The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Doug K:

good article on this by Gina Kolata at the NYT

this canard also reared its ugly head when Meb won his Olympic medal. letsrun.com has a discussion forum with an number of ignorant jingos, many of whom believe that Meb is not a 'real' American. They were beaten down eventually, I'm happy to say.

I'm a technical American from Africa too. I ran the Boston marathon in 1991 with some qualms, as I was still a South African citizen and as such not eligible to compete anywhere in the civilized world. Luckily there was never any danger of me winning so I just hid in the crowd..

I freecycled an old PC. First I had to spend over a week's worth of evenings to reinstall everything and burn install CDs for all the software: only because it seemed a waste to recycle a perfectly functional if outdated PC. Also, there are some values of 'recycle' for which it means 'shipped to China and broken down with hammers and pots of acid into toxic waste'. I was afraid no-one would want my elderly PC. In the event it was in high demand and went to a single mom who needed it for her evening classes, so it worked out well. That was a month or two ago, still through Yahoo Groups at that time.

Erik @6, I've noticed the same Rule of Condo Naming - Whispering Pines, when the trees were clearcut; The Corners at Crystal Lakes (I actually lived there) built over the old spring-fed swimming holes; und so depressingly weiter. Most peculiar.

in Denver we had sub-freezing on Saturday. The dog happily chased ducks up and down the barely liquid river. Today it was nearly 70 so I biked out on the riverside trail at lunchtime. Drifts of cottonwood leaves plastered the trail, making the corners a tad slithery. Implausible flocks of pelicans cruised on the lake. winter, winter on the way..

thank you for the Copenhagenize link, apart from bike considerations I've been fantasizing about visiting that city.

it's common knowledge that bicycles in the US are only for kids and Lycra-clad freaks. I found this amusing - the ITU held a triathlon in Washington DC, according to Simon Whitfield
"the official written warning we received from the race committee:

5a. drivers in the United States are NOT used to bicycles on the road. Please note you will be riding at your own risk.

Yes apparently these two wheeled fancy contraptions just made it to America. I hope it catches on."

A sidelight on the helmet wars: for solo racing, helmets are faster than no helmets. Like this. As a lycra-clad freak myself (my alter ego is a mild-mannered bike commuter), I own several helmets.

Adrian @46, on the subject of innovation, that particular assertion has been comprehensively refuted for drugs at least.
See for example
http://www.gooznews.com/archives/00956.html
Briefly stated, "science and public health drive real innovation, while the market innovates products that satisfies a demand that may or may not have anything to do with public health."

The invaluable Ezra Klein makes the same point, as well as observing that innovation is useful only on the margins - we don't need innovation as much as we need to implement what is known to work.
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=08&year=2008&base_name=the_perils_of_innovation

John @44, Alex has written about the infestation of managerialism in NHS IT, well worth reading,
http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/search/label/NHS

The problem of a healthcare IT system has been solved by Vista (the Veterans Admin system) but it's free which is unacceptable. So, it's being killed by the profit motive.
http://www.healthbeatblog.org/2008/06/sapping-vistas.html
As Ezra (again) has observed, the real healthcare problem is a dysfunctional political system.

My only hope is that the camel's nose of a public good can be inserted into the Republican tent, where they huddle reciting free-market mantras and readings from Ayn Rand. But as Stefan notes, the forces of the stupid arrayed against reform are both wicked and strong. I am so tired of fighting falsity.

q in #7,
"how many textbooks would have to be loaded on a Kindle to make it cheaper for someone to buy the used Kindle than to buy the texts new in either paper or digital form?"

the answer is 2 or 3, for the average biology, chemistry etc. textbook.

However per the EULA extract in #40, you're not allowed to sell the Kindle with content,
"you may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content". Oh well.

Thanks C. Wingate, for the link to Chegg. That seems like a good idea, at least until it gets shut down..
In Florida, it's actually gone to law - it lays down the requirements for textbooks in the community colleges.
http://laws.flrules.org/files/Ch_2008-078.pdf
As part of this effort, the CCs are planning to publish their own e-textbooks.

@44, but then there's "goedkoop is duur koop", or "buying cheaply is expensive", also part of the Dutch approach..

my forebears were Dutch and Scots, so we know the value of a penny. Bang went Saxpence in fact - another one of those antediluvian Punch cartoons, a Scot complaining about the expense of London, "Mun, a had na' been the-erre abune Twa Hoours when- Bang went Saxpence!!!"

@42, yes, the autobahn speeds are not what they seem. I drove from Frankfurt to Switzerland, at 160km/h whenever legal and possible, but averaged 105km/h in cold fact. Now I can drive for half an hour and still be in the suburbs of Denver, never mind getting to downtown or actually out of town. So much for the spacious American West. It's a dream, only a dream..

debcha @ 13, thanks for the cartoon.. it made me laugh for a particular reason, the panel "are you skilled ?"

I came over on a H1-B, the so-called 'skilled immigrant'. When I went to the social security office to register, a week after arriving, the nice lady looked at my visa and said: "Wow, are you a circus clown ?"
Umm, no ?
"The last one of these I saw was a clown".
Highly skilled, indeed.

When my wife went in to register, an old man tried to pick her up, saying once his SS payment came in he was going to hit the road and did she want to come ?

For the next step in the cartoon, note that in the business of software, the costs of a H1-B sponsorship pale in comparison with the savings available by underpaying the H1-B employees..

