2004? Good riddance.

I'm not a bit sorry to see 2004 go.

I wrote a long whiny post about all the things that went wrong this year, from both a global and personal perspective, but came to my senses and deleted it to keep from adding one more item to the list. Suffice it to say that I'm looking forward to a clean slate starting tomorrow.

Anyway, one of the best things that happened in 2004 is that I got to know many of you a little bit better, through your emails and comments and blogs. I have to remind myself that it's not wise to question exactly why such obviously intelligent and perceptive folks would keep coming back here; I just appreciate that you do, more than I can say.

So, to each of you, please accept my wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year. May God grant you the desires of your heart!

A PSA for Jen

Jen of "Jen Speaks" fame has a broken blog (boy, I hate it when that happens), and she's asked a few of us to get the word out that you can temporarily catch her musings at her old address.

Jen, I hope your webhost gets its act together soon so we won't miss anything in '05!

[Update (1/1/05): She's baaaaack!]

Solution to email attachment size limitations

If you frequently (or even occasionally) need to share large files with someone else, you may have experienced the frustration of having an ISP-imposed limit on the size of an email attachment. My ISP, Cox Communications, allows only 5mb of attachments for a given email, and that often is not enough.

Setting up a new FTP account is an option, but that assumes that you and the other party have the technical expertise, software and webspace necessary to make it work.

Enter Dropload, a free web-based service that allows you to upload files up to 100mb in size and automatically notify another party via email that said file is available for download. The other party has seven days to download the file (again via web browser), and once the download is completed, the file is automatically deleted from download's server. Download will even send you an email notice that the file has been downloaded.

The service is quick and easy to use; the Dropload website is Google-like in its simplicity. It employs the world's easiest account setup: enter your name, email address and password, wait for the confirming email, and you're set. To upload a file, use the simple form to browse your hard drive to select the file, enter the email address of the recipient and type in an optional message to the recipient.

Of course, you'll still have to deal with the generally time-consuming upload process. It took about 8 minutes to upload my 28mb test file. The notice I sent to myself (via a secondary email address) arrived within seconds after the upload completed, and I was able to click on the link in the email message to jump to the download page. Downloading the same file took less than a minute on my cable connection. Again, the download notice email arrived within seconds after the download finished.

Dropload is a great alternative for bypassing ISP limits on email attachments, especially when FTP is not a good option and you don't have time to burn and mail or otherwise deliver a CD. The price is right, too (although they'll gladly accept a donation via PayPal to help defray hosting and bandwidth expenses).

BCS: If the answer is right, does the approach matter?

At the risk of incurring the Wrath of Bryan*, let me just observe that perhaps the oft-maligned BCS system isn't as bad as many have claimed, using the alleged mistreatment of California as Exhibit B (Ex. A being Auburn). The way Texas Tech is spanking Cal in the Holiday Bowl tends to make me think that the biggest flaw in the BCS rating system was in putting the Golden Bears too high in the standings.

Of course, it's not quite halftime and Cal could rally, but I couldn't resist the observation.

*Note that I have no dog in this fight whatsoever. I couldn't care less about the BCS, a playoff system, or most of the bowl games. But it sure is fun to watch some of the debate about those things...said debate being much more entertaining than 90% of the post-season matches.

She's So Smart!

MLB passed her exam this morning, so she's walking on air this afternoon.

Dang, she's smart.

The bad news is that this was just part one of a four part exam. We'll worry about that later.

HDTV Coming! Celebs Run Scared!

We blogged about this almost a year ago, but it's back in the news: the inevitable penetration of HDTV broadcasts has some interesting implications for television actors and actresses. OnHD.tv takes a brutally honest look at those celebs who will benefit the most from HDTV exposure, and those who will (or should) run away screaming before the audience does.

According to them, those who will benefit the most include Anna Kournikova, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Halle Berry, George Clooney and Liv Tyler. Lesson? Those who already have it just get more.

On the flip side, those whose inherent flaws will just be more noticeable include Cameron Diaz ("has had a terrible acne problem since high school"), Britney Spears ("looks 10 years older in hi-def"), Brad Pitt ("terrible skin problem in high school"), Renee Zellweger ("her cheeks look like she's had a Rosacea
problem; very visible in high-def"), and Joan Rivers...like we needed HDTV to tell us that.

Of course, many on the latter list make very infrequent TV appearances anyway (Rivers being the unfortunate exception; Bill Mahrer is also on the list), so they might just decide that discretion is the better part of valor and stay away from the TV cameras. Others will rely heavily on the magic of make-up, even more so than they do now.

The real victims of this new technology may well be the local talent...the news anchors, meteorologists, sportscasters, etc. They likely won't have access to the state-of-the-art makeup techniques and, let's face it, they're generally just regular folks like you and me, albeit with better teeth.

Given all of this, I predict that faceless blogging will get a big boost from HDTV.

You can't teach a Peacock new tricks, after all

What was I thinking? Idiot! I mean, just because the election was over, just because Katie was on vacation, just because Matt was at the helm (get it?), just because the focus was on an international disaster of biblical proportions...I thought I could once again watch "The Today Show" without fear of mindless and incessant Bush-bashing.

Boy, was I wrong.

Laurer headed up a segment this morning wherein he and a BBC correspondent (yeah...that was Warning Sign #1) and an "NBC News Analyst" (Warning Sign #2) engaged in a group-grope over the President's alarming, disgusting and callous absence of public sackcloth and ashes over the Asian tsunami disaster. I'm sure they eventually worked themselves into enough of a frenzy to blame the tsunami -- if not the earthquake itself -- on Bush (or Rove, at the very least).

I wouldn't know, as I pushed away from the breakfast table, walked over and switched the TV to Fox. The Peacock won't learn any lessons, but at least one Fire Ant has.

Tsunami warning unheeded in Thailand?

Via Malaysian blogger ireneQ comes a link to an English language Thai news story alleging that the Bankok office of Thailand's Meterological Office considered, then rejected issuing a tsunami warning minutes after the earthquake hit northern Sumatra.

One's initial reaction to reading this report is likely to be a mixture of disgust and despair, similar to what ireneQ expresses. It does, indeed, appear that commercial concerns trumped human considerations, as the scientists bent to pressure to protect the country's important tourism industry. Outrage is a legitimate reaction to such a scenario.

At the same time, the officials make some legitimate points in support of their decision not to issue a warning. The fact that the last tsunami hit Thailand 300 years ago is not insignificant. They also pointed to a similar if smaller quake that hit Sumatra in 2002 with no impact on Thailand. And, finally, they were operating from a report that the earthquake itself was measured at 8.1 on the Richter Scale, which is much less powerful than official level reported later. (Keep in mind that the Richter Scale is logarithmic, meaning that an increase in 1 point on the scale represents a 10x increase in actual power.)

I'd hate to have been in their shoes; I'm not sure I'd have made a different decision, based on the facts they were working with. Unfortunately, the tipping point for the decision not to issue a warning did seem to come from the idea that this is the height of the tourism season, and they didn't want to be responsible for any possible economic disruption that might come from a false alarm. There will be second-guessing for some time to come as a result.

Unpaid...but definitely sold out!

[Update: Due to overwhelming public demand (that's my story and I'm sticking to it), even more tacky-yet-chic Fire Ant Gazette products are now available. Well, don't just sit there...shop! (But read the disclaimer at the bottom of this post first.)]

