Whoa, where did the time go?

Today was spent mostly making revisions to the paper that accompanies the presentation going on on Tuesday. I am thus meeting with my project partner tomorrow to go over the last bits, write up the last report, and then do the slide construction thing. We’ll do pretty well on it, I suspect. When I wasn’t working on the paper and having my word processor crash on me repeatedly, I went to see a performance on Electronic Civil Disobedience, net.artists, on-line Zapatisas, and other such interesting things. It wasn’t necessarily completely understandable, but that was part of the idea. It’s really all about Mayan technology, anyway.

Anyway, because it’s already later than it should be and I need to get in order, let’s get on with the linkies, which I suppose could be likened to the presents for the season. Yeah, that’s what I’ll say. Maybe I’ll believe it, too.

The holiday-season link for tonight is the crucified Santa, which may go well with greyweirdo‘s Christmas Noir story. What, however, takes the cake, and makes me laugh big, is The Pentacle versus the Nativity: A Cage Match in the Making, which is basically a holiday-celebrating Pagan with a gigantic pentacle in the decorations living next door to a holiday-celebrating Fundie, complete with nativity set. This could be better than the brawl for all. I hope this blogger keeps an eye on this as it develops. Unfortunately, no pictures.

Another fine upstanding example of good Christian behavior can be found in a Houston suburb that didn't want a mosque built near them. To their credit, most of their concerns seemed not to be religious in nature. To their detriment, there were still some wingnuts. Luckily for all, it seems to have resolved quietly and peacefully. (Surprisingly enough - perhaps there are some sane people left in this country.)

It appears that once I put up one example of a very silly behavior, other examples gravitate toward my informants. And thus, I have, to the everlasting shame of the person who made this story happen, a story of a four year old accused of sexually harassing a teacher's aide. I think I have to retract the “some” part of the above statement. There are sane people. I just can’t say how many anymore.

Strummer's Law, or how the Counterculture Gets Co-Opted. Pretty interesting to revisit after the presentation today, which suggests that there’s no outside space, but there are niches inside that can be taken over by the alter-culture minded.

Critiquing the critiquers - Time Out New York rates the critics. Well, we knew this would happen eventually. And it might not actually be a bad guide to have, so that you can figure out who’s influential and who’s actually good.

Earthlink users, be aware - your ISP has been losing 90% of your e-mail for a long time now. Poor service tends to have very negative repercussions. Is anyone still using Earthlink?

Two African-American gentlemen escape a rap by performing a rap. Now, I’ve got an idea as to why people might be outraged at this, and there are people outraged. But I’m not fully aware why. Is it because there was an unexpressed racial stereotype that happened there, or what?

Pushing the boundaries of science (SCIENCE!) further, chewable birth control (spearmint flavor) will be on the markets soon. I don’t really have any witty remarks that I’m willing to say on that. So I’ll distract you with more wonders of nanotech - nanomuscles that are about 100 times human muscle strength in per-area strength, yet a fraction of human muscle size (the original article title just says “100x human muscle”, so there’s a bit of deception in the title), and micro-algae serving as templates for possible nanomaterial construction. Insert Moore’s Law remark here, I guess. Going even smaller than that, scientists may have found an axion - a no-charge, very tiny, very low mass particle with a sub-nanosecond lifetime. Something that small and that short had better not be just a blip in the sensors. We’ll see. If it hold up, people think that the axion might be responsible for “dark matter”, which would probably then become “matter so very small and quick you can’t really see it.”

After being trained in Iraq, the soldiers will put it to use as the gang members they were before, according to W. S. Lind. After receiving such high-tech training and how to spot, defend, and possibly use IED and low-tech warfare, when they get home, those who would be on the other side of law will probably not hesitate to use that training to their own ends. Which could mean the terrorists of tomorrow are the soldiers of today. At least their victims don’t have to worry about the assailants having the Giant Swiss Army Knife to use. Those people who want to come back may be there a long time, though - it appears that Mr. Bush believes that wanting to win means that winning follows automatically. If wanting to win guaranteed victory, well, I’d be a lot more successful in life.

The high school social order, all in one note. Ah, the joys of a caste system imposed by and large by people who don’t have a clue. So, to all those nerds, geeks, and unpopular folk, yes, they are conspiring against you, and yes, they now are putting down documented proof of the matter. Good luck on finding it or getting it shown to you, but it’s there.

For the grammarians, or those interested in new punctuation, check out the history and usage of the Interrobang, which is what you should do when you want to go “?!” Which might describe the best reaction to the knowledge that O RLY has his own website. Either that, or it’s final proof that as a meme-y thingy, it’s dead, Jim.

Fonts for your handbills, elegant cursive, or odd printing types. Most of them look rather good, and some remind me of those kidnap notes made out of magazine cuttings.

My musical talents laugh out loud at this series of posters: War Is Peace; Ignorance is Slavery; Major is Minor. The first one’s a real inspirational-type poster. And it sucks. The two after it are far better at being funny, at the very least. Again, my musical self laughs heartily.

Last, but certainly not least, the keepers of lists. The place where Letterman goes for his inspiration. Or something.