I Dream Awake

I used to play here with my father when I was tiny. Glad to see it still standing.

Most of the rest of the playgrounds around the city have been torn up and redesigned a few times over since then. Some of the new ones are great and work for kids of all ages. But these old splinter-givers have mostly been replaced by boring, too-safe-for-fun, plastic. I hope this old thing keeps giving kids a place to have just the right balance between fun and learning how to take care of themselves for a long time to come.

In love with the idea of electric cars? Think they are a real solution with today’s technology (or just a tiny bit of investment in new technology) and their widespread use is being supressed by a nefarious cabal? Read on…

Electric cars do not have sufficient range to be the practical, versatile, every day car most people want.

They don’t have range because they operate on batteries — those mysterious sealed devices that convert chemicals into stored electrical energy. And batteries can’t store enough energy to keep an EV going more than 50 or 60 miles, or in rare cases (with experienced drivers and the latest and very expensive nickel-metal-hydride battery packs) 150 miles, before they have to be recharged.

Put it this way. I can drive my wife’s big Lexus 55 miles on two gallons (about 16 pounds) of gasoline that cost me six bucks. An electric car like the one featured here could travel the same distance by exhausting its 1000-pound battery pack (lead-acid, costing $2000) which would then have to be recharged. The recharging would take about four hours. I could replace the two gallons of gasoline in about 30 seconds, but I wouldn’t have to because my wife’s car can easily go another 450 highway cruising miles on a tank of gas.

Sure, with billions of dollars in additional investment and another decade or four we could *maybe* see EVs that are finally viable. But if we are going to spend the money and take the time anyway, isn’t hydrogen a much better choice? In the meantime oil is where it’s at. We can diversify with ethanol and other alternatives at the margins, and can get more bang for our 3+ bucks a gallon by using hybrid vehicles, but oil will be around until hydrogen takes over.

With all of the debates I’ve heard and been involved in between those in favor and against the Iraq war, almost everyone who has brought up the WMD angle has… struggled… with just what they are talking about. It seems pretty clear to me that there is a big gap between the reality of what WMD are and the most common understanding of them. These “thoughts of a freelance theorist” I read earlier today do a better job with wording what that gap is made of than all of the experts, pundits, journalists, etc, I’ve listened to and argued with put together. It’s simple and to the point:

In Lord of Rings, the plot revolves around an attempt by all parties to control Sauron’s ring of power. The ring is an item unique in all the world. Whomever controls that one item rules the world.

This plot device of unique item is fairly common in literature and movies. Hitchcock called it a McGuffin. Every character has to be looking for that unique item.

It’s not just fantasy items like magic rings and swords that get that treatment. Technology does to. Most James Bond movies feature some piece of technology so unique that control of it will lead to world domination.

All this would just be of interest to students of fictions except that for a large section of the population their gut feel for how technology actually works comes from works of fiction. Most people in the contemporary world have no direct experience with researching, creating or manufacturing actual technology. They may use it but they don’t understand how it comes to be. It is very easy for people to think of technological items like nuclear reactors or computers in the same way they see them portrayed in the movies.

It’s very clear from reading the ongoing debate about the extent of Saddam’s WMD’s that most people have absolutely no idea of the technological issues involved. Most people, even major politicians and media figures talk about WMDs as if they were McGuffins. They act as if we expected to find a giant throbbing orb in an underground base under Baghdad that had WMD written on it. They think that WMD’s were discrete objects or things that could be located and controlled.

Technology doesn’t work like that.

There is more, of course.

Now I don’t expect anyone to really change their mind based on a bit of writing like that. Anyone can put a bunch of words together and publish them. That’s the beauty of instant publishing. Whether the thoughts behind the words are brilliant or worthless pulp is up to the reader to figure out. But for anyone that is still open to examining their own assumptions, I think the way this freelance theorist is looking at the common misunderstandings about WMD is one step in the right direction.

Was just at the Shake Shack earlier tonight, in a rush from picking someone up at Newark Airport, and those s.o.b’s didn’t give me my burger! We ordered two Shacks and two Double Shacks (for 4 of us total) and they only put 3 burgers in the bag. Of course since we were already running late and jumped right in a cab heading up to Grand Central (total ride time: less than 2 mins!!!) no one checked in the bag to see if they were all there. Ooops!

Oh well.. we shared the ones we had and it was all it’s usual goodness anyway.

Ah, but this might explain why one of the burgers went missing:

As you can plainly see, the Shack doesn’t exist. Crafty food service employees, aren’t they?

I’ve been a strong supporter of Moynihan station for a very longtime. Back when he was still alive, was my favorite Senator, and the station didn’t yet share his name, in fact. If this is what it takes to get it done, I’m all for it:

Not only would Mr. Roth build Moynihan Station, but he would remake the cramped and dreary Pennsylvania Station itself, turning it into a monumental gateway to New York under a sweeping glass canopy.

