A few banana slug facts:

• They are native to the Northwest
• The are HUGE! Some have reached 10 inches in length, and weights of a quarter of a pound.
• They were almost the official mollusk of California. Yes, the legislature actually voted in the noble slug, but the Governor vetoed it.
• They are the official mascot of UC Santa Cruz.

Banana Slug

Santa Cruz lady at city council meeting:

Santa Cruz Lady Vs. Sarah Palin:

The whole Santa Cruz City Council Mashup:

I applied for a UNIX Systems Engineer position at the University of California Santa Cruz, and was offered the job back in July. After some serious soul searching, I decided to accept, and we started the process of relocating a full 3,000 miles from home, which I can assure you is no simple task! I’ve been here just under two weeks, but Courtney is still tidying up our affairs in Vermont before she starts the long journey out here in our car. Yep… That’s car, not cars. The public transportation system is so good out here that we can finally be a single car family. For my part, I’ve managed to move clear across this country twice and not driven it a single time. This is fine with me, however, since I have very little interest in seeing middle America.

Casey and I managed to find Paula’s Breakfast Shack while he was out for WordCamp 08. Home of the $1.99 Basic Breakfast, this place is so good, that I simply can’t imagine going anywhere else for eggs and home fries! I’ve tried a number of taquerias, but the jury is still out on which one is best. Once I find it I’ll have to freeze some tacos and burritos and send them out to Matt, who has strongly indicated that he hates me for having such easy access to good Mexican Food.

• Q1. How old do ducks have to be before they will fly
• Q2. How can I keep my ducks safe from predators?
• Q3. What should I feed my ducklings / ducks?
• Q4. Will my ducks fly away for the winter?
• Q5. I want to raise baby ducks and release them when they are adults. Is this possible?
• Q6. I rescued a baby duck that was all by itself. What do I do now?
• Q7. How can I tell if my duckling is a male or a female?

Answer: How old do ducks have to be before they will fly

If you have true flying mallards, they should start flying between five and six weeks of age. In most cases, however, you will have domestic Mallards which have been selectively bred over the years to be larger. These birds will never fly as you expect from a duck, but will instead stay close to the ground, avoiding any dramatic flight. They can fly a little, but generally just in a straight line and close to the ground.

How can I keep my ducks safe from predators?

Most people who keep ducks have some form of duck yard that is fenced in with chicken wire on the sides and top. Mine is about 8 feet X 20 feet. The wire is dug into the ground so animals can’t dig under it, and it is entirely closed in on the top. Inside that, I have a duckhouse which is a 4X8 plywood box lined with hay and secured with a door that is closed at night. Even if an animal could get into the duckyard, there is absolutely no way it could invade the duckhouse.

You need to defend against the predators in your area. If you have mink or weasels, you need to keep things very tight since they can get through holes as small as one inch. If your biggest worry is coyotes, chicken wire protected by heavy gating is preferable. I prefer to keep my ducks close to home, so I only let them out of the duckyard when I am going to be home for extended periods. Other people simply let them run free and try to get them in at night. Below is a picture of my duckyard. Multiple coyotes and raccoons have tried without success to get in. This is because of the heavy gating combined with chicken wire.

Duck Coup

What should I feed my ducklings / ducks?

When your ducklings first hatch or arrive, the first thing you should do is get them drinking. Make sure they all know where the water is, and where to find it. This will help prevent choking once they start eating. Once you are certain that everyone knows how to drink, start them off on a high quality, unmedicated game bird starter crumble. Mash will also work, but is less desierable because it tends to clog up their bills. The most important thing is that the food is unmedicated. Ducks eat a lot more than chickens, and will overdose on medicated food. Supplementing their food with fresh greens and vegetables is always appreciated, especially if given to them directly in their water.

Once your ducks are three to four weeks old, you will want get them started on an unmedicated game bird pellet. Game bird maintainer feed is best, but regular poultry feed will also work provided it is not medicated. This will be their staple for life, with the exception of Spring. When hens start laying eggs, you will want to feed them layer pellets so provide them with the calcium they need to produce eggs. This will not harm the drakes, but you don’t want it to be a permanent feed. Get them back on the maintainer pellets once the laying season is over.

You will find your local farm and garden store to be an excellent source of high quality feeds. Feel free to take their advice as well, but do NOT let them talk you into medicated food for ducks.

Will my ducks fly away for the winter?

Generally, no. In the same way that your domestic dog does not behave like a coyote of wolf, your ducks are domesticated, and will not behave like a wild duck. The look to you for food and safety, and will not know how to migrate unless they have been able to join in with a flock of wild ducks during the summer months. They can tolerate very cold temperatures provided they are given shelter from the wind, liquid water to drink and plenty of high quality food. Even though Mallard ducks are typically a wild bird, those raised by humans are tame, and not able to migrate or care for themselves in the wild.

