Category: Interesting

I was interviewed by BBC World Service!

I was interviewed by BBC World Service last night. Reporter Jeff Baird, an American BBC employee from Oregon, saw that Fark.com linked to a news article about my Texas speed trap report. Lawrence Pollard did the actual interview.

We did it over Skype. I didn’t have good equipment, so I had to put my face about 4″ from the microphone on my son’s Asus netbook. If you listen to the interview, you’ll hear disturbances in the audio. I guess I leaned too closely or breathed into it?

The Russian subway bombing prevented them from playing it in the London breakfast show, but it played a few times before their dawn.

The interview.

The full 27 minute segment I was on. (I think I am towards the end.)

This plain text belies my excitement, but this was a major high for me. I cannot believe I’ve been broadcasted on wordwide media.

Gift bags, cards, tissue paper–why?

Just found this transaction on a Target receipt:

  • $20 – gift for a 6 year old girl
  • Crap that doesn’t matter:
    • $1.50 – gift bag that will be thrown away
    • $2.50 – card written by someone who knows neither the giver nor the recipient
    • $2.50 – tissue paper for the gift bag that will be thrown away

So in this case:

The total gift’s price was inflated by a third.

Why do we buy cards we didn’t author, tissue paper, and gift bags? Do the recipients ever care?

Allen Vaught copies constituient’s email

I sent an email about the primary election to my neighborhood association. 16 days later, my Democrat state legislator Allen Vaught sent an email about primaries to his constituents.

Guess where some of his email came from? Compare snippets:

Aren Cambre’s Jan. 31 email Allen Vaught’s Feb. 16 email
What is the primary? It’s where YOU choose who represents your party at the fall election. The primary is the election in which you choose who represents your party in each race during the November general election.
You don’t register with a party. … You just show up and vote in either party’s primary. In Texas, you do not “register” with a party; therefore, you may vote in either party’s primary election.
You must vote in the primary to participate in the party’s convention process. You must vote in the primary to participate in that party’s convention process…

Imitation is sincerest form of flattery?

Both the emails are below in full. You’ll notice my email clearly inspired the highlighted part of his email.

Aren Cambre’s Jan. 31 email Allen Vaught’s Feb. 16 email
Neighbors,Feb. 1 is the last day to register to vote in the March 2 primary. Verify your registration at http://dalcoelections.org/voters.asp

What is the primary? It’s where YOU choose who represents your party at the fall election.

These should clarify some misconceptions:

  • You don’t register with a party. Texas has no concept of “registered Republican” or “registered Democrat.” You just show up and vote in either party’s primary.
  • This doesn’t bind your fall vote. For example, if you vote in the Democrat primary, you can still vote for Republicans in the fall election.
  • You can vote in either party’s primary. Here’s where it can make a difference: If you believe that one party will win a particular office, then that party’s primary is when the race is effectively decided.
  • You don’t have to make a selection in every race. You can vote on all races, zero races (blank ballot), or anywhere in between.
  • You must vote in the primary to participate in the party’s convention process. In our precinct (2230), the Republican and Democrat precinct conventions generally start at 7:30 PM at the polling location.

Register to vote, and hope to see you at our polling location on March 2!

Aren Cambre, President
Lake Park Estates Neighborhood Association, Inc.
A 501(c)(4) nonprofit

 Dear Friends:Election time is upon us again and I would like to encourage you to vote. I have included some information in this email which I hope will help you cast an informed vote.

March 2nd is the Primary Election for both the Democratic and Republican Parties. The primary is the election in which you choose who represents your party in each race during the November general election. There are many candidates on the ballot all the way from precinct chairs to the Governor.

In Texas, you do not “register” with a party; therefore, you may vote in either party’s primary election. Regardless of which party’s primary you vote in, you may vote however you would like in November. You must vote in the primary to participate in that party’s convention process, which usually takes place around 7:30 pm directly after the close of voting on March 2nd at your precinct’s polling location.

Sample ballots for each party’s primary are located here: http://www.dalcoelections.org/march22010/index.asp.

For more detailed information on the candidates that you may be voting on please see the following websites:

Dallas County Republican Party         http://www.dallasgop.org/candidates

Dallas County Democratic Party        http://www.dallasdemocrats.org/election/2010/candidates

Dallas Morning News Voters Guide http://www.thevoterguide.org/v/dallas/race-index.do

You may vote early during the following dates and times:

Tu-F   Feb 16-19        8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.

