It's A Topological Nightmare!

Having a talk-format variety show in the Halo universe has many of the same problems that tradition TV has. There's budgeting, scheduling, talent management, production, writing, and directing. And, of course, there can be accidents on the set, bloopers, or just bits that don't work with the audience. But a universe glitch that transcends space and time? Hmmm, that might be a little different...

"What kind of visions are we talking about here? Like, how-to-help-mankind visions, or like, dolls-with-knives visions?"

Old News To Me

Monasteries have online presences? The heck you say! Of course, I had some insider information, since my brother is a Trappist monk, which is the same order presented in the story, whose motherhouse is the Abbey of Gethsamni in Kentucky. You can find a new-fangled linkamabobber to my brother's abbey's vineyard, New Clairvaux Vineyards at the Abbey of New Clairvaux, over to the left at the bottom.

Japanese Version Of Virtual World

A software company is betting on key Japanese cultural cues to make a Japanese version of Second Life friendlier to natives. Like what? No guns. No flying. People will have to move around on trains or cars. Also, the avatars will look much more anime based. However, content will be much more filtered according to cultural norms, such as removing profanity. But will people be able to check into "love hotels?" And will nudity be censored the way all Japanese pornography is censored? Those are key pop-culture cues for the Japanese too. But the Dentsu chief responsible for the virtual Tokyo in Second Life, Ken Aihara, brings up another good cultural point about making a successful Japanese virtual community: "it won't catch on for Japanese in a big way until the technology becomes usable on cell phones, which are more widespread than personal computers here, especially among teens." Dentsu might know a thing or two about what teens like in their media. The company just happens to be the creative entity in charge of the multi-media juggernaut known as Bleach. No guns in the new virtual world? There better be swords, though. Bankai!

"Chikushou! This game will only let me trade Hello Kitty cards with that hollow!"

Adolescent Brains Still Developing

Something that prosecutors, who want to try teenagers as adults, children's rights activists, who think teens can best decide their family situation, and today's parents who think disciplining teens involves reasoning with them: teenagers are still children, and their brains are not yet adult brains. Key summary:

New brain research on adolescents has shown that although teens may look like adults and try to act like them, the area of the brain that regulates emotions and impulses is still developing, and the systems aren't yet completely connected.

Actual physical proof that an age of consent exists should also warn those people who don't think statutory rape is all that big a deal. Teens messing around? Understandable, and the teens should not be prosecuted. 22 year old making a 16 year old have an abortion? Prosecute the 22 year old.

And the trend toward prosecuting younger and younger adolescents as adults for violent crime is more disturbing in light of the results of the brain imaging. Children are not young adults. They are still children.

So, the next question comes: should we come up a variable age for adulthood, or do we legislate a hard line and stick to it? Examples of the hard line for adult decision making is the drinking age or the voting age. But some states have different ages for consent (usually tied to signing a marriage license without parental permission, or making healthcare decisions). And other countries have different ages for these things altogether. Just as puberty does not start at the same time for everyone, brain structures don't mature at a set pace either. But there can be a median age established for a "mature" brain, and more research can help make that clear.

So, the next time your teenager offers a bewildered "I don't know" as the reason for breaking a house rule, believe it, but still punish. They're still learning, you know?

MSNBC Answers The Tough Questions

Why guys want two women.

In our fantasy, the two women fall under our spell as we stand with hands on our hips, our lordly sex organ inspiring awe. We throw our heads back with a conquering laugh. And then the two women proceed to please us in many and sundry ways, which may include performing naughty lesbian sex for our kingly amusement. [...] The bottom line: There is nothing so exciting for most men than an incredibly horny woman — except maybe two. Get it?

And that, in a nutshell, er, so to speak, answers that.

Just Do Something! Anything!

Even if it doesn't work! There have been some pretty hare-brained schemes to reverse global warming, most of them based on the theory that man-made carbon dioxide is responsible for most of it, from burying the gas under the ocean floor, dumping iron in the south Pacific to spur massive algae blooms, and even buying imaginary permission to use more energy. Now we have the idea of massive pipes to spur algae blooms, instead of dumping iron. Yup, crazy, and the scientists know all their solutions probably won't work:

The two scientists [Lovelock and Rapely] argued it was unlikely any of the well-intentioned technical or social schemes for limiting carbon would restore the planet's status quo.

