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:: Wednesday, October 31 2007 ::

Sasha pointed me to an interesting story in Slate which discusses when and how to say no to your vet. It draws some interesting parallels and contrasts with health care for humans, noting, for example, that most of us would recognize in a human when to accept the inevitable, or when to avoid unnecessarily painful treatments. The article also notes a technology convergence: "pets can get chemotherapy, dialysis, organ transplants, hip replacement, and braces for their teeth. In 2004, Americans spent $18 billion to treat the country's 164 million dogs and cats." A few details were revelatory to me, such as questioning the need for yearly vaccinations ("Never forget how often they need to be given to you or your kids. ONCE!!!").
:: David (14:10 in Michigan, 20:10 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[6]


I love the Onion! The article I'm Quite Eccentric Within Accepted Societal Norms quite nearly killed me dead on reading.

That's me in a nutshell. I've got an unconventional personality that just loves to push the limits of what society's comfortable with, but inevitably stays safely within those limits.
Why can't the real media be this clever?
:: David (14:03 in Michigan, 20:03 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


:: Tuesday, October 30 2007 ::

A piece in the New York Times today makes a strong case for comparing the Bush II years to France of the late 1700s.

Though it has been a topic of much attention in recent years, the origin of the term "terrorist" has gone largely unnoticed by politicians and pundits alike. The word was an invention of the French Revolution, and it referred not to those who hate freedom, nor to non-state actors, nor of course to "Islamofascism."

A terroriste was, in its original meaning, a Jacobin leader who ruled France during la Terreur.

By aligning the terminology of today with the fear and repression of yesterday, a disturbing image of the US after 2001 emerges.
:: David (13:36 in Michigan, 19:36 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]


:: Sunday, October 28 2007 ::

It seems fairly certain now, so I shall note it here - my cat from my childhood, Sylvester, who had been living with my parents since I headed off to college, appears to have passed into the forest for the last time. He was quite, quite old (21 years old in the spring, I believe), and was more than ready to go, so I'm not sad - he lived about the best life a cat can live.
:: David (15:21 in Michigan, 21:21 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]


:: Saturday, October 27 2007 ::

The president of France, with Al Gore and José Manuel Barroso in attendance, laid out his vision for an Eco-France on Thursday. The proposals are fairly radical, though whether they will survive the political process is a very valid question. Some of the highlights included:

  • By 2010, all incandescent light bulbs would be banned
  • Older models of televisions and other electrical equipment considered to consume too much energy will be banned
  • Drivers who buy efficient cars will be entitled to discounts
  • Road construction will be drastically slowed while high-speed train service will be extended with another 1,200 miles of new tracks
  • River traffic will be expanded
  • and, one more thing, lots of new nuclear power stations
On the NPR version of the story there was a wonderful moment when Al Gore called for a Grenelle mondial, which was the only French I heard out of him. You can read more at Le Monde.
:: David (12:38 in Michigan, 18:38 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]


The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, has called biofuels a crime against humanity, noting that "the effect of transforming hundreds and hundreds of thousands of tons of maize, of wheat, of beans, of palm oil, into agricultural fuel is absolutely catastrophic for the hungry people." Some of these effects have been fairly well covered, but I think having the UN step up and say 'this is a problem' is a very good thing.
:: David (12:28 in Michigan, 18:28 in Paris) - Comment


:: Friday, October 26 2007 ::

I would have sworn I blogged this when it first became news, but I can't find it now. Regardless, today I'm posting about it because it has a happy ending. Back in 2005 a young man was put in jail for having sex with a young woman. Oral sex (this is, bizarrely, an important detail). He was 17, she was 15. The law carried with it a minimum penalty of ten years (it would have been a significantly lesser crime if there had been intercourse involved). Today the BBC is reporting that the Georgia Supreme Court has overturned this sentence, stating the sentence made "no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment".
:: David (16:27 in Michigan, 22:27 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[5]


:: Thursday, October 25 2007 ::

As you will no doubt have heard somewhere, the Airbus A380 made its first commercial voyage today. Gizmodo has a post that links to a nice BBC video of the landing. It almost looks fake - I think they may have chosen the most experienced pilot on staff to do the landing, because it was smooth beyond belief. Pay special attention to the part where the plane taxis, as you can see it dwarfing another plane at the airport. Crazy.
:: David (13:45 in Michigan, 19:45 in Paris) - Comment


An interesting posting on France Profonde examines illiteracy in France.

