Mokka mit Schlag

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The lame ducks are quacking, but W. still proves able to come up with inconceivably bad ideas and the supine Democrats in Congress still go along with him in his schemes to enrich his cronies in the oil industry at the expense of pretty much everyone else.

The U.S. automakers are in trouble precisely because they have insisted on building gas guzzlers no one wants to buy any more, and have refused to make available smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. Now that the market is spoken these socialists-for-the-rich want to give fifteen billion dollars to these companies so they can continue making heavy trucks and SUVs no one wants any more, and Bush wants to take the money from funds specifically allocated by the Energy Independence and Security Act to develop new fuel efficient vehicles the public might actually want to buy. This is state socialism at its stupidest.

The market has spoken. Consumers don’t want to buy what the automakers want to build, so let the big three go out of business. If the tens of thousands of consequent layoffs bother the so-called liberals in Congress, then allocate the money to the unemployed directly, or start a jobs program for something we actually need. How about a little socialism for the poor for a change?

I went out to Santiago Oaks yesterday for the monthly Sea & Sage walk with Linette Lina. I usually try and get there a little early because the restrooms near the picnic area are a great place for insects and moths in the early morning. They probably leave the lights on over night, and various things end up perched there in the morning. Yesterday was no exception. This skittish fellow was about 2-3 cm long, and held his wings folded over his back perpendicular to the wall rather than spread out parallel to the wall like most moths do:

Don’t know what it is yet. Any suggestions?

I’ve gotten so used to finding pretty much everything with either Wikipedia or Google, that sometimes I’m a little shocked when there’s something I can’t find. On Friday I found myself trying to puzzle out the exact location of the UCI Ecological Preserve, allegedly one of the best sites to find Cactus Wrens in Orange County. It’s also a good picture of just what most of Irvine would look like if it hadn’t been irrigated and suburbanized beyond all recognition.

I was able to establish that the preserve was probably on the main campus, and not a remote site, but nothing I found anywhere said more than that; and I’ve been told that UCI has the second largest campus in the U.S. Only Stanford’s is larger. However after looking at Google Maps satellite pictures, I did manage to narrow it down to only a couple of possible undeveloped locations. And with a little on-site reconnaissance I found it. So here’s how you get there:
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I found this leaf mimic moth in my garage a couple of days ago (2008-11-29). On a tree, it would have been practically invisible, but on the white walls of my garage it stuck out like A Thinkpad in an Apple store.

Tentatively, it has been ID’d as 6981 – Prochoerodes forfocaria, though I’m not absolutely certain of that.
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As usual today is Buy Nothing Day, in which we reject the notion that shopping is patriotic and endeavor to prove that we are people, not consumers. Usually on the day after Thanksgiving, I attempt (mostly successfully) to spend absolutely nothing, not even subway fare or fast food. But today what if we tried to go one step better? Suppose we actually became a net negative drain for the consumer society? How about today instead of shopping, we returned?

You know you’ve got at least one item sitting on the shelf that needs to go back to the store: the bathing suit that didn’t fit, the gift from Aunt Marge who still thinks your 12, the camera that just flat out doesn’t work. Take some of your free time to gather up the receipts and bring some of this useless flotsam back to its point of origin. Make the cash registers go backwards today.