I had to erase most of the old large picts, due to space. The thumbnails are still there, though. If you for whatever reason want the larger pict email me or leave a comment.

The first is a photoshop combo of the second and third (somewhat obviously).

Here is the whole tank (3 gallon - small)

Ah the fun of biopsies

Or soon will. We've decided to try the intro plan for netflix; $6/month to rent 2 dvds/month. We decided that was about our speed for right now. Ironically the final push was when we realized we could screw over Blockbuster, which we loath, at the same time.

Amazon is offering, for real cheap, their web services engine. I'm not an IT guy, so I don't know the jargon. Jeff Bazos explains the idea.

In short, Amazon.com has launched several services that allow small companies to leverage the powerful tools of a big company such as Amazon.com. For instance, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), creates a virtual Web-based Linux server that a small company can rent at 10 cents per CPU hour. That means that, if I’m a tiny start-up business that wants to process a lot of data, but can’t afford to invest in an expensive battery of servers, then I can simply use Amazon’s for as long as I need the processing power. Let’s say you are a small research firm that has just finished a survey and collected a lot of data. And you have a one-time need to crunch a lot of numbers. You could rent one virtual server for ten days, or, conversely, you could rent the equivalent of hundreds of virtual servers for one hour and get the same task done. Since it occurs elsewhere, it is almost infinitely and instantly scalable.

Seems like a good idea to utilize CPU capacity. Now if we can just utilize unused brain capacity...

It's a dream come true (not); the latest jihadi infomercial invites scientists to join the fun.

"The field of jihad (holy war) can satisfy your scientific ambitions, and the large American bases (in Iraq) are good places to test your unconventional weapons, whether biological or dirty, as they call them,"

Hmm, how about we test these so-called weapons on the jihadis instead?

From his newsletter (also available at his website).

Pajamas Media recently reported that there are only 9 embedded reporters in Iraq . Many are blaming this on the media, and while I can never be called an apologist for mainstream media, I can say with certainty that the United States military is censoring.

It remains unclear if this is a general policy, though there are recent inquiries to the office of the Secretary of Defense. I await response. Or, perhaps, the censorship is merely the policy of LTC Barry Johnson who is responsible for operations involving embeds. Barry Johnson is said to be the most quoted man in Iraq . I've learned to trust nothing he says. I do know for a fact that Johnson has been untruthful with the media. If Johnson calls me on this, I'll take the time to prove it.

While sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters, brothers and friends, fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military apparently is preventing journalists from telling the story. They attempt to deflect accusations of censorship by allowing in just enough reporters to appear transparent.

I'll post updates on the website as the situation unfolds.

If the military is winning, we'd have nothing to hide, right? If we are losing, and the troop morale is low and they are doing things like killing unarmed civilians, then there would be alot to cover up.

Anyway his latest dispatch, which was published by NRO and 'picked up by' CBS (which I think means he got more money) is available here.

(Hawaii). MMM tasty.

The respected journal Nature joins the fray

A series of studies over the past year or so have shown an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a strengthening that many storm experts say is tied to rising sea-surface temperatures.

Just two weeks ago, researchers said that most of the increase in ocean temperature that feeds more intense hurricanes is a result of human-induced global warming, a study one researcher said "closes the loop" between climate change and powerful storms like Katrina.

Climatology is a tough science because it takes so long to detect meaningful temperature variation. However, based on last year alone, I don't there is enough data linking hurricaines and climate change. And if the two were really linked, what about this year? There were very few hurricanes that even made it to land. But again, we need to see a large amount of data before making conclusions.

Feel that noose around your neck? That's your husband, killing your re-election possibilities.

Shocking results. The authors worry about over-harvesting, rightly so. They are killed for their dorsal fins, which is used in soup in China. The waste is shocking, and the magnitude is hard to phantom. Soon, I think, sharks will start going extinct or endangered. When that happens, people will start changing their ways (hopefully). Sharks are actually very important members of teh reef ecosystem, as discussed in the story.

here This is for the Fuji F30, btw. A good place for discussing digital cameras, including the F30 is here.

You don't say? I'd say for distances of <500 mi its as easy to drive. For distances of <250 mi you'd be silly not to drive. (He's travelling 650 mi i think). I think we've all been stuck at the airport in the past. One major gripe of mine; the airline knows where the aircraft are, and how late they'll really be, but don't bother to tell people on the ground, ticketing agents, passangers, etc. Their information is almost always not useful and not accurate. Nowadays we use third party web sites to track the aircraft, and that gives a good perspective on when it could be expected. Continental now does that for flight status inquires; they show a route map and the position of the aircraft.

Update: Glenn links an article by James Fallow (The Atlantic). He can do math too, apparently.

For trips of 500 miles or less, which include the majority of air journeys, going by commercial airline is effectively no faster than traveling by car. "Think about it," the administrator of NASA, Daniel Goldin, said in a speech in 1998. "You are flying through the air at three hundred to five hundred miles per hour during the part of your trip that is in the commercial airplane. But your average speed from when you left your home to when you arrive at your destination is only fifty or sixty miles per hour."

But the real pitch is the 'mesh network' concept of air travel.

