Double feature - 20 March 2008

There’s a lot to get through today, and that’s after a pretty good and productive meeting that work was. This post is happening during an attempted interdiction of Livejournal’s services. As an attempt to cause a blip in LJ’s usage statistics, good luck, certainly. As a protest over censored interests, well, they’ve been restored. As a matter of LJ doing things without notifying their users, well, there’s still fallout over that. Xiaochang Li summarizes the complaints about the unannounced changes. ldragoon explains her reasons why she isn't participating in the strike. tafkae mocks the protest in its entirety, while pointing out that the owners of LJ are free to do exactly as they have done, according to the TOS. As for the Overlords themselves, apparently, new policies will be posted as an RFC, and then a final document will be created based on those comments and the Advisory Board’s recommendations.

Yesterday, officially, it's been five years of the war in Iraq, with no end in sight while Mr. Bush still reigns. Britain is considering a delay in troop withdrawal. Of course, on such a promising anniversary, protests were the order of the day, From coast to coast. Not one to miss an opportunity to snark, Wonkette shows off some signs at the various protests.

Mr. Bush is still convinced that he’s doing well, as is Mr. Cheney. Both would point to the possibility of provincial elections as an improvement. Despite the last five years, Mr. Cheney says the Middle East still needs "freedom". Well, sir, with what you’ve done over the last few years, if that isn’t “freedom”, then that doesn’t look too good on your war record. It is a handy excuse for spending more and growing the military-espionage complex, though. Naturally, Mr. Bush is not the only one defending the rightness of the war in Iraq. The Wall Street Journal believes, for all it’s faults, that the war's objectives can be achieved.

Some of the soldiers coming back from Iraq say the "Rules of Engagement" were left behind when the troops arrived, but that most of that happens away from the embedded journalists getting a sanitized version of events. They may be getting an assist from lesson plans intended for United Kingdom schoolchildren that whitewash the casualties and fatalities, focusing on what little good has been done in the country, without comparison to all the really bad stuff.

Despite all of this, many Iraqi aides are hoping that they'll be able to come to the United States and begin a new life. They’ll have to be lucky in a lottery where only 5,000 spots are available, which is probably a tiny, tiny amount compared to the amount of people who want to leave for the United States. The capstone on this, though, is Senator McCain continuing to assert that al-Qaeda is connected with Iran. Probably in much the same way al-Qaeda was supposed to be associated with Iraq.

Several opinions have been offered on the greater “war on terror” concept, as well as the war in Iraq. starkruzr believes a war against terror cannot be won with bullets and militaries, which gets support from accounts that the Israeli army is raiding and looting Palestinian orphanages. Rather counterproductive, to raid like that.

CNS says that the U.N. is not being open to journalists. Nor are the member countries. And yes, the goal should be that countries and NGOs are open and free with their information, but for many reasons, including fallout from scandal or clandestine actions, they’re not going to be.

Slowly, workers are uncovering and freeing a mummified dinosaur from the soil around it. Hopefully, the information extractable from this particular corpse helps with our understanding of the dinosaurs and the earth they lived on.

Professor tscheese explains to the masses why Bear Sterns collapsing without a bailout would be bad for everyone. It goes back to one of the first basic principles of modern economics - there is more money out on loans than there is cash in banks/institutions/whatever at any given point in time. So when suddenly one group finds itself staring down an investor run, it’s bad for them, and potentially starts bad chain reactions. Too many defaults makes for not enough income, and then not enough cash reserves makes for big problems. Liberal Seagull speculates that gold may be the next crash. Precious metals losing enough value to crash? Maybe if the country went back toward a gold standard?

Of course, there are people caught in this fiasco as well, and rate cuts are probably not helping those who are in tent villages because they can't afford their houses. At least Arkansas is trying to get payday lenders to stop their insane interest charges. And some people in the UK got lucky after a malfunctioning ATM paid double the requested withdrawals.

Regarding the candidates for the general election, bradhicks dissects Senator Obama's speech and finds it wanting, because of the Senator's unwarranted optimism that white people will stop scamming and stealing black people's savings. A different and more conservative take on the speech comes from Michael Medved, who has three big problems with Barack's speech. Rather interesting, and perhaps good for the country, that the remarks on race have brought the issue out into the public forums, but at the same time, it threatens to be an albatross against real issues and ideas that the voting populace should be paying attention to. Once again in the Wall Street Journal, who say that Senator Obama's speech shows him to be a standard liberal, rather than someone interested in “bipartisanship”. Which is better, but still seems rather odd. If the Senator isn’t saying liberal things, then he probably shouldn’t be in what most people consider the liberal political party.

With regard to the other Democratic candidate, Senator Clinton announced she would repeal No Child Left Behind if elected, something that is probably also on Senator Obama’s mind if he is elected. Senator Clinton also captured the endorsement of John Murtha, a vocal war critic who was in the spotlight for a while last year.

Liberal Beagle reminds us that the mainstream media often has framing that tilts, and that applying a level to the stories you see will tell you that all the frames are crooked, despite their insistence that your level is broken.

