State IT agency ditches 'Expect the best' motto

The title says it all. These are the people that supply our computers and networking services. But, Mikem aren't you a computer weenie? Yes, but in application development and O&M. These folks are laptops, and networks, run the e-mail, et al. So, anyway, what's the deal?

Virginia's government will no longer be told to expect the best from the state's IT agency.

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency has quietly
dropped "Expect the best" as its signature slogan.

While saying the internal criticism from customer agencies did not prompt the change, the state's IT organization admits its consolidation and outsourcing has been a rough road.

Duh.

VITA serves more than 900 government customers across the Commonwealth. About 10 percent are the state's executive-branch agencies, while the rest are other Virginia governmental entities.

That's 900 agencies and/or organizations not users. Offically, every state employeee is a customer.

What's more worrisome, is the cost of this. It was supposed to make IT cheaper, but some agencies are not finding that to be true.

Although saving residents and agencies money has been one of VITA's goals since the centralized computer and communications organization was set up in 2003, several state agencies say they had to make cuts to help pay higher-than-expected VITA bills:

• The Virginia State Police canceled spring firearms training for troopers.
  
• The Department of Juvenile Justice has put off hiring 17 to 19 corrections and probation officers.
  
• The Virginia Employment Commission has been turning in desktop and laptop computers it cannot afford.

Darwin Awards VI - Copper Almost Gets Them Again

Why is it stupid people seem to be so attracted to copper? Is it a special form of magnetism? Up in WV -

Forty-eight hours after two men went into an inactive Massey Energy mine in Eastern Kanawha County, allegedly to steal copper, they found their own way out Thursday evening.

A Massey security guard stationed at the hole alerted sheriff’s deputies
after he spotted the men, who were apprehended after a short foot chase,
Rutherford said.

The sheriff said the men would be charged with conspiracy to
commit grand larceny and attempted grand larceny.

Family News Update

Well, it's been another month, and so it was time to go back to the clinic today about my blood pressure and weight.

Back on 3/9 my blood pressure was at 160/104 and my weight was 239. Now my blood pressure is 110/78 and my weight is 225. Needless to say, they were encouraging and encouraged.

Now, if I can keep this up, maybe I can get the weight down even a little more.

Don't Mess With Old Ladies

Apparently, a little more of this sort of spirit would have been useful this past week.
Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.

Ramey said the man told her he would leave. "I said, 'Oh, no you won't,' and I shot their tires so they couldn't leave," Ramey said.

She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.

"I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it," she said. "If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be 6 feet under by now."

Ramey then flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911.

Where I Work

So, this picture is of my office location. The buildings behind and to the side are for Virginia Commonwealth University.

Actually, this was just a way to plug the Windows Local Live website. It has the regular maps, and then also has this 'bird's eye view' for the larger cities.

New Aerial Imagery

Google Earth has posted new aerial imagery for Virginia. This is pretty good. The blue arrow shows our house. You can even see the deck on the side right at the tip of the arrow. For those that watched my "snow video" from all of two weeks ago, the dark circle at the end of the red arrow is my lilac bush. Now that's detail.

The picture below shows just how close we are to the water. Again, the blue arrow marks our house. (And the day it snowed, I was wrong. We have apricots after all!)

Hillary, give back the money!

So, Hillary was one of those all a twitter about what Imus said on the radio. She needs to look at her own donors, too, as Colbert King at the Washington Post notes:

Put me in the camp of those who implore Sen. Hillary Clinton to give it back -- "it" being the reported $800,000 that's sitting in her presidential campaign coffers thanks to a fundraiser hosted in her honor March 31 in the Pinecrest, Fla., home of a huge Clinton fan who refers to himself as Timbaland.

Turns out "Timbaland" (aka Timothy Mosley) is a rap artist. The lyrics he uses sound pretty "Imus worthy" to me.

". . . Hoes coming up short? Hoes finna get cursed out!
. . . Slam the mask out of these hoes and they say, 'What is that, velvet?'
And they betta meet they quota, betta yet betta meet they deadline . . . I'm a pimp all around
A pimp of the town -- we pimpin 'em up, HOES DOWN."

Hey, Hillybilly, how dirty does the money need to be before you need to give it back? Or, is it "do as I say..."?

