the lancelot link

Abu Dhabi/Dubai...Xmas/New Year's...2011/2012

2012-01-29T18:27:00.000-08:00

Art in the Streets

2011-07-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Little Tokyo.

SLR Magic 35mm F1.7 lens

2011-06-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

3 recent photos taken with my recently acquired SLR Magic lens. I was inspired to make the purchase by my friend Sonya, currently abroad on a life-changing voyage 'round the globe with her own micro four-thirds camera and lenses. Check out her blog and follow her adventures, I promise it's worthwhile.

Looking south from my balcony:

California Adventure:

Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap)

Nuclear Testing from 1945-1998

2011-04-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

A graphic timeline representation of every nuclear bomb ever detonated (minus North Korea's recent tests in Oct. 2006 and May 2009), produced in 2003 by Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto.

A total of 2053 detonations:

United States 1032
U.S.S.R. 715
France 210
United Kingdom 45
China 45
India 4
Pakistan 2

The world's first explosion of a nuclear device was the Trinity test in Jornada del Muerto's Tularosa Basin on July 16, 1945. The next two detonations were also the first and last time nuclear devices were used in military combat as weapons -- the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945. Of the ensuing tests conducted by the U.S., over 200 were detonated aboveground in the lower 48 states and in the Pacific Ocean between July 1946 and November 1962. Roughly half of these took place at The Nevada Test Site, a 3500 square-kilometer area located 100 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, NV. More than 800 additional underground weapons tests were conducted from 1962 through September 1992. (source - Division of Radiation Control, Utah Dept. of Environmental Quality)

The U.S. is the only nation that has compensated victims exposed to radiation from nuclear testing.

Storm, by Tim Minchin, with DC Turner and Tracy King

2011-04-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

A little over 2 years ago, I posted a video featuring Tim Minchin, a brilliant Australian skeptical performer. Coincidentally, it's taken about that long for DC Turner to complete the gorgeous animation to illustrate his beat-poem, "Storm".

Kampai!

More good information on Fukushima

2011-03-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

This from the website of the British Embassy in Tokyo. Sir John Beddington, Britain's Chief Scientific Officer, speaks with other experts from the Department of Health and the Health Protection Agency regarding the most recent advisories given out by the Japanese government. The information is aimed at ex-pats living in Tokyo, but it remains relevant for the rest of the world, especially for those on the west coast of the US listening to the hyperbolic network & cable news coverage of this disaster. I can't recall the last time I've seen this much misinformation and scaremongering.

Here are some relevant passages, including worst case scenarios and data on potassium iodide tablets:

"...Let me now talk about what would be a reasonable worst case scenario. If the Japanese fail to keep the reactors cool and fail to keep the pressure in the containment vessels at an appropriate level, you can get this, you know, the dramatic word “meltdown”. But what does that actually mean? What a meltdown involves is the basic reactor core melts, and as it melts, nuclear material will fall through to the floor of the container. There it will react with concrete and other materials … that is likely… remember this is the reasonable worst case, we don’t think anything worse is going to happen. In this reasonable worst case you get an explosion. You get some radioactive material going up to about 500 metres up into the air. Now, that’s really serious, but it’s serious again for the local area. It’s not serious for elsewhere even if you get a combination of that explosion it would only have nuclear material going in to the air up to about 500 metres. If you then couple that with the worst possible weather situation i.e. prevailing weather taking radioactive material in the direction of Greater Tokyo and you had maybe rainfall which would bring the radioactive material down do we have a problem? The answer is unequivocally no. Absolutely no issue. The problems are within 30 km of the reactor. And to give you a flavour for that, when Chernobyl had a massive fire at the graphite core, material was going up not just 500 metres but to 30,000 feet. It was lasting not for the odd hour or so but lasted months, and that was putting nuclear radioactive material up into the upper atmosphere for a very long period of time. But even in the case of Chernobyl, the exclusion zone that they had was about 30 kilometres. And in that exclusion zone, outside that, there is no evidence whatsoever to indicate people had problems from the radiation. The problems with Chernobyl were people were continuing to drink the water, continuing to eat vegetables and so on and that was where the problems came from. That’s not going to be the case here. So what I would really re-emphasise is that this is very problematic for the area and the immediate vicinity and one has to have concerns for the people working there. Beyond that 20 or 30 kilometres, it’s really not an issue for health.

...

[Q] Could you just explain why the worst case scenario here is much less than at Chernobyl?

[JB] Yeah, very much so. In Chernobyl, , first of all the top blew off the reactor and then the core of the reactor, the graphite which surrounds the core actually caught fire and burned for a very long time, so you had very, very, hot fire pushing all the material up in the normal sort of convection processes. Here, what will happen with the build up of pressure if the radioactive material interacted with the container floor and you would get a single explosion but it would not be a continued explosion. So that explosion would send material up to about 500 metres would be the sort of level we would expect. You know, it’s spurious accuracy, it might be 517 or 483 but that’s about it. And in terms of that, and couple that with weather, we still see absolutely no issue of material being taken at any critical level for human health beyond that 20 kilometres or so.

...

[Q] The next question, there’s a lot of concern in the community about the taking of iodine. At what point should iodine be taken and would you recommend people taking it proactively?

[Nick Kent, HPA Physician] Yes, I am. I think I’ll answer it in two ways. The ways you may get exposed to radio iodine are either you inhale volatile radio iodine and that will only happen very close to the nuclear power plant itself, and we certainly do recommend where people are close to a nuclear plant when an accident occurs that they should take stable iodine to block iodine uptake to the thyroid in those circumstances. But there’s nobody close to the nuclear plant and that’s not a means by which there will be exposure here, and therefore that’s not, you know that is not a reason to take iodine in the case of yourselves living in Tokyo.  The second but most important way that people get exposed to radio iodine is that as the radio iodine settles into the environment, it gets incorporated into crops, it gets taken up into animals and it gets excreted into milk. And the problem in the case of Chernobyl which is where quite a number of cases of thyroid cancer were seen, it is now clear that the exposure pathway in the Russian Federation and Ukraine was ingestion of contaminated food, particularly milk. Now, we do not envisage the food chain as being an issue for you to take it up, and in any case, to use iodine to protect against the food chain would take long term administration of iodine, which would not be appropriate for other reasons, like the effects that would be on the thyroid. So I’ll just summarise. You’re not close to the plant so you’re not at an inhalation risk which is the principle use for iodine, and you we do not envisage you getting any radio iodine exposure through the food chain so again you know, no exposure therefore no need to use iodine as a countermeasure. Thank you."

The Ryōzen Kannon (霊山観音) in Kyoto: a war memorial dedicated to the Japanese and Allied soldiers who died in WWII.
May 17, 2008

Nuclear/Unclear

2011-03-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

I've read a lot of articles over the last 3 days attempting to explain the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and discussing the potential problems for Japan and the rest of the world. Sadly, the vast majority of them are speculative and use fear mongering to attract readers. It's difficult to find good data right now, especially since the crisis is still unfolding amidst real human tragedy (more on that below). Nevertheless, the best three pieces I've seen in the aftermath of this catastrophe are:

1. Nuclear Overreactors in Slate, by William Saletan. It is pithy and enlightening in its comparison of nuclear energy production to fossil fuels: "...fossil fuel is more dangerous. The sole fatal nuclear power accident of the last 40 years, Chernobyl, directly killed 31 people. By comparison, Switzerland's Paul Scherrer Institute calculates that from 1969 to 2000, more than 20,000 people died in severe accidents in the oil supply chain. More than 15,000 people died in severe accidents in the coal supply chain—11,000 in China alone. The rate of direct fatalities per unit of energy production is 18 times worse for oil than it is for nuclear power."

2. Japan's nuclear reactor overreaction by the Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait. As always, Phil nails it; like Saletan, he keeps it short and to the point, and brings in some more facts that I wasn't aware of, like "coal plants release more radiation than nuclear plants by a long shot...not to mention the disastrous environmental impact of burning it. How safe is that? Yet we use far more energy from coal than from nuclear plants."

3. The best by far is this discussion by Dr. Joseph Oehmen, originally posted on the blog of an English teacher in Japan, but now hosted and maintained by the MIT Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering. This is a very comprehensive explication of nuclear reactions, nuclear reactors in general, what has specifically happened thus far at Fukushima, and what will most likely happen. The educational value of this piece is priceless, and though it's longer than the others, it reads like a thriller.

The absolute worst thing I've seen in the last three days is this Youtube clip of a cretinous American Christian, deliriously thanking the god of the Bible for shaking Japan at this start of the Lentil [sic] season, in an attempt to open the eyes of atheists everywhere.

Despite this young lady's enthusiasm for the death and destruction she believes she helped cause, intercessory prayer doesn't work, whether one is trying to hurt the victims or help them. If you would like to do the latter, please consider donating to the Center For Inquiry's S.H.A.R.E. program. 100% of your donation, with no operating costs retained, will be given to Doctors Without Borders, a secular organization that already has teams assisting the government-led response in Japan.

A day at the Los Angeles Zoo

2011-03-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

While it may not be as extensive or have as many animals as Taronga Zoo in Sydney, The San Diego Zoo, The London Zoo, or The Smithsonian National Zoo in D.C. (okay, the Los Angeles Zoo pretty unspectacular), my visit yesterday was still a fun diversion on a warm spring morning. Clicking on any of the photos below will transport you to the flickr page with larger viewing sizes, information on the animal, and geotag data; or clicking here will take you to the photoset.

Tweet #107

2011-03-11T17:53:00.000-08:00

To most help those affected by #earthquake and #tsunami, rather than #prayforjapan, please #donateforjapan instead: http://www.redcross.org/

ROTD!

2010-12-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

December 2, 2010: review of the day on Yelp.com!

2010 Nisei Week Festival

2010-08-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

18 shots uploaded, see them all on flickr.

Your World w/Cavuto < Rick's List < The Daily Show

2010-08-07T23:49:00.001-07:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Californigaytion

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

Historic Core Valediction

2010-08-04T05:59:00.001-07:00

I'll soon be moving out of the historic core/old bank district -- my home for the last four years -- so I took a couple evening walks around the block with camera in hand last week. Each photo is geotagged in Flickr; clicking any one will bring you to that photo's page to view location, specific architectural information, and camera data.

Los Angeles Theater (S. Charles Lee, architect) 1931, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

LA Trust and Savings Bank, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Chimera, L.A. Board of Trade Building, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Pacific Electric Building (1905) downtown L.A., originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Golden Hour, downtown Los Angeles, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Eastern Columbia Building (Claud Beelman, architect) 1930, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Orpheum Theatre sign, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Los Angeles architecture juxtaposition, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Palace Theatre (G. Albert Lansburgh, architect) 1910, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

iPhone 4

2010-06-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

View original size for the impressive close-up of the 960x640 Retina display, compared to the 2007 iPhone's inferior graphics.

Returned to Tom's a little while ago, trying out FaceTime now. We arrived at Glendale Galleria at about 06:30, but there were at least 500 people ahead of us in the parking garage reservation queue, which snaked around like those stacked lines you see at amusement park rides. There was a separate line of at least 100 people who hadn't made a reservation at the far end. The Apple employees handled everything quite well -- coming out and distributing water, coffee, danishes and donuts. At 07:00 the first people were let in to the mall, 25 at a time, in pulses about 12-13 minutes apart. For every 50 people in the reservation queue, one person from the non-reservation queue was taken to join that group. The non-reservationist girl who came up to join us had been waiting since 22:00 last night; she was the 7th person in the non-reservation line. Once inside the mall there were several more (shorter) lines to stand in before reaching the store. The Apple Store was processing about 150 people per hour. We were out of the store, activated iP4 in hand with contacts transferred, at 10:45.

