July 24, 2006
Fun Things To Do
Just ask Congress…
Congressman jokes about cocaine on TV
Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler says he was just playing along with the joke when comedian Stephen Colbert prodded him in an interview to say: “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do.”
The Florida congressman who is unchallenged for re-election appeared on Colbert’s Comedy Central show and was asked to say a few things that would “really lose the election for you if you were contested.”
Colbert asked the congressman to complete this sentence: “I enjoy cocaine because … ”
A bemused Wexler looked into the camera and said, “I enjoy cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do.”
A follow-up in the complete-the-sentence questioning led to this comment: “I enjoy the company of prostitutes for the following reasons … because it’s a fun thing to do. If you combine the two together, it’s probably even more fun.”
Something tells me that he’ll be opposed come 2008… And that this clip is going to get a lot of airplay around that time. But I think he’s locked up the coked-out hooker vote!
That’s funny stuff. Much funnier than “I didn’t inhale”…
The Unrepentant Individual linked with Watching it is Funnier Than Reading About It
July 21, 2006
Airplane Trivia
I flew with the wife today to CA, in order to be at her sister’s engagement party. We flew Delta, but they had one of Song’s airplanes, which had been fully fitted and modernized a few years ago.
Part of the modernization was little touchscreen LCD’s that you can use to watch live TV, movies, etc, at every seat. Included in this is games. They have a trivia game that you can play against all the other passengers on the flight.
I got on the flight this morning intending to read some more of Restoring the Lost Constitution, by Randy Barnett. Instead, I got sucked into trivia. It’s somewhat fun, because you put in your name, and you can actually see the seat number and name of who you’re playing against. After battering the other passengers around with my great big brain (to the tune of winning about 6 of the 8 rounds, against 6-8 players each round), I was starting to think they might be tired of being abused and losing, so went back to reading.
About 25-30 minutes later, someone walks up to my seat and asks me “Are you Brad?” A bit surprised, I acknowledged, and he asked “Can you come back to trivia?” I said okay…
We were getting towards the end of the flight, so we only had one more round. I wonder if they were gunning for me? Maybe they decided to get their entire row to collaborate to beat me or something? If so, that’s too bad, because I beat the pants off everyone again 
Ahh, good times. I love winning.
July 20, 2006
Relax, USCG, Have a Homebrew!
An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.
—Robert A. Heinlein
More from the US Department of Wasting Taxpayer Dollars on Unnecessary Expenditures:
The Homeland Security Department wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars last year on iPods, dog booties, beer-making equipment and designer jackets, congressional investigators have concluded.
…
Among the expenses that investigators described as abusive or otherwise questionable:
…
A beer brewing kit and ingredients for more than $1,000 for a Coast Guard official to brew alcohol while on duty as a social organizer for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. “The estimated price for a six-pack of USCG beer was $12,” the investigators noted, adding: “Given that the six-pack cost of most beers is far less than $12, it is difficult to demonstrate that the Academy is achieving cost savings by brewing its own beer.”
Alright, I don’t know what kind of homebrewing rig this guy was buying, but it had to be freaking elaborate. $1,000? You can get a starter equipment kit for $100, probably including a basic ingredient kit. Mine is pretty elaborate for a novice kit, and yet I don’t think all my equipment combined retails for over $400.
And $12 per six-pack? If he’s paying this much for ingredients, he’s getting ripped off. I just purchased ingredients for a decently-strong brew, with quite a bit of hops. I spent $37. That $37 brews 5 gallons of beer, meaning I’ll end up with a little over two full cases. Basically I’m brewing specialty beer at macro prices. I think my beer comes in at the same cost (roughly) as Miller Lite, but is comparable in style to the kind of beer you’ll pay anywhere between $6 and $11 for a six-pack. And one of my batches cost about $50 for what would be about $200 worth of beer retail.
Really… This guy wasn’t “buying beer-making equipment”. This guy is ready to start a brewery.
July 19, 2006
What to Buy?
With my poker winnings, bonus time at work, and my birthday coming up next week, I’ve been asking myself what I want as a “treat”. I normally try not to make frivolous purchases for myself (homebrewing doesn’t count, that’s a “hobby”), but I’m looking to get myself something I don’t really need, simply because I can.
I’ve got two options. What do you guys recommend?
