Synthstuff - music, photography and more...

Live Blogging New Orleans

One of the IT Support people for New Orleans ISP directNIC is camped out in their datacenter and running a blog: mgno.com

Here is one sample entry:

You Want News?
New Orleans Police Department Status: The situation for the NOPD is critical. This is firsthand information I have from an NOPD officer we're giving shelter to. Their command and control infrastructure is shot. They have limited to no communication whatsoever. He didn't even know the city was under martial law until we told him! His precinct (5th Precinct) is under water! UNDER WATER — every vehicle under water. They had to commander moving trucks like Ryder and UHaul to get around. The coroner's office is shut down so bodies are being covered in leaves at best or left where they lie at worst.

They don't even know their own rules of engagement. He says the force is impotent right now. They have no idea what's going on, no coordination, virtually no comms, etc. the National Guard is gonna air drop a radio system for them with 200 radios? They are getting very little direction.

The 3rd District bugged out to Baton Rouge because they flooded out.

His quote: “It's a zoo.”

More first hand information direct from him shortly. He's trying to recover.

I am not trying to be an alarmist, but until we get a military presence of signicance in the city, the roving gangs of thugs own the streets.

Donations for Katrina Relief

FEMA has a list of links for people wanting to donate to the survivors of Katrina. The list has both Cash and Volunteer Labor coordinators.

There have been reports of generic www-dot-help-katrina-dot-com websites that are nothing but scammers. If you are planning to help, a reputable charity is the best.

Strategic Oil Reserve will be opened up

President Bush has agreed to let Oil Companies borrow from the US Strategic Oil Reserve.
Bloomberg has the story:

U.S. Taps Emergency Oil Reserve as Prices Surge
The U.S. will tap its emergency oil reserve after Hurricane Katrina shut down rigs and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, disrupting gasoline supplies and leading to record crude-oil prices.

U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in an interview today in Washington the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can deliver 5 million barrels a day, more than three times the amount that has been closed in the Gulf. That much probably isn't needed now, he said. The area represents about 30 percent of U.S. production.

President George W. Bush's administration last used the reserve, created in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo, to respond to Hurricane Ivan and shutdowns of rigs offshore in the Gulf. Whether the release causes prices to drop may depend on how soon refineries can restart. Valero Energy Corp. yesterday said one of its refineries may need two weeks to resume operations.

The question of refinery capacity comes up again:

The government's oil “is not going to be of much help unless we get refineries running again,” Adam Sieminski, global oil strategist at Deutsche Bank AG in New York, said before the announcement. “Releasing oil from the SPR right now would be actually inappropriate because there would be no place to put it.”

What would it take to plan a couple of new refineries. We need them but environmental regulations have stymied all plans for new ones for the last 20 years or more…

Physical Computing

Computers are great but what if you want to tie them into things in the physical world. Have them sense a temperature and move a widget accordingly.

Here is an excellent introduction to the world of Physical Computing

Some cool ideas and links to resources and code libraries…

Katrina's impact...

…will be more far-reaching than people initially think.

Airport Business has this story:

At Least Ten U.S. Airports Face Closure Due to Jet Fuel Shortages
Airlines and oil companies are working on plans to supply jet fuel to at least ten U.S. airports that could be shut down due to a lack of jet fuel caused by refinery and pipeline shutdowns from hurricane Katrina. The airports in most jeopardy for closure include Atlanta, Charlotte, Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Orlando, Tampa, Washington Dulles and West Palm Beach.

AAG has learned that ChevronTexaco and Shell had cargoes loaded prior to the shutdowns destined for Florida ports. However, with the Colonial and Plantation pipelines shutdown due to a lost of power it could be sometime for shipments to reach airports from Atlanta to Washington D.C.

With future supply uncertain, airlines are working on plans to allocate jet fuel at critically short airports. “While some airports may have up to five days of supply we have to expect that we won’t receive additional shipments for some time. We either run down to flumes or we try to make it last as long as possible,” said one airline fuel manager. Today, airlines are working on plans to allocate fuel in hopes of extending available supply at problem locations.

Gasoline at our local filling station is at $2.99 — up from $2.79 a few days ago.

A lot of this could be helped if we had more refineries but we have not built a new refinery in this country for well over 20 years. Environmentalists…

Hits bottom, keeps digging

Ran into this link and I am hacked at the utter stupidity and mindlesness of it:

“For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind”
As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.

Robert F. Kennedy Sr. was a noble man and an honor to this nation.
It was a tragedy when he was murdered by “palestinian” Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
His pipsqueak of a child is less than human at times…
It is not the family name that makes one great,
it is the “content of his character”.

Light posting today and tomorrow

Had to run into town today and will be there tomorrow as well.

I am doomed!!! Woe is me!!!

I just got turned on to this site: Orion's Arm

Broad and deep — I will be spending a lot of time exploring…

Bee Happy

New Scientist has some good news about large power transmission lines.

Power lines may provide a haven for bees
Overhead power lines may be reviled by most people but for the humble bee they may be a saviour. The millions of acres of land-strips beneath power lines represent an untapped conservation resource for bees and other threatened creatures, new research suggests.

Normally regarded as blots on the landscape and accused by many of producing cancer-inducing low frequency electromagnetic fields, high voltage power lines are not typical candidates for conservation sites, says Kimberly Russell an invertebrate zoologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

But she says changes in management practice of this land appear to be offering a much needed home for bees, which have been in decline in many countries for decades.

In the US, the land covered by power lines makes up more than 5 million acres. That is more land than almost every national park in the US individually, including Yellowstone, says Russell.

Safe and selective
In the past, these areas were periodically mown and sprayed with non-selective herbicides to prevent vegetation from encroaching upon or damaging equipment. But some companies have now switched to simply removing tall vegetation and using safer, more selective herbicides.

To see what impact this alternate management practice had on native bee populations Russell and colleagues compared bees collected from unmown power line sites with those of nearby grassy fields.

