I'm off to Los Angeles tomorrow morning for The Objectivist Center's advanced seminar. After three delightful days of discussing papers, including my own, Paul will be joining me for a week of the regular summer seminar. So I probably won't be blogging very much over the next ten days. But I promise to give a full report when I return.
Have good time without me!
The Plantronics analog microphone headset for my recently acquired Sony digital voice recorder just arrived. Gauging by a first test, it seems to make a huge difference in the quality of Dragon NaturallySpeaking's transcription from the DVR. Here was my first test, with corrections of errors in brackets:
This is the test of the new analog microphone from Plantronics. I'm not sure how well this will work I might need additional training in Dragon NaturallySpeaking before this set up [setup] with the digital was [voice] recorder and microphone works adequately
A while back Andrew Sullivan pointed me towards this provacative quote found in an interview with Ehud Barak regarding Arafat and the Palestinian leadership:
They are products of a culture in which to tell a lie...creates no dissonance. They don't suffer from the problem of telling lies that exists in Judeo-Christian culture. Truth is seen as an irrelevant category. There is only that which serves your purpose and that which doesn't. They see themselves as emissaries of a national movement for whom everything is permissible. There is no such thing as "the truth."
Do you think that Ann Landers was a wonderful person? Think again! This loving bit by her niece says it all:
You slipped away. You swore your daughter and staff to secrecy. Nobody was to know. Your wish was to be remembered as vital and indestructible by your public and your family -- and you will be.
As you directed, there will be no funeral, no memorial, and your ashes will be quietly scattered over your beloved Lake Michigan. A fine plan, but how are the people you left behind to deal with the grief you have left in your wake?
Dear Paul,
This is the first thing that I am writing using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It is working fairly well although making a number of mistakes. There are ways to fix that of which I am not yet aware. Overall it is pretty cool and I'm looking forward to learning how to use it to write blog entries, philosophy lectures, and philosophy papers with it.
Sadly, this is a pretty dorky letter. But it's hard to think of things to say when using this software for the first time. I am pretty impressed with the microphone, it seems to be working rather well. And the software is pretty cool too. If it makes a mistake, I can give it verbal commands to correct its errors. It even gives me a menu of possible alternatives, like a spell checker. There are all manner of features that I'll need to learn to get this to work properly.
I suppose that I will post this silly letter on my blog. But if I'm going to do that I'd better tell people what I've actually bought. I bought a high-end Sony digital voice recorder, one that uses a memory stick and came bundled with Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 6 (ICD-MS515VTP). I also bought a USB digital headset from Plantronics. I have also purchased other headset, an analog one from Plantronics, to be used with the digital voice recorder that will arrive tomorrow.
For the benefit of people other than Paul: So why did I buy this stuff? Well first of all, I do have problems with carpal tunnel. Since I spend so much time at my desk everyday, I am looking forward to relaxing back in my chair, far from my keyboard, while I write. Second, I often find that I have interesting philosophical thoughts while I'm out and about, far from my computer, particularly while I'm listening to be taped lectures. I often carry a crummy digital recorder to record such thoughts, then translate them back at my computer. But that seemed rather inefficient. Third, I was fascinated with the suggestion of one user of Dragon NaturallySpeaking that his writing was better, more friendly, more conversational, less dry, less academic, thanks to using voice recognition software.
So far, I'm pretty impressed. At the moment it is taking me more time to speak this than it would for me to type it. But I'm sure my speed will increase. I'm not much of a gadget freak, but this is pretty cool.
Your dearest woo,
Diana
Given how good the kitties have gotten at catching small creatures, I might need one of these someday.
Read more...Wow, this fortune teller really hit the nail on the head! Unfortunately, I was the nail.
Read more...Paul and I watched Memento last night. Wow! I'm definitely looking forward to rewatching it. Here are a few non-spoiling comments:
The backwards progression in time was perfect for this plot. All the mystery resided in the influence of the past, not in any future events.
The plot was amazingly tightly wound. Most movies are cluttered with extraneous scenes, pointless little bits of time fillers. Those same movies usually also omit elements essential to a good movie. But in Memento, every moment is essential to the plot. Nothing is expendable. Nothing is extraneous.
I have been reading and enjoying Ayn Rand's Romantic Manifesto these past few days. So towards the end of the movie, I began wondering if the movie was entirely naturalistic. After all, Leonard seems driven by his past, most of which he cannot remember or comprehend. But the end of the movie proved me gloriously wrong. Leonard's own conscious and deliberate choice, combined with his virtues, created his future.
I love this quote from Leonard, said in the beginning of the movie: "My wife deserves vengeance. Doesn't make any difference whether I know about it. Just because there are things I don't remember doesn't make my actions meaningless. The world doesn't disappear when you close your eyes, does it?" That statement has a rather different meaning at the end, no?
Here's a final funny thought: In the first five minutes of the movie, I thought to myself, "Man, this guy needs a blog!"
Ann Landers is dead. I can't say I'm sorry. I've read her column intermittently over the years and regularly since my return to philosophy last summer. (Reading such advice columns and listening to Dr. Laura helps me get a sense for the sorts of moral dilemmas that ordinary people struggle with everyday.)
Ann Landers doled out some seriously awful advice on a regular basis. She was an altruist of the worst kind, recommending that people but up with obnoxious, mean, and immoral people because they were "probably lonely." She routinely advocated putting people on medication as a way of solving moral flaws. In contrast, her twin sister Dear Abby, generally doles out good, common sense advice, despite her proclivity for sappy mystical stories about pennies from heaven.
So good riddance to bad advice!
The whole eastern edge of the fire has now been contained! VodkaPundit, worry no more! So now the only uncontained area of the Hayman fire is to the west, burning into wilderness, not homes. Woohoo! Hooray for firefighters!
In more troubling news, a number of small fires flared up elsewhere in Douglas County today, including one that was fairly close to us. They were all rapidly extinguished, thankfully. It was a grim reminder that the Hayman fire will likely not be the only wildfire we face this summer. Anyone want to start a betting pool for the number of evacuation alerts, voluntary evacuations, and mandatory evacuations that NoodleFood and GeekPress will face this summer? We're already 1-1-0. :-/
We are experiencing a wild and woolly storm here at this very moment! Poor Abby is, as usual, beside herself with worry over the wind and the thunder and the lightening. (Thankfully, the rain just started too.)
Don't tell Paul, but I let her up on the forbidden couch to sit with me. I was hoping that she would be comforted by my presence. But I clearly didn't make the grade, as she shortly jumped over the couch to go crawl under my desk, where she now lays, quivering in fear. Poor doggie.
