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Quick news post as we get ourselves ready for the weekend. Hooray!
Starting internationally, I think CNS News wants to make a bigger issue of the possibility of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, being ousted from office than the case may actually be. I can't pick up too much "zomg!Terrar!" parts in it, but something about the article rings weird to me.
The OLPC XO laptops could betray their users to repressive regimes, because of the way their security protocols are implemented, a condition that would work against the intended educational nature of the XO and the OLPC project. With some modifications to the security protocols, the identifiability could be removed and the user privacy guaranteed. That people are thinking about these sorts of applications speaks to the success of the idea of putting computers into the hands of the poorest people on the earth and seeing what they can do with it.
Domestically, the two top commanders of the Air Force have both resigned their positions, citing the cumulative result of several nuclear technology errors occurring under their watch as the reason for their departure. The successors will be tasked with punishing those further down the chain of command who were also responsible for the mixups, including the flying of live nuclear weapons over American airspace. As a contrast, perhaps not getting as much news, the Army claims to be about halfway finished with the destruction of America's chemical weapons supplies, with most of the most dangerous materials already neutralized or incinerated.
The Wall Street Journal gets a glimpse inside the proceedings of a bank being taken over by the FDIC, including the large amount of secrecy that happens to ensure that there aren't bank runs or panics during the charter revocation and subsequent takeover. Wow. It's quite impressive to watch that kind of coordination, and see how little time it actually takes to accomplish the task.
The "Is Our Children Learning?" department makes mention that if you proof it once, and send it back for corrections, always, always, proof it again, because there may be a different set of errors on the supposedly corrected material.
A couple things that went missing have been found. a lighthouse from Massachusetts has turned up in California, and the base of a "missing pyramid" has also been found. All sorts of things show up when you end up looking for them. Or just find them by accident.
The increased price of oil is definitely having real effects, including less driving where possible, less oil consumption, less SUV sales, and lots of other lesses that happen when price shocks happen. That doesn't stop the U.S. military giving an $80 million contract to someone wanted by the FBI in connection with S&L scandals, although it happens through contractors, so is apparently okay.
Talking politics, Senator Lieberman is still scheduled to appear at an event headlined by Pastor John Hagee. Yeah, that whole Independent thing makes sense - too conservative to be a Democrat, potentially too religiously motivated to be a Republican. Senator McCain distanced himself from Pastor Hagee, but that might come back to bite him in a Jeremiah Wright-style manner is Senator Lieberman is seen as a go-between so that Senator McCain can maintain plausible deniability about his association while maintaining that association.
Talking political candidates, Senator Obama spoke of both the need for a Palestinian state and the certainty that Jerusalem will remain completely in the hands of Israel. I suspect that the Senator has his reasons for saying so, and wonder what they are, beyond the general United States policy of supporting Israel.
Thomas Sowell finds both candidates lacking, is convinced that there is a high probability that America will suffer nuclear strikes if Iran is able to build weapons, but chooses Senator McCain on the less-than-sound reasoning that Senator Obama has spent his time "aiding and abetting people who hate America". Excuse me? A slight like that demands proof. Especially if it is a "no-brainer" choice like Sowell believes it is. Where, exactly, is the proof on the record that Senator Obama has been helping terrorists in violation of the law?
Robet D. Novak believes that Senator Clinton has simply shifted gears from presidential campaigning to vice-presidential campaigning, despite Senator Obama's public lack of interest in such a ticket. Novak also implies that there will be a lot of defection from normally-Democratic bases to the Republican candidate, because all the Clinton supporters will take their ball and go home from the Democrats in the general election. I think, with cooler heads, and a few months in the interim, that many of those who are liberal enough to be Democrats will return after seeing and hearing what the plan of the Republican candidate ("Four more years") is. Richard H. Collins sees Senator Obama as a snake-oil salesman who talks big promises but provides big-government solutions. I'm noticing a trend in conservative treatments of the Senator. There's always a big whoop made about the fact that Senator Obama is, gasp, a liberal, and that his voting record reflects this, to the point of being the "most liberal" Senator. Such a feat could probably be accomplished by one of the staunchest Tories in the United Kingdom without too much effort, I suspect. Anyway, the accusation of "he's a liberal!" would seem to be a positive point for the Senator, in accord with his message that he's here to effect change on the normal way politics is done in this country.
