Work Sunday - 04 November 2007.

The timing on the following entry could be better, but I’ll let that one go at the appropriate time. For now, the usual treat of Stuff I Found On The Intarwebs.

Despite their great popularity and status as the next communication method of choice, there are still reasons to hate cellular phone carriers. Probably in the same vein as there are reasons to hate cable companies and the telecoms.

Oh, boy. Rather than the shining jewel of new foreign policy with careful scholarship and intellect, the new Counterinsurgency manual attributed to General Patraeus plagiarizes. Or at the very least, looks a lot like it didn’t cite all its sources. In response, one of the authors says military men don't need to cite everything, only academics, and that those selected to be cited are to help practitioners further their experience. The original piece’s author accuses the responder of missing the points, and that if the manual is to be promoted as a work of intellect and scholarship, then it needs to have the appropriate methods of scholarship followed, including citing sources and enclosing in quotation marks when one lifts wholesale from another work, and that the editors of the manual should have found some serious misgivings in the cavalier way in which things were appropriated.

As violence drops in Iraq, families displaced return to their neighbourhoods, according to the Iraqi government. The safety in those areas was apparently assisted by the backlash against al-Qaeda in the country, buttressed by American forces to keep it going. So the Iraqi people got really tired of all the violence, and decided to kick out the riffraff that were stirring it up. Sounds about par for the course to me - and who knows? There might be a fragile alliance formed, enough to hold things together for a bit, and possibly permit the removal of United States troops. Or things could hold together for a while and then degenerate into sectarian violence... or decide that having kicked out one set of foreigners, the other set should probably go, too. Just remember, all of this Iraq and Iran stuff is so that we can rush in the End Times and bring back Jeezis. Even if the interpretations of violent Islam are mostly rooted in non-authentic sayings and verses taken out of context, kind of like how violent Christianity does things. Coincidence? Obviously not. Rather than demonizing an entire religion, why not work with those members that follow right speech and right thought to convert or marginalize the whackjobs?

A lawsuit to be filed with the British high court seeks damages for the colonial government of Kenya's actions during the Mau Mau rebellion. The colonial government of Kenya killed and tortured natives in its crushing of the rebellion, and the suit seeks to have the British government give reparations for the actions of its colonial government. If the suit goes through, then there’s a possibility that the colonial powers could take a beating from the precedent established.

Back here in America, Austin Cline posits that debates about immigration are based much more on racism than on governmental policy. And despite being supposedly more progressive, even American liberal voters are buying into the scares attributed to immigration.

Causing significantly more anger among those who know its history, the beatification of almost 500 Catholics, some of whom cooperated with Franco's brutality, killed by Spanish Republicans has quite the strong passions behind it, on whichever end of the spectrum one may fall. Certainly some of them were innocents, but of the ones who were not, is beatification really an appropriate response for them?

The satirical paper The Onion has a joke that might get several barbs fired back in anger, rather than jest - Free Condom Harsh Reminder of Sexless Existence, detailing an encounter of receiving a free prophylactic from a sex-positive booth, excepting that the person receiving it hasn’t had sex for a while, and has no prospects. Suffice it to say, that one might hit a little too close for a lot of people.

A member of the Guardian newspaper, Jon Ronson, took a cruise with Sylvia Browne, a psychic who claims to be able to locate missing children. As with most such claims, she misses a lot. Yet, as any good performer does, she’s still got an audience and several books. In her case, though, from the write up, she seems more preying on the gullible than providing a good show.

There are some good things to happen, however - the broken solar panel on the International Space Station was fixed after a spacewalk today, and an Arizona plant suffered no ill consequences after a pipe bomb was discovered on the premises,

