May 2004 Archives

One of the benefits of being myself - being open about my passions and not worrying overmuch about getting along with everyone - is that occasionally, someone I've never heard from introduces himself or herself and extends a hand in friendship, knowing who I am and what I stand for.

This happened again today, this time from somewhere I'd least expected: India, in the form of an articulate fellow named Yazad Jal, a thoroughgoing and studious anarchocapitalist, who'd taken note of me from a couple of running battles I'd been having with a few people on the Atheists community on Orkut.

After taking a quick look at Yazad's Orkut profile, and seeing immediately that he didn't seem like a flake (believe me, I've met a couple of crazies in the last year), I checked out Yazad's blog. I'm impressed: he's a very solid, intelligent, articulate and funny individual who's been writing fairly regularly for a couple of years, and has some interesting things to say about the political and economic problems of India. Visit his blog and make friends. If you're a fellow Orkuteer, introduce yourself to him and make friends there.

I remember the odious BBC television licensing fee from my days in London long ago, but had thought the fee had been repealed. Not so, reports UK-resident Australian Monica White:

For those of you who don’t live in the UK, you may be interested in the phenomenon that is the TV License – I was truly surprised by it a year ago. Essentially, if you have a TV or receiving equipment, you are obliged to pay the government £121 per year to view the BBC channels.

Don’t watch the BBC? I’m afraid that TV Licensing doesn’t believe you. EVERYONE who owns an operational set must watch the BBC. They're compelled to. There’s something in the water.

TV Licensing ‘Enquiry Officers’ also seem to get a hoot out of slapping £1000 fines onto anyone within spitting distance.

Folks, imagine this scenario in America: PBS or NPR radio direction finding vans canvassing your neighborhood, coming to your door, backed up by police powers. Think about it.

landlord, cowboy, brotherhood, yacht, cult, primitive, addict, alumni, American, elderly, illiterate, mankind, penmanship, teenager, third world, uncivilized, underprivileged, unmarried, widow or widower, masterpiece or mastery.

Just some of the words you won't find in an American textbook because an anti-bias committee has airbrushed the literature.

It's funny when a line Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" changes from "How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?" to "How many roads must an individual walk down before you can call them an adult."

Yazad Jal

The lovely Monica White informs me a few minutes ago that she has a blog, Th'inkwell. I'm really happy to see it! Welcome to the blogosphere, Monica!

Michael Lorrey reports on Orkut community Libertarians the results a few minutes ago of the presidential candidate nomination at the national convention in Atlanta, Georgia:

LP 3rd ballot

256 249 423 Michael Badnarik winner
246 244 Gary Nolan
258 285 344 Aaron Russo
xxx 005 011 NOTA [None Of The Above]
015 others

All single digit vote candidates dropped on 1st ballot.
NOTA is never dropped.
Nolan is dropped on 2nd ballot.
Shock. Badnarik was thought to be trailing in third place.
Nolan speaks to convention and endorses Badnarik.

I'm happy, I like Mike, I met him in November at the LPNH convention, where he gave one of his Constitution classes.

I'm happy too: these results give me some confidence that the Libertarian Party is serious about its founding principles. Congratulations to Badnarik! I'm looking forward to seeing whom he chooses as running mate... I hope he doesn't choose Nolan in a quid pro quo for having thrown his support to Badnarik after the 2nd round of voting.

A few days ago, my friend Glenn Cripe told me about this fascinating business venture: The Liberty English Camp (Lithuania).

Here's an interesting short article by Ralph Merkle written when he was working for Zyvex (before he moved on to Georgia Tech): "Nanotechnology and Medicine".

Is it moral to carry arms? You bet it is! When I enter your home or your business with a firearm, concealed or otherwise, I am tacitly agreeing to share with you the responsibility for defending your property and your family. When I eat in the same restaurant, I am prepared to shed my blood in your defense. There are survivors of the horror at Luby’s in Killeen, Texas, who would appreciate what I am saying here.

I will never, never need to ask some poor cop to die for me. I value my own life enough to defend it myself. I carry arms proudly, as a free American.

Do you?

Kathryn A. Graham
"Handguns - A Moral Imperative"

What he said: Have you ever thought about what Jesus could do for you?

What I said: Not much, really. Religion isn't my thing.

