The Blog From Another Dimension

For the Birds

A few more bird photos, to end the month and blog for the day I will be en route (and possibly sick, but let's hope not), not to mention still figuring out what the heck I'll be doing with my new DSL--if I'm lucky enough to get the actual delivery of the modem/router, and everything works, yadda yadda yadda.... In any case, this will be about the 150th consecutive day of blogging for me!

Anyway, I love these little creatures, they're cute as heck, and sing beautifully as well. (Sorry Hiromi, if you don't like them--I know you're not fond of pigeons, but aren't these guys cuter?)

And I'd like to say hello and Happy New Year to Fran!

This yellow certainly likes to pose, she did it again today like last time. Beautiful yellow glow here, caused by a slightly long exposure time.

And here is the whole shot; I include this because almost all the yellows happened to cluster here.

A shot with a large number of the birds clustered together.
When they get like this, you can really see how many there are...

And finally, a more mundane bird checking out the snow-white punk canary...

On My Way, Again

Though this time not feeling quite as hot. Naturally, I get my illness the night before I set off on what is by far the most difficult leg of the journey (11 hours back instead of 8 over). Hopefully, the homeopathic stuff I've taken will help, and I have some fizzie stuff that I can take on the plane, as well as aspirin, if I still feel this lousy when I take the flight.

At least this time I got a better flight, one which I can sleep in until 8 am for. And if I do get a full-blown cold when I'm back, then I have almost a week to get over it before classes start. But I am very much looking forward to going to the shrine for New Year's, so hopefully it's just a little bug and/or the medication works.

Anyhow, wish me luck.

A Day at the Stick, Part II

And the game is over. Not a spectacular event; the Niners got ahead in the first half, but quickly lost it as the Seahawks tied up the game, and it went downhill from there. There were a few good plays, the Niners got a few interceptions, and the rookie Lloyd made a spectacular toes-just-in-bounds catch near the end of the game, though it was only a small gain and the refs spent several minutes reviewing the play when it seemed pretty clear Lloyd had kept it in.

My dad's seats are pretty good, though maybe not for the most evident of reasons--they're in the upper deck, just a few rows back from the rail, not behind but angled from the endzone so we get a good view of the field, especially when the action is at our end. Some good company too, nobody extraordinarily obnoxious. Apparently a lot of seats are sold to others at various games, especially Green Bay games--when the Packers come to play, it almost seems like there are more green and yellow fans than gold and red.

The weather was good, without the Stick's signature winds, but after dark it gets real cold, and the chill seeps though several layers and fast. Still, we were prepared and though the Niners lost and the game wasn't a nail-biter, it was still a lot of fun and I look forward to maybe seeing another game next year.

So now we have the post-game wind-down in the rig, with dad watching the late game and people firing off fireworks in the parking lot as all of us wait for the traffic to die down so we can zip out when we please. So excuse me while I knosh on some cold cuts and lay back and enjoy the early evening before a nice night trip back down 101 to home. Here are some photos from the game.

A Day at the Stick, Part I

People make fun of Star Trek conventions, but if the truth be told, those gatherings don't hold a candle to football games.

As I type, I sit in the rig looking out at the Candlestick Park parking lot fill up, and there are people out there about as far as the eye can see. People with barbecues, giant coolers, folding chairs and tables, some with tarps and tents strung up out the back of or between vehicles in the lot. Niners logos and colors everywhere, people in jackets and caps and jerseys and sweaters and complete suits, many tossing footballs back and forth, and you know that some people out there are applying body paint. The tailgate parties are in full swing.

I mention the Star Trek conventions because there are so many characteristics in common. Aside from the clothes and odd person in make-up, you've got the camaraderie, the trivia nerds, the vendors, and of course, The Show. Except here, there tends to be a lot more hooting. And Star Trek conventions don't have people outside holding up signs that say "I need tickets."

Of course, this being the last game of the season with nothing at stake (San Francisco is out of the running), there were not as many scalpers as there usually are at these games--not to mention a lot fewer people in the parking lot this time.

And the rig is truly a luxury--getting here hours early, sitting down for breakfast, watching the early games on the satellite TV receiver, nice and warm on comfy seats and the couch, with all the amenities, as we see all the people outside in their jackets in their folding chairs on the asphalt. Sometimes, we have to lower the curtains for privacy as people figure out we have the satellite TV and start watching through our windows.

Just before the game, we'll head out for the stadium. I'll blog a bit more then.

Enough Already

OK, these guys are beginning to tick me off.

I already blogged about the Neistat Brothers, but to summarize, these two guys bought an iPod, and after 18 months of heavy use, found that the battery started losing its ability to keep a charge (which should be an obvious consequence to anyone who uses rechargeable batteries), then got a bad tech rep (again, something everybody knows happens and should be aware of) who told them just to buy a new iPod, and then--belatedly--tried a third-party battery replacement, a very simple job, but were so inept that they wrecked their iPod and had to buy another.

Without doing any further research or taking any responsibility for their botched repair job, they wrathfully started spray-painting hateful--and incorrect--labels on iPod ads all over their city, claiming that Apple's iPod battery is unreplaceable (untrue--it is, they just blew it) and only lasts 18 months (also not correct, it varies with use and the battery you get). They then filmed their acts of vandalism, and posted the film online, and that has become a cult hit.

Fortunately, the iPod remains a big hit, so no one seems to be taking these idiots seriously--except the press. Every few weeks or so I see the same story get repeated in some major newspaper, and the newspaper always takes these clowns at face value, without questioning their veracity or intelligence.

Just FYI, most Mac and iPod aficionados consider these guys to be bogus publicity seekers. So in whatever way you can, just ignore them.

Canary Porch

For a very long time, my father has had birds on the porch. That is, he took the front porch (which only accesses his home office), partitioned a large part of it with screen and wire, built a simple door frame into it, and then made it into a small home aviary. At first, he had parakeets in there, but they were not able to mix with other birds, and my dad wanted finches. Then he tried a variety of finches (owl, zebra, lady gouldians, etc.), and that was much nicer, but they are also very hard to care for (the gouldians died, and the zebras flourished, and the zebras pestered all the other birds. So finally, he hit upon canaries, and they've been happily singing away in there for many years now.

Not just singing, but also breeding; with nests in there, they tend to be quite prolific. He likes to keep their number down to about fifteen, but some years they just get out of hand. Just before I came, there were thirty-five (there are as many as forty-five some years)--but then he sold six of them to a friend, currently the best way to thin the flock, so to speak. He used to be able to trade and deal with a canary dealer in the area, but he went out of business, so now he sells them to friends and pet stores. And by keeping the color and breed strains he likes, he's been able to produce some very vivid yellow and orange birds in there.

A few of them are of a "crested" breed, but with the way their feathers crown out on top, I like to call them the "punk" canaries. A few of them look like they have really bad hairpieces.

Many of the photos here came from a photo session with flash at high speed, so they're caught in flight around the aviary. A bunch of quite beautiful birds, and their singing is wonderful as well.

An example of a bright orange canary.

A few really bad toupees.

...A Good Night

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the Bay Area, the stores were all closed, not even a boulangerie, er, boulangerea, whatever.

But things were stirring here at home of course, with pint-sized tornados bouncing around all Christmas. We had two sessions, actually, presents from grandparents and an uncle on Christmas Eve, and from Santa on Christmas morning. At left, you see one particular nephew going nuts over a stack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards brought over from Japan, shortly after his brother got a Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga to play on both their new Gamboy Advances (man, things have changed--I remember playing Pong at their age).

At right you see the elder tornado briefly glancing over the second-season DVDs for Futurama, before quickly returning to the cool new Gamboys with backlighting!!! Coooolll!!!

In the words of one nephew, this had to be the best Christmas ever! (Well, I thought it was okay, but hey, who am I to disagree? After all, I didn't get a Gameboy myself.... I did, however, stay in synch with Christmas in Japan, and enjoyed some KFC for dinner (just me, we went eclectic). At least here in California I didn't have to wait three hours to get some dark meat and popcorn chicken.

"Man, this was the best Xmas ever!"

Christmas in Nagoya

A 26-year-old Gifu man who made more than half a million dollars playing the stock market earlier this month went to the observation deck of Nagoya TV Tower and threw a million yen's worth (about $10,000) of paper money to the street below late Tuesday afternoon. The money was in one-dollar U.S. currency and old 100-yen bills. The 100 yen bills have been out of circulation for decades and is no longer legal tender; the man apparently bought them off the Internet.

"I have too much money. I don't need it," the man said. "I wanted to give some back to the world." The gesture of generosity was not against the law, but police did take him in for questioning. He was able to throw most of the money through the metal grates on the tower, but left a good amount on the observation deck floor as well. About $1,000 was returned by passers-by, and the police gave it back to the man.

Come Again?

