Don't Trust Snakes

Does David Axelrod have some economic expertise I'm not aware of?

2009-02-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

In the end, Mr. Geithner largely prevailed in opposing tougher conditions on financial institutions that were sought by presidential aides, including David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, according to administration and Congressional officials. - New York Times, February 10, 2009

Why is David Axelrod involved at all in these decisions? It's not comforting.

This is idiotic

2009-02-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, according to people familiar with the plan. - New York Times, February 3, 2009

This is idiotic. I wasn't aware the TARP was intended to be some sort of virtue exercise. Let the U.S. come in and buy shares if it wants, and then attend to executive compensation concerns like any other shareholder, by voting at the appropriate times.

It's not clear where the people will come from who will take big pay cuts to do these jobs, which are not jobs that anyone off the street could remotely perform. The President, smart as he is, knows this and ought to do a better job of moderating the Committee-of-Public-Safety wing of his party. He should also be smart enough to know that you can't force people to be responsible. You don't see parents saying "son, I'm going to force you to be responsible." What has suddenly happened to the power of words?

Blogging slowdown

2009-01-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

I could write a long analysis about why the blog seems to be losing steam, but that might be too much. Reasons include:

I started and developed the blog when I had more free time . . .

. . . and different/fewer social outlets.

I have a larger workplace these days with more outlets and interactions

The election is over.

If I want to broadcast some random photos, I'll tend to use Facebook.

Facebook status messages have become my major medium for random online cleverness, which is simultaneously sort of cool and sort of sad.

Snow

2008-12-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

Caroline Kennedy

2008-12-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry, but what has Caroline Kennedy done to deserve appointment to the Senate? It would be so refreshing to see Paterson resist.

A most charitable characterization

2008-12-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

But does chatting to passengers have the same detrimental effect on driving? An earlier study found that it does not. That research, led by Frank Drews of the University of Utah, analysed the performance of young drivers using a vehicle simulator. Dr Drews found that when using a hands-free phone, a volunteer “drove” significantly worse than he did when just talking to someone playing the role of a passenger. Passengers, the researchers believed, might even help road safety by commenting on surrounding traffic. - The Economist, December 4, 2008 (emphasis mine)

Emoluments Clause

2008-12-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

[LINK]

Unless the Constitution was particularly subtle in defining "Senator" and "Representative", it seems like a suitably-timed resignation would do the trick.

Don't be anal

2008-11-30T22:49:00.000-08:00

[LINK]

Astronomy fun facts

2008-11-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

The zodiacal light is a faint, roughly triangular, whitish glow seen in the night sky which appears to extend up from the vicinity of the sun along the ecliptic or zodiac. In mid-northern latitudes, the zodiacal light is best observed in the western sky in the spring after the evening twilight has completely disappeared, or in the eastern sky in the autumn just before the morning twilight appears. It is so faint that it is completely masked by either moonlight or light pollution. The zodiacal light decreases in intensity with distance from the Sun, but on very dark nights it has been observed in a band completely around the ecliptic. In fact, the zodiacal light covers the entire sky, being responsible for 60% of the total skylight on a moonless night. There is also a very faint, but still slightly increased, oval glow directly opposite the Sun which is known as the gegenschein . . . . The zodiacal light is produced by sunlight reflecting off dust particles which are present in the solar system and known as cosmic dust. Consequently, its spectrum is the same as the solar spectrum. The material producing the zodiacal light is located in a lens-shaped volume of space centered on the sun and extending well out beyond the orbit of Earth. This material is known as the interplanetary dust cloud. Since most of the material is located near the plane of the solar system, the zodiacal light is seen along the ecliptic. The amount of material needed to produce the observed zodiacal light is amazingly small. If it were in the form of 1 mm particles, each with the same albedo (reflecting power) as Earth's moon, each particle would be 8 km from its neighbors. The gegenschein may be due to the fact that particles directly opposite the sun as seen from Earth would be in full phase. - Wikipedia (emphasis mine)

Eric Holder

2008-11-18T14:17:00.000-08:00

I'm sure Eric Holder will make a fine Attorney General, despite his intimate association with perhaps the sleaziest and least defensible act of the Clinton Administration.

Madame Secretary

2008-11-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned. - The Guardian, November 17, 2008

This really does seem like a brilliant move, if the Guardian story is true. It beautifully neutralizes Hillary as a divisive figure. She knows Biden isn't likely to be running in eight years, and that she can have an inside track on the heir apparent role if she plays the good soldier. (And, of course, she'd be fourth in the line of succession . . . not that she would ever think of such a thing.) Meanwhile, Obama gets a surrogate of unprecedented recognition and more stature going into the job than anyone at least since George Marshall.

Secretary of State

2008-11-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

Secretary of State is a job that I think Hillary Clinton would be pretty good at. And having her there would spare us from having to see someone like Kerry or Holbrooke pontificating away on a regular basis. She knows Biden is probably too old to have his own 2016 ambitions, and that makes her potentially very manageable for Obama if she's given a prominent yet distinct cabinet portfolio.

Fair warning

2008-11-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

It is perhaps not of general interest that Really Right Stuff markets something called "Universal L-Plate for some cameras," but I find it amusing.

So, the RNC bought the kids underwear?

2008-11-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

Palin's father, Chuck Heath, said his daughter spent the day Saturday trying to figure out what belongs to the RNC.

"She was just frantically ... trying to sort stuff out," Heath said. "That's the problem, you know, the kids lose underwear, and everything has to be accounted for.

"Nothing goes right back to normal," he said. - Huffington Post, November 10, 2008

Yes, remember what your RNC always used to say about clean underwear.

. . . and you believed them?

2008-11-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

Ford is also using up cash at a surprising rate — $7.7 billion in the third quarter. But Ford executives said much of the cash was spent on one-time actions related to promoting the company’s new F-150 pickup truck. - New York Times, November 7, 2008

Treasury Secretary

2008-11-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

I sincerely doubt he'll pick Larry Summers. Corzine would be good, assuming he'd be interested. Volcker is not out of the question.

Bravo!

2008-11-05T00:16:00.000-08:00

No irregularities here

2008-11-04T08:03:00.000-08:00

I was at my polling place when it opened at 7 a.m. (!), and behind close to a hundred people. Judging purely by appearances, the first McCain voter may not yet have arrived. Actually, the sign was highly irregular, since it pointed away from the entrance to the polling place.

"A Not So Brief History of the New England Patriots"

2008-11-03T01:33:00.000-08:00

As promised, here is Dean Barnett's great account of the pre-dynastic history of the New England Patriots.

Possibly my new favorite Palin quote

2008-11-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations, then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

Dean Barnett

2008-10-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

My good friend Dean Barnett died today. While he fought to a standstill the latest and worst lung infection of his life with cystic fibrosis, too many other things were going on.

Dean was a college classmate and housemate, and sick enough during those years that we never crossed paths. We only met years later, when he wisely and intrepidly married one of my closest friends. Intrepidly, because what Dean most had to overcome to marry K was the understanding, settled through his twenties, that he would not have enough life or time for falling in love and other things most of us aspire to so easily.I remember how happy he was at their wedding, and it takes nothing away from my friend K to say he was transparently the happiest one there.

Dean was an amazing guy who worked with expectations I would slink from and took in stride things that most of us cannot even imagine. It was impossible not to like him, envy his wit, poise and comfort in his own skin, and appreciate his fine sense of what things matter and how things that matter fit together. Among much else, Dean helped me to understand why the right approach is to find something for the hotel concierge to do for you at the beginning of your stay and tip generously at that time, instead of waiting until the end to tip, when it won't do you any good. Dean produced obvious, gordian-knot-cutting insights with such frequency that of course he became a blogger about his Red Sox and, soon, a respected voice in the conservative blogosphere (where some of his many admirers now pay their respects). Soon, while taking in stride things that most of us cannot even imagine, he was a contributor on the masthead of The Weekly Standard.

