Sometimes I Regret Leaving Physics

But the truth is Physics was leaving me (behind)...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40819246/from/RSS/

for your viewing pleasure etc

Net Neutrality or Something or Other

It looks like I was planning on writing something on the "net neutrality" law that passed about a week ago, but it was like a week ago, so I'll just put up the shit ton of links i procured in preparation, then maybe write a little something.

TV's future: FCC decisions on Internet access, Comcast-NBC merger approaching

FCC set to enact new net neutrality rules

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/obama-fcc-caves-on-net-ne_b_799435.html 

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/12/fcc-rule/

And so it goes...

Clearly there do need to be some rules in place.  While the vast openness of the Internet is it's strength, without ANY regulation, it can quickly turn into a madhouse of spam, viruses, and unsavory material.  However, favoring the companies which supply the internet itself seems to be one of the dumbest ways to go about it (an alternative though, I cannot think of).  I do like the example of what will happen to Netflix, now that comcast can kill the bandwidth dealing specifically with streaming it in favor of their own on demand videos.

By giving control to the gatekeepers, they do in fact keep things under control.  By giving control to the gatekeepers, they give unilateral control to the Internet providers.  By giving control to the gatekeepers, an entire market is compromised and colluded.  By giving control to the gatekeepers, the creativity and ingenuity of the Internet may be reduced to the trickle speed given to off-market sites.

I guess we'll see how this plays out.  I don't think anyone was expecting true net neutrality in any case.

-- Knuttel

A Nation of Wusses

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5960674

"We've become a nation of wusses."

However inelegant, it is true, and perhaps my search for a more elegant explanation is evidence of my own wussiness.

Regardless, all of the circumstances regarding this affair just scream wussiness.

And why?  Brett Favre doesn't have any streaks to protect, the Vikings played in worse weather on an unheated field only a week or two ago, the storm itself had hardly even begun when kickoff was slated.

The Baby Boomers Are Dooming Us All

Indeed, they are...


http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/parenting-family/2010-11-18-boomerloathing18_CV_N.htm?csp=obinsite

I came across that article very (very) randomly (I do not subscribe to anything on parenting -- children are a precious resource, yes, but mainly for food).  Anyways, I decided that I, too, am tired of their shit.

It's all about "me", well you know what, who cares?

I guess, ironically (or not, I guess it's more coincidental), this disproves objectivism and other similarly minded philosophies, at least in the manner that I understand them.  I am no expert on objectivism or Ayn Rand (mostly knowing her from the works of Rush and the Bioshock video games, though I hear her prose is mediocre at best, and even objectivists dislike her arguments for objectivism, the school of thought she is seen as creating), and I have an outright disrespect for the intellectual dishonesty that is Friedman, but I guess I'm starting to get sidetracked.  I understand objectivism as the pursuit of self -- one ought to look out for ones own interests, doing what helps self, not what helps others, and eventually it all works out in the end.  Basically it's libertarianism and total free market economics as applied to morality.

cop-out

So I am backlogged like crazy in links that I bookmarked, therefore I shall merely dump them upon the site.  Maybe a witty comment or two, but that's not likely (I'm not that witty).  Honestly, I even think some of them I wanted to keep for personal use or sharing amongst friends, not to leave to the barren, cold, and unforgiving anonymous internet.  Whatevs, they're mostly in chronological order, in two parts (saved up on two computers), so here goes.

College Football SuperBus!!!!

Ok, so there's a shitton of college football shit, shit!  Here goes...

TCU Joins the Big East

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/ncf/news/story?id=5862368

I might do a College Football rundown later this week, if not next week, but until then I found this story humorous.

TCU is in Fort Worth, Texas (of Dallas/Fort Worth region fame).  It is WEST of the Mississipi river, usually the indicator of East/West in NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCES.

That's enough caps for now.

Oh, NHL Rules Committee...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/With-Pronger-penalty-justification-more-NHL-rul?urn=nhl-289971

Yeah, this?  It doesn't fly.  Come on!

It's funny how everyday the NHL does something stupid like this to threaten it's own existence, when it was left comatose during the lockout year.  It should know better, and it should reprimand REALLY bad officiating in a case such as this (it would be counterproductive to reprimand bad officiating on a regular basis in any sport, examples must be made, however).

-- Knuttel

Facts Can't Get in the Way of What's Right, Damnit

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40426795/from/RSS/

Remember when McCain was a "maverick" of a moderate?  Now he just seems more like a dinosaur (literally) of a conservative (not quite paleo) everyday.