It's with not a small bit of trepidation that I hereby announce the grand opening of the Fire Ant Gazette Online Emporium of Questionable Fashion Statements [beta version].

In a mind-boggling display of hubris, I've slapped the official Fire Ant Gazette logo on a bunch of tacky shirt-like variations and put them up for sale at exorbitant mark-ups designed to put me in a whole new tax bracket. Or at least cover my hosting fees, which is really the best I can possibly hope for at $2.00/shirt profit.

Anyway, if you've recently won the lottery or made a killing on eBay and need somewhere to invest the spare change, why not hop over to my CafePress storefront and order a t-shirt, tank-top or hoodie for every member of your family, neighborhood, church, battalion, intervention group, cellblock and/or union?

[However, you might want to wait a bit while I make sure that the image quality is acceptable. Things look OK online, but I've not yet seen the real thing. Until I do, the store will remain in beta status, and you should place orders at your own risk. Of course, if you're one of those early-adopter types, well...knock yourself out!]

Wallace is home!

After an involuntary enforced "vacation" full of personal space violations of the most intrusive kind, Wallace is back home and recuperating, a living testimony to the quality of healthcare available to us in our fair city, and to the effectiveness of a rather wide net of prayers thrown in his direction.

He's probably going to expect some sympathy from the blogosphere, so make sure he feels the love [wink, wink].

Thanks for nothing, Enron

The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is usual non-stop partying for MLB and me. [OK, those of you who know us can stop your hysterical laughter now.] She usually takes the last of her vacation and we just hang out, sleeping late, catching the movies we've missed during the pre-Christmas distractions, watching lousy-but-somehow-riveting movies on the Sci-Fi Channel and the new DVDs we got for Christmas. But this year's different, thanks to those bums at Enron. OK, let me explain.

One of the government's knee-jerk reactions to the Enron scandal was to create legislation known as The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Sarbanes-Oxley or "SOX," as the in-crowd calls it, is intended to make sure that nobody makes off with another corporate cookie-jar, or if they do, that many, many employees of said corporation will be extremely rueful. It imposes direct and personal responsibility for the accuracy of corporate accounting reports on CEOs, CFOs, boards, etc., along with some prickly punishments for violations of fairly vague and broad rules.

SOX established the ground rules, and like good Pharisees, corporate controllers and CFOs everywhere started adding layers of protection in the form of increased internal policies and procedures. I suppose the theory is that if an acceptable arms-length transaction is conducted at 100 paces, then 200 paces is even better...even if some arms get stretched beyond the breaking point.

One of these added layers of protection (I'll resist the urge to use any, um, personal protection metaphors) is the concept of ensuring that one's accounting staff is credentialed to the hilt. Again, the theory is that someone with enough initials following their name will not engage in any unethical, let alone illegal behavior. I'm not sure about the basis for this theory, as one couldn't swing a dead cat in a courtroom without hitting an Enron MBA, but that's apparently an inconvenient fact.

As a result, you've got corporate accountants all over the country being required to accumulate additional training, certification and education, regardless of their level of experience...and MLB is dealing with that situation. She's spending this week studying for the Certified Management Accountant exam. The CMA is similar to the more familiar CPA; the CMA is more relevant for corporate accounting types, while the CPA is geared a bit more toward auditors and tax accountants.

MLB has been advised of the importance to her career of getting a CMA certificate despite a couple of decades of accounting experience, an MBA (well, an MS in Accounting, which is actually more relevant for SOX purposes as it's more focused) and an Accredited Petroleum Accountant certificate. She's not the only one, of course, and there's certainly nothing inherently wrong with continuing education. We all can benefit from it. It's just terribly inconvenient, schedule-wise, and the flawed logic behind the requirement doesn't help things.

If an accountant is ethically-challenged to begin with, no accumulation of credentialing initials is going to help that situation. In fact, one could argue that it might serve to make them more creative in their ability to concoct Enron-like schemes. I suppose the hope is that there will be enough ethical and competent folks (like MLB) around that any such scheme will never get off the ground.

In any event, she'll take the exam tomorrow morning and we'll be able to get back to our regularly scheduled programming...until the next SOX requirement comes down the pike.

Democracy in Ukraine...Check

What with seasonal distractions and global disasters, I haven't devoted any pixels to the presidential election in Ukraine, but then there have been much better sources for coverage than me...like my pal Discoshaman and his charming and lovely bride TulipGirl who've provided on-the-ground reporting since day one.

But that's not to say that I've let the events go unnoticed, and this evening I'm proud to unveil an updated "Democracy for Ukraine" graphic, seen in the right-hand column of the Gazette's home page (if you're not there already).

Even though the defeated Yanukovych has filed a lawsuit challenging the election results, I feel confident in calling this as a victory for democracy. In fact, the filing of that lawsuit in and of itself seems to reinforce the democratic nature of the whole process!

Southest Asia Disaster/Global Implications

WorldChanging has a thoughtful essay about the potential long-term geopolitical impacts from the "Tsunamis of '04." This sort of analysis is healthy and will likely multiply exponentially as the true scope of the disaster comes into clearer focus.

The big question of how to anticipate and mitigate future such occurrences (which are, of course, inevitable) defies any practical answer without some sea change (no pun intended) in the way governments, businesses and scientific communities work together.

Earthquake/Tsunami Relief: How to help (hint: cash)

There are many resources around the net providing information about how we can be a part of the massive assistance needed to help the victims of the Asian disaster.

From a blogging perspective, The Command Post has one of the most comprehensive lists. USAID also has a very good website devoted to the relief efforts, along with updates of the current status of the situation. This page provides a list of relief agencies currently accepting donations.

If you want to get involved, cash is king. As USAID puts it:

For some real life examples of why non-cash aid is often not appropriate, take a look at some of the articles linked on the Center for International Disaster Information's website. CIDI also provides some clear and concise guidelines for effective donations.

Christmas Drawl

Our combined families went to church together in Fort Stockton last Sunday, and I'm sure the preacher wondered why the entire back pew, save one, was twitching with barely stifled giggles during the reading of "the Christmas Story" from Luke's gospel. I hope he chalked it up to families experiencing the joy of glad tidings, but the real reason was quite a bit less spiritual, I'm afraid.

Quick rewind to Friday evening, Christmas eve. As has been our tradition for twenty years and more, we read the Christmas Story at my wife's house prior to opening gifts. Actually, we've had the niece and nephew read it for the past ten years or so, figuring it was either (a) a good way to impress on them the true meaning of Christmas or (b) one more button to push in making them wait just a bit longer to tear into their gifts. Regardless, they've always been happy to oblige, and even now that they're both teenagers, there's no hint of protest. So perhaps (a) was the outcome, after all.

Anyway, the kidsters were alternating reading the passage from the King James Version and the niece happened to draw the part about the angels appearing to the shepherds. You know how it goes; let's all say it together:

Now, you've got to put yourself in a Lone Star (the state, not the beer) frame of mind, and imagine the following words being read aloud in a Texas drawl:

As long as she lives, I don't believe my niece will ever be permitted to forget the night she pegged them pore sheepherders as shore being afraid. And, of course, she was the one trying to slide under the pew while the rest of us spasmed and snorted in church two days later. Perhaps she'll have the last laugh when the New American Cowboy Version of the Bible is published.

Home, but not settled...