1. The #12 Curtis Painter Purdue replica jersey — $50
What better way to support my alma mater and the kid predicted to follow Drew Brees and Kyle Orton from Purdue to the NFL, than by buying the jersey. I’m not a big sports-jersey nut, so this will actually be the first one I ever buy. But I can foresee getting a hold of this, having Painter sign it at some point down the road, and having it framed up on my basement wall. In between now and then, of course, I’d get to wear it to commemorate Purdue games.
Potential Downside: Painter is a sophomore, and doesn’t have a track record. My gut tells me he’ll be our starting QB until he graduates, but it’s not as easy to justify $50 if I’m not sure he’ll even be our starter in a year or two, much less be the next Brees or Orton, playing on Sundays.
2. A bottle (or more) of the best beer in the world, Westvleteren 12 — $25 each
This isn’t just “beer”. This is “special occasion beer”. This is “put it in my cellar and pull it out in 2 years for my 30th birthday beer”. This is “birth of a child” beer. We’re talking some special stuff. This is actually a beer that the monks don’t want to be sold outside of their brewery, so it’s fairly difficult to get. I need a special occasion to drink this beer, but I also need a special occasion to buy it. If I don’t pull the trigger now, am I ever going to?
Potential Downside: Considering I’d be paying to ship this from Belgium, I’d probably buy a bottle (or two) of the Westy 12, maybe one of the 8, and one of the 6, plus a glass. We’re looking at a minimum of $100 before shipping costs. And let’s face it. It’s beer. I love beer, but even with all the hype surrounding Westy 12, can I justify dropping $25 a bottle plus shipping? Wouldn’t it just be smarter to plan a vacation to Belgium sometime, sample as much of the whole nation’s product as I can, and pick up a few bottles at the brewery for a much lower cost?
July 18, 2006
Atlas Shrugged: A Trilogy?!
The plan is for the film to be shot and shown in three parts, as a trilogy, like “Lord of the Rings.” Only that length, they said, would give sufficient scope to tell Ayn Rand’s long, complex story. (The initial $40 million would go mainly to Part I.)…
A trilogy, huh? This, for a book that I recommend to my friend with the caveat that “well, the first 600 pages or so are pretty slow, mostly character development stuff.” Basically the first 600 pages consist of Dagny gettin’ it on with copper magnate Francisco D’Antonia and then with industrialist Hank Rearden.
Supposedly Angelina Jolie is going to play Dagny. Which means the first movie will be soft-core porn, starring Angelina Jolie??
Maybe this doesn’t sound like as much of a problem as I thought!
Hat Tip: Hammer of Truth, and Jason Pye
Below The Beltway linked with Not. Gonna. Happen.
Carnival of Liberty LIV
Up at Ogre’s Politics & Views. Check it out.
I submitted my post over at The Liberty Papers, Patrick Henry on the Constitution. If you want to see what one of our eloquent founding fathers (and an anti-Federalist) had to say about the Constitution, head on over.
Throw The Bums Out
As I mentioned previously, I decided to vote for John Konop in the primary of our local Congressional race. That primary occurring this morning, I headed over to the polling place.
My first surprise was to see a product my company sells sitting on the poll workers table. I think, as this was originally a third-party product, that Diebold was getting these from the original vendor. But it’s entirely possible they were buying through our other division in Ohio. Very interesting. I wanted to snap a picture to send to all my coworkers, but they seem to frown on the idea of snapping photos of the technologies used at the polling place. I wonder why?
Outside of the Congressional race, there weren’t many races I was interested in. So I decided to run the contrarian vote. Every race with an incumbent, I voted anti-incumbent. Any race without an incumbent, I didn’t vote, as I don’t really have the time to research races like our local school superintendent (especially since I don’t have kids).
I’ve decided to call my anti-incumbent strategy the “Throw The Bums Out” campaign.
As for the Price-Konop race? Price will probably win it. He’s had several commercials over the last week, and I’m seeing volunteers out on the streets holding signs for him. Of course, he wouldn’t be spending money on commercials and time sending out volunteers if he wasn’t a little bit worried, so we’ll see how it turns out.
July 17, 2006
Poker Players Alliance
Our wonderful Congress has decided they need to ban online gambling:
The House easily approved a bill yesterday to curb online poker games, sports betting and other Internet-based wagering that gained infamy as a central focus of a major lobbying scandal.
