Back for more - 02 June 2008

Slept in late, had fun, but got nailed with a killer headache and nose running right after dinner. Cleared off for the most part, but I wonder if it was an accelerated caffeine withdrawal or something, because that hurt. Or maybe I fell victim to a short-lived virus. Or something. Either way, I’m hoping bed rest will get rid of the lingering effects.

We’ll start with something funny, - a case of slight mishearing at the recent spelling bee by the eventual winner of the contest.

I’ve got news. Not all of it is happy. Bo Diddley died, as did Yves Saint Laurent.

Blackwater now owns a fighter plane, which should add a completely new dimension to the contractor warfare going on in Iraq. They may be stepping up some as Australia declared "Mission Accomplished" and ended combat operations in Iraq.

The Washington Times does a little exploring about the complex nature of United States ISPs being used to help repressive governments find dissidents and censor or arrest them, and technology companies that sell the hardware that can be turned into a giant firewall with customization.

At the same time, women are making themselves be heard in countries where women's rights are lacking. Sometimes in interesting ways, like making demands to be able to join al-Qaeda.

Speaking of women, several years after a reform act was passed, the amount of sex workers in New Zealand hasn't really changed, even though in many cases, the conditions they work in may have improved some thanks to the reform.

In domestic news, as an aggregate, according to a Gallup poll, the American populace favors the United States president meeting with the leaders of "enemy" nations. High percentages on the liberal and independent side, and about 50-50 on the conservatives. Diplomacy does have a point.

Oooh, it’s security theater time! Man told to remove his Optimus Prime shirt or face arrest, because the robot has a big gun. It’s a shirt. If terrorism could be committed with an article of clothing, then przxqgl‘s “I am a Terrorist!” buttons should have caused more than enough damage. On top of that, here’s a handy primer for most Americans - 20 Civil Liberties law (categories) every American should know.

Elsewhere, some religious things that aren’t helping anyone shed their negative images - a Catholic exorcist claiming that yoga leads to demonic possession, as well as a cat supposedly turning into a woman in sight of witnesses in Nigeria.

There’s something really wrong all around about this. Man sentenced to prison for having sex with 13-year old, despite her MySpace claim that she's 19, and her in-person claim that she was 18. This isn’t the first time this girl has done it, either, apparently. This is why one must confirm ages before anything happens... and should probably avoid anyone who looks too young without a thorough vetting. Otherwise, oh, look, you’re a pedophile. The article makes it sound like the girl’s not going to get in any trouble with the law for misrepresenting her age. Trouble with her parents, though, one would hope.

In technology, if you’ve ever wondered whether someone’s been ’shopping some of the images you see, SciAm offers up five ways to spot a photo that's been doctored, by checking light sources, eyes and their positions, looking for clones, and spotting bad pixel correlations.

Science to help close out tonight - the brain is apparently wired to see approximately one-tenth of a second into the future, compensating for the delay between light hitting the retina and the actual processing of the result. Which may explain why an optical illusion nails us, because we expect one thing and are presented with another.

Beyond that, yet another possible hair regrowth treatment. Soon, I’m sure, we’ll find some combination of drugs and therapy that regrows bald hair, reverses wrinkles, and permits erections for those for whom life has blessed with many years.

Last for tonight, an article in the New Yorker about how scientific inventions often appear in multiple, and what that may mean for people who brainstorm inventions as their job.

Okay, one more thing. Extraordinary art made from metal, much of it scrap repurposed to artistic requirements. Now, really, bed. Got to give presentations to kiddies tomorrow.

Mixed material day - 03 June 2008

Yes, it’s all this and more, for the right price - no charge at all. (No static at all!)

The international headlines are creating an interesting narrative through proximity on my newsfeeds - the future of United States-Iraq relations is unclear, with Iraq starting to assert sovereignty and the ability to rule themselves, despite claims that a rapid withdrawal would produce anarchy and chaos. Yet that doesn’t stop the apparent capture of several suspected insurgent leaders. Or, for that matter, the continual use of honor killings and men who threaten women with death for associating with Westerners. In Afghanistan, the opposition is fleeing before NATO forces, and in Saudi Arabia, potentially substantive accusations that Saudi Arabia is helping to bankroll al-Qaeda and other similar organizations. Daniel Freedman opines that things could be falling apart for Hezbollah in Lebanon, becoming isolated from Iran through Syria wanting to negotiate with Israel and potentially closing a supply line that Hezbollah needs.

