A Big List of Shiny Things

It can't possibly be the worst political analogy ever

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:23:00 +0000

(Yes, it's taken me two weeks and change to actually start blogging. I will write about grooves and how to get into them later.)

As I watch Mitt Romney's poll numbers slowly sag in New Hampshire under the weight of the rest of the Republican field finally waking up and starting to attack their main opponent instead of each other, driving his numbers into Huntsman and "undecided", I am reminded of the meteorological phenomenon of the "cap", or capping inversion.

Now, I am not a meteorologist, but I think I get the basics enough to allow me to explain my abused analogy. Usually, in the atmosphere, the air near the ground is warmer than the air above it due to radiant heating from the sun on the ground and all us little humans and our quaint cities. This in turn rises as thermal updrafts, and we get clouds, wind, areas of high and low pressure and all sorts of good things. However, if there is a layer of warmer air on top of the air on the ground, it can create a capping inversion and stop that convective effect, since the air on the ground can't punch through the warmer air above it. If you remember back when the air in LA was orange, it was because the hot and dry (and therefore less dense) desert air is occasionally forced up and over the mountains into the Los Angeles basin and just sits there, capping even the mighty convective inversion that LA creates and trapping the exhaust in the city.

In a city, it's bad for your lungs, but in Tornado Alley, it's bad for your house. A capping inversion in the Midwest, particularly during tornado season, usually consists of a layer of hot and dry air sitting on top of the warm, and more importantly, very moist air flowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, and underneath a layer of very cold and dry air flowing down from the Rocky Mountains. Usually, the layer from the Gulf of Mexico rises while the layer from the Rocky Mountains falls, they combine and form the big thunderstorms that the Midwest is known for, but if a capping inversion is present, nothing happens. Clear blue skies for miles and miles, unless the instability in the atmosphere is high enough. If those two layers are extra cold and warm, they can produce enough force to punch through the capping inversion, and then the two extremes mix and produce thunderstorms that practically explode into existence. The most powerful thunderstorms can be produced this way, and this is where my analogy begins.

Right now, we're seeing a lot of atmospheric instability in the Republican Party. Moderates and establishment Republicans see the public backlash against the Tea Party and the Republican actions in Congress to cause gridlock and force through a radical right-wing agenda that the public doesn't want, and are trying to rein in the GOP base; they are our cold, dry air, desperate to get back to ground level and refocus on classical Goldwater and Reagan conservatism. The base of the party, having been spoon-fed paranoid anti-Democrat and anti-progressive news and opinions for the last thirty years, now completely believes that the radical swing to the right and the political brinkmanship of the Tea Party and other far-right politicians is not only the right way to go, but the only truly Republican standpoint; they are our warm, moist air, loaded with energy and ready to start making big changes.

And here comes Mitt Romney, our capping inversion. With his front-runner status in the polls from day one, he's very effectively prevented the explosion that the instability in the GOP would have predicted. He's palatable enough to the Republican elite and his policies are largely in line with their own, so they have no interest in using their might to break up Romney's campaign, while the base has been too busy fighting with each other to bother going after Romney as a motivated whole, which is the only thing that could create the force required to punch through. Over the primary campaign so far, that instability has only increased, with the near-almost-victory of Santorum in Iowa, the rise of Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney's continued inability to act like a real human being all contributing to both establishment GOP nerves about Romney's ability to draw enough of the base in to be effective, and both agitating and motivating the Republican base.

And now, with the "anyone but Romney" field slowly starting to narrow, the instability is only increasing. Santorum's rise to the top in less than a week is a classic example of the instability breaking through the "cap" of Romney's campaign in Iowa, and it looks like Huntsman is breaking through the cap as well in New Hampshire. What remains to be seen is if the metaphorical meteorological wet blanket of Mitt Romney's campaign can be broken through nation-wide before Romney's wins in the primaries start to dampen the base's dislike and bring the instability back down. I believe that it's going to be possible for a nation-wide break-through up until the Florida primary, but if someone can't get the job done by then, the odds are that the base will start to collapse and we'll see nothing but clear blue skies for Mitt Romney.

Because this will certainly be a good use of my time.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:22:00 +0000

In what must be a sure sign of a surfeit of free time, I have decided to take up blogging again, after yet another long absence from spraying the contents of my mind across a virtual page for the Google spider bots to enjoy. If future Internet archaeologists stumble upon this blog (don't think that won't be a real job), the "two weeks of mild activity followed by months of utter silence" pattern will surely indicate brief periods where I deluded myself into simultaneously thinking that I have enough time to maintain a routine posting schedule, that I have anything original or thought-provoking to say, and that someone, somewhere might care enough to read this crap. Sorry, Mom, family doesn't count. You get enough of my mouth as it is.

