Silly computers. - 29 June 2007
Jun. 29th, 2007 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptWell, in the middle of something, some part of my computer crashed. I think it’ll take a reboot to bring everything back up, but that means I should draw down as much of my material as possible and post before the reboot. I wrote something for my essays today, and finished another application, so it wasn’t a complete loss. And, probably despite my better interests, I downloaded and played some Nethack. I’ve already died once, thanks, but I did at least get my score over 1K. Yay. I also managed to get a Literati score over 300, because my opponent, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
annaonthemoon had letters left over. (299 without - and some beauty bingoes - AILMENTS on a 3w, ENNEADS on a 3w, for 62 and 58, respectively) Also ran a couple of words I didn’t know about - AIRN and NALES. Sometimes it pays to be lucky.
Beware of the latest of the social-engineering scams. There is no Bulletin MS07-0065. Which might say that it’s getting harder to use simply technological means to cause harm. Of course, this is pretty good social engineering, preying on people’s worry about technological malfeasance to infect them. If it’s suspicious, don’t click it. Instead, open a new tab/window and go direct to the source.
On the other hand, when companies start building things that scream "Hello! Exploit me!" into their chips, and allow them to work even when the computer is powered off and the CPU is dormant, it may just be a matter that we’ve managed to catch up for the moment on all the technological Bad Things.
Awesome reporter refuses to report on Paris Hilton, is mocked and ignored by co-workers. There’s at least one person in TV who’s got their head on straight, and is willing to say so on the air.
Chinks in the “ex-gay” armor, from within? One co-founder and one former leader of Exodus International, and one leader of a ministry that referred people to Exodus, apologized for their actions, saying that their message had caused people to harm themselves and their families. More proof that trying to change someone in that kind of manner isn’t easy, nor is it necessarily a good idea, and if it causes harm to them, then I doubt whatever it is that’s supposed to declare them cured doesn’t stick too well.
In other religious matters, Self on-line takea look at what happens when doctors refuse to give treatment, based on their moral objections. The starting story is of an emergency-room doctor who refused to give someone who had been raped any EC. I think that strongly violates “do no harm”, myself. And because most of the “moral objections” involve things like birth control and/or abortion, the effects of this are being felt much more strongly by women than by men.
Unfortunately, the “liberal media, my tailscales” department lashes back with a vengeance with Americans United for Separation of Church and State's deconstruction of "A Wall of Separation", a program meant for PBS. The program does its best to convince people that the United States’ Founding Fathers really intended to have a Biblically-based Christian Nation, when the opposite is true, among other things, trying to paint the country as happily Christian and prosperous until atheists/the Supreme Court waylaid it and forced it to do all sorts of things it didn’t want to do.
I’m sure the creators of “Wall” would be thoroughly pleased with this Supreme Court, which in another 5-4 decision, strongly limited the ability of public schools to utilize race in ensuring a diverse school. Oh, and they used Brown v. Board of Education as part of their ruling basis. Sounds like a large part of what the Roberts court intends to do is make things more “race-neutral” everywhere, which, if the society were ready to take on those roles, would probably be a laudable goal. With stories such as nooses being hung in retaliation for blacks sitting at a "whites-only" tree (it was so by an unwritten rule), and the aftermath from that, of which six people were arrested, the D.A. pushing hard for maximal sentences and trial as adults, an all-white jury is likely to be selected, and which, by now, the first of the six has been convicted, one could probably say that things are still a little touchy, if you wanted to understate things. Almost like clockwork, Jesus' General offers his thoughts on the matter.
According to The Fund For Peace, the United States is only a moderately sustainable country, unlike Canada, which is fully sustainable. This comes from the Failed States Index scores for this year. We’re close, though. If we could tighten up some of those scores, like adhering to the rule of law, balancing out our economic gaps, and have better disaster-relief, then we’d probably make it to sustainable. All it would take would be a little effort and some wise spending, right? Or, perhaps, we could take a page or two frombradhicks, who offers advice for those going to see Sicko, Michael Moore's newest film, about how much private insurance companies are working against the people they claim to cover. Update: Brad is back from the movie and says that the idea that universal health care would be bad for all of us has been proven wrong for decades now, despite whatever objections people want to raise. Some nice single-payer programs with universal coverage would be nice to have, assuming that the accountability was also there to ensure that the corruption stayed small (or, hopefully, doesn’t start, but we’re not sure that’s possible.) Although, from bradhicks‘s account of the movie, even a somewhat corrupted system would be better than what we have now. Further Update: - Jesus’ General offers a sampling of some conservative blogger responses to Sicko, all concentrating on Mr. Moore’s physical appaearance.
Cool Things says "Have a look at my clockwork guitar!", which is quite the cool thing to have. I wonder if it took great care and delicacy to ensure that the guitar itself was not harmed by this? Chalking up another point for imprinting, a family has a hippopotamus for a pet, that behaves and is in all senses domesticated.
I’ll pair that idea with a new scientific discovery, saying that for longer than we previously thought, cats choose their humans, not the other way around. And it’s probably been this way ever since there were grain storage areas with mice, so that cats could eat them.
However, the Ultimate Cool Thing for tonight, which is, as you note, last, and thus should be read by all, is an exonerated defendant is suing the RIAA for malicious prosecution. Someone has the stones to fight back against the cabal, and is trying to leverage RICO, among other things, against them. If she’s successful, a nice class action can’t be too far behind, coming from all the people who have been harassed by the RIAA so far. And maybe it’ll make the other *AA swallow hard and possibly change their course of action away from what would be a suicidal move. We’re really rooting for this one to go through and be found against the RIAA.
annaonthemoon had letters left over. (299 without - and some beauty bingoes - AILMENTS on a 3w, ENNEADS on a 3w, for 62 and 58, respectively) Also ran a couple of words I didn’t know about - AIRN and NALES. Sometimes it pays to be lucky.Beware of the latest of the social-engineering scams. There is no Bulletin MS07-0065. Which might say that it’s getting harder to use simply technological means to cause harm. Of course, this is pretty good social engineering, preying on people’s worry about technological malfeasance to infect them. If it’s suspicious, don’t click it. Instead, open a new tab/window and go direct to the source.
