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Did spend significant amounts of time doing other things that work. In my defense, I finished off an assignment with some CSS guru help. Just got to do the other assignment - and did I mention there’s reading, too... and a paper? And other such insanities? Sounds like tomorrow may be spent doing a lot of that work. Gargamel, where am I going to find time for all this stuff?
I did get lunch, though, from talking to some first-years about how to get internships, and there was dinner with the family, and the aforementioned work. And I’ll probably finish the reading before I go to bed. Which means this should be moving quickly - problem was, Firefox crashed on me before I could get all linky, so the crop I had, I’ve tried to reconstruct. Some stuff may have slipped through the fingers.
An interesting take on what softcore and Playboy does to women. Not that sex is bad, nor that porn is bad, but the attitude taken in things like Playboy or Girls Gone Wild, where women are demeaned in subtle ways, either as airheads or as pretty submissives (not in the kink sense), is bad. Women who were participating and being seen as equals would likely be fine with this author. I wonder whether such a thing would sell quite as well, though. If this subtle submissiveness or stupidity is what drives sales, then the assertive woman might only appeal to a certain set of tastes. It’s an interesting thought to turn over in one’s head.
The Canadian citizen deported to Sudan for torture will be compensated by Canada, stays on the U.S. "no-fly" list. Kind of gives you a quick snapshot of how both countries are today, doesn’t it?
In the post-affirmative-action state that my university is in, the New York Times suggests that private universities, which are not restricted in the methods they can use to consider applications, may vault ahead of public universities in terms of a diverse student body. Admittedly, the tuition rises sharply for that privilege, but with the right financial aid package, a private university that can point to a good diversity record may be more appealing. Mr. Connerly, one of the chief architects of the Michigan ban, suggests that instead of colleges considering race, the students should have better academic preparation. If that can be achieved, then perhaps we could consider removing several categories of considerations, because if you can be assured that each student in each school has had an equal opportunity and was not hindered by any factors like socio-economic status or race, then it really is about how well they did in school. I am still of the opinion that the ban passed was a mistake, because our society was not yet ready to step into that world and take a positive direction. At the same time, I am cognizant that it might have taken such a ban to get us moving toward that state. Being able to see other reasonings sometimes makes it difficult to be zealously in favor or against something. In the end, I probably look like I don’t have many strong opinions.
That said, a party held on Martin Luther King Day that featured gang apparel, an Aunt Jemima-dressed woman, guns, Afro wigs, and fried chicken falls squarely into the category of stu-pid. Stupid, stupid college students.
Additionally, on matters like the resistance forming in Utah's legislation to officially repeal a sodomy law, which, we note, has no force anyway because the Supreme Court already struck down anti-sodomy laws (Lawrence v. Texas, was it?), we can easily deride said opposition as stu-pid. While, yes, a gay senator introduced it, he notes quite rightly that there are plenty of heterosexuals who engage in sodomy, too. There’s no legal force behind it - the only reason to keep it on the books is if one thinks that the SCOTUS will be reversing itself at some point. We already have enough problems with people being misidentified as sex offenders or prosecuted for doing things that they consented to, but were outlawed in a Puritan fit of moralizing. Or if you want to posture and pander to the ultraconservative religiously fundamentalist wing. But who wants those wingnuts on their side, anyway?
Also ranking high on the stu-pid scale is a beverage calling itself the Liquid Experience - beverages with the rights to Jimi Hendrix. Unless it can get you to play the Star-Spangled Banner left-handed in front of a giant rock concert, I don’t think it can measure up to Jimi. Those of you who are bigger Hendrix fans, help me out.
Hopping over to the other end of the spectrum, into the “cool things” department, a caffeinated doughnut has been developed. Meaning you may not need the coffee with the doughnut in the morning. Might cost the same as the coffee and a regular doughnut, but at least you won’t have to worry about spilling it all over yourself and subsequently suing the company that served it to you.
Even cooler, scientists may have pinpointed an area of the brain that feeds our addictions. Not that we’re advocating brain surgery to get rid of them, but if kicking a bad habit becomes as simple as having your addiction circuits turned off for long enough or rewired to not crave the object in question, it could be quite the breakthrough. If it could be done safely, and without messing up other areas of the brain, and then possibly brought back on-line after the habit’s been sufficiently licked, we could make a lot of progress in addictive behaviors. (Which opens up a potentially messy can of worms if you start seeing certain things being classified as addictions that really might be personality traits that the majority of society disapproves of. Psychology and psychiatry are not exact sciences, not yet, anyway, and so they could commit another blunder like the diagnosis of homosexuality as a disorder.)
Also cool, armor plating for cats and mice . Adds a whole new dimension to the game, doesn’t it?
The HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray encryption system has been hacked. By someone who was pissed as hell that his movie wouldn’t play on perfectly legitimate hardware - just not the kind that was laden down with DRM compliance or had a specific HDMI-type connector. Once decrypted, obviously, the content was playable anywhere. The group that made the encryption says that because of the high file size, people aren’t going to bother to pirate HD movies. We wonder whether they’ll have the same attitude when people have TB of storage space just lying around, and think very little of transferring 20GB files (or seeding/sharing them) about the Internet. They also said that it’s not a systematic hack, just a few titles. Still, one person leading the charge could very well lead to a systematic hack. And then people who would like to play proprietary formats on open-sourced or other non-proprietary OSes will have HD... like they should be able to in the first place.
