Depressing news “out there.” On the home front, got the basement cleaned up enough yesterday that the guys can put in the new glass-block windows today. Also mowed the lawn, and got some work done. Today, the glass block, end-of-month administrivia, and probably something else from the long to-do list.
- Last night, St. Paul Saints win to tie Lincoln for lead in South Division. More from the Saints website and the PiPress. According to the league’s website, Gary, Winnipeg, Calgary, and KC are in the running for the wild-card. Lincoln is 51-40 overall, which would actually put them in the lead (a game ahead of Gary) for the wild-card if they don’t win the division. I thought they’d had a worse first-half than that. [strib]
- The coverage of Hurricane Katrina has been more than a little depressing for me, as much for the stark reality of how little the government has been helping people as anything. You’ve got a cop join[ing] in the looting, illegal searches at refugee centers and official plans to leave behind the 10-20% of the population who couldn’t afford to bug out. And the depressing part is that after all this, people are still trusting the government to take care of them in case of a disaster. [war on guns]
- Meanwhile, it’s pretty clear that gas prices will be going up. I’m with Warren in praying Let There Be Gas Price Gouging, rather than overregulation. For that matter, let people sell gas below the minimum if they want to, too. [coyote blog]
- And don’t believe those who blame Global Warming for Katrina. The damages are higher than they were for Ivan or Andrew because more people were affected and more expensive buildings were damaged. [instapundit]
- Cosh also has a Katrina round-up, in which he points out that this wasn’t so much bad luck for New Orleans as an end to a long run of good luck. [colby cosh]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 31, 2005 August 31 in History
Normally I try to have the daily post done by 9am Central time. Today, well, it was after 9 when I woke up. So things are a little late.
Last night’s Saints game ended the home season. There’s some sadness, but not too much, since I’ll see folks again during the playoffs, but there’s also a sigh of relief. I’ve now got a week off from baseball, and a chance to catch up on other parts of life. As a result, not too many links today (it doesn’t help that DNS seems to be flaky Hosting Matters seems to be down this morning, which takes a handful of the sites I read offline).
- Another contribution from a new guy: Coby Smith Hit Moves Saints Within A Game Of First, as the Saints depart for Gary and Schaumburg to wrap up the season on the road.
- I haven’t had much to say about Hurricane Katrina, but it’s sure made a mess of things down in New Orleans and along the gulf coast, and it’s clear, of nothing else, gas prices are going to get another boost because of this. I find myself wondering if there will be a New Orleans in the future.
Weather in Minneapolis for August 30, 2005 August 30 in History
Today is the last regular season home game for the Saints. It’s the time of season when I start thinking about all the folks I’m going to miss during the off-season. But it’s also the time when I’m pretty seriously ready for a break. There are still playoff games after Labor Day, but for now, I’m just trying to get through today without any major mishaps so I can get to the week’s work.
On top of that, I discovered that some hacker spent the weekend looking for a way to use my feedback forms to send spam. Man did that ever clutter things up around here. Plus I got to spend a half-hour figuring out if they might have been successful and how to close any holes. Not what I was hoping to do first thing this morning.
- I added a recipe for Tasty Leg O’ Lamb to the recipes page. Yum!
- Saints mini-update: Last week Saints make deals to add two players, but they didn’t actually appear until Saturday night. Central League Player Of Year Acquired In Deadline Deal, New Kid On The Block Makes Good First Impression. Sunday: Two home runs key Saints’ victory and Saints Go Deep In 4-1 Win, dingers from Camacho & Frosty. I’m impressed by the new new guys, but we still don’t seem to have the sort of guy who’ll really get the club excited the way Lou Lucca did last year.
- A MIT crew churns out ice cream with sizzle. Carbonated ice cream. Except it might not be ice cream (according to the FDA), but rather a “quiescently frozen confection.” Sounds yummy, in any case. [fark!]
- The Tobacco industry contests state fee on cigarettes. It appears that a tax would have been legal, but under the terms of the 1998 settlement with the tobacco companies, a fee is not legal, and
This is a case of a political gimmick screwing up the stability of the state budget,
according to Attorney General Mike Hatch. [strib] - Claire has a dog’s point of view on attacking government. At what point will we decide to break the unwritten laws of the pack? [claire]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 29, 2005 August 29 in History
Yeah, it’s a semi-rare Saturday edition. There’s baseball to talk about, so I am.
- Last night the TV host loses for Saints. He only had one earned run, but there’s more to the story than that. As the Saints press release Saints Held To Three Hits In 7-0 Loss says,
He pitched a commendable five innings…
but that’s also not the whole story. Yes, there never really was any offense last night, and yes, a bunch of the runs Crawford gave up were due to an error by Josh Renick, but you also need to know that a fairly popular starting pitcher lost his spot in the rotation to this guy (who I thought never looked very good on the mound), and I’m not at all surprised the bats were silent and there were errors. The guys weren’t playing as hard as they would have for a teammate.
Now they’re four games behind Lincoln, and three-and-a-half behind Gary, with nine games remaining in the season, three of which are against Gary, and none of which are against Lincoln. But it doesn’t matter, right? They’re already in the playoffs, right? Well, yes and no. If the Saints come out on top, they’re much more likely to face Gary (who leads the wild-card race) than Lincoln. To add to that, beating Lincoln and Gary could vault first-year Calgary into the playoffs due to the fact that Fargo will win both halves of the season in the Northern Division, Getting into the playoffs would be a huge deal for a team that hasn’t been getting a lot of press this year.
That’s one of my biggest gripes with the stunt last night. I think the Saints would do better getting regular daily coverage in St. Paul than they would by having one or two extra stories a year on ESPN. Their fans are here in Minnesota. When a rookie like Charlie Ruud comes out and does a respectable job, there’s better coverage from his alma mater than there is from either the team or the local paper. And in the thick of a pennant race, the Saints start some guy who couldn’t earn his way into the league, just so they can get some national press. Yes, it’s good for the front office folks who may be looking for jobs in the majors, but what does it do for the team? [press-patch] - Which leads me to Cosh’s info-representation pet peeve that’s so obvious once he points it out that I wonder why someone hasn’t made a web-page to do the job. I wish I could figure out how to do that for the Northern League, but the split season, combined with a lack of decent stats from the league makes figuring out each teams standing in relation to the baroque wild-card rules more than I can figure out this morning. [colby cosh]
- In an article I missed during the week, Midway renovation is likely. It’s still moving along, and one of these days they’ll actually get started on renovating the stadium. I figure I’ll have some commentary on the renovation once the season is done. [press-patch]
- From a reader: Money Doesn’t Talk In Baseball, and my reader gets tired of hearing about money in baseball.
