milwaukee. I really do not wish to live in a city where the police are waging war.

They're Back!

And that is a very good thing. Chestnuts that is. With a little luck, our children or grandchildren may very well see chestnuts in the wild again.

More Knuckle Dragging

Bill Whittle nails it.

Computer Smugness

Do you know someone who has a Mac? Are they smug when you mention a computer virus? Here's some interesting news for your Macfriend.

The Reasoned Discourse of the Left

{H/T Clifford}

He Is Risen

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

Matthew 28:1-9

This Pretty Much Nails It

I am 48 years old. I can not recall a more disastrous start to a Presidency. Even Carter didn't start off this bad, and that is saying something.

Our Fearless Leader may as well just start wearing size 51 shoes and a red nose.

Searching- Old Skool

{H/T My[confined]Space}

More Pen Nerdiness

Below is a comparison of two pens. The Pigma Micron that I had been using and my shiny new Waterford Marquis. It's moderately unfair as the Micron puts down a very fine line and the Waterford is a medium nib. But when I use a medium point on ballpoints or felt tips I'm utterly illegible.




"If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

My Total Nerdiness

I know almost no one will be interested in this, but I bought myself a new toy today. Yes, rollerballs, gels and ballpoints are tidier. But ever since I was a boy, I've been fascinated by fountain pens. The store that sells them is almost as dangerous as a bakery or an art supply emporium.

Also, very little can surpass the feel and smell of a fountain pen on good quality paper.

Addendum: Isn't the Internet grand?

Not Sure What To Think About This

Created by Train Horns

They Are Following Me

Looks very much like I picked the wrong time to migrate from Windows to Linux. Microsoft is buying Novell.

Peanuts revised

Or what if Frank Miller wrote and drew the classic comic strip?

{H/T Robb}

Odd Association

Amazon recommendations usually come close to hitting the mark. Part of the fun is that they give the reason why they are recommending something. Generally it will be something along the lines of "you bought this specific printer, so here's the toner that it uses."

None of which explains this recommendation. The stated reason is because I bought these. Apparently people who like nuts also like graphics?

I have seen the future

and I really want to hide in my safe place.



It's time to watch some Top Gear now, or maybe Bullrun.

Positively Wall Street

Could that be, is it? Bob?

KIll Bill In One Minute

It's even safe for work....

Government Inaction

More reason to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide!

What I'm Up To

Last Thursday my primary computer came down with a virus (the Alureon trojan, to be exact). I still have no idea how in heck it contracted the bug.

At the time, my home network consisted of two desktop computers, one running windows xp home and the other running windows xp pro, and two laptops that connected to the internet via an access point on my main computer (the one that got sick). I was using AVG for computer security. All of this was hidden behind a home brewed router.

I have been using computers since I was a high school freshman in Chatham, NJ. Of course, back then it was all punch cards, paper tapes and mainframes. The very first PC I had was a dual floppy drive Zenith. I was an early installer of Windows and OS/2. I remember when Apples were cool, then when they were not and their rebirth as MacIntosh. I remember the Internet before AOL invaded. I am an oldskool computer geek.

Until recently, I've never fiddled much with desktop Linux. I had some minor familiarity with the server/networking side of the software, and I knew a little about firewalls and Linux. A while ago, I downloaded the 8.04 version of Ubuntu Linux, burnt it to a CD and watched it generate endless screens of garbage on the main PC for an hour or so.

Fiddling with hardware is usually fun, but really only when it is on my terms. Frantically trying to fix something when you need your computer to meet a deadline is unfun.

I spent most of Friday disinfecting my main computer. Because of the way my home network was set up, the virus did not spread beyond the one computer. It did successfully reinfect the main computer early Saturday morning. Never, ever remove a virus manually, then repair Windows. It never really turns out well.

Saturday I deleted Windows and reinstalled it. I disinfected all of the drives and my main computer was virus free. Of course, I then I had to reinstall a whole mess of software, which I did.