Worth further discussion is E.J. Graff in TPMCafe talking about why an EDNA without gender identity protection falls flat on its protection duties. It’s not the ones that look normal that will need protection - it’s the ones that you can tell are different. The butch women and the effeminate men are the ones who need it. Not to mention, the country itself favors this idea. Despite all that, the bill itself has been shelved. Ostensibly because the two factions can’t agree on whether or not the gender identity provision needs to be there. There’s also an interesting parallel discussion in there about a bartender whose employer required that she wear makeup, and whether enforcing dress codes that run strictly along gender-delineated lines would unfairly burden the genderqueer, who may not be comfortable at all in those kinds of clothes or makeup. In the comments, a fairly standard slate of responses - we’re not ready for it/the backlash will do something like make a constitutional amendment against you and pass it, gay bars would potentially have to hire religious fundies that absolutely hate gays as bartenders (not that I think any religious fundie is going to take a job in a gay bar, unless they’re hiding something...), the “light” version of the bill would cover gender identity and expression, and that employers have a right to enforce some standard of dress code on their employees, lest everyone show up in ripped jeans and T-shirts to their public-facing jobs. While the march of time will likely make the matter moot, sooner rather than later is always preferred. I’d like to think that my generation managed to get something done while we were young, rather than having to wait for all the older people to die off so that we could finally make some progress.

Anyway, that’s it from the Intarwebs Department. G’night.

The other shoe - Things I would like my users to know.

While I am always learning on my job, there are times where I would like to tell my users something, as a whole, because knowing and remembering these things makes my job easier. Many of these are based on some librarian’s experience, but details or entire accounts may have been made up out of whole cloth.

Things I would like to communicate to my users:

1) Interrupt me. Ask me for help first, rather than wandering around confused. I am being paid to provide assistance in your questions, no matter how simple, complex, or stupid they sound to you. If I look like I am doing something else, interrupt me anyway. Most likely, it’s not something that has to be done right this second.

2) My miracle-working ability gets better the more information that you provide to me. That said, I am much like the computer you will see me use - garbage in, garbage out.

2b) Please do not assume that I will pass any sort of judgment on your request. I assure you, I will not pass on to your preacher, parents, youth league, friends, or anyone else that you are curious about the beliefs and practices of other religions, nor will I pass on to the government any requests for the Anarchist’s Cookbook. (There is the exception where a lawfully signed court order may be used to access your records. If you keep no records, however, then they cannot access them.) If you only give me surface-level information and prevent me from trying to find the root cause, I can only give you a surface-level answer, which may not be what you really wanted to know.

3) Please assume that the computers designed for Internet access were bought from Bargain Jim’s Basement O’ Obsolete Parts. Attempting complex operations requiring Flash and/or Java may result in failure or your computer freezing. We’re working on the problem where only half the memory sticks will work on the computers.

4) Please do not attempt to circumvent the rules on Internet time. I realize that one hour per day is woefully insufficient for anyone to complete anything more than the most basic of tasks, and that we do not have nearly enough computers to fulfill your needs and requests, but that has been determined to be the best fit to ensure that everyone has access during the time the library is open. If you start using the catalog computers as general-access Internet computers with no time limits, or use other means such as another barcode number to gain additional time, we will notice. We will probably warn you about it once, and then start taking heads if it continues. If we feel charitable, all we might do is lock out all the alternate means that you have for circumventing our policy. Realize that my enforcement of policy may not coincide with my beliefs about whether that policy is a good idea.

5) If the sign says “Quiet Zone”, obey. You can read and converse elsewhere, just not there. Obey! Obey!

5b) “Ambient noise level” is determined solely by the librarians, but a good rule of thumb is that if you’re louder than everyone else in the library, you’re over the ambient noise level.

6) Your responsibilities regarding the conduct of your children/siblings/grandchildren/charges are not abdicated upon your sitting down to an Internet terminal, or your sitting them down to an Internet terminal. If things get out of hand, you are permitted and encouraged to pause your session, remove yourself to enforce parenting discipline, and then return to your station. If you must do this multiple times, that is acceptable. Since we are not a licensed day-care facility, we do not have the training, nor the resources, nor are we paid enough by any stretch of the imagination to baby-sit or entertain your children outside the course of our normal programming. As such, we will refer all unruly children back to you and expect you to do something about it to our satisfaction. If you are wearing headphones or otherwise showing an obvious disregard for your children, that will not endear you in our eyes.

6b) I prefer to treat library users as sentient, competent, and otherwise intelligent beings, assuming they have reached the age where this is possible. Thus, I will do weird things like ask a three year-old child if they can be quieter in their play, because I feel they can understand the question and then, hopefully, respond to it in the affirmative. Please, dear parent, resist the urge to snap at me, tell me that your child does not understand the conception of “quiet”, and say that I have no standing in which to ask for quieter play. I assure you, from the audience that I have for my story-time presentations, and from your own involvement later on, that the conception of “quiet” can be harnessed by three year-old boys when their parents are paying attention to them.