Whatever that status quo is. Probably before humanity picked up spears. So, why do something on the small chance that it would work, but without knowing any of the effects of these schemes? Isn't this the same argument the supposed environmentalists use for rejecting the use of genetically modified crops? "We don't know all the effects these plants will have on the environment!" It reminds me a bit of an old joke about organized Christianity, when the Pope was informed that Jesus had returned: "Quick! Look busy!" If Gaia decides to bring the apocalypse, I think people will be able to adapt much easier than in eons past.

Ninja Nostalgia

Does this ever happen to you? Elderly relative starts talking about how things were done "in my day," and you just have to wait for him to wind down until he dozes off? Well, unless you've heard the same old stories only about 900 times, waxing nostalgia ninja-style can be pretty entertaining.

"Don't go a-courting anybody whose very existence you question."

Sharia Law Harmful To Masculine Health

Here's another reason muslim practices regarding women should not be adopted: polygamy. Some may think a harem is great, but it's just that many more chances for one of your wives to channel Lorena Bobbit. Besides, it's just common sense not to compare "technique" among your girlfriends. Playas know what up!

Virtual Bicycle Model

Finally, a real practical computer model! What I've always found interesting, is that no one really knows how well a bike balances while it's in motion. It's not enough to point to the angular momentum of the two wheels to provide a stabilizing torque. One example of the anecdotal mystery of the balancing bike is the shimmy. Individual bikes, when going downhill, experience a harmonic resonance of shimmy, and no one really can predict on which bike it will happen. Some experiment by pushing the bike seat a bit further back, some adjust the handlebars a bit forward, some say just to tighten up the front wheel. But all mechanics say, when you start to feel it yourself, loosen your grip on the handlebar. Not sit up, not steer into it, but ease up. Why? We don't know, it just works. Because what really makes the bike stay upright, is the person pedaling, which has never totally been taken into account in physical models of the bike. We're still researching how a person stays upright while walking, much less running, so having a realistic model of people pedaling in the bicycle computer model will be the useful part of the simulation.

Up, Up, And Away! It's Super Germ!

Just like in the Fantastic Four, germs taken onto the space shuttle came back three times stronger than before. Specifically, salmonella, came back three times more infectious, and mice given the germ were more likely to die as well. 167 different genes were altered by the space ride, but scientists don't know how, for sure, but suspect microgravity forced a mutation in the bacteria. As they say, more experiments need to be carried out, because we want to know what is making these microbes say "It's clobberin' time!" when they come back to earth.

And Don't Forget The Straw!

Heh.

*Sip*

Impressions On The Landis Verdict

After having digested the early news reports, the majority decision, the dissenting decision, and various reactions from some of the people involved, I came away with two impressions of the USADA.

(1) They're pissed at WADA. I heard a lot of relief in the voices of the American anti-doping executives that the case was decided in their favor. It seemed to me they really argued amongst themselves on whether to defend the doping violation, especially after seeing all the documentation from the former LNDD. I saw this ire especially in how they defended the isotope test, which the panel upheld the results. After every instance of sloppiness, incorrect interpretation of results, or just plain ineptness, they kept going back to how the procedures were still handled "within" ISL codes and standards. The arbitrators only had to decide each point on a "balance of probability," but with such a low threshold of what constitutes proper procedure for chain of custody, or how many metabolites should be included in a doping test, almost any result could satisfy ISL code. And the arbitrators were not happy about it. In their conclusions, they even talk about how the Landis expert witnesses came from forensic backgrounds, where assumption of guilt is not in practice, whereas in WADA labs it is. And they signal to WADA that perhaps this should not be so considering how lax the ISL protocols are, and whether this assumption of guilt has even created a culture of laziness at WADA accredited labs. So, the USADA was able to defend its perfect record against dopers, but they're pissed about doing it in this case, because of the piss-poor evidence they had to use.