"The larger issue is that the seizure of Mr. Limbaugh's private medical records without going through the process outlined by the state legislature is clearly an invasion of Mr. Limbaugh's constitutional right to privacy." --Roy Black, attorney for Rush Limbaugh, December 2003 (emphasis mine)

"There is no right to privacy specifically enumerated in the Constitution."--Rush Limbaugh, June 2003, protesting court rulings which overturned sodomy laws on the grounds of privacy rights

Rush is also furiously painting all of this as a conspiracy by his political enemies to get "payback." Despite the fact that most liberals have been earnestly wishing him well on the principle of supporting rehabilitation rather than incarceration. It's Rush who is being hypocritical as well as relentlessly attacking his enemies and becoming spineless when it comes to principles.

Not to mention that his original slur against Eagles QB Donovan McNabb has proven to be not only racist but also wildly inaccurate, as McNabb led the Eagles to eight straight victories and a playoff berth, playing in excellent form despite his injuries. No doubt Limbaugh will try to take credit for the comeback, claiming that he lit a fire under McNabb or something equally obnoxious.

End of the Rings (for now)

Just saw "Return of the King" tonight with my nephew Willy (his brother Sam saw the movie later today), and I agree with Willy's assessment: it is the best of the Rings movies.

The first film was very good also, but the first and second films suffered from not having definite endings. The second film also seemed to stretch out way too long, so much so that elements of the "Two Towers" story extended into the last film, most notably the encounter with Shelob (at the end of the second novel, but shown in the middle of the last film). This prompted worries for me about the last film, as it measures three hours and nineteen minutes--but as it turns out, the time was well-spent this time.

A few things detracted from my enjoyment, such as the apparent lack of surprise by the hobbits upon finding Gandalf alive, the complete disappearance of Saruman from the story, and several rather radical changes in the story (such as with the hobbits' return to the Shire). In some respects, the storyline was simplified to what seemed to me to be good effect. And though the film did slow down at points, it progressed more than well enough throughout most of the story to make up for that and more. The battle scenes were very well done, as was the progression of Frodo and Sam into Mordor (though I think Gollum's reactions in his final scene were a bit off).

All in all, a very good movie series, that. I have the Special Extended DVDs for Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers, and fully expect to get the same for Return of the King. Probably some day a year or more from now, with all three DVDs, I'll sit down and have a 12-hour-or-more marathon of all three films. Maybe.

Mad About Cows

Well, the first mad cow disease case has been reported in the U.S., and Japan, within hours, slammed the doors and immediately instituted an effective ban of U.S. beef imports--not a small deal as Japan is America's biggest importer "by value"--meaning that expensive beef products are more often imported. Most of that is likely for restaurants, because U.S. beef is for darned sure not prominently featured in Japanese supermarkets.

The supermarkets I have shopped at over the years feature Japanese beef, with Aussie beef coming in second. American beef, when it shows up, is usually a lower-grade and therefore no threat to domestic beef. This echoes the rice market, which, when forced to import rice several years ago due to a poor domestic crop, made certain that almost every bag of cheap, high-quality American rice sold in the country was mixed with a low-quality Thai rice (with some Thai commentators reporting that it was animal-feed quality), a long-grained version very much disliked in Japan--needless to say, Japanese consumers didn't like it.

The closure of such imports is likely to last for a while, and may very well be as much motivated by protectionism as by health; a single case of mad cow disease was found in Canada in May, and though the U.S. has started lifting imports, Japan is keeping its market shut tight--even to the point of threatening reprisals against countries who do not provide guarantees that Canadian beef isn't coming through them.

The problem with Japan's attitude is that it is hardly one to throw stones: Japan has had nine cases of the disease in a bit more than two years, and not all at once, and has handled its own house very sloppily. The first case was on September 10, 2001 (the day before the 9/11 attacks). The most recent cases have been in the past few months. Furthermore, Japan's handling of the disease outbreak has been dismal. European experts hired by the Japanese government in 1998 warned Japan that its beef industry regulations were insufficient before the first case was reported; the government not only ignored the warning, but it also quashed the publication of the warning.

When the first outbreak did occur, not only did the Japanese government fail to adequately warn people about the dangers, not only did they refuse to ban MBM (meat and bone meal) feed that is a likely cause of the disease until fully a month later, but--get this--they actually allowed the diseased cow to be sent to a plant to be converted into MBM!

When I heard that, I decided I would not eat any more domestic beef in Japan--a decision well-founded, it seems, from Japan's unsurprisingly consistently botched handling and continuing outbreaks of the disease. Since U.S. beef in supermarkets is rare and not very good, I usually get Aussie stuff (McDonald's in Japan also uses Aussie beef).

So it is a bit much for Japan to be so drastic with other countries when a single case is reported--especially since the U.S. has not used MBM produced from cow offal in feeding cattle for some time. I would expect the ban to be continued for quite some time, no matter what the determination in the case.

More Squirrels

Cute little buggers, they are. Click on the image below to see a larger close-up of the furry little backyard interloper.

Mobile Lodging

In the past, when I visited home in California, lodging was a bit of a problem. I either had a couch or a playroom to sleep in, and in either case, I would have to sleep and wake by the use of the rooms. The playroom was my usual choice, but early every morning, my two beloved nephews would come charging into the room at full blast, each morning forgetting that I was sleeping there. Such are the vagaries of travel!

But from last year, I started sleeping in the driveway. Well, not just in the driveway.

My folks got a small mobile home for traveling up north every year, and now when I visit, it becomes kind of a temporary apartment for me. A conversion job, the "rig" as we call it has a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, with electricity and television. The bed is the best feature, a shortened queen-size bed, surprisingly large for such a small vehicle, and quite comfy even in winter nights (though admittedly, bay area nights are not really so cold).

And to complete the convenience, a WiFi setup in the house even allows me broadband access out here in the driveway--from where I have been writing my blogs nearly every day for the past ten days. With all that, including a fridge, microwave, and the ability to play the DVDs I ordered from Amazon on my laptop, one might guess I spend a lot of time at home in the driveway. But then, that's not exactly the reason I flew all the way from Japan!

Still, it is quite nice having a private room, at least. Where the rig comes in just as handy is the 49ers game. In a week, the Niners play their last game of the season at home against Seattle, and as my father has season's tickets and it's the only game I'm in town for, I get the very nice treat of going to the game.

Before we had the rig, we would have to drive to the game like everyone else, going early to get a parking space, trudging in to the stadium early to wait for the game--and when the game even seemed to be winding down, rush out ahead of time to beat the inevitable traffic jam to the freeway.

With the rig, however, we come in early to get the parking--and then we lay back in the heated space, eating lunch and watching the other games on the satellite TV. When the game is over, we can sit and wait until the game is over, go back to the rig, lay back, and much and watch TV some more while the traffic jam subsides, then just roll on out of the stadium when the coast is clear. Beats the heck out of tailgate parties, even.

Squirrely, But Hey, It's Home

I had forgotten how many of these guys there were around. Living in Japan, I never see squirrels, so I had kind of forgotten--but back here at home in the bay area, I am reminded all the time of the little critters and their antics. They tend to live in the large oaks that populate the area, skittering across telephone and power lines. Most of them the brown kind, pictured above right, but a percent of them jet black.

I took a recent walk over to the Stanford Shopping Center (Sigona's fruits and See's candies, if you must know), and was surprised by the new development. The first thing I noticed was that the vast, open fields along the banks of the San Fransquito Creek are now no longer open--a rather sizable housing project (see photo at left) has taken over the fields. Disappointing in many ways--I recall vividly riding my bicycle through the fields on my way to a part-time job I held at Green Library in high school, watching dozens of ground squirrels dart across my path every time I rode along the path to Sand Hill Road.

I have to wonder if the squirrels are still under the new homes, burrowing under the area as they have for decades despite endless attempts by the university to plow them under.

A lot of new construction there--a new retirement project is under construction now, apparently funded by Hyatt (the hotel people), units that will without doubt go for an incredibly high asking price.

Well, that's just about par with the shopping center they're being built across from. I didn't check, but I'm fairly sure that McDonald's is still in there, despite the center's longstanding attempts to plow them under just like the squirrels. Mickey Dee's doesn't quite mesh well with Neiman-Marcus and Bloomingdale's, I guess.

The walk back home was nice, and I will always have a soft spot for this neighborhood. From the air, it is a small carpet of green in an otherwise urban/suburban forest, so central to so much but at the same time as bucolic as you can get so close to the El Camino Real. Of course, when I grew up here, it was mostly retired seniors, but since the dotcom boom it has mostly been taken over by wealthy couples, and the houses almost all remodeled or rebuilt from the smaller suburban units to larger, plush homes.

Still, a very nice area, and I am glad to be back to visit, glad to be able to come back as often as I do.

