Archive for April 2008
Delicious
From Warren Meyer an absolutely delicious admission. This is tantamount to the "'scientist' tries to prove Bible false; is converted" baloney that gets trotted out by unsophisticated religious people. The difference, of course, is that climate, at least, is a scientific topic. But still; religious zealots will always appeal to "science" for credibility (since they're not credible otherwise), as will man-made catastrophe zealots develop religious overtones to their approach. As an aside, it looks like that post took a while to get noticed. It's an interesting juxtaposition, the first few dozen comments and the last few dozen. By the way, I think Warren's use of the word "comments" in his blog post refer to the statements by Mark Seal on the blog post referenced, and not the comments to the post (I tell you because I was initially confused by that).
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STOP YELLOWSTONE NOW!
A humorous look at what would happen with the super volcano under Yellowstone if enterprising pseudo-scientists and their media and politician-whore bedfellows could only come up with a plausible man-made scenario. Read it. After all, it's for the children.
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Your Attention, Please
Kyle Bennett has up an extensive post dealing with prosecution without the state. Definitely worth a read, though it could be tough for the faint of heart. A question you might ponder: what's likely to result in a greater number of injustices; a private justice system, where everybody is a prosecutor and 100% accountable for the propriety of all prosecutions, or a state, where every prosecutor is 0% accountable, short of outright fraud?
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Roots of Destruction
Karen De Coster calls attention to Bill Maher, his comments on religion in general, and those of the Pope and The Catholic Church in particular. The segment for which she posts a transcript begins at 3:15 into the video. Well, what can I say? I could maybe pick at a thing or two, but he more or less makes a lot of valid points and draws some certain parallels. He's as right as the sunrise: the only reason the Catholics get a grudging pass on their institutionalized child rape and cover up, and that "kooky Mormon cult" doesn't, is that, for one, the Catholics have lots of voters; and two, they either cannot, or refuse to think honestly and in terms of consistent principles when grappling with mind-created fantasies like imaginary friends and sooper beings with sooper powerz. We are dealing with people -- voters -- who are operating under delusions, Karen, and Sunday morning Mass and Friday fish are the least and non-essential manifestations of such delusion. Ideas have consequences, and the problem with delusions is that the public policy that ultimately trickles down is perfectly integrated with such delusions. I think we ought to always fight the idea...
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A Big Breakfast and an I Told You So
I guess, more accurately, this would be a big "startfast." That's leftover tri-tip roast, grilled on the BBQ for guests last evening. Three strips of fried, uncured bacon, two eggs over easy, and some red grapes. Of course, the unsalted butter in which I fried the eggs went on top of the roast. Yum. Next meal tomorrow night, about 36 hours from this meal, and a few hours after a workout at the gym. Next up, some will recall my two posts concerning a speech given by Gary Taubes, here, and then a follow-up here. I was trying to get across the idea that what Taubes seemed to be driving at is that it's not nearly so simple as calories in, calories out. Ultimately, that's true, but that's just the raw material, and not the causal factor which, I speculated was akin to a positive feedback mechanism. I wrote the following in the second post referenced above: ... it's not simply the fact of excess calories of any sort that makes people fat, but rather, they are turning on a fat-accumulation hormone that tips a balance, such that fat begins to act much like a tumor... [...] And what happens...
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Lead Balloons
First up this morning, Billy points to "A Bill." I agree with him. Although, I must say that Barney Frank's statement goes just about as far as any "lawmaker" can go without just cutting to the essentials of the matter, which is that it's none of your business..."voter." Certainly, the implied insanity of the current state of affairs is pretty well reasoned out, within the context of the reality that the State is all powerful and it really owns "your" life & the time of it, and not you. Even so, the title above speaks to just how this will likely go over.
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Good for TJ
T.J. Rodgers, a guy I've been a fan of since he pointed out what a stupid fool Sister Doris Gormley was back in 1996, takes 6:14 to explain the only moral means to "go green" and to "serve the greater good." Watch it. (link: Hit & Run)
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The Carnival of Clowns
I don't know the actual number of news events, but just seeing the leading photo and article on my Yahoo home page each time I've opened it over the last few days seems to indicate that the Pope's visit is dominating the news. Even more ridiculous is how the politicians are falling all over each other to roll out red carpets. "Pope says Church needs purification." You know what? They are all worth less than a runny shit to me and I don't see how you can possibly purify a load of crap. Seriously. Now, I know there are plenty who derive inspiration and comfort, and just like there's no end of Constitution lovers, democracy lovers, enthusiastic voters -- and no matter the destruction wreaked upon humanity, the State is power and people love the powerful and the authoritarian. I guess they figure they'll always be on the "good" side of the equation, though they delude themselves mightily. Same, I suppose, for the Bible, Koran, and Torah lovers. If I could delude myself into being stupid enough to believe in imaginary friends, fairies, ghosts and a magical all-powerful being who could destroy the world with a single thought on a...
