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Went out today and did some letterbox-hunting - had about a 50% success rate, which seems to be about usual. Left two to do for some other time, because the rains came and kept raining more and more. Ah, well. The thunder and lightning have been playing all through the writing of this entry, as well as the Red Wings game (the opposition showed up to play, and the Wings mailed theirs in, it looked like, so the obvious result happened. If the Wings keep playing like this, they’ll be done soon enough.)
This Ozy and Millie strip sums up my job search remarkably well. Zen work makes for Zen pay. So I guess I need different work than the Zen work to pay the bills.
One good reason for DRM. Assuming, that is, that you’re not so fond of the singer mentioned.
More troops, quicker, says General George Casey. I think of the stereotypical glutton, stuffing his face and crying “More!” in this particular situation. With no particular end in sight, and more and more troops being deemed necessary, I have to wonder where they’re going to appear from. After reading 19, First Sergeant, I might have a much better idea. They’ll be taking them from those who are old enough to fight and die, but not old enough to enjoy a drink afterward. (Although, with a military ID, I wonder if bar owners would be more likely to look the other way, because of the horrors that war visits on people.) In Townhall, Lawrence Kudlow wants us to believe that we're in Iraq because of al-Qaeda, and that if we leave (again, that phrase “defeatist” shows up), al-Qaeda will use Iraq to plan a big attack on the U.S.. He also wants you to believe that Joe Lieberman is the one person who actually understands the situation.
I am suspicious of the findings in the survey in the following article. According to it, youth fear the decay of the family unit most, more than community violence, poverty, and global warming. This seems very weird to me, considering the other issues would be ones that they would be more likely to confront head-on. I wonder how things were phrased that this outcome turns out to be so.
A slew of religiously-themed materials, and not many of them positive. (Those doing good must still be staying off the media radar... probably because they’re doing good and not making themselves attractive to the media) The Iranian government continues to crack down on women. Women are not second-class citizens, even as much as certain interpretations of religions would like them to be. And the idea of “Well, it’s their culture” is an insufficient reason to look the other way. Although that culture thing is leading some women to elect surgery to re-sew their hymen, which apparently technically makes them virginal again. The emphasis on virginity and abstinence until marriage is becoming outdated, I think, considering the amount of tech we have in place to minimize risks like pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. But, for those who have to be a virgin, or have people requiring them to be, this could be an interesting development.
Atheists aren’t second-class people either, although according to this about.com piece, the United States military is trying to make atheists and non-Christians feel second-class. The military isn’t necessarily the only place that groups are trying to make non-Christians feel inferior. With mood-ring like "good person" tests, some organizations want everyone to feel like a God-needing sinner by telling them they aren’t virtuous, good, or worthy of a positive afterlife. The last one of these links, however, is a rather boastful claim - Kirc Cameron and Ray Comfort claim they can prove the existence of G-d scientifically, and have challenged the originators of the Blasphemy challenge to a debate to be filmed and streamed over the Web live. I wonder what they’re planning on doing as their scientific, doesn’t mention faith at all proof.
Exploding Aardvark has links to YouTube Izzard. That’s a sexie list of links, I’d say.
Technology news from FOX says the $100 laptop for One Laptop Per Child will run about $175 and be able to run both Linux and Windows. I guess Microsoft wanted to make sure that even the developing world gives Microsoft market share.
The government of Canada is constructing a 40-megawatt solar panel farm. Yay for clean power! Now, hopefully, solar cell manufacture and efficiency both move toward being cleaner. It would be very nice to have a solar farm like that producing much more than a maximal .2 percent of demand, and selling it at prices comparable to current technologies. Staying on solar matters, the Canadian Globe and Mail suggests having sufficient levels of Vitamin D may help to prevent cancer growth. Sounds like the full-spectrum sort of lighting may be useful for more than just fixing depression. Staying in health matters,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks goes from talking about the possibility of too little food to the idea of too much. Americans obsessed with food? You're next talks about the worldwide rise in crop yields, and how our normally calorie-hoarding behavior is contributing to the wave of health problems that come from abundance of food, and how the future will likely make this problem worse as the rest of the world starts dealing with the problem of having too much food. Of course, if our country can comfortably and relatively inexpensively feed most, if not all, of the world sufficiently, I do wonder why we aren’t already doing so and removing a worry from everyone’s life. The political capital to be gained from such a move would be enormous.
The homebrew community gets a boost with the introduction of Games'n'Music, a DS card that supports homebrew games and has a 128mb memory card bundled. All available for under 20 pounds United Kingdom. I wonder if such a thing will see stateside viewing, or whether it will be suppressed because companies will want to keep their material form being used in “unauthorized” manners.
In fine bad segue form, speaking of suppression, Project Censored has released the list of the top 25 stories that were censored or ignored by the mainstream media. Which is casting an ever-wider net, actually, as the mainstream for many routinely includes Internet news and blogs.
Scotland Yard is looking for a better uniform - without the high, easily-falling helmets. Kind of reminds me of an episode of the Thin Blue Line, where new uniforms are being tested out. Whatever they decide on, hopefully it is first functional, and then has whatever fashionable bits it needs as secondary concerns.
Wil Wheaton relates a story of his experience with a teacher that didn't understand children, and what his parents didn't do to correct the situation. This is why we need good, understanding, well-trained teachers. That way, students aren’t punished for things out of their control, and (from a story in the comments) those kids that do know what they’re doing aren’t reduced to zombie-work because their teachers don’t know how to handle them.
Gearing up for the Olympics, Beijing is trying to make sure that the city is pristine and ready for the international community’s eye. This includes asking the residents of Beijing to change some habits, like public expactoration, queue-jumping, and foul language. And getting the Engrish turned into English.
