The Ottermanempire.com

Last night I was at a meeting of our  libertarian atheist ( motorcycle)  group and the talk was about  growing up in communist Hungary.  I’ve more thoughts on this later but suffice to say  that Scotland was not remotely as restrictive  as Hungary but the underpinning  thought that society can be planned as some kind of ideological exercise  leads to really really crappy automobiles.   ( Lada , Skoda  and the infamous E. German  Trabant.   What’s  even more amusing is that  when the Scots tried building cars  something not a millions unreliable miles away was born.   Note that the  cars were being built in Scotland as a result of the  UK gov only  lending money to  the  car makers if they set up the factories  in a place where the jobs were politically advantageous, not that made sense,  hence you have parts  made in  Scotland , driven a few hundred miles to have work done on them and then returned. That’s  pretty much what happens when  markets are mandated inefficient BS happens.

This  from Wikipedia

The Glaswegian workforce who were all recruited from the shipbuilding industry were also not versed in the intricacies of motor vehicle assembly, and Imp build quality and reliability suffered. They also brought with them their militant left-wing values, and as a result strike action and industrial disputes were a rule rather than an exception. In 1964 there were 31 stoppages and only a third of the plant capacity was realised - 50,000 rather than 150,000. On the other hand the Imp was seen as a “Scottish car” and was popular north of the border.

All I can say is that the Imps sold a shit lot of Datsuns ( Nissan)  as people were getting tired of having to bump start their relatives at the end of visits.  I’m surprised at how well loved the cars seem to have become  and put that down to the UK diet of deranged moo cows.

Hillman Imp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thankfully others suffered this so I didn’t need to. Way back when he first announced I read his platform ,seriously. Then wrote a letter. I got back an invitation to send money and NO response to my inquiry. I left a socialist state to come to a socialist state with nicer teeth

Hit & Run: 2008 Convention > The Shorter Barack Obama - Reason Magazine

Government cannot solve all our problems. Just the ones involving energy, education, work, the weather, cities, the countryside, sick children, sick mothers, joblessness, hopelessness, and frightening foreigners who do not live in Iraq. Now if you’ll all look under your seats, every one of you is going home with a new car!

Ah well that’s another store I can’t shop in. Guitar center got back to me confirming the  comically cheap  no weapons sign wasn’t just a store policy but a company one. On the bright side I did spend the money at Sam Ash and look forward to buying the kids birthday present there. There’s one a couple of miles away  from the Guitar Center  on Cactus road For five years I have managed to shop in that store and  no one  noticed ( that’s the point of concealed after all)     Frankly this isn’t a great sacrifice they don’t get more than $2k from me most years, indirectly I’ve sold a lot more  from recommendations but hey  what’s important is their liability.  Just remember to  sue them should you be injured when their piece of paper doesn’t  mean a damn thing to criminals.   Added them to CCwhere which is a site that  users can submit  PRO  and anti carry stores.   

 
Dear John P#####,
Due to liability issues Guitar Center has a no weapon policy that includes all store staff and customers. The only people that are aloud to carry are people that are occupationally required to by their profession.
I would like to apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate you giving us the opportunity to remedy this for you.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions or concerns. We appreciate you choosing GuitarCenter.com.
http://www.GuitarCenter.com/
Sincerely,
Chase L******
Night Team Leader
1-866-498-7882

Guitars, Musical Instruments, and Musical Equipment from Guitar Center

This in a  neighborhood were the local   Red Lobster has off duty cops there to walk you to your car.  Yep the kind of place you would be happy to take  $2k of equipment out, not :) 

I don’t go to enough conferences to know if this is standard operating procedure but at NME there was a kind of E-vampire that haunts the periphery of their stand trying to snag badge id’s on the way by. As in stepping in front, oh have we.. while doing it anyway.

Then they call you. They call you when ill, won’t take I’m ill for an answer and to add insult to injury send out a confirmation that you’ve agreed to a vid conference later in the day. What an appalling way to do business Veotag

Ignoring the circumstances in how the info was acquired the follow up was about as unprofessional an act as one can get. A communications company that can’t listen is a waste of time.

Ah the question.

The James Randi educational foundation   are  in their own words

The James Randi Educational Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1996. Its aim is to promote critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about paranormal and supernatural ideas so widespread in our society today.

I’ve been to a TAM , the conference tied to JREF and loved it. I  was really shocked by just how many religious skeptics there were though , really amazed.  Toss that in with the statists that believe that thinking and research are a government sport  and I was a little  unsettled that the critical thought movement would  align on the democracy YAY! side of things I mean these people are smart Gell Mann smart.   Just have to face it  classically liberal ( aka libertarian)  ideals just don’t fly in this land of the lobbyist.  ( I don’t blame them  they would not exist if the politicians weren’t corruptible)

Here’s the question as I thought I was going to ask it to Penn  after seeing the show in Vegas.

I think  Joe Rogan  pwned Phil Plait  on Penn’s show  on more than one occasion how does that bode for his new position as the president of the JREF  and how about a rematch moderated by Penn

Here’s what came out:    

Read more

Three days into looking at Watir and I’m already reading testing blogs again. It’s an activity that I’m really good at when there’s not a 60/40 split e.g documentation is 60% The rest is testing. Amazing how many jobs have a role in their title that is actually performed less than the management of it I consider that more an American feature, not a bug?. Anyway here’s a nice look at testing that I think is applicable to a wider scope. This is what DARE and the war on drugs represent.This is TSA security theatre a creation of an unthinking system and then assuming that you’ve just nailed reality down to a grid. It’s the disease of all organizations designed to perpetuate the system that now makes the decisions above and beyond the reason they were created in the first place.

