Sick Transit

From Slate: “Giant squid experts think they just got lucky.”

According to the original caption, this man is holding some “flavorful meat”:

Well, I go off to Seattle for a couple of days, and look what happens. The only time this sleepy little blog gets any traffic is when I say something that provokes a conservative pile-on. This time, it was Jason van Steenwyk, whom I criticized in my last post.

First off, let me state the obvious: the logistics of getting a rescue operation to New Orleans were extremely complex. As I said in my last post, a lot of the death and damage could not have been prevented.

However, the military specializes in doing things that would seem impossibly complex to the untrained. What seems clear from the article I linked to is that if the military had been allowed to do their job–which includes dealing with the logistics–they could have been on the ground–and saving lives–sooner. Instead, they were held up by Bush’s failure to act.

Logistics imposed a limit on what the armed forces could do. But because politics imposed an even greater limit, the actual delay was not about the logistics.

As for Lieutenant van Steenwyk, I am sure that his service in the Guard has been more difficult and consequential than anything I have ever done or will do in my life. He has my respect and gratitude for that. But it does not make him a reliable expert on all things military, especially when his partisan bias is so evident.

As the “National Guard was too slow” meme spread in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, a counter-meme started spreading pretty quickly among the conservative blogosphere: “It’s the logistics, stupid.” Basically, the claim was that it just wasn’t realistically possible to get troops in sooner.

Kevin Drum links to a Knight Ridder piece that pretty much blows that out of the water:

Unlike the logistics meme, which seems to have originated with a junior officer (and pro-Bush blogger) by the name of Jason van Steenwyk, this story relies on two formal FEMA directors (one Republican and one Democratic), as well as academic experts and government reports.

There’s no question that disaster relief is difficult and complicated. A lot of what went wrong in New Orleans couldn’t have been prevented. But that doesn’t mean we should let our leaders (of either party) off the hook for what they could have avoided, but didn’t.

As a programmer who has worked in several different languages, but currently uses primarily VB.NET, I have a bit of a complex. There seems to be a general assumption in development circles that VB is for weenies.

The origin of this assumption is understandable. BASIC was originally created as a learning language; and even through version 6, VB was missing some pretty basic language features.

When I started working with VB.NET, however, I was impressed to discover that Microsoft had finally decided–even at the expense of introducing breaking changes–to turn VB.NET into a decent language. In fact, in .NET 1.1, VB.NET is (with a few small exceptions) isomorphic with C#.

And yet, the myths persist. I see job ads that seek experience in “C++ or C#”, as if the two were remotely equivalent, while VB.NET is not even mentioned. I guess it goes to show Microsoft’s marketing savvy in naming C#; but frankly, it annoys me.

And so it was nice to read this interview in Dr. Dobb’s where the VB9 team discusses upcoming features, and defends their honor. If you’re interested in VB, it’s well worth a read.

BTW, the interview is pegged to Microsoft’s announcement of Language-Integrated Query (LINQ), which is an extremely cool set of new language features. The concepts in LINQ are not new to comp sci theory, of course; but as far as I am aware, there is nothing comparable in any widely-used, non-research language. Of course, it was designed by Anders Hejlsberg, at whose altar I bow daily.

Someone recently sent me an abridged version of William Schnell’s Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave, the first widely distributed ex-Witness expose book (not counting anything produced in the original Bible Student schisms). I found it to be a fairly interesting read.

Schnell is not a great writer, and gives the impression of being a bit unstable–possibly even paranoid–at points. Some of his rants about the Watchtower Society border on the incoherent.

However, Schnell had a front-row seat in Rutherford’s transformation of the Bible Students into a closely-controlled hierarchical organization, and his first-hand accounts are where the book really shines. He personally participated in efforts to break the power of the Bible Student old guard, make a profit for the Society while claiming to be ‘covering costs’, and intentionally provoke legal trouble.

I would not recommend the book to help an existing JW exit, or to give an introduction to history of Jehovah’s Witnesses. But for a knowledgeable reader who is interested in the history of the JWs, Schnell’s book is an invaluable primary source.

Just got back from seeing The Visible Men. They’re a great little band with quirky attitude and a unique sound. (Well, the singer’s voice actually sounds like the lead vocalist from Barenaked Ladies. But unique aside from that!) Unlike all too many garage bands that are just about the noise, these guys really know how to use their instruments. (And they’d better, since they have a song called ‘Semen Factory’.)

They’re out of Eugene OR, and appear to tour throughout the West; if they’re coming near you I highly recommend giving them a listen.

P.S. The clips on their website don’t really do them justice. We went to see them due to the Boise Weekly’s recommendation, and it was definitely worth it.

Among the many worthy organizations that are helping the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, please consider supporting Katrina Caravan. Many evacuees have family or friends in other cities, or have been offered housing by volunteers, but have no way to get there. Katrina Caravan is helping to match evacuees up with buses as well as with private drivers who have offered to help.

They’re an incredibly plucky bunch of people. They could use donations of time as well as resources; click on the link for more details.

At the Volokh Conspiracy, David Kopel writes:

Words fail me.

Update: In case it’s not immediately obvious why this is a stupid idea, Orin Kerr explains it