Finally, it looks like the idea of denying Catholics who endorse or support pro-choice candidates is gaining traction again, despite the bishops being clear that Catholics aren't supposed to vote for pro-choice candidates if the voter is voting for them primarily because they're pro-choice. Still matters of Caesar and matters of God, really - and how is any priest going to know, excepting unless someone admits to it in the confessional, why someone voted for a particular candidate. Denying communion to someone because you suspect they have pro-choice leanings is pretty impressive hubris. We went through the nonsense before. Hopefully, it stays nonsense and this is really the only incident I hear about the matter.
Larry Elder lists a litany of accomplishments of African-Americans in a bid to prove that America is moving in the direction of Dr. King's dream, including Senator Obama's presumptive nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate. Acknowledging that race relations have come a very long way in the last forty years is a right and proper thing to do - we're much better now than we were before. That shouldn't be an incentive to rest on our laurels, survey what we have done, and proclaim the task done, though. There's still more work to do. So long as we don't get too caught up in the rosy picture that everything's fine, nor in the picture that nothing has really progressed, we'll be fine and keep working toward Dr. King's dream.
In our science department, constructing a false bus stop near a senior center has helped keep the Alzheimer's patients from wandering away. The patients expect a bus to arrive to take them home, but one never comes, and then the senior center people invite the patients back inside for some drinks, while they wait, and then soon after, the patient has forgotten that they wanted to go outside. Brilliant.
Additionally, a researcher has built a miniature earth-like object filled with molten metal in an attempt to figure out how the the real thing generates the magnetic field that protects it from the worst excesses of Sol.
Finally,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks does a book review on a piece about managerial tactics. The smartest managers, according to the book, are the ones that actually think about their decisions and the impacts of them, testing them and seeing whether the factor they think is involved in the decision actually is, using the scientific method rather than half-truths and preconceived biases. So it's not bonuses and big rewards that makes for good work, it's managing to take the worst and get them on par with the best. Among other possibilities.
Last for tonight, most likely NSFW, but great for a laugh - the team names and mascot of the Rhode Island School of Design. Something intended to be laughable, and with comments in that spirit, the only thing that people are really debating on the Internet.
And before signing off for today, J.K. Rowling's speech at the Harvard commencement of this year, speaking about twin themes - failure and imagination. Both will happen, and both help to make us into better people.
Starting internationally, I think CNS News wants to make a bigger issue of the possibility of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, being ousted from office than the case may actually be. I can't pick up too much "zomg!Terrar!" parts in it, but something about the article rings weird to me.
The OLPC XO laptops could betray their users to repressive regimes, because of the way their security protocols are implemented, a condition that would work against the intended educational nature of the XO and the OLPC project. With some modifications to the security protocols, the identifiability could be removed and the user privacy guaranteed. That people are thinking about these sorts of applications speaks to the success of the idea of putting computers into the hands of the poorest people on the earth and seeing what they can do with it.
Domestically, the two top commanders of the Air Force have both resigned their positions, citing the cumulative result of several nuclear technology errors occurring under their watch as the reason for their departure. The successors will be tasked with punishing those further down the chain of command who were also responsible for the mixups, including the flying of live nuclear weapons over American airspace. As a contrast, perhaps not getting as much news, the Army claims to be about halfway finished with the destruction of America's chemical weapons supplies, with most of the most dangerous materials already neutralized or incinerated.
The Wall Street Journal gets a glimpse inside the proceedings of a bank being taken over by the FDIC, including the large amount of secrecy that happens to ensure that there aren't bank runs or panics during the charter revocation and subsequent takeover. Wow. It's quite impressive to watch that kind of coordination, and see how little time it actually takes to accomplish the task.
The "Is Our Children Learning?" department makes mention that if you proof it once, and send it back for corrections, always, always, proof it again, because there may be a different set of errors on the supposedly corrected material.
A couple things that went missing have been found. a lighthouse from Massachusetts has turned up in California, and the base of a "missing pyramid" has also been found. All sorts of things show up when you end up looking for them. Or just find them by accident.
The increased price of oil is definitely having real effects, including less driving where possible, less oil consumption, less SUV sales, and lots of other lesses that happen when price shocks happen. That doesn't stop the U.S. military giving an $80 million contract to someone wanted by the FBI in connection with S&L scandals, although it happens through contractors, so is apparently okay.
