We Interrupt the SiCKO Diatribe...

...for a brief word about property taxes. Our part of Baltimore City was among the third of state properties to be reassessed for the 2008 tax year. The city's rate is more than double the rate for any other jurisdiction in Maryland. Given that, I'd really love to see (in order of preference):

1. The rates stay about the same, but the quality of city services, health, eduction, infrastructure, and public safety reflect the extremely high rate. In other words, a drastic, near-impossible improvement in Baltimore as a whole.
2. The rates lowered somewhat (25% percent, cut, maybe?), but stop wasting money on stupid shit like a convention center hotel and twice-weekly trash pickup.
   
3. The rates reflect what surrounding counties are paying. If we're paying all these taxes and things are going to be shitty anyway, at least let the rate reflect that. It's a stretch to think that the situation in Baltimore would be twice as bad if property taxes were halved.

SiCKO, Part Three

So how is it that we have a health care "system" here in the U.S. that provides such mediocre care, on average, but costs so much more money per capita than other nations' systems? First, there are the problems that are specific to the health care industry; you may have heard some of these before, and some of them are actually true:

• The health insurance bureaucracy eats over 30 percent of all health care costs.
• Blame the lawyers! Medical malpractice insurance stemming from huge lawsuit awards drive up costs. Not really: malpractice premiums are less than 1% of total health care costs, according to the AMA. "Defensive medicine" administered to help guard against malpractice claims is estimated to be 2% of total costs.
• Too many doctors! You've probably heard that the opposite will be the problem as the Baby Boom generation ages, but it may just be that there are too many specialists and not enough primary care physicians.
  

Then there are the institutionalized behaviors and legal/political issues that are at the root of the problem, the breakdowns in how "our" government operates and how our political system works [this is where I start the real opionatin', so feel free to disagree and refute]. One scene in SiCKO that really struck me was of an American in France (in Paris?) commenting that in the U.S., people are afraid of the government, while in France, the government is afraid of the people. Then Moore showed footage of French protesters, footage that would probably elicit a "lazy French" - or worse - response from your average American. But joke all you want about white flags, surrender monkeys and the like, but when was the last time there were huge protests in this country? At least the French are fighting, even if they are sometimes fighting for rights that we might see as extravagances (then again, maybe we're just jealous of all their vacation time).

Meanwhile, back home we're stuck with an inept, corrupt government that few people trust. We have an entrenched two-party political system, strengthened by ridiculous congressional redistricting that protects incumbents. We have spectacularly expensive legislative and presidential campaigns that are almost entirely privately funded by corporations and trade groups. We have a Supreme Court that equates political donations with free speech, which serves to legalize this corruption. We have lobbyists that write legislation. We have ludicrous taxpayer-funded projects. We not only have private health care, but an increasingly privatized military. We have out-of-control educational expenses, expenses that are unheard of in other industrialized countries that provide free higher education to citizens. When that's the government that most Americans see, how could they ever be convinced to let it be in charge of their health? Looks like I am gonna need a Part Four....

SiCKO, Part Two

Michael Moore's website has a nice page that provides references to many of the assertions in SiCKO, it's definitely worth a look. I did take notice of a few of the film's facts that didn't sound quite right, however, that I wanted to check out myself. This also led me to seek out other bits of data:

• France has more productive workers than the U.S.? I could have sworn that the U.S. was at or near the top of the latest OECD statistics in this category, but I could be wrong. Alas, the link on Moore's website that leads to the specific OECD page is broken, so I had to look around a bit. I also kept in mind that whatever OECD numbers Moore was using were 2005 numbers; current stats may tell a different story, but one would think that these types of metrics wouldn't change all that much in a two-year period. I found my way to the OECD database portal, which as productivity data as of October 2006. For some reason the sort function didn't work, so I pulled the numbers offline, but this is what I found:
• surprisingly, the U.S. ranks 18th in hours worked per person - I assumed that this would be higher! We're waaaay behind the #1 country, South Korea, which has us beat by over 600 hours per year (2357 vs. 1708). Good for us! France, by the way, weighs in with 1555 hrs/yr/person, good if you can get it!
• When it comes to GDP per hour worked, we're #6 at $50.4 per, which is well behind leaders Luxembourg and Norway, which are at $72.2 and $71 respectively. Why is Norway's number so high, oil money? Ikea? Wait, that's Sweden. Anyway, France is right behind the U.S. at $49.9. Close enough that it could very well be that it was slightly different in 2005, and France was ahead that year.
  
• Searching for this data led me to what looks to be a pretty neat blog, The Big Picture, that I'm going to check out in greater detail a bit later. The particular entry that popped up as I was searching for productivity stats was this one, which is worth a quick read. It makes some fantastic - and succinct! - points about the future of America's economic might, and how current policies could cause problems for our economic engine going forward. One of my favorite questions also pops up in that post; who would/could sacrifice money-based wealth for time-based wealth? I know where I stand, which is why at some point in this SiCKO informational odyssey, I'll be looking up immigration policies of other countries...just for fun ;)
• Looking up OECD statistics in one's spare time ranks in the top five of most pathetic uses of free time for non-retired persons.
• The most recent United Nations Human Development Report (link to pdf) ranks the U.S. at #12, ahead of #14 U.K. but behind #10 France and well behind #4 Canada (the countries Moore visits in SiCKO). Our high per capita GDP boosts us up the list, while we take a hit for slightly lower life expectancy and eduction stats. Cuba ranks #51, with its low GDP number dragging it down but with life expectancy 0.2 years higher than the U.S. and its education score higher as well. All sorts of neat stats are available in this U.N. report! A few favorites that I picked out:
  
• Our use of coal has remained steady from 1990 to 2005, while it has dropped, sometimes precipitously, in Europe. The U.K. dropped from 29.7% to 16.1%; that's impressive. While in Japan, Israel, and Australia, coal use has actually increased. Yuck.
• Electricity consumption per capita - the U.S. isn't quite as bad as I thought, although when one considers the latitudes of the nations that consume more than us, then the U.S. numbers seem awful. Too bad we're so averse to paying more for efficient, long-lasting appliances.
• Hmmm, I don't think we're nearly as generous, as a nation, as we think we are.
• Finally, a metric that the U.S. leads the world in, health expenditures per capita!
  
• We also kick ass in homicide rate, although plenty of South and Central American and Eastern European countries have us beat. We'll have to work on that....
  
• How do these countries that provide universal health care do it? It's hard to find reliable tax data - the rates tend to be all over the place, depending on which site one visits - plus there are ranges due to tax brackets, and then VAT taxes and local/state taxes also throw wrenches into any objective comparison. But here goes:
• The World Taxpayers Associations indicate that the U.S. has it pretty good when it comes to tax rates.
• Wikipedia's numbers seem to indicate that, when one factors in state taxes and sales taxes, maybe the average U.S. citizen is being taxed like Europe and Canada.
• None of these sites provide a comparison of effective tax rate - how do I know if France gets all the deductions and credits that an America provides? Do they get more deductions? Fewer? This is almost impossible to figure out.
• Back to the OECD - Table 0.2, near the bottom of the page, indicates that the U.S. worker pays less than most other OECD nations in terms of income tax and social security contributions. That's actually quite reassuring - we're not paying too much for all those government services that we don't receive!
  

SiCKO, Part One

We watched SiCKO last night; maybe not the best film to watch during the holiday season, as it doesn't exactly leave one feeling warm and cuddly afterwards, but it was next on the Netflix queue.