On the other hand, when companies start building things that scream "Hello! Exploit me!" into their chips, and allow them to work even when the computer is powered off and the CPU is dormant, it may just be a matter that we’ve managed to catch up for the moment on all the technological Bad Things.
Awesome reporter refuses to report on Paris Hilton, is mocked and ignored by co-workers. There’s at least one person in TV who’s got their head on straight, and is willing to say so on the air.
Chinks in the “ex-gay” armor, from within? One co-founder and one former leader of Exodus International, and one leader of a ministry that referred people to Exodus, apologized for their actions, saying that their message had caused people to harm themselves and their families. More proof that trying to change someone in that kind of manner isn’t easy, nor is it necessarily a good idea, and if it causes harm to them, then I doubt whatever it is that’s supposed to declare them cured doesn’t stick too well.
In other religious matters, Self on-line takea look at what happens when doctors refuse to give treatment, based on their moral objections. The starting story is of an emergency-room doctor who refused to give someone who had been raped any EC. I think that strongly violates “do no harm”, myself. And because most of the “moral objections” involve things like birth control and/or abortion, the effects of this are being felt much more strongly by women than by men.
Unfortunately, the “liberal media, my tailscales” department lashes back with a vengeance with Americans United for Separation of Church and State's deconstruction of "A Wall of Separation", a program meant for PBS. The program does its best to convince people that the United States’ Founding Fathers really intended to have a Biblically-based Christian Nation, when the opposite is true, among other things, trying to paint the country as happily Christian and prosperous until atheists/the Supreme Court waylaid it and forced it to do all sorts of things it didn’t want to do.
I’m sure the creators of “Wall” would be thoroughly pleased with this Supreme Court, which in another 5-4 decision, strongly limited the ability of public schools to utilize race in ensuring a diverse school. Oh, and they used Brown v. Board of Education as part of their ruling basis. Sounds like a large part of what the Roberts court intends to do is make things more “race-neutral” everywhere, which, if the society were ready to take on those roles, would probably be a laudable goal. With stories such as nooses being hung in retaliation for blacks sitting at a "whites-only" tree (it was so by an unwritten rule), and the aftermath from that, of which six people were arrested, the D.A. pushing hard for maximal sentences and trial as adults, an all-white jury is likely to be selected, and which, by now, the first of the six has been convicted, one could probably say that things are still a little touchy, if you wanted to understate things. Almost like clockwork, Jesus' General offers his thoughts on the matter.
According to The Fund For Peace, the United States is only a moderately sustainable country, unlike Canada, which is fully sustainable. This comes from the Failed States Index scores for this year. We’re close, though. If we could tighten up some of those scores, like adhering to the rule of law, balancing out our economic gaps, and have better disaster-relief, then we’d probably make it to sustainable. All it would take would be a little effort and some wise spending, right? Or, perhaps, we could take a page or two from
bradhicks, who offers advice for those going to see Sicko, Michael Moore's newest film, about how much private insurance companies are working against the people they claim to cover. Update: Brad is back from the movie and says that the idea that universal health care would be bad for all of us has been proven wrong for decades now, despite whatever objections people want to raise. Some nice single-payer programs with universal coverage would be nice to have, assuming that the accountability was also there to ensure that the corruption stayed small (or, hopefully, doesn’t start, but we’re not sure that’s possible.) Although, from bradhicks‘s account of the movie, even a somewhat corrupted system would be better than what we have now. Further Update: - Jesus’ General offers a sampling of some conservative blogger responses to Sicko, all concentrating on Mr. Moore’s physical appaearance.Cool Things says "Have a look at my clockwork guitar!", which is quite the cool thing to have. I wonder if it took great care and delicacy to ensure that the guitar itself was not harmed by this? Chalking up another point for imprinting, a family has a hippopotamus for a pet, that behaves and is in all senses domesticated.
I’ll pair that idea with a new scientific discovery, saying that for longer than we previously thought, cats choose their humans, not the other way around. And it’s probably been this way ever since there were grain storage areas with mice, so that cats could eat them.
However, the Ultimate Cool Thing for tonight, which is, as you note, last, and thus should be read by all, is an exonerated defendant is suing the RIAA for malicious prosecution. Someone has the stones to fight back against the cabal, and is trying to leverage RICO, among other things, against them. If she’s successful, a nice class action can’t be too far behind, coming from all the people who have been harassed by the RIAA so far. And maybe it’ll make the other *AA swallow hard and possibly change their course of action away from what would be a suicidal move. We’re really rooting for this one to go through and be found against the RIAA.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: LJ hates me, sorry if this posted multiple times.
Date: 2007-07-02 07:17 am (UTC)Re: LJ hates me, sorry if this posted multiple times.
Date: 2007-07-02 05:00 pm (UTC)Re: LJ hates me, sorry if this posted multiple times.
Date: 2007-07-02 05:11 pm (UTC)Re: LJ hates me, sorry if this posted multiple times.
Date: 2007-07-02 07:45 pm (UTC)Re: LJ hates me, sorry if this posted multiple times.
Date: 2007-07-02 07:48 pm (UTC)but yeah, I probably will check it out. I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it before since I've taken two Women's Lit classes, and this seems like the type of book that ought to have been picked.