I want to raise baby ducks and release them when they are adults. Is this possible?

See Q4. Ducklings are cute, but they grow into large, messy birds. I can’t stress this enough… Do not raise ducklings and expect them to fly away or live in the wild when they are adults. If you raise ducklings be prepared to care for them for their five to eight year lifespan. Even though Mallard ducks are typically a wild bird, those raised by humans are tame, and not able to care for themselves in the wild. If you abandon them and expect them to fend for themselves, they are likely to die a very slow and horrible death. There are methods of getting ducks to integrate into the wild, but this requires the special skills and training of a wild bird rehabilitator.

I rescued a baby duck that was all by itself. What do I do now?

You probably heard the duckling cheeping. This noies was the duckling calling its mother. Most likely she was hidden, but close by. For future reference, you have to be very careful about rescuing baby ducks in this way. Most states have laws against taking animals from the wild, so you could get yourself into a lot of trouble. The only time “rescuing” them is appropriate is if they are very obviously not going to survive unless you do. An example of this might be a situation in which you saw the mother get hit by a car and all her ducklings are wondering around in the middle of the road.

That said, your heart was most certainly in the right place. You now have a baby duck, and need help with it. Let me see what I can do. The first thing I would do is search all the local bodies of water to find the mother and other ducklings. If you can, try to reunite them. If not, the absolute best thing to do would be to call a wild bird rehabilitator. They have the skills and training to raise ducklings in such a way that they can be integrated into the wild when they are adults.

Answer: How can I tell if my duckling is a male or a female?

Everyone wants to know the gender of their ducklings before they get their voice. Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure is through a procedure called “vent sexing” whereby you stretch open the vent and look inside to find the duckling’s sex organs. This procedure is not only very traumatic for the duckling, but potentially dangerous as well. Without having someone who is experienced to train you, you can very easily hurt or even kill the duckling.

The best way for you to tell the gender of your ducklings is to wait until they are four or five weeks old when they get their voice. Drakes will develop a soft “whrack” sound, while hens will produce a loud “QWACK”. Check out the recordings below:

Mallard Hen
Mallard Drake

Many people make the mistake of thinking they have only hens because they all look like hens. It is important to remember that Mallard drakes don’t get their nuptial plumage (green heads, red chest, etc) until they are one year old. All juvenile Mallards look more or less like hens for their entire first year.

Supposedly the biggest trick to making these rigs work is getting the throttle to operate smoothly enough, but there are a number of other challenges as well. They run on 90% pure hydrogen peroxide which is extremely caustic, so material compatibility is a huge factor. You can’t just march into your nearest drug store and pick up this highly concentrated chemical either, so there are also many issues surrounding the distillation process of the fuel.

Lozano’s commitment to his projects is truly impressive. He has financed everything himself, and come up with a product that seems to work every bit as well as the old Bel Rocket Belt, but looks even cooler! What’s more, I can have one of these Jet Packs on sale now for $125,000! That may seem like a lot of money, but it is really very reasonable when you consider what you get:

1. A fully-tested, custom-made flying rocket belt,
2. This belt has been proved to be the most stable design and easier to fly
3. A special machine to make our own unlimited supply of rocket fuel
4. Hands-on training in the process and the equipment
5. Flight training of 10 flights in your own rocket belt
6. Maintenance and setup training
7. 24/7 expert support
8. Housing and food are included during training

When you think that the original rocket belt cost Bell Aerosystems $250,000 dollars in 1960, and that the guys from “The Rocket Belt Caper” spent a great deal more, you can only conclude that $125,000 is very reasonable indeed. This is not to say I can run out and buy one, but I admit that I am tempted by thoughts of being a full-time professional jet pack pilot.

Well done Lozano! My hat goes off to you!

I was amazed to see, however, that Fender is offering an extremely limited edition version of this guitar for a whopping $21,625! Only three of these high-end KittyCasters were made, and only one will be available to the public. If you want it you’re going to have to go to Japan to get it though because it will only be available at the Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi main office for one day on July 14th.

Alta and Deer Valley in Utah, and Mad River Glen in Vermont are the only remaining ski resorts to maintain a ban on snowboards and riders have had enough of it. Poaching, a form of protest which involves sneaking in and snowboarding down the mountain despite the restriction has become commonplace at these resorts, but now Burton has stepped up and offered a $5,000 reward to the best video of a poached run on these slopes. Submitted videos can be seen here.

Some skiers are pretty up in arms about it, but I think it’s pretty cool. I am more of a casual snowboarder, but I have to confess that I am seriously considering poaching Mad River Glen because it has a wonderful “stick it to the man” quality about it. I especially like that Burton instructs poachers on how to avoid breaking laws while protesting with the “Poacher’s Ten Commandments”. It just smacks of the old school “SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME” stickers that I used to plaster everywhere.

