8/21    "Less than half of people 65 and older abide by heat-emergency
        recommendations like drinking lots of water. Reason: they don't
        consider themselves seniors... There are four stages of denial, says
        Eric Holdeman, director of emergency management for Seattle's King
        County, which faces a significant earthquake threat. One is, it
        won't happen. Two is, if it does happen, it won't happen to me.
        Three: if it does happen to me, it won't be that bad. And four:
        if it happens to me and it's bad, there's nothing I can do to stop
        it anyway... Ours is a strange culture of irrational distrust--buoyed
        by irrational optimism." Americans are stupid.
        http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1229102,00.html
        \_ Well yes, but it's not really surprising.  The only bad things
           that happen to most Americans are little things that are caused
           by other people.  (Like getting your car stolen.)  Americans
           just don't really believe bad things will happen to them.
           Remember all the people standing around the WTC on 9/11?  It's
           like it never occured to them that it might fall down.  A lot of
           people didn't leave the second tower because they figured it only
           affected the first.  Actually, it's not just Americans, it's
           affluent people who live in peaceful places.
           \_ I think a lot of people didn't leave the second tower because
              they were told that staying put were safer, and they were taught
              they were told that staying put were safer.  They were taught
              they were told that staying put wwas safer.  They were taught
              that following instructions in emergencies (to stay put in this
              case) were safer.
              case) were safer, and better educated people are more likely to
              case) was safer, and better-educated people are more likely to
              follow instructions in situations like these.
              \_ If I was in the second tower when the first one hit I'd haul
                 ass immediately as far away as possible.  Following safety
                 instructions that don't make sense has a lot more to do with
                 wisdom or lack thereof than education level.  I don't see
                 how education level has anything to do with this anyway, since
                 the towers are filled with workers from barely got GED to
                 Phd math/econ types.
                 \_ If you were in the second tower, you wouldn't know that the
                    fire was a plane hit until much later.
                    \_ I thought the second strike was about an hour after the
                       first?  Everyone in tower2 should have known what had
                       happened to tower1 shouldn't they?
                       \_ Who in the tower would have thought that the hit was
                          not an accident by a terror plot, let alone a part of
                          a bigger terror plot involving more than one plane?
                          \_ I sent email after the first hit that I was going
                             to work from home that day.  Self preservation:
                             it's a Darwin thing.
           \_ Dude, have you ever seen videos of the stupid things people
              do in third world countries?  Stupidity is not governed by
              socio-economic or political boundaries.
              \_ Meh, I guess you're right.
                 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5270118.stm
                 \_ "When Um Ali Mihdi returned to her home in the southern
                    Lebanese city of Bint Jbeil two days ago, she found a
                    1,000lb (450kg) Israeli bomb lying unexploded in her living
                    room.  The shell is huge, bigger than the young boy pushed
                    forward to stand reluctantly next to it while we get our
                    cameras out and record the scene for posterity."
                    What the fuck?  "Here kid, go stand there for scale.  WE'RE
                    WAITING"
                    \_ Not that they wouldn't all die if it went off, but
                       still funny that some moron pushed the kid forward who
                       was too smart to volunteer.
                 \_ "Of course we want help from the government, but not the
                    Lebanese army - if it wasn't for the resistance, Bint Jbeil
                    would still be under occupation."
                    Yes, if it wasn't for the resistance, Israel's force that
                    invaded to quell the resistance would still be... oh wait.
                    \_ If Israel completely disarmed, they'd be genocided.
                       If their neighbors completely disarmed there would be
                       peace and economic prosperity throughout the region.
                       Everyone knows it but it isn't PC to say so.  Pretending
                       otherwise makes people feel better.
                       \_ Bad guys never disarm by choice.  It is silly
                          for good guys to try to teach by example in this
                          case.

