All hail the strawman, that ancient rhetorical trick in which we create an argument superficially similar to the one our opponent's making, but tweaked just enough to make it trivially easy for us to defeat - a caricature of the real argument. It's a fantastic way keep your opponent busy enough to stop him from advancing his actual argument, and it can score points with the unattentive. But, it's still a fallacy - if you defeat an argument nobody is making (and that no knowledgable person would make anyway), what have you really won? Well, that depends on the audience.

For example, if you're ostensibly trying to present a refutation of evolution, but you're actually just preaching to the choir by arguing against a strawman version of evolution, while counting on the scientific and mathematical ignorance of your audience to keep them from knowing you're full of shit, you might get the already-convinced to nod their heads approvingly. And that might be enough to sell some books or generate some ad revenue for your web site. Maybe that's all you're trying to do.

But, be careful; there's always the chance your 'work' will turn up in the hands of someone who actually knows what he's talking about.

From John Mueller, at Ohio State, an article (PDF) which discusses how does the risk of terrorism measure[s] up against everyday dangers. Good stuff.

University of Michigan transportation researchers Michael Sivak and Michael Flannagan, in an article last year in American Scientist, wrote that they determined there would have to be one set of September 11 crashes a month for the risks to balance out. More generally, they calculate that an American's chance of being killed in one nonstop airline flight is about one in 13 million (even taking the September 11 crashes into account). To reach that same level of risk when driving on America's safest roads — rural interstate highways — one would have to travel a mere 11.2 miles.

But don't forget, terrorism is a threat to the very existence of the country. Bad drivers are petty annoyances.

At Creek Running North:

Quantum physics underlies our boring, prosaic, conventionally linear lives. It is the reason water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level, the reason a sharp knife cuts a tomato better than a dull one, the reason dry-fucking is no fun.

Go read the rest. You'll be smarter for it.

Polygamist gets 45 days for sex with teen bride

Clicking through informs the inattentive reader that no, it's not a 6-week conjugal visit.

Patsy: A person who is easily deceived or victimized: butt3, dupe, fool, gull, lamb, pushover, victim. Informal: sucker. Slang: fall guy, gudgeon, mark, monkey, pigeon, sap. Chiefly British: mug. See wise/foolish, Carl Romenelli.

The Green Party's Senate candidate in Pennsylvania doesn't mind that his candidacy is completely paid for by Republicans - except for his own $30 contribution, of course.

"I respect the fact that people on the complete opposite side of an issue could respect my point of view,"

No, Mr. Romenelli, they don't care about your point of view. They really don't. And I bet they have a grand old laugh at your naiveté every time they send you a check.

While I was reading i : the Imaginary Number, I learned this (a.k.a. Euler's Formula):

e^iπ = -1

Like the author of the linked article, I think it is pretty interesting that e, i and pi are linked that closely. There's a proof here, which includes this bit:

Gauss is reported to have commented that if this formula was not immediately obvious, the reader would never be a first-class mathematician.

Obvious? I don't know if I could puzzle my way through it in a day. I wish I was better with math.

Cruising through the channels Saturday evening, we ran into a Hee Haw marathon. It'd been a long time since either of us had seen it, so I stopped, to make sure it was as dumb as I remembered. It was! It was a late-80's episode, and it, uh, sucked: the music was lame, the mega-hick jokes were dumb, the sketches were mercifully short, but still managed to drag - twenty seconds of Minnie Pearl and the poofy-hair bimbos is fifteen too many. But the strange part was a segment where Roy Clark is on stage with his guitar, along with another guy who's holding a Roland G707 guitar synth:

Other Guy plays some synth-orchestra sounds. Roy's all like "WTF?". Then O.G. plays some kind of flutey stuff, showing off what his toy can do. Roy looks like "Yeah, that great. Do I really have to do this? Yeah? Fuck. OK, let's get it over with," and starts Duelling Banjos. O.G. fiddles with his foot pedals for a bit, then joins in with this kind of cheesy synth-Jew's-harp sound - twang, twang, plink, ploink, twang. It was like two different performances: Roy's tearing the hell out of that song (wow, was he good); but O.G. sounds like he's playing the soundtrack to some lame-ass fishing game for NES. Strange shit.

And, speaking of music on TV, MTV is celebrating it's 25th anniversary Aug 1st. So, VH1 Classic has been showing the first hour of MTV all week. Watching it, I noticed something I'm surprised I never noticed before: Britain was pretty gloomy in the early 80's - or at least the people who made videos for British bands wanted everyone to think of it that way. I hope it's cheered-up a bit since then.

Guitar Tab Universe is in trouble with the music publishers, so is OLGA (OnLine Guitar Archives). These sites publish guitar tablature (sheet music for guitar players who can't read music) of whatever songs people figure out and send in - totally amateur stuff. It's great if you need to learn a song fast, or if you just can't figure something out yourself. It's often wrong, too. But, most of the time, it's good enough to get you started. But no, The Man says that's copyright infringement.

Fuck The Man.

Here's Jimi Hendrix's Red House as found on OLGA:

#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------##
Article 1576 of alt.guitar.tab:
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.tab
Path: nevada.edu!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!zeus.tamu.edu!spb0457
From: spb0457@zeus.tamu.edu (SubGenius)
Subject: Some of "Red House" (Jimi Hendrix)
Message-ID: <15AUG199203132725@zeus.tamu.edu>
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords:  "I still got my guitar"--I like it, by gum!
Sender: news@tamsun.tamu.edu (Read News)
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 08:13:00 GMT
Lines: 161


A friend of mine told me this was the way to go as far as playing
the intro and solo to "Red House."

