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Power up! - 27 January 2009
Jan. 28th, 2009 01:12 amHey, good day. Glad to see you all again. Apple ditched DRM for iTunes and its own audio products, paving the way to make the iTunes store potentially orthwhile for purchasing music. Potentially. Still, even Apple must bow to the users that hate DRM and the exclusionary systems that it creates. There’s still a long long way to go.
Additionally, someone's got to archive our digital history, before it disappears. The British Library is starting to, and the Wayback Machine does some of it, but all that wonderful data, photographs, and other digital media that we have on our computers disppears remarkably easy, as anyone who’s suffered through a crash or the pains of a system upgrade knows. Our colective memory will be a big hole if all the things we think will last don’t and we find out that nobody thought about archiving them like how we archive our physical artifacts. With tools noe being rolled out from the University of Washignton, we can also run a hash check against our digital artifacts to ensure they are unmodified, assuming we have the right original hash to run against.
In perhaps one of his shortest posts, the Slacktivist points out one of the inherent contradictions of abstinence education, namely that at some point, it sort of has to, in some way, discuss the thing that the kids are abstaining from. Even in the most general of ways. The comment squad there does their best to provide alternatives, as well as extolling how effective comprehensive sex-ed actually is at geting people to wait until later to have sex.
Around the world (and the news desk), Iraq's prime minister has said that he expects United States troops to leave the country faster than the current timetable, citing security gains as well as the need to increase Iraqi troops to meet the challenge of security after the United States troops are gone.
Despite claims from former residents of Guantanamo Bay that they have rejoined al-Qaeda after being repatriated into Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon says this will not deter their programs of repatriation. Smart. It becomes dependent on the national governments of those citizens to do the rehabilitation work, rather than expecting the United States to do it for them. Plus, it relieves those wonderful concerns about how we have no place to put Guantanamo residents.
Vice-President Biden warned of increased casualties in Afghanistan as more troops and a greater engagement strategy take hold - which could be an eerie echo of the former administrator with regard to Iraq. Noted in the comments is the question “Why do Obama/Biden get a free pass on Afghanistan?” - generally speaking, the populace agreed that Afghanistan, and now maybe Pakistan, were legitimate targets to root out terror from and to possibly engage in regime change exercises, unlike Iraq, where the populace was quite divided on the matter. It’s not going to be easy, Pakistan's Swat Valley is just one of those places where there will be need for work
President Obama chose Al-Arabiya as the network to do an interview with, telling the Muslim world that "America is not your enemy", making good on his desire to have better relations with the Muslim world, perhaps with the end in mind that the more moderate nations will start pressuring their more extreme cousins, knowing they have an ally and some backup in the United States. Additionally, the President tapped and sent Senator George Mitchell, of baseball steroids fame, as his special envoy to the Middle East. Syria is hoping for a no-preconditions talk, as Former President Carter insists that any solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict without a Palestinian state would be a disaster for Israel, while others imply that worldwide, anti-Jewishness is still running high.
There’s still work to do, though - the top Islamic body in Indonesia banned practicing yoga with elements like chanting, because they saw it as practicing another spirituality. It is heartening to see, though, that they did not ban the practice entirely.
Following the resignation of the Prime Minister, the governing coalition of Iceland has collapsed, with new leaders to be appointed by the President until elections can be held.
Josef Mengele used a Brazillian town for experimentations in genetics, with the result that nearly twenty percent of pregnancies in that town bear twins, many of them blond-haired and blue-eyed, according to an Argentine historian. It would be a very different world had the Axis powers won the war. Very different indeed. Speaking of multiple births, the second known set of octuplets has arrived in the world, surprising the doctors - because they thought she was only having seven. And the mother plans to breastfeed them all, too.
Domestically, Covenant School apologized for a 100-0 win over the Dallas Academy, forfeiting the game. The reason this is important? Dallas Academy works primarily with disabled children, and things like short attention spans might impact the play of a team on the court. After running up the score and taking some flak for it, the apology and forfeit. The General urges solidarity and good PR to turn the disabled children into the spawn of Satan to ensure that the victory is seen as well-fought.
The video of a magical ritual to sweep clean the White House of the traces of the previous president so as to make it clean and ready for President Obama. You can imagine that this generated quite a bit of dark heat on the message boards of religious conservatives. (Goes to TechnOccult, which has a small sampling of the likely large amount of bile spewed)
Here’s something that will draw up a lot of heat - A Bay City elderly man froze to death after the electric company limited his power draw en route to turning off his power for unpaid bills, possibly in violation of Michigan law (which, I believe, prevents any utility from turning off the heating mechanism to a house during the winter). A pair of kickers? There was money clipped to the bills when the body was found, and second, the city manager gave quite the great soundbite: “I’ve said this before and some of my colleagues have said this: Neighbors need to keep an eye on neighbors.” It’s not our fault he died, his neighbors should have told us something was wrong. Before bringing the complete hammer down on him, though, it is possible that the limiter device malfunctioned, but it’s also possible that the person being limited didn’t understand or couldn’t hear well enough to know how to go reset it if it tripped due to trying to draw too much electricity, and was left to his own device.