Despite Right-Wing Stacking, Court Rulings Reassuring

Recent rulings made at the circuit level have been reassuring for those who treasure civil liberties, and the rights of individuals and states. The most resounding judgments have been those that reinforce 6th Amendment rights to legal representation, as well as a host of other constitutional protections. The 2nd circuit ruled that the U.S. must protect and uphold these rights for citizens held in the U.S., while the 9th circuit ruled that those held outside of the U.S.--at Gitmo in Cuba, most notably--must also be accorded those rights. The Bush administration, meanwhile, is still arguing "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" and trying to say that as long as we are "at war" (a permanent state by their definition) that some of our most prized freedoms must be abridged. The courts, it seems, beg to differ. The big question will come when, inevitably, the Supreme Court will rule on the matter (or do the equivalent by not hearing the cases).

Meanwhile, other encouraging judgments have been forthcoming. The D.C. appellate court ruled that the RIAA can't act as its own arm of the judicial system and subpoena private Internet access records from ISPs. The 9th circuit ruled, at long last, that the federal government may not prosecute people on drug charges for marijuana marijuana if the state they are in has legalized its use--one of the key issues that highlights the far right's hypocritical stance on states' rights.

Gay Marriage Poll

The ardent anti-gay American Family Association has, for the past few days, been building up a petition against gay marriage. It does not make entirely clear whether it is a poll or a petition, though--its URL says "petition" and it takes email addresses as well as state and ZIP code information, but the label they gave it calls it an "online poll." This could be seen as any one of many possible ways they might eventually weasel out of, as they have promised, presenting the results to Congress.

The AFA is a Christian fundamentalist "pro-family" organization; one look at their main page clearly demonstrates their biases ("Help Save Marriage!" "Stop Democratic Filibusters of Pres. Bush’s Judicial Nominees!"). They put up the poll obviously in hopes of getting their own faithful to tilt the results of the poll--initial results ran over 80% against gay marriage. This was their vision as they promised that "results of this poll will be presented to Congress." They even set up the poll to split the pro-gay-marriage vote--you have three answers to choose from, (1) against gay marriage, (2) for gay marriage, or (3) for civil unions. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the intent of that is to make the anti- vote look the largest they can make it.

But word has gotten out, and from early yesterday, the general public started voting. The stats went from 83-14-3, to 74-22-4, to 61-33-6... As of last night, the results were 46-46-8, but when my dad voted just a few minutes ago, the results were 44-48-8, now clearly in favor of gay marriage even if you count out the civil union votes, as the AFA likely intended to do. 146,000 votes had been cast against, 162,000 for, and civil unions got 26,000.

So the question is, what will the AFA do? The initial expectation would have been for AFA members and friends only to vote, or for the vote to be close enough so they could skew the numbers in their favor without looking too ridiculous. But now that's not an option--the numbers can't be in any way spun in their direction, and they made the promise to bring the results to D.C. Well, we can hardly expect a fundie group to go to Congress and say, most Americans want gay marriage legalized. Will they simply ignore the poll? Try to claim it was hijacked? They can't just keep it up and wait for numbers to go their way, it's heading in the opposite direction. In fact, the numbers are visibly changing--I renewed the results page and found that in five minutes, the "for" vote advanced by 0.05%, while the "against" vote decreased by 0.06%. At that rate, the "for" votes will increase by a whole percentage point every one hour and forty minutes, as the "against" votes will fall at the same rate. By midnight tonight, the numbers could even be 36-56-8, which makes you wonder how long the AFA will hold the door open.

In any case, if you read this on the 19th of December or within a few days, the poll may still be open--go ahead and cast your vote. I would advise you to use a real email account and submit your real name and location, but make the email address an alternate account you don't use much--they claim you won't be spammed, but in the same disclaimer they say you will be sent "updates on matters of importance," a.k.a. "spam."

Beaut of a Sunset

This one showed up on the doorstep last night. A real nice one.

Steel and Tin

Clark has it right.

Bush is getting so much credit for Saddam's capture--predictable, as we tend to react generally to events--but there is a whole backstory that people are missing here, as evident as it may be.

Think about it this way. You work for an auto manufacturer. Your boss tells you, "in order to keep this company alive, we need the best steel for the best price. I want you to go out there and land the best deal you can." So out you go, you stake out the market, you put in your bids, you try your best--but you come up empty. You need to succeed somehow. Though the best thing would be to work harder, improve your contacts, and strive even more to get that deal, instead you let it slide, and go after the best tin deal you can put together. And even that's hard for you--you sweat, you try, you spend most of the company's money, you even sacrifice your firm's good name in the industry. And at the end, you get the deal, meager as it may be, useless at it might wind up being for the company. But you ride back in the factory gates on a big pile of tin, waving the contract like a trophy. You get cheers from the workers, because you look like you did the job.

That's where Bush is right now. Saddam is the contract he's waving around. (Though Bush doesn't even have the pile of tin tied down yet, just the vague hope it will come in.)

However, it is not long before the boss walks up, figures out it's tin, and shouts, "I told you to buy steel!"

Someone needs to shout this at Bush right about now. Clark is doing it, though perhaps not many are hearing it. He notes that Saddam was not the goal, bin Laden and al Qaeda were. But Bush could not deliver. "Instead, he executed a bait-and-switch. He took the priority off Osama bin Laden. He shifted the spotlight onto Saddam Hussein."

So we have our tin-pot dictator. Too bad it won't build us any cars. The question is, will the people be able to tell tin from steel amongst all the hoopla?

Moore Questions

I just started reading Michael Moore's new book, "Dude, Where's My Country?" Moore has been called a liar and irrelevant, and the media has skewered him--so why is he #1 on the NYT Bestseller list for five weeks? Same reason why the Dixie Chicks are selling music like hotcakes--the "liberal media" made it clear that celebrities who speak out against Bush are losers, but they somehow manage, despite this pervasive media image, to become more popular than ever before.

The book begins with seven questions for George W. Bush (rhetorical, we must assume--as if Bush would ever address them), and the first of those is highly relevant to the theme of Moore's upcoming movie, Farenheit 911 (reported subtitle: "The Temperature at Which Freedom Burns"). The question pertains to the ties between the Bush and bin Laden families. Essentially, how bin Laden's family was deeply involved in W. Bush's early, heavily subsidized (and ultimately failed) business career, as well as Bush Sr.'s Carlyle Group; how neither Bush ever voiced disapproval of the bin Ladens' association with their brother Osama, nor acknowledgment that the bin Laden family still supports and finances Osama, despite conservative claims to the contrary.

Which brings us to today's news. So many people are so excited that we caught Saddam... but, if you recall, he was never really the center show in this particular circus. Osama bin Laden is, and was. Or, more precisely, al Qaeda. Which bin Laden has been running, with help from his family, which has been in bed with Bush... and since Osama is not easy to catch, Saddam made a much better target.

The problem is, Saddam was never actually a threat to us. No WMD, no army capable of doing much harm--he was contained. So, we caught him--great. Problem is, it was never that relevant, and now we have spent hundreds of billions, alienated half the world or more, lost hundreds of our own soldiers and killed thousands of Iraqi civilians, and are still sinking in the quagmire--and in the meantime, the Taliban is gaining ground in Afghanistan, Osama is still on the loose, and al Qaeda is still out there, just as ready to strike....

Are we really in better shape than we were a year ago?

That answer, at least, is clear: hell, no.

Capturing one old man cost far too much and was not even relevant to the danger we wanted to fight. In a few days or weeks, even those presently enamored will wake up to this fact. And as we rub our eyes and refocus on what should have been the main point, Moore's questions will have even more relevance. Why did Bush have all those ties to bin Laden? The answers will lead to a better understanding of why we're in our present mess. Hint: it beings with "O" and ends with "L". Three letters.

Take your time.

Celebrations in Iraq: Deja Vu

Here are some images from the celebration in Iraq:

Can you tell which one is the "real" one, which demonstrates how thousands of Iraqis are celebrating Saddam's downfall? Well, both or neither may be. The one on the left is from April, during the staged statue-toppling event, where the U.S. press willingly went along with a U.S. military event where crowds of Iraqis came to watch the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein. We found out only later that there were just dozens, not hundreds or thousands, of Iraqis gathered, that it was U.S. soldiers, and not Iraqis, who pulled down the statue, and that the few Iraqis who were pictured were actually members of a group the U.S. military had brought in themselves. But the press obligingly took photos close-in and upward to make it appear as if there were far more people than there really were.

The photo on the right, meanwhile, was from today's "massive" celebrations--and the look of them was very, very close to the staged photos taken some time back. Not that I doubt that there are Iraqis who are celebrating, but the question becomes how many and who. Looking at newspapers, I have noticed that the photos accompanying almost every story are of the same group of a dozen or so Communist Party Iraqis celebrating, taken from different angles (see photo at right).

