Zombies!

Via Peter Suderman over at The American Scene, a wonderful article from The Skeptical Enquirer debunking various tropes from the history of monster myths.

Greatest bits are definitely the chart plotting the exponential rise of vampire populations, and the completely un-fun explanation of how one might go about creating a 'zombie' using the neurotoxin from puffer fish.

Happy Halloween, everyone! I'm off to the Nuggets season opener (Go Powder Blues!), so more when I get back.

You Like Me! You Really, Really, Like Me!

My favorite graph of the last couple days:

That is the traffic numbers for this little corner of the world for the last 30 days until yesterday. See that big spike, from 20 on Sunday to 980 on Monday? Yeah, that would be when Ezra linked here.

Good to know that one three-line item on a (much, much) more popular blog can net me a 4900% traffic increase in the space of a day.

The better question is, how long until I get back down to my baseline? I'm hoping to drag it out until Friday, but we shall see...

The Obamanomenon

Kevin Drum rambles (his word) about the Democratic nominees. I'm not going to go into his whole post, but instead deal with what got him started on the subject, the story about the Obama campaign choosing to allow Donnie McClurkin, a so-called 'reformed gay' gospel singer, in one of his campaign events this past weekend.

I think Kevin is being far too presumptuous when he writes

If anything, this puts the whole thing in an even worse light, because it makes it seem more likely that teaming up with McClurkin was a deliberate decision, not just a staff mistake. There's no telling, of course, but it's either a case of horrible judgment or a case of horrible vetting and planning. Those are both pretty bad signs.

I don't think there's any proof that is either a case of horrible vetting or bad judgment. Isn't it at least possible that the Obama camp knew about his beliefs, and decided that they wanted his endorsement anyway?

Look, you can't demand ideological purity of every person that you ask to back you, support you, or participate in your campaign. That's not possible. And, especially, it ought to come as no surprise that, if Obama is going to be courting southern, black, evangelical voters, some of them are going to be, let's say, less-than-full supporters of the gay movement.

And that's fine. In fact, that goes to the whole heart of his campaign's ideals. He is not an interest group-driven candidate, and acknowledges that, if he is going to have the kind of public mandate that he thinks will be needed to get done everything he wants to, he's going to have to accept the support of some people who don't agree with him on every issue, and, probably, the support of some who rather vehemently disagree with him.

Reading a little about this guy on wikipedia, I don't think that I would want his endorsement, if I were running. But, honestly, issues of gay equality are probably a bit more important to me than they are to Obama. And that's okay. I still think his strategy, of trying to improve the tone of debate in the campaign by trying to do more than appeal to the so-called "50% plus one" majority, is a winning strategy, for Obama, for the Democrats, and for the country.

As If I Needed A Reason

Also in Slate today, an article expounding on the minor environmental virtues of driving a stick shift. I do have to admit, this was one of the factors in my buying a stick when I got my Protege. It wasn't easy, either - it was surprising how difficult it was to find a stick car. Given that Mazda's tagline is 'Zoom-Zoom', you would think they would always have at least one stick on the lot.

And it is true - you can definitely get improved mileage from a stick car. My EPA estimates were, I believe, 26/29. And now, after more than 7 years, I'm still averaging around 31 mpg in a tank, ranging from about 28 to 34.

Plus, stick's give you more control over the driving experience - if I want to shift early for mileage, I can. If I really need to go, I know the car will respond. Plus, chicks dig a guy who knows his way around a clutch, or so I keep telling myself.

Although, I am traumatized by the fact that this is probably the last stick car I will ever own. After my last few car experiences, I am definitely in the 'buy new, drive until the engine falls out' camp of car owners. And since I expect the Protege to get easily 150K miles, by the time I get a new car I suspect most cars will be some form of hybrid. At the moment, I believe all the hybrids have Continuously Variable Transmissions, so I expect my next car to have that as well.

So, I had better enjoy it while it lasts!

For Love Of Trash TV

Reihan Salam uses his love of Jericho to launch onto a paean on the virtues of second-rate television. He compares it to "the new sci-fi classics like Babylon 5 and Stargate: SG-1", which I have to argue with a bit, if only because I think B-5 very nearly qualified as quality television. And, while I never actually watched an episode of Jericho, I certainly never got that sense.

I don't really have a lot of commentary about Reihan's article, except to say that I adore his unabashed love for all manner of things. I don't tend to agree with him about much (except, of course, Lost), but I still have to admire anyone who can be so openly in love with, well, whatever happens to be striking his fancy at that moment, be it some indie band, a trashy TV show, or a highfalutin new electronic device.

However, his unabashed praise led me to read one of my favorite articles of the last year, this doozy by Ariel Levy, who is now one of my favorite writers.

Who Is That Handsome Devil?

I've received some crap, both in meatspace and online, for my man-love for Ezra Klein.

But come on. Look at that man! Don't you just want to wrap him up with a bow, stick him in a box, and take him home with you?

Gases For The Masses

Via (well, I can't remember where I found it, now) a quite fascinating article about Johnathan Goodwin, the Pimp My Ride-ster of the ecomovement.

I'd read a little about Goodwin's work a couple years ago, but he's accomplished quite a bit since then. A 60 miles-per-gallon Hummer, which also has 600 horsepower? Well, okay, it's a bit much to expect jet turbines to be installed in every American car, but it is a strong reminder that, when it comes to fuel economy, there are lots of good options out there.

Look, my dad's Lexus is a big honkin' car. Huge. Probably literally 50% more car, in terms of mass, than my Mazda Protege. But , with an automatic transmission, it still gets about 26 mpg, about 85% of the 30-ish I get. And it's not because it has a tiny, four-banger engine. It accelerates appreciably better than my car, so probably has double my 120ish horsepower.

There is really good engine technology out there. As Gregg Easterbrook never tires of pointing out, if we simply took all the gains in engine efficiency over the last 30 years and put them into mileage increases instead of horsepower, we'd already be well north of the propsed 35-mpg CAFE standard that has Detroit howling at the moon.

This article is just another reminder that, while it will undoubtedly cost us something economically in the short run to upgrade our automotive fuel efficiency, it is eminently doable if the will can be located. Also, while I can't quite recommend the book due to its overwhelming length, Easterbrook's A Moment On The Earth is quite effective at driving home the point that every time efficiency gains are mandated for environmental purposes, industry intially cries about the destruction of the economy, then grudgingly gives in to government mandates, then discovers that, mirabile dictu, they actually save money by not uselessly burning up so much crap, and soon are far exceeding the government-mandated standards.

I can pretty much guarantee the same will be true of cars and mileage. The sooner Detroit gets on board the fuel efficiency train, whether that be with plug-in diesel/electric hybrids, fuel cells, jet turbines on pickups, or something that nobody's thought of yet, the sooner they will start reaping the rewards, both social and economic, of that decision.

