Music / Time

Thanks to theoatmeal.com for this excellent graphic.

Muller v MacCracken, Climate Rumble

Diane Rehm had a great show this morning (link here, transcript here).  Two of her guests were renowned scientists.  Professor Richard Muller - former Climate Change skeptic, converted to a Human Caused Climate Change schooler after his Koch brothers study could not prove conclusively that Human Caused Climate Change was a Hoax (professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of "Energy for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines."), and retired scientist Mr Michael MacCracken, chief scientist at Climate Institute and lead editor for the book “Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change: Exploring the Real Risks and How We Can Avoid Them.”  I've heard both of these scientists speak before on television and radio.   They're both very smart guys, and they each stuck to their guns.

They debated how fast the climate has been and will continue to change.  They sparred with scientific facts and their interpretations like:
Muller "Leaking natural gas is terrible 'cause it's 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide."
MacCracken:  "Richard's number, when he says it's only 23 times as much as CO2, is based on its warming influence over 100 years. If you think about its warming influence over 20 years -- its lifetime in the atmosphere is 10 to 20 years, assuming -- it's 75 times as important as CO2."
[Both are correct... it's important on what Time Scale one considers it]
...and causes of intense hurricanes, melting of ice caps, el ninos, solar flares, Earth orbital variations, and many other aspects of climate change.  It was an informed intellectual debate.  A battle royale.  And they were both right, most of the time concurring, but with slightly different interpretations.

And they both agreed, most of the time.  They disagreed on data selection bias, poor station quality, and other aspects, but they are both excellent scientists, and respected pillars in their fields.

Why climate deniers, Tea Party activists, Roger Ailes, Quick Creationist Fundamentalists, and hardcore Republicans who listen only to the misinformation that Fox broadcasts refuse to listen to them, I do not understand.  I mean, I get the massive energy companies wanting to preserve their subsidies and the status quo, to grow the US Economy into a "Hunger Games" dystopia, sure, that's understandable.  But I don't understand how they want to destroy the future for their grand children, their church congregations (unless they're all hoping to be Raptured [TM]), their supposed legacy.  

I am a red blooded American male who doesn't enjoy watching boxing.  Two guys with gloves, beating the hell out of each other.  So what.  I don't enjoy mixed martial arts very much, though it is incrementally more useful than boxing, since in a coal powered, resource poor, future dystopia, MMA would help to determine who leads which tribe, once all the ammunition, food, and fuel runs out.  But I DO enjoy a lively scientific debate, and one that relies upon massive amounts of data, from thousands and thousands of data points, with n= (very big), is irresistible in its draw upon my thinking mind.  Kudos to Diane Rehm for putting such a battle royale together on her show this morning, and moderating it beautifully.

Office Linebacker

Having just spent a week at the division's HQ, I can say with a large degree of certainty, that Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, would indeed be a productivity improvement.

Comin Down The Mountain

My son and I spent about 32 hours together in the car last weekend.   Sadly, we did not have any Jane's Addiction in the car to play as we drove through Tennessee and Kentucky.  The descent on I-75 north bound towards Jellico, it would have been appropriate to play Mountain Song, as we did 19 years ago when he finished kindergarten and I drove him up to Chicago to spend a few weeks with his grand parents.  This is a good "rocking" balance the electronica posted earlier in the week.

Old Republican Voters

I am not sure why really old Republicans would vote for Romney / Ryan, when Ryan's proposed budget plan has the average senior citizen's Medicare co-payments TRIPLING.  You see, medicare is funded by those in it, for Medicare and Medicare Part D.  My godfather, who worked for 40 years of his life and then retired, PAYS about $300 a month for this Medicare, and about $80 a month for Medicare Part D (or about $380 a month).  He's a rather healthy 60-something year old.  Under the Ryan budget, that would go up to nearly a $1000 a month.  Now, my godfather was the president of his craft labor union and an excellent machinist and wood worker.   He kept a small pattern making shop alive in Chicago suburbs even when the owner reitred and put his idiot son in charge to run the business into the ground, alienate customers, and decimate the skilled workforce.  He worked hard for a living, for 4 decades, helping automakers and tool and die and pattern makers manufacture usable, real, tangible goods in America.  He didn't earn a living through "investing" or "venture capital" or "inheriting it", and thus, he usually votes Democratic.

If you are an older, retired, middle class Republican, without inherited wealth, and you strongly support Romney / Ryan, I would like to hear from you, so as to understand why you strongly support two rich white guys, who were born into wealthy families, and have never suffered or had to scrape by for a living, and  who have their own self interests and the interests of their rich, country club and corporate executive friends in mind.  I won't mock you, I promise.  I just want to try understand you, and what motivates you.

