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Random notes: April 3, 2012.

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Sunday’s Statesman ran a couple of articles on rabies in Texas. Briefly, there was a 30% increase in reported cases over 2010; the drought is being blamed for that. Here’s an interesting list of the most rabid counties in Texas by way of the TM Daily Post. (That links back to one of the Statesman articles.)

The aspect of the coverage that intrigued me, as an amateur neurologist, was Brenda Bell’s article about treating rabies. As I’m sure many of you know, once symptoms develop, rabies has been pretty much 100% fatal. I recall reading that there was one documented case of a 6 year old boy in Ohio surviving in the 1970s, but other than that nothing. (And I can’t find a reference now.) (Edited to add: This site claims that there were actually three documented cases in the 1970s, all involving patients who were given vaccine before symptoms presented.)

This was the case until a few years ago, when a 15-year-old girl survived after being given highly aggressive treatment (an induced coma, combined with antivirals). That course of treatment became known as the “Milwaukee protocol”. There are two problems:

  1. It doesn’t always work, and nobody knows why. Four other people have survived treatment with the Milwaukee protocol: 32 have died.
  2. It is expensive; way too expensive for treatment in poorer countries, where rabies is most common.

(Edited to add: If you want to get really technical, here’s an article from the CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” (aka the lazy journalist’s friend; at least every other week, I can find an article pulled straight out of MMWR) about the 17-year-old patient in Houston mentioned by the Statesman.)

In other news, the NYT is sad that the black golf caddie is disappearing. Gee, I wonder why that is? Oh, yeah:

…the job is not as attractive to blacks who have more career opportunities than previous generations.

Plus, golf carts, and fewer caddie training programs. Plus:

“A guy can make six figures a year on a decent bag now, but the players want to have family members, people that are close to them and who they can relate to on their bags,” said Carl Jackson, one of the few remaining black caddies who will work Augusta this week.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Sports | Comments Closed

Random notes: March 19, 2012.

Monday, March 19th, 2012

The “This American Life” retraction episode went up Friday night. You can download it or read the transcript here.

I listened to the whole thing over the weekend, and frankly I recommend listening rather than (or in addition to) reading the transcript. The transcript does not convey just how Mike Daisey comes across in Ira Glass’s discussion with him:

One thing that bothered me about this episode, though (and both Lawrence and Matthew Baldwin have made this same point).

Ira Glass says, “At that point, we should’ve killed the story,” when they found out that Daisey couldn’t (or wouldn’t) give them contact information for his interpreter.

Glass goes on to say “But other things Daisey told us about Apple’s operations in China checked out, and we saw no reason to doubt him. We didn’t think that he was lying to us and to audiences about the details of his story. That was a mistake.”

That’s not good enough. Someone should have been there and asked Glass: “Why didn’t you kill the story at that point? What were your reasons for going on with it? If you felt like it was an important enough story to run with, what were your reasons for going with Daisey, rather than someone like Rob Schmitz or the NYT reporters you spoke with?”

Yankees fan (well, nobody’s perfect) John Gruber has been all over the story since it broke on Friday as well. I’d suggest just going over to Daring Fireball and scrolling down from the top, clicking on whatever Daisey links interest you.

In non-Daisey related news: I gave up on Slate a few months ago. I felt like it had reached the point Salon came to quite a while back (when I gave up on them): saying outrageous and stupid things just to get page views, increasingly dumb writing (“Dear Prudence” in particular seems to have gone nucking futs), and generally not worth the time and effort involved in paying any attention to it.

However, I did see some good word of mouth on one Slate article recently, so I decided to click over. I’m happy that I did, as I can enthusiastically recommend Annie Lowrey’s “Where’s _why?”, a long article that simultaneously covers three things:

  • the culture surrounding the Ruby programming language (with a good explanation of what Ruby and Ruby on Rails are, and why they matter)
  • the author’s attempts to learn programming using Ruby as her first language
  • and the mystery of what happened to “Why the Lucky Stiff” a beloved figure in Ruby culture.

Posted in Apple, Clippings, Geek, Media | Comments Closed

Marc Randazza, and some thoughts about the First Amendment.

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

Ken over at Popehat has a post up about his friend Marc Randazza. I’m not part of Ken or Marc’s group. I’m not a lawyer, I’ve never met Marc Randazza, and I wouldn’t know him if he walked up to me and punched me in the face while using the word “f–k” repeatedly.

But I wanted to pull together some thoughts on the Hon. Marc Randazaa, and why I’d like to shake his hand and buy him a beer.

