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Double-dipping.
Dec. 18th, 2006 02:07 amI got in late last night after having a good time being social. I spent the majority of the evening watching Kill Bill v. 2 and the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
welah. And I had the wonderful concoction that he calls “Stuff”. I may have to try my hand at making it myself once or twice and see if I can make it just as good. The time outside and with people lifted my spirits. I needed to get out of the house, obviously. And at some point I’m probably going to go home and enjoy the company of the family. If nothing else, I’ll have people to play with. Either way, now that the semester’s over, I’ve got more time on my hands than before. So you get a double helping of links tonight.
I welcomeeurisko97 to the fold, whom I had noticed before, but ran through the standard tests - intelligence capable of passing a Turing Test and some sort of content. Say hello and tell us how you arrived, please. (Eric M. and Fetus-X, perhaps?)
A mouse cage that will keep the cats away. Still amazing what you can build with Lego-type blocks and some programmable objects, isn’t it?
Senator Obama's speech to students at Knox University in 2005. The Senator sounds like he knows what’s happening in the world, and has at least a clue of what needs to happen to ensure that the country stays competitive globally. If he had been speaking here, at say, Detroit, his words would probably ring well with the kids who have seen what happens when an economy gets too dependent on outmoded ways of business, and when it misses the boat on when it’s time to change, and what the rules of the new game are. We may need the Senator’s encouragement more here than anywhere else in the country. Unless, through some magic, the American auto industry manages to reinvent itself into something for the new world. They’re slowly adapting - I think at least one of the Big Three has a hybrid vehicle out now - but they really need to dive in headfirst into the new world if they want to keep the state afloat and be able to provide for their workers.
In terms of the developing world, though, there’s a lot more we could be doing.2dlife strikes again and sends me a New York Times article asking: What Should a Billionaire Give - and What Should You? Once all the numbers get crunched, if everyone gave what those recommendations were, we could meet the goals of several of the UN’s programmes and then some. I think that’s even just the top 10% of the American populace. If we leave international aid to them and figure out a good way to get another swath to take care of things domestically, maybe we could build ourselves a great country and a great world, leveraging our power for good and for awesome, rather than for Haliburton and the oil fields. It’s a thought. Of course, when it comes to me, I will somewhat sheepishly point at my loans and other expenses, and say “We’ll see what I have left.” What really should happen is that I should have some part of the money just taken out and given to the charitable cause, and learn to live on significantly less than I’m earning.
The U.S. Geological Survey has more restrictive publishing rules, ostensibly designed to ensure the highest-quality materials being released, but which also gives the government an eye over what’s coming out of the agency. I wonder if it will have to be brought into line with the party policy before it will be allowed to be published. Considering the EPA’s library system is being closed down, perhaps this is a new target to stifle information that’s not government-friendly. Or maybe it really is supposed to ensure higher-quality research. We’ll see what comes out of the USGS in the future.
A disruptive five-year old is handcuffed by police after striking the assistant principal. I say it this way because I suspect this may have been one in a series of events. Not that I’m necessarily excusing the use of the handcuffs on the five-year old. From the sound of the report, though, the child probably needed to be restrained in some way before causing significant injury. If it took the police, I wonder what sort of policy was in place to prevent the teachers from handling it by themselves.
Military exercises preparing for domestic insurgency? Northern California, as a training ground for spy planes and update urban operations exercises, just in case the populace gets antsy. Nevermind Posse Comitatus, which might be just one more violation of law in a long series. Although, with the way the war is going in Iraq, I have to wonder where they’ll find military and/or National Guard to put these plans into operation. Will we instead be subjected to a “shock and awe” campaign of our own?
McFleece in the fabric store. I agree with the poster - what are people doing with this kind of stuff?
A reminder to all of us, men and women - Rape is not a compliment. Nor does it happen just to beautiful people, nor are they “inviting it upon themselves” through their behavior or their looks. Rape is not about beauty, but control. No consent means rape. Period. And to some degree, Shakespeare’s Sister tells us, the media is at fault, because in movies and television and romance novels, the girls always give in, and while they don’t necessarily consent, they always enjoy themselves. I somehow doubt that a real rape is anything like that. As I said a very long time ago, the existence of a group such as Men Against Violence Against Women baffles me, because it says that there are enough men who aren’t against violence that it needs to be brought up into the public consciousness. What kind of people are we, that we need something like that?