My wife and I make good livings.  If we wanted to truly vote in our own financial self interests and say "F.U.!" to our maternal families and consciences and the rest of the international world, we could easily vote for the rich guys too.  But we'd feel...  I don't know...  guilty.  Dirty.  Ashamed.  Remarkably selfish, in doing so.  I am no fan of President Obama, and his lack of prosecutorial diligence against those who caused the 2008 financial melt down, his embracing of corporate money and super PACs, his failure to close Gitmo (though large strides have been made to de-populate it), his continuing of Bush era Patriot Act Constitutional trouncing, and his cozying up to corporate interests... but I think over-all, he's done more good than harm.  He's the lesser of two evils.  He didn't grow up wealthy and spoiled, and he's known what it's like to have to work for a living.  He married the daughter of a sewage plant worker, not an heiress or stuck up sorority snotty girl. 

When I hear Republican ideologues say how Obama is "destroying the country" I just don't get it.  Just how is he destroying the country?  By not giving Boehner and McConnel everything they want?  By deporting more illegal immigrants in 4 years than Bush did in 8?  By ordering the mission that killed Osama bin Laden and not listening to his advisers and VP when they all told him to abort the mission?  By not having Single Payer included in the Affordable Care Act - a health care law that has allowed our son to stay on his mother's insurance until he is 26, and paid for the end of life care to our dear friends' son who recently succumbed to a fatal cancer?  What actual, real, terrible things has President Obama done to the country, or to any of it's citizens?  I don't watch or listen to Fox News so I don't have all the rhetoric memorized - I only get it through a Daily Show hilarious filter. 

Please help me understand.

Han Long Long Ago

This was the Han Solo my wife got all dreamy over in the 70s.  Somehow I didn't evolve into an interstellar smuggler and reluctant hero.  I did become the "international engineer of mystery" I guess, over the last 25 years (it's our anniversary later this month).  Never did the Kessel run though, regardless of parsecs.

NFL Preseason 2012

The NFL pre-season opened this week.  Somehow, I don't feel ready for it.  Maybe because it is 116F here in Phoenix.  Maybe work's been weighing down on me too much.  I don't know.  It just doesn't seem like it's really football season yet.

This is supposed to be an animate gif of a bear growling....  but it appears to be static in my google-blogger creation screen interface.  Lemme know if it works for you, and animates.

Music, Over Time

This logical progression makes perfect sense.

Which means it will never come to actually be reality.  Thanks, theoatmeal.com.

Chateau L'Ermitage Rose

Chateau L'Ermitage makes a delicious Rose in the Rhone valley of France, Costieres De Nimes appellation controlee, 2010.  Mis en bouteille au chateau (bottled at the estate), Castillon & Fils proprietaires.  This Rose was 50% Syrah, 30% Grenche, and 20% Mourvedre.  Imported by Saranty Imports, White Plains NY (Terrisson-wines.com).  Rose wines are (in my opinion) best drank chilled, in warmer weather.  It hit 116F here in west Phoenix this week.  I'd say that was "warmer weather" by most standards.

The wine comes in a clear bottle with a white label that doesn't photograph well.  When looking for it at the store, look at the French Rose selection.  I got it at Trader Joes for less than $10 (I think it was about $6 a bottle).  And, it is the last bottle I have stored on my desk next to my desktop.. so the wine blogging will cease for today.  To be continued next month (likely).

Drudgery

Drudgery is no fun, but there's some German recruiting marketeers at jobsintown.de who can put a creative twist to it.

What if Don Draper had been German?

Maison Maurel Vedeau, Pinot Noir

Vedeau Les Cepages Pinot Noir, Saveurs Veritables 2009, Vin de Pays d'Oc.  I found this Languedoc wine from Southern France at my local Fresh & Easy, and enjoyed it with an organically fed, pasture raised, hormone free Double Check Ranch ribeye grilled to a perfect rare red.    Yes, this is a negociant bottled wine, which is not my favorite way to make wine (too much anonymity and lack of control in the quality) but it was drinkable, and fine for am inexpensive Pinot Noir, at less than $6 a bottle on sale.

Purity Ring, Fineshrine

Listening to XM radio all last week, I kept hearing Purity Ring played quite frequently.  Megan James' voice sounds like a little girl's in many respects, and my son, who saw them live at the South by Southwest music festival, said they were very good live.  He told me that in person, Megan is a tiny young woman.  The song Fineshrine has an alluring nature to it.  One can take it anatomically (which is rather gory), romantically (which is sort of sweet), or metaphorically (...about creation, or harmony, or whatever other connotations one might choose to assign).  I just take it in, and enjoy listening to it.  The video is visually stunning.   Included here:

If you liked this song, listen to Ungirthed, at the link here: link.  It's modern, contemporary, high quality electronica.

