Toll booth model cont ...

More on politicans using utilities to collect taxes (aka toll booth model)
Note that we've slashed the number of phone lines and services we use in our household, and cut our costs drastically.

John Stossel:

The cost of a phone call has actually been coming down. Through the miracle of new technology and heated competition, a three-minute cross-country call that once cost two bucks now costs 20 cents. But what's all that other stuff on your bill — surcharges, regulatory fees, state gross receipts tax? A lot of people are upset about these extra charges.

But Steve Largent, president of CTIA — The Wireless Association, says it's not the cell phone companies' fault.

Most of the charges are fees that government, not the phone company, adds to your bill.

It's a way to raise taxes without people seeing it because phone bills are so long and contain so many extra charges. Also, putting more taxes on your phone bill is not as politically painful as, say, raising income or property taxes. In Baltimore, where phone users were already paying heavy state and federal taxes, the city decided it wanted some of the action.

"They were charging every resident who used wireless services in the city of Baltimore $3.50. They said, 'Hey, this is a good thing. Let's double it,' " Largent said.

With the new "Baltimore City Surcharge" of $3.50, the average cell phone user there must now pay about $7 extra in taxes per phone line. Taxes on cell phone service nationwide now average 14.5 percent — more than double an average sales tax.

It would be nice if the wireless providers who advertise a plan for $39.99 a month said you'll really have to pay closer to $50. But the companies are just passing on taxes and surcharges that government mandates. So instead of screaming at the guy behind the counter, maybe you should scream at city hall.

Stossel slams idiots

June 25, 2006 — John Stossel, the co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20," has been crusading for consumers for over 30 years. His trademark "Give me a break" series took him to the top of the New York Times bestseller list two years ago, and now he's at it again. Uncovering "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity," Stossel is out to prove why "everything you know is wrong."

John Stossel: It's a book title. It's an exaggeration. It's not everything, but so much of what I thought was true turned out to be wrong.

I believed it when I heard that we weren't spending enough money, and that's why schools were struggling. I was shocked to find out we're spending $10,000 per student. Do the math. That's $250,000 per classroom. Think what you could do with that money. You could hire three great teachers.

We spent half a trillion dollars on Africa. Africa is poorer than before we spent that money. … I wish Bono, instead of saying, "Ask President Bush to spend more of your money," would say, "Let's spend more of our money on a private charity," because private charities keep their eye on where the money goes.

We need lawyers. We need lawyers like we need nuclear missiles. They keep us safe. But nuclear missiles kill innocent people. Lawyers wreck the lives of innocent people. We should avoid using them the way we avoid using our missiles. But we don't, because in America we have a unique legal system that invites destructive lawsuits.

The media are by and large economically and scientifically clueless. … Imbeciles in our business are saying gas prices are at record highs. Well, it's only a record if you don't adjust for inflation. And then you might as well say the movie "Rush Hour 3" is one of the highest grossing movies of all time. It's absurd not to adjust for inflation, and when you do gas prices today are lower than they were in 1980 and 1920.

You should listen to the media skeptically … Correct me if you find anything I've said that is a myth or a lie or downright stupid, myself … and I'll apologize.

More here: ABC News: John Stossel's "Myths, Lies and Nasty Behavior"

Calif To TC

Found following while trying to check local radio for the commentary when the Blue Angels perform.

Small world
We spent a little time on Monterey last March

This post was from Sept '04
Blues flying again this weekend (they do it every other year).

---
California radio host does show from Traverse City

By TOM CARR
Record-Eagle staff writer

TRAVERSE CITY - Good morning Monterey! By way of Old Mission Peninsula, that is.
Since June, Ed Dickinson has been broadcasting his big-band jazz radio show on the AM station KIDD Magic 63 in Monterey, Calif. from his summer home overlooking treetops and East Bay.
"It's perfect looking out and seeing that instead of talking to a blank wall," he said. "When I'm in the studio, sometimes that bothers me."
Dickinson, 78, has been a fixture of Monterey radio for more than 52 years and hosts "Way Back Now" on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Last summer when he and wife Anne came to spend the summer in Traverse City, he flew back and forth to keep the show going.
"This year they put in the ISDN (integrated services digital network) line and that's when we bought this house in the Bluffs," said Anne.
The house she refers to sits high on a hill on the Old Mission Peninsula. The home is mostly underground with a tower sticking up about 40 feet that provides a view of the treetops and water.
Both Ed and Anne, Dickinson's second wife, lived parts of their childhoods in Michigan. They met through a mutual friend in Monterey when Anne, the former Anne Braden, moved back there after she spent most of the 1980s in Traverse City.
They have been married now for about 10 years. They bought their home here after Anne's daughter, who has adopted five children, moved back to the area.
Dickinson's listeners know he's broadcasting from Michigan, and he begins the show with a recording of someone climbing 35 steps. That's the actual number he takes to get up into the tower.
Dickinson acts as if he's out of breath, then chats with his engineer back in California over that digital line. He spins big band favorites from Glenn Miller to Artie Shaw to Suttons Bay resident Harry Goldson, with other old non-big-band numbers sprinkled in.
He can also chat with listeners calling in to answer trivia contest questions.
Radio station general manager Kathy Baker said the arrangement "works very well." She said he's a "very popular announcer" because of his longevity, the fact that he plays music that older listeners can't find on other stations and his rapport with his audience.
Dickinson started his career after being stationed in Guam and China with the Marines between 1944 and '47, then getting a bachelors degree in radio speech at San Jose State University.
He was first a disc jockey at a station in Elko, Nev. Seven months later, he landed a job at KMBY in Monterey broadcasting minor-league baseball and spinning pop records.
The station was owned by Bing Crosby. It aired his golf tournament known as the "Crosby Clambake."
"It was a lot of fun," Dickinson said. "We worked with one drink in the hand and all the movie stars were there."
Through the years, he's worked at several stations in the Monterey Bay area, building a following for his knowledge of music and his folksy on-air persona. That got him a nomination to the Radio Hall of Fame in 2001.
Every year, he observes the birthday of Doris Day, a local resident there, by focusing on her recordings. He dedicates Memorial Day and Veterans Day shows to veterans.
Dickinson will be returning to California soon. When he broadcasts from the studio there, they play fewer footsteps and he says he's broadcasting from the attic. The pretense is that it's his grandmother's attic and he's finding old records there.
"People actually believe he's up in an attic," Anne said.
He does play some CDs, though he still plays mostly vinyl.
"People say, 'We love hearing the nicks and the pops,'¡" he said.
The Dickinsons often lead cruises and other trips for fans through a travel agency in Monterey. They plan to lead one to Michigan next year that will include the Detroit area and Traverse City.
"They want to see the tower," Ed said.
That's because he's talked it up, having become fond of the scenic perch in the modern home. His listeners have heard some of it themselves, including a Blue Angels jet flying overhead and a woodpecker knocking on the house.
And by now, Ed uses the correct terminology when he tells his listeners where he is, with the help of his wife.
"The first day I was on the air from here, I said, 'I'm here looking at West Bay' and she said, 'No, no, it's East Bay,'!" he said.

Comparisons

Back from Cape Cod

Similarities:
Both have significant National Park ( Seashore and Lakeshore )
Both have similar soils, sandy
Both have similar vegetation, conifers, although Leelanau has more hardwoods
Both surrounded by water
Both are tourist driven economies

I prefer Leelanau County
1) Better Food, at least "in season"
Exception being fresh seafood... lobster and oyster's

2) less crowded ... often much less

3) better roads/traffic/signage (esp. signage)
Here, roads have simple numbers.
There they designate north or south, which don't correspond to the direction you may be traveling.
Heading south on Rt 6 North is still south.
Thankfully, we had my pocket GPS to keep us sane.