It should be known that Taos Ski Mountain has lifted its ban on snowboarders, so we are down from four to only three.

Until snowboarders everywhere are free to ride where they want to ride, until the snow and the slopes of this great nation have been purged of the scourge of segregation, until the four elitist, fascist resorts lift their draconian bans, there shall be no rest, no justice, and no peace.

In the face of this blatant and aggressive disregard for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, poaching isn’t simply a peaceful form of protest, it is truly your patriotic duty.

-Jake Burton

It got me thinking about what exactly causes my extremities to fall asleep. I had heard the common explanation that it is caused by lack of blood flow, but this always seemed unlikely to me because my limbs have never turned blue, and such a lack of proper oxygenation to cells would most certainly cause permanent damage.

I did some research, and discovered that an extremity will begin to “fall asleep” when pressure is applied to nerve pathways, causing them to loose their electrochemical connection with the brain. This interruption in signal causes the impulses coming into the brain from the extremity to become garbled and random, resulting in the tingling sensation we are used to feeling when our body part begins to go numb. Interestingly, this can also be caused when pressure is applied to an artery, restricting blood flow to the extremity and depriving nerve cells of nutrients. The initial tingling serves as an early warning system to tell us that we should adjust our position so that we can avoid the serious nerve damage that could result should the blood flow be restricted for an extended period of time.

The random signals interpreted by our brains as tingling are usually all it takes to get us to adjust position and solve the problem, but occasionally, we are so sound asleep that we don’t notice it and the extended pressure causes a total loss in nerve connectivity. When this happens the extremity goes completely numb and our brain is unable to move or feel it at all. Since we have passed the early warning system at this point, I am unsure what exactly stirs in our brain to alert us to the situation, but I can attest that the sensation of having a totally dead feeling arm attached to my body is disturbing to say the least. As is the extended period of tingling when the limb comes back to life.

At least I now know why it happens.

The first thing they told us what that the Yaris was so popular they could not keep them in stock, and there was absolutely nothing they could to about the price. Furthermore, they indicated that they MIGHT be able to give us $500 for Courtney’s old RAV4, a car that blue booked for trade in at $3,000. I told them that I would sell the car private party and most not likely come back because they had insulted me. The deal-making was on and 5 hours later, we had agreed on a deal that not only got us the whole $3,000 trade in, but a nicely discounted Yaris as well.

We’ve been driving the car for about a month now, and overall, it is actually quite nice. Some people complain about the road noise, but it does not bother me much. The gauge console being directly in the center of the dash took about a day to get used to, but it’s really no big deal either. The seats are comfortable, and 3,000 miles later, we are starting to see the 40 miles-per-gallon fuel economy we had expected. There is even some indication that it will continue to improve until the engine is fully broken in at 10,000 miles. With gas prices continuing to soar, I sure hope so!

There are really only a few things that I don’t like about the Yaris. First, the front of the car is, in my opinion, far too low to the ground, and you have to be constantly be on the lookout for curbs when you are parking. It can also be a problem when you are going over larger dips in the road. It would have been nice for the car to be lifted another inch or so off the ground to keep from having to worry about it so much.

Secondly, the knobs controlling the heater / air conditioning / environmental system seem to be very cheaply made. It’s not big deal, but they feel flimsy, which sucks when you just dropped $12,000 on a new car.

Finally, Toyota’s warranty is absolutely miserable! 3 years or 30,000 miles is still a brand-new car and it sucks that they don’t offer the 100,000 mile warranty that is becoming more popular these days. They seem to be banking entirely on the fact that the company has developed a good reputation for reliability.

Aside from the couple of complaints, however, it’s a good car that seems to be worth having, but not made out of solid gold as Toyota seems to think it is. How it holds up over the long haul remains to be seem, as does the vehicle’s ability to handle in the snow. It would seem, however, that you could certainly do worse.

The evenings, we had pretty much to ourselves, and although our plans to hop a train to France were thwarted, we managed to enjoy ourselves by wandering aimlessly around Malaga in a relentless search of interesting pubs and British girls to flirt with. We found plenty of both, but as wildly successful as we were at getting these British girls to agree to meet us for dates on subsequent days, we were decidedly less successful at getting them to actually show up.

We also found this poster with a very attractive woman named Ana advertising the Spanish public telephone service. We must have walked past it a dozen times, each time commenting on how attractive Ana was, and how much the poster made us desperately want to use one of these amazing Spanish public telephones to call her up and ask her out on a date. Sadly for us, and fortunately for Ana, however, her number was not listed anywhere on the poster; a fact which we found most upsetting, but was probably a blessing in hindsight because neither of us knew much Spanish and would have most likely made quite a blunder of any advances we might have managed.

