April 30, 2005

Boycott Ending?

Maybe.

I've have successfully avoided any Clear Channel operated music venues for, well, since clear channel entered the concert promotion business and still enjoyed a lot of good music.

Now comes this possible good news:

Clear Channel Communications, the world's largest radio broadcaster, will spin off its live-entertainment unit...
This, of course, wouldn't have anything to do with:
Get ready to hear music to your ears: Concert ticket prices are about to come down.

Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Coldplay are set to go on tour -- but the real news for music fans is an expected drop of as much as 30 percent on some tickets, concert experts said.

Clear Channel Entertainment, the world's largest concert promoter, is leading the way, cutting the prices for its lawn seats.

The show-biz giant is considering running a big ad campaign with the tag line "Music Sounds Better on Grass," sources said.

No-frills seats at Clear Channel venues that used to go for as much as $40 will now cost $20. On top of that, Clear Channel is ditching the $4 facility fee it used to charge, all in an effort to lure back sticker-shocked music lovers.

Or, this:
Clear Channel thought its combination of assets would create a powerful, across-the-board platform for advertising sales on its billboards, at concert and sports venues and on its 1,200 radio stations.

Instead, the combination irked music fans, record labels and artists, who complained that Clear Channel used its might to punish artists who didn't play by its rules and contributed to the sharp rise in ticket prices at venues it controls.

Final decision on the boycott to come after the spin-off happens and I've evaluated the new ownership structure.

Via Eschaton.

Posted by Steve on April 30, 2005 | Comments (1)

April 29, 2005

Friday Ark

Cats, Dogs, Spiders and ? every Friday.

I'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals as I see them (photoshops at my discretion and humans only in supporting roles).

Leave a comment or trackback to this post or email me and I'll add yours to the list. Check back regularly for updates throughout the day on Fridays and somewhat less frequently over the weekend.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by Running Scared.

And, check out Laurence's fine graphical analysis of Friday Ark boardings.

Archive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther Vertebrates
Didn't Make It
Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Posted by Steve on April 29, 2005 | Comments (21)

April 28, 2005

A Taxing Situation

Check out the per capita state tax confiscation in your state. Be aware that, as Stateline.org notes, this is not the entire story:

Because the Census numbers don't include tax levies by local governments, which often pick up certain state services, economists say a better measure of tax burdens nationwide is a snapshot of both state and local tax collections.
Is your state government making an effort to move up in the rankings?

Posted by Steve on April 28, 2005

The Basics of Jeans Marketing

What's the key to that spendy pair of jeans:

"Right now you could have a pair of jeans that cost $1,000, and people would buy them," Lawrence Scott, the owner of Pittsburgh Jeans Company, said last week. What, Mr. Scott was asked, is the indispensable element in the making of a perfect pair of luxury jeans?

"Same as always," he said. "It's going to come down to how your behind looks when you pour yourself into them. No matter how good the wash or the detail or the label, if it doesn't look good on a behind, it won't sell."

Well, I don't plan on pouring my butt into my jeans anytime soon so I'll be perfectly happy to get my next pair, like my last pair, on sale at a nearby mervyn's: maybe $30. I'll find something a little more useful to do with the savings...

Posted by Steve on April 28, 2005 | Comments (1)

April 27, 2005

Estate Taxes

Tyler Cowan and Max Sawicky debate estate taxes.

Read and discuss! Which I plan to do this evening when I have a bit more time.

Posted by Steve on April 27, 2005

Serenity

Will be here in the fall!

She is a mite unpredictable!


Via Making Light.

Posted by Steve on April 27, 2005 | Comments (2)

Peregrines!

This is totally cool!!

Don't be fooled if a parental unit isn't there. If the chicks are sleeping they look like a white blob. Be patient: feeding time will be soon.

Via 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera.

Posted by Steve on April 27, 2005

Most of You Probably Already Know...

...but just in case you don't here's some Carnival stuff:

Carnival of the Capitalists

and

Grand Rounds

Enjoy the reading!

Posted by Steve on April 27, 2005

April 26, 2005

Plausible Deniability

It's pretty easy to claim you never made a particular point if you fill your public discourse with this stuff.

Posted by Steve on April 26, 2005

Now This is Broadband!

