You know that feeling of relief you get after you pay a bunch of nagging bills and you still have some money left over?

Its like that for me right now. So, so, mellow and happy.
This is better than a second glass of wine.

How are all of you fine people today?

Posted by: LauraW. at 08:49 AM | Comments (160)
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Ahem. It appears that pressure from the Chinese did the trick.

As was Bush's intent.

This doesn't resolve the crisis. But North Korea has been backed down by a country it actually fears -- China.

Again, in case the liberals don't understand:

The US can offer nothing but carrots to North Korea.

North Korea has taken carrots from the US before -- from the Clinton Administration -- and conducted nuclear research anyway.

What is needed now is sticks.

China can wield sticks against North Korea.

Like threatening to cut off oil and grain deliveries upon which North Korea depends for its very existence, for instance.

Ergo, only a negotiation in which China is participant is likely to change North Korea's behavior.

Ergo, John Kerry and the rest of the kneejerk Bush-anklebiters who urged bilateral talks -- which would offer no sticks -- were, despite their towering genius, wrong.

It's not as if the US can threaten to cut off North Korea's lifeline of grain and oil, now is it?

There was a time, a mere six or eight years ago, when the Democrats were capable of actually supporting a President, even one of a different party, when it came to fairly commonsense foreign policy choices.

Now they cannot rise themselves from wallowing in the piggish partisanship of kneejerk sniping and gainsaying. Whatever Bush says is wrong. Whatever Bush is for they're against.

It's not that the six-party talks will work, so much as it's only such talks can work. We've already gone the bilateral way, and that's already failed.

But the Democrats can't admit that, of course.

Posted by: Ace at 08:01 PM | Comments (61)
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The party of leaking security secrets and sexual orientations:

House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra has suspended a Democratic staff member because of concerns he may have leaked a high-level intelligence assessment to The New York Times last month.
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In a letter obtained by The Associated Press Thursday night, Rep. Ray LaHood (news, bio, voting record), R-Ill., a committee member, said that an unidentified staffer requested the document from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before the Sept. 23 story about its conclusions.

The staffer received the National Intelligence Estimate on global terror trends on Sept. 21.

"I have no credible information to say any classified information was leaked from the committee's minority staff, but the implications of such would be dramatic," LaHood wrote Hoekstra, R-Mich., late last month. "This may, in fact, be only coincidence, and simply 'look bad.' But coincidence, in this town, is rare."

...

An aide to California Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), the committee's top Democrat, did not have an immediate comment Thursday night.

The New York Times did not immediately answer a telephone message seeking comment.

Let's refer the matter to Patrick "Fitzmas" Fitzgerald, eh? I'm sure he'll have the full support of the NYT and Democrats in getting to the bottom of this calculated, partisan leak of classified information.

Thanks to DaveP.

Posted by: Ace at 06:35 PM | Comments (51)
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Am I completely out of touch here?

What's so "devastating" about this ad?

Pretty weak tea, I think.

My problem with it is that it states what is obvious to most people (except the far left, like Jack Cafferty and Keith Olberman and etc.): There are real, live people who wish to kill us, and they will keep trying to kill us, until we kill them.

But persuadable moderates know that.

What persuadable moderates are unsure of is if they have the stomach to continue supporting an aggressive fight against these people, or if it's time to Give Niceness a Chance.

I don't see how the ad really makes the connection it needs to: which is, stated badly, vote Republican or more Americans are going to die.

Secondary Effects: TusharD mentions what I was about to mention-- the idea that this could produce overreaction by the left, and get them to say what they really believe (i.e., the terrorist threat is almost entirely "fictitious"), and hence prod them into running advertisements against themselves.

Well, maybe. But I think most actual candidates for office are smart enough to hide such beliefs, if they do in fact believe them.

The media may screech, but the media isn't on the ballot.

Alas.

Posted by: Ace at 03:56 PM | Comments (64)
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The internet smear merchants at Hot Air mentioned this earlier.

Bullshit, it appears.