I think part of the reason for that is one of the small regrets I have in my life. When I was younger, I was inspired by the work of Nat Hentoff: not as a jazz critic, but as a First Amendment activist. My school libraries had books like The First Freedom and, later on, “The Village Voice” (a week or two behind, but…). For those who don’t remember, the VV ran Hentoff’s column on the First Amendment up until 2008.

I thought seriously about becoming a lawyer. But I didn’t want to be just any kind of lawyer: I wanted to be a First Amendment lawyer. I wanted to fight the good fight for little kids like me who were fighting high school newspaper censorship, and big newspapers and magazines who were fighting the government.

In the end, though, I gave up that idea because I didn’t think I could make any money at it. Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t want to get rich, but I wanted to be able to pay off my loans for law school and buy a new car every few years. Just being a First Amendment lawyer didn’t seem like it would lead down that path.

Many years later, I became aquatinted with Mike Godwin. Yeah, that Mike Godwin. I would recognize Mike if he walked up to me and punched me in the face, though it has been about…greeez, 15 years? since I last saw him in person. (He didn’t punch me in the face then, for what that may be worth.) The thing that strikes me about him, thinking back on that time, is that he did something interesting that I didn’t have the knowledge or ability to do: Mike Godwin was one of the people – perhaps the person – who pioneered Internet law. Literally, Mike pretty much invented a whole brand new field of law from scratch as the first general counsel of EFF.

And then there’s Marc Randazza. Why do I think he belongs in the company of people who make me wish I went to law school? Why do I praise a man I’ve never met? “Because that’s just the kind of hairball you are,” say some of my friends. They’re probably right about that. But:

I’ve been thinking about this since last night, and it seems to me that Marc Randazza is a modern day exemplar of the kind of people Melville Davisson Post was talking about:

And I saw that law and order and all the structure that civilization had builded up, rested on the sense of justice that certain men carried in their breasts, and that those who possessed it not, in the crisis of necessity, did not count.

…

No one of them believed in what the other taught; but they all believed in justice, and when the line was drawn, there was but one side for them all.

…

He was a just man, and honorable and unafraid.

“a just man, and honorable and unafraid”. I like that phrase very much. I believe there is a shortage of people in the world about whom that could be said, but I think it fits the honorable Mr. Randazza well.

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Posted in Geek, IANAL, Law | 4 Comments »

Happy Pi Day!

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

I’m getting a slightly late start, due to work-related issues (which I haven’t decided whether I’m going to discuss or not), but the Pi Day celebration proceeds.


Courtesy of my great and good friend Commvault Bryan.

The lineup of pies for Pi Day 2012. We went a little over the top this year (thanks to generous co-sponsorships from my great and good friends Chris and Barry). Not pictured; the chocolate cream pie, which vanished before I got any. (But we had key lime, lemon meringue, a Kahlua cream pie, apple, cherry, no sugar added “razzleberry”, banana cream, coconut cream, and pecan. No shortage of pie here in the bunker.)

My great and good friend Nate brought in a paelo pie.  The crust is ground walnuts and organic, grass-fed butter. The filling is pumpkin, sweetened with natural maple syrup. If there’s general interest, I might try to pry the recipe out of him; it is a really good pie.

Edited to add: This is absolutely not a bookmark for the LAT‘s list of recipes for Pi Day.  (Crawfish spinach? Yum!)

Posted in Food, Geek | Comments Closed

More South by So What?

Monday, March 12th, 2012

In a wide-ranging talk about the Internet and government, Al Gore urged the techie crowd at South By Southwest to use digital tools to improve government.

Unless Algor’s definition of “improving government” is “getting it out of our lives”, or unless the tools he’s talking about include autonomous Glock and heroin vending robots, he might as well just sit the f–k down and shut the f–k up.

He pushed for the creation and implementation of digital tools and social media to “change the democratic conversation.”

Gore talked of a “Wiki-democracy” of “digital flash mobs calling out the truth” and “a government square that holds people accountable.”

What evidence is there that “Wiki-democracy” will work any better than Wikipedia? “a government square that holds people accountable”? What does that mean?

... Votizen, an online network of voters that leverages social networks to campaign for their issues.

I actually kind of like this idea. Here’s why: the thing about “leveraging social networks” is that it can turn around and bite your ass. Look at “Kony 2012“. Their plan was to “leverage social networks” to get the word out about their film and get donations to Invisible Children. But the social media campaign ended up bringing a lot more attention to Invisible Children’s critics, and a lot more skepticism directed at the project. Remember: this is the Internet. We can fact check your ass.