Services like this should be doable at similar prices in dense urban areas of the US:

Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) officially launched its 1 Gbps symmetric service for the residential market. Approximately 800,000 households, out of a total of 2.2 million households in Hong Kong, are wired to receive the service. The 1 Gbps symmetric service is priced at US$215 per month.

HKBN noted that its 1 Gbps service is up to 166x faster downstream and 1,950x faster upstream than the advertised bandwidth of the incumbent's ADSL service.

HKBN Premium bb1000 service is being offered on the same metro Ethernet infrastructure that delivers the company's Mass Market bb100 (symmetric 100 Mbps for US$34/month) and Entry Point bb10 (symmetric 10 Mbps for US$16/month) services.

Even the low end blows away the crap that has commonly been labeled residential broadband in the US.

If they are allowed to proceed the Verizon and SBC buildouts, while not quite up to the Hong Kong standard, will be a substantial improvement over current US offerings.

Posted by Steve on April 26, 2005

Amtrak Subsidies

The New York Times editorialized today about the need for the federal government to continue subsidizing Amtrak:

For some time, the Bush administration has pushed for Amtrak reforms, which almost everybody supports in principle. But the administration's most recent proposal is more like a death sentence - a slow dismantling of Amtrak into regional services while costs currently paid by the federal government would be forced onto cash-starved states. The fatal flaw in the administration's thinking is the idea that the railroad should be self-sufficient. That's impractical and unnecessary, given the benefits it provides in taking cars off congested highways and offering an alternative to air service in the post-9/11 era.
Sorry, this is a bit hard to say but the bushies may be right on this one. There is no good reason for "cash-starved" states to pick up the tab for anything either. The various government entities do not need to be in the theme park business.

If Amtrak really does an effective job of getting cars off crowded highways and is a meaningful alternative to the airlines (which I doubt) then for those routes where this is true it should be able to be self sustaining.

Posted by Steve on April 26, 2005 | Comments (4)

April 25, 2005

Did You Get a Pay Raise?

How about a 54% pay raise? Well, on average, these 500 folks did. Their compensaton increased $1.8 billion over the previous years $3.3 billion. Yep, Billion.

Now I don't begrudge the founder CEO taking her money. But, really, for a hired gun some of the numbers seem way too high.

Posted by Steve on April 25, 2005

April 24, 2005

Buying Access

Both dems and repubs participate in corporate shakedowns, you know, something that was once called extortion. But that doesn't make it right.

I suspect that the bushies actions related to Inter-American Telecommunications Commission meeting are not unique:

At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign.

The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants. Only after the start of Bush's second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say.

The Left Coaster notes:
Remember, to the Bush White House, unquestioning loyalty to George W. Bush always trumps what's good for American business.
And I wouldn't conflate what's good for American business with what's good for the American people.

An excellent way to eliminate this kind of administration behavior would be to eliminate all corporate contributions from the election process. The US government is, after all, supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Update (4/26): Mark Kleiman puts a related post in his Corruption in Washington category.

Posted by Steve on April 24, 2005

April 23, 2005

Another Reading Assingment

Note to self: finish reading this years Hugo nominees soon!

Via Backup Brain.

Posted by Steve on April 23, 2005

April 22, 2005

Uhhhh,...nooooo!

On the other hand, this would certainly eliminate continually pushing them back up your nose!

Posted by Steve on April 22, 2005 | Comments (1)

Eventually, only in extremis?

I don't even wish this on the birds!

And it is a triple pain if you are one of the selectees for the extra thorough touch everything search.

Posted by Steve on April 22, 2005

Friday Ark

Cats, Dogs, Spiders and ? every Friday.

I'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals as I see them (photoshops at my discretion and humans only in supporting roles).

Leave a comment or trackback to this post or email me and I'll add yours to the list. Check back regularly for updates throughout the day on Fridays and somewhat less frequently over the weekend.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by The Oubliette.

And, check out Laurence's fine graphical analysis of Friday Ark boardings.

Archive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther Vertebrates
Didn't Make It
Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Posted by Steve on April 22, 2005 | Comments (19)

April 21, 2005

Dinosaurs Seek Protection

When a whiff of competition appears on the horizon what do bussiness in the American free market economy do? Why, of course, they head over to the nearest government regulative or legislative body to seek some form of protection:

Verizon Communications and SBC Communications' plans to wire American homes with high-speed fiber connections may encounter regulatory roadblocks, members of Congress suggested Wednesday.

