Every fall, chapters of the American Solar Energy Society sponsor home tours around the country.  This year, most of the tours are on October 6, but some are earlier, such as this coming Sunday, September 23, in San Francisco.

It’s a great opportunity to find out what kinds of alternative energy measures people have adopted in your local area.  For example, there’s nine throughout the state of Colorado.  There’s literally 100s of them nationwide.  Unless you’re in the Dakotas, Wyoming or West Virginia (West Virginia??); there’s one in your state, and also in Puerto Rico.  Bowling Green, Kentucky’s having its “first annual” solar home tour this year.

Here, too.

Anybody who watches Countdown with Keith Olbermann regularly has seen his recurring feature, the Apology Hall of Fame.  In it, the snivelling apology of Congressman federal prisoner Randy “Duke” Cunningham always holds a prominent place.  And well it should.  He’s arguably “the most corrupt Congressman in history”.  (Or at least, right up there.)

Most of that corruption was in conjunction with defense contractor Brent Wilkes.  Wilkes’s criminal trial is coming up, and his defense attorneys have issued subpoenas to 13 sitting Congressmen to appear as witnesses in the trial.  Nine of the 13 are Republicans.

All of them, in consultation with House attorneys, will not honor the subpoenas.  Call me old fashioned, but I always thought subpoenas weren’t optional.  Like if you don’t show up, you’re in contempt of court.  And can get your ass thrown in jail.  But maybe they’re all looking to the White House, and modelling their behavior on that…

I was a competitive swimmer as a kid.  In fact, I held a state record in one of my events.  Impressed?  Don’t be.  ‘Cuz it twarn’t nuthin’.  It was as insignificant a state record as anyone could ever hold.  Why?  Because I won the first event run in the first 25-meter pool in the state (before that, they were 25 yards).  That day, the competition was not fierce in my event, and it ended in a tie for first place.  My name was entered in the record book.  And a week later, it was gone for good.

So, you see?  It’s perfectly true that I held that state record.  But it’s equally true that upon closer examination, its significance is underwhelming.  All too often, crucial government pronouncements need to be examined closely to see if they have any more substance than my state record.

CRITICAL THINKING
One of the better classes I ever took in college was something called Data Analysis.  I use its lessons regularly.  In it, amongst other things, we learned that one of the seminal, oft-cited scientific papers proving that salmon navigate by magnetic orientation was fatally flawed.  The prof contacted the authors, and got them to send him their raw data.  They used two tanks for the studies, located in the field.  And, as it turns out, the effect was only seen in one of them – the one closest to their campfire.  Those ever-fascinating fish were orienting towards the light!  But the paper’s still cited today.  Looks like their sense of smell – shown in some other studies involving water diverted for a power plant – is much more what it’s about.

If you were giving a presentation, and that prof showed up with his calculator, it was enough to rattle you, no matter how well you knew your stuff.  If only more of our journalists had been required to take a similar class!

This is adapted (slightly) from something submitted for a local one-year anniversary observance on September 11, 2002.  It’s a small offering, but perhaps worth looking back for a moment or two?  It was also my first diary at Daily Kos, two years back, garnering a grand total of 2 recs & 3 comments.

I had a student job from 1983-5, on the 96th floor of the World Trade Center, Tower Two.  The outfit moved long ago, so no one I’d worked with was still there.  This is the view from the office  —  you can see the Brooklyn Bridge in front.  You could sit back and watch the air traffic at JFK airport.  The world was a carpet at your feet.

Granny Doc posted a Daily Kos Rec List diary about new surveillance on deck after the end of this month.  But surveillance is nothing new.  Big Brother was watching me back in the 1970s.  And lots of other people, too.  It’s certainly not pleasant, but one adapts to it.  And it has its funny moments, too.

Coincidentally, I’ve been thinking about the subject of surveillance, in response to seeing the film The Lives of Others, recently released on video.

So, the purpose of this diary is mainly to get particular about surveillance.  Surely I’m not the only one around who’s been “watched”.  Perhaps, someone else has a tale to add.

A tip has appeared in my inbox that’s just to durned good to pass up.  Remember bad ol’ Richard Pombo?  Well, it seems his pals at the American Land Rights Association are OUTRAGED!!!

The Battle Ground (Washington) based association says airport police who arrested the senator [Larry Craig] in a men’s room sex sting are responsible for weakening private property rights in the West. Craig is a Republican member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

They’re calling for a boycott of the Minneapolis airport. Could be an interesting sidebar for next year’s Republican Presidential Convention in the Twin Cities, eh?

Cross-posted at Daily Kos.

I was bummed several years back when some stupid, racist, loud, Republican Texans moved in next door.  (There goes the neighborhood!!)  They put up a 15-foot flagpole right in the middle of my view up the valley – an otherwise “pristine” view.  Do I hate my country?  Am I patriotic?  Me, I think nations and empires are ephemera – they pass in the blink of an eye compared to the mountains that snag rain out of the clouds and send it down to water the landscape.  How we all live has, should have, to do with things much deeper than lining up behind a flag.

I asked them to move the flagpole.  Offered to pay for it.  The reply?  A nasty letter from a lawyer.  And they hoisted Old Glory up, and left it there for two solid weeks – day and night, through storms including a hailstorm.  They were gonna show me!  Violate the basic rules of respect for the flag to spite me!

Lovely, life here in the bucolic countryside.

A coupla years later, in 2003, we had a medium-sized forest fire nearby which flared up on the 4th of July.  Named the Encebado fire, it was started by lightning and burned about 5,400 acres.