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Today was spent polishing up everything I wanted to get done for the assignments due on Tuesday, getting a response that my paper topic is (for once) spot on, has sufficient research associated with it, and that I should be able to derive a paper of sufficient length from the material presented. Hot damn. Now, I have to write it. But I’m not touching it until Monday, when the topic was officially due. Period. The rest of the day was spent doing my reading for two of the three classes. Surprising how long they can take, even when there isn’t much to read.
Hugo Chavez, according to the BBC, will soon be able to rule by decree and fiat for eighteen months. With his continual commitment to bringing Venezuela into a very aggressive type of socialism, the ability to rule by decree could be his greatest tool or his biggest undoing. If he pairs up and contributes money to the alliance meant to break the U.S.‘s dominance, Chavez could very well appear on the radar as another potential target.
Lots of stuff happening on the international scene - an unfreezing and transfer of $100M U.S. from Israel to Palestine as support for Abbas, although not as supporting of Hamas, the elected party, negotiations are continuing on North Korea's situation, although I’m not sure whether this article is that North Korea has agreed to talks, or whether something productive will come out of those talks. In a related nuclear enterprise, Jordan's king expressed an interest in starting a nuclear weaponry program. I thought we were supposed to be working on reducing the stockpiles of those that already have nuclear weapons, and strongly encouraging everyone else not to develop them. What’s going wrong here? Do we need another SALT agreement, with China or some other nuclear power?
The report card for what countries are “Free”, “partly free” and “not free” for last year has been released by Freedom House. The conclusion drawn is that freedom has been stagnant for nearly a decade now, with only three positive changes from the last year. The exporting of Bush-style democracy is apparently not that much abut freedom (notice the dropping/toning down of the freedomfreeedom rhetoric now that we’re in Iraq? Wonder if it’ll go back up if/when we go after Iran and Syria.)
China blasted one of their own weather satellites out of the air recently. This has raised eyebrows in the United States, who are now significantly worried that their spying and intelligence satellites might follow the fate of the weather satellite. (DefenseTech's take on the test, which has some other details.)
The incredible Music Room - good stereo equipment, vinyl playing ability, although no video equipment that I can see, so it’s not quite the ultimate home theater, I guess. Would someone who has a much better understanding of audio equipment tell me why this rig is particularly awesome, other than the giant speakers that look like they can cover a full dynamic and tone range and then some, the shelves upon shelves of media, and what looks like a laser-needle vinyl player? After that, maybe to test it, he should put on some old 7" promotional commercials for some rather B-sounding movies on vinyl.
When Good Cows Go Bad. Taking a bit of a satirical look at what happens afterward when all the cattle are immune to mad cow disease (a company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has done it, according to the article. Did I post something about this earlier? I should have, if I didn’t. This is where LJ’s new searching feature, currently in development, would come in handy.)
Through Slashdot, the provision in a bill that was going to require bloggers and others to register has, for now, been stricken out of the bill. The Republicans voted to strike, the Dems voted to keep, apparently. This is confusing to many. Maybe the Dems were thinking that there are a significant number of people posing as impartial advocates that have significant ties or tend to advocate only in one direction, and they wanted to avoid another Swift-Boat sort of problem? (Edited: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jokermage, who linked forward Mike Dunford's take on the provision and a follow-up posting, I realize I neglected an important detail - the provision would have required persons who were receiving significant amounts of money to lobby grassroots causes. So bloggers being backed by interest groups that had some money to burn in campaigning would have to register. This helps confirm my initial feeling that the Dems were trying to force people who appear nonpartisan but are funded with lobbyist money to register themselves as the lobbyists they are. The voting record makes much more sense, interpreted in that manner.)
From an anonymous Craigslist ranter in the Detroit area: Those who can’t seem to do anything but whine and complain, even while heaps and heaps of privilege are theirs, can it. I suspect most of us would take a much more sober look at our own lives of ease if we had to live the lives of the people who don’t have much at all.
From Fox News, a short article about a group of law enforcement personnel who say that the drug war is a failure, and that they regret not saying so earlier. The article seems to say that the law enforcement officials are more concerned about the corruption that a drug war creates, either in seizing large amounts of cash and material in raids, or in potential bribes to look the other way. I wonder if the overcrowding of jails and court dates is also a reason to let a lot of the drug war’s zero tolerance policies loosen up.
From arresting a mixtape DJ to taking shots at satellite radio, the RIAA was given the green light to sue XM because of a device that allows XM listeners to record a set amount of music for later playing. The industry contends this is different than making a cassette from the local FM band because the music is digitally broadcast, and XM listeners are able to rapidly switch between channels to find material for recording. I wonder if the RIAA would be okay with it if the XM material was laden with restrictive DRM that would decrease or eliminate the ability of the user to, y’know, use the music they’re paying a subscription for.