Dara O'Briain Talks Funny

2010-06-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hilarity and skepticism, combined in one spectacular comedy act. Irish comedian Dara O'Briain performs at the Hammersmith Apollo.

On the joys of live comedy:

How to market products for men, and input from the audience:

Part 3, a discourse on homeopathy and psychics:

The wellness industry, rugby, and why comedians hate magicians:

Cobblers, lapdancing clubs and the "turn-down" team:

Hotel underwear sculpting:

Buying a house:

The cobblers chase down a jewelry thief:

The encore, incorporating all the stories he got from the crowd:

Hollywood's VFX Shops: Trouble in Boom Times

2010-05-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Rebecca Keegan has written an interesting article on Time.com describing some of the difficulties facing the Visual effects industry:

"If you want to see the names driving Hollywood's growth, you have to stay for the movie's credits. The very end of the credits. After the actors and electricians — sometimes even after the people who serve the tacos on set — come the visual-effects artists. These are the people who make superheroes fly and cities fall into the ocean, and the effects-reliant films they work on, like Avatar and the Harry Potter franchise, are Hollywood's biggest moneymakers.

Their place in the credits says something about visual effects (VFX) artists' place in the Hollywood pecking order. Ironically, just as they are peaking in creativity and propelling box-office hits, VFX companies are facing a crisis years in the making. Thanks to fierce global competition, the hangover from Hollywood labor unrest and a lack of negotiating power with studios, many VFX firms are closing up shop or outsourcing to stay afloat.

Read more: Hollywood's VFX Shops: Trouble in Boom Times"

Visual effects has now become the most bankable "star" in Hollywood, with FX movies reliably making more money for studios than famous actors. Even so, American artists are being paid less while many jobs are outsourced outside of Los Angeles and San Francisco: ILM has a branch in Singapore; Rhythm & Hues and Sony Pictures Imageworks have both opened their own extensions in India (the latter has also opened a facility in New Mexico where they've transferred a hundred or so jobs, taking advantage of that state's tax incentives); and smaller houses have opened facilities in Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. Where do we go from here? Will we follow the paths of manufacturing, the auto industry, and corporate call centers? For now at least, the artists in cities like L.A. and London can produce more convincing effects than their south Asian counterparts, but with training and experience the latter will catch up within a few years.

Hopefully by then I will have made my money and retired -- perhaps to Mexico, India, or the Philippines, where I can make a small income training my replacements.

Everybody Draw Muhammed Day

2010-05-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

Cheers to the Mail & Guardian for standing up to bullies.

LudoBites 4.0 @ Gram & Papa's

2010-04-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

Raspberry Religieuse, Pistachio

Burgundy Escargots, Garlic Flan, Green Jus, Yellow Flowers

Scallop, Almond Puree, Pickled Grapes, Capers & Cauliflower Ice Cream

New Hong Kong photos up on Flickr

2010-01-20T16:11:00.000-08:00

Click to view the entire set. Tim's Kitchen (桃花源小廚) in Sheung Wan, Cheung Hing Coffee Shop (祥兴咖啡室) in Happy Valley, DTF (鼎泰豊) in Tsim Sha Tsui, and a last dinner at Fan Tang (飯堂). And if you're not into food porn, there are pics of some other stuff too.

Assholey Pat Robertson comments on Haiti

2010-01-16T18:56:00.000-08:00

Now that Jerry Falwell (I do so love it when Christopher Hitchens refers to him as an "ugly little charlatan") is dead and gone, Pat Robertson apparently feels that not enough evil old white men are saying offensive things in the name of religion. He has now cranked up his assholiness level to a new high. I think this one goes to eleven:

Not only is he dead wrong on history (The Haitian revolution took place in 1791, while Napoleon III wasn't even born until 1808) he's encouraging Christians to believe that the Haitian people brought this disaster onto themselves by bargaining with the devil. Similarly, Rush Limbaugh stated on his radio show last week, "...besides, we've already donated to Haiti, it's called the U.S. income tax." So if I were one of the millions of American Republican Christians who hangs on every word uttered by these two demagogues, why then would I want to donate aid to a people who were dumb enough to make a deal with the devil, especially when the government to which I begrudgingly pay taxes has already sent succor to them?

This Rachel Maddow clip on the Christian Broadcasting Network's defense of Robertson is priceless:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If you are a Christian Republican who is not easily swayed by these two bastards, please consider donating a little of your hard-earned cash that the government hasn't yet stolen from you to the Center For Inquiry's S.H.A.R.E. program. 100% of your donation, with no operating costs retained, will be given to Doctors Without Borders, a secular organization that is at this very moment doing invaluable work saving lives in Port-au-Prince.

Is the Catholic church a force for good in the world?

2009-11-30T19:23:00.000-08:00

A stimulating Intelligence Squared debate from the beginning of this month, addressing the above question.

The first video features the introduction of the speakers and Archbishop John Onaiyekan, who ineffectively argues for the motion before Christopher Hitchens is introduced and begins his argument against.

In the next video, Hitchens continues arguing forcefully against the motion, and includes a trenchant response to the archbishop:

"I think it will one day be admitted with shame that it might have been in error to say that AIDS is bad as a disease, very bad, but not quite as bad as condoms...I say it in the presence of His Grace and I say it to his face: the preachings of his church are responsible for the death and suffering and misery of millions of his brother and sister Africans and he should apologize for it; he should show some shame."

Next up: Ann Widdecombe, conservative MP, who at least brings a little game to her arguments in favor of the church (her speech overlaps videos 2 & 3). Now it's getting interesting! Will this secular British audience be moved by Widdecombe's sharply acerbic debate skills?

Last comes the gentle Stephen Fry, who talks of the punishments meted out by the Church to progressives and scientists throughout the ages, and the hypocrisy of canonizing Sir Thomas More, who tortured the English for owning Bibles written in their own language. When he mentions that only nine years ago More was named the patron saint of politicians, both the Archbishop and the MP nod enthusiastically -- as if his legacy is something of which to be proud. Fry also delves into the current pope's lies about condoms, his holiness' claim that homosexuals are morally evil and disordered, and contrasts the Church with the object of its affections:

"Do you know who would be the last person ever to be accepted as a prince of the church? The Galilean carpenter; that Jew. They would kick him out before he tried to cross the threshold. He would be so ill at ease in the church. What would he think? What would he think of St. Peter's? What would he think of the wealth, and the power, and the self-justification and the wheedling apologies?"

The questions of the audience and the debaters' closing statements in the final video are definitely worth watching:

In the end, as at the beginning, the audience was polled to see whether they were for or against the motion and we get to see how many viewers were persuaded by the panel. Prior to the debate, 346 were undecided; afterwards, that number dropped to 34. 410 fewer people believed that the motion was true, and 774 more people believed it to be false. In other words, the argument that the Catholic church is NOT a force for good in the world was much more persuasive than its counterargument -- quod erat demonstrandum.

Popularity Contest, part II

2009-10-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

Fourteen months ago, I blogged about my most popular photos on my Flickr! photostream, ordered by number of views they've received. I'm revisiting the topic because not only has the list changed a little bit, but I noticed upon looking back at that blog that the overall number of views in general has surged. Plus I like the way Mack lists comparative statistics on his blog.

No change in the first two rankings: Horny Moses and Playboy Socks still garner the most peeks, which I concluded last year was due to internet searchers' religiosity (or religio-curiosity) and prurience, respectively.

In its first year, however, the Moses photo earned what I once deemed a "whopping" 568 views. In its second year it has attracted almost 5 times that amount: 2,807 total views. Fourteen months ago, the photo of the Japanese schoolgirl's bunny-embroidered socks had attracted 343 views; today its total is 1,586.

From this point on there are changes to the top five. Last year's #3 and #4, two pics of Japanese girls garbed in unique fashions, have dropped down to #11 and #13. As Gwen Stefani's popularity recedes into the past, so do internet searches for "Harajuku Girls".

The current #3 is Hong Kong skyline from Victoria Peak (1,276 views). This one has only recently leaped in popularity, bypassing the Chunky Monkey (see below) only a month or two back.

Next up with 1,173 views is Mingo, the fattest monkey on la isla de Roatán en Honduras. For some reason, there are hundreds of websurfers searching for photos of fat monkeys, and that fact has helped increase the exposure of this pic.

Finally, with 1,083 views, is a photo I took of a bamboo grove in Nara. People like looking at bamboo, I guess. That's more views than last year's top two combined.

The day we rented bicycles in Joigny...

2009-09-12T11:32:00.001-07:00

The day we rented bicycles in Joigny, France, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

...and I passed out in the woods. Photo taken in Joigny, France on Monday, August 29, 2005 at 15:39pm.

BACKGROUND: I have a rather high metabolism and usually require sustenance throughout the day, but most especially first thing in the morning. If I don't eat, I get flustered and shaky, and my ability to speak eloquently or do simple math problems rapidly diminishes.

This glorious late summer day in Joigny, a small medieval town in Burgundy, I awoke and, eschewing breakfast, made pâté sandwiches with my mates, which we put into a satchel, and walked across the river to rent bicycles. Alas we were in France, and the bicycle shop didn't open until 11am. We walked to a nearby cafe and sipped espressos and cappuccinos until about half past. When we returned to the shop, not only was I famished, but also trembling from the abundantly caffeinated French coffee (I usually do decaf or tea). I was, however, determined not to break out my sandwich until my friends did, because I knew we'd be riding all day and I didn't want to consume all my nourishment too early. Thus I set myself up for disaster.

As we began pedaling, I felt dizzy and flushed with the heat of the day, slightly nauseous from the overdose of caffeine. I rode on, however, and we came to the bottom of a slight grade that rose upwards into a hill crowned by a verdant wood. I pushed as hard as I could, as I didn't want to fall behind. As we entered the grove, I began to actually feel ill and jumped off the bike. Still, I pretended to be fit and walked my ride around a bend in the road. I was well behind my friends by this time, and no longer feeling the need to keep up my charade I stumbled out of the lane, my knees knocking together, and dropped the bicycle by a tree. It was mid-day by now, and sultry; there were small flies buzzing around my face. My mouth was as hot and dry as the rubber tires. I dropped to one knee and tried calling out to my companions, but I couldn't hear my own voice through the buzzing of the gnats and the hissing of the torrid breeze through the leaves above me. I remember gripping onto the thin trunk as the world spun round, as if I were on the deck of a raft in a typhoon. My ears were roaring though there was no sound. I actually saw my vision go, like an iris-in from a silent film -- blackening from the edges inward towards the center. The forest spun violently and I was forced to let go of my mast, drifting beneath the waves of leaves and insects.

I awoke, by my calculation, only a few minutes later, groggy and sore, feeling swollen as if from a long, uncomfortable nap. I was covered with dead leaves and dirt. I couldn't be bothered to brush myself off. It took quite a few minutes before I could stand and walk again, and I only did so slowly and deliberately, one footstep at a time. I eventually came to the top of the slope and turned out of the wood onto the face of the hill, where my friends were lounging in the long grass, gazing at the rolling vineyards and the Yonne River away to the north.

Ronan: "Oh, look who decided to show up! Where've you been for the last 20 minutes?"
Me: "I felt sick...I think I fainted. You couldn't hear me calling your names?"
Chris: "You swooned? What are you, a teenage girl in a Jane Austen novel?"
Me: "Hey thanks for coming to look for me. I could have been bitten by a snake in that pile of leaves I fell into."
Ronan: "We were just saying that one of us was going to have to go back and look for you eventually -- you've got our sandwiches in your knapsack."

featured on Apartment Therapy

2009-08-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

My loft is on ApartmentTherapy.com! Click here to see the post entitled Using Fabric Panels To Separate A Space. Clicking the photos below will take you directly to my flickr photostream.