Roundabouts - I failed to learn that you simply start lapping them until you find the exit you really want.

Signs missing, faded or hidden.
Should have taken some photos. Example, in Orleans, "Mainstreet" where entire sign, except for the "M" hidden by a telephone pole.

I think that they are still afraid of the redcoats ...

4) less "touristy"

Good to be home.

Pols love the toll booth model

I've often argued that politicans love the idea of alowing, even mandating tighter controls on the internet and supporting the established Telco's and Cableco's, letting them be the operators of the toll booths on the turnpike.

Here's WSJournal on the same re: USF
Note that it isn't just the subsidy to rural phone service providers, it's the principal of having a conduit for funds that the politicans can tap.

Bad Subsidy Call
June 23, 2006; Page A10

On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to require Internet telephone companies to contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF). The move means higher phone bills for Internet telephone service as providers pass this new cost on to customers. But it also means that a Republican-run regulatory agency is expanding a federal subsidy that should have been phased out long ago.

The concept of "universal service" dates back more than 70 years to a time when stringing wires together to bring telephone service to loosely populated areas was expensive. The goal was to keep local phone rates low and increase subscribers. This policy long ago fulfilled its purpose: By the mid-1990s, nearly 95% of U.S. households had a telephone. A competitive telecom marketplace with proliferating wireless technologies and multiple service providers had developed.

Nevertheless, the USF lives on. What's worse, the FCC has now determined that Internet telephony should be roped in to this anachronistic regulatory framework. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says this levy is necessary for parity purposes. But the best way to produce a level telecom playing field isn't by burdening new technologies with old regulations. It's by phasing out such regulations for everyone.

The USF has become a tool for redistributing wealth from urban phone customers to their rural counterparts, says Randolph May, a former FCC lawyer who now heads the Free State Foundation think tank. The irony, says Mr. May, "is that the subsidies tend to flow from more densely populated areas like New York or Baltimore to less densely populated areas. So, in effect, you've got many places where poor people are subsidizing rich people in Aspen." Given that near-universal service now exists, why not subsidize only those low-income customers who truly need it?

The main beneficiaries of the status quo are rural telephone companies, some of which receive as much as 70% of their revenue from the USF. More than a thousand such entities still exist nationwide, and they have powerful allies in Congress, especially Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens of Alaska. We knew many in Washington were eager to classify the Internet as nothing more than a glorified telephone subject to the usual telecom taxes and rules. But we were hoping a Republican-controlled FCC wouldn't let that happen.

Geneticz

Study of the genetic links to behavior is OK
That Wild Streak? Maybe It Runs in the Family - New York Times

But not IQ
WSJournal :WSJ.com - Scientist's Study Of Brain Genes Sparks a Backlash
Head Examined
Scientist's Study Of Brain Genes Sparks a Backlash
Dr. Lahn Connects Evolution In Some Groups to IQ;
Debate on Race and DNA

'Speculating Is Dangerous'
By ANTONIO REGALADO
June 16, 2006; Page A1

CHICAGO -- Last September, Bruce Lahn, a professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago, stood before a packed lecture hall and reported the results of a new DNA analysis: He had found signs of recent evolution in the brains of some people, but not of others.

It was a triumphant moment for the young scientist. He was up for tenure and his research was being featured in back-to-back articles in the country's most prestigious science journal. Yet today, Dr. Lahn says he is moving away from the research. "It's getting too controversial," he says.

Dr. Lahn had touched a raw nerve in science: race and intelligence.


What Dr. Lahn told his audience was that genetic changes over the past several thousand years might be linked to brain size and intelligence. He flashed maps that showed the changes had taken hold and spread widely in Europe, Asia and the Americas, but weren't common in sub-Saharan Africa.

Web sites and magazines promoting white "racialism" quickly seized on Dr. Lahn's suggestive scientific snapshot. One magazine that blames black and Hispanic people for social ills hailed his discovery as "the moment the antiracists and egalitarians have dreaded."

Dr. Lahn has drawn sharp fire from other leading genetics researchers. They say the genetic differences he found may not signify any recent evolution -- and even if they do, it is too big a leap to suggest any link to intelligence. "This is not the place you want to report a weak association that might or might not stand up," says Francis Collins, director of the genome program at the National Institutes of Health.

Gates Goes

Between the lines, Gates admits defeat.

From WSJ:
"Bill Gates was a terrific player in a world where software was in a box and he made a profit on that product," says George Colony, chief executive of the market-research firm Forrester Research. "I think he's having a very difficult time understanding how to compete in a world where that is free."

Handwriting has been on the wall for a while.

Brilliant at the time, at least in a monoploy business sense, the info-world is passing MuSoft by.

Curmodgen

Well, maybe there is someone with a more bitter view of America and it's people.

NYTimes review of 'Dark Ages America,' by Morris Berman
Grim View of a Nation at the End of Days.

Times slams the book for being a mear critique of critiques or of others writings.

"This is the sort of book that gives the Left a bad name.


Morris Berman
DARK AGES AMERICA
The Final Phase of Empire

By Morris Berman

385 pages. W. W. Norton & Company. $25.95.
Readers’ Opinions
Forum: Book News and Reviews

In "Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire," the cultural historian Morris Berman delivers a vituperative, Spenglerian screed that makes Michael Moore seem like a rah-rah American cheerleader: a screed that describes this country as "a cultural and emotional wasteland," suffering from "spiritual death" and intent on exporting its false values around the world at the point of a gun; a republic-turned-empire that has entered a new Dark Age and that is on the verge of collapsing like Rome."

I'd have to ask : compared to What?

While I agree that our public education system seems to be failing, pop culture is full on "huh?", and that politics stays in full dumbing down mode, I'm not seeing leadership elsewhere in the world.

We still have issues with immigration, people want to come here.

Maybe Mr. Berman can move to ... France.

Yum Yum

As the world turns, we now learn that Fried Chicken may not be "good" for you.
Huh?

This is new?

KFC Is Sued Over the Use of Trans Fats in Its Cooking:

"A nutrition advocacy group sued KFC yesterday to get it to stop using partially hydrogenated oils, a key ingredient of its fried chicken. The oils contain trans fats, which scientists consider the most unhealthful of all fats.

The plaintiff, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which frequently criticizes the food industry and the government, seeks to have the District of Columbia Superior Court either ban use of the oils in KFC's cooking or force the company to post signs telling customers that its food contains trans fat and can cause heart disease."

But ...
Some time ago CSPI supported partially hydrogenated oils.

"About 80 percent of trans fats in the American diet come from partially hydrogenated oil. Trans fats became a part of fast-food meals in the 1980's, after consumer groups demanded that the chains stop frying in beef tallow and palm oils because those products are highly saturated. The hazards of trans fats were not widely realized until years later."

Couldn't find the orginal source in the CSPI archives
Nutrition Action Healthletter Archives

But did find this commentary : The Tragic Legacy of Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

And from CSPI Press Release : KFC Sued for Fouling Chicken with Partially Hydrogenated Oil ~ Newsroom ~ News from CSPI

"The plaintiff in the case is retired physician Arthur Hoyte, of Rockville, Maryland. He had purchased fried chicken at KFC outlets in Washington, DC, and elsewhere, not knowing that KFC fries in partially hydrogenated oil.

'If I had known that KFC uses an unnatural frying oil, and that their food was so high in trans fat, I would have reconsidered my choices," said Dr. Hoyte. "I am bringing this suit because I want KFC to change the way it does business. And I'm doing it for my son and others' kids-so that they may have a healthier, happier, trans-fat-free future.' "

What planet has this guy been on?

Food Fads

The Way We Eat: Market Value

"When it comes to food, the principles of supply and demand do not always apply. Food is about the senses, and its value is determined by something less rational. Rarity may put a special gloss — and price — on some foods, but so will fashion and the perennial need for new flavors."

