How to *really* rock the vote on Memorial Day

It's an absolutely picture perfect Southern California memorial day: sunny, bright, and warm. Unusually, we don't even have any smog. Which is a great time to get some clarity about a political change that I support: military service as a condition of the vote.

This is a fairly radical position, and it's not seriously discussed on the national stage. So let me explain. First of all, it's not that radical. Compulsory military service, or national service, is common throughout the world: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Israel, Iran, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey all do it. Israel is particularly commendible for conscripting women as well as men.

Military service does two things that are useful for voters: first, it organizes them in the largest single organizational structure our nation has. This teaches people to work coherently in large numbers, which is a good basis for acting coherently when it comes time to national votes. Second, and more importantly, our service men are putting their life on the line to achieve this countries geopolitical goals. That's a more important and more meaningful contribution than tax dollars, and should be rewarded with something more meaningful, like the vote. The most i

It is hard to imagine veterans putting up with the kind of vitriolic non discourse that dominates today's landscape. Veterans know that talk is cheap, it's easier to be a critic than to act, and that actions mean something, even if you get it wrong. They understand that honor isn't an abstract, useless thing, that without honor organizations fall apart. The vitriol will die off because the demand will disappear.

This is a long term play. It will take at least a generation for the effects to fully be felt. But it's an experiment that's worth making.

A hearty salute to all our soldiers out there, domestic and abroad. Kick some ass!

Peace.

When hot girls sing.

When you like someone you put up with a lot. If your girl likes to sing, and she's bad at it, you let the girl sing anyway. No harm. But for some reason, Barnes & Nobles believes that Him & Her needs to be played while I shop. This is odd because I'm pretty sure is dating Zoey Daschenal (lead singer of Him & Her) neither Barnes nor Noble, or the awkward young man in the music section, so it's not clear why they are doing this.

(Perhaps to avoid having to play Vampire Weekend? That I understand.)

Of Sailboats and Pianos

Sailboats are nice because they are fun to sail. It's nice to own one because you have control - if you want to change something, you can.

My boat is a 1972 35' Ericson. And I just had a mechanic tell me that I shouldn't bother fixing it (the engine is seized). Why? Because the engine, fiberglass and gelcoat things I want to fix are 'tradesman jobs' and that I shouldn't bother.

This kind of "can't do" attitude get's me down. It's un-American. Economies of scale are, at some level, great - they are an incredible way to inject large amounts negentropy into the world. Think about how cheap it is to buy a piano! But they also seem to set expectations way too high. It's like, "if it can't be factory fresh, I don't want to bother!"

Tuning a piano correctly is beyond most laymen. But it only needs to be done once in a while, and is relatively cheap. What if we kept pianos submerged in salt-water? Then it might not be worth it to own pianos at all!  Factories that produce big, dead things aren't really doing us much good: maybe inexpensive durable goods are a poison pill. Factories simultaneously raise our expectations of our stuff, and reduce our ability to understand our stuff.

So, I have to consider the question seriously: is it even worth it to own a boat? Is the mechanic's assertion correct, that a boat is something you spend $150,000 on, put it in the water for 10 or 20 years and then throw it away?

No. I don't really buy this can't do attitude. I think it's possible to maintain my boat. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be relatively safe and get me in and out of the slip. The gelcoat and fiberglass needs to be watertight and functional, not perfect. Basically, I'm content to let the super-high standards set at the factory go by the wayside and gain some skills maintaining and repairing my own stuff.

The way out is simple: ditch that downer mechanic, and figure out another way. And so I have: I'm going to pull out the old Universal Atomic 4 engine and put a electrical engine in. I'm very excited about this. It's really a perfect solution. Electric motors are light (about 30lbs for the motor itself) and efficient. It even does regenerative power from the rotating prop when you're under sail - a very cool form of wind power. It's good for the environment. It's quiet and there are very few moving parts to maintain. Pop on some solar panels (Costco has a 60w deal for only $270 right now) and I'm set.

I can do it, and I will.

Goodbye Facebook, Hello Facetime

I finally deactivated my Facebook account. Been thinking about it since Facebook patented the "newsfeed".I feel good about it already. I really enjoy seeing what people are up to in the world, and reconnecting with old friends, but at some point Facebook became an oppressive force in my life, and now it's time to go. The recent privacy problems are just another reason to ditch the service.

A great deal of Facebook is actually recreated in the open with FriendFeed (friendfeed.com/javajosh), which creates a kind of open newsfeed which other FriendFeed users can comment on, like, etc. Recommended.

Here are some other ways to stay in touch:

1. Phone or Text (562) five four six-3882 (or 562 54 METTA).
   
2. Everything (friendfeed.com/javajosh). Most of my online activities go here, particularly the media I consume. It's better than a Facebook Newsfeed, actually.
3. Email (javajosh@gmail.com). Tried and true. Personally, I really dig email. Way better than Facebook Messaging: it's search-able, universal, and far more private, reliable, and flexible.
4. Chat (javajosh@gmail.com, Skype/javajosh). I'm not a big chatter, though. Would much rather just have a quick phone conversation.
   
