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Kernel upgrade came down the pipe today. Guess what? The ACPI bug that causes my computer to hard-lock in boot-up is BACK on the “generic” kernel! At least it’s consistent this time around. But that meant getting the i386 image, and then there were problems because I hadn’t apparently actually installed the modules for that kernel with the 386, so video and sound and all that went kerflooey, and once I finally figured that part out and installed all the right packages, everything was just peachy again! Librarian-brain works again, sort of. I also spent some part of time reading the Gentoo install docs today, just in case the upgrade turned out poorly. After reading some of that, I said “Ooog.” and wondered whether I would need the manual or an experienced Gentoo user over my shoulder if I should ever decide to try it and Portage out. I wasn’t actually sure how far their Live/install CD went in the process and how much I would still have to do outside of that. Yeah, so I like wizards and automation, in addition to liking the ability to tweak configuration files as needed. I’m weird.
Today was a rainy day. It was fairly light on the way to work today and continued to get more severe as the day went on. By the time I’d walked home, my hat was damp, my gloves were damp, my coat was damp, my khakis beneath the knee were soaked, but my boots did their job - my feet were fine, even if my socks seemed a little wet, but that could have been from perspiration rather than the rain. It was a little cold and damp, sure, but it wasn’t miserable. Every now and then, it’s worth walking around in the rain, I think. Might be my affinity for water showing through.
Onward to things of more importance. Time has selected its Person of the Year. For 2007, the Person of the Year is Vladimir Putin.
The good news from Iraq? The populace is focused on one thing for their welfare. The bad news? They're focused on kicking the United States out of the country. (That may be more good news, depending on how you stand on the war effort.) Similarly, the good news is that satisfaction with government and electricity/heating supply is up. The bad news? It’s still only 25 and 15 percent, respectively. “The surge is working, because the numbers are going up!” says the hawk.
People in the United States may not be able to hear much else than the party line, depending on how new FCC regulations that permit more media conglomeration, letting national media and broadcast corporations also purchase local broadcast outlets and papers. No plans to implement Newspeak yet. Possibly because the media hasn’t settled into a single corporation’s hands. There have been threats that Congress will pass legislation that will revoke the ruling and return the situation to what it was.
Offices in Mr. Cheney's part of the executive compound caught fire this morning. Apparently something in a closet caught fire. Is it overly cynical of me to wonder what sort of documentation was just destroyed in that blaze, and how relevant it would be to investigations currently on-going? Considering that at least four high-ranking lawyers were talking with the CIA about destroying the torture video tapes, there could have been even more scandal grist in any files destroyed.
On a slightly less executive note, the Secretary of the Interior, in an act of "clarification", made it so that the ethics committee of his office could only convene if the Deupty Interior Secretary or the Chief of Staff want it to. I wonder why offices in the executive branch don’t have freestanding ethics committees. While they may or may not actually do anything, I’m sure it would make more sense for them to exist permanently, rather than to only be called into existence when someone higher up wants them to.
A smattering of statistical measures: NOW on violence against women, which is scary-big and supposedly underreported, with four women per day dying in the United States as a result of domestic violence. Even for those who don’t die, the statistics of who gets assaulted are strongly under-reported. Even Abby Lee, a published writer on the matter of sex didn't call her rape at 17 a rape until someone else explained it to her. She had said no, and he didn’t listen to her. Afterward, she dismissed it as bad sex. How many Nice Guys are willing to ignore “No” because of their feeling of entitlement, or because they think some part of biology made women into what they are?
In a different arena, more than one in five persons expects to borrow money to pay heating bills this winter. Those in very cold and snowy states will probably get smacked around the most, as heating oil, natural gas, and other fuel costs are still going up. There are options for negotiating or getting assistance on heating bills, and while it’s illegal in some states to turn the heat off in winter for nonpayment, it still could get hairy. As soon as eligible, getting on the averaging-out payment plan with the utility is a good idea. Mark Morford notes that while Congress had a shot at doing something to reduce dependence on foreign oil, and to get oiul companies to pay up on taxes, the Republicans ripped it apart, and the Democrats did nothing to preserve the bill's force. All that comes out of that is our gas efficiency standards go up a little bit so that we can match China’s standards... of five years ago. In twelve years. Way to go, guys. Carnival cruise corporation is doing more than you are - they've added a $5/person/day fee on all of their cruises, for the first two guests in a stateroom, and not to exceed $70/person/trip. It gets more expensive to take a cruise because of the rising cost of fuel. Everything is more expensive because of the rising cost of fuel... so maybe we could do something about the price or the consumption of fuel. What an idea. Nanosolar plans on selling cheap solar panels to consumers. They’re not the most efficient bunch, but they’re cheap.
