February 28, 2006

Overgrazing the Canadian Commons

In Canada, and needing surgery? You might be better off to be a dog:

Accepting money from patients for operations they would otherwise receive free of charge in a public hospital is technically prohibited in this country, even in cases where patients would wait months or even years before receiving treatment.

But no one is about to arrest Dr. Brian Day, who is president and medical director of the center, or any of the 120 doctors who work there. Public hospitals are sending him growing numbers of patients they are too busy to treat, and his center is advertising that patients do not have to wait to replace their aching knees.

The country's publicly financed health insurance system — frequently described as the third rail of its political system and a core value of its national identity — is gradually breaking down. Private clinics are opening around the country by an estimated one a week, and private insurance companies are about to find a gold mine.

Dr. Day, for instance, is planning to open more private hospitals, first in Toronto and Ottawa, then in Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton. Ontario provincial officials are already threatening stiff fines. Dr. Day says he is eager to see them in court.

"We've taken the position that the law is illegal," Dr. Day, 59, says. "This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years."

This is not an unexpected result when the commons is overgrazed and free riders multiply. Heck, this is the expected result of any government program.

Via Hit & Run.

Posted by Steve on February 28, 2006

Home Vetinarian: Medicating Your Cat

If you have ever given your cat a pill you know how true the instruction set linked below is; if you haven't then you should read these instructions closely before trying; and if you are contemplating inviting a cat into your household, well, ponder these instructions before finalizing the invitation:

1) Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

Pretty straight forward, right? Well, you are not quite done!

Posted by Steve on February 28, 2006

Tossing Out the Internet Taliban

BoingBoing asks:

Why spend money on bad technology that doesn't work?
With respect to SmartFilter* and other filtering companies the only good answer is don't! We should all assist in the effort to keep dialogue, conversation and the free flow of information available to all.

It is not just BoingBoing that is being blocked or filtered by these systems. There is a very high liklihood that your blog is also on their lists. I know Modulator shows up on at least some censoring systems. In our local library system only those with the specially requested adult access privileges are able to read Modulator.

Here is BoingBoing's Guide to Defeating Censorware. Use needed, spread the link far and wide, and send BoinbBoing your latest techniques.

Via Defense Technology.

*No link love from here for those who aid and abet the internet taliban.

Posted by Steve on February 28, 2006

Gooey, Squishy, Articulated, Fluttery and, Well, Spineless

Now I know why there weren't many invertebrates on last Friday's Ark! They were getting ready for the party over at Science and Politics!*

Go have a ball with all the other partiers at the 6th Circus of the Spineless.

*Of course this is not an excuse to not have spent the weekend on the Ark warming up for the big month end gala at the Circus.

Posted by Steve on February 28, 2006

February 27, 2006

You Are What You Eat

We are not quite as restrained at Modulator as they are at Marginal Revolution. Here are a few quotes from this article cited by Tyler in his ongoing Markets for Everything series

:....there is no polite way of describing Guo-li-zhuang.

Situated in an elegantly restored house beside Beijing's West Lake, it is China's first speciality penis restaurant.

They aren't kidding. You will want to examine closely the photograph depicting:
A dish combining the male organs of an ox and a snake
Is there more to this than just being very exotic?
"This is my third visit," said one customer, Liu Qiang. "Of course, there are other restaurants that serve the bian of individual animals. But this is the first that brings them all together."
....
In China, you are what you eat, and The Daily Telegraph's nutritionist, Zhu Yan, said the clients were mainly men eager to improve their yang, or virility.

Yep, kill enough animals, eat the right parts and you can really be a dick.

Posted by Steve on February 27, 2006

Blogging Malcom Gladwell

Lynn Kiesling comments:

There are a few people whose trenchant observations make me more productive, and he's high on the list.
Productive, as we know, can be taken in a couple different ways.

So whether you violently agree or violently disagree with Malcom Gladwell (yea, your state could change regularly) his blog should provide plenty of blog fodder for you.


Posted by Steve on February 27, 2006

February 26, 2006

Kitty Skritchin' Time

The 101st Carnival of the Cats is up at animal family. Go skritch'm!

Posted by Steve on February 26, 2006

February 24, 2006

Friday Ark #75

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

We will add your post to the list if you do one of the following:

  • Leave a comment or trackback to this post,

  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,

  • Email Modulator or

  • Our extensive staff finds it during our weekly search of the web

Of course, if our staff goes on strike then we will link only those posts someone tells us about. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (48 shouts as of 02/23)

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 the 101ft edition will be hosted this week by My Animal Family. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 17th edition edition is up and hosted by the Wild Bird On The Fly. The 18th edition will be hosted by The Bird Chaser on 3/2. Get your submissions in!

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The fifth edition is up at Pharyngula. The 6th edition is scheduled for February 28 and will be hosted by Science and Politics. You've got time to get those submissions sent in!