I have decided to keep the previous content on here, mostly because I believe that old shame should be seen, not hidden, and the old title stays, mostly because I suck at titles and until such a time that a more creative title that isn't already taken pops into my head, this one stays. Most of the stuff that ends up here will be about technology, politics or the video game industry, but some will diverge into the other cruft that I populate my free time with, like the automotive industry or TV or whatever else I feel that I need to say somewhere so I can purge it from my system. Since I have recently obtained my undergraduate degree (something that I will very likely be writing a post about reasonably soon), I should have enough time to post semi-regularly - hopefully at least once a day.

So, a warm "welcome back" to my usual audience of search engine crawlers and NSA subversive-thought detectors, and an equally warm welcome to anyone else who happens to find their way here. I hope that you find my scrawlings informative and entertaining.

Internet actually good for something

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:52:00 +0000

how metafilter saved two russian women from potential human trafficking the woman behind the rescue speaks out - The Human Condition Blog - Newsweek.com

I caught the tail-end of this live. Good stuff.

Cue Fear-Mongering in 3...2...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Scientists Create First Self-Replicating Synthetic Life | Wired Science | Wired.com

Of course, it does fuck-all but reproduce, but hey, artificial life! So, we've got that going for us now.

Portal is FREE!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:48:00 +0000

Portal is FREE!

You should get this. Portal is not only free, but it's probably the best demonstration of the way that games can communicate story, ideas and techniques to a player. It's only about 3 - 4 hours long, and the behind-the-scenes commentary you can turn on is incredibly illuminating on how they sit down and actually design these game spaces to communicate to the player.

Or you could be like me and not have anyone to worry about

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:34:00 +0000

Top Ten Reasons You Should Quit Facebook - Facebook - Gizmodo

More Reasons Why You Should Still Quit Facebook - Facebook - Gizmodo

The Devolution of Facebook Privacy - Facebook Privacy - Gizmodo

Of course, these days people are actually increasingly trying to reduce their privacy because they somehow equate that with fame - something we have four or five years of faux-celebrities and real celebrities being more famous for giving us a gynecologist's eye view of their bodies to thank - I doubt that this will resonate all that well, but I'll do my part to spread the message none the less.

Stare Decisis. Look it up.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:34:00 +0000

U.S. Supreme Court to Review Game Ratings Law - U.s. Supreme Court - Kotaku

Finally. After every single version of this law across the nation has been struck down, with more photocopies on the way, the Supreme Court will step in to squish all of these short-sighted laws once and for all.

Brazil doesn't like Orkut, apparently

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:05:00 +0000

Google: U.S. Demanded User Info 3,500 Times in 6 Months | Threat Level | Wired.com

It's things like this that make Google's position on freedoms so interesting. All your data that you put on there belongs to them, but they hate censorship and secrets. Very odd. Love this thing, though.

The 1st Amendment violates Apples dev agreement, apparently

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:47:00 +0000

Apple Blocks Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist From App Store - app store - Gizmodo

Freedom of speech, who needs it? Seriously, an anti-satire clause? I know that Apple are just reaching for the sky when it comes to dick moves these days, from the horribleness of the new iAd system (1 in three app launches forces a full-screen ad and all apps have 1/8th of the screen taken up by ads at all times), to freezing out coding languages to screw over Adobe, and suing to ban HTC phones for patent infringement over the blatantly over-broad patents that Apple holds as some kind of proxy war with Google over Android, Chrome OS and Google applications like Google Docs. Add in the generally crappy way they treat their customers ("You can only use the devices you paid for how we say you can use them"), and there's a very good reason why I don't buy Apple products.

@loc WTFLOLBBQ

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:08:00 +0000

Your Past and Future Tweets Will Be Archived At the Library of Congress - Library of congress twitter - Gizmodo

Sweet Jesus, why? Now, when the aliens finally visit us and demand to see the finest repository of human knowledge, they're gonna get a face full of all of the pubescent whining and blatant corporate whoring that Twitter represents. That is, if YouTube comments haven't convinced them to glass the planet smooth first.

Obama Backtracks on NASA Capsule : Discovery News

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:54:00 +0000

Obama Backtracks on NASA Capsule : Discovery News

I don't know if it's because this was all part of the Obama Administration's master plan to drastically lower expectations, and then reap the rewards of not killing one of the most beloved US Government programs, or maybe the constant shouting from both sides of the political aisle about actually doing that, but they're backtracking on abandoning long-range manned space flight. Looks like they're keeping the one part of Ares that made sense (the crew capsule) and going with a "as yet unnamed" heavy-lift rocket system. Well, considering they're dumping $3.1 billion into the Marshall Space Center in Alabama, and that only does Constellation, which is still getting the axe, and the Shuttle, which is going away, I'm willing to bet $10 that this mysterious heavy-lift rocket system is the DIRECT/Jupiter rocket system, which is almost entirely made out of retrofitted, modified and updated Shuttle parts. Good for them, and good for NASA.

