Susan Gordon, 1970-2007

Susan passed away last week, appearently while I was in Boston. I dont have all the details yet, but will update as they come in.

Susan posted here as the Strawberry Woman, and I have know her for the better part of 20 years. She was one of the 5 most influential people who have affected my life.

Right into The Danger Zone

BTAF

Motivation

TJICistan adopts my favorite work poster.

I had another at CertCo, very breifly, which had a picture of a sinking oil tanker. It read, PURPOSE: The only value of you life might be simply to serve as a warning to others"

I also have a T-Shirt I wear to the gym which says, in large letters "BOMB SQUAD" and then in smaller letters "If you see us running, try to keep up".

I wore this in a a hotel lobby after a lift once while traveling with McBride (Head of Capital Markets now for Verizon Business). I got "talked to" by the manager. McBride still reminds me of it a couple times a year.

Armed Madhouse

I needed a book to read on a flight back from Boston yesterday and (for *some* reason) I couldn't find Hitch's book God is not Great, in either the B&N or the airport bookstore (I strongly suspect it is being kept behind the counter to avoid "offending" anyone), so at the last minute I picked up Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse. I am also reading the quite excellent Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden (of Black Hawk Down fame), but unfortunately I left it in my checked bag. So I grabbed Madhouse and got on the plane.

Now, I have never been convinced of the case for war against Iraq, but it took me awhile to figure out why I was right. While suspicious of the President, that really wasn't enough, and while having some very minor intelligence and not so minor Iraqi friends who used to be in the nuclear business, that only seemed to justify my position, not really inform it as much as I liked to think. My worry was I was right for the wrong reason, a problem at least as bad as being wrong for the wrong reason. Eventually I figured out where my reluctance had come from and why; I was against the war because I recognized a marketing campaign when I see one and anything being sold that hard raised a lot of red flags. It was as simple as that. My job involves a great deal of marketing, so I have a pretty good feel for folks pushing a weak product, and this fit the bill. Weak facts, lots of conjecture, personal attacks on Hans Blix, "buy now before the price goes up" kind of urgency, etc. I'd like to think it was for more lofty, intellectual analysis, but it really wasn't, that came later after I had made up my mind.

So I picked up Armed Madhouse, read the first 30 pages or so and put it down as a far-left masturbatory exercise. Cute, but not definitely from a paranoid left kind viewpoint, I had thought. So instead I watched Alien vs. Predator (which was much, much better than I expected). My Digiplayer ran out of juice, so I picked up the book again and realized the author was from the BBC, then gave it another look. The BBC has been, over the last 5 years, much better at covering America than American journalists. Also, in flipping through it, Palast cites a memo from Grover Norquist about the libertarian economic "rules" the neo-cons wanted for post-war Iraq.

Then the penny dropped

Because, I happened to be paying a lot of attention to the Iraq economic rules (we were considering doing a microsoft based project in post-war Iraq back when we thought that Iraq would be stable in a few months), and I could not figure out a) why the laws they set up were so fucking bizarre, and b) why so many basic things failed to happen. Also, in my blog-wanderings I had seen the Norquist memo, but had never put these things together. Palast has a whole chapter where he maps the memo against the outcomes and shows how the "libertarian workers paradise" resulted in the outcome we all saw.

and it made sense.

ut-oh.

Palast has lots of documentary evidence in the book he cites, most of it I just assumed was far left nuthouse stuff. Looking up a bit of this morning, I see that it's not. And, while I doubt it's "all true", it is unnervingly logical. I recommend picking it up and reading it yourself. I remain skeptical, but I can't easily dismiss his conclusions as quickly as I had hoped.

The Goon Doctor

What happens when you post random medical maladies into a public form and ask folks to comment?

You get the Goon Doctor:

My girlfriend's vagina is all out of whack.

Holy shit, my tooth just broke

Help me learn about Opiods

A Tick on my Glans

What the hell is growing on my arm?

Tell me why I sweat so much?

and more. TMI

Glenn vs. Glenn

here

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds defends Joe Klein and "responds" to my post by (a) accusing me of rooting for the U.S. to lose and (b) re-printing an e-mail he received from Michael Yon who claims that, in Anbar, "the guns are mostly quiet now" and the Infantry Task Force with which he is embedded "hardly have fired their weapons." Yon claims that things are so peachy in Anbar that the meetings of the Task Force are "more administrative than combat oriented."

Associated Press reports today (h/d David Sirota):
Two US soldiers were killed while conducting combat operations in Iraq's volatile Anbar Province, the military announced Thursday.
The soldiers, assigned to Multi National Force-West, were killed Wednesday, the military said. The military declined to release the names of those killed pending notification of their relatives.
The deaths raised the number of members of the US military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 3,433, according to an Associated Press count.



