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Yet more for the looking - 13 August 2008
Aug. 14th, 2008 12:51 amWarning, danger, potential problems. Don't click on links in e-mails purporting to be CNN or MSNBC news alerts, unless you know for damn well sure you're subscribed and you check the links to see where they're going. It’s camouflage for the Storm worm.
Sadly, the remake of the Rocky Horror Picture Show is not a rumor, but will actually be happening.
On the international stage, it ain't over for the Russia-Georgia fight, even when they said it was over. Exhibit A: missile launchers in South Ossetia.
After a large amount of careful consideration and surveying, the poor Indian populace is encouraged to eat rat. Not only to protect the grain stocks, but because rat meat should be considered a delicacy, properly prepared.
A question for the readership - if one is going to call an assault a rape, that implies that the person being raped gave no consent, and that the assault was done against their will. So, a letter relling rape victims that their compensation would be cut because their were drinking before the rape contributed to the rape happening certainly violates the idea that things were done nonconsensually. The matter was fixed on appeal, thankfully, but at the point that it was classified as a rape, any circumstances surrounding the victim ceased to be usable in trying to reason “well, she brought it on herself” or “it’s her own fault. If she hadn’t done X, she would have been fine”, both of which are vicious lies, anyway.
Taliban claims responsibility for attacks against aid workers in Afghanistan. That’s more than just dangerous, that’s stupid. One does not attack the humanitarian aid workers unless one wants to have a swift and terrible wrath wrought upon them in response. The only possible justification you can get is if you can prove beyond doubt that the aid workers are not actual aid workers, but covert operations for your enemy.
Saudi Arabia has receiven an okay to go ahead with their nuclear research plans. No worries about weapons for them, anyway.
Canada-types, I have come across a voluminous amount of statistics regarding crime in Canada. What I want to know is whether these stats are telling their stories honestly, or they’re leaving out important things.
Domestically, did you know that in the period between 1998 and 2005, nearly two-thirds of corporations paid no federal income taxes? Thanks to having people on their staff who can find loopholes, shelters, and other ways of avoiding the tax burden, corporations have ensured the government has no taste at all of their revenues.
Despite this, the United States government is confident it has a long-range laser-based destructive device that permits them to deny they fired it.
In a more personal touch, a gunman shot the chairman of the Democratic Party in Arkansas, after being refused entry to see the chairman. The chairman is in critical condition, and it’s not yet known, according to the AP article, what the motivation for this shooting is.
A man was re-arrested for violating his no-contact order, despite his claim that he called the police because the person he was ordered to have no contact came to his door. Now that I think about it, that would be quite the evil and vindictive way of getting revenge on someone - deliberately forcing them to violate a no-contact or retraining order by stalking them and then calling the police.
In candidate matters, tell me again why you would ask God to send rain to the Democratic National Convention? Because, seriously, asking God to drown out the Democratic candidate when he makes his acceptance speech based on what you perceive him to be is not really acting in any sort of Christian manner, especially when it’s a fellow Christian you want to rain on. The General, of course, as the True Christian he is, suggests hemorrhoids instead of rain.
Plus, Another stab at racism from the McCain campaign? Suddenly, having hordes of young white women fawning over a black candidate, declaring his hotness is a bad thing? I mean, the celebrity thing and having Paris Hilton slam you on national television should have pretty well sank that line of attack. But, the official denial in this case appears to be that McCain was trying to paint Senator Obama as a vapid candidate, popular among equally vapid youngsters, without substance. So, in denying that he’s saying “The black man will steal your daughters with his good looks and pretty voice”, he is instead saying, “Nobody who’s young is fit to vote. They’re all easily swayed by flash and pretty speeches.” So, Senator McCain is either a racist or an ageist. Either way, he’s giving up a significant amount of the voter base to his opponents and coming off as a total dick to many more.
