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Trying to be quick - 16 January 2007
Jan. 17th, 2007 12:08 amI have class bright and early tomorrow, so I’m trying to get this in all before too late.
It got posted on my friends list, so how could I not have noticed. 16 January was Appreciate a Dragon Day. Cheesecake is a good way of doing so, actually. Or so I’m told.
It’s official - Barack Obama's going for the Presidency. This should not be a surprise to anyone. What would be a surprise is if he manages to survive the next year and get the nomination, since his primary opponents and potential Republican challengers are now going to be turning the dirt-digging machines up high.
A new way of looking at the U.S. - each state relabeled with a world country whose GDP it resembles closely. Interesting comparison possibilities, as well as the realization that the U.S. does wield economic clout - now all it needs to do is use it in responsible and world-assisting ways. Thanks to Trampoline Systems and it’s way of arranging and filing the e-mail, 200,000 of Enron's e-mail messages are available to search and browse. That might stand as an example of what not to do with your GDP clout. Selling military technology to governments that are hostile to you is probably not that great, either. What does look good, though, is opening up a "pay as you can afford" restaurant. College students would probably love the place. Of course, I’m not entirely sure they would remember it when they moved on to their lives, and send back some of their new salaries, but it would beat eating Ramen for six years.
According to EDGE, these are the top 100 most endangered species. Extinction happens naturally, through evolution, yes, but it’s disheartening to watch as humans accelerate the process through poor stewardship of the planet.
The latest victims of identity fraud, and possibly a fast-growing segment, are children. Get a name, an SSN, and do the damage while the child’s growing up - then when it comes time for college or for credit, oh, look, that number’s already in use and has had bad credit wreaked all over it. That’s pretty effective, but also pretty low. One would think that credit would check to make sure the identity is real with the appropriate government offices, but with the way “pre-screened” credit offers appear, I’m guessing there’s at least potentially pretty lax practice going on.
Texas considers putting repeat sex offenders to death. One more step toward re-instituting stoning for adultery, perhaps? Or many of the other bloody and barbaric penalties accorded for breaking the law of Tanakh? Considering Texas’s lineage of having elected G.W. Bush Governor, and then President, maybe this is some of his roots showing themselves off. If implemented, don’t look confused if the number of murders related to sexual crimes goes up.
In pretty stark contrast to what was said at the beginning of the as-yet-undeclared war in Iraq, the U.S. commander in Iraq says results won't be quickly coming.
Insert whatever “sucks” joke you like here. It’ll be a funny way of introducing The Vintage vacuum cleaner museum, which has a history and then galleries, and VacHunter's galleries as well.
Popular Science was a little bit off in predicting the future in 1945. They thought housing was going to become prefab stainless steel igloos. Instead, we got skyscrapers first, and then the prefab homes. Still, predicting the future is always a dicey sort of prospect. SanDisk is betting that people will want solid-state drives (no moving parts) rather than the current incarnation. If they can make ‘em big enough and cheap enough, I’d say they’re definitely on to something. On the other end of it, though I don't think an H3 with faux-wood paneling is going to catch on at all. James Randi is revising his stake in the future-prediction act - all challengers for his $1 million U.S. prize must first gain fame before approaching him. Additionally, he’s going to start calling out some of the most renowned psychics and espers to put their skills to his tests. If they refuse, he’s probably going to use that as his proof that they’re all charlatans, and either be ignored or actively attacked by the people who believe in the psychics. It’s a recipe for more tension, I think.
Reading faces can be just as hard - a robot that was too lifelike for some was deemed "too scary" to show children. Apparently, humaniform robots give too many people the heebie-jeebies for us to be seeing them any time soon.
A reminder to all of us writing papers: Know your comma placement. Eats, shoots, and leaves is fine when describing a panda on a rampage. But serial comma killing can create some interesting unintended consequences. When you must be clear, use as many commas as you need.
There are more women living unmarried than married, the New York Times reports. Which tells me nothing more than that women are able to live successful lives on their own - without the additional hassle of being social pariahs for not having a husband. Tennessee Guerilla Women seems quite pleased with this revelation. I’m okay with that. These days, marriage may be more about the tax breaks than anything. And the ceremony with the religious overtones, of course. From there, though, cohabitation seems to be the way things go nowadays, if boy and girl want to see each other and live together. Doesn’t hurt anyone’s chances, really - the people who were going to be independent will stay that way, and people who find independence nice will stay that way, too.