A few other photos have been taken and published, if you look for them; here are a few. Look closely and see if you don't see a striking similarity between them:

Pretty much every image I have seen so far is of just a few people at a time. I have not seen a single photo of an actual crowd. And yet the vivid impression that the press has been giving is one of thousands of Iraqis parading through the streets, a scene repeated throughout Iraq.

So forgive me for being a bit skeptical, as we have seen this before.

As a footnote, the Dow and NASDAQ are not seeing the huge boosts the press has been predicting, and it is only a matter of time before the next few soldiers get killed and the daily grind in that regard continues.

DSL in America

I really had had no idea how slow DSL in the U.S. was until coming back here and checking it out. Normal plans provide only a half-megabit to 1.5 Mb service for $27 (2900 yen) per month; the cheapest "expert" package is for 6 Mb, and costs $99 (about 11,000 yen) per month. These prices do not include the extra charges and fees for starting up an account.

Contrast that with Japan, where the old 1.5-8-12 Mb plan layout is now outdated. When I went to sign up for my new service, I had a choice between the 26 Mb and 40 Mb plans, both priced at 3828 yen ($35) per month. There is a 4000 yen ($37) initial fee, but you also get 3 months free service under the current promotion, and such promotions are common.

But if that is not enough, then you might be eligible for a fiber optic account (100 Mb, about $100 per month) or, in more limited areas, vDSL, which has near-lossless 24 Mb service (I don't know the cost off-hand).

Christmas for Bush, But What Can We Hope For?

You know the news, of course, unless you've been hiding in a "spider-hole" in Iraq. Bush is presently on the air, doing his expected crowing over this PR boon. The question is, what impact will it have? Bush just announced that, now that Saddam is in custody, the Baathist uprising is over, and there is no hope for their return to power. That, of course, is just slightly jumping the gun. While Saddam may have been moving from location to location, it is highly unlikely that he was frequenting some command and control center and leading the struggle personally; and it is dangerous to assume that Saddam is necessary to any uprising, as if there is no other leader the Baathists could follow, or that if they do maintain such intense loyalty to Saddam and not just their own power structure, or that the imprisonment of Saddam might not prompt them to step up their attacks.

There is a settling that will occur. Bush now has Saddam as a plaything and can do what he wants with him, parading him out before tribunals, stringing out trials until the next election, or, if he prefers, forcing a quick trial and execution. But then there is the bloodshed in Iraq, and if our soldiers continue to die, Bush could find Saddam to be, well, irrelevant. Saddam's capture will definitely give Bush a short-term boost, but the benefit will only be maintained if--as we all certainly hope--this somehow stops the Baathist attacks, settles the question of WMDs, and allows Iraq to stabilize so we can stop spending so much money and bring our troops home. But if Saddam stays silent, the WMD, if any, stay missing, and the attacks continue, then capturing Saddam may be just as relevant to the war in Iraq as ESPN's firing Rush Limbaugh was relevant to the NFL.

And that brings us back to a larger topic, which is the relevance of Iraq to America; was it really necessary to go in there in the first place? Was this not, as Wesley Clark has suggested, a side-show to the "war on terror"? But then again, we have all known from the start that the "war on terror" is one of those Orwellian endless wars; we can never hope to get rid of terrorists, alas.

The best we can hope for now is that Iraq settles down and we stop losing so many of our people, that we stop killing others. I am not one to wish for calamity for the sake of bringing down a politician I hate; I would rather see Bush re-elected than have Iraq go on as it is (as intensely painful as four more years of Bush might be). But experience has taught me to be a bit cautious about celebrating a victory when only a superficial goal has been achieved. The mission has still not been accomplished quite yet.

Media Points, 12-14-2003

He was not exactly Thomas Jefferson, but he did have an illegitimate child by a black woman. No, I'm not talking about Bill Clinton, I'm talking about Strom Thurmond. Apparently, about 79 years ago or so, Strom, then about 21, had a bit of a thing with the family maid. About a quarter of a century after that, Thurmond reportedly took legal responsibility for his child, giving her financial support since 1941--though publicly, he revealed nothing.

Apparently, Thurmond was not segregationist about everything, like DNA and stuff.

---

Nobody needs to tell me that PowerPoint can make you dumb. I teach the darn program to my students, and the first thing I point out to them is how dull, insipid and meaningless those presentations can be if you allow yourself to get boxed in by their style. I don't even teach the templates or ready-made slides, rather I make them begin with blank presentations and slides upon which they much build it all themselves, which helps to foster creativity and diversity in their projects. I also carefully monitor their subject matter, letting them know that not every subject is helped out by a slide show.

While I did not suspect that Bill Gates' bloated program was responsible for the destruction of the space shuttle, I must say I am not too surprised.

---

Coming back to the U.S. just now, I was of course concerned about the flu, and figured it might not be a bad idea to get shots. Yeah, right--if you're able. Pretty much every last person in the U.S. seems determined to get shots right now, and few if any physicians have any vaccine left. Meanwhile, the media is whipping the public into a frenzy about how many people have the flu and are dying from it. We love to frighten ourselves, don't we?

---

In lighter news, Dave Letterman and Oprah Winfrey seem to be overcoming their long, simmering feud--all Dave's fault, you gotta admit. I recall one bit many years back when Oprah was losing weight in which Dave introduced a gag game called "pin the tail on the Oprah" which presented an ever-increasing challenge as the 'target' diminished. More recently, Dave has targeted "O" Magazine, as well as Oprah's "former husband," Dr. Phil.

But now, though few take seriously Dave's proposed "Super Bowl of Love" in which Dr. Phil would counsel Dave before Oprah came on stage and the "love would explode." But Oprah, more reasonably, wants Dave to come as a guest on her show (she has, after all, already done his). Dave, very seldom a guest on someone else's show, is not too hot on the idea, saying, "here's what would happen: I would go on the Oprah show and I would break down and sob like a little girl." So time will tell.

That didn't stop Julia Roberts from getting the best of Dave. Having gotten "deeply" married herself, she both congratulated Dave on his new son, and teased him endlessly about not marrying "the mother," as she was then referred to, Roberts noting how inappropriate that sounded. Dave, trying to change the subject, asked Julia how her married life was going. "“You know," she replied. "You’re married . . . oh wait, no you’re not."

---

Finally, Josh Marshall points out how completely hollow Bush's promises to crack down on Halliburton's overcharging are. "If there's an overcharge, like we think there is, we expect that money be repaid," he told reporters. Like he cracked down on Enron? Let's see, Ken Lay, Bush's biggest donor, still has his stolen billions, and the shareholders are still out in the cold.

But Bush is serious this time! "[The Pentagon's] investigation will lay the facts out for everybody to see," he said. Just like John Ashcroft's investigation into the treasonous Valerie Plame affair? Marshall is perhaps the only American journalist who is pointing out that a senior White House official is boasting about having buried that investigation.

Despite his current promises to clean things up, there are a few things you can be assured of: Halliburton is doing far worse than is being revealed, Bush's "investigation" will be weak and ineffective, and the press will dutifully forget all about this in a week.

And Marshall points out how this playing: Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz gutted Congress' plans to oversee fraud in the use of the $87 billion Bush demanded for his failure of a war. So if things like overcharging occur with this new cash deluge, we won't know about it, thanks to the Bush administration.

Par for the course.

Is the Forest of Corruption Hidden by the Trees?

Speaking of being nibbled to death by ducks... Having returned to the U.S. and seeing more closely the reporting and discussion of events, I see that although there is a blizzard of political outrages committed by Bush, it seems that the American people have become inured to it all--or maybe just the Democrats aren't nearly as skilled at making political hay out of them as the Republicans were at blowing their opponents' peccadilloes way out of proportion. Remember when, six years ago, Republicans were furious over Al Gore's phone calls? Gore was accused of making phone calls from his office phone as opposed to a private phone to raise "hard money" instead of "soft money," as a few ten thousands of dollars were put into DNC accounts that were federally controlled as opposed to not--about as innocuous and hair-splitting a scandal as you can imagine, but there were Congressional hearings and an official investigation that got down to the bottom of it (Gore was in bounds on that, as he raised soft money only from that phone line). And whenever Janet Reno didn't vociferously prosecute the case to the likings of the Republican attack dogs, they called for her resignation.

Compare that with today, when a senior White House official--most likely Karl Rove--used a similar White House phone to commit a serious federal felony by revealing the identity of a CIA operative as an act of political retribution. When Ashcroft was given the investigation, the GOP claimed no conflict of interest (though Rove got Ashcroft his job), and, as expected, has completely buried the investigation; a senior White House official has told the Financial Times of London that "We have let the earth-movers roll in over this one." And they did--how often do you see that story on the news? We're all hearing about Halliburton overcharging today, but how many Senate investigations are there looking into the fact that Cheney's own company got the juiciest non-bid contracts?