And then there is this. And this. But the real fault lies with anyone who points any of this out, because they want the U.S. to lose. What is most amazing is that the same people (like Reynolds) who have been lying to the country for four straight years about all of the Glorious Progress being made in Iraq continue to expect that when they speak, anyone other than the shrinking band of hard-core war supporters will listen.
Many, many times over the last four years -- in numerous places in Iraq -- violence has ebbed temporarily. Yet Iraq, contrary to the ongoing claims from the Bush administration and its followers, has inexorably descended into total chaos and violence. Pointing to three-day lapses in violence in a single place as proof that things are improving is so transparently irrational that, particularly at this point, it merits as much response as the desperate claim that anyone who opposes the war "wants the U.S. to lose."

Do I want the US to lose? No, certainly not, and I never have. However, I have thought, since before the first bombs fell on Baghdad, that the key to non-losing was not to invade. I have been skeptical about this since before the invasion and, frankly, I dont see any reason to stop now.

GG makes a great point about anonymous sources too. What is the purpose of anonimity if the material is boilerplate administration text? Is the credibility of the president so low that he has to release information anonymously for it to get any play? And if so, why would it deserve to be called news?

PZ Meyers' Hate Mail Bag

Thousands of years ago, when I was an astronomy grad student, I was in charge of the Pre-Print Library. The PPL is sort of a way of getting your idea out into circulation before it gets published, but after it has completed the peer-review cycle. Since the lag time can be a couple of months between acceptance and publication, the "pre-print" allows you to let folks know what you've done, that it's been reviewed and to start debate. In astronomy this isn't so critical because there just aren’t that many astronomers and generally everyone who would care has already seen your work in development or as a peer-reviewer. As such, the PPL was a boring, low-maintenance job (unless it was a Karen Strom paper, that's a whole other kettle of fish).

The librarian also gets a lot of "self-published" articles. Stuff that has not been through peer review or is even generally written by a trained professional scientist. It's often weird, kooky stuff and occasionally it's extraordinarily clever. Once or twice a year I'd get something so clever I'd have to think for awhile about why it wouldn't work, (usually it's a subtle variation of dividing by zero or conservation of energy, but buried so deeply in it's hard to see). In short, it was excellent work for a grad-student as it tests one's ability to reason and spot flaws.

That said, most of it was just sheer crazy fun in a paranoid tone, but all of the crazy stuff encapsulated one flawed assumption: Science works by endorsement, in the same way as religion e.g. there were quotes by Einstein that would be made to support the argument, because Einstein was an “authority” and couldn’t be questioned. Their goal was to get some professor somewhere to endorse their idea this making it “Science”. This was wrong, of course. Einstein was wrong about lots of things, most notably quantum mechanics, as is everyone else who ever gets quoted. Science is about error correction not endorsement or doctrine.

Reading PZ Meyers hate mail bag reminded me very much of the kinds of crazy stuff we’d get once every week or two. It’s nice to know some things never change.

Department of Happy Endings

"Vice President Cheney isn’t not on the phone records of the alleged D.C. Madam, who is accused of running a high-price call-girl ring in Washington, the accused madam’s lawyer said on Tuesday."

Wonkette

A British View of Islam

mean time to Fatwa: 1 week

ISO 3103, A Standard for Brewing Tea

Also in the "they must be kidding" category Dr. Nick has found the ultimate tea-brewing standard.

ISO 3103From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
ISO 3103 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (commonly referred to as ISO). It specifies a standardized method for brewing tea, originally laid down in 1980 as BS 6008:1980[1]. It was produced by ISO Technical Committee 34 (Food products), Sub-Committee 8 (Tea).

I Honestly Thought He was Kidding

In chatting with an old friend from Certco, he mentioned he was heading to the cape this weekend for a little R&R. I mentioned how remote we are here in Russian River Valley, and he responded with a joke about having a "gas-powered blender" for making mudslides and daiquiris. I laughed

but he wasn't kidding

I know what I want for Father's Day now...

Everything Bigger than 200 Miles

This awesome image of everything in the Solar System larger than 200 miles in diameter!

Not as many, numerically, as I would have guessed.

Also, they missed my ego

Like Robinson Caruso, It's as Primative as Can Be

I am currently in the Russian River Valley, taking a sort vacation and a few wine tours. It's nice and all, and the trees are ... well, wild! Huge, skyscraper trees, hoooooom hooooooom.

Anyway, it turns out, I have gone to the first place in America I have been to since ... ... 1998, that doesn't have wireless phone service! None, nada, zip!

This is a Bad Thing, since my boss' boss (Brian) wants to talk to me about my boss(who is temporary) getting to keep his job. Not surprisingly, I have a fully thought out opinion on this subject, but may not get to deliver it because my fucking phone wont work!!!!!!

Dammit!

and, perversely, I have decent internet access. If only there was some way to get phone service over the internet (there's a business plan!).

