Nothing to see, move along

A fireman friend once asked me, "Know how you tell if the fire you're dealing with includes HazMat materials?" The answer is, "You look for the dead cop holding the flare."

Okay. So, again, I've been seeing the meme of about how nuclear energy is really safe with the added twist of how the Japanese disaster proves this case. Really. The argument is outlined over at Tobias Buckell's blog. Or you can look at this report from the World Nuclear Association. See, nuclear power is safe. No, really.

Except, really, it's not. There's a lot of statistics being thrown around. You need to know that you're being asked to compare apples to rockets with many of these.

As an example, from the World Nuclear Association article, "In over 14,000 cumulative reactor-years of commercial operation in 32 countries, there have been only two major accidents to nuclear power plants - Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the latter being of little relevance outside the old Soviet bloc."

We'll forget that "the old Soviet block" he's discounting what was once an area larger than the US, Canada, and Western Europe combined. But that's a lot of time, isn't it? It's almost like we know what we're doing. "14,000 cumulative reactor-years" is just amazing. And understand, I'm not disputing that. As a mean the developed world gets 30% of it's power from nuclear sources (in the US it's 20%, in France it's 80%), Coal and natural gas generation account for many times that run time figure, and so has more chance to kill people. But let's look at the article Tobias links to (regarding death per TWH). This is a little more meaningful in that it smooths out the differences between actual total capacity. And in this circumstance, those numbers look pretty good.

Until you get to statements like this, "The (WHO) study in 2005 indicated that 50 people died… as a direct result of Chernobyl. 4000 people may eventually die earlier as a result of Chernobyl, but those deaths would be more than 20 years after the fact and the cause and effect becomes more tenuous. … there have been 4000 cases of thyroid cancer, mainly in children, but that except for nine deaths, all of them have recovered. 'Otherwise, the team of international experts found no evidence for (increased leukemia and cancer).'" First off, you don't "recover" from thyroid cancer, your survive it (with thyroid replacement therapy for the rest of your life). Chernobyl's population in 1986 was 12,000, just to give you some perspective. Next, understand these thyroid cancers are the cop with the flare types of reactions (the's not including the wider range studies). Also, you'll see that the researcher is discounting those "earlier" deaths because they're indirect (ie. not dead cops holding flares). However, for other statistics (such as coal) he's including indirect deaths (such as those from pollution from generation and lung issues in those who extract the coal, which also normally take years to manifest and are considered "early death"). Notice this article doesn't include deaths from people who both extract uranium, enrich it, and work with the end products, he's only counting those dead cops with the flares in the case of nuclear power.

Begin to see the issues? We can discount those 4000 people who may die early because of their exposure during the Chernobyl incident because 1) they may have gotten cancer anyway or from something else and 2) if we're lucky a bus will hit them before the cancer gets them. With nuclear power (and really every single other pollutant source) you get this "discounting" because there's "no direct correlation." This is another way of saying, "It could have been something else that got them." We can discount those who died earlier than normal because of Three Mile Island with the same excuse. And since we don't have any dead cops with flares in Japan, we all escaped without a scratch.

Except we didn't. Catherine Shaffer does a really good job explaining how radiation hurts you. I linked to that article before, but if you didn't read it, you might want to. There's a couple of things I'd like to clarify in her article, mostly about taking iodine pills to avoid thyroid cancer. There's pretty much only one organ in your body that uses iodine (your thyroid). And iodine can become radioactive pretty easily. What iodine pills are meant to do is flood your system with "clean" iodine and bind up all the receptors, which means that the radioactive forms will be excreted unused. This is the reverse of chemo which fills your body with poison with the hope of killing off more cancer cells than normal cells (odds are in that favor as cancer cells consume more and reproduce faster than your normal cells, all of which means they're big consumers). It's a percentage risk. Most times it works, sometimes it doesn't. Plus, until you excrete the iodine, you still have dangerous radioactive particles in your body doing damage. Also, please note the correlation between radiation exposure levels and time.

XKCD comes in with a goodly chart. And Phil Platt also has a good article covering this topic. Both come to the conclusion that you have nothing to worry about. Except that both expect that you're not looking closely (in both case, I don't believe this is intentional, but it is a scientific/statistics blind spot). In the paragraph (and the linked article) where Phil talks about living in Denver, about how much higher it is and how you'd expect more cancer. Colorado has higher radon concentrations and receives more solar radiation that most of the country. The article he links to discusses how skin cancer rates are higher, as you'd expect, but lung cancer rates are lower (which with higher radon concentrations, you wouldn't expect). Sounds like a wash, doesn't it. Except Colorado's radon exposure isn't that much higher that much of the northern US (and here's a place where you can find your state's radon information). Notice their disclaimers that these lower levels could be attributed to other sources. Well, yeah. They could be (CO is ranked 35th in number of smokers, compared to Ohio which is 13th).

