![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptWhee. Another grade in the books, and it’s a good one. That’s two of three, and the only one left I’m not horribly worried about. So, one day more, one step closer to it being final and graded. Good to know. Today also meant that my ear-wings, Dorian-style, are now ready for Anime Central. And they look fantastic. (Well, I think they might look a little silly by themselves, but when in the right context, they look awesome.)
First up, if you’ve been around the stellar![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greyweirdo and appreciate his work, go take the poll about whether he should have a fan club established. If you don’t know who he is, he’s fantastic - go become part of his fan club.
I’ve heard it twice now, on the National and on the Hour - namely, that a mineral bearing the exact chemical composition of the fictional material Kryptonite has been found. It will not be known as such, however, because it contains no Krypton in it. So it’ll be called Jatterite, or something like that. Which is unfortunate. But rather interesting. (Thanks for the link,sdaisyk!)
The increasing amount of pet food recalls has triggered a criminal investigation once it was confirmed pigs that had eaten tainted fodder made their way to human dinner plates. So once it gets to the human part, the FDA steps in with force. Would the FDA have done anything if it hadn’t? Or would that have been some other agency’s problem? In other food-related matters, the FDA is considering redefining what constitutes chocolate. Which will no doubt have purists in a rage.
High noon approaches the White House as a bill intending to limit the United States mission and presence in Iraq, and eventually remove U.S. presence entirely, passed a conference committee between the United State House and Senate. The compromise bill will go to the two houses for voting, and if it passes, it will be presented to Mr. Bush, who will likely veto it because of the timeline provisions. The Guardian makes mention of 10 easy steps to turn America into something resembling the authoritarian regimes of past and present. Some of which are more apparent than others, or which are on the way. It’s always a slow slide, if it’s happening. And the problem is that we can’t tell whether it is or isn’t.
An Army sergeant would like us to fly the flag at half-staff for all servicepersons killed, since we accord that respect to those killed in civilian affairs. I agree that flying the flag at half-staff is a respect we should accord them. I don’t think it would change anything, though.
Those across the pond, can we get a word on this? EU Observer says that there could be legislation in the works that would make public inciting to violence or hatred based on race illegal, with a penalty of one to three years in jail for doing so. Is this likely to pass? And what would someone like Don Imus, who Lip Magazine suggests is a visible symptom of an underlying, still unaddressed by media and society, racism, get as a punishment for his commentary?
A large chunk of tiny things with great promise - nanotech may be able to stimulate regeneration of tissue to fix injury or degeneration of the neural system, one pill is claiming to work against many genetic disorders by changing the genetic code to prevent harmful mutation, and Time claims that we're fast approaching the time of the designer gene. How much of all this nanonews is important and how much is just nanohype?
Oh, dear goodness. A gentleman entered a restaurant and then proceeded to slash and stab himself in the groin, severing his penis . If that’s trying to commit suicide, it’s probably a rather painful way to go. If he’s trying to cut off his sex drive, I don’t think it’s going to work there, either.
MIT will soon unveil Mark III of their holographic projector, which is capable of running with modern computer/console graphics hardware. It’s still a long way off from creating our three-dimensional desk holograms of The Future(TM), but if it can be done, and then in color, and then at a reasonable size, we might finally be able to get the displays on the desk that science fiction has had for a long time. Although, it could go the way of videophones, too. Maybe if we could combine this with haptic technology, then manipulating holograms could make for quite the computing technology.
The Force is strong with these hot-air balloonists. The shape of Vader’s head is a great thing to have staring at you from the sky. Maybe there will be a flotilla of them for those who want to reinforce the cameras?
Neat picture of a praying mantis at close range.
The Jawa Report linked to an organization calling itself SANE, and a project they have called Mapping Shari'a in America, a project that aims to gather the presence and position of mosques, schools, and Muslims in the country, as well as any large or interesting things nearby, so that they can inspire fear and spread rumors that terrorists are living near upstanding citizens and important landmarks. Or to inspire fear and spread rumors that all Muslims want to take over the government and institute Shari’a in the country, and that they’re just waiting to have sufficient numbers in sufficient places to take over. And, no doubt, if that project succeeds and produces their list and maintains it, there will be several who consult it regularly and wring their hands that the Muslims are taking over.
The last bit for tonight is Fifteen things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Everyone Else Ever Has Or Will, which is a bit pretentious in title, but the quotes that are selected are definitely useful to all our lives. Always seems odd that all the good stuff comes out after someone’s died.
