Land of Oz

Golf

A game that hasn't grabbed me. TV coverage of golf seems to consist mostly of whispering announcers and panned shots of the sky. And like tennis you're supposed to be quiet during the game. Why the quiet? Can you imagine football or baseball where the crowd has to be silent when the hitter comes to the plate? Wouldn't the Masters in Augusta be so much more interesting with a guy wearing green makeup and a giant foam finger yelling, "hey golfer, golfer, hey golfer ... swing!" at the top of his lungs? The you could have some waiter walking the crowd shouting, "Cabernet Sauvignon and brie, get your fresh Cabernet Sauvignon and brie here!"

What set this tirade off was a heading in my local newspaper; "Vijay's not afraid of Buick showdowns with Tiger," which is pretty stupid if you ask me. "Afraid of..." I should hope not - it's a stupid game. I can see being afraid of running into a building on fire to rescue a kid, or storming a 7-11 to confront an armed robbery. I can see be afraid of climbing a 30 foot power line with fallen wires or even delivering mail to a house with a Doberman slobbering on the front porch. However, I can't see being afraid to play a game of golf - unless perhaps it was a real tiger. Then I'd just think it was stupid.

NASA

Hmmm, what happened to the NASA I knew and loved? You know, the guys who got us to the moon and back in less than a decade. The guys with the "right stuff." If you hadn't heard yet, another chunk of foam fell off the main tank of the shuttle. This piece was about the same size and came from the same place as the piece that caused the crash back in 2003.

The difference is that for the past two years, NASA has spent somewhere around $1.4 billion dollars fixing that very problem. Yes, all that time and all that money for absolutely nothing. Honestly, why shocking, I could understand if an engine quit or wing fell off during the recent shuttle launch. After all, it is an overpriced and overengineered bad solution to a very difficult problem. But no, it wasn't anything new - it was the exact same thing they just spent two years fixing!

Thirty years ago NASA managed to fix multiple unplanned problems and recover a mangled Apollo 13 vehicle literally with duct tape and cardboard and ingenuity in less than three days. Now, using the combined resources of the world, two years time and close to $2 billion dollars, the latest shuttle launch suffers the exact same problem that doomed the previous launch.

War? What War

This was in a recent New York Times article, "In recent speeches and news conferences, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the nation's senior military officer have spoken of "a global struggle against violent extremism" rather than "the global war on terror," which had been the catchphrase of choice."

This seems to me to be a pretty good sign that the war is beyond redemption. What better way to get out of a sticky situation than to rename it. After "war on terror" gradually fades away, so does people thoughts about it. "War? What war, we're not fighting that anymore."The USofA military and its troops are no longer on the front lines of a war - now they can become peacekeepers and nation-builders protecting indigenous people against violence. That doesn't sound too bad now, does it? It's really nice to know that the situation in places like Iraq and Afghanistan has changed so much. The war is over and finally we can expect to see some fallout from the peace dividend we've heard so much about.

Toothpicks

Time for a little self-promo here. What is it about toothpicks? My hobby web site (which honestly only gets a couple hundred hits a day) seems to get about two or three hits a month from people doing a search on "toothpicks" or "toothpick holders." My site gets returned as a link since it has some pictures of toothpick holders I've made. I did find a link to one of pictures on a gambling/handicapping web site a couple of weeks ago. I registered to see what it was doing there and they were using it for something to do with baseball handicapping. Shortly after registering on their site to see what my image was being used for, they banned me from it. I didn't do any posting or anything malicious. After that, I changed the image they had linked to. Odd place, that.

Is there a market in toothpick holders? Do people collect them? That's a silly question I guess. Somebody somewhere collects anything. If anyone is interested in buying some of them, please let me know and I'll be glad to make you a few. I make them out of found wood mostly. They're small enough so that I can use all kinds of tiny bits and pieces. I made a couple out of a tree limb knocked off by a storm that beat up my back yard.

If you don't collect them or use form for handicapping baseball, I'm interested in what you're looking for? Is there maybe a holy order of toothpick holder worshipers or something? The most interesting thing I've ever seen regarding toothpicks was in one of those Warner Bros. cartoons with the gay gophers, where they turn down an entire tree to make one toothpick. So, anyway, let me know why you're looking for toothpick/toothpick holders - ok?