What I was thinking: If your god really is omnipotent and omniscient as your people claim, then he's directly responsible for my mother's stroke and the fact that my sister has been deaf since she was about three. If the Lord, or Jesus, or one of their henchmen ever happens to appeareth before me, I just hope that I remember, among the pyrotechnic light show that should accompany any such apparition, to kick God square in the nuts as a "thank you" for services rendered. [Note: If anybody is offended by this, then remember that God in his omnipotence is entirely responsible for my having said what I've just said - this was all God's will.]

Rory Blyth

Just because I'm feeling like it: a plug for my friend Jeff Chan's Right to Keep and Bear Arms website.

I just found this amusing thread on Sword Forum International; scroll down to see why.

Happy birthday to Tom Burroughes! I hope it's a good day for sailing, mate.

...that's why I advocate no pants at all for men. If you're wearing a nice shirt and tie and a sports jacket, you can think of it as the Porky Pig look.

Of course your "tail" is in the wrong place...

L. Neil Smith

Warren reminds me of the Utilikilt (I'd known about it long before my kilting Tuesday night):

This here is a kilt for tough guys. In fact all of their kilts look cool and tough.

I notice on the page for the Workman kilt: "Beer Gut Cut (+$25.00)". Heh... glad I don't need that.

A company named AmeriKilt makes something similar.

My wife Peggy just got back from 9 days travelling between New York, Boston, Washington, and Philadelphia on a "planes, trains, & automobiles" trip with her older brother visiting from Hong Kong. She mentioned some the killer deals she'd seen for bus service - the "Chinatown to Chinatown" service - on some bus company between New York and Boston, for only $10!

Well, sitting here writing, I just now saw a little newsclip on Fox News mentioning the service, which is run by a company called Fung Wah Bus. The busses look cleaner and newer than the rolling homeless shelters run by Greyhound, and the latter's lobby organization, the American Bus Association, is freaking out, claiming the new bus company (and Chinese ones like it) must be doing something wrong, "cutting corners" and such, and snidely insinuating that the Chinese company is operating illegally, since it's running daily service rather than "charter".

I say give the Chinese companies our business. Screw Greyhound, the Amtrak of the busways!

Scott Beiser passes this on:

Please vote in this CNN online poll regarding the assault weapons ban. The results are showing much better now than when I got [notice of it] but we still need more votes for our side.

Skimming through the headers on mail in my Bayesian spam filter program "Suspect mail" folder, I see this little gem:

Subject: Impress your Friends with a Rolex

...appropriately misspelled in an attempt pass the filters into my inbox (which didn't happen). I do take a look in the folder now and then, since I do have the occasional morbid interest in some human pathologies. This header line ranks up there with the "Impress your Friends with a University Diploma" memeline.

I believe it was Dr. Johnson who said famously that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." It is also the first refuge of an idiot. My loyalty is to the ideas on which this country was founded, not to the two-century-long string of governments that have done their best to destroy them.

L. Neil Smith

A few days ago, my Bujinkan teacher Dale Seago announced on our dojo mailing list that some kilts he owned, including one he'd recently ordered, no longer fit him due to the continued success of Atkins on his waistline. He said he'd like to give the new one away to anyone who'd claim it. I'm a pretty fit guy, but I'm naturally broader-beamed than Dale, and the size he mentioned was exactly my size, so I spoke up for it. Last night in training, I received it:

Dale, last week, on where these kilts can be purchased:

These are modeled on the traditionally-constructed, khaki canvas kilts issued to the Black Watch during World War I. And for $99, you can't beat 'em.

Dale, today, celebrating the continued kiltification of his dojo (a subcultural blend you'll not see anywhere else in the world, folks):

Y'know, there was a time when proper clothing was outlawed, from August 1747 to July 1782. For Russell and the rest, here is a translation from the Gaelic of part of a proclamation that was issued upon repeal of the prohibition:

"Listen Men. This is bringing before all the Sons of the Gael, the King and Parliament of Britain have forever abolished the act against the Highland Dress; which came down to the Clans from the beginning of the world to the year 1746. This must bring great joy to every Highland Heart. You are no longer bound down to the unmanly dress of the Lowlander. This is declaring to every Man, young and old, simple and gentle, that they may after this put on and wear the Truis, the Little Kilt, the Coat, and the Striped Hose, as also the Belted Plaid, without fear of the Law of the Realm or the spite of the enemies."

