Two days to go.
Aug. 30th, 2006 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptYep, that's right - I'm done with work in two days... isn't that scary?
Anyway, since my life does not change from day to day, at least for the moment, it's time for a laundry list of links to make up for the fact that my life is really rather boring.
The Phrontistery - catalouging words. Lost and exiled words, two and three-letter words for Scrabble, and inspiring people to make icons from the contents.
Building on a ruling that says that private citizens can be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for transmitting sensitive information, without having to be spies, anyone can be wiretapped under FISA, even if they're not working for a foreign power. All that has to be involved is classified or sensitive information. One does note that this defeats the concept of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, by turning it into an all-purpose surveillance act. Which is what it was being used as, anyway. So, I suppose, at least the friendly courts are finally admitting to the truth behind the actions.
There is a new oldest person in the world. The previous occupant of the title vacated it because she had an appointment with the Endless who wears an ankh. Zipping down to the opposite end of the age spectrum, here are some tips on how to make reading an attractive option to your child.
Raising Pluto's self-esteem. Not being a planet anymore must be difficult. The change in definition, according to a different scienceblogs writer, may make even more people hostile to science. Or that the shift in definition only furthers the desire for natural categories and black and white definitions. At some point, ambiguity must be acknowledged. Is acknowledging the fundamental ambiguity of everything being the ultimate wishy-washy? Or is it finally understanding things enough to be able to make informed decisions? Or, and most likely, since this is about ambiguity, is it a little of both?
Caucasian man convicted of beating teenage black girls avoids prison sentence, gets probation and community service, must also visit cultural museums. A punishment that certainly fits the crime, according to the judge. I think it's a little lacking.
There is the freedom to express one's views in academia and in public. Occasionally, said views run afoul of someone else's views. Members of the state government hint strongly that a UNH professor should be dismissed or censured because of his views on 9/11. Again, there are such things as freedom of speech. It looks like, though, that the academics are taking the proper tack to it - provide us some evidence, and we'll take you more seriously. Until then, we'll file it along with all the other unverified theories.
Smart fabrics on the rise again. Wearable computing is, of course, something very, very neat. Although one wonders whether someone will write a de-pantsing virus for jeans so that they unzip their own fly and drop trou.
There's some stuff, though, here at the end, as a reward for sitting through the parade, that might be worth running through - Platypus Comix, which might be housing some things that are probably in violation of copyright (like Bloom County strips - funny Bloom County, mind you). And for those that like to see pretty women, we present The Babes of Flickr. These women are closer to real, right? Or at least there's less obvious Photoshop work? Either way, if you like Flickr, and you like women in attractive poses, you might like The Babes of Flickr.
Or you might not. Oh, well. I'm not really trying to get your attention (please?!) nor selling myself out (too much), nor having paranoid dreams about being left alone because you all deserted me (please don't). Maybe I should talk to the Pigeon a little more and ask his opinion. And stop him from trying to drive my car.
This final remark will make sense only to a few, but it's worth saying - I'm tired, too. I'm really tired of all those things that make me unique, because they separate me and make me weird. I'm tired of being all the things that I'm proud of being. You just have to ask me on different days to figure out which one it is. I'm confident, though, that I've already found a group of people who like me for my eccentricities, and that I'm going to find a group, wherever I go, that will appreciate me for my eccentricities. (There will be, of course, the bridge-dwellers, too. You don't even have to worry about one of them being your boss!) Those are the good days, anyway. There are the bad ones, too, and those are chronicled right with the others. I suspect, though, with the way things are, the good days will outnumber the bad. Failing that, there's always snuggles.
And now, Zed, the favorite letter of Dream.
Anyway, since my life does not change from day to day, at least for the moment, it's time for a laundry list of links to make up for the fact that my life is really rather boring.
The Phrontistery - catalouging words. Lost and exiled words, two and three-letter words for Scrabble, and inspiring people to make icons from the contents.
Building on a ruling that says that private citizens can be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for transmitting sensitive information, without having to be spies, anyone can be wiretapped under FISA, even if they're not working for a foreign power. All that has to be involved is classified or sensitive information. One does note that this defeats the concept of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, by turning it into an all-purpose surveillance act. Which is what it was being used as, anyway. So, I suppose, at least the friendly courts are finally admitting to the truth behind the actions.
There is a new oldest person in the world. The previous occupant of the title vacated it because she had an appointment with the Endless who wears an ankh. Zipping down to the opposite end of the age spectrum, here are some tips on how to make reading an attractive option to your child.
Raising Pluto's self-esteem. Not being a planet anymore must be difficult. The change in definition, according to a different scienceblogs writer, may make even more people hostile to science. Or that the shift in definition only furthers the desire for natural categories and black and white definitions. At some point, ambiguity must be acknowledged. Is acknowledging the fundamental ambiguity of everything being the ultimate wishy-washy? Or is it finally understanding things enough to be able to make informed decisions? Or, and most likely, since this is about ambiguity, is it a little of both?
