Latest Blog Posts
Lunch Was Great. And Terrible.
I ate with The Missus at Bison Witches today. My Smoke Stack sandwich was very tasty, as usual. My chili, on the other hand, was awful. Terrible awful horrible. A vomitorious concoction of moldy socks, soiled underwear, and yak urine. I have never had a bad meal at Bison Witches before today and their chili has always been superb. But not today!
If you go to Bison Witches today for Pete’s sake don’t order the chili!
The FBI Don’t Need No Oversight!
The FBI wants the authority to issue subpoenas without having to deal with that pesky problem of judicial oversight. Having to mess with judges just slows things down, after all. And it increases the odds that you can’t trample on an individual’s civil liberties without somebody making a big fuss. The money quote:
Mueller said he objects to any oversight of an FBI subpoena outside of the bureau.
Right. Because heaven forbid the FBI actually have to justify its actions to the public before indefinitely detaining some poor soul. Secrecy and closed doors are good! It’s for your own protection! Anybody who thinks otherwise is a terrorist—or, worse, a communist!
Criminy.
Blind Lincolnite Plays Video Games
Brice Mellen’s story is pretty impressive. He is a video game fanatic. And he’s blind. How does he do it? Practice, practice, practice.
Perhaps the coolest part of the story is his career goal: he wants to study video game design. He’ll get a few raised eyebrows, I’m sure. But a guy like Brice can only be good for the video game industry.
Married Babies Having Babies
My my, a 22 year-old Falls City man sure has stirred up a fuss. That’s what happens when you marry a 14 year-old who you impregnated at age 13.
These situations are not all that uncommon, and they highlight the futility of criminalizing social behaviors—in particular those that are criminalized primarily because they make most of society say “ick”. And really, what is it, other than the “ick” factor, that makes the Falls City guy a criminal? I hear things like “It’s just wrong.” Why? “It’s gross.” What makes this gross, and why should your concept of gross put people in jail? “22 year-olds shouldn’t even want to date 14 year-olds.” What’s your point? This guy obviously did.
It seems odd to me that this 14 year-old girl can legally be married and give birth to a child, but she cannot drive for two years, she cannot buy certain video games for three years, she cannot watch movies depicting the act that impregnated her for three years, and she cannot purchase or consume alcohol for seven years. That’s not to say that she should or should not be allowed to do any of those things, now or when she is “old enough”. But I often wonder why 16 year-olds are old enough to drive but not vote. 18 year-olds are old enough to vote and die in combat, but not drink alcohol. And why 14 year-olds are old enough to have sex—but only with guys of a certain age—and give birth, but not marry. All of the age limits we assign to social behaviors are arbitrary. Why that age and not some other age? Why any age?
Any time I see a 20-something guy hanging out with young teenagers I think to myself, “Why the heck would he want t
o do that? Young teenagers are annoying!” So seeing a 20-something guy marry a 14 year-old really boggles my mind. I don’t know if I think it ought to be allowed or not. But I do know that thinking it is “icky” is not a valid reason to criminalize it.
Strange Marketing Strategy
The Journal Star pulled an odd marketing move this morning. They distributed free newspapers throughout my neighborhood. Each free newspaper was inside a plastic bag telling the recipient how he could subscribe to the Journal Star, how cool the Journal Star is, yadda yadda yadda. That sounds pretty reasonable, right? Well, yeah, except that the free newspapers appeared to have been delivered only to homes that already subscribe to the Journal Star!
When I saw the free and subscription newspapers sitting side-by-side on our front porch, I assumed they had delivered the free copy to everybody. But while walking Daisy it became evident that only certain houses received the free copy. That’s when I noticed something strange: along our whole walking route I never saw a free copy of the paper sitting alone. it was always sitting next to a regular subscription copy of the paper. (They were easy to tell apart since they were packaged in different bags.) Not every house that had a subscription paper also had a freebie, but every house with a freebie also had a subscription.
I suppose it is possible that 1) I just didn’t notice some of the houses that only received the free copy; and/or 2) the folks who received just the free copy had already taken it inside. But both explanations seem improbably. The first is improbable because I made a conscious effort to look at each house’s front porch along our walking route. The second is improbably because I walk between 6:00 and 6:30. A few people in my neighborhood are up and active at that time, but not many. After over a year of walking the same route every morning, I know pretty well which folks are active and which are not at that time. Most of the houses along the route are very quiet at that time.
