Welcome to the weekend - 27 July 2007
Jul. 28th, 2007 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptAll sorts of things happened today. This morning, I found out that there was an explosion at Mojave airport of a Scaled Composites test. There’s a older trombone of the band that I’ve met (although he marched before I arrived) who works at Scaled (he sent his bone mouthpiece up with the SpaceShipOne X-Prize test as part of the cargo that would represent people), and from what we’ve gathered so far, he’s injured, but it’s not life-threatening. Things like that scare you, not only because of friends getting hurt, but because things like that keep reminding me far too much that it’s not a guarantee that anyone lives to an old age. I’d like for it to be certain that I’ll have some amount of life still ahead of me, but it’s a cruel world out there. As several have said, if I’m going to do everything I want to before I die, I’ll live forever because I’m so far behind. Would that such were true.
A useful datum for all of us - Linksys is dying, long live Cisco. The Linksys name will not be on any more products, now they will be Cisco-branded products.
Recall, somewhere in the past week that I mentioned Michelle Malkin’s diatribe about how gun owners would be a force to be reckoned with in upcoming elections? The Manchester, New Hampshire Republican Party agrees, offering to host a fundraiser shoot, where the guns in question will include Uzis and M-16s. Because automatic weapons are necessary for personal defence, as we all know. The Department of Homeland Security continues to research non-lethal weaponry, funding the development of a light weapon that blinds and disorients those who it is pointed at. Combined with the super-sunburn ray, crowd control might get very interesting, while it stays non-lethal. Something like this weapon certainly fits the idea of “shock and awe”, I’ll say that much.
Regarding everyone in the United States’ favorite country, even as the conflict continues in its fifth year, the politicians ask for more time, while claiming that the troop surge is doing its job. Maybe not for the creature comforts, like electricity, but the people in Washington, D.C. don't know about how much or little electricity is available for Baghdad citizens. Still others here are concerned that the nature of the warfare is turning soldiers into murderers, and that atrocities are par for the course on any given day in Iraq. Despite the continued presence of potentially hostile poeple all around them, something worthy of mention is the Iraqi football team meeting Saudi Arabia in the finals of the Asian Cup, and the willingness of the populace to deal with potential suicide bombers and other deterrents to celebrate and cheer on the team.
The conservative pundits at home dismiss the Democratic candidates' statements in their debates, marking them as having no new ideas and eager to retreat from Iraq. (Although, if Senator Edwards’s remark about Senator Clinton’s choice of attire is accurate, then there may be good reasons to dismiss him as a serious candidate, if he’s not willing to take another candidate seriously.) Ken Blackwell ha a similar dismissal but raises questions that the Democratic candidates should have been asked about, ones that I agree should be asked, if for no other reason to weed out the Republicans posing as Democrats, and to see just how in line with the liberal wing of America the professed liberal candidates actually are. While Ken singles out Senator Clinton as the person to be asked, I think those kinds of questions should be asked of all the Democratic candidates. Wouldn’t do to have a pro-war, anti-gay marriage candidate supposedly representing the anti-war, pro-gay marriage crowd, now would it? Although, if you believe as Phillip Greenspan does, and that the Founding Fathers had intended precisely for such a situation to happen if the aristocrats/rich intended it to, then maybe the Democrats are the right people for the job. That comment inspires Carol Warner Christen to suggest that the republic be removed and a democratic system where the public itself must approve of all bills and laws be instituted. Would certainly appease people who want less bills passed every year. At the same time, governance and law could become a matter of making sure sufficient members of the public are manipulated into supporting the appropriate position on whatever bill is put forward. For an example of where things could go horribly wrong with direct democratic control, Sara, at Orcinus, does her(?) best to pinpoint why fundamentalists hate magic so very much - magic makes people into doers that shape their own destiny, with or without the help of any divine being, running on their own internal moral compasses, which runs completely at odds with the mindset that humanity can’t achieve anything good without submission to the externally-imposed authority of a particular god and his agents here on Terra. Stories tend to run with the anti-authority crowd, often ending with the toppling, crippling, or other serious undermining of said authority, because it makes for a good story, and adding magic as a catalyst for getting things done, rather than praying on the matter and waiting for God(ot), only makes the rebellion bigger.
