Recently in Recommendations Category

This last weekend, I bought a Surefire G2 Nitrolon high-output flashlight at a Reno gun show, about $35. It's a very good alternative to the more expensive, earlier metal version, the Surefire 6P. For those of my friends who are getting into defensive pistolcraft for the first time - and who have budget constraints - I recommend this lightweight version.

Today's QOTD is a bit of background on the graphic novel "Roswell, Texas" by L. Neil Smith and Scott Beiser, which has been serialized in webcomic form on the Bighead Press website. It's a kick, and I recommend it highly.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I met my friend Dale Seago at the Pleasanton Highland Games this last weekend. Both Dale and our dojo chum Garland were wearing the new version of the Cold Steel Special Projects Scottish Dirk, which Dale reviews today in Swordforum.com. I was deeply impressed, and took Dale's advice to order it from the vendor indicated by Froogle as the lowest price supplier, Premium Knives. Noticing how Garland's unmodified Cold Steel-supplied dirk sheath loop seemed flimsy, I took Dale's advice at the Games to pick up a Scottish Dirk Frog from onsite vendor Ravenwood Leather, for the amazingly low price of $10.

I'm looking forward to receiving the knife in a few days.

I've had this recipe pinned to my refrigerator door, meaning to transcribe it here. It's a baked chicken recipe which I've made a couple of times in the last few years, after having had it at my friends' house a few years ago. You need these ingredients:

• One large, whole chicken
• 2 tablespoons butter
• One clove of chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup cooking wine
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 onion

Stuff the chicken with the half lemon and half onion. Place it breast-up in a deep baking dish, and pour all the ingredients listed above in the dish around and over the chicken. Wrap the dish a couple of times in aluminum foil, taking care to leave some space between the foil and the chicken, and place the dish in an oven pre-heated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook 30 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn the bird over, using a baster to spread more of the resulting broth over the bird. Re-cover with the foil and cook another 90 minutes. Allow the bird to "rest" for about 15 minutes before serving. The chicken should be incredibly tender and moist. Enjoy.

We are born, so to speak, provisionally, it doesn't matter where; it is only gradually that we compose, within ourselves, our true place of origin, so that we may be born there retrospectively.

Rilke, as quoted by Coetzee, as quoted by Donald Ritchie, as collected in "The Japan Journals", as editted by Leza Lowitz
p441

Last week, I took a coyote, a feral hog, and assisted in a friend's take of another feral hog, using one 150-grain Remington Core-Lokt in .308 caliber shot from a Jeff Cooper edition Steyr Scout in each encounter. This particular round (or remains thereof) I dug out from underneath the skin of the one I took:

This particular round hit the hog midships, high, and completely busted the spine, spleen, and vented the lower lobes of the lungs, causing pneumothorax evidenced by a "deflating balloon" sound when I first moved the hog carcass. Intererestingly, the lead core seems to have punched through the hog, leaving the copper jacket:

Here, I show the path of the bullet, taken by the hog from about 110 metres, entering starboard and (partially) exiting port:

You know, in this shot, I look almost as (literally) knackered as the hog itself. East Texas is hot and humid this time of year...

...yesterday at Vertical Challenge 2006 at San Carlos Airport, California, a car hoisted down the length of a runway, then dropped it:

Scott Beiser and L. Neil Smith's Roswell, Texas is now online, serialized in webcomic fashion. I believe that my dear, recently deceased friend Chris Tame has a cameo somewhere in the comic's future.

L. Neil Smith finally does a real blog, "L. Neil Smith at Random", with comments enabled. I've long thought that Neil's writing would fit the format, and now I'm sure of it.

One of the pleasures of having a Netflix subsription is being able to add oddball titles to my queue, click-and-forget, and receive it later as a "surprise." One such title is a short wine documentary, "John Cleese's Wine for the Confused":

Wine snobs, beware: Monty Python's witty John Cleese aims to educate the masses with this enlightening, snoot-free wine guide. Cleese guides wine novices through the basics -- finding wines you like, getting the best value, and serving and storing wine at home. His vintner's tour includes lessons in wine vocabulary and identifying subtle flavors. Not a fan of snobbery in the least, Cleese also reveals how to cork up condescending sommeliers.

Unlike a commentator in the IMDB entry, I'm not surprised Cleese would do such a documentary: in the early 90's, working for a company in London, I found the tedium of mandatory training videos greatly lessened with Cleese as presenter. He has an impressive resume of this type of stuff.

K. Eric Drexler informs me that his book "Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology" has a new home on his website (migrated from its previous hosting at the Foresight Institute).

Check out the attribution on the entry page... I did the work 10 years ago, but I deeply appreciate the continuing credit.

William Faulkner, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, called upon writers of the future to not write merely "for the glands." Of course, at that moment, Faulkner was being rewarded for being the best writer for the glands this country has ever known. Incest, serial killing, insanity, race war, castration, burial of the dead, biblical flood, hunting bear, rape with a corn cob - Faulkner did it all. The guy played our genome like a xylophone. Faulkner, in a suddenly noble moment, called upon writers... to transcend the endocrinological. He didn't set the best example.

Joe Quirk
Sperm Are from Men, Eggs Are from Women, p118

The Dissident Frogman has incorporated my Japanese translations of his popular "Support Denmark" banners into his multilingual contributions archive page.

My thanks to knowledgeable friends Mariko and Garth for their thorough critiques of my pre-final draft. Thanks also for feedback on the issue of translating the original phrase "the legacy of the West", which was problematic, by these people on the honyaku mailing list: Richard Thieme, Peter Durfee, Benjamin Barrett, J.C. Helary, and James Sparks.

Charles Hudson has written an interesting opinion piece on the potential of Yelp (which I mentioned recently.) Thanks to Matthew P. for the pointer. Excerpt:

Yelp is collecting a ton of data from those who take the time to rate and review restaurants, hotels, etc. In the same way that Junglee/Amazon revolutionized how people find books and other goods by using collaborative filtering, I can see Yelp (at scale) achieving a similar aim. Right now, the "missing lens" is the ability to filter reviews and ratings based on similar interests. I would love the ability to use Yelp to filter reviews and ratings based on how similar other reviewers' scores are to ones that I have entered. This is something that nobody seems to be doing today. Ultimately, this collaborative filtering might prove even more useful than reviews provided by my friends.

Some friends of a friend started a geographically-oriented business review site, Yelp.com, with an apparent emphasis on restaurant reviews (but an ontology supporting very many more categories.)

I've joined on her recommendation, and have been surprised to discover just how useful it's been already: I've found some nearby places I'd never considered before, and am now using to drive some of my purchases at local specialty shops.

Now, whether Yelp is another Next Big Thing remains to be seen. It's a closed system, with no apparent provision for RSS syndication of the content we the users add to the review base, and relatedly, no leveraging of microformat standards such as hReview, a serious issue (thanks to Mike Linksvayer for pointing me to this recently.)

Yelp seems to have purchased a GIS-oriented business database, and coded some Google Maps integration into their interface. Rather nice, but entirely US-oriented, with no indication they're ready to scale into the English-speaking markets of Tokyo (big expat and traveller population) and other locales.

Speaking of which, I just tried inviting a good friend, an American living in Panama who could be a productive member of the Yelp community, and he sent me back this, reprinted with his permission:

'Hi Russell,

These morons ask for a zip code and won't accept my sign-up without one. I see this sort of shit all the time. When are US geeks going to get a clue the the US is not the world and that not everyone who has internet also has a "zip" code? So Thanks, but no thanks. I won't sign up with jingoistic idiots. Please feel free to pass along my exact words, if it pleases you.

Regards,
Sandy'

Wow. Well, he does have a point. I see this as one of those "We weren't planning to be so successful" scaling issues. Can't count the number of times I've seen this. I think the Yelpers really should have generalized their GIS integration to allow world-wide registration, from the very beginning. I have lots of friends in Europe, Asia, and South America who won't be able to join due to this and related issues. Maybe agitating in the Yelp forums about this might help; I've noticed they do tend to pay attention to issues of interface (e.g. marking businesses as closed or moved) so they may listen. Of course, they may be planning some kind of world-market rollout, but it would help if they advertised that somewhere prominent.

In the meantime, I'm going to use the hell out of it until and unless it ceases to be interesting. It's a much more convenient place for me to bulk-load all those pictures of food and storefronts I take in my travels, more so than the Movable Type blogging interface I'm using here, and since most of my reviews are locale-specific, it's probably a better place for my rants and raves about local businesses (and ones I visit in other cities.)

Just minutes after I'd complained in my latest blog posting about the lack of taxonomies for doing business reviews, Mike Linksvayer leaves a comment to the contrary:

In-blog reviews, no hacking required beyond copy and paste.

In the fullness of time these will be aggregated by someone for viewing in the context of similar reviews. On the other hand, reviews posted at review sites may be similarly aggregated.

Yesterday, I visited Ramen Rama in Cupertino, California, with my longtime friend Suzu. Here's another of what Brian Micklethwait refers to as a "Billion Monkeys" moment:

Some other tech industry friends of Suzu have started a company called Yelp, whose product is a business reviews website, where Suzu and I have reviewed the ramen shop. I've not populated this blog with restaurant review entries to my satisfaction, since the blog format is not granular enough (without hacking) to support a taxonomy for star ratings and such, so I'm going to experiment with posting my reviews on Yelp and pointing to them from here. Putting my own reviews in the context of others' should add value to the opinions.

Just saw a telecast version of this print article on Foxnews, "Cruisin' For Cash"; a small town (Littleton, Massachusetts) police chief, John Kelly, is using carside adverts - no tax money - to fund his police cruisers:

The chief says he felt he had little choice but to take an unusual, much-criticized step to upgrade his patrol cars. He’s selling advertising space on the quarter panels and rear bumper of patrol cars to pay for the new wheels.

12 grand a year for three years earns a local business the right to put a banner ad on the back and sides of a town police car. This allows Kelly to buy all new lights, sirens, radios, scanners, shotgun and assault rifle racks, and an on-board law enforcement laptop computer. Plus, it covers the entire cost of the vehicle lease. A local grocer, Donnelans, bought space to pay for the first new cruiser.

Meant to put this up a few weeks ago: me and Dale Seago at a recent (21 January 2006) Rabbie Burns Birthday celebration in front of San Francisco's Edinburgh Castle Pub:

The festivities were well worth the trip up to the city. The piper was very good - and looked every bit the part, wish I'd snagged a good shot of him - and the Burns poetry readings were rousing, marred only ever so slightly by some rather self-consciously narcissistic political posturing on the part of a (I'm not making this up) Scottish socialist lesbian Buddhist working class nun.

The night culminated in a hearty reading of "Address to a Haggis" followed by a free-for-all of flying forks in a frenzy of delectation. I managed to snag a small amount, happy I had any, and returned to the booth to enjoy it... and discovered to my gratitude that Dale had managed to snag double servings for both of us! I quite enjoyed it, and may even keep a small stock of it in cans for emergencies.

Still going through my burgeoning archive of travel photos. Here's a ride I took - a bungee chair - in Beijing's Wangfujing shopping district. The guy on the chair is not me:

I'd had a bit to drink when I decided to do this myself; the boisterously friendly Chinese guy who shared the chair with me (since it was cheaper for 2, cheapest for 3) was plastered. I bought a copy of the video taken by the elderly, cage-mounted VHS camera, without having taken into account (I'd been drinking, remember) that the camera was recording in PAL format... doh! Eventually, I'll get it converted to NTSC, or directly to MPEG. Should be fun to see.

