Oh the irony!

BW&V wishes to model his antitrust exam study game after monopoly. He might be Losing It.

It could have been worse, poor Deb Davis

I guess my bus experience wasn't so bad after all.

Reason posts:

The first time she was asked to show identification while riding the bus to work, Deborah Davis was so startled that she complied without thinking. But the more she thought about it, the less sense it made.

That's how Davis, a 50-year-old Colorado woman with four grown children and five grandchildren, ended up getting dragged off the bus by federal security officers, who handcuffed her, took her to their station, and cited her for two misdemeanors. Davis, who is scheduled to be arraigned on December 9, is risking 60 days in jail to show her fellow Americans that they don't need to blindly obey every dictate imposed in the name of security.

Love Molecule

Some Italian scientists believe they have identifed the "love molecule", but the next step is putting it into a bottle and giving that bottle to Tate Donovan to see if he can still seduce Sandra Bullock.

Link

What the Bleep? covered this topic beautifully. If you haven't seen it, get it now!

Columbus v. SCOTUS

Columbus is well represented at the Supreme Court this week. Today some students attempted to steal pieces of the building: link.

Tomorrow, Buckeye Check Cashing, Inc., a Dublin, OH company, will be defending its service contract and 300% interest loans: link.

I am so proud. <*sarcasm*>


What is SCOTUS?

The Tutoring Toy

My aunt and uncle own a toy store in Salt Lake City Utah called The Tutoring Toy and while we have not finished their website, I was analyzing traffic to their construction page when I stumbled across this review from KSL 1160 Radio from May that is available online: KSL Radio Small Business Resource Center.

It is a fantastic endorsement of their efforts to bring educational toys to children far and wide.

OSU & COTA conspire to take money from my wallet

I should have posted this a week ago. I finished my report and anlalysis of the OSU & COTA "partnership" which charges every student $9 per quarter in exchange for unlimited use of the COTA system. You can read the entire report here (PDF).

In summary, OSU has done a horrible job monitoring this contract. They put the task of monitoring performance in the hands of a loosely allied group of students and administrators. The group rarely meets and has difficulty reaching quorum at every meeting. Despite the University's vast resources in statistics, urban planning, economics and GIS it seems that none of these departments were tapped to take an honest look at COTA's performance of the contract. COTA has failed to attract sufficient student use to justify even on a basic utilitarian level the total expenditure. Despite being COTA's largest single customer, OSU is paying on average $1.29 per ride when the public fare is only $1.25 (though the public fare will rise next year). By purchasing in bulk OSU has significantly reduced the transaction costs for COTA but OSU is not benefiting from a reduction in fees.

This program should be ended. The 3,400 (< 10% of the population) or so students who use COTA can pay for their own bus services.

Checking it twice...

It has finally turned cold and we have seen our first snow here in Ohio, but on the island in Lost they seem to have begun preparing for Christmas on Wednesday. Consider this dialogue:

Goodwin (aka Mr. Claus): "Nathan was not a good person. That's why he wasn't on the list."
Anna (aka Mrs. Claus): "What about the kids?"

Then Mrs. Claus proceeds to kill Mr. Claus. That island is a strange place.

Ohio Election Roundup

Tomorrow is election day here in Ohio. Many important issues are on the ballot and it is YOUR responsibility to voice your opinion at the polls. Whether you agree or disagree with my position, I urge you to vote tomorrow. Do not let long lines, registration problems or the weather discourage you from being heard.

To help you sort out the issues here is some information about important issues on the ballot tomorrow in Central Ohio and around the state. Feel free to print this out and take it with you to the polls. This website does not receive any compensation and is not affiliated with any political party or candidate. The views expressed here are solely those of the author.
Official GOP Slate Cards

State Issues

• Issue 1: Third Frontier Bond Issue
  Recommend: Vote No!
  Why? In a state where our spending is already out of control, we do not need more state sponsored bonds that will go to fund special interest run businesses. Bob Taft wishes to gain more control over the state's businesses and money and direct which private industries get public funding. By reducing taxes and regulation the market will efficiently direct investment and education to the most efficient businesses.
  Results: Passed
  


• Issue 2: Broaden Absentee Voting Access
  Recommend: Vote No!
  Why?: This bill unnecessarily opens a 35 day window for the general public voting period. If a large number of voters take advantage of early voting, the resulting situation highly favors large political party candidates with the most funding who can afford to get their message out early and sustain the effort for more than a month before the election. You likely have only been intently interested in the issues for about a week. A great deal of information and opinion formation occurs just days or hours before an election, and lengthening the voting window to 35 days creates an impossible situation for less well known candidates.
  Result: Failed.
  



• Issue 3: Campaign contribution reform
  Recommend: Vote No!
  Why?: Just look at the length of the ballot text: 945 words!! If you can understand this amendment you are a better person than I. This makes campaign contributions very complicated and only candidates with a large staff will be able to handle the 24 hour turn around time for the mandatory reporting. This amendment does not favor democracy.
  Result: Failed.
  



• Issue 4: Congressional Redistricting
  Recommend: Vote No!
  Why?: Another complicated bill designed to keep the general public from understanding the legislative process. It does seem to me that it is a bad idea to put the redistricting powers in the hands of appointed individuals.
  Result: Failed.
  



• Issue 5: Elections Board
  Recommend: Vote No!
  Why?: See Issue 4. Today we each have an opportunity to vote for the Secretary of State and every 4 years the public can influence the policy of our state elections. Shifting this responsibility to an appointed board will remove the power from the people and hide the elections policy behind another layer of untouchable bureaucracy.
  Result: Failed.
  

Local Issues & Candidates - Franklin County

• Clerk of Courts
  Recommend: Mike Pirick.
  Why?: This Republican incumbent implemented many e-services while in office and customer service is his #1 issue.
  Result: Tyack.
  


• Municipal Court Judge

Recommend:


• Judge Mike Brandt


• Judge Amy Salerno


• Isabella Thomas


• Judge Dwayne Maynard



Why?: Because they are Republican. Absent any personal contact with these judges it is practically impossible to tell how they will serve and where they stand on any issues. So all I can do is hope the political party does the best job possible in picking great candidates.