How was it? Well, I would definitely give it 4 out of 5 stars, but there are caveats. I happen to be a Michael Moore fan - he's a great entertainer, he's provocative, and for better or worse, he gets people talking about the issues that his films present. No, he's not a journalist, he's not fair and balanced, but that's not his job, he obviously has an agenda and he's not trying to hide it. If you watch one of his movies thinking that you're going to get both sides of the story, you're going to be just as disappointed as if you were to approach Fox News or Salon.com with the same expectations. Not gonna happen. If you're looking for a documentary that presents facts without emotion, again, good luck. One of his most effective tools is giving a human face to the given issue, something that the evening news does all the time, albeit much more subtly and less effectively. One perfectly valid criticism of his past movies is that he's on screen too much, pulling dumb stunts that likely hurt his cause as much as help it. OK, I'll buy that, even if the stunts are usually entertaining. SiCKO, fortunately, moves away from the Fahrenheit 9/11 in-your-face style; Moore doesn't even make an on-screen appearance until the film's half over, and the publicity stunts are limited to a silly trip to Cuba at the end of the film that unfortunately isn't entertaining or effective (you want a good Cuba documentary, try Buena Vista Social Club, awesome movie).

It might be his best movie since Roger and Me in terms of content, but it's also the most frustrating film he's made. I think you would need three or four sequels to do this problem - health care in the U.S. - any justice, but even so there aren't enough Whys being asked in SiCKO. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that health care in the U.S. is fucked up, but why? It's helpful to point out countries such as Canada, Britain, and France where universal government-run care seems to be working, since I'm sure there are plenty of Americans that are ignorant that there are these kinds of systems in place that people are happy with, but how do they make it work? At one point, Moore asks a French doctor whether the national model that's in place in France would work in the U.S. He says "No", then walks away...what, no follow up? Just 'No'?!? I'm not expecting that this doctor would have all the answers, but I was waiting for someone on screen to at least attempt to explain this mess. It's easy to tag Richard Nixon with the blame, as Moore does at one point, but there is no possible way that it's that simple. I have my own theories and suspicions about who and what is to blame, but in the interest of brevity I'll save those for another post. There are also zero suggestions on how to fix the obviously broken American system.

I'll be spending at least one more entry on this topic, picking out scenes and themes from the film, delving into fact vs. fiction, checking some numbers, and searching for any practical ideas for fixing the system. Universal health care is also a great jumping-off point for discussions about the role of government in our lives, so who knows what tangential topics might end up being put in play - taxes, education, infrastructure, libertarians?

All you need to know about the Mitchell Report

You know you've fucked up ("you" being the commish, players, GMs, etc.) when Pete Rose accuses you of making a mockery of the sport.

[full disclosure: I'm a Pete Rose fan, even though he's a liar, jerk, and probably an all-around not-so-great human, who still belongs in the HOF]

Questions for the Terrapins

In light of last night's home loss to BC:

1. Is Greivis Vasquez one crazy-ass Venezuelan, or what? I'm not talking Hugo Chavez, "I hate you, but I'll sell you oil anyway, you capitalist pigs" crazy-bad, but crazy-good, for the most part. But the dude (Vasquez) needs to chill out, although if he did that he'd probably be diminished as a basketball player.
2. Is the backcourt incapable of playing well in the first half of a game?
3. Why do the Terps only seem to hit three-pointers with any regularity during the last two or three minutes of a game? [0-6 in the first half, 5-7 in the last 2 minutes of the game, 6-19 overall]
   
4. Gary, please explain, why is Dupree starting and Osby coming off the bench?
   

A few positives that I saw - no it wasn't all bad -

• Landon Milbourne's all-around play, especially that incredible dunk midway through the second half
• MD forwards actually setting screens for shooters; where's that been for the past few seasons?
• Cliff Tucker, who looked pretty damn good in the second half after Vasquez fouled out.
  
• In an attempt to make the officiating look marginally balanced, the officials actually called 13 fouls on BC! (versus the Terps' 25) Way to go, guys!
  

Ravens Get Close...

...but their sad season continues. Ah well, at least there's Washington to root for! [that was a joke, kinda like Joe Gibbs' second stint as head coach].

As I was watching last night's game, I was thinking that it was just a matter of time before Kyle Boller gave it away. Now his interception wasn't the sole reason they lost (the ill-timed timeout when the defense had stopped the Ravens on 4th-and-1 and the galacticly stupid final possession and clock mismanagement were also culprits), but the offense and the play calling have to be more demoralizing to that defense than Tom Brady or Randy Moss.

After all these years of the defense carrying the team, who does Ray Lewis have to stab in a dark alley to get a decent QB and offense in Baltimore?

Terps v. UCLA: 30s Review

Terps lost to #1-ranked UCLA last night. First half was terrible - UCLA is a great defensive team, but the Terps were awful. Too many turnovers. Vasquez needs to calm the hell down. Hayes needs to shoot more, a lot more, or else Gist and Osby will face double and triple-teams all year. One of the freshmen and/or Landon Milbourne - who looked good in brief stretches - need to step up to provide additional offense.

The Spree, Live!

On Saturday night, we ventured out to Ram's Head Live (our first time catching a show there) to see the Polyphonic Spree. While the acoustics were hard to judge - with 23 people on stage, the sheer cacophony can be a bit overwhelming - Ram's Head is a cool venue. As for the Spree, well it's seriously a performance that you have to experience. Any description won't do it justice, so I'm just not going to write one. We did wonder if we were seeing the energy level of a typical show, considering that it was the last night of this particular tour (and also founder and lead singer Tim DeLaughter's birthday), so I guess that means that we'll just have to see them some other time, to put that question to rest.

Not a problem at all though; they definitely go on my short list of acts that I've already seen, but that I would go see again and again, whenever opportunity presented [others on the list: the Police, Elvis Costello, Garbage, Harry Connick].

Strange Trips

Soon after our trip to Tanzania earlier in the year, Jenny and I started thinking about where to go next. We haven't really made any decisions, although we think we've 'narrowed it down' to Eastern Europe or South America. But something on TV last week got me thinking about less conventional destinations.

The TV piece was on Greenland, and how it received 30,000 visitors in the past year. Yeah, Greenland! Strange. But what caught my attention was that this report mentioned that direct flights on Air Greenland were available from...Baltimore! Their website isn't that easy to use; no flexible-date option, so it took a bit of trial-and-error before I figured out that there aren't any flights available during the winter months. I was finally able to get some results from a search for July 2008 flights from BWI to their hub in Kangerlussuaq. I'm not sure whether that's the best time to visit Greenland, but it still isn't cheap - 2,790 Denmark Kroner, each way! That works out to about $550 each way, so not too bad considering the lack of competition on the route. But from there, many locations are only accessible via helicopter, so transport costs are bound to be be significant.

How about something a bit closer to home, like the Creation Museum in Kentucky! It takes visitors back in time thousands of years, when dinosaurs and man coexisted. This review contrasts the Creation Museum with the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum in D.C.

Finally, what globe-trotting adventurer wouldn't relish the opportunity to take a spin on the Axis of Evil? That's right, North Korea!!! This guy hit the entire Axis, but I'll assume that most people are on a budget and don't enjoy getting shot at or blown up, so North Korea seems like the safest choice. This trip can be a tough ticket if you're an American though, so plan ahead; I actually couldn't find any current travel packages that allowed U.S. citizens. I'll keep looking though - in case Greenland has melted before we make our way there for a visit, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is an excellent fall-back destination. Besides, who wants to go to Kentucky for vacation?!?

UPDATE: After some additional searching, I found a North Korea tours operator that is currently in operation, and that takes U.S. travelers (whether those travelers' Visas get approved is out of the company's control, though).

One-Question Pop Quiz

OK, what's scarier:

a) the apparent need for this sign in Korean toilets

b) the fact that Larry Craig is still a U.S. Senator

United, They Fall

I cheered on the home side, D.C. United, at what turned out to be their final game of the season, a 2-2 draw with Chicago in round one of the MLS playoffs. Since they lost the first game of the home-and-home series 0-1, they lost on aggregate and the Fire advance. It was a game that United deserved to lose after what can only be described as lackluster play over the first sixty-plus minutes. The last twenty-five minutes were another story entirely, with United seemingly finding themselves, and playing at a much faster pace and with great urgency. The crowd was delirious when Christian Gomez put one in during added time to make it 3-2, comeback complete! But the goal was waved off because of a marginal handball by Gomez that was pretty clear on replays. D.C. just didn't get it going in time, period. Still, a thrilling and entertaining end to the season for United, even if they didn't get the desired result.