Errol Morris asked photo editors at the three major wire services to provide the photos they think captured the last administrator properly. There are scripted and posed photos and candid shots, “Mission Accomplished” and several other mishaps, and some pictures that are tiny glimpses into the actual emotional state of Mr. Bush.
The New Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, moved to implement rules that would reduce the amount of influence lobbyists would have over the hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout/rescue funds available. Stephen Entin feels corporate tax cuts should be part of the stimulus package, continuing the talking points of the conservative wing.
Governor F-word of Illinois, currently in the middle of impeachment hearings, apparently considered Oprah Winfrey for the Senate seat left behind by Barack Obama. Ms. Winfrey was amused by the possibility. Perhaps because she knows she has more influence and power outside of Capitol Hill than she would were she on it? She did not think she was unqualified for the job, however, just uninterested in it. More serious than this, several aides of President Obama have had their records subpoenaed for any correspondence, notes, or other material regarding Governor F-word and his scandal.
Finally, as predicted, the Obama administration began working toward removing or reversing many of the previous administration's stances on climate change, starting with vehicle emissions.
Getting into the opinions, Obama in the Irony-Free Zone, a selection of items spoken at a symposium held by the New York Public Library, some concerned about expectations, others cynical about the message of the campaign. John Armor thinks, using the logic of what the Founders did and thought, that closing Guantanamo and halting military trials is attacking the Constitution instead of defending it, and he does it as a one-sided interview, assuming a response from the President that plays into his next point. Bret Stephens believes Guantanamo Bay is not a blot on our honor and never was, because it was a place ot hold very dangerous people that are, as we let them go, scurrying back to make more bombs and be terrorists once again. Tell me again where they get those menus?
The WSJ joins the crowd harping on how the mainstream media, so very hostile to the former administrator, has become the lapdogs and choir singing praises of the current one. They also believe that American troops should stay in Iraq as long as possible, because of the inevitable and certain doom that awaits Iraq's democracy if the troops go home early.
George Will sees socialist mission creep in an expansion of SCHIP to allow more families to get into the program. He quotes the high figures, the relation to the poverty line, but then neglects to really explore the facet that if the expansion goes up to $84,000 or so for a family of four, that’s five or six people that amount has to go for. Which, if it were, say, a family of five at the same line, would be approximately $12,000 per person in the household. Children being expensive and all, especially with their frequent need to have trips to medical professionals for evaluation and checking, how far will that $12,000 go just in medical expenses, not to mention all the other things that kids need, like food, shelter, clothing. Y’know, the essentials. Just because someone makes money beyond the poverty gap does not mean that they can survive. Two people together, making $84,000 a year can afford insurance (or probably have it). Six? Maybe not.
And finally, to put a capstone on it all. Star Parker sings a sad song about how abortion has been the root cause of societal destruction, that it hits black women especially hard, all the poor people got that way because of the ease of abortion and subsequent destruction of the nuclear, two-parent family, and says that because President Obama is indifferent to those cries, he’s not bringing change, and instead, he should make law that stops abortion and contraception and “free at risk children from the tyranny of government schools where they are taught moral relativism. Allow these children the freedom to go to church schools.” William McGurn agrees, saying that Catholic schooling in particular is often the only lifeline for inner-city families, and this should receive a statement of support, if not outright vouchers. And the WSJ will support Ms. Parker on the matter of having more kids, because people are capital, too, and we need them once the baby boom gets old, retires, and dies.
And all that wonderfully warm conservative values would be the same values that subordinate women and tell them they should aspire to be the most meek and submissive women possible, and yearn for a nonexistent golden age situated somewhere around 1950, right? Just remember, No means No.
In technology, attempts underway to fabricate robots that behave like primitive life forms, a thought or two as to whether alien first contact would be with organic beings, instead of, say, tiny motes that attack to us and record us completely, the suggestion that a smaller caloric intake than the DRV is better for the brain and body, using magnetic elements and a modified detox machine to pull lead out of the bloodstream, possibly with applications to other poisons, carbon nanotubes as memory with really quick read-write times, learning AI is progress and better results than attempting to program a complete AI,
and President Obama seeks a worldwide space weapons ban. Which may move us closer to the Gundam future, where Zeon attempts colony drops to force the Terrans into, ilke, treating them somewhat equally.
