The Australian: Gorillas tool their behaviour [October 01, 2005]

Ahhh!!!! Gorillas can use tools. The great apes will rise up against their human oppressors and become the new overlords of the planet!

AND DARWIN WAS RIGHT!

AND MY CONGRESSMAN HAS BEEN INDICTED!! HOW WILL WE EVER GET HIGHWAY FUNDING NOW?

AND MY KEYBOARD WORKS!!!

AND I DON'T LET KIDS WATCH BARNEY BECAUSE BARNEY IS STEW-PID!!!!

AND I'VE LISTENED TO THE MODEST MOUSE ALBUM ABOUT 50 TIMES AND I'M TIRED OF IT!!!!!

AND THE YANKEES ARE GOING THE CREAM THE RED SOX BECAUSE THE YANKEES REPRESENT ALL THAT IS GOOD ABOUT BASEBALL (AND THEREFORE AMERICA) AND THE RED SOX ARE A FORCE OF WHINY EEEEVEEELLLL!!!!!! *BUT IF THE YANKEES FACE THE ASTROS IN THE WORLD SERIES THEN I AM ROOTING FOR THE ASTROS WHICH I WILL EXPLAIN IN A LATER POST IF IT HAPPENS AND I WILL USE LOWER CASE.

AND MY KEYBOARD WORKS!!!!!!!

THIS SENTENCE WILL HAVE EIGHT EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!

HORAY FOR MY NEW KEYBOARD!!!!!!!!!

Windows XP: Turn On and Use On-Screen Keyboard

Unexpectedly,the storm took out the ps/2 port for my keyboard. kids & louren areok. dell coming friday pm to replace motherboard

"William, get a usb kybrd ... you idiot"

oh yeah? you forgot vowels in keyboard. ha. who is the idiot nw. darn hypothtical debate adversary strawman... getting cheeky. its like smstxtmsg

Returning on Monday

Texas Homeland Security has developed a schedule for returning evacuees. Sugar Land residents should stay put for now and return on Monday, Sept. 26.

More problems with evacuation readiness

I say William is 2000% correct about evacuation. I also note:

1. Evacuating an entire city requires - obviously - the cooperation of all the citizens. The article William linked noted that some people in Galveston did not wait for their zone of the city to have its turn before leaving. It also turns some occupations into essential emergency services, which is probably not what the airport baggage handlers and gas station operators had in mind when they got their jobs. Further, if an evacuation is really going to go smoothly, as some seem to think it ought to, it has to be practiced. Any thoughts on how to do that?

2. Kerry told me that there was a story on NPR about the city of Beaumont, which had very prudently established contracts with bus and ambulance operators, effectively giving them a call option on umpteen buses and ambos in the event of an approaching storm and evacuation. The state of Texas commandeered Beaumont's reserved vehicles for use in Houston.

Not fair - Emergency Services did the best they can

Yes. Houston ran out of Gas and there weren't enough evacuation buses.

Let's be clear about something. People started evacuating Wednesday Afternoon. I saw them out my office Window heading West towards Katy. By the way, this is normally a parking lot at that time, and anyway, they are making I-10 wider. Despite the pleas to rail, which wouldn't have helped people evacuate. Take that rail folks!

Anyway, what really ticked me off about this article is the claim that they didn't call out a huge convoy of bused. They did. We saw several convoys of 20+ charter buses heading West as we were evacuating.

Seriously though - 5 million people plus more people in Galevston, Brazoria county, freeport, etc. There's traffic normally when people are trying to go to work. Of course there will be traffic if everyone tries to leave.

Why am I so irked by this? Because in IT when something goes wrong that is beyond the reasonable control of anyone or if an even happens that goes beyond the budgeted scale of the infrastructure hardening and damaged mitigation, the users never are understanding it's always the blame game.

Give emergency services a break. They did a pretty good job. Evacuations were orderly.

Evacuated!

Following no ones advise, we went East.

My neighbors are now stuck, and there won't be shelters. This is from the website

Hurricane Rita Information
(updated Thu, September 22, 2005 9:41 PM)
Sugar Land residents are receiving this information via their home telephone.

