I'm waiting around for my flight home.

For those who enjoy the eating-their-young spectacle, you might like this week's Doonesbury strips, which feature (gay radio show host) Mark ranting about Obama. Start here.

Drunk Jenga looks like a fun activity: "how many items can you put on a drunk dude who passes out on your couch (with his shoes on) before he wakes up?" Click through, the pictures are must-see.

Old school media link dump: I read in the Baltimore paper that a group of firefighters are suing the local fire company, which is preventing them from going on emergency runs because of their beards. According to the plaintiffs, the company claims the reason is that their beards might interfere with breathing masks that it was considering buying for the medic corps. One firefighter notes he's been on the corps (bearded) for 15 years and it was never a problem before, and other medics aren't being required to wear the breathing masks on emergency runs anyway. (If you are curious what ethnicity the firefighters are, click here to read more.)

I am a fairly anti-religious person, but it seems pretty clear to me in this case they should be allowed to keep their beards. (They have attempted to provide information about masks that can accommodate beards but were "told not to count on the fire company's buying them.")

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Congress was unable to pass heath care legislation that contained meaningful financial reforms. The amount of our GDP devoted to health care is not going down any time in the near future. It might come as a disappointment, but it should not come as a surprise.

Meaningful reform goes against the short-term self-interest of every special interest group. While it is to the long-term benefit of society as a whole (and many of that ilk will be dead before they reap the benefits...) it would take a tremendous amount of courage and a tendency towards political suicide to do any such thing. And if there's anything we can be sure of, legislative bodies are not full of courageous people with suicidal tendencies.

But it is interesting that many anticipate that the bill will also be a political failure in the short term as well. One might think politicians would at least be smart enough to curry favor with voters with an eye towards the next election. But once the bill is passed, will your insurance bill go down if you are self-employed? Will your employer decide to give you a raise because it is now paying less for benefits? Will insurers stop denying claims, or discriminating on the basis of pre-existing conditions? Will you have to stop fighting your insurance company and only worry about recovery when you are ill?

As you probably guessed, the answer to all these questions and more is no. Some things (such as pre-existing condition discrimination) will eventually go away, but not until this Congress, the next Congress, and possibly this administration, become the subject of historians' essays.

So we very much want to know "Once this bill passes, will anybody notice?"

And even more ominously, will people be so pissed that their health care situation has not improved -- and in fact continues to worsen as premiums continue to rise -- that they will vote out the people who promised them relief and did not deliver in favor of people who believed Medicare was evil before they believed it was sacrosanct, and that death panels and socialism lurk in the invisible ink of every clause?

Just who are the people who stand to benefit in the short term, before the 2010 elections?

( DO NOT CLICK HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO READ THE ANSWER )

There are at least three ways people print capital N's. I had never considered the issue before tonight, when I saw Kristin making N's by drawing the left vertical line, then the right vertical line, and finally the connecting diagonal from top left to bottom right.

I make my N's by drawing the left vertical line, retracing it up, drawing the diagonal down and to the right, and then the right vertical line from the bottom up.

The obvious way to make an N would be starting from the bottom left, going up, going diagonally down, and then going up, minimizing time, path, and ink.

And of course any number of starting points and line sequences are possible.

Poll #1503526 How do you print a capital N?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 30

How do you print a capital N?

• 20:17 @cgonzo368 we should be committed! See ya then #
• 20:59 @scsuhockey10 this from the guy who practically named his dog busto #
• 21:44 @BmoreBilly just shove. It's easier than thinking #

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Late last Saturday night, while most of Baltimore and the mid-Atlantic were hunkered down under ~20 inches of snow, my dad decided he was going to go get the mail. I expressed doubt that they'd even delivered the mail, but my dad was not to be deterred (I suspect I get most of my obsessive-compulsive tendencies from him).

5 minutes later, he rang the doorbell with two surprising pieces of news: (1) they had in fact delivered the mail; probably they came by earlier on Saturday before things got really bad, but even still, that's damned impressive; (2) of more interest, he'd lost his keys in the snow. No, I don't know why he took his keys with him, nor why he locked the door behind him.

We spent about 15 futile minutes tromping around in the snow retracing his steps, including the two places where he'd slipped, knowing it was basically impossible we'd find them, and were proved correct. At least he still had a backup keychain with everything important on it.

