morning sight for eyesores

Another truck with character parked downtown this morning. (Previous ones are here and here)

title of post means absolutely nothing, in case you haven't figured that out.

and speaking of meanings...in case you haven't figured this out - "belaboring the obvious" has two of them. Either it seems obvious to me but i'm not so sure it's obvious to you, or it feels fresh and marvelously new to me but is eye-rollingly clear to everyone else.
the latter is typically more applicable.

Easter for adults

ok, you're a bit old to believe in the Easter Bunny. So you've helped dye eggs, you've hid both them and the good ones, you've watched the children run through the house wide-eyed with greed and wonder seeking maximum chocolate bunny (and proto-bunny) biomass, and all of this was fine, but still, there's something missing...

namely -

the Easter Beer Bottle Hunt. buy a sixpack or two (of good beer) per participant, and while you're hiding eggs inside, have the kids hide the bottles outside. Then after their hunt, you get to have yours. (or if you're really cruel, insist that they wait and watch yours first...)

one warning: do not hold hunt in yard with male dog when it's been weeks since the last rain. you wouldn't enjoy it.

body and soul

wonderful, thoughtful, heartful piece by Jeanne at bodyandsoul.blogspot.com on downsides to blogging in these times. a must read, here's a taste, re current national politics-

I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I tried telling myself that even though they didn't do things the way I would, maybe their way could work, too. Maybe there was a value that I would come to recognize over time.

But after awhile it started to feel a lot like living with an abuser. You can only make so many excuses for the creep, before you finally give up and admit that trusting him and trying to see things his way isn't being open-minded, it's just being a doormat...

and

I'm a writer, not a lawyer. I'm better at musing and questioning than I am at building unassailable arguments. Arguments, to be honest, bore me. I don't write to persuade, I write to figure things out myself, and readers, to me, are not people whose minds I want to change, but people I've invited along on the journey (and who sometimes have suggestions for a direction to go in that I hadn't thought of before.)

(voice of the crass biological determinist - here's hoping that as our xenoestrogenic environmental pollutants build up they turn lots of guys into Jeannes, i think it is our only hope)

now you have no excuse

Email address is at bottom of that bar on the left. Use the rodent.

dim sum

I'm tired and incoherent so here, have some chicken feet:

via road to surfdom: "When the axe came into the forest the trees said: at least the handle is one of us".
Also this -

The trouble for people like Donald Rumsfeld and any number of pro-war bloggers and pundits who continue to take credit for a liberation as if this was the sole intention, or even a primary intention, of unleashing a war on Iraq, is that there are those, not least amongst them the Iraqi people, who are going to hold you to it.

If you tell someone that you are liberating them, don't be surprised if they take you seriously and demand the right to, say, choose their own system of government...

via personal experience: Microsoft does not always know what is good for you. I finally submitted to the full-body upgrade/patches/etc due to the usual dire security warnings, now Outlook takes an at-least-daily (and generally very inconvenient) fatal antipathy to what once was known as the carriage return. Not fun, not appreciated.

Amin Maalouf via Christopher Lydon:

I never try to think what should be my opinion coming from this or that background. I try to think as a human being. I hate for example to see people in debates, each one defending the opinion of his tribe, with all the bad faith that is put into defending his own tribe. I love people who defend the other side, you know? I love to see a debate in which an Arab and a Jew debate, but the Arab is defending the opinion of the Jews, and the Jew is defending the opinion of the Arabs. I love to listen to that, and I feel I belong to this kind of debate.

truer and more heartfelt words rarely spoken, from Geoff at work: "it's amazing what a difference a single digit makes"

via Deborah Branscum, marketers' humor (or not, depending on whether you are among them)

the not so great Santorum ("If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy . . . polygamy . . . adultery . . . incest . . . anything.") - handily neutered by Andrew Tobias today - brings to mind a .signature from years ago, "I'd rather have a bigot mistake me for a lesbian than a lesbian mistake me for a bigot"

