Sunday, August 19, 2007

Sunday Diversions

OK…I fell for it… I started seeing the ads day before yesterday, and last evening I went to CavemansCrib. I spent at least an hour on the site and didn’t see everything. But I watched most of the videos. I listened to the answering machine messages. I read the text messages on his phone. I peeked through the annotated copies of Don Quixote and War and Peace in the library. I stumbled in on Our Host in the shower (and got yelled at). I perused the playlist on the mini-stereo. I listened to “Remind Me” all the way through. And I ogled the décor in the upscale apartment, including moving the Esperanto fridge magnets around to create silly sayings. In Esperanto. And it’s cool. Way cool. Lots of parody and satire, very little “Geico.”
And The New York Times Company is among those whose employees have made, among hundreds of innocuous changes, a handful of questionable edits. A change to the page on President Bush, for instance, repeated the word “jerk” 12 times. And in the entry for Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, the word “pianist” was changed to “penis.”
“It’s impossible to determine who did any of these things,” said Craig R. Whitney, the standards editor of The Times. “But you can only shake your head when you see what was done to the George Bush and Condoleezza Rice entries.”
Mr. Whitney was shaking his head because the NYT’s anonymous Wiki editors left out “poopy head” on the GWB page… The NYT editorial staff will provide more oversight in future anonymous Wiki edits. I'm sure.
I posted an article from Reason Magazine, a relatively low-circulation rag read mostly by Libertarians, on the War on Drugs the day before yesterday. Today, the lead article in the WaPo’s second section is…you guessed it…the War on Drugs:
The problem starts with prohibition, the basis of the war on drugs. The theory is that if you hurt the producers and consumers of drugs badly enough, they'll stop doing what they're doing. But instead, the trade goes underground, which means that the state's only contact with it is through law enforcement, i.e. busting those involved, whether producers, distributors or users. But so vast is the demand for drugs in the United States, the European Union and the Far East that nobody has anything approaching the ability to police the trade.
Prohibition gives narcotics huge added value as a commodity. Once traffickers get around the business risks -- getting busted or being shot by competitors -- they stand to make vast profits. A confidential strategy report prepared in 2005 for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet and later leaked to the media offered one of the most damning indictments of the efficacy of the drug war. Law enforcement agencies seize less than 20 percent of the 700 tons of cocaine and 550 tons of heroin produced annually. According to the report, they would have to seize 60 to 80 percent to make the industry unprofitable for the traffickers.
The article doesn’t break any new ground and doesn’t offer alternatives to the WoD. But it does offer some compelling tales of corruption, billions upon billions of wasted dollars, and ruined lives. And then there’s the terror connection…specifically the relationship between the Taliban, poppy growers, and the US government’s policies towards poppy cultivation which may be summed up in one word: eradication. You wanna guess who’s winning and who’s losing that particular war, Gentle Reader? Pretty scary stuff.
I’ve read that the very definition of “stupid” is repeating the same action over, and over, and over again while expecting different outcomes. Sounds like the War on Drugs to me.
Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.
Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.
It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: “It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery.”
I’ve never heard of aerogel until now. But it sounds like pretty nifty stuff. (Do people use “nifty” any longer? Or am I dating myself, again?)
The wait to find out the future of Cannon Air Force Base is about over.
The Secretary of the Air Force is expected to review proposed changes at Cannon this week as part of the base’s switch to Air Force Special Operations Command.
Today marks the end of a 30-day public comment period on the final draft of the Environmental Impact Statement, the last hurdle in the 16th Special Operations Wing being placed at Cannon.
AFSOC is scheduled to assume command of Cannon Oct. 1.
Cannon was awarded the new mission in June 2006 after the 27th Fighter Wing was ordered shuttered during the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure recommendations.
Under the proposal, the 16th Special Operations Wing mission would include 108 aircraft and more than 5,000 military personnel, civilians and contractors by the year 2010.
Review of the final EIS is expected to begin Monday, AFSOC spokeswoman Denise Boyd said.
“Everything we’ve been doing for the past year have been proposals but nothing could be firm,” she said.
The realignment of Cannon from ACC to AFSOC never was a “done deal.” But everyone is fairly certain it’s gonna happen. We’ll see now, won’t we? The interesting bit in all this is that Cannon is expected to grow about 17% over its current size when AFSOC moves in. And that’s good for the communities…Clovis and Portales…involved. Clovis, mostly, but Portales will experience growth, as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
And finally… from Good Buddy Ed in Florida, a little local color:
A Texas Tech graduate, a University of Texas grad and a Texas Aggie were sitting in a bar in San Antonio. The view of the river was fantastic, the beer was ice cold and the food exceptional.
"But," said the guy from Tech, "I still prefer the beer joints back in Lubbock. There's one place where the owner goes out of his way for the locals. When you buy 4 beers, he will buy the 5th."
The Longhorn said "Well, at my local bar in Austin, the owner will buy your 3rd drink after you've bought 2."
"Hell, that's nothin'," the Aggie responded. "Back in College Station there's this bar where the moment you set foot in the place they'll buy you a drink and keep them coming all night. Then when you've had enough to drink, they take you upstairs and see that you get laid. And it's all on the house."
The Red Raider and the Longhorn immediately doubted the Aggie's claims. "And this actually happened to you?" asked the Tech grad.
No, not myself personally," admitted the Aggie. "But it did happen to my sister."
I use “local” in the sense that Tech is just down the road a piece. And besides that, I loves me some Aggie jokes.
Today’s Pic: A member of a Brazilian samba troupe in elaborate costume at the Houston International Festival. (The festival spotlights a different country every year. The featured country at Festival 2000 was Brazil; this year it was China.) One wonders just how the woman could walk around in that get-up, let alone dance. But dance she did. I was mesmerized.
This is another of my first-generation digital camera photos…taken with a Kodak camera sporting a mere, measly one megapixel CCD. The camera was pretty good in its day, that day being the time when we were amazed that digital photography even existed at all, and didn’t give a whole lot of thought or care to things like resolution, etc. My how times have changed.
Houston. April, 2000.