Last for tonight - the heroic adventure cast stereotype list, provided byludickid. See how many of your favorite shows this can apply to!
So, bed sounds good. And I’ll probably be shutting the computer down, just as a safeguard.
This Ozy and Millie strip sums up my job search remarkably well. Zen work makes for Zen pay. So I guess I need different work than the Zen work to pay the bills.
One good reason for DRM. Assuming, that is, that you’re not so fond of the singer mentioned.
More troops, quicker, says General George Casey. I think of the stereotypical glutton, stuffing his face and crying “More!” in this particular situation. With no particular end in sight, and more and more troops being deemed necessary, I have to wonder where they’re going to appear from. After reading 19, First Sergeant, I might have a much better idea. They’ll be taking them from those who are old enough to fight and die, but not old enough to enjoy a drink afterward. (Although, with a military ID, I wonder if bar owners would be more likely to look the other way, because of the horrors that war visits on people.) In Townhall, Lawrence Kudlow wants us to believe that we're in Iraq because of al-Qaeda, and that if we leave (again, that phrase “defeatist” shows up), al-Qaeda will use Iraq to plan a big attack on the U.S.. He also wants you to believe that Joe Lieberman is the one person who actually understands the situation.
I am suspicious of the findings in the survey in the following article. According to it, youth fear the decay of the family unit most, more than community violence, poverty, and global warming. This seems very weird to me, considering the other issues would be ones that they would be more likely to confront head-on. I wonder how things were phrased that this outcome turns out to be so.
A slew of religiously-themed materials, and not many of them positive. (Those doing good must still be staying off the media radar... probably because they’re doing good and not making themselves attractive to the media) The Iranian government continues to crack down on women. Women are not second-class citizens, even as much as certain interpretations of religions would like them to be. And the idea of “Well, it’s their culture” is an insufficient reason to look the other way. Although that culture thing is leading some women to elect surgery to re-sew their hymen, which apparently technically makes them virginal again. The emphasis on virginity and abstinence until marriage is becoming outdated, I think, considering the amount of tech we have in place to minimize risks like pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. But, for those who have to be a virgin, or have people requiring them to be, this could be an interesting development.
Atheists aren’t second-class people either, although according to this about.com piece, the United States military is trying to make atheists and non-Christians feel second-class. The military isn’t necessarily the only place that groups are trying to make non-Christians feel inferior. With mood-ring like "good person" tests, some organizations want everyone to feel like a God-needing sinner by telling them they aren’t virtuous, good, or worthy of a positive afterlife. The last one of these links, however, is a rather boastful claim - Kirc Cameron and Ray Comfort claim they can prove the existence of G-d scientifically, and have challenged the originators of the Blasphemy challenge to a debate to be filmed and streamed over the Web live. I wonder what they’re planning on doing as their scientific, doesn’t mention faith at all proof.
Exploding Aardvark has links to YouTube Izzard. That’s a sexie list of links, I’d say.
Technology news from FOX says the $100 laptop for One Laptop Per Child will run about $175 and be able to run both Linux and Windows. I guess Microsoft wanted to make sure that even the developing world gives Microsoft market share.
The government of Canada is constructing a 40-megawatt solar panel farm. Yay for clean power! Now, hopefully, solar cell manufacture and efficiency both move toward being cleaner. It would be very nice to have a solar farm like that producing much more than a maximal .2 percent of demand, and selling it at prices comparable to current technologies. Staying on solar matters, the Canadian Globe and Mail suggests having sufficient levels of Vitamin D may help to prevent cancer growth. Sounds like the full-spectrum sort of lighting may be useful for more than just fixing depression. Staying in health matters,
bradhicks goes from talking about the possibility of too little food to the idea of too much. Americans obsessed with food? You're next talks about the worldwide rise in crop yields, and how our normally calorie-hoarding behavior is contributing to the wave of health problems that come from abundance of food, and how the future will likely make this problem worse as the rest of the world starts dealing with the problem of having too much food. Of course, if our country can comfortably and relatively inexpensively feed most, if not all, of the world sufficiently, I do wonder why we aren’t already doing so and removing a worry from everyone’s life. The political capital to be gained from such a move would be enormous.The homebrew community gets a boost with the introduction of Games'n'Music, a DS card that supports homebrew games and has a 128mb memory card bundled. All available for under 20 pounds United Kingdom. I wonder if such a thing will see stateside viewing, or whether it will be suppressed because companies will want to keep their material form being used in “unauthorized” manners.
In fine bad segue form, speaking of suppression, Project Censored has released the list of the top 25 stories that were censored or ignored by the mainstream media. Which is casting an ever-wider net, actually, as the mainstream for many routinely includes Internet news and blogs.
Scotland Yard is looking for a better uniform - without the high, easily-falling helmets. Kind of reminds me of an episode of the Thin Blue Line, where new uniforms are being tested out. Whatever they decide on, hopefully it is first functional, and then has whatever fashionable bits it needs as secondary concerns.
Wil Wheaton relates a story of his experience with a teacher that didn't understand children, and what his parents didn't do to correct the situation. This is why we need good, understanding, well-trained teachers. That way, students aren’t punished for things out of their control, and (from a story in the comments) those kids that do know what they’re doing aren’t reduced to zombie-work because their teachers don’t know how to handle them.
Gearing up for the Olympics, Beijing is trying to make sure that the city is pristine and ready for the international community’s eye. This includes asking the residents of Beijing to change some habits, like public expactoration, queue-jumping, and foul language. And getting the Engrish turned into English.
Last for tonight - the heroic adventure cast stereotype list, provided by
ludickid. See how many of your favorite shows this can apply to! So, bed sounds good. And I’ll probably be shutting the computer down, just as a safeguard.
