Chaos Digest

future pilot

2006-11-01T02:14:00.000-06:00

golfquote
Originally uploaded by haydesigner.

test

Religious Recognition

2006-08-04T19:13:00.000-05:00

Got this from my cousin (thanks Mess!)... in these trying times, it truly is necessary to recognize, and acknowledge, the differences between faiths:

In these times, it is important for all of us of all faiths to recognize these four Religious Truths:

Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people.
Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian World.
Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters.

Rabid Chinese

2006-08-04T06:19:00.000-05:00

I'm not quite sure how to react to this:

They said they would kill all dogs within five km of 16 villages where rabies had been found, suggesting 500,000 dogs were under threat.

The move comes days after 50,000 dogs were killed in south-western China in response to a rabies outbreak.

In a five-day cull, dogs were clubbed to death in the street as their owners watched. Other dog owners took matters into their own hands, poisoning or electrocuting their pets.

I honestly understand the substantial danger of rabies, but can't they just innoculate all the dogs? Or is it just easier/cheaper to force a killing rampage?

But regardless of all that, how could someone -- anyone, really -- possibly club a dog to death? How could anyone watch it? How could an owner stand by? I literally would try to pummel the person unconscious who was trying to do that to either of my dogs.

This one's for the Finns

2006-08-04T02:47:00.000-05:00

A lot of our groupies are Finnish. Dunno why but it is true.
So, debate amongst yourselves.

Natural gas prices soar

2006-08-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

Natural gas futures soared for the third straight day Wednesday as scorching temperatures baked states in the Northeast and the Midwest.

Those of you in winter states, remember those staggeringly high heating bills last year? Well, this winter ain't looking so good either.

100 Reasons

2006-08-02T09:39:00.000-05:00

With just 100 days until election day, the DSCC has a list of 100 Reasons For A New Direction. I seriously thought I was going to trim it down to about 10 or so, but sadly (seriously, I wish this list did not exist), it became too hard to ignore most, and probably ended up with about 60 or so.

The ones that disturb me the most I bolded:

1. Failure to plan for post-war Iraq
2. Failure to reduce violence in Iraq
3. Failure to be honest with the American people about WMD intelligence
4. Failure to hold Administration accountable for failed policies in Iraq
5. Failure to conduct Congressional oversight of White House management of Iraq
6. Failure to listen to General Shinseki about troop levels needed in Iraq
7. Failure to honestly account for the fiscal costs of the Iraq War
8. Failure to provide adequate armor to American troops on the front lines in Iraq
9. Failure to prevent or even investigate contract abuse by firms like Halliburton
11. Failure to capture Osama bin Laden
13. Failure to prevent Somalia from falling to Pro-al Qaeda Islamic extremists
14. Failure to follow through on the war in Afghanistan
15. Failure to secure many terrorist convictions
16. Failure to effectively respond to Hurricane Katrina
21. Failure to enact the 9/11 Commissions recommendations
23. Failure to curb billions of dollars of contract abuse in the Dept of Homeland Security
24. Failure to conduct Phase II of pre-war intel probe as promised by Chairman Roberts
26. Failure to secure the Social Security numbers of 26.5 million veterans
29. Failure to keep the military at readiness level needed to counter new threats
30. Failure to prevent North Korea from quadrupling its nuclear inventory
31. Failure to further prevent war in the Middle East
32. Failure to stabilize Middle East after Iraq, allowing Iran to expand its influence
37. Failure to prevent Russia’s slide away from democracy
38. Failure to heed warnings that VA was underfunded, resulting in a $1 billion shortfall
39. Failure to provide mandatory funding for veterans’ health care
40. Failure to end record-breaking GOP-created budget deficits
47. Failure to stop giving tax breaks to companies that send U.S. jobs abroad
48. Failure to restore job growth to Clinton levels
49. Failure to reduce number of Americans in poverty
50. Failure to increase real household income
51. Failure to reduce income inequality
52. Failure to pass pension reform
57. Failure to reduce reliance on foreign oil
59. Failure to revoke massive tax breaks for oil companies bringing in record profits
60. Failure to enact price gouging legislation
65. Failure to enforce the Clean Air Act
68. Failure to put seniors ahead of big drug companies in the new prescription drug bill
70. Failure to be up-front about the real costs of the Medicare Part D legislation
78. Failure to pass comprehensive ethics reform even after Jack Abramoff’s guilty plea
79. Failure to close the revolving door between Congress and lobbyists
80. Failure to investigate the CIA leak case
81. Failure to fire any administration official involved in the CIA leak case [haydesigner's note: As Bush promised he would do!!]
85. Failure to fully fund No Child Left Behind
90. Failure to boost maximum Pell Grant amount as promised
91. Failure to renew the ban on assault weapons
94. Failure to confront the White House when it’s wrong
99. Failure to focus on issues important to the public instead of pandering to conservatives with wedge issues

One of the stupidest things I've read in awhile

2006-08-01T08:10:00.000-05:00

Due to unintended effects, a law can achieve the opposite of its supporters' intentions. The minimum wage is such a law.

