Yowza! An excellent decision.....
though it should have happened earlier. From the AP: California Bans E-Voting in Four Counties, Calls for Criminal Investigation Into Company

The state's top elections official called for a criminal investigation of Diebold Election Systems Inc. as he banned use of the company's newest model touchscreen voting machine, citing concerns about its security and reliability.

Friday's ban will force up to 2 million voters in four counties, including San Diego, to use paper ballots in November, marking their choices in ovals read by optical scanners.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley asked the attorney general's office to investigate allegations of fraud, saying Diebold had lied to state officials. A spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer said prosecutors would review Shelley's claims.

...

In 10 other counties, Shelley decertified touchscreen machines but set 23 conditions under which they still could be used. That order involved 4,000 older machines from Diebold and 24,000 from its three rivals.

The decision follows the recommendations of a state advisory panel, which conducted hearings earlier this month.

Made just six months before a presidential election, the decision reflects growing concern about paperless electronic voting.

A number of failures involving touchscreen machines in Georgia, Maryland and California have spurred serious questioning of the technology. As currently configured, the machines lack paper records, making recounts impossible.

"I anticipate his decision will have an immediate and widespread impact," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation and a frequent critic of the machines. "California is turning away from e-voting equipment, and other states are sure to follow."

...

A state investigation released this month said Diebold jeopardized the outcome of the March election in California with computer glitches, last-minute changes to its systems and installations of uncertified software in its machines in 17 counties.

The really scary thing though? Diebold makes ATMS.

You might want to watch your money carefully.

Why ask why?
Explanation would somehow just be beside the point: Octodog's Frankfurter Converter.

But my rational mind is still drawn to the question in the upper left corner: Why Octodog? And as God is my witness, they're pushing it as a children's safety thang.....

Thought for the Day:
Yet O'Reilly, like many other people, clings to the fantasy that he is a stiff among the swells. He plays this chord repeatedly in the book, a potpourri of anecdotes and opinions about life in general and his in particular. He had a very strange experience as a graduate student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (which let the likes of Bill O'Reilly through its ivy-covered gates, he is careful to note, "in an effort to bring all sorts of people together"). Other Kennedy School students, he says, insisted on being called by three names, none of which could be "Vinny, Stevie, or Serge." Their "clothing was understated but top quality... and their rooms hinted of exotic vacations and sprawling family property. Winter Skiing in Grindelwald? No problem." They tried to be nice, but Bill was nevertheless humiliated, in a Thai restaurant, to be "the only one who didn't know how to order my meal in Thai." I should explain this last one to those who may not have been aware that Thai is the lingua franca of the American WASP upper class. The explanation is simple. American Jewish parents only one or two generations off the boat often spoke in Yiddish when they didn't want their children to understand. Italian-Americans used Italian, and so on. But WASPs only had English. (They tried Latin, but tended to forget the declensions after the second martini.) So they adopted Thai, which they use in front of the servants and the O'Reillys of the world as well. (At least it sounds like Thai after the second martini.) When they turn 18, upper-class children attend a secret Thai language school, disguised as a ski resort, in Grindelwald.
--Michael Kinsley [on Fox News Net fool Bill O'Reilly]

I see what I'm doing tonight....
WGN is showing the Cards/Cubs game tonight. We'll be rooting.

UPDATE: In the words of the late, great Jack Buck: That's a winner! But...the Cubs walked in the winning run? Damn, that must hurt. Fugly, fugly....

But I'm not complaining. At this rate, I'll take a home win any way I can get it.

And the reason for doing this is?
Joe Bob Briggs, in his weekly "Week in Review" email newsletter, makes an interesting observation about Vice President Cheney's recent speech criticizing Senator Kerry at Westminster College in Fulton, MO:

Vice President Dick Cheney, the Bush campaign's designated mad dog, kept hammering away at John Kerry's Vietnam war record, and the Republican Party spent $60 million on ads claiming Kerry is not fit to be commander-in-chief--raising the question, "Uh, of all the things you could attack Kerry for, why pick the one thing he a) was decorated by his country for, b) did for a longer time than Bush and Cheney put together, c) did for such a long time that he took more enemy fire than most of the soldiers presently serving in Iraq, and d) volunteered for at a time when most guys his age were trying to avoid the draft?" The man's a Massachusetts liberal, for God's sake, there are LOTS of ways to attack him. This is putting the bazooka on your shoulder with the muzzle pointed backwards.

