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19 August, 2012

A Day In The Park

It's been, all in all, a pretty damned fine day in the park.

The weather's been all over the place: partly sunny, partly cloudy, a passing shower here and there, a couple of which were heavy enough to temporarily shut down all the rides and send guests scurrying for cover. And the lines for the rides were occasionally a little much to take: nobody likes standing still for any length of time, least of all you.

You've been everywhere in the park, it seemed. Know half the guests by name, and more than a few of the employees; hell, back in the mid-afternoon you ran the place yourself for a while, just to see how it was, and it was...pretty damned fine. Between ten and noon you built a couple of shops, a ride or two, and created a marquee eatery that looks as if it'll be satisfying guests for a century or longer. You'd spent a goodly part of the day behind the scenes, sometimes tending the gardens that you'd also created to beautify the park, sometimes out in the fishpond off in the woods behind the back lot, alone with the fish and your thoughts. You raised your family to embody many of the same qualities you have yourself: your son is tinkering around the park even now, making sure everything's running as it should be--oh, there he is with his daughter, your lovely grand-daughter,  stepping on one of the kiddie rides, holding her safe and revelling in her angelic grin, so like his own...Your daughter is a fixer, too: she can look at the entire park at a glance and tell you where the loose bolts are, how much food the concessions are going through, and even what tomorrow's attendance is likely to be.

Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes, and the wife of your life rolls hers with regularity at the antics you get up to, but you're not fooled. You're blessed with prodigious strength, of course...but even more comes from the love of a strong woman who has filled the day with laughter and affection...it's been a pretty damned fine day. Still plenty of time left before closing: the sun is a red ball sinking towards the horizon and the park doesn't close until midnight. But...what's that over there?

Who built that roller coaster without telling you about it? Why couldn't you see it before now? It's huge, gigantic, a monstrosity that towers over your family park. Even stranger, not many of the guests seem not to notice it at all. You can see the turnstiles of the lineup, and they're virtually empty. The few people in line are moving as if drugged, with vaguely frightened looks on their faces.

You go over to investigate this intrusion on your park and find yourself in line to ride it. That wasn't your intention, of course, and you grasp right off that nobody actually wants to ride this thing...and yet here you are in line, and if you turn around and try to duck out of it, you find a transparent wall slowly gliding along behind you, preventing you from taking so much as one step backwards. That's frightening...nowhere else today have you had the sensation of being pushed along a certain course. You've been setting your own course. But here you are in the dusk of the day being guided towards something unknown, something that, truth be told, you'd rather not know. There's a sign that says SINGLE RIDERS ONLY, and that's scary, too. But you've got courage, a day in the park has granted you a seemingly limitless reserve of it, and so you steel yourself and walk forward. Your back hurts...your whole body hurts. It's been a long day. But you walk forward and soon enough you're in the queuing area, ready to board the train. It's painted black--dark black, as if there could be such a thing--and you can see that this is a coaster you ride laying down.
The wall behind you gives one last jolt and tumbles you into the train. There is pain, and a real sense of humiliation--who built this why didn't I see it why can't I get off of it--that hurts worse. And then the train starts to move.

It says SINGLE RIDERS ONLY, and you're definitely alone in this train...or are you? If you look to your right, you can see your wife, grimly holding your hand; if you look to the left, you son and daughter are right there with you, along with their families, and there's a whole host of friends in your peripheral vision. You're not alone. Not even close. Your dogs are even in this with you, lending what love they can.

The lift chain grabs your train and begins to pull it up a long, long hill. You're torn. On the one hand, you never wanted to be on this thing in the first place and you wish it would just hurry up and be over. On the other hand, what goes up must come down and any hill this high must be followed by one hell of a drop.

You can see the whole park from up here. The rides and shops you built, standing proudly in the setting sun. The little lake--a fish just jumped there, see that? Your gardens are soaking up the last of the sun's rays. If you look closely--you can do that, somehow, even this high up--you can see that all's well down there. It should be. That's how you made it.

And then the crest of the hill: a voice intones 'KEEP YOUR ARMS AND LEGS INSIDE THE TRAIN AT ALL TIMES', which is a laugh, you can't move even though you'd like to;  the train seems to pause on the edge of eternity before it begins to plummet towards the ground. Some people scream along about now. You're not one of them. Oh, that's not to say this is fun, exactly, but later on when you get off this thing, you might be able to appreciate it a little better. You close your eyes.

An unknown time later, the train approaches the station where you boarded. To the left, where you got on, you can see your family and friends--not in line, just milling around. There's tears and laughter and lots of talk about your day in the park and how wonderful it's been to share it with you. And then you look to the right....and there's a whole new park out there, so much bigger...and there are people here, too, people you know, people you love, and they're beckoning to you, telling you to come on, there's so much more to see and do, and you find you can, you can get up and walk...or float, or fly, or whatever you choose to do. With one last look back at the family and friends who have shared your day, you understand that when they choose to, they'll hop on the dilly of a coaster you just rode, and get off and join you. And you step out into a whole new world.

18 August, 2012

Bushed in the Bush

Just spent three days of *much* needed R and R Up North, in that fabled Land O' Lakes, at my Dad and Heather's place...the place I've nicknamed 'Sanctuary Much'...you get the idea.

It was a wonderful three days. Even though I could barely keep my eyes open. Maybe especially because I could barely keep my eyes open.

I didn't realize I was quite this bushed. But apparently so...I woke up at or around seven a.m. each morning, which is two or three hours later than usual. Come early afternoon, I'd be dead on my feet, and so would be off my feet and...you know how most afternoon naps, you just kind of doze, wandering dreamily in and out of sleep? Not me, not this time. Practically unconscious--so deeply asleep I didn't hear the alarm calling my firefighter father to this. (He needed a nap at least as badly as I did, but it was not in the cards: he didn't get home until after one in the morning. And he'd been up most of the night before. I don't know how the man does it.)

Anyway, my nap-slash-coma would last two or three hours, I'd wake up for supper, and by eight or nine I'd be zonked again.

Part of it, of course, is the air. I could quickly run out of adjectives describing Georgian Bay air: fresh, pure, crisp, clean...it's the kind of air humans were meant to breathe, none of this polluted city crap. It's invigorating and exhausting all at once.

A bigger part of why I slept so much was because I could.

I can't say I have many household obligations, and those I have aren't that onerous. Work is between 44 and 49 hours a week, pretty much including commuting time, which is a lot less than many people work. Yet I feel as if I've been running flat out for weeks if not months, and what I've been doing pales next to what's coming, and I'm not going to write about that because I still have one day left of holidays and I'm going to spend it in a holidaze, damnit.

Up north, I had... I couldn't log into Facebook for some odd reason, and my dad doesn't have Wi-Fi, so my Internet ramblings were slightly curtailed (and yes, even though I've railed often and bitterly against the seemingly ubiquitous compulsion to be constantly connected, being cut off from my Facebook friends was...difficult). What I had was peace and tranquility--the quiet up there is its own soothing sound. You hear the wind soughing through the pines and the water slopping and sloshing and if you're lucky, some

And dark? It's not quite as pitch-black as it used to be, but it's plenty dark enough...mind you, on the coldest of winter nights, the starlight is almost enough to read by, and that's without the aurora borealis you might be blessed to see.