The UK is tightening their border controls - those scheduled for deportation after serving a sentence can be deported automatically, as well as requiring ID cards for non-EU nationals. Possible can of worms, depending on the enforcement and who gets the brunt of needing the new IDs. Across the world, Japan's prime minster is calling hard to negate the "defense only" parts of the Japanese constitution.
One of the best pictures ever taken. It’s great for when it was taken, it’s great for now. It’s definitely worth a look. You just have to see it.
If martial law should come knocking, do you have a community resistance plan? I would think this extends with your “in case of terrorism” plan, since both may very well have the same result and survival strategy.
In Oregon, medical marijuana growers are aiming to help the sick - and gain a little respect. Since it’s legal to grow for medicinal purposes in Oregon, and there are plenty of regs in place to prevent a profit motive, there’s not so much of the War on (Some) Drugs over this, people work to stay in the bounds of the law, and they can talk about their growing with others. It looks kind of like what people probably would do with marijuana were it just another legal plant to grow.
American Samidzat has a point, although not necessarily the one they’re making. Muslims get angry at being portrayed as bad guys, but there’s a lot going on in Allah’s name that doesn’t endear them to the rest of the world. I can say the same, without blinking, about Christians or Americans, it’s just that we’re insulated from those images by not seeing them. Really, the image needs a cleaning-up, which means making decisions on the peace-violence bit, among other things. Once a consistent position can be nailed down, then we can work on fixing the image.
For as much as Americans claim that their sports are world sports, soccer/football really is the world’s game. And this is most apparent in Clarkston, GA, a refugee settlement town. The soccer team in Clarkston brings out the best and the worst of the players and the people around them. From mayors that are loath to give the team permanent practice facilities, to goals that aren’t ordered on time, to the coach that demands excellence in both sport and life, the Fugees get ups and downs, and learn how to keep playing, despite any bad calls that happen.
On the good note, not the bad one, although this piece chiefly deals with psychiatry, it has advice for all of us, even me. And that is to accept that acceptance is necessary for all persons, whether patients or clinicians. If we cannot accept ourselves, and accept that other people need acceptance of their own, then there’s not a whole lot that the suite of medicines can do for us. And it wouldn’t be right to force said suite on someone else if they’re just eccentric, rather than psychotic.
Anyway, going to bed. Maybe it will all make more sense in the morning. Gods, I hope it makes more sense in the morning...
I did get lunch, though, from talking to some first-years about how to get internships, and there was dinner with the family, and the aforementioned work. And I’ll probably finish the reading before I go to bed. Which means this should be moving quickly - problem was, Firefox crashed on me before I could get all linky, so the crop I had, I’ve tried to reconstruct. Some stuff may have slipped through the fingers.
An interesting take on what softcore and Playboy does to women. Not that sex is bad, nor that porn is bad, but the attitude taken in things like Playboy or Girls Gone Wild, where women are demeaned in subtle ways, either as airheads or as pretty submissives (not in the kink sense), is bad. Women who were participating and being seen as equals would likely be fine with this author. I wonder whether such a thing would sell quite as well, though. If this subtle submissiveness or stupidity is what drives sales, then the assertive woman might only appeal to a certain set of tastes. It’s an interesting thought to turn over in one’s head.
The Canadian citizen deported to Sudan for torture will be compensated by Canada, stays on the U.S. "no-fly" list. Kind of gives you a quick snapshot of how both countries are today, doesn’t it?
In the post-affirmative-action state that my university is in, the New York Times suggests that private universities, which are not restricted in the methods they can use to consider applications, may vault ahead of public universities in terms of a diverse student body. Admittedly, the tuition rises sharply for that privilege, but with the right financial aid package, a private university that can point to a good diversity record may be more appealing. Mr. Connerly, one of the chief architects of the Michigan ban, suggests that instead of colleges considering race, the students should have better academic preparation. If that can be achieved, then perhaps we could consider removing several categories of considerations, because if you can be assured that each student in each school has had an equal opportunity and was not hindered by any factors like socio-economic status or race, then it really is about how well they did in school. I am still of the opinion that the ban passed was a mistake, because our society was not yet ready to step into that world and take a positive direction. At the same time, I am cognizant that it might have taken such a ban to get us moving toward that state. Being able to see other reasonings sometimes makes it difficult to be zealously in favor or against something. In the end, I probably look like I don’t have many strong opinions.
That said, a party held on Martin Luther King Day that featured gang apparel, an Aunt Jemima-dressed woman, guns, Afro wigs, and fried chicken falls squarely into the category of stu-pid. Stupid, stupid college students.