8/21    Greenland's glaciers have been shrinking for 100 years
        http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/21/060821191826.o0mynclv.html
        \_ nice article:
           "Greenland's glaciers have been shrinking for the past
           century, according to a Danish study, suggesting that the
           ice melt is not a recent phenomenon caused by global
           warming."
           "The shrinking of the glaciers since the 19th century is
           'the result of the atmosphere's natural warming, following
           volcanic eruptions for example and greenhouse gases,
           created by human activities, which have aggravated the
           situation further," he said."
           So, the conclusion inserted by the article author is exactly
           the opposite of what the study says.  -tom
           \_ Interesting interpretation of the text.
              \_ How can you possibly read the report text and conclude
                 that the authors are casting doubt on global warming?  -tom
                 \_ I didn't say that.  I said your interpretation was
                    interesting.  The actual text in the article says that
                    glaciers have been shrinking for a century at a near
                    constant rate with 2 high points along the way.  The
                    text you quoted says this is the result of natural
                    effects which are aggravated by human activity.  GW theory
                    says GW is caused by humans.  The article does not say
                    glacial shrinking is _caused_ by humans, only helped along
                    by an unspecified amount on top of the natural causes
                    that were already shrinking them.  And btw, where are all
                    those GW caused storms and hurricanes we were promised?
                    \_ "You're talking a lot, but you're not saying anything."
                         --David Byrne
                       \_ Or you're just deaf.  Sorry it was beyond your scope.
                    \_ Sorry you missed Katrina.
                       \_ Maybe you'd like to join us in 2006.
                          \_ hey nimrod, climate change isn't linear.
                          \_ Check out the recent typhoons in East Asia.
        \_ The Industrial Revolution started more than 100 years ago.  See the
           Global Fossil Carbon Emissions chart at
           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution#Other_effects

8/21    What exactly does "degree" mean in measurement?  For example,
        temperature can be expressed in "degree Celcius" or "degree
        Fahrenheit", but "kelvin" instead of "degree kelvin".  Angles can be
        expressed in "degrees" or in unit-less radian.  Is it arbitrary for
        the inventor of the unit whether or not the unit will carry the word
        "degree"?
        \_ as for why it's used for temperature:
           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farenheit
        \_ yes... to a certain degree
           \_ :-)
        \_ Because temperatures are relative to something except for Kelvin
           which uses an absolute scale.

8/21    Found an app called 'witch', nice MacOS cmd-tab "supplement."  Lets
        you also choose between minimized windows of an app.  -John
        \_ Try looking at mdfind (spotlight search). There are also
           plenty of nifty built-in command-line utils at
           http://www.matisse.net/OSX/darwin_commands.html

8/22    This is not a critical tax question so I'm not going to ask my
        accountant. At any rate I used to claim "2" on my tax W2 and had
        always gotten money back (a few thousand dollars a year) every year,
        thanks to itemizing tax & owning my parents' properties in my name.
        This year I decided that I'd get more money back immediately and
        pay tax later, and decided to put down "3" instead of "2". However,
        I'm still getting taxed at around 34% which is the same tax rate as
        before! Below is the breakdown of my current tax:
        Federal: 18.4% of my pay
        SS Tax:   6.18%
        Medicare: 1.44%
        CA Tax:   6.69%
        CA VDPI:  0.78% <-- BTW what is this?
        Medical:  0.57%
        Does this sound about right? Are you CA single dudes making 6
        digits also getting taxed around 34% claiming "3" instead of "2"?
        \_ Changing your withholding by 1 won't make a big change.
        \_ See IRS Publication 15, Circular E.  This has the formula
           on how much each witholding does exactly.  Assuming you are
           paid semimonthly,  each witholding means ~$137 of your salary
           won't be taxed.  So assumes you are at 35% bracket, you'll get
           ~$48 more a pay check.
        \_ CA VPDI is voluntary plan disability insurance.  It is similar to
           SDI which is state-run.  BTW, you can claim itemized deduction on
           SDI but not on VPDI.

8/22    RIP Stargate SG-1
        \_ At the end of the season.
           \_ Please please please have them wrap this up in some way that
              makes sense.
              \_ I predict we'll invade the Ori-held planets and bomb
              \_ I predict we'll invade the Aurii(sp?)-held planets and bomb
                 them until they come to love and appreciate us, winning their
                 hearts and minds and thus vanquishing our enemy.
                 \_ What are you trying to do, MAKE me wish the series would
                    die?
                 \_ You mean like in WW2?
              \_ The only thing I think would make sense is for something to
                 happen to spur the ancients to action against the Ori.
              \_ Well the stargate system turns out to be something like a
                 child's toy from another dimension.  Having outgrown it, the
                 child puts it aside where it eventually collapses.  All SG
                 faring races blame each other which is the start of the first
                 and last multi-galactic war.  All life in the universe is
                 destroyed.  Except for the hot chicks, of course.  The end.
        \_ At least SciFi hasn't taken away Atlantis' ZedPM:
           http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=37607

8/22    In emacs21, is there a way to change the number of spaces that emacs
        indents my C code at each level when I press the <TAB> key?  Thx.
        \_ http://csua.com/?q=emacs+indent&sort=d
        \_ (c-basic-offset . 2)