I treasure so many fond memories of Dean. There was the night we finally met, over some wedding-eve drinks, when he set the unsurpassable standard for the grace, poise and wit one must show after being served an "up" Manhattan containing a large wood screw. There was the night almost four years ago, election night 2004, when I sat exactly where I am sitting now, emailing back and forth in Gchat-approximating real time with Dean as he live-blogged the results and passed through, with trademark Dean Barnett optimism and candor, that half-hour or so when it looked like Kerry might actually win.

As a writer, Dean only scratched the surface of his gifts. He seemed faster and more fluent than should be possible or at least fair, but it may be that, as when he took in stride all those things most of us cannot imagine, he just didn't think it was good form to display all his underlying hard work. I looked for something of his to end with, discomfortingly topical but worth sharing at length. Sometime soon I will find and post another of his gems, a short, sad and very funny history of the New England Patriots up to the Belichick era, which I insisted should be the first chapter of a comic history of the NFL. It would have been brilliant.

Dean wrote this a little more than three years ago. He later published an extended essay on the same subject, pictured above and available here. Characteristically, he never told me about this publication and I only found out about it today. The great and astonishing thing about Dean was what a small, small part of him this disease ever occupied. Even as it was piling on him with a thousand challenges and indignities we can't even imagine, even as it killed him when he should have been playing with children, cystic fibrosis got very little of Dean Barnett.

———

A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE
I REALLY AM SORRY for the light posting the last couple of weeks. It’s now officially a rite of Spring – I return to Boston, become surprisingly busy for a spell, and the blogging rate declines to an unacceptably low level. The worst part of this syndrome is that my friends and family, in particular the long suffering Mrs. Soxblog, become the sole recipients of my non-stop and yet annoyingly repetitive analysis of world events. This is an intolerable situation for all concerned – you, me, and especially those who fall into my lair and become a captive audience.

But before returning to current events, I wanted to write a personal essay that hopefully will answer a lot of the questions readers send me and that will also be helpful to a few of you out there.

In 13 months, I’ll be turning 40. I don’t make that statement casually, like most almost-40 year olds do; four years ago, it didn’t look like I would make the milestone, and that if I did make the make the milestone I would do so with someone else’s lungs inside me.

To bring those of you not in the know up to speed, I have Cystic Fibrosis. I was always very healthy for someone with CF until 2002, when my condition suddenly and dramatically changed for the worst. Such turns of fate aren’t uncommon with the disease. By the end of that year, I was on the lung transplant list.

Lung transplants are what medical practitioners refer to as a treatment of last resort. The reason they get such a title is because lung treatments aren’t nearly effective as other organ transplants. The reasons for that fact aren’t really known, but the numbers are sobering. The odds of surviving one year after a lung transplant are 70%. If you make it the one year, you’ve got a 50% of making it five. Statistically, you have only a tiny shot of making it ten.

Thus, lung transplants have won the title of “treatment of last resort” the old fashioned way – they’ve earned it. For obvious reasons, you would have to be a pretty sick puppy to get in line for such a thing.

I don’t mean to pick on lung transplants. If you’re sick enough to warrant one, a potential lung transplant offers the one thing that you probably need the most – hope. Thus, I was excited not only to get on the list, but also to move up it. At one point late last summer, I made it all the way up to number one which meant I had to be accessible at all times to come into the hospital and collect my new organs if and when they became ready.

As I moved up the list, I became excited about having one last finite go at life. I looked at the transplant as a final chance that would give me a few years to get it right. One of the burdens of life is having to plan for a potentially limitless future; most of you are probably wisely socking enough money away in case you live until 100. Me, I didn’t have any such concerns.

I became excited about the prospects of a post-transplant life. According to the people I spoke with, there’s a limited window where after the transplant you feel great, literally better than you have in years. Before your body begins attacking the new organs, life is good indeed.

Because this time period is usually short, I decided that there was no time to lose. Before the transplant, I resolved to do everything possible to get the non-lung portions of my body in as good a shape as possible; I planned to practically spring from the operating room to the basketball courts once I had my new lungs.

I began hitting the gym with more seriousness than I’d had in a decade. I started to rehab my knees, which had been battered by the combination of a lot of running and virtually no maintenance. I even manned up and made frequent trips to the dentist who visited all sorts of depredations on me as a fitting retribution for what he considered a casual approach to flossing.

I considered the working out and the therapy and even the trips to my dentist’s dungeon as training for my transplant. Just like an athlete trains for the Olympics, I would train for the biggest challenge of my life.

A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AGO, I wrote that having a terminal illness is like being at the center of an ever-contracting circle. The circle represents all the things in your life; as you get sicker, the circle contracts and things that were in your life suddenly fall outside the circle. The smaller the circle gets, the smaller the contents of your life get.

While that may initially sound like a grim analogy, trust me, it’s an apt one. Besides, there’s a decided upside to it. At the innermost portions of the circle lays the things that are most important – your heart, your soul, your loved ones. As the circle gets smaller and more and more aspects of your previous life fall outside the circle, what’s really important makes up an ever increasing proportion of what remains. Suddenly, the things that should have always mattered most DO matter most because they’re all that’s left.

That doesn’t mean that having the circle contract is a ton of fun. In retrospect, the enlightenment that came with the circle’s contraction was terrific, but the day I realized I could no longer walk a hilly golf course was a rotten one. There were many such days of similarly painful realizations – none of them were enjoyable.

But something else was happening, too. Although I didn’t realize I was doing so at the time, I began expanding my circle in new ways as my physical abilities eroded. Without being able to spend all my spare hours playing sports (in a decidedly mediocre fashion, mind you) I began focusing on other things. I’d always been an avid reader, but I began reading a lot more. Just today, looking at my Amazon account, I saw I’ve read 119 books in the past year from Amazon alone. I’d be willing to wager I read twice as many as that in 2003.

But most of all, there was the writing. I started blogging in March 2004. I began writing for the Weekly Standard roughly 11 months later. I have found these activities far more rewarding than I anticipated. (Actually, I knew writing for the Standard would be a blast, but the blogging I was less certain of.) They have given me more satisfaction than dropping fly-balls on the softball field ever did. That previous sentence is a flippant way of acknowledging I really can’t express the difference writing has made in my life.

ANYWAY, FINALLY GETTING TO THE POINT, I’ve gotten a lot healthier. The precise reasons for my improvement can’t be scientifically determined – if they could, everyone with end-stage lung disease would have a new Rx.

But I can speculate. I think the promise of the new lungs combined with day-to-day activities that I found meaningful gave me what I’ll tritely refer to as a hope transplant. The introduction of fresh hope to my life in itself made me feel better. The hope plus the working out and doing all the other right things for my condition made me get better in a physically measurable way.

The improvement the past year has been dramatic. My lung function is as good as it’s been in five years. While of course the primary goal, as is always the case where lifting weights is concerned, is to look buff, I tailor my work-outs so they’ll help me function in a day-to-day more effectively manner. While I’ll never run five miles in 33 minutes again (not with these lungs anyway), I can walk across a long parking lot or up a flight of stairs without spending the next three minutes catching my breath. While these might seem like small triumphs, they’re not. Having such abilities makes every day life easier and more pleasant.

So things are good. As you’ve probably figured out, I’m now too healthy to be on the lung transplant list. That’s a good thing. Just between us, I’ve grown attached to these wheezing old lungs and I found the thought of parting with them disquieting. Although still chronically ill, I function a lot better than I have in years. That’s nice.

Four years ago, I didn’t think I’d live to see the Red Sox win the World Series. Against all odds, that worked out for all of us. Actually, a lot of things of even more importance have worked out these past four years.

AND I’VE LEARNED A LOT, TOO. For those of you who are ill or who have loved ones who are ill, here are some of the personal lessons that I’ve taken from my journey:

1) WANTING TO LIVE may be the biggest “x factor” in determining how long you’ll live. For those of you with a serious illness, this is the single most important observation I could share with you. Focus on the reasons that you want to live. Focus on the things that satisfy you – minimize the things that drive you nuts. If you feel your life is endless misery, it will end soon. Fill your days with the activities that make you happy to get out of bed. Eliminate from your days the things you dread. You’ll want to live longer, and you will.