5. Link sharing (delicious.com/javajosh, google.com/reader/shared/javajosh). Sharing links is an easy way for me to say, "Hey, this is neat!". Kind of takes the place of Twitter.
   
6. Blogging (javajosh.blogger.com). Replaces "Notes" in Facebook, but more general and flexible.
   
7. YouTube, GoodReads (goodreads.com/javajosh), last.fm (last.fm/user/ablation). Find out what videos I've watched, books I've read, and music I've listened to.
   
8. Flickr (flickr.com/jaakel). Photos I've taken. This account has languished recently, alas. It's time to change that. Or not. I may start using Picasa Web Albums (picasaweb.google.com/javajosh) instead (partly because I can't stand the URL I got with Flickr - thanks sis!) Actually, photos are one area where I think facebook does a better job, although I bet these other services will do a good job catching up.
9. Twitter: not for me.

I hope that, in the end, leaving Facebook will improve my connections with others. One things for certain, I look forward to reconnecting with my blog,
which has a far more spacious & open feel to it. Here, I feel free to write
what I like, rather than the pithy, tiny, and ultimately pointless
quips that the Facebook format seems to encourage and reward. Ah, a new, old day has dawned.

Keep in touch,
Josh

Career choice: vigilante!

I'm going to take off my liberal hat for a while and rant about something. I read stories about admitted scumbags getting life in jail, and it  ticks me off. What a waste. That visceral angry part of me demands true justice. Someone should have hunted him down long ago - but instead we have a civilized trial and spend $10m to keep him secure and alive for the rest of his life.

At least dump him in Iraq and let him defuse IEDs. With a pair of pliers and a smile.

Oh! To be a dark avenger stalking the evildoers of the night in righteous vengeance! To clean the streets of rapists and senseless drive-by shooters!

You know, like Batman.

The immune system of our society is ponderous, slow, and unfocused. The body of law that police are expected to enforce and the legal system is expected to prosecute is so complex that actual enforcement is not only impossible, but would be counter-productive if everything was perfectly enforced. Regarding minor criminal acts, we are not a nation of laws, but a nation of discretionary enforcement which is too often abused.

Far better than a lone vigilante would be a simplified body of law, something that can be enforced and prosecuted swiftly. Speed is essential because justice, like inspiration, is perishable.

Why require login to unsubscribe from spam?

I think most people create a lot of accounts in this Internet world. Most of these accounts are silly because there is no data of interest, and nothing to protect. Two such accounts, like those at Auctiva and JBoss.org, both spam you when you sign up for an account, and both require a log in and manipulation of email preferences. Of course, I don't remember these accounts, and, really, I don't want to go to that amount of trouble. Which means I hit the spam button in Gmail, which is easy, quick, but makes it possible, if not likely, that neither companies newsletters will make it even to legitimate customers. Which is something I know neither company wants.

Come on people. Make it easy to unsubscribe (like, a single click). It's a Good Idea.

A cure for motion sickness

I am quite pleased to report that my motion sickness is cured, and I hope that this cure can be applied to other cases. I'm fairly certain that there are many kinds of motion sickness, so let me describe mine and how I (inadvertently) treated it. If the treatment helps you, please let me know!

My motion sickness, first and foremost, prevented me from reading in a car, or any moving object. This could be a considerable problem, particularly when faced with navigating maps - the effort to concentrate on a map would cause nausea within two minutes or so, and take perhaps five to dissipate. I experienced this profoundly while on recent trip to New Zealand traveling in the back of a camper van.

Occasionally, my motion sickness would attack me while sailing - but usually not within many hours of being on the water. And usually I would vomit once or twice and then be fine. The one exception is one time when I had a touch of flu, and was sick within an hour of being on the water (and violently ill the entire 12 hour journey - which is a story for another time). Reading of any sort, or any concentrated activity, especially below decks, would cause a wave of nausea.

That's the extent of it: I have never been motion sick on a roller coaster, and never on a large plane, or on a large ship. (Well, I did feel a bit sick when the pilot of a small plane showed me some acrobatics, but that hardly counts!)

(Why not Dramamine? I found out early on that I despise Dramamine more than I despise being motion sick - Dramamine makes me feel sleepy without allowing me to go to sleep, keeping me in this incredibly uncomfortable in-between state that feels awful. I would only use it in exceptional circumstances, like that 12-hour torture sail mentioned above.)

Anyway, I've been living on a small sailboat for about 4 months now, and recently discovered that, somehow, my motion sickness has all but gone! I can read in the car! Heck, I could even write stuff in my laptop in the back of a taxi (which would normally be even more nausea inducing than reading)! I'm quite pleased about this and can't wait to test the limits of my newfound tolerance.

So that's it! Live on a boat for a while, and maybe that will help your motion sickness. If it does, I'd love to hear from you.

(My guess is that the constant motion while sleeping on a boat conditions the body to respond in a more normal way to small motions. I say "all but gone" because I can feel the discomfort begin while, for example, reading in the car. but it never gets past discomfort into full-blown nausea. It's like the waves are still breaking on the beach but they just aren't strong enough to get past the boardwalk).

Hope this helps!