I occasionally attend some rather memorable lectures on topics of extropian interest, such as Aubrey de Grey's lectures at Stanford last summer. I've gotten permission to post some of the recordings I've taken with my iPod/iTalk combination, but have not yet aggregated those recordings for public consumption. With yesterday's announcement by audioblog.com concerning their "unmetered bandwidth" plan, I just may have found my venue. Stay tuned.

I took a break from studying this evening and visited a number of local stores to buy Danish food and booze products. Here's what I came back with, minus duplicates (I had to buy more than one of the tins of ginger cookies):

From Trader Joe's:

• Rosenborg Danish Blue cheese
  
• Silver Goat Organic Feta cheese
  
• "The Queen's Cookies" Ginger Spice Cookies (made in Denmark for Trader Joe's)
  

From Whole Foods:

• Denmark's Finest Havarti cheese
  
• Denmark's Finest Havarti cheese with dill
  
• Rosenborg Danish Blue cheese
  
• Blue Danish Castello Triple Cream cheese
  
• Fontina Danish Cheese
  

From Safeway:

• Denmark's Finest Fontina cheese
  
• Denmark's Finest Blue cheese
  
• Primo Taglio Havarti with Dill cheese
  

Especially notable and tasty are the ginger spice cookies made under contract in Denmark for Trader Joe's:

I encourage all of my readers to participate in this Danish buycott.

The Dissident Frogman has updated his "Support Denmark" banner blog posting with banner versions in additional languages such as German and Simplified Chinese.

The Dissident Frogman is actively maintaining and updating a blog entry with "Support Denmark" graphics in multiple languages. Translations in additional languages are forthcoming (Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Farsi, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Korean, to the best of my knowledge.)

Oh, yeah: go out and stock up on Havarti cheese... it's not only a show of support contra the recent Islamist boycotts and violence against the Danes (and random others in their neighborhood) but it's also damned fine cheese.

I picked up a decent sword stand in San Francisco's Chinatown yesterday. It's 23 inches high, $25 (apparently non-negotiable in the store from which I bought it) and comes in four matt-lacquered wood pieces with a set of wood screws. Power screwdriver in hand, I assembled it in a couple of minutes. Here it is with my Bugei Samurai Koshirae Katana:

The base is indented to hold the end of the saya in place, and seems fairly sturdy. They're available in most of the tourist gift shops in San Francisco's Chinatown. Not as common as the conventional over-the-mantlepiece (or in the tokonoma) horizontal stand, but has a nice "shotgun ready rack" aspect to it.

My pilot friend David recommended this colossal collection of aviation-related essays by Gene Whitt.

Two days ago, I bought a copy of "Mathematica 5.2 For Students" from the campus bookstore for $150 after tax. This is the same software that sells for around $2000 after tax to non-students. It's a fantastic package, and I'm happy I bought it. However, yesterday, after having already installed a copy on my home's dual G5, I tried to install a copy on my PowerBook. Wolfram's licencing scheme doesn't allow that: I could either buy their $100/year "Premium Support" contract, which would allow me to run other copies on other nodes, or buy another copy. If I'd paid full boat for the original copy, that might have made sense, but at the student discount, it made more sense to actually buy another package entirely. FYI for science and engineering students.

I'm just about to crash soon, having come back from the first of a multi-day Bujinkan training seminar by Arnaud Cousergue of Paris (Vincennes, actually) at the Bujinkan Martial Arts Center in Sacramento, a couple of hours' drive from here.

That's Dr. Pete Lohstroh, a UC Davis reproductive biologist, and myself. Pete's interested in medical nanotechology too, by the way, but that's deliberately off topic. I really do meet cool people in this art.

The shiner I acquired Thursday night is even more pronounced in this photo, but it doesn't hurt at all anymore. On a related note, Arnaud ended the day insisting on the use of padded training weapons through the end of the year, for various reasons with which I entirely agree. To that end, on the way back from Sack-of-Tomatoes to Saint Jose, I stopped at the Home Despot near the Sacto dojo and acquired the requisite materials:

- a $1.97 bag of thin 6' bamboo rods from the Garden section
- a $1.97 6' section of 5/8" inside diameter foam copper pipe insulation

I then duct taped 3 pinky-width lengths of the bamboo together at 9-inch intervals, put that inside the foam, and placed styrofoam caps at the ends, duct taping those. I finished by taping the entire thing lengthwise.

Looks surprisingly good, and not at all like a late-night vodka fueled project. I took photos of every step of the project which I will be posting in a few days.

Time to crash now.

I've discovered recently that if you're in market for a used SCUBA rental wetsuit at a dive shop, wait until Tuesday or Wednesday in most markets to buy it: the cosmetically better-looking suits are usually taken by renters on the weekend and returned on Monday. You'll find those better looking suits clean and dried in the following couple of days before the rental cycle starts over.

This advice is intended for those who understand and don't mind the fact that SCUBA divers tend to urinate in their wetsuits, especially to keep warm in Monterey Bay waters...

I'm rested now and recovered from last weekend's attendance at the 4-day tactical shotgun course at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute near Las Vegas, Nevada. I surprised myself by making Distinguished Graduate, so I'm now qualified to come back to attend the 4 Day Advanced Tactical Shotgun course. On the second day of training, Greg Carroll snapped this pic of me after the two of us had done our respective runs through the outdoor canyon "clean the hostage takers out" simulator exercise:

The (visible) firearm is my Benelli M1 Super 90, with a nylon tactical sling and a GG&G M3 Tactical Illuminator mounting rail in the 2 o'clock position on the foreend, not the 10 o'clock position GG&G recommends on their website (experience in a previous course having shown me that, as a right-handed longgunner, the 10 o'clock position allows the light to bump on.)

I'd last done a tactical shotgun course about 4 years ago, and so I was quite interested to see how training doctrine had changed in respect of that weapon at Front Sight. The men in the evolution I attended - those 13 in the class who were there for the full 4 days - were all at least previous attendees at another weapon systems class (e.g. defensive handgun, practical rifle) so the class was run at a slightly accelerated pace befitting the audience. Attendees were about evenly divided between cops, active duty military (a Marine heading back to Iraq soon) and private citizens, all of whom were treated exactly the same by the instructional staff, the excellent Chuck Burnett and John Pierson.

One difference I noticed was the much heavier emphasis on incorporating movement, keeping the fight dynamic, and training that way to the limited extent allowed in the "square range environment." I was particularly pleased that, after the Monday (4th day) afternoon skills test, and the "load and go" indoor tactical simulator, I was allowed to do several rounds of 2-man team shooting on the move, with my new friend David L. Loads of fun, and I was pleased to find that a walking skill I'd been cultivating the last few years, walking fast with very short tank-tread heel/toe action to keep the hips and shoulders on level planes, allowed me to get good hits moving both forward and backward, without muzzle bob.

I'm at a level of membership at Front Sight that allows me to take any firearms course free for the rest of my life, much like some golf club memberships. So, I get to take these courses again and again, which allows me not only to revisit, revive, and refine my skills, but also to work out equipment issues. I've discovered I really don't like the Lyman TacStar SideSaddle mounted on the left side of the receiver: it catches on my clothing, when loaded it dampens recoil (and hence reliability) on this recoil-operated weapon, and with the standard provided cross-receiver screw, was coming loose even though I'd installed it properly and Lock-Tited it. I guess a couple of thousand rounds will do that to the Lock-Tite. That, and I'm leery of over-tightening that screw for fear of impeding bolt travel. Oh, and there's the issue of potentially "egging out" the screw holes on the aluminum receiver. My friend David assures me that, should I care to keep the SideSaddle, I can send the weapon to a gunsmith who specializes in Class 3 firearms with aluminum receivers, experienced in setting up weapons to resist receiver failure, but I'm going to switch to keeping my slug rounds on a belt carrier anyway.

Nor am I going to solve the "problem" of having extra ammo by changing out the tube magazine from a 5 to an 8 round capacity. This is my home invasion repellant device... if I can't solve The Problem with what's available in that weapon, then I'm in a very serious situation indeed. I'm more and more preferring lighter, more maneuverable weapons the more I train, with as few bells and whistles as I can get away with. I've heard more than one long arms instructor over the years comment on how students will arrive at a course with their all-singing, all-dancing Space Gun rigs, everything mounted everywhere, only to find themselves quickly shedding equipment after the first day... especially when training in the 105 F degree desert heat. Heh.

Recommendation: check out Estate Cartridge's low-recoil 12-gauge 9-pellet 00 SWAT loads. I've used this buckshot at a previous shotgun course, and had made the decision to attend this most recent course with too little lead time to order more of the same for this class. So, I had a mere few dozen of them to use at various times during this course, instead using a mix of Winchester and Federal buckshot for most exercises. No comparison. At half the price of Federal, the Estate-branded cartridges gave outstandingly tight and nicely distributed (e.g. no annular "donuts of death") patterns, turning heads on the firing line and eliciting a number of "what are you shooting, man?" enquiries.

I had the pleasure of remaking the acquaintance of at least one old friend, who was taking a course on an adjacent range. Additionally, I was happy to have a couple of libertarian friends, longtime (but previously untrained) gunowners, take the full 4 Day Defensive Handgun course on the same weekend. Both men, Alan and Chris, came away from the experience very much more competent than when they arrived.

...the digital (PDF) version I'm reading now, but Charlie Stross tells his readers not to do so. I will, however, be buying several copies from Amazon as gifts to friends. Damn it's good!

If you can, within principle, take over and adopt whatever name your enemy calls you, do so. It shuts them up very handily.

L. Neil Smith

I bought a 40GB iPod about 8 months ago, and have worked that thing like a prom date, using it in my car, at the gym, at school (both for listening & for recording lectures) and simply for walking around. A couple of days ago, I was greeted with the "sad iPod" icon which indicated the unit's hard drive had failed. Though I'd bought the unit at a discount at the campus bookstore, I called the local Apple Store and told them my situation. I was told to come in, they'd have a replacement waiting for me, no charge, covered under the unit's 1-year standard warranty.

This isn't the first time I've dealt with Apple when I've had an issue with their equipment and/or operating system. I bought an AppleCare contract with my new dual G5 a few months ago, and have found that my calls are answered promptly, and the technicians will hang onto the phone doggedly until any problems are run to ground. At least in my own case - I can't speak for others - I'd rate Apple as having a superb culture of customer service all around.

I recently did some driving through Nevada and California, working remotely from a number of hotels. I loaded up my iPod (which I connect to a Pioneer black box installed behind the dash, itself interfaced with the sound system's head unit) with music, podcasts, and audio books (almost all of it purchased on iTunes,) including an unabridged copy of:

"Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side to Everything," by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 6 hours of sometimes humorous, often surprising and counterintuitive anecdote. I highly recommend it: I do enjoy economic storytelling, from Braudel to Postrel to Friedman Jr. and now these guys.

Anyone else encountered this book or its audio equivalent?

I will add the qualification here that the work does gloss over the correlation between concealed carry laws and violent crime, primarily since the authors took John R. Lott as the authority on the matter... which is a double shame, since there's much there to explore, and since Lott seems to have screwed the pooch with respect to the issue of academic integrity.