Quite possibly the best thing ever

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Joe the Plumber Advisese GOP-ers

The best piece of political news of the year, or the best piece of news ever? Above all else, I strive to find comedy in everyday life, it's how I keep that sunny and personable disposition that I'm so well known for, and when news like this hits the wires, it's like a early birthday gift:

Wurzelbacher, who became a household name during the presidential election, will be focusing his talk on the proposed stimulus package. He's apparently not a fan of the economic rescue package, according to members of the group.

Oh Internets, how did you know?

But what do we make of everyone's favorite not-plumber? First, Mr. Samuel Joesph Wurzelbacher becomes a political football during the campaign, then he's a war correspondent for a conservative website in Gaza, and now he's advising the Republican party on policy issues. You know what he's becoming? He's the far right's Bono, right down to his supposed country-western record deal and my deep-seated desire to hit him in the face with a paving stone every time he opens his mouth about politics.

(Edit: We have a potential competitor for the "Batshit Crazy Appointment of the Week" award: Ted Nugent Front-Runner to Lead NRA. It's like Christmas in February!)

Fun With Currency Conversion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:52:00 +0000

With the Ford Motor Company bringing over most of their European small car lineup to the US in 2010 (or sooner, if the bailout money seems right and it'll help them revamp their plants, they don't really need the money), we should start hearing more and more about these incoming new models soon. Fortunately for Ford, they're all pretty universally hailed in Europe as top of their respective classes (we'll only be seeing the Fiesta and Focus from that list, at least for now), so we should hear nothing but praises for the quality of the cars, which will do wonders for Ford's image and just might get people excited about Ford again.

Unfortunately, there will probably one consistent wet blanket thrown over all of this enthusiasm for these cars, the pricing. You'll read that the base Fiesta with the Zetec 1.6L engine (probably the US base model) costs £12,331 to start, and that's about $18,400 US, far more than the current class-leading Honda Fit's $14,550. The Focus will have this same "problem" with regards to the Honda Civic, and the article in question will probably end with the same "Sure, it's a great car, but will Americans pay European prices for cars?" question, in keeping with the current trend of relentlessly pessimistic coverage of the American auto industry.

It seems to be a pretty damning point. Sure, it may be great, but an extra four or five grand over the top of what's already a pretty decent car? At that price, it'd better come with heated leather massage seats and a stereo system that can accurately reproduce a symphony orchestra instrument-by-instrument. However, as is so common these days when it comes to news coverage of the automotive industry, the media has and will probably continue to miss an important point: car prices don't directly follow currency conversion. Very little actually does, but when it comes to car prices, the difference becomes really obvious.

Just to pick an example, let's take another look at the pricing differences. Different engine specs make finding a direct comparison somewhat difficult, but the new Volkswagen Jetta 2.0L TDI diesel is sold in both the US and the UK. Prices start at £17,988 in the UK, which is $26,854. The cost in the US though, is $21,990, almost five thousand dollars less. This makes sense, as the price of something as expensive as a car should change with the value of the good itself relative to the local market. Just looking at currency conversion rates completely ignores big factors like transportation costs, materials and labor cost differences between production plants, demand, economies of scale for each country...there's a whole bunch of factors that effect the price of a car, only one of which is currency rates. In reality, prices between everything but six-figure supercars convert almost straight across between dollars and pounds, with only two or three thousand dollars tacked on when you move over from Europe, and vise versa. What does all this mean? That when Ford finally brings over the Fiesta at the end of next year, they're going to be in prime position to take the fight to Honda and their Fit, and I, for one, can't wait for the good press for Ford.

Just Can't Please Anyone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:49:00 +0000

Obama makes pick for energy chief, sources say

Both pundits and normal human beings have reasonably impressed with the cabinet that President-Elect Barack Obama has assembled so far. The most common complaint I've read leveled at his choices so far, from both the press, the Republican Party and, surprisingly, from Congressional Democrats is that they're all from Ivy League colleges, that they're all too intelligent and don't have enough real world experience. I imagine Timothy Geithner (former Undersecretary of the Treasury for Foreign Affairs, former director of Policy Development and Review at the IMF, current President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York), Paul Volcker (former chairman of the Federal Reserve, responsible for the end of the economic crisis of the 1970's), General James L. Jones (former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, former commander United States European Command, former Commandant of the Marine Corps), Eric Holder (first African-American US Attorney for Washington, DC, first African-American Deputy Attorney General) and General Eric Shinseki (former Chief of Staff of the United States Army, fired by the Bush Administration for predicting higher troop levels would be needed in Iraq, was later proven right) and others might disagree, but that hasn't stopped people from saying it.

