Coolworld's LiveJournal

Here's my election guide, to California state wide propositions, some elected offices, and some local measures

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Note to self (and to world, though your reactions may vary), do not order a Cafe Latte from starbucks and add a shot of espresso, unless you want to really crash hard a few hours later, to the point of incoherence. There's a reason why the barista called it a triple espresso.

Another coffee was enough to bring me back to some semblance of being awake for a couple of hours so I could finish my day and drive home.

The Mexicanization of American law enforcement.


Most press accounts focus on the drug-related violence that has migrated north into the United States. Far less widely reported is the infiltration and corruption of American law enforcement, according to Robert Killebrew, a retired U.S. Army colonel and senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security.

Pakistan has had a series of suicide bombings, assassinations, and other attacks over the past two weeks, killing a total of 200 people, targetting both civilians and the military. Here's a hyperlinked, attributed chronology:

Some but not all of this information is courtesy the Associated Press Attacks in Pakistan in October so far.

October 23rd

A landmine hit a bus killing 15 (other reports say 18) in a wedding party in the Mohmand Agency in FATA in the morning. Anti-tank mine kills 15 in Mohmand

A suicide bombing at Pakistan's major air force maintenance and research hub, the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra killed 7 people. Blast near aeronautical complex in Attock kills seven

A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in Peshawar wounding about 15. Blast in Peshawar wounds 13

October 22

Brigadier General Moinudin Ahmed and his driver were assasinated in Islamabad. He had helped plan operations in Swat, and was involved in the Red Mosque siege of 2007.Pakistani Brigadier assassinated in the capitalKilling appears to be reprisal for push into S. Waziristan

October 20
6 people were killed in a suicide attack at the International Islamic University in Islamabad.Attackers Kill 6 at Islamic University in Pakistan, Mystifying Students

October 16
Suicide attackers hit a police station in Peshawar, killing 13.New Attack in Pakistan Targets Police Station

October 15
30 dead in attacks on Federal Investigation Agency, two police training centers in Lahore, a police station in Kohat, and a residential compound in Peshawar.Pakistan Police Targeted as Attacks Kill 31

October 12
A suicide bombing Shangla killed 41. Car Bomb Kills at Least 41 in Restive Region of Pakistan

October 10-11
Men seized the Pakistani army headquarters in Rawalpindi took hostages, and a total of 16 people were killed in the retake, including a Brigadier who was director of security for military intelligence.Pakistan Retakes Army Headquarters; Hostages Freed

October 9
53 were killed in by a car bomber in Peshawar.Latest Pakistan Bombing Seen as Warning to Government

October 5
Person dressing as a security official kills five staff members at the UN World Food Program's headquarters in Islamabad. 5 killed in suicide bombing of UN agency in Pakistan

Tomatillos work as a good substitute for Tomato's in Rajma, and adds a bit of a tangy sour to it. Next time, I'll try this with Chole (which is very similar to Rajma, except that it uses Chick peas instead of Kidney beans. Tomatos are used as the sauce base, and I replaced half of the required tomato with tomatillos here.

Many of you have heard of the saga of Spinvox, a company which claimed to have a mostly automated voice transcription system which transcribed 92% of their messages without human interaction but in reality had 98% require human intervention. They claimed that ".. the agents in question will only ever hear/see the specific parts of the messages that need work."

Some of their agents in Pakistan haven't gotten paid in a few weeks,
Humans central in Spinvox patent , and they're probably not getting stock options for their trouble. The not getting paid part hasn't been emphasized in the stories, worries of data theft have been.

IF YOU DON'T PAY PEOPLE for weeks, they just might steal from you in revenge.

And guess how the call center transcribers were able to get the news out. By replacing a transcription with a call for help. Looks like they were able to handle the entire message, after all.

SpinVox saga takes a new turn
SpinVox: The Inside Story

One of the staffers at the Oracle gym referred to me as the happy person, and asked me to tell my coworkers that they should try to be more happy just like me.

Since I've been too busy to write anything up, here's a new political philosophy, ht Mencius Moldbug.

Futarchy - vote on beliefs, implement using prediction markets

This short "manifesto" describes a new form of government. In "futarchy," we would vote on values, but bet on beliefs. Elected representatives would formally define and manage an after-the-fact measurement of national welfare, while market speculators would say which policies they expect to raise national welfare.

I now have a journal on Dreamwidth. Sort of like livejournal, but they're smaller, attempting to be non-commercial, be fully developed on an open-source model, and expand at slower pace. Presumably, they want to be l33t enough that their communities aren't flooded with immature high school kids. The username is coolworld.

This letter was sent in response to some incorrect political analogies in the following New York Times article, Voting Complete, India Awaits Deal-Making.

Hello Somini Sengupta,
I had a couple of comments on choice of terminology in your recent article, "Voting Complete, India Awaits Deal-Making".

First, you said, "voters went to the polls for the fifth time in as many weeks to choose their next national government."

To the voter unfamiliar with Indian elections, this could confusingly imply that every constituency went to the polls five times, instead of what actually happened -- where different constituencies were polled at different times during this period for reasons of logistics and ensuring security.

Secondly, you refer to the southern state of Tamil Nadu as a "swing state". During American presidential elections, this is meaningful as 48 of 50 states give all of their electoral votes to the winner. However most Indian states and territories have multiple seats in the lower house of India's Parliament, the Lok Sabha. Tamil Nadu, which has 39 seats has 39 separate contests, not just one. J. Jayalalithaa, leader of the AIADMK party of Tamil Nadu, would not be able to deliver all of Tamil Nadu's parliamentary seats -- just those controlled by her party.

In a true parliamentary system, like India, it would be more
appropriate to speak of swing parties.

*include my name here*