Wine Tour 0: Jon attempts to liveblog my wine tour

Jon has had enough of my blathering about wine . . . he's now doing his own version of my wine tour blogging:

Our first stop was Hillebille, which has made great strides in improving the atmosphere of their tasting house; they've taken the wheels off and have leveled the trailer with some bottle jacks, and we saw evidence of some new cinder blocks being prepared for the new foundation. Inside, they've taken down the old water-damaged paneling and have put up some new chipboard, which gives the whole tasting room a warm and woody desconstructivist look.

The still was still ( ha ha! ) cooling down when we arrived, so all that was on hand for us to taste today was HilleBille Blue, which the winery touts as being good down to -40° C. Blue provides the palate-cleansing sensation of, say, turpentine, but without the overt sweetness of Canadian Tire Winter-X Heavy Duty Antifreeze (although it much resembles the latter in the glass). Blue will go well with bad piercings, belly shirts, drinking in the garage, and yelling "Whooooooooo!" whenever the Leafs score.

Bren was having trouble seeing when we left, so rather than risk travelling very far, we staggered down the hill to Spottswoode Estates. Mr. Spottswoode himself seems to have trust issues, and he required us to perform various acts upon his person to prove that we could be trusted. This totally confused my palate for the rest of the day, and as a result, all I can say is that Spottswoode is indeed round and full in the mouth.

Jon also wrote, "When I came up with that, I was thinking of Spottswoode from Team America. Unfortunately, there really is a Spottswoode: http://www.spottswoode.com/.

The Economist makes book on the Federal election

The good folks at The Economist take a quick look at the Canadian political scene at the start of the election campaign:

The Liberals have been losing support among voters ever since the revelation, in 2003, of the so-called "sponsorship" scandal. In 1995, voters in Quebec narrowly rejected a referendum on secession from Canada. In the following years, the Liberal government, under then prime minister Jean Chrétien, spent money on advertisements in the majority-francophone province promoting Canadian unity. Some of the money found its way to advertising firms with links to the Liberals, and thence back into party coffers. Mr Chrétien’s successor as prime minister, Paul Martin, asked a judge, John Gomery, to look into the accusations. His commission reported this month that money had indeed gone criminally missing, but explicitly exonerated Mr Martin. Nonetheless, the Liberals now seem tired and faintly corrupt in voters’ eyes.

But will this usher in a government led by the main opposition party, the Conservatives? The odds are surprisingly long. The current Conservative Party is the result of a recent merger between the western-based Canadian Alliance, which resembles America’s Republicans in its social and fiscal conservatism, and the ideologically softer Progressive Conservative Party. Led by the Alliance’s Stephen Harper, the new Conservatives seem more right-wing than many Canadians are comfortable with. Mr Harper’s opposition to gay marriage and reservations about abortion — both of which are espoused by the Liberal government — make him easy to portray as out-of-touch with tolerant Canadian values.

[. . .]

But Canada differs from its southern neighbour in a big respect. The two big parties must compete with the NDP across the country. And, more significantly for Canada's future, these three parties must contend with the Bloc Québécois, the national party advocating "sovereignty" — independence — for Quebec. Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc's leader, promises that voters in his province will pass "harsh judgment" on the Liberals for a scandal which, after all, misused funds designed to promote Canadian unity in Quebec. And not only is the federal government unpopular, but the provincial one, run by the Liberals, has failed to impress. This combination of forces will probably strengthen the Bloc’s hold on Quebec’s delegation in Ottawa in the January election.

Opinion polls suggest that support for independence has been growing in Quebec since the 1995 referendum. But much of this support looks fragile — many people say paradoxically that they favour independence but do not want to see a referendum soon: in other words, they are for it in theory, but against in practice.

I stop posting for a couple of days . . .

. . . and what happens? I quickly devolve from a TTLB Large Mammal all the way back to being a flippin' Rodent? You'd think I'd at least have been able to cling to one of those branches in the Marsupial zone, wouldn't you?

Of course, I'm not the only one to notice a sudden devolution:

Folks:

I spent a large chunk of the Thanksgiving holiday revamping the Ecosystem's algorithms and code as a part of my continuing effort to ensure that TTLB provides as useful a guide as possible to the best of the blogosphere.

Most of the changes are complete, but some are not, so bear with me for a few days as I complete the work. In particular, a significant change to Ecosystem ranking was implemented last night, so you may have seen significant shifts in particular blog's rankings.

I'll explain more once I've polished the changes; thanks for your patience...

There's a wide range of reactions in the comments to that post, including some pats on the back for NZ Bear, a couple of teeth-gnashing/cloth-rending whinges, and a couple of funny hints of legal action. All for a free service. Sometimes, people are just weird.

Wine Tour 2: Malivoire

Sorry for the delay . . . my home internet connection has been wonky for the last little while, so I'm having to dial up via another account. This should have been posted yesterday.

Second stop of the day, as the rain began to come down, was Malivoire. It was going to be our third stop, but Thomas & Vaughan across the street wasn't open for tasting.

We'd spent more time at Angels Gate than we'd originally intended, so we kept our tasting down to a minimum (never a good plan when you're on a tasting tour, I assure you). The tasting area at Malivoire has been revamped since the last time I visited, with a couple of stainless steel tanks moved out of the way to allow a larger area for visitors. It certainly made the area seem much less cramped than it used to.

The 2004 Estate Bottled Gewürztraminer had a nose I can only describe as being "Turkish Delight": rose and lemon. Very unusual. The wine had some of the oily mouth-feel that true Alsace Gewürztraminers often have — this is a good thing — but there was a slight bitterness on the finish that didn't seem to belong.

The 2003 Courtney Single Block Gamay was quite good: this has been a consistently big wine each vintage I've tried. The nose had some black pepper and earth with something resembling fresh-cut paper (yeah, I know, but I'm just reporting what I smelled). The body had good fruitiness up front and a long finish. Very nice, but I'm afraid it's a little over my budget for Gamays at $25 per bottle.

The 2003 Estate Bottled Cabernet Franc is a wine that can be cellared for a few years. It's drinking well now, but there's lots of tannic structure to allow it to continue developing for a while. The predominant aromas on the nose are violet flowers and redcurrant jam. The wine has good body, and a long finish.

The last wine I tried was the Limited Edition 2003 Old Vines Foch. I'm not much of a fan of hybrids like Foch and Baco, but this is certainly a big, burly red wine. The most noticeable thing coming out of the glass was an aroma similar to chocolate malt! On the palate, there's plenty of black pepper and black cherry flavour, with (to me) a bit of unwelcome green pepper flavour. A medium-long finish. This is, as the name says, a limited edition, so if you'd like to get some, you'll need to act quickly . . . they're selling out fast.

Wine Tour 1: Angels Gate

Just a brief summary of yesterday's tour. According to the news this morning, I had a narrow escape on my way down to wine country: someone scattered sharp metal shards along highway 407 in the westbound lanes about an hour before I got to that stretch of road. Dozens of cars had to pull off the road with slashed tires as a result. We saw no sign of it by the time we passed through that section — kudos to the maintenance crews on the ETR.

The weather looked briefly promising, as the sun came out just as we turned around the west end of Lake Ontario, but it was a promise unfulfilled: the rain started up about an hour later and continued pretty much the entire day from that point onwards.

Bren's choice for our first stop was Angels Gate. We've always enjoyed our visits here, but today was particularly good: aside from a couple of gentlemen trying to meet with the winemaker, we were uninterrupted for over an hour of visiting time. Between the two of us, we sampled a broad selection of very nice wines, without being jostled by other visitors, or (much, much worse) shoehorned out of the way by arriving bus tourists.

We started off looking at some chardonnays: the 2002 and 2003 (only available as futures right now) and the 2003 and 2004 Old Vines. While each of them was worth some attention, it was the 2003 Old Vines which captured my full attention. The initial aroma rising from the glass was buttered asparagus . . . not something I've encountered with many chardonnays before. The body was very fresh (the winemaker doesn't believe in over-oaking chardonnay), with only a bit of vanilla. A very nice wine for the price ($23.95).

The 2004 Pinot Noir was fruity and bright . . . pleasant, refreshing even, but not yet a challenge to the great Burgundy wines. At a tiny fraction of their prices, that's not a problem. I'm no expert (as reading my past reviews would tell you), but this doesn't seem to be a wine that will benefit from a lot of cellaring: a year or two would probably be fine, but it's not a 10- or 20-year cellar prospect.

The bargain of the visit was the 2003 Cabernet-Merlot. At $15.95, this was a very good (not overly fruity) Bordeaux-style wine. I was amazed at how much aroma developed after the wine had been put through a decanting funnel (something that until yesterday I'd considered pretty much just a showy toy for tasting bars). This wine has plenty of tannins, so it could be aged for a while, but it's drinking well right now. Decant this one for an hour or so, and then pair it with some steak . . . wonderful stuff.

The 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon had some serious tannins . . . aging would be a good thing . . . but they're pretty much sold out now. The 2003 Cabernet Franc also benefitted from decanting/aerating. It showed violet flowers and saddle leather on the nose, with a good, mouth-filling body. Not quite as good a bargain as the Cabernet-Merlot blend, but still a good buy at $18.95.

Saturn . . . planet of confusion for scientists

According to a brief report on MSN, one of the rings of Saturn is actually a spiral:

"These strands, initially interpreted as concentric ring segments, are in fact connected and form a single one-arm trailing spiral winding at least three times around Saturn," Charnoz and colleagues write in the Nov. 25 issue of the journal Science.

Charnoz's team made computer simulations to explore the spiral's origin. The new explanation raises more questions than it answers.

"The newly reported spiral is in a class by itself," says Mark Showalter, a SETI Institute researcher who wrote an analysis of the discovery for Science.

And it is changing rapidly. The spiral wound itself tighter between November 2004 and May 2005, the Cassini observations show. It will continue to tighten until the strands blend into a more uniform feature, Showalter said.

Saturn sounds like the most unusual planet in the system, and it seems to get less and less easy to understand the more data is gathered.

Hat tip to Bill Wenrich, from the Bujold mailing list.

QotD: Tasting Wines

We can detect over 10,000 different components in vinifera wines, which is a lucky break for wine critics who would get pretty bored writing, "tastes like wine," over and over again. Many of these chemicals have lock-and-key connections in our brain which work something like this: imagine the smell of Sunkist as a key that fits into a lock in your brain, causing you to think, "Orange!" Now, Vinifera takes a counterfeit key and sticks it in the same slot, causing you to say, "Hints of pungent orange peel tiptoe bracingly across the midpalate," while your brain thinks, "Orange!" It also has the key to sauerkraut, filter pad and diesel, according to the official Wine Aroma Wheel.

Jennifer Chotzi Rosen, "After the Fox", Rocky Mountain News, 2002-07-27

Off to Niagara

Today I'll be off wine-tasting in the Beamsville Bench and Niagara-on-the-Lake areas, so there'll be no posting until much later today.

QotD: Winter Driving

Snow driving is fun; make any incorrect move and you're all ditch-dwelling or tree-thumping. Thing is, almost any move is wrong. Driving on impacted snow is like performing heart surgery on a hummingbird.

Tim Blair, "Mini Apple Is", TimBlair.net, 2005-11-23

QotD: Politicians

Politics is very gruelling. But then politicians deserve it: they deserve to be gruelled. That's the nice thing about picking on politicians: you never have to feel bad about doing it. When you pick on other people, there's an element of human pity that always comes up — but that's completely absent with politicians, which makes it a lot easier to tell the truth about them.

P.J. O'Rourke, "I'd love to hear a politician say: 'We'll get the second-best minds together on this'", Telegraph Online, 2005-11-13

QotD: Priorities

I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars — the rest I just squandered.

George Best, British soccer legend, who died yesterday, aged 59

Are you corrupt?

I didn't want to ask what Jon was doing when he found this link.

Arabs finding anarchist "volunteers" more troublesome than helpful

Jon sent a link to an article about International Solidarity Movement volunteers making the situation more dangerous for the people they claim to be helping:

The anarchists, many of whom are members of the International Solidarity Movement, flock to flashpoints throughout Judea and Samaria, ostensibly to help PA Arabs contend with IDF closures and protect them from harassment. In actuality, many of the volunteers seek confrontations with IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents, taking advantage of their Western passports to cause havoc — knowing that, at worst, they will be deported, not jailed.

The local Arabs in the Hevron region whom the activists claim to be helping are now complaining that the American and European students behave in a provocative and offensive manner in Hevron's public areas. The Arabs say the activists disrespect the moral norms and standards of the local population.

Several local Arab residents told the Kol Ha'Ir newspaper that the activists have been exposing the local youths to drug use and sexual promiscuity.

You'd think, if this situation is common, that the Israeli government would change their laws to allow foreign agents provocateur to be treated in the same way as anyone else: deportation is clearly not much of a deterrent.After all, how much worse could the press coverage be for anything that reflects badly upon the Israeli government in the western press?

QotD: Rent

The two heterosexual white male characters at the center of "Rent" have all these cool minority friends. Indeed, "Rent" functions as a sensitive liberal man's wish-fulfillment fantasy about a new and improved form of diversity. Hanging with diverse pals demonstrates your moral superiority over other Caucasians, but, frustratingly for young white social climbers, actual live minorities are seldom content to play their assigned roles as silent props in your fashionable lifestyle. In particular, real black friends might insist on playing their hideous rap music and real gay friends their sissy disco music. In "Rent," however, the diverse trendsetters all like 1970s white boy guitar rock, thus validating the two straight guys' hipness quotients.