DogBlogging

Unlike Kevin Drum, I am not consistent enough of a picture-taker to have a regular pet-picture update like his Friday Catblogging. But Molly, the Official Roommate of The Consistent Fool, took a couple pictures of Turtle and Simon, our respective dogs, that are simply too cute not to share with the world. Without further ado:

Why I Hate Corn Farmers And Separatists

Jonathan Soros writes a N.Y. Times op-ed this morning calling for a rolling national primary, with ballots opening on January 1 and closing at the end of June, with vote counts being announced at the close of each month.

I don't particularly like this plan, mostly for logistical reasons. It's my understanding that the state parties, not the states themselves, run the primaries. Which means that now, we're asking a basically nonfunctional organization like, say, the Idaho Democrats, to be well-enough organized to keep a poll open for 6 months, with adequate resources on hand to allow for a rush of voters at the end of each month? Seems tricky to me.

For the record, I am in favor of either a national primary, with votes being cast simultaneously nationwide, or one of the regional plans, where the country is divided into 6 or 8 regions, and each region votes at the same time. If necessary, we can even rotate the order of voting among the regions.

Almost anything short of throwing darts at a board would be better than the system we have right now. The standard argument I hear for Iowa and New Hampshire's primacy is that it gives the chance for 'retail politicking', with Joe Biden giving a mini-speech in the living room of one of his supporters in Sioux City after a delicious dinner of tuna casserole, with cherry pie and Cool-Whip for dessert. Only in this sort of format can the voters really "get to know" the candidates, outside the usual forums of debates and 30-second spots during the commercial breaks in House.

Which is great, in theory. But the problem is, that's not how we actually elect presidents! I think we can all agree that New Hampshire and Iowa exert a large influence on the race. I would argue unduly large, but that might be a point of contention. Anyhow, I would analogize these two states as the first half of the regular season in a sporting event, the other primaries as the rest of the regular season, and then the general election as the playoffs.

This is like the NFL deciding 'okay, for the first 8 weeks of the season, touchdowns are worth 11 points, field goals are worth 8. For the next 8 weeks, touchdowns are worth 14, field goals 9. Then for the playoffs, we'll get back to the proper rules, where touchdowns are worth 7, and field goals 3.'

It's completely ridiculous to use 'retail politicking' to decide who gets the nomination for president, when the general campaign (the "playoffs") plays by a completely different set of rules.

I am no big fan of our current political setup, where it seems the majority of people form their opinions based on either 30-second ads or a vague notion of how much they like someone, based on their answers at debates, or 'a sense' they get from interviews, or something. But, for better or worse, those are the rules we play by. It makes no sense to use 3 different sets of rules over the course of the season.

My Life Is Complete

Well, everyone, it's been very nice knowing you, and I wish you the best of luck.

This is certainly my finest hour, as my bloggy man-crush, Ezra Klein, has linked to my little corner of the internets.

I feel like I probably ought to hang up the spurs after today, since it's clearly all downhill from here. But, what the hell - it's too much fun to give up just yet!

Welcome Ezra's readers, by the way. Make yourself at home!

Ezra Just Doesn't Get It

Ezra Klein, in an ill-fated attempt to derail the Giuliani Juggernaut, posts about the quality of the U.S. Healthcare system. However, he undoes his own arguments with his second graph! I look at that graph, with that big, beautiful, red bar representing all those (lost) US years of life, and all I can say is "We're Number One! USA! USA! USA!" Here, for your enjoyment, I have produced a more patriotic version of the same graph:
Don't tell me you can look at that and not have a tear well up in your eye...

Curse The 21st Century!

In one of those lovely conspiracies that seem to happen to me all-too-often, I am computer-less at home. My desktop's power supply died earlier this week, and the new one should arrive in the mail soon, but has not yet. Then, tonight, my laptop's wireless stopped working. In theory, it still worked if I plug it directly into my router, but what's the point of that? So it's back at Best Buy for warranty work.

Whoopee!

I'm just finishing up a quick Saturday-night work shift. Good times, good times.

Until I am re-computered, I will be sending in my blog posts via Pony Express. In other words, posting may be light for a little while...

Sleeping With Children

Interesting, if somewhat uninsightful, article on co-sleeping in the Times Science section this week.

I've mentioned the book The Continuum Concept once before. Again, I'm not going to go into great detail about the book's thesis; you can read my previous entry if you want to know the short version.

But it has a lot to say about the concept of co-sleeping, although it doesn't refer to it by any such name. As a book, it has very little use for named programs like 'Ferberizing' or 'co-sleeping'. Instead, the author, Jean Liedloff, attempts to use a form of investigation to figure out what's good for children.

Most modern parenting experts have very little in the way of real scientific proof for their theories. The fact is, in this sort of field, such data is very hard to come by, because the number of confounding variables is so vast and difficult to characterize. Ideally, we'd like to take a few thousand babies and throw them in a laboratory, and raise them under tightly controlled conditions. By controlling one or two variables at a time, we could really test some childrearing theories.

Of course, we don't really want to do that; taking thousands of kids from their parents and raising them in a huge science experiment would be Bad. So, instead, we're stuck doing regression analysis and playing all sorts of statistical games, trying to back-calculate what factors might actually make a real difference.

As a result, it's usually possible to dig up studies that show almost anything you might think to test for has the desired outcome. Alternatively, it's usually possible to find data supporting the conclusion that the absolute opposite is also true.

Liedloff, on the other hand, goes looking for answers in an entirely different laboratory. In a way that Daniel Quinn would absolutely approve of, she argues that, if you go out and look at native societies, you can actually find ways of living that work. The idea is a fairly simple one - if you make the assumption that how native peoples are living now is the way they've been living for most of their time as a society (say, 10,000 years in the case of American native peoples), then what you see when you look at them are time-tested solutions to the problems people face as they live their lives, raise their children, etc.

So, to co-sleeping (finally). In short, what Liedloff found in her studies was that, in native societies, babies sleep in their parents' beds until they are ready not to. Sometimes this is just 1 or 2 years, sometimes as many as 5 or 6. But, as they grow, every single one eventually gets to the point that they're ready to move on from the parental bed. At that point, they move on.

Until that time, the children learn that sleeping is warm, and comfortable, and safe. Additionally, since breastfeeding is so widespread in those cultures, it's easier if the mother is always available during the night.

There are lots of modern arguments against co-sleeping, but they really are all about the parents' convenience or mores, not what's good or bad for the kids. Parents are, of course, worried about their sleep being disrupted. I guess there are some worries about the babies' safety, but, again - we evolved not to roll over and smush our babies during the night. We'll figure it out okay.