Sud Salice Salentino

Sud Salice Salentino DOC, Di San Marzano, bottled by Feudi di San Marzano Italia S.R.L. is a wonderful Salice Salentino.  The wines from the South of Italy is under-rated, under-appreciated, and largely unknown to the uniformed international wine drinking public who largely migrate to massive corporately branded Merlots, Cabernets, and Charonnays.  I strongly prefer the path less traveled, the wines undiscovered by the common man, the rarer finds.... and I try to bring them here, when I can.

I try Sardinian, Puglia, and Sicilian wines whenever I can.  I've not yet been disappointed. 

There is no reason to just stick to the Yankees and Manchester United, when there so many other teams out there who play remarkably well. 

Vecchia Cantina Chianti

Vecchia Cantina Chianti (DOCG) 2010, from Total Wine ($9) is a delicious Chianti.  90% Sangiovese, 10% Canaiolo.  Bottled by Soc Coop, Vecchia Cantina di Montepulciano Soc Agr, Montepulciano Italia, it's another Alfio Moriconi selection, and I've come to trust Mr. Moriconi.

If you're looking for a good, reasonably priced Chianti, try Vecchia Cantina.

The xx - Shelter

Romy Madley Croft's voice reminds me of a cross between Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star and Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl.  The xx just needs to let her sing, please, on every single song.  Oliver Sim, remain reticent, for your own good and the sake of your band's success.  Romy's voice is angelic, melodic, ethereal, music to my ears.  Sim's voice is Gorrilaz-like (without the experience and depth) and his barely-post-pubescent droning vocals grate upon my consciousness.  When I hear him start to sing, I wind up fast forwarding through the album.  It's a reaction akin to when I hear the group Mogwai start to sing... and my brain and senses and very being (which had been enjoying the album up to that point) goes "ew ew ew!"

Don't get me wrong, I like Gorillaz, they've been around a while, and at first I didn't like them much, but they've grown significantly on me.  And I like Mogwai (thanks to my buddy Ryan's introduction of them to me) as long as they don't sing.  I love listening to Romy Madley Croft's voice.  Can't say the same about her bandmate's.   I hope their September 2012 release features her much more than their 2009 debut album did - wasted $10 on iTunes buying an album that has only 3 songs not contaminated with Sim's droning.  Oh well.

To illustrate my point, listen to Night Time.  It's a great song (link here).  Then...  3/4rds through it, Sim's voice ruins the mood, destroys the connection the listen has made with Romy...  grrr.

Never Underestimate The Power of Stupid People

Wisconsin residents elected Paul Ryan.  Mittenberg the Third selected the young ideologue as his running mate this morning to try and appease Tea Party stalwarts and extreme libertarians who want to privatize (corporately raid) Social Security and gut Medicare with voucher programs.  If Americans elect this dumbfounded duo, a dark spiral down into a massively polarized have-and-have-not society will likely precipitate within what is left of my lifetime.  4 more years from now... the strangling grip of corporate money will be so strong on the electoral process that an individual's vote will no longer matter (not that it really matters much currently).  Il faut voir - we shall see.

Conte Priola Chianti

I've been behind on my wine blogging, and have accumulated quite a stack of empty bottles in my office.  So we're going to do some house cleaning this afternoon.

Conte Priola Chianti DOCG bottled by I.P. Fossalta de Piave Italia 422/VE, is not bad.  We found it at Total Wine for about $10, and I had it with some spicy, tomato saucy, fully flavored, hearty dish a month or so ago.  yes, the Italians love pasta, but I abhor the gluten in wheat, so it was a meat and veggies dish, but I don't recall exactly.  Chianti, by definition, it about 95% Sangiovese grapes, and the Italians (like their French and Spanish cousins) know how to make a high quality wine when it comes along with governing bodies of regulation and quality control.  Bravo Conte Priola.

Republicans Allergic to Facts

Romney spokes person Andrea Saul gets enraged Republicans to call for her firing after she accidentally speaks the truth about her boss's health care plan that he engineered and passed in his previous job. (link here) and here: 
http://www.businessinsider.com/romneycare-andrea-saul-mitt-romney-obamacare-bain-capital-2012-8

I thought Republicans were supposed to stay "on message" and not say such things, especially truthful things that contradict the official party message.