Since then, I've also installed Ubuntu 8.10, which is a distro of Linux. This time, I took the time to RTFM and the associated support documents. I signed up at the community forums and googled potential issues. And the install went very smoothly. The one real install issue I had, I finessed by buying a SATA Bluray/DVD/CD drive. (The issue was that my DVD burner was IDE off a Micron controller, whilst my hard drive was a Terabyte WD SATA drive off the Intel controller. Putting both drives on the same controller with updated drivers and running AHCI cured all ills.(That's what I get for having a really flexible motherboard))

I like Ubuntu, a lot. It is very different from Windows. The development team has worked wonders to get the typical user up and running as painlessly as possible. They have also done an excellent job at nurturing a support community.

The OS is rock solid and very stable. Locating appropriate software is also handled well. The default look is pretty nifty. Customizing it is simple. Total basic install time took me around an hour, at the end of which I had music, office software, printing, network and Internet.

Since the basic install, I've mostly fiddled and tweaked. Not out of any real necessity, but because that's what I do for fun.

Why the switch?

As I wrote above, I've been using Windows for a very long time. I still have installation media for Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home and Pro) and I have Windows Vista on my laptop.

Recently Steve Ballmer asked why Apple was worth a $500 premium. I started asking why Windows was worth a $200 premium.

The advantages of Windows are:

Most software is written for it. There is a huge install base of users, so that if you have a particular problem, the odds are great that someone else has had that problem as well. They may have, also, solved that problem.

Almost all PC games are written for Windows.

It comes installed on most computers. Therefore, our two laptops run different flavours of Windows.

Why then, the switch?

Ubuntu boots almost as fast as XP. My main computer runs programs faster on Ubuntu.

Linux is massively more secure than Windows. Part of this is due to tighter code writing. A good bit of it has to do with the lack of available targets for Linux malware. The dominance and ubiquity of Windows makes it a target rich environment.

I am bitterly tired of funding internet security companies. AVG, Norton, McAfee, Trend, Kaspersky, and Grisoft, I have tried them all. Because of how Linux handles users, even if my computer gets infected, I will be able to remove it fairly painlessly. Further, because valuable system overhead is not consumed by registry dead ends, security overhead and other effluvia my computer runs more quickly than under the old regime.

As for productivity software, I switched to Open Office three years ago. Open Office runs on Linux just fine, thank you very much. I mostly use web-based email these days, so losing Outlook distressed me not at all.

As for gaming, most of my computer gaming has been playing solitaire (number one game in the world for two decades), mah jongg and free cell. All of which are readily available in Windows, Linux or even on Macs. Sally plays Bejeweled, but that's a browser based game, so switching ruffled no feathers in that direction.

My browser has been Firefox for years now. Firefox is fully implemented on Linux.

Another part of it is that I wanted and needed a challenge. Admittedly, it's been less of a challenge than I thought previously, but the very flexibility of Linux means that I can continue to learn new things for quite some time.

In fact, the main problem I have had with the switch is that my documents print slower in Linux. Other people have the same issue, so it's apparently just one of those things. And I can live with that.

I'm keeping this computer on a dual boot setup with Windows XP and Ubuntu for now. But unless something untoward happens the day is fast approaching when I will jettison Windows completely.

Addendum: Apparently, I'm not the only one tired of the Redmond generated bloatware. John C Dvorak is migrating to Ubuntu as well.

What I've Been Doing in My Spare Time

Warning: Heavy Metal Music

Friday Poem

Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.


Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

You can listen to it here.

Best Political Cartoon Ever

So not safe for work. So very, very true.






{H/T Theo Spark}

Going Topless on Youtube

This guy has pointed a webcam at a railroad trestle in Durham NC. An astonishing number of trucks simply ignore the warning sign and warning lights and try to shove on through.

Some people simply will not obey the laws. Of physics.

Check out the guy's Youtube channel.

{H/T Popehat}

For My Wife

Shopping, Texas Style

{H/T Paul}

Quote of the Day

"I would point out that, current economic conditions notwithstanding, economists have correctly predicted 24 of the last 5 recessions. Doomsayers abound and are much more in evidence than good news."

This should be engraved on the head of every economist.

From here.

Why the Button Gaffe Could Not Have Happened With President Bush

The former Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, writes, speaks and reads Russian fluently.