Curt Howland has pointed me to a relevant blog entry hosted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

A new online bookseller recommended by a member of my extropians mailing list: "Bill of Rights Press," for those hard-to-find titles that Laissez-Faire Books won't carry.

The Sci Fi Channel will be airing all episodes of Firefly starting 22 July 2005.

I recently tried a little surprise from Austin, Texas, sold at Trader Joe's supermarket in northern California: Tito's Handmade Vodka. It's the cleanest-tasting vodka I've ever had, and I highly recommend it for those who mix their martinis with vodka rather than gin (I admit to doing both on occasion.)

Like many, I keep a pocketchange bank on my desk, where I throw my end-of-the-day coin shrapnel. Until recently, I'd taken the 8.9% hit on Coinstar exchanges at a local supermarket, since I value my time highly enough not to spend it counting out 6 pounds of coin. A few days ago, I noticed that one of the options on the Coinstar machine allowed for a conversion of my coins to stored value on an anonymous Starbuck's card... with 0% commission. Since I regularly drink Starbuck's coffee - when a Peet's is not convenient - I found this a rather good deal.

Cambridge biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey will be speaking next week at Stanford University, on "Why the prospect of dramatic life extension matters now." Talk will occur Wednesday evening 7:00-8:30 PM, 8 June 2005, at the Clark Center Auditorium. Thanks to Tyler Emerson for forwarding this to me; I do plan to attend.

Bruce Sommer informs me that Apple has released the online trailer for "Serenity," the film adaptation of Joss Whedon's tragically short-lived "Firefly" television series. It looks fantastic!

In the heart of Beijing is the huge, well-stocked Wangfujing Bookstore. If you need maps, there are thousands of them available on the first (ground) floor, just inside the main doors. English-language books can be found on the 3rd floor. Here's a pic I snapped with my Treo 650 cameraphone:

Beware, beware of Baijiu! Within my first two hours in Beijing, I was taken out for kebabs and beer by my friend Serin. We met this affable guy, Ken, who'd enquired "Naguoren? (where ya from?)" and offered me one of his sealed shot glasses of baijiu. This was an 80-proof (40%) standard formula. After two shots, he brought out a bottle whose name translates from Chinese simply as "56 Percent." We shared that bottle. Apparently, I pulled out my Sony CyberShot to Capture the Moment:

I tried red eye reduction in iPhoto in an attempt to clear up my eyes in this photo, but apparently, the red-eye in this case is not a camera artifact.

I paid dearly the next morning for this act of intercultural male booze bonding, comparable only to an episode I experienced after boot camp, half a lifetime ago, when I swore, "I'll never drink that again."

With an endorsement like this, I had to visit. It surprises me to find out that this palatial facility (literally: it's on the grounds of the Summer Palace) is not listed in Frommer's.

A little walking-around food (or "little food that was recently walking around") in Beijing's Wangfujing: Yanjing beer and scorpions. These little buggers are actually very good indeed. I've had scorpion once before, a different variety with a thicker, blacker thorax, in Thailand, also spiced, and also very good.

Last night, before leaving Beijing, my friend Serin and I had a late night snack at a small neighborhood shop specializing in kebabs and Hui specialties. It was pretty chilly outside, so we ordered some comfort food, such as this mutton bone soup, with the shafts cracked to expose the marrow, straws provided for convenience:

Speaking of good martial arts training, which I just mentioned I undertook last weekend with Don Angier (and the weekend before with great teachers from my own art), I just stumbled across this Jan 2005 article by Peter Boylan, "The Costs of Training with the Best" author of "Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons From The Tokyo Riot Police" (which I've read and recommend).

Boylan has some good points to make, and some sad observations to share.

I mentioned here a couple of years ago that I attended a seminar given by Don Angier of Yanagi Ryu Aiki Jiu Jitsu. I missed last year's event in northern Californa, but I managed to make this year's event last weekend. I attended both days (as did another Bujinkan practicioner), and met one other Bujinkan student during the Sunday session at Aikido of Diablo Valley.

As has always been the case with Don's seminars, I enjoyed it immensely. Both days were Yanagi-style taijutsu training, no weapons this time (e.g. the jojutsu we did in April 2003.)

The first day, we did 3-man training involving breaking from 2-attacker both-arm wrist grabs (morote in aikido parlance). The second day, we did 2-man Yanagi "kiri dori" with reversals. Both days ended with recap training.

As usual, the training was incredibly useful: the principles of Angier's art are shared with our own, with an interestingly different emphasis on how to convey them. I didn't attend with the intent of "learning their art" - that really only happens with core Yanagi students, in their dojo environment, as is the case with us and our art - but what I do expect, as I've experienced in previous years' training with the Yanagi folks, is that I'll be able to see aspects of our own art from an outside perspective.

One solid claim I can make for training with these guys is that I'm forced to re-examine all the "unclean" (or sloppy) elements in my own movement.

Really, I can't recommend highly enough that Bujinkan students take the time to attend a seminar by this incredible 73 year old practicioner of a rare Japanese family art.

I should also add that the people I trained with, mostly aikidoka, were very good training partners, and incredibly welcoming, which made the experience all the more rewarding.

Dale Seago reviews the Nightstalker Tartan from Stillwater Kilts in a post on Sword Forum International:

...over the last few years I've become fairly experienced with the old-style feileadh mor or belted plaid; the feileadh beag; 1790s-style early box-pleated kilt; modern "tailored" wool kilt; and canvas casual kilts. I regard the kilt as clothing rather than costume, and wear one pretty often. In fact, a Bujinkan black belt from Ireland who trained in my dojo here for about a year until he picked up another job back home once commented to me that, having been to Scotland several times, he'd noticed over there that there always seemed to be something special or a bit "in your face" in the way Scots wear their kilts -- in other words, it always seemed to be "making a statement" of some sort -- but that with me the "feeling" he got was that it was "just clothing".

For a martial art to be a martial art, rather than some other form of physical expression (some other "art" entirely), its focus must remain on fighting. A truly accomplished warrior may renounce violence -- but only his or her mastery of violence makes this possible. If the style or system you study leaves you unable to defend yourself in a realistic self-defense scenario, it may indeed be an art -- but it is not martial at all. Its practitioners delude themselves if they believe that it is.

In the same vein, a martial art or martial artist whose attitude towards weapons is one of contempt, mistrust, fear, or condescension tells you volumes about its, his, or her "martialism." Weapons are force multipliers -- tools that perform the same function as hammers, levers, and pliers in that they make it easier to accomplish a specific task. As the purpose of a martial art is to deliver force against another human or group of humans, only the most ignorant of martial artists would dismiss or reject tools that make performing this task more efficient and less risky. There is no such thing as an immoral tool. There are only immoral tool users.

Phil Elmore

My Bujinkan teacher Dale Seago mentioned this a few days ago:

Some VERY good pages on Japanese armor which give a clearer understanding of why armored fighting methods are the way they are; also sections on historic Japanese clothing & accessories, the design and layout of Japanese estates during the Heian period, etc.

For those with a bent toward Humphreyesque "cultural detective work", there's an essay on "Rape as the First Act of Romance in Heian Japan" which makes it pretty clear that the feudal Japanese viewed some things quite differently from the way we do in our society today... (Whaddaya mean I should wait 'til the 3rd date?!?)

Today after work I headed up for Thursday night Bujinkan training (the weekly outdoor session, which I'd been missing until recently due to school), and had a great time tonight. Before heading to San Francisco, I did a quick search for late night coffee shops with free wireless internet access, located within a reasonable drive of the training park, and found the Samovar Tea Lounge in the Castro/Mission district.

I'm sitting there right now, having "Russian High Tea" way too late in the day. Service includes all-you-can drink high-octane self-serve tea from - you guessed it - a samovar: "dilute to taste" is the operative term. This place is genuinely cool, and I highly recommend it.

About the "just because I can" thing: an acquaintance of mine, Marc Stiegler, once wrote in one of his novels that it's vitally important to maintain a childlike sense of wonder about the world. Here I am, sitting in a friendly place, an oasis of light in the darkness, warmth against the wind, music from the walls, and good food I would never have thought of making myself, talking to people in other cities on a 4-pound device that I use to bring me money... life is a good thing.

Yesterday, I attended Dale Seago's "Return from Japan" seminar in San Francisco. I'm reminded that my friend Monica attended a Bujinkan seminar in London, and had some good things to say about her training experience.

This just in from my distant friend James Bennett: his announcement today of the website supporting his new book "The Anglosphere Challenge." This seems like a very enticing book, and I plan to read it during winter school break.

Mark Quon added an extensive set of recommendations to my post about "The Incredibles" yesterday; I'll be renting a few of those titles through Netflix myself.

Anton Sherwood has moved his musings to a blogging system with a commenting facility and much friendlier navigation. No trivial feat, given that he's been blogging (in one place) since February 2002... this meant converting over 1400 postings! Take a look.

I bought a used speargun and scuba regulator assembly at a very good bargain price from a really cool Korean guy who's an incredibly experienced freediver and spear fisherman. Here's a nifty little device he cooked up for managing gear, "diver down" flag, and temporary stowage of fish (as well as for paddling out to kelp forest, of course):

Thanks to David Purves for the pointer to an entertaining article published yesterday, "The Monetary Economics of Thurston Howell II (sic)," which I've discovered is also today the subject of intense discussion on Slashdot.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my discovery of the cactus pear as an edible fruit. Here's a picture of that succulent delight:

If you only encrypt important things, even without decrypting the message the simple fact it's encrypted means its important. This is information that you have given freely to whomever it is that is watching: "Pay Attention, This One Is Important."

I cannot stop the buggers from knowing everything about me if they decide I'm a target. But I can throw chaff. Encrypt everything.

As PGP's developer Phil Zimmerman said, "PGP is for small secrets."

Curt Howland

Just a few minutes ago, I tore open a pouch of Oregon Freeze Dry's Mountain House brand "Freeze Dried ~ Precooked Scrambled Eggs with Real Bacon" I'd purchased over 5 years, to see how they taste. Quite palatable, though the "Real Bacon," even with 8 minutes of steeping in boiling water, still tastes like bacon bits. Of course, 5 years is actually a rather short time to store this type of food. I expect a package of the same food to taste the same 5 or 10 years hence.

A few days ago, I finished reading Henry Petroski's "The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are," a breezy exposition on the origins of things most people take for granted, usually considered not worth wondering about. In a similar vein, and coincidentally well-timed, Curt Howland forwarded me yesterday a pointer to an essay lauding one artifact in particular, "In Praise of the Oh-So-Dependable Cardboard Box," by Russell Roberts.

I'm reminded of an essay I read in the summer of 1990, a copy of which was given me by its author, Phil Salin, at a house party in Palo Alto, before leaving for my 1st work assignment in Europe. The essay, "The Ecology of Decisions, or 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Kitchens,'" opened my eyes to what Petroski often refers to as the "artifactual intelligence" encoded in the seemingly mundane, the things we don't consider.

Phil's work, by the way, is maintained on the web by friends who deeply care about him: he succumbed to stomach cancer sometime around 1993, and is presently in cryostasis at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. I didn't have the chance to personally thank Phil for his strong influence on my thinking, but I hope to have that chance someday.

