For your Halloween reading

Via McArdle, the physics of Halloween Monsters.

A good example of why liberals scare me

Check out this diavlog with Paul Krugman and Mario Cuomo; it's a detailed explanation of how the government should run your life, from health care to your job, and most things in between.

In a weird coincidence

Both the Sex Pistols and their small-government, country doctor equivalent, Ron Paul, will be on the Tonight Show tonight. We'll see who the crowd reacts to more...

In this day and age

Crew wins deadly pirate battle off Somalia

Four changes if I were king of America

I've made them non-political, strictly symbolic. They are

1. The national anthem shall be changed to America the Beautiful; an accessible song with a solid melody and natural meter; and the Star Spangled Banner will be consigned to history, where it will be of much interest to our eventual tone-deaf robot overlords
2. Daylight Savings Time shall be abolished. Trying to fool the sun sets a bad example for children and weakens our moral fiber
3. Calvin Coolidge shall be worked into Presidents Day somehow. We're long overdue for rewarding people who do their job quietly, with no drama
4. We shall come up with a simple way to properly fold the US Flag that does not require two people

What would y'all do?

Day 4 of my slightly less caffeinated life...

I reach day four of my caffeine cutback week, and I do have to say it's helped my mood and attention span. Surprisingly I don't get headaches when I do without it totally, as do most people.

Ron Paul gets annoying

Or his supporters do anyway. I got two spams this morning telling me how only Ron Paul can save us from the coming dark age. The fact that he has fans among the 9-11 truth movement is troubling, though I know of no evidence that he sympathizes with that weirdness.

Two things to read about PMCs

First, Tyler Cowen in the New York Times, second Letters of Marque on Wikipedia.

A good one

From Scott Adams on the dangers and benefits of Crystal Meth.

Quotes of the evening

From Napoleon

In war, moral is to the physical as three is to one.

And this old chestnut from the Duke of Wellington

For a great nation there are no small wars.

What I'm reading while uploading file...

• Monkey Attack!
• A long profile of David Simon, creator of the Wire, and Homicide, Life on the Streets
  
• This article and this one got a student newspaper pulled, maybe there's hope for this new generation.
• Advanced Flash techniques
  

People are strange

From the AJC; it seems that someone has been stalking Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor has gotten a restraining order against a Georgia woman he claims has made telephone calls and sent him explicit e-mails and disturbing gifts, including a petrified alligator foot and dead beetles.
...

Campbell said Keillor had misunderstood the letters, e-mails, packages and phone calls. She said she was never closer to his house than the sidewalk.

"I believe that he's paranoid, or some woman, his wife, is upset and told him he has to do something about it," she said.

Life is stranger than we can imagine. Garrison Keillor?

Tuesday morning rapid fire

• Lincoln and the Jews - from the Federation of American Scientists
• The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk - the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe
• Two from Charlie Rose, specifically this interview with Petraus' main counter insurgency adviser David Kilcullenm and also with Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater.
  

Three interesting things

• There are more World of Warcraft players than there are farmers (from Paul Krugman via MR)
• The reason the average car produces X many tons of CO2 (a figure I always found fishy) is due to the fact that the carbon bonds with oxygen already existing in the air, which never occurred to me until I read this article. The majority of the actual mass (the O2) comes mostly from the existing air.
• John Edwards, still not popular! It says good things about America, and the Democratic party that he's doing well. I suppose the Republican alternative to him is Tom Tancredo.
• From this BloggingHeads.tv - "John Kerry was a Democrat's idea of what the Republicans like". The Republicans seem to be making the same desperate mistake with Giuliani right now.
  

An importact lesson learned

If you're in a Lowes or Home Depot, and you feel like getting a pickaxe (still no waiting period!) make sure you put it in a cart. If you just walk around the store carrying it people will tend to shy away.