Figures don't lie, but liars figure....
Received from an email correspondent:

There's an old joke that the Geography Department at the University of North Carolina would tell prospective majors the average salary of graduates with a bachelor's degree in geography from UNC, without telling them that UNC alumnus and NBA star Michael Jordan received his bachelor's in geography....

A self-absorbed blog maintenance post.
Oh, just a couple things to occupy my time with.

First, an addition to the blogroll. Ray Mileur, partner in crime with Brian Walton in the perpetration of The Cardinals Birdhouse, has apparently been called to active duty in one of the military reserve components, and is in Korea for a while. For that reason, the Birdhouse will be MIA until roughly June or so, and in the interim Brian Walton will be running The Birdhouse Annex as the mid-season filler for the Birdhouse. We wish Ray the best and hope fervently for his speedy and safe return from Korea, and in the interim we'll keep our eyes on the Annex.

In the spirit of friendly Cubs-baiting in anticipation of this weekend's Cards-Cubs series (one of the great baseball rivalries), Walton (who apparently has a copy of Photoshop and way too much time on his hands) has produced a set of signs in honor of Ray Mileur's "I-95" graphic (which stands for "I believe in 95", in reference to Ray's fervent hope that the Cardinals can win 95 games this year and take the NL Central (Ok, I know, fat chance, but we all gotta dream)). I mention "friendly Cubs-baiting" because there's one sign that makes the Cubs (or One Certain Player) the butt of its joke, but in reality Brian's signage is as much (or more) baiting Mileur as the Cubs. Anyway, check 'em out.

Second, for some strange reason I find myself motivated to see if I can move myself away from Blogger over to another blog management software package this weekend. Ok, ok, it's not a strange reason: I don't keep track of hits (well, not much), but I've noticed recently that there are a number of regular readers/commenters who've gone MIA. Most likely this is because the content here has gone into the toilet in recent weeks, but I've also noticed that the decline in regular commentating also coincides with the recent agonizing death of the Wyethville Community College "RSSify" feed that I'd been providing as an RSS feed, and which several of the regular customers seemed to have been using. While Blogger does provide an "Atom" feed, it somehow generates what must be non-standard XML, because the Atom feed (as noted to the left there) isn't picked up by aggregators or other RSS readers unless they're "Atom enabled"; however the one Atom enabled aggregator that I use "BottomFeeder" (which I like a lot; check it out!) doesn't render the Atom feed correctly. So I'm in search of something that will do a decent RSS feed, and that means bye-bye Blogger.

Because I'm onery, and because I have heard that Moveable Type can be a bitch to set up, I'm investigating Greymatter right now; initial investigation suggests that it may be fairly easy to set up and use, and it appears to have an associated plug-in that will do a RSS 1.0 feed. Anyway, I'm hoping that the experimentation will go smoothly, and that I'll be able to transition to a non-Blogger blog soon. I'm hoping that "soon" translates into "tommorrow", because that will make archiving much more "rational". I'll still be keeping the Blogger archives around, though the Haloscan comments may not be preserved (we'll try to figure out if we can arrange things so that they won't disappear).

Hope the changes are worth it; if nothing else, the ability to generate standard RSS should be worth it.

And I wonder...
what kind of response this will get from Big Stupid Tommy? :-)

From the Cardinals' mailing list:

CARDINALS TOP 10

10 reasons it's better to be a Cardinals fan than a Cubs fan:

1. Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio? Still hurts, don't it?
2. World Series Championships come more than once a century [Actually, with the current drought of World Series Championships that the Cardinals have experienced--the last Series trophy the Cards brought home was in 1982, remember--I have recurring nightmares that the Cardinals are entering into a Cubs-like slump there --LRC]
3. We don't dread October
4. Two words: Albert Pujols
5. McGwire topped Sosa
6. That's an Arch de Triumph, baby
7. No Curse of Billy Goat
8. Back-to-back winning seasons is an expectation not a cause for jubilation
9. We're home to the Blues, not the ones singing them
10. Thanks for Bruce Sutter, hope Leon Durham is working out

And the reason for this "Top 10" is that the Cards and Cubs are playing in St. Louis this weekend. Dammit; I wish I'd planned better....

