Still little progress - 08 May 2007
May. 9th, 2007 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptFound one object that I thought I needed for convention today. Unfortunately, nothing there that I could really use. I tend to like having actors sign near a picture of their character, y’know, and in this particular case, nothing doing. But all is not lost - the rule of “Hey, I’ve heard you before” applies in this case, and thus, I have backups that will suit me quite well. I also need more memory for my computer. I’m sure ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
2dlife advised me of this fact beforehand. Now, I finally get what he meant. The situation will be remedied soon. I do not like having my computer slow to a crawl because it’s trying to do the normal functions that I require of it. Thus, more RAM will be on the way soon.
Starting with something that may or may not be interesting to people - Calling Crane in the Shade is a site that reviews books on the Book of Changes, but also has some beginner info, some more advanced material on the hexagrams that make up the Book of changes, and some advice for practice in both what to look for as well as what should be avoided when consulting the Book.
An astute BoingBoing column - because of the way that the AACS Licensing Authority has been behaving, a Princeton professor is offering everyone their own change to copyright a 128-bit number and use it as an encryption key for a haiku. From there, the DMCA will protect the number, and anyone caught using it, for whatever purpose it may be (like if the AACS should change their key), will be subject to the penalties of the offense. So hopefully someone figures out the new key, notes it, sees if it’s been copyrighted, and then the owner brings litigation to protect their copyrighted material. After all, that would be true according to the precedent.
Wired offers up something worth considering - Scott Carney makes a case for mandatory organ donation after death, or at least changing the laws so that people are presumed to give their consent for organ donation unless they specifically opt-out. It would most likely help with the shortage of organ donors in the country. Since most of the people donating would not require the use of them any longer, I want to know what other objections there are to such a practice that aren’t rooted in a belief that the body must be buried whole to be resurrected, regardless of the probability to have decomposed completely before any resurrection will occur.
An explosion went off in a garage of the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas - one dead. Police have decided that the device was not intended to be a terror device, but intended to kill the person who perished from it. So it’s not any sort of prelude to a wave of terror. Unless, for some reason, there are going to be more explosives.
A quick blurb that does say something about how the war in Iraq affects people at home - after being whacked by an F-5 class tornado, Kansas is having trouble providing proper emergency response because a significant number of their emergency response vehicles were in Iraq. So. Not enough to go around, and we see who gets the short end of the stick. Desmond Tutu says terrorism can't be beaten so long as conditions continue to make people desperate, and I’d say that not having the appropriate material to do emergency response counts. Perhaps helping with the food part, in cases of disaster (or in places where things like electricity are intermittent), a Japanese company has developed a way of being able to produce steaming hot rice using cold water, an agent, and high pressure for the rice. Pour the water on the agent and make steaming rice.
Going back to the politics part, Townhall has two pieces that try to put the current conflict in Iraq into a larger historical context. Fred Thompson's "To the Shores of Tripoli" makes comparisons between the current conflict’s Muslim ideologies and the conflict with the Barbary pirates, a conflict that lasted more than a decade. I note that despite what several conservative talking-heads have said about the persons being fought in Iraq, the Barbary pirates were actively attacking American ships repeatedly before the United States commissioned a naval force to fight them off. Scattered terror attacks being woven together as a concerted effort, and then attempting to smash that effort will do a lot of resource-draining, trying to snuff out terror over the whole of the world. Anyway, there’s a second piece, as well, where Dennis Prager writes a letter to the American soldiers in Iraq, praising them for fighting radical Islam and doing good work and taking shots at the anti-war crowd in the country for not believing in the obvious rightness and morality of the conflict.
Changing countries and conflicts, Amnesty International suspects that the Chinese and Russians have been shipping arms to Darfur to be used in the conflict there, in violation of a Security Council embargo on arms. Weapons, ammunition, parts for aircraft, and complete aircraft were all cited in the report as going to the country.
80% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the queen. 70% approve of Blair, a higher rating than those who have had to deal with his policies give him. CNN attempts to make it confusing by adding in that almost 40% of Americans think Britain would do better without the monarchy. But liking the person has very little to do with liking the politics - American elections have proven that point enough times over the years. And possible the other way, too - remember Freedom Fries? Well, now that a more pro U.S. government is in power, perhaps Friendship Fries are now in order.
As with all the biological press-release/article stuff I read, how potentially difficult is the following process being touted? New Scientist has a blurb about bacteria-like things that divide at their ends and carry a drug, which is then delivered through the use of coating the cells with markers that bind to cancerous cells. Supposedly, the drug is delivered in a targeted manner, raising effectiveness and lowering the requirements of the drug, as well as potentially avoiding the side effects of conventional chemotherapy. How hard is it to do this, and how expensive? (Are we looking at a possible new treatment here?)
It's been ten years since race-blind admissions were adopted in California. And then, several other states followed suit. The results appear to be mixed - some down, some up, some over-representation, some under. So I guess I have to wonder how things are on campuses at the UC colleges and whether the college experience is the same or different.
Children conceived in the summer months are apparently doing poorer at school across races, genders, and other lines. Some suspect it might be because there are more pesticides in the environment that may be playing with the hormones and chemistry of the mother. Further investigation is going on.
However, I can’t let the seriousness continue too much, and thus, you also get an article about a jet powered outhouse.. Insert your own “flaming poo” joke here.
Psychology Today runs an article about how people of mixed races may be perceived as prettier than those only of one race. The blending of characteristics apparently trips our “genetically fit and healthy” senses, and that may translate into finding them more attractive. Perhaps going for a different type of blending, that of beauty and brains, Chesspics offers pictures of some of thee female national chess teams in the Torino Olympiad.
More photographs and pictures for your burgeoning image archives. This time, the work of Manuel Libres Librodo Junior, who offers a view of the world through his eyes and galleries.
The trailing part for tonight, though, is this - a Japanese company has made underclothes that will block infrared rays, foiling would-be pictures that normally see right through clothing. This is supposed to help athletes (I suspect female athletes specifically) feel more comfortable at their sport, and not have to worry about people taking see-through pictures. I think I’m missing an important detail, though - do infrared pictures turn out with the same kind of detailing as visible-light ones? Are they monochromatic? Do would they require some processing to produce the intended result? And again, perhaps most importantly... who is taking these kinds of pictures that underclothes like these are needed?
And with that question, I head off toward my bed. ACen is almost upon us. I can feel it...
2dlife advised me of this fact beforehand. Now, I finally get what he meant. The situation will be remedied soon. I do not like having my computer slow to a crawl because it’s trying to do the normal functions that I require of it. Thus, more RAM will be on the way soon. Starting with something that may or may not be interesting to people - Calling Crane in the Shade is a site that reviews books on the Book of Changes, but also has some beginner info, some more advanced material on the hexagrams that make up the Book of changes, and some advice for practice in both what to look for as well as what should be avoided when consulting the Book.
An astute BoingBoing column - because of the way that the AACS Licensing Authority has been behaving, a Princeton professor is offering everyone their own change to copyright a 128-bit number and use it as an encryption key for a haiku. From there, the DMCA will protect the number, and anyone caught using it, for whatever purpose it may be (like if the AACS should change their key), will be subject to the penalties of the offense. So hopefully someone figures out the new key, notes it, sees if it’s been copyrighted, and then the owner brings litigation to protect their copyrighted material. After all, that would be true according to the precedent.
Wired offers up something worth considering - Scott Carney makes a case for mandatory organ donation after death, or at least changing the laws so that people are presumed to give their consent for organ donation unless they specifically opt-out. It would most likely help with the shortage of organ donors in the country. Since most of the people donating would not require the use of them any longer, I want to know what other objections there are to such a practice that aren’t rooted in a belief that the body must be buried whole to be resurrected, regardless of the probability to have decomposed completely before any resurrection will occur.
An explosion went off in a garage of the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas - one dead. Police have decided that the device was not intended to be a terror device, but intended to kill the person who perished from it. So it’s not any sort of prelude to a wave of terror. Unless, for some reason, there are going to be more explosives.
