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Surprisingly, I made it through the week without significant insanities. And apparently, because we honour Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, there’s no class on Monday. Waitasec. At least, I have been told this. I have no idea whether it’s true or not. I should go check the schedule.
Today was a work day, in the sense that I went after one of my written assignments with a vengeance (and found just how hard selecting and combining controlled vocabulary units can be) and completed most of it. I’m going to go check it against paper copy of the book, since I also have to read the introduction to it, too. I think I’m going to wait on trying to attack my next Complex Websites project - at least until I do the reading for it. It’s building on HTML markup and engaging CSS styling to it (so now the real fun starts). After that, though, then it’s about databases, and HTML falls off, and Ruby starts. We’ll see if I can hack programming. I may be asking for some help from any Ruby-knowledgeable people (it’s in a Rails framework, as well) at some point.
Two U.S. citizens engage in the rather interesting act of playing Border Volleyball - the net is the two-story fence separating the United States and Mexico. The beach, as described, doesn’t really seem all that appealing, but there was a game that lasted for an hour before the Border Patrol intervened, at the post-game handshake. I’m not sure what to make of it, other than... interesting. Make of it what you will.
Continuing the weirdness track, Running From Camera is a series of photos where the person sets his camera for a two-second delay and then runs as far away from it as possible. Then posts the results of the pictures. The photographer has been to quite a few places, it looks like.
The Burning Man Founders are in dispute about whether to release the Burning Man trademark into the public domain. They have agreed to arbitration and are trying to settle it civilly, from the looks of things. This is one of those spots where ideology dictates one thing, and knowledge of what the consequences could possibly be suggests another. We’ll see what happens, and whether the feared co-op will occur.
Going way up (all the way up?) to the High Weirdness Project, an update on the Subgenius priestess fighting her custody case - she won custody, after the first judge recused himself, but now is worried that the opposition will simply spirit away with the son if the custody does not turn out acceptably.
With similar randomness, and a bit more property damage (luckily, no loss of life) - The United States Embassy in Greece was damaged by an anti-tank missile. The Greek government is apparently embarrassed that there are still citizens in the country who have sufficient dislike of the United States to obtain a weapon and use it against the embassy. I’m a bit surprised that was the full extent of the violence. Maybe it’s still being generally civilized, even when expressing significant dislike/annoyance/hate. I’m kind of surprised that more embassies aren’t taking heat of some sort, myself. Still, rather random event. Hopefully not a precursor to a bigger, meaner grade of violence.
At home, Condoleezza Rice took a grilling by the newly established senators about the president's Iraq strategy. Beyond that, Ron Kovic lambastes the plan and urges the people to actually go out and do stuff to protest it. At least, those who aren’t part of the percentage that supports the troop increase. Keith Olbermann declares the President as a wolf-crier, and urges him to stop the insanity. With examples and insight, the Daily Kos notes all the ways that the President can ignore, amend, or change privacy laws to do as he pleases with information on U.S. citizens. Scary stuff. While there are no black-hooded gentlemen coming for us (that we know of) at the moment, I’m wondering what the next President will do, whether the oversteppings of the Bush Administration will be shot down and power returned to correct levels, or whether the new President will keep those powers and want to use them for even more ambitious things.
Going from sacrilege against the Decider to blasphemy against his God (well, sort of), here's a piece on how original Jesus is as a god. I’m not sure that the Romans were hip to all the gods or divine beings that are discussed here, but they certainly wanted to know where the Christians had come up with innovation in their religious practices. With the way the Catholic Church continued to borrow from others through much of their history (even up to the present day), those claims of being unoriginal are not necessarily off the mark. Still, I can’t say that too loudly, as there are several people in this world who would willingly disenfranchise me and send me to Jesus camp (assuming they didn’t lynch or shoot me) at the mere mention that Jesus may not have been an original deity-type.
Advancing the street cred of the blogosphere, bloggers are being accorded the same press-pass coverages as regular media in the Scooter Libby case. They can even watch the trial on CCTV and file blog posts and reports on their laptops. Perhaps the blog as journalism is getting some respect. Or maybe it’s that the blog as journalism is big enough for a lot of people that it’s going to become another way of expressing some of the mainstream media’s news. In a fair and balanced way, or not, depending on who’s blogging.
