A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
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Vince's LiveJournal:
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| Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | | 1:46 am |
| | 1:16 am |
Today's weather follies
Follow up to last night's post. Thanks to all of you who expressed your concern; I'll get back to you if I haven't already. On my Facebook, I posted that I was "not looking forward to the drive today." More than the drive went wrong. First, I opened my back storm door to go to work this afternoon and the wind caught the door and pulled it out of my hand, opening it all the way and slamming it across my neighbor's door. Two of the three hinge fixtures broke along with the spring that closes the door. The only things holding the door on are the bottom hinge plate/bolt and the chain at the top, which is supposed to prevent the door from being opened this far and fast. This evening, I came in through the front door, which I almost never do. The only good thing about the door is that I don't own it ( ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kaligreeneyes and I rent). On the way into work, I saw one car off the road. On the way back, the freeway was in better shape most of the way, but I saw eight cars off the road. I also had to get off the freeway and take surface streets because the freeway had turned into a skating rink and traffic slowed to a crawl for two miles about 10 miles from home. Welcome to winter in Michigan! Current Mood:  exhaustedCurrent Music: Final Fantasy XI Game Music | | Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 | | 1:53 am |
It's winter and I'm lucky to make this post
I fucking spun out on the freeway on the way home. I was lucky that I didn't run into a wall, get hit by another car, or slide off the road, and managed to make it home in another hour and a half. I had decided to find a room for the night when the weather finally cleared up enough and I had calmed down enough to drive home. Note the "music." No one is driving past right now and it's deadly silent. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pour me a drink. Current Mood:  pissed offCurrent Music: Wind blowing in the trees | | Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 | | 11:54 am |
| | Monday, December 7th, 2009 | | 11:28 am |
Looks like the employees of Goldman Sachs aren't taking any chances.
Bloomberg: Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder Commentary by Alice Schroeder Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.
I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether it’s true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn’t call me back. The New York Police Department has told me that “as a preliminary matter” it believes some of the bankers I inquired about do have pistol permits. The NYPD also said it will be a while before it can name names.
While we wait, Goldman has wrapped itself in the flag of Warren Buffett, with whom it will jointly donate $500 million, part of an effort to burnish its image -- and gain new Goldman clients. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein also reversed himself after having previously called Goldman’s greed “God’s work” and apologized earlier this month for having participated in things that were “clearly wrong.” Hat/Tip to Matt Taibbi, who snarked about this story in Goldman Sachs Arms Itself. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley Vice Chairman Rob Kindler is driving around with this plate on a Porche.  Stay classy, Wall Street, stay classy. Current Mood:  sleepyCurrent Music: Freeway Noise | | Sunday, December 6th, 2009 | | 12:55 am |
Time to brag
Check out this screenshot. It's of the Daily Kos front page about 12:30 AM; in other words, just a few minutes ago.  It shows my diary on the Recommended Diaries List AKA the Rec List with just one comment--the tip jar, which all diaries have. I've never seen that happen. Of course, I thanked all of the readers of tonight's diary for making this happen. Current Mood:  surprisedCurrent Music: Freeway Noise | | Saturday, December 5th, 2009 | | 4:24 am |
| | 2:05 am |
Speak of The Devil, and his horns shall soon appear
Over on jblaque's LJ, I posted the following comment. Add this idiot fine fellow to the list of deniers. Believe it or not, he's usually among the five most popular Examiner correspondents in Detroit. I'm not going to pester him in comments; that would be counterproductive. Instead, I'm planning on building myself up and finding allies among both the local Examiners and the other science Examiners. It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
On the other hand, should he start trolling my comment section, I'll take the gloves off. Well, that didn't take long. I posted my second article-- Elections have consequences for stem cell research at the University of Michigan--and he showed up about an hour later. Not unexpectedly, he responded crudely and negatively. Jarrett says: Pay for it yourself. I decided to play the snarky worthy adversary. Hi. Are you the Jarrett who is the Midland Public Policy Examiner? If so, I've been waiting for you. I'm working on an article that you'll like even less and I'm looking forward to your reaction.
Oh, and thank you for dropping by and increasing my page views. I shan't be returning the favor. This is going to be fun--and I haven't even started posting articles on climate change. That's OK; I'm writing one up now. Current Mood:  deviousCurrent Music: Final Fantasy XI Game Music | | Friday, December 4th, 2009 | | 10:49 pm |
| | 8:49 pm |
LJ Twelve Days of Christmas meme
On the twelfth day of Christmas,  darksumomo sent to me... Twelve gesundykes drumming Eleven ysabels piping Ten scortias a-leaping Nine bellatrys dancing Eight fmanalysts a-milking Seven bradhicks a-writing Six redslimes a-birdwatching Five fa-a-a-anfics Four historical cycles Three drum corps Two economic cycles ...and a bleach in a paleontology. Seven bradhicks writing? We should be so lucky! Current Mood:  amusedCurrent Music: Susan Boyle "Wild Horses" | | Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 | | 11:12 am |
Welcome to the Crisis Era
Here's a prediction I left on nebris's LJ a few days ago. I decided to scare you share it with you today. Next year and every year for the next ten should be "a real hoot." We finally fell down the rabbit hole last year after chasing the White Rabbit since 2001. We now have to keep slogging through a very deadly Wonderland until we wake up from this nightmare. In the meantime, we might just pass through the looking glass, too. Won't that be fun? May we all avoid the Queen of Hearts pronouncing "Off with her head!"  Current Mood:  pessimisticCurrent Music: Freeway Noise | | Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 | | 1:32 am |
Found while doing research for my Examiner.com gig.
