Ethanol, Dumb Government, and Corn Syrup

Government is usually faulted for moving too slowly, taking too long to catch up to the will of its citizens. The mandated ethanol production targets are an example of government moving too quickly, before the science of ethanol - as it related to global warming - was really understood. Now that it is better understood, this is a giant screw-up that has more serious ramifications than just massive give-aways to industrial agriculture. The problem is leaking into our food supply, and does anyone really expect the feds to move quickly (or to move at all) to correct their error, especially in an election year?

[A food/health aside: The farmer quoted in the Post article argues that food costs as a proportion of the average household budget is much less than it used to be. That's true, but that's because so much of the food Americans eat is processed food which is the end result of the industrialization of agriculture; back in the 1950's, food cost more because it was real food. Now so much of what we eat and drink contains some kind of corn-based chemical concoction that's cheaper than the real food alternative. As long as we continue to ramp up corn-based ethanol production, those processed food-like items are bound to get more expensive. So maybe this ethanol thing isn't all bad, if it means that real food becomes more of a part of the national diet once again?]

Here's another food prices / ethanol article on the front page of today's Sun.

Rethinking City Streets

New York City's congestion pricing traffic/infrastructure plan was shot down by Albany the other day. No surprise there, since there's a long history of acrimony between the State and the City. But there was barely any support for London's congestion pricing plan before it was implemented, and now most Londoners seem to dig it.

This New York Times article from earlier this week presents various re-imaginings of city streets, and is worth a read if you live in a city (who lives in a city and doesn't have urban-planning impulses occasionally?) or just find this kind of thing interesting. My favorite idea is probably the woonerf, although I'll be honest, I'm not sure if it's because I like the concept or because it sounds like it should be the name of an IKEA sofa. The soy-made packs of smart-as-a-horse cars are also...intriguing. Not so crazy about urban acupuncture; "the alpha mode is the shoe"? What does that even mean? Do quotes like that really help bring in the grant money?!?

Campaigning for Israeli Votes

Yesterday, at a United Jewish Communities debate in D.C., here's what representatives from the McCain and Clinton campaigns had to say:

Lawrence Eagleburger (remember him?) claimed that his candidate "will not talk with the Syrians, will not talk with the Iranians, will not talk with Hamas and Hezbollah. . . . He isn't going to push the Israelis." Fantastic! Another president who doesn't do diplomacy. Bush's third term indeed.

Ann Lewis, from the Clinton campaign, declared that "The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel. It is not up to us to pick and choose from among the political parties." Silly me, I thought this was a campaign for the presidency of the U.S.! Apparently the White House should merely act as a rubber stamp for Israel's government.

As race, ethnicity and religion are dragged to the forefront of this campaign, it's going to get really ugly (rather, uglier), really quickly. I find the idea somewhat ridiculous that one must agree one-hundred percent with the political and even religious views of one's pastor. Not much room for free-thinking in U.S. politics. Not anymore.

The Ghost of Steve Blake

Another season, another NIT appearance for the mighty Terrapins of Maryland. Any residual goodwill from the 2002 title has dissipated, so what now? There are all sorts of prescriptions being tossed around online and in the papers: Fire Gary. Gary needs to recruit better. Vasquez shouldn't be playing the point. What's wrong with Gist? The freshmen should have played more, because now next year's frontcourt will be awful.

A bit of truth to all of those. But I think [disclaimer: I have never played organzied basketball, coached organzied basketball, or been to a single Final Four as a player, coach, or spectator] that it begins and ends with the PG position. Since Steve Blake went on to the NBA, Maryland's point guard play has been erratic at best, and often just plain awful. John Gilchrist would rather score - or pout - than pass the ball. D.J. Strawberry was never a point guard but was forced into the position due to some questionable recruiting and didn't do so well (although he tried!). And Mr. Vasquez perfers to turn the ball over by either attempting impossible passes or by dribbling around in the lane until the ball is stolen.