“The statistics showed that the bees collected in the power line scrubs were more diverse than those in the grassy fields,” says Russell, who carried out the work with colleagues at Utah State University and Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, in Maryland.

The power line scrubs tended to have rarer species and more bee-parasite species, which is normally an indication of a healthy bee community, she says.

The five million acre number is surprising.
Wonderful story — perfect example of unintended consequences…

Al Sharpton visits Cindy Sheehan

Public figure and race activist 'Rev.' Al Sharpton visited professional mourner Cindy Sheehan in Crawford. They shared a private moment of prayer:

Yeah, very private:

Click for full-size Image

Hat tip to Charles at LGF

Physics Resource

While looking for facts for the previous post An interesting use for Coal, I stumbled onto this website: The Physics Factbook™ specifically this page.

I checked each data point with two or three other sources but the numbers here are accurate and well presented. It seems to be an ongoing project with lots of serious and fun (such as this: Acceleration Perturbations of Daily Living) data.

Check it out…

An interesting use for Coal

This article in the Billings Gazette (Montana) talks about an interesting proposal:

Schweitzer wants to convert Otter Creek coal into liquid fuel
Montana acquired 533 million tons of federal coal near Ashland three years ago. A private company owns more than that interspersed checkerboard fashion among the state's holdings.

Both would like to develop that high-quality coal.

And there are others, too, who have ideas for turning the coal into energy, revenue and profits.

Because the price of oil is at unheard- of levels, and the United States needs alternative energy supplies, Gov. Brian Schweitzer has targeted an old/new process to turn the coal into diesel and jet fuel. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has put tax incentives for the process into the new energy and highway bills, and several U.S. energy technology firms have perfected the method.

The missing ingredient is investment capital - billions of dollars worth.

In a recent interview, Schweitzer said “there are a great number of believers, potential partners, who will put their money down.”

The process is called Fischer-Tropsch, named for the German scientists who developed the process in the 1920s for converting coal to diesel fuel, which later ran the Nazi war machine. In more recent decades, the process was used in South Africa to fuel its vehicles when the world would not trade with the apartheid nation. It still produces 150,000 barrels of fuel a day from coal. Energy technology firms in the United States and elsewhere have fine-tuned F-T to make both its process and products pollution-free.

“There are no smoke stacks,” Schweitzer said.

And a bit about the process and the results:

The F-T fuels are also clean - no sulfur, mercury or arsenic. Those ingredients are recovered from the process and are marketable byproducts on their own.

Schweitzer said a 150,000 barrel per day unit would cost about $7.5 billion to build. However, F-T units can be built in modules, so a 22,000 barrel per day unit could cost $1.2 billion, he said.

One impetus for the development of the F-T fuel is that the Pentagon wants to have a single battlefield fuel. The F-T product can be used as jet fuel also.

There are some obstacles, the governor acknowledged: Several different companies hold different patents for the process. For example, a Tulsa, Okla., company, Syntroleum, uses a process with common air, rather than pure oxygen, which make it safer and less expensive to make.

And it is the cost that heretofore has kept the process in the experimental/pilot project stages. For F-T, the break even point comes when crude oil is more than $35 a barrel. Friday crude oil futures settled at $60.57 a barrel.

And finally this line:

He said using the Fischer-Tropsch method, one ton of coal would produce 1.5 barrels of diesel fuel. A barrel is 42 gallons. “It would cost less that a $1 per gallon to make that diesel,” he said.

I ran into this article from an email list and the person who posted it was decrying that they were going to waste a whole ton of coal and only produce a barrel and a half of diesel.

It is all a plot by the evil BushHalliburtonChenyOilConspiracyCabal
(pauses to wipe spittle off face)

Something went click in my brain and I started to Google some numbers, specifically the energy densities of coal and diesel. The weights as well.

1.5 * 42 = 63 Gallons of Diesel
63 * 7.3 = 460 Weight in Pounds of 63 Gallons of Diesel (rounded)
460 * 0.453 = 208 Weight in Kilograms of 63 Gallons of Diesel
208 * 45.3 = 942 Mega Joules of energy in this quantity of Diesel

1 * 907.18 = 907 Kilograms in One Ton of Coal
907 * 20 = 18140 Mega Joules of energy in this quantity of Coal
(The Energy Density for Coal runs from 17.4MJ/kg to 23.8MJ/kg)

What this shows me is that for one dollar of operating costs, they are extracting one gallon of very high-grade pure Diesel, some marketable byproducts and over half of the potential energy of the coal.

Considering that the operating efficiency of a Coal Boiler is only about 40% at absolute best, this is a win/win situation.

UPDATE: I started wondering just how big is a ton of coal. Solid Bituminous is 1346 Kilograms per Cubic Meter and there are 264.17 Gallons per Cubic Meter. Doing the math:

907 / 1346 = 0.67 Cubic Meters for One Ton of Coal
63 / 264.17 = 0.23 Cubic Meters for 63 Gallons of Diesel.

We are looking at a reduction of one third in volume and considering that there are sellable byproducts from this reaction, not much is being wasted here…

Holy Crap

Mike King at Ramblings Journal links to this National Weather Service warning:

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

HURRICANE KATRINA

A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH…RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR HURRICANE FORCE…OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE…ARE CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.

ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET…DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE!

A thought on gas mileage

James Taranto does the wonderful “Best of the Web Today” every weekday.

Last Friday he printed a thoughtful comment from one of his readers:

Make SUV, Not War—II
Our item yesterday about hysterical opposition to sport-utility vehicles brought this thoughtful comment from reader David Bookstaber:

I must admit I hate SUVs. I think they are obnoxious and dangerous compared with lower, lighter cars, and I believe relatively few SUV owners use the cargo, towing, and off-road features that would justify their expense. But still, this anti-SUV hysteria misses the mark.