Moving on...

What would it take then to make this work, and allow openly gay citizens to serve in the military?  If the study had been done the other way around then McCain et co. could simply have stated that this should not have been done as a referendum, because policy decisions should be made top down.  Honestly, I think he secretly agrees with the way it was done, given the way he so quickly deferred, not to the study, but to the Chiefs of the individual branches of the Armed Services.

101 Dalmations remake?

You know Hollywood loves its remakes -- it prevents them from having to pay writers (like me) for doing actual work and creatively coming up with new ideas...

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/is-wearing-fur-acceptable-if-you-hate-the-animal-2413815/;_ylt=AqH8EYS12Ocsj4qC4ElOiw5pbqU5

 From what I understand, the difference is negligible.  My buddy, Bob Sacomato, he sells nutria hats down at the park.

-- Knuttel

IT'S A TARP

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40424612/from/RSS/

Awesome, so TARP, which was actually signed under Bush, not Obama (though it was during election season and both then-Senator Obama and Senator McCain bi-partisanly met up with Bush to get it done), is actually going to cost the American budget about 0 dollars (relatively speaking) and pretty much prevented the financial ruin from getting any worse (yes, it could have gotten much much worse, I could have been super-unemployed).

Ok, so it still cost a few billion dollars -- that's less than a percent of the total budget.  Can we stop bitching about TARP now, and start bitching about something productive?  Like, I dunno, the President that signed this bill was a total socialist...

-- Knuttel

Knuttel's Bitch-ass Weaksauce Salsa

So I've been given the task of making salsa for thanksgiving, but my last batch, I guess, was too hot for everybody.

So while I still plan on bringing some of the old salsa to thanksgiving, I had to make a new batch.

"Please, please, please, we want your salsa but it's too hot, the Knuttel," they told me amidst their tears (yes, my family calls me the Knuttel).

Making a bitching bitch-ass weaksauce salsa is no small feat, so I had to use a lot of thinking stuff to figure out how to make it work.  Here is the recipe below.  I'll put a post-script or something about how it actually turned out.

NCAA Football, week 13, 2010

Even though there is sooooo much more to be discussed regarding the elections (there were many referenda (that's plural for referendum), especially regarding gun rights, sections of the recent healthcare bill, and one pretty large one regarding the possible legalization of a recreational drug; oh, and the democrats picked Pelosi to be the minority leader, that happenned too; and screw governor's races) I think it's time for me to again shift gears and to talk about college football, everyone's favorite subject.

This just in -- the BCS sucks.

I'm not just saying this because Penn State is doing awful this year (well, by Penn State standards), I'm saying this because it is fact.

Election Day 2010: Take 3: the House

And so I finally get around to talking about the elections regarding the House of Representatives.

To talk about the numbers results briefly -- the Democrats had a decent majority, took a thorough thumping, and now are the minority party to the Republicans.

Democrats who lost were mostly moderates who won their seats in 06 or 08, in the process of voting out Republicans.  Not very many incumbent Republicans lost their seats.

Election Day 2010: take 2: The Senate

Part 2 of a bit by bit breakdown of this year's election results.

"The Senate"

The Senate, as we are used to thinking, is the senior chamber of Congress.  Each Senator must appeal to an entire state during their election process, a concept which would seemingly breed more moderate candidates and elections.  In addition the 6 year term would arguably make each Senator more independent, both of their party and the electorate they represent, as they face their wrath far less frequently.

That being said, that is not what happened this year, not at all.

Election day 2010: take 1

So polls have closed in a good part of the country, I suppose it's time to put a few cents in.

Democrats have taken a pounding thus far, whether deserved or undeserved.  But that is usual business for mid-term elections -- the party in power usually loses; 2002 was an apparition (dare I say because of 9/11).

I'll analyze actual results later, as they actually come in and are finalized.

Early cable news coverage was awful.  They did nothing but quibble over EVERYTHING, and loudly at that (true to form, I suppose).  Once network tv coverage began, the scene mellowed, and the coverage was more sublime.  I guess around this time the cable news began to lose SOME of its fury, but it still remains loud whenever they want and for no apparent reason.

Regardless, it looks like party structure in general will be in some sort of disarray/change.  Whoever adapts better would appear to be better suited in 2012, not necessarily who is more productive.