And for those of you with loved ones who you would like to see live for a longer time rather than a shorter time, help them in this. From what I’ve seen in being around other sick people, loved ones can most readily accomplish this by focusing on not being burdensome. I can’t tell you how many seriously ill people I’ve heard say how their family is driving them crazy. Go to a support group meeting, and there’s a 30% chance that part of it will devolve into all the patients pissing and moaning how the people closest to them are driving them nuts. How sad is that?

If you’ve got a gravely ill loved one and you’re driving them nuts, you’ve simply got to find a way to stop doing what’s bugging them. What follows is harsh, but you’ve got to hear it – you’re literally killing them faster.

2) EACH DAY IS A GIFT, although sometimes it is as Tony Soprano says the equivalent of a pair of socks. What I’m really trying to say is tomorrow is guaranteed to no man. No person has gotten off this planet alive. None of us will be the first. Death is part of the deal. Living is pretty great – being seriously ill gives you a visceral appreciation of that fact. And that knowledge tends to make every day, and the little miracles that accompany every day like a glazed chocolate donut or a perfect cup of coffee, all the sweeter.

3) ON A RELATED NOTE, DEATH ISN’T THAT BAD. You look death close in the eye over an extended period of time, and you realize it’s just going to happen. Death will get you, sooner or later. It’s just a fact, and the price of living. One of the things that I’ve been struck by being around gravely ill people is, generally speaking, their lack of fear.

4) DOCTORS ARE GREAT, BUT…First of all, I’ve been blessed with incredible doctors. My CF doctor, in particular, is one of my heroes. He uses his considerable talents to tirelessly serve gravely ill children and young adults. I honestly don’t know how he does it. My only complaint regarding him is that his own life is so admirable, I can’t help but feel like an utter turd in comparison.

But…If your prognosis is imminent death, then by definition your doctors do not have all the answers. If they don’t know how to cure your disease, they don’t understand everything about how it functions. And, for what it’s worth, few doctors are in a rush to confess what they don’t know.

You’ve got to take control. Become an expert on your condition. While your physician will probably always know more about how your disease effects the general population, you know best how your disease is working inside of you. This is your fight – take control of it.

OKAY, ENOUGH ABOUT ME. I’ll be back early tomorrow with an excellent Spanning the Web (if I do say so myself) that’s mostly already written. I think the words “Haditha” and “Murtha”will be prominently featured. As if that weren’t enough, Carl has written an essay on his favorite TV show (no, not “Saved by the Bell – The College Years” as I figured it would be) that I’ll be posting.

Thanks for your patience. (June 6, 2006)

How to be a flake

2008-10-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

(Not an exhaustive list)

Apply the maxim "To thine own self be true" to your smallest social behaviors, reconsidering daily what "thine own self" really means, and always concluding it means "whatever strikes my fancy at the time." Don't worry about any inconsistencies or mixed messages that may result—follow your heart!

Do the same things repeatedly, expecting different results.

Be unpredictably difficult to reach. Make full use of your cell phone's ability to be muted, turned off, in the other room, lost, etc. Check your voicemail and email at unpredictable intervals. Rarely acknowledge email or text messages.

When possible, take the path of least resistance socially.

Arbitrage your social schedule.

Don't be afraid to be the one who is always late.

Don't be afraid to be the one who is always changing or canceling plans.

If you blow off a commitment, never acknowledge how this affects other people.

Habitually over-promise and under-deliver.

Begin much and finish little.

Embrace lifestyle, relationship and personal-growth cliches.

"Make them stay!"

2008-10-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

At Cafe Presse tonight, this was a person at the next table's solution to the problem of underperforming underwater mortgages. He added that "they" could be given 50-year mortgages. No socialism here!

Greek safety plan

2008-10-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

They should just close off the upper floors of all UW and WSU fraternities and sororities. It seems the brothers and sisters can scarcely look at a flight of stairs without being propelled from the nearest third-floor window, fire escape, etc.

I felt it was fairly sincere

2008-10-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Two random campaign thoughts

2008-10-13T23:17:00.000-07:00

I love the media trope that starts out "Since Obama was only eight when Ayers . . . ." If, as an adult, I decided to "pal around" (outings, Mariners games, dinners) with Pol Pot, how would it be a valid excuse that he killed all those people when I was a kid? Would calling attention to my activities really be "classic guilt by association" (E.J. Dionne)?

The line of attack on Ayers is silly, but not because of how old Obama was when the bad things happened.

Why has NO ONE made the point that there is a problem with McCain's celebrated correction of the woman at the rally who said Obama is an Arab? McCain's answer amounted to "No, he's not an Arab, he's a decent family man."

"Slow news week—let's go with our cat-predation package!"

2008-10-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

This is what the more mainstream of our two local "alternative weeklies", Seattle Weekly, opted to run as a cover story this week: The Lost Cats of Poverty Gulch

I'll confess that I have not read the story in its entirety (still working my way through last week's Economist ("World on the edge") and just loaded up with this week's ("Saving the system"), and maybe it turns into a work of reportage that would make Joseph Mitchell and Hunter S. Thompson cry . . . but it appears to be all about how people who live in this one heavily-wooded greenbelt area tend to have a lot of cats go missing at the hands (paws? jaws?) of coyotes. With all due respect, WHO CARES?!?! It's hard to think of a more trivial story, or a week when it would seem more incongruous for it to show up on the front page of any publication.

Here's a classic bit from the story. I will let you find the authorial/editorial self indulgence that is in the finest tradition of Seattle alternative journalism, while I note a problem with the "scientific" explanation being put forward:

A 2004 paper authored by Russell Link, an urban wildlife biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), seconds Convy's notion. "In Washington," Link writes, "these intelligent and adaptable animals now manage to occupy almost every conceivable habitat type, from open ranch country to densely forested areas to downtown waterfront."

And occasionally, they like to eat pussy.

"Cats are thought of by coyotes as a competitor for prey," says Link. "A coyote is going to eliminate that competition."

Now, I could be wrong, but I doubt coyotes are picky eaters. They are not sitting around nibbling buttered scones and tut-tutting that these churlish cat-things are apt to put a dent in the population of delicious rabbits. I'm sure the coyotes are killing the cats in order to eat the cats [cue Schwarzenegger Terminator voice: "I would."]. It's also a rather poor evolutionary strategy for predators to pick fights with other predators in order to keep them from competing. That's like getting in a knife fight with the next person in the interview line at Wal-Mart: not worth it from a risk or energy-expenditure perspective—just try to do a little better in the interview. Also, I'm confident that cats are not "thought of by coyotes as a competitor for prey." Do you really think a coyote has the slightest idea of what a cat does or doesn't do vis-à-vis the coyote's prey (besides simply being it)? It seems unlikely. Plainly, the benefit package at the Department of Fish and Wildlife is not attracting the cream of our biology graduates.

Well, naturally

2008-10-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Amazon.ca Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated "Fred Herzog - Vancouver Photographs" by Arnold & Turner have also purchased "Indignation" by Philip Roth.

Less here lately

2008-10-07T00:26:00.000-07:00

As we used to say around our dorm room, it's "not entirely clear" why my blog entries have tapered off lately. A predictable twist is that it's not entirely clear I'm inclined to share—or even come up with—an introspective, coherent account of why. So how about some bullet points instead, each in the nature of a possible partial explanation?

The "great events of the day" are heavily covered elsewhere, complicated to write about with originality, clarity and verve, or are predictably disgusting (like whenever someone on the GOP ticket opens his or her mouth).

Don't Trust Snakes is not my public diary. An oldie but goodie.

I've gradually concluded almost no one reads this.

The emergence of new little diversions, like composing clever Facebook status lines. Seriously. Vague but cognizable pique at people who refuse my Facebook friend requests. Yes, Facebook, that exquisite form of slavery. You are indeed wise to shun it.

Aggregate changes in my situation since inception of the MWR blog persona that either diminish my desire to express myself through the MWR blog persona, or provide alternative real-world outlets for some impulses that often animate the MWR blog persona.

I'm not sure what to call this one. Psychic editing, perhaps. I'm in a mood lately where I'm tired of giving myself away for free. Further experiments may follow.

A rainy day in Georgetown

2008-09-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

Far out!

