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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Why the Gore Story Matters Why the Gore Story Matters

Ecotality: Why the Gore Story Matters points out some more problems with Al Gore and his claim to be carbon neutral, despite his house, use of a private jet, limos, etc. One big problem that it points out is that Gore is making money on this - it turns out that the company that he is buying his carbon offsets from happens to be one that he helped found, owns stock in, and is still chairman of.

Indeed, this criticism can be (and was here) extended to his entire Global Warming prosetylizing. After all:
The Goracle is chairman and a founding partner of Generation Investment Management LLP, a boutique international investment firm that invests other peoples’ money, for a fee, into the stocks of ‘green’ companies. … So when Al beats the drum for possible future global warming, he’s also drumming up business.
In other words, his environmental activism and his "Inconvenient Truths" movie can be seen as merely sales gimmicks to drive up the value of the stocks that his fund puts investors' money in.

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Do carbon offsets work? Do carbon offsets work?

Economist Tyler Cowen looks at Do carbon offsets work? My problem with his analysis is that he looks more at the theory of carbon offsetting versus the reality.

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The Carbon Neutral Myth The Carbon Neutral Myth

Transnational Institute: The Carbon Neutral Myth is a fairly lengthy .pdf that shows a lot of the problems with the Carbon Neutral or Carbon Offset theories. For example:

- There are a myriad number of problems with using plants, notably trees, to offset fossil fuel usage, including that: the "benefit" is typically over a 99 year period, offsetting today's energy usage; the cost of planting trees is almost negligable compared with the cost of maintaining them for 99 years; the projects rarely really do maintain them; and that planting forests often causes significant ecological and social damage, esp. in the Third World.

- Many of the carbon offsetting energy reduction programs arguably don't really offset any real energy usage. For example, in a South African Compact Flourescent program: the participants probably spent more energy travelling to get the bulbs than was saved; and the utility company offered a free program to all its users shortly thereafter.

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CheatNeutral CheatNeutral

CheatNeutral: a great way to handle cheating in relationships.
Cheatneutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience.
In the fine print it says:
This site is designed to highlight some of the issues surrounding carbon offsetting and we hope you realise that it is satirical in intent. We do not advocate cheating on your loved ones, and we do not in all seriousness suggest that it is possible to 'offset' doing so, nor are we responsible for any distress caused by using our service.

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"An Inconvenient Truth" "An Inconvenient Truth"

Taranto in his:Best of the Web Today picked up on the indulgences meme.
"An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's global-warming horror flick, picked up an Oscar the other night for Best Documentary. Yesterday the Tennessee Center for Policy Research issued an inconvenient report on Gore's own personal "carbon footprint." The center obtained utility records from Gore's mansion "located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville":
The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh--more than 20 times the national average.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh--guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore's average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore's energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore's extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore's mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.
The Tennessean reports, however, that Gore is buying his indulgences:
Gore purchased 108 blocks of "green power" for each of the past three months, according to a summary of the bills.

That's a total of $432 a month Gore paid extra for solar or other renewable energy sources. . . .

"Every family has a different carbon footprint," said Kalee Krider, a spokeswoman for Gore. The Gores' 10,000-square-foot house on Lynnwood Boulevard has a large one.

The Green Power Switch program isn't all that Gore and his wife, Tipper, are doing, Krider said.

They use compact fluorescent light bulbs and are in the midst of a renovation project that includes having solar panels installed on their home to reduce fossil fuel consumption, she said.

Their car? A Lexis hybrid SUV.

"They, of course, also do the carbon emissions offset," she said.

That means figuring out how much carbon is emitted from home power use, and vehicle and plane travel, then paying for projects that will offset that with use of renewable energy, such as solar power.
Not every wealthy politician lives in a vast private mansion, and TreeHugger.com reports on one who lives more simply:
Is it possible that George Bush is a secret Green? Evidently his Crawford Winter White House has 25,000 gallons of rainwater storage, gray water collection from sinks and showers for irrigation, passive solar, geothermal heating and cooling. "By marketplace standards, the house is startlingly small," says David Heymann, the architect of the 4,000-square-foot home. "Clients of similar ilk are building 16-to-20,000-square-foot houses." Furthermore for thermal mass the walls are clad in "discards of a local stone called Leuders limestone, which is quarried in the area. The 12-to-18-inch-thick stone has a mix of colors on the top and bottom, with a cream- colored center that most people want. "They cut the top and bottom of it off because nobody really wants it," Heymann says. "So we bought all this throwaway stone. It's fabulous. It's got great color and it is relatively inexpensive."
Of course we don't begrudge Gore his life of luxury--only his sanctimonious insistence that the rest of us sacrifice our comforts to the dubious god of global warming. And there's no reason he couldn't live in a smaller house and throw his money at solar power.

The New York Post, meanwhile, reports that some celebrities are getting their global-warming indulgences free:
Hollywood's wealthy liberals can now avoid any guilt they might feel for consuming so much non-renewable fossil fuel in their private jets, their SUVs, and their multiple air-conditioned mansions. This year's Oscar goodie bag contained gift certificates representing 100,000 pounds of greenhouse gas reductions from TerraPass, which describes itself as a "carbon offset retailer."

The 100,000 pounds "are enough to balance out an average year in the life of an Academy Award presenter," a press release from TerraPass asserts. "For example, 100,000 pounds is the total amount of carbon dioxide created by 20,000 miles of driving, 40,000 miles on commercial airlines, 20 hours in a private jet and a large house in Los Angeles.

The greenhouse gas reductions will be accomplished through TerraPass' [program] of verified wind energy, cow power [collecting methane from manure] and efficiency projects." Voila, guilt-free consumption!
Come to think of it, Gore was at the Oscars, so he probably got one of those "goodie bags" too.
Great - the Oscar goodie bag contained carbon indulgences this year, allowing the recipients to feel guilt free about their prolifigate energy use, while pushing the rest of us who can't afford indulgences to cut down on our energy usage.

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Military holding a top leader of Iranian force in Iraq Military holding a top leader of Iranian force in Iraq

Buried in the midst of other CNN.com news: Military holding a top leader of Iranian force in Iraq:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. troops in Iraq are holding a top leader of an Iranian special forces group believed to be supplying weapons to insurgents who are targeting and killing U.S. forces in Iraq, U.S. officials said Monday.

Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi, said to be the third-ranking officer in the Iranian Quds Force, was arrested in late December during a raid at the home of a man connected to the leader of the top Shiite party in Iraq with deep ties to the Iranian government, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, according to U.S. officials.

The Quds Force is a paramilitary arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and has helped direct attacks on Iraqi and U.S. forces inside Iraq, President Bush, Defense Secretary Gates and other senior military leaders have said.

U.S. officials would not say where the general is being held in Iraq. The arrest was among the first in a series of raids and arrests by U.S. forces on Iranians in Iraq, who the United States blames for meddling in the security situation inside that country. --From CNN Pentagon Producer Mike Mount (Posted 12:55 p.m.)
Not good for Iran, but surprising that it has taken two months to come out. My guess is that this was due to his interrogation. No wonder though that the U.S. has been insisting that Iran was involved in the Iraqi insurgency.

