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Right - onward, then - 10 August 2007
Aug. 11th, 2007 01:13 amSpent much of yesterday on the road, coming back from Pennsylvania where I had set up a base of operations at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
annaonthemoon‘s place for the interviews that were going to take place while I was out there. With the job offer and acceptance, I politely canceled my second interview, which would have been Thursday and headed home. There will be burning of rejection letters soon, but for now the packing has already begun. I suspect much of the things that I packed up when going off to college are still ready for me to go. I’m still probably going to have to do some sorting, and I suspect my entire book and media collection is going to get shipped rather than brought, unless there’s a lot of room and boxes to be had. That said, I still need to find a destination and to figure out just when I’m going to head there. And how many people I’m going to have along for the ride, if any.
Beyond that, though, there’s links galore for everyone to have and find something of use to them. At least, that’s the theory.
Leading off at the top is matters regarding LiveJournal and the continued furor over new interpretations of the Terms of Service. A query in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
innocence_jihad gets things going, with a question as to whether links to offsite content can be considered for TOS violations. p_zeitgeist finds out separately that linking to a site that would violate Livejournal's TOS can be considered a violation of the TOS by the linking party. liz_marcs wants to make sure she heard right, and asks the question again, after noting that this contravenes stated policy available on the Abuse section of the website. Contradiction does not seem to be a new phenomenon for LJ in these regards, and jupiter_star is collecting a listing of contradictory statements that have been made so far, and aura218 complements that list with a list of comments made in the August 7 lj_biz post by staff members. (The particular post in question is http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241884.html.) Things continue to get curiouser and curiouser, and irana wonders how stupid some persons think the average LiveJournal user is. I still wonder if there was (is?) some sort of internal struggle regarding the staff and the new interpretations of the policy going on, and that once that finally shakes out, we’ll see the consistency and the changes made to reflect the new order. For now, however, a lot of people are looking very nervously at each other, wondering if their next post could be their last. At some point, one must wonder whether someone will choose to report my own link-gathering services. I’m sure there’s something that would probably be considered grounds for a report in there, even if it is a news article. Would certainly be a pain to wake up one day and find that my scavenger technique has suddenly and irreversibly been banished from the face of the Internet.
Happy 75th birthday, Lego, and a strong 75th birthday shout for the Autobahn. Have some artisticially designed chocolate to celebrate.
"Clerical errors" blamed for missing 100K+ rifles. And body armor and helmets, it appears, as well. The people who gave them out insist they all went to the right place, but that they didn’t have accounting procedures in place because it was more important to get the weapons out to the Iraqis. Incompetence, not malice. Additionally, the Justice Department dropped Dragon Skin body armor from its approved list, a move that the manufacturing company claims is political in nature rather than performance-related. Finally, the military is developing cluster bombs that explode totally in one giant chain-reaction. No unexploded and potentially unstable ordnance left behind to destroy people long after the war is over with. More bang, less mess, looks like.
A new possible threat to the soldiers in Iraq include higher-ranking officers berating and shutting down a meeting of soldier atheists, after they had gone through proper protocols to hold the event and had their fliers taken down and vandalized. It may not be as immediately lethal as the persons outside who wish to kill them, but it damages the military and its soldiers all the same. You can see some of the effects in the comments made by an Idaho Senator about the Hindu prayer in the Senate, and the still-unprovable conceit that the Founding Fathers intended the country and the Constitution to be explicitly Christian.
A United States citizen deported as a perceived illegal immigrant has been found and returned to his home in Lancaster. The deportation apparently occurred without documentation checking after Pedro Guzman had been arrested on a probation warrant. Only a determined effort from his mother managed to bring him back to the country.
Meet Love Demonstrated Ministries, those who show their commitment to love by dragging a 15-year old behind a van. The Chronicle article is unclear as to what precipitated this particular event, whether it was merely falling behind or some other thing, but there was probably some sort of “sin” involved somewhere. Also, meet AT&T, who decided to cut Pearl Jam off their Webcast of Lollapalooza when Pearl Jam started singing anti-Bush lyrics. I suspect they would also not be fans of a viral video technique promoting a movie that basically makes a (fake) death threat against the person watching it.
Space Shuttle Endeavour finally achieves goal of putting an educator into space. Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah. Back here on Gaia, though, Ashley Herzog reviews a book that says that boosting self-esteem rather than teaching self-confidence is ruining those in school. I certainly agree that enforcing some standards about what is going to be work that actually prepares students for life outside school is needed. And that’s likely going to cause problems with people who believe their child is the most special being on earth. I’d rather not have A mean “average, but we’re not holding you back because it would hurt you.” And just maybe, being stricter in school will avoid producing people like two fine Craigslist specimens who will be waiting... a very long time for their wishes to be fulfilled. Or the woman who shot someone that asked her for a quarter. Or the company (Johnson and Johnson) suing the nonprofit (American Red Cross) for the nonprofit using a logo it claims to have exclusive commercial rights to, because the nonprofit was using the logo on products it was selling to the public. There’s something seriously wrong about the idea of suing and seeking damages from the Red Cross, especially if the profits from the sale were going into relief efforts. If there’s a case to be made for infringement, then one would hope that Johnson and Johnson should be satisfied with cease-and-desist, if they really must insist on their exclusive rights.