2008-09-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

Cool, though weird

2008-09-22T00:21:00.000-07:00

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) today announced that it will become the fourth largest Bank Holding Company . . . . With over $150 billion in assets, GS Bank USA will be one of the ten largest banks in the United States. - Goldman Sachs press release, September 21, 2008

Conveniently or inconveniently, they're currently engaged to sell WaMu in whole or in part. I wouldn't put it past them to find a way to snap up that branch network.

Ad copy

2008-09-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

My female colleague came up with the best one-sentence personal ad I can imagine:

"Please send many photos and Certificate of Non-Creepiness."

Better not call it a home-price bubble

2008-09-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

I've been wondering how much more drama there would be in the economy right now if ordinary people on Main Street were cognizing this as the end of a decades-long bubble in home prices, instead of as something brought on by improvident lending practices, creation of and speculation in esoteric and opaque derivatives by elites, overuse of leverage and what-have-you. The master narrative—greedy elites getting carried away—seems to me a symptom masquerading as the cause. The cause is that everyone thought (thinks) that the next fellow would (will) pay more for the house. If any other kind of asset were involved—internet stocks, tulip bulbs—the illusion would have burst by now and everyone would be picturing the last day, but our time horizons for selling homes are long, homes have an intrinsic value and everyone needs a place to live.

This sure isn't a subprime mortgage crisis. Subprime mortgages are like the crap companies that came on the market near the end of the tech bubble: especially ugly pigs with thick, sloppy lipstick (to choose a random metaphor). They didn't cause the problem, they were just the only way to continue the game once the cute pigs, M.A.C. and Chanel ran out.

All the esoteric instruments and excesses of leverage are at bottom just clever ways of monetizing bubble expectations about home prices that remain more or less intact on Main Street. Blaming Wall Street elites for what's going on right now might be like plugging in 50 blow dryers and deciding you have a fuse problem. It's too metaphorically cute not to wonder whether we're watching the financial system slipping pennies into the fusebox to keep the lights on and the blow dryers running. I guess we may find out.

Turns out it was more of a commentary on the human condition

2008-09-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH. - Hurricane Ike warning from the National Weather Service

Code

2008-09-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

Is there any doubt? At the rate things are going, lipstick will be all there is to distinguish the McCain campaign from the mud-wallow in which it is happily immersing itself.

It's safe to say that anyone this ad appeals to is from a culture I can't relate to at all.

"Also, don't cross the streams."

2008-09-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH. - Hurricane Ike warning from the National Weather Service

Apparently one of the lessons of Katrina was that you need to get people's full attention. An interesting semantic question arises: if you "face certain death", does that mean you will certainly die? Or would you merely be up against the prospect of certain death, certain to die only if things broke the wrong way?

Birth control?

2008-09-10T00:59:00.000-07:00

As an exercise, try figuring out Sarah's views about birth control. Does she believe adults should have access to the means of birth control they choose? It would be nice if someone could explore this.

And there it is

2008-09-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.

Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.” - The Hill, September 4, 2008

One more reason to hate the Romans

2008-09-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Researchers found that people who live in lands conquered by the Roman army have less protection against HIV than those in countries they never reached. - The Telegraph, September 4, 2008

Sarah

2008-09-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

I missed the last half of the speech. Did she get around to "uppity"? I think there are reasons for her selection that no one in the media wants to talk about.

Governor, you're no Harry Truman

2008-09-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

I was thinking someone needed to track down this actuarial information

2008-09-03T13:24:00.001-07:00

The actuarial tables on the Social Security Administration website suggest that there is a better than 10% chance that McCain will die during his first term in office. Needless to say, the Reaper's scything only grows more insistent thereafter. Should President McCain survive his first term and get elected to a second, there is a 27% chance that Palin will become the first female U.S. president by 2015. If we take into account McCain's medical history and the pressures of the presidency, the odds probably increase considerably that this bright-eyed Alaskan will become the most powerful woman in history. - Sam Harris, Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2008

Why should I be in a position of debating with myself about the authenticity of this photo?

2008-09-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

Inauthentic, btw.

Pick first, vet later

2008-09-02T01:35:00.000-07:00

Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin. - New York Times, September 1, 2008

Unbelievable. Read the whole article.

Bristol's choice

2008-09-02T00:40:00.000-07:00

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, according to aides of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, the aides said. - Reuters, September 1, 2008

Are they implying that a 17-year-old girl is entitled to decide the outcome of her pregnancy?

I hate this

2008-08-31T10:14:00.000-07:00

And even there [the Democratic National Convention], some women were not appeased. Ms. Walsh sat two seats away from an African-American woman who was crying during Mrs. Clinton's speech. When the convention staff handed out "Unity" placards, the woman refused it.

- New York Times, August 31, 2008

Why mention the woman's race here? I'll bet this violates their stylebook rules.

McCain-Palin

2008-08-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

This was a show on ABC starring Geena Davis.

"Blue Sky"

2008-08-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

I certainly didn't expect Hillary's convention theme song to come from latest Big Head Todd and the Monsters album.

Biden

2008-08-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

I think Biden is a decent choice, but certainly not audacious. Just as Obama's ability to secure the nomination attests (among much else) to the shortage of compelling figures in the Democratic Party, so also does the fact that in the end he was choosing between Biden and a pair of relative nonentities.

It's a safe choice, a playing-not-to-lose choice, but still not too bad. Biden won't be bad at the bulldog role and is well situated to go after McCain. It's likely that average voters couldn't even tell you the difference between executive and legislative experience, so it probably was wiser for Obama to plug a different resumé gap with this selection. Now, at most, the two tickets will have one person with executive experience, and it will be interesting to see how McCain and others pay attention to that concern.

It makes sense for Obama not to rock the boat with his selection, since the swing voters he must court already find it peculiar enough to see a 46-year-old black man at the top of the ticket. It wouldn't have worked well in this situation to choose, for example, a nationally-unknown woman (and they all are nationally unknown with one exception who would have been an insane choice for other reasons). Obama has all kinds of unique challenges as to how he pitches himself for the rest of the race. Choosing Biden is one more way this candidate is coming down to earth for what will be very recognizable as a standard-issue stretch run. I would not put this selection in the same league with the only two inspired running-mate choices of the last quarter century: Gore and, yes, Cheney.

A lot of what Biden brings to an Obama administration could be secured by making him Secretary of State. It would be interesting to know how much the Obama camp considered an economy-centered choice for running mate, and how much the brushfire in Georgia—something of a blip, really—swayed the final choice. Any "home run" (or "swing for the fences") choice would have been an "economy" choice. Bloomberg, for example. Jon Corzine would have been quite an interesting choice in a parallel universe where he wore his seatbelt and didn't have a messy personal life (and where Wall Street experience didn't impute complicity in the mortgage/credit mess).

A final note, the text message thing was a complete bust, even in terms of what the expectations should have been that were dashed. The media consistently called them "text messages", but when I visited the Obama site and filled out the "be the first to know" page, all they asked for was an email address. In any event, my email arrived at 7:34 a.m.

Yellow Aster Butte

2008-08-21T23:50:00.001-07:00

Four wheels good, two wheels bad

2008-08-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

It is time to consider that the single biggest reason for antagonistic, wary attitudes between drivers and bicyclists in the urban setting is not the thoughtlessness of drivers or the differential outcomes for participants in the typical bicycle-versus-car accident; rather, it is that bicyclists disregard traffic rules at a much higher rate than operators of other kinds of vehicles.

Search your feelings—you know this to be true. If cars broke basic traffic laws at the rate cyclists do, there would be chaos. If motorcyclists went about things like their pedal brethren, motorcycles would probably be illegal. Like cars or not, you must admit that the great majority of drivers are making a solid, good-faith effort to obey major laws.

You can't really say that about bicyclists. Many bicyclists break the law whenever it suits them, ignoring red lights, turn-only lanes, vehicle spacing requirements, the distinction between roadways and sidewalks, etc. Not all bicyclists are like this by any means, but many. Note that I don't mean "running" red lights shortly after they've turned red. I mean ignoring them. In the last 24 hours I've seen two bicyclists blow through steady red lights like the lights weren't there. And I haven't driven much in the last 24 hours.