A supply of inexpensive, safe, comfortable small planes, flown by hired pilots and available at rates comparable to today's coach air fares, could bring freedom and convenience to a broader share of the traveling public than the class to whom "flying commercial" is a badge of shame.

Great idea, only, a) small planes are costly; b) pilots are more costly c) b/c of the transit time, how would you find 10 people wanting to leave for LA at the same exact time as you? d) the skyways are already crowded, this wouldn't help e) air traffic control is already overworked (see the most recent plane disaster in KY). So adding thousands of small aircraft every day will clog the skyways, just like our freeways. And, usually, a collision in the air is not survivable. So, my thoughts; A) I hate the inefficiency B) Its much safer to fly commercial. C) It's much cheaper b/c the economics of scale are in play; the cost of travel is alleviated by hundreds of passangers. Also D) the fuel cost/passanger is undoubtedly much lower for jumbo jets (it's a weight issue). So the increased traffic via small aircraft wouldn't help our current fuel crisis at all. But, other than that, yeah great idea. I dream of owning and flying a plane at some point when I'm wealthy.

The inagural flight at the new spaceport failed.
But that didn't stop the launch coordinator from porclaiming a success:

"We will launch again in three weeks. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. We still feel it was a success," she said

Jane Galt explains in a satisfactory way (to me) where the wage growth in the last 5 years has gone - to health care; the only thing that has gone up substantially in the last 5 years. Due to better/more expensive drugs, tests, procedures, etc. ALl that costs money, which is passed on to us, the consumer.

Check it out. Amazing!

From Dean Barnett.

Way cool blog trafficking data. I think it will work with regular websites too.

My Xp95 phosphorylation manuscript finally was accepted by Biochemical Journal. This is the main reason I've continued the project for so long, to ensure it's publication. Now that it's done I feel I have some sense of closure, but will still continue my postdoc, which is a mostly fruitful experience.

VeggieTales gets toned down. Good news, at least it's on network TV. Bad news, the athiest TV people are cutting the heart and soul of the program.

What struck me and continues to strike me is the inanity of ripping the heart and soul out of a successful product and not thinking that there will be consequences to it," said L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council.

Yeah, I agree w/ this, and I'm not religious. THe show pretty much focuses on God as somewhat amorphous being; not tied down to any particular monotheistic religion. The values of self-worth and high morals are common to all major religions.

JunkScience likes DTT and thinks everyone should drink it.

Finally, there is the question of the World Health Organization itself. What’s the WHO been doing for all these years? There are no new facts on DDT — all the relevant science about DDT safety has been available since the 1960s. Moreover, the WHO’s strategy of mosquito bednets and malaria vaccine development has been a dismal failure. While the death toll in malarial regions has mounted, the WHO has been distracted by such dubious issues as whether cell phones and French fries cause cancer.

I think the author is dead wrong, that DTT is a serious threat, and mosquitos will be resistant to it within a decade. Then what? The Wikipedia has an excellent, comprehensive article on DTT use and safety.

Mudville revitalizes an old post on Rick Rescorla, who has an incredible life story. He died in 9/11 while evacuating his 'troops'. I have the book here but never got a chance to read it. I'll have to take a look this weekend.

Along with all the estradiols.

Catchy antidepressent slogans we'll never see.

"Paxil... Give It A Try."

"Pot Roast Burnt? Husband Home With The Flu? You're Having One Of Those Prozac Days."

This is so bad it's amusing. Drink less water? More steak & beer? More sun? Yeah, unfortunately some fools will fall for it.

A coalition of Shieks from An Anbar province (north of bagdad) have banded together and raised a militia of 30,000 to side with the govt in overthrowing Al Qaeda and other terrorists.
Glenn discusses it further; the news is from StrategyPage

This agreement, if it holds, is a win for the United States, which is looking for measurable progress. It is a win for the Shia-dominated Iraqi government, which will now have an easier time in that province. It is a win for the tribal leaders, who will get a few markers they can call in down the road from the government for their assistance. For al Qaeda, now facing the equivalent of three additional light infantry divisions composed of people who will have knowledge of al Anbar province, it is a huge loss. The major downside is that many of the tribesmen still support al Qaeda, and will defy their tribal leaders by continuing to work with the terrorists, or by not being very enthusiastic in fighting the terrorists.

Yup, if the agreement holds, and if the coalition is really pro-govt versus pro-self rule. Only a united Iraq has the resources to make a great nation, and there is still that potential, if they don't screw things up. However, the end of oil addiction is coming within the next 100 years, by necessity. After that, there will no longer be a money spigot to the MidEast, and they will have to have a diversified economy to survive.

It's the new thing, apparently, says CNN. They even stuck web addresses in their article (this is a huge step forward for old-media). Now if they can figure out hyperlinks...

From the article: This Old Crack House

From his speech at the inagrial session of this years UN.

"Together we have pushed some big rocks to the top of the mountain, even if others have slipped from our grasp and rolled back,"the secretary-general said."I yield my place to others with an obstinate feeling _ a real obstinate feeling _ of hope for our common future."

Let's see, which rocks made it to the top? He didn't say.

• Iraq? Nope, they aided and abbetted Saddam.
  
• Lebanon? Nope, ditto for Hezbollah
  
• Darfur? Not going there!
  
• Isreal/Palestine? No UN peacekeeping initive, no UN-directed attempts at diplomacy.
  