Rank the following groups according to their guilt in keeping us dependent on foreign oil:

• People who choose to drive an SUV that gets 15 miles a gallon instead of a sedan or wagon that gets 25 miles a gallon.
• People who choose to live 10 miles from where they work each day instead of five miles.
• People who choose to commute to work in private cars instead of on public transportation.
• People who choose to heat and cool a 5,000-square-foot house when they could maintain a 2,500-square-foot-house with the same number of rooms.
• People who choose to fly overseas for vacations instead of going to a local retreat.
• People who oppose nuclear power plants.

I don't believe the SUV owners are at the top of the list. And my guess is that many of the SUV haters won't countenance somebody questioning their decisions to live where they want, in what they want, or to vacation when and where they want, even though on net those decisions probably consume more oil than an individual decision to drive an SUV.

I would also wager that the anti-SUV crowd has a large intersection with the anti-nuclear-power crowd. which, amusingly, also intersects with the pro-Kyoto treaty crowd. You just can't win with some people.

Indeed.

Makes you think… It is not just the limousine liberals, it's what every person can do. The alignment of the anti-nuke crowd with the pro-Kyoto (and the whole “peak-oil” crowd is in there too) is delicious.

Fun with comment spam...

Been getting a bunch of comment spam attempts from Iran.
Several machines are being used (I track incoming data streams and resolve back to their ISP — even further if I want to spend the time).

The joke is that for a nation that is so morally “correct” in their own eyes, the spams are for porn and gambling for money. Both of these are very much forbidden under their practices.

These posts never made it onto the website — I'm running a couple scripts that block 99% of the bad stuff.

I was tempted to block the whole ISP but I'm just going to block the eight specific addresses. They aren't getting through and this gives the other 16K addresses the ability to see my site. (large ISP)

These people are beneath my contempt. Hypocrytes…

Katrina and New Orleans - getting closer

It looks like the hundred-year storm is coming.

Click for full-size Image

Expect gas prices to go over $3.00 and the price of heating fuel to rise.
Planning to order a cord or two more wood tomorrow…

Katrina and New Orleans

It does not look good for New Orleans…
Here is the latest three-day prediction from the National Hurricane Center:

Click for full-size Image

Steve H. at Hog on Ice has a bit of background on how sensitive this area is for several reasons and how this could affect all of us:

Putting Things In Perspective
Steve's hurricane could cause even more trouble…

When thinking about Hurricane Katrina, you might want to consider how she's going to affect your life. It doesn’t matter if you live on the Gulf Coast or not—Katrina just may affect you personally. In fact, no matter where you live in the US, this hurricane is packing enough punch to be felt from sea to shining sea, but I can't find anyone in the MSM talking about it.

Let me explain…

Most people don't think about the real damage being done by these hurricanes in the Gulf. The Gulf of Mexico is responsible for almost 1/4 of the nation's domestic oil and gas production—this doesn’t count the imported oil and gas that is offloaded in the Gulf—but I’ll get to that in a minute. When these hurricanes blow through, oil companies have to evacuate their rigs—which means shutting down production. Like sleep, you can never make up for lost production. There are production losses planned into the production schedule, but with a year like this one, we're falling behind—and it’s one of the reasons we’re feeling it at the pumps. Then you have the rigs themselves. Let’s take Thunderhorse for example. Thunderhorse is the world’s largest offshore platform. She’s 75% owned by BP and 25% by Exxon—BP is the operator. The rig is designed to take hurricanes and other weather events and remain operationally viable. However, when Hurricane Dennis came through, something went wrong and she started listing about 20 to 30 degrees. Fast work by BP crews and the US Coastguard prevented the loss of a $5 billion rig. None of these rigs out there are hurricane proof.

He also talks about Port Fourchon:

Most people have never heard of Port Fourchon, but it is the nation's premiere oil and gas support services facility—and right now it lies within 12 miles of Hurricane Katrina's CAT-3 or CAT-4 bullseye. Over 600 platforms and 75% of the Gulf’s deepwater projects lie within a 40-mile radius of Port Fourchon. Unfortunately, Port Fourchon is a Louisiana island. An island that is connected to the mainland by a single two lane bridge…an old, single two lane bridge. This bridge is the only means of getting cargo and supplies to the Port. More than 1,000 cargo trucks go across this bridge each day, delivering materials to the Port for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) drilling rigs. If there’s no bridge, there’re no drilling parts and supplies.

This is going to hit us hard regardless of where we live. I am very glad that President Bush has been quietly refilling our strategic oil reserves after it was drained during Clinton's administration. (He did this to artificially lower gas prices)

How to deal with Cable Trays in a Computer Lab

A few years ago, I worked for Microsoft as a Lab Manager.
I took care of the hardware while the developers used these machines for testing their new code.
A key issue is to be able to reconfigure the hardware as quickly as possible.

Since this is not a static “installation”, overhead cable trays are the best thing to use — you can move networking cables and fibre from rack to rack quickly.

The issue is that these trays are eight feet off the floor. The solution — drywall stilts.

Here is a photo of me in my previous incarnation as computer geek:

Media Whore

Mike King at Ramblings Journal puts two and two together.

Cindy Sheehan: “If I truly was a media whore…”
“I’m like if I truly was a media whore do you think I would like maybe get myself fixed up a little bit before I went on?”
—Cindy Sheehan

Mike's comment on the two: “'Nuff said.”

Here is a little more from Cindy giving the context for her media whore statement.
The website is uruknet.info “information from occupied iraq”

“…I don’t care about them talking about me being a crackpot or a media whore, or a tool of the left, you know. I’m like if I truly was a media whore do you think I would like maybe get myself fixed up a little bit before I went on? That doesn’t bother me at all, but what bothers me so much is when they say I am dishonoring my son’s memory by what I’m doing, that my son would be ashamed of me or what they really like to say is that I’m pissing, or shitting, or spitting on his grave.”

Sorry Cindy - he lived nobly and died with honor.
He wanted to go over there despite your trying to talk him out of it.
He enlisted not once but twice.
He volunteered for the mission into Basra where he was killed.
He knew the dangers but he thought that he was doing the right thing for America and for the Iraqi People.

