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Shambling along - 04 December 2007
Dec. 5th, 2007 12:00 amWell, today was a hoot of a day. All sorts of stuff happening, new program launched, with good attendance, other meetings, and lots more stuff being done. Wheeeeeeeeeeee! I feel the mission creep already.
Happy 90th birthday, Finland! In December 1917, Finland became an independent state.
Anyway, now that the initial shock has worn off, or perhaps in spite of it, the research on SUP, the parent corporation of LiveJournal, Inc. has started. At least one has concluded that LJ, Inc, and SUP are pawns and puppets of the Russian government, or at least very friendly to Mr. Putin. This apparently translates to bad things, intrusiveness, and the Russian intelligence service spying on everyone’s journaling with avid interest. And that paid account fees are apparently going to support Mr.Satan Putin himself. I still can’t accurately gauge anything, knowing nothing about how the new company will operate, nor anything about potential clandestine activities (and if I did know about the clandestine stuff, it wouldn’t be a very effective secret operation, now would it?). For now, I’m waiting to see what happens. Then, when something concrete gets done to make judgment on, options will have to be considered. Just in case judgment is unfavorable, there was a backing-up recently. I have no idea whether it will be possible/feasible to take the output of that file and feed it into a different service. That said, there would have to be negative Judgment and/or a large amount of abandoning ship, unless I want to set up several hundred feed aggregations or other complexities. For all we know, the LJ community will successfully be able to lobby for its own interests rather than anyone else’s.
At least LJ hasn’t demanded that we all install programs on our computer that monitor our Internet traffic, like the MPAA is doing to universities. Oh, and that toolkit is not configured with safe or sane defaults, according to the analysis. There’s debate as to whether this offering violates GPL, since it runs Xubuntu, if the MPAA doesn’t make their source available (if they modified anything). Last, though, as pointed out, that it doesn’t actually discern what traffic is legal or illegal, but throws up flags at whatever point someone is downloading something that could be illegal. Which is something any good network admin would know anyway.
In more international material, Canada's ambassador to Iran was expelled after Ottawa continued to reject candidates for the Iranian ambassador to Canada. Both sides are looking for the right people for the job and just haven’t found anyone yet.
Whether it’s pandering to the electorate or actually believing in their cause, Mr. Bush and the Democratic opposition continue to lock horns on the issue of Iraq funding. And Mr. Bush made very little headway on his Iran rhetoric, after indications that Iran stopped a weapons program in 2003. The inspectors found no weapons in Iraq, and it looks like Iran didn’t have any. But that doesn’t stop Mr. Bush from claiming that U.S. led pressure stopped Iran, and from his supporters saying that Iran is still a threat, just going about their business in a more secretive manner now.
If you needed one more reason not to vote for Governor Romney, you’ll get it Thursday, as Mitt will wax poetic about how "faith has fallen out of the public square". Mitt still doesn’t see himself as a spokesperson for Mormonism, which is good, but a significant part of the Republican base sees him as some sort of outsider, so even if he doesn’t, others do see him as an ur-Mormon. With all the baggage that comes with that. The reason not to vote for him, however, is that if his speech is on topic, he’s missing the point - faith should not be part of the government, always something the government treats as an outsider, not as a bedfellow.
Our science department hands us something that, were in not in National Geographic’s web site, might elicit a “you’re joking” response, but apparently, a relatively intact dinosaur has been found, mummified, with much of tissue and skin still there for study. The study part is definitely going on as fast as those little scientist legs can devise and test experiments and observations.
Walking down the development chain from adults to children, Cranking Widgets puts up a reasonable defense of the Amazon Kindle, putting up some good points as to why it might be worth the price of buying one. (Especially if Amazon puts much more of their extensive catalogue on it, and the Kindle can then accept things like SD cards or other memory, so that gigabytes upon gigabytes are potentially accessible at a time.) Maybe, if I can get to play around with Kindle a bit, I’ll know whether I like it and should actually try and be one of those early-adopter types rather than several years behind the curve.
Science has more information about teenager development. Much like when first learning to drive a vehicle, teen brains are apparently good with the gas pedal, but light on the brakes. As such, charging and punishing teens as adults and putting them into the prison system, which doesn’t necessarily do much for rehabilitation, for extended periods of time is probably not the way to go about doing things. As maturity develops, generally the aggressive impulses get better control. In short, teens really do grow out of it.
In the age bracket just underneath them, the inadequately-named “tweens” are big fans of their keitais. A Nielsen survey shows a significant part of tweens using their mobiles for Internet access and multimedia content in addition to voice and text. I suppose it’s a bit interesting that this particular age group has access to so many mobiles, but as an easy leash from parents, it’s not too surprising for me.
