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California Uber Alles
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 | Economics | Permalink | No Comments |
Ride Fast - The California Way - Stealing from the wage earners:
As of yesterday, California is stealing an additional 10% of wage earners pay, by pre-deducting today your future taxes of tomorrow. They say it’s all wonderful and rainbow, unicorn farts, cause you’ll get the money back.
Ah, no, you won’t. They won’t be paying interest. And since they didn’t ask, it’s stealing. I say they’re breaking the law by not passing a tax increase. Borrowing isn’t a tax increase, they say. Raising fees on everything isn’t a tax increase, they say. I call bullshit on that.
In California the notion of government by the people, of the people, and for the people is dead. It’s now the people working to pay for the government.
How bad is it in California? It’s so bad the L.A. Times finally admits California taxes are too high:
These folks pulling up stakes and driving U-Haul trucks across state lines understand a reality the defenders of the high-benefit/high-tax model must confront: All things being equal, everyone would rather pay low taxes than high ones. The high-benefit/high-tax model can work only if things are demonstrably not equal — if the public goods purchased by the high taxes far surpass the quality, quantity and impact of those available to people who live in states with low taxes.
Today’s public benefits fail that test, as urban scholar Joel Kotkin of NewGeography.com and Chapman University told the Los Angeles Times in March: “Twenty years ago, you could go to Texas, where they had very low taxes, and you would see the difference between there and California. Today, you go to Texas, the roads are no worse, the public schools are not great but are better than or equal to ours, and their universities are good. The bargain between California’s government and the middle class is constantly being renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class.”
iLike to Watch?
Saturday, October 24th, 2009 | Politics | Permalink | No Comments |
Over on Facebook I notice that friends across the political spectrum are creeped out by the LAPD iWatch commercial. It’s filmed like an Apple TV ad, but instead of encouraging you to buy a hip consumer electronic it’s advocating you report your neighbors to the police if you have the slightest inkling they’re terrorists.
“Everything’s Amazing, Nobody’s Happy”
Friday, October 16th, 2009 | A&E | Permalink | 3 Comments |
Comedian Louie C. K. on the Conan O’Brien show. “How quickly the world owes this guy something he only knew existed 10 seconds ago.”
Via Facebook pals.
Did someone slip me a crazy pill or did Obama just win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Friday, October 9th, 2009 | Funny Ha-Ha, Politics | Permalink | No Comments |
Did you think it was April Fool’s Day when you heard Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize? I mean, he’s been president for less than a year and hasn’t done anything, right? Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo … same same.
I’m thinking maybe The Onion bought CNN in a leveraged buyout and is just pulling our leg. That at least would make sense.
Well, get ready to take some more crazy pills.
The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.
Two whole weeks? I reckon he deserves it for his journeyman work during his long tenure. It’s like a gold watch for the underperformer who’s put in 50 years of hard work. Sure, maybe Obama wasn’t a rockstar performer like Yassir Arafat or Henry Kissinger, but you’ve got to give it to him for sticking it out for 14 grueling days. For the peace.
Michelle Obama was quoted as saying, “For the first time in my adult life I’m proud of Norway.”
Bonus! Time magazine’s Mark Halperin rates Obama’s presidency to date. His grade? A-. Because unemployment is only 9.8% and the deficit is only $1.4 trillion. With those kind of numbers sainthood is right around the corner. Do you need some water to wash down those pills?
Black Flag at Vic and Bill’s Deli, Knoxville 1985
Thursday, October 8th, 2009 | A&E, East Tennessee, Food & Drink | Permalink | No Comments |
Oh hells yeah. My first Vic and Bill’s Deli show was Teenage Love, the STDs, and Guadalcanal Diary. I was 16. Vic and Bill’s was all about the punk rock and the serving beer to underage kids.
Before I graduated high school I saw the Circle Jerks and the Dead Kennedys there, too. I think I saw Black Flag, but I honestly can’t remember for sure. This was the old Vic and Bill’s, next to Stefano’s Pizza on the UT Strip.
Via Swanky’s Facebook. He BTW won a Metro Pulse bartender award. Not that he’s ever mixed a delicious tropical drink for me. Hint hint.