By publicly calling him a child, by 'hinting' that he didn't want to go over there but was 'mislead' by his recruiting officer, you are demeaning him.
Your husband feels the same way — he just divorced you.
Your family feels the same way — they issued a statement saying that you are acting on your own and the family does not share your beliefs.

I would not go so far as to call you deranged but you certainly fit a lot of the symptoms…

Not a good place to be

I would not want to be in New Orleans this weekend:

Click for full-size Image

From here: National Weather Service Hurricane Center

Here is a webcam situated on Bourbon Street.
The majority of Old New Orleans is built on land that has been reclaimed from the sea and protected by a system of dikes and levees. This land is now dry but it is still below sea level. A network of pumps move rainwater and leakage back out to the Ocean but it's capacity is fixed.
A storm the scale of Katrina could put parts of New Orleans under 30' of water for up to ten days or more.

Price Controls and the high price of gas these days

Denny Wilson at Grouchy Old Cripple is in fine form and rants about a certain letter to his local newspaper:

Letter From Jerry
So I was reading the Saturday letters in the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation and I came across this gem.

Act now to head off cold-weather crisis

When heating costs go up —- and you know they will be out of sight —- are we going to have to sit around the house with coats, caps and wool stockings to keep warm?

People making minimum wage are going to have to choose between eating and trying to keep warm, much less buying gas to get to their jobs.

Let's hope our elected officials get off their duffs and do something before there is a real crisis. Just because they can afford it doesn't mean the rest of us can.

Georgians should let their elected officials know they are upset with them and remind them they can be voted out of office.
JERRY LEWIS, Marietta

It's ironic that this letter was written by someone named Jerry Lewis because it is hilarious. I like the part about sitting “around the house with coats, caps and wool stockings to keep warm”. Hey, remember Jimmah Carter suggested we turn down our thermostats to keep warm. I'll just bet this guy is a Dimocrat. He wants for “our elected officials get off their duffs and do something”. Whenever I hear that, it scares the shit out of me!

All right, Jerry. What do you want them to do?

Price controls? We tried that back in the 70's with Nixon, Ford, and Carter. That was a smashing success. Look anywhere in the world where there are price controls on any commodity and you will find shortages of that commodity. Do you want our gummint to repeal the Law of Supply and Demand? Can't be done. Gummints have been trying to do that since the ancient Persians. It's never worked. Ever. That's why centrally controlled economies always fail.

I know. Let's have the gummint impose gas mileage standards on SUVs. I see Minetta just came out with some of that bullshit. I got a better idea. Let's just do nothing and let gas prices seek the market level. The same thing will happen that happened in the 70's and the 80's. People decided they didn't want to pay those prices and sold their gas guzzlers. The same thing will happen again. There will come a time when people decide it's not worth spending $50 to fill up their gas guzzlers and will buy smaller and more efficient SUVs. Yep! It will happen.

The only way to keep the price of energy low is to increase the supply or decrease the demand. Better insulate your house. Buy a more efficient heating system. Buy better windows. Turn your thermostat down. Wear a sweater like Jimmah did when he was in the White House. What about the poor? Fuck 'em. Let 'em starve. They should have followed my three simple rules on how not to be poor.

So let's increase the supply.

Drill for more oil? Where? ANWR? The Dimocrats won't let us. California coast? The Dimocrats won't let us. The Gulf coast? Dimocrats won't let us. Off the Florida coast? Jeb and Dubya won't let us.

I know. Let's go to war against Canada and Mexico and steal their oil.

Maybe we oughta build more refineries? The environmentalists won't let us. We haven't built a new one in over 40 years.

There is one thing the gummint could do. Determine one gas blend to use throughout the country. Currently, due to environmental restrictions, there are 40 different blends used.

Not enough oil? Thank a Dimocrat.

Maybe we should build more nuke plants? Finally, it looks like we might do that.

The reason we have shortages and high prices is because our elected officials have gotten off their duffs and done something.

Unfortunately, everything they have done has been wrong.

What he said… His info about the refineries and the gasoline blends are all too correct. We have painted ourselves into a corner by “fixing” things without first taking a look at the big picture and factoring in the unintended consequences of our actions.

Homeopathy gets diluted to nothing

From the BBC News:

Homeopathy's benefit questioned
A leading medical journal has made a damning attack on homeopathy, saying it is no better than dummy drugs.

The Lancet says the time for more studies is over and doctors should be bold and honest with patients about homeopathy's “lack of benefit”.

A Swiss-UK review of 110 trials found no convincing evidence the treatment worked any better than a placebo.

Advocates of homeopathy maintained the therapy, which works on the principle of treating like with like, does work.

Continuing dispute

Someone with an allergy, for example, who was using homeopathic medicines would attempt to beat it with an ultra-diluted dose of an agent that would cause the same symptoms.

The row over homeopathy has been raging for years.

In 2002, American illusionist James Randi offered $1m to anyone able to prove, under observed conditions in a laboratory, that homeopathic remedies can really cure people.

To date, no-one has passed the preliminary tests.

In the UK, homeopathy is available on the NHS. Some argue that it should be more widely available, while others believe it should not be offered at all.

I can see where the mumbo-jumbo of Homeopathy gained traction during it's early history in the 1800's. Get a charismatic “Doctor” and the patient would feel cured of many minor ailments. “Well, it still hurts - but not as much as it did before the treatment…”

With today's availability of scientific thought and modern statistical analysis, it is downright amazing that anyone still believes this bunkum.

A wonderful site for debunking Homeopathy can be found here: Homeowatch

Just Like Vietnam...

Gerard Van Der Leun found a wonderful statement about how the current war in Iraq is “just like Vietnam…”

“Iraq is just like Vietnam except:
We occupy Hanoi. We've captured Ho Chi Minh. The North Vietnamese have just held a free and democratic election. The North Vietnamese are working on a new constitution. Yes, Iraq is just like Vietnam.”
— Art Fougner - Flushing, N.Y.

