Oh, goody! Earth, wind, AND fire

I’m not sure this is the best way to Save the Planet.

Tip from American Digest.

Gotta be a coincidence, 31 March, 1 April…

Wow, I almost missed it!  Tonight is the Greenies’ April Fool’s Eve celebration, EARTH HOUR, wherein folks indulge in a pointless demonstration of energy conservation by sitting in the cold and dark at 8:30 pm* for A WHOLE HOUR, like some kind of stoner mook who took too many downers.  I’d be more inclined to get on board if they were showing solidarity with these folks

instead of some fuzy-headed idea of Saving the Planet from Big Energy.

Amnesty International founder Peter Benenson coined the ultimate Earth Hour motto: “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.“

* OK, at my house the sun doesn’t set until 7:52pm.  You didn’t think a bunch of limousine liberals were going to sit in really dark dark, did you?

Tip from Michelle Malkin, who’s often in Dutch, but never in the dark.

Blowin’ in the wind

The cheap veneer seems to be gradually peeling off the whole wind energy enterprise.    The Dutch are finding it to be financially demanding,  Californians in the Tehatchipi area are incensed at the idea,  The Duke of Edinburgh calls them a disgrace, and over 14,000 windmills have been flat abandoned here in the US.

In spite of all the spin from insiders on the take, wind power was a big bust during last summer’s Texas heat wave. Unfortunately for me and my neighbors, San Antonio CPS Energy remains hell-bent on selling wind power, and they’ve enlisted a claque of corporate and municipal cheerleaders to browbeat us into “choosing” to pay more for household energy.  With CPS on track to commit 20% of its power generation to renewable energy, I fear continuing hikes in residential electric bills as the subsidies run out for this stuff.

Tip from Future Pundit.

Update (26 November).  More folks are blowing the whistle on renewable energy subsidies.

All I want for Christmas is a tax-free tree

The Feds are imposing a 15¢ tax per tree to finance the USDA’s new Christmas Tree Promotion Board.   I presume their valiant efforts will be aimed at encouraging Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jews to start buying fresh trees, and for the rest of us Christians and Christianists to buy multiple trees.  Just what we need to Put America Back to Work.  Merry Friggin’ Christmas.*

* Friggin’ Christmas  is my personal name for the Season of Hucksterism falling between Hallowe’en and Thanksgiving Day.  I refuse to allow any sort of Christmas activities, songs, or iconography in the house until the Thanksgiving turkey is decently dead and eaten, and the leftovers bundled off to the fridge.

Full employment for data miners?

This doofus seems to think that OWS sympathizers can strike a blow against Corporate Greed by filling bank card postage reply envelopes with leaflets and ballast and posting them back to the bank.  Said doofus thinks the Evil Bank People will have their feet nailed to the floor when confronted by a tsunami of People’s Jujitsu Junk Mail; apparently Doofus missed Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage while napping in Economics 101.

Once the Junk Mail Tsunami eventuates, the Marketing Department at EvilBancCorp will certainly be motivated to reduce mailing and handling costs; but they won’t spend too much time on it.  Instead, they’ll send a pantload of the junky return mail to their favorite data-mining contractor, with a request to tweak the mailing list generator to exclude assholes who reply with trash non-productive customer leads.  Data miners will find the 5 or 6 demographic variables identifying OWS-wannabes, and drop these bad prospects from their mailing lists.

Results:  Banks lose the Junk Mail Tsunami and  improve their marketing ROE; data miners bank some sweet fees and add Anus Detection to their marketing repertoire; and fledgling OWS monkeywrenchers have to fall back on putting their trash in the recycling bin, rather than the mailbox.

Tip from the Instapundit.

Hobbit Rings! Oh goody! I gots a Hobbit Ring!

UTSA has just implemented a common-password system for all university online services.  In the comment section of this post on Bruce Schneier’s security blog, I learn that these are called Hobbit Rings.

I especially like this comment by Paul Dittrich:

Years ago, a colleague asked “Why do I need to have so many passwords?” Rather than answering directly, I pointed at his keyring and asked him “Why do you need so many different keys? Wouldn’t it be easier to have just one key to open everything?”

He looked at me like I was crazy and said “Well THAT would be dumb!”
(Unfortunately, he did not recognize the analogy between his keys and his passwords.)

Tip from the Geek Press.

What to do with the Rowdy Ryans?

In yesterday’s post about UTSA’s inaugural football game, I failed to mention the student fans rushing the field after the game.  Roughly what happened was

• Before the final play of the game, there was a clear announcement over the PA system to refrain from running onto the field, with a warning that you could be arrested.
• During the final play (NE State’s possession), a UTSA fan ran to the 50 yard line to cheer and bow to our winning team.  NE State players justifiably complained.  Security gave him the Evil Eye and chased him off the field into custody.
• Immediately after the end of game, 7 or 8 “heroic” fans started a rush to the field, and were apprehended by security personnel.  At least one fellow was clearly resisting arrest midfield, NEVER a good idea anywhere in Texas.
• These pioneers were followed by about 2000 of their closest friends, some of whom were overcome with enthusiasm, others with the fear of being trampled.  There were clearly far too many for the security staff to handle, and once it was clear they were safe and celebrating harmlessly, they were allowed to stay on the field unimpeded.

So now some students have their knickers in a twist because our field-rushing heroes are being treated unfairly; there’s a big hue and cry to have the charges dropped.  A logo has been designed and T-shirts are being printed to show solidarity with Our Oppressed Champions.   Administration and student government are meeting to address the crisis.  SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.  I’m sure something will.

