Trust the Ferret, the Ferret is Wise

Moving Day

2008-06-28T03:51:05Z

Sunday is Moving Day.

Saturday is Test-Pack the Car and Panic over Last Little Things Day.

Packing

2008-06-19T01:15:56Z

Packing brings to mind one eternal question:

How did I end up with so much STUFF?

Huh?

2008-06-09T15:30:26Z

Ayn Rand's novels are supposed to idealize the individualist who can accomplish all these great things without the interference of the Ebil State!

And so to illustrate this, she chooses professions like architect, and railroad magnate, which require the concerted labor of hundreds, thousands of other people to accomplish anything. These are supposed to be the people who are better than society? They can't do anything without society! None of their accomplishments could happen without the work of many other people, and the regulations involved in a society.

So I'm confused what the point's supposed to be.

Reference

2008-06-06T02:58:37Z

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_against_peace

"A crime against peace, in international law, refers to "planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing" "

US military law:

"498. Crimes Under International Law Any person, whether a member of the armed forces or a civilian, who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment. Such offenses in connection with war comprise:

a. Crimes against peace.

b. Crimes against humanity.

c. War crimes."

Mislabeled Stores

2008-06-03T20:03:12Z

Having worked at one, I can tell you this. Starbucks is not a coffee shop. it is a sugary steamed milk junk food shop.

C-c-c-hanges

2008-06-02T17:16:30Z

Well. Interesting couple of weeks it's been.

My fiancee's dad has melanoma. They don't know how bad it is yet, waiting for test results. But it decided one course of action. We'd been talking about moving down to Savannah, GA, where her folks live. Now there's no question about it. We're moving down there before the end of the month. So I'm going to be busy job hunting, cleaning and moving my crap, and generally getting ready for this. I may end up with a lot of stuff I don't need or want, mostly books and comics, which will either be sold or given away. Maybe I'll do an ebay page, though that's harder to do for stuff I'm leaving here.

Things never stop changing, do they?

Sometimes it IS the Obvious.

2008-05-30T19:03:55Z

Has Science Found a Way to End All Wars? an article from Discover a few months back. The ingredients people figure will end war are... well, pretty much what you'd expect. Food, dignity, land, etc... Take away the most common reasons people fight, and guess what, most people won't. And if most people aren't fighting, then you don't have war, you have crime. At worst.

And y'know, even if providing for everyone doesn't end war completely, it'd have plenty of other benefits, so why not try it?

Holy Crap

2008-05-30T17:53:43Z

Over at Making Light, there's a picture of the Mars Pheonix lander as it's descending, taken from ANOTHER SPACESHIP.

NASA has the pic brightened to show Mars and the freaking PARACHUTE LINES.

Dude. DUDE.

Seriously

2008-05-30T17:20:15Z

What IS so funny about peace, love, and understanding?

Memage

2008-05-21T15:18:10Z

Because I'm not up to writing any of the longer posts I have in me right now, a meme (via the_zaniak)

Go to this page and read until you find five quotes that speak your truth.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity." - Albert Einstein

Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself. - Robert Ingersoll

"You can stand tall, without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims." - Harriet Woods

"So-called "global warming" is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy independent, clean our air and water, improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don't let them get away with it." - Chip Giller

"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up." - G.K. Chesteson

Dude

2008-05-16T18:17:15Z

So, this guy waterboards himself to see if it's torture. Hilarity does not ensure. He doesn't die, either.

Exactly

2008-05-16T17:22:40Z

"So-called "global warming" is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy independent, clean our air and water, improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don't let them get away with it."
- Chip Giller, Founder of Grist.org

(via a Starbucks cup, examples here.)

A Quote

2008-05-15T16:51:02Z

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist." - Helder Camara

Bah

2008-05-15T16:32:34Z

Half hour lunches are barely even worth it.

Lattes

2008-05-08T17:26:58Z

How did drinking lattes become this sign of elite out-of-touch-ness? Seriously. Starbucks are EVERYWHERE. All sorts of people to to Starbucks. It's the freaking McDonald's of coffee. So how's drinking coffee in milk make somebody an elitist? I don't get it.

Is it the bike, or the moustache?

2008-05-06T18:08:38Z

Why things cost

2008-05-06T05:38:47Z

Ever wondered why the salad at a fast food joint is more expensive than the giant size combo burger and fries with a soda?

Because the government pays farmer to grow corn for feed and high fructose corn syrup, soybeans that get reconstituted into stuff that barely qualifies as food, cotton, wheat, and tobacco (?!).

It's almost enough to make one think the libertarians might not be THAT scary crazy.

Food for thought

2008-05-05T03:46:28Z

There's a lot of talk about how corn ethanol subsidies are "responsible" for part of the way food prices have run up lately. And there's some truth to that, and besides, corn ethanol is pretty much a boondoggle anyway. But it's hardly the end of the story, it's just an easy target, especially for politicians who're opposed to sustainability.

But you know what consumes a lot more grain than biofuels?

Growing corn and wheat and so on to feed concentrated grain to livestock which are grown for their meat. That's not touching on any of the other problems that come with modern factory farming methods, such as the waste, spread of diseases, breeding of antibiotic resistant bacteria, mad cow, and the ethical issues with the way many of the animals are raised.

