I’ve moved

I decided to register my own domain for this blog, so you can now find me at http://www.thunderdowncountry.com. I've imported all of my posts and comments from this blog, so nothing will be lost in transition. I'll be playing with the layout quite a bit, so don't mind the rough appearance.

Bruuuuuuuuuuuce

Last night I saw Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band at Pine Knob. It was an outstanding show, lasting nearly three hours. Give me the E Street Band any day, but the Seeger Sessions Band sure can play. It was pretty amazing to watch Bruce flawlessly work an awful crowd of Oakland County fucks who are totally unfamiliar with the music he's playing. There's no doubt in my mind that he's the greatest performer in the history of rock. The problem is that most people my age are only familiar with him because their parents listened to Born in the USA when they were in college or something. Consequently, they think he sucks and lump him in with other awful acts that ruled the charts circa 1984. Now, I like Born in the USA just fine, but I didn't appreciate it until I had gone back and immersed myself in his 70s work. The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle and Born to Run are two of the greatest albums ever made.

I went to the Vote for Change tour show at Cobo Arena in Detroit back in 2004 to see R.E.M. and to "tolerate" the Boss. It was really the other way around – R.E.M. proved that they're over the hill and Bruce pretty much changed my life. I'll never pass up another opportunity to see him.

Now I just have to hope that Radiohead can put on equally awe-inspiring performances this week. I can't wait.

The University Channel

The University Channel, a "A collection of public affairs lectures, panels and events from academic institutions all over the world for you to view, listen to, stream or download", is quickly becoming of my favorite resources on the Internet. I started subscribing to their podcast feed and I can't recommend it enough. The quality of the lectures is incredible and the selection and breadth grow almost daily. Most of the recordings range from 60 to 90 minutes in length and usually include a lecture followed by a question and answer session.

I've listened to about ten of them now and while they've all been very interesting, the one I absolutely implore you to check out is American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, by Jon Meacham. He discusses his book about the relationship between our nation's formative years and religion. He's an interesting character – a devout Episcopalian with a keen sense of humor and eminent respect for both sides of the fight over separation of church and state, in which he rests solidly in the center. I can't wait to read the book.

(Thanks to Thomas for showing me The University Channel)

More on network neutrality

I know I haven't been posting lately, and I apologize. I've been extremely busy and sort of out of the loop on current events. Hence I've deemed it better to keep my mouth shut than to talk about issues that I haven't been following. However, this week I have discovered the magic of using the copius amounts of time that I spend sitting in my cubicle at my new job to listen to all sorts of lengthy podcasts. More on my job in a future post, but the idea is that if I can make it look like I'm doing work and simply listening to music, I can really do hardly anything and concentrate on learning great things from recordings of NPR programs or lectures from esteemed university professors, all without having to compromise myself by running up suspicious network logs.

One of the issues that's really captured my interest over the last few months has been network neutrality. It's obvious to anyone who actually uses the internet that network neutrality is absolutely essential to the character of our cherished internet. You probably wouldn't be reading this blog if there was no such things as network neutrality (although in reality, "you" probably aren't reading this blog, because nobody really does read this blog, as indicated by my traffic). There's been lots of ridiculous rhetoric from  right-wingers who are predictably walking the party line of being "pro-business", which in this case means the telecom companies. Now, I'll be damned if there exists a collection of companies on the planet that are more anti-competitive, corrupt, and deeply evil than the Baby Bells (what, all two or so that are left now?). The keyword is anti-competitive. There is nothing "free-market" about the telecom industry. To eliminate network neutrality is to stymie small business and innovation.

And while an appeal to entrepreneurialship alone makes the answer clear, we can go further and ask ourselves if that's even the whole story. All of this treats the internet solely as a gigantic, expanding marketplace. Yeah, it is, and that's great. However, the internet is first and foremost about information. Not a market for information, but the Information Superhighway. The telecoms want to play god and load up certain lanes with extra 18-wheelers as they see fit, and you can guarantee that Wikipedia isn't going to be able to pony up the dough for the fast lane. The efficacy with which the internet distributes vast amount of information to anyone with the curiosity to look has redefined our lives. And getting back to the business argument, it's completely obliterated information asymmetry in more markets than we could even begin to count.
Network neutrality completely turns the conventional wisdom about what constitutes "regulation" on its head. Yes, technically the government requiring that network operators must treat all network traffic equally is a regulation, but what does it actually mean in terms of beauracracy and oversight? Not much. The internet has grown exponentially and ingeniously so far, and this so-called regulation has been in place every step of the way. The federal government has done very little in the way of governing or controlling the internet. This regulation has been the key to the internet being the ultimate free-market, democratic establishment of the planet. "Hands Off" the internet could just as easily apply to Verizon and AT&T.

