Cancer City

Yesterday the headline in the Richmond, Virginia newspaper read "TOBACCO TOWN". This is because Philip Morris, known best for selling cigarettes and other tobacco products, is moving its headquarters from New York City to Richmond. This irked me a bit because I am not a smoker and I know that smoking can, among other things, cause cancer. I then heard a radio talk show host ask if this is an appropriate term to use, as Richmond is more than just a mere "town"; maybe Petersburg is a town, but not Richmond. I thought he was leaning towards "Tobacco City". But that is not very catchy and still unrepresentative of Richmond; further, it does not fit in songs readily. But I found an alternative that does fit readily in a song that already exists. The song goes:

I'm going to Cancer City,
Cancer City, here I come.
I'm going to Cancer City,
Cancer City, here I come.
They got some cancer sticks they're sellin'
And I'm going there to smoke me some.
So I'm going to Cancer City. . .

Yes, I know that you don't have to smoke. You could just pass the cigarette stand by in the local 7-11. If everyone did that, Phillip Morris would go out of business. But still, having a major corporate headquarters here in Richmond be that of a tobacco company town is not going to give Richmond a good image. The tourism bureaus and the local Chamber of Commerce have a tougher job now convincing people to come to Richmond and they will have to emphasize the other fine things that Richmond has to offer. The best way of dealing with Phillip Morris is if you smoke, quit.

Peace on Earth and No Shirt

Today an outrageous thing happened in Albany. A man and his son were eating at the food court at Crossgate Mall in Guilderland, New York, a suburb of Albany. They were wearing T-shirts bearing the words "Peace on Earth" and "Give Peace a Chance". Security came up to them and asked them to take off their T-shirts or leave the mall. They refused. The security called police, and a policeman told them to leave the mall or take off their shirts. The son took off his shirt. The father did not and he was arrested, arraigned on a charge of trespassing, and released. I suppose that means he will face a judge in court. He is the Chairman of a Commission on Judicial Conduct. I bet he and the judge will be watching each other very closely in court.

This was followed by a 100-person demonstration. And rightfully so. Since when is "Peace on Earth" so objectionable that it earns one an expulsion from a suburban mall? If it were me, I would take off my T-shirt. Normally T-shirts are worn with nothing under them so I would go around shirtless in the mall. That is also forbidden by regulations "shoes and shirt required". I suppose another cop would tell me to put my shirt back on. So I do so. So a cop says take it off because it says "Peace on Earth". Or I could confront the cop and said, "So and so officer told me to take the shirt off."

In any case, this is an attack on First Amendment rights. The mall is a public place, no matter what security or the police say. If it were a private place, one would have to show membership to get in. If it were a private place, this incident would mean that it is no place I would want to shop in. In fact, that is what we should do. I say boycott Crossgate Mall until they change their policy and drop their charges against the T-shirt wearer.

AM, PM, and Military Time

Today I proposed by email a meeting of an organization I belong to at 2100. That is 9 pm. Someone in the organization objected to my using military time. No. The military got this one right. They need a system for stating times that will not cause confusion, because that can totally destroy a military operation. In fact, military time is what we should all be using. There is too much confusion between AM and PM. More than once I have gotten up late in the morning because I set my alarm clock for 6 PM instead of 6 AM. It is ambiguous. The basic unit of time is the day, the time from noon to noon, not half a day. Further, AM/PM time insists on using 12 AM instead of 0 AM and 12 PM instead of 0 PM, causing more confusion. Algorithms to compare AM/PM times are complicated because of having to deal with 12 o'clocks. And never say 12 AM or 12 PM. That causes confusion. Say "noon" or "midnight" instead. So start using 24-hour time and get to bed by 2300.