Yes, the UN does some good things, but recently, in the post-9/11 world, not nearly enough to justify their existance.

Charles Krauthammer has a very good article on the lack of irony existing in todays 'arab street'.

"How dare you say Islam is a violent religion? I'll kill you for it" is not exactly the best way to go about refuting the charge. But of course, refuting is not the point here. The point is intimidation.

THe issue, to me, is that the western world has been kidnapped by a minority of muslim fanatic wackos, and every time there is a small (small) incident, they go ballistic, and the world is in thrall thanks to the global media swarm. If we didn't have global media, no one would know what the pope said in Germany (speaking German). Who is to blame? Muslim extremists aided and abbetted by the global media (not just the west; they don't listen to CNN). Incidents like this set back Muslim/Christian dialog and any hope for restoration of the pre-9/11 status quo. Indeed, how can anyone expect dialog with people bent on destroying the entire world and remaking it in their perverted view. The prophet Mohammed would be turning in his grave; I don't think this is what he intended.

His lawyers are saying there are too many contradictions.

From the release:
(The Floyd Landis blog has the same release here)

The one metabolite that has been identified by WADA-accredited laboratories as the best, and longest-term indicator, of exogenous testosterone usage was reported as negative in Landis's urine samples," the statement said.

...

The only testosterone metabolite that can be argued as positive under the WADA Positivity Criteria resulted from an unknown laboratory error and is not the result of testosterone usage, the statement added.

They also want a transparent process:

If USADA recommends that the case proceed to arbitration, then Landis and Jacobs will invoke for the first time a rule of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) that allows for athletes contesting doping charges to request that their hearing be made open to the public. The review board will make a recommendation to USADA within one week of the written submission.

“Once again, we are asking for complete transparency in this process. Floyd has maintained his innocence from the outset and what we have found in the official document package points to a premature public conviction before all of the evidence could be considered

So if he's guilty, he'd be relying, on, i don't know, chimeraism, being very vague, wishy washy, not demanding complete transparency. So this indicates that he believes he's completely innocent. (note: 'he believes' is different from 'he is').


Hat tip: Trust but verify, which has a great roundup of all Floyd-related news.


Rant your head off is also blogging the Floyd case and agrees that the case now looks strong for Floyd.

On the other hand, that we now think he's more likely to be innocent is just his lawyers doing their job. Still, if he is (hopefully) innocent, and all those people tarred and feathered him, then heads should roll, esp. Dick Pound (head of USADA).


Update from the comments: Faradhim (my good friend from jersey) says this:

But from an professional analytical chemist's prespective when you are postive you must be doping your head off to get a redline result (excuse the language).

Yeah, i agree w/ that, but its hard to get the knowledge without seeing the data. I remember it being released that Floyd's T/E ratio was 11/1, and the legal max is 4/1. My big question is, is he really that stupid to dope with T knowing it's not going to have any impact on his Tour performance? I hope it works out, but I also hope he wasn't stupid. Much have been made about his power numbers (in our cycling forum which I can't link to here, sorry); the gist is that his power output during the tour was similiar to his power output during training. No shocks there. But, was he doping all throughout training too? Its' somewhat like barry bonds and others who use anabolic steroids (We dont' completely know barry did it, but it's strongly likely). It's not like he would take steroids and suddenly belt out homers, it took many years of power building. Same thing with Floyd; its possible he's been taking T for a long long time, and that would boost his performance during training and the Tour. However, he's been tested many times before now, and hasn't gotten caught. So...anyway, we don't know what the data are, again, and we don't have insight into the process. Maybe the French lab screwed up the samples, maybe he did inject T during the tour. Maybe maybe...


Update:

Got this via email from Thomas Fine:

Couldn't help that your site commented on the Landis case earlier this month, and some alleged analytical chemist said something about the strength of the positive for doping.

WADA sponsored a study of the effects of diet on testosterone isotope ratios, and within the study data there are false positives. Here's my analysis:

Autism has been showed to be genetically linked to increased paternal age by one study. Orac has a very good, detailed analysis.

So after Prof. Reynolds kindly linked my Katrina post, I started getting some traffic. 10-fold more on Wed and Thur. Check out the graphs. Pretty cool! But I don't blog for popularity.

They are going to test $4 generic drugs in Florida.

Seems like a great thing. I am using 2 brand-name drugs, and recently I sent off perscriptions for mail order. I got back one of each, which lasts 30 days, for $50 each. The actual cost is higher of course, but I can't afford $1200 per year for two drugs, particularly when I already pay $500/year for emoliant. Unfortunately unless there is a generic equiv, drug costs are very high.

Houston makes the rounds via InstaGlenn, via LA Times. The article is subscription firewalled, so here it is.

HOUSTON — When the "Katricians" rise up in violence, Houstonians had better be packing some serious heat.

That's the inflammatory message of a new gun-shop commercial on the radio that gives Hurricane Katrina evacuees a vaguely alien-sounding name, and advises Texans to take up arms to defend themselves against crimes committed by the newcomers.

...

Texas officials said applications for concealed-weapons permits were up statewide: 60,328 from Jan. 1 to Sept. 1 this year, compared with 46,298 for the same period last year.