Caucasian man convicted of beating teenage black girls avoids prison sentence, gets probation and community service, must also visit cultural museums. A punishment that certainly fits the crime, according to the judge. I think it's a little lacking.
There is the freedom to express one's views in academia and in public. Occasionally, said views run afoul of someone else's views. Members of the state government hint strongly that a UNH professor should be dismissed or censured because of his views on 9/11. Again, there are such things as freedom of speech. It looks like, though, that the academics are taking the proper tack to it - provide us some evidence, and we'll take you more seriously. Until then, we'll file it along with all the other unverified theories.
Smart fabrics on the rise again. Wearable computing is, of course, something very, very neat. Although one wonders whether someone will write a de-pantsing virus for jeans so that they unzip their own fly and drop trou.
There's some stuff, though, here at the end, as a reward for sitting through the parade, that might be worth running through - Platypus Comix, which might be housing some things that are probably in violation of copyright (like Bloom County strips - funny Bloom County, mind you). And for those that like to see pretty women, we present The Babes of Flickr. These women are closer to real, right? Or at least there's less obvious Photoshop work? Either way, if you like Flickr, and you like women in attractive poses, you might like The Babes of Flickr.
Or you might not. Oh, well. I'm not really trying to get your attention (please?!) nor selling myself out (too much), nor having paranoid dreams about being left alone because you all deserted me (please don't). Maybe I should talk to the Pigeon a little more and ask his opinion. And stop him from trying to drive my car.
This final remark will make sense only to a few, but it's worth saying - I'm tired, too. I'm really tired of all those things that make me unique, because they separate me and make me weird. I'm tired of being all the things that I'm proud of being. You just have to ask me on different days to figure out which one it is. I'm confident, though, that I've already found a group of people who like me for my eccentricities, and that I'm going to find a group, wherever I go, that will appreciate me for my eccentricities. (There will be, of course, the bridge-dwellers, too. You don't even have to worry about one of them being your boss!) Those are the good days, anyway. There are the bad ones, too, and those are chronicled right with the others. I suspect, though, with the way things are, the good days will outnumber the bad. Failing that, there's always snuggles.
And now, Zed, the favorite letter of Dream.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 02:18 pm (UTC)See, i saved your entry for this morning. I figured going through your links would give me *something* to do for at least a little bit....
I'm very dissapointed at that man's sentence. Sheesh. I mean, it was a decent sentence in terms of trying to desensitize him, but c'mon. he beat up two teenage girls! He needs to be in jail AND doing community service. This is just ridiculous. I hope the girl's lawyers appeal the descision and he gets nailed to the wall for this.
I'm really getting annoyed by all this wire-tapping and spying nonsense. Really, if i was the paranoid type I'd start panicing. I just don't understand why the government insists on wasting money on this kind of thing.
The article on kids and reading was good, but I have a few nit-picks....the mentioning of picking cardboard books because your toddler won't be gentle with the book and will chew on it? No. Children should NOT be allowed to chew on a book EVER, I don't care how old the child is or what the book is made of. NO. Children need to learn to respect books, IMHO. Do you let your child stick any toy they want in their mouth? No, probably not. Grrrr. And the part about "books make good tunnels for cars"...again, no. I want my kids to be avid readers and have fun reading, but I don't want them thinking their books are just another toy to do with as they please. If they think it's OK to throw books when they are a toddler, what's to prevent them from doing it when they are older, too? And even worse, what's to prevent them from chucking the book at you?
Oh, More pretty icons (http://community.livejournal.com/obsessiveicons/186795.html), this time Fractals.
Poor Pluto. Spending all these years, thinking it was a planet, and now it gets robbed of it's title and demoted to "star". Poor thing. It's so weird to think of the planet mobiles that kids will be making in the future and to know that there won't be a ping pong ball for Pluto. Someone is going to have to come up with new rhymes/mnemonic (sp?) devices to teach the kids.
The find law article is very intersting....i'm still processing it.
The thing with college is that there will always be at least one professor you encounter who has views that differ from yours. The thing that really matters, however, is what you do with their different views. I recall my very first semseter of college and I was taking a philosophy class and I completely disagreed with the professor on several matters. I wound up exploring my own opinions and doing a bit more research on both sides until I found something that I was able to 'believe' in. I think as long as it's offered as a discussion tpye of class and not a "what i say goes" type of class, they ought to let him continue to teach.
Fiberoptic fabric is way nifty! That's really cool, and I hope something affordable to the actual public will be available.
Although one wonders whether someone will write a de-pantsing virus for jeans so that they unzip their own fly and drop trou.
*gigglesnort* Really, I'm picturing some kid writing a virus that will cause all the ladies clothing to just fall off...a' la replacing the thread in swimsuits with dental thread so it disolves in water....
I still don't quite get the flickr babe thing. Some of the ladies are attractive, but others you just have to wonder about. I'm wondering mostly if these ladies know their photos are being snagged for this purpose or not.
Also: Pidgeon!
no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 03:49 pm (UTC)http://community.livejournal.com/flutterbydesign/12893.html