A week of tweets: 2009-06-28

Sunday, June 28, 2009 
  • Went to Nimby party with Mike Wehner. EB Rats, amateur boxing, girl boxing and wrestling. Cops blockaded party so entry involved climbing. #
  • Waiting at the SFO RCC to fly to Boston: will be there for <24 hours. Apparently a landing control computer is down at BOS, so delayed. #
  • Very warm and nice in bay area today so I get to sit on a plane all day and go to boston for the rain. Yay! #
  • Sitting on the runway, looking forlornly out porthole at the sun, waiting for thunderstorms to clear in Boston. At least seat power is on. #
  • Just landed in boston. Raining here. #
  • Off to meetings Boston time! #
  • Leaving rainy boston for SF via IAD. BOS: no cars left at Hz… #
  • Oops, flight computers at BOS are not waterproof: BOS-LAX-SFO instead. #
  • Bad day @BOS. Flight chaos. Full flights, delays, rain. #
  • Last leg: lax to sfo. 1A. Yes! number one with a bulkhead! #
  • I can haz SAN @ $3.00/#. #
  • A bit weighs 2.25e-9 grams. 6 shelves, 42kg/shelf, 14TB total. A 4.7GB dvd would weigh 3oz, except they’re made of plastic. Science! #
  • The chair is not my son: East Oakland rocking out to MJ tonight, different albums from different yards. #

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Posted at 02:11:00 GMT-0700

Category: Twitter

Ford Escape

Monday, June 22, 2009 

After the while OJ thing tainted Ford with the low speed Bronco chase, they dropped the Bronco from their line and replaced it with something to help shed the whole fleeing fugitive image: the Escape.

Rumor has it there will be an Arrested Development movie!

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It’s a pretty mediocre SUV. Squishy, soft, fairly comfortable. It’s a little loud inside. These small SUV’s seem to combine the disadvantages of a truck (noisy, gas consumptive, big, slow) with the disadvantages of a car (fragile, not off-road worthy). This one was even two wheel drive only, what’s the point of that?

Posted at 05:47:07 GMT-0700

Category: NegativephotoRental carsReviews

NIMBY Party

Sunday, June 21, 2009 

On Saturday, Mike Wehner and I went to the NIMBY party. It turned out really well, a good crowd and fun entertainment despite the anomalous efforts of the OPD to embargo the party. It was something I’ve never seen before: the police blocked access to the building thus locking out a few thousand would-be-party-goers.

They did not interfere with the party with respect to those people who found a way in or were already in attendance. They were polite and didn’t give anyone a hard time. They just did what they could to keep anyone from getting in. There was a rumor going around that an edict had been issued by a politician to the OPD to shut down the party.

A solid 500-1,000 people (it seemed to me) did get to enjoy the event including a therm demonstration, a very impressive stunt riding demonstration, and, of course, the boxing.

I’m not a fan of spectator sports of any kind, and have never actually watched a complete boxing match before, but this was particularly entertaining. Really drunk bikers knocking each other around (safely supervised, with gloves and mouthguards) was sometimes pretty hilarious, and sometimes a good excuse for a drink. A few of the men I saw get up there were technically pretty good and fun to watch.

By far though, the most entertaining fighters were the women. Some wrestled instead of boxed, which was awfully sexy from an oogling perspective (the most vociferous ooglers were other women, by far, who were the only one’s calling out for clothing removal moves I heard). What was most surprising was that some of the female bouts were actually really good boxing – far better than the men. They stayed clean for three rounds, fought well, had good form, and were just technically better fighters and had the most interesting bouts even from a purely athletic perspective.

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Posted at 22:37:01 GMT-0700

Category: Eventsphoto

“Secure” Fliight

Sunday, June 21, 2009 

UAL notified me that Secure Flight is about to be rolled out by the TSA. EFF has had a lot to say about this program, which is worth reviewing (donate to EFF, help them defend your rights!).

Practical issues to watch out for:

– You need to present your full name exactly as it appears on your ID. – You will need to give your birthdate and gender while making a reservation – Do you have a redress number?

