Mohsen! Get outta here with that LAME-ASS Smoking Ban in DC shit — what I got here is the HOP-Da-HOP ; ) [Please excuse me if I just started some kind of nerdy blog-trash talking trend] Yes, indeed, this article may just be the phatest story of the new millenium . Evidently, the navy has been training killer Flippers since the Cold War to hunt down and kill any potential scuba spies with toxic dart guns. Some of them seem to have escaped during Katrina and now people are worried that American scuba divers could be attacked by ferociously lethal dolphin assassins. The Guardian Unlimited reported on the story, and when my mom first told me about it, I dismissed her as a crazy-head. Turns out I’M THE CRAZY-HEAD for disbelieving her. I nominate it for “Coolest Story of the Year.”

Like everyone else here, I’m similarly conflicted about the municipal smoking bans that are popping up everywhere in the US. DC itself is now in the midst of this debate, with Smokefree DC on one side and, to keep things fair and balanced, Ban the Ban (anti-Smokefree DC) on the other.

Like most liberals (classical), I would prefer that the market, not the government, decide whether smoking should be allowed in bars and resturants. But that’s only assuming that the market is working efficiently. When there’s a market failure, then there’s definitely a need for government intervention. So if I can point to a market failure, then I don’t have to feel conflicted. Is this one?:

Under the status quo, smokers enjoy the benefits of smoking (pleasure, feeding an addiction), without internalizing all of the costs of smoking (secondhand smoke, odor, smoke). Instead, nonsmokers bear those costs. The aspiring resturant worker either endures secondhand smoke and odor or has to seek an alternative workplace. The resturant or bar goer either endures secondhand smoke and odor or has to recreate elsewhere. Because smokers are aable to enjoy the benefits of smoking without internalizing all of the costs, they are not making efficient decisions about smoking.

A smoking ban simply shifts these costs back to the smokers, who are now forced to internalize the costs they’ve been imposing on the public generally. Now that they are faced with both the benefits and the costs, they can make efficient decisions about whether to smoke.

(PS. I’m no economist, and so I look forward to any flaws you may see in my reasoning.)

Madison is the country’s mecca of liberal politics. But sometimes it gets out of hand. Case in point: an indoor smoking ban passed by the city council 2 months back. Now, in principal, I am a big foe of smoking bans on private property. As long as adults consent to work or party in bars and restaurants that allow smoking, they should be allowed to do so. However, this is a point on which reasonable people can disagree. However, two things really bother me about the Madison smoking ban. First, there is no exception for bars whose main purpose is smoking (for example: cigar bars and hookah joints). Second, there is no exception for businesses in which the owner is the sole employee. The supposed point of these anti-smoking ordinances is to protect workers’ health. However, in a free market job seekers should take working conditions into account. Just like I would never take a job that required a lot of heavy lifting or required me to stare at a computer screen for 8 hours/day, many in the Madison community refuse to work in businesses that allow smoking. But many others are happy to work in bars and restaurants that allow smoking, fully aware that they will be exposed to second-hand smoke. Many more are willing to drink and eat in restaurants that allow smoking.

Interestingly, this is an issue where my principals clash with my self interest (I say interestingly because I, like most people, have probably constructed my principals based primarily on my self interest). I haven’t smoked a right-handed cigarette in years, and can’t stand to be around smoke. But I also hate to see small businesses, businesses who primarily deal in tobacco products, and bars at the edge of the city (where former patrons would be likely to drive the few miles to an out-of-city bar that allowed smoking) go out of business.

I’m willing to accept the smoking ban, but the refusal by our city council to accept these common-sense exceptions goes too far. I wonder what you guys think about these smoking bans which are proliferating across the country. I seem to recall Mohsen “63% Permissive” Manesh eventually coming around to the Fayetteville ban (a different case, of course, because it was imposed by a majority of citizens rather than the elites in the city council).

And in case you’re wondering, yes, I do think that two consenting adults should be able to challenge each other to a death duel.

The United States is not allowing Robert Fisk, one of the grestest journalist of our time to enter the country.

The internationally renowned correspodent for The Independent — the great British Fisk_1 journalist Robert Fisk (right) — has been banned from entering the United States. Fisk has been covering war zones for decades, but is above all known for his incisive reporting from the Middle East for more than 20 years. His critical coverage of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, and the continuing occupation that has followed it, has repeatedly exposed U.S. and British government disinformation campaigns. He also has exposed how the bulk of the press reports from Iraq have been “hotel journalism” — a phrase Fisk coined –

How low can we sink?

I took this Political Test and here are the results…. Please take and post in comments.

You are a Social Liberal (80% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (31% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test

Interesting test, not sure about results but maybe it describes me. The famous people link is sweet too, apperently I am near Hilary, Gandhi, Robert Redford and someone else with my icon over their face. I seem to be closer to a Socialist then a Democrat.

I experienced a few dificulties and delays in Bogata and Santiago (and some small airport we had to stop in, about which I know nothing except that it was in some remote part of Chile) Fewer people than I had hoped speak English which is intimidating, but good in that it is forcing my to work on my spanish. My apartment is really great with lots of cool stuff to do nearby. I took some pictures, and when I have my internet connection set up en mi cuarto I´ll post them.

