Lee Asher

Eugene is home to another magic legend: Lee Asher.

Still a young man, he's secured his place in magic history with the invention of the Asher Twist (at age 15!) among many other accomplishments. He's also a super cool guy.

Here is the Asher Twist performed by the man himself. Awesome!

The Mysticians

I finally made it out the local Eugene magic club called the Mysticians. Some muggles out there might be wondering what is a magic club and what goes on there? A magic club is just an organized gathering of magicians who want to share their art with each other. The Mysticians have been meeting once a month in Eugene for the last 40 years!

Generally the meetings have a formal and then an informal section. During the formal section, the magicians take turns performing for each other. This is a great chance to practice new effects and to get feedback and tips. It is also a chance to perform for a small crowd and that is always a good thing to do to improve confidence. After that the informal section is where everyone is just hanging out exchanges ideas, moves and tricks.

The age range at the Mysticians is 8 to 90 years old. The two founders are people who will be remembered in the history of magic. One of them is Jerry Andrus who I found out last night is the inventor of the Trizonal Space Warper. When I was a kid Jerry presented this optical illusion on the show "That's Incredible" and I loved it. Later in life some friends had this segment on video tape would watch it. It was only last night that I realized who he was. He actually had one with him last night and I was aware he was an inventor of optical illusions and then it all clicked so I asked him about it. He explained to me how he made it an confirmed that he was indeed on "That's Incredible."

It is a such an honor and a priviledge to be around such experienced magicians. Everyone at the club welcomed me with open arms and it was a great time. I especially liked the performances of the younger members. Such talent!

Barack Obama

Here is a video clip of Senator Barack Obama on the Daily Show. He's considering a run for President in 2008 and he looks to be an exciting candidate.

My favorite part from this clip is when he says the invasion of Iraq is like a situation where you have a guy who drove the bus into a ditch. You have to get the bus out of the ditch and that's not easy to do, but you should probably fire the driver.

"A Dunk in the Water"

In a recent interview with Dick Cheney, this was said in regards to the Military Commissions Act and interrogation (bold sections are my emphasis):

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I do agree. And I think the terrorist threat, for example, with respect to our ability to interrogate high value detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed provided us with enormously valuable information about how many there are, about how they plan, what their training processes are and so forth, we've learned a lot. We need to be able to continue that.

The Congress recently voted on this question of military commissions and our authority to continue the interrogation program. It passed both Houses, fortunately. The President signed it into law, but the fact is 177 Democrats in the House -- or excuse me, 162 Democrats in the House voted against it, and 32 out of 44 senators -- Democratic senators voted against it. We wouldn't have that authority today if they were in charge. That's a very important issue in this campaign.

Are we going to allow the executive branch to have the authority granted and authorized by the Congress to be able to continue to collect the intelligence we need to defend the nation.

Q Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the Vice President "for torture." We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in. We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we're party to and so forth. But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture, and we need to be able to do that.

And thanks to the leadership of the President now, and the action of the Congress, we have that authority, and we are able to continue to program.

When I read that I immediately thought he was referring to waterboarding since that particular technique has been a high profile part of this issue. What else could that mean? Later that day, many articles appeared around the globe stating that Cheney endorses waterboarding.

One day later and the spin begins. Now the White House is denying that he was referring to waterboarding in this discussion. Spokesman Tony Snow(job) was asked what then does a "dunk in the water" mean? His answer: "a dunk in the water."

Update: Here is an article documenting some of the follow dodging and weaving and spinning by the White House regarding this.

Overheard in Dublin

There are these "overheard in.." websites where people post quotes of things they have heard people say in particular cities. I love Overheard in Dublin since we lived there for a couple of years. It's great reading the quotes and remembering how Dubliners talk. The Irish sense of humor is unique. Here are a few examples:

Sauce

While queing in McDonalds one afternoon I overheard the lad in front placing his order which went;

"chicken nuggets an a large coke, please"

the girl behind the counter responded;
"what sauce would you like with the nuggets?"

"ehhhh, what have you?

the girl went on to list various dips,
"we have barbecue sauce, curry sauce, sweet and sour sauce, garlic mayonnaise....."

to which the lad interrupted;
"ehhhhh,..............red."

Overheard by J, McDonalds, Phibsboro
Posted on Tuesday, 30th August 2005

It's a miracle!

My brother arrives into Dublin airport and is dying for a pee. He makes it to the Gents but there's a huge queue.He sees that the disabled toilet is free so he decides to leg it in before he wets himself. After relieving himself he's coming out the door when an auld lad still waiting in the queue for the gents sarcastically declares...

"JAYSUS, it's a f**king miracle!'.

