Fire up the links! - 16 February 2007
Feb. 17th, 2007 03:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptToday was not totally sacrificed to Rails. Actually, only a very small part of it was. But in that small part, I finished the assignment. Everything requested in the spec works. Now it’s polish, collecting all the code and printing it out. I shudder to think of what the final project’s code requirements are going to be. And how many trees will be sacrificed in its name for each of the code releases. Yeesh. But, I emerge triumphant over another problem. Many thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
unspeakablevorn who unlocked the secret method that I needed to make things work early on, and helped me fix my code. The app itself is ugly as sin, of course, but I’m aiming for functionality, not pretty. Pretty will happen only after all the rest is done. And probably only once, at the very end of the project, after all the rest works and works well.
Is break in two weeks? Doesn’t feel like it. Although, after this, it could very well be the hump and significantly more downhill from here - although there’s still stuff to learn. Have to learn to do authentication, have to do AJAX, have to do this, that and the other thing. Oh, yeah, did I mention that I also have other stuff to do, too? I may be running all the way to the end on this semester. And somewhere in there, I’m supposed to be finding a job, too, aren’t I? Oh, goodness. I don’t want to put off the job thing, but I may have to. Unless I can rope in several enterprising people to do the seeking for me.
Anyway, I did take a break tonight and go bowling. In three games, posted 101, 125, 120. Pretty close to average. I also managed to obtain a $20 U.S. gift card to the bowling alley by putting my name in a box. On the frame I won the card, I picked up the spare.
Onward, links! Fight for your right to be displayed and exploited! Fight to be places alongside a link to doll-size scientific glassware and tools!
Peanut butter warning widened. The FDA now says, if you bought Peter Pan peanut putter since May of last year, toss it.
Viagra, which, as you'll recall, opens blood vessels and permits freer and greater flow of blood, was used to save a premature baby's life. So now not only can you use it to make babies, you can use it to save them. Mad props to the mad scientists who thought up this fix.
Restoring sight is getting better, as well. A new set of bionic eyeglasses could restore a lot more sight to those who've lost their natural stuff. This does require that they have functioning ganglia, but the camera transmits wirelessly to the computer, the computer to an implant, and the implant stimulates the ganglia. From there, it’s all biological. Newer designs are shrinking in size and able to stimulate more of the ganglia. Perhaps we’ll soon be able to see in living color, regardless of whether it’s machine-assisted or not.
Gmail opens its doors to all comers. No more invitations needed, at least for now. It’s still not out of beta, though, so there’s still work to be done on it.
In not necessarily so benevolent technology, RFID tags that store up to a 38-digit number are small enough to be considered a powder when put together. So all the good/bad things that RFID can do for you, in a small enough size to sprinkle around and then read back. Quite the potential nightmare for those paranoid about RFID and their privacy.
Politics, Domestic-like: Barack Obama revised his website, apparently with some good results. The social-networking site look and feel has produced more than 2400 groups affiliated with the site. And that may be the tip of the iceberg. Whether this is being in tune with the younger generation or looking to exploit them, the Myspace method seems to be working for him. This particular election has even garnered the attention/interest of the Chinese state-controlled paper. They say regardless of who wins the primary, the Obama/Clinton combo will be close to unstoppable. I include American Samidzat’s commentary on it because it’s a worthwhile thought - what sort of real choices are the American people being given in their elections? Is it a matter of voting for an original or a clone?
The non-binding resolution expressing disapproval went to vote in the house, and it cleared the chamber. So the House disapproves of the surge. We'll see what the Senate does. And when push comes to shove and there’s actual money involved, whether they vote this way again.
An ingenious way of saving money - a bomb-shaped bank. Write on it with the included white marker, deposit, and when the time comes to withdraw, you can literally break the bank (or give it the hammer treatment) to get out the cash inside. That has to be a satisfying conclusion to fiscal responsibility.
Updating already from previous entry, GM is possibly looking to buy Chrysler. Isn’t GM in the middle of their own problems, though? Why would they be interested in buying, unless they want to absorb as many losing companies as they can before they implode. If GM’s willing to do that for the auto industry, well, more power to ‘em.
