Now You'll Know Your ABCs

A Poem Beyond Belief by Phil Plait

What he said.

It is well worth repeating what Mark Kleiman wishes he had said.

Kung-fu Monkey, via Lance Mannion:

Two novels can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other involves orcs.

I think that rates a "Heh. Indeed.

Go here for the pure form.>>

Texas Education Going Down The Drain Live

I spent over six hours listening to testimony before the State Board of Education yesterday hearing creationist trying to weasel their religion into Texas science standards. I'm listening now to the live board discussion of the matter. Tune in and listen as McLeroy and his lackeys try to muscle creationism into Texas schools while you read the rest of this. It will make you cry. Yesterday's audio is available here, here and here.

The Austin American Statesman ran an Op Ed by McLeroy and he was shown to be a liar destroyed in the comments. Ed Brayton further exposes McLeroy's motives and the ignorance he is trying to teach your child in Texas schools.

These people want their wretched version of creation to be called science. They are disparate to have their faith validated as being physically real. But they are trying to use the same creationist arguments that have failed millions of times to explain any of the observed universe and specifically the history of life on this planet.

Update: I am very surprised - creationists loose one. The requirement for "Strengths and weaknesses" be taught failed in the vote this morning. I hope it stays dead. Now if the legislature will just leave it alone this session.

Update 2: The SB is back at it again. They are hacking apart all of the language and recommendations from the science panels and other experts and substituting last minute small changes everywhere they can in order to weaken the standards and allow creationists as many backdoor and wedge entries as possible into the education standards that will stand for the next ten years.

Aren't they cute!

I love spring. Little baby pine cones are here.

The Last Password

I've been putting this off for a while. I've been carrying around a slip of paper with most all of my passwords and sign in junk on it ever since the bulletin-boards and CompuServe days. I never got to like the password vaults and don't like the form fill in functions in browsers from a security perspective. The notion of using public computers or for that matter just about any computer outside one's own to log in to one of the zillions of accounts we have is pretty risky. I have been carrying around a portable FireFox on a usb drive for a quite a while but even that is still full of security holes. I use it mainly to keep from cluttering up other people's computers when I use them. I hardly ever use anything but my own computer to connect to online accounts and even that can be risky. I figure there are plenty attacks out there that can figure a way to scrape the passwords and such out of browsers. But I'm lazy about changing passwords and using strong ones that are impossible to remember so I've kind of been stuck until today.

I discovered LastPass and played around with it until I figured out how to install the LastPass addon in portable FireFox. Then it really got interesting when I learned that LastPass can import all of your account information not only from Firefox and IE but also from the spreadsheet that makes up that list I carry around in my pocket.

The two best parts about LastPass are that it runs encrypted on a server somewhere on the InterTubes so it works anywhere and it is free. It has lots of other good tricks too. The database is very customizable and one can have lots of profiles for various reasons. You can open the database and go directly to the saved sites for each password. One can export the database back to a csv and/or into a spreadsheet and then encrypt the file for safekeeping and backed up just in case the LastPass' online service craters or something. There is a built in wizard for making strong passwords for new accounts. I haven't figured out if it will do that for old accounts. I will try that later after I make sure I have all of the stuff off my pocket list and into this gizmo.

Life is now better. :)

Obama on Leno

I'm slow to this I guess becuase of two things. One is that it just didn't rest well with me to see the President on Leno's show. The other was that I couldn't really come up with the words for that nagging feeling that something was not good enough about it.

I was reminded of the show several times now since then by seeing other people write or talk about it. The thing is that I don't care to see someone that takes to the likes of Leno or Opra or the comedey crew of the day or 20/20 or Larry King or even 60 minutes or Frontline or the fucking View or who would make a good beer drinking buddy to just anyone, running the country . I wish we could get this country run by people who no show can ever hope to have on. We can do better than being led by beer buddies.

I love IE8

Instead of dusting and cleaning and all the stuff I should be doing today, I installed IE8 on both of my Windows computers. Things went a little different on each owing to the fact that one computer is an XP Pro machine and the other gets along with Vista Ultimate. The latter was a much faster install than the first - but, not by much. The whole exercise on the XP machine was done in about 15 minutes from download through restart custom options then browsing the first few pages. I've now logged about an hour on both installations and I really like all the new stuff. And yes it is faster tha IE7 and maybe even FF 3. Okay, back to my chores. Well maybe after a little more Internet play.

