HotShot Blog

So I think I finally got things up and running. I've been meaning to set up a blog for quite a while now, but I've mostly been lazy about it. I also struggled between using a commercial blog site vs my school webspace vs my own computer. But I was cheap and wanted flexibility, so this blog is hosted on my computer for now. I may move it in the future if traffic overwhelms it (haw haw - I know it won't).

What's this blog going to be about? Commentary on various things and observations. Somewhat like Seinfeld (my favorite tv show) but with more substance. There will of course be a heavy dose of politics, but I have plenty to say about music, education, restaurants & bars, traffic, rain, and snow.

Feel free to spread the URL and the good word if you like what you see. If you want to contact me, send an email to webmaster@hotshotblog.com.

According to WaPo today, the east coast no longer has the monopoly on population density.

And Los Angeles grows more crowded every year, adding residents faster than it adds land, while most metropolitan areas in the Northeast, Midwest and South march in the opposite direction. They are the sprawling ones, dense in the center but devouring land at their edges much faster than they add people.

Odd as it may seem, density is the rule, not an exception, in the wide-open spaces of the West. Salt Lake City is more tightly packed than Philadelphia. So is Las Vegas in comparison with Chicago, and Denver compared with Detroit. Ten of the country's 15 most densely populated metro areas are in the West, where residents move to newly developed land at triple the per-acre density of any other part of the country.

This northeasterner isn't too surprised by the finding. The metropolitan area development on the east coast is much older, with most going back to World War II or earlier. Back in those days the population was much smaller, allowing space for modern luxuries such as lawns.

Since then there has been tremendous population growth from the large wave of immigration. Most of this growth is occurring in the west and southwest, along with Florida and the outer reaches of the east coast metropolitan areas. New developers, squeezing as much profit out of buyers as they can, are building homes into ever shrinking lots, creating high density housing on new land. With housing so scarce as it stands, homebuyers are willing to pay top dollar for small spaces.

That is not to say you won't find high density sprawl on the east coast. Just look at new developments in New Jersey for example. However, the existing lower density development still covers much of the metropolitan area. It may be that the east coast will catch up in density to Los Angeles with new developments. In that case, I'll just have to move to Montana.

I hosted a barbeque this weekend at Tracy's apartment complex. On the menu were grilled veggie skewers, Indian chicken, Indian kebabs, burgers, hot dogs, ice cold Wegman's soda, and a Warsteiner mini-keg. Good food and good fun. Fifteen or so of Tracy's friends came.

It was my first time grilling with charcoal. Not too difficult, but it takes a lot longer than gas grilling. The charcoals were relatively difficult to light. Once they got going, it was a nice warm fire.

Gratuities are meant to solve an economic problem. When a person is paid a flat wage for his work, he has no incentive to work to his full capacity. As Peter says in Office Space, the threat of getting canned "will make you work just hard enough not to get fired." Gratuities in service jobs ensure that workers will provide excellent services in order to receive a generous gratuity. The same can be said of bonuses, stock options, piece work, and various other forms of compensation.

When are gratuities a lousy form of compensation? When the quality of the work is largely not affected by the worker's effort. Case in point: pizza delivery. No matter how much effort the delivery person puts into getting the pizza on time, there is no effort that can overcome traffic, speed limits, stop signs, weather, or the main reason pizzas are late, a slow kitchen.

Much more in the extended entry...

This morning I saw an interesting documentary on public access. A group of people claim to have documented evidence that airplanes have been used over the last six years to deliberately spray aerosol substances throughout the world's sky. In addition to scientific analysis of air samples, visibility reports, magnetic fields, and so on, they have some compelling photographs, including the following one.

The first photo shows the sky after several airplanes crossed over it. Contrails streak across the sky. However, instead of dissipating into the air as normal contrails do, the contrails remain in place and expand. Clouds then form around the airborne material, thereby covering what was initially a clear sky.

Local residents in rural areas of New Mexico have observed their sky change from a deep blue in the mid-90s to a pale white-blue today. With increasing numbers of people experiencing respiratory problems such as asthma, it certainly is an intriguing hypothesis.

