Adios, Spinsanity

I'd wondered how the three guys at the spin-exposing website Spinsanity did their work as a part-time gig. Now I know: with some difficulty. They're closed the site (though the archives will remain available). I've enjoyed and recommended their site; I reckoned they deserved a "well-done" holler from The Hollerer.

I've only looked at it a few times, but factcheck.org seems to offer good, non-partisan, spinalysis.

Homework

I'm TAing for microeconomics again this semester. In a slight change from the fall, the professor is going to assign homeworks to be graded, not just for edification and enlightenment. Furthermore, he has delegated the task of selecting/creating the homework problems to me. So I've just spent an hour or so picking through problems from last year, trying to figure out what was assigned when, goes with which topics, etc, as well as thinking about logistics (when will problems be due, how will they get them to me, also etc). Not very exciting. But now my non-excitement has been shared with you and so diminished. Sorry, but thanks.

You might think that shoveling snow is not very exciting. You're right, but today it was oddly satisfying. Partly because it was oddly easy (light snow, only a couple of inches), but mostly because I am oddly nerdy. I was greatly pleased, not so much that the snow was cleared, but that a methodical herringbone of shovel tracks streched aaaaaall the way up our long-ass driveway. Pattern, regularity, predictability... delight!

Asinine

FOX BLURS CARTOON REAR END ON FCC WORRIES: Fox says it covered up the naked rear end of a cartoon character recently because of nervousness over what the Federal Communications Commission will find objectionable. The latest example of TV network self-censorship because of FCC concerns came a few wks ago during a rerun of a "Family Guy" cartoon. Fox electronically blurred a character's posterior, even though the image was seen 5 yrs ago when the episode originally aired.
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(c)2005 DATACAST(R)

Cause and effect

I rarely watch football (or any other sport, for that matter) on TV, so so far this season I've been reading about the Steelers' great run. Then last night, I figured I'd watch their playoff game against the Jets. I almost had a heart attack. I can't believe how close they came to losing based on a punt return and an interception return. I don't want to take anything away from the Jets by calling those plays "lucky", but they're certainly rare. I feel responsible for the change in Pittsburgh's performance, as I changed my gameday routine. I think that for the sake of the team (and my stress levels) I may not watch next week's game.

Best of Kauai

We’re back from Kauai. I’m pleased to report that it’s just as lovely as when we were there on our honeymoon, five years ago. Instead of trying to recount the entire week, I’ll just offer our personal best of Kauai:

Best Place We Stayed on the North Shore – Alii Kai I (Building 3) in Princeville
This condo was above the cliffs east of Hanalei Bay. Even though it was over a hundred feet down to the ocean, the waves were clearly audible, in much the same way a passing freight train is audible. (The winter is not the best time to go swimming on the north shore.) We could see the ocean from Bali Hai to the Kilauea lighthouse, which would be relevant one night. Read on.

Best Place We Stayed on the South Shore – Gloria’s Spouting Horn B&B
We were in the same room as when we honeymooned, so I may be biased. Still beautiful, still with an incredible location on the beach. A new treat this time was seeing whale spouts from the B&B.

Best Day of Snorkeling – PK’s Beach in the morning, Beach House in the afternoon
At PK’s, we saw four sea turtles, two of which were swimming right in front of us. At Beach House, there were more fish and an eel.

Honorable Mention - Poipu Beach Park
We were surrounded by schools of chubs, convict fish, and yellow-tailed tangs.

Best Unscripted, Unrepeatable Moment – a storm rolling in across the ocean
Returning from dinner our last night on the north shore, we noticed a few flashes of lightning. From our condo, we saw lightning on 120 degrees of the ocean horizon. For half an hour, we watched almost continuous lightning, in the clouds and striking the ocean, come closer. The air was perfectly still as the storm approached, the wind kicking up only 30 seconds before a hard rain started.

Most Blissful Ignorance – a storm rolling in across the ocean
The storm we happily observed from our beachfront room was one of the strongest non-hurricanes Kauai has had in years. There were tornado/waterspout warnings for most of the island. Winds caused such damage at the Allerton Gardens across the street from Gloria’s that the botanical park was being closed to the public for repairs. Luckily, we learned all this the next day, so it did not compromise our enjoyment of the storm.

Best Mercury Exposure – Seared tuna at Hanalei Dolphin
In 1999, I thought it was the best piece of meat I’d tasted. Since then, I’ve eaten some delicious former animals, but this one still leads the pack (flock, herd, school, etc). A subtle marinade, seared on the outside, cold sashimi on the inside – beyond fish to the sublime.

Best Dessert – the chocolate-filled flour-less brownie thing at Roy’s
This was somewhat complicated by the Beach House Restaurant serving almost the same dessert, but Roy’s takes the prize with better presentation.

Best Place to be Overdressed – the Kalalau Trail
The Kalalau Trail runs 11 miles down Kauai’s rugged Na Pali coast. The first two miles are open for day hikers; beyond that, you need a camping permit and a plan to stay overnight. The trail offers incredible views of land, sea, and vegetation that we just don’t see in The Holler. The path is relatively steep at points, comprised of slick mud at others, and both simultaneously in a few choice locations. While many of our fellow hikers wore flip-flops or heel-less slip-on jobs, we chose shoes (with laces, no less). I guess we’re just old, with an overdeveloped aversion to sliding to our doom.

Best Animal – wild chickens
A guidebook at Gloria’s said that these were really “Polynesian jungle fowl,” but they’ll always be wild chickens to us. They range everywhere, particularly on the south shore. Towards the end of our trip, we actually saw a hen with her brood of eight chicks. So cute, and then we saw a minor miracle when all eight of them disappeared under her chest and slightly spread wings. You’d never know they were there unless you knelt down and noticed that this hen had 16 tiny extra legs. So now we know what Jesus was talking about.

Most Alone – Alakai Swamp Trail
From the top of Waimea Canyon, a trail runs for roughly a mile along the top of Kalalau Valley, looking 4,000 feet down to the Na Pali coast. The trail then turns east for three miles into a highland wetland. The trail ended with a mile of boardwalk through the swamp, to a point looking down onto Hanalei on the north shore. Though no more than ten miles away, there is no road directly from the west to north shore, so our view of Princeville was some 2-1/2 hours' drive away. On our five hours of hiking, we saw three other hikers.

(Um, yeah, we did fly for over 12 hours, drive a couple more, and hike a few miles to get to a swamp. Isn’t that why everybody goes to Hawaii?)

Best Reading – The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren
Granted, not a traditional beach book, but Kerry and I began this 40-day study while on vacation. We're just a quarter of the way through, but I've been impressed. Warren does a wonderful job of synthesizing various themes from across the Bible and presenting them in a personalized way, emphasizing their relevance to the reader.

Best Guidebook – The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed
Full of good advice; never steered us wrong. The same was true of an earlier edition in 1999. Heartily recommended for all y’all heading to Kauai.

Honorable Mention – Snorkel Kauai
As one might reasonably expect, this has much more info about snorkeling. Full of details about entry points, channels, what sea life to look for, etc.