Warg. - 20 October 2007

If all my working Saturdays are going to be like this, I don’t think I like working Saturdays. Luckily, it’s only one day a month. And it wasn’t bad, as all things go. Just took a while. And then the padded rugby squad managed to eke out a victory while looking sloppy the whole time. But there was some dungeon-running with my little brother on an MMO that long since had its heyday. And that was fun. And now, this entry, and then to bed.

So now, unloading all of the useful and useless data collected over the course of today, let’s have some fun.

My professional self grabs the top of this entry with 250+ killer Digital Libraries and Archives, of which most if not all, are open to the public and the Internet-at-large, so you can use them anywhere. A great depth and breadth of subjects, states, and materials are available, so go check it out, and bookmark the page as a great launching point for when you need more than just Wikipedia.

A Congressperson (we’ll let you guess which party) looked on at what her fellows were talking about with regard to extraordinary rendition and torture, and she said sure, apologize to the people caught falsely or on bad information, but one bad decision doesn't mean the whole program should disappear. And that if we happen to torture one person to save one hundred, it’s worth it. And that those accused of conspiring to commit terrorism don’t deserve due process. I wonder where these bizarre notions came from, that it is acceptable to do either of those things.

Our strange story for tonight is through a series of unfortunate events, a flying squirrel was lit on fire and then proceeded to cause a car to explode by getting into the engine compartment. The squirrel was apparently gnawing on power lines to spark the entire incident. Not exactly one that will be passing along his genes to future generations.

Working on that same line of thinking, but for Humes rather than squirrels, James Watson, a scientist who helped to unravel DNA, proposes a theory that Africans are not as clever as Caucasians. This touches off something similarly akin to the Third Rail Godwin’s Law, which not only causes someone to burst into flame, but also makes them the loser of the discussion. Thoroughly not amused by Watson also claiming that scientists don’t want to say the dirty truth, Mondolithic points out that if the hypothesis held up under scrutiny, we'd be seeing it published and debated in scientific journals. That happened before, no links were found, and the matter really doesn’t need to be opened up again.

Fear-fear-terror-terror-IEDs are on the rise in America onoes. Yet, plans are being made just in case the United States should start suffering attacks like the one in Manila that killed nine and wounded more than 100 with regularity.

Not necessarily doing themselves any favors, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator has resigned, being replaced with someone considered more hardline. Are both sides really willing to play the chicken game up to the point where something really does happen?

The commanders involved in the incident where nuclear weapons were flown over the United States have been relieved, in addition to others being disciplined over the matter. There are consequences to shipping bombs through the air after all.

Winning tonight’s pastry is Dennis Township Primary School for suspending a student that had drawn a stick figure shooting a gun (claimed to be a water gun) on paper, and given it to a classmate. This violated the school’s zero-tolerance policy on guns. That’s right, you can’t even draw a gun in school without getting suspended for it. Zero-intelligence policies such as these are an easy way for administrators to look tough while doing nothing to fix any real problems.

Our winner of the Cool Things award, despite being something that one would ever likely use, is the dress that doubles as camouflage. Standing next to a row of vending machines, one could blend in, possibly in an attempt to shake a pursuer or to hide from an assailant. Not necessarily likely to be practical, that design, but it does offer a thought as to how someone might try to disappear if they can’t outrun or outfight an attacker.

Winning the coveted Last Spot In This Entry is a study that says a little swearing between co-workers, in teh right situations, boosts morale. Not something ot be done in front of customers, or bosses too far up the chain, but between people on the same level, it can build team cohesion. Knowing when, where, and possibly even how to swear is an important skill for anyone to pick up.

Which leaves our question for tonight - aside from uniforms, and the reasons why people need to wear them, when did the clothing you are dressed in become the measure of your professionalism? If a job can be equally done in T-shirt and comfortable shoes as it can in a high-power business suit, why not do the work in the T-shirt? What part of putting on a monkey suit grants you the mystic filter of being taken more seriously? Shouldn’t your experience and ability shine through, regardless? It’s probably something psychological.

Anyway, bedtime. I think I’ve done enough for today.

I appear to have been hit with a glitch.

At the moment, when you comment or reply to a comment I have made, LJ sees it fit not to notify me of this, at least for the moment. When that fixes, fantastic, but otherwise, I may be slow in replying. greyweirdo, you’ve had this happen to you. Is there something I can do to fix it, or do I just wait it out and then cry out as they all flood in?

Back in power... ish - 21 October 2007

Well, that was a nice Sunday spent. Laundry, shopping, all sorts of things. Doc’s appointment tomorrow, which means it’s time for poking and prodding. So now I get to find out just how good or poor of health I’m in, and hopefully whether I have allergies of some sort. I believe I’m coming down with a cold, which is fantastic to do right before visiting the physician.

The Red Rabbit (boy, you’d be surprised how long it takes me to make connections) is losing trust in Barack when he appeals to Bible-thumpers, specifically because of his gospel concert tour, while also nominally wanting to court the support of the GLBTQ vote, who are much more likely to vote for the “liberal” candidate. Cross-political appeal gets you votes, yes, but it also makes people wonder if you’re actually serious about your platform. I wonder whether the American populace, regardless of what candidate they elect, will have been fooled by another masquerade. To combat this, keep an eye on The Right-Wing Facebook, and... there’s got to be an equivalent somewhere for the Democrats. Anyone? I think we might have the far left covered by running through Cindy Sheehan's wish list for the next session of Congress. And likely for the executive as well. At least, it’s attributed to Sheehan. If it’s her, that’s a serious tone shift from the point when I read her last. Maybe the decision to run for Pelosi’s seat has charged some rhetoric in her.

Something that should come as a surprise to nobody - ahead of the general elections in 2008, the Pentagon appears to be speeding the schedule of trials for accused terrorists. The results are apparently the important thing to show that fair trials are going on, rather than openness and prosecuting cases that don’t require classified information, so that the public can see that things are fair. And there’s absolutely no pressure to put people through trials before someone else takes office, because they might just let them go. And all this going on while terrorists are making dry runs through airports using cheese as substitute for explosives! In their checked baggage, no less. It would be cheaper and easier for them to use attack monkeys, like the ones that killed an Indian official.

Global warming may be at fault for sucky autumn colours. Yet another thing to lay at the feet of climate change.

Paris Hilton has apparently signed up for cryonic preservation, so that future generations can have the benefit of her presence, if and when science achieves the feat of successfully bringing someone back from suspended animation.

Genes may predispose certain children toward aggressive behavior. Environment still makes a difference on how they get expressed and whether they then are brought back within socially tolerable levels, but if this research holds up, add another thing to potentially screen for genetically, or to find some manner of reversing the effects. (And if they do, would it have any effect on the ADD/ADHD child?)

Take a look at the following picture - . Now read the following article. Not too far away from our current location, someone cracked an emergency response system and sent the SWAT team out to another person's home. The results could have been bad, but it was determined to be a hacking, and the victims were not shot nor otherwise harmed because of the cracking. That’s not encouraging, seeing that someone’s emergency response system could have false data inserted into it like that.

But we get some cool stuff, too - a dictionary of monkey language, and a YouTube video narrated by Vincent Price about a child who wants to become Vincent Price. And the fact that I baked quiche and it was yummy and turned out good and all that. Yay, quiche. My quiche was a quiche of awesomeness. And now, slep. Because doctor’s visits are early and I have to drive.