Time for another Odds & Ends.

Well-known evolutionary biologist PZ Myers (Pharyngula) was expelled from a viewing of a new creationist documentary, Expelled, last night. Wait until you read the punchline. There is a God!

Lost, one MacBook Air: Steven Levy explains just how he (thinks he) lost his MacBook Air.

It was St. Patrick's Day on Monday. Peter sent me the Muppets' Danny Boy video. Andrew told me that the Irish bishops had moved St. Patrick's Day. Monday was a holiday in Ireland, as is today (Good Friday) and next Monday (Easter Monday), so many people took Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off this week. Bastards!

Emma and I walked with the Wild Geese Players in the Seattle Parade last Saturday. I walked into a fire hydrant afterwards, while preoccupied with my camera, leaving me with a deep bruise on my thigh. I must get around to posting those photos to Flickr soon (along with many others).

In Martian Headsets, Joel Spolsky discusses Microsoft's recent decision to make Internet Explorer 8 be standards-compliant by default, which reversed their earlier decision to be backwards-compatible. He remarks that they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

In my opinion, Microsoft has erred too often on the side of backward compatibility. I'm firmly in the camp that wants IE to be standards-compliant by default. After struggling for months with IE6 (and IE7 to a lesser degree), I believe that we badly need to raise the level of standards compliance in browsers. As Jeff Atwood put it three years ago, IE6 is the new Netscape 4.7x: "the browser that we all wish would go away. The one that's a pain in the ass to support."

Confused about the current financial crisis? Watch Clarke and Dawe on subprime meltdown. And read Can’t Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club.

It's been too long since I last posted an Odds & Ends.

Henri is a very amusing short spoof of French ennui.

Back in January, Emma and I were being repeatedly shocked by static electricity. We would inadvertently discharge by kissing or otherwise touching each other, or by touching laptops or faucets. Eventually, I realised that it was due to a combination of the microfiber upholstery on our new couch and the dry, unhumid air. We solved it by a combination of rubbing an anti-static dryer sheet (Bounce) on the couch and buying a humidifier. That led to a spate of jokes about the spark being gone.

It's started coming back again. I think it's time to fondle the couch with more Bounce.

The Bad Sex Awards are, perhaps, Britain's "most dreaded literary prize". Read about the 2007 Bad Sex nominees in the Guardian, with excerpts. The late Norman Mailer won posthumously

Ian Welsh makes a case that it's not your money, in rebuttal to anti-tax libertarians.

A few weeks ago I read that the last German veteran of World War I had died. Yesterday, I read that the last French veteran had just died.

Regarding the Spitzer prostitution scandal: normally, I would have given a Democratic politician the benefit of the doubt for a sex scandal. After all, unlike the Republicans—see Larry ‘wide stance’ Craig; David ‘Diaper’ Vitter (brother of my former professor at Brown, Jeff); Mark Foley, et al—Democratic politicians generally don't make a big deal of “family values”. Spitzer had done a good job of fighting corruption, but breaking up prostitution rings had also been one of his signature issues, as had prosecuting johns. The whole thing bespeaks such massive stupidity and hypocrisy that I say good riddance to him.

Several of us went to see Barack Obama at Key Arena last month (photos here), the day before the Washington state primary. The crowd more than filled Key Arena, with at least 20,000 in attendance. We ended up outside, as you can see from the photos, which actually served us well, as Obama stood outside and talked to the crowd for a few minutes before heading into the stadium. We got closer to him than we would have inside.

Anyway, John McCain spoke at the Westin Hotel that evening and only managed to half-fill the ballroom, which accommodates 800 people. In other words, the then-presumptive Republican nominee could only pull as many people as attended my caucus the next day. There are hundreds of thousands of Republicans within an hour's drive of Seattle, but only a few hundred of them could summon the enthusiasm to see their guy in person.

I thought our caucus went well. I helped the convener organize the whole event for eight precincts. As the Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) for SEA 11-1945, I chaired our precinct's caucus and was elected as a delegate for Obama, which means that I will be attending the 11th Legislative District and the King County conventions next month. I have no intention of trying to proceed further. I don't want to go to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

I sent this letter to the New York Times this morning:

I was struck by the juxtaposition of Anya Kamenetz's thoughtful column and Maureen Dowd's puerile nonsense on today's op-ed page.

Anya Kamenetz's makes a sensible proposal on empowering ready teenagers by lowering the age thresholds for voting, drinking, credit cards when they demonstrate maturity.

