Recently a mother deer with two fauns began making forays into a number of the neighborhood back yards, including mine. The first time I saw them, I think I scared them away by stalking them with the cameras. The second time I saw them, one was right up next to the house eating the geraniums, and I yelled at them to go away. Then they scampered away, seeming to defy gravity by jumping forward with all four legs at once. I felt guilty, as if I’d lost my temper with my kids.

I was just looking around for information about solar-powered pumps for outdoor fountains, and came across a Shishi Odoshi. I first took notice of one in a Japanese garden 9 years ago and thought, what is the purpose of this bizarre, noisy contraption? I couldn’t think of one. Now I see that it is called a Deer Scarer and I think if I get around to building the solar-pumped stream down the crease in the slope behind the house, I will want one.

On one of my mailing lists, there’s a thread titled “Inspirational Gear.” (I wasn’t the only one to reply and mention non-electronic instruments.) I stared at the title and it rolled around strangely in my head. This was my chain of associations:

Inspirational Gear
Meditation Supplies
Breathing Apparatus

There was a recent article about how climate change would remain an abstract concept to most people without some sort of concrete visual representation. “Earth 2100” on ABC last night was just that. I remained disturbed by it today.

As if to rub it in, today’s astrology.com horoscope for Aries (me) was: “Try not to avoid the big issues today—they certainly aren’t avoiding you! It’s a much better time for letting your subconscious mind wrestle with it all than for wandering away and pretending it’s all good.” I don’t usually put much weight on sun sign horoscopes, but this one was a little exclamation point.

Indeed, it’s not all good.

For reasons that are getting harder to remember as the years fly by and I look at the code less, this blog is run by a piece of custom software that has grown organically as a little programming playground. It seems the only thing that sends me scurrying off into the code these days is to find new ways to block a new pernicious comment spammer.

Tonight was the first time that that happened in a few months. I actually tested my new comment-spam code since it was a bit tricky, and discovered that my last change (a much simpler one), in March, had broken all comments where the author had left his/her URL blank, including legitimate ones. If that bit you: sorry!

Oh, and a couple months ago my son told me that all the photo albums were broken. I think the host must have updated to a new version of Apache and broken the one PHP script I’ve ever written, and haven’t looked at in years. That turned out to be a one-word change, but it took a lot of staring!

Carelessly candid, Condi criminal conspiracy confession caught on camera. From Harpers:

(6) Whereas the Senate Intelligence Committee’s summary shows Rice giving authorization for waterboarding, Rice has a different recollection. “I didn’t authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency.” This is dicing things very finely. But I think I know how Judge Garzón will understand this: Rice just confessed to a focal role in a joint criminal enterprise. Nixon White House counsel John Dean, who has a lot of first-hand experience with the legal issues in play, had the same take: Rice just admitted to her role in a conspiracy to torture, a felony under 18 U.S.C. sec 2340A.

Dr. Thomas Hoenig, President of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, wrote in the Financial Times: Troubled banks must be allowed a way to fail:

Non-viable institutions would be allowed to fail and be placed into a negotiated conservatorship or a bridge institution, with the bad assets liquidated while the remainder of the firm is operated under new management and re-privatised as soon as is feasible. This plan is similar to what was done in Sweden in the 1990s and in the US with the failure of Continental Illinois in the 1980s.

This plan has many advantages, including that management and shareholders bear the costs for their actions before taxpayer funds are committed. This process also is equitable across all firms; is similar to what is currently done with smaller banks; and provides a definitive process that should reduce market uncertainty. These are important reasons to implement this kind of resolution process.

Now there’s some refreshing common sense from the Midwest! He goes on to argue persuasively against the government’s approach to date.

I wonder, is there Big Money on the losing end of the credit default swaps of these institutions? Who are the bondholders who would get wiped out if Citi, B of A, or Wells Fargo were to fail?

[via Calculated Risk]