Driving On the Other Side

Very, very amusing piece by Jon Carroll in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle. Laugh-out-loud funny stuff, particularly if read aloud. Among other things, it contains sheep, tussocks, quadriceps, stairs, and cars. All quite funny.

As my antipodean readers have experienced first-hand, I have actually driven on the unaccustomed side of the road (we all survived). The main difficulties I had were lane positioning (which had to do with the driving position and point-of-view, not so much the side of the road) and turning on the windshield wipers when I wanted to signal a turn ("Couldn't you tell I was going to turn? Why else would the wipers be swishing on a sunny day?"). Also good for a chuckle, but Jon's column is much funnier.

For what it's worth, Jon is a distant acquaintance. We've met several times at events, and he occasionally sits in front of me at baseball games when he attends with my seat neighbors. So read the story already. It's funny!

The More Things Change...

...the more they go back to the way they were. And that can be a good thing. Witness, the resurgence of paper-ballot voting:

New state rules severely limiting the use of touch-screen voting machines in California have left many counties scrambling to prepare for elections using paper ballots. Napa, Santa Clara and about 20 other counties will have to move from their all-electronic systems for the first time in years.

Most of the article discusses the difficulties from the perspective that it might take a long time to know all the results. My response: Who cares? As long as you get the right answer, there is no need to hurry.

Cool Posters

For the last couple of months, I've been walking past a series of posters on my way to work, and I finally located the images online. The one above is my favorite.

The City of San Francisco has an Arts Commission that is responsible for, among other things, public art. Some of that is really awful, but some, like these posters, are quite whimsical.

I just like of like the concept of a streetcar line with a corkscrew track....

Who is Minding the Store?

This comes as absolutely no surprise to me.

As one of the many lucky humans who happens to have a common enough name that someone with a similar name is on the No Fly List, I have to put up with extra hassles every time I want to fly. Like, I can virtually never check in online, which is most annoying when flying with, say, Southwest Airlines, where the order of your check-in affects the quality of your seat (first come, first served).

It only takes a few moments to get it all cleared up: one look at my driver's license, they see the birth date doesn't match, and off I go. But the damage has been done: I've already had to stand in a line and hope that someone who knows what they are doing is at the counter.

At one point, I was interested in trying to clear my name. Early on, there was a very unencouraging many-generations-old photocopied letter that the airlines would give me, helpfully pointing me to a page at the TSA website where they basically said I could write them a letter and they might think about doing some unspecified thing that might help.

Um, gee...no thanks.

Now it appears they eventually did an equally unspectacular job when they created the online version. From the Washington Post Security Fix blog:

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform began its investigation into security lapses at the TSA's Traveler Redress Web site last year, after Security Fix and other media outlets pointed out that the site accepted Social Security numbers and other sensitive information from travelers without encrypting the data, potentially allowing hackers to intercept the data. Wired.com noted in its coverage that the site was so laden in spelling errors that it resembled a phishing Web site, the sort typically set up by scammers to lure people into giving away personal and financial data.

Great. These Keystone Kops can't even put up a secure website. I sure want to hand over lots of my personal information to them. And for what? It's not like they're going to remove my namesake from The List, so the airlines will still have to verify that I'm not him.
But in the meantime, they'll have exposed my personal information so some identity thief can buy himself some tickets to Rio and then find himself unable to fly anyway. I feel so much better.

Idiots.

Voting Technology

Just saw a video clip of the California Secretary of State (among other things, the chief election official), Debra Bowen, doing research in New Hampshire.

It's nice to see that she's doing some field work. She seems extremely impressed with the technology they use in New Hampshire to provide a paper trail.

BTW, the clip is on an interesting-looking videolog (vlog?) called Why Tuesday? I like their slogan: "Fixing our voting system, one question at a time." That also led me to another blog about election reform, All About Voting. Election year...time to pay attention!

Vintage Jim Henson

This is kinda cute. The voice is clearly Henson (and the banjo player looks like him), and the song is very clever. I have no idea where it came from, though. Doesn't really look like the Muppet Show.

[short time later...]
Ah...the wonders of Google: this site pins it down to a specific episode of The Muppet Show's first season. I love the Internet!

Evil Mad Scientists -- Yay!

Just found this site via a link on Pharyngula: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

What's so great about them? Two words: edible science.

I was initially taken with the edible Flying Spaghetti Monster (which is extremely cool), but they cemented it with edible Origami (hint: wonton wrappers!). Dessert sushi, meringue Peeps....

I will be examining this site in much more detail!