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Ouch!
In both the laptop and desktop showdowns, Apple’s computers were the winners. Oddly, the big difference didn’t come in our user ratings, where we expected the famously friendly Mac interface to shine. Our respondents liked the look and feel of both operating systems but had a slight preference toward OS X. In our speed trials, however, Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown and program-launch times. We even tested Vista on the Macs using Apple’s platform-switching Boot Camp software—and found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than our PCs did. (emphasis added) Poor Bill. ...Cuz, y'know, if you need a fast machine to run Vista, you'll need to get a Mac; and if you get a Mac, then ya might as well run the Mac OS.
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A Work of Business Art
Warren Meyer points us to an amazingly well written business letter. I would encourage you to read the whole thing, though it's a bit lengthy and technical. I could understand not getting the kick out of it that I do. Then again, I've written a lot of letters in response to legal threats over the years, so this is "near & dear." At any rate, here's the three real money paragraphs, near the end. I have seen Monster Cable take untenable IP positions in various different scenarios in the past, and am generally familiar with what seems to be Monster Cable's modus operandi in these matters. I therefore think that it is important that, before closing, I make you aware of a few points. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985, I spent nineteen years in litigation practice, with a focus upon federal litigation involving large damages and complex issues. My first seven years were spent primarily on the defense side, where I developed an intense frustration with insurance carriers who would settle meritless claims for nuisance value when the better long-term view would have been to fight against vexatious litigation as a matter of principle....
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Dead Ringer
I'm not going to get into the underlying ethics and political implications of this. The purpose is merely to understand what's going on. This is essential reading by Warren Meyer on how the Y2K hysteria prefigures the AGW hysteria. Read it. Understand it. Integrate it. That is all.
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(Near) Triumph For Zero Tolerance
Well, there's been a new development since when I saw this earlier, but as I often do, I read this whole post before clicking on the link it referenced. Then, upon seeing the photo of the man, j'ai tout compris. Good thing they found the sand grain-sized pot bit on his shoe (0.003g / 0.0001oz). With that Jamaican look and dreads, he might have had to endure a lung biopsy for any possible non-metabolized bits. Looks like some sense has prevailed, though that would only be after putting the man through the ordeal of an arrest, prosecution and the prospect of a four year jail sentence. So I'm sure that Mr. Brown is just "thrilled to death." Still makes us look like a bunch of pussies when it comes to "zero tolerance" though, dontcha think?
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Will The Blogosphere Cure Cancer?
That's a partially tongue-in-cheek question, but also partly serious. What I really mean to ask is: is there a reasonably effective treatment for most forms of cancer that's already basically understood and available? And if so, why is it not in the mainstream? Whatever the reason, if indeed there is "a cure," could the blogosphere then act as the medium for wide distribution of the information, bypassing traditional outlets, until such point as so many anecdotes of successful control or eradication tip the balance? Well, let's see. I don't have a whole lot to say, but others do, lots of them very smart people. If you take the time to get through it -- and you should, just on the reasonable chance there's something to it -- you're going to get quite an education on just what cancer is, how it grows, and thus, what might be the most effective way to combat it. First, let me address the question of cancer quackery. It exists on the faulty premise that there is significant financial incentive to explicitly not cure cancer, but to keep it alive and well whilst developing drugs to manage it, hopefully in a manner that has patients...
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Megan McArdle
She started off blogging as "Jane Galt," a moniker Billy always scoffed at. Now she also blogs for The Atlantic, along with Sullivan. I only ever read anything when linked from elsewhere; as her blog, like so many political blogs, is geared to jerk you off, and most people who read blogs go to them every day to get jerked off, and not to explore questions of political philosophy in an honest manner. The simple truth. Today, Warren Meyer links to her about "tax day," and I'll just let the euphemism stand for now. So this is libertarian speak, under the guise of the female manifestation of John Galt? Obviously, like everyone else I do not enjoy contemplating my cash outflow to Uncle Sam--I can think of a lot of uses for that cash. That, however, is the price of living in a free society. The price of living in "a free society" (not euphemism; simple delusion, or falsehood) is to pay upwards of 50% of everything you have produced under penalty of loan-shark interest and penalties, audits, levies, garnishments, seizures, criminal investigations, arrest, prosecution, trial, and jail time. That's what passes for "a free society" nowadays. Well, so long...