Yesterday Renata, two of her friends and I took a bus tour up into the Andes and it was beautiful. I am here just in time for it to be warm enough to start hiking and camping in the mountains. hopefully Tanner and I will do just that next weekend while renata goes to Chile with the same friends that went on the tour with us. Speaking of weather, it has been wonderful here in Mendoza. That makes me a bit nervous about what it will be like here when Summer rolls around, but I suppose I can always head up into the mountains and/or south towards Patagonia.

More updates to follow next week.

In my current hungover-going-to-work state, I really have only three observations about Sigur Ros last night. These will make up my Weekend Concert Review Part I.

1. I cannot hope to express to you how much better that concert would have been had I and my friends been under the influence of any number of psychedelic drugs. Regular, garden variety whiskey-drunkenness just did not do the trick.

2. They played “Svefn-g-englar”, what with its recurrent iisss nuuaayyouuuuaaaaohhhhhhhs. This was by far the highlight of the show.

3. We and everyone else sat the whole time, which was kinda weird. Then, at the end of the show, when everybody clapped, instead of coming out and rocking us some more, they came out and bowed. This repeated 3 times — like it was some kind of play — until they turned on the house lights.

Talk about amazing and just plain cool, in an online game world a plague from one dungeon that was supposed to be there somehow was able to spread with the people returning back to other parts of the online world, just like in real life it decimated and spread like wild fire. Amazing enough the WOW admins don’t know how this happened so basically they had a smallpox epidemic on a code level mistake.

The plague began innocently enough. Blizzard introduced a new dungeon area in the world, intended to give high-level players a bit of a challenge. But when players reached the boss at the end of the dungeon, they got more than they bargained for — and unknowingly took a little something back to town to share with their friends. The dungeon boss, called Hakkar the Soulflayer, cast a spell called Corrupted Blood. The powerful spell caused about 280 damage points to anyone it hit, and spread to other members of the attacking party as well. Such powerful spell attacks aren’t unusual in the World of Warcraft game world. But what happened next was just plain weird.

When infected adventurers returned to town at the end of their quest, they inadvertently passed along the Corrupted Blood infection to those nearby. In short order, the plague ravaged the population. Soon entire cities fell victim to the artificial disease. And while 280 damage points may be easy for a level-58 Night Elf warrior to contend with, it’s enough to kill a lower-level player in seconds.

Read the Warcraft Plague Runs Amok article!

As I’m listening to this new song…. “Is this Ratatat… no … oh, it’s the Flaming Lips…. no, it’s the Strokes… no, it’s Grandaddy… no…..” What the? Who are The Unicorns? I love coming across great new bands. I ran across an article talking about the boom of indie bands coming out of Montreal in the last couple of years - Arcade Fire, The Stills, God Speed You Black Emperor, Stars, Of Montreal, The Dears, Wolf Parade, Cloud Cult… and The Unicorns - and I decided to check out the bands I hadn’t heard already. Goldmine! And The Unicorns top the list with pure and creative indie pop. Pitchfork reviewed their one album, ‘Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?’ (another review).

Don’t miss: Les Os; Sea Ghost; Ghost Mountain; Jellycones; Tuff Ghost; The Clap.

Why is it easy to pick up chicks at weddings, funerals, and on rickety bridges? Why are kids more likely to date a guy that their parents vehemently tell them to stay away from? Why do most insomniacs sleep better after a doctor prescribes them a placebo pill and tells them that the pill will arrouse them and make it harder for them to sleep? Why did Romeo and Juliet love each other so darn much?

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Murder and ZLindsey are the only ones close to any of his tour stops:
Madison: Nov 5th (not listed on Pollstar, but floating around on internet).
Ann Arbor: Nov 8th ( Pollstar)

This New York Times article, discussing a purported trend among young women students at elite East coast universities who’d rather be stay-at-home moms than successful professionals, has gotten a lot of attention. As of today, it was the most emailed article on the nytimes.com website.

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Scientists/doctors take another step towards becoming gods by
ripping off the old faces of people and stapling on new ones.

The article mentions that this raises questions about the soul and conscience, i.e. does our face determine who we essentially are (don’t ask me to try to define what I mean by this). It seems easy to say “No, the face is just skin and muscle over bone — it’s not my soul, my personhood, whether that exists in intangible or tangible (i.e. in the brain) form.” But what happens if your face becomes horribly disfigured or, for that matter, you get the face of Marlon Wayans. Your perception of your own aesthetic appeal would change, for better or worse. So would other people’s perceptions of this appeal. These two together would most probably cause a downward or upward spiral of self-confidence which would necessarily affect how you perceive your value as a person - your value to society, your value to others. Everytime a child looks at you and cringes and then cries, or everytime a child looks at you with wonder in his/her eyes and asks if you were the DJ on “In Living Color” has to affect how you perceive yourself. So maybe a face transplant doesn’t directly affect who you are as a person, but if it indirectly affects how you perceive yourself as a person, then where do we draw the line between perception and reality?