Purity Ring

Take The Bangels Susanna Hoffs voice, make it 20 years younger, combine it with OMD's & New Order's synths, and sprinkle a heavy dose of ethereal, mystical, allure on it, and one can approximate Purity Ring's music.  No "auto tuned" vocals here.   They don't need it.

and

(just 8 Million hits)
and Belispeak

My  son told me about this band last weekend.  It's been playing through my head repeated this week in my hotel and in the office. It's not the traditional "music one can rock out to", no...  but it does have a nice beat and I could dance to it  =)

Hyatt is for short people

I've stayed at 2 Hyatts in 2 days - Greenville SC and Atlanta GA - and both have showers built for hobbits.   My chin and mouth are even with the shower nozzle's height.  I can look at where it comes out of the wall.  If I was in New Zealand and filming a Peter Jackson movie, ok, but I am just a normal 6ft tall human. 

Hyatt, you have nice rooms,  excellent service, reasonable prices, comfortable beds... why do you have showers for such short people only?

The x x Angels

Heard this on XM radio last weekend as I drove with my son for 14 hours through the Appalachians.  Her voice is beautiful. The x x. Angels.

Witamy Pana Romney

Witamy Pana Romney  (welcome, Mr Romney)

Yeah, Mitt's not running for "President of Poland", that's true.  But compare his bumbling in the UK, his "culture matters" bigotry in Israel, nearly causing a war with Iran, and his cool reception in Poland.  My, he's proving himself to be quite presidential.

Duck Hunters

This made me crack up  =)

Free Jazz vs Babies on Piano

This made me laugh.

Alluring Dance - Expectations vs Reality

This reality check, made me laugh, heartily!  Harry back & chest, hula skirt, mustache, pot belly, and thrashing, LOL!   It's a very silly gif.

Lost Wormhole

If you find it, be careful.

Meanwhile, in Japan

When I was a kid (like 5 years old), my mother knitted "bear pillows" for my brother and I, that looked like the face of a smiling bear, with floppy ears.  She made it out of old towels that were soft, and I remember sleeping with it through elementary school, but grew out of it before High School.  I guess in other cultures, you don't grow out of hugging your pillow.

Take The A-Train

This tune has been in my head since I heard it on KJZZ earlier this evening.

Duke Ellington, Take The A-Train

This Month's Big Number: 5.3

I had a battery of fasting labs done late last month, with blood drawn Just Prior to the liver exercises we did in Vegas, and got the results from my primary care physician this month after getting back from Vegas.  My hemoglobin A1C was down to 5.3, a tenth of a point down from the year before, and trending away from the 6+ it was years ago.  HDL Cholesterol was a we bit down to 58, but so was the LDL, to 99 which made my doctor very happy.

So when you use bacon fat to saute organic spinach, organic portabellos, and organic bell peppers, and then scramble up 2 or 3 pasture fed non-factory hen laid eggs and cover all of it with black pepper when you're done, for breakfast 6 or 7 days a week, eat mainly ham, bacon, steak, and some chicken here and there and a cell phone sized portion of dark chocolate everyday, avoid beer, drink Irish whiskey or cognac, and snack on Marcona almonds, organic celery and almond butter, or organic celery & double or triple cream brie, these are the kinds of healthy blood tests one can get?  hmmm.  

I think vigorously swimming (not lazily) nearly every day for 1/2 and hour, yoga 5 or 6 days a week, and an hour or two of stationary bike riding at maximum settings when it's too hot to go hike up a desert mountain and lose 5 pounds of water weight are probably helping the HDL number.  All the fancy flavored vodkas Dr Desert Flower is getting are (I am sure) loaded with sugar and artificial sweeteners that are working against my insulin... so I need to avoid those delicious libations.   I know several French octogenarians who have consumed cognac or red wine ever day (or nearly every day) of their adult lives, and are pretty healthy - so that's a best practice I need to continue to adopt. 

DirectTV Stops Carrying Viacom

Last Tuesday night, The Daily Show and Colbert Report started back up after the 4th of July break.  Dr Desert Flower and I thought that TDS and CR were on a two week hiatus, since there was no reruns or anything being DVR'ed from Comedy Central.

Well, DirectTV is blaming Viacom.  Viacom is blaming DirectTV. They're both being corporate money grubbing douche bags.   Viiacom also blocked ALL streaming of it's content on ColbertNation or The Daily Show website, so I really think that Viacom is being the greedier, more obstinate, evil corporation.  But, COX Cable still carries Comedy Central, so Monday morning, I will be giving DirectTV notice (putting them "On Notice", Colbert style) that they have until Friday to restore my Comedy Central, or, I will be dropping their service and moving COX.   I've heard lousy things about COX, but, they carry the shows I want to watch.