The bicyclists I am concerned with behave with impunity because, so far as I can tell, the laws to govern their behavior either do not exist, lack sufficient sanctions, or are not enforced. Bicyclists may worry about being killed, but they sure don't have to worry about being ticketed for all the crazy stuff they do, at least not in Seattle. And assuming they were to be ticketed, what would happen to habitual offenders? Answer: nothing. There is no concept of licensing bicycles, of losing the privilege of operating a bicycle. (No license plates also means little citizen reporting of reckless lawbreaking.) As far as I know, nothing a person does on a bicycle—sober, anyway—can affect his or her ability to operate a motor vehicle. You can run red lights to your heart's content and none of it will ever come back to impact your driver's license. Insurance is another inapplicable notion. You could do all kinds of insane stuff on your bike and no one could ever say "you must obtain high-risk insurance if you want to continue riding your bike."

This is a city that wants to tax grocery bags. But it allows the risk of personal injury or death to be the main consideration regulating how bicyclists conduct themselves.

How about some comments on this one?

I'm hardly the first, but . . .

2008-08-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

I'll put my money on Biden. He appeals to the much-needed British-coal-miner demographic.

Wow

2008-08-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this from my BlackBerry while lying in my tent on Yellow Aster Butte in the Mount Baker Wilderness. It's crazy that I have T-Mobile data service here, and better than in parts of Seattle (e.g., Montlake Ale House). Type "Yellow Aster Butte" into Google Maps to share my surprise. Contact with the world detracts from the experience. I had only brought the device along as my alarm. It's gorgeous here though there are too many bugs and other people. Both have their annoyances. The tent is a lovely bug-free zone and I may hang in here for a while. It clouded up overnight so most likely the heat won't be oppressive today. Photos to come later.

I'll be the one with the speakerphone in my free hand

2008-08-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

How stupid is Washington's "Hands-Free Law" for cell phone use while driving?

Very.

Illegal: One hand on wheel, cell phone to ear.

Legal: One hand on wheel, cell phone in other hand in speakerphone mode.

From the statute:

For purposes of this section, "hands-free mode" means the use of a wireless communications device with a speaker phone, headset, or earpiece.

So, technically, you could be steering with your knee while cradling your phone in both hands, as long as you had it in speakerphone mode. That's quality legislative draftsmanship right there. I suppose steering with your knee is covered somewhere else in the law.

Oh . . . that

2008-08-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

Count me as one of those who just never understood the hype about Bill Richardson. Granted, the man takes his sweet time making up his mind, but diplomacy demands more. George Will makes a pretty good point here, and if I'd seen the show you can bet I would have been making the same point on Sunday.

On ABC's "This Week," Richardson, auditioning to be Barack Obama's running mate, disqualified himself. Clinging to the Obama campaign's talking points like a drunk to a lamppost, Richardson said that this crisis proves the wisdom of Obama's zest for diplomacy and that America should get the U.N. Security Council "to pass a strong resolution getting the Russians to show some restraint." Apparently Richardson was ambassador to the United Nations for 19 months without noticing that Russia has a Security Council veto. - Op-Ed by George F. Will, Washington Post, August 12, 2008

This reminds me that I have been unsuccessful in locating online a column from the Harvard Lampoon's early 1980s Newsweek parody called "Why I Love the Feudal System" by "George Fwill". Very funny stuff.

How to look like a complete tool

2008-08-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

That depends on what the definition of "99%" is

2008-08-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough. - John Edwards, August 8, 2008

"Sure, the kid was 14 . . ."

2008-08-08T00:35:00.000-07:00

[G]un-rights advocate Dave Workman says people need to make better choices, not more laws.

"Everyone is always looking for the quick legislative fix, as if you can legislate against foolishness," he said. "Sure, the kid was 14, and some adult supervision might be a good idea for a hunter that age. But again, age doesn't necessarily guarantee that you don't have the wear-with-all [sic] to take a bad shot." - www.komonews.com, August 6, 2008

It's safe to say that if you could legislate against foolishness, we would hear very little from gun-rights advocate Dave Workman.

I have two Ivy degrees. When I was 14 I was shooting croquet balls along our street with a giant slingshot made from Tupperware and six-foot loops of surgical tubing. I was attacking the neighbors' house with bottle rockets—without verifying their absence. It's not a prudent age.

"Don't fill up on sody pop and candy, junior. Or kill anyone."

2008-08-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

Pamela Almli, an experienced hiker from Oso, Snohomish County, who was aware of hunting seasons, was killed Saturday on a marked hiking trail on Sauk Mountain, Skagit County. She was shot from about 120 yards by a 14-year-old who told police he thought she was a bear.

The boy and his 16-year-old brother had been dropped off at the mountain by their grandfather. - Seattle Times, August 6, 2008

I find this whole story just appalling. (An earlier story found it necessary to mention that the victim's family wasn't "anti-gun", a line of inquiry and reportage that's insulting to the poor woman's memory.)

It's incredible to me that in our state you don't even have to be old enough to drive yourself to the woods. Just get grand-dad to drop you off like it's the matinee. "Don't fill up on sody pop and candy, junior. Or kill anyone." It would have been illegal for the 16-year-old to drive somewhere with the 14-year-old in the car, for God's sake! As far as I'm concerned, giving those kids high-powered rifles and dropping them off at the forest's edge was negligence per se at best. Really, why shouldn't the grandfather face criminal charges? Criminally negligent homicide, perhaps.

And why should I or any hiker have the slightest responsibility to do anything special to avoid being shot by a hunter? Of course, it could be wise to take some precautions, like wearing some colors not normally sported by deer and bears. But the onus should be entirely on the hunters to not shoot any human beings in the wilderness.

Any subtext in this article suggesting unarmed hikers bear responsibility to stay out of hunters' way is gross, and there's definitely some of that tone here, including the sidebar headed "Staying Safe." It's the hunters who need a sidebar. "Don't shoot any humans. Use your fucking binoculars. Supervise your grandchildren." Meanwhile, the article doesn't even tell us whether these children were even carrying binoculars.

"Get off the fence and join me in my ivory tower, where we can debate the finer points of tort law"

2008-07-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

“I don’t think anything that went on in these chambers affected him,” said Richard Epstein, a libertarian colleague who says he longed for Mr. Obama to venture beyond his ideological and topical comfort zones. “His entire life, as best I can tell, is one in which he’s always been a thoughtful listener and questioner, but he’s never stepped up to the plate and taken full swings.” - New York Times, July 30, 2008

There's something priceless about reading quotes like this from someone whose idea of "mixing it up" is editing a torts casebook, at a time when Obama is A NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

No shit

2008-07-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

Obama-Clinton Ticket Is Seen as Unlikely

R.I.P. Donald Fleming

2008-07-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

But there's one more thing you should know about Hei—deg—ger . . . and you're not go—ing to liiiike this: HE WAS A NAZI!—An unrepentant Nazi until the end of his life.

Professor Donald Fleming died last month. Fleming's four wonderful intellectual history courses defined the concept of a "work gut" (go to class, read two novels), yet taught us so much. His lectures, incomparable tours d'horizon, should have been collected. It's tragic that they aren't available on video somewhere.

Dear God

2008-07-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

In this country, vodka gives white a bad name. It's an odorless, insipid mixer that only serves as a means to an end or a dull cohort for cranberry juice. There is so much more to the clear-spirits rainbow than this underachiever. Spiced, luscious, and primed for food, aquavit is the anti-vodka. The word aquavit, and its language-specific variations (such as the French eau de vie), comes from the Latin aqua vitae, "water of life." The liquor we know as "aquavit" is a unique Scandinavian treat, oilier and richer than vodka but nowhere near as sweet as schnapps. All booze starts out as vodka—"neutral grain spirits" if you want to split hairs—a clear spirit distilled from any variety of grain, fruit, or starch. Schnapps is just vodka with intense flavorings added, like mint or licorice. Gin is just vodka with a certain flavor profile of herbs and spices. Even bourbon is just vodka, made from certain grains and then aged in wood. Aquavit can share characteristics with all of these. I've had a few aquavits the color of bourbon, some that smelled like gin, and a few that made German schnapps seem shy and unassuming. - Seattle Weekly "Search & Distill" column, July 16, 2008 (emphasis mine)

Yes, that's right: bourbon, scotch, cognac, tequila—they all start out as neutral grain spirits.