Looking into the past - a 1949 coffee roasting machine, giving you a pound of extraordinarily fresh roast. Looking toward the future - success in Major League Baseball shortens one's lifespan. Probably because of all the injury and stress and potential for substance abuse and fast living... plus playing 162 games a year officially, some more in the off-season and spring training, and all the conditioning. Maybe it’s true that success at professional sport in any discipline leads to a shorter lifespan. It’s certainly not going to be good for Barry Bonds, as federal prosecutors are filing new indictments against him after the prosecutors were told to take statements that Bonds alleged to be lies out of their original indictments.

The future is really in Internet-connected umbrellas, though. And Doraemon as the Japanese ambassador of animation. And possibly mad scientist measuring cups. But definitely in traffic light cameras that work too well, reducing revenue.

Out on the community library_mofo, a spirited discussion is on about whether patrons viewing pornographic materials on public library computers can be considered harassment to the employees. Officially, I believe the answer is no, unless the person viewing is actively doing things to draw attention to it or otherwise deliberately harass the staff. As to whether someone can or can’t view adult materials, unless there’s a policy or law on the record, I believe it’s been settled that freedom to view trumps the uncomfortableness of the people around. Not to say that measures can’t be taken to try and accommodate others.

There’s lots more sex stuff in this segment of the post, so those who don’t want to view may wish to skip this paragraph. Those who might be triggered by the presence of an account of rape might also want to skip. Starting with the innocuous stuff, Cracked is running what they consider to be the 25 most disturbing sex toys. Much more seriously, Feministing has Dear Abby implying that in the raping of a man's wife by one of his brothers, the wife might have known it wasn't the hubby and did nothing to stop it. Which is kind of like saying “Well, she enjoyed it, so it couldn’t have been a rape.” Bad Abby. Bad. And then there’s accounts of women who were forced by immigration agents to have sex in exchange for favorable viewing of their green card applications.

Related to the paragraph above, but non-triggering, an Indian region is offering expedited gun licence application in exchange for a man getting a vasectomy. And it’s working. Population control in two different ways, I’m guessing - the operation, and then the people who may end up dead because of the guns being put in people’s hands. On the opposite end of this sequence, an Idaho politician legally changed his middle name to Pro-Life as a way of garnering support for his campaign.

A triple set of posts on Open Education regarding video games and teenagers - Part I says the "simple" shooter games = bad equation isn't so , with Part II consisting of an interview with the study authors in trying to get deeper into the data, and Part III gives advice to parents on how to manage video games and children, with sound advice that says not to ban vido games or make them forbidden fruit, but to actually get involved, learn some about the games and the players, and have a few sessions with your kids, playing games together. (Even if you totally get fragged all the time.)

Joe Rogan is giving away his old isolation tank. But not before detailing what experiencing an isolation tank is like, both the good and the bad. Sounds like it’s an excellent way of coming face-to-face with oneself. After that, then one delves in deeper, runs away, or goes mad. Further matters of the metaphysical include an atheist challenging a magician to do him harm or kill him with the magic on television. Nothing happened, despite all the chants and magics. Ars Technica has an article about how brand logos and names influence our behavior - the ubiquitous Apple apple makes people feel more creative, the Disney brand makes them emphasise honesty. Corporate logos are impressing on us the underlying values that the advertisers want us to feel. In a way, they’re all behavioral modification devices. Isn’t it a little scary to know what kind of power images have on people?

Listmania has the Happiness Project giving us 12 tips for acting like a true friend. Useful advice, indeed.

Next to last for tonight, something that tickles my funny bone and my music sense - the Really Terrible Orchestra, which is at times what I feel I’m contributing to the Fremont Phil. But eventually, I’ll get all the right music and the tunes. And then I’ll sound... well, better than I do. Until then, enjoy a burning piano performance.

Last for tonight, improving memory recall with the Memory Palace method. Like remembering to go to bed at appropriate times. As such, we’re going to bed.

Rally-ho! - 21 March 2008

End of the week, so here we go. Things are starting to get interesting, and so we hope that there's plenty of interesting material for all of you to enjoy.

Zimbabwe's opposition leader lays out the probles of the country today, planting the cause squarely on the ruling party and president. Africa seems to have a lot of trouble with finding stable and noncorrupt governmental forms. Could that be attributed to the way that the former colonies became independent, whether through colonists leaving or revolutions?

In domestic news, Citigroup has warned that "The Great Unwinding" has begun, which sounds like if we thought what has come before is a recession, what is yet to come will be more like a steel bear trap closing on several areas of the economy. We're not at the bottom yet, but instead of enjoying the way down, now we're panicked that we can't stop.

Contractors on three separate occasions were looking at the confidential passport files of presidential candidates, a violation of the candidates' privacy. Two contractors have since been dismissed from their posts and one more was disciplined. Supposedly, these violations happened starting in January, and just now the State Department is gettign around to addressing them, or even apparently knowing of their existence. The matter was not passed up the chain of command in any speedy manner.