Dish Network carries Comedy Central, but no AMC, so Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men would be inaccessible (I don't care about Breaking Bad and Madmen, but DDF does).  And, Dish is still saddled with a damn Dish, that freaks out and stalls even during mild windy nights, like we had last Friday night, when my HD picture "pixelated".  grrrrr

I don't watch alot of TV, but dammit, when I do, I want it to be there, on a DVR, ready for me.  Daily Show. Colbert. Bill Maher. Game of Thrones. Walking Dead.  Dr.Who. PBS.  Sometimes Modern Family, Tosh.O, Office, or Parks & Rec.  That's really it.  When can I buy JUST THOSE and not all the other garbage the cable provider insists on bundling to me?

German Plumbers - Attraktiver als Du denkst

Who says the germans don't have a sense of humor?  Well... most of the world does, and they're often right.  But.. this German plumber company is pretty funny.  Attraktiver als Du denkst = More attractice than you think.

This is something you just can't "un-see"

We Are All Deaf & Blind

In the grand scheme of things

...we are all deaf & blind.  Having a hearing impaired life partner makes one keenly aware of these sorts of things.  A Predator can see into infrared, sure, but has those silly dread locks.  A dog can hear and smell better than humans, but most can't see too far ahead and will eat it's own feces.  A cat can see the ribs of a mouse moving and hear it's heart beating from across the room, and can see very well at night, but is nearly blind in direct sunlight. 

Eh...  what's that you say sonny?

Annie, Are You OK?

Annie, are you OK?

Are you OK, Annie?

Booby Yoga

What did you expect to see?  Hmmm?

Gator Beats Croc?

In a game of Rocks-Paper-Scissors-Gator-Croc, Gator beats Croc.

Though, in the wild, I think I'd always bet on the croc.  There's usually more crocodiles hunting together, than there are lone alligators (except in Florida freakish gator farms).

When Star Wars Geeks Picnic

Death Star Watermelon

Hydrofracking & Politics Explained, Simply

Mark Wilson at empirewire.com does excellent work.

Bastille Day

Today is Bastille Day in France.

Stereotype Threat

Excellent NPR story today, on "Stereotype Threats" by Shankar Vedantam  
link here: transcript
link here: audio

Every scientist and engineer and human resources professional should listen to it.

The sample size was only 45 Canadian (B.C.) scientists, but I truly think you could go to any scientific, research, engineering, STEM company or organization in North America or Western Europe, and duplicate the study with very similar results.

"Girls talk more than boys"
"Boys are better at math and science than girls"
'White men can't jump'
'Engineers are socially inept'
'Germans are bad dancers'
'Latins are emotional'
etc etc etc

Miss You - Rolling Stones

This song's been bouncing around my head all day

Rolling Stones.  Miss You.

The BBW I admire

As a Public Service reminder, this week is the American Library Association's "Banned Book Week" (BBW). Did you think that "BBW" was referring to something else? =) lol

It's truly ironic that the home schooler fundamentalists are some of the most frequent users of public libraries - where they ask my librarian friend Jill questions like "where's the REAL books about Dinosaurs, that show them alongside people?"

It's truly wonderful that my friend Matt makes it a point to take his kids to book stores frequently, and tells them they can get one book each, every visit.

It's sad that when we moved our household from IN to SC, and then from SC to AZ, that the movers said things like "you sure do have lots of books!" and "are you some kind of professor or somethin?" and labeled the boxes containing the printed materials as "buchs". In reality, we don't have THAT Many books, just enough to fill several shelving units, but not a whole library's worth.

The ALA's BBW brings to the forefront the underlying issue of religious beliefs and political affiliations attempting to dictate access to knowledge. I don't think it's possible to encourage awareness of the BBW enough.

(this was written several years ago..  but got stuck in my "Drafts")

Please, use a spotter you can trust

For the sake of your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors, and your family, please, if you enjoy "breath play" as a form of erotic stimulus, use a spotter you can trust. Don't do such things alone like Michael Hutchence did in 1997, or with an irresponsible spotter like David Carradine apparently did (hands tied behind back? Very hard to do unless you are Houdini) who left him in a closet for the maid to discover. Not a wise decision, Grasshopper.

I don't personally enjoy such things, or even considering such things - perhaps since I had severe asthma as a kid, and frequent respiratory congestion even as an adult makes holding my breath for extended periods of time less than pleasant. But if I did, I'd insist on having someone I could completely trust there to make sure I didn't die, who could revive me, or who could & would call 911. It's not for my own safety and sanity I say this, as it is for the consideration of the people you know, and your loved ones, who have to learn from tabloids and coroner reports about what the deceased was indulging in prior to their unfortunate demise- or even worse, to be the one to find you! Please, if you do this sort of thing, always use a spotter you can trust.