I do hope for all concerned that Verlaine Daöron can get back again. We live in a large city, with a severe shortage of bakeries. Isabella and her husband have just opened a French bakery in a strip mall near us. Isabella's quiche is the food they eat for breakfast in heaven.

James Fallows has a nice set of pictures of Ballard's childhood house in Shanghai:
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/04/jg_ballard_in_shanghai.php

I was running Climateprediction a couple of years ago, but they switched to Boinc, which was then maddeningly unstable: gave up.

Started with The Clean Energy Project a few months back, which also uses Boinc; but fortunately it no longer crashes my PC and/or throws away the computed results.

Neil W, thanks - my wife has been agitating for roast pheasant, I suspected bacon would be involved.. the next bird will get it.

The current crop of birds is going in a modified coq au vin I think. It's a recipe my father-in-law used to make in Greece, with the hardy old birds which roosted in the olive groves. I may use Beaujolais, if I can still find it. Mmm.

on caffeine-ing: I used to work at a university IT department where morning and afternoon tea (10am and 3pm) were compulsory. This worked extraordinarily well, a lot of cross-department problems got solved over a nice cup of tea. They also had terminal rooms where everyone worked, and private offices for the times when you really needed to focus (or take a nap, I confess). This became my model for the way to run an office full of computing cats who walk alone; though I've never had the power to implement it anywhere else.

Sarah E, "people should be fed" is the way my Greek wife feels about it too. She has a Tshirt that says "food is love".

I have two pheasant to cook for Christmas. Last week's bird went into a pie, one of those recipes in which the putative main ingredient is used as an excuse for lashings of butter and cream. Quite tasty, but I'm ready to try something else. Anyone got a good pheasant receipt ?

Ezra wrote on his blog to the effect of "I keep getting accused of moralism. Moralism is good !"

Quite. Accused of having moral qualms about CAFOs ? exactly what the problem is with that, I cannot see.

We buy mostly meat from animals we've met.. there's a growing number of organic/grass-raised lamb and beef suppliers here in CO. It's more expensive, but it ensures I'm not feeding my children that witches' brew of antibiotics, hormones, and ground-up cow corpses, that the feedlot animals get.

Nicole @ 142 - Schaffer is a despicable human being, so his comments are just what you'd expect. He's objectively pro-child-labor, sex-slavery, etc (for those who don't know the delightful Mr Schaffer, google Schaffer Mariana for details). Not unusual for a Republican, still it is a matter of some astonishment to me that he got any votes at all.

I grew up in South Africa under the apartheid regime. This is the second time I've voted for a black president, and I liked it even better this time ;-) hooray for everybody, and a puppy.

Now the hard work starts..

Julian Barnes, on cleaning up his parents' things:
'now, here for the last time, something that had been chosen, then lived with, wiped, dusted, polished, repaired, loved'
In my recent cleanup, that was the hardest part. My mother had a collection of mismatched china, some of it from her mother, used so well that it had faded and thinned to a transparent grey-green. It had no value except having been loved.

For myself there are no objects I could not live without. I'm fond of the English-made Orvis fly reel that was a 21st birthday present; a red canoe that we've paddled in waters from Florida to Alaska; an old steel-frame Paramount road bike. I'd miss them, but it's more the memories attached than the ding an sich.

not real poetry, mere vers libre, but on topic of monasteries..
On vacation in Greece, I was swimming or running for a couple of hours each day. My uncle Dino wanted to know if I got paid for all the running and swimming I was doing.

On Mt. Kandili

I am paid in the red coin of the sun going down,
the notes of waves, susurrus in the pebbles
which cannot be counterfeited;
the figs ripening and the wind that bears their scent
chattering of cicadas,
goat bells in the olive grove, behind the monastery,
cool sweet water from the mountain springs;
the wages are good enough.

Mary at 94, sorry, didn't check back in until now..

Wikipedia comes through,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate's_egg
The phrase derives from a cartoon in the humorous British magazine Punch on 9 November 1895. Drawn by George du Maurier and entitled "True Humility", it pictured a timid-looking curate (a low-ranking clergyman) taking breakfast in his bishop's house.

The bishop says, "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones." The curate replies, "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"
**

Growing up we had a 'Best of Punch' compilation which included this and other Victorian cartoons, so it's rather stuck with me..

As Dena observed, it is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and canning. So mostly I'm making a sort of order out of the kitchen chaos, every night after my wife finishes up. The dehydrator is also running night and day. Can I call this second-order making ?
It's a deal of work but the kids love the canned fruit, we have a small investment in the orchards where the fruit grows: the bottles of peaches glow on the basement shelves. It's a little like wine, a whole year of rain, sun and wind in a bottle.

I have made various bits of wooden construction modeled on actual furniture, but my wife hates it when I do this.. The Thomas Train table has held up quite well though, repurposed as a Lego stand.

It's a sadness that I don't get to make things in code anymore - don't miss the deadlines and death march projects though.

Trout flies, particularly the old English patterns. Here's the body material for a Tups Indispensable: "urine and dye stained wool taken from a ram's testicles mixed with lemon coloured fur from a spaniel and a little yellow mohair. "

We recently added a spaniel to the family, now all I need is.. hm.

I'm so sorry to hear this. Best wishes, best of luck, get better soon..

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