We're back in Midland following a fine holiday in Fort Stockton, and even after five hours of working at it, we're still nowhere near being organized. The easy stuff has been done, but we're now down to the nitty-gritty details: figuring out how to work the cool stuff we got for Christmas!

Much to report on, including the introduction of an octogenarian to a computer (or was it vice versa?). Stay tuned!

Pray for Southeast Asians...and one blogger in particular

Update (12/27/04): It was a relief to hear that ireneQ and family were not affected by this disaster, at least not directly. She provides a number of links to Malaysian bloggers who are providing firsthand reports.

The internet has brought us closer together in unanticipated and mostly positive ways, and blogging has personalized regions of the globe which hitherto have just been obscure names in an atlas.

The devastating earthquake and aftershocks earlier today in southeast Asia brought to my mind the fact that one of the sites on my blogroll originates from Malaysia. The writer is a Christian posting on ireneQ - unravelled, and she and I have shared some email correspondence in the past. It's been a while since I "spoke" with her, but I'm concerned about her and her family.

I also know a few ex-pats working for BP in the oil industry in and around Indonesia.

You may well know someone in that part of the world, either personally or via blogging. Please join me in praying for their safety and health. The effects of this catastrophe will be with us for quite some time, I fear.

Blogger Pals in Need of Prayer

Update - 12/26/04: Wallace came through surgery in good shape and is recovering nicely...should be home soon. Great news!

Fellow Midland blogger Wallace and his blogging wife Julie would appreciate your prayers, as Wallace's angioplasty hit some scheduling snags, leaving him sedated on the operating table with no resolution in sight.

This is not the way you want to spend Christmas Eve...or any day, for that matter. But the prognosis sounds good, so it may turn out to be a wonderful gift after all.

Christmas Blessings

[Note: If the following looks familiar, it's because I ran it two years ago. While I am creatively challenged this morning (a rare overnight snowfall in west Texas coupled with a delicious blueberry French toast breakfast with family will do that to you), this is still one of my favorites because the song is so beautiful. I hope you and your family will enjoy the blessings of Christmas, and that the major blessing will come from understanding the grace and love of our Saviour.]

Forecast: Light-to-Partly-Moderate Blogging

Travel and stuff will impede blogging at the Gazette over the next several days.* Surely you have better things to do, anyway. I will try to at least put up a special Christmas message (perhaps even before Christmas!).

But, if this is your last stop in the neighborhood before holiday life takes you elsewhere, please accept my wishes for a blessed and joyful Christmas...stay safe and healthy, and give your loved ones a big hug!

*Note: I reserve the right to change my mind and blather on incessantly depending on circumstances, especially if I was deemed a superior boy by Santa this year and am thus rewarded with, say, a new Maserati. In that case, I'll not be able to resist gloating about it here. You are duly warned.

MASCAL

Perhaps you've seen this mentioned on numerous other blogs today, and perhaps, like me, you went past it, mentally filing it away in the "another time, perhaps" category. If so, I hope that you will, like me, stop what you're doing and take five minutes to read this post by a chaplain who was on the scene immediately after the bombing of the base in Mosul.

May God bless and protect this man and those with whom he serves.

stopgostopgostopgostopgo...

This is strangely mesmerizing, in an occasionally motion sickness-inducing fashion. Numbers 13 and 14 are my favorites, although I couldn't say why.

"Public Christian"? What's wrong with this picture?

The list of things I don't understand is lengthy and shows no sign of ever getting shorter, especially when I have to add things like this to it.

I can't comprehend why a Christian in America would stop praying in public -- especially when it's been her practice for years -- for fear of being labeled...something. I guess I need to find another explanation for that "candle under a bushel" thing in the New Testament.

Tip o'the Mitre to Rebecca Blood.

CUBbing, Portuguese-style

While my suggestion for a Coalition of Unpaid Bloggers hasn't exactly taken the blogosphere by storm, it is interesting to see where the meme is cropping up. Take this Portuguese blog, for example.

My admittedly poor skills in Spanish let me guess that the blogger is characterizing CUB as a "protest" against bloggers being paid for posting. While I appreciate the link, the characterization is inaccurate. CUB is not intended to be "against" anything; it's not a value judgment about pay-to-blog deals, it's simply an affirmative statement that a blog that carries the CUB logo is not directly supported by third-party financial arrangements.

Sr. Zamith is not the only person to misinterpret the rationale or intent behind CUB, and that's undoubtably due to my inexpert introduction of the concept. I haven't decided if it's worth going to any trouble to clarify, given the initial yawning reaction.

Dactylic Bloggery, Laugh 'til it hurts...

I was clicking idly through my blog feeds last week and noticed the following reference on Cowtown Patty's "Texas Trifles":

The word "dactyl" stuck in my mind, but I was immediately distracted ("oh look...another baby squirrel!") and never followed up on whatever thought might have been struggling to be birthed at that point.

Fast-forward to today, and I'm back in CP's neighborhood, and I recall the dactylic reference and I find it and I think, "now, what the heck is a dactyl, anyway?" It sounds vaguely familiar, but I could just be channeling the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I bounce over to Wikipedia and find an uncharacteristically unenlightening definition: it's a meter in poetry. Google leads me to a somewhat fuller explanation, and I begin to flash back to high school English, presided over by the only just-out-of-college female teacher with whom I didn't fall madly in love (or, perhaps, that other L-word). She was simply too goo-goo over inscrutable terms like iambic pentameter and her enthusiasm was distinctly non-contagious. (She also had a tendency to pronounce "dragon" as "draygon," and you simply have no idea how off-putting that is to a teenaged boy in the heart of west Texas.)

OK...I was going somewhere with this...give me a minute... Oh yeah! Anyway, Cowtown Patty provides a link to a quite excellent blog by George Wallace, a California attorney practicing under the blogline of "A Fool in the Forest," and George has a whole category of posts devoted to double dactyls. It's both entertaining and educational, whether you're a fan of poetry or not, and I recommend a meander through his dactylic offerings to revive those lost English lessons from youth.

Watt a revolting predicament

[Update! Disclaimer and warning: A knowledgeable reader left a comment on this post to the effect that if I really did what I say I did, then there's a good chance I'll be dead by the time you read this. So, if you came here for anything other than entertainment purposes, leave immediately! I don't know what I'm writing about and you're crazier than me if you try to imitate anything I said I did. And, if you came here for entertainment purposes, then I am truly apologetic.]

I have the utmost respect for electricians. They are the snake-charmers of the building profession, somehow mesmerizing the deadly current and bending it to their will. Most of them are also clinically insane, but that's another story for another day.

Suffice it to say that I generally try to stay on the switch side of electricity, because what I don't know can kill me. Unfortunately, as a homeowner -- and a cheap one at that -- I sometimes find that I have no choice but to expose bare wires and try a little flute playing myself.

It's rare that I have to do this twice in three days, but on Saturday I replaced the hall light fixture as a part of the neverending remodeling project that's underway (current status: 18.3% complete as we begin our sixth week). That task went comparatively smoothly, meaning that I set nothing on fire and none of the blood splattered the newly painted walls.