This won't work at all for my column, as it's somewhere where social history, sociology, criminology, and social psychology meet (and only the last is applicable) but it is quite timely. Ohio State University via Eureka Alert: HOMICIDE RATES LINKED TO TRUST IN GOVERNMENT, SENSE OF BELONGING, STUDY SUGGESTS  COLUMBUS, Ohio – When Americans begin routinely complaining about how they hate their government and don’t trust their leaders, it may be time to look warily at the homicide rate.
In researching the new book American Homicide (Harvard University Press, 2009), an Ohio State University historian tried to make sense of changing homicide rates by sifting through records of tens of thousands of homicides in the United States and western Europe over the past four centuries.
He concluded that people’s views about the legitimacy of government and how much they identify with their fellow citizens play a major role in how often they kill each other – much more so than the usual theories revolving around guns, poverty, drugs, race, or a permissive justice system.
“The predisposition to murder is rooted in feelings and beliefs people have toward government and their fellow citizens,” said Randolph Roth, author of the book and professor of history at Ohio State.
“It is these factors, which may seem impossibly remote from murder, that hold the key to understanding why the United States is so homicidal today.” ( While Roth said his theory may seem strange at first, it fits the evidence much better than all the other theories about what drives people to murder. ) Current Mood:  anxiousCurrent Music: Freeway Noise | | Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 | | 11:16 pm |
| | Monday, November 30th, 2009 | | 12:47 pm |
| | 3:03 am |
Imagine two of my obsessions together
...and you have this performance. A drum corps (in this case, the 2004 Blue Stars) playing anime music. When I first read about this show, I thought it was the closest thing to my combined drum corps and anime fantasy as I was ever likely to see. About the only thing I'd change would be replacing the first song from Gundum Wing with Dance of Curse from Escaflowne. Then it would have been perfect. BTW, with this post, I have successfully completed NaBloPoMo--at least one public post a day throughout the entire month of November. So, how did I do? Current Mood:  geekyCurrent Music: "Dance of Curse" by Yoko Kanno | | Sunday, November 29th, 2009 | | 11:02 am |
Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Thanksgiving weekend 2009 edition)
 Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment. This week's featured story comes from the N.Y. Times. Near Geneva, Particles Finally Come Together With a Bang By DENNIS OVERBYE The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s biggest and most expensive science experiment, produced its first collisions on Monday, said scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, outside Geneva.
Seemingly making up for lost time after years of disasters and delays, the collisions came only three days after engineers had begun shooting the subatomic particles known as protons around their 17-mile underground racetrack. The physicists announced that they had succeeded in making the beams collide, producing what they called “candidate collision events” in the giant particle detectors in the collider. ( More on this and other science, space, and environment stories behind the cut. ) Current Mood: sleepyCurrent Music: Freeway Noise | | Saturday, November 28th, 2009 | | 1:14 am |
Two years in Fandom, or Here's an interesting graph showing...something.
 It's a line graph displaying the number of posts in the Journalfen communities Fandom_wank, OTF_Wank (other than Fandom), and unfunnybusiness. The wank communities cover "instances of people being ridiculously obsessive and/or militantly pedantic over hobbies" while unfunnybusiness has become "a news hub on any troubling theme" and has expanded beyond its original purpose for being a "community for discussing hobby wars ruined by misogyny, homophobia, racism, etc." Before I tell you what that graph might mean, I'll tell you the story of its origin. ( And that's how that graph came to be. ) Now, what does it mean? My first interpretation was So, according to that graph, either the world became really unfunny beginning in May 2008, unfunnybusiness became much more popular that same month, or both. Also, there has been more unfunny than amusing wank every month since October 2008. As my fellow cyclical history fans say, Welcome to The Crisis. Shortly thereafter, I posted that graph to Daily Kos and elicited Pluto, my favorite iconoclast and tin-foil hat wearer over there, to respond with ( A heightened non-specific agitation occuring collectively is troubling. ) Current Music: Freeway Noise | | Friday, November 27th, 2009 | | 6:43 pm |
How I spent Buy Nothing Day
Following is an expanded version of a comment I posted over at jblaque's LJ today and thought was worth reposting. TV was so bad today that kaligreeneyes and I watched "Ernest Saves Christmas." We then switched to a marathon of "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" on Food Network. I closed off by watching part of a marathon of "Ultimate Factories" on National Geographic. At least I could claim that last show was time well-spent. The episode I watched was of the assembly of the largest dump trucks in the world, which are used to haul 400 tons of tar sand in one load. Since I lecture about tar sands in both the classes I teach, I can use the trivia facts I gleaned from the show--20-ton engines, 7-ton transmissions, 13-foot-diameter tires, and a payload with the volume of a swimming pool--to impress my students. Welcome to what it takes to keep your cars running and all the things you buy delivered to stores on time. In any event, I was able to not leave the house and avoid buying anything by sunset today. That was enough for me to keep the minimum level of inactivity (or the maximum level of activity, if you want to see it that way) to satisfy myself that I lived up (or down) to the goals I set for participating in Buy Nothing Day. Speaking of being worthy of being reposted, I bring you this image from jblaque's entry.  Enjoy! *snerk* Current Mood:  cynicalCurrent Music: "You're the Best Thing that Ever Happened to me" | | 1:49 am |
| | Thursday, November 26th, 2009 | | 1:01 am |
Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy the parades! Current Mood:  energeticCurrent Music: "You're a Grand Old Flag" |
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