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Good morning, everyone - 28 December 2007
Dec. 29th, 2007 01:21 pmHad a late night last night, with the net result being that I decided against staying up the addition hour or two that it would take to write this entry. So it’s probably going to be a bit more curt and cut-and-dry, but there’s still lots to get through.
Those who use GMail, plese check to make sure you weren't victimized by a now-closed security flaw.
In Pakistan, riots exploded in several cities following the death of Benazir Bhutto. While al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack now, the United States and others are skeptical of the claim, and are investigating further. Wonkette also is not fond of a media tendency to crop out disturbing scenes in photography, and uses the Bhutto assassination as a way of showing that unaltered photo can produce a different reaction in context.
Russia is attempting to build a 2.5 million square-metre mega-structure in Moscow called Crystal Island. If they can succeed in building it on earth, does that mean they’ll be able to start constructing space colonies, too?
In Egypt, the discovery of an embankment wall thought to be for the Nile river is changing the way archaeologists think about an ancient temple to Amun-Re.
A rare look inside the decision-making process in the White House, Stem Cells and the President: An Inside Account shows how Mr. Bush and his advisers reached the conclusion they did about embryonic stem cell research. This might be a help or a hinder to Mr. Bush’s image, as it paints him as a curious and knowledgeable person, rather than the everyman Texan he’s tried to cultivate. Knowing it’s just an act might fan flames on just how much the President knew what he was doing, rather than dispel them.
Think Progress comes to my aid in terms of finding nice numbers to use - remember that in Mr. Bush’s budget, he complained about approximately $10 billion dollars in earmarks. Well, the average spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is about $15 billion per month. Complaining about something that costs less than one month of the wars? That’s not really a great idea. If we want to exercise some pork from the budget, maybe we should have a look at some no-bid defense contracts or something?
A member of the Straight Dope forums decided to try self-waterboarding, and even in control of things, he found himself in a death panic. The conclusion: Waterboarding is torture. Even in a controlled environment, the poster managed to invoke an involuntary fear of death. Which means it can only be worse when done in an environment where there is no control.
Despite just about everything he’s done to make the lives of his citizens less comfortable, Mr. George W. Bush tops the list of people Americas admire most for this year, taking the top spot over former President Bill Clinton. Senator Hillary Clinton topped the list of most admired women.
But Mr. Bush cannot be a uniformly evil person, and thus his lifting of a ban on needle exchanges in Washington, D.C. is an excellent decision, which will hopefully help to save lives in the long run.
The Environmental Protection Agency will comply with Congress and release all its documents regaring the recent emissions decisions. Hey, a government agency that’s not actively stonewalling Congress! Isn’t that a delight?
The United States FAATSA is now regulating the amount of lithium or lithium-ion batteries a traveler can take with them. Effective the first of the year, anyway. This is apparently because sufficient quantities of lithium defeat fire-suppression systems on airplanes. (Thanks, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alfedenzo.) So it's a sane sort of regulation, rather than many of the less sane ones that have appeared in years past.
In New Orleans, the National Rifle Association is suing the city over the seizure of citizen firearms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit alleges that the police were actively infringing on the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of New Orleans and leaving them without protection from roving gangs and other bands.
Despite their claims of cracking down on illegal immigration, the employers of illegal immigrants were not arrested on criminal charges all that much. And according to projections, the arrests that were made were a very small fraction of the employers and workers who do their business without proper documentation.
Liberal Seagull wonders if Michigan is a mine canary for the United States economy. As people who didn’t turn out the light when we left, but only because we knew there would be others yet to come, I’d say that we both are very concerned that if Michigan fails, then it might drag some part of the country down with it.
That the "gospel of prosperity" teaching hasn't resulted in much prosperity for the churchgoing populace probably isn’t helping the country’s economic situation, either.
With the daily dirt on candidates, Kos goes to 1992 and shows some reasons why white supremacist groups might endorse Mr. Paul, Mr. Huckabee received contributions from a research organization that wants to work on embyronic stem cells and other things that are incompatible with Mr. Huckabee’s stated values and positions. Admittedly, this happens with regularity in political campaigns, although occasionally there are rejections of gifts if the eye of the public is trained on or alerted to the existence of such things. And finally, Hillary does occasionally remind everyone she's a potential tradition-breaker for President.
In the opinion columns, Diana West believes the Western world is giving aid to the Palestinian Authority over a misplaced sense of guilt over the brutalities of fundamentalist Islam, and that scholars and international politicians are actively trying to shift the blame for atrocities on the Western world. Perhaps, instead, the West is more interested in trying to maintain a region with no or minimal violence between Israel and its Arab neighbors, but the fundamentalists on both sides don’t particularly like the idea of peaceful co-existence.
In odd news today, Hello Kitty... for men? Sounds like a whole new generation gets to experience Hello Kitty Hell.
My professional self points at the following - 30,000 books. No fees. Welcome to the on-line free book list at the University of Pennsylvania.
The requisite listmania begins here - Wired's top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007, from really tiny transistors to really big dinosaur bones. Other matters, like proteins to help arrest the growth of tumors, and a new realization that cells die when they get re-oxygenated, not when they stop getting oxygen are interesting as well, even if they might not have made it to the list. NewScientistTech offers their look at the year in technology, with several new gadgets and processes developed this year. Including the social graph, which could be used in several analytical ways to see how one reaches experts, and whether one has good contacts across an organization. CSO Online offers the top ten data breaches of 2007. The crown jewel of 2007 may turn out to be a drug that helps heal liver damage cause by alcohol, though. Or at least, it’ll be wildly popular on college campuses.