In a week and a half I'm flying back up to Walnut Creek to pick up a bunch of rosewood furniture that I inherited from my grandmother, so the loft is about to undergo a major redesign. I've already sold the shoji screen, Korean tea table, and Ikea kitchen island. It'll be interesting to see how all the new (old) stuff is going to fit in. I'll upload updated photos in a few weeks.

Homeopathic A & E

2009-07-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

I came across this clip from the British sketch comedy show That Mitchell and Webb Look on the Science-Based Medicine blog. In the U.K., A&E stands for the "Accident and Emergency" ward of a hospital, what Americans would refer to as the E.R. If you're aware of the reverse logic of homeopathy and homeopathic "remedies", you'll find it hilarious. If not, you may learn a thing or two about how implausible and even dangerous it can be.

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of homeopathy, here is a good primer. It's part of a lecture by famous skeptic and magician, James Randi.

Moonwalkers

2009-07-05T21:35:00.001-07:00

I caught this little YouTube clip on digg.com, and it's the only Michael Jackson related news story that's made any sense to me this past week. It showcases the supreme courting talents of the Red-capped Manakin, as well as its rather amazing moonwalking skills.

"If Michael Jackson's moonwalk can be found in the jungles of Central America, then who knows what we might find next?" Indeed. How about a bird that can not only perfectly mimic the sound of other forest creatures, but of human-made machines as well? I give you the reclusive Australian Lyrebird, which I actually encountered in the wilds of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Alas, I did not hear him imitate a camera, car alarm, or chainsaw as he does here. The below clip is comes from near the end of episode 6 -- Signals and Songs -- of David Attenborough's superb series, The Life of Birds.

Last night I drove to Santa Monica to celebrate Independence Day with D*Nice and Julia. We watched a fireworks display at Palisades Charter High (see photo below) then returned to their abode to view the waxing gibbous moon through my Bushnell Voyager telescope, taking special note of Mare Tranquillitatis -- the Sea of Tranquility -- site of mankind's first real moonwalk.

"We humans have set foot on another world in a place called the Sea of Tranquility, an astonishing achievement for creatures such as we, whose earliest footsteps three and one-half million years old are preserved in the volcanic ash of east Africa. We have walked far.

These are some of the things that hydrogen atoms do given fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution. It has the sound of epic myth, but it is simply a description of the evolution of the cosmos as revealed by science in our time. And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we have begun at last to wonder about our origins -- star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms, contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet earth, and perhaps throughout the cosmos.

Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring." -- Carl Sagan, COSMOS

Viva La Cebolla!

2009-06-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

There is always hope that Kirk will wrestle the Gorn captain in the sequel...

200 years that changed the world

2009-06-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

A perfect illustration of how a well-made graphic can aid in the comprehension of an intricate subject. I came across this clip on NPR.org's Planet Money column. It's the coolest YouTube clip I've seen in awhile, not counting the world's first DJ battle.

Once you've viewed the clip, go to the Gapminder website to play with the graph yourself, and to create or view others. Keep in mind, however, that historical data on these statistics, especially prior to 1900, is sometimes spotty and that many of these figures are estimates.

The Path Behind Me

2009-05-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

In April of 2005, I posted a blog with pics detailing how and why I sent a sample of my DNA into the Genographic Project for Y chromosome analysis. Roughly four years later, I realized while going over the paperwork with my dad that I've never shared the results.

This is the story of my forefathers, and possibly yours as well.

Once upon a time in the Stone Age -- about 60,000 years ago -- there lived a man who became the common ancestor of the vast majority of humans alive today. Since Christians believe that the name of the primogenitor of humanity was Adam, let's call this man the "Eurasian Adam" (though he certainly wasn't the first "man" or even the only man alive at the time). He was, however, the progenitor of all non-African people; we know this is true because we all carry his genetic marker, known as M168, in our DNA: indigenous Australians, Asians, Native Americans, and Europeans -- and most Africans as well. This "Eurasian Adam" lived in eastern Africa, where he fathered children and grandchildren, and it was his descendants who became the only lineage of humanity to endure outside of our home continent. In Europe and Asia, where Neandertals and Homo erectus thrived for millennia but ultimately died out, Homo sapiens would survive.

The first wave of modern humans emigrated from Africa soon after the M168 genetic marker appeared. They likely followed a coastal route around the future Arabian peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia. Sea levels were much lower due to the ongoing glacial period, and the channel between the land masses that would become Indonesia and Australia was only 90 kilometers wide; easily conquered by a nomadic people who had made their living along the maritime coast for a few centuries, or perhaps millennia. They crossed that gap and survived in their new homeland for 40,000 years, eventually to become known to western explorers as the indigenous Australians. These were not my ancestors.

Other descendants of the "Eurasian Adam" later migrated northward from their birthplace, probably following herds of animals moving in that direction during the temporary retreat of the glaciers that brought a moister climate to the African deserts. About 45,000 years ago, in northern Africa or the Middle East, one of these descendants fathered a male child with a different genetic marker, M89: riding the crest of the second wave of migration out of Africa, he was to become the ancestor of about 92% of all non-Africans alive today. Within the next few thousand years the climate shifted again and the grasslands retreated, rendering the great desert to the south impassable once more. Some of M89's descendants remained in the Near East; others migrated to the northwest, toward the Mediterranean; still others followed the animals that roamed ever north and east, to the steppes of Central Asia. Let us follow this latter group, because they are my ancestors, and probably yours as well.

The next branch in this family tree is a mighty one. Roughly 40,000 years ago, one of M89's descendants was born with another genetic marker, M9. This man, born in present-day Iran or south central Asia, was to be the ancient ancestor of almost all North Americans and East Asians, as well as most Europeans and many Indians. His descendants populated most of the northern hemisphere. Over the next few millennia, tens of thousands of people dispersed to the east and north. When they encountered the Pamir Knot, the junction of four behemoth mountain ranges that is sometimes called "The Roof of the World", some moved south while others continued north, spawning new separate genetic lineages.

We will follow the line that went north into central Asia. Roughly 35,000 years ago, when there were approximately 100,000 human beings on the planet (not counting the Neandertals still living amongst the glaciers in present-day Europe) the next link in the chain appears: M45. He lived in central Asia in the way of his ancestors, by gathering edible vegetation and by following and hunting the mammoth, bison, and antelope herds. But soon the climate shifted once more, and the expanding glaciers and reduction in rainfall may have forced the animals to abandon the southern steppes and push northward once again, with the humans trailing as always. The harsher climatic conditions may have helped spark new hunting techniques for the larger animals encountered in the north, and new technology like bone needles for sewing clothes made from animal skins. From here, some people went northeast -- this branch eventually settled east Asia, and included the ancestors of the small group who would migrate across Beringia and work their way south to become the natives of both North and South America. But my ancestors did not walk east.

The M207 genetic marker appears in a man who lived roughly 30,000 years ago, as a branch of the Central Asian clan moved west. Soon afterward, another marker appeared in my bloodline, M173. Some of his descendants would reverse their trajectory and descend southeast, some in due course making it all the way to the Indian subcontinent. But my ancestors forged ahead into Europe, part of the first wave of modern humans to do so, and survived to see the extinction of our hominid cousins, the Neandertals.

Homo neanderthalensis had been living in Europe for roughly a quarter million years, ages before our ancestors began their journey out of Africa. We did not evolve from them, but we shared a common ancestor some 500,000 years ago. They were intelligent, social hominids, and they exhibited altruism in caring for their young, sick, and elderly. They buried their dead in what some archeologists consider ritualistic fetal positions, which may be evidence for religious belief. They made tools and were well adapted to their environment, which was again changing; this time, however, they had competition.

The descendants of M173, known to archeologists as the Aurignacian culture, brought with them the technology they had developed in central Asia: tools and weapons made of stone, bone, ivory, antler, and shells. They carved figurines and wore jewelry, a possible indicator of status within the clan and a more complex society. They also possessed better techniques for communication, and they had the resourcefulness that had served them so well throughout their migrations. There was probably some form of contact between my ancestors and their much older European cousins, but there is no genetic evidence that interbreeding took place between the two species. Within the span of a few thousand years, the Neandertals were extinct.

At around this same time, one of M173's descendants sired the last known link in this chain: the man carrying the genetic marker known as M343, the defining marker of genetic Haplogroup R1b, of which I am a member. My ancestors were once known as the Cro-Magnon people, but today anthropologists prefer to call them Early Modern Humans. They wove clothing, lived in huts, made and played primitive musical instruments, and painted unprecedented depictions of wildlife in caves in southern France.

About 20,000 years ago, the Last Glacial Maximum brought ice sheets again down into the British Isles and northern Europe; to avoid the oncoming glaciers, my ancestors moved south into the Iberian peninsula, Italy, and the Balkans. About ten thousand years later, the last glacial period ended, allowing M343's descendants to repopulate northern Europe, where they thrived and eventually gave up hunting and gathering for agriculture and animal domestication. These innovations allowed for larger populations, and greater hierarchical differentiation within those populations. Clans and tribes became villages and towns. Over the course of thousands of years polytheistic religions took shape and were in turn displaced by southeastern monotheism; languages grew apart through geographical isolation; conquerers brought other foreign tongues; cities sprang up and were destroyed and rose again; in short, the beginning of recorded history was made.

Today, descendants of M173 can be found all over western Europe, with concentrations highest in northern France and the British Isles, where the marker was carried after populations had hidden from the glaciers in Spain and Portugal. I share my own haplogroup, R1b (defined by the presence of genetic marker M343), with about 70 percent of men in southern England. R1b is even more prevalent in parts of Spain, France, Scotland and Ireland, where it is carried by more than 90 percent of the male popuation. My family knows that my father's paternal heritage is American of northern European ancestry; when we delve back a few hundred years, however, the knowledge of our history dissolves into myth. We do not know for certain why my paternal ancestors left Europe for America, or even from which country they came. On which side did they fight in the Hundred Years' War? Were they aggressors or victims in the Norman invasion of England? On what chalky coast or in what verdant hinterland did they weather the Dark Ages and the Black Death? I'll never know the answers to these questions.

I find it astounding and humbling that the ancient origins of my forefathers, going back tens of thousands of years, can now be known with greater certainty than the relatively recent past. I am grateful to modern science for enriching my life and for telling me the story of my ancestors.

I wrote this blog entry with the aid of materials I printed out from The Genographic Project's website, and made the above graphic using Google Maps and Shake. Click here, here, or here to see the maps and test results of others who have submitted their DNA to the Genographic Project.

Tilt-Shift Piracy

2009-03-15T01:22:00.000-07:00

Last week my friend David brought my attention to some online examples of tilt-shift photography, along with some faked tilt-shift miniature photographs. My interest was piqued enough by the counterfeits to attempt my own forgeries; below are the results. These photos were taken (by me) with either a Canon S500 or a Panasonic DMC-LX2 and post-processed using Photoshop, to make them look like miniatures photographed with a macro lens. Click on a pic for more information on the location, to see the original unretouched image, or to view a larger size.

Dubai-bye?

2009-03-14T13:08:00.001-07:00

Annyeonghaseyo, Pyongyang, originally uploaded by Looloo~*.