Sat       Feb 20             7:00 A.M. – 7:00 P.M.

Sun      Feb 21             1:00 P.M.  – 6:00 P.M.

M-F     Feb 22-26        7:00 A.M. – 7:00 P.M.

Early voting locations may be found on the Dallas County Elections website, located here:  http://www.dalcoelections.org/march22010/EVLocations.htm

Election Day is Tuesday, March 2nd from 7am – 7pm. You must vote in your voting precinct on election day. If you are not sure where to vote, more information may be obtained by contacting the Dallas County Elections Department (214) 819-6300 or by visiting their website at www.dalcoelections.org.

I encourage you to cast an informed vote because as you know, our democracy rests upon the act of voting.

Respectfully,

State Representative Allen Vaught

House District 107

The Lancet, research, future of journals, and global warming

I am listening to a podcast of A Shot of Reality on NPR’s On The Media’s Feb. 5, 2010 show.

The host is interviewing Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet, a British medical journal recently made (in)famous for feeding the vaccine/autism hoax.

The editor says The Lancet must be more careful in the future.

Translation: more of The Lancet‘s future articles will support the status quo. This will reduce hoaxes, but it crowds out legitimate alternative theories.

Are academic journals even relevant? Whatever relevancy they have is mainly because the research community is clinging to an outdated model. And let’s don’t forget these wickedly expensive journals have their own fiscal incentive to perpetuate themselves.

Research is living and constantly evolving. Why then rely on a content delivery method that can only create frozen, dead documents? Where corrections require new, frozen documents? This is silly.

Some say if we don’t have journals, we effectively lose the peer review process because respected academics aren’t the gatekeepers. Hardly. Wikipedia’s not perfect, but it shows that a completely open model, that even allows anonymous editing, can produce highly reliable information. Services like the Educause-sponsored academia.edu show it shouldn’t be hard to limit involvement just to the research community–not to the “select few” researchers but the entire community. This increases veracity by at least an order of magnitude.

Richard Horton said that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the originator of the fraudulent research, was respected politically and academically for years, and his words were taken as “gospel truth.”

Doesn’t this sound familiar? Doesn’t this sound like James Hansen, Al Gore, IPCC, etc.? All of whom deliver polemic research so political, agenda-driven, and error-full that people are stating to question the scientific basis of global warming?

WFAA scapegoats Atmos Energy and tries to raise Dallas’s gas bills

The Texas Railroad Commission and WFAA channel 8 may be scapegoating Atmos Energy, Dallas’s natural gas provider, for house explosions it probably didn’t not cause.

The state blamed Atmos for a May 2009 Irving home explosion. Tonight, Brett Shipp, a WFAA reporter, all but blamed Atmos for a November 2009 Mesquite home explosion.

The theory is that deteriorating “Normac couplings” in buried gas distribution lines are leaking the fuel, causing these explosions.

I don’t buy it.

In the Irving case, the state blamed a leaking fitting “under the street.” Yes, as in more than 20 feet away from the house.

Natural gas is lighter than air. It goes up as quickly as it can. That means it’s not going to travel sideways through dirt into someone’s house. Also, it dissipates rapidly like any other gas, like a poofy cloud. So any gas that could reach the outside of a house from a buried line would be faint.

The state’s theory probably breaks several laws of physics. That wisping gas would have to travel laterally from this coupling, in a focused vector, through a yard and through a concrete foundation, and accumulate in a house.

The Mesquite situation is similar. The WFAA cameras clearly showed a gas meter all the way by a fence. And Google Maps Street View shows that the gas lines are in the alley, separated from the house by many feet and a wood fence. (Picture of the next door neighbor’s gas meter in the alley–the exploded house is at 2505 Catalina.) These allegedly faulty couplings would be in lines buried under the alley, at least 20 feet from the house!

I don’t buy that Atmos exploded this house. I think something was wrong inside the house; that’s the homeowner’s responsibility. It’s irresponsible for WFAA to tar Atmos Energy for this.

Why does this matter? WFAA is campaigning for Atmos to replace tens of thousands of these Normac couplings. Maybe they leak more than ideal, but I have yet to see a convincing case that these couplings routinely cause imminent danger.

Furthermore, the cost of replacement is tens of millions of dollars. Guess who pays that? You and me, gas customers! So basically WFAA is campaigning to jack up our rates to fix something that may not be a problem.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!