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A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog
 Saturday, October 5, 2002
Bill Watterson. "People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children." [Quotes of the Day]
I miss Calvin and Hobbes.
Maurice Sendak. "There must be more to life than having everything." [Quotes of the Day]
Not just a children's author.
Joseph Stalin. "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." [Quotes of the Day]
What a fun guy. This is one guy whose death was not a tragedy. There are several others we could name.
George Bernard Shaw. "The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it." [Quotes of the Day]
Old George must have been great at parties. 10:19:48 PM 
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"U.S. Senator Robert Byrd Senate Remarks: Rush to War Ignores U.S. Constitution" [Daypop Top 40]
Only the NYTimes excerpted this speech in any large measure. Most papers gave the Cliff's Notes version. It is a very important speech. Byrd comes closest to being the most respected person in the Senate, with a reputation of being THE Constitutional expert in the group. He understands the rules of the Senate. It is difficult to get something through the Senate without his blessing. He is always someone to listen to. How many other politicians would start a speech quoting a Roman historian? And the quote uses big words like improvident. He quotes Abraham Lincoln on a topic that is EXACTLY what we are looking at today: giving the President the ability to attack countries whenever HE percieves a danger. While this Caesar quote may be a hoax, it does invoke a spirit that would fit right in with the views of many of the most important people in Amewrican history. That is why it is so popular. I am really glad I read Robert Byrd's speech. I wish I could vote for him. He has much more than half a brain which is twice as much as the Representative from Washington, Jim McDermott, has. Personally, I would feel better waiting until after the mid-term elections. That is what was done, I believe, in our previous war with Iraq, so as to remove any pretense that the rush to a decision was based on partisan politics. We already know that this is not being done this time almost assuredly because of partisan politics. The Republicans are already using it as an election gambit. It will be an interesting few years here, I am afraid. 10:04:37 PM
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Well, I'm still getting bounced emails from someone who has a Klez-infected computer. I have to keep deleting them before they fill up my mail box. I think we have it narrowed down but it has been slow for those of us that keep getting bombarded. 9:19:27 PM
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Friday, October 4, 2002
Briefly - Microsoft reports security flaws. Microsoft disclosed several security flaws Thursday, including ``critical'' problems in many versions of its Windows operating system. The flaws were detailed in four security bulletins, which urged users to download software patches from Microsoft's Web site (www.microsoft.com/technet/security). [Business]
More on Bugbear. Microsoft has said that 80% of all its crashes problems are caused by 20% of the bugs. They seem to be amazed at this but this is a classic rule. Economist have shown that 80% of the economy is driven by 20% of the companies. The 80:20 rule is quite well known. The other interesting highlight here is that the CEO for Cisco Systems was only paid $1 this year. He took a pay cut because of the cutbacks at the compnay. Of course, he did accept 4,000,000 stock options. But I would imagine that they will only be worth anything if Cisco's stock price goes up. And I would bet that the option price is pretty low. So he may make out like a bandit in 5-10 years when the economy rebounds. 10:42:34 AM
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Amorous ostriches scoop Ig Nobel prize. New Scientist - An investigation into why amorous UK ostriches were failing to breed is just one of the winners of the 2002 Ig Nobel Prizes. The annual awards for achievements that "cannot or should not be reproduced" were presented at Harvard University on 3 October.
Science of belly lint, ostrich love honored CNN
Science's Dubious Distinctions Noted CBS News
BBC - Boston Herald - ABC Regional Online - Minneapolis Star Tribune - and 52 related » [Google Technology News]
I love the Ig Nobels. It demonstrates the playfulness that is found in the 'best' science. And the one on scrotal assymetry was published in Nature!! Looks good on the cv. Most scientists are glad to get recognition of their work, even if it is with a jaundiced eye.Check out the winners in Economics, as well as the citation: The executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hausbie [Belgium], Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International [Pakistan], Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom [Russia], Global Crossing, HIH Insurance [Australia], Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications [UK], McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. [NOTE: all companies are US-based unless otherwise noted.]
Hint:in reality, imaginary numbers are those bases on the square root of -1. However, in thie context of the Ig Nobels we know exactly what they mean. Get more info at the Annals of Improbable Research. 10:19:08 AM
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Thursday, October 3, 2002
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Caution. Be very careful if you chose to follow these links. Rapidly juxtaposing the words of AL Gore and Pat Buchanan can be hazardous to your health. As Kathy Bates would say "It's the brain pain."