Such stuff as "Patagonian toothfish didn't seem toothsome until it became Chilean sea bass. And stocks of dogfish were nearly wiped out not once but twice, though only after the fish became known first as rock salmon and later as Cape shark."

Not quite "we are what we eat"

Oooommmmm

NYTimes on Shin Buddhism.

"In some ways, the story line is familiar. Religious traditions have long adapted to fit changing cultural circumstances. Consider how Hanukkah, a relatively minor holiday on the Jewish religious calendar, has leaped in importance among many Jews in the face of the crush of attention surrounding Christmas in this country. But while Zen and Tibetan Buddhism — the Buddhist forms that have largely driven the religion's surge among Western practitioners — focus on meditative practices as a way to achieve enlightenment, Shin Buddhism, the Pure Land school that the Buddhist Churches of America embraces, teaches that meditation is ultimately useless because of the inherent human limitations."

Following da bouncin ball

Suspect that Rove non-indictment may move the data.
Predict that oil prices will come down this summer, and that will move data as well.

IEM 2006 US Congressional Control Market Price Graph

Strawberry Moon

Just a bit before 6AM (5:48)
Likely the lowest (most southernly) we'll get a shot of the moon this year.



Bit of a blow up of the same shot, doing some cropping



10 Min later (5:49)
Moon settles into the "notch" towards Empire

What's wrong with this picture?
(other than my copy/paste where shot runs under side text)

Since edited - scroll down

Try Dictionary for Devise vs Device ...

Wonder how much to Charge AT&T for troubleshooting their site?

de·vice ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-vs)
n.

1. A contrivance or an invention serving a particular purpose, especially a machine used to perform one or more relatively simple tasks.

de·vise ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-vz)
tr.v. de·vised, de·vis·ing, de·vis·es

1. To form, plan, or arrange in the mind; design or contrive: devised a new system for handling mail orders.

Definitions from Dictionary.com

Organic Organic Organic

Bunch of PR on Organic

BizWeek :
Organic farms scale up to meet demand


Sunday NYTimes Magazine:
Mass Natural

Then 60 Min ran a feature on Whole Foods.
60 Minutes - Video, Reports, Profiles, Interviews - CBSNews.com

Manitou Music Fest

Shameless plug for the Glen Arbor Art Association and it's Manitou Music Festival.

Posters available for purchase here
As well as tickets, sign up for classes, or make donations.

Now this is Interesting - Open Source Politics

Following is copyright Newsweek, but I think it interesting enough to post it in full.

Way beyond MoveOn (aka where to get laid)
What I find most interesting is the attempt to sieze the middle (high) ground.

Wonder if it will tie into the Iowa Election Markets (prior post)

A New Open-Source Politics

Just as Linux lets users design their own operating systems, so 'netroots' politicos may redesign our nominating system.

By Jonathan Alter

Newsweek

June 5, 2006 issue - Bob Schieffer of CBS News made a good point on "The Charlie Rose Show" last week. He said that successful presidents have all skillfully exploited the dominant medium of their times. The Founders were eloquent writers in the age of pamphleteering. Franklin D. Roosevelt restored hope in 1933 by mastering radio. And John F. Kennedy was the first president elected because of his understanding of television.

Will 2008 bring the first Internet president? Last time, Howard Dean and later John Kerry showed that the whole idea of "early money" is now obsolete in presidential politics. The Internet lets candidates who catch fire raise millions in small donations practically overnight. That's why all the talk of Hillary Clinton's "war chest" making her the front runner for 2008 is the most hackneyed punditry around. Money from wealthy donors remains the essential ingredient in most state and local campaigns, but "free media" shapes the outcome of presidential races, and the Internet is the freest media of all.

No one knows exactly where technology is taking politics, but we're beginning to see some clues. For starters, the longtime stranglehold of media consultants may be over. In 2004, Errol Morris, the director of "The Thin Blue Line" and "The Fog of War," on his own initiative made several brilliant anti-Bush ads (they featured lifelong Republicans explaining why they were voting for Kerry). Not only did Kerry not air the ads, he told me recently he never even knew they existed. In 2008, any presidential candidate with half a brain will let a thousand ad ideas bloom (or stream) online and televise only those that are popular downloads. Deferring to "the wisdom of crowds" will be cheaper and more effective.

Open-source politics has its hazards, starting with the fact that most people over 35 will need some help with the concept. But just as Linux lets tech-savvy users avoid Microsoft and design their own operating systems, so "netroots" political organizers may succeed in redesigning our current nominating system. But there probably won't be much that's organized about it. By definition, the Internet strips big shots of their control of the process, which is a good thing. Politics is at its most invigorating when it's cacophonous and chaotic.

To begin busting up the dumb system we have for selecting presidents, a bipartisan group will open shop this week at Unity08.com. This Internet-based third party is spearheaded by three veterans of the antique 1976 campaign: Democrats Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon helped get Jimmy Carter elected; Republican Doug Bailey did media for Gerald Ford before launching the political TIP SHEET Hotline. They are joined by the independent former governor of Maine, Angus King, and a collection of idealistic young people who are also tired of a nominating process that pulls the major party candidates to the extremes. Their hope: to get even a fraction of the 50 million who voted for the next American Idol to nominate a third-party candidate for president online and use this new army to get him or her on the ballot in all 50 states. The idea is to go viral—or die. "The worst thing that could happen would be for a bunch of old white guys like us to run this," Jordan says.

The Unity08 plan is for an online third-party convention in mid-2008, following the early primaries. Any registered voter could be a delegate; their identities would be confirmed by cross-referencing with voter registration rolls (which would also prevent people from casting more than one ballot). That would likely include a much larger number than the few thousand primary voters who all but nominate the major party candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire. This virtual process will vote on a centrist platform and nominate a bipartisan ticket. The idea is that even if the third-party nominee didn't win, he would wield serious power in the '08 election, which will likely be close.

There are plenty of ways for this process to prove meaningless, starting with the major parties deciding to nominate independent-minded candidates like John McCain (OK, the old McCain) or Mark Warner. Third-party efforts have usually been candidate-driven, and the centrist names tossed around by way of example (Chuck Hagel, Sam Nunn, Tom Kean) don't have much marquee value in the blogosphere. And the organizers would have to design safeguards to keep the whole thing from being hijacked.

But funny things happen in election years. With an issue as eye-glazing as the deficit, a wacky, jug-eared Texan named Ross Perot received 19 percent of the vote in 1992 and 7 percent in 1996. He did it with "Larry King Live" and an 800 number. In a country where more than 40 percent of voters now self-identify as independents, it's no longer a question of whether the Internet will revolutionize American politics, but when.

For more, go to JonathanAlter.com

And they're off

Iowa Election Market launched yesterday

Iowa Electronic Markets ~ Current Markets: 2006 Congressional Election Markets

It will take time for the market to get up and running, but I've found them to, over time, be more accurate in "predicting" the final result(s) of elections than polls.

With polls, respondents reply with what they want or what they think is the "right" answer (or lie).
With Markets, participants reply with MONEY.

Example: you may want a Republican to win, but if in your heart of hearts, you don't think they have a chance, you "bet" that they will loose.

When the markets are thin, and/or when participants try to "game" them, others will gladly take their money.

Green(faced) Piece

Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/29/2006 | Greenpeace's fill-in-the-blank public relations meltdown

AKA Big Whoops...

"Before President Bush touched down in Pennsylvania Wednesday to promote his nuclear energy policy, the environmental group Greenpeace was mobilizing.

"This volatile and dangerous source of energy" is no answer to the country's energy needs, shouted a Greenpeace fact sheet decrying the "threat" posed by the Limerick reactors Bush visited.

But a factoid or two later, the Greenpeace authors were stumped while searching for the ideal menacing metaphor.

