dannyman.toldme.com : dannyman

Well, just spent the better part of an hour bitching about skyrocketing health care costs, pitiful emergency response, and the over-extension of our military and falling recruitment with the boss and a coworker.

“Well, I guess I’m not voting Republican.”

We’re all non-Republicans to begin with, but I like to think some similar discussions are taking place around water coolers in Redder companies.

If nothing else, maybe the Democrats have something to work with?

God Bless America, we need it. At least we’re now getting assistance from Mexico.

2 Comments

September 6, 2005
Good Reads, Politics

A Tale of Two Pictures

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/06/tale-two-pictures/

So, I got linked to Ray in Austin by Brett and Hiromi (NSFW). Ray is closer to the scene in New Orleans than we are, and I enjoyed scanning over his blog.

Two pictures that made an impact: (more…)

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September 6, 2005
Politics

“Global Warming” Elevator Pitch?

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/06/global-warming-elevator-pitch/

I keep getting this spam from relatives about how The Man is charging us too much for gas. Why, even $1.50/gallon is being overcharged! We should stop buying gas! Except, we can’t stop buying gas or how would we drive around? So, we’ll boycott different stations in turn . . . on every third Thursday, don’t buy gas from Chevron, etc.

And I wonder, please, let this be a tongue-in-cheek parody thing! Except, ah, we are Americans, and the people who send me this crap are well-intentioned consumer-advocatin’ types!

So, I wrote back, sort of a shorter version of my previous “America Hating” rant … keep it short, sell the point: Global Warming is Bad, Please Act Now. I wanted to convey that gas actually isn’t all that cheap, but not run it into a crazy-person rant. Here’s what I got: (more…)

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September 2, 2005
Lyrics, Sundry

Lyrics: The City of New Orleans

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/02/guthrie-city-of-new-orleans/

I’ve got Arlo Guthrie in my head, and uploaded some pictures from December, 2000 that I took in New Orleans.

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail

All along the Southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passing trains that have no name
And freight yards full of old black men
And the grave yards of the rusted automobiles

Good morning, America, how are you?
Said don’t you know me, I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Dealing card games with the old men in the club car
Penny a point aint no one keepin’ score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
And feel the wheels rumblin’ ‘neath the floor

And the sons of Pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father’s magic carpets
Made of steel

Mothers with their babes asleep
Rockin to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

Good morning America, how are you?
Said don’t you know me, I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Night time on The City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Halfway home, we’ll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea

But all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rail still aint heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again
The passengers will please refrain
This train got the Disappearin’ Railroad Blues.

Good night America how are you?
Said don’t you know me, I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

1 Comment

September 1, 2005
Good Reads, News and Reaction, Technical, Technology, Testimonials

Live from New Orleans

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/01/new-orleans-livejournal/

Pointed to a fascinating blog from someone who is manning a Data Center in New Orleans. I haven’t been preoccupied with the disaster, and pretty good about focusing on work, but this is really interesting stuff.

Highlights:

They’re still online. But are down to one carrier at the moment.
Bell South is working on bringing lines back up.
Looting is completely out of hand. Civilians and police.
Civilians are firing at Police and Fire workers.
New Orleans PD has no command and control.
The Data Center has taken on diesel fuel to keep generators running.
“Dead bodies everywhere: convention center, down camp street, all over.”
Building management is still functioning, and has requested supplies from tenants, including ammunition.

Why are these people so uptight about staying online? Well, apparently the guy works for “Directnic” and the “NIC” implies that they control WHOIS and DNS information for a lot of domains that may have nothing to do with New Orleans. So, it is pretty critical that they stay online, if possible.

I saw some other chatter on IRC that national fuel rationing may come within a month due to the refining capacity that we have lost in the Gulf of Mexico. I take that with a grain of salt, but it is an interesting possibility. It sounds as if a lot of the nation’s oil is offloaded and then refined down there, and then transported throughout the Midwest and East . . . so, that doesn’t trouble me so much in California, but that doesn’t sound so great as you move East.

Update: “THE REAL MILITARY IS NOW FLOWING IN. National Guard is being replaced before our eyes. Watch the feed. Word is that the Marines are at 1515 Poydras where our OC4s are. I think we’re coming back online in force shortly.”

Also, BBC has some excellent coverage, particularly pictures. I find this one especially moving, whereas this guy ought to be target practice.

