blivet 2.0

Arizona Central: Special Report | Wildland Fire History

“So great were the fires of 1880 that Pyne in America’s Fires: Management on Wildlands and Forests (1997) called the period “The Great Barbecue.” Essentially North America was on fire as a result of human ignition sources and shifting land practices. The creation of the Forest Service formalized a national approach — “dominion over” the forces of nature. The United States moved within less than 100 years from a nation of conflagration to a fire-starved nation. Are we ready to return to wisdom held in traditional hunter and gatherer societies that fire is as natural as water; both can be givers and takers of life and property?” ["Got Caliche?"]

This seems like a pretty balanced article, a good basis to begin the discussion that is sure to continue for some time.

Housekeeping

We steam cleaned carpets today. Ugh. The gunk that comes out of carpets is just disgusting, especially knowing you will never get it all out. I think we are going to look into alternatives to these wall to wall dirt catchers. No really, that’s why I must go to Home Depot and Lowe’s. No other reason. I might have to examine those slick masonry saws too. I’m sure there might be some other appropriate tools there as well. Especially big yellow cordless ones that say DeWalt or red ones … you get the idea.

What rough beast slouches

I’ve been smelling gas for some time and I keep seeing people playing with matches…

“(…) [T]here’s a nastiness out there right now the likes of which I have never seen–and which I think you dismiss, in your sensible neocon centrism, at your own considerable risk.

I’m an urban kind o’ guy, so let’s put this in urban terms: imagine that you live in a large apartment complex, and there are one or two people in the building who think they smell gas, and they keep complaining about it, trying to get the super to do something. No one else smells it, and everyone has a grand time making fun of them–oh, yeah, gas, right! I’ll bet we’re all going to die anyday now, ha ha ha!

And then one day the building explodes.

You see where I’m going with this? If you’re out there on the right, or even in that sensible neocon center, you’re probably not smelling the gas. You’re probably not exposed to the overwhelming mass of sheer ignorant hatred that’s out there, coiled and waiting. You’re probably not subject to a constant barrage of email that reminds of you of this on a daily, even hourly basis, that makes you wonder, for the first time in your life, even including the years of Reagan and Bush the elder, if this country is actually, literally, genuinely headed for something more frightening than you’d ever thought possible.

But just because you’re not seeing it–because in your sensible moderation, your support of the “war” and your denunciations of suicide bombing or whatever other incredibly brave and risky stance you’ve chosen to take (bad things are wrong!)–just because you’re not seeing it, that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Ready to ignite and take you down right along with those crazy complainers in 3-b.” [This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow] [via mark who credits Gordon Coale]

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“Palladium is so 90’s.” [Mark Bernstein] [via Alwin]

I Told You So
Alas, a Couple of Bob’s Dire Predictions Have Come True

“Just over three years ago I wrote a column titled “Cooking the Books: How Clever Accounting Techniques are Used to Make Internet Millionaires.” It explained how telecom companies were using accounting tricks to create revenue where there really was none. Take another look at the column (it’s among the links on the “I Like It” page), and think of Worldcom with its recently revealed $3.7 billion in hidden expenses. Then last August, I wrote a column titled “The Death of TCP/IP: Why the Age of Internet Innocence is Over.” Take a look at that column, too, and think about Microsoft’s just-revealed project called Palladium.

The end is near.” [Cringeley] [via Scripting News]

“People who installed XP thinking this wasn’t something they needed to care about could wake up just about now and go get a copy of W2K and install it, and refuse to buy any new computers until this madness stops. Or welcome to the Gestapo of the Future — the World Wide Thought Control Center, brought to you by Disney, Ashcroft and Gates.” [Scripting News]

It’s all relative

My in-laws (Audrey’s Mom and Aunt) left for Colorado this morning. Her in-laws (my Mom) arrived Thursday and will be here in Las Vegas until 15 July.

Weekend Update

Went to the car dealer and purchased a cargo net and dash cover for the 4Runner. Hopefully the net will keep those gallons of milk and other groceries from hurtling around the back during Las Vegas traffic maneuvers. We keep waiting for the real owners of this thing to show up and demand we return their vehicle.