7) I should never have to warn you or comment on something unacceptable more than once. Failing that, I should never have to threaten you with consequences more than once for the same behavior. If you attract my attention on three separate occasions for the same thing, there will likely be Consequences. Do not make me come over there, or use my serious voice. You Will Not Like It.

8) Librarians and children both have excellent hearing. Anything you say around either of them will probably be heard, even if neither of them makes any move to acknowledge or dispute the veracity of your statement.

That’s my short list of things to communicate. Luckily, the more consistent offenses usually reside in problems with lower number, which is a plea from me to make me earn my salary, than problems with high number that tend to start ugly and get worse as time goes by.

Yo, Guy Fawkes Day - 05 November 2007

Yep, it’s one of the original days where you celebrate a terrorist and show the love for your country by blowing up a part of it, possibly attached to some effigy of the man who tried unsuccessfully to bring about a regime change. Learn more about the Gunpowder Plot from the Gunpowder Plot Society.

Yet Another Beef Recall - it’s getting downright dangerous to eat anything these days.

On one hand, Kurdish rebels free Turkish soldiers, not wanting to escalate tensions into actual conflict. This may not have the placating effect desired, however. On the other hand, With the assistance of the United States, Iraq voids a Russian oil contract, no doubt very likely to increase tensions between the Untied States and Russia, and possibly with Iraq.

In Pakistan, the reaction expected to the announcement of emergency conditions right before a vote has occurred. Mass demonstrations have police using tear gas and their crowd control weapons as the populace protests Musharraf's interference with the democratic process. The United States’ response to the matter has been tepid to say the least.

I think I’m missing something significant in the further discussion, which seems to be focused on whether or not trademarks registered under one interpretation of the law are subject to cancellation if that interpretation changes, but what strikes me as odd from the beginning is that Deutsche Telecom and Red Bull appear to have trademarked colors. Is there any way at all that is even possible? Designs, I can see, but the colors themselves? Next thing you know, people will transform Rubix Cubes into Weighted Companion Cubes or create luminescent shrimp, or such things.

Al Gore wants the media to show some sense and not go out of their way to find someone to contradict views in the interests of “equal time”, when the person on the opposition is clearly outside the bounds of scientific consensus. So I suppose nobody really wants a “Fairness Doctrine” if it rigidly required equal time for everything - including young-earth creationists, those who believe the earth is flat, and the like. Anthropogenic climate change is still up in the air, of course. But, at least according to NASA, matters such as extraterrestrial visits are settled firmly in the negative.

A Clear Channel subsidiary, Premiere, seems to have a thing for trying to keep listeners, regardless of their reputations and viewpoints. Glenn Beck's getting a big contract and Don Imus has been rehired, all because they bring in listeners to radio. Fair enough. Rush isn’t getting off the air any time soon, although Howard Stern was banished to satellite radio. Still seems like at the end of the day, the dollar outweighs all other considerations. Considering what I remember of Clear Channel’s music lineup, it probably extends beyond their talk shows, as well.

Television entertainment is likely to be stagnant for a while, as the Writer's Guild in Hollywood has gone on strike. To see some of the impacts, the Los Angeles Times has a grid rundown on affected shows.

Technologically speaking, wouldn’t it be nice if you didn't have to boot an Operating System to access a select suite of applications? Well, Phoenix is trying to make that a reality, by putting applications in don’t need the entire OS to do the work. Might help with laptop battery life, too, if not a whole lot is loaded.

Philip Klein at The American Spectator thinks that liberals are being a touch harsh on Mayor 9/11, and that this will drive him straight to the Republican nomination, and possibly the presidency, just because every liberal hates him so much, every conservative will vote for him. Riiight. Oh, and the part where Klein says that Keith Olbemann didn’t correct his remarks made when he thought Mayor 9/11 has commented about inviting Osama bin Laden to the presidential inaugral ball? Bullshit. Olbermann corrected his remarks on-air last week, right before firmly thrashing Mayor 9/11 by making him the bronze, silver, and gold medal winner on his Worst Persons in the World segment, all on things that Mayor 9/11 had said that were, well, erroneous. So, hopefully, with another look at the transcripts, Klein will correct himself, as well. While not needing corrections, all the papers that ran that Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth had scientific errors in it neglected to mention that despite those errors, it was "substantially founded upon scientific fact". Even seven years after the campaign, the media still seems to find great delight in picking apart Al Gore. Perhaps in revenge for not being able to trash him sufficiently that he gave up back then.