The 317-to-93 vote came nearly six years to the day after a similar measure went down to surprise defeat. At the time, unknown to its conservative supporters, the bill was derailed by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the office of then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, on behalf of the disgraced lobbyist’s gambling clients.
“This is the opportunity to expunge a smear on this House done by many lobbyists,” Abramoff included, said Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.), one of the legislation’s chief sponsors. “Now is the time to set the record straight.”
Oh, you’ve set the record straight. We can see that you care very little about freedom, but that if you’re getting enough money, you’ll care about whatever you’re paid to.
Thankfully, a new group called the Poker Players Alliance has stepped up to fight for our rights. Let’s hope they’re doing more than tilting at windmills…
Michael Bolcerek, president of the Poker Players Alliance, released the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would prohibit Americans from playing poker on the Internet.
“We are disappointed that the House of Representatives would assail the rights of Americans to enjoy the great game of poker on the Internet. It is unconscionable that a skill game like poker gets swept into the net of prohibition, while online horse betting and Internet lotteries get free passes,” said Mr. Bolcerek.
“The United States should follow the lead of the United Kingdom by regulating and taxing online poker, not banning it. An economic analysis just released by our organization shows that U.S. regulation of online poker has the potential to raise more than $3.3 billion in annual revenue for the federal government, in addition to another $1 billion for state coffers. We hope that this analysis will give a fresh perspective for U.S. Senators about the benefits of regulation.
“The Poker Players Alliance is undeterred in its mission to promote and protect the game of poker and we will continue to advance the cause on behalf of poker players in the United States.”
I do have a problem with this. They harp on the fact that poker is a skill game— which it is— as the basis for it being allowed. I’d rather just let them argue for liberty, rather than arguing that poker is worth of an “exception” to regulation.
I don’t wish to let any Congressperson, even my own, tell me whether or not I have the right to play poker online. I’m an adult, and I can make that decision for myself. And frankly, if I want to play a little blackjack or roulette, I’ll do that too.
Frankenbeer— The Update
Is it a good thing when your neighbor takes a sip, hands it to his wife, and says “just don’t think of dishwater”? I think not.
I still haven’t given up, largely because I have no other use for that keg right now, so I’ve got a little time for it to age. The recipe was described by one of the beeradvocate.com guys as a “Belgian Porter”, which just happens to be a non-existent style of beer. I think it’s slowly getting better though, and before this, I really hadn’t drank much in the way of porters. It’s possible my own tastes simply aren’t calibrated to porters. I think I might check it sometime later this week and next. Luckily, I have a bottle of Stone Smoked Porter I brought back from CA, and I’ll get a taste of what a porter is supposed to be.
My next update on the Frankenbeer will be a very happy one , or a picture of me being very sad pouring a keg of beer down the drain 
I’m Not Paranoid!
For the first time in three years, my truck has real, physical license plates on it. Amazingly, in three years, I’ve never been pulled over for lack of plates. I don’t know why, but if you’re looking to avoid being noticed by cops, drive a Ford Ranger. It’s like I’m invisible.
As much as I’m a fan of civil disobediance, and always got quite an adrenaline rush when I saw a cop in my rear-view, I’m quite happy that I’ve now got one less reason to attract attention.
July 16, 2006
Water Causes Cancer!
It’s true, scientists says so!
It turns out that they fed 1000 rats only distilled water for 2 months. By the end of those two months, 996 of the rats were dead. Finding no known cause of death, the scientists surmised it must be cancer!
Of course, I jest. I’ve used that scenario to make fun of the near-constant scares hyped by the media for years. But it’s not far from the truth. Reading John Stossel’s book, Give Me A Break, I was taken aback when I saw how close I was to the truth:
So scientists began seeking ways to determine which chemicals caused cancers and other problems. Animal tests using proportions of chemicals that arenormally consumed in real life wouldn’t work because they’d need a million rats or guinea pigs to get significant results (not every animal gets cancer from the carcinogen, and a third of the animals get cancer just from living). The scientists got around that by feeding the animals huge doses of the carcinogens, then waiting up to two years to see if the animals got cancer, and the tests often cost more than $1 million.
Then California biochemist Dr. Bruce Ames came up with a brilliant solution. “Instead of testing animals,” he said, “test bacteria to see if the chemicals damage DNA. You can study a billion bacteria on just one petri dish. Bacteria reproduce every 20 minutes.