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther VertebratesIn MemoriamDidn't Make ItExceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users: Haloscan started (the end of July) rejecting trackbacks if they were submitted "too rapidly" by the same host. I don't know what the timer is but it is long enough so that it was very difficult to ping everyone that is using Haloscan for trackbacks. I'm sure that they are doing this to try to hold back the tide of trackback spam but it makes the service pretty useless for carnival type posts. Perhaps you can contact them and urge some different solution. Update: Typepad appears to be doing the same thing. Everytime I update the Ark it appears the timers are reset and the long list of MT autogenerated pings fail. Yecchhhh....

Posted by Steve on February 24, 2006 | Comments (13)

February 23, 2006

Was It Sedition?

Eugene Volokh thinks not.

But isn't sedition an appropriate activity for everyone?

Posted by Steve on February 23, 2006

Good Riddance!

At least part of this is happening correctly (Reg):

A Florida sheriff ordered the closing of a boot camp for young offenders Wednesday as the investigation into the death of a 14-year-old detainee widened and critics demanded all such facilities in the state be shut down.

In early January, Martin Lee Anderson died after an altercation with guards at the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp in Panama City, in the Panhandle. A surveillance camera videotape, made public last week, shows the guards dragging the limp boy around the grounds, kneeing and striking him several times.

Camp officials said Anderson, who had just arrived, was uncooperative when ordered to do push-ups, sit-ups and other exercises. He died the next day in a Pensacola hospital.

But more is needed. As I previously argued that sheriff and everyone else up hill from this thuggery need to be fired and have heavy restitution to pay.

Posted by Steve on February 23, 2006 | Comments (1)

Animalcules On Point

The Carnival of the Animalcules vol. 1.2 is up at Aetiology.

Get your dose of biofilm, circadian rhythms, herpes viruses and more.

Posted by Steve on February 23, 2006

Don't Give Up Your Fingerprints Lightly

Would you trust your school with your fingerprints?

The Iowa Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would allow the use of fingerprint scanners in school lunch lines.

Sen. Frank Wood, D-Eldridge, led the support for the bill, arguing that it gives schools useful options for managing their lunch programs. The measure passed 40-9.

Parents would have to approve their children using the scanners, which would replace tickets or cards for participants. The fingerprint record would be required to be erased once a student no longer attends the school.

This is one to which all parents should just say no.

Apparently more traditional methods of payment will be available so just use'm.. There is no justification for the use of what should be very private biometrics to buy a school lunch. these programs have been easily managed with cash, tickets and cards for years.

On the other hand, why the heck does it take legislative approval to approve business practices within a school system. One of the huge problems today is legislative micromanagement in all aspects of our society.

Both are reasons to keep your kids out of public schools or, for that matter, any other schools based on the same herd the cattle model.

Posted by Steve on February 23, 2006

February 22, 2006

Carnival Time

For your educational enjoyment:

Check for more carnivals at:

Posted by Steve on February 22, 2006

Already Holding Pens

Some private myth focused schools are busy looking for dupes in Pennsylvania about which Myers says:

That's 777 students getting a sub-standard education in the sciences, and $4,083,200 getting flushed down a rathole. It's an odd situation, where the wealthy yank their kids out of the public schools and put them in an expensive pit of ignorance by choice, and at the same time fight to underfund the public education they've abandoned and turn the schools the poor and middle class rely on into holding pens. We all lose.
No quibbles with the first part of the above and a couple with the latter part.

First, if it is the wealthy that are sending their kids to these private myth based indoctrination centers then we can expect that the wealth will disappear. The kids thus trained will not have any skills beyond the use of force to retain their privileged position.

Second, it is not a matter of turning the public schools into holding pens. That is what they have been for the last century. Luckily some kids do well in spite of the system and go on to be successful professionals and scientists. But for all students, especially the 60 to 70 % who do not achieve basic proficiency in reading, math, science or writing skills, the public school system is and has been little more than a set of holding pens, glorified and overcrowded day care centers.

As an education system public schools are a dramatic failure and need to be completely redone.

Posted by Steve on February 22, 2006

February 21, 2006

Catallarchy Writer Supports government Expansion....

...the nation and blog readers die of shock.

A writer at the noted libertarian oriented site Catallarchy posts this headline and statement:

Bush Supports Free Trade; Nation Dies of Shock

Regardless of any backroom deals and ulterior motives that may have led to it, Bush’s support of Dubai’s bid for P&O is good news.
Perhaps Sean has posted this somewhat tongue in cheek but the post doesn't read that way.

So, please explain how the expansion of a government owned business in any way qualifies as free trade.

Update: Sean was good enough to reply in comments. Below the fold is his reply and my responses. We still disagree on some aspects of this.

Sean: Free trade is about allowing people to trade with whomever they want.

Steve: Agreed.

Sean: This is not a campaign by Congress to wipe out socialism, and agreeing with them because you don't like socialism will only hurt the cause of free trade because it gives Congress an excuse to put their noses into any deal they want.

Steve: Agreed. The related congressional actions are not in any way motivated by the idea of enhancing freedom. It's not the nature of the beast. I do not agree with either their or the president's involvement in these kind of decisions. The very fact that congress and the president are involved argues against the idea that free trade is involved.