Jefferson Labs

Today was the once-every-two-years open house for the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Lab, down in Newport News. I spent about three hours down there, walking around and looking at the exhibits. Basically, their facilities come down to two main devices, a laser and an accelerator.

Warning: High geek-speak quotient to follow.

The laser is a 10KW (soon to be 14KW) free electron infra-red laser. In the laser they cause an electron beam to oscillate up and down. Forcing the electrons to change the direction they are moving causes them to emit light. The light is bounced back and forth between mirrors. This interacts with the next group of electrons to make them give up even more energy. Eventually, this results in a cascade, and ZAP!

The electrons injected can only be used once in the loop of the device, because the act of giving up their energy to the laser places them out of phase for reuse. But what to do with a 200 MeV electron beam? Just dumping the beam is such a waste of electricity. So, they use the energy to provide the initial pump to another electron packet before finally dumping a now 100KeV electron beam, saving 95% of the power.

One of the presenters was asked "who paid for this?"
"The Navy."
"Why would the Navy be interested in this?"
"Let's just say, they'd like to be able to do some material processing at long range."
All the time the 'asker' is standing in front of a poster showing a laser beam shooting down a cruise missile. Duh! They said the beam can poke through 10 meters (?) of steel in one second.

The accelerator is the 6GeV (soon to be 12 GeV) Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility. This is more of the traditional "atom smasher" that people know about. The electron beam is circulated, round and round, picking up 1 GeV each time. The photo shows where the electrons in each energy level are split out for the trip around the curved end of the accelerator.

Huh? Well, this is a continuous electron beam device. In other words they are always putting electrons into the loop, so some are low energy and some are very high energy. The curves at the end are lined with magnets to bend the electrons around the corner (see figure).

The magnetic field that would bend the high energy beam would we way to much for the low energy electrons, and they'd be knocked out of the machine. And vice-versa. So, they keep the high energy electrons (6 GeV) in the bottom beam, and send each of the other 4 energy levels through a different tube and set of magnets, as you can see happening to the right, here. The researchers pick which beam they want for their experiments, and have the electrons diverted into an experimental hall.

Amusingly, the staff narrating the trip kept avoiding mentioning anything about all the radiation security warnings posted about. Remember how I said if you bend an electron beam it gives off light? Well, imagine the electron beam is 3000 times as energetic as what they were using in that laser. The result is not pretty. Well, maybe it is pretty, but it's also pretty deadly. As in "deadly radiation" levels. Fortunately, stop the beam and the radiation stops too, which is why it was safe for us to tour there.

On a positive note, one of the accelerator scientists, after his spiel said "and I'd like to thank all of you folks for paying for this."
"I thought the Air Force paid for this part?"
"And where do you think they get their money? The Air Force doesn't make money, they just spend it."
The honesty, and acknowledgment of who was paying the bills, was refreshing.

Marine Drill Team

I've been seeing this all over the Internet today, even in European blogs. So why not? This performance was at half-time at a Denver Nuggets game.

Culture of Passivity

The first thing I read, on-line, each Sunday morning is Mark Steyn's column in the Chicago Sun-Times. He puts out of plenty of other articles, though, and this week it seems appropriate to quote him in National Review Online. If you've never read him, I suggest you look at the whole article.

I haven’t weighed in yet on Virginia Tech — mainly because, in a saner world, it would not be the kind of incident one needed to have a partisan opinion on. But I was giving a couple of speeches in Minnesota yesterday and I was asked about it and found myself more and more disturbed by the tone of the coverage. I’m not sure I’m ready to go the full Derb but I think he’s closer to the reality of the situation than most. On Monday night, Geraldo was all over Fox News saying we have to accept that, in this horrible world we live in, our “children” need to be “protected.”

Point one: They’re not “children.” The students at Virginia Tech were grown women and — if you’ll forgive the expression — men. They would be regarded as adults by any other society in the history of our planet. Granted, we live in a selectively infantilized culture where twentysomethings are “children” if they’re serving in the Third Infantry Division in Ramadi but grown-ups making rational choices if they drop to the broadloom in President Clinton’s Oval Office. Nonetheless, it’s deeply damaging to portray fit fully formed adults as children who need to be protected. We should be raising them to understand that there will be moments in life when you need to protect yourself — and, in a “horrible” world, there may come moments when you have to choose between protecting yourself or others. It is a poor reflection on us that, in those first critical seconds where one has to make a decision, only an elderly Holocaust survivor, Professor Librescu, understood instinctively the obligation to act.

