Castro the Conservative

From Reuters

"I have arrived at the conclusion that one of our big problems is a lack of systemic demand," said Castro.

He expressed dissatisfaction with the system of subsidies for those who can work, but do not, saying government handouts discourage Cubans from being more productive.

Is Castro coming to the conclusion that so many in the US congress have ignored for decades?

Yet another bailout?

It appears that developers are next in line for a bailout.
Banks, maybe, automakers, no, but real estate developers? Absolutely no!
If the government bails out these guys out, then I am going to move to Mars and start my own new civilization.

I am a hopeless geek

I am sorry. I couldn't help myself. I had to follow the International Overclocking competition.
In this competition, teams compete to make a computer compute at fast as they can make them compute. They use leading edge technology, top-of-the-line components, liquid-cooled and even liquid nitrogen-cooled configurations. Here are the results:

Final results (USA wins!):

Benchmark	USA	Taiwan	Germany	France	Italy
SuperPi 1.5 1M	8,078	8,157	8,093	7,987	7,985
SuperPi 1.5 32M	7 min 49,969 s	7 min 52,516 s	7 min 40,953 s	7 min 24,990 s	7 min 40.984 s
wPrime 1.55 32M	5,188	5,422	5,219	5,756	5,297
wPrime 1.55 1024M	160,937	170,375	165,872	186,982	165,11
PiFast 4.1	17,56	17,86	17,44	17,29	17,36
AquaMark 2003	253814	251703	319212	238929	233043
3DMark 01	71010	71591	72764	71545	71821
3DMark 03	79794	75002	76105	69865	76188
3DMark 05	36762	35893	36586	35733	37070
3DMark 06	26733	25483	24194	22318	25143

Benchmark/Scores	USA	Taiwan	Germany	France	Italy
SuperPi 1.5 1M	10	20	30	60	100
SuperPi 1.5 32M	10	20	60	100	30
wPrime 1.55 32M	100	20	60	10	30
wPrime 1.55 1024M	100	10	30	20	60
PiFast 4.1	10	20	30	100	60
AquaMark 2003	60	10	100	30	20
3DMark 01	30	100	0	0	60
3DMark 03	30	100	60	0	20
3DMark 05	100	60	0	0	30
3DMark 06	100	60	0	0	30
TOTAL SCORE	550	420	370	320	440
RANKING	1st	3rd	4th	5th	2nd

Arson

Sarah Palin's church (Wasila Bible Church) was set ablaze yesterday. Investigators don't know if this is related to her Vice Presidential candidacy, but the trend of church arson fires has spread from the south (where it was usually black churches that were the target) to the west and now into Alaska. A few LDS chapels have had some suspicious fires and some less than suspicious break-ins and offensive grafetti painted on the walls. There is no evidence of a large organization directing these crimes, but one is left to wonder about the type of person who would do such things.

Unwaving single party dominance

In some states, single party dominance continues for many decades.
In Utah, Republicans have run things for a long time, much to the chagrin of Democrats who see the state not moving in the direction they desire. However, the one thing that can be said is that Utah has been free from major criminal scandals and that the state has a balanced budget (which many states cannot claim). There are silly legislators (Chris Buttars) and local city officials (former Eagle Mountain mayor) who say and do stupid things. That is probably unavoidable no matter where you go. On the other hand, there are other states and cities that have had single party dominance for decades, and the rule tends to be that such governments fall into fiscal or even criminal disarray. The obvious glaring example of that is Chicago, and Illinois in general. Governor Blagojevich's criminal abuse of government power is merely an example of the Chicago political machine that has operated virtually unchecked for decades. Gov. Blago was simply careless in his activities. While Obama likely does not have anything to do with this particular scandal, it is a reminder of the cesspool from which his career sprang. His list of unsavory associates continues to grow. Obama may be clean in legal terms, but he knows the game that is played in Chicago. He twice finagled to get his opponents removed from an electrion ballot, a minor thing in comparison with what normally goes on in Chicago. After all, it was Richard Dally's political machine that invented the voting strategy "Vote early and often." Also, the media coverage of this scandal has been a prime example of media bias. You can still see entire articles and news pieces that do not mention Blago's party, but are quick to point out that the previous governor (Ryan) is a Republican (in jail) - in the very same article!

USS National Debt

The irony of it all

This man, Imran Khan, is starring in the Bollywood movie "The President is Coming,"
a comedy about six 20+ year olds trying to win the right to shake President Bush's hand. The movie premiered in Mumbai on the evening of Nov. 26. Imran Khan posed for paparazzi wearing a T-shirt with Mr. Bush's face between the words "International Terrorist." Mr. Khan is a member of India's Muslim minority, but it seems he was unaware that at that very moment moment a few blocks away, 10 20+ year old Muslim extremists were just starting a three-day killing spree.
The irony drips in red.