Add on top of this a choice quote from Ahmadinejad about Israel's immanent disappearance, and a statement by House Speaker Pelosi crediting Iran for helping to stop violence in Basra, a statement that several conservative blogs have seized on and are using as further evidence that the Democrats are appeasers and defeatists, and it looks like all those things that Joe Sixpack is worried about are moving in the right direction, right? Troops in all the places for as long as needed. What liberal media, again? In the case of Russia, the opposition simply vanishes from the telecast, if they’re allowed on at all. At least here, we don’t airbrush out the people on the other side of the aisle.

But if we step outside the American bubble, we see the United States accused of running prison ships on international waters, so that detainees can’t claim any Constitutional rights, can be “interrogated” by whatever methods the captors choose, and then can be passed off to other locations where the process can continue. Considering how much of a shadow prison system there already is, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to include military sea vessels as potential prisons and floating interrogation rooms.

In candidate and opinion matters, first, Senator Obama, through pledged and committed superdelegates, has the majority he needs to claim a presidential nomination. Senator Clinton has not withdrawn from the race, however, and is still making her case that she is the better candidate. Until Senator Clinton withdraws, or until the votes are actually cast at convention, this race isn’t over. Which may or may not mean more campaign coverage. In any case, it’s now really in the hands of the candidates and the superdelegates.

Senator McCain proposes a League of Nations to do what the United Nations cannot or will not do. Well, he has precedent, I suppose, in trying to get a new organization started that will do better than the last one did.

Having been hounded ever since the Jeremiah Wright “scandal” broke, Senator Obama divorced himself from Trinity United Church of Christ on Friday. While one might think this would end any concern or care that the Senator’s opponents would have for the church and its pastor, instead the whole thing has opened up once again. Carol Platt Liebau paints the Senator into a no-win situation, where he has apparently either accused everyone who made a big deal about the Wright issue, or the congregation of Trinity United and Mr. Wright, of being racists, and Amanda Carpenter turns her attention to a different pastor's remarks, now wanting to tie Obama to more remarks that could be considered racially insensitive, although the overall attitude was more about a feeling of entitlement and privilege from Senator Clinton and the method by which she has been trying to leverage her demographic characteristics to convince others she’s the right choice for the Democratic nomination.

Now that food and fuel prices have gone up significantly, it seems just about everyone is jumping on the "ethanol causes price spikes and famine" bandwagon. Can’t completely be ethanol at fault, I’d say. It doesn’t sound like we’re using a whole lot of crop to make the ethanol, comparatively speaking. And somewhere along the way, we’re going to have to do some switching over to a non-petroleum based power supply. Now, if there’s also large amounts of subsidies being distributed for farmers not to farm, or to farm one crop when others should be, that can and should be rectified. Maybe some of that money could go into finding an efficient transport method for solar power from space-based solar panels.

In technology, supposedly only five percent of returned technology devices are actually defective, and most of them are returned because they were configured incorrectly or did not meet expectations on their purpose. Which suggests bad design is a reason why things get returned. I’d say that counts as a defect, although not necessarily one in the product’s physical workings or components. There’s also a pot that turns the plant into a pet, kind of like the Tamagotchi craze, but with actual living organisms. I wonder whether this pot could help non-green thumbs to keep some green around the house. And finally, microbots that can self-assemble and react differently even while receiving the same power and control signals. The future, man. It’s coming, maaaaaaaan.

We've spotted a region of the brain that can detect sarcasm, not that you would care A region responsible for detecting contextual information in visual items apparently also permits us to get inside another person’s head and detect their mental contexts, so we can tell when we’re being dissed, no matter how innocuous it sounds. This may be worth applying to this article about how much we should stop fishing for sympathy and telling people about our problems, because all it does it reinforce our negative self-perception and problems. In short, shut up and move on, it says. Maybe say something once, if you really need to. For someone who's really depressed, though, that won't work at all.

The last for tonight, though, is optimism. Namely, Ray Kurzweil's optimism about the future, including no worries about weight gain, the Singularity, and highly advanced life expectancy. I hoep he’s right, and that I’m still around to see it all happen and take full advantage of it. When we can do things like create awesome art that changes depending on what time of day it is, I’m sure that scientific revolutions can’t be far behind. Nor can a funny caption between two robots.

And speaking of optimism, it only supposedly will take $30 million to pilot a media cooperation where a television show and an MMORPG run simultaneously, and that both will affect each other.