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Carbon Indulgences Carbon Indulgences

Captain's Quarter in my previous post termed Al Gore's use of carbon offsets and/or credits to be a modern form of an indulgence:
He's using a modern form of indulgences in order to avoid doing the penance that global-warming activism demands of others. It means that the very rich can continue to suck up energy and raise the price and the demand for electricity and natural gas, while families struggle with their energy costs and face increasing government regulation and taxation.
Apparently, two nights ago Al Gore was awarded an Oscar for his "documentary" about Global Warming. And while accepting it, a film was playing telling how to save energy and reduce everyone's carbon footprint. And he was surrounded by a bunch of people, just like him, who also have huge carbon footprints. I saw a picture of him with several others including Laurie David, who had gone on with Barbara Walters to discuss ways to reduce energy consumption, etc.

But what has to be remembered here is that these are the rich living big, living in big houses, flying private jets, and taking limos around. And they are lecturing the rest of us to save energy by taking mass transit, using compact florescent bulbs, and unplugging appliances when not in use.

And you ask how do they get away with this hypocrisy? Because they, or at least Al Gore, offset their carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets. Yes, they spend extra money so that they can splurge on energy usage - in Gore's case using about 20 times the national average to power his mansion.

In other words, they are purchasing Carbon Indulgences. They are sinning, and purchasing indulgences for their sin. And this is little different from the indulgences bought by the rich during the Middle Ages that forgave them from sinning and the granting of which helped spark the Reformation.

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More Iranian Stuff More Iranian Stuff

Jules Crittenden: More Stuff covers the sophisticated IED materials in the NYT article in my previous post, plus more found in Diyala in a LA Times article.

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U.S. Says Raid in Iraq Supports Claim on Iran U.S. Says Raid in Iraq Supports Claim on Iran

NYT: U.S. Says Raid in Iraq Supports Claim on Iran reports evidence that has recently been seized by our military in Iraq that most likley came out of Iran. It includes a lot of very sophisticated bomb making material, including stuff that has only really been seen being used by Hizb'Allah. Of course, the NYT, being the NYT, went out of its way to find some sceptics, but even they weren't convinced the stuff hadn't come from Iraq.

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Al Gore's energy bill Al Gore's energy bill

Captain's Quarters" The Mote And The Beam Of Global Warming slams Al Gore about the energy usage at his mansion
The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.
Think Progressive comes to his defense by point out that:
1) Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.

2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint — a concept the right-wing fails to understand. Gore’s office explains:
What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore’s do, to bring their footprint down to zero.
Captain's Quarters responds:
First, the solar panels and the compact fluorescent light bulbs will certainly make a difference -- but the TCPR report looks at his electricity bill, which still indicates (a) a high level of usage, and (b) an increase since the movie's release. Solar panels generate electricity at the location, which should then decrease the amount of power he's buying from the utility. If it's still going up, there seems to be a serious management problem somewhere.

Second, as I mentioned above, purchasing offsets only means that Gore doesn't want to make the same kind of sacrifices that he's asking other families to make. He's using a modern form of indulgences in order to avoid doing the penance that global-warming activism demands of others. It means that the very rich can continue to suck up energy and raise the price and the demand for electricity and natural gas, while families struggle with their energy costs and face increasing government regulation and taxation. It's a regressive plan that Gore's supporters would decry if the same kind of scheme were applied to a national sales tax, for instance.
I agree with esp. that later point. We seeing more and more of this purchasing carbon offsets or the like, and I think that the idea of this being a modern form of indulgences is quite appropriate. In sort, Gore and his defenders are arguing that he can use as much energy as he wants because he is now rich enough to buy these indulgences.

We first really saw this last year when Gore flew to Cannes on a private jet and his entorage went everywhere, even a couple of blocks, in a fleet of limos. And all this prolifigate energy usage (at the showing of his movie condemming carbon usage) by the fact that he had purchased these carbon indulgences.

I should add that I work at wind powered ski area. It is part of Vail Resorts, where its flagship ski area has apparently the highest ticket prices this year in the country. And, so, its customers are well able to buy the same sort of indulgences that Gore does. And so, all the energy used to run the lifts, etc. in the five VR resorts are offset by the purchase of wind power.

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Monday, February 26, 2007

Marginal Revolution Marginal Revolution

Marginal Revolution - another great economics blog. What I like about economics blogs is that they try to apply the "dismal science" to the real world, often with surprising results.

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Do prostitutes need pimps? Do prostitutes need pimps?

Marginal Revolution: Do prostitutes need pimps? The author suggests that a pimp makes himself worthwhile to his prostitutes becuase they are less likely to be beaten by their customers. Commenters suggested that the analysis was too simplistic. Sill, an interesting suggestion.

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Sunday, February 25, 2007

Clashes in Northwest Iran!... Chopper Down-Dozens Dead! Clashes in Northwest Iran!... Chopper Down-Dozens Dead!

Gateway Pundit: Clashes in Northwest Iran!... Chopper Down-Dozens Dead! Oh well, sorry about that. But insurgency goes both ways, and in the long run, it is easier to fuel one in a clerical oligarchy like Iran than in a democracy like Iraq. After all, not everyone in Iran is Shi'a, and even of those, a lot don't like the theology of the mullahs in charge.

Someone in the comments pointed out that riding double on bright red dirt bikes somewhat defeats the purpose of wearing camoflage. But they failed to point out that dirt bikes are also invariably quite noisy. Maybe not as noisy as an M-1 tank, but then they aren't armored as well either. That was not a good picture to show to install awe of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards around the world.

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Friday, February 23, 2007

Jules Crittenden: Good News Bad News Jules Crittenden: Good News Bad News

Jules Crittenden: Good News Bad News, mostly about Iraq. Part of the good news is that the level of violence in Baghdad is distinctly down, despite the recent attempts to institute chemical warfare there. Also, five of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army leaders were arrested in two locations in Baghdad on Wednesday. No sightings of him though, despite rumors of his fleeing to Iran.

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Peggy Noonan: A Surmountable Hill(ary) Peggy Noonan: A Surmountable Hill(ary)

Peggy NoonanA Surmountable Hill: Mrs. Clinton seems less inevitable after this week suggests that Mrs. Clinton may have shown vulnerability this last week in her dustup with the Clinton's former major campaign donor, media tycoon David Geffen. Her imminent coronation looks a little less imminent now.

Ms. Noonan points out, correctly I think, that part of her success has always been the fear factor - if you cross her, what is she going to do to you as a result. But Geffen is big enough, wealthy enough, and well enough connected that she may not be successful. And that shows the sort of weakness that she cannot afford.

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Thursday, February 22, 2007

Why Geffen Said What He Said (about Hillary) Why Geffen Said What He Said (about Hillary)

Roger L. Simon: Why Geffen Said What He Said figures that:
Rumors are flying about. Geffen was angry that Bill pardoned the creepy Marc Rich but didn't pardon the "heroic" Leonard Peltier. (Clinton was wrong about Rich but right about Peltier, in my view.) I don't buy it. There would seemingly have to be something more personal or stronger to merit such vitriol (calling the Clintons liars on that level).