On the Internet no one knows you’re a dog until you upload the video of you licking your own butt to YouTube
Monday, October 5th, 2009 | Funny Ha-Ha | Permalink | 2 Comments |
Second Pranknet Member Arrested:
Prank caller James Tyler Markle “convinced a McDonald’s worker to set off the restaurant’s fire suppression system, which released a liquid from overhead extinguishers… and directed the worker to break the store’s windows ‘for ventilation.’”
Then he bragged about it on Pranknet and got tracked down by the authorities.
Five Everett bikini baristas charged with prostitution:
Investigators saw the women expose their crotches, lick whipped cream off their co-workers’ private parts and pose naked for pictures inside the Grab-n-Go Espresso stand at 8015 Broadway, according to police reports obtained by The Herald on Wednesday.
Detectives also witnessed some of the women charging customers to touch their bare breasts and naked buttocks. Touching of that kind, for pay, falls under the city’s definition of prostitution.
Don’t put pics/video of you doing illegal stuff on the Internet:
One Waukesha County man is guilty and another awaiting court action in what the Wisconsin DNR Law Enforcement Division is calling its first arrest based upon a Facebook video of illegal deer shining spotted by an anonymous tipster.
Rep. Alan Grayson questions the Fed’s Alvarez before Congress
Monday, September 28th, 2009 | Economics | Permalink | No Comments |
Via Zero Hedge and Matt Tiabbi. Grayson (D-FL) comes off as a slightly-crazed attack dog, but wow does he ever put Alvarez on the hot seat.
Alan Grayson: I would like to know whether it is within the Federal Reserve’s legal authority to try to manipulate the stock market or the futures market.
Federal Reserve GC Scott Alvarez: I don’t believe the Federal Reserve tries to manipulate the stock market…(Yoda: Do or do not, there is no try.)
Alan Grayson: Does the Federal Reserve actually possess all the gold that’s listed on their balance sheet.
Scott Alvarez, doing a classic poker body language tell, and taking his time: Yes…
Alan Grayson: Who actually executes the trades for the Federal Reserve in the markets?
Scott Alvarez: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which executes trades through Primary Dealers.
Alan Grayson: Can you name one Primary Dealer?
Scott Alvarez: JP Morgan Chase
Alan Grayson: Do you mind if we have a GAO audit to see if there has been front-running or insider trading by them? Do you mind? Is that ok with you?
Scott Alvarez: I am not sure if I have that authority…
Grayson isn’t the only Congressman tired of the secrecy at the Federal Reserve. Wall Street Journal - Fed Weighs Naming Borrowers:
Tilt-shift video
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 | Dancing Baloney, Photos | Permalink | 1 Comment |
This is cooler than the other side of the pillow. It’s real, life-sized video that’s shot with a tilt-shift lens to skew the focus and edited to drop some of the frames so it looks like stop-motion animation of miniatures. The monster truck tilt-shift video is even better.
Tilt-shift is fairly uncommon (and expensive) in still photography, and super rare in video. Now that more and more DSLRs support video this sort of thing should get much more accessible.
Bonus! - Make your own tilt-shift lens on the cheap.
Previously
Delicious free lunches for everyone!
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 | Political Survival Kit | Permalink | No Comments |
Q: What do you get when you cross economics with Tourettes syndrome?
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 | Economics | Permalink | No Comments |
A:
Dirty word alert.
Hat tip to Zero Hedge.
Previously - Cheech and Chong discuss monetary policy in 2009
Be your own rollercoaster
Thursday, August 13th, 2009 | Nifty | Permalink | 1 Comment |
How Cash for Clunker engines are destroyed (with video)
Monday, August 3rd, 2009 | Economics | Permalink | 6 Comments |
Video hat tip to Ace of Spades, who notes that that seems like a pretty decent car to send to the Great Garage in the Sky. Ever heard of Craig’s List?
And the instructions for the car dealership:
THIS PROCEDURE IS NOT TO BE USED BY THE VEHICLE OWNER
Perform the following procedure to disable the vehicle engine.
Since the vehicle will not be drivable after this procedure is performed, consider where the procedure will be performed and how the vehicle will be moved after the procedure is complete.
1. Obtain solution of 40% sodium silicate/60% water. (The Sodium Silicate (SiO2/Na2O) used in the solution must have a weight ratio of 3.0 or greater.)