Finally, getting down into the children’s area, I previously made mention of a book that was having difficulty finding a publisher in the United States because of artistic depictions of genitalia and mammaries. As I am informed, Chronicle Books has decided to publish and sell the four-book series, so American audiences in San Francisco (and however far Chronicle Books’ web presence extends) will be able to read the book.
Amazing what you can learn about history in reading a book review. To give proper context for "Charity Girl", a book by Michael Lowenthal about women who were rounded up and confined during World War I because they were consorts with soldiers, and many had veneral disease, the book reviewer gives a quick historical sketch of the programs that sound suspiciously like the “purity” crusades of today, hyping up diseases and making women who slept with soldiers into prostitutes and degenerates. In that era, the disease spread may very well have been real, but the program was ineffective, really. Modern programs that are about purity and abstinence have about the same effectiveness rate. Only actual education seems to be working when it comes to stopping disease spreading.
According to a report from South Africa, circumcision may reduce the risk of HIV infection, by making the penis less sensitive and thus less likely to bleed. It was not said that circumcision was an effective preventing, and that condoms (education, again) were the most effective method of preventing HIV infection. A BBC reporter, acting independently, decided to chronicle his own circumcision when he decided that it was worthwhile to help fight the spread of HIV.
Tonight’s religion section contains the Real Live Preacher trying to reconcile the faithful and the unfaithful as fellow humans, inquiring about the faith, or lack thereof, of the people he meets, and trying to carve out a place that says “We can still be friends, right?” Well, maybe. So long as you respect the atheist or agnostic when they tell you that's what they are, then you might be able to get along. Although, there’s a significant terminology debate going on in the comments, in addition to the ire at “atheism is a religion” and several other positions. But hey, that’s what intelligent debate (There’s an ID for ya) is about, right?
The art section is having a ball with noting that a two-year old was able to get gallery space and experts buying his paintings. Yes, we’re having quite the guffaw ourselves about what it takes to make modern art. But we’ll make up for it by giving you a suite of visual and video-game medley music - the visual is the midi tracker, and there are quite a few patterns that are discernible here and there, especially in the Chrono Trigger medley.
Having saved the worst for next to last, the quiche competition gets underway with getting a look inside the National Institute on Media and the Family's "Video Game Report Card", which is trying desperately to find any reason to say why video games are still evil, the work of Satan, and that no parent should let their child play any of them, ever. Complete with a list of “Avoid!” games (all rated M, of course) and a “recommended” list, which includes a game about street racing, a game that has players replicating rock music, a game that has them singing pop idol songs, three sport games, two Mario games, and Viva Pinta. Oh, and they shouldn’t let them set foot inside a game retailer, either, because kids can buy or rent M-rated games from a lot of them without questions asked or ID required. The rest of us, over here in reality, are busily introducing parents and children to dancing games, rockout games, and games where all you have to do is a little wiggle to make the character do stuff on screen. Rather than trying to promote fear, we’re letting the players decide for themselves.
The bronze medal goes to CNN's choice of pictures when it comes to reporting that, yes, religious groups don't like "The Golden Compass". Could they have found more sinister pictures to put with the article? It’s like they’re trying to give legitimacy to the otherwise bankrupt claim that any alternative to Institutional Religion in a book is obviously trying to seduce young minds away from the One True Path. The funny part through all of this has been that the boycott forces say the movie is too much atheism/antireligion, and the secular side says it’s not nearly enough. Well, you can’t please everybody. Of course, I note that those whose faith is founded on something other than the exercise of power without justification don’t seem to mind the book or the movie that much, and applaud the encouragement from Pullman for readers to think rather than blindly obey. Obviously, there will be no Daleks at the premiere, unless they intend to level the theater.
Things get worse from there. Deciding that the teddy bear incident was just too good of an opening to pass up, Bill Keller decides he's going to name a stuffed pig "Muhammed". So he reacts to an unintentional name choice that some hardliners are taking waaaaay to seriously by deliberately insulting Islam, calling their prophet “a pedophile” and the Quran “a book of fairy tales”. All this in addition to the standard remarks that Muslims want to conquer the world and make everyone submit to their false religion. Brother, there is a plank in your eye. It impairs your vision. I’d offer to get it out, but these specks keep getting in mine, and I have to deal with them first. Wouldn’t want to hurt you more by driving the plank up into your empty cranial cavity by accident.
