A nifty little explanation about why a deeply-layered programming language can save time and money in the long run.
Newsweek had a wonderful article on how killing germs is hazardous to one’s health a month ago. I’m all about pro-biotics: yeast converts unhealthy sugar into alcohol; lactobacillus converts cabbage into sauerkraut; a plethora of organisms sour milk and enable me to turn it into cheese. Yea, verily, germs are cool.
It’s kinda funny when one reads of the revulsion of those who discovered that bugs live in our bloodstreams; to their crazy Enlightenment-addled minds it was a problem calling for a solution. What they didn’t realise is that it is the solution: our bodies are less than 10% human and are over 90% bacteria.
A study has found that men enjoy retribution. Men and women saw both innocent and guilty parties receive mild shocks; both were empathetic to the innocent parties, but the case of the guilty parties was far more interesting: men weren’t empathetic at all, but enjoyed the spectacle while women remained empathetic.
This indicates why men are better suited for dealing justice and waging war than women: we are dispassionate, doing what needs to be done. Heck, we actually enjoy watching the guilty get their just desserts; women pity them!
Which is really, really strange, come to think of it.
Almost three years ago I went pheasant hunting and had a good time; this year I went again, twice.
The first time was a day’s hunt in Burlington, Colo. two weekends ago. One of my fellow parishioners, Bill B——, has a political acquaintance with some farmland out there, and so seven of us set out to see what we might scare up. Bill’s brother Charlie was there, as was a fellow parishioner of ours, Maj. D——; Rick W——, a friend of Bill’s; Bruce J——, another friend of Bill’s; and a friend of Rick whose name I forget. We also brought along two hunting dogs: one of some experience belonging to Rick and another belonging to a friend of Charlie which had reputedly been quite successful last summer.
There are a few different ways to hunt pheasants. The party might be hunting a harvest crop-field in hopes of flushing birds as they feed. In this case the best procedure seems to be to position a few fellows at one end to block; the rest of the party then line up on the far end and walk across the field to the blockers. Once they quarry notice the hunters, they have two options: to run or fly. If they run one mayn’t shoot them, and will very probably not see them (pheasants are very stealthy creatures); if they fly within range then hopefully one can shoot them. For whatever reason or reasons, they seem to prefer to run (maybe they’re scared of hawks or falcons?); thus the blockers serve a very valuable purpose: any birds running away from the hunting line will see the blockers and flush, hopefully giving either the walking or the blocking hunters a decent shot. In a way, this method uses the walking line as armed beaters.
Thus we hunted our first field that day: two men posted at one end to block and the rest of us walking against the rows of dryland maize. We flushed a good-sized bouquet of pheasants (that’s apparently the appropriate term of venery), but the angle and distance weren’t quite right for any shots; the blockers also saw some running off. Still, we all took this as an auspicious sign for the start of the hunt.
Another way to hunt is on wild
land (generally returned to
nature via the Conservation Reserve Programme). In this case the land
is covered with thick grass and shrubs; the hope is to flush the birds
from the cover there (they alternate between eating and hiding; their
lives are kinda sad really). This is where dogs shine: they will hit
the scent of a bird, track it to where it’s covering, wait until
the hunting line gets close, then flush the birds. One could use
blockers too, but I think they’re less effective with thick
cover than with the relatively sparse crop-fields.
After walking a few more maize fields and some fields of wheat stubble (the grass-straw left over after wheat is harvested) and seeing not a single thing other than a pair of jackrabbits, we decided that the birds had probably finished eating for the morning and had headed back into cover, so we followed them into CRP land. We were no luckier there.
In fact, the only shots of the day were walking back from the far sides of fields we’d already hunted—in each case, one guy spooked a single bird and fired two shots (semi-auto shotguns are nice…); in each case, the flush was so sudden and unexpected that he wasn’t really ready (one might ask why he wasn’t ready; one might try being at full alert with a several-pound-gun in one’s hands for hours on end) and consequently missed.
It was still a lot of fun, though.
The USMC has noticed that synthetic fabrics are horrid, in this case because they can melt to the skin. Natural fabrics like wool, linen and cotton simply singe. Natural fabrics also breathe better. Wool is warm when it’s cold, cool when it’s hot and wicks away moisture. Linen is sturdy an cool. Cotton’s a bit useless (typically hot when it’s hot out and freezing when it’s cold), but has the advantage of being cheap. Natural fibres are renewable and sustainable; synthetics are produced by using oil.