Which leads to my second impression: (2) The USADA is not going to carry WADA's water anymore. The panel basically covered WADA's ass in allowing this guilty verdict, saying the substandard ISL protocols for chain of custody, calibration of testing equipment, and interpretation of results are all good enough. The USADA knows that at UCLA and Montreal, the labs would not have found a doping violation. The arbitrators had to throw out the T/E ratio test results, and then they had to bend over backwards citing ISL procedures to allow the IRMS results as valid. The USADA does not want to defend a bad test again. The arbitrators in the majority decision recused themselves from finding ISL violations, because they did not want to get into that sticky business, even though several were obvious. I knew that the majority arbitrators were in pure face-saving mode when they discounted almost all the testimony of the guy who invented the machine that runs the carbon isotope test. You have the guy who made the machine telling the court that the French lab techs were doing it wrong, and they don't believe him? No, it was because the ISL protocols allowed such shoddy work. It is unprecedented that an arbitration panel would criticize a WADA-accredited lab, and the ISL protocols, but they did it in this case. This is a big signal to WADA, get your act together, because we're not saving your ass again.

This open rebuke of WADA by the panel is probably why Dick Pound has not been noising off as he usually does. We've heard from the Tour Director, Oscar Pereiro, the UCI director, the old Phonak coach, even the french lab director whining about how bad he looks, but not Dick Pound, who is usually first in crowing about guilty dopers. Who knows what other national anti-doping execs have been saying to him off the record? I can bet that it has not been pretty. Everyone talks about cleaning up cycling, but with the larger volume of tests that need to be done to get there, they need to clean up the ISL protocols too, otherwise more innocent athletes are going to get caught up in an indiscriminatory net. I hope Floyd Landis appeals to the CAS, because this time, there won't be the presumed 2-1 vote that there was at the beginning.

One last thing: I always wondered why Dick Pound seemed angry at the USADA for clearing American athletes of international doping violations more often than not. He attributed it to some nationalistic attitude. I think the Landis case shows the level of evidence the USADA usually had to work with, and why they defended only a few of those positive doping violations.

Helmety Mouth Piece

You know, if you have a helmet attached to your head for about twenty years, you might just learn a couple of things to do with that breathing apparatus. Who knew Darth Vader appreciated American music so much?

Landis Guilty: 2 Year Suspension

USADA just handed down its decision. In a 2 to 1 decision, the arbitrators found the T/E ratio test was flawed, but that the isotope test done to confirm the results was still done properly. Floyd Landis must give up the Tour de France title. He still has the option to appeal to CAS. His rights to due process have been violated, because without the positive on the T/E test, the isotope test would not have been done. The testimony in the arbitration hearing showed there were many flaws in the French lab's procedures on that test as well, so I will be very interested to see how the judges came to trust those lab results, but not the first test findings.

Update: Trust but Verify has links to the official documents of the decision. Chris Campbell, the dissenting arbitrator, has some very strong language regarding the french lab's testing practices.

Update Again: Here's a gem from the majority decision on how competent the former LNDD technicians are:

311. In response to these assertions the Panel finds that the practises of the Lab in training its employees appears to lack the vigor the Panel would expect in the circumstances given the enormous consequences to athletes of an AAF. Furthermore, the other matters introduced in evidence and referred to in this section do give some cause for concern. Nevertheless, like other parts of the evidence in this matter there are no ISL Rule violations that might result in the Panel accepting the Respondent’s allegations as affecting the AAF in this case.

Translation: They suck at their jobs, but WADA rules are so vague, it doesn't matter anyway. Guilty!

Elderly Japanese Get Bored of Robots

Earlier, it was reported that Japan was turning to a robot workforce to care for their aging population, since the traditional roles of their children's spouses, or other family members, were changing due to new economic situations. Children moved away to cities for jobs, and women are increasingly joining the workforce. However, a company that is already selling robots to the elderly, says they get bored with the electronic companions after about a month. The robots, it turns out, are just not that helpful when it comes to serving the ageds' basic needs: "They want to be able to get around their house, take a bath, get to the toilet and that's about it." The company selling the ifbot also found in their survey of customers, that "Stuffed animals are more popular." Of course, my theory is that the elderly still want some kind of human interaction, and that technological solutions for helping them around the house mean bigger buttons and signs on the shrinking gadgets younger Japanese seem to like so much. Also, I just don't think robots can compete with nurse outfits!

"Ouji-sama, it's time for your bath, ne?"

Yarrr! Be Ye Prepared!

Ahoy! It still be Talk Like A Pirate Day. Don't be a scurvy dog! If'n ye don't know how to parlay, get ye some knowledge.

"Avast ye scurvy dog! The day is ripe fer bloodshed. Be ye afeared?"