Plus, if America cut back on meat by about 20%, it'd save as much CO2 as if we all drove cars that got 50+ miles to the gallon.

We have so many systems in our civilization that need complete overhauls, or just to be junked and replaced with something better.

Five Years Ago

2008-05-01T17:12:54Z

The vast majority of casualties, among both coalition (approximately 96% as of November 2007)[1] and Iraqi combatants, and among Iraqi civilians, have occurred after the speech.

Badasses

2008-05-01T04:52:48Z

Humans are odd.

I've never gone hunting, and not in favor of humans wiping out species. I mean, obviously. My entire career I'm working toward involves trying to rejigger science and technology to work in partnership, or at least not against, nature.

And yet, when I was involved in a discussion about the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions today, I wasn't really upset by the discussion.

For the uninitiated, by about 17,000 years ago, the large mammals on most continents had been wiped out. But only the largest, things over a hundred pounds. Cool things, like woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, giant "birds from hell", etcetera. They were around, and then they weren't, and nothing else moved in to take over their ecological niches. Climactic change doesn't seem likely, because the extinctions were spread out over time and continents, and some survived in isolated areas after the rest were gone. And nothing else took their place.

The most likely reason the megafauna went extinct everywhere but Africa? Clever monkeys learned how to sharpen spears, and the megafauna were tasty. That's the likeliest reason. The times of the extinctions match the times when humans arrived on the continents, remains of the critters have been found with marks from weapons on the bones, and so on. So why are there elephants in Africa still? Because elephants evolved alongside us monkeys while we were learning to hunt, and so learned how to cope, while animals elsewhere just were surprised and eaten.

And for some reason, this thought makes me feel rather smug and self-satisfied. Humans probably killed off hundreds of species, because they were tasty.

But I suppose it's not so weird. Roving bands of hunter humans were in a completely different life than we're in now. And honestly? Dudes who could go up against mammoths and hellbirds with stone spears? That's hardcore. Hunting deer with a rifle's got nothing on that. What's the quote from Snow Crash? "Descended from a long line of the biggest badasses to walk the planet."

Still, intellectually, it feels weird to cheer this. But honestly? Great-great-great-great....great-grandparents, who went faced down the biggest things on the Earth with stone spears and fire, and won? They're why I'm here. And one of these days, I'll toast them for it, then get back to making sure we don't have to live like that again.

Quick Facts

2008-04-30T23:05:23Z

All those Republicans in Congress who tell you that government can't run health insurance?

Have health insurance provided by the government.

(Also, they're all rich)

Health Care

2008-04-30T19:34:40Z

One of the biggest problems with our ridiculous health care system in the US? Besides the fact we spend much more than any other country for the same results, besides the millions of uninsured, besides how much of that gets siphoned off as profits straight to CEO pockets.

The problem is health care is tied to your job. So people keep jobs they hate just because they can't afford to lose health care. Or they might not get it because of "pre-existing conditions". Or they'd have a three month gap before it kicks in at their new job. Or they can't go start their own business because the health insurance costs would kill them. And companies are spending lots of money insuring their employees, when companies in other countries don't have to spend as much, because they have better universal systems.

This video has to do with that. I saw that a couple weeks ago but hadn't posted it. What set me off today was this report from the Kaiser Foundation about health care. Let me steal the section hilzoy quoted over on Obsidian Wings. I heard one piece of this, the 7% marriage part on the radio this morning.

"The poll also found that in the past year, 23% of U.S. residents said they or a member of their household had either decided to stay with a current employer, instead of accepting a new job, or had switched jobs because of health insurance coverage. In addition, 7% of respondents said that they, or someone in their household, had decided to get married to obtain health insurance through their spouse. (...)

According to the poll, 37% of U.S. residents reported at least one of six financial troubles over the past five years as a result of medical bills:

20% had difficulties paying other bills;

20% were contacted by a collection agency;

17% had used all or most of their savings;

12% were unable to pay for basic necessities, such as food, heat or housing;

10% had to borrow money; and

3% declared bankruptcy (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 4/29)."

But, y'know, universal health care will eat your babies and kicks puppies.

Choose

2008-04-30T03:01:48Z

Which is scarier?

A) An angry retired black preacher

B) Rich old white guys who started a war that has killed more Americans than September 11th, along with probably a million Iraqis? And ran the economy into the ground, spied on Americans without warrants, let the city of New Orleans drown, let Osama bin Laden get away, and want to start a war with Iran?

Apparently, judging by the media, it's A.

I Know They're Poets, But...

2008-04-28T02:00:43Z

So today there was a song with part of the chorus, "someday we'll find out why the sky is blue."

Totally threw me off. Because, dude, seriously? We KNOW why the sky is blue. We've known for years. It's one of the basic facts explained in kids encyclopedias. So why's it still getting thrown around like that?

Tech Belg

2008-04-21T19:35:54Z

Okay, since I'm not at my home computer too much any more, I've been running most of my stuff off a suite of Firefox, Thunderbird, etc on a thumb drive. I have GAIM, but I can't get it to copy my settings from my home version, and I'd like to be able to be on IM and see the people there. Anybody know how to do that?