June 2004 Archives

OK, fine, despite the abuse, I'll admit it. I love Canada.

No really, parliamentary politics. I just was reflecting today what a cute system of government it is. I'm not convinced that it's superior to the US's Republican model, but it is interesting.

I am cautiously hopeful that the change in sovereignty in Iraq will help to normalize the situation there. But it seems like a difficult road ahead. It seems to me that the best thing Allawi could do for himself politically is to find something to disagree with the US about, and soon.

OK, here are some "Power Google" tips, because I'm a geek and not too proud to admit it.

Just came down from watching the International Freedom Festival Fireworks on my roof. Just incredible.

In case you haven't been through the comments, Andy posted a super-cool article about the increasing feasibility of a "space elevator". Gravity holds it down to earth on one end, and the rotation of the earth keeps it out on the other end*. The only problem was having an appropriate structure to balance those forces.

Well, that and the actually doing it part. Anyway, check it out.

*Geeky Physics Note below (BEWARE)

Several questions ocurred to me while watching the recent ad-war between Bud and Miller.

1) Why would a company want to align itself with an annoying smarmy politician type, probably the single least popular archetype possible?

2) Wow, doesn't Budweiser seem really pissed off?

3) Has any of this ever made someone want to drink that swill?

Fortunately, Slate comes to the rescue with an ad report card covering the whole thing.

Like Seth, I eagerly await to see if Miller can come up with a response. All this attention has approximately 0% chance of causing me to drink anything made by one of these companies.

(Disclosure: OK, I admit it, I actually like High Life. But I'll do without the rest of it. )

And so I have returned from the black-hole dev-null of server limbo and have emerged on the other side alive and refreshed. Which is nice.

But the big news of the day (if you're me) is Bert Rutan and his pilot Mike Melvill successfully testing their X-Prize entry SpaceShipOne. After detaching from White Knight, a first stage carrier plane, the smaller SpaceShipOne (a little bigger than an Oldsmobile) blasted off up to 62 miles from Earth, which put it right at the border where "space" is considered to begin.

In all the current media onslaught, I suppose I should say something about Ronald Reagan.

Something.

Rolf Peterson was on Stateside today. My fellow Michigan Tech alumni may remember him; for the rest of you, he is a biology researcher who does most of his work on wolf populations, including a lot of research (over 30 years) on Isle Royale.

I spent the weekend at the Movement Festival (formerly known as the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. In thinking about it, I wanted to take a quick moment to make a pitch *for* Detroit, which is something you don't hear real often.