I mentioned yesterday that Google's Gmail service had given me 6 invitations (they'd originally given me 2) yesterday, and that I was giving them away. I got 3 takers within minutes, leaving 3.

This morning, I notice that I had not 3, but 6, invitations left. I immediately gave away two more.

The thing is, several other people I know have Gmail accounts, but I've been told by some of them that they've only ever been given a grand total of 2 invitations, with no replenishment. I'm not sure why I keep getting more... I wonder what rules Google's automation uses to determine whom to replenish with invitations? I'm guessing that it may be a side effect of the fact that I receive mail from a very busy mailing list to that account. Invitations may be granted in proportion to use. Anyone have insight to share?

By the way - to pre-empt the inevitable request from someone I've never heard from previously - I should add the caveat that I'm only giving these invitations to realspace friends or those of my online acquaintances with whom I'm friendly.

Prakash Chandrashekhar, a libertarian blogger in India, recommends L. Neil Smith's "The Probability Broach" on AnarCapLib.

This weekend in Half Moon Bay, I picked up a small bag of an intruiguing fruit I'd seen many times in several deserts, but never taken the time to investigate eating, the "Cactus pear," better known as the "Prickly pear" in the American southwest. I tried the Mexican variety known as Roja Pelona, a deep beet-red fruit the size and rough consistency of kiwifruit, less overbearingly sweet and with larger (edible) seeds than the kiwifruit. Delicious! It's interesting to note that the Israelis grow these too, as per Daniel Rogov in his "Cactus as an Edible Fruit":

With their large flat pads, their thorny fruits, and flowers that blossom annually, the sabra cactus is an inescapable and charming part of the Israeli landscape. Because the sabra cactus, which is a member of the genus Opuntia, grows easily in the sandy and limestone soils of the country and because the direction of its grown is easy to control, these sprawling cacti are planted by farmers as windbreaks and to divide their own fields from those of their neighbors. So well known are the plants that one of the best known regional stereotypes compares the personality of native born Israelis with the fruits of these cacti. According to the image generated by this stereotype, both are tough and thorny on the exterior but sweet and soft inside. Both the fruits and the native born Israelis are known as "Sabras".

I really enjoy this woman's writing: "Science Friction," by Monica White.

Relatedly, Monica has informed me that she's working on an extended, adapted version of her Firefly review (of course she loves it too) for The Atlasphere, which I'll pass along when she tells me it's been published.

Peggy and I visited Pescadero (south of Half Moon Bay) today, eating at a local place, Duarte's Tavern, which has been around since 1894. As an appetizer, we took some Hog Island oysters, which were quite good, though not as fresh as from the Hog Island restaurant at San Francisco's Ferry Building which we visited a couple of weekends ago. Later, heading back inland - and into warmer weather - we stopped off in Mountain View and happened upon this year's Small Brewers Festival. Next to the big top tent, an acoustically raucous place, is an alley with some fine lusty fare on offer. One of the food vendors was a group of Mexicans selling - among other things - barbequed oysters. We paid $6.50 for 3 huge oysters fresh from the grill, soaked in a fantastic garlic butter, and were blown away by the sensation... we'd had nothing like it, ever.

So, what do we do? We head home, where I fire up the barbeque and she headed to the market to pick up some oysters, to see if we could replicate the oyster recipe. One bottle of Chardonnay later, we think we need to head back to the festival tomorrow (after a morning at the shooting range) to research the recipe again. It was good, but something's different... some rice wine vinegar, maybe?

Stayed tuned.

Perry Metzger has whipped up an excellent little Postfix one-liner good for filtering against mail with potential viral payloads. As he puts it, "Who would want to legitimately mail someone a .pif or .lnk file?"

Claire Wolfe recommends the Firefly series in this article, "Hardyville in Space."

A few days ago, Monica White pointed me in the direction of the Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery in my own neighborhood. Today, I find out about an exhibition in the neighboorhood of St. James Wood in London (which many years ago was my neighborhood too): Jack Vettriano, at the Portland Gallery. Sounds very interesting indeed... too bad I can't see it in person anytime soon. Of course, some of Vettriano's work seems like the type of thing that the Cordair Gallery might carry someday. Hmm....

About three weeks ago, I wrote that my friend Monica White had indirectly informed me (through her blogroll) of the existence of the Quent Cordair Fine Art Gallery in Burlingame, California, about a mile from San Francisco International Airport.

Well, on Saturday - on a whim - I suggested to Peggy that we head up to the gallery for the short remainder of the afternoon. We arrived about two hours before closing... and left about an hour after closing.

I'd called ahead to confirm that the gallery was, as indicated on their website, indeed open for the afternoon. When we arrived, a friendly lady greeted us and, upon hearing my voice, recognized me from my call-ahead. When I mentioned my name, she remarked that it sounded familiar, and that she'd actually - somehow - come across my blog recently and had even recommended that a friend of hers named "Carter" (whose contact I welcome) contact me about gun-related issues! I was happily astounded. I quickly found out that this friendly - and sharp - lady is Linda Zimmerman, the director of the gallery.

Linda spent the better part of three hours talking with me about the purpose of the gallery, the only one of its kind in the world, specializing strictly in high-quality painting and sculpture of the Romantic Realist variety (see Ayn Rand's "Romantic Manifesto" for an in-depth introduction to the genre.) I was deeply impressed at the operation, the selection, and the director. The storefront has had 8 years of profitable operation, but its recent years of online operation alone keep it sufficiently profitable that it can continue in business, without diluting its collection with low-quality pieces which would otherwise meet "school of art" requirements or with technically high-quality pieces which are outside those stated requirements.

The gallery itself has on display about one-third its total collection, the other two-thirds of which is in storage, but pieces of which can be viewed by the seriously interested. The walls are arrayed with paintings, as would be expected, and a number of bronzes are also on display. Linda encourages a healthy, tactile approach to the sculptures: touch them. At one point in our long, animated chat, she took my right hand and placed it on the hip of this statue, "Gratitude" by Danielle Anjou:

This is a lovely piece, and was strangely reminincent of the 1987 Boris Vallejo cover art for the Robert A. Heinlein novel "To Sail Beyond the Sunset," itself a triumphalist riff on Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus." I love it, probably as much as Monica White loves Bill Mack's alto-relief sculpture "Forever," which was not on display the day I visited... but which I hope Monica can eventually acquire.

Linda and I talked each other's ears off, happily, while Peggy enjoyed one of the overstuffed leather couches near the front of the gallery. We talked about the business of art, and the multifarious ways the gallery has connected Romantic Realist artists, including the recently immigrated Chinese master Han Wu Shen, with deeply appreciative customers, including passionate-but-temporarily-impecunious college students who've arranged payment plans for their "must have" pieces. We talked about a great many other things, with most of the conversation led by Linda cheerily educating me in the business of her gallery, and with me responding with semi-articulate "Wows!" and "Cool!"

I do plan to spend quite a bit more time in the gallery, and may even hold a party of friends there in the near future. Yes, I did say "party"... anyone interested? It would be a great excuse to gather a few dozen of my closest friends and acquaintances in a fantastic setting near the near San Francisco. This is a very real possibility, since Linda did say that the gallery encourages people to hold their parties there. I'm thinking sometime in September, when my good friend Tom Burroughes is in town visiting from London with his girlfriend: first a morning sailing on the Bay (Tom's a qualified yachtsman), then shooting at the range, then a catered affair that night - after cleaning up - at the Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery... sounds like good living to me.

I do not believe that fighting is the primary goal of martial arts in contemporary times. I believe that it has far greater potential. Hatsumi Sensei [says] that it is to produce higher human beings and create peace. Although these may sound like lofty ideals, we have all witnessed the personal evolution of practitioners and seen the spirit of friendship flourish between countries. In many cases, the Bujinkan has created friendships between students even when their home countries were still hostile.

Martial arts provide a model of life. They teach us to be positive and resolved in the face of adversity. They teach us to seek truth (albeit at first through technique), they teach us to seek harmony rather than accord, they teach us cooperation (which is necessary during practice) and they teach us the humility to know that we must act as part of nature not contrary to it. If we must fight, then we should do so with a pure heart. To harm an opponent more than is necessary is savagery and is unbecoming of an artist. It is better that we are judged on our dignity and humanity, rather than by how fearsome we are.

In Japanese martial arts, there is a saying, ‘The sword that kills and the sword that spares’. This is usually taken to mean that the swordsman would have such skill that he could choose whether to kill or spare an opponent. Hatsumi Sensei said that there is another meaning, that one action may have included both. An example of this may have been when faced with no other choice, a samurai would have killed an attacker to prevent him from taking innocent lives. Although regretting the taking of life, his one sword cut would have killed and spared life at the same time. To make such a judgement for the correct reasons, the swordsman needed to have had a highly developed sense of humanity and justice. Taking life cannot be compared with giving life. Hurting cannot be compared to healing and destruction cannot be compared to creativity. We are not just martial practitioners, we are martial artists and we should create beauty through the movements of our bodies and hearts.

Peter King, on "Fighting"

On our dojo mailing list today, sometimes-training-buddy (and all around good guy) Irishman Stephen Ewart forwards this excellent essay, "Fighting," written by the U.K's Peter King, a superb Bujinkan practicioner and teacher with whom my friend Monica White has the privilege of training in London. An excerpt:

Hatsumi Sensei criticised martial artists who act like they are dangerous animals. He said that man has been able to use his intelligence to be able to kill dangerous animals in the world. Such people will be defeated – in a way that they had not expected, because they were outwitted by brain and not muscle. When Takamatsu Sensei was in China he was known as the Mongolian Tiger because of his martial prowess. However on his return to Japan, a friend said that he was more like a Japanese cat. Takamatsu Sensei was happy to agree. He said that, in China, it was necessary for him to be fierce like a tiger, but that now that he was back in Japan it was not. He added that women like cats and would often stroke them. Although said in humour, it illustrates the need to be hard only when needed, and then be able to return to gentleness.

Chris Claypoole has some interesting commentary today inspired by his recent reading of Eric Raymond's essay "Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun."

I had already known that disarming the public was a standard tactic of repressive governments. I have always been a "no compromise" supporter of the right to bear arms, but from the perspective of the right to self-defense. I had not made the connection between bearing arms (not merely gun ownership, but carrying as a normal part of life) and development of a responsible adult. The kind of person that will take responsibility for his/her actions, regardless of the consequences, motives, or lack of full information. Which means that this kind of person tends to think before acting when possible, and act decisively from a sound set of ethical principles when necessary.

This brings me to the tangential epiphany: When Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "An armed society is a polite society," I had always thought he meant that people tend not to act like an asshole if it might get them ventilated. Now I believe that what was also, and more importantly, meant was that people in an armed society grow up polite because they are armed! Knowing that a careless act or moment of unguarded anger could ruin your life and end someone else's will make the vast majority of people act more responsibly.

Brian Smith passes on this fantastic link to a placed call eMachineShop. Their blurb:

eMachineShop is the remarkable new way to get the custom parts you need. Download our free software, draw your part, and click to order - it's that easy! Your part will be machined and delivered. Even better, your cost is low due to the Internet, software, and automated machines.

Why waste time traveling, calling, faxing or emailing to conventional machine shops? Reduce your total time up to 90% and open doors to new products and projects. Intelligent design software gives instant exact pricing, expert feedback, and unrivaled convenience.

