Jericho: It's not about the singer ...

Pink - The Series.

Interesting. This is the future.

Max: Buyer's Remorse

The human mind isn’t very well equipped to make sense of a figure like $1.2 trillion. We don’t deal with a trillion of anything in our daily lives, and so when we come across such a big number, it is hard to distinguish it from any other big number. Millions, billions, a trillion — they all start to sound the same.

The way to come to grips with $1.2 trillion is to forget about the number itself and think instead about what you could buy with the money. When you do that, a trillion stops sounding anything like millions or billions.

Max: Wasting Time

President Bush accused Democratic lawmakers on Friday of wasting time by passing legislation to expand children's health coverage, knowing that he would veto it again. At the same time, he criticized Congress for failing to approve spending bills to keep the government running.

For reallies. Why is Congress wasting it's time with trivialities like children's health when they could be rubber stamping his nutbar agenda?

Max: NASA Fears Truth May Hurt Profits

An unprecedented national survey of pilots by the U.S. government has found that safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than previously recognized. But the government is withholding the information, fearful it would upset air travelers and hurt airline profits.

Max: Looking Back At Big Brother

Many a paranoid Luddite have predicted that all our connected gadget are going to turn into a sort of telescreen, the monitoring devices used by Big Brother in 1984. That may happen to the lusers. But some of us pwn our tech.

GPS-based tracking devices don't just help you figure out where you are and where you're going, they might also help you avoid a speeding ticket. Shaun Malone of California is contesting a speeding ticket in that state by arguing that his GPS-based tracking system shows that the officer's radar gun was wrong.

Max: Welcome to the BRA (Banana Republic of America)

Via the NYT

Richard Thornburgh, a former Republican attorney general, told a Congressional hearing that his client, Dr. Cyril Wecht, a Democratic officeholder in Pennsylvania, was indicted on federal charges that should not be federal charges by a United States attorney who targeted Democrats.

At the same hearing, more evidence emerged that the prosecutions of Don Siegelman, the former Alabama governor, and Paul Minor, a prominent Mississippi Democrat, may have been political hits. And a University of Missouri professor testified that his statistical analysis showed that the Justice Department engaged in “political profiling.”

Dr. Wecht’s case has gotten little attention, but that may change. Mr. Thornburgh said prosecutors are using “unprecedented” legal theories to turn mostly “nickel and dime transgressions” into major federal felonies. He charged that while United States Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan went after Dr. Wecht and other Democrats, she ignored the offenses of Republican officials, including a congressman whose staff accused him of using government employees in his election campaign.

Jericho: Kill me now!

Overheard on the radio:

The worst job you will ever have is the next one you get.

Oy!

Max: The Monkeys Are Rebelling

The deputy mayor of the Indian capital Delhi has died a day after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys.

Max: Everybody Needs a Hobby

Via Wired

"Look," Shannen Rossmiller says, pointing at her computer screen. She's in an online chat room, and the name Terrorist11 has just popped up. "He's one of the more popular guys."

To get here, she signed onto alfirdaws.org. Then she clicked into the Paradise Jihadist Supporters Forum. The site is in Arabic, so she turns on the basic Google text translator that renders the discussion into clumsy phrases.

"Take a charge with caution," warns one jihadist posting, "this thread is monitored." Meanwhile, Terrorist11 is praising the 2004 Madrid train bombings and posting videos of the dead for other jihadist wannabes to enjoy. Old news, terrorism-wise. Rossmiller flips her blond hair. She looks bored. "They are just flaming, ranting and raving," she says. "Do you want to see some blood and guts? Let's go find it."

In her small, one-chair home office in Montana, I sit beside Rossmiller on a little tiled table normally reserved for a lamp. Outside, the vistas stretch across Big Sky Country to the Elk Horn Ridge Mountains. Inside, Rossmiller shows me what she does as perhaps America's most accomplished amateur terrorist hunter.

Jericho: Dumbledore is Gay!

J.K. Rowling is an Honorary Irate Weirdo!

The woman writes one of the most popular children's book series of all time - probably more popular with adults than children. Then, after the last book is out, after she is one of the richest people on the planet and as a cherry on top - she outs one of the main characters.

I don't know if that move will sell more books or end her career as a writer. Either way, it's exactly what an Irate Weirdo would do. She is a shining light that we all should follow!