Both companies are spending billions on fiber links that can carry everything from Internet service to voice and video. Verizon's Fios service already boasts speeds of up to 30 megabits per second with a digital TV package expected later this year......

These forays into digital TV are alarming television broadcasters and some cable companies, which view fiber service as a competitive threat. This week, for instance, Verizon announced that it plans to carry all of NBC Universal's channels on Fios TV.

...

"Stations would lose audience share and advertising dollars, and these dollars fund local programming that makes broadcasting valuable," Greg Schmidt, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the influential National Association of Broadcasters, told a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday. The NAB represents local radio and TV broadcasters.

Congress should prohibit SBC and Verizon from offering digital TV unless the companies follow an extensive list of government regulations, Schmidt said.

Now, some of you may find the relatively content free local news valuable but, really, if that stuff is the core value of broadcasting we are in deep trouble.

Read the whole article. It is full of fine whining, groveling and populated by congress critters who, seemingly only too eager to feed their patrons, should be put out to pasture.

Oh, and please don't get me wrong, Verizon and SBC are not really good players here. They are companies who have drank heavier than most from the protected from competition by regulation trough over the last hundred years.

Posted by Steve on April 21, 2005

April 20, 2005

It Is Time to Criminalize....

Bread manufacturing, distribution and use!!

Posted by Steve on April 20, 2005

The 1st Anniversary Tangled Bank

Yes, the 1 year anniversary edition of The Tangled Bank is up at Circadiana. This entry is interesting:

If you think the Creationist stickers in textbooks are a new development, think again. Dave, a physicist blogging on Second Order Approximation translates for us the old Osiander Sticker that warns the audience that Copernicus's stuff is "just a theory". No kidding.
There is precedent for the ongoing evolution/creationism debates:
And even though scientists had all but agreed that the Copernican system was indisputably correct by the close of the 17th century, theologians and popular writers on science continued to argue over whether or not to accept the theory for another 100 years. In terms of education, although it was taught in many schools from 1700 on, the Sun-centered solar-system did not become the sole model taught at Cracow Academy in Copernicus's native country of Poland until 1782. That's almost 240 years.
There's plenty of variety at the anniversary edition including snails, vulvas, mind control, genetics, health care, and much, much more.

Posted by Steve on April 20, 2005

April 19, 2005

Be Happy

Be Healthy!

the authors report that simply being happy -- at work and at play -- is directly related with specific bodily functions that protect against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune deficiencies and stress-related illnesses.
Hmm, the test subjects were all British civil servants but are they representative of the rest of us? The British part is ok...I'm just not so sure about the civil servant part....
Posted by Steve on April 19, 2005 | Comments (4)

April 18, 2005

Movable Type 3.16

Six Apart released MT 3.16 earlier today. It looks like an easy upgrade if you are a 3.1 or above user.

I'll wait a week or so before upgrading to see if any critical bugs are shaken out by early adopters.

Posted by Steve on April 18, 2005

What Henley Says!

Jim Henley nails this:

Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.
Heck, if this does nothing more than get us to reread the dusty volumes that have been sitting on the shelf untouched for years it is monumental. That there may be recoverable complete or near complete new works is thick frosting on a tasty cake.

Posted by Steve on April 18, 2005

The Downside

The Economist editorialized in glowing terms about The Flat Tax Revolution. They left out, though, any discussion of the biggest downside of implementing a simple, deduction free flat tax system: the massive unemployment of tax lawyers, accountants, congressional staffers, lobbyists, tax pundits, and everyone else involved in supporting the current US tax system. But, over a few years, they will all retrain and find jobs in the new opportunities spawned by the redirected spending or savings of the prevously wasted money.

Also, Drum is correct that a flat tax rate does not require the elimination of deductions but, really, why wouldn't you do it right and combine the two as long as you were redoing the tax system? His hammering of The Economist on this point no more lame than the editorial. They do combine the two into one proposal but they do not seem to confuse the two.

Posted by Steve on April 18, 2005

Concerns About Flash Player Security

Have you all updated your Flash Player configuration to stop marketing folks and others from using it like cookies? Modulator reported on this back on April 1 and it was not an April fools joke!