Sean: I don't like the idea of state-owned firms any more than you do, but Dubai happens to be one of the freest places on the planet, not just in the middle east.

Steve: Dubai City may be one of the freest place on the planet but that does not take away from the fact that the company in question is owned by the government of the United Arab Emerites. Or that it is trying to do business with government operated ports in the US.

Sean: This is more of a "family owned" business where the family just happens to be royal in nature.

Steve: Sean, you are right to put the quotes around "family owned." The royal family and the goverment look to be pretty much the same.

Sean: The Dubai royal family hardly has the ability to use force in the US any more than any other powerful family or firm. They have significantly less power here than, say, Microsoft or McDonalds or Wal Mart.

Steve: Sure, they and their company do not have the ability to use force in the US except to the extent that US laws provide that capability to other companies. That really doesn't seem to be relevant. Dubai Ports World is still a government owned entity and the proposed project is to manage government operated ports in the US. Get governments out of both ends of this deal, i.e., make it a matter of people either individually or in freely formed partnerships negotiating a deal with each other then I don't care where the participants are from. This is not the case here.

Sean: I don't really give a crap if they happen to hold a monopoly on force in Dubai, especially since they choose to allow places in Dubai where Dubai law doesn't even apply and things are run by English common law instead.

Steve: This doesn't really change the nature of the participants in this arrangement. Both ends are government created entities. Your really talking about free trade between governments not between free individuals or partnerships thereof.

Posted by Steve on February 21, 2006 | Comments (1)

Stuff

Blogging block has been in full operation over the last couple days.

I don't know how some folks can keep so focused on detailing the ongoing failures, mistakes and lies of the bushies. I've looked at the titles of many hundreds of posts over the past few days (thank goodness for RSS) and rest assured if they had anything to do with the ongoing bush debacle I hit the delete button.

This was, of course, the key reason to vote for fresh meat in the last presidential election: bush and his minions/handlers, though extremely dangerous to us all, were getting very boring and remain so. Especially as they start replaying some of the same scripts.

It would have been a pleasure to have a dem or even a different repub to chew over for a few years. Yes, there would have been plenty to chew on if a dem had been elected. Different bones, perhaps, but still plenty to chew on.

One idea that I noticed in some of the post titles that is important to all, no matter your political leaning, is the idea of local activity. You can blog all you want but if you are not out working the issues in your local community, county and state then you may as well be spinnng your wheels in the mud. This is key whether you are a dem, repub, green or lib.

It is critical if you are independent. Get out, work your issues and persuade folks to leave the established parties. They and their candidates do not represent you. They represent interests that likely have no interest in your local community or state.

For those of you who understand the importance of disintermediating the current political establishment local activity is mandatory. Without it how will you define and create the replacement non-political institutuions? More on this from time to time in future.

Well, that shook out a bit of the blockage.

Posted by Steve on February 21, 2006

February 20, 2006

Internet: Stop, Caution, Beware, JFGI

Here's a set of nifty Warning Signs for the Web. Some of our regulars might consider this one more a beckoning than a warning:

cat-photos-ahead.gif

Posted by Steve on February 20, 2006

Good Writing

Whether you are writing Wicked Good Papers or just another blog post these slightly twisted rules will help. For example:

Avoid cliches like the plague.

Via Newmark's Door.

Posted by Steve on February 20, 2006

February 19, 2006

Carnival of the Cats #100

The 100th edition of the Carnival of the Cats> is up at Blogging Outloud where Lyn says:

Bienvenidos al 100th Carnival de los Gatos!

Posted by Steve on February 19, 2006

Conflating Creation Myths With Understanding

This question and answer session might be ok if it were couched in terms of understanding a work of literature or historical fiction:

They are trailing Rusty Carter, a guide with Biblically Correct Tours. At a large, colorful panel along a wall, Carter reads aloud from a passage describing the disappearance of dinosaurs from the earth about 65 million years ago. He and some of the older students exchange knowing smiles at the timeline, which contradicts their interpretation the Bible suggesting a 6,000-year-old planet.

``Did man and dinosaurs live together?'' Carter asks. A timid yes comes from the students.

``How do we know that to be true?'' Carter says. There's a long pause.

``What day did God create dinosaurs on?'' he continues.

``Six,'' says a chorus of voices.

``What day did God create man on?''

``Six.''

``Did man and dinosaurs live together?''

``Yes,'' the students say.

Mission accomplished for Carter, who has been leading such tours since 1988. He and the other guides counter secular interpretations of history, nature and the origin of life with their own literal reading of the Bible. And they do so right at the point where they feel they feel science indoctrinates young people -- museums.

In the context in which it is presented, though, it is fraudulent and, perhaps, borders on child abuse.

Update (2/20): Myers is right that it is time to go on the offensive:

This is an excellent example of a place where the public and scientists and our institutions ought to be going on the offensive: when one of these tour groups goes through, and some biblical studies major babbles stupidly and misstates a scientific fact, everyone around him should turn around and shout, for the benefit of the group, "THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

Update 2 (2/20): Kieren Healy recommends some related reading.