2. Drain engine oil for environmentally appropriate disposal.
3. Install the oil drain plug.
4. Pour enough solution in the engine through the oil fill for the oil pump to circulate the solution throughout the engine. Start by adding 2 quarts of the solution, which should be sufficient in most cases. CAUTION: Wear goggles and gloves. Appropriate protective clothing should be worn to prevent silicate solution from coming into contact with the skin.
5. Replace the oil fill cap.
6. Start the engine.
7. Run engine at approximately 2000 rpm (for safety reasons do not operate at high rpm) until the engine stops. (Typically the engine will operate for 3 to 7 minutes. As the solution starts to affect engine operation, the operator will have to apply more throttle to keep the engine at 2000 rpm.)
8. Allow the engine to cool for at least 1 hour.
9. With the battery at full charge or with auxiliary power to provide the power of a fully charged battery, attempt to start the engine.
10. If the engine will not operate at idle, the procedure is complete.
11. If the engine will operate at idle, repeat steps 6 through 10 until the engine will no longer idle.
12. Attach a label to the engine that legibly states the following: This engine is from a vehicle that is part of the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS). It has significant internal damage caused by operating the engine with a sodium silicate solution (liquid glass) instead of oil.
Previously:
1970s Kern’s bread commercials playing now at a YouTube near you
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | East Tennessee | Permalink | 2 Comments |
Four Kern’s bread TV commercials. Number 4 name-drops Etowah and features CB radios. Number 2 includes gratuitous use of “beaver.”
History of the commercials here. “Turns out the TV commercial was performed by A.J. Trucker and was a take-off on Old Home Filler-Up An’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe by C.W. McCall of Convoy fame. I did not know that. Also it turns out that C.W. McCall existed because of an ad campaign for a different bread company.”
Kern’s was a local bread maker in east Tennessee. Food City recently revived the brand. I’m still trying to get my hands on one of those Kern’s Bread t-shirts with Mavis.
Thanks to a commenter.
Han Solo, P.I.
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | Star Wars | Permalink | No Comments |
Via Tam and New Jovian Thunderbolt.
Two arrested in YouTube Domino’s Pizza gross-out
Thursday, April 16th, 2009 | Funny Ha-Ha | Permalink | 1 Comment |
New York Times - Video Prank at Domino’s Taints Brand:
When two Domino’s Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant’s kitchen, they decided to post it online. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis.
In videos posted on YouTube and elsewhere this week, a Domino’s employee in Conover, N.C., prepared sandwiches for delivery while putting cheese up his nose, nasal mucus on the sandwiches, and violating other health-code standards while a fellow employee provided narration.
The two were charged with delivering prohibited foods.
Consumerist helped break the story and has the videos. Their readers identified the Domino’s store in the video.
The Pain! William Shatner performs “Rocket Man”
Monday, April 13th, 2009 | A&E | Permalink | 1 Comment |
Hat tip to Topless Robot.
Kill your television - watch Hulu.com
Saturday, April 11th, 2009 | A&E, Tech | Permalink | 5 Comments |
I just watched my first TV show on Hulu.com. That worked way better than I would have ever guessed. There were a few pauses, but the quality was amazing - light years beyond YouTube and approaching HD - and there many fewer commercials than on regular TV. These aren’t YouTube-style clips. This is the entire show, in this case an episode of the Simpsons from a few weeks ago.
If it was just me in the house I’d drop TiVo and cable TV and watch the TV shows I wanted on the Internet. Savings: about sixty bucks a month even with my basic cable plan.
Someone explain to me how this won’t hurt cable and satellite TV. I’m not saying 100% of Americans will watch 100% of their shows online. That won’t happen.
What I am saying is that if I could only afford either cable TV or cable Internet I’d choose cable Internet, no question. Internet TV options like Hulu make that same choice easier for many more people. I can definitely imagine young people with lots of technical savvy and not much money foregoing cable TV and satellite TV in favor of Internet TV.
Mikee
Thursday, April 9th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |
“Why, oh why, would one distribute a videotape of yourself performing blatantly reckless actions? I ask only because I want an explanation for the existence of about half of YouTube.”
– Mikee
Ass. Press trying to finish itself off
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Media Behaving Badly | Permalink | No Comments |
So the Associated Press is threatening legal action against an AP affiliate using its content, even when the AP itself uploaded said content to YouTube and enabled the sharing and embedding permissions.