Google News Explosion

Google really improved its service with its news.google.com news service, which gathered the news of 4000 news sites in one search place. However, there is one flaw that Google News has. If a story is reported to the Associated Press, it becomes almost impossible to search for the place where the story comes from, or to search for other stories. For example, if an event occurred in Richmond, and it gets reported to the AP, then it will appear in the San Antonio news site, and in the Sacramento news site, and in the news sites of Peoria, Philadelphia, La Crosse WI, Orlando, Truth or Consequences NM, Great Britain, Sydney Australia, and a zillion other local news sites. You then have to next and next and next and next and next through all these sites to get to a site from the Richmond area. It is easier simply to go to the Richmond station to begin with and forget Google. I think the service would be improved if it blocked (upon clicking a checkbox by the user) all sites reporting the event except AP and the city of origin of the event, if the event gets reported to the AP.

No "Under God" Looms

Here we go with the looming again. Only this one really takes the loom. It seems the absence of the phrase "under God" is looming. Go to this link (could become dead in a couple of weeks):

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/03/03/pledge.of.allegiance.reut/index.html

I think it is good that the absence of "under God" in reciting the pledge in public school is "looming". Mention of God, Christ, the Hegira, Seder, or anything that is connected with a specific religion is bound to alienate some in the classroom. That is why we have separation of church and state. I hope that the ban comes into effect and stays in effect, although I know the Supreme Court sooner or later will overturn it. But it will be good while it lasts. And it does not loom.

03/03/03

This is the date of threes. If you don't believe in four-digit years, that is. This is one day when the Age of Confusion does not apply. There is no confusing 03/03/03. Everything is threes. Furthermore, this is a new moon, so it is the beginning of an intercalary month, 5763 Veadar 1 (March 5) in the Jewish calendar, and also on March 5, the beginning of the year 1424 of the Hegira of the Muslim calendar. So people think something is going to happen today. The only thing of significance that could have happened today is a war on Iraq; in fact, new moon is the ideal time to start a war - at night. But diplomatic difficulties are bogging this down. It will be interesting to see what happens. For when I wake up tomorrow, I know I will have to March 4th to work.

Terms for Nonsense

I just encountered a really unusual word for nonsense today: codswallop. Terms for nonsense are numerous: codswallop, malarkey, baloney, poppycock, bullhockey, Quatsch (in German), crap, rubbish, and so forth. The main characteristic of terms for nonsense is that they are nonsensically constructed. What is there about poppies, cocks, or roosters that makes them not make sense? What is so nonsensical about Bologna, Italy, or the sausage that it produces? It makes me feel that I can construct my own terms. How about gabugadoddle? Now if you say that is not a valid expression, I can tell you that is so much gabugadoddle. The same for kafeishna, gavumpbump, bodallden, and eingliswye. It appears that if you use it right, people get the message. That theory that you are talking about tonight is so much eingliswye. I think it should be this way. Which verifies what I have been saying about terms for nonsense: they don't make sense.

Weird day

Some days things happen so weird that you wonder if this is real, or if you are a seven-year-old girl and you are in Wonderland. Today was one of those days. First of all Turkey does not accept US troops on its soil by a margin of three votes, and that turns into a refusal, even though the number who did not want US troops was also a minority. Then the Turkish stock market plummets because of the vote. It seems Turks don't want their investments to do well. Further, the Turkish vote seems eerily like the US Presidential election of 2000. Already the US is trying to get the Turks to vote again, as though they are trying to get the vote to go their way by repeating it over and over again, sort of like recounting the votes in 2000, without the pregnant chads.

Then the voluntary human shields who come to Iraq find that it is too dangerous for them. Whaaa?? Further, they found out that they just can't be human shields anywhere. They have to be human shields wherever Saddam says they can be human shields. They can't be shields at hospitals, for instance; only at military targets. So many are leaving in disgust. I don't think the idea of human shields was a good one, anyway. There are better ways of opposing the war; for example, lying naked on the ground spelling "No War".