Is there talent on this team? Absolutely. Although it's always interesting to hear Gary's teams described as so athletic when their talent is discussed. When's the last time that Gary's teams were described as smart? Maybe...the early years of the 21st century? Was that because Lonny "Six-Gun" Baxter was any brighter than James "1st Half" Gist? Certainly not. But he seemed to be, out on the court, because Blake wouldn't pass him the ball if he was at a spot on the court where he couldn't make a good play. That's a quality PG. Everyone else on the court looks smarter. Sure, it helps to have a backcourt partner like Juan Dixon. But this team proved down in Chapel Hill months ago that the ability is there, and that it just needs to be tapped consistently.

I know the origin of the word "fan", so I understand why people are calling for Gary's head. But logically, what are the odds that Debbie Yow is going to strike gold and find a coach that will do what Gary has already done? Statistically speaking, it's unlikely. There aren't too many coaches out there that been to even a single Final Four. That being said, I don't think he has a free pass for much longer. For instance, I can't see him holding onto his job if this year's NIT appearance is followed by two more years of the same. Hell, he might only have one more year - the big-money boosters at an ACC school aren't much for patience.

So what will Gary do? Move Vasquez to the shooting guard position, for starters. This puts him back in his natural position (he is a decent scorer), takes the ball out of his slippery hands, and moves Hayes to the bench (Eric doesn't look like an ACC starter to me, not after this season). Then, find a real pass-first PG. Maybe it's Adrian Bowie. Maybe it's the 2008 JuCo PG transfer with the awesome name, Bobby Maze. There's talent on this team; all it needs is someone with the ball in his hands who can help it to reach its potential.

House Dems Locate Their Spines

Better late than never, right?

2008 Rock & Roll HOF Induction

I'm not one for award shows, but I am a fan of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame show because it's so unlike the Oscars or the Grammys. For one, the audience is full of the most random collection of celebrities and music executives - this year there was Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, some SNL cast members, and a random supermodel or two. The performances are also somewhat rough but come off as really genuine, maybe due to the relatively small venue at the Waldorf in NYC, as opposed to the cavernous amphitheaters that contain the bigger awards shows.

But the best part is the unscripted nature of the whole production. You never know what the inductees, or inductors (?) are going to say. And they can say pretty much whatever they want, for as long as they want. We recorded the show on Monday night and watched it last night; it was a good thing that it was recorded because we could zip through some of the inductees that we didn't know or care about and just get to the main acts (Leonard Cohen, Madonna, Mellencamp), because otherwise we would have been sitting there watching for four hours. On MHD they show the whole thing, edited only for bad words, without commercials, including stage change-overs and random backstage footage ("backstage" for some reason consisting of a kitchen/walk-in freezer area of the hotel). I think they edit it down to 2-hours, with ads, when they re-broadcast it on VH1 in a few weeks.

So what about all those crazy speeches and introductions? First of all, you kind of wonder how they come up with some pairings. Back in 2003 Gwen Stefani inducted the Police, and Elton John inducted Elvis Costello. Not the most natural pairings, if you ask me, but kinda fun nonetheless. This year Mr. Cohen was treated to a rambling, disjointed, when-will-it-end monologue by...Lou Reed? Sure, why not. Lou's odd introduction was thrown into even sharper relief by Cohen's brief, funny, touching acceptance speech.

Next up was Justin Timberlake to induct Madonna, a pairing that made a bit more sense to us. Justin started strong, but all the innuendo and lame jokes, not to mention his attempts to work in as many Madonna song titles as possible, became somewhat painful to listen to after a few minutes. Not terrible enough to wonder if Lou was still available, but still not good. Madonna herself had a solid and sincere acceptance speech prepared, nothing controversial or particularly noteworthy. But then...she didn't perform! Huh? Instead fellow Michigan native Iggy Pop performed in her stead (at her request?!?), "treating" the audience to two Madonna covers, the first which I didn't even recognize and the second an awful version of Ray of Light. Ugh.

Billy Joel inducted John Mellencamp, and while he started slow, he really delivered the most entertaining speech of the whole night. The role of sardonic and bitter aging rock/pop musician suits him quite well, plus he was very funny. I especially enjoyed his impression of Randy Newman. Mellencamp's speech was a bit rambling but solid, he seemed almost weary though at the podium. Fortunately, he had plenty of energy once he got on stage to perform three of his hits, although none of the three was Jack and Diane; what's up with that?