CA Attorney General Continued "Political Stunt"

Yesterday, I wrote about the California global warming lawsuit, that was dismissed on several legal grounds. But there were a few twists in how the suit finally met its end. It was Bill Lockyer, then attorney-general, who brought the suit against 6 auto manufacturers for future damages from global warming based on their contributions of carbon dioxide emissions. Lockyer got himself elected Treasurer, and many saw the suit, introduced last September, as a "political stunt" in the run-up to the November elections. One of those guys was current attorney-general, Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown. In fact, he gave three very good reasons why the suit would probably be tossed anyway:

1) "One of the principles of tort law is that damages should not be speculative," so Lockyer's lawsuit failed that very simple test.

2) He wondered how Lockyer's suit could assert "causation" between vehicle emissions and the size of California's mountain snowpacks.

3) There was an urgent need to do something about global warming, but seeking national and international cooperation on the issue made a lot more sense than a lawsuit.

These three reasons are the same as my paraphrase of the judge's decision yesterday: [1] can't calculate future damage from global warming for a local region; [2] can't calculate autos' contribution to emissions for CO2 theory for global warming; and [3] can't use the judiciary to make legislative policy regarding emissions. Pretty scary that I'm thinking like Jerry Brown...

Yet, when Brown got in as attorney-general, he pushed this farce of a tort suit, instead of dropping it. Chris Reed's conclusions on his motives seem to be on track, considering Brown's successful emissions lawsuit in San Bernadino County: "He embraced Lockyer's lawsuit as his own even though he doubted its wisdom, because he believed it to be a political winner." Playing politics with unsettled science to further an activist agenda? Environmentalists have never done that before, have they?

Nice Pic AP

AP Photo/Nati Harnik

Nevermind the story of a crazy man suing God in Nebraska to make a point about frivolous lawsuits, just look at the file photo the AP sent to accompany the story of the Nebraska state senator. Well-played, AP, well-played.

Ninth Circuit Tosses Frivolous Lawsuit

It only took a year of wasting California's legal budget, but California's junk lawsuit was dismissed by one of judges most people would think would be sympathetic to an outlandish environmental damages claim. States better learn that the science is settled enough to start treating carmakers like they are tobacco farmers. It took about 40 years of cancer research before anyone could take on Big Tobacco. Here, we have a 9th Circuit judge actually using "logic" to dismiss the suit: can't calculate future damage from global warming for a local region; can't calculate autos' contribution to emissions for CO2 theory for global warming; and can't use the judiciary to make legislative policy regarding emissions. I wrote about this case last year and this is what I predicted:

The carmakers are right to call this a nuisance suit, and this case will get dismissed, with prejudice, at the federal level, just as a case in New York was. Meanwhile, California wastes money on the legal proceedings. Disgusting.

Pretty good, huh? The worst part of the nuisance suit, was that it was suing for future damages, which on its own was a novel legal argument. The democrats here in California really do live in their own version of Fantasy Land, and I'm glad that even the 9th Circuit still has a tangible thread tying them to reality.

:-) Turns 25

The very first emoticon, :-), turns 25 years old today. Linguistically, it was a watershed event in separating electronic language from the rest of written language. Without it, text speak, l33t speak, h4xx0r speak, and western and eastern forms of "smilies" never would have developed. It also marked the decline of written language to convey emotion and intent. There was no longer a need to choose from culturally approved words, phrases, or literary allusions to convey disdain and sarcasm. You could drily make a point, and denote its opposite meaning, or that it should be taken lightly, with a wink ;). Writing truly is an art, but as more people got online, the developed talent of a few was quickly drowned out by those much more comfortable with spoken conversation, where tones and gestures can convey much more in fewer uttered words, than if those uttered words were written down. Emoticons bridged that gap, and online "speech" has become its own subset of language. I look forward to the next "revolution" in language.

Symptomatic Chinese Quality Control

They can't tell hydrogen from helium, or they don't care. China still doesn't seem ready for international prime time. The Olympics next year are going to be very interesting...