The Report says that 40% of eleven year olds are in different degrees illettré. That seems to me a massive over-simplification, lumping together those who cannot read or write at all (15%) with those who have problems with the perversities of French spelling. I was amazed that at 10 my son routinely used to confuse donner, donné and donnait when doing dictation, but was assured that c'est normale: at that age how could he understand the difference?
It's an interesting spin on a topic we examine here in the US fairly often.
:: David (13:31 in Michigan, 19:31 in Paris) - Comment


I love this - Australian coal miners are being given lessons in foreplay and the menopause in an attempt to boost productivity. And apparently (unsurprisingly, one might say) it is working. For those keeping score, mark that under 'happy workers are more productive'. But it certainly is an interesting tack on the subject.
:: David (9:50 in Michigan, 15:50 in Paris) - Comment


:: Wednesday, October 24 2007 ::

Tee hee - how's this for some symbolism:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's two-day visit next month with U.S. President George W. Bush will cover topics such as Iran and include a formal dinner and a trip to [...] Mt. Vernon, the mansion just south of the U.S. capital that was home to George Washington for more than 45 years. The venue will conjure the ties between the two countries that date back more than two centuries to France's support for the United States during the Revolutionary War against England.
The story goes on to note that relations between France and the US are much warmer than they were under Chirac.
:: David (17:25 in Michigan, 23:25 in Paris) - Comment


Court TV and several other news trucks have been parked outside the courthouse this week, and I wondered what was happening that was so high profile. As it turns out, it's all about the case involving the murder at Eastern Michigan University, and the subsequent cover up that led to the resignation of the president and several members of the board (I blogged about it in August. According to mlive, the trial has ended in a hung jury.
:: David (10:56 in Michigan, 16:56 in Paris) - Comment


As you are all probably aware, California is on fire. Well, major swaths of land near San Diego are, anyway. So I phoned up Holly yesterday to see what all the excitement was about, after the New York Times led off their paper with the headline California Fires Force 500,000 From Homes. As it turns out, things actually are pretty exciting - everything is closed, air quality is in the toilet, the TV channels have gone to 24/7 coverage of the fires, and, in what is surely a sign of the apocalypse, a heavy metal radio station has given their frequency to NPR for the duration, after the NPR antenna burned down. FEMA is involved, and vowing to do a better job this time. Given what a travesty the situation in New Orleans was, I don't see how they could do worse (though they still say dumb things). On the other hand, it's going to be hard to keep comparisons and issues of race from being raised:

In contrast to the staggering losses, which prompted President Bush to declare a federal disaster Tuesday, the mood at Qualcomm Stadium resembled a carnival more than a catastrophe. The vast parking lot looked a lot like a premature tailgate party for the Chargers' Sunday football game, except for omnipresent gauze masks to filter out smoke particles and the presence of gun-toting California National Guardsmen on patrol.
Rich white folk have a party, and plenty of resources. What a surprise!
:: David (9:45 in Michigan, 15:45 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[8]


:: Tuesday, October 23 2007 ::

My colleague here has pointed out that today is Mole Day. According to the pseudo-official website, it began at 6:02 this morning and ends at 6:02 this evening. Let's all celebrate by trying to remember all the things we learned in high school Chemistry class!
:: David (9:35 in Michigan, 15:35 in Paris) - Comment


:: Monday, October 22 2007 ::