Reverse 911 Bulletin no. 2

This is an emergency message from the City of Sugar Land Emergency Operation Center.

We encourage residents who have not left yet to remain due to congestion of the evacuation routes and inability to refuel.

We are a pass through community and impacted by the hurricane and therefore in conjunction with the Red Cross, we are not establishing shelters at this time.


Due to street congestion, garbage and recycling pickup has been cancelled by BFI. Trash cans and yard debris should be secured in enclosed areas. Please secure for neighbors if they already have left.

For the elderly or disabled with special medical needs who are unable to evacuate, we will be organizing a volunteer program to check on you. Please call 281-275-2900 to be placed on the list after 8 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 23 to be placed on the list.

Please stay tuned to local media for regular storm updates or call the emergency hotline for a taped message at 281-494-4357 or the City Phone Bank at 281-275-2900 which will reopen at 8 a.m. Friday morning, Sept. 23.

I called my guitar teacher, he's got plenty of water and all his equipment is bagged up.

I don't have any jokes at this time. This hurricane looks like serious business. I hope my neighboors are going to be ok. I hope my home doesn't crushed by a falling tree.

Hurricane Rita

We are evacuating. I am told that in French this word is a euphamism for a bowel movement.

From here I would like to make a joke about how a natural reaction to 165 mph winds heading towards my house would be to evacuate.

Touchdown with land is midnight tomorrow. I expect the first rains around lunch time. I will be past Baton Rouge by then.

The Bridge is out in Pascagula, so I'll need to figure it out.

No matter how much Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn you eat, its hard to clean up

I was going to point out to Trav that he was right to be cynical that a Republican government wouldn't further mishandle a domestic priority that requires doing all the things that the Republicans are bad at doing.

Instead I just wanted to say that one bad thing about Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn is that it gives me a stomach-ache.

The painfully obvious and the International Herald Tribune

I often find the obtuseness of the "Newspaper supergroup" - the International Herald Tribune - to be so egregious as to result in the USA Today without pictures. Case in point:

Koizumi must decide how to use his mandate

How about privatized Japan Post Office? You know, the issue that he ran on, over which he purged a major faction of his party, that has become the end all and be all of his life?

What do those people at the newspaper think, that parliament will waive it magic want, enact a law and - boom - the enormous administrative implementation of the largest financial institution of the world will just be privatized?

The article points out that Koizumi has a whole year (!) left after he performs this miracle in which he will have plenty of time to ... And then the article goes and suggests various different ways that there can be pie ... pie in the sky. I am the pie in the sky ewwww ewww ewww ewww, I can change your mind. Sorry, I Alan Parsoned/Homer Simpsoned out for a second, I'm back.


Really what this article says is three things about the author:

1. Even though the most dynamic and important Japanese leader in decades has enacted huge change and promises to enact more, the authors really don't find him to be a credible leader ("all flash and no substance" they say. "fooey" they say)

2. Reforming the world's largest financial institution isn't an interesting issue to journalists because that institution contains the words "Post Office" in its name.

3. The authors have no appreciation for the difficulties that can crop up going from enactment of law to administration/enforcement/execution of law.

Turn the sound off and watch this ad...

Honda Worldwide | run/

The old man thinks... oh cr*p, I'm being stalked by a cute little mecha! In a matter of moments he will point his forearms at me and the laser cannons will end my miserable life!!!

NOT SO FAST LITTLE BOT! I STUN YOU WITH MY MAGICAL POWER!!!!

My New Favorite Band

I LOVE Harry and the Potters. Save Ginny Weasley from the debut "Harry and the Potters" is stuck in my head, as is the Godfather: part II from "Voldemort can't stop the rock!"

I know, it sounds like total cheezewhiz, two guys dressing up like Harry Potter, singing songs inspired by the books. But these guys rock out.

I wish my brother and I had formed some sort of awesome band when we were younger. But then again, I only made it through a half dozen or so guitar lessons in 9th grade before I was fed up with Mr. "school *shudder* I did that for a while, but I quit." I also didn't like that he couldn't seem to remember to not partake of certain herbage right before my lessons. Maybe it made him a better musician, but smelling him, and wondering why he kept talking about the ice cream shop next door, did not make me a better music student.