Perry Metzger recommends the open source encyclopedia Wikipedia, and I concur. I've found myself referring here to entries there on occasion the last couple of years, and have been impressed at the tendancy to improvement of the content over time. You see, at one time I hadn't been sure that allowing (pretty much) anyone to edit entries would result in better content, but it has.

I only very recently actually registered as an editorial user with the service, after having been a consumer of it. Registration gives you a number of benefits, such as the privilege of watchlists, where if interesting entries are modified by others, you're notified of those changes. Also, since the history of all entries is maintained in CVS-like changelogs (preserving history) and is recorded against some evidence of identity (discouraging vandalism), registration means that your chosen name is made public rather than your IP address. This is a good thing, if you don't already know. Check it out.

If you have the opportunity to do so, visit Hog Island Oyster Company in San Francisco's Ferry Building and eat a dozen or so of their excellent Tomales Bay oysters (including Kumamotos, one of my favorite varieties.) I normally don't dip good oysters in any sauces, but I was converted recently by their version (which has rice wine vinegar as its base) of a Mignonette which was superb. Their clam chowder is also fantastic - expensive, but worth every penny - and made unlike any you've ever had elsewhere. If you prefer your seafood with a good beer, they've got North Coast Old No. 38 Stout on tap.

As I mentioned earlier, I saw "I, Robot" last night. Right before the movie began, I saw a spectacular trailer for an alternate universe fantasy, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. It looks like a great deal of fun, and I'm looking forward to its September release.

I mentioned this on a mailing list last night, adding that Zeppelins were featured prominently in the trailer, to which listmember Chris Claypoole offered this observation:

...[this phenomenon falls] under the purview of Hite's Law: "All change points, from Xerxes to the last presidential election, create worlds with clean, efficient Zeppelin traffic."

Every alternate history can be differentiated from our own by the presence of airships. *Every* one. So, if you're ever not sure whether you're in an alternate universe, look up.

Armalite announces how they'll deal with the AWB sunset (thanks to Steve Pegram): "the ArmaLite® Post-PostBan ™ Rifle Program."

I found this place, off the beaten path in San Francisco's Chinatown, on a visit several weeks ago with a friend: Hang Ah Team Room, which apparently has been a feature there since around 1920. The food is fantastic, service is friendly and personal, and the prices are half what I expectecd them to be, an opinion shared elsewhere in this SJ Mercury News article: "Eating Cheap in SF."

The Libertarian Enterprise has moved to a new location.

My old friend Perry Metzger gave in today and finally started a blog. Now to convince him to add a comment mechanism...

Reed's Sporting Goods in San Jose, California is having its 46th Annual Firearms, Ammo, and Reloading Sale, which started yesterday and runs through this Sunday, 18 July 2004. They generally have excellent deals on a very healthy selection (for California) of goods. Every year, too, Winchester shows up with at least a semi-tractor load of their high-quality ammunition. I'm going to try to make it today or tomorrow. Any of my local friends are welcome to join me.

I was told of this by a poster to the smith2004-discuss list, an incredibly meticulous comparison of the performances of a number of common ammunition types: "Terminal Ballistics Comparison in Water Media", a compilation of many years of data generated by 84 year old Carmon Crapson (published by Stephen Ricciardelli.)

I just found a cool and useful site for software testers (which I include to mean all developers, who should write their own test cases): Opensourcetesting.org, "Open source tools for software testing professionals".

Thanks to my London friend Monica White for alerting me to the Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery in Burlingame, California, a haven for (apparently very good) representionalist art, which is billed as "Contemporary Romantic Realism." I suspect very much that Quent Cordair was heavily influenced by Ayn Rand's "Romantic Manifesto":

Romantic Realism, the movement which renews the high esthetic standards and techniques of pre-20th century ateliers, brings a rebirth of comprehensibility, beauty, romanticism and stylization to contemporary subject matter. The gallery's collection emphasizes themes which celebrate the moments of happiness, joy and success possible to Man on earth.

Recommended by Monica White: the blog "Bizarre Science."

Anders Monsen informs us of the publication by Brad Linaweaver and J. Kent Hastings of "ANARQUÍA: An Alternate History of the Spanish Civil War," which sounds like a great deal of fun in the vein of L. Neil Smith's "The Probability Broach." I'm a fan of Linaweaver's work, such as his excellent "Moon of Ice," which comes to market far too rarely.

Bob Tipton has written a brilliant little piece I recommend.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Steve Pegram passed along a detailed and fascinating online version of a military report generated last summer, "SOLDIER WEAPONS ASSESSMENT TEAM REPORT 6-03". Much of the report is rather dry, given the nature of such a document, but scattered throughout are a great many little observational gems such as this:

...soldiers rank reliability and durability as key weapon characteristics and are not willing to trade them for anything – to include weight. Similarly, soldiers do not consider the weapon as part of their load, but rather as an enabler. They are willing to carry the weight if the weapon or device increases his lethality. This is best illustrated by soldiers purchasing their own magnified optics and the strong desire to carry an additional sidearm or shotgun for defensive and offensive purposes. Lethality is more important to the soldier than any other consideration or factor.

Here's empirical verification of the usefulness of white lights in combat, a point which I've had driven home by anecdotes from trainers at every school I've attended:

Several soldiers were observed with flashlights taped to their weapons and some using the Weapon Flashlight Mount. But all soldiers described using the tactical light for temporary target incapacitation.

Many have heard the now-famous quote by H.L. Mencken, "Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." Well, here's another instance of it in action, reported by The Guardian: "Britons caught on camera as shots of cruise ship orgy shock Cyprus."

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik has a blog.

Eric Pavao reports that Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik of Austin, Texas will be interviewed by Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly tonight.

In chemistry lecture, and studying outside class, I often use a molecular modelling kit made by Darling Models to help me visualize the stereochemistry of various molecules. I like my kit, but it's rather bulky, so I don't always have it immediately at hand. A few days ago, one of my classmates showed me the kit she carried, which is very much more compact and does most of what we need to know (in respect of linear and branched hydrocarbons and some of their halogenated derivatives): a Student Organic Chemistry C-set from Hinomoto Plastics. The Hinomoto kit fits in a small pocket pouch, and is very solidly constructed. Some of the components look amusingly like dice from the game Dungeons & Dragons, by the way.

The success of a party can be determined by the number of gatecrashers. And we do have friends who've been knocking away on the virtual doors of the cartel. MadMan is devising a logical test of libertarianism. Get ready to jump through the hoop and clear the hurdles!

Any more wanting to join us in the battle against the evil forces of socialism, illogic, and unfreedom? Drop me a line.

Yazad Jal

Steve Pegram passes this on:

Note the name of the castle first build specifically to protect against firearms.

The first castle in Britain to be designed specifically for defense by guns was Ravenscraig Castle located in Scotland. Built in 1460.

Today's the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. I'm reminded that a couple of weeks ago, a couple of friends of mine and I went shooting at a rifle range in northern California, taking a number of weapons including an M1 Garand rifle which probably saw action in WWII. Here, my friend Andy Chen, a brand new shooter (and 18 y/o college classmate), fires my other friend's Garand:

This was Andy's first time out shooting... and on steel reactive targets set out at 100 meters - after having been briefed on safety and weapon operation - he kept up with us two trained, experienced shooters, at least on the sandbag rests. He's spent his high school years reading military history, and knows an incredible amount of factual data on weapons history. He's also used to playing first-person shooter games - in which I've never been interested, thinking them useless for training - causing me to start to re-think my opinions of twitch games.

An older gentleman at an adjacent shooting stall took some time to discuss the Garand with Andy, pointing out that he had ordered his own Garand (which he was also shooting) from the U.S. federal government's Civilian Marksmanship Program, which I've heard about over the years, though I'd bought my own past two Garands from commercial sources.

I'm encouraging Andy to join a local CMP-affiliated club and shoot a match this summer, so that he can be eligible to buy at least a "rack grade" rifle for as low as $350... shipped Fedex directly to his door (yes, they do that)! I don't see Garands selling at gun shows for less than around $800 nowadays. Here's a very detailed and interesting account, with photos, of the experiences of two CMP participants in the purchase and shooting of their own CMP Garands.

It's especially worth noting, for California residents, that a Garand is "Kalifornia legal", making it an excellent rifle to keep locked in the trunk of one's car... just in case. Also note that a number of companies (such as Smith Enterprises) do "tanker conversions" to shorten the overall length, and one can convert the weapon to .308 caliber.

Huh... Peggy just got physical mail advertising the products of:

Omaha Steaks, Inc.
10909 John Galt Blvd.
Omaha, Nebraska

Just heard on our dojo mailing list that Discovery Channel will air "Ninjas" tonight twice, at 1800 and 2100 PST. I've heard Stephen Hayes will put in an appearance. I have no idea whether this show will suck or not, but I'll be recording it regardless.

I had the pleasure of first meeting Barbara Branden very briefly at the November 1987 Future of Freedom Conference (FoFCon) in Culver City, California, but didn't engage her in conversation, since she was on her way to a talk at that convention centered around "The Passion of Ayn Rand," her biography of novelist Ayn Rand, with whom she had been associated professionally and personally for a number of decades. Her book had been published the year before, and I'd bought my own copy as soon as it hit the bookstores (this was the pre-Amazon era).

At the end of March this year, a few weeks ago, I finally got the chance to chat with Barbara in a comfortable venue where she was wasn't being shuttled around to talks, in the course of other business: her apartment in southern California. What a lovely, intelligent, funny and benevolent lady she is! I must once again thank my friend Glenn Cripe, who had business to conduct with her that afternoon, for allowing me to tag along with his crew, and of course to Barbara for her warm hospitality... and for autographing that book I bought 18 years ago.

I found out from posters to the smith2004-discuss list this morning that C-SPAN keeps video archives of recent shows available for downloading. A search for "libertarian" on their website yields all the video coverage of the recent Libertarian Party nominating convention in Atlanta along with a follow-up interview (which I'm playing now) with the newly nominated presidential candidate Michael Badnarik.

My thanks to Monica White and her annotated, super-selective blogroll for my discovery of the jaw-droppingly wonderful site dedicated to female grace, "Body in Mind: Ideas of Female Beauty." Fantastic!

Men, if you can't see your penis when you stand up, you need some serious lifestyle change, starting with diet and exercise. Maybe a look at this might provide an impetus to change.

Here's a film I heard about on the smith2004-discuss list a few months ago and placed on my Netflix rental queue: Interstate 60, a bizarre road flick with Gary Oldman, Christopher Lloyd, Kurt Russell and Chris Cooper. No one I've spoken to about this film has heard of it, which is too bad: it's great. I won't give a comprehensive review here, and no spoilers, but I will say I hurt myself laughing during the protagonist's stopover in "Morlaw".

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.

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".

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.

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!

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:

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.

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!

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

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 crashed late last night, and woke early this morning, and am ready to do it all again today: the Foresight SAG continues.

The advice below can easily be applied to many different academic endeavors, including use in non-science classes. Here's a recipe. First, buy these pens:

• The Bic brite liner, of course. Avoid excessive markup with this. Really. Some of you may need to be told this, so here goes: what good is text that is mostly highlighted?
  
• The classic Bic "4-color pen": you can't survive without this!
  
• At least one Sharpie pen (keep one in your labcoat pocket) for marking test tubes and centrifuge vessels. I know, these have nothing to do with the method below, but a good lab geek always has one in her pocket anyway.
  
