Back in Signoff

When basic arithmetic falls through the cracks, David reports on it in a segment we call back in Signoff.

About a week ago there was a news story that McCain wants to reduce emissions by 60% by some date and Clinton/Obama want to reduce it by 80% by that same date. First off - super glad to hear that McCain is at least partially signed on to fighting climate change (not that he'll win, but still nice to hear).

What is the difference between an 80% reduction and a 60% reduction? Both sound significant. 80% sounds like a bit more - in politics terms it is a 20 point spread. Maybe it is just me, but read off in those terms - gut reaction - not a giant difference.

Let's say we are currently producing 10 units of CO2 per year. After a 60% reduction that's 4 units per year. After an 80% reduction that's 2 units per year. So McCain's proposal is 4 units, Clinton/Obama's is 2 units. That's a factor of 2! That's big. In fact if the Clinton/Obama proposal were 84% instead of 80% then it would be 1.6 units - which would be the same as saying do McCain's reduction, then do it again!

PS - if someone makes the mistake of actually paying attention to what I say - they might point out that in the past I said factors of 2 are no big deal. First off - I'll admit that previous post was pushing expectations a bit too far. But my main point there was hybrid cars make up a small portion of all cars and cars only make up a portion of total pollution. So if they want to make a significant impact they need a serious reduction (the front runner should be far better - wind is way more than 2X better than coal...). BUT the plans discussed above are the whole thing (for America). So a factor of 2, means a factor of 2.

Separate topic - last week or two I was more social than usual with people in the area and less social than usual with others. This weekend I'll start to make up for the second part (hopefully won't cause a corresponding drop in the first).

Three news stories

Three major news stories discussed in the NYT today:

Bush says talking to countries like Iran and Syria is like trying to appease Hitler.

Jews in Florida question how they feel about Obama, largely concerned about Israel because Obama is willing to talk to countries like Iran.

Israel is going to talk to Syria.

Um,
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

I guess it should be, two of these things are not like the others, two of these things just don't belong.

By the way, according to a corollary to Godwin's law, Bush loses the flame war and it is time to move to a new thread.

I can marry a guy!

It's official - I can marry a guy! Not that I want to, but I like to know I have my options open. I've felt very constrained these last three years since I left Massachusetts.

101 F

It was 101 degrees in Silicon Valley today! WTF. What did I do? How much better can the new job really be? Why did I have A/C when I was in a beach town and no A/C when I moved to the Valley? (Well in answer to that one the high was 101, but the low was 60 - isn't that a crazy spread? And of course the real answer is it is really expensive to live here - which just adds even more to my questioning of my judgement) I've seen entourage - I've heard the horrors of the Valley from Johnny Drama (yeah different valley, but same idea). How am I ever going to trust myself to make a decision again knowing that I moved from an air conditioned apartment in one of the most even climates on earth to a place where it can be 101 on May 15 with one ceiling fan in the kitchen? Don't be surprised if you get calls from me double checking simple choices - like should I use a spoon to eat my cereal? Oh, no, I put the cereal I'm going to eat in a bowl without checking with anyone! I think a bowl would be better than spilling it on my bed, but now I just don't know.

Kosher food

We've been told by commercials that if you buy drugs you are supporting terrorists (interesting there aren't commercials telling us that if you buy oil you are supporting "the axis of evil" or that if you support rebel groups fighting your current enemy then you're supporting future terrorists - but anyway...).

Are there now going to be commercials saying: "Think keeping strict kosher is obeying God's law and that you pay those higher prices because the slaughter house is better controlled and inspected? Think again. (Now scary images). Your meat money is supporting meth labs, identity theft, illegal immigrants, and cruel slaughter methods! Don't believe us, just ask the New York Times. The more you know (show ancient graphic)."

I guess the other way of looking at this is: "Think your drug money is being sent to Afghanistan to support terrorists? Think again. Your meth habit is funding kosher slaughter houses! Think about that next time before you decide to get high." Maybe this approach would reach all those vegetarian meth addicts. It would definitely reach the vegetarian KKK members who take meth.

Do you think the meth was kosher? Seems like it would have to be to avoid making the whole place lose its kosher accreditation. Are illegal immigrants just the logical extension of the Shabbas goy concept?

Computer Museum

Today I went to the Mountain View Computer Museum and saw the Babbage Engine. It is a mechanical computer that computes successive values of polynomials. Not a big exhibit, but was fairly cool to see it work.

Happy Mother's Day!

Something worth talking about

Relief workers and survivors described scenes of horror as people huddled on spits of dry ground surrounded by bodies and animal carcasses floating in the murky water or lodged in mangrove trees. That is what I'd like to hear presidential candidates talk about...

Here's a chance for Bill to actually do some good for Hillary - grab George Sr and do your thing (yes I realize this is complicated by the resistance of the government, but seems like that's exactly the kind of situation where you'd want the help of ex-presidents).

Wright bleeping

I have two comments on the whole Rev Wright thing.

First - I think it is great that the Daily Show is consistently pointing out the absurdity of how this is handled in the media (yes I'm about a week behind on Daily Show episodes).

Second - I just realized this - when the video is shown on TV you hear "bleep damn America". Um... really? God is the word that gets bleeped? So while I have my own thoughts on bad words only being bad because they have been declared such - for this post I will grant that some people don't want bad words on TV. I'll also temporarily grant that some words that are not bad by themselves can be combined to create bad words. But if God and damn are acceptable separately and are only bad in combination then fine only one has to be bleeped to make things ok again. But, but, but, really God is the one they pick? I guess that if you hear "God bleep America" you might not know what he's saying, but they wouldn't bleep God bless America - so this way any adult could figure it out, but it might actually hide the "bad word combo" from children. And really, how much worse is God damn America than Damn America? Based on this system you can't say "God damn painful shoes" on TV but you can say "Damn America". Heck, apparently it is ok to say "Damn America", but not "God damn the Sept 11 hijackers". I wonder if you can say "God should use his powers to move all Americans from Earth to a painful afterlife where they will burn forever"? Or how about "Omnipotent power, whose name cannot be said before the word damn on TV, damn America"? Don't get me wrong - I would not want censorship based on ideas, but it does seem to point out the absurdity of having censorship rules at all. I have heard this style of "bleep damn" before on the radio so it is not just this one incident (I think I also ranted about it then). Alright I guess any adult could have figured out where this is going after the first sentence or two so I'll stop now.

Learning

I think this is interesting.

Film Festival and Dilbert

First, thought some people might find this global film festival interesting.

Second, for those that regularly read Dilbert, in the thread that has been playing out over the last week are the green people eating aliens microsoft? Not that I wouldn't see the same thing after reading slashdot for five minutes, but I was a bit surprised to see it from Dilbert.