![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptSo I get to get up tomorrow morning and board a plane and fly for a little bit, and spend a week wrangling with others about possibly employing me. There should be good Internet access there, so hopefully things will continue in a relatively regular manner.
Anyway, onward to link-like stuff.
A gentleman who was once previously arrested for attempting to create a nuclear reaction from small amounts of radioactive material has been arrested for stealing smoke detectors - the items could be dismantled and then have their radioactive contents harvested for whatever purpose he had in mind for them. Doubtful, though, that any sort of meaningful explosive would be created from them - would be easier to get a permit and then buy the radioactive material from a science supply store or something.
An American soldier convicted of the rape of a 14 year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her and her family has received 110 years in prison. Other soldiers convicted have received sentences from five to 100 years in prison.
Regarding the entire country, the countries surrounding Iraq are worried about chaos in Iraq, yet seem reluctant to give support to the current government. If something stable were to appear, they might be more supportive, or they might get angry and evil. I don’t know. Of course, Iraq’s not doing much to help its cause, if the following account of an old law banning oil workers' unions in Iraq is to be believed.
Next door, in Iran, several young people were arrested at an underground rock concert, deemed "satanic" by the government, where there was alcohol, CDs, and other materials there. Sounds more like a rave than a rock concert to me, but in either case, the reigning law says “Ah, no. That’s forbidden.” Because power chords are Satanic. We went through this before, didn’t we? And we’re... actually, that example probably doesn’t work for Iran. Our own country may still be having a little bit of trouble with race relations, especially when they relate to immigration laws, according to Austin Cline. And we do have difficulties with the whole religious-secular divide, as officers who appeared in their military dress for a evangelical Christian video were cited for breaching ethics. Free expression is good, and each person is entitled to it. When acting as the representative of something else, or in particular offices, speaking officially, however, that’s not the case.
In the United States, Harvey Wasserman lays out the rationale behind a likely GOP attempt to steal the 2008 election, with possible vote-machine tampering, disenfranchisement, and other dirty tricks, up to and potentially including the cancellation of an election. I think this sort of worry is the same kind that might have happened when Washington left office. He could have gone for a dictator-for-life sort of position, but willingly stepped down. This time around, we wonder whether some other occupant won’t leave.
I’m hoping that wherever I get employed is sufficiently dense and has good public transit systems, so that I can forego having a vehicle while I’m there, and be able to get to and from work and the other stuff. Plus, it really is possible in some places to give up your car and still do just fine. In other places, like super-spread-out suburbs, it’s not so easy, unfortunately.
The National Geographic News says Humes and Neanderthals may have been able to breed together. There’s nothing completely biologically incompatible between the two, right? But it may or may not actually be a sign of interbreeding. More to be seen.
Winding down, then, the Guardian’s Observer publishes a piece about whether Jack Kerouac's On the Road had survived time, and whether or not it would still resonate today as it did when it was written. The society has certainly changed sufficiently that Kerouac’s writing may or may not work. Why are they talking about it? Well, it is going to be fifty years published this year. Might be the right time for a revitalization, or it might just pass on again.
Last for tonight is Similar Diversity - a visual representation of various names in major religious holy books, but it treats “God”, and “Lord” as different entities, since in the various books, they refer to different people. Several representations of various parts of the books present a visually engaging representation of the textual analyses being done. Very neat.
The Sunday entries tend to be a bit smaller, I note, than all the others. Maybe it’s just that people aren’t reporting on things. In any case, I’m finished with my materials, so you can all go to bed, like I should probably already be. In any case, if you’re in or around the area I’m headed to, drop me e-mail and we’ll see if we can’t work out some sort of meet-up or something like it.
Anyway, onward to link-like stuff.
A gentleman who was once previously arrested for attempting to create a nuclear reaction from small amounts of radioactive material has been arrested for stealing smoke detectors - the items could be dismantled and then have their radioactive contents harvested for whatever purpose he had in mind for them. Doubtful, though, that any sort of meaningful explosive would be created from them - would be easier to get a permit and then buy the radioactive material from a science supply store or something.
An American soldier convicted of the rape of a 14 year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her and her family has received 110 years in prison. Other soldiers convicted have received sentences from five to 100 years in prison.
Regarding the entire country, the countries surrounding Iraq are worried about chaos in Iraq, yet seem reluctant to give support to the current government. If something stable were to appear, they might be more supportive, or they might get angry and evil. I don’t know. Of course, Iraq’s not doing much to help its cause, if the following account of an old law banning oil workers' unions in Iraq is to be believed.
Next door, in Iran, several young people were arrested at an underground rock concert, deemed "satanic" by the government, where there was alcohol, CDs, and other materials there. Sounds more like a rave than a rock concert to me, but in either case, the reigning law says “Ah, no. That’s forbidden.” Because power chords are Satanic. We went through this before, didn’t we? And we’re... actually, that example probably doesn’t work for Iran. Our own country may still be having a little bit of trouble with race relations, especially when they relate to immigration laws, according to Austin Cline. And we do have difficulties with the whole religious-secular divide, as officers who appeared in their military dress for a evangelical Christian video were cited for breaching ethics. Free expression is good, and each person is entitled to it. When acting as the representative of something else, or in particular offices, speaking officially, however, that’s not the case.
In the United States, Harvey Wasserman lays out the rationale behind a likely GOP attempt to steal the 2008 election, with possible vote-machine tampering, disenfranchisement, and other dirty tricks, up to and potentially including the cancellation of an election. I think this sort of worry is the same kind that might have happened when Washington left office. He could have gone for a dictator-for-life sort of position, but willingly stepped down. This time around, we wonder whether some other occupant won’t leave.
I’m hoping that wherever I get employed is sufficiently dense and has good public transit systems, so that I can forego having a vehicle while I’m there, and be able to get to and from work and the other stuff. Plus, it really is possible in some places to give up your car and still do just fine. In other places, like super-spread-out suburbs, it’s not so easy, unfortunately.
The National Geographic News says Humes and Neanderthals may have been able to breed together. There’s nothing completely biologically incompatible between the two, right? But it may or may not actually be a sign of interbreeding. More to be seen.
Winding down, then, the Guardian’s Observer publishes a piece about whether Jack Kerouac's On the Road had survived time, and whether or not it would still resonate today as it did when it was written. The society has certainly changed sufficiently that Kerouac’s writing may or may not work. Why are they talking about it? Well, it is going to be fifty years published this year. Might be the right time for a revitalization, or it might just pass on again.
Last for tonight is Similar Diversity - a visual representation of various names in major religious holy books, but it treats “God”, and “Lord” as different entities, since in the various books, they refer to different people. Several representations of various parts of the books present a visually engaging representation of the textual analyses being done. Very neat.
The Sunday entries tend to be a bit smaller, I note, than all the others. Maybe it’s just that people aren’t reporting on things. In any case, I’m finished with my materials, so you can all go to bed, like I should probably already be. In any case, if you’re in or around the area I’m headed to, drop me e-mail and we’ll see if we can’t work out some sort of meet-up or something like it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-06 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-06 05:43 am (UTC)