More of the Flaming Bunny Hop.

[silveradept]

Today’s tour of the Ford Presidential Library was rather interesting. Got to see a few artifacts and look at a box of presidential records. Found in it, among the various cryptic discussions of an operation going on in Israel (the full details of which are still, unfortunately, classified), a news brief about the seizure of 345 kilograms of hashish in Israel. And a document apparently meant for Henry Kissinger about a possible panic over Portugal becoming Communist. And that was just in one box. There’s much, much more available in the archives. Along with the bits that are personal, sensitive, or still classified.

In terms of actual work accomplished, the exam is finished, one of the presentations feels ready (meaning I think I can improvise properly off what’s on the slides), another presentation is getting preliminary research done, and one more is having things written up (it’s nearly 5p of a 15p max paper, and that’s without the visual bits that I have to think about creating). For one of these things, I almost need thalass or fairykiss to make it to Australia, so they can check out some books or scan some documents for me. This is assuming I can figure out the right thing to go after.

And in proper fashion, before I started eating my own tail, feeling like I was getting nowhere, I stopped and played video games for a while. Finally ended up beating the Shadows of Yserbius (a task, I note, that is nearly impossible to do in single-player mode, simply because one cannot do enough damage fast enough.) and recalled where I left off on the Fates of Twinion. Maybe I’ll be able to get through them at some point. I still have Okami to finish, too.

More geek chic - the otaku culture gets noticed by NPR (again?) I kind of wish we had more people willing to go about their lives in costume, either as part of their work or their life. I think it would make our society that much more interesting - after all, it would become much harder to call someone a freak, make assumptions about their sexuality, or otherwise insult their creativity when you’ve got your own costuming project going on. Plus, the sheer diversity of ideas, even if the crafting talent isn’t distributed as evenly, would mean that we’d get to see costumes that we might never have thought of in all of our lives. How many people would go dressed as a block of tofu? Or as a dragon who roasts tofu knights?

Kofi Annan wants both non-proliferation and disarmament, calling them both essential to combating nuclear threats. You can’t have one without the other, really, and I think he’s right. If the nuclear states do disarmament, it might induce other states to respect non-proliferation. The continued adherence to non-proliferation should induce further disarmement. We hope to have a world where nuclear energy is strictly for peaceful, civilian use. While it may not actually come about, it would still be best for there to be as small an amount of nuclear weaponry in the world as possible.

Will AM and FM be a thing of the past in the UK? Maybe. Depending on what may appear to replace that particular band of the spectrum, there may be no more radio programmes, or ones changed for a different purpose. Is this the ultimate triumph of “Video killed the Radio Star?”

Myspace's claim of 100 million users is bunk, Forever Geek demonstrates. Some terminology switching (accounts =/= users, but users appears in place of accounts) appears to have happened. It doesn’t really stand up that well against even a small random sample. The actual numbers are most likely much smaller than the 100 million claim - still a potentially significant number. I may be biased, as I’ve seen Myspace in action, and much like the vaunted Facebook, I don’t really see much value in it.

Regarding the wreath debacle linked a few days ago, it’s all bark and no bite The homeowner's association has withdrawn the threat of fines for the peace-shaped wreath. Maybe next time, they’ll have enough brains not to threaten it in the first place. Seriously, I want to know who thought it was a Satanic symbol, just so I know who to pelt with snowballs for the entire snowy season. Maybe that will reinforce the idea of doing one’s research first. I would hope I don’t have to resort to iceballs to get the point across.

News outlets finally give in, start calling Iraq a "civil war". After toeing the administration line for so long, it appears some of the backbenchers may finally be breaking ranks. The recently-elected Virginia congressman gave the President a cold shoulder when asked about his son, serving in Iraq. With the release of a study that says G.W. Bush supporters may be more likely to be psychopathic, we may be seeing a lot more stuff like this than usual. Even Gingrich might be showing a little dissent, but this article about his remarks at an award ceremony for freedom of speech need some interpretation. In the first spot, it looks like he’s advocating against more freedom of speech. Further on, it looks like he’s advocating for more freedom of speech. And then I look at it again to see what kinds of freedoms he wants to open up (dissolving many campaign finance restrictions and complaining that separation of church and state oppresses the religious) and I think he’s finding a clever way to be a good party person while seeming to buck them. Anyone else have an interpretation here?

The next big cool thing may be turning any surface into a touch-sensitive device by attaching acoustic sensors to it. They pick up the good vibrations, pinpoint where it’s coming from, and react appropriately. Which is neat, but for those expecting feedback from their keypresses, well, it may not be so hot. Still, being able to turn my desk or wall or something else into a touch interface would help bring about the fantasy world of touchable walls controlling things. In other science news, it might be that the Difference Engine wasn’t really the first computer. Scientists suspect a 2000-year old device used for astronomical calculations may be an analogue computer. If gear-based computation has been going on for that long, it makes you wonder where the real first computers are. Egypt? China? Somewhere even older than that?

Anyway, that’s what I’ve got to offer for tonight. Bed sounds good, mostly because the work’s going to only start again tomorrow as I decide whether or not I can make progress on anything else.

Comments

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

The touch-sensitive system has incredible applications for alarm systems, from what I can see.

[unspeakablevorn.livejournal.com]

Actually the whole "peace symbol is satanic" thing is discussed briefly on the Wikipedia page, mentioning the existence of "Nero's Cross" or "broken cross", used often as a symbol of those who fight against Christianity (in particular, Nero and Satanists). However, a brief look at the original source of the peace symbol - the symbol of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament - and the notes of the designer - do no support any such influence.

http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/broken.html is a good discussion of this whole thing, and the site as a whole is an impressive piece of work.

Vorn

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

heh. here i thought last night you were still working on your projects :-P now i know better :-P

[silveradept]

Explain yourself further, please. I might be able to think of a couple applications, but I'm curious as to all the uses that you see.

[silveradept]

You did not think incorrectly. One of my projects is to beat all those games at some point in my life.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

*gigglesnorts* well, good goal, I suppose.


ps - is your internet being a pain in your arse today?

[silveradept]

That is a good site for an overview and lots of visual support. I guess that since I had already figured this out, I assumed that other people would have done the same. Maybe I need to have my high horse cut out from under me.

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

Well...in order to rig a corridor or room with alarms based on the floor, walls and ceiling, you had to turn the whole shebang into a series of scales. That way, if an intruder put weight on the scales, the alarm would go off. Good idea, but it seems expensive to do the whole scale thing. This eliminates the need for scales--a mere touch could set off the alarm.

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

On the flip side, it is kinda ugly. It needs a lot more greenery and fullness.

[silveradept]

Assuming that it was loud enough to set the sensor off.