Last for tonight, because it’s terribly amusing, A Whedon-Meyer crossover on a T-shirt.
Additionally, someone's got to archive our digital history, before it disappears. The British Library is starting to, and the Wayback Machine does some of it, but all that wonderful data, photographs, and other digital media that we have on our computers disppears remarkably easy, as anyone who’s suffered through a crash or the pains of a system upgrade knows. Our colective memory will be a big hole if all the things we think will last don’t and we find out that nobody thought about archiving them like how we archive our physical artifacts. With tools noe being rolled out from the University of Washignton, we can also run a hash check against our digital artifacts to ensure they are unmodified, assuming we have the right original hash to run against.
In perhaps one of his shortest posts, the Slacktivist points out one of the inherent contradictions of abstinence education, namely that at some point, it sort of has to, in some way, discuss the thing that the kids are abstaining from. Even in the most general of ways. The comment squad there does their best to provide alternatives, as well as extolling how effective comprehensive sex-ed actually is at geting people to wait until later to have sex.
Around the world (and the news desk), Iraq's prime minister has said that he expects United States troops to leave the country faster than the current timetable, citing security gains as well as the need to increase Iraqi troops to meet the challenge of security after the United States troops are gone.
Despite claims from former residents of Guantanamo Bay that they have rejoined al-Qaeda after being repatriated into Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon says this will not deter their programs of repatriation. Smart. It becomes dependent on the national governments of those citizens to do the rehabilitation work, rather than expecting the United States to do it for them. Plus, it relieves those wonderful concerns about how we have no place to put Guantanamo residents.
Vice-President Biden warned of increased casualties in Afghanistan as more troops and a greater engagement strategy take hold - which could be an eerie echo of the former administrator with regard to Iraq. Noted in the comments is the question “Why do Obama/Biden get a free pass on Afghanistan?” - generally speaking, the populace agreed that Afghanistan, and now maybe Pakistan, were legitimate targets to root out terror from and to possibly engage in regime change exercises, unlike Iraq, where the populace was quite divided on the matter. It’s not going to be easy, Pakistan's Swat Valley is just one of those places where there will be need for work
President Obama chose Al-Arabiya as the network to do an interview with, telling the Muslim world that "America is not your enemy", making good on his desire to have better relations with the Muslim world, perhaps with the end in mind that the more moderate nations will start pressuring their more extreme cousins, knowing they have an ally and some backup in the United States. Additionally, the President tapped and sent Senator George Mitchell, of baseball steroids fame, as his special envoy to the Middle East. Syria is hoping for a no-preconditions talk, as Former President Carter insists that any solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict without a Palestinian state would be a disaster for Israel, while others imply that worldwide, anti-Jewishness is still running high.
There’s still work to do, though - the top Islamic body in Indonesia banned practicing yoga with elements like chanting, because they saw it as practicing another spirituality. It is heartening to see, though, that they did not ban the practice entirely.
Following the resignation of the Prime Minister, the governing coalition of Iceland has collapsed, with new leaders to be appointed by the President until elections can be held.
Josef Mengele used a Brazillian town for experimentations in genetics, with the result that nearly twenty percent of pregnancies in that town bear twins, many of them blond-haired and blue-eyed, according to an Argentine historian. It would be a very different world had the Axis powers won the war. Very different indeed. Speaking of multiple births, the second known set of octuplets has arrived in the world, surprising the doctors - because they thought she was only having seven. And the mother plans to breastfeed them all, too.
Domestically, Covenant School apologized for a 100-0 win over the Dallas Academy, forfeiting the game. The reason this is important? Dallas Academy works primarily with disabled children, and things like short attention spans might impact the play of a team on the court. After running up the score and taking some flak for it, the apology and forfeit. The General urges solidarity and good PR to turn the disabled children into the spawn of Satan to ensure that the victory is seen as well-fought.
The video of a magical ritual to sweep clean the White House of the traces of the previous president so as to make it clean and ready for President Obama. You can imagine that this generated quite a bit of dark heat on the message boards of religious conservatives. (Goes to TechnOccult, which has a small sampling of the likely large amount of bile spewed)
Here’s something that will draw up a lot of heat - A Bay City elderly man froze to death after the electric company limited his power draw en route to turning off his power for unpaid bills, possibly in violation of Michigan law (which, I believe, prevents any utility from turning off the heating mechanism to a house during the winter). A pair of kickers? There was money clipped to the bills when the body was found, and second, the city manager gave quite the great soundbite: “I’ve said this before and some of my colleagues have said this: Neighbors need to keep an eye on neighbors.” It’s not our fault he died, his neighbors should have told us something was wrong. Before bringing the complete hammer down on him, though, it is possible that the limiter device malfunctioned, but it’s also possible that the person being limited didn’t understand or couldn’t hear well enough to know how to go reset it if it tripped due to trying to draw too much electricity, and was left to his own device.