From Michael Silence, who has been covering the shenanigans:
Nashville’s Christian Grantham interviews Frank Strovel, a LaFollette journalist and blogger, on AP’s cease and desist order served on WTNQ-FM of LaFollette.
Here’s part of what Grantham has to say about the situation: What is happening to the Associated Press? Does AP seriously have executives and attorneys who are this clueless about their own operations, the law and the internet in general? What kind of copyright attorney doesn’t even know what is and is not legal to do with embedable YouTube video?
This is exactly the kind of thing Clay Shirky was talking about:
Revolutions create a curious inversion of perception. In ordinary times, people who do no more than describe the world around them are seen as pragmatists, while those who imagine fabulous alternative futures are viewed as radicals. The last couple of decades haven’t been ordinary, however. Inside the papers, the pragmatists were the ones simply looking out the window and noticing that the real world was increasingly resembling the unthinkable scenario. These people were treated as if they were barking mad. Meanwhile the people spinning visions of popular walled gardens and enthusiastic micropayment adoption, visions unsupported by reality, were regarded not as charlatans but saviors.
LATER: The AP backed down. Score one for the good guys.
How to link to a specific starting point in a YouTube or Google video
Thursday, March 5th, 2009 | Tech | Permalink | 2 Comments |
If you want to link to a specific part of a video on YouTube, you can. For example,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjDw3azfZWI#t=31m08s. Notice the “#t=31m08s” on the end of the url? That link will take you 31 minutes and 8 seconds into that video.
And another tip from the comments: “Also if you add &fmt=18 it will play in high quality (for vids that have HQ availible).”
Review: Nitecore Defender Infinity flashlight
Monday, February 9th, 2009 | Guns, Photos | Permalink | 6 Comments |
I tried a Surefire E2D Executive Defender. Great feel. Great tailcap switch. High output. Unfortunately, it had a very short battery life of 60 minutes. For me that completely ruled it out for everyday carry. Now it’s back to being a companion to a home firearm.
Next I tried a StreamLight TwinTask. The TwinTask has two light sources - a high-output Xenon bulb and a long-life LED emitter. You choose between them at the click of a button so you can have either high output or long battery life. At 35 bucks the price was right. One downside of the TwinTask was that it used a thumb-activated switch, which I never cared for. Tailcaps are the only way to fly.
When the TwinTask went on the fritz I decided I wanted four things in my next light:
- Tailcap switch like the Surefire for good ergonomics.
- Multiple light levels like the TwinTask - high for lots of light or low for long battery life.
- Ability to use plain old AA batteries. The Surefire and StreamLight used CR123a batteries, which have great output but are more expensive and harder to find than AAs. In a pinch I want to be able to get batteries at the Gas and Dash.
- The newer, more efficient CREE LED rather than the older Luxeon LED.
I settled on a Fenix L2D CE Q5. It met all of the criteria. Output was super bright. At $55 the price wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t unreasonable for a flashlight nut.
There were three things I didn’t like about the Fenix:
- The modes and tailcap sensitivity were too much. There are five power levels plus a strobe mode. Worse, while it took a deep click to power up the light once it was on just barely brushing the switch would switch modes. You could go from high to SOS in no time.
- It was too long, or more to the point it was just the wrong length. AA batteries are longer than CR123a batteries. With two of them the flashlight was enough longer to be just the right length to get bound up sideways in the pockets of the Columbia pants I live in.
- It was too slippery. There wasn’t enough checkering or variation in diameter.
That led me to my current light, a Nitecore Defender. It has all of the strong points of the Fenix, but none of the problems.
It uses a single AA battery so it’s the smallest EDC flashlight I’ve ever used. It has great checkering and enough variation in diameter so it’s easy to grip, and the flats on the high rings keep it from rolling off of flat surfaces. The tailcap has two modes that are programmable to be as high or as low as you like. There’s a crenulated bezel in front and loops in the rear for attaching keyrings or lobsterclaws. It can use longlife Li-Ion batteries or regular alkalines. I keep a spare AA in my back pocket.
The Defender is amazingly waterproof. Mine has taken two trips through the washing machine and still works beautifully.
