Making things work out - 06 March 2008

Long day tomorrow, meeting day today. All sorts of neat stuff going around. It’s still kind of weird being at this job and having people who are probably a few years your senior nodding and listening and treating you as an equal. It’s nice, that nobody really looks down on my because of my age, but it’s still a little weird for me getting used to. I like it, though, and wouldn’t have it any other way. Plus, any day there’s money going into the account, it’s a happy day.

Onward to the things that other people deem important enough to link to. I like the way that Bernie DeKoven discusses whether video games are good for children, focusing in on the challenges and treating kids as intelligent beings rather than dumb innocents. My professional self also is completely aggravated by the account of a man who was almost reprimanded for reading a book in the break room. The book was actually about how Notre Dame students fought off the KKK in the 1920s, and the claim was racial harassment by black co-workers. For reading a book.

Internationally, a Chinese construction worker used meditation and breathing techniques to last two hours on five minutes' air supply after a ditch collapsed on top of him. He managed not to panic, which is impressive by itself. Today, the BBC captures some very poignant pictures, including a person praying in the middle of the street.

Domestically, the writers of the HBO Show The Wire have said they will not vote guilty on drug offense juries unless there was violence involved as well. They also suggest that if Americans want to stop the momentum of the War on (Some) Drugs, they should also vote to acquit on nonviolent drug charges.

Terry Couto suggests that the best way to bring about the end of the housing crisis is to accelerate foreclosures, and to use programs that allow people who are in over their heads to simply turn the keys back over to their lender and have the debt in excess of the house’s value be forgiven.

A military recruiter’s office in Times Square was the subject of a bomb attack in the early hours of the morning. With nobody around, it looks more like damage was the intent, rather than terrorism. More information about the blast from the NYT's City Room blog. As tscheese found out, even though it wasn’t really terrorism, all the tourists flocked away from Times Square today.

In matters of the federal government, the Justice Department will be launching a "one-stop shop" for data in police databases, so that anyone can look at anyone else’s material. This may very well help track and solve some cases, but it also makes it pretty easy for someone to find all sorts of personally identifiable information if the data warehouses should be compromised. Oh, and did we mention that the FBI improperly used national security letters to collect personal data on Americans in 2006?

The Senate majority leader compares filibusters to stabbings, with the context being that it really doesn’t matter whether the Republicans filibuster/a person gets stabbed 72 or 65 times, it’s still too many and it does grievous harm. So, in a twisted sort of way, it works, but it’s still definitely not the best analogy.

And with regard to the general election in November, Wonkette mocks Senator McCain and Mr. Bush's encounter, where Mr. McCain was late, and Mr. Bush tried some soft shoe to entertain the crowd, before subjecting them to his endorsement of Senator McCain. In a far more deluded world, Ron Paul deliberates on whether to continue his candidacy, even though his chance of winning is zero. On the Democratic side, Senator Clinton shows her conservative side, striking at Senator Obama on his lack of experience in politics, which is projected to be one of the spots the Republicans would attack Senator Obama on if he should capture the nomination. I still think that Senator Clinton versus Senator McCain will resemble a battle between two conservatives. And furthermore, Glenn Beck actually asked a pastor to give odds on whether Senator Obama is the antichrist. *sigh*

The technology department notices the New York Times finally catching up to what has probably been going on in Japan for a long, long time - keitai social networking. Because the mobile phone really is going to be the new device for social interaction - as they become more prevalent here, they’ll pick up more features - kind of like how things are happening in Japan. They’re already up to mobile phones that can transform into mini-mecha.

The tech department acknowledges the dark side of YouTube and other sites with the rape of a mother being uploaded and available for some time before being deleted. Obviously, with as much stuff as is being uploaded to YouTube, there’s no way to filter out something like that until after it’s been there for a while. Even if you looked now for key or trigger words, there’s seven pages plus, some of which is from films, some from animations, some are PSAs about things... but if you looked in the right places, you might very well see the actual stuff.

