![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Turning in early tonight - 23 April 2008
Apr. 24th, 2008 12:02 amIf this all happens without too many hitches, I’ll be in bed early tonight, because I have to get up early tomorrow to finally go to a meeting that has been scheduled and canceled twice beforehand. Nothing interesting to report from work today, other than our regular visitors were a bit unhappy that there wasn’t any Wii playing today. Such are the vagaries of doing programs and then needing to do school visits.
I’ve also finally posted my review of The Clique.
Anyway, onward to important news. Like the opening of LA's first maid cafe, which is cool, and some pictures from the runways, which are rather weird. Because it was Earth Day yesterday, some movies about the ending of the earth. And then breaking down movies into component sequences, Forget the Film, Watch the Titles. Because title sequences are often quite interesting pieces of work themselves.
Internationally, India rebuffs the United States' advice on how to deal with Iran, which probably made people who still believe the United States should be obeyed unquestioningly start trying to figure out how they were going to tie Indians with al-Qaeda. Supposedly, though, al-Qaeda's taking the membership to task for not providing nearly enough support.
Inspector Lohman has a succinct summary of the War on Terror so far. Won’t take too long to read. For more thoughts related to this, while the Defense Secretary is downplaying talk of war with Iran, soldiers are going to be kept past their term expiry at least into next year. While all of this rages, Darfur continues to decline and get worse.
The Untied States Congress will hear allegations that North Korea assisted Syria with nuclear technology. The difficulty here is that nuclear power generation is still a civilian technology. That it can then be put to the use of making weapons is the bigger problem, but do we really then have to clamp down on any nation that wants to build nuclear power plants because they might make weapons?
In the “your rights continue to be eroded” department, we have a couple of Fourth Amendment-related matters. First, the 9th Circuit upheld the ruling that says the data content on a laptop is subject to search when entering the United States, even if the search has no grounds or suspicion. And now, inside the country, the SCOTUS has affirmed someone can be arrested based on evidence found by an illegal search . As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amib explains it in a locked entry from my source, urbankotq, it is apparently based on the precedent that commission of a crime in the presence of uniformed police (such as possession of crack cocaine) permits the officers to make an arrest, even if to do so is overstepping the bounds of the original suspicions.
Paul Auster reminisces about a sit-in at Columbia he participated in forty years ago. He mentioned that while he didn’t actually accomplish a whole lot, and it was mostly symbolic, but that it wasn’t completely empty. While there may be similar circumstances wanting to engender other protests, he doesn’t draw any parallels between then and now.
There may be different kinds of protests soon, though, as food rationing has started to appear in several places in America, and the associated hoarding that goes with it.
Going further back in history, behind every great destroyer and carrier, there are several great attack transports. Remember, an army moves on its stomach, and if you can cut off the logistics supply, it’s not going to end well for the surrounded army.
After all of that, rescuers have found the balloons of someone attempting to break the record for flying with helium balloons. They have not found the person, however, and are presuming he is dead.
Regarding Senator Obama and the Democratic debate, yet another dittohead saying that Obama has special status with the media because of the way media outlets responded to the questions asked of Senator Obama, claiming the Senator continues to evade actually answering difficult questions about his beliefs and the beliefs of his associates.
Getting into the opinion pages, Listmania strikes with advice for those starting in freelancing.
Thomas Sowell says less government assistance in paying for college is a good thing, as it forces people to think about the economic costs of university, rather than being swayed by “human interest” stories. His method of comparison is the Soviet Union, and he things in both cases, resources were being wasted because they were not being bought at full price by the persons using them. It is apparently also true that people are using college as a time-waster or a shield from adult responsibilities. With as expensive as university is, only the people on full scholarships would think about dallying, I would suspect, and even then, I think that kind of money runs out after a certain amount of time. Plus, without good assistance, master’s and doctorate-level work is probably going to tail off sharply. It’s bad that I went and got a second degree that cost as much as the first one, but it’s good that I like the job I could get after getting that degree. Had I been exposed to the full cost of that, the debts I had from it would probably be at least another quarter on top of what I had, if not half again that. And there’s no real way that I could get out from that debt, because it would have been like buying a house just to go to university.
The General praises the New Republic for being a liberal magazine that likes spouting conservative talking points.