It means crap. The best closer in MLB will be paid $346,500 this year. The leading candidate for the NL Cy Young will make $378,500. It is possible that the batting champs in both leagues will be guys making $370,000 and $377,400.
If you’re interested in this sort of thing and haven’t read Moneyball, I’d strongly suggest picking it up for the off-season. If nothing else, you’ll hear why the batting champs might not be the best hitters, and the best closer may not be worth all that much. [some guy]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 27, 2005 August 27 in History
Well, there was a thunderstorm during the time when I normally do my morning update here, and I figured it was best to stay off the computer while the lightning was flashing around me, so things were delayed. Look for a real update either later today or over the weekend.
The Saints won again last night, taking three of four from the T-Bones. Woo! But tonight, some TV guy will be starting, taking away three innings from Darren Truty’s regular start. Also, Charlie Ruud will start in Mike Meyer’s spot on Monday while Mike recovers from his Wednesday night injury, and it’s rumored that Monday night will be the night that Seigo finally sings Turning Japanese.
- In local politics, Surprises jolt Minneapolis mayoral debate as Marcus Harcus and Farheen Hakeem made a good showing. The primary is September 13th. [strib]
- A new book asks Who Killed PayPal? Mostly regulators, but eBay had a big part, too.
PayPal’s story is a sad but instructive lesson in how this country treats its entrepreneurs.
It’s a good review on its own, and the book sounds pretty informative. [claire] - But hey, they’ll never use that power, so you don’t need to worry about it being in USA-PATRIOT: FBI demands library records / Request in Connecticut, allowed by Patriot Act, is first of its kind to be confirmed. [flutterby]
- Think it’s just your house that’s at risk? U.S. Mint Confiscates 10 Rare Gold Coins saying the coins
could not have legally been taken from the Mint.
So they must belong to the gubmint. [claire] - In a story that really isn’t news, N.J. Officers, DEA Smash Doors, Raid Wrong Home Again. Maybe it was just a case of the cops being blinded by roid rage. Even in the bad old days of the Soviet Union, the cops would knock, rather than just smashing in. [claire]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 26, 2005 August 26 in History
Saints won ’em both last night, and while Billy Munoz’s walk-off home-run to win the second game was great, the real story is in the pitching. In the first game Mike Meyer took a come-backer off his pinky, which tore the nail from the finger. He went to the hospital, but this is an injury he’s had before, and it sounds as though he should be back for the playoffs (knock on wood). The bullpen did a good job handing onto the game. In the second game, Charlie Ruud, a first-year seminary student at Luther and St. Olaf grad, who George had signed to a single-game contract, pitched a complete game (of seven innings), and came home with the win. This is the second time this year that a pitcher on a one-game contract, coming out of the MIAC, got the win. The first was by Aron Helm. There’s more on Charlie’s win from St. Olaf’s paper, and an excellent Profile of Charlie Ruud from the College Sporting News.
I’m still worried about the Saints pitching staff. George and Jason have done a great job patching together a staff as the season winds down, but I worry about what we’ll see in the playoffs. As I mentioned, Meyer will probably be back, but that still leaves us short on pitchers. And position players, too. We’ve got a spare catcher on the bench every night, and that’s it. The league’s transactions page suggests we may see Juan Camacho (.327 and 21 homers in 94 games with El Paso) and Coby Smith (.313 in 94 games with Shreveport) soon. I hear it’s been tough to sign more guys, but there’s not much season left to get the roster in order for the playoffs. Oh, and from the St. Paul paper? Just a regurgitated press release on the games.
- The Sneeze has an Adam Savage Interview that I liked a lot. [fark!]
- A law firm has published a handy flowchart for determining when copyright expires. It’s pretty fargin’ complicated, but could be darned useful. [boing boing]
- Hmm: Three Lessons On Baseball Payroll that make some sense to me. [instapundit]
- I forgot to mention it, but the Tuesday after the Auto Body Experience show, Scott was on NPR. Scott Yoho: Ode to Terry Gross has the interview. Rock on, Mr. Yoho!
- A group of Minnesota Republicans disputes spending powers used by the Governor during this year’s state “shutdown”. They’re saying that besides being more expensive than keeping things running as normal, it was unconstitutional. [press-patch]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 25, 2005 August 25 in History
Mornings have been rough this week. Monday, I was up early, but had a morning meeting to attend, and lunch with a friend, and I managed to get through it all without getting too tired. And then I was out too late Monday evening, leading to yesterday’s silence. Last night, the Saints lost a 14-inning game that went until quarter to midnight. This morning, I had to be up early again, since the tree service was supposed to show up around 8am (they got here about 8:15, and were gone by 9:45), and I need to show them exactly what needs doing. And this is just the start of the seven-day eight-game home stand. I predict a tired Dave by the time the Saints wrap up the home season next Monday.
- This year’s Iron Butt Rally (more than 11,000 miles in 11 days on motorcycles) started Sunday. The reports are already good reading, but the real fun will come after people have returned to Denver with their stories.
- It’s been a while since I posted an update about the gunshop. Here’s Mark’s words:
The N.R.A. have not got back to us as of 8-20-05. We will be force to give up our F.F.L. come about 9-15-05.
Things are not sounding good, but Mark’s already lasted longer than I expected. - On the weekend of August 13th and 14th, ATF, Virginia Police Accused of ‘Persecuting’ Gun Show. Using taxpayer dollars to hassle people who are committing no crimes. Nice. [claire]
- Dana Blankenhorn is Dating the Next Recession, and says it’s due on October 17, 2005. More from Silver over on Claire’s blog, and the Star Tribune says Bankruptcy filings boom as deadline approaches, too. [claire and strib]
- Dan points out how O’Reilly is aiding and abetting link-spammers that clutter up google results with useless crap. This isn’t helping, Tim. Tim O’Reilly’s not so sure whether the sites contain Search Engine Spam or not, and has a pretty thoughtful discussion of the paid links. [flutterby and scripting]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 24, 2005 August 24 in History
Sorry. Nothing to say today.