We present it here exactly as it was written, capital letters and all: "In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]."

Had Greenpeace been hacked by a nuke-loving Bush fan? Or was this proof of Greenpeace fear-mongering?

The aghast Greenpeace spokesman who issued the memo, Steve Smith, said a colleague was making a joke by inserting the language in a draft that was then mistakenly released.

"Given the seriousness of the issue at hand, I don't even think it's funny," Smith said.

The final version did not mention Armageddon. It just warned of plane crashes and reactor meltdowns."

Contrast this with Patrick Moore (co-founder of Greenpeace)

Washington Post

Going Nuclear
A Green Makes the Case

By Patrick Moore
Sunday, April 16, 2006; B01

"In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That's the conviction that inspired Greenpeace's first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change."

Lowest Common Denomator

Excellent piece by Jaron Lanier on the flaws in meta sites/systems such as wikipedia.

Best to read the whole piece.

Unsure of the Concept

Aren't Vonage customers "switchers"?
Willing to leave established telco's for better prices.
How loyal are they?
What is the "Lock In"?

If I'm "Big Telco" wouldn't I want to try to compete on price and keep customers via some other bundling/tie-in's?
Cingular got me with "rollover" and coverage at both houses.

NYTimes:
Vonage Moves to Reassure Nervous Investors

By KEN BELSON and MATT RICHTEL
Published: May 31, 2006

Vonage, tarred by a disastrous initial public offering last week, is scrambling to reassure investors. The company, which provides Internet phone service, said yesterday that it would reimburse the bankers who handled the sale if any Vonage customers refused to pay for shares that were allotted to them.

Vonage gave its customers a chance to buy as much as 15 percent of the 31.25 million shares that were offered last week. About 10,000 of the company's 1.6 million customers ultimately received shares, which were sold at $17 each, according to a person briefed on the deal. Customers had until yesterday to open an account with a specified broker and pay for their shares.

Some customers who participated in the "directed share program" were reluctant to pay for their shares after the stock fell. The shares have lost more than 26 percent of their value since their debut last Wednesday. They fell 52 cents, to $12.50 yesterday.

Update (aka Whoops)
Might sue customers (really smart move ;-p)

Vonage May Seek Payment From Balking Share Buyers

By MATT RICHTEL
Published: June 1, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, May 31 — Vonage, the Internet telephone provider, said on Wednesday that it might seek reimbursement from customers who fail to pay for shares they committed to buy during the company's disappointing initial public offering last week.

Wednesday's statement continues Vonage's public relations and financial struggle since it went public last week. Its shares have dropped almost 29 percent from their $17 opening price, closing on Wednesday at $12.02

Maybe it's just a nefarious plot by "Big Telco's" to discredit net-phones.
"Do you REALLY want somebody like this running your phone service?"

Addendum :
A bit more digging and it all starts to come back to me
Jeffery Citron "banned from securities trading":

Internet telephony | Vonage unwanted | Economist.com

"In 2003 Jeffrey Citron, a former broker, paid $22.5m in penalties to settle allegations of fraud and agreed never to work in the securities industry again. He then turned his attention to his next big thing—making phone calls over the internet. He launched Vonage, a company in New Jersey that has since become almost synonymous in America with the term VOIP (for “voice over internet protocol”). Spending oodles on marketing, Mr Citron has persuaded 1.6m Americans to ditch their land-line telephone company. In the American VOIP industry—which has 5.5m subscribers now, but should have 24m by 2010, according to TeleGeography, a research firm—Vonage is the leader.

That did not count for much on May 24th, when Vonage made the worst stockmarket debut by an American technology firm in two years, offering new shares worth $531m in total, which dropped 13% by day's end. There had been signs of desperation in the preceding weeks—such as a plea to customers to take up 13.5% of the new shares—but a belly flop of these proportions was surprising. Is VOIP over-hyped?"


Economist goes on to note that Skype is software only (headset reccomended).

Link to SEC on settlement: SEC Charges Former Day-Trading Principals with Securities Fraud; Others Charged with Fraud or Violating Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules; Press Release 2003-5

MidEast Headline

WSJournal:
The U.S. offered to hold talks with Iran if it suspends development of nuclear technologies, a major policy shift for Bush.

If this comes to pass, which I think it will, oil prices will fall.
All part of the puzzle.
Slowly developing stablity in Iraq.
Persians (Iran) key players in the region, whole nuke thing may have been stage acting on both sides (Iran and US).

Fingers crossed.
Maybe more comments later.

"Rules" for grocery shopping

BizWeek bit on Marion Nestle and "supermarket IQ" :

"The Rules" For Eating Smarter
Noted author and nutritionist Marion Nestle talks about her latest book -- and how to boost your supermarket IQ

" After tackling weighty issues about food in her previous books -- Food Politics (2002) and Safe Food (2003) -- nutritionist Marion Nestle was surprised that people kept asking her a simple question: What should we eat? That refrain became the topic of her latest work, What To Eat (North Point Press). In it, Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, cuts through the marketing claims and maze of offerings in today's supermarkets to provide advice for making healthy choices. She spoke to Contributing Writer Amy Cortese about her findings"


Of note :

How should shoppers navigate the supermarket?
I call them "The Rules." Rule No. 1 is that supermarkets want customers to spend as much time as possible wandering the aisles because the more products they see, the more they buy. So it's best to stay out of the maze of the center aisles, where all the junk foods are, and just shop the perimeter, where the healthier, fresh foods are.

Rule No. 2 is that products in the best locations -- eye level, ends of aisles, cash registers -- sell best. So companies pay the supermarkets to slot their products in prime real estate. These products are mostly junk because they are the most profitable and most heavily advertised.

Net Neutrality cont.

More:

NYTimes :
Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End
By ADAM COHEN Published: May 28, 2006

"Forces favoring a no-fee Web have been gaining strength. One group, Savetheinternet.com, says it has collected more than 700,000 signatures on a petition. Last week, a bipartisan bill favoring net neutrality, sponsored by James Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, and John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, won a surprisingly lopsided vote in the House Judiciary Committee.

Sir Tim argues that service providers may be hurting themselves by pushing for tiered pricing. The Internet's extraordinary growth has been fueled by the limitless vistas the Web offers surfers, bloggers and downloaders. Customers who are used to the robust, democratic Web may not pay for one that is restricted to wealthy corporate content providers.

"That's not what we call Internet at all," says Sir Tim. "That's what we call cable TV."

Not exactly Robbie the Robot

Interesting piece in NYTimes Science section on autonomist probes and devices, able to make some decisions on their own :

NASA

THINKING MACHINES Missions that might use artificial intelligence include a blimp on Saturn's moon Titan, top, and a rover that changes shape to navigate rough terrain.

The "Morphing Rover" is among the coolist...

Net Neutrality

Been following this for a while

Mostly via David Isenberg (isen.blog)

Also from Doc:
The Doc Searls Weblog : Tuesday, May 30, 2006:

"If we want to play hardball against the carriers, we need to join these citizen journalists, and expose what they're doing at the state level.
To do that, we should take our campaign to the local and regional newspapers, which don't like the cable and phone companies, either. Or the TV stations. This wouldn't be hard. Just gather your facts, call your local muckracking reporters, and turn them loose.
If we don't want to play hardball, we need a whole 'nuther strategy. One that starts with defining the Net in terms other than carrier-owned pipes. (Which is the default right now -- even for many of us on the pro-Neutrality side of things.)
My vote is to go for complete work-arounds in counties and municipalities, while trying to contain the damage in Congress and the state houses."

So I guess I'll weigh in

1) politicians like the cableco's/telco's because they can be taxed.
Either they can serve as toolbooth revenue raisers (charging tolls on the use of the connection), or as business entities that can be taxed.
Either way, they are the means of taxing the net.

