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It's almost finished - 3 Feburary 2007
Feb. 4th, 2007 01:44 amMore work done on projects. I’m still not entirely sure that my project description will pass muster, but if it has everything there, then I should get good marks on it. I hate being adrift like this - even though my profession is going to require lots of thinking with nebulous goals. *sigh* Anyway. Link parade, et cetera.
The Texas Governor signed an order today requiring all girls in the state to be vaccinated against Human Papillomavirus. This causes mixed reactions in many because of the method being done. I suspect those who are in favor of the vaccinations are happy that it’s happening, but most are a little leery about the rather undemocratic way in which this comes about. For those better-schooled than I in legal matters, can this be successfully argued as a directive from the head of the executive to an agency under his control, and thus not really require the legislature to pass a law enabling that decision? Because it would be cumbersome if things really meant that the executive had to get laws passed allowing for proposed regulations to come into existence. Thus, before taking any sort of position, I want to be clear that I know how this is shaking out, and how this may or may not be legal.
In an interesting study in Psychological Science, people were presented with a list to rank according to attributes. Then, after some studying of each person’s ranking style, the items and attributes were re-mixed and presented again. What the study found out was that 61% of those studied chose an inferior alternative solely because of the way the list and the attributes were presented. Apparently, what comes first in an attribute list is what influences subsequent attribute rankings the most. Perhaps because we take it to be the benchmark from which other attributes are to be measured against? Or maybe because we really just want to rank on one attribute, and once we’re ranked and decided, we hate changing? I don’t know. Still, I wonder what sort of uses this sort of technique has been put to.
Since there’s a football game going on tomorrow, several places have been reminded of the league’s copyright rules and restrictions on showing the game in public venues. A church in Indiana that was planning on doing some projection work ends up not being able to project theirs because, a) the projection screen is wider than fifty-five inches (which probably runs into the “public exhibition” problems with copyright), and b) the church was going to show the Christian testimonies of the two head coaches, so the League didn’t want to appear as if it were endorsing the testimonies. How do we know this? Well, someone at the Family Research Council (as you can see by the link) decided that it’s a contradiction to prevent the church, but to show it in sports bars, meaning “the NFL is more comfortable promoting substance abuse and half-time nudity than it is endorsing positive role models like Dungy and Smith.” Pretty good exaggeration, there - considering the league has policies that suspend players for substance abuse violations, and that the FCC got after the halftime promotion on that little slip... and I’ve heard a rumour that the halftime show is now on delay to prevent something like that from happening again. Sounds to me like the league cares quite a bit about not promoting either of those things.
A bureaucratic poem that works like a Mobius strip... or a hamster wheel. The Working Stiff Cylinder shows just how hard it can be to get what you need when you don’t already have it.
Some advice from a writer at Common Dreams: Here's thirty-six sure-fire signs that your empire is crumbling. There are some slips, of course, where a certain empire is referenced. Perhaps if they were extracted out to be more general and then could be paired up with examples from all of the historical empires, it could be used and then reused later. Because there will be more empires after this one, of course.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric is asking for unity among Muslims and to stop fighting each other. He’s pointing out something somewhat obivous. “Um, guys. You know, if we stop killing each other, it makes it harder for the people we both agree shouldn’t be here to kill us. If we work together, we can drive them out, most likely. Then, if you insist, we can go back to killing each other.” Alliances like that may not last long, but they work pretty well to kick out outsiders.
If the following memo, obtained by Narcosphere, is true, then, well, we can add one more screw-up to the long list. Namely, Homeland Security scores near or at the bottom of a survey on job satisfaction, leadership and knowledge management, results-oriented culture, and talent management. Chickens with their head cut off? Or just never able to get things going in the first place? In any case, if they’re spot on, recall that these are the people that are supposed to be keeping us safe from harmful influences. With scores like that, I don’t know if they could protect us from benign influences.
Inter-blog spats are interesting to watch unfold. I’m never entirely sure I get the whole story anywhere, but I do find it interesting to lay out the sides and let you decide on what to think. Of course, I may or may not be totally fair about my layout, so keep salt with you. Anyway, the contenders in this particular sequence is a blogger by the name of Hairy Fish Nuts, who believes he's found the perfect wingut, after Jesus’s General picked him out of a lineup of sorts. With a graphic like the one displayed, I wonder what wing he’s on (and whether it looks suspiciously like a chicken wing rather than a political one. Remember, I’m not necessarily unbiased...) Probably from the Confederate Yankee/Jamil Hussein matter, but H.F.N. picks out a couple other things as support for the argument. The target is a blogger named Sniper One, whose journal name 7.62 Justice, suggests that he’s willing to spend a few rounds trying to make a (hollow?) point. (Yeah, yeah. Bullet joke. You may groan if you got it.) Anyway, his response is Aww, Love Notes From The Left. Not much there in wingnuttiness, lots in brash behavior. Your mileage may vary. Case may be that this is a water/duck’s back problem, and like many things on the Internet, is useful as a harmless diversion and nothing more. (Was I making a point here? I can’t even tell anymore.)
The American Enterprise Institute sent out letters in July offering to pay scientists and economists $10,000 each to write critical reviews of the U.N. Climate Change Assessment. Is that bribery? Or just offering an incentive to people who are in the minority opinion to publish and make themselves heard? Either way, it casts shadows on what could otherwise be acceptable material to try and further what discussion there is about the existence or nonexistence of man-caused warming (or the effects thereof). The Seattle Post-Intelligencer offers up bite-sized answers to common questions about climate change and the debate on its effects.
