![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I’m out of phrasing tonight, so we get something a bit of a retread. Got to get up earlier than usual tomorrow, so I’m trying to go to bed early tonight.
Hooray! The Saudi rape victim sentenced to more lashes after appeal has been pardoned by the Saudi king. But not because he believes that the verdicts were unfair, but to relieve psychological suffering. C’mon, king Abdullah, grow a pair of nuts and say why you really are pardoning her.
Basra's police chief says that the United Kingdom's handing-over of power back to local authority is premature, and that there’s going to be a lot of violence and lawlessness erupting because the militias are armed and the police are loyal to their party groups, rather than Iraq as a nation. If that is the case, then both sides of the conflict may claim it as a validation of their viewpoint.
Those traveling to or from the UK during the holidays may have to contend with an airport workers' strike that could potentially start near the new year. That would certainly make the delays and other associated problems at airports even worse.
Wow. Everything from the past of the people running for President reappears. This time around, though, it’s Mike Huckabee possibly taking heat for leaning on the local prosecutor to not investigate his son when the son was involved in an incident regarding a hung dog at a Boy Scout camp. So that’s a possible reason for dredging up the past, but it sounds like there’s some reaching going on. Not so much reaching needed for Mr. Romney, who was involved in creating and using shell companies to help friends operate businesses in countries where the tax laws are friendlier. Supposedly, Mr. Romney gained no personal tax benefit from the corporations. Between the two of them, the New York Times reports, there's a bit of a rivalry in Iowa, with Huckabee gaining enough on Romney for Romney to step up his campaigning. Mayor 9/11 has left Iowa to be scrabbled over, preferring to concentrate elsewhere, believing that he can withstand any sort of momentum coming out from Iowa.
If it’s endorsements you want, there were plenty today, but the one that many people will be talking about is the one where Joe Liberman endorses John McCain for president. For those tracking Mr. Lieberman’s political compass across from his Democratic ticket in 2000 to his current “independent” position, this comes as no real surprise at all.
Liberal Eagle closes out the political section with a rather hard truth - the next Democrat elected to the White House will take all the blame for all of the current Republicans' failures, with all the arguments that have been leveled against the Republicans thrown back in the Democrats’ faces. Further, the populace that complains, objects, or otherwise questions the wisdom of the Republicans engaging in the ritual of the scapegoat will be accused of being a partisan political player with no want to see government accountability. Sure, we wanted it when the person who was actually doing the misdeeds was in office. If the Democrat tries to prise out all the gunk that the current administration has put in, the accusations will be thick and furious.
It’s not 1 April, last I checked, so I can only guess that the announcement of the startrek.com production team's sacking is serious, and that the website has not had a team associated with it since last Friday. What gives?
Also not a 1 April joke, and a lesson that if one is going to smoke the reefer, do it somewhere where the parents aren’t going to catch you - a dad bought Guitar Hero III for Wii for his son for $90, then sold it for $9100 after he caught his son smoking pot in the back yard. For the bank account, things have done quite well, obviously, but I don’t think the son’s going to be seeing all that much of the profits from that. And he still goes without Guitar Hero III. We’re wondering what the punishment for the pot-smoking will be - the $9100 going into some sort of university fund, maybe?
Programs allow a snake-motion robot to navigate a maze, putting the snakebot in between the two walls, or in between a wall and its nearest neighbor, all without any manual input from the researchers. For those interested in more humaniform robot ideas, the New York Times reviews a book that lays out arguments that we're going to have robots for lovers soon, in that they can feel real and start behaving kind of real, and then eventually be the best-knowledgeable about sex and positions in the world.
That knowledge might come some from Google's Knol, a service that encourages experts to write articles, which they will remain sole authors of, even though it will be open for suggested edits and comments. Others who want to write competing knols will be able to - so it’s not Wikipedia’s common part, but competition between experts.
Other science news: A black hole at the center of one galaxy is observed nuking its neighbor galaxy with a high-energy particle jet. Dubbed the “death star galaxy”, it gives scientists something to study on how galaxies die, and possibly how they’re born, as well.
Now that people are living longer, and the costs of health care are going up, the older generation is having to fight off a new wave of potential fraudsters - those who fast-talk their way into having elderly people sign up for private fee-for-service insurance plans, which takes them off of Medicare and changes the rules of their coverages. Several have complained this was done without their knowledge or consent, and others complain about the hard sell and potential misleading those agents are doing.
A different sort of sell, one that’s not very kind to its inhabitants, is the iPond, an iPod speaker set that has a fish in it. A fish, and a little over a half-liter of water for the fish. Nowhere to go, and not enough water to breathe well in. Plus, there’s a speaker there. It’s a new idea, sure, but I wonder how this one managed to make it to production. Perhaps worst, it’s selling well.