Thomas Dolby - Dissidents

NPR keeps running lots of stories about Dissidents (Syrian, North Korean, Chinese) this week...  and Dolby is stuck in my head.

Infected DNS?

have you checked out your computer yet, to see if it is infected?

link: http://dns-ok.gov.au/

If you have not, you should, before Monday.  My computers here in Arizona are clean.

You should see this, if you're ok:

Of course, I've been running Norton on my desktop for 5 years, and my work laptop has Sophos resident on it, so I did not expect to be infected by the malware that's supposed to bring down millions of computers tomorrow.  But it never hurts to check.

Free Drinks In Vegas 101

Last weekend was not the first time I've ever been to Vegas, and it won't be the last.  But it was the first time I was there that I intended on sitting in front of a video gambling machine for an extended period of time, since I knew we would be getting to the bar more than an hour before The Heavy's show began, and that there would probably be a video poker machine there as well.  It was also the first time we'd be gambling without our friends Tim & Jill there along with us, both of whom are much more experienced gamblers.

So the first night, we each plunked in $50s into the machines, in a bar that had maybe 20 other customers, and selcted the 25 cent Jacks-or-Better poker, and DDF selected $1 blackjack.  The bartenders attentively served us martinis and glasses of Hennesy, and we tipped them with Abraham Lincolns.  We played slowly, but steadily, winning occassionally but not spectacularly.After the concert, as the Book & Stage bar was emptying out, we headed over to Bond Bar, where they had girls dancing in cages next to the windows that faced the strip.  The Bond Bar was jammed packed, and had a DJ, that was playing BOOM-phish-BOOM-pish music, so loud that we could not hear ourselves think, so we left without getting a drink.The NEXT night (Sunday night), we headed down to Bond bar after a delicious dinner, and sat at the video gambling machines at the bar.  Our first drinks arrived promptly and with a smile from a well tipped young male bartender.   When refills were in order, a young female bartender brought our drinks, and then lectured us on protocol of what level of video gaming play and frequency we need to demonstrate to drink in her bar, very rudely, and unprompted.  We were taken aback.  We cashed out our gambling tabs, and headed back to more friendly drinking establishments.

We stopped by a bar called "The Queue" but most of their video gambling machines were "out of order" so we walked across the casino and watched others losing their money at roulette, poker, war, craps.   I few people were winning, sure, but the vast majority were not.  Eventually, we wound up back the the Book & Stage, and their friendly bartenders.  Our drinks were promptly refreshed, no questions asked, as we entered out vouchers into the video gambling machines and played at our "normal pace"..After losing a few hands of video poker, I noticed the bar had few customers (it was close to midnight on a Sunday), and the three congenial bartenders did not have much to do.   So I called the oldest one over, and asked him:  "is it true that in Vegas, you have to play MAX CREDITS on video gambling in order to have your drinks comped?"  this question got the other 2 bar tenders' attention as well, and everyone gathered around to hear the elder bar tender's answer. He said, no, you don't have to play max credits, but at the same time, a customer who puts in $20 and plays two or three 25 cent games while talking to their friend for 3 hours, is not going to get comped drinks.   The casino (and the bar & bar tenders) need to make the cost of the drinks back, more or less, from the video gambling revenue.  The elder bartender went on to say "you can normally spot the people who come in just wanting to have a free drink, who are not interested in gambling at all.  You two don't look like those kind of people.  You were here last night, you gamble alot, so we're going to serve you/"  We related the incident with the indignant Bond Bar bartender to him, and he shook his head "you know, that's not how we're supposed to treat our guests".

So there you have it.  You don't HAVE TO be on MAX CREDITS, betting the max value every hand, but it helps.  You don't have to bet large amounts of money, but putting in a $5 bill will probably not get you prompt or sustained service.   You don't have to play NON-STOP, and can stop and pause to talk to your friends, or watch a concert, or a football game, just don't be playing 25 cent games at a glacial pace over many hours.  And always, always tip the bar tenders.  Make it worth their while.  They're pouring you "free" drinks after all.  =)

The Heavy, Cosmopolitian Vegas Last Weekend

Dr Desert Flower and I drove 4 and a 1/2 hours to Vegas last Saturday, to go see The Heavy at the Board & Card bar in the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.  It was indeed, and awesome show, a fun trip, and a learning experience all rolled into one.