Weather in Minneapolis for August 23, 2005 August 23 in History
Yep. I survived my birthday over the weekend. The lion’s share of the excitement was mom’s. Saturday I went up to visit her, and she and her roommate took me out for lunch. Since they’re both on fixed incomes, this meant I got to buy. Since they’re in an assisted living home, they wanted something a little more lively, so we headed up to the Legion Post for some buck burgers and cocktails. Seemed to go pretty well until we were leaving, when mom stepped halfway off the curb and fell down. No major injuries, but she scraped up her hand and knee pretty good, and broke her watch in the process. After some first-aid, filling out the report at the home (so I couldn’t accuse them of abusing her, presumably) and buying a new watch, I headed back home, feeling kind of down because I couldn’t deal with keeping two eighty-year-old women safe on a trip to the bar.
And that was about it for the weekend. I had big plans, but none came to fruition. I had hoped to head out and go shooting with a friend on Saturday afternoon, but he beamed up for the weekend. I was thinking that a few beers with friends on Saturday evening would be nice, until the time rolled around, and I was feeling anti-social. I had planned to install my carpeting in my bedroom on Sunday, but found laying down the chalk lines to get the pattern centered too daunting. Instead, I spent the weekend perched in front of the brainsucker watching bad movies. And that was about it. The weather was beautiul outside, and I did get out for a few minutes, but the cooler weather this weekend has brought with it a full load of allergens, and I’ve descended into something of a medicated stupor to combat them, so I didn’t even feel like going for a walk.
- TalkLeft has an account of Hunter Thompson’s Final Blast-Off. RIP. [boing boing]
- Have I pointed to The American’s guide to speaking British before? Guess it doesn’t matter. It’s still funny.
- Glenn put up a definition that’s very useful in my life. The Fred Krause Miles Per Gallon is defined as
the mileage obtained by a vehicle traveling 85 miles per hour with the air conditioner set on ‘MAX.’
My Camaro got nearly 35 FKMPG. My Blazer? Closer to 20. An even more useful measure is MPD , which turns it all into dollars. Until recently, I was getting a fairly solid 10 MPD, but the uptick in gas prices has wrecked that. [instapundit] - It’s no flying car, but Nanotube sheets come of age and offer some pretty cool applications. Internally-heated car windows are the one that caught my eye. [instapundit]
- In Japan, baseball teams often give retiring players a special send-off, or intai shiai. It usually involves a late-inning appearance by the retiring player, often facing a long-time rival. Kazuhiro Sasaki’s farewell [was] unique in many ways, since he’s a closer. [colby cosh]
- Want to know which stats you should be looking at for baseball players? Take me out to the equation has the list and explanations. A good first pass on untangling the many baseball statistics. [press-patch]
- I added Dave’s “Almost There” Breakfast Sausage to the list of recipes over the weekend. Yummy, but it will still need a bit of tweaking.
- I often read blog entries derisive of media liberalism. Fine, whatever. But I don’t think the media should be Singin’ The Crawford Blues because the president is on vacation. Just think of all the things he’s not screwing up while he’s in Texas. Personally, the idea that he’s taking time off makes me feel a little bit better.
Weather in Minneapolis for August 22, 2005 August 22 in History
Mixed mood this morning. It's Friday. Tomorrow I get older. The Saints won yesterday. Work stuff today. Shooting tomorrow. New carpeting arrives today. I have to install it. Ups and downs, not necessarily in that order.
And with that, I really should get on with the links.
- Here’s the story from the Press-Patch about Chad getting traded: Streak’s alive, but he’s gone. Strangely enough, it wasn’t in the section they have set aside for Saints news, so I didn’t find it yesterday.
- Yesterday’s game? Rookie Pitcher Holds Own In 6-2 Win, and earned $25 (I was told) for his five innings of work, but he got a win with a 3.6 ERA for his appearance. Plus he got the Saints back to .500 ball for the second half of the season. Nice work, Aron. We also got to see two innings from new arrival Amad Stephens, who shut down the game.
- The smoking ban has Minneapolis restaurants taking it outside, with 64 new restaurants adding outside seating this year, bringing the total to 222. That’s a pretty good jump in just one year, but it won’t help keep customers happy once the snow starts to fly. [press-patch]
- In the post-Kelo world, there’s been at least One for the Little Guy. A Richfield man will get an extra $20-$30k for relocation costs because he was threatened with eminent domain so his house could be
redeveloped
. - Got bad breath or stinky feet? There’s good news: Bacteria Feed On Smelly Breath (and Feet) and have been isolated. No cure yet, but they’re working on it. [boing boing]
- Claire got Plaxoed the other day, and boy is she unhappy about it. [claire]
- Want the details on Hunter Thompson’s funeral? Writer’s remains en route to funeral has the information on the fireworks show/funeral that’s scheduled for tomorrow. [fark!]
- Last week saw the launch of the ministry of reshelving, and already it was covered on MPR this morning. [jim]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 19, 2005 August 19 in History
When I went to bed last night, I thought I had today figured out. I was going to get up early, and show the tree guys what needed doing when they arrived about 7:30, and then pack up and get ready for today’s Saints game. But when I woke up at 7, I noticed the rain. By 8, it was raining hard enough that I called the tree service and was told that yep, we’ll have to reschedule for next week.
As for the ball game, I’m waiting to see what the weather brings, I guess.