There is now a mechanism to apply for redress when you have been penalized by bureaucratic mixup and have been flagged for special scrutiny or denied the right to fly without due processes or judicial oversight.

Posted at 22:34:58 GMT-0700

Category: Related Links

A week of tweets: 2009-06-21

Sunday, June 21, 2009 
  • On the plane with @phragments to LA. Feel bad, kicked an employee out of 1st so we could sit together at the last second. #
  • What is this, a hummer/golf cart hybrid? Is a regular cushman just not butch enough for security? http://twitpic.com/7qddl #
  • Canadians… I will not be up early. #
  • Heading back to SF now. Marine layer never cleared in santa monica today. Canadians kept me up late last night what with the moose and all #
  • Wow… one of the RCC employees is having a melt down. Never saw that before. Usually it is the PAX. #
  • ORD causing chaos! Should be finally leaving LAX now… #
  • Bad two car accident 80 EB at toll plaza. #

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Posted at 02:11:00 GMT-0700

Category: Twitter

A week of tweets: 2009-06-14

Sunday, June 14, 2009 
  • New UAL A320 interior: blue leather seats in coach. Kinda comfy even. Slightly less horrible trip to St Louis after 1st checked in full. #
  • Then again seat mate is singing along with his music… #
  • Seatmate not only sang, but had jimmy legs and productive TB. yay #
  • near 38.740508, -90.366907 http://tinyurl.com/morfxa st louis! Whee. Here for <18 hours. #
  • Karma: traded seats, got an empty next to me instead of mr. Combover. Yay #
  • Excellent New Scientist: May 30; lost languages, debunking chiropractic, bunking female ejaculation. #
  • This week I will not be at sfo on thursday. Off to YYZ. Again. #
  • 1A last night, 1D today… So much bulkhead! #
  • Four times to DEN this week too. Whee. #
  • Radishes in the vegetable plate at RCC DEN: partial compensation for delayed arrival in YYZ, likely too late for the Firepit in Mississagua. #
  • near 43.626384, -79.680391 http://tinyurl.com/ntv7v9 “the one, the only Firepit. The best in all the Peel region.” And open till 2:00. #
  • Chris Watson’s Worldbeat missing from Guelph Echo for weeks now. Went to paper’s offices to complain in person. No news of robots and penii! #
  • Just got through to the maple leaf club at YYZ: too many people here to chat with. Now getting teased by security, in a cute way. #
  • Old guys weenie jousting over seats. They are weak voiced and bumbling over first class seats and cantakerously arguing over gate checks. #
  • Pouring in denver. Good thing I dont have to go outside here. Fouth visit this week. #
  • Hours and hours of delays, but Linksys WRT54GS bridges WiFi to WiFi, single log in, three devices bridged. FYAH! AT least until RCC closes #
  • Sitting on the runway in DEN, still. Plane may be bricked. This gets to be a long day… #
  • Door closed!!! Yay! #

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Posted at 02:11:00 GMT-0700

Category: Twitter

Where’d Worldbeat Go?

Friday, June 12, 2009 

This is an important question: where did Worldbeat go? Worldbeat is the essential reference for news about both Penii and angry robots. Without my weekly does of worldbeat, the world seems colder, as if the sun is hidden behind a permanent haze that just won’t clear.

Even if you don’t know Chris Watson’s worldbeat, you want it back because until you get the chance to experience Worldbeat you will never know how bright the sun shines on absurdity. Where else will you learn:

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

In March, a 13-year-old girl sent a letter to her mother. There were, however, some problems this letter. First of all, she didn’t put a stamp on it. Secondly, her mother is dead. And third, the letter was addressed to “Paradise Street, Heaven.” Two days after she mailed the letter, it was returned to her. It came marked “unknown at this address” and with a 1.35 euro fine for the missing stamp. Everyone got all pissy at the French post office, for what was seen as its callous treatment of the girl. Nobody got all pissy at a world that tricks kids into thinking there’s a magical fantasyland where their dead parents are waiting to get mail. Nobody except Worldbeat. Because that’s what we do here.