Something that works with candidates, or against them, depending on what side of the aisle you sit on, according to a Rasmussen Report, the populace feels media bias is a bigger problem than campaign finance and buying of politicians, by a narrow margin. If you break those numbers down, however, the picture really becomes true - conservatives overwhelmingly feel that media bias is more problematic, probably because they think the bias is going against them, and liberals and independents are undecided on the matter, about half and half. Thus, the conservative majority tips the scales and provides a convenient headline. Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Working the opinion columns, John Tierney says we should abandon the idea of athletes without doping, because we’ll never be able to catch the good ones, and if we let them do their thing, they might discover new ways of helping the fans back at home improve their own lives and bodies.
George Will takes issue with August, and the American populace, using the current Russian-Georgian conflict to endorse McCain, and the preoccupation with the Olympics to tell the American people they're stupid and don't recall history. He’d find help from Thomas Sowell, who wonders whether Senator Obama will be able to capture the presidency, now that we're past the primaries and the American populace is apparently tiring of the Obama message (all talk, no substance, apparently). Dennis Prager outlines why he isn't a liberal, claiming all the conservative positions he holds now were liberal positions a few decades ago, which indicates to me either that the line has shifted left toward a more proper center in those times, or he always was a conservative and came to terms with it. Or it could very well be times change, and positions do, too. Ralph Peters prefers a bit more direct route, accusing the left of totalitarian, impose-our-will ideology and hypocrisy, claiming “hardcore” leftists are all about forcing their opinion and views on everyone while claiming to be all about variety of opinion and freedom of expression. Apparently, academia has a gigantic influence on everything, because a lot of conservatives are railing against the apparently strenglehold lock that liberal professors have. But, aren’t we trying to fix primary schooling so that it actually educates?
Randall Larsen ratchets up the fear several notches by suggesting that if Ivins really is the anthrax person, then we've reached an era where one person in the right place can create terror for everyone. Except... aren’t we already in that era, considering how many individuals work with terror-producing weapons, chemicals, and biological entities already? Isn’t that the intent of the checks and the clearances?
Bing West declares the Iraq War over, admittedly more than five years after the current administrator did so, and still in advance of the actual function of a stable Iraq without American propping. Even the guy in charge there is cautious about how things will turn out.
Newt Gingrich takes a stab at what he would do with $10 billion to improve the world - several tax-free prizes, payable upon achievement, including turning seawater into freshwater, a lunar base, and a way of refining nuclear waste so as to make places like Yucca Mountain unnecessary.
In scitech, several prominent computer scientists have asked a federal court to reconsider their decision to silence MIT students from presenting at the DefCon hackers convention on security flaws they found in the T public transit system. The gag order was initially issued on the reasoning that the information would permit others to replicate the flaws and take advantage of the system. The presenters were planning on withholding a key element of the exploit, as well as technical data about the equipment used to generate it, that would make replication significantly more difficult for those looking to take advantage of the flaw. The conference has passed, with the talk cancelled, but the court’s precedent could easily allow anyone to sue to stop publication and discussion, by researchers or others, or security problems in their systems, stifling speech, stopping brainpower from being put to work on fixing the problems, and giving a very false sense of security to those who use the systems that they are actually secure and safe, when they could be quite pockmarked.
Also, stretchable circuitry, which could be combined with nanowire circuitry to create something perfect for those designing wearable computing or circuitry incorporated into fabrics, victory poses as biological expressions inherited from our primate ancestors, running as an excellent way of prolonging our lives, deliberate weather manipulation to generate clear skies for the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies, and the deadline of flying a Shuttle successor sliding furhter backwards, but not yet to the drop deadline.
Stem cell lines developed with markers for specific genetic diseases, which allows labratory-grown cultures and the ability to really watch the diesases develop - hoopefully, this also means they can start putting serious headway toward curing those diseases as well.
The Odd News department has enough to warrant a few paragraphs of their own tonight. Inside, the difficulties of playing the French Horn, and the potential consequences of a bad performance. Also, MMO boss fights that take upwards of 18 hours without resolution or defeat of opponent, a blog dedicated to the executions of people throughout history, giant sculptures of Martian machines, calls for people to Get Off The Internet, possibly because of Passive-Aggressive Notes, tips for enjoying your vacation, and impressive and hilarious signage.