Emboldened, I turned my attention to a rather more pressing issue. The light in MLB's closet was flickering ominously, while a barely perceptible crackle emanated from the wall switch. I thought the effect was pleasingly similar to something from a mad scientist movie, but MLB did not share my tolerance. (She also was not amused in the least by the irony of the situation. I, who can dress in an instant in pitch black conditions owing to my minimal wardrobe requirements of a t-shirt [top rack, left] and jeans [bottom rack, left], enjoyed the plentiful photonic visitations of a perfectly matched and functioning bulb and switch, while she of the "I'll be finished constructing my ensemble for the day by the time I need to leave for work, plus 10 minutes" philosophy was reduced to groping blindly, trying to determine by feel whether this black was a complementing or contrasting shade to that black. Surely you can see the irony?)

Anyway, it was obvious that I was going to actually have to do something about this situation, and quickly. I hypothesized that the problem was in the 20+ year old switch, having made a quick climb into the attic to make confirm that one of the local squirrels hadn't chomped through the wiring. I pulled the old switch out, memorizing (or so I thought) which wires went into which holes and behind which screws, and set off to Home Depot to acquire a replacement.

Do you have any idea how many different kinds of wall switches there are? I searched intently for one labeled "Replacement for a 20+ year old switch that controls a single light bulb; closet model" but was aghast to find that the manufacturers of those devices apparently assumed that people who bought them knew what they were doing and didn't need explicit labels.

Of course, all the Home Depotitians were off demonstrating battery chargers or sharpening files or whatever they do before 9:00 a.m. so I was reduced to making a decision on my own. I went with the simplest looking switch I could find; it was labeled "2-way" but I figured that if it could handle two circuits, it surely could handle one.

Installation of the new mechanism was relatively straightforward and I was pleased at the end to see that the light bulb went on and off in direct and proper synchronicity with the toggling of the switch. I reinstalled the plate and went happily back to my life, content in knowing that I had once again eluded the cobra. (Incidentally, I can drag out this lame metaphor until the cows come home.)

This handyman euphoria lasted until about 6:00 p.m., when it was dark enough to require a lighted bathroom for, um, bathroom business. It was at that time that I noticed something odd. The bathroom lights no longer came on. Very odd. Odder still: neither did my closet light. A deep depression started to settle around me as I realized that I had somehow managed to disable most of the other circuits in and around our bedroom, while fixing that one lousy stinking closet switch.

I knew then that I was in over my head, so I did the only thing that comes naturally to me in such situations: I hauled out the tool kit and started over.

The really puzzling thing was that the now-defunct lights were all on a different breaker circuit than the closet light. How, then, could one affect the other? Of all the things I didn't understand about electricity, this was simply one more. But, I reasoned, if it worked with the previous switch, it should work with this one.

I started trying different combinations of wires going to different connections on the new switch. I went back and forth between the garage and the bedroom, flipping the breaker switch on and off, so many times that Abbye started edging nervously toward the back door, apparently deciding that I was on the verge of the homicidal rage that she's known all along was inevitable. At one point, I succeeded in bringing all the lights back to life...but only if MLB's closet light was on. I felt like I was in the middle of a Marx Brothers routine.

I finally eliminated enough possibilities to determine that, for whatever reason the insane electrician who originally wired our house might have conjured in his demented mind, the ground wire from the other parts of the room needed to be permanently affixed to the same terminal as the hot wire [NOT REALLY! NEVER DO THIS!]. Doing this would allow MLB's closet light to be controlled by the new switch, while never cutting the current to the circuit for the other lights; they, of course, would be controlled by their own switches.

Time expended: 30 minutes to purchase and install new switch incorrectly; 1 hour to fix original installation 10 hours later. Lessons learned: none. I have a voltmeter and I know how to use it. Stay out of my way; you might be shocked by my expertise.

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor inconvenient window hours...

I had my first encounter* with the USPS' do-it-yourself parcel mailing kiosk, and I was quite impressed. This will go a long way in easing the tension that accrues from having to wait until 9:00 a.m. for the human-staffed windows to open.

The process couldn't be more simple. Place your package (or envelope; it handles more than just parcels) on the scale and follow the clear and concise instructions on the touchscreen. Select the type of package (parcel or envelope), enter the zip code and select the delivery method (standard, next-day or priority), and answer a couple of security-related questions (the same ones they ask you at the window) and you're presented with the total postage due, which you can pay via plastic. The machine spits out a postage label and the parcel is good to go. The only limit is on package size; the parcel must be a 17" cube or smaller to fit into the dropbox. For larger packages, I assume you can go ahead and take care of the postage, but you'll have to make other arrangements for pickup.

I've always contended that the invention of pay-at-the-pump gasoline sales represented the pinnacle of human ingenuity. This new offering by the Postal Service doesn't quite match that lofty achievement...but it's not far behind.

[If you've been using this type of kiosk for years, then just bear with me. Midland isn't example the center of the high-tech universe, unless its oilfield technology you're talking about.]

'Tis the Season to be Annoying (fa la la la laaa, la la la la)

You know, of course, that the main problem with all those cheesy musical eChristmas cards floating around is that they were created by someone else. The solution is simple: create your own!

This, by the way, is seriously addictive.

[Tip o'the pointy cap to Zeldman.]

A non-IE browser is a happy browser!

In our neverending effort to spare no expense to rescue our loyal readers from IEnslavement, we proudly present: Browse Happy.

Borrowing a page from Apple's Switch playbook, this site presents real life stories of those who have been wooed from the darksIdE and brought into browser nirvana with a mere click of a mouse button. If you came here via IE (and I do know [usually]), then don't delay; the only thing you have to lose is grIEf!

[Tip o'the Hat to sidesh0w, which no longer cares how its pages look in IE/Mac. So there.]

Keep this up and they'll soon be running a small country

Things have been too hectic for us to catch any first-run movies, but I notice that the local megacinemultiplex is apparently set to do some construction. I presume that said work will result in the addition of a few new screens, possibly in an attempt to keep up with the Odessans.

If this is indeed the case, then I can't help wondering about the discussion in some boardroom somewhere in which the decision was made to go forward with the project. I mean, what were they thinking?

It will be nice to have a few more choices, assuming that they don't decide to run "Friday Night Lights" in perpetuity on a couple of the new screens, but the bigger question is where they think they'll find enough sullen, unobservant, slow-moving teenagers* to mismanage the expanded assets when they're already woefully behind the curve with the existing setup?

*Obligatory disclaimer: There are also a few quite competent and friendly teens on staff; their presence vividly highlights by contrast my point.

Yes, Virginia, there is someone better than a Santa Claus

[Updated 12/21/04]

An open letter, with a nod to Francis P. Church:

Virginia, when you were eight years old, you asked whether there really was a Santa Claus, and were assured by a caring person that, yes indeed, the old fellow does exist and will continue to do so, making glad the heart of childhood.

But now you're a bit older and you've heard that some people are questioning the very name of Christmas, wanting to re-write it to remove the mention of someone or something called "Christ," and you've got your own questions. After all, as long as we have Santa Claus, isn't that enough?

Virginia, those people are wrong. They've been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they can see.

Yes, Virginia, there is someone better – much better, in fact – than Santa Claus. Please allow me to explain.

His name is Jesus, and he is referred to by many as Jesus Christ. Yes, that's right, Virginia; the very name of Christmas wouldn't exist were it not for Jesus. But he is so much more than Santa Claus; much more than simply someone whose title is the basis for a holiday.

