Yay for candy day! - 31 October 2007

So, Happy Halloween, everyone. Or Merry Samhain, or yay for costumes-and-candy day, whatever you like.

I spent my day almost not having anyone come to my storytime, getting compliments on bladespark‘s excellent handiwork in crafting the tail and springbok horns that I purchased from her, then running out from work to go up to Seattle and listen to the honorable mention and winners of the Hugo House’s writing contest. I also got to hear cmpriest deliver a short story of hers and then hang out a bit afterwards, where more compliments were delivered, someone had a sonic screwdriver (and someone else was definitely getting the Jack Harkness vibe going), and we find that not only is cmpriest an excellent writer and impeccably fashionable, she speaks at a fairly rapid pace and doesn’t leave much for holes in the conversation. (We did manage to introduce ourselves near the end, after sort of hovering, unto which she explained that there are no breaks in the conversation.) Certainly was worth the entry fee for the chat and the story alone. Now I have even more reason to buy and read her books.

Since I still have work in the morning, we’re getting the fast version of things tonight.

Giant garbage pile in Pacific might finally get some cleanup?

Cranking Widgets says cover your ass - speak to the best of your knowledge and no further. A pretty good example of this is the new Attorney General candidate saying that he doesn't know if waterboarding breaks laws on torture. Not the thing to be saying to hostile political forces, nor particularly confidence-inspiring from someone who wants to be the new Attorney General, but he did cover his ass nicely. Others are much more willing to say that waterboarding is torture, drawing on their own experiences with the process.

Lethal injection deaths shelved until SCOTUS case resolves, it looks like.

Something simple and brilliant in execution, and one of the finer bits of social engineering, is the stripper game that allows spammers to bypass Turing test protections. And apparently it’s not just a tease to get more words typed in. Harnessing wank to evil purposes. Got to applaud it, while wanting the program itself to be destroyed.

In better technology, an e-paper for cell phones can now do video. Still waiting for our touch-sensitive paper-thin displays.

Yet another Republican outed - one of the State Representatives for Washington, who voted against domestic partnerships and anti-discrimination laws, was apparently getting it on with a male escort. I’m beginning to wonder if the Republican party is going to institute “straight tests” or something just so that they can be sure that their members aren’t going to come out of the closet in scandalous ways. Or they could get with the program and decide that they’re going to support the whole equality thing, so that it’s not so scandalous when these things happen.

A quiche detour to splat Walter E. Williams, who says the poor are getting richer, and absolute poverty has disappeared from the United States. His reasoning cites that many poor families still have costly consumer goods, like air conditioning, television, microwaves, and cars. And that they own their homes. So people who are poor must be doing something wrong, if they have all that luxury and still have trouble with their lives. But for most, that car is necessary, as the air conditioning might be, and eventually, anyone could own their home. What about insurances, though? Luckily, as he notes, most poverty is temporary and those who are in poverty at one point find their way out of it. But if all it takes is gambling wrong on people getting sick this year to put you in poverty, then there’s still a lot that needs fixing. And even if our poor are the envy of the world, there’s always room for improvement, both for our own people and for helping the world’s poor get at least up to our poor’s level.

Reason skewers the idea of conscientious objection to contraception, saying that it shouldn't be prescription but over-the-counter, and thus cut out entirely any need for a woman to have to ask to control her own body. And Alternet excerpts from a book that doesn't like the tendency of pr0n to be more gonzo than before coupled with the increasing popularity of pr0n, because it sends signals that women are supposed to be degraded and like it, and that the culture enjoys seeing that sort of thing.

Our shining jewel tonight, however, is not that a family of a marine sued Fred Phelps for their stunt at his son's funeral (which is good), but that the jury found in favor of the family and awarded damages. Admittedly, more than the defendants were worth, but in this RIAA-enabled sort of day, wouldn’t Phelps just have to suck it up and mortgage a few generations?

Anyway, off to bed for me. Work tomorrow and all that.

Yet another day. - 01 November 2007

Well, today had a meeting. And they moved fairly quickly. Which is good. I stayed awake thanks to sugar and tea, but I think my dentist will have my head if I continue that tactic, so I have to figure out some other way of doing things. The tea part might stay, but I had three cups over the course of the four-hour meeting, and I’d rather not turn into someone who depends on such things. Tomorrow may require alternate tactics, as my drinking vessels have not arrived, and I doubt the meeting tomorrow is going to have quite so much for tea selection. Perhaps I’ll just need to carry glasses of water.

Onward to the news.

American populace proves it does learn, after all - United States Army recruiting figures are at a record low. Others, however, think they’re still ignorant of the biggest truth of them all - American democracy is the cleverest way of oppressing the masses devised, in that while it concentrates power and money in the hands of a wealthy elite, it provides the illusion that the people actually have any sort of control or power, so they’re unlikely to dismantle it in favor of something that really does give them power.

Brent Bozell III declares the peace movement passe, because of the Congressional cock-up, general impasse, and media coverage that follows it around, waiting for something to happen. I’d say that Bozell almost got it - the people are tired of the media portrayal of the peace movement, the Congressional impasse, and the rest. The pace movement itself? Still going strong, I’d say, and probably doing quite well away from the cameras. Cynicism has most likely set in, now that it’s basically assured that there’s likely to be no progress anywhere for the next twelve months. As we find out, Donald Rumsfeld was always looking to inflame passions and make the populace follow the Republican line, including some real stinkers about what Muslims do and don’t like, and the need to link Iraq and Iran. Of course, it might be more cynicism about the responses, rather than the protests.