In international affairs, Indian doctor in Australia has terror-assistance charges related to UK attacks dropped against him, visa still canceled. His assistance apparently involved giving one of the persons related to someone in the Glasgow incident a SIM card. If he had been convicted, he could have spent up to 15 years in prison. For giving someone a SIM card, ostensibly so that the recipient could take advantage of minutes remaining on his mobile plan. Methinks that the terror laws are wound a bit tightly.
Returning home on the loop, the Wall Street Journal’s Opinionjournal offers up a justification for warrantless wiretapping, a call to expand the program, remove it from the jurisdiction of the FISA court, and permit warrants to be acquired after the tap has already been completed. All under the justification of “making America safer”, and pointing fingers at the Democrats and “unaccountable” judges for getting in the way. Perhaps the overarching attitude of that nature trickles down into accounts like Susie Day's, where the observation of a police beating and an inquiry to that behavior is claimed to have resulted in a beating of one of the observers, since both seem to show similar contempt for both proper law-enforcement and their fellow Humes. AmericaBlog takes aim at Bill O’Reilly and says, "Fine. You want to paint liberals as nutjobs because of a few kook comments? Well, then, we'll paint you all as un-American based on your comments and try to get your sponsors to pull their endorsement of you.". This will be an entertaining lesson for both sides, I suspect, as they’ll be able to talk until they are blue in the face to each other’s sponsors and probably be greeted with “Thank you for your comments. We’ll take them under consideration. Now, go away.” And while there may be no shortage of source material for both sides to sling about, the effectiveness of both of those operations will probably be precisely... dick.
According to some documents obtained by the Associated press, there may be another perjury investigation, this time for Alberto Gonzalez and the reauthorization of the warrantless wiretapping. Gonzales says that the meeting described were for some other program. Well, even if Gonzales were convicted of perjury, he would likely also get a commuted sentence. Still, what sort of shame would that bring that the Attorney General was convicted of perjury, should it happen?
Brent Bozell III is not particularly fond of the Michael Vick scandal. Or any other sport scandal, for that matter. Where are all the admirable athletes? he asks, wanting the commissioners and heads of the various sports to crack down on scandalous behaviors, including steroids and run-ins with the law. It would be nice to have a rest from celebrity scandal of all sorts, and perhaps by tightening the screws on athletes, where there is some sort of oversight, we could decrease the amount of material for the press to feast upon. Of course, it would be nice were the press not to report on things unless they’re illegal and committed by people, too, but one thing at a time.
Somewhat depressing or somewhat awe-inspiring or somewhat interesting to think about is a Universe Today article about the various possible ends of existence in the future of this universe, from the possible end of humanity to the end of photons. Something more just generally scary is NASA officials having to deal with sabotage of stress-reporting equipment and that some of the shuttle astronauts were intoxicated while being launched into space. Although one would wonder, if you were going into space, wouldn’t you want to go about all that G-force slightly tipsy, so long as you didn’t puke it up?
Bibliophile's collection costs him his home after officials declare it a fire hazard. Nearly 3,000 texts in one person’s home. I can understand the worry, but one would hope that someone with such a collection would know how to keep them away from harm’s way, especially as a bookstore owner. So I suppose R.O.D. is a fiction additionally in that Yomiko is able to maintain her collection without having her apartment/house condemned as a fire hazard.
From one gel that purports to help stop the spread of HIV to a gel that purports to be able to soak up heavy-metal pollution in water. The test case uses platinum, but the scientists responsible say that they can make similar gels using less expensive materials. I wonder what they can/want to do with the gel once it has soaked up the heavy metals - try to recycle them, or consider them in a much safer form and just dispose of them.
Right before the end, I took a quiz about what Tarot card I am, and it told me I’m co-dependent. Well, okay, it didn’t really say that, and I’m just having fun with the language in the result. Anywy, under the cut, here’s what this whole thing’s about.
Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse, The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made. Originally, this card was called just Love. And that’s actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. Love is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can’t understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.
As I said, I’m co-dependent, apparently, wasting away in Margaritaville, looking for my lost shaker of salt, and I won’t be happy until I’ve found my true loves. Or, perhaps, have found at least one of them somewhere along the way, and am looking for the others. Yay for mockery readings! Regardless of what appeared, I’d probably be making fun of it. Every now and then, black humors must be exercised, even if they aren’t believed.
Next to last is an exhortation to let children compete, whether they will be winners or losers, for without it, Joanne Jacobs argues, nobody gets to see their vast potential or improve upon their shortcomings. It also shortchanges children seeing what “the real world” and all its competitiveness are going to demand of them. By not competing, nobody knows just how good they are. There’s merit to this idea, but I suspect that even in noncompetitive environments, there will be competition going on naturally. Deliberately holding students out of competitive environments that they want to go into is not worthwhile, though. We’re supposed to be encouraging development of talents and skills, after all. I just hope it won’t get to a point where people are being forced into competitive environments that don’t want to go there. It’s bad enough that there’s already the oligarchy of the playground as it is.
Last materials for tonight is something that we could all use to make ourselves smarter. 10 ways to be a self-taught master using audodidacticism (teaching oneself) and the Internet’s giant repository of stuff. Setting aside a little time every day, you learn something new, at your own pace, and after some time, you’ve mastered the material - possibly without even knowing it. (Kind of sounds like the job I’m trying to get paid for, depending on how you view reference questions.) The only think I’d really want people to watch out for is that on the Web, even in places like Wikipedia, errors may persist, and even be documented as sources. So tread lightly when combing the web for things, and never be afraid to question something or go look it up in a print source. And that’s not just because I’m trying to shill for libraries, but a lot of them have on-line reference service, and some even offer up access to their databases so long as you have a card, so that if a particular article strikes your fancy, you can probably dig it up.
Anyway, bed now. Sleep good. Saturday will be good things, maybe. Maybe not. Either way, have to experience it to find out.
A useful datum for all of us - Linksys is dying, long live Cisco. The Linksys name will not be on any more products, now they will be Cisco-branded products.
Recall, somewhere in the past week that I mentioned Michelle Malkin’s diatribe about how gun owners would be a force to be reckoned with in upcoming elections? The Manchester, New Hampshire Republican Party agrees, offering to host a fundraiser shoot, where the guns in question will include Uzis and M-16s. Because automatic weapons are necessary for personal defence, as we all know. The Department of Homeland Security continues to research non-lethal weaponry, funding the development of a light weapon that blinds and disorients those who it is pointed at. Combined with the super-sunburn ray, crowd control might get very interesting, while it stays non-lethal. Something like this weapon certainly fits the idea of “shock and awe”, I’ll say that much.
Regarding everyone in the United States’ favorite country, even as the conflict continues in its fifth year, the politicians ask for more time, while claiming that the troop surge is doing its job. Maybe not for the creature comforts, like electricity, but the people in Washington, D.C. don't know about how much or little electricity is available for Baghdad citizens. Still others here are concerned that the nature of the warfare is turning soldiers into murderers, and that atrocities are par for the course on any given day in Iraq. Despite the continued presence of potentially hostile poeple all around them, something worthy of mention is the Iraqi football team meeting Saudi Arabia in the finals of the Asian Cup, and the willingness of the populace to deal with potential suicide bombers and other deterrents to celebrate and cheer on the team.