You know that Santa Claus also goes by the name of Saint Nicholas. "Saint" is a word that means holy or set apart. Jesus was proclaimed holy and set apart before the very foundations of the earth were laid.

Santa has a list of the names of every boy and girl on earth and he knows whether they've been naughty or nice; only those who have been nice get gifts from him. Jesus knows every one of us, too; in fact, he knows the exact number of the hairs on each of our heads. He also knows that none of us has been nice...he knows very well how bad we are, and yet – wonder of wonders! – he still offers a free gift of unsurpassed value to any of us who will accept it. And he doesn't just keep a list; lists can be misplaced or torn or smudged. No, Virginia, Jesus has a Book in which all the names of all the people who have accepted his free gift are written and those names will never be erased!

Whenever you see a picture of Santa Claus, he's dressed from head to toe in a beautiful red suit. Jesus wears a robe of brilliant white, but there was a time when he, too, was covered in red. It was his own blood, shed on behalf of sinful men and women everywhere, at every time. It's hard to imagine, isn't it, that this terrible crimson outpouring could, in fact, wash us white as snow.

I'm sure, Virginia, that your parents give you milk and cookies to put out for Santa Claus each Christmas Eve. We don't have to provide drink and food for Jesus, because he is the Living Water and the Bread of Life.

Santa travels around the world in a wonderful sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, who obey his every command. Jesus, however, owns the cattle on a thousand hills. In fact, he created those cattle, and the reindeer and every other animal, and all creation obeys his command.

Virginia, have you written your letter to Santa Claus this year? We must rely on pen and ink and someone to deliver our letters in order to communicate with Santa, and as far as I know, he never writes back. And, sometimes we wonder if he read or even received our letters. There are no such barriers to our ability to communicate with Jesus. We can talk to him at anytime and in any place...and he always answers!

Santa Claus' most amazing feat is that he can visit every home in the world on Christmas Eve and leave gifts for the good little boys and girls. We understand that those gifts were created especially by Santa and his elfin helpers, and even though they are expertly crafted, they eventually break or rust or lose their sparkle. Jesus, on the other hand, created both time and space and is not bound by either. He is everywhere, all the time, and the gift that he offers is available at any time during our lives, not just when we awake on Christmas Day. What's more, his gift never fades or loses its power; it lasts for an eternity, and each second we have it is more glorious than the previous one!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, if you want him to exist, and characters like him and hobbits and talking sponges are wonderful folks who serve our imaginations well.

On the other hand, Jesus Christ – the Reason for the Season – is truly alive today, just as he was before the beginning of time, and there's no need to try to invent or imagine him or someone like him.

No Christ in Christmas? Thank God he lives and lives forever, regardless how skeptical men may try to obliterate all references to him. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make holy the hearts of sinful men, and they will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!

Merry Christmas!

First Vioxx...now Celebrex?

The manufacturer of the immensely popular painkiller Celebrex has found that it may contribute to an increased risk of heart attacks. Pfizer Inc. says, however, that it has no plans to pull the drug from pharmacy shelves, pointing to a second study that shows no such effect.

As you no doubt remember, it was the recall of Vioxx by Merck & Co. in September that sent that company's financial outlook down the drain.

Celebrex is the world's most widely prescribed drug for treatment of pain related to arthritis, and this finding could be a severe blow to those who depend on it. While the conflicting study results don't allow any firm conclusions, I suspect that most physicians will err on the side of caution and remove the drug from the treatment protocol for at least those patients with existing heart problems.

Celebrex is not without its problematic side effects, current concerns aside. If you're treating the pain associated with something like a stress fracture, you need to be aware that Celebrex can inhibit the new bone growth that provides the healing of such injuries. If you find that your injury isn't healing as fast as you think it should, be sure to discuss this issue with your doctor, as the solution may be as simple as switching to a different type of pain medication.

We lost your paycheck...oh, and Merry Christmas!

Employees of one of the biggest companies in Midland have been informed that their mid-month paychecks are, um, missing. While this situation has minimal effect on those who chose to get paid via EFT, there are a number of technophobic holdouts who prefer to get a real honest-to-gosh piece of paper in their hands twice a month, and these folks are up the creek.

It seems that the payroll goes out from the main office via USPS and no one knows where this mailing has gone. Even for those getting paid for direct deposit, it's a minor inconvenience because their checkstubs are mailed to them and they may not know exactly how much was put in their accounts.

I went through this as a brand new employee with ARCO in Dallas back in the mid-70s. We learned that an entire payroll mailbag apparently disappeared. This was back when everyone got paid via a paper check...so we were all in the same boat, from executives to janitors. Of course, some had more of a financial cushion than others, and I, being a fresh college graduate, fell into the "others" category. The company quickly realized the predicament and provided cash advances to those who needed them.

The lesson here seems obvious. EFT is a proven technology; why not take advantage of it? And if you needed any reinforcement for the wisdom of doing this, missing a paycheck just before Christmas would seem to be a dramatic wakeup call.

Wear Blue

The latest "affinity wristband" is a good one. The blue silicon band is stamped with the word "ProLife," and, like the amazingly successful "LiveStrong" band used as a fundraiser by the Lance Armstrong Foundation, it costs only $1.

Click the image above to learn more about the wristbands, including ordering information. There's no online ordering at this time, but it wouldn't hurt you to pick up a telephone every now and then to stay in practice. ;-)

Tip o'the Hat to the pulchritudinous Dawn Eden.

Gaaaack!

I don't have a good category for this. In fact, I'd be worried about myself if I did.

Tip o'the Hat to George at Sleepless in Midland (Jorge, I really don't wanna know, amigo!)

Dimensionizer

Dimensionizer is a one-trick pony bit of freeware for Mac OS 10.3 from the good folks who also bring us Enkoder, a wonderful multi-platform Javascript email address encoder designed to thwart spambots.

Dimensionizer actually does two closely-related things. First, control-clicking any image brings up a contextual menu item showing the height and width of that image in pixels, and the resolution in DPI (see screenshot below). It also copies the dimensions of the image to the clipboard in HTML height and width format, for easy pasting into the editor of your choice. This might not sound too impressive unless you work frequently with images and websites, in which case its narrow focus is a wonderful little timesaver.

I demand $5 million, a helicopter and...a random sequence of five letters

You know that string of letters and/or numbers that some sites require you to type in before you can access another page or feature? I never realized it had a name...never thought about it, really. But it does, according to NetLingo.

It's called a "ransom note." Ransom notes are supposed to ensure that a real person is requesting access, rather than a bot. I suspect they're pretty effective from that perspective, but they can also stymie a visually-disabled person's attempt to use the site.

Keep paying attention, kiddies, and you'll be killers once the "Trivial Pursuit - Geek Edition" hits the shelves. We won't discuss what you'll be until then.

Red Christmas Ornaments...Stat!

BarneyCam is back!

The annual White House Christmas video is now available for viewing (assuming you have RealPlayer™ installed), and the nine minute movie is a combination of cheesy and cute. The best scenes involve Barney being what he really is: a dog with a penchant for chasing round objects around the floor or ground. The best human-centric scene is where Karl Rove is decorating a Christmas tree. I won't spoil it for you (but the title to this post should give you a clue).

Note to W: Keep your day job. Oh, that's right...you did! Merry Christmas, Mr. President!

Bloggers as Journalists: Be careful what you wish for

Deb over at Write Lightning raises an interesting question: if bloggers are considered journalists, what sorts of legal obligations might arise (or be foisted upon them) as a result of that status?

