The Young Crowd

Amazing new Microsoft technology predicts that this blog's readership is split evenly between men and women, and heavily biased towards the under 18 crowd. I did not know we were so hip. Come to think of it, I am so un-hip, I don't even know what the hip way is to say hip these days.

Security consience programmer right again

Report: Many E-Voting Systems FlawedI saw this in the paper the other day and began to understand what Steve was talking about. This version of the article is condensed for some reason and leaves out some quotes from Bush's cyber advisor. He makes it sound risky at best.

The Great Flood

Since I'm always too late in thinking about it to pick up a phone and find out, I'm wondering how the 150 year old farmhouse on the Shenandoah and the new Harris household on the Susquehanna made out in the recent 200-year record rainfalls and floods. Hope everything and everyone is dry.

Benefits of Coffee

Looks like all that coffee drinking on my part may finally pay off when it comes to my susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes. Since I am considered borderline right now (according to my fasting blood sugar, although my A1C is okay), I guess I should step up the consumption even more. Or maybe cut down on my sugar intake, but let's face it, you have to draw the line somewhere.

E-Voting

The other day I had the occation to see the voting machines here in the county stashed away awaiting the next election. The first thought that came to mind was a scene from the Flintstones where you shove the card through a hole in the wall and a dinosour of some sort bites the card and registers your vote. In our digital world those things look like somekind of smithsonian display, you know, here is the way they used to vote sort of thing. Then I saw on TV that Georgia will be using electronic voting this year statewide. The people that engineered alot of banking technology Diebolt are providing the equipment. I guess there is quite a bit of protest over the system because it is unable to create a paper record which is invaluable in case a recount is necessary. I guess it just strikes me as strange given all the gadgets out there no one has come up with a system every precinct in the country needs, with all the recent election problems and the threat of fraudulent ballots it seems like someone would have grabbed the opportunity and the money and been gone by now. Of course that would be assuming our government moves at the speed of buisness. Just a few thoughts from a reclusive deer chasing gardener.

Garden raiders

I guess since ther is some interest in garden dammage I don't mind telling you my woes when it comes to wildlife damage. I can sum it up in 1 word DEER. This is without a doubt the worst I have ever seen in my years of gardening. They don't really bother anything but my vegetable garden but man have they done a job on that this year. What gets me is they are picky eaters they walked right past a whole row of lettuce that was quite good and healthy and completely wiped out a whole row of spinich I mean chewed it right to the ground. They seem to have no appitite for squash but won't let a cucumber vine grow beyond 6 inches. I have 12 big bushy tomatoe plants with no flowers from which the tomatoe is formed they only like the flower not the leaves or stems. I could go on but you get the idea. Its very dissapointing after all the work it takes to establish a healthy veggie garden just to see it ruined. When I woke up this morning I looked out and 4 deer were helping themselves, I yelled at them,they took off and 15 minutes later they were back. In a last ditch effort today I took the shavings and waste from my dog pen and surrounded the garden with a thin line, they seem to be weary of dogs and their scent. If that doesn't work I gues my biggest harvest will be meat this year.

Perimeter Control

In support of her effort to nurture Japanese water irises, the Iris Lady and I went to a presentation on water gardens at a local nursery. It was quite good. One of the topics was how to keep raccoons out, because they turn over plants and dig them up in search of grubs and clams. The guy who gave the presentation was really into the ecology of water gardens and how to avoid going the chemically intensive route. However, when the subject of raccoons came up, he went right for the "put razor wire around the perimeter" approach. It seems that was what they were planning on doing at the nursery, but they ran into some legal problems (or, one would think liability problems). Maybe they could leave the raccoon carcasses hanging on the razor wire as a message to other intruders.

Crossing Pedestrians

The cab driver on the way back to the airport in Las Vegas marked our group as Californians as soon as we all started to buckle up in his cab. He then proceeded to explain that we had better watch out in Nevada because the laws were different than we would expect. In particular, he said that if you got hit by a car and were outside of a crosswalk, the driver was not at fault and would likely sue your estate for damages if you died. That seems a little extreme to me, and while I couldn't find an exact reference to the case he was talking about, it does seem like he was right. Doesn't look like that old Berkeley attitude that encourages you to throw yourself in front of a car to force it to stop would be a good idea in Las Vegas.

Mutually Assured Destruction

Since the North Korean missile causing so much stir today is apparently notoriously inaccurate, and we have a missile defense system designed to defend against it, it occurred to me that a diplomatic breakthrough could be had by a little cooperation. They could embed a homing beacon in it and run their test, and we could test our missile defense system. A win-win for everyone.