Good News

The patient continues to improve…

Local Air Quality

This is the second day of a ‘hazardous’ ozone rating and the sixth day (I think) of ‘very high’ particulate matter counts. Prescription allergy medications are obviously useless against this sort of thing and post-nasal drip has reached astounding levels. ¡snork! I’m looking for information about ionizing filters in an attempt to bring our indoor air quality up a bit. We already have a HEPA filter in the central air return, but it is due for a replacement. I’ll pass along what I find out, but would be interested to get your pointers and experience if any one has trodden this path before me.

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Take back your name from Verisign

Another sad day for Rock and Roll

John Entwistle, bassist for The Who, has died. The band was getting ready for a US tour.

The Sun and Your Skin from the American Academy of Dermatology. [Ed]

Good News

“The patient I’m here to accompany is doing well. The surgery went as it should have gone, and immediate post-operative conditions are good. I’m very relieved.” [2020 Hindsight]

Excellent!

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Cosmic Latte. Heh.

Pinch me. Its twue, its twue

This is a picture of one happy guy as we were taking possession of the as yet unnamed new vehicle in the back of the auto broker’s shop. [I was wrong about the delivery location --edit 27june2002] There was some fancy iron back there, let me tell you. The whole brokered purchase process was utterly painless from this buyer’s standpoint.
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Ian had a bit of a cold this weekend and we ended up in the Doctor’s office for a bit. He is fine, but the real news I want to pass along is that he (at just barely eight months) weighs 21.8 pounds (9.8 kg) and is 29 inches long (.74 m). I’m expecting the (American) football scouts at the door any day.

Commander Dave poses a great question about naming the new vehicle, "Now, what will you name it? Shiva?" I have to admit, I’m not sure. I’m all over the map. I certainly like Shiva, being a definite Shivite, but I also lean towards something Native American to Southwestern to mythological to science fiction to… I’d welcome any suggestions you might have.

The 4-Runner will be here tomorrow afternoon. Mmm, air conditioning. Anyone in the market for a 1990 Daihatsu Rocky? [corrected spelling, model year, added link]

Had a great but all too brief conversation with Susan last night. We’ll be sending ‘the vibes’ and the scents in that ablogymous person’s direction this Thursday. If I had a sun bear, I’d put it in the window. I have a sun cat, but he won’t stay put.
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The Salt Lake Tribune Custer Loses Again:
Actors re-enact massacre along the Little Bighorn [Got Caliche?]
The 126th anniversary of the incident is Tuesday (25 June). Traditionally, archaeological crews have a commemoration feast, often roasting a pig and drinking a lot of beer. Of course, they usually drink a lot of beer anyway, but you get the idea.

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It is a big thing for us

We agreed to get a 4WD Toyota SR5 4-Runner yesterday from the auto broker we had recommended to us. The process has been completely painless and we are getting an amazingly good deal, substantially below “invoice” (according to Consumer Reports). I think I have spoken on the phone with the broker a total of seven times, three of those were two weeks ago. We had backed off until we could do a through financial health check.

The vehicle will be delivered to our house on an auto transport truck and they will take care of the DMV registration as well. Total time on the phone has been less than 20 minutes, like ordering holiday gifts from a catalog prior to online ordering. It has been utterly painless (so far, fingers crossed). I will never deal with a dealership for a car purchase again.

Audrey will do her Ph.D. field work with this vehicle, and I may do mine with it too (I’m the one who still has to choose a program). It will be the first vehicle I have bought with less than 60,000 miles on it. Yeah, I’m an American consumer, I’m making money now and I wanted something I wouldn’t be second-guessing. I do still feel a little weird about getting a SUV. (This relates to the ‘buy the most house and the least car you can get by with’ dictum.) Does it help that we will actually be using it for research relating to an advanced degree? Hmm, does that make it deductible? (I already know the answer to that question. no)</rationalization>

Yes, the house is slowly getting safer for the little guy. I need to get back at the task, I just had to get that off my chest.