The conservative pundits at home dismiss the Democratic candidates' statements in their debates, marking them as having no new ideas and eager to retreat from Iraq. (Although, if Senator Edwards’s remark about Senator Clinton’s choice of attire is accurate, then there may be good reasons to dismiss him as a serious candidate, if he’s not willing to take another candidate seriously.) Ken Blackwell ha a similar dismissal but raises questions that the Democratic candidates should have been asked about, ones that I agree should be asked, if for no other reason to weed out the Republicans posing as Democrats, and to see just how in line with the liberal wing of America the professed liberal candidates actually are. While Ken singles out Senator Clinton as the person to be asked, I think those kinds of questions should be asked of all the Democratic candidates. Wouldn’t do to have a pro-war, anti-gay marriage candidate supposedly representing the anti-war, pro-gay marriage crowd, now would it? Although, if you believe as Phillip Greenspan does, and that the Founding Fathers had intended precisely for such a situation to happen if the aristocrats/rich intended it to, then maybe the Democrats are the right people for the job. That comment inspires Carol Warner Christen to suggest that the republic be removed and a democratic system where the public itself must approve of all bills and laws be instituted. Would certainly appease people who want less bills passed every year. At the same time, governance and law could become a matter of making sure sufficient members of the public are manipulated into supporting the appropriate position on whatever bill is put forward. For an example of where things could go horribly wrong with direct democratic control, Sara, at Orcinus, does her(?) best to pinpoint why fundamentalists hate magic so very much - magic makes people into doers that shape their own destiny, with or without the help of any divine being, running on their own internal moral compasses, which runs completely at odds with the mindset that humanity can’t achieve anything good without submission to the externally-imposed authority of a particular god and his agents here on Terra. Stories tend to run with the anti-authority crowd, often ending with the toppling, crippling, or other serious undermining of said authority, because it makes for a good story, and adding magic as a catalyst for getting things done, rather than praying on the matter and waiting for God(ot), only makes the rebellion bigger.
In international affairs, Indian doctor in Australia has terror-assistance charges related to UK attacks dropped against him, visa still canceled. His assistance apparently involved giving one of the persons related to someone in the Glasgow incident a SIM card. If he had been convicted, he could have spent up to 15 years in prison. For giving someone a SIM card, ostensibly so that the recipient could take advantage of minutes remaining on his mobile plan. Methinks that the terror laws are wound a bit tightly.
Returning home on the loop, the Wall Street Journal’s Opinionjournal offers up a justification for warrantless wiretapping, a call to expand the program, remove it from the jurisdiction of the FISA court, and permit warrants to be acquired after the tap has already been completed. All under the justification of “making America safer”, and pointing fingers at the Democrats and “unaccountable” judges for getting in the way. Perhaps the overarching attitude of that nature trickles down into accounts like Susie Day's, where the observation of a police beating and an inquiry to that behavior is claimed to have resulted in a beating of one of the observers, since both seem to show similar contempt for both proper law-enforcement and their fellow Humes. AmericaBlog takes aim at Bill O’Reilly and says, "Fine. You want to paint liberals as nutjobs because of a few kook comments? Well, then, we'll paint you all as un-American based on your comments and try to get your sponsors to pull their endorsement of you.". This will be an entertaining lesson for both sides, I suspect, as they’ll be able to talk until they are blue in the face to each other’s sponsors and probably be greeted with “Thank you for your comments. We’ll take them under consideration. Now, go away.” And while there may be no shortage of source material for both sides to sling about, the effectiveness of both of those operations will probably be precisely... dick.
According to some documents obtained by the Associated press, there may be another perjury investigation, this time for Alberto Gonzalez and the reauthorization of the warrantless wiretapping. Gonzales says that the meeting described were for some other program. Well, even if Gonzales were convicted of perjury, he would likely also get a commuted sentence. Still, what sort of shame would that bring that the Attorney General was convicted of perjury, should it happen?
Brent Bozell III is not particularly fond of the Michael Vick scandal. Or any other sport scandal, for that matter. Where are all the admirable athletes? he asks, wanting the commissioners and heads of the various sports to crack down on scandalous behaviors, including steroids and run-ins with the law. It would be nice to have a rest from celebrity scandal of all sorts, and perhaps by tightening the screws on athletes, where there is some sort of oversight, we could decrease the amount of material for the press to feast upon. Of course, it would be nice were the press not to report on things unless they’re illegal and committed by people, too, but one thing at a time.