Anyway, I figure this is just the result of a lazy paper carr
ier delivering the free copies. He can do nearly the same amount of work delivering the extras to houses that already subscribe, rather than doubling (or more) his work delivering extras. In any event, I’m just thankful for the extra copy; it means that I get to have a copy of the paper on the bus, while The Missus gets to keep a copy at home to read over breakfast and lunch.
A Mid-Summer Night’s Freeze
I wouldn’t be a proper Nebraskan if I didn’t write at least one post about our mini-deep freeze of late. Every Nebraskan is legally obligated to comment, to as many people as possible, on every dramatic change in weather patterns. Likewise on any especially stable weather patterns. Likewise on pretty much any weather phenomenon at all. It’s in the Constitution somewhere.
It is odd coming off a long stretch of 95+ degree days and hopping straight to 50 degree nights. Not as odd for me, perhaps, since it got that cool in the evenings in the mountains where I stayed over the weekend. But it still feels funny.
I always enjoy listening to the Global Warming fanatics (both believers and non-believers) during these hiccups in the “normal” weather pattern. Global Warming believers insist that both the heat wave and the cold snap are proof of Global Warming. Non-believers insist that the heat wave is a normal summer occurrence, while the cold snap is proof that Global Warming is not occurring. It’s a beautiful thing, watching the two sides talk past each other.
My Professor in the News
It’s always good to see UNL faculty research featured in the national media, but it’s even more exciting when one of the featured individuals is somebody you worked with. In this case, Professor John Hibbing is helping to stir up debate by publishing research that suggests that political behavior is linked to genetics, and that political behavior and party identification do not correlate nearly as well as most people assume. It is interesting to watch Professor Hibbing’s research evolve. I first worked with him shortly after Congress as Public Enemy: Public Attitudes Toward American Political Institutions came out. That was followed by Stealth Democracy: Americans’ Beliefs about How Government Should Work—a book for which I prepared the index, and I even caught a couple (minor) typos shortly before it went to press. Professor Hibbing is a great guy, he’s very intelligent, and he is a lot of fun to work with. I look forward to seeing where his research takes him.
I’m Back, And I Brought Rain
You can thank me for the rain and cool weather today. I brought both back with me from Utah, just for all you folks whining about our little heat wave of late. You’re welcome.
Utah was a lot of fun, but it definitely was not a flawless trip. Let’s see: we had car troubles a mere 80 miles into the trip; we had to stay in a hotel the first night as a result; I encountered my first experience with altitude sickness… I could go on, but I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t have a good time. It was just incredible how many things went wrong over the course of the trip. Oddly enough the bad luck actually began three years ago when we were returning from our first trip to Utah. Back then our camper blew a tire just outside of Kearney, making us arrive home a couple hours later than we should have.
I did manage to take several pretty decent photos, so that was a plus. I will eventually post the photos and more detail about the trip. Hopefully I’ll get around to that this week or else I’ll never do it.
I’m pretty tuckered today, but I suppose that’s to be expected after a busy trip. My dad and I have already started planning our next trip, probably for 2007.
“Noobies”
It is the bane of all MMORPGs: Noobs. Yes, the noobs have hit Guild Wars enmasse. This was evident in my rather poor groupings in the Underworld and Fissure of Woe these past few days. I classify them into several groups:
“Rambos” - Warrior types who charge mobs without notice or without waiting for casters to regain energy, hence pulling groups of mobs to your party for certain death. Usually these are jr high/high school boys living at home with their parents (You can tell because they say stuff like “My Mom’s being a jerk right now.")
“Leavers” - Any class - You’ve been waiting at the Temple of Ages for 20 minutes to get a team pulled together and finally enter the mission, after a death within the first few minutes, the leaver suddenly states “you guys suck, fuck you” and quits the mission - gotta love those guys. The other type of leaver is the one who joined the group, and five minutes into the mission, suddenly “remembers” that his work shift or class starts in 5 minutes and he has to leave, thus weakening the entire pary.