Talking politics, Senator Lieberman is still scheduled to appear at an event headlined by Pastor John Hagee. Yeah, that whole Independent thing makes sense - too conservative to be a Democrat, potentially too religiously motivated to be a Republican. Senator McCain distanced himself from Pastor Hagee, but that might come back to bite him in a Jeremiah Wright-style manner is Senator Lieberman is seen as a go-between so that Senator McCain can maintain plausible deniability about his association while maintaining that association.
Talking political candidates, Senator Obama spoke of both the need for a Palestinian state and the certainty that Jerusalem will remain completely in the hands of Israel. I suspect that the Senator has his reasons for saying so, and wonder what they are, beyond the general United States policy of supporting Israel.
Thomas Sowell finds both candidates lacking, is convinced that there is a high probability that America will suffer nuclear strikes if Iran is able to build weapons, but chooses Senator McCain on the less-than-sound reasoning that Senator Obama has spent his time "aiding and abetting people who hate America". Excuse me? A slight like that demands proof. Especially if it is a "no-brainer" choice like Sowell believes it is. Where, exactly, is the proof on the record that Senator Obama has been helping terrorists in violation of the law?
Robet D. Novak believes that Senator Clinton has simply shifted gears from presidential campaigning to vice-presidential campaigning, despite Senator Obama's public lack of interest in such a ticket. Novak also implies that there will be a lot of defection from normally-Democratic bases to the Republican candidate, because all the Clinton supporters will take their ball and go home from the Democrats in the general election. I think, with cooler heads, and a few months in the interim, that many of those who are liberal enough to be Democrats will return after seeing and hearing what the plan of the Republican candidate ("Four more years") is. Richard H. Collins sees Senator Obama as a snake-oil salesman who talks big promises but provides big-government solutions. I'm noticing a trend in conservative treatments of the Senator. There's always a big whoop made about the fact that Senator Obama is, gasp, a liberal, and that his voting record reflects this, to the point of being the "most liberal" Senator. Such a feat could probably be accomplished by one of the staunchest Tories in the United Kingdom without too much effort, I suspect. Anyway, the accusation of "he's a liberal!" would seem to be a positive point for the Senator, in accord with his message that he's here to effect change on the normal way politics is done in this country.
Finally, it looks like the idea of denying Catholics who endorse or support pro-choice candidates is gaining traction again, despite the bishops being clear that Catholics aren't supposed to vote for pro-choice candidates if the voter is voting for them primarily because they're pro-choice. Still matters of Caesar and matters of God, really - and how is any priest going to know, excepting unless someone admits to it in the confessional, why someone voted for a particular candidate. Denying communion to someone because you suspect they have pro-choice leanings is pretty impressive hubris. We went through the nonsense before. Hopefully, it stays nonsense and this is really the only incident I hear about the matter.
Larry Elder lists a litany of accomplishments of African-Americans in a bid to prove that America is moving in the direction of Dr. King's dream, including Senator Obama's presumptive nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate. Acknowledging that race relations have come a very long way in the last forty years is a right and proper thing to do - we're much better now than we were before. That shouldn't be an incentive to rest on our laurels, survey what we have done, and proclaim the task done, though. There's still more work to do. So long as we don't get too caught up in the rosy picture that everything's fine, nor in the picture that nothing has really progressed, we'll be fine and keep working toward Dr. King's dream.
In our science department, constructing a false bus stop near a senior center has helped keep the Alzheimer's patients from wandering away. The patients expect a bus to arrive to take them home, but one never comes, and then the senior center people invite the patients back inside for some drinks, while they wait, and then soon after, the patient has forgotten that they wanted to go outside. Brilliant.
Additionally, a researcher has built a miniature earth-like object filled with molten metal in an attempt to figure out how the the real thing generates the magnetic field that protects it from the worst excesses of Sol.
Finally,
bradhicks does a book review on a piece about managerial tactics. The smartest managers, according to the book, are the ones that actually think about their decisions and the impacts of them, testing them and seeing whether the factor they think is involved in the decision actually is, using the scientific method rather than half-truths and preconceived biases. So it's not bonuses and big rewards that makes for good work, it's managing to take the worst and get them on par with the best. Among other possibilities.Last for tonight, most likely NSFW, but great for a laugh - the team names and mascot of the Rhode Island School of Design. Something intended to be laughable, and with comments in that spirit, the only thing that people are really debating on the Internet.
And before signing off for today, J.K. Rowling's speech at the Harvard commencement of this year, speaking about twin themes - failure and imagination. Both will happen, and both help to make us into better people.