It would be a pretty desperate prosecutor who'd come after me to reveal the sources of any of the information in my posts...and a pretty disappointed one after finding out that I have no sources. But I can see where this will become an increasingly likely issue for those bloggers who aspire to legitimacy as journalists. If they are or were journalists in their pre-blogging lives, they'll know how to deal with it, but for the others, it could be an eye-opening experience.

Wails from the Crypt

I'd love to show up at my first guitar lesson packing this axe.

[Tip o'the Skull Cap to A Small Victory]

Capra Coneys

I've never been particularly fond of "It's A Wonderful Life." I don't hate it, but neither will I drop what I'm doing to watch it. But that might change if the bunnyized version get picked up by cable.

[Tip o'the Rabbit Ears to Jen at...where else?...Jen Speaks]

Improving Thumbnail Quality in 4Images

[Note: The following post is pretty esoteric and specific and is really meant to be a resource for someone looking for an answer to this problem in the future. If you've just dropped in to browse, feel free to read it if you want, but I think you'd be better off with the back of a cereal box.]

If your webhost has provided you with the 4Images image gallery management system, but didn't provide you with much documentation on configuring or troubleshooting it...join the club. I have a client who is using GoDaddy.com as a webhost and while the price and features are compelling, userguides are non-existent.

GoDaddy's setup requires that the GD Graphics Library be used to automatically generate thumbnail images of uploaded photos. However, the default configuration of 4Images can result in extremely low-quality thumbnail images when coupled with GD. If you're having this problem, the solution is, thankfully, quite simple.

To correct it, FTP into your account and download the following file from the 4Images directory that was created when the package was installed (it's called "forimages" in my example; it might be called something else in your installation):

/forimages/includes/constants.php

Open constants.php in a text editor and change define('CONVERT_IS_GD2', 0); to define('CONVERT_IS_GD2', 1);. Save and upload the file. Your thumbnails should now be much improved.

I found this tip in the 4Images help forum, which is a handy site to bookmark for future reference.

Practicing Safe Computing

I've taken to linking Bruce Schneier's posts more frequently, but it's only because I have your best interests in mind, dear reader. Take this one, for example: Safe Personal Computing.

Mr. Schneier, one of the world's leading authorities on security (of all kinds), provides a list of a dozen simple things we each can do to make our online experiences safer. Even if you are the Prince(ess) of Paranoia and are firewalled up to your fibula, this list makes for a good refresher.

I'll resist the urge to gloat over what he has to say about Microsoft products, btw.

Kiwi Greetings in My Mailbox!

I was delighted to open my mailbox this afternoon to find a lovely Christmas card from the equally lovely Rachel at Life Being Beautiful. As I told her, this is the first mail I've ever received from New Zealand, and it's pretty cool to think that she would go to the trouble (and expense) to send it to me and MLB.

She also enclosed some postcards showing some of the amazing New Zealand scenery. I'm sure each of us is quite satisfied with where we live, but it's hard to argue that Rachel doesn't live in the most beautiful land on the face of the earth.

Every time I think about quitting this blogging business, something like this comes along and reminds me of why I do it. Merry Christmas, Rachel...and the same to the rest of you guys, too!

Thoughts about Death

I've been thinking about death lately. A couple of things have caused me to contemplate questions like why some people cling so heroically to life, and would it be worse to die or to spend the rest of my life in prison.

Of course, the sentencing of Scott Peterson is the jumping off point for the latter question. If I was in his shoes...well, my imagination, as good as it is, isn't really up to that scenario. But I can't help thinking that I'd rather die than live the next 50 years in solitary confinement.

The thing that sent me chasing the first question was the watching of Touching the Void, the 2003 movie about two young climbers who almost died during an attempt to climb Siula Grande, a mountain in Peru. In the movie, which is based on a true story, one of the men makes it down the mountain badly shaken but in relatively good condition. His partner, however, suffered a severely broken leg during the descent, then fell about 80 feet into a crevasse and was abandoned for dead. Despite agonizing pain, he managed to crawl out of the crevasse and back down the mountain over the course of several days, and was discovered and rescued only a few hours short of death.

The movie is, in fact, a re-creation of actual events narrated by the two climbers themselves. The injured climber shared his thoughts as he lay in the crevasse and realized that he was probably going to die. He did not believe in God, and he was certain that when he died, that was it...nothingness. He had no family to live for, but the fear of "the void" and the anger at having to leave the world with so many adventures as yet untackled was simply more than he was willing to accept. So he didn't. He clawed his way, literally, back to life, cursing and screaming and crying all the way.

I don't know that I'd be that heroic, that desperate, in the same situation. The simple fact of the matter is that, for me, there are worse things than dying. My faith in God, my belief in heaven and in my absolute salvation give me a much different perspective than the young man in the movie. As much as I love life and family and friends and all the wonderful blessings I enjoy on a daily basis, I also realize that, in the truest sense, the best is yet to come.

That doesn't mean that I want to hasten the passing of life (although, Jesus, if you want to return tonight, you have my sincerest blessing!). God's gift is too precious to squander or to take for granted, although I do both all the time. It's just that, well, my soul knows of a better place.

I've always liked the song that Sandi Patti and Wayne Watson recorded years ago, entitled "Another Time, Another Place." The chorus goes like this:

Interestingly...and a bit sadly, I must admit...the man in the movie came away from his experience unchanged, spiritually-speaking (as far as I could discern). He's still trying to "live life to the fullest," before it finally runs dry and leaves him with...nothing. Or so he believes. I hope he discovers the truth before it claims him.

I pray the same thing for Scott Peterson. His crimes were heinous and his punishment is just and proportionate. But that doesn't mean that he's beyond redemption in an eternal sense. Unfortunately, I fear that he's of the same mindset as the injured climber, and any living fate is preferable to "the void."

Life would be perfect, if only I'd let it

Ah, the exciting life of a freelancer...nothing like it for living on the edge, taking life as it comes, putting it all on the line, laying awake at night and thinking that there are worse things in life than sacking groceries at HEB for a living.

This time last week, for the first time since I descended into this madness, I had no projects and no prospects. I was seriously considering the dreadful thought of a "real job" and wondering where I stored my Dockers.

This morning, I have four projects, two brand-new and two resurrected from the dead (one of which has lain fallow for more than two years). And talk about variety: a commercial construction company, a 30-year class reunion, a bed-and-breakfast and a law firm.

Man, being a freelancer is tough. <melbrooks>Work work work work work.</melbrooks> Maybe I need to find a real job, where there's less stress.

Christmas Gifts with Attitudes, Texas-style

You knew it was just a matter of time. The good folks who brought you the "Don't Mess With Texas" ad campaign are now peddling products, just in time for your holiday shopping.

Travel mugs and t-shirts are also available from what has to be in the running for Ugliest Website Ever For A Big State Agency (somebody please explain to the developer that the width and height tags are not to be used to resize photos!).

So, if you have a hard-to-shop-for Texan on your list, stop by the DMWT store and fix 'em up. Either that, or give him (or her) an IOU for something really special!