• A set of colored pencils. I use the erasable Sanford Col-Erase, but non-erasable Crayola colored pencils are cheaper and color adequately too.
  

The classic Bic 4-color pen should be in any student's pocket anyway. Annotating your own notes is so much easier when you use different colors. Here's an application to chemistry: you can draw much more easily understandable molecular orbital "balloon diagrams" (using the 90% probability surface standard or other representation of choice) if you assign colors to orbitals and stick with those colors.

The "balloon diagram method" I use:

Michael Reed strongly recommends to me in email Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan as "an absolutely knock-out sci-fi novel", so I've put it in my queue. I've not read it yet, so I'd welcome opinions.

I don't generally read science fiction nowadays, having gotten increasingly picky as time goes by (and science fact often holds more fascination for me the better educated I become). I did however take a weekend recently to relax with Ken Macleod's Dark Light and Engine City, which were a mixture of disappointment and amusement for me. I've read all his work so far, and will continue to do so, but the man seems to be afflicted recently with the problem Heinlein had during the late period of his life when he was stricken with a cerebral arterial blockage: at some point near the end of each story, he seems to simply get tired, and tries to wrap up the story abruptly.

My bedside reading the last couple of days: Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded, a fantastic book I very highly recommend.

On Friday during his office hours, my chem prof was deeply surprised to find that I didn't yet own a copy of Zumdahl's "Chemistry", which is not our school's official text... so he gave me one of his, a new copy, the Instructor's Annotated Edition (5th)! He had an extra, so it became mine... a good, good man, and deeply flattering.

A couple of people in a chemistry forum I frequent had recommended Linus Pauling's "General Chemistry". I saw a copy in my local Border's - the 1989 Dover reprint of the 3rd edition (the last, 1971) - and flipped through it. I was impressed, so I took note of its ISBN. The shelf price was $20, but I found a pristine copy on Amazon Marketplace for half that price and ordered it. Can't wait to get it.

A caveat, by the way - and this is no hit on the book, given its age - if you're going to study coordination compounds of metals, you'll need to supplement your reading with Zumdahl, or another modern source. Although Pauling mentions the work of Alfred Werner in a sidebar of a couple of pages on the matter, he (quite understandably) doesn't mention crystal field theory & d-shell splitting (of course he wouldn't). Very highly recommended.

Competitive systems can operate to check each other's excesses. Consider the codes governing the relations between U.S. corporations and their shareholders. The fifty states compete to offer standard corporation codes; companies can either use these default terms or tailor specific provisions in their corporate charters. (A company does not have to be physically headquartered in a state to claim it as the corporation's legal domicile.) Agreeable state rules, backed by well-established case law, can significantly cut the cost of doing business. The competition among states for incorporations and the taxes they bring makes legislatures responsive to new ideas and changing business conditions.

Equally important, company managers can't get away with adopting just any code that makes their lives easy. These rules govern a two-way agreement—between the business (essentially, its managers) and the shareholders. Opportunistic managers who try to use state laws to help themselves at the stockholders' expense are checked by another source of competition: the financial markets. So, for instance, when Pennsylvania passed a law designed to make hostile takeovers difficult, protecting managers but making stock less valuable, pressures from falling stock prices pushed most of the state's publicly traded companies to opt out of the law's provisions. Few other states adopted the same law, lest they lose incorporations.

The legal scholar Roberta Romano, who calls this federalist system of competing rules "the genius of American corporate law," writes: "As the Pennsylvania experience illustrates, the federal system provides a safety net against the consequences of harmful state laws. Some jurisdictions will have no or only mild takeover regulation, and this constrains how much other jurisdictions can act in this area and how much firms can take advantage of value-decreasing laws, especially when major commercial states such as Delaware and California have less onerous laws." Having many sources of competing rules, rather than a single, national standard, makes finding good rules—and eliminating or limiting bad ones—more likely.

Virginia Postrel
The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, p145 (from Chapter 5, "The Bonds of Life")

Last night in the dojo, our teacher Dale Seago inquired as to who might be attending this coming Saturday's Systema seminar to be given by Kwan Lee at Mountain Lake Park from 10am - 3pm. I'd missed the announcement from a couple of weeks ago:

I'm not in the habit of recommending other martial arts' seminars: to date, the only exception has been for those taught by Donald Angier, Soke of Yanagi ryu.

Russian Systema, however, is worth checking out. It's the closest thing I've yet seen outside "the Booj" in terms of movement, concepts, "feeling", and philosophy to what Hatsumi sensei has been trying to get across to us. To get a better sense of what I'm talking about, check out some of the discussions [here].

I'm going to be at this one myself, and I hope to see some of you there as well.

-- Dale

If I'm recovered from a hip bruise I somehow picked up in training last night, I might consider attending myself.

[Occasional blog contributor and fulltime friend Tom Burroughes returns to us with his own endorsement of the Firefly series - Russell]

I have watched a lot of science fiction in my time, and although many films and television shows have hit great heights of drama and special effects wizardry, such as Babylon 5, very few have ever really engaged me emotionally and in humorous ways to the extent achieved by the Firefly series, now available in Britain on a DVD format.

I bought the whole set last week and it is one of the best investments I have made in a long time. I think it is a notch above B5 (high praise indeed), and I love the way it weaves in the culture of the old West with the format of a science fiction adventure. The cast are excellent, particularly the lead actor playing the ship's captain, who has a sense of humour so dry it sounds like Clint Eastwood at his best. The women are great -- frequently more than a match for the men, and ahem, very easy on the eye indeed.

The core of Firefly, as Russell has already noted, is its unmistakably libertarian sense. These adventurers, smugglers and desperadoes are up against a totalitarian world government; they are unabashed traders and entrepreneurs, fun-lovers, individualists, not to mention serious partygoers when required. Think of a series containing elements of Robert A. Heinlein, L. Neil Smith and Eastwood's finest Western, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and you will get what I mean. Oh, and throw in some superb country backing music for good measure.

I find it very distressing that as yet, Joss Whedon's creation has only made it to one full series. Back here in Britain, where our domestic TV drama is a swamp of tragic soap opera crud and the occasional historical re-reun, Firefly is like a shot of brandy to a half-drowned man. What a great series. More, more!

I'll be attending all 3 days of the 14-16 May 2004 Foresight Senior Associates Gathering in Palo Alto, California. I very highly recommend this event to anyone interested in molecular nanotechnology. If you're not intimately familiar with nanotechnology, but want to learn, I enthusiastically recommend the 8-hour "Fundamentals of Nanotechnology" tutorial session on Friday: I'll be attending myself to dust off and deepen my own understanding.

Mark Miller informs me via Orkut that K. Eric Drexler now has a personal nanotechnology website, e-drexler.com.

Penn & Teller are back for another season of the excellent BULLSHIT! debunking series on Showtime. Set your PVRs: there's an episode tonight.

...if you have cats: jalapeno. Cats go nuts over this plant. Peggy brought one home a few days ago, and within a couple of days it was completely eaten down to the stems by our kittens.

As I write this, Selmak (the sibling male) is destroying a succulent of some type 4 feet from my face...

My friend Dave sent me a pointer to an updated version of the "Have Geiger Counter, will travel" site maintained by Elena, the Ukrainian biker (see my original post of 2 days ago).

Apologies for Bob Tipton for not having gotten back to him in email, but I'd like to take the time to announce here that he's launched an interesting new blog, "Serenity: A diary of our family's experience in moving to the country." Included is a review of handgun training at Storm Mountain and other interesting material. Oh, and he does post photos; I'm a sucker for eyecandy, so I like that.

Just found out today that CBS has cancelled their law drama "Century City" after only 3 weeks' run of 4 episodes. That's too bad. The show, employing a mix of inspired and insipid storyline, dealt with issues extropians have been mooting for over 15 years. The show had promise, if the two episodes I saw were any indication of promise. I do share Virginia Postrel's opinion of the series:

Real lawyers in the future would take for granted legal, cultural, and technological developments that strike us as strange. It's the background, not the cutting-edge issues, that makes the present feel different from the past. A 1978 show about 2004 might have featured a plotline on cloning. It wouldn't have routinely shown 40-year-old new parents of twins or business people walking down the street talking to no one, with wires hanging out of their ears. It wouldn't have Starbucks, or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, or rock-and-roll megachurches.

It was an interesting try.

The textures of life that so fascinate dynamists are full of such historical surprises. Consider a strange fact about doughnut shops in California: More than 80 percent are owned by Cambodian immigrants. Doughnuts are not a Cambodian food; indeed, Cambodians don't even like them that much. But when Ted Ngoy fled to southern California in the 1970s and got a job in a doughnut store, he realized the possibilities. Here was a niche that matched his skills (or lack thereof) and had potential to grow. The business required hard work but little start-up capital and little English. Ngoy soon owned several doughnut shops. He hired and trained many other refugees, who then started their own stores, hiring and training still more immigrants. Over time, the community developed special expertise and suppliers, making it much easier for a Cambodian immigrant to California to get started in the doughnut business than in other ventures. By 1995, Cambodians ran almost 2,500 of the doughnut stores in California. They also expanded the market, giving Los Angeles one doughnut shop for every 7,000 residents—ten times the concentration in Phoenix.

The doughnut story is surprising, but not a random accident. It represents a complex order of selection and feedback: A perceptive entrepreneur discovers an opportunity. His knowledge spreads through communal networks, which develop specialized product, labor, and capital sources. More and more Cambodians learn how to make doughnuts, and how to make them well. Competition among shops improves doughnut quality, and the mere presence of so many stores reminds potential buyers of their product, leading to more sales. This legacy, an example of what economists call "path dependence," does not keep non-Cambodians from owning doughnut stores or block Cambodian immigrants from other businesses. It was not predetermined, nor does it guarantee any particular future. But it makes some choices more likely than others.

Virginia Postrel
The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, pp49-50

Terry Egan passes on the stunning news, written up by Ricky James, that the Firefly DVD series has been officially issued to the viewing libraries of all U.S. Navy ships.

Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) recently signed a commercial sponsorship agreement with FireflyFans.net, a fan-based organization for the television series "Firefly," that will provide 250 DVD box sets of 13 "Firefly" episodes in support of the Navy's afloat library program.

I've noticed a changed pattern in my movie viewing habits, attributable to having taken up with Netflix in the last year or so. For starters, I no longer do Blockbuster (which is not at all surprising, given they're head-to-head competitors). Also, I see fewer 1st-run movies, itself also not surprising.

No, what surprises me is that I no longer feel compelled to finish a movie I've started, if it truly sucks. I've rarely in the course of my lifetime walked out of a movie theater, feeling compelled (against reason, usually) that I should get "all the value" from my $10 admission price. Nowadays, most of my movie viewing is from Netflix, on a fixed monthly all-you-can-view plan, so if something I've ordered sucks, such as Daredevil, I can simply switch off the DVD player, eject the DVD, and move on to the next. Quite liberating.

The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain any more so it eats it. It's rather like getting tenure.