Michael Cahill of Cambridge Beat wants to know where Chris has gone too. Where is our worldbeat? I stopped by the offices of the Echo Weekly personally and asked, but nobody there knew.

It is time to demand answers! Write the Echo and demand Worldbeat!

Posted at 10:43:28 GMT-0700

Category: PoliticsPositiveReviews

Rental Buick Allure CXL

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 

Only 596 km on the clock.

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It wasn’t bad – comfortable and fairly decent performance.  The allure is a little more stylish and sprightly than a Taurus.  But it isn’t in the same class as a Mercedes.
Posted at 22:34:29 GMT-0700

Category: NeutralRental carsReviews

Scientific Method, why not?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 

Faith in pseudo-science annoys me. As I get older I find myself caring less and less what other people believe and have learned, mostly, to just walk away when people espouse anti-scientific ideas. But every now and then I find myself typing something like:

“While I disagree that there’s anything less than an unprecedented flowering of innovation at an ever increasing pace, there is a risk to further progress in weakened academic structure that has led to an increase in credulity as evidenced by growing embrace of faith in psuedo-science and outright anti-scientific religion. It is not so much that fanciful flights of faith pose any meaningful challenge to good science, rather the pointless waste of resources that ultimately harm the ignorant and drain overall productivity .

“As those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, so too the directionless flailing of the uneducated repeat past failures and charge enthusiastically into dead ends long ago discovered and mapped in formal curricula. Those who bemoan the exclusion of the uneducated in scientific discourse deserve no more sympathy than obese couch potatoes whining over being excluded from consideration as contenders in marathons. Merely being qualified to appreciate progress requires a modicum of technical literacy, at the least a thorough understanding of scientific method, evidentiary proof, and basic mathematics; an understanding of which is a civic obligation regardless of profession.”


(The comment was not particularly anti-scientific and in true web2.0 abbreviated “update” form, ambiguous and without context. While it is likely a diatribe more in agreement with the original post than contrary to it, so much inspired consonance seems worthy of elevation from throw away comment against an abbreviated status post to the exulted position of “blog post,” in all vanity published glory, untarnished by critical review or editorial attention.)

Posted at 18:16:53 GMT-0700

Category: Politics

A week of tweets: 2009-06-07

Sunday, June 7, 2009 
  • Just landed in dc. Here for a couple of days, more or less, depending on St. Louis. Hot, humid. #
  • Mobile “lounge” my ass. #
  • Settled in DC hotel after 2 days of continuous travel: 2 rental cars, two trains, a taxi, a subway, and a plane. #
  • #cfp09 average political sound bite asymptotically approaches 5 seconds. Why? #
  • #cfp09 wants to be a trending topic because freedom, privacy -and- computers are important. #
  • Don’t let your kids play in the street or on the computer unsupervised. #cfp09 #
  • Wolfram|Alpha: “plot ratio of gini index to revolution” oh well… #
  • Re: DPI, if ISP discriminates on the basis of content, full criminal and civil liability for content; if neutral then common carriage #CFP09 #
  • Waiting at iad for the door to open on a rainy runway and my wee plane to alb. #
  • Yay albany. #
  • near 42.784238, -73.70801 http://tinyurl.com/of8p4g any day with driving one of these can hardly be called work. http://twitpic.com/6orpg #
  • On the erie canal… http://twitpic.com/6ozh7 #
  • Yay ord. Home in another X hours where X is not so large. Home only for Y hours where Y is not so large either but at least Y > X. #
  • Bizzare united promotion. Win an upgrade or a bottle of water! http://twitpic.com/6peq8 #
  • If you see Rojellio at the C17 RCC at ORD, say hi. #
  • Its Tops #
  • #UAL #luggagefail what part of checked through don’t you get? After 22 hour day, not in the mood to be understanding with GS rep. #
  • Met Black Violin at hotel bar in DC. Cool and different sound: http://www.blackviolin.net/ #
  • I can haz luggage? Just in time to repack. Phew. #

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Posted at 02:11:00 GMT-0700

Category: Twitter