First, the Cosmopolitan is by far, the nicest hotel in America in which I have stayed, and the most customer service oriented of the Vegas casinos.  Superbly trained, professional staff, ready to bend over backwards to help their guests.  A fine establishment indeed.  From front desk, to valet, to bellmen, to housekeeping, to bar staff, to cocktail waitresses, to poker dealers, to security guards, to restaurant staff.  Impressive all around.

Secondly, the Book & Stage bar is an "open" bar, meaning it is adjacent to the casino gambling floor, and would be impossible to be "too full" as people would just spill out onto the gambling floor in 2 directions.  The stage is literally behind the bar, so DDF and I got front row bar seats, in front of video gambling machines (DDF prefers blackjack, while my vice is Jacks-or-Better video poker).  The wait staff poured liberally as we pumped Presidents Grant & Jackson into our voracious video gambling machines.  This front row seating also afforded us the best seats in the house for The Heavy's 10:30 to Midnight performance.  After the show, we had several drinks with Swaby and the band, and got a chance to chat with the UK chaps.  Very cool indeed.

We did not see any kitten emerge from the elevators there.

Our room was on the North Side, AKA "fountain side" (adjacent to the Bellagio fountain - more on that later) with a lovely view of the north end of the Vegas strip, across the street from Paris.  The room was spacious, with a giant shower, a bubble tub, a living room area, and a queen sized comfortable bed, adjacent to a balcony large enough to do yoga on (which I did, Sunday morning, just to make sure I was not hungover). 

It was tremendous fun.  We took too much alcohol with us in Celeste - enough for about 9 or 10 people from the hard liquor bottle count, but we had no shortage of options to mix drinks in the room.  Sadly, the pools (3 of them) did not allow "outside drinks" so we wound up not going to any of the pools, but that's fine.  We have a pool here in Phoenix, so there was not-so-much aquatic allure.  And besides, we're no longer sculpted 20-somethings, so it's better to just float in our own back yard =)

Jane's Addiction is going to play at the Cosmopolitan in September... and we're thinking about going back.  Anyone want to join us?

Lincoln's Prescience

Just a little over a century and a 1/2 ago, the FIRST REPUBLICAN President made this prescient statement.

Just When Did Romney Leave Bain?

It was right after Bain signed that Stericycle deal at the end of 1999. The one where the company hauled medical waste that included aborted fetuses (link here).  Wonderful conservative family values waste hauling, but hey, there's a ton of profit in it.  And Mitt's always been about putting profits before personal values.

Thanks to David Corn for this excellent reporting.  Ahhh, and efficient government bureaucracy, the Signed Documents filed within them, and a savvy reporter who knows the right places top go digging for them!

Gone In 60 Bananas

Flyover Identification

These sequences were taken from the International Space Station. In addition to the scientific research conducted on the international station - something ONLY Nations can effectively do, at least until the Weyland Corporation takes over - they get an amazing view of the Earth around which they orbit. I can identify about 1/2 of the regions presented here (and have named the gifs accordingly), but others I cannot. Each one, I find fascinating.

2012, a Jobs Odyssey

When Harry Met Barack

Dewey Beats Truman. Mandate Struck Down.  Awesome reporting by anachronistic media outlets.

Galileo? Galileo, Galileo, Figaro

and if you want to see the original:

Affordable Care Act IS Constitutional

Just in minutes ago, Affordable Care Act - what the radical right has labelled "Obamacare" IS indeed constitutional,  SCOTUS declared this morning (link here). It's not the beginning of Socialism, or Communism, or Fascism.  It's not "the end of Freedom & Liberty".  If you want to drive a car or fly a plane or go fishing, you need a license.  If you kill someone, you get to go to jail.  If you're draft aged and the country goes into a World War, you get to be drafted.  There's lots of things the government (Local, State, and Federal) can and will make people do, and buy, and pay for.

It's great that the US can FINALLY join the other industrialized nations of the world and provide some basic health care service for its citizens.  It's awesome that my son won't lose his health insurance next year when he turns 26, nor can he be denied coverage because of any pre-existing conditions. 

Justice Roberts, I under-estimated you.  Thank you sir for doing the right thing.

The Family Rain - I'm a Genius

Thanks to "The Heavy" for this link. 

At just 2000 hits, these British boys are still "undiscovered".

The Heavy, Vegas, The Cosmopolitan, This Saturday

DDF and I are going to see The Heavy this weekend at the Cosmopolitan
link here.
Who's with us?

Awesome, what you can do at the spur of the moment when you don't have little kids!