Anyway, since it’s that time again, I think I’ll head off to bed. G’night.
It got posted on my friends list, so how could I not have noticed. 16 January was Appreciate a Dragon Day. Cheesecake is a good way of doing so, actually. Or so I’m told.
It’s official - Barack Obama's going for the Presidency. This should not be a surprise to anyone. What would be a surprise is if he manages to survive the next year and get the nomination, since his primary opponents and potential Republican challengers are now going to be turning the dirt-digging machines up high.
A new way of looking at the U.S. - each state relabeled with a world country whose GDP it resembles closely. Interesting comparison possibilities, as well as the realization that the U.S. does wield economic clout - now all it needs to do is use it in responsible and world-assisting ways. Thanks to Trampoline Systems and it’s way of arranging and filing the e-mail, 200,000 of Enron's e-mail messages are available to search and browse. That might stand as an example of what not to do with your GDP clout. Selling military technology to governments that are hostile to you is probably not that great, either. What does look good, though, is opening up a "pay as you can afford" restaurant. College students would probably love the place. Of course, I’m not entirely sure they would remember it when they moved on to their lives, and send back some of their new salaries, but it would beat eating Ramen for six years.
According to EDGE, these are the top 100 most endangered species. Extinction happens naturally, through evolution, yes, but it’s disheartening to watch as humans accelerate the process through poor stewardship of the planet.
The latest victims of identity fraud, and possibly a fast-growing segment, are children. Get a name, an SSN, and do the damage while the child’s growing up - then when it comes time for college or for credit, oh, look, that number’s already in use and has had bad credit wreaked all over it. That’s pretty effective, but also pretty low. One would think that credit would check to make sure the identity is real with the appropriate government offices, but with the way “pre-screened” credit offers appear, I’m guessing there’s at least potentially pretty lax practice going on.
Texas considers putting repeat sex offenders to death. One more step toward re-instituting stoning for adultery, perhaps? Or many of the other bloody and barbaric penalties accorded for breaking the law of Tanakh? Considering Texas’s lineage of having elected G.W. Bush Governor, and then President, maybe this is some of his roots showing themselves off. If implemented, don’t look confused if the number of murders related to sexual crimes goes up.
In pretty stark contrast to what was said at the beginning of the as-yet-undeclared war in Iraq, the U.S. commander in Iraq says results won't be quickly coming.
Insert whatever “sucks” joke you like here. It’ll be a funny way of introducing The Vintage vacuum cleaner museum, which has a history and then galleries, and VacHunter's galleries as well.
Popular Science was a little bit off in predicting the future in 1945. They thought housing was going to become prefab stainless steel igloos. Instead, we got skyscrapers first, and then the prefab homes. Still, predicting the future is always a dicey sort of prospect. SanDisk is betting that people will want solid-state drives (no moving parts) rather than the current incarnation. If they can make ‘em big enough and cheap enough, I’d say they’re definitely on to something. On the other end of it, though I don't think an H3 with faux-wood paneling is going to catch on at all. James Randi is revising his stake in the future-prediction act - all challengers for his $1 million U.S. prize must first gain fame before approaching him. Additionally, he’s going to start calling out some of the most renowned psychics and espers to put their skills to his tests. If they refuse, he’s probably going to use that as his proof that they’re all charlatans, and either be ignored or actively attacked by the people who believe in the psychics. It’s a recipe for more tension, I think.
Reading faces can be just as hard - a robot that was too lifelike for some was deemed "too scary" to show children. Apparently, humaniform robots give too many people the heebie-jeebies for us to be seeing them any time soon.
A reminder to all of us writing papers: Know your comma placement. Eats, shoots, and leaves is fine when describing a panda on a rampage. But serial comma killing can create some interesting unintended consequences. When you must be clear, use as many commas as you need.
There are more women living unmarried than married, the New York Times reports. Which tells me nothing more than that women are able to live successful lives on their own - without the additional hassle of being social pariahs for not having a husband. Tennessee Guerilla Women seems quite pleased with this revelation. I’m okay with that. These days, marriage may be more about the tax breaks than anything. And the ceremony with the religious overtones, of course. From there, though, cohabitation seems to be the way things go nowadays, if boy and girl want to see each other and live together. Doesn’t hurt anyone’s chances, really - the people who were going to be independent will stay that way, and people who find independence nice will stay that way, too.
Anyway, since it’s that time again, I think I’ll head off to bed. G’night.