Result:



• Judge Dwayne Maynard


• Judge Amy Salerno


• Judge Michael Brandt


• Judge Andrea Peebles






• ADAMH Tax Levy Replacement
  Recommend: Vote No!
  Why?: As best I can tell, the county is not an efficient medical provider. The money would be better spent with a charity or private provider.
  Result: Passed
  

City of Dublin - Issues & Candidates

• City Council - Ward 2
  Recommend: Amy Salay
  Why?: A stay-at-home mom who helped implement the Traffic Enforcement Unit of the police. The challenger, Richard Gerber, favors raising taxes to increase the number of city services, increase green space and remove all of our remaining private property rights. (That last part was my interpretation reading between the lines.)
  Result: Elected
  



• Dublin School Board
  Recommend:
  
  
  • Bill Burton
  
  
  • Stuart Harris
  
  
  • Lisa Huang
  
  
  
  Why?: These candidates favor honors and AP classes and wish to raise the level of performance.
  Result:
  
  
  
  • Stu Harris
  
  
  • Gwen Callendar
  
  
  • Lynn May
  
  
  
  


• Washington Township Trustee
  Recommend:
  
  
  • Chuck Kranstuber
    Why?: Highly experienced and in favor of efficient, high quality services.
  
  
  • Denise King
    Why?: Incumbent and efficient. Helped install red light management for EMS vehicles.
  
  Result: Elected!
  
  
  
  

For more information please visit these websites:
Dublin Suburban News
Franklin County Board of Elections
Ohio Secretary of State
Ohio GOP - Arguments against Issues 2 - 5
Ohio Libertarian Party Analysis of Issues 1 - 5

"The torture continues..."

Thanks to the VC for the pointer to an interview with Justice Kennedy. Kennedy, thanks to decisions like Kelo, is not at the top of my list of legal heroes. He does, however, hold one of the nine most powerful legal seats in the world, and so I read the interview anyway.

If you wish to read about his childhood, start at page one, but otherwise the best stuff is starts on page 3. The best question, which revealed Kennedy's inspirations, was almost the last and is a staple of the Academy of Achievement,they asked, "What books would you read to your grandchildren? What are the important books to you?" Here is Justice Kennedy's response:

I think fiction is very important because it gets us into the mind of a person. Hamlet is a tremendous piece of literature. You know Hamlet better than you know most real people. Do you know the reason? Because you know what he's thinking. And this teaches you that every human has an integrity and an autonomy and a spirituality of his own, of her own, and great literature can teach you that. Billy Budd, Antigone, are very important works. Antigone is brilliant. You know, in literature, the woman is a symbol of mercy and of equity: Antigone, Portia -- Rosa Parks, to use a real person. That's why Justice is a woman, even though she has a sword sometimes. I don't know if that fits, but so: Antigone, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Billy Budd, Nineteen Eighty-Four. You and I grew up with a great fear of the Soviet military might. Nineteen Eighty-Four has one of the brilliant scenes in literature. The protagonist is being tortured by his communist or totalitarian interrogators, and they want him to say that "Two and two is five." And finally he can't stand the torture anymore, he says, "Okay, two and two is five." But the torture continues. He said, "Why are you continuing?" They say, "The torture continues not until you just say it, but until you believe it." And this is a powerful reminder that governments want to plan your destiny. They want to plan what you think, and this must never happen. And so Nineteen Eighty-Four is a book of tremendous importance, I think, in that regard.

So Justice Kennedy believes the government should keep their dirty little paws off my destiny. I'm not sure how that jives with his liberal record of decisions, but he is absolutely right. I have not yet read 1984, but you can bet that is now on my short list and my froogle list. I hope to see Justice Kennedy use the "1984" judicial test for more of his decisions.

FOIA, Public Records & Sunshine

Over the past year I have given myself a crash course in public records law. First there was the SEI campaign to capture the information the University collects about instructor evaluation. I successfully collected the data, but it was in such an unusable format that I have not done anything with it. I think it is about time to make another request for the data for the last year.

A few weeks ago, I began requesting data necessary to evaluate the efficiency of OSU's COTA bus fee. Eventually I was able to get the ridership statistics and later today I should finally be able to get the financial details of all payments made from OSU to COTA.

I have learned a few things from this process.

1. Government emmployees want to keep their performance secret.


2. Government employees are completely unaware of the existence or substance of public records law


3. Common government tactics to avoid releasing records: feigning ignorance, forwarding to supervisors and other departments, delivering incorrect or incomplete records.


4. Persistence, persistence, persistence.


5. While you get more bees with honey, threatening a lawsuit improves the chances of being the squeaky wheel who gets the grease.

Outsourcing

Dan Drezner posted a brilliant summary on the benefits of outsourcing.

Does America benefit from outsorcing? Hell yes!

Is it difficult to tell your neighbor that he needs to lose his job because you don't want to pay $10 for a $2 hand-made corn broom? Yes. Is it worth $8 to avoid the conversation? No.

V2V - Intelligent Design?

This week, GM announced a new vehicle technology called, V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) communication. Used in conjuction with GPS and in-car sensors, GM proposes to allow vehicles to communicate speed, position and other status indicators such as a hard-braking condition to all of the vehicles within a quarter mile.

Sounds too good to be true right? GM intends to prevent blind-spot accidents and rear-end accidents into stopped traffic, and notify drivers of approaching emergency vehicles, traffic congestion and other "traffic intelligence."

GM failed to mention this, but it also eliminates the need for radar and laser speed detectors. Police can just watch a monitor with the speed of every car on the road, from their cruiser or the station or maybe they'll outsource speeding tickets to India. Also, criminals may be able to use this technology to evade the police. If police cruiser V2V transponders can be identified, then criminals can watch their own monitor to avoid crossing paths with the five-oh.

On a brighter note, maybe V2V can be used as a dating service. When two single people pull up to a traffic light together, V2V will hail the other vehicle and you can get a peak of your anonymous drive-through date before approving the transfer of your phone number to the other car.

Endless possibilities for this intelligent design. (Do you think using the phrase "intelligent design" is going to create a spike in readership?)

Hat tip to Wired.

ABC News: Strikes, protests put pressure on French govt

ABC News: Strikes, protests put pressure on French govt: "The strike was called by all of France's main trade unions over low pay, a high unemployment of 9.9 percent of the workforce, falling living standards and a new law which makes it easier for small firms to sack staff. They also want to preserve the 35-hour working week."

That is the funniest thing I have ever heard! We want more pay, but we won't work more than 35 hours a week and we want lower unemployment.

Do the French think that money grows on trees?

Everybody Dies

I guess that is the lesson to be learned from the season finale of Six Feet Under. I do not consider it a spoiler to tell you that every main character dies by the end of the final episode.

It is the best episode ever and for once a great television show wraps up ALL the loose ends before going dark.

A great show all around, I will miss the each of the characters.

Splenda Shortage

I thought that I had written about this previously, but I could not find the post. So here is a link to an ABC News article.

So, this shortage has finally hit me where it counts... Panera! My Panera Bread Store is out of Splenda! Is it a sugar industry conspiracy?