Speaking of the Saints, following word that Tim Christman [was] traded to Somerset of the independent Atlantic League for a player to be named later (as was Adam Larson, last week), yesterday brought word that Saints acquire no-hit pitcher from Soliet in exchange for Chad Ehrnsberger and two players to be named later (the same two we’ll get from Somerset?). What the stories don’t say is that this left the Saints with 17 guys on their roster last night: seven pitchers (a four-man rotation with three relievers), the nine in the lineup, and only one player on the bench. (Hi Jeb!) I also got to talk to Chad briefly during the game, and he doesn’t want to go to Joliet. My understanding (from others at the park) is that he was traded because George was tired of his attitude, and Joliet’s where he’s going to go, since they’re the one team in our division that can’t make the playoffs. If nothing else, we saw a couple plays from Josh Renick at short that Chad wouldn’t have made, and that helped Bryan Gall hold Schaumburg to two hits through eight innings. With a little help from the bullpen, the Saints hung on for the win.
And that meant some more interesting situations for today. Word was that George was going to sign one of Jason Verdugo’s Hamline pitchers to a one-day contract to start today’s game. Part of me hopes the game doesn’t get rained out, but part thinks that it might be best to postpone this game until George gets the roster in order again.
- A Leaked report lists ‘blunders’ as police shot bomb suspect, in which it’s pointed out that most of the “facts” initially given by the cops were just made up crap. As Kim says,
Mea culpa for actually believing the police account in the first place.
[kim] - Bruce Schneier’s got a roundup of links to stories about Zotob and Variants and posits
But the only reason I can think of that CNN did rolling coverage on it is that CNN was hit by it.
For me, it was interesting watching my various clients react to this. Some got clobbered hard and there were non-stop email messages warning people to update their anti-virus protection. Others, which have fewer Windows boxes, took it pretty calmly. [schneier] - In Warren’s Follow-up to Andy Warhol, he predicts
In the future, everyone will be on the TSA’s no-fly list.
Sigh. I wish I didn’t think he was right. [coyote blog]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 18, 2005 August 18 in History
The Saints lost last night’s game. They had the go-ahead run at the plate in the ninth, but just couldn’t get the guys home. Bummer. But the timing was just about perfect. I dashed from my seat at the end of the game, making a quick trip to the little fan’s room, and then as I walked out of the stadium, it started to rain. By the time I reached my truck, the rain was harder, and everyone else in the gang had either left or was on their way out. By the time I decided I wasn’t going to stick around, it was pouring, and on the way home, I had to switch the windshield wipers up to their most hyperactive setting at one point.
Four meetings/errands yesterday. Two with clients, one with the lawyers (just dropping off a document for the files) and one with the place that sold me my poker table. One of the chairs has started to come apart, and I was checking on the warranty return. Everything’s cool, and I just have to haul it out there sometime soon. But all that running around pretty much occupied the part of the day that wasn’t spent out at the ballpark.
- The series 31 Days to Building a Better Blog has a section on avoiding
blogger apathy
. Wish I’d seen that sooner. You might have a few more links (or more links you’d like) to look at today. [holy schmoly] - Regarding the change in BAC levels for being legally drunk, What’s the difference between 0.08 and 0.10? Well, at .08, the reporter drove better than she did when sober. At .10 she was clearly hammered. You mileage may vary. [fark!]
- EPIC’s Spotlight on Surveillance this month covers UAVs or drones patrolling the US borders.
The federal government’s redirection of military technology toward the civilian population is troubling.
Indeed. But on a brighter note, at least they’re not very reliable, so we get to spend more on things that don’t work! [schneier] - If you’re Fat, Unfit, and Fifty, you’re going to have to follow
A Different Bug-Out Scenario
if the SHTF. That’s the kind of thing to keep in mind when reading something like the SurvivalBlog, which has good suggestions, but is probably a mite more prepared than I plan on being. [claire] - Speaking of being prepared, over on Claire’s blog, Thunder had a post on 72 hr kits, that is, what kind of things you’d have on hand for a 72 hour interruption in services, such as a hurricane or blizzard, or whatever. I realized that other than the food, I have most of a 72-hour kit (including spices, cooking fuel, and a whole lot more) in the back of my truck at all times, due to the amount of tailgating I do during the summer, combined with the fact that I’m too darned lazy to empty out the truck over the winter. Go me? [claire]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 17, 2005 August 17 in History
Got a few things done yesterday. But mostly I’ve been trying to figure out what the heck to do about the lack of work. Or rather, the impending lack of work. I’ve got enough to do right this instant, but the multiple projects I’ve been working on are looking like they’re all going to finish up about the same time, and I’m going to be faced with more down-time if I don’t find something additional soon.
But hey, the Saints are back in town tonight, and won two games (out of two) in Kansas City, so they’re in better shape. Hopefully I’ll get to see the team playing in something closer to playoff form this evening.
- The 70-year-old criminal defense attorney who’s going to jail for not paying any taxes for the past 40 years is Always a Man of His Convictions, and you’ve gotta respect that, whether or not you agree with individual cases he’s argued. [claire]
- Various places are reporting that an iPod Licensing Lapse Lets In Microsoft, but like Warren, I wondered What Happened to Prior Art? If Apple had shipped product containing the IP in November 2001, how the fark could Microsoft patent it in July 2002? Update: Oops. Marshall points out that Microsoft has only submitted a patent application, but has not yet received a patent. My bad. [fark! and coyote blog]
- Things are even worse in the case of Kelo v. New London than previously thought. As Warren points out, This is Sick: New London is now trying to assess five years back rent on the people who fought the confiscation of their property. [coyote blog]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 16, 2005 August 16 in History
The weekend? Friday, after a day of work, I went to see the Auto Body Experience over at the History Center. I had fun, and ran into a reader I hadn’t ever met in person before, plus saw a bunch of folks that I haven’t seen for a while. As for the show, well, I’d hoped there would be a review at How Was the Show, but there isn’t. My short review? It was exactly what I expected. Scott forgot the lyrics to the second song on the set-list, getting that out of the way early, and the rest of the show went pretty well, with any gaps being filled by making fun of Scott’s memory (we kid because we love). There was a party at Dixie’s afterwards, but I just headed home to get some much-needed sleep.