And mom and dad would have never allowed drums in the house for Owen. Or at least the hours of practicing that would have been needed.

Also, Owen and I never got along that well 10 years ago. We would have been more Gallagher brothers than Hanson brothers, with him flat out denying being related to me to my former and his current teachers (what? No I'm not Louren's little brother. Never heard of her).

But we get along great now. Why, just today he called to offer my first born a FREE kitten that he found on his doorstep. He was even willing to drive it all the way to Texas.

My brother - what a giver.

(when asked what kind of cat it was, he asked, is there more than one kind of cat?)

S.E. Hinton: Mysterious my eye

Read this fluff piece by Dinita Smith on S.E. Hinton.

What happened? Simple - Smith did a lousy interview whereby she didn't establish a repore with the subject who didn't open up to the reporter who anyway wasn't doing a good job listening.

I may not have been a good reporter for The Thresher (or the Notty Natter for that matter) but I can say with confidence that I was a bad reporter. I know bad reporting up and down. I have intimate first hand knowledge of bad reporting both as the reporter and the subject and I recognize it when I see it.

In fact, there is nothing mystical or mysterious about S.E. Hinton. I say this because I met her in London in 1995 at a publicity even for her booktour at the Everyman Theatre and I asked her my reporter question which was "What is it like to be the lengendary author or an American Classic?"

I asked this question because after Mr. Eckelman's class, Hinton was a larger than life figure. She was the teenage Faulkner for teenagers. But of course, she wasn't. In 1995, she was just a middle-aged author and a all-around nice Mom selling her book. I hung out with her 12-year old son, not knowing who he was until afterwards.

Anyway, her answer to my question was "I know that my book is particularly popular with Middle School English teachers because boys who don't like to read books will read my book. I am comfortable with that, although I've grown since I wrote those stories." Oh...

She went on to describe Matt Dillion as a talented and handsome young actor who was very successful playing her character. Then she talked about the heroic epic and we watched Rumble Fish.

Afterwards, I didn't go next door to the bookstore to buy her book. Instead, I bought a postcard and told my friend, Rory, that I met S.E. Hinton.

Since then, I've met other writers who have been succesful at getting published (not that this is my measure of success). They have many of the same personality traits as Hinton. If I was a better writer than I am, I could describe what those are, but suffice it to say... I've notice that the four or so succesful writers whom I've met come off the same way.

"The better part of valor" versus "The loyal opposition"

In a move that should thrill Democrats, Bush had changed the Roberts nomination from replacing Justice O'Connor to replacing Chief Justice Renquist. Justice O'Connor's vacancy is conditional upon confirmation of her successor while Chief Justice Renquist's vacancy is unconditional because he has succumbed to cancer. The practical implication is that O'Connor stays on the bench.

Objectively, this is a fairly pragmatic decision. The vetting process for a Supreme Court justice is long and ardous and there is no realistic way to have a new nominee by the start of the Court's term, unless Bush were to nominate an unknown quanity (which would be a bad for everyong across the political spectrum and dumb and anyway won't happen). It is bad to have no Chief Justice (arguably it is no worse than having any odd number of vacancies on the court, but whatever). And Roberts is a qualified nominee: former editor of the Harvard law review, a brilliant legal career, a distinguished record of public service. Moreover, Roberts is a consensus nominee: Bush took input from moderates and nominated someone who they liked.

Aesthetically, I find the Roberts nomination extremely pleasing. Roberts was a clerk for Renquist. I also like Roberts' style. I mean his legal writing. I may disagree with many of his views, but the clear and forceful way in which he advocates means that his reasoning is either clear and persuasive or clear and you understand on which of his premises you don't buy in.