The big finale number, in which all inductees perform together, was just OK. They covered a song by the newly-inducted Dave Clark Five, and while Madonna didn't make it on stage, Iggy Pop didn't either, which was fine with us. So it ended up being John "Don't Call Me Cougar!!!" Mellencamp and his band, joined by John Fogerty, Joan Jett (told you this show was weird), plus Billy Joel looking clueless on keyboards - I wonder if anyone remembered to tell the old guy what song they were playing, or at least what key they were in.

Kinetic Link, Daylight Savings

After participating in our first Kinetic Sculpture Race last year (as volunteers), we were determined to enter this year's race as "competitors". Not gonna happen; we slacked off big-time. Aside from coming up with a few good ideas, we gathered no materials and didn't draw up any plans. Well, there's always 2009. Meanwhile, these kinetic sculptures are in a class of their own.

Meanwhile, what's with this extended daylight savings time, anyway? It probably increases electricity consumption, but do other health and safety-related benefits outweigh that factor?

Disaster In Garyland

Tough to win a game in which you're up by 20 points in the second half, but this team finds a way! I've always defended Gary, because more often than not he finds a way to turn it around. But there is a lot of talent on this team, and I just don't see how a good coach allows the debacle of last night's loss. Not to mention the fact that so often since 2002, his teams have needed to turn it around almost every year, just to have a shot at the NCAA tournament. Why is that the case?

That being said, it's hard to imagine a scenario under which Gary is involuntarily removed from his position in College Park. So something's gotta give.

Lego Batman!

The people that write Wired's game blog got a look at the upcoming game, and it looks awesome. Much more potential, IMO, than the also-forthcoming Lego Indiana Jones. And it's welcome news that the designers have fixed the sole annoying feature of Lego Star Wars (a game that Jenny and I both enjoy immensely), the stupid camera limitation for two players, which forces one player to temporarily drop out of the game for trickier puzzles and jumps.

Plus there's the option to play as the villains, which is always cool.

Here's the game trailer.

Something to Complain About

Seriously, is this really a big deal? We're talking about SNL here. Tina Fey's Weekend Update piece on Hillary notwithstanding, the show doesn't usually have much of a political agenda - they simply unload on the political figures that will get them the most laughs. Some of these critics need to lighten up.

Mean Frog, Good Band Name?

Maybe I've been playing too much Rock Band, because the first thing I thought when I read this article about a giant frog fossil found in Madagascar, was that Beelzebufo, and even its English translation devil frog, would be great band names. As for the frog itself? Ten pounds, and sixteen inches tall - wow.

The Police Confiscate Rock Band

Today's release of Truth Hits Everbody (an early Police single from Outlandos), brings the total number of Police songs available on Rock Band to five. Awesome. Next month, when Message In A Bottle is available for download, that number will be six, more than any other act in the game! (Metallica's count by the end of March will be five). And the Police songs so far - including one of my favorites, Synchronicity II, are of varying degrees of difficulty, which is nice.

I'm also going to have to take issue with some of the "Tier" difficulty rankings, according to this Wikipedia page. I'm not sure what the source is, but some of these seem way off to me. The Boston song that's included in the game is easier on guitar and bass than Tier 8 (out of 9), while the bass line for the Beastie Boys' Sabotage is really tough - no way it's a Tier 3. Other rankings seem entirely appropriate though; Enter Sandman and Highway Star are both brutal.

Points of Emphasis

In advance of the Terps' meeting with the Team from Durham on Wednesday, I thought that it would be appropriate to go to the rule book (courtesy of Grant Wahl's online column for Sports Illustrated):

"Acting As If Charged: The unethical practice of a defensive player or a screener acting as though he has been charged by an opponent, when in fact he has not been, is having an extremely undesirable effect upon the game. Without a doubt the practice is detrimental to the best interests of basketball. Those who 'put on these acts' must be penalized. The 'actor' wants to create the false impression that he has been fouled in the charging-guarding situation or while he is screening when in either case incidental contact has ensued. The acting guard or screener falls to the floor as though he were knocked there by the force of a charge. By his actions he indicates his opponent should be charged with a foul. He appeals to the official, either vocally or with a gesture. He attempts to get the sympathy of the spectators. Such conduct unfairly burdens the official. It incites the spectators. These acts tend to make a farce of the game and often are unsportsmanlike."