I hadn't mentioned that the sense of "F-R-E-E-D-O-M-M-M!!!" (Dale's words, channelling William Wallace) which I got after trying on the kilt - and then returning to the bathroom to correct it, having put it on backwards - was fantastic! Yep, it's a man's garment. So, I wore it for the entire training session, leaving my gi trousers in my training bag. And for some reason, I just felt more bellicose, a feeling my training partners got to enjoy. Heh.

Thanks Dale!

[A bit of context: this quote refers to an amusing incident where a religious cultist in a forum I frequent blew up when he was called out on an issue of "quantum mysticism" he couldn't support. - Russell]

I think [a particular theist twit] actually did good job of defining by example an important concept in quantum mechanics: the uncertainty principle.

He obviously has some beliefs, and we could either know the position or the energy of his beliefs, but not both.

He chose to show us the energy.

Dan McCoy

An old friend of mine, Redvelvet (who doesn't keep in contact as well as she should!) sent me email last week announcing that she would be displaying some of her most recent products, including scented candles, at a San Francisco house cum ad hoc art gallery. So, my g/f and I headed up to the City for some good and outrageously low priced dim sum in the Sunset district, then motored over to the neighborhood where she was working.. where we spent half an hour scrounging for parking.

We found the funky house where she was working, first encountering "artists" of the type one usually finds in the Haight district, then found Christina, who'd been given a corner slot on a semi-indoor/semi-outdoor veranda. I introduced her to my g/f, and exchanged "how've ya been doin'?" gossip for a while. Turns out she had a bellydancing accident a couple of months ago - she's not explained to me yet what that means - and decided to start a cool little business while she's looking for work in the field she's re-trained for recently, digital circuit layout (her first degree is in theoretical mathematics).

I was stunned at the dozens of fantastic candles she had on display. I and everyone who stopped by to snap up candles noted that these types of candles usually cost a multiple - 2 to 4 times - what she was charging. So, I'm telling you, my friends, about this (though I get no cut of her sales at all) because I like Christina and I think these candles sell themselves... see for yourself.

I just finished off a loaf of luscious Trader Joe's Reduced Carbohydrate Cinnamon Walnut Bread (along with an equally luscious jar of their Cashew/Macadamia Spread): 6 grams total carbohydrates per slice - a fraction of the normal load - and 8 grams protein per slice!

...choose your friends more carefully, be ruthless with your time and seek out the best people you can find. As you improve yourself, you'll find that better and better people will naturally gravitate towards you. I think you'll be surprised at just how much excellence is out there.

Monica White

I don't normally post more than one formal "quote of the day", but this one from Adam Michnik (I don't know who that is) coming via Chris Claypoole deserves immediate posting:

As a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.

My friend Peter Chang called a few minutes ago to let me know he was getting ready for a 100-mile bike ride/race in Tahoe in a few weeks, and mentioned along the way that he'd been asked to play the male of an Asian couple in a Jaguar television commercial. Here are pics from the recent filming; his "wife" Lily Chai is certainly a lovely woman!

I've archived a couple of old blog posts here which seem to be ongoing magnets for morons; one of those is "Two-Buck Chuck: Tough times mean cheap wines". Apparently, I'm not the only one to be hit with with comments from people who don't get it, as someone from another blog, who has witnessed my frustration, can attest.

I just saw the word "creationist" alternately spelled "cretinist", on a list I frequent. I find, upon Googling, that it's a widespread meme.

Kevin Cole on Orkut passes along this bit of only-in-the-new-world news: "Devils Hit Cyber Church".

This was sent me yesterday by my good friend Tom Burroughes in London, who gave me permission to reprint here:

Hi Russell, you remember my friend Martin who came over to California back in 1995? Well, he did a crazy thing today -- he went to Lord's cricket ground in north London, and as a "dare", took his clothes off and ran across the pitch before getting booked by the police, all the while producing pandamonium in the crowd.

Oh. My. God.

Tom follows up that, "I checked the cricket reports on two channels and I have not come across the incident although I notice the television channels often tend to brush such stuff [aside]." He says that Martin was hit with a small fine and given a warning by the police. Anyone hear about this incident? Monica?

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

Robert Frost

A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.

Thomas J. Watson, Jr

I won't be in today for work because I have the potential of making history. So I think that's a little more important, and I just wouldn't be focused. So lets call this a mental health day or something.