Treason

Fonda's antiwar juices are flowing again. This time she'll probably pose in some Iraqi basement wearing a bomber's vest and reading a subway or bus schedule. First, let me say that I'm all for freedom of speech. I've knocked the USofA military and government here a lot. To me that is part of the way our government is meant to be. Second, I'm not an anti-Jane fanatic. I even watched Barbarella. However, there are limits to everything. The prime example is yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater when there is no fire. There's a good chance of a panic and if in that panic people are hurt, you are responsible for them. Same way with protests. Make your opinions known - that's fine - don't give aid and comfort to the enemy - that's treason.

Here's part of the American Heritage definition of treason, "...consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies." Having your picture taken as a morale builder with people trying to shoot down your country's aircraft seems to fit that definition to a tee. It took her sixteen years before she would even make a partial apology for her last aiding and abetting an enemy - what will she say now?

Fonda's Apology 1 and Fonda's Apology 2

Grand Theft Auto

First let me say that I haven't played this game - or for that matter, most other video games since the 80s. I have seen some of the ads and trailers for it, but I haven't played it. The game has been around for a long time, since 1997 I guess. It's always been about crime - murder, carjackings, assaults and what have you. That's like 8 years now that gamers have been able to shoot, run-over and otherwise raise hell in the game. The following iterations of Grand Theft Auto have all been similar with advances in story and graphics I suppose. So, for the last 8 years, you could shoot, beatup and otherwise assault people and cops with little complaints raises - not no complaints mind you, the game comes up now and then as a background rumble about how bad it is.

However, now, it's another story. They've added - gasp - sex! It seems that the authors managed to include some sexual scenes (oral sex I've heard) within the program. It seems that they were meant for a more hardcore version and were only meant to be viewed with the proper codes. Well, as anyone should have learned by now, if it's digital and locked, someone, sooner or later, will find it and unlock it. (Wasn't there just some Google video coding scheme that was hacked within 24 hours of release?)

Anyway, the stuff has hit the fan. Senators are up in arms, and stores have been pulling the games from their shelves and rapidly raising the user rating from mature to "you'd better be old and gray and unable to enjoy this crap" level.

I'm sorry but I really don't get it. Why is it in the USofA, that it is OK to have a game where you blow a cop's brains out, but not where you see a couple getting it on? Are we as a nation fucked up or what? This happens all over the place. There was a figure modeling magazine a couple of years ago, that decided it could no longer include figures with bare breasts - blood soaked, gutted monsters with entrails laying on the floor was OK, but not a bare breast!! I ended my subscription with them. TV is really bad. You can shoot, burn, crash, rape, knife, beat, electrocute, suffocate, drown, torture, and otherwise assault people, but show a breast, and you'd think the world was ending. I really don't get it.

2fers: Grand Theft Auto and Good heavens - a breast!

Parking Idiots

As you may or may not know, people who can't park are one of my main bitches. I don't understand how people can be so crappy when trying to park their vehicle. If they're not over the yellow lines, they're pointing the wrong way. There's the extra-lazy ones who can't walk 50 feet to the store and have to park in the fire lane and run in. And then there's the big-ass pickups. I get the feeling that the drivers just can't figure out to handle such a big toy and they're too chicken to tell anyone. So they park like they're out in a field.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the parking lot bandits. They will watch you waiting for a space and then jump into it in front of you. As if that proves their manhood or something. Get a life, man! It won't kill you to walk an extra hundred feet to get to the store. The exercise will do you good.

Anyway, there's a new link over on the right to the Parking Hall of Fame page. Yes, it's an ugly page and as such fits the ugly and inconsiderate parkers enshrined within.

Gullible

A couple of days ago, there was a massive gas scare here in sunny Saginaw. It seems like a gas station under construction showed a price of $3.05 a gallon for gasoline. Note that this station was under construction and wasn't even open for business yet. Soon, the rumor was all over mid-Michigan that gas was going up to over $3.00 a gallon the next day. Everything from London bombs to hurricane Emily and terrorists in Iraq were blamed for the price increase. I went online and noticed a gas price forum where people were swearing they saw over $3 a gallon prices all over the mid-Michigan area.

Gas station were packed that day. I went out for lunch and looked around (my gas tank was full) and saw people lined up actually blocking traffic on the highways as they waited for gas. I heard some guy punched out a lady in one station because he didn't like the way she parked at the pump.

Today, I filled up at $2.43 (or some such price) a gallon.

Automated - bah...

Does the level of "helpful" automation bother you any? It seems all of today's technology seems to want to see how "helpful" it can be. More often than not, it seems to me that it makes things worse -- harder and slower.

Computers have been doing this for ages. They have decided what they feel you really wanted to do and then behave accordingly. And it usually takes forever to find out how to change the options so the computer quits doing what it wants to and start doing what you want to. This week for example, I was trying to type 'RUs' -- the plural acronym for Resource Units. The computer was bound and determined to make it 'Rus' -- over and over again.