Showing some ingenuity, and possibly helping contest a citation, a Minnesota man has won the right to inspect the source code for an electronic breath-analysis machine, having asked for it as something to assist his defence. The appeals courts found no reason for the request to be denied. Further showing brains and ingenuity, Forbes covers DefCon, the hacker jam, and makes note that most of the people there are there because they're explorers, not criminals. Some of those hackers may even be consultants or heads of security, trying to find the people who do want to be criminals.
China has breached the possibility of calling in debts should the yuan not stay on a stable exchange with the dollar, This is one good reason to run a surplus on your operating budget and start paying off your debts - if you’re not beholden to someone, you don’t have to worry about them calling things in on you.
Geoff Manaugh offers a suggestion to those who want to make an impact about climate change - the more you make it look like science fiction, perversely, the more people will want to see it happen, just because it’ll be something cool to watch and live through. They’re not considering all the attendant problems, like possible starvation, dehydration, and violence. Perhaps a bit more fighting in the streets and a little less “new Noah”. On the other hand, giving into despair and believing that nothing can be done is equally as bad, as the Slacktivist points out. Whether it’s saving the world or protesting that Ubisoft's "Imagine" game triology is trying to inculcate glass-celing mentality in young women, go do something, so that you don’t lose hope.
A Zen picture to ponder is the floating lightbulb, a Tesla-inspired design that not only floats the bulb up, but also runs wireless power to it so that it can illuminate the world around itself. Something probably less Zen is the Starbucks Oracle, which claims to be able to know your personality from the drink that you order at the megachain. And something that’s just funny is that the call signs KUNT and KWTF have been given out by the FCC - which proves that it’s not just the DMV you can put one over on if you want to get dirty messages out to the world. May be easier in other parts of the world, though, as F-cup cookies proves.
Last for tonight is Earvolution's Ten Best Bands that never existed. I wonder about their criteria for “existence”, as several of the bands mentioned have been seen playing. The Blues Brothers even cut records. So if you take “existence” according to a particular definition, this is still a great list of bands. Ponder that while I sleep for a significant amount of time.
annaonthemoon‘s place for the interviews that were going to take place while I was out there. With the job offer and acceptance, I politely canceled my second interview, which would have been Thursday and headed home. There will be burning of rejection letters soon, but for now the packing has already begun. I suspect much of the things that I packed up when going off to college are still ready for me to go. I’m still probably going to have to do some sorting, and I suspect my entire book and media collection is going to get shipped rather than brought, unless there’s a lot of room and boxes to be had. That said, I still need to find a destination and to figure out just when I’m going to head there. And how many people I’m going to have along for the ride, if any.Beyond that, though, there’s links galore for everyone to have and find something of use to them. At least, that’s the theory.
Leading off at the top is matters regarding LiveJournal and the continued furor over new interpretations of the Terms of Service. A query in
innocence_jihad gets things going, with a question as to whether links to offsite content can be considered for TOS violations. p_zeitgeist finds out separately that linking to a site that would violate Livejournal's TOS can be considered a violation of the TOS by the linking party. liz_marcs wants to make sure she heard right, and asks the question again, after noting that this contravenes stated policy available on the Abuse section of the website. Contradiction does not seem to be a new phenomenon for LJ in these regards, and jupiter_star is collecting a listing of contradictory statements that have been made so far, and aura218 complements that list with a list of comments made in the August 7 lj_biz post by staff members. (The particular post in question is http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241884.html.) Things continue to get curiouser and curiouser, and irana wonders how stupid some persons think the average LiveJournal user is. I still wonder if there was (is?) some sort of internal struggle regarding the staff and the new interpretations of the policy going on, and that once that finally shakes out, we’ll see the consistency and the changes made to reflect the new order. For now, however, a lot of people are looking very nervously at each other, wondering if their next post could be their last. At some point, one must wonder whether someone will choose to report my own link-gathering services. I’m sure there’s something that would probably be considered grounds for a report in there, even if it is a news article. Would certainly be a pain to wake up one day and find that my scavenger technique has suddenly and irreversibly been banished from the face of the Internet.Happy 75th birthday, Lego, and a strong 75th birthday shout for the Autobahn. Have some artisticially designed chocolate to celebrate.