Some new vocabulary for both the kids and the adults to learn - the redux of "Must-Know terms for the 21st Century Intellectual" - with revised and expanded definitions and concepts to ponder for the coming age. In other technological neat stuff, newer artificial skin (grown from natural cells) could have higher antibacterial properties, which means burn victims have greater chances of not getting infections.
Interesting information as well as pretty pictures. It’s a poster series, or rather, a series about posters. Iron Women, Foxy Ladies takes a look at Chinese propaganda posters, through the forming of the PRC, Mao, and the increasing modernization of the world. Lots of gorgeous posters, and while I can’t read a lick of Chinese, I can still follow the progression of imagery. In a sense, I don’t really need the characters to get the point, which speaks to good design. Moving forward, and borrowing some language from MonkeyFilter, because of the one-child policy and preference for boy children, China is going to have 30 million more men of marriageable age than women by 2020, which could make the competition very fierce. Also from the BBC, though, is a story about a mass wedding of polygamous couples in Cameroon. Which led MonkeyFilter to conclude that perhaps some women in Cameroon could be imported into China to assist those eligible bachelors to find a wife. (There was also a comment about how one of Cameroon’s principal imports is rice, and the suggestion of trade talks, but human trafficking is still frowned upon by the United Nations, among others.)
The last piece here is a reinterpretation of the events of Star Wars Episode IV in light of the information gleaned from the first three movies, and paints a significantly darker picture, placing several characters as information-runners and high-level Resistance members all looking out for a good way to whack the Empire, but also keeping a very firm eye on Luke to see whether he goes rogue or not. Because, like it or not, father and kid together could rule the place with an iron fist and then some. A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope suggests that there’s a lot more complexity going on, now that we know the backstory. I’m not sure George envisioned this when he wrote the first movie, but it is fun to read in additional material and see how it meshes.
Which bring us to a question that I thought of a couple days ago and really can’t find a satisfactory answer to. I blame![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greyweirdo‘s influence on this, but I was rehashing an answer I gave to a meme some time ago, where I quoted from the second movie. Ben Kenobi, when approached by the deathstick dealer, does a Jedi mind trick and convinces him not to sell deathsticks and to rethink his life. Other than being a reference to what he will later do with stormtroopers and credentials, it’s also implied that the effects of this trick will be permanent. The deathstick dealer will not return to his old habits. And especially after seeing how Sidious “clouds the future” and uses some aspect of the Dark Side of the Force to get the Senators on board with his plans (Dark Charisma, perhaps?), I have one question.
Why haven’t the Jedi taken over?
Even right at the beginning of Episode I, the Jedi are being used as Republican peace-keepers, investigating and finding resolutions to ugly violence-ridden incidents. They’re obviously smarter, faster, can see into the future, and have the ability to mess with the minds of a certain subset of the galaxy’s races at will. (Watto and his race, along with the Hutts are apparently exceptions. But they can be contained if the amount of races that can be influenced outnumber those that can’t.) There’s other powers too (I can’t recall all of them at the moment, if I ever knew all of them), but really, the Jedi are quite capable of instilling a benevolent dictatorship, galaxy-wide. With the tech level of the Republic and its worlds, from what I see, the populaces can easily be brought into harmony, fed to the gills, have the needs and wants taken care of. All it would take is a nudge or two from the Jedi minds. And then, as we saw demonstrated in Episode II, since the Jedi aren’t above fighting a war or two, if planets near the Jedi Empire (especially on the Outer Rim) start misbehaving, the citizens could be inspired to gladly bring peace through force to the backward countries. In a sense, the Jedi could have done what Palpatine and Vader do, and instead of turning it into a soul-sucking Empire that requires a Rebellion, it could become a multi-planet paradise that would probably have worlds scrambling to join up when they see what sort of place it’s like. They’ve got the stuff to do it with, so why don’t they? I’m pretty sure Jedi could link up and combine their abilities to Mind Trick an entire world into joining up, at least long enough for their Eden to be built, started, and then enjoyed.With each world, the Jedi would have more trainees to then use in bringing in more worlds.
So, what, other than Demands of Plot, or phenomenal stupidity, actually stops the Jedi from taking the best course of action and annexing the Galaxy, bending it to the Jedi way?