Kinsley on the libertarians

Via the Agitator, Michael Kinsley has a very good article on the state of political affairs today called Libertarians Rising. He puts everything clearly and well. To quote:

The relationship of these two ways of thinking to the two established parties is peculiar. Republicans are far more likely to identify themselves as libertarians and to vilify the government in the abstract. And yet Republicans have a clearer vision of what constitutes a good society and a well-run planet and are quicker to try to impose this vision on the rest of us. Now that the Republican Party is in trouble, critics are advising it to free itself of the religious right on issues like abortion and gay rights. That is, the party should become less communitarian and more libertarian. With Democrats, it's the other way around.

Very few Democrats self-identify as libertarians, but they are in fact much more likely to have a live-and-let-live attitude toward the lesbian couple next door or the Islamofascist dictator halfway around the world. And every time the Democrats lose an election, critics scold that they must put less emphasis on the sterile rights of individuals and more emphasis on responsibilities to society. That is, they should become less libertarian and more communitarian. Usually this boils down to advocating mandatory so-called voluntary national service by people younger than whoever is doing the advocating.

Read the Whole Thing

Amazing

I was moving some stuff down to the basement/crawlspace, and I found a bag of actual coal down there. It must date back to the 20s or 30s, which would probably make it the first owner's.

Quick Links

• Latin Quotes, translated
• Microsoft wants your health data
• 19 Year old hacks 911 system
• Colbert in the New York Times

The dark side of astrology

A friend of mine sent me this 8 years ago, and I think it still holds.

AQUARIUS You have an inventive mind and are a progressive thinker. You also lie a lot and are inclined to be careless and impractical, making the same mistakes over and over. Everyone thinks you are a f**king jerk.

PISCES You have a vivid imagination and often think you are being followed by the CIA. You have some influence over your friends and people resent you for flaunting your power. Underneath it all you lack confidence and are generally a coward. Pisces people screw small animals and pick their noses a lot.

ARIES You are the pioneer type and have strong leadership tendencies, but you regard others with contempt. You are quick tempered, impatient and don't take well to advice. You are a prick.

TAURUS You are down to earth and persistent. You are determined and can work like hell. Most people think that you are a pig headed shit. You're probably a fucking communist.

GEMINI You are quick and intelligent - a thinker. People like you because you are bisexual, You are also a cheap bastard, expecting everything for nothing. Gemini's are notorious for thriving on incest.

CANCER You are extremely sensitive by nature and very caring. You are a wimp, You are hopeless at making decisions and that is why you will always be on welfare and you will never be worth a shit.

LEO Leo people are born leaders but most people think they are just pushy. Most Leo's are bullies. They are thick a**holes who break down under honest criticism. Your arrogance is disgusting. Leo People are thieving bastards who kiss mirrors a lot.

VIRGO You are the logical type and detest disorder. This sh*tpicking makes your friends sick. You are cold and unemotional and often fall asleep while screwing. Virgo's make good bus drivers and pimps.

LIBRA Librans are lucky in employment and financial matters. You are the artistic type and have a difficult time with reality. If you are male then you are probably queer. Most Libran woman are whores. All Librans die of V.D.

SCORPIO You are shrewd in business and cannot be trusted. You will reach the pinnacle of success because of your total lack of ethics. You are a perfect Son of a Bitch. Most Scorpio people are murdered.

SAGITTARIUS You are optimistic and enthusiastic with a reckless tendency to rely on luck since you have no talent. Most Saggitarians are drunks or pot heads. People laugh at you a lot because you are always f*cking things up.

CAPRICORN you are conservative and afraid of taking risks. You are basic chicken sh*t. There has never been a Capricorn of any importance, you should kill yourself.

I'm amazed at my self control

There's a digital infrared thermometer for sale for the amazing low price of $38, and I haven't bought it! It's surprising really.

Shock Doctrine reviews

This is a week or two late, but anyway, check out Tyler Cowen's review of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. You should also read this interview with her and Alan Greenspan.

Klein is the current favorite of the anti-globalization left. If after reading the articles you feel like cursing the fire department for making your house all damp and soggy after a fire, then you understand her quite well.

Quotes of the morning

I don't remember where I got these...

"Aesthetic standards are ultimately the only standards that exist in engineering."

and

"A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled."

For my friends in the advertising business

We've all felt this way.