I spent lots of time out on the deck, deep in Justin Cronin's The Passage, waving at the boaters and being waved to in return. (The one mosquito in the ointment up at Dad's--besides mosquitoes and the need for ointment to repel same, of course--is the boaters. Just when you've sunk into a slice of heavenly silence, it's shattered by the insectile buzzing of a 75-horsepower Merc intrudes on your world and a boat roars by entirely too close to shore, kicking up a wake that jostles the boats in their moorings. Some of them zip by so fast they're practically a blur, and I wonder who it is they're trying to impress. Certainly not me. Making a boat go fast is not exactly a challenge, nor is it a commendable life skill, as far as I'm concerned.

And I'd come in for supper to my stepmother's fantastic shepherd's pie...or my dad's storm-barbequed burgers (the horizontal rain added just the right seasoning) or Heather's incredible peach cobbler. I don't even like peaches all that much...I was prepared to eat this and call it good, and it wasn't good, it was freakin' great.

And then back to sleep, lulled off to dreamland by what's currently my favourite piano concerto:

Maybe that's why I slept so much. What heavenly music.

Dad, Hez, love you both. I don't get up there near enough. Thanks for having me.

13 August, 2012

No Facebook Account? Why not?

Read. And weep.

Really. Really?

If you don't have a Facebook account, there's something wrong with you?

Disclaimer: Facebook is the second-most visited page in my Internet peregrinations, just after Reddit. I frequently update my status, chat with friends old and new, and play several games. I really appreciate having most of my friends in one place. I don't understand Twitter because I already have a Facebook Wall that does the same thing.
I spend entirely too much time on Facebook. Online in general, really. It's one very good reason I flat-out refuse to buy a smartphone: give me the ability to go online away from home and I'll be sucked out of real life in short order. I'll become like those people at the Olympic Closing Ceremonies. Did you see that? Seventy thousand bodies in the audience, and it looked like sixty or so thousand of them had no interest in actually watching the God-damned thing. Every time they panned the crowd, all I saw was a panoply of phones. There's something about that I find almost soul-crushing. It reminds me of the giant hip-hip-hooray that went up when it was announced Disney World was getting Wi-Fi. You know, the happiest place on earth? Apparently it sucks because it's not the Intermet.

(Yes, my attitudes on the Internet are frighteningly ambivalent. Always have been. I used to routinely spend upwards of ten hours a day online back in the early nineties. Now, as then, I love the constant information feed and I hate the almost irresistible compulsion to drown in it. I yearn to be connected, yes. For somebody who spent much of his youth existing on the outside of every inside there ever was, "connection" is a potent, potent force. But I'm deeply afraid that this constant connection is slowly depriving me of something essential to my humanity.

I'll be going up to my Dad's in a couple of days. He's on the shores of a river, forty miles from the nearest town of any size. High speed Internet is a recent phenomenon in his little corner of Paradise. He's online a fair bit, to be sure.

He's not on Facebook.

I think privacy issues are his biggest concern. But even more so, I'd suggest he doesn't need Facebook. He has a social circle the likes of which I lack the words to adequately describe. A lifetime of service to his community has made it so he can scarcely leave his driveway without encountering at least one friend. As a kid I used to be so impatient because it seemed like we'd never actually get anywhere for all the people wanting to stop and chat.

A former colleague of mine, name of Craig, is the sort of guy would have hundreds of friends on Facebook if he ever bothered to get an account. He doesn't, probably because he's too busy playing several different sports on teams far and wide. Sitting at a computer is death by boredom as far as Craig is concerned. He'd be a catch for anybody with a glove to catch him, and never mind the lack of a Facebook account. All you have to do is meet the man and talk to him for five minutes and you'll know what kind of person he is: a good one. Yet because he isn't a Zucker, he's somehow suspicious? Give me a break.

An e-friend I know only as Catelli tweets frequently, occasionally blogs...and shuns Facebook like a horde of plagues. Knowing what I know of the guy--he's in IT--I'd suspect he's not comfortable with the system's architecture and even less comfortable with being commoditized (and make no mistake about it: if you're on Facebook, you're a product). The thought that not having a Facebook account makes him somehow suspicious would fill him with scorn and a touch of existential horror.

We're in the middle of a social revolution. Every step forward brings outcry from those who preferred things the way they were. Every change begets more change until you wake up one day in a world not your own. I resent the notion that change should be forced on people. You have the right not to be on Facebook, and you should have the right not to be judged for not being on Facebook.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to post this on Facebook.

You want me to what?!

You know what really grinds my gears? Repeated exhortations to "shop Canadian".

I understand the sentiment, and I agree with it on a limited basis: when you shop Canadian, you're protecting Canadian jobs. I get that. I really do. But protecting Canadian jobs should not cost me up to a fifty percent premium.

I work in retail, so I have some understanding of price drivers. If you feel you're getting gouged on an item, chances are very good to excellent that it's not the retailer itself that's gouging you. There are middlemen galore, each of whom takes a little cut...and all that red tape costs, too.

Example: Michelina's frozen "entrees". Made in Canada, packaged in the U.S., and re-imported. There's a reason for this, I'm sure, but nobody has been able to tell me what it is in ten years of asking. But I have no doubt that's one reason why they retail at $2.29 here versus 87 cents in northern Florida.

Bilingualism adds a cost to everything. Not near as big a cost as some would have you think: after all, the French side of packages here wouldn't be blank if this were an English-only country. But it is a cost.

Quality occasionally drives the price. I won't, for instance, drink American milk unless it's organic, and I don't care that you can buy a gallon for half the price it costs in Canada. I'd rather avoid the bovine growth hormones, thank you very much.

The most cited reason for Canadian higher prices: economies of scale. This country has a tenth the population spread out over a considerably larger area, and so of course everything's going to cost m---

Hello Mr. Fly! What's that you're circling around? Why, it's a massive pile of bullshit! And I almost stepped in it!

Let's look at this last claim a little more closely, shall we? Roughly eighty percent of Canadians live within a hundred miles of the U.S. border. For purposes of transportation, that's negligible. I can definitely grasp why it might cost an arm and a leg for an apple in Iqaluit...but the prices in Sarnia should be within a country kilometer of those in Port Huron. Since most of this stuff is coming from China anyway, what's another hundred miles?

I have a friend in southern California that refuses to spend more than ten dollars on any item of clothing. Every time he comes up here, we do a mall walk, and without fail he'll walk into Roots and gawk at the prices. Shirts for $35. Sweaters for $90.

Our dollar is at f**king PAR. We have a free trade agreement between our two countries.