Moving away from that topic into the “offended at all things not perfectly reverent of our religion” department, we see that out of WorldNetDaily, which probably gives you an idea about the quality of the material, some people are a little upset the Charlie Sheen reworded Joy to the World to talk about, of all things, sex. Those with bingo cards, mark “Making fun of Christmas”, “talking about sex”, and “irreverence” off your Wingnut War on Christmas Bingo card. Really, though, all this is probably good for is a laugh. Something perhaps less laughable is this sequence of links designed you make you shout the same thing after reading them: Christ, what a bunch of assholes! (Some examples - the e-mail sent from a defeated Christian politician to his Hindu victor - a come to Jesus e-mail, and an entire sequence of Exposing the Atheist “classes” that are basically designed to say how much atheists worship Satan and are all wrong and the like. Christ, what a bunch of assholes.)
Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is... You. Yes, you. And me. And everyone else. The Liberal Eagle comments on this in Pronoun of the Year by noting because of you, for the first time in twelve years, there are Democrats in control of both houses. So, say, Nancy Pelosi, or Howard Dean might be good choices, for orchestrating or leading the Democratic takeover. After all, when the Republicans swept in in 1994, Newt Gingrich was Time’s Person of the Year. Yet the retaking of the Congress by the Democrats was not only not chosen, it wasn’t even mentioned. And people complain about a liberal bias in media.
Could I get some more data on this, please? From the two articles I have, it appears that someone from the UK went into NASA databases that had blank passwords, looked about, and is now facing a possible prison term. I don’t know if there was anything actually taken or damaged, but this looks like a possible embarrassment cover-up - since someone decided not to secure the servers with passwords, whose fault it is if someone goes in and looks around?
IGN's Top 25 Videogame Franchises. The expected people are at the top, both in terms of significant longevity across consoles, but also in terms of sheer legions of fanpersons. It’s in some of the lower numbers that you might have some disputes. Even then, looking over the list, I wonder how many franchises aren’t captured by this list... usually there’s a game. Perhaps a sequel, but rarely more than two games for any particular series. Those that last longer, and transition well to different consoles are the winners, really.
The last bit for tonight, I’m not sure what to make of. Whether it was an unsubtle hint, a mere pointing-out, or the beginning of some sort of dastardly campaign against the overuse of old material, but2dlife linked me to a list of Big, Bad, Blog Clichés (actual title Bad Lingo: Blog-Media Clichés), and I notice that I’ve used a pretty significant number of the things on the list. The question now is whether to treat it seriously and try to scrub my postings of such passé material, or to raise two middle fingers high in salute and say, “It’s my way, yo. I’ll do what I want.” or some other phrase that incorporates as many of those list items as possible.
welah. And I had the wonderful concoction that he calls “Stuff”. I may have to try my hand at making it myself once or twice and see if I can make it just as good. The time outside and with people lifted my spirits. I needed to get out of the house, obviously. And at some point I’m probably going to go home and enjoy the company of the family. If nothing else, I’ll have people to play with. Either way, now that the semester’s over, I’ve got more time on my hands than before. So you get a double helping of links tonight.I welcome
eurisko97 to the fold, whom I had noticed before, but ran through the standard tests - intelligence capable of passing a Turing Test and some sort of content. Say hello and tell us how you arrived, please. (Eric M. and Fetus-X, perhaps?)A mouse cage that will keep the cats away. Still amazing what you can build with Lego-type blocks and some programmable objects, isn’t it?
Senator Obama's speech to students at Knox University in 2005. The Senator sounds like he knows what’s happening in the world, and has at least a clue of what needs to happen to ensure that the country stays competitive globally. If he had been speaking here, at say, Detroit, his words would probably ring well with the kids who have seen what happens when an economy gets too dependent on outmoded ways of business, and when it misses the boat on when it’s time to change, and what the rules of the new game are. We may need the Senator’s encouragement more here than anywhere else in the country. Unless, through some magic, the American auto industry manages to reinvent itself into something for the new world. They’re slowly adapting - I think at least one of the Big Three has a hybrid vehicle out now - but they really need to dive in headfirst into the new world if they want to keep the state afloat and be able to provide for their workers.
In terms of the developing world, though, there’s a lot more we could be doing.
2dlife strikes again and sends me a New York Times article asking: What Should a Billionaire Give - and What Should You? Once all the numbers get crunched, if everyone gave what those recommendations were, we could meet the goals of several of the UN’s programmes and then some. I think that’s even just the top 10% of the American populace. If we leave international aid to them and figure out a good way to get another swath to take care of things domestically, maybe we could build ourselves a great country and a great world, leveraging our power for good and for awesome, rather than for Haliburton and the oil fields. It’s a thought. Of course, when it comes to me, I will somewhat sheepishly point at my loans and other expenses, and say “We’ll see what I have left.” What really should happen is that I should have some part of the money just taken out and given to the charitable cause, and learn to live on significantly less than I’m earning.The U.S. Geological Survey has more restrictive publishing rules, ostensibly designed to ensure the highest-quality materials being released, but which also gives the government an eye over what’s coming out of the agency. I wonder if it will have to be brought into line with the party policy before it will be allowed to be published. Considering the EPA’s library system is being closed down, perhaps this is a new target to stifle information that’s not government-friendly. Or maybe it really is supposed to ensure higher-quality research. We’ll see what comes out of the USGS in the future.