Remind me again why anyone would ever use a synthetic fibre? Oh yeah: brain damage.
My good friend Martin’s father Mark recently passed away; On Monday the Denver Postran an obituary detailing his fascinating life. I never got the chance to meet him, but heard a lot of stories about him from Martin; he sounded like an incredible fellow. May his memory be eternal.
The Onion
staff have apparently met me. Except that I kinda like New
Mexico’s flag. But I hate hazelnut coffee and I believe that
I’ve actually said that the only decent [state flag] is
Maryland.
Frank Buckles is the last American veteran of the First World War; there’s a good chance that this was his final Veteran’s Day. A neat story.
Ever wonder why Warren Buffet loves the estate tax? It turns out that he personally profits from the estate tax regime.
Michael Lopp writes about Nerd Attention Deficit Disorder---not our inability to pay attention, but our need to pay attention to multiple data sources at one time.
The science-fiction Jerry Pournelle (generally considered fairly right-wing) has an excellent article on drug laws and federalism.
Robert Farley believes that we should abolish the Air Force. I’m roughly inclined to agree, although there could perhaps be unanticipated pitfalls. The in-depth discussion is highly interesting.
All in all, it makes sense to me to bring the Air Force back into the Army and perhaps consider a Space Force to control satellites, ICBMs and the weaponisation of space (orbital artillery: God’s own smite button). But I don’t know that it’s really that big of a deal, so long as the Army is allowed to operate fixed-wing aircraft for close-air support.
Apparently our ultra-paranoid anti-tourism measures are having an effect: we have had a 17% decline in tourist travel, costing us $94 billion in lost revenue and losing 200,000 jobs. Gosh, thanks guys.
Here’s Mark
Shuttleworth’s nightmare account. Due to once travelling
on a plane whose operator hadn’t signed the visa-waiver
treaty, he was questioned, fingerprinted, physically examined and
had his visa waiver access terminated forever. From now on he must
fill out the visa form for those with a criminal record,
despite not actually doing anything wrong.
People, this is twisted.
The recently-released realtor sales figures are deliberately misleading; housing sales fell 22.7% year-over-year and prices fell 4.2%. Housing is crashing; the media and the realtors’ association want to conceal that fact—but the numbers speak for themselves.
How much road space is required for transport by car, bus and bicycle? The results are unsurprising, but once again indicate why public or human-powered transport is so very much more reasonable than private automobiles. Not too that this is a picture in Münster, German, so the cars pictured are rinky-dinky Euro-cars, not real American cars.
Chris Kavanaugh and an archæology team were stranded on an island within view of a metropolis without water or supplies; with luck and skill they managed to survive.
During the recently-passed Halloween holiday I received a flier advertising costumes for children, men and women. I found it really quite remarkable what it revealed:
teenmeans
teen girl; apparently boys directly become men, but girls become teens, and then women
sexy somethingcostumes, where
somethingcould be a police officer, or a vampire, or a pirate, or a cavewoman, or a stewardess, or a referee (who buys this?) or a lady bug (huh?!?); that is, the costumes consist of stockings and a tunic which covers just enough to not violate any local ordinances; teen costumes are much the same, but slightly smaller
Boys shouldn’t be dressed as monsters and evildoers; they should be dressed as those who slay monsters and evildoers; little girls shouldn’t be dressed as sex objects. That this is even an issue is an indicator of how diseased our society has become. Boys and men shouldn’t be valued for how terrible they are; girls and women shouldn’t be valued for how sexy they are–it’s sick. I can understand boys wanting to be fearsome, but let them be fearsome in a good way: Beowulf and Grendel were both feared, but one fought for good and one for evil. I can understand young men & women wanting to be sexy (it’s in their hormones), but children don’t even think of that sort of thing: it’s parents and culture which introduce the idea to them. It’s simply wrong to sexualise prepubescents—once again, that I even have to point this out indicates how low our culture has gotten. It’s one thing for a 24-year-old to dress for the opposite sex; heck, it’s understandable for a 16-year-old to do so (although that should be restrained by parents); it’s another, entirely unacceptable, thing for a child to be dressed thus.
