links for 2010-06-29

• Putin says U.S. police "out of control" in spy case – Yahoo! News
  Quote:"BLOW TO OBAMA

  Russian analysts said the timing suggested it was an attempt to undermine the "reset" which Obama's administration has hailed as a major foreign policy achievement, citing Moscow's support for sanctions against

  Iran and cooperation on Afghanistan.

  "It's a slap in the face to

  Barack Obama," said Anatoly Tsyganok, a political analyst at Moscow's Institute of Political and Military Analysis. He predicted Russia would follow Cold War etiquette and uncover an equal number of alleged U.S. spies.

  // So it was not Obama, but the DOJ who did this…

  (tags: espionage)
• Yahoo! Finance – Financially Fit
  // Minneapolis ranks above NYC. Take that pathetic friends of mine who moved. (Houston and DC rank 1&2)
  (tags: career jobhunting twincities)
• Terrafugia Transition 'flying car' gets go-ahead from US air authorities – Telegraph
  Quote:"The Transition was designed as a "light sport" aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification, with a maximum weight of 1,320lb. But the manufacturers found it impossible to fit the safety features – airbags, crumple zones and roll cage, for instance – that are required for road vehicles into that weight.

  Uniquely, however, the FAA has granted the Transition an exemption – allowing it to be classified as a light sport aircraft despite being 120lb over the limit.

  // Sweet. Props to the FAA.

  (tags: aviation cars futurism martyemail technology)
• New York considers ban on short-term vacation rentals – USATODAY.com
  // I'm so happy this terrible and abusive practice will soon come to an end. People should clearly not have the freedom to exchange goods and services.
  (tags: governmentstupidity Travel)
• FT.com / US & Canada – Kissinger warns on Afghan exit strategy
  Quote:"“The basic premise that you can work towards a national government that can replace the American security effort in a deadline of 12 months provides a mechanism for failure,” Mr Kissinger said. “On the other hand, if we are willing to pursue the stated [war] objective the public must be prepared for a long struggle. This is a choice that needs to be made explicitly.”

  // So we're going to lose…

  (tags: afghanistan obama)
• U.S. Espionage Claims Recall Cold War `Spy Mania,' Russia Says – Bloomberg
  // This wasn't exactly a diplomatic roundup. Obama could have used the spy ring as a poker chip. Instead, the russians were all arrested.
  (tags: cool espionage obama)
• Red-hot beauty Anna Chapman snared in Russia 'spy' ring – NYPOST.com
  // Awesome
  (tags: cool espionage martyemail)
• Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
  (tags: museum aviation history oregon Travel sprucegoose personal projects randomlinks)

From the Notebook

-Read “the Philosophy Gym” by Stephen Law. The book introduced a couple dozen modern issues in philosophy, including consciousness, God, cosmic origins, number theory, language and morality. It’s a great little book for those interested in a broad introduction to philosophic thinking. But I found the text rather biased whenever it came to religion. Still, this book introduced me to Richard Swinburne, and for that I’m thankful.

-Read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. What an incredible book. Well deserving of its reputation. Emotionally crushing, and sadly funny. Vonnegut suggests we are all rudderless travelers in life, at the mercy of forces beyond our ability to control. Read it.

- Read a selection of Pascal’s Pensees from the Great Books of the Western World ten-year reading plan. Pascal puts forth his famous wager, defends the Christian faith and discusses the nature of God in this awesome work (that was never finished). While reading parts of it, I wanted to break social norms and start reading passages to random strangers to show the remarkable genius contained within.

-Read  “Is there a God?” by Richard Swinburne. This is a condensed and popularized version of Swinburne’s philosophic case for the existence of God. He uses classic Thomistic proofs, but changes them from deductive to inductive, in order to show God’s existence is very probable. I was disappointed with his answer to the problem of suffering, but this issue has become much more prominent and has progressed a lot in the decades since Swinburne wrote this book. On the whole, it is a very good book, especially for those not philosophically trained.

-A personal milestone, four years ago I made a commitment to myself to excercise at least six days a week, for at least half an hour. Outside of two weeks of sickness where I missed a few days, I’ve succeeded.