"Coaches must not allow players to make believe they have been fouled. The fact that contact occurred does not necessarily mean there has been a foul. When contact occurs, the official must decide whether it has been incidental or whether a foul has been committed. In making his decision he certainly cannot permit his judgment to be affected by an 'act.' In fact the official must completely ignore the acting unless it becomes unsportsmanlike or it tends to make a farce of the game. If the guard or screener persists in putting on the act, and if in the opinion of the official it is making a travesty of the game, the player should be charged with a technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct."

This is an actual "point of emphasis" for officials, from the college basketball rulebook. The rulebook for the 1968-1969 season. I suppose it really is true that the more things change, the more they stay the same!

O's Pull Off a Decent Trade

In trading Erik Bedard, Baltimore actually gets real value back in return, and according to the "experts" pulled off a great trade. Bedard wasn't going to sign a new contract with the Orioles, and they get a nice young outfielder in Adam Jones, a serviceable lefty reliever in George Sherrill, a pitching prospect who's on the cusp of top-100 prospect lists (Chris Tillman), and a couple more big young pitchers with some upside (lefty Tony Butler is 6'7", Kameron Mickolio is 6'9"). Now all they need to do is trade Brian Roberts to the Cubs for a few more pitchers, and resist the urge to start adding free agents in '09 (bad Peter! No!). This team won't be ready to compete for anything until 2010 at the earliest, but after ten straight losing seasons, what's two or three more?

Who I'm Voting For on Tuesday

This year Maryland will hold a primary that actually matters! While my preferred candidate, John Edwards, is no longer in the running, there's plenty to like about both of the remaining candidates. [My quick summation of the Edwards campaign; loved his message about corporate influence in D.C., too bad he (A) didn't know how to talk about it, and (B) not enough people care, or view it as a big issue.]

Despite the awesome speechifying prowess of Mr. Obama, I'm going to have to cast my vote for Hillary come Tuesday evening. Why? Three reasons, in order of importance to me; I'll try to keep them short.

1. Health Care: In case you missed my sixteen-part series prompted by the movie SiCKO, this is a pet issue of mine. Hillary's plan of mandatory coverage moves us closer than Obama's plan to universal single-payer coverage - albeit incrementally closer.
2. Partisanship: If anything, we need more fights in D.C., not fewer. The current Pelosi-Reid Congress rolls over on war/security matters all the time - if that's what bi-partisanship or post-partisanship look like, then no thanks. I have no desire to see Dems working together on security issues with a party that constantly questions the patriotism of any politician or citizen who opposes war, torture, or spying on Americans. Enough is enough. The president sets the tone for the party, and Hillary is more of a fighter.
   
3. After everything she had to deal with four her previous eight years in the White House, thanks to Bill, Ken Starr, and the VRWC, she still wants to be president? What can I say, I'm impressed by that.
   

With all that having been said, I'd be perfectly fine with Barack as our next president. Two very solid choices; that's awfully nice, for a change.

The Final Four

I am relieved. Since after 2004's election, I assumed that our next president, no matter what party he or she belonged to, no matter what ideology he or she embraced, would be an improvement over the White House's current occupant. Then Giuliani entered the race, and promptly started threatening to bomb everyone. Uh-oh. More recently, Mike Huckabee roared into the picture, and he suggested that the Constitution needs to be Bible-cized. Hmmm, that's one faith-based initiative that sounds like a much worse idea than abstinence-only sex-ed.

Now, in the wake of Florida, we're down to two nominees apiece for each major party, and thankfully none seem as angry as Rudy or as theocratically-inclined as Huckabee. This is good. On the other hand, though, plenty of people - myself included - regarded a Bush victory as a pretty innocuous event back in 2000, so who really knows?

That About Sums It Up

Here's a portion of a comment that was a response to this Salon article about Mike Huckabee and his biblical designs on the Constitution:

Why is it that policies set forth under claims of national security, religious conviction, patriotic values and democracy are not subject to the same criticism as independent policy proposals? Is it because these constructs remain extremely effective and highly repeatable insulators to open discourse? Policies put forth under these four umbrellas are packaged in this way just in order to silence dissenting views.

Yeah, why is that?