The Houston Police Department estimates that one in five homicides in the city now involves Katrina evacuees — as suspect, victim or both.

Typical inflammatory stuff via LA Times.

Too bad it's not true, according to my crude but laborious analysis. I took the beat stats of the area where I live, right next to the Astrodome, which was the first area the Katrina evacuees came to via the buses from NO. I added up all the crimes in this area from 2004 to July 2006, excluding Nov-Dec 2004, it wasn't available. I then extrapolated the stats for 2004 and 2006. For all major areas of crime, there was no significant change in numbers. This doesn't take into account the fact that crime tends to be worse during winter, since the winter months for 2004 and 2006 aren't available. Further, it doesn't take into account per capita crime stats; I assume the population here went up after Katrina, so the effect would be to actually decrease crime rates.

Here is the chart.


Update: Instaflood! Thank you god, err Glenn! :)

I encourage the Army of Davids to get the data and have a look yourself, since HPD (Houston Police) doesn't actually tabulate data, just make it available.

Update:Thanks to the people in the comments; i found these data for 2004/2005. I'll try to find some aggregate of 2006 later today. The murder rate increased 10% from 2004 to 2005, but all other crimes decreased or stayed the same.




Update2:

I went and added all the HPD stats for this year and did a yearly estimate, and correlated that with the FBI stats. We don't know the current population of Houston, so per capita estimates are not useful. Yes, the murder rate has soared, from 272 in '04 to 408 (est) in '06. However, overall there is no surge in crime. Look at the data and judge for yourself. The blanks for 2006 represent gaps in the data. HPD doesnt measure the same catagories as the FBI. Violent crime = murder+rape+assault+robbery



Update3:

So, the data show that murder has soared ~40%, but not other crimes.

Question1: Does HPD measure attempted murder in these stats? I would expect that to also soar. Assault hasn't significantly increased (probably keeping up with population).

Question2: Who is killing who? Gangbanger vs gangbanger or are non-criminals involved? I'm not saying it's okay for a criminal to kill another criminal (ie gang member). But we have to make up our mind that we really care and this is a significant issue. I haven't heard much out of the politians saying this is something that needs to happen.

Question3: Are there more thieves per capita in the evacuee population than normal? Or did they all stay in NO?

Interesting questions, few answers. Gus Van Horn also has a very nice but older series of posts on this topic.

Update4: Probably the last update. I took the murders for the last 3 months and using a handy mapping program mapped their locations in Houston. The result is below. (also here in a clickable map) Some areas are very 'clean', ie Bellaire, to the left (concentrated around the SW corner of the 610 loop) of the Astrodome area (large arrow). Most that are south of I-10 seem concentrated in the Sharpstown area (along SR59, running NE/SW), and Almeda (between 288 and I-45, 288 running N/S in the middle of the map, and 45 just east of 288). Note outside the beltway I don't think HPD keeps stats since it's not their juristiction.

I think the only remarkable thing is that, while they happen all over, some areas are devoid, ie Memorial around 10 and 610, the med center/bellaire area, inside 610 between 288 and 59, and Jacinto City which is mostly industrial I believe.

It's something I've discussed before (see post chain), but Orac has a great post on it. People who are lucky enough to have R01s have their funding cut cut cut. People who don't have them have a very very slim chance of getting them. People who are trying to get them for the first time have even less chance. At least the renewal rates are fairly high; so there is a chance to continue your current research. However, for people like me, it is very clear there is no future dependant on the NIH.

The final sentence (subscription reqd) in a economic analysis of American science funding is pivotal:

Also, failure to provide adequate funds for biomedical research discourages the brightest young people from choosing scientific pursuits.

Actually that is not true, the best of the best, if they want to continue doing science, will get funded. 3% of them will this year (3% of first time applicants will get funded). But there are another 97% of us, with PhDs, with many years postdoctoral education. What do we do? Find a new job, that's what, or get used to being broke and not being able to do research. Money is one of the most critical components of successful research, the others being ingenuity, know-how, and resources not commericially available (ie things you make yourself).

Looks good! It would be useful for satellite photography or something like that.

This recent OOTS is great!

Which would make sense if his speech was given, in say, Venezuala, instead of New York City. But, hey, anything for a sound-bite.

The context is here:

"The imperialists see extremists everywhere. No, we aren't extremists," Chavez said in his speech. "What's happening is the world is waking up." He said many in the world now subscribe to the battle cry: "Yankee empire, go home!"

He's also holding up Noam Chomsky (see Wikipedia entry for further info) as a model philospher. Noam does indeed have some interesting points of view, but according to his philosophy, the U.S. would cease to be a world power, which is Chavez's point after all.


Update Heh, found in the Democratic Underground web site.

Says Iranian expat Hossein Derakhshan.

Glenn found this passage most relevant:

... I believe Iran needs to produce nuclear weapons as a defensive mechanism, to deter the U.S. today and the ever-expanding and equally energy-hungry China tomorrow.

But to me this passage hits the crux of the issue (too bad Ahmadinejad doesn't get it).

Iran could only get away with it by stopping enrichment now, voluntarily normalizing relations with Israel and the U.S., and withdrawing from the NPT. Then it could start making the weapons — secretly or maybe even publicly. It's only then that the world would tolerate a nuclear Iran.