Did they sink the ship or help save it..

The average dude in the ditch couldn't tell you the first thing about AIG or what it does. But to listening and reading all the hoopla about the bonuses paid to some of AIG's people you would think everyone is an expert. I figure no matter what happens it would probably be cheaper to save and stablize the outfit at least long enough to figure this thing out better. $160 billion is a lot of money but it isn't going without getting some pretty hefty equity and the upside could be worth a hell of a lot more than the downside. Doing nothing, makes it certain there will be more like a trillion in losses and a bunch of that will come directly out of the U.S. Treasury in the form of lost tax revenues. Either way, there is going to be some leakage and some waste. How much is acceptable? 1%? 3%? How much waste is there in the average person's home economy? What is acceptable in most businesses?

Sometimes it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. It is pretty easy in other cases like maybe when some enemy blows a hole in a battleship and the crew manages to save her and get her to port for repairs. The crew are the good guys. Well AIG is a mighty big ship and some of the torpedoes that hit it came from outside. A huge amount of the value remaining is there because of some good work by the crew. Vertually everyone else in the world is so far from the battle they have no idea what is going on.

So, who decides what the bonus bullshit is really worth? As far as the money involved, it is way under 1% of the total deal. As far as the crew, do we send them all before the firing squad just because the rest of us are chickenshit about this deal & think whatever Limbaugh and congress cowards say?

I think everyone should shut up and go to work.

Future Minds and The Economic Crisis

What did Texas do? We can blow tons of money and time weaseling prayer back into school or we can listen to more people like Howard Gardner.

LEHRER: Do you think the current economic downturn is attributable, in some way, to our failure to cultivate the right kind of minds?

GARDNER: Without question, the answer is yes. What came to govern decisions everywhere, including my own university was a reckless disregard for experience, due diligence, caution and contemplating the down side of decisions. If anything, “deciders” were selected and rewarded on the basis of whether they could cut corners and whether they could make it appear as if they were gaining ever greater profits.

I don’t want to claim that we were seers. But my colleagues and I began our GoodWork Project in 1994-’95, when we were skeptical of the claim that 'markets are self-adjusting and always lead to the best outcomes." In order for markets to work, one needs wise policies, wise policymakers, tough regulation and, above all, individuals who behave in an ethical way and demand ethical behavior from others.

Now 15 years later, people are approaching us from many sectors saying, "How do we secure good work? How can the young people, the future leaders of America, become good workers and citizens?" More>>>

Debugging is sweet because we like it.

Sunshine, Yay!

I made an early round at the local aerodrome this morning looking for any new signs that might indicate a place to look for work. It was foggy when I started out. Then, slowly, everything started getting brighter and brighter and now there be sunshine! It seems like it has been a week since we've seen the light. But, there were no new signs and actually a couple of places I thought I would hit again are closed. So much for that. It's about time for yet another plan b. I've got several more trips to see doctors and such for checkups on this and that which will probably take another month or two. I'm going to start another mass attack for work right after I get all medicine man stuff done. If that turns up anything I'll be lucky at my age. If it doesn't, I'd better get my shit rounded up and pointed toward some burg where rent stuff is about half what it is here before the lease is up on this joint and try again. So, if anyone spots somewhere that the rent is about $400 or a little more per month and there are actual people living near-by, let me know.

Avoiding Patterns of Failure.

The reason doing the same thing and getting the same results and getting the same results means we're doing the same things and changing is so hard is because trying to change often means practicing what we are trying to stop when we should just be getting answers elsewhere or doing nothing. Well, maybe that's a question. In this article about patterns of failure, there's more.>>>

Now I forgot what I was going to say about the subject. Oh look, cookies.

Cramer, Walstreet and Pathalogical Liars

Everyone has had a good time watching Jon Stewart have a go at Jim Cramer over Cramer's screw ups about stocks and financial stuff at CNBC. I didn't think it was all that funny. I especially don't think it funny that some serious attention is not being paid to Cramer and the like by regulators and the Justice Department. What I think I saw in Cramer and what think I see more and more in public is pathalogical lying.

