Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

Holden

Tuesday, September 16
1:20 p.m. Caller says he's going to business where they don't like him and they might call police; business called to have
him removed
Friday, September 19
6:57 p.m. Dog lost at high school
7:08 p.m. Dog found at high school
10:55 p.m. Caller from Amherst reporting noisy party at neighbor's; advised to call Amherst PD
Saturday, September 20
9:19 a.m. Large raccoon removed, Main St.
1:47 p.m. Report of man fishing, Reservoir St.
Sunday, September 21
11:03 a.m. Caller wondering about any motor vehicle accidents in town this morning
11:23 a.m. Report of party who walks dog without leash and disrupts caller's dog
6:46 p.m. Caller reporting Asian Longhorned Beetle

Paxton

Tuesday, September 16
11:42 p.m. Dead porcupine, Rte. 122
Friday, September 19
11:51 p.m. Walk-in female asking for ride home; says too tired to drive

Sterling

Monday, September 15
7:58 p.m. Missing yellow mastiff, Clinton Rd.; returned home later
7:59 p.m. Missing black Labrador, Clinton Rd.; returned home an hour later
9:16 p.m. Loose cow walking down Justice Hill Rd.
Wednesday, September 17
11:55 a.m. Report of male pedaling frozen meats from white pickup truck, Worcester Rd.
Saturday, September 20
6:17 a.m. Solar lights strung across Woodside Dr. near Belmont Dr.
10:36 a.m. Report of animal in ceiling, Worcester Rd.

Job benefits that tell a different story

I recently received a job lead that mentioned the following benefits:

This is a very employee and family focussed company with outings, offsites, daily breakfast and evening dinner provided, plus a company paid lunch every Thursday

Spelling aside, there are a few things about the listing that give pause: breakfast and dinner. I've worked at places such as this. (Coincidentally, did one of this company's executives.) While the outings and off-site events were fun, they couldn't change the fact that you are eating three meals at day at the office. I'll let you decide if that sounds family-friendly to you.

Same word with a new emphasis

I've been using Google's automated blog search to find out what people are writing about depression. Even a few weeks ago, most of the topics were about depression, the mental illness. It's since become almost exclusively about depression, the economic illness. People are more worried about the state of their pocketbooks than the state of their minds.

Google Reader (112) via kwout

Not only that, but, FWIW, Sarah Palin seems to be in the middle of all of the discussions.

In case you wondering what they're thinking

A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 17 nations finds that majorities
in only nine of them believe that al Qaeda was behind the 9/11
terrorist attacks on the United States.

Michael Moore's Slacker Uprising -- Trailer

Roaster Boy's Playlist

Music on my iPod, YouTube, or old-fashioned radio.

September 23, 2008

iTunes Genius Playlist, based on I'll Fly Away

Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch - I'll Fly Away
"Down From The Mountain: Live Concert Performances By The Artists & Musicians Of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Lyle Lovett - If I Had A Boat
Pontiac

Hank Williams - I Saw The Light
Hank Williams 16 Greatest Hits

Patsy Cline - I Fall To Pieces
Patsy Cline Story

Kris Kristofferson - Why Me?
The Austin Sessions

Willie Nelson & Johnny Cash - (Ghost) Riders In The Sky
Storytellers [Live]

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will The Circle Be Unbroken
"Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 2"

Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons (1955)
16 Tons Of Boogie: The Best Of Tennessee Ernie Ford

Lyle Lovett - Private Conversation
The Road To Ensenada

Willie Nelson - Good Hearted Woman
Willie & Family Live (Disc 1)

"Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris" - To Know Him Is To Love Him
Trio

Joaquin Phoenix - I Walk The Line
Walk The Line (???)

Alison Krauss - Down To The River To Pray
"O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Wild Bill Jones
"Down From The Mountain: Live Concert Performances By The Artists & Musicians Of ""O Brother, Where Art Thou?"""

Johnny Cash - Orange Blossom Special
At Folsom Prison / San Quentin

Randy Travis w/ Dolly Parton - Do I Ever Cross Your Mind
Heroes and Friends

ZZ Top - "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide"
Greatest Hits

Willie Nelson - Blue Skies
Stardust

Wayne Hancock - Thunderstorms And Neon Signs
Thunderstorms And Neon Signs

Patsy Cline - Sweet Dreams
Patsy Cline Story

Bill Monroe - Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Smithsonian Folkways American Roots Collection

Emmylou Harris - If I Needed You (w/ Don Williams)
Duets

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - Love Hurts
"Warm Evenings, Pale Mornings, Bottled Blues 1963-1973"

The Stanley Brothers - Angel Band
"O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Lyle Lovett - Nobody Knows Me
Lyle Lovett and his Large Band 1 Day ago

September 22, 2008

cbs2.com - Presidential Candidates Barack Obama, John McCain Reveal Top 10 Songs

CBS reports the favorite tunes of our presidential candidates. FWIW, only one of the songs, "What's Going On," would make my top 10, although there's some pretty good music here.