Big Waves

Locally, people are all excited about the big wave surfing at Mavericks this weekend. So I was pleased to see this blog post about really big water.

Science is cool.

Musical Fun for Geezers

Had to share this, which a friend pointed me to tonight:



It rocks. Really.

Cricket is Cool

As my devoted readers know, I love baseball. But a few years back, while working in Australia, I got hooked on cricket. What an interesting sport.

And I never get to watch it here in the States. But I can still follow it via the Internet, which is kind of surreal, but fun.

So I just caught the end of a five-day cricket test between Australia and India, which came down to the last few minutes before it was going to be declared a draw, when Australia brought in a new bowler, and suddenly he takes down the last three batsmen from India to salvage a record-tying sixteenth consecutive test win for the Aussies.

Just amazingly cool. Wish I could have been there to see it in person!

Holiday Travel and Airline Security

I seem to recall blogging about this before, but I just read an item from the NY Times about it, and it reminded me of this ongoing example of stupid government policies and our sheepish accession to them:

Thus, what most people fail to grasp is that the nuts and bolts of keeping terrorists away from planes is not really the job of airport security at all. Rather, it’s the job of government agencies and law enforcement. It’s not very glamorous, but the grunt work of hunting down terrorists takes place far off stage, relying on the diligent work of cops, spies and intelligence officers. Air crimes need to be stopped at the planning stages. By the time a terrorist gets to the airport, chances are it’s too late.

I'm still steamed at the TSA guy who got all huffy when I made some cavalier comment after removing shoes and putting them through the x-rays about how I felt so much more secure. He got in my face about how that was the most severe threat, etc. Oy. I mean, I guess it's important to him to believe his job has a purpose. Mostly, it has the purpose of keeping airline passengers off-base and docile.

Happy New Year!

Some Good Whale News

Just spotted this:

Giving in to U.S. pressure and worldwide criticism, Japan's government on Friday announced a whaling fleet now in the Southern Ocean for its annual hunt will not kill the threatened species as originally planned.

On the other hand,

The fleet will, however, kill some 935 minke whales, a smaller, more plentiful species, and 50 fin whales.

But they had planned to kill 50 humpbacks for "research," and now it appears they will not, at least this year.

Killing whales is still a bad thing, but this is an improvement. One can hope it signals a willingness to resolve some of the ongoing issues between the whaling nations (primarily Japan and Norway) and the rest of the world.

Cancer Claims Another

Damn, but I'm tired of this.

Just saw a note that musician Dan Fogelberg died of prostate cancer over the weekend. I always admired the poetry of his music and lyrics, and I'm sad to see him go at such a young age (56, the same age my Dad was when he died of cancer).

Dan's own words:

Sometimes in the night I feel it
Near as my next breath and yet untouchable
Silently the past comes stealing like the taste of some forbidden sweet
And every ghost that calls upon us brings another measure in the mystery
Death is there to keep us honest and constantly remind us we are free

Stay healthy, get yourselves checked regularly, and live strong.

Failure of Imagination

That phrase was used to try to explain why the 9/11 attacks were able to happen and why the initial American response to it was so poor.

Well, it appears that lack of imagination is rampant in government:

All five voting systems used in Ohio, a state whose electoral votes narrowly swung two elections toward President Bush, have critical flaws that could undermine the integrity of the 2008 general election, a report commissioned by the state’s top elections official has found.

“It was worse than I anticipated,” the official, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said of the report. “I had hoped that perhaps one system would test superior to the others.”

Wow. How dense does an elections official have to be to not get the gravity of this issue? If they don't take this stuff seriously, how can we expect voters to do so?

Here's the key: Those who run elections are paid to anticipate the problems in voting systems, be they verbal, physical, printed, or electronic. At this stage of the process with electronic voting, anyone who doesn't anticipate problems either hasn't been paying attention or is completely incompetent.

Knowing nothing about this Jennifer Brunner, I can't say one way or the other, but it doesn't speak well for her.

Meaningless Personality Tests

First, a quick introduction to my friend, JS Ouyang. I discovered his blog recently, and it's as eclectic and interesting as he is. I hired JS years ago at E-LOAN, and I think at this point he pretty much has my old job.

Perusing his blog, I found Yet Another Personality Test (but at least it's a very simple one):

What Type Are You?

I initially shied away from one image, and clicked one that turned out to be completely not me. ("Extroverted"? I think not!) So I went back and clicked the image that initially appealed to me, and it seems entirely accurate: "analytical, trustworthy, self-assured."

You appreciate high quality and things that endure. Consequently, you like to surround yourself with little "gems," which are often overlooked by others.