As for sex, what's so bad about having sex in front of a 6 month old? If you feel uncomfortable about it, it's got much more to do with your level of comfort than with any real concern you have for the baby...he's not going to remember any of this, at least not conciously, by the time he's 5 or 6 years old.

Anyway, I can't really do the argument good justice without rewriting the book. But, please - if you are at all interested by these ideas, do check it out. I have a copy I'll lend you, if you are so inclined. Liedloff does a much better job explaining these things than I do, and it's definitely worth your time.

What's Good For The Goose Is Good For The Pander

The more I learn in this year's Presidentials, the more I am definitely onboard with the 'Rudy Giuliani as President terrifies me' school of thought. Here's Rudy's answer to the question of whether or not the oft-discussed technique of waterboarding is torture:

It depends on how it’s done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it. I think the way it’s been defined in the media, it shouldn’t be done. The way in which they have described it, particularly in the liberal media.

I've included the second half of the quote so I can't be accused of taking him out of context.

So, at the most generous interpretation, Giuliani appears to think that waterboarding probably isn't torture, because the detiails of the procedure have been wildly exaggerated by the liberal media.

Alternatively, it appears very possible that he believes that, so long as it is good guys who are doing it, then it can't possibly be torture. Because...I don't really quite know. Maybe because we're American, and we're good. So, by definition, whatever we do is okay.

Sometimes, I really wish I didn't think so much and so deeply about these sorts of things. It would be really nice to be able to believe these sorts of things. It would make questions about issues like torture so much easier to answer.

Under Where?

Apropos of very little, Seth Stevenson's paean to boxer briefs in Slate.

My New Strategy For Getting Women

Via Matt, the story of Rolf Eden, a 77-year-old German playboy, who is suing a 19-year-old that refused to have sex with him at the end of a date in which he wined her, dined her, and even played the piano for her!

He is suing her for age discrimination, as she told him that she would not have sex with him due to his advanced age. There is the obvious legal rejoinder that, if German laws are anything like American ones, you cannot discriminate against someone for the standard reasons (gender, age, race, religion, sexual preference in some states/contexts) for the questions of housing, employment, and surely a few other things as well. But you are absolutely allowed to discriminate for the question of sex on the basis of any damn thing you choose; race, age, whether or not the person in question has large enough breasts, or enough hair remaining on his head.

On a less serious note, though, I like this strategy quite a bit, if only for its 21st century counterintuitiveness. Next time I find myself attracted to a lesbian who is completely uninterested in me, I'm definitely going to threaten to sue for discrimination on the basis of sexual preference. That should allow me to finally live out my lifelong fantasy of getting my ass kicked by a lesbian!

Where There's Smoke

Regarding the ongoing reduction of Southern California via fire, I feel like this is one of those stories where I'm obligated to have an opinion, only there's nothing I can say that will really add to the discussion whatsoever.

It is pretty remarkable that somewhere in the vicinity of a million people have been evacuated and, as of last night, there were 2 confirmed fatalities. That's some fine work by SoCal's finest. Also, for whatever it's worth, it sounds like there has been a lot more work put into making sure that everyone's minimal requirements (food, water, shelter, etc.) are being met, and, as a result, there hasn't been nearly the number of citizen-caused problems (riots, looting, etc.) as greeted New Orleans 3 years back.

In lieu of a real comment, I will link to Ezra.

Not Quite Good, Nor Quite Good For You

I shudder at the number of unnatural ingredients and processes that go into producing it, but I do have to admit that Yoplait's light, fat-free, Boston Cream Pie flavored yogurt is, all-in-all, quite tasty.

The Anti-Anti-Missile-Missile-Missile

Seriously?

We are still talking about missile defense?

Look, I get it. Defense contractors give a lot of money to pols. So we give them plum deals like new boomers, Reagan-class supercarriers, new Joint Strike Fighters designed to shoot down, well, apparently our own planes, since we're the only ones making planes anywhere near that advanced. Fine and good.

But the thing of it is, those things work. The new submarines actually go underwater. The JSF actually is the most technologically advanced plane ever built. The Osprey...well, the less said about that $20 billion boondoggle, the better.

Whereas, as detailed by Fred Kaplan, not only is there no particular reason to expect that missile defense works, or may ever work, as it is initially designed, but it's also an incredibly expensive system which can be overwhelmed in the simplest of fashions.

It seems to be the policy of this administration to do everything they can to exacerbate the modern-day problems of assymetrical warfare. This concept is simple - if you can do vast amounts of damage with little effort or expenditure (say, by hijacking two airplanes with $30 worth of box cutters and fly them into skyscrapers), then even a small, well-organized force can deal significant damage to a superior power.

Which is part of the problem with being the biggest player in town - you are more exposed to these sorts of attacks. It's part of the nature of being a superpower, and it can't be entirely helped.

But to my mind, the worst thing you could do is make a huge deal out of this issue, and actually go out and spend those (hundreds of) billions of dollars trying to counter the actions of a few dozen people holed up in a cave in Pakistan. It hurts your economy, lowers national morale, and, if you fail (as these sorts of things almost always do), makes you look weak on the international stage.

So, sending the US Army to fight a guerilla civil war in a faraway land is a bad policy. Sometimes it will have to be done, but you had better be damn sure it's for the best possible reasons. Similarly, spending tens of billions of dollars to build a defense system which can be overwhelmed by an enemy simply launching two missiles simultaneously is worse than just unproductive - it actually pushes them to work faster to build missiles, and to build more of them. And since, presumably, the cost of developing and deploying a missile is much less than an anti-missile system, it's an economy of scale that we are going to lose, every time.

But, it's good to know that the Democrats managed to shave $290 million, or a whopping 3.3 percent, from Bush's requested allocation of $8.9 billion this year. Leaves me feeling really fucking optimistic about the future of the union, that 3.3 percent.

It's Not TV

The show I am probably most amazed to even find in podcast form is undoubtedly Real Time with Bill Maher, an HBO Friday-night news chat show which is similar in style to Maher's last gig, Politically Incorrect. Every week he does a monologue, has two one-on-one interviews, and the majority of the time is a discussion panel with 3 guests.

It's only downloadable, so far as I can tell, through iTunes. And while it kills me to pimp an Apple product, iTunes does a very respectable job keeping me updated with podcasts, so there you go. Good work, Steve Jobs!

Anyhow, you should get this past week's episode. It's classic, for many reasons. For one, there's an incredibly insightful interview with Gary Kasparov, formerly the world chess champion and now the leader of the opposition political party in Russia. If you get the episode, scroll to 30:23 to get to the start of the interview. As Chris Matthews says afterwards, it's amazing how he doesn't talk down to the listeners at all, but is instead open and honest and, well, right about so many things.