You see, we (the U.S.) dont' want people to aquire nukes who vow to wipe our friends (Isreal) off the face of the earth. But we don't really care that Pakistan and India have them. Why? See above. If you're a friend, no problem. If you aren't, then there is a serious problem. As long as Iran is trying with all its might to thward global peace and stability (see Bush's speech today), then we should try to block their aquisition of nukes. Even the French agree!.

A web site which is a contest to predict which new fall show will get the axe. From CNN of all places.

From Anchoress (HT: Glenn)

Any intelligent human being understands that one does not - in the 21st century - publicly touch on the subject of Islamic jihad and religious compulsion, no matter how delicately or distinctively, unless one wants to deal with a reaction that is both primitive and intimidating, by a group demonstrably closed to dialogue.

And yet Benedict, clearly an intelligent man, has done so. He has, in essence, dared to say to Islam, “Is this really what you want to be doing, in this century? The rest of the world’s religions have put away the swords…how about we talk?”

Up to now, no one has come out and said that to Islam. The Pope is the first.
...
The world has more than amply demonstrated that it would like to see Islam put away its swords and get on with the business of simply living life - which is difficult enough without having to worry about jihad - and yet Islam will not comply. With Benedict’s words, the world is finally free to come out and ask, “Okay, short of our surrender and our conversions, what is it going to take to get you folks to settle down?"

Yeah, i agree w/ that 100%. What indeed? Islam has shown time and time again it is ruled by the mob, and cares not a whit for modern society.

For some reason I lost the two sidebars. I'll work with powerblogs to get them back. Sorry for inconvenience.

Update: Chris from Powerblogs fixed them. We're not sure what happened, or what I did. Anyway the tech support from powerblogs is great!

Update2: New theme installed and sidebars work (again).

Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing has an excellent fisking of the Amazon Unbox user license agreeement.

So this is just like renting a movie from Blockbuster, except that while you can give your Blockbuster movies to your boyfriend to watch after you're done with them, these movies are only for you. Oh, and they cost more. Oh, and you have to pay for the bandwidth to transfer them to your home. Oh, and you have to wait for them to download. Oh, and you have to let them invade your privacy.

Yeah, that ain't going to work. I mentioned here (here and here) that it's far cheaper to actually buy physical DVDs than it is to get movies via current online sources. And, well, once you buy them, they are actually yours and you can do whatever you want with them, well except pirate them of course. Until online retailers get with it as far as non-restrictive DRM and cost effectiveness, nobody in their right mind will buy movies to download.


Technorati: unbox

Here. Incredible!

here. It didn't work for me. Shrug. Seems like a good movie though.

Richard Smith has an excellent (meaning i agree w/ it) article on the new gaming system from Nintendo. I fear the whole industry is sinking into a rut of FPS and Madden Football. We need stimulating, challenging interactive entertainment. Pretty much all console games are some form of the shooter, or sports titles. If the Wii pushes the envelope, it could be huge for people like me who don't care enough about the current crop to get interested in owning a system or new games.

see sidebar! Added a bunch of popular blogs.

While riding a bike! Hopefully this tragedy will shed more light on the incredible danger of riding in Houston. It's a very sad day for IT pros and bikers and Houstonians. It didn't even make the local paper (a search on chron.com comes up empty).

I wrote them, hopefully they'll buy a clue.

There is a short wikipedia stub here. I'd like to see more of what he did. I know he was influential in the IRC community. Apparently he started Freenode which promotes open source development.

ANyway he is not without contraversy.. Apparently many hated him and his dependacy on other's charity for the main source of income.

Now students are rioting against the pope! He said there should not be any religious extremism, which I completely agree with. But the extremists apparently didn't share that view!

Now they are comparing him with, yup, Hitler. For quoting a 14th century conversation on jihad.

Tigerhawk: I'm sick of Muslim rage. Me too. I'm sure the moderates are equally sick. I'm also betting that other religious people are equally sick.

Update: There is a long and informative discussion on the matter by Jacob Levy here, including the Pope's actual words. It's a bit hard for me to follow, but maybe someone else can figure out what he's saying.

Ebay listing is here
My Fuji Finepix 3800 listing is here.
Click on images to see full-size.










Portfolio also comes with case.

Got this from mom.



USS New York

With a year to go before it even touches the water, the Navy's amphibious assault ship USS New York has already made history. It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center.

USS New York is about 45 percent complete and should be ready for launch in mid-2007. Katrina disrupted construction when it pounded the Gulf Coast last summer, but the 684-foot vessel escaped serious damage, and workers were back at the yard near New Orleans two weeks after the storm.

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Mar ines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

"It would be fitting if the first mission this ship would go on is to make sure that bin Laden is taken out, his terrorist organization is taken out," said Glenn Clement, a paint foreman. "He came in through the back door and knocked our towers down and (the New York ) is coming right through the front door, and we want them to know that."

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, La., to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a
spiritual moment for everybody there." Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up." "It had a big meaning to it for all of us,"

The ship's motto? - 'Never Forget'

There's more on it here and here and especially here.