So I took the test again to see how much my results would vary from just a few hours ago. I worked harder at a realistic assessment of my 7-ness, which is evidenced by its lower score, I think. So here they are:
Enneagram Test Results #2
| Type | Score | Summary |
| 5 | 21 | Fives are basically on some level ambivalent about the world, consequently, their mind is usually their best friend. They like to analyze things and make sense of them (that is their anchor), perception and invention come naturally. The immense inner world of fives can cause them to lose touch or interest in reality. |
| 8 | 13 | Eights are natural leaders. They are straight forward, direct, large personalities, that are unlikely to back down to adversity. They have a talent for motivating others. They have a strong sense of justice and are often protectors of the weak. However, they also have short fuses and can become domineering tyrants. |
| 4 | 10 | Fours are all about being unique and creating their own distinct culture. They experience the highs and lows of life more intensely than other types. They take great pride in their aesthetic tastes. Fours often feel like misplaced children, and they long for a sense of real family. |
| 7 | 10 | Sevens are optimistic thrill seekers that see life as an adventure. They are always thinking of new possibilities and adventures. This constant zest for life can become escapism. Once things lose there fun they are no longer interested, so many projects go unfinished. Essentially, they avoid the difficulties of life because they fear being overwhelmed by them. |
| 3 | 10 | Threes derive self worth from success in the external world. They are highly skilled at adapting themselves in whatever way necessary to achieve success. This external success driven image often comes at a price of having a personal identity and they often are uncertain of who they really are. |
| 6 | 9 | Sixes are overly alert and anxious. They are skeptical of the status quo but are also fearful of being on their own. They satisfy their need for security and belonging by establishing strong friendships and/or loyally backing a cause. |
| 1 | 9 | Ones are idealistic and strive for perfection. Morals and ethics drive them. They live with an overbearing internal critic that never rests. They are always comparing themselves to others and are overly concerned with external criticism. They can be very judgmental and others perceive them as too uptight. |
| 9 | 8 | Nines are calm, laid-back, and optimistic. They are able to see everyone's point of view, and have a natural desire for making peace. Consequently, they are effective mediators. Fearful of conflict and separation from others, they can be too accommodating and unassertive. |
| 2 | 2 | Twos are defined by their empathy of other people. They are uniquely gifted at tuning in on the feelings of others. This makes them great networkers, but being too caught up with other people can cause them to lose track of their own personal well being. Two charity is really a projection of how they want others to care for them. |
So when I took the the personality compatibility test blogged below, I noticed that it was an enneagram test. I've been interested in enneagrams for a while now, as Josh Zader introduced me to Don Richard Riso's very interesting and clear book Personality Types a few years ago.
Riso's enneagrams quickly captured my attention for a few reasons. First, Riso's enneagrams seemed to distinctly and clearly capture most people's personalities in a way that other typing schemes do not. Second, the description of my own personality type (which I'll get to in a minute) identified and integrated some very strange traits of mine that I never ever would have thought of related to each other or shared with others. Third, there is little rosy glow to the enneagrams, as each of Riso's descriptions of the nine enneagram types includes ten clearly identified levels of healthy to unhealthy functioning within that type. (To know that an unhealthy person of my personality type is the Unabomber is a bit chilling.)
Anyway, my reading Personality Types made it quite clear that I am a 5. (I expect that a great many bloggers are 5s.) I got similar results from the Similar Minds enneagram test:
Here's my detailed results:
Enneagram Test Results
| Type | Score | Summary |
| 5 | 19 | Fives are basically on some level ambivalent about the world, consequently, their mind is usually their best friend. They like to analyze things and make sense of them (that is their anchor), perception and invention come naturally. The immense inner world of fives can cause them to lose touch or interest in reality. |
| 7 | 14 | Sevens are optimistic thrill seekers that see life as an adventure. They are always thinking of new possibilities and adventures. This constant zest for life can become escapism. Once things lose there fun they are no longer interested, so many projects go unfinished. Essentially, they avoid the difficulties of life because they fear being overwhelmed by them. |
| 8 | 12 | Eights are natural leaders. They are straight forward, direct, large personalities, that are unlikely to back down to adversity. They have a talent for motivating others. They have a strong sense of justice and are often protectors of the weak. However, they also have short fuses and can become domineering tyrants. |
| 9 | 11 | Nines are calm, laid-back, and optimistic. They are able to see everyone's point of view, and have a natural desire for making peace. Consequently, they are effective mediators. Fearful of conflict and separation from others, they can be too accommodating and unassertive. |
| 3 | 10 | Threes derive self worth from success in the external world. They are highly skilled at adapting themselves in whatever way necessary to achieve success. This external success driven image often comes at a price of having a personal identity and they often are uncertain of who they really are. |
| 1 | 10 | Ones are idealistic and strive for perfection. Morals and ethics drive them. They live with an overbearing internal critic that never rests. They are always comparing themselves to others and are overly concerned with external criticism. They can be very judgmental and others perceive them as too uptight. |
| 6 | 8 | Sixes are overly alert and anxious. They are skeptical of the status quo but are also fearful of being on their own. They satisfy their need for security and belonging by establishing strong friendships and/or loyally backing a cause. |
| 4 | 8 | Fours are all about being unique and creating their own distinct culture. They experience the highs and lows of life more intensely than other types. They take great pride in their aesthetic tastes. Fours often feel like misplaced children, and they long for a sense of real family. |
| 2 | 5 | Twos are defined by their empathy of other people. They are uniquely gifted at tuning in on the feelings of others. This makes them great networkers, but being too caught up with other people can cause them to lose track of their own personal well being. Two charity is really a projection of how they want others to care for them. |
This bit by Eric Raymond is so amazing that my brain is about to explode.
And... Yoohoo! Eric!
| SimilarMinds.com Compatibility Test |
| Your match with Eric S. Raymond you are 92% similar you are 91% complementary |
| How compatible are you with me? |
As I was posting various recent internet posts to the web site today, I thought that this one on Bernstein's apology was worth reposting here. The relevant portion of the message is below, with embarrassing grammatical mistakes edited out.
I, for one, find Bernstein's apology to be sad and degrading. It is inconsistent with the virtue of pride. (Pride requires that we acknowledge and correct our moral failings, but not that we subject ourselves to a public humiliation of detailing those failings.)
For the sake of argument, let's presume that Bernstein did make a serious error in judgment in publishing his short comment in JARS. An adequate apology would be something along the lines of the following:
"I recently published a short comment in JARS regarding my CliffsNotes books. I was ignorant of the sort of articles and authors JARS publishes, many/most/all of which I emphatically do not sanction. I ought to have investigated further before giving my consent to publish. I do not approve of JARS in any way and will not publish in that forum again. I apologize for any confusion this incident might have created."
Such an apology would have conveyed the appropriate information and regret without going into the pathetic and demeaning details of whether Bernstein used or did not use his mind properly. (Those details might be relevant to a more personal discussion with a friend, but not to the whole world.)
I've been busy updating the web site today!
I've posted my lecture to the COLP convention, The Philosophical Underpinnings of Capitalism, which argues that political theories collapse into one of four distinct forms of statism without a philosophical foundation of reason, egoism, harmony of interests, and mind-body integration.
I've added my lecture notes from two short speeches to Toastmasters, one entitled Hidden Clues, the other You Like Dr. Laura?!?.
I've also added a bunch of internet posts from the past two months.
And finally, I've added the slide presentations in PowerPoint for my 2001 talk on forgiveness and redemption.
Oh, woe, I feel like some washed-up girlfriend upon reading this entry from Brink Lindsey:
I've now been at the blogging game for three months, posting almost every weekday and not infrequently on weekends. My guess is that I'm ready to scale back to once or twice a week -- I've never thought that I could maintain this initial pace for the long term, but I figured more-or-less daily posting at the outset was necessary to build up readers. I hope the folks who've discovered this blog over the past three months will continue to tune in even if it's updated less frequently. We'll see.