Two in-depth pieces tonight, probably not related to each other, although by proximity, they may start developing links through association. The first is Thought Theater's collection and attempt at chronologically ordering the thoughts of Matthew murray/nghtmrchld26, the man shot and killed while on his second church-related rampage. The society he describes, with the ministers and leaders and their children being permitted to view the outside world while the rest had it heavily filtered to them, if they were allowed to see it at all, sounds like a cult more than any sort of denomination that Jesus would recognize. And in response to that repression, well, we see the results and how Murray sought revenge against the people who tried to bottle him up. The first tragedy begat more tragedies.
The other in-depth piece is not as deadly as Murray’s words, but involves yet another fouling of the good name of nice guys everywhere. MightyGodKing eviscerates a rant from yet another "Nice Guy" about how much, in his opinion, women continue to say they like nice guys and date assholes. Because just hanging around a girl that you have an interest in is apparently supposed to turn into the point where she realizes just what a Nice Guy she has hanging around her and it turns into a storybook ending - or at the very least, an H-game ending. Doesn’t happen, honestly. Someone has to get up the stones to ask about whether or not they want to take a friendship further. And be willing to be let down, gently or suddenly, if it turns out that she’s not as interested in you as you are in her. There’s a lot that could be said about everyone’s experiences with nice guys and Nice Guys. Everyone has their stories.
Trying to get some life and humor back into an old, tired comic strip, Tweebiscuit.net suggests removing all of Garfield's thought bubbles and rereading the strip from Jon’s point of view. Surprisingly, it still makes sense, and is still occasionally funny. For those who want to relive the decade of the 1990s in music, VH1 published 100 greatest songs of the 90s. Likely regrettably, I know the names of thsoe songs, and have heard most of them. Which is a dismal shame, because most of them suck. But, leaving this segment with something that is funny, in a “Sh*t! Even in the future, nothing works!” kind of way, the short fiction Security Question is worth a read and a laugh.
Last for tonight, however, is ten tips for new bloggers from the original blogger himself, Jorn Barger. Apparently, according to him, the newscast here is a bit closer to the idea of the original blog than what is currently thought of. Although he’d probably frown on the giant amount of text and context that appears here, in the somewhat throw-away nature of news and commentary. If it was just what I wanted to save, things would be a lot more trimmed down. (I can hear some people shouting “Please!” to that request.)
Hooray! The Saudi rape victim sentenced to more lashes after appeal has been pardoned by the Saudi king. But not because he believes that the verdicts were unfair, but to relieve psychological suffering. C’mon, king Abdullah, grow a pair of nuts and say why you really are pardoning her.
Basra's police chief says that the United Kingdom's handing-over of power back to local authority is premature, and that there’s going to be a lot of violence and lawlessness erupting because the militias are armed and the police are loyal to their party groups, rather than Iraq as a nation. If that is the case, then both sides of the conflict may claim it as a validation of their viewpoint.
Those traveling to or from the UK during the holidays may have to contend with an airport workers' strike that could potentially start near the new year. That would certainly make the delays and other associated problems at airports even worse.
Wow. Everything from the past of the people running for President reappears. This time around, though, it’s Mike Huckabee possibly taking heat for leaning on the local prosecutor to not investigate his son when the son was involved in an incident regarding a hung dog at a Boy Scout camp. So that’s a possible reason for dredging up the past, but it sounds like there’s some reaching going on. Not so much reaching needed for Mr. Romney, who was involved in creating and using shell companies to help friends operate businesses in countries where the tax laws are friendlier. Supposedly, Mr. Romney gained no personal tax benefit from the corporations. Between the two of them, the New York Times reports, there's a bit of a rivalry in Iowa, with Huckabee gaining enough on Romney for Romney to step up his campaigning. Mayor 9/11 has left Iowa to be scrabbled over, preferring to concentrate elsewhere, believing that he can withstand any sort of momentum coming out from Iowa.
If it’s endorsements you want, there were plenty today, but the one that many people will be talking about is the one where Joe Liberman endorses John McCain for president. For those tracking Mr. Lieberman’s political compass across from his Democratic ticket in 2000 to his current “independent” position, this comes as no real surprise at all.
Liberal Eagle closes out the political section with a rather hard truth - the next Democrat elected to the White House will take all the blame for all of the current Republicans' failures, with all the arguments that have been leveled against the Republicans thrown back in the Democrats’ faces. Further, the populace that complains, objects, or otherwise questions the wisdom of the Republicans engaging in the ritual of the scapegoat will be accused of being a partisan political player with no want to see government accountability. Sure, we wanted it when the person who was actually doing the misdeeds was in office. If the Democrat tries to prise out all the gunk that the current administration has put in, the accusations will be thick and furious.