On to plan “B” we thought. If we couldn’t have Ana’s phone number, we were most certainly not leaving Spain without her poster.

Now, it is important to realize that this poster was not only in a very public location near the beach, it was also enclosed behind locked glass, making any attempt to acquire it a fairly risky proposition. If we were going to nick it, we were going to first have to find a time when nobody was around, and secondly, a way to unlock the glass cabinet enclosing it.

It so happened that on our last day in Spain, we were were strolling back late at night from a pseudo British pub after a failed attempt to locate flirtable British girls when we noticed that the normally bustling sidewalk where Ana was located had become deserted. Problem one solved! Now just to get that glass cabinet open. I’m a roof and tunnel hacker, so I consider myself above forced entry, preferring more elegant methods like lock picking and social engineering, but I did not have my lock picks so we were forced to use more imaginative methods… Like the butter knife we had conveniently taken from the pub. We moved in to inspect and realized to our joy that the lock was placed directly in the middle of a very long and flimsy piece of aluminum that made up the frame for the poster to sit it.

An insertion of the better knife and a little twist popped the door open with a “dh-dh-dh-dh” sound that I will never forget. Chucky and I looked at each other, both a little surprised, but in total agreement that the only next step could be to take Ana down, roll her up and put her up Chucky’s sleve. This we did, and in a few short seconds we were off with Ana, having escaped Spanish jail and acquired just about the sweetest bit of travel memorabilia I have ever seen!

Ana now hangs in Chuck’s office down in Greenland NH.

The burritos weigh in at just over one-pound, and the experience of actually going there and getting a freshly made one is wonderful. The windows are all fogged up if it’s cold outside, and there is a entire bar filled with different types of salsa. The building is inconspicuous, but it is nearly always packed with locals.

I remember always loving their first television advertisement. The little jungle has been lodged firmly in my brain many many years now. If you end up in Reno and like burritos, I highly recommend Super Burrito!

Since I live in rural New England and my choices are limited, I sometimes have to shop at places I don’t like, so forcing these establishments to run my purchase through as credit has become my way of protesting them. Since I tend to prefer small, locally owned businesses to large, box stores like Home Depot, there is also the added benefit of giving the little guys an advantage over the large, National chains. Will it make any difference in the end? Most likely not, but if I can cut into Walmart’s bottom line by 3%, all the better in my mind.

So, should you find yourself shopping at a place you don’t like, say “credit” rather than “debit” when you check out and knock a little off their annual profit report.

Rosevibe points out that this interactive behavior is very much like sex. She writes:

Certainly no argument here. Getting a comment or an incoming link is always much appreciated, and we’re constantly kicking around ideas to make our blogs better. Her point is mostly that blogging about blogging is similar to sex.

I don’t know if I totally buy into that, but the interactive discussions and link sharing certainly have some resemblance. It’s an interesting point anyhow.

In that vein, Something Awful has an entire series of Photoshoped up children’s book covers. “Buddy’s Big Surprise” was my favorite, but there are 10 pages of them. Most are safe for work, but not all.

Ignoring her despicable treatment of Dean, and the fact that she is simply not electable, it also turns that she was on the Walmart board of directors from 1986 to 1992. That’s right, Walmart. The company that has a rich and illustrious history of discrimination, human rights violations, paying miserably low wages, destroying local environments, locking employees inside its stores, invading residential neighborhoods, creating traffic congestion, noise and light pollution, contributing to urban sprawl, and censoring the books, DVDs and videos it sells.

Hillary Clinton with the Walmart Board of Directors

It makes you wonder doesn’t it? If she spent time on the board of a company that refuses to pay employee benefits and violently crushes any attempt for workers to unionize, how would she respond to these issues as President? Not favorably I suspect. I think I’ll vote for a “new” democrat this time. I think I’ll vote Obama.

Every day when I got home from work, I let Lola and Hank (the father) out of the duck coup so they could fly down to our pond and dabble around in the water. As the weeks passed, Lola was less and less inclined to get off her nest, but when she did decide to fly down to the pond she would stay for quite some time.

In my reading about hatching duck eggs, I learned that the hen should really not stay away from the nest for more than about thirty minuets. Since Lola has made repeated sorties lasting longer than a few hours, Courtney and I had all but given up on the prospect of this nest full of eggs hatching. As the book suggested, we would let her sit on the nest for the entire 28 day incubation period, but we were really starting to dread the task of removing the eggs and taking down her nest. Loosing a nest in this way is devastating for a brooding hen, but once you are sure the eggs are not viable, it must be done so that her health will not suffer.