As I suggested, maybe it's because there is such a hailstorm of such kinds of things, and President "I'm-not-a-divider" Bush has so polarized the nation that his supporters are unwilling to even glance askance at Bush's glaring failures and corruption. The Taliban is beginning to take Afghanistan back. (Remember when we thought we'd won that war?) Over the span of a few days, our forces killed 15 children in that country--which, even under the same unintentional circumstances, we would have called a war crime if Hussein had been responsible, not us. The endless lies about Iraq, and the inept mishandling of the war there. The hiding of the dead and wounded. The attacks on those same soldiers' pay and benefits, even as Bush serves them fake turkey, and then claims that their lives are paying for the right to give the contracts to companies like Halliburton. Does anyone even remember Ken Lay and Enron? The burying of the 9/11 investigation? Cheney's energy commission reports? Bush's ties to the bin Laden family, and the administration's rush to allow bin Laden's family to flee the U.S. in the days after 9/11?

These are just a few of the scandals, and only the ones during his administration--let's not even get into the AWOL, drug use, lying under oath as governor of Texas and all that. The point is, how come suddenly it is perfectly kosher for the president to commit all kinds of blatant misdeeds, and somehow it's not really an issue? We hear about these things sometimes, but not nearly as often as before, and nothing ever comes of them.

One thing is for certain--if we do, for whatever reason, decide to ignore all of this, and re-elect Bush based on the fiction his administration is painting, we will get exactly what we deserve.

Departure and Arrival

So I departed Tokyo perhaps just in time--the weather had just started to take a rather gloomy twist, dark, cold, and rainy, rather miserable weather. Still, I had a good departure schedule--I got a flight leaving at 7:30 pm, as opposed to one leaving at perhaps 3:00 pm or so, giving me a lot more time to sleep, get ready, and get in to the airport.

At the airport, I was surprised to meet Kate, a teacher at my school, lining up for the same flight; while she was just connecting through San Francisco instead of staying like I am, and had a much better seat way farther up the aisle (despite getting her ticket a month after me and arriving at the airport later--she is, as she pointed out, much cuter than I am), we still were able to chat for some time, a very agreeable way to spend time waiting for the boarding and later the luggage claim.

Unfortunately, the flight could have been better. As is usual with United, the service is very good, but I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep on flights. It also does not help that I always get seated behind someone who, for the entire flight, has their seat reclined all the way back into my face (being disgruntled, I always do a check about the cabin and find that only 20% of people seem to have their seats reclined at any given time--but I always get the 20%), and the lady sitting in the seat next to me was leaning way over the armrest, with her feet put up on top of the seat in front of her. So despite having the aisle seat, I was more than a bit crowded in than is usual even for Economy class.

But I did get here, and that's the whole point of the exercise, so mission accomplished. I napped for three hours in the afternoon, but am still dead tired and ready to fall asleep at 9:30 PST.... I'll post pictures later, but I have a nice "room," so to speak--a kind of mobile-home rig, smallish, that my folks use to travel in. You know, a mini-kitchen, bathroom, not-too-small-bed, all on wheels. This will also serve as a great pre- and post-game vehicle when my father and I go to the 49'ers/Seattle game on the 27th, the last game of the season. But for now, it is a nice little private apartment in the driveway--and I really have to use the bed. More later.

Traveling

I am posting in advance for the day, and may post again before the day is out, depending on how I feel when I arrive. I am going home for my usual two-and-a-half-week vacation, to enjoy Christmas at home with the family, relax and regenerate as much as I can, and do a bit of shopping.

I'll be posting during that time, giving you a look at the San Francisco Bay Area (south bay, really, near Palo Alto), a peek at Christmas festivities at the homestead, and if I'm lucky, photos from the final 49'ers game of the season. If I'm even more lucky, then when I return, I will have all-new DSL with IP Telephony, which I'll report on as soon as it gets going (9 yen per minute to the U.S., free unlimited telephone calls to any KDDi/IP Telephone subscriber in Japan). But it may be as much as a week late after I return, in which case I'll be relegated to dial-up status for that time. One can hope...

Nibbled to Deception by Ducks

Well, it has been nine days so far since Senator Ray LaHood claimed that we were "this close" to cathcing Saddam Hussein. "Imminent," the stories said. Is more than nine days "imminent"?

The reason I protest is because I feel that such claims (see my prior story) serve to create false impressions to mislead the public. Example: Bush and his administration dropped so many rumors, hints and indirect, unproven allegations that Saddam was involved in 9/11 that almost 70% of the American people believed it to be a fact.

Ever since we entered Iraq and found that the massive stockpiles of WMD were not there, we have been hearing similar reports, including false and/or later disproven claims regarding WMD in Iraq, as well as several claims--by members of Congress and prominent journalists--that evidence had indeed been found but we just had to wait a little for the official announcement to be forthcoming. This latest claim is just another in that series.

I have the strong feeling that, were a poll taken today, a majority of Americans would believe that we have found proof of WMD in Iraq--which is again why I object to the hint-dropping. It could simply be a politician passing on a rumor they gave too much credence to, but the fact that they are all coming from conservative politicians and pundits, and that there are such a steady stream of them, makes me just a wee bit suspicious.

Salt Candles

A former flame and now good friend Hiromi has happened onto a new thing: salt candles. Mined from ancient salt deposits in the Asian subcontinent, these are more than just lumps of salt; they make very attractive candle holders. With holes drilled through their cores, exactly to the size of tea candles, they light up and make for very nice ornaments.

Hiromi gave me one not too long ago (as thanks for helping her set up her web site), and though I'm not much of a candle person, I have to say I do like it. They have an aesthetic, primitive quality to them.

Hiromi (pictured right, with a few of the candles) is testing the waters as to marketing some of them, seeing if there is any demand. If anyone is interested, leave a comment with an email address, I'll get back to you on it.

Don't Celebrate yet...

Well, CAN-SPAM has been passed, but as I noted previously, this new bill soon to be signed by Bush will likely amount to nothing. All a spammer has to do is move operations overseas--which most have already done--and they avoid the new laws. But no doubt Bush will make a big deal about it. Watch your wallets--ironically, the new law may actually increase spam, by way of such things as encouraging people to add their names to "opt-out" lists, which in fact just gives spammers a list of new addresses to spam. Morons.org also has a nice commentary on it.

Thank you, MT-Blacklist!

As I just noted, I got spammed 50 times by some jerk--mass blog comment spam, my first time. Unfortunately, in Movable Type--the software that runs this blog--to delete a comments you have to click, wait, click, wait, click, click and click again just to delete one comment. There is no batch-deletion built in.

Enter MT-Blacklist, a freeware plugin made by Jay Allen. It not only detects and blocks likely spam, but it allows for just the mass-deletion I was looking for. Just upload three files to the directories noted in the ReadMe file, Chmod the permissions to 755, go to the mt-blacklist.cgi file, and presto, you're golden. Instead of spending an hour deleting the slimy spam droppings defacing my site, I zapped them all in a few seconds.

Thank you, Mr. Allen!

Spammers Strike Again

Any other bloggers paying attention, here is a warning about blog comment spam:

Immediately block IP Addresses stemming from 195.120, I just got spammed by them about 50 times in quick succession. To avoid headaches, keep them out. The specific IP Address is 195.120.185.220.

Thank you. You may now return to regularly scheduled programming.

Another Graduation

Well, we do have two of them every year. This was what kept me busy yesterday (today it was grading, and I just finished). This ceremony was a very good one. As of the past few years, we've moved up and into the Century Hyatt for our ceremonies; we used to do it in local hotels (the first I presided over myself had all of two graduates!), but our graduating classes have grown to a size that cannot be hosted by the other hotels. And the Hyatt is a classy place.

Machiko Wada, one of our senior students, and one of our very best at that, gave the valedictorian address, and moved everyone to tears; many of the students, both young women and me, were openly crying, and I definitely heard a lot of sniffling behind me.

Afterwards, we moved up to the 27th floor and a very nice new room for the Graduation/Christmas party. For me, as kind of an unofficial photographer (as always), it was great because the light was perfect for taking photos--I got nearly 200 of them, so maybe a few dozen are good enough to print. Here are a few.

Machiko giving her address.

Many of the students wore traditional outfits, including these students' kimonos.

As always at the Hyatt, the food was first-rate.

Then came the perennial Bingo game. Machiko's lovely grandchildren were rapt players.

A graduating student, accompanied by a parent and a former graduate.

Yoshi, one of our hardworking office staff.

And Masako, who made my job so much easier when I was coordinator, winning first prize in Bingo: two passports for Tokyo Disneyland. It would be hard to think of someone who deserves them more--and she has two daughters who'd love to go, too.

Busy Day

You may have noticed I'm not commenting about politics much lately; a lot of that has to do with the fact that such commentary takes time, and my time has been kind of occupied lately, what with final exams and all. Today, we had the graduation ceremony (probably the topic of tomorrow's post), and after that I had some errands to do.

