3/26    "Over 50 million people voted for me and Sarah Palin -- mostly
        for Sarah Palin.
         --John McCain

3/26    I've never been to Hawaii before, but I just booked a flight to
        Kauai for me and my gf (who has been to Oahu). I'd like some
        travel advice. Which side of the island to stay on, what not to
        miss, etc.
        \_ There's not a huge amount of choice as to "where to stay",
           it's a small island.  Shell out the $$$$ for a helicopter
           ride over the island.  Drive as far around the island as
           you can, too.  I wasn't able to do much hiking 'cause of
           my girlfriend at the time, but I wish I had.  You prob.
           don't need more than 3 days on a single island:  consider
           a flight to The Big Island, which has awesome volcanos if
           you are there for more than 3 days.  Inter-island flights
           run between $100 to $150.  For stuff more specific than
           that, just look in guidebooks.
           \_ Hawaiian tourist helicopters crash and burn at an alarming
              rate.  The pilots tend to be yahoos.  My friends took a
              flight for their first anniversary.  The pilot crashed it,
              and everyone died except my friend, who stayed alive in
              the wreckage with her dead husband until rescuers arrived.
              Being pinned under the wreckage is what was keeping her
              alive, as it turns out.  When the moved stuff, she died.
              Helicopters are statistically the most unsafe way to fly
              with an engine.  That doesn't stop me from heli-skiing,
              but in that activity the chopper is just a ski lift.  The
              pilots don't fly you around to thrill you with the ride
              like those hawaiian tourist rides.
              \_ Man, I'm sorry to hear about your friend and her
                 husband.
           \_ Actually, there's a massive amount of choice in where to
              stay. Megaresorts, small cottages, condos, private houses,
              budget motels, and so on. Then there's the question of which
              side of the island to stay on. If you are up in Hanalei then
              it's a long (2-3 hour) drive to Waimea. So I'm looking for
              someone who has been who can tell me if I should split the
              distance between the two or if more activities are
              concentrated in one area, etc.
              \_ Resorts vs. not would be up to you if you want those hotel
                 amenities or not, I think.  I think you can find better
                 locations with private rentals.  I'd get something on the
                 waterfront though.  Being up in a tall tower sucks, to me,
                 regardless of the view.
                 \_ There are no towers on Kauai.
           \_ A helicopter is good, but a light plane is better. They can
              cover more distance, which means getting into more isolated
              areas, and it's more comfortable to boot. Costs should be about
              the same for a given flight time, although you can probably get
              longer flights in a plane than a helicopter.
              \_ I am debating this. The plane is cheaper, but it cannot
                 hover or get as close to the ground. Helicopters have had
                 some bad crashes lately. I was first leaning to a plane,
                 but now a helicopter (for the reasons above). I have no
                 idea which is better w/o trying both. Have you been on both
                 for a tour like this?
        \_ Take surfing/snorkling/scuba lessons.
        \_ Wear sunscreen, especially the first day.
           \_ A very good advice
        \_ On a serious note - stay in Koloa (south side of the island) where
           it is less rainy than the Princeville (north of the island) and
           Lihue (east side of the island). My wife and I married in the Koloa
           area - PLENTY of cheap but good condo (for $120/nite or less), and a
           lot quieter. Don't expect Kauai to have much of a nightlife like
           Maui (Lahaina) or Oahu (Waikiki), it is a family island (and the
           locals would like to keep it that way). Stay, enjoy the sceneries
           and behave! Check out NaPali coast (either via helicopter if you're
           brave, from a bumpy boat ride or by hiking - it's 2 day worth of
           hiking). Check out Duane's Ono Char-burger place, an island
           institution. Go get the "Blue Book" on Kauai, we swear by it
           everytime we go.

3/35    Does Geithner want to play God or be God?
        \_ no

3/26    I accidentally GRANT ALL to someone on mysql, is there an UNGRANT ALL
        command equivalent short of having to do a bunch of tedious UPDATE user
        priv1,priv2,... VALUES('n','n',...); FLUSH PRIVILEGES; ???
        \_ nope
        \_ Remove and recreate the user?

