Monthly archive for April2014 - page 3

The New Straits Times (Malaysia) is reporting that Malaysia Air Flight 370’s Copilot attempted a cell phone call after final radio contact and after the plane diverted from it’s planned course to Beijing.  I have seen this reported nowhere else.

The source for the story is an anonymous person inside the investigation.  The source states that the co-pilot’s cell records are being examined (as I assume would be the pilot’s, flight crew’s and all the passengers’) and the examination shows that the phone was powered off about the time that the crew boarded the flight.  This is considered normal.  However, after the flight departed, after the final radio contact with ground controllers and after the flight changed course, the phone was turned on and a call was made or attempted.  The source declined to give further information as to whom the call was attemted or if it was indeed completed.  I will be interested to see if this story is picked up by other media sources.

Did I say common sense?  Sorry, I meant stupidity.  This week the Senate Health Commitee approved SB1000 which would require warning labels on sodas and other sugary beverages sold in California.  California will be the first in the nation!  The label would read:

STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking
beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.

Huh.  Who knew?  The next thing you know the government or someone will come out with a study that says Americans like Pizza or something.  But I digress.  We Californians are fortunate that we have such wise stewards in our legislature who realize that Utopia cannot be realized without sufficient warning labels.  We can’t credit them for all the warning labels California requires today though,  the most ubiquitous of which are the “Prop 65” warning labels which you will find on everything in the state.  Of course, I am exagerating (WRONG! I’m not!).  Here a little backgound is in order: California has something called The Ballot Initiative Process.  The idea is that We The People can bypass the Legislature if we choose, draft our own laws (“propositions”) and put them to a vote of the people.  If they pass they become law.  Power to The People!  Right On!  However… sometimes there is an idea so stupid even our legislators realize the can’t have their fingerprints on it,  so they draft their own “proposition” and put it on the ballot.  In this state, if you can sell something in Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area then you get to shove it down everyone else’s throat.  This is how we got Prop 65, the purpose of which was to warn people of scary toxic chemicals that would jump out and murder them unless they were warned.  Oh, and Clean Water!  Surely you’re not against clean water?  Anyway, now we have this warning on every building and product in California:

WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer  and birth defects  or other reproductive harm.

Turns out that everything causes cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm to one degree or another.  True Story: one summer at Lake Tahoe I was waiting for a table at a restuarant.  It’s Tahoe in the summer, so there are a lot of tourists from out of state and while we’re all sitting there, a young woman in another party notices the Prop65 warning posted at the entrance to the restaurant.  Yes, there is one of these posted at every restaurant in California.  She became alarmed; OMG look at this!  We better go somewhere else!  We’ll get cancer if we eat here! (on the shores of pristine Lake Tahoe, mind you).   The locals started laughing and told her not to worry, that warning is on everything in this state. There are two things to take away from this if you’re a California State Senator reading this.  First, “the locals started laughing” and second “that warning is on everything in this state”.

Prop 65 was passed in 1986.  Here it is 2014 and we’re still figuring out which warning labels to put on what.  That’s a lot of time wasted, so I’d like to offer this suggestion.  Let’s just make one warning label for everything so we can be done with this and move on.

My suggestion:

You’re Welcome.

I write about anything that happens to be of interest to me, and the subject matter is varied.  If you like what I write about some subjects but don’t care for others, look on the sidebar to the right.  You will see “categories”.  All my posts fit into one or more of these categories.  Click on the category you are most intersted in, and you will see only posts in that category.  Simple.  Within my posts I often link to additional information and/or another blog or article that inspired the post.  When you see a word in red text, that is a link to additional information.  Click on it and the link will open in a new tab.  Any pictures within a post can usually be viewed in a larger version by simply clicking on the picture.

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Thanks! and Enjoy!

At The Volokh Conspiracy:  The question is asked “What do Jamestown (Virginia), San Diego and New York have in common?”

If you wish, you may follow the link and scroll through the comments to find the answer.  OR… read through to the end of this post and I will provide the answer.  The question caught my eye as I am a bit of a history buff and have been to all three places.  They are quite different from each other.

Jamestown isn’t really a city at all, rather it’s more of a historical archaeology site.  It is the site of the first permanent English settlement in America, dating back to 1607.

New York is ,well, New York.  It’s a helluva town;  The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down.  The area was first visited by Europeans in 1524 (Spain) but not settled until 1624 by Dutch fur traders.

San Diego is regarded as the birthplace of California and is it’s second largest city.  It is spectacularly situated on the Pacific coast and has a beautiful climate.  It was first visited by Europeans (Spain) in 1542, but not permanently settled by Europeans until 1769.

So, what do they have in common?  They all were named after a “James”.  Jamestown, obviously named after a James, that is King James I of England.  New York, not so obviously was named after The Duke Of York (later King James II).  Finally, San Diego was named after Sebastian Vizcaino’s flagship San Diego, which is in English Saint James.

As improbable as it may seem…

Credit: tragedyseries.tumblr.com

…Perhaps the answer is looking for you.