Steve Sailer, online excerpt from his review in The American Conservative, 2005-11-22

"Is that the realistic one or the grotesque one?"

Did you like that caricature you got at the Exhibition last summer? Here's a chance to get yourself immortalized:

A cathedral is offering people the opportunity to have their face immortalised in stone on its spires.

St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne has come up with a novel fundraising plan for people to have their likeness carved on one of about 170 stone figures - for an estimated $50,000 each.

[ . . . ]

Buyers have three options: a realistic sculpture, a caricature, or a grotesque - a bizarre gargoyle-like sculpture.

Hat tip to Drew Curtis' FARK.com.

The "Dilbert" death-toll

Last weekend's Dilbert comic was particularly amusing. I thought so, anyway. Apparently, I'm nearly alone in thinking that:

Recently I killed thousands more people. I don't have exact numbers yet. The problem stems from my comic that ran on 11-20-05, implying that retail stores might harvest organs from bad customers and sell them on eBay. I've received dozens of letters (long ones!) from very angry people who assure me that the Dilbert comic will reduce the number of organ donors. The concern is that people will think their parts will end up on eBay and so they won't be inspired to donate.

This would only have an impact on exceptionally dumb potential organ donors. But as you know, that's a large block of the general population. Now I have to wonder how many people are smart enough to read an entire Dilbert comic and still dumb enough to think that the first person on the scene of an accident might be there just to harvest organs for eBay. It can't be more than 1%. Let's see, we estimate 150 million people read Dilbert, so 1% would be 1.5 million. And only 10% of them might have donated an organ anyway, so I'm probably killing 150,000 people.

It's times like this when "oops" doesn't seem sufficient.

Hat tip to Samizdata.

Dutch Urban Agriculture

Theodore Dalrymple finds that the most profitable agricultural workers in the Netherlands are not, strictly speaking, farmers:

Near the Ministry of Justice in the Hague, and visible from its windows, is an area of the Dutch capital where many of the unemployed grow marijuana for a living. While continuing to receive about $1,200 per month from the state for doing nothing, they earn up to $6,000 a month as well (tax free, of course) by cultivating pot in their apartments. The easy money, observers report, has reduced the crime rate.

It still isn't legal in Holland to grow or to sell marijuana, but apart from occasional police raids, not much effort goes into suppressing the trade. Such prosecutions as there are result in confiscation of the horticultural equipment (which the drug-dealers replace within the week) and an easily affordable $1,200 fine.

The minister of justice does not like the trade but is in a quandary about how to respond. Three possible courses of action present themselves: to take serious measures to suppress the trade; to legalize it, either by creating a state monopoly or by allowing anyone to grow and sell the drug; or to allow the present situation to continue. All three have their inconveniences.

That's serious quasi-legal money. You'd think they'd only be able to do better by registering for the CAP money from Brussels!

No wonder GM is in trouble

General Motors, as we all know, is in desperate straits at the moment, but I didn't realize just how complicated their situation is. Here's an example, courtesy of Autoblog:

The so-called "jobs bank" that's mandated by the UAW, where workers go to get paid for years after being laid off, is a concept that many of us cannot comprehend. Why? Not because we wish to be cruel to union employees, but rather because it was designed with the idea in mind that an automaker's layoffs might be temporary and that workers would need to be hired back relatively quickly. If anyone who follows the domestic industry really thinks this is the case nowadays, then, well, I hope you're not driving after consuming those types of drugs, as there hasn't been much "growth" at the domestics since I've been born.

The bottom line here is that the jobs banks is adding an incredible amount of inertia to the cost-cutting process, and the 1/3rd or so of workers that will be "involuntarily separated" from GM in the latest round of cuts will likely not disappear from the payroll for several years because of this. GM is likely to confront the UAW on this one; alternatively, I think the union might stand to gain a lot of favor with the public if they could come up with solutions to problems like this by themselves. As Paul Eisenstein pleads, this would allow the union to "become part of the solution".

Not to bash the folks who will be losing their jobs, but all the times I've been laid off in my career, it's been a little-or-no-warning thing, with no guaranteed pay-off or gradual transition from "employed" to "unemployed". In one case, I had to sue my former employer for my final paycheque and outstanding vacation pay. I think my experiences are more typical of the working world than the GM workers' situation, where they have (in some cases) years of notice that the layoff is coming, and then to have additional pay after the layoff for an extended period of time.

Unions can be good for their members, but this is a textbook case of the union's power endangering the health of the employer and therefore the employment prospects for all the members.

QotD: Cool and Dorky Wines

Though it's fashionable to pretend otherwise, there are indeed such things as cool and dorky wines. I took the question to an assorted in-crowd of master sommeliers, opinion-making wine press and early-adaptors. What wines, I asked, are hotter than hot? What do sommeliers drink and discuss in breathless whispers when they're alone with their own kind?

Here's what I learned. What's not cool is money. Forking over wads of cash to have giant, manly, trophy wines decanted is so over.

The concept of the moment is terroir-wine. Wine from, say, a single, half-acre vineyard on a precipitous mountainside in East Fraxistan. Weeded, harvested, stomped and vinted by one old guy with callused hands and the artistic sensibilities of a concert violinist; so in-tune with life's cycles that the grapes talk to him. He has to be into some sustainable-earth cult involving ancient amphorae, lunar cycles, rune-casting and babbling in tongues. The wine should be quirky, perhaps with a putrid smell you have to get past before you suck it in, gurgle loudly, and proclaim it: "pretty funky stuff." Funky is good. It speaks of earth and of the fine line between disgusting and delicious. A line the general public, with its bland, corporate taste, is too cowardly to approach.

Jennifer Chotzi Rosen, "Chasing Cool", vinchotzi.com, 2005-11-23

SETI going home

The SETI@home project announced that they are closing down their original system and merging with Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). Slashdotters discuss.

I've had SETI@home installed on my various machines for quite some time, but I'm not sure if I'll follow to the new BOINC software: there have been some reports that it's more than a bit finicky to set up and get running.

Hat tip to Jon for the original email.

What's the schlockiest 70's song?

Wizbang asks "what's your choice for schlockiest 70's song? The Pina Colada Song? Afternoon Delight? The Night Chicago Died? Muskrat Love?"

A few choice cuts from the comment thread:

What about "She's Having My Baby," by Paul Anka?

brown eyes blue (blew?)
you light up my life.
torn between two lovers

"Midnight at the Oasis."

"Feelings"

As several commenters found, the whole decade is jam-packed full of candidate songs. I'd have gone with "Seasons in the Sun" as the worst, but reading the comments is inducing faint nausea: "Muskrat Love", "Sometimes when we touch", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", and (ugh!) "Do ya think I'm sexy". I think I need to go schedule a bit of brain surgery to get those tunes out of my memories. What a skid-mark of a decade, musically speaking.

Sony: your father's electronic equipment?

After Sony's PR disaster with the deliberate infection of their customers' computers, The Register asks some key questions about Sony's future:

• How many corporate, government, military, and scientific organizations will ban the use of any Sony CD now on any machine connected to their networks?
• How long until those bans extend to any copy-protected CD made by any music company?
• How long until those bans extend to any music CD, period?
• How many corporate, government, military, and scientific networks have been compromised by the Sony rootkit?
• Have any security breaches occurred on a corporate, government, military, and scientific network due to the Sony rootkit?
• What actions will Sony face as a result of any security breaches?
• How would those corporate, government, and scientific organizations have reacted if a group hostile to American interests had engaged in the same security violations practiced by Sony?

I know my perceptions of Sony have been very seriously impacted by this fiasco: once upon a time I wouldn't have questioned whether a piece of Sony equipment was good value for money. Now, should I ever consider buying something by Sony, I'll have to consider whether I want to encourage the sort of behaviour that current Sony management engages in. (That is, you can be certain that the rootkit nonsense was only the tip of the iceberg.)

It's amazing what qualifies as "News" these days

This was a very odd news article, listed as the second-most important article in the World News section of the Rogers web portal this morning:

John Kerry gets jury duty, serves as foreman; stint impresses Republican voter

Senator John Kerry's public profile and prosecutorial past didn't spare him from performing a civic responsibility many try to avoid — jury duty.

Kerry was not only chosen this week to sit on a jury in Suffolk Superior Court, but also was elected foreman.

The case involved two men who sued the city for injuries suffered in a 2000 car accident involving a school principal. The Kerry-led jury rejected their claim Tuesday, and his fellow jurors said the state's junior senator was a natural leader.

"I just found him to be a knowledgeable, normal person," said Cynthia Lovell, a nurse and registered Republican who says she now regrets voting for President George W. Bush in last year's election. "He kept us focused. He wanted us all to have our own say."

From this, I'm wondering if Kerry is considering another run for President, because I can't imagine any other reason for AP to consider this "news".

Update: Wizbang provides a bit of additional information on the case:

Earlier this week, a lawsuit against the city of Boston was resolved. A couple injured in a car crash were suing the city for pain and suffering. They wanted $7,000, and despite the jury faulting the city, the panel declined to award them any money.

This wouldn't be news, except for one odd little fact: the foreman of the jury was John Forbes Kerry, the junior senator from Massachusetts and the 2004 Democratic nominee for president.

It's always tempting, when you read a brief summary of a court case to jump right in and make comments . . . but you're almost always going to go astray, because the summary won't include enough information. That being said, the thought did cross my mind that it'd be typical of a fan of big government to be on the side of the government against the plaintiffs . . .

QotD: Fandom

"Amber, if it exists, I guarantee you there's a fandom community for it. Every social group behaves just like the fans we make fun of.

"There's factions who want things the way they were when they were kids and think anything new is corrupting and evil, counter-balanced by young sycophants who roll their eyes at anything from before they were born. Every new development is heralded as the slippery slope into the end of days.

"Politics, organized religion, PTA Meetings. They all function as identical overlapping microcosms of the same human behavior. It doesn't matter if they're celebrating Strawberry Shortcake, the King James Version of the Bible or Adolphe Menjou. Fandom is Universal."

"Highways."

"I can point youto the newsgroup. Some think the new Hwy-49 is an insult to the old Hwy-49."

David Willis, "Shortpacked", 2005-11-17

Dan Savage interviewed on NPR

Dan Savage, author of the new book The Committment is interviewed on NPR about his book and the recent marriage to his partner of 10 years. Their son, DJ, was originally opposed to his parents getting married . . . for "interesting kid logic reasons":

School is very conformist, and one of the very first conforming that goes on in pre-school and kindergarten is gender. Suddenly, things he'd always liked, he came to understand them as not things that he liked, but things that he liked because he was a boy: they were boy things. And the whole world got divided into boy things and girl things, and marriage was a girl thing. Marriage, as DJ understood it, at five and six, was nuclear cooties: it was something that the girls threatened to do to the boys. I mean, it wasn't a pleasant thing.

[Amateur transcription mine . . . as are the transcription errors.]

McClaren to stay in Teesside

Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren has signed a contract extension to 2009:

McClaren's future has been the subject of speculation as contract talks took place and he had been linked to taking over at England and Manchester United.

He is an assistant to England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson and was understudy to Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.

But he said: "The club going is places so it was never even a question of whether or not I wanted to stay."

The new deal will ease concerns over any exit while ensuring Boro are compensated should he leave.

Inevitable result of "reality" TV

I guess it had to happen, although I still find myself a bit surprised that not only would a major network name a show "Wife Swap", but that they were not prepared for the obvious lawsuit risk:

An Oklahoma man is suing for over $10 million after the show "Wife Swap" exchanged his wife with a gay man.

Jeffrey D. Bedford of Haileyville filed his $10,225,000 suit in Muskogee's U.S. District Court, claiming that ABC Television misled him by not sending a woman from a heterosexual family to his home.

In his suit against Walt Disney (the parent company of both ABC and the show's producers, RDF Media), Bedford claims that when he conducted a Bible study for the Haileyville Baptist Church in his home, his gay "wife" invited a gay group as well.

Words fail me. Again.

OSM changes back

Jon sent me a link to the latest naming news for the erstwhile OSM:

At our swanky launch party in the Rainbow Room at New York's Rockefeller Center on November 16, we changed out of our "pajamas" both literally and figuratively. We went from being www.pajamasmedia.com to OSM™ Media, LLC, the OSM being short for Open Source Media. And oh, what a drubbing we took. Many, many readers pointed out to us that OSM™ was an oxymoron; the open source tech community expressed concern; and a very fine gentleman named Christopher Lydon at Open Source (www.radioopensource.org) politely pointed out that we might be trampling on his space. (We're sending him a pair of warm, fuzzy slippers, a heartfelt apology, and his name back, as we speak.)

All of which, as it turns out, has led us to make a change for the better. We are re-assuming our identity as Pajamas Media. (Just give us a few days to sort the technical issues out.) In short, the whole experience of being caught with our pajamas down has been a bit embarrassing, but in the end, when we realized we could get our beloved name back, we were overjoyed. So a warm, hearty thanks to all of you who expressed your displeasure with our phony identity.

Jon also suggested a new name for them: "How about Our A$$ is Hangin' Out Of Our Decks Media?" Catchy, no?

This is an idea that will only work . . .