Last Thursday, however, as I was bringing them fresh food and water I decided to check up on the nest. I gently nudged Lola’s wing out of the way to view the eggs, and much to my surprise I saw cracking shells and heard little “peeps” coming from the eggs. I put a small drinker full of fresh water near the nest, along with a little dish of starter crumble in case they hatched while we were away at work.

Friday, I came home from to a very confused looking Lola and a nest full of eggs that were in the process of hatching. Some ducklings were totally free from their shells, while others were just climbing out. All in all, we had 13 ducklings hatch and only four eggs that were not viable. Much to Lola’s dismay, I gently removed the broken egg shells from the nest, but left those that had not hatched in place. By Saturday afternoon she had pushed the four unhatched eggs out of her nest to make room for her sizable brood.

Most of her time is currently spent hovering over the baby ducks to keep them warm, but every hour or so she takes them to the drinker for some water and food.

From a distance, Vermont seems like an idealic place that is pristine, progressive and filled with artists and craftspeople. While this is somewhat true, there are other, less attractive aspects as well. Being a rural state, you tend to get a lot of back woods types that are in love with the idea of “protecting” their property from imagined threats with ridiculously large arsenals of firearms and so on. Still, despite their vast differences, the most radical Vermont communist tends to get along fairly well with the most fiercely patriotic Vermont redneck in ways that you would never think possible. It’s a cool state, but not entirely without its annoyances.

“It was not intended to be taken literally, as its author, Connie M, Meskimen is a Little Rock lawyer known for penning sarcastic letters with tongue planted firmly in cheek.”

Looks like you got us Connie! Apparently the fact that the paper published it caused quite an outrage amongst its readers. Well, at least this explains why the letter was written fairly well. Still, I shudder at the thought of how many neo-conservatives ignoramuses down there must have read it (or tried to read it) and found themselves agreeing, in whole with its premise. Thanks to Murphy for pointing out the Snopes article.

Pople are constantly finding new levels of idiocy, but this Arkansas woman who blames Daylight Savings Time for the hot weather demonstrates a truly stupefying lack of intellect! Connie M. Meskimen is apparently convinced that the hot weather she has been experiencing lately is caused by the fact that Daylight Savings time started about a month early this year. Then, as if this vacuous assertion was not enough, she goes on to surmise that the legislation responsible for moving Daylight Savings ahead on the calendar was a ploy by the “liberal congress” to “make us believe that global warming is a real threat”.

Telling Connie that she needs to check her facts seems mind-numbingly obvious! Aside from her needing to realize that Congress, no matter how liberal, can’t alter the rotation of the Earth, she needs to remember that it was the Republicans that passed this ridiculous legislation!

Anyhow, here is the article:

Prank Letter

If you can’t read the image for some reason, here is the text:

With my miserable 49 mile commute to work every day, I’ve been constantly wishing I had a way to turn my drive into a flight. The Moller Skycar has, of course had me dreaming since I first saw it, but its been vaporware so long that I have all but given up. Furthermore, there is now evidence that the company might be scamming investors, and with a price tag of$500,000 to $1,000,000, I can’t imagine buying one even if they hit showrooms tomorrow.

The Super Sky Cycle made by Butterfly Gyroplane, might just be the ticket though. It can take off and land in just a few feet, making it handy for flying to places that don’t have an airport. It can fly at a top speed of 100 MPH, meaning I could get to work much much faster than the 1 + hour it takes me now. An for the best part, you can fold up the rotors once you land and drive it in motorcycle mode to your final destination! I have to wonder if it will fit into a standard parking space.

My days of driving to work aren’t quite over though… I will still have to save my pennies if I’m going to pony up the $37,195.00 to buy one. Still, the Super Sky Cycle is the most promising alternative to driving I’ve been able to find so far.

Hat Tip: Roderick for the pointer!

Since most would agree that Great Britain and France are at the very least reasonably democratic, questioning this notion will not only make clear Robert Dahl’s theory, but give us a fresh perspective on what Democracy is, hopefully opening our minds to the idea that even the most seemingly democratic countries will inevitably fall short of the democratic ideal some ways. Dahl, in fact, makes the case that there really is no best form of Democracy for every country, and furthermore, that no country throughout history has ever achieved a perfect Democracy. Because of this, he reserves the term “Democracy” to mean an Ideal and perfect Democracy, while using the term “polyarchy” to describe regimes that have strong democratic tendencies.

What then are Dahl’s basic requirements of polyarchy? When considering

this, it is important to think along the lines of a continuum, with all the regimes of the world falling somewhere inbetween perfect Democracy and an authoritarian system of governance. With this is mind, we can begin to look at some of the basic requirements that must be met if the country is to pass Dahl’s litmus test.