Shift in GM Crop Debate

With arable land decreasing, and populations still growing, it has been clear for a long time that modern agricultural husbandry is required to develop crops for specific environments. Anti-globalists, usually with a strong anti-American flavor, have emphasized the unknowns of transgenic crops to scare poor nations, and politically isolate developing nations. But with the approval of GMO crops by the EU, and an Indian official inviting the rapid development of transgenic wheat, we see a shift in media coverage. In both stories, skepticism over GM crops' possible threat to the environment is mentioned, but no one is quoted. This usually means those ideas are widely touted, but considered valid only by fringe elements. The media have begun to marginalize those particular activists, since none of their concerns have ever been proven, in the laboratory, or in field tests. Hopefully, this is a sign that the "population bomb" theme, so prevalent in many environmentalist movements, is also on its way out. I'm not that hopeful that it will be any time soon, since that theme is a major contributing motivator to the "peak oil" crowd, and the AGW crowd. Population bomb theories have been around for over 40 years now, and counter-culturists keep coming back to it, even though every single aspect of it has been debunked, mainly just by the passage of time. Let's hope time runs out soon on the "Frankenstein foods" meme too.

Visual Illusions!

Everytime you look at television or video on the web, you experience the illusion of movement and change. That's because visual perception has a limit of 1/24th of a second per image. If the images change faster than that, our brain puts them together in a continuous sequence. Think about that metaphor: All broadcast media is an illusion. Hee!
The brain also interprets movement where there is none, because our eyes are always moving. If they ever attach a camera to what our pupils actually point at, you would experience motion sickness. Because of the perpetual motion, a static image like the one below, looks like it's moving, when it's not.


For more fun optical illusions, click here. And just keep clicking the previous or next buttons for more. H/T to Scienceblogs.

Moral of the Story...

If you ask a stupid question, expect a stupid answer.

I have 2 dogs & I was buying a large bag of Pal at Big W and standing inline at the check out.

A woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

Read the rest of the story for the awesome, awesome punchline.

Scrap Metal Recycling In The Land Of Tomorrow!

With copper prices at about $3.40 a pound, I thought inflation would be much higher in the future than only 8 dollars a pound.

"Healthy" Label Is Just Marketing

In an interesting experiment about restaurant food choices, people routinely undercounted the calorie content of food at so-called "healthy" restaurants when compared to fast food restaurants.

In the second experiment, they asked people to estimate the calorie content of four different sandwiches: a six-inch ham and cheese sandwich (330 calories) and a 12-inch turkey sandwich (600 calories) from Subway; and a McDonalds cheeseburger (330 calories) and a Big Mac (600 calories). Study participants consistently rated the Subway sandwich as having fewer calories than the McDonalds sandwich with the same calorie content.

This is perhaps another reason so many restaurants rebelled against the NYC calorie publishing rule: all those health food places would be caught in their marketing scams. "Whaddya mean this meatball sandwich has over 700 calories?" I also liked how the researchers called this marketing a "ficticious calorie credit." Looks like the "carbon credit = scam" meme has already caught on.

Metal Theft Changes Bridge Plans

Metal theft has gotten so bad in Washington, that plans for the safety railing on a bridge repair project were changed to foil any attempted theft.

County officials planned to put up the aluminum barrier earlier in the summer, said Ken Stone, the county's public works director. But it occurred to them the fence would probably disappear, he said.

Some materials had already arrived for the $20,000 safety barrier, Stone said. Officials decided to hold off and order steel fencing, which, Stone said, is more difficult to remove, crush and sell.

It would be "much better to replace it now ... than lose it and have to replace it later," he said.

County Commissioner George Raiter said the county can "probably recover" the money it paid for the unused aluminum fencing.

Policy and spending are now being affected by metal thieves. Societal devolution continues.

Mall Photographers Rejoice!

New Sony digital camera takes picture when it recognizes a smile. The funny clown hats no longer have to stay behind the camera.

Helmety Beets

Yes, I do mean the purply vegetable. Because, if Weird Jimmy likes that "talk-singing thing you were doing," then helmety beat boxing is just something you should give up on. Better to keep practicing your lightsaber skills with that zucchini.

"He's got the power. He uses it in the shower. He levitated up a flower."

Helmety Wax Museum

Heh. Looks like Master Chief is going to enjoy some Las Vegas lifestyle at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum there. Sadly, no pictures with Elvis, yet.

Japan Needs Cheap Labor

Too bad Japan doesn't share a border with Thailand, or have lax enforcement of immigration laws. Otherwise, businesses could use the all the illegal aliens coming over to take care of their old people, and vacuum their rugs. You know, the jobs that Japanese don't want to do. Oops, I meant to say "undocumented workers." Lucky for the United States, we've got good old Mexico helping us out. Hmmm, maybe for not very much longer... Robots don't need documents, drivers' licenses, free healthcare from trauma centers, or cash under the table either.