A quick blurb that does say something about how the war in Iraq affects people at home - after being whacked by an F-5 class tornado, Kansas is having trouble providing proper emergency response because a significant number of their emergency response vehicles were in Iraq. So. Not enough to go around, and we see who gets the short end of the stick. Desmond Tutu says terrorism can't be beaten so long as conditions continue to make people desperate, and I’d say that not having the appropriate material to do emergency response counts. Perhaps helping with the food part, in cases of disaster (or in places where things like electricity are intermittent), a Japanese company has developed a way of being able to produce steaming hot rice using cold water, an agent, and high pressure for the rice. Pour the water on the agent and make steaming rice.
Going back to the politics part, Townhall has two pieces that try to put the current conflict in Iraq into a larger historical context. Fred Thompson's "To the Shores of Tripoli" makes comparisons between the current conflict’s Muslim ideologies and the conflict with the Barbary pirates, a conflict that lasted more than a decade. I note that despite what several conservative talking-heads have said about the persons being fought in Iraq, the Barbary pirates were actively attacking American ships repeatedly before the United States commissioned a naval force to fight them off. Scattered terror attacks being woven together as a concerted effort, and then attempting to smash that effort will do a lot of resource-draining, trying to snuff out terror over the whole of the world. Anyway, there’s a second piece, as well, where Dennis Prager writes a letter to the American soldiers in Iraq, praising them for fighting radical Islam and doing good work and taking shots at the anti-war crowd in the country for not believing in the obvious rightness and morality of the conflict.
Changing countries and conflicts, Amnesty International suspects that the Chinese and Russians have been shipping arms to Darfur to be used in the conflict there, in violation of a Security Council embargo on arms. Weapons, ammunition, parts for aircraft, and complete aircraft were all cited in the report as going to the country.
80% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the queen. 70% approve of Blair, a higher rating than those who have had to deal with his policies give him. CNN attempts to make it confusing by adding in that almost 40% of Americans think Britain would do better without the monarchy. But liking the person has very little to do with liking the politics - American elections have proven that point enough times over the years. And possible the other way, too - remember Freedom Fries? Well, now that a more pro U.S. government is in power, perhaps Friendship Fries are now in order.
As with all the biological press-release/article stuff I read, how potentially difficult is the following process being touted? New Scientist has a blurb about bacteria-like things that divide at their ends and carry a drug, which is then delivered through the use of coating the cells with markers that bind to cancerous cells. Supposedly, the drug is delivered in a targeted manner, raising effectiveness and lowering the requirements of the drug, as well as potentially avoiding the side effects of conventional chemotherapy. How hard is it to do this, and how expensive? (Are we looking at a possible new treatment here?)
It's been ten years since race-blind admissions were adopted in California. And then, several other states followed suit. The results appear to be mixed - some down, some up, some over-representation, some under. So I guess I have to wonder how things are on campuses at the UC colleges and whether the college experience is the same or different.
Children conceived in the summer months are apparently doing poorer at school across races, genders, and other lines. Some suspect it might be because there are more pesticides in the environment that may be playing with the hormones and chemistry of the mother. Further investigation is going on.
However, I can’t let the seriousness continue too much, and thus, you also get an article about a jet powered outhouse.. Insert your own “flaming poo” joke here.
Psychology Today runs an article about how people of mixed races may be perceived as prettier than those only of one race. The blending of characteristics apparently trips our “genetically fit and healthy” senses, and that may translate into finding them more attractive. Perhaps going for a different type of blending, that of beauty and brains, Chesspics offers pictures of some of thee female national chess teams in the Torino Olympiad.
More photographs and pictures for your burgeoning image archives. This time, the work of Manuel Libres Librodo Junior, who offers a view of the world through his eyes and galleries.