Wow.

How Star Trek is like reality

2008-07-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Reality

Star Trek

Dragan we hardly knew ye

2008-07-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

Nice

. . . and force them to drop the stupid nicknames

2008-07-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Economist made the good point recently that if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are to be bailed out at great cost to taxpayers, the taxpayers and not private investors should end up owning the upside. How about a convertible bridge loan with the conversion into a highly dilutive preferred stock. If Fannie, Freddie and their investors don't like that, they could go elsewhere for a bailout.

Interesting moral calculus

2008-07-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

“This is a historic event,” said Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the agreements in Dayton, Ohio, to end the war in Bosnia in 1995. “Of the three most evil men of the Balkans, Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic, I thought Karadzic was the worst. The reason was that Karadzic was a real racist believer. Karadzic really enjoyed ordering the killing of Muslims, whereas Milosevic was an opportunist.” - New York Times, July 22, 2008

This reminds me of a debate I had with senior colleague some years back about whether it was worse to be demonic or diabolical. I'm not saying it's wrong, but I doubt Dante would agree with the ordering.

(The debate arose after the partner came into my office and asked "Have you read the Management Incentive Plan? It's diabolical." We concluded that it was worse to be diabolical than demonic. Our thought was that demons are evil in their nature without necessarily having a choice in the matter, whereas devils—or at least The Devil—did have a choice. We agreed that it was worst of all to be satanic, since that meant "like Satan", making a direct comparison with that fairest of angels who elected to become The Evil One.)

Don't just stand there!

2008-07-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Go see The Dark Knight! Best summer blockbuster in half a decade or more.

(I got a chance to see a preview screening tonight on IMAX.)

The Spell Book of Roderick Rage

2008-07-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Fortune smiled on me during a recent trip to one of the neighborhood dungeons (not that kind of dungeon). Our party surprised a band of kobalds and got back to the surface with some of their most precious treasures, notably:

two bushels of gold pieces

a sapphire the size of a plover's egg

a cloak of invisibility (torso only)

14.2 gallons of Shell V-Power premium gasoline

The Spell Book of Roderick Rage, the Road-Rage Mage

It's this last one that has me excited. Here are some excerpts:

For the tardy carriages at the beacon of movement, speaketh thee loudly within thine owne carriage: "IT DOESN'T GET ANY GREENER!"

From within thine owne carriage, its transparent barriers fully in place, say unto him that would better advance his carriage sooner from the beacon of movement or the crimson octagon: "TODAY WOULD BE GOOD!"

To the carriageman who would not sprightly make a left or right turn, but instead wait until Doomsday or the Gods know what other distant time: "MOVE, YOU MORON!"

To that one who traveleth at the merest fraction of the carriage's proper speed, impeding thy progress: "IS IT THAT NICE IN YOUR CAR?! DO YOU WANT TO SIT IN YOUR CAR ALL DAY OR DO YOU WANT TO GET WHERE YOU ARE GOING?!?"

To him whose carriage moveth not as it should, but far contrary to the laws of man: "JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!!!"

Unfortunately, during our battle with the kobalds, we lost 3.2 gallons of Chevron Premium with Techron and some chapters of the spell book were burned away. So I am unable to report what the outcome of Rage's charms will be in any situation. But there will be powerful effects on the other drivers and their cars even if you cannot see the results. Often, it's delayed boils or frequent urination, or maybe the water pump will explode. Anyway, the point is to stick with it and afflict those other drivers. Oh, none of this will work if you have any stupid bumper stickers on your car, or anything dangling from your rear-view mirror. This sort of crap may add "personality" to your vehicle, but it interferes with the flow of mystical energies that you need to harness in order for these incantations to properly afflict other drivers.

Entertainment without content or value

2008-07-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES — The Japanese video game titans, Nintendo and Sony, announced wide-ranging, if not entirely breathtaking, constellations of new games and services at the E3 convention here on Tuesday, but did not appear to significantly alter their overall strategies in the fast-growing game market, as Microsoft did on Monday.

Nintendo — which is riding high on the gangbusters popularity of its DS handheld game unit and its Wii home console — continued to aim largely at children and the mainstream consumers who have adopted gaming in recent years, propelling the industry and the hobby beyond its historical base of young male players. Sony, which is finally generating some traction and excitement around its PlayStation 3 console after initial stumbles, directed most of its new offerings at more traditional gamers, as well as at movie buffs interested in the company’s high-definition Blu-Ray disc format. - New York Times, July 16, 2008

Have you given any thought recently to what a pointless waste of time video games are? I have. These are entertainments that my generation enjoyed in adolescence and that some—distracted by the steady evolution of the games and the technology that underlies them—have forgotten to outgrow. Almost anything else you could choose to do with your time would be more personally and socially beneficial. Watching a string of TV commercials would be more educational. Web surfing should carry degree credit by comparison.

Get over yourselves, losers

2008-07-08T23:58:00.000-07:00

Mr. Obama has asked his top donors to help raise money for her debt, and so far they have come up with less than $100,000 (though more in pledges), Clinton campaign officials said — a “paltry sum,” in the words of one.

Clinton donors and campaign officials say they remain surprised — and, among some, offended — that Mr. Obama has refused to ask his entire list of donors, more than 1.5 million people, to send $5, $10 or more to chip away at Mrs. Clinton’s debt. (Obama officials said they did not want to distract their donors for the main task at hand, raising money to defeat Mr. McCain.) - New York Times, July 9, 2008

What sense of entitlement?

Really, though, the hardest thing about being a zombie at Harvard is getting in

2008-07-08T01:14:00.000-07:00

“The Harvard Zombie Massacre,” which is still in its preliminary phases, is to be produced by Hollywood veteran Warren Zide.

Zide, who produced the “American Pie” series as well as the “Final Destination” series, has a great deal of experience with movies featuring college-aged students—as well as those featuring rather gruesome fare.

Ryan Lewis, who will serve as the movie’s executive producer, said that the project has a rather unique appeal.

“So, the world’s smartest college students have to battle the world’s smartest zombies,” he said. “Usually you get serial killers and ghost stories and stuff with college kids. There hasn’t been a college zombie movie yet. It will have that great cheekiness, some great horror moments—it’s really a great blend.”

As the title suggests, Harvard students will engage in a battle of wits with their undead counterparts. Lewis hopes to film the project right in Harvard Yard, though they have not yet sought the administration’s approval. - Harvard Crimson, June 28, 2008

Unfortunately for the marketing campaign, Yale University holds common-law trademark rights to the phrase "the world's smartest zombies."

Uncoated optics

2008-07-02T00:03:00.000-07:00

. . . with mentally-ill owners

2008-07-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys

Championship soccer simulation

2008-06-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

Take the coin of your choice. Heads is Germany, tails is Spain.

Set your timer for 90 minutes.

Flip your coin! This will determine possession.

Flip your coin!
a. if it comes up heads or tails ten times in a row, the team in possession scores a goal.
b. if not, go back to step 2.
Continue until the 90 minutes have elapsed.

Continue for two to six more minutes.

In case of a tie, find a friend and stand six feet from one another. Take turns flinging the coin at each other as hard as you can. Each catch of a coin counts as a save. Do this as many time as there are shots in an official penalty-kick shootout.

Seattle: steak-lover's paradise on earth

2008-06-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

One wonders why, with 31 locations nationwide, The Capital Grille would venture into Seattle, a market already well-marbled with many fine steakhouses, from the homegrown variety — Metropolitan Grill, Daniel's Broiler and El Gaucho come to mind — to chains like Morton's and Ruth's Chris. Do we need The Capital Grille? - Seattle Times, June 13, 2008

Are restaurant reviewers here truly so out of it as to think there is anything remarkable, in national terms, about Seattle's steakhouse offerings?

Shoeless or clueless?

2008-06-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

(Sorry, it rhymed.)

