Octopodial Chrome

Well, yesterday out on an errand for my dear mother, I was stopped at a red light and a twit rear-ended me. Well, not that big a deal—we’ve all made our mistakes. I pull forward and to the side of the road, and he just makes some gestures at me and heads down the road. I got his license plate, then repeated it to myself over and over until I found a filling station & a pen. Called the cops, filed a report and the rest, but unfortunately it turns out that the plate I wrote down is not on file—I must have messed up the state or some of the digits. It happens.

The damage to my car is very minor; I don’t believe that I’ll bother fixing it, as it’s simply the bumper shifting inward perhaps a quarter inch, with part of the frame punched through by the same amount. On a 15 year old car, this blends in.

I have this satisfaction: he was driving a very nice car, and judging by the streaks on my bumper and the damage I saw to his own, he’ll be paying a pretty penny for it. And without a police report, odds are that his insurance company won’t be picking it up… Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Taki wonders in the New York Press what the world would have been like had the Central Powers won the Great War. In short, much better:

What would have happened had Germany won the war? For starters, the most philo-Semitic nation in Europe, Germany, would have remained so. Six million Jews would not have disappeared, as Hitler would have remained a failed artist and nothing more. The dynasties would have survived, which means there would have been no communism with its 20 to possibly 100 million victims. Hungary would not have been chopped up by Romania and Slovakia and Yugoslavia would not have become the unnatural federation it became. The Ottoman Empire would have lumbered along, Iraq would not have been created, nor would’ve Isræl, Lebanon or Jordan. Russia would have joined the modern world—eventually. The world would have been led by England, Germany, France and the United States, and Africa would have never become the slaughterhouse it is today.

Read the long version—it’s even better. The Great War was one of the great crimes of history, and we were on the wrong side of it.

As related by economist Tim Harford, safety causes death. More succinctly, it has been demonstrated that seatbelt laws lead to increases in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities. Something to keep in mind as our modern Stasi heed the whims of our überführers in the Click It or Ticket nanny-state campaign (I should note here that I have, to my present knowledge, never in the last decade travelled in a car without a seatbelt—and before that, but once, and in a parking lot at that). On other words, every action has unintended consequences. As a cyclist, I worry about anything which makes drivers more careless. As a free man, I worry about anything which reduces that freedom.

Back in 2004, researchers had police fire 700 (blank) rounds in a New Orleans neighbourhood. Not a single man called in to report the gunfire. That, in a nutshell, reveals all that is wrong with that sad city.

Reihan Salam & Will Wilkinson argue that a Playstation 3 is a better investment than a spouse. The short version is that the return on investment of a games console is better than that of a spouse, with smaller recurring costs.

Economist Tim Harford points out the absurdity of many insurance plans, using the example of a $10/day premium to avoid a $900 deductible. As he points out, that would only make sense if he crashed every 90 days! And yet people buy such things.

How’s this for cool: a spider rolled out of dollar bills? Very, very sweet.

Taking a look at the .sig quotes on cluefire.net, I see that I’m in there five times! Pretty cool for a simple boy from Denver.

From the 2006 Devil’s Dictionary, Updated:

woman

One who, when told that her hair looks lovely long, immediately goes out an cuts it short. Then gets angry and/or weepy that one doesn’t like it.

husband

One accustomed to trading honesty for comfort.

bachelor

The happiest of men; pitied universally.

Not that I’m in a mood or anything…

From Websnark, the best way to protect children online. Of course, this is probably too simple for most folks.

I’d add: use a proper multi-user operating system, and allow the kids to only use the Internet between certain hours (iptables can be used in conjunction with cron to do exactly this—M-x all-hail-unix). If they really do need to use it at other times, then it can be easily enabled and disabled with a shell script.

Well, last night was the last time I’ll ever be 27. It’s sad to see another year ended. Growing older is like falling down a gravel hill—scrabble as one might, one can’t stop tumbling.

It’s a decade ago that I became a man in the eyes of the law. Strange thought, that. I’d give all I have to be 18 again, but that’s just not possible.

An Indian has come up with a solar cooker made from a car inner-tube, along with a piece of wood and a pane of glass. Very clever, and very cool!

Tonight I brewed my first non-beer, malta; it’s essentially a small beer made with hops, then force-carbonated & bottled. Tonight it’s settling in the fridge; tomorrow I’ll rack it into a keg and carbonate it; the following evening I’ll dispense it into bottles and then pasteurise it. It should keep for quite awhile that way as long as it’s refrigerated.

The Toronto Star reports on why suburban trees are so stunted. It turns out that it’s because of modern development practises and the manner in which they destroy the soil.

Well, my youngest brother left this afternoon for boot camp. Once again—as so many times before—he’s made me feel for our parents more than I could have thought possible. I’m reminded of when they left me at AC: how happy I was, and how sad they were. It was much the same today: he was enthused about his new life, and we all were sad to see him go.

For my own part, I’m going to miss the guy. For a time after I graduated, my brother John was in town: we went to concerts, hung out in bars & so on. When he left for Grand Junction, there was Stephen: we did much the same—although since he’s not yet old enough to drink, we went to concerts and he drove me home from bars. We’d a grand old time: our trip to Berlin was the experience of a lifetime. All in all, I think that I’d more great times with him than with our other two brothers (although I’ll grant that John & I had a great day at the LoDo music festival a few years ago), esp. Tom, who was already at the United States Naval Academy by the time I graduated.

I’d been fortunate to have been here in town for John’s 21st, and had the honour of showing him around Denver’s finest pubs. I’d hoped that one day we should have the same opportunity with Stephen, but we almost certainly shan’t.

Our parents merit a thought and a prayer tonight: this marks the first evening in which they are truly empty nesters. After almost 28 years of having children this is the first time they’ve had truly to themselves. I really hope that they make the most of it.

I will say that I’m kind of ticked off. Growing up, when our neighbours took their two kids to Disneyworld, Mom & Dad would point out that we’d four kids, not two, and that thus we’d have to sacrifice now—but that we’d always have our brothers. Well, this is how the world looks to me: one brother with the Navy in San Diego; one in Greece; and now one with the Marines. There’s a good chance that there will be periods in which I won’t have a brother in this hemisphere!

Life’s going to be a lot less fun without my crazy kid brother around. Certainly, serving these United States is a noble life—but I’ll miss him nonetheless.

This past weekend I went on a camping trip with my kid brother and our old Scout troop (he’s an assistant Scoutmaster); it was surprisingly fun—enough so that I’m interested in helping them out more often. We’d a great time, what with snow, hiking, campfires and so forth. The mountains were just beautiful; it really struck me that I’m lucky to live in such a state, and that I ought to get out much more often. Maybe this summer I’ll take a look at camping on the weekends or something.

Wal-Mart has opened a premier store in Plano which will carry high-end electronics and…craft beer. Maybe this is the start of a good thing!