Posted by Steve on February 19, 2006

February 18, 2006

Learning the Long Known

Apparently these researchers have never attended a typical school:

Obese grade-school children are more likely to be the targets of bullying than their leaner peers are, a UK study suggests.

Researchers found that among more than 8,000 7-year-olds, obese boys and girls were about 50 percent more likely to be bullied over the next year than their normal-weight classmates.

On the other hand, obese boys were also more inclined to describe themselves as bullies.

The article goes on to describe behavior that is pretty obvious to anyone who has attended a grade school. Of course, they have an astute recommendation:
So besides the long-term physical health consequences of obesity, the researchers conclude, many overweight children may also face the psychological and social effects of bullying.

"This study suggests that parents, school personnel, and health professionals need to reduce the occurrence of this behavior and the social marginalisation of obese children at an early age," they write.

But, there is nothing in the Reuter's article that indicates that the researchers made any recommendation as to how to achieve this reduction. So I will: simply stop sending children to these institutions.

Posted by Steve on February 18, 2006

February 17, 2006

Friday Ark #74

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

We will add your post to the list if you do one of the following:

  • Leave a comment or trackback to this post,

  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,

  • Email Modulator or

  • Our extensive staff finds it during our weekly search of the web

Of course, if our staff goes on strike then we will link only those posts someone tells us about. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (48 shouts as of 02/16)

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 the 100th edition will be hosted this week by Bloggin Out Loud. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 17th edition edition is up and hosted by the Wild Bird On The Fly.

New for the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The fifth edition is up at Pharyngula. The 6th edition is scheduled for February 28 and will be hosted by Science and Politics.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

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

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users: Haloscan started (the end of July) rejecting trackbacks if they were submitted "too rapidly" by the same host. I don't know what the timer is but it is long enough so that it was very difficult to ping everyone that is using Haloscan for trackbacks. I'm sure that they are doing this to try to hold back the tide of trackback spam but it makes the service pretty useless for carnival type posts. Perhaps you can contact them and urge some different solution. Update: Typepad appears to be doing the same thing. Everytime I update the Ark it appears the timers are reset and the long list of MT autogenerated pings fail. Yecchhhh....

Posted by Steve on February 17, 2006 | Comments (20)

February 16, 2006

Illusions and Paradoxs

What they say: ...visual perception cannot alway be trusted.

Poke around the site. They have other cool and interesting things as well, e.g., puzzles and brain teasers:

A bear walks south for one kilometer, then it walks west for one kilometer, then it walks north for one kilometer and ends up at the same point from which it started. What color was the bear?

Via medGadget

Posted by Steve on February 16, 2006

Thieves Steal A Record Amount In Washington

Well, that's Washington State not DC where there are undoubtably also record amounts being stolen.

In Washington State thieves and thugs stole a record $270 million dollars of one crop in 2005. The sad thing is that they are not being brought to justice:

The 135,323 marijuana plants seized in 2005 were estimated to be worth $270 million -- a record amount that places the crop among the state's top 10 agricultural commodities, based on the most recent statistics available.

And like any agricultural product, marijuana is very much a commodity, Lt. Rich Wiley, who heads the Washington State Patrol narcotics program, said Wednesday.

"We're struck by the amount of work they put into it," Wiley said. "It's very labor-intensive. They often run individual drip lines to each plant and are out there fertilizing them. It takes a tremendous amount of work."

But the results are worth the effort, said Wiley, who coordinates pot busts with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and local law enforcement agencies. A single plant can produce as much as a pound of processed marijuana, worth about $2,000, he said.

If the current elected governments will not protect our right as free human beings to engage in voluntary exchange with other free human beings then it is time to put in place institutions that will.

Posted by Steve on February 16, 2006

It's A Festival

Fly in and join the rest of the revelers at I and the Bird #17 hosted by Wild Bird on the Fly.

Posted by Steve on February 16, 2006

February 15, 2006

Just Imagine

Brad DeLong once again reprints what he calls the best weblog post ever, by Belle Waring in which Belle notes:

Now, everyone close your eyes and try to imagine a private, profit-making rights-enforcement organization which does not resemble the mafia, a street gang, those pesky fire-fighters/arsonists/looters who used to provide such "services" in old New York and Tokyo, medieval tax-farmers, or a Lendu militia.
Yep, just like your federal, state and local governments.

NB: DeLong also points out the dangers of Linkrot.

Posted by Steve on February 15, 2006

Valentine Personals

Make your love connection at Grand Rounds (Vol. 2, No. 21).

Posted by Steve on February 15, 2006

Bill Maher...

I've enjoyed some of his performances over the years. Sometimes, though, he's just a...

...Wanker.