In 1987, the North Korean regime began work on what was supposed to become the world's tallest hotel -- the 330 m (1,083 ft) Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang; but it was not to be. When work was halted in 1992, it already ranked as the ninth tallest skyscraper in the world by roof height, almost exactly the same roof height as the Empire State Building. Though the superstructure was complete, lack of funding and faulty construction methods forced the abandonment of Ryugyong. For 16 years the mountainous shell of the hollow structure loomed over the North Korean capital, looking more like a jagged, decaying megalodon tooth than a hotel. Construction was resumed in April 2008 for a planned 2012 completion, and recent photos show newly installed windows on the concrete face. Windows and fittings, however, can't hide the fact that while the original plans called for a structural steel frame, that proposal was apparently rejected for its expense; according to Wikipedia, the skyscraper was built entirely out of cheaply made reinforced concrete.

In 2004, construction began on the Burj Dubai, the tallest man-made structure ever built. Its superstructure was completed in January of 2009, and it is over twice as tall as the roof height of the Empire State Building. But the recent worldwide economic collapse has smashed Dubai's bubble. In January 2009 prices in the tower fell by 50%, from a high last June of around $4000 per sq ft, a drop that is typical of other properties in the emirate. Debtors are apparently leaving Dubai in droves, abandoning their luxury automobiles at the airport. Could Dubai become the world's tallest ghost town? Will the Burj Dubai become the new Ryugyong Hotel? Click the video below to watch a CBS News report on the Dubai real estate situation:

Click here to see Skyscraperpage.com's diagram of the what world's tallest buildings will be next year: Burj Dubai is #1, of course, whether it's occupied or not; Taipei 101 -- currently the world's tallest skyscraper -- is #3; Chicago's Sears Tower (the tallest American skyscraper and former world record holder from 1974-1998) comes in at #9; The Empire State is way over on the right at #19.

Incidentally, it was announced on Thursday that the name of the Sears Tower will change to Willis Tower this June, after London-based Willis Group Holdings. A sign of the times, I suppose; the Chrysler Building, that most elegant of Manhattan's Art Deco skyscrapers, was bought last year by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.

Happy Presidents' Day

2009-02-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

George Washington trivia: "He had a wig for his wig and a brain for his heart..."

Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum, part II

2009-02-10T02:01:00.000-08:00

"So potent was religion in persuading to evil deeds" -- thus wrote Lucretius. I will go even further:

Tantum religio potuit suadere ignorantia

"So potent was religion in persuading to ignorance". As evidence, I give you this image:

When I found the above Google search screen capture on Digg today, I didn't believe it. Then I tried it myself (it's accurate), and even tried a different search, including Darwin's given name:

It's a sad comment on the current lack of science education in our country, as well as on the dearth of skepticism and critical thinking skills in ye surfers of the internet. This is especially poignant given the fact that in exactly two days we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of this immensely important scientist.

Happy birthday, old chap! Terribly sorry, but it appears that your rigorously tested and eminently sound theory of Evolution, which remains uncontested in worldwide scientific literature, has fallen quite out of favor with the ignorant yet self-righteous lay public in these United States of America. A pity, that -- this country being such a technological marvel of the modern age, as well as the last superpower and all. Regrettably, two of our greatest super powers are ignorance and religiosity...always a bad combination.

Tim Minchin

2009-02-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

My new favorite song:

I only just discovered this "huge rock n roll megastar" today, courtesy of the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.

Kogi Korean BBQ To Go

2009-01-30T14:03:00.001-08:00

street life taco style-68, originally uploaded by kogibbq.

Last night I decided it was time to sample L.A.'s newest gastronomic fad, marinated and barbecued Korean meat wrapped in tacos and sold from a truck. It was actually Dnice, recently transplanted from the east coast, who educated me on the fusion street fare after hearing about it on Good Food last weekend.

As ludicrous as it sounds, I stood in a line of over a hundred food fiends on Wilshire and Cloverdale for 90 minutes. After the first 20 I was committed; I had made the effort to drive out to the Miracle Mile at 22:00 on a school night, and anyway all I had at home was cereal and milk. Luckily I had the latest Radiolab podcast to keep me company, and at around 23:30 I finally got to have my photo taken and place my order for 3 tacos -- tofu, spicy pork, and spicy BBQ Chicken.

The tacos were delectable -- beautifully textured toppings wedded flawlessly with the tangy, spicy meat; the overall mouthfeel was pinguid and yet perfectly crisp. As my friend Tom pointed out today, however, nothing short of ambrosia could fully satisfy after an hour and a half in the cold, but Kogi came close -- it could very well be the late night drunk food of the gods.

I can't wait for the fad to pass so I can get this toothsome treat without the long wait.

Deconstructing Religious Violence

2009-01-25T23:39:00.000-08:00

I just read The Rumpus Long Interview with Steven Soderbergh. Near the end, the director begins to lament what little effect film actually has on society's problems, and he makes a particularly insightful statement:

Any discussion about the Middle East that doesn’t start with whether monotheism is a good thing or a bad thing is an irrelevant discussion. This is all based on the fact that some people think that a certain piece of land that was host to some events two thousand years ago has magic meaning. I don’t believe that. I think dirt is dirt. Why people are still fixated on this idea of having this particular piece of dirt – I don’t understand it. That dirt isn’t worth one life to me. So you can sit and talk about who had what when and that, but it goes back to a deeper question of our need to create a narrative with this force that is acting upon us. Until we address whether that’s smart or dumb nothing’s going to get solved.

Putting aside the issue of whether stories about the middle east can be told without addressing monotheism, he's right, of course; dirt is dirt. If one were to take some gravel from the Temple Mount and display it next to some similar-looking soil taken from any other spot on Earth -- no rabbi or imam could tell the difference between the two samples. Yet Jews, Christians, and Muslims have been enthusiastically murdering one another for centuries over that soil in Jerusalem. In recent years Israelis have defended their illegal settlements in Palestinian territory by claiming that the land was gifted to them by God. There will always be trouble when deities dole out real estate, not the least because some of the affected parties consider said deity to be non-existent.

Soderbergh's assertion reminded me of an article by Lance Morrow I'd read years ago, and saved for this particular paragraph:

Two monotheisms is one too many in a small, bitter place. Jerusalem is a holy city, God help it — palpably, magically holy. That's the trouble. Holiness makes people crazy. David Ben-Gurion toyed with the idea, when Israel was just starting, of tearing down the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem — a blasphemous idea, until you look behind it to see the point: People cannot lead normal lives in a manifestly holy place, especially one so dogmatically contested. They are subject to ecstacies, and there is nothing worse than ecstatic violence, which is the form that religion may take when it goes into politics; absolutism does not like to share, and considers whatever gruesome aggressions it may commit to be justified as self-defense. Religious indignation expresses itself as massacre.

Morrow's final sentence calls to mind a particularly famous quote from Blaise Pascal's Pensées (which ironically was a defense of the Christian faith):

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."

I wish George Mitchell the best of luck in his new endeavor. In the meantime, I'd like to see Soderbergh remake The Passion of the Christ; I have a feeling I'd prefer his version to Mel Gibson's.

Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum

2009-01-21T22:35:00.000-08:00

A satellite image of yesterday's presidential inauguration -- The U.S. Capitol is at the top of the image and the Washington Monument is at the bottom; the brown splotches running vertically down the Mall are the human witnesses to history being made.

(Satellite image courtesy of GeoEye. Click here to view it in glorious high resolution.)

In his inaugural address, Barack Obama gave a wee tip o' the hat to atheists and agnostics:

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers."

Thank you, President Obama. My guess is that this reference to skeptics was one of your many historical firsts. At any rate, we've come a long way since 1987, when George H.W. Bush remarked,

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

16.1% of the U.S. population is religiously unaffiliated but, to borrow a label from Steven Waldman of beliefnet, we are the political Untouchables. It wasn't always this way, however. There were no preachers or ministers delivering invocations at either of Abraham Lincoln's inaugural ceremonies; John Quincy Adams swore his oath of office not on a Bible, but on a book of Constitutional law. While he was a religious man, Adams actually believed in Jefferson's "wall of separation" between church and the state. Like Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Adams was savvy enough to know that

“...a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion.”

In fact, it is heartening to note that our Constitution, the founding document of our republic, never mentions a god and even goes so far as to state (Article VI, section 3) that "...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States," i.e., no elected official nor civil servant must profess a belief in any religion, or even a belief in any god, to hold their office. It's an ironic contrast to our most recent election, in which many of the candidates (especially the Republicans) tried to out-Jesus one other. Contrary to Fox News reports, these United States did not come together to form a Christian nation. In fact, many of our "founding fathers" actually wrote about the evils of religion in general and the Christian Bible in particular. Here are some representative quotations:

"One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian." -- Mortimer Adler

"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man" -- Thomas Jefferson

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

"His [John Calvin's] religion was demonism. If ever a man worshiped a false god, he did. The being described in his five points is ... a demon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no god at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin. -- Thomas Jefferson, Works, 1829 edition, vol. 4, p. 322, quoted from Franklin Steiner.

"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity" -- John Adams

Ben Franklin wrote "The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason" and that "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches".

James Madison, a Unitarian: "I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible)."

And Thomas Paine, from The Age of Reason (1794): "What is it the New Testament teaches us? To believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith." and "The Christian system of religion is an outrage on common sense."

Again I thank you, President Obama. It is splendid to know that a modern president can have my back, too.

Sanjūsangendō of Kyoto

2008-12-06T15:28:00.001-08:00

Sanjūsangendō, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Japan's longest wooden building, rebuilt in 1266. Alas, you're not allowed to photograph the 1,001 gilded bodhisattvas inside, so here's the outside. This page has some photos of the inner hall of statues. If you've ever read the Japanese historical meganovel Musashi (or seen the filmed adaptation Duel at Ichijoji Temple), this was where, on a snowy night in 1604, the ronin Miyamoto Musashi (perhaps the most renowned swordsman in history) dueled with Yoshioka Denshichirō.

     Denshichirō's feet inched forward. At the tip of his sword, his willpower quivered toward the start of a movement.
     Two lives expired with two strokes of a single sword. First, Musashi attacked to his rear, and Ōtaguro Hyōsuke's head, or a piece of it, sailed past Musashi like a great crimson cherry, as the body staggered lifelessly toward Denshichirō. The second horrendous scream -- Denshichirō's cry of attack -- was cut short midway, the broken-off sound thinning out into the space around them. Musashi leapt so high that he appeared to have sprung from the level of his opponent's chest. Denshichirō's big frame reeled backward and dropped in a spray of white snow.
     Body pitifully bent, face buried in the snow, the dying man cried, "Wait! Wait!"
     Musashi was no longer there.
     "Hear that?"
     "It's Denshichirō!"
     "He's been hurt!"
     The black forms of Genzaemon and the Yoshioka disciples rushed across the courtyard like a wave.
     "Look! Hyōsuke's been killed!"
     "Denshichirō!"
     "Denshichirō!"
     Yet they knew there was no use calling, no use thinking about medical treatment. Hyōsuke's head had been sliced sideways from the right ear to the middle of the mouth, Denshichirō's from the top down to the right cheekbone. All in a matter of seconds.
     "That's...that's why I warned you," sputtered Genzaemon. "That's why I told you not to take him too lightly. Oh, Denshichirō, Denshichirō!" The old man hugged his nephew's body, trying in vain to console it.
     Genzaemon clung to Denshichirō's corpse, but it angered him to see the others milling about in the blood-reddened snow. "What happened to Musashi?" he thundered.
     Some had already started searching; they saw no sign of Musashi.
     "He's not here," came the answer, timid and obtuse.
     "He's around here somewhere," barked Genzaemon. "He hasn't got wings. If I don't get in a blow of revenge, I can never again hold my head up as a member of the Yoshioka family. Find him!"
     One man gasped and pointed. The others fell back a pace and stared in the direction indicated.
     "It's Musashi."
     "Musashi?"
     As the idea sank in, silence filled the air, not the tranquility of a place of worship, but an ominous, diabolical silence as though ears, eyes and brains had ceased to function.
     Whatever the man had seen, it was not Musashi, for Musashi was standing under the eaves of the nearest building. His eyes fixed on the Yoshioka men and his back pressed to the wall, he edged his way along until he reached the southwest corner of the Sanjūsangendō. He climbed onto the veranda and crept, slowly and quietly, to the center.
     "Will they attack?" he asked himself. When they made no movement in his direction, he continued stealthily on to the north side of the building and, with a bound, disappeared into the darkness.

-- Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa (1935): Book IV, Wind, chapter 7, Reverberations in the Snow. . Translated from the Japanese by Charles S. Terry (1981).

back from Bangkok

2008-11-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

Some photos from my recent post-election trip to Bangkok. Click here to view the whole set of 31 pics...

Yes we did.

2008-11-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

I am exceptionally proud of my country tonight...from sea to shining sea.

Click here to see how the U.S. population voted. Scroll down to see cartograms depicting votes by population and electoral college.

Putting the "ick" in Maverick

2008-11-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

I grow weary of your pertinacity, America. Perhaps I've focused too much on Sarah Palin in recent posts, assuming that the potential but very real danger of an obdurate Creationist cretin inhabiting the most important office in the world could persuade you to think twice about the Republican ticket. Here then is an argument against the vintage veteran himself.

I have heard conservatives state that they are voting for McCain because he was a war hero. I assume then that these same conservatives must have voted enthusiastically for John Kerry in 2004, since Bush Junior's military service history is truly risible. McCain's record, however, lacks any of the distinguishing characteristics of Kerry's (or Powell's, or Eisenhower's, or George H.W. Bush's for that matter); he was known not for being an ace Navy pilot, but as a spoiled, drunken, gambling carouser who graduated 5th from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy and used his flyboy image to get laid. He crashed 3 planes, not including the one that was shot down over Hanoi or the infamous Forrestal incident, during which he retired to the "ready room" and watched on closed-circuit TVs as over a hundred of his ship mates fought and died bravely to fight the fire that started when his A-4 bomber was accidentally struck by a Zuni rocket. He was tortured into confessing American military information in Vietnam while other POWs he served with not only never confessed but attempted escape, and were punished harshly for their patriotic intransigence.

America, please look into this investigative article by Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone. If the only things you know about John McCain's history come from his campaign or Fox News, then you owe it to yourself and to future generations to look at the other side of this coin that you value so highly.

If you support McCain because you support everything that the current administration has done for our country (McCain voted in support of Bush 95 percent of the time last year), or if you want Roe v. Wade overturned (which he lists as one of his stated goals on his website), then you should vote for John McCain without regret. His military record alone, however, does not even remotely qualify him for the office of president.

An Appeal to the Purple States

2008-10-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

Dear America (but specifially VA, PA, CO, FL, OH, NC, NM, IN, and NV),

I'd like to encourage you to take the Republican vice presidential candidate's vacuous statements and simpleminded beliefs into account when you vote on Tuesday. In the first place, she has advocated the teaching of Creationism in public schools alongside the scientific theory of evolution. I would actually condone this, as long as our science teachers are also required to instruct students on The Dreamtime; how the Egyptian god Re called forth all living things from the endless ocean of Nun; how Eros caused Gaia to fall in love with Uranus, and the accounts of all their children and grandchildren; how Odin the All-Father shaped our world from the body of the frost giant Ymir; and perhaps most importantly, how the Flying Spaghetti Monster created our entire universe while drunk. For there is just as much evidence for all of these creation myths, and many others, as there is for Sarah Palin's legendary fable detailed in two different conflicting stories in the Genesis chapter of the Christian bible. Either we advocate teaching them all in the science curriculum, or we just stick to teaching Evolutionary Theory, which is the only story that has an immeasurable amount of scientific evidence to back it up. Creationists like to argue that Evolution is "only" a theory, but they forget that the scientific definition of the word is very different from its everyday usage. The idea that germs cause disease is also "only" a theory; in fact, gravity is "only" a theory as well.

Still unconvinced that this candidate is daft? In her first big policy speech on Friday, she mocked fruit fly research while advocating more money for parents of special needs children. Drosophila melanogaster, or common fruit flies, are a model organism in biological and genetic research, essential for the study of genetics and developmental biology. This is the equivalent of saying, "Instead of funding research into airbags, seatbelts, and crumple zones in the interest of improving car safety standards, we're just going to give cash to people who have to take care of loved ones maimed in car accidents." This candidate is DANGEROUSLY scientifically illiterate. Please view the clip below for details.

"This is the most mindless, ignorant, uninformed comment that we have seen from Governor Palin so far, and there has been a lot of competition for that prize."
-- Richard Wolffe, Newsweek senior White House correspondent

VOTE

2008-10-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

I mean it this time. Last night, I met up with a friend of mine who is not a U.S. citizen. She brought along a friend of hers, a 24 year-old African-American girl originally from Pennsylvania. This girl seemed to be relatively intelligent and sophisticated. She seemed to have her life together. However, when the conversation turned to politics, she revealed that she's not registered to vote. When I inquired why not, she stated that she just doesn't know much about the issues and that it doesn't seem important to her.

15 hours later, I am still stunned and unnerved.

The Jetlag Strikes Back

2008-10-19T03:43:00.000-07:00

It's 03:54 Sunday morning and I'm still restless. My evil jetlag has, however, proved useful in getting the remainder of my Aussie photos posted up to Flickr. Click here for more avian therapod dinosaur descendants; for six and a half foot-long goannas; for blue mountain majesty; for feces-ingesting arboreal marsupials; for yellow-footed wallabies and red kangaroos; and for highly venomous serpents. See below for a few samples.

DON'T VOTE.

2008-10-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

to quote from a previous blog entry, "Right now, disenfranchised people all over the globe are struggling for the right to self-determination, a right many of us take for granted. Our forebears fought and sometimes died to secure for us the right to choose our leaders. Don't squander this precious gift."

Taronga, Kirrawee, Illawarra, Woolloomooloo

2008-09-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

Ho hum, another brilliant day in Sydney. What's uncommon about this one is that I don't have to work. I hopped a bus to the Apple Store this morning and uploaded some photos from last Sunday's visit to Taronga. The koalas, wombats, wallabies, and platypus were all pretty cool, but my favorite encounter of the day may have been with the emu -- mainly because I got to walk right up to the Brobdingnagian beast with no barrier separating us.

Click here to view the thumbnail shots of the zoo (they're the ones with the animals), or else clicking on the above photos will take you directly to their individual pages.

After some morning internet activity I yum cha'd at Marigold in Chinatown with some of the Animal crew, and I'm now riding a train to Kirrawee on the Illawarra line to Cronulla. We just pulled out of Wolli Creek station. Does this sound like foolish baby talk? OF COURSE. But I'm starting to get used to it.

Just call me a drongo if I ever say I want to watch some footy while drinking a cuppa for brekkie.

When Atheists Attack

2008-09-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

Dear America,

I'm relieved to see that you're finally beginning to express some trepidation about a "Palin-McCain Administration" (her words, not mine). If you're still leaning in the Republican direction, however, I'd encourage you to read this Newsweek article by Sam Harris. Yes, he is one of the so-called New Atheists, and I know how you feel about them apostates, both old and new. But please, look past his identity and just take note of what he has to say. After all, you don't have to renounce your belief in a god to listen to reason. And it is reasonable to expect a dangerous outcome for our country, indeed the world, if someone as inexperienced and self-righteous as Sarah Palin should happen to be hiked the nuclear football.

Here is the link to the article in its entirety.

"Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated." -- Sam Harris

Top Republican says Palin unready

2008-09-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Click here to read this brief BBC article from Tuesday.

"You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

Exactly, Mr. Hagel. I'm speechless as well.

How to Speak Australian

2008-09-13T23:17:00.000-07:00

G'day.....Hello/Hey/Good morning/What's up
Bottle-O.....Bottle shop (Liquor store)
Heaps.....A lot/very (as in, "That's heaps cool!")
Mate.....Man/holmes/dude/friend
How you going?.....How you doing?
Sultana Bran.....Raisin bran
Lolly.....Candy
Footy.....Football
Footpath.....Sidewalk
Haitch.....The letter "H" ( as in, "Haitch ess bee see bank")
Hyaah.....Here
Hungry Jack's.....Burger King
Whinge.....To complain
Reggo.....Registration
Cuppa.....Cup of tea
Light globe.....Light bulb
Umbrella.....Disposable instrument that keeps the rain off of you for 10 minutes before exploding in a gust of wind

ignorance ain't bliss

2008-09-13T05:15:00.001-07:00

You know what's great about living in Australia? There's no chance that an economic simpleton will become the Vice President anytime soon.

That, and chocolate-scented deodorant.

Palin: wrong woman, wrong message

2008-09-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

Dear America,

What's wrong with you? A new national poll has put Obama and McCain in a dead heat, 42% to 42%. Time is running out for you to wake the hell up. Oh, I watched a little of the Republican Convention; I can see the appeal of all those red, white and blue balloons. But it'll take more than helium to turn this ship around. And what's with McCain now claiming to be the "candidate of change"? Sir, you cannot wear that hat when you agree with the current administration on nearly 100% of its policies, including the failed and foolish ones (100% in 2008, 95% in 2007). In fact, McCain sided with Bush more than any other Republican in the Senate in 2007. This is the "candidate of change"? What happened to the Straight Talk Express of yesteryear? What happened to "the Maverick"? Where be your defiance now? Your ability to speak truth to power? Gone, like all my respect for you when you embraced Jerry Falwell's chubby flanks after rightfully calling him an "agent of intolerance". Crash and burn, eh, Mav?

America, please peruse this article on Sarah Palin from Thursday's L.A. Times, by Gloria Steinem (Yes, she was an idiot in the child sexual abuse scandals of the 1980s, but this time she's on the right side of science, unlike Ms. Palin). Click here to read the article in its entirety, these are just a few representative quotations.

"When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."

"She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger."

Some pics from Sydney up on Flickr

2008-09-06T00:13:00.001-07:00

Sydney Harbour Bridge, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

Sydney, Australia: world capital of abandoned umbrellas. Walking from Surry Hills to George Street in the driving rain today, I came across at least a dozen broken umbrellas; tossed aside in gutters, parks, on the footpath, and sticking out of rubbish bins. I even bore witness to an act of abandonment: I saw the wind rip an umbrella out of the hands of a girl six meters ahead of me and watched it float back, people dodging it, until it was caught by a man just in front of me. Actually it wasn't ripped from her hands, since she still held the handle -- it had broken off mid-stem. She didn't even attempt to recover it! She just threw the handle to the ground and leaned into the wind, driving her now empty hands deep inside her pockets.

I'm sitting on the top floor of the Apple store looking at the umbrella that I bought for $11 a few hours ago. It's already bent and pitiful. It won't close because the hooks that hold it shut were busted by the force of the gale. I'll probably toss it into the air on the way home and watch it sail away.

Go to http://flickr.com/photos/ninedragons/ to see the photos from last week, before the rains came.

my first foray into the southern hemisphere

2008-08-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

Dear America,

I've been hired for a freelance gig by a company in Australia. The itinerary isn't finalized yet, but I think I'll be leaving for Sydney this Thursday. I'll be back around mid-October -- in my absence please come to the realization that John McCain is a lying (or senile) economic ignoramus married to a thieving drug addict. Sorry, reformed thieving drug addict. Can you imagine if the tables were turned and Mrs. Obama had been the one stealing from her own charity to feed her drug habit?