In cases of lying to manipulate the markets and making knowingly fauls statements for financial gain, it is a crime but rational. At least from the position of the criminal. But something else is going on. I'm sure not an expert in this stuff or for that matter hardly anything else but I'm not so sure I can tell the difference in what they do and what is commonly called pathalogical lying. I know that is technically not a real diagnosable psychological condition but it is a body of behavior that is all to common.

Here are a few ot the traits:

1. Exaggerates things that are ridiculous.

2. One-upping. Whatever you do, this person can do it better. You will never top them in their own mind, because they have a concerted need to be better than everyone else. This also applies to being right. If you try to confront an individual like this, no matter how lovingly and well-intentioned you might be - this will probably not be effective. It's threatening their fantasy of themselves, so they would rather argue with you and bring out the sharp knives than admit that there's anything wrong with them.

3. They "construct" a reality around themselves. They don't value the truth, especially if they don't see it as hurting anyone. If you call them on a lie and they are backed into a corner, they will act very defensively and say ugly things (most likely but depends on personality), but they may eventually start to act like, "Well, what's the difference? You're making a big deal out of nothing!" (again, to refocus the conversation to your wrongdoing instead of theirs).

What is worrying to me is that it seems that these things are becoming more acceptable, common or even desirable in celebrity, superheroes, preachers and politics. It is tragic enough to encounter it in random people or situations, it may now be a trait that is promoted as some sort of new coolness or a trait that coporate sales departments just can't do without.

With those examples all around us, what hope will we have for personal relationships that will ever mean anything at all? How then can we ever hope to know anything at all worth sharing with each other from here on in?

I wish we could see things like this from Texas officials.

HOPE

In the Specialized Probation Unit, comparing six-month follow up data to three-month baseline data, probationers assigned to HOPE showed:
· an 85% reduction in missed appointments
· a 91% reduction in positive urinalyses

By contrast, comparison probationers supervised in the Specialized Probation Unit but under probation-as-usual showed:
· a 23% increase in missed appointments
· no improvement on urinalyses

Other key outcomes from the Specialized Probation Unit:
· Arrest rates for comparison probationers were three times higher than HOPE probationers.
· The probation revocation rate was significantly higher for the comparison group compared with HOPE probationers (31% v 9%)

In the General Probation Unit, three month followup data is now available for probationers subject to the randomized controlled trial. Probationers assigned to the HOPE condition showed improved outcomes.
· Probationers in the control group had one-month notice of when their routine scheduled drug test would be administered, while HOPE probationers were subject to regular random testing. Despite advance warning, probationers in the control group were more than twice as likely to test positive on drug tests as probationers assigned to the HOPE condition (26% v 11%)
· Probationers in the control group were more than twice as likely to miss appointments with their probation officers (12% v 5%).

On free enterprise and tire pressure.

The same people and portfolios that own major chunks of stock in oil companies and gas stations also own major portions of the stock in and control of auto makers like GM. One cannot help notice that high demand and high prices for car go juice was a major player in the major meltdown of car companies and even other parts of the now wrecked economy. The administration and legislative crowd of the immediate past was run to the advantage of the above mentioned conglomerates.

Was it any wonder then that Detroit was hell bent on making us think that huge guzzlers were the American dream and that making sure they burned as much fuel as possible was a good thing? One of the ways they went about it was to make it as hard as possible to keep tires inflated to the proper pressures by removing air hoses from filling stations or at most putting a really crappy and very slow air station in a location at those stations where most people didn't notice them and hated trying to use them if indeed they were operational.

Car makers have mostly refused to incorporate technology in their vehicles that will keep the tires at the proper and safe pressures. They own technologies to do so but only install it in military vehicles and a very few high end consumer vehicles. Oh sure, they put tire pressure monitors into some cars and we can purchase aftermarket monitoring systems. But, that is long way from actually pumping air. We are stuck with shitty filling stations and even when we can find a place with air, we still have to deal with the stupid valve stem from a hundred years ago.

And they want us to bail out their sorry asses? Any money sent to GM or other car makers should not be delivered until they have installed automatic tire inflation in every new vehicle they make and paid for the installation of fast and convenient free air and water stations at every gas pump in the country. Just like seat belts, we should not allow any vehicle to be sold in this country that does not have this system on board and warranted for 100,000 miles or ten years, which ever is longer. The "they" in this case is the stockholders in auto makers and oil companies and their retailers.