The Garden would move a block west to the rear of the Farley building, allowing Mr. Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, and his partner, Stephen M. Ross, the chairman of Related Companies, to build a commercial complex on top of Penn Station akin to Rockefeller Center, with five towers and seven million square feet of office space, apartments and stores.

Just don’t get rid of the intermodal hall. That’s the whole game for me.

That pretty much sums it up.

It’s really starting to seem like the Bush admin has totally screwed something up. It’s not what everyone thought. It’s not that there were no WMD. Looks like there was quite a bit. But no, what they’ve screwed up is the entire search for WMD after the war AND the media war over the war.

I think it’s important to put this report in the context of the WMD discussion. Everyone knows, and has agreed, that there was WMD in Iraq prior to the Gulf War, the first Gulf War. He used weapons of mass destruction extensively, killing thousands of his own people and thousands of Iranians.

From the Kay report and the Duelfer report, the conclusions that they reached indicated that during that period of time from the Gulf War to Operation Iraqi Freedom, there was evidence of continuing research and development of WMD, an ongoing effort with various kinds of chemicals, research programs and those types of things.

The piece that still remains unanswered, or remained unanswered, was that piece of exactly what, other than the programs, what existed in Iraq in 2003?

The Iraqi Survey Group, or the impression that the Iraqi Survey Group left with the American people was they didn’t find anything.

The report that Rick and I reference — and I’ll have to tell you that I’m disappointed in the summary that was provided for us in an unclassified version from the intelligence community because I think you lose some of the context of exactly what Rick and I and others on the committee have seen from that report.

But this says: Weapons have been discovered; more weapons exist. And they state that Iraq was not a WMD-free zone, that there are continuing threats from the materials that are or may still be in Iraq.

And I think what that points out to us — and remember, the Iraq Survey Group was in Iraq for about 16 months, employing up 1,700 people. They didn’t find many chemical weapons.

And since that period of time, we have found hundreds. This assessment says more exist. And I think what that points out is that there’s still a lot about Iraq that we don’t fully understand.

The Iraq Survey Group suspended field visits five months after they were there. So they stopped field visits in October of 2003. So what we’re now finding are our troops stumbling across these as they go into Iraq.

The full-blown effort to discover these caches of chemical weapons stopped a year and a half ago. And this is the kind of stuff that we are still finding.

I’ll wait to see what comes of all of this. But damn, if the administration did such a bad job using any of this in the war of opinion over the war someone really, massively screwed up.

Problem is the anti-war side can’t claim credit because it discredits everything they’ve said about WMD and other conventional wisdom about Iraq. But supporters of the war can’t criticize the admin as much as seems deserved for this because it will just be used to undermine Bush and co. in their continued war efforts. It looks like everyone is wrong about something and everyone is screwed.

Sitting on all of this documentation that actually works in their favor — and even more importantly in America’s favor — makes absolutely no sense. At this point my reaction is a big WTF???!?!!?!?!

The EFF is hoping consumers who care about their own digital rights will get animated against attempts by the RIAA and MPAA to give the government terrible superpowers:

Another great visual event by way of Gothamist.

It’s hard to believe but Jersey really can be a nice place to look at… from a distance… as long as the view comes from standing firmly in NYC. Gothamist has the video:

Since I’ve been a visual food addict all of my life, this is something I’m going to be doing a lot of. Every single mouthwateringly delicious bit of food photography I come across will find it’s way here, and fast.

To start it off, I found this in the Eater Food Pool (which I should probably join, along with Curbed, Gothamist and New York City Photobloggers):

I’ve passed by Dinosaur BBQ on my way to Fairway Uptown more times than I remember. If this shot of the food there is at all an indicative sample, it might start to be me passing by Fairway Uptown on the way to Dinosaur from now on.

An explosive and lengthy document has been released and translated describing the relationship betweem Saddam’s Iraq and the Taliban. It is a must read for anyone willing to have their views about everything we’ve thought we’ve known shaken up hard.

I’ve thought for a long time now that one massive failure on the part of the Bush Administration has been sitting on the millions of documents that have gone untranslated since their capture during the fall of Saddam’s regime. Many documents were translated right away to be sure, but the vast majority went unreleased and untranslated for lack of personnel dedicated to the task. Bush and his war cabinet should have been front and center from day 1 hammering away at how important a job getting a full and immediate translation of all of the documents recovered was in what has been essentially the first full blown information age war. They should have demanded from Congress the funds to make it happen, trumpeted loudly educational incentives for students who dedicate themselves to the study of languages and cultures most important to our current conflicts, and pressured the Pentagon to do in 2003 what they finally did just recently: Release large amounts of the untranslated documents so that the general American public can engage in their translation directly. No matter what one’s position on the war itself might be, I think everyone should be in agreement in criticisng the administration on this one point.