It is a quagmire of the worst order - just ask any liberal.

Step right up

For auction on eBay, I present for your perusal this little item:

From the description:

Up for auction today I have a BOMB SHELTER. This shelter was made by the Canadian government and was designed to be buried, and at one point it was buried on a CP (Canadian Pacific) rail line in central Alberta. It was to be used by local politicians. I have heard many ideals on what it could be used for now from a smokehouse to a root cellar, to a hydroponics grow room, prison, dads hidy hole or maybe the coolest club house for the kids. That’s up to you if you are the winner, just like if you want to put it in the ground or not.

Now to get to the size of it, the MAIN BODY is 14 feet by 8 feet by 8 feet. The entry tunnel comes out 5 feet from the main body (making it 19 feet in total) and then turns up 8 feet, this pipe is 3 feet wide and is fitted with 7 rung ladder.

Starting price is only $2K Canadian and there are no bids so far.
Own a piece of history!

At the rodeo

Spent the afternoon running errands, had dinner at a wonderful local Mexican restaurant and then attended the first annual Lynden Rodeo.

Despite minor problems with the sound system, it was a load of fun.
Very close to a sell-out crowd so it should be back again next year.

I will be writing about it (with photos) at our Brownsnout website tomorrow.

Now this is Harsh...

Someone at the U.S. Mint needs to get a clue… From USA Today:

U.S. Mint confiscates 10 rare gold coins
The U.S. Mint seized 10 Double Eagle gold coins from 1933, among the rarest and most valuable coins in the world, that were turned in by a jeweler seeking to determine their authenticity.

Joan S. Langbord plans a federal court lawsuit to try to recover them, her attorney, Barry H. Berke, said Wednesday. Langbord found the coins among the possessions of her father, longtime Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt, who had acknowledged having sold some of the coins decades ago. She now operates her father's business.

David Lebryk, acting director of the Mint, had announced in a news release that the rare coins, which were never put in circulation, had been taken from the Mint “in an unlawful manner” in the mid-1930's and now were “recovered.”

The coins, which are so rare that their value is almost beyond calculation, are public property, he said.

But Berke said Mint officials couldn't prove the coins had been stolen, or were subject to forfeiture.

In 2002, Sotheby's and numismatic firm Stack's auctioned off a 1933 Double Eagle coin for $7.59 million, the highest price ever paid for a coin. That Double Eagle, which is believed to have been part of a collection belonging to King Farouk of Egypt, surfaced when a coin dealer tried selling it to undercover Secret Service agents.

After a legal battle, the dealer was permitted to sell the coin at auction on the condition he split the proceeds with the Mint.

In its statement, the Mint said officials were still deciding what they would do with the seized coins, which are being held at Fort Knox. They said they had no plans to auction them but would consider saving “these historical artifacts” for public exhibits. Other double eagle coins seized in the past were melted down.

Double Eagles were first minted in 1850 with a face value of $20. The 445,500 coins minted in 1933 were never put into circulation because the nation went off the gold standard. All the coins were ordered melted down, but a handful are believed to have survived, including two handed over to the Smithsonian Institution.

Isn't there some statute of limitations on this?
I can see a legal element but there should also be compassion.

Gorgeous coins:

The 445,500 Double Eagle coins minted in 1933
never went into circulation because
the U.S. dropped the gold standard.

Truth in the Media - Part Two

Condoleezza Rice recently gave an exclusive interview to the New York Times.
While talking about Israel's Gaza pullout she was quoted as saying: “It cannot be Gaza only”
Turns out the NY Times shuffled several parts of the interview and put the “It cannot be Gaza only” quote way out of context.

Charles at LGF links to Rick Richman at Jewish Current Issues who looked at the State Department posted transcript of the interview and found some interesting variations…

Here is Rick Richman:

Condoleezza Rice and The New York Times
Last week, The New York Times published a story on their exclusive interview with Condoleezza Rice.

The first two paragraphs portrayed a Secretary of State focused, in the midst of a traumatic Israeli withdrawal, on signaling Israel that another one was next:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday offered sympathy for the Israeli settlers who are being removed from their homes in Gaza but also made it clear that she expected Israel and the Palestinians to take further steps in short order toward the creation of a Palestinian state.
“Everyone empathizes with what the Israelis are facing,” Ms. Rice said in an interview. But she added, “It cannot be Gaza only.”

Since the Roadmap calls for the dismantlement of Palestinian terrorist capabilities and infrastructure in Phase I — and does not require Israel to remove a single settlement (other than certain “outposts”) during that phase — Rice’s comments seemed gratuitously insulting. One would have thought she would emphasize the need for the Palestinians — after a unilateral Israeli withdrawal that went far beyond their initial Roadmap requirements — to comply with their own Roadmap obligations.

On the day of the Times story, a commenter at LibertyPost.org posted this comment: “This just doesn't sound right, or like Dr Rice. . . . She doesn't screw up like this.”

Indeed, it didn’t . . . she doesn’t . . .and in fact the Times made the quote up.

Rick then goes on:

The transcript of the interview was posted by the State Department this week. It shows that the purported quote — made the centerpiece of the Times story — was constructed by the Times from two separate, unrelated comments by Rice — one taken out of context, the other not even accurately quoted.

Rick's analysis is lengthy and excerpts don't do it justice.
Visit his site to read the whole thing.
Suffice to say, the NY Times doesn't come out of this looking very good.
Their lie and bias is very evident.

Truth in the Media - Part One

Cindy Sheehan has been grabbing a lot of press these days.
John Hinderaker at Power Line takes a look at one of the reporters covering this story:

If the Facts Don't Fit, Make Them Up
No one has contributed more to the enshrinement of Cindy Sheehan as an antiwar icon than AP reporter Angela Brown. Tonight, however, Brown stepped over the line with an outright misrepresentation of Sheehan's history. Brown's article, which likely will appear in hundreds of newspapers, describes Sheehan's return to Crawford, Texas. It begins:

A woman whose son was killed in Iraq returned to Texas Wednesday to resume her anti-war protest near President Bush's ranch after a weeklong absence to care for her ailing mother.