Now, I canÂ’t guarantee you one way or another if The Rumor is true or not, of course, but I do have more than just serious doubts about it. What I am sure of is that some high-up Democrats have been pushing the heck out of this story and they ought to stop it or produce some real evidence. It may have begun as a well-meaning leak, but it certainly isnÂ’t that now.

Weller’s spokesman, Steve Shearer, described the rumor as a “political nuclear bomb” that opponents could throw and then “retreat into anonymity” without providing any real evidence.

The Democrats, Shearer said, may be hoping to use The Rumor to “put a race into play for no money at all.” He could very well be right.

Posted by: Ace at 03:51 PM | Comments (21)
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A "study" reports scientists are "open-minded" on the feasibility of cloaking devices and full-on invisibility.

A new study suggests that a "cloaking device" that makes objects invisible could someday move out of the realm of science fiction and fantasy, and become a reality.

Duke University scientists say they've conducted a demonstration of the first working "invisibility cloak" that deflects microwave beams so they flow around an object with little distortion, making it appear as if there's almost nothing there.

This kind of technology has the potential to hide objects of any size or material and could have a number of wireless communication or radar applications, the scientists said. Their research was published in the Oct. 19 online issue of Science.

The invisibility cloak was created using "metamaterials" precisely arranged in a series of concentric circles that confer specific electromagnetic properties, the scientists explained. Metamaterials are artificial composites that can be made to interact with electromagnetic waves in ways that aren't possible with natural materials.

"By incorporating complex material properties, our cloak allows a concealed volume, plus the cloak, to appear to have properties similar to free space when viewed externally," David R. Smith, professor of electrical and computer engineering, said in a prepared statement.

Too cool.

How many people would rather have been born 100 or 200 years ago, or 100 or 200 years from now?

Everthing cool's already been discovered, and everything yet to be discovered, or reduced to working prototype, is fifty or more years away.

Sure, there's this supposed "flying car" available on eBay, and yeah, there's this supposed "Flying Commando Wing Rocket Suit," which I've already linked and is still pure ass.

But where's the really cool stuff? Nowhere, that's where.

Thanks to JS and JackStraw (different ones) for those last two items.

Posted by: Ace at 03:24 PM | Comments (34)
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“But it is also a problem for teenagers in whom the need for sleep increases during this critical developmental period,” he says. Citing another piece of research he says that “levels of leptin, a hormone produced by fat tissue when energy stores are low, were more than 15 per cent lower in those sleeping five hours compared with those clocking up eight. Similarly, ghrelin, a hormone released by the stomach to signal hunger was almost 15 per cent higher in those with a five-hour sleep quota. Sleep loss also disturbs other hormones, including insulin, cortisol (stress hormone) and growth hormone,” says Taheri, who adds “hormonal changes could boost the desire for carlorie rich foods.”

Poor sleep sets up a vicious cycle. It leads to fatigue, then reduces levels of physical activity and lowers energy expenditure. Finally, it leads to obesity, which itself leads to poor sleep.

True dat. Double true.

My friend, who's a doctor, used to note that sleeping burned so many calories per hour. Not many. Let's say it burns 100 per hour. Anyway, he'd joke that if he ate a lot of high-calorie junk food, he'd just "sleep a few extra hours to burn that extra weight off."

Maybe not so much of a joke as first imagined.

By the way... This was my favorite demotivational poster, by BumperStickerist.

Because it speaks to me.

It's true.

I am so jealous of people who have such an easy time sleeping.

Posted by: Ace at 03:13 PM | Comments (12)
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Addicted to MMORPG crack. The true confession of an experience point junkie:

60 levels, 30+ epics, a few really good "real life" friends, a seat on the oldest and largest guild on our server's council, 70+ days "played," and one "real" year later...

...

I just left WoW permanently. I was a leader in one of the largest and most respected guilds in the world, a well-equipped and well-versed mage, and considered myself to have many close friends in my guild. Why did I leave? Simple: Blizzard has created an alternate universe where we don't have to be ourselves when we don't want to be. From my vantage point as a guild decision maker, I've seen it destroy more families and friendships and take a huge toll on individuals than any drug on the market today, and that means a lot coming from an ex-club DJ.