In the nearly-obligatory religious issue sequence - here’s a comparison that shows that there’s still plenty of work to be done in all the popular Abrahamic religions about the split between wanting to be accepted as a peaceful religion and the fanatical urge that sweeps through and wants to destroy everything in its path. Islam happens to be the religion mentioned in both of these pieces. First, Muslims are not happy about being protrayed as heartless terrorists on Fox's "24". This is more a difficulty that some parts of the American populace, while adult in bodily stature, still haven’t quite grasped the distinction between the fantasy of television programming and the reality of the world around them. And I thought this second unit was going to be a counterpoint to it, but there’s some fence-sitting going on - taken on the surface, this article about a Muslim cleric exhorting other Muslims to martyrdom would not look well. But deeper in the article, there’s context and a revelation that the video in question is several years old. So it downgrades itself to the same sort of rhetoric that some Christians may make about putting on the Armor of God - they may mean it in one sense, but it can be interpreted in another, especially by an audience hostile to the religion (or flavor thereof). So what looked like it was going to work out as a good comparison has complexity added. Oh, well. The world’s not black and white, like it is in television.
This picture needs a caption. The best I can think of is something like “circling the wagons”. So, come up with your best remark on a large circle of interconnected shopping carts in a parking lot.
For those of you who fit the profile of “that read-headed kid” (no, not the round-headed kid - right comic, wrong person), the Seattle Times wonders whether the red hair color will be extincted by 2100. Flaming red hair is apparently becoming more and more of a rarity. I don’t think it’ll go away - the question is whether we start associating it with some other sorts of superstitions...
And finally, an experiment in Google-bombing. This calls itself truth. And to some degree, it’s malleable - the original was changed after some commenters in the explanation post about the truth experiment. I wonder if this truth will continue to change and evolve based on the consensus, like many truths do. I think there’s a broader social comment here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. My instinct is to take note of the truths revealed in religious texts and see whether they’re malleable, and what’s resulted in the presence or absence of flexibility in their interpretation. Or perhaps there’s something about what happens when people agree or disagree on the flexibility of truth itself. Or maybe it’s just a comment about how what we consider to be true changes over time and with increased knowledge. Maybe one of you really knows. If so, tell me, okay? I wouldn’t want to miss out on the truth.
As things are, though, I must contemplate the universe from the insides of my eyelids. And thus, I leave you to be amused, inspired, or befuddled by the offerings spread here.
Hugo Chavez, according to the BBC, will soon be able to rule by decree and fiat for eighteen months. With his continual commitment to bringing Venezuela into a very aggressive type of socialism, the ability to rule by decree could be his greatest tool or his biggest undoing. If he pairs up and contributes money to the alliance meant to break the U.S.‘s dominance, Chavez could very well appear on the radar as another potential target.
Lots of stuff happening on the international scene - an unfreezing and transfer of $100M U.S. from Israel to Palestine as support for Abbas, although not as supporting of Hamas, the elected party, negotiations are continuing on North Korea's situation, although I’m not sure whether this article is that North Korea has agreed to talks, or whether something productive will come out of those talks. In a related nuclear enterprise, Jordan's king expressed an interest in starting a nuclear weaponry program. I thought we were supposed to be working on reducing the stockpiles of those that already have nuclear weapons, and strongly encouraging everyone else not to develop them. What’s going wrong here? Do we need another SALT agreement, with China or some other nuclear power?
The report card for what countries are “Free”, “partly free” and “not free” for last year has been released by Freedom House. The conclusion drawn is that freedom has been stagnant for nearly a decade now, with only three positive changes from the last year. The exporting of Bush-style democracy is apparently not that much abut freedom (notice the dropping/toning down of the freedomfreeedom rhetoric now that we’re in Iraq? Wonder if it’ll go back up if/when we go after Iran and Syria.)
China blasted one of their own weather satellites out of the air recently. This has raised eyebrows in the United States, who are now significantly worried that their spying and intelligence satellites might follow the fate of the weather satellite. (DefenseTech's take on the test, which has some other details.)
The incredible Music Room - good stereo equipment, vinyl playing ability, although no video equipment that I can see, so it’s not quite the ultimate home theater, I guess. Would someone who has a much better understanding of audio equipment tell me why this rig is particularly awesome, other than the giant speakers that look like they can cover a full dynamic and tone range and then some, the shelves upon shelves of media, and what looks like a laser-needle vinyl player? After that, maybe to test it, he should put on some old 7" promotional commercials for some rather B-sounding movies on vinyl.