We Lose Yet Another Atheist to Religion

and, truthfully, I could see myself making a similar, deathbed conversion.


Dear Friends and Family;
I know that all of you have been concerned about my emotional and spiritual welfare, especially since the stroke. I know I have lacked direction, conviction, and integrity. I am writing to tell you that I have admitted to the error of my ways and have reached a turning point in my life.

Many of you feel that my lack of faith is the root of my problems and you were right. But I have been saved and want to spread the word; I hope that you can share in the blissful savior I have found. I love all of you so much, I want you to benefit from my new faith.
So, please take a moment to share in my redemption and go to the website below and rejoice in the truth.
http://www.venganza.org/
Peace and noodles,
Laurie

Mortal by birth, Pastafarian by choice.

Creationist Museum Opens in Kentucky

here

PETERSBURG, Ky. — The entrance gates here are topped with metallic Stegosauruses. The grounds include a giant tyrannosaur standing amid the trees, and a stone-lined lobby sports varied sauropods. It could be like any other natural history museum, luring families with the promise of immense fossils and dinosaur adventures.

But step a little farther into the entrance hall, and you come upon a pastoral scene undreamt of by any natural history museum. Two prehistoric children play near a burbling waterfall, thoroughly at home in the natural world. Dinosaurs cavort nearby, their animatronic mechanisms turning them into alluring companions, their gaping mouths seeming not threatening, but almost welcoming, as an Apatosaurus munches on leaves a few yards away.


What is this, then? A reproduction of a childhood fantasy in which dinosaurs are friends of inquisitive youngsters?


Yes! That's exactly what it is!

This is what happens when you let folks without a Fungineering Degree design rides...

This Looks Like a Job for... The Comma Police!

From the NYT:

When the attack began, it was Dec. 7 at Pearl Harbor but Dec. 8 in Japan. The book is subtly subtitled “A Novel of December 8th” to signal its attention to the Japanese point of view. On the basis of that detail, you might expect a high level of fastidiousness from “Pearl Harbor.”

And you would be spectacularly wrong. Because you would find phrases like “to withdraw backward was impossible,” sounds like “wretching noises” to accompany vomiting, or constructions like “incredulous as it seemed, America had not reacted.” Although the book has two authors, it could have used a third assigned to cleanup patrol.

This is not a matter of isolated typographical errors. It is a serious case for the comma police, since the book’s war on punctuation is almost as heated as the air assaults it describes. “One would have to be dead, very stupid Fuchida thought,” the book says about the fighter pilot Mitsuo Fuchida, “not to realize they were sallying forth to war.” Evidence notwithstanding, the authors do not mean to insult the fighter pilot’s intelligence — or, presumably, the reader’s.

Historian Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) is one of the authors. If you like grammar humor (and I do!), read the rest of it, it's jaw-droppingly bad.

Where Did This Man Go?

It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay. No other national endeavor requires as much unshakable resolve as war. If the nation and the government lack that resolve, it is criminal to expect men in the field to carry it alone.

John McCain, Forward to The Best and The Brightest

As readers know, I was never convinved that the Iraq part of the war was the Right Thing to Do and opposed it (as opposed to the Afgahn part which I did and still support), largely because the evidence seemed to suggest we'd be where we are today.

I'd happily vote for the John McCain who wrote that quote. I wonder if we'll ever see him again.

I Can't Decide

Parody or Not?

At first I thought, "well done! very funny!", but looking through the rest of the blog..... I dunno... It's a lot of work to go through just to lampoon Brownback. I'm not ruling it out, but I am beginning to fear these folks are serious.

Fat people more religious than skinny people

Passed along without comment except to say that Half Sigma often claims strong conclusions from incomplete data.

Presidential Candidate Pros and Cons

From McSweeney:

HILLARY CLINTON
Pro: Known commodity; strong fundraiser.
Con: Polarizing; unlikely to woo those already opposed to her.

JOE BIDEN
Pro: Technically still running for president.
Con: Dude. Come on.

DICK CHENEYIN AN ELABORATE LATEX DISGUISETHAT TAKES FIVE HOURS TO APPLY
Pro: Trojan horse, my friend. Trojan fucking horse.
Con: Ruse would be so exciting that he would surely drop dead of a massive stroke about a month before Iowa.

WALTER MONDALE
Pro: Has spent last 22 years going over tape, reviewing mistakes, plotting, scheming, waiting, watching, preparing to pounce like a 79-year-old Minnesotan panther.
Con: None.

SAM BROWNBACK
Pro: Serves as a positive role model for ethnic brownbacks all over the country.
Con: Such an ethnicity does not technically exist; lacks the pen-gripping power of Kansas Senate predecessor Bob Dole.

NEWT GINGRICH
Pro: Well known.
Con: See above.