A while back, I was working on my lecture on metaphysics and epistemology for the Objectivism 101 course soon to be given at the TOC Summer Seminar. Working on that lecture reminded me that my own serious interest in Objectivism was largely sparked by Ayn Rand's short description of her theory of concepts in "The Objectivist Ethics" (of VOS). At the time, I was immersed in the confusion and muddle of a very demanding philosophy of language course. The obviousness and simplicity of Ayn Rand's account hit me like a sack of bricks:
A "concept" is a mental integration of two or more perceptual concretes, which are isolated by a process of abstraction and united by means of a specific definition. Every word of man's language, with the exception of proper names, denotes a concept, an abstraction that stands for an unlimited number of concretes of a specific kind. It is by organizing his perceptual material into concepts, and his concepts into wider and still wider concepts that man is able to grasp and retain, to identify and integrate an unlimited amount of knowledge, a knowledge extending beyond the immediate perceptions of any given, immediate moment. Man's sense organs function automatically; man's brain integrates his sense data into percepts automatically; but the process of integrating percepts into concepts--the process of abstraction and of concept -formation--is not automatic. (VOS 21)
Bill O'Reilly has finally wised up about Israel. Wednesday's Talking Points Memo offered full support for Israel's seek and destroy mission of terrorists. He said:
A couple of months ago, I opined that Israel should pull back its forces after invading and destroying a number of Palestinian cities. My thinking was that an Israeli withdrawal might give peace talks a chance to get under way. When Ehud Barak appeared on The Factor, I suggested to him that if the bombings continued, Israel could go right back in.
Well, the homicide bombings have continued, and the situation is now totally out of control. Arafat can't handle Hamas and other killers, and civilians are laying dead in the streets.
So now Israel should take any and all measures to kill the terrorists. Whatever the Sharon government deems appropriate should be done. No cause, no injustice can justify bombing attacks on buses and restaurants where children are. That is simply unacceptable in the name of any movement.
Foolish people who justify such murder will always point to atrocities on the other side. Al Qaeda does that. Those terrorists believe they can kill American civilians because we support Israel, and on and on.
But those arguments can only persuade sick minds. The truth is that some Palestinian terrorist groups want to destroy Israel and will not negotiate. Those people must be killed, and America should support Israel in its quest to eliminate the terrorist leadership.
Enough is enough. All decent human beings must act against the growing terror that threatens this world. Excuses for the murder of innocent civilians must be condemned.
Hooray! Our standby evacuation alert has been lifted! Hooray!
Other evacuation orders have been lifted in both Douglas County and Jefferson County.
Hooray!
The issue of the rationality of having children has popped up on the Nathaniel Branden Forum. I posted a quick bit yesterday, then this more philosophical bit in a message today:
The anti-children people tend to argue that parents are deluded about their own happiness, that they are rationalizing their terrible mistake of having children by claiming that they actually enjoy it. That claim requires substantial, empirical proof for two reasons.Read more...
First: Outsiders can't see into the heads of parents to actually determine whether they are happy or not. Those parents, on the other hand, have direct access to their emotional states. To claim greater knowledge of their emotional states without concrete evidence is absurd. We must take parents at their word about their own happiness unless there is some *particular* reason to believe them deluded.
Second: Of course it is true that people can be made happy by irrational things. And surely some parents are irrationally happy in parenthood, perhaps because it allows them to live their long-extinguished dreams of becoming a musician through their child. But I know of many happy parents who live by the principles of a rational, egoistic morality in their daily lives. The idea that they have abandoned that rational egoism where their children are concerned is implausible. It is yet another bold claim that requires substantial proof.
Without proof of the above points, the basic argument of anti-childrenists is hopelessly circular. It presumes that parenting is so god-awful that no rational person could possible enjoy it. Hence parents who claim to enjoy it must be deluded. The argument presumes the very conclusion it attempts to prove. That's a terribly fallacious argument!
Parenting is hard work. It can be aggravating and painful and inconvenient and expensive. But so are other things in life, from preparing philosophy lectures to caring for a sick dog. But I wouldn't give up either philosophy or dogs simply because neither is perfectly delightful all the time. And I know many rational, egoistic parents who feel exactly the same way about their children.
Fred Jenson wrote me a delightful e-mail about my paper on false excuses. He said:
There are only two excuses and they cover every stupid thing you (and I) have
ever done in our lives.
1. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
2. I forgot.
I have yet to find a screw up that one of these doesn't cover.
Finally! The fire map current as of yesterday evening has arrived:
I love the Independence Institute's e-mail newsletter. Why? It's funny! Here's the opening to their latest one:
It is my sad duty to report that our Independence Institute Senior Fellow Charles King came in second place in the "men's over 80-year-old" category of the Bolder Boulder, Boulder Colorado's Memorial Day's marathon. That type of slack-ass behavior is not what we expect from a member of our team. He will do better next year, or we'll can him. As for me, I was not allowed to compete in the race because they said it was against the rules to drive. Socialist bastards.Read more...
Speaking of socialists, in my Sunday column for the Boulder Daily Camera, I examined Boulder plan to limit jobs for the perfect jobs to population ratio. You really have to read this!
Forget the aussie! I'm just soooo international these days...
Before the wildfire came along, I was wondering how to increase traffic to the blog. Now I know. :-/
A number of concerned friends have e-mailed me in the past few days about my presence at upcoming Summer Seminar of The Objectivist Center, given that the Hayman fire still threatens home and hearth. Given my presentation schedule, after all, I expect that my absence would be rather problematic. I am slated to present my paper on false excuses at the Advanced Seminar that runs from June 26th to June 29th. At the regular seminar from June 29 to July 6, I am giving the six-lecture introductory course on Objectivism entitled Objectivism 101, as well as a single lecture on honesty entitled White Lies, Black Lies. Oh, and of course, Paul is slated to (merely) attend the regular seminar too.
But don't worry, I'll be there! Paul and I will be more or less evacuating while we are gone, in case the fire does head northeast while we're gone. Our essential stuff (now packed in our vehicles) will be moved into storage. The horses will remain with the ever-generous Mike Paul until we return. Our usual and wonderful neighborhood housesitter will stay at our house to take care of the dogs and cats, ready to evacuate them to the Buddy Center of the Denver Dumb Friends League if needed.
Frankly, it will be nice to be away for a while. The need to stay tethered close to home, religiously watching the news three times a day, constantly focusing on about even small shifts in the weather outside, alternating between irrational hope and irrational despair, and mostly just waiting for the real emergency to finally materialize has been exhausting. I'm very pleased that I'll be able to leave town knowing that everything important has already been arranged.
Also, I expect that attending the TOC Seminar will sooth my intense aggravation of being forced to miss the much-looked-forward-to IHS Social Change Workshop going on right now. I haven't been able to read The Volkh Conspiracy these past few days, due to blinding envy upon reading posts from Sasha like this one.
So don't worry guys, we'll be there, come (literally) hell or high water!
Update: Due to serious philosophic and moral objections, I am no longer associated with The Objectivist Center in any way, shape, or form. My reasons why can be found on my web page on The Many False Friends of Objectivism.