So says Slate, citing unpublished Army reports stating that 2/3s of divisions are 'not ready'. Meaning that the readiness is less that perfect. We haven't seen the report, so it's hard to speculate. But it makes sense. There are only so many divisions, and so much equipment. Perhaps one issue is that Rummy's 'new Army' program has hindered resupply rates. I am not convinced our army soldiers need to have all this electronic crap to be the best in the world. After a point, its just added weight and expense, and all that electronic crap dies quickly in a desert environment. So, no surprise that we are chewing through equipment. But perhaps it's equipment that isn't essential?

Army, figure out what is essential and make sure the troops have it. Ie, bullets, food, tents, clothing, vehicles (Striker vehicle especially), and forget about the useless stuff.

Glenn Reynolds: You'd think that the Jersey Democrats might try nominating people who aren't crooks.

Yeah, you could say that about Dems in general (Clinton anyone?)

She died yesterday of esophogial cancer. She was treated at MD Anderson. I barely knew her, but she was an inspiring person. Here is a brief roundup of blog posts and editorials.

Perhaps the best belongs to her former campaign advisor Glenn Smith.

She wanted to delete lingering racism and gender bias. She wanted Texas to be smart. She wanted government and business opened to the extraordinary talent that came in a woman's body or with darker skin.
...
Ann had the audacity to insist that elected leaders be honest with voters and ethical in their behavior. She was uppity that way.
...
The Democratic primary that year remains the most bitter in Texas history. I still remember driving Ann to dinner one night. Just the two of us. It was drizzling enough rain to make my windshield wipers squeal, a perfect soundtrack to my emotional condition near the end of that campaign.

"I don't know, I don't know," Ann said.

"Know what?" I mumbled.

"Know what to do if we lose. There are so many people depending on me." That's the way she thought of her campaign for governor: what it meant to Texas. That was quite a burden for her to carry, and at times it was almost too much for her. Almost, but not quite.

Rangel MD has a pict of her on her bike

Greg's Opinion

Winding Road

Bay Area

The chronicle editorial staff rightly calls her a Lone Star icon.

Man, that's pretty low.

...be sure to hit a moose. Lenny the chocolate moose, that is.

I haven't messed w/ it much, for the following reasons. 1) My apps work fine with XP. Probably Norton antivirus/firewall won't work with Vista, it will need a new version. So, no 3rd party protection against intrusion. 3) Internet doesn't work anyway in Vista for me (don't know why). 4) Changes are not that significant. Internet explorer is now essentially a mozilla clone. Windows are now semi-transparent. File Explorer is smarter (about time!). Anyway, i think Vista is not the earth shattering thing that one would think it would be. Yes, IE is more protected, but it should have been like that in the first place, and I don't use IE. Unless there is a compelling reason to switch I don't think alot of people will run out and buy this new version.

Anyway it's reviewed extensively at Toms Hardware.

Cool! I'm proud of them all for surviving & dealing with 3 autistic kids.

Says the latest poll

Chris Bell (D) 18%
Rick Perry (R) 33%
Kinky Friedman (I) 16%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn (I) 22%

There is a cute Kinky ad thing in my Bandera picts (wish i could link it directly, but it's the pink trailer with the hat).

What will be unfortunate is that the incumbant will win with 1/3 of the vote. That doesn't build confidence, and it shows that the majority of Texas doesn't want him as governor (including me). But since there are so many other candidates, there is no way it's going to happen. If two of the three concede, it's likely Perry will lose. But that won't happen, baring a miracle.

If by that you mean protest against them at Walter Reed and not even acknowledge their existance. Then again, I wouldn't want to be supported by these guys either. (HT: Instagod)

From the Isrc forums

#1. Greenfin Spotanus- Magical Fish of Fertility
Twin-Fin Spotanus + Spined Spotanus


#2. Speckled Leaffish - Magical Fish of Sustenance
Stubby Pigmy + Greenfin Comet
Orange Stickfish + Twin-Fin Beta
Orange Spotanus + Twin-Fin Fruitfish
Crimson Comet + Flagged Bananafish
Oriental Goldbulb + Finless Quicksilver
Spined Fruitfish + greenfin Spotanus
Orange Grouper + Twin-Fin Beta


#3. Crimson Comet - Magical Fish of Curing
Speckled Stickfish + Orange Goldbulb
Oriental Fruitfish + Speckled Carp
Speckled Stickfish + Oriental Goldbulb
Orange Fatfish + Speckled Leaffish
Crimson Leaffish + Crimson Fruitfish
Pink Beta + Flagged Gold Shark
Greenfin Leaffish + Hornet Flashfish
Twin-Fin Beta + Wasp Goldshark
Twin-Fin Pigmy + Wasp Goldshark
Oriental Goldbulb + Speckled Grouper


#4. Oriental Goldbulb - Magical Fish of Growth
Crimson Comet + Orange Goldbulb
Spined Leaffish + Wasp Gold Shark
Speckled Leaffish + Snubbed Fire-Arrow
Golden Goldbulb + Orange Goldbulb
Speckled Leaffish + Pink Goldshark
Greenfin Leaffish + Fanned Fire-Arrow
Flagged Leaffish + Tiger Goldshark
Crimson Grouper + Canary Fire-Arrow
Spined Grouper + Canary Fire-Arrow
Canary Goldshark + Spined Carp


#5. Orange Snooper - Magical Fish of Health
Fanned Stickfish + Stubby Fruitfish
Golden Arrowfish + Canary Fruitfish
Orange Fruitfish + Orange Snout