First, my take.  Number One Dumbass, the one who ran onto the field while the game was still underway, is, the the tradition of the Stanford Band, as dumb as a box of rocks.  He clearly deserves a good ass-kicking and the derision of every sensible fan.  The rest of the field rushers behaved precisely the way any undergraduate instructor could have predicted.  Heedless of warnings and overcome with emotion, they got caught up in the moment (or the crowd surge) and behaved a bit irresponsibly.  Don’t think so?  Consider what the headlines would have read if 5 or 6 students had been trampled and seriously injured: “Rowdy Ryan Incites UTSA Mob, Trampling 6, Paralyzing 2.”  Nevertheless, we should have seen this coming.  After all, a small but significant fraction of our students freak out whenever they’re stressed–just think about exam days!  I take great pains in the courses I teach to reduce student anxiety and motivate positive responses to stress because I know–from sometimes bitter experience–how students can behave.

Now, my suggestion.  “When you’re handed lemons, make lemonade.”  There are several factors to consider, which might lead to a constructive approach to the Fans-on-the-Field Problem.

1. This is UTSA’s first season, and it’s off to a winning start.  The fans, especially the student fans, are going to be excited to the point of losing all judgement.
2. UTSA’s marketing effort for football wants to make the Game Day experience memorable, positive, and to last as long as possible.
3. A spontaneous and uncontrolled rush onto the field by thousands of fans is an invitation to disaster, Russian Roulette writ large.  UTSA can’t stand the liability hit from the inevitable injuries.
4. Short of calling out the National Guard with riot gear, there’s no way to stop a fan stampede once it starts.

On our morning jog, my wife and I discussed the problem; here’s our suggestion:  Don’t prohibit the fans from the field, encourage them to come on down.  But get them onto the field not to just mill around and cheer the players, but to do something structured, fun, and reasonably safe.  Have our flag-bearing yell leaders lead the students in a clockwise Victory Lap from the student sections around the field and out of the stadium, following (or even preceding) the team.  Cheerleaders, dancers, coaching staff, and some players (and maybe the Rowdy Ryans) can line up around the field and high-five the crowd as they pass by.  Dump ‘em out in the parking lot for a short post-game party with some music and cold drinks.

Whatever the solution, The Powers That Be at UTSA do need to get a handle on it, because the classic bureaucratic approach of admonition and education isn’t going to work.  If you have a suggestion, shoot by email to the UTSA SGA President, Xavier Johnson, SGAUTSA@gmail.com.

Update (8 September).  DA Susan Reed is working towards a resolution of the charges against the cadre of initial field rushers:

In five of the six cases that involved current UTSA students, Reed intends to drop the charge of criminal trespass and refer the cases to the university’s administration for disciplinary action, which she said might entail some community service work. A sixth case involving a student already had been dismissed.
…
In the cases of the two other fans, who apparently were not students, Reed said she plans to lower the charge from a class B to C misdemeanor with a fine.

It’s revealing that the two NON-students will be treated pretty much like responsible adults, while UTSA students will be treated more like misbehaving little children. Local opinion on this is all over the map.

Update (8 September).  Game Day instructions have been sent out to all UTSA students.  This initial response to the Rush the Field Problem is ineffectual, typically academic, and totally pathetic:

How to have a great Football Game Day: Ticket and transportation tips

–UTSA students get in free to home games. Print your tickets in advance online, and enter the Alamodome at 11 a.m. Use your UTSACard at the game, and you can enter at 11:30 a.m.
…
–With safety as the top concern, don’t rush the field at the game! Everyone is excited, but UTSA’s top priority is safety for everyone.

One of W. Edwards Deming’s 12 Principles is “Avoid Exhortations from Management,” and for good reason. This sad little email warning will have zero effect on the inevitable contingent of overexcited (and possibly drunken) student fans at the game. We’ll see on Saturday…

Guns don’t kill people, recycling bins kill people

I thought my brother-in-law was an alarmist when he told me about people falling into their new city-mandated large-capacity trash bins.  It turns out they’re lethal.  The Precautionary Principle, so beloved of environmentalists and social engineers, would seem to suggest an immediate Bin Ban.

Michelle Obama does Sysiphus

The CDC reports that Federal anti-obesity programs aren’t working.  Therefore, we need a bigger program!

But here’s the money quote:

The fattest states also tend to be poorer southern states, where there’s also relatively little stigma against fat. The thinnest states tend to be wealthier, and to include more university-educated Americans who choose to exercise more and to stigmatize obesity.

So the winning approach is simple, cheap, and totally Old School: STIGMA. Let’s start ridiculing, denigrating, and publicly embarrassing Overweight-Americans. Bring back nicknames like Tubby, Fatso, and Thunderthighs. After all, that’s what we’re doing to smokers, and it seems to be working. (Of course, it’s turning most of us into spiteful, ill-mannered shmucks, but that’s a small price to pay For The Children.)

OK, it’s official. A million bucks down a rathole.

I predicted the City of San Antonio’s Bike Sharing Program would be a bust, and it appears I was right.  So there’s $1,000,000 of YOUR tax dollars blown.  The only upside I see is that the B-Cycle kiosks are a strong signal of good locations for  private bicycle shops like the Blue Star Bike Shop.

Hmm, I wonder if I could get those barely used b-cycles from the City on the cheap.  I’ve got an idea…