Posted by Steve on February 15, 2006

February 14, 2006

Typical Government Waste

This one crosses democratic and republican administrations:

The financial costs to the U.S. military for discharging and replacing gay service members under the nation's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are nearly twice what the government estimated last year, with taxpayers covering at least $364 million in associated funds over the policy's first decade, according to a University of California report scheduled for release today.
Its a stupid, wasteful policy. But then that's what governments do.

Via The Carpetbagger report via Norwegianity.

Posted by Steve on February 14, 2006

The dems Dig Their Own Grave

It would be great if these responses to Hackett's announcement from Ohio are but the start of a tidal wave.

The only thing better for the US than the dissolution of the political parties would be the dissolution of the federal governement. As long as we are burdened by it we might as well move ahead to a time when our congressional critters represent the people who elect them and not a state party clique or crooked national level fund raisers.

Independent or not at all!

Posted by Steve on February 14, 2006

Compare and Contrast

I suspect that to the extent these two new reading assignments discuss the same issues they just might diverge a bit:


2006 Economic Report of the President

State of the World 2006

Whether they diverge or not they both contain plenty of fodder for discussion.

Posted by Steve on February 14, 2006

February 13, 2006

cheney's Kind of World

Let's just kill stuff or warming up for this past weekend's hunting.

Don't you all feel so much safer now!

Via Pharyngula

Update: Via Fergie I see that

Feb. 13, 2006 - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced today that his department would immediately implement a “Cheney Alert” system to warn Americans if an attack by the vice president is imminent.
And, to ensure that the alert system will not be needed bush has sent cheney far away.

Posted by Steve on February 13, 2006

Torture and Murder in Florida

If this is true, if these six to eight thugs are guilty of this behavior, then more than an investigation is required:

Two state lawmakers, Sen. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami Beach, and Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, who viewed a videotape of the incident, said that six to eight officers at times kicked, punched and choked the boy in their efforts to get him to perform exercises. A nurse apparently stood by without rendering assistance, Rep. Gelber said.
How is this different from torture? A complete housecleaning is in order.

First, there can be no excuse for apparently having a policy in place that allows physical assault and battery, torture, as a persuasive tool. Not in the United States, not anywhere.

Second, this incident probably only became an issue because of the death. How many other have been kicked, punched, choked and more? Each incident deserves to be brought to light and the perpetrators brought to justice.

Third, Those who approved these policies should not be relieved of responsibility. Are there sheriffs, mayors, even governors that need to be brought to trial.

Last, but not least: the victims and their families deserve restitution. Something more than just jail time for the perpetrators, high and low. For the family of the dead 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson the perpetrators owe at minimum the equivalent of 60-70 years income.

Posted by Steve on February 13, 2006

Ain't Love Grand?

The 99th Carnival of the Cats is up at Watermark.

Posted by Steve on February 13, 2006

February 12, 2006

Eagles Basking in the Sun

This pair spent a substantial part of the afternoon hanging out in the tot of this tree:

Click for a larger view (411 KB)

Posted by Steve on February 12, 2006

Firefox Instability

Firefox has crashed 4 or 5 times in the few weeks since I upgraded to 1.5.0.1 which is 4 or 5 more crashes than in the previous year.

What's goin' on?

Posted by Steve on February 12, 2006 | Comments (4)

February 11, 2006

On Attracting Readers

While discussing why he blogs and the relation of blogging to traditional media Dave Neiwert says:

Actually, the function in the old communications model that bloggers come closest to replicating is that of the editor -- not in the sense of being an overseer of writing and reportorial quality, but in setting priorities: deciding which stories are important and deserve greater attention, ascertaining which stories are reported upon.

A good blogger is not so much a journalist as a good editor (and remember, most editors are writers too). A blog is thus a kind of publication, and it attracts readers according to the quality of insight its editor brings to it.

My first reaction was to think in terms of quantity of readers. Then I relealized there was more to it than quantity. Some attract readers based on the quality of insight alone; others based on a combination of quality and quantity of content and still others based on quantity and a quality of insight calculated to attract various sects of true believers.

All of which leads to realizing that the quality of a blogs readers are directly related to the quality of the editorial insight and the editorial goal. We can all point out blogs that attract lots of readers because the editor had the insight to focus the content on a particular ideological orientation, sport or hobby. Nothing wrong with this but it seems to be something more than what Neiwert is suggesting.

Do read the rest of his interesting post.

Posted by Steve on February 11, 2006

February 10, 2006

Friday Ark #73

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

We will add your post to the list if you do one of the following:

  • Leave a comment or trackback to this post,

  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,

  • Email Modulator or

  • Our extensive staff finds it during our weekly search of the web

Of course, if our staff goes on strike then we will link only those posts someone tells us about. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (48 shouts as of 02/09)

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 the 99th edition will be hosted this week by Watermark. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 16th edition edition is up and hosted by the Dharma Bums.