“Monk Leavers” - A special sub-class of the “Leaver” types - these are healing monks who know that they are a rare and in demand class, and when they think the team play isn’t going exactly the way they would like, suddenly quit the party without notice to go back and join another party.
“Know it alls” - Again, these guys tend to be warriors for some reason - They like to castigate other players for not doing exactly what they think is the right tactic, and back that up with statements like “STFU and stare at my 15k armor - I come here every night.” Even when the party is dead they msg you with “see I told you so” or “you should have done what I said bitch” statements.
“Totally incompetent” - OK everyone has to start somewhere, but when you are going into elite areas like the Underworld, you should avoid people who don’t know simple answers to questions
that they could have easily googled on the internets, like “which guy do I pay to get in?” and “who has favor now?”
Hmmmm. I am hoping this doesn’t become a trend at the Temple of Ages. It may be that this is the bane of Guild Wars as the downside of a non-grinding MMORPG where the experienced players stay in. I am waiting to see if the D&D or Middle Earth MMORPGs offer anything new.
Utah-Bound
I’m leaving for the Uintas Mountains of Utah tomorrow morning. My dad and I are shooting for a 6:00a.m. departure. Barring a surprise trip to an internet cafe I won’t be checking in again until Monday or Tuesday. See you then!
Terror in the UK
For those of you familiar with the law review world, you know that the journals pick up the hot topics of the day. When I was a former law review editor but a mere three and a half years ago, I must have reviewed dozens of articles on the then hot topics – Bush v. Gore, Napster, the debate over China’s accession to the WTO, the SCOTUS boy scout’s homosexuality discrimination case, etc. A few years ago while doing research on European human rights law, I picked up on a neglected area of research – the European Convention on Human Rights – and specifically how it relates to the UK’s human rights law in regards to actions taken against terrorists, real and alleged, with cases like McCann and Others vs the UK, Brogan and Others vs the UK, and others, focusing mainly on the UK’s war against the IRA.
Earlier this year, I co-wrote a short case brief with some very motivated UNL students on the Al-Skeini decision, involving the alleged detention and murder of an Iraqi civilian in Basra by UK soldiers, in which the High Court of England and Wales ruled early this year against the UK for violations of the European Convention, which the UK has adopted almost wholesale into its domestic law. Our article focuses on the extraterritorial reach of the ECHR and how it applies specifically to the UK in light of its intervention in Iraq and membership in the Council of Europe. In the article I analyzed other key ECHR extraterritoriality cases and how they related to Al-Skeini, specifically the Cyprus cases (Turkish military occupation of Northern Cyprus), the Bankovic case (NATO intervention in Yugoslavia) and the Ocalan case (Turkish abduction of a Kurdish leader in Kenya’s internatio
nal airport).
Following the G-8 transit system bombings earlier this month, I have since been contacted again by journals asking me about this piece’s availability – which is no longer available since I accepted publication from another journal this spring. It is a sad commentary how the recent tragic events in the UK have spurred interest in this important facet of international law. In anycase, I am currently looking for advice/insight on updating my article before it goes to printing this fall. Comments are welcome on policy and law recommendations and predictions, as well as general discussion on this topic.
Another Great Guild Wars Weekend
I spent a good chunk of this last weekend playing Guild Wars – a new arena.net MMORPG that came out earlier this spring. GW, basically, is another swords and sorcery MMORPG. You get to choose a character from 6 different human classes, including the typical ones (warrior, monk, elementalist, ranger) and a few non-typical ones, such as the mesmer and necromancer. Unlike most of the other MMORPGs I have played (Asheron’s Call 1 and 2, Final Fantasy Online, World of Warcraft) you can actually multi-class your character. I chose to play a mesmer/necromancer. The mesmer is basically a casting class with spells designed to cancel out or negate other classes (i.e. cast a spell to slow down fighters) and the necromancer is also a caster with a variety of curse related spells, also intended to “negate” other characters. Why would I choose such a strange combination? Well, the game isn’t called “Guild Wars” for no reason – the heart and soul of the experience is in team PvP play – which makes it entirely different in structure from the usual MMORPGs.