The Ames test proved fabulously successful. It was hailed as a major scientific breakthrough, and became the standard test to see if chemicals cause mutations. Its first use in the ’70s showed there were mutagens in hair dyes and in fireproof materials in children’s pajamas. Ames helped get the chemicals banned.
But then, Ames told me, “People started using our test and finding mutagens everywhere, in cups of coffee, in plants we eat, in broiled hamburgers. Most mutagens turned out to be carcinogens. I started getting a more realistic view of the world.”
Ames and his colleague Lois Gold concluded that the popular assumption that man-made chemicals are more likely to be carcinogenic than natural substances are wrong. Ames told us that in “high-dose animal cancer tests, half of all chemicals tested, whether natural or man-made, are carcinogens. Exposure to man-made chemicals that are carcinogens is minuscule compared to the exposure to natural carcinogens in our diet. Thousands of new chemicals have been introduced over the past forty years. If they were giving people cancer, then there should be an epidemic of cancer in this country, but there isn’t.”
Half of all chemicals ever tested cause cancer. At least, if you shove obscene amounts of them into small mammals, of course. Doesn’t that put a little bit more perspective on these “scientific studies”? In fact, I find only one use for these studies, and that’s rationalizing my own behavior.
Of course, I can be accused of being a bit dismissive of risk. After all, I need to have a limb halfway hanging off before I’m willing to go see a doctor. When someone says “hey Brad, let’s go jump out of airplanes”, my first thought is to check my schedule to see when I have an open weekend. My wife is at the other extreme; when she has a few headaches over the course of a week, suddenly she becomes convinced she has a brain tumor and wants to go to emergency for a CAT scan… I’ll bet that a proper level of managing risk is somewhere in between.
But what I’ve never understood is why some people spend all their time worrying about the most arcane things like plane crashes, yet drive without a seat belt. Or they worry about getting cancer from grapefruit, yet they are 60 lbs overweight and smoke. Or they worry about the threat of terrorism, yet leave their doors unlocked and garages open every night.
It’s almost as if people subconsciously need something to worry about, but know that they can’t worry about their own behavior. After all, if they start worrying that their own behavior is dangerous, they’ll be hypocrites if they don’t change it. Worrying about what you can’t control is pointless.
I was thinking of this the other day, when contemplating my vacation. I’m going to be going to Hawaii for Labor Day weekend. North Korea is apparently taking aim at Hawaii. That doesn’t bother me, though. Let’s look at the chances. First, they’d have to choose the time I’m there to fire their missile. Second, the missile would have to work properly enough to even come close. Third, their guidance system would have to be good enough that they’d hit one of the islands. Fourth, they’d have to choose Maui, since that’s where I’ll be. Fifth, they’d have to have a sizable enough weapon to hit me. If all those things happen, and I go up in a mushroom cloud, I’m cool with it. I refuse to let that miniscule chance change my decision to go spend 6 days in a tropical paradise.
But again, I’m an odd case. I’m not worried one bit about cancer, because I’m relatively sure that by the time I reach an age where I’m likely to develop cancer, they’ll have cured it already. But I watch people consistently spending time making themselves miserable worrying about things that are unlikely to happen. If you spend your time worrying about the bad things that might happen, you’re not spending it enjoying the good things which do happen.
Bad things happen in the world, that much is fact. It’s smart to do your best to protect yourself from the likeliest of bad things to happen, at least when you can. But you should never let yourself be paralyzed by fear of things that are highly unlikely to happen.
InsureBlog linked with Cavalcade of Risk (4th Edition)
MedBillManager Blog linked with Cavalcade of Risk Number FOUR
Firefox Gaining Ground
This story, courtesy of Doug:
According to the Amsterdam analytics firm onestat The FireFox browser has jumped from a global market share of 8.7% to a whopping 13% since April 2005.
The national usage of firefox make some interesting reading, too, with FireFox making up 16% in the USA, 24% in Australia and a huge 39% in Germany.
Doug asked about the upcoming IE7. Since I recently reviewed it, I’ve since uninstalled it. It conflicted with MS Outlook, causing any email I read to show up as plain text, not HTML. This made reading work email considerably more annoying, and since I used Firefox for all of my web browsing, wasn’t worth it.
My quick analysis puts IE7, at best, about 90-95% of where Firefox 1.5 is in terms of functionality. And considering Firefox 2.0 is on it’s way, I think Firefox will expand their lead.