Somewhat depressing or somewhat awe-inspiring or somewhat interesting to think about is a Universe Today article about the various possible ends of existence in the future of this universe, from the possible end of humanity to the end of photons. Something more just generally scary is NASA officials having to deal with sabotage of stress-reporting equipment and that some of the shuttle astronauts were intoxicated while being launched into space. Although one would wonder, if you were going into space, wouldn’t you want to go about all that G-force slightly tipsy, so long as you didn’t puke it up?
Bibliophile's collection costs him his home after officials declare it a fire hazard. Nearly 3,000 texts in one person’s home. I can understand the worry, but one would hope that someone with such a collection would know how to keep them away from harm’s way, especially as a bookstore owner. So I suppose R.O.D. is a fiction additionally in that Yomiko is able to maintain her collection without having her apartment/house condemned as a fire hazard.
From one gel that purports to help stop the spread of HIV to a gel that purports to be able to soak up heavy-metal pollution in water. The test case uses platinum, but the scientists responsible say that they can make similar gels using less expensive materials. I wonder what they can/want to do with the gel once it has soaked up the heavy metals - try to recycle them, or consider them in a much safer form and just dispose of them.
Right before the end, I took a quiz about what Tarot card I am, and it told me I’m co-dependent. Well, okay, it didn’t really say that, and I’m just having fun with the language in the result. Anywy, under the cut, here’s what this whole thing’s about.
You are The Lovers
Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse, The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made. Originally, this card was called just Love. And that’s actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. Love is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can’t understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.
As I said, I’m co-dependent, apparently, wasting away in Margaritaville, looking for my lost shaker of salt, and I won’t be happy until I’ve found my true loves. Or, perhaps, have found at least one of them somewhere along the way, and am looking for the others. Yay for mockery readings! Regardless of what appeared, I’d probably be making fun of it. Every now and then, black humors must be exercised, even if they aren’t believed.
Next to last is an exhortation to let children compete, whether they will be winners or losers, for without it, Joanne Jacobs argues, nobody gets to see their vast potential or improve upon their shortcomings. It also shortchanges children seeing what “the real world” and all its competitiveness are going to demand of them. By not competing, nobody knows just how good they are. There’s merit to this idea, but I suspect that even in noncompetitive environments, there will be competition going on naturally. Deliberately holding students out of competitive environments that they want to go into is not worthwhile, though. We’re supposed to be encouraging development of talents and skills, after all. I just hope it won’t get to a point where people are being forced into competitive environments that don’t want to go there. It’s bad enough that there’s already the oligarchy of the playground as it is.
Last materials for tonight is something that we could all use to make ourselves smarter. 10 ways to be a self-taught master using audodidacticism (teaching oneself) and the Internet’s giant repository of stuff. Setting aside a little time every day, you learn something new, at your own pace, and after some time, you’ve mastered the material - possibly without even knowing it. (Kind of sounds like the job I’m trying to get paid for, depending on how you view reference questions.) The only think I’d really want people to watch out for is that on the Web, even in places like Wikipedia, errors may persist, and even be documented as sources. So tread lightly when combing the web for things, and never be afraid to question something or go look it up in a print source. And that’s not just because I’m trying to shill for libraries, but a lot of them have on-line reference service, and some even offer up access to their databases so long as you have a card, so that if a particular article strikes your fancy, you can probably dig it up.
Anyway, bed now. Sleep good. Saturday will be good things, maybe. Maybe not. Either way, have to experience it to find out.
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-28 09:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-28 02:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-29 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-29 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-29 11:18 am (UTC)As things stand though, I've never read the WSJ and don't plan on it since I don't do anything with the Stock Markets. If I did, then I'd watch "Mad Money" on MSNBC and a portion of my news I get from lil' Keethy Olbermann. God I love that guy and the way he goads Billo.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-29 03:38 pm (UTC)Well, while being focused on the markets, the Wall Street Journal is also a newspaper covering other bits, and as you can see, their editorial page certainly doesn't stick to Wall Street.