Also, it's worth scrolling to 21:17 and listening to two plants start ranting about Building 7 at the World Trade Center. You can see the video here. It's great to see Maher actually run into the audience and help security get rid of one of the protesters. Gotta love actual live TV. I do have to give them props for not editing it out of the podcast, though; that's downright admirable.

So, go check it out. Get rid of your satellite dish and just get you some iTunes - you'll never know the difference!

Should We Talk About The Weather Now? / Should We Talk About The Government?

It's worth noticing how absolutely ridiculous the weather has been the last few days here in the Front Range area of Colorado.

On Saturday, we had a rather unseasonal fall day of Chinook winds. These are the winds that I believe usually appear in late spring/early summer here. Normally, in Colorado, wind is equated with colder weather. The Chinooks are the one exception, and Saturday was a stunning example. Strong winds, 30+ mph, but a high of 80 during the day.

Then, that night, a big cold front blew through, and Sunday dawned about 30 degrees, with wet, driving snow falling. High that day in the mid-to-upper 40's, although by the afternoon the sun had come out and dried the streets pretty well.

And now, we're talking temps in the 70's tomorrow, possibly lasting as long as Saturday, when Denver will see its first-ever World Series game played in town.

I know, after 8 years, that really nothing ought to surprise me about the weather here anymore. And yet, somehow, it just keeps happening...

Shoot First, Then Who Needs Questions?

This video got cited several places today, but it's worthwhile to watch Chris Matthews absolutely eviscerate the completely reflexive, irrational hawkishness of some fool from AEI. Scroll forward to about 3:55 to get to the really good stuff.

Happiness Is...

Sad to say, but tonight, happiness is a quietly sleeping dog, a hot cup of tea, an internet-functional laptop, and a brand-new episode of House.

The Answers To Life's Eternal Verities

Okay, firstly, let me blog the praises for Gorilla Tape. That shit really will stick to anything. It's not the most elegant thing in the world to have every one of my windows in the house surrounded by a ring of black duct tape-looking stuff, but at least the plastic is hung and, so far as I can tell, not going anywhere.

Nextly, commenters Michael and Daniel get to the heart of the matter of the groping dentist, which had escaped me. The real issue is not that there's a dentist out there groping innocent women. That sort of thing just happens sometimes; there are scuzzballs everywhere. The biggest question is, why did these women, upon being groped, continue to return to the dentist in question, up to 6 times in 2 years in once case, then act surprised when he groped them again? I hate to be an anti-feminist, but if someone were making me feel that uncomfortable then I probably, you know, wouldn't go back.

I believe that Tim McCarver is an amazing invention. Like, if we didn't have him, we'd have to task the scientists up with inventing something like him. He is actually negatively informative. Which is hard, right? You think of 'being informative' as a thing which can only be zero or positive, something like pressure in physics. Pressure is the act of getting buffeted by surrounding molecules. In the absence of molecules, zero pressure, but you can't have less than nothing surrounding you.

Likewise, you think of someone as being able to inform you, in which case they are positively informative, or not being able to, in which case they are simply uninformative. However, just like we learn in cutting-edge modern physics that the Higgs field can provide, under just the right circumstances, the kind of negative pressure that could give a gravitational push to begin the expansion of the universe (one of the popular models of inflationary cosmology), it turns out that the mere act of listening to someone talk about a subject can actually make you less knowledgable about the subject. Not because the information he is giving you is actually false. But, rather, because the information is so trite, inane, and uninteresting that parts of your brain actually begin to shut down.

Tim McCarver is like this with baseball. The more I listen to him, the less I know.

One Of The Eternal Mysteries. Whose Answer Has Eluded Us Since Time Immemorial

Why, oh why, does my water bottle smell like sweaty feet?

Homeowner's Bleg

Another blogging beg, as I ask for help/advice from you, Faithful Readers.

Since I live in Longmont (the Boulder County equivalent of a third-world country), my house has old, old windows. I'm sure they were wonderful, state of the art back in the late 60's when my house was built. But at this point, they suck. Last winter, when it really got chill, I could stand near them and literally feel a breeze as cold air came pouring in.

Being the cheap bastard that I am, I invested in $25 worth of plastic film, which I taped over the windows. From now on, I am calling this the 'Longmont triple-pane'. I had some problems getting it to stay up, but mostly it worked really well, and definitely held down the heating bill in what was the coldest winter I've had here.

So I'm trying to do the same thing again, but for whatever reason, having much less luck with the taping part. I did every window in the house on Sunday, and by Monday morning every sheet but one had pulled away from the wall. I got some more last night (different brand), and doing some more reading, found out that the tape is actually not designed to stick to painted drywall. But the recommendation was that I attach to the frame, and apparently the tape is not designed to stick to cold metal, either.

As a desperate last measure, I decided to try duct-taping the plastic to the drywall, only apparently duct tape doesn't stick to drywall for shit, either.

So, I'm lost. Does anyone out there have some experience along these lines? Is there a kind of tape (either single- or double-sided) which sticks better to painted drywall? Or a particular brand of these plastic sheet packages that I should be buying? Or any other ideas, short of getting better windows?

Regrets In Life

I have very few regrets in life, but after reading this story, I'm kinda wishing I had chosen to be a dentist.

In Defense Of The Fair-Weather Fan

So-called 'true' sports fans spend lots of time being angry at fair-weather fans. As if, somehow, having been silly enough to sit through ten straight losing seasons, or staying until the end of the game, even when you're down by 30, and it's 45 degrees and raining, somehow makes you a better person, a bigger fan.

The fact is, and Bill Simmons will be the first to admit this, your fanship only really matters to yourself. The team doesn't really matter how long you've been cheering, or paying attention, or whatever. All they care about now is whether you're here, now. Buying tickets, and beer, and cheering enough to help the home team win, so they can keep playing, and sell more tickets, and souvenir programs, and so on and so forth. And certainly, those fair-weather fans don't think more of you. If anything, they think you're ridiculous for going to losing games all those years.

Now, that's not to deny the experience of the true fan. For better or worse (usually the latter), I am an Eagles fan for life. I am steeped in the legends of Jaws, and Carmichael, and Buddy Ball and Randall Cunningham and 4th-and-freaking-26. For 3 and a half hours each week, I live and die with those ugly-ass green jerseys.

But, when the Eagles were doing well, and when they went to the Super Bowl, and suddenly our weekly watching sessions went from 3 diehards to 5 diehards and 6 more 'who the hell are you, and can you even name 10 people on the squad?'s, I did not protest. Instead, I revelled in the larger crew, the rowdier shouts, the way I had to suddenly slap hands with 12 strangers every time a big play went our way. My joy in my team's performance is mine, and mine alone, to experience. I can share it, in a sort of perhipheral way, with the fans around me, but inherently my experience has so much to do with my personal history, in a way that they could never understand.