Last for tonight, as the lame-duck, at least officially, Mr. Bush, even if completely sober, sometimes looks like he's had one too many, as these Beijing photos would imply.
Sadly, the remake of the Rocky Horror Picture Show is not a rumor, but will actually be happening.
On the international stage, it ain't over for the Russia-Georgia fight, even when they said it was over. Exhibit A: missile launchers in South Ossetia.
After a large amount of careful consideration and surveying, the poor Indian populace is encouraged to eat rat. Not only to protect the grain stocks, but because rat meat should be considered a delicacy, properly prepared.
A question for the readership - if one is going to call an assault a rape, that implies that the person being raped gave no consent, and that the assault was done against their will. So, a letter relling rape victims that their compensation would be cut because their were drinking before the rape contributed to the rape happening certainly violates the idea that things were done nonconsensually. The matter was fixed on appeal, thankfully, but at the point that it was classified as a rape, any circumstances surrounding the victim ceased to be usable in trying to reason “well, she brought it on herself” or “it’s her own fault. If she hadn’t done X, she would have been fine”, both of which are vicious lies, anyway.
Taliban claims responsibility for attacks against aid workers in Afghanistan. That’s more than just dangerous, that’s stupid. One does not attack the humanitarian aid workers unless one wants to have a swift and terrible wrath wrought upon them in response. The only possible justification you can get is if you can prove beyond doubt that the aid workers are not actual aid workers, but covert operations for your enemy.
Saudi Arabia has receiven an okay to go ahead with their nuclear research plans. No worries about weapons for them, anyway.
Canada-types, I have come across a voluminous amount of statistics regarding crime in Canada. What I want to know is whether these stats are telling their stories honestly, or they’re leaving out important things.
Domestically, did you know that in the period between 1998 and 2005, nearly two-thirds of corporations paid no federal income taxes? Thanks to having people on their staff who can find loopholes, shelters, and other ways of avoiding the tax burden, corporations have ensured the government has no taste at all of their revenues.
Despite this, the United States government is confident it has a long-range laser-based destructive device that permits them to deny they fired it.
In a more personal touch, a gunman shot the chairman of the Democratic Party in Arkansas, after being refused entry to see the chairman. The chairman is in critical condition, and it’s not yet known, according to the AP article, what the motivation for this shooting is.
A man was re-arrested for violating his no-contact order, despite his claim that he called the police because the person he was ordered to have no contact came to his door. Now that I think about it, that would be quite the evil and vindictive way of getting revenge on someone - deliberately forcing them to violate a no-contact or retraining order by stalking them and then calling the police.
In candidate matters, tell me again why you would ask God to send rain to the Democratic National Convention? Because, seriously, asking God to drown out the Democratic candidate when he makes his acceptance speech based on what you perceive him to be is not really acting in any sort of Christian manner, especially when it’s a fellow Christian you want to rain on. The General, of course, as the True Christian he is, suggests hemorrhoids instead of rain.
Plus, Another stab at racism from the McCain campaign? Suddenly, having hordes of young white women fawning over a black candidate, declaring his hotness is a bad thing? I mean, the celebrity thing and having Paris Hilton slam you on national television should have pretty well sank that line of attack. But, the official denial in this case appears to be that McCain was trying to paint Senator Obama as a vapid candidate, popular among equally vapid youngsters, without substance. So, in denying that he’s saying “The black man will steal your daughters with his good looks and pretty voice”, he is instead saying, “Nobody who’s young is fit to vote. They’re all easily swayed by flash and pretty speeches.” So, Senator McCain is either a racist or an ageist. Either way, he’s giving up a significant amount of the voter base to his opponents and coming off as a total dick to many more.
Something that works with candidates, or against them, depending on what side of the aisle you sit on, according to a Rasmussen Report, the populace feels media bias is a bigger problem than campaign finance and buying of politicians, by a narrow margin. If you break those numbers down, however, the picture really becomes true - conservatives overwhelmingly feel that media bias is more problematic, probably because they think the bias is going against them, and liberals and independents are undecided on the matter, about half and half. Thus, the conservative majority tips the scales and provides a convenient headline. Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Working the opinion columns, John Tierney says we should abandon the idea of athletes without doping, because we’ll never be able to catch the good ones, and if we let them do their thing, they might discover new ways of helping the fans back at home improve their own lives and bodies.