8/22    In Windoze XP, how can I make my service start automatically when it
        boots up in Safe Mode?  I searched MSDN site and didn't see anything.
        Thanks.
        \_ I don't know how to do that in Windoze XP but it isn't that hard in
           Windows XP.
           \_ And that would be how?  Thx.
              \_ Start here and you should get the right idea:
           HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal
                 \_ Thanks!
        \_ Out of curiousity, why do you need to do that?
           \_ I am working on a module that is a service, and I need it to be
              loaded even in Safe Mode so that people won't be able to bypass
              it by rebooting the machine in Safe Mode.
              \_ I sure hope there isn't a way to do what you want.  If the
                 users want to bypass your module, let them!
                 \_ It's part of a security product, and we don't want the end
                    user bypass it.
                    \_ And what stops them from booting off a USB key, CD,
                       other hard drive, etc?
                       \_ BIOS password.
                          \_ Yank HD, take to another computer, etc.
                             \_ Always true for any product that can't
                                physically defend itself.  I don't think most
                                customers want their firewall to shoot at
                                people.
                                \_
                        http://blubbie.com/usb-nailgunner-pc-gadget.html -tom
                             \_ There's also FS encryption.
                             \_ Some of the firmare-level drive crypto stuff
                                out there is pretty buff.  Not failsafe, but
                                in most cases more trouble than it's really
                                worth.  -John
                    \_ What gives you the arrogance to think you can take over
                       the end user's system in such a way?
                       \_ I think he's building a security appliance not a
                          home user software thing.
                          \_ A security appliance running Windows?
                 \_ RESPECT MY AUTHORITAW!
              \_ And suppose there is such a way.  What's to stop
                 someone from writing a malicious service that does the
                 same thing?

8/22    A while ago someone said that in Mexico, one will see signs on doors
        that say, "No Indios."  It was claimed that "they" will say this is
        not racism.  How does one even begin to claim that it isn't racism?
        I'm curious to hear the argument.
        \_ How about "no strawmen"?  -tom
        \_ Hey, welcome to the rest of the world where racism is every day in
           every way status quo.
        \_ When the west occupied China a century ago, they put up signs at
           buildings and parks that read "No Chinese or dogs allowed."
           \_ The debate on the authenticity of this is by no means over:
              http://pekingduck.org/archives/002522.php
           \_ Do employment ads in Japan still say "no gajin (sp?)"?
              \_ Not as such, but it's implicit more often than not. Mind you,
                 you can specify male or female, young or old, and no fatties,
                 no uglies in help wanted ads in Japan. Hell, you can even
                 specify blondes or non-blondes even if the job has nothing to
                 do with looks. Note that "gaijin" refers to non-Asian
                 foreigners; there are other words for Asian foreigners.
              \_ One can only hope so.

8/22    Do did the white men kill buffalos, dodo-birds, the natives, and
        everything else they stumbled on?
        \_ Yeah, pretty much.  -George Custer
        \_ White men have brought buffalo back as a yummy meat.  Mmmmm...
           buffalo.
        \_ white man killed teh grammar
        \_ We didn't start the fire, it's been burnin' since the worlds been
           turnin'.
           \_ No, you guys did start the fire.  -Kunta Kinte
        \_ Yes.  Just like the natives who were here and other places before
           white people showed up killed every large creature they found until
           several were extinct.  Thanks for playing, though.
        \_ How come there are no more dragons in China? Chinese killed them.
           Evil Chinese.
           \_ They didn't like the smog so they left.
        \_ Generally, homo sapiens in general hunted any major species
           which was vulnerable to their level of technology and/or unafraid
           of humans due to evolutionary isolation.  Some of the extinctions,
           such as the dodo, were partly the result of hunting but more
           fundamentally the result of introduction of diseases, rats and
           cats.  Smallpox killed more native humans than guns ever did.
           Easter Islanders cut down all their trees (once the largest
           eucalyptus in the world).  -tom
                \_ Plagues and disease like smallpox are a little different
                   than one group of people wiping out large populations of
                   other people on purpose. -Heinrich Himmler
                   \_ Himmler wasn't such a bad guy, he liked trolls.  -John