But I don't think it's personal at all. I think it has to do with something much more pragmatic to Geffen - and my wife Sheryl pointed this out. Geffen doesn't think Hillary can win.
But I am posting this in particular because of the great comments. For example:
We’re almost at the point where Hilary will claim that Barack is the father of Anna Nicole’s kid in hopes that the court will sustain the claim, award Obama the kid and the loot, just to get him out of the race.

The only thing that may preclude this move is Hilary’s concern that Bill may in fact be the father.

And we have 18 more months of this?

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Spam (#6) Spam (#6)

I don't know if we will ever overcome the scourge of spam email. I get well over 100 spam emails a day, and by now throw almost all of them away w/o reading them.

Most of my email goes through bhayden@ieee.org that is forwarded to bhayden@peakpeak.com. The ieee.org forwarding does try to mark spam as it is forwarded, but doesn't delete any of it. Then, peakpeak.com moves what it thinks is spam into a separate folder for later deletion. I can use white lists and black lists to control that, and sometimes bother to do so.

The way I usually handle that account is to use the peakpeak.com web interface and move what I think is non-spam (from what peakpeak.com already considers non-spam) into a ToRead folder, and then delete what's left (about 75%). Thus, about 90% of the email is deleted w/o reading at this step. Then, I read and delete the non-HTML email, and download the rest using Thunderbird, which does a similar spam filtering into a spam folder.

Pure white and black lists don't work for me because I have too many legitimate emails coming in from new places to make the effort worthwhile. And the response type of email filtering doesn't work either, since how do you get eBay, etc. to respond?

The problem is that it creeps up on you. One year, I will be averaging 50 spam emails a day, the next year, 75, and the next 100. And part of my problem is that my bhayden@ieee.org email address has been out there in circulation for nearing twenty years now, and has likely found its way into most spam email lists by now.

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The Right Protection for Airline Passengers The Right Protection for Airline Passengers

RealClearPolitics: The Right Protection for Airline Passengers warns about upcoming legislation to protect airline passengers from carriers leaving them too long on the tarmac. Never mind that:
Incidents like the one at JFK make headlines because they are not only appalling but rare. From 2000 through 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, some 330 aircraft have been held on the tarmac for more than five hours awaiting takeoff. But as the Business Travel Coalition points out, there were 88 million flights during that time. On average, you can fly more than 260,000 times before your luck will run out.
It is more important for legislators to be seen doing something than that they actuall do something productive. Here, all that would result would ultimately slightly higher prices for no real gain.

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Fineman: Clinton-Obama Fight Gets Nasty Fineman: Clinton-Obama Fight Gets Nasty

Howard Fineman: Clinton-Obama Fight Gets Nasty takes a cynical view of the recent cat fight between Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton, instigated when former Clinton mega donor David Geffen had the effrontery to not only suggest that both of the Clintons were pathological liers, but then went and raised $1.3 million for Obama.

Leftist pundit Margaret Carlson had the liberal take on this in her: Clinton Picks the Wrong Quarrel With Obama.

It should be entertaining. Fineman is suggesting that John Edwards is the likely benefiary for this. My guess (and maybe hope) is that Bill Richardson is the Democrat who benefits the most.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Russian teacher wins software licensing case | CNET News.com Russian teacher wins software licensing case | CNET News.com

CNET News.com: Russian teacher wins software licensing case. Apparently, they couldn't prove intent, when the teacher claimed that he bought the PCs with the MSFT software installed.

MSFT must be pushing the Russians pretty hard. Another CNET article: Russia hits out at Microsoft licensing:
The Russian government has hit out at Microsoft, claiming the software giant's overly strict and costly licensing regime is to blame for the high rates of consumer piracy in the country.

Antipiracy group the Business Software Alliance lists Russia as one of the top 10 worst offending countries for counterfeit software. Deputy Russian IT minister Dmitry Milovantsev admitted in a briefing in Moscow last week software piracy is a "very serious problem" for the country.

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ScrappleFace: Iraq Terror Groups Offer Non-Binding Ceasefire ScrappleFace: Iraq Terror Groups Offer Non-Binding Ceasefire

ScrappleFace: Iraq Terror Groups Offer Non-Binding Ceasefire
A coalition of major terror groups operating in Iraq today announced a symbolic, non-binding ceasefire in response to House Democrats’ passage of a non-binding resolution rejecting President George Bush’s troop surge plan.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Shiite Mahdi army and representatives of a Sunni car-bomb cartel said they would continue to fully fund martyrdom operations, with help from their friends in Iran, Syria and elsewhere.

An unnamed spokesman for the terror coalition said, “The non-binding ceasefire serves as a kind of imaginary turning point in the mythical pursuit of peace among those who have pledged their lives to the destruction of the U.S., Christianity, Judaism and Western civilization in general.”
And I especially liked this:
“Our friends in Congress continue to display the rich diversity of patriotism,” the president said. “Their actions demonstrate to all Americans that you, in fact, can support the troops while opposing the war, as long as you’re not too specific about whose troops you support.”

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Al Franken Announces He Was Once a Comedian Al Franken Announces He Was Once a Comedian

ScrappleFace: Al Franken Announces He Was Once a Comedian:
Former liberal radio host Al Franken, in announcing his candidacy for the U.S. senate in Minnesota, yesterday shocked his potential constituents by revealing that he was once a comedian.

“I realize that most people may be skeptical about my credentials,” said the recently-resigned Air America talkhost in a web video, “But seriously, I was a comedian. I did Saturday Night Live. I played comedy clubs. It’s a matter of public record and I invite journalists to do the research to verify my claim.”

Mr. Franken did not provide any evidence to buttress his allegation about this little-known chapter in his career, but instead devoted the bulk of his announcement video to claims that he has ancestors who worked for a living.

“My wife, Franny, and I come from working class backgrounds,” said Mr. Franken, “Of course, I got away from that miserable, pathetic lifestyle as fast as I could.”
Franken's problem is that the Al Franken decade is long over, and that is really when he ceased to be even somewhat funny. Since then, he appears more angry than anything, though I am not sure why he would be so angry. Maybe it was because his career as a comedian went into the tank then.

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Monday, February 19, 2007

Skiing - President's day weekend Skiing - President's day weekend

This last weekend was a disaster at the ski area where I worked. Friday, it snowed, but didn't stick because of the wind. The area shut down first the two gondolas, then starting with the back, progressively shut down lifts towards the front throughout the day. The Summit Express shut down at 2:15 and the Montezuma list at 2:30. Indeed, it shut down between the time we got to the top of the Peru lift and when we got down to it, about 3 minutes later. This left the Peru Express and the fixed lift in the beginning area running, for probably around 10,000 guests. Not pleasant.

We missed the excitement Sat. morning, as I-70 was shut down for awhile for avalanche blasting. This did manage to thin the crowds just a tiny bit, but... Everyone was so psyched to ski over the three or four day weekend that it was near capacity. I heard that the Outback Express lift had a 20 minute wait, which is near record.