You know what's really causing the ridiculous price differential? Competition, or more specifically, the lack of it in Canada. Competition always lowers prices, and in Canada there really isn't very much in many sectors. There are, for all extents and purposes, three national telecommunications providers--Rogers, Bell, Telus--and there's widespread suspicion that they're ultimately the same outfit ("Robellus"), being as their prices are uniformly obscene. Aided and abetted by a complacent government they own, they make it a matter of policy to crush upstarts. There has been some movement on this over the last few years, but nowhere near enough to see meaningful price drops for the average Canadian consumer.

Not only are the prices so much lower in the States, they have access to products and services we can only dream of. Check out the pop aisle in any American supermarket. You could make an entire Canadian pop aisle out of the products we don't have here. Hell, we just got Wild Cherry Pepsi. It's selling like crazy. No Vanilla Coke, no Mello Yello. There are eleventy dozen varieties of Mountain Dew in the U.S.; often only one here, two or maybe three in the biggest stores. No Cherry Coke. No Minute Maid Pomegranate Lemonade, which just might be the tastiest beverage ever manufactured.

(Oddly, there are several kinds of chocolate bar only available in Canada, and many kinds of potato chips, but those are the exceptions that prove the rule.)

I don't mind paying a small premium to support the local economy, but I'm sick and tired of being told that true Canadian patriots must throw away the lube and bend over on command.

06 August, 2012

...but satisfaction brought it back.

"Curiosity, the Martian rover, is posting images to Twitter".

If you don't get a little frisson of excitement out of that statement, you're not paying attention. There is a robot on another friggin' PLANET posting pictures of that planet to the Internet.

Please watch this, it's worth five minutes of your time.

I have absolutely no patience with the people saying Curiosity is a waste of money that should be spent here on Earth. These people, too, have not been paying attention. The American space program is one of a very few government programs that has paid for itself many, many times over. Most of the tech we take for granted today has its origins in the space program. There are dozens of first-order "spinoffs" just for the elderly and handicapped. There is enough wealth in our solar system to make billionaires out of every woman, man and child on this planet--it's all out there for the taking, using R and D on existing tech only, no new breakthroughs required.
Besides, NASA's Curiosity cost a piffling $2.5 billion to build. In contrast, the London Olympics are costing $14.46 billion.

I am not suggesting the Olympics are an unworthy expenditure. Goodness knows I've seen enough of that kvetching in online forums lately, too. Yes, there are poor people, but why does that mean the countries of the world shouldn't come together in peace for two weeks of competitive sport? (And as an aside, the athletes really do "come together", as it were. Ahem.)
 Every two years we get to see humanity at its best on our television screens, engaging in feats of astounding physical wizardry, showing sportsmanship that warms the cockles of the heart, just generally elevating your opinion of humanity, usually when it could really do with some elevating. Are the Olympics without flaw? Hell, no. The corporate greed alone almost, but not quite, overshadows the actual events.

Odds are you'll eventually see that corporatism infect space, too...but for now, there are only people working together to achieve a common goal--Citius, Altius, Fortius, indeed--and they accomplished the near-impossible last night. I saw it characterized as a 350-million-mile hole in one, using an SUV for the ball and done on the first drive.

And all that on a shoestring budget. Mighty impressive, says I.

We'll be learning a lot from our Curiosity in the coming months and years. Was there life on Mars? Could there be, still? Are you and I actually Martian?

"Curiosity killed the cat," says the proverb. "But satisfaction brought it back."


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Breaking Finance News

Zacks Investment Research downgraded Surgery Partners Inc (NASDAQ:SGRY) to Sell in a statement released earlier today.

Zacks Investment Research has downgraded Surgery Partners Inc (NASDAQ:SGRY) to Sell in a statement released on 10/12/2016.

On 6/10/2016, KeyBanc Capital Markets released a statement on Surgery Partners Inc (NASDAQ:SGRY) upped the target price from $0.00 to $21.00 that suggested an upside of 0.38%.

Having a price of $19.68, Surgery Partners Inc (NASDAQ:SGRY) traded -1.57% lower on the day. With the last close up 19.45% from the two hundred day average, compared with the S&P 500 Index which has decreased -0.01% over the same period. Surgery Partners Inc has recorded a 50-day average of $19.48 and a two hundred day average of $16.80. Volume of trade was down over the average, with 61,377 shares of SGRY changing hands under the typical 131,300

See Chart Below

Surgery Partners Inc (NASDAQ:SGRY)

Surgery Partners Inc has a 52 week low of $11.76 and a 52 week high of $22.32 with a P/E ratio of 108.49 The company’s market cap is currently $0.

In addition to Zacks Investment Research reporting its target price, a total of 9 firms have reported on the stock. The average stock price target is $21.89 with 0 brokers rating the stock a strong buy, zero brokerages rating the company a buy, zero equity analysts rating the company a hold, zero firms rating the stock a underperform, and finally 0 brokerages rating the stock a sell.

General Information About Surgery Partners Inc (NASDAQ:SGRY)

Surgery Partners, Inc. is a healthcare services company. The Company operates in three lines of business across the United States: Surgical Facility Services, Ancillary Services and Optical Services. The Company's Surgical Facility Services segment consists of the operation of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and surgical hospitals, which include its anesthesia services. The Company's Ancillary Services segment consists of a diagnostic laboratory, a specialty pharmacy and multi-specialty physician practices. The Company's physician practices include its owned and operated physician practices pursuant to management service agreements. The Company's optical services segment consists of an optical laboratory, an optical products group purchasing organization and a marketing business. The Company's optical laboratory manufactures eyewear, while its optical product purchasing organization negotiates volume buying discounts with optical product manufacturers.

Receive News & Ratings Via Email - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings with's FREE daily email newsletter.

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Catalog / Release Information:
Catalog # : [BP031]
Artist: Nurses With Knives
Release Title: “Collaborative Dissections”

Release Date: 05/31/2016
Release Format: 1CD Disc Release
Release Length: Tracks, 27:55s

01. Dissonance (3rd Movement) [01:57]
02. Nurses With Knives Vs. Pirtek- Family Of Flies Upon The Rotten Corpse [Pirtek’s Decay Mix] [05:25]
03. Nurses With Knives Vs. Pirtek- Skin Graft (Pirtek Reconstruction) [05:26]
04. Nurses With Knives and Miles Drake- Primitive Insinct [11:13]
05. She (previously unreleased demo) [03:51]

Download Links:
BANDCAMP: http://breakpoprecords.bandcamp.com/album/nurses-with-knives-collaborative-dissections
ARCHIVE : No Upload


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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Show No Mercy: The Cover

Here's a peek at the cover for my next ebook. I thought y'all would like to see it. I'm still waiting for my editor to return my manuscript--the longer he has it, the more I think he's really marking it up. Is that a good thing? Anyway when it comes back I'll make whatever adjustments are necessary and then we'll be ready to go!


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MASSE IN THE HOUSE: C-21: Reducing Red Tape for Small Businesses

January 26, 2015

Mr. Brian Masse (Windsor West, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Surrey North, and I am pleased to do so.