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August 30, 2005
Politics

More America Hating

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/30/more-america-hating/

I feel bad for all the people suffering in New Orleans right now, but every time I hear that the South is being battered by ever more and stronger hurricanes, especially when it comes to Florida, I can’t help but remember that those are red states, and they support the President, and the President’s position is that global warming is an abstract, secular theory that scientists don’t agree on. You know, like evolution? It’s just a theory! And besides, we should call it “climate change.” I mean, even if our activities are changing the atmosphere and the climate, you don’t want to call it something vaguely threatening like “global warming:” please, it’s “climate change!”

And, even though the rest of the industrialized world has reached a consensus, the Kyoto Protocol, and are working to limit their emissions of Carbon Dioxide, I listen to the news that New Orleans in inundated, an entire city, quite possibly destroyed, and I’m reminded that “had we joined the Kyoto Treaty it would have cost America a lot of jobs,” and that acting to curb global warming would be overly damaging to our economy.

I read in the New Yorker that the last time our atmosphere was as thick with CO₂ as it is now, alligators lived in the swamps of Colorado, not far from the ocean. It is going to take hundreds, maybe thousands of years for the Earth to adjust to this new point of equilibrium, and the transition period is going to be filled with lots of climatological uncertainty. It is mostly going to make the equatorial regions, which are already very hot, where the largest number of people live in the greatest poverty, all the more uninhabitable. The rest of us get to deal with extreme weather, prolonged droughts, prolonged flooding, and likely sudden, sharp rises in sea level as chunks of Antarctica and Greenland slip off and become seawater. (more…)

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August 26, 2005
Technology

Google Hates the United States *

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/26/google-hates-usa/

I’m a Google fan, and I’m a contrarian idealist. And I know the pain of being ignored by technical support while travelling abroad. So, I bring you Greg Kaiser‘s explanation of why Google Hates the United States: (more…)

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August 24, 2005
Sundry

Real Californians

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/24/real-californians/

I got to the BART station this morning. I suppose it was a little chilly or something, because all the Real Californians were huddled in their jackets, like pigeons who tuck their heads into the bodies during the cold days of the winter, trying to stay warm while they scratch for food.

I thought it was invigorating, and not nearly as cold as the air conditioning on the bus in warmer days, when I have to pull the sweatshirt from my backpack that I carry for just such occasions, and for visiting the machine room, which we keep cooled with ferocity.

I suppose some of these folks came over from Oakland, and were still bracing themselves from the chillier air found over the mountain from Walnut Creek.

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August 23, 2005
Excerpts, Good Reads, Technology

The Daily Show and Piracy

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/23/daily-show-piracy/

We watch The Daily Show every day. It is actually one of the very few shows we watch regularly, and so instead of spending tens of dollars a month on cable television, we download our television off the Internet. It is a little less convenient because I have to download the shows manually instead of setting up a DVR, and the video quality is often inconsistent. On the other hand, the people who upload the shows edit the commercials out beforehand, and I can copy the files to a laptop to watch on the plane.

Wired magazine publishes an interview with Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart and producer Ben Karlin:

Wired: [The Daily Show is] among the most popular shows traded online. People download and watch the whole thing, every day. Were you guys aware of that?
Karlin: Not only am I not aware of that, I don’t want to be aware of that.
Wired: Well, don’t go shutting it down.
Stewart: We’re not going to shut it down – we don’t even know what it is. I’m having enough trouble just getting porn.

Whew! (more…)

1 Comment

August 22, 2005
Free Style

Saddam

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/22/saddam/

I dreamed that I had a donkey.
He was a good donkey. My friend.
I dreamed I had a donkey because I read a book, that featured a donkey.
That donkey’s name was Saddam,
And he was not a happy donkey.

Normally, I have nothing at all to do with donkeys. Ever.
But, you read a book, your mind goes different places.
Mind-altering substances, indeed! No wonder books are frequently banned.

I read once, that people can fly, once they forget that they can’t fly.
I find that really enchanting but sometimes,
I worry that I will forget that I can not fly.
And that makes me nervous sometimes
When I walk to the bathroom at work.
Because we are on the fifth floor.

I have no donkey, I can not fly.
It is okay to dream,
But not okay to try.

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August 17, 2005
Politics, Technology

Dumb AFA

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/08/17/dumb-afa-xxx/

From: “American Family Association” <afapetition@afa.net>
To: Jesus McChrist
Subject: Stop Triple X Domain

Dear Jesus,

Your help is needed to stop pornographers from having their own Internet domain.
.
.
.
In addition to having the .xxx domain, the pornographers could (and would) continue sending out billions of pornographic images on every other domain. As bad as pornography is on the Internet now, it would be infinitely worse with the triple X domain. The establishment of a triple X domain would give legitimacy to the pornographers.

(more…)

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August 15, 2005
Free Style