New for the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The fifth edition is up at Pharyngula. The 6th edition is scheduled for February 28 and will be hosted by Science and Politics.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther VertebratesIn MemoriamDidn't Make It
Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users: Haloscan started (the end of July) rejecting trackbacks if they were submitted "too rapidly" by the same host. I don't know what the timer is but it is long enough so that it was very difficult to ping everyone that is using Haloscan for trackbacks. I'm sure that they are doing this to try to hold back the tide of trackback spam but it makes the service pretty useless for carnival type posts. Perhaps you can contact them and urge some different solution. Update: Typepad appears to be doing the same thing. Everytime I update the Ark it appears the timers are reset and the long list of MT autogenerated pings fail. Yecchhhh....

Posted by Steve on February 10, 2006 | Comments (14)

February 9, 2006

Candidates for NSA Surveillance

These folks want to end the world and don't seem bashful about saying so (reg):

Pastors of some of the largest evangelical churches in America met Tuesday in Inglewood to polish strategies for starting 5 million new churches worldwide in 10 years — an effort they hope will hasten the End Time.
Just what are the bushies doing to stop this conspiracy?
In an interview at Faith Central Bible Church in Inglewood, James Davis, president of the campaign, said, "Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples to go to the ends of the Earth and tell everyone how they could achieve eternal life.

"As we advance around the world, we'll be shortening the time needed to fulfill that great commission," he said. "Then, the Bible says, the end will come."

They would do better to donate their money to this effort to achieve eternal life.

Posted by Steve on February 9, 2006

Zoom in on the Wee Beasties

The inaugral edition of Animalcules is up at Aetiology!

There's lot's of good writing there and I hope, in future editions, that more of the posts will have accompanying pics of the wee beasties.

Posted by Steve on February 9, 2006

What's Your House Worth?

Try out Zillow.com.

I asked it about my street and in less than 30 seconds it has popped up estimated values for my street and about 40 more houses surrounding us. You'll quibble with the values because, well, your house is obviously worth much more than that house next door.

Quibbles aside, this site provides a wealth of pricing information, trends, comparables and the opportunity to fine tune the estimated value of any property. What it is missing is the expert eye of an appraiser assessing a properties current condition.

More info here and a this update:

Six hours after Zillow.com, a Seattle-based Web site that offers free home valuations, launched its beta version Wednesday, the site crashed under the onslaught of 300,000 page views. It was out for several hours.

"What caught us by surprise is how much people used it and how deeply they used it," company spokeswoman Amy Bohutinsky said.

The Zillow Blog has updates and lots of folks are reporting on how it worked for them.

Even though they are still in beta using the service will be well worth your time if you are buying or selling residential real estate.

Posted by Steve on February 9, 2006

February 8, 2006

A Benefit of High Profile Blogging

Hate Mail!

I'm not at all envious of the hate mail.

Posted by Steve on February 8, 2006 | Comments (2)

Report to the South Dakota Legislature

If this bill becomes law in South Dakota:

HB1222 would require each institution under control of the Board of Regents to report annually to the Legislature "on steps the institution is taking to ensure intellectual diversity and the free exchange of ideas." It defines intellectual diversity as "the foundation of a learning environment that exposes students to a variety of political, ideological and other perspectives."
Then an appropriate report might be:
This institution supports a learning environment that exposes students to a variety of politcal, ideological and other perspectives. End.
Stupid legislatures deserve appropriate responses. They might, though, actually read a report that is this short.

As to the long list of 'may includes' I suggest the institutions interpret the 'may' exactly and ignore the list.

Via Instapundit who apparently thinks this silliness is a good idea though he is a bit more cryptic than usual. On the other hand he may be using the word moving to suggest a movement.

Posted by Steve on February 8, 2006

February 7, 2006

Carnival of the Animalcules

Oh, this will be fun!

Tara Smith, proprietess of Aetiology, is kicking off a new Carnival this Thursday:

One, the post must focus on a microbe--bacteria, parasite, virus, fungus, etc. Prokaryotic or eukaryotic, we don't discriminate. The posts can be light-hearted or serious, research-heavy stuff.
Lots of these little tykes board the Friday Ark every week and we just don't pay enough attention to them.

If you have submissions get them in and, submission or not, plan on a fun read this Thursday and every other Thursday following.

Posted by Steve on February 7, 2006

Helping Folks Choose a Hospital

If you are on Medicare and need certain procedures performed you might be better off to choose a highly ranked hospital (Free Reg):

A health-care rating company here said today that patients treated at hospitals that receive its top ranking have a 27% lower risk of dying during their hospital stay.

Moreover, according to HealthGrades, which compiles quality report cards on hospitals and doctors and sells those reports to consumers, patients treated at its top-ranked hospitals also have a 14% lower risk of complications.

HealthGrades used the Medicare discharge records from 2002, 2003 and 2004 to rank hospitals based on overall performance of risk-adjusted outcomes associated with 26 common Medicare inpatient procedures and diagnoses.

But why does the MedPage Today Action Point (included with each MedPage article) say this?
Explain to patients who ask that HealthGrades is a private company. Its rankings system is not sanctioned by federal or state government.
Does this mean that we should find the ranking system more trustworthy? That is certainly the way I interpret this. The staff writer and reviewer could have done a bit better.