Phil is also a scientist. Understand that limitation (I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but a limitation). If there isn't a study to prove the connection (with discounting all other factors, like the smoking), he won't say there is a connection. Most of the studies I've seen haven't been able to rule out all other factors, which means they're "inconclusive." Which means until it's proven, it's not proven and you go with the default "no connection."

Also, take another look at the chart XKCD put up. It makes you feel better, doesn't it? After all, the extra dosage right next to Fukushima is comparable to, say, a mammogram. Notice closer, that is a 1 day dose (and there were two days of that level). Also keep in mind, radiation damage is a function of dose over time (notice the descriptions on chart include time or instances). For those "yearly maximum" dosages allowed, those are cumulative numbers (the "normal yearly background dose" talks about that a little bit). So all the talk about "you get more radiation from the sun than you would from this reactor" you can see as throwing sand in the eyes. See, you've evolved to handle that dose from the sun and other environmental sources. And you have some tolerance for even higher exposure rates. How much over is still a matter of debate. Also, that background rate may (we say "may" because nobody has been able to show a link) help lead to "normal" cancer rates. That is, the lifetime accumulation of damage from background radiation can contribute to the norm of cancer rates (before you add in other factors like smoking, etc). Don't believe me? Go listen to longevity experts talk about reducing "free radicals."

Just a quick note here. We're all going to die (sorry to break this news to you). Our increasing life expectancy hasn't really lengthened our lives. If you make it to 65, you have the same chance to see 85 as your great grandparents. The difference is that more of us are making it to 65 (which pulls up the average). But if traumatic injury or infectious disease doesn't get us, organ failure or cancer (or the complications from these) will. That's really how we die. So as a matter of living on this planet, cancer is a possibility. And if you live long enough, it's a probability.

Also, if you listen, you'll hear about how radiation dosage limits are "set really low." This is a function of how the dosages have been set lower as more and more data comes in. Here's a little article on epidemiological studies on radiologists and radiologic technicians and their death rates from cancer. If you want, you can just read the abstract (it's the first paragraph). I'll note sentences 3 through 6. Basically it says the stats on hard cancers (organ cancers) aren't consistent (because lung cancer is not pancreatic cancer), however there is an increased risk of leukemia (blood cancer) in practitioners who started before 1950 (this was when acceptable radiation levels were higher). Also, there's a higher risk if you work longer hours early in your career. So, it looks like cancer rates are dropping. Right? Except now read the last sentence. Because we've continually dropped the dosage levels, we haven't been at the current levels long enough to see if there's a real effect (this is also a semi generic scientific statement that means, "we don't have enough data to reach a sound conclusion either way, so we're punting in case anybody calls us on it and our hunches are proven wrong later"). So, yeah, we don't know if those "acceptable dosage levels" are actually "acceptable" or not. So, no, those levels are not "low." Because higher levels have been shown to cause problems. To counter my argument, yes, the numbers are typically cut either in easy fractions (half, quarter) or by factors of ten. So they are big cuts. However, acceptable radiation exposure dosages, in my lifetime, have been cut 3 times that I can remember (the last in the late 90s). Each time because it was found what was a "way too big reduction" actually wasn't enough.

I think I need to wrap this up before it becomes a dissertation (too late!). I'm trying to stay positive. However it's too soon to wipe our brow and say, "Whew, dodged that bullet." Radiation is a slow bullet. Low level radiation sickness can take weeks to present, and months to die from. Even if we stay below those levels there are troublesome signs. Milk and spinach are taken off the market because they've shown up with contamination. Both of these are the result of fallout (notice how nobody is using that word?). Radioactive particles fall into the spinach leaves (remember that you have to wash spinach to keep it from being "granular" - that's dirt) and onto the grass the cows eat (it's how their milk gets radioactive). I'm hoping it's a surface dusting. However, if the fallout was dense enough, this problem isn't going away for decades (the other option for this is the radiation made it to the soil, which the spinach pulled up while forming nutrients, and the grass the cows ate did the same, instead of the particles just being on the surface). Again, my experience with Fernald comes in here. Two decades after the plant stopped all fission activity, there were 3 months (or more) out of the year the local farmers had to dump their milk and crops (because the radiation levels were too high, the rest of the year wasn't much better, but they were below EPA, NRC, and FDA guidelines and could be sold). Mostly this was in the spring and fall. So, I'm hoping it's just a dusting.