    I am pleased to speak about Bill C-21. It is an interesting issue, no doubt. The vast majority of Canadian businesses are small businesses. It employs millions of people. Some small businesses employ just one, sometimes two and sometimes more. It is a vital part of the economy that we have to take care of.

    The government website says it all with a picture of nice cute little scissors cutting red tape and talking about the one-for-one rule. I want to address that first. What is red tape?

    Red tape can actually prevent yellow tape, being sickness, death or something else. Regulations have been put on products, services and the way we go about doing business, because of problems or issues that have come up. We have seen that most recently with food health safety, rail and aviation.

    A number of times we have needed to bring in rules. Some of those rules are important. In fact I want to point to an example of something I worked on when I first got here in Parliament, the tax deductibility of fines and penalties. It used to be the case in Canada that people were able to get a tax credit of up to 15% for a fine or penalty they incurred and which went through the judicial system.

    For example, if my memory serves me correctly, there was a drug company that got $11 million back from a $40 million fine. That is unfair, not only in terms of taxpayers but it is also a problem for the companies that are actually following the proper regulations and rules, doing the right thing. It would be akin to getting a speeding ticket, going to work and being able to write half of it off.

    The reality is the rule is the rule. If people are caught breaking the rule, then it is a problem. There are two ends to this. The regulation is in place and it is an issue for some businesses to actually get the paperwork done and to get through the process. However, there is also the unfair competition aspect where people are breaking the rules and regulations, taking shortcuts and putting people's health and safety at risk, and those people are rewarded for that type of behaviour.

    We end up paying for it in a couple of ways. We pay for it on the front end with the loss of revenue that could go to other types of things, and we also lose by paying for the damage that improper product or service caused. It could be a health care cost or an insurance cost.

    This is a problem with the ideology of the one-to-one. The one-to-one ideology does not take into account new product development, innovation and change that is necessary at different times. Let us look at how far our electronic products have come over the last number of years.

    We have also had changes in the types of materials we have. Sometimes it is quite positive, for example dealing with mercury. If we did not have regulations in place, we would end up with more of it in our landfills and our dumps.

    I would argue it can also protect some of our trade. We know from the work we have done in the industry committee that some illegal products, often those coming from China or other places, do not follow some of the regulations, which ends up costing us. Mercury in batteries is a good example. We end up paying for that at the end of the day. There are even cases where knock-off products were used in hospitals. If the regulatory process is not in place, it can actually create other problems.

    Where the government can help small business, I want to point to products and services that it could actually bring in and implement that would be a benefit for them. On the services aspect of the government, small business is hurting really bad. I will use a couple of examples from my constituency. There is the closing of the sorting of mail and the raising of the price of stamps.

    Right there, we have a significant issue that impacts small business, far greater than filling forms.

    When small businesses do their transactions now, their banking, their outreach to the community, often small business uses door-to-door delivery. They will use the postal system, whether it is a pizza place or whether it is a business that is getting going. It could be another restaurant., often those flyers are the ones that hit our doors, and the postal service is used for that.

    The door-to-door delivery that they have is one of the greatest assets for outreach, because if two or three people are working in a small business, or maybe five or six if it is a pizza place and a person is starting out, they do not have time to deliver those flyers. They do not have time to do the outreach. However, the post office delivery system offers an economic alternative and a worry-free service that gets a business' flyers at least to somebody's door right away.

    The Conservatives will argue those post office boxes will do the same thing, but it is not the same thing. It is not having a person go there. It guarantees that it gets into the customer's hand.

    Sorting the mail in London, Ontario is not helping our small businesses in Windsor, Ontario. We now have a built-in delayed systems, and we throw all these trucks onto the highways and the 401. They go up to 401, get sorted, come back and get distributed, which is another delay in service.

    Another one affecting our area is the closure of the counsel general services in Detroit. It used to be we could fly into Detroit, and if we needed to come across to Canada, we could get a visa right there from that service, and that was a lot of small and medium sized businesses that arrived in Detroit and realized how close Canada is and wanted to investigate opening a business. However, now they have to go to New York or wait three weeks. Closing that service did not help my constituents and my small business. It put them at risk.

    Another thing employers talk about is employment insurance, not having the proper staffing at Service Canada and delays of cases. That hurts on two fronts. That hurts the employers who are trying to deal with employment insurance and the lay-off of somebody for perhaps the first time and also delays in the casework files processing, the person with employment insurance being able to get that cheque and buy local groceries, local products and services. That is a delay as well. Those things in particular hurt small business.

    There are also credit card fees. Small business has been gouged on credit card fees for many, many years, and they continue to do so. The government's program has not resulted in any significant reduction in credit card fees. A little will finally be released, but not nearly anywhere they should. They still collect billions of dollars in fees. I will conclude with this: Adding new products to the market will help small business. Like C-290 It is a simple sports betting bill. It has been stuck in the Senate for three years. That would allow convenience stores and other small businesses a new source of revenue, taking it away from organized crime and offshore nefarious businesses, and put that money back in the pockets of Canadians.

Questions& Comments

    Mr. Brian Masse: Mr. Speaker, there are always going to be changing circumstances as products and services enter and leave the market. The issue is making sure that the regulatory processes, municipally, provincially and federally, do not duplicate themselves, and that requires working together, something the current government has been incapable of doing. In fact, the Prime Minister has not even wanted to meet with some premiers. That is the way we have to go about approaching the overlaps.

    The reality is that at the end of the day, things change. Every single day there is a new product on the market and the ideology of the one for one fails from the get-go because it does not take into account the changing world we have.

 Mr. Brian Masse (Windsor West, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that I appreciate the member's comments, but I would add a “d” to the end of his “TIRE” for a done government, and it is a tired argument.

    We see in the legislation before us the ideology of one to one versus that of proper regulation when it comes to new products' entry into the market.

    I would ask the member, when a new product comes in, and it could be a new Tablet, a device, or something different, why would we apply the one to one when we actually have to build in regulations that are new?

    Mr. Brian Masse: Mr. Speaker, absolutely the member is correct. Regulations can be changed at any point in time. A good example is when I tabled a bill on invasive carp in this country. The government stole those regulations and changed them, and I am thankful that it did that. It was an improvement. It is a good example to show that it can be done if it is right and without this legislation and putting all the eggs in the basket of the Treasury Board.

Mr. Brian Masse: Mr. Speaker, I would point back to my experience with the transport sector. When I was on the transport committee, I was a transportation critic at that time, and the Liberals brought in the safety management system. It was reviewed and what we found was that the two actually connect because of the fact that self-reporting by the railway did not take place due to a culture of fear and intimidation. That is in the Wilson report itself. That meant that in the end, the paperwork did not get done and the inspections diminished, especially with the reduction in the staffing of Transport Canada.

    Therefore, they do blend at the end of the day if the system is not accountable, and that is what I worry about. The safety management system is a classic example. If the system is not healthy, then the other does not get taken care of either.