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Counterintuitive Cancer Therapy
Get a load of this. Fasting for two days protects healthy cells against chemotherapy, according to a study appearing online the week of Mar. 31 in PNAS Early Edition. Mice given a high dose of chemotherapy after fasting continued to thrive. The same dose killed half the normally fed mice and caused lasting weight and energy loss in the survivors. ... The idea for the study came from the Longo group’s previous research on aging in cellular systems, primarily lowly baker’s yeast. About five years ago, Longo was thinking about the genetic pathways involved both in the starvation response and in mammalian tumors. When the pathways are silenced, starved cells go into what Longo calls a maintenance mode characterized by extreme resistance to stresses. In essence the cells are waiting out the lean period, much like hibernating animals. But tumors by definition disobey orders to stop growing because the same genetic pathways are stuck in an “on” mode. That could mean, Longo realized, that the starvation response might differentiate normal and cancer cells by their stress resistance, and that healthy cells might withstand much more chemotherapy than cancer cells. The shield for healthy cells does not need to be perfect,...
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I Told You
Right here. And right on queue, the stupid bitch delivers: “The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.” Fuck Obama, individually and severally. This one happened to be belched from the geul of Michelle, but it doesn't really matter. They both ought to be pelted with rotten fruits and vegetables and run out of town. Look: this is really simple. Health care, education, brake linings...all things -- values -- that must be produced. There isn't a thing in the world special about them on the principle of value production. Now, from that perspective, you tell me by what logic any intelligent person could possibly believe that the means to produce values and deliver them to a marketplace requires that some have their values taken away from them by force. Did Bill Gates computerize the world by taking computers from some people and giving them to others? How about Henry Ford? How did two cars end up in every garage? I don't know what's worse, a stupid, out of touch, business...
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The Weekend in Photos
Best weather of the year thus far. In the low 80s up here in the mountains. Here's a shot down in Murphys. Motorcycles out in force, all over the place. I cooked breakfast this morning. A 10-egg frittata for five with bacon, onion, green bell pepper, Italian seasonings, garlic, pepper jack cheese, fresh tomatoes and a bit of Parmesan cheese and dried basil. Garnish was a dollop of sour cream and fresh avocado slices. Also in attendance: fresh watermelon. Fresh out of the oven: Ready to eat:
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Word
I don't know that you can put the whole political enchilada any better than Kyle Bennett does here. I don't vote. I don't believe in voting. I don't believe in democracy. I'm a capitalist and an individualist, and those are, separately but especially in combination, wholly incompatible with democracy. I believe in the ideals of the Declaration, and that the Constitution was a repudiation of them. I believe in governance by the *unanimous* and individually revocable consent of the governed. The only forms of governance that are consistent with that are self-governance or governance for hire by individuals. Voting is a way of distributing power over other people's lives. I don't want any power over other people's lives, and I don't want anyone having power over mine. The only power I want to share in is the power to trade or not to trade, to associate or not associate, to respect or not to respect. Government itself is the second biggest scam ever pulled over on the human race, and it is the cause of most of the problems in the world today. Those that it is not the cause of are nearly insolvable because government won't get out of...
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Sorry to do this to you…(but)
I actually got this from CK in email this morning, thought it was a riot, but had no intention to blog it. But then I proceeded to have the thing bouncing around in my head all day, cracking myself up each time I get to the "Ken Lee" part. So, here you go. Try to read and integrate the subtitles. For some odd reason, that makes it even more hilarious.
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A Moral Question on Charity
So can anyone tell me when the the notion of charity -- to give help -- became "giving back?" Do you see the difference; the moral difference? To put it most bluntly: in the former, you're giving someone your property. In the later, you're giving back someone their property, carrying with it the implication that you didn't earn it -- commonly known as stealing -- and they are the ones entitled to and deserving of it. I watched a big big show last night that raised a lot of money under the moral principle of "giving back," wherein I suppose that millions were encouraged to feel guilty -- perhaps because it has been found more motivational and effective than causing people to feel pity, compassion, good will. I'm not even going get started on the whole insanity of dependence-perpetuating aid to Africa and elsewhere, much of which ends up as cash or product in the hands of the kleptocracy and of their nomenklatura*. What those people really need is freedom to prosper, and they'll take care of their own problems. Here is, I think, a perfect charity: Kiva.org. And it sports the correct moral principle too: loan them your money,...
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