But the big problem for me was that there were so many injuries, and a lot of them were not trivial. I worked on four that needed backboards, and one other that was a clearly broken leg. And there was one Flight for Life. Things got so bad that instead of dispatching patrol from patrol headquarters, they were being dispatched before they got to the top of the lift. Then, on my last run of the day, I found a 9 year old kid with a badly twisted knee. That took another half an hour, and so I signed out at 5:15 (I try to sign out by 4).

But just as I signed out, I heard about someone hitting a tree between Last Hoot (steepest trail on the mountain) and the Peru lift. Our Mountain Watch supervisor was the first employee to get there and called it in, again. The guy was apparently sliding in and out of consciousness. But luckily, there is no traffic there, and more MW weren't needed. Still, I listened on my radio to the patrol bringing down the backboard, BLS (Basic Life Support) pack w/O2, etc. as I started my drive back to Dillon. A long, exhausting, day for all concerned.

I should add though that the snow was nice - freshly packed powder, and I did enjoy some nice turns in it. I was on software skis, and they worked great. But mostly, I just worked.

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Apocalypse Not? Apocalypse Not?

Robert Dreyfuss: argues unconvincingly in Apocalypse Not that there won't be a bloodbath if we pull out of Iraq. This is the same sort of wishful thinking that we saw with John Kerry testifying before Congress that there wouldn't be a bloodbath in SE Asia if we cut and ran there. Of course, there was, with millions dying in the Cambodian Killing Fields, and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese killed during forced reeducation.

Dreyfuss has it right that al Qaeda won't be a significant factor should we leave. But he assumes that the Sunni Arabs can hold their own against the Shia and Kurds because most of the former army officers are Sunni Arabs. But that ignores the fact that these are the former officers, and that the current army is controlled by their Shia and Kurdish enemies, along with its heavy weapons, etc. And note that the current crop of officers have current U.S. training, versus the Soviet style the former officers had. He also ignores that esp. with our "Surge" we are taking on both the Sunni Arab insurgents, AND the Shiite militias. He also ignores the moral suasion that is being placed on the Iraqi government and in particular the military by us to rein in the ethnic cleansing. He also ignores that the Sunni Arab percentage of the population is likely no longer the 20% he claims, but has probably dropped below 15%, and may be as low as 10% by the end of the year. And he ignores the recent provocations, ranging from the Ashara massacre, to the bombing of the Golden Dome, and, in particular, the almost routine massacre of innocent civilian women and children by Sunni Arab terrorists through their frequent bombings. There is a lot of Shia blood that needs to be avenged, and the U.S. is slowing the process down long enough that many Sunni Arabs can either flee their mixed neighborhoods, or Iraq entirely.

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The war within Islam. The war within Islam.

Christopher Hitchens: The war within Islam points out that the problem today is not really between militant Islam and the rest of the world, but between different sects of Islam, notably the Sunni and Shia. While we in the Western World are worried about vaguely insulting Islam, members of these sects of Islam spend their energies killing each other and blowing up each other's holy sites.

What is becoming ever more obvious especially in Iraq is that these schisms in Islam are far more important than anything that we have caused, done, etc. You have a Sunni Arab minority that has ruled over the Shia and Kurds for generations through increasing levels of violence. And now, they find themselves out of power, and are using ever increasing levels of brutality and violence in a bid to reacquire power. But the genie is out of the bottle, and the far more numerous Shia and the Kurds now control the government, the police, and the military.

Of course, the Shia/Sunni scism in Iraq isn't the only sectarian problem in the Middle East right now. The Sunni minority in Iran is now revolting, and the almost Shia Allowite sect that rules Syria is starting to again face resistance by its Sunni majority. Of course, there is also the minority Shia in Lebannon, championed by Hizb'Allah, trying to take control over the Sunni, Druze, and Christain Lebannese.

And finally, the Saudis, protectors of the Holy Sites of Islam, etc., and rabid Wahhabi Sunnis, are in full panic mode. They thought that they had effectively encircled Shia Iran after the fall of the Shah, just to have the tables turned on them with the fall of Saddam Hussein and the rise of Shiite power in Iraq and Lebannon. Notably, Saudi nationals have apparently funded much of al Qaeda, esp. in Iraq, as well as provided many of their fighters (including, of course, Osama Ben Laden).

Of course, this is nothing new. I was reading a book on Islam today that had an extensive history running from the first revelation by the Prophet up through 9/11/01. And what is remarkable is that the Shia and the Sunnis have been fighting each other, and butchering each other, since the time of Ali, well over twelve centuries ago. Other sects, notably the Sufi, have also found themselves at the wrong end of the sword on many occasions too during the long bloody history of Islam. Indeed, it continues to this day. The Shia Ashoura pilgrimage to Karbala, the site of the death of the Prophet's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, was bombed by (Wahhabi Sunni) al Qaeda in 2004, killing or injuring hundreds. And, maybe that is why Saddam Hussein was hung on a Sunni holy day. And it goes on.

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Bureacracies Bureacracies

Jane Galt:
The post below also applies to behavioural economics, which the left seems to believe is a magical proof of the benevolence of government intervention, because after all, people are stupid, so they need the government to protect them from themselves. My take is a little subtler than that:

1) People are often stupid
2) Bureaucrats are the same stupid people, with bad incentives.
How true. And the comments flesh this out some more.

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Friday, February 16, 2007

Who will get blacks' vote? Who will get blacks' vote?

IndyStar.com: Who will get blacks' vote? points out that right now, Hillary is significantly outperforming Obama with African-Americans. Obama has the problem that he isn't Black enough - he may be of African descent, but his ancestors weren't slaves here, and he grew up in a White environment. And Hillary, at least now, is apparently inheriting her husband's Black support.

Of course, this is all silly, but what do you expect of the Party of Race (see my previous blog entry).

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Iraq and the Party of Race Iraq and the Party of Race

The American Spectator: Iraq and the Party of Race is a pretty vicious look at why the Democrats oppose the war in Iraq, hired Jason Blair, and prosecuted the Duke LAX players. In short, they are hung up on race. The party of Slavery and Jim Crow is desperately trying to expiate its 160 or so years of racial guilt through overcompensating - but that overcompensating just makes obvious that the race consciousness and awareness that brought us Jim Crow is still with us. So, no wonder the party of Race didn't buy into the President's statement that:
"There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may or may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that stronglly...I believe that people whose skins are a different color than white can self-govern."
And, no surprise that this came from a president of the party founded to abolish slavery.

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Scooter Libby Trial Scooter Libby Trial

The Onion has one of the best takes on the: Scooter Libby Trial. As with a lot of Plamiacs, I have followed the trial closely. But what can you say after this?

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Iraq: The Battle for Baghdad Begins Iraq: The Battle for Baghdad Begins

StrategyPage: Iraq: The Battle for Baghdad Begins as usual paints a very different picture from that porterayed by the MSM reporting from the Green Zone. Al Qaeda is mostly history, with the bombings now being primarily the work of Iraqi Sunni Arabs who think that they can get the Sunni Arabs to intervene when the Shiites kill too many of them in return. Not going to happen. And the Shiite militias are in disarray, esp. with Sadr fleeing to Iran.