So, going to bed. Tomorrow is apparently the last day of exams, so by Friday, the day of the ceremony, I’ll know about all the grading things. It should happen well before then, though. I’m not worried, I just want to see it recorded for posterity.
First up, if you’ve been around the stellar
greyweirdo and appreciate his work, go take the poll about whether he should have a fan club established. If you don’t know who he is, he’s fantastic - go become part of his fan club.I’ve heard it twice now, on the National and on the Hour - namely, that a mineral bearing the exact chemical composition of the fictional material Kryptonite has been found. It will not be known as such, however, because it contains no Krypton in it. So it’ll be called Jatterite, or something like that. Which is unfortunate. But rather interesting. (Thanks for the link,
sdaisyk!)The increasing amount of pet food recalls has triggered a criminal investigation once it was confirmed pigs that had eaten tainted fodder made their way to human dinner plates. So once it gets to the human part, the FDA steps in with force. Would the FDA have done anything if it hadn’t? Or would that have been some other agency’s problem? In other food-related matters, the FDA is considering redefining what constitutes chocolate. Which will no doubt have purists in a rage.
High noon approaches the White House as a bill intending to limit the United States mission and presence in Iraq, and eventually remove U.S. presence entirely, passed a conference committee between the United State House and Senate. The compromise bill will go to the two houses for voting, and if it passes, it will be presented to Mr. Bush, who will likely veto it because of the timeline provisions. The Guardian makes mention of 10 easy steps to turn America into something resembling the authoritarian regimes of past and present. Some of which are more apparent than others, or which are on the way. It’s always a slow slide, if it’s happening. And the problem is that we can’t tell whether it is or isn’t.
An Army sergeant would like us to fly the flag at half-staff for all servicepersons killed, since we accord that respect to those killed in civilian affairs. I agree that flying the flag at half-staff is a respect we should accord them. I don’t think it would change anything, though.
Those across the pond, can we get a word on this? EU Observer says that there could be legislation in the works that would make public inciting to violence or hatred based on race illegal, with a penalty of one to three years in jail for doing so. Is this likely to pass? And what would someone like Don Imus, who Lip Magazine suggests is a visible symptom of an underlying, still unaddressed by media and society, racism, get as a punishment for his commentary?
A large chunk of tiny things with great promise - nanotech may be able to stimulate regeneration of tissue to fix injury or degeneration of the neural system, one pill is claiming to work against many genetic disorders by changing the genetic code to prevent harmful mutation, and Time claims that we're fast approaching the time of the designer gene. How much of all this nanonews is important and how much is just nanohype?
Oh, dear goodness. A gentleman entered a restaurant and then proceeded to slash and stab himself in the groin, severing his penis . If that’s trying to commit suicide, it’s probably a rather painful way to go. If he’s trying to cut off his sex drive, I don’t think it’s going to work there, either.
MIT will soon unveil Mark III of their holographic projector, which is capable of running with modern computer/console graphics hardware. It’s still a long way off from creating our three-dimensional desk holograms of The Future(TM), but if it can be done, and then in color, and then at a reasonable size, we might finally be able to get the displays on the desk that science fiction has had for a long time. Although, it could go the way of videophones, too. Maybe if we could combine this with haptic technology, then manipulating holograms could make for quite the computing technology.
The Force is strong with these hot-air balloonists. The shape of Vader’s head is a great thing to have staring at you from the sky. Maybe there will be a flotilla of them for those who want to reinforce the cameras?
Neat picture of a praying mantis at close range.
The Jawa Report linked to an organization calling itself SANE, and a project they have called Mapping Shari'a in America, a project that aims to gather the presence and position of mosques, schools, and Muslims in the country, as well as any large or interesting things nearby, so that they can inspire fear and spread rumors that terrorists are living near upstanding citizens and important landmarks. Or to inspire fear and spread rumors that all Muslims want to take over the government and institute Shari’a in the country, and that they’re just waiting to have sufficient numbers in sufficient places to take over. And, no doubt, if that project succeeds and produces their list and maintains it, there will be several who consult it regularly and wring their hands that the Muslims are taking over.
The last bit for tonight is Fifteen things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Everyone Else Ever Has Or Will, which is a bit pretentious in title, but the quotes that are selected are definitely useful to all our lives. Always seems odd that all the good stuff comes out after someone’s died.
So, going to bed. Tomorrow is apparently the last day of exams, so by Friday, the day of the ceremony, I’ll know about all the grading things. It should happen well before then, though. I’m not worried, I just want to see it recorded for posterity.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-26 03:47 am (UTC)