Black Hole of Sports

Unless you're a basketball fan, the Baltimore-Washington area has been tough going for area sports fans over the past five years. In football land, the Redskins still have an offensive name, a greedy and inept owner, and just got demolished yesterday. Up I-95, the Ravens offense just had their most productive week; they had a bye. On the college level, Maryland's injuries to its linemen indicate that its players may be taking health-maintenance advice from their coach. Navy just lost to a I-AA school (albeit one of the better I-AA football schools). Baseball is no prettier - the Nationals will get their new stadium next year but are still quite a way from contending. The AngelO's may be even farther away; I love the Oriole Bird, but a more appropriate (if not quite family-oriented) team mascot would be a guy in a business suit with his head planted permanently in his own ass. The only bright spots are in roundball, and that's due mainly to major and minor resurgences by the Hoyas and Terps, respectively, and the exploits of the oddest guy in the NBA, #0 for the Wizards (strange time when the Wizards are the area's best pro team, yes?). Oh yeah, I almost forgot D.C. United, but they've been pretty damn good for years and the vast majority of the sporting public hasn't noticed yet.

Contrast that with New England, where a new Evil Empire is rising. Epstein, Belichick, and Ainge are sending their well-compensated minions swarming into stadiums and arenas throughout the land, destroying, or planning to destroy (see: Celtics trades) everything in their path. Belichick even deployed his own personal Eye of Sauron in service of his dastardly plans, keeping an ever-watchful eye on enemy sidelines until the commissioner mercifully vanquished that threat. And then there are the fans - Red Sox caps are the new sporting gear du jour for fans in this area, replacing NYY caps: "So you're from Boston/New England?" "Nah, I grew up in Maryland, I couldn't even find Boston on a map! I just like the team". Fantastic! It's also difficult to account for all the local Pats fans that are now sporting their teams' gear, which had been mysteriously absent from public spaces for most of the 90's.

Candidate Picks Up a Crucial Endorsement

This must mean that Mike Huckabee is now practically a lock for the Republican nomination, right?

Things That May Only Interest Me

Forget some people's concern over a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton White House; are all of these candidates related?

In India, match-making web sites are referred to as matrimonial sites.

Stephen Colbert did grow up in Charleston, SC (hence his run for president in that state only as a 'native son' candidate), but was born in Washington, D.C. Also, he's a huge Lord of the Rings fan, which might explain Viggo Mortensen mysteriously appearing on the Colbert Report recently to offer him a sword, a la Excalibur, as a sign that he should run for president.

Newsworthy?

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but does the WP front page "revelation", that Verizon turned over phone records without a court order, really matter much? The government is going to get this information one way or another, since not cooperating can tend to hurt the bottom line. Corporations will continue to roll over for the Feds, to protect themselves and their shareholders. How shocking!

October Sand

I spent last week on the beaches of the Outer Banks in NC, where the surfing conditions were unseasonably bad (no weather systems to stir things up) but the weather was awesome. My dad and I also tried out some beginner's hang gliding on Jockey's Ridge, which was interesting but also frustrating (it was really too windy for a beginner's lesson). And Marty is a dog who pretty much refuses to get into the water at all - she just laid on the beach for most of the week. I think she still had a good time though.

One piece of unsettling news - the Weeping Radish Brewery and Restaurant has moved from its sound-side location in Manteo to a mainland location along Route 158, in Jarvisburg. Dumb move - please explain the brilliant business plan that advocates relocating to an area the most people simply drive past? I wish them luck, if only because their beer is so tasty and the Eco Farm idea sounds interesting, but I just don't know whether I'll ever visit them at the new location.

Meanwhile, 200 Miles Overhead....

The ISS (International Space Station) may be visible tonight around 8. Wonder if we have a good shot at actually seeing it in the city, considering all the light pollution.

Half-Assed MLB Playoff Predictions

In 2007 I've seen less baseball than in any year since I started seriously following the sport (in high school), so take these "predicitons" as seriously as that warrants:

Indians v. NYY: I can't claim impartiality on this one, the Yanks remain public enemy #2 in my baseball universe (after Angelos). Cleveland in four.

Red Sox v. Angels: This one's a toss-up in my book. While I certainly have no love for the Sox either (public enemy #3, mainly due to their obnoxious fans at Camden Yards the past few years - hey we won one title in the last 80 years, we must be the greatest franchise ever!!!), I think they have the slight edge due to home field and pitching, but it would hardly be surprising to see the Angels advance. Sox in five.

Diamondbacks v. Cubs: Wow, could there be a trendier pick than the Cubs? Maybe I'm just being contrary, but they're still the Cubs, and even though they're clearly the better team on paper...Arizona in five.

Rockies v. Phillies: Two hottest teams, blah blah blah. Two killer offenses, but the Phils have better pitching (I think). Phillies in four.

ALCS: Cleveland over Red Sox. Don't ask me why, it's probably not the smartest pick. Too bad!

NLCS: Phillies over Arizona. Because Arizona's pitching isn't good enough to hold down that lineup.

WS: Indians over Phillies. Because Cleveland has two very good SP, and since there are seemingly four days between each World Series game, this allows them to go with a two-man rotation.

Tasering for Everyone!

OK, this Florida student may have been acting like an idiot as he tried to ask John Kerry a question, but what was wrong with cutting off his mic and just ending the forum? No, the thugs in the police uniforms decide to forcibly escort him away, then end up tasering him.

Living in Baltimore, I know the value of a good police force, but terrible decision-making on the part of police, like this incident and many more like it, just end up doing damage to law-enforcement. These incidents may be rare, but they almost always make the news, like D.C. Metro cops arresting a 12-year old years ago (crime: eating French fries on the subway). Then there are the popular zero-tolerance, quality-of-life arrests, as popularized by Rudy in New York. Do those approaches work? Hard to say. They likely tamp down some of the petty crime, but the suspicions of police that they engender probably contribute to fewer jury convictions, even for the most serious crimes. Throw in witness intimidation, the stop snitching "code" that so many fine Baltimorons honor, underfunding of police, lowering standards to attract new recruits, and law-enforcement is a big mess.

And what's with tasers, anyway? They've at least contributed to quite a few deaths since they were adopted by police; can't the geniuses employed by the military-industrial complex come up with something better?

Sweet Tail

Here are a few photos from our whale-watching excursion while we were in Boston a few weeks ago. We were up there seeing the sights and visiting Lis and John, who graciously put us up for a few nights and showed us around.

This past weekend was another crazy-busy weekend filled with Matt & Amy wedding stuff. A fun time, but it took us a few days to recover from all the activity and all the people.

And now Mr. Grau is a father. And the apocalypse is not upon us! Weird.

How Walkable Is Your Neighborhood?

Find out at walkscore.com. Neat site, although I've never heard of some of the businesses it found near our house, and I'm not sure what to make of a supposed movie theater that it found south of the park.

Our address scored an 82, by the way.

Infamous Men's Room

Funny sometimes how real life can intersect with the news. For example, yesterday afternoon before I caught my train back to Baltimore, I availed myself of the Union Station men's room, the very same men's room (maybe - there's also one on the lower level) that the distinguished gentleman from Idaho allegedly availed himself of, although in a much more intimate manner. Don't worry, I didn't venture into any of the stalls, and as always I thoroughly washed my hands afterwards. Those hypocrite "family values" Republican germs tend to linger, you know.

It All Started When We Washed Our Cars...

That happened this past Saturday. Something we don't do too often, and since they're both black cars, they looked really scummy. So we washed them, quickly (and badly). The next day, it rained. And kept raining, on and off, for the next few days. Great, because we needed it. But last weekend also saw:

• problems with our new Dish Network service, which a technician thought he had fixed on Sunday. Turns out he managed to make the problem worse.
• Marty developing some problem with her GI system, and needing to wake us up multiple times in the middle of the night on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
• our Verizon DSL, 100% problem-free for close to a year, all of a sudden experiencing intermittent connection problems.
• one of our window blinds randomly breaking and almost falling on a dozing Maya.
• the home team having a historically bad night.

