House of the rising Moonglum

Spoilers for Buffy Season 6, and Angel Season 3 below.

So my wife and I are watching Buffy. I have been trying to catch up with Angel to where we are in Buffy. So far I don’t like Angel as much as I like Buffy, but it does have its moments. Cordelia and Wesley pretending to be Buffy and Angel is one of them. This little moment between Fred and Gunn is another:

Angel: Darla!
Wesley: Darla?
Cordelia: Darla.
Fred: Who’s Darla?
Gunn: Angel’s old flame from way back.
Fred: Not the one who died?
Gunn: Yeah… No, not that one, the other one who died and came back to life.
Fred: Do y’all have a chart or something?
Gunn: Yeah, it’s in the files I’ll get it for you later.

It appears that Claypool lost to Stroger who is still in the hospital with a stroke. *sigh* A few more years of poorly run pay to play government. Oh well.

Go Vote! Only 50 people had voted in my precinct when I went a few minutes ago. Go make a difference!

I haven’t done a good Peak Oil post in a while, but I saw a good one on CNN. I believe this is an ongoing series, so I won’t say too much about the content yet, but they have some interesting interviews. They also mention the progress Brazil has made in moving to flex vehicles. They now use over 40% ethanol rather than oil in transportation as opposed to the US which uses 3%. On the positive side my energy bill says that last quarter only 2% came from oil, and more than 70% came from Nuclear.

The thing I found most terrifying though was juxtaposing the Woosley (ex CIA director) interview with the GM interview. Woosley talking about how high fuel costs will make the poor unable to eat (since they can’t reach their jobs) and GM talking about how making SUVs that get 20 mpg is fine because people who make more than $100k per year won’t feel it at the pump if gas prices double, so it is fine to make cars for them.

Condemning the poor based on the purchasing desires of the rich. Wow. He goes on to admit that they missed the boat on hybrids, but is still unrepentant about selling the big gas guzzlers.

There is an E85 gas station 2 miles from my apartment. I wonder how much a flex car costs in the US?

Time for Moonglum’s occasional election suggestions for the 46th ward Democratic primary. Get your sample ballot and join the fun. The Trib has their own list but mine uses a few other sources as well (e.g.), especially for the judges.

There actually aren’t all that many items where there are more than one candidate, so I’m only sticking up the ones that have more than one. Important elements in this election are Gov., County Board, and as always the Judges. The county board pres race is quite changed since Stroger is hospitalized, but now more than ever it is important to get Claypool in so that the Democratic machine isn’t handed the ability to hand pick a successor to Stroger, should he not be able to continue. So on with the list:

Governor: Eisendrath, but there is no way he will ever win. It’s more of a statement against Blago. Heck Blago can’t even wait 24 hours before breaking his promises. He promised the teacher’s union that he wouldn’t say anything about not raising taxes during the election, got their endorsement and then less than 24 hours later announced that he wouldn’t raise taxes if reelected. No matter how you feel about the issue, that is not cool.

Cook County Board Pres.: Claypool. Stroger is a patronage business as usual guy running a horrible county system. Claypool rejuvenated the park system at Daley’s request reducing its overall operating costs by 25% at the same time. The county office needs that kind of rejuvenation. This is going to be a difficult win since Stroger can use the unions to get the vote out. Go to vote, even if only for this race.

Treasurer: Mangieri

State Central C-Man 9th: I can find no information at all on this race… if someone can, please stick it in the comments.

Sheriff: Dart

Water Reclamation (vote for 3):
Debra Shore (This one is a particularly strong candidate, an environmentalist with strong management background, and an important addition to the current board.)
Lewis W. Powell III
Terrence J. O’Brien

Voting for judges is critical. I looked at ratings from three bar associations, but pretty much took Chicago’s ratings in the end, swayed by the tribs recs.
Appellate Court Judges:
Hardigan Vacancy: Dooling or Murphy
Hartman Vacancy: Cunningham

Circuit Court Judges:
Burr Vacancy: Dole
Jaffe Vacancy: Howlett
Nudelman Vacancy: Murphy
O’Brien Vacancy: Brown (n.b. This one is odd. Apparently O’Brien hasn’t decided to vacate yet, but I am one for change, so I just stuck Brown here. If anyone know better, please let me know.)
Schiller Vacancy: Byrne
Travis Vacancy: Stalmack

NEVER CLICK ON A LINK IN AN EMAIL.

Well, not an important one anyway. Personally I use an external password program that you can click on an icon and have it automatically bring up that web page and fill in the userid and password info. Then you know which web page you are going to and can use secure passwords since you only need to remember one (to unlock the rest).

The reason I bring this us is that apparently phishers have started using secure web sites. Most people will look and see if the lock is there to make sure that it is the “real” site. Problem is, anyone can get an SSL cert, and claim that they aren’t who they are. Nip this one in the bud, don’t click on links in email.