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

Stick-to-it-iveness Stick-to-it-iveness

TCS Daily: Stick-to-it-iveness points out that use of a stick shift in the U.S. has declined sharply in the U.S., down to about 10% of the new cars sold. This is contrasted with the rest of the world where the figures are almost reversed. The author points out a number of advantages of a stick shift over an automatic transmission.

And yet, I have just switched from a manual transmission to an automatic, and did it voluntarily. For the last 20 years, I have almost exclusively owned manual transmissions, and by now shifting them is second nature to me.

So, why the change to an automatic? Over the last couple of years, it appears that I have blown two clutches, and most likely done it due to the necessity of riding such on the way up to the Eisenhower tunnel. It is usually a ten minute drive from Silverthorne east on I-70 to the tunnel under the Continental Divide. But a couple of times a year, I get stuck in traffic, and it takes a couple of hours to make this short trip. You inch along, at under 5 miles an hour, inching up the hill. And that is very, very, hard to do with a stick shift without riding the clutch.

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Call for 'neuroethics' as brain science advances Call for 'neuroethics' as brain science advances

CNET News.com: Call for 'neuroethics' as brain science advances asks if science advances to be able to read brain inentions, as it looks like it rapidly is doing, shouldn't we be worried about the ethics? The strides in this area are coming faster and faster, and commercial products may be right around the corner.

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The Price Is Wrong: Why Our Roads Are So Clogged The Price Is Wrong: Why Our Roads Are So Clogged

TCS Daily: The Price Is Wrong: Why Our Roads Are So Clogged points out that our problem with traffic and congestion on our roads is that they are free. And, just like under communism, when goods are free, or nearly so, the result is long lines.

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Radios (#2) Radios (#2)

The Motorola G68 radio I got came with a 220 volt charger. It fit into a 110 socket, so I figured that I would just charge it twice as long. But the first two times I took it up onto the mountain, the battery went dead w/i an hour. I figured that it was either a charger or battery problem. After all, the batteries that came with it weren't that big. So, I first ordered a 110/220 step up transformer, then a new charger, and finally two large capacity batteries.

The 110/220 volt step up transformer showed up first, and when I plugged my charger into it, all of a sudden I got different lights for normal and quick charging. Hmm.. So, I let the radio charge at normal over night, and then gave it an hour or two of quick charge, and then took it up on the mountain. And, voila, it worked just fine, lasting the entire day.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious. Motorola typically uses 7.5 volt batteries in its commercial portable radios. The charger is supposed to put out 10 volts to charge that. But if it is designed to convert from 220 volt AC to 10 volt DC, then when faced with 110 volt AC input, it is likely to output closer to 5 volt DC to the 7.5 volt battery. No wonder it wouldn't charge.

All is not wasted though. The new charger is supposed to trickle charge and has a light that changes color when the battery being charged is fully charged (like the more expensive Motorola chargers). And the specs on the battery that came with the radio would suggest that it is probably only good for 8 hours, if run on low power, and kept warm - which is problematic at a ski area. This way, I can carry the smaller, original, battery as a spare, JIC one of the bigger ones runs out during the day through overuse (battery usage estimates are based on the assumption that you mostly listen).

I should add that scanning worked fairly well, except that there is about a 5 second pause after each incoming transmission where it isn't scanning. So, I do know that I missed one or two messages that were walked over by another frequency.

Nevertheless, it was a simple matter to set up the radio with channels 1-6 identical with our usual radios. Then channels 11 and 13 were set up with their receive the same as 1 (SP) and 3 (MW), but to transmit on 3 (MW)'s frequency. Then the radio was set to scan just these two channels. The result is that I scan channels 1 (SP) and 3 (MW) during the day, but always transmit on 3 (MW). Then, when our MW dispatch shuts down at about 4, I turn off scanning and just use channel 1 (SP).

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Muqtada al-Sadr flees U.S. surge Muqtada al-Sadr flees U.S. surge

RALPH PETERS in a New York Post article: MOOK'S SPOOKED points out that Muqtada al-Sadr appears to have fled to Iran for safety as the U.S. and the Iraqi government forces increase their pressure on his militia. Peters is a bit more colorful than I:
LOOKS like our team won this round of Spook-the- Mook. A best-in-show source in Baghdad confirms that Muqtada al-Sadr took off on a road-trip to Iran. And he wasn't just cruising in search of a Reuben sandwich.

The game ain't over until the fat mullah's scared. No matter how he tries to explain it away, Muqtada's public cowardice is going to hurt him - after he encouraged his followers to martyr themselves. There already had been rumors of mutinies in the Mahdi Army that threatened Mookie himself.

One more reason to run.

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New Blogger New Blogger

I procrastinated for almost a week the forced move to "New Blogger". I finally committed and did the deed right before going to bed last night, and, so far, I can't see any differences. I suspect that I will be able to tweak my template a bit more, but that is going to take time that I don't have right now.

I was just not happy at the way that I was forced to move. All of a sudden, I couldn't blog without going through the conversion. So, I delayed and delayed. But finally, that article on Sunni and Shi'a Islam just had to be blogged about, and so I did it.

BTW, the new interface is almost identical, except that it contains a field for "Labels". Interestingly, the first sample label is "scooters". Interesting because the defense rested yesterday in the "Scooter" Libby trial. Coincidence? Probably, but you never know.

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Sunni vs. Shi'a: It's Not All Islam Sunni vs. Shi'a: It's Not All Islam

RealClearPolitics: Sunni vs. Shi'a: It's Not All Islam points out that Sunni and Shia Islam are almost two different religions. The former is the religion of desert Bedouins, and the latter, the result of mixing that with sophisticated Persian culture and religion. And the two religious have been contesting for dominence for over a thousand years now.
But the biggest obstacle to establishing the Caliphate in California is that Shi'a "Islam" never bought into the Caliphate at all. At bottom, it's a different religion from Sunni Islam. They're not just different branches of a faith, as with Protestantism and Catholicism, but separate faiths whose core differences are more-pronounced than those between Christians and Jews.

Technically, Sunni militants are correct when they label the Shi'a "heretics." Persians and their closest neighbors, with long memories of great civilizations, were never comfortable with the crudeness of Arabian Islam--which the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss aptly called "a barracks religion."

The struggle has never ended between the ascetic, intolerant Bedouin faith of Arabia, with its fascist obsession on behavior, and the profound theologies of Persian civilization that absorbed and transformed Islam. While Shi'ism only prevailed in Persia within the last millennium (nudging out Sunni Islam at last), "Aryan" Islam had long been shaped by Zoroastrianism and other ineradicable pre-Islamic legacies.
One place where I do question the author is on his suggestion that the European influence stamped Protestantism. I would rather suggest that Roman Catholicism has a similar problem with Shi'a Islam: that it was very strongly influenced by the Roman religions of the time, whence comes what appears to be its polytheism and idolotry to us Protestants.