Have a good time, and don't forget to water my plants.

Sincerely,

SeeLance

Look Who's Popular Now

2008-08-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

or, An Examination of the Comparable Popularity of my Most-Viewed Photos on Flickr.

Flickr has a useful and interesting "stats" page, wherein I can easily peruse my photos in order of popularity (judged by a number of criteria, but the one I find most interesting for the purposes of this discussion is Views, or my "200 most popular bits, ordered by the most views". What follows are my top five pics, in descending order:

This photo of Michelangelo's Moses is far and away my most popular, with a whopping 568 total views. What's so great about it? Nothing -- it's an average photo of a breathtaking but not overly famous sculpture in Rome. I've got a better photo of Vatican City's Laocoön group that didn't even break the top 15. But the link to "Horned Moses" pops up early on in Yahoo!'s image search engine; in fact, 147 people have image-searched Yahoo! for "moses" and stumbled across this photo. What does that say about internet users in general? I think it's safe to say that there are a lot of religious or religi-curious people conducting searches on the Web.

Next up, with 343 views is this pic of a Japanese student wearing socks bearing the Playboy Bunny emblem. Some key search phrases entered on both Yahoo! and Google that have yielded this photo are: " teen socks", "teen uniform", "playboy rabbit", and "playboy socks". Not only are the netizens of this world religious, they're also prurient. Fascinating dichotomy, no?

These next two photos (with 302 and 276 views, respectively) are similar and occur right next to each other in my photostream, so it's a fair assumuption that a visitor to one might spot and click the other's thumbnail also. These will rise to the surface if people conduct a search for "harajuku" or "harajuku girls". Thank you, Gwen Stefani.

This one is number five with a bullet. Only a few days ago did it edge past my sixth-most popular photo (another Harajuku girl), with 265 views. Google, Yahoo!, and Baidu (a Chinese search engine) searchers for "Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni" have clicked on this photo I took in HK last December. What can I say, other than that the Olympics are a phenomenon.

Olga Teresa Cordeiro Souza

2008-07-27T17:34:00.001-07:00

with Grandma and Stitt in front of the HSBC building, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

July 31, 1926 -- July 22, 2008

"You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil
the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide
unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of
the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of
spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands
before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the
mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the
sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless
tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance."

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

dreaming of eating at home

2008-06-18T11:48:00.001-07:00

Daruma Gigante, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

I've been up in Walnut Creek for almost 3 weeks now. A bad time to be introduced to Just One Plate, a site devoted to some marvelous restaurants and patisseries (and their chefs) native to L.A. Fortunately, the site gives recipes from these eateries, so perhaps I can prepare braised loup de mer with butter lettuce or seafood nage normand for my grandmother up here. Prospects are doubtful, though: I made banana bread with my sister over the weekend, but it emerged rather gummy and dense.

What a difference a week makes

2008-05-30T23:19:00.001-07:00

Ryozen Kannon, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

One week ago tonight, I was lying on the floor of Narita Terminal 1, delirious and feverish, vomiting every 15 minutes. I only recall bits and pieces, like a fast-fading dream, but I know that my sister and a Singapore Airlines rep had to escort me to my flight in a wheelchair. A severe case of food poisoning torpedoed my last day and a half in Japan, but it didn't scupper my entire trip. That was then. Before I returned to the States and heard the news.

I am now in Walnut Creek, in my grandmother's condo. I drove up from L.A. last night. My parents and I checked her out of the hospital today, and she is now sleeping fitfully behind me -- HFA has set up a hospital bed in her living room. Her oncologist expects her to live another month; four short weeks. I expect that I will be driving up and down the I-5 at least a few times for the duration, trying to remain here as much as possible.

As a diversionary tactic, I stayed up all night on Wednesday, my last night in L.A., uploading most of my photos from Japan to Flickr. As a distraction, it didn't work. Nevertheless, The photos are there, and here is the link.

Oyasuminasai.

Nihon ni ikimashou!

2008-05-07T20:21:00.001-07:00

Fun Harajuku Girls, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

I'm out of the country for the next two weeks with JC. Tokyo, Kyoto, maybe Nikko...who knows. I'll share with you when I get back.

The Sony Bravia Ads

2008-04-05T00:03:00.000-07:00

In the order in which I dig 'em.

Oh My Teapot!

2008-03-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

(Russell's Teapot design from InklingMagazine.com by Patrick Quigley)

Russell's Celestial Teapot finally wins over a worshiper! At long last someone has realized that the existence of Bertrand Russell's miniature china teapot, spinning ad infinitum somewhere in the void between Earth and Mars, is just as likely as that of the biblical Christian god! Or rather, that said teapot is just as deserving of idolatry as the god of the Christians. Click here to read the story at The Telegraph.co.uk. The bad news, however, is that this convert to Teapotism is a former Muslim Malaysian, and she's been arrested because Islamic apostasy is against the law in her country, punishable by jailtime.

I've actually been to Kuala Lumpur for a few days (my most memorable experience was climbing Cesar Pelli's stunning Petronas Towers while they actually were the world's tallest buildings) and this news is extremely troubling to me. My impression was that of a tolerant and "moderate" majority-Muslim country, divorced from the hardcore Wahhabism of the Near East, that endorsed freedom of religion and worship as well as the freedom not to worship. It appears now that my impression was wrong.

I offer up a prayer for poor Kamariah Ali:

Our little Teapot, short and stout,
who art in the heavens,
Hallowed be thy Brew.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in High Tea.
Give us this day our daily Scones.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into soft drinks,
But deliver us from Coffee.
[For the Earl Grey, the Chrysanthemum,
and the English Breakfast are yours
now and for ever. Amen.]

Phoenix Weekend

2008-03-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Desert hiking, man-made lake boating, fountain gazing, and carny folk hatin' -- you can see last weekend's set of 37 photos here.

And for Mack's perspective, pics, and a list of our our discussion topics from the weekend, you can cross-reference his blog here.

When Teddy Bear Chollas Attack!

2008-03-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

As I was crouching down to take the above photo of Cylindropuntia bigelovii (Teddy Bear Cholla make you holla!), I stepped on a cholla ball which embedded itself in the sole of my trainer. I gave my foot a fast flick to get the thing off, and it rolled up the side of my sneaker into my ankle. Enter one Wilhelm scream, stage left.

Dave tried mashing it between two rocks and pulling, but that only drove it further in. Mack (my hero) finally took off his undershirt and, wrapping it around his paw like an oven mitt, yanked the barbed ball clean off, impaling himself in the process. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to immediately begin packing the wound with tiny leaves torn from a random nearby bush -- good thing poison ivy doesn't grow in the desert. Here is the video of the climax:

If the embedded video doesn't play for you, here is the link to the YouTube URL. Also, for Mack's pics & perspective on our day in the desert, see his blog entry here. More photos to come from our second day on Saguaro Lake...

Field Trip

2008-02-28T11:50:00.000-08:00

On the first of February, I drove out to Joshua Tree with Mack and bShawley. The national park is sterling; what's even more first-class is driving 315 miles averaging 45.6 mpg. I think Mack was especially impressed given the fact that he's driven about 4,000 miles in the last 6 weeks, all in a Toyota Tacoma.

I'm posting this now because bShawley has just uploaded his Lomo fisheye pics as well (see the sweet camera in the second image above). You can peep them here, while my pics are on my Flickr page.

Ambulacral Groove

2008-02-27T12:58:00.001-08:00

Starfish, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

From the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific this past Sunday. Those are tube feet, and they're what starfish walk around on. Almost as cool as the iridium flare I saw on Monday evening. No photos of that, though.

Dumb just doesn't do it for me anymore

2008-02-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

In 1993 I was a freshman at VA Tech, and I loved dumb blondes. Alabama Worley (née Whitman), played ever so sweetly by Patricia Arquette in True Romance, was my Platonic ideal of the female in form and action (but especially form -- know what I'm sayin'?).

Check out this video of Kelly Pickler. This is the first time I've ever heard of her (ignorance of American Idol is truly bliss) and hopefully the last. With her platinum locks, doe-eyed naiveté and sweet Tar Heel accent, she is the living embodiment of 'Bama; and she's helped me to realize that I don't find dumb blondes as attractive as I once did. In fact, the word "loathe" comes to mind.

Some representative Ms. Pickler quotations:

"I thought Europe was a country!"
"Buda...Budapest? I never even heard of that!"
"Like, I know they speak French there...don't they?"
"Like, I want to say...is France a country?"

[All of these lines get laughs from the audience, not the gasps of horror and shame they deserve.]

Are you as turned off as I am yet? Tomorrow I'm attending a panel discussion on nuclear energy at the California Science Center, where I'm hoping to encounter some hottie geniuses who can wash out the bad taste this clip has left in my mouth.

Looks can only get you so far in this country, Kelly, and the world is much bigger than this country. Even so, I'd still like to watch you beat the $#!+ out of James Gandolfini in a motel bathroom.

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I was driving Soy home from Yogurt Land when NPR informed us of the imminent lunar eclipse. On a whim, we turned round and headed up to Griffith Observatory to sneak a peek at this evening's main event in our solar system. There were a few news vans, some amateur (and professional) astronomers with their 'scopes, and a crowd of a hundred or two shivering sky gazers spread out across the lawn. What impresses me most about seeing the full moon through the lens of a telescope is the fact that it resembles what it actually is: an orb of pale rock and dust, pitted with scars and craters, sailing through the vast emptiness of space. It is a reality check, a reminder of the true nature of the grand universe we inhabit. Under normal circumstances, a glance up at a full moon will reveal a bone-white disc, seemingly tacked to the firmament and changing its position every so often. I think it's the lack of detail that defeats us -- when viewed under a 25x telescope one can see clearly the receding perspective of the mountains, ridges, and seas as they near the edge of the sphere.

We watched the shadow of our planet slowly encompass our anemic satellite; we saw the fingernail crescent of sunlight shrink inexorably to nothingness. We stayed through the 52-minute pinkish totality, the time when the Earth is between the moon and the sun -- when it is lit only by the light skimming off our edges, through our atmosphere. As Jim, our telescope operator, so poetically put it, "the moon is lit only by all the sunrises and sunsets taking place on the planet right now". There are some good pictures on the Pharyngula Science Blog.

The undercards tonight were just as cool as the main event: we were witness to an iridium flare, when a beam of sunlight catches a reflection off of an iridium satellite passing overhead a couple hundred miles up in the sky -- it looked like a shooting star that grew brighter than the stars around it over 20 seconds or so and then faded away; and the planet Saturn, which looks just as your mind's eye pictures it, only tinier.

Self-deprecation is AWESOME

2008-02-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

Why I will vote for Barack Obama on Tuesday

2008-02-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Although I view the Democratic nomination race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as a choice between a mediocre candidate and a truly worthy candidate, there are several key reasons why I cannot in good conscience cast a vote for Clinton. She reflects more mainstream Democratic positions and has endorsed universal health care for a decade, but she is also a war hawk, and there is not much sunlight between her and McCain on many issues. In fact, she is more conservative than McCain on several key issues, as evidenced by Ann Coulter's endorsement of Clinton over McCain. That endorsement should tell you everything you need to know, but here are five major points on which Clinton and I diverge:

1. She is in favor of maintaining the Patriot Act as it is, sections of which have been ruled unconstitutional multiple times by multiple U.S. courts, and is in clear violation of both our 4th and 1st Amendments.