So don't belittle the fair-weather fan. So what if he can't tell you who the third starting pitcher is, or when the last time a team had ever done anything like that before? Not everyone has the time, or the interest, to care so much all the time. If your team is doing well, and suddenly you have 100 times as many fans as before, love it for what that means for your team, and your experience, rather than try to degrade those Johnny-come-lately's who were probably wearing Red Sox caps 3 years ago.

Which is all an extended introduction to the fact that Daisy scored two tickets for the Rockies game tonight in Denver. So, grace willing, I may be there to watch the Rockies, a team who I can honestly say I only cared about enough to make the occasional 'boy, these guys really do suck!' joke until about 4 weeks ago, sew up a spot in their franchise-first World Series. And you better believe I'm going to be cheering my head off, if only to keep warm, as it's supposed to be 48 degrees at first pitch.

But, no, I will be cheering like I've been there all along. And while my joy will not be so pure as someone who has been watching, and cheering, all these years, it will be my joy, and frankly, I'm excited as hell about it.

I Have Information Animal Vegatable And Mineral

Can I just say (of course I can, it's my blog. I can say anything I want. I'm being rhetorical) that carrots from the farmer's market taste approximately 1 bazillion times better than the lathe-formed bullet-shaped carrotettes that most people prefer these days?

2 more weeks of Farmer's Markets. I will be sad when it ends for the year.

One Last Thought For The Weekend

Happy Friday, y'all, and I wish everyone a great weekend.

Before I take off, one last post about an interesting article I found recently, arguing the logic of fare-free public transit.

I'm sure everyone will be shocked, shocked! by this, but this liberal likes the idea. It's patently ridiculous that people are all too happy to pay for roads, bridges, etc. through their taxes, but insist that any public transit system be able to pay for itself. Look, we make all sorts of decisions in the financial code that subsidize some people at the expense of others. Through tax deductions, we subsidize homeowners at the expense of renters, although in that marvelously regressive way where people who make more money get bigger deductions. Super! Through tax credits, we really subsidize people with kids at the expense of those who choose not to subject the world to the fruit of their loins.

Look, I am pro-car. Cars are great. They give us access to the wider world, give us freedom and helped build the whole concept of a middle class. Plus, I love my car. But I also realize that I drive too much, and I should ride my bike/take the bus more often. If the bus were free, I would definitely take it more; especially if I knew I was already paying for it with taxes!

Anyhow, sometime over the weekend, read the article. What do you think?

We Are America, We Have Come For Your Little Red Lines

This map is pretty fucking cool. It's good to know that, at least for the moment, the US is still the heart of the global data stream's circulatory system. Although, my favorite line is the lonely one going from what looks like Rio across the Pacific to Tokyo. Also noticeable is the fact that Africa has more lines dedicated to it that Russia. For all the fear of a resurgent Soviet bear, I'm really not worried about a country which can't generate even one little red line...

Equal Views Of Inequality

Matt and then Ezra decline to get down to the root causes of inequality in our economic system. Here's Ezra:

Whether inequality is a result of skills-biased technological change or low marginal tax rates or Wall Street or the inequality gnomes is really neither here nor there

And, like Michelle's post about pharma, Matt and Ezra are right, in that what they say is true. But they're also wrong, in the sense that it is incomplete.

Look, as with most such complex issues, there is a huge range of reasons why inequality exists on such a vast (and ever-vastening, if that's a word) scale in 00's America. There is certainly a piece of it having to do with inborn skills. Undoubtedly, Warren Buffet has a innate knack and wisdom about financial matters that I absolutely lack. And there's part of it to do with education. A Harvard-educated MBA is certainly more useful to a hedge fund than I am, even if I am absolutely smarter (however one measures such a thing) than she is.

But part of it is, undoubtedly, that the system is being gamed. It's a simple idea, really. Politicians want money, so they can run campaigns and keep their offices. So they appeal to people with money to give them some of the money. The people with money say 'great, here's some money. And boy, it really sucks that I have to pay taxes on this-and-that investment, if I didn't I would have more money, and would invest it, and the economy would grow, and wouldn't that be super?' And thus the system is rigged in favor of those who already have lots money to get even more money.

Matt and Ezra are right that some of the fixes for inequality won't deal with root causes. We aren't going to keep people uneducated just so everyone is equal, nor are we going to magically make everyone super-duper smart just by wishing it were so. But, at the same time, if we don't fix, or at least improve, the parts of the system that are vulnerable to the type of corruption I sketched above, then no matter what fixes we try to implement now, future generations are going to have to deal with new tactics which have the same net outcome.

If nothing else, future administrations will be Republican, or conservative, or just less-interested in the questions of equality than, say, an Edwards presidency would be. If you don't fix the underlying structure, but simply put on cosmetic, short-term fixes, the whole edifice could still be brought down sometime later on. So it's important to understand and address as many of the root causes of the problem as you can.

Keep Your Eye On The Prize

Al Gore and the IPCC share the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in bringing to light the serious and rather imminent nature of the threat of global warming.

This is great news for the Al Gore brand, obviously, and re-raises the question of whether or not he should try to use this as a springboard to run once again for the presidency that he nearly won in 2000. Some say he did win, and I think most anyone reading this blog would agree that we wish he had won, but that's rather beside the point.

I don't think Gore will run, nor do I think he should. I suspect it would be best for the rest of us if he did run, because I think a President Gore will be better for the country than a President Hillary Clinton, the most likely outcome at this moment, will be. However, I think a President Gore is not nearly as effective as Al Gore, Professional Activist is for Gore himself.

As a slight aside, this bloggingheads.tv episode is one of the best I've heard in rather a while. David Corn and Jim Pinkerton are quite respectable center-left and center-right pundits, repectively, and have discussions that civil, enlightening, and entertaining. There are several really good bits of the diavlog that deserve pointing out, I'll try and get to a few of them in the next day or two. But really, you should just watch the whole thing. It will be an hour well-spent, I assure you.

Here's the bit that leads me to mention this diavlog here. Jim is perfectly right-there's absolutely no reason for Gore to believe that he would have more ability, as President, to improve the chances of changing world opinions and actions on the subject of climate change.

Look, there are two countervailing forces here. There are people who are concerned, for humanitarian, environmental, or other personal reasons about the impact that a warming planet might have. There are a few really silly, anti-environmental motives for doubting or denying warming, but most serious counterarguments are fundamentally economic in nature. And they're not entirely wrong. Even the most optimistic estimates say that dealing with climate change will have a negative effect on economic growth, as vast resources are spent on upgrading the energy sector to become more efficient and less carbon-emitting.

