Goose the Blog 2.0

Is anyone else tired of the constant television ads for local candidates or are our Washington state ads just more annoying than others? I mistakenly thought today was voting day, and rather than being happy to vote, I was happy that the ads would END! Sadly, there is another week to go, and I'm finding that I don't really like anyone anymore. I feel like everyone's ads are treating me like I am an idiot who needs these stinking ads to help me make my decision. So, because I'm extremely grumpy about all of this. I'm sharing the ad that broke the camel's back. This isn't to say that candidates that I actually liked until this point don't have some doozies as well, but this one takes the cake.

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(Tool use! At the start of the video, he also uses baby-talk sign language for "more." He knows a few dozen words - spoken or signed - now.)

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* Not really - plenty of animals use tools and several seem to have language capability. What really separates us from the animals is belief that we are separate from animals.)

"Well the girls would turn the color
Of the avocado when he would drive
Down their street in his El Dorado
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not like you
Alright"

Hey! Picasso's birthday was yesterday.

Ever heard of him? Amazing painter from Virginia. For a while he was painting a painting a day, thus his blog:
A Painting a Day
http://duanekeiser.blogspot.com/

And he has a timelapse video showing him paint an interior of an old house here:
http://www.duanekeiser.com/Pages/wiltoninfo.html
I couldn't believe how small these paintings were until I saw him paint one...They're only 10x10 inches!

If you check his ebay bids, each of is paintings seems to go for between $350 and $700. Another painting video, this time of him painting a candy apple:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330032468446&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1
It's really cool how he smooshes the paint around, seemingly haphazard...but then it turns into something perfect.
-MH

A concise summary of Rep. John P. Murtha's (D-PA) Washington Post editorial:

So far this October, we've had a bunch of "surprises," mostly damaging to Republicans.

Chris Hedges is worried that Bush might have another surprise in store for days before the election: an air attack on Iran.*

I hope that the Bush Adminsitration is not desperate and immoral enough to actually do this. I hope that the Amercian people aren't stupid enough to fall for it. But I don't know - they just might be.

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* For the last few weekends, Wendy, Elias, and I have been going to a peace "vigil" outside the Chester County courthouse midday Saturdays. We hold up our signs¹ along with half-a-dozen other peace protestors² and an old war-protestor³ plays guitar and sings modern protest songs ("America has become/ comfortably numb") while cars drive by or get stopped at the light. Some people honk, wave, or flash the peace symbol, some just read the signs, and most just don't make eye contact. It's fun!

Today, there was a crazy lady out with us. She was wearing sunglasses and had her face covered with a black scarf to hide her identity. She had a large sign with inch high letters explaining, basically, just what Hedges wrote above, and she was yelling her theory at the people in the cars. The regular protestors were kind of peeved at her because she was making the rest of us look bad (you know, because she was acting crazy). Eventually our vigil breaks up, and we all go home. Except W, E, and I went to the farmers' market a couple of blocks away to get some vegetables and authentic Amish whoopie pies. On our way back (almost an hour later) the crazy lady was still out on the corner by the courthouse, yelling at cars. I sort of hope she comes back next week, and I sort of hope she doesn't.

1. Mine says "U.S. OUT OF IRAQ" and Wendy's says "CHOOSE PEACE." Elias doesn't have a sign, but next week I'm going to make one for him to hang on his stroller. Any suggestions?

2. Chester County Peace Movement

3. Vietnam War. I was going to call him a hippie, but I don't know if he was one. He seems cool.

North Korea detonates first nuclear weapons test

Registration deadlines are imminent: AZ - Oct 9, PA - Oct 10, WA - Oct 8. If you are already registered to vote, find someone who is not going to vote Republican and get them to register.

It's easier than ever - you can even do it on the web: GOVOTE.org.

And what do property rights and choice of economic system have to do with this example?¹

Anyway, this is cool. One can turn off one's sense of fairness using electromagnets. I'm thinking the folks in the Bush administration get a group discount when having these devices installed under their toupees.²

Previous brain imaging studies have revealed that part of the frontal lobes known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, or DLPFC, becomes active when people face an unfair offer and have to decide what to do. Researchers had suggested this was because the region somehow suppresses our judgement of fairness.

But now, Ernst Fehr, an economist at the University of Zurich, and colleagues have come to the opposite conclusion – that the region suppresses our natural tendency to act in our own self interest.

They used a burst of magnetic pulses called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) – produced by coils held over the scalp – to temporarily shut off activity in the DLPFC. Now, when faced with the opportunity to spitefully reject a cheeky low cash offer, subjects were actually more likely to take the money.

The researchers found that the DLPFC region's activity on the right side of the brain, but not the left, is vital for people to be able to dish out such punishment.

"The DLPFC is really causal in this decision. Its activity is crucial for overriding self interest," says Fehr. When the region is not working, people still know the offer is unfair, he says, but they do not act to punish the unfairness.

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1. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you are one of the lucky ones.

2. Vice President Dick Cheney is actually a puny, bald Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), and does not have an expanded dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, so no worries there.

From the Rocky Mountain News

Arrest over Cheney barb triggers lawsuit

A Denver-area man filed a lawsuit today against a member of the Secret Service for causing him to be arrested after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney in Beaver Creek this summer and criticized him for his policies concerning Iraq.

Attorney David Lane said that on June 16, Steve Howards was walking his 7-year-old son to a piano practice, when he saw Cheney surrounded by a group of people in an outdoor mall area, shaking hands and posing for pictures with several people.

According to the lawsuit filed at U.S. District Court in Denver, Howards and his son walked to about two-to-three feet from where Cheney was standing, and said to the vice president, "I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible," or words to that effect, then walked on.

Ten minutes later, according to Howards' lawsuit, he and his son were walking back through the same area, when they were approached by Secret Service agent Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr., who asked Howards if he had "assaulted" the vice president. Howards denied doing so, but was nonetheless placed in handcuffs and taken to the Eagle County Jail.

The lawsuit states that the Secret Service agent instructed that Howards should be issued a summons for harassment, but that on July 6 the Eagle County District Attorney's Office dismissed all charges against Howards.

The lawsuit filed today alleges that Howards was arrested in retaliation for having exercised his First Amendment right of free speech, and that his arrest violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful seizure.

(via TPM)

Update: A little more from the NYT.

I made this shirt design last night on cafepress. Looking at it now, maybe it is kind of dumb - but, I think I did a good job with the text mask over the flag, and the drop shadows that outline the letters. The back of the shirt features the relevant text from the torture and indefinite detention bill just passed by Congress.

Anyway, I bought one - I wonder how the actual shirt will look, and if I'll ever wear it in public (not likely)?

We have a new record breaking pumpkin! Three years ago, we grew an 83 lb pumpkin; this year, our pumpkin tipped the scales at 95 lbs.

Congratulations to the pumpkin plant, earthworms, leaf compost, sunshine, and timely rains for a job well done. Wendy deserves a little credit, too, for picking a good spot to bury the seed.

Steorn has called time on the applications for scientists to test their free energy machine. Did any of you sign up to check it out...Or did you dismiss it as a mere hoax? Have a read of their FAQ, and let me know what you think...They say they'll publish the results in early 2007.