8/22    I went to a doctor and she misdiagnosed my case. Luckily my second
        doctor found the problem and I was given the right treatment. A few
        months later I had the problem again and went to see a doctor, but
        unfortunately they gave me the first doctor again. Once again she
        quickly jumped into the same conclusion and I pointed out that her
        first diagnosis was wrong, afterwards she became very upset, defended
        her decision with a long tirade, and finally insulted me with comments
        like how someone like me could question her authority, after she
        went through all the trouble in medical school to get her hard earned
        MD.  What's the best way to expose her incompetency and bitchiness?
        \_ I can't help you here but I don't have much respect for doctors
           myself. While there are touching stories of doctors who volunteer
           their personal time to help others, two of my friends are now
           MDs and I can tell you that they have serious attitude problems.
           Ever since I've known them as a child, they have always had
           very assertive personalities, so much to a point that they
           can be described as being overly aggressive and unapologetic.
           Both of my friends have this sense of entitlement -- they've made
           it so people must respect their authority. It seems to me that
           in the old days, Doctors cared about the people. But these days,
           they're simply trying to get through as many patients as possible.
           Young doctors working with modern healthcare systems seem to be
           the worst doctors.
           \_ Oh, how I long for The Good Old Days when doctors cared, gas was
              cheap and women were hot, easy, but not at all slutty, oh no.
              Newflash: doctors were always just people and a lot of people
              just suck.  Women were always like this.  And gas is about the
              same price now as it always was in gallons/value.  This doctor
              isn't going out of business because the medical insurance
              system provides very little and usually no choice in who you
              go to for medical care.  The invisible hand only applies to
              situation with competition.  I see my primary care physician
              as nothing more than a referal service I pay $15 to send me to
              someone off her list who might actually know something.  She
              doesn't actually seem to know anything or really care that much.
              \_ what is your metric for saying gas price hasn't changed
                 in terms of gallons/value?
        \_ This is a free market. If she's really that bad, her patients will
           stop going to her. In another word the invisible hand force will
           take her out of the free market without your intervention.
           \_ great schtick
           \_ It's not that easy because such a high percentage of
              doctors are like that.  They'll just find another job,
              or the healthcare system will just throw new patients at
              them, who don't know better to complain.  The basic
              attitude I've encountered is, "I don't know what your
              problem is (and I know everything), so it must be all in
              your head.  Here, take some prozac and come back for
              more when you run out."
              I used to have Kaiser.  I never used it for years so I
              didn't know anything about it, but when I needed it, it
              was as worthless as a piece of dirt on the ground.  No,
              it was worse than that, because my life wouldn't depend
              on a piece of dirt on the ground.  I went through 5
              different Kaiser doctors (3 in this area and 2 in San
              Diego area) and except for one, they were completely
              useless.  The one that seemed to care doesn't really
              count because I only saw him on the way to San Diego
              under a personal emergency of sorts.  As far as I was
              concerned, there was only one way, which was to switch
              to PPO and find my own doctor who is willing to admit
              that s/he doesn't know everything.  Even PPO didn't help
              that much financially because they wouldn't pay for
              "experimental" treatments.  I have no direct proof, but
              I believe I would have killed myself by now if it
              weren't for the "experimental" treatment, which I had to
              work hard to find.  I'm still somewhat messed up (have
              slight tendency of autoimmunity), but at least I'm
              living a productive life.  In case anyone cares,
              environmental poisoning is not 100% reversible, so drink
              clean water and don't eat stuff that may have bad stuff
              in it (e.g. large carnivorous fishes and whales --
              mercury).
              \_ You want me to give up whale meat?!?!!  Fuck off, I'd rather
                 die young than live without whale meat.
                 \_ I'm sure you just enjoying making idiotic comments,
                    but it's never about living long.  I'd rather live
                    healthy 50 years than suffer through 100 years.  It's
                    the state of mind, not length of life.
        \- Q: What do you call the person who graduates at
              the bottom of their [sic] med school class?
        \- Q: What do you call the person who graduates at the bottom of
              their [sic] med school class?
           A: "Doctor"
           For a serious answer, if the doctor is part of an institution,
           there is presumably a department head or OMBUDSMAN. Makes some
           calls ... figure it out. BTW, I thought the book COMPLICATIONS
           by ATUL GAWANDE was pretty interesting.
           http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312421702
           It would be nice to hear via MotD where this goes.
        \_ Who does she work for? There is usually a reporting mechanism of
           some sort.
        \_ Drop Kaiser; go to Blue Shield.