Posted in Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Things I Don’t Like.

Monday, March 12th, 2012

This isn’t intended to be a complete list. Nor is it a random assortment. There’s actually a point to this list; stay to the end.

  1. “Doctor Who”. Sorry. Never got into it when I was young, too old and too much baggage and cannon for me to get into it now. Nothing personal: if that’s your thing, may the good Lord shower blessings upon you and keep you safe in his arms.
  2. PayPal. There’s a market opportunity for someone to come along and say “Look, we’re just like PayPal, except we have real customer service and we’re not as big a bunch of scum sucking dogs.” Seriously, given PayPal’s history (try here, here, and here for some examples) anyone who uses them for anything important might as well be playing Russian Roulette with a .45 automatic.
  3. Alzheimer’s disease. The only thing I can imagine that’s worse than watching someone you care about slowly lose their mind – indeed, their very self, the essence of what makes them human – from Alzheimer’s is having that happen to you personally. I hate Alzheimer’s disease.

So what’s the relationship? A guy named Steve Berry, working with an illustrator named Ben Morris, has put together a book called Behind The Sofa, which is described as containing over 100 celebrity memories of “Doctor Who”. I don’t recognize everyone in it, but Neil Gaiman, Philip Plait, and Rick Wakeman might be selling points for some folks. You can check out the book at their website, here. The hardcovers are apparently sold out (unless you buy the Slitheen package) but the ebook is available for a mere £4.99. Doing the currency conversion online, that’s $7.80. You can just barely, maybe, get a decent lunch in Austin for $7.80; two tacos at Torchy’s and a drink will set you back that much.

And 100% of the profits are going to Alzheimer’s Research UK. (Do I trust these people? Well, I figure anyone who crosses Neil Gaiman is either too stupid to run a proper scam or has a death wish, so yeah, I trust them.)

So if you like “Doctor Who”, or if you’re indifferent to “Doctor Who” but have been touched by Alzheimer’s, this might be something you want to support. It certainly seems to me to be something that deserves wider publicity. I hadn’t heard about it until…well…remember I mentioned PayPal? Yeah. Not good.

(Hattip: @newsycombinator.)

Posted in Books, Geek | Comments Closed

South by So What?

Monday, March 12th, 2012

Mike the Musicologist sent me an email this morning that I hope he doesn’t mind me quoting:

I don’t even live in Austin, and I’m already tired of hearing about South by Southwest. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you…

I responded that it hadn’t gotten that bad yet.

It got that bad around noon.

The two things that sent me over the edge:

  1. Takeru Kobayashi ate 13 grilled cheese sandwiches in 60 seconds. Because someone decided what SXSW needed was a competitive eating contest.
  2. The navel gazing over “Homeless Hotspots”. (Statesman. Read Write Web. Wired.)

Posted in Clippings, Geek | 1 Comment »

Yo ho maties!

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

It’s been an unofficial, underground practice among students at MIT for at least 20 years: Any student who completes courses in pistol, archery, sailing, and fencing is considered a pirate.

But last fall MIT made it official, granting pirate status to six students, with many more expected to follow.

Setting aside for a moment just how incredibly awesome this is: wait a second. MIT, a school in Massachusetts (the cradle and grave of liberty), offers a class in pistol shooting? And:

The four classes are notoriously over-subscribed and online registration begins at 8 a.m. – “when absolutely no MIT students are awake,’’ said Hurwitz.

I did a quick Google search to see what kind of pistols were being used; I did find the course listing, but it didn’t help much. It looks like, from reading the range rules, that this is air guns and .22 rimfire target guns. I also found the MIT Pistol and Rifle Club, the MIT Sport Pistol Club (the competition team) and the MIT Varsity Rifle Club. I had no absolutely no idea MIT had such an active shooting culture: once again, my faith in humanity is restored for the next hour or so.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Guns | Comments Closed

Some things that have been rattling around that I’d like to point out.

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

A few days ago, the News @ Y Combinator Twitter feed linked to this article, misleadingly titled “24/192 Music Downloads…and why they make no sense”. I say “misleadingly” because the article is actually a very good introduction to the theory of digital audio, touching on such subjects as the human ear and how it works, how we know that humans can hear between 20 and 20,000 Hz, Nyquist sampling, and ABX tests.

ABX is considered a minimum bar for a listening test to be meaningful; reputable audio forums such as Hydrogen Audio often do not even allow discussion of listening results unless they meet this minimum objectivity requirement.