New Corporate Neighbors

My job in downtown Richmond is located in the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park. Researchers there are doing amazing and wonderful things, as you can see from their press releases.

So, why in the world, are they welcoming this huge new building? Granted, in square footage it must about double the size of the entire park. Hell, it evens comes with its own 7-story parking garage.

But, do we really need to be "welcoming" these new tenants?

Biotech Nine will be home to the Philip Morris USA Research and Technology Center. The new $300 million complex will be on a site bounded by 5th and 7th streets just north of the Richmond Coliseum. Overall the facility will encompass about 450,000 square feet, and be home to up to 600 scientists, engineers and support staff.

The Research and Technology Center will enhance the commitment Philip Morris has made to scientific research, new product development and commercialization that might help address the harm caused by tobacco products.

Yeah, whatever. "Might address the harm." Or, not. Hard to say. I'll bet they succeed with that "new product development and commercialization" thing, though.

More Breaking News

I just talked to the Astronomer-in-Training up at the University of Minnesota. She was out, sitting on the mall, when the police arrived.

No bomb. That's the indication from University of Minnesota police this afternoon after a preliminary search of eight school buildings on the East Bank that were evacuated in response to a bomb threat Wednesday afternoon. The buildings included Morrill Hall, where the university administration offices are located, and Walter Library. Other buildings evacuated were Smith, Appleby, Kolthoff, Frasier, Johnston and the Science Classroom Building.

Hey, kid, how would you feel about daddy paying for a safety class, a small Ruger, and some range time?

Breaking News

Yeah, we're all watching the story from Virginia Tech here. A lot of VDOT folks have kids there.

Update, 1900L: Well, what can you say other than our hearts go out to the families involved. Still no word at work about any effects there. There'd nearly have to be, though. Tech is the largest University in the state, and with 5,000 VDOT employees...

Update, 1930L: A lengthy first person account is posted at Michelle Malkin's site.

Pet Project

Here's an alternative energy source, that doesn't involve turning food into fuel. Well, at least the first time through the cycle.

The problem was immediate and unquestionable: dog poop on his shoe, but the solution didn't come to Vancouver park board commissioner Spencer Herbert until he was wiping it off.

"At first I was angry, and then as I was cleaning, I thought, how do we deal with this better?" said Herbert. "We think just throwing it out in the garbage means we're done with it."

Herbert said yesterday he began questioning why all the dog waste in Vancouver should go to waste. Responsible owners picked up their dog droppings in plastic bags to throw away, and the irresponsible just left it on the grass or sidewalk.

He soon discovered San Francisco was pondering the same problem and looking at the possibility of turning dog waste into bio-fuels to heat homes.

The proposal in California is still in its pre-planning stage with a feasibility study, but Herbert would like to see the idea take form in Vancouver. Dog waste would be collected at neighbourhood drop-off spots and deposited in a vat for bacteria to digest, leaving methane gas as the end result. The methane could then be used to heat and light park washrooms or greenhouses.

Jeez, if this works out, I could be energy independent around here. With four dogs you can imagine how much I have to clean up. Well, at least I don't have small kids around.

As the father of two soccer goalie players, Robertson said he knows the agony of watching his sons attempt a save only to fall in dog poop.

Meet the Enemy

Nancy Pelosi was happy to go to Syria -

“We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters after her meetings.

It sounds like she might even be willing to go to Iran -

The Democratic speaker from San Francisco and Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, were asked at a news conference in San Francisco on Tuesday whether on the heels of their recent trip to the Middle East they would be interested in extending their diplomacy in the troubled region with a visit to Iran.

"Speaking just for myself, I would be ready to get on a plane tomorrow morning, because however objectionable, unfair and inaccurate many of (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's) statements are, it is important that we have a dialogue with him,'' Lantos said. "Speaking for myself, I'm ready to go -- and knowing the speaker, I think that she might be.''

Pelosi did not dispute that statement...

But we know that there are some people she just can't bring herself to meet -

''What the president invited us to do was come to his office so that we could accept without any discussion the bill that he wants,'' Pelosi said at a news conference in San Francisco. ''That's not worthy of the concerns of the American people, and I join with Senator Reid in rejecting an invitation of that kind.''