George Will takes issue with August, and the American populace, using the current Russian-Georgian conflict to endorse McCain, and the preoccupation with the Olympics to tell the American people they're stupid and don't recall history. He’d find help from Thomas Sowell, who wonders whether Senator Obama will be able to capture the presidency, now that we're past the primaries and the American populace is apparently tiring of the Obama message (all talk, no substance, apparently). Dennis Prager outlines why he isn't a liberal, claiming all the conservative positions he holds now were liberal positions a few decades ago, which indicates to me either that the line has shifted left toward a more proper center in those times, or he always was a conservative and came to terms with it. Or it could very well be times change, and positions do, too. Ralph Peters prefers a bit more direct route, accusing the left of totalitarian, impose-our-will ideology and hypocrisy, claiming “hardcore” leftists are all about forcing their opinion and views on everyone while claiming to be all about variety of opinion and freedom of expression. Apparently, academia has a gigantic influence on everything, because a lot of conservatives are railing against the apparently strenglehold lock that liberal professors have. But, aren’t we trying to fix primary schooling so that it actually educates?
Randall Larsen ratchets up the fear several notches by suggesting that if Ivins really is the anthrax person, then we've reached an era where one person in the right place can create terror for everyone. Except... aren’t we already in that era, considering how many individuals work with terror-producing weapons, chemicals, and biological entities already? Isn’t that the intent of the checks and the clearances?
Bing West declares the Iraq War over, admittedly more than five years after the current administrator did so, and still in advance of the actual function of a stable Iraq without American propping. Even the guy in charge there is cautious about how things will turn out.
Newt Gingrich takes a stab at what he would do with $10 billion to improve the world - several tax-free prizes, payable upon achievement, including turning seawater into freshwater, a lunar base, and a way of refining nuclear waste so as to make places like Yucca Mountain unnecessary.
In scitech, several prominent computer scientists have asked a federal court to reconsider their decision to silence MIT students from presenting at the DefCon hackers convention on security flaws they found in the T public transit system. The gag order was initially issued on the reasoning that the information would permit others to replicate the flaws and take advantage of the system. The presenters were planning on withholding a key element of the exploit, as well as technical data about the equipment used to generate it, that would make replication significantly more difficult for those looking to take advantage of the flaw. The conference has passed, with the talk cancelled, but the court’s precedent could easily allow anyone to sue to stop publication and discussion, by researchers or others, or security problems in their systems, stifling speech, stopping brainpower from being put to work on fixing the problems, and giving a very false sense of security to those who use the systems that they are actually secure and safe, when they could be quite pockmarked.
Also, stretchable circuitry, which could be combined with nanowire circuitry to create something perfect for those designing wearable computing or circuitry incorporated into fabrics, victory poses as biological expressions inherited from our primate ancestors, running as an excellent way of prolonging our lives, deliberate weather manipulation to generate clear skies for the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies, and the deadline of flying a Shuttle successor sliding furhter backwards, but not yet to the drop deadline.
Stem cell lines developed with markers for specific genetic diseases, which allows labratory-grown cultures and the ability to really watch the diesases develop - hoopefully, this also means they can start putting serious headway toward curing those diseases as well.
The Odd News department has enough to warrant a few paragraphs of their own tonight. Inside, the difficulties of playing the French Horn, and the potential consequences of a bad performance. Also, MMO boss fights that take upwards of 18 hours without resolution or defeat of opponent, a blog dedicated to the executions of people throughout history, giant sculptures of Martian machines, calls for people to Get Off The Internet, possibly because of Passive-Aggressive Notes, tips for enjoying your vacation, and impressive and hilarious signage.
Last for tonight, as the lame-duck, at least officially, Mr. Bush, even if completely sober, sometimes looks like he's had one too many, as these Beijing photos would imply.