There are now three US and one European orbiters around Mars! This is great. The new orbiter has ground penetrating radar, and more science equipment than we have ever sent (successfully – *ahem*) to another planet. It will still take a few months to complete the aerobraking, but the truly risky portion of the mission is past. How risky you ask? Well let’s just say that of the 33 missions sent to mars, the world isn’t quite 1 for 3 on completely successful missions.

Two items I forgot to mention in my previous space post were that tomorrow is going to be an exciting day for the latest martian orbiter. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will undergo an orbital insertion burn at about 1:30pm. I hope it makes it, NASA is 50/50 on the last four attempts at orbital insertion. Though the ones that have made it have provided great science.

In other parts of the solar system, Cassini discovers possible water on some random Saturnian moon. Very cool, though haven’t we been here before?

Between being sick and being really busy with work, I haven’t been keeping up with the latest in space news. Well it turns out there have been a number of interesting things happening, so here it is, your 2006 Space News Roundup:

New Horizons The first planetary mission to an unvisited planet in more than 20 years. The first mission to Pluto, the only planet to have not yet been visited by a probe. The first mission specifically sent to research the third region of our solar system, the Kupier belt. It successfully lifted off on the 19th of January, early enough in its launch window to catch Jupiter for a slingshot to Pluto, taking about 6 years off the journey. Personally I think this is the most exciting thing they have done since Cassini entered Saturn’s orbit.

Stardust Comet sample return mission worked! That is good luck, the last sample return mission slammed into the ground. This will provide all sorts of interesting data, and they won’t need to sift through rubble to get it.

Space Station Nasa just unveiled a new station assembly plan. It looks like they think they can finish it up before the 2010 shuttle retirement deadline that was handed down. There are still 16 shuttle flights required, so that will be a little tight, if they do two this year, then they will still need more than four a year for the remaining three years to meet the deadline. On the plus side, they are still thinking of giving it a 6 person capacity. Of course without the shuttle, it doesn’t make a whole heck of a lot of sense. I guess retrofit the second docking node to hold another Soyuez?

And in surface physics, ice isn’t slippery because we melt it and put water on top, it is slippery because the surface layers have unique vibrational properties.

Well, I’m glad that’s been resolved. I’ve been staying up nights worried that American Express was going to lose their money to Savvis employees unwilling to fess up to their extravagance. OK, not really. But I did find it interesting since I used to walk by that strip joint every day when I lived in NY. The thing I did stay up wondering: what exactly does $241,000 get you at a strip club?

So, I just saw one of the most disturbing protests ever. The Phelps family used to go around harassing gays who were getting married or even just publicly recognizing their relationship. He came to Chicago to mess up one such event in my neighborhood a few years back, but was so outnumbered that his people required police protection.

Apparently now he has decided that the army is a tool of the gays. “Soldiers are fighting for an army that represents a country that accepts homosexuality.” The solution? Ruin the soldier’s funerals. This is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. I am not a big-time neo-con, and I don’t necessarily like how the soldiers are currently being used, but the fact of the matter is, they signed on to protect out freedoms and died to let Americans continue to live the lives that we have come to appreciate. Even Phelps. These people are to be honored, not have their graves spat upon. The thing I don’t understand is how they can continue to be allowed to show up (not sure I agree with the message of this article, but it is interesting). At least some counter protests have formed, and from the sound of the different articles the patriot guard motorcycle riders are much appreciated by the family members. Not to mention, invited to the funerals.

When Garrison Keillor calls for your impeachment things might be going a bit downhill. I’m not sure that I actually buy the impeachment call yet, it wasn’t like the country didn’t know what they were getting when they voted him in. But still, I don’t think you can get much more Middle-America than Garrison Keillor.

OK, here’s the thing: I want to be able to wipe my PC and install a fresh copy of WinXP. I have a valid license, since it is what came with the PC, and it calls home all the time to get updates etc. OK, so the problem is I don’t seem to have the installer disc any more (if it ever came with one). It is a Gateway. So my question… is there some hidden place on Gateways where they put a disc image? Alternately can I get all the info that I need to punch in when installing from the current installation, or is that stuff really only on the box?

What happens when you are exposed for the first time. Penny Arcade has had a long love/hate relationship with macs, but it seems that the writer and artist have both purchased new intel macs. It also seems that they are enjoying it. I do think that they have something about the lure of “rolling your own” on the PC. Being able to do something because you can, not because it is easy.

Also, I love the use of the depth of field in this particular comic.

I love to worry about Peak Oil as much as the next man, but I just read an article that warmed my heart and let me think that the collapse of modern society might be pushed back a bit. It appears that five inner city high school kids scrounged together a car that runs on bio-diesel, goes 0-60 in four seconds and gets 50 miles to the gallon. Now where can I get me one of these?

Really inspiring reading.