Most of HealthGrades' rankings are based on Medicare patients so it is not clear that the results can be extended to younger patients though I'd certainly use this information to help with such decisions.

BTW, where is the google of health care? We need rating and evaluation systems that lets us, the consumers, evaluate hospital and individual physicians based on fees, performance and customer ratings.

Posted by Steve on February 7, 2006

gonzales Exaggerates!

...but about what?

Posted by Steve on February 7, 2006

bush budget Calls for Medicare Cuts,,,,

....or a massive spending increase?

Posted by Steve on February 7, 2006 | Comments (1)

February 6, 2006

NSA Hearing Scope Too Narrow?

Orin Kerr picks up on something that's been nagging at me today as I listened to the judicial committee hearings. There is a lot more going on than the particular program that seemed to be the focus of today's hearings:

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the AG's testimony is his suggestion, made at various places, that there are other classified telecommunications surveillance programs beyond FISA and the NSA program.
If these focus at all on domestic surveillance without warrants then they need to be brought out into the light of day.

Oh yea, wasn't gonzalez adept at saying nothing! But did anyone expect anything different?

Posted by Steve on February 6, 2006 | Comments (3)

A Lot Of Chatter Going On?

Dave Sifry of Technorati published Part I of his latest State of the Blogosphere series. Some data points:

  • Technorati now tracks over 27.2 Million blogs
  • The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months
  • It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
  • On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
  • 13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
  • Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

My, do we chatter a lot.

Posted by Steve on February 6, 2006

February 5, 2006

Super Bowl of Catblogging

The 98th Edition of the Carnival of the Cats is up at Enrevenche...

Wow, Barry has over 60 enries this edition!

Posted by Steve on February 5, 2006

Superbowl Halftime: Jagger's What....

I really enjoyed the Stone's performance!

However I'm still chuckling over this....

Posted by Steve on February 5, 2006

Congratulations to Pittsburg and the MVP...

...the zebras.

Posted by Steve on February 5, 2006 | Comments (1)

GO SEAHAWKS!!

'nuff said.

Posted by Steve on February 5, 2006

February 4, 2006

Test

testing....I've been having trouble updating yesterday's Friday Ark and want to see whether this posts ok before opening a ticket at MT.

Note: This saved fine. Now to publish.

Update: Now testing updating published post.

Posted by Steve on February 4, 2006 | Comments (1)

February 3, 2006

Friday Ark #72

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

We will add your post to the list if you do one of the following:

  • Leave a comment or trackback to this post,

  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,

  • Email Modulator or

  • Our extensive staff finds it during our weekly search of the web

Of course, if our staff goes on strike then we will link only those posts someone tells us about. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (46 shouts as of 02/02)

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 the 97th edition will be hosted this week by Enrevanche. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 16th edition edition is up and hosted by the Dharma Bums.

New for the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The fifth edition is up at Pharyngula. The 6th edition is scheduled for February 28 and will be hosted by Science and Politics.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

The Best So Far, Blog Awards, January 2006: Hey now, head on over and lay down 1, 2 or 3 or your votes in the best Pet Blog category for Modulator and the Friday Ark!!!

Update: Well, our friend Laurence, Ringmaster of the Carnival of the Cats, has joined the MSM! Check out the Houston Chronicle’s Catcall!

Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther VertebratesIn Memoriam
Didn't Make ItExceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page and The TTLB Uber Carnival


Note for Haloscan Users: Haloscan started (the end of July) rejecting trackbacks if they were submitted "too rapidly" by the same host. I don't know what the timer is but it is long enough so that it was very difficult to ping everyone that is using Haloscan for trackbacks. I'm sure that they are doing this to try to hold back the tide of trackback spam but it makes the service pretty useless for carnival type posts. Perhaps you can contact them and urge some different solution. Update: Typepad appears to be doing the same thing. Everytime I update the Ark it appears the timers are reset and the long list of MT autogenerated pings fail. Yecchhhh....

Posted by Steve on February 3, 2006 | Comments (18)

February 2, 2006

End The War Now!

As Ron says:

While the war in Iraq may outrageous there is another war that is equally outrageous and is truly bi-partisan, the war on drugs.
And Anthony Gregory frames this abomination as we all should:
The drug war is misdirected. It is foolish. It is stupid, unworkable, disastrous, tragic and sad. But beyond all that it is evil.

The drug war is grounded in an evil premise: that people do not own their bodies, that they have no right to control what they do with their own lives and their own property, that it is appropriate to lock them in cages if they produce, distribute or consume chemicals in defiance of the state.

This is a monstrosity. As long as America has the drug war, it is not a free country. Politicians who support it and expand it, knowing the evils it entails, have no business lecturing us on morality.

The ideology of the war on drugs is the ideology of totalitarianism, of communism, of fascism and of slavery. In practice, it has made an utter mockery of the rule of law and the often-spouted idea that America is the freest country on earth.