At this point you'd expect to see incoming radiation (fallout) hitting the west coast and we're not seeing as much as expected. It's a big ocean out there. It's also where we get a lot of food (especially the Japanese).

But, hopefully, yes, it will all turn out okay. But don't blindly believe everything being pushed in your direction.

edit A late afternoon update, looks like much of the radiation released is radioactive iodine which has a half life of only 8 days. So the resulting long term exposure risks won't be there. On the other hand, the WHO says the food contamination is more wide spread and the crisis is more serious that first thought. If the first report is to be believed, we might end up seeing a lot of kids with goiters in a few years and not much more, which is a good thing (compared to what it might have been).

Object Lessons - Never Delay Payment

As a professional graphic design, I see a lot of people trying to pull a lot of stunts. I've seen my share of attempts to get design for free or at a very reduced level. I wish I could count the number of times I've heard the line, "We're just starting out/cash is tight now/I don't know how good your going to be(ie. this is your audition)... but there's a lot of work we'll need to be done soon/next year/down the road and we'll be able to pay much more/quicker/full freight for it."

To my nieces and nephews, you need to learn this lesson. This is a sucker punch, and they're trying to make you the sucker. This ploy is attempting to play to your greed, and it's being made by someone who believes you're just as greedy as they are (and they are very greedy). I can count on one hand the number of times this deal has actually turned into more work down the road. And that's if I include everybody I know. Unfortunately I would need a slide rule to come up with the times this has lead to either no payment at all or late payment.

Now, I have no problem doing some probono work. I have one job in right now. However, when it comes to this type of work, I do what I love, and I do it on my schedule. I have also done a lot of work for minimal pay, but I've gone into the job knowing this (however, I have been debating my policy of having a basic "job fee" and charging just that level for certain jobs and am thinking I'm going to a straight hourly rate/full quotes).

In this economy, never delay payment to you. Don't ever believe someone when they say they would like a hamburger today and gladly pay you next Tuesday. That is unless you're in the loan business or hold a great deal of leverage. When somebody offers to pay you a small sum now, in exchange for a large sum tomorrow, understand that the sun will not come out tomorrow. The person on the other side of the table has no intention of paying you more, or if they do will probably not be in that same position when the bill comes due. Chances are they're trying to play you for the sucker, will take your hard work and walk away.

In related news, Gov. Kasich's budget includes no money or mechanism to institute or cover merit pay for teachers. Same in Wisconsin. Same in Washington DC. Same in NYC.

Story Bones

Just starting to form in my mind, so this is a little raw. There's been a lot of talk about "smart materials" for both the construction and clothing business. There's also been the discussion of the inclusion of processors within those materials. Now, "smart materials" run the gamut from xenomaterials, transmetals, eletrophoretic cloths, and we have some available currently in the form of temperpedic, and other smart foams (or memory foams) and memory cloth, metals and plastics. Then there's also the inclusion of RFI tags into everything. Mix all this together and in the future you could get products that perform wonderfully, until either their preprogrammed life ends or (and this is where I think the story would be lurking) if you ran afoul of the company or the government. At that point a signal would be sent and the product would break, fail, or even just evaporate into component fibers/dust.

Insidious, no?

Now, add in hacking source codes. A dangerous future indeed.

Sunday at the races

So, back from the wars in Florida. And let me say, Atlanta Hartsfield, I do not like. Also, and I think I mentioned this earlier this week, with this economic downturn, all my flights were packed. As in, all were sold out, there wasn't a free seat open in any of them. And just a casual survey, none of the other flights that people were on had seats open. On one flight I unfortunately had the window seat. Thankfully it was on the shortest leg. I had to sit twisted with my left should in the window well to try and fit. Dear airlines, your seats suck.

And to the lovely woman who sat in front of me, you know, you really probably shouldn't be telling your "friend who is a boy but not your boyfriend" all those things. It made me uncomfortable, and I was just sitting behind you. I could see he felt like he was left twisting in the wind. Also, you might want to chop out about half of your "likes", it'll make the conversation go faster. I would say I would try and fit the conversation into some story I'll write eventually, but to tell the truth, I tried to blank it out of my memory.

