The quote

Drum roll please... Here it is..

"The future is better than the past. Despite the crepehangers, romanticists, and anti-intellectuals, the world steadily grows better because the human mind, applying itself to environment, makes it better. With hands... with tools... with horse sense and science and engineering.

Most of these long-haired belittlers can't drive a nail or use a slide rule, I'd like to invite them [...] back to the twelfth century - then let them enjoy it."

Now, in full disclosure, I can't use a slide rule either.

Heinlein here was talking (through character) about time traveling related to his book's plot. But I find people of all stripes constantly romantisize the past as if children all behaved and respected their elders, teens never had sex, no one did drugs, or at least not in a detrimental way, all things worked and worked well and people got along just fine by loving their neighbors and being friendly.

And for a the old person recounting it and the young person hearing it, it probably sounds pretty grand. Except that I don't think there is much of a lick of truth to it. One only has to watch movies like "Grease" to know that booze and sex and to some degree disrespect for property and elders were part of the culture even then.

You don't even have to watch a bad musical. Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie & Clyde fame) died at ages 23 and 25, respectively. They died as young adults just having only recently crossed the precipice between childhood and adulthood.

Something tells me that the leaders of a gang of outlaws, robbers and criminals who killed "at least nine police officers" weren't all that respectful or in awe of their elders or the law.

Don't even get me started on whether certain customs require respect or whether the people responsible for our current situation should expect it.

I've got a "

I've got a quote from Heinlein I want to post - have wanted to post since Saturday, and really even further back than that. Probably since Wednesday or Thursday last week.

But you see, its upstairs, where people are sleeping. Its in a room with no air conditioning. I'm sitting downstairs, which is air conditioned. And I'm writing.

What's that? Too bad? Suck it up and slip quietly upstairs for a second or two because you are anxiously awaiting this quote? Then I guess I should give you the best reason of all:

Its my damn blog and I'll post it when I want, which will be when I'm good and ready. Probably tomorrow.

100

Know what was neat about my last post? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the "green" and "blue" swirls are both really the same color. You are soooo early July 14.

No, well, yes, that was pretty neat. But what I was referring to was the fact that it my 100th post.

Happy 100th post, 1000 & 1 Things!

Having gotten to 100, and now 101, I think this is a good place to stop blogging. Really, after 100 posts, I've got nothing left to say.

j/k. As if I could have nothing left to say! I am flirting with quitting at 1001, though. So keep your calenders in say mid-2013 open.

Guess what is neat about this picture

Keep looking. I'll post the answer below, in the same color as the background, so you'll have to highlight it to see it. Hint: It has to do with the swirls you see.














Answer: The "blue" and "green" swirls are actually the same color. Yep, it's true. If you use your fingers to kind of isolate them, you can tell, but download the pic and check it in PS.

Via Volokh conspiracy via someplace else.

Uh, Power 'em up, if you got 'em?

Continuing the cigarette smoking theme...

Electronic cigarettes.

Electronic cigarettes, you ask?

Yes, Electronic cigarettes.

These little buggers use battery power to warm liquid nicotine, vaporizing it in the cylinder, which the user then inhales. They even product "puffs" of, its not smoke, but a smoke-esque product.

Since no actual combustion occurs, and there are no additives such as tar, there aren't any known carcinogens created by the use of these products. And since smoke isn't a by-product, there is no second hand smoke to worry about.

So what does the FDA/Congress do? It starts blocking their importation as nicotene delivery devices, of course.

No one is going to argue that their aren't downsides. Nicotene is still addictive. But certainly, Smoker X would be much, much better choosing an electronic cigarette over a burny-type cigaratte. Is there a chance that someone might try to use these products to induce more actual, burny-type cigarette smoking? I suppose. Though I find it hard to believe that if given the option - and I hear E-Cigs are cheaper - they would choose what is almost universally recognized as a disgusting habit over the E-Cigs.

A CNN headline notes that the FDA is "hazy" on e-cigarettes' safety. Hazy?

Hazy?

This from an organization that already allows, condones and regulates (even if in secret) cigarettes. ALLOWS a product known to be addictive. ALLOWS a product known to contribute to cancer. ALLOWS a product that could harm bystanders.

But yeah, E-Cigs without any known carcinogens in them are much, much too experimental and dangerous. We wouldn't want any products that could have damaging side-effects in the market.

Why, they could end up being (almost) as deadly as burny-type cigarettes!

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(Semi) PERMANENT DISCLAIMER: NOW REGULATED BY THE FDA!

Tobacco and cigarettes are now regulated by the FDA (Food & Drug Admin). The legislation allowing this expressly prohibits the companies from advertising, in any way, that they are infact regulated by the FDA.

I am in no way advertising, on a paid or any other basis, cigarettes. Marlboro is here. R.J. Reynolds. Phillip Morris. NOW REGULATED BY THE FDA!

What I'm excited about RIGHT NOW.

Other than Taco Bell, which is a constant source of excitement.

I was asked recently, and I'm paraphrasing here, how I can stand to follow politics as closely as I do without letting the craziness drive me crazy.

Without sounding too much like a crazy mofo: Seasteading. (Might be evidence that I've actually just gone crazy.)