At the recent WWW2006 conference, Tim Berners-Lee made the excellent point that our economy can only function because of the "regulation" that we can't, for example, print our own money. It sounds pedagogical, but that's just because conservatives have been so successful at demonizing the word "regulation" like only they can do.

If that's the kind of regulation that self-proclaimed "free-market conservatives" are moaning about, then I think it's a clear indication that these people are either completely misinformed or extremely disingenuous as to exactly whose interests they are trying to protect. As with most issues, the average voter falls under the former category and the average Republican lawmaker/power broker falls under the latter – yet another example of the ingenious scam that is the continuing Republican stranglehold on our governement.

This disgusts me

The Washington Post reports that 63% of Americans find the NSA spying program to be "acceptable". I'll quote it all so you don't have to register.

By Richard Morin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 12, 2006; 7:00 AM

A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it.

A slightly larger majority–66 percent–said they would not be bothered if NSA collected records of personal calls they had made, the poll found.

Underlying those views is the belief that the need to investigate terrorism outweighs privacy concerns. According to the poll, 65 percent of those interviewed said it was more important to investigate potential terrorist threats "even if it intrudes on privacy." Three in 10–31 percent–said it was more important for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.

Half–51 percent–approved of the way President Bush was handling privacy matters.

The survey results reflect initial public reaction to the NSA program. Those views that could change or deepen as more details about the effort become known over the next few days.

USA Today disclosed in its Thursday editions the existence of the massive domestic intelligence-gathering program. The effort began soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, the agency began collecting call records on tens of millions of personal and business telephone calls made in the United States. Agency personnel reportedly analyze those records to identify suspicious calling patterns but do not listen in on or record individual telephone conversations.

Word of the program sparked immediate criticism on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans criticized the effort as a threat to privacy and called for congressional inquiries to learn more about the operation. In the survey, big majorities of Republicans and political independents said they found the program to be acceptable while Democrats were split.

President Bush made an unscheduled appearance yesterday before White House reporters to defend his administration's efforts to investigate terrorism and criticize public disclosure of secret intelligence operations. But he did not directly acknowledge the existence of the NSA records-gathering program or answer reporters' questions about it.

By a 56 percent to 42 percent margin, Americans said it was appropriate for the news media to have disclosed the existence of this secret government program.

A total of 502 randomly selected adults were interviewed Thursday night for this survey. Margin of sampling error is five percentage points for the overall results. The practical difficulties of doing a survey in a single night represents another potential source of error.

This kind of apathy is far more dangerous to America than terrorism could ever be.

USA Today: NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls

I wish I could say this was shocking, but it's really not. It makes you think twice about labeling people "conspiracy theorists" because if anyone had suggested a year ago that this was going on, they would have been called batshit crazy.

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

Read the rest here

Keep in mind that the guy who presided over all of this, General Michael Hayden, is Bush's pick to be the new Director of Central Intelligence.

They claim that the program does not actually listen to the phone calls, but that screams of a half-truth. I'm sure that it's technologically impossible to actually listen to an analyze the content of every call, but it's absurd to think that they don't use this data to pick out a subset of people to monitor constantly.

There's no doubt in my mind that there are more shocking revalations to come. 

Fantastic coffee

I couldn't be more pleased with the results of my first roast. In particular, the beans from Papau New Guinea produced the best cups of coffee that I've ever tasted.

I roasted two more batches tonight. I'm a little concerned that the popcorn popper isn't going to be reliable enough for regular use. It might not be getting hot enough because I'm finding that it won't take the beans past a Full City roast. The roast was also a little less even this time, although by no means unacceptable.

Statistics that made me say “Holy shit!”