The Art Department is interested in how the patterns of communication from New York look over time, an exhibit being put on by MIT. And while there’s no video, today, 26 years ago, John Belushi died - and so Cap’n Marrrrk produces a transcript of a March-themed skit involving John Belushi. Further along in Art are Song Charts, graphical representations of tunes. I know I’ve linked to some of these before. The best out of the Art section, however, is showing that Nine Inch Nails knows how to release an album - 9 tracks up for free of a 36-track 2-CD set, available for download for $5, in physical medium for $10, and then various really good and high-quality versions for more.

Art also has its darker sides, too - an art installation in a Danish museum offered visitors the ability to put goldfish through a blender. And successfully defended itself against accusations of animal cruelty, because the method of death was considered quick and humane.

Our Science department is not necessarily happy with another solar power method that requires acres of desert covered in solar panels. Solar is a great idea, but it needs to be more efficient before it will become viable for a lot of people or the energy grid. As gas prices go up, hopefully it will become more efficient - it would be nice if we could generate sufficient power to drive lots of pure electric vehicles around and cut out a significant amount of oil dependency. Our science department is much more interested in using fMRI to predict people's choices, the optimal amount of time for coitus, and a possible way of delivering an immunity against HIV. Go Blue - hopefully this one works.

Okay, so there’s more. NASA has a giant camera pointed at Mars, and wants people to decide what to take pictures of. That’s definitely cool. An additional Mars-related idea is Gizmodo reporting that a NASA engineer thinks a one-way mission to Mars for a single person could accomplish quite a bit more in his limited time than the robots can. The trip is one-way, unless in that amount of time, the astronaut can find some way of creating an atmosphere on Mars, or another intelligent species finds him and saves him. How many volunteers would step up for that kind of mission? No? Well, how about throwing boomerangs in microgravity?

The placebo effect may very well be better than placebo.

Our Unabashed Feminism Department has regular high-quality postings. Bureau Chief ldragoon turns her sights on the way that gender stereotypes are being leveraged as reasons to criticize Senator Obama, trying to paint him as somehow not manly enough for the job, or more of a “woman” than Senator Clinton. It’s very strange that the American populace seems to insist that their leader believe that he has the biggest phallus and be willing to do really stupid stuff, like invade other countries, to maintain that illusion. Otherwise, the President will be too “soft” on issues like national security or immigration control. And nobody like a phallus that’s “soft” on anything. I’m thinking George Carlin has said a few things about this before. Heaven forbid that our President be willing to negotiate before sending troops, actually concerned about the welfare of his people, and be willing to work things out so that good policy trumps political point-scoring. Such a path can only lead to the dreaded... socialism.

Next to last, the “What were they thinking?” department, also known as the marketing mockery bureau produces a mug for Aggressive Caffeine Addicts. Because people really want blood spatters and bullet holes on their coffee mugs. For further mockery, production shots from the upcoming Watchmen movie. Some good, some very reminiscent of certain Bat-person films with rubber nipples on the chest plate. And ldragoon, who is all kinds of awesome, mercilessly shreds said promo pictures. Faithfulness to source material is very important in an Alan Moore adaptation, or the whole thing will flop. Someone did a decent job with V for Vendetta, but it looks like the current crop missed the memo that Watchmen is about the time after the costumed vigilantes had their heyday. Only two characters are really in any sort of good form, one from having to keep his image up, and the other from being otherworldly.

In the coveted last place for this entry, why Italian men grab their crotches - it’s a warding sign against ill luck. And because no entry is complete without a list, the top five misconceptions about Dungeons and Dragons and its players.

Friday, ahoy! - 07 March 2008

Well, we've made it to the end of another week. The weekend promises to be fun-filled and active the whole time. At some point, I'm sure I'll find some time to do a proper sort of sleeping-in lazy weekend, but it probably won't be happening while there's all the preparations for the Moisture Festival and such. If you're in the area, you should come out and see it. I promise that it'll be fun.