Thanks to Tim Blair, I've been designated a "firegal"! Sounds like a good superhero name to me! :-)
Read more...At the informational meeting on the Hayman Fire tonight, Ron Raley was back providing updates on the fire. (Two days ago, his deputy was at the meeting instead. He was also very informed and very informative.) Raley said that the fire has now grown to about 137,000 acres.
In Raley's words, the weather has been "absolutely horrendous" for the past few days, particularly yesterday. The high temperatures and low humidity that made yesterday brutal for the firefighters were, thankfully, a little more moderate today. (Also the fire mostly pushed a bit south and east towards Woodland Park today.)
Raley said that the fuel conditions in this fire were "the worst conditions that [he's] ever seen," due to the low humidity present in the large quantity of fuels. We can thank this year's drought for that.
The (4-6 foot hand) lines have held on the north and south sides of the fire (except for a break-out around "L"), but the east side of the fire is out of control. That east side did go through Westcreek yesterday. Many structures were burned, but many were saved. The fire did also cross Highway 67 in that area.
The most pressing danger for those of us north of the fire is that the out-of-control eastern edge may continue to move east, then turn northward towards various subdivisions like Perry Park. (The northernmost "U" and southernmost "W" bits of that eastern edge are of greatest concern in terms of break-out potential.) Raley said that under adverse weather conditions, the fire could reach Perry Park in 9-10 hours from its present position.
To address that risk, Raley said that firefighters are trying to pinch off the north side of that edge of the fire. There are also large contingency lines going in along Rampart Ridge to prevent the fire from moving towards those communities.
Here's the map posted at the meeting, current as of this afternoon. Once again, we are near the bright green dot to the northeast of the fire.
Sergeant Dennis of the Douglas County Sheriff, who was also at the meeting two days ago, gave the news regarding Douglas County evacuations. The most interesting tidbit from him was that he was an advocate of returning people to their homes around areas northeast of the fire ("N") where the line has held for many days -- until the fire update meeting tonight.
There, he learned that the fire has a much greater potential to get out-of-control than he previously thought. In particular, the fire could encircle those neighborhoods (like Nighthawk) and then burn back on itself, thereby trapping any residents that were permitted to reoccupy their homes. After learning that, he could no longer in good conscience advocate returning people to their homes.
The third person to speak was Randy Hickenbottom, District Ranger for the South Platte Ranger District of the Forest Service. He presented some rather interesting information on the serious danger of flooding in the coming weeks and months in the burned areas. He said that 50-60% of the fire area has been intensively burned, meaning reduced to mineral soil and blackened sticks of tree trunks. In other words, over 60,000 acres in a serious watershed area have lost all erosion control. A heavy rain could cause flooding and mudslides, thereby threatening both life and property, even after the fire has been put out. Yikes!
So yet another informative meeting.
The best news of the evening is that on the drive home, I was driving through real rain! The storm looked to be mostly south, over the fire. There was lots of lightening, but also enough rain to keep my windshield wipers on low for the last seven minutes of my drive home. The rain seems to have stopped for now and the weather report indicates that the storm has moved on. Any little bit of wet is wonderful news!
This Yahoo News story indicates that Perry Park faces a particularly grave threat:
Officials were particularly concerned about Perry Park, a subdivision in a canyon in Douglas County. "If the fire gets into that area, those canyons act like a chimney," Colwell said. "Winds are still the wild card."
So here's the latest map, current as of yesterday evening. It's clear that the fire has grown a great deal towards the east, particularly in comparison with the maps from previous days that I've posted.
We are more-or-less at the bright green "67" sign. Looking at this map, it's very clear that a south or southwestern wind could blow that out of control eastern edge of the fire back up towards us. Yikes.
The Hayman fire is now estimated to have burned 135,889 acres. According to the noon news, the fire is burning one mile from Rampart Range Road, a trigger point for evacuation of some of the towns southeast of the fire. Fire crews have been pulled off of the north side of the fire to help out those battling the more active eastern edge. Also, another Type I team has been added, bringing the total up to three now. (I understand that just having two Type I teams on one fire was pretty unprecedented.)
Thankfully, winds are calm and the air is fairly clear here, which is good news for us!
The Douglas County web site hasn't been updated since last night. Augh. But looking at the evacuation page most locations listed have now been evacuated.
I watched David Letterman's monologue last night, as I was avoiding going to bed. Oh man, is Letterman ever old! And he's just about as in-touch and funny as Bob Dole. So I say: Get rid of the old hags! I want to see Jon Stewart versus Craig Kilbourn battling it out for top late night comedian!
Read more...At the moment, the people in the Perry Park area have another 5 minutes or so to evacuate. They were given two hours notice, as well as an announcement this morning that they would likely be evacuated (blogged here). I wish them all the best.
At the moment, my horses are with Mike Paul, just two miles or so north of this new evacuation area. But I have no worries about them, as he can evacuate them quickly as needed. Plus, I suppose that he could evacuate them here if needed, as the hand line on the north side of the fire has held today.
The Hayman fire has now grown to about 120,000 acres. The containment has gone from 47% down to 40%. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be similar to today. Let's just hope the fire doesn't get too out of control.
Stay safe, firefighters!
9 News reports:
Federal investigators are beginning to question the story of the U.S. Forest Service worker accused of starting the Hayman fire. Recreation technician Terry Lynn Barton, 38, appeared in federal court Monday morning to be advised of the charges against her. Barton told investigators she was enforcing the fire ban in the Pike National Forest on June 8 when she started burning a letter from her estranged husband within a designated campfire ring. She said she then tried to put out the blaze. Prosecutors now believe Barton made up the story. They say based on evidence gathered at the fire's starting point, it appears the fire was deliberately set and staged to look like an escaped campfire.
I guess that getting a BS degree from MIT doesn't help pass a basic science test for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders. Unlike Paul, I got all the questions correct. (He got the insanely easy #7 wrong.) Funny how Paul didn't mention his own scientific illiteracy in his blog entry about the quiz.
When I read him the above, Paul retorted, "I took it again last night and got them all right!" Good for you, dearest, good for you...
The Douglas County website says as of 1 am this morning:
Due to yesterdays rapid southern fire expansion, residents living in the below areas, who are already on a "Stand by" evacuation status, are being alerted that a strong possibility exists that mandatory evacuations may occur as early as this afternoon, Tuesday, 06/18/02. Those areas that are advised to prepare for possible mandatory evacuation include: Areas west of Hwy. 105, bounded by the current mandatory evacuation area of the Pike National Forest boundary on the west, Tomah Road on the north, and the El Paso County line on the south, including: Perry Park, Indian Head, Wauconoa Lakes, Echo Hills, Echo Village, Douglas Park, Hidden Valley, Valley Park, Vaux Ranchette, Mountain Ranch, Woodmoor Mountain subdivision, Split Acres, Emily Griffith Youth Center. This "Stand by alert' is announced because fire officials expect the fire to advance rapidly today, with winds blowing north/northeast, creating the opportunity for the fire to spread very quickly.
Trivial Bad News: My sore throat has returned. *swallow* Ouch! *swallow* Ouch! *swallow* Ouch!
Potentially Significant Bad News: Tomorrow is shaping up to be the worst day for the Hayman fire since that explosive Monday of last week. It's going to be a "red flag day" tomorrow, which means high temperatures, low humidity, and gusty winds. However, for those of us northeast of the fire, there is good news.