A report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy:

Nearly 31% of girls ages 15 to 19 who have had sexual intercourse at least once become pregnant, and more than 13% of sexually active teenage boys say they have been involved in a pregnancy, according to a report released Wednesday by the Washington, D.C.-based not-for-profit group National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy, the Chicago Sun-Times reports (Herrmann, Chicago Sun-Times, 5/3). The report presents statistics from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth for teenage boys and girls on age of "first sex," whether a contraceptive was used during first sex and the number of subsequent sexual partners. Nearly 50% of teenage girls who have sex for the first time before age 15 report having been pregnant, compared with almost 25% of girls age 15 or older, according to the report. In addition, 22% of sexually active boys age 15 and under report having been involved in a pregnancy, compared with 9% of teenage boys age 15 or older, the report finds. The analysis shows that more than one-third of sexually active girls who have had three or more sexual partners have been pregnant, compared with one in four who have had one or two partners. In addition, the report finds that 27% of girls who used a form of contraception when having sex for the first time said they became pregnant, compared with 43% of girls who did not use contraception during first sex (National Campaign report, 5/3). About 57% of teenage girls nationally give birth, 29% undergo abortion and 14% experience a miscarriage, Bill Albert, senior director of communications, publications and technology at the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy, said (Chicago Sun-Times, 5/3). Statistics for various racial or ethnic groups show that 52% of sexually active Latina girls have been pregnant, compared with 40% of sexually active non-Latina black teenage girls and about 23% of sexually active non-Latina white teen girls (National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy report, 5/3).

Granted, I'm not very familiar with this issue, but I think those shockingly high numbers speak volumes about the effectiveness of our current sex education programs. I wonder how those numbers would work out if the study controlled for whether a child went through an abstinence program or one that dealt with contraceptives. Perhaps these are an improvement over years past, but it seems like we can do better, doesn't it?

Photoblogging: My first coffee roasting experience

I first stumbled upon some websites about home coffee roasting exactly two days before leaving for the dorms last summer. I've been dying to do it all year, and the day I got home, I navigated to www.sweetmarias.com, the best site I have come across, and bought four pounds of assorted green coffee.

It had never occured to me that it was possible, let alone easy, to roast coffee at home. The reasons for it are numerous. First of all, green coffee is cheap. Four pounds of some of the best coffee in the world cost $17 plus $11 UPS shipping – considerably less expensive than four pounds of shitty roasted coffee from Starbuck (what do they charge… $9 for 12 ounces of crap?). Most importantly, home roasting is the only way to get the most out of coffee. Beans oxidize and are considered stale only five days after roasting. If you grind the coffee, it will be stale after only 24 hours. Chances are, no matter what you think, you have never had "fresh" coffee before. I never have.

Basically, I'm obsessed with coffee, I tend to be an obnoxious purist about everything I like, and I'm a huge dork. Obviously I need to roast my own coffee.

It's actually quite simple. You just need an hot air popcorn popper (you can buy specialized roasting equipment, but it's really not necessary for a beginner).

Here is the green coffee:

The popper:

Yes, it's gross. This is old and probably fossilized.

I used a broiler pan to cool the beans.

This is the first batch, four ounces for Organic Peru "El Guabo" just before I started the roast.

About a minute into the roast. Not much of a change yet.

This is about three minutes into the roast.

This is about five minutes into the roast. The beans are now a dark brown. As a novice, it can be hard to judge whether they are done or not.

I ended up taking them out after six minutes, but they are still not as dark as I would have liked. Certainly not a failure by any means, however.

I roasted a second batch, this time a coffee from Papau New Guinea. I also roasted these for six minutes, but the roast progressed much faster this time and I got them exactly where I wanted them. Notice the patches of oil that have appeared.

It only took about 20 minutes to roast eight ounces of coffee, so you can see that home roasting is an economical and fast way to get coffee that would put even the best coffeeshops to shame.

Of course, I say this without having actually brewed a cup. It's best to let the beans sit overnight before grinding and brewing. I will report back tomorrow.

Cover the Uninsured Week 2006

This week is Cover the Uninsured Week 2006. I meant to post about this earlier today, but I was too wrapped up in the first stage of my summer project to craft the ultimate guacamole and salsa: learning how to make guacamole and salsa. My lack of kitchen knowledge is almost comical – I blame my mother. Both turned out well, but I digress…

You should check out their fact sheets for some quick figures on appalling number of uninsured Americans. There is also a small army of bloggers out there who write about this stuff on a daily basis. Some of my favorites include:

http://healthypolicy.typepad.com/blog/

http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/

http://www.joepaduda.com/

http://www.tpmcafe.com/flexinode/list/19