She likely did her own translating, as well.

I've not been able to find out what languages, other than English, Hillary Clinton knows.

Bugatti Blender

It's tres chic and all.






But this is a real blender:

Piano Man

A wonderful story from the most depressing blog, ever.

Remember, It's Science!

Minnesotans for Global Warming conduct an experiment concerning the greenhouse effect.

For My Friend Paul

A Russian girl, AC/DC and full auto, what more could you possibly want? Enjoy!

The Right Price

I've never been seriously tempted to buy a Mac. While the OS is spiffy and they usually look pretty., the price for power has never been a real bargain.

Until now.

I may actually wind up with a Mac. Of course I'll probably get sued into oblivion by Steve Jobs himself, but $400 is a decent price.

Coastal Living

Sally and I spent the weekend with my parental units. A grand time was had by all, especially our two kittens. We left the three older cats home, so Noodle and Pye were able to enjoy the full attention of each other and four humans. They also developed a liking for camellia water!

We took my parent's to Nance's for seafood last night. My mother indulged herself in one of her favourite treats, steamed oysters. The local oysters at Nance's are too-die-for-good. Sally had her fave coastal fish, grouper, my Dad had fried oysters and I had sauteed shrimp. We all swapped tidbits and ate way too many hush puppies.

High cuisine is all very well and I do enjoy a gourmet meal, but fresh seafood all by itself is darn hard to beat for plain good eats.



If we lived in the low country, I guarantee I'd be eating a lot more, but I'd probably weigh less. Our grill would be seeing a lot more use, you see...

Song For Bishop Ingham

Because, I like care, and stuff.

AFK

Gone to South Carolina to see the parents. Be back late Sunday. Y'all behave!

Hell- And I'm Happy

My copy of Escape From Hell just arrived. As soon as I'm done with my work, I'll be off in a quiet corner somewhere, reading.

Addendum: Finished. Nutshell review: Every bit as good as the first, but different. I think a re-read in about a week is in order.

Let The Whole World Know

What kind of hero you are!

{H/T Breda}

The March of Progress

Diet Coke with Bacon



Words fail me.

{H/T Bacon Today}

It Has Its Ups and Downs

US Housing prices rendered as a roller coaster ride (adjusted for inflation):



Very clever!

{H/T Tam}

Blues In The Night

Two versions of the Arlen/Mercer standard.

Cab Calloway



And Daffy Duck (of course)

Smackdown At The Superbowl

Everyone knows that the Pirates beat the Cardinals at the Superbowl. What few know is the real action was happening up in a telemarketing company's box.

I would actually pay to see the pitch off.

{H/T Al Dente}

Wasted Evening

When I found that Repo: A Genetic Opera was available on DVD I was genuinely excited. Sally and I both adore musicals. Our first date was to see "Space Puppies" at the now long defunct Evoteck theatre. So we especially like science fiction space operas. We like camp. "Carrie White: The Musical"is also a fave of ours. I have the soundtrack to "Evil Dead: The Musical" (I highly recommend it, by the way). The reviews for Repo were good at Amazon. So I ordered it.

It arrived today. We ordered Chinese delivery. We fed the cats. We settled in to the couch and prepared ourselves for a night's musical fun.

After having seen the musical, neither of us can think of anyone we dislike enough to give the DVD to. That's good. We've mastered our anger, jealousies and hatreds. That's also bad. We can't figure out what to do with the DVD. Turning it into a coaster really isn't a solution. I'd love to find it a good home, but no one I know would like it.

To be specific, it plays like a government funded production piece made for the Toronto stage. Which it likely is, oddly enough. It's slow, with unmemorable music and bad plotting. The dialog is pedestrian. The lyrics are pedestrian. The music is the sort written by overhormoned fifteen year old boys who like Rammstein.

The humour is nigh non-existent. The movie is so dark that even with the lights turned off, at night, we still could not see some of the sets. Did I mention the mediocre music? Which, since this tries to be an opera, is relentless and ubiquitous.

In some of the reviews over at Amazon, the reviewers mentioned that the distributor (Lionsgate) is not backing the movie with any money for publicity. I have been doubting the decision making ability of the powers that be over at Lionsgate but that news has restored my faith in them. In this matter at least, they are persons with keen powers of discernment.