But it the cosmic scheme of things, all small matters. I tend to react poorly when something goes wrong that I have little-to-no control over, especially if it's a technology-based problem, but I think I'm getting better [you'd have to ask Jenny for confirmation though]. And a little perspective is always helpful. We have food, electricity, clean water, and lots of alcohol. All things we take for granted every day, but that billions of people go without. Just need to take a deep breath occasionally, look around, and realize how fortunate I am.

Besides, all these things will work out in the end. Our local, friendly satellite TV technician returns tomorrow to give it another shot. Verizon is sending a tech to take a look at our phone lines and modem next week (and thanks to dslreports.com, I didn't have to beg them to do so, or even get on the phone with customer service!). Marty's poop has returned to normal consistency, and she's in a much better mood. I should be able to repair the window blind so it's like-new. And we go to the Orioles game tonight - my first baseball game of any kind this season! - where thing's can't possibly be as bad as last night (Right?!?).

The New Wikipedia Gotcha Tool

Via the WIRED blog Threat Level, the Wikipedia Scanner tracks changes to Wikipedia and the originating IP of those edits.

A few items that I found interesting:

• someone at the neo-conservative "think" tank, the American Enterprise Institute (right around the corner, literally, from my office - I can feel the evil sometimes), contributed some nice embellishments of the entry for David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter.
• ADM trumpeting their development of some kind of bio-degradable plastic.
• Best Buy, defending their shitty employees and even shittier service plans and business practices.

Fun stuff, eh?

Max Roach

Max Roach passed away yesterday. I only have one of his albums, Deeds Not Words, but it is one of my favorites [it features a tuba on several tracks!!!]. His compositions are much more accessible, IMO, than Tony Williams', another drummer who's often mentioned as one of the greatest of his era.

Maybe He IS Worth All That Money....

In a SuperLiga match against United out in L.A., David Beckham played for over an hour, scored a goal on a free kick, and also assisted on a Landon Donovan goal. So he does actually play the sport - and plays it well - and doesn't just pose for magazine covers!

I Hope That Something Better Comes Along

The title of the post is inspired by the Muppets. The sentiment behind it, however, is driven by the latest legislative cowardice by Congressional Democrats. Will they ever grow a collective spine?

Too bad that principled votes for third-party candidates often lead to Republican victories.

Becks in DC

Yesterday evening we were at RFK to see David Beckham's MLS debut against D.C. United. And despite his tender ankle, he did debut, much to the delight of the crowd - especially the ladies! [Yes, it was his MLS debut, because his first game was merely an exhibition, against a non-league team] . Here's the Post photo gallery, and here's a great photo of the Man of the Hour that Jenny took from the "cheap" seats, one row from the very top of the upper deck, where we were sitting.

I was a bit surprised that Beckham actually played because earlier in the second half, before he subbed in, it was raining, making the field a bit more treacherous (not torrential rain, as mentioned in the Post article - is everything associated with this guy hyperbole?) . But RFK has a natural grass field, and there are apparently a handful of MLS fields (4 out of 13) that use artificial turf. I'm convinced that the problems I have with my knees are from playing and refereeing soccer on a turf field at U of MD, so I completely understand Beckham's dislike of artificial turf. I don't think it matters how much padding is underneath the playing surface, that padding does break down over time and eventually it's like running on concrete. The previous link's turf-defenders point to lower injury rates on turf when compared with grass fields, but that doesn't take into account the chronic effects on the body, the wear-and-tear.

Back to the match! D.C. had the edge in possession and played a much better all-around game than the Galaxy, although they missed several good opportunities late in the first half and early in the second with some horrendous passing. Their passing looked sublime, however, compared to that of Los Angeles, which as a team looked much slower and was unable to spread the field much at all. Beckham's 21 minutes of play were uneventful, but he did have a few nice passes downfield, and a beautiful free kick that was on-target for the forwards to get a head on.

Who knows, maybe years from now we'll be able to tell our kids that we were at Becks' MLS debut, and they'll be awestruck that were were witnesses to the event that launched MLS into a elite global league. Of course, it's probably just as likely that they'll say "David who?" or "what's MLS?" or "soccer? Don't they still play that in Europe?"

Police Report for August 4, 2007

Yes, we saw the Police in concert again! This time at the Virgin Music Festival at Pimlico this past weekend. They played almost the exact same set as in PA, minus two songs, but it was still exhilarating, mostly because we were so close to the stage - anywhere from 100 feet back towards the start of the show to 50 feet away when they closed with a single-song second encore of Next To You. I even have some photos, although most are at least a bit blurry and/or grainy; the event organizers stated pretty clearly no cameras with changeable lenses, so that meant no Nikon D50 for us (we still saw a handful of people walking around with DSLRs though, so I guess it wasn't a well-enforced rule); instead, we took our old eBay-purchased Sony, with its 3x zoom. Eh, better than nothing, but it's hard to take a decent photo from even that close, when you have to hold the camera over your head to shoot above the crowd, plus there's the standard digital camera shutter delay to contend with.

We were able to get right up front because the Beastie Boys were on before the Police, and about a third of their fans emptied out - their loss was our gain! We were packed in pretty tight, at the end of a long, hot, humid, dusty day - it was a blast! We were close enough to see the few looks of disgust on Sting's face when they messed up song intros (Sting's fault once, Stewart's another time, although can the drummer ever really be wrong when it comes to timing?), and to read some of the text on Andy's guitar strap - "Oh My God, You Killed Kenny!" - seriously, that's what it was. Otherwise, not a lot of difference from the last show; as Jenny pointed out, unfortunately Andy's kick-ass solo for Walking In Your Foosteps was severely abbreviated, and one of the songs they didn't play that they played in Hershey was one of my favorites, The Bed's Too Big Without You. But I thought Driven To Tears sounded tighter, and I appreciated being able to fully enjoy another favorite, Synchronicity II, without also searching for our seats, as we had to do in PA.

Other bands, bah who cares. But here's a quick rundown anyway:

1. LCD Soundsystem - easily the best act we saw all day, other than the Police. These guys are aggressive, loud, energetic, and maybe a bit crazy.
2. Peter Bjorn and John (PB&J) - rock/pop from Sweden, songs themselves are hit-and-miss in terms of the writing, but another fun performance.
3. Amy Winehouse - great voice, outstanding band, too bad she mailed it in, either due to the heat or b/c she was high, not sure which. Plus, she really needs to eat something.
   
4. Beastie Boys - caught the second half of their set, not my kind of music but they're funny guys and great performers.
5. Cheap Trick - maybe a bit too old for this crowd? Robin Zander can still sing, they were OK on the whole.
6. Danny Tenaglia (DJ) - fun guy, good performer, eschews the 'DJ-as-cooler-than-you-stoic' stage persona.
7. Sasha and John Digweed (DJs) - yawn.

We also saw the billionaire himself, Richard Branson, around mid-day. He really puts together a well-organized festival, and his emphasis on environmentalism and community service isn't just lip service; half the festival ground was filled with various service organization and NGO booths, and every trash-disposal area was staffed by a person who made sure that garbage was sorted correctly [landfill, compost, or recycling].

[Update: I just uploaded a very short video (0:15) of the first few lines of Roxanne. It doesn't sound all that horrendous, a lot better than I thought it would anyway, considering it's a still camera in MPEG movie mode. It's so short because it's on the highest-quality setting, and that's as big as the buffer gets at that setting.]

Overpass Democracy

Remember the weeks and months after September 11, when it was rare to drive beneath a highway overpass without seeing a U.S. Flag? Well, there have been recent anecdotal accounts of a different flavor of highway decoration, but I hadn't seen evidence of anything similar around here until last night, when we saw an crudely-made, simple-yet-beautiful Impeach Bush poster hanging on an overpass above I-83. Congressional Democrats have publicly stated that impeachment is "off the table", because they're afraid of a political backlash. But with two-thirds of the country disapproving of this administration, exactly where would a measurable backlash come from? Looks to be another case of political will lagging far behind public opinion.

