jimmygo.com

How did this happen? I just found out today that Anheuser-Busch has stopped production of Tilt. What a tragedy! This fine American product didn’t flop because people don’t like their product, oh no, they went under because a wave of babies used their lawyers to threaten them to stop production.

Armed with only weak statistics funded by partisan organizations (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse, Alcoholism and the Marin Institute), these no-life-crybabies were able to get Busch fold on its product. Now jointogether.org is turning its baby head towards Miller Brewing Company.  They are trying to use a grass roots campaign to force Miller Brewing Company to stop making Sparks.

Where should I even start with this one?  How about the fact that even the partisan reports are completely inconclusive, if not downright laughable. The two studies touted here seem to be the best arguments that money can buy, and even they are weak.  Lets look at the one by Wake Forest University.  They show a correlation between drinking caffeinated beverages and increased injuries. That’s right - a correlation, not causation. This while their summary admits “Greek society member[s]… [are] significantly more likely to consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks.”  Why not draw a the correlation between “Greek society” and alcohol abuse then? Why not show a correlation between inexperienced young drinkers and injuries? Why must your report imply that caffeine + alcohol = bad?  Oh yeah - because you were bought and paid for by a partisan organization.  Way to whore yourself out Wake Forest.

Next is this partisan piece of crap excuse for a scientific study that admits on page two that it can’t even be shown that caffeinated alcoholic drinks are necessarily bad for you.  The best they can come up with is “health researchers agree that caffeine consumption can have adverse health consequences, particularly at high doses”.  That’s it?  High doses of caffeine are bad for me?  Why are we focusing on Miller and Busch then?  Why not steer your angry mob towards Starbucks or Folgers?  If caffeine is bad then those bastards must be the devil incarnate!

Listen up you baby anti-alcohol organizations. If you want to get people to stop drinking alcopop, then convince us that it is bad for us.  You aren’t going to get caffiene off the market, and you aren’t going to get alcohol off the market.  People are going to continue to mix their own caffinated beverages with or without the relatively weaker caffeinated beers. The problem with drinking in the US isn’t that there is alcohol mixed with caffeine in some drinks.  The problem is that we don’t train people to consume alcohol in normal social settings.  Kids don’t get experienced with drinking until they are away from the safety and comfort of their homes. So yes, when exposed to a taboo altered state for the first time away from role models, kids do tend to hurt themselves.  Kids are going to get exposed eventually.  Instead of putting on blinders and blaming a particular drink, why not realize that other countries have different practices and better results than we do.  Why not get your baby heads out of the sand and start pushing an agenda that is show to be effective?  Don’t you have anything better to do with your boring lives then try to control the lives of others?  Jeez, have a Sparks - it may help.

I started taking classes this summer in potential pursuit of a career change.  Luck of all lucks - the school I signed up for is less than a tenth of a mile from where I work!  If not for a building in the line of sight I could easily look from my desk to the school.  How convenient! I can just leave my car in one spot and walk to and from school!

Oh - but wouldn’t you know it?  I live in a state (and a nation) that has a 25% obesity rate.  You can’t just walk the shortest distance to the place you want to go.  Check out this (Google) map:

I have to go from point A to point B, but there is a fence in the way!  The red line here depicts the fence. This fence doesn’t even enclose anything! If someone wants to get from one side to the other they simply have to walk around it.  What is the point of a barrier that someone can simply walk around? I imagine the fence is there so that people don’t use the residential parking lot as a through way… maybe without a fence a random passerby could get hurt and start a lawsuit?  Maybe a potential criminal sees the fence and realizes that the getaway route is forced onto a main road? These are the only reasons I can fathom and both are quite lame. The fence is sure to hurt everyday pedestrians - the sort of thing that makes Americans want to drive their cars a very short distance to the detriment of our health, environment, and economy.

I still walk it - the long way around is only 1.5 miles round trip. But a relatively pleasant very short walk has been replaced  by a longer one with increased traffic that skirts a bottling factory.

Almost 100 people were arrested for dealing drugs at San Diego State University this week. My initial reaction: who the hell cares? I mean - who cares that the kids were selling drugs? Were they hurting you? No - not at all. These kids aren’t suspected of doing anything except selling something in a market where there is clearly a demand. They were about to become regular contributors to society and now they are going to be major drains. Why should we go to the trouble of putting these kids in jail for years?