Tonight’s winner, however, is convinced that Muslims have found a method by which they can seize control of the world and subject it to Sharia, and that America and the West should resist this with all their might. Frank Gaffney Jr. believes that "Shariah financing", in which Middle Eastern citizens and countries invest in Western corporations that meet with the approval of advisors is a “Trojan Horse” method with which those evil, freedom-hating Muslims will take control and then subject the world to their diabolical plan. First of all, Sharia is not Wahabism, nor the particular flavor of Islam practiced by Iran or the Taliban. It is more akin to the Catholic Church’s Canon Law, and the Torah, and the opinions of preachers both modern and ancient, which have also had in them, at times, “...sanction for the brutalization of women, homosexuals and Jews. Beheadings, amputations, flagellation and stoning are among the prescribed punishments for those who transgress this barbaric code, punishments plucked from primitive tribal practices in the Arabian deserts dating back to medieval times.” No fair ignoring your own history, bub.
Second, your claim of a slippery slope, where by accepting Sharia-compliant dollars, Western countries also will be forced to accept and accommodate the entire spectrum of Islamic beliefs is ludicrous. While there may be pushes to do things like create separate Sharia courts, or to build Muslim religious schools, they are still subject to the rule of law. I don’t see anyone deciding that they’re going to farm out the justice system to ecclesiastical courts, depending on the believer’s religion. Can you imagine how hard it would be to find a Discordian judge? Or a Pastafarian one? All the things you say are inevitable, including honor killings and assassination, are associated with fringe elements anyway. Again, that rule of law thing, while it may not be able to prevent killings, it will certainly do its damndest to stop them and to punish those who do kill others.
Finally, that money is going to groups you personally don’t like, such as Hizbollah or Hamas, because of the directive to give charitably, well, hate to tell you this, but a significant amount of petrodollars already goes to those organizations or those sympathetic to their causes. The argument’s already been made that American dependence on foreign crude is funneling lots of dollars into the hands of terrorist organizations. So until you can convince your fellows that reducing their dependence on the foreign crude is viable and should be pursued, there will still be funding from American businesses and investments going to organizations you don’t like.
And, if I may be petty for just a moment, you used the word “Islamofascist”. I thus invoke Malkin’s Law on you and give you both quiche and an EPIC FAIL.
As a postscript of spite, by the way, how is Sharia financing any different than those indexes and investments made that are supposedly on Christian moral grounds? You know, the no-tobacco, no-alcohol “moral” funds that manage money for persons who don’t want to support activities they consider wrong. Rather than trying to take them over, those people are consciously withholding their monies, in hopes of driving them into the ground. So why one and not the other?
Tonight’s ending stroke is a masterwork of its own, though. The Purrcast will give you... cat purring, with regularity, and different cats every cast. Find which furry friend gets you to relax best and use it. Or use it to add some low-level noise to your surroundings and disrupt your fellow cube rats. The choice is yours. Choose wisely.
I choose bed. Which is definitely choosing wisely.
Happy 90th birthday, Finland! In December 1917, Finland became an independent state.
Anyway, now that the initial shock has worn off, or perhaps in spite of it, the research on SUP, the parent corporation of LiveJournal, Inc. has started. At least one has concluded that LJ, Inc, and SUP are pawns and puppets of the Russian government, or at least very friendly to Mr. Putin. This apparently translates to bad things, intrusiveness, and the Russian intelligence service spying on everyone’s journaling with avid interest. And that paid account fees are apparently going to support Mr.
At least LJ hasn’t demanded that we all install programs on our computer that monitor our Internet traffic, like the MPAA is doing to universities. Oh, and that toolkit is not configured with safe or sane defaults, according to the analysis. There’s debate as to whether this offering violates GPL, since it runs Xubuntu, if the MPAA doesn’t make their source available (if they modified anything). Last, though, as pointed out, that it doesn’t actually discern what traffic is legal or illegal, but throws up flags at whatever point someone is downloading something that could be illegal. Which is something any good network admin would know anyway.
In more international material, Canada's ambassador to Iran was expelled after Ottawa continued to reject candidates for the Iranian ambassador to Canada. Both sides are looking for the right people for the job and just haven’t found anyone yet.
Whether it’s pandering to the electorate or actually believing in their cause, Mr. Bush and the Democratic opposition continue to lock horns on the issue of Iraq funding. And Mr. Bush made very little headway on his Iran rhetoric, after indications that Iran stopped a weapons program in 2003. The inspectors found no weapons in Iraq, and it looks like Iran didn’t have any. But that doesn’t stop Mr. Bush from claiming that U.S. led pressure stopped Iran, and from his supporters saying that Iran is still a threat, just going about their business in a more secretive manner now.
