Returned!

Have manged to return from Pennsylvania unscarred. There was a cheesesteak consumed, for those that are curious, and, well, mmmmmmmmmmmm. Good stuff. Also got to wander a bit about the Franklin Institute of Science (SCIENCE!), which, naturally, made me revert to my curious child form. Not that this is a bad thing. (I find out that I have a 10-inch vertical with a messenger bag attached to me.) I got to see Temple, which is green grass and students in the middle of the city. Met erinmuse, who is excellent and good to make jokes with, having a similar sense of what is funny, or at least the right follow-up. Can see why annaonthemoon likes her so much. Also, sorry that I missed amenquohi this time around. I note that there is still a significant amount of annaonthemoon's material still here, and that at some point, it will have to be moved. Perhaps getting in on the moving train, either one way or another, will make an excuse for a meeting.

All in all, Philadelphia's a nice place. Although we did encounter a side effect of freedomfreedomFEARFEARFEAR!freedomfreedom when wandering about the outside of the Independence Courtyard - namely lots of barriers and security personnel. Instead, stopped at the museum of the American Philosophical Society. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Also managed to make it through airport security with no incidents - always a good thing. So I'm back. Padded rubgy tomorrow, reading for Tuesday, most likely, on Sunday, and the rest falls into place as it should. Or something like that.

I'm genuinely confused by the actions in the following weblink. Apparently, a BYU professor has been placed on leave because of his views on 9/11. Those views cater more toward the conspiracy side of the theories rather than the terrorist side, and the tone of the writing makes it sound like the professor's pieces may or may not have a scientific backing. With things like the attacks, though, the question as to what is available versus what actually happened and what evidence was there is a possibility. Would be nice, though, to have support before giving much more than an "Mmm. Interesting" to the idea. Getting back to the original point, is the decision to review justifiable?

Earlier, I linked to a speculation about the reality of a Youtube celebrity named Lonelygirl15. That question appears to have been answered. Lonelygirl15 is an actress, playing a part. The mystery surrounding her has been lifted. Now, the question is whether or not people will continue to watch. I think it would take a bigger hook to keep the viewers. Something that would climb the ratings ladder, I suspect.

A speculation that can either make sense or be totally out-of-line, depending on your viewpoints. Chris Floyd suggests that Osama bin Laden free and about is a necessary component to the Bush plan. Someone prove him wrong and bring in bin Laden, either alive or in a body bag? Speaking of politics, I very much like the idea of Political NASCAR, where each candidate must wear the logos of their sponsors.

Confirmation of this? Semantic association part of brain pinpointed? The anterior temporal lobe as the place where words make sense, apparently. Anyone else get something of this?

Transient paper, courtesy of Xerox. For those things that you only need to remember for a short time. Or only need to read for a short time. Perhaps we'll also get to the idea of "this message will fade away" for classified or sensitive documents?

Last whacks! 8 things we learned from 80s cartoons. Funn and true all at the same time.

Saturday spent in idleness

Sunday likely will be spent with JAMS, as there's a meeting there. Although I may come back early if welah gets into town at a reasonable hour. Or I'll do something one way or another or whatever. I still need to poke the library, most likely, and see if the book I need to read for Tuesday is on reserve so that I can read the requisite chapters. In any case, it's schooltime again and the assignments are already on their way, really. Next week should be spent in a blood-frenzy of doing work and deciding whether or not to drop any classes. I don't think I will, though, unless the one class I have yet to experience is unbearable.

Been sitting on this tidbit for a bit because I keep forgetting to put it in - on Thursday, those manning the table of the gaming convention were called "shameful beasts" (the "beasts" part I know is right, the adjective in front is a little fuzzy) because someone inquired about what Warhammer was, and upon being told it was a miniatures wargame, launched into a tirade about how we shouldn't be actively promoting war, as it was bad, and that war was causing all these problems. When she walked past us again, she uttered the "shameful beasts" remark again. We were, to put it accurately, nonplussed yet amused. Miniatures gamers are going to be the first in line to promote the U.S.'s next war and to sign up to fight in it, because they've been brainwashed into believing war is good through playing miniatures. Riiight. That's almost on par with the "Dungeons and Dragons is a front for sex, drugs, rock and roll, and SATAN!" belief.

Today, well, I got to see another piece of history... specifically, the weather did not hold for the football game, and thus, for the first time in stadium history, there was a rain delay. In which, I got soaked. Took the rest of the game to dry out, really. Did take some pictures, though. Maybe when I get ambitious, I'll actually fiddle with the pictures I took and upload/offload them.

Speaking of schooling, a top ten list of no-sympathy lines from the professor. All things that are quite important for both the undergrads and the grad students to learn.

Survivor goes racially-oriented. This is probably not an improvement in race relations, and if it follows the reality-TV style to it, the stereotypes won't really be challenged that much... unless it makes good ratings to do so.

Inflammatory language written into a resolution in Canada, at least according to this particular opinion, "Sorry won't cut it". Asking for a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the crafters point out, quite rightly, then when the enemy is indistinguishable from ordinary citizenry, soldiers act like terrorists themselves, destroying lives and communities. Every mistake made where the citizens are citizens and not terrorists only gives the opposition more credibility. Not that changing the minds of the populace is any easier. Mrrk. Why can't we all just get along? (Anyone who claims stuff about "They hate our freedoms" or other neoconservative fearfear bullshit will be sent out the airlock without an EVA suit.) Oh, yeah, and it's finally confirmed that al-Qaeda and Saddam had nothing to do with each other. In fact, Saddam considered al-Qaeda a threat. So now that we know we've been sold a war on false pretenses, and that our continued presence is based on false pretenses, why don't we stop the carnage and killing, own up to our mistakes, and pay for the repairs rather that the reapers?

Don't trust everything you read, even in the mainstream news, apparently. A pollster has pleaded guilty to making up poll numbers. So what you saw was not necessarily an accurate representation of the American people. Maybe that 30-something percent of people who still approve of the Administration will evaporate as a false statistic, too.

I was linked to a subpage of this organization as another group that has misconceptions about Wicca and most nontraditional religions. And then, well, I went to the homepage to try and suss out if there was some sort of connection between the prominently-displayed website name and the page that rendered. (Be forewarned, very tiny print and obnoxious frames at this site.) The organization itself is named StolenChildren.net, and is apparently dedicated to stopping "non-American parental abduction", where, as I would guess, as part of a divorce proceeding or some legal action, custody is given to the parent that does not reside in the United States, and the children are sent to the foreign country. This is the original link, with the offensive definition of Wicca, apparently started so that Gerald Gardner could justify paedophilia and child sexual abuse. It makes Gardner a Satanist and his work based largely on Crowley. That was a bit of a WTF by itself. As I've noted, though, trying to find the larger context only increases the WTF factor. Some of the links themselves seem to make no sense, either, for a site ostensibly focusing on this "kidnapping" act. I'm trying to see if there's any way I can trace this back to an organization name, and I'm coming up with a blank, really.

In any case, it looks like there's some sort of case going on involving a pair of children and a disputed custody ruling, and then there's also a multitude of misinformation about other various subjects, as if the website creators just wanted to put their opinions on the web along with their case plea. It's missing children mixed with some sort of (at a guess, even though it's never openly stated) some sort of tract against a random set of targets. I'd say it follows a loose nationalist or fundamentalist Christian target distribution, but I'm just puzzled. Maybe someone else can make better sense out of this?

I'm going to bed, then. Tomorrow, I'll try to puzzle out what I want to do about JAMS meetings, shoppings, people moving back in, readings, and other such important stuff.