Below The Beltway linked with Firefox Use On The Rise
July 15, 2006
Who’s Buying This Crap?
Maybe two years ago, I was in the store and started seeing White Chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter cups as well as Dark Chocolate varieties. I love dark chocolate, as I don’t have a huge sweet tooth, and those things were great.
Shortly thereafter, the dark chocolate version disappeared. They’re still selling the white chocolate, and I just saw today that they’ve released some sort of peanut-butter-and-marshmallow cup (milk chocolate).
I don’t get it. While anecdotal evidence isn’t worth much, I have run into hundreds of people who love dark chocolate. And maybe a handful that like white chocolate. Why in the world would they stop selling the Dark Chocolate Reese’s??
July 12, 2006
I am Unstoppable!
I mentioned last week that I got some free money from PartyPoker, played a tournament, winning it and $150. I didn’t mention it at the time, but the next day I played again, winning another tournament, for another $100.
I figured, knowing my luck, that I’d be screwed last night when it came time to play the company tournament.
But I won it… Again.
It started off beautifully. We had two tables, and I immediately knew I was at the “soft” table to start. There are some very strong poker players at my company, but only one of them was sitting at my table. So I started off, and within the first 15-20 hands had basically doubled my chips. I had aces one hand, kings another, and ended up busting one player out with those two hands. So from an early point, I was riding high.
Then I made a mistake. I was holding QJo, and raised the blind (from $60 to $180) to try to buy the pot. One player stuck around with me, and the flop came out rags. He checked to me, I bet $200, and he called. The turn was another blank, he checked to me again. I responded by betting $300, roughly half his stack. He moved all-in on me. Since I was heavily bluffing, I just couldn’t call. I realized as soon as he moved in what an idiot I was. In that situation, I have to either take the initiative and push him all-in, or simply check. All things considered, since he’d called me on the flop, checking would have been optimal, but moving all-in wouldn’t have been a bad idea. But not betting weak into him. By betting I was giving him the chance to force me out of the pot, instead of forcing him to make a decision. Of course, he later told me he had pocket kings that hand, so I was screwed either way, but I still misplayed it.
After that point, things got a bit tougher. I was nearly all-in against the other strong player at the table (he was all-in). I was holding KQo, and raised about a quarter of my chips preflop. He moved in on me, and I called him. I had him barely covered, but would have been a serious short stack if I had lost. And when he turned over ATo, I thought it was over. But I caught a miracle queen on the river, and managed to knock him out, nearly doubling myself up.
And from there it was just gravy. The cards weren’t great, but good enough, and they were there when I needed them. At the final table I played relatively conservatively until we were down to the last few players, and found myself heads-up at the end. The player I was heads-up with is a semi-professional poker player, and supplements his income at the local card house. But he’s got a flaw. He’s a limit ring-game player, and I’ve been honing my no-limit tournament skills. He’s come a long way from where he was in no-limit, but once we got heads-up, I think I just had a little more experience on him. That and cards, which are probably the important part. So after about 10-15 hands heads-up, we went all-in and I took him out.
That was a nice $315 win for me.
But that’s not the end of the story. I’ve been withdrawing everything I can from PartyPoker, but can’t pull out that last bonus $40. So today, I decided to see what I can do with it. I played another $30 sit-n-go, and won it too! That’s another cool $150. And my luck is flowing so much it’s absolutely laughable. I never should have survived a few of the hands I was in, but got just so damned lucky.
PartyPoker just claimed back their bonus, and I just cashed out my winnings, so I can’t play on there unless I deposit. But waves like this don’t come along often, and you need to take advantage when they do. Since I’m in California this week on business, I’m halfway tempted to get in the car and go to Vegas. I figure I can be there by 1 AM, play cards until 4, and can still get back to work by 8ish… I’m not actually going to do that, but it sure is tempting!
July 10, 2006
In CA
I wanted to post a nice long post on risk. I just finished John Stossel’s book, and it seemed about right.
But my hotel room’s internet doesn’t work. I’m connected to the net through my cellphone right now, and that’s just not conducive to posting. I should have this fixed tomorrow, but likely will be too busy to finish those thoughts on risk until sometime Wednesday…
It’s gonna be a slow week. Now would be a good time to check out the folks over there on the blogroll.
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