Massive apologies

I'm really sorry if I worried anybody by not posting for so long.  I totally haven't meant to ignore you guys who asked about me, but circumstances have kind of conspired against me.  I've been out of town, dealing with a changed work/life situation and fighting a losing battle with my home computer (its for all intents and purposes dead and I don't know why).  All of which has meant I haven't been updating here or even able to check my email except sporadically. 

Long story short:  I'm not dead and I'm really sorry if I worried anybody.

Scourge of the seas

With the world's economy looking grim, its nice to know that all of us could still fulfill a common childhood dream and run off to be a pirate.  Apparently, piracy isn't just for the Carribean anymore, and in addition to all the booty you sieze raiding vessels off the coast of Somalia, you get even more cash by ransoming the scurvy landlubbing dogs you capture. 

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So I've already bought the mandatory parrot and a wooden leg.  Plus I'm already really good at saying "Arrggh".  With any luck,  next week I'll be somewhere in the Gulf of Aden looking to sign on with an interepid crew of pirates.   I'm sure once they see I was committed enough to provide my own parrot, plenty of crews will welcome me with open arms and not kill me at all.

Shields!

British researches have developed a low-power, compact system capable of shielding a spacecraft from radiation and solar storms.

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Bittersweet...maybe

I'm very happy that Obama won.  Its wonderful, historic and a great opportunity to finally confront some of the major issues facing this country.

However, I'm more than a little upset that as of right now it looks like as of tomorrow I will officially be a second-class citizen in my home state of California.  Proposition 8 has over 50% of the vote right now....more like almost 56% of the vote the last time I checked.  I'm going to stop paying attention now and find out which way if finally ends up tomorrow.

For the record, one of the founding principles of this nation was the protection of the rights of the minority against the tyranny of the majority.  We are guaranteed equal protection under the law.  The idea that my basic civil rights and that fundametal guarantee of equal protection  were subject to a general election vote flies in the face of everything this country is supposed to stand for.  And if the worst happens and this state does amend its constitution to enshrine inequality, I only hope the people who have pushed this through stop and think for a minute about what they've done.  What can be done to one group can be done to another, and when you start singling out who is and who is not worthy of equal rights, you could easily be next in line.

With luck tomorrow morning this post will be irrelevant...but its not looking good.

Civic duty!




Well, alea jacta est as it were.  The ballot is in the box, and I was really encouraged to see a line at my polling place.  I've been voting there for years and I've never had to wait in line once, but this morning people were wrapped around the building waiting for their turn.

We'll see what happens, but I'm hoping the polls will have been right for once.  I considered voting the opposite of how I actually want things to go to try and fake out my electoral curse.  I've never voted for the winning candidate ever in a Presidential election.  But in the end I figured if I tried that fate would probably punish me ironically by having my one vote be the one that sent McCain over the top (of course here in California that's not going to be a problem).

So, if you haven't voted yet, get out and cast your ballot (unless you're either voting for McCain or Yes on Prop H8...then stay home).

Surprise, surprise, surprise

I think we all saw this coming.

"U.S. banks getting more than $163 billion from the Treasury Department for new lending are on pace to pay more than half of that sum to their shareholders, with government permission, over the next three years."

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