Russia’s version of NASCAR restrictor plate racing
Nov 30, 2006 Cool Links, Teh Funny
NASCAR’s restrictor plate races often feature what’s known as “The Big One” — one car gets squirrelly and spins out of control, collecting as many as 10-15 (one such crash damaged or eliminated 27 cars) in a closely-running pack.
Russia appears to be trying to implement this effect in an actual city street. The Lefortovo tunnel runs underground for 3.2 km in Moscow, making it the longest vehicular tunnel completely inside a European city. Water from the overhead Yauza River tends to leak into the tunnel prior to icy winters, with predictable results.
If you can temporarily get over the fact that these are real people possibly injuring themselves in car accidents, this is almost funny to watch.
Unions: Collective bargaining trumps national security
Nov 28, 2006 In The News, Politics
Here’s a grand idea.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the country’s largest federal labor union, wants to force the TSA to allow their baggage screeners to join unions.
That way, when a security threat requires them to work overtime, or change their search parameters some way they don’t like (which is to say, in a way the union boss doesn’t like), they can walk off the job and strike.
This is an awesome idea.
Never mind that it’ll cause my next flight to result in either a) getting stranded with massive amounts of people in airports on a holiday weekend, or b) some jihadi nutjob with a bomb getting on my plane and blasting small pieces of me all over the nearest major metropolis.
I can’t believe anyone hasn’t thought of this already.
Oh, wait. Congress and the TSA did, when the agency was initially created, and killed the idea from the get-go. From the article:
In a statement, the TSA said Congress left it to the agency to decide whether to grant bargaining rights. The leeway to ban unions is contained in the 2001 Aviation Transportation Security Act, which created the agency after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“Given the critical national security mission of our security officers, collective bargaining is not appropriate, and would reduce TSA’s ability to make changes rapidly in response to threats,” the TSA statement said.
Supposedly, AFGE members don’t have the power to strike, just collectively bargain. But how else do they enforce their position if the government doesn’t do what they want, or if they have to change the terms to meet a security threat?
Labor unions already care more about themselves and their positions of power than they do about their employees. Seems they’ve scratched national security off their list of priorities, too.
(Hat tip: BMEWS)
Retirement?
Nov 19, 2006 In The News, Politics
I think Chuck Rangel wants to retire from his House seat.
Because I can’t imagine him getting reelected if he manages to get legislation like this to pass.
…and another Happy Birthday!
Nov 19, 2006 Brainwaves, Cool Links
More birthday wishes to round out the weekend to Julia! Go visit her blog.
First Flakes
Nov 19, 2006 Brainwaves, Photos
There was some snow in the Rochester area back on November 2, though it was all on the ground before I saw it. I woke up today, though, to see my first snowflakes of the season.
As I’m writing this and getting the photo uploaded, it seems to have switched from snow to rain, to rain mixed with snow, then back to snow again. Let’s hear it for Rochester weather. 
Happy Birthday!
Nov 18, 2006 Brainwaves, Photos
A happy birthday to my friend-I-haven’t-seen-in-years Shawna! She turns 27 today.
(Yes, that’s what I looked like 3 years ago. Stop laughing.)
No denying it, it’s really over.
Nov 17, 2006 In The News, Teh Funny
There’s no denying it now. We now have absolute proof the marriage is over.
Britney kicked K-Fed off her MySpace friends list.
(Hat tip: Fark)
Doubling Down in Iraq
Nov 12, 2006 Politics, War On Terror
A tip of the hat to Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit.com for the link to this Weekly Standard article in which Bill Stuntz explains that Iraq isn’t an unwinnable war, it’s instead a war we’ve chosen not to win.
As a poker player, it was interesting to see him make the comparison of the war to a card game:
War is not poker; the stakes in Iraq are much higher than a little money or a few chips. But war’s psychology bears some resemblance to a well-played game of cards. The only way Americans lose this war is to fold. That seems likely to be the next move, but it is the last thing we should do. Far better to call and raise. Our cards are better than theirs, if only we have the nerve to play them.
Halloween threatens animals?
Nov 10, 2006 In The News
I spotted this one this morning while I was reading the various news sources on my Google homepage: Plastic jack-o’-lantern threatens deer’s life.
Cue the fringe of the animal rights movement looking to ban Halloween in 5… 4… 3…
UPDATE (11/11): He escaped.
Election Night 2006: The LiveBlog
Nov 7, 2006 Brainwaves, Politics
Alex, Yvonne and I are at Panera Bread in Webster tonight, eating dinner, checking news sites, and listening to FOX News Radio on stream; we’ll be headed back to Alex’s place later. I’ll be posting updates… well, whenever I feel like it. I’ll be posting new stuff at the top of the post At the end of the night, I’ve reversed the order for easier reading — start at the top and go down for chronological order (all times Eastern).