. . . if you have complete air superiority. In other words, it's something only the USAF can actively consider:

The U.S. Air Force is now thinking about turning its C-17 transport into a bomber. In the last few years, the JDAM (satellite guided smart bomb) has made aerial bombing far more effective. Because of the satellite guidance (GPS), aircraft can drop the bomb from any altitude, and still get the same accuracy. Thus bombers can stay high, out of range of ground fire. That got people, inside and outside the air force, thinking about using transports, like the C-17, as bombers. Transports are equipped to drop heavy equipment, mounted on pallets, by parachute. It would be a simple matter to have smart bombs, on small pallets, shoved out the rear of C-17s (or C-130s, Etc.) This proposal upset the air force generals, most of whom are combat pilots. So the idea never went far, until now.

If you're in the unique position of the USAF, where air superiority is pretty much a default condition, this is a potentially brilliant notion. For less dominant air forces, it's just not remotely feasible to use slow, heavy transport planes for any kind of combat role.

Hat tip to Dennis Huff for posting a summary to the TacOps list.

It's remedial spelling time, kids!

I'm ashamed to admit that I'd never visited the notorious "MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" before today. I guess I was expecting something a bit less coherent and rather more ranting than what I found. Almost the first thing I read was directly in line with my thoughts on a pet peeve: atrocities in English on the web:

Time for another English lesson

Dammit, internet. Now I’ve got to break out the bullwhip AGAIN.

Too late for St. Crispin's Day

. . . and too early for Christmas. Marna Nightingale commits The Ballad of Agincourt Carol, Sweetheart of the Regiment:

T'was the Eve of St Crispan, and all through the camp
The soldiers were surly, and drunken, and damp.
The English waxed valiant in spite of their cares,
In hopes that the victory soon would be theirs.
The Frenchmen were bragging all safe in their tents
Of horses and women and ransoms they'd spent.
And good Thomas Erpingham, an old man and grey
Lay contented on turf and awaited fair day.
But out in the camp where Fluellen stood preaching.
King Henry was prowling for the common man's teaching —
Humble "Harry Le Roy" he gave as his name,
To escape from his station, to hide from his fame.
He walked 'mongst his men, though there's no doubt they stank,
And disputed theology, warfare and rank.
And then, as great monarchs have done through the ages
He stepped to one side, and he whinged — for three pages!

[. . .]

Pssst. Wanna buy a real Browncoat?

Shawna Trpcic, costume designer for the Firefly series, is selling off her personal collection of Firefly costumes, including the brown coat worn by Nathan Fillion:

Firefly costume designer Shawna Trpcic is auctioning off her private collection of original Firefly costumes, to start a nestegg for her kids' education and give some lucky browncoats a chance to own a piece of the Firefly mythos. These aren't replicas, boys and girls, these are the actual costumes worn by our Big Damn Heroes. [Don't worry, they've been washed since then.]

The costumes will be on display here for a little while longer, while we get all our goslings in a row. Then they'll be going up for auction on eBay. So start saving your allowance, smuggling beagles, or robbing trains to get the credits, and stay tuned!

Hat tip to "Jen" from the Canadian Browncoats mailing list.

Vikings 20, Packers 17

An undistinguished first half, except the brilliant interception returned for a touchdown by Dovonte Edwards. The second half was all Vikings, with Mewelde Moore doing a great job of bouncing his runs to the outside (especially to the left). Here is the first report from the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Minnesota kicker Paul Edinger kicked a 27-yard field goal with three seconds left in the game to beat the Green Bay Packers 20-17 Monday night.

Earlier in the game, Minnesota's Ciatrick Fason scored on a 1-yard run, rallying the Vikings to a 14-14 tie with the Green Bay Packers after three quarter on Monday night.

Fason's touchdown capped a 13-play, 88-yard drive that included two penalties on the Packers, including an illegal contact flag on third-and-6 on the Green Bay 12 and a pass interference penalty in the end zone two plays later. It was Minnesota's first offensive touchdown in nearly nine quarters.

Update, 22 November: "This one may be the worst because No. 1, it was Minnesota; No. 2, it was at home; and No. 3, it was Minnesota again," said Green Bay defensive end Aaron Kampman.

QotD: Politicians

Just once, I'd love to hear a politician say: "We're going to bring the second-best minds together to work on this." The second-best minds are all much more practical people than the first-class guys. More importantly, they are not going to try to do anything very much. They'll fix lunch or take the dog for a walk before they get on to pressing political problems of the day — and by the time lunch is over, it's time to take the dog for another walk and prepare dinner. That's the right order of political priorities. The greatest danger in politics is people who try to do things.

P.J. O'Rourke, "I'd love to hear a politician say: 'We'll get the second-best minds together on this'", Telegraph Online, 2005-11-13

Hog on Ice savages OSM

Steve H. has a few choice words about the nice folks at OSM:

They don't even link to Powerline, which turned down their invitation. How can you not link to Powerline and expect to be taken seriously?

Now remember, kids, a long time ago, a certain non-OSM blogger told you OSM would favor bloggers who loved it. Was I right, or was I right? Here's a clue: I was right. Here's a question: will any of my OSM predictions EVER be wrong? Hasn't happened yet.

Thank God these people don't have any power. We'd all have to pay them union dues to get onto the web. It's like they're the cheerleading squad and we're the girls who spend every summer at fat camp. I have a new idea for their corporate name: "Heathers Media."

I'm not involved in OSM, being one of the great mass of small-to-medium-sized blogs, so I don't really have a dog in this fight. I do find it amusing that blogging superstars seem to have just as much trouble organizing themselves as even their worst critics would have predicted. Something like herding cats through the middle of a piss-up in a brewery during a fire-drill.

The blogroll is one more reason to call OSM "Rather's Revenge." It's the blogosphere's way of admitting that the MSM was right when they said we were a bunch of unprofessional doofuses.

Update: I neglected to mention a few of Steve's other brilliant suggestions for renaming OSM: "InstaPonzi", "Clusterf__k Media", and one of my favourites: "OSM is turning out to be the Air America of the Internet."

Update the second: Apparently, they're changing their name back.

The "Christmas Truce" passes out of living memory

Alfred Anderson's death was announced earlier today. The 109-year-old was the last known survivor of the British and German troops who stopped the war on Christmas Day, 1914:

His death leaves fewer than 10 veterans of the First World War alive in Britain.

Anderson died in his sleep at a nursing home in Newtyle, Scotland, said Rev. Neil Gardner of Alyth Parish Church.

Born June 25, 1896, Anderson was an 18-year-old soldier in the Black Watch regiment when British and German troops cautiously emerged from their trenches on Dec. 25, 1914. The enemies swapped cigarettes and tunic buttons, sang carols and even played soccer amid the mud and shell-holes of no man's land.

The informal truce spread along much of the Western Front, in some cases lasting for days.

"I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence," Anderson told the Observer newspaper last year.

"All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machine-gun fire and distant German voices," said Anderson, who was billeted in a farmhouse behind the front lines.

"But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted 'Merry Christmas,' even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war."

Update, 22 November: A few news outlets have made a slight change to their reports, so that they're now referring to the last Allied survivor. This is interesting, as in the First World War, the "Allies" were the Germans and Austro-Hungarians: the French and British were the Entente. There have been no indications that there are any German participants in the Christmas Truce still alive.

QotD: Stupid Commercials

By the way, speaking of the counter culture, have you seen that iPod add where everyone is walking around in the street in their own exclusionary poddy bubbles but singing the same Christmas carol. Oddly, none of them seem to get hit by cars and, laughingly, they all carry the tune. Has no one broken the news to these people that people singing with headphones in their ears sound like scalded but urgently amorous cats?

Alan McLeod, "1 + 0 = 2", Gen X at 40, 2005-11-15

New Orleans, the continuing story

Wizbang has some interesting insights on the post-hurricane situation in New Orleans:

Now it might surprise most of you to learn that the most devastated part of the city is above sea-level. And it might surprise you even more that the lowest part of the city was dry the whole time. Now you see why I council against people 1000 miles away pontificating about New Orleans hurricane protection problems.

New Orleans is indeed sinking. Most cities, especially coastal cities, do, we just do it a bit faster. It has been that way for the near 300 years New Orleans has been in existence. Depending on the numbers you go with, most people put it at about 1 inch per decade. So New Orleanians do what any reasonable person would do, we fill.

When New Orleans was a flood plain, mother nature did it for us. Now that we've tamed the river, we do it manually. If the backyard is getting low we order a load of spillway sand. A 12 yard dump truck cost about 60 bucks and one of those every 5 years or so does the trick. (I live in a better area, when I lived in an area that sank more we did about load per year- and it was basically the worst part of town for sinking.) The Mississippi River gives us all the sand we need, we just have to put it where we want it. No big deal. Certainly a better deal than snow plowing.

Paul's primary concern is just how wrong the next "60 Minutes" feature is going to be about both New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast . . . given how misleading they've been in the last few months in their coverage (whether deliberately or just through ignorance).

Geography and Internet Access

Every now and again, I have a look at the last 100 visitors to the blog, just to see where in the physical world you (the readers) live. The distribution is pretty predictable: usually similar numbers of Canadian and American visitors amounting to 2/3rds to 3/4ths on a typical day. The rest of the world is unevenly represented:

This is pretty typical, although I get the occasional visitor from Chile and South Africa, both South America and Africa are seriously under-represented in the referrer logs. China and India, in spite of the growth of their internet-using population rarely show up at all.

I don't think there's anything particularly surprising here . . . I just find it interesting.

The Red Ensign is hoisted at GenX at 40

Alan has posted the latest Red Ensign Standard at Gen X at 40. Go see what the Brigade has been posting about this past couple of weeks.

Small treat for Dr. Who fans

"Nessie" from the Serenity mailing list passed along a link to the BBC website, with a 10 minute mini-episode of the new Dr. Who series. If you're following the new series, this apparently fits in between the last episode of the first season and the new episodes which are supposed to begin airing in about a month's time (in the UK).

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Money

Victor suggested that we watch the new Harry Potter movie yesterday, so (after enough arm-twisting) I agreed to go. While the movie is quite entertaining, it's an experience somewhat lessened when you're sitting in the matinee performance . . . surrounded by the under-6 set. I was astonished to see the number of very young children in the cinema: while this isn't a horror movie, it's certainly got enough dark and scary moments to give most 8-year-olds the odd nightmare.

If you are less than reverential toward the whole HP-canon this old SNL parody of Harry Potter is rather amusing. Link courtesy of Ghost of a Flea.

Sony releases list of poison CDs

Sony, after a public relations nightmare of epic proportions, has announced that they will stop including rootkit code on their music CDs. This is a list of all the poisoned CDs they did release. I'd recommend, if you've bought anything off this list, looking for rootkit removal advice ASAP.

Here is a quick Google search to get you started.

QotD: Nature

We are creatures of the sun, we men and women. We love light and life. That is why we crowd into the towns and cities, and the country grows more and more deserted every year. In the sunlight — in the daytime, when Nature is alive and busy all around us, we like the open hill-sides and the deep woods well enough: but in the night, when our Mother Earth has gone to sleep, and left us waking, oh! the world seems so lonesome, and we get frightened, like children in a silent house. Then we sit and sob, and long for the gas-lit streets, and the sound of human voices, and the answering throb of human life. We feel so helpless and so little in the great stillness, when the dark trees rustle in the night-wind. There are so many ghosts about, and their silent sighs make us feel so sad. Let us gather together in the great cities, and light huge bonfires of a million gas-jets, and shout and sing together, and feel brave.

Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

QotD: Dystopia

[The] worst imaginable world would be one in which the leading expert in each field had total control over it.

Friedrich Hayek, quoted by P.J. O'Rourke in "I'd love to hear a politician say: 'We'll get the second-best minds together on this'", Telegraph Online, 2005-11-13

Everything you ever wanted to know about OSM but were too bored to ask

Jon sent me a link to this very informative article on Iowahawk:

What is "Open Source Media?" Open Source Media is a new multi-aspect business concept in which many of the top superstar and mega-hyper superstars of the internet blogosphere have formed a powerful alliance to create shareholder value, and piss off Ann Althouse.

Free book from Scott Adams

Scott Adams is making the PDF version of his book God's Debris available as a free download. I haven't read it, so this doesn't quite count as a recommendation from me, but I did enjoy reading some of his other books, so free is a pretty good price, I think.

Why is it Free?

Frankly, this is the hardest book in the world to market. When it first came out in hardcover, booksellers couldn’t decide if it was fiction or nonfiction. Was it philosophy or religion? It’s a religion/science book written by a cartoonist, using hypnosis techniques in the writing. It's a thought experiment. It's unlike anything you've ever read. How do you sell something that can't be explained?

Nonetheless, the hardcover version of God's Debris was a solid success. I lost count of how many people e-mailed me to say it was the best book they've ever read. By way of comparison, I've published over thirty Dilbert™ books, two of them number-one New York Times best-sellers, but I've never gotten the kind of excited responses that I did from readers of God's Debris.

Still, God's Debris is emphatically not for everyone. Although there’s no sex or violence, I don’t recommend it for readers under fourteen unless a parent has screened it. And if you don't like to have your perceptions challenged, this book isn't for you. However, if you like a good book-induced buzz now and then, I think you'll agree that the price was right.

It's free because it's designed to be discussed with people who have also read it. I'm confident that some percentage of the free e-book readers will be inspired to buy a physical book for friends or for their own collection. And if you like it, you might want to try the sequel, The Religion War, available only in hardcover. At the end of the e-book you'll find some links to Amazon.com for your impulse-buying pleasure.

