Reports From My Nanocosm

Finally, ‘Deep Throat’ has stepped forward and taken a bow he earned long-ago for fighting corruption in the Nixon White House. He deserves only applause and hearty toasts for what he did against the  potential risks to career, limbs and life. I consider this act heroic and patriotic, right up there with the founding fathers for their rebellion against the British crown  and Daniel Ellsberg  leaking the Pentagon Papers.

Even then, I’m concerned that he wasn’t in the right mind to decide for himself to step out of the shadows, specifically what the Vanity Affair piece calls a diminished ‘mental acuity’.

Update: I can’t help but comment on an article posted on the front page of Yahoo! with the headline: Nixon aides condemn ‘Deep Throat’ for betrayal (AFP via Y! News).

The press shouldn’t even bother with these sorts of articles. We already know how those prosectuted in the wake of the Watergate scandal feel.

G. Gordon Liddy, one of the guys responsible for Watergate is quoted as saying Mark Felt “violated the ethics of the law enforcement profession” for being Deep Throat. On the contrary, I feel he would have violated the ethics of law enforcement if he hadn’t blown the whistle about the cover-up. Mr. Liddy should be the last to comment about others violating ethics.

update: I should note that I only find this one act heroic. This is a man, after all, who was convicted of violating the law and was a leader at the FBI during an era they spied on many Americans without cause.

“The chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Assn. is worried enough about the torrid housing market to get out of it.

“I’m going to rent for a while,” said Douglas Duncan, who expects “significant reversals” in regions that have enjoyed strong home price appreciation, including Washington, D.C., Florida and California.”

That quote starts an interesting article in Sunday’s L.A. Times about whether or not there is a housing bubble: It’s Not a Bubble Until It Bursts

Personally, I think it is a bubble and that housing prices will eventually adjust to follow what people can afford on a monthly basis. So if that is $1400/month at 6%, the prices will follow and will equal out at $1400/month at 7%, 8% and 9%. Home prices will go further down if interest rates go up and force people financing with Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) to sell because they can no longer afford their homes. Right now, it sounds like many in California are stretching to buy with risky loan packages such as interest-only mortgages (1/2 of California mortgages last month and 2/3 of bay area mortgages last month) . I’m surprised banks are still funding risky mortgages.

Man, I love being a psuedo-Surfer because of the gems and nuggets like this one sent out earlier this week. Thanks Kevin! I put them together in one image to get around 360’s one photo-per-post limit.

BTW: Avoiding Spector’s trial is an unintended, positive consequence of our move.  I can only imagine the circus engulfing Alhambra. Good thing there are plenty of restaurants to feed the hungry masses.

Scientific American has compiled 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense. I take it that they aren’t laughing right now about the Creation Evidence Museum and Creation Museum.

My take on the debate is: evolve or die!

A couple mornings ago, I noticed a nail or metal rod sticking out from between the hub and cap of my front, driver-side tire.  I bent down to touch it but quickly recoiled when I noticed it was hairy. Turns out a large mouse or small rat had trapped itself between the hub and cap of my car’s tire and expired. I’m not sure how it got there but it’s dead. Just my luck.

Update: I removed the rat about 5 days later, after driving from the bay area to LA and enduring a coupleof 90 degree days. By then, it was black and crusty which made it easy to remove. It stuck to the hub cap so I just needed to flick it off into the trash can. Good thing it  didn’t smell.

The Blue Cube is the windowless sky blue building on Mathilda, down the street from Yahoo!’s office. It is part of Onizuka Air Force Station, a small military installation on the proposed list of base closures released today by the Pentagon. According to Chuck, the Soviet Union had nukes with a  permanent fix on that building during the Cold War, a story I can belive since it was a command center for US military satellites.

update: Tim Oren has more information and better links about the Blue Cube. What can I say, I’m a recent transplant.  I found this link in his post most interesting since it shows what the area was like in 1970 and now. The Yahoo! mother ship isn’t very clear but it is straight up from A, along the bay, in the second photo.