I'm going to go start on my first children's book now!

Max: Dodd/Wyden '08

It looks like at least a couple of our public servants care about the Constitution.

But passage in the committee came with one unexpected hitch. In an interview after the closed session, Mr. Wyden said he had succeeded, by a vote of 9 to 6, in adding an amendment that would offer additional protections by requiring that the government get a warrant whenever it wanted to wiretap an American outside the country, like an American soldier based overseas or a business person.

“The individual freedom of an American shouldn’t depend on their physical geography,” he said.

But Mr. Wyden said the administration vigorously opposed that measure and was threatening to veto any final bill if it is included.

...

In addition, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who is running for president, announced on his campaign Web site Thursday that he would [filibuster]on the proposed bill. That legislative maneuver would create another obstacle.

Max: Pretty

Samsung Solid State HD.

Max: Drug Control

Drug control policy decontructed at Foreignpolicy.com

The European Union is demanding rigorous assessment of drug control strategies. Exhausted by decades of service to the U.S.-led war on drugs, Latin Americans are far less inclined to collaborate closely with U.S. drug enforcement efforts. Finally waking up to the deadly threat of HIV/AIDS, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and even Malaysia and Iran are increasingly accepting of syringe-exchange and other harm-reduction programs. In 2005, the ayatollah in charge of Iran’s Ministry of Justice issued a fatwa declaring methadone maintenance and syringe-exchange programs compatible with sharia (Islamic) law.

Jericho: God King George

... get used to calling him that.

Have a look at this Wired article.

I'm not a big fan of George's sense of humor. The man has no poker face. I think he just dropped his trousers and we were all there to see it.

The sad thing is that I will probably one of the few people protesting when he takes over and shreds the Constitution. No one believes it can happen here.

Max: Iran

I wonder if our resident war mongers have as much of a hard-on for the upcoming war as they do for the current one.

Max: Shawn Frayne - Fucking Genius

ScribeMedia.Org » Shawn Frayne’s Windbelt Wins Popular Mechanics 2007 Breakthrough Award

Max: Nerd Score

A mere 93? I need to get back in touch with my inner nerd.

Max: WHAT! THE! FUCK?!?

Via MSNBC/Newsweek

The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV.

Why are the fuckers who pulled guns on and disarmed our soldiers in a wars zone not dead?

Max: Drain Bump

I was a year and a day ago that I posted my first Brain Dump.

A year ago I was broke and unemployed.

But for just about a month I knew what it was like to be motivated. FOr jsut about a month, I found out what it felt like to not be depressed for what seemed like the first time in my life.

Now, I can picture myself and what I was doing, but I can't remember, I can't even imagine, what it felt like to be a real, functioning human being.

Max: Project Censored

A list of 25 news reports that were not so much censored as ignored, not given the attention they should have been given, in favor of stories about Britany Spears.

Max: She Has To Be A Republican

[Police Sergeant] Andrea Eichhorn's attorney, David Heil, said she has persistent knee pain and will likely develop arthritis. He said city benefits paid by workers' compensation and some disability checks helped with medical bills, but it wasn't enough.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

"It's a situation where the Cosmillos have caused these problems, brought them on themselves, then tried to play the victim," Heil said.

And what lame excuse do these Cosmillo jerks use to make themselves out to be the victims rather than evil incarnate?

[Joey Cosmillo's] near-drowning... the 1-year-old boy, who suffered brain damage and can no longer walk, talk or swallow.

The boy fell into the pool outside the family's home in suburban Orlando in January and now lives in a nursing home and eats and breathes through tubes.

How could such a trifling compare to the suffering that befell Eichhorn?

[Eichhorn] slipped and injured a knee responding to a toddler's near-drowning...

[and] alleges Joey Cosmillo's family left a puddle of water on the floor, causing her fall during the rescue efforts. She broke her knee and missed two months of work.

Go Andrea, show them what suffering really is.

Max: The Marines Would Prefer to Kill Taliban

Via the NYT

The Marine Corps is pressing to remove its forces from Iraq and to send marines instead to Afghanistan, to take over the leading role in combat there, according to senior military and Pentagon officials.

The idea by the Marine Corps commandant would effectively leave the Iraq war in the hands of the Army while giving the Marines a prominent new role in Afghanistan, under overall NATO command.