It’s not 1 April, last I checked, so I can only guess that the announcement of the startrek.com production team's sacking is serious, and that the website has not had a team associated with it since last Friday. What gives?
Also not a 1 April joke, and a lesson that if one is going to smoke the reefer, do it somewhere where the parents aren’t going to catch you - a dad bought Guitar Hero III for Wii for his son for $90, then sold it for $9100 after he caught his son smoking pot in the back yard. For the bank account, things have done quite well, obviously, but I don’t think the son’s going to be seeing all that much of the profits from that. And he still goes without Guitar Hero III. We’re wondering what the punishment for the pot-smoking will be - the $9100 going into some sort of university fund, maybe?
Programs allow a snake-motion robot to navigate a maze, putting the snakebot in between the two walls, or in between a wall and its nearest neighbor, all without any manual input from the researchers. For those interested in more humaniform robot ideas, the New York Times reviews a book that lays out arguments that we're going to have robots for lovers soon, in that they can feel real and start behaving kind of real, and then eventually be the best-knowledgeable about sex and positions in the world.
That knowledge might come some from Google's Knol, a service that encourages experts to write articles, which they will remain sole authors of, even though it will be open for suggested edits and comments. Others who want to write competing knols will be able to - so it’s not Wikipedia’s common part, but competition between experts.
Other science news: A black hole at the center of one galaxy is observed nuking its neighbor galaxy with a high-energy particle jet. Dubbed the “death star galaxy”, it gives scientists something to study on how galaxies die, and possibly how they’re born, as well.
Now that people are living longer, and the costs of health care are going up, the older generation is having to fight off a new wave of potential fraudsters - those who fast-talk their way into having elderly people sign up for private fee-for-service insurance plans, which takes them off of Medicare and changes the rules of their coverages. Several have complained this was done without their knowledge or consent, and others complain about the hard sell and potential misleading those agents are doing.
A different sort of sell, one that’s not very kind to its inhabitants, is the iPond, an iPod speaker set that has a fish in it. A fish, and a little over a half-liter of water for the fish. Nowhere to go, and not enough water to breathe well in. Plus, there’s a speaker there. It’s a new idea, sure, but I wonder how this one managed to make it to production. Perhaps worst, it’s selling well.
Two in-depth pieces tonight, probably not related to each other, although by proximity, they may start developing links through association. The first is Thought Theater's collection and attempt at chronologically ordering the thoughts of Matthew murray/nghtmrchld26, the man shot and killed while on his second church-related rampage. The society he describes, with the ministers and leaders and their children being permitted to view the outside world while the rest had it heavily filtered to them, if they were allowed to see it at all, sounds like a cult more than any sort of denomination that Jesus would recognize. And in response to that repression, well, we see the results and how Murray sought revenge against the people who tried to bottle him up. The first tragedy begat more tragedies.
The other in-depth piece is not as deadly as Murray’s words, but involves yet another fouling of the good name of nice guys everywhere. MightyGodKing eviscerates a rant from yet another "Nice Guy" about how much, in his opinion, women continue to say they like nice guys and date assholes. Because just hanging around a girl that you have an interest in is apparently supposed to turn into the point where she realizes just what a Nice Guy she has hanging around her and it turns into a storybook ending - or at the very least, an H-game ending. Doesn’t happen, honestly. Someone has to get up the stones to ask about whether or not they want to take a friendship further. And be willing to be let down, gently or suddenly, if it turns out that she’s not as interested in you as you are in her. There’s a lot that could be said about everyone’s experiences with nice guys and Nice Guys. Everyone has their stories.
Trying to get some life and humor back into an old, tired comic strip, Tweebiscuit.net suggests removing all of Garfield's thought bubbles and rereading the strip from Jon’s point of view. Surprisingly, it still makes sense, and is still occasionally funny. For those who want to relive the decade of the 1990s in music, VH1 published 100 greatest songs of the 90s. Likely regrettably, I know the names of thsoe songs, and have heard most of them. Which is a dismal shame, because most of them suck. But, leaving this segment with something that is funny, in a “Sh*t! Even in the future, nothing works!” kind of way, the short fiction Security Question is worth a read and a laugh.
Last for tonight, however, is ten tips for new bloggers from the original blogger himself, Jorn Barger. Apparently, according to him, the newscast here is a bit closer to the idea of the original blog than what is currently thought of. Although he’d probably frown on the giant amount of text and context that appears here, in the somewhat throw-away nature of news and commentary. If it was just what I wanted to save, things would be a lot more trimmed down. (I can hear some people shouting “Please!” to that request.)