One possibly good thing coming out of the White House at them moment is a planned reduction in the nuclear weapons program by closing buildings, laying off workers, and reducing the stockpile by fifteen percent by 2012. Which leaves the United States with about 4,600 warheads, still about 4,500 more than it would take to annihilate the world’s populous.
Following the lead of another group, They Might Be Giants, the Barenaked Ladies are developing an album for children.
Mark Morford resurfaces in front of the quiche competition, ready to make fun of a previous quiche competitor - talking to God about the whole Oral Roberts scandal. He might be interested in the court order telling the White House to release the records of conservative Christian leaders' visits.
Getting into the oven, a white separatist group has sued the town of Jena, alleging discrimination against their counter-rally against integration on Martin Luther King Day. This is the same Jena of the “Jena Six”, and the town is saying that there’s an ordinance on file for those wanting to parade and demonstrate to provide proof of a $10,000 bond in addition to finding their own electricity, water, food, and the like. The group says that it won’t be coming if the matters aren’t resolved soon. Well, that might give the town officials reason to stall, if they can. I don’t think Jena would be a good place to hold such a rally. Unless the majority of the people really are with the separatists.
Mike Huckabee’s adviser compounds an error in attempting to clarify it. While not denying that Huckabee said that he found both homosexuality and necrophilia aberrant, he claimed they were on "opposite ends of the spectrum" of such behavior. So he’s not equating them, but he finds them both revolting. And, according to the spokesperson, S&M is close to necrophilia, instead. And of course, he’s all “love the sinner, hate the sin” about the matter.
The Manchester Diocese in New Hampshire told its congregants how to vote, without actually mentioning candidates by name. Thus, they could keep the tax-exempt status while making it perfectly clear how anyone should vote - against anyone who is okay with abortion or stem-cell research. The rest is kind of negotiable.
Our winner tonight, however, is Lawrence O’Donnell, who launched into a gigantic screed against Mormonism on a McLaughlin Group discussion, pulling out every accusation he could about the religion to say Mitt Romney is an unfit candidate based solely on that. Pat Buchanan looked civil and sane in comparison. While I think that Romney’s continued insistence that separation of church and state does not mean a totally secular government is a large tick against him, that 9.5 minute YouTube segment could very easily convince others that he’s worthwhile. Excepting, perhaps, for the religious vote that Romney seems to be desperately craving.
Moving into news of the strange and insane, consider Garfield without Garfield. Shows you just how lonely and potentially insane Jon is, even when he does have the cat. Perhaps Jon will find out that he’s in a line of royal families, and declare himself king and start selling titles for charity. The residents of the island in question aren’t as happy about the new king’s plans. Or the possibility of being pulled over for good driving and given a $5 coffee card. I don’t know. The stress of that is probably more than the $5 card. Other officers are not being so nice, salting New York with "abandoned" items, and then arresting concerned people who walk past an officer with the items. Now, there are some who will take the items and intend on keeping them, but the majority of those caught are people who want to return things or are looking for ways of getting things back to their owners, and are then arrested after they pass a police officer, perhaps on their way to talk to someone about the lost material.
Maybe I’ll stop that line of thought and distract you with a tour of one of Saddam Hussein's specially-comissioned yachts. And then get you thinking about your wallet and your waistline with San Franciso's proposal to charge large retailers a tax on sugary soft drinks. The soft drink company man says that if SF wants to really fight obesity, he should go after those icky video game manufacturers that keep kids sedentary instead of shooing them outside. But 3D Realms might have found just the right thing to keep the kids inside - they released a teaser video for Duke Nukem Forever, the game that’s been in development hell for the last decade. Does this mean that we might finally see the actual game?