2. She is in favor of military action against Iran, a country whose nuclear program we ourselves established in the 1950s, and for which no current evidence exists. In fact, our National Intelligence Estimates put the Iranians about 10 years away from developing a nuclear bomb and state that they shelved the idea of maintaining a nuclear arsenal about 4 years ago. Despite this, Hillary unapologetically goose steps with the Neoconservatives when Bush rattles his saber at Iran, displaying the same gullibility that led her to so enthusiastically follow him into war in Iraq.

I believe that Pakistan is a much more dangerous prospect, as it most likely still harbors the Al Qaida operatives who planned 9/11 and was one of only two countries in the world that recognized the oppressive Taliban regime as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. But Bush has rewarded Pakistan by dropping the sanctions imposed by Clinton, selling them boatloads of military planes and equipment, and has given them 10 billion dollars in aid since 9/11. All this while the father of their nuclear program, A.Q. Khan, gave secrets of their nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran while riding back and forth from those countries on the aircraft we sold them. He now has been pardoned by President Musharraf and lives free in Pakistan. Agencies of our government are not permitted to detain him and to this day have not been able to even interview him. With key allies like Musharraf, who needs enemies? Clinton criticized Obama for stating that "...if we have actionable intelligence on Al Qaeda operatives [in Pakistan] including Bin Laden, and President Musharraf cannot act, then we should."

3. She is in favor of building a fence along our border with Mexico. This is the most inane idea in recent history. If you really want illegal immigrants out of the country, there is a cheaper solution: impose much stricter fines on the corporations, agriculture companies, small business owners, and contractors who employ them, and then enforce those fines. We might even be able to win back some of our budget surplus that Bush squandered on the Iraq invasion. Without available jobs, aliens will have no other option but to return to their home countries -- if there is no wall at the border to stop them. Of course, doing this would impose a huge financial burden on those American businesses, which would have to hire more expensive citizen workers. Many of them would suffer and even go bankrupt, but that's the cost of not having illegal labor in our country. So instead, let's just throw up another billion or two and build a modern Great Wall of China -- which didn't work for them, either -- because it looks impressive and we can all go back to eating our cheaply farmed food and working in our spotless office buildings.

Alternatively, if you're hankering for a large federally mandated construction project, why not build better levees in New Orleans? They currently are engineered to hold up against a Category 3 hurricane (Katrina was a Category 3.5), and the entire levee system is still sinking so over time it will be less and less effective. Coincidentally, Obama wants to protect New Orleans against even a Category 5.

4. She is in favor of the death penalty, while I believe that, with all the recent exonerations of death row inmates using DNA evidence, a moratorium on executions is needed to prevent the sanctioned murder of innocents who had bad lawyers. I also believe that for the guilty, lifetime imprisonment with one's conscience in a cage under armed guard is a far more effective punishment than the escape and quick release of an early demise.

5. She is in favor of torture. Simply put, Hillary Clinton supports the use of torture by American forces and intelligence agencies, while even John McCain does not. This is one of the reasons why Ann Coulter despises McCain.

Regardless of who you vote for, please vote on Tuesday. If you don't yet know who your candidate is, visit The Pew Forum's website, where you can choose an important issue and compare the candidates' views on that issue. Also, there is this nifty tool that allows you feed in your positions on a variety of political issues and then spits out a chart displaying the candidates which agree with you the most and enumerates the topics on which you disagree.

Map, Schmap

2008-01-28T00:23:00.000-08:00

Two of the photos that I have posted on my Flickr account have been selected by Schmap!! to be used in their online map/travel guides. I had never heard of them either, but hey, I'm still honored. One photo features the Walt Disney Concert Hall here in downtown, and the other is a pic of the toilet and bidet in my bathroom at the Cavalieri Hilton in Rome:

The downtown L.A. Schmap!! page is here, and Schmap!!'s deluxe hotel guide to Rome is here. In both cases, my photo (and credit) appears in the upper right.

White Buddha in the rain

2007-12-14T00:59:00.001-08:00

White Buddha, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

I've finally finished uploading all the pics from my recent trips to Vietnam, Macau, and Hong Kong. Jetlag is a bitch. I'm retired for the moment so I have no incentive to shoehorn myself back into the PDT. For the last few days I've been swinging wildly at my target sleep patterns not hitting anything. First I was going to sleep at 15:00 and waking up at 03:00, then I was able to go to sleep at a reasonable hour (midnight) but I would wake up at 04:00 fully alert and unable to drift back off. Today I arose at 09:00, but took an unexpected nap at 17:00...probably a result of eating the #19 at Langer's. Now I'm wide awake and my circadian rhythms are still shot to hell. I'm going to continue posting photos on Flickr...of the last Encontro when I stayed in HK and visited Shanghai.

Hong Kong Phoody

2007-12-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

Monday 12/3/2007: dinner at Club de Recreio. When I think of this meal I can only express disappointment at how mediocre the minchi was compared with Restaurante Litoral in Macau. Their minchi was the tastiest I've ever had, and the same goes for the galinha africana.

Tuesday 12/4/2007: Most breakfasts we either went up to the Conrad's executive lounge or ate the plump fruit and yogurt cups Mom brought down if we slept in. For lunch I ordered an orange gunner (orange juice added to the traditional ginger beer, ginger ale, lime, and bitters) and scrumptious Singapore noodles at Shek O Golf and Country Club, as a guest of Uncle Anthony. We ate on the veranda overlooking the golf course and the rocky coast:

That night we dined in the Kellet Island Bistro at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, where I ate some righteous lamb chops, much better than those at the Venetian banquet on our last night in Macau. I noticed that one of them was a touch undercooked, but it was so delicious that I ate it anyway, and no ill effects followed.

Wednesday 12/5/2007: the family and I met up with Ah Chan by the lions in front of the HSBC building and brought her to Yung Kee on Wellington Street. We rocked out to -- among other dishes -- preserved eggs with pickled ginger, deep-fried prawns with sweet and sour sauce, barbecued pork, pea shoots with garlic, pan-fried fish fillets, and roasted goose, the house specialty. We drank Shou Mei tea as an accompaniment, and for dessert I swallowed a bowl of tzi ma wu, black sesame soup. Afterwards we took the Star Ferry to Kowloon to try to walk off the layers of goose and pig we'd packed on.

Wednesday night we had a late dinner without Dad at one of my favorite Hong Kong juhk joints, Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop. At least I think that's the name; in Chinese it's 正斗, and it's located at 21 King Kwong Street in Happy Valley. I had my favorite preserved egg & beef congee with yau tiu wrapped in a layer of chi cheung fun, and "zha cheung mien", which you can see in a photo on the HK Foodie link above.

Thursday 12/6/2007: We tried to hit Sushi Hiro in Causeway Bay but our party was too big, so instead Uncle Anthony treated us to the best Italian restaurant in Hong Kong: Da Domenico in Sunning Plaza. Alessandro took good care of our party: we started with a ball of the creamiest mozzarella I've ever tasted; it had the texture of a fine chocolate mousse and a delicate but rich flavor. We also ordered the same mouthwatering fried scamorza that I sampled there in 2002 and a fresh spinach and ricotta raviolo the size of my plate. There was also a meat sampler (the meats and vegetables are flown in from Rome twice a week by Cathay) and a savory house-made Italian sausage. JC and I walked around in Central and stopped by Man Mo Temple that afternoon.

I had a luxurious mutton korma that night at the Happy Valley Clubhouse of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Friday 12/07/2007: Uncle Anthony took the four of us to his old local breakfast joint in Happy Valley where I'd eaten on previous trips -- Cheung Hing Coffee Shop. We gorged on Chinese style deep-fried "French" toast with cane syrup, condensed milk on toast, pineapple buns, yin yeung and ngau lai cha.

We hiked Bowen Road afterwards, all the way down through the aviary in HK Park. Check out this crazy giant pigeon we ran into:

That thing is just cold foolish and madcap! We hit Club Lusitano for a dressy but disappointing lunch of fish curry and empada; the cheese toast, though, is as good as I remembered.

Friday night Deanne joined our group for a hearty and succulent meal at The Chinnery at the Mandarin Oriental. Kumamoto oysters from Washington and a fillet of lemon sole, with sticky toffee pudding for dessert. We consumed two bottles of a fantastic Viognier from S. Africa over the course of the evening.

Saturday 12/08/2007: While Mom & Dad went out for seafood in Sai Kung with Deanne and Uncle Anthony, JC & I met up with Katish at The Press Room on Hollywood Road for blue crab bisque and a frisee salad with bacon lardons. I adore bacon lardons, and while these were good they weren't as supernatural as the sweet and savory bacon at Square One on Fountain. After lunch we took the MTR out to Hang Hau, so we could see Deanne's new house and say good-bye.

We dined that night at The Hong Kong Club, the colony's first. I started with half a dozen oysters (3 Irish, 3 Scottish), and continued with a medium-rare prime rib of beef with Yorkshire pudding and baked potato. We were accompanied by a beautifully decanted Chateau Lynch-Bages (1998). We finished the meal with a selection of cheeses and a delectable Chateau Giraud. Afterwards, JC and I met up with Daisy again for a drink at FINDS in Lan Kwai Fong, where I'd been treated to the Finnish national anthem two nights before, when Daisy and I unexpectedly stumbled onto Finland's 90th Independence Day celebration.

The food all week was intense and almost always unbearably good. It was also constantly being set before me; I never had the chance to be hungry after leaving Macau. Sadly, I'm now home eating American fare. I had some dim sum on Spring Street only a few hours after arriving at LAX on Sunday, to my great regret. Three weeks of fresh and authentic Asian cuisine could kill an appetite for the best dim sum in L.A., and CBS Seafood is far from the best. My new project -- inuring myself to mediocre cuisine -- begins today.

I'm IN

2007-12-10T11:54:00.001-08:00

Flying into LAX from HKG on United is like eating an appetizer at Urasawa, then driving to McDonald's for your main course and dessert. I took the $4 LAX Flyaway Bus to Union Station and walked home, dragging my bag behind me. I know it sounds arduous, but it was actually the most pleasant leg of my journey, after leaving Hong Kong. According to my new Baume & Mercier chronograph watch -- thank you Uncle Anthony -- it took me 32 minutes and 23 seconds to reach the door to my loft, and the morning weather was gorgeous. I stayed awake until about 3pm, and slept until about 4:00 this morning. I breakfasted early at The Pantry on Figueroa and watched the sun rise over downtown. In the coming days I'll be uploading photos and embroidering them with some blog entries.

The above pic was taken from our room on the 54th floor of the Conrad International in Admiralty.

I'm OUT

2007-11-18T01:36:00.000-08:00

Vietnam, Macau & HK. Back on the 9th of December.

Kamakura daibutsu in the rain

2007-09-29T01:11:00.001-07:00

Kamakura daibutsu in the rain, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

I'm working every day and night. I'm not responding to personal emails. I've retreated into my pain cave. I'm sick to death of Leatherheads. I need to leave the country again. It will all be over soon.

Bumpy antlers

2007-09-23T16:23:00.001-07:00

Bumpy antlers, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

another one. wary eye for the gaijin guy.

Bamboo grove

2007-09-23T16:04:00.001-07:00

Bamboo grove, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

I'm going through my photos from last year's trip to Japan and reuploading at a higher resolution. I'm also discovering a few that I like but never posted.

riding the train from Tokyo to Nara

2007-09-23T02:31:00.001-07:00

riding the train from Tokyo to Nara, originally uploaded by xopherlance.

I love this bag. I love Japan. I love this photo because it reminds me of both.

Scientific American turns 162

2007-08-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday SciAm. I may not buy your print edition as often as I'd like, but I'm a voracious listener to your daily 60 Second Science podcast as well as your weekly Science Talk podcast, which along with the CFI's Point of Inquiry, I savor all week long.