I would say that it should have stayed in Canada, but I really don't dislike the Canadian people that much. If the Obama administration wants to abandon waterboarding, they may wish to consider playing this for the prisoners down at Gitmo instead.

Guitar Awesomesauce

Obscure Geeky Joy

This just makes me happy on so many different levels. If only it were a real game.

Saturday Awesome

From the movie The Final Countdown.

A New Iconography

From LOLSaints

What?

You knew it had to happen sooner or later.

The first letter must stand for Fail

FEMA may have sent emergency kits with recalled peanut butter to Kentucky and Arkansas. No one tell Clifford. He has enough FEMA hate already.

I like this idea

I like it a lot. In fact, this blog heartily endorses it. Go and do likewise.

{H/T Instapundit}

Question

Here's a thought experiment:

If everyone who did not believe the creeds left the Episcopal Church, how many would be left? What about the Anglican Church of Canada? Or the Church of England?

And more to the point, would a greater percentage of the laity be left or of the clergy?

Just how many Christians are left in those churches?

And of those who are not Christians, how many know that they are not Christians?

Our Current Crisis

Explained.

Four Hours in Two Minutes, Thirty Nine Seconds

This made me grin.




{H/T Samizdata}

Hellfire and Brimstone

From an Episcopalian, no less. And he's right!

Monopoly

Medical costs have risen faster than in inflation in the US on average for the past thirty years. Oddly enough, the total number of medical school graduates in 1976 (table 1) were 13,634. The total number in 2008 were 16,130. The number of graduates in 1976 was 218,035,000. In 2008 it was 303,824,640. While the American population grew by 85,789,640 (39%) and, even more importantly aged. The total number of new graduates increased by only 2,496 (18%). And most of that growth was in the mid-seventies.

Want to lower the cost of medical care, increase your odds of speaking with a real doctor and allow more people to be able to have a doctor? Increase the number of doctors. It's just a matter of supply and demand. No need for socialized medicine (a/k/a medical rationing) at all.

The AMA has traditionally argued that increasing the supply of doctors would lower medical skill. However, the AMA is a guild and has, at heart, the members interests first and foremost in their priorities. Fewer doctors mean higher fees.

Perhaps we shouldn't be listening to the AMA on the subject of supply and demand. Seems more like a job for an economist.

{edited}

The Inevitable Follow Up

Just had to, Don'tcha know?

At Least One Thousand

words, that is.




{H/T Boots & Sabers}

If You Meet the Buddha on the Road

Ordain him a bishop. {H/T StandFirm}

A Quick Book Review

I just finished Daniel Suarez' new techno-thriller, Daemon. It did everything a techno-thriller ought to do, with decent character development, lots of twists and turns in the plot, a surprise ending, and alas a note signaling that there will be a sequel (I'm not a huge fan of series).

Only one thing challenged my suspension of disbelief. When I took a break from the book and actually did some work, I had a Windows related hiccup. Since the book is based upon several really cool ideas about interrelating bleeding edge technology and software, the thought crossed my mind that all the things that occur in the book, from the deployment of a complex series of daemons to the use of AI recruitment tools to the use of SUV's as killer vehicles (one of the villains is a Hummer) depend upon the reliable operation of untested software. Some of the code would necessarily be very complex and quite long.

If you read the book, and you ought to it's quite good, try not to think about buggy software.

Of Course The World Is A Newer Shinier Place Now

In Light of Recent Events

Also, Bobby Darin is the essence of cool in this song.

It's a Good Question

Best Picture I've seen in a While

From here (great blog btw)

Friday Palate Cleanser

There's something about Ann-Margret.

Live Free or Die

Geert Wilders is one of the few Dutch parliamentarians to hold the mullahs accountable. Of course, he's being charged with criminal speech.

I hope the Netherlands can survive the lack of honest dialog. It's been a decent place to live for quite a while.

Cure For The Winter Blues

Answering the challenge

Sarah Hey over at StandFirm posted a video of a cat being friends with a rat.

This is cuter.