Sunday morning while shoveling the driveway (Facebook status: Spencer Sun is having a great time at Snow Shoveling Fantasy Camp), we made a few more half-hearted attempts to excavate the keys from likely resting places, to no avail.

All's well that ends well, however -- today while shoveling the rest of the driveway to make more room for dinner guests' cars, I found the keys purely by accident, buried in the snow well away from anywhere we thought they could have been, no doubt having been flung away from his person when he fell, although he was pretty sure he'd had them in his coat pocket. Shrug.

My parents had Joyeux Noel in their Netflix queue, and we watched it tonight. Based on true events that occurred on the front lines during Christmas 1914. Mild spoilers below (you'll get the plot from any summary or the DVD cover anyway):

( Read more... )

Anyway it's a very appropriate Christmas movie. Add it to the top of your queue, or remember this for next year :-)

why the fuck do we even bother with security theater, and "no fly" lists, if this shit continues to happen?

I spent the past 2 days with the Gonzo clan and had a great Christmas Eve/Day.  I got lot of CHANEL........my favorite.

Now I can focus my energy for tomorrow and a much needed Saturday at the Borgata with jacksnfive , mrraise , spidurman , mav600 , Steve Carbonara and some 2+2ers.  So...................if anyone else wants to play.

Be there by 11am when we get the game going...........

Sad that I can't visit my parents cemetary this year ! But that's ok they will be proud of of my PCA win!

Gym is quite busy for xmas

The Probability of a White Christmas

• Honolulu, Austin, TX 0%
• Los Angeles 1%
• San Francisco 1%
• Little Rock 3%
• Seattle, New York City 10%
• Kansas, Missouri 20%
• Idaho, Utah, Iowa, Connecticut 50%
• Spokane 79%
• Maine 83%
• Fairbanks 100%

I grew up on a mountain in Northern New York, and P(White Christmas) must be at least 99% there.
I can't remember a December 25th in Boston without snow, or at least dirty slush, but I'm guessing that's just selective memory.

Info taken from Walking in a Winter Wonderland, which takes data from White Christmas. Yes Virginia, there really is a web page for everything.

The Wikipedia page says the probability of a Boston White Christmas is 23% (!). The cities listed which are closest to where I grew up are Massena, NY (77%) and Montreal, Canada (80%). Both are at significantly lower elevation.

Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings etc. to everyone!

via boingboing: learning from its experiences last year, a UK aquarium has lowered the water level in the turtle tank after feeding the turtles their annual Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts. Because Brussels sprouts make you gassy, and last year bubbles from the farting triggered overflow sensors in the tanks.

slashdot: examples of misleading ISP ads trying to FUD people into buying mega-fat pipes they probably don't need. Apparently you need 3Mb/s to use social networking, 7Mb/s to download music and 15Mb/s if you want more than 2 people online at the same time, or "Super Fast Shopping Concert Tickets & Online Auctions". Funny, we have 14 people at work happily sharing a T1.

Some fun with lamebook. The London 2010 logo comment is spot-on :-) And the one at the bottom with Russell and Shanelle... wow. (Previous entry about the London logo)

Bruce Schneier makes a case for NOT encrypting drone video. Essentially he says key management concerns outweigh the security risks, which he considers minimal: "A soldier in the field doesn't have access to the real-time video because of a key management failure; a UAV can't be quickly deployed to a new area because the keys aren't in place; we can't share the video information with our allies because we can't give them the keys; most soldiers can't use this technology because they don't have the right clearances. Given this risk analysis, not encrypting the video is almost certainly the right decision."

via slashdot:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43440



It's a really long article, but interesting in a science/geekiness sort of way.

I wish all my LJ friends the best for the holidays, and a Happy New Year.

If you're up for some economic ranting,

( It's below the cut )

Hoodoo Gurus
World Party
Boo Radleys

• 09:32 @caitycaity I think @scsuhockey10 had man tits hence need for gym etc #
• 19:13 Home from family induced tilt. Is it Saturday yet (aka time with the cooler family) #
• 19:34 @caitycaity with pleasure. Hopefully it's Steve since he's always trying to corrupt me lol #
• 19:47 @caitycaity tell her to keep up the good work #
• 19:55 @The_Nit you too bro. Gl #
• 20:07 @caitycaity sorry I get confused :p #
• 21:36 @scsuhockey10 @caitycaity too rich for my blood :p #
• 21:53 @mjosephb I'm good. Crashed and watching terminator salvation. #
• 23:05 @mjosephb not really. IMO weakest iteration of franchise #

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The financial ruin position (e.g., Andrew Prock):

"The fundamental problem with heath care in the US is the growth rate
of costs, not coverage... solving the coverage ((problem)) before the
cost one will not work."