If you needed one more reason not to vote for Governor Romney, you’ll get it Thursday, as Mitt will wax poetic about how "faith has fallen out of the public square". Mitt still doesn’t see himself as a spokesperson for Mormonism, which is good, but a significant part of the Republican base sees him as some sort of outsider, so even if he doesn’t, others do see him as an ur-Mormon. With all the baggage that comes with that. The reason not to vote for him, however, is that if his speech is on topic, he’s missing the point - faith should not be part of the government, always something the government treats as an outsider, not as a bedfellow.
Our science department hands us something that, were in not in National Geographic’s web site, might elicit a “you’re joking” response, but apparently, a relatively intact dinosaur has been found, mummified, with much of tissue and skin still there for study. The study part is definitely going on as fast as those little scientist legs can devise and test experiments and observations.
Walking down the development chain from adults to children, Cranking Widgets puts up a reasonable defense of the Amazon Kindle, putting up some good points as to why it might be worth the price of buying one. (Especially if Amazon puts much more of their extensive catalogue on it, and the Kindle can then accept things like SD cards or other memory, so that gigabytes upon gigabytes are potentially accessible at a time.) Maybe, if I can get to play around with Kindle a bit, I’ll know whether I like it and should actually try and be one of those early-adopter types rather than several years behind the curve.
Science has more information about teenager development. Much like when first learning to drive a vehicle, teen brains are apparently good with the gas pedal, but light on the brakes. As such, charging and punishing teens as adults and putting them into the prison system, which doesn’t necessarily do much for rehabilitation, for extended periods of time is probably not the way to go about doing things. As maturity develops, generally the aggressive impulses get better control. In short, teens really do grow out of it.
In the age bracket just underneath them, the inadequately-named “tweens” are big fans of their keitais. A Nielsen survey shows a significant part of tweens using their mobiles for Internet access and multimedia content in addition to voice and text. I suppose it’s a bit interesting that this particular age group has access to so many mobiles, but as an easy leash from parents, it’s not too surprising for me.
Finally, getting down into the children’s area, I previously made mention of a book that was having difficulty finding a publisher in the United States because of artistic depictions of genitalia and mammaries. As I am informed, Chronicle Books has decided to publish and sell the four-book series, so American audiences in San Francisco (and however far Chronicle Books’ web presence extends) will be able to read the book.
Amazing what you can learn about history in reading a book review. To give proper context for "Charity Girl", a book by Michael Lowenthal about women who were rounded up and confined during World War I because they were consorts with soldiers, and many had veneral disease, the book reviewer gives a quick historical sketch of the programs that sound suspiciously like the “purity” crusades of today, hyping up diseases and making women who slept with soldiers into prostitutes and degenerates. In that era, the disease spread may very well have been real, but the program was ineffective, really. Modern programs that are about purity and abstinence have about the same effectiveness rate. Only actual education seems to be working when it comes to stopping disease spreading.
According to a report from South Africa, circumcision may reduce the risk of HIV infection, by making the penis less sensitive and thus less likely to bleed. It was not said that circumcision was an effective preventing, and that condoms (education, again) were the most effective method of preventing HIV infection. A BBC reporter, acting independently, decided to chronicle his own circumcision when he decided that it was worthwhile to help fight the spread of HIV.
Tonight’s religion section contains the Real Live Preacher trying to reconcile the faithful and the unfaithful as fellow humans, inquiring about the faith, or lack thereof, of the people he meets, and trying to carve out a place that says “We can still be friends, right?” Well, maybe. So long as you respect the atheist or agnostic when they tell you that's what they are, then you might be able to get along. Although, there’s a significant terminology debate going on in the comments, in addition to the ire at “atheism is a religion” and several other positions. But hey, that’s what intelligent debate (There’s an ID for ya) is about, right?
The art section is having a ball with noting that a two-year old was able to get gallery space and experts buying his paintings. Yes, we’re having quite the guffaw ourselves about what it takes to make modern art. But we’ll make up for it by giving you a suite of visual and video-game medley music - the visual is the midi tracker, and there are quite a few patterns that are discernible here and there, especially in the Chrono Trigger medley.
Having saved the worst for next to last, the quiche competition gets underway with getting a look inside the National Institute on Media and the Family's "Video Game Report Card", which is trying desperately to find any reason to say why video games are still evil, the work of Satan, and that no parent should let their child play any of them, ever. Complete with a list of “Avoid!” games (all rated M, of course) and a “recommended” list, which includes a game about street racing, a game that has players replicating rock music, a game that has them singing pop idol songs, three sport games, two Mario games, and Viva Pinta. Oh, and they shouldn’t let them set foot inside a game retailer, either, because kids can buy or rent M-rated games from a lot of them without questions asked or ID required. The rest of us, over here in reality, are busily introducing parents and children to dancing games, rockout games, and games where all you have to do is a little wiggle to make the character do stuff on screen. Rather than trying to promote fear, we’re letting the players decide for themselves.