Probably just a temporary inventory problem, but even McD's has Splenda, so I may be forced to take my free loading butt elsewhere to find free refills and free WiFi.

Restaurant Review: Digger & Finch

This is a first for me, reviewing a restaurant; my cousin is a chef and therefore the restaurant expert in the family, but I needed to put into words my displeasure with this restaurant. Nobody else in my party seems to agree with me, so take this all with a grain of salt.

---

Digger & Finch
At the Golf Centre of Dublin
6720 Riverside Drive
Dublin, OH 43017
614.889.8585

"Fine Scottish Grille & Pub"

---

Selected food items are very edible, even delicous, but it is hit or miss. The steaks are good quality and they were willing to cook the meat to medium rare, an uncommon skill in these days of legal disclaimers on menus.

The fish & chips is top notch, well the fish is worth every bite. The chips were oily and a bit soggy, but had an excellent flavor. The fish seemed to be beer battered with highly flavorful spices.

Okay, so far so good huh? The only food complaints came from my sister-in-law, a professional salad eater, and her cabbage only mandarin chicken salad was not traditional or flavorful. My father also refused to eat his apple strudel, though my mother enjoyed it. The strudel was too homogenized and could have beeen made with apple sauce and the apples may not have been top quality.

Well the problems were mostly with the service. Begining with the lack of parking. Mostly because the building and the parking lot jointly serves as the restaurant and a driving range. The very busy driving range filled EVERY single parking space. They had a nearby parking lot and a golf cart shuttle, but it was not running when I arrived. After taking another loop around the lot, a space opened.

Fortunately there was not wait for a table. The atmosphere and the building were true to the Scottish roots; the waitresses even wore kilts! I must say the televisions everywhere were a nice touch, good looking LCDs hung from every corner, even the restroom.

Though we did not wait for a table we spent the remainder of the evening waiting. We waited a solid 10 minutes before our drink orders were taken. We waited a very long time for our meals, then the desert, then the check; we experienced more waiting at every turn. I was forced to get up and fill my own glass from the pitcher between dinner and dessert.


They first opened for business only a few months ago, so perhaps they will resolve some of these glitches, but I'll never know because with all of the fine eating establishments in town, why would I waste my time at Digger & Finch.

Saturday - MLS All Star Game

MLS ALL-STARS TO FACE BRIAN MCBRIDE AND FULHAM IN 2005 SIERRA MIST MLS ALL-STAR GAME

English Premier League Club Visits Crew Stadium On Saturday, July 30, At 3:30 p.m.

Currently The Only Way To Get Tickets To The All-Star Game Is To Have Crew Season Tickets

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Tuesday, March 8, 2005) - Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber and Crew General Manager Mark McCullers today announced that the MLS All-Stars will face English Premier League club Fulham FC as MLS goes global in the 2005 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game to be played on Saturday, July 30, in Columbus Crew Stadium (live on ABC Sports at 3:30 p.m. ET).

The match will mark the second time in three seasons that the League's best players battle the world's top clubs in the new format for the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game, which was adopted to ensure the most competitive All-Star spectacle in U.S. professional sports. In 2003, the MLS All-Stars downed storied Mexican club CD Guadalajara, 3-1, at The Home Depot Center.

The game on July 30 will represent the return of forward Brian McBride to the city which he called home for eight seasons while playing for the Crew before joining Fulham in January 2004. Former Chicago Fire defender and U.S. National Team stalwart Carlos Bocanegra, a two-time MLS Defender of the Year, will also make his return to the All-Star Game wearing the black and white of Fulham.

"We are proud to present American soccer fans an All-Star Game that celebrates the League's 10th season and the lasting impact MLS has had in the U.S. and around the soccer world," said Garber. "We look forward to welcoming Fulham and former MLS All-Stars Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra back to Columbus in July for what is sure to be one of the most competitive matchups in the event's history."

"Hosting the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star game, in the league's 10th season, is a tremendous honor for our organization," said Crew General Manager Mark McCullers. "We look forward to seeing Brian McBride back in Columbus and believe that the format and the energy surrounding the Sierra Mist All-Star game will create an outstanding experience for the fans. I would also like to thank our friends at G & J Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Columbus and Sierra Mist for their continued support and look forward to working with them to produce a special event."

Fulham, one of the oldest clubs in world soccer dating back to 1879, is owned by Chairman Mohamed Al Fayed and coached by Welsh Manager Chris Coleman. The team, which makes its home in London's renowned Craven Cottage, features several high profile internationals in its ranks: Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, Canadian star forward Tomasz Radzinski, the second highest all-time goal scorer in the Premiership Andrew Cole, and Senegalese international midfielder Papa Bouba Diop, who scored the winning goal against France in his country's shock 1-0 win in the opener of the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan. Following Saturday's 0-0 draw at home against Charlton Athletic, Fulham stands in 15th place with 30 points and 10 matches to play in the 2004-2005 season.

"I am delighted that we have been able to secure such a high profile fixture as part of our pre-season preparations, and especially pleased that we will be playing the best that the United States has to offer," said Fulham Manager Chris Coleman, speaking at the club's training ground. "We will be expecting a tough game as there will be a lot of pride at stake on the pitch, and it will give us a great platform in which to show what we are capable of against top class opposition before the new season kicks off."

Bowling For Soup - Saturday

GRAMMY-NOMINATED BOWLING FOR SOUP HIGHLIGHTS SIERRA MIST 2005 MLS ALL-STAR HALFTIME SHOW

NEW YORK (Thursday, July 7, 2005) - Texas-based rock band Bowling For Soup will highlight the 2005 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Halftime Show, broadcast live to a national television audience on ABC Sports on Saturday, July 30 (3:30 p.m. ET). Major League Soccer's 10th annual All-Star Game features the 2005 MLS All-Star squad taking on English Premier League club Fulham FC at Columbus Crew Stadium in the return of former MLS All-Stars and current Fulham standouts Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra.

Jive recording artists Bowling For Soup, who will be performing their hits "1985" and "Ohio" during the All-Star halftime show, have become a mainstay on MTV 2 and VH1 following the smashing success of their latest album A Hangover You Don't Deserve, which was recently certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Known for their undeniably catchy pop hooks, their love of old-school metal, and comical interviews, the band scored a Grammy nomination in 2003 in the Best Performance Pop By a Duo or Group category for their power-pop sing-a-long "Girl All the Bad Guys Want."

"Major League Soccer is pleased to welcome Bowling for Soup to highlight our 10th Season celebrations at the 2005 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game," said Soccer United Marketing Enterprises President Doug Quinn. "With performers like Christina Aguilera, Michelle Branch, Paulina Rubio and Switchfoot highlighting past MLS events, we are proud to continue the tradition of providing world-class entertainment at our marquee events."