-And yes, I have now completed the MBA. Final GPA of 3.94.

links for 2010-06-28

• Utah gun permit business booming – in other states – Yahoo! News
  // Awesome.
  (tags: guns secondamendment)
• Why Penn and Teller won't cover Islam or Scientology on their TV show – Boing Boing
  Penn Jillete:"Teller and I have been brutal to Christians, and their response shows that they’re good fucking Americans who believe in freedom of speech. We attack them all the time, and we still get letters that say, “We appreciate your passion. Sincerely yours, in Christ.” Christians come to our show at the Rio and give us Bibles all the time. They’re incredibly kind to us. Sure, there are a couple of them who live in garages, give themselves titles and send out death threats to me and Bill Maher and Trey Parker. But the vast majority are polite, open-minded people, and I respect them for that.
  (tags: atheism faith firstamendment tv)
• Captain Capitalism: Fort Bachelortude
  // Fun little piece on bachelorhood
  (tags: bachelorhood dating economy humor)
• EU to ban selling eggs by dozen – Telegraph
  // Glad the EU finally tackled this human travesty.
  (tags: EU europe governmentstupidity martyemail)
• State of the Twins « SethSpeaks.net
  // A not-very-concise look at the Twins.
  (tags: Baseball Twins)
• Health Care Law: Obama Administration Works to Meet Deadlines – ABC News
  // Can Obama et al meet the deadlines? I don't think so.
  (tags: obamacare obama)
• RBS tells clients to prepare for 'monster' money-printing by the Federal Reserve – Telegraph
  Quote:"Entitled "Deflation: Making Sure It Doesn’t Happen Here", it is a warfare manual for defeating economic slumps by use of extreme monetary stimulus once interest rates have dropped to zero, and implicitly once governments have spent themselves to near bankruptcy.

  The speech is best known for its irreverent one-liner: "The US government has a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many US dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost."

  // Warning: Author of piece a Keynesian koolaid drinker.

  (tags: banking bernanke economics economy finance inflation)
• FT.com / Markets – Economic Outlook: Worsening picture in the US
  Quote:"There was a decline of about 250,000 in the number of people working on the census this month from May, leading to consensus expectations of a drop of 75,000 in the headline non-farm payrolls figure.

  That could push the US unemployment rate above its current level of 9.7 per cent, leading to fears that the recovery might stall.

  // Great. Thanks.

  (tags: economy recession)
• The Savvy Networker- Yahoo! HotJobs
  // Even if you do explain these resume items properly, yuo'll still probably not get the job.
  (tags: business career jobhunting resume)
• Americans are treated, and overtreated, to death – Yahoo! News
  // Patient choice should be the deciding factor. If a patient wants exhaustive treatment until the point of death, fine. But I think most cancer patients will prefer hospice care once the disease has progressed to the 'incurable' and that's fine. However, we have to be careful as a society that we don't just give up on people because they are of a certain age.
  (tags: health healthcare life)

links for 2010-06-27

• Gustave Whitehead: Aviation Pioneer (1874-1927) | Gustave Whitehead's Flying Machines | redcedar
  (tags: history aviation randomlinks)
• Whiteheads Flyer | Aircraft | 3 FREE MODELS when you sign up with Fiddlersgreen
  // You can try out the design for yourself. In miniature. (Also, some great photos).
  (tags: aviation diy projects)
• (Out of) Town Ball | thenightwriterblog.com
  // John Stewart, The Night Writer, took me out for a burger and a ballgame. It was a lot of fun. I did not take the time to write an awesome little piece on it. John did. (Also, I'm the unshaven guy with the uneven tan preparing to stab a burger while wearing an ugly shirt of a skeleton ronin fighting a tiger.)
  (tags: Baseball Minnesota MOB burgertour restaurant Restaurants personal)
• Gustave Whitehead – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  // So, who really was the first man to fly a heavier than air craft?
  (tags: aviation history biography personal projects)
• Area 51 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Quote:"In December 2007, airline pilots noticed that the base had appeared in their aircraft navigation systems' latest Jeppesen database revision with the ICAO airport identifier code of KXTA and listed as "Homey Airport".

  // "Homey"? The most secret air base in the US is called "Homey"?

  (tags: wikipedia area51 aviation conspiracy martyemail)

Tom Horner

There is a great disagreement between the MNGOP and DFL camps in the media (mainstream and otherwise) over the possible affect Tom Horner’s campaign may have on the outcome of the 2010 MN Gubernatorial election.

Having looked at lots of polling data over the years, I can pretend to make an intelligent guess as to whether Horner hurts or helps Emmer.

Horner is attracting slightly more DFL support than GOP support. Not by much. So you might immediately think “It helps Emmer!”

Not so fast.

The IP generally loses support as the general election approaches, most of it is lost the day of the election.

This means there will be more DFL votes picked up by their champion (Dayton is my bet) than by Emmer. I’d say it’s a full percent gain on election day.

With Dayton leading a three-way race already, this is bad news for Emmer.