A disruptive five-year old is handcuffed by police after striking the assistant principal. I say it this way because I suspect this may have been one in a series of events. Not that I’m necessarily excusing the use of the handcuffs on the five-year old. From the sound of the report, though, the child probably needed to be restrained in some way before causing significant injury. If it took the police, I wonder what sort of policy was in place to prevent the teachers from handling it by themselves.
Military exercises preparing for domestic insurgency? Northern California, as a training ground for spy planes and update urban operations exercises, just in case the populace gets antsy. Nevermind Posse Comitatus, which might be just one more violation of law in a long series. Although, with the way the war is going in Iraq, I have to wonder where they’ll find military and/or National Guard to put these plans into operation. Will we instead be subjected to a “shock and awe” campaign of our own?
McFleece in the fabric store. I agree with the poster - what are people doing with this kind of stuff?
A reminder to all of us, men and women - Rape is not a compliment. Nor does it happen just to beautiful people, nor are they “inviting it upon themselves” through their behavior or their looks. Rape is not about beauty, but control. No consent means rape. Period. And to some degree, Shakespeare’s Sister tells us, the media is at fault, because in movies and television and romance novels, the girls always give in, and while they don’t necessarily consent, they always enjoy themselves. I somehow doubt that a real rape is anything like that. As I said a very long time ago, the existence of a group such as Men Against Violence Against Women baffles me, because it says that there are enough men who aren’t against violence that it needs to be brought up into the public consciousness. What kind of people are we, that we need something like that?
Moving away from that topic into the “offended at all things not perfectly reverent of our religion” department, we see that out of WorldNetDaily, which probably gives you an idea about the quality of the material, some people are a little upset the Charlie Sheen reworded Joy to the World to talk about, of all things, sex. Those with bingo cards, mark “Making fun of Christmas”, “talking about sex”, and “irreverence” off your Wingnut War on Christmas Bingo card. Really, though, all this is probably good for is a laugh. Something perhaps less laughable is this sequence of links designed you make you shout the same thing after reading them: Christ, what a bunch of assholes! (Some examples - the e-mail sent from a defeated Christian politician to his Hindu victor - a come to Jesus e-mail, and an entire sequence of Exposing the Atheist “classes” that are basically designed to say how much atheists worship Satan and are all wrong and the like. Christ, what a bunch of assholes.)
Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is... You. Yes, you. And me. And everyone else. The Liberal Eagle comments on this in Pronoun of the Year by noting because of you, for the first time in twelve years, there are Democrats in control of both houses. So, say, Nancy Pelosi, or Howard Dean might be good choices, for orchestrating or leading the Democratic takeover. After all, when the Republicans swept in in 1994, Newt Gingrich was Time’s Person of the Year. Yet the retaking of the Congress by the Democrats was not only not chosen, it wasn’t even mentioned. And people complain about a liberal bias in media.
Could I get some more data on this, please? From the two articles I have, it appears that someone from the UK went into NASA databases that had blank passwords, looked about, and is now facing a possible prison term. I don’t know if there was anything actually taken or damaged, but this looks like a possible embarrassment cover-up - since someone decided not to secure the servers with passwords, whose fault it is if someone goes in and looks around?
IGN's Top 25 Videogame Franchises. The expected people are at the top, both in terms of significant longevity across consoles, but also in terms of sheer legions of fanpersons. It’s in some of the lower numbers that you might have some disputes. Even then, looking over the list, I wonder how many franchises aren’t captured by this list... usually there’s a game. Perhaps a sequel, but rarely more than two games for any particular series. Those that last longer, and transition well to different consoles are the winners, really.
The last bit for tonight, I’m not sure what to make of. Whether it was an unsubtle hint, a mere pointing-out, or the beginning of some sort of dastardly campaign against the overuse of old material, but
2dlife linked me to a list of Big, Bad, Blog Clichés (actual title Bad Lingo: Blog-Media Clichés), and I notice that I’ve used a pretty significant number of the things on the list. The question now is whether to treat it seriously and try to scrub my postings of such passé material, or to raise two middle fingers high in salute and say, “It’s my way, yo. I’ll do what I want.” or some other phrase that incorporates as many of those list items as possible.