So now we're engaged in Libya. Do we feel better? The Arab League is upset that some civilians were caught up in the cross fire. I'm sorry, didn't you know this was going to happen when you endorsed the no-fly zone? And let's see, we have launched 120 some odd Tomahawk Cruise Missiles at an cost of $0.6 Million a piece. That's not including the cost of maintaining the shipborne presence in the Med, delaying the scheduled deployment of the Enterprise to the Indian Ocean to relieve our crews there. And flight operations (sure, the brits and the french are doing most of the combat flying, but guess who is picking up the tab for the air traffic control (at least 3 P3 Orions, probably 5 in total) and keeping the refueling station above the Med operating (probably 3 or 4 KC-135s). All of which would have to put either pulled from combat operations or from those crews that are supposed to be in their home station cycle (not to mention the extra wear and tear on that equipment, most of the KC-135s are older than the crews flying them).

But what the hell, we're helping, right? And hopefully it'll distract everybody when we don't help in Yemen, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

And in Japan, we now have contaminated foods and ground water. Fabulous. I know what they're saying, but Japan is screwed. "The dose is the equivalent of a CT scan." Sound innocuous, doesn't it? Except for a couple of things, 1) you shouldn't get a CT scan just for the giggles of it, they're potentially damaging, but it's hoped that what you learn is worth the cost, here you're not learning anything and 2) A CT scan is 15 minutes or so and the radiation doesn't linger in your tissues. Radiation exposure is a function of both dose and time. For those people in that area, it's like getting a CT scan every day. No so good a thing.

Also, that's radiation contamination has shown up in milk, yeah, you're boned. Because it's not that the contamination is in the milk, but in the feed of the cattle (how the milk became contaminated). That's not going away anytime soon (as in, if they're able to stop the contamination right now, they're probably not going to be able to sell milk for three months, and there will be continued low-level contamination in the milk for decades - as someone who worked on one of Fernald's environmental report, that's pretty much the cycle). And it's not like Japan has all this extra land that they can shift production to. Finally, Japan gets a lot of their protein from the sea. Guess where most of the fall out it going. Yep, you betcha. Also, guess where we get a lot of our fish protein from. Dun duhn daaaa!

How long will this stuff persist in the environment? Well, here's a little interesting fact, right now you have several radioactive molecules (strontium and cesium) in your bones that were created and released from Trinity and the various above ground atomic/nuclear explosions from the 40-70s. So will your grandkids.

Expect to see (if you haven't already) many people giving lots of statistics about how many people die because of the use of coal (it's something like 1500 people a year, IIRC), or attempts to minimize what's going on ("we believe there's some water in the storage ponds with the spent fuel rods," means, "It's still too hot - temp and radiation wise - for us to directly observe the situation"). Understand, many people also die mining and refining uranium. Also, if I had to wager money, my guess is most of the technicians who stayed at their stations have gone over their recommended dosage levels. And thank the gods for them sacrificing themselves. It would have been a whole lot worse if they would have abandoned their stations.

I could go on, but I'm sure we're all depressed enough now. So as you say your prayers tonight, or think about the world, or whatever, spare a moment for the people in Japan and the nuclear technicians that have saved many lives by staying at their posts.

The Line of Death, we shall cross

So we finally have the approval to go in a impose a no fly zone in Libya, which has no chance of helping the rebels. In some revolutions, the people win, in most they don't. I think we've forgotten that lesson.

First up, if you haven't read Jim Wright's post on the difficulties of imposing such you should go do so (he gets into it halfway through the post).

Now, I'm not willing to say that it's all over but the crying in Libya, but it's pretty close. We're about a week away from having an effective shield in the sky, and that's if we start now.

So, you know that $6 billion we saved by cutting NPR, Planned Parenthood, School Lunch Program, etc, blah blah. Yeah. We just spent it. If it goes longer than a month, the discussion of if we're going to cut $60b or $20b is pretty well moot. Because we're about to piss away that amount.

I also think we've lost our collective minds, quite frankly. See, back at the end of the Cold War (sorry, had to giggle there for a few minutes) there was a lot of discussion about the US, being the "last superpower in the world" (there's that giggling again) should become of the "policeman of the world."

It was a plan so ridiculed that Paul Wolfowitz had to retire from the GW Bush administration. And while we like to say GW lost on his "read my lips" promise, he also lost on the fall out of that plan.