Let me explain. Instead of typical grinding to level 100 or what have you, there is a skill cap of 20. I reached level 20 after only 6 weeks or so of gameplay on the weekends and some evenings. You proceed in the game by winning various missions that take you across the fictional world of Tyria, defeating NPC monsters and finishing quests. At any time during the game, you also head to PvP arenas where you can take on other real life players with your characters. Once you hit level 20, you don’t really gain any more levels or increase your attributes or skill levels, but you do earn hard earned “elite skills” specific to your class as well as unlock various ways to increase your character’s PvP abilities. My character is nearing the end of completing the storyline and exploring th
e entire game world. However, by defeating more people in PvP play, you gain the “faction points” that enable you to unlock the various elite skills and weapons/armor that will make your character stronger. The PvP play is addictive. You can form teams and take on others, or your entire guild can invite other guilds for battle, and both your character and guild gains fame for defeating enemies. Right now, the rivalry is entirely international with Guild Wars players playing in 3 regions: North America, South Korea, and Europe. The majority of the time, the Koreans own the “Hall of Heroes” – where the guilds fight each other – followed by N. America and lastly Europe. The thing is, whoever has “favor” in the “Hall of Heroes” – ie whoever’s guilds are winning the most battles – affects the non PvP play as well. So only if North America has favor can all people playing on the North America servers access certain zones and dungeons critical for character advancement. This is a unique facet of the game which sets it apart from all of the other MMORPGs I have played. This PvP play is intense, and makes the game more accessible. Instead of logging in to grind every night and finish missions that can take up to an hour to complete, you can head straight to the team arenas to fight against real players in brief “annihilate the enemy” or “protect your shrine base” environments pitting your team of 4 against another 4 players in fast and furious battles that last no more than 3-5 minutes.
I may write a longer review later, but suffice to say, Guild Wars has been an enjoyable experience for me. The graphics are fantastic, the interface is easy to use, and you don’t have to worry about “the grind” where you go to bed and wake up to find that everyone else (ie the high school kids on summer break) is level 999. Pretty much the majority of players are level 20 now and when it comes to fighting, the victorious are those teams who play well together and know their tactics. In this sense, the game is sort of a swords and sorcery version of Counter Strike.
One more important thing to add – there are NO monthly fees to this game. You pay your flat out $50 for the game and that’s it. Arena.net will likely have an expansion out within the next 6 – 9 months or so (they gotta make money somehow), but its nice to have a game on that you know you aren’t paying for on a daily basis. This will give Guild Wars some staying power. It will be interesting to see how it fares when Dungeons and Dragons and the Middle Earth MMORPGs come out later (which I believe won’t be until Xmas or later).
I imagine I’ll be playing Guild Wars solidly for the next few months. I do wish, however, that someone gets around to putting together another, more creative MMORPG that takes place in a non-swords and sorcery world. I have heard many negative things about The Matrix Online, Star Wars Galaxies and Anarchy Online (sci-fi worlds) and dabbled briefly in the hideous Planetside (I removed that one from my computer about 2 weeks after purchasing it). My dream is for some developers to put together either an H.P. Lovecraft based MMORPG or something akin to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” I also wouldn’t mind seeing a sci-fi MMORPG based in the “Star Trek” universe.
Chiles!
I have jalapenos! And habaneros! And serranos! And kung paos!
Well, they’re still maturing, but the fruits are starting to show up. Huzzah! The kung paos are the most developed (and plentiful) right now. Just for kicks I grabbed one off one of the plants and took a bite. It was a bit mas picante than I expected. (The Missus complained that her cheek burned after I gave her a quick kiss.) That inspired me to look up the Scovilles of my chiles. The run-down:
Jalapenos: 3,500 - 5,000
Habaneros: 100,000 - 350,000
Serranos: 10,000 - 25,000
Kung paos: 7,000 - 12,000
Anaheims: 800 - 1,400
For some reason I was under the impression that serranos were less picante than jalapenos. Guess I was wrong.
Go Team!
I often get songs stuck in my head. Once a song is in there, I hum it, whistle it, finger it (get your mind out of the gutter—I mimic the fingerings that would be used to play it on the trumpet), or bob my head to it. Currently playing in my head is the Coach theme song.
I’m just sharing that with you so that you, too, can have the Coach theme song stuck in your head.
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