Holy cow! You mean, there are audiophiles out there who actually believe in science and double-blind testing? My faith in humanity is restored.

The Hon. John Gruber pointed out a post by Chris Hofstader about disability advocacy groups (in particular, the National Federation of the Blind) and how they treat corporations:

At last years NFB convention, ebay was the lead sponsor. Guess what? The ebay web site had, at that time, dozens of accessibility problems . NFB took ebay’s sponsorship dollars while ignoring their poor accessibility. Those of us who would say that any group advocating for our community should require accessibility before rewarding a company by splashing its name all over their convention like they were a friend of our population.

It isn’t just ebay: Hofstader points out that the NFB has been harshly critical of Apple (a company that has done a great deal to promote accessibility) while promoting Google’s Android (which, per Hofstader, has poor accessibility).

I’ve been seeing a lot of promotion of something called “Kony 2012”, which appears to be tied to a campaign by a charity called “Invisible Children” targeting Joseph Kony and his “Lord’s Resistance Army” in Uganda. From what I can tell, Kony is a scumbag who recruits children to fight his battle against the Ugandan army. I think he deserves to be killed; and apparently, we (that is, the United States military) have sent forces to kill him in the past. But the whole “Kony 2012” campaign seems to be, from what the supporters state, about raising money and “awareness”. As far as “awareness” goes, what good is that going to do? As far as money, money for what? Hiring mercenaries to kill Kony?

“Kony 2012” may be a worthwhile cause. But before you jump on the bandwagon, I’d like to suggest that you read the “Visible Children” Tumblr blog, which offers an alternative and skeptical take on the cause. (I will point out one problem with Grant Oyston’s entry: Invisible Children currently has three stars on Charity Navigator, not two Edited to add: I misread Oyston: IC has three stars overall, but he is correct in stating that they only have two stars in the specific subcategory of “Accountability & Transparency”.)

Posted in Android, Apple, Clippings, Geek | 1 Comment »

Pi Day 2012 is coming!

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

We are one week out!

Can you feel the excitement? I said, “Can you feel the excitement?”

Just to get everyone pumped up, I’ve added the awesome Wolfram Alpha “Digits of Pi” calculator to my sidebar. No, no, don’t thank me: I’m here to help.

Posted in Geek | Comments Closed

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to “Random Crap Clearinghouse”.

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Mike the Musicologist and I were exchanging emails last night about Highlight, the latest “social” application

designed to help you connect with people you don’t know just yet: your Facebook friends of friends.

I observed at the time that what used to be considered creepy stalkerish behavior now had an app for it, and that there was probably a blog post in that. It turns out that, yes, there was a blog post in that – and Tam beat me to it. (Stupid Capstone class. Grumble. Grumble.)

It has been one year since Prakashanand Saraswati disappeared, ahead of his sentencing on charges of indecency with a minor. How close are we to catching him? It looks like law enforcement thinks he’s in Baja, and that he’s running out of funds. Plus, we’re talking about an 82-year-old guy in a wheelchair…

The NYT reports from Whiteclay, Nebraska. You may remember Whiteclay as the wide spot in the road near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where beer is sold, leading the Oglala Sioux tribe to file a lawsuit against various parties (including the Whiteclay stores and several brewing companies).

At some point, I need to write a longer and more thoughtful post about this issue. I can almost understand what the goals of the Sioux are, given how hard the reservation has been hit by drinking. At the same time, the Libertarian side of me says “Look, this paternalistic, Prohibition-driven approach to the problem clearly is not working. Maybe you need to find another approach.”

(And I wonder: if the Whiteclay stores stop selling beer, how long will it be before folks start brewing their own beer on the reservation? I’d be shocked to find out it isn’t happening already.)

Edited to add: Oops. Forgot something. “Terra Nova” is dead, and I’m delighted. But what will TMQ have to kick around next season?

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Law, TV | Comments Closed

Noted.

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Lawrence has a pretty swell writeup on the Piper Alpha disaster. I’m a little surprised that NASA hasn’t covered that in their System Failure Case Studies series yet.

My sister’s latest post over at the Park City Snowmamas site: “8 Items To Pack In a First Aid Kit For Travel”. I think there’s some good stuff in there, even for non-skiers (you might want to think about throwing some of this stuff into a range bag, for example). However, I do have to throw the yellow flag and assess the standard 15-yard penalty for an over sharing violation. Unfortunately, I don’t make the rules; I’m just a neutral ref.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Guns, Sports | Comments Closed

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