I'm afraid I've forgotten the latter part of the solo (the good part), and
the problem of figuring out how to play Hendrix wail 'n distort is more than
my equal.

Anyway, what do ya want fer nothin'?

My notation is:

	/	a slide
	~	wiggle yer fingers
	h	hammer on
	p	pull off
	'	bend
	-	buy SubG (that's me) lots of beer

|-----11----11----------11----11----11-|-------10----10-----10-----10-----10-|
|-/10-10----------10----10----10----10-|-10/9--9-----9---9--9------9---9--9--|
|-/11----11----11----11----11----11----|-11/10----10-----------10---------10-|
|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|


|------------------------------|-------------------7------9-7---------|
|-----10'~~10'~~10'~~10'~~-----|--10'-10-10'-10'-7---10-7-----10-7----|
|----------10---10---10--------|-------------9---------------------9'-|
|------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
|-9----------------------------|--------------------------------------|
|-7----------------------------|--------------------------------------|


|------------------|----------------------7-------7--------|
|------------7~~~--|-------------------7-----10~-----7-----|
|-7h9'--7~~~~~~~~--|-7/8--9'--7~~--9'----------------7--9'-|
|------------------|---------------------------------------|
|------------------|---------------------------------------|
|------------------|---------------------------------------|


|---7-7--------------------------------|
|-7---10/7---7h9p7---------------------|
|----------9-------9-7/8---------------|
|------------------------9-7-----------|
|----------------------------9-8-7-6~~-|
|--------------------------------------|


|-----------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------12~-14'--14'-14'-|
|---------------------11-12/13------------------|
|-------------9-11/13---------------------------|
|-------9~-11-----------------------------------|
|--9/11-----------------------------------------|


|------14-----14------------------------|---------------------------14-|
|-14'~----14'----14'-14-12h14p12h14-12~-|---15'15-15~-15'15-12~-14'----|
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------|

                                                               There's a...
|----------------7----7-9h10p7h10p7--9'-7------|---7---------------------|
|-14-12~12-----7---10-7-------------------7----|-7-----------------------|
|----------4/8------------------------------9'-|-----7-------------------|
|----------------------------------------------|-------9-----------------|
|----------------------------------------------|---------9---------------|
|----------------------------------------------|-------------------------|


..then Mr. Hendrix commences to sing whilst he's playing lead, which is
more than I can say for myself.

The lyrics are:

	There's a red house over yonder.
	That's where my baby stays.
	Lord, there's a red house over yonder,
	Lord, that's where my baby stays.
	I ain't been home to see my baby
	In ninety-nine and one half days.

	Wait a minute, something's wrong here,
	The key won't unlock this door.
	Wait a minute, something's wrong,
	Lord have mercy, this key won't unlock this door.
	Something's gone wrong here--
	I have a bad, bad feeling
	That my baby don't live here no more.

	That's alright--I still got my guitar.


  Look out, now!
|---------------10-12'---10-------10'-|
|----12-12~~12~~------------12~~~-----|
|-11----------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------|


|----------14'---14-12-14--10-12-12'--10h12p10----10h12p10----|
|-------12-------------------------------------12----------12-|
|-11/13-------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|


|-10h12p10----10-12'---10h12p10---------7--------------------|
|----------12-------------------12-10'--7-7-7h10p7-----------|
|--------------------------------------------------9-7---7/8-|
|------------------------------------------------------9-----|
|------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------|


|------7------9p7---10p7---10p7----...
|----7---10p7-----9------7------7--...
|-9'-------------------------------...
|----------------------------------...
|----------------------------------...
|----------------------------------...

At the ..., Hendrix repeats the 10p7, 7 lick a bunch of times, then
does a bit or two that I've got no idea how to play, then sings:

	Well, I might as well go back over yonder
	Way back among the hills.
	Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.
	Lord, I might as well go back over yonder
	Way back yonder acorss the hills.

	Even if my baby don't l_v_ me no more,
	I know her sister will.

Now play a little blues "see ya" riff, and then play something else.

Titties and
Beer forever,
Yours etc.,

SubGenius

Hey Jimi, sorry if that cost your estate any money.

Just thought I'd let my dozen readers know about an iPod Nano giveaway that's going on at Carbon Records. Buy $20 worth of stuff and your name will go into a drawing for a new iPod Nano. Pretty good deal. The music there ranges from "(some) indie pop/rock to improv/noise/drone/experimental." Check it out.

Fans of smart power pop, ala Elliot Smith, Big Star, Rogue Wave, etc., should definitely check out Hinkley. Very very nice. You can get some MP3s here.

(No, I'm not making anything from this, but the proprietor there is an old friend.)

Cary police seek owners of stolen items

Cary police found themselves working backward when they walked into Phillip W. Aikens' house this week.
In front of them was $50,000 worth of stolen goods, they said: jewelry, an iPod, cell phones, purses and more. They cuffed Aikens, 25, and charged him with several burglaries and thefts.

So, they got the guy. I wonder what this means for my shiny new 30GB...