We’ll see how the campaign develops. Right now, Emmer has a hole to work out of.

links for 2010-06-25

• Plinky
  // Daily writing prompts.
  (tags: blogging randomlinks writing writingprompts)
• Don’t Call the Cops. Ever. by Dan Spielberg
  Quote:"State's Attorney General's Office called the shooting justified. You are not supposed to ask, of course, whether eradicating drugs is so important that we need to let the Government's goon squads break into our homes at will and murder us as they see fit.

  // The drug war's escalation of police paramilitary tactics is the primary reason I oppose said drug war. Article overstates its thesis and is a bit over the top, but I wonder if calling the police really is a bad idea…

  (tags: drugwar government police)
• Government lowers growth estimate for 1st quarter – Yahoo! Finance
  Quote:"In normal times, 2.7 percent growth would be considered healthy. But it's relatively weak for a recovery after a steep recession. After the last sharp downturn in the early 1980s, GDP grew at rates of 7 percent to 9 percent for five straight quarters.
  (tags: economics economy obama)
• ‘Don’t Taze My Granny!’ « LewRockwell.com Blog
  Quote:"Understandably alarmed — and probably more than a little disgusted — by the presence of uninvited armed strangers in her home, Lona ordered them to leave. This directive, issued by a fragile female octogenarian confined to a hospital-style bed and tethered to an oxygen tank, was interpreted as “aggressive” behavior by Officer Thomas Duran, who ordered one of his associates : “Taser her!”

  “Don’t taze my granny!” exclaimed Tinsley. According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Tinsley’s “obstructive” behavior prompted the police to threaten him with their tasers. He was then was assaulted, removed from the room, thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and detained in a police car. At this point, the heroes in blue turned their attention to Lona.

  // Glad we finally got her off the streets, huh?

  (tags: governmentstupidity police)
• Rethinking the Stop Sign – Wheels Blog – NYTimes.com
  Quote:"At TED, Mr. Lauder used statistics from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety to bolster his case. The sign’s more expensive corollary, he said, is the rotary, which requires a motorist to be alert to circulating traffic. Crashes, injuries and fatalities occur far less frequently, the stats suggest, at rotaries than at traditional intersections

  // I love the idea, and I love roundabouts.

  (tags: martyemail numbersandstudies traffic)
• 15-insurance-policies-you-don't-need: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
  (tags: finance)
• Stymied by GOP, Democrats at loss on jobs agenda – Yahoo! Finance
  // Think about it, Snowe and Collins both voted against the measure. I don't thinkl it was a good bill.
  (tags: economy elections2010)
• Tiny turtle causes taxiing plane to return to gate – Yahoo! Finance
  Quote:"A caged, 2-inch turtle traveling with a 10-year-old girl caused a crew to turn around a taxiing plane, take the girl and her sisters off the flight and tell them they couldn't bring their pet along.

  // Few people know this, but tiny turtles can be used as weapons. The terrorists know this.

  (tags: aviation idiocy martyemail pets)
• Whooping cough is declared an epidemic in California – Parenting on Shine
  Quote:"After 910 cases of whooping cough that have left five babies dead, California has officially declared the outbreak an epidemic. If that isn’t bad enough, the case load is 400 percent higher this year than last, putting the state on track to break a 50-year record. With an additional 600 pertussis cases currently under investigation, officials believe things are about to get worse. Those most at risk? Unimmunized or incompletely immunized babies, whose lungs are still developing.

  // So, great. Just what we needed. Whooping cough.

  (tags: health public.health)
• Political Memo – Democrats See Signs of Hope in Job Trends – NYTimes.com
  // Oh yeah. Totally. The Dems will do just fine.
  (tags: economy elections2010 obama polls)

Baseball

If I had to spend time in a single moment, like some sort of four dimensional being created by Kurt Vonnegut, gorging myself on an overpriced hot dog at some baseball field tucked away in the middle of nowhere would be high on the list. Thanks Night Writer and Fam.

Thanks for not leaving me in Miesville

links for 2010-06-23

• New-home sales plunge 33 pct with tax credits gone – Yahoo! Finance
  // D'oh
  (tags: economy housing obama)
• Coffee's Mysterious Benefits Mount – Yahoo! News
  Quote:"From lowered cancer risks to a sharper memory, more studies are showing that coffee is good for you – but why?

  Regular coffee drinkers have a 39 percent decreased risk of head and neck cancer, according to a new study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Those who drank an estimated four or more cups a day had significantly fewer cancers of the mouth and throat than non coffee drinkers, the study found.

