Month: July 2002

  • Die Amtrak, Die!

    Like many bureacracies, Amtrak just refuses to die. New evidence of incompetency causing the latest accident as wel as an incident where man suffering a heart attack on a rush-hour commuter train was forced to wait while the train made scheduled stops to pick up passengers before reaching paramedics in Boston don’t seem to deter…

  • David's $500 Psychic Challenge!

    To contribute to $1 Million Psychic Challenge, I hereby declare a prize of $500, out of my own funds, to anyone that can demonstrate to me any sort of psychic, hypnotic, levitational, or any* other paranormal ability in a valid, repeatable scientific experiment. Hello, Miss Cleo? John Edwards? Uri Geller? Santa? Pope John Paul ?…

  • Arbitration denied

    I have been following the status of the legal legitimacy of arbitration for several years and I don’t like this ruling one bit. The implications are clear, as both Thomas and Dieteman mention, and I have a feeling this is only the beginning. I have been dreading just this ruling for a long time, and…

  • And so it begins…

    [DRUDGE]Bureaucratic Infighting Said To Have Stalled Airport Security EffortAlmost a year after the Bush administration promised a nationwide drive to tighten airport security, such efforts are being stymied by poor coordination among federal agencies and a lack of clear-cut technical requirements, said executives of aerospace and defense companies seeking to land government contracts. The WALL…

  • Censorship, etc

    Check this out: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/ 07/22/borderless.internet.ap/index.html “Police in Italy didn’t care that five Web sites they deemed blasphemous and thus illegal were located in the United States, where First Amendment protections apply. The police shut them down anyway in early July, simply by sitting down at the alleged offender’s Rome computer. ” Yes, blasphemy is illegal…

  • SC Report

    The Center for the Moral Defense of Capitalism posted a “Supreme CourtYear in Review” for 2002 outlining decisions relevant to issues of individual rights. Interestingly, the court sided for individual rights in 55% of the cases, with Clarence Thomas (not suprisingly, my favorite justice) voting 75% for freedom. So is 55% a positive trend? Yes,…

  • Listserv: Population Control vs Economic Freedom

      The Virtues of Economic Freedom vs. Population Control > Yes I agree that economic freedom will increase economic growth and economic development. However the point that I am arguing is that effective population control will also increase economic development in developing counties. Unfortunately (for the rest of the world) China is the only good…

  • Yay!

    I got A’s in my INFO and Logic classes! (Big suprize, huh?) In other news, I compiled a Linux kernel and the associated OS from scratch at work over the last two days…fun stuff, only I need to be studying for the GRE instead of playing with computers…. oh, and I got up before class…

  • The first summer session is almost over!

    I finished my swimming class today, and I’ve really improved over the last few months, from dog paddling back and forth in the water to finally getting my freestyle technique down, learning how to do flip turns, and generally not looking totally incompetent in the water anymore. I was afraid of failing it when I…

  • Quote

    I found a quote I like on the web, which sumarizes my philosophy pretty well:“What is is. Perceive it. Integrate it honestly. Act on it. Idealize it.”