Daniel Dennett
Consciousness Explained

My friend Glenn Cripe today informed me that he and his Russian business partner Dmitri Kostygin have good news to share: "The next printing of Atlas and Fountainhead in Russian is due out next week!" In his mail he also send copies of the cover proofs for the 3 volumes of Atlas; here's a copy of the cover for volume 1:

Glenn notes:

We are also looking for sponsors. For $500, you get your name in all future editions of the books, a few free copies for your own use, a tax deduction, our undying gratitude, plus the chance to participate in changing the course of history! Inquiries should be sent to randinrussia@yahoo.com

It's worth noting that copies of Rand's works have found themselves into some interesting places in Russian society, such as the lending library of Vladimir Putin's chief economic adviser, a strong advocate of Rand's economic philosophy.

Another excellent flick to add to your Netflix rental queue: Millenium Actress AKA "Sennen joyu" (2001). If you enjoy epic Japanese animation such as Spirited Away (Studio Ghibli's "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi"), and film in the style of Kurosawa-style chanbara, you'll really enjoy this labor of love from Satoshi Kon, the director of the 1997 psychological thriller Perfect Blue.

Of course, I do have a lot of Japanese cinema and history under my belt, which I think might be a requisite to truly enjoying this piece, which does very heavily rely for its humor and grandeur on that cultural grounding. Still, I think even the uninitiated can thoroughly enjoy this film for its spectacular sweep and touchingly benevolent sense of life. As a reviewer on one fan site puts it:

Millennium Actress has the stylistic sophistication of Perfect Blue with the empathy, warmth and truth of a Ghibli movie!

If this film had been done with live actors & live action you'd be seeing it awarded on Oscar night. It's that good. The editing is superb. Likewise the animation. As for the "confusing" flashbacks, my daughters (8 & 9) watched this and after explaining that the old actress is telling her life story by using the films she starred in as parts of her actual life, they had no problem following the story. I didn't find the story to be depressing although it is bittersweet. The characters are so strongly drawn that halfway through I found myself forgetting they weren't real people! Strong, gentle story, superb visuals, pacing & editing make up one of the best anime movies ever! In fact, forget anime, this belongs in the top 100 films period.

Charlie Acker recommends DBAN ("Darik's Boot and Nuke") as a way to render a computer's hard drive tabula rasa.

A whore should be judged by the same criteria as other professionals offering services for pay -- such as dentists, lawyers, hairdressers, physicians, plumbers, etc. Is she professionally competent? Does she give good measure? Is she honest with her clients?

It is possible that the percentage of honest and competent whores is higher than that of plumbers and much higher than that of lawyers. And enormously higher than that of professors.

Robert A. Heinlein
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of a long lunch with Glenn Cripe and Dr. Chris Tame, at Harris Ranch in central California. Chris is an old and trusted friend from London, head of the U.K. Libertarian Alliance, who was in California on business. Glenn is a recently made friend of Chris, and now a new friend of mine. Glenn and Dmitry Kostygin were responsible for getting Ayn Rand's 4 novels (and one other book) translated, ironically, back into her native Russian, and published and distributed there.

Glenn has sent me a pointer to what he says is (and I agree) "an incredible event" in Russia: "A Liberal Agenda For the New Century: A Global Perspective". Note, if don't already know, that the word "Liberal" has a different meaning outside the U.S.: free markets and limited government. Speakers include Vladamir Putin and Andrei Illarionov, the latter of whom I have on good authority is a Randian free marketeer who's had some influence on Putin. Russia may still be a basket case, but it's in some ways an improving basketcase, as evidenced for example by the recent elimination of a progressive income tax in favor of a sweeping lower flat tax.

As an aside, I find it amusing to see that Dmitri's Ayn Rand website is supported by advertising from a Russian mail order bride service.

Anorakish mentions a review of Firefly by Micha Ghertner on Cattalarchy, "Whoa. Good Myth." (See my own review on this blog.)

I've discovered that a standard metal Slinky is not only a great tutoring tool for explaining concepts of physics such as both transverse and longitudinal wave motion, harmonics, and spring constants, but also for concepts of chemistry, namely chemical equilibrium. For those of you familiar with LeChatelier's Principle and reaction coordinate diagrams, do this: hold the ends of a metal Slinky in your hands at the same level. The activation energy for some fundamental step is represented by the high PE peak of the curve at the top. Reactants are in your left hand, products in your right. With you hands even, the enthalpy of reaction (delta H) is 0, and the Slinky oscillates around top dead center, representing an equally product-or-reactant favored reaction step. Drop your right hand, increasing negative enthalpy of reaction, and the Slinky drops quickly into the product side. Drop the left hand instead, increasing positive enthalpy of reaction, and the reaction moves toward reactants. Very cool: it's fun to watch the light of understanding in the eyes of your audience.

Yesterday I received a notification from the Alcor Life Extension Foundation telling me that my $250 dues paid on my suspension membership in tax year 2003 are up to 90% deductible, given their 501(c)3 status. Nice surprise!

A few days ago, I watched a Netflix-rental DVD of a film from 1999 that had been recommended by someone on a mailing list I frequent: Deterrence, with Kevin Pollack. This is a fascinating and tightly acted piece, and I recommend it.

Melissa Skypod alerts us to the Assault Weapons Ban sunset reference website Awbansunset.com:

The goal of this organization is to nurture a grass roots movement of honest citizens who want to make certain that this Act does indeed sunset, as it should. The focus of our website is to educate gun owners and non-gun owners alike with information about the history and provisions of the Assault Weapons Ban, and gun control in general. We are not working to just end this ban, but also to prohibit any further Federal action in this regard.

Just finished a small box of "Oregon Berries" by Cranberry Sweets & More, which we picked up on our trip to Portland a few weeks ago. We'd been nibbling very sparingly on these, since they're so good. I really like these candies, and they make nice little gifts. You can pick up some yourself, since the company does mail order

...Samizdata.net took on a cool new look over the weekend.

I've been slightly busier than usual the past few days. I did manage to meet up with friends Mark Quon ("Genghis Khan") and Alan Weiss on Friday before Alan's departure for Austin, for lunch and for some indoor shooting at the excellent Reed's Indoor Range in Santa Clara, California. Here's Alan with his EAA Witness in .45 ACP with Wonderfinish coating (he favors the isosceles stance):

Thanks to Anarchist on the smith2004-discuss list for passing on SciFi.com's report today that Tim Minear is working on a screen adaptation of Heinlein's libertarian classic novel:

Genre TV producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls) told SCI FI Wire that he has been hired to write a screenplay adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 SF novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. The novel deals with a 2076 rebellion on a former penal colony on the moon and has been read as an allegory about libertarianism and its costs.

My friend Franklin sent me a pointer to AlaskaJobFinder a few weeks ago. Looks like a great way to find summer/seasonal work in Alaska:

AlaskaJobFinder.com is the leading website for finding jobs in Alaska. We specialize in the Alaska fishing industry, featuring such jobs as deckhand jobs, cannery jobs, onshore and offshore processing jobs, and aquaculture jobs. We cover employment on sport fishing charter boats as well Alaska fishing industry support jobs.

Being elected President and taking my cues from Alexander Hope. L. Neil Smith would be my Secretary of State ("go fuck yourselves, fellas -- TANSTAAFL!"). Russell Whitaker would be my John Pondero ("don't even THINK of reaching for it, sucker.") Genghis Khan [Mark Quon] would be my Secretary of Defense. Tom Knapp would be in charge of destroying every other Cabinet level department. ALL of you would be free to take whatever jobs you wanted, with the goal of putting yourselves OUT of a job in 60 days or less.

Alan Weiss

After several hours of putzing around with my Steyr Scout (after having taken it out yesterday to test functioning with a range of old NATO surplus ammo), trying to figure out how to re-install the extractor (it's a long story), I got everything back together and continued the cleaning job I'd started before the re-assembly odyssey. I pulled out an item I picked up at a gun show a few months ago: a C.J. Weapons Chamber Maid flexible cleaning rod. I originally bought the Chamber Maid with the AR-15/M-16 dual-diameter chamber brush, but I also bought a range of additional brushes, including .308, 12 gauge, and 20 gauge (because it can be used with a 50BMG chamber).

"The Chamber Maid is a special bore cleaning system. Unique brush is actually two brushes in one, utilizing two different bristle materials and diameters. The rod supporting the brush is a flexible steel braid coated with a clear rubber to keep it from scratching your barrel or receiver."

For those into growing their own vegetables, and who have a taste for Asian food, you should check out the Kitazawa Seed Company in Oakland, California: over 220 varieties! This year, I'll be saving the $0.15-$0.20/leaf cost of Ao Shiso (Blue Shiso mint) by growing my own.

Melissa Skypod has found an interesting and unusual job opportunity site: Backdoorjobs.

Speaking of content on the AnCap Wiki, Terry Egan just posted a pointer to John Ross, author of "Unintended Consequences," pointing out that Ross does have a personal website.

Bill St. Clair's AnCap Wiki seems to be past the "stone soup" stage now. There are more anchors for adding content... in the form of existing content that about half a dozen contributors seem to have been adding in the last few days (myself included).

Bill St. Clair announces:

I got to playing with wiki [while] playing with one set up for collecting legal information for Hunter [Jeffrey Jordan]. I set up my own, initially to provide space to mirror that info, but then decided to call it "AnCap Wiki" and devote it to creating, in our lifetimes, anarcho-capitalist societies around the world. Check it out. Contribute if you're motivated to do so. Links to instructions near the top of the page.

[This is a book recommendation I originally published April 10, 2003 on my other blog. I no longer maintain that blog, so I've decided to move most of the substantial articles to this blog to consolidate the materials - Russell]

I'd meant several weeks ago to post this recommendation of "The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary", but am only now getting around to doing it. I can claim a good excuse for not having done so, however: for those weeks, I've been busy heavily using this dictionary in Japanese classes.

You can check out the detailed recommendations of the book on Amazon.com; I won't echo them here. I will say, however, that I wish I'd had something like this - because there is nothing else like this available from another source - when I started studying Japanese 10 years ago. This book is truly useful... and an outstanding example of the publisher's art. Everyone to whom I've shown this book, including native Japanese speakers with whom I do regular language exchange, has expressed admiration and astonishment.

I have a goal in the medium-term future: take and pass the 1-kyu level Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken (the Japan Foundation's Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Every step along the way, I plan to have this dictionary at hand. Assuming the book survives the journey, I'll keep it in my bag for a long time thereafter.

"11THHOUR" on the Fox Firefly Forum has put together some samples of really cool posters for "guerrilla marketing" of the Firefly series DVDs. I wouldn't mind putting up a few of these on campus myself.

Speaking of the Atkins diet thing again, I've found a decent-tasting chocolate bar at Trader Joe's, home of Two Buck Chuck wine. It's U.S. $1.49 for a 100gram bar of:

• Dark Chocolate - "Net Impact Carbs: 0.13g"
  
• Milk Chocolate - "Net Impact Carbs: 0.50g"
  
• White Chocolate - "Net Impact Carbs: 0.00g"
  

Maltitol has been omitted as its conversion requires little or no insulin and does not cause an appreciable increase in serum glucose levels.

It's made under contract from F.G.H. Consulting U.S.A. in Boca Raton, Florida, which interestingly was fined in May 2003 for a controversy involving false labelling. I'm assuming that Trader Joe's knows of this issue and has dealt carefully with this contractor. You can call them directly at 561-706-6178 and find out yourself. The direct manufacturer is indicated as "CHOCOLATES TORRAS S.A." of Spain, so F.G.H. is likely the trading company.