Granted, the idea of a new nation, even on (or under) the seas, has been tried, and tried, and tried, and failed. Hell, it's even been one the topic of one of my fav video games.

The case for optimism for this particular project (and a pretty good read) from reason.com.

Its complicated and consequently a long way off. And the one time I was on a big boat in the ocean, I absolutely hated it. That was a combination of sea sickness and cramped quarters. Some of the seasteading projects would seemingly eliminate the first. The second I'm probably stuck with.

Does it seem like this came out of nowhere? It really didn't. I've been trying to convince the wife that a houseboat would be a romantic, cheap, rising-ocean protected way to live for more than a year now. Though since temperatures haven't risen in a decade I'm not sure how much rising is arising.

I could write while we floated up and down the coast. Float down to Florida in teh winter, back up North in the summer. Since you just park in the ocean, there's no rent, except for maybe a dock fee at a "home base." Perpetual ocean front property. Ever changing scenery. All the fishing and swimming and sunning you like. And I'm sure family and friends would just hate having someone with a vacation home they could visit.

Anyway, I was proudly early member of the Free State Project. So there.

(Semi) PERMANENT DISCLAIMER: Tobacco and cigarettes are now regulated by the FDA (Food & Drug Admin). The legislation allowing this expressly prohibits the companies from advertising, in any way, that they are infact regulated by the FDA. I have a problem with the whole "we will regulate you, but you can't tell any one we are" thing, so I'll be posting this disclaimer with every post (when/if I remember) to make a point.

People, it is 0-2, bottom of the ninth in a tie game. The checkered flag is out.

I haven't posted a ton lately until this double. I'll blame that slide on the following:

My self imposed deadline for the rough, editing draft of my novel is on deck. I've been writing quite a bit, upping my average. That's the good news.

I've mentioned it before, but as I write I find that what I had hoped I would finish in one lap is taking (Mixed metaphor warning!) two, sometimes three swings to complete. That means I had more writing to do than anticipated. Damn it.

*spits sunflower seed shell*

How much more, you ask? Well, I'm behind in the count, let's put it that way. How far is a difficult call, since sometimes 1 = 1, and sometimes 1 = 3. So, let's see, week and a half to go ... carry the 1, divide the number into itself, multiply by 1.23, combine OB% and SLG, and ... I'm somewhere between "every-day player" and "can't hit above the Mendoza line."

Have no fear (OK, have fear, but have faith, too) - I'm writing, writing a lot. Writing hard. Writing focused. I'm no longer taking pitches anymore; I'm defending the plate and taking swings, even if its just to foul off balls and keep my at bat alive.

Whew! Thank goodness I have an editor and a deadline, because I plan on writing every night if I have too to get this finished. If it weren't for that, I'd probably put off my self-imposed deadline until later, get away for a while, come back unhappy with my work, take more time off, and suddenly, I have ANOTHER unfinished suck of a novel. At least this way the suck will be finished.

(Semi) PERMANENT DISCLAIMER: Tobacco and cigarettes are now regulated by the FDA (Food & Drug Admin). The legislation allowing this expressly prohibits the companies from advertising, in any way, that they are infact regulated by the FDA.

I have a problem with the whole "we will regulate you, but you can't tell any one we are" thing, so I'll be posting this disclaimer with every post (when/if I remember) to make a point.

Bingo - smoke'em if you got 'em; they are FDA regulated, you know.

Here's the link to the newspaper profit story I mentioned in the previous post. Here is Reason.com's take.

As you might imagine, its NOT all good news, and I won't completely pretend to understand how a 100.1% drop in profits over five years can result in a 12% profit margin. Well, OK, I kinda can: If profits drop, but expenses drop more, the margin can stay the same on reduced income... right?

(Semi) PERMANENT DISCLAIMER: Tobacco and cigarettes are now regulated by the FDA (Food & Drug Admin). The legislation allowing this expressly prohibits the companies from advertising, in any way, that they are infact regulated by the FDA. Why? The government (and presumably the FDA) fears it might give the tobacco companies some credibility.

First off, given the number of drugs the FDA regulates that end up killing or injuring loads of people, I'm not sure the FDA has any credibility to begin with. But if your worried that advertising FDA regulation would lend the product credibility as being "safe" (and assuming that is bad because the product in fact isn't safe), doesn't that call into the question the credibility of the FDA anyway?

Put another way:
1) If the FDA is designed to make sure F&Ds are safe, and
2) if hypothetically it does its job well enough to create that reputation so that advertising FDA regulation would create the inference of a safe product,
3) doesn't allowing/regulating a knowingly hazardous product call into question #1??

Anyway, I have a problem with the whole "we will regulate you, but you can't tell any we are" thing. So I'll be posting (an abbreviated) version of the disclaimer with every post (when/if I remember), just to make a point.

Pretty funny, if it weren't so serious

Here is a pretty funny "How to save Newspapers" video clip done in the "feed the children" motif.

I read another interesting piece on how, while becoming increasingly irrelevant, the major newspapers in the U.S. still turn double digit profits. That's right, higher than retail juggernaut Wal-Mart and just below the oil drillers.

And if I can ever find it agian, I'll post it.