The article concludes with an outright whopper:

Sheehan and other grieving families met with Bush about two months after her son died last year, before reports of faulty prewar intelligence surfaced and caused her to become a vocal opponent of the war.

As anyone who has followed this story knows, this claim is utterly false. Sheehan has always been a “vocal opponent of the war;” her opposition had nothing to do with “reports of faulty prewar intelligence.” By her own account, as we noted here, Sheehan was bitterly opposed to the war before her son Casey re-enlisted in August 2003:

I begged Casey not to go. I told him I would take him to Canada. I told him I would run over him with a car, anything to get him not to go to that immoral war. *** The U.N. weapon inspectors were saying there were no weapons of mass destruction. So I believed all along that this invasion was unnecessary and that there was some other agenda behind it besides keeping America safe.

So, far from having been turned into a “vocal opponent” some time after her son's death, Ms. Sheehan already considered the war “immoral” before he re-enlisted in 2003, and she never did believe the intelligence about WMDs.

John then goes on to point out a couple other outright whoppers in Cindy's accounts of her talks with her son including this “fact”:

Sheehan, a Catholic youth minister for eight years, never wanted Casey to join the military. But he did after being misled by his recruiter, she said. Although he also opposed the war, he didn’t try to back out of his duty.

And John comments:
(Brown is AP reporter Angela Brown)

Brown must have known about Casey's re-enlistment, but she relates the story as though Casey was “misled by his recruiter” and thereupon was sent directly to Iraq. It's a little hard to claim, of course, that a soldier re-enlisted because he was misled by a recruiter, so, once again, Casey Sheehan's re-enlistment is discreetly dropped from the story.

Operation Crossroads

Operation Crossroads was the code name for a set of two atomic bomb blasts on the Island of Bikini in 1946. Among the people observing these tests were three artists and a collection of their work is available online here: Operation Crossroads: Bikini Atoll

Here are three:

Start of Able Bomb — Charles Bittinger

Cross Spikes Club — Arthur Beaumont

King Juda of Bikini Island — Grant Powers

These are just thumbnails, larger copies of these are available at the website. Wonderful stuff!

Hat tip to BoingBoing for the link!

Very cool idea for a tow truck

Your car has broken down; it's rush hour and you call for a tow.
How long does it take the tow truck to get to you.

A lot less time than you would expect if it is one of these:

What you are looking at is a Honda GL 1800 GoldWing which has had a special towing rig attached to it.

The rig is folded up behind a cowling until deployed. It has an independent braking system that makes the whole package stable and easy to drive. Maximum weight limit for the vehicle under tow is about 5,000 pounds!

This is one of those ideas that is so good and so out-of-the-blue that you know the inventor got a puzzled expression on their face one day and reached for a pad and pencil to scribble on. This was followed by several years of maxing out credit cards and late night tinkering but it's here now and it seems to work. Very cool!

Problems at the Nations Museum

The physical infrastructure of the Smithsonian Institution is in trouble.
The NY Times has the story:

The Smithsonian's Newest Exhibits: Water Stains
It may not be obvious to the throngs of tourists who flock daily to its famed museums, but the Smithsonian Institution is falling apart.

Ominous drips from strained expansion joints have sprinkled down amid Asian artifacts in the institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The historic Arts and Industries Building is closed to visitors to protect them from metal panels dropping from its beautiful but dilapidated ceiling. At the National Air and Space Museum, a water stain mars the Lilienthal hang glider that inspired the Wright Brothers to fly. Even the 1940's prototypes of what was to become seemingly indestructible Tupperware were irreparably damaged in a plumbing breakdown.

The world's largest museum complex, the Smithsonian includes 18 museums and galleries, 10 science centers and a zoological park. It is charged with conserving and displaying the country's treasures, both grand and whimsical - the Star-Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry, bits of moon rock from the earliest space missions, the “puffy shirt” worn by Jerry Seinfeld in his hit television series.

But years of inadequate financing and maintenance have led to widespread disrepair that is imperiling the collections, institution officials say.

This month, Congress slightly increased appropriations for the federally supported institution to $621.3 million for fiscal year 2006, up from $615.2 million this year.

But Smithsonian officials say that is not enough to address what a recent audit by the Government Accountability Office determined was a “broad decline in the Smithsonian's aging facilities and systems that pose a serious long-term threat” to its countless artifacts.

Smithsonian officials estimate that it will take a total of $2.3 billion over the next nine years to solve the most pressing problems. The Board of Regents, the institution's governing body, has considered charging entrance fees to compensate for the budget shortfall. Since it was established in 1846, the Smithsonian has never charged for admission, and Sheila P. Burke, the institution's deputy secretary and chief operating officer, said that so far the recommendation had been voted down.

“These are the nation's treasures,” she said. “Ultimately we feel protecting them is a federal responsibility.”

Private donations have increased over the last decade, officials said. But donors tend to direct money toward exhibitions and programs or, in the case of major contributors, special projects that can be named for them. In September 2000, Kenneth E. Behring, a California developer and philanthropist, gave $80 million to the National Museum of American History, which now has “Behring Center” attached to its name. But the money was primarily earmarked for the design of major new exhibition areas, including a hall devoted to military history that opened last year. “It is difficult to raise money for plaster and plumbing,” Ms. Burke said.

“Everyone is holding their breath,” said Mark Goldstein, director of the yearlong audit, whose results were published in April. “They have been relatively lucky so far, but who is to say they will be so lucky in the future if they are unable to fix the damage they are currently presented with?”

This sucks. These are our national treasures (Jerry's puffy shirt notwithstanding) and deserve to be kept in better conditions. Why did the Smithsonian Management let it decline into this state and why aren't they doing more fund-raising. Sure, “It is difficult to raise money for plaster and plumbing” but I bet people would be willing to dig in and give some more if they knew how much they were helping. Gifts don't have to be for shinny new things, they can be for treasured older things too…

A rough time at the Movies

Ars Technica has a good story about Hollywood's late awakening.