The bars do taste acceptably delicious.

If you want to get something done, you've got to do it yourself. To that end, I've taken it upon myself to hold the first San Francisco Bay Area / Silicon Valley Firefly MicroMiniShindig next Monday night in Mountain View, California. Details:

Day: Monday 19 January 2004
Time: From 8pm onward

Place:
Mountain View Tied House Cafe & Brewery
(in the big biergarten out back)
954 Villa Street, Mountain View, California 94041
Ph: (650) 965-2739

Other details can be found here. If you're attending, you should RSVP. If you're wondering what all this Firefly business is, read up on it here.

FireFlyMovie.com is a "Guerrilla Marketing" effort of the Firefly fan community...

...dedicated to assuring that Joss Whedon's television masterpiece Firefly will someday grace the silver screen.

I was hungry after a hard workout a couple of days ago, and on the way home my muscles were screaming "food! food!" so I stopped by the first fast food place I saw, Carl's Jr., expecting to have to do the "big burger hold the bun" thing, when I saw this:

I had to try this: advertised at 6 grams of carbs, eliminating the 66 grams usually found in the bun. Of course, it was the same price as the combo (U.S. $6.05) with the bun, but I'm glad they were offering it at all. I didn't get a "diet" cola with the meal - I hate sweet colas - settling on an iced tea instead. Yes, I know that caffeine stimulates insulin production in the pancreas, but I'm not an Atkins purist, and I still hold on to some habits of a Southerner's childhood.

The "sandwich" was excellent, essentially the stuff between a standard "Six Dollar Burger", a fairly decent sandwich which lives up to its billing. Of course, they need to work on the wrapper concept a bit: it's a bit difficult to eat around, since it's not meant itself to be eaten. I think. The garden salad side order is your standard bland lettuce & cherry tomato with shredded carrot thing. I treat these salads as culinary digestive shotgun wadding whenever I come across them, eating them last in opposition to the standard American convention.

This was a good deal for the money, and I noticed that I didn't feel at all drowsy later, since I'd avoided the bread. Oh, and no fries, of course, which helped.

I have a bit of the matchmaker in my blood. Some months ago I mentioned FuturePundit; recently I mentioned SciScoop. Those blogs really should get together for drinks and dinner sometime soon, maybe catch a movie afterwards.

A year ago I wrote '"Two-Buck Chuck": Tough times mean cheap wines', which turns out to have been one of the 2 or 3 most-commented-upon entries in the last year. It seems to be the endpoint of a number of Google searches on the subject too, from what I regularly see in the site's stats. Speaking of which, I've found there exists an actual forum on the wine at net-sightings.com.

I mentioned this in detail on a mailing list where friend L. Neil Smith was praising garlic. I chipped in with a recommendation for Chunky Garlic Hot Pepper Sauce in "The Pepper Plant" line of sauces by Blossom Valley Foods (800-541-4355) in Gilroy, California ("Garlic Capital of the World"). You can buy this fantastic sauce - with which I often drown the Chorizo Scramble I sometimes have at a local eatery - online at Yahoo, and at various San Francisco Bay Area locations. Magnificent stuff.

At lunch a couple of weeks ago Michael Reed asked me if I'd seen "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie". I responded that I used to watch the series when I lived in Tokyo, and enjoyed it, but I hadn't yet seen the movie. I watched it last night courtesy of Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed it: good story, great animation, lots of attention to detail (Faye Valentine carries a Glock 30 - an old favorite of mine - in one scene), and a fantastic musical soundtrack by Yoko Kanno, performed by the Seatbelts.

As usual, I watched this anime subtitled with the original voice talent: voice acting is an A-rated entertainment profession in Japan; Faye Valentine is not right to my ears without Megumi Hayashibara as her voice. However, Sony Pictures did a superb job with the English-dubbed version, so those without similar tastes will find no fault with the English voice talent either. I believe the English voice talents are the same as employed for the nightly Cartoon Channel Adult Swim airings of the dubbed version of the original series, which I also recommend.

There are also used copies of this feature available for about $14 from Amazon Marketplace.

I mentioned a few days ago that Sciscoop's Ricky Roberson had written on interesting piece reflecting on my earlier report of a day at the range with an Armalite AR-50. He asked some very general, open-ended questions about the motivational psychology of shooters. I just now noticed that a couple of days ago, someone named Dirk Koenig posted a long and spot-on followup comment, "An interest in Long-Range Shooting", with which I completely agree. An excerpt:

Ultimately, you're attempting to apply scientific repeatability to an endeavor which relies on human sensory input (or a small weather station) to determine nearly all of the factors, none of which are necessarily constant from shot to shot. (or from muzzle to target, for that matter) This is to say nothing of the skill of the shooter, which has to improve alongside the equipment which can get the bullet to a target farther and farther away and where being half a millimeter off in aim will cause a miss at 400 meters, provided all your estimates about wind direction and speed were right in the first place.

In reviewing all this, it doesn't sound like a lot of fun. But, like the sound of a golf ball draining into the hole after travelling 20 feet on the green, there are few sounds that warm a long-range shooters heart more than the muted CLANK of a round hitting a steel target that's a long way off...

Sometimes people lump together the ideas of validity and truth. If an argument seems valid, they accept the conclusion as true. And if an argument seems fishy (really a slang expression for invalid), they think the conclusion must be false.

This is not correct. Validity is a property of argument forms: If an argument is valid, then so is every other argument that has the same form. Similarly, if an argument is invalid, then so is every other argument that has the same form. What characterizes a valid argument is that no argument whose form is valid can have all true premises and a false conclusion. For each valid argument, there are arguments of that form with all true premises and a true conclusion, at least one false premise and a true conclusion, and at least one false premise and a false conclusion. On the other hand, for each invalid argument, there are arguments of that form with every combination of truth values for the premises and conclusion, including all true premises and a false conclusion.

Susanna S. Epp
Discrete Mathematics with Applications, 2nd edition, p37

About a year ago, I recommended Victor Koman's "Kings of the High Frontier" to my readership. I just re-read this by Ricky Roberson in his memorium of Kerry Pearson:

I learned about a few other things besides Firefly from him on his [Kerry's] website, such as some insights into political anarchy as a philosophy that I don't personally agree with but still have to acknowledge more than a few grains of truth in...

Another interesting little piece arrived a couple of days ago from Netflix, a documentary produced a couple of years ago in Silicon Valley, "Revolution OS". It's worth the watch, especially if you're one of the many like me Who Were There When It Happened (in my case, I was working at Netscape when the big Mozilla code release happened... even attended the big bash in the City). I was delighted to see my friend Christine Peterson given the credit she deserved for having invented the term "open source", and was also delighted to see a short bit with another old friend, Terry Egan, at a documented SVLUG Installfest.

Remember "H.E.A.P." ("Holocaust Education and Prevention") from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon? Well, Ken Holder maintains an excellent H.E.A.P. site.

A fellow named John Venlet has been giving me good cigar recommendations the last couple of days on this blog. I've checked out his blog, found it interesting, and have added it to my blogroll.

Thanks to Anton for turning me on to Russell Nelson, "The Angry Economist." Nelson nicely skewers fears of "offshoring" (foreign outsourcing) in a well-formed short piece yesterday.

I just noticed that Fox News on 3 January 2004 published John Lott's "Why People Fear Guns" on their website.

Michael Reed pestered me for a couple of days to read Michael Crichton's Caltech Michelin Lecture "Aliens Cause Global Warming", and I'm very glad I did. Crichton's polemic is an uncommonly clear warning against the phenomenon of "consensus science" in America. Lysenkoism is still alive and well... and in America now.

Enamored of their vaunted "uniqueness," the Japanese have been as eager as anybody to promote the illusion that their language is vague and mysterious. Not all of them buy into the myth, of course. Take the linguist Okutsu Keiichiro, for example. "Japanese is often said to be vague," he notes, "partly because subjects and other nouns are often deleted, but if the speaker and listener are both aware of the verbal or nonverbal context in which the utterance takes place, all that is really happening is that they don't have to go on endlessly about matters they both understand perfectly well. Japanese is an extremely rational, economical language of the context-dependent type."

Jay Rubin
Gone Fishin': New Angles on Perennial Problems (Power Japanese), pp25-26

Yet another resource commended to me on my recent Portland visit by The Master of Recommendations, Michael Reed: Oregon's Cascade Policy Institute, which I can best describe as akin to the Cato Institute, but focussed on issues of interest to Oregonians. Lots of interesting analyses and recommendations on their site, good reading, much of it applicable to local problems in other states.

A good friend of mine in England, a libertarian and passionate yachtsman, today chimes in with his own endorsement of "Master and Commander." As I mentioned yesterday, do go and see it on the big screen!

No, Japanese is not the language of the infinite. Japanese is not even vague. The people of Nissan and Sony and Toyota did not get where they are today by wafting incense back and forth. The Japanese speak and write to each other like other literate peoples do. If Japanese is "unique," that is because it possesses vocabulary and grammatical constuctions and idioms that occur in no other language - but of course that is what makes all languages unique.

Jay Rubin
Gone Fishin': New Angles on Perennial Problems (Power Japanese), pp15-16

Taking Michael Reed's recommendation to see it on the big screen rather on DVD, a few hours ago Peggy and I saw "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." It was superb, and I'd heartily recommend it myself. I might even get around sometime soon to reading the original book by Patrick O'Brian that's been sitting on my shelf for two years. When I do, I'll make sure to keep my copy of Dean King's "A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales," so I don't end up whining about the heavy use of early 19th century nautical terminology many of the amateur reviewers on Amazon.com seem to have trouble with. Of course, I'm actually pretty familiar with nautical terminology anyway, so my perspective is admittedly a bit skewed.

Go see the movie soon and tell me what you think. If you've already seen it, feel free to opine now. The comment box awaits your pleasure.

On our recent trip to Portland, Oregon, we walked the streets in the evening hours after rolling into town and stopped into downtown's Dan & Louis Oyster Bar. I ordered their "Bloody Mary" made with oyster juice (below), and it was fantastic. My friend James, in conversation at the recent New Year's eve party we attended, insists that this drink is actually a variant called a "Caesar":

Another friend of ours, Stephany, asked at that same party, "Which oysters did you have there?" Being the compulsive note-taker that I am, I actually kept the label note I'd pulled off the serving tray and annotated:

• Hammersley (British Columbia)
• Kumamoto (Oregon)
• Netarts Bay (Oregon)
• Olympia (Washington)
• Willapa Bay (Washington)
• Yaquina Bay (Oregon)

The best, I think, were the tiny, flavorful Kumamotos, followed by the rather large and similarly flavorful Yaquina Bay oysters. I was least impressed with the relatively bland Olympias. Unrelated to taste, but interesting to those of us fascinated by nature is the fact that the Willapa Bays had the most unusual shell morphology: deep and narrow, more like a jai-lai cesta than a fielder's glove (hope the sports analogy helps... otherwise, sorry, look it up yourself.)

We took our drinks and repeated plates of oysters in the small, pubbish barroom with a view into the rainy alley street fronting the meandering cluster of rooms at the Oyster Bar. This turned out a good choice, since we had the excellent company of the 20-something bartender Kevin, a font of knowledge about All Things Oregon. If you're interested in visiting this place, try to find a seat near his bar. Oh, and do look at - or through -