Our Unabashed Feminism department will definitely enjoy Rebecca Solnit's account of standing her ground when men told her she was wrong, and she takes it out to a wider context where women are expected to always defer to male knowledge, even when the men are flat-out wrong. From my own perspective, I note that I’m definitely in the minority in my profession, and so I have no qualms about deferring to those who know, rather than believing I am somehow always right. Rebel Yell expands on this, noting that smart people, but especially smart women, are discouraged from exercising that intelligence to its fullest from elementary school onward.
Last before going back toward “objective” reporting, leave out all the scheduled play and let children be children, says Tom Hodgkinson, with benefits to the child (learning how to keep oneself entertained) and to the parent (less work trying to keep the child entertained). Overstressing the kids is definitely bad. Doing things they want to do is good. Hopefully, a balance between scheduled play and idle time can be struck.
Working into technology, even Microsoft has decided DRM sucks more than its worth. Well, okay, they’re nixing an old service, and it happens to have DRM enabled. But that headline sounds so much better. And gamers can breathe some sigh of relief - Uwe Boll, although interested, will not be getting his hands on a WoW movie. Moving from screens to feet, an article in the New York Magazine suggests that shoes are the worst thing for human feet.
Last out of this segment, lest we forget our roots, a lot of our handheld devices must thank an engineer, Herman Anthony of Ray-O-Vac, for developing the first non-leaky batteries in 1940.
Providing source material for all sorts of things, the Dictionary of Victorian London, likely a great reference for all those who want to go steampunk. For those looking to imprint themselves on the world and have a place with celebrities, Biographicon looks to collect the biographies of all persons. Which could be interesting, of course. I think, though, it would be better, were something like that to be written about me, that it be biographical and not autobiographical. Or, perhaps, they will build me a personal meditation chamber for while I am alive and wait to write my life story until after my life has finished. For those looking for more material to put into signature files or games with non-stringent graphic requirements, the ASCII art dictionary. Because everyone needs to know how to construct those kinds of objects using only the characters on their keyboards.
While it only keeps time of the hours, a gigantic clockwork is able to spell out each hour in its proper place on the clock at the appointed time. Must have taken quite a few pieces and parts to make that work properly. Might be interesting enough placed in a spot where people will notice it without noticing it, and then wonder how the word changed, and why.
Last for tonight, though, is Demon Summoning for Dummies, an excellent image with a good premise. If she’s not careful, though, she’ll summon librarians instead of demons. Whether called by the incantation or rushing to the scene to clean up and control things, well, we’re not sure yet.
Okay, time for bed, then.
I’ve also finally posted my review of The Clique.
Anyway, onward to important news. Like the opening of LA's first maid cafe, which is cool, and some pictures from the runways, which are rather weird. Because it was Earth Day yesterday, some movies about the ending of the earth. And then breaking down movies into component sequences, Forget the Film, Watch the Titles. Because title sequences are often quite interesting pieces of work themselves.
Internationally, India rebuffs the United States' advice on how to deal with Iran, which probably made people who still believe the United States should be obeyed unquestioningly start trying to figure out how they were going to tie Indians with al-Qaeda. Supposedly, though, al-Qaeda's taking the membership to task for not providing nearly enough support.
Inspector Lohman has a succinct summary of the War on Terror so far. Won’t take too long to read. For more thoughts related to this, while the Defense Secretary is downplaying talk of war with Iran, soldiers are going to be kept past their term expiry at least into next year. While all of this rages, Darfur continues to decline and get worse.
The Untied States Congress will hear allegations that North Korea assisted Syria with nuclear technology. The difficulty here is that nuclear power generation is still a civilian technology. That it can then be put to the use of making weapons is the bigger problem, but do we really then have to clamp down on any nation that wants to build nuclear power plants because they might make weapons?
In the “your rights continue to be eroded” department, we have a couple of Fourth Amendment-related matters. First, the 9th Circuit upheld the ruling that says the data content on a laptop is subject to search when entering the United States, even if the search has no grounds or suspicion. And now, inside the country, the SCOTUS has affirmed someone can be arrested based on evidence found by an illegal search . As
amib explains it in a locked entry from my source, urbankotq, it is apparently based on the precedent that commission of a crime in the presence of uniformed police (such as possession of crack cocaine) permits the officers to make an arrest, even if to do so is overstepping the bounds of the original suspicions. Paul Auster reminisces about a sit-in at Columbia he participated in forty years ago. He mentioned that while he didn’t actually accomplish a whole lot, and it was mostly symbolic, but that it wasn’t completely empty. While there may be similar circumstances wanting to engender other protests, he doesn’t draw any parallels between then and now.