The other thing is when a computer wants to verify some act you did. It always does that unless you really don't want to do what you just did - then it just goes ahead and does it. When it's some stupid note about the price of beer or some such, you can almost bet on having several "are you sure you want to do that" type of statement. However, when it's a copy of your 500 page novel, it's phtttt - gone. No warning and no chance of recovery.

Today what set me off was going to the bathroom at the local Lowes. They have an automated flushing toilet. I guess it flushes when you move beyond a certain point. Whether you want it to or not - really, I think I can handle my own flush. Of course, finishing that I went to wash my hands, and again, it's automated. You can't set the temperature or decide how much water to use. Naturally, it shuts off before you want, and then you have to wave your hands like a drunk magician until it starts again. Until finally, you're done and you can try to use the tiny portion of paper towel the automated towel dispenser allows.

And then there's my VW New Beetle. It will lock the doors if it thinks you unlocked them by mistake. I'm always worried on those cold and snowy days when I start my car and go out to scrape and sweep my windows, that my car will decide to lock the doors. Then I'm stranded in an empty parking lot, covered in snow and watching my car freeze me out.

2fers: Hardware and Software

Things to worry about?

Here's a few quotes from various news organizations today. Followed by some lines of more news from today. I'm glad to see that congressmen and senators and advocacy groups have so much time to worry about things that really matter. (and yes, although I'm sure many don't get it, that was satire you just read)

Ben Jones, a former Georgia congressman (search) who played the wisecracking mechanic on the popular series from 1979-85, said profanity and sexual content in the film make a mockery of the family friendly show.

"It is good that you shed light and inform us on the Harry Potter matter, for these are subtle seductions that are barely noticeable and precisely because of that deeply affect (children) and corrupt the Christian faith in souls even before it (the Faith) could properly grow and mature," said Cardinal Ratzinger.

Samukeliso Sithole -- a triple jumper and runner who competed as a woman at several international sports events -- was convicted on charges of impersonation and offending the dignity of a woman athlete who undressed in his presence, unaware he was a man.

Sen. Hillary Clinton pressed on Thursday for a government investigation into how simulated sex cropped up in a modified version of the blockbuster criminal adventure video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

A parents group on Thursday accused the ABC television network of violating broadcast decency standards when it failed to censor all profanity uttered during the recent Live 8 concert, an event held to draw attention to poverty in poor countries.

Guns Fired, Bombs Explode in Thailand
Death Toll in Pakistan Train Crash at 133
Iraq Suicide Blast Targeting U.S. Troops Kills 24 Children
London Identifies Four Suicide Bombers

80%

(July 13) THE Iraqi judge in charge of questioning Saddam Hussein and his former regime henchmen said overnight more than 80 per cent of the investigation into their cases was complete.

This was a recent article in an Australian newspaper. Think about this for a minute. The investigation is 80% complete. Didn't we already go to war twice because of what we decided Saddam did? Remember Gulf War 1 - way back in 1991 - good grief, I was still in the military back then. And then again a couple of years ago - that was a "Mission Accomplished" two years ago. And now we keep saying Iraq is calming down and will soon be ready for us good guys with the white hats and kind and gentler bombs to pull out?

How can that be if they're still investigating Saddam? Could that possibly mean that - horrors - we might have been wrong about WMDs, and all that jazz? The way I read that is that we are watching 2-3 GIs getting blown to dusty bits a day and god knows how many civilians likewise, and yet we're only 80% into an investigation? Geez, that's like having some big-name trial - say like a Michael Jackson or OJ Simpson, and letting them get off scott free because they weren't completely investigated - and we wouldn't do that now - would we?
Desert Storm I and Desert Storm Deja Vu (pdf)

Modesty Blaise

and of course Willie Garvin. I suppose this is probably my favorite series of books. Written by Peter O'Donnell, they cover the exploits of Modesty Blaise and her right-hand man, Willie Garvin.

She ran The Network, a crime organization for several years starting when she was about 17. Her origin is pretty much unknown, but she wandered the Middle East deserts with her mentor Lob for a few years before taking over a gang in Tangiers. Willie Garvin had a less illustrious start and was bribed out of jail by Modesty who then remade him into the self-confident and self-assured man he became. Together they ran the Network making millions until finally "retiring" several years later.