For a bit, Pat Buchanan almost looked ready to give a logical argument. In Sinking Country, Sinking Currency, he starts well - the dollar’s declining because Americans are borrowing and buying beyond their means. His partial absolution of the Bush regime doesn’t sit well, but trade deficits are more than just one man. It looked nice and logical, and then there was going to be the encouragement to save, cut back on spending, and strengthen the currency. Instead, Pat points fingers and says “See those round-eyes? They’re willing to take that cut in dollar strength so they can take over our markets and keep sucking us dry in technology! And those darker-skinned oil people there are buying up our land and banks!” In the face of a widening trade deficit, wouldn’t the sensible thing to do be to encourage one’s own people to save money, retard spending and credit, and invest in producing goods that are of sufficient quality inexpensively enough to have domestic markets? And then to pay down some of the outstanding debts that are there? You know, pay off the credit card and not suffer the interest rates.

And to tweak Pat before moving on, I wonder what he thinks of tutor services that recruit and train tutors worldwide - maybe he’ll rail about how much we all need to put more time and effort into American education. And if he meant it in a way that actually did good, he’d probably find a lot of support. This might just be the carrot to dangle in front of him...

Speaking of lots of spending going on, Michael Pollen dissects the growing opposition to unhealthy subsidization in farm bills. Or, if one were in a more zingy mood, people don't like pork in the grain bills (Link to Time’s coverage of the same bill package). However, if the idea that sugar-filled liquids make decent small-appliance batteries, maybe there will be a reason to grow all the corn that gets turned into high-fructose corn syrup.

And one more spending-related column for the road - Suzanne Fields frets that the country idolizes adolescence now, with the boomers trying to regress, and to get everyone to pay for their second childhoods. With everyone living longer, the prospects of being able to have a second childhood are much increased. All we have to do is figure out how to pay for it.

Empathy may be a hardwired characteristic of humans, through the use of "mirror neurons". Not to say that everyone uses them in that kind of faculty. They might also help us understand abstractions such as maps and language. Of course, this may be jumping to conclusions, and the mirrors aren’t really as important as we think they are. Might explain subtle shifts in speech patterns to match the person you’re talking with. On the other side of that coin, though, even the existence of usable empathy neurons doesn’t mean that everyone’s on board with the conclusions they might draw. bellatrys examines the idea that humanity has made leaps of progress compared to history, and finds it more likely to be repeating the same track over and over, with a couple new riffs here and there. It being 5 November, she took her example from the case of Guy Fawkes. History really is cyclical at times, isn’t it?

Working in the similar sort of “play one track, repeat ad nauseam” vein, The Slacktivist produces Part Six of the Gay-Hatin' Gospel series, revisiting the backlash theory and discussing the idea that plenty of the GHG’s devotees really do think that if they let the homosexuals have equal rights, then it gives license for every other abominable sin to claim equal rights as a lifestyle choice, and then the country goes to hell as God is utterly removed from American life entirely. The Slacktivist points out the obvious - just about all of the Seven Deadlies have lobbies or advertising on their side - Lust, Avarice, Envy, Sloth, Pride, and Gluttony all have advertisers working for them, and then there’s television culture and “Action Heroes” who take Wrath to new levels. Beyond that, though, the Slacktivist chides someone whose faith is so weak that they require it to be the law of the land and enforced on everyone, and that reduces their faith to being merely a tool with which to try and win the law over to their preferred interpretation of reality. It’s the same interpretation of faith that people like the Taliban have.

There’s a voting thing going on tomorrow, and the polls stay open late, so I’ll probably go out and vote, on the referenda and proposals at the very least, if not the candidacy races, not having been here long enough to make accurate comment on whether I want candidate A, B, or X in the various offices. Assuming that it is possible to fill out some sections and not others without the entirety of the ballot being scrapped or otherwise rendered unused. Got to go to bed anyway, so that I can get up in time and be energetic and storytelling.