QotD: The Social Contract

Somewhere along the way these [Western European] countries redefined the relationship between government and citizen into something closer to pusher and junkie. And once you've done that, it's very hard to persuade the junkie to cut back his habit. Thus, the general acceptance everywhere but America that the state should run your health care: A citizen of an advanced democracy expects to be able to choose from dozens of breakfast cereals at the supermarket, hundreds of movies at the DVD stores and millions of porno sites on the Internet, but when it comes to life-or-death decisions about his own body he's happy to have the choice taken out of his hands and given to the government.

Mark Steyn, "Big Government, Small Citizens", National Review, 2005-10-28

The Diva Wide Receiver

Jim Souhan has a good column on the modern-day sports phenomenon known as the "Diva Receiva":

[. . .] what we now recognize as the Age of the Diva in pro sports, an age in which the phrase "controversial receiver" has become redundant.

NFL wideouts might have surpassed rock stars and European soccer fans as grazers of the nebulous pastures betwixt goofiness and destructiveness.

[. . .]

All of which gives you the feeling that if Keith Richards had played football instead of a Fender Telecaster, he would be a wide receiver. Blood transfusions on Saturday, end zone dances on Sunday.

While Owens is noise pollution and Moss seems to be simply stubborn, Bengals receiver Chad Johnson has found the right mixture of humor and self-absorption. He sends Pepto-Bismol to imminent opponents, and utters such bon mots as this one aimed at Packers cornerback Al Harris:

"The bad thing is he has to cover me. The good thing is ... he can save 15 percent by switching his insurance to Geico."

Johnson is funny and has yet to sabotage his team. Which is more than you can say for so many other star receivers.

Lee Valley Customer Service, in praise of

I don't often write about woodworking — partly because I've been too busy to do much of it — but I do think I should praise a particular company: Lee Valley Tools. I've been buying stuff from them for a long time, but I'd rarely needed to say anything about their customer service: I'd rarely needed to return anything or ask for any support . . . they carry good products.

Given the number of bookcases I'm slowly building, I decided to invest in a shelf-hole drilling jig. This one in particular. It includes drill bushings for several sizes, but curiously didn't include the one I'd expected to find: the 7mm size for which Lee Valley has a custom sleeve-setting tool. I'd used this size of sleeve on the last two cases I'd built, and found it worked very well, so I was planning on using the same size for all the library bookcases.

I wrote to ask about this, and I got a very prompt reply from Rob Lee, the company president:

Hi Nicholas -
The Veritas 32 system was designed to work with standard 32mm system components - and that's pretty much bushings for 5mm, 8mm, and 10mm holes. We do add in a "soft" bushing, as a "make your own" option.

One of the difficulties with deciding which components to include, is that the more we include - the higher the price becomes for everyone. And, should we switch suppliers on hardware, we're left with odd sizes in a kit, which would reduces the value for most...

You'll note that the Veritas Shelf Drilling jig, a variant of the 32mm system jig marketed as jig specifically for drilling for shelf supports, includes all bushings but the 10mm... to cover the largest range ....

The punch is the same story - included with the function specific drilling kit, but not with the generalist Veritas 32 kit.

For us - it's a no-win...and we'll always err on the side of the decision which cost the customer the least amount.

Hope that clarifies things!

Cheers -
Rob Lee

Now that is customer service . . . I sent the email at 8:00 last night, and had a response, from the head of the firm, before I got back to the office the next morning.

QotD: Wine Ratings

They can say that in France because to the average Frenchman "wine" means "French wine." And in a country where truckers buy splits of Bordeaux at highway rest-stops, golfers chug burgundy, not Bud, and a glass of red costs less than a medium coke, face it, they drink a lot more and know what they like.

But Americans, the kind who don't collect vintage-chart flash-cards, are faced with a paralyzing array of choices. They can resolve never to venture beyond the few, usually well-advertised, brands they know. Or they can check the ratings. Not just Parker's. Numbers from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and Wine & Spirits all appear on the shelf-talkers. And what's wrong with that? Doesn't knowing that SOMEONE considered it a Best Buy make you feel a little less in-the-dark when coughing up $15-$20 for an unfamiliar bottle?

Perhaps your local movie critic weeps over female bonding, while your tastes run more to female bondage. At least you can read his opinion, even as you take it through a filter. You won't agree with all wine critics, either, but that's no reason to knock the whole concept.

In the best of worlds, you would always have a trusted œno-professional or wine-geek friend help you. Otherwise, letting someone else plough through the business of comparing hundreds of wines for you makes sense, even if the result is rating an artistic creation with a number. Not perfect, but certainly helpful.

Jennifer Rosen, "The Rating Game", Rocky Mountain News, 2002-07-02

For your urgent alcohol-buying needs

Courtesy of The Accordion Guy, I find a link to the potentially very useful Beer Hunter:

It's currently 9:38pm on Wednesday in Toronto*. There are 38 places you can get booze right now. (* More cities coming soon!)

Naval forts of WW2

A link from Castle Argghhh! led to this fascinating tour of the Maunsell Towers, anti-aircraft positions built on artificial islands to protect the Thames Estuary:

The Thames Estuary Army Forts were constructed in 1942 to a design by Guy Maunsell, following the successful construction and deployment of the Naval Sea Forts. Their purpose was to provide anti-aircraft fire within the Thames Estuary area. Each fort consisted of a group of seven towers with a walkway connecting them all to the central control tower. The fort, when viewed as a whole, comprised one Bofors tower, a control tower, four gun towers and a searchlight tower. They were arranged in a very specific way, with the control tower at the centre, the Bofors and gun towers arranged in a semi-circular fashion around it and the searchlight tower positioned further away, but still linked directly to the control tower via a walkway. All the forts followed this plan and, in order of grounding, were called the Nore Army Fort, the Red Sands Army Fort and finally the Shivering Sands Army Fort. All three forts were in place by late 1943, but Nore is no longer standing. Construction of the towers was relatively quick, and they were easily floated out to sea and grounded in water no more than 30m (100ft) deep.

There was also a link to a page on the Navy version:

Together the 7 forts that were placed in the Thames destroyed 1 E-boat, 22 aircraft & 31 V1 flying bombs.

Of the 7 forts that were built & placed in the Thames only 4 remain standing today. Bearing in mind that the forts were constructed of only reinforced concrete & plate steel. This in itself is not a bad feat in engineering terms as the forts have been standing for some 55 years. No consideration was made for the disposal of the forts after the war as it was considered at the time by the Ministry of Defence that the combination of weather conditions in the Thames & tidal action would destroy the forts in a relatively short period of time.

Radley Balko quotes Che

In a post about children's clothing bearing appalling images, Radley Balko finds the appropriate words from Che himself:

"Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!"

WaPo Washington Times went too far on Steele story

Damian Penny revisits how the Washington Post Washington Times covered the Michael Steele story:

The outrage that wasn't
WTOP, a Maryland radio station, says the alleged incident in which Black Republican Michael Steele had Oreo cookies thrown at him was exaggerated [. . .]

Even "one or two" Oreos thrown is a grotesque, insulting smear, and this still doesn't excuse some of the rhetoric directed at Steele on "liberal" websites. But it looks like the Washington Times — always controversial, because of its pro-Republican stance and Moonie ownership — blew this one way out of proportion.

I briefly mentioned the story here.

Update, 17 November: You'd think, given that the correct newspaper name was given in the quoted block, that I'd have figured out that it was the Times and not the Post, right? A day later, it's fixed in the title. Apologies to anyone who was misled by the incorrect attribution.

Shipwreck with White House Plunder

The Halifax Daily News has an interesting article about the wreck of HMS Fantome, which sank carrying loot from the White House in 1814:

He said the Fantome was loaded with loot from the White House, which British troops burned in August 1814. The ship was heading home to Halifax with a convoy when it lost its way in a vicious storm.

With untold treasures, Fantome smashed into shoals and sank off Prospect on Nov. 24, 1814.

The wreck was left undisturbed for political reasons. The event coincided with the end of the war, and the two nations wanted to move on.

"Obviously, this was a very touchy subject at the time, so no one really said any more about it," Chisholm said.

Jagged rocks kept excavators away for nearly 200 years. It's only recently that the technology has allowed anyone to take a look.

Hat tip, again, to SOMNIA.

What a surprise . . . if you don't pay attention

In what should be no surprise to anyone with any familiarity about the Canadian government's long-standing habits on the purchase of military equipment, the feds have decided to delay the decision on nearly C$12 billion of aircraft:

The federal government has delayed a $12-billion purchase of military aircraft until after the next election, deferring political fallout over buying foreign products, The Canadian Press has learned.

Key cabinet ministers and the defence chief faced "passionate" aerospace industry representatives Monday night. They had to deflect claims they were tailoring the purchase of planes and helicopters to eliminate Canadian competition in favour of specific foreign-built craft they want.

"It's unanimous — we're not moving with it now," a government official said on condition of anonymity.

"We're not moving with this before an election.

"It's all on the basis of the ferocious lobbying by industry. It's all Toronto-Montreal-Bombardier politics."

Defence Minister Bill Graham said Tuesday that an election would "inevitably delay the capacity of the government to make major procurements."

"We don't make major procurements during elections," he said.

Hat tip to SOMNIA.

Libertarian versus "Libertarian"

Over at Hit and Run, Matt Welch is conducting a takedown of both Instapundit and Vodkapundit over their stance on the war in Iraq. Accusations are volleyed. The media is castigated. Godwin's Law is violated. Dogs and cats are living together. It's the libertarian Apocalypse!

Or, of course, not.

The post-modern family

I'm on a deadline at work this week, so I'm barely crossing paths with the family at home. I got home last night at 11:30, and to my surprise Victor was still up. He'd had a really good soccer game and desperately wanted to give me the highlights. I got the condensed play-by-play and he went off to bed. While I don't want to encourage him to stay up too late just to catch me coming in the door, I wasn't too upset about it.

Until about an hour later when I find this posted on his blog:

Well, got my first report card in highschool. The marks are as follows:

Art: 92%
Geo: 62%
Eng:76%
Gym:70%

Geography needs to go up if I want to get to England this summer... I'm starting Midsummer night's dream soon, and my English teacher couldn't hate my class more, so this is going to be a fun time.

You'll notice the irony right away: he couldn't wait to tell me about his soccer game, but completely forgot to mention his mid-term marks!

QotD: Government

Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.

"Samizdata Illuminatus", "Samizdata quote of the vote", Samizdata, 2005-11-10

A 15-hour tour, a 15-hour tour

Elizabeth found this story in The Scotsman:

It is normally one of Scotland's most spectacular ferry journeys, inching through the Summer Isles and allowing passengers views of the spiky peaks of Stac Pollaidh and Suilven.

But for those on board the MV Muirneag last Friday, the CalMac route between Ullapool and Stornoway became memorable for very different reasons after the 3.5 hour journey took 15 hours to complete in 80mph winds.

At least one passenger became so frightened for his life that he wrote a farewell letter to his wife and children believing he would never see them again.

An investigation has now been launched into why the boat was allowed to set sail in such bad conditions.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos on board the vessel as it veered miles off course as it attempted to cross the Minch on Friday.

Cars slammed about the deck, crashing into other vehicles and smashing deck lights. Lorries were also damaged, freight was catapulted off trailers and oil and cargoes of fish farm food were spilled.

Below deck, seating and tables were said to have been wrecked and crockery was sent flying through the air as the ferry was buffeted by the storm.

SUV bashing

I mentioned Spray-on mud back in June as being the product guaranteed to make an SUV owner look like a total wanker. Autoblog puts the knife in:

While we're on the topic of posers, we shouldn't forget all those SUV and 4x4 owners whose off-road exploits consist of pulling onto the shoulder of the highway before calling AAA to change their flat tire.

Suffer the shame of a spotlessly clean SUV no longer; a company in England has developed a specially formulated spray-on mud-like substance that H2-driving soccer moms can squirt on their rig to make it appear they’ve just finished slogging through the countryside.

So far the most popular use of the Sprayonmud seems to be hiding number plates so traffic cameras can't read the letters, which is of course illegal in many areas. The Sprayonmud site goes out of its way to mention this several times.

Overheard in the cubes

" . . . well YOU try to come up with an emoticon for self-detonation!"

Follow-up, cheerleaders

Don Banks has a bit of additional information on the Carolina Panthers cheerleader scandal:

This may shock you, but the TopCats affair was still quite the topic in the press box on Sunday at the Jets-Panthers game in Charlotte. One industrious reporter I know told me he had actually seen the police report from the late-night incident involving two Panthers cheerleaders in Tampa, and according to witnesses there was a little fire to go with all that smoke. Another observant journalist opined that the entire squad seemed to be dressed a little more conservatively than usual for the first home game after all the unwanted headlines.

Me? I was just watching football, folks. Nothing but football.

In honour of the new HP movie opening

Jim Rodgers sent me a link on the Harry Potter theme:

Head of Mattel Character Brand Development Shari Cloer: Folks, we've been handed a golden franchise on a silver platter. A gold platter, I mean. By a butler with a golden arm and like gold teeth. OK? And the only thing worse than not having a golden franchise is having a golden franchise and blowing it. You'll note this week I'm speaking in a calm, even tone of voice, not using swears or resorting to immature name-calling.

Mattel Product Designer [Boys, Entertainment, Games & Puzzles] Jennifer Koo: Kudos to Demerol.