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Thursday, February 08, 2007

Blackout of the Press about Iraq Blackout of the Press about Iraq

New York Sun article: Blackout of the Press points out that the MSM, led by its competitor, the NYT, is ignoring the changes that have happened in the Sunni portion of the insurgency in Iraq. Apparently, al Qaeda has acceded supremecy to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State of Iraq, a new umbrella organization of what appear to be Sunni insurgent groups. And al-Baghdadi conveniently is of the tribe of Quraish, a usual prerequisite for a would-be caliph. I like this:
Al-Baghdadi says that his Dignity Plan is supposed to counter President Bush's "surge" and that it will only end when Mr. Bush signs a treaty of surrender. And what would this surrender look like? Al-Baghdadi spelled out the terms in an earlier speech: "We order you to withdraw your forces immediately. But the withdrawal must be via troop transport trucks and passenger planes whereby each soldier is allowed to carry his own weapon only. They may not withdraw any of the heavy military equipment and the military bases must be handed over to the mujaheddin of the Islamic State and the duration of the withdrawal may not exceed a month."
I wonder what the Iraqi Shia and Kurds think about a new Sunni Arab Caliphate in Iraq? My guess is that they aren't all that excited about it. Last estimate I saw showed the Iraqi security forces outnumbering the Sunni Arab insurgents in Iraq, whatever they currently call themselves, at least ten to one. Probably a lot more than that.

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Al Qaeda in Iraq Crumbling: al Masri on the run Al Qaeda in Iraq Crumbling: al Masri on the run

The Jawa Report: Al Qaeda in Iraq Crumbling: al Masri on the run paints a grim picture for al Qaeda in Iraq. In the last 24 or so hours, there have been some 6 al Qaeda leaders killed or captured, and another dozen or so of their men killed. And one of those caught was with al Masri w/i the previous 24 hours.

Overall a good sign. Now if we can just get the Iranian backed insurgents under control...

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Debunking myths about identity fraud | Perspectives Debunking myths about identity fraud | Perspectives

CNET News.com: Debunking myths about identity fraud points out that things actually getting better:
Identity fraud is declining in the United States--down an estimated 12 percent from the prior year--translating into total fraud reduction of approximately $6.4 billion. Indeed, about 500,000 fewer adults in the United States were victims of identity fraud in 2006 than 2005. It is estimated that 3.7 percent of Americans were victims in 2006, as opposed to 4 percent in 2005. Losses from identity fraud are calculated at $49.3 billion in 2006, down from $55.7 billion in 2005.
Mostly through better education.

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Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Is Giuliani the GOP's Obama? Is Giuliani the GOP's Obama?

Howard Fineman: Is Giuliani the GOP's Obama? Both parties have similar kinds of candidates. Meet the Charismatic, the Practicals, and the Base-Wooers. Obama and Giuliani are the charismatics, McCain and Clinton are the Practicals, and Edwards and Romney are the Base-Wooers (And everyone else are the also-rans). The problem for the Base-Wooers is that they can possibly win their nominations, but have little chance at winning the general election. The reverse is true for McCain. Luckily for Hillary Clinton, she is still the Democratic frontrunner, and has the best shot at the presidency of all these simply because she is a Practical who has a shot at the nomination. McCain doesn't because he has alienated so much of the Republican base over time.

What is likely to be quite interesting is that we are likely to get a Charismatic running against a Practical, most likely Rudy against Hillary, and we should keep the two styles in mind when viewing the race.

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Diversity drivel Diversity drivel

Vincent Carroll in the RMN: "Diversity drivel" scores a new diversity program in the Cherry Creek school district.
If planning for the future, delaying gratification and self-reliance are "aspects and assumptions of white culture," as the paper insists, instead of good habits that assist all of us in achieving our goals, then people who harp on such traits may unconsciously be putting minorities down. Thus the perverse logic of such exercises.

The idea behind such training, as I explained in two columns last May on Cherry Creek's embrace of radical diversity ideology, is that the achievement gap between some ethnic groups is mainly a product of institutional racism and the culture of "Whiteness." Teachers with the suspect pigmentation are expected to feel guilt and shame.
What is really tragic is that this is coming from the school district that has had probably the premier public high school in Colorado at least since I was in high school 40 years ago. It is precisely that "planning for the future, delaying gratification and self-reliance" that have given the school district so many high SAT scores and Ivy League college admittees.

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Comment is free: Cut the Hollywood action Comment is free: Cut the Hollywood action

Comment is free: Cut the Hollywood action suggests that whoever wins the Democratic nomination in 2008 take Hollywood's money, but don't hang around with its denziens.
As Bismarck said of laws and sausages, so might we say of the Hollywood primary: far better for regular people not to see it in action.

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The Morality of Rising Inequality The Morality of Rising Inequality

TCS Daily: The Morality of Rising Inequality steps aside from the usual debate about whether globalization is good or bad, by noting that:
Yet in this particular instance I find that my own answer is quite simple. Those poor who are getting richer in other countries are not moving from one level of luxury to a slightly higher one. They are moving from destitution, from not knowing where the next meal is coming from, to something close to a middle class income. They are doing this in their hundreds of millions, across the globe, and that has to be a good thing.

I've deliberately used inequality above, but there's another phrase often used, relative poverty, to mean the same thing. Recasting the argument, globalization is increasing relative poverty in the rich countries, while at the same time abolishing absolute poverty in the poor ones. Put like that it seems quite clear to me that the price is worth paying, indeed, I would argue that anyone who disagrees simply isn't a liberal, classical or otherwise.

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Heart Stents and FDA Blockage Heart Stents and FDA Blockage

TCS Daily: Heart Stents and FDA Blockage points out drug-eluting heart stents may slightly increase the chance of blood clots in some situations. Should they be banned by the FDA? Not if a true cost/benefit analysis is performed - they save far more lives than they take. But that isn't how the FDA is structured or tasked, so we may see another brain-dead ban of life saving technology on the basis of how many lives it endangers, as opposed to how many it saves.

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Suing over a name as a domain name Suing over a name as a domain name

Country star sues over rights to keithurban.com brings up some interesting cyberlaw questions. Keith Urban the country singer is suing Keith Urban the artist for keithurban.com. Since KU the artist's name matches the domain name, the ICANN domain name resolution process won't help KU the country singer. And pretty much ditto for our Cybersquatting law. Which is why KU the country singer is using trademark law and the federal registration of his name as a trademark. Yes, there is a likelyhood of confusion. But it can mostly be blamed on their respective mothers naming both babies "Keith". Besides KU the artist has prior rights to the mark, since he was using it as his name long before KU the country singer registered it (but was he using it in trade or business?)

If all things were equal and fair, KU the artist would win. But they aren't, and KU the country singer most likely has a lot more money to pour into this case, and so has a significant chance of winning, though legally, and arguably morally, he shouldn't.

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Early morning at Vail Early morning at Vail

Early this morning at Two Elk lodge at Vail:
Two Elk of course is the multimillion dollar lodge that the eco-terrorists burned down a couple of years ago. I seem to remember some people being finally arrested for it this fall.

