aubreyturner.org

I’ve just returned from a business trip to Minnesota to meet my new management team.  I’m still working for the same company, but as of 7/1 I will be in a different division. 

The process through which this came about is somewhat convoluted, and I’m trying to figure out how to write something about it without revealing too much about the company or the divisions involved (my company doesn’t have a rule against blogging, but I think it best to keep them out of things where possible).

It occurs to me that even though the FedGov appears to have won a victory, there are still ways to monkey-wrench federal enforcement actions with regards to medical marijuana.

In particular, I wonder what the Feds would do if no jury could be found that would convict in a federal medical marijuana case?  I doubt we could get to that point very soon, since most people don’t know that they can judge the law as well as the facts of the case.  But I suspect that once we see sick and dying people being prosecuted (persecuted?) in the news on a nightly basis, some people won’t be able to find it in their hearts to convict such a person, no matter how carefully the judge crafts the jury charge.

Still, it’s depressing to know that it has come to this.  This decision, unless a future court changes direction, could allow no end of really bad federal laws to come to pass.

The excrement impacted the rotary airfoil device recently, as my employer has announced a round of layoffs.  I’ve got wheels turning and irons in the fire, so to speak, although I don’t want to say too much right now, lest I jinx things.

Anyhow, I should know something more by the end of the week, or early next week.  Until then the current sucky level of service will continue.

At 8:50am this morning the Texas House reported HB823 as enrolled after concurring with the Senate amendments.  HB823 clarifies the definition of “traveling” in Texas law with regards to carrying a handgun in a vehicle. 

According to the final text of the bill, a person is presumed to be traveling if the following conditions are met:

• The person is in a private motor vehicle
• The person is not otherwise engaged in criminal activity (with an exception for the case of Class C traffic offenses, so overzealous prosecutors can’t try to charge people with unlawful carrying just for speeding)
• Not otherwise prohibited from posessing a firearm.
• The person is not a member of a criminal street gang
• The person is not carrying a handgun in plain view

While this seems like an odd way to go about it (i.e. defining traveling instead of just coming out and saying people can carry in vehicles, like Colorado does), it seems like a step in the right direction.  I think a lot of people in Texas carry handguns in their cars, regardless of the law.  I’ve also been surprised by the number of people who didn’t know it was illegal.

Anyhow, we now have to make sure the Gov. Perry signs it.  Provided he does, it will take effect on September 1, 2005.

I saw a T-shirt yesterday with the following text:

You like this ass…
You want it don’t ya…
To Bad, I’m a LESBIAN!

It’s too bad that the incorrect grammar completely distracted me from the attempted message.  To is a preposition that is used to indicate direction.  What the maker of the T-shirt really intended was too, which is an adverb. 

It’s sad that someone actually went to the trouble to print this phrase on a shirt and sell it but couldn’t be arsed to get it right. 

A few years ago I read an interesting book called Drive to Survive!.  While it may seem a bit paranoid to some readers, the most important lesson of the book was to apply the concepts of situational awareness to driving.  A driver should be in condition yellow at all times.  Slipping into condition white is an invitation to get into a wreck (“I didn’t see him…”).

When I did the ridealong with KPD last Friday I rode with the sergeant in charge of the evening shift.  KPD has a big black-and-white Ford Expedition that the sergeants use.  This particular sergeant called it “The Beast,” since it was a stock unit (didn’t have the police package) and was a bit anemic in terms of acceleration and handling. 

What surprised me was that despite the fact that the thing is huge and very visible, many drivers just didn’t seem to see it or realize that it was a police vehicle.  A few drivers did, and they were immediately obvious because they would slow down to a few miles under the speed limit when they realized we were behind them.  But most would just go ahead and do whatever they were going to do anyway. 

Where I’m going with all this is that missing a giant police SUV is a good sign that the driver is in condition white and is an accident waiting to happen.

I tend to go for short hair, since it’s easy to deal with and cooler in the summer.  I used to get old-fashioned flat-tops done by real barbers.  Unfortunately, these are getting harder and harder to find, especially in this area. 

A few years ago I knew that the flat-top was dead when I asked for one at one of the chain places (since I couldn’t find a real barber anymore) and saw the look of panic on the young woman’s face.  She gave it a valiant effort, it was mostly presentable, but something about it just wasn’t quite right.  I had one of the old barbers tell me that my head wasn’t shaped quite right for a flat-top, but he was an old Marine and knew how to make it work anyway.

Anyhow, I don’t see much choice anymore but to just deal with it.  I may look a bit like a misshapen cue ball when done, but these days I go to the local chain shop and tell the young woman to use the #4 guard on the clippers and take it all off.  It’s a lot harder for them to mess that one up.

A family in Sacramento has covered their house with sheet metal in an effort to block radio waves.

“(It’s) a shield to protect against radiation, because microwave radiation is reflected off of aluminium, so it’s a protective measure,” resident Sarah D’Souza said.

The D’Souzas said the bombardment began after the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that the radio waves have caused them health problems ranging from headaches to lupus.

If you examine the picture in the linked article, you’ll notice that they have a satellite dish on their roof.  Seems vaguely ironic that they’d have a dish if they were so concerned about this.  Satellite dishes receive MICROWAVE RADIATION and send it down a cable INTO THE HOUSE.  And I’m sure some small amount of MICROWAVE RADIATION leaks out of the unit, since it likely has to generate signals in this frequency range to decode the input.

I can understand some level of concern about RF exposure.  But unless they’re living next door to a satellite uplink farm or a TV station they really have nothing to worry about. 

Anyhow, the real problem here is that their sheet metal covering is UGLY, which is what the neighbors have complained about.  If they were serious about this they’d embed the covering in the walls.  It’s possible to be paranoid and stylish at the same time. 

Researchers think they may have discovered a section of the brain that is integral to understanding sarcasm. 

… But some brain-damaged people can’t comprehend sarcasm, and Israeli researchers think it’s because a specific brain region has gone dark.

The region, according to the researchers, handles the task of detecting hidden meaning, a crucial component of sarcasm. If that part of the brain is out of commission, the irony doesn’t come through, the scientists report in the May issue of Neuropsychology.

“People with prefrontal brain damage suffer from difficulties in understanding other people’s mental states, and they lack empathy,” said study co-author Simone Shamay-Tsoory, a researcher at the University of Haifa. “Therefore, they can’t understand what the speaker really is talking about, and get only the literal meaning.”

While there’s still lots of room left to debate “nature” versus “nuture”, I’m fascinated by the number of things like this that are built into the brain.

Link found via Slashdot.

I wonder what size toilet would actually be required to flush a tome the size of a Qur’an (or however we’re spelling it today)? 

Perhaps some (blasphemous) research is required…