Engineering Made Simple

For those you who do not like Dilbert, this is a good example of how things go in the engineering world:This is especially true for the documentation aspect.

Stupid Banner of the Day

I'm not a big fan of the new Arizona law. Frankly, anything that allows authority figures to stop a person on the street and demand to see his papers smacks heavily of the Soviet Union/Nazi Germany, etc. However, whoever wrote this banner at MSNBC needs to be smacked hard:

By definition, status as an illegal immigrant is a crime (punishable by deportation). The Arizona law just gives the police new powers to enforce what is already an illegal act. This is my main objection. There are already sufficient laws that if they were simply enforced, illegal immigration would be a significantly smaller problem.

But that doesn't stop the MSNBC writer from being a moron.

Things Going Wrong

The company that subcontracts to my company is very nice about sending us pictures of stuff that we have worked on. Its rather nice to see the final result of all that work. However, we also see what happens when things that we work on go wrong:

I myself never worked on the Deepwater Horizon, but it still gives one an eerie feeling knowing that I have worked on stuff for nearly identical rigs.

Bad News for Europe

Nearly all Western European flights have been cancelled due the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kud-duhl) volcano in Iceland. People have been hoping that they'll be able to get airborne by Sunday or Monday. However the last time this volcano erupted, it lasted for 14 months (Dec. 1821-Jan. 1823). That would have a devastating impact on the economy and ecology of Europe. It gets even worse when noted that the lava flow could trigger an eruption in the neighboring volcano which could trigger a major temperature drop across the globe.

It should also be noted that this volcano has now put more CO2 and pollution into the atmosphere than every car in Europe since the automobile was invented.

Anthropological GW... bah!

Earth is Not Happy

A volcano has been erupting in Iceland.

6.9 earthquake in China, very close to adding to the 7.0+ total that was noted last week.

Something is definately up from a geologic standpoint.

Future Tech

Someone sent out a slide show of some future technology that various companies are working on. Personally, I love this bathtub:

I was also highly amused by these two pictures of a coat that stores energy and illuminates at night. It reminds me way too much of Tron:

Federalism When Desired

I ran across this excellent rebuttal to Federal oversight of health care today, written by Lori Swanson (D), Attorney General of Minnesota:

What ails the federal government, however, is not the lack of regulatory authority but the lack of will to use it.

Over the past 50 years, deregulation at the federal level has no doubt improved efficiency in some industries. But federal regulatory indifference has ill-served the public in many others: the Food and Drug Administration's aversion to oversight of pharmaceuticals; the Justice Department's reluctance to enforce the antitrust laws; the Department of Labor's hesitance to regulate federally governed health plans; the Federal Communication Commission's unwillingness to rein in media concentration; and the Environmental Protection Agency's failure to address invasive species in the Great Lakes or carbon, mercury and ozone emissions. The list goes on and on. With this kind of performance record in Washington, now is not the time for the state government to forfeit consumer protection to the feds.

The administration also wants to allow insurance companies to be regulated exclusively by the federal government. This not only would undermine the ability of states to protect policyholders from unfair insurance practices, it probably would raise insurance rates in states like Minnesota. Midwestern states often have lower property- and casualty-insurance rates because they don’t have the same hazards — hurricanes, outdated building code enforcement, urban fires, etc. — that result in higher rates on the two coasts and in the South. A federal insurance-rate regulation system would likely gloss over geographical differences, causing Minnesota’s insurance premiums to go up.

State government has shown that it can be more responsive to the needs of the ordinary citizen. For example, in 2006, while the states were pursuing Ameriquest Mortgage for $325 million over its predatory lending practices, the White House was busy appointing the company’s CEO to be ambassador to the Netherlands.

There is just one small caveat about this rebuttal. It was written in opposition to Bush's proposal of a federal Mortgage Origination Commission in 2008. Ms. Swanson has not extended the same argument to Mr. Obama's regulations on health care insurance. In fact, she is filing an amicus brief in support of the Obama administration against several lawsuits being filed by the AGs of other states.

Hold one position or another but don't be caught as two-faced just because of how it might benefit you.

Special Elections

We already knew that the special election for PA-12 was going to happen on May 18. What we didn't know was that the Republicans and the Democrats got together in their smokey backrooms and selected candidates for the special election: Tim Burns (R) and Mark Critz (D). Now the odd thing is that in the same election, the voters will select a replacement of these two men and also select the nominees for the regular election in November. One would presume that they might be the same, but that is not assured. Whoever wins the special election will almost certainly be the nominee in the general election, but it is possible that the loser could also lose the nomination to another candidate. Very odd series of events.

Four days later on May 22, there will be an open election for HI-1. Under norman circumstances this would be a Democratic walk in the park (Neil Abercrombie won with 70.6% in 2008). However, the Democrats are split between Ed Case (a blue dog) and Colleen Hanabusa (traditional liberal) while the Republicans have just Charles Djou. There might be enough of a split to give Mr. Djou the win, but even now, Democrats are taking steps to prevent that.

Earthquakes

Tell me that this doesn't make you sit up just a little bit:

January 3, 2010 - Solomon Islands: 7.1
January 12, 2010 - Leogane, Haiti: 7.0
February 27, 2010 - Curinape, Chile: 8.8
March, 8, 2010 - Ryukyu Islands, Japan: 7.0
April 4, 2010 - Guadalupe Victoria, Mexico: 7.2
April 7, 2010 - Aceh, Indonesia: 7.8

There's a lot of heavy shaking going on. I hope this isn't building towards anything nastier than what we've already seen.

Quick Primary Reference

A quick reference when trying to remember the dates of the various primaries. Ohio is May 4.