3/26    world's luckiest man:
        http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/how-i-survived-hiroshima-ndash-and-then-nagasaki-1654294.html
        \_ If you can see the white light, wouldn't you get exposed to
           enough deadly radiation to die?
           \_ Dying from cancer at age ninety-three, and more than six decades
              after the blasts, isn't exactly early death.
           \_ Of course not.  Feynman even watched the first atomic blast
              without eye protection.  The radiation that kills you is from
              energetic neutrons and alpha particles that are near the blast,
              and gets mixed with soil in a ground or low-altitude detonation.
              \_ Feynman had all kinds of great stories about his radiation
                 experiences while a young man working on the Manhattan Project.
                 He also came down with cancer quite young, like all those guys.
                 \_ Someone told me great minds die young. Mozart, Mendelssohn,
                    etc. We should scatter plot IQ vs. lifespan... I suspect
                    lifespan is highest for IQ 130-150, and beyond 180 there's
                    a fall-off due to odd reasons
                    \_ Mozart and Beethoven get cited as geniuses who died
                       young, but Bach is also wide regarded as a genius, and
                       lived to the ripe old age of 65 before succumbing to
                       either bad post-op or stroke, depending on which source
                       you believe.
        \_ Dying from cancer at age ninety-three, and more than sixty years
           after the bombings, isn't exactly early death.  How can it say it's
           "probably caused by the atomic bombs that almost killed him,"?  Many
           people get cancer much earlier than age 93 even without exposing to
           nuclear blasts.
        \_ Not very lucky to be in two nuclear blasts. I'd call that very
           unlucky.

3/26    Anyone here uses Heritrix?  I'm trying to read the Intro document at
        http://crawler.archive.org/An%20Introduction%20to%20Heritrix.pdf but
        both Adobe Reader 8.1.3 (Win32) and gv 3.6.5 (cygwin) display error
        messages and show me blank pages.  Adobe displays:
        "Cannot extract the embedded font 'FTXWSG+TimesNewRomanMS'.  Some
        characters may not display or print correctly."
        "An error exists on this page.  Acrobat may not display the page
        correctly.  Please contace the person who created the PDF document to
        correct the problem."
        "Too few operands."
        Is anyone able to read this file?  Thanks.

3/26    Can someone explain the 14% gain described here. I don't understand
        the basic math being used. What if the portfolio returns 20%/yr?
http://theweek.com/article/index/94743/The_crisis__and_Geithner_plan__explained
        \_ I don't think you can explain it without knowing what the split
           in profits between the government and private holders is. It's
           obviously not 50/50. It looks like maybe 85/15 to get the
           number Geithner quoted. This makes sense because they only
           contributed 7% to begin with.
           \_ My understanding was that it was a 50/50 split (at least on the
              up front money side) with the gubmnt putting up 7% and the
              private money=7%. The other 86 or 85% (maybe 7.5% above) is loans
              gauranteed by gubment, that are basically uncompensated.  (Though
              there may be some premiums on the interest rates)
              \_ Can't be or the math doesn't work. If private money puts
                 up 7% and the fund returns 10% then there won't be a 14%
                 gain. The math works if the profit is split 85/15 after
                 the government takes its share off the top. Are you
                 saying its a 3 way split of 70/15/15?
        \_ I don't think you can explain it without knowing what the split
           in profits between the government and private holders is. It's
           obviously not 50/50. It looks like maybe 85/15 to get the
           number Geithner quoted. This makes sense because they only
           contributed 7% to begin with.
           \_ My understanding was that it was a 50/50 split (at least on the
              up front money side) with the gubmnt putting up 7% and the
              private money=7%. The other 86 or 85% (maybe 7.5% above) is loans
              gauranteed by gubment, that are basically uncompensated.  (Though
              there may be some premiums on the interest rates)
              \_ Can't be or the math doesn't work. If private money puts
                 up 7% and the fund returns 10% then there won't be a 14%
                 gain. The math works if the profit is split 85/15 after
                 the government takes its share off the top. Are you
                 saying its a 3 way split of 70/15/15?
        \_ Here's the closest that I could come up with (all #s in $B):
        Return on 500 @ 9%      = 45    @ 4%    = 20    @ -1%   = -5
        3% FDIC Interest on 430 = 13            = 13            = 13
        Gross Profit            = 32            = 7             = -18
        50% Treasury "Cut"      = 16            = 3.5           = -3
        2% PE "Mgmt Fee"        = 10            = 0             = 10?
        PE Return               = 6             = 3.5           = -25
        % Return (Return/35)    = 17%           = 10%           = -5/7

        Can't figure out how to get to 14% (or really, the -5/7).
        Can't figure out how to get to 14% (or -5/7).