Okay, that’s it, I promise. Bedtime now.
Today was a work day, in the sense that I went after one of my written assignments with a vengeance (and found just how hard selecting and combining controlled vocabulary units can be) and completed most of it. I’m going to go check it against paper copy of the book, since I also have to read the introduction to it, too. I think I’m going to wait on trying to attack my next Complex Websites project - at least until I do the reading for it. It’s building on HTML markup and engaging CSS styling to it (so now the real fun starts). After that, though, then it’s about databases, and HTML falls off, and Ruby starts. We’ll see if I can hack programming. I may be asking for some help from any Ruby-knowledgeable people (it’s in a Rails framework, as well) at some point.
Two U.S. citizens engage in the rather interesting act of playing Border Volleyball - the net is the two-story fence separating the United States and Mexico. The beach, as described, doesn’t really seem all that appealing, but there was a game that lasted for an hour before the Border Patrol intervened, at the post-game handshake. I’m not sure what to make of it, other than... interesting. Make of it what you will.
Continuing the weirdness track, Running From Camera is a series of photos where the person sets his camera for a two-second delay and then runs as far away from it as possible. Then posts the results of the pictures. The photographer has been to quite a few places, it looks like.
The Burning Man Founders are in dispute about whether to release the Burning Man trademark into the public domain. They have agreed to arbitration and are trying to settle it civilly, from the looks of things. This is one of those spots where ideology dictates one thing, and knowledge of what the consequences could possibly be suggests another. We’ll see what happens, and whether the feared co-op will occur.
Going way up (all the way up?) to the High Weirdness Project, an update on the Subgenius priestess fighting her custody case - she won custody, after the first judge recused himself, but now is worried that the opposition will simply spirit away with the son if the custody does not turn out acceptably.
With similar randomness, and a bit more property damage (luckily, no loss of life) - The United States Embassy in Greece was damaged by an anti-tank missile. The Greek government is apparently embarrassed that there are still citizens in the country who have sufficient dislike of the United States to obtain a weapon and use it against the embassy. I’m a bit surprised that was the full extent of the violence. Maybe it’s still being generally civilized, even when expressing significant dislike/annoyance/hate. I’m kind of surprised that more embassies aren’t taking heat of some sort, myself. Still, rather random event. Hopefully not a precursor to a bigger, meaner grade of violence.
At home, Condoleezza Rice took a grilling by the newly established senators about the president's Iraq strategy. Beyond that, Ron Kovic lambastes the plan and urges the people to actually go out and do stuff to protest it. At least, those who aren’t part of the percentage that supports the troop increase. Keith Olbermann declares the President as a wolf-crier, and urges him to stop the insanity. With examples and insight, the Daily Kos notes all the ways that the President can ignore, amend, or change privacy laws to do as he pleases with information on U.S. citizens. Scary stuff. While there are no black-hooded gentlemen coming for us (that we know of) at the moment, I’m wondering what the next President will do, whether the oversteppings of the Bush Administration will be shot down and power returned to correct levels, or whether the new President will keep those powers and want to use them for even more ambitious things.
Going from sacrilege against the Decider to blasphemy against his God (well, sort of), here's a piece on how original Jesus is as a god. I’m not sure that the Romans were hip to all the gods or divine beings that are discussed here, but they certainly wanted to know where the Christians had come up with innovation in their religious practices. With the way the Catholic Church continued to borrow from others through much of their history (even up to the present day), those claims of being unoriginal are not necessarily off the mark. Still, I can’t say that too loudly, as there are several people in this world who would willingly disenfranchise me and send me to Jesus camp (assuming they didn’t lynch or shoot me) at the mere mention that Jesus may not have been an original deity-type.
Advancing the street cred of the blogosphere, bloggers are being accorded the same press-pass coverages as regular media in the Scooter Libby case. They can even watch the trial on CCTV and file blog posts and reports on their laptops. Perhaps the blog as journalism is getting some respect. Or maybe it’s that the blog as journalism is big enough for a lot of people that it’s going to become another way of expressing some of the mainstream media’s news. In a fair and balanced way, or not, depending on who’s blogging.