-- Knuttel

Bookmarks and Thoughts

I've had these windows open forever, and it's really dragging down my computer (downside I guess of running a brand new OS (linux) on a 6 year old laptop).

anyways -- I share:

The Separation of Church and State

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/19/AR2010101902501.html

God, I'd hope I'd never have to write anything about this.  I thought it would be common sense to ANYONE who has grown up in America that there is a separation between church and state within our government.  Apparently, it's too difficult to also remember all of our freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment, at least beyond speech (by the way, it's speech, religion, assembly, press, and petition, in no particular order).  Why not, I'll just post what the first amendment is, aka the easy amendment.

Deficit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/20101015/pl_yblog_exclusive/what-would-it-really-take-to-trim-the-deficit

There's all of this talk this election season about controlling the deficit, reducing the national debt, etc.

First -- definitions

The national debt is the cumulative amount of money the nation owes to other entities.

The national deficit is the amount of money the nation accrues in debt over the course of a year.

Only one President has ever gotten the debt to 0, Andrew Jackson. The last President to have a deficit of 0 was Bill Clinton, who upon the Internet boom of the late 1990s, began to pay back against the debt.

Moving on, both the debt and deficit have been big issues of this, and most, election years. Many want us to get rid of some/most/all of the debt to reduce dependence on foreign entities, namely China -- who actually only owns a plurality of the debt. Many have also seen deficit spending as one of the best ways to get the nation out of recession. The latter statement has been less popular since the passing of TARP, and most tend to focus on the other "half" of Keynesian economics -- tax cuts.

I wonder what the figures are on what the taxes would be currently, with the bush tax cuts, with the bush tax cuts for just those who earn under $250,000 a year, and without the bush tax cuts entirely. Sadly, I don't think anyone would make such a chart, and me being only 14-15 at the time the cuts took place, I am woefully unaware of what it was like financially pre-cut.

As the article states, I find it interesting that tax cuts are among the most inefficient ways to help the economy. I knew of the fact that upper-class cuts help the economy the least, but seeing as how they are the ones who control the media etc, the fact is easily ignored.

How have we really gotten so bad that tax cuts are the only way our politicians can campaign about fixing the economy, that not being for tax cuts is the equal of being against tax cuts?

The Republican plan, which was published earlier this year, in the summer I believe, only has rhetoric about cutting the deficit, while not doing much to actually reduce it in the meat and bones. The tea party contingent plans on cutting back the government as much as possible, except in the personal government project that helps each individual person.

The Democrats have not listed any plan besides letting the bush tax cuts above 250,000 expire, and keeping the rest (Obama pledged not to raise taxes on anyone who makes under that, and you'd be damn sure he's gonna keep that if he wants any shot at re-election, it killed Bush Sr.'s shot).

Honestly, raising taxes might be the only way to get out of it. With the current economic recession being largely caused by fiscal instability in people being unable to pay off their houses and credit cards, perhaps the country should look inwards and not become a parody of its people. We've spent more than we've had, but the projects can't be cut, people need them, they've come to rely upon them. So we need to suck it up, and make more than the minimum monthly payments.

-- Knuttel

The Marcellus Shale

The Marcellus Shale is a large natural gas reserve that will likely be developed soon, due to its size and the demand for natural gas. Most of this reserve lies in the northern Appalachian mountains, and thus what to do with it has become somewhat of an issue for this years Pennsylvania Gubernatorial race


So the main issue is ... should the energy companies be taxed for mining the natural gas? How should they be taxed, if taxed?

Passage of a bill looks eminent, so it looks as if the issue will be more rhetorical and theoretical than anything else.

I look at it this way. The natural gas is there. How much is there is unclear, but it's there. Unless the states decide to go to war with one another, or some country invades and takes over the Marcellus Shale, it will still be there, and it will still be in Pennsylvania. In this case, it is the job of the government to make sure minimal damage is done in order to extract the natural gas, or to ensure that what damage is done can be reversed. If it takes a tax to make sure this can be done within the state budget, a tax which is the similar in neighboring Marcellus states (which, by the way, because it's in shale form, cannot be a "my milkshake drinks your milkshake" scenario), then the tax must be enacted. It's the only responsible thing to do. Having the tax will not drive away business because the industry is fixed. The natural gas is where it is and it cannot move. In fact, it is the duty of the state to make sure it is getting its fair share for parting with its limited precious resources. Is not the state its own actor in this market?

Given the recent history of the energy mining industry (ahem, BP, ahem) I'm not so certain stasis can be trusted to the corporations. And to put it flatly, once the natural gas there is gone, so is the industry with the region. Recompense of some kind must be had.

RECOMPENSE!!!!

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20101012_On_Pa__natural_gas_tax__different_polls_yield_different_results.html

-- Knuttel