Linda Chavez says that the real issue why the country isn't doing well is because children don't have Mom-and-Dad families. Yes, that's it. The prevalence of single mothers and divorces is obviously what's bringing the country down. Rapacious corporations, discriminatory politics, a war that has too many parallels to Nineteen Eighty-Four, lack of available and inexpensive family planning options, governments and citizens that turn blind eyes to redeveloping and renovating the slums into somewhere that people can be proud of living in, all of these are secondary to the fact that there are women raising children without men or marriage. Well, there are other countries where women have to be in the company of men to do anything. How are those countries working out, hm?

With Regard to Senator Obama's speech on race and Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Peggy Noonan provides a nuanced examination that shows the good points, like speaking to the American people like they weren't idiots and being honest about the past of America. There was also the bad, which was her perception that the Democratic party insists on painting America as darker, dingier, and more evil than it actually is. She's right that this speech is probably the make-or-break proposition for Senator Obama. It will help decide his candidacy, and it may very well decide his electability in the general.

Barbara Ehrenreich in the Nation finds Senator Clinton's affiliations as worthy of scrutiny as well, considering them to be potentially more dangerous that Senator Obama's, as well as a possible cause for Senator Clinton's often-conservative leanings.

Other matters in the Democratic crosshairs include Douglas Schoen's insistence that the Democratic party hold new primaries for Michigan and Florida to seat their delegates, lest the disenfranchisement of two strong states push the election to the Republican candidate.

Putting politics and technology together, URBEINGRECORDED examines the ways that social networking sites are making impacts on political opinions and leanings, using the example of PoliTweets and Digg, finding much positive about Senator Obama, and mostly negative about Senator McCain and Senator Clinton, but ultimately interested in the ways which blogging, Twitter, and Digg are expressions of the democratic impulse of voters, casting their votes many times over before actually casting a vote. We'll have to see whether this trend starts accurately reflecting the populace as a whole, or a significant subset.

Turd Blossom puts out a new pile, calling the Democrats weak on security and out of touch with the nation's opinion on Iraq. Based on his assesment of carefully-worded opinion polls. Rove preys on the logical capacities of people, noting that many say that an immediate withdrawal would be bad, and that it would be beneficial to establish at least a minimum of security before leaving. Logical positions. That Rove then uses them as a hammer to say that the Democratic candidates are still weak on security because they adovcate for withdrawal as soon as feasible is disingenuous, but considering who Mr. Rove's previous employers were, I'd say that's par for the course. An unsigned editorial also in the Wall Street Journal repudiates the Democrats for passing a FISA bill withotu telecom immunity and that requires court orders to wiretap. It's still remarkably easy to obtain a warrant from the FISA court. Telecommunications companies should be punished for not requiring that the government produce a lawful order before installing surveillance equipment. All of this shows our respect for the laws of the country and our unwillingness to see them subverted by a dictatorial President trying to scare the populace into letting him be a legal dictator. Victor Davis Hanson says that we can fix our problems, if we put our minds and efforts to them, and actually decide to live according to our highest ideals.

In science (SCIENCE!) - a naked eye-visible gamma ray burst, which could have spelled really bad news for the planet had it been closer. Also potentially disturbing are giant swa creatures found in the Anarctic. There may yet be a Kraken of proper size developed somewhere on the planet. Speaking of Terra, Terra, Luna, and Mars may be composed of different building materials than the asteroids or Mercury, which could change the theory that all the inner planets came out of the same stuff near Sol. More research needed. Perhaps of more immediate concern are 25 environmental threats of the future. Things like grey goo, using viruses to kill viruses, and more drastic measure in trying to correct climate changes all ranked on the list.

PZ Meyers, the author of the blog Pharyngula, was expelled from the showing of the creationist movie Expelled. That said, the rest of his family, and his guest, the esteemed Richard Dawkins, were permitted inside the theather without incident. Quite the ego-boost to Meyers, I'd guess, that he was considered the dangerous one and Dawkins was permitted inside. All this was done after the producers had done an interview under false pretenses with him, saying their interview was for a movie of a different name, "Crossroads". (Also note that apparently Dawkins "crashed" the screening, despite being let it and having had to show his name and identification to be there.) All told, however, it sounds like the movie was absolutely dreadful and all the skeptics had a good laugh at it. Nomad gives an accounting of what went on in the cinema, and The Amused Muse does the same. All told, Expelled Exposed will be collecting all the material about this particular item. I expect a lot of derision and mockery to follow.

In Aurora, Illinois, even with the Planned Parenthood having been open for five months, the protestors aren't planning on letting up any time soon. The fervor and zeal of the protesters has to be respected. I still believe that the majority of women who go to PP for their reproductive services, including abortions, do so after having thought about the consequences and expenses of their actions compared to alternatives. To provide some reasons why continuing to provide services like abortion is necessary, a doctor that performs abortions explains the reasons why he does so. Said doctor has also been shot and stabbed for the work he does by people protesting.

Last for tonight, a reminder for all of us in our pursuits to play by the Spirit of the Game.