First of all, the most basic criteria that Dahl lays out states that in order to be a polyarchy, the system must allow for participation in government by the citizens, and contestation of the government by the citizens. While these two basic rules form a good foundation by themselves, the are far too vague to generate a good model of a county’s government. How then can we make these two concepts of participation and contestation more concrete? To deal with this question, Dahl lays out three “unimpaired opportunities that all full citizens must retain.” First, he remarks that the people must have the right to formulate preferences. Secondly, they must “have the right to signify those preferences to their fellow citizens and the government by individual and collective action.” And finally, they must “have the right to have their preferences weighed without discrimination by the government because of the content or source of the preference.” (Dahl p.2). He then goes on to enumerate eight guarantees that a government must grant its citizens if these three opportunities are to be met.

In order for citizens to have the opportunity to formulate preferences, Dahl claims that citizens must have the “the freedom to form and join organizations, the freedom of expression, the right to vote, the right of political leaders to compete for support, and the right to alternative sources of information”. For the opportunity to signify those preferences, citizens must have all the five previously mentioned freedoms as well as two more: “eligibility for public office and free, fair elections.” Finally, if citizens are to have their preferences weighed equally in conduct of government, they must have all seven of the above mentioned rights and freedoms, plus, “the institutions that constitute the government must depend on the votes and other expressions of preferences by the citizens.”

Dahl’s criteria for polyarchy then can be summarized as requiring a government that is brought to power in free and fair elections by as large a percentage of the population it will govern as possible. It must be subordinate to a citizenry that has access to non censored information and is free to speak out against the government it elected. With this in mind, let us now continue our study by shifting out focus to the governmental structures of Great Britain and France to see how well they meet this criteria.

Perhaps the most notable thing abut the government of Great Britain is that while it is officially a constitutional monarchy, it has no written Constitution. While it may seem that this would make for a regime that could be oppressive, it has worked fairly well for The United Kingdom. In fact, it has actually made the British system of government more adaptable that it may have been if its constitution was specifically spelled out (Goodgov). The British election system is a single member district plurality with the Conservative and Labor parties being the most influential (Concise Columbia Encyclopedia: Great Britain). The governmental structure is a bit strange in that the Monarchy has been retained in the form of the Royal Family and House of Lords. The Royal Family has retained only a symbolic role in government, and while the House of Lords, consisting of 1185 members still acts as an ultimate court of appeals and may delay and examine legislation, generally speaking, the monarchy has largely been striped of political influence.

Instead, the real driving force behind British government resides in the House of Commons. This parliamentary body consists of the Prime Minister who is elected by a popular vote, a Cabinet, or who is selected by the Prime Minister, and the members of the House of Commons who are elected from their respective districts in “winner take all” elections.

Knowing the basic format of the British system of governance, we can now begin to put it up against Dahl’s criteria for polyarchy. We will start by asking if British citizens are free to “formulate their own preferences.” Generally, it would seem that the answer to this question is yes, but let us look at this question using the five qualifiers that Dahl lays out. (1) Do the people have the right to form and join organizations? While The United Kingdom is officially a two party system, the existence of small parties such as the Liberal Democrats and the fact that people are free to join unions shows us that British citizens are relatively free to form and join organizations. (2) Is there freedom of expression? While British citizens typically choose not to partake in demonstration, they do enjoy, for the most part the freedom of expression. Even in the event of a riot such as in 1911 where two rioters were killed, the British government tends to be careful about protecting this freedom (The People’s Chronology: Human Rights and social Justice. 1911). (3) Do the people have the right to vote? While there are always many factors affecting the issue of suffrage, I think it can be said that generally The United kingdom has been fairly inclusive about who is able to vote. Historically, there has been problems such as an immigration act in 1968 that excluded thousands of Asians in Kenya from official citizenship, but with the downfall of British colonialism, these problems have largely gone away, leaving for the most part, universal suffrage (The People’s Chronology: Population, 1968). (4) Are political leaders free to compete for support? Parties in the United Kingdom are fairly strong, and it is usually them who decides who will run for public office in a certain district. This does not look good from Dahl’s perspective. Technically, the citizenry is free to run for office, but without party backing, it becomes almost impossible to win. However, while the British system does fall short in this area, it is important to remember that we are not holding The United Kingdom to the Democratic ideal, but rather to the expectations of polyarchy which automatically assumes the system will be at the very least slightly undemocratic in some ways. And finally, (5) are the people free to alternative sources of information? The answer to this, I think can best be illustrated by the recent events surrounding the death of Princess Diana. Clearly, if censorship was a problem, the news and tabloids would not have had nearly as much publishing freedom as they did during this traumatic time. Therefore, I believe it is safe to say that British citizens are very free to alternative sources of information.