Maureen Dowd continues in her usual rut, going on again about Cheneyesque paranoia, Bill's legacy, Obambi, and tough dames.

Perhaps Ms. Dowd could take Ms. Kamenetz's maturity test.

We attended a Super Tuesday party last night. As a PCO, I know a fair bit about the local caucus process, but I was unable to give a good answer about who the super delegates are. What should I find in my email as soon as I got home, but a list of the Washington State super delegates.

Elected Officials

• Rep. Rick Larsen (2nd District)

• Rep. Brian Baird (3rd District)

• Rep. Norm Dicks (6th District)

• Rep. Jim McDermott (7th District)

• Gov. Chris Gregoire

Democratic National Committee Members

• Dwight Pelz - WA Democratic Party Chair

• Eileen Macoll - WA Vice Chair

• Ed Cote (coed@pacifier.com)

• Sharon Mast (skmast@att.net)

• David McDonald (davidm@prestongates.com)

Already Endorsed Obama

• Rep. Adam Smith (WA)

• Pat Noter WA DNC Member

Already Endorsed Clinton

• Sen. Maria Cantwell (WA)

• Rep. Jay Inslee (WA)

• Former Speaker Tom Foley (WA)

• Sen. Patty Murray (WA)

• Ron Sims (WA)

Finally ...

Methinks the lady doth protest too much, -or-, please don't throw me in the briar patch. Conservapedia's most viewed pages:

1. Homosexuality [2,329,656]

2. Main Page [2,221,503]

3. Teen Homosexuality [409,064]

4. Arguments Against Homosexuality [329,586]

5. Homosexual Agenda [326,164]

6. Ex-homosexuals [314,408]

7. Homosexuality and Choice [309,297]

8. Homosexuality and Anal Cancer [297,073]

9. Homosexuality and Health [290,954]

10. Wikipedia [290,439]

Use O'Reilly Maker to generate book covers. I've always wanted to write a book for cousin Tim, and now I have!

Via Pavel: Adolf Hitler - Vista Problems (YouTube).

The Photographer's Right: a handy one-page guide.

The general rule in the United States is that anyone may take photographs of whatever they want when they are in a public place or places where they have permission to take photographs. Absent a specific legal prohibition such as a statute or ordinance, you are legally entitled to take photographs. Examples of places that are traditionally considered public are streets, sidewalks, and public parks.

The tiny <code> font in Firefox has been bugging me for a long time. I finally figured out the obvious: Override the Monospace setting. Tools > Options > Content > Fonts & Colors > Advanced > Monospace: change Courier New at size 13 to 16. While you're at it, change the font to Consolas or Lucida Console or Monaco. Courier New is ugly.

My man, John Edwards, is out of the presidential race. Some analysis from Corrente and Meteor Blades of Edwards' candidacy.

I have never been enthusiastic about Hillary Rodham Clinton as a presidential candidate. She's accumulated 16 years of negatives from being relentlessly demonized by Limbaugh and his ilk; she's too damn centrist and corporate for my liking; and I remain troubled about her vote for the Iraq War and her refusal to apologize for it.

I am now an Obama voter. I have expressed some doubts in the past about his efficacy, but there's no doubt that his messages of transformation and inspiration are striking a chord with primary voters.

The Washington state primary on February 19th is a complete farce, at least if you're a Democrat. The Democratic presidential candidates are entirely chosen by the Washington state caucuses on Saturday, February 9th. Washington state law requires that a presidential primary be held, but the parties are not actually obliged to select any delegates as a result of the vote. The Republicans delegates will be allocated 49% from the caucus results, and 51% from the primary results.

I'm the Democratic Precinct Committee Officer for SEA-1945, and I'll be participating in our neighborhood caucus at Asa Mercer School. I need to phone participants of the previous caucus today, both in my own precinct and some adjoining, PCO-less precincts, to remind them of the caucus.

I've uploaded Vim syntax highlighting for PBwiki, a free, hosted wiki that I've used for a few different projects.

Miscellaneous links.

• I've uploaded Vim syntax highlighting for Socialtext, the wiki we use at Cozi. Amusingly, it's derived from code that I found on the Socialtext website, which in turn is derived from my syntax highlighting for Flexwiki.

• Ignite Seattle is back on 2/19. There were lots of interesting, geeky talks the last time I went.

• Via Slashdot, Walter Kirn on the failure of multitasking

  Through a variety of experiments, many using functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity, [scientists have] torn the mask off multitasking and revealed its true face, which is blank and pale and drawn.

  I have a moderately bad case of multitasking myself.