I am somewhat ambivalent about it, as we used to hike through here once a year with my mother's hiking group. A short, steep hike up a couple thousand feet from the old U.S. 6 east of Vail, lunch where this lodge now is, and a 5-7 mile hike down the valley past the bottom of Vail's bowls to Minturn. My father got some glorious pictures of the wildflowers there - we have a couple of them framed hanging around the condo and his house.

In any case, I picked this picture this morning because of the sun coming up over the mountains. Looks to be another Beautiful, Boring Day in Paradise.

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Travails on the Mountain Travails on the Mountain

Monday was a nice day skiing after a cold weekend. Saturday the wind was bad enough that most of the ski area was closed, leaving three chair lifts running on the front (Dercum's) mountain at Keystone. I did run into a long time friend Monday who had been the mountain manager there and had left in a dispute with Vail Resorts. This was the first time he had been back on his old mountain since then. Looks like he is going to land on his feet though, given the offers he is getting.

Then, I ran down the mountain for gang grooming to close a trail on the bottom. Nine grooming machines ultimately came by and I raced up the Summit Express to try to catch them at the top. But for some reason or another, they were downloading on that chair, and shut it down to half speed when I was about half way up (usually, they don't download on that chair when the gondola running next to it is still running, but did so Mon.) Barely missing the cats on the top, I raced off after them, just to run into some minor emergency a couple of hundred yards down.

When that was over, dropped by our dispatch, picked up another radio, and headed down Silverspoon to look for speeding racers. The problem is that the Summit HS team, as well as Team Summit, train at the local areas in the afternoons. Kids are kids, and these kids are good enough to ski fast when they have the chance. So, we had a gauntlet set up down that run on the way to their course on Haywood. I'd told them a week before to take another route, but... But the other Mountain Watch were gone, and I only caught about a dozen of them, they weren't that bad this time, so let them go after a little lecture.

I cut it close, catching the patrol shutting down the Montezuma lift. Rode up with one of the supervisors, and then headed down the ridge to my dispatch to turn in radios and sign out. And then disaster struck.

I got a call from the patrol dispatcher on our land line. And she asked that I go to the bottom of the Peru chair to help a kid find his bus. Fine. I got ready to go, and she called back to tell me that he was actually over at the top of Peru (a couple hundred yards away from me). I humped over there just as lift ops was shutting the chair down for the night. It was now about 4:30, and I got on the phone with Guest Services trying to enlist them into this effort. Of course, a lot of them had gone home already... Any case, they set up to meet us at the bottom of the gondola and we started putting on our skiis to head down, when the guy mentioned that this was his first day on skiis. So, we were about 2 1/2 miles by trail from the bottom, he had a half an hour to catch his bus, and this was his first day on skiis. I remember asking myself: why hadn't he downloaded there when the lift had been running ten minutes earlier?

Of course, by now, ski patrol had shown up for sweep, and we were hanging them up. Which turns out to mean hanging up the entire patrol because they all connect up down on the mountain. Which is why they were a bit surly about it. Only solution was a "taxi" ride by snomobile down for the kid. Only of course, the patrol "do" was off somewhere else. While waiting for him to show up (and three other patrol glaring at us), I got the kid to try to talk to someone on his bus on his cell phone. About the third time, I got him to have the kid at the other end hand the phone to an adult, and I took the kid's phone and gave him the phone number of guest services. Oh, and by now, the patrol "do" was there, revving his engine to indicate that we should hurry.

And then were were off, racing to the bottom, the "do" and I, to be passed by a lift ops "do" about halfway down. You don't see them open up until the mountain is empty, and then they scream down the slopes. I stopped and talked to a couple of patrol about 2/3 of the way down, asking that they tell their dispatch that we were now below them. And I lost the "do" there. So, I continued screaming to the bottom, cutting over onto River Run at Dercum's Dash. One of the patrol there yelled at me as I went by, and came down angry that I hadn't stopped. I saw Guest Services with a guest in their little vehicle at the bottom, looked around, and the "do' was coming out at Ina's - I had managed to pass him as he took the longer way. I got everyone together, and that was that. And the patrol who had yelled at me to stop appologized, and told me that if I was going by the "Green Light", could I help him. But the "do" driver offered to take me back up Ina's so I could get to the other base area, and took the offer. And that was where all the patrol were congregating, making sure that the mountain was clear after sweep.

It turns out that the group that this kid belonged were all a bit mentally disabled, i.e. borderline retarded. I didn't figure that out until I took the phone from the kid, and Guest Services found out when one of their adults called the number I had given him. Because we didn't know, we didn't realize that though the kid obviously realized there were a lot of problems, he didn't really understand what they were. We all made a lot of mistakes assumming him "normal", up and down the line. No wonder he didn't realize the implications of being stuck on the mountain 2 1/2 miles from the bottom on his first day of skiing with all the lifts shut down, etc. To my small credit, I think I was the first to realize that this was a borderline crisis. But, as I told the patrol dispatcher later: Alls well that ends well.

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Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Chris Muir goes to Iraq Chris Muir goes to Iraq

Day by Day creator Chris Muir embeds as a journalist in Iraq:
One big question is why do all these bloggers embed with the troops, and the MSM journalists just sit around filing reports from the "Green Zone"?

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Lieberman: The Lorax Lieberman: The Lorax

The New Yorker : The Lorax: How Joe Lieberman sees himself looks at the biggest maverick right now in Congress, Independant (but caucusing Democrat) Joe Lieberman, and how he is upsetting a lot of the Democrats, and even some Republicans, with his steadfast support of the President and his initiative in Iraq. As if he really cares - only 5 Democratic Senators supported him in his reelection, and, thus, he owes them nothing. Rather, if switching to caucus with the Republicans would give them an effective majority.

I saw Sen. Lieberman on C-Span a day or two ago, and was impressed with his impassioned speech for the war and against cloture. One of the best oratoric moments in recent Congressional memory.

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Why We Can't Leave Iraq Why We Can't Leave Iraq

Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Why We Can't Leave Iraq makes the argument that leaving Iraq now would result in a bloodbath. While I disagree with his specifics, I agree with the result.

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Monday, February 05, 2007

Harry Reid and the culture of corruption Harry Reid and the culture of corruption

qando.net: Harry Reid and the culture of corruption makes the point that we haven't seen the last of the "Culture of Corruption" in Congress. Indeed, it is obvious now that the American people traded up here, from Republican amateurs, to the Democratic professionals, when it comes to Congressional corruption.

So, we now have a Senate Majority Leader who has more side deals going than he can probably keep track of, and has made himself and his four boys rich through the legislative process. The Senate President pro tem was known as "Senator Pork" the last time the Democrats had the Senate (as well as "Sheets" Byrd for his KKK affiliation). Over on the House side, most of the leadership there looks worse, with the Speaker having had serious problems filling sensitive committee positions, and in particular, chairmanships, due to a lack of relatively clean candidates in her senior members. We were ringside observers of her running afoul of the CBC for pushing Jefferson off Appropriations, given the tagged bribe money found in his freezer by the FBI. They were pushing the Speaker to appoint an impeached federal judge to chair the Intelligence Committee in exchange. When the fire from that got too hot, she appointed somone apparently almost as corrupt. Probably at least half of her major committe chairs have some ethical or corruption questions hanging over them.