I posted a selection of photos (read: some 200 or so) from our trip down to Charlotte, NC to watch the NASCAR race. It was two solid days of utter madness, and I think the pics do a good job of indicating that. In total there were eight of us, and we took a rented motor home to the event. Worth noting - the pics of us eating breakfast were probably taken while travelling on the highway, and the sharpie exhibit gave us all free permanent markers.
:: David (10:15 in Michigan, 16:15 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]


I saw this headline on the BBC, and for a moment I was sure I had misread: Monkey attack kills Delhi leader. Sadly I had not. It is, of course, not a flesh-eating-monkey story but one of those stupid 'fell from a height while shooing the monkeys' stories. I visited a town in Thailand that had a monkey infestation, and it's easy to see how much meyhem they can cause, as you really can't stop them from going anywhere.
:: David (7:11 in Michigan, 13:11 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


:: Sunday, October 21 2007 ::

I try to refrain, but sometimes I can has cheezburger? says it all:
funny cat picture
:: David (19:12 in Michigan, 1:12 in Paris) - Comment


Headed over to the Slashdot 10th anniversary party last night, here in town. Seems it was started by a local (CmdrTaco) and thus we were sort of the geeky place to be for one night. One person noted the irony of a bajillion introverted geeks getting together for a meet 'n' greet, and on some level it was all that - the person everyone came to see seemed a little uncomfortable with his 15 minutes of fame (which is fair, if ordinarily you exist as an online persona). We ran into some an old college friend and sat around talking until the smoke drove us away.
:: David (11:06 in Michigan, 17:06 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]


:: Saturday, October 20 2007 ::

Sasha made sure the first thing I saw reading the news this morning was the fact that Dumbledore was gay. In addition to the blah blah, the BBC also managed to dig up a bizarre gay rights campaigner, who noted "It's great that JK has said this. It shows that there's no limit to what gay and lesbian people can do, even being a wizard headmaster."
:: David (10:08 in Michigan, 16:08 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


:: Friday, October 19 2007 ::

I think I forgot to post this - this month marks the 20th anniversary of the stock market crash of 1987. I scrounged up a story on the Consumerist about it, but I also watched an interesting TV show on it, where they interviewed some of the key players (like Greenspan) 20 years later.
:: David (16:09 in Michigan, 22:09 in Paris) - Comment


Haha. Ann Arbor makes the tech blogs (well, engadget, anyway) with the news that our street lights will soon be LED based. The city is "hoping to save around $100,000 per year" with the action, which makes the 600K price tag pretty easy to defend. The lights have all kinds of pluses, not least of which is that they only point down and outward, not up, saving on light pollution.
:: David (10:50 in Michigan, 16:50 in Paris) - Comment


Holy cow! According to slashdot, the entire catalog of the Daily Show has been put online! Yes, 8 years of utter madness, all for free (with ads)!
:: David (10:29 in Michigan, 16:29 in Paris) - Comment


By the way - oil hit 90 dollars a barrel yesterday. But not to worry - the economy is strong. For how much longer is another question. It was pointed out I think on the BBC World Service that the strength of the euro is part of the issue - buying futures locks in a relatively low oil price, just in case the euro should fall, so people are hedging early and often. And as we know, if demand goes up, so does price.
:: David (10:05 in Michigan, 16:05 in Paris) - Comment


:: Thursday, October 18 2007 ::

The French president has announced his separation from his wife. I kind of feel like they were hoping to bury it by announcing it during the big strike, but it hasn't worked. You can read all about it in English or French. It is the lead story on Le Monde.
:: David (9:20 in Michigan, 15:20 in Paris) - Comment


So the trainer has made us quite aware that she is a Red Sox fan. Thus I have been paying more attention to the news when they talk about the playoffs. Today's big story, however, isn't about the game per se, but rather is all about Manny Ramirez (a red sox player) saying that it won't be the end of the world if the sox are knocked out. Believe it or not, people are up in arms about this. Apparently he's not allowed to have a balanced view of work and life.
:: David (7:42 in Michigan, 13:42 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]


:: Wednesday, October 17 2007 ::

More training today. Had a great time in the city last night with Nikki, who moved here recently. Saw the city hall and had dinner at a funky italian restaurant.
:: David (13:01 in Michigan, 19:01 in Paris) - Comment


One day of training down. I'm beat. Hopefully days 2 and 3 will be equally informative. In the meantime Philadelphia is a nice town.
:: David (0:19 in Michigan, 6:19 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


:: Monday, October 15 2007 ::

I am informed that today is blog action day. Or perhaps tomorrow. Or the next day. It's the internet - nobody knows what day it is.