Federal Judge Denies Bloomberg's Nanny State

Well, part of it, anyway. I had written earlier, how many restaurant owners were going to defy the health board rule to post caloric content of a meal in the same size type as the price. But the judge said he just struck down the rule without even having to listen to those arguments, because the calorie rule conflicted with federal law anyway. Eat that Daddy Bloomberg! Or don't, since you won't know how many calories are in it unless somebody else force feeds you the information instead of looking it up yourself. Those fries! They smell like... freedom!

Remembering 9/11

I remember.

Metal Theft And Hungarian Anomie

I've written about the rising price of industrial metals causing the epidemic of metal theft around the world. So many posts, I'm thinking of making it a new blog category. I've often felt, unarticulated of course, that this kind of thievery is reminiscent of anarchical societies portrayed in movies. Not necessarily shooting each other over a gallon of gasoline like in Mad Max, but when people are stealing church bells, cemetery grave markers, and electrocuting themselves over copper wire, one has to conclude there is a deeper story than just the speculatory pricing of copper and iron. An opinion writer in Hungary has linked this parasitic behavior to anomie, he calls it anomia from ancient Greek, which is social instability caused by erosion of standards and values. He may be on to something, since this "broken window" concept was the key aspect of Rudy Giuliani's approach to reducing crime in New York City.

The concept, in short, is how a broken window, left unrepaired in a neighborhood, is an advertisement to criminal elements that the residents have given up civic pride and have begun to eschew a mistrust of local law enforcement. The broken window, tagged graffiti, or any petty criminal act is a symptom of civic decline, which only encourages more serious crime. The growing pothole is also a sign of civic decline, of growing mistrust between residents and local government. First on the residents' part, who shrug shoulders and don't report the need for repair. Second, on the government, who won't authorize the repair if one of the civil servants notices, doesn't report it, or won't act unless a complaint form has been filled out.

Is there something more to rising metal theft? Why do the stories only point to the price of copper on world markets, but do not investigate the reasons for this price hike? When a man in Russia can steal a bridge and only gets caught trying to sell it, I think there might be more to metal theft than just the price of metal.

Extreme Weather In A Warming World?

Not in Switzerland. It has often been part of the global warming alarmism, that increasing temperatures will bring increasing variance of temperature anomalies, statistically increasing hot weather days, which we know as heat waves. Of course, there is no forcing mechanism explained for why this would be so, but the hypothesis persists and has been included in many GCM's. But climate science is a science, so these things need to be tested. Switzerland, it turns out, is a perfect place to test the variance theory: long historical record, disappearing glaciers, mean surface temperature increase of 2 degrees celsius over the last century. But more hot weather days as the century wore on? No.

This investigation, carried out for a low (Basel) and a high (Saentis) elevation site in Switzerland, has shown that contrary to what is commonly hypothesized climate variability does not necessarily increase as climate warms. Indeed, it has been shown that the variance of temperature has actually decreased in Switzerland since the 1960s and 1970s at a time when mean temperatures have risen considerably. Nevertheless, these findings are consistent with the temperature analysis carried out by Michaels et al. (1998) [that would be usn’s -eds.] where their results also do not support the hypothesis that temperatures have become more variable as global temperatures have increased during the 20th century.

Michaels, who runs World Climate Report, is pretty pleased that he got a mention in the new paper. His reaction: "We’re not going to say we told you so, but … we told you so a decade ago!"

Prove Me Wrong

Heh. But ouch!

Another Knock Against Cable Internet Access

I have been wary and have always avoided going to any cable operator as an ISP. It's not just the monopoly aspects, but also the neighborhood networking structure they employ. If everyone in the local network is sucking bandwidth, your "faster than DSL!!!" service will be slower than dial-up. Why? Because there is an actual transfer limit on those networks. And if you go over it, your cable company will disconnect you. So far, only Comcast has actually shut down internet accounts, and Cox has only warned people, but all cable companies have a transfer limit in the local hub, so if you have a bandwidth hog in your neighborhood, which they haven't cut off yet, you really should look toward a telecom for your internet access needs. Telecoms' attitudes toward paying customers is summed up thusly:

Some AT&T customers use disproportionately high amounts of Internet capacity, "but we figure that's why they buy the service," said Michael Coe, a spokesman for the company.