2) Doc's call to rally the troops.
Not via standard TV or print.
Viewership slipping as is readershop.

Besides, to be blunt, viewers and readers tend to be passive
Eloi - (Wikipedia) From H.G.Wells The Time Machine

"...the Eloi live a life of play and toilless abundance, it is revealed that the Morlocks are tending to the Eloi's needs for the same reason a farmer tends to cattle - because the Eloi comprise most (if not all) of the Morlock diet and the Eloi are no longer capable of acting in any other role.

In Neal Stephenson's essay on modern culture vis-a-vis OS development, "In the beginning there was the Command Line", he demonstrates similarities between the future in The Time Traveller and contemporary American culture. He claims that most Americans have been exposed to a "corporate monoculture" which renders them "unwilling to make judgments and incapable of taking stands."
Just give 'em "American Idle" (pun intended even if bad) and USA Today

Instead, what about online communities?

Worlds of Warcraft
Second Life
MySpacers

Maybe something for slow

"SL and WoW respectively represent the state of the art in the narrative and non-narrative, game and non-game metaverse, but their cultures, aims, and the experiences they provide are dramatically different. WoW players often dis on SL users ("Oh, it's just a boring social world"), and vice verse ("You can't *do* anything in WoW"), perhaps based partly on a lack of understanding and shared experience. Some people say WoW is prototyping the future of work and some people say Second Life represents the future of the Internet. Obviously something important is happening with each.

Enter SLoW. A first attempt towards uniting both ends of the virtual world spectrum by providing a temporary bridge (or at least a window) between them."

Wouldn't dealing with Net Neutrality be a perfect task for those with the most at stake?

Ethanol follow up

Some other materials on Ethanol

BizWeek May 22
Fill 'Er Up -- But With What?:
"An alternative to gasoline is inevitable, but it won't come anytime soon. Here's why"

and:

Ethanol: Myths and Realities:

"Ten questions -- and answers -- about the fuel that's supposed to save the economy"

Forbes weighs in with Field of Dreamers - Forbes.com

"With work and luck, ethanol could displace imported petroleum. Will it help break the U.S. addiction to oil?"

"Even studies by ethanol fans concede that achieving energy independence via ethanol requires bullish assumptions. Among them: that refiners will get at least twice as good at making ethanol. That the average efficiency of U.S. vehicles improves to 42 miles per gallon, 68% better than the 25mpg now achieved. And that people will move closer to where they work. If all those fantasies become reality, the U.S. could, in theory, meet all of its transportation fuel needs with ethanol by 2050 without adding to today's current cropland, according to an exhaustive study by the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental group based in New York."

More likely later

Jeremy Siegel on Boomer Demographics

From BizWeek

When Boomers Cash Out
A buy-and-hold legend sees tough times ahead :

" Wharton School professor Jeremy J. Siegel became a superstar back in 1994 when his book, Stocks for the Long Run, showed how stocks beat out every other investment since the 1800s. Coming just as the 1990s stock boom was revving up, the analysis turned the finance professor into a guru of the buy-and-hold approach to investing. But even as he hit the lecture circuit back then, Siegel recalls, he began to be troubled by the outlook for the future over the very long run. People would come up to him after a talk and ask: "What happens when the baby boomers begin selling their stocks and other assets to fund their retirement?"

Despite professor Siegel's dour view, with the idea that we will need to sell assets to Indian and Chinese investors, I'd bet that prospects will remain good.

Jeremy also fails to factor in the fact that China will "hit the demographic wall" in about 15 years.
(echo of the one child rule)

The piece quotes Mike Milken that boomers will remain healthy and work longer.
The models of "work" may change, but I agree.

"What's more, Siegel underestimated the potential of U.S. technology and entrepreneurialism. "With all this wealth, the problem is not who's going to buy assets, it's are there any assets to buy with all the liquidity [there will be] in the world," Milken said."

On the other hand, we have Europe.
While Jack and Suzy Welch may have a point about revival of business in Vive L'Europe -- Just Not Yet
"A new cadre of business leaders and entrepreneurs will help end the Continent's malaise"

I doubt that business leaders can defeat declining populations.

"Consider a few statistics. Over the past 35 years, according to Joel Kotkin of the New America Foundation, the U.S. economy has created 57 million new jobs. In the same period, Europe, with a combined GDP about the size of the U.S., has created just 4 million. Meanwhile, the European unemployment rate hovers around 10%, double that of the U.S. Demographic statistics are similarly bleak. France, Germany, and Italy all have shrinking populations that (naturally) are also aging. And Europe is poorly positioned to reap gains from the growing science and technology sector: R&D spending per capita in France, Germany, and Italy, for instance, is about half that of the U.S."

Eastern Europe may well be more dynamic, but yet further to the East we have the declining Russia, in even worse shape than Europe.

Odd Couple

Reading Jack and "Suzy"'s column in recient BusinessWeek and something kept nagging me about the photo.




Then it occured to me... Suzy, at least in this shot, looks like...



Armand Assante.

Note that I was impressed with "Neutron Jack" many years ago and we have a large position in GE.

Land Use

NYTimes review of a couple of books on Federal Govt. influence on land use.

Far from being a local issue, there have been longstanding national factors.

Of note : From Roger Kennedy, head of National Park Service under Clinton "...postwar patterns of American development to two of the 20th century's most notorious top-down thinkers: Hitler and Stalin. Among other things, he writes, Hitler taught Eisenhower the usefulness of autobahns for the quick movement of troops and materiel, and the difficulty of destroying industrial infrastructure if it is well dispersed. And after Stalin got the bomb, Mr. Kennedy goes on, American leaders concluded that the nation would survive thermonuclear war only if its population moved out of the cities and scattered.

A result, as Mr. Kennedy and others have argued, was federal mortgage incentives, insurance programs and other initiatives that dispersed people into unsettled areas. The biggest incentive of all was the creation of the interstate highway system, built, officials said at the time, not to enhance commuting to the exurbs but for the nation's defense."

With the end of the Cold War, Metroization (did I just invent a word?) may reappear.

What a difference a week makes

Paraphrase the great Dinah Washington tune ... What a difference a day makes

A week ago I looked out at a bit of standing water on the roof, there was a skim of ice .
There were reports of snowflakes in Cedar.

Today, mid 80's
Spent day doing the "summer stuff"
More garage cleaning.
Powerwash screens and swap out the storm windows.
Yesterday was rig the dock with electricity (for lifts) and set raft.

Quite a change.

Model "Net" Business

Good profile of The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

It's become one of my favorite sites for useful (???) information
Well, for when you just flat can't remember an actors name, or where you might have seen them before.

As I long suspected, due to tie to Amazon (who owns it), there may be move to make a business out of downloadable movies.

Pricing drives Progress

Modest piece in Sunday NYTimes on resource "constraints"

It posits concerns that the world will run out of resources
( have we heard this one before? )

"Oil, copper and even people will someday be noticeably scarcer than they are today, and technology may not always provide a way out.

In the last few years, rapid growth in China, India, Brazil and other emerging economies has coincided, not surprisingly, with an upward trend in the prices of commodities like oil. In the short term, there's not enough time for suppliers to cope with ballooning demand; that's part of why prices rise."

Then answers with

"But market dynamics in the long term are likely to be more significant."


In my opinion, there is plenty of land, but there is the old adage, of "location location location"
Note that in the US, the middle of the country, esp. the Great Plains are depopulating, while the coastal populations are growing.
More :

"The supply of crude oil will benefit from technological improvements, Professor Jorgenson predicted. "People figure out clever ways to explore for oil, to produce it and transport it," he said. "All of that goes in the other direction."