So far the experts in government and industry are denying anything than ordinary contrails. I don't know the science here, but it seems to me that contrails dissipate very quickly; they do not streak across the entire sky. If there is streaking across the sky, possibly unintentionally, we should figure out why that is and assess the environmental impact. It should not simply be dismissed as the EPA, Pentagon, and other agencies have done so far.

For my first political diary, I turn to Cindy Sheehan. In case you fell off the face of the earth, she is the mother of a fallen soldier who camped outside Bush's Crawford estate demanding he speak with her. The media gobbled up the sensational story of a grieving mother demanding justice for her loss. It is truly a sad and pitiful story, and one would think that people of all political persuasions would have sympathy for Cindy Sheehan and her loss.

But that is not the case in George Bush's America, where the Elephant trumps all that is decent or right. For the last two weeks every chickenhawk pundit attacked and demonized this woman. Bill O'Liely, heroic saint that he is, said her behavior "borders on treasonous." Michelle Malkin claimed to speak for her son: "I can't imagine that Casey Sheehan would approve of such behavior."

Meanwhile, it's the left that holds vigils for injured and fallen soldiers. It's moveon.org and Democracy for America that sends care kits and flak jackets to the soldiers. It's the left that nominated a veteran for President in the past two elections.

I am confident the American people will eventually see through the conservative fake "support our troops" bullshit. After all, it's one thing to cheerlead a war by spending $1.50 for a magnetic bumper sticker. It's quite another to sacrifice your loved ones.

Apparently, it's easy to sabotage a conservative radio station. Milwaukee's WISN held an online poll to determine who their next morning show host would be. The DailyKos community freeped the poll so that a pro-choice Democrat would win.

Hilarious.

Radical cleric Patrick Robertson issued a fatwah yesterday for the immediate execution of Venezuela's democratically elected President Chavez. Said Robertson:

If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. ... We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

Of course, the commandment "Thou shalt not kill," which is displayed prominently in many courthouses across the country, comes with the famous rider: "except when thou shall saveth $200 billion and keepeth fuel in thy SUV."

Update: Cleric Robertson has since apologized for his remarks, although he still calls for US forces to "take him out." Apparently, democracy is only holy and righteous when a conservative is elected.

The right wing venom against Cindy Sheehan grows ever more vitriolic. This sign is a testament to how disgusting, indecent, and frankly, anti-American these people are.

It's one thing to proclaim your support for Bush's war. It's quite another to libel a grieving mother for disagreeing with you.

Update: Even the freerepublic crowd felt the sign was offensive, so they asked the man to leave. He refused, so they had him arrested. Without any sense of irony, he claimed he had a right to freedom of speech.

Idiot.

Yesterday I played two rounds at Mosholu Golf Course, a public 9-hole facility in the Bronx. It was a beautiful day - partly cloudy, 80 degrees, great breeze. For the first time, I kept fairly strict score. I shot 99 on a par 60 course. For those not in the know, that's about as good at golf as someone who just learned long division is at math. It's quite pathetic, but also fairly average. Less than 1% of amateurs actually shoot par.

So why am I so terrible? I broke up my score into shots approaching the green and putts.

My putting was poor, but there wasn't too much I could do on that front. The greens were often in disrepair, with more dirt than grass. Hole #9 in particular had almost no grass, which meant the ball kept rolling past the hole on a miss. Still, I putt most in 2 or 3 - I wouldn't expect better from a novice golfer.

What really killed me was poor approaches. I need quite a lot of work on chipping. Many times I hit over the green or short of the green. Hole #6 was brutal. Weeds completely surrounded the green, making chipping incredibly difficult. I wasted at least 7 shots on that alone. In fact, if I had reached the green in one stroke less than par on each hole, I would have shaved 15 off my score, bringing me to 84 and a 24 handicap. I could live with that.

Of course, in the long term I will also need to learn how to putt well. Even if I had two putted each hole, I would have shaved 11 off my score.

Go hang a salami. I'm a lasagna hog.

Figure it out folks.

Two news photos with captions:

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana. (AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)

Notice anything? Watch the conservative press start yapping about personal responsibility and how these "criminals" don't deserve our help. Forget about their backgrounds and why they weren't able to leave the city in the first place. It's obvious from the pictures that they don't need our help. After all, what kind of disgusting person steals food at a time like this?