We all know people who choose to go shoeless in their own homes. What interests me is the absolutist streak some people have when it comes to maintaining a shoeless home. You have to figure that 95% of the traffic in the average home comes from the occupants of the home. So if they elect to go shoeless in their home, they've achieved 95% of the benefit of fully shoeless traffic right there. But, for some, the value of getting the last 5% shoeless traffic gets inflated beyond its true importance. If they found out carrots were good for them, they still wouldn't eat only carrots, but the logic of incremental benefits and moderation can sometimes be elusive. The same person who said "I've eaten carrots all week; I can have steak with my guests" is likely to have a different view about guests wearing shoes in an otherwise shoeless house. BECAUSE SHOELESS IS THE RULE!

The obvious counterpoint is that it costs guests nothing to remove their shoes. But that would be merely an assumption.

My view is that there is value to being a generous and gracious host that probably outweighs the incremental benefit to rugs or bare floors—each designed to encounter footwear—of avoiding the last 5% of shod traffic. Being a welcoming host means saying "come as you are" to guests, within reason. Guests should be made to feel at home, not like they need to partially disrobe.

Just once I'd like to say to a host (and, being a gracious guest, I never would), "Actually, if you don't mind, I don't want material from your floors to stick to my socks or bare feet." The point is not whether some rug cost more than my socks—it's about the spirit of welcoming hospitality.

Worse than "kidlets"

2008-06-25T00:37:00.000-07:00

"interwebs"

God, I shudder to hear or read that . . . I hesitate to call it a "term". It embodies a certain vaguely aspergic, affected knowing breeziness just repels me. It's one of those words that, as you are about to use it, should prompt you to bash the heel of your hand against your forehead—smartly—and ask "WHAT AM I TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH!?"

Try looking at it a different way . . .

2008-06-24T01:06:00.000-07:00

From an email tonight about why it's easier to be a lawyer in private practice than an academic:

[I]t's easier to force yourself to be a prostitute than a nympho. A prostitute doesn't have to enjoy the work. Scholarship doesn't have limits determined by practicality, so to really do it well you have to love it.

Here's a new one

2008-06-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

If you know me rather well, you may know that I think that "no shoes in the house" policies are, well, at odds with the first duty of a host. But it's the first duty of the guest to keep such views to oneself.

Here's a new one: I was just invited to a shoeless garden party.

"NOTE: we'll be shoeless in the backyard, so if you MUST wear socks with your sandals make sure they don't have holes."

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted to be invited to the social event of the season. However, I was involved in an online chat when the invite came in, and I've been a little lean on the material front since The Most Qualified Candidate in Our History dropped out and I got busy on a deal . . . so I'll present a lightly edited transcript. All in good fun, of course, since the guest of honor reads this blog.

10:16 PM me: no shoes outdoors
fucking unbelievable
that's what reminded me of the [story about persnickety person], go figure
10:17 PM MVS: HA HA
are you upset to be outside with no shoes on?
10:18 PM me: I think anyone who's ever stepped on a bee would be a little shaken up by this dangerous and irrational "house rule"
MVS: i have stepped on a bee and more than my share of nails
but...
10:19 PM i don't mind being barefoot
10:20 PM me: I don't think even the Franco regime had rules like that.
10:22 PM I'm struggling to get my imagination around a scenario where you would offer up your fragile back-yard ecosystem for a big bash and then mitigate the damage with a no-shoes policy.
Most people with no-shoes policies are worried about dirt.
However, yards and dirt are closely linked.
10:23 PM Perhaps they are worried about an insidious form of dirt theft, topsoil being tracked away.
10:24 PM MVS: or maybe they have some new grass that will feel really nice and soft under your feet
me: Well, one hopes.
10:25 PM But that gets back to my "don't volunteer your yard if it's that wimpy grass." issue
10:27 PM me: Shoe-free garden party.
10:30 PM MVS: Tip Toe Through the Tulips
me: Have you ever tried tiptoeing with no shoes on?
10:31 PM It might be hard.
10:32 PM But maybe not.
Maybe it's a really big yard and people will be sneaking up on one another all the time!

With any luck the completely rational explanation will show up in the comments before too long and we will all learn something.

EDITED TO ADD: I was just rereading the bit about socks and sandals. It can't possibly be that shoes are banned and sandals are allowed, right? Because that would be totally irrational . . . right? But it seems to suggest that if you want to come in goofball attire, you can. I am more confused than ever.

Hillary VP Deathwatch: 0.1%

2008-06-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

I don't think it bodes well for Hillary's (nonexistent) chance to be on the ticket that the Obama campaign yesterday tapped Patti Solis-Doyle to serve as the running mate's chief of staff . . . considering that Hillary and Solis-Doyle have not spoken since Hillary flung Solis-Doyle from her campaign's balloon gondola.

Fight the power!

2008-06-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

Memo to Marvel Comics

2008-06-13T01:27:00.000-07:00

M E M O R A N D U M

TO: Marvel Comics
FROM: MWR
RE: WTF?
DATED: June 13, 2008
---------------------------------------------------

THERE ALREADY WAS AN INCREDIBLE HULK MOVIE ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO!

It goes down well

2008-06-11T00:02:00.000-07:00

Really, doesn't this look like it should be the logo for some Irish ale? It's a very not-American typeface. I can't really fault the color scheme, of course.

. . . show-develop like the wind!

2008-06-09T00:30:00.000-07:00

Rob Thomas, the creator of "Veronica Mars," is shepherding the ["Cupid" remake] project for ABC. Thomas is a triple threat this pilot season as he also preps his "90210" show for the CW and writes and executive produces an untitled pilot for ABC. The show is based on "Outrageous Fortune," a crime family dramedy from New Zealand. - Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2008

What a historic day . . .

2008-06-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

. . . for the National Building Museum. Who knew there was a National Building Museum?

From the website:

On Saturday, June 7, the Museum will be closed for a special event. We apologize for any inconvenience; please visit us on Sunday, June 8 for regularly scheduled programs and exhibits.

'Cause if you really want to hear MWR's views . . .

2008-06-05T00:45:00.000-07:00

This is the 75th entry over more than 2-1/2 years to bear the "Hillary Clinton" label. I'd like to claim that the tenor of these has evolved in a way that does credit to my thoughtfulness and my open-minded nature. But the fact is, I might have written the phrase "arrogant, vindictive, snake-like nature" yesterday (not) or at the very beginning (indeed).

The entries will taper off quickly. Though her departure was writ months ago, it continues in slow motion like the end of a bad dream. I shake out the cobwebs and realize I'm never going to be called upon to vote for her, and it's every bit as satisfying as grasping that there is no calculus test in three days, I didn't inadvertently kill that person, my Leica wasn't stolen from that luggage in Switzerland, etc. We all have our nightmares.

"To the last I will grapple with thee!"

2008-06-03T19:38:00.001-07:00

Another from the Olympic Peninsula trip

2008-06-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

What should be Hillary's . . . compensation?

2008-06-02T01:08:00.000-07:00

I forget which moronic Op-Ed contributor suggested Obama should publicly promise to nominate Hillary to the first open Supreme Court seat. Whoever it was had evidently forgotten that Obama's goal is to win the election (apart from the impropriety of promising to nominate a particular person to the Court.

However, I was just reading about the meaningless results from Puerto Rico, and Hillary's pointless comments thereafter (“In recent primary history, we have never nominated someone who has not won the popular vote.”) and reflecting on how nice it will be to finally have her gone. And I thought of the perfect way for Obama to . . . compensate . . . her for dragging out the nomination process beyond the limits of common sense and, from time to time, decency.

He should do to her (ahem, I mean for her) what FDR did to/for Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., offer her one of the greatest meaningless plums the Executive Branch has to offer, the Ambassadorship to the Court of St. James's. And figure out the details of the offer so that if she turns it down, she really has to come across as snubbing the President-elect. I'd enjoy watching those machinations.