8/22    Someone who looks like ilyas solves historic math problem, shuns prize
        http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/08/22/math.genius.ap
        \- Also headline story on THE REPORT OF COLBERT. Probably on
           You tube soon.
           \_ It's on the Comedy Central cite -- brilliant!
        \- Hello, for those of you into school pride, Berkeley is a big
           deal in this area of math. PERELMAN was operating out of UCB
           briefly. The pf POINCARE and THURSTON GEOMETRIZATION is a really
           big deal ... note also THURSTON also used to operate out of UCB.
           And SMALE was one of UCB's older Fields Medalists, who earlier
           had an important result related to POINCARE.
           Of course Old Professor CHERN is super-important ... who taught
           here for like 30yrs and started MSRI. [BTW, UCLA owns one of the
           other Fields Medalists ... and another one used to teach here ...
           Of course Old Professor CHERN is super-important ... also
           UCB prof and started MSRI. [BTW, UCLA owns one of the other
           Fields Medalists ... and another one used to teach here ...
           but it looks like he was procured by Princeton since, so I guess
           we dont lose a parking spot next to Evans].
           Here are two other really weird math people:
           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grothendieck ... stopped doing math
                                                     and moved to Andorra.
           http://bookbuzz.com/MBIO_About_Erdos.htm ... who was a borderline
                                                    homeless speed freak.
           I once touched PERELMAN. --lewis@soda
           I once touched PERELMAN. Feel free to send me your questions
           on low-dimensional topology. --lewis@@soda
        \_ That guy doesn't look remotely like ilyas.
           \_ He does however look a lot like Prof. George Bergman.

8/22    http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/ADVISOR/08/22/business.etiquette
        How to not be a dumb American. I sure learned alot from this article.
        \_ Dude, you learned a lot from this article? Are you serious? You
           didn't know that you should research the culture of the country
           you're attempting to do business in before you go to do business?
        \_ 'Chaney says, adding, "you never know when you're in one of those
           countries."'  BS.

8/22    Osama wanted to marry Whitney Houston:
        http://entertainment.iafrica.com/news/944967.htm
        http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyimages/860.gif

8/22    Casio is coming out w/ a GPS wristwatch:
        http://tinyurl.com/g3x3t (engadget.com)

8/22    So I finally have a reason to want to review my transcript.
        I realize I can't use BearFacts as an alum, but without jumping
        through the hoops to request and pay for an official transcript,
        is there any way to check it?  --maxmcc

8/22    Data points for you guys. Appointment times and experience for
        ophtamologist (for eye disease):
        Kaiser Spring 2006:
          Appointment: You must go to a primary doctor first, or talk to
            a phone nurse who'll diagnose you. Wait time for a phone nurse
            for me took 65 minutes (just waiting on the phone).
          Wait period: 5 days before the nurse allows you to make an
            appointment and actually seeing the doc
          Waiting room: 45 minutes wait
          Kaiser pharmacy time: 45 minute wait
          Notes: You must go to a Kaiser hospital, and you must go to a
                 primary doc for referal. If it's an emergency visit, like
                 eye infection, you must talk to a Kaiser nurse for 15
                 minutes. Wait time to talk to a nurse has been
                 consistently 40-60 min. You must use the Kaiser pharmacy
        BlueShield Summer 2006:
          Appointment: You make the appointment directly, takes 5 min
          Wait period: 1 days before appointment and seeing the doc
          Waiting room: 45 minutes wait
          Pharmacy time: You pick your own. I picked Walgreens. Fast.
          Notes: You have a lot of flexibility. You can pick any BlueShield
                 network, which is pretty wide in California.
        BlueShield cost a little bit more, but it's totally worth it. I don't
        understand why people pick Kaiser, it totally sucks. I guess if you
        never plan to get sick, it's not a bad choice.
        \_ I have friends who use Kaiser and get great service, docs, etc.
           I have friends who get the horror story experience.  It really
           really varies.  A lot.
           \- it is my belief that some kaisers are conistently and
              significantly better/worse than others. in my experience
              oakland kaiser gets a lot more second and third stringers
              than say santa clara.
        \_ Aren't your Blue Shield data points dependent on the particular
        \_ Well aren't your Blue Shield data points dependent on the particular
           clinic you chose?
           \_ Exactly. With BlueShield PPO you have a choice, and you pick
              the right choice. With Kaiser, you have no choice. You either
              go to the primary Kaiser that is within 25 miles of your home,
              or 100 miles away from your home. Moral of the story: It's
              great when you have a choice.
        \_ Blue Cross and Blue Shield suck just as much incredible donkey
           ass as Kaiser, just a different donkey with different hair.
           The health insurance system is totally Fucked (tm).
              --subscriber to Premier Blue Cross PPO, the "best PPO they
                offer"
           \_ I have blue shield and is happy with my doctor.  would you
              like to elaborate?