But now we have talking heads that somehow, while they "love this country" and "we can do now wrong" don't understand the basic concept of sovereignty. Part of it is they just want to say President Obama is failing and can't lead. See, we didn't immediately impose a no-fly zone, Obama's failure. Not that we didn't have casus belli and would have become international criminals for becoming the aggressor in the war (now, if our nationals would have been put in danger, we could have been able to go in an extract them). We didn't immediately fly in and control the problem with the reactor in Fukushima, so President Obama is a failure. Not that Japan is a sovereign nation with it's own legitimate government that would have to invite us in first. And they have, but only at the level we've provided. Our ships are off shore to aid in evacuation of our nationals if need be, and to provide the support the Japanese government asked for. As it is, look at the problems we're getting in with Pakistan for our drone attacks. Part of the Yemani uprising is because of our drone attacks (and if you aren't more worried about the Yeman uprising, you really aren't paying attention).

As a side note, I think it's hilarious the focus on "Qatar is going to help out with Libya. It's a Middle East country and they want to help." Um. First, I'll let you go look at a map. Then realize that the Qatar navy is a few rowboats. Also, Qatar isn't exactly a democracy (and it's the home to Al Jazeera). Even after a decade of these wars, people just don't know WTF their talking about.

Now, I do think it's a good thing that we're discussing just whom we should be supporting. But if the naysayers would have their way and we, as the US, would interfere everywhere they think we should, no amount of budget cutting would bring our debt under control. When we say we're spending our "Blood and Treasure" that isn't an empty phrase. This stuff costs money. Lots and lots of money. Not to mention that we would need a military at least twice the size of our current military. And we would be even more reviled he world over.

However, it doesn't stop people from beating their chests and declaring what we should be doing like drunken armchair quarterbacks.

Linkee-poo is working it's adenoids to the bones

Working like a mad man down here in Florida. Taking my moments to surface, walk around, and take sips of the internet.

The Ferrett talks about slush reading over at Shimmer.

I have a lot of thoughts regarding both the disasters in Japan (quakes and resulting tsunami) and the ensuing nuclear issues, but not enough time to get them out. If you want some good information and perspective, I suggest Catherine Shaffer's blog. And here I'll end with my two observations earlier today, I'm feeling distinctly like Zaphod Beeblebrox in "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe." (That link, BTW, is copyright infringement) Also, the Japanese are saying this is not a Chernobyl or a Three Mile Island. And their correct. In the future we will call this a "Fukushima." And finally, I think we can pretty well kiss the nuclear power renaissance good night, especially if we end up with a large nuclear fire/explosion (no, it won't go off like an atom bomb, and it won't Chernobyl, but they can't confirm the water level in a spent fuel pond - very bad).

Another way that spending a little, saves a lot. I don't think most people know that Right-To-Life also has platforms on no birth control, no family planning, and no sex education. They know if they pushed it, they would lose a good percentage of their support. Maybe they've over played their hand with this Congress. I doubt it, but I can also hope. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Going out to the country, trying to get away

Went from here


To here


Finally to here


You know, for there being this economic downturn, the airports were awfully busy and both my flights were 100% booked. Joy. And the person sitting next to me on the flight to Tallahassee kept sneezing. Yeah. It's been a fun day. And I had forgotten how different navigating in the South is as compared to the North. Weird city layout. Hello land use planning. I guess it's too late anyway.

So here I be, working my tail feathers to the nubs. What, you thought I was on a real Spring Break. Har! I'm working at a vendor's office this week to do team building (which, after 5 years of management consulting I could do over the phone) and work "that just couldn't be done long distance" (not that I agree, but here I am anyway).

You gotta do what you gotta do.

On the way down I brought David Sidaris' "Squirrel Seeks Chipmonk." Hilarious. Don't let the sweet cover fool you, these are not stories for kids. Just the cussing rules it out. Unfortunately I had forgotten just how fast I can read when I'm not distracted by shiny things or cats that just absolutely have to have attention paid to them or they will kill us in our sleep. I read the book twice. It's the only hard copy book I brought with me (although I have plenty on the Touch, I didn't want to look pretentious). Good news for me, though, is while searching for a grocery (have you seen the insanely small sizes of the waters in hotel vending machines?) I also found a Books-a-Million. So I might be going home with my own souvenir.

Blogging may be sporadic this week.

Once more unto the breech

This morning we're back in airports, seeing if we can make it to the south. The timing is not coincidental as it is spring break at Lakeland.

And just an update, Delta finally turned on their monitors and even though my flight isn't for an hour yet, we're already delayed. Great.

I was about to say that this will be the first spring break (ever) that I've gone someplace. And even though this is for work, at least I'm goin to Florida. Tallahassee, but still Florida. It's strange that at 44, I'm taking my first real spring break. When I was working on my undergraduate at Akron, spring break was a time to work 60 or more hours at my various jobs. I hope to not work that much this week.