But they preyed on innocent college kids! Preyed my ass! If Johnny Sophomore wants to take drugs at the big drugs party and he buys some from the local frat guy - is Johnny a victim? Absolutely not. There are no victims here: dealing drugs is truly a victimless crime.

There are victims! The investigation started because some kid died! Kids die at my alma mater almost every year from some form of alcohol overdose. Hell, a kid at my school died in a hazing incident when he was held in a running dryer. No one wants to ban alcohol or dryers! People do stupid things - especially when those things are new and exciting. I think it is terrible that someone overdosed, but unless he was held down and cocaine was funneled into his nose - he wasn’t a victim of the people who are being charged today. People make a personal decision to use drugs.

But these guys had guns! Yeah they had guns, they have to do business with gang members to get their goods! Most regular businesses don’t need guns because the police protect them. Drug dealers are just following the laws of supply and demand - not hurting anyone, but yet they are vilified and targeted by the government in our country. Shunned by the government, drug dealers have to protect themselves from the seedy elements that materialize when markets are forced underground. The fact that they had guns is irrelevant. It’s a bit scary, but it is irrelevant.

Ask yourself if you think drugs are bad. I know they are against the law, but ask yourself whether or not you truly think that they should be. More than 5% of people in the USA use some form of illegal drugs. Think about what that means - you encounter people EVERY DAY that use drugs. Do you care? Do they bother you? Do you think they should lose their jobs and become burdens of the state? If you even notice a junkie you probably have about the same level of reaction as when you encounter an alcoholic. Drugs in and of themselves do no harm except directly to the people who choose to take them. Now, I will allow that drug users sometimes commit crimes, but that pushes this discussion into the realm of real crime where there is a real victim.

If you keep your focus squarely on selling and taking drugs, I think that any rational person has to admit that dealing drugs is a victimless crime. If you are like most people and come to this same rational conclusion, why not ask your elected officials to quit wasting your money on drug enforcement? It only takes a few minutes, and if enough of us do it we might be able to let our cops focus on more important things. Also, when the topic of drugs comes up - don’t be shy about asking people’s opinions. You’ll find that most people don’t care about drug use, but they care about associated crime. Remember that prohibition brought gangs into alcohol distribution. This isn’t a matter of morales or wanting to use drugs yourself, but rather about saving our country from legislating itself into the toilet.

Thoughts? No registration necessary to comment.

I saw this post on Slashdot today and it got me thinking about how our police are dispatched. The article was about randomly assigning police in airports so that they are unpredictable. That’s all well and good in the airport, but how about non-airport cops that we encounter every day? I think their actions should mostly be directed by public will.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a system where we could have a dialog of sorts with the police? What if we had a national database (like this one or this one) that displayed all crimes, accidents, and public complaints. If commonly used by all police forces, a popular nationwide system like this could have many benefits:

1. The police could more effectively direct their efforts. The police would have the times and locations of all major crimes in recent history. They could direct the bulk of their actions to try to prevent similar crimes in the future.
2. Citizens could help direct the actions of the police. I can only assume that our local police set up speed traps and the like because they are trying to keep us safe. As it is, there is no good way for a municipality to tell the police where the trouble spots are though - so the police do the best they can with random speed traps. A better method would be to have complaints collected, aggregated, and available for all to see. If there are complaints of loitering on certain streets, or complaints of speeding at certain times in certain areas then the police can address those complaints specifically and feel justified in doing so. If there are no complaints in a given area than the police can focus their efforts elsewhere without having to worry about neglecting neighborhoods.
3. Police could show if they are effective. By having all of the data readily available police forces could see how they perform over time and compare themselves with other jurisdictions.
4. Police could start using tactics other than tickets. If I get a ticket right now I just get mad at the police and resolve to watch out more diligently, I may even be a worse driver because of it. A sign telling me that my neighbors are scared by speeders, or a letter to me saying that 14 people said my aggressive driving scared them is more of a wake-up call than a ticket will ever be (and it is easier/cheaper for the police to arrange).
5. Police could spend time doing other things. In an area where there have been no (or very few) recent crimes, accidents, or complaints - the police could focus part time on training, community outreach, or physical fitness. Areas that are functioning smoothly shouldn’t just have officers randomly enforce laws. I would argue that it would be better overall if the police are spending time with future potential hooligans. The police need not be the stoic strangers of a neighborhood - I say the more they get out in the community and get to know people the better.
6. Citizens could step in. People could check the database themselves and respond to their own problems. If there are complaints of loitering on a certain street, the loiterers may not even be aware of the problem; a complaint database could make them realize that they are a problem and respond by being friendly or moving to a more appropriate location, etc. If parents are concerned with speeders they could band together to educate the speeders in their neighborhood; some people like driving fast, but most will slow down if they realize they are terrifying all of the parents and pet owners around them.