There is also the chance that a burst of innovation will lay low the entire market. Imagine, for instance, what would happen if scientists finally developed a portable nuclear fusion reactor — the kind that could power a house or a car. But it's tough to say when, or if, that will happen. "The whole fusion program — people have being saying for the last 40 years that it's 50 years out," said John L. Staub, an industry economist at the Energy Department's energy information administration. "Well, it's still 50 years out."

And even ignoring technological changes, Mr. Montepeque said, it's a dangerous game to make dire long-term forecasts about the supply of commodities like crude oil — or any forecasts at all, for that matter.

"Being sensible people, we can say that the amount of oil, coal, shale, gas is finite," he said. "Do we know how much there is down there? The plain answer is, nobody has any idea."

There are a couple of areas, however, where scarcity is more predictable. "The long-run scarcities are for human labor and land," said Peter H. Lindert, a professor of economics at the University of California, Davis. He said their value, in terms of goods and services, would continue to rise forever.

Odd Weather Phenomenon

Pretty good thunderstorms starting sometime around 3AM
Finally broke

Then I spotted this fogbank moing across the lake
Best guess, about 25MPH (West to East / Right to Left)

Namesake ?

New Pixar Flick

voice by Paul Neuman

Good match for Doc ?

Auto Perspective

"Maximum Bob" Lutz (Vice Chair of GM) on automotive technology.

Hint : an insider's point of view.
From Autoweek 5/23 online

---
With fuel economy as a top issue, how do you feel about all the alternative powertrain ideas?

Long-term, there's no single solution. There are large petroleum reserves; and the internal-combustion engine, as we know it, I don't think is going to go away any time soon. But it will be supplemented by renewable fuels, which we believe in greatly.

There's some benefit to the environment for ethanol, but the number one reason it should be a national priority is that it's the fastest and easiest way to reduce the dependence on imported oil.

All of those biofuels are now technically within everyone's grasp. We have the hybrid program. In the longer term, we have the hybrid and fuel-cell programs.

The various forms of gasoline-electric hybrids will continue to prosper, and what we see as a really good possibility is E85 hybrids.

Any chance of a pure electric vehicle?

Yes and no. We are getting close to battery technology using nickel-metal hydride. We're getting close to a generation of batteries which may provide that elusive combination of range, recharge time, safety and cycle life; to where the pure electric vehicle, in about eight or 10 years, becomes a feasible alternative.

Art Appreciation

Of course this image barely captures the essence of the work.


There is much subtile detail, esp in the moon.

Ran into our dealer, well at an event tonight.
Turns out this is now rather rare, and appreciating nicely.


But, hung in our entry, we appreciate it almost every day.

Colorado Suite
Spring Moonrise over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Russell
Chatham

Misty Morn

Heavy fog, won't lift till mid day.
Part of the Crystal River, one of my favorite spots to shoot.

It's About Time!

Since the Federal Telephone Excise Tax was imposed to pay for the Spanish American War, I guess we can now declare victory.
Or is it all part of the Hispanic Immigration debate?

NYTimes:
Phone Tax Laid to Rest at Age 108

"Bowing to changes in technology and pressure from taxpayers and phone companies, the Treasury Department said yesterday that it would scrap the 108-year-old federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls. The move will bring consumers and businesses about $15 billion in refunds on next year's tax returns.

The decision, which applies to cellphones and Internet phone services and some landlines, follows a series of court reversals for the government. Large businesses had successfully sued the Internal Revenue Service to recoup the taxes they paid. Phone companies also wanted the tax abolished to relieve them of having to collect it."

Then the companys pissed and moaned ...
"Phone companies have opposed some of these taxes because of the expense of collecting them, and because it drives up the cost of their services, making them less attractive to consumers."

Excuse me !
Phone companys are billing machines.

A little bit of code should be able to assign a 3% fee.
This is EXACTLY why the politicans are willing to bury "net neutrality" and let phone and cable companys charge for service, to be the tollbooths on the "Information Superhighway" ...
You can't tax what you can't meter.
But if you are a politician, and you let the phone/cable provider run the toll booth, you just tell them to fork over a percent of the proceeds.

Oh yeah, and great timing.
I just canceled a couple of phone lines, along with most of our long distance service (switched to cell).

Saturation

Atmosphere and shots both saturated

Heavy fog/mist on Tucker lake



Leads to images like this



Just shot near shore, spiderwebs and vegitation, old and new

Music to my ears

Running in
Getting the Carb's sync'd
Bit of a bitch with tri-power non-progressive linkage

But sounds sweet

Hopefully on the water next week

Along the Borderline

Cue up Wille's tune (Along the Borderline)

Dick Morris, consultant to left and right, credited as architect of Clinton's "triangulation" strategy.
Consultant to both sides, and maybe a crazy toe sucker in his personal life, but seems to know politics very very well.

His analysis is that Bush has it spot on with his border policy.

"He began with the wall — the border fence. Whether made of concrete or of high-tech instrumentation, he has finally embraced the reality that border agents, no matter how numerous, cannot police a 2,000-mile border. And Americans have no reason to have faith that they can. Only a fence can control the massive flow of immigrants across our borders and give Americans some sense of control over our own country.

By addressing the problem as one of sovereignty, Bush said it just right. A country that can’t control who comes in is not sovereign."

"

He also satisfied the core demands and needs of the Hispanic community, assuring that the Republican Party will have a future as their ranks in our voter population swell. He set out a path by which Latinos can come here legally, matched with jobs and willing employers. If illegal immigrants disappeared, so would much of our economy, and Bush realized this in his guest-worker program.

His attempts to differentiate between legal paths to citizenship and amnesty were a bit strained and will undoubtedly attract much-deserved criticism, but his attempt was a good one. The fact is that those who do learn English, resist drugs, remain arrest-free, pay taxes, contribute to FICA and remain employed should become citizens after the passage of a certain time if they wish to do so. These are the sort of citizens we want and need, regardless of their accents or their skin colors.

And by emphasizing English, Bush repeats the fundamental credo of the melting pot or of our national motto: “Out of many, one.”

Neither Left nor Right

Austin Bay, who I found via Jim Dunnigan's site
(suppose I should find link, see prior posts)

Good piece on Iraq, Iran, Darfur, intervention, unilateral/UN

"Iran’s mullahs are demonstrating once again the limitations of UN multi-lateralism– sharp minds on the left and right recognize this. A lot of people staked their hopes for peace and a better future on UN multilateralism. The Iranian situation also illustrates the limits of US unilateralism — how many times can the world’s superpower go it alone? Lefty neo-interventionists are certainly seeing the limits of UN multilateralism vis a vis Darfur– and a few of them understand the hypocrisy of damning intervention in Iraq while calling for intervention in Sudan/Darfur. The so-called neo-cons –at leas those who lack military experience– have learned that war is never a cakewalk."

A Pox on Both Houses

Following may fit why I'm a devout and practicing Independent.
But of note: I think that politicians have often been self serving and venal.

Couple of recent readings.

George Will in Newsweek:
'His Brother Was Worse!'

"The Republicans' implosion began in March 2005 with their Terri Schiavo derangement, the attempt to intrude federal courts into a state's jurisdiction and a family's tragedy. Fourteen months later, after Katrina, Harriet Miers and the "Bridge to Nowhere," Republicans completed their immolation by briefly borrowing an idea from the epitome of failure, the Carter presidency. They flirted with the idea of a $100 rebate to almost everyone—even people without cars—as balm for the sting of annoying gasoline prices. Remember President Carter's 1977 idea to stimulate the economy with a $50 rebate? Actually, the $100 idea was even more risible: 100 of today's dollars are equal to 30 dollars in 1977."

and on the other side :

"Finally, if the Democrats, with all that they think they have going for them this year, fail to capture either house, they may become unhinged, as the Republicans did after they failed to defeat Truman in 1948. Republicans then succumbed to McCarthyism and other fevers, from which they were rescued by Dwight Eisenhower. Who would be the Democrats' Ike? Senator Clinton? Not likely."

