Engage the propulsion systems, I want to see what's out there - 22 October 2007

Oook. So, tired as usual from the late shift. Was going to get a doctor’s checkout today, except the doc called in. I suppose that’s probably a good thing, as it gives me today and tomorrow to beat the tar out of a stuffed nose and get rid of it. Different doc, different day, and hopefully I’ll be able to get in and out in time to get back to my storytelling duties. I’m told it only takes about 30 minutes. If this is the case, then should be fine. If it takes longer, we could have problems. And I’ll probably have to cede one of my storytime segments to the other youth librarian next week (or get a sub) because there’s another training that runs rampantly through my story time on Tuesday, starting nice and early, and ending later. Ook, ook, ah, ah, tookie-tookie.

Anyway, moving out from my own little world into the bigger expanse of existence, if able to achieve optimal conditions for viral suppression, styles of combined antiretroviral therapy are effective in returning an HIV-positive person's CD4 cell count to that of an HIV-negative person. What that means is that the immune response returns, and appears to do so consistently over time, with asymptopic gains, so long as the person stays on cART continuously. (Izzat right?) With the restored immune functionality, a persion with HIV is less likely to die because of an opportunistic disease that would normally have been fought off by a regular immune system. In essence, HIV can be fought to a draw. It’s not a vaccination, nor is it a manner by which the virus can be removed from an already-infected person, but it takes a significant part of HIV’s deadliness away. It doesn’t necessarily work on everyone, and the study selected only the people who had the best virus suppression. If we can get to good virus suppression, at the least, if not a cure, then many more people will get their lives back. Assuming they can afford the treatment. This would be a perfect time for someone to step up to the plate and make the treatment available for extraordinarily low cost.

The Slacktivist tosses out the third theory on his Gay-Hatin’ Gospel list, one that many of those who perpetuate the Gay-Hatin’ have a good chance of believing: "They started it, with trying to push their agenda on us loudly. We're just responding to their attack." The problems with this idea? This argument sounds a lot like “Those uppity gays don’t know their place, and won’t accept it, so now we have to push it on them hard. They want special rights they don’t deserve.” You could substitute gays with some other historically discriminated-against groups, and people would recoil from endorsing it. This theory doesn’t really provide much for cover or explanation as to why, if they’re only reacting, Christianity is still getting hammered as being excessively anti-homosexual. More theories on the way.

Military themes are creeping in everywhere, including consulting firms staffed of ex-Air Force pilots. War’s cool again. [Beavis]Yeah, cool![/Beavis] My response: [Butt-head]*whock!* Shut up, Beavis![/Butt-head]. War and the military front to everything just doesn’t jive with me. I’d rather be known as a company that’s flexible and water-like, rather than rigid and run with military discipline.

There’s a lot out on the Internet meant to inflame and raise one’s blood pressure. You could run into one too many web pet peeves, and it sets you off. Or you see someone's opinion on why Bush is still relevant praising Mr. Bush for what is largely the work of others (and may not be considered victory or positive progress yet), and saying that his stubbornness on getting his way is a virtue (while laying blame at the feet of his opposition for not getting anything done or overriding him). The news that escalation with Iran is almost inevitable, with Cheney saying that Iran can never possess nuclear weaponry. Or even an opinion that still wants you to believe that wiretapping without a warrant is a necessary thing, and that giving judges the ability to review that, even if after the fact, is dangerous.

To counteract all that stuff, here's a warm and fuzzy human-interest story about a boy who was helped by U.S. soldiers. D’aww. Isn’t that cute? Of course, there’s still the Turks knocking on Iraq's door, ready to lay waste if necessary. And Mr. Bush is asking for $46 billion more dollars to funs the United States' presence in Iraq. Additionally, things have gotten sufficiently bad in Burma that women are sending their underwear to the country, trying to take advantage of a superstition that contact with women’s underwear saps a man’s power.

After all that, seeing that the monkeys are invading Delhi just kind of caps off the day, doesn’t it?

Wouldn’t it be better to find the cooperative spirit that enveloped the world on and following Sept. 11, but without the need for the great tragedy beforehand? So much potential there, but it’s been wasted away.

The misfiring of an anti-aircraft gun that killed nine last Friday has been blamed on mechanical failure. Not a software or automation error, but a jammed shell that then had another shell fire on it and set off the ammunition magazines, and then the item firing again. Thus, bad luck and a jam, not a robot gone rogue. Which makes sense, but I still wonder what happens when those automatic robots actually do have software errors. In other technology-related materials, WiMax has been given the green light by the U.N. telecom agency. Currently, WiMax can deliver faster speeds than many broadbands over a pretty good range. Perhaps with enough towers, everyone will be able to access a wireless point and get logged on. Then the idea of your Internet access being another city utility could come into play.

Regarding the primary elections upcoming, Liberal Seagull notes that there's some fault lines showing up among Republicans. Perhaps they will fracture enough to field a weaker candidate, and some of their bloc will desert to a different candidate in the general election. Although, I’m not sure I like what that would say about other candidates if Republican voters were on their side as well.

Let’s have some fun, and possibly celebrate a day of indulgence with Maximon, a Mayan Deity in charge of "backward days". It’s not intended to be a morality thing, but a day where you can accept that things got a little out of hand and dedicate that day to the patron deity of when things get a little out of hand. It’s kind of like a knitted Dalek: cute, cool, but ultimately harmless.

Having run out of stuff and steam, and realizing that I still have to go to work tomorrow... I think I’m just going to go to bed.

Right, and more - 23 October 2007

Today was today, not good, not bad, mostly normal - except that whole stuffed up nose thing. Which is a pain in the butt. Wish it would go away.