So, wish me luck. I also have a quiz when I get back, with the possibility of a test on Wednesday when I return. It's a spring break alright.

Linkee-poo of One, because it's awesome

Well, someone had to go and invent the first laser pistol. I still want my jet pack, damnit. (Grokked from Dan)

Linkee-poo is somewhat of a downer

Sarah Palin. Paging Sarah Palin, Irony is on line two, and the Pot has called about your color scheme.

When cutting money will actually cost you more. Sometimes, as a government, you find that you need to spend money in one direction to save yourself spending multiples of that amount in another direction. (Defunding PPACA, the HCA, will cost more next year than it saves this year)

O'Keefe would lie about the issues surrounding his latest "video gotcha journalism"? Shocked, shocked I am to hear that…

I've written and trashed several attempts at a post surrounding the 60 Minutes report on homeless children that aired last Sunday. Until I can either get out a coherent rage about it, or put some distance from it, I'll merely point to the text of the show. And I'll say that if you ever wanted to know why I take a stand in politics (instead of just going about my life in what would be a happier state I'm sure) or am hitting so hard on the topic of income disparity… this. This is why. Note to those of you who don't know: a short history, I was born in the middle class and lived there until my parents divorced when I was 9. In two years we lost the house and had to live with my grandparents for several years. We were lucky we had that option, and it wasn't easy on any of us. I've spend much of the rest of my life crawling my way back into the middle class. My Mom is still stuck back there (although she now has the house her and my grandmother were able to buy). There are those who have it harder than these kids, and had it harder than me. It doesn't take away the shame and anger I feel.

So, if you ever have to ask yourself why I bang on the toppers like Sarah Palin, fret about what direction our government is going and to whom they bow down to, or that idiot clown wannabes decide to protect their own special interests in trying to preserve their privilege and to beg for crumbs from the tables of the likes of the Koches, listen to those kids stories. I, luckily, don't go to bed hungry anymore. I didn't miss many meals to begin with (thanks to our grandparents and the federal lunch program). And I got to do a lot of things most other people don't (did you know you can get a scholarship to summer camp?). But if you for one moment think that the prospect of going right back there isn't ever present in my mind, you don't know me at all. I've lived on Raman Noodles for months and stolen toilet paper to make ends meet. I never want to go back. And I want all those kids who would think that my earlier life was a step up to have at least a chance of something better.

So, yeah, I'm a bleeding heart liberal. And if you don't get why, bite me.

Good morning

So, this was what greeted me this morning. Much better than an 8.9 earthquake and 10 meter high tsunami. It's all about perspective.

Things look pretty bad in Japan right now. And they had finally clawed their way out of the "Lost Decade." The news continues, as Elizabeth Bear tweets this morning "Poor scientist trying to explain to journalists that real science is not like disaster movie science." Also, the most often retweeted comment "The headline you won't be reading: 'Millions saved in Japan by good engineering and govt building codes'. But it's the truth." Ah, those pesky regulations again, saving people's lives.

And now they're reporting a massive whirlpool off the coast of Japan. I'm assuming it's too early for Godzilla jokes, right?

Linkee-poo warms up by singing "Solidarity Forever"

Fellow VPer Miranda Suri is looking for help titling her book. I seem to remember coming up with a title at VP13, Miranda. It would have a catchy cover, at least, but I'm sure you're going for a different market.

Jay Lake pontificates and elucidates on his writing process in what will be a multi post discussion on the progress of the writer.

I think I ranted a long time ago about the drive to use GPS in everything and how vulnerable that would make us. Well, wait no longer. Yep, a $30 jammer box and things go haywire. Remember how the new air traffic control system uses only GPS? What could go wrong? (Grokked from Dan)

The left seems to be realizing that infographics speak louder than words. That's one comparing the cuts in the house bill (defeated in the Senate) and the cost of the tax breaks given out to the rich. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

I'm truly getting tired of elected politicians going through the "Whoops, I got caught, I'll pay the money back," routine.

And just before I forget to say it, what the Wisconsin Senate did yesterday, stripping out all the budget and financial language in their union busting bill, pretty much gives the lie to that these changes need to be made to get control of expenses/deficits. What happened is they said, "We're tired of this, we'll end the charade (because we're going to take the hard hit anyway)." And, yes, I'm sure this fund raiser has been planned "for a long time" but it certainly does smack of both a victory lap and "thanks for the work, here's your pay."