The trace matrix | testingReflections.com

What I love about testing is what PMs and auditors hate. Now, I’m using big basic words like a child speaks with no shades of grey but that is how it feels and how I see the behaviors play out. PMs often want testing contained to a line item on a MS Project Plan but then nasty bugs show up with no regard to proximity of the ship date. Can’t we find all the bad bugs first? This question has amused me for years.

Erin with Teller. ( I love his voice, his writing’s rather good too)

I’ve been a fan of Penn and Teller since being exposed to them in the mid 80’s and one of the life goals, as far as I have plans, was to see them perform live. That’s another collective 40 years experience up on stage and if they were great in the 80’s they are now fucking amazing. During the intervening time I didn’t turn out to be an atheist as I always was one, as are all newborns it’s only the prevailing culture that tells a three year old that he’s a Christian child and sadly he’s doomed to burn in hell unless he thanks the zombie jew for his gift of ever lasting life, feeling sick yet?

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More insanity from the  reality challenged community.   Not only are they claiming that their brayers* lowered gas prices but that  you can  get over the more advanced cases of death by engine casing embedded in your head by following the right invisible man.  Be sure to pick carefully as it’s really hard to tell the invisible and non existent apart.    Not an original thought but  please  if you hate modern life so much  stop using the medical , physical and all other technology that doesn’t fit in with your two thousand  year old  training manual.   Your children are not harmed by our children living differently from you I wish I could say the inverse was the case.  Yep  you teach your toddlers to claim their  parents are going to be hurt forever because they are bad..  And we’re the evil ones?   More on that soon.

Survey: Many believe in divine intervention - CNN.com

Survey: Many believe in divine intervention

* 57 percent in survey said God could save a patient even if doctors said it was futile

* Researchers: Docs should be prepared to deal with families who expect a miracle

*not a typo.

Greetings.

Back from Las Vegas and the New Media Expo 2008 which was held at the convention center near the Hilton.

So I have a wad of posts, some with pics, some with vids and most of them  without which I will fill in with Flickr and  other sources were people have shared them.

Here’s the hit list.

Eatery reviews.

• Nine Fine irishmen New York x2 casino
• Margarita Grille at the Hilton
• Hilton Buffet
• RUB “Righteous Urban BBQ” in the Rio Casino

Show Reviews.

• Coverville concert including Jonathan Coulton , Natalie Gelman, Chance and the choir rounded off with Mr Richard Cheese. Special mention to the Radio adventures of Dr Floyd.
• Penn & Teller. ( a dream fulfilled and without needing to trick someone into thinking I have cancer)

People/ Keynotes/ Companies

• Will it blend
• Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine List Tv
• Podcast Tune UP
• Mdialog which is not just a You Tube clone.

More company thoughts and a review of the overall show. I also have a rant brewing about the people that believe possession of a recording device means their position at a concert is somehow more valid than the other people that bought tickets.

Oh and I think I have found the best ginger beer in the USA to date which comes from the Jackson Hole soda company in Wyoming. Idris is still my favorite mass produced ginger beer but pretty flat by the time it gets here.  Jackson Hole are planning on  making one of my other favorites , an orange cream. More on this to come.

At the Coverville party Aug 2008 Erin poses with the amusing and more talented than you’d think Dick Cheese and lounge against the machine

Nice scenery , customer service taught by Klingons. The drinks where really nicely thought out, kicked like an arcturian megadonkey and were,surprisingly, priced ,fairly. Shame the bar has to go as it was one of the better “imagineering” that’s functional E.g it looks more real than many things in Vegas that try to emulate the real world.

quarks vegas,
originally uploaded by haltse.

Oh damn it sucks that this place is closing . They mix some strong ass drinks..

Nice decor.

 Repost from Work blog. Mobile web is something I am about to become boring on.  I really would like to remake Apple’s 1984 commercial in a similar vein with the projectile of choice being mobile handsets.

Seemingly poor manners in public are worth millions. This sad story has the arguably most doable preacher’s wife ( Look I tried to put it delicately but the competition isn’t that great) of a Texas mega church accused of impoliteness to a flying waitress*. She was fined $3k back in 2006 so we can assume something valid happened but to the point where someone launches multi million dollar claim? For loss of faith? Love to see how you attach a monetary value to that because I’d like to know. I’d like to write the check for that part. $0.00

Witness: Mega-preacher’s wife threw tantrum - CNN.com

Her psychiatrist, Shayna Lee, testified that Brown has suffered depression and post-traumatic stress disorder because of the incident. She also felt disrespected in her role as a leader and as a black woman and had her faith affected, Lee said.

Position of leadership? Black woman? How the hell is she diminished , especially the latter, to the point were a real financial loss occurred? This is just two grown women acting like brats. The christian thing to do would be to smite each others family and just leave it at that:)

Input a post on the iPhone wordpress

Or read Galt’s speech ?

The latter. Seems quicker

Well I’m doing a few things. These are awaiting the site re design but it’s on the back burner as Creddy adds on more customers. I’m thoroughly fed up with mainstream media which is nothing in relation to the disdain I have for the new media that feeds entirely on the former’s output. Politically, meh, given that the “Libertarian party” has turned into the worst kind of political opportunists with their enabling of Bob Barr as a candidate for freedom so I can’t really use them as something that approaches the idea that you can vote yourself a better future. ( you can’t but hey it’s little baby steps) Basically people like being looked after while maintaining the illusion that they aren’t.

Instead been Reviewing on Yelp , far more interesting interaction with people that leads to real world benefits. Yep my thoughts on how to organize society are completely irrelevant to most people. Been racking up time with Scrabble, reading books , Bonk being the most interesting

The most I can be trusted with is reviewing wings and Irish bars:)