I have fallen back into the curse of receiving no comments, so if I am slow or nonresponsive, this is why. If it’s something properly important, draw it to my attention with regular e-mail or other communication methods, please.

Leading with a positive thing for once, Cranking Widgets offers six simple ways to be a nicer person. I hope I’ve got most of those internalized, especially on the job.

The good mood is crushed swiftly, however, A possible system of flagging LiveJournal entries for "inappropriate" content may be coming soon. As it is described in the post, it looks bad and pretty easy for someone to abuse-spam and troll those who they don’t agree with. (Although, wasn’t there already a flagging system implemented somewhere? Or are those still hypotheticals?)

Even worse (for some of us), The Japanese government has made an official appeal to United States authorities to suppress fansubs. Which could kill the licensing companies’ best inexpensive market research.

(Another) report saying that peak oil has already arrived. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before, at other times, but the fact that it’s even making it into the news indicates that it would be a good idea to find a method to generate the required amounts of energy from a source that is renewable... while we can still generate the cheap power to manufacture the expensive stuff with.

Atari's founder calls current video games "trash". Well, to each their own opinion - it’s true that a lot of games get published that probably shouldn’t. I’d like to see more in-depth reasoning, but the founder doesn’t have any specifics on the record.

Before we get into quiche, the CIA gets special mention for pure, unmalicious stupidity. Feast your eyes on the "Terrorist Busters" logo. This has apparently been in existence for a while. (And Keith made it his Worst Person in the World for today.) Perhaps following suit, or trying to appeal to the same demographic is the National Security Agency’s Cryptokids. Teaching cryptology with young, attempting to be hip anthropomorphs. Think this strategy will work or backfire horribly? Or worse, will it be co-opted as a resource to work through if and when such a unit should appear in their schoolwork?

On the fringes of quiche territory, yet another dittohead saying that every time things go well in Iraq, Democrats are ready to slit their political wrists. You know, if Iraq turns out well, everyone will give credit where it is due - to the people who managed to rebuild it and keep it safe until the domestic powers took over - or those who brought it back from the depths of civil war into a stable democracy. The people who will try to take credit for it, however, are likely the people who will least deserve any of it, regardless of which side of the aisle they sit on.



It’s quiche time, as the graphic above notes. Our leading SSRC says that the people who are having their homes burned in California are the people who hate America. Luckily, the rest of the country does not hold the same opinion, and has mobilized the National guard and fire teams, as well as declaring a state of emergency. Having learned a bit about disasters with the hurricane one, hopefully this one will be controlled better.

In a different style of insensitivity, Angry Asian Man has a roundup of "Asian" Halloween costumes, all aiming for sexuality. Yeah. There’s plenty of costumes that you can do - or, if you’re going to go for that aim, find yourself an anime character so that you can do the makeup in the drawing style and be accurate. Between that and Hogwarts Headmasters, you could easily offend every fundamentalist Christian within your neighborhood. You may want someone who’s a copy of Dungeons and Dragons to drive the point home, however.

Moving in toward our quiche criteria, the Pentagon co-opted an "editorially independent" newspaper as part of a PR campaign for Mr. Bush's war in Iraq, transferring funds away from the paper into the coffers of a PR firm hired to do the selling to Americans. Without notifying the editors. I’d hate to believe that this sort of thing is turtles all the way down, though.

Different malevolence, different result, but environmental regs were suspended to permit the construction of a fence through a national conservation area, under the auspices of the director of homeland security. The wall to keep out the immigrants is more important than the preservation of what little natural scenery and land we have left.And even better, said director actually has the authority to do so.

But, deserving and earning a quiche to the face for being the most Stupid, Stupid Rat Creature in this entry is a mult-quiche winner, Michelle Malkin, who derides and dismisses those objecting to the "Islamo-Facism Awareness Week" project of David Horowitz. If you want, you can have a look at the student's guide to IFAW.

To clear your mind of this (and perhaps to instill a different line of questioning), PETA has convinced an Australian model to appear nude for a campaign poster extolling vegetarianism. How, precisely, does PETA manage this, with their general perception as a fringe group?

My professional self once again hopes that the books used in these art projects are old, withdrawn, and have no interest in being preserved in an archival collection. That said, MonkeyFilter links to several artists that use books as their medium.

Staying in the cool stuff department, Fire Ants Versus... pits fire ants versus other insects, with the fire ants winning a least one bout.

If technology is your thing, try building your own 50s-era satellite, like the Russian one that went up. Components and housing for such would be pretty inexpensive. Getting sufficient lift to put it up into orbit might take a bit more expense. So, instead, it might be better-utilized for some other purpose here on Gaia.

Almost taking top honors tonight as the best thing in this entry is a page that has Christopher Walken reading Poe's The Raven. Of course, there’s also all sorts of background sound effects and an echo effect on Walken’s reading. Still good, and would work well for your Halloween parties. And if you’re in the are, perhaps seeing the all-female version of the Dreaded Scottish Play is good for getting into the right mood.

Our far-and-away winner of Best in Show tonight goes to josh g.‘s notes, for coming up with the rules to Escalating Office-isms, a game that not only requires a good knowledge of buzzword bingo, but requires the players to play a bit of a game of one-upmanship while around the water cooler. Wins are counted by laughs from your opponents, losses when people have to go back to work. Try it yourself.

Since I have to get up early again, bedtime is on the horizon. There’s been another study that says sleep is excellent for your memory and learning, and that REM sleep and dreaming is a great place for all that association to take place in, so make sure you get sufficient amounts of it to stay smart. I’m going to try for some so that I can stay healthy. Or get healthy, rather.