If I had children, I think I’d send them to be raised in Siberia or some other inaccessible place…
Many cities and states unconstitutionally infringe upon their citizens’ right to carry and/or own knives and swords; Knife Rights is working to reverse these laws. They’re worthy of support.
Many of us have seen the gold and silver coins minted by the US government: they are almost pure (99.whatever percent) metal and have a metal value very much greater than their face value. The American Eagle 1 ounce gold coin has a face value of $50 and a metal value of around $806; the American Eagle 1 ounce silver coin has a face value of $1 and a metal value of $14.53. So what if one’s boss paid one’s wages in gold or silver coins? I mean, one’s only making $3,101.50 (with gold coins) or $3,441.15 (with silver coins)!
It turns out that the IRS believes that despite the coins being legal
tender for $1 or $50, despite being currency minted by the United
States of America—despite all this, the IRS tried to argue that
the coins aren’t worth what their faces clearly state. The
judge in the trial disallowed the that’s what they’re
worth
defense based on some specious reasoning involving the old
outlawed American double eagles, but the juries hung or acquitted on
all charges.
Me, I wonder if I can get paid in American Eagles…
Hat-tip to Maj. D.
Today’s the birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Semper Fi!
Yet another example of how crazy daylight savings time is: the return of real time has caused the younger twin to be legally older, and the older twin to be legally younger. If we were just on the same time, all the time, this wouldn’t happen.
The Canadian dollar is now worth $1.10; it had reached $1.00 just recently. The collapse of the US dollar continueth unabated.
Here’s a cool visualisation of US flight data for a single day. Massively neat.
Finally, a reason to visit New York City. A reason to visit New England, even.
What I want to know is when we started, and when we stopped, giving good names to our ships. Intrepid is a good name. City of Corpus Christi is not. Dauntless is a good name; Philadelphia is not. Dreadnaught is an excellent name; USS Senator William P. Whiteman really isn’t.
Lieutenant Colonel James Lacey argues that it’s not Islamic civilisation which is falling to pieces, but Arab civilisation. He points out that Arab civilisation hasn’t made any contributions to the world since 1406 and that the Arab nations spend next to nothing on research or on science. It’s a good read, and as valid now as it was in 2005.
It’s a fundamental principle that if something is priced more cheaply then it’s used more, and if it’s priced more expensively then it’s used less. It’s also a fundamental principle of a free market that a commodity’s price should accurately reflect its cost to produce: a carrot’s price should include the farmer’s time; the alternative uses to which he could put his land (e.g. building condos instead of planting carrots); the cost of extracting the steel for his tractor (including the cost of the mine it was pulled from, the smelter which produced it, the employees which removed it from the ground &c.); the cost of designing said tractor, and so forth and so forth ad infinitum. It should be clear to see that if, for some reason, farmers got free land for carrots then they would produce more carrots, and that carrots would be cheaper, and thus more carrots would be eaten.
It’s less clear to realise that those extra carrots
aren’t really free. That free
land could have been put
to another use—a more productive use (how did it
become free
anyway; did we all pay taxes to buy it from Peter
and sell it to Farmer Paul?). But we see the cheaper carrots in the
store and don’t see the park our kids could have
enjoyed, or the housing we could have lived in, or the university
whose researchers would have discovered a cure for cancer.
Fortunately, most products do more-or-less reflect their cost to produce. One notable exception is food: due to subsidies, some of the worst foods are cheaper than some of the better ones—and Americans are fatter than ever before as a result. Another instance is gasoline. A report on the real cost of gasoline examined all of the costs which go into gasoline production and found that gasoline should cost between $5.60 and $15.14 per gallon. Last I checked, its actual price is around $3 per gallon.
To put it another way: you're already paying between five and fifteen dollars a gallon; you're just not paying it at the pump. If you cut back your gasoline consumption by four gallons a month, you'll save about twelve dollars but will still be paying eight to forty-eight dollars in taxes for those four gallons you didn't use. You can see why it doesn't make sense to cut back on gas usage.
This would explain why the United States uses more gasoline per day than the next twenty nations.
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This is my blogchalk:
United States,
Colorado, Englewood, Centennial, English, , Robert, Male, 21–25, Free
Software, Society for Creative Anachronism.