Yea, that’s right, you heard me.  Concupiscence.  Merriam-Webster defines it as strong desire (especially, though not exclusively sexual desire).  For my purposes here, let us define it as the orientation, inclination or innate tendency of human beings to long for things they don’t (or can’t or shouldn’t) have.  Fleshy or otherwise.

You there – trying to sneak out the back!  I’m talking about you!  I’m talking about all of you.  Or rather – all of us.

It is a rare (and probably imaginary) person that doesn’t always want something they don’t have.  If you have money, you want more money.  If you have a house, you want a bigger house.  If you have a car, you want a better car.  And so on and so on…Why did I bring this up?  Only in an effort to understand why we are the way we are.  This is one of those things that is so universally true that I believe it is part of what we are if not who we are.

At first glance it seems that a trait like concupiscence must be a good thing.  People always wanting to better themselves – what’s so bad about that? It’s the source of all our voluntary actions – Pascal says so!  Except that it is almost always viewed in a negative light, especially in theology.  There’s even a commandment against it (or two, depending on your religion), the one against coveting your neighbor’s house, goods, or wife.  And people being people they usually end up trying to take what they want from other people that have what they want.  Or just hating them for having it.  That’s not good.  Oh wait…I see that Pascal makes no judgement as to the quality of our voluntary actions.

So then it must be an imperfection, a flaw.  Something to be resisted, constrained.  But without it would we ever taken any action at all?  That would make it an indispensable survival mechanism.  Truth be told (see what I did there?), it’s what keeps us going day after day.  Conversely, we have to watch it or it’ll get us in trouble.  But at least it gets us up off the couch.

Everyone knows the story of Pete Best, the “5th Beatle” and how he was bounced from the band just before they hit it big.  Turns out there was also a “5th Who”..err.. earlier drummer for “The Who” who (that?) was dismissed from the band just before their big break.

Of all the larger than life personalities in Rock’n Roll few are larger than Keith Moon, drummer for The Who.  Today I find out from UltimateClassicRock.com that he was not their original drummer, that honor belongs to a bloke named Doug Sandom.  The short story: in 1962 London there was a group called the Detours.  They were detoured by another group called The Detours and so they changed their name to The Who.  Who?  Yes, that’s right.  No, not Yes.  The Who.  Their drummer was named Doug Sandom.  There were also three other guys, Roger, John and Pete.  The group got an audition for Fontana Records which they failed.  In the fallout, Doug Sandom was fired and eventually Keith Moon was hired.  The rest is history (said in the voice of Howard Cosell).  For a better written and more detailed account, see the article at UltimateClassicRock.com.  If that’s enough info for you then watch this:

And another for good measure:

The Black Plague began it’s march across Europe in London in the Autumn of 1348.  Within a short time, 60 percent of London’s population had succumbed to disease and within a decade approximately 25 million Europeans were dead in what is often regarded as the worst human catastrophe in history.  Recently a London construction project unearthed a mass grave of 25 skeletons that were plague victims from which we are learing more about life in the middle ages, the disease and how it spread.

a mass grave of plague victims

Two things stand out, one is that the general state of Londoners’ health at that time was poor.  The other is that the disease may have been more “pneumonic” than “bubonic”, in other words it may not have been spread exclusively by the bites of fleas from infected rats, but  also by the coughing and sneezing of infected persons.  Evidence suggests that the disease could not have spread so quickly simply by flea bites and that another mode of transmission was likely.  Why does this matter?  Because to better understand the past is to better understand the present.  To know one’s history is to know oneself.  Read more here if you wish:

Via The Volokh Conspracy (WaPo):  “Isn’t it bubonic…don’t you think?”

Via The Guardian (UK): “Black death skeletons reveal pitiful life of 14th-century  Londoners”

…that in order to uphold our policy of inclusivity, we must exclude you.  This is the short version of what passes for politically correct logic today.   In the name of inclusivity, diversity and tolerance, one must adhere stricly to groupthink or risk exclusion.  Heresy will not be tolerated!

Mozilla: “We Believe In Openness & That No One Should Be Persecuted For The Beliefs They Hold, No Matter What They Are.”

This was the reasoning behind Mr. Eich’s “forced resignation”.  No irony intended, apparently.  Once upon a time people could disagree with one another, and then go about living and working together.  A person was entitled to their opinion, this being a free country and all.  Today if one disagrees with progressive ideas or policy, then that person is condemned as a bigot, hatemonger or worse; and that person must be punished – threatened with physical harm and/or have their livelihood taken away, branded as a pariah.  In a society that values free expression and freedom of speech there should exist a marketplace of ideas, where competing opinions are compared, argued and debated using evidence such as facts, logic and history among other things.  Today it is more and more evident that the marketplace of ideas has become for the Left a battlefield of ideas where the objective is not to change an opponent’s mind but to silence and destroy them.  This is a dangerous place to be regardless of the opinions you hold because what is in fashion today may be out of fashion tomorrow.

Beware those who preach tolerance and divesity, yet practice neither.

Here is a short little video that will make you smile.  It is a story of two classics: one is an automobile and the other is a human being.  Enjoy!