TBWAIN - AKA Jeff Svare's Blog

It's time to confess something. I've been trying to avoid it, but I can't. Everyone's talking about it, and I've been thinking about it. So I'm going to do something about it. I'm gonna talk. All the uproar about changing the health care system has just been divisive. I don't honestly think that I can trust any solution the government puts forward. Really, what is the government's track record on making things better? Let me be clear: no one should loose their homes to pay their medical bills. Costs are outrageous, and many people don't have access to care they need. Making people "realize" the costs of healthcare by making their insurance payments doesn't make them less likely to need medical care. Hello, does anyone else realize this? Who wants to contract a major illness that disrupts their life and plunges them into debt? No one elects illness. Instead of this major overhaul, let's start with something smaller. Let...

Yes, indeed it is. Last Thursday we got fifteen copies of How the Grinch Stole Christmas in. And this wasn't our first receipt of Christmas books, either. And on Monday they started putting red lights on the Lebanese Cedar on Temple Square. Today's high in Salt Lake City--a balmy 96 degrees Farenheit. Ho, Ho, Ho.

Yep, this is another disgruntled post about baseball. This is the first Saturday afternoon I've gotten home before the MLB Game of the Week is scheduled to start. The possible matchups: Cardinals vs. Phillies, White Sox vs. Tigers, and the Twins vs. Angels. If you look over to the column at the left, you will see that I live in Utah, just 20 minutes north of Salt Lake City. We have a AAA baseball team here that is affiliated with the Angels, the Salt Lake Bees . You'd think some programmer would make note of that. Wrong . What do we get to see? St. Louis @ Philadelphia. Yeah, Salt Lake is such a National League town. I wonder if the decision was made by our local Fox station ? I hope not, because this way I can attribute it to some nameless suit in a boardroom somewhere, and not someone who's supposed to know about sports locally. It's interesting to note that we are in the Colorado Rockies broadcasting area. But we don't get any of their games on radio or te...

Within days of releasing pictures of the newest regeneration of the Doctor , the fashion police are critiquing his wardrobe. Read about it in BBC News Magazine . Interesting how comments on changes to the Tardis have been rather quiet.

I was glued to the television in our apartment on the south side of Fargo watching Neil Armstrong take that "one small step." NASA's Apollo 11 40th Anniversary site. NASA's Apollo 11 multimedia library . Just one more of those "where were you when" moments.

Anthony DiComo, MLB.com's beat writer for the Yankees said it concisely: For the first time since 2003, the Yanks swept the Twins in a season series. You can read all about it at this link . At least the Twins won't have to play the Yankees again this season. So there is a silver lining on this dark cloud. And I hate having to say something nice about the Yankees.

There's a report out from the University of California Davis that states Native Americans are descendants of one ancestral Asian population, rather than the product of multiple migrations. "Our work provides strong evidence that, in general, Native Americans are more closely related to each other than to any other existing Asian populations, except those that live at the very edge of the Bering Strait. While earlier studies have already supported this conclusion, what’s different about our work is that it provides the first solid data that simply cannot be reconciled with multiple ancestral populations." The results of the study show there is a genetic marker called the "9-repeat allele" that was found in 41 populations tested from Alaska to Chile. Their conclusion is "that the most straightforward explanation for the distribution of the 9-repeat allele was that all modern Native Americans, Greenlanders and western Beringians descend from a common founding ...

Treat your staff like they are stupid. Whenever you want to get get feedback from "the best in the business" — don't ask anyone on your staff for their input. This proves you are superior to them as you don't suffer from the same preconceptions (understanding the scope of the project), prejudices (experience), or lack of vision (ideas on how to make things better).

No, not Lego Christmas — Christus . As in Bertel Thorvaldsen 's iconic masterwork . But this one isn't marble, plaster, or even fiberglass. It's made out of Legos. 30 thousand Legos. The parish priest, Per Wilder, started the project in the fall of 2007, and received help in building it from members of the community as well as students from the local school. I've had the opportunity to see the original in Vor Frue church in Copenhagen, and the plaster model at the Thorvaldsen Museum . Here's a link to the article (with more pictures) in Aftonbladet . A Google map showing the location of the church is here . Just in case you want to drop by and see it.

I was checking my Facebook notifications tonight and saw this surprising item listed there. I'm fairly certain that the POTUS and I aren't cousins, but I had to check, just in case I had missed something. So I looked, and what did I find? This: No. I don't think so. I'm so glad Wednesday was April Fool's Day . Otherwise, I may have had cause to worry.

Lock Edward Liddy in a room with Chuck Norris .

... and I've thought of lots of witty things to say, but never had the chance to put them down in print. Or what passes for print in this electronic medium. But right now, I'm tired. And I think I'll go to bed and dream of the upcoming baseball season. But I discovered today that Google Books has issues of Baseball Digest online!

Cnet news has a photostory on the new Porsche museum that's scheduled to open 31 January 2009. The museum's website is not to be missed. If you want to see what the site looked like while it was under construction, Google maps can help you here.

I was reading an AP story by Terence Hunt this morning about the historic election of Barack Hussein Obama. As I was reading it, I couldn't help but read between the lines of what was being said by others about this. Barack Obama : "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep." The read: It's harder to effect change than simply going around and saying, "It's time for a change!" Reality bites, don't it? Barack Obama : "We may not get there in one year or even in one term ... But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there." The read: OK, so where exactly are we going? Afghan President Hamid Karzai : "This is my first demand of the new president of the United States _ to put an end to civilian casualties." The read: OK, keep your promise, pull the troops out. That was easy. Let's see Karzai stay in power without the US to back hi...

I have, this night, exercised my constitutional right to franchise and voted. I stood in line for 20 minutes to do it, and counted it time well spent. So, if you want a right to complain about the election results, make sure you vote. And to the person who said, " For the first time in years, I'm voting with hope. " I say, don't worry, you'll get over it. No matter how partisan the politicians are, I am always amazed at how much more partisan the electorate can be. God bless America!

From Reuters News Service : Ex-president Carter slams Bush on market crisis "Former President Jimmy Carter said on Friday the "atrocious economic policies" of the Bush administration had caused the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s." And Jimmy would know. He was President during a period of double-digit inflation, an unstable housing market, a foreclosure rate that approached that of the great depression, the spectre of war with Russia and Iran, and what was lovingly referred to as "the malaise" even though he never used that word in his speech. "Carter told reporters on a stopover in Brussels that "profligate spending," massive borrowing and dramatic tax cuts since President George W. Bush took office in 2001 were behind the market turmoil and economic crisis. "I think it's because of the atrocious economic policies of the Bush administration," said the 84-year-old Democrat, who served in t...

On 15 September 2008 Rick Wright, keyboardist for Pink Floyd, passed away due to cancer. His influence on Pink Floyd's style was considerable, if not underappreciated. The BBC News report can be found here . Wish you were here .

Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, has been commissioned to write the sixth (and maybe final) book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Doug Adams, who died in 2001, stated once that he thought there should be a sixth book written, because "Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number." The book, entitled And Another Thing... is scheduled for publication in October 2009.

Or, how to make the people think they have a choice, without letting them know they don't. London's mayor, Boris Johnson, has been asking people their opinion on a pressing issue. When one woman responded with her choice, he responded, "me too!". Sir Antony Jay , CVO , creator of Yes, Minister , thinks its all for show. And he's right, I'm sure. Read about it here .

After three flights (Helsinki to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to Reykjavik, and Reykjavik to Minneapolis), I'm finally back where it feels like home! I love Minnesota ! Tomorrow I'll be home in Utah, where it's going to be much warmer than the places I have been.