WHy does this not surprise me?
From the WaPo yesterday: Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act

The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed yesterday that it filed a lawsuit three weeks ago challenging the FBI's methods of obtaining many business records, but the group was barred from revealing even the existence of the case until now.

The lawsuit was filed April 6 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, but the case was kept under seal to avoid violating secrecy rules contained in the USA Patriot Act, the ACLU said. The group was allowed to release a redacted version of the lawsuit after weeks of negotiations with the government.

"It is remarkable that a gag provision in the Patriot Act kept the public in the dark about the mere fact that a constitutional challenge had been filed in court," Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director, said in a statement. "President Bush can talk about extending the life of the Patriot Act, but the ACLU is still gagged from discussing details of our challenge to it."

Damn, these people (i.e., the bAdministration, as if you didn't already know who I was referring to) need to be smacked down. Bad.

Ready for Prime Time?
One of the problems with trying to migrate to a Linux desktop is that, unfortunately, one needs to maintain a degree of interoperability with the unwashed heathens who insist on using Microsoft Winblows and its associated programs. However, it's looking more and more like StarOffice (and its open source cousin, Open Office) may be ready for serious consideration as an office suite:

StarOffice 7 is mature by any reasonable standard. It has the ability to export to PDF (now becoming a necessity for some people, including me) and it can also export to Macromedia Flash. It has a configuration manager for setting up shared work environments and a document recovery capability for damaged files. It also has a whole set of added features, most of which won't matter much to most users simply because office software has been over-featured for years. StarOffice also comes with a copy of the Adabas D relational database, enabled for three users and 100MB of data. I’m not sure why. I never use it.

Is it an adequate replacement for Microsoft Office? For most purposes the answer is undoubtedly "yes". So how painful will the transition be? This depends how heavily you use Office. If your usage is limited to Word processing then Star Office translates files with very few problems. Functionally it is arguably better in some areas, such as dictionary and thesaurus. Its styles capability is easier to work with and it has a navigator window which is useful for long documents.

I doubt if you'll find transition to StarOffice so easy if you are an advanced spreadsheet user. Complex Excel spreadsheets can be read by Star Office but they may not translate well. If you don’t use Excel in a sophisticated way, you won’t care at all. The same goes for Powerpoint.

"But I'm not a Linux geek", I hear you moan... No problem:

Also you don't have to go to Linux to adopt the product - it works quite happily under Windows. However, I suspect that its future and that of the Linux desktop are inextricably bound together.

This is really excellent news. If you aren't familiar with StarOffice/Open Office, try giving it a whirl. It works under Winblows (as noted), and it's free! Hie thyself down to http://www.openoffice.org/ to check it out.

Really, you had to know it was coming...
From The Register: Porno spam with "charity" twist

For those of you looking for a rock-solid excuse to stock up on some top-quality pornography, try this from one Mathieu Guitard.

Poor old Mathieu, who thoughfully attached a picture to his email, is suffering a bit from a nasty skin condition. He has, however, found the perfect cure:

...

Unfortunately I personally live with a skin problem "psoriasis" witch often ruin any activity or works i'm into, by inflicting itching thus scratching then intense pain that consume all my energies.

There is a good web site about the Psoriasis disease PsoriasisConnect.com It could be solved simply by going to direct sunlight or by receiving massage therapy (I tried way too many sorts of cream and pills).

As I live in Quebec, the weather is cold... so I plan to move to the southern region very soon.

If you can't help me with any of the above your money can help.

I just found an interesting new way to raise funds. An old well established company "Hustler" To boost payouts on its 4 newest sites give 100$ for every 3$ you put into purchasing (below).

I know it may be hard for some to go through the online form as it may induce you to consume pornography.

...

So, the next time your other half finds a dog-eared copy of Playboy under the bed, forget the old "I only buy it for the interviews" and try the all-new "Actually, I bought it to support cancer research". A guaranteed winner.

I suppose the next new frontier is "Porno for Christ". I suppose I'd better run to the Patent and Trademark Office to get my claim on that one, if it hasn't already been taken.