  // I started drinking a cup or two of coffee every day because of all this research

  (tags: caffeine coffee health numbersandstudies science)

links for 2010-06-23

• The Shorty Awards – The best producers of real-time, short form content on Twitter
  // Somehow, I think this means the end of the world.
  (tags: twitter socialmedia web2.0 socialnetworking awards)
• in-budget-crisis-states-take-aim-at-pension-costs: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
  Quote:"Illinois raised its retirement age to 67, the highest of any state, and capped public pensions at $106,800 a year. Arizona, New York, Missouri and Mississippi will make people work more years to earn pensions. Virginia is requiring employees to pay into the state pension fund for the first time. New Jersey will not give anyone pension credit unless they work at least 32 hours a week.

  // Another bubble ready to burst

  (tags: economics finance pension.bubble)
• The Worst Burgers in America 2010
  // Wendy's Triple Baconator is the worst fast food burger, as re: calories, salt and fat.
  (tags: burgertour restaurant)
• Charges against Orange Minidress Two dropped – Dirty Tackle – World Soccer Blog – Yahoo! Sports
  // World is safe again for minidresses.
  (tags: guerrila.marketing martyemail soccer sports worldcup)
• White House summons US general to explain himself – Yahoo! News
  // Big opportunity for Obama to show leadership and compromise by keeping McChrystal on.
  (tags: afghanistan military obama)

links for 2010-06-21

• CNSNews.com – Middle Class–Not the Rich or the Poor–Pay Majority of Federal Taxes, Says CBO Data
  Quote:"Middle-class Americans–not the rich or the poor–pay the majority of annual tax revenues taken in by the federal government, according to data released in a new Congressional Budget Office study. Households earning less than $34,300 per year, meanwhile, actually pay a negative average federal income tax rate.

  Middle-class households that earned between $34,300 and $141,900 paid 50.5 percent of all federal tax revenues in 2007 (the most recent year analyzed), according to the CBO study released Thursday, and households that earned between $34,300 and $352,900 paid 66.7 percent of all federal taxes.

  // Those suckers.

  (tags: economics going.Galt obama taxes)
• Boater chases mysterious periscope off Hollywood beach
  // Drug runners getting sophisticated?
  (tags: martyemail naval weird)
• DILLER: Planned Parenthood's missing millions – Washington Times
  Quote:"Someone, then, needs to explain to all those people why $2.3 billion in tax dollars have been doled out to an organization that admits to systematically having killed more than 1.8 million pre-born babies between 2002 and 2008 and then reports it only spent $657.1 million in federal dollars.

  Has Planned Parenthood managed to tuck away megamillions of our tax dollars, seemingly unnoticed? Or is that much of its government funding coming from sources other than the federal government? Or is there a problem with the way Planned Parenthood is reporting its expenditure of our federal monies?

  (tags: abortion government)
• SCSUScholars–ARRA [Sucks]
  Quote:"the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 intended to aid states in fiscal distress and to provide an economic stimulus. As insurance for fiscal distress, ARRA covers at most $.23 of each additional dollar of a state’s budget gap; there is a large per capita payment that goes to all states, independent of the level of state deficits. As targeted assistance for stimulating local economies, ARRA funding is uncorrelated with state unemployment rates. ARRA funding appears to be decided by congressional politics
  (tags: arra economics numbersandstudies obama)
• 50 healthy foods for under $1 a pound on Shine
  (tags: diet food health recipes)
• Amanda Bynes Tweets 'I've Retired' From Acting – omg! news on Yahoo!
  // I also retired at 24
  (tags: celebrity hollywood)
• Mike Huckabee in the New Yorker
  (tags: christianity conservatism huckabee Marriage politics republicans weekendreading)
• Huckabee mounts new media push as 2012 speculation builds – Yahoo! News
  // The problem with Huckabee is that his candidacy will turn the 2012 elections into a referendum on science v. religion.
  (tags: Elections2012 gop huckabee)
• Circumcision: the Babble pediatrician poll
  // Not sure this one is scientific either, but 13% of pediatricians are anti-circumcision, 18% pro, and 69% "neutral"
  (tags: polls circumcision)
• Mister Poll: One more circumcision poll for males only
  // Interesting results. Unscientific poll, 1238 respondents. 80% circumcised, 69% had it at birth. Of those who got circumcised on their own, 48% did it for hygiene, 42% for aesthetics. 71% of circumcised respondents glad they were circumcised for aesthetic purposes, 66% glad for hygiene. 31% of polltakers thought it should be illegal to circumcise babies, 61% not. 64% of those not circumcised were considering the procedure. 60% of respondents between the ages of 13 and 30.l
  (tags: circumcision polls)