Good 'old style' Irish humour! My brother knew he was home!

Overheard by Grainne, Dublin Airport
Posted on Monday, 02nd May 2005

What have you got against the Titanic?

Last weekend we were having a big party at the house. Loads of people coming round & a babeque & all that sort of thing. Spent ages getting in food & sorting everything out to have it all nice. Then we remembered we wanted loads of ice. (We had big bins filled with beers -- like on those Heinie commercials.)

So I nipped down to Tesco & empty their freezers of sacks of ice. I took about 6 sacks. At the check-out the oul fella in front of me turns back & goes "Jeez, did you hear the Titanic was making a come back or something??"

Overheard by Niamh, Tesco, Sandymount
Posted on Thursday, 22nd June 2006

Bush "Cuts and runs" on "Stay the Course"

The Bush administration is fond of saying their opponents "cut and run" or "flip flop" when they change their mind on something. These terms are manipulative and only hold value in terms of sound bite framing. "Stay the course" has been a Bush favorite in describing what he thinks we should do in Iraq. First of all, flexibility is a good trait to have and secondly he never defined the "course" to begin with. Anyway.

It is with great pleasure that I can now say that Bush has "cut and run" on "stay the course". They have decided to not use that phrase anymore because "conditions on the ground are dynamic". What they are saying is that they are willing to change their military tactics but nothing else. What they are missing is that the problem is not tactics; the problem is overall strategy. The goals they have set are absurd. They have no strategy to achieve those goals. And they think that changing tactics will somehow achieve the goal?

The missing component is strategy. I would love to hear from anyone who can tell me what the Bush Administration's strategy in Iraq is.

Update: Today Bush gave a press conference and essentially said we're not leaving Iraq. Greenwald wrote an article on this that is well worth reading. Here is a small quote from it:

Second, the President's remarks illustrated more vividly than ever before the towering incoherence at the heart of this whole project. According to the President, the reason that it is so important that we "win" -- meaning creating a stable Iraqi government -- is because American security depends upon the creation of an Iraq that is a "partner of the U.S. in the war on terror." But there is a complete disconnect -- and there always has been -- between stabilizing the Iraqi government and having a "partner of the U.S. in the war on terror."

Update 2:

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The Making of a Novus

In addition to having a Day Job^TM, I also run a business with my friend Shawn.

We recently made a little video clip showing how we make our product called a Novus. The music is a demo recording of the song "Roman Candles at Walnut and Main". It is played by the band that Shawn and I are in. We are called Husk. The song is written and sung by Stephen Mathys.

PictoBrowser: My Bicycle

PictoBrowser let's you create Flickr slideshows. It's great, but because Flickr can be slow, this can lag a bit when loading. To create one of these for your website, click the little "info" link on the lower right. Here is one showing my fixed gear bicycle:

Line Rider

This is really really really cool. Enjoy.

Update: Here is an example of how to do Line Rider properly.

Mindvention

Well I just booked my trip to Mindvention in Las Vegas. It's a three day magic convention focused on the Mentalism style. Mentalism is performing the illusion of mind reading. I definitely tend towards mentalism but I also do standard close-up magic as well. This convention looks like it will be a blast. Jason Alexander (from Seinfeld) will be there showing his mentalism act and talking about magic. There is a full line up of lectures and performances.

The last convention I went to was the Black Pool one in North England in 2003. It's a lot of fun to spend 3 days completely immersed in magic.

A Joke

I got this joke from the Marc Perkel Blog ("The Most Dangerous Mind on the Internet"). It's funny, yet not so funny.

What's the difference between the war in Iraq and the war in Vietnam? George W. Bush had a plan to get out of Vietnam.

Speaking of Slogans

"Slogans" is one of my favorite Bob Marley songs and here are the apropos lyrics:

Can't take your slogans no more,
can't take your slogans no more,
can't take your slogans no more,
can't take your slogans no more.

Wipe out the paintings of slogans
all over the streets (ooh, ooh, ooh),
confusing the people
while your asphalt burns our tired feet.
I see borders and barriers,
segregation, demonstration and riots (ooh, ooh, ooh),
a-sufferation of the refugees,
oh-oh, when, when will we be free?

Oh-oh-oh, we can't take your slogans no more,
can't take your slogans no more,
can't take your slogans no more,
no more sweet talk from-a pulpit,
no more sweet talk from the hypocrites.

So we know we can't take your slogans no more,
can't take your slogans no more,
can't take your slogans no more,
no more sweet talk from-a pulpit,
no more sweet talk from the pulpit.