Police Report for July 20, 2007

I didn't think it possible, but the Police - in concert!!! - actually exceeded my expectations. All 3 of them sounded fantastic. They sounded like they just picked up right where they left off, like the Synchronicity tour was a few months ago and this was just the next leg.

Gordon's (aka Sting's - we're close, so I can call him Gordon) vocals were pretty damn good, even on the high notes (still!). He broke out some kind of pan flute for the beginning of Walking in Your Footsteps, but other than that just stuck with the bass, which had a very heavy sound - I guess that's what's required of their catalog, when the melody is so often in the bass line?

Andy Summers (the guitarist) really shines in concert, much more so than on the studio tracks, because he has so much more latitude. His solos are more elaborate, and he's not just relegated to playing rhythm guitar on ska- or reggae-beat songs.

Stewart Copeland is the Greatest Drummer in the History of Rock. Period. I don't know what else to say. I know Sting writes the songs, but I don't know where the Police would be, how well-defined their sound would be, without Stewart. He was simply awesome. His drum kit was massive, and then he had an additional array of percussion instruments (half of which I couldn't name, but which did include timpani, steel drums, a huge gong, and all sorts of chime and cymbal-type thingees) upon which he also kicked much ass.

Highlights - the quite-enthusiastic crowd reaction to Every Little Thing She Does is Magic (evidently a fan favorite), the percussion work on Wrapped Around Your Finger, and the overall massive arena-rock sound of two of the encore numbers, So Lonely and King of Pain.

I can't believe that we get to see them again in a few weeks. We're not worthy!!

[Edit: Here's a review of the show from the Sun music critic, Rashod Ollison.]

A Tale of Two Weekends

First, the Bad: Taking 3.5-to-4 hours to drive the 90 miles from Baltimore to Hershey, PA for the Police show. Jenny having to go into the office both Saturday and Sunday. The HP critical BIOS update that killed the motherboard (I'm finished with buying computers, I'll just build my own from now on unless it's a laptop; fewer headaches, believe it or not). Me wasting time on a beautiful day on Saturday on the fool's errand of trying to recover the BIOS.

Ah, but there was Good: The Police, LIVE! - review forthcoming. Cal's whiskey-tasting event, which was much fun. The weather, which didn't suck, for once.

Brian May, Back to School

Apparently the Queen founder, guitarist, and songwriter has dusted off his 30+ year-old doctoral thesis in astrophysics, and could get his PhD next year. Kinda neat. And yet, I wonder how it is that some people get all the brains and the creativity. It hardly seems fair, does it?

Geekotourism

Here's a brief vacation guide for your inner geek. I would argue that a trip to CERN is easily the geekiest on this list. As for me, it would be a tough choice between the New Zealand LOTR locations and Chernobyl. But if I honestly had to choose between nuclear radiation and Hobbits, I'd probably pick Hobbits nine times out of ten.

High Definition

To go with our new HDTV (Panasonic plasma) that was delivered Friday, we switched from DirecTV to the other satellite provider, Dish Network. They have more HD channels - for now - plus are a few bucks cheaper per month. But we found one caveat - and we think Dish Network was slightly misleading about it when Jenny set up everything over the phone - they don't offer local broadcast channels in HD, we need a separate antenna for that. We weren't too happy when we discovered that, but I still think we would have switched to Dish even if we had known that in advance. Besides, we can always switch back (in 18 months) if we really want to. Then again, in 18 months, it will be 2009 and the HDTV landscape is bound to look very different.

If You Took a Zombie Movie...

....and substituted sheep for zombies, what would you get? Probably something like this New Zealand film. I must admit, I'm intrigued.

The Salon.com reviewer also had an interesting yet succinct take on Eli Roth's "films", which as I've mentioned previously, I'm not a fan of:

These days I'll cut any horror director some slack who declines to follow Eli Roth down the dead-end path of gruesomeness for its own sake. My objections are aesthetic, not essentially moral, although you could argue that somewhere down the line the two intersect.

My own objections about Roth's chosen torture porn genre (yeah, that's what a lot of critics are calling it, even the ones who like his work) tends to start with the moral aspect, with the aesthetics following, but the overall sentiment is similar. And after seeing another undeservedly NC-17 rated film recently (Requiem For a Dream), it's even more shocking to me than it was back in January that Roth can get an R rating for his movies. Go ahead and Google for an in-depth Hostel II review and convince me that it's an R movie. An NC-17 rating doesn't ban a movie anyway, so that's not what I'm advocating. Adults who are entertained by this stuff - and I seriously question the mental well-being of those people - can still seek it out.

Look what happens, I start off with an innocent link to a fun little film about crazed killer livestock, then fall into this moralizing mode - sorry 'bout that.

Nothing Is Easier Than Blaming the Manager

Sam Perlozzo is supposedly out as O's manager. Not surprising, but it certainly wasn't Sam who decided to throw all that free agent money at the most inconsistent performers in baseball, middle relievers. Peter Angelos obviously needs to sell the team, but barring that gift to Baltimore fans, Mike Flanagan and Jim Duquette need to be shown the door. Only then will a manager ever had a chance to succeed with the O's.

And if these clowns do decide to hire a high-rpofile manager, please let it be Davey Johnson and not Joe Girardi. The last thing this team needs is another Yankee coming in and telling them how Joe Torre does things up in the Bronx. Didn't work for Mazilli, won't work for Girardi either.

New Auto Technology, Russian Spirits

This neat article from Wired summarizes a few of the latest future-car concepts and engine/drivetrain technology, but to me it really drives home one of the biggest casualties of the Global Warming / Peak Oil / Energy Dependence crises - it's killing the flying car. We were supposed to have flying cars by now. Actually, I think we were supposed to get them sometime back in the 80's. But it didn't happen then, and now it's even less likely. The first few flying car prototypes are bound to be quite fossil-fuel-hungry, so how are they supposed to get off the ground by using fuel cells and electric motors? At this rate, no flying cars in my lifetime. But maybe personal hovercraft are the wave of the future, what with all the melting and expected sea level rise.

Don't worry though, all is right with the world - Russians will still drink just about anything.

UPDATE: Strange, I mention personal hovercraft in the initial entry, and look what I find a few hours later!

Olympics Logo, Regurgitated

Maybe I just don't "get" this type of artwork, but why does the 2012 London Games logo look like something that the high-paid graphic designer's kid puked up on the morning of the deadline to finish the logo?

Who knows, maybe I won't hate it so much in another five years.

Mad Cow 'Conservatives'

This Republican administration standing up for the free market? One might think so, but apparently not. Al really got it right with the title of the new book; Assault on Reason indeed.

Old Dog, Old Tricks

Amazingly enough, even though they're in the majority, Democrats are still perfectly capable of rolling over for the War-Criminal-in-Chief. This cartoon pretty much nails it.

Interested in Destroying the Planet?

Not so fast! You should read this first.

Elvis in Philly

Last Saturday, we were up in Philly for the day, and stopped by the Reading Terminal Market (pretty much the same as Lexington Market in Charm City, and smaller versions in town like Cross Street and Broadway markets) and the Mütter Museum before the main reason for our visit, Elvis Costello at the Electric Factory.

Not sure whether it was because it was the last night of the tour, but the band came out with a lot of energy, and didn't take a break until they were seven or eight songs in. They even played through when the drummer broke his bass head after three songs. I caught Costello for the first time three years ago in Vegas, and this show was night-and-day different from that one, in that almost every song was loud and fast. They played one of my favorites, Beyond Belief, and it rocked considerably more than the recorded version. Elvis was as cool as ever, in a black suit, shirt and tie, and dark sunglasses (ah, to be a rock musician!), and his voice has to be one of the more underrated ones in the business - the guy can sing any style, and has a deceptively impressive range. Do I sound like a music critic yet? I hope not.