And further updates and retributions - Mercury rising suggests that the IRS be innundated with complaints that William Donohue overstepped the bounds of a 501(c)(3) organization in publicly calling for the resignation of the Edwards campaign bloggers. And has at least one update of another organization that’s defending Donohue that they want a similar complaint filed against. What does this mean, for those of us not so cognizant of tax law? What action or nonaction is a 501(c)(3) restricted to, and what, other than the revocation of the 501(c)(3) status does it hope to accomplish?
In Salon, Amanda Marcotte explains why she resigned from the Edwards campaign - the noise being made by the right wing was probably going to damage the campaign’s chances. Since there appeared to be no end in sight to the din, much of it crude and misogynistic, by her reckoning, it was better to not drag the campaign down. Admittedly, it would be nice to see a political campaign stick to its hiring decision and just take the flak, but it would probably be suicide. In terms of the campaign, resigning was the right thing to do. In terms of giving a well-deserved double deuce to the people that offered her oral and other sexual acts, mostly nonconsensual, for her opinion on matters, it was probably not very effective. No doubt we’ll be hearing much fire and brimstone from both sides about this whole affair.
And there will be other flareups, as well. A family claims to have been denied service for an ear infection in a child by a Christian pediatrician because of the mother's tattoos. The pediatrician is saying he’s within his rights because he can enforce dress and behavior standards of his choosing, in the same way that “No shirt, no shoes, no service” works. The mother is saying that she was discriminated against. Somewhere in that void of strange, a child had an ear infection and spent the night without any treatment for it. I don’t know how serious it was, or whether it could have developed into something more serious. What I do know is that it looks more and more like the trend started by pharmacists refusing to fill birth control is leaking out into other medical professions. Soon enough, we might have to screen our doctors by their religion and belief systems, rather than expecting that they will do their professional duty, regardless of the person in front of them.
If you want to turn on the jets full blast, here’s a pair of things related to each other. The first, a memo sent in the name of a Georgia state Representative that claims evolution's teachings are really the religious teachings of an ancient Pharisee sect. According to the logic of the memo, the science we’ve been taught is really just another religious belief, and it’s causing us great harm to not know the truth. The memo directs people to http://www.fixedearth.com, which on first pass, has most, if not all, of the hallmarks of a Christian Z-lot(nik?) website. The colors, the boxes, the large text, all of it. The claims made are such that put the Earth, unmoving, at the center of the universe, and all revolves around it, as well as the Pharisee-evolution connection, I would think. There’s probably a lot that could be found very wrong with the contents of that website, and I’m sure there will be plenty of people who will do so in the coming time.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve got tonight. I’m really not awake enough for some witty banter or anything, so I’m going to just flop and snooze. Night, people.
unspeakablevorn who unlocked the secret method that I needed to make things work early on, and helped me fix my code. The app itself is ugly as sin, of course, but I’m aiming for functionality, not pretty. Pretty will happen only after all the rest is done. And probably only once, at the very end of the project, after all the rest works and works well. Is break in two weeks? Doesn’t feel like it. Although, after this, it could very well be the hump and significantly more downhill from here - although there’s still stuff to learn. Have to learn to do authentication, have to do AJAX, have to do this, that and the other thing. Oh, yeah, did I mention that I also have other stuff to do, too? I may be running all the way to the end on this semester. And somewhere in there, I’m supposed to be finding a job, too, aren’t I? Oh, goodness. I don’t want to put off the job thing, but I may have to. Unless I can rope in several enterprising people to do the seeking for me.
Anyway, I did take a break tonight and go bowling. In three games, posted 101, 125, 120. Pretty close to average. I also managed to obtain a $20 U.S. gift card to the bowling alley by putting my name in a box. On the frame I won the card, I picked up the spare.
Onward, links! Fight for your right to be displayed and exploited! Fight to be places alongside a link to doll-size scientific glassware and tools!
Peanut butter warning widened. The FDA now says, if you bought Peter Pan peanut putter since May of last year, toss it.
Viagra, which, as you'll recall, opens blood vessels and permits freer and greater flow of blood, was used to save a premature baby's life. So now not only can you use it to make babies, you can use it to save them. Mad props to the mad scientists who thought up this fix.