Slate on McSweeney's, the literary mag that's "created in darkness by troubled Americans," typeset "using a small group of fonts that you already have on your computer, with software you already own," and "proofread, but not by paid professionals." (actually this McS tagline is the best part of the article)

the Red Dress Run (you have to scroll some). sad to say Nevada City could never pull something like this off - Grass Valley could though, or Penn Valley if not summer.

why radio stations should have a companion weblog

Great article by web usability guru Jakob Nielson on the superiority of Low-End Media for User Empowerment:

Almost every Web usability study we've ever conducted found that low-end [ie text and a few photos] media forms are superior to high-end [ie video,audio] media forms.
... The easier it is for users to get exactly what they need, when they need it, the more satisfied they will be...
Low-end media gives users control over three key processes: how they read, how easily they find relevant information, and how easily they can produce information.
[1.] Reading. With simple text and images, the user can scan the page and control what they read. Because their page access is non-linear, users can spend as little or as much time as they want on each element. They can focus on the information they want and ignore irrelevant parts...
High-end media often forces users to suffer through material designers want to showcase, rather than taking users directly to the material they came for. This is completely contrary to the freedom of movement that characterizes a happy user experience on the Web.

So what does this have to do with radio, which is typically not experienced via the web at all? Answer: radio is missing a segment of its potential audience simply because it is "fat media" and therefore unsearchable: the people who would be interested in some parts aren't listening, because they're not interested in wading through the rest. A companion weblog, giving highlights in a terse and service-oriented manner, can provide these people with the scannable information they crave and is likely to drive up listenership by drawing their attention to features of which they would otherwise remain ignorant.

(hint)

misc holier-than-thou Takings of words from the mouths of others

These are apropos of local property rights personalities&reporting in general -

from SARS Watch Apr. 20:

Peking Duck [in China] writes about what a jaw dropping and unprecedented experience it was to see the government hold a two-hour, live press conference broadcast on national television, with international reporters hammering them with tough questions. [Rare editorial note: Heck, that doesn't happen in the United States any more.]

Poynter article on SacBee columnist Diana Griego Erwin:

Treat other points of view with respect.
"Try not to attack others in order to make a point. There are so many ways to make your point without being ugly and mean about things. Never resort to name-calling. Call people on where they are incorrect -- factually incorrect. Call them on their behavior, not on who they are."

Patrick DiJusto on emotions over intellect: (btw the article is excellent)

Our emotions are too powerful to be placed in the hands of politicians. Adolescents are a firestorm of 100% emotion with very little thought attached to anything they do, God bless 'em. An adult, on the other hand, is supposed to have the self-control NOT to act on every emotion she has.

and an excerpt from updated Dr Seuss, via email:

...
For although our story pits Grinches 'gainst Whos,
The true battle lies in what we daily choose.
For inside each Grinch is a tiny small Who,
And inside each Who is a tiny Grinch too.
One thrives on love and one thrives on greed.
Who will win out? It depends who you feed!

(the sentiment's nice, but i suspect the "Mean people need Prozac" bumpersticker approach is more effective - when you're in Grinch mode it is not easy to climb out.)

letters to the editor from Bill Weismann

Keep reading. They get more extreme.

A few posts ago I typed about how we project our motives onto others (ie belabored the obvious)... here are excerpts from alleged hit-man-hirer Mr. Weismann's letters to the editor of The Union. (to see everything, go to The Union's post-Jan02 archives and search for "Weismann")

emphasis is mine.

in chronological order...

• Jan 23 02 letter

  ...uses the old liberal standby: "Attack the messenger" - in this case, the signs - "and ignore the message." ...we are pleased and happy that these "No on NH 2020" signs are driving Ms. Jordan nuts. Every time she and her fellow SBC supporters write one of these tantrum, tizzy-fit columns, we get more donations. With more donations, we can make more "No on NH 2020" signs. We really appreciate Ms. Jordan and The Union for helping us out.

