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| [Ben]: | Quotes from Ben Franklin's Autobiography | Discuss This [0 comments so far] View Comments | | It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its People one-tenth Part of their Time, to be employed in its Service. |
| [D]isputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them. |
| Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. |
| So convenient a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. |
"That few in public affairs act from a mere view of the good of their country, whatever they may pretend; and, tho' their actings bring real good to their country, yet men primarily considered that their own and their country's interest was united, and did not act from a principle of benevolence.
"That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view to the good of mankind. |
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| 2010-09-08
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Quotes from Ben Franklin's Autobiography |
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| [Ben]: | For thee, not for me | Discuss This [2 comments so far] View Comments | Recently, the Ninth Circuit court of appeals decided that sneaking into your driveway, putting a GPS tracker on your vehicle and using it to track your car for extended period of time without a warrant is not an invasion of privacy. Their reasoning? Most folks don't put up gates across their driveway, so anyone can just walk up the driveway, thus there must be no expectation of privacy.
Chief Judge Alex Kozinski brought up the point that the justices could feel comfortable making that decision because they almost certainly could afford gates and fences to protect their own driveway.
So here is my idea. At some point these justices park in public places ... going to the gym, the grocery store, to their kids' baseball games, wherever. In short, places with even less expectation of privacy than your own driveway. Wouldn't it be fun if someone put a GPS tracking device on their vehicles when they were in a public place (thus with no expectation of privacy), left it on for a few weeks, retrieved it and then published the judge's driving habits?
I bet their opinions would change quickly when they realized their ruling could apply to them as well. |
| 2010-08-26
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For thee, not for me |
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| [Ben]: | The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagisaki | Discuss This [0 comments so far] View Comments | I recently started reading a book by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Manhattan District entitled The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagisaki. This book was compiled by three specialist teams immediately following the surrender of The Empire of Nippon.
From it I have learned some very interesting things regarding the nature of atomic explosions, the causes of the double flash associated with such events, the damage and wounding mechanisms displayed during the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagisaki, and so forth. It has given me a much better understanding of some of the practical aspects of nuclear detonations. As terrible as nuclear weapons are, and as much as I believe this text has understated the long term dangers of radiation, it brought the effects down to a level I can understand. I find myself far less concerned with the dangers of being within even five or ten miles of such an explosion. Not that I think it is likely, nor would I want to get that close, but I feel the understanding is a good thing.
One thing I'm starting to understand is the much lampooned "Duck and Cover" routine that schoolchildren were taught in the 1950s. Of course, we all laugh at the idea that hiding under your desk at school would prevent injury in case of an atomic bomb, and of course if you are near ground zero, that is true. However, if you have sufficient early warning to know that an atomic explosion is imminent, ducking under a desk at school could protect you from two of the primary casualty inducing factors present at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first effect that ducking under a solid desk would help prevent flash burns and blindness caused by the UV pulse which accompanies the visible flash of the detonation. A second major wounding factor was mechanical injury caused by the overpressure wave breaking glass, throwing around objects and collapsing structures. A desk might well protect people on the edges of the explosive effects from these sorts of injuries.
I guess the lesson here is that if you have warning of an impending nuclear attack, it doesn't hurt to head wherever you'd go if there were a serious storm. |
| 2010-08-25
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The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagisaki |
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| [Ben]: | Mellow Mushroom in Carmel | Discuss This [2 comments so far] View Comments | Cara and I took her sister and brother-in-law to Mellow Mushroom in Carmel for a trial run to determine if the pizza was as good as before.
I ordered the same pizza I had before as a baseline test and was not disappointed. It's worth going to if you are in the area.
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| 2010-08-24
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Mellow Mushroom in Carmel |
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| [Ben]: | Air Traffic Control loves Biden | Discuss This [0 comments so far] View Comments | A coworker likes to listen to the Air Traffic Control radio sometimes. Today, Veep Biden is in town and is causing a lot of traffic on the radio. His presence has forced all other air traffic into holding patterns. Several flights have diverted to Cincinnati due to low fuel and being told they could not be authorized to land in Indianapolis.
A pilot got on the radio and asked with more than a little frustration how long the VIP would be here because the pilots aircraft had only 15 minutes of fuel before it would have to divert to another airport. Air Traffic Control notified him that they didn't know and weren't calling the shots. Someone came on the channel and said "He's not going to be leaving for two and a half years".
I laughed more than I should have. |
| 2010-08-23
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Air Traffic Control loves Biden |
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| [Ben]: | Unfortunate commercial | Discuss This [1 comment so far] View Comments | Anyone paying attention to Indianapolis news has heard about the Greater Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer David Bisard who was allegedly driving drunk on patrol and struck and killed one motorcyclist and severely injured two more.
The investigation came under fire after it turned out that the officers responding to and investigating the accident apparently didn't know how to legally draw blood to prove OWI - because of a minor technicality that I have a feeling would have been quickly dismissed by most judges. So Brizzi dropped the drunk driving charges against Bisard.
No one ever ever drives drunk in Indy, see, so the cops there have innocently forgotten how to do it.
Anyhow, I was watching the local news and during a commercial break there was an anti-OWI ad on. It starts out with a split screen of a guy in a bar, and a police officer. The guy is getting sloshed, the cop is getting ready for patrol. The guy heads out the door to go home, the cop heads out of the station to go on duty. Both men get in their cars and start driving. Slowly the split screen resolves into one and the cop car lights up the drunk driver. The narrator then soberly intones: "If you're out there drinking and driving, remember: We're out there too."
How true. |
| 2010-08-23
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Unfortunate commercial |
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