Restoring sight is getting better, as well. A new set of bionic eyeglasses could restore a lot more sight to those who've lost their natural stuff. This does require that they have functioning ganglia, but the camera transmits wirelessly to the computer, the computer to an implant, and the implant stimulates the ganglia. From there, it’s all biological. Newer designs are shrinking in size and able to stimulate more of the ganglia. Perhaps we’ll soon be able to see in living color, regardless of whether it’s machine-assisted or not.
Gmail opens its doors to all comers. No more invitations needed, at least for now. It’s still not out of beta, though, so there’s still work to be done on it.
In not necessarily so benevolent technology, RFID tags that store up to a 38-digit number are small enough to be considered a powder when put together. So all the good/bad things that RFID can do for you, in a small enough size to sprinkle around and then read back. Quite the potential nightmare for those paranoid about RFID and their privacy.
Politics, Domestic-like: Barack Obama revised his website, apparently with some good results. The social-networking site look and feel has produced more than 2400 groups affiliated with the site. And that may be the tip of the iceberg. Whether this is being in tune with the younger generation or looking to exploit them, the Myspace method seems to be working for him. This particular election has even garnered the attention/interest of the Chinese state-controlled paper. They say regardless of who wins the primary, the Obama/Clinton combo will be close to unstoppable. I include American Samidzat’s commentary on it because it’s a worthwhile thought - what sort of real choices are the American people being given in their elections? Is it a matter of voting for an original or a clone?
The non-binding resolution expressing disapproval went to vote in the house, and it cleared the chamber. So the House disapproves of the surge. We'll see what the Senate does. And when push comes to shove and there’s actual money involved, whether they vote this way again.
An ingenious way of saving money - a bomb-shaped bank. Write on it with the included white marker, deposit, and when the time comes to withdraw, you can literally break the bank (or give it the hammer treatment) to get out the cash inside. That has to be a satisfying conclusion to fiscal responsibility.
Updating already from previous entry, GM is possibly looking to buy Chrysler. Isn’t GM in the middle of their own problems, though? Why would they be interested in buying, unless they want to absorb as many losing companies as they can before they implode. If GM’s willing to do that for the auto industry, well, more power to ‘em.
And further updates and retributions - Mercury rising suggests that the IRS be innundated with complaints that William Donohue overstepped the bounds of a 501(c)(3) organization in publicly calling for the resignation of the Edwards campaign bloggers. And has at least one update of another organization that’s defending Donohue that they want a similar complaint filed against. What does this mean, for those of us not so cognizant of tax law? What action or nonaction is a 501(c)(3) restricted to, and what, other than the revocation of the 501(c)(3) status does it hope to accomplish?
In Salon, Amanda Marcotte explains why she resigned from the Edwards campaign - the noise being made by the right wing was probably going to damage the campaign’s chances. Since there appeared to be no end in sight to the din, much of it crude and misogynistic, by her reckoning, it was better to not drag the campaign down. Admittedly, it would be nice to see a political campaign stick to its hiring decision and just take the flak, but it would probably be suicide. In terms of the campaign, resigning was the right thing to do. In terms of giving a well-deserved double deuce to the people that offered her oral and other sexual acts, mostly nonconsensual, for her opinion on matters, it was probably not very effective. No doubt we’ll be hearing much fire and brimstone from both sides about this whole affair.
And there will be other flareups, as well. A family claims to have been denied service for an ear infection in a child by a Christian pediatrician because of the mother's tattoos. The pediatrician is saying he’s within his rights because he can enforce dress and behavior standards of his choosing, in the same way that “No shirt, no shoes, no service” works. The mother is saying that she was discriminated against. Somewhere in that void of strange, a child had an ear infection and spent the night without any treatment for it. I don’t know how serious it was, or whether it could have developed into something more serious. What I do know is that it looks more and more like the trend started by pharmacists refusing to fill birth control is leaking out into other medical professions. Soon enough, we might have to screen our doctors by their religion and belief systems, rather than expecting that they will do their professional duty, regardless of the person in front of them.