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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Vintage Ad (1911): The Defi Pipe

I don't know how they coined the name "Defi," but here is another gimmick pipe from ages gone by. Apparently it has a metal loop in the bowl with a twistable ring on top. Twist the ring, the built-in loop scrapes away cake. Not a good idea, in my opinion, but then I suppose their "improved scientific secret process" does away the need for a decent cake. Note the P-lip bit. Click for the larger version that may be readable (depending on your vision).

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

How am I ever going to fit this in my pipe rack?

Receiving a package today from my good friend Brer of Power Of Babel. The "bleeding heart" tomahawk pipe from At 22 inches long, this is definitely a two-fisted pipe. It only has a false edge, but I suppose I could sharpen it in case I ever need to split any white-eye's skulls.

Why a heart? Why, because it's full of mercy, of course.

Monday, May 26, 2008

DGT: Delayed Gratification Technique

I noticed the recent poll at My Pipes Community is about DGTing. As is common with online polls, the multiple-choice answers are not complete enough. Especially egregious and misleading is the final choice: "Never. I know how to keep my pipe lit."

Knowing how to keep your pipe lit is entirely irrelevant when it comes to the DGT. The entire purpose of DGTing is not to give up on a pipe that is difficult to keep lit, but to intentionally delay re-lighting to create a new flavor experience.

If you are unfamiliar with the term Delayed Gratification Technique, or DGT, it is simply this: light your pipe and smoke part of it, but leave at least half a bowl unsmoked (in my opinion). Then put it down, allow it to go out, and re-light it again some time later.

I always like to quote Kinky Friedman on the topic. Although he was writing about cigars, the principle stills applies.
I was on my second cup of coffee and slightly past the midway point of the cigar I'd lit after I talked to Bill Dick. I didn't usually like to smoke a cigar past the midway point. I liked to store them for a while in the wastebasket and fire up the remaining portion at a later date. In the manner of a fine wine, you had to let a half-smoked cigar age a bit. Had to let it breathe. A lot of people didn't understand this, but I didn't understand a lot of people.

I smoke as many as ten cigars a day and I expect to live forever. Of course I don't inhale. I just blow the smoke at small children, green plants, vegetarians, and anybody who happens to be jogging by at the same time that I'm exhaling.

You have to work at it if you want to be a good smoker. Especially today with all the nonsmoking world constantly harassing you. It's enough to make you drink. I poured a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey into a third cup of coffee and I sat down at my desk.

I thought of what Charles Lamb, the renowned British essayist, had said when someone asked him how he could smoke so many cigars and pipes. He said: "I toil after it, sir, as some men toil after virtue." Not bad, Chuck.

(excerpt from A Case of Lone Star)
There are two good reasons to DGT a pipe, and neither of them have anything to do with having trouble keeping the leaf burning: one; you are interrupted by unavoidable business during the smoke and have no option but to put it down and re-start it again later, and two; you do it because you enjoy it.

I can honestly say that I fall into both categories.

So one may ask: how long should one allow the pipe to sit cool and fallow before re-lighting it? The answer is entirely subjective and at the whim of the individual pipe smoker. If I am going to DGT a pipe, I personally prefer to let it sit and stew in its own juices for several hours, often overnight.

I have no doubt that the DGT is not for everyone. It has a way of dramatically increasing the robustness of even the most robust of blends. I would especially warn all smokers that if you are not a terribly huge fan of Perique, you absolutely do not want to DGT any blend with an appreciable amount of Perique. I, on the other hand, often add extra Perique to various blends and have DGT'd them all in my quest for the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster of pipe tobaccos.

Give it a try if you haven't. You may be pleasantly surprised at the fresh (and I use that term figuratively) dimensions of flavor that are introduced. Or, you may be thoroughly disgusted. But do not make the mistake of thinking that it has anything to do with difficulty in keeping a pipe lit. It is simply another technique available to the pipe smoker to allow further exploration of the flavors and smells inherent in any given blend of tobacco.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Vintage Ad (1925): Prince Albert pipe tobacco

A Prince Albert tobacco ad from 1925 featuring what I have come to think of as "The Archetypal Codger."

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Featured Pipe Smoker: Earl "Fatha" Hines

Earl Kenneth "Fatha" Hines (1903-1983)

Jazz pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines, born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, originally intended to play cornet like his father, but quickly discovered that doing so would prevent him from smoking a pipe while he played. But seriously, he supposedly dropped the cornet because the blowing made his head hurt. His mother was a church organist, and after giving up the cornet he studied piano, being classically trained to some extent. Hines had an ear for music, and was able to play popular show tunes and movie music after hearing it only once or twice.

He met Louis Armstrong in 1925, and by 1927 was directing Armstrong's band. In 1928 he began leading his own big band. In 1951 het re-met Armstrong and teamed up with him again for a few years. During the early 1960s he more or less retired from jazz and opened a tobacconist's shop in Oakland, California.

In 1964 he was "rediscovered" and became immensely popular and in-demand, recording regularly until his death in 1983.

Earl Hines was, and remains, an enormous influence on jazz music.

Friday, May 16, 2008

One that Kaywoodie never thought of: the noseblaster

I'm sure most readers of this blog are already familiar with the term "nosewarmer." For those who aren't, "nosewarmer" is a term used for a very short pipe with a bent stem that hangs directly, or almost directly, under the nose. So what do you call a pipe that is aimed directly at the nose? I propose the term, "noseblaster."

This pipe turned up in a recent eBay auction. The seller claims this is a Kaywoodie Chesterfield. From the only photo included (shown below), we can safely assume that the bowl is indeed from a Chesterfield. I have mentioned this pipe before. It was Kaywoodie's knock-off of the Peterson System pipe, with a moisture-catching reservoir below the air passage in the shank. The Chesterfield was also equipped with a bent stem and a P-lip bit.

I do find this stem interesting, because it bears the same anonymous white logo as an unknown lovat in my collection.

The things people will try to sell. Good grief.

UPDATE: Four different bidders went for it. It sold for $21.50. The things people will buy.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Inaugural pipe

Bayou Night in a Kaywoodie author, now that I have some time to smoke a pipe in my new Sanctum Sanctorum. This is the first day I've had time to sit down and relax with a pipe and a computer after work since we moved in last Saturday.

I have the doors to my room both closed, since this will be my pipe-smoking room and I will try to keep the smoke out of the rest of the house. However, I still want to put an air purifier in here to minimize smell from leaking out. If anyone has recommendations for a good air purifier, please leave a comment.

Monday, May 12, 2008

I'm back

I just got the phone hooked up. I'm back on the Internet. Feel free to smoke a pipe in celebration. I know I will.


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Monday, April 24, 2017

'Gotham's' Camren Bicondova Would Love a Selina-Barbara Alliance

Milly - Front Row - February 2017 - New York Fashion WeekAs "Gotham's" presumptive future Catwoman, young Selina Kyle's just getting into the earliest of her feline nine lives -- but as actress Camren Bicondova keeps discovering, they're never without some serious intrigue.