8:15 PM – Since we started listening to reports about a half hour ago, the Allen/Webb VA-SEN race has flip-flopped about 4 times.
8:39 PM – IN-8 appears to be the first House pickup for the Democrats, and FOX is calling Santorum to lose his Senate seat. CNN’s site isn’t saying yet on that last.
8:47 PM – Panera is closing shortly; more when we get home.
9:36 PM – Now back online at Alex’s. Projections are that the OH, RI, and PA Senate seats have fallen from Republican to Democratic control. They need 3 more to take Senate control.
9:45 PM – From the well-that’s-just-silly department… CNN reports that a 62% of those exit-polled approved of the job that Lincoln Chaffee was doing, yet still voted him out off office.
10:07 PM – Hat tip to Pajamas Media for this gem:
A man who reportedly believed Republicans were conspiring to steal today’s election entered an Allentown polling site, signed in and proceeded to smash the screen of one of the electronic voting machines with a metal cat paperweight, poll volunteers said.
10:27 PM – FOX News suggests the Republicans may take 2 of the Democratic House seats in the south (that’s a gross 2, not a net — GOP still expected to lose seats net).
10:34 PM – 4 GOP Senate seats are still in play: MT, MO, VA and TN. Republicans Talent (MO), Allen (VA) and Corker (TN) are showing slight leads at this time. No precincts have yet reported from MT.
10:35 PM – Joe Lieberman is giving a victory speech. Kinda amusing that when the Democratic party base was fed up with him over his Iraq war stance, the state as a whole disagreed, and kept him in office.
11:12 PM – Most outlets have called MD-SEN for Ben Cardin (D) over Michael Steele (R). However, with Steele leading by 22K votes, FOX reports the Washington Post may have pulled its projection.
11:17 PM – Not election-related, but Yvonne fell asleep over an hour ago. Alex and I are still at it. I forgot to link it earlier, but check out his coverage on LiveJournal.
11:28 PM – They’re all still close, but I’m suspecting all four incumbents House Representatives in Monroe County — Walsh (R-25), Reynolds (R-26), Slaughter (D-28) and Kuhl (R-29) — will keep their seats.
11:33 PM – I forgot to post it, but I’m sure you’ve seen it elsewhere already — Reports are that the Democratic Party has taken control of the House of Representatives. They still need 3 of the last 4 un-called Senate seats to take control of that house; current vote counts only have two of them shifting, and VA seems to be flip-flopping between Cardin and Steele.
11:39 PM – CNN is now calling NY-26 and NY-29 for GOP incumbents Tom Reynolds and Randy Kuhl.
11:43 PM – I pin this one on the cable company, not on FOX, but in commercial breaks on FOX News Channel, a commercial for Dan Doyle for State Supreme Court just ran — nearly three hours after polls closed.
11:50 PM – John Podhoretz on The Corner@NRO, via Glenn Reynolds:
Happy or suicidal with tonight’s results, something colossal and profoundly important has happened in the United States beginning in 2000 — the re-engagement of the American people with politics. We have had four enormously consequential elections in a row now in which voters have cast their ballots in numbers that we were told we’d never see in our lifetimes. I don’t see how you can view this as anything but a wondrous development for the United States.
11:57 PM – Not surprisingly, CA-GOV is being called as Arnold Schwarzenegger winning reelection.
12:22 AM – Astonishingly, after using state taxpayer money to have his wife chauffeured by an office staffer, thus losing the endorsement of Democratic gubernatorial candidate (now Governor-elect) Eliot Spitzer and failing to gain the endorsement of the New York Times, Alan Hevesi has somehow been reelected to the NY state comptroller position.
12:48 AM – You should be able to see this post again, after it being missing for a while. I’d accidentally marked it Private somewhere along the line, and didn’t notice it was missing ’cause for me, logged in as the site admin, it wasn’t missing.
1:04 AM – We’re not going to know who’s in control of the Senate until tomorrow at the earliest, and likely longer. Last report had 1,792 more votes for Jim Webb than George Allen, but at least one district had so many votes to count from the first count — not a recount — that they’re not going to finish tonight, they’ve gone home and will finish them tomorrow. Add to that a large number of absentee ballots, and the state is still very much in play. Democrats Claire McCaskell (MO) and Jon Tester (MT) are currently showing leads, which makes VA-SEN the determining seat — an Allen win results in a tie, with Vice President Cheney casting deciding votes in Senate tie votes, and a Webb win gives the Democrats control. I’m likely done for the night on posting, will check in more later.
