Transcripts of my Internal Monologue

Apparently David Mamet has written a book detailing his conversion from liberalism to conservatism. David Frum discusses the book here; it seems that Mamet is attacking liberalism in that easy, irrational way that really gets under my skin. Attacking your opponent for things that they aren't actually doing is a waste of time. Obama isn't taking away our guns, he isn't a Muslim, he's not trying to destroy America.

I suppose I can see the thrill. Tilting at windmills may be a waste of time, but how often do you get to fight dragons?

I saw in a large corporate parking lot today, a truck for haircuts! Their motto was, Get in, Get out, Get on with your life!" Shouldn't it have been, "Get it, Get out, Get back to work"?

There is a meme going around today, at least on To The Best of Our Knowledge and Andrew Sullivan's blog about how accurate non-fiction writing has to be.

AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE!

Some authors feel that it is permissible to change the timing or particulars of an event to heighten the impact. Well, you can, but then you have to call it "based on a true story". Telling the tale in an engaging way while sticking to the facts is the challenge. If you aren't up to it, you should get a new job. Urusla K. LeGuin wrote an essay years ago about how limitations improve your writing; even though this was about political restrictions, I think it is a general rule.

Packing on a bike has always sounded fun to me. Especially in the desert, you could take a lot of stuff and go for a long ways. I have wondered why this isn't a bigger deal; some of the advantages of horse camping for those of us who can't have horses the rest of the time!

So a company is Portland is making these!


Courtesy of Tim Brandis and Bike Portland

I wrote a post a while ago about sugar substitutes. A lot of pseudo-science gets thrown around about them. Science-Based Medicine has an article today about Aspartame.

I had never heard of recombinant products from bacteria described as "derived from the excrement of genetically modified E. coli bacteria"! I will have to start using this!

"I then stained CD8 T cells from my flu infected mice with tetramers derived from the excrement of genetically modified E. coli bacteria."

What will the reviewers say?

Kate, Nancy, Peter, and I volunteered for a altitude sickness study. This place is amazing, I have to go back!

From July 2010 White Mountains Altitude Study

This is from up top, looking back at the Eastern Sierra.

Hike at Tilden

Find hiking trails in California and beyond

This is a tv show from 1995. I remember a friend talking about it at the time, and it sounded like a show I would like, but a show you had to see from the very beginning to understand. Very True. But in this era of watching TV shows on DVD, that is not a problem, and this show, at least the first season, is great1 23 episodes of a tight plot centered around one case. I only had one period of disbelief, for about 10 minutes in the final episode. They don't correct it, but it is such a tiny blemish on the whole that it doesn't matter. This is a great show, go watch it now.

I am really into police procedurals right now, and this is right up the alley; a lawyer procedural if you will.

Slate has an article about the slow evolution of German beer; I know German beer drinkers like this.