Sometimes I’m amazed at the restroom behavior of others so I’ve decided to fashion a cheat sheet of sorts for using public restrooms. And, yes, this was inspired by the ruthless acts of others in my company’s lavatories.

(1) Wash your hands with soap when you’re finished. It is a well known fact that germs are spread when people don’t wash after using the facilities. If your hands dry out, use lotion. If you’re afraid of killing bunnies, find a lotion that wasn’t tested on animals. See me if you need more help.
(2) Men, use the urinals to pee into. Avoid using the toilets which splash. If you pee into the toilets, clean up your own splash and mistakes. Don’t leave a mess for the next person. Nasty!
(3) When done washing your hands, flick them into the sink to knock off excess water. Otherwise some of it ends up on the floor and increases the risk that someone might slip and fall.
(4) Don’t talk on the cell phone. Just silence the ringer. Business or family can wait the few minutes it takes to finish up.
(5) Don’t leave your newspaper or printouts. Not everyone wants your used papers or to work around them when reaching for more important papers.
(6) If you miss the trash can when throwing paper towel away, reach down and pick it up. You make us all look like slobs if you don’t.

Anything I miss?

Batteries are a necessity. Car batteries even more so. We found this out Sunday evening. Also found out how lucky we are sometimes, even if we haven’t won the lotto yet

We’re moving back by the bay and now have an apartment. We found a landlord willing to play Let’s Make a Deal and arrived Sunday about 4:30 to pick up the keys. We beat Al, the landlord, to the apartment by 30 minutes so I turned off the car but kept the radio on in the background. About 5 minutes later, I noticed that the radio was silent and said: “Hmmm… Sounds like KFOG lost their signal.” I changed the station. I changed again. “What the …”  Then the interior lights started flashing, power locks locked and unlocked a few times, and the horn sounded once. Almost reminded me of a pinball machine.

After the shock wore out, I tried to start the car. Turning the key only resulted in a series of loud fast clicks. I tried it again but only got the same loud clicks. “What the…” The last time I experienced something similar was the starter dying in my rusty and not-so-trusty K car back in high school. So I figured that was the problem.

We were parked in the street, so after getting the keys from Al, we lugged the few living essentials we’d brought along up to the apartment. Fortunately, it is a small place and the boxes were light. The two boxes of books we left in the car. It isn’t possible to get a starter replaced on a Sunday evening so we let it be for the night. We walked the two miles to Trader Joe’s and Target to get some cleaning supplies and breakfast cereal. I hadn’t walked that long in a while. I can thank car-happy L.A. and San Jose for that.

Monday, I walked a mile to the light rail station and rode public transportation to work for the first time. It took me an hour from door-to-cubicle. Not a bad commute, particulary considering the work out I got. While at work I called Japanese Beetle, the mechanic I had the last time I lived in the area.

“Hello

Japanese Beetle. Can I help you?

I have a ‘98 Honda Civic that won’t start. I think it might be the starter. It just makes a loud fast clicking sound.

Sounds like the battery to me. Do the dashboard lights come on? Are they dim?

The dashboard lights come on. The radio works. The lights aren’t dim. The alarm works. We talked about jumping it but if is the starter, it wouldn’t make sense to try.

It’s the battery. Jumping it would just bypass the dead battery. If it won’t hold a charge, you’ll have the same problem the next time you try to start it. You should check the battery out. You can tow it here and I can run a voltage test. But I’ll bet you need to replace the battery.

Ok, I’ll check that out. Thanks. “

I didn’t have time after work so we walked to Sears this morning. It is about two miles away (next door to Trader Joe’s). Where else do you get batteries and tools from, other than Sears?  While there I found out that car batteries are heavy, even ones made for little Honda Civics. I wouldn’t doubt it weighed 30 pounds or more.