Whether they are winning the political and military war in Iraq itself or not is up for what is a far too often bitter debate, but it is clear to me that they have totally blown the media war about the war.

Ok, so I’ve figured out I like Doctor Who. A lot.

Now I have to catch up on all the episodes I’ve missed. It’s going to be a long summer… But at least I have something to keep me entertained:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/news/radiophonatron.shtml

Eh, this is lame. It needs better voiceover acting, a much longer script, and snappier writing. Nice try though.

Ok, now the Flickr pics in the sidebar are stalling the load of the site randomly. I have to head out for a while, but when I get back I’ll try to get that fixed also.

Not sure why, but it seems people are having a problem posting comments. Will get to work on it right away.

Update #1: Ok, I tried registering for a comment account in another browser… Everything seemed to work ok with that, but I’m still waiting for the registration info (including password) to show up in the email account I used. Taking longer than it should…

Tried registering a second time with an email account @eyedreamawake and it worked fine. Wonder if it’s a Yahoo Mail problem…
Update #2: Oh great. The missing background images problem shows up when *anyone* is logged in, not just me… Ugh. This theme has so many bugs. Looks like I’ve got more work to do to make it not suck.

Oh and look at what a fun present I found when trying to comment:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: live_preview() in /home/awake/public_html/blog/wp-content/themes/
relaxation_3column/comments.php on line 94

Ahhh… and the code tag breaks the box model. At least that one I can fix just by adding a line break.

Update #3: Progress! Removing the call to live_preview(), which had been left over from my WP 1.5.x plugins, fixed the black background problem. Will test out comments again now.

Success! Now I just have to install a plugin w/ a captcha so there’s no waiting around for me to approve each individual comment.

I’ve been a photo taking fiend the last few months. No less than 5000 shots since the start of April. I finally uploaded a few sets of them to Flickr. Freud is just one of many..

Maybe he has some advice about this new passtime.

Apparently this is a more accurate file for the “mosquito” ringtone that old people can’t hear:

http://www.snipeme.com/sounds/TeenBuzz.mp3

Wow that hurt. And my cat, who was sleeping deeply, jumped up and came over to me to figure out what the sound was. She just sat there while blinking obviously still half asleep…

This one is loud, sharp, and painful too:

http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/audio/nyregion/20060610_RINGTONE.mp3

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=142+Stockholm+St,+Brooklyn,+NY+11221&ie=UTF8&om=1

I love 101 Cookbooks. This entry about how to create your own cookbook using sites like Flickr and del.icio.us is just the most recent example of why. After I’ve uncluttered all of my bookmarks and caught up with my Flickr uploads I might just give this a try.

I’ve uploaded all the pics from yesterday’s hearing. Click through and enjoy:

For anyone who doesn’t get just how flawed the media driven view of the war in Iraq is, this is a must read:

HOWARD KURTZ featured this comment from USA Today Baghdad correspondent Cesar Soriano:

To all the Chairborne Rangers advancing the vast ‘negative media’ conspiracy from the safety and comfort of their parents’ basements: If you think you can do better, I’ve got a spare bed in the Baghdad bureau.

Blackfive offers a tart response. And here’s an email from Bill Roggio:

Hello Cesar,

I’d take you up on the offer of “the spare bed in the Baghdad bureau” but this Chairborne Ranger is currently embedded in Kandahar, Afghanistan. I’ll head back to Iraq for the second time this year after I make my next stop in the Horn of Africa. No doubt Michael Totten and Michael Yon, two other notable Chairborne Rangers, have similar plans.

You should also ask another group of Chairborne Rangers, such as Smash, Greyhawk, OpFor, and the other military bloggers who did their blogging from the combat zones to see if they need a rack. Oh, and I’ll be bypassing Baghdad to go outside the comfort of the hotel, so you can keep the spare bed.

Best wishes, be safe and enjoy the pool!

Ouch. I don’t know what J.D. Johannes would say. Appropriately enough, the title of Kurtz’s post is “Overshadowed” . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Michael Russo notes why this matters:

Notice strategy number one for Al Qaeda based on the Zarquawi safe house documents:

“1. To improve the image of the resistance in society, increase the number of supporters who are refusing occupation and show the clash of interest between society and the occupation and its collaborators. To use the media for spreading an effective and creative image of the resistance.”

Interesting that leveraging the western media before all else is (and presumably has been) Al Qaeda’s top strategy. And shitty how many people have bit hook line and sinker. I bet this will be head line news… or not.