Hollywood faces the music: bad movies mean bad ticket sales
Last summer's movie scene was a let down for Hollywood studio executives, and it looks like this year will be even worse, despite the best efforts of Revenge of the Sith, Batman Begins, and War of the Worlds. Attendance compared to last year is down 11.5 percent, and that leaves the industry rushing about looking for a way to stop the bleeding.

Of course, we all know that Hollywood is having a rough time in the theatres, but what's surprising about this New York Times article is that the studios are apparently now beginning to entertain one theory pertaining to their dwindling tickets sales that I never thought I'd see: that's right, they're on to the fact that most of their movies are garbage. Not only that, but they're also frustrated that they can't salvage their bad movies with marketing.

“Part of this is the fact that the movies may not have lived up to the expectations of the audience, not just in this year, but in years prior,” said Michael Lynton, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “Audiences have gotten smart to the marketing, and they can smell the good ones from the bad ones at a distance.”

I'm not sure that Michael Lynton meant to admit that they knowingly bring bad films to the screen with the hopes of promotion and marketing victories, but he did. Add to that the fact that Sony had to settle a class action lawsuit for making up completely fake movie reviews involving a fictitious reviewer, and you've got the secret recipe for comedy gold.

Jan Jen and I can always tell when the trailer has the best shots.
The author brings up a very interesting idea:

This brings me back to something I've been calling for: simultaneous theatrical and DVD releases (and I like to throw in pay per view as well). Not everyone is a big fan of the idea, however. John Fithian, who happens to be the president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said that the structure of the movie industry is “sound,” and that Hollywood execs looking at simultaneous releases are issuing “death threats.”

Actually, they're not death threats, they're wake-up calls. If you wanted to hear Beethoven 100 years ago, you went to the symphony because that was the only way you could hear and experience it. Now it's merely an option, and most of us listen to our modern “composers” on our own terms. In my area, two adult movie tickets will run US$22, and if you dare to get a medium popcorn and two drinks, that adds $10.50 to the cost. Sorry, but $32.50 is a ridiculous amount of money for that “experience,” especially when two cans of coke and better popcorn at home costs $2, at most.

John Bolton at work

According to this article at the Washington Post, John Bolton has wasted no time getting down to work at his new job.

U.S. Wants Changes In U.N. Agreement
Less than a month before world leaders arrive in New York for a world summit on poverty and U.N. reform, the Bush administration has thrown the proceedings in turmoil with a call for drastic renegotiation of a draft agreement to be signed by presidents and prime ministers attending the event.

The United States has only recently introduced more than 750 amendments that would eliminate new pledges of foreign aid to impoverished nations, scrap provisions that call for action to halt climate change and urge nuclear powers to make greater progress in dismantling their nuclear arms. At the same time, the administration is urging members of the United Nations to strengthen language in the 29-page document that would underscore the importance of taking tougher action against terrorism, promoting human rights and democracy, and halting the spread of the world's deadliest weapons.

Next month's summit, an unusual meeting at the United Nations of heads of state, was called by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to reinvigorate efforts to fight poverty and to take stronger steps in the battles against terrorism and genocide. The leaders of 175 nations are expected to attend and sign the agreement, which has been under negotiation for six months.

But Annan's effort to press for changes has been hampered by investigations into fraud in the U.N. oil-for-food program and revelations of sexual misconduct by U.N. peacekeepers.

The United Nations originally scheduled the Sept. 14 summit as a follow-up to the 2000 Millennium Summit, which produced commitments by U.N. members to meet deadlines over the next 15 years aimed at reducing poverty, preventable diseases and other scourges of the world's poor. But the Bush administration is seeking to focus attention on the need to streamline U.N. bureaucracy, establish a democracy fund, strengthen the U.N. human rights office and support a U.S. initiative to halt the trade in weapons of mass destruction.

The U.S. amendments call for striking any mention of the Millennium Development Goals, and the administration has publicly complained that the document's section on poverty is too long. Instead, the United States has sought to underscore the importance of the Monterrey Consensus, a 2002 summit in Mexico that focused on free-market reforms, and required governments to improve accountability in exchange for aid and debt relief.

The proposed U.S. amendments, contained in a confidential 36-page document obtained by The Washington Post, have been presented this week to select envoys. The U.N. General Assembly's president, Jean Ping of Gabon, is organizing a core group of 20 to 30 countries, including the United States and other major powers, to engage in an intensive final round of negotiations in an attempt to strike a deal.

“Now it is maybe time to go on some key issues where we still have controversies and negotiate on these key issues,” he said Tuesday.

The proposed changes, submitted by U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton, touch on virtually every aspect of U.N. affairs and provide a detailed look at U.S. concerns about the world body's future. They underscore U.S. efforts to impose greater oversight of U.N. spending and to eliminate any reference to the International Criminal Court. The administration also opposes language that urges the five permanent members of the Security Council not to cast vetoes to block action to halt genocide, war crimes or ethnic cleansing.

What's that Carpenters song title again?
Oh yes: “We've Only Just Begun”

Heh… A much needed breath of fresh air.
How could anyone have opposed him so much?

Waiter Rant

Wonderful weblog from a Professional Waiter.
Here is an excerpt from one post:

Penmanship
“Waiter,” the customer asks testily, “Are you trying to tell me something?”

“Excuse me sir?” I reply, confused.

The man waves the pen I gave him to sign the check. It's one of those pharmaceutical pens. You know the ones drug reps hand out like candy in doctor's offices? It's labeled ZOCOR.

“Do you know what Zocor's for?” the man asks.

“It's for high cholesterol sir,” I reply.

“Are you being a smartass?” the man says.

I stifle a laugh. This guy's at least three hundred pounds.

“Sir, it's just a pen.” I say.