Last Friday Internet Week wrote:

Macromedia's Flash media player is raising concerns among privacy advocates for its little-known ability to store computer users' personal information and assign a unique identifier to their machines.
Read the article. Fix your Flash settings!

Posted by Steve on April 18, 2005 | Comments (1)

April 17, 2005

Tax Time Humor

The Internal Revenue Service sent an auditor to a
synagogue. As the auditor reviews all the paperwork,
he turns to the Rabbi and says, "I noticed that you
buy a lot of candles."

"Yes, we do," responded the Rabbi.

"Well, Rabbi, what do you do with the candle
drippings?" He asked.

Read the rest below the fold... (warning: language may be offensive to some)

"A good question," noted the rabbi. "We actually save
them up and when we have enough, we send them back to
the candle maker and every now and then, they send us
a free box of candles."

"Oh," replied the auditor somewhat disappointed that
his unusual question actually had a practical answer.

"Rabbi, what about all these matzo purchases? What do
you do with all the crumbs from the matzo?"

"Ah, yes," replied the rabbi calmly. "We actually collect
up all the crumbs from the matzo and when we have enough,
we send them in a box back to the manufacturer; and every
now and then they send us a box of matzo balls."

"Oh," replied the auditor, thinking hard how he could
fluster the rabbi.

"Well, Rabbi," he continued, "what do you do with all the
foreskins from the circumcisions?"

"Yes, here too, we do not waste." The rabbi answered.
What we do is save up all the foreskins, and when we have
enough we actually send them to the Internal Revenue Service."

"Internal Revenue?" questioned the auditor in disbelief.

"Ah, yes," replied the Rabbi, "Internal Revenue. And about
once a year, they send us a little *prick* like you."

Posted by Steve on April 17, 2005 | Comments (1)

April 16, 2005

Operation Falcon: Scam the Public?

Plastered all over the news the past few days were stories of how unprecedented cooperation between US law enforcement agencies led to 10,000 fugitives being arrested in Operation Falcon. This sounds impressive and did impress people. For instance, Law Pundit noted:

This is a sign of government law enforcement agencies working together effectively for the interests of the people and represents a modern landmark in law enforcement cooperation in getting the criminals off the streets.
This prompted me to remember the question I had asked myself when I read this in the morning paper yesterday: What is the normal rate of arrests?

Well, I did some checking via the The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2002 and found some interesting numbers:

  • Arrests for Violent Crime: 620,510 or 11,933/week; Operation Falcon 10,000 including some non-violent crimes
  • Arrests for Murder: 14158 or 272/week; Operation Falcon 162
No drug arrests in the above but apparently included in Operation Falcon!

My suspicion is that they simply reported business as usual (in some cases less than usual) and by giving it one of those magic labels, Operation Falcon, and publicizing it they have tried to make us think something new and wonderful is happening. Well, welcome to the world of marketing and government BS.

Oh, and if this really was a real coordinated effort, then we did not get our money's worth (surprise) as they appear to have failed to meet even average arrest rates.

Update 4/18: More on this at Marginal Revolution and the Washington Post.

Posted by Steve on April 16, 2005 | Comments (1)

March's Top Referrers

This post is way late so I'll keep it over a bit next month.

On the right side bar is the updated roll of Modulator's 21 top referrers for the month of March. Numbers 20 and 21 each produced 25 referrals compared to 20 for numbers 20 and 21 in January.

December churn: 6 blogs dropped and 6 new ones added compared to 9 and 9 in February.

Overall traffic was down about 7.7% from February and up 211% from March 04 (no I do not expect the year to year growth to continue at that rate).

Top Referrer: Pharyngula. Thanks, PZ!

Top search phrase/word: live strong

Most popular post: Live Strong

Statistics are culled from AWStats running on Modulator's server at Hosting Matters.

Again, thank you one and all!

Also, I'd like to acknowledge referrals from some of the blogosphere's 'service' sites: Technorati, weblogs.com, blogrolling.com, MovableType, Blogdex, Bloglines, blogoshpere.us, Sitemeter, NZ Bear's Ecosystem, Bloogz and Daypop.

All of the blog rolls are ordered by most recently updated so be sure to ping weblogs.com or blogrolling.com to push to the top of the rolls. These are certainly the sites I tend to look at first and visitors will see you at the top of the roll as well.

For a brief discussion of Modulator's blog rolls look here.