The topic I'm supposed to address is 'the environment'. Given my week I think I can fairly do that. We headed over to Charlotte, NC for the NASCAR race this weekend. It was quite a race, but it was also quite an event - the amount of waste and environmental hurt caused by these events is mind-boggling. Imagine 160,000 people all using disposable everything for a long weekend, driving giant motor homes in to camp, and finally, the highlight, a bonanza of burned fuel and oil. An article discussing the fuel usage question noted "NASCAR also considers its 6,000 gallon per weekend usage modest when compared to national daily consumption, which is estimated to be about 380-million gallons. [president of NASCAR's largest team, Geoff] Smith thinks sports gets a pass because of what it provides with every tank." Of course, it's easy to point fingers, rather than fix problems. Some very basic solutions might be recycling bins for all the beer cans and plastic bottles. Addressing the cars and the fans' cars might be more difficult - not one of the (many) promotional areas was for any sort of green tech - power tools and tractors carried the day. But I think I would be naive to expect them. Which is, of course, the problem.
:: David (10:36 in Michigan, 16:36 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]


:: Friday, October 12 2007 ::

Looks like we'll have a chance to get ill this weekend - Autoblog has a story posted with the title Congressional staffers told to get vaccinated prior to NASCAR races.
:: David (11:31 in Michigan, 17:31 in Paris) - Comment


Al Gore gets the bonus prize for 'most stories written about an individual in one day', as he is simultaneously held up as a paragon of virtue (and given a Nobel prize), and as a bad boy in the UK media for nine factual errors in his film (the same one that won him the Nobel). The UK stuff all stems from a court case, brought by a UK teacher who wanted to prevent the film from being shown in English secondary schools. The judges decided the films can be shown, but cited some problematic areas that should be 'clarified' with students. As a BBC article notes, the media focused mainly on the so-called errors.

I had an interesting conversation with Sasha about the issue this morning, and she noted that although news sources (including the BBC) can breathlessly cover as 'scientific fact' finding by a single scientist, when a movie is made which breathlessly covers findings made by more than one scientist (in some cases dozens or hundreds) it is called erroneous because there isn't consensus. Something of a double standard at work there.
:: David (9:29 in Michigan, 15:29 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[5]


:: Thursday, October 11 2007 ::

Overheard in the computer lab where I work - two students trying to formulate a drinking game to the Republican debate.
:: David (17:11 in Michigan, 23:11 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


There's an odd posting over at Foreign Policy's blog about an article in the Wall Street Journal. I call it odd because, in both articles they suggest that most people's assumption is that only lower income people are being hurt (directly) by the housing crisis. They then report the 'surprising' findings that in fact, all walks of life are affected. FP then goes on to note that consumers should be unnerved by all this, and the stock market shouldn't be going up, but it is. And they throw around that handy word: 'irrational'.