Nut jobs

Here is a good one for you. Nut jobs. I saw this in an article about the date today (03/03/03), and it refers to people who are insane. OK, I understand it when people are nuts. But then are they jobs? Since when are people jobs? If that was the case, then we could have one applicant for a job fill another applicant for a job; i.e., have that other applicant for his job, provided that second applicant is indeed a job, for example, a nut job. But anyone who would think of a person as a job in the first place is himself a nut job. Colorful terminology, but weird.

Light Pollution is Birth Control?

I saw a movie over the weekend called "The Sunshine State", which is about developers moving into a pristine Florida barrier island environment threatening not only the wildlife there but the way of living there that people who lived there had experienced for decades. A woman who has lived her life in the island area meets a man who is one of the developers, and the two go out to a deserted locale which however has blaring metal halide lights all over the place, making it well lit and unsuitable for lover's lane activities. So she says something like "These lights were made for security, but also for birth control." Light pollution as birth control. What an interesting observation.

Pledge of Allegiance again

Bravo, 9th Circuit Court! You are holding your ground. The court refused to review the case of Andrew Newdow, the atheist who filed suit to get the Pledge of Allegiance with "under God" out of the school system as it violates separation of church and state and is an infringement of religious freedom. Unfortunately, it will go to the Supreme Court, which is likely to strike it down. At least for a while anyway, religious freedom will reign in western states.

Mercredi Gras

Every year New Orleans becomes a party town with their celebration of Mardi Gras, which means Fat Tuesday; the day when you feast and party and get fat. This year, Mardi Gras is on March 4, which means the paraders in New Orleans will March 4 into Mardi Gras singing "When the saints come marching in". It is always the day before Lent, the Catholic penance before Easter. To me the only reason for a Mardi Gras is that Lent follows. We party just before that, because we know on the day after we must fast and think solemn thoughts about something that happened 2,000 years ago. I say, if we can party on Mardi Gras, we can party any day of the year. I say that life was made for merriment and celebration, not for solemn Lents. There is nothing special about 47 days before the first Sunday after the first Full Moon of spring. Sad things can happen any day of the year, so we must be prepared to party any day of the year and not pile up all our frustrations before Lent. Let the celebration continue right into Lent. Mercredi Gras (Fat Wednesday), anyone?

Will the End of the World Save our World?

The 2000 January issue of Astronomy magazine features an article by Thomas Hayden, a science editor for Newsweek, on the End of our World. The Sun is continually getting hotter as it gets older. About a billion years from now, according to Mr. Hayden, it will be 10% brighter than it is now. That will make it hot on Earth, and the oceans will evaporate to form eternal cloudiness on the Earth. The water vapor will make it into the stratosphere. There Sunlight will hit it, and split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is too light for the Earth's gravity to hold onto, and it will be lost forever. The Oxygen will sink to the ground to form carbon dioxide and carbonates. Thus will the Earth become like Venus: CO₂ atmosphere much denser and hotter than now, and no water. The oceans will have boiled away. It will be the End of the World.

But that's a billion years from now. There are more pressing concerns ahead of us, such as the running out of oil. According to some observers, that will happen about 2010 or so, when cheap oil runs out and production enters a decline. The results will be devastating, as we depend a lot on oil. That could be the End of the World. We need to replace our oil-burning vehicle engines with another fuel, and hydrogen is posed as an answer. Hydrogen will be forever (or actually a billion years, as we saw above) available on the Earth, and the fuel burns clean, producing only water vapor as a waste product. We need cars that burn hydrogen, and such cars have been made: fuel cell vehicles. Most of the vehicles that I have heard about make their hydrogen fuel from a fossil fuel such as gasoline, or from a biological fuel such as grain alcohol. That does not solve the running out of oil problem. We need a source independent of fossil fuels. So why can't the Sun's energy be used to break up (electrolyze) water into hydrogen and oxygen, the way that it will happen a billion years from now to boil away the oceans? Why up above and in the far future? Why not on this Earth and now? Is there some way of using the End of the World to Save the World?