For Democrats, a Roberts, Stephens, Bryer, O'Connor, Souter, Thomas, Scalia, Ginsburg, Kennedy is about as moderate and incremental a court that Bush is likely to nominate. Which brings me to my point:

There are times when it is important to be opposition on principal and there are times to shut up. This is one of the later. Stalling a Roberts is only succeeds in hurting the country and the government process. Moreover, its shows a lack of good sense as there are much more important things that the Democrats should and could influence. Here's a short list:

1) Increase New Orleans relief efforts
2) Address the long-term and structural issues that lead to the humanitarian disaster in New Orleans
3) Push for the administration to articulate an exit plan for Iraq
4) End tax subsidies for the richest 20%
5) Abolish the death penalty
6) Fund science education. By the way, computer science is science and America is falling behind. While we are at it: Better student:teacher = better education. Oh, and public libraries = a public good.
7) Disease research and access to disease-fighting medicines and vacinations = A great form of international aid.

Depressingly, except for #3 and #5, we are more likely to see better results on my agenda from Bill Gates than from the current Democratic party. And so my conclusion:

Bill Gates should be the 2008 Democratic Nominee.

Eric Hewett sent me this one

Way to keep that generator going, guys!

And another thing

I find the numerous incidents of reporters, deeply affected by the tragedy and howling in rage, to be deeply compelling. I often wonder how a person could stand to be a television journalist coverage war or tragedy -- the hours of unedited raw footage that gets scrutinized and scrutinized to find the sharpest angle. I'll just let that participle dangle.

Anyway... reporters are amped and outrage and they aren't faking it either. Jack Cafferty (he was my anchorman growing up... back when I regularly watched the news) doesn't fake it.

They Saved Fats Domino

It's all in his Wikipedia entry. Does anyone else see anything wrong with that level of currentness in the Wikipedia?

I saw the news while I was waiting two hours for them to find me new front tires. Between Fats and Harry Connick, Jr. It put a human face on the whole thing.

A lot of press has been dedicated to the lame stuff that the President has had to say about the disaster in New Orleans. And in the context of the extremely insensitive comments from Denis "A city is only good built on a hill" Hastert, I have to agree that the right-wing's communication staff doesn't get it. Over the last several years, I wondered how it is that Bush, who seemed somewhat natural, confident, and personable as governor and downright interesting (if not always likeable) as part of the Ranger's organization could come off looking so stiff-looking and dazed. I'm not suggesting that the President isn't a staunch conservative and doesn't mean the things he says. I am suggesting that he is getting bad material, in the sense that its smothering all that is human and Texan about him

"What's setting off this comment, Will?"

While in the Car repair purgatory, I was watching some live comments that he made, both before and after touring the hurricane raved areas. Here's what I saw:

Before: Shots of the president with his sleaves rolled up in a jaunty "I'm here to work" sort of way, Mayor Naquin with his "Desire" t-shirt cropped out of the picture. Bush says and does all the stuff which is "on message" a euphamism for the remarks that he memorized as written to him by his communications staff.

Two hours later: after flying around the city in Marine One with Naquin riding shotgun he come back to the New Orlean Airport and says a few things on the tarmac. Most of it is on message, but he starts to drift when he starts talking about New Orleans and the relationship between New Orleans and Houston. He gets a dreamy look in his eye and talks about how when he was young he would enjoy trips to this fine city, and maybe he would enjoy himself a bit too much, then he sort of laughed to himself and Naquin and Gov. Landrau give a knowing Big Easy laugh.

Somewhere in the unsweetended ice-tea catherdrals of Washington, a panolpy of humorless conservatives all did spit takes on one another and immediately rushed out the door to make sure that this live footage got buried.

I just deleted a long tangent that followed the above comment, so let me summarize:

New Orleans is a great city and a "real city" that hasn't lost its soul or its humanity. That has also mean real problems like poverty, violent crime, and yes being dangerously positioned underneath a huge lake. This does not make the President love this city any less, in fact it seems to make him love it more. I wish that this was the sort of compassion we would see more often.

Google Desktop

More like Google "make your whole computer run slower because I am hogging memory and processor time in the background"

UNINSTALL.

Horror

The news coming out is very upsetting. Please donate to the Red Cross or someplace else. Consider filling a box with linens, clothing and other goods and donating that to your church or the local Salvation Army.

Dream Views :: View topic - Lucid Dreaming Quick Start Tutorial

short, concise quick start tutorial on lucid dreaming.