I had always assumed it was as many middle and upper-middle class people affected - 'flip that house' isn't exactly targeted, I think, at an unaffluent market. I do recognize the oddity of the stock market reaction, if you assume business fundamentals have anything to do with the stock market. But on the other hand, it might just make sense - if all the money people would have put into flipping a house or whatever can't go there anymore, where do you put it? How about the stock market. And so long as demand is high, prices will rise.
:: David (17:10 in Michigan, 23:10 in Paris) - Comment


Looks like Turkey is a little irked about the Armenia thing. They've recalled their ambassador to the US. I'm OK with that.
:: David (14:16 in Michigan, 20:16 in Paris) - Comment


:: Wednesday, October 10 2007 ::

The war of words between Jimmy Carter and the White House continues. In an interview on CNN, Carter said:

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused."
No big surprises, but it is kind of fun to have this involvement by former presidents Carter and Clinton. I wonder what Bush Sr. is up to these days.
:: David (17:07 in Michigan, 23:07 in Paris) - Comment


The BBC is reporting that a 14-year-old went on a school shooting spree in Cleveland, Ohio today. That's about three hours from here on the highway. The article also noted it's been just six months since the Virginia Tech shootings, although it felt longer. I had been wondering as I read the article just how often we have to have a school shooting before something is done. We'll soon see if 'more often than once every six months' is the correct response.
:: David (17:03 in Michigan, 23:03 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]


Some of the pre-race events we have to look forward to on Saturday:

While towing a camper trailer behind a 1979 Buick, veteran stuntman Chris "Crash" Morena will launch from a 40-foot steel ramp and attempt to sail 150 feet through the air before crashing into a collection of parked cars.
We shall also apparently get our fix of country music for the year. See the complete list of crazy stuff happening before the Bank of America 500 here
:: David (13:06 in Michigan, 19:06 in Paris) - Comment


:: Tuesday, October 9 2007 ::

Slashdot pointed me to a story happening in Canada that takes bizarre to new levels - seems Toronto has been asking for one percent of the GST to be devoted to the municipality, and have been using big pictures of the Canadian penny to do it. So the Canadian mint has asked for royalties for the use of their intellectual property.
:: David (9:40 in Michigan, 15:40 in Paris) - Comment


:: Monday, October 8 2007 ::

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Che Guevara's capture in Bolivia. Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of his death. The story is rampant in the news, and it occurred to me that I still know very little about this man who became a revolutionary who became an icon. But the facts are rather thin on the ground, at least looking at the internets. You can get screeds against him, and thoughts on why he's a hero to the youth, but the image that comes out always seems slanted. And it's tough to make his opponents look good - the CIA of the 60's wasn't very nice.
:: David (17:15 in Michigan, 23:15 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]


I heard an interesting sound clip on the BBC driving in to work today. It's an excerpt from the 1936 abdication address given by King Edward VIII, who wins serious points for most romantic radio moment of the 20th century. According to historyplace.com, the bit you'll hear goes like this:

you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.
Follow the link for the full text, which is succinct, but very interesting.
:: David (16:13 in Michigan, 22:13 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


Why didn't someone think of this before? Gizmodo pointed me to WooMe, a webcam driven speed dating site. Yikes!
:: David (15:29 in Michigan, 21:29 in Paris) - Comment


A story on the BBC about Japanese government officials being reprimanded for editing wikipedia at work, including one man who "made 260 entries to articles about Gundam, a popular animated series featuring giant robotic fighting machines" prompted this quote of the day:

"The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam," ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura told the Associated Press news agency.
Just in case you were wondering, I imagine the SDF would be the agency in charge of giant robots.
:: David (7:38 in Michigan, 13:38 in Paris) - Comment


:: Friday, October 5 2007 ::

I heard a bit about the decline of sumo in Japan from Kimberly while she was visiting (there's a woman who knows her sumo), and now it's mentioned again in an article on a recent incident in which a young wrestler died. Ironically, I think sumo would do a lot better if it internationalized, which is the opposite of what they're trying to do. Japan today quotes the sumo association chairman as saying it would destroy tradition to have too many foreigners. Despite this, foreigners seem to be doing OK.
:: David (11:45 in Michigan, 17:45 in Paris) - Comment



Photo by Minirobot
Heidi posted a link to a story in the Washington Post about Hillary Clinton's cleavage. Ordinarily I don't pay much attention to sexism in the media, especially the Post, but following on the heels of it was a story this morning on Yulia Tymoshenko's hair. As Sasha noted, they are not really the same at all - the Tymoshenko story is an interesting analysis of Ukrainian politics. But they sat together in my head this morning, so you get them as a batch.
:: David (10:03 in Michigan, 16:03 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