To start, my professional self gets to take center stage and lay into someone who (thankfully) is not part of my library district, but whom I suspect represents some (hopefully small) fraction of the people in my library district. George Elmore, of Gainesville, Florida, thinks it's a swell idea to close down the library and save the taxpayers some $19 million. What sets the blood of librarians aflame is the almost laughable manner in which he blithely believes that garage sales and reading in bookstores or online can suffice for books, that the free Internet holds sufficient scholarly knowledge as to make journal databases, and the libraries that subscribe to them, obsolete, and that buying wireless-capable laptops for anyone who was without an Internet means would be enough. The Director of the Alachua County Library System, Sol M. Hirsch, perhaps not seeing red, perhaps after seeing red and flames, pens an excellent response, noting that if all citizens had to use a public service for it to be useful, then health services, police services, fire services, public education, and a host of others would not be provided. Perhaps Mr. Elmore believes that we should go back to earlier days, where private citizens hired police on their own, paid for a local fire brigade out of their pockets, and hired their own teachers to get the kids educated. Many of the residents of Gainesville took the flamebait and ran with it, posting their reasons why a library is a necessary community resource. Mixed in with the praise were at least one or two opinions against the cost of the library, but in general, the people of Gainesville understand the versatility of the library system. Even if you never personally come to the library (Shock! Horror!), paying for it to exist and provide service helps you out in many ways.

Checking in with the news desk, a Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish yeshiva, killing eight. *sigh* The only encouraging thing that I can say about this conflict is that eventually the Ireland conflict came to halt and peace was made, so there is precedent for the populace finally tiring of killing each other and wanting to get along. Something that may slow down some conflicts is the arrest of Viktor Bout, an arms dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for his willingness to trade arms to anyone, anywhere, regardless of United Nations sanctions or Interpol arrest warrants.

Mr. Bush has backed the leader of Colombia in the increasingly tense situation between Colombia and its neighbors Ecuador and Venezuela. If something triggers into actual war, will the U.S. be sending troops into South America, perhaps to try and seize some of Mr. Chavez's oil supplies?

Last, Kuwait has found an effective method of squelching free speech - deporting any foreigner who is in attendance at protests and rallies, and sending the police after any natives who were there. Aren't you glad to live in a country where the President and Department of Homeland Security don't have arbitrary powers to declare someone an enemy and arrest them?

On the domestic front, Mr. Bush admits to being a miserable failure on national security, saying that America is still not safe from terrists. So Mr. Bush and KT McFarland both say that being able to eavesdrop on conversations in foreign countries because their communications pass through United States infrastructure is a necessary power. The privacy concerns have been gone over, but the logic in that reasoning is pretty flimsy, to me. Because the communication happens to go through our country, we have a right to listen in on it? Does that mean China should have the same right to listen in on communications, and even block them if the communication looks like it might be in violation of their principles? Are we going to have to build in switches that route traffic around China or Russia or Middle Eastern countries because we don't want them listening in on our conversations? That's what the precedent looks like to me.

To help make us safer from other countries, one of the top military commanders recommends building new nuclear weapons. Because nukes solve everything, and MAD is still the only way to be sure. It's so very telling that even though the commander wants a nuclear-free world, he believes that there has to be a nuclear force in place as a deterrent against others. So nobody's going to budge. What I want to know is who they think really wants to nuke the United States, the big consumers and debtors and buyers that we are. From what they're writing, OpinionJournal seems to think Iran would be a candidate.

In economic opinions, George McGovern says that people should be free to make their own bad economic decisions, including trying to stick with loans that have shifted on them and utilizing payday loan services if money is needed and credit isn't available. He recognizes the greater value of education about economic risk, but he seems convinced that we should allow people who get caught in credit crunches and shifted mortgages to be squeezed or placed into a sort of debt slavery where there's enough to meet minimums, but not enough to actually get out.

Furthermore, economically, spend your gift cards as soon as you get them, lest the company fail and the gift cards become worthless. And be sure to make sure companies shred and munge your personal data when they fold, lest you be exposed to dumpster-diving identity thieves through no fault of your own.