Cloer: So I'm thinking the best way to thank me for this serene approach is by delivering some new Harry Potter product ideas that won't blind me with rage.

Mattel Ass't Product Designer [Girls 8-12] Davis Sinagra: Boss, we got scads.

Cloer: I am going to mentally count backward from ten and then will force a pleasant smile to my face and listen.

And thanks to the wonder of the Google Cache, we can view some early customer reviews of the product.

An unrelated link was mentioned on Hit and Run yesterday: Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy:

This Essay examines what the Harry Potter series (and particularly the most recent book, The Half-Blood Prince) tells us about government and bureaucracy. There are two short answers. The first is that Rowling presents a government (The Ministry of Magic) that is 100% bureaucracy. There is no discernable executive or legislative branch, and no elections. There is a modified judicial function, but it appears to be completely dominated by the bureaucracy, and certainly does not serve as an independent check on governmental excess.

Second, government is controlled by and for the benefit of the self-interested bureaucrat. The most cold-blooded public choice theorist could not present a bleaker portrait of a government captured by special interests and motivated solely by a desire to increase bureaucratic power and influence. Consider this partial list of government activities: a) torturing children for lying; b) utilizing a prison designed and staffed specifically to suck all life and hope out of the inmates; c) placing citizens in that prison without a hearing; d) allows the death penalty without a trial; e) allowing the powerful, rich or famous to control policy and practice; f) selective prosecution (the powerful go unpunished and the unpopular face trumped-up charges); g) conducting criminal trials without independent defense counsel; h) using truth serum to force confessions; i) maintaining constant surveillance over all citizens; j) allowing no elections whatsoever and no democratic lawmaking process; k) controlling the press.

A Clockwork Protest

Tim Cavanaugh views the riots in France through the lens of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange:

Here's a good rule of thumb: If you come across the phrase "Islamo-fascist" unironically deployed in an article, there's a 99-percent the author doesn't know what he or she is talking about. The rule has been in full effect over the past few weeks, as rioting in France's banlieus has allowed the usual gang of idiots to do what they do best: take a kernel of truth (in this case, that the rioters are Muslims and either immigrants or first-generation French citizens) and build it into an apocalyptic, hysterical tirade (in this case, predictions of a Euro-jihad and none-dare-call-it-Islamo-treason castigations of the politically correct mainstream media).

[. . .]

Most intriguingly, the rioters and their online supporters are employing something more than merely the hip slang of those crazy kids. A fairly new combination of bad French, borrowed English and Arabic words, verlan, (hiphop slang in which syllables in existing French words are reversed to produce a completely new word), and (in written language) nearly phonetic spelling, the argot is a key to understanding the society of the riots. Some examples: Cops are referred to as Schmits (supposedly a reference to the Nazi occupation of France), and a brouhaha in the Ile de France is called a hagra party, with "hagra" meaning "contempt" or "humiliation."

So you've got underemployed but well fed kids with plenty of time on their hands, the depraved indifference of a welfare state that usurps the role of parents but provides no useful structure for the youth, a housing-project culture that sees itself (not without reason) as a defenseless ward of the state, politicians who veer between mealy-mouthed coddling of sociopaths and vicious denunciation of people with legitimate grievances, and kids who react to it all with theatrical violence. Clearly, the last century's great prophetic novel was not George Orwell's 1984 but Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Cathy Young restocks the anti-ID armoury

Resupplying the barricade-holders with arguments against introducing soi-disant Intelligent Design in school curricula:

This seems like a good time to go over some of the basic arguments and misconceptions in the evolution debate.

Evolution is just a theory; it's not verifiable or provable, and shouldn't be taught as fact.

Evolution is, in fact, the foundation of the entire science of modern biology and much of modern medicine. No, there is no absolute ''proof" of evolution, but that's not how science works. The evolutionary theory of origin of species is supported by abundant evidence from the fossil record and genetics research — indicating, for instance, that both humans and modern apes are related to primates who lived millions of years ago or that modern birds are related to dinosaurs. And how much scientific evidence is there disproving evolutionary theory? Zero. Yes, there are many unanswered questions about evolution. But the answer to these questions is more scientific research, not filling the gaps with ''God did it."

Opponents of intelligent design are intolerant, closed-minded ''Darwinian fundamentalists" who don't want to allow alternative viewpoints in the classroom. If their position is so strong, what are they afraid of?

Opponents of intelligent design don't want science classrooms to become a platform for pseudoscience. Would it be intolerant for high school health classes to exclude material about the healing power of pyramids or about demonic possession as a cause of mental illness? Is it intolerant not to teach Holocaust denial in history classes?

QotD: Antiques

Why, all our art treasures of to-day are only the dug-up commonplaces of three or four hundred years ago. I wonder if there is real intrinsic beauty in the old soup-plates, beer-mugs, and candle-snuffers that we prize so now, or if it is only the halo of age glowing around them that gives them their charms in our eyes. The "old blue" that we hang about our walls as ornaments were the common every-day household utensils of a few centuries ago; and the pink shepherds and the yellow shepherdesses that we hand round now for all our friends to gush over, and pretend they understand, were the unvalued mantel-ornaments that the mother of the eighteenth century would have given the baby to suck when he cried.

Will it be the same in the future? Will the prized treasures of to-day always be the cheap trifles of the day before? Will rows of our willow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd? Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house?

Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

Giving Toronto more power to interfere

The Last Amazon has some bloodcurdling news for folks who live in Toronto:

The scope of the powers proposed to be granted to city hall are not only vast but wide ranging:

• Passing bylaws on just about anything that lets the city run better. Right now, if the city isn't specifically given the power to do something by the province, it can't.
• Regulation of store hours. The city could, for example, decide to let stores stay open on statutory holidays, like Christmas.
• The power to promote development in underused areas by forgiving property taxes or other city fees.
• The ability to hold developers to architectural and urban design standards to improve the look and feel of the city.
• Preventing conversion of rental housing to condominiums to protect affordable housing and set minimum densities for new buildings to encourage intensification.
• Establishing a business owned by the city to meet a defined goal. The city could, for example, start a business to provide cheap Internet access to poor neighbourhoods to improve life there but couldn't open a factory to make designer clothes.
• Powers to implement taxes and fees, which could include taxes on parking, sidewalk snow plowing, additional car registration fees and road tolls.

These are incredibly intrusive powers for a municipal government to weld and are ripe for abuse. In light of the recent municipal scandals it should make your blood run cold while giving any business new reasons to leave Toronto. Not only is Alberta looking better than ever — so is the Western Separatism movement.

To be honest, I'm surprised that the city doesn't already have some of those powers.

Thermobaric weaponry

David Hambling talks about a new USMC urban combat tool:

War is hell. But it's worse when the Marines bring out their new urban combat weapon, the SMAW-NE. Which may be why they're not talking about it, much.

This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as NE — "Novel Explosive" — it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings.

A post-action report from Iraq describes the effect of the new weapon: "One unit disintegrated a large one-storey masonry type building with one round from 100 meters. They were extremely impressed." Elsewhere it is described by one Marine as "an awesome piece of ordnance."

The article has a five-image thumbnail sketch of what an NE warhead did to an example of the kind of structure to be found throughout the Middle East. He also mentions the possibility of re-arming the existing stockpile of obsolete M-72 LAW tubes with thermobaric warheads, as a cheap and relatively effective upgrade.

Hat tip to Chaim Krause for the URL.

"Welcome to Ontario. We're all doomed."

Damian Penny links to a very useful article by Lorrie Goldstein — a tour through the mind of a typical Ontario voter:

Hi there, folks. Today, I want to explain to you in the rest of the country that, contrary to popular myth, we here in Ontario are not all fickle, idiotic dingbats who will vote Liberal no matter how venal, arrogant, greedy and corrupt they become. Far from it, we here in Ontario are in fact . . .

Wow! Did you hear? Paul Martin is promising us tax cuts if we vote Liberal in the next election! It's going to be right there in his economic statement tomorrow! Whoopee! Happy days are here again! Boy, I sure hope the Liberals promise to scrap the GST. That would be great! I wonder why they've never done it before?

Now, where was I? Oh yes, you must understand that from the point of view of the sophisticated Ontario voter such as myself, voting for a government is much more complicated than simply reacting to the obvious corruption exposed in the sponsorship scandal. In Ontario, we tend to look at issues from a broader, pan-Canadian perspective and . . .

Alright, that does it! I am totally outraged! I completely agree with Paul Martin. How dare the opposition even think about forcing Canadians to the polls over the Christmas season? Even if they've backed off now, it just goes to show you their raw, naked lust for power. Disgusting! You'd never see the Liberals pulling a stunt like that.

Abandon hope all ye who enter Ontario.

Recon UAV

Another link from the Tacops list, this one on the Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicle:

"The Dragon Eye is a good tool if used properly. It's excellent for short range reconnaissance and can easily be taken on a patrol to further increase a squads abilities," said U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Henry M. White Jr., infantryman, from Grady, Ark. "It's great for taking a picture of suspected improvised explosive devices found on roads."

The Dragon Eye is basically a small remote controlled airplane with two real-time video cameras. The Dragon Eye gives the Marines and sailors a tool that allows them to see farther over rough terrain, fits in a backpack and is easy to carry with them. Marines and sailors in enemy territory can face danger from unexpected directions, but with the Dragon Eye they can easily launch a system that will give them up-to-date reconnaissance over a vast area giving them a distinct advantage.

"I can get more intelligence in five minutes than a squad of Marines can get in two hours," said U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Joshua L. Britner, mortarman, from Freemont, Ohio. "It's also a lot safer than sending a squad. During testing of the Dragon Eye they had an entire company shoot at it in flight for two days; it only took four hits and was never shot down."

The article also has a small photo of the Dragon Eye being launched . . . looking like a very casual effort indeed.

Second-hand tanks for the Iraqi Army

Major Holdridge posted a link to the MNSTC-I Advisor article on new Nato countries' contributions to the new Iraqi army:

The arrival of dozens of T-72 tanks from Hungary this week infused "new blood" into the Iraqi Army's 9th Mechanized Division, its top leader said.

"This is a great day for our division," said Iraqi Gen. Bashar, division commander. "We are building our division and these are the base. We are pinning the strength and power of our division on our tanks."

The 77 tanks arrived over three days, culminating Nov. 11. The delivery also included 36 BMP personnel carriers, four recovery vehicles and several containers of parts and weaponry. It's the largest equipment donation to the Iraqi Army from NATO allies to date, officials said.

A cynic might point out that this is both an improvement and a safety measure: it's better equipment than "regular" Iraqi troops had before the fall of Saddam (T-72's instead of T-55's), but they are still vulnerable to US Abrams tanks. As long as the Iraqi army is facing Iranian or Syrian troops, they will at least have armoured parity, but if they try to turn on the Americans, the Abrams is still a superior weapon system.

QotD: Historical Perspective

[Judgment at Nuremburg] begins in the streets of Nuremburg in 1948 — bombed out, no utilities, no reconstruction. They had cleaned the streets of rubble, and that's about it. The populace is outwardly amiable but seethes with resentment over the occupiers' treatment of the functionaries of the Nazi regime. The prosecutors, in fact, are warned that a harsh verdict will anger the population, and only serve to increase their shame — and the Allies need the German people to confront the future. Underlying it all is the realization that the nightmare scenario predicted by some has come to pass: the eastern portion of the country has been de facto annexed by a hostile power. And of course you say, were the Americans not once allies with the Russians? True. Well, this shows how short-sighted such decisions are; perhaps if that fool Roosevelt had a better plan, all of Eastern Europe would not have been swallowed by the nation' most implacable foe.

In short, I had no idea World War Two was such a disaster.

James Lileks, The Bleat, 2005-11-08

Pre-woodworking exercise

After far too many months, I'm finally getting around to building some bookcases to reshelve my library. Since we moved into our current house, I've been planning to build wall-to-wall bookcases in my office. It's been way too long, so I finally got started on the task today.

As with so many other jobs, before I could actually do anything on the job itself, I had to do a fair bit of prep work. In my case, the new truck counts as part of the prep work: I can haul sheets of plywood without having to arrange delivery from the lumber mill or home centre. I bought five sheets of red oak plywood yesterday and carried them home in the truck (with some help from Victor). That was stage one.

Stage two was to break the panels down into a size that could fit down our basement stairs. I guess there aren't a lot of modern houses built with a straight run down the basement stairs, because we haven't seen one yet. Every house we looked at had at least one 90 degree turn in the basement stairs. You can't reasonably expect to get a 4x8 sheet of plywood down most stairs without at least running the risk of collateral damage to the surroundings.

Actually, I mislead . . . the real stage two was coming up with cutting plans for the plywood to minimize the waste of materials. That took up most of my morning: I'm not a visual thinker, so it takes me several times as long as most woodworkers to come up with relatively simple designs.

Step three, cutting the panels down to size required me to also come up with some sort of method of supporting the 4x8 sheets while I was cutting 'em: there are few things more likely to ruin your day than having a panel collapse under you while you're running a circular saw!

Photos in the extended entry.

This is a bit of a Rube Goldberg, as panel cutters go, but it worked for me. The key was finding ways of using up some of the miscellaneous bits of wood that are currently lying around not earning their keep. The long horizontal members are what are known in the model railroading community as "L-girders", 1x4 with a 1x2 glued to the end as a girder web. It looks a bit funky, but it's quite strong.		Between the girders, I recycled some frame pieces from an old wooden bed, arranging them in a ladder to keep the girders approximately parallel. The ladder sits on top of a pair of sawhorses, clamped to the crossbar of the sawhorses. The odd-looking pads attached to the crossbars are just off-cuts of 2x4 lumber, aligned to the top of the girders.