One of them led to a rather unfortunate experience with Apple. I bought this Powerbook G4 (800 DVI) in April last year, so it is about 20 months old, and the battery is wearing down--less than an hour per charge now. Not too surprising, and not bad by itself--I use this thing rather constantly. The problem: well, you'd expect that having sold maybe millions of these computers, and that the batteries of a great many of them would be wearing low about now, that Apple would expect and meet the demand. For some bizarre reason, Apple failed miserably. No electronics shop I went to today had any in stock, and a few even said that Apple had even stopped making them.

The Ginza today. On Sundays, they block off traffic and it becomes a pedestrian avenue with tables for people to eat and rest.

So I figured, hey, Apple just opened a new store in Ginza! However, it was a bit of a trip over there, so I figured I'd call first (using my mobile, 10 cents a minute). First mistake. I wound up on hold for about 20 minutes, never to be answered. Apple Store Ginza seems to have skimped on either (a) people to answer telephone inquiries, (b) a voice mail system that gives you a hint of how long the wait would be, or (c) both. Quite frustrated, I nevertheless wanted the new battery for the trip home, so I went over--and met with more frustration. After plowing through the huge crowds and finding someone to help me on the 4th floor, they told me apologetically that they did not carry that battery. "But this is an Apple Store, isn't it?" I asked. "You do carry Apple accessories, right?" And I explained the whole thing about how all the people who bought the same computer would be needing batteries about now. The salesperson at least had the grace to admit that they had been getting a lot of people asking for those, but they had only been open for one week, so....

He told me to go to the Genius Bar, giving me the full expectation that they would be able to grab such a battery from the repair people. So I went downstairs to the 2nd floor and waited 15 minutes for a spot and then 45 for the person to help me--all of which ended in his having me order a battery from the online Apple Store. If they answered their damned phones, they could have saved me two and a half hours and a hell of a lot of frustration and simply told me at the start. Now, they claim that the battery will be delivered in the next day or two--less than a perfect solution, as I will be out often--but looks like it's the only way. Let's hope it works.

What A Fraud

Larry King can be interesting sometimes, but all too often the show gets just too trashy for me to handle. One recurring theme is the celebrity trial, or the celebrity investigation, which Larry tends to cling to for weeks or months, with Nancy Grace always hovering, always ready to gut and pillory whomever has been accused or is suspect, no matter what the evidence. Although not even close to a legal forum, it is nonetheless a highly popular show, and when Larry starts in by saying essentially that because a person--like Gary Condit, for example--does not come on the show and spill his guts, maybe he's hiding something, after which Nancy will jump in and comment on how suspicious-looking that is, and how if she were innocent, it is the first thing she would do. (As a lawyer herself, she should know what a lie that is--you should never needlessly expose yourself to questioning which can be used against you in court--especially when you are innocent.)

This is the kind of thing that drove me away from being a regular watcher. I have very strong feelings about the rights of the accused, and a carefully balanced justice system that will do its level best to discover and convict criminals but will be as cautious as possible not to convict or unduly harm the innocent. But such comments--essentially, appear on the show or we'll talk about how guilty you'll look--is not only a public affront to the individual's 5th Amendment rights, but is also a conflict of interest on Larry's part, one which should never appear on a show that often reports hard news, and one that could potentially destroy the reputation and careers of innocent people.

That tends to be the more serious reason I dislike the show; the more trivial but just as insulting is when he brings on guests like he had tonight, "psychics" like Sylvia Browne. Flipping channels, I saw a few seconds at a particularly outrageous point, and figured this was good blog fodder. Larry has them on from time to time, and every time they come across to any reasoning viewer as absolute frauds--but Larry gives them full credence, even cheering them on with credit they did not earn. I recall one that took a call and predicted that there were problems with the caller's roof, or the roof of the deceased, on which she was totally incorrect--but after the call had finished, Larry commented that she was "100% correct."

The "psychics," rather obviously, are performing what is called the "cold read." This is achieved by first allowing the person being read to give as much information as possible, and then making guesses that, while sounding specific, can actually be applied to almost any individual, or, if wrong, can easily be turned into a different "sight" or re-interpreted to fit the story given by the person being read. For example, a read-ee might introduce their story by asking about their dead father. Already, even from such a vague description, the cold reader has all kinds of data: the apparent age of the person being read, the gender and apparent age of the person who has died, and, from the speaker's voice, possibly what part of the country that person came from or grew up in. Then come the vague guesses: "I see a man with a receding hairline," or "I see a woman with her hair back," or "I see a man in a uniform." If the specific person who is being spoken of does not fit that description, then it is applied to any family member, dead or alive--and if that still doesn't conjure up someone who matches the vague description, then the psychic tells the read-ee that there is someone like that, so go and find out who it is.

So many psychics have their own schtick--John Edwards, for example, works not individuals but crowds--whenever he makes a wrong guess, he claims it's coming from someone new in the crowd; otherwise, his guessing is so transparent and uninspired, it is frankly astounding that even gullible people could take him seriously. Ergo, my particular enjoyment of the South Park episode that so thoroughly lampooned him.

Tonight on Larry King was little different, except that Browne was in particularly shameless form. Some psychics cover up their mistakes by saying they don't get them all right (no kidding), or that there are so many people, it is hard to see, or "I just get general feelings, not specific facts." Browne, however, just plows right through and claims she is right, no matter what. For example, one caller from Japan perhaps tried to trick Browne; here is the exchange:

CALLER: I'd like to ask about my mother. We had some unresolved issues.

BROWNE: Yes. But I don't know if you could have had any resolved issues with your mother because she was so very difficult to deal with. And I'm not saying that to be cruel. So, you see, the thing that you got to realize is when somebody goes to the other side, everything is OK.

CALLER: But she's -- you can definitely see her on the other side?

BROWNE: Yes. Little. She's little.

CALLER: Yes, well, the last time I spoke to her, she was alive.

BROWNE: Yes, but see, I don't -- she's not alive now.

CALLER: She's dead.

BROWNE: Yes.

CALLER: You're telling me my mother has died?

BROWNE: Yes.

CALLER: You're sure about this?

BROWNE: I'm positive.

CALLER: OK. Well, I'll have to get back to you after I've called her.

BROWNE: All right.

Naturally, the caller was not allowed back on or did not have time to check and get back. Highly unlikely that the woman's mother actually died, though.

A classic trick is the old "he went quickly" routine. If the psychic gets information that would indicate the person might have died quickly, they venture that guess. But all too often, it was a lingering disease like cancer, and the situation deteriorates:

BROWNE: What I'm saying is, wasn't this a fast death? It looks like she went quick.

CALLER: She has cancer.

BROWNE: Yes, but what I'm saying is she went quick. She felt you holding her hand.

CALLER: I was not over there.

BROWNE: I don't know. She says she felt you holding her hand.

CALLER: I see. Okay. Okay.

KING: She's saying she went fast when she discovered the cancer, wasn't long before she died?

BROWNE: Right.

Nice save, Larry. Usually the psychic provides that rationalization, but Larry has been hosting them for so long, he knows the routine.

Here's one where Browne guessed wrong and simply plowed through:

CALLER: Is he with me, Sylvia?

BROWNE: Yes, honey. Did you know that he had a stroke?

CALLER: No. The doctor said that -- the paramedics said that it was a heart attack, and he went peacefully.

BROWNE: Yes, he did, but it was a stroke, though. But it doesn't matter. But he did go peacefully. He didn't know what hit him.

Or this classic of cover-up:

CALLER: I lost my father six years ago on the plane traveling to Europe. I'd like to know how he died, because we never had any explanation from the airline. I was left with my mom suffering from Alzheimer's. I'm doing his wish. I hope he's happy and he's protecting us.

BROWNE: Was your father -- had beautiful dark hair with some gray in it?

CALLER: Very blond.

BROWNE: No, no. This man that I see is dark. Dark haired. Because he comes and says he's a spokesperson.

So if the man she identifies is not the right one, he's a "spokesperson"--a variant on the "who else could possibly fit the description routine. But Browne takes it to extremes, telling people when her guesses miss that relatives are dead, houses should be vacated, careers should be changed--stuff that could really mess up people's lives if they take her seriously, as many clearly do. Normally I don't object to psychics who do their best to make their clients feel good, as part of a self-indulgent fantasy (I don't respect it, but that's their choice), but when a person like Browne tells a person that loved ones are dead or that they should change their lives because she can't do a cold read that well, it's kind of sickening.

King was helping her out, too. You could hear some callers pausing to think, trying their hardest to come up with some connection that could account for the guesses Browne was throwing out. But sometimes, even the most cooperative callers would get stumped into absolute silence, at which point Larry would jump in, throw Browne a softball ("So once they die, there's no pain?"), Browne would give a quick reply, then King would move on to the next caller. That happened quite a few times.