Hailing from the small town of Wichita Falls, TX, Bowling For Soup's previous single "1985" became one of the fastest-selling digital tracks to date. Their lyrics often deal with relatable stories on relationships and the common trials and tribulations facing teens and 20-somethings.

"Its great to be a part of a Major League Soccer event, as all of us grew up playing soccer," said lead singer Jaret Reddick. "In fact, watch for me doing a bicycle kick during our performance."

Bowling For Soup's 2000 release Let's Do It For Johnny and 2002's Drunk Enough to Dance have sold more than 300,000 copies and spawned the hit singles "Punk Rock 101" and "Girl All The Bad Guys Want." The band recently finished up their first sold-out headline tour and have also co-headlined a tour with Avril Lavigne, following appearances on the 2005 Warped Tour with Blink-182 and Sum 41.

The 2005 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game featuring Fulham FC offers four levels of ticket pricing, ranging from $25 to $45 for individuals, and $17 to $30 for groups of 20 or more. Fans can purchase group and season ticket packages by contacting the Columbus Crew at (614) 447-2739; by logging onto www.thecrew.com and by visiting Crew Stadium advance sales windows during all Columbus Crew home games. Individual tickets can also be purchased by calling TicketMaster - (614) 431-3600 (Columbus area) or online at www.ticketmaster.com and at all TicketMaster outlets.

Crew Stadium, the site of MLS Cup 2001, will host its second MLS All-Star Game since 2000. During All-Star Weekend, Sierra Mist and MLS will host numerous soccer-themed events, activities and tournaments at Crew Stadium and in the Columbus area. Check out www.MLSnet.com for more details.

Publishing

I received in the mail today, my first published book of my own photography. After reading about printing-on-demand (POD) services in the Journal last week, I ordered a book from mypublisher. It is just a sample of my photographs over the last two years, no particular theme, but some of my favorites.

It came out looking great! I am actually inspired to try and sell a few. So I may attempt to come up with a theme, maybe even some text or poetry or something to accompany the pictures.

My initial ideas are for my favorite things feel free to vote for yours:
1. A series of books featuring Yellowstone.
- Yellowstone at Dawn
- Yellowstone at Dusk
- Yellowstone in the Dark

2. A book of the Franklin Park Conservatory (though this will need permission to publish commercially)
- These are some of my favorite photos here and here

3. Insects
- I have taken a lot of pictures of bees on flowers and I love the way they turn out.

I have also considered making a deal to help people publish their vacation photos this way. Maybe the Yellowstone Pharmacy would let me sell to their photography developing customers. However, the margins would be small so I would need to figure out how to get more volume. Perhaps the various fishing and tour guide services would want to offer this service. I could even offer to let people fill the extra pages of their books with my own collection of photos.

Well, this will require more thought, but I hope I come up with more excuses to print these wonderful little books.

More posts coming soon

I finally made two new posts at Truck & Barter. So new posts to this blog are sure to arrive soon.

The quarter from hell is over, and tonight I will be done with two more classes, leaving only 2 classes for the remaining 5 weeks of the quarter.

Life is busy these days. I am travelling a lot. I just got back from D.C. (more in the next post), I am headed to Cleveland for a wedding shower this weekend, then I am off to Chicago to spend the weekend with a friend.

Lots of cool events this month too. MLS All Star game next Saturday and the recently announced half-time entertainment is Bowling for Soup!! Then Bowling for Soup is giving another concert at the Fairgrounds that week, Brad Paisley with my cousins, and Rascal Flatts on the 14th (if I can get tickets from the university).

I have a number of projects that I will be working on. I would like to get better internet access in West Yellowstone, I would like to improve some of my websites, including this blog, and I need to parse my belongings down to only the most necessary items.

I have already filled three garbage bags with clothes today. I could probably come up with another six before I go to bed.

West Wing on Education

I must be honest here. I do not actually understand what is going on at the West Wing Democratic Presidential Primary. Who is Baker and why is he a candidate now so late in the game? I have never heard of such a thing. But I will say good for him! If he can get the nomination without spending any of the millions of dollars in campaign money then he might get my vote (if he were not a democrat.)

But I digress. The title of this post suggested this would be about Education. Thirty-five minutes into the show there is a wonderful exchange between Josh Lyman and Ernie Gambelli, the president of the Teacher's Union. I'll let you read the transcript for yourself:

Ernie: Teachers' Unions are to the Democratic Party what bibles are to the Republicans. Essential. Non-negotiable.

Ernie: What makes you think you can come in here and ask for our help when Matt Santos wants to end teacher tenure?

Josh: Our school systems are in crisis. We have teachers who aren't trained in the subjects they teach. We've got teachers who are only showing up to pick-up a check.

Ernie: Raise salaries.

Josh: So you are admitting some teachers can be better.

Ernie: I'm admitting their salaries can be better.

On the nose! Arnie has portrayed the liberal professor with flare. A democrat only looking for tenure and higher salaries.

Gotta love the West Wing!

All debts public and private

I just pulled out my money clip to check, but yes U.S. currency is still marked:

THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

Every denomination is marked this way. Why am I concerned about this? Well, Mike Boelsta had a scary experience a few weeks ago because some ignorant individuals failed to recognize his money as legal currency.

Was he trying to buy drugs you ask? No.
Was he in a foreign country where he could not speak the language, like New Jersey? No.

So what was the problem? Mike paid his bill with currency in $2 denominations. The ignorant employees at a Baltimore County Best Buy did not believe that we print a $2 bill.

So surely they called their manager and resolved the issue right? NO!

They called the cops. Surely they were better educated and cleared up the problem on the spot, right? NO!

The Baltimore County deputy arrested him, took him to the station and called the U.S. Secret Service. Finally a well educated officer of the law. He cleared up the situation and verified the legality of the currency.

Now, the law is very straight forward, however in practice it is not enforced the way it is written. I am not suggesting that EVERY business must accept green backs for service or goods, but they accept cash, in all other denominations from the $0.01 penny to the $100 portrait of ol'Ben Franklin. The U.S. Treasury has some guidelines that indicate a business may have a policy of only accepting certain denominations or only accepting checks or credit cards. However, the use of the word "policy" indicates it must be an established pattern of behavior previously determined or documented.

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.. unless you are a police officer.

U.S. Code Title 31, section 5103
Thank you Gizmodo!
Baltimore Sun

Siding with a democrat... sort of

I never really thought it would happen, call me a traitor, kick dirt at my feet, do what needs to be done.

On Monday, the FCC, in a 3-2 decision, declared that phone companies are allowed to bundle phone and internet access and are not required to sell internet access ala carte.