Voicemail left on Amanda Phillips' answering machine

I found a pretty cool resource on iron, one of my favorite funky transition metals.

[Re: the recent "Jesus Is My Homeboy" fashion fad - Russell]:

Jesus was just one of a handful of guys wandering around ranting whatever the hell happened to pop into their coupla-crayons-short-of-a-box skulls. Nothing cool about him, unless begging is suddenly the 'new black'.

Monica White

Ah, yes, the benevolent Swedish model of democratic socialism. Here's an interesting piece, "Sweden and the Myth of Benevolent Socialism"; an excerpt from a Washington Post article of 1997 is included in the piece:

From 1934 to 1974, 62,000 Swedes were sterilized as part of a national program grounded in the science of racial biology and carried out by officials who believed they were helping to build a progressive, enlightened welfare state...In some cases, couples judged to be inferior parents were sterilized, as were their children when they became teenagers.

This was not a secret program:

Margot Wallstrom, the Swedish Minister of Health and Social Affairs, told the Post that "there was nothing secret about the sterilization program. It was carried out in the light of public debate at a time when Swedes believed they were creating a society that would be the envy of the world." The Swedish Institute for Racial Biology, founded in 1922, was the first national institute of the kind. The Swedes were also the first to sterilize the mentally ill, beginning in 1934.

The next coffee-shop socialist you meet who blathers about the benevolence of the Swedish model should check out the "World Socialist Web Site" article on the matter. These folks bill themselves as "The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)... the leadership of the world socialist movement, the Fourth International founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938," so it might be worth checking them out for this bit of hot socialist-on-socialist criticism:

Between 1934 and 1976, when the Sterilisation Act was finally repealed, 62,000 people, 90 percent of them women, were sterilised. 15-year-old teenagers were sterilised for "crimes" such as going to dance halls. One woman was sterilised in 1960 for being in a motorcycle gang. Orphans were sterilised as a condition of their release from children's homes. Others were pinpointed on the basis of local neighbourhood gossip and personal grudges. Some were targeted because of their "low intelligence", being of mixed race, being gypsies, or for physical defects.

The article notes that "...per head of population... only Nazi Germany sterilised more people than Sweden." For those few of you who don't know this little fact, it's worth pointing out that "Nazi" is short for NSDAP, or Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei... National Socialist German Workers Party.

This from my friend Franklin: Man Becomes Ill After Gorging on Cicadas.

I first heard about this on the local news today or yesterday, and through one of "small world" circuits I've gotten used to since I discovered the Internet in the late 1980's, my friend Steve Pegram forwards me the local news station's coverage of it, "Mountain Lion killed in Palo Alto neighborhood":

The media think this footage is graphic. The officer made a good shot. She used an M4 with an EoTech. Based on my limited knowledge of cat physiology (from reading hunt reports and watching OLN) it appears to be a lung shot. I surmise this from the cat's reaction based on known lung shots I've observed on hunting shows.

Perhaps we should rename the 5.56 Poodle Shooter to Kitty Killer?

The video does go on to say that the shot was lung/heart/lung, which is almost as good as such a game shot can get (additionally breaking one or both scapulae to keep the cat from running would have been even better, and a brainstem shot would have rated "perfect".) The only thing that would have made this better is if the householder had dispatched the threat herself. By the way, I should mention that there have been several recent public accounts of mountain lion attacks on hikers in the nearby Stanford hills (The Farm really is farmland)... good riddance to bad cats.

To believe in gun control, you have to believe that it's wrong to make snide, sexist comments about women, unless the comments are about women who own guns.

Bill Hartwell

Today I bought a crate of 4 pounds of juicy red "California Giant" strawberries grown in Watsonville, California, some of which are the size of tennis balls... for U.S. $4.50 or so. I love markets.

Another source of concise information on the respirocyte concept.

My thanks to my longtime friend (I avoid the term "old friend" for such a young woman) Kennita Watson for alerting me to this lecture at Stanford on 23 June 2004: "The Artificial Synapse Chip: Towards an Electronic Prosthetic Retina" by Harvey A. Fishman, M.D., Ph.D, Stanford University School of Medicine, the Director of Ophthalmic Tissue Engineering and Chief Ophthalmology Resident in the department of Ophthalmology.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common form of severe and irreversible blindness in the U.S. Our research program consists of a highly interdisciplinary effort between physicians, engineers, and scientists to develop a neural interface that will connect the output from a digital camera to individual retinal cells in patients with AMD, thus bypassing injured cells.