Of course, despite its historic primacy, that ambassadorship isn't what it once was, and she has that delightful (or repellent) "Hillary grit" that might be put to good use in some other diplomatic settings. So, Russia could be an option (and if there weren't a bond of mutual respect forged between Hillary and Putin, it would only be because Hillary longs to rule a country and Putin only likes winners). However, as a poetic posting for Hillary, Russia is mere blank verse to the iamabic pentameter that is . . . Saudi Arabia. Oh, yes. She could see about solving our energy problems at the source, perhaps shaming the House of Saud into giving something back to hard-working white Indianans. For its part, the repressive, socially backward kingdom deserves to have someone like Hillary to deal with. And what a wonderful repository Riyadh would be for Bill.

Something they never taught us in the Oregon public schools

2008-06-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

Oregon has always had a complicated relationship with race. When Oregon became a state in 1859, its Constitution specifically prevented blacks from becoming residents, a law that remained on the books for more than 60 years. - New York Times, May 29, 2008

The awful Hillary Clinton

2008-05-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

I remain amazed that anyone I know has the slightest lingering good feeling for that Macbeth-hermaphrodite Hillary Clinton, or will feel any sadness at her much-belated departure from the nomination contest besides their regret that my party could not have been earlier. [pauses to admire sentence]

If you are one of those people, be sure to read this excellent Op-Ed piece by Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post. Consider what it reveals (or reminds us yet again) about Hillary Clinton. Her conduct in the Florida and Michigan delegate drama has been so disgusting and sordidly self-serving that I can only think her remaining supporters don't know about it, don't understand it or have blinded themselves to reason. Hillary herself at this point displays the motivational complexity and moral compass of a brine shrimp, albeit one with an extraordinary lifespan.

Statement asserting correlation does not imply correlation

2008-05-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

What's interesting in the new analysis is the correlation between oral and vaginal sex. If your kid is doing one, he or she is almost certainly doing the other.

The raw numbers indicate that 50 percent of teenagers aged 15 to 19 have had vaginal sex. Fifty-five percent have had heterosexual oral sex. Are kids substituting oral for vaginal? Nope. Among technical virgins—teens who have never had vaginal sex—23 percent have had oral sex. - William Saletan, Slate, May 28, 2008 [emphasis mine]

So if you took a representative two hundred kids aged 15 to 19, and one hundred would be "technical virgins" (nice term, by the way) and 23 percent of those "have had" oral sex, where does "almost certainly" come in?

One from Saturday

2008-05-29T01:13:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering if I should blow this up five or six feet wide for my office wall. That might be kind of cool. Things are always changing, but I doubt a digital file produced by anything less expensive than a car could withstand that kind of enlargement. Also, you couldn't take this shot with digital in the first place. Correction: you could. The camera costs $42,000.

(click image for a much larger view)

Well, "misleadingisms" ought to be a word

2008-05-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

Clinton has always claimed to be the cold-eyed realist in the race, and at one point maybe she was. Increasingly, though, her words and actions reflect the kind of thinking that animates myths and fairy tales: Maybe a sudden and powerful storm will scatter my enemy's ships. Maybe a strapping woodsman will come along and save the day. - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, May 27, 2008

It's well worth reading the whole piece. I have not bothered to blog about her RFK comments, perhaps in anticipation of Hillary's forthcoming irrelevance, but I did note with pleasure that she floated her assassination comment on a raft of Clintonian misleadingisms (What is the word I want? Does it exist?), which Robinson and others have done a good job of disassembling.

Indiana Jones and the Discordant Homage

2008-05-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

Incomplete homage tally:

Prior Indiana Jones films: lots

The Wild One: 1

Tarzan: 1

The Wizard of Oz: 1

Caddyshack: 2

MWR's peninsular campaign

2008-05-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

A quick overview of my day yesterday. I thought it was tremendous.

napped from 11 p.m. until 2 a.m.

packed car with photo gear

on the road at 3:30 a.m. to go around the Olympic Peninsula

first stop for random photography, Satsop, just before dawn (5 a.m.)

a few photo stops (great soft light), then breakfast at the Forks Coffee Shop around 9:30

La Push and Rialto Beach until about noon, when the clouds burned off

Drive up to the Hoh Rain Forest, thinking of hiking a bit away from the crowds. decided not to.

Burger and vanilla malt at Sully's Burgers in Forks. I always get a vanilla malt on such expeditions.

Continue clockwise around the peninsula, along Lake Crescent, around to Dungeness spit with a couple of roadside photo stops

30-minute nap

Get to Port Townsend a bit after 7, saw relatives and bought some cool stuff at their shop there (e.g., a large colored-pencil drawing of a tiger in a deco frame, from 1932 . . . trust me, it's cool). Had a great dinner of mackerel poki and black cod kasuzuke, which turned out to be exactly what I was in the mood for.

Get to Bainbridge ferry at 10:45. Next boat at midnight.

Home a bit before 1 a.m.

522 miles of driving

I took a few digital snaps at one point, but I find I would really be dissatisfied if one of my best images were "only" digital (even though I now have a fine digital SLR and a better-than-fine prime lens for it). I suppose this view may change eventually, but for now I think of digital as my snapshot medium, for when I either need an immediate digital result or just don't want to be committed to any processing expenses. For "real" photography, I like knowing that if I get that certain special shot, I can get it printed five feet wide. And I don't want to worry that if I'm not properly attentive (more attentive than I now am, and likely more attentive than you now are), my critical images will be lost to me over the next few decades.

Monsoon season

2008-05-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of deciding how much weight to give to the common guidebook advice about when not to travel to India: monsoon season. My initial thoughts are that I should go when I can go, guidebooks to unfamiliar places cater to the risk-averse mean of Western travelers, and the monsoon is apt to be very manageable. It is, as our parents and Peter Gabriel used to say, only water.

Why on earth would you ignore advice that is so, so ubiquitous? A quick google search revealed that Delhi averages half an inch of rain a day during August, or basically a constant downpour. Not exactly amenable to walking around and taking pictures, imo. - MWR's old friend

Well, goodness, MWR's old friend, why on earth does MWR do half the things MWR does? One reason is that I love to dispute accepted wisdom (though long a convert to, and even an owner of, proper evening dress for gentlemen). I'm conscious of how this contraphilia can prejudice me. Still, when writers go on and on about the breadth and diversity of the subcontinent, and then somewhere pronounce "don't go in the summer," it's the irony that always stands out. Shall writers consider whether readers will be somewhere when August means 25 wet days and two feet of rain, or is it more like 12 rainy days and ten inches? I'm not thinking about Mumbai during this period, though it might be epic. Are writers considering that overcast days are best for my photography? No, they are considering that rainy days will reduce my chances of having the guidebook-template trip most readers likely have in mind. I'm an outlier. And I can deal with some rain, for God's sake. I won't have come all that way to sit inside waiting for the Cat in the Hat to come entertain me. My guess is that it's not a "constant downpour," but more episodic and heavy rain. That's the pattern I expect to see in warm areas with high rainfall totals.

A few years ago, though web postings, I was decisive in convincing a NYC-based photographer that he should come to Olympic National Park in October. His impression had been that it would be raining all the time, but I was able to locate historical data suggesting it might not rain much at all on his proposed dates in the park:

Looking at the dates of your trip during the 2000-2004 period, I count 10 days with recorded rainfall and 25 days without. On only four days out of the 35 was there rainfall in excess of two-tenths of an inch. This is in a place that averages about 117 inches of rain a year.

As you can gather, it typically does not rain incessantly on days when rainfall is recorded, so even if your weather were not ideal there would likely be significant periods when it was not raining. It is a safe assumption that it will be cloudy during your visit, but you might get lucky

Here, closer examination showed that an outsider's impression about some of our local weather was way off base. I'm not expecting this level of "clarification" about monsoon season on the central plains, but I'm comforted to read comments like this on a popular bulletin-board site for India travel:

There's really only one answer to any monsoon question: you might get wet, you might not. India's summer monsoon is usually an afternoon cloudburst, though sometimes you catch a spell where it rains for a few days straight. The monsoon is not a constant month-long deluge.

Are you number 10,000?

2008-05-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

Please take a moment to check the counter at the bottom of the sidebar. If you are visitor 10,000, why not leave a nice comment?

I reckon a few thousand visitors have arrived here through versions of the query "what does 'storied pomp' mean?" That's my special little franchise.