Miscellaneous links.

• Are you plagued by User Access Control prompts every time you run Notepad++ on Vista? See Notepad++ and the GUP for a fix.

• According to The Onion, Bill Clinton is running again.

  We saw him speak at a fundraiser for Jim McDermott a couple of years ago. It was impressive to see him stand up for an hour and riff on all manner of topics without notes. The current incumbent is truly a mental midget.

  Not that I especially enjoyed the Clinton years. I often felt left down.

• Larry Lessig is unhappy with the sleaze emanating from Hillary Clinton.

• Joel Spolsky's article on the Five Whys showcases a useful technique to find the root cause of problems by iteratively asking why. He also links to a great New Yorker piece on the efficacy of medical checklists.

• It looks like Harry Reid is trying to give immunity to the telecoms for illegally wiretapping US citizens. Senators Dodd and Feingold are planning a filibuster. Glenn Greenwald has more.

  I contacted Obama and Clinton, telling them:

  Senator ___, you are still a sitting senator.

  I have been underwhelmed so far by your actions on TELECOMS IMMUNITY. I expect you to go back to Washington DC and filibuster any attempt to grant immunity to the telecoms for wiretapping American citizens.

  Thank you.

  (Yes, I've gotten tired of asking nicely.)

  I also contacted Reid, Murray, and Cantwell.

  Some days I feel like a complete crank for caring about this stuff :(

Miscellaneous links.

• Do you see the subliminal arrow in the negative space of the FedEx logo at right? Neither did I until I read about it at Edward Tufte's joint. Now I can't stop seeing it.

• One more year to go until the next presidential inauguration on 2009/01/20. Who knows how much more damage Bush can pull off by then? StickerGiant.com has commemorative swag.

• Impeachment is in the air. Watch Rep. Wexler's speech before the U.S. House of Representatives. Read about State Sen. Oemig's hearing in the Washington Legislature.

• Three days ago, I was sent email by DraftBloomberg.com, asking me to sign a petition to draft Mike Bloomberg as an independent candidate for President. I promptly wrote back, refusing on the grounds that (a) I view Bloomberg as a Naderesque spoiler who's likely to take votes from the Democratic nominee, and (b) I find Bloomberg to be an uncompelling candidate who just happens to be rich enough to self-finance. Looking at their site a few minutes ago, I see that they've only managed to scrape up 1,522 signatures, which is pathetic.

• Ron Paul enjoys an improbable level of support on the Internet, raising staggering amounts of money by appealing to the libertarian bloc. But there's compelling evidence that Paul is a Bircherite not a libertarian, with lucrative ties to white supremacists going back more than 20 years.

• Harold Meyerson argues that we are entering a recession and the old remedies won't do, because the US economy is no longer fundamentally sound.

  Wages have been flat-lining for a long time now, the housing bubble isn't going to be reinflated anytime soon, and the upward pressure on oil prices is only going to mount. As in Roosevelt's time, we need a policy that boosts incomes and finds new solutions for our energy needs.

  Scholars & Rogues argue that getting out of Iraq can fund the necessary changes to get us out of a recession.

• Although I'm generally willing to believe the worst of the Bush administration, I've never found the 9/11 conspiracy theories to be plausible. Matt Taibbi debunks 9/11 conspiracy theories to my satisfaction.

• On a positive note, the .NET Source Code is now available. You can debug through the source of the Microsoft libraries, when you need to. Visual Studio 2008 only.

Miscellaneous links.

• I mentioned Schneier on security theater recently. Via Pavel, I see that Schneier notes that a five-year-old was detained at SeaTac because his name appeared on a no-fly list.

• Male fruit flies, when drunk, become much more likely to court other male fruit flies. Or, Oh God, I was so drunk ...

• Health insurance companies are making out like bandits in Washington state.

• Here's a damning RIAA interview, via Gabriel:

  When asked why the RIAA is going after an easy target--college students--the response made me cringe: "College students have reached a stage in life when their music habits are crystallized," Duckworth said. "And their appreciation for intellectual property has not yet reached its full development."

• A useful, non-partisan guide to the caucus process in Washington state, via Will and Amy.

• From Charlie Stross, fundies say the darndest things:

  • "Everyone knows scientists insist on using complex terminology to make it harder for True Christians to refute their claims. Deoxyribonucleic Acid, for example... sounds impressive, right? But have you ever seen what happens if you put something in acid? It dissolves! If we had all this acid in our cells, we'd all dissolve! So much for the Theory of Evolution, Check MATE!"

