A short post - 12-14 September 2009

Salutations, fans of sport. It was an interesting weekend, where a young team with a fairly new coach managed a last-seconds drive to beat a top 25 opponent, and then climbed into the top 25 ranking themselves. While the powerhouse team of that conference lost a game through poor gameplay, despite the score being relatively close. Additionally, those who follow Twilight and are in Utah can traverse a corn maze made to look like the characters in the book, which will no doubt make for a Team Edward/Team Jacob relay sprint. (Assuming they aren't rudely interrupted by Depp's fourth Pirates movie, which could steal their thunder away.)

On more professional news, unless it the budget changes significantly, the Free Library of Philadelphia will close in October. That's a gigantic city library system, gone. What kind of people have we become where this is even possible? That said, pressure is being applied to make it possible to continue operations.

Finally, Norman Borlaug, engineer of higher-yield crops to help with food shortages, has died at 95, and Patrick Swayze, most notably of Dirty Dancing fame, has died at 57.

Domestically, the last week was chock full of fibs, falsehoods, fearmongering, and lots of lying (and, rather interestingly, the most vocal accusation of lying was to a statement that wasn't a lie.) Over the weekend, a tea party (and other fringe elements) march in Washington, with at least partial credit claimed by Glenn Beck's "9/12" idea The signs are pretty informative. No, not the ones you see in the WND article, the other ones. Like the right question to be asking at such an event (and one answer that sums it up pretty well), the poor-taste reference to the recently deceased, followed by the reference to the Secret Muslim canard, the new conservative rallying cry, the "let's use an image before we really think about whether it applies" posters, oh, and yes, the secession-implying throwback to a time when black men were slaves, not Presidents. WND nicely summarizes all the astroturf organizations taking part in the attempted grassroots as well. And yes, there are plenty of mis-spelled objects, including one that has already been demotivatorized about a "pubic option", for example, and combinations of all the previously mentioned tropes, combining the "liar", "Joker-Obama", "Obama bin Laden", and "taxed to death" all on one sign, for example.

Additionally, a film about the life of Charles Darwin made in the UK cannot find a US distributor because they feel it would be too controversial for the audience. *headpiano* Not to mention the description given by a prominent Christian review site describes Darwin as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder. His 'half-baked theory' directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to 'atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering', the site stated". The worrying statistic is the one that says approximately 4 in 10 Americans believe in evolution (although, as with all surveys, seeing the question asked is important. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics, you know.) And then, there's the endless problems with "when I say scientific theory, I do not mean layman's definitions" that crop up, too.

Hehe... first there was the Alberto Gonalez opera, now we have Con Dolcezza (with Sweetness), the remarks of Condoleezza Rice, set to music.

Wall Street is taking the wrong lesson from the financial collapse - instead of "Things might have gotten too complex for us to safely understand and handle", instead they're saying "The models were wrong, that's all. Fix the models and we'll be fine!"

In opinions, think about this: If government-run health care is good enough for the military, it should be good enough for the rest of us.

Also of importance, considering certain anniversaries, instead of being afraid all the time, and supporting candidates who use fear and listening to media outlets that use fear, refuse to be terrorized by the spectre of terrorists. Not to say "Do nothing", but don't think two men checking their watches are plotting terrorism.

Some tips for the potential sexual assaulter so that they can not assault people. Turning the tables on advice for those who could be victims by giving solid and sound advice to those who would assault.

Last out, Mr. Cline gives the right wing hell about their protest of a Presidential speech, highlighting the opinions and currents that lead to such nonsense decisions and the sad conclusion that there probably is no way to separate the virus from the political party is has infected.


In the realms of great science and interesting technology, yet mroe evidence debunking the idea of solar panels using human hair, so likely hoax instead of breakthrough, but Google's going into solar mirrors, snorting seems to be a rather effective method of delivering stem cells to the brain, levitating mice, trying to map how and where to surf the gravity waves, cutting salt intake cuts health care costs, if you're an American, an 18-foot wide multiuser multitouch display, photographs from space at a $150 USD cost, and several things about our universe that don't make sense, at least according to current science and knowledge.

Oh, and XBoxes as a really cheap way of engaging in parallel processing.

Last for tonight, an IT professional tells us about how IT geeks work, and why standard managers don't necessarily work when in charge of those geeks (as well as all the things those geeks will do to get around people or institutional policies in the way of their work).

Middle of the month stuff - 15 September 2009

Out in the world today, the journalist who tossed his shoes at the previous administrator is home from jail and alleging torture while he was in prison.

Domestically, off the record in an interview, the President called Kanye West a "jackass" for his interruption of another person's acceptance speech at the MTV Music awards. While Mr. West has apologized for his interruption, we’re wondering if Joe Wilson’s virus is catching. Speaking of, most of what is considered for punishment is nothing more than a wrist slap.

Speaking of Presidential insults, the last administrator was apparently fond of ripping on other politicians while off the mike, according to a new book by one of his speechwriters.

And the President will grace Letterman with his presence on the 21st. This seems like a fairly smart strategy, because lots of people watch late night comedy - thus, more exposure.

Fed chair says recession is very likely over. Whether he’s believed is another matter entirely. I mean, Blockbuster is closing some 960 stores, and airlines are repotring $11 billion in potential losses. Clearly, the recession can’t be over, because people are still closing things down, right? Right?

Interlude - d00d kills appparently weaponless but aggressive intruder with sword.

Health care - new advertisement. Shocking fact - nine states permit having had a domestic violence incident to count as a "pre-existing condition" that can be used to deny someone health insurance or to refuse to pay their claims later on down the road. Cancer is also a reason for denial or loss of coverage. So the people that need things the most often find they can’t get them because it would be too expensive for the company’s profit margins. And that’s without the freaking fiasco that was one woman's death, shuttled from hospice to assisted-living and back based on whether or not she was too healthy or too sick for those locations. Last out of this section, Mr. Kucinich suggests that the fiasco will end disastrously for the populace - no public option, but an insurance mandate for the rest of the populace, basically ensuring that the insurance companies will be able to charge everyone what they want because the people will have to pay it or face fines.

Elsewhere, more on the people attempting to make education more affordable by bringing the bulk of it on-line, in both course materials, professor interaction, and most of the actual process of education.

the White House unveiled its new fuel economy standards, so we can eventually get back to how greening cars and other things kills business and makes it more expensive for consumers to do anything, because everyone knows businesses simply pass th costs of regulation onto consumers rather than let their precious profit margins fall.

Finally, the populace hates the media and thinks they should be called biased liars, possibly in addition to all the politicians, based on a Pew poll charting whether people thought the media was accurate (no) and whether it was biased (always against you). Also, as noted, liberals prefer MSNBC, CNN, and the NYT, while conservatives like Fox and the WSJ. Out of all of this, though, the people still want the media to stick around. After all, who else is going to tell us that modern politics look a lot like older politics, down to the angry white mobs carrying guns to rallies? And who will report on the vanishingly small amount of Republicans who are sane and worried their party is being defined by wingnuts and crackpots.

Interlude 2 - highly inappropriate children's toys, Phillips becomes a mainstream company marketing sex toys as sex toys, as opposed to something like Hitachi’s massage wand which may be used as such but is not marketed as such, and Newt Gingrich's Business Defense and Advisory Council naming a porn company as one of the Entrepreneurs of the year.

Technology! Science! Where we find how broken hears can kill you, along with identifying genes that switch stem cells into hunter-killer cells, taking detailed pictures of the electrons of an atom, a Google app that lets smartphone users flip through news articles as if they were the pages of a magazine, and other such cool things.

Yeah, it's another short post. Night, everyone!