This is what I tweet to my friends.

Because my opinion matters somehow. Well, it did to the LA Times blog, where I am quoted only three tweets down from Steve Martin Yes That Steve Martin.

Here it is: Get over it, you frustrated, misprioritizing tensionball of a nation just waiting to burst. I really don’t care if former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford “hiked the Appalachian trail” or if Anthony Weiner eWeinered. They are representatives of the people, not gods. Judge their politics. What is wrong with this world? The French think Dominique Strauss-Douche is some sort of entitled hero because he forced himself on a woman (and one so much weaker than him on the socioeconomic scale), while we Americans clutch our aprons at the slightest whiff of consensual sexual activity.

Have at John Edwards. He broke laws. Newt Gingrich – complete misogynistic asshole, but he hasn’t done anything illegal, although his actions do make me question his opinion of women. Arnold Schwarzenegger? That’s something to be sorted out among Maria Shriver, baby mama, baby and him. Public Official does not mean your personal life ought to be splayed out there for everyone in the United States of Stepford to have a conniption over. If they are representatives of us, then let’s treat them like we would our own fallible selves and let them sort their lives out in private.

I completely disagree with the notion that a person who cheats on and lies to his or her spouse would do the same to the public. These are separate realms. But, come at it from this angle: They’re politicians; they lie all the time and about more important stuff. Where’s this outrage when they prevaricate on The War On Terror, Wall St. bailouts and public healthcare? Policy lies kill and steal from many, while a politician who runs around on his or her spouse or tweets his schlong maybe burns our retinae and thus steals five minutes or so from our lives.

Just hope and pray that that place from which you source your morality doesn’t come to bite you in the behind if, heaven forbid, you should ever flub up. And don’t you dare think you’re a better human being because you’re faithful to your spouse but gleefully bless sending young people to die in foreign lands daily, in the name of our so-called freedoms.

But, most importantly, I am never using the Direct Message feature on Twitter again.

2011 Harris County Evacuation Zones And Routes

Me: “Hey, it’s the first day of hurricane season.”
D: “Oh, boy.”

Jeffrey may not evacuate New Orleans, but I will Houston. It’s never the hurricane itself that I worry about, but the aftermath, which involves the human inability to plan ahead. We’re not staying here for two weeks of no power (experienced by many Houstonians after Ike) while roaches and other critters of the bayou try to get into my house for the relative cool (experienced by many Houstonians after every drizzle). And when I heard my next-door neighbor had a tree fall on her house and her shed mysteriously catch fire after the last hurricane … I’m out.

But wait. After the most shameful (non-)evacuation ahead of 2005’s Hurricane Rita, the City of Houston released a new evacuation plan in 2007.

With less than two weeks until hurricane season, Harris County released a new evacuation plan based on ZIP codes [this PDF takes forever and a day to load at the HCOEM website] to get families to safety if a storm strikes.

… ZIP codes will be used to identify the houses in the three storm surge areas. Up to 300,000 people live in the most vulnerable neighborhoods. He said people who live on higher ground should be prepared to shelter-in-place.

Um no. Even though we live approximately 70 feet above sea level and far away from any actual surge zone, just no.

Peep this: The set of 2011 hurricane names are the same as 2005, except for the hurricanes that happened. Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma have been replaced with Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney. I’ll bet you Katia is a weenie.

This is probably the best picture I took on the tectonics field trip to Utah last week, and it was with my brand spanking new iPhone. Now powered by Verizon, thank you.

Created by fracture-controlled weathering of sandstone, just like the rest of the rock formations and arches of Arches National Park, this group looked to me like three robed courtiers whispering, sharing, plotting the day’s latest. Humans are always scanning for familiar patterns, while the geologist also sees weathered aeolian sandstone of Jurassic age.

An internet search turned up that this outcrop is called The Three Gossips. We humans don’t look at things very differently at all.

From The Chronicle of Higher Education

A closely watched trial in federal court in Atlanta, Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al., is pitting faculty, libraries, and publishers against one another in a case that could clarify the nature of copyright and define the meaning of fair use in the digital age … The plaintiffs are asking for an injunction to stop university personnel from making material available on e-reserve without paying licensing fees. A decision is expected in several weeks. The Chronicle asked experts in scholarly communications what the case may mean for the future.

Siva Vaidhyanathan reiterates the constitutional definition of fair use: “Congress in 1976, in a rare bolt of wisdom, specifically exempted ‘multiple copies for classroom use’ from copyright infringement.”

Also of interest: Cory Doctorow on why less copyright gets you more culture.