I've been doing way too much reading tonight. I happened to read a full transcript of Gore's speech. As usual, the media reports hack out the juicy bits, leaving some of the interesting core behind. This discussed the new pre-emptive doctrine. Changing such a fundamental area of our policy is occurring with very little real debate.The reason it must be the apocalypse is that I've been reading a few of Pat Buchanan's latest columns and I tend to agree with him (America's new 'sucker punch' strategy and The War Party's Imperial Plans. Or rather, we agree about the problems of this pre-emptive doctrine. Oh no. What am I if both the liberal left and the conservative right make sense? Actually, both are concerned about the need for continuing support, by the military, for the regions. They feel that if we let Afghanistan falter, or fail to bring a defeated Iraq under control, we will only fan the fires of terrorism. In fact, they feel that we may have to take down the entire region to prevent further spread. Israel knows this, as do more and more of the Middle East countries.
On the Big Island of Hawaii, a 'domesticated' ornamental grass was introduced and started to spread over the island. In an attempt to destroy this invader, fires were set. Not very smart. See, there are generally few large natural fires on the islands (not a lot of lightening strikes) so native plants have little protection against fire. But this particular grass had a lot of protection. In fact, it was very adapted to fire. The fires just allowed it to take over more of the island. Its main hazard today is that it increases the chances of large fires, fires that destroy native species, creating more area for the grasses to proliferate. Now, the plants completely dot the island, bringing greater fire danger and continuing to destroy the native plants. I hope this is not a metaphor for what we are planning to do. I would like a better idea of the end game. Something more than 'the Iraqis will have to figure out for themselves what they want to do after Saddam is gone.'
I promise to write lighter stuff tomorrow. Having the words of both Al Gore and Pat Buchanan in my head at the same time really hurts. I would not recommend it;-) 11:25:19 PM
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Wednesday, October 2, 2002
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Short night tonight. I spent most of the day at Lee Hecht Harrison (the outplacement co) and then had a great lunch with Bruce Takata, a former co-worker at Immunex. Then my son's jr. high school had an open house, so we got to meet all his teachers. He has a great science teacher and math teacher. My son really likes mis math and science teachers also, which is great. His computer tech class (where they are learning photoshop in preparation for some web page design work) is really nice, with all new flat-panel Macs. Yeah!! He loves it and is doing some nice Photoshop work. We even got to see the boy's locker room, much nicer than any I ever had. We also found out that they will do square dancing sometime this year. Wow! I had square dancing in Jr. High gym also. Lots of sweaty palms. Nice to know some things have not changed. One thing that has is that the gym classes have both boys and girls in them, rather than being segregated. They have been working on soccer and will do badmiton next. I was pretty impressed with the classrooms and with the teachers.
10:12:07 PM
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Monday, September 30, 2002
BusinessWeek: "If you try to print or copy sections of Middlemarch on an Adobe eBook Reader, you'll be informed that Adobe allows users to copy only 10 sections every 10 days. Readers of Aristotle's Politics, which as far as anyone knows was never copyrighted, aren't permitted to copy or print any text." [Scripting News]
I love adding copyright restrictions to public domain material. Isn't this supposed to protect original works? Making a living coping other people's creative works and then preventiung others from copying it. Some sort of ethical dissonance should be occurring, at least in rational human beings. How much money has been made on 'It's a WonderfulLife'? This movie only got popular because its copyright protection ran out and it got a lot of air play on TV. If it had still retained its copy right, hardly anyone would know of it. And it has generated a lot of money for some people along the way. I am just about to the point of refusing to visit Disney World, one of my favorite places, because of my disenchantment with Disney. Their next big cartoon rips off Robert Louis Stevenson. What is Disney going to do when it can only rip off authors from before 1900? They will have mined them all by then. They are going to be hampering their own 'creativity'. The Lion King is the only recent one that was created entirely in-house rather than using a well known literary character to start. They simply make money from licensing old characters like Mickey Mouse and ripping off old characters that are in the public domain. 10:19:23 PM
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FOR GOD'S SAKE, PEOPLE, USE GOOGLE!!!. What good are modern information-management tools if people won't use them? One of the most frustrating things about being an optimistic "computer revolution" guru is that over and over again I run into people who could use the magnificent information management tools we have at our disposal, have every incentive to use them (so as not to look stupid), and yet do not use them. Today's example: I read Slate and find Eric Umansky bashing the New York Times for... [Semi-Daily Journal]
This will happen more and more. It is just too easy to check facts online and get the original numbers. Bradford-delong took 2 mouse clicks to answer the rhetorical question posed in the article. Becuase it was just that easy to show that the rhetorical question was simply false and not so full of rhetoric as it was of hot air. Lazy writers will lose credibility, at least among anyone who is not a rabid, unthinking follower of a particular pundit. 1:27:36 AM
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More Sleazy New York Times-Bashing From Slate. Another example of sleazy New York Times bashing from yesterday's Slate: Mickey Kaus's claim to report "some things the NYT didn't tell you about those new Census stats,"--including that during the recession of 2001 "the child poverty rate for [B]lacks actually continued to fall." Did the Black child poverty rate continue to fall between 2000 and 2001. The right answer is that we cannot tell. The Black child poverty rate is not a very precisely estimated number. If I remember... [Semi-Daily Journal]
Sleazy because it completely ignores simple statistics to make a rhetorical point. When dealing with a lot of these Census Numbers, there is a margin of error. In this case, the margin of error for the Black child poverty rate in those two years overlaps the number given. This means that there is likely no significant difference between the two rate. This may not allow the writer to make a nice point but it is the truth as far as we know it. Some people still care about that. 1:24:49 AM
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Bobcat Goldthwaite. "America's one of the finest countries anyone ever stole." [Quotes of the Day]
I love the Bobcat!!