The result, which worked for me today, is that the plywood sheet is lowered down onto the panel cutting table, and there is enough support for both the main sheet and the off-cut sheets, so that they don't fall down, or pinch the saw blade, or do anything except stay where they're supposed to stay. I used a home-made circular saw guide to cut relatively straight lines (these panels will still need to be trued-up on the table saw, but my table saw is in the basement).

Step four was relatively easy: moving the panels downstairs to the table saw. It's amazing how little five sheets of plywood break down into:

Obviously, there's still lots of work left to be done, but it does feel good to actually be making some progress for a change!

Vikings finally do something right

Another game I couldn't watch, as it wasn't being broadcast in my area . . . and the Vikings pull off an NFL-first: an interception return for a touchdown, a kick return for a touchdown, and a punt return for a touchdown in the same game. Incidentally, they also beat the very respectable New York Giants in the process, 24-21.

Details in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

The Minnesota Vikings simply could not move the ball, so they got creative — becoming the first team in NFL history to get touchdown returns on a punt, a kickoff and an interception.

Then quarterback Brad Johnson finally put together a drive, setting up Paul Edinger's 48-yard field goal with 10 seconds remaining in Minnesota's improbable 24-21 win Sunday over the New York Giants.

Safety Darren Sharper had three interceptions for the Vikings (4-5), including one he returned for a 92-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. His third came in the end zone with 3:48 left in the game and the Giants trailing 21-13.

The win is timely, as the NFC North is the weakest division in football right now, so a 4-5 record is good for second place. They didn't gain on the division leaders, the Chicago Bears, who beat the San Francisco 49ers this afternoon.

QotD: Toronto

What did Peter Ustinov say about Toronto, that it was "New York City as if run by the Swiss." (And I think Bjork says something like, "I thought I could organize freedom. How Scandinavian of me." I believe she meant "Canadian.")

Personally, I blame the likes of Margaret Atwood. You could get everything Ms. Atwood knows about the well springs of contemporary culture into a phone booth and still have room left over for roughly a dozen college students. The lit crit crowd has an embargo on certain kinds of thinking and Toronto appears to be engaged in a building frenzy, as if a dynamic culture could be imposed in the form of daring new architecture.

Grant McCracken, "Networks are our networth: Notes from a hotel room", This Blog Sits at the, 2005-11-02

QotD: Canadian Left Wing Voters

[T]here is not now much point in trying to strip votes from the New Democrats by conflating them with the Liberals. The New Democrats would have been long since dead and buried if this logic were at all convincing to NDP supporters.

I suspect that at the 2004 polls Jack Layton (and Ed Broadbent) merely brought the New Democrats back to their natural level in the popular vote. About one-sixth of us, I think, are simply New Democrat by nature — old hippies floating in internal exile, overgrown red-diaper babies, identitarians of various flavours, Gaia-worshipping vegans, and, above all, workers for whom The Union represents the sum of their aspirations and the totality of their intelligible thought. These people, and especially those in the latter category, may stay home if they're asked to vote for some insincere schoolmarmish warhorse like Alexa McDonough. Give them a grinning, attractive regular-guy who speaks in complete sentences and they'll turn out.

Barring the "Third Way" species of self-reinvention that the party continues to resist, it is hard for me to see the New Democrats ever getting 20% of the vote in a Canadian election again. (I bet publicly against the NDP getting 20% in '04, at a time when people were whispering "Official Opposition", and it was the one thing I got right about the outcome.) But until the party gets rid of Jack Layton it should continue to draw the maximum vote possible. It's a Kuhnian process. Mortality should cause the NDP vote ceiling to sink slowly, but then again there are new fools being born every day.

Colby Cosh, "A gun to the head", colbycosh.com, 2005-11-02

When "help" is actually "extended harm"

Kate, at SDA has a brilliant post up about the dangers of modern psychological "help":

A few years ago a friend revealed, almost matter-of-factly, that as a young teenager she had been the victim of a gang rape. She jumped through the counselling hoops of conventional psychological wisdom until the day she realized that she was still wallowing in the event, stretching a brief trauma into an extended one. She decided instead to accept what happened, put it behind her and get on with her life. She never looked back.

While not everyone has that type of strength, her story does tell us something. If we want to help victims of sexual crimes regain normalcy, it's time that society and the justice system stop sending mixed messages. We claim there is no shame in being a victim of sexually based crime, then try the cases in courts that "protect" identities and ban publication of testimony. We applaud their courage, then use "fate worse than" hyperbole equating rape with murder, as though the truly couragous victim would have choosen death over submission.

This is a specific case of the general problem: by automatically assuming that any serious or tragic event in one's life is something that requires counselling, assistance, and ongoing (sometimes life-long) psychological care, we downplay or completely override the ability of the human mind to recover its equilibrium unaided. Some people certainly do need more than casual help, but for most people, an excess of counselling probably retards recovery rather than speeding it.

This is especially relevant today, as we remember the sacrifices of our parents' and grandparents' generations: many of them came back from horrific wartime conditions and succesfully re-integrated with civilian life. It wasn't easy, but it needed to be done, and — for the vast majority of them — it was done. It would have been taken as an insult to offer counselling or psychological assistance to returning warriors, even in those cases where it might have helped. Those who needed help were seen, fairly or not, as being weak or even cowardly. Theirs was a different time indeed.

In Memorium

A simple recognition of some of our family members who served in the First and Second World Wars:

The Great War

• Private William Penman, Scots Guards, died 1915 at Le Touret, age 25
  (Elizabeth's great uncle)
• Private David Buller, Highland Light Infantry, died 1915 at Loos, age 35
  (Elizabeth's great grandfather)
• Private Walter Porteous, Northumberland Fusiliers, died 1917 at Passchendaele, age 18
  (my great uncle)
• Corporal John Mulholland, Royal Tank Corps, died 1918 at Harbonnieres, age 24
  (Elizabeth's great uncle)

The Second World War

• Flying Officer Richard Porteous, RAF, survived the defeat in Malaya and lived through the war
  (my uncle)
• Able Seaman John Penman, RN, served in the "Destroyer Equipped Merchant" fleet on the Murmansk Run (and other convoy routes), lived through the war
  (Elizabeth's father)
• Private Archie Black (commissioned after the war and retired as a Major), Gordon Highlanders, captured at Singapore (aged 15) and survived a Japanese POW camp
  (Elizabeth's uncle)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

QotD: Remembrance Day ^(TM)

This week, Bourque has made the unpleasant discovery that the red poppy traditionally worn in early November is no longer a popular symbol of respect for the veteran, but a brand that somehow became the aggressively defended intellectual property of the Canadian Legion. (As far as I know, the Legion has never objected to the politicians who don the poppy increasingly early, every year, for what can safely be described as "other purposes".)

The Legion's legal pestering of Bourque enrages me, in the same way and for the same reasons as it would if some private organization tried to trademark the image of the Christ child. I never thought I was helping to remove a piece of our cultural heritage from the public domain by buying Remembrance Day poppies. And I am certainly surprised to learn that "Remembrance" itself has become anyone's formal property. I won't pay for or wear one ever again. And neither should you.

Colby Cosh, "It's official: nothing is sacred", colbycosh.com, 2005-11-07

Update: Let It Bleed explains why the Legion isn't the bad guy in this situation.

Banning Gay Clubs

While I'm on the topic of soi-disant "rights" which trump other "rights", here's a head-scratcher: Britain's latest venture into securing the rights of gay people will also have the unintended side-effect of banning gay clubs:

Hoteliers, bed-and-breakfast owners and pub landlords will no longer be able to bar gay people from their premises under new laws to be announced today [...] The Government will accept today an amendment to its Equality Bill that will outlaw discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in providing goods and services or organising public functions. The amendment [...] will also mark the end of gay or lesbian-only clubs because bars and nightclubs will no longer be able to turn away straight people.

How stupid can these people be? Many gay businesses survive as such only because they can so explicitly discriminate, especially in their advertising. This ridiculous new law will be a very serious threat to the continuation of a 'gay scene' in many towns across the country. It is tricky to foresee all of the unintended consequences of this one. Gay clubs operate varying degrees of explicit discrimination depending on the locale or type of club. The strictest hard core gay cruise clubs generally operate a 'men only' door policy, which does the trick, but this itself may be or may become illegal - who knows what horrors of forced integration are still to come?

However many of the more general gay dance clubs operate what they advertise as a 'gay majority policy' which is usually employed to refuse entry to large parties of girls only. Gay clubs are often the best clubs in a particular town and tend to attract groups of girls who want a night away from predatory straight men. Of course the large numbers of unwary girls in these clubs itself attracts the straight men and before long the club has lost all appeal for gays. In the case of hotels there are lots of hotels in various, often remote, parts of the country that offer gay only accommodation and advertise as such. Will such advertising be illegal? In the short term after this absurd bill is passed clubs, bars and hotels will continue to operate discrimination informally but all it will take is some petulant activist or a council with a bee in its bonnet or some obsessive bureaucrat to stick their oar in to ruin some particular venue or business.

Offensensitivity, Registry Office style

Okay, I'm in favour of gay marriage, but this is ridiculous:

Paintings of traditional wedding scenes have been removed from a register office in case they offend gay couples, it has emerged.

The pictures at Liverpool Register Office are being replaced with landscapes ahead of the introduction of "gay weddings" later this year.

Register officer Janet Taubman said the new paintings were less likely to offend.

So, even when gay marriage is legal, it still won't be considered "normal" because non-sexual heterosexual images might be offensive? Huh? So what happens if the office has a pair of gay or lesbian weddings one after the other, where one or more of the participants chooses to wear a "traditional" white wedding dress? Won't that be equally offensive to the people the office is trying not to offend?

Once again, whose "right not to be offended" will trump everyone else's "right"?

Hat tip to Nick and Nora at The Thin Man Returns for the link.

Happy Birthday, USMC!

November 10 is the anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps:

A MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS
10 November 2005

On November 10th, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions of Continental Marines marking the birth of our United States Marine Corps. As Major General Lejeune¹s message reminds us, the ensuing generations of Marines would come to signify all that is highest in warfighting excellence and military virtue. Each November as Marines the world over celebrate the birth of our Corps, we pay tribute to that long line of "Soldiers of the Sea" and the illustrious legacy they have handed down to us.

This past year has been one of continuous combat operations overseas and distinguished service here at home — a year of challenges that have brought out the very best in our Corps. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Marine courage and mastery of complex and chaotic environments have truly made a difference in the lives of millions. Marine compassion and flexibility provided humanitarian assistance to thousands in the wake of the South East Asian Tsunami, and here at home, Marines with AAVs, helicopters, and sometimes with their bare hands saved hundreds of our own fellow Americans in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Across the full spectrum of operations, you have showcased that Marines create stability in an unstable world, and have reinforced our Corps' reputation for setting the standard of excellence.

The sense of honor, courage, and patriotism that epitomized those who answered that first call to arms 230 years ago is still indelibly imprinted on our ranks today. In commemorating our anniversary, let us strengthen our ties to the past by paying homage to those who have gone before us. As we honor the sacrifices of our wounded and fallen comrades, our commitment to one another remains unshakable. We take special pride in the actions of the Marines now serving in harm's way, and rededicate ourselves to the service of our Nation and our Corps.

Happy Birthday Marines, Semper Fidelis, and Keep Attacking!

M. W. Hagee
General, U.S. Marine Corps

Hat tip to Major Holdridge, USMC (Ret'd), creator of the TacOps simulation.

What to do with moondust

Tom sent this interesting NASA link to a mailing list on which I lurk:

Scientists and engineers figuring out how to return astronauts to the moon, set up habitats, and mine lunar soil to produce anything from building materials to rocket fuels have been scratching their heads over what to do about moondust. It's everywhere! The powdery grit gets into everything, jamming seals and abrading spacesuit fabric. It also readily picks up electrostatic charge, so it floats or levitates off the lunar surface and sticks to faceplates and camera lenses. It might even be toxic.

So what do you do with all this troublesome dust? Larry Taylor, Distinguished Professor of Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee has an idea:

Don't try to get rid of it — melt it into something useful!

QotD: Swimming

It is the same when you go to the sea-side. I always determine — when thinking over the matter in London — that I'll get up early every morning, and go and have a dip before breakfast, and I religiously pack up a pair of drawers and a bath towel. I always get red bathing drawers. I rather fancy myself in red drawers. They suit my complexion so. But when I get to the sea I don't feel somehow that I want that early morning bathe nearly so much as I did when I was in town.

On the contrary, I feel more that I want to stop in bed till the last moment, and then come down and have my breakfast. Once or twice virtue has triumphed, and I have got out at six and half-dressed myself, and have taken my drawers and towel, and stumbled dismally off. But I haven't enjoyed it. They seem to keep a specially cutting east wind, waiting for me, when I go to bathe in the early morning; and they pick out all the three-cornered stones, and put them on the top, and they sharpen up the rocks and cover the points over with a bit of sand so that I can't see them, and they take the sea and put it two miles out, so that I have to huddle myself up in my arms and hop, shivering, through six inches of water. And when I do get to the sea, it is rough and quite insulting.