In Today's Paper

A few weeks ago, days in advance of the receipt of our state property tax assessment for this three-year cycle, I emailed the Baltimore Sun journalist who writes the paper's real estate blog and asked her what became of the Mayor's blue ribbon committee that was formed to study ways of lowering the city's tax rate. Oddly enough, it was released last week, and then as a follow up she ended up calling me and asking some questions for a tax-related story she's working on. I don't think I provided her with any great quotes or particularly new insights, so after the call I figured that my chances of getting into her article were slim. Time will tell, I suppose.

Meanwhile, I decided to package my thoughts on the committee's asinine recommendations in a letter to the editor. Someone from the paper called me Monday to confirm that I was in fact the author of the letter, and also to ask whether I was affiliated with city or state government or any organization with an interest in the property tax issue.

Then...it was printed in today's edition! Sure, it's not the New York Times, but I'll take it just the same - after all, this is the same editorial page that was once presided over by one H.L. Mencken (we're actually quite close, Mencken and I - every day my train to D.C. passes by the cemetery where he's buried). I even like the way they edited it; I had emailed my letter in one large block paragraph, but it definitely reads better broken up into shorter segments.

New Hampshire Aftermath - The Media's Role

Over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald takes a look at how the press influences (or attempts to influence) elections. I swear, this is one of the smartest guys online today, even when I don't agree with his position - which isn't too often - he always constructs an excellent argument. Plus we agree that Chris Matthews is a pompous windbag.

SiCKO, Part Four

Did you know that there's a House bill sitting in Congress right now that creates a universal health care system? H.R. 676 was introduced by John Conyers last January, and was referred to subcommittee in February. What do you want to bet that it never finds its way out of committee for a vote?

I think it was Bill Maher who identified this brilliant Republican strategy of proclaiming that the federal government doesn't work and needs to be smaller, then they fuck it up and say "See?!?" Or something along those lines. Well, it's true, but they're not the only ones destroying government these days. Neither party has a stranglehold on corruption and incompetence. But despite their best efforts, there are some things that the feds do well, do OK, or used to do well. They built the federal highway system, created Social Security, and are good at fighting wars (whether the war is justified, and how the aftermath is managed, is another matter entirely). The administrative costs of existing federal health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are a fraction of private providers' costs, about eight times less. The EPA and Department of the Interior, even while currently hamstrung by the White House, are still working for a cleaner environment and maintaining public parks and open spaces. U.S. attorneys, despite shaky/criminal leadership at the top, are still going after political corruption and organized crime.

Despite all this, there is still reticence about universal coverage. But what do we have to lose? There's widespread acknowledgment that the system is broken, so how are incremental steps to fixing the flawed privately-managed patchwork of health insurance going to help? Sure, people don't want to be taxed more, but if you can show people the numbers, and that any additional taxes would be less than their current premiums plus deductibles plus co-pays, what else is standing in the way? This idea that government will screw it up doesn't hold water, when comparing the two scenarios.

The existing scenario is privatized health care; a provider is interested primarily in providing a good return on shareholders' investments. There is financial incentive to deny costly procedures, while maintaining a minimum level of satisfaction. Why minimum? Well, since so much health care is employer-sponsored, not many people have a choice of who will insure them. Yes, there is often a choice of plans, but the provider is not negotiable. These companies have a captive audience, so to speak, so the level of service must simply reach a level where the company isn't getting the bad publicity that can be detrimental to earnings. Under the current arrangement, your health and personal finances are in jeopardy, should you be denied a claim or if a medical professional or administrator screws up.

Under a universal care scenario, let's assume you're paying about the same; more in taxes, but no premiums or deductibles, so it's a wash. The doctors stay the same, but they're paid by the government. The government administers the system, which they've already proven - with Medicare and Medicaid - that they can do more efficiently than private insurers. There is no incentive to deny care, there's only incentive to keep people healthy. Like docs in Britain, medical professionals would earn bonuses based on health improvements of their patients (accountability!). Yes, there would be screw-ups, but since the whole system doesn't have co-pays or deductibles, the only mistakes are going to be by the doctors, and those will happen no matter what system you're under. In other words, you can't be bankrupted by paying out-of-pocket for the coverage you need.

OK, time to move on, since a four part post on health care probably decimated my already minuscule readership [I'm guessing that it dropped from 5 people down to 2 or 3].

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.