Charles Kuralt. "Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything." [Quotes of the Day]
Of course, we all know that Charles was busy seeing something, or someone in all his travels;-)
Margaret Millar. "Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses." [Quotes of the Day]
Hey, none of my monologues are conversa.. I mean. Oh, never mind!!
Flip Wilson. "The cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down." [Quotes of the Day]
Ain't it the truth, Honey. Basketball Jones. I got the Basketball Jones.
Tom Lehrer. "I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!" [Quotes of the Day]
Tom Lehrer is God. Rhino has all his stuff out now.
Indira Gandhi. "You can't shake hands with a clenched fist." [Quotes of the Day]
Yeah but can you hit them with an open hand? Something to think about ;-)
Will Rogers. "The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf." [Quotes of the Day]
Someone who was way ahead of his time. We need him more than ever.
Steven Wright. "If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?" [Quotes of the Day]
The man who asks the questions that MUST be asked!!
George Burns. "I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty." [Quotes of the Day]
Rim shot, please, although George never needed to stoop to that. I wonder when he said this. I'd guess after Gracie died but he always had such a nicely cynical view of life to contrast with her naive zaniness.
John Andrew Holmes. "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." [Quotes of the Day]
I try to remember this at least once a day. While I am incredibly important to myself, a little less so to my family, slightly less to my friends and not at all to 4.5 billion people, I know that 10,000 years from now that I will ... still be important. Yeah, I AM egotistical!!
Wernher von Braun. "I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution." [Quotes of the Day]
Now this is true but so should the word 'possible' be used. That is what makes life so neat. We spend our lives figuring out what us impossible and what is possible, and possibilities, or impossibilities, often change from day to day, minute to minute.
Bismarck. "When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice." [Quotes of the Day]
You have to picture Oliver Reed saying this.
A. H. Weiler. "Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself." [Quotes of the Day]
Unless you are Werner von Braun. Remember Tom Lehrer.'That's not my department, said Werner von Braun.'
Mark Twain. "Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside." [Quotes of the Day]
This can be taken in so many ways. Or maybe it is just so late at night I am having waking dreams. 'In Xanadu, did Kublai Khan/ A stately whirlpool order' I think I will finish this in the morning.
12:56:19 AM
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HoustonChronicle.com - Stepfather uses stun gun to discipline boy [Daypop Top 40]
I particularly loved the step father's response. I felt I did the right thing,' he said. 'The belt didn't work; this did. It hurts less than the belt. 'I've whipped his ass so hard that it left marks. That just didn't send the message and this did.' This matches up quite well with the woman up here in Washington state who disciplined her foster daughter by dragging her across a parking lot in a car. Makes you wonder how some people are allowed to care for foster children, much less have children of their own. 12:56:00 AM
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A new study from KPMG argues that the content indu .... A new study from KPMG argues that the content industry should focus on developing new business models rather than locking up intellectual property. While it is fighting (and losing) the wrong battle, it is losing billions in revenue. "Rather than embracing the Internet as an inexpensive means of delivering top-quality creative content to the consumer in a highly customized format, industry executives remain mesmerized by the destructive potential of online piracy." KPMG is a pro-business tax and financial consulting firm. (Thanks to Terry Foreman.) [FOS News]
A very nice read and right on target. Media powerhouses will not give up there markets and they have the government in their pockets. It could get ugly. 12:13:56 AM
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Dude, don't get all invady on me The Onion asks those ordinary people on the street about the dance between the Bushies and Iraq. [RatcliffeBlog: Business, technology & political comment]
Sometimes I wish the Onion had a newsfeed. This 'WHat do you think?' page only needed Tom Poston or Don Knotts or Louis Nye to make it complete. 12:04:03 AM
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