First, the prevailing winds are predicted to be from the north and northwest, so not towards us. (I hate to be so unbenevolent as to even wish such winds towards those south of the fire, particularly given that more people on the south side of the fire were evacuated today. But such is the nature of emergencies.)
Second, I learned in the informational meeting tonight that the firefighters have made great progress these past few days in creating a hand line around the north side of the fire. That narrow line won't protect us against a crowning fire, but it is an important barrier.
The southeast side of the fire did grow substantially today, as you can see from the red outline in the map below (current as of this evening):
Thankfully, there is some good news for everyone: Rain is forecasted for later this week.
I wish all firefighters and homeowners the best of luck tomorrow. Stay safe!
Thanks to Paul, I now know that the Rorschach Test is the biggest load of psychological crap since phrenology. Tarot card reading with Cleo would probably yield more scientific results! But don't take my word for it, go take the ultra-secret test for yourself. You'll see what I mean.
The scary thing is that such ludicrous tests can do great damage to people's lives, as this article "Misuse of Psychological Tests in Forensic Settings: Some Horrible Examples" details.
Looking over Instapundit's blogroll this evening, Paul asked me: "If Instapundit is such a linkwhore, then why aren't you one of his hos?"
So my dearest, why don't you tell me: What did you have to do become one? Hmm???
(Background: Paul is on Glenn's blogroll, but I am not.)
Ari Armstrong has a fun commentary in the Boulder Weekly. He starts and ends with hockey, but in the middle we find Ayn Rand's aesthetics. Cool!
Read more...Charles Oliver's April Brickbats were delightful. Some I had already heard, thanks to my wanderings through the blogosphere. But others were new to me, such as this one:
Gun Safety (4/9/02)
A Quebec City cop visited a local elementary school to talk to children. Apparently, the talk wasn't about gun safety. While visiting the restroom, the cop put his loaded revolver on the back of a toilet. He then forgot it and left. A 7-year-old boy found the gun, which didn't even have its safety catch on. Fortunately, the boy reported the gun to teachers and didn't fire it.
Sex Crime (4/16/02)
Doctors at Norway's national prison have prescribed Viagra to at least two prisoners serving time for sex crimes. One of the prisoners later raped his son in the prison visiting area. Medical officials are unapologetic. "If they have a problem, they have the same rights as anyone else to get help," said chief medical officer Anders Smith.
Terry Lynn Barton, a U.S. Forest Service employee, was arrested today for starting the Hayman wildfire. The story on The Denver Channel website says:
Barton, a forest service technician, was charged with starting a fire in a national forest, making false statements, and damaging federal property, in excess of $1,000, officials said.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Leoni, Barton admitted starting the fire.
"She said she started the fire within the campfire ring while on patrol to look for illegal campfires during the fire ban," Leoni told shocked reporters. "She said she attempted to put it out but it just got away from her."
Officials said that Barton was burning "personal papers" in the illegal campfire ring. There was one unconfirmed report that she was burning a letter from her husband.
Barton was the forest service employee who first called in the fire report and described another vehicle leaving the area. The driver of that vehicle was later contacted and said he went to investigate the smoke he saw and called 911 to report it. That driver was not connected with the fire, officials said.
Leoni said Barton was taken into custody "without incident" Sunday morning was being held in the jail in Colorado Springs, Colo.
She faces 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if she is found guilty of all the charges, Leoni said.
If you ever have a serious wildfire threatening your neighborhood, you want this man running the Type I response team:
He is Ron Raley, California Type 1 Team 5 Incident Commander for the US Forest Service. In essence, he is in charge of the fire fighting efforts for the North Hayman Fire. His crews have made great progress in the past few days of favorable weather. His briefings are clear, succinct, and forthright. He is genuinely concerned with returning people safely to their homes. It was an honor to shake his hand. (Fancy me saying that about a government official!)
The Douglas County web site seems to be doing a good job keeping their information on the fire up to date. (It's easier now that the fire isn't wildly out of control!) The fire status page is particularly useful. And I learned from the evacuation page that our neighborhood of Indian Creek is still on standby.
The fact sheet from the informational meeting tonight describes the behavior of the fire. It says: "Fire is creeping on the ground with occasional torching and a few short, intense runs; fire is spreading in multiple directions, southeast and northeast. Growth potential is extreme; terrain is difficult." It also mentions that the fire had burned 102,895 acres as of yesterday evening.
On the north side of the fire, the real danger lies in the north side of inside the "claw," along the South Platte River. (That's where the arrows are pointing on the map from the meeting below.) They have been backburning in that area to protect the homes, but unfavorable winds could cause the fire to jump the river and head northeast towards us again.
With favorable weather, they expect to get the fire under control in the next few days. (That doesn't include the portion of the fire along the west side that is burning wilderness.) So let's just hope the good weather holds!
There was no fire map posted yesterday, but the one below is current as of this morning. The yellow indicates the active perimeter.
Winds are gutsy and erratic today. But they aren't headed in our direction very often, which is good. I would guess that the risk of the wildfire seriously threatening our house is now pretty small, likely less than 15%. But it's difficult to know. I tend to swing between irrational despair and irrational hope, largely due to the overwhelming uncertainty of the whole situation.
I'll probably go to the informational meeting at the Castle Rock Middle School again tonight. Hopefully, the firefighters will report good news about containment.
Sometimes, those on the left just don't get it. "Horrors! How dare you edit my works for the sake of political correctness!" Well, duh.
Read more...Well, I've finally updated my blogroll. Apologies to all those people to whom I ought to have linked months ago, like VodkaPundit. The categories don't mean a whole lot, although they do roughly indicate my blogreading habits. Spaghetti, being an everyday all-purpose noodle, contains the blogs I read every day. Ramen, of course, is a guilty but infrequent pleasure.
Given the noodle theme of the blog, I probably ought to add that I don't eat many noodles in real life. I generally stick to a loose variation of the Zone Diet, which obviously precludes heavy carbohydrates like noodles. The diet never made me lose weight, but it does keep my energy level constant throughout the day and has eliminated those woozy fits of low blood sugar. But most importantly, it enables me to live life with only the occasional migraine. So hooray for protein!
Also very much worth reading in this month's Navigator is In the Same Room with the Dying Light, in which Charles Tomlinson talks about facing his own imminent death. (Tomlinson is the author of A View from My Stump, a "delightful set of essays and stories [on] one man's place in the natural world.")
Tomlinson's personal commentary on death is partially in response to an excellent article by Richard Speer on the Objectivist perspective on death and dying entitled The Dying of the Light published a few issues back. The article featured some excellent commentary on death from some leading Objectivists. One of the more insightful comments was, predictably, from David Kelley:
I think of death from two different perspectives that are not always easy to integrate... From one perspective, life and death are opposites, posing an alternative we face on an ongoing basis. This is a familiar perspective to Objectivists because our entire moral code is based on this alternative. From this perspective, we see death as a disvalue, a threat we confront in the form of the risk of illness or accidents that can kill us. If you value life, death represents the ultimate failure. From another perspective, however, death is a part of life. We all know we will die at some point, no matter how rational, productive, virtuous, or fortunate we are. In this sense, death cannot be considered a failure, unless and until we discover some way to extend the lifespan indefinitely. Most people, Objectivist or not, seem to integrate these two aspects of death perfectly well in a practical sense. We try to avoid dying before our time by minimizing risks [Perspective #1], but we also prepare for the time we know is coming [Perspective #2]. The harder task is integration at the emotional level. How can the love of life that is so characteristic of Rand's heroes, and that we seek to cultivate in ourselves, accommodate the acceptance of death as an inevitable fact?