Now, in my opinion, this is not a big deal. But I am not a believer in economic growth uber alles. I think there are many things that are more important. And preventing Antarctica from falling into the ocean and billions of poor people in low-lying countries from drowning definitely qualify as more important, in my book. Plus, without making the energy economy significantly more efficient, there's no realistic way that we will be able to significantly raise the standard of living of the rest of the world, since there is an unseverable link between standard of living and energy consumption.

But, the point I am trying to get to here is that corporations, generally, are going to be against making drastic changes for the sake of halting global warming. And, generally, what corporations want, governments provide. The only way of changing this is going to be real, massive, public outcry.

And the fact is, Gore can generate that outcry more efficiently in his current role than he ever could as President. As President, every time Gore goes on Meet the Press to talk about carbon taxes, they're going to also have some hack from The Concerned Citizen's Brigade or some other ridiculously misnamed corporate stooge group to bring up misleading or outright false claims, statistics, etc. to protest. But as a private person, he gets to host his own events, control the story the media tells much more effectively.

Plus, as David points out, he has authority without responsibility, which is ideal. He won't get tied down with scandals or negotiations about other issues. If Al Gore thinks the single most important issue facing us right now is global warming, then the best thing he could do for the cause is keep on doing exactly what he has been.

Rule #1 Of Fight Club

Okay, I only have one thing to say about the latest imbroglio featuring Ann Coulter, which is that this is the last time I shall ever mention the name Ann Coulter in this column. I the unlikely event that she actually ever does anything newsworthy, I will refer to her, in honor of her intellectual and inspirational cohort, as She Who Shall Not Be Named.

Look, her whole raison d'etre is to find marginally reasonable things to say, figure out how to say them in the most offensive fashion possible, then say them as such. The logic behind this is quite simple: this way, people will glance at what she has to say, react in the over-the-top fashion which is exactly what she is aiming for (Oh My God! This is unparalleled! We must protest!), and yet the thing that she said has a kernel of truth, or sense, or whatever to it so that she can then come back and defend it in a much more reasonable tone that is acceptable to, at the least, her supporters. It's the same damn script every time.

As with this case: look, at the base of it, what she is saying is true. Christians, kind of by definition, believe that Jesus is the path to salvation, and that those who don't believe in Jesus' divinity (Jews, Muslims, Zoroastrians, Spaghettarians) are wrong, and doomed to hellfire and brimstone for the vast majority of their eternal existence. Those who say otherwise are, in all likelihood, soft-pedaling their beliefs, or at least the beliefs of their church.

But, of course, she can't just say that; she has to use inflammatory language about Jews needing 'to be perfected' and the like. Whatever.

Unfortunately, as always, this has led to the usual number of 'has she gone too far this time???' stories, including on the Today show which I just turned off. Of course she hasn't. She's gone exactly as far as she went all the other times. And, like a 3-year old acting out in order to get your attention, she's not going to go away until, well, we stop giving her attention, inviting her in for commentary, and such.

So, as I said before, until she does something actually newsworthy, which by definition means something more interesting than her usual modus operandi, this is the last mention she will ever warrant on this blog.

In The Snow, Without Shoes, Uphill, Both Ways...

I think, now that I'm 30, I'm officially old enough that I get to start writing posts like this one.

It's been brought to my attention on multiple occasions lately that I think my tastes may actually, tragically, finally be growing up.

A few months ago, I went to dinner at McDonald's after a really rough day at work, under the theory that I really needed some comfort food, and, once upon a time, Mickey D's definitely fit the bill. Hey, what can I say? I was a child of my generation. Anyhow, tragically, sometime between the time I was 15 and now, McDonald's suddenly forgot how to make a hamburger. Or else I have been so busy spoiling myself with buffalo burgers and grass-fed hand-formed patties from my own grill that I just can't appreciate the wonderful magic of the chemically-enhanced artifical flavor concoction that is a Quarter-Pounder anymore.

And now, I can't even enjoy junky TV anymore. I had hopes for the new incarnation of Bionic Woman. Cute chick can punch through walls, do all kinds of wacky kung-fu, and jump hundreds of feet through the air? Plus, the bad guy is also a hot chick, and they totally fight in the rain. Really, how can this not go well?

Well, sadly, it does. I was hoping that they would go for the Lost demographic, putting a normal person in a rather extraordinary circumstance and seeing where it goes. But no. The 24-year old bartender with the cute, vaguely geeky scientist boyfriend? She got into Harvard, but had to drop out to take care of her little sister after mom died. Vaguely geeky scientist boyfriend happens to be the only surgeon in the world capable of saving her after a car accident (an aside: really? A truck? Crazy female super-soldier wants to exact revenge on those people who 'did this to her', and the best she can come up with is plowing into his car with an 18-wheeler? Really?)

And can I just say how tremendously irritating it is that they've made no effort whatsoever to maintain the cool factor in the bad guy by keeping her mysterious for as long as possible? The reason The Others are interesting in Lost is that we don't know what the fuck is going on! If they kept appearing and monologuing all over the place, we'd rapidly lose interest and go back to watching UFC. But, by keeping us wondering what's going on, we stay interested!

Instead, we are treated to tedious monologues, where people talk and talk and talk, but somehow no information is transmitted.

It's a fine line, of course, between simply bad TV and kitschy, entertaining popcorn TV. There are only a few small elements separating Heroes from Bionic Woman. While Heroes has the tedious, uninformative monologues (especially Mohinder's opening and closing 'logues), they are so pretentious and over-the-top that all you can do is laugh, while somehow the statements in Bionic Woman, by taking themselves as seriously but being slightly less absurdly ridiculous, aren't at all entertaining, just painful to watch/listen to. Heroes knows how to keep you in the dark about what's going on; some good action takes place offscreen, and you often don't know who people are as the series goes on.

Which is not to say, in any way, that Heroes is good TV. Not by any stretch. But, unlike Bionic Woman, it's badness is entertaining and fun to watch, and thus I will be watching it for more than 3 weeks this season.

Which means, I guess, I'm not quite that old yet...

Nougat, Nougat Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink

Apropos of the Halloweeney season, a post about candy.

So, I was surfing by the candy shack, which is the little area where we have free miniature candy bars and packs of gum, at work today. On a whim, I picked up a Reese's Fast Break bar, which is something I've never tried before. It was okay, as a confection. I've had better, I've had worse. It gave me a few calories and some sugar to get me through the end of the afternoon, all to the best.

I chanced to look at the wrapper, which is the bar graphic at the top of the candy's official website. Note the main ingredients: Milk Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Soft Nougats.

This kind of blew my mind. For one thing, nougat has always confused me. What is it? Can you buy it at Safeway? Or is it one of those frou-frou things you can only find at Whole Foods? Alternatively, do you wander into 'Candy Bars 'R' Us' and say "Stout yeoman! I would like 3 pounds of your finest Lincolnshire Nougat!"