Terrorism is an information war disguised as a military operation. The press plays a symbiotic role, and isn’t willing to address that.

There’s a lot more on the original entry. Just click over and scroll.

Gothamist is first to the punch with this post. It’s a little light on the substance and heavy on the witty, but what do you expect? Students always make easy joke material.

AMNY sums it all up with a collection of soundbites, like this one from Dennis Walcott:

“As far as compromise, we are very clear about our policy and we’re going to stick to that policy,” Walcott said.

NYPost repeats all the same info with different soundbites.

The Times gives us this frustrating update to the already terrible numbers Walcott had given during the hearing (he said 1800 and 37):

According to the city, the authorities have confiscated 36 weapons, mostly knives, since scanning started — and 3,027 cellphones. Many of those phones have been returned.

And they finish off their piece with a Dana sighting!

Dana O’Brien, 15, a sophomore at Fiorello H. La Guardia High School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said she believed the scanning program was “a violation of our right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, since a turned-off cellphone is not really threatening.”

Dana could not stay to answer council members’ questions. She was sorry, she explained, but she had a Regents exam.

Jenna made it all the way to Washington (well the Post anyway):

“I feel mature enough to be able to turn off my cell phone in class,” said LaGuardia high school student Jenna Gogan, 16. “This is about students’ safety, because, especially in New York City, many parents need to feel reassured they can contact their kids going to and from school.”

Of course since she was the only one that didn’t have Regents to rush off to she was flooded by reporters coming up to her one after another for the rest of the time we were there.

Heh, the post also mispelled Melinda Katz’ name:

“Kids pass notes back and forth but that doesn’t mean we take away pens,” said council member Belinda Katz.

Damn that MSM! No respect for spelling…

FoxNews used a quote from Seth in their writeup:

Sophomore Seth Pearce noted wryly during his testimony: “All three of us have cell phones right now in City Hall, and it seems to me the city is running just fine.”

The Sun takes a look at it all from the State angle:

State lawmakers are also stepping up to address the cell phone issue. The chairwoman of the Assembly’s education committee, Kathy Nolan, introduced a bill asking the state’s education department to draw up guidelines for New York’s more than 700 school districts.

“We’re not trying to browbeat the city,” Ms. Nolan said. “But state ed - they’re not business people, they’re educators, and hopefully they will weigh in.”

Yesterday’s big showdown also got attention from the local ABC and CBS networks (with video), the Boston Globe, Staten Island Advance, NY1 (with video), and CNN.

I’ll check around for more blog coverage and update this later.

RUDY GOES NUCLEAR By RYAN SAGER - New York Post Online Edition: Postopinion

No matter how much Karol at Alarming News says he can’t win, I get the feeling she’s off the mark on this. Of course she’s been saying all along she’d be really happy if he proves her wrong.

So I downloaded and installed another fun new tool today. This time it’s a Web 2.0 browser called Flock. It’s based on a Firefox core of course. I’m using it’s built in blogging tool to post this entry. Giving each feature a bit of a spin… but I think I’m already convinced I like.

While setting up the account details for the various features I also created a login for a social bookmarking site. I’ve known about these for a while but never got around to them. The choice given by Flock was between del.icio.us and Shadows. I chose Shadows since I’ve checked out the other one before and it never wowed me enough to join. So yeah, default wins. It does looks pretty good so far. I’m just afraid of all the time and brain cells it’s going to kill for me to go through the bookmarks favorites (as Flock calls them) mess and clean ‘em up.

I finally upgraded my Flickr account! Now I can upload 2 Gigs a month instead of the measly 20 Megs. A whole lot of photoblogging is it’s way…

With 40 Councilmembers signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, this baby is as good as law. Bloomberg can go ahead and veto all he wants, but the Council will just overide. Since he is on record as saying the DoE won’t change their position no matter what and won’t apply the bill even after it’s approved, count this one as sure to be heading for the courts.

It was great to see Councilmember after Councilmember speak strongly in favor of the bill and use tough and mostly respectful questioning to disarm each argument made by those testifying in favor of the status quo. But best of all was getting to record a slightly choppy video in less than ideal conditions (***DAMN that guy that kept getting in my way was annoying!!!***) of students I happen to have the pleasure of knowing giving the best remarks of the day. Sure I’m biased here… but it’s still true.

For anyone that doesn’t know: Council bill = end cell phone ban. Status quo = zero tolerance for student cell phones on school premises, unevenly enforced but involving recent systemwide crackdowns.

Is the Fair Tax a better choice than the tax cut plans I’ve been considering?

<blockquote>Multiply his views by five million or ten million, and pretty soon we do have a crisis of confidence in the electoral mechanics.

That’s serious to me.</blockquote>