There’s probably a witty transition here from cynicism about politics to Stephen Colbert attempting to file as a Democratic candidate, and his subsequent exclusion from the ballot by the South Carolina Democrats, accusing him of using them to further a political joke. I don’t know. I think the Democrats are afraid that electoral votes would go to Colbert. Or even more, that people might think the Karen Hughes Public Diplomacy Initiative was government policy rather than satire. Wait, those are based on things that she actually said, aren’t they? That would make them more like policy. Ick.

The General goes after a beloved children’s icon and outs Mr. Brown, from the Dr. Seuss story, as a homosexual, due to his continued hanging out with Mr. Black for most of the story. The General’s writers are great at poking fun. Hot Air, however, is probably serious in lambasting Nickelodeon for running an advertisement for World Can't Wait. So a channel geared toward young children is playing political advertisements. We always want kids to get involved in politics and think for themselves, right? And the earlier, the better. So that way even young children can decide for themselves whether Mr. Bush saying that Congress has wasted its time trying to end the Iraq war is a true statement or the frustrated rantings of a child not getting his way immediately. Or possibly the ravings of a madman.

Like mixing naptha and gasoline, some Christian pastors find Scientology a complementary practice. From the article, it looks more like the use of the basic materials, where one might find much the same stuff as in any self-help book, but if there are deeper principles at work, somewhere, something’s going to give.

In other religious news, perhaps more sober than the previous unit, a winner of an American lottery has promised to build a school to teach witchcraft, most likely the specific Wicca practice that he himself follows. This could be quite an interesting sequence to watch, even though I’m fairly certain there will be no news mention of it at all. Until someone from, say, a fundamentalist Christian organization notices. Then that whole naptha/gasoline combination might come back with a vengeance.

Which makes a nice segue into the Slacktivist's Gay-Hatin' Gospel, Part Five: It's all political. The most credible theory yet, is that evangelicals (for whom the Barna Group study mostly focuses on) have had their fears played to, their thoughts manipulated, and their churches steeplejacked by demagogues lying out both ends of their asses to gain political power and influence. By using a safe target, like homosexuals, and in conjunction with all the other theories discussed before, those hucksters sell the congregation into focusing on temporal matters rather than spiritual ones, and drag them way off the path of the Christ they claim to follow. Instead of kicking a gay couple out of a Rite-Aid because they were hugging, they’d be protesting the decision with a hug-in. Affection for all, all I say! And protection for all, too. That way, nobody has to wonder whether the environment surrounding a young transgender man from taking his own life.

Oh, and did we mention that a study done in the 1960s found out that most of the people seeking fellatio in public restrooms are actually heterosexual, married, and getting absolutely nothing in terms of sex from their wives? So maybe some of those closet people really are looking for something quick that’s not a wank because they can’t get anything from their wives.

Ever wanted to see the skyline, but from the ground? Mitsubishi offers a walk-in panoramic display of the Kyoto skyline. Which could have applications in virtual reality and other fields. Or for acrophobic (is that the right one?) people to see the skies while knowing their feet are firmly planted on the ground.

Something that might give people cause for hope is the possibility that laser pulses might be able to kill viruses without harming healthy cells. Although some of the commentators say that this idea has been done before, with varying opinions on whether the discrediting of the previous person was a cover-up or destroying a quack.

Some technology that might have trickle-down effects, rather unlike Ronald Reagan’s economic policy, is Formula One racing's mandate that their cars cease research on engines and devote attention to conservation of fuel and energy. Perhaps if we can make the fast racing cars with no practical application into green cars, we might find a way of applying those systems to regular cars. A different way of recycling and reusing items than the F1’s car requirements for energy conservation are spiders made from stainless steel scissors swiped from those who ran afoul of the Transportation Security Administration.

Our next-to-last spot gets cheers and praise for an accurate article describing what goes on at furry conventions. Methods were a bit suspect, in the sense that the writer went clandestine after being told of a no media policy, but the article that came out of it was fair and descriptive of what actually went on, rather than trying to manufacture or play to preconceptions about the alternaculture. Admittedly, the writer sounds a bit disappointed in not finding teh orgeez, in my opinion, but that didn’t stop her from writing an excellent article. I’m sure there’s not going to be overnight acceptance

Last for tonight is a plea to bring back the transitive verb. Avoiding “to be” and its derivatives, the prose of our lives takes on action, suspense, and interactivity. Active voice makes everyone participate and creates a more dynamic language. Maybe that’s why the grammar checker always said “avoid the passive voice.” So, in that active vein, More actors than you might think have geek credentials .

Okay, one more. Despite offering a double bed in the first-class suites of the Airbus A380, Singapore Airlines requests that its guests not engage in in-flight nookie. They made it easy to join the miles-high club, and they’re asking people not to engage in it. I don’t know how much they’ll be listened to, but the people around and underneath might be more interested in that than the in-flight movie.

I, however, am using the bed for the sleeping purposes, rather than the sport purposes. G’night.