Yes, I’m on Twitter now…
While I’m not sure that I’ll definitely find it useful, I’ve been persuaded to try Twitter. Those interested can follow me there[RSS] or get a consolidated activity feed[Atom].
Chocolate covered espresso beans
So I was sitting around with someone, introducing them to the unique pleasure of eating chocolate covered espresso beans. First a milk chocolate one. She loved it.
Then a white chocolate one.
Then a dark chocolate one.
Then I pull out another white chocolate espresso bean which happened to have a slightly mottled appearance with several brown spots on it.
“Oh! Is that one coffee flavored?”
[long pause]
“Well, yes dear.”
Silly fluff
So I’ve been tagged by TG and now I’m supposed to come up with eight overly-personal anecdotes/factoids…
People who are tagged need to write these rules in their own blogs & share eight things about themselves that others might not know. At the end of the their blog post, they need to tag six people and list their (blog) names. Leave a comment on the blogs of the people they’ve chosen telling them they’ve been tagged and encouraging them to come over and read the eight things you’ve written on your blog.
1) Help! Help! I’m being repressed!
I came face-to-face with an armed-and-vested US Marshall last week as she charged into KC’s Crossroads Infoshop. My first thought as I saw her striding purposefully through the door was that something must have gone horribly wrong at the Bush speech in KC earlier that day and my presence at the most visible anarchist presence in town was somehow going to result in a one-way ticket to Gitmo. This was not helped by the fact that I had just been chatting with a visitor to the store who kept making bizarre, unexplained references to almanacs.
2) I call her “Mini-Me”.
My daughter, “Z”, continues to freak me out by looking so much like myself at her age (apart from having her Mom’s blue eyes).
3) LSD is a gateway drug…
Totally bass-ackwards. I was more or less the straight-edge type in my teen years apart from some very occasional drinking. In my early twenties, I jumped feet-first into a short period of experimentation with LSD. Later, I started smoking weed on occasions when nobody I knew could score any trip. Marijuana, in turn, made me cough so much that I took to smoking cigarettes to try to train my lungs. I still smoke a pack plus daily.
4) O-positive.
5) Military vet? Depends…
I have roughly as much law enforcement training as a rookie cop from being a former military policeman in the US Army Reserve a long time ago, having enlisted two days after my seventeenth birthday. Two and a half years later, I went active duty in the US Air Force as a computer/communications specialist and was kicked out roughly a year later on a general discharge for “assorted minor disciplinary infractions”. I don’t really think of myself as a veteran because I never went to war or even overseas. I came out of the administrative discharge process with no criminal record and (if I recall correctly) eligibility for all standard veterans benefits except the only one I ever actually wanted — GI Bill college money. Shortly after, as a newly-minted civilian, I discovered libertarianism, thereby became strongly anti-war and was alienated by the media spectacle of the first Gulf War. For going on two decades since, I’ve been glad I got out when I did — being neither proud of that part of my life, nor particularly ashamed of it either. Since my choices were shaped by the culture I grew up in, I didn’t know any better. It’s just a part of my personal history.
6) Yes, that really, really hurt…
As a teenager, I accidentally came within a couple inches of burning my testicles off while playing with homemade thermite.
7) I hate this sort of chain-letter stuff…
Which is why I’m only listing seven things and not passing it on to anyone else. Readers can start it again themselves if they wish, but I refuse to put other people on the spot.
Fnord
First day of my latest attempt to quit smoking today. Feeling emotionally intense yet intellectually incapable of much. I have the attention span of a hummingbird. I’m craving cayenne pepper and bourbon.
A personal request
Knappster could use some slack. Help him achieve it by showing some compassion (or reciprocity for you partyarchs out there) for his kid’s lonely Bring Back Hamtaro crusade. Just sign the danged petition.
Revolutionary, organize thyself
I continue trying to put together notes for future writings. Anyone who wants a window into what’s on my mind might seek to integrate insights from praxeology and the Getting Things Done approach to personal productivity.
Viral book questionaire
At the behest of Wally Conger, I’ll answer some questions about books and tag some others to keep the game going.
- One book that changed your life.
Gerard K. O’Neill’s “The High Frontier”. - One book that you have read more than once.
John Steyrs’ excellent instructional manual on knife-fighting and unarmed/melee combat generally, “Cold Steel“. - One book that you would want on a desert island.
