Ones and Zeros

Attention Conservation Notice:  This is for those of you in Virginia or interested in Virginia state politics.  Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell are running for state governor. McDonnell is the GOP candidate and offers the best conservative thinking of 1903.  Deeds is the Democratic candidate.  He recently said that he might not support the health care public option.  What follows is an email I sent to Deeds.

I read your comments, and your half-hearted retraction, about the health care public option.  And here’s the thing: if you don’t come out for good and decent health care - which includes a public option - you aren’t a real democrat.  If that’s the case, then there’s no real difference between you and that bigoted idiot McDonnell.

It’s long past time for actual democrats to stand up for actual democratic principles.  Health care for all is one of those principles.  A public option is mandatory as insurance companies don’t cover everyone.  Nor do insurance companies have financial incentive for the public good,  their incentives are measured by profit and stock prices.  I have been an entrepreneur and believe firmly in the free market system.  I also know economics so know the limits of a free market and the need for reasonable regulation.

So please make up your mind.  Are you a real democrat committed to actual democratic principles?  Or are you just another politician who wants to further your career at the expense of the citizens of Virginia?

Where I work the building management is taking H1N1 seriously.  That’s a good thing and I don’t want to suggest otherwise.  There’s a free-standing foam sanitizing dispenser in the lobby of each floor, it has flyer taped to it on hand washing too. Gelled alcohol dispensers are prevalent in each office suite.

But the odd thing is that each bathroom (or at least the bathrooms I’ve sampled specific to my gender) have a gelled alcohol dispenser, that’s in addition to the usual sinks and soap.  Personally, I’d just be happy if they made sure that both soap dispensers were kept filled at the same time.

If a bathroom user washes his or her hands then the alcohol isn’t necessary.  It can be less effective than hand-washing in some cases.  But if a person is not inclined to wash their hands, certainly they won’t bother with the alcohol right?

I’m no authority on the Kindle, and have yet to see the Barnes & Noble’s supposed Kindle-killer, their “Nook e-book reader”.  However, I am amazed at the naming of the Nook.  (Try saying the full name quickly to yourself.)  Didn’t their marketing people attend the class about product naming disasters?  And I don’t know about you,  but that “e-” prefix is looking pretty dated and last century to me.

In any case I’m not in the market for a book reader device.  When I buy a book I do so because I want to own that book.  The Kindle and the Nook both use DRM (Digital Rights Management) which means I wouldn’t really own any book I bought through those devices.  Amazon has amply demonstrated the problems with DRM.

I recognize that ownership needs to evolve in the world of perfectly copyable bits.  But DRM shifts the balance of ownership rights massively to the publisher with no consideration to the purchaser’s side of the equation.  The original author is also being shafted by the publisher.  Digital books often have lower royalties to the author than do printed works.  DRM isn’t the right answer, so neither are the Kindle and Nook.

Everyone knows that rural temperatures are often lower than city temps.  Sometimes when the air temperature is near the dewpoint the effects of local heating caused by cities are noticeable in differences of condensation.  When that condensation is rain and is visible on radar then we get a radar image of a heat bubble.  That heat bubble is always there, it’s just not always visible.  It’s caused by things like cars and trucks, heat leaking from buildings, and sun on asphalt and concrete.

In the radar image below is from late last week the area without the rain in the middle is warmer by just enough to stop the formation of the rain.  Multiply the heat effect of Washington DC below by all the cities in the world, and you can get some massively large effects.