One huge wave catches me up and chucks me in a sitting posture, as hard as ever it can, down on to a rock which has been put there for me. And, before I've said "Oh! Ugh!" and found out what has gone, the wave comes back and carries me out to mid-ocean. I begin to strike out frantically for the shore, and wonder if I shall ever see home and friends again, and wish I'd been kinder to my little sister when a boy (when I was a boy, I mean). Just when I have given up all hope, a wave retires and leaves me sprawling like a star-fish on the sand, and I get up and look back and find that I've been swimming for my life in two feet of water. I hop back and dress, and crawl home, where I have to pretend I liked it.

Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

30th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Tomorrow will mark the 30th anniversary of the best-remembered shipwreck on the Great Lakes:

It's an evocative song that defies description: Haunting yet comforting, wistful yet powerful, mythic yet real.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was among Gordon Lightfoot's greatest hits, an unlikely Top 40 smash about the deaths of 29 men aboard an ore carrier that plunged to the floor of Lake Superior during a nasty storm on Nov. 10, 1975.

"In large measure, his song is the reason we remember the Edmund Fitzgerald," said maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse. "That single ballad has made such a powerful contribution to the legend of the Great Lakes."

Three decades after the tragedy, the Fitzgerald remains the most famous of the 6,000 ships that disappeared on the Great Lakes.

On training today . . . posting will be very light

I'm being unwillingly dragged into a day-long training session for a piece of software my employer acquired recently (the company, that is, not just a software license). I might be able to duck out occasionally, but that's about it. Don't make a mess while I'm gone, okay?

QotD: Canadian Multiculturalism

The first country formally to embrace "multiculturalism" — to the extent of giving it a cabinet post — was Canada, where it was sold as a form of benign cultural cross-pollination: the best of all worlds. But just as often it gives us the worst of all worlds. More than three years ago, I wrote about the "tournante" or "take your turn" — the gang rape that's become an adolescent rite of passage in the Muslim quarters of French cities — and similar phenomena throughout the West: "Multiculturalism means that the worst attributes of Muslim culture — the subjugation of women — combine with the worst attributes of Western culture — licence and self-gratification. Tattooed, pierced Pakistani skinhead gangs swaggering down the streets of northern England areas are as much a product of multiculturalism as the turban-wearing Sikh Mountie in the vice-regal escort." Islamofascism itself is what it says: a fusion of Islamic identity with old-school European totalitarianism. But, whether in turbans or gangsta threads, just as Communism was in its day, so Islam is today's ideology of choice for the world's disaffected.

Mark Steyn "Early skirmish in the Eurabian civil war", Telegraph Online, 2005-11-08

Dissing "Joe Sixpack"

L. Neil Smith points out how irritating it can be to be referred to as "Joe Sixpack":

Now I've seen a great deal of talk online, disparaging those who will gather in great numbers, and at great effort and expense, for the comparatively trivial purpose of seeing a rock legend or a famous sports team, but can't be persuaded to come together to save their country. That's where a lot of the "Joe Sixpack", "booboisie", "great unwashed", "masses", or "Your People, Sir, are a Great Beast!" stuff appears.

My habit in those circumstances is to ask the disparagers, "Well, what do you offer that's a tenth as attractive to folks (to them; never mind what you think they ought to want) as Sir Pauly or, say, the Denver Broncos?" Sure, we libertarians are dead right about what's wrong with America and the world in general. Sure, we libertarians are dead right about how to fix it. But after a long, hard week of putting the milk on your porch or in the dairy case, the meat in the counter, and the cereal boxes on the shelves, after keeping the electricity and the water flowing, making our civilization function, and taking care of themselves and their families, maybe they feel they deserve a night off.

Anybody who begrudges them is dead wrong.

Paris under curfew

Jon sent along another link, updating the Paris-area riot situation:

President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency Tuesday, paving the way for curfews to be imposed on riot-hit cities and towns in an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in decades after 12 nights of violence.

Police, meanwhile, said overnight unrest Monday-Tuesday, was still widespread and destructive but not as violent as previous nights.

"The intensity of this violence is on the way down," National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, citing fewer attacks on public buildings and fewer direct clashes between youths and police. He said rioting was reported in 226 towns across France, compared with nearly 300 the night before.

The state-of-emergency decree — invoked under a 50-year-old law — allows curfews where needed and will become effective at midnight Tuesday, with an initial 12-day limit. Police who have been massively reinforced as the violence has fanned out from its initial flash point in Paris' northeastern suburbs were expected to enforce the curfews. The army has not been called in.

Drink Beer for your health

Along with the acknowledged benefits of drinking red wine, beer may now be joining in as a healthy indulgence:

It turns out that beer hops contain a unique micronutrient that inhibits cancer-causing enzymes. Hops are plants used in beer to give it aroma, flavor and bitterness.

The compound, xanthohumol, was first isolated by researchers with Oregon State University 10 years ago. Initial testing was promising, and now an increasing number of laboratories across the world have begun studying the compound, said Fred Stevens, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at Oregon State's College of Pharmacy.

Earlier this year, a German research journal even devoted an entire issue to xanthohumol, he said.

What Stevens and others are discovering is that xanthohumol has several unique effects. Along with inhibiting tumor growth and other enzymes that activate cancer cells, it also helps the body make unhealthy compounds more water-soluble, so they can be excreted.

Most beers made today are low on hops, however, and so don't contain much xanthohumol. But beers known for being "hoppy" — usually porter, stout and ale types — have much higher levels of the compound. Oregon's microbrews ranked particularly high, Stevens said, which is not surprising: U.S. hops are grown almost entirely in the Northwest.

Oddly enough, in addition to my well-known wine habit, I'm also a fan of heavily-hopped ales. Vindication! A-ha!

Hat tip to Hit and Run.

Hmmmm

James Lileks, in his most recent Screedblog entry, summons up a scene from the Mary Tyler Moore show:

There was an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show in which Rhoda expressed frustration towards her job, and said it was like "trying to make love in a straight-jacket."

Hey," said Mary, with a lickerish grin. "Don't knock it until you've tried it."

Clearly that show was much racier than I recalled!

More on the Paris Riots

Jon sent me a link to the transcript of a Victor Davis Hanson interview:

HH: What is your assessment of the significance of what is underway, the Francefada, or the intifada in France as we speak?

VDH: Well, there's two messages. One, that we in America can see where an unassimilated un-integrated a population goes, and where that leads to, it leads to a sort of an apartheid. And two, we can see what happens with an EU that can't create real economic growth, and has high stagnant unemployment of 10%. And three, this is I think a little bit more controversial, that we can see what happens to a society that doesn't ask the immigrant to integrate, and the immigrant doesn't feel that he has to integrate, or to learn the language, or learn the traditions of the West. So you have this Orwellian situation when thousands of people are rioting, you want to say let me get this straight. You do not want to go back to the country, an hour or two away by air, that you praise in the abstract, but you surely want to stay in a country that you want to burn down to the concrete. It doesn't make any sense, other than this strong, psychological urges of envy, jealousy, wanting something you can't have. Then, besides all that landscape, you get the impression there's something very wrong in Europe that has high unemployement and generous joblessness benefits, so that it allows people not really to have to go look for a job, because there isn't any, but to stay home and sort of nurse these wounds, with enough money to survive.

Most dangerous job in Iraq: defence attorney

A second lawyer representing Saddam Hussein has been killed, and a third lawyer was wounded, according to this report:

Gunmen killed a second defense lawyer acting in Saddam Hussein's trial for crimes against humanity on Tuesday, renewing questions over whether the former president can get a fair trial amid Iraq's daily violence.

Another defense lawyer was slightly wounded in the attack on their car in Baghdad, police and defense team sources said.

The shooting followed the murder of another defense lawyer who was shot the day after the televised start of proceedings on October 19. It stoked controversy about whether the high-profile trial should be delayed or moved abroad.

The defense team, which had already threatened to boycott the next hearing on November 28 unless measures are taken to protect them, said a fair trial was impossible in current circumstances.

Even though it's a foregone conclusion that Hussein is going to be found guilty, it's essential that he be given a fair trial. Protecting the lawyers arguing his case is pretty clearly necessary for this trial to be remotely fair.

The way this season has gone . . .

. . . I really expected this story to be about the Minnesota Vikings cheerleading squad getting in trouble, not the Carolina Panthers' cheerleaders:

Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were arrested at a bar where witnesses told police the women were having sex in a restroom stall, angering patrons waiting in line.

Renee Thomas, 20, of Pittsboro, N.C., and Angela Keathley, 26, of Belmont, N.C., were taken to Hillsborough County Jail early Sunday. Witnesses said the women were having sex with each other in a stall at the club in the Channelside district.

They were kicked off the team Monday for violating a signed code that bans conduct embarrassing to the team or organization, Panthers spokesman Charlie Dayton said.

I don't know about you, but I'd expect them to be showing up on all the talk shows for the next few months . . .

QotD: So-called Conservatives

"They" call people like me "so-cons"; I think of them as "so-calleds". Through some weird convergence of cowardice and careerism, too many Canadian "conservatives" are just a bunch of poseurs. I'm not sure if they're scared of pissing off their friends or not getting a promotion or what — it all boils down to suckiness, and primarily afflicts the male of the species, making it all the more stomach turning.

Kathy Shaidle, "Standing athwart history, mumbling 'Whatever . . .'", Relapsed Catholic, 2005-11-07

Doug Ireland interprets the Paris riots

A link from Hit and Run led me to this post on Doug Ireland's blog:

Sarkozy only poured verbal kerosene on the flames, dismissing the ghetto youth in the most insulting and racist terms and calling for a policy of repression. "Sarko" made headlines with his declarations that he would "karcherise" the ghettos of "la racaille" — words the U.S. press, with glaring inadequaxcy, has translated to mean "clean" the ghettos of "scum." But these two words have an infinitely harsher and insulting flavor in French. "Karcher" is the well-known brand name of a system of cleaning surfaces by super-high-pressure sand-blasting or water-blasting that very violently peels away the outer skin of encrusted dirt — like pigeon-shit — even at the risk of damaging what's underneath. To apply this term to young human beings and proffer it as a strategy is a verbally fascist insult and, as a policy proposed by an Interior Minister, is about as close as one can get to hollering "ethnic cleansing" without actually saying so. It implies raw police power and force used very aggressively, with little regard for human rights. I wonder how many Anglo-American correspondents get the inflammatory, terribly vicious flavor of the word in French? The translation of "karcherise" by "clean" just misses completely the provocative, incendiary violence of what Sarko was really saying. And "racaille" is infinitely more pejorative than "scum" to French-speakers — it has the flavor of characterizing an entire group of people as subhuman, inherently evil and criminal, worthless, and is, in other words, one of the most serious and dehumanizing insults one could launch at the rebellious ghetto youth. Kerosene, indeed.

I had completely missed the connotations of the words Sarkozy used, but I can't claim to speak French at all, and merely depend on the decaying remnants of my grade-school lessons as hints.

Gold braid, pomp, and circumstance

I just realized that I forgot to mention that I'd succeeded to the command of the Red Ensign Brigade, following Ray, the Raging Kraut, and Nick "Ghost of a Flea" Packwood, the founder of the Brigade. Unfortunately, I didn't get the cool uniform to match the new rank, so I'm having to make do with online images for the moment:

This is the modern shoulder-flap insignia of a Canadian Brigadier General.	This is the older insignia, based on the British Army's insignia for a Brigadier (the older title didn't include the word "General"). As a traditionalist, I'm more partial to the historical version.

Of course, I'll also have to get the little flag-holders attached to the front and rear bumper of the Quotemobile, to fly the appropriate flags . . .

Mark Steyn discovers the "Arab Street"

Jon passed along a link to this Mark Steyn article on the current situation on the soi-disant "Arab Street":

Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's about to go up. ''By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on the news every night,'' I wrote in Canada's Western Standard back in February.

Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years ahead of my optimistic schedule. As Thursday's edition of the Guardian reported in London: ''French youths fired at police and burned over 300 cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of violence in a week of urban unrest.''

''French youths,'' huh? You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as ''French'': They're young men from North Africa growing ever more estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive ''Arab street,'' but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois.

Red Ensign Standard raised at Rootleweb

Ruth has raised the 31st edition of the Red Ensign Standard. Go and read what the other members of the Brigade have been writing about for the past few weeks.

QotD: Pink Floyd

"Wish You Were Here," the much anticipated followup, is one of those albums that seems made for concerts. By which I mean you can get up and leave your seat and go take a leak and buy a beer and come back and they're still going on about it. Oh, and it's about Syd Barrett, who took acid and went nutters on everyone, which was apparently a great tragedy for Western culture akin to J. D. Salinger's silence. "Animals" is just as long, but somewhat better. The target of the massively wealthy rock group's scorn, however, seems to be men who are reasonably content in their office jobs. If there was any justice the world would have best-selling authors who took time off as a middle manager to write brilliant scathing novels about bitter stick-thin tyros who parlayed three chords and fashionable scorn into a license to get his groinal area pogo'd by interchangeable doxies while he suckled on a magnum of good champagne. Nightly.

Is there anyone luckier than the drummer for Floyd? Talk about an undemanding job with great benefits.

James Lileks, The Bleat, 2005-11-04

QotD: Depression

Of course, I do not want to get depressed; it no longer has the romantic connotations it does when you're a teen. (Followed by that all-important crucial emotion of the 20s, Anger. Just as Teenage Depression means you're sensitive, 20something ANGER means you're smart. Anger pays little, though, which is why so many choose its hipper cousins, Cynicism and Irony, the Olson Twins of the lazy mind.)