The neighborhood is covered in smoke again. The winds are mild, but clearly must be headed up in our direction. So I'm off to run a few errands this morning before the winds pick up speed this afternoon. The fire is now up to 100,000 acres. Wow.
Last night, I decided to treat myself by making a chiffon cake. They are baked in a tube pan (like an angel food cake). But my two-piece pan obviously needs replacement, as about half the batter leaked all over the bottom of the oven. So I have a chiffon cake, but it is a bit short. I suppose that half a chiffon cake is better than none. Speaking of which, I'm going to go have a slice for breakfast!
Roger Donway had an interesting article in this month's Navigator entitled The Collapse of a Postmodern Corporation. He argues that Enron's collapse was not the result of fraud or incompetence, but rather a underlying postmodern philosophy that valued appearance and consensus rather than fact. His argument is an interesting one.
Read more...I didn't learn much at the informational meeting tonight that I didn't already know. Oh, except that Paul and I probably should have gotten reverse-911 calls about the various stages of evacuation, but didn't. That's very bad. So I'll have to call the Sheriff tomorrow to see if that can be fixed. Otherwise, I'll make arrangements with a neighbor who is getting notified properly.
The winds are actually supposed to shift back towards us on Saturday, not Tuesday, as previously blogged. That wind shift is part of a system that will likely also dramatically lower the humidity. In the words of the firefighters at the meeting, such winds and low humidity would likely cause "adverse fire behavior." In short, I'm not looking forward to the weekend.
Below is the latest map, current as of this evening. The fire as a whole hasn't grown or shifted much today, gauging by the map. And our recent calm weather has allowed firefighters to go on the offensive on the north side today.
Two notes about the meeting:
There was a semi-lunatic at the meeting who kept bellowing "You are a servant, not a master!" to the public officials. He was (perhaps justifiably) angry at not being allowed back to his home after being evacuated, as it does not seem to be in immediate jeopardy anymore. A police officer almost had to haul him out. People need to be firmly attached enough to their manners such that they do not lose them in difficult times. That, after all, is when we need good manners the most.
The head of the Type I team for the north side of the fire seemed to be a genuine, knowledgeable, and skilled guy. He said the following, which echoes some of my comments about man versus wildfire without the cooperation of nature: "There is absolutely nothing that man can do to deal with that kind of fire; we can just get out of the way." "That kind of fire" is the type that was raging on Sunday, the kind that probably set a record by growing 19 miles and 55,000 acres in one day.
Let's hope we don't return to "that kind of fire" this weekend!
On the news tonight, the word is that the winds are supposed to turn back towards us on Tuesday. There is no rain in sight. So my fanciful hopes that I might somehow be able to attend the IHS seminar have been dashed. I was immensely looking forward to attending, but I suppose that I'll have to wait until next year.
But, at least things are calm enough tonight that I'll be able to attend the public meeting at the Castle Rock Elementary School without packing up the dogs and cats into the car. I might even be able to run a few errands at the same time.
Even though I haven't been riding much lately, I desperately miss the horses. (They are over at Mike Paul's farm, as he will be able to move them quickly out of danger if needed. I still haven't gotten around to buying a horse trailer.) The barn is ghostly empty, with unfinished hay in the hay racks from Monday morning. Perhaps I'll go visit them tomorrow, if everything seems calm here.
Those defending the Catholic Church in the sex abuse scandal have thrown around a lot of numbers concerning the actual number of pedophile priests. The percentage is supposed to be vanishingly small, certainly no greater than found in religious denominations that allow married clergy. I have long wondered how the apologists arrived at these numbers, as much of the scandal involves the concealment data from outside sources. As it turns out, I had good reason to be suspicious, as this Washington Post article indicates. (Link thanks to Instapundit.)
Read more...Oh, heaven forbid that Little League have any competition! (Link thanks to Little Missy.)
Read more...Finally, an updated map of the Hayman Fire has been posted! This one is current as of Wednesday evening.
As you can see by comparison to yesterday's evening's map, the fire hasn't grown much towards us (to the northeast) in the past 24 hours. In fact, the fire's growth rate has really leveled over the past 36 hours. The Hayman fire is now estimated to be 90,000 acres.
There were reports this afternoon that the fire had destroyed 30 homes in the Turkey Rock subdivision, but that appears to be false. 9 News reports:
A lieutenant with the Teller County Sheriff's office denies reports that homes have burned at Turkey Rock subdivision. Earlier Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Forest Service said that 30 homes burned there. The lieutenant says a deputy was at Turkey Rock Wednesday and is emphatic that no homes have burned.
A few weeks ago, I saw an interview with Pat Roush on O'Reilly. Her two small girls were kidnapped and taken to Saudi Arabia by their Saudi father 16 years ago. The State Department has been less than helpful in securing their return. Being women, they are unable to leave that wretched country without permission from a husband or father. (One has been married off.) The mother is simply wishing them to be returned to America so that they may decide for themselves where to live. Our government ought to be flogged for not doing more to secure the rights of these captive Americans. Given the laws of Saudi Arabia, such children ought to be regarded as hostages. Our government ought to demand their immediate release. Our embassy in Saudi Arabia ought to help smuggle these children back to the US.
The story is laid out in this commentary. The piece also mentions Dria Davis, who was forcibly taken to Saudi Arabia when she was 11. She managed to escape more-or-less by herself when she was 13. That seemed like an incredible story to me, so I went searching for details. Here they are. Wow.
Given the beatings she endured by her psychopathic father, this girl would probably be dead by now if her family in the US had stuck to diplomatic channels.
(I haven't been keeping up with OpinionJournal lately, so I found this tidbit thanks to Little Green Footballs.)
Good news! We've been downgraded from "evacuation highly recommended" back to "evacuation standby." Apparently the fire has slowed down thanks to some cooperation from Mother Nature.
I was pleased to find this Douglas County information to be useful and up-to-date, thanks to NZ Bear. Also: Jefferson County residents can find information here. Teller County information in on their main page. Park County doesn't have any information on their web site.
The fire maps haven't been updated since yesterday afternoon, although they should be updated twice per day. I'll post a new one when they arrive.
We're holding steady here today. The winds are mostly out of the northeast, so they are pushing the fire southwest, away from us. We're not out of danger yet though, for a shift in the winds could put us back into the line of fire, literally.
Paul is at work, so I'm here with the the beasts. The cats are delighted to be allowed outside again, as they complained bitterly about being locked in over the past two days. (Fanny is particularly adept at bitterly complaining, given her normally bellowing meow.)
So I'm going to try to get some work done on my seven lectures for the TOC Summer Seminar. It's been hard to focus on such ordinary matters these past few days. But time is ticking away, so focus I shall!