But this was definitely the first time I've ever heard of nougats. I always considered it to be one of those nouns, like 'lithium' or 'gravel', which never appears in the plural. You never say "I'd like three gravels, please", and I would never think to say "these are some mighty fine nougats in this here candy bar. Yee-haw!" Come to think of it, there are many reasons I would never say that, but I digress. The point is that I thought of nougat as, according to Wikipedia, what is referred to as a 'mass noun'.

And this leads me back, sort of, to the question of what the hell nougat is in the first place. Again, according to Wikipedia, it is basically defined as a substance which is sweet, and which ranges in texture from soft to very chewy, almost crunchy, and can be white or brown, and can have one or more of many types of nuts in it, or not. Which means, pretty much, that it can be kind of anything that goes in the middle of a candy bar.

So, no mysteries solved, really, but I am excited for Halloween.

Whew, Much Better

Okay, the last post may have been a bit over the top, but come on!

It's the greatest animated movie (and one of my top 10 favorites) of all time, out in a new, 3-D release! Since I've never gotten married or had a kid, I think this may qualify as the most exciting day of my entire life...

Pardon Me, While I Go Put On Some New Underwear

This is so exciting, I think I just crapped my pants, a little bit.

Weekend In Review

Three thoughts from the weekend:

1) Dear lord almighty, the Broncos are terrible. My friend Drew scored two free tickets to yesterdays Broncos/Chargers tumble from his work, and was excessively kind enough to take me along. The experience of the game was quite fun, at least until the weather suddenly went from sunny and mid-60's to cloudy, low 50's, and raining. Fortunately, by the point the rains really kicked in, the Broncos' extreme suckitude had kicked in enough that the game was entirely out of hand, 38-3, so we (along with nearly everyone else in the stadium) felt free to leave without fear of missing any display of quality from the home squad.

I later found out that the Broncos had been mauled by injuries, with both of their starting cornerbacks and their center taken down, but still. It looked like spring practice for the Charger's O.

2) The mainstream media (MSM for those hip to the bloggy lingo) still really sucks. Watching Meet the Press on Sunday, Ted Koppel raises the fact that all these journalists from New York, the ones who know Rudy Guiliani the best, are writing these screeds about how horrible he is and raising all these negative stories and issues about him, and doesn't that say something about maybe, if people knew a little more about him, we'd all be terrified about him having even more power than he did as governor?

But, of course, we never actually got to the point where they discussed what those problems were, what sort of things people might actually want to know about Giuliani. Because, you know, that might actually inform the populace, rather than titillate them, and information doesn't drive the ratings!

Instead, we got them going all meta, and explaining how Rudy's Powers Of 9/11 meant that it all just washed off him.

Apparently it never occurred to them that the reason that all of Rudy's horrible personality traits don't actually stick to him is that the media refuses to actually talk about those traits. Instead, we get all sorts of analysis about how people want Daddy to protect them from the terrorists hiding under their bed, and how people should vote for Rudy because only He Can Defeat The Mighty Clinton Machine!

Ugh.

Okay, no time for a third thought now. More later.

Blogs Blogs Blogs Blogs

Two friends have started up new blogs, which I feel like I ought to link to on general principle. If Matt and Ezra link to Megan McArdle because they think she's cute and they eat dinner together a lot, even though her actual posts are generally execrable, then I can send some of my meager traffic Staben and Tonya's way.

1) Michelle Staben has started 'Let The Words Out', in an attempt to meet her 'minimum verbosity emitted per day' requirements without forcing LJ to resort to drastic measures like ball gags or self-mutilation. I have my doubts about its efficacity, since Michelle likes to talk more than she tends to think, and writing is inherently a thinking exercise. However, blogging is more like talking that usual writing is, so maybe this will all work out after all. I like LJ, so I wish the project the best of luck.

2) Tonya Pepper has one post up at 'Pepper in Peru', which is to be a diary of her 4-month sojourn south of the border (if by 'border' I mean 'equator'). The title of the first post is 'Pre-Peru Preparations', which is just a hoot to say out loud. Try it! Absolutely precious...

The NFL, In One Sentence Or Less

Best line I've read about the NFL so far this year, from Bill Simmons today.

Yup, it's a top-heavy league and the Patriots are wearing a 55DDDDDDDD bra right now.

Open Bedroom Doors Make For Good Neighbors?

Reihan, guesting at Ross's place, makes the case, makes the case for cohousing, along with other communal-type living arrangements. Matt jumps onboard, saying

As the proud resident of a ramshackle five bedroom house, I must concede that the idea has a certain appeal.

Hell, I did the five-bedroom ramshackle thing for a long time (6ish years) while I was living in Boulder, and it was both fun and economically, socially, and environmentally sensible. Although I derive some great benefits from living in Longmont (I enjoy the cheaper standard of living, the short commute, and the privacy derived from living in a more independent way), I do miss the near-communal feel that the three long-term residents (me, Neil, and Matty) derived from that house.

However, this is, once again, one of those sad times where good intentions are going to run afoul of the vessels in which they are being carried. Human beings aren't the types, on the whole, to make decisions on the basis that they are environmentally sound, if they cost a great deal in terms of economic or social capital. And the fact is, for a married couple, and especially for a couple with kids, there are serious and real benefits to having private space.

Not that I would know anything about this, since I've never been married and would never think to fornicate against the will of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but it can be very nice to not have to worry about conducting all of your marital affairs behind closed doors (or even to be restricted to the bedroom, for that matter), or retreat to your room every time you want to have a telephone conversation. And I like not having a TV in my room, but it seemed more necessary when I had roommates with taste in TV and movies that I found, shall we say, occasionally questionable.

Look, I am as much of an 'Imagine all the people' guy as anyone around, and I think that we will eventually have to turn around the somewhat deplorable trend of less and less people taking up more and more space, for reasons both environmental and social. But I think one of the examples Reihan quotes, people living in independent spaces, but with communal areas and responsibilities, is a much more promising idea than trying to convince people to actually share living spaces.

As Daniel Quinn would say, we aren't ever going to go back to the system of everyone living under one roof, with all the lacks of privacy that entails. Instead, we need to go forward to something new, something better, which keeps the good aspects of the current system (privacy, independence) while doing something to reduce its negative parts (large economic and environmental costs, and the erection of steep social barriers between families and communities).

If only I knew how to actually do it, I could probably figure out a way to make some real money. Anyone have any good ideas? I think places like this are a promising start...

Classic Rants

Some really classic rants on the 'sphere today, and one of my own to add.

First, Bob Wright lays out most of the major missteps of the Iraq misadventure in 42 seconds flat.

Second, Ezra points out the utterly ridiculous nature of the liberal hawks' defense of their position vis-a-vis Iraq, in 2002 and since.