In contrast, from Rick Coates in Northern Express"
A Voice of Reason
A piece on Bill Milliken, longest serving Govenor of Michigan.

Bill Milliken, during his days as governor, rose to the elite ranks of the leadership in the Republican Party. He was elected chairman of the National Governors Association, and in 1978 his fellow governors selected him as “the most influential governor in the nation” in a survey taken by U.S. News & World Report. His rise to national prominence had him on several short lists as a potential Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate and surely a lock at a congressional or senate seat. But Washington didn’t interest him.
“I saw the direction politics was taking and it didn’t interest me,” said Milliken. “There were calls and even offers, but they just didn’t fit with the life we had chosen after I left Lansing.”

and

"In his address to a packed room on Mackinac Island at the Detroit Chamber of Commerce sponsored Mackinac Policy Conference, Milliken expressed his frustration with politics today.
“If anything, the political climate has deteriorated over the past 25 years. We have seen a growth of meanness, bitterness and excessive partisanship, which can only work to the detriment of the state and the nation. The focus has turned to winning elections rather than developing sound and responsible public policy,” said Milliken. “Too often that focus on winning boils down to just raising the most money and appealing to the worst instead of the best in people. Political discourse these days too often is focused on spin and staying on message rather than involving a genuine exchange of concepts and ideas.”
He added:
“One thing I learned a long time ago is raising the level of your voice doesn’t raise the level of your discussion,” said Milliken. “Sadly too many of us have lost sight that in the end, we are all in this together. When I was in Lansing we had our differences and they could be intense at times. But we were able to resolve them in a climate that maintained a sense of civility and mutual respect.”
He received a standing ovation for his comments, but one wonders if anyone took to heart what he had to say."

He's Baaack ...

Busy week, starting with loss of an old friend.
While Lou had been felled by a stroke some 5yrs ago, and living in an "assisted living" home, his loss was still hard to take.

Board meetings and the like, run back home (almost always a 3.5hr drive) for my civic responsiblity of Jury Duty ... and got to the Courthouse only to learn that the trial had been postponed.

Ah well, took the rest of the day to attempt to make a dent in massive backlogs of cleaning and sorting ... well into Friday evening.

This morning we started off with a visit by a pair of loons (see top right), then off for fullfillment of a pledge to take more hikes.
Still got to trim down the lbs.

Then off to nearby town of Empire for :



Fun and a beautiful day, although a bit cooler than necessary ... low 60's but hard blue skies.

Got to sample various dishes from Asparagus Brats to ... "Tempura" Asparagus :



Followed by sampling of a couple dozen entries by local folk in a "cookoff"

Asparagus!

All in support of local farmers.

We often use asparagus a couple times a week.
Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board - Asparagus Nutrition Information

Matter of fact ... asparagus tacos for dinner tonight.

Duck stuff

Very cool photos/posters at : http://ducati.artehouse.com

Such as Bruno Spaggiari at Imola '73



I have same as orginal poster (slightly faded) in my office.

Precursor to the run of 750SS Desmo bikes, and later 900SS
We raced both 750's and 900's in the '70's, winning the National Endurance Championship in '77.

Make Love Not War

Long projected threat to Russia, similar to some others, such as Europe and Japan, but potentially even worse.

This will impact the Eastern Church as well, shrinking population and influence while the Islamic populations to the south continue to grow.

"The Defense Ministry knows what the main thing is. Really, I am going to speak about love, women, children" — there was applause from the assembled officials — "family, and Russia's most acute problem today: demography."

MOSCOW, May 10 — President Vladimir V. Putin directed Parliament on Wednesday to adopt a 10-year program to stop the sharp decline in Russia's population, principally by offering financial incentives and subsidies to encourage women to have children.

"Russia's population, now about 143 million, has been falling since the collapse of the Soviet Union, trimmed by emigration, rising death rates and declining birthrates. Both the government and demographers predict more downward pressure, including H.I.V. infections, that could shrink the population below 100 million by 2050."

The New York Times

Off the Wall ... Predictions

Well, here goes.

Letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President Bush.
What does it contain?
An opening to settlement of the impasses over Iranian Nukes? to go public about negotiations over the future of Iraq?

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that we may have a "Nixon goes to China" moment.
What am I talking about?

Having labeled Iran as part of the "Axis of Evil" who better than George W. to proceed with negotiations with them?

The Persians (as some that I have gotten to know refer to themselves as) basically are the "odd folks out" by both ethnicity (non-Arab) and creed (Shia rather than Sunni) in SW Asia.
They could be America's "natural allies" in seeking to bring stability to the region.
The population is young, educated and interested in "Western" culture.
Sooner or later the Mulla's will have to surrender power.

Assuming that there is to be a rapprochement with Iran, oil prices will fall.
Maybe this summer.
Will help the Republicans in the fall…

But as "Jacko" said ... on the other hand ... a glove.

Iraq No, Darfur Yes ... disconnect

Came across a most interesting rant on George Clooney ... from Down Under of all places.

Mark Steyn in "The Australian"

"I SEE George Clooney and Angelina Jolie have discovered Darfur and are now demanding "action". Good for them. Hollywood hasn't shown this much interest in indigenous groups of the Sudan since John Payne and Jerry Colonna sang The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish in Garden of the Moon (1938).

I wish the celebs well. Those of us who wanted action on Darfur years ago will hope their advocacy produces more results than ours did. Clooney's concern for the people of the region appears to be genuine and serious. But unless he's also serious about backing the only forces in the world with the capability and will to act in Sudan, he's just another showboating pretty boy of no use to anyone.

Here's the lesson of the past three years: The UN kills.

In 2003, you'll recall, the US was reviled as a unilateralist cowboy because it and its coalition of the poodles waged an illegal war unauthorised by the UN against a sovereign state run by a thug regime that was no threat to anyone apart from selected ethnocultural groups within its borders, which it killed in large numbers (Kurds and Shia).

Well, Washington learned its lesson. Faced with another thug regime that's no threat to anyone apart from selected ethnocultural groups within its borders which it kills in large numbers (African Muslims and southern Christians), the unilateralist cowboy decided to go by the book. No unlawful actions here. Instead, meetings at the UN. Consultations with allies. Possible referral to the Security Council."

Mark then goes on to outline the flaws of the UN (Chinese, who get 6% of their oil from the Sudan, and Russian vetos), and how the only kick-ass cowboys seem to be Anglophones (we can sometimes, sorta understand each other).

"And as I wrote on this page in July 2004: "The problem is, by the time you've gone through the UN, everyone's dead." And as I wrote in Britain's Daily Telegraph in September 2004: "The US agreed to go the UN route and it looks like they'll have a really strongish compromise resolution ready to go about a week after the last villager's been murdered and his wife gang-raped."

Several hundred thousand corpses later Clooney is now demanding a "stronger multinational force to protect the civilians of Darfur"."

Ouch...

CAFE Crap

Well, it's an election year...

Gas prices are up (although I have a suspicion that they may trend down from here) and the politicians are foaming at the mouth to "do something" about it.

Why of course ... mandate higher fuel economy standards.
Rather than letting high prices nudge consumers into changing their behavior, we can beat up on the Auto Companys. Those "bad guys" who offer consumers what they want.
No consideration for the replacement cycle and lag time.

If the contry is "addicted" to oil, maybe we should RAISE the price.
Cigarettes are bad for you, so the govenment raises the price (taxes).

Kevin Wilson (Autoweek) puts it well:
"In case you missed the news, Congress recently revised the Corporate Average Fuel Economy law, raising the mile-per-gallon standards for light trucks. Never mind the howling about how the standard isn’t stiffened by nearly enough. Just ask yourself why this law passed now.