The bronze medal goes to CNN's choice of pictures when it comes to reporting that, yes, religious groups don't like "The Golden Compass". Could they have found more sinister pictures to put with the article? It’s like they’re trying to give legitimacy to the otherwise bankrupt claim that any alternative to Institutional Religion in a book is obviously trying to seduce young minds away from the One True Path. The funny part through all of this has been that the boycott forces say the movie is too much atheism/antireligion, and the secular side says it’s not nearly enough. Well, you can’t please everybody. Of course, I note that those whose faith is founded on something other than the exercise of power without justification don’t seem to mind the book or the movie that much, and applaud the encouragement from Pullman for readers to think rather than blindly obey. Obviously, there will be no Daleks at the premiere, unless they intend to level the theater.
Things get worse from there. Deciding that the teddy bear incident was just too good of an opening to pass up, Bill Keller decides he's going to name a stuffed pig "Muhammed". So he reacts to an unintentional name choice that some hardliners are taking waaaaay to seriously by deliberately insulting Islam, calling their prophet “a pedophile” and the Quran “a book of fairy tales”. All this in addition to the standard remarks that Muslims want to conquer the world and make everyone submit to their false religion. Brother, there is a plank in your eye. It impairs your vision. I’d offer to get it out, but these specks keep getting in mine, and I have to deal with them first. Wouldn’t want to hurt you more by driving the plank up into your empty cranial cavity by accident.
Tonight’s winner, however, is convinced that Muslims have found a method by which they can seize control of the world and subject it to Sharia, and that America and the West should resist this with all their might. Frank Gaffney Jr. believes that "Shariah financing", in which Middle Eastern citizens and countries invest in Western corporations that meet with the approval of advisors is a “Trojan Horse” method with which those evil, freedom-hating Muslims will take control and then subject the world to their diabolical plan. First of all, Sharia is not Wahabism, nor the particular flavor of Islam practiced by Iran or the Taliban. It is more akin to the Catholic Church’s Canon Law, and the Torah, and the opinions of preachers both modern and ancient, which have also had in them, at times, “...sanction for the brutalization of women, homosexuals and Jews. Beheadings, amputations, flagellation and stoning are among the prescribed punishments for those who transgress this barbaric code, punishments plucked from primitive tribal practices in the Arabian deserts dating back to medieval times.” No fair ignoring your own history, bub.
Second, your claim of a slippery slope, where by accepting Sharia-compliant dollars, Western countries also will be forced to accept and accommodate the entire spectrum of Islamic beliefs is ludicrous. While there may be pushes to do things like create separate Sharia courts, or to build Muslim religious schools, they are still subject to the rule of law. I don’t see anyone deciding that they’re going to farm out the justice system to ecclesiastical courts, depending on the believer’s religion. Can you imagine how hard it would be to find a Discordian judge? Or a Pastafarian one? All the things you say are inevitable, including honor killings and assassination, are associated with fringe elements anyway. Again, that rule of law thing, while it may not be able to prevent killings, it will certainly do its damndest to stop them and to punish those who do kill others.
Finally, that money is going to groups you personally don’t like, such as Hizbollah or Hamas, because of the directive to give charitably, well, hate to tell you this, but a significant amount of petrodollars already goes to those organizations or those sympathetic to their causes. The argument’s already been made that American dependence on foreign crude is funneling lots of dollars into the hands of terrorist organizations. So until you can convince your fellows that reducing their dependence on the foreign crude is viable and should be pursued, there will still be funding from American businesses and investments going to organizations you don’t like.
And, if I may be petty for just a moment, you used the word “Islamofascist”. I thus invoke Malkin’s Law on you and give you both quiche and an EPIC FAIL.
As a postscript of spite, by the way, how is Sharia financing any different than those indexes and investments made that are supposedly on Christian moral grounds? You know, the no-tobacco, no-alcohol “moral” funds that manage money for persons who don’t want to support activities they consider wrong. Rather than trying to take them over, those people are consciously withholding their monies, in hopes of driving them into the ground. So why one and not the other?
Tonight’s ending stroke is a masterwork of its own, though. The Purrcast will give you... cat purring, with regularity, and different cats every cast. Find which furry friend gets you to relax best and use it. Or use it to add some low-level noise to your surroundings and disrupt your fellow cube rats. The choice is yours. Choose wisely.
I choose bed. Which is definitely choosing wisely.