The FCC's two Democrats, who dissented to parts of the ruling, cautioned that the agency's decision could restrict the ability of consumers to purchase DSL service alone or gain access to Internet telephone service. "If it is permissible to deny consumers DSL if they do not also order analog voice service, what stops a carrier from denying broadband service to an end-user who has cut the cord and uses only a wireless phone?" Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein said in a joint statement. "What prevents a carrier from refusing to provide DSL service to a savvy consumer who wants stand-alone broadband only for" Internet phone service, they added. (src: WSJ)

It is this thinking that is going to drive phone companies out of business. I switched to VoIP years ago and I have never looked back. It is an added benefit that with RoadRunner and Vonage I don't pay SBC a single penny. Phone companies who think they can maintain a monopoly on phone service by bundling DSL are sorely wrong.

In some markets DSL has a much larger footprint or even a monopoly on broadband internet access. In these markets, bundling may be considered an anti-trust violation and perhaps some regulation is necessary. However, in the larger markets, DSL competes with cable modems, fiber and wireless and the phone companies cannot afford to refuse service to the customers with alternative voice service.

So I agree with the democrats, on the FCC Panel, that phone companies should not bundle internet and voice services exclusively.

The marginal cost of voice services once the DSL copper is in place is almost $0, so I can understand how the bundle may be offered at a very attractive price. However, customers should not be required to take services they don't want.

If you have a phone line from an ILEC They will list that number in the phone directory. To get out of the listing most phone companies require a MONTHLY fee to keep your listing private! If you didn't want the phone service or the listing to begin with... It is just absurd.

I had a phone company tech in the office yesterday and he noted that they were not offering any VoIP services because of the expensive infrastructure. How silly. I did not point this out to him, but the expensive Adtran channel bank he was working on, valued at well over $1000, could be completely replaced by the free linux box sitting behind him on the floor, running Asterisk.

When will phone companies get it?

The Break is Over

So, I've taken a good long break from blogging. I don't know if I even have an audience left.

Finals took a toll on my free time, my brain and my independent thought. Now that those shackles are free I will try to pay more attention here.

I may need this blog more than ever this quarter. I am in to LIBERAL arts classes to fulfill necessary requirements for graduation. I'm trying to keep an open mind, and I'll know in an hour if the first class, on the Bible, is a total supression of conservative thought. I will come here to blow off steam and let the truth be known. Hopefully I will be able to regurgitate the necessary "information" to get a good grade if I can keep investigating the truth with all of you.

Later today, Bryan sides with two democrats (WSJ)... WOW!!

Not exactly Van Wilder

I have been "enrolled" at The Ohio State University since September 1999, and I spent a year at Purdue before that.

4.5 years later I have a major. Yes, that's right I actually have some direction to my undergraduate experience.

I was notified today that I was admitted to the Max Fisher College of Businss at The Ohio State University. I am a candidate for Bachelor of Science with a specialization in Economics. For what that's worth.

That is only half the battle though. I must keep up the effort for another 3 quarters.

We can rebuild him, we have the technology

Well, once ServerBeach took two seconds to look at the situation with the hard drive I could not access they discovered that they had mounted someone else's hard drive. Um, woops?!

So now that they have mounted the proper drive the server is mostly up and running. There are a few bugs and things that will need to be corrected, but at least all the images are valid again.

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Major server problem. As if the broken images or the 24 hour period of downtime is not a big enough clue.

ServerBeach claims the OS needed to be re-installed.

So, the box is back up and running, but the server is still a mess. It failed in the middle of the first ever backup. Fortunately the mail server was the first thing to get archived, so that restored quickly. The websites and all the other information is stuck on this other hard drive.

I cannot access anything on the drives. All the partitions are "hidden" and cannot be mounted. I don't know what to do. I bought a copy of Partition Magic from Symantec, but all this damn foreign support rep will say is "Not compatible with Windows Server 2003." I waited on hold 55 minutes for that!!!

Longest Search String Ever

I did a little log analysis today and I found that someone found my webpage by searching Google with the LONGEST search string ever.

"we'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. in the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your computer is free o"

Who would possibly type that in the little Google seach box?

Other interesting log facts:

• My Street is the number one listing at Google for "aolvalue".


• I am finally the number one listing for my own name Bryan Griffith

Overall traffic has picked up big time. I never used to get more than a dozen or two hits a day. Last year things picked up and I might have seen up to 100 hits in a good day. These days I am averaging 100 visitors and 600 hits per day.

I am encouraged that this means someone must be reading this. Log analysis is good feedback, but nothing is better than comments. So if you are reading leave a comment. Say 'hi!', tell me your favorite color, tell me how much you hate my conservative values, whatever floats your boat.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Avril on Pork

If I were on the National Pork Board I would consider suing the pants off Avril Lavigne. Last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live Avril announced that she will not eat pork because, "If you eat pork you have a 99.9% chance of getting a parasite. Its very true."

I think Avril is very cute, and I enjoy her music, but that was a stupid thing to say. Doesn't she watch Oprah? Slandering the entire pork industry could be big trouble.

I cannot find any proof that her assertion is accurate. Maybe socialist Canadian pigs have parasites, but here in the United States, pork is safe.

According to the National Pork Board:

What about trichinosis?
Because of modern feeding practices, trichinosis is a no longer a concern. Although trichina is virtually nonexistent in pork, if it were present, it would be killed at 137 degrees F. That's well below the recommended end cooking temperature for pork, which is 160 degrees F.

http://www.otherwhitemeat.com/allaboutpork/foodsafety/foodsafetyFAQ.htm

What was Avril thinking? Jimmy Kimmel should consider issuing an apology and correction to distance himself from Avril's uneducated opinion.

Better than the Super Bowl Ads

Sunday was an all-around dissapointment. The game was boring, the commercials were boring. If I had to watch the frozen guy in the Mustang one more time I was going home.

A few commercials weren't so bad, the Pepsi commercial was very creative with lots of great cameos. The cat killer was also great and the Nationwide Insurance ad with MC Hammer was hilarious.

However, I saw another ad on TV tonight that has them all beat. Check out the new Dentyne ad at their webiste: http://www.dentyne.com/fire_commercial/fire_exclusive.html

Blueball Laws

Eugene at the VC points out that Oklahoma is trying to change the definition of rape to include all sex between college students and school employees.

9. Where the victim is an undergraduate student under twenty-one (21) years of age attending any college or university in this state or the victim is attending any public or private secondary school in this state, regardless of the person's age, and engages in sexual intercourse with a person who is an employee of the same college, university or school system unless the two persons were legally married prior to enrollment or employment in such college, university or school. . . . .