Here's the complete list according to Blender.com:

Number 10:
Obama: "Yes We Can" by will.i.am
McCain: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" by The Platters

Number 9:
Obama: "City of Blinding Lights" by U2
McCain: "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond

Number 8:
Obama: "Think" by Aretha Franklin
McCAIN: "I've Got You Under My Skin" by Frank Sinatra

Number 7:
Obama: "You'd Be So Easy to Love" by Frank Sinatra
McCain: "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong

Number 6:
Obama: "Touch the Sky" by Kanye West
McCain: "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys

Number 5:
Obama: "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone
McCain: "As Time Goes By" by Dooley Wilson

Number 4:
Obama: "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones
McCain: "If We Make It Through December" by Merle Haggard

Number 3:
Obama: "I'm On Fire" by Bruce Springsteen
McCain: "Take a Chance On Me" by ABBA

Number 2:
Obama: "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye
McCain: "Blue Bayou" by Roy Orbison

Number 1:
Obama: "Ready or Not" by the Fugees
McCain: "Dancing Queen" by ABBA

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
2 Days ago

September 17, 2008

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Did we slip through a tear in the space/time continuum and wind up on April 1st?

According to a report on WNBC and shown on the PETA website, PETA is asking Ben and Jerry's to consider using human breast milk in their ice cream.

Where to put your money in times of trouble

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported

"The desperation was especially striking in the market for U.S. government debt, long considered the safest of investments. At one point during the day, investors were willing to pay more for one-month Treasurys than they could expect to get back when the bonds matured. Some investors, in essence, had decided that a small but known loss was better than the uncertainty connected to any other type of investment." (link, WSJ subscription required.)

These wise people believe that it's better to lose a small amount with certainty than to risk losing a lot in an uncertain investment. You'd think, smart people that they are, that just putting the cash in a known repository would be better than losing money. You'd think.
We can be grateful then, that Harriet Carter has a solution for them and for us: the "Fanny" bank, with up to six flatulent sound effects.

OK, now this is officially creepy

You can get a fake pet that fakes breathing and, if you're lucky, snoring.

Look closely at the picture and you can see the pseudopooch breathing.

When competition makes you stupid

This article goes along with my rant that wireless companies are more interested in control than innovation, to the point that they're making less money than they could if there was a more open wireless system in this country. I'd gladly pay the extra $50/month or so for wireless broadband if I could get a good signal at our camp. There are three companies that give 1-bar or less coverage. If they didn't have to duplicate their coverage, they could blanket the area with more towers and give us higher capacity connections.

The real reason carriers are limiting services and charging more is to maintain control of what people can do on their networks.

On teachability

When I was a manager, I tried to hire people who were temperamentally suited to the job. Lack of skills or knowledge, the reasoning went, can usually be overcome by training. (Of course, in technical fields, you do have to have a basic understanding and aptitude in the domains in which you are working.) A key to that right temperament was teachability, the ability and,  most importantly, the willingness to learn and change. Knowing what you don't know is the basis for all learning.

We're hiring a president. We want a president who not only knows enough, but is capable of learning even more. Then, with that knowledge, the president can act with wisdom, prudence, and imagination, inspiring us as we move through troubled times.

So, it's a bit surprising to see a leading conservative voice, George Will, sounding off against the Republican candidate in McCain Loses His Head:

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Obvious. Paging Captain Obvious. Pick up the white courtesy phone ...

Technorati Confirms: Blogging Continues To Be Pitiless Work that Doesn’t Pay | TekPopuli

blogging continues to be a thankless, pitiless and lonely effort for the vast majority of bloggers,

Of course, most of us aren't in it for the money. Blogging is, at least from this writer's corner, a chance to keep in touch with family and friends and to get ideas out into the ether before they get knotted up like so much fishing line.

Wind powah in Wustah

Last Friday, I attended the first of five sessions in my W.I.S.E. course. We walked around the Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, a leisurely two-hour walk that took us through thick woods (all hardwoods, interestingly) and across the eponymous meadow. Our guide pointed out a tower in the distance, a tower that would soon be a wind turbine.

A couple of Worcester bloggers, Jeff at Wormtown Taxi and 4rilla at 4rilla is for real!, have noted that the turbine is complete and stands tall behind Holy Name High School.