As the saga of the pre-Batman Gotham City returns with a run of episodes to close out its third season, Bicondova is back as Selina, once again straddling the line between good girl and bad girl following a major falling out with the slowly emerging Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne. And as the 17-year-old actress revealed to a small group of press, Selina will face new temptations to walk on the more shadowy side of the street than her justice-seeking paramour.

We left Selina and Bruce in a pretty fractured place when we last saw them. How does their relationship fare as the season picks up?

Camren Bicondova: That relationship is crazy. It's not necessarily toxic, their relationship, but it's definitely a wild ride. When we pick up this season, it's kind of catching them on their little downfall. Then for the rest of the season after that, it's them going their separate ways and trying to figure out who they are.

How does Selena move forward from being betrayed by her mother yet again?

I think it impacts her immensely. I think because Selina didn't want to start a relationship with her mom again, because her mom did her so wrong from the beginning of her life. The fact that she abandoned her again, just in a different way, it hurts Selina, because all she wants to feel is loved. I think that betrayal from her mother definitely skyrockets her into this direction that she didn't necessarily see herself going into.

As the remainder of Season 3 plays out, how much more does she evolve toward becoming the Catwoman we know she could become as an adult?

She does evolve a little more towards that direction, but she definitely does not become Catwoman. She's just searching for what she wants in life, and she's searching for what she necessarily needs also. She knows that she wants independence, and she knows that she needs to survive, but it's a question of, does she want to continue surviving, or does she want to go above and beyond that?

Where does that search for independence take her?

It takes her to a certain person that she thinks could help her. Then no more. No, I'm not going to say any more than that.

You are a dancer as well -- did any of your dance background help you with Selina's physicality?

Definitely. The majority of Selina's being is her body language and the way that she moves. Because she doesn't say much, most of her communication revolves around how her body sits and moves. If I weren't a dancer, I don't think that I would be able to pull Selina off. I'm pretty sure that I would not be able to play this role if I wasn't a dancer. So it definitely helps.

What character would you like to see Selina ally with, whether it's a true partnership or not? Who would you like to see her interact more with?

I think a little interaction with Jerome would be cool -- I don't necessarily think an alliance with Jerome would be good for her. She needs some stability in her life. She has enough chaos going on. She needs stability.

But as far as an alliance goes, I don't think she's ever had an alliance with Barbara. I think that would be cool. Even if it's like a little like, "Oh, we're friends -- okay, bye." I think that would be a really cool dynamic.

There was a glimmer of a connection early in the series...

The only way that that happened was because Selina broke into her apartment and was squatting there. At the time, Barbara was having some drinking issues, and Selina does not deal with things like that. She can deal with shady business of all sorts, but she will not deal with drug addiction or alcoholism. I think Selina kind of shied away from her because of that. I think they just went their separate ways. I don't think they dislike each other, I just think they were just not good mix.

Selina takes on a leadership role with Poison Ivy, even though Ivy looks like an adult. How does that go?

She does. It's so funny. It's always great when I get to work with Maggie [Geha] because Maggie is so much taller than me; she's the sweetest person -- she's literally Ivy. I think out of everyone, the person who is the most like her character is Maggie.

I love their dynamic, because Selina is just this short little thing, this small package with a lot of boom. Ivy is just this really tall, beautiful piece of Ivy-ness, but she's so dorky, and she's so innocent. So it's really fun playing that dynamic of this little person who is much more wise, and much more confident, talking to this very tall person who's very innocent and not so wise.

"Gotham" airs Mondays on Fox.

from Moviefone News RSS Feed -

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Local Inspirations (Part III)

I’ll pay homage to the local joints that are among my favorites.  Ballard is a special annex of the city and I’m thrilled to call it home.  Here are a few of the gems that lie within the borders of this Scandinavian community…

Café Besalu: I used to live within walking distance and what a blessing and curse!  Now I still work my way over to enjoy their sweet and savory pastries.  The owner is one of the most charming, pleasant and jovial businessmen I’ve ever seen.  He folds the butter dough quietly and methodically with a smile every time.  His pleasant demeanor makes me happy and so does the permeating smell of butter and sugar!

Beloved dish: a slice of quiche
Special detail: Happy owner
Delicious drink: I’m not a big coffee/espresso drinker, but my friends tell me it’s among the best in the city too.

Delancey: I have a soft spot for pizza.  It’s more like a weakness.  Fortunately for Seattleites there are A LOT of options to choose from.  Fortunately for me, the best one in the city is stumbling distance from my home.  Delancey makes gorgeous wood-fired pizzas with quality toppings.  I almost don’t like going by myself because I can only order one pie and I really don’t like to limit myself.  The owners Brandon and Molly have created an oasis on 70th street and have attracted the national press’ attention too.  Molly has a loyal following of her own for the beautifully crafted blog Orangette (http://orangette.blogspot.com)

Beloved dish:  Tie between their regular “White Pie” vs. the seasonal Pedron
Special detail: Walking distance from home and bar addition coming soon!
Delicious drink: I LOVE Lambrusco and pizza!

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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Quick change

I have an internship, at my dream employer in the small city where I live. I got it because a busy professional, who was volunteering anyway, took extra steps to make it happen. Must write her a thank-you note. I start tomorrow morning. I'll be wearing a suit. And a teeny weeny bit of makeup. And possibly, some adorable gold ballet flats. While it's just a summer job, I'm trying really hard to focus on the next ten weeks and not on what happens after that.

Off to put the kitchen back together and to deal with an untenable laundry situation.

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Friday, July 30, 2010

Let it roll

Well, I'm not quite sure what the purpose of this blog will be. I'm sure I'll eventually figure something out but until then it will most likely be just random  entries that have absolutely nothing to do with anything. Everyone needs some form of an outlet for things so for the meantime this will be mine.

I live in an apartment with my roommate and her lovely dog Moose. We have some extremely annoying neighbors above us and a seemingly lovely older couple below us. I've been with my wonderful boyfriend for 4 1/2 years now. He actually lives in Georgia so I visit whenever I can.  I am currently at my mom's house taking care of her after her neck surgery yesterday. That's kind of the reason I started this blog, I was bored. So yea, anyway that's all for now.


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Softball Splits With Columbia

Softball Splits With Columbia

April 17, 2005

Box Score

New York, NY - Sophomore Courtney Jenkins (Piedmont, CA) started off this afternoon's doubleheader series with the Lions, like she did in Saturday's doubleheader match-up with the Big Red, hitting a two run homer over the left field wall, in the top of the first inning for an early Brown lead. Behind Jenkins' two run shot the Bears cruised to a 3-0, game one victory, but could not overcome a three run fourth inning by the Lions, falling 4-2 in the nightcap. The Bears are now 8-13-1, overall on the season and 2-6 in the Ivy League standings.