What if...
Two students get married. One is also teacher or is otherwise employed by the school.

Because they got married after they were enrolled this married couple cannot legally consumate their marriage.

Looks like useful legislation to me. What is Oklahoma thinking?!

Happy New Year Spot!

For the Chinese New Year, pets go for a day at the spa.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=2&u=/050207/ids_photos_wl/r583685012.jpg

Bye bye advertising

I am taking the Google Ads out of the sidebar. 1 click. Since this site is otherwise unprofitable, I think the advertising was just creating a liability.

Is anyone making money off Google AdSense? What is your clickthrough rate?

I am likely to use AdSense on other for-profit sites.

Catch 22

When it comes to law enforcement, even when you are right, you are wrong. This evening on Las Vegas Ed Deline learned the hard way when he tried to prove that the red light camera had incorrectly implicated him in a crime.

After all that work, he was right, but the judge wasn't going to let him off that easy.

Watch the clip:
Windows Media (340K)
Windows Media (48K)
MPEG (11MB)

ONN is reporting that Columbus is planning to install red light cameras at 3 intersections this summer. I am becoming fed up with the crappy drivers around here, everyone becomes a crappy driver in the crappy weather. So I am all for these cameras. I am not sure that I have any problem with photographic or video evidence for speeding, red lights or other minor offenses. Certainly technology does introduce reasonable doubt. Maybe my legal readers can comment on the pros and cons of these systems.

Did the Pope break confession?

The Scotsman is reporting that Deep Throat is near death, in this article. Obviously this rules out President George H.W. Bush.
However, Pope John Paul II, does appear to be near death. Perhaps, as Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, the Pope took confession from Bob Woodward or Richard Nixon himself?
Just a conspiracy theory to stoke the fires.

Apparently Deep Throat's identity will be revealed after his death, then it will all become clear. It had better be more clear than the Warren Commission's report on the JFK assassination. We don't need another magic bullet conspiracy for Oliver Stone to direct.

Liberals turn tail and run...

This post has two important messages:
1) George Bush Rocks! Last night's State of the Union was the best since Ronald Regan. Bold, intelligent, and well delivered, President Bush is going to lead this country in the right direction.

Finally a president leading the country and his political party. The last resident of the White House was being led his party, just like the Communists.

2) VC Genius! Jim Lindgren takes the MSM and the liberals to task for suggesting our military in Iraq should surrender. That's right, you heard him, surrender. Leaving Iraq before the job is done is a white flag waving, tail tucked surrender.

60 years after our occupation of Germany began we finally began reducing our presence in Germany last year. Why should anyone believe Iraq is capable of independence so quickly?

The path to self-actualization is three stages. Dependence, Independence, Interdependence. Iraq is still in stage one, highly dependent on the occupying forces.

Surely the violence will subside and our presence will shrink over time, but a timetable for "surrender" is far from appropriate.

Gmail Invites

Gmail has just given me 50 invites. If anyone is still left without Gmail leave a comment with your e-mail address.

Liberal Academia III

Last night the MSM played catch-up to the blogosphere. Some of the talking heads have mentioned the problem of liberal bias at academic instutions, but I have not previously seen a good piece on television.

ABC World News Tonight featured a short 3 minute investigation, primarily into the censorship of "The Passion of the Christ" on certain campuses. However, in the report, filed by Dan Harris, ABC also touches on the general bias of instructors and faculty.

David French, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, points out, "The universities have been so captured by the left point of view, that you're going to get more political and intellectual diversity at your average suburban mega-church than you are at an elite university."

Dan begins his report with a graphic stating that 72% of academia self-identifies as left-leaning or liberal. I am not sure that there is anything wrong with this as an issue of diversity. Many have suggested that liberals are prone to prefer this type of work. I cannot disagree. Government jobs in general are probably more likely to be held by a liberal looking for an opportunity to redistribute wealth and expand the role of the government.

However, Todd at the VC makes the argument that it is not the opinion of the instructor that creates a hostile environment. The absence of dissenting opinions presented or tolerated in the classroom is the source of friction.

Watch the video:
Broadband (340K) WMV
Dial-up (48K) WMV
Full MPEG

Prisoner of Time

Ian Cook at Truck & Barter pointed out a great post at The Idea Shop. Andrew Chamberlain investigated tardiness as a prisoner's dilemma game.

Andrew proposes that one consciously or subconsiously shows up late because being late is a dominant strategy and a Nash equilibrium in the game. No other option will consistently provide the best payoff.

Since showing up late is a trait common in my family, this is a very interesting idea.

Rain, sleet, snow or privatization

Privatization of the Postal Service? Read my article at Truck and Barter.

Silly Blog Game

I know this is a silly game. Bloggers sometimes track the keyword searches that prominently display their entries.

So my posting about the Artic National Wildlife Refuge has made the first page of Google. Search for "arctic refuge redford no" and find me at #4. Search for "Arctic Refuge Auction" and see my posting at Truck and Barter at #1! Woo hoo, Number One!

Its silly, but it keeps you blogging. It is almost as exciting as a new comment. :)

Attention Ohio Readers

An important piece of legislation has been introduced in the Ohio House or Representatives, 126th General Assembly. House Bill 9 revises Ohio's Public Records laws to clarify the requirements of each public employee to be trained on their responsiblity with regards to the public records law and penalize any public office failing to comply with the law.

I have personally experienced innapropriate denial of public records requests and this bill will fix many of the problems. It is important that your representative knows that we support the passage of this bill.

What can you do?
1. Please lookup the contact information for your representative here.
2. Write a letter or e-mail to communicate your support
3. Be sure to reference 126th House Bill 9 (i.e. 126 HB 9)
4. Be sure to address your representative as "Honorable Mr. John Doe"
5. Please tell your friends.

Thank you for your support!

A black eye for the fat man

Today Michael Moore was dissed by the Oscar voters. Fahrenheit 911 did receive a single nomination. Passion of the Christ received 3. Professor Bainbridge hopes that Hollywood has heard the message that liberal propaganda is not entertainment. You can see the list of nominations at Oscar.com.

I agree that the absence of Michael Moore at the Oscars is a great day. Maybe one of these days I will watch his movie anyway, but only when it is broadcast for free on CBS.

Let me out!

Please help me! I'm trapped and I can't get out. Kevin feels the same way.

Inauguration, part deux

I have not yet watched the address. I tried to watch C-SPAN from class, but I could not sneak an earpiece and I missed the entire ceremony to take some notes. However, reading the transcript I am sure this was a powerful speech with many world changing points. Here are a few that stood out for me.

There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred... and that is the force of human freedom.

• As if he were channeling Thomas Jefferson!