Posted by Steve on April 16, 2005

Adventures in Body Modification

This history stops back in 2001 but is pretty funny and, well, pick your own adjective. Go explore The Mystery of Britney Spears Breasts.

This, of course, reminded me of Jaquandor's all too infrequent Move Over Britney series (there are more in the series listed part way down his left sidebar).

Via Bacon and Eh's.

Posted by Steve on April 16, 2005

April 15, 2005

Friday Ark

Update (4/22): Welcome to visitors from Blogs etc.! When you are done checking out all the borders here head on over to the current edition of the Friday Ark for more. And, of course, please browse around the rest of Modulator.

Cats, Dogs, Spiders and ? every Friday.

I'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals as I see them (photoshops at my discretion and humans only in supporting roles).

Leave a comment or trackback to this post or email me and I'll add yours to the list. Check back regularly for updates throughout the day on Fridays and somewhat less frequently over the weekend.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by Watermark.

And, check out Laurence's fine graphical analysis of Friday Ark boardings.

Archive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther VertebratesDidn't Make ItExceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Posted by Steve on April 15, 2005 | Comments (29)

April 14, 2005

Is the dea Encouraging Drug Use?

The US drug enforcement agency has published the 2005 edition of their classic magazine Drugs of Abuse:

This DEA magazine delivers clear, scientific information about drugs in a factual, straightforward way, combined with scores of precise photographs shot to scale.
There are lots of photos and there may be some facts but what is the message? Mr. Sun says:
I must say that, for me, the primary impact of the magazine was to make me want to do drugs. I'm as straight as an arrow, but after looking at this DEA publication I simply can't wait to start cramming psychoactive substances down my pill hole. Let's look at a few screenshots, shall we?
Well, click on over and look at them with Mr. Sun!

Via Hit & Run where some of the commentors have noticed items that may not be quite factual. Can you find others?

Posted by Steve on April 14, 2005

Still Irked

Division of Labor reminded me that Sunday, the 17th, is tax freedom day.

Maybe I'm irked because I'm paying a few thousand more in taxes this year than last....

Posted by Steve on April 14, 2005 | Comments (1)

April 13, 2005

Irked

I don't like income taxes or estate taxes as currently conceived by federal congress critters and I really don't like the rediculous deficits that are being run up by the branch of the mob currently operating in DC and I'm really irked that it appears they may be raising taxes on the rest of us again.

Posted by Steve on April 13, 2005

Keeping Abreast of Avian Flu

Tyler Cowan of Marginal Revolution has started a new blog: Avian Flu - What we need to know. Its mission:

We at avianflu.typepad.com are committed to the idea that decentralized communication and expertise can make a difference. We have set up this blog as a clearinghouse for information about avian flu. Sadly avian flu may become a major crisis, so the world should have all of the defensive resources at its disposal, including blogs.

If you have a relevant post for the blog, please let us know. Please feel encouraged to leave your ideas and expertise in the comments section of the relevant post. There is much information about avian flu that is not available in the major media or on-line. Comments from individuals in affected areas, and research scientists, are especially welcome.

We do not necessarily endorse or agree with the contents of linked material. Nor do we intend this blog as a source of medical advice. Our mission is that of a clearinghouse and communication center.

Cowan notes:
It's odd to start a blog that you hope nobody reads, but that is what this is.
And I hope this turns out to be a very uninteresting subject. In the meantime I'm linking the site and adding it to my RSS feed.

Posted by Steve on April 13, 2005 | Comments (2)

April 12, 2005

The Jefferson Muzzles

Hmmmm, I'm puzzled that I missed this the last couple years. Perhaps I think too much of how much more I'm in touch through the blogosphere...

Anyway, here's the bad news:

the Jefferson Muzzles are awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment. Because the importance and value of free expression extend far beyond the First Amendment's limit on government censorship, acts of private censorship are not spared consideration for the dubious honor of receiving a Muzzle.

Unfortunately, each year the finalists for the Jefferson Muzzles have emerged from an alarmingly large group of candidates. For each recipient, a dozen could have been substituted. Further, an examination of previous Jefferson Muzzle recipients reveals that the disregard of First Amendment principles is not the byproduct of a particular political outlook but rather that threats to free expression come from all over the political spectrum.

Without furthar ado here are the 2005 Muzzle Awards.

