Bush asked Congress to earmark approximately $7 billion to help save us from a bird flu pandemic. I think this is good, but with the regular “plain jane” flu season around the corner, I think we’re going to have a huge problem. First of all. Congress takes forever to take action on Bush’s initiatives, if they take action at all. Remember all that money Bush promised the Katrina-ravaged gulf states? The vast majority of it still hasn’t been approved/sent out to the states that need them so badly. And this is something that has already happened, therefore allowing people to demand action. We usually have a problem getting a large number of people mad about something that may happen in the future, but people can protest really quickly over something that has already happened and is currently affecting them.

Two days ago, the Democrats called a secret session of congress to look into whether the Bush Administration purposely misled the American public with respect to the resons for the War in Iraq. This is an open secret to me. Only a fool doesn’t know that Bush or his cronies purposely lied about the war in Iraq. They wanted to go to war from the time they came into office and the terrorism attacks simply gave them the excuse they needed to waltz right in and take the country. I mean, that’s the whole point of the Valery CIA Leak investigation. Her husband found out the yellow cake excuse was BS. When he told the Administration they ignored him. When he leaked to the press, they put out his wife’s identity. Why do this? Because they were lying! Otherwise, why be scared of what he was saying?

Here are some more screenshots from my first Civ4 game.

Above you see some of my cavalry units preparing for war. This unit has a lot of cavalry on the map representing the upgrades in defense I have given it.

In the above shot you can see both the industrial era worker as well as the rifleman.

Here I am in the midst of a war with cavalry against spearmen. You can see the gunblast from the cavalry units.

Another area where civ4 has become more balanced for me is in the role the sea and air units play. Although I was always primarily a winner by culture in civ3 and space race in civl/2, whenever I *was* faced with aggression, it was usually my armies that did the heavy lifting. I almost never had a navy save for the purpose of transporting units around. Since my rivals didn’t have navies, I could let my tranports roam the seas unattended.

A score of 3447 in Settler mode is enough for me to no longer have the leadership skills of Dan Quayle, but of Ethelred the Unready. “The Unready” - doesn’t sound like much of a promotion, eh?

In Civilization 4, one of the most significant changes outside of the civics and religions, is the expanded role given to workers. Previously, it was very easy to know what to do with your workers. If a mountain or hill was involved, put a road and mine; otherwise irrigate and road. Jungles and forrests had no purpose except to make your cities sick or deprive you of an irrigation spot. However, if you eliminated them, you would miss out on certain key game resources which only appeared in jungles and forests. So you had to just deal with the sickness and hope that a resource would appear nearby to validate your city’s sufferings.

Just got back from a Relient K concert in Philly. My wife and I were lamenting not having ever been to a Relient K concert despite the fact that they are on our top tier of bands when I decided to check the website. I found out they were playing in Philly and wouldn’t be anywhere else near us for the foreseable future. So, after a few phone calls determined that tickets were still available, we got into the car and drove the two hours to the concert. It was Rufio, Relient K, and MxPx; we stayed for the first two. I like MxPx, but not quite as much as I like Relient K; Rufio went first so we had to see them. It was weird being the oldest people there besides parents who took their tweens to see the concert, but we had a great time.

Happy Birthday Dina! Hope you have a fun birthday today!

Well, actually, it’s not mine. It was a script in Linux Format Magazine a few issues ago. As hobbyists have done since the beginning, I copied the code down to see it actually work.

First the background on Monty Hall. Here it is from Wikipedia.com:

The Monty Hall problem is a puzzle in game theory involving probability that is loosely based on the American game show Let’s Make a Deal. The name comes from the show’s host, Monty Hall. In this puzzle a player is shown three closed doors; behind one is a car, and behind each of the other two is a goat. The player is allowed to open one door, and will win whatever is behind the door. However, after the player selects a door but before opening it, the game host (who knows what’s behind the doors) must open another door, revealing a goat. The host then must offer the player an option to switch to the other closed door. Does switching improve the player’s chance of winning the car? The answer is yes — switching results in the chances of winning the car improving from 1/3 to 2/3.

I am extremely happy to announce that I have been approached by the author of The Cognoscenti for use of one of my pictures of Congress on his political blog as part of the header. I have just replied to give him permission to use the picture so I don’t know how long it will be until it is up. With the role that blogs have been playing recently in press and with their popularity soaring, this could be a boon for my photography.