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.

• World shattering! Ronald Regan asked the soviets to, "tear down this wall!" President Bush is asking the world to open its hearts and minds to the possibilities of freedom.

May God bless you, and may He watch over the United States of America.

• I love it! I do not attend church every week and I am willing to support basically ANY religion as valid and honorable worship. Surely God, a loving god, has lit many paths to righteousness. Without that light or enlightment or illumination or path, depending on your particular choice of faith, these travels we call life are dark, treacherous and lonely. President Bush has offered to help any freedom seeking people in the world with the same open arms that will greet us all in Heaven.

No thanks Robert Redford.

I received the following e-mail from Robert Redford, by way of my democrat sister (I love her anyway.) My response is posted at Truck and Barter. Mr. Redford has ignored the larger issue. Typical of an activist he has offered complaints without solutions.

From: Robert Redford
To: [removed]
Subject: A message from Robert Redford about the Arctic Refuge
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 17:33:49 -0500 (EST)

Dear NRDC Action Fund Supporter,

No one voted on Election Day to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But President Bush is now claiming a mandate to do exactly that.

Congressional leaders are pushing for a quick vote that would turn America's greatest sanctuary for Arctic wildlife into a vast, polluted oil field.

Even worse, they are planning to avoid public debate on this devastating measure by hiding it in a must-pass budget bill.

Please go to http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arctic0501c.asp right now and send a message telling your U.S. senators and representative to reject this sneak attack on the Arctic Refuge. And please forward my message to your friends, family and colleagues. We must mobilize millions of Americans in opposition as quickly as possible.

Don't believe for a second that the president is targeting the Arctic Refuge for the sake of America's energy security or to lower gas prices at the pump.

President Bush knows full well that oil drilled in the Arctic Refuge would take ten years to get to market and would never equal more than a paltry one or two percent of our nation's daily consumption. Simply put, sacrificing the crown jewel of our wildlife heritage would do nothing to reduce gas prices or
break our addiction to Persian Gulf oil.

But if the raid on the Arctic Refuge isn't really about gas prices or energy security, then what is it about?

It's the symbolism.

The Arctic Refuge represents everything spectacular and everything endangered about America's natural heritage. It embodies a million years of ecological serenity . . . a vast stretch of pristine wilderness . . . an irreplaceable birthing ground for polar bears, caribou and white wolves.

It is the greatest living reminder that conserving nature in its wild state is a core American value. It stands for every remnant of wilderness that we, as a people, have wisely chosen to protect from the relentless march of bulldozers, chain saws and oil rigs.

And that's why the Bush administration is dead set on destroying it.

By unlocking the Arctic Refuge, they hope to open the door for oil, gas and coal giants to invade our last and best wild places: our western canyonlands, our ancient forests, our coastal waters, even our national monuments.

This is the real agenda behind the raid on the Arctic Refuge and the entire Bush-Cheney energy plan: to transfer our public estate into corporate hands so it can be liquidated for a quick buck.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) admitted as much when he said this battle over the Arctic Refuge is really a fight over whether energy exploration will be allowed in similarly sensitive areas in the future. "It's about precedent," Rep. DeLay said.

I take him at his word. If we let the president and Congress plunder the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the sake of oil company profits, then no piece of our natural heritage will be safe from wholesale destruction.

Please go to http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arctic0501c.asp and tell your senators and representative they have no mandate to destroy the Arctic Refuge. Then please be sure to forward this message to as many people as you can.

And thank you for speaking out at this critical time.

Sincerely,

Robert Redford
NRDC Action Fund

I'm going to Walt Disney World!

Bryan, you just started a new quarter at Ohio State and the assignments, papers and presentations are piling up. What are you going to do next?

Bryan: I am going to Disney World!

Remote blogging with Mickey Mouse. Maybe a picture or two if you're lucky.

Geek Love

This post is for FashionHound, or her alter-ego Cereal Dater (not that I think she is a geek, but this is about dating).

I do not usually watch trashy television and I have not enjoyed a dating show since the Newlywed Game. However, I could not sleep last night. So, I clicked on the TV and found a funny little dating show on UPN called Blind Date.

I captured the clips and you should watch them choose the slow (150 Kbps) or the broadband (340 Kbps) Windows Media stream. The special f/x people display genius with their CGI cone heads. :)

Being a geek named Bryan, I can identify with the hero in this story. I wish them the best of luck.

Socratic Method

As a pre-law student I know that I will get more than my share of the socratic method of teaching in the near future. However, I was quite surprised when Dr. Fleisher announced that today's Comparative Economic Systems (Econ 508) would be a class discussion in the Socratic Method.

I know the key to any good class discussion, particularly a socratic discussion, is preparation. Even though I had been warned and given a list of readings, I failed to do more than collect them in one place for the last two days. I am still waiting for one of the books to arrive by mail. Over lunch I burned through the readings and bought the missing book for $30 more than my mail order copy.

I am pleased to report that I enjoyed the lecture very much. The socratic method seems to be a superior form of discussion and very effective for these topics.

I certainly will make an effort to be better prepared next time. I feared that I would be embarrased in lecture and would be caught without an answer when adressed by Dr. Fleisher. Fortunately, I understood the material, particularly the Hayek reading, well. Also, the undergraduate students set such a low bar and have really brought down the professor's expectations.

I am looking forward to more socratic discussions.

Reference
Good descriptions on the socratic method:
http://www.greatbooksacademy.org/html/what_is_the_socratic_method_.html
http://lonestar.texas.net/~mseifert/crit3.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates#Socratic_method

The Princeton Review has posted this scathing review of the Socratic Method. What do they have against people thinking for themselves?

Stolen script

I will write about class in a moment. It was a great day.

Remember this post about the new NBC midseason replacement, "Committed?" I noticed the show had a certain rhythm to it that made me think about the BBC show Coupling. Tonight the script was STOLEN straight from Coupling.

A woman in a new relationship shows up naked to her new beau's apartment without warning. Being male and not having been in a relationship in a while, his apartment needed some cleaning, to say the least.

Coupling focused more on the piles of pornography. Committed focused more on the mass quantity of stuff.

Whatever happened to original television?

Committed
THE APARTMENT EPISODE
2005-01-11

LOST IN LOVE--After several months of dating, Marni (Jennifer Finnigan) realizes she has never set foot in Nate's (Josh Cooke) apartment. Marni invites herself over to his place and Nate, in a state of panic over his crazy, pack-rat apartment, decides to turn off all the lights so she can't see the mess. Marni's curiosity over what Nate is hiding gets the best of her, so she breaks in the next day with Tess (Tammy Lynn Michaels). Elsewhere, Bowie (Darius McCrary) discovers the true meaning of the Chinese symbol that he had tattooed on his arm. Tom Poston also stars.

