Finally getting to it - 13 June 2007

Today was relatively eventful. Watched some GekiRanger, some Den-O, several episodes of The Tudors, and saw the third Pirates movie, and it was okay for what was paid for it. I will add, though, that I was kind of listening to the movie, more than I was watching it for most of the movie. I also note that the producers/writers liked to put Ms. Knightley’s character in impractical outfits, often involving then dropping her into the water for one reason or another. I also managed to get, install, and make a web camera work under Ubuntu Feisty. (Wootage! Surpisingly, help came from the Gentoo forums to get the right command-line materials involved. As well as significant amounts of Google searching. Handy to have a group of people who have done things before you and are able to provide help. I also appear to have received a copy of a book by missmarypotter. I will devote time to reading it at some point, probably tomorrow. przxqgl also reminded us that composers might want to use LilyPond to create their scores, in that it has quite a few robust features and is pretty easy to learn. Those wanting to know more about songs already written and performed might look at SongFacts.

Time for the cornucopia of links. My friends list exploded with lots of zombie-related material as a result of Blog Like It's The End of the World (all REM jokers were probably eaten). For a reason why zombies and other almost-human entities give us the creeps, The Age tells us it's because they're not quite right. Perhaps the dumping of hazardous wastes by the military off the shores of the country was a cause of the Zed outbreak? Perhaps the ninja in Italy was trying to fight off those who had already succumbed? I know that at least one person used his cat as a scout against the horde. Moving alarm clocks were dispatched as distractions. There were also some schematics for the rocket-powered chainsaw passed about as a possible long-range defense mechanism. The shorter-range folk received bladed weapons and a guide on best places to use them. Those looking for things to do before being consumed might try 17 foods to eat before you die. Those who are too late, however, will probably wish they had taken the guided tour of hell (Flash) before departing the mortal realm.

Mr. Blair, on his way out, accused the media of behaving like feral beasts, running in packs and behaving savagely. Mr. Blair is correct in the tendency to generate heat and “impact” over reporting true things, in my opinion. Even Spider might agree with him, although probably only before utilizing a bowel disruptor or other such item on him.

Those working in porn in Iran could face the death sentence for their exploits. Because it corrupts people, and that’s not considerably Approved Of by those in power in Iran. They probably wouldn’t approve of the Wired interview about orgasms that are not born of genital contact.

Iraq's Prime Minister offers a comparison to the United States' own civil war in describing the Iraq situation, in the OpinionJournal today. Mr. Maliki wants our continued support and military presence so that the country can be stabilized. Of course, the question of whether such a civil war should be left to Iraq to run its course is still being contested, either as politicians against each other, or the more likely scenario, the people versus the politicians. Steven Bird in Townhall compares the current President's apparent failure to Ronald Reagan's apparent failure in talking to the Soviet Union. Which, I suspect, will cause several students of history to froth at the mouth. Hopefully, they’ll not be mistaken for zombies, just angry people. Alla Podrida has a work experience where a young man just recently wanting to know more about evolution asks to make sure his information is there when he returns from a military tour in Iraq, and that experience has her hoping that he comes back alive so that he can learn more. On the other end, Mr. Brownback was advocating that even children of rape be brought to full term, to which Jesus' General offers some suggestions on how to make the idea stick. A Kossack provides the dissenting view (well, JG is a satirist, so he’s probably on the side of choice) in why compromise (with "anti-choice" types) isn't possible - they oppose the methods that would reduce teen pregnancy and STDs the most effectively in favor of promoting a method that is consistently shown to be ineffective.

The Last Thing is a Cool Thing - Pictures of a game design studio transformed into a steampunk-ish office space. A good work environment helps with creativity and novelty, I’d say. Unfortunately, I seem to be having trouble with finding a work environment in the first place. Maybe it’s the zombies’ fault. Also, did someone try to call me today while I was in the movie? I didn’t recognize the number, and no message was left, so I have no idea whether it was anything important. So now I’ll go to bed. And wonder whether or not I can manage to get the sound to work on the camera - it still doesn’t seem to like that part, even though I supposedly applied an appropriate module to get it to do so. Ah, well. At the very latest, a kernel release or two from now will probably fix it. It now being past Last Call at the bar, I think I should be going to bed.

Nice idle day, this one - 14 June 2007

Although it really wasn’t an “idle” day, as I spent the majority of it reading missmarypotter‘s book, Mercury Brightman: The First Sign. There are other books in this series, I would suspect, and so a final sort of judgment on the story as a whole would have to be reserved until they all appear. It was a good way of passing the time today. Then I comicked. And that was the sole amount of productive work I did today. I also worked through the three currently available Green Samurai Clan albums available on their website. Not bad, and good music to listen to while one’s mind is occupied following a girl through another world.