Max: This Actually Seems Sorta Reasonable

Dems To Let NSA Spy in U.S., But Spooks Will Hate the Fine Print

So the bill gives the NSA the ability to install wiretapping equipment in U.S. telecom switches or in the servers of U.S. email providers without getting a court order, but can only do so when they already know exactly what conversations they want to capture, rather than what person, email address or phone number they want to track. In other words, they have to know that known foreigner A is calling known foreigner B and that's what they get to tap without court oversight. They cannot just target every call to and from known foreigner A using spy equipment inside the United States. (Outside the U.S., there's no limits on what the NSA can listen in on.)

Outside of that case, the NSA has to go to the spy court for permission to wiretap inside the U.S.

If the spy agency suspects that one of the targets in this scenario is outside of the country or is a foreigner? Go to the court.

If the NSA wants to get all of the communications to an email address (provided by a U.S. company) of a suspected spy or terrorist that the NSA believes is outside of the country? Go to the court.

If the NSA wants to wiretap every call to known foreigner A that passes through a U.S.switch.? Go to the court.

Max: Revelations for a Wednesday

For some time now, I have been struggling with the question of what I should do with my life. So far my somewhat itinerant career in tech support has (barely) paid the bills. At the end of the day, though, all I have is a paycheck and eight hours less to wait for the grave. I know that I enjoy research and analysis. They are the only aspects of tech support that I find enjoyable. I also love music and writing, but I have long since realized that those will be a sideline at best, a hobby. Research and analysis, learning and using that learn to diagnose and hopefully solve problems, are a more likely way to make a living.

There are many fields in which those skills would be useful. Among those that come immediately to mind are medicine, law, engineering, comp sci, math and a variety of sciences. Every now and then, I find myself surfing around various university and professional web sites researching how I could get into one of those fields and trying to figure out how I can get into and afford the appropriate schools and balance schooling with work.

Today I was researching one of the less likely of those potential careers, medicine. My lack of discipline - involuntary though it may be - along with my lack of desire to go a quarter of a million dollars into debt are somewhat discouraging. Of course, the cost of tuition is prohibitive regardless of the field I happen to be researching and is usually what leads me stop my quixotic researching. Today, however, it was the lack of discipline that comes from my defective mental state - a medical condition clinically referred to as "just plain nuts." Suddenly I had an epiphany. I realized that I have been focusing on potential long term goals at the expense of an obvious short term goal. I am overweight, hideously out of shape and depressed to the point of barest functionality. I now know that I have to deal with my health before I worry about anything else. There is new research that exercise is not only beneficial for one's physical health, but can also help in alleviating depression. That should not be so very surprising given that neurological research shows more and more that mental health is a part of physical health, that the mind-body dichotomy is false.

Now all I need to do is convince my flabby ass to exercise and eat better.

Max: Music Industry Continues Slow, Painful Suicide

Via the BBC

A car repair firm has been taken to court accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work.

The action against the Kwik-Fit Group has been brought by the Performing Rights Society which collects royalties for songwriters and performers.

Jericho: Have a Coke in the file ...

So, about three weeks ago, I went to talk to my doc. As some of you might remember, I had been considering a sabbatical for my health a while back. I have about 6 weeks of "Extended Sick Leave" at work. They lump all of our vacation and sick time into one pool they call Paid Time Off or PTO. However, if you are really sick, and are going to be off work for more than a few days, you can dip into your ESL time. I've been there for coming up on seven years and have never taken an ESL day - thus I have my six weeks.

I told my doc that I am in a bad way and need to do something. I'm weighing in at 515, I have all these health issues and the stress at my job just seems to get worse. I have this six weeks of time that I need to use, or I will lose it when I walk out the door - and I am so ready to walk out the door! So, I can see two ways to go; she could give me a prescription for time off and I can spend that six weeks dieting and really exercising. It would be a good jumping off point, and then when I'm done, I could find another job. It wouldn't be a cure - but it would be a good start. Or, we could use that six weeks to recover from some type of stomach surgery.

She chickened out almost instantly and told me to go talk to a bariatric specialist. Great. She had been against surgery the first time we talked - I thought I had a lock. Nope. I'm the only one on the planet that thinks time off from my job will help me get my health back together.