Read the rest and then consider just how you will start standing up to the jackboots of the drug war. How you will help lead them to their Nuremberg and there is no excuse for any of the drug thugs be they presidents, senators, governors, mayors, narcs, prosecutors, swat teams, etc. They should all know better.

They are all guilty of crimes against humanity.

Posted by Steve on February 2, 2006 | Comments (1)

The End of the 'Best Of' Discs?

Ann Althouse asks the vital question:

Should we care if iTunes is killing the marking for "best of" music collections?
My immediate response I don't care if best of collections fade into history. I don't buy them.

Let's, though, take this as a serious question and read the linked article. We need only read part way down the first page to see that Ann's question distorts the article which posits a hypothetical question:

What if fans who might have paid for a full album of "the very best" of an established act instead choose to pay substantially less and simply buy the very, very best song?
And, after discussing various aspects of the question they get to this:
In many instances, however, record executives say online sales do not appear to be hurting their best sellers.
It appears that for, at least the folks with a substantive set of work, the best ofs will be successful for some time more. And, if a one/two hit wonder's best of sales plummet to zero, well, great! This is as it should be and the saved money will be spent on something else.

Creative destruction in action.

Posted by Steve on February 2, 2006

One Day of Peace and Birds

Enjoy the Birdstock virtual concert at I and the Bird #16 hosted by the Dharma Bums.

Posted by Steve on February 2, 2006

alito's First Action

I'll admit to raising an eyebrow a bit when I saw this:

Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.
Granted that one vote does not a career or trend make but if you listened closely to a lot of the folks who opposed alito you'd almost think he was carrying a scythe himself.

I'll be interested to read the reaction at Talkleft which had quite a few posts reporting on alito and the death penalty.

There's more at Scotusblog.

Via Gary Farber.

Posted by Steve on February 2, 2006

February 1, 2006

Taxing the Constitution

I wonder just why these folks think this will pass constitutional muster(reg):

The governor's tax-reform commission is considering a new state business tax of around 1 percent on the gross income or gross receipts of all corporations and partnerships on their business in Texas, the panel's chairman said Tuesday.
Pretty standard looking at first glance, but check out this next bit:
"If you're out of state and you sell products in Texas but you manufacture those products in California, you're going to pay higher taxes than if you had built a plant in Texas and hired people in Texas," he said. "If all your buildings and employees are sitting up in Chicago, you're going to pay more."
As noted in Granholm v Held:
(a) This Court has long held that, in all but the narrowest circumstances, state laws violate the Commerce Clause if they mandate “differential treatment of in-state and out-of-state economic interests that benefits the former and burdens the latter.” Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Ore., 511 U.S. 93, 99.

If this goes through as is it looks like it will make a few lawyers happy with their future work.

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2006

bush on Science

Yea, I know that bush can't make an intelligent statement on science but there are a lot of folks who probably nodded their heads knowingly when he spoke about bannng human cloning and more during last nights stump speach. For all of those and any of the rest of you who haven't found your way via /. PZ has a bit of science education:

These mice are a tool to help us understand a debilitating human problem.

George W. Bush would like to make them illegal.

He's trusting that everyone will think he is banning monstrous crimes against nature, but what he's really doing is targeting the weak and the ill, blocking useful avenues of research that are specifically designed to help us understand human afflictions. His message isn't "We aren't going to let the mad scientists make monsters!", it's "We aren't going to let the doctors help those 'retards.'"

Once again, the ignorance and the bigotry of the religious right wins out over reason and humanitarianism. I think I know who the real pig-men are.

Read it all!

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2006

Science Education For All

Tangled Bank Polytechnic Institute Spring Catalog (#46) is up for your edification.

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2006

bushco Must Be Very Envious

Where will all the freedom loving Brits move to?

Big Brother-style surveillance is growing on Britain's roads, where police will have the greatest ability in the world to scrutinise, control and record the movements of drivers by the end of the year.

Thousands of cameras reading vehicle number plates and comparing data with a central data base will analyse some 35 million pieces of information per day.

The data will be transmitted to the police and also MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence agency, to help in the hunt for suspected criminals or terrorists. It will be kept for two years, but the period may be extended to five years.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's centre-left government has invested some 15 million pounds (27 million dollars, 22 million euros) in the project this year.

"The plan is to deny criminals the use of the road," said retired police officer John Dean, who is coordinating the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) programme.

"We will combine our efforts in a national network which, we hope, will be active from May," Dean told AFP.

The entire country will be hooked up to the ANPR system between now and the end of 2006.

The network of cameras will automatically alert the authorities when it finds a car listed as stolen, with an out-of-date tax disk or a vehicle that is not insured.

The system also raises the alarm if it recognises there is an arrest warrant out for the driver of a vehicle. And it can be used simply to track the movement of a certain person who is of police interest.

You shouldn't feel all that secure in the US either. Surely you've noticed the increasing numbers of cams at intersections in your community...well, maybe only in larger cities. Once installed it is a relatively simple step to interface the imagery to a system similar to what the British are using.

Via Lew Rockwell.

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2006 | Comments (1)