Here's a transcript of the show--you decide.

Again, if this were widely accepted as pure entertainment, it would be fine--but these people try to pass themselves off as the real deal, and though some people get comfort, others get confusion and sometimes life-altering bad advice. Not too funny.

Dude, You're Getting Spyware!

One of the last lectures I gave to my Introduction to Computers classes was on "Spam, Scams and Viruses," in which I quickly introduced the concept of adware and spyware. For those of you who do not know about these pests, adware and spyware are small, executable files (programs) which are stealthily installed on your computer when you install some freeware or shareware programs. You are not informed that this software is being installed or what it does, which is to monitor your computer use, collect information, send it back to advertisers, and display annoying ads on your computer--as if you don't get enough ads already. This software can take up bandwidth on your machine, and the worst of spyware can even read your keystrokes, collecting your passwords and even credit card numbers. Webopedia has a good explanation of the vermin.

My lecture was almost prophetic, as in the very next class, when I gave students a web page test, one student reported strange windows opening on her computer screen. I came over to take a look. She had not gone to any commercial sites, only the site I had made for the web page test--no ads there! But sure enough, three or four windows had opened, advertising pornography and other dubious things. I tried closing the windows, and (I should have expected it) when I did so, eight more windows popped up. Damn javascript. I had to move the poor student to another computer--thank goodness we don't fill up every station. On that particular station, someone must have installed shareware, and Bob's Your Uncle, there's the adware mucking things up. A few days later, another station got hit--a student said their computer had frozen, and when I went to look, there must have been twenty browser windows open. I'm not sure whether the adware was also installed on the second station, or if it spread through the network. Thankfully, the school had in any case planned to wipe the computers and re-install everything over the Christmas break.

Don't think that you're safe if porn ads don't overwhelm your desktop, though; some spyware just collects info on you, or does a more subtle job of presenting the ads. If you own a Windows PC, you might want to try the Spybot or Ad-Aware applications to clean your computer. KaZaA users should note that the official KaZaA app loads your computer up with ad/spyware, though they claim they avoid "spyware"--which could loosely be defined as only the most pernicious spyware, as some of the adware they install does indeed spy on you. And using one of the programs I suggested to get rid of the unwanted adware could disable KaZaA, which seems to rely on some of that junk. Better to switch to KaZaA Lite or Diet KaZaA, or try Shareza.

But be especially careful if you own a Dell, Dude. They're not gonna help. I started reading on various web pages that Dell had a policy in which they specifically tell their tech support people not to help their customers with spyware in any way, shape or form. Not only will they not tell you how to remove spyware, but their support staff is enjoined from even telling you about web sites that can help, or asides on personal accounts of what software they themselves use. Zip. Nada. I didn't fully buy this story, thinking that maybe somebody was taking something out of context, exaggerating, or that it was just a net rumor. But then I checked out Dell's support pages and found this. In case Dell wises up and removes the page at some point, this is part of what is on the page:

NOTICE: Use of spyware removal software may conflict with user license agreements of other applications installed on your system. Please consult your user license agreements for further information. Dell does not endorse the use of spyware removal software and cannot provide support on these products.

Spiffy, ain't it? Spyware is today usually classified as a kind of Trojan Horse, a virus, for crying out loud. They would sooner honor the lowlifes that flood your machine with malicious software than help you in the smallest way rid your machine of such garbage. What can you do? Read user reviews of shareware and freeware before you install. Read the EULA if you can suffer through it or decipher the legalese, and even then don't feel like you're safe--the vermin are still sometimes there anyway. So caveat emptor, let the buyer beware and all that.

And, by the way, I fully expect this post to get hit by blog comment spam. I have noticed that this spam inevitably shows up in comments on entries that mention spam and other such trash. Isn't commercialization grand? We're gonna have to find a new clubhouse.

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Note: Dell has, in the past day or two, edited the linked page. It no longer reads exactly the same. Text has been added to (a) rationalize the lack of support and (b) recommend one type of commercial spyware removal software.

NTT Doesn't Make It Easy

As part of trying to make my Internet connection better, I am trying to switch to another DSL provider.

My ISP has been AT&T, and they have been very good--they have been my ISP since I was on a dial-up connection back in '98. Up until now, I have used NTT Flets for the DSL connection, primarily because they were first into my area (I live in a relatively unknown town next to Tama), and I wanted to get away from ISDN as quickly as I could. But that also caused a problem.

NTT has always, or at least is seems, managed to jigger the setting up of systems so as to benefit themselves most, taking advantage of their position of advantage as the primary telephone company. When the new "MYLINE" service was set up, it was billed as a way of making things simpler--but to me, it seemed like it just made things more complex, and if one did not go through the process, NTT would collect you up as their customer by default. I am not certain of that, but that was my impression.

It is certainly my impression as far as DSL services are concerned. I have wanted to change DSL providers for some time, for several reasons. First, Flets does not provide some services as part of their overall package, such as IP Telephony. Also, I currently pay two fees, one to NTT, and one to AT&T; it would be substantially cheaper for me to consolidate those services and pay one company one fee.

So some time ago, almost one year before now, I started asking--and learned a disturbing fact. I could not switch DSL providers without having three weeks or more of interrupted service. The way NTT has set things up, I have to first end my service with them--and only after the service has ended may I apply for the new service (I have chosen KDDi for their English-language services). And it takes around three weeks, possibly a bit more, possibly a bit less, for the new service to be established.

The only logical reason for this gap is to assure that two companies do not provide DSL service at the same time. Even assuming that this is absolutely necessary, three weeks is an absurd length of time to require between services; most people would not wish to be relegated to dial-up service for the interval, and so would stay with NTT, which always has enjoyed the advantage of getting all the early adopters. Which, I presume, is NTT's intention.

I personally know someone who simply misled the providers, telling the new one that the prior DSL connection had been terminated when it had not been--and that person enjoyed only a day or two of broken service between them. So it is clearly possible, and the three weeks clearly not necessary. I wanted to follow this friend's example, but KDDi made it clear that they would have to actively check to see that the prior service had ended.

As it happens, I will be going back to the U.S. for almost three weeks this month, so that provides me with just the break I need. Still, I may have trouble getting reconnected when I come back--late on December 30th--with the holidays so close. But the service people at KDDi have been very good, the rep I spoke to spent a couple hours today helping me plan a way to set things up so there was the greatest chance of things running smoothly; he really went out of his way to help, which made me feel even better about going with that company--how a firm treats its clients has always been a big consideration for me in choosing whom to do business with.

So, with luck, I will not be cut off from high-speed service for long.

I should note here that DSL is improving here in Japan yet again: the old system of 1.5 Mbps, 8 Mbps and 12 Mbps that so far outstripped services in the U.S. is already outdated here. KDDi had even stopped giving their 24 Mbps service because now they have something faster. They offer two speeds: 26 Mbps, and 40 Mbps. Rather impressive speeds. I chose the 26 Mbps package for two reasons: first, as I live about 3 km (2 miles) from the telephone switching station, all speeds come out to about the same for me, just a few megabits per second. But more importantly, the 26 Mbps package provides a fixed IP Address (rather than a global one), making it easier for me to improve my chances at achieving easy voice chat with others. Both speeds have a total cost of about $35 per month, including DSL, ISP and modem/router rental.

Still waiting for vDSL so I can get higher speeds, but for the time being, this will do. Just hope it goes smoothly, and NTT doesn't find a way to muck things up....

An Apple on the Ginza

One of the first things one might do in visiting Tokyo is to visit the Ginza district. Made famous in the post-war years by U.S. military personnel doing their shopping and entertaining, the Ginza has today become a kind of upper-class shopping district. To me, this meant that it turned out to be kind of boring. Department stores and boutiques are not my kind of thing, really. There used to be a McDonald's when I first visited in 1983, but it was more or less banished for not being upscale enough (kind of like the Stanford Shopping Center has been trying to do to their McD's for a long time). For a while, there was a Mrs. Fields' Cookie shop there, and that brought me down from time to time. Otherwise, I just regarded it as another overrated, overrun, high-profile street.

But a few days ago a new shop appeared that will again bring me down to the area: an Apple Store.

Now, when I was born my family lived in Cupertino, and I have worked with Apple products since the Apple ][, the Apple ///, and the original Mac. So this store opening in Tokyo was a bit of fresh air--like some other reminders from home, like Costco. And I have visited Apple stores since the one at the Apple campus in Cupertino, and more recently the University Avenue store in Palo Alto.

This one beats them, flat out. It is an impressive sight.