The current legislation does nothing to 'bend the curve', to address
the fact that the nation will go bankrupt unless health costs are
contained. Insofar as it does nothing to address these long-term
costs, AND directs lots more of society's money towards insurance
companies and other private institutions, it is in fact worse than the
status quo.

The ethical issues involved in not providing better health care to
some in the short term are outweighed by the long-term consequences to
society of continuing to let health care costs grow uncontrolled.

The social argument position (e.g., Nate Silver):

Despite the fact that the current legislation does little to 'bend
the curve', to address the fact that the nation will go bankrupt
unless health costs are contained, and despite the fact that the
legislation could be better, this is a massive win for the progressive
philosophy. The legislation has the effect of taking large amounts of
money from the rich while providing the poor with access to health
care, radically reduces exposure to financial ruin, and eventually
provides much-needed regulations on insurance companies, all of which
will be a boon to society. Overall, it is signficantly better than
the status quo, and there is no plausible path right now to getting
something better (the reconciliation path is not viable). Therefore
it should be enacted.

The far left kill the bill position (e.g., Jane Hamsher):

The legislation is a giveaway to insurance companies and corporate
America. Without a strong public option, there is no check on
insurance companies who will continue to raise premiums without end.
The subsidies being provided to buy insurance are in no way enough to
make purchasing health care affordable. The mandate requiring all
Americans to purchase health insurance is an abomination. While the
status quo is not acceptable, it would be better to kill this
legislation and start over, or pass a much stronger bill through the
reconciliation process.

The whatever we can get now pragmatist position (e.g., Bill CLinton):

Neither Social Security nor Medicare was as good as it is now when it
was enacted. This legislation is not the end, but the beginning. A
failure to get a foot in the door now would be far more of a disaster,
(as with 1994), than getting a bill, however imperfect, passed and then
trying to pass improvements to it, possibly using reconciliation.
Despite all its flaws, millions and millions of people will be helped
by passage, starting immediately and continuing into the future.

Poll #1503206
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

I lean most towards

From the ESPN "5-on-5" set of questions regarding the Heat-Knicks game on Christmas:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=Heat-Knicks-091224

4. Who would you rather have the next 10 years:
Dwyane Wade or Mike D'Antoni?

Hollinger: Is this even a question? This is a players' league, and the coaches will be the first ones to tell you that. D'Antoni might be able to get 45 or 50 wins out of 40-win talent, but at the end of the day if he has 40-win talent there's only so much he can do.

(Note for non-basketball fans: Dwyane Wade is an exceptionally talented shooting guard. Mike D'Antoni is a coach.)

Now, John Hollinger has written some smart things about basketball before, but boggle. He says he thinks that D'Antoni's coaching might be worth five to ten wins per year. Now Wade's play last year (using metrics from BP) was worth about 25 wins over replacement. But it's not that simple, obviously, because D'Antoni's salary doesn't count against the cap, while Wade is a max-contract guy. So the question is, can you get 15-20 extra wins and somebody to play 2 out of max-contract money. Now, maybe you can't. But the question was over the next TEN YEARS. Wade is 28 now, and he crashes into people a lot, and isn't a terrific outside shooter. If he can't get to the rim, he loses a lot of his value. Also no guarantee he's even in the league for years 8-10 or whatever, and certainly he's not going to be worth 25 wins per year. There's no reason to expect D'Antoni's edge to decline over that time, though. Also just regular injuries are a risk for Wade but not D'Antoni, etc.

Until we get our hands around the problem of paying twice as much as the rest of the world for healthcare that doesn't keep us as healthy as people who pay half as much, we're not actually fixing the real problem with healthcare. We are merely putting bandaids on bullet wounds and pretending like that's all we need to do...

And the Senate bill doesn't fix it.

Darcy Burner, former Congressional Candidate

The essay provides an excellent recapitulation of the perverse incentives now inhabiting our health care system.

Watching fast and furious at gym makes me really miss my rx-8