And this is where my plan nearly fell apart. The battery didn’t have a handle. It didn’t have rollers. And it is filled with Sulphuric acid and heavy metals – the warning says it may explode.

Walking home wouldn’t work; my arms would be jelly before I got there. Stealing a shopping cart is just that – stealing. Hitching a ride would be difficult. And friends were already at work. So we settled on the VTA bus. There was a stop across the street.

As we boarded, the bus driver looked at me, then the battery, then me and back at the battery. “You can’t bring a battery on this bus. It isn’t allowed.”  My reply was a silent, dumbfounded stare. What could I say, it isn’t legal to bring a car battery on a bus. Now what? Good thing the driver had half a brain. “Get in the back. I’m transferring at the next stop and I don’t know what the next driver will say to you.” Whew, that was very lucky. I’m not sure how I could have gotten home otherwise with the lead weight in my hands and my arms already feeling like jelly.

The next driver didn’t know we had the battery, we made it back and replaced the battery with no other incident. My car works fine so far. We’ll know soon enough if the battery was the problem or something else is.

Here are few things I got out of this whole experience:
- Lady luck was on our side. Sure, we didn’t win the lottery but the battery didn’t die in Kettleman City where we bought gas or someplace in between.
- KFOG didn’t lose their signal on Sunday. Only my car did.
- Dying batteries can sound like a pinball machine.
- Dead batteries that can’t hold a charge can still have enough juice to make loud, fast clicking noises
- We made a good choice of apartment locations. Light rail is a real transit option for me; the unintended consequence is the exercise I get.
- Small car batteries are very heavy. I don’t want to know what a truck battery weighs.
- It is illegal to take a car battery onto a public bus. The MAN expects you to hoof it back to your car.
- Some bus drivers are cool and use their discretion to thwart the system and rules that don’t make sense. Reward that man.

btw: if you have a Honda Civic about to reach 105 thousand miles, you may want to consider changing the battery now.

Watch this video if you really need to get your stuff done. Turn on your sound.

This is one of the most fun ways to procrastinate. Gotta love modern life and the distractions it provides.

Ever wonder how prevalent your name was in the past, is now, or is becoming? This neat Baby Name Wizard now gives you that information in a graphical format. It isn’t perfect but it shows the prevalence of baby names in America over the past century. You don’t need to be expecting to be sucked in.

http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
I’m most fascinated by names whose popularity are driven by events. Some examples:
Adolph was negatively affected by Adolph Hitler’s rise to power
Rhiannon was relatively obscure before the Fleetwood Mac song hit the airwaves (in 1976).
Jacklyn became a more common spelling of Jacqueline after Jacklyn Smith and Charlie’s Angels took off (1976).

Also, some names seem to have dropped off the charts, such as Agnes, Bertha and Truman. Notice others? 

Check out these satellite photos of Frenchman Flat, Nevada where the US. gov’t detonated 14 atmospheric and 5 underground nuclear bombs between 1951 to 1968. Trippy. And, yes, it is a GMap.

There appear to be more than 19 craters or sinkholes in the pictures so I’m assuming the gov’t tested nuclear warheads they haven’t disclosed yet or large quantities of conventional bombs. Maybe they decided to test out theories about how much power is in each warhead. I can imagine that conversation.

Why don’t I find it surprising that someone would believe most towns in America fly the rebel Confederate flag and have a fat shirtless man smoking a cigarette in public?

AP (via Y! News): Ky. Town Angry Over Unflattering A&E Show
“You start the piece by showing a rebel flag on Julius Avenue, an overweight man without a shirt smoking a cigarette and an old pickup with a few women in the back,” Blackburn said. “As I am sure you would agree, you can go to almost any city in America and find the same.”
 – Pikeville, KY City Manager Donovan Blackburn referring to how an A&E documentary negatively portrayed his city.

Maybe he was just referring to most towns in Kentucky or the South, but he obviously doesn’t wander too far from home.