  • "A woman wants to abort a rape child? She should have thought of that before she walked down that dark alley without a male prescence, not to mention she should have thought before putting on revealing attire."

  • "Apes are just creatures twisted by Satan to mock Jesus by giving EVILolition credibility. Further more they are naturally lust crazed for human women. Since they are not natural creatures they should be exterminated forthwith as the tools of evil they are."

• From the comments on Charlie's post, a very long set of answers from much more thoughtful people on what they've changed their minds about.

Miscellaneous links.

• Via Dilip, the epic struggle between an animation and its animator.

• Sparky gets himself tasered. Deliberately. Geesh!

• We at Cozi partnered with Whirlpool to produce an edition of the Cozi software running on a fridge. It has been demonstrated at this year's CES (Consumer Electronics Show), where it's getting favorable reviews. Dory Devlin likes it. Watch Walt Mossberg talk about it too.

Today's odds and ends.

• George MacDonald Fraser died the other day. He was the author of the marvelous Flashman novels. I reviewed the last Flashman novel a year ago.

• Kiva seems like a really good idea, connecting people in the emerging world who need microloans with people who can afford to lend them $25.

  Last summer, we attended a house party for Marc Gold of the 100 Friends project. He's a sort of one-man Santa Claus, personally handing out money to needy people and organizations.

• Zane, whose superpower is knowing a Web 2.0 application for every problem, reminded me on Friday of Mint. I just signed up. Mint keeps track of your money across all your accounts and shows you your spending.

  I wanted to know how they make money, but it was hard to track down why it's free. They offer you suggestions on alternatives to your current banks, credit cards, phone companies, etc. If you switch, they get a little cut.

• Ian Welsh endorses Edwards and sums up why he thinks John Edwards is a better candidate than Clinton or Obama.

Herewith several articles that I've read lately for which I'm not going to write individual posts.

• Bruce Schneier has railed for years against security theater, ostensible security measures that have little real effect, but are performed to be seen as doing something — airline security being the most wretched example. Patrick Smith wrote a good piece on airport security follies at the NYT airline blog. We should all be protesting loudly at this nonsense, but no-one does because of the fear of ending up on a no-fly list.

• Also in the NYT, Harold McGee wrote a particularly interesting article on the hidden ingredient in cooking, heat.

  That’s the basic challenge: We’re often aiming a fire hose of heat at targets that can only absorb a slow trickle, and that will be ruined if they absorb a drop too much. ... No matter how efficient an appliance is, the cook can help simply by covering pots and pans with their lids.

  ... 

  Once a liquid starts to boil and is turning to steam throughout the pot — the bubbles of a boil are bubbles of water vapor — nearly all the energy from the burner is going into steam production. The temperature of the water itself remains steady at the boiling point, no matter how high the flame is underneath it. So turn the burner down. A gentle boil is just as hot as a furious one.

  ... 

  In fact it’s easy to save loads of time and energy and potential discomfort with grains, dry beans and lentils, and even pasta. But it requires a little thinking ahead. It turns out that the most time-consuming part of the process is not the movement of boiling heat to the center of each small bean or noodle, which takes only a few minutes, but the movement of moisture, which can take hours. Grains and dry legumes therefore cook much faster if they have been soaked. However heretical it may sound to soak dried pasta, doing so can cut its cooking time by two-thirds — and eliminates the problem of dry noodles getting stuck to each other as they slide into the pot.

• Obama stump speech strategy of conciliation considered harmful:

  Krugman has a problem with what Obama believes about the relationship between politics and economics. ... The bottom line (says Krugman): Politics drives economics, and not the other way round.

  ... 

  Obama presents himself as post-partisan, but partisan politics are needed. ...  So why on earth would Obama think that “tearing down” the Conservative Movement and “lifting this country up” are opposites? They’re the same! And we need the kind of politics that treats them that way. When the Swift Boat guys smeared Kerry, Kerry should have “torn them down.”

  Obama wants to “reach out,” but that strategy has already been tried. Obama says he wants to “reach out” to Republicans. But Reid and Pelosi “reached out” to Republicans, and that strategy was a miserable failure.

  [Read the rest at corrente.]

  I like Obama and I'll certainly throw my full support behind him, should he win the nomination, but Edwards' unabashed confrontationalism is more to my liking.

• Our military spending ($623 billion) is horrendous: more than the rest of the world put together ($500 billion) and ten times as much as the second biggest spender, China. All the leading candidates, both Republican and Democratic, favor expanding the military.