The answer has naught to do with global warming or our dependence on imported oil. Congress ignored CAFE for most of 20 years but passed a revision now because this year members want to show voters they have done “something” about those issues so we’ll send them back in November.

It doesn’t matter that the last thing an intelligent person would do to address these problems is to fiddle with CAFE. It doesn’t work and hasn’t worked for more than 20 years, because it tries to dictate supply without doing anything about demand. It does nothing about consumer choices or behavior. So, since 1985 automakers (mostly European luxury and sports car makers) have paid more than $650 million in fines for violating CAFE—just another cost of doing business, built into the price tags. "

Kevin concludes:

"As much as we preach personal responsibility, though, American voters prefer a Congress that regulates over one that lets us face the consequences of our choices. The philosophy appears to be: “Don’t let them tempt me with a 6-mpg truck so I won’t buy one.” As long as that is the case, we’d better find a way to run our cars on meaningless legislation, a waste product we’ll have in abundance."

Quote

Charles Eames

"Style reflects one's idiosyncransies.

Your personality is apt to show more to the degree that you did not solve the problem than to the degree that you did."

Amen.

Duh "Apprentice" ... Apearance or whatever

OK so here is the killer

Girls win, get to harvest grapes, crush grapes, make wine
Within one day, they are drinking the "wine" ... huh???

The Apprentice 5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does anyone have any doubt about the BS?

Flash to the issue of skipping commercials

At least we still have the mute button... for now.

Back Home

Spectacular time to be here (Leelanau County)
Cherry Blossoms
Spent a good part of Sat/Sunday cruising the county
Hundreds and hundreds of acres of blossoms


A man in Topeka, Kansas, decided to write a book about churches around the
country. He started by flying to San Francisco, and started working east
from there. He went to a very large church and began taking photographs,
etc. He spots a golden telephone on a wall and is intrigued with a sign
which reads "$10,000 a minute." Seeking out the pastor he asks about the
phone and the sign. The pastor answers that this golden phone is, in fact, a
direct line to Heaven and if he pays the price he can talk directly to God.
He thanks the pastor and continues on his way.

As he continues to visit churches in Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, and around the United States, he finds more phones, with the same sign, and the same answer from each pastor. Finally, he arrives in Michigan.

Upon entering a church in Traverse City, Michigan
behold, he sees the usual golden telephone.

But THIS time, the sign reads "Calls: 25 cents." Fascinated, he requests to
talk to the pastor. "Reverend, I have been in cities all across the country
and in each church I have found this golden telephone and have been told it
is a direct line to Heaven and that I could talk to God, but, in the other
churches the cost was $10,000 a minute.
Your sign reads 25 cents a call. Why?"

The pastor, smiling benignly, replies, "Son, you're in Michigan now, and
it's a local call."

Outlaw the skipping of commercials ?

(image from Clockwork Orange - found on web, likely copyright by somebody)

Hopefully, we can keep the "mute" function.

From the NYTimes ...

"... patent application for a new kind of television set and digital video recorder recently filed by a unit of Royal Philips Electronics at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The design appears to threaten the inalienable right to channel-surf during commercials or fast-forward through ads in programs you've taped.

A second, calmer reading of the patent application revealed that the proposed design would uphold the right to avoid commercials, but only for those who paid a fee. Those disinclined to pay would be prevented from changing channels during commercials. If the viewer tried to circumvent the system by recording the program and skipping the ads during playback, the new, improved recorder would detect when a commercial segment was being displayed and disable the fast-forward button for the duration."

And then we have the absurd industry attitude towards DVR's or any other means of skipping commercials ...

"The television industry has not figured out how best to respond. Four years ago, Jamie Kellner, then head of the Turner Broadcasting System, remarked in an interview in CableWorld magazine that viewers who used DVR's to fast-forward past commercials were committing "theft," then a moment later described it as "stealing the programming." He did allow trips to the bathroom as a noncriminal exemption."

Of course the end result will be that, those who can (read educated and disposable income) will totally turn their backs on "TV" as it is known today and go to the net.

But then again, it's evolving (devolving?) back into the "Vast Wasteland" of years past.

I do like the rejoinder ...

"James Boyle, a law professor at Duke University, said that broadcasters offer a program knowing that only a fraction of the audience watches the commercials. Advertisers, he added, buy nothing more than "an option on a probability," and the viewer is no more obligated to watch every commercial than a driver is obligated to read every billboard."

Practice Practice Practice

Freakonomics

A Star Is Made

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER and STEVEN D. LEVITT

Published: May 7, 2006

Issue is are you born with "talent" or is it developed by training?

"What might account for this anomaly? Here are a few guesses: a) certain astrological signs confer superior soccer skills; b) winter-born babies tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina; c) soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania; d) none of the above.

Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University, says he believes strongly in "none of the above." He is the ringleader of what might be called the Expert Performance Movement, a loose coalition of scholars trying to answer an important and seemingly primordial question: When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good?"

Later ...

"I think the most general claim here," Ericsson says of his work, "is that a lot of people believe there are some inherent limits they were born with. But there is surprisingly little hard evidence that anyone could attain any kind of exceptional performance without spending a lot of time perfecting it." This is not to say that all people have equal potential. Michael Jordan, even if he hadn't spent countless hours in the gym, would still have been a better basketball player than most of us. But without those hours in the gym, he would never have become the player he was.

Ericsson's conclusions, if accurate, would seem to have broad applications. Students should be taught to follow their interests earlier in their schooling, the better to build up their skills and acquire meaningful feedback. Senior citizens should be encouraged to acquire new skills, especially those thought to require "talents" they previously believed they didn't possess."

Oh My My

Call it "Answer to a question I forgot to ask"

Hint : click on the "Oh My My" above

Somehow this doesn't make me feel all that much better ...

OK, so I've been given "special attention " once or twice by airport security.
Who only knows why
But then we have this :

Defense Tech: Watch List Snags Fellow Feds

How bad are the feds' enemy-of-the-state databases? So bad, they can't even keep fellow terror-hunters off their blacklists, Ryan Singel reports.

The Transportation Security Administration's airline screening system "tends to mistake government employees and U.S. servicemen for foreign terrorists," he writes in today's Wired News. "Newly released government documents show that even having a high-level security clearance won't keep you off the Transportation Security Administration's Kafkaesque terrorist watch list, where you'll suffer missed flights and bureaucratic nightmares."

According to logs from the TSA's call center from late 2004 -- which black out the names of individuals to protect their privacy -- the watch list has snagged...

* A high-ranking government employee with a better-than-top-secret clearance who is also a U.S. Army Reserve major...

* An active-duty Army officer who had served four combat tours (including one in Afghanistan) and who holds a top-secret clearance.

* A retired U.S. Army officer and antiterrorism/force-protection officer with expertise on weapons of mass destruction who was snared when he was put back on active-duty status while flying on a ticket paid for by the Army.

But will it run on Al-Jazera ?

NYTimes :

In Image War, U.S. Shows Video of Bumbling Zarqawi

In out-takes from the same video, Mr. Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, cuts an altogether different figure:

As the camera rolls, Mr. Zarqawi is flummoxed by how to fire the machine gun until an aide walks over and fiddles with the weapon so it discharges. Another scene shows Mr. Zarqawi hand the weapon off to several other insurgents, who absent-mindedly grab it by its scalding hot barrel.

And after his shooting scene, Mr. Zarqawi walks away from the camera to reveal decidedly non-jihadist footwear: Comfortable white New Balance sneakers.

Turning the tables of propaganda on the most hunted man in Iraq, the American military released the video out-takes today, which they said troops had discovered amongst a trove of information about Mr. Zarqawi last month in the dangerous town of Yusifiyah, just south of Baghdad.