First of all, they have location. The Ginza is not just upscale, it is very high-traffic. And somehow, Apple got a corner lot across from Matsuya Ginza, and kitty-corner to the Ginza Mitsukoshi, two famous department stores, landmarks on the Ginza. Their new building is an impressive structure with the white Apple logo emblazoned on the sides, as well as a rotating Apple logo on top. And it attracts a good number of visitors--the store was crowded in the mid- to late-afternoon.

Coming into the entrance on the first floor, you see something akin to many of the Apple stores, displays with all of Apple's major products right after the checkout machines (all iMacs, of course). And one of the first things you notice is the staff. Lots of them. I don't know if some Apple stores in the U.S. are like this, but I do know that it is very Japanese, to have so many salespeople walking around that even in a crowded store, you can easily and quickly find someone who is free to help you; this is typical of Japanese department stores in particular, and Apple did not miss the cue. People in black with Apple-logo shirts everywhere.

The next thing you note is that there seem to be some strange but alluring metal-walled Apple-logo spaces toward the back. I had to come up and look closer to see that they were elevators. Extremely nice elevators, with heavy, rimless glass doors--you could tell it was an original design. I commented on them to a staff member, and he replied, "yes, very expensive elevators." An interestingly candid comment there....

So I decided to take the elevator up to the fourth floor and then work my way down from there. (The fifth floor, the highest open to the public, is dedicated to Apple Studio lessons, the paid lessons for beginners, switchers, and artists.) The fourth floor is where they have the software and many of the third-party hardware products--for example, they have in stock many of the Belkin products, including the new iPod microphone and media reader. The software, as can be expected for Apple stores, is a good selection, but not great, and is priced at the high end. To be frank, I do my software shopping online, using the mail-order houses. Disappointingly, Apple did not provide educational pricing at the store, either--only at their online shop. A new policy, evidently, as I was able to buy Jaguar for Academic from Yodobashi Camera not too long ago.

In the middle of the fourth floor, there was a table for the kids, and very nicely set up, too. A low, round table equipped with CRT eMacs loaded with kids' software, with nice, modern-looking black ball chairs set around. Not too many kids in the joint, but they had found this place. A very nice touch.

Also on this floor is a bank of sixteen iMacs, with iSight and high-speed Internet connections, ready and available for anyone who wants to sit down for a spell and cruise the 'Net with them. Not many open spaces when I visited, but with enough patience you could find a seat and have some fun.

Also, this is the first floor where you notice windows (not Windows, thank goodness--though they do have Virtual PC). It kind of makes you wonder how the glare from the sunlight might affect viewing on the iMacs--I forgot to check for blinds (it was dark out). The second and third floors are windowless, the second housing the Genius Bar, and the third hosting the Apple theater. That's what leaves room on the outside for the giant Apple logo on the metallic side of the building.

Going downstairs, one finds something that seems very out of place for a shop: a theater. You see this from the elevator going up. It really looks like a movie theater, except for the size and the fact that there is a podium with a tech person giving explanations to the shows. Here is where they give the Introductory Presentations and the Workshops. The Presentations seem pretty much like commercials, introducing the lineup of Apple products. But the Workshops seem to be a very nice service, especially for newbies. The Workshops are free, from three to five of them given each day, each day having a theme (e.g., movies, music, photos). If you want more advanced lessons, you have to pay for the Studio Series.

One flight down from that is the Genius bar, with more Apple and some third-party products lined up (mostly iPods and Digital video equipment, cameras and camcorders). In the middle, there is a railed terrace looking down on the first floor. And to the back, the bar. I stopped there for some time, getting help (in English) for a few issues on my Mac. Consider it a free support center--if you can haul your computer down there, they will look at it and try to help you figure out your problem with it. A lot of people were bringing their laptops in and having them looked at. Come to think of it, I forgot to ask if they could give me some footpads for my Powerbook--one of them has gone missing....

As it turned out, I didn't get too many actual answers. They had never heard of my problem with browsing networks before (sometimes shared folders, which should appear as network-globes-in-a-glass-box icons, instead show up as plain folders with the same names, but empty), nor could they explain why some of my students' USB Flash memory sticks were not showing up on my Mac's desktop. But the Genius helping me did give me some ideas about how to test out why my father in the S.F. Bay Area and I can't get a voice chat going, so it wasn't a complete wash.

I've never been too excited by Apple stores in the past, as they tend to have sparse merchandise and relatively high prices for third-party products, but the Genius Bar and the available accessories in the Ginza store will certainly bring me back. It is an excellent store; I recommend anyone in the Tokyo area to pay it a visit when you have the chance.

Catching Saddam

Josh Marshall reports that Republican Senator Ray LaHood from Illinois is claiming that we are "this close" to bagging Saddam, and that he knows something that we don't.

Frankly, I'll believe it when I see it. It's not like this hasn't happened before. Republicans have tried to report that we're "this close" to various breakthroughs in Iraq, and they have always amounted to nothing. Take, for example, Republican Senators in July claiming that we had found "solid evidence" of WMD in Iraq, just wait and see. We waited and saw. Nothing. Then, a bit more than a month later, right-wing pundit Bob Novak assured us that we had proof of WMD, and Bush was just waiting till mid-September when he had even more info and could wow us all the more. Guess what. Nothing, squared.

So I am not too optimistic here. In related news, CNN reported that Izzat Ibrahim, Saddam's right-hand man, was captured--but they withdrew the story, and just a few minutes ago, the story broke that we don't have him. I think people's desire to see progress in Iraq is making them a bit too quick to assume that something is about to happen there--aside from the inevitable downward slide into an even stickier quagmire as a bad situation steadily becomes far, far worse.

iPod Article

The good people at Mac Rumors (the best Apple rumor site, IMO) pointed out an excellent article in the New York Times Magazine on the iPod. The article speaks to both the commercial success of the iPod as well as its cultural impact. A very interesting read.

I should also note here that if you have been exposed to the Neistat Brothers' film, "iPod's Dirty Secret" (in which they play a recorded support call--possibly illegal--and show themselves spray-painting an untrue and anti-Apple stencil over posted iPod ads), keep in mind that these guys didn't do their homework. After 18 months of very heavy use, their iPod's battery drained out. After a single call to a Mac support person who turned out not to know all his stuff (hardly a new phenomena in the support industry), the Neistats concluded that (a) the iPod's battery never lasts longer than 18 months, (b) it is not replaceable, and (c) you could only get a functioning iPod again by either paying Apple $255 or simply buying a new iPod, which they did.

In fact, the iPod's battery lasts longer than that in most cases, even with heavy use; they just got a shorter-lived one. Many iPod users with the original 2-year-old iPod models are still reporting that their battery lasts 8 hours after that much time of normal use. Second, the battery is in fact replaceable, previously with third-party battery replacement kits costing as little as $50, and now through Apple itself.

Now that their errors have been pointed out after 50,000 people saw their movie, they belatedly posted that they tried a third-party battery (after their movie suggested no such thing existed), but they claim that it did not work--which tells as to how well one should research any third-party product, looking for reviews and user comments on which was best and how to install it. They also are now taking credit for providing a solution, while all they really did (at least, it appears they did--post hoc ergo propter hoc) was prompt Apple to provide battery replacement of their own, for (of course) a higher price than the third-party dealers. The Neistats still offer up their anti-Apple movie, now calling it a "documentation of our experience"--that note buried in a link.

November Stats

Well, we didn't get as high numbers as expected, but the numbers for people visiting the site were still good. Broke 9000 different visits, and will top out at maybe 4700 unique visitors, with an average of 300 visits per day. Not bad, again considering the modest expectations from the start of the site. Overall, either the site's growth is slowing down, or this month was a blip. If the former, the numbers could go anywhere; if the latter, then I'm on target for 10,000 unique visitors by next June. Seeing as how in early October I predicted 4000 monthly visitors by year's end, I tend to be hopeful.

3410 visits were from search engines, 780 of them looking for something on the Matrix, about another 500 looking for information on Panther, OS X 10.3 for the Mac. The No. 1 site for linked references was this one, the name of which I'd rather not mention directly; after that, the blog tracking sites, with some kind of family tree site which apparently linked in to see the hamster movie.

The number one page people visited was the Spoiler Review for Matrix: Reloaded(640 visits), followed closely by the perennial favorite, the entry on Eyelid Twitching (400 visits--I've come to accept my fame). After that is my review of Panther (also 400), and then the Spoiler Review for Matrix: Revolutions (360 views). The Great Chicken Struggle, a movie of my hamster vying to get a chicken leg bone into her cage, was downloaded 112 times.

Most visitors came from the U.S., and next Japan. As usual, someone in Estonia looks in from time to time, as do a few hardy followers from Israel, Finland, Singapore and Belgium, along with about 30 other nations. The average visitor stays for at least seven and a half minutes. Most visitors use Windows and MS Internet Explorer (can't win 'em all).

And by the way, if your IP Address is 82.36.128.40, 219.113.201.110, or 66.151.128.23, then let me know why you're visiting so much!