Saturday, there was a gun show, where I didn’t find much. Just a couple books, and a cheap soft gun sleeve. And a gun-show-hot-dog for a mid-afternoon snack. Broke the $10 mark by getting the hot-dog. Returned home, puttered around for a bit, and then it was off to Mark’s Party, where I spent a while gabbing with people. After a while, I realized that I wasn’t really thirsty for more Guinness, plus there was no tonic, so Amanda and I made a beer run. We found Zima Hard Orange, among other things, and decided we needed to procure some, since neither of us had tasted that flavor before. We discovered that it tastes almost exactly like orange Fanta (the US version, with synthetic flavor, as opposed to the European version with real orange juice). Beyond that, I helped Sean (or is it Shawn?) tend the grill, mostly taking finished bits of food inside from the grill, and bringing out more raw meat to keep things going. I had a fun time, talking with various people about various things and forgetting it all almost immediately, as one does at a party. I enjoyed meeting some of Mark’s cow-orkers, and talking with Spencer about home improvement.
If you’re a regular reader here, you can probably guess that with that kind of a Friday and Saturday, I almost certainly spent Sunday being a slug. You’d be right.
- As hinted at above, I added a listing of 2005 Minnesota Gun Shows to the archive of useful things, mostly so I don’t have to dig up the list again.
- Virginia’s DUI law ruled unconstitutional because not all people are drunk at .08 BAC. Similar rulings may follow in other states. I’ve always wondered how it is that a given level of alcohol in your blood automatically meant you were drunk, but then there are a lot of things in the law that I wonder about. [fark!]
- A new head of TSA is thinking of modifying the check-in procedures so we’ll spend Less time in line for travel security. I’m dubious. A good idea come out of the fever-swamps of Washington? [strib]
- As Glenn says,
Tax Protesting: It’s not just for libertarian nutjobs any more.
Bush Protesting Mom Calls For “Israel Out Of Palestine”; Vows Not To Pay Taxes. [instapundit] - Got some time to kill? Not sure what you want to read? Fred On Everything might just have it. And if not, maybe at least you’ll have a chance to be offended. [endwar]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 15, 2005 August 15 in History
The first part of this was written a few minutes after 8am.
A story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press caught my attention this morning. The headline read Saints cap series sweep of Joliet
. Which I found odd, because I’d been at all three games this week, and clearly remember the Saints losing on Tuesday. Heck, even the Saints recaps of the games point out Tuesday’s loss. Now I know from seeing the From news services
at the top of the article that this is one of those cut-and-paste jobs, basically cobbling together press-releases, but how the heck does the Press-Patch blow it on a game that happened three days ago?
I shot an email to the sports editor at 8AM today, pointing out the error, but he won’t arrive until 9AM. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes to get a correction issued. And yeah, I know this isn’t really all that important in the larger picture, but it would still be nice to see the St. Paul paper at least get the results for local team correct.
The regular update will follow, but I wanted to post this early enough that you might have a chance to see the old version of the story. If you can’t see it, I took a screen-shot.
Update: The correction was up at 9:04, pretty good, given that the sports guys don’t get in until 9am. Kudos to Mike Bass, who’s the sports editor over in St. Paul.
While I poke some fun at their expense, and understand they can’t afford to have a reporter at every game, I still find myself wondering why the PiPress doesn’t work out something creative to get good information on every game. If I remember right, press credentials at Midway mean you get free parking, and I find myself thinking that that might be enough of an incentive for me to file a report every night when I get home from the game. And Dave Wright might even go for it. Wanna talk, Mike?
Update 2: Mike replied:
Thanks for the offer, Dave, but the Saints provide us information and we put it together here. Take care.
I’m not sure if I’m up for it or not, but last year, I thought about scoring all the games I attended. I’m pretty sure I could do a daily update on the game, and the big thing holding me back is deciding how I would pay for the added effort. But I think there needs to be an alternative to the copy-and-pasted press releases that the PiPress carries.
- D’Ohh! Forgot to mention this the first time around, but the Auto Body Experience is having their CD release party tonight. Should be fun!
- Down at Fort Snelling, there was A surprise in stone that was found recently. Cool bit of history. It’s also Civil War Weekend at the fort, with reenactors showing how things worked in 1865. [strib]
- Is a proposed fare hike in Minneapolis a Fair hike? Cabbies say so. Minimum fare would jump to $5 and the pickup fee would rise to $2.95. It would give us the most expensive taxis in the country. The last increase was just in November, 2004. [press-patch]
- How weird: Furniture Causes FedEx Fits. A guy built furniture out of shipping boxes, and put up a website. FedEx is trying to make him take it down, citing the DMCA, even though that doesn’t cover trademark infringement, which is all he might be accused of. [fark!]
- Davezilla presents Ten ways to make a sushi chef lose it. Heh! Number 3:
Ask for ketchup.
[davezilla] - The Dewey blog talks about the Dewey Decimal Classification® system. Heck, there are changes going on often enough that a blog looks like a very good thing. [colby cosh]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 12, 2005 August 12 in History
Another long game in St. Paul last night, this time with a better outcome. As I suspected on Tuesday, this is the same crew that I complained about back in July, and they haven’t gotten any better. The ball and strike calling wasn’t too bad last night, but Tuesday’s drama, which led to the Saints losing the game was, I suspect, as much due to who was behind the plate as anything.
Otherwise, work continues. But just as I thought it was appearing as though I’d get through the week pretty well, managing to keep everyone relatively happy, and making money along the way, I got a call from a client who got talked into switching all their web, mail, and connectivity services to RoadRunner. Apparently the client didn’t understand that this meant they’d be moving everything away from my business, and I’m probably going to end up spending the morning helping someone sort this out, and lose a client out of the deal. Grumble. It’s probably my fault for not being more pro-active with my existing clients, since I’ve made something of a business out of helping the technically clueless, but damnit, this was not how I had planned to spend my morning.
- Here’s a reminder: Meteor shower rating: 4 bazillion stars. Sometime after midnight tonight the Perseids will peak, probably between 1 and 4 am for us here in MN. The big problem? The weather — predictions are for mostly cloudy. [strib]
- The photographer behing bigeyeinthesky.com goes far beyond ‘point and shoot’, taking 360 degree panoramas of urban settings from a helicopter. Some from the ground, too. And he’s got them all linked, so you can hop from one pano to another. Spiffy! [press-patch]
- I didn’t know this was happening, but apparently Italy wonders if it is time to cut and run from the Euro, and go back to their own currency. Why?