This brings us to the question of weather or not British citizens “have the right to signify those preferences to their fellow citizens by individual and collective action (Dahl p. 2).” As mentioned above, for a citizenry to have this right, they must have all five of the above mentioned qualifiers in addition to two more. (6) Is the common citizen eligible to run for public office? Again, we run into the same problem with this question as we ran into with question four. The political parties have become such a force in Great Britain that it is virtually impossible to win without their support. Technically, however, the average citizen is eligible to run for office, albeit, if they wish to win, they must follow tradition by climbing up the party ladder. And (7), are there free and fair elections? Largely, the answer to this question is yes. There really is no problem with the government tampering with election results, and except for the trouble with the parties controlling who runs for office, the elections are free.

Lastly, the question remains if these preferences are “weighed equally in the conduct of government with no discrimination because of the content or source of the preference. ” Again, for this to be the case, all seven of the above mentioned qualifiers must be present, plus the policy making institutions must depend on “votes and other expressions of preference (Dahl p. 3).” In large part, this is the case. Both the Prime Minister and the members of the House of Commons are popularly elected in free, fair elections, and as a check on the Prime Minister’s powers, the members of the House of Commons may call for a vote of censure, and if the Prime Minister doesn’t get a majority, he must resign. There is, however a significant hindrance to this qualifier. While the citizens of Northern Ireland must live under British rule, they don’t feel that they are represented, and in large part do not participate in the governmental system. Because of this, the elected officials aren’t really accountable to the people in Northern Ireland This does Present a problem from the standpoint of representation.

By looking at Great Britain from the perspective of Dahl’s three requirements and their eight respective qualifiers, we see that indeed, this country definitely does not meet the criteria for a pure Democracy. It falls short most notably in the areas of who may run for office with a reasonable chance of winning, and in the fact that the people living in Northern Ireland are not well represented. Another strike against the United kingdom is the fact that the Prime Minister may declare a state of emergency, suspending human rights. It is, however clear that The United Kingdom does meet most of the criteria by a fairly large margin, and falls well inside the confines of polyarchy

To put this into perspective, let us now look at France’ s government using the same formula. Unlike The United kingdom, France has been relatively unstable throughout history. Because it was so bloody and no real defined Democracy emerged, the French Revolution is thought of by many to be “incomplete.” On average, France has had a new government implemented every eighteen years, and it wasn’t until 1958 that the current government (the Fifth Republic) emerged (Hollifield and Ross p. 43).

France is a mix between a Parliamentary and Presidential system. This is because historically, the legislature had been to powerful and it was thought that if a President was brought into the system and made the dominant government official, it would serve as a check to the power of the legislature. The President serves terms of seven years and can be re-elected. He is the only popularly elected official and is responsible for appointing the Prime Minister and the “government”, or Council of Ministers. His powers include being able to devolve the National Assembly and Council of Ministers, propose referendums, and force Parliament to re-consider legislation. Unofficially, he also may use his party ties to control Parliament and get them to dismiss Cabinet Ministers. The Parliament is a legislative, bicameral body that has the power to debate legislation, as well as to use a vote of censure, ousting the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

How well then does France measure up to these three requirements? Are French citizens free to formulate preferences? Again, let us determine this by looking at the five qualifiers that Dahl lays out. (1) Are French citizens free to “form and join organizations”? Well, like The United Kingdom, France has a number of minor parties, and unions. Also, French citizens may join interest groups. This demonstrates that indeed, they are free to form and join organizations. (2) Do the French have freedom of expression? The answer to this question is a resounding yes! In fact, it is not uncommon to see them partaking in political street demonstrations. (3) Do they have the right to vote? While much of the government is appointed by the President, the executive himself and the members of Parliament are in fact elected, so the answer to this question is yes as well. However, historically, France has passed laws such as the one in 1850 which discriminated against radical workers who “tended to be migratory,” by requiring that people live in one place for three years in order to vote (The People’s Chronology: Human Rights and Social Justice, 1850). (4) Do political leaders have the right to compete for support? Yes. In fact, because France uses an electoral system of proportional representation, small parties have more opportunity to compete with the larger parties than in Great Britain. (And finally (5) do the French have access to alternate sources of information? While there are certainly areas where the French government holds information back from the citizens (all governments do to a certain extent), the French tend to be fairly liberal, and thus put a high priority on being open to alternative sources of information. There is also a wide range of political ideals in France which shows us that the French government has, in general, been fairly good about not censoring information.

It seems that France has done fairly well with Dahl’s first requirement; let us now see if French citizens are free to signify those preferences. As before, if this next requirement is to be met, the first five qualifiers must be true along with (6) eligibility for public office and (7) free, fair elections. Eligibility for public office does poses a bit of a problem for polyarchy. In France, it is decided at an early age if a child is to go to college or not, and without a college education, a person can not be prepared for a career in public office. If the opportunity for an education is taken away from a person, that person is, for all intensive purposes, not allowed to run for public office. France does, however, do better with question seven, and elections are, for the most part free and fair.