The quiet life of leisure didn't quite take and they were co-opted into helping British intelligence by a man called Tarrant. Modesty has a way of falling into trouble continuously and usually manages to fight her way out with Willie by her side against all odds. The bag guys follow the Bond mode of being emotional or physical aberrants. There's been giants (Delicata), midgets (Brunel), martial art masters (Mr. Sexton) and nannies (Pendergrast).

If you ever have a chance to read one of these, by all means do so. They are written in England, so the availability of USofA copies is a little hit or miss. There are also quite a few copies of the newspaper comic series which as I understand preceded the books. I wouldn't bother with the 1960s era movie. It has little to do with the books with the exception of the names of the characters. I have probably read each book several times with continual enjoyment. By the way, this is one of the few series I'm aware of where the lead characters are finally killed off in the end with no hope of subsequent revival. I can't possibly recommend this series of books enough.

2fers: The Modesty Blaise Dossier and Wonderful World of Modesty Blaise

Cinema

This is supposed to be one of the worst box office years ever - and by the way, according to the Cinema Advertising Council, ads in theaters increased by 23% last year alone.

I think I've been to two movies this year. One was Robots and it was a locally owned big screen theatre that charges $2 for a ticket. The other movie was Revenge of the Sith - and that was $6.50. While I didn't have any munchies at the latter, the former set me back $6 for a medium soda and popcorn - come on, 6 bucks! That's what, about $5.55 profit?

It's not only the cost. I'm paying $6 to see one movie. That shouldn't include several minutes of commercials. That's what I get when I watch TV with my rabbit ears waving in the wind - 40 minutes of show and 20 minutes of commercials.

Then there's the noise. How often have you gone to a movie when the idiots sitting next to you discuss the whole movie? Or worse, yell out encouragement at the screen - you go!! Crap. One thing that has improved in the last year or so is the sound level. Yes, I like to hear all that's going on in a movie, but not so loud my teeth rattle. It got bad enough that I had to start carrying ear plugs when I went to a movie - and my hearing is bad.

By the way, one personal peeve for both movies and TV and is when the actors whisper. Why on earth do they do that? I have problems hearing normal conversation, but when the whisper, it's all ssss and thhhh and ffffp. Enunciate and speak up folks - you're actors for crying out loud, not mimes.

Rust Belt

Welcome to the rusty city in the rusty belt. While I'll be the first to admit there are good things here, things in general don't look to good.

Low Employment
Michigan, which has missed out on much of the nation's economic recovery because of its manufacturing-heavy economy, led the nation in unemployment in May at 7.1%.

Except in Prisons
Michigan is in fifth place for prison population. Only New York, Florida, Texas, California have more people locked away. The USofA has something like 1 of 137 people in jail!

Saginaw's Wrecks
A large chunk of Saginaw's East Side is deep into blight's destructive cycle, and West Side sections are showing similar symptoms. The city of 59,000 residents and declining has a skyrocketing count of at least 500 to 600 vacant homes -- about one per 100 citizens -- and 15 percent of the eyesores are on the West Side.

There are some good things. Housing is cheap and there's a lot available. Not all of it is abandoned houses. The countryside is great looking. Miles of lush green trees and grass and weeds. There's a nice river that runs right the heart of town. It needs someone to come in, rip out and down a bunch of old and crappy buildings, and build it up. Employment costs would be cheap here. Get some companies going and hire a bunch of hardworking middle-Americans. We work hard, we're loyal and conscientious. You don't need to pay a workforce that has to buy $500,000 homes like in California, but pay a workforce that can buy $100,000 homes.

The weather is pretty good. It gets cold, but not blizzardly bitter; hot, but not for long. No earthquakes, tsunamis or hurricanes, and only the occasional bad thunderstorm in the summer. The area has not only airports and railways, but access to the Great Lakes and oceans. There's several colleges and universities within driving distance and the real live wilderness isn't much further.

// posted by Jim-of-oz @ 7/12/2005 03:44:00 PM

Boom - Got ya!

I saw the following quote in a BBC article about the latest NASA mission to a comet.

Dr Roche's team at the Faulkes Telescope has been tracking the intensity of the comet before and since Monday's impact.

"There is still material gushing out of the crater right now; Tempel 1 is still brighter than it was before impact. If the hole is deep enough, material could keep flooding out for weeks or months," he said.

There's also some news out about some astrologer who's suing NASA for putting a wobble in her charts by ringing the chimes of Comet Tempel 1. She claims that NASA blindly clobbered the comet and goofed up all her calculations.