The Art department offers streets sanitized of signs. No road signs, no direction signs, no nothing. Just the architecture. Seems eerie with no signs and no people, like there was a disaster or something.

As an example of what the HiRISE camera orbiting Mars can do, look at a picture of Sol-3 and Luna, as seen from Sol-4. The night sky there would be so different, night after night. In other science, perhaps tiny nuclear reactors are a wave of the future, good for powering smaller segments of the grid by themselves - or as excellent backup generators in case of a power outage. For other infrastructure thoughts, a suggestion for building and using low-speed underground tube transport to ship cargo, rather than overland truck shipments. Automation and constant speed could make the process faster than drivers for short or long trips. The problem would be the initial investment in the transport network, which wouldn't be paid for until a much longer time of use. It would be a good project for long-term thinking, though.

A little less on infrastructure and a bit more on fun is Make3D, the second generation of programs that reconstruct three-dimensional environments from a single two-dimensional photograph.

And getting to the ranty-bits, I thought what I'd do was pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. A school has decided to replace the faces of its students with smiley faces in all the pictures on the website, believing it a deterrent to pedophiles using the images as material and trading them around. While it's certainly novel, it's also quite a bit unsettling, and defeats the purpose of putting up pictures of things like team photos. Those involved seemed to believe that it would be much easier and less scary to blur out the faces if the school is that paranoid about pedophiles. More from school materials, students, be careful what you blog - a school refused to permit a student to hold elected office after she wrote on her personal blog calling the act of canceling the school's Jamfest "douchebaggery". Officials were apparently reading someone's out-of-school communication, on a personal blog, and decided to punish her for it by not permitting her to take office in a school election. Um, free speech outside of school hasn't diminished as far as I know. So the school admins really were being pricks about douchbaggery.

Also, a quandary that nobody should have to go through - outed by a friend who was being put to death for homosexuality in Iran, a student sought asylum, and was denied. Thus, now he's seeking asylum in the Netherlands, because if he goes back to the UK, they'll send him back to Iran, where the gallows most likely awaits him. Somewhere in this segment, one would think common sense would intervene and asylum would be granted, but currently, while acknowledging that Iran hangs gay men and lesbians, the Home Office appears to believe there is no systematic repression of gay men and lesbians. Thus, common sense is frighteningly absent from this decision so far. Here's hoping the people in the Home Office get their heads on straight.

I agree with The Infamous Brad that the procedure followed by an officer in a standoff that saw all the officer's shots fired blindly at a suspect hiding behind cover was definitely not smart police work. As bradhicks notes, thirty-two shots fired, and none of them grazed the suspect. Luckily, none of them hit innocents, either. It sounds like the situation could have been resolved without firing a shot, but that wasn't the training that had been given.

Last for the rants, it looks like the lifting of the toy ban in Texas may be reversed, depending on whether the appeal filed with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals by the state's Attorney General stands up. Amanda Marcotte and Pandagon at AlterNet see this appeal as yet another attempt by conservative wingnuts to suppress and repress female sexuality, this time under a moral hazard argument where toys lead to all sorts of other deviancies from morality, like incest and bigamy. The domino theory was discredited several times when Communism expanded and the world didn't collapse. And really, what part of a woman playing with BOB is going to induce her to want to do stuff with her brother, Bob, unless she already wanted him in the first place?

And now I'm wondering whether Texas still has doctors performing cures for female hysteria. This is what happens when you learn about stuff - it starts forming connections, and then those connections start playing with other connections, and before long you've got a whole joke or comment formed.

Last for tonight, something that I would probably be interested in watching. Y'see, CBS tried to make a reality show with geologists competing against each other. You know, something like a Rocks and Lava edition of a fear show. Problem is, the geologists weren't cutthroat and were more interested in the rocks than the games. I'd really want to see how the production of that show went, and get interviews with all the people that tried to make such a thing float and failed. Then again, I might have an affinity for watching something like that crash and burn.

So that's the stuff for tonight. Enjoy your weekends.