Peter Jackson will help New Line Cinema produce two movies based on "The Hobbit". There will probably be wailing and cursing regarding these situations. But no indication that Jackson will be directing, so maybe they’ll be better?
Winding down, here’s IBM's Five Innovations that will change our lives in the next five years. Three of them are about greening the world and knowing more about what pollutants are in your world.
A heartwarming story tonight that ends well - in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as it turns out, a son, looking for his birth mother, found her working in the same Lowe's store that he was. And there was a huggy reunion had by both of them.
So now I’m going to bed.
Today was a rainy day. It was fairly light on the way to work today and continued to get more severe as the day went on. By the time I’d walked home, my hat was damp, my gloves were damp, my coat was damp, my khakis beneath the knee were soaked, but my boots did their job - my feet were fine, even if my socks seemed a little wet, but that could have been from perspiration rather than the rain. It was a little cold and damp, sure, but it wasn’t miserable. Every now and then, it’s worth walking around in the rain, I think. Might be my affinity for water showing through.
Onward to things of more importance. Time has selected its Person of the Year. For 2007, the Person of the Year is Vladimir Putin.
The good news from Iraq? The populace is focused on one thing for their welfare. The bad news? They're focused on kicking the United States out of the country. (That may be more good news, depending on how you stand on the war effort.) Similarly, the good news is that satisfaction with government and electricity/heating supply is up. The bad news? It’s still only 25 and 15 percent, respectively. “The surge is working, because the numbers are going up!” says the hawk.
People in the United States may not be able to hear much else than the party line, depending on how new FCC regulations that permit more media conglomeration, letting national media and broadcast corporations also purchase local broadcast outlets and papers. No plans to implement Newspeak yet. Possibly because the media hasn’t settled into a single corporation’s hands. There have been threats that Congress will pass legislation that will revoke the ruling and return the situation to what it was.
Offices in Mr. Cheney's part of the executive compound caught fire this morning. Apparently something in a closet caught fire. Is it overly cynical of me to wonder what sort of documentation was just destroyed in that blaze, and how relevant it would be to investigations currently on-going? Considering that at least four high-ranking lawyers were talking with the CIA about destroying the torture video tapes, there could have been even more scandal grist in any files destroyed.
On a slightly less executive note, the Secretary of the Interior, in an act of "clarification", made it so that the ethics committee of his office could only convene if the Deupty Interior Secretary or the Chief of Staff want it to. I wonder why offices in the executive branch don’t have freestanding ethics committees. While they may or may not actually do anything, I’m sure it would make more sense for them to exist permanently, rather than to only be called into existence when someone higher up wants them to.
A smattering of statistical measures: NOW on violence against women, which is scary-big and supposedly underreported, with four women per day dying in the United States as a result of domestic violence. Even for those who don’t die, the statistics of who gets assaulted are strongly under-reported. Even Abby Lee, a published writer on the matter of sex didn't call her rape at 17 a rape until someone else explained it to her. She had said no, and he didn’t listen to her. Afterward, she dismissed it as bad sex. How many Nice Guys are willing to ignore “No” because of their feeling of entitlement, or because they think some part of biology made women into what they are?
In a different arena, more than one in five persons expects to borrow money to pay heating bills this winter. Those in very cold and snowy states will probably get smacked around the most, as heating oil, natural gas, and other fuel costs are still going up. There are options for negotiating or getting assistance on heating bills, and while it’s illegal in some states to turn the heat off in winter for nonpayment, it still could get hairy. As soon as eligible, getting on the averaging-out payment plan with the utility is a good idea. Mark Morford notes that while Congress had a shot at doing something to reduce dependence on foreign oil, and to get oiul companies to pay up on taxes, the Republicans ripped it apart, and the Democrats did nothing to preserve the bill's force. All that comes out of that is our gas efficiency standards go up a little bit so that we can match China’s standards... of five years ago. In twelve years. Way to go, guys. Carnival cruise corporation is doing more than you are - they've added a $5/person/day fee on all of their cruises, for the first two guests in a stateroom, and not to exceed $70/person/trip. It gets more expensive to take a cruise because of the rising cost of fuel. Everything is more expensive because of the rising cost of fuel... so maybe we could do something about the price or the consumption of fuel. What an idea. Nanosolar plans on selling cheap solar panels to consumers. They’re not the most efficient bunch, but they’re cheap.