Nats 3 Yanks 2

Kirsti and Dan treated me to a day at the ballpark for fathers day. The game was outstanding, sort of a pitchers duel and ending with a bottom of the 9th walkoff homerun from Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals. I love a good baseball game and that was a good one. It was an interesting day as we sat next to the starting pitchers dad on one side and the original and founding member of the Hoggettes on the other, both had plenty to talk about and I think we all suffered from a little to much information. Then as we left the stadium Kirsti recognized Spike Lee and promptly went over to discuss the yankees dismal performance, she was greeted with a handshake and a polite nod before Mr. Lee jumped in his limo and took off. RFK stadium is sort of an aging relic but is adequate as the Nationals settle in to Washington. We rode the subway down, it was packed and uncomforatable with people pushed up against you in every direction. The subway is much easier to find than a car and the trip back was a little easier to tollerate.

Father's Day in Las Vegas

Last night, within the 36 hours or so between my return and my departure, we went to see Wayne Brady at the Mountain Winery. You guys might remember Wayne Brady as the guy on the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway who was phenomenal at improv singing. As part of the pre-show festivities, they asked for song titles to be sprung upon him. The other two guys with him on stage (it was billed as "Wayne Brady and Friends," and these were presumably the friends) chose the titles from the hundreds submitted. Lo and behold, Dara's song title was chosen for Wayne to make up a song around: Father's Day in Las Vegas. All I can say is that -- so far -- my Father's Day in Las Vegas has not been as sad as the song he sung. It involved the father going broke gambling and finally losing the children to Russian gangsters on a roulette bet. I am heading down to dinner now, and I will try to stay out of trouble.

Wisdom Teeth No More

... for Kyla. While I have been travelling, she got all four wisdom teeth yanked. Ouch!!!

Warner and Bloggers

Since we discussed Mark Warner before, I thought I'd mention that he attended the YearlyKos lefty blogger convention in Las Vegas and threw a $50K party. (In case you were paying attention, I'll be in Vegas Sun-Mon. Too bad the timing didn't work out, or I might have skipped out of my business obligations for YearlyKos!) Most of the liberal blog buzz amounts to "He can't buy my vote for a few drinks, but at least I'll pay attention to him." To me it seems like a smart political move. The people who despise the DailyKos and all Kos stands for have never heard of the YearlyKos convention and would probably figure it was a waste of time and irrelevant. Those who are more attuned to the blogosphere and the highly political world that DailyKos lives in have registered him on their radar. FWIW, Hillary was there and got booed.

An Inconvenient Truth

Since I'll be gone to Las Vegas on Father's Day, we went to see a movie of my choice today, An Inconvenient Truth. Highly recommended especially for those readers living only a few feet above sea level. Keith, if you liked that Vanity Fair article on Gore, this is really a movie version of the global warming presentation he has been going around the world doing for years, with some personal stuff thrown in. I heard on the radio the other day about a study on people's reaction to potentially catastrophic events. They studied people downstream from a large dam which was known to be in danger of collapsing. A long way downstream, but still in the path of destruction, people were very concerned, and the concern level went up as you got nearer... until you got very close to the dam itself. At that point, the concern level dropped off. Says something about human nature, I suppose, speaking as a person whose house is only a few miles away from the San Andreas fault.

Study: Explosive disorder affects 16 million | Chicago Tribune

Study: Explosive disorder affects 16 million Chicago Tribune Finaly there is a diagnosed disorder which will excuse millions of people for what I thought was just being an ass. All this time I was going around thinking they should be responsible for their own actions. Nothing like a good excuse to abuse others. I know they are working on a cure and good luck to them. I'm no shrink and I'm sure drugs and therapy will help but the only thing I have seen really work for the adult version of this disorder is a serious ass whippin. It worked on me.