Unhappy real estate news

While I have decided to rent out my condo, seeing the headline Atlanta condo glut hits "danger zone" was decidedly unwelcome.

Sorry for the light blogging

Work has continued at it's hellish pace and I've been unpacking every other moment. And i found out yesterday that my soon to be excavated (by me) basement is almost entirely red clay.

Morning reading

Check out Steve Chapman on terrorism and Arnold Kling on McMedicine.

Obama gets interesting

Firstly he has stopped wearing American Flag pins. While to some degree the president serves a double role as chief executive and president of the fan club I think this is a good thing. There's nothing more hollow than a red Aids ribbon or the yellow "Live Strong" wristbands. It's good to have someone running that doesn't find meaning in 17 pieces of flair. That doesn't mean his ideas are any good, but there's more to loving America than wrapping oneself in internal marketing.

Secondly he apparently has a serious person as his chief economic adviser. All in all a good sign for him. Not that I'll be voting for him, but he's at least showing signs of being interesting, which he hasn't up to now.

The move is complete

I've even got the packing about 3/4 of the way done. Photos of the new place to come soon. The new place is wonderful.

This is funny

I forget how I came across this, but check out Why Marrying For Money is Never a Good Idea.

The house is mine

The closing went as planned. Ormewood Park here I come!

It recently made Creative Loafing's Best of Atlanta as the up and coming neighborhood. More details and pictures to come.

Throw your dreadles in the air

As if you just don't care.

Somebody warm up the defibrillator, this is going to kill several of you. It's reasonably safe for work (due to language)

Quick link roundup

• Geoengineering
• Economics as Super Power
• 12 Photography Tips
• Accused Mugger Licks Woman's Toes
• Ethanol is in trouble!
• Ron Paul has actually been getting funds
• A good code converter
  

Of particular annoyance

So I call T-Mobile to see how to use my Blackberry as an internet connection since I'll be without the cable for a couple days. The first tech I talk to was nice. She calls me on my land line so we can continue setting everything up.

All is good so far. She then transfers me to their special Vista tech support department. While I'm waiting for Vista support to pick up, I hear a horribly loud screeching sound on the other end and I'm disconnected. T-Mobile is a phone company mind you.

I call back, speak to a tech, who tells me I have to add a $19.99 package to my plan. The first tech made no mention of such a thing.

I'm calling back and hopefully I can bypass this nonsense.

A weird story

Combining characters from The Departed, Mississippi Burning and Donnie Brasco. In real life no less.

Tuesday night rapid fire

• Robert Kaplan on private military contractors
• John Robb on private military contractors - one thing he doesn't mention (and I don't think he has mentioned it before) is that there could be many, many problems with highly trained combat forces under no particular command, they would make quiet a crime crew. It's unlikely with the current stock of PMCs, but it might be with the next generation.
  
• Solar Power is becoming a vested interest
• For some reason validator callout extenders won't work with a custom validator with the standard Visual Studio code, but it works with this code.
• Nazi War Criminal was found in Metro Atlanta. Why must events like these be the only time Atlanta makes national news?
• Building a tree fort as an exercise in project management
• DNI on leaving Iraq
• A client of mine was in the AJC today, I did the Atlanta Arrangements site late last year.
• Secret Geek has a nice post on the Principles of Scale
• Tyler Cowen on income inequality. I wonder if anyone is actually worried about this. No one seems to be, but everyone thinks everyone else is scared stiff. One thing to bear in mind is that the bottom is fixed at zero
  

Great minds thinking alike

I check my rss reader, and lo and behold, one of the tech blogs I read has a review of The True Believer by Eric Hoffer, which formed my world view greatly.

Convergence is nice.

Saudi Israelia

In response to, You're right. Both Tel Aviv and Riyadh play us like violins by Tom Barnett, Dan TDaxp responds with this post, where he points out that Israel and Saudi Arabia are our two closest allies in the region.

What a depressing thought. Our two closest allies anywhere are a tyrannical monarchy which breeds terrorists at an alarming clip, and an ethnically based democracy with socialist leanings who doesn't even have the common decency not to spy on us, even though we give them billions outright every year, and far more in support.

It's sad.