Well, apart from the usual dosage of things that come across my desk every day. But they’re not that important, are they? I mean, who actually reads this stuff? Who wants to know about cucumber soda being sold in Japan? Why would anyone care if New York's governor might be friendly to medical marijuana (I suspect this is so because after the legalizations in other states, there has failed to emerge the army of zombie potheads or drug addicts, and so more people are going to legalize.) Since yesterday was about zombie invasions, the BBC has an article about a different type of zombie defense - the Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to fight off the hordes of computer zombies clogging the Intertubes and trying to hack into various places. In addition to zombies, military forces are dealing with significant amounts of China-based hacking attempts. After all that talk of zombies, maybe Edward Gorey's The Gashleycrumb Tinies is also appropriate. (And good for the children, too!)

I’ll pass this Salon article along to those interested - it's a fairly positive portrayal of poly people, including all the work that it requires to have a functional and healthy poly relationship. What it does best, however, is emphasising that while it looks weird, the poly people are not different - there’s just a few more of them than your traditional male-female relationship. Continuing in the vein of relationships, the Massachusettes legislation voted down a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, sending the question away until at least the 2012 ballot.

Happy 232nd birthday, United States Army. How many of you will have died today, on this most auspicious of days?

AlterNet is cluing us in to the longer-term strategy of the Bush Administration - a Korea-like deployment, with bases and garrisons in the country, tucked away but still there and ready to fight. So we could, indeed, be in Iraq for many years to come, staring across the border at Iran and wondering if they’re going to do anything. Alternet says that this idea is not new, and has, in fact, been what the plan was back when Iraq was invaded in 2003. Congratulations, troops. Welcome to another fifty years of waiting. Furthermore, the proliferation of bases around the world is beginning to look kind of like the proliferation of colonies. Except this time, there’s no overthrowing the government and declaring independence on the bases. Alternet is skeptical about the ability of these bases to succeed, and I think it’s a warranted skepticism. Horse’s Ass shreds Guilani's "12 Commitments", commenting that Rudy has a God complex, considering what he’s promising. Big promises, likely to be forgotten or have a token bit done and then claimed as having fulfilled those commitments when it comes for a re-election bid. Thomas Sowell distrusts the idea of a "guest worker" program, accusing them of being more like “home invaders”, looking to steal and destroy what they can as a criminal element, rather than expecting to be treated like valued members of the country they’re working in. Because the darkies are obviously always responsible for the things that go wrong, of course. The Justice Department has been focusing less on race and more on religion, according to the New York Times, and the NYT gives it a mixed review, not saying the focus on religion is good, but also highlighting that apparently-positive things have been happening under the new priority list. Of course, there have been replacements as well in the Justice Department, and any good will that has been obtained could easily be erased or reversed should the new appointees decide to take on things that specifically favor certain groups over others.

Cal Thomas, in Townhall, advocates a return to traditional teaching subjects, wringing his hands over the way public schooling in Britain is “failing the next generation”, by not teaching students historical material and trying to be relevant and teach about popular issues. Those across the pond, alternative theories on whether public schooling is going down the tubes and why? Mr. Thomas ends with a dire warning that American schools may be following in these footsteps, to which I point to various studies that already point out the shortcomings of the American schooling system in teaching people things that will be informative to them, much less the things that would give them an effective or a classical education.

A violation of the Hippocratic Oath occurred when a woman died because the doctors at the hospital refused to treat her and 911 would not dispatch paramedics to transport her to another hospital. The death was ruled “accidental”. I’d call it “dereliction of duty”, myself. That hospital is going to get railed with suits and sackings, and that’s before the important people get involved.

A new BP study says we have forty years of oil reserves before we hit the peak, a figure contested by other scientists. No matter where you put the peak point, the fact that the studies are pointing out that it will happen in this lifetime should be a sufficient kick in the ass to anyone involved in the petroleum business (including consumers) that time is not on our side in terms of finding an alternative fueling source. Which may be why we’re slowly seeing some alternatives appear. Even so, energy, motor vehicle, and other corporations should be strongly investing in other sources, preferably of the renewable type, before they get caught without having sufficient monies to do anything but implode. Even if it turns out these estimates are pessimistic, I think that it would be preferable to have the new infrastructure in place well before any projected collapses. Moving from oil to water, the Independent also offers a concern about water supplies and a possible long-lasting drought for the United States. I’m sure that some will nod and say “Well, then, aren’t we glad the polar icecaps are melting? More water for all!” to such an article.

eBay pulls funding for Google ads, escalating an impending cracking of heads between Paypal, owned by eBay, and Google’s Checkout service, which offers a similar type of functionality. Google really does want to be a one-stop shop for everything, it looks like. I wonder if the next anticompetitive suits will be aimed at Google rather than Microsoft. They’re certainly building themselves into something that could be a giant, assuming a sufficient mass converts to all the Google services they offer.

Ah, that’s all. You see, I gotta go. There’s like... a show on or something that I don’t want to miss.