Surprise guest Allen Toussaint, a fellow HOFer and collaborator on The River in Reverse, sat in for thirty-plus minutes; the guy plays an effortless keyboard, and has a cool voice. For the last song, which capped a two-and-a-half hour show, Elvis segued from Peace, Love and Understanding into the chorus of Bring the Boys Home - a nice touch during an otherwise politically-understated show.

Monday Is Wiretap the Internet Day!

Don't worry, it's not one of those occasions upon which you need to buy something for your boss (unless you work at the FBI or in the White House, then maybe it's appropriate). Just another day in which the current administration wakes up, grabs a coffee and a bran muffin, and a little later after everything has worked its way through, wipes its collective ass with our Constitution. Just the regular AM routine, nothing special. The first Slashdot comment to this article is excellent, by the way.

Meanwhile, Alberto "Midnight Rendezvous" Gonzalez is still the AG, Dick Cheney is still allowed to carry a gun, and the Master Shrub himself still thinks we're going to 'win' in Iraq. Someone explain to me again how Clinton got impeached, while these guys are still in power? And how does even one-third of the public still support these crooks?

KSR Redux, Calling all Kinetinauts

A few weeks late, but here's a quick recap of the Kinetic Sculpture Race. It was a long and tiring day of volunteering, but Jenny and I both had a great time, and would definitely do it again next year [but for other plans, potentially - see below]. From the opening ceremonies - the Star-Spangled Banner sounds pretty good on kazoo! - to lavish and grotesque trophies at the very irreverent award ceremony, it was a blast.

There were really no surprises when it came to my tasks at the mud pit: go to pile of dirt, wet dirt, rake/shovel, repeat. We didn't snare as many sculptures as we would have liked, but we did have a very strong, vocal crowd of a few-hundred spectators, most of them rooting for the sculptures while we secretly rooted for the mud. We really are kind of the bad guys of the race, and I know that we all heartily enjoyed that role. Jenny and I also met some fantastic people amongst our fellow volunteers; in retrospect we wish we would have gotten better (read: any!) contact information for them. I feel obliged to link to one of the web sites of an artist and fellow mud-connoisseur, both because she was so friendly and because her latest project is so cool.

We'll have some photos up before too long on Jenny or my Flickr pages (or on both), but until then here are the official race photos and re-cap.

Looking forward to the 2008 KSR, which will be the tenth running of the Baltimore edition of the race, we're thinking why volunteer if we could be competing instead? Competing might be the wrong word for a "race" with the grand prize going to the team that finishes in the middle, but you know what I mean. So take a look at the race web site, read through the rules, and then let us know if you're interested in being on the team. We're going to have to start building this summer, and all we're starting with are a few solid ideas, plus our soaring dreams of artistic and kinetic adequacy. No really, we are serious about this, please let us know if you want in.

Borat as Art, Geekiest Credit Card Ever?

A Canadian artist is producing a series of Borat portraits. Cool? I think so, but what do I know. Strange? Well, he's producing 999 of them in the series, that's kinda weird.

Meanwhile, in consumerland, World of Warcraft obsessives finally have their own credit card. If I were still playing....sorry, still wouldn't sign up. I'm already enough of a geek, in my own manner, without broadcasting it to cashiers everywhere.

2007 KSR!!!

KSR, as in Kinetic Sculpture Race. One of Baltimore's more bizarre and perhaps not-so-well-known traditions, which Jenny and I have seen parts of in years past. This year we're volunteers, so we're particularly excited. I'll be helping to create the mud pit at the Patterson Park obstacle course portion of the 15 mile race, while Jenny will be at two checkpoints near the Inner Harbor, with a wooden chicken-on-a-stick and a polaroid camera. Don't ask, you just have to come and see.

This is a race where finishing in the middle garners the top prize, the Grand Mediocre Champion, where 'kinetic cops' can be bribed to avoid tickets (time penalties), and where a giant pink poodle and a massive, fuzzy, skateboarding blue wombat race alongside an igloo, a rat made of trash bags, and a metal platypus, just to name a few.

For more info, check out the handy spectator's guide, which includes descriptions of all 31 entries, the race schedule, and a map of the course.

Uncomfortable Questions

Was the destruction of the Death Star an inside job? Even so many years after the fact, many questions remain.

Grindhouse!

If you don't mind a little gratuitous violence and blood, go see Grindhouse. As soon as possible. Seriously. Yes, I'd pay $8 to see it again in the theater, in case you're interested. Don't wait for the DVD - see this on as large a screen as possible, and with a big crowd. We caught it at the Senator, Baltimore's biggest screen, on Friday night, it was packed (700+, easily, in the 900 seat theater) with quite the enthusiastic crowd. It's the most fun I've had at the movies in years, no exaggeration. Better, in terms of sheer entertainment value (not story or acting, mind you) than Kill Bill.

Both of the films are excellent, but also take very different approaches; Rodriguez' Planet Terror is almost non-stop, blood-soaked, campy action from beginning to end, while Tarantino's Death Proof has a slow build-up, and is a masterful piece of emotional manipulation with a cool payoff. And then there are the trailers, 3 out of 4 which are hilarious, each in its own way.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to have already seen the movie(s), here's a clip that puts some of Death Proof into context. [recommendation: Don't visit this link before seeing the film!]

Also, if you've seen Grindhouse and didn't like it, please don't bother leaving a comment to that effect- it will be removed.

Iraq Funding

The majority of commentators - online, on TV, wherever - seem to think that it's a foregone conclusion that the Democrat-controlled Congress will roll over on Iraq funding, and eventually strip withdrawal deadlines out of their funding bills. Why? Pelosi and Reid can hammer away at Bush's upcoming vetoes as the real obstacle to funding, just as easily as he can hammer them. And if the majority of Americans want us out of Iraq, why would cutting off funding be so terrible? It's not like the troops are getting all the armor and equipment they need anyway. So much of that money is going to contractors, that the most serious damage a funding cut-off can do is cut into the profit margins of companies like Blackwater. And are the soldiers who are over in Iraq getting shot and bombed really rooting for more funding to come through, so they can stay in the war zone longer? I know it's about politics more than anything, and I know I'm simplifying this a great deal, but I just don't see the downside for the Democrats or the troops if the funding is cut off.

Rock Hall

We caught a bit of this year's induction ceremony for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame a few weeks ago, and this past weekend Jenny and I were perusing the list of inductees and speculating about who else should be in, both now and in the future (recording artists are first eligible 25 years after release of their first recording).

For performers who were definitely influences on rock, but who could probably make it in as performers also, I have to bring up electronic pioneers Kraftwerk (for the second post in a row!), and also surf guitar legend Dick Dale. I'm actually surprised that Dale hasn't already been inducted, and the electronic sound is such a part of rock/pop these days, I'm not sure how you can leave Kraftwerk out. Miles Davis was inducted in 2006, and I would argue that his relationship to rock is relatively tenuous, so I think a case could definitely be made for these two acts. Also, New York Dolls, maybe?

Performers who are already eligible (first record released in...um, let's call it 1981 or earlier), who should be inducted soon? We thought those should definitely include The Cure, and we thought a good case could also be made for both The Cars and Duran Duran. I just thought of another one this morning - Rush. One of my favorite bands growing up, Def Leppard, will probably miss the cut - yeah, they sold a lot of albums, but how influential was their sound? I think it's telling that KISS isn't an inductee, despite being eligible for a number of years. Am I missing anyone? Check the inductee list first; who is and isn't already in can be surprising.

Eligible within the next few years, that are "locks" to get in? Madonna and Metallica come to mind immediately. As for more modern acts, that's a longer list; maybe I'll save that for another post.

Awesome Al Gore Global Warming Quote

To Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton yesterday:

If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action.

Revelations in Music and Fashion

I'm reading this book of Jenny's on the train this week about the history of the DJ, and it mentions Ben Sherman, a clothing designer that I dig, as having been the label of choice in the working class "northern soul" clubs of Northern England back in the sixties. I can see that, although they've come a long way since then, with $90 shirts and the like.