Donald Michael Kraig’s “Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts“. - One book that made you laugh.
I’ll name a whole series: all of Harry Harrison’s “Stainless Steel Rat” books. - One book that made you cry.
One story, actually, from Heinlein’s “The Green Hills of Earth” — “The Long Watch“. - One book you wish had been written.
“Agorism” by Samuel Edward Konkin III. - One book you wish had never been written.
Plato’s “The Republic”. - One book you are currently reading.
Kevin Carson’s “Studies in Mutualist Political Economy”. - One book you have been meaning to read.
“Learning Python” from O’Reilly. - Now tag five people
The most disturbing part about lunch (w/ update)
The most disturbing part about lunch may be settling in with your Atkins bar w/ black coffee and then idly reading the ingredients, only to notice it contains “hydrolyzed collagen“…
And then recalling this story about some collagen on the world market being harvested from the bodies of executed Chinese political prisoners…
And then retching violently for half an hour or so.
Is this a Soylent Green moment, or am I overreacting? Chinese company reps reportedly say it’s nothing to “make such a big fuss about”.
Here’s what I asked the folks at Atkins Nutritionals:
Hello,
I noticed that an Atkins Advantage bar that I ate has ingredients listed that include “hydrolyzed collagen”.
Would Atkins Nutritionals be willing to publicly release the name of its supplier of hydrolized collagen?
The reason I ask is that there has been a considerable degree of public concern over collagen supplied to the world market by Chinese companies who reportedly harvest it from the bodies of executed political prisoners.
Thanks for any information you can provide.
Brad Spangler
And their response:
Dear brad_spangler@…….com,
Thank you for your interest in Atkins products.
For this type of inquiry, we recommend that you contact Atkins directly by email at AtkinsSupport@Customerfirst.com.
Thank you,
Mike
Consumer Services
Atkins Online Store**Please do not reply to this message**
I thought I was contacting Atkins directly — but okay. Second message sent, identical to the first.
Personally, I had assumed they would be eager to immediately confirm that they are not knowlingly feeding me processed human remains. I understand that there’s a perverse incentive to not provide any useful information when you work in customer service. This, however, seemed kind of fundamental.
But, heh, what do I know?
UPDATE: Response from Atkins…
We do not use Chinese Collagen, but we can not share our source as this is proprietary information.
Update on where Brad’s been
For those who’ve been wondering where I’ve been the past few days, I’ve been going nuts trying to deal with an emergency server move and providing user support as best I could under the circumstances. My business life is in an upheaval accordingly, but the future looks arguably bright — I just need to get everything done all at once and it has had me overwhelmed.
As I had to restore this site from a backup, my latest posts are missing, but I dug them out of browser cache and will summarize here.
- Immigration Protests — Immigrants are, by and large, brave people who recognize the wisdom in crossing the state’s silly imaginary lines, so-called “bordersâ€, when their family’s future depends on it. Oppression, up to and including the prospect of being kidnapped by the state at any time, has been their lot for far to long. I have a great deal of sympathy for immigrants and find the recent willingness of so many of them to stand up to increasing oppression absolutely inspiring. Breathtakingly so. I salute them and second Adem Kupi’s declaration of solidarity.
- Environmental Issues — Don’t miss Thomas L. Knapp’s posting of excerpts from the DAGGER manifesto over at the ISIL environmental channel: Question Earthority!.
- Roderick Long’s Rothbard Memorial Lecture at the Austrian Scholar’s Conference — I’m incredibly honored to have been named and quoted in Roderick Long’s Rothbard Memorial Lecture at the Mises Institute’s Austrian Scholars Conference, “Rothbard’s ‘Left and Right’: 40 Years Later†[mp3] — in his concluding remarks, no less. Long’s lecture has crucial implications for the future of the libertarian movement and, therefore, of the world and all humanity. Listen.
My insurrectionary science project
I know this may seem silly, but I have to confess that I have a mad scientist streak that exceeds my scientific knowledge.
I had burned some candles yesterday which melted down completely, making a huge mess all over a table. While cleaning that up, I decided to save the wax, melt it down and make something else with it. I wasn’t sure what, exactly — maybe some sort of sculpture or something. I don’t know.