Freshman LaQuisha Pierre-Louis (Miramar, FL) got Brown started in the first inning, taking a pitch and firing back at the pitcher for a single. Pierre-Louis was moved over by junior Jaimie Wirkowski (Edison, NJ), who grounded out to the second basemen. Jenkins then stepped to the plate and hit her third home run of the season, second of the weekend, over the left field fence for the early two run lead.

In another dominant performance on the mound for the Bears, senior co-captain Uchenna Omokaro (Hercules, CA) held the Lions to only two hits in seven innings striking out two in her sixth victory of the season. Omokaro had the first three out of four batters retire striking out one in the first two innings.

Brown was able to tack on a third run in the top of the third, when junior Rachel Fleitell (Nutley, NJ) drew a one out walk and advanced to third on a Pierre-Louis single to right field. Pierre-Louis stole second to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Wirkowski loaded the bases on a walk, bringing Jenkins to the plate. Jenkins hit her third RBI of the game, bringing in Fleitell on the fielder's choice and giving Brown a three run lead. That would be all Omokaro needed, as she cruised to 1-2-3 innings in the fourth, fifth and sixth for the victory.

In game two, the Lions took an early one run lead in the second inning. The Bears quickly answered in the top of the third, knotting the game at 1-1. Senior Marissa Berkes (El Segundo, CA) reached first on a fielder's choice and put herself in scoring position, when she stole second. Fleitell recorded the RBI, when she hit a two out single to left field, scoring Berkes and tying the score at one.

The Bears could not overcome an three run fourth inning, in which Columbia recorded their three runs on three hits and two costly Bear errors.

In the top of the fifth Berkes helped the Bears get back a run, when she crossed the plate on a single to right field by Pierre-Louis. That would be it for Brown as the Lions pitcher retired the next five of six batters for the 4-2 victory. Berkes recorded the loss for Brown, giving up four runs on six hits, striking out two in the loss.

The Bears will travel to Fairfield Tuesday, April 19, for a non-conference 3:00 PM, doubleheader match-up with the Stags.


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text:
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

CBO Letter to Rep. Ryan re Stimulus Debt Service

by Bruce Webb
Reader Movie Guy suggest that the following letter and table merit some discussion. It seems to speak for itself but the whole thing is short enough simply to post (I deleted some returns and added some commas to save space, the original PDF is here CBO Letter to Rep. Ryan). Please add any contributions in comments.
Honorable Paul Ryan, Ranking Member, Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives

Dear Congressman:

As you requested, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the costs of additional debt service that would result from enacting H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Such costs are not included in CBO’s cost estimates for individual pieces of legislation and are not counted for Congressional scorekeeping purposes for such legislation.

Under CBO’s current economic assumptions and assuming that none of the direct budgetary effects of H.R. 1 are offset by future legislation, CBO estimates that the government’s interest costs would increase by $0.7 billion in fiscal year 2009 and by a total of $347 billion over the 2009-2019 period (see enclosed table).

If you would like any additional information, we would be happy to
provide it. The CBO staff contact is (redacted).

Sincerely, Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director

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text:
Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Stuff I'm reading, mid-week edition

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm over Kingdoms of Amalur; I had a four-day weekend and haven't played it even once. But then again, I was pretty busy with lots of other things going on, including re-creating this delightful hike from Weekend Sherpa.

But in case the rainy weather is keeping you indoors today, here's a few things you might find interesting:

  • Ever wonder how Netflix keeps track of your queue? The implementation has recently changed, and the team have described some of the improvements they undertook: Netflix Queue: Data migration for a high volume web application
    Migrating data to an eventually consistent data store, such as Cassandra, for a high volume, low latency application and verifying its consistency is a multi step process. It involves an one time data forklifting and then applying further changes incrementally. There could be error cases where the incremental updates cannot be successfully applied for reasons such as timeouts, throttling of data stores, temporary node unavailability etc. Running an end to end consistency checker and validating data by doing shadow reads helped us better evaluate the consistency of the migrated data.
  • The hearings have begun regarding the sinking of the HMS Bounty replica, and gCaptain is following the proceedings: Bounty Hearings Begin – Chief Mate Testifies
    After Svendsen’s testimony was finished, Carroll and the panel discussed a piece of evidence (CG-12) – a 2010 survey report from the American Bureau of Shipping – that outlined 19 deficiencies requiring attention if Bounty was to be issued a Load Line certificate. The issues ranged from weather-tight fittings and missing hatch gaskets to improper drainage and problems with watertight bulkheads. The Coast Guard investigator kept repeating the phrase “that repair was not done” when referring to an interview with the ship’s owner following the sinking. The load line certificate was never issued.
  • You may have thought the Oracle v. Google lawsuit was over. Not so: the case is now under appeal. Florian Mueller discusses some of the primary issues: Oracle's appeal brief clears up misconceptions about software patents-copyright relationship
    The claim that increasingly broad protection through software patents renders copyright superfluous should set off the alarm bells in the minds of some of the people who cheered about Judge Alsup's ruling but simultaneously criticize (or fundamentally oppose) software patents. For example, the Electronic Frontier Foundation isn't really being consistent on these two issues.
  • I can't get enough of this Tesla v. The New York Times thing. Bruce Schneier looks at the medium-term privacy implications: Automobile Data Surveillance and the Future of Black Boxes
    it gives you an idea of the sort of things that will be collected once automobile black boxes become the norm. We're used to airplane black boxes, which only collected a small amount of data from the minutes just before an incident. But that was back when data was expensive. Now that it's cheap, expect black boxes to collect everything all the time. And once it's collected, it'll be used. By auto manufacturers, by insurance companies, by car rental companies, by marketers.
  • The understatement of the day comes from this fascinating article about the ongoing studies into Burmese Pythons on the Florida Everglades: Biggest Python in Fla. Snake Hunt Released Into the Wild
    Initially the prize for the longest snake went to a man who brought in a 10-foot long python, but on Sunday another longest snake prize was given to Blake Russ and Devin Belliston of Miami who wrangled an 11-foot long python. The error in measurement, according to Mazzotti, has to do with the difficulty of measuring a live python.
  • Speaking of Python, the Python I spend much more time dealing with is a programming language called Python. As Ned Batchelder notes, one of the things that programming language educators should think about is how terrible our basic programming language idioms are for describing simple concepts: Getting started with programming terminology
    Expressions have no range of emotion at all, arguments aren't debating anything. Comprehensions are incomprehensible, floats just lie there. You can't put a price on values, dictionaries have no order.
  • Junio Hamano takes a few moments out of his incredibly busy life to help us understand The Maintainer's Life. It's basically what some people might call "project management":
    what I the maintainer alone does as the project leader.
    • Keep an eye on end-user reports and requests that haven't been responded, find somebody in the community (i.e. victims) who are knowledgeable enough to handle them, and redirect.
    • Accept the patches polished in the review process and manage releases.
  • Wired is featuring a human-interest story about one of my absolute favorite bloggers, James Hamilton: Why Amazon Hired a Car Mechanic to Run Its Cloud Empire
    Much like two other cloud computing giants — Google and Microsoft — Amazon says very little about the particulars of its data center work, viewing this as the most important of trade secrets, but Hamilton is held in such high regard, he’s one of the few Amazon employees permitted to blog about his big ideas, and the fifty-something Canadian has developed a reputation across the industry as a guru of distributing systems.
    (Yes, most people would say 'distributed systems', not 'distributing systems'. But anyway.)