Culture and tradition are important to you.

You have found your own personal style, which is elegant and exclusive, free from the whims of fashion.

Your ideal, upon which you base your life, is sophisticated pleasure.

Sounds like me. Cool.

Belatedly Marking a Passing

I didn't know Dave well. I know a lot of people who did. We were about the same age, went to the same college, and cared about a lot of the same things.

I only found out recently that Dave had died. Today I learned the details:

When I finally meet the Doctor, he seems relaxed and happy to see me. I bluntly ask — is it a tumor? Yes. Is it malignant? Yes. Oh crap. I have cancer.

There's a lot more. It was quite an ordeal, with ups and downs, and it doesn't have a happy ending. Yet another friend touched (hard) by cancer.

Take care of yourselves, take everything seriously, and live strong. We can beat cancer.

Dammit.

Nice Job, Guys

My jumbo package of Microsoft security updates arrived this evening. Yipes! Twelve updates for a Windows XP Pro system with Office 2003 this month.

Then I read this in the Security Fix blog:

Of the seven patch bundles released today, only two did not affect Windows Vista systems, suggesting that the vulnerable components were carried over into Vista from older versions of the OS despite the multi-year secure coding review conducted for Vista. That said, two of the bundles were released to plug security holes that were found exclusively in Vista.

I know security is hard, and I know Windows is/was a mess, but really. Two years.

Ack!!!

Say it ain't so!

Just found this on the net:

Workers in the cocoa management bodies of the Ivory Coast have gone on strike. Ivory Coast is the world's largest producer of cocoa, controlling almost forty percent of the global supply. A continued strike could lead to chocolate shortages this Valentine's Day or even sooner.

This could be dire. Thanks to PZ at Pharyngula for alerting me to the impending disaster.

A Storybook Story

I've been meaning to write this for a week or so. *sigh* Life....

Anyway, last week I was relaxing by watching all the special features on the extra DVD for The Princess Bride (Buttercup Edition). I love that movie, have watched it far too many times (and yet somehow, not enough), but hadn't gotten to watching the special features. That was a blast! Gets a little repetitive (it was as if each documentary maker just had to show Billy Crystal snarling out through the peephole in the door), but quite a fun way to spend an evening.

By the way, if you love the movie of The Princess Bride but haven't read the book, you really ought to. It's very funny and well-written, and there is more to the story, including a lot more background on all the characters that explains some of the lines in the movie.

But out of it all, I came across several interesting bits:

• Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes didn't know how to fence before the film (it's an important item for both of them), but both learned and did all their own sword work, which is quite impressive.
• When Andre the Giant was a child in France, he was too big to ride in the school bus, so one of his neighbors who had a big car often drove him to school. The neighbor was Samuel Beckett. (No, not Sam Beckett!)
• Wallace Shawn claimed he had no sense of humor whatsoever, and didn't get the jokes. He said he just played the role in ways that seemed to make people laugh.
  

But by far the most interesting to me was Mandy Patinkin talking about his role as Inigo Montoya, the Spaniard seeking revenge on the Six-Fingered Man who killed his father. Patinkin talked about how he had lost his own father, to cancer, and how Inigo's quest to avenge his father's death somehow became his own attempt to come to grips with losing his father to cancer.

[SPOILER ALERT -- Don't read the following if you haven't seen the movie!]

(Spoiler: You have been warned!) At the moment where Inigo finally exacts his revenge, driving home his sword into Count Rugen, who has offered him "anything" if he will spare his life. Inigo finishes with the memorable line, "I want my father back, you son of a bitch!" Patinkin says at that moment he felt his own kind of catharsis, that for just a moment he had brought his father back to him.

I mention this mostly because that scene and that line have always gripped me. I could sense and share the feeling Inigo was expressing, and had no way of knowing that Patinkin was acting out not just the scene in the story but a scene in his own life drama, which is one I can relate to all too well. That line has always brought tears to my eyes (even now, just writing about it), because there is nothing in the world I have ever wanted so much as my father back.

Maybe writing about it can help me drive that sword home and at least momentarily defeat the cancer that took away my dad. It doesn't dominate my life the way it does Inigo Montoya's, but certainly not a day goes by that I don't think about my dad and miss him terribly. It motivates me to stay healthy and make sure I will be around for a long, long time for my daughter, and it makes me nag all of you to stay healthy and support cancer research.

Live strong.

In Case You Weren't Sure

Irony is completely dead.

As evidence, I offer this: Evel Knievel died of (more or less) natural causes today.