Not wishing to dirty any kitchen cookware to melt it down, I decided to try throwing the wax in a disposable plastic cup and seeing if I could melt it in the microwave. I wasn’t aware at the time that paraffin is mostly transparent/invisible to microwaves and is actually used to make microwave “lenses” and “prisms”.
I nuked it for a little bit and took it out to examine it. Nothing. The wax was still cold. I nuked it for a little while longer, while wondering whether the water content of candle wax is sufficient to allow for microwave heating. Still nothing.
It then occurred to me that I ought to be able to succeed by putting some water in there with the chunks of candle wax before nuking it a third time. My thinking went that as the water heated up, it would heat the candle wax it was in contact with and melt it — since the melting point of candle wax ought to be lower than the boiling point of water.
So, I set the timer for an arbitrarily large amount of time and switched to some other pressing task. Some time later, I noticed that the microwave was arcing violently. I dove for the electrical plug and yanked it out. Looking inside, I didn’t find any obvious damage to the device and not even a mess. Inside the cup, however, a large amount of the bright red candle wax had somehow become a waterlogged pale pink color with a consistency I would describe as sort of like a crumbly gel, even after it had cooled down to room temperature. While that was interesting, I had other things to do and just threw the whole cup in the trash.
Fast forward several hours.
I woke up out of a sound sleep with a sense of urgency at around 4:30 AM. This was not a bright-and-shiny early-riser sort of thing. I both have a bad cold in the biological sense and was badly cold, in that there was little heat in the abode. I possessed a severe headache and nerve endings simultaneously screaming intensely for food, water, nicotine and caffeine. I had an intense urge to urinate and, though alcohol was not involved, I was disoriented and not balancing correctly or even properly controlling my muscles. It was sort of a “not quite back IN the body yet” experience. Imagine trying to move your hand and finding out you actually kicked the dog instead.
So, I stumbled around for a few moments while trying to take stock of my situation and avoid pissing all over myself. I gradually came to the conclusion that I felt utterly like crap.
I eventually got the coffeemaker started and, thinking of food next, decided that microwaving the frozen meatballs I had in the freezer would be a tasty and not to challenging breakfast option.
I was still at the stage where my eyes weren’t open continuously, but instead were opened intermittently through sheer force of will like some sort of reverse blink. Eyes closed. Force the eyes open. Eyelid(s) rises and falls in one motion. Pause. Repeat.
Even so, I managed to mostly get the directions read and determined that I need to nuke the frozen meatballs for four minutes. I did so, noting the glowing numeric display and assuring myself that yes, I had plugged the microwave back in yesterday. After four minutes, though, no heat at all. It’s not that they were just frozen in the middle. The meatballs were still frozen. Period.
The microwave had looked like it was working. The light shone. The turntable moved. The display counted the numbers down. All of the beeps sounded loud and clear.
Back in the microwave for four more minutes. Meatballs still frozen.
Thinking back to yesterdays events, I decided that the candlewax incident must have resulted in a damaged microwave. The sheer horror this notion generated in me was indescribable. I almost started to cry. I momentarily considered slicing my wrists open. I needed meatballs — now! I bent down to look for whatever arc damage I must have missed the first time.
The microwave looked fine on the inside. What the fuck?
Looking really closely, I noticed that the circular area at the top, where I assumed the magnetron was. had a really thin film on it of what seemed like candle wax! I grabbed a paper towel. I wiped the film off. I put my meatballs back in the microwave and prayed. They were sizzling inside two and a half minutes.
Smoking a cigarette after breakfast, I theorized that after the water boiled down to a level that exposed the top of the clumps of wax yesterday, the wax was sitting in there dry for much longer than the first two attempts to melt it lasted. The arcing just had a longer time to develop. When the arcs struck the wax, it turned it into either a vapor or molten aerosol that condensed on the inside top of the microwave oven. As condensed droplets that solidifed would be vaguely sphere-like globules and paraffin is used to make microwave lenses and prisms, the effect the film had would be to scatter microwaves in the same way reflective highway paint containing lots of little glass beads scatters light — and thereby keep my poor meatballs frozen.
Now I’m wondering if something similar could be used to make a gel or foam to protect people from microwave weapons. Microwave crowd control weapons are rumored to have already been deployed in Iraq and it seems likely that it’s only a matter of time before the statists start using them on political demonstrators.