At the end of the day we all want to be respectful of each other and go about our lives safely. As it is though there is really an “us versus them” attitude when it comes to police in this country, but if you think about it they are tasked with a really tricky goal - and a good means of community communication would allow them to do their jobs much more effectively. Anyone who operates any sort of system will tell you that communication and feedback are crucial to make systems operate better - but our police forces have been using the same community feedback mechanism for the past 100 years. It could be time for a change.

OK.  They don’t really suck all that much - but they do suck at least a little.  Let me tell you how I know.

I have been using HostMoster.com as my hosting service for about 3 months now.  The main reason I switched to them is that they have a high storage/transfer ceiling, and their Terms of Service seemed like they would work for me.  Specifically, I wanted to host my music on a web server so that I could stream it to myself wherever I was (home, work, on the road, etc).  The only mention of CopyRight in their ToS said that “HostMonster.com is required by law to remove or block access to content appearing on or through the Services upon receipt of proper notice of copyright infringement”.

No problem, right?  So long as I password protect any music I post to my public folders, they won’t receive a notice of copyright infringement and everyone wins.  So I signed up for a two year contract  and started uploading.  One week later my site gets shut down for ToS violation.  A phone call reveals that it was for my music directory.  Why?  The law.  What law? They don’t know.  So even though they never received a notice of copyright infringement, they took my sight down and said that I violated the ToS.

So I had a choice - I could delete my music from their servers or I could pay for (but not use) my web host.  I decided to go the easy route and ask for a follow up email with details as to why my site got deactivated.  I deleted my music, my site was reactivated… but no explanation as to how I broke the law ever came.

I have since sent a follow up email, but still no response.  My mind is starting to think of creative ways to get their attention.  More to follow

I first read about the OpenMoko a little more than a year ago - but couldn’t justify the expense until my current contract with Verizon Wireless ran out (another motivator is that my current phone can’t hold a charge for more than 10 seconds).  Well - my contract is up now and I figured that I would be buying an OpenMoko and getting a new service provider as planned (Verizon is anti-consumer rights).

I went to their site, credit card in hand, only to find out that the OpenMoko is STILL under developer’s preview.  I could probably buy one and install a different OS, but I really do need a phone in my day to day life so I can’t afford to buy one and hope.  Tinkering is fun and all, but $300 is a lot to pay to not have a phone.

So today I am on the market for both a new service provider and a new phone.  I’m a wireless company’s wet dream.  I’m an open minded 20 something male with money to spend and only a vague idea of what I want.  I started out at wirelessadvisor.com which told me that options in my area are basically: Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and Nextel.  I already have Verizon, so I’ll be staying with them unless any of the other providers can beat them.  The strongest motivating factor of staying with Verizon is that I am done with my contract with them - I don’t like their take on open technology, but I do like the fact that staying put leaves me with options in the future (in that I can drop them whenever I want).

T-Mobile. You have to start somewhere, right? I went straight to their plans page which immediately reminded me why I loathe phone companies so much.  Before I even see any of the price/minute plans I see that every one of their plans requires a two-year contract.  Every single one!  I don’t want to marry the bastards!  I can’t commit to whose house I’m watching the football game at this weekend - how can I be expected to commit to a company that I already hate?  Next!

AT&T.  I thought AT&T was gone… no?  Didn’t they get merged away? I could check - but I really don’t care.  A little digging shows that all the plans force a 2 year contract down your throat.  Maybe this is going to be a recurring theme?  Incidentally - I checked out the prepaid options… but that would just be too much to keep track of.  A per minute and per day fee with minute packages that expire periodically is just too much to keep track of.

Sprint.  One or Two year contracts.   Blah.

Nextel.  Turns out that Nextel and Sprint have merged.  I knew I heard about a merger somewhere.

I may be a very weird excerpt of the population, but I hate signing exclusive service contracts.  A contract to me says: “we can’t compete on our own merits, so we bribe you in the door and lock it behind you.”  Why trap someone in a plan they don’t like.  All of us have heard someone griping about their contract and counting down the days until it expired.  Why would a company want a customer pumping out all that bad publicity?  Just let people leave if they want - they will at least respect you for that.  Make your income stream dependent on quality services and fair prices and you will get customers… until someone does that I’m keeping my options open.