Becker Smackdown

The esteemed authors of the new Becker-Posner Blog are responding to comments from their first set of posts (about preventive war, in case you weren't paying attention the first time around)...and there were about a jillion of them. There are an equally impressive number of comments to their responses, including this one directed to Gary Becker, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, that just cracked me up:

IOW, in the blogosphere, a Nobel Prize and a buck-fifty will get you a cuppa coffee, boyo. Heh.

(Personally, I thought that was a bit harsh. Even world renown scholars should be granted a few mulligans until they get a feel for the game.)

Got Pork...I mean, Milk?

Deb over at Write Lightning has an interesting post about the sources of vitamin D3 in milk. It seems that one potential source of that essential "vitamin" (it's not actually a vitamin, in the most technical sense, because it can be produced by an organism, albeit not usually in sufficient quantities) is pork. This presents a problem for those who are observing strict dietary guidelines for religious reasons, such as the kosher diet of Orthodox Jews.

Deb refers to an old article and wonders if the sources for D3 have changed in the years since it was printed. I don't know about that, but I did find a scientific paper that goes into great detail about D3, its significance and its sources. According to this article, once the D3 is synthesized into its pure molecular form, it's impossible to determine its source, which isn't surprising. The exact processes and sources now in use are apparently proprietary, protected by patents. The article goes on to acknowledge the quandary this creates for the aforementioned religious diets.

Another reason to support CUB

Here's another example of why something like CUB is needed. This post is an account of a couple of bloggers who didn't disclose that they were getting paid to post about a political campaign.

While the Coalition of Unpaid Bloggers concept wouldn't have necessarily prevented this from happening, widespread adoption of it or something similar might make it easier to spot.

[Tip o'the hat to Kevin over at PubliusTX]

Yeah, that's me, alright...

I am so busy this afternoon. Busy, busy, busy. Hardly have time to look up. Swamped, I tell you. Oh, look...a baby squirrel!

Friday Wonderments

Random observations...because that's what we do.©

• Most of us have too much stuff. That's why so many houses with perfectly good 2- and 3-car garages have cars parked in the streets. I had a client tell me once that he came by several times to drop something off, but I was never at home. I told him that I was always at home. He said "your car wasn't parked in your driveway." I replied, "that's because it was in my garage!" He went away with a puzzled look as he mulled over this apparently alien concept. I'm pretty sure that I moved up a notch or two on his weirdness scale.


• Of course, I have too much stuff, as well. But I simply rent an off-premises storage unit to protect that valuable stuff (which I haven't visited in a year...that's how valuable and irreplaceable it is).


• How come women don't whistle? When's the last time you heard a gal whistling idly to pass the time? (My guess is that Gazette reader Jeff likes The Bangles because one of the band chicks whistles on "Walk Like An Egyptian.")


• Ladies, take a tip from Lauren Bacall. Learn to whistle. You'll either be incredibly attractive, or incredibly annoying, and both characteristics have their uses.


• Here's a tip for something extravagant to try next Christmas (it's probably too late this year). Rent a limo and have the driver take you and some friends through neighborhoods in your burg which are known for their over-the-top house and yard decorations. We did this last night, with three other couples, and it was a hoot. We're all hayseeds anyway, and it was the first time for most of us to ride in a limo, so we each took turns standing and sticking our head out the moonroof and making tacky remarks about the decorations which failed to meet our lofty expectations (or which were, themselves, much more tacky than anything we could describe).


• Our limo was a black stretch Lincoln, seating eight comfortably and ten in a squeeze. However, we experienced limo envy at one point when we were passed by the white stretch Excursion, owned by the same company; our driver said it seats eighteen. Fortunately, we don't have that many friends.


• We're in week four of our painting/remodeling project. I estimate that the work is about 17% complete. By the time we're finished, we'll either be close enough with the painter that he'll ask us to be godparents to his next child (which will be conceived and born before the work is finished), or one of us will be standing trial for homicide. In the latter instance, even an incompetent lawyer should have an easy case proving a case for "justifiable."

Answers to "Hardest Music Quiz"

I've posted the final answers to the few remaining questions on the music video quiz, in case you're still interested.

New Look for BibleGateway.com

I just noticed that the long-awaited remodeling of BibleGateway.com is complete, and the new look is terrific. Check it out when you get a minute.

I noticed that the site now offers a "verse of the day" via RSS feed. If this feature was available in the prior design, I somehow missed it. You may also listen to an audio reading of the entire chapter from which the verse of the day comes (although I couldn't get it to work...they may still be working out a few bugs).

This new design serves to strengthen what is arguably already the most valuable reference of its kind on the www.

Yahoo Groups and Web Beacons: Virtual Stalkers

Via Rebecca Blood, I've just learned that Yahoo! is using "web beacons" to track the browsing habits of members of its popular Yahoo! Groups. According to this page from Yahoo's Privacy Policy, these web beacons are being used both inside and outside of Yahoo's network.

While I'm not surprised to learn this, I'm also not happy about it. This is no more welcome than having a stalker tail my car around town throughout the day, making notes of every stop, then sharing those notes with strangers at the end of the day. Whether I make any stops that I shouldn't isn't the point; I don't want anybody following me like that.

Fortunately, the page linked to above also provides a link to opt out of this practice, at least for non-Yahoo network browsing (there's no such option for in-network movement). I recommend exercising that option if you are a member of any Yahoo! group. Note that you have to opt out via each browser that you use, as the web beacons are cookie-based.

I'm the administrator for a couple of groups used by non-profits for communication purposes. We'll take a closer look and see if continued use of Yahoo's service is desirable. If there's any good alternative at all, I suspect we'll drop Yahoo in a heartbeat.

Dealing with the "Immigration Problem," Canadian-style

Got the following in an email* and found it hilarious:

*The email was forwarded by my free-range vegan liberal cousin. ;-)

Update: "The Hardest Music Quiz Ever (Sort of)"

I've updated the Music Video Quiz to show the right answers thus far as well as who first provided them.

As of this post, we still need the identities of six of the 14 songs, and four of the 14 artists.

Plus, the bonus question is still outstanding.

Light-to-Non-existent Blogging Today

Owing to the intrusion of Real Work (which, admittedly, has been sadly lacking lately) and to a volunteer obligation at church later today, don't look for much new on the pages of the Gazette. Feel free to meander through the fine offerings in the blogrolls at right, where many nutritioius and delicious entreés await.

Becker-Posner on Preventive War

Update: Crooked Timber thinks this is an elaborate hoax, and presents an equally elaborate argument.

Note: If you're coming here via the trackback links on the Becker-Posner posts, I assume you're wondering what kind of idiot could misspell "Becker." In my own defense, let me just say...look! Is that Elvis?!

Gary Becker and Richard Posner are combining forces to create a new blog (creatively titled "The Becker-Posner Blog") that will be A-list before you can swing a dead cat in a circle.

Becker is a Nobel prize-winning economist and Posner is a federal circuit judge and author. They will be posting once a week, each Monday, for starters, although their first posts are already up. If today's post is any indication, they'll pick a topic and then blog about it from their separate perspectives.

This week's post is about pre-emptive or preventive war. Posner provides a sample set of assumptions with which one can walk through a computation of whether such a war can be cost-justified. Becker, on the other hand, provides a more qualitative analysis of the pros and cons of such action. Am I the only one who finds it odd that the lawyer is doing economic analysis and the economist isn't?

Both posts are well-written, short and to the point. We would expect no less. But the really interesting part is the law students sucking up to Posner via comments. Wonder how long it will take for the judge to grow weary of that?