Some new vocabulary for both the kids and the adults to learn - the redux of "Must-Know terms for the 21st Century Intellectual" - with revised and expanded definitions and concepts to ponder for the coming age. In other technological neat stuff, newer artificial skin (grown from natural cells) could have higher antibacterial properties, which means burn victims have greater chances of not getting infections.
Interesting information as well as pretty pictures. It’s a poster series, or rather, a series about posters. Iron Women, Foxy Ladies takes a look at Chinese propaganda posters, through the forming of the PRC, Mao, and the increasing modernization of the world. Lots of gorgeous posters, and while I can’t read a lick of Chinese, I can still follow the progression of imagery. In a sense, I don’t really need the characters to get the point, which speaks to good design. Moving forward, and borrowing some language from MonkeyFilter, because of the one-child policy and preference for boy children, China is going to have 30 million more men of marriageable age than women by 2020, which could make the competition very fierce. Also from the BBC, though, is a story about a mass wedding of polygamous couples in Cameroon. Which led MonkeyFilter to conclude that perhaps some women in Cameroon could be imported into China to assist those eligible bachelors to find a wife. (There was also a comment about how one of Cameroon’s principal imports is rice, and the suggestion of trade talks, but human trafficking is still frowned upon by the United Nations, among others.)
The last piece here is a reinterpretation of the events of Star Wars Episode IV in light of the information gleaned from the first three movies, and paints a significantly darker picture, placing several characters as information-runners and high-level Resistance members all looking out for a good way to whack the Empire, but also keeping a very firm eye on Luke to see whether he goes rogue or not. Because, like it or not, father and kid together could rule the place with an iron fist and then some. A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope suggests that there’s a lot more complexity going on, now that we know the backstory. I’m not sure George envisioned this when he wrote the first movie, but it is fun to read in additional material and see how it meshes.
Which bring us to a question that I thought of a couple days ago and really can’t find a satisfactory answer to. I blame
greyweirdo‘s influence on this, but I was rehashing an answer I gave to a meme some time ago, where I quoted from the second movie. Ben Kenobi, when approached by the deathstick dealer, does a Jedi mind trick and convinces him not to sell deathsticks and to rethink his life. Other than being a reference to what he will later do with stormtroopers and credentials, it’s also implied that the effects of this trick will be permanent. The deathstick dealer will not return to his old habits. And especially after seeing how Sidious “clouds the future” and uses some aspect of the Dark Side of the Force to get the Senators on board with his plans (Dark Charisma, perhaps?), I have one question. Why haven’t the Jedi taken over?
Even right at the beginning of Episode I, the Jedi are being used as Republican peace-keepers, investigating and finding resolutions to ugly violence-ridden incidents. They’re obviously smarter, faster, can see into the future, and have the ability to mess with the minds of a certain subset of the galaxy’s races at will. (Watto and his race, along with the Hutts are apparently exceptions. But they can be contained if the amount of races that can be influenced outnumber those that can’t.) There’s other powers too (I can’t recall all of them at the moment, if I ever knew all of them), but really, the Jedi are quite capable of instilling a benevolent dictatorship, galaxy-wide. With the tech level of the Republic and its worlds, from what I see, the populaces can easily be brought into harmony, fed to the gills, have the needs and wants taken care of. All it would take is a nudge or two from the Jedi minds. And then, as we saw demonstrated in Episode II, since the Jedi aren’t above fighting a war or two, if planets near the Jedi Empire (especially on the Outer Rim) start misbehaving, the citizens could be inspired to gladly bring peace through force to the backward countries. In a sense, the Jedi could have done what Palpatine and Vader do, and instead of turning it into a soul-sucking Empire that requires a Rebellion, it could become a multi-planet paradise that would probably have worlds scrambling to join up when they see what sort of place it’s like. They’ve got the stuff to do it with, so why don’t they? I’m pretty sure Jedi could link up and combine their abilities to Mind Trick an entire world into joining up, at least long enough for their Eden to be built, started, and then enjoyed.With each world, the Jedi would have more trainees to then use in bringing in more worlds.
So, what, other than Demands of Plot, or phenomenal stupidity, actually stops the Jedi from taking the best course of action and annexing the Galaxy, bending it to the Jedi way?
Okay, that’s it, I promise. Bedtime now.