Via beSpacific.

Posted by Steve on April 12, 2005 | Comments (1)

On Being Anonymous and Not Getting Fired

You may find something useful in this How to Blog Safely piece from the Electronic Frontier Foundaton.

Via Politech.

Posted by Steve on April 12, 2005 | Comments (1)

Personal Data Protection

Kevin Drum echoes Charle's Kuffner's concern that congress will, if it enacts a security breach protection law similar to California's, preemptively dilute California's law in the process. Kuffner says:

For the rest of us, what we want here is the same protections that Californians currently enjoy. Anything less is unacceptable.
well, yes, but are after the fact disclosure laws really protections? Certainly miscreants like Choicepoint should be obligated to disclose to one and all when someone's personal information has been breached. It seems to me, though, that protection should happen before the event not after and that, as I have noted before, the minimum acceptable starting point must be along the lines of:
No institution, government or private, can be allowed to collect or distribute, for free or for fee, to any private or government entity any information about an individual without that individual's specific consent on a per incident basis and if the distribution is for a fee then that individual must be compensated at a rate agreeable to the individual.
Violations should be treated as felonies and violators must reimburse violated individual(s) for all related losses including legal costs related to the disclosure.

Posted by Steve on April 12, 2005 | Comments (1)

April 11, 2005

Not Just Your Ordinary Boxed Set

Via Scott I just found out that my favorite band has a little 40th Anniversary treat headed our way this summer.

Niftily wrapped up on 55 discs:

The Tour: European Dead, 1972

650 Tracks
75 Songs
22 Concerts
11 Dark Stars
8 Jam Sessions
6 Soundchecks
1 Midnight Mediterranean Beach Party
AND�
Plenty�O�Bus Music (Bolo or Bozo? You decide!)

It will, you know, take more than one sitting to get through it all.

Posted by Steve on April 11, 2005 | Comments (1)

April 8, 2005

Solar Eclipse

The Irish Trojan's Blog has some cool pictures of today's solar eclipse.

Posted by Steve on April 8, 2005 | Comments (2)

Friday Ark

Cats, Dogs, Spiders and ? every Friday.

I'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals as I see them (photoshops at my discretion and humans only in supporting roles).

Alert: Friday updates will be minimal until afternoon...I will be on the road without a sat link. Click through the comments and trackbacks below to check out the boarders.

Leave a comment or trackback to this post or email me and I'll add yours to the list. Check back regularly for updates throughout the day on Fridays and somewhat less frequently over the weekend.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by Enrevanche.

And, check out Laurence's fine graphical analysis of Friday Ark boardings.

Archive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther VertebratesDidn't Make ItAt the ZooExceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Posted by Steve on April 8, 2005 | Comments (21)

April 7, 2005

Why Blog When....

...you can dance your ass off to extraordinarily fine music:

RRE_31722.jpg

Put Railroad Earth on your must see many times list. Neither the commercial CDs or the downloaded live shows that I've listened to so far do justice to the live performance.

Some might call them blue grass oriented and I suppose they are but that label is overly constrictive. These guys play music! They are all fine individual players and when wrapped together something much larger than the sum of the parts rears up, grabs ahold of you, and takes you right to the core of what you need...you choose it.

We humans may be a bit underconfigured for this music. You really need 6 sets of arms and legs to dance with these guys. Especially when they are jamming!

Oh, you must be movin' ahead all the time. Even when they plumb sad themes or the underbelly of life the music does not let you dwell there. Especially during the first set there was a constant feeling that the big bang was about to occur, that all the forces of creation were gathering and driving forward to a great flowering.

I don't yet know Railroad Earth's music well enough to provide a full set list but here are a few (order not exact): Set 1: Storms: Set 2: Railroad Earth, Smilin' Like a Budda, Long Way to Go; Encore: Catfish John (beautifully done!). There was much, much more: the first set lasted over an hour and the second set started at 10:13 and ended at 11:30 (including encore).1

This was an all ages show and ranged from sub-teens to geriatric. Everyone was friendly, open to conversation and eager to talk about the band.

There were maybe 200 people in a relatively small venue which, thankfully, was non-smoking (the smokers could go outside or into the attached bar). If you wanted you could be stage front - 2 feet from the band. I found the sound to be a bit muddy that close and spent most of my time about 16-18 feet back in the center where the sound was pretty crisp.