It took a huge personal toll on me. To illustrate the impact it had, let's look at me one year later. When I started playing, I was working towards getting into the best shape of my life (and making good progress, too). Now a year later, I'm about 30 pounds heavier that I was back then, and it is not muscle. I had a lot of hobbies including DJing (which I was pretty accomplished at) and music as well as writing and martial arts. I haven't touched a record or my guitar for over a year and I think if I tried any Kung Fu my gut would throw my back out. Finally, and most significantly, I had a very satisfying social life before. My friends and I would go out and there were things to do every night of the week. Now a year later, I realize my true friends are the greatest people in the world because the fact I came out of my room, turned the lights on, and watched a movie with them still means something. They still are having a great time teasing me at my expense, however, which shows they still love me and they haven't changed.

Looks like this South Park parody was spot-on:

This part sounds pretty much like blogging:

These changes are miniscule, however, compared to what has happened in quite a few other people's lives. Some background... Blizzard created a game that you simply can not win. Not only that, the only way to "get better" is to play more and more. In order to progress, you have to farm your little heart out in one way or another: either weeks at a time PvPing to make your rank or weeks at a time getting materials for and "conquering" raid instances, or dungeons where you get "epic loot" (pixilated things that increase your abilities, therefore making you "better"). And what do you do after these mighty dungeons fall before you and your friend's wrath? Go back the next week (not sooner, Blizzard made sure you can only raid the best instances once a week) and do it again (imagine if Alexander the Great had to push across the Middle East every damn week).

What does this mean? Well, to our average "serious" player this equates to anywhere between 12 hours (for the casual and usually "useless" player) to honestly 10 hours a day, seven days a week for those "hardcore" gamers. During my stint, I was playing about 30 hours a week (and still finding it hard to keep up with my farming) and logging on during my work day in order to keep up with all the guild happenings and to do my scheduling and tracking for the raids. A lot of time went into the development of new policies which took our friendly and family-oriented guild further and further away from its roots but closer to the end goal. Honestly, what that end goal is I'm not totally sure - there is truly no end to the game and every time you feel like you're satisfied with your progress, another aspect of the game is revealed and, well, you just aren't as cool as you can be again.

Blogging is like that-- the false sense of accomplishment, the gaining in "stats" and "experience" (traffic, ecosystem rankings, which are, you know, pretty much just D&D levels). And it sucks you in.

Well, it sucks you in when you're "winning." When you're not "advancing" in "experience levels," interest wanes. (Which, um, has been happening to me for a while. That, and having this perpetual low-grade sickness. I think I may be allergic to the carpeting in my new apartment... something sure seems to keep me in a neverending state of the sniffles and coughs and headaches.)

But the thought of getting that +3 sword (an NRO-lanche) or +4 plate armor (an InstaLink)... well, it keeps you going.

And what do you have to show for it?

A totally min-maxed Rogue/Warrior blog with a 19 Charisma, yo!

(And a 5 Intelligence.)

I remember playing Diablo for a while and having that sort of "sucked-in" feeling. The game wasn't especially good. It was just busywork. You just went down into similar-looking dungeons, fought the same stupid monsters over and over, etc. But you got to find new crap, or shop for new crap with all the gold you found, and I got pretty into maxing out my barbarian, or whatever the hell he was.

Until I started to realize -- who the hell cares if my barbarian has a 25 strength, or Armor of the Sun, or whatever?

Fortunately, Diablo actually ended (if it didn't have a definite ending, I'd've stopped earlier). So, I soldiered on, beat the stupid Big Bad Boss Demon at the end, and never played it again. (I played its sequel for about an hour before realizing it was all the same, all over again.)

But this game just doesn't end, ever. You can always be "better."

It's kind of the reverse of drugs. Drugs allow people to escape inhibitions and let loose their control in life (and, with psychadelics and other hard drugs, their control over their actions and even over their perceptions).

These games, on the other hand, offer a false sense of control and a false sense of "advancing." Is your life out of control? Are you treading water? Well, plug in and start leveling up and taking control of your (fantasy) life!