Cultures with institutionalized oppression of women produce weak and whiny men. The evidence? Many Arabs (particularly Saudis) seem completely unable to keep their egos intact when faced with the sharp tongue of Rita Khoury, the female host of Lebanese version the "The Weakest Link."
Fancy that.
This story is particularly interesting because it highlights just how wrong so many leftist feminists are about masculinity. They tend to regard cultures that oppress women as excessively masculine, as strong and domineering. On this view, masculinity itself is immoral, due to its inherent aggressiveness. Men being men means fighting and looting and pillaging and raping and so on. (Don't believe me? Go see the report of Bell Hooks' recent commencement speech at Southwestern University.)
But male cultures that engage in institutionalized oppression of women are neither strong nor masculine. They are weak and fearful and inadequate and insecure. The men participating in them do not dominate others from a Nietzschean sense of strength, but from a neurotic sense of weakness. And they choose to dominate women because, as psychologically weak men, they are at least unlikely to lose a battle with the physically weaker sex.
But they do lose the battle in this game show, as host Rita Khoury notes:
Educated and urbane men who come on the show relish it as a challenge, but the more traditional ones have more difficulty putting up with it. I try to provoke them, not humiliate them, but it's not my problem if they can't answer."Delightful! Read more...
Okay, so here's a fairly recent picture of the size and location of the Hayman fire. Paul and I live right around the green "67" sign. To give you an idea of the growth of this fire, yesterday, it was just coming around Cheesman lake, which is now smack dab in the middle of the fire.
However, I think that most of the explosive growth northward occurred yesterday. It doesn't seem to have expanded much in our direction today, thankfully.
This map (warning: large) shows how the burn area from the Schoonover fire in May is retarding the advancement of the eastern wing of the fire. Of course, that old burn might just push the fire eastward, toward civilization. (That map comes from this page of perimeter maps.)
For up-to-date evacuation and weather info, try the 9 News site.
Well, we're still here. The wait is interminable. But at least the house is still standing.
I was originally planning to leave for Maryland tomorrow morning, but that's clearly not happening now. I was going to spend a few days with my folks on their farm outside of Baltimore, then head down to the UVA for the IHS Social Change Workshop. I've managed to reschedule my flight for Friday. We aren't out of danger by then, I'll have to cancel the trip entirely, which would be most distressing. (I am very much looking forward to both visiting with my parents and the IHS seminar.)
We're all packed up and ready to go in case we get that order to evacuate. We haven't decided yet where we'll go, although we have received a number of generous offers. Mostly I am worried about setting up a comfortable and easy-to-manage situation for the dogs and cats. Given that primary consideration, a hotel might be our best bet. That's something we probably ought to arrange sooner rather than later.
We're still here. When I woke up this morning at 6am, the whole neighborhood was covered in a pungent gray smoke. The mountains were invisible again. There was nothing new in the news though, so I went back to sleep.
I just woke up again and noticed that in the news ticker, the Douglas County Sheriff has said that evacuation in our area is "highly encouraged." We're not going to leave yet, I don't think. We'll wait for either a mandatory evacuation notice or for the fire to be visible on the ridge 3 miles away.
I'm off to take a shower and get ready to go go go.
Many thanks to everyone for their kind comments and wishes.
We are still here at home, awaiting an order to evacuate. Morale was greatly improved in the Hsieh household this evening thanks to a delicious meal of pork chops and apples with a sage cream sauce. (That's one of my favorite recipes from the always-amazing Cooks Illustrated.) Earthly pleasures are, I submit, essential in a crisis.
The Hayman fire is now the largest wildfire in Colorado history. Ah, the joys of being part of history!
I was hopeful about the wildfire, until I saw this map. I think that it might be time to start loading up the cars.
Read more...I wrote the following in a letter to Mr Instapundit in response to his blog entry about the Glenwood Springs fire:
Hi Glenn --Read more...
I saw your post on the Glenwood Springs fire. But that's not the only burning problem amongst bloggers right now, so to speak.
That non-existent God must be really mad at GeekPress and Noodlefood, as the Hayman fire currently headed toward us has doubled in size as of this morning to over 60,000 acres. It is essentially 0% contained -- and is headed towards populated areas.
We are on evacuation alert at the moment. I have been told that we will have about an hour to evacuate when the word comes.
Fighting wildfires without the cooperation of weather is like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. But the government still spends millions in that futile attempt to save structures that could be rebuilt for much less money. People clamor for the government to "do something, do anything!"
Of course, I understand the despair at the prospect of losing a beloved home. And I understand the simple fear and uncertainty of a fast-moving wildfire. But people need to get past those emotions and realize that the cost in tax dollars and the risk to the lives of fire fighters is simply not worth preserving material things that can easily be replaced. Unfortunately, such observations are the result of more experience with the devastation of fire than I would care to remember.
All that matters is preserving life. Everything else can be replaced.
That being said, the person who started this wildfire by (illegally) building a campfire in this well-known time of drought and high fire risk ought to be strung up and shot.
diana.
We are on evacuation alert for the Hayman wildfire. If we do get the order to evacuate, we'll have an hour to do so. So don't expect much from me today.
I haven't been able to find any updated maps of the perimeter of the fire this morning, which is frustrating. The local news here, unlike that in San Diego during the Alpine fire, has been less than helpful. They have only been showing uselessly general maps of the whole Denver metro area, so it's impossible to tell how close the fire has come. Overall, they seem much more concerned with the smoke over Denver than the fire raging towards populated areas.
Augh.
The Hayman wildfire is growing explosively... towards us. Augh.
Back in January of 2001, our house was threatened by a fast burning and serious wildfire in Alpine, California. It passed within a mile of our house to both the east and the south. That experience taught me that humans can do little (other than waste money) to combat an active wildfire. It's all boils down to weather, weather, and weather.
Unfortunately, the sun and wind will be continuing for the next few days here in Sedalia. So this Hayman fire will likely continue to grow.
This whole summer is going to be miserable from a wildfire perspective. We didn't get any moisture this spring. So we can only expect one fire after another.
I don't worry about our house or the stuff in it. But I am concerned with the safety of the beasts, particularly since I will be absent for 22 of the next 27 days at various conferences.
Augh.
UPDATE: The new perimeter map is now up. Click to enlarge to a readable size.
Pithy quote of the day, in response to this blog entry on the need for philosophers to understand psychology better and psychologists to understand philosophy better:
Psychologists need better training in dealing with arguments, and philosophers need better training in dealing with evidence.Bingo! Read more...
Miss Manners has a great column today concerning politeness in marriage. My favorite bit:
Loyal, loving spouses sometimes think, "I'm so lucky I married you" and "You get cuter all the time," both of which should be stated, although preferably not while the person in question is trying to recover accidentally deleted work that is due the following morning.
But those loyal, loving spouses may also have such thoughts as "I suppose you can't help it, but how can any human being be that clumsy?" and "If you died, nobody would mind my leaving my stuff where I want it."
These thoughts and feelings should not be shared.
John Hawkins has some good stuff over at Brass Knuckles. My favorite was this tidbit:
RPG's Suck: MunDane rips on Role Playing Games and suggests some alternatives. Personally, I think Webmaster would be a good one to throw in.