Until 1997 [ … ] Italy was the fastest-growing leading economy in Europe, consistently outperforming both Germany and France. Since 1998 it has lagged in every single year behind France and in all but two years behind Germany.
That sounds like a pretty good incentive to me. [colby cosh] - Three fatal security bugs in just 512 bytes of code? Yes, in The Hidden Boot Code of the Xbox, and
a bunch of hackers found them within days after first looking at the code.
Even if you’re not concerned with the security, how MSFT tried to implement it in such a small amount of space is interesting. [schneier] - Here’s one example of why I don’t like the idea of the TSA: Bombs Away tells how a bomb-threat kept 141 people on a plane while they tried to find out who the bomber was, rather than keeping the people safe. The TSA
forgot to pretend that its first priority is protecting us.
[endwar]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 11, 2005 August 11 in History
Got a bit of a late start this morning. The game last night went long, after a Big ninth lifts Joliet over Saints. It didn’t help that the umpire had tossed our starting shortstop so there was a pitcher covering first base. Only one of the five hits might be attributed to him, but when we needed power in the bottom of the ninth, you don’t exactly want a pitcher hitting. Why the lineup troubles? Well, Jeremy Frost got tossed on Sunday (we think for a two-game suspension), Nick Gretz has some viral infection, Billy Munoz has a sore leg, and Adam Olow was already batting as the DH. Sigh. And here I was hoping that maybe we’d get a chance to make up some ground by playing Joliet.
Work seems to be going pretty well. Oh, there are the usual headaches and hang-ups, but everything seems to be moving forward, which sometimes surprises me, especially when I realize that I’ve done work for four five different clients already this week. I don’t necessarily like juggling multiple jobs but it’s what has to be done right now, and I seem to be keeping all the balls in the air for now. Of course now that I’ve mentioned that, everything will probably come crashing down, but I’m not going to worry too much just yet.
- Claire wonders When did politicians stop being real human beings? It’s a good question if you listen to speeches by all the various presidents who’ve been recorded. I can only imagine some earlier speeches are even more colorful. [claire]
- So it seems Murdering an innocent Brazillian worked well in London, bring it to the USA! I don’t especially like the idea of bringing the “shoot to kill” mentality to the US. But this really isn’t anything new. It’s the same kind of thing the SS has been doing in the Presidential Exclusion Zones, except with lethal force now. Yes, that’s a big line to cross, but that’s why it’s important to notice the infringements of freedom early. For some reason, I just don’t feel that much safer at the moment. [claire]
- Mitch sees Tim Pawlenty’s move to
strictly enforce
the new .08 BAC DUI limit as Another Tax Hike. I guess I can go along with that, but I was pretty sure it was just anotherfor the chilllldrun
bit of grandstanding. But hey, it will make us all safer, right? [mitch] - A Delaware company has brewed a 9,000-Year-Old Beer Re-Created From Chinese Recipe. Sounds interesting.
- Interested in turning big boards into little boards? Kung Fu Science may offer the information you need. [bwg]
- Hmm. The PHP Security Scanner looks like an interesting project. Written in PHP to scan PHP code. This might make me feel safer. [holy schmoly]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 10, 2005 August 10 in History
Yesterday went pretty well, I think. I did updates for a couple clients, and handled almost all of the administrative work I needed to get done for the day. The thunderstorms that rolled through in the morning and evening didn’t really disturb the work, and I mostly ignored the fact that it was brutally hot out there. There are a few outdoor projects I want to get done soon, but it looks like tomorrow we’ll see a break from the humidity, and if today goes as well as yesterday did, I should be able to get to them tomorrow afternoon.
So why is my mood a bit off this morning? I’m not sure, and the more I think about it, the more I convince myself I should be feeling pretty good about things. I’ve got work to keep me busy for a couple days, and leads on some more. It’s not enough that I can completely relax, but it is enough that I don’t have to sweat where next month’s mortgage payment is going to come from. That’s just about perfect, actually, since it means I’ll stay on my toes in the hunt for more work. So why the malaise? I’m just not sure, but I guess the best thing to do is just keep plugging along and let it sort itself out.
- Joan Collins said that Britain [is] Destroying Itself From Within. And I agree with her. Spooky. [vodkapundit]
- Congress has added Another month of daylight savings time to the calendar. We’ll all be more productive now because there’ll be more sunshine, right? Well hey, at least it’ll be a little extra work as programmers change a couple lines of code and ship updates. And there’ll be all those extra VCR sales. It’s good for the economy, I tell ya. [fark!]
- Talking about Minnesota’s rules for what judges can say in elections, Mitch says The Whole System’s Out of Order, but points out a hopeful change in the rules. It’ll be interesting to see what it brings in the next round of elections. [mitch]
- jr’s looking for a Vacuum that doesn’t suck. Or does. Er. Oh, just go read it if you can’t figure out what I mean. Maybe you’ll have a suggestion to help him out. [jr]
- Meanwhile, Dan’s looking for an operating system that doesn’t suck. Well, he’s found one, but is stuck using something suckier. At least it’s an amusing rant. [flutterby]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 9, 2005 August 9 in History
The Weekend? Well, I let a lot of things go on Saturday. Pretty much just went to the ballgames and that was about the extent of it. Which was fine. There’s stuff to be done, but realistically, most of it is just stuff that I need to do for me, and putting it off for a few days won’t make any difference to anyone but me. And a couple days of taking it easy sounded a lot better to me than taking care of stuff.
That’s about it for the weekend. The Saints won two of three from Lincoln, and really should have won all three. The weather keeps getting hotter. And as a bonus, the allergies I get like clockwork every year in August have kicked in. I’ll try not to gripe about ’em too much, but I don’t much like the idea of being sniffly from now until the first hard frost.