  
  
• Feb. 16 02 letter

  Both have shown that they don't expect these laws to apply to them. Let's get rid of these arrogant career politicians....

  
  
• Mar 19 02 letter

  Bisnett is a member of the Community Advisory Committee for NH 2020. We hope he will continue to express his extreme views. It sure makes our job easier...

  
  
• Apr 29 02 letter

  Starr's theories (April 20) about what will happen after Martin and Conklin are out of office, I thought Starr was trying his hand at humor, or sharing his entry in the April Fools liars contest!...The truth is Hank Starr is a lying political hit-man, and not a very good one, at that.

  
  
• June 11 02 letter

  What happened to the liberal party line, "He's scary"? Shumaker rambles on like a madman,...As for Larry Shumaker: "Sir you are nothing but a lying liberal hit man, and not a very good one, I might add."

  
  
• Aug 9 02 letter

  Many individuals driven to public service pursue personal agendas and fringe ideology versus representing us in our best interest. They view themselves as wise shepherds leading a misguided flock down the proper path. ...The fangs of NH 2020, still packed with venom, are the science report and the GIS mapping of private property...

  
  
• Oct 19 02 letter

  In four years, [Izzy Martin and Bruce Conklin] have divided the people...Nevada County deserves better people...

News on Bill Weismann the alleged attempted murderer

Articles on property rights activist Bill Weismann's arrest for allegedly trying to hire a hit man to kill his neighbor over an 18" wide prescriptive easement:

• 4/12/03: Murder for hire halted ("Court records show Weismann was convicted of vandalism earlier this year, after a neighbor claimed Weismann punched him in the mouth in August 2002...")
  
• 4/15/03: still in shock

  "I've always had a lot of respect for Bill," said Margaret Urke of the California Association of Business, Property and Resource Owners. "He's an extremely intelligent and intense person. He cares deeply about the things he cares about."
  Crawford Bost worked with Weismann for Citizens for Property Rights Inc....."All I can tell you is that he has not been active on anything that I know of since (the grandchild's illness)," Bost said, "and he has been under a tremendous amount of stress."

  
  
• 4/16/03: Property spat spiralled
  
• 4/20/03: The Union's commentary, Mediation can resolve property disputes
  

Rumor has it that the desire to see a couple of more prominent local persons dead was also expressed by a local property rights activist. Mediation would not have solved this. The problem is loose cannons, and the tolerance of them by particular factions (e.g. see the end of FReep This: How the right-wing is making itself heard, also the "The Attack on Citizen Participation in Civic Life" section of the Yubanet article on Property Rights Politics In Nevada County), not the perceived lack of a system for ruling on conflicts.

I must also take issue with The Union's once again attempting to obscure distinctions ("Seething anger - on both sides - fueled the debate over Natural Heritage 2020...") (From Dr. Ink: "If ... journalism is an art of verification rather than assertion, we must work hard in our reporting to distinguish between competing positions rather than to assert them as equal.") - anyone viewing or attending the NH2020 public meetings or reading letters to the editor of The Union could not help but be struck by the difference in tone/civility/rationality between the factions.

competence, credibility, and the value of apologies

via the original Wiki, Donald L. Kirkpatrick on the four levels of (increasing) competence:

1. Unconscious Incompetence = you don't know that you can't do it well. (and nobody can tell you - see the full report of the Cornell study on incompetence)
   
2. Conscious Incompetence = you know you can't do it well.
   
3. Conscious Competence = you do it well, and you think about the work as you do it.
   
4. Unconscious Competence = you're so successful it's "automatic" -- you do it well, without thinking about it.

Of persons/institutions on the four levels, the one you least want to be on the receiving end of (due to the likelihood of being misled) is #1.

given that all people/institutions screw up from time to time, how do you determine whether or not the one you're dealing with is a #1?