5 comments:

  1. Greetings, Mr. Pennington

    I just found your prolific, terrific site while using the new blogger feature to find other NM bloggers. 'Generator time' doesn't allow me 24/7 on-line access but I will be back whenever I can. Thanks for the great broad range reading material.

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  2. Hi Buck,

    No time for blog reading/posting today (except for yours, of course!) but I did give a listen to Cspan while working and heard this fascinating information on the Six Day War:
    Foxbat Over Dimona

    According to new documentation, which these folks compiled, the USSR was probably the major instigator. Thought of you...

    I took a peek at CavemanCrib but didn't get the hang of going back from each thing without having to start over from the beginning. I'm sure it's really so easy a caveman could do it. Maybe I'll try later.

    About wiki - did I hear that they were going to have some help with that kind of hackery? some other sight have the ability to trace where these things originate? Can't remember.

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  3. I'm going to have to check out Caveman! Thanks for the link!

    I'm glad about the Cannon transition. I think the communities really came together when we were put on the BRAC list, and I'm looking forward to more growth in Clovis. I have "heard" Outback Steakhouse and a Sam's were coming at one time. Wouldn't that be nice? Now if we can just get a Disney Store and Victoria Secrets in our mall, I'd be set. LOL! As for the Environmental Impact Study, I didn't get around to reading it all. It comes delivered to us (appears a rat decided to read it first, half the gigantic package was chewed by something) since we have signed something at one time or another being a concerned citizen in the buffer zone of the bombing range.

    Love the joke. Will have to send it on to SIL (graduate of Texas Tech and lives there).

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  4. Oh, crap. Forgot my name. I'm not anonymous!

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  5. Jenny: I figured that was you...just from the content and tone. I have mixed emotions about The Chains moving in, but on the whole I'm not against it. But the FIRST chain I'd like to see establish a presence here is STARBUCKS! And preferably in P-Ville!

    Bec: Great link, thanks. I watched a two-hour Frontline show on the Six Day War back in June, which may or may not have been the combination of two previously broadcasted programs (probably this one and one other). The producers skipped lightly over the Soviet role in the war, except for acknowledging Egypt and Syria as two of Moscow's client states and, as such, received significant military equipment and other "assistance." But Frontline tends to skip lightly over things that do not fit their narrative. I like the show, but you DO have to pay attention and be fairly critical while watching. The book you linked looks pretty interesting.

    Re: Caveman's Crib...I had the same issue as you; I kept hitting the "back" button on my browser, rather than use the built-in "back" button on each individual screen on the site. That was pretty frustrating, since the site began reloading each time...a right-royal pain in the nether regions given the (relatively) slow speed of my connection. But things were OK once I figured that lil issue out.

    Lin: Thanks for stopping by. I dropped a comment over at your place last evening and will further amplify in today's main post. Suffice to say I really, really enjoy your blog. It's NO exaggeration when I say I've never read anyone's blog cover-to-cover before. You simply blew me away with your colorful writing and the scope of your adventures "off the grid." Anyone who says the American Pioneer Spirit is dead obviously hasn't read your blog. Excellent!!

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.