Additionally, on matters like the resistance forming in Utah's legislation to officially repeal a sodomy law, which, we note, has no force anyway because the Supreme Court already struck down anti-sodomy laws (Lawrence v. Texas, was it?), we can easily deride said opposition as stu-pid. While, yes, a gay senator introduced it, he notes quite rightly that there are plenty of heterosexuals who engage in sodomy, too. There’s no legal force behind it - the only reason to keep it on the books is if one thinks that the SCOTUS will be reversing itself at some point. We already have enough problems with people being misidentified as sex offenders or prosecuted for doing things that they consented to, but were outlawed in a Puritan fit of moralizing. Or if you want to posture and pander to the ultraconservative religiously fundamentalist wing. But who wants those wingnuts on their side, anyway?
Also ranking high on the stu-pid scale is a beverage calling itself the Liquid Experience - beverages with the rights to Jimi Hendrix. Unless it can get you to play the Star-Spangled Banner left-handed in front of a giant rock concert, I don’t think it can measure up to Jimi. Those of you who are bigger Hendrix fans, help me out.
Hopping over to the other end of the spectrum, into the “cool things” department, a caffeinated doughnut has been developed. Meaning you may not need the coffee with the doughnut in the morning. Might cost the same as the coffee and a regular doughnut, but at least you won’t have to worry about spilling it all over yourself and subsequently suing the company that served it to you.
Even cooler, scientists may have pinpointed an area of the brain that feeds our addictions. Not that we’re advocating brain surgery to get rid of them, but if kicking a bad habit becomes as simple as having your addiction circuits turned off for long enough or rewired to not crave the object in question, it could be quite the breakthrough. If it could be done safely, and without messing up other areas of the brain, and then possibly brought back on-line after the habit’s been sufficiently licked, we could make a lot of progress in addictive behaviors. (Which opens up a potentially messy can of worms if you start seeing certain things being classified as addictions that really might be personality traits that the majority of society disapproves of. Psychology and psychiatry are not exact sciences, not yet, anyway, and so they could commit another blunder like the diagnosis of homosexuality as a disorder.)
Also cool, armor plating for cats and mice . Adds a whole new dimension to the game, doesn’t it?
The HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray encryption system has been hacked. By someone who was pissed as hell that his movie wouldn’t play on perfectly legitimate hardware - just not the kind that was laden down with DRM compliance or had a specific HDMI-type connector. Once decrypted, obviously, the content was playable anywhere. The group that made the encryption says that because of the high file size, people aren’t going to bother to pirate HD movies. We wonder whether they’ll have the same attitude when people have TB of storage space just lying around, and think very little of transferring 20GB files (or seeding/sharing them) about the Internet. They also said that it’s not a systematic hack, just a few titles. Still, one person leading the charge could very well lead to a systematic hack. And then people who would like to play proprietary formats on open-sourced or other non-proprietary OSes will have HD... like they should be able to in the first place.
The UK is tightening their border controls - those scheduled for deportation after serving a sentence can be deported automatically, as well as requiring ID cards for non-EU nationals. Possible can of worms, depending on the enforcement and who gets the brunt of needing the new IDs. Across the world, Japan's prime minster is calling hard to negate the "defense only" parts of the Japanese constitution.
One of the best pictures ever taken. It’s great for when it was taken, it’s great for now. It’s definitely worth a look. You just have to see it.
If martial law should come knocking, do you have a community resistance plan? I would think this extends with your “in case of terrorism” plan, since both may very well have the same result and survival strategy.
In Oregon, medical marijuana growers are aiming to help the sick - and gain a little respect. Since it’s legal to grow for medicinal purposes in Oregon, and there are plenty of regs in place to prevent a profit motive, there’s not so much of the War on (Some) Drugs over this, people work to stay in the bounds of the law, and they can talk about their growing with others. It looks kind of like what people probably would do with marijuana were it just another legal plant to grow.
American Samidzat has a point, although not necessarily the one they’re making. Muslims get angry at being portrayed as bad guys, but there’s a lot going on in Allah’s name that doesn’t endear them to the rest of the world. I can say the same, without blinking, about Christians or Americans, it’s just that we’re insulated from those images by not seeing them. Really, the image needs a cleaning-up, which means making decisions on the peace-violence bit, among other things. Once a consistent position can be nailed down, then we can work on fixing the image.
For as much as Americans claim that their sports are world sports, soccer/football really is the world’s game. And this is most apparent in Clarkston, GA, a refugee settlement town. The soccer team in Clarkston brings out the best and the worst of the players and the people around them. From mayors that are loath to give the team permanent practice facilities, to goals that aren’t ordered on time, to the coach that demands excellence in both sport and life, the Fugees get ups and downs, and learn how to keep playing, despite any bad calls that happen.
On the good note, not the bad one, although this piece chiefly deals with psychiatry, it has advice for all of us, even me. And that is to accept that acceptance is necessary for all persons, whether patients or clinicians. If we cannot accept ourselves, and accept that other people need acceptance of their own, then there’s not a whole lot that the suite of medicines can do for us. And it wouldn’t be right to force said suite on someone else if they’re just eccentric, rather than psychotic.
Anyway, going to bed. Maybe it will all make more sense in the morning. Gods, I hope it makes more sense in the morning...