Why privatization of Social Security and pensions may not be such a good idea....
Ed Dravo, a professional investment manager in Phoenix, makes some interesting points in a Slate "Moneybox" column today: basically, you're a lousy investor, and if we give you the responsibility to manage your own retirement funds you'll probably fuck it up.

It is a principle of American life--practically gospel--that you know better than anyone what to do with your money. The idea of privatizing Social Security is based on the notion that you'll invest your savings better than the government would. The ascendance of 401(k) plans over guaranteed employee pensions has the same foundation?that employees will make informed and prudent decisions when they invest.

But what if it's not true?

Over the last 20 years, the stock market has averaged a 12 percent annual return. But according to a study by Dalbar Financial, individual mutual fund investors earned only about 4 percent. A survey by Vanguard finds participants in its 401(k) plans earn only about one-half the average?6 percent a year. It is almost impossible to believe, and unpleasant to contemplate, but practically all individual investors are below average.

This is a problem that is beginning to be recognized. Since 1964 Nebraska offered state employees the chance to manage their 401(k)-type plan. Extensive employee education and training seminars were given, and everyone expected outstanding investment returns. But when the state audited the program in 2000, the results were incredibly discouraging--employees were making bad investment after bad investment. So in 2003, Nebraska eliminated employee choice from its 401(k) plan.

Pension funds directed by trustees achieve results that are about 50 percent better than those achieved by individual investors--even though trustees are not professional money managers.

Dravo identifies three reasons for this phenomenon:

1. Individual investors tend to chase performance. To a layperson it may seem counterintuitive, but institutional trustees, upon seeing one of their investments start to significantly outperform the rest, tend to start withdrawing money from that investment, whereas individual investors, following their intuitions, tend to start pouring money into that investment. Trustee behavior may seem counterintuitive, but it is smart; Dravo points out that, "History shows today's high-performing funds are tomorrow's laggards, so individual investors are choosing investments that are likely to disappoint. Similarly, research shows that individual investors tend to sell securities that will have the highest future returns."
2. Individual investors tend to be less critical of themselves, and unlikely to purge bad investments from their portfolios; trustees are more likely to unload underachieving funds (the fact that trustees will avail themselves of professional investment advice may be a factor here).
3. Finally, trustees are more likely to act rationally in their investment decisions because they are accountable to outside interests; legally trustees owe a fiduciary duty to manage the trust corpus responsibly and can be found legally liable for a failure to do so. On the other hand, individuals are responsible only to themselves, and as a result they aren't "running scared" with respect to their investment decisions.

Dravo notes that the policy debates in this area should take account of these facts:

So does this mean 401(k) plans are a mistake, that individual investors are doomed to earn poor returns on their stock market investments? This is an important question for policy-makers to consider. When studying retirement needs, policy-makers assume the market averages are close to what investors are earning in their retirement accounts. If employees are earning only half of the market averages, that means that in coming decades, there could be serious shortfalls in income for retirees.

Things aren't always as they seem....

Thought for the Day:
During a televised debate in the 1999 presidential primary in Iowa, the three Republican contenders, Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes, and George Bush, were asked what "political philosopher or thinker" had most influenced them and why. Forbes cited John Locke; Keyes, the Founding Fathers; and Bush, "Christ, because he changed my heart." In the clip of this moment that appears in The Jesus Factor, Bush's sincerity is evident; unfortunately, so is his intellectual poverty and lack of historical referents. We're told that he reads the Bible every day (the way some of us might read, say, the newspaper) and that he once brandished a copy of it during a speech on federal funding for faith-based charities, saying, "This is the only handbook you need. This handbook is a good go-by." As the Rev. Welton Gaddy, leader of a liberal Christian coalition, points out, in a nation founded on freedom of religious practice, promoting the Good Book as a manual for public policy is a disquieting choice. Especially since, of the $100 million so far dispensed to faith-based charities by the Bush administration, not one dollar has gone to a Jewish or Muslim organization.
--Dana Stevens [Slate review of the PBS Frontline documentary, The Jesus Factor]

Is it just me....
or are those Puma commercials featuring the Jamaican relay team ("Stick, stick, stick!!!") getting seriously annoying?