James Lileks, The Bleat, 2005-10-25

Photoblogging Algonquin Park

Elizabeth and I took the new Quotemobile out for an extended day-trip today, covering nearly 500 km. We headed north, stopping in Bancroft for lunch and then entering the southern reaches of Algonquin Park:

Not too far inside the Park boundary, you reach Brewer Lake. This is a view looking northwest across the lake.	This is looking southwest. The skies were getting dark, and it appeared that we were going to have to give up hope for photos soon after this.

Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a couple of photos of the new Quotemobile, since we were parked in a scenic area:

Victor has accused me of caring more for the new vehicle than I do for him, but that's just because he's not able to drive yet, I'm sure. Plus, he's probably mad that I make him sleep in the driveway . . .

From Brewer Lake, we carried on along the parkway, missing several very scenic views along the way: either there wasn't enough room to park the truck so we could get photos, or I had someone too tight to my bumper to safely slow down. The next time we could stop for a few photos was at Lake of Two Rivers:

All four pictures were taken through a brief gap in the trees, perhaps 100 metres long. Aside from the beautiful scenery, what struck us most was the absolute silence. It was almost eerily quiet, with so little traffic in the park, it was several minutes between passing cars, and the air was relatively still. There were very few birds in the trees and they all seemed to be listening, too.

The road turned generally west after this, leading us eventually into Huntsville. We stopped for ah hour in Huntsville, wandering along the main drag and getting a a couple of photos:

A view of the church, from the waterside just below the bridge.	Looking away from the church, taken from the approach to the bridge.

After leaving Huntsville, we worked our way back to Dorset, and had dinner at the Fiery Grill restaurant. Unfortunately, I failed to notice the state of the gas tank on our way out of Huntsville, and we arrived in Dorset just after the only gas station in town had closed. After dinner, we had a bit of a concern that we'd run out of fuel somewhere on highway 35, before we could get to Lindsay. There was nothing in any of the little villages along our route (Pine Springs, Halls Lake, Boskung, and Carnarvon), until we got to Minden. To my surprise, we even found the price to be reasonable (88 cents per litre, rather than the 96.9 cents per litre we had to pay in Apsley on the way north).

All in all, a great way to spend a day. The weather co-operated for the most part, only threatening to rain every now and again, but never actually doing it.

QotD: Sea Voyages

A sea trip does you good when you are going to have a couple of months of it, but, for a week, it is wicked.

You start on Monday with the idea implanted in your bosom that you are going to enjoy yourself. You wave an airy adieu to the boys on shore, light your biggest pipe, and swagger about the deck as if you were Captain Cook, Sir Francis Drake, and Christopher Columbus all rolled into one. On Tuesday, you wish you hadn't come. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you wish you were dead. On Saturday, you are able to swallow a little beef tea, and to sit up on deck, and answer with a wan, sweet smile when kind-hearted people ask you how you feel now. On Sunday, you begin to walk about again, and take solid food. And on Monday morning, as, with your bag and umbrella in your hand, you stand by the gunwale, waiting to step ashore, you begin to thoroughly like it.

Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

I think I prefered the "rejected" cartoon

Scott Adams tests his readership's collective perceptions of sexual harassment in the office.

And I still preferred the rejected cartoon . . .

Colby Cosh sells out!

Colby Cosh finally decides to go for the traffic, by posting a link to SI Cheerleader Halloween Costume photos. How can a fine, respectable blogger like Colby sink so low as to post a link like this? I just don't know.

Of course, I have no idea if the link works . . . I wouldn't go there myself, you understand . . . but the Denver Bronco cheerleading squad must have brass ovaries to wear costumes like that.

Rummy's no dummy

Kathy Shaidle links to an interview with Donald Rumsfeld:

SPIEGEL: What kind of sanctions [against Iran] are we talking about?
Rumsfeld: I'm not talking about sanctions. I thought you, and the U.K. and France were.
SPIEGEL: You aren't?
Rumsfeld: I'm not talking about sanctions. You've got the lead. Well, lead!
SPIEGEL: You mean the Europeans.
Rumsfeld: Sure. My Goodness, Iran is your neighbour. We don't have to do everything!
SPIEGEL: We are in the middle of regime change in Germany . . .
Rumsfeld: . . . that's hardly the phrase I would have selected.

I love that last line!

"The night seemed calmer than the one before . . ."

You can tell you're in Paris in the fall when the police can say things like this with a straight face:

More than 160 cars were reportedly torched in the Paris region, as well as 33 in the provinces.

But police said the night seemed calmer than the one before, when 315 vehicles were burnt in the Ile-de-France region around the capital.

Buses, fire engines and police were again stoned in the Paris suburbs, with five policemen reported slightly injured.

However, there were fewer direct confrontations between police and "troublemakers".

Jon sent a group of links, including a series of photos, a BBC report on the riots, and news from Algeria.

QotD: Angst

Sometimes, you wake up and you say, 'Man, I didn't have anything to drink last night. I didn't have anything fattening. So why do I want to puke?' Then you realize, 'Oh, that's right.' You start remembering what's going on in your life.

Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Tice, quoted by Charles Robinson, "The hot seat list", Yahoo! Sports, 2005-11-03

USPTO jumps the shark

Christine Forber passed along a link to a really weird patent . . . a patent for a fictional storyline:

I have to say. They have at last invented a way to destroy all cultural development forevermore. That's an achievement of a sort.

Remember, a published patent means it hasn't issued yet. But if you wish to throw up, read about the dreams being dreamed. They are willing to destroy the world's culture for $67,200. Here's Knight and Associates' legal analysis, which they are probably proud of. To me, it's like figuring out how to destroy the planet and all human life on it. What is your responsibility? To implement it, to even tell anyone what you cleverly invented? I know. Knight and Associates would advise patenting it first.

I know almost nothing about patent law, especially American patent law, so I can't judge, based on the evidence in this post and the linked patent letter, whether this really is the end of the line for fiction writers, or perhaps the end of the line for the over-extension of patents to cover things that they never should have been granted for.

IANAL, as the acronym has it, and neither is the original poster. This may be a total over-reaction, but if not, we may need to cheer for activist judges to rein in the USPTO.

Rarely do people spell out their agenda so clearly

Jon sent me a link to a Washington Times article on Michael Steele's campaign for the U.S. Senate:

Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.

Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

Does it even need to be spelled out what would be said if conservatives were targeting a black Democratic candidate in this manner?

Rhône-style American wines

Julie Duggan sent along a link to a New York Times article on the so-called "Rhône Rangers":

It's too simple, of course, to lump all Rhone wines together. Among Rhone reds, the wines of the northern Rhone, like Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie, are made almost entirely of the syrah grape. On the other hand, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, from the southern Rhone, and Côtes-du-Rhônes are blended wines. More than a dozen grapes can legally be included in the Châteauneuf mix, but the most important are grenache, mourvèdre and syrah.

The American producers were drawn to both Rhone styles, but perhaps inevitably syrah has become the big hit among Rhone-style wines, and not necessarily because the grape makes better wines. As John Alban of Alban Vineyards, now probably the most influential of the American Rhone producers, told me in August, Americans understand single-grape wines better than blends, given their recent history of buying cabernet, merlot and chardonnay. So Mr. Alban, for one, chooses not to make a Châteauneuf-style blend. His syrahs, incidentally, are superb.

As always, the selection of California wine in my local LCBO outlets is heavily weighted towards the White Zinfandel, so I haven't seen many Rhône Ranger wines, and those I have seen were priced a bit higher than I'd be comfortable with for experimentation.

RFID tags in US Passports

Bruce Schneier talks about some of the drawbacks of RFID tags in passports:

Before I describe the problem, some context on the surrounding controversy may be helpful. RFID chips are passive, and broadcast information to any reader that queries the chip. So critics, myself included, were worried that the new passports would reveal your identity without your consent or even your knowledge. Thieves could collect the personal data of people as they walk down a street, criminals could scan passports looking for Westerners to kidnap or rob and terrorists could rig bombs to explode only when four Americans are nearby. The police could use the chips to conduct surveillance on an individual; stores could use the technology to identify customers without their knowledge.

RFID privacy problems are larger than passports and identity cards. The RFID industry envisions these chips embedded everywhere: in the items we buy, for example. But even a chip that only contains a unique serial number could be used for surveillance. And it's easy to link the serial number with an identity — when you buy the item using a credit card, for example — and from then on it can identify you. Data brokers like ChoicePoint will certainly maintain databases of RFID numbers and associated people; they'd do a disservice to their stockholders if they didn't.

The State Department downplayed these risks by insisting that the RFID chips only work at short distances. In fact, last week's publication claims: "The proximity chip technology utilized in the electronic passport is designed to be read with chip readers at ports of entry only when the document is placed within inches of such readers." The issue is that they're confusing three things: the designed range at which the chip is specified to be read, the maximum range at which the chip could be read and the eavesdropping range or the maximum range the chip could be read with specialized equipment. The first is indeed inches, but the second was demonstrated earlier this year to be 69 feet. The third is significantly longer.

And remember, technology always gets better — it never gets worse. It's simply folly to believe that these ranges won't get longer over time.

QotD: Canadian Healthcare

The essential proposition behind Canadian Medicare is not that all people should have access to health care, if it were its advocates would be far more open minded toward two-tier health care, but that government control of health care is inherently more moral. The point is not that government run medicine helps people, it is that government run medicine is an ideal in and of itself because its services are offered "equally" and without regards as to ability to pay. This is the same philosophical principle behind socialism and communism, in other words "need not greed."

Publius, "Socialized Health Care — Further Indictments", Gods of the Copybook Headings, 2005-10-26

The new Quotemobile

I picked up my new vehicle yesterday night:

Not as glamorous as proposed Fleamobiles, but (I hope) entirely satisfactory to my needs.

Marketing software to niche markets

Jon sent a link to an older Microsoft effort to reach new markets for Microsoft Word.

Update 8 November: I don't know why but this particular post has accumulated dozens of spam comments, so I've turned off comments and trackback pings.

Serenity DVD announced

Just as the movie leaves most of the theatres, they're announcing the DVD release for December:

Universal has today officially announced Serenity which stars Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk. This Joss Whedon directed sci-fi will be available to own from the 20th December, priced at around $29.98. The film itself will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Extras will include a feature commentary with writer/director Joss Whedon, a director introduction, deleted scenes, outtakes, a Future History: The Story of Earth That Was featurette, a What's in a Firefly featurette and a Re-Lighting the Firefly featurette.

I find it amusing to see that Alan Tudyk gets second billing on this, as I thought the movie revolved around Nathan and Summer Glau . . .

QotD: Inflation

Believe it or not, a lot of people think that a little bit of inflation is good. Inflation helps the economy deal with sticky wages and prices. We call wages and prices "sticky" when they appear to get "stuck" at their current level, rather than moving downward when demand for goods or labor drops.

People are very reluctant to accept pay cuts, even when the company is in pretty dire straits. Sticky wages cause problems in the labor market, because they keep the supply of labour in the market too high, and the demand for it too low, meaning that you get a lot of people out of work. It can take a long time for the market to adjust back to an equilibrium state where the number of people looking for work roughly meets the number of people employers want to hire.

Inflation eases the problem of sticky wages by eroding the real value of wages, while keeping the nominal value the same, thus avoiding the psychological hurdle of taking a pay cut. Too much inflation is very bad, but a few percentage points can lube the engine of commerce. It's sort of like cologne: just because one splash is [good], doesn't mean ten is better. Unfortunately, that's a lesson it took the world's central banks a long time to learn.

Jane Galt, "Why core inflation?", Asymmetrical Information, 2005-10-25

Halloween hauntings

Victor hosted a small group of ghouls for a Halloween gathering last night:

Victor and "Ozzy"	The witch, the ghoul, and the victim.

Magnum, P.I. and the case of the missing head.

Previous Red Ensign Standards

Previous Red Ensign Standards

Previous standards have been hosted at the following blogs (thanks to Shane at The High Places for doing the legwork):

1. Castle Argghhh
2. Raging Kraut
3. The Last Amazon
4. Bumfonline
5. Tiger in Winter (now blogging at Tiger in Exile)
6. Taylor and Company (no longer online)
7. Myrick
8. Bound By Gravity
9. Dust My Broom
10. Ravishing Light
11. Babbling Brooks
12. Musing
13. Freeway to Serfdom
14. Nathan's Updates From Seoul
15. Striving Against Opposition
16. The Phantom Observer
17. Abraca-Pocus!
18. Tipperography
19. Turning 30 and a half
20. Canadian Comment
21. London Fog
22. The Monarchist
23. West Coast Chaos
24. A Chick Named Marzi
25. Raging Kraut
26. Robot Guy
27. The High Places
28. The Last Amazon
29. Robot Guy
30. Quotulatiousness
31. Will be hosted at RootleWeb.

QotD: Minnesota Vikings

We all grow up playing on grass. We all grow up playing outdoors. We all grow up playing in the weather that you grow up in. East Coast guys learn to play tackle football in the snow as kids. Guys in the south learn to play in humidity. Then we get outside, and it's like we've never played outside in our whole life.

Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Tice, quoted by Kevin Seifert "Injury to Insult: Carolina 38, Vikings 13", Star Tribune, 2005-10-31