Wormtown Taxi via kwout

They're playing our song

As ships of various registry make their way along the St. Lawrence, the crew is often surprised to hear their national anthem bursting from the hillside. As one captain's log records, "There is a gentleman who lives high on a cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence who salutes each ship as it passes by with the national flag of the ship and its anthem. He has a large flagpole with yardarms and a gaff on which he runs up the flag. He also has a huge sound system that blasts out the anthem across the half mile river."
It was probably 20 years ago when I first heard this story. At the time, the man playing the national anthems would likely have had CDs or even vinyl recordings of the various anthems. Today, with the wonderousness that is the worldwide web, he could go to a site such as nationalanthems.info and, with a few mouse clicks, find the needed tune. (Did you know that the Finnish anthem is identical to the Estonian melody?)

Good dog. Well dog.

It's a maxim in the dog kingdom that even a trip to the vet's includes a ride in the car.

This morning, I brought Marley to the vet's for his annual physical. For a 12, almost 13,-year-old dog, he's doing fine. It takes a bit more effort for him to jump in the car. He's lost a half-pound since his last visit. His heart rate is nice and slow. Sometimes, his hearing needs a boost, but he finds a way to listen to what he wants to listen to.

Now that the cooler weather has arrived, he spends more time in front of the wood stove, enjoying the warmth, waiting for the next good thing to happen.

Knowing less after you read a sign than before

I've discussed how some things are fixed in documentation - people choosing to put up signs that warn you of some thing rather than fixing the thing in the first place. This one's different. I was contentedly waiting for the red light to change until I saw this sign. After reading the sign, I knew less what to do than before.

I think that this means that traffic going in either this direction or the opposite gets a green light sooner than the other. That probably makes a difference if I'm going to take a left turn, which I am not.

Roaster Boy's Playlist

September 17, 2008

iTunes Genius Playlist, based on O Mary Don't You Weep

Bruce Springsteen & The Sessions Band - O Mary Don't You Weep
Live In Dublin
Bruce Springsteen & The Sessions Band - How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live
Live In Dublin
Bob Dylan - Thunder On The Mountain
Modern Times
Bob Dylan & The Rolling Thunder Review - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall [Live]
Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Revue (Bootleg Series Vol. 5) (Disc 1)
Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's Blues
Small Change
Van Morrison & The Chieftains - Irish Heartbeat
Irish Heartbeat
Cowboy Junkies - Misguided Angel
The Trinity Session
Bruce Springsteen - If I Should Fall Behind
Lucky Town
The Rolling Stones - Shine A Light
Exile On Main Street
Rod Stewart - Mandolin Wind
Every Picture Tells A Story
The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
Live MCMXCIII
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited
Paul Simon - Graceland
Graceland
John Mellencamp - Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)
Mr. Happy Go Lucky
George Harrison - If Not For You
All Things Must Pass (Disc 1)
Bruce Springsteen & The Sessions Band - This Little Light of Mine
Live In Dublin
Bruce Springsteen - Jacob's Ladder
We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions
Bob Dylan - I Shall Be Released
"The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991 [BOX SET]"
Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
Live Rust
Patti Smith - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Twelve
Bonnie Raitt & John Prine - Angel From Montgomery (Live)
John Prine Live
Derek & The Dominos - Bell Bottom Blues
Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs
Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart
The Wind
Bruce Springsteen - Out In The Street (Live)
Live in New York City (Disc 1)
Paul Simon with The Jessy Dixon Singers - Mother And Child Reunion
Live Rhymin'
4 Days ago

 

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Insert your own 'World has gone to the dogs' joke here

OK, now this has passed the point of being silly. Last week, I posted a note about a sign I'd seen while Marley and I were out for a walk in our fair town. Now we learn that Israeli hamlet plans DNA database for dog poop. Maybe someone should remind them that Katyusha rockets might be a more serious threat to the well-being of this village than Caleb's leavings.
We should be grateful, I guess, that Superman doesn't really have a dog.

Headlines that make us go "Whaaa?"

Enter Content Here: Bluenog subtly forks Hippo via kwout

This is an article that briefly describes a new content management product is based on another's open source product. The title, however, seems like Zippy's free-association ramblings.

1K of RoasterBoy

This is the 1024^th post to this blog. In computer parlance, that's 1K or 2¹⁰. As with most milestones, such as birthdays, New Year's, or, also today, the anniversary of the passing of my mother, it is, as friend used to say, a chance to look back down the hill.
My mother had the spirit of blogging decades before we had the web. It was the Hakkarainen Clipping Service, "No obligation to read, acknoledge, or return." She used the U.S. mail to send news and notes to friends all over. We were the only family I knew of who had a mimeograph machine for personal use. My mother used her letter-writing and clippings not only to advocate peace, but to practice it.
So, it's fitting that today is also International Day of Peace.

My Commitment via kwout

Rest in peace, TJL.