And, finally, today's must-read was the New York Times' article about the ways the Bush administration conspired to allow and encourage agents of the US government to violate one of the chief precepts behind the entire concept of Western law, that of the fundamental dignity of the individual, by arguing, cajoling and, when necessary, outright lying to allow the torture of accused Al Qaeda members. The money quote, if there could be one:

Relying on a Supreme Court finding that only conduct that “shocks the conscience” was unconstitutional, the opinion found that in some circumstances not even waterboarding was necessarily cruel, inhuman or degrading, if, for example, a suspect was believed to possess crucial intelligence about a planned terrorist attack, the officials familiar with the legal finding said.

So, let me get this straight. Tying a helpless prisoner to a board, strapping a towel over their mouths, and pouring water onto the towel such as to stimulate the human body's automatic response to the feeling of drowning only counts as cruel or degrading sometimes? Only if you feel like it? It's not cool, unless you really really want to?

The whole point of a system of rules and regulations is that you can't leave decisions like this in the hands of people who can, at times, lose their sense of objectivity. It would be great if I could trust that US government agents would be so disciplined that they would only even think about doing this sort of thing to the worstest of the worst people, and only when it was completely necessary. If the CIA was made up exclusively of some sort of moral angels, who could perfectly balance the loss of human dignity with the importance of the situation, then great. Torture away!

Unfortunately the CIA, like most agencies of the US government, is full of actual human beings (I'm pretty sure that the Justice Department is filled with some sort of sub-human hybrid beings). Which means that, in the real world, if you tell people that they can torture if it's really important, then, to at least some people in positions of power, an incredible number of situations will suddenly seem really important.

I'm not even going to enter the discussion of whether torture works or not. It might. I don't care. If we're going to fight this fight by reducing ourselves to the level of people who cut the heads off of their prisoners then fuck it. I give up. If we're interested in actually winning the fight, as opposed to just killing the bad guys, then you have to go about it the right way. The smart way. For lack of a better phrase, the American way. And this shit, this is not it.

Science Is Cool

Only capital-S Science can come up with a computerized pillow, which will undoubtedly cost at least $150, to stop you from snoring. This reminds me to link to a story from Slate a few weeks ago about the cheapest and most efficacious way to halt snoring. My favorite part is the bit where a $0.50 tennis ball and a gym sock was both the cheapest and most effective method.

Fly, Eagles, Fly

Wow, is really all I can say. In a week in which Colorado beats #3 ranked Oklahoma, while the Eagles put up 3 points while allowing 12 sacks, while the Philles (!) are playing the Rockies (!!??!) in the playoffs, I officially don't know what the fuck is going on in sports anymore. And don't even get me started about the fact that people were talking about women's soccer for like 3 days. It's enough to make this jaded sports fan cry a little.

Posts I Will Never Actually Finish

Okay, I'm never going to actually finish the damn Hawaii posts, while the world passes me by. Here's a more detailed review of 'laying on the beach day', as started at the Kona airport. I'll get the other ones out, well, later.

So here I am, Friday night, the last night of my third and, dare I say, most fantastic of my summer of three fantastic vacations. I'm sitting in the Kona-Kailua airport, which is an entirely-outdoors structure. I understand why they do this, because it's Hawaii and it's, you know, nice and stuff. However, it is also, you know, humid and stuff, and I am currently sweating in places that a family-friendly blog like this dare not describe. My kingdom for some air conditioning!

Although it does amuse me that the only announcements I've heard over the PA system so far have been in Japanese. It doesn't amuse me as much as some AC would please me, but you take what you can get in life, right?

So, this post is undoubtedly going to be disjointed, since I am hot and sweaty, and I'm going to be trying to accurately recollect three days' worth of events. In addition, I'm sure I'll have to get up in the middle at some point and board the plane, which will probably reduce the quality of the post but will also reduce the ambient temperature, a trade-off I am all too happy to make.

I didn't write much about 'lay on the beach' day because, frankly, there wasn't much worth writing about. We slept in, had a slow breakfast. Eventually, we headed off to try to find a beach. At the advice of the apparently-not-too-well-informed desk clerk at the hotel, we started around the Hilton north of town, which is the general vicinity of the white sand beaches. After following signs for the shoreline, we ended up at a beach made up entirely of black volcanic rocks and white chunks of coral. Not exactly the beaches of my dreams that I was promised.

We hiked back through the grounds of the Hilton (very nice, resort-ey hotel, in case that's the sort of thing you are looking for next time you're in Kona) and got back in the car.

At this point, I feel like a small digression is appropriate. If you are going to travel to Hawaii, any of the islands, I highly recommend the Hawaii...Revealed series of books (in this case, “Hawaii, The Big Island Revealed.”) There's really nothing I hate more in a guidebook than indecisiveness. I don't want a book that tells me about 18,000 different things to do. I'm never going to have time to do all those things, and I don't really want to waste my time reading about the 17,990 that I'm not going to do.

I just want you to tell me the 10ish things that I really ought to do while I'm there. I don't even need the '10 best.' As a habit, I try not to regret the things I don't do. Instead, try to make sure that you enjoy the things you do do (heh heh, he said 'doo doo.') So, I want to make sure that I have a list of things that are pretty cool.

And so, 'Hawaii, The Big Island Revealed.' Short, small, easy to carry.

When I wanted a white sandy beach, we looked under the 'Beaches' section. A brief scan lets us know that Kohala, north of Kona, is the place for white sandy stuff. Look for the ones labelled 'A Real Gem'. Sure enough, Mauna Kea. A few miles north, just off the main drag. Sounds super.

When we arrive, suddenly Mike remembers: Mauna Kea is a resort hotel. The hotel building was hit by an earthquake not too long ago and condemned. Fortunately, it looks like the beach is still open. But mostly empty, since the hotel is closed down. The condos associated with the hotel are still open, so the bar is still open for the residents. $10 for a very tasty Mai Tai – a little pricey but what the hell, it's my birthday week!

A few hours on the beach, a nice sunset, and some reasonably serious amounts of alcohol consumed back at the hotel, and all-in-all a very nice day.

Links!

I'm still putting together the last touches on the Hawaii posts, but to keep you busy while I edit, a few links to follow.

Tom Tomorrow explains bipartisanship (hat tip: Ezra)

A completely not tongue-in-cheek case in favor of the Empire in Star Wars. Money quote: "Palpatine believes that the political order must be manipulated to produce peace and stability. When he mutters, "There is no civility, there is only politics," we see that at heart, he's an esoteric Straussian." (hat tip: Matt)

Tvtropes.org's summary of Heroes. More generally, check out the whole site, which catalogues every cliche and trope known to TV, movies, etc. Check out such classics as the Hannibal Lecture, the Clark Kent Effect, and the Future Badass. Caution: true geeks out there could possibly fall into this website, never to emerge again. Consider yourself warned.