“Just checking,” the man snorts. My, isn't he the sensitive type? Idiot.

He then goes on to sugest that Waiters present specific pens to specific clients as a sort of subliminal jab. Some examples:

Zoloft – Good for the obsessive compulsive guy who double checks the bill 5 times. (OCD)
Lipitor – You just had to have extra cheese with that, right pal? (Cholesterol)
Campral – Maybe you should stop drinking. (Alcoholism)
Paxil – Customer eating alone? (Social Anxiety Disorder)
Viagra – Ladies, sick of the old perv staring at your tits? (Erectile dysfunction)
Zyban – For the customer who bitches about the no smoking rule. (Nicotine Addiction)
Ritalin – Didn’t pay attention while I recited the specials? Bastard. (Adult ADD)
Nexium – But you asked for it spicy sir. (Acid reflux disease)
Propecia – You may have money you rude arrogant bastard - but I have all my hair. (Baldness)

Heh…

The Price of Gas

Interesting chart. Stuart at Randomuseless.Info kept a record of the price per gallon for the last 26 years and presents it as a graph. He also includes the overall USA City Average numbers and the two track pretty well.

What is interesting is that the third line is the data adjusted for inflation.

Click for full-size Image

He provides the raw data if you want to play around with it yourself.
Right now, at $2.80/gallon, we are effectively paying $0.90 in 1979 dollars.
In 1979, gas was $0.80/gallon but quickly rose to over $1.30/gallon.
Carter was president from 1977 through 1981 so this was on his watch.
Under Ronald Regan, prices stabilized and began a decline. They have been holding quite stable up until recently.

Two on China

The Communist Government of China has been flexing its muscles recently.

From the Epoch Times International:

CCP Official Claims Sino-Japanese War Possible by Year’s End
Yuan Hongbing: CCP’s turn towards fascism is the most urgent danger for humankind

Tang Chunfeng, the former commercial counselor for the Chinese Embassy in Japan, said in Hong Kong recently that a war could break out between China and Japan this year. The remark followed on the heels of Chinese General Zhu Chenghu’s speech on the use of nuclear weapons against the United States. Former Beijing University professor Yuan Hongbing said that Tang’s speech proves again that the CCP’s turn toward fascism presents the most urgent danger for humankind. The danger is no less than before World War II.

On August 10, Tang Chunfeng, who now works for the Department of Commerce, said in Hong Kong that a military clash could erupt between China and Japan by the end of this year. He fears that Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, faced with a domestic political crisis, “is bound to provoke a dispute with China, playing on the tensions over the disputed ownership of the East Sea oil and gas fields.”

I had written about General Chenghu here: China's War

Next up is this question from Jane's

Is China building a carrier?
Chinese shipyard workers have been repairing a badly damaged ex-Russian aircraft carrier and have repainted it with the country's military markings, raising the question once again of whether China is pursuing longer-term plans to field its first carrier.

In the latest developments, images show that workers at the Chinese Dalian Shipyard have repainted the ex-Russian Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Varyag with the markings and colour scheme of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy (PLAN). Additional new photographs show that other work, the specifics of which could not be determined, appears to be continuing and that the condition of the vessel is being improved.

JDW believes that PLAN technicians have also conducted thorough studies of the basic structure of the Varyag during the past few years to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the carrier's structural design. Former PLAN commander General Liu Huaqing stated in his memoirs that China had purchased blueprints for the carrier - a fact that Russian sources confirmed to JDW. Moreover, Gen Huaqing added: “The competent departments of the defence industry employed Russian aircraft carrier designers to come to China and give lectures.”

Still, China's ultimate intentions for the Varyag remain unclear. One possibility is that Beijing intends to eventually have it enter into some level of service. A military strategist from a Chinese military university has commented publicly that the Varyag “would be China's first aircraft carrier”.

Why do they need it — are they in danger of being attacked?
Or do they have plans to expand their territories to include parts of Japan and Taiwan. We have know what good overlords they have been in Tibet…

Tin Toys

Not your usual Tonka Truck… Retro 1-2-3 makes large and wonderfully detailed metal toys.

Here are some photos of their GM Futurliner.

These 'toys' are 33” long and weigh 42 pounds. Price is $1,845.

For information about the real Futurliner, check here
A fascinating vehicle…

New entry to Blogroll

Ran into this one last night.

My Life as a…Gas Station Attendant.
The online journal of a man and his daily and weekly struggles with 40oz-guzzling vagrants, gasoline pump drive-offs, cantankerous coworkers, and eighteen-year-old gangsta potheads who don't think I can spot their fake ID's. It's a Tennessee tragedy, here for your amusement. Some names have been changed to protect the indolent.

Here is an excerpt from this story:

By any Other Name.
There is a young lady standing in front of my counter; clinically speaking, a fascinating series of events is taking place. The twin clusters of cells that are my eyes are perceiving her dimensions, in their primitive and deeply limited capacity to perceive space and color. They are sending messages to the ancient, instinctive part of my brain called the amygdala. The message they are sending can be roughly translated thus: this is a female of your species, of adequate height, with large, bright eyes, indicating perception and inquisitiveness. Its round, full hips and round, full breasts, respectively, indicate excellent childbearing and childrearing capacity. Her colorful decorative attire suggests good grooming status, an excellent ploy to attract mates and keep offspring free from disease and infection.

The newfangled, oh-so-clever part of my brain called the cerebral cortex translates this information into other words so that I can comfort myself by thinking that I am more than a monkey wishing to pass on its monkey genetic material. It gives me a slightly more refined message: there’s a hot, brown-eyed, brunette, nineteen-year-old college girl with a unique, funky sartorial sense about her, standing in front of me looking to buy a pack of cigarettes.

Good storytelling.

Big Meat Eater

This looks really good.
An indie film from Canada: Big Meat Eater

STORY
Bob Sanderson is the mild mannered butcher of the small, sleepy town of Burquitlam. His motto is “Pleased to meet you, meat to please you.” Bob's l