Ok, now while I believe in astrology about as much as I do the bible being the word of god, this mission does make me think. I suppose it's because I've been brought up on Star Trek, Star Wars and Dark Star, but I can't but wonder what exactly is the "material gushing out" right now? I have to admit that my first reaction was hearing a voice with a Scottish accent, "I canna stop the leak, Captain!" Of course this was just after this conversation: "It appears to be a 370kg mass of copper Captain. A mass of copper Mr Spock? I must admit I can't explain it, Captain, however I'm sure it will soon change course soon. Shields Up! Prepare for impact." Followed of course by fireworks from assorted consoles and much rocking of the camera.

2fers: Dark Star and Tempel 1

Crime Today

Update July 7 Two teenagers were arraigned in 50th District Court in Pontiac on Thursday in connection with a carjacking and shooting at a gas station. Christopher Eugene Jackson, 17, and his alleged accomplice, Cordero Landrum, 18, were both charged with murder, carjacking and felony possession of a firearm, Local 4 reported. David Lee Bingham, 38, ran inside a Pontiac Sunoco station on Tuesday to get help after he was carjacked. Police said Jackson followed Bingham into the station and fired four shots into his chest.

It seems like there are two approaches to crime these days. Look at quotes from some recent news releases. The first is from Alabama and follows the George Bush mode of criminal prosecution for non-Americans - I don't like 'em and no matter what, I say they're guilty. By the way the authorities in Aruba say they don't have enough evidence to accuse these guys. But the missing kid's mom says she knows they're guilty.

In a brief and tearful statement Tuesday, Beth Holloway Twitty, Natalee's mother, accused Aruba of letting guilty people free. "Two suspects were released yesterday who were involved in a violent crime against my daughter," she said. "These criminals are not only being allowed to walk around among the tourists and citizens of Aruba," she said, but there were no limits on where they could go.

On the other hand, we have the big city mode of criminal prosecution. They're guilty as sin, but somebody forgot to initial the third block on the seventh page of the fourth copy of the evidence chain, so they'll get away. The below "resident" was taken into custody after a guy was shot four times and killed in a 7/11 calling 911 after having his car hijacked.

The 17-year-old Pontiac resident was taken into custody. Local 4 reported that the suspect was detained after officers found a .38 caliber revolver with four spent casings in the cylinder. Officers also recovered the victim's car key in the suspect's pocket.

As far as I'm concerned they ought to chain the spare tie from the car around this 17-year-old's ankles and dump him in the middle of Lake Huron. If he makes it down the St. Lawrence Seaway to New York, then we can waste the time of a trial on him.

2fers: Aruba and Pontiac

Happy 4th!

As much as I rag on Saginaw, it does have a great 4th of July fireworks display. One of, if not the biggest, show in the state of Michigan. 30 minutes of cool stuff over the Saginaw river. I usually stop at JB Meinburg's bar and have a Guiness, this time with my wife. Afterwards we wander over to the Court Street bridge and grab a place by the rail to watch the fireworks.

Congratulations USofA - another birthday party for us.

Michigan - Toronto

I don't know how many of you know, but this weekend (July 1) was also the Canada Day holiday weekend, like July 4 is our Independence Day. They have an extra day off and shoot off fireworks and all that, similar to us. I went up to visit Toronto from Saginaw Michigan this weekend and took the bus up there. It's amazing how different the bus is in the US and in Canada.

First the riders. If you haven't been on a Greyhound bus lately, or not so lately come to thing of it, the riders (usually pretty few) on US buses here in Michigan tend to be mostly hardluck folks. They're mostly black and Hispanic with a few whites. Mostly single with occasional couples and rarely families. I have yet to see any Asians or Middle Easterners on it. The luggage is mostly well-used gymbags and cardboard boxes. Actually, it's been that way for a long time. However, as soon as you switch to the Canadian bus - even at the transfer of Detroit, but especially when you stop in Windsor, the population changes dramatically.

First there's almost a complete mix of every race in the world. There doesn't seem to be a preponderance of any one race either. Asians from all over, Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Japanese, eastern Europeans and even a few whites from the Midwest. Most have a lot of baggage and often they travel in families or other groups. I've been on this bus route three times now over the past couple of years and it's always been the same.

Even the bus is dramatically different. The bathroom on the US bus looks like an inner city slum wall covered with graffiti and other vandalism. It's dirty and the whole bus just has that run down look. The Canadian bus is clean and neat and looks like something you wouldn't mind riding for a few hours.

For those who trumpet the advantages of the US over Canada, you should take this kind of bus trip someday. Yes, there are drawbacks, as they have higher taxes and more government involvement in a lot of areas, but I often think the advantages are worth it.

2fers: Greyhound 1 and Greyhound 2