So, yeah, tomorrow, going to see whether or not one team can beat another. But there’s a meeting before that where we get to watch Japanese cartoons and stuff, so it’s not all bad. Which means I should probably be going to bed... yeah. Sounds good. Bed it is. This entry seems pretty scattershot. Maybe tomorrow, some themes will redevelop.
The Texas Governor signed an order today requiring all girls in the state to be vaccinated against Human Papillomavirus. This causes mixed reactions in many because of the method being done. I suspect those who are in favor of the vaccinations are happy that it’s happening, but most are a little leery about the rather undemocratic way in which this comes about. For those better-schooled than I in legal matters, can this be successfully argued as a directive from the head of the executive to an agency under his control, and thus not really require the legislature to pass a law enabling that decision? Because it would be cumbersome if things really meant that the executive had to get laws passed allowing for proposed regulations to come into existence. Thus, before taking any sort of position, I want to be clear that I know how this is shaking out, and how this may or may not be legal.
In an interesting study in Psychological Science, people were presented with a list to rank according to attributes. Then, after some studying of each person’s ranking style, the items and attributes were re-mixed and presented again. What the study found out was that 61% of those studied chose an inferior alternative solely because of the way the list and the attributes were presented. Apparently, what comes first in an attribute list is what influences subsequent attribute rankings the most. Perhaps because we take it to be the benchmark from which other attributes are to be measured against? Or maybe because we really just want to rank on one attribute, and once we’re ranked and decided, we hate changing? I don’t know. Still, I wonder what sort of uses this sort of technique has been put to.
Since there’s a football game going on tomorrow, several places have been reminded of the league’s copyright rules and restrictions on showing the game in public venues. A church in Indiana that was planning on doing some projection work ends up not being able to project theirs because, a) the projection screen is wider than fifty-five inches (which probably runs into the “public exhibition” problems with copyright), and b) the church was going to show the Christian testimonies of the two head coaches, so the League didn’t want to appear as if it were endorsing the testimonies. How do we know this? Well, someone at the Family Research Council (as you can see by the link) decided that it’s a contradiction to prevent the church, but to show it in sports bars, meaning “the NFL is more comfortable promoting substance abuse and half-time nudity than it is endorsing positive role models like Dungy and Smith.” Pretty good exaggeration, there - considering the league has policies that suspend players for substance abuse violations, and that the FCC got after the halftime promotion on that little slip... and I’ve heard a rumour that the halftime show is now on delay to prevent something like that from happening again. Sounds to me like the league cares quite a bit about not promoting either of those things.
A bureaucratic poem that works like a Mobius strip... or a hamster wheel. The Working Stiff Cylinder shows just how hard it can be to get what you need when you don’t already have it.
Some advice from a writer at Common Dreams: Here's thirty-six sure-fire signs that your empire is crumbling. There are some slips, of course, where a certain empire is referenced. Perhaps if they were extracted out to be more general and then could be paired up with examples from all of the historical empires, it could be used and then reused later. Because there will be more empires after this one, of course.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric is asking for unity among Muslims and to stop fighting each other. He’s pointing out something somewhat obivous. “Um, guys. You know, if we stop killing each other, it makes it harder for the people we both agree shouldn’t be here to kill us. If we work together, we can drive them out, most likely. Then, if you insist, we can go back to killing each other.” Alliances like that may not last long, but they work pretty well to kick out outsiders.
If the following memo, obtained by Narcosphere, is true, then, well, we can add one more screw-up to the long list. Namely, Homeland Security scores near or at the bottom of a survey on job satisfaction, leadership and knowledge management, results-oriented culture, and talent management. Chickens with their head cut off? Or just never able to get things going in the first place? In any case, if they’re spot on, recall that these are the people that are supposed to be keeping us safe from harmful influences. With scores like that, I don’t know if they could protect us from benign influences.
Inter-blog spats are interesting to watch unfold. I’m never entirely sure I get the whole story anywhere, but I do find it interesting to lay out the sides and let you decide on what to think. Of course, I may or may not be totally fair about my layout, so keep salt with you. Anyway, the contenders in this particular sequence is a blogger by the name of Hairy Fish Nuts, who believes he's found the perfect wingut, after Jesus’s General picked him out of a lineup of sorts. With a graphic like the one displayed, I wonder what wing he’s on (and whether it looks suspiciously like a chicken wing rather than a political one. Remember, I’m not necessarily unbiased...) Probably from the Confederate Yankee/Jamil Hussein matter, but H.F.N. picks out a couple other things as support for the argument. The target is a blogger named Sniper One, whose journal name 7.62 Justice, suggests that he’s willing to spend a few rounds trying to make a (hollow?) point. (Yeah, yeah. Bullet joke. You may groan if you got it.) Anyway, his response is Aww, Love Notes From The Left. Not much there in wingnuttiness, lots in brash behavior. Your mileage may vary. Case may be that this is a water/duck’s back problem, and like many things on the Internet, is useful as a harmless diversion and nothing more. (Was I making a point here? I can’t even tell anymore.)
The American Enterprise Institute sent out letters in July offering to pay scientists and economists $10,000 each to write critical reviews of the U.N. Climate Change Assessment. Is that bribery? Or just offering an incentive to people who are in the minority opinion to publish and make themselves heard? Either way, it casts shadows on what could otherwise be acceptable material to try and further what discussion there is about the existence or nonexistence of man-caused warming (or the effects thereof). The Seattle Post-Intelligencer offers up bite-sized answers to common questions about climate change and the debate on its effects.
So, yeah, tomorrow, going to see whether or not one team can beat another. But there’s a meeting before that where we get to watch Japanese cartoons and stuff, so it’s not all bad. Which means I should probably be going to bed... yeah. Sounds good. Bed it is. This entry seems pretty scattershot. Maybe tomorrow, some themes will redevelop.