It is intended to reduce poverty, but it does not. Instead it encourages teenagers to drop out of school and reduces low-income workers' future job prospects and earnings.

I glanced at the report they all referred to... it takes two fairly arbitrary pieces of data -- data that may very well be completely unrelated -- and assigns an assumption that the authors apparently wanted to be true.

It is official

2006-07-31T21:31:00.000-05:00

In the mail today:

San Diego State University
The Tustees of The California State Univeristy
upon recommendation of the Faculty
have conferred upon

Mrs. Haydesigner

the Degree of

Master of Business Administration

with all rights, priviledges and honors thereunto appertaining.

Given at San Diego State Universtiy this
twenty-second day of May, two thousand and six.

Pinch My Ride

2006-07-31T21:21:00.000-05:00

Insurance companies generally won't pay for cars with transponder antitheft system that somehow get stolen. Those transponder antitheft system, which link a key a tiny computer chip to a car's computer are supposed to be, for all intensive purposes, theftproof.

They're not.

Then he confirmed Hyser’s story. The mythical Honda override exists: It’s a series of presses and pulls of the emergency brake. Each car, it seems, has a unique override code, which correlates to the VIN.

Then I grabbed the emergency brake handle between the front seats and performed the specific series of pumps, interspersed with rotations of the ignition between the On and Start positions. After my second attempt, Honky’s hybrid engine awoke with its customary whisper.

I had just jacked my own car.

Off the Beaten Path

2006-07-31T20:45:00.000-05:00

Now, I personally am interested in institutions of higher learning for professional reasons, but some of you may be interested for personal reasons. The NYT has a very interesting and lengthy article that may give you some new and very intriguing viewpoints:

"There are more than 2,500 four-year colleges and universities in the United States -- an educational landscape unmatched anywhere in the world

Pay less attention to prestige and more to “fit” -- the marriage of interests and comfort level with factors like campus size, access to professors, instruction philosophy. In their caliber of undergraduate teaching, many lesser-known campuses, in their opinion, are on equal or near-equal footing with brand-name universities, and in some ways are more three-dimensional.

“My view is that there is a very modest to zero correlation between general academic prestige and the quality of undergraduate experience available to students,” says Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. “Those seeking hidden gems are very wise, especially if they are committed to coming to a campus and becoming very active students, taking advantage of faculty office hours, undergrad research experiences and the like.”

“The difference in faculty quality between institutions is much smaller than ever,” Mr. Shulman says, “and the opportunities for students in smaller, less prestigious institutions has never been greater.”

Even the notion that a prestige degree unlocks doors and leads to higher earnings has been challenged...

It may sound weird, but instruction philosophy was the primary reason for my substantial dissatisfaction at SDSU last fall.

Blair and Bush, sitting in a tree

2006-07-31T10:55:00.000-05:00

Republicans might be able to ratinalize Bush's horrible approval ratings as "partisan politics" brought about by ~~corporate-owned~~ "terrorist-loving liberal media" that spread vicious ~~truth~~ ~~truthiness~~ lies about our president... but it becomes a bit harder when his ~~only~~ closest ally is getting flat-out punked out in his country too:

Ipsos MORI found 67 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with the way Mr Blair was doing his job, while only 23 per cent were satisfied.

People, as a whole, are generally pretty damn stupid. But when you have that many people in two of the most advanced countries in the world saying "Dude, your shit stinks"... well, even if you are upwind, you should really start to wonder that maybe the shit really does stink.

Strive

2006-07-31T04:39:00.000-05:00

"It matters little how we die, so long as we die better men than we imagined we could be -- and no worse than we feared."

One of the made-up quotes at the beginning of an Andromeda episode.

I saw. I liked. I blogged.

The egg no longer runnuth over

2006-07-30T23:54:00.000-05:00

Inks have been created to appear after three minutes to indicate a soft-boiled egg, after four minutes for medium and after seven minutes for a hard-boiled egg.

Also noted:

He said: "I love soft-boiled eggs with toasted soldiers but I get so frustrated if I get the timing wrong and the egg is too hard to dip my soldiers in."

Must... resist...

¿Que? Cause/Effect?

2006-07-29T18:12:00.000-05:00

If you REALLY want to stop illegal immigration

2006-07-29T17:13:00.001-05:00

We all know Bush is a huuuuuuge hypocrite about the stem cell/snowflake baby veto, right? There is no possible way to logically dispute that (although if you feel you can, please let me know in the comments).

Well, here in metaphorical black and white, is another example of the hypocrisy, this time on illegal immigration. See, before the unelected boy prez Rove decided to make illegal immigration a hotbutton, election year issue, there were some rather obvious numbers that showed how the administration dealt with the 'problem' of illegal immigration. Now Spleen actually linked to this article a few days ago (for a different reason), but I thought it was worthwhile to highlight some of the other info... allow me to bold a bit:

The Bush administration in its first four years was responsible for 318 fines against employers who hired illegal workers, an average of fewer than 80 each year. That's down from 5,587 fines against illegal employers during the eight years of the Clinton administration, according to the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, an average of 698 each year. And the problem is getting worse; in 2004 only three employers received fines for illegal hiring.