Errol Morris asked photo editors at the three major wire services to provide the photos they think captured the last administrator properly. There are scripted and posed photos and candid shots, “Mission Accomplished” and several other mishaps, and some pictures that are tiny glimpses into the actual emotional state of Mr. Bush.
The New Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, moved to implement rules that would reduce the amount of influence lobbyists would have over the hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout/rescue funds available. Stephen Entin feels corporate tax cuts should be part of the stimulus package, continuing the talking points of the conservative wing.
Governor F-word of Illinois, currently in the middle of impeachment hearings, apparently considered Oprah Winfrey for the Senate seat left behind by Barack Obama. Ms. Winfrey was amused by the possibility. Perhaps because she knows she has more influence and power outside of Capitol Hill than she would were she on it? She did not think she was unqualified for the job, however, just uninterested in it. More serious than this, several aides of President Obama have had their records subpoenaed for any correspondence, notes, or other material regarding Governor F-word and his scandal.
Finally, as predicted, the Obama administration began working toward removing or reversing many of the previous administration's stances on climate change, starting with vehicle emissions.
Getting into the opinions, Obama in the Irony-Free Zone, a selection of items spoken at a symposium held by the New York Public Library, some concerned about expectations, others cynical about the message of the campaign. John Armor thinks, using the logic of what the Founders did and thought, that closing Guantanamo and halting military trials is attacking the Constitution instead of defending it, and he does it as a one-sided interview, assuming a response from the President that plays into his next point. Bret Stephens believes Guantanamo Bay is not a blot on our honor and never was, because it was a place ot hold very dangerous people that are, as we let them go, scurrying back to make more bombs and be terrorists once again. Tell me again where they get those menus?
The WSJ joins the crowd harping on how the mainstream media, so very hostile to the former administrator, has become the lapdogs and choir singing praises of the current one. They also believe that American troops should stay in Iraq as long as possible, because of the inevitable and certain doom that awaits Iraq's democracy if the troops go home early.
George Will sees socialist mission creep in an expansion of SCHIP to allow more families to get into the program. He quotes the high figures, the relation to the poverty line, but then neglects to really explore the facet that if the expansion goes up to $84,000 or so for a family of four, that’s five or six people that amount has to go for. Which, if it were, say, a family of five at the same line, would be approximately $12,000 per person in the household. Children being expensive and all, especially with their frequent need to have trips to medical professionals for evaluation and checking, how far will that $12,000 go just in medical expenses, not to mention all the other things that kids need, like food, shelter, clothing. Y’know, the essentials. Just because someone makes money beyond the poverty gap does not mean that they can survive. Two people together, making $84,000 a year can afford insurance (or probably have it). Six? Maybe not.
And finally, to put a capstone on it all. Star Parker sings a sad song about how abortion has been the root cause of societal destruction, that it hits black women especially hard, all the poor people got that way because of the ease of abortion and subsequent destruction of the nuclear, two-parent family, and says that because President Obama is indifferent to those cries, he’s not bringing change, and instead, he should make law that stops abortion and contraception and “free at risk children from the tyranny of government schools where they are taught moral relativism. Allow these children the freedom to go to church schools.” William McGurn agrees, saying that Catholic schooling in particular is often the only lifeline for inner-city families, and this should receive a statement of support, if not outright vouchers. And the WSJ will support Ms. Parker on the matter of having more kids, because people are capital, too, and we need them once the baby boom gets old, retires, and dies.
And all that wonderfully warm conservative values would be the same values that subordinate women and tell them they should aspire to be the most meek and submissive women possible, and yearn for a nonexistent golden age situated somewhere around 1950, right? Just remember, No means No.
In technology, attempts underway to fabricate robots that behave like primitive life forms, a thought or two as to whether alien first contact would be with organic beings, instead of, say, tiny motes that attack to us and record us completely, the suggestion that a smaller caloric intake than the DRV is better for the brain and body, using magnetic elements and a modified detox machine to pull lead out of the bloodstream, possibly with applications to other poisons, carbon nanotubes as memory with really quick read-write times, learning AI is progress and better results than attempting to program a complete AI,
and President Obama seeks a worldwide space weapons ban. Which may move us closer to the Gundam future, where Zeon attempts colony drops to force the Terrans into, ilke, treating them somewhat equally.
Last for tonight, because it’s terribly amusing, A Whedon-Meyer crossover on a T-shirt.