"Clerical errors" blamed for missing 100K+ rifles. And body armor and helmets, it appears, as well. The people who gave them out insist they all went to the right place, but that they didn’t have accounting procedures in place because it was more important to get the weapons out to the Iraqis. Incompetence, not malice. Additionally, the Justice Department dropped Dragon Skin body armor from its approved list, a move that the manufacturing company claims is political in nature rather than performance-related. Finally, the military is developing cluster bombs that explode totally in one giant chain-reaction. No unexploded and potentially unstable ordnance left behind to destroy people long after the war is over with. More bang, less mess, looks like.
A new possible threat to the soldiers in Iraq include higher-ranking officers berating and shutting down a meeting of soldier atheists, after they had gone through proper protocols to hold the event and had their fliers taken down and vandalized. It may not be as immediately lethal as the persons outside who wish to kill them, but it damages the military and its soldiers all the same. You can see some of the effects in the comments made by an Idaho Senator about the Hindu prayer in the Senate, and the still-unprovable conceit that the Founding Fathers intended the country and the Constitution to be explicitly Christian.
A United States citizen deported as a perceived illegal immigrant has been found and returned to his home in Lancaster. The deportation apparently occurred without documentation checking after Pedro Guzman had been arrested on a probation warrant. Only a determined effort from his mother managed to bring him back to the country.
Meet Love Demonstrated Ministries, those who show their commitment to love by dragging a 15-year old behind a van. The Chronicle article is unclear as to what precipitated this particular event, whether it was merely falling behind or some other thing, but there was probably some sort of “sin” involved somewhere. Also, meet AT&T, who decided to cut Pearl Jam off their Webcast of Lollapalooza when Pearl Jam started singing anti-Bush lyrics. I suspect they would also not be fans of a viral video technique promoting a movie that basically makes a (fake) death threat against the person watching it.
Space Shuttle Endeavour finally achieves goal of putting an educator into space. Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah. Back here on Gaia, though, Ashley Herzog reviews a book that says that boosting self-esteem rather than teaching self-confidence is ruining those in school. I certainly agree that enforcing some standards about what is going to be work that actually prepares students for life outside school is needed. And that’s likely going to cause problems with people who believe their child is the most special being on earth. I’d rather not have A mean “average, but we’re not holding you back because it would hurt you.” And just maybe, being stricter in school will avoid producing people like two fine Craigslist specimens who will be waiting... a very long time for their wishes to be fulfilled. Or the woman who shot someone that asked her for a quarter. Or the company (Johnson and Johnson) suing the nonprofit (American Red Cross) for the nonprofit using a logo it claims to have exclusive commercial rights to, because the nonprofit was using the logo on products it was selling to the public. There’s something seriously wrong about the idea of suing and seeking damages from the Red Cross, especially if the profits from the sale were going into relief efforts. If there’s a case to be made for infringement, then one would hope that Johnson and Johnson should be satisfied with cease-and-desist, if they really must insist on their exclusive rights.
Showing some ingenuity, and possibly helping contest a citation, a Minnesota man has won the right to inspect the source code for an electronic breath-analysis machine, having asked for it as something to assist his defence. The appeals courts found no reason for the request to be denied. Further showing brains and ingenuity, Forbes covers DefCon, the hacker jam, and makes note that most of the people there are there because they're explorers, not criminals. Some of those hackers may even be consultants or heads of security, trying to find the people who do want to be criminals.
China has breached the possibility of calling in debts should the yuan not stay on a stable exchange with the dollar, This is one good reason to run a surplus on your operating budget and start paying off your debts - if you’re not beholden to someone, you don’t have to worry about them calling things in on you.
Geoff Manaugh offers a suggestion to those who want to make an impact about climate change - the more you make it look like science fiction, perversely, the more people will want to see it happen, just because it’ll be something cool to watch and live through. They’re not considering all the attendant problems, like possible starvation, dehydration, and violence. Perhaps a bit more fighting in the streets and a little less “new Noah”. On the other hand, giving into despair and believing that nothing can be done is equally as bad, as the Slacktivist points out. Whether it’s saving the world or protesting that Ubisoft's "Imagine" game triology is trying to inculcate glass-celing mentality in young women, go do something, so that you don’t lose hope.
A Zen picture to ponder is the floating lightbulb, a Tesla-inspired design that not only floats the bulb up, but also runs wireless power to it so that it can illuminate the world around itself. Something probably less Zen is the Starbucks Oracle, which claims to be able to know your personality from the drink that you order at the megachain. And something that’s just funny is that the call signs KUNT and KWTF have been given out by the FCC - which proves that it’s not just the DMV you can put one over on if you want to get dirty messages out to the world. May be easier in other parts of the world, though, as F-cup cookies proves.
Last for tonight is Earvolution's Ten Best Bands that never existed. I wonder about their criteria for “existence”, as several of the bands mentioned have been seen playing. The Blues Brothers even cut records. So if you take “existence” according to a particular definition, this is still a great list of bands. Ponder that while I sleep for a significant amount of time.