- A nice profile by the Strib: At age 30, Christman still has that big-league dream. Tim is a reliever for the Saints, and pitched in all three games this weekend, if I remember correctly. [strib]
- Forbes has a feature on The 12 Best (Worst) Foods, but the interface to it is so annoying, I’m hesitant to point to it, other than as an example of how not to do such a thing. It uses JavaScript to flash all twelve foods past you faster than you can read the full descriptions, and doesn’t even check to see if the window is frontmost. Since I do most of my morning reading by opening new windows with command-shift-click in Safari (opening a new window behind the current window) when I brought this one to the front, there was nothing left but an ad. I spotted the “return to first slide” button just before I gave up and closed the window, and then went through the list (most of which are yummy foods), but geez, you’d think a magazine like Forbes would have the resources to put together a list in a way that actually made it easy to read, not this abortion. Oh, and to make it even worse, if you do click the “stop” button, the animation resumes immediately after you click onto the “next” button, so you have to click “stop” again on every single page. Yucko! [fark!]
- While there are people up in Canada who want to Just Say No To Extradition for growing pot, here in Minnesota, marijuana is seen as an unwelcome border trade. What’s interesting to me is that since the border over on the west coast is being better secured, the border here in Minnesota is now getting more traffic. Exactly what you would expect on a long, mostly unguarded border – shut down one crossing, and others will pop up elsewhere. [endwar]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 8, 2005 August 8 in History
Lots to be done this weekend, including three Saints games. They’re home from the road trip, after a good attempt to catch Joliet for last place in the Southern division. They even helped Edmonton pull within two of Sioux Falls, possibly sending the Canaries back to the cellar. There’s other stuff, too, and it comes just as I’ve actually got a few small jobs that need to be done relatively quickly.
And on top of it all, I started reading a book last night, thinking I’d be asleep pretty quickly. I ended up four-hundred odd pages into the book when I finally dropped off at 3:30 AM. I like good books, and this is shaping up to be one, but why do I always start reading one just when things are getting busy around here? Because you’re an idiot.
Oh yeah, that’s it.
- Looking at The Pabst and the present of some cheap beers. Pabst, Old Style, Special Ex, Blatz, Old Milwaukee, Lone Star, Rainier, Colt .45, Schlitz, Schmidt, Bohemian, Stag, Stroh’s, McSorley’s, Schaefer, St. Ides, Pearl, Ballantine, Olympia, Champale, Black Label, Piels, Country Club, and Haffenreffer. They’re all owned by Pabst Brewing of San Antonio, TX, which has them contract brewed around the country. Why are they popular? Well, they’re the brands that used to be local favorites among the working class, and are now riding a wave of nostalgia. Oh, and they’re cheap, too. [fark!]
- Hmm. I wonder if you could use the Car Whisperer combined with some Slim Whitman recordings to make the heads of people in boom-cars explode. I’d really like it if that would work. Actually, I’m not sure if you can really appreciate how much I would like that. Does this officially make me a cranky old man? [boing boing]
- The Copyright Office has issued a memo on Preregistration of Certain Unpublished Copyright Claims which says
this notice seeks information whether any potential preregistration filers would have difficulties using Internet Explorer (version 5.1 or higher) to file preregistration claims, and if so, why.
If you’re using some other browser, you may wish to comment before the August 22nd deadline. - Maciej, over at Idle Words, hasn’t written anything for months, but wrote about the space shuttle’s problems in A Rocket To Nowhere. Funny/sad commentary.
- Here’s a hobby: take things, put them in a condom, and take a picture. Make a website you call Things In Rubbers to hold the pictures. Kinda cool. [flutterby]
- The City Pages points out how northern Minnesota is being overrun by the Sprawl Of The Wild. Nothing new, as such–the problem’s just gotten to the point that in-town newspapers are noticing.
- Slate takes a look at Meth Madness at Newsweek and says
This is your magazine on drugs.
Someone’s making a bigger deal of this “epidemic” than it really is? Inconceivable! [claire]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 5, 2005 August 5 in History
Some mornings, nearly every story I read seems like it’s worth blogging about. Other mornings, nothing seems worth the effort. Today is one of the latter. I eventually managed to find a few things, but it felt like work.
Nothing to note in the home-life lately. The heat-wave has broken (we’re up to 21 days over 90 so far this year, as compared to three last year) for now, so today I’ll be concentrating on outdoor things like mowing the lawn and weeding the garden.
- Warren’s thinking about the Implications of A Privacy Right such as the one expressed in Roe v. Wade. The good thing about it is that it stands athwart government expansion, by providing a counterbalance to
compelling public interest
. The bad part is more complicated, and you probably want to go read Warren’s thoughts. [coyote blog] - Since TIA got killed, they’ll do it in a different way: Pentagon to Increase Domestic Surveillance for Counterterrorism. [claire]
- Jim asks Can you believe this shit...? and points to an NLRB ruling that says that a company can ban its workers
from any fraternization with company clients or with co-workers while on or off duty.
Seems to me a little out of line, but not terribly surprising. [jim] - Ever wonder why we have Highways Made of Pork? Well, in the most recent transportation appropriations bill, 434 of the 435 “honorable“ members of the House of Representatives slipped pork for their district into the bill. Unless you live in Arizona’s 6th District, your rep was one of ’em. Because of all the pork, only eight representatives voted against it. [coyote blog]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 4, 2005 August 4 in History
Let’s have something lighter today, okay? Some baseball, some comics, and some just plain fun stuff. Seems like a good thing to do. I’ve been trying to catch up on some fun around here in between the work and searching for work, too. Updated my quotes page, for example. Added sixty-some new ones to it.
In other news, I had a pretty good time at the National Night Out thing last night. There were four of us there from my block, and the three women from my block all expressed interest in any spare grape tomatoes I might have, so I told them to help themselves. I spent a while talking to another neighbor who also isn’t biking as much as he’d like this summer, and we might go out for a ride soon. We’ll see, I guess. He sounds like he’s one of those people who likes to ride in a hurry, so it might not work out so well, but maybe it’ll get me out. When I returned home, I took a peek at the garden. There had been a couple-dozen tomatoes ready for picking out there, and they were all gone. Excellent! With the Saints games this weekend, I should be able to unload any more extras, as well as some of the tabascos that are starting to ripen, as well as the bird chiles that might be ready. Both of these are somewhat surprising to me, since I didn’t expect they’d do especially well in Minnesota, but the extended hot-spells we’ve had have been great weather for peppers and tomatoes. Yum!