#6. Wasp Grouper - Magical Fish of Mutation
Oriental Goldbulb + Pink Pigmy
Orange Beta + Pink Comet
Oriental Goldbulb + Pink Beta

#7. Canary Fire-Arrow - Golden Guppy of Isola
Crimson Comet + Fanned Fatfish
Golden snooper + Canary Fatfish
Orange Snooper + Hornet Flashfish
Tiger Stickfish + Speckled Arrowfish
Orange Fruitfish + Canary Fire-Arrow

Here is a fish breeding program

Surprisingly addictive Of course I left the game running at high speed for 15 hours and most of my fish were dead. So i'd recommend 'low speed'. Its essential a virtual fish tank in somewhat real time. Maybe time compression is 1/30 or so. So you fix it once per day and that's enough.

Drama means fiction, fyi. Anyway, Glenn has a roundup of some interesting views about the dem's attack on the drama.

My favorite quote: (from James Lileks)

Just so you know: 9/11 reset the clock for me. All hands went to midnight. I’m interested in what people did after that date, and if the movie shows that before the attack one side lacked feck and the other was feck-deficient, I don't worry about it. It's like revisiting Congressional debates about Hawaiian harbor security in November 1941. Y'all get a pass. The Etch-A-Sketch's turned over. Now: what have you said lately?

Being a Hawaiian, i've read a fair bit about Pearl Harbor; the pre-attack security was criminally stupid (but the attack sure pissed the nation off). Here's a question. Would we have won WW2 if we were aware of the Japanese strike fleet and were able to either sink it our at least blunt the attack? Would we still go to war with Germany? Would have sent millions of troops and mobilized teh entire nation?

Does the same thing apply here post 9/11? If we somehow mobilize the nation, where would we send our troops, planes, and guns? Would we bomb Iran to the stone age? Would it help? No, i don't think it would help. We need to fight this war in a different manner; using special forces and couter-insurgency ops, and support nations which resist terrorism.

(story here) Lets hope they don't manage to crash/break the school. (Microsoft is famous for having software that tends to break). ANyway, yeah this is a good thing, esp for inner-city kids (most of which are minorities). The U.S. population is increasingly latino and black, yet there are very few black/latino scientists. The same thing is true for engineering but not as much.

The NSF has wonderfully detailed stats on this. In 2001, of all earned doctorates in science and engineering, 2.8% were black. Another 2.7% were hispanic. 63.7% were U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and an astounding 31.4% were not. This is the trend I've seen. According to the NSF data, these stats haven't changed substantially in the 10 years prior. Further, according to the census bureau, 70% of the population is caucasian, 12% black, 12% latino. So there are much less black/latinos in science than there should be by demographics. One issue is probably that these kids aren't exposed to technology and science at a young age, and they can't afford to go into professions that will not immediately earn a living wage. It would be extremely difficult to live on a grad student income while raising a family, or, really, impossible if the school doesn't pay a stipend, unless the other spouse earns enough for the whole family. Keep in mind it takes 10 years on average to get a PhD (MS is much less, 3-4 years in science is normal).

..Coming with a set of all the civilization games, for $70.
Here's the details.

Regarding the card game:

It will contain a bevy of extras like Civilization: The Card Game, an original tabletop card game based on Civilization IV rules. The game, which sports more than 250 cards, was designed by Civ IV lead designer Soren Johnson.

Sounds cool!

I finally got a google search bar on the site (blog). It was somewhat easy, but you have to realize that the search engine only crawls accross your page every once in a while, maybe every day, i don't know. So recent posts don't show up on the search results. A little whacky, but there you go.

The instructions to add the search bar is here.

Or you can get google to do the work for you if you subscribe to google free, whatever that is. It's here.

Or, as Business 2.0 suggests, something to take away marketshare from Google. I think it's a fad and nothing more. Here's the problem. The wikipedia is a great, user created service, and it's searchable. With Y!A (Yahoo answers), nobody bothers to search previous answers. I did it for a month or two, way back when. It was fun but the questions tended to be "i'm too lazy to read a book, explain this to me now". SUrprisingly alot of qs about energy transport, ie krebs cycle, light/dark cycle. I always thought that part of biochem was interesting but useless. Well, most rote memorization stuff is useless .

Anyway, i just can't see people who know anything about a subject sticking around and dealing with the kids ad infiditum. Surprisingly i still get 'you got the best answer' stuff, many months after the fact; meaning that the posters don't even bother to look at or score the answers.

Says Business 2.0 writer Owen Thomas. He says that hardly anyone will buy the retail version of Vista. Further, it's not that big of an improvement. Moreover, it' will cost significantly more than XP currently, effectly raising the price of all new desktop PCs. Although I'm subscribed to the Beta release of Vista, i've yet to get it to install. The first beta version didn't install, the first release candidate I downloaded multiple times but got checksum errors each time (on the Mozilla browser). Then I downloaded it from work using internet explorer, and that worked fine, hmmm. But i have no easy way to get it off the work pc, i can't burn DVDs. We have a external dvd drive, but i'll have to bring in a dvd disk and get the drive... somewhat of a hassle.

Here are a few picts from our Ramona Falls hike at Mt. Hood in August.