The trailing part for tonight, though, is this - a Japanese company has made underclothes that will block infrared rays, foiling would-be pictures that normally see right through clothing. This is supposed to help athletes (I suspect female athletes specifically) feel more comfortable at their sport, and not have to worry about people taking see-through pictures. I think I’m missing an important detail, though - do infrared pictures turn out with the same kind of detailing as visible-light ones? Are they monochromatic? Do would they require some processing to produce the intended result? And again, perhaps most importantly... who is taking these kinds of pictures that underclothes like these are needed?
And with that question, I head off toward my bed. ACen is almost upon us. I can feel it...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 11:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 12:37 pm (UTC)You ask this about the country that sells used school-girl panties in vending machines?
no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 04:04 pm (UTC)OTOH, I'd rather it be a mandatory thing than having those damn organ people approaching you just minutes after you've watched your loved one pass away because they need to "act fast" and "harvest the organ/tissue". They can't even give you a window to think about it, you have about ten minutes to decide if you want to allow them to go exploring in your recently deceased loved one's body or not. That's NOT a decision you ought to be making at that moment. Yes, eight out of ten opt not to donate. This is because they are being asked at a vulnerable time and they don't want to think about it. If donating organs was a mandatory thing after death, then there wouldn't be this additional stress added onto the families. Of course, if the deceased marked they WERE an organ donor, then the family doesn't have to make the decision, because the person already did while they were alive. But I also question making the decision to donate your deceased loved one's body parts when they themselves did not designate to be an organ donor, because unless you previously discussed it with the person before they died, they might have a good reason to have not decided to be an organ donor to begin with, and then the family is going against the deceased person's wishes by opting to donate.
So I guess I'm more in favour of a mandatory system. Despite the paranoia it might cause in those people who think that some doctors are out there looking for "parts", it would definitely lessen the burden on the people dealing with a recent death.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 04:09 pm (UTC)also, I'm reminded of that movie "Return to Me", where the girl (Minnie Driver) receives the heart of this man's recently deceased wife, and he falls in love with her, and the whole sappy pretense is that their hearts belonged together. I wonder if there are any "true stories" of things like that happening. I sort of doubt it, because it's not the organ called the heart that's your "heart" in terms of being in love, but if they got your loved one's eyes, you might be more inclined to fall in love with the recipient. Or maybe not.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-09 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-10 01:09 am (UTC)Unless you're referring to that movie, in which case, the whole thing was just a cheesy plot to get a movie with Minnie Driver in it to sell.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-10 01:47 pm (UTC)Corneal transplants are done, but the cornea is the CLEAR part of your eye. The iris is the colored part and that part is not transplanted. Neither is the whole eye (think of all the nerve endings that you'd have to patch)
no subject
Date: 2007-05-10 01:59 pm (UTC)If they only take the cornea, how could they possibly use it from someone who has bad eyesight? Isn't the cornea the part that focuses the eye?
no subject
Date: 2007-05-11 12:25 am (UTC)Yes and no. The cornea is the part of your eye that is in front, and does the coarse focusing, then you have the iris and the hole in the center (the pupil) which leads to the lens which does the majority of the fine focusing. The cornea is a particularly sensitive tissue and corneal disease or damage cause the cornea to cloud up or become thin; transplants restore that clarity. Often the patient will have very poor vision after transplantation but that's still better than no vision at all.
In people with bad eyesight, the defect is usually in the lens muscle ability to focus light onto the retina (either because of weak muscles or an enlongated or shortened eye.) They still have clear corneas and can still donate.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-10 04:41 am (UTC)isvery high on my list of desirable characteristics when I was dating. It's still a requirement for potential friends.2. IR photography. There was a problem several years ago with a certain Sony video camera that had a "night photography" mode. It could literally see through clothes. We're talking nipples and vaginal cleft here. It didn't work on all clothes, but if you were wearing, say, summer-weight clothes.... Anyway, Sony modified later models of that camera, but it's still a risk. If I remember, I'll do some searching and see if I can find the old articles. I'd say it was within the last five years.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-10 11:18 am (UTC)Regarding the IR camera, I understand a little bit more now, I guess. I just wondered whether it takes the same kind of "night vision" pictures that we're used to - monochromatically green and the like.