And today CNN is reporting that the Obama transition team has settled on a pick for energy secretary, an incredibly important role as the nation prepares to potentially make radical changes to not only the way we use and distribute electricity, but how we produce it as well. What's most important for that office is to have someone in charge who really understands not just the spin and public opinion on the different choices out there, but the hard, real-world science of the options, and can make an objective recommendation on what the best course of action is based on science, not political spin. After all, politics won't produce the energy this nation will need moving forwards, nor will it help in cleaning up our act. What we need is someone with a hardcore science background, someone who can disregard the politic that has infected the energy and climate change debate and provide real answers.

And so it's hard to think of someone with better qualifications than Prof. Steven Chu. Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1997 for his work in laser cooling (using laser light tuned to a specific frequency to slow down atoms), he is currently the head of Lawerence Livermore National Laboratories, one of the top research labs in the country. He is also the leader of a $400 million program at Livermore to research better and cleaner methods of energy generation, and so is quite possibly the best qualified person on Earth for the job. That hasn't stopped Congressional Democrats from sniping at his qualifications, saying that he's not politically experienced enough for the job, which my Beltway Translator-O-Matic reads as "He won't kiss our asses and bend to our will enough." Now, I can't imagine who could be behind the constant complaints from Democrats, but they couldn't be more wrong on this one. Someone from outside the DC political circle-jerk is exactly what an important and scientific topic like our energy problems needs, somoene who isn't willing to compromise what they know is the right answer because some suit tells them to do so. I say this is another inspired pick by Obama and his transition team, and if they keep this up, I might have to start believing some of that silly utopia hype from the campaign.

Not quite right, but close enough

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:06:00 +0000

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Autoerotic Explanation

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

For those of you imaginary people out there who don't know, I've been doing/did a automotive news podcast for a little over a year, and I've been following the automotive industry bailout very closely. This is something that the automotive industry in the US needs very badly in order to stay afloat, and considering that 61% of the American public opposes the auto industry bailout, it made me happy that Jon Stewart, one of the prophets of the left, came out and said that Congress should give the industry the bailout. He didn't really touch on the financial reasons why they should (the catastrophic unemployment collateral damage that an auto industry bankruptcy would cause, the further destruction of the credit market from auto loans becoming worthless, and a whole bunch of other bad things), but his reasoning, that Congress spent more than twenty times as much bailing out the financial industry, and since they barely employ anyone and don't actually produce anything while the auto industry employs millions of people across the nation and produces a tangible product, is pretty solid. The Big Three in Detroit are actually improving their quality at the moment and some pretty damn good models are on the way for 2010, so if we can get them through the current recession (and they don't make any stupid decisions, I'm looking at you, GM CEO Rick Wagoner), they should weather the storm in roughly one piece. Except for Chrysler, they're screwed.

Rule #1 of Getting People To Agree With You

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:12:00 +0000

Atheist sign disappears from Washington state Capitol

Text from the sign:

At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE may reason prevail
There are no gods, no angels, no devils, no heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

Gee, I wonder why this sign, which was placed directly next to the Nativity scene at the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, vanished.

Look, atheists. Actually, while I'm talking to people who aren't here, let's throw in religious folk, environmentalists, and, well, every strain of protester out there, here's the number one rule when it comes to trying to make a point, possibly the only rule.

When it comes to persuading people, no one likes an asshole.

People will not listen to you if you're an asshole about their beliefs and opinions. Instead, they will think, and rightly so, that you're an asshole, and dismiss everything that you say on your topic out of hand. More likely than not, they'll also dismiss everyone who ever takes that same position with them again as an asshole as well, so you're not only ruining your chances of persuading someone to agree with you, you're ruining everyone else's chances for a reasonable debate in the future. Yes, it will make you feel good, that you're getting your point out there, and that smug sense of superiority will last for at least a week. However, if you insist on pursuing such ideologically self-destructive behavior, why not do something that doesn't screw it up for the rest of us. Take up trolling in Internet forums or on news article comment threads, or running head first into brick walls.

Sure, I'm not entirely comfortable with the bending of the whole implied "separation of church and state" that having a Nativity scene in a government building is (Yes, atheists, it's not in the Constitution, it was established as legal precident by the Supreme Court in Renyolds v. US and is followed because of stare decisis, go legal nerdery), but would they be making the same fuss if they had a giant Menorah and diorama of the dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem set up in the lobby? Somehow, I doubt it, and as long as the state government gives equal treatment to any religious group that requests that they have a display put up in the lobby, which is the actual meaning of the idea of "separation of church and state", I don't see a problem with it.