Work site arrests have fallen even more drastically under this president. From 1995 to 1998, there were between 10,000 and 18,000 work site arrests of illegal aliens each year. But during the Bush administration, work site arrests fell to just 159 in 2004.

So, to be clear, BEFORE it became a pandering issue to white racists everywhere, the Bush administration not only did squat about the 'endemic tide' of illegal immigration, you could start to make a viable argument that they were enabling it with no enforcement of current laws. Hypocrite. Even with all the spittle and rhetoric and xenophobia flying around, the only sane and rationale way to stop illegals from coming over is to stop giving them the incentive to bypass the legal process. And in virtually all cases, that means not giving them jobs.

And how do you stop giving them jobs, everyone?

politics, politics, politics

2006-07-29T08:07:00.000-05:00

Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
- David Broder

Is it a civil war, or isn’t it?

2006-07-29T04:59:00.000-05:00

Are there objective criteria to determine a modern civil war? Yes, all the ones from 1940 to 2005.

Does iraq fit all those criteria? Undeniably.

Did the US cause it?

Is this propaganda?

2006-07-28T00:48:00.000-05:00

See, it is okay to have an agenda. It is when you have a hidden agenda that you lose all semblance of respectability (let alone believability).

And in case you were wondering, yes, that is the very definition of propaganda.

US Ambassador to UN Defends Record

2006-07-27T18:41:00.000-05:00

I was suckered into clicking the article by the apparently supportive headline. I admit, I was wondering what the positive things were that ~~Michael~~ John Bolton would point out that he has accomplished since vowing to reform the UN. Here is one:

'In my daily relationship with ambassadors, I treat them with respect and they treat me with respect and I think we get the job done,' Bolton said.

And damned if I could find anything else.

Seriously, if that is all you can say about your short tenure so far, why the hell would anyone consider him competent, let alone the best man for the job?

The hearing was interrupted several times, including when the ceiling sprung a leak and water began pouring down in front of the nominee.

You know, if I was one of the 'biblical/rapture/praisegod' type of people, THAT would be something I would take as a sign from above.

mathematically speaking...

2006-07-26T00:39:00.000-05:00

Breaking News:
President Bush quietly issued a signing statement yesterday that redefined "majority" as anything over 3%:

The problem mentioned most often by all the adults polled was the war - in Iraq and conflicts in general - 22 percent; economy at 14 percent; immigration and political leaders at 9 percent; the energy crisis at 8 percent and terrorism at 7 percent.

Other problems mentioned were: morality, 4 percent; education, 3 percent; crime and drugs

burn beeoch

2006-07-26T00:28:00.000-05:00

If mac users are looking to upgrade either their powerbook DVD drives ($91+shipping) or their desktop ($32+free shipping), those are the two cheapest prices I found for what seems to be the fastest drives out there.

Five 'killed' in Gaza shelling

2006-07-25T00:53:00.000-05:00

I'm curious... why is the word 'killed' in quotes from this BBC headline?

Five 'killed' in Gaza shelling

Anyone have any ideas?

How dare they want to actually do some investigations!

2006-07-24T18:57:00.000-05:00

Democrats do so hate America. And Democracy. Oh, and god too! And snowflakes! And everything else that will make you vote for me!

As for Bush himself, he is curtailing his traditional August working vacation at the ranch so that he can barnstorm before the midterm elections. Their outlook thus far seems so ominous for the G.O.P. that one Presidential adviser wants Bush to beef up his counsel's office for the tangle of investigations that a Democrat-controlled House might pursue.

I think that just speak volumes. Even to Bush-supporters.

George H.W. Bush and his Secretary of State James Baker were seen as heroes by some Palestinians; Bill Clinton made the quest for Middle East peace a centerpiece of his legacy project. Bush aides say the times were different then and the vaunted progress under Clinton turned out to be what one called 'a false stability.'

I wonder... what could have possibly destabilized the region? I'm drawing a blank here... somebody help me out....

Bubble bursting?

2006-07-24T18:13:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks old, but somewhat related to Rob's post below, it looks like we are getting strong signs that the housing market is starting its long, long awaited crash. I drove around the last two weekends on my bike, and I have NEVER seen so many "Open House" signs before! Seriously, some corners had like 6 or 7 signs (not just 'for sale' signs, but 'open house')... that is a sign that it is not just the owners, but the realtors are starting to freak out.

While I have no preconceptions about housing prices going back to what they should be (especially here in the insanely priced San Diego locale), it will affect not only the big money invested in construction, but also the huge housing job market. So many fairly unskilled laborers have been living a good life for the past 10+ years, asking and getting big bucks because the demand was so strong. But if/when that job market crashes, methinks many of whose laborers will have a hard time finding jobs that pay anywhere near what they have become accustomed to getting.

Lonely world

2006-07-23T07:10:00.000-05:00

But dernit, when you know you are always right, you absolutely must stay the course!

[Via Kottke]