Cable internet treated like cable service? No thanks. I'll go with telecommunications companies, please.

Duke Lacrosse Case Finally Sends Someone to Jail

When race agitators screamed that someone had to go to jail over the sickening allegations about a party thrown by the Duke lacrosse team, they were right! Prosecutors finally got the right man. And those sickening allegations? Actively pursuing false charges against three young men. Justice is slowly being served in this whole mess.

Helmety Plumbing

Poor Chad Vader. He's still stuck on a woman he dated twice, which has him feeling down. His relationship needs are simple: someone who can appreciate him for who he is, and tend to those volcano burns every once in a while. Is that too much to ask? Even slight maintenance is making him cranky. I think that plugging up that ventilation port is a blessing in disguise, since it'll make some cocky farmboy's job a lot harder when he comes to blow up the Death Star, er, Super Market.

"I can't! I have my slippery shoes on!"

Really Long Ride

Heh. That's nothing! I've ridden from Honolulu to New York!

Avenue in Montrose to Drive in Pasadena, that is.

New Apple Crap

Apple introduces its new iPods today, with the big one using the same touch screen interface as the iPhone, and the Nano having a little color video screen. Some are not as enthusiastic over Apple products (warning: strong language content). Me? I'm going to read a book while I listen to music with my phone/mp3 player/video player/digital camera/internet communications device. iTunes not included or necessary.

Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god

Nepal's state-run carrier makes offering after technical problems with 757. I think sacrificing man-hours to the volt-meter gods would have been a better offering.

Marin Man Defends His Property Rights

Dennis Saunders had some of his property seized during a police raid, and now he wants it back. Specifically, his porn collection, valued at over 10,000 dollars. A warrant was served to find any material related to child pornography and media pertaining to his peeping habit, but now he wants his "legitimate" pornography returned. We're talking about "some 500 pornographic movies and 250 magazines." San Rafael has responded publicly:

"If the court orders us to give it back to him, we will give it back to him," city lawyer Thomas Bertrand said.

If nothing else, being reunited with his porno collection should keep the peeper off the streets for a little while...

He Does Have A Bridge To Sell You

A Russian man was arrested for trying to sell a bridge he stole, for scrap metal. Mind you, it was only a 5 meter long bridge, but he was almost successful in getting money for it.

Did The Digital Cold War Already Begin?

Pentagon e-mail system breached

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Tuesday said computer hackers gained access to an unclassified e-mail system in the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, but declined comment on a report that the Chinese army was responsible.

Now, it's only former officials saying under deep background that the Chinese army is capable of doing this, so that's still a lot of missing dots to connect. Plus, China has denied it is responsible for the attacks, with many experts saying that China is home to a lot of insecure networks, which any criminal element could use to raise a zombie army for spam or other malicious behavior.

However, trade and economics are how China is exerting its influence these days, and the U.S. butting heads with China over product safety would be seen by the Chinese as a matter of national security. Anytime the U.S. even hints at doing something about the trade deficit, the Chinese diplomats make a lot of noise about the U.S. being the bad guy in many international issues. With China trying to look like a major international player with hosting the Olympics, launching so-called communication satellites, and advertising its intentions to join the space race, it appears that the old Soviet playbook is being translated into chinese characters.

Pro Cyclists Have Big Hearts

Literally. Years of peak aerobic output tend to enlarge endurance athletes' hearts 20 to 40 percent of the norm of other males in their age groups. This report gibes with the most often touted blurb about the genetic freak known as Lance Armstrong: his heart is 33 percent larger than most men. I was suprised that other cyclists also had enlarged hearts, and that they lose a quarter of the muscle's mass after they stop racing. Unfortunately, the study by the french hospital did not say whether the cyclists' hearts were bigger to begin with. Certainly, Armstrong's heart was already bigger before he restarted his career after battling cancer, but he'd already been an endurance athlete for more than a decade. Besides, the freakiest thing about Armstrong's physiology was not his heart, but that his muscles produce less than half the normal lactic acid than other athletes. He actually can ride harder, longer, without as much pain as the rest of the peloton.

In other big-hearted cycling news, Levi Leipheimer beat his team mate George Hincapie by over a minute to win the U.S. Road Racing Championship, which George was trying to defend as last year's champion. It truly has been a dream year for Levi's career. Let's hope he can find a good team for next year to keep his good race results coming.