Security bill bars blowing whistle The Washington Times [via Talking Points Memo]

Even Georgia Republicans aren’t sure about this. Not long after September 11, I wrote that our ‘elected’ officials were in danger of becoming what they hated (ie., the Taliban, totalitarian rulers), implying that the focus on totalitarianism would cause their solutions to drift in that direction. I recant that here. I think these guys have wanted this sort of power long before the Taliban became a household word. The pipeline through Afghanistan, the role of corporate energy companies in setting government policy, the unfettered hand of business permeating cabinet appointments and rollbacks of policy, all point to entrenched arrogance and greed that is being exercised at the expense of everything the general public holds to be the core values of the United States. This administration is too authoritarian for the times, too authoritarian for our country and it’s Constitution. The lies and moral bankruptcy of ‘Compassionate Conservatism’ becomes more apparent every day. It is time for these thieves to go. I have little confidence that meaning action will come from our other elected officials. Is this how the German people felt nine months after the burning of the Reichstag? I fear for my country like I never have before.

from the article:
“A provision in the bill seeking to create a Homeland Security Department will exempt its employees from whistleblower protection, the very law that helped expose intelligence-gathering missteps before September 11.

The legislation now before Congress contains a provision allowing the director of the proposed agency to waive all employee protections in Title V, including the Whistleblower Protection Act. The act protects government employees from retaliation or losing employment for speaking out on waste, fraud and abuse.

FBI Agent Coleen Rowley blew the whistle on her agency for mishandling a probe of terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of conspiracy in the September 11 attacks. Mrs. Rowley testified before a Senate panel earlier this month that a “climate of fear” prevented an aggressive investigation of the man whom authorities believe was to be the 20th hijacker.(…)

The protection exclusion has concerned members of Congress and civil-liberties activists. “I don’t think we want to just let a provision like that sail through without taking a close look at it,” says Rep. Bob Barr, Georgia Republican.”(…)

The exclusion of the whistleblower law is also opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says protections against retribution for those such as Mrs. Rowley would not exist in the new agency.

 ”It’s very scary. The public needs to know what the government is doing,” says Tim Edgar, legislative counsel for the ACLU. “Sometimes, it hurts Democrats; sometimes, it hurts Republicans, but it’s always informative and even more necessary to protect whistleblowers in homeland security than any other government agency. It’s not just tax dollars spent wisely, but doing what we need to do to keep people safe.”

Other elements of the plan are long on secrecy and short on accountability, Mr. Edgar says.

The department would not be required to release information under the Freedom of Information Act. This would eliminate the agency’s responsibility to answer questions from the public. Advisory committees that normally include public input would be immune, and the Cabinet secretary would have veto power over inspector general audits and investigations.

“We need to know real facts, and not just spin from the agency,” he says.”

Today is ‘Baby-Safe the House Day’. so things will be slow on-line. Have a great first day of Summer (N. Hemisphere) out there.

Satellite Images of Colorado’s Hayman Fire Released by Space Imaging. [Got Caliche?]
These IKONOS images are nice, but be aware they’re large (>1 meg)
(1, 2).
sorry garret, I didn’t see any from New Mexico.

And he’s back
Welcome home (and back to the web), Dave! Ane hopefully not too much the worse for wear and tear. I suspect, however, that there may be a follow-up visit or two. Note: that is pure conjecture based solely on the fact that Dave and I are within three months of being the same age and doubtless share some of the same age-based medical issues.

“Greetings sports fans.” [Scripting News]

Several things about 21 June 2002

Five years ago today, Audrey and I were married. Happy anniversary sweetie!

Ian is eight months old today. He is outgrowing the 12 month size baby clothes he is currently wearing and we are switching over to 18 month old size. I can’t believe how big he is getting.

Today is Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere.

Today is also called Midsummer or Lithia by some.