Very last for this now middday entry is The Seven Habits of Highly Spiritual People. I don’t know whether that’s spiritualism or optimism and empathy, because with the exception of #7 (and even that one can be fudged), there’s no component that’s exclusive to spirituality. Adopting those principles and making them work will lead to a more positive life, I’m pretty sure, but there’s no intrinsic need for a spirituality to go with them. If you have one, great. If not, also great.
Those who use GMail, plese check to make sure you weren't victimized by a now-closed security flaw.
In Pakistan, riots exploded in several cities following the death of Benazir Bhutto. While al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack now, the United States and others are skeptical of the claim, and are investigating further. Wonkette also is not fond of a media tendency to crop out disturbing scenes in photography, and uses the Bhutto assassination as a way of showing that unaltered photo can produce a different reaction in context.
Russia is attempting to build a 2.5 million square-metre mega-structure in Moscow called Crystal Island. If they can succeed in building it on earth, does that mean they’ll be able to start constructing space colonies, too?
In Egypt, the discovery of an embankment wall thought to be for the Nile river is changing the way archaeologists think about an ancient temple to Amun-Re.
A rare look inside the decision-making process in the White House, Stem Cells and the President: An Inside Account shows how Mr. Bush and his advisers reached the conclusion they did about embryonic stem cell research. This might be a help or a hinder to Mr. Bush’s image, as it paints him as a curious and knowledgeable person, rather than the everyman Texan he’s tried to cultivate. Knowing it’s just an act might fan flames on just how much the President knew what he was doing, rather than dispel them.
Think Progress comes to my aid in terms of finding nice numbers to use - remember that in Mr. Bush’s budget, he complained about approximately $10 billion dollars in earmarks. Well, the average spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is about $15 billion per month. Complaining about something that costs less than one month of the wars? That’s not really a great idea. If we want to exercise some pork from the budget, maybe we should have a look at some no-bid defense contracts or something?
A member of the Straight Dope forums decided to try self-waterboarding, and even in control of things, he found himself in a death panic. The conclusion: Waterboarding is torture. Even in a controlled environment, the poster managed to invoke an involuntary fear of death. Which means it can only be worse when done in an environment where there is no control.
Despite just about everything he’s done to make the lives of his citizens less comfortable, Mr. George W. Bush tops the list of people Americas admire most for this year, taking the top spot over former President Bill Clinton. Senator Hillary Clinton topped the list of most admired women.
But Mr. Bush cannot be a uniformly evil person, and thus his lifting of a ban on needle exchanges in Washington, D.C. is an excellent decision, which will hopefully help to save lives in the long run.
The Environmental Protection Agency will comply with Congress and release all its documents regaring the recent emissions decisions. Hey, a government agency that’s not actively stonewalling Congress! Isn’t that a delight?
The United States FAA
alfedenzo.) So it's a sane sort of regulation, rather than many of the less sane ones that have appeared in years past.In New Orleans, the National Rifle Association is suing the city over the seizure of citizen firearms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit alleges that the police were actively infringing on the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of New Orleans and leaving them without protection from roving gangs and other bands.
Despite their claims of cracking down on illegal immigration, the employers of illegal immigrants were not arrested on criminal charges all that much. And according to projections, the arrests that were made were a very small fraction of the employers and workers who do their business without proper documentation.
Liberal Seagull wonders if Michigan is a mine canary for the United States economy. As people who didn’t turn out the light when we left, but only because we knew there would be others yet to come, I’d say that we both are very concerned that if Michigan fails, then it might drag some part of the country down with it.
That the "gospel of prosperity" teaching hasn't resulted in much prosperity for the churchgoing populace probably isn’t helping the country’s economic situation, either.
With the daily dirt on candidates, Kos goes to 1992 and shows some reasons why white supremacist groups might endorse Mr. Paul, Mr. Huckabee received contributions from a research organization that wants to work on embyronic stem cells and other things that are incompatible with Mr. Huckabee’s stated values and positions. Admittedly, this happens with regularity in political campaigns, although occasionally there are rejections of gifts if the eye of the public is trained on or alerted to the existence of such things. And finally, Hillary does occasionally remind everyone she's a potential tradition-breaker for President.
In the opinion columns, Diana West believes the Western world is giving aid to the Palestinian Authority over a misplaced sense of guilt over the brutalities of fundamentalist Islam, and that scholars and international politicians are actively trying to shift the blame for atrocities on the Western world. Perhaps, instead, the West is more interested in trying to maintain a region with no or minimal violence between Israel and its Arab neighbors, but the fundamentalists on both sides don’t particularly like the idea of peaceful co-existence.
In odd news today, Hello Kitty... for men? Sounds like a whole new generation gets to experience Hello Kitty Hell.
My professional self points at the following - 30,000 books. No fees. Welcome to the on-line free book list at the University of Pennsylvania.
The requisite listmania begins here - Wired's top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007, from really tiny transistors to really big dinosaur bones. Other matters, like proteins to help arrest the growth of tumors, and a new realization that cells die when they get re-oxygenated, not when they stop getting oxygen are interesting as well, even if they might not have made it to the list. NewScientistTech offers their look at the year in technology, with several new gadgets and processes developed this year. Including the social graph, which could be used in several analytical ways to see how one reaches experts, and whether one has good contacts across an organization. CSO Online offers the top ten data breaches of 2007. The crown jewel of 2007 may turn out to be a drug that helps heal liver damage cause by alcohol, though. Or at least, it’ll be wildly popular on college campuses.
Very last for this now middday entry is The Seven Habits of Highly Spiritual People. I don’t know whether that’s spiritualism or optimism and empathy, because with the exception of #7 (and even that one can be fudged), there’s no component that’s exclusive to spirituality. Adopting those principles and making them work will lead to a more positive life, I’m pretty sure, but there’s no intrinsic need for a spirituality to go with them. If you have one, great. If not, also great.