Coupling
The Naked Living Room
2004.07.06

Is it possible that life-time loser in love Oliver might just get somewhere with life-time loser in love Jane? Trouble is, how can you win the heart of a good woman, when your flat is a little 'un-edited', and your living room has lost the battle with magazine nudity?

Working without a translator

Ikea appears to have failed to run this latest product by their U.S. translator. Would you buy a FARTFULL?

New money pit

I am a gadget freak! I have to try out everything. I have TiVo, XM, PalmPilot, MP3 players lots of other pieces of tech, some useful, some not so useful. Combined with a healthy respect for a sale, I am excited to watch a new website: Woot!. I can't remember where I read about this today, less than an hour ago, but it looks exciting. So I will try to stay up until midnight so I can see what the new offer is. I guess it is like an online Tuesday Morning. Except five days a week. Every morning at midnight they list one single product 30% off or more. They only have one lot and when it sells out, sales stop. After the sale ends they publish the number sold, the last sale time and the "Woot Wage." These products sell out FAST! Like QVC fast. Frequently in less than 12 hours an entire lot of about 1000 items is already sold.

Today's watch sale resulted in 500 watches, 80% off, sold in 13 hours, 24 minutes, an average of one sale every 3 seconds, and $24,214 per hour.

That's some business. I don't know how they come about these products but they are definitely moving some cash.

Juice!

I was sitting at Panera reading Slashdot, when I read this article by CowboyNeal pointing to a wonderful NY Times article called you can read here.

Ironic because at the time I was waiting for another table to open so that I could plug in my laptop that had just announced a low battery.

I can certainly relate to the issue of finding places to plug in. At only $0.01 to $0.02 per hour to operate or charge a laptop (even my behemoth Dell 9100) I don't exactly feel that I owe the business anything for the privelege. I figure I gave them more than $0.02 back when I declined the tomato on my sandwich.

I have also begun to collect a database, if only in my head, of electrical outlet locations at businesses around the country. Maybe I should start a website to help road warriors.

Socially Irresponsible Television

I have heard lots of great things about Fox's "House, M.D." Unfortunately my Tuesday TiVo schedule is full and I have not been able to record it. This evening I had 30 minutes to spare before TiVo recorded NBC's "Committed" which seems like a really bad version of Coupling where all of the characters are Jeff.

Anyway, the point of this post is that "House, M.D." is a medical investigatory drama. At first it seems like a wonderful combination of CSI & E.R. with a well developed lead character, Dr. House (Hugh Laurie.)

Just when I am thinking about cancelling my recording of "Committed," which I should have done anyway, Dr. House chimes in with some advice for a protective mother of an asthmatic child.

"If you don't trust steroids you shouldn't trust doctors."

What a stupid remark! Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! In these days of Balco Labs, holistic medicine and the rise of the educated health consumer this sort of uneducated script is irresponsible.

I would rephrase, "If your doctor trusts steroids don't trust your doctor."

It's just Hollywood you say, well unfortunately people these days will believe anything they see on T.V.

Medium - The most unusual law drama ever

Medium (IMDB)
I still have my doubts about this new NBC mid-season replacement. But 10 minutes into the first episode, which aired Monday evening, the main character, Allison, has doubts about becoming an attorney. Her husband reassures he by saying, "You should go to law school. You should study hard. You should become a heartless scum sucking attorney and buy your husband expensive foreign cars. It just seems like the right thing to do."

Allison (Patricia Arquette) is a mother of three, a 3rd year law student and an intern in the prosecutor's office. However, the title of the show, "Medium", is about her ability to communicate with and see the dead who are constantly following her.

This show might be okay. I will keep watching.

Jeremy

Jeremy Blachman is one of the enjoyable law student blogs. This week two good posts. Yesterday he related his experience with wi-fi in class. I am usually the only undergraduate student with a laptop in class at Ohio State. However, I have seen the solitare phenomenon sitting in at the Moritz College of Law.

Sunday Jeremy wrote a funny article about when to refill things. Read it here. I have intimate knowledge of the toner cartridge dilemma so I offer Jeremy this advice:

Once I have removed the toner cartridge for 5 shakings it is time to just replace it. I figure spreading out the toner by shaking gives me enough time to go buy a new one. I usually get 50 pages of good print with a good left-right-left twist. Sometimes I do it to music and Chuck Berry is always a good choice.

Good luck Jeremy!

Gone in 60 seconds.

In the past week I have read two articles featuring car theft. I thought winter was the slow season for theft, but maybe car boosting is not a seasonal business.

Mike Harden wrote in the Dispatch an article about a stolen car sitting in an impound lot for three years. Read about it here.

Then in Forbes Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff defend LoJack in their article "Stop Thief!" by saying this about users of The Club:

People who would never think of putting a sign in their car window saying, "My neighbor leaves her keys in the ignition" feel fine putting on a steering-wheel bar that has basically the same effect.

I never thought about theft prevention from this angle, but I have heard it before. When I was in the security industry, some installers and professionals stated goal for security is to make one building just hard enough to gain entrance that criminals try the next door. Perhaps this is why security is most frequently purchased only after a burglary in response to a crime instead of to prevent a crime.

Their theory about a Lo-er Jack, inexpensive vehicle locator is great and will catch joy riders, but professional boosters will know to just stash the car in a metal crate and defeat any transmission of the vehicle location. Any such device must report the vehicle location constantly.

I am sure these devices will become more common. New cellular and wi-fi technologies will make this sort of device very inexpensive.

Cafe etiquette

I am at Panera trying to get some things done for the next hour or two until I have to return to campus.

The guy at the next table is playing a game or movie or something, it sounds like Grand Theft Auto or some sort of driving game.

That's right I said, "sounds like!" This guy has the nerve to leave his laptop speakers on I can barely even think clearly enough to type with all of the honking and screeching tires going on next to me.

I realize this is not the library and the classical music on the speakers combined with the conversations throughout the cafe can rise above a dull roar at times.

Why can't I just get up and say something to him? I should. But I won't. I am just going to hope that he leaves before too long.

UPDATE (13:27) - Ten minutes later my prayers have been answered. The rude computer user got up and left! Woo-hoo!

Sleds Welcome!

Yellowstone is finally open to snowmobiles! You can read more about it here. You can see pictures here and here.

If you have been to Yellowstone in the summer you should make a trip in the winter it is beautiful and quiet.

Year of the Blog

It's official, 2004 was the Year of the Blog. The Pew Institute on the the state of blogging.

More after class, the TA just showed up to Art 300 - Photography.