The only downside to the Nitecore Defender is the price, which was about $80 when I bought it last year. I’d like to see them drop the gift box and a few other doodads. On the other hand it comes with a spare tailcap, which is pretty amazing, if not essential. I do like the the paracord lanyard, which turns out to be incredibly helpful on such a small light. The tip of the lanyard has a glow in the dark plastic insert like a cereal box toy. You can charge it up with the light in a few seconds, though it doesn’t last very long.
The price is a little high, but this is my ideal for a personal flashlight for now.
Notes
- If you don’t mind CR123a batteries or a street price well over $100 the newer Surefire E2D LED has two light levels and much longer life than the old version I have. If it wasn’t for my AA battery requirement I’d probably reach deep into my pocket and get one of these.
- If all that sounds too expensive, I’ve heard good things about the Brinkman LED light from Target and the Coleman LED light from Wal-Mart. Both sell for around $20.
- Here’s a video showing how to set the brightness levels on the Defender Infinity:
Photography notes
Lost - “The Sri Lanka Video”
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 | A&E | Permalink | No Comments |
Warmup for Wednesday night’s Lost. And here’s more about the Valenzetti Equation and the numbers.
Word of the Day: Vacuum Pot Coffee Maker
Friday, January 9th, 2009 | Food & Drink, Word of the Day | Permalink | 4 Comments |
I’ve mentioned vacuum pots to several people this week and no one else knew what they were. I mostly know them from seeing them in antique stores. From Wikipedia:
The principle of a vacuum coffee maker is to heat water in the lower vessel of the brewer until expansion forces the contents through a narrow tube into an upper vessel containing coffee grounds. When the lower vessel has more or less emptied itself and enough time has elapsed, the heat is removed and the resulting vacuum will draw the brewed coffee through a strainer back into the lower chamber from which it can be decanted. The device must usually be taken apart to pour out the coffee.
An early variation of this principle is called a balance siphon. This implementation has the two chambers arranged side by side on a balance-like device, with a counterweight attached to the heated chamber. Once the vapor has forced the hot water out, the counterweight activates a spring-loaded snuffer which smothers the flame and allows the initial chamber to cool down thus creating a vacuum and causing the brewed coffee to seep in.
Previous WOTD - Scaramouche
Word of the Day: Scaramouche
Monday, January 5th, 2009 | A&E, Word of the Day | Permalink | 4 Comments |
There’s a line in Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” that never made sense to me. Something about a moosh? One day I looked up the lyrics.
I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very fright’ning me
(Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro
Magnifico
And with the word in hand we go to Wikipedia:
Scaramouche is a historical novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1921.
It was subsequently adapted into a play by Barbara Field and into feature films, first in 1923 starring Ramón Novarro, Scaramouche (1923), and a remake in 1952 with Stewart Granger. It is a romantic adventure and tells the story of a young lawyer during the French Revolution. In the course of his adventures he becomes an actor portraying “Scaramouche” (also called Scaramuccia, a roguish buffoon character in the commedia dell’arte). He also becomes a revolutionary, politician, and fencing-master, confounding his enemies with his powerful orations and swordsmanship. He is forced by circumstances to change sides several times. The book also depicts his transformation from cynic to idealist. The later film version includes one of the longest, and many believe, best swashbuckling sword-fighting scenes ever filmed.
The three-part novel opens with the memorable line, “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” This line was to become Sabatini’s epitaph, on his gravestone in Adelboden, Switzerland.
Previous WOTD - Liquidity Trap (economics)
Previously:
“Star Wars Bar” on the Richard Pryor Show
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 | Star Wars | Permalink | No Comments |
Found via this Vanity Fair article about the Star Wars Christmas Special:
Among sources who worked within the Lucas organization, which was known in 1978 as the Star Wars Corporation, there are conflicting reports as to which person or company actually brought the idea of doing a holiday special to Lucas. According to Charles Lippincott, who at the time was in charge of marketing and merchandising for the company, CBS initially approached him and later Lucas with a slew of Star Wars ideas. Foremost on the network’s agenda, though, was a special. In the fall of 1977, with the film still in theaters, segments featuring the Cantina aliens on variety shows hosted by Donny and Marie Osmond and Richard Pryor “helped revive our box office,” Lippincott says.
It’s pretty funny and damned sure better than the Donnie and Marie Osmond Star Wars skit.
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