I really wish I could make this lecture, but I have a bioanthropology final exam during the very time slot this lecture occurs (6:15pm for dinner at the hospital cafeteria, 7:30-8:30pm for the lecture). If you, the reader, can attend I'd love to hear your impressions of the event.

By the way, this sounds like a skillset for the type of research physician I find really interesting:

Dr. Fishman's area of expertise is translational research that uses a multidisciplinary approach to develop novel therapies for blinding diseases in the eye – in particular, Age-Related Macular Degeneration. His research bridges the gaps between tissue engineering, surface science, nanofabrication, chemistry, neuroscience and retinal transplantation biology in Ophthalmology. His background in new technologies and medical science is diverse including bioMEMS, chip-based microfluidics and confocal and time-lapse microscopy, neuroscience/nerve cell regeneration and macular diseases in Ophthalmology. He has made contributions in the fields of microfluidics, laser-induced fluorescence detection, separation science, and biosensors.

Be happy while you're living, for no matter how long you live, you're a longer time dead.

Scottish proverb (courtesy of Robert Bradbury)

I imagine respirocytes as minuscule objects consisting of roughly 18 billion atoms arranged in small balls about a thousandth of a millimeter in diameter. Each respirocyte is a tiny pressurized gas tank equipped with small pumps. Respirocytes are nanobots that move with the blood. In the body's periphery, they release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. In the lungs, they do the opposite, recharging themselves with oxygen. The exchange of gases is regulated by minute sensors. Though the respirocytes are modeled on red blood corpuscles, they transport oxygen two hundred times more efficiently than the natural item. A small syringe-full of respirocytes could carry as much oxygen as your entire bloodstream.

Robert A. Freitas Jr
28 July 2000

If you're used to hearing the question, "Would you like a bag and board with that?" every other week or so, what habit do you have?

My friend Steve Pegram passed this on to me a few days ago with the comment "First I've heard of these. Handy, if they work as advertised." I agree.

"The Only EPA Registered Purification Tablets on the Market - effective against Cryptosporidium, Giardia, bacteria, and viruses."

The only disinfection system effective against viruses, bacteria, cryptosporidium, and Giardia
Fresh tasting water - no unpleasant taste
Easy to use tablets
The same proven technology that is used in municipal water supplies
Lightweight and compact - ideal for traveling, lightweight backpacking, and emergency use
Purification Method: Chlorine Dioxide Tablets

Output: 1 tablet treats 1 quart (1 liter) of water

Capacity: 30 tablets

An old friend of mine, whose judgment I strongly respect, recently stated that the services he received at Kronos Optimal Health Centre were "...worth every penny!" Eventually, I plan to avail myself of those services too.

I have an inch-high stack of business cards and handwritten personal notes to transcribe from this weekend's proceedings. Whoa.

L. Neil Smith, on a mailing list this morning, mentioned he'll be watching "Van Helsing" soon at the cinema. I'm not yet seen it, and was surprised to have heard about it when the trailers hit the cinemas and TV: I was familiar with the Japanese animation series "Hellsing" (note the spelling), in which the daughter of Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (correctly giving homage to Stoker), and present head of the "Hellsing Foundation", creates an uneasy vampire hunting alliance with the semi-psychotic vampire Alucard (note the spelling, but backwards), for whom Hugh Jackman, in the movie "Van Helsing" is the (slightly effeminate) spitting image, but as the amnesiac "Gabriel Van Helsing".

All very confusing.

I'm not sure whether this is a licenced, retooled-for-American-audiences live action adaption of the Japanese original, or yet another blatant slightly altered ripoff a la "The Lion King", Disney's theft of "Kimba the White Lion" ("Jangaru taitei", or "Jungle Emperor".)

All this having been said, I'm certainly open to enjoying "Van Helsing", if it's good... regardless of provenance or inspiration.

Last night, I returned from 3 days of dawn-to-midnight immersion in the wonderful intensity of the 2004 Foresight Senior Associates Gathering just in time to meet a friend for 4 hours' study for our respective chemistry exams this morning. Catching up with email, I just noticed that my friend Alan Weiss has surprised me with a donation toward the upkeep of this site. So, thank you, Alan! I really appreciate the action and the sentiment behind it (which I'll keep private between us for now, but which brought a smile to my face.)