Today we started working on Charles Papazian’s “Holiday Brew” (from the “The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing”). Making the beer was only slightly more difficult than making the wine - essentially just make a sweet tea from hops and what not (also has cinnamon and ginger). Then filter the junk out into a 5 gallon bucket.

I still don’t have a good sense for what each ingredient does and how it would taste different if I changed things, but I think that will come with time. Probably more important is that I just get the hang of the process.

PA is at 6.5%

26 Nov 2007 Update: Checked PA: .5%. Still bubbling slowly.

27 Nov 2007 Update: Racked into a 5 gallon carboy.

12 Dec 2007 Update: Bottled. Tastes pretty good when warm & flat… pretty excited to see the carbonated & chilled version.

I haven’t picked a name for our first batch of wine yet.  Given the more-than-moderate mess ups that went down it wouldn’t be a surprise if this one is a blunder.

OK - I made the recipe labeled “Sal’s Blueberry Wine” in Terry Garey’s “The Joy of Home Winemaking” (page 90).   We got frozen blueberries and went for three times what the recipe called for (so three gallons).

Everything went fine.  Boiled the sugar and water.  Mashed the berries in a nylon bag (in the primary fermenter - a 5 gal bucket).  Put the hot sugar water with the berry bag.  Then added remaining water.  Acid, tanin, yeast nutrient, and Campden (when the temp dropped)… and so on.

This all went according to plan except… after I added the Campden tablet I checked the PA which was around 11%.  My yeast is supposedly lively until 14% alcohol so I decided to kick things up a notch.  I made some more simple syrup and added it the the mix.  Still only around 11%.  So I decided to put in the rest of my sugar (total of ten pounds when the recipe called for 7.5).  At this point I checked the PA, but accidentally read the balling scale - which was around 24 Brix or 13.5% PA.  Having misread the scale, I decided I had to dilute the mixture… only after adding water did I realize that I had misread the hydrometer and that it was actually perfect before I screwed up.

Long story summarized: after adding all that sugar/water I have 5 gallons worth of wine fermenting but I only put in 3 gallons worth of blueberries (and chemicals).  We’ll see how this turn out… but I won’t be surprised if it is a blueberry blunder.

26 Nov 2007 Update: Took out the berries.  PA is to zero.  The fermentation never got violent… it is still just lightly bubbling.  I may have caused this by stirring the yeast in instead of just sprinkling it on the top.

28 Nov 2007 Update:  Racked the wine into a 3 gallon carboy and two one gallon jugs.  Had to add almost a quart of water to top off the last jug.

The Gainesville gang is getting together for New Years.  In our preparatory blog all the guys were asking all the other guys to make some sort of beer.  They all assumed that I didn’t have the capability to make wine too… their assumption was correct - until today!!  For my birthday Jenn got me the necessary goods to get to brewing.

I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, so I think I am going to start with a batch of wine this weekend and hope it can be palletable by New Years.

Jenn and I went to Mexico a little while ago. It was a great trip that consisted mostly of sitting on beaches, drinking, and visiting Mayan Ruins (Tulum, Coba, & Chitzen Itza). We mostly stayed at the beach in Tulum at cabanas that ranged in price from $15 USD (if you have your own hammock) to $20USD (Low season prices October).

The area has grown a LOT since I last drove through in December 2003. You can really see the effects that the cruise lines bring with them (there is now a Wal-Mart in Playa del Carmen). I suppose this influx of money is good for the area’s population, but it is a bit disheartening to see the quiet easy area turn into another Cancun. That’s the way of the world though.

Incidentally, there used to be a little cabana place just south of the military area (or whatever it is) that is south of the Tulum ruins. As of October 2007, these (along with the associated restaurant on the hill) have been wiped out - and according to the man that worked there there weren’t any plans to rebuild. This is really a bummer because those particular cabanas attracted a really neat sort of traveler. Ahh well - at least I have fond memories.

As for this trip - it was really a good time. Very relaxing. Jenn got to practice her Spanish… which was particularly fun for me because she is not at all shy about trying. In the smaller towns the locals were amazingly patient and would help her along with a smile. We made it a point to get to the ruins that we visited before anyone from the cruise lines could get there (generally 0800 is when they open), really magical when you are the only one there.

I have posted some of the pictures we have posted at my Picasa site.