There were 3 audiences taping rigs and they may have provided patches for more decks so I suspect this show should circulate soon.

A special treat was getting into the venue early, a good 90 minutes before show time, and being treated to the sound check while eating dinner.

1 Here is the full set list (thanks Scott!):

Railroad Earth
4/6/2005
Bishop's Pub
Vashon Island, WA

I: Storms, Old Dangerfield, Bird in a House, Stillwater Getaway,
Railroad Earth, Place Where Songs Begin, Head

II: Cold Water, Mourning Flies, Moonshiner, Like a Buddha>El
Cumbanchero, Magic Foot>Luxury Liner, Sing for Me, Seven Story
Mountain, Long Way to Go>Fiddlee

E: Catfish John

--------------

Below the fold, in reverse order, is the menu for the rest of the weekend. Blogging will be very, very light!



SCI_31731.jpg

Posted by Steve on April 7, 2005 | Comments (3)

April 5, 2005

Keeping Our Business Secret

How not to be accountable: don't tell anyone what you are really doing (PDF).

In 2004 the federal set a new record for keeping secrets. Last year, the federal government employees chose to classify information a record 15.6 million times, according to new government figures released this week. The figure is 10 percent higher than the total in the previous year. And when given a choice, government employees last year chose to keep their new secrets longer than in years past: Two thirds (66 percent) of the time government employees chose to keep those new secrets for more than a decade. At the same time, the flow of old secrets to the public dropped to its lowest point in nearly a decade to 28 million pages.
In fairness to the bushies increases in classification started trending upward again around the beginning of clinton's second administration. The clinton folks were, though, declassifying more documents than they were classifying while the bushies have brought declassification to a near standstill.

Makes me wonder just what they are hiding and why they don't want us, their employers, to know.

Posted by Steve on April 5, 2005 | Comments (2)

April 4, 2005

When Postcards Were A Penny

In a land far away and a time long ago you could mail a postcard for a penny. Penny Postcards has scanned images of penny postcards from 50 states. This one is a mining scene from Atlanta, Idaho:

mining.jpg


Via Pacific Views.

Posted by Steve on April 4, 2005 | Comments (3)

April 2, 2005

Reading Assignment - Economics

The April 2005 issue of Econ Watch Journal is now online for your reading pleasure.

Posted by Steve on April 2, 2005

April 1, 2005

Marketing Intrusion...

I have a few words for this guy:

Mookie Tanembaum, founder and chief executive of United Virtualities, says the company is trying to help consumers by preventing them from deleting cookies that help website operators deliver better services.

"The user is not proficient enough in technology to know if the cookie is good or bad, or how it works," Tanembaum said.

Mookie, take a used hot poker and shove it where the sun don't shine.

We can make our own decisions about which cookies or other server generated markers we want to keep on our systems! For a fee I might consider letting you keep a few more markers on my system but you damn well better ask first.

I'm rather perturbed that I now have to spend time learning how to configure Flash Player to kill off the stuff ol' mookie is trying to spawn and then propogating that accross all the family systems.

Posted by Steve on April 1, 2005 | Comments (2)

Finally a Reason....

...to consider getting an MP3 player: Feynman lectures on Physics.

Let's see, what might a Friday random 10 might look like:

  1. Brownian Movement
  2. Ferromagnetism
  3. Spin One Half
  4. The Hamiltonian Matix
  5. Transients
  6. Conservation of Energy
  7. Inside Dielectrics
  8. Space-Time
  9. Symmetry and Conservation Laws
  10. The Harmonic Oscillator

For the visually inclined there are also PDFs.

Via S. Y. Affolee.

Posted by Steve on April 1, 2005 | Comments (2)

Friday Ark

Cats, Dogs, Spiders and ? every Friday.

I'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals as I see them (photoshops at my discretion and humans only in supporting roles).

Leave a comment or trackback to this post or email me and I'll add yours to the list. Check back regularly for updates throughout the day on Fridays and somewhat less frequently over the weekend.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and will be hosted this week by CathColl.net.

And, check out Laurence's fine graphical analysis of Friday Ark boardings.

Archive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther VertebratesDidn't Make ItExceptions inclusion not guaranteed

Posted by Steve on April 1, 2005 | Comments (22)