• Ajax,  Atlanta,  Culture,  Links,  Police State

    Rapid fire and random thoughts

    • Interesting thoughts on the use of mercenaries to settle third world conflicts (Darfour, the Congo, etc) at Instapundit and Marginal Revolution. I’m a bit queasy about the idea myself, though it’s probably worth trying.
    • Congress asserts amazing immunities for itself. No-knock raids and tear gas are good enough for you and me though.
    • Why do we believe anything sponsored by supposedly independent interest groups, in this case, an epidemic of girls going wild?
    • A nice AJAX primer from Brainjar.
    • Traffic Data in Windows Live Local.
    • The current media created craze is the fight club. I think this article misses out on reasons why it is appealing to techies though. If you’re a programmer, you’re spending all day in your virtual world, and stepping into the ring is about as far away from that as you can get.
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  • Biz

    Joy, Joy

    Now I find that the monster project is to be live at midnight, and not tomorrow morning, and there are 23 more changes, mostly in the copy.

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  • America

    RIP Steve Mizerak

    The CNNSI article

    I got his “Pool the Master’s Way” videotapes in the early 90s, and to date, they were the best instructional investment I’ve ever made, and I have dozens of instructional tapes and DVD’s over the years. They improved my pool game several hundred percent.

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  • Biz

    Yet more

    I’m nearing the “Vomit With Rage” stage of my workday. More changes!?!

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  • Biz

    My head explodes

    I’ve been up for two days, it’s due in two hours, and they’re still making changes to the project!?!?!?!?!?!

    UPDATE: Made it with 20 minutes to spare. Yay me.

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  • BigThink,  Culture,  Predictions

    Things I don’t believe in

    A list of things I don’t believe in, for no reason other than I find their proponents objectionable, or sensationalistic.

    • Intelligent Design theory
    • Global Warming
    • Public education reform
    • Keyboards in rock music
    • Authenticity as a meaningful part of music
    • McCarthyism being a defining moment of American History
    • Native American culture being inherently earth friendly
    • Anything to do with “carbs”
    • Apple’s vaunted OS stability
    • Apple’s better “interface”
    • Any positive influence of Janis Joplin
    • The oft-touted claim by libertarians that 20% of Americans are libertarian also
    • “Natural” foods
    • Homeopathy
    • Divorce being a public/social problem
    • Stem cell research being a big deal, for good or ill
    • Biomass fuels
    • Peak oil
    • Addictive personalities
    • Chiropractors
  • Personality

    The decaffeinated Steve

    So, after more than two weeks of a low-caffeine lifestyle I conclude that the net results are positive.

    The good:

    • I’m not as moody or edgy
    • Apparently I’ve stopped fidgeting in the evenings
    • I’m not sleeping any more or less

    The bad

    • I’m a much heavier sleeper than I used to be (which elevates it to near coma)
    • My sleep schedule is more erratic than it used to be
    • I’m back to having periodic insomnia, though it’s not that bad.
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