RMA a lesson in surprising parents

Its the end of the school year for Dan. Kirsti and I both agree RMA has been a good thing all the way around but untill wed night you would get mixed to negative reviews from Dan. To much homework, to strict dress code, the teachers don't like me, I could go on but I think you get the idea. Frankly I was feeling a bit foolish for paying for the complaints but that is another story. Enter Wendsday night at the end of the year assembly where Dan recieved 5 awards, 2 for most improved student/science and history, 1 for public speking, 1 for exemplary conduct, and 1 for citizenship. Kirsti and I were both shocked and proud to see him parading back and forth to the stage and collecting his awards, there was only one other kid who recieved as many. It was a big moment for us and we are still glowing, aside from the pride the biggest feeling was surprise because he does not demonstrate many of these qualities at home. Don't get me wrong he is a good kid and hasn't misbehaved much at all but putting your gum wrappers under the chair in the living room isn't exemplary behavior or good citizenship. I didn't think public speaking was his strong suit either, he seems to find a way to answer yes or no to any question asked by most people. I guess he showed me, and is now enjoying his new found respect, He hasn't said it but I think deep down he has a new fondness for his school. He should also be thinking deep down IN YOUR FACE DAD. he hasn't said that either. Also noteworthy for the night was the feeling of genuine respect from the students twoard the teachers, some are more popular than others but all were cheered enthusasticaly by the student body when they were introduced. Needless to say Dan will be attending RMA next year for 7th grade.

Think He Can Dance?

In honor of Kyla and Dara's obsession with So You Think You Can Dance (now that American Idol is over, of course), maybe they'll be inspired by this YouTube video. YouTube is yet another one of those relatively instant Internet phenomena. Post video, maybe someone will watch it. In this case, more than 20 million people watched this guy dance since the video was posted four months ago.

FareCast

Via BoingBoing, it looks like Dara is going to have some help before long in finding low airline fares. She works the online pricing amazingly well to get the best fares. For example, it's weird but true apparently that most tickets are lower priced on Tuesdays. This is something I learned from Dara and later had others confirm for me, too.

Only in Florida

With hurricane season just heating up, even a Californian hesitates to take whacks at Florida. Still, as noted in a posting some time back, Florida does seem to have taken the crown from California in the "only in..." stories. This 60 Minutes interview with Carl Hiaasen would seem to confirm it. When I'm in search of quality pulp fiction, Hiaasen can hit the spot. He takes most of his more interesting crime incidents from real life in Florida.

"Are these stories true, or inventions of your imagination?" asks Kroft. "Professional wheelchair thief."

"True," says Hiaasen.

"School board candidate whose legal residence turned out to be a tool shed," asks Kroft.

"True," says Hiaasen.

"The U.S. attorney who bit a stripper during a table dance," asks Kroft.

"It's real," says Hiaasen. "True."

"A South Florida mayor who tried to hire City Hall workers to kill her husband," asks Kroft.

"Yup. Yup," says Hiaasen. "I believe she's gotten a new trial since then. But there was testimony that she solicited for a hit man in City Hall."

"All those are true," asks Kroft.

"I wish I'd made them up," says Hiaasen, laughing. "I wish I made them up."

Truth is stranger than fiction, especially in Florida. And if you like Carl Hiaasen, the interview is terrific.

Sunday on the Deck

Caught in mid-chew -- oatmeal for Sunday morning, out on the deck. It was a beautiful, warm day, and we were mostly caught up on gardening chores. Later, all four of us went to see the X-Men movie. Garrett informed us that if you sit all the way through the credits (the verrrry long credits, I might add), there was an extra scene at the very end. Surprise, it lays out the hint for the next movie.

Brain Age

After Nintendogs last year, Garrett topped off Mother's Day this year with Brain Age. Wouldn't you know that he would also continue his streak of identifying the hot new thing. Or maybe it's more like the hot new thing for old things. You know when it hits the pages of the WSJ it's gone mainstream. (I have to admit I have not read the WSJ article, because I'm not willing to pay them for the service in support of their editorial page, but Mom has probably already read the article in print.) Dara and Kyla are both enjoying the game, which also includes Sudoku.

Slack

One of the more novel things about my former business partner, Hal, is his membership in the Church of the SubGenius. It's basically a joke religion, or a joke about religion depending on your perspective. Turns out, though, that membership can have serious consequences in a custody suit.

The Church of the SubGenius's savior is Bob Dobbs, an iconic salesman who looks like Ward Cleaver with a pipe. As church doctrine has it, Dobbs cut a deal with Alien X-ists back in the 1950s so that when they return to earth on X-Day — July 5, 1998, or whenever the true date happens to come along — alien sex goddesses will rescue the SubGenius congregation, taking the faithful away in flying saucers while the rest of the population of Earth is processed into drugs which the X-ists can sell on the intergalactic stoner market. Salvation costs $30.

Not really my cup of tea, although I did attend the day before the end of the world 4th of July party at Hal's in 1998 and lived to blog about it here. Pastafarianism is more my style. The article is funny, fightening, and will be religiously educational for you.