:: Thursday, October 4 2007 ::

College rock makes me smile. I just ran across the song 'Crawl into bed with me' by a group called 'One Man's Opinion'. I love the fact that you can tell which songwriters had a smattering of psych 101 before commencing to write. And oh so angsty!
:: David (10:15 in Michigan, 16:15 in Paris) - Comment


It's a big day today. 50 years ago sputnik changed the world. It goes without saying the Russians are celebrating, and Sergey Korolyov is getting the fame he rightly deserves. Google even has a special logo for it.
:: David (9:49 in Michigan, 15:49 in Paris) - Comment


Becca pointed me to the coolest waste of time ever on a pet. Flo Control is a cat door that uses image recognition to check if the cat has an animal in its mouth before opening. If kitty is bringing a friend, the door doesn't open. The page also has some great image captures of other animals trying to use the cat door to get in.
:: David (9:34 in Michigan, 15:34 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]


:: Wednesday, October 3 2007 ::

I swear, sometimes you get a level of humour from the government that otherwise would require trained comedians months to think up. I thought they were kidding when I first saw it on Foreign Policy, but apparently the US State Department has a new blog named... wait for it... DIPNOTE! The blog explains:

We're new at this. It looks like we broke our own rule and used State jargon in our blog title. "Dipnote" refers to a diplomatic note. It is one of the many ways in which governments formally communicate with each other.
Which really doesn't help in the slightest, but might make them feel better about the, forgive me, dippy name.
:: David (16:54 in Michigan, 22:54 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


Well, never let it be said that Bush doesn't stick to his guns, even if he makes an unpopular decision. I wonder if people are starting to realize (finally) what a crap decision they made in 2004? Today he used the fourth veto of his presidency to deny medical care to children. There are enough override votes in the senate, but the house is iffy.
:: David (14:07 in Michigan, 20:07 in Paris) - Comment


:: Tuesday, October 2 2007 ::

The BBC is reporting that the chairman of Blackwater, the mercenaries employed by the US government, testified before a congressional committee today. The story contained some truly choice tidbits:

Several representatives referred to an incident in which a Blackwater guard shot dead a bodyguard of one of Iraq's vice-presidents while drunk. He was hurried out of Iraq and faced no criminal charges.

Mr Prince said Blackwater had taken firm action against the guard. He was fined and fired.

At what point does a corporation have the ability to 'fine' someone. Let's be precise here - his pay was docked. For shooting and killing a man while drunk.

CNN is also reporting on the story, which contains a few more details. But let's keep this in perspective: next to the story was a list of the most viewed stories on CNN. In order, they were:

  1. Readers sound off on Britney Spears'...
  2. Halle Berry: Pregnancy took work
  3. Police: Mom suspected in drownings
  4. iPhone owner sues Apple for $1 million
  5. Jury rules against NBA star
Were I you, I would remember the target audience of a CNN story when reading even their serious news pieces.
:: David (16:01 in Michigan, 22:01 in Paris) - Comment


I wanted to be sure you heard the news as soon as I did about Britney, because I know you're all concerned. In unrelated bizarre news, it seems that belly rings can be hazardous if you are involved in an auto accident. You may now return to your previously scheduled day.
:: David (8:07 in Michigan, 14:07 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]


:: Monday, October 1 2007 ::

Well, looks like in the end the state of Michigan will not close down. According to mlive, the budget was finished at 4am this morning, and includes some happy perks for me:

Most Michigan residents also will see the first increase in the personal income tax in a quarter-century. Effective today, the rate jumps from 3.9 percent to 4.35 percent, a rate still lower than when a series of cuts began in 1999.
According to my calculations, this will cost me approximately 300 dollars a year. Oh no!
:: David (11:21 in Michigan, 17:21 in Paris) - Comment


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