If you want to turn on the jets full blast, here’s a pair of things related to each other. The first, a memo sent in the name of a Georgia state Representative that claims evolution's teachings are really the religious teachings of an ancient Pharisee sect. According to the logic of the memo, the science we’ve been taught is really just another religious belief, and it’s causing us great harm to not know the truth. The memo directs people to http://www.fixedearth.com, which on first pass, has most, if not all, of the hallmarks of a Christian Z-lot(nik?) website. The colors, the boxes, the large text, all of it. The claims made are such that put the Earth, unmoving, at the center of the universe, and all revolves around it, as well as the Pharisee-evolution connection, I would think. There’s probably a lot that could be found very wrong with the contents of that website, and I’m sure there will be plenty of people who will do so in the coming time.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve got tonight. I’m really not awake enough for some witty banter or anything, so I’m going to just flop and snooze. Night, people.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 08:18 am (UTC)Anyway, more commentating tomorrow. I just knew I'd forget that comment by then.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 06:14 pm (UTC)It is utterly irrelevant to science if the models produced by scientific investigation appear to agree with those of any particular belief system. What is relevant, and what this website tries hard to obfuscate, is that science proceeds by this whole process of gathering evidence and constructing and challenging theories. The ancient Pharisees, even if they did believe in a moving Earth, didn't adopt a scientific, questioning, style, and hence the coincidence is simply that.
Additionally, just following the first link about the "fixed Earth", we note that there is a trivial disproof of their statement about the Earth not rotating - it is easier to launch space craft from the equator. This is because the Earth is rotating, and the centrifugal force (in our frame of reference) helps to provide motive force away from the Earth. And that, as they say, is that.
(This whole debate reminds me of the stupid "bananas prove intelligent design" video I've seen, in that it can be simply disproved with a single piece of evidence (in the case of bananas, the fact that they're a cultivated plant, and that wild bananas have none of the useful features mentioned!) but the people who watch it don't want to because it gives them superficial reasons to follow their beliefs in the face of Reality.)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 06:25 pm (UTC)There's a page that shows time-lapse photography of stars overnight, showing the circular arcs formed across the sky. The page makes the (sort-of) valid argument that this looks just like the stars are rotating around a fixed Earth, and hence this is logically the case.
Except, of course, that firstly, there's the evidence that there is a centrifugal force experienced on the Earth's surface, and secondly, the pole star has changed over time, based on historical records. The second point requires, in a fixed Earth universe, that the entire sphere of fixed stars change its axis of rotation over time. Clearly, this is less plausible than the possibility that the Earth is really rotating!
(There is, at the heart of this, a subtle connection to the entirely valid argument that all motion is relative, and hence it is entirely consistent to jump between a frame of reference with a stationary Earth, and a frame of reference with a rotating one. On the other hand, as anyone with a basic knowledge of physics knows, you can tell if you're in a rotating frame of reference (rather than one in linear, constant, motion) because of the existence of a centrifugal force. Ten minutes with a bucket of water on a string demonstrates this sufficiently to even the most dense potential student; it is a pity that the author of this page didn't have those few minutes to spare.)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 06:32 pm (UTC)Except that the current consensus on the age of the universe is closer to 13 billion years.
A pity, that, eh?
no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 08:31 pm (UTC)anyway - I thought gmail already did away with their invites - I've got at least 4 gmail accounts set up (not like I check the other three), and I set up one for mom without needing an invite. weird. as for yahoo - their spam filter SUCKS. despite having a bulk folder they are supposed to dump spam in, I get at least 25 spams/day with my yahoo. I never check my hotmail. maybe I ought to start?
I don't think such a big deal ought to be made out of "female candidate" and "black candidate" - they're both candidates for office, and their gender/skin tone shouldn't matter. I really hope that this country doesn't elect one or the other based on their physical attributes. "ready for a black president"? seriously, why does it matter? I just don't get it at all. Didn't we have a black candidate in the 80's? And I'm sure Hilary isn't the first woman to run in the primaries, is she? (i could be wrong about that)...but really. we need to put aside the "woman" and "black" labels and just look at them as candidates.
also, the miniature site is way nifty. :D