There may be different kinds of protests soon, though, as food rationing has started to appear in several places in America, and the associated hoarding that goes with it.
Going further back in history, behind every great destroyer and carrier, there are several great attack transports. Remember, an army moves on its stomach, and if you can cut off the logistics supply, it’s not going to end well for the surrounded army.
After all of that, rescuers have found the balloons of someone attempting to break the record for flying with helium balloons. They have not found the person, however, and are presuming he is dead.
Regarding Senator Obama and the Democratic debate, yet another dittohead saying that Obama has special status with the media because of the way media outlets responded to the questions asked of Senator Obama, claiming the Senator continues to evade actually answering difficult questions about his beliefs and the beliefs of his associates.
Getting into the opinion pages, Listmania strikes with advice for those starting in freelancing.
Thomas Sowell says less government assistance in paying for college is a good thing, as it forces people to think about the economic costs of university, rather than being swayed by “human interest” stories. His method of comparison is the Soviet Union, and he things in both cases, resources were being wasted because they were not being bought at full price by the persons using them. It is apparently also true that people are using college as a time-waster or a shield from adult responsibilities. With as expensive as university is, only the people on full scholarships would think about dallying, I would suspect, and even then, I think that kind of money runs out after a certain amount of time. Plus, without good assistance, master’s and doctorate-level work is probably going to tail off sharply. It’s bad that I went and got a second degree that cost as much as the first one, but it’s good that I like the job I could get after getting that degree. Had I been exposed to the full cost of that, the debts I had from it would probably be at least another quarter on top of what I had, if not half again that. And there’s no real way that I could get out from that debt, because it would have been like buying a house just to go to university.
The General praises the New Republic for being a liberal magazine that likes spouting conservative talking points.
Our Unabashed Feminism department will definitely enjoy Rebecca Solnit's account of standing her ground when men told her she was wrong, and she takes it out to a wider context where women are expected to always defer to male knowledge, even when the men are flat-out wrong. From my own perspective, I note that I’m definitely in the minority in my profession, and so I have no qualms about deferring to those who know, rather than believing I am somehow always right. Rebel Yell expands on this, noting that smart people, but especially smart women, are discouraged from exercising that intelligence to its fullest from elementary school onward.
Last before going back toward “objective” reporting, leave out all the scheduled play and let children be children, says Tom Hodgkinson, with benefits to the child (learning how to keep oneself entertained) and to the parent (less work trying to keep the child entertained). Overstressing the kids is definitely bad. Doing things they want to do is good. Hopefully, a balance between scheduled play and idle time can be struck.
Working into technology, even Microsoft has decided DRM sucks more than its worth. Well, okay, they’re nixing an old service, and it happens to have DRM enabled. But that headline sounds so much better. And gamers can breathe some sigh of relief - Uwe Boll, although interested, will not be getting his hands on a WoW movie. Moving from screens to feet, an article in the New York Magazine suggests that shoes are the worst thing for human feet.
Last out of this segment, lest we forget our roots, a lot of our handheld devices must thank an engineer, Herman Anthony of Ray-O-Vac, for developing the first non-leaky batteries in 1940.
Providing source material for all sorts of things, the Dictionary of Victorian London, likely a great reference for all those who want to go steampunk. For those looking to imprint themselves on the world and have a place with celebrities, Biographicon looks to collect the biographies of all persons. Which could be interesting, of course. I think, though, it would be better, were something like that to be written about me, that it be biographical and not autobiographical. Or, perhaps, they will build me a personal meditation chamber for while I am alive and wait to write my life story until after my life has finished. For those looking for more material to put into signature files or games with non-stringent graphic requirements, the ASCII art dictionary. Because everyone needs to know how to construct those kinds of objects using only the characters on their keyboards.
While it only keeps time of the hours, a gigantic clockwork is able to spell out each hour in its proper place on the clock at the appointed time. Must have taken quite a few pieces and parts to make that work properly. Might be interesting enough placed in a spot where people will notice it without noticing it, and then wonder how the word changed, and why.
Last for tonight, though, is Demon Summoning for Dummies, an excellent image with a good premise. If she’s not careful, though, she’ll summon librarians instead of demons. Whether called by the incantation or rushing to the scene to clean up and control things, well, we’re not sure yet.
Okay, time for bed, then.