CPR in the Pew

Update (12/6/04): According to a report from earlier this afternoon, the gentleman whose predicament is described below was recovering well. He did not have a heart attack; as far as we know, he's expected to make a complete recovery. I was told that this was his first visit to our church. I suspect he'll either be back as soon as possible...or he never wants to see the inside of our building again!

An elderly man collapsed during our worship service this morning. He was sitting three rows ahead of us and just across the aisle...probably ten or twelve feet away from me.

I've often thought that if I was going to have, say, a heart attack, the best place for it to happen would be in our church on a Sunday morning. For one thing, every third congregant seems to be a healthcare professional. Within thirty seconds, this gentleman was surrounded by a doctor, a psychiatrist (they go to med school too, you know), several RNs and at least one nursing school student.

We're also a well-equipped church for such things. Before the ambulance could arrive, he was already hooked up to our portable defib machine, which was monitoring his vital signs (albeit in a very noisy fashion; the mini-shocker talks you through the process, which is more than a little distracting in a worship service), and oxygen was also standing by.

But, really, the most important thing is that you instantly have 700+ people praying for you. In this case, once our pastor was aware of the situation, he called the services to a halt and led us in prayer for the man, his wife, and those attending to his needs. We continued in that attitude until the gentleman was carried out on an EMT rolling stretcher and transported to the hospital, which is but three blocks south of the church (yet another reason to pick our church).

The man was conscious and alert when they carried him out. He never needed CPR or required the defibrillator, despite being initially unresponsive after the collapse. One could argue that he just experienced a fainting spell. I don't know.

But, I keep coming back to 700 prayers being lifted simultaneously at the point of need. That's tapping into some significant power. I believe that not all the medical personnel attending to him were visible.

Bowl Games

Kevin's happy, but it's only gallows humor, as we learn that Texas has wormed its way into a BCS bowl, playing Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

That OU will play USC for the National Championship is no surprise, but it obviously leaves unbeaten Auburn out in the cold, as they play twice-bit Virginia Tech for leftovers in the Sugar Bowl.

The real winner (besides UT, which gets a huge pay raise out of the deal) is A&M, who now gets to play Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day, the best possible scheduling deal for a 7-4 team. I'm sure Tennessess isn't thrilled, but the Aggies have nothing to lose.

Here's the complete bowl schedule.

The Hardest Music Quiz Ever (Sort of)

Final Update (12/8): I sense a waning of enthusiasm so I figure I'll bring this ugly mess to a merciful end. No one ever correctly guessed the title to Video #4, Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust." Can't say I blame you; I tried to blank it out, myself. It wasn't his finest offering.

Let the second-guessing begin!

Update (12/7): My pathetically revealing hints yielded much fruit and we're now lacking only a couple of song titles below. Oh...and the bonus question. Don't forget the bonus question: what do all of these videos have in common?

Update (12/6): As a result of almost unbearable whining, a few hints appear below, associated with each as-yet unguessed video. You're still on your own for the bonus question.

Update (12/5): Judging by the responses thus far, it appears a bit of help is called for. OK...here's what you get: all of these songs/videos are from 1986. Yes, I know, Bert...you were one year old at the time. Consider this a history lesson.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and now that I've done it, for the life of me I can't remember why. But it's your problem now.

Here's the deal. Below you'll find a series of screenshots, each taken from a "vintage" music video. Your challenge is to identify (1) the song and (2) the performer from this single ultra-low resolution pic. (Which is what you get when the JPEG is created from a DVD of a more-than-decade old VHS taped recording of MTV. Remember when MTV showed music videos?)

Bonus: For extra credit, tell us what each of these videos have in common.

Leave your answers in the comments. I'll post an answer key in a week or so.

Video #1
"Tuff Enuff" - The Fabulous Thunderbirds (MTV Top 100 - #13)
Craig Henry

Video #2
"Rough Boy" - ZZ Top (MTV Top 100 - #8)
norbizness (via The Fat Guy, already excessively linked below)


Video #3
"Missionary Man" - Eurythmics (MTV Top 100 - #46)
Title: Andy the Geek; Artist: Denise


Video #4
"A Matter of Trust" - Billy Joel (MTV Top 100 - #21)
Title: No one!; Artist: Scott Chaffin


Video #5
"Kyrie" - Mr. Mister (MTV Top 100 - #22)
Craig Henry


Video #6
"Walk Like An Egyptian" - The Bangles (MTV Top 100 - #55)
Scott Chaffin


Video #7
"Addicted to Love" - Robert Palmer (MTV Top 100 - #3)
Mr. Freen


Video #8
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" - Aretha Franklin (MTV Top 100 - #90)
Title:Denise; Artist: Scott Chaffin


Video #9
"Sledgehammer" - Peter Gabriel (MTV Top 100 - #1)
Title: Scott Chaffin; Artist: Shannon


Video #10
"To Be a Lover" - Billy Idol (MTV Top 100 - #n/a)
Scott Chaffin


Video #11
"Everybody Have Fun Tonight" - Wang Chung (MTV Top 100 - #n/a)
Scott Chaffin


Video #12
"Rock Me Amadeus" - Falco (MTV Top 100 - #79)
Title: Shannon; Artist: Scott Chaffin


Video #13
"Walk This Way" - Run DMC (MTV Top 100 - #20)
Scott Chaffin


Video #14
"What You Need" - INXS (MTV Top 100 - #17)
Title: Johnny Mac; Artist:Denise

"That thing got a hemi?"

According to this website, there are over 100 million active landmines in the ground around the world. Thousands of people -- mostly civilians and often children -- are killed or maimed each year after encountering mines.

The problem is simple, but the solution is not. Here's one approach: a 16-ton behemoth dubbed the "Mine Wolf" that can clear 2,000 square meters per hour, significantly more and faster than the current military equivalent.

My deepest admiration goes out to whoever is brave enough to pilot one of these vehicles!

[Tip o'the Hat to Rebecca Blood for the link]

Coalition of Unpaid Bloggers (CUB)

[Updated since original post]

Marqui's blog-for-pay marketing program is generating a lot of buzz around the blogosphere...not so much for Marqui, necessarily, but plenty from those weighing in on whether it's smart, ethical, dishonest or stupid to participate in such a program.

Regular Gazette visitor Larry Stephey left a comment on the post linked above, and I think he's hit on a good idea:

Larry, while not a blogger himself (but he is a site owner), has some keen insights as to the very important issues of credibility and perceived objectivity. This has long been a "hot button" for me, as I've always believed that if I want my opinions to be taken seriously (even if they aren't agreeable) then I need to provide a full disclosure of how I came to them...or at least provide enough information that a reasonably intelligent reader can draw some reasonably intelligent conclusions about the context of my opinions.

Based on Larry's suggestion, I hereby propose the creation of the Coalition of Unpaid Bloggers (CUB), which will consist of those of us who -- for whatever reasons -- accept no remuneration for blogging. At this point, CUB excludes even those dear souls who have tip jars or who allow relatively harmless things like GoogleAds on their blogs. [See updates at the end of this post.] These things are not in the same category as being paid directly to blog, but they do fall into a gray area that needs some more thought (like a different Coalition membership level).

CUB even has a spiffy little logo choice of buttons:

The display of this logo on a blog will tell the reader that the blogger is not financially answerable to any third party for what he or she writes