So, she's prepared to carry on friendly negotiations, on her own initiative, and not at the request of the government, with two of the leading state sponsors of terrorism in the world, but can't bring herself to meet with the head of her own government. Am I alone in wondering in just what the nature of her negotiations are?

Climate Change

OK, I swiped this from Lou Minatti, who found it on someone else's site. Hell, while I'm swiping his stuff, why bother to retype it:

Click the image below to enlarge.


There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon.

The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it.

...The central fact is that after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth’s climate seems to be cooling down. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.

... Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects... The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.

Take that you fascist Bush-loving climate change deniers. Whoops! Wait a minute. Cooling you say? Hey, no fair! This article is from 1975.

I'm Dreaming of a White Easter...

...just like the ones I used to know.

This is bizarre. We haven't had enough snow for it to stick to the ground in over two years, and now we get it in April. The younger two pups had never even seen snow on the ground.

Our apricot trees had bloomed a week and a half ago, so no fruit this year. It broke a chunk out of our lilac bush. Hopefully the pear and cherry trees will be OK.

With weather like this, you'd think we were still in Colorado.

Road Eats! - V (Pagliacci's)

I remember going to Pagliacci's in Denver when I was little. Then, when Erin was little we went there a few times too. I wonder if it's still any good?

In 80's and 90's the neighborhood wasn't too great, but the restaurant was pretty much the same. Kind of a 60's time warp thing.

Maybe some of the family could go there and let me know.

Mexico Trip

Dr. Winnie got to use her new passport last week to give a presentation at the North American Association of Fisheries Economists in Merida, Mexico.

Her talk was titled The Potential for Community-Based Co-Management for Sea
Scallops in the US Atlantic EEZ.

Getting a Grilling Over Global Warming

This may turn out to be a hoax, though it's posted several places. I swiped this version off of Fox News.

Local officials in Belgium's French-speaking region of Wallonia have a new tool in the fight against global warming. They have approved a tax on barbequing. Experts say that up to 100 grams of carbon dioxide are produced during barbequing.

Wow! That's seems like a really efficient way to fight global warming.

What's it going to cost me to BBQ a steak?

So Wallonians will have to pay 20 euros — about 27 dollars — each time they fire up the grill.

Uhh, that seems a bit steep. In fact it seems like a tax designed to keep restaurants operating, instead of folks cooking at home. By the way, how do you plan on enforcing this?

And the authorities aren't kidding around when it comes to enforcement. Officials say they will use helicopters with thermal sensors to detect illegal grilling.

Umm, OK, so you are going to use helicopters. Some of the smallest copters burn 28 gallons of gas an hour. So, you are going to wind up making about 200 kilos of CO2 per hour to find people producing 0.1 kilo of CO2. The break-even point is detecting 2000 backyard grills going per hour, or about 1 every 2 seconds.

Of course, that's only the CO2 break-even for the copter. It doesn't even consider the cost of operating the copter.

Those wacky French-speaking people! This story just seems like it has to be an April Fool's item.

UPDATE: Yup, it was a joke.

BRUSSELS, April 4 (RIA Novosti) - The government of Wallonia has refuted allegations of plans to introduce a tax on barbequing in this Belgian French-speaking region.

Reports appeared in local media earlier in the month that a law had been approved to charge residents of the 4-million-strong region 20 euros for each grilling session beginning in June.

"We have repeatedly denied this information, which is nothing but an April Fool's Day joke. But we never imagined it would create such a fuss," said the press secretary of Wallonia's minister for agricultural, rural affairs, the environment and tourism.

Deadliest Catch

A new season of Deadliest Catch starts tonight on Discovery Channel. This is one of the few shows I still bother to watch. What really happens on a king crab fishing boat out of Dutch Harbor, during the January fishing season, in the Bering Sea.

Why do they call it "Deadliest Catch?" Because a worker's chances of dying on the job are over 20 times higher fishing in Alaska than working anywhere else in the US. On average 34 fishing boats are lost each year, with 24 deaths. Crabbing is the most hazardous type of fishing since they work all night with heavy equipment during the winter.

Give these guys a watch and see if you don't think they are either nuts or masochists.