Webmaster: Get up, go work, then go home code and update until bed. In your free time learn Linux for bonus points. Get a higher score if you can build the site without turning to porn or going nuts thinking about how successful the Hamster dance was. Get linked by Slashdot, Fark, and the Drudge Report in the same day to win. But beware, lousy webhosts & crooked advertising agencies will try to stop you at every opportunity!
Oh look, it's me as a South Park character! I'm way cooler than VodkaPundit!
Go make your own!
I get a ton of spam, about 50 pieces a day. It doesn't bug me, primarily because I know I could set up my mail server to filter and reject much of it. But I do get occasionally infuriated by legitimate companies sending me spam masquerading as opt-in e-mail. For example, today I got a bit of spam with this message attached to the top and bottom:
This message was not sent to you unsolicited. You are receiving this email because you signed up as a member of SQLcare and are currently subscribed to receive special offers from SQLcare. If you would prefer not to receive future messages from SQLcare Click Here
I just went through most of the tediously boring first episode of Captain Euro. Three notes:
1. We Americans might not be the polyglots the Europeans are, but at least we aren't slow readers. The comic would pause for eons before allowing the reader to continue to the next slide. Augh!
2. What kind of superhero wears a baseball cap?!? Norwegian Blogger is perhaps too kind to the outfits in writing:
Also what is it with the Twelve Stars outfits? I mean those things look like a hideous combination of a gas attendants outfit and a track suit, the kind you buy for $29.95 at the local gas station, that and the bizarro tights that look like something you'd see in a 1950's version of Robin Hood.
Mr Fly Bottle himself seems to have returned -- at least until the IHS Social Change Workshop. But I won't care about that haitus, as I will be there!
Read more...Well, yesterday I managed to ship off my last three Objectivism 101 lectures for Will Thomas to review. I'll be doing another round of editing before I post them for selected people to review. (If you are interested in giving me feedback on a preview of these lectures, drop me an e-mail to diana(at)dianahsieh.com and tell me why you are interested.)
Constructing these lectures turned out to be much a more difficult task than I anticipated. Of course, I know the material cold. (Ah, well, except for the aesthetics, which I still need to read up on.) But presenting the ideas of Objectivism over the course of six lectures to a bunch of beginners was far more difficult than I had anticipated. I had to simply omit so much important material. I had to make sure that even what seems obvious to me was clearly stated and well-illustrated with examples. But the greatest challenge was in the organization, in constructing an outline that flowed smoothly. So thank goodness I've hit the home stretch!
Once I finish my last major edit, the next big hurdle will be practicing the presentation. They are about 45 minutes each, which means that practicing the whole lecture set will take about 4.5 hours. Yikes! Usually, I need to practice a lecture about 6 times before I give it, but that might be a bit unrealistic in this case!
Now, it's back to work on my lecture on honesty!
Update: Due to serious philosophic and moral objections, I am no longer associated with The Objectivist Center in any way, shape, or form. My reasons why can be found on my web page on The Many False Friends of Objectivism.
Last night, I happened to catch the recent Dennis Miller Live which featured Larry Miller as a guest. It's worth watching, if you have HBO. As you may already know, the reason that Dennis Miller hosted Larry Miller is that a funny piece on the Middle East is circulating with Dennis Miller's name attached, but that was actually written by Larry Miller.
Read more...According to my doctor, my mysterious illness appears to be an infection of mycoplasma. It's a bacterial infection that just doesn't want to go away. I'm on a cool new type of antibiotics, called the Z-Pak, which involves a mere 6 pills over 5 days. I love drug companies!
My throat is feeling better already. By tomorrow, I should be feeling fine. As an opinionated gal, it's just terrible when talking hurts! (Back when Paul and I were just friends in St. Louis, we went out to dinner the night before I was headed back home to Maryland. I was ill with a cold of some kind and was already losing my voice. But Paul managed to ensnare me in some discussion that I just couldn't let him win! I argued myself completely hoarse. Then, while on the plane the next day, the changes in air pressure completely screwed up my hearing. So my parents had the pleasure of meeting a deaf-mute child at the airport.)
While at the doctor, I also ran into another delightful improvement in medical technology, namely the instant strep test. Instead of waiting a few days to see whether the culture has grown or not, you get an instant report with 98% accuracy. (They still grow the culture for the negative results, just in case you are one of those 2% missed.) As someone who has gotten strep many, many times, I love it! (The first time I got strep was when I was in third grade or so. I missed the much-anticipated Girl Scout camping trip as a result. I was crushed.)
Oh, and I am looking for some recommendations for voice recognition software. I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking a few years ago, but it was terrible. But I have heard that the technology has gotten much better. Does anyone have any recommendations on software? on hardware? Thanks in advance.
I found this funny little tidbit thanks to my referer logs:
No foolin': I awoke today from a dream that Diana and/or Paul Hsieh (neither of whom I know from the neighborhood raccoons, but whose blogs I read yesterday) had replaced my bedroom window with their interesting webpage.
Paul forwarded this to me a while back. It's good to know that I'm leading an optimally healthy lifestyle!
Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?Read more...
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it, don't waste them away on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.
Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and Corn.
And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken.
Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable slop.
Q: Is beer or wine bad for me?
A: Look, it goes to the earlier point about fruits and vegetables. As we all know, scientists divide everything in the world into three categories: animal, mineral, and vegetable. We all know that beer and wine are not animal, and they are not on the periodic table of elements, so that only leaves one thing, right? My advice: Have a burger and a beer and enjoy your liquid vegetables.
Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body, and you have body fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.
Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain - Good.!
Q: If I stop smoking, will I live longer?
A: Nope. Smoking is a sign of individual statement and peace of mind. If you stop, you'll probably stress yourself to death in record time.
Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: You're not listening. Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?
Q: What's the secret to healthy eating?
A: Thicker gravy.
Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.
Yet another reason why state planning sucks. I'm feeling chilly already!
Read more...Eugene Volokh responded to my comments about blackmail in e-mail.
He writes:
1) Contracts promising not to say things or not to do things are quite enforceable. Nondisclosure agreements are an example; so are promises not to develop property;
2) In any case, even if blackmail contracts were unenforceable for want of consideration, that would hardly solve the puzzle, no? Blackmailers don't go to court to sue for breach of the blackmail contract; having the contract be unenforceable thus wouldn't do much to stop them. The question is why blackmailers can be sent to prison.
"Now that I've done all these things I shouldn't have done, how can I avoid the consequences I knew, but denied, and just hoped would not happen?"
I'm Diana Hsieh, a philosopher specializing in practical ethics. I received my Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2009.
Paul Hsieh is a physician specializing in orthopedic and emergency radiology. He blogs about science, technology, and random humorous items at GeekPress. He's a co-founder of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM) and regularly writes for its blog, We Stand FIRM. He has published a slew of op-eds and essays on health care policy. You can e-mail Paul at paul@paulhsieh.com, and follow him on Twitter @PaulHsieh.
Greg Perkins is a software architect working in the R&D labs at Hewlett-Packard, Boise. His degree is in mathematics and computer science. Greg hosts The Objectivism Seminar. Aside from work and philosophy, he plays jazz saxophone professionally with groups such as The Sidemen and Onomatopoeia. You can e-mail Greg at greg@eCosmos.com, and follow him on Twitter @gregperk.
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