And on the train this morning, I'm listening to Kraftwerk (also a Jenny musical selection - yes, books on DJs, early elctronic music, she's much cooler than me), and I hear a familiar melody while listening to Computerlove. Turns out that it's the melody that Coldplay uses in Talk. Who knew? Not a great song though, IMO, even with the catchy melody.

Seven Wonders

This Post article marks the first I've heard of this, but there is currently Internet voting for a new Seven Wonders of the World. The 21 eligible wonders are decent, but in this modern age, aren't they missing a few obvious ones, like the Internet itself, or George W. Bush? (a two-term president that's as dumb as he is a modern wonder, in a terrible sort of way).

Seriously though, what about the canals of Venice (too crumbly?), the Vegas Strip (too capitalist?), the Panama Canal (too utilitarian?), or the Sistine Chapel (too arty?). Don't get me wrong, their list is fine, I'm just thinking a few of the choices aren't too stellar. The Statue of Liberty - they chose that to give the US an entry, right? The Alhambra - maybe I'm not cultured enough, but I've barely even heard of it. And the minarets of Timbuktu either look like they've seen better days, or weren't all that fantastic to begin with.

Apparently Terps Are Owned...

...by Miami? Yeah, it sure seems that way. That's four losses in the last five against the Hurricanes. Is the ibis a natural predator of turtles, by any chance?

I'm predicting a #5 seed on Sunday night- anything higher is a gift, anything lower is bad luck. Is this a terrible loss? No way - the way they were out-rebounded, maybe the players had been reading their own good press, and thought they could just show up. Now they should know that they're not good enough to do that (maybe nobody in college basketball is, this season).

Anyone think they've got this CBB season figured out? I thought I picked a lot of upsets last year, but managed to win some office pools. This year, more of the same seems like the prudent course.

Nine Ways that Hollywood Flouts Physics

From Slashdot:

9 laws of physics that don't apply in Hollywood.

U.S. Fiber, Crippled Networks?

I know several people in the DC/Baltimore area who are in the Verizon FiOS service area, and have been hooked up with new fiber optic transmission of both digital TV and internet service starting at 5 Mbps for $40/month (up to 30 MBps for - holy shit! - $180/month). People are excited about this, because they can now ditch their despised Comcast cable, and also upgrade thier broadband speed, all the while saving some money. Now, we ditched Comcast years ago, and went with DirecTV's decent performance and solid customer service, and are also happy with our Verizon DSL, which is reliable if unspectacular. But FiOS would clearly be an upgrade, so I went online to try to nail down a schedule on when it may be coming to Baltimore City.

Well, I didn't find that schedule, but I did find plenty else. Over a year ago, I bitched about how France, among other places, had cheaper and better TV & internet service, by far, than we do in the states. Apparently, our broadband infrastructure itself is coming up short when compared with other developed countries. This page spells it all out, and spreads the blame around between the Baby Bells (Verizon, AT&T, etc.), mergers, FCC inaction and incompetence, and state governments afraid or unwilling to hold these corporations to their contracts. No surprise there, after all it's popular these days for governments to abdicate their utility and infrastructure resposibilities to corporations; look at red light cameras, privately operated toll roads, and the deregulated power grid. Then there's always cable "competition", and...oh hell it's Friday, I don't feel like dwelling on the same old bullshit politics, let's move on.

So what about the numbers behind Teletruth.org's accusations? $6.63 per Mbps (vs. $0.34 in Korea and $0.41 in Japan)? Going by the current FiOS price structure, at the cheapest monthly rate - assuming the maximum advertised 5 Mbps download speeds - that's $8/Mbps. Moving up to the $180/month 30 Mbps, the math is still easy - $6/Mbps. Not a pretty picture, and Verizon's fiber is still a better deal than AT&T's U-verse (formerly Lightspeed, both stupid names), which as far as I can tell only offers up to 6 Mbps. AT&T also bundles their price with the TV component, so it's difficult to figure out how much each Mbps costs, but it looks to be somewhat more expensive than FiOS.

How about the claim that the U.S. is 16th in broadband according to the ITU? Let's take a look at the current numbers, shall we? According to their growth rate metric, whatever the hell that means, we're actually ranked 13th in the world. But looking at the Network Index, the ITU measurement of fixed phone lines, mobile subscribers, and internet bandwidth per capita, the U.S. drops down to 23rd.

Is FiOS still a good thing? Sure, you take what you can get, and it's probably preferable to dealing with Comcast, Adelphia, or any of the regional cable fiefdoms. But it sure would be nice if we weren't being left in the dust by Asia, and to a lesser extent, Europe. The most frustrating aspect is that it seems like an infrastructure problem that could have been avoided, given better decision-making and some FCC backbone.

No Bias Here!

ESPN's Power 16, their college basketball experts' list of the best teams in the country, is kind enough to publish the individual ballots of said experts. The Blue Devils only appear on a single ballot - can you guess whose?

Ownage

I'll couch it in several terms, at least one of which should be understood by any of my tens of readers:

If they were a house, we'd have a 30-year mortgage.
If they were the Coyote, we'd be the Road Runner.
If they were a car, we'd hold the title.
If they borrowed money, we'd be Chili Palmer.
If they were an instance boss, we'd one-shot them.
If they were Johnny Ringo, we'd be their huckleberry.
If they were beer or donuts, we'd be Homer J. Simpson.

They are the Blue Devils. We are the Maryland Terrapins. And these days, we own them.

Another Dumb Criminal, + How Ticket Sites Could Work

I read this bizarre story on the train this morning, and am convinced now more than ever that the intelligent criminal is the rarest of species. This guy accuses a recently-fired employee of having an affair with his fiancee, and fires a few shots at him with his shotgun. But the defendant claims that it was an accident, he was going to offer the shotgun (and a big-ass knife) as a parting gift to the ex-employee, who he considered "a real woodsman", when he tripped and the gun went off. Riiiight! Maybe he meant to say that he was going to offer the shotgun slugs to the guy's chest, and the knife to his back? To top it all off, the defendant runs an nonprofit organic farm that provides food for soup kitchens. Apparently even the most charitable among us aren't immune to crimes of passion. Once again, I'm sure glad I live in the City and not the County - those County people are nuts!

As I continue the saga of trying to obtain Police tour tickets, I came upon mention of Scarlet Mist, one of several UK-based ticket sales and exchange sites, upon which users can only buy and sell tickets at face value. What a fantastic idea, and it seems to work too! Granted, for most of the listed events no tickets were currently on sale, but there was some availability for big names like Ricky Gervais and Justin Timberlake. I couldn't find a U.S. equivalent; can we get one of these sites over here?

In

Welcome back to the Tourney, Terrapins. Not that there was too mouch doubt, with they way they'd been playing for the last few weeks, and with at least one likely win left on the regular season schedule. But tonight's win over #5 Carolina removed any lingering aprehension. This is an easy team to watch, (although I had to resort to listening on the radio tonight b/c our DirecTV was knocked out by the snow & ice) they simply never give up on a game. Now it just remains to be seen - how high of a seed can they earn?

Someone Explain To Me Again, Please

How huge monetary contributions to political campaigns equals free speech? This DailyKos post says it all: "cash rules everything". That, along with the sobering realization that the only people who could really fix the problem are the politicians who benefit from all the largesse, and it's hard to blame the millions of Americans who choose to ignore a public sphere that they have little hope of influencing.

Africa, Part II - The Animals

I've meant to write some additional Africa-related entries well before now, but I think that talking with so many people about it since we've gotten back, I was experiencing a bit of safari-stories overload. I'm better now. I was also inspired by this article about West African chimpanzees making weapons for hunting. Those chimps are so smart, I'm sure their weapons are of an intelligent design.