Oh, and catching up on the Saints, they’re 6-11 after a loss to Edmonton who’s similarly stinking up the standings in the other division. About the only consolation we have is that Joliet is even worse in our division, but this is kind of what I feared would happen when the Saints won the first-half. A couple players have been picked up by the bigs, there’s been no hurry to bring back the injured guys, and generally they don’t seem to be playing to win, no matter what George might say. I worry how they’re going to do in the playoffs, but I guess that’s still a month away, so I won’t panic yet. But I might book a conference that runs during the last weekend of the Northern League finals….
- Here are Ten great moments in "chatting" history, when pitching coaches and catchers come out to the mound. Sometimes funny things are said. [fark!]
- Jayson Stark says Rafael Palmeiro still worthy of Cooperstown, in spite of any steroid use. I agree. It’s the same as Gaylord Perry being allowed to throw vaseline-balls for nearly twenty years. If baseball isn’t going to police something, why punish the player after the fact? [scottk]
- The comics Mallard Fillmore and Day By Day are Laughing at the Left, but don’t get enough notice. Fillmore’s creator, Bruce Tinsley is married to a liberal, and says
All her liberal friends are incredulous that our marriage works, but none of my conservative friends have any trouble with it at all. They understand you can think differently about things and still be civil to one another.
[kim] - Think you could get Around the Nürburgring in a van in under ten minutes? Not just any van, but a diesel-powered delivery van. Sabine Schmitz thought so, but then she’s been around the track between fourteen and fifteen thousand times (she’ll drive you around the ring in a “taxi” for €175 for up to three people). Check out the video and be impressed. Be even more impressed when she passes motorcycles. I think I’m in love. [vowe]
- I don’t link to ads too often, but when an organic trade association puts together an ad saying May the Farm Be With You, they make it really hard to resist. [turly]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 3, 2005 August 3 in History
Today looks like a day of meetings. Got one this morning with a client who wants to talk about some programming work, but probably not enough for me to get terribly excited about. Another client is having a meeting (which I won’t be at) where it will be decided what work I’ll be getting from them over the next few months. Again, I suspect the answer will be not enough
. There’s some work to do for that first client in the afternoon, and probably a bit more questing to try and keep my schedule full. Finally, PapaScott is in town, and I may hear from him this evening. There’s a chance of a beer, perhaps. It’s shaping up to feel like a busy day, even if I don’t get a whole lot done.
On the home front, I got out and got a few things done yesterday. Sprayed some Weed-B-Gone on the crabgrass, but Home Depot didn’t have the Crabgrass killer in stock, so I got the regular stuff, and I’m not sure how well it’ll work. At a minimum, I hope it doesn’t kill off too much of the lawn, and didn’t drift onto the garden in the light breeze that kicked up after I started spraying. Speaking of the garden, I picked another dozen grape tomatoes, and a few more romas. The grape tomatoes get eaten as snacks, but I’ve almost got enough romas to make up a small batch of red sauce. I’m hoping I can maybe do that around lunchtime today and not heat up the kitchen too much.
- Tonight’s the 22nd Annual National Night Out. If you’re not in Minneapolis, try the national site or google to find information about your community. [press-patch]
- Glenn Reynolds pointed to a Review of “Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine” he did over five years ago. It’s a discussion of jury nullification that taught me more about the situation. [instapundit]
- Why do you think Bill Gates wants 3,000 new patents? The interesting bit is that software companies get patents at a rate of about two patents for each million dollars in research money spent. Compare that to the pharmaceutical companies who drop hundred of millions per patent. [slashdot]
- Bill pointed to this commentary on transit searches in New York. Funny in that ha ha only serious kind of way. [endwar]
- There’s a beta of Yahoo Trip Planner up, and jr says it’s pretty neat. I haven’t had time to play with it yet, but if his comments are remotely reality-based, I’ll end up wasting a few days putting in various trips sometime soon. [jr]
- Want to see some examples of bad programming? The Daily WTF has one each weekday. [flutterby]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 2, 2005 August 2 in History
The heat kicked in again over the weekend. It had been creeping up all last week, but this weekend was when we got the really hot days.
Saturday I took my mom and her roommate up the the American Legion post in Pine City. A good time was had, and they both got to say hello to some folks they haven’t seen for a while. Their first drinks were perhaps a bit weak, so they decided to have a second drink each, and for that one, the bartender poured the drinks a little heavy. By the time I got them back to the senior home, they were both in a pretty darned good mood. It was a good day out, but by the time I got home, I was pretty tired.
By the time I woke up on Sunday it was already hot and sticky out. I had planned to get some yard work done in the morning, but overslept, and ended up just spending the day inside. But I had some yummy sweet corn I'd bought on Saturday, and cooked that up. Two ears Saturday evening, two with a sandwich for lunch on Sunday, and two cut off the cobs and stored in the fridge for use in something today. I'd almost forgotten how good fresh sweet corn is, especially since it's so hard to get it really fresh here in town.
This week looks like a busy week, too. It's going to stay hot through Wednesday night, and I've still got that yard work to do. Plus there's work stuff. Mostly trying to find some new work, I guess.
- The OpinionJournal’s Best of the Web Today turned five last week, and has a nice retrospective. [instapundit]
- Virginia Postrel has some commentary on The Apple Store's Campaign Against Books. Personally, I think this is a bad campaign, but then I relish being able to read without having to find batteries or an outlet. [instapundit]
- Cory’s got a long rant about Apple’s plan to add Trusted Computing to the new kernel? I agree that this probably isn’t a good move by Apple, but don’t know enough to be sure if all the points he hits are valid. [boing boing]
- New taxes Fee hikes add up to 559 million. But hey, Tim Pawlenty still claims he’s stuck by his no new taxes pledge. [press-patch]
- Minnesota was the Last state to act: DWI now at 0.08, though. Effective today. [strib]
- From BoingBoing: DefCon WiFi shootout champions crowned: 125 miles. That’s possibly a new world record, and definitely impressive. They used a ten-foot diameter dish on one end, and a twelve-foot dish on the other. [boing boing]
- Finally, word has gone out that this year’s ADHOC, the Advanced Developers Hands On Conference, formerly known as MacHack, may have been the last. More news once there’s something official online, I guess.
Weather in Minneapolis for August 1, 2005 August 1 in History