Finally, this leaves us with the last of Dahl’s three requirements: Are the citizen’s preferences “weighed equally in the conduct of the government, without discrimination because of the content or source of the preference?” This leaves us with the eighth and final qualifier: Do the governmental institutions responsible for making policy depend on votes and other expression of preference? Again, the answer to this question leaves us in the gray area. The President, most definitely is directly accountable to the people as he is publicly elected, but the Cabinet and Council of Ministers also play in important role in government and they are merely appointed by the President. Furthermore, while the Parliament is an elected body, the fact that France uses proportional representation means that the members who run for office are chosen by their respective parties, and thus are more subordinate to those parties than the people who elected them.

Like the United Kingdom, France is far from a perfect Democracy. In fact, it seems to me that the areas where France falls short are a great deal more important to polyarchy than those where the United Kingdom is lacking. Most importantly is the fact that a large percentage of the French population may not so much as hope to run for public office. While it may do wonders for their educational system to allow only those who prove themselves at an early age to attend college, it is, without a doubt a remarkably important undemocratic feature of their social system, and frankly it worries me. Nonetheless, in large part, France does meet most of the criteria that Dahl lays out, and while in my opinion it is less of a polyarchy than Great Britain, it still seems to fall within the confines of polyarchy.

In this study, we have looked at Dahl’s criteria for polyarchy, and applied this criteria to both The United Kingdom and France, comparing the results to see the areas where they hold with Dahl’s formula for polyarchy as well as those where they break from it. Finally, I have briefly described why I have concluded that France is further from complete polyarchy on our continuum than Great Britain. Hopefully, this study has succeeded in taking the abstract ideas of Robert Dahl, and by applying them to two familiar countries, made them seem a little more concrete.

Works Cited

Dahl, Robert. Polyarchy; Participation and opposition. New Haven: Yale University

Press, 1995

Hollifield, James and Ross, George. Searching for the new France. New York:

Routledge, 1991

Publishing Staff. “CD-ROM: Microsoft Bookshelf 1996. Concise Columbia Encyclopedia

Licensed by: Columbia University Press, 1885

Publishing Staff. “The current constitution of Great Britain” Goodgov on the web.

Plymouth State College Internet. 13 October. 1997. Available:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rrt1001/goodgov/node2.html

Publishing Staff. “CD-ROM: Microsoft Bookshelf 1996 The People’s Chronology.

Licensed by: Holt and Company, 1994

© Cliff R. Pearson

14, October 1997

All rights reserved

While the skin is not actually burned, the sensation is very painful, and can only be tolerated for a few seconds. The focused beam can be directed at targets at a range of just under half a kilometer, or 500 yards, making it a great tool to use on nonviolent protesters or just about anyone who would speak out against the all-mighty government.

I, in my undying lust to find new and exciting ways prevent the police state from exercising its Orwellian control over the public, find myself delighted to tell you how to defeat this system. As anyone who has taken a physics class can tell you, electromagnetic radiation can not penetrate a conductor. This is how a microwave works… Inside your nukerator is all kinds of EM radiation, but the little metal mesh on the front of the door keeps it inside and prevents you from cooking yourself.

Knowing this, we can come up with a host of ways to defeat the Active Denial System. You could create a wire-mesh shield, and bring it with you to your protest. This would work fine, but the mesh would have to be VERY tight, as the ADS delivers a much higher frequency wavelength at 95GHz than the measly 2450 MHz (a wavelength of 12.24 cm) that your microwave uses. You could line your jacket and pants with tin foil – remembering of course that you must also protect your face and neck.

You get the idea, simply put a mesh or sheet of conductive material between yourself and the ADS, and you win… Have fun storming the castle!

As Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens walked out of the Charlestown District Court yesterday, they completely disarmed the media in the most artful way I have ever seen! They would talk about 70’s style haircuts, and only 70’s style haircuts. These are the guys who were arrested for putting up trowies around Boston that depicted an advertisement for “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” on Adult Swim.

The police, in their infinite draconian wisdom, thought the light-bright type images were bombs, and promptly overreacted, freaked out, and shut down entire sections of the city. What fools! This same publicity stunt was carried out in 10 other cities, but Boston officials were the only ones to panic.

Tracy O’Connor, 34, a retail manager, called Boston’s response “silly and insane,” contrasting it with the response in the other cities where no one reported any concerns about the devices – an advertising gimmick for the TV show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

“We’re the laughing stock,” she said.

I could not agree more. It’s this kind of paranoid mentality that truly takes away our freedom and is ruining our country. We have become afraid of our own shadows!

UPDATE: Make has some nice detail images of the actual devices that these guys installed, as well as some interesting discussion.