One possibly good thing coming out of the White House at them moment is a planned reduction in the nuclear weapons program by closing buildings, laying off workers, and reducing the stockpile by fifteen percent by 2012. Which leaves the United States with about 4,600 warheads, still about 4,500 more than it would take to annihilate the world’s populous.
Following the lead of another group, They Might Be Giants, the Barenaked Ladies are developing an album for children.
Mark Morford resurfaces in front of the quiche competition, ready to make fun of a previous quiche competitor - talking to God about the whole Oral Roberts scandal. He might be interested in the court order telling the White House to release the records of conservative Christian leaders' visits.
Getting into the oven, a white separatist group has sued the town of Jena, alleging discrimination against their counter-rally against integration on Martin Luther King Day. This is the same Jena of the “Jena Six”, and the town is saying that there’s an ordinance on file for those wanting to parade and demonstrate to provide proof of a $10,000 bond in addition to finding their own electricity, water, food, and the like. The group says that it won’t be coming if the matters aren’t resolved soon. Well, that might give the town officials reason to stall, if they can. I don’t think Jena would be a good place to hold such a rally. Unless the majority of the people really are with the separatists.
Mike Huckabee’s adviser compounds an error in attempting to clarify it. While not denying that Huckabee said that he found both homosexuality and necrophilia aberrant, he claimed they were on "opposite ends of the spectrum" of such behavior. So he’s not equating them, but he finds them both revolting. And, according to the spokesperson, S&M is close to necrophilia, instead. And of course, he’s all “love the sinner, hate the sin” about the matter.
The Manchester Diocese in New Hampshire told its congregants how to vote, without actually mentioning candidates by name. Thus, they could keep the tax-exempt status while making it perfectly clear how anyone should vote - against anyone who is okay with abortion or stem-cell research. The rest is kind of negotiable.
Our winner tonight, however, is Lawrence O’Donnell, who launched into a gigantic screed against Mormonism on a McLaughlin Group discussion, pulling out every accusation he could about the religion to say Mitt Romney is an unfit candidate based solely on that. Pat Buchanan looked civil and sane in comparison. While I think that Romney’s continued insistence that separation of church and state does not mean a totally secular government is a large tick against him, that 9.5 minute YouTube segment could very easily convince others that he’s worthwhile. Excepting, perhaps, for the religious vote that Romney seems to be desperately craving.
Moving into news of the strange and insane, consider Garfield without Garfield. Shows you just how lonely and potentially insane Jon is, even when he does have the cat. Perhaps Jon will find out that he’s in a line of royal families, and declare himself king and start selling titles for charity. The residents of the island in question aren’t as happy about the new king’s plans. Or the possibility of being pulled over for good driving and given a $5 coffee card. I don’t know. The stress of that is probably more than the $5 card. Other officers are not being so nice, salting New York with "abandoned" items, and then arresting concerned people who walk past an officer with the items. Now, there are some who will take the items and intend on keeping them, but the majority of those caught are people who want to return things or are looking for ways of getting things back to their owners, and are then arrested after they pass a police officer, perhaps on their way to talk to someone about the lost material.
Maybe I’ll stop that line of thought and distract you with a tour of one of Saddam Hussein's specially-comissioned yachts. And then get you thinking about your wallet and your waistline with San Franciso's proposal to charge large retailers a tax on sugary soft drinks. The soft drink company man says that if SF wants to really fight obesity, he should go after those icky video game manufacturers that keep kids sedentary instead of shooing them outside. But 3D Realms might have found just the right thing to keep the kids inside - they released a teaser video for Duke Nukem Forever, the game that’s been in development hell for the last decade. Does this mean that we might finally see the actual game?
Peter Jackson will help New Line Cinema produce two movies based on "The Hobbit". There will probably be wailing and cursing regarding these situations. But no indication that Jackson will be directing, so maybe they’ll be better?
Winding down, here’s IBM's Five Innovations that will change our lives in the next five years. Three of them are about greening the world and knowing more about what pollutants are in your world.
A heartwarming story tonight that ends well - in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as it turns out, a son, looking for his birth mother, found her working in the same Lowe's store that he was. And there was a huggy reunion had by both of them.
So now I’m going to bed.