So, I spoke to a friend that had had this surgery. She wanted me to talk to someone besides the person my doctor recommended. She even set up my appointment. She is a big fan of the lap-band surgery that she has had. I don't know why she is such a big fan - it has been a three year struggle and seemingly endless surgeries and she has only lost a portion of the weight she is trying to lose. The more I thought about it, the more this felt like just another diet.

All diets restrict something: fat, carbs or calories. The lap-band simply restricts the portion size you can eat at one time. If you fill your little pouch with 3 oz. of celery you will lose more weight than if you filled it with 3 oz. or Oreos. My friend even confessed to me that she was just shoveling ice cream into herself at one point, it melted and ran through - she was still eating large portions of ice cream - just slower. So what the fuck is the point of putting up with the surgery, the recovery, the barfing and all the other crap if it's just another diet?

I canceled the appointment. My friend was quite angry with me. When she did talk to me again, she disagreed that it's just another diet. Maybe she's right, and I might have to go that route one of these days - maybe soon. But, I just couldn't do it right now.

Steph and I are dieting again. I've been on for two weeks-ish. The scale said I was 500 on Friday, down from 515 before I went to see the doctor.

I have also started looking for a new job. Don't tell my many bosses, but I spend a good portion of the day at work looking for a job and talking to placement agencies. I'm hoping to find a job closer to home and maybe something less stressful - a call center or something. At least with a call center, when I go home, I'm done. I'll probably have to take a pay cut - but not the first time that's happened. I might have a 2nd interview today - we'll see.

This weekend was my 6th wedding anniversary (and it was Laura's birthday, too - Happy Birthday, Laura!) I got Steph some pretty flowers - she got us a trip to Vegas in a few weeks! Woo! Very cool! ( I love you, Honey!) So, Steph and I strayed from the diet a bit. But in all, we were still pretty good. When I'm dieting, I do a lot of liquid foods; Slim Fast shakes, yogurt smoothies, yogurt, sugar free pudding, etc. So, my stomach seems to shrink up and I just simply can't put the food away. I get full fast - which is great! But, there was some higher carb foods and a little candy and one very special treat.

This is going to sound stupid, but it was a big deal to me.

I had a Coke.

A simple fountain Coke. And, man, was it ever good! Last year I went off caffeine. I do very little caffeine - maybe some green tea here or there and maybe black tea now and then. At the time I went off, we thought the caffeine might be contributing to my heart palpitations. It was certainly cutting into my sleep. When I'm not dieting and want a full sugar soda, I've been drinking Sprite or 7-Up. I don't need the caffeine and I shouldn't be having the sugar, but at least I was doing one thing right, right?

Well, I had the opportunity and I took it. That Coke tasted fucking great! I didn't have any heart palpitations or anything - but that was also the first real dose of caffeine I had had in forever - and I stopped at one and a half glasses. I'm off caffeine and I plan to stay that way. I look forward to my next Coke sometime next year!

Max: I Give Up

17-year-old Brit On Trial For Owning A Book

Max: At Last

Billion Dollar corporations are safe from single mothers.

Max: Get Edjumacated

"Attend" UC-Berkley classes for free at their Youtube channel.

Max: Loop de Loop

The Delmar Loop has just been named one of the 10 greatest streets in America.

Not long ago, the Delmar Loop was nothing more than a strip of mostly vacant, boarded-up storefronts. Missing was the energy and vitality of today's street, an eclectic arts, entertainment, dining, and shopping district in University City, Missouri.

The American Planning Association has selected the Delmar Loop as one of 10 Great Streets in America because of the sustained efforts of local business, government, and the community to achieve successful physical and economic revitalization.

Max: Sorta Laid Off

I am still employed and will remain so for the forseeable future. However, my current position will be offshored in about 1.5 months. Rather than throwing us out in the street, my employer will be transitioning the team to another project. As it stands, there are only debt collections projects here. But they know they have a wealth of IT skill in this team and are looking for another help desk project. Either way, I will be employed at the same pay (or more) assuming I don't find a job elsewhere.

In fact, I am getting a better deal than some of my fellows. If I stay, I will get a bonus that only a few of us were offered.

Still, I will be sending my resume out once again. We'll see if it takes another year to find someone who recognizes my mad skills.

Jericho: Twice the cleavage of Hillary!

I have found my '08 presidential choice:

Goldwater Miller

Go get'em girls!