The liberal media elite conspiracy

I'm reliably informed by my republican friends (of which I have none) that there is a liberal media elite plot to force homosexuality down the throats of Americans. They cite as evidence the growing "insinuation" of gay characters into network TV shows.

Of course in reality this has been going on for years: look at "I Dream of Jeannie" for example. There's the "straight shooting" astronaut "bachelor" who has a secret that he has to keep "bottled up" because his military commanders wouldn't understand. Maybe they could get away with that in the 1960s, but these days the euphemisms are transparently obvious. And remember the transvestite so-called "mother-in-law" in "Bewitched" -- could it be any more obvious?

The bad news for conservatives is that this TV season, all pretense is out the window. Check out these shows that are confirmed on the fall schedules:


"Honey I'm Homosexual": After 20 years of marriage and three children, a marketing account executive in his 40s comes out of the closet. His boyfriend moves into the spare bedroom of the family home leading to all kinds of mixups with friends, family, and visitors. Hilarity ensues.

"Extreme Makeover: Homo Edition": "Queer Eye" meets "Extreme Makeover" with fabulous results.

"Sex In the City": Four friends in NYC lead a stereotypically promiscuous urban gay male lifestyle while trying on expensive women's clothes and shoes. Nobody complains that this is corrupting American children because they are heterosexual women.

Coffee: Is there anything it can't do?

I'm going to live forever:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/dn14151-guzzling-coffee-may-cut-heart-disease.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Security theater becomes theater of the absurd

On a few recent business trips, I've noticed a new policy at hotels to ask for photo ID as well as a credit card. I can't for the life of me figure out why. I did ask a hotel receptionist and she said it was to ensure that my credit card wasn't being used fraudulently.

And that makes perfect sense, because I know that if I'd stolen somebody's credit card, the first thing I'd do is use it to check into a hotel under the victim's name, triggering the credit card company's fraud alert system, and letting the police know exactly where they could find me for the next few days.

In fact, I think I'd go wait in the bar and order some nachos while I wait for them to show up.

Unfortunate choice of words

Germany rolled over Poland again (I'm talking about the Euro 2008 soccer championship here), but am I alone in thinking that the German coaches choice of words was a little unfortunate in suggesting that the victory was a triumph of the will?

New "Law & Order" spin-off

In the criminal justice system, traffic based offences are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad:

Law & Order: SUV

The Myth of the Popular Vote

The latest sign that Hillary Clinton's campaign has officially reached the "Desperately Flailing" stage: claiming that if Hillary receives a larger share of the popular vote she should be the Democratic nominee, regardless of delegate counts, the official process, or other such minor issues.

There's just one teeny tiny problem, though: Hillary doesn't have a larger share of the popular vote.

And neither does Obama.

Neither candidate has a greater share of the popular vote for the simple reason that nobody has competed in a contest to see who can attract the larger share of the popular vote.

If this were a contest for the popular vote, both candidates would have conducted themselves quite differently. They would have spent more time and money in more populous states rather than small ones with disproportionate delegate counts; appeared on TV at different times and places; courted different endorsements; and probably even championed different issues. The voters too would have behaved differently, perhaps abandoning other candidates in favor of Hillary or Obama to make their vote count. There is simply no way of knowing how the popular vote would have broken down in a contest that never took place.

Any claim about the popular vote by either candidate makes as much sense as saying that the New England Patriots should be the Superbowl champs because they held the ball for more time than the New Jersey Giants of New York.

Truly Wireless Networking

It's always bothered me that home networking requires so much wiring. If I want to install a switch or a router or a wireless access point, I need to connect to both an ethernet port and a power socket. This is especially annoying for wireless access points: I want them to be as high as possible, and for some reason all of the power sockets in my house are near the floor. (Is it just me, or is "wireless access point" a bit of a misleading name? Mine has both power and ethernet cables attached to it, and that doesn't seem right.)

For a while I've been toying with ways to get rid of all the wires. My first idea was to try to combine Power over Ethernet -- which eliminates the need for a power socket -- with Ethernet over Powerline -- which eliminates the need for network cabling -- and somehow eliminate both the power and the ethernet cables. Unfortunately, neither Power over Ethernet over Powerline nor Ethernet over Powerline over Ethernet works, it turns out.

But then I had an even better idea: what if I could combine a Power over Ethernet adapter with a wireless network adapter? Then I could have a truly wireless access point! Genius! If anybody wants me, I'll be down at the Patent Office...