My Life Poster

2007-07-15T23:51:00.000-07:00

A close up of the poster I made with some pics from my travels, Apple's iPhoto, and detailed instructions on the Mike Matas Blog. You can see how it hangs here.

The loft at Pacific Electric

2007-07-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of Dnice's Mashmamdali blog and the paterfamilias' documentation of The Addition to the house in Vienna, I've uploaded some photos of my pain cave. I hung the Ikea tracks and panels over a year ago, but the lanterns above the couch and the curtains around the bed just went up last weekend.

Apparently, it's a dramatic prairie dog, not a chipmunk

2007-06-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

But who cares? This five second clip from a Japanese TV show made my day:

33.33333333

2007-06-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today, I've been alive precisely 33.33333333 years. I decided to commemorate this mathematically significant anniversary by cutting my hair shorter than it's ever been in all that time.

The trouble with Islam

2007-06-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Sent to me via my mother, from her cousin in Lisboa...

DZK: Free online Hip-Hop

2007-06-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, an effective neutralizing agent for Christian music has emerged. His name is DZK and the D.C. Metro area is his headquarters. For toothsome hip-hop and superb lyrics, check out WarLab.com. You can listen and even download the tracks for free. My favorite cut is Bow Down; see if you can guess why. The rap is first-rate, and my old friend Dnice produced the website. Enjoy and spread the Word.

Pascal's Wager: useful for a change

2007-06-12T14:45:00.001-07:00

Last weekend while pumping gas for Soy at the Arco on Franklin and Gower, the guy at the next pump approached and asked me if I knew Jesus. He launched into his proselytizing with Paley's Watchmaker analogy; I recognized what he was doing when he pointed to an apartment block across the way and asked if it was fair to assume that an architect was behind its design. The problem with the Argument from Design is that it demands a prerequisite ignorance of basic scientific knowledge. Darwin's law of natural selection adequately wounded Paley's argument in 1859; Richard Dawkins' 1986 book, The Blind Watchmaker, should have been the final nail in its coffin. Ignorance is bliss for believers, apparently.

Gas station missionary then proceeded to outline what I recognized as Pascal's Wager for me in broad strokes. Unfortunately, before I could explicate the successful rebuttals (see here and here) to Pascal's flawed chart, the cars behind us began honking for our gas pumps and the evangelist took his leave.

A significant problem with campaigners for Christ is that they don't know science and Enlightenment philosophy as well as most atheists know the Bible. If you're going to approach random strangers at gas stations to attempt a religious conversion, you should do your homework first. One more thing: do not act so smug and patronizing when you learn that I was raised a Roman Catholic. I am atheist because I employ reason in my thinking; not because of the doctrine of Transubstantiation or papal politics (though I do have ethical problems with the latter).

Here is a very interesting (if a bit nerdy) video that repurposes Pascal's Wager for a more pressing problem:

Rudy Giuliani is a demagogue

2007-06-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Pat Buchanan gives his view on Giuliani's vicious and pandering attack on Congressman Ron Paul in May's Republican debate. Paul is the one Republican candidate for whom I actually reserve some respect -- so of course he won't get the nomination.

here's the link

The Addition (updated 07/02/2007)

2007-05-20T19:04:00.001-07:00

The small deck & screened-in porch with its screen torn out:

Building out the new kitchen:

Incorporating the screened-in porch:

The new roofline outlined:

And a new roof!...

...shingled out! Like the old kitchen's bay window?

No bay window! New deck! Like the stairs?

No stairs for you!

the patio and door to the new storage room:

the central vertical pipe is for the gas stovetop:

arches sans columns:

the semi-installed cabinetry:

Avast! Kitchen Island, ho!

...sailed around to the other side:

The arch and columns will be fixed:

New siding, but no door:

Now there's a door:

Counter tops installed, matching the hardwood stain:

The sink, tile, range hood, & pantry door are in:

Looking out from the dining room's new bigger window:

the double oven installed & family room painted:

the second a/c unit installed on the new patio:

the new bricked-in posts match the old brick:

a new step up to the deck, for ease of use by senior citizens:

a better view of the range top and hood:

An old chandelier is new again:

Lights installed, hardwood floor finished:

Widened doorway enables a clear view, back o' the house to the front:

New paint, new in-ceiling speakers, new room on left, new fan, new mantelpiece, old hearth:

front of the house to the back; stairs papered 'cause the upstairs closets are now going under the knife...

the new family room!

the new kitchen!

the new 360 degree view!

Christopher Hitchens on Jerry Falwell

2007-05-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hitchens is wrong on one point: Falwell's "chubby flanks" were by no means "little".

CLICK HERE for Slate's short list of a few of the Reverend's most idiotic statements, and HERE for The Carpetbagger Report's timeline of this bigoted blowhard's life.

I love you my Weng Weng

2007-05-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

Put Weng Weng and Lil Superstar in together in a buddy cop movie and it would only be about fifty-seven times better than Spider-Man 3.

The God of Death

2007-05-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

"I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews. I am doing the Lord's work."

-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925 (he used the same words in a Reichstag speech in 1938).

"I am driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did."

-- George W. Bush, at a Sharm el-Sheikh summit in 2003, according to Nabil Shaath, Palestinian Foreign Minister who attended.

*I did not create this chart. I found it here. Keep in mind that the tallies only include hard numbers available in the Bible; they don't take into account YHWH's mass killings at Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela -- or for that matter Noah's flood. The actual number of murders commited by the Hebrew god should be much higher, and "his" crimes should include genocide.

Word up, Iacocca

2007-04-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is not an urban legend. This really is an excerpt from Lee Iacocca's new book. And it's well worth your time.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney

Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.

Who Are These Guys, Anyway?

Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.

And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.

Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

The Test of a Leader

I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points—not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.

So, here's my C list:

A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.

If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.

A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President—the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.

Leadership is all about managing change—whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.

A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.

A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths—for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION—a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President—four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.

It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.

You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know—Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.

Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world—and I like it here."

I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.

The Biggest C is Crisis

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day—and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.

That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq—a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.

A Hell of a Mess

So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen—and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises—the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.

Excerpted from Where Have All the Leaders Gone?. Copyright © 2007 by Lee Iacocca. All rights reserved.

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then

2007-04-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Lewis Carroll said that. I've always loved that quote.

Here's a quote I don't love: on Monday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, in response to a question, that "[a]s far as policy, the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. And certainly bringing a gun into a school dormitory and shooting -- I don't want to say numbers because I know that they're still trying to figure out many people were wounded and possibly killed, but obviously that would be against the law and something that someone should be held accountable for."

And I thought Ari Fleischer was heartless. While the Virginia Tech police were still "trying to figure out how many people were wounded and possibly killed"; while American families were frantically trying to get in touch with their loved ones at the university; while paramedics and doctors were working hard to save the lives of the wounded; this stone cold bitch is shamelessly pandering to Bush's gun-toting base. Really? Bringing a gun into a dorm and shooting people would be against the law? Someone should be held accountable? What planet are you from, Perino? Is it the same planet as the sons of bitches who rush to hold local NRA rallies in the days following a school shooting? Would that be Planet Asshole? Or possibly Uranus?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the 2nd Amendment -- with caveats. But I'm also for human decency and compassion. A simple, "I won't be lured into a debate on gun control -- right now we must focus on the victims of this tragedy" would have sufficed, Dana.

And it has been a tragedy, to be sure. I've watched more TV in four days than I have in the last four months. Not because I'm interested in seeing the killer posing with a hammer or the endless memorials to the victims, though. It's because I want to see images of Tech. I realize that I may sound as cold-hearted as Dana Perino, but think about it from a different perspective. One day after the VT "massacre", 171 people were killed by car bombs in Baghdad. I can't comprehend why I should care more for the deaths of these 32 in Virginia than for the 171 in Baghdad. They were innocents as well. They had families and friends who mourn them. They did not ask for death.

I sometimes wax nostalgic about my alma mater, but for the most part it's crowded out of my mind. In NoVA one sees Tech bumper stickers, sweatshirts, and caps all the time, but here in L.A. they are a rare occurence. Suddenly, images of the campus and its students are plastered all over Google News, and place names like the Drillfield, McBryde, and West AJ are cited by Warren Olney and Wolf Blitzer. This used to be my special place; my first home away from home. Room 7073 in West AJ was my first bedroom beyond the cosseting walls of my parents' house. Now everyone else knows of it too, but for all the wrong reasons. I find myself drinking in every frame of on-campus video, watching for pieces of my past in the collegiate gothic architecture and southern Virginia foliage. It's a shame that Tech and Blacksburg will now and forever be etched into the collective unconscious the way Columbine and Littleton are etched into mine.

I don't want to go back to yesterday - but I want to remember a past unblemished by a sorrowful present.

Good-bye, Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-16T01:54:00.000-07:00

"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile." -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

One of my favorite authors and one of the world's most famous Humanists is now dead. So it goes.

We have stooped so low with Bush

2007-04-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

global warning

2007-03-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

mega chances of losing

2007-03-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

The other day I did something that I'd never done before: I crawled out of the cave in which I'd been living and bought a lottery ticket. I believe in the inherent value of trying new things, no matter how insignificant -- and hey, I had a 1 in 176 million chance of winning, whatever that means. I once met a girl who had never seen a Star Wars movie and vowed that she never would. She expressed a kind of defiant pride when the topic was broached. While I realize that no science fiction film holds the secret to life's mysteries (okay, maybe The Empire Strikes Back), the fact that she refused to watch any of them on principle irked me. Shouldn't a full life include the pursuit of novel experiences, even frivolous ones? I believe that as hard as it is, an open mind is key to the appreciation of our existence. Thus, there I was clutching my Mega Millions ticket, crouched over my monitor at work to check the winning combination, ready to hop up and dance a sailor's jig if my numbers came in...

What a letdown. Talk about buyer's remorse. I learned today that my chances of getting killed during a 10 mile drive to purchase that ticket were SIXTEEN TIMES greater than the chances I had of actually winning. So that's what 1 in 176 million means.

I don't rue the experience, but I think I may be against the purchase of lottery tickets on principle from now on. Yeah, I definitely feel a defiant pride coming on.

Drag & Drop the Middle East

2007-02-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

Niger yellowcake uranium forgeries; Burj Dubai Tower; Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran; genocide in Darfur; the July War/Second Lebanon War...need to place all these events and places you hear about on the news into a geographical context?

click here to take a nifty Middle East geography quiz!

Ribbon Based Economy

2007-02-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

nataliedee.com

Bush officially sucks. What else is new?

2007-02-10T20:45:00.000-08:00

According to the latest CBS News Poll, that smirking chimp in the White House is at a new low: 28% approval ratings. Which puts him pretty damn close to Nixon's all-time low of 24%. Am I gleeful that my intuitions and premonitions have come true? At the cost to our country (see left sidebar, below photos), of course not. But it is gratifying to see so many of my fellow countrymen and women who once thought me foolish for not supporting Bush in all his supreme inadequacy are finally coming around to the truth that "stepping in dogshit" (35%) gets a higher approval rating than Bush. So do "small breasts" (50%) and "the name Shiloh Nouvel Jolie Pitt" (29%). At his new low, Bush is tied with "body hair on guys". I'm not making this stuff up. Check out the fresh intelligence over at RadarOnline.

Skin + Bones

2007-01-25T22:22:00.000-08:00

Sunday, some friends and I explored the worthwhile Skin + Bones exhibit at MOCA. I snapped this with the new nihon-jin camera on the way out.