If there is ‘Justice’, this guy is toast
John Edward. There is some oblique personal history with Mr. Edward. On his show, he claimed to have made contact with a recently deceased cousin by mariage – a man in his mid-thirties who died suddenly and rather horribly of cancer of the pancreas. This cousin left a stunned young wife and a daughter who will probably not remember him, and a raft of extended family yearning for better closure. Anyway, grieving mother and widow went on the show, heard about how ‘he misses you’, tears, hysterics, yadda, yadda, and got the whole kin network riled up. Especialy with those of us that dared to suggest that he might, just might, be a shyster. If not a full-blown, callous, rat bastard. Of course the doubters were the real insensitive rat bastards for not ‘believing in something good‘. Whatever. I guess it takes a rat bastard to spot one.

Matt cuts to the bone better and faster than I can.

“I just want to say it. I fucking hate John Edward, that doink from the show Crossing Over. And no, I didn’t link directly to him. If you want to see the show’s website, you feel free to look it up on the Scifi site. Basically, if you haven’t seen this show, I envy you. (…) What he is, in my opinion, is the same kind of parasite we’ve seen over and over again, except this time instead of standing in front of a group of believers and claiming to heal their injuries by the power of God in order to collect money, Edward claims to contact people’s lost loved ones in order to get paid for the show. Basically, he exploits people’s pain to entertain others (and yes, he does get paid for it) and his whole show stinks of the same tactics frauds and scam artists have been using for years. I would bet money he’s got a whole network of people doing entrance interviews, feeding him cues, the works. James Randi thinks Edward is an expert at cold reading, as explained here. I’m not sure, though. On the three episodes I’ve seen (and yes, I watched them…the same way you’d jab a tongue into a wounded tooth) Edward is extreme spotty. Sometimes he’s really good, and sometimes he flails around like a chimp thrown into the North Atlantic. (…)

So yeah, I hate this guy and his show. I hate it because he uses the natural human desire for just a little more contact with those we’ve lost against us. I hate it because it muddies the water and makes it harder to ascertain the validity of the genuine mysterious phenomena that I believe happen every day. And I hate it because it promotes the idea that any and all human abilities should serve to promote oneself rather than in service. Plus I hate it because he’s such a smug fucker that I’d like to see some of the dead show up and kick his ass for lying about talking to them. Imagine if Uncle Earl’s shambling, rotten corpse smashed in the door during a taping and ate Edward. That would be worth watching.” (more) [ezrael.og]

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Tom!
Yesterday we celebrated the 62nd birthday of Audrey’s father, Tom. He feels that his primary job now is being Ian’s Grandfather. He has some renown in the field of Process Control. [Measurement and Control Basics by Thomas A. Hughes]

Injured Kitty Update
I never followed up on the Injured Kitty from Saturday. Dodger is almost completely recovered, though he looks a bit odd with a part of his head shaved. One of the medications is mildly euphoric according to Dr. ‘Liz, and Dodger purrs insanely while we pry his mouth open to administer the meds via eyedropper. It’s actually mildly disturbing. Will he take to petty crime when this is over? Roughing the smaller kitties a the school bus stop or holding up the neighborhood ice cream truck to get enough money for his fix? Have we created a menace to society, a gray, tiger-striped monster?
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The Last Post
Very good, Matt. We’ll see you at the new locus.

“So this is the last post. No big speculation, no musing about my personal foibles, nothing but a goodbye. (…) I’m not the demented dweller on the threshold of sanity I was. I’m nuts, yes, but I’m not who I was, and I don’t want to feel bound by him even as I don’t want to forget him. Anyway, in a couple of days, or maybe less the new site [http://www.ezrael.org/ --ed.] will be up and running. Till then, take care of yourselves.” [Once I noticed I was on fire…]

Two Birthdays!
Happy birthday to Sheila and Andrea! [Jeff's Weblog]

Basal cell carcinoma
I spoke with the Dermatologist just a bit ago [~9:30 am -0700]. The growth on my back that he removed last Thursday turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma. Not squamous cell or melanoma. Life goes on …
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