I got one of those “write your congress-critter right now!” emails and tried to do so. But apparently Free Press’s anti-telecom immunity form didn’t like me: We’re sorry, but based on your address, you are not eligible to take this alert. This may be because the alert is restricted to particular states or to constituents of particular representatives. Guess I’ll try emailing him direct.

Update:Just got an email saying that Free Press was having some technical issues that are now fixed (PS they use Convio to route representative messages).

Dear Michael Capuano,

Please do not grant legal immunity to telephone companies for turning over our private phone records to the government. This is not an issue of national security but of one of the upholding due process and the rule of law in our great country.

As a patriotic and freedom loving American, I understand that extraordinary measures must be taken when those freedoms are in peril. But such measures must take place legally and through the time-tested methods our forefathers established within the Constitution and our system of laws.

Please do not reward the White House for seeking to overturn the checks and balances of the Constitution and our rule of law. Please do not excuse the unlawful actions of telecom companies in turning over private information without legal cause.

Thank you, Ben Sheldon

.!.

Read a fun article about Breakfast Cereals via a comment on breakfast cupcakes, err, muffins.

Mostly I like the article because of all the industry definitions:

RTEC: Ready to Eat Cereal

inclusions: the industry term for all that extra junk like raisins, marshmallows and honey-coated granola clusters.

and random facts, like this one:

a serving of Cheerios has 10 milligrams more sodium than a serving of Doritos.

.!.

As so often happens in politics, the quarrel between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton came down to a matter of direct objects. Both “reject” and “denounce” are transitive verbs — they act upon a direct object — but the candidates weren’t talking about the same objects. The object of Mr. Obama’s denunciation was Mr. Farrakhan’s opinions, particularly his anti-Semitic comments, whereas Mrs. Clinton was urging her opponent to reject the minister’s support. The thrust of Mrs. Clinton’s challenge was that her opponent was merely highlighting a particular disagreement with Mr. Farrakhan, while still accepting his — and his organization’s — backing.

From an article in the NY Times on Clinton and Obama’s differing arguments regarding Farrakhan. Noting this for it’s interesting perspective that they’re essentially arguing about different direct objects.

Investors aiming to buy stock in Thai Beverages Pcl may have to settle for a bottle of its Chang beer after billionaire owner Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s plan to sell shares was blocked for a third time amid protests led by orange- robed Buddhist monks.

The monks and other protesters argued a share sale by the company, maker of more than half Thailand’s beer as well as Mekhong whiskey, would promote alcoholism in a country where more than 90 percent of the 65 million people are Buddhist.

I find myself mentioning this story a lot; primary because the monks have a very strong conception of capitalism and where it morally breaks down: if you let this company go public, it will be their legal imperative to increase their value, which will be done by promoting the consumption of their product, which is alcohol.

And then, the (former) PM’s view:

As the alcohol industry is the cause of many damages to society, as shown by those statistics, it lacks the qualifications to raise funds and list in the stock exchange. Even if, from an economic point of view, it is the source of tax collected from the sale of beer, it’s not worth all the losses it creates.

If you want to insert a parenthesis into an excel formula (for example, concatenating strings into something to export), you want do use double-double-quotes:

"I am ""cool"""

Produces the text string I am “cool”

A useful example is producing email addresses:

=CONCATENATE("""",A2, """ ")

In September 1963 [George] McGovern became the only senator who opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam during the Kennedy administration. He came by his horror of war honorably in 35 B-23 missions over Germany, where half the B-24 crews did not survive—they suffered a higher rate of fatalities than did Marines storming Pacific islands. McGovern was awarded a Distinguished Flying Corss with three oak-leaf clusters. In his 70s he lost a 45-year old daughter to alcoholism. Losing a presidential election, he says softly, “was not the saddest thing in my life.” Time confers a comforting perspective, giving consolations to old age, which needs them. McGovern and the outcomes of the 1968 Democratic Convention are big news what with the current affairs. From the Last Word of Newsweek’s February 25, 2008 issue. I think that last sentence is unnecessary; or upon closer reading, is supposed to dismissive of McGovern (old people need to be comforted/coddled).

The average PBS show on prime time now scores about a 1.4 Nielsen rating, or roughly what the wrestling show “Friday Night Smackdown” gets. Probably the average reader of the NY Times doesn’t think much of Friday Night Smackdown (I don’t really), but it gets a pretty good following. So in my opinion, contrary to what I think this editorial is intending, that’s not a very damning statistic.

For a 32oz Nalgene Bottle (the standard biggish one) of clean water, the Oral Rehydration Salt quantities are:

• Slightly less than 1/2 teaspoon of Salt (0.43tsp. to be exact)

• 7.5 teaspoons of Sugar

(Personal note: when you’ve made it correctly, it should taste like minusculey-sweet saliva)

Adapted from Rehydrate.org’s ORS Recipe based on 1 liter of water.

And the wikipedia entry on Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS)

A good World Wide Words this week. I read it weekly, but of particular interest is language that has to do with numbers. Like decimate, which originally referred to the Roman military practice of preventing mutiny by killing one-tenth of the soldiers (drawn by lots).

World Wide Words takes on its misuse:

It feels right to me when it’s used, as H W Fowler wrote in 1926, of “the destruction in any way of a large proportion of anything reckoned by number”.

White’s criticism of “terribly decimated” seems fair, because it’s innumerate, as does “incredibly decimated”, from a recent US newspaper report quoting a librarian complaining about a 15% budget cut. It also seems incorrect to use decimate for indivisibles (“Some have set out to decimate the soul of this great country”), to imply complete destruction (“a totally decimated population”), the killing of an individual (“He protects his brother from the thugs intent on physically decimating him”), the destruction of a named fraction (“A single frosty night decimated the fruit by 80%”), or the part of a whole (“disease decimated most of the population”).

Well, it’s the new year, which is always a great time for navel gazing. So, looking back, here’s some stuff from 2007:

Places I’ve Slept: California: Poway, Venice, Santa Barbara, Isla Vista, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sunnyvale;

Central: Minneapolis, MN; Austin, TX;

South-East-ish: Memphis, TN; Philadelphia, PN;

Northeast: Lowell, MA; Montpelier, VT; Kittery Point, ME; Narragansett, RI; Portsmouth, NH;

If-you-want-to-be-anal: Alston, Brighton, Medford;

Best Purchase: new belt

Best Gift: new scarf via my birthday scarf party

Best Book: Lay of the Land by Richard Ford

Best Movie: Hawaii, Oslo

Best Album: At Home with Owen

Best Object: Zebra F-301 Pen (blue ink)

Best Transportation: new bike

Best Meal: Sweet Potato Sandwich and Kukicha Tea from Ula Cafe

Best Social Space: Delux Cafe

Best Personal Space: Harborwalk at Dorchester Bay

Best Achievement: this mouse I caught