When Good Cows Go Bad. Taking a bit of a satirical look at what happens afterward when all the cattle are immune to mad cow disease (a company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has done it, according to the article. Did I post something about this earlier? I should have, if I didn’t. This is where LJ’s new searching feature, currently in development, would come in handy.)
Through Slashdot, the provision in a bill that was going to require bloggers and others to register has, for now, been stricken out of the bill. The Republicans voted to strike, the Dems voted to keep, apparently. This is confusing to many. Maybe the Dems were thinking that there are a significant number of people posing as impartial advocates that have significant ties or tend to advocate only in one direction, and they wanted to avoid another Swift-Boat sort of problem? (Edited: Thanks to
jokermage, who linked forward Mike Dunford's take on the provision and a follow-up posting, I realize I neglected an important detail - the provision would have required persons who were receiving significant amounts of money to lobby grassroots causes. So bloggers being backed by interest groups that had some money to burn in campaigning would have to register. This helps confirm my initial feeling that the Dems were trying to force people who appear nonpartisan but are funded with lobbyist money to register themselves as the lobbyists they are. The voting record makes much more sense, interpreted in that manner.)From an anonymous Craigslist ranter in the Detroit area: Those who can’t seem to do anything but whine and complain, even while heaps and heaps of privilege are theirs, can it. I suspect most of us would take a much more sober look at our own lives of ease if we had to live the lives of the people who don’t have much at all.
From Fox News, a short article about a group of law enforcement personnel who say that the drug war is a failure, and that they regret not saying so earlier. The article seems to say that the law enforcement officials are more concerned about the corruption that a drug war creates, either in seizing large amounts of cash and material in raids, or in potential bribes to look the other way. I wonder if the overcrowding of jails and court dates is also a reason to let a lot of the drug war’s zero tolerance policies loosen up.
From arresting a mixtape DJ to taking shots at satellite radio, the RIAA was given the green light to sue XM because of a device that allows XM listeners to record a set amount of music for later playing. The industry contends this is different than making a cassette from the local FM band because the music is digitally broadcast, and XM listeners are able to rapidly switch between channels to find material for recording. I wonder if the RIAA would be okay with it if the XM material was laden with restrictive DRM that would decrease or eliminate the ability of the user to, y’know, use the music they’re paying a subscription for.
In the nearly-obligatory religious issue sequence - here’s a comparison that shows that there’s still plenty of work to be done in all the popular Abrahamic religions about the split between wanting to be accepted as a peaceful religion and the fanatical urge that sweeps through and wants to destroy everything in its path. Islam happens to be the religion mentioned in both of these pieces. First, Muslims are not happy about being protrayed as heartless terrorists on Fox's "24". This is more a difficulty that some parts of the American populace, while adult in bodily stature, still haven’t quite grasped the distinction between the fantasy of television programming and the reality of the world around them. And I thought this second unit was going to be a counterpoint to it, but there’s some fence-sitting going on - taken on the surface, this article about a Muslim cleric exhorting other Muslims to martyrdom would not look well. But deeper in the article, there’s context and a revelation that the video in question is several years old. So it downgrades itself to the same sort of rhetoric that some Christians may make about putting on the Armor of God - they may mean it in one sense, but it can be interpreted in another, especially by an audience hostile to the religion (or flavor thereof). So what looked like it was going to work out as a good comparison has complexity added. Oh, well. The world’s not black and white, like it is in television.
This picture needs a caption. The best I can think of is something like “circling the wagons”. So, come up with your best remark on a large circle of interconnected shopping carts in a parking lot.
For those of you who fit the profile of “that read-headed kid” (no, not the round-headed kid - right comic, wrong person), the Seattle Times wonders whether the red hair color will be extincted by 2100. Flaming red hair is apparently becoming more and more of a rarity. I don’t think it’ll go away - the question is whether we start associating it with some other sorts of superstitions...
And finally, an experiment in Google-bombing. This calls itself truth. And to some degree, it’s malleable - the original was changed after some commenters in the explanation post about the truth experiment. I wonder if this truth will continue to change and evolve based on the consensus, like many truths do. I think there’s a broader social comment here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. My instinct is to take note of the truths revealed in religious texts and see whether they’re malleable, and what’s resulted in the presence or absence of flexibility in their interpretation. Or perhaps there’s something about what happens when people agree or disagree on the flexibility of truth itself. Or maybe it’s just a comment about how what we consider to be true changes over time and with increased knowledge. Maybe one of you really knows. If so, tell me, okay? I wouldn’t want to miss out on the truth.
As things are, though, I must contemplate the universe from the insides of my eyelids. And thus, I leave you to be amused, inspired, or befuddled by the offerings spread here.