  • Totally unrelated to Hamilton's work at Amazon, Scott Hanselman tracks down and describes the details of one of the many social engineering frauds that are rampant on the Internet. Learn how they work, and avoid them! Chasing an active Social Engineering Fraud at Amazon Kindle
    there are a series of chats with "Scott" using their Live Chat system. So, this is a social engineering hack, not a "password compromised" hack. The person has reported that "Scott's" Kindle is broken and has asked for a replacement, but then later tried to redirect the delivery. The customer rep says they can't redirect it. However, it appears the bad guy tried multiple support folks until they finally got the package redirected.
  • My mother raises an interesting point about how we respond to "historical fiction": Texas, by James Michener
    I became irritated quickly with becoming involved with a family or an individual character and then, checking the list he had helpfully added to the front matter, would find they were fictional.
  • In local news, the Artemis Racing team are said to be making a presentation here in town next week; I'm going to check the schedule to see if I can attend. Meanwhile, the Oracle Racing team have finished repairing their boat and are scheduled to be back on the water: Exclusive news! Four AC 72′s expected to hit SF Bay on Monday.
    Will they be cautious with their new toy, or will they hit the ground running to catch up with the other teams who have been operating daily on the Hauraki Gulf and right here on the bay? Either way, Oracle will have to watch out for high speed traffic because on Monday there is expected to be four AC72s plying the waters of San Francisco!
  • I love it when I find things like this on the Internet: it's simply a self-published, sentimental photo-essay about growing up on the East Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Quite nice: Four Seasons on Brick Kiln Road
    The poetry in the town can be found in the smell of steamed hard crabs, the pungent funk of the salt marsh, the sound of hymns being sung, the soft creak of a rocking chair on a weathered front porch. Days and weeks drift by in long periods of idleness interrupted by the occasional Lions Club pancake supper or great storms sweeping over the Chesapeake.
  • Joe Duffy reflects on what "Software Leadership" means, and hits on a point that's been made before (e.g., Joel Spolsky's "smart, and gets things done"), but it's still worth making, and making again: Software Leadership #1: Code Speaks; Love the Code
    I’ve seen it afflict software engineers too: "I’ve been a professional developer for 10 years, so my job is now to tell others what to do rather than doing anything myself." At this point, they might adopt the title Architect.

    The idea that you can improve the state of software, whose bloodline is code, without ever writing a line of it or becoming proficient in it, is complete insanity. And yet it’s generally accepted.

  • Saving the meatiest for last, don't miss this superb and lengthy investigation into the new world of BitCoin and Silk Road: Using Silk Road
    It’s worth noting that the buyers bear the real risk on SR. A seller can easily anonymize themselves and send packages without difficulty: simply drive out of town to an obscure post office and mail it, leaving behind fuzzy surveillance recordings, if even that. (See the Silk Road subforum on shipping (mirror).) A buyer, on the other hand, must at some point be physically present to consume the ordered drugs or items. There’s no way to cleanly separate herself from the shipment like the seller can. Shipping is so safe for the seller that many of them will, without complaint, ship worldwide or across national borders because customs so rarely stops drug shipments.

This week, may the challenges you face pale beside "the difficulty of measuring a live python."

Happy reading!

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text:
Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year Israel! Love, Iran

I got a bit of a kick out of this one (no pun intended!)

It's pretty short, so, full text below:

The Iranian Football Association inadvertently sent a New Year's
greeting to its Israeli counterpart on Thursday.

The greeting was
sent by e-mail from Mohammed Ardebili, who heads the Iranian Football
Association's foreign relations department.Army Radio managed to get hold of
Ardebili on the phone.

"This is a greeting sent to the entire word," he
said. "Are you speaking from Israel? I can't speak to you. This is a mistake,
this is a mistake."

Israel Football Association spokesman Gil Lebanony
told the radio station that although the IFA was surprised to receive the
letter, they did not hesitate in sending a response.

"Attorney Amir Navon, head of our legal department, actually received the
mail," he said. "He came into my office and asked me if it was a mistake. I
said, 'I don't know, but let's send a response'."

"So, we responded, 'We
thank you for you Happy New Year greeting and wish all of the good people in
Iran a happy new year,' and added a wink in the mail," Lebanony said. "We also
expressed our hopes that they will have a good year for soccer."

See everyone, that wasn't so hard!

Hendrix said...

his surname is Lebanony? that's interesting. i wonder what the family history is.

Anonymous said...

Too bad for this failed chance at some Ping Pong diplomacy:

A friend

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text:
Home > Asia Pacific > Oceania > Australia

Incense, dance, Caddy for monk

by ANGUS HOHENBOKEN, The Mercury, October 17, 2007

Hobart, Tasmania (Australia) -- A revered 93-year-old Chinese buddhist monk was welcomed with a holy lion dance before stepping into a Cadillac limousine at Hobart Airport yesterday.

<< SHOW OF RESPECT ... Tantrayana Master Bai Yun greets Gu Fan Mi followers at Hobart Airport yesterday before leaving in a limousine. Pictures: SAM ROSEWARNE

The smell of incense wafted through the Qantas terminal as Tantrayana Master Bai Yun arrived from Melbourne with an entourage of 130 disciples.

Tasmanian Chinese buddhist leader Master Wang Xin-De said Master Yun was the equivalent of the Tibetan Dalai Lama in Chinese buddhism.

"It's very rare to have a 93-year-old monk in the world that is still disseminating dharma (the teachings of Buddha)," Master Wang said through his interpreter Vajra Facheng.

"He is the second patriarch for the Gu Fan Mi, or Indian Tantrayana Buddhism."

After visiting Master Yun at his home in Taiwan last year Master Wang was recognised as the sect's third patriarch.

"In Tantrayana the teacher-student relationship is like a father-son relationship, so he has come to visit his sons," Master Wang said.

While the party waited for their baggage to be unloaded the gathering received the masters' blessings and Master Yun was honoured with a holy lion dance before rising to play a ceremonial drum.

Students of Master Wang filmed the monk's arrival and the quizzical expressions on onlookers' faces.

The two masters then left the airport in a white Cadillac limousine.

Master Wang said while Gu Fan Mi buddhism focused on the mind over material objects, the Cadillac had been hired as a show of respect to Master Yun.

Master Wang said there were about 100 Gu Fan Mi practitioners in Tasmania, which hosts the sect's international headquarters.

Master Yun will be honoured with a welcoming ceremony at the Gu Fan Mi Dharma world headquarters at 77 Collins St at 10am today.

He returns to Taiwan on Thursday.

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