The problem for the Democrats is that they controlled Congress for almost 60 years, and that led to a Culture of Corruption there that the Republicans were able to exploit in 1994. The most senior Democrats in both Houses come from that time and culture, and these are precisely the ones who have the seniority for the leadership positions in both Houses. The problem appears worse in the House because turnover there is lower due to political gerrymandering every 10 years that results in mostly safe seats across the country. It appears worst in the Congressional Black Caucus, mostly I suspect because the minority majority districts these members represent were gerrymandered to be even safer than the Congressional average.

I do expect to see the Republicans retake the House next election for just this reason. The Democrats retook the House based on attacks on Republican corruption. So, they took a bunch of Republican leaning districts that aren't going to stay safely in their hands. It would have been tough w/o all the corruption at the top of Congress, based on party leanings. But the corruption of the Democratic leadership will make it that much harder for them to retain that House. The Senate though should stay safely Democratic for at least one more election, since the Republicans will be defending a lot more vulnerable seats in 2008 than the Democrats will (2006 was the year that the Republicans should have picked up Senate seats - instead they lost them).

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Insh'allah: A Nighttime Raid with the Iraqi Army Insh'allah: A Nighttime Raid with the Iraqi Army

INDCJournal: Insh'allah: A Nighttime Raid with the Iraqi Army by Bill Ardolino tells about the real war going on in Iraq right now. Not what you read in the New York Times or the Washington Post, but the reality of training the Iraqi military to carry the security burden for their country.

The article tells of American Marine Military Transition Team (MiTT) planning some night time raids in Fallujah for the Jundi (Iraqi Army soldiers) that they are advising. The mission went off fairly well, with no shots fired, no casualties, and some terrorist suspects being arrested. The one problem that arose was when the Jundi got information at one raided house that one of their suspects was at another house a block or so away. So, they raced off, without their support or advisors, and managed to capture the suspect. The MiTT personel thought that showed both some lack of discipline and a lot of enthusiasm and courage. In other words, a mixed bag. Obviously, the advisors are going to work a bit on the discipline problem.

The author was also impressed with how the suspects were being treated as they were being interrogated by the Iraqis. It appears that they are coming around to our theory that humane treatment most often works better than torture for getting information and in building trust.

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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Motorla GP68 Radio Motorla GP68 Radio

Working at Keystone ski area, we use two-way radios heavily. They are 4/5 watt UHF radios, and there are some 35 or so sets of UHF frequencies in this county tied up by or used by the two Vail resorts. (I say sets, because most of them are duplexed, meaning different transmit frequencies, with the transmit frequency 5 mhz above the receive to work with repeaters).

Our lives on the slopes are controlled by our radios. That is how you know what is happening, and thus, where you should be and what you should be doing. My problem, and that of much of Mountain Watch, is that our radios are the dregs, most at least a decade old. They have been heavily used and are quite heavy. Another problem is that we get and drop off our radios at the top of the Peru lift. This means that the first ride up and last run down are w/o radios - and the later is when you run into a lot of accidents.

So, I decided to get my own radio, since you can pick them up on ebay for under $100. My first shot, a Motorola P110 is nice, but I am still having troubles getting it programmed. But there are so many of those on ebay that when I get it figured out, I may go into the radio business selling to the other experienced Mountain Watch.

Then, I started seeing ebay auctions for Motorola GP68 radios. They looked great. Fully programmable from the front. Powerful, light, and with great volume.

The problem is that they are "gray" goods, shipped in from Hong Kong. Motorola never distributed the radios in this country, but apparently did extensively throught Asia and Europe. My guess is that the reason that the radios are "gray" is that they can scan the entire frequency range they are designed for (in my case, 430-470 mhz). And this means that they may be usable on some public safety frequencies.

And, indeed, Motorola seems to have used different battery configurations for just this reason - these charge from the bottom instead of the rear like all the other two way Motorola portable radios I have seen. Still 7.5 volt batteries - just different form factors and charging points.

So, the battery charger that they come with is 220 Volt, and does not work on American current. Indeed, the charger is the first one from Motorola that is a one piece unit - all the rest have a transformer plug that plugs into the actual charging unit (and, of course, I have one of those transformer plugs).

The answer to that problem is purchasing a 110/220 volt converter for about $10 aimed at just this sort of thing. They are aimed at running European and Asian appliances, etc. on American power.

The next problem was programming. The "manual" that came with the radio is an obvious copyright infringement. Some pages from some manuals have been photocopied and stuck together in a .pdf file on an OEM mini-CD.

I was despairing until I ran into documentation through Google for the AP73 that was considered functionally equivalent to the GP68. And, after reading the AP73 User's manual, programming the GP68 was a snap. The first channel took maybe five minutes to figure out. By the third or so, it was taking me about a minute or two per channel to program in a transmit and receive frequency and a PL/DPL signalling frequency and then assign it to a channel. Then, I turned off scan for all except two channels, and I was done.

The only complaint I have so far is that the channel scan isn't a priority scan, and if you aren't careful, you can find yourself transmitting on the wrong channel. I want to be able to scan channels 1 and 3, giving preference to 3, and then transmit on 3. I just have to be careful when in scan mode. We operate on 3, and the patrol on 1. But then we move to 1 when our dispatch shuts down at about 4 p.m., at which time I turn of scanning. Oh, and if you are going to be operating in the mountains, you need to slap on a longer antenna.

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Friday, February 02, 2007

Russian shock at 'gagged' babies Russian shock at 'gagged' babies

BBC: Russian shock at 'gagged' babies. It looks like nurses at a hospital in Yekaterinburg appear to have taped babies' mouths shut so as not to hear them crying.

But part of what is interesting to me is that this was caught on a phone camera. Yes, those ubiquitous cameras that come with most of our phones now that the phone companies try to make extra money downloading your photos from.

I recently got a Samsung phone that allows you to bypass this a bit by storing the photos on a memory card that can be plugged into your computer. It even does videos. Of course, resolution is bad, but the photo with this article isn't all that bad, considering.

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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Culture of Corruption - Congressman controlling FBI budget being investigated Culture of Corruption - Congressman controlling FBI budget being investigated

TPMmuckraker: Under FBI Scrutiny, Mollohan Runs up $160K Legal Bill. Alan Congressman Mollohan (D-WV) chairs the committee that oversees the Justice Department, has spent $160k lawyering up, $140k from his campaign. He has recused himself from FBI budget oversight for the present.

My normal rant is that the Democrats got control of Congress by yelling "Culture of Corruption" about the Republicans, and then turned out to be twice as bad themselves. But the Republicans seem to have their own problems here - with Reps. John Doolittle (R-CA) and Jerry Lewis (R-CA) also lawyering up, Lewis bigtime, having spent over $800k on lawyers.

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