These questions always seem like big circles, no?

Convincing three-page argument on why you should watch Arrested Development.

I’ve decided to use JttM as my travel blog, but I still want to put something up at jb-home.com/argentina so I’ve created a “Travel” Category at JttM. that way I can display all posts by me under the “Travel” category at jb-home.com/argentina. jb-home.com/argentina will also have all my argentina photos. everyone else at JttM can feel free to use the “Travel” category without it showing up on my page.

Since this will also be the first post of my Travel blog, I suppose I should also say something travel related. …

My flight leaves tomorrow and I can hardly believe it. I’m a little nervous about my terrible spanish, but I’m sure I’ll persevere. I’ll be relieved when I’ve made it to my apartment and can relax and adjust to my new surroundings. My apartment has cable and so I’ve been told it will be easy to add broadband internet. Nevertheless I’m not sure how long it will be until I get reliable internet access. Since I’ll be relying on the internet for all comunication (phone, email, and blog) I may be out of touch for a week or two, but I’ll be back on with updates as soon as I can.

Don’t worry, you still have more than three months to fulfill your new year’s resolutions. The title of this post is merely indicating the expectations I had set for Takk, Sigur Ros’ fourth album. Their last two albums [Agaetis Byrjun; ()] are so close to perfect that I thought this would surely be the world’s second perfect album (Nick Drake’s Pink Moon). But no, Se Lest (track 5) screwed the pooch.

I can’t tell the difference between Icelanic words and nonsense, but supposedly Takk features more of the former and less of the latter, compared to their earlier albums. My search for english translations continues without much success. Apparently there’s a song about jumping in rain puddles without boots on, or something.

If you’re unfamiliar with Sigur Ros, prepare yourself for something very different, like something from a different planet… and I recommend Takk as their most accessible album. If you loved Sigur Ros’ earlier stuff, this is an essential album.

Start with:
Glosoli - chugs along, then starts banging along… a little too much for me, but everyone else seems to love it.
Hoppipolla - heavy on the strings and the pop, and awesome, the final chorus is fit for the best moments in life
Meo Bloonasir - hypnotic beats, chimes, and drones (and this is a good thing)
Saeglopur - loud electric guitars and piano, finishes with an angel sulking
Andvari - missing the chaos, but full of strings, weeps (could almost be a love song)

I’m currently in the midst of creating a definitive Ryan Adams greatest hits compilation. Unfortunately, he’s rather prolific and rather hit-’n'-miss, which means that I would have to spend hours disgesting scores of throwaway fillers to find one “To be Young,” “Damn Sam,” or “Answering Bell.” Rather than do that, I want to get recommendations from the Ryan Adams aficionados in the readership. What songs do I need for an entry-level Ryan Adams fan like myself?

hey I’m goint to want to blog stuff about this here trip I’m taking to Argentina … would you guys prefer that I create a new, trip specific blog (ala EDemirel) or would you guys like to see that shit up in this piece. You have 24 hours to voice your opinion. Because, If I’m not going to put them here, I need to get a new blog set up before I leave.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Ok so this is long overdue:

• I worked a lot this summer. more than any other time in my life. between being a salesperson at Packrat, doing tech support for HostGator and doing web design stuff with ben, I was working about 70 hours a week for a while there.
  • that sucked.
  • but I made a bunch of money.
  • at least compared to what I’m used to.
• My girlfirend, Renata, left to study in Mendoza Argentina about two months ago…so I’ve been missing her all the time. but it’s not nearly as bad as the 5 months we were apart while I was in New Zealand.
• I quit Packrat about 2 weeks ago and came out to Charlotte, North Carolina (where my sister lives)
  • actually she lives in the suburban Utopia of Mathews: I’ve been spending my days working via the interweb, playing fetch with the dog, and Tivoing my favorite shows. It’s been rough.
• After my shift tomorrow I will be done working for HostGator
• On Tuesday Morning I fly from Charlotte to Santiago Chile (via Fort “Median Age 68″ Lauderdale and Bogata “Don’t leave the airport unless you are buying cocaine and or want your kidneys stolen” Columbia).
• From Santiago I’ll take a Bus up and over the Andes Mountains and into Argentina. Mendoza is sort of an arid semi-desert/wine-growing region at the foot of the Andes.
• I am, as I type, paying rent on an apartment that renata found in the center of town. it is a one room (plus bath) studio on the ninth floor of a mixed comercial/residential buiding on the main pedestrian street in town. So I’m looking forward to being close to the cultural stuff in the town (cafes, bars, museums, shops, etc). It sounds perfect. I’ll be posting photos once I get there.
• Assuming my money situation stays good, I’ll be down there until Januarish…Hiking, bumming around, climbing (maybe, among other things, the highest mountain in the western hemisphere), working, embarasing myself with my poor spanish, &c., &c.
• When I get back I hope to be still doing the flexibly located web development thing for money rather than using the degree that I should, by that point, officially have.
• So those of you with broadband beware because I have no plans other than following renata around wherever she goes, and, occasionally, sleeping on your couch.