Kind of interesting. I'm not saying these games are inherently bad or anything. Pretty much any hobby can get you overly involved and spending too many hours on something trivial which you can begin to excel at, rather than something important but difficult in which it's hard as hell to excel (e.g., real life).

A lot of people have addictive personalities but don't realize it, because they've never come across the thing that addicts them. And then one day they do.

Thanks to JackStraw, I think. Sorry-- thanks to Retired Geezer.

The Sims Is Like This, I Think: What is The Sims except a game in which you get to shop all the time and advance your career and build your dream house?

If you're having trouble managing that in reality, why not live the fantasy in the Sims?

Again, none of this is unprecedented or new. Any popular game, hobby, or pasttime will probably show a good competency curve, where it's relatively easy to get decent at it by spending a certain number of hours at it, and then takes more effort to get really good. Which thus pulls people in, because it's satisfying to see tangible progress at anything, even something kind of lame and useless like, I don't know, bocce ball or model railroad building.

Or blogging.

Bad Form: I actually meant to mention this-- a lot of what I was saying above applies to strictly amateur blogging.

At this point, I'm earning money from this blog (and of course the generous donations of readers), so the complaints are "bad form," as "someone" tells me.

At this point, this is a "job" (although a moronic one), not a hobby, which puts me in the same position of about 4 billion people in the world who get kind of annoyed they have to show up for work every day. (Or, in my case, "work.")

Still, the analogy to non-money-making blogging is still pretty strong. And even if you're making money -- which is another kind of experience point bonus (treasure counts for XP's, after all) -- there's still that massively-multiplayer online role-playing game aspect to all of this.

Hell, I've even had my Declared Opponents from time to time, the Big Bad Level Bosses I decided I had to best to advance a level.

The comparison was meant more as a lighthearted poke at blogger addiction syndrome than a real complaint that you're supposed to feel sorry for me over.

And yeah, it's still true, when you're gaining "levels," the "game" is a hell of a lot more addictive. Retuergate? When I gained four levels in just a few weeks of furious playing, and even got hold of a Cloak of Appearing On FoxNews? Seriously addictive. I was blogging like crazy, to the detriment of most real-life personal connections and obligations.

Again, though, I understand that this is hardly any different than people who have to work a lot of hours in order to get a promotion, or to advance their business.

Posted by: Ace at 02:24 PM | Comments (46)
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Their next competition ought to be who attracts the most unwanted prison shower-room romancin'.

The agents say the Milwaukee man and a second suspect in Texas attempted to “outdo” the other in producing the scariest terror threat.

Glad I stayed away from this one. I was "open-minded" enough to suspect it was pure ass.

Honestly, they really ought to be locked up. For three or five years. If you engaged in malicious major valdalism -- say, torching dozens of cars at a car dealership -- you'd spend some decent time in jail.

The economic harm here is worse. How many man-hours, exactly, have been wasted resonding to this false threat? How many millions of dollars down the drain?

How many genuine threats were ignored or lowered in priority to track down this one?

Posted by: Ace at 01:41 PM | Comments (13)
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They hate our freedoms.

A leaping stingray stabbed an 81-year-old Florida boater in the chest, authorities said today, leaving its poisonous stinger lodged close to his heart in an incident similar to the one that killed Australian TV naturalist Steve Irwin last month.

Fire Department officials at Lighthouse Point, about 50km north of Miami, said James Bertakis was in a small recreational boat with two grandchildren yesterday when the spotted eagle ray leapt aboard and struck him.

"It's just a real freak thing," said Lieutenant Mike Sullivan, saying the incident occurred on Florida's Intercoastal Waterway, where stingrays are rarely seen leaping in the air.

A freak thing?

Maybe.

We're getting close to the Rule of Three.

"There's a saying in Chicago, Mr. Bond," Goldfinger said. "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."

I'm open-minded about hunting down every one of these godless, pedophilia-enabling stingrays and subjecting them "harsh interrogations" until they talk. Which they won't, so we'll just kill them.

See? Open-mindedness is easy.

Thanks again to JackStraw.

Posted by: Ace at 01:32 PM | Comments (23)
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