No more sweet talk from-a pulpit,
no more sweet talk from the hypocrites (oh, no hypocrites!),
no more sweet talk from-a pulpit (wo-ah yeah),
no more sweet talk (no-no-no-no sweet talk) from the hypocrites (hey!),
no more sweet talk from-a pulpit,
no more sweet talk (no-no-no-no sweet talk) from the hypocrites (no-no-no-no hey!)

Iraq is not Improving

The Bush administration is constantly saying that things are improving in Iraq. They use empty slogans like "Stay the Course", "Freedom is on the March" and "Mission Accomplished". Here are some numbers released today:

*10 U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday
*67 U.S. soldiers have been killed so far in October
*54000 Iraqi families have been displaced (100,000 children are affected by this)

I've yet to hear Bush give a comprehensive strategy for making things better. The current "course" is clearly not working and he falsely claims the only other option is to "cut and run". He is fond of false dilemmas and straw man arguments. I'd love to hear from some Bush supporters what they think the strategy is; what does "staying the course" consist of doing to make things better in Iraq?

A plan is needed, not slogans.

Update: Bush recently defined what victory means in Iraq and he says it's "vital to our national security" to achieve this.

"Our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging: a country that can sustain itself; a country that can govern itself; a country that can defend itself; and a country that will be an ally in the war against these extremists."

What is interesting is that before the invasion, Iraq had all those qualities except for the part about being an ally in the war against extremists. Iraq wasn't an ally or an enemy in this regard and it was never shown why it was so important to get it to be an ally. And invasion was probably the worst possible choice for trying to achieve this. To the contrary, Invasion has created the need for Bush's so called "unchanging" goals in Iraq.

I also think he needs to get more clear on the definition of the following four words: Goal, Strategy, Plan and Tactic.

"Blogs of Note"

For some reason my blog made it on the blogger.com "blogs of note" list. I have no idea how or why this happened but I'm not complaining. I have temporarily enabled comment moderation because I'm getting some pretty hateful comments on my political posts. You can still comment but it will not post on the blog until I approve it. Once this traffic dies down I'll revert it back.

Maybe now I'll get a coveted invite to upgrade to the new Blogger beta. I really want the category/tags feature. Are they doing this yet?

Update: The hateful comments were really coming from 2 or 3 people. After that things mellowed out and I'm encouraged to see thoughtful debate happening. This has been quite a day on my blog :) I'm loving all the comments and emails.

Update 2: Here is more detail on the "blogs of note". Seems that staff at blogger pick them and it's one per day. My day was October 17, 2006.

A Moment of Silence ...

Today, Bush signed the Torture Bill into law. I would like to take a moment to mourn this loss.

Now, let's make something happen next month.

Rain

It's raining today and I love it. Fall is in full swing as we move towards winter and it just beautiful around town with all the colorful trees and the rainy mist.

Our petite cat Meetu sprouts huge amounts of fur in the winter. She's been spending a lot of time outdoors doing what we call "furring". "Furring" is like "tanning" or "sunning" but it's the opposite. She needs to spend time in the cold so her winter coat will grow in. She's not so petite in the winter with all that fur.

Book Review: Neutral Buoyancy

I am not a diver but after reading Shadow Divers I became interested in reading about diving and picked up a couple of books. I just finished "Neutral Buoyancy" and really enjoyed it.

The book tells the history of diving along with personal diving stories about the author's underwater adventures around the globe. It's beautifully written and his passion for diving shines through.

The highlight for me was the history of "the bends" and how the true cause was discovered. I also enjoyed the chapter on free diving which comes near the end. It is an interesting counterpoint to most of the book which is about the evolution of diving technology. It is like diving has come full circle.

Now I'm reading "Last Breath" which despite the title is not about diving. Thanks Karen for the recommending this book. I'm an adventure book junky (most mountain climbing books) and this one is up my alley.

Google Reader

As I've talked about before I use bloglines.com as my web based RSS reader. It's pretty good but I'm always looking for a better one. Google just released a new version of their product which they call "Reader". I'm giving it a go and I'll review it once I get a feel.

Update: I tried this out and Bloglines wins again. There are some cool features in Google Reader and it's the best I've tried other than Bloglines but still not as good. One particular thing that I didn't like was that it show lots of old posts as new like it was the first time I was subscribing to a feed. Sometimes this happens on Bloglines but the problem was way worse on Google Reader.

The New Diesel Wave

According to this article, at least 6 of the major automakers are planning to make diesel cars available in all 50 states in the next 2-3 years. This is excellent news to see that they are responding to the demand. Since Honda is getting in on the diesel action, perhaps a diesel-hybrid might happen soon. That would be sweet.

With the rising use of biodiesel, this is good news.