Answer: (i think) are they aware when they screw up, and just as importantly do they let you know? Some people are virtually incapable of admitting fault - they seem to be the more competitive ones, who are afraid of finding themselves in a "one-down" position. Some institutions don't want to admit fault because (i think) they want to project an image of power and competence to their customers (some of whom might not have noticed the error).

But to those customers who have noticed if, if you try to cover it up/pretend it never happened this tells them that either you don't know you erred or that you hide your errors (and leave people believing wrong info). Neither of which is conducive to trust.

If you want to rebuild damaged credibility, the most effective way to do it is to repair the damage directly, by saying "I/we did X, where X was wrong, Y is right, I/we will try not to make this mistake in future." Otherwise your customers have no way of knowing that you're aware it was wrong.

moral of story: apologies build trust if they demonstrate that you share the standards of your customers.

optimism (from somebody else)

from an essay by Theresa Nielsen Hayden a few years ago:

I wouldn't want to live in Tomorrowland, where the social patterns and infrastructure are all so spiff and modern and rational and well-designed that any remaining problems must needs be insoluble, and so a cause for despair. And I'm not any fonder of the idea that we're living on the tattered, weary, played-out edge of postmodern time.

My own personal theory is that this is the very dawn of the world. We're hardly more than an eyeblink away from the fall of Troy, and scarcely an interglaciation removed from the Altamira cave painters. We live in extremely interesting ancient times.

I like this idea. It encourages us to be earnest and ingenious and brave, as befits ancestral peoples; but keeps us from deciding that because we don't know all the answers, they must be unknowable and thus unprofitable to pursue.

creepy

the actual SARS mortality rate is considerably higher than the reported 3-5%:

It is likely from all reports that those patients that will die, do so between one and three weeks after they go to hospital. Which means that the death rate should not be calculated by dividing the number dead by the number of cases now, but by dividing the number dead by the number of cases one or two weeks ago...

Evidence that the Iraqi museum looting may have been planned. This is sick.

binocular coverage

been meaning to pull together coverage of same (or roughly same) story from different sources for a while now. Here's the first round:

Anonymous anti-Martin hit piece and the guy behind it:
Sac News and Review, Yubanet, The Union

Sea Change in county govt with election of Bedwell and Sutherland:
Yubanet, The Union 1, The Union 2

Property Rights Politics -
Yubanet (re Nevada County), Sac Bee (not local to us)

Bedwell's illegal apartments
Yubanet, The Union

I understand that The Republic is out there somewhere but have not been able to find it.

stuff

points made by Fareed Zakaria in How to Wage the Peace:

Weren't the forces of democracy also the forces of ... harmony and tolerance? Actually, no.
Elections require that politicians compete for votes. In societies without strong traditions of tolerance and multiethnic groups, the easiest way to get support is by appealing to people's most basic affiliations... Once one group wins, it usually excludes the other from power.
...The single most important strength a society can have is a committed, reformist elite. That has been at the heart of the success of Central Europe, weathering through all its ups and downs. When Michael Camdessus, former head of the IMF, is asked why Botswana, a diamond-rich African country, has done well, while most diamond states have not, his answer is, "Three words: three honest men." Botswana has had three honest and competent presidents.

Add "tries to hire hit men to kill the neighbor" to the litany of local conservatives' antisocial behaviors. If you are an ethical conservative, please get involved, and take back your party! Your county and your country need you.

i like these people

Wash. Post on parents of James Riley:

..."That's just who we are, we're eccentrics," Jane Riley said with a laugh.
...
Like their son, the Rileys said they intensely dislike public attention. Why then, they were asked today, were they putting up with reporters camped in their back yard, their sunroom and their driveway, and giving nonstop interviews to all who wanted their time?

"Because that's what our son was over there fighting for -- freedom," Athol Riley said. "We believe freedom of the press is very important. If you've lived where it's not free, or even not totally free, you find out how important it is."