We'll drive Celeste up, it's 4.5 hours.  Should be a good show.

The Skins - Surf

A guy drummer in an all girl band...  why didn't I spend High School like that?  =)

The Skins of Brooklyn.  The Heavy's gestation website linked to this video, and they play well, and have a good sound.   They're talented kids.  I am not sure they're really "afropunk" ... huh?   But they sound good, regardless.

In 60 Seconds Online

I saw this in Science this morning.

Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers

For the original, link here.

The Heavy - No Time

This has been stuck in my head all morning.

The Heavy will be making frequent appearances here in JustJoeP since DDF was kind enough to burn CDs of them from her iTunes download last week.  My ZT Systems desktop, my automobile, and my pool-side jambox, have the House that Dirt Built and Great Vengeance and Furious Fire spinning within them.  I am looking forward to the upcoming album, Lest We Forget the Glorious Dead..

Diagram Venn

Its not easy, being green.

Percussively Tenderized Skirt Steak

For Father's Day, I tenderized, and marinated a 1.34 lbs skirt steak from Double Check Ranch.  The video, and audio, of the tenderizing process (with thanks to Geddy, Neal, and Alex's YYZ) can be found here:

JustJoeP drumming link here : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/85246561/take2tenderized.MPG

It was actually alot of fun to get a new tenderizing mallet (from Bed Bath and Beyond), an Epicurean cutting board, and then setting up the CD player, tripod, and lighting.  The room was FLOODED with light, but that's hard to tell from the video.  I chose YYZ for the ride cymbal with single double drags that is fun to do with a drum stick, but difficult to do with an aluminum mallet.

I sliced up an organic onion, organic red bell pepper, and an organic tomato, and some Grady's sauce, and let the steak and veggies marinade as I sat through Prometheus Sunday afternoon.  The carne asad was the best I've ever made.  This Will Not be the last skirt steak I ever have.

Each cow has only one skirt steak.  It's delicious, and (obviously) extra tender.  =)

Prometheus Is Pants

Dr Desert Flower and I just got back from watching "Prometheus".  Oh Sir Ridley Scott, you do let the viewer down so.  Fire your Lost writer.  Get a believable plot line, and go with it.

If you are a scientist, or engineer worth his or her salt, or have two neurons to rub together, you will scoff at, laugh at, not enjoy Prometheus very much.  If you ARE a scientist, or engineer, or a thinking person AND you LIKED IT, Please TELL ME WHY.  I was laughing at it 1/2 way through it.  DDF was texting friends from the bath room, wishing she could just leave - a terrible movie to take a geneticist to.

Ok, spoiler alert, don't reader further:  lessons learned from Prometheus include

- Guy Ritchie looks terrible in "old Dave" (circa 2001 a Space Odyssey) make-up
- +3 light years is really only 1/2 a billion miles, according to Charlize Theron (suck on that Degrasse Tyson!)
- DNA can easily be looked at under a microscope
- geologists have face tattoos and are social misfits
- biologists who are afraid of a pile of bodies will be so incredibly stupid a few hours later, as to try and pet a slithering albino muck cobra-like creature, Steve Erwin like.
- after having major abdominal surgery, via a robotic medical pod, and being stapled shut, you are able to RUN, JUMP, and massively physically exert yourself without hemmoraging, pain, or any significant impairment
- a "face-hugger / fetus" can grow from small kitten sized, to giant squid sized, with nothing to feed upon except the decontamination chemicals in the medical robot surgery pod, in the period of an hour or less, because it does not need to obey the laws of conservation of mass
- the daughter of a multi-multi-billionaire will readily sleep with a surly, smoking, commoner class ship's captain, at the drop of a hat, when on a high stress trillion dollar mission, with daddy on board.
- artificial gravity works perfectly on non-rotating ships
- androids have to use hair product, to maintenance their perfect coifs, even when they are fully synthetic
- the nasty infections / viruses found onthe old moon on which Prometheus lands, can re-animate the dead, and turn them into super-human strength killing machines which cannot be killed by repeated shotgun blasts.

- after a face hugger matures, it doesn't have to burst out of one's chest, and instead, can burst out of a humanoid's skull?  really?  As long as they are wearing pachyderm like helmets, I guess.

I think perhaps that my expectations were far too high.  It was a laughably bad, inconsistent, unlikable movie, but since we saw it at 4:15 (before 6pm) it as only $7 a piece.. so that was not-so-bad at least.

As my friend Ryan put it "Prometheus sucked monkey balls."  - I just wish he'd told me that BEFORE I wasted $14 and 2 hours of my life on it.  I could have watched "snow White and the Huntsman" instead.