The strangest thing, by far, of seeing so many exotic animals in their natural environment, is how quickly one takes them for granted. I was struck by how odd it was, that by the third day, an elephant or giraffe sighting was no longer cause for celebration, but just another day in the safari vehicle. An elephant didn't even warrant a photo at that point, unless it was particularly close, particularly young, or was doing something of note (sharpening its tusks, tearing the bark from a tree, etc.). Not to say that they still weren't cool to see, it was just very easy to get used to the presence of these animals. Our first night at a safari camp, there was an elephant wandering around not even 50 feet from our tent. That's just how it was - they were there, you were a visitor in their world, so get used to it or spend the whole trip with your mouth open in astonishment (not good, lots of flies).

We were visitors, yes, but we certainly weren't unnoticed, especially by certain species. Impalas, zebras, many species of gazelle - they couldn't care less that we were there. Elephants too - they don't have much in the way of predators, once you remove 'humans with guns' from the list. Warthogs, hyeenas, cheetahs, baboons, wildebeests; they all were quite aware of our presence, although the reaction ran the gamut from disinterested to curious to wary to terrified, and varied even within species. We encountered hyeenas who were jolted out of their mud baths by our approach, and the next day our Land Cruiser raced a few hundred yards in the middle of the Serengeti alongside a younger hyeena who looked to be just having a good time. Wildebeests scattered en masse whenever our vehicle approached, while some gazelles and baboons, and zebras waited until they were almost roadkill before giving way. We frightened away a timid herd of Eland (Ben, our guide, said that they're all timid), only to be approached by a born-that-day baby Eland, still nearly blind, who mistook our Land Cruiser for a parent and bleated at us pathetically.

Yes, we did see lions, but not up close, and none that were active. It seems as though the typical savannah lion is about as lazy as your common house cat, lounging and sleeping most of the day. We were fortunate enough to watch - from a distance - a female cheetah at the hunt, although she whiffed on a Thompson's Gazelle. Two days later, we saw her up close in the same general area , a few feet from a road, with her three three-month old cubs. We also saw a serval slinking along the road one morning, that was kinda cool.

All said, there was rarely a day where we went very long without seeing something, whether it was one or more of the plentiful gazelle, hippos floating in a pool, warthogs scurrying around somewhat nervously, or one of dozens of species of birds. Still, it certainly wasn't anything like a trip to the zoo; more like a journey to another planet, where we were welcome but still alien visitors.

A Scrimmage?!?

So the Police might not end up playing Baltimore because of a Ravens/Redskins scrimmage? That's just not right. Who gives a shit about an NFL scrimmage anyway? You know, I was starting to come around on the Ravens, since Modell sold the team and Ray Lewis hasn't killed anyone recently, but this is simply unacceptable. And to the Baltimore Sun - your cute headline referencing Roxanne? Gimme a break. Whoever wrote that headline should be fired.

Quality Sunday Night TV

First, from 5 to 7, the Terps captured an all-to-easy "must-win" against their arch-rivals.

Then, while I was waiting for the evening's main event, I caught a bit of 60 Minutes - just my opinion, and I know it's early, but I have a difficult time picturing an '08 Democratic ticket without Obama somewhere on it. And did anyone else know that Ravi Shankar is Norah Jones' father?!?

Then, the Police opened the Grammys with Roxanne. Awesome. They have a press conference scheduled for 11 PT today; it's assumed that they'll be announcing their 30th anniversary reunion tour! Now, I'm sure there's a ticket price that I wouldn't be willing to pay to see them in concert, but I think I'll wait and see what tickets cost before deciding on that price...

Africa, Part I - Jet Lag

I don't think I've ever had a serious case of jet lag before now, but I guess that the combination of flying across eight time zones, plus going from mid-nineties temperatures to the teens here at home, took its toll. It's been 3+ days since we've been back, and I still don't feel right. Hopefully the weekend will help with the recovery process.

I'm not going to try to squeeze all my thoughts on our trip to Tanzania into one post, because that post would end up being too damn long. So over the next week or two I'll probably divide it into several shorter entries, one for wildlife, one for people, one for locations & accommodations, maybe one other one also. That should ensure that any remaining readers will be driven from this blog permanently, leaving only my loving parents, and maybe my siblings.

Jenny already has some photos online - elephants mostly - and she's be adding more in the next few days. I have some short (15 second) video clips taken with my Sony still camera (the video camera stopped working on day 2 of our trip) that I'll try to upload to YouTube at some point also.

Hey, Let's Politicize Global Warming!

Surprised? Not particularly. Frustrated? Absolutely. I like Pelosi's idea of a new committee to address global warming, but other than that, the Democrats' and enviro-lobbyists' ideas about waiting a year or two to start working on this are maddening:

That is why some environmentalists want Pelosi to delay until she can send a bill to a more sympathetic president in 2009, and why some Democrats want her to delay so they can use the issue against Republicans in 2008.

Don't get me wrong, I have no love for any Republican, but to quote well-known political commentator Eric Cartman, "Democrats piss me off!"

Colbert v. O'Reilly

I didn't see part one of this stroke of marketing genius - I wouldn't even know which channel Fox News uses to pollute DirecTV's signal - but Jenny and I did stay up for part two on the Colbert Report, and it was worth it. The best dig at O'Reilly was probably the Barnes & Noble 30% off sticker, which covered O'Reilly's head on the book cover. And the comment about Jon Stewart being a sexual predator, that was wonderfully vicious. I must admit, O'Reilly was a surprisingly good sport - still a pompous windbag, but a good sport nonetheless.

Brzezinski Tells It Like It Is

This opinion piece by Carter's National Security Adviser is the best - and most succinct - deconstruction of Wednesday's presidential speech that I've read thus far.

Big Three Still Clueless

It's really no mystery why U.S. car companies lose money these days - they employ chief economists who choose to take residence - along with our current administration - in a 'denial-based' alternate universe. No wonder Toyota continues to crush these clowns.

Ah, Winter

So I go out running on Saturday morning, and then following that, I take Marty over to the park for her walk. Now, it's around 70F, I had just run 7+ miles, so I'm obviously wearing shorts. That must have been the reason that local human-interest TV news reporter dude (for the city's NBC affiliate) comes over to me and wants to ask a few questions about the weather. I'm caught off guard, but I don't want to be a jerk, so I agree. What followed was an exercise in banality, as he asks me what I think of the weather (um, it's warmer thasn usual?), isn't it weird to be wearing shorts in January? (uh, yeah), et cetra, ad nauseum. I'm not sure whether it was the dumb questions, or the fact that he didn't look the least bit interested in my oh-so-profound responses, but the whole thing was a bit annoying. Plus I wasn't looking as pretty as I could have, because I had just been out running. Then the cameraman wants to get a shot of Marty, who by this point is really impatient to get on with her walk, and is wondering why this camera guy won't give her a treat in return for her allowing him to film her. Anyway, we were out in DC that night, and weren't even home to see the evening news, but Liz & Jarriel's friend Derek saw it, and I got a call from Jarriel the next day.

Now Marty think she's a TV star, and is demanding a limo to the park and the expensive dog food. And while this morning (32F) felt a bit more like winter, our BGE (gas & electric) bill for December was less than $26. We should probably get used to these winters, because even if we do figure out how to stop global warming in our lifetimes, how are we going to reverse the damage that's already been done - build a big ice maker in Greenland that spits iceberg-sized cubes towards the North Pole?

UFO Sightings

There have been two supposed UFO sightings in the past few months, a recent one in South Africa last Saturday with a lone witness who claims she saw a crash, and one at O'Hare in Chicago back in November that was witnessed by several United Airlines employees.

The Chicago Tribune article also claims that the politically-correct/preferred term for UFO is now UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).

Continuing with the Comics Theme

Here's a list of the top ten lamest superheroes. Since I only recognize one character (#10, Cypher), I think it's a pretty weak list. Shouldn't a list like this only be populated by superheroes that people might actually have heard of? Just off the top of my head, I would think Aquaman would have to make the list (a rip-off of the Sub-Mariner, who debuted two years earlier, FYI), also Jubilee from the X-Men and Ant Man from the Avengers.