Glenn has the scoop.

Makes sense to me...but no proof one way or the other.

Update: Time got ahold of the story and published their own take on it. They are sceptical, and so am I. The data aren't even published yet, and it's set to be presented at a conference next week (not in a peer-reviewed journal). Second, the data collection seems like bad science; they correlate autism rates, weather, and cable TV subscriptions. Huh? It doesn't sound like good science, but it still seems like an attractive hypothesis.

The story is here. But I can't find the original paper, I guess it's not online yet (which makes one wonder why do a press release if the research isn't available?). Anyway the gist is that p53, the guardian of the genome, now has evidence that it does tumor supression and apoptosis in a different mechanism. Mice either didn't have p53 at all, or they had an inducable form. Both sets got radiation, which causes cell death. The mice with inducable p53 had the p53 activated during radiation treatment, but this didn't stop them from getting lymphoma. I'm not sure if teh RT and lymphoma is related; as i recall p53 knockout mice (mice w/o p53) tend to get lymphomas commonly. Anyway this may be big, or not.

heh. But seriously, from what i've seen and heard, these people are finding it very hard to recover, since there is little govt support, no infrastructure, etc. Its not like people can take off the year required without income, and it's not like insurance companies are quick to actually make good on their policies, quite the opposite in fact. So, yeah, it will take years or decades, especially if the govt doesn't impliment a large scale program to restore infrastructure and demolish houses (which is their job, I think).

Here

No real news. But this is interesting. One author believes that cortisol injections would not account for high T/E ratio, and would not account for C12/C13 ratio abnormality (to measure synthetic T) T is testosterone, E is epitestosterone (thanks to David Brower).

I attended a friends wedding recently, here are some pictures.

The first is actually shot from home before we left; it's angel trying to help file. The rest are in the photo album; sorry I can't seem to link directly to the pictures.





Angel the file ferret.
Ap 2.9, shutter 1/60, ISO 800


Batman the horse
Ap 2.8 shutter 1/15, ISO 800


Stagecoach, Bandera 150 yr celebration
Ap 6.4, shutter 1/320, ISO 100


Puppy love
Ap 5.0, shutter 1/420, ISO 200


Zebra/horse hybrid team
Ap 4.7, shutter 1/240, ISO 100


The bride
Ap 2.8, shutter 1/60, ISO 800


Bride&Groom
Ap 2.8, shutter 1/60, ISO 800


Here comes the bride!
Ap 4.9, shutter 1/13, ISO 1600


Bride & Maid of Honor
AP 4.9, shutter 1/10, ISO 1600


Bride's parents
Ap 2.8, shutter 1/60, ISO 800 (flash)



Ap 2.8 shutter 1/34, ISO 1600 (no flash)

Very sad news today, err yesterday, Steve Irwin passed. Ann Althouse has a great post, and after reading a bunch of stuff, i realized I can't do any better (see her post for some funny ancedotes). He was a great entertainer and wildlife advocate.

He died while filming stingrays, one of the rays got startled and stuck it's stinging tail into his heart.

I'll just add that when J & I went on honeymoon, we went out on a tour to feed the stingrays. We would stand in 2-3 feet of water, and hundreds of rays would come, and you can feed them by just holding out your hand; the ray will come over and suck in the food (some fish pieces i think). Anyway, they were all over us, and nobody got hurt or stung or anything. The rays were probably well adapted to humans though, so that probably made a difference. But still, the rays were incredibly docile for a wild species.

Joshua Muravchik, at the Weekly Standard, chimes in with his two bits about Human Rights Watch and their so called report.

Still, Human Rights Watch did not issue any report about the attacks against Israel perpetrated by Hezbollah, although these amounted to several thousand missiles fired blatantly at civilian targets, every one of them an unambiguous war crime. The warheads of these missiles, moreover, were packed with ball bearings, which are of minimal use against military targets but intended to maximize harm to civilians, this in itself constituting in each instance an additional probable war crime.

Human rights have taken a back-slide in recent years, thanks to organizations such as HRW, and of course the United Nations.

Quoth the pundit:

DARFUR UPDATE: "In the face of ongoing genocide in Darfur, the international community's failure to accept the 'responsibility to protect' (that's United Nations language, officially adopted) innocent civilian lives has taken its last, abject form. The National Islamic Front (NIF) regime in Khartoum, made up of the very men who have for more than three years orchestrated the systematic destruction of Darfur's African tribal populations, has been told directly and unambiguously that there will be no U.N. peacemaking force without its consent."

Maybe it's time to scrap all of these organization and start anew. I think the UN is no longer useful or relevant in today's world. Sure, many of it's programs have done goods, for example WHO, UNICEF, but they could be doing a much better job, if trimmed of buerocracy, and if the express will of the UN was to keep tin-pot dictators in power for as long as possible, no matter what the cost.

According to a Pentagon report, the violence is getting worse, and Iraqis are less optimistic that things will get better. On the other hand, electricity production is up, and the number of trained Iraqi troops is up. But both a well supplied and led Iraqi army is needed, and the coaltion forces are needed, to prevent civil war, especially in Bagdad.

Also see this report from Iraq the model, which dovetails with the Pentagon report.

I entered in a photo contest, the entry is here. Please vote!