A plan would be nice, right about now - 13 August 2007

[silveradept]

Once the shape of the grand plan takes form, the little plans will proceed. But the grand plan first has to take shape. So. Time to pester some people again and get them to start making decisions. Have other bits in place, still need to pack a little bit, but not majorly, and I can probably do it in bits and pieces as I go so that when the morning of my moving arrives, I’ll be able to pack up the last of it and make the proper retreat. Hopefully by then, the real plans are cemented and I’ll know what’s going on and whether I have people driving with me or am going this one alone.

Anyway, enough of my annoyance at not having a defined plan yet. Happiness is not always on, but being able to be happy often means you are more happy. Onward to links.

The latest dispatch from the LiveJournal staff in lj_biz (why it’s not in someplace like news still baffles me and others) indicates a tiering of policy: photos and links to photos of child pr0n are zero tolerance, other images have a "two-stirke" policy enacted. So LJ users get one warning about what potentially crosses the line. This does not clarify any positions regarding what criteria or definitions are being used to determine what is acceptable and what is not.

Merv Griffin, entertainer and producer of game shows such as "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune", has died at 82 years of age. His shows, of course, are likely to live on for quite some time now.

Here’s something that will make a lot of people happier - Karl Rove will be resigning his position at the end of August. Although one could worry that whomever the replacement is will be worse, or will pick up where Rove left off and run with it. And whether they believe as John Robb does, and that in the increasing age of technology, cities are more and more vulnerable to attack or disruption, with the solution being decentralization of infrastructure and security, among other things. Or worse, that he panders to and encourages what jblaque calls Idiot America, the place where Gut rules and science is just another opinion. Of course, that’s not limited to America - an Islamic group called the "Foundation for Scientific Research" is distributing a book and has traveling shows about the truth of creationism. Fun people, all over the world, doing things like canceling the funeral for a homosexual serviceman once it was learned that the serviceman was a homosexual. And it’s not malice or discrimination, but the principles of the church at work here. So I think another principled decision may be in order and the pastor there should find an empty church on every Sunday.

Blue Egg follows up on yesterdays Times article about pedestrian carbon versus driving carbon with a more nuanced analysis. Pedestrian Pollution? says that we should take into account that Humes get calories from vegetables and plants for much of their diet, and that there are a lot more carbon costs in the manufacture of the vehicle that make walking still a better idea.

The Strange Statistics department also has the following for us - purchasers of American cars are more likely to default on their loans. They also tend to borrow more regarding the purchase price of said loans. Hrm. I wonder why this is. A different set of strange statistics is the analytics of red-shirt deaths in Star Trek - which concludes that if you want to survive, the red-shirt should make sure Kirk gets in no fights and meets the female of the native species.

Welcome Back, Soldier. We’re already seeing lots of homeless veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. It’s not just taking care of them abroad, it’s taking care of them at home, too, after they’ve done their missions. Beyond just soldier care, though, despite our claims, the United States does not rank first in health care when compared to other countries.

The Slacktivist has an interesting comparison to make, one between Cossacks and Prairie Muffins - both groups who want a divinely ordained dictator who will impose the hierarchy of God on everyone - the people who believe not only that Freedom is Slavery, but that Slavery is Freedom.

Another good reason to stop the practice of female genital mutilation in Africa and other places - HIV transmission to females is being correlated with the practice. There’s already enough problems with HIV - giving it another vector to transmit itself across is not going to help it any.

One might be able to claim that karma bites in the following story, even though no actual tooth marks are recorded - a man who left his dog in his car without any windows down was handcuffed to his car by an officer, then beaten by a crowd after the officer left to take the dog to a hospital.

Technology hits another milestone - welcome to the terabyte club, boys. (Well, almost-terabyte. It’s about 63GB short of a true binary TB.) In addition, a tomography microsope can view individual, living cells in their environment. Which, together, could do neat things like create rewritable holographic memory.

The Odd Things Department offers up something small - very tiny pancakes made in a teaspoon, using a cigarette lighter as the heat source, and something big - comically large things, which will more than make up for the tiny parts of the last link.

Last for tonight, though, is StoryCorps - a project undertaken to capture and record the oral history of the people of the United States, as told by the people that experience it. Definitely sounds cool. Wonder what they’ll be able to do with it, and if it could be indexed in a way to be searchable.

Anyway, have to go to bed now. Need to get good sleep so that I can continue my work at getting myself ready for the move.

Comments

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

And here I thought that Christians were supposed to go about their lives worshiping the Lord and teaching His word through example rather than ostracism and bullying. The actions of people not "on the level" by their standards should not be condoned, but certainly not treated badly. I mean, the Lord loves everybody, right? Even if the Lord does frown on people being gay (and I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think the New Testament was supposed to replace the Old, and Leviticus with it), Christians are supposed to follow His example and...you know...forgive them.

At least that's what they taught us in Sunday school. However, I seem to have made the mistake of listening.

[przxqgl.livejournal.com]

when i first started working at software dot com (which became openwave, the company that makes the email and web software that's on your cell-phone these days), the "machine" that i was working on was a solaris box with a 4 terabyte hard disk array... it was the size of a small refrigerator and it was located in santa barbara, but it was "my" computer for close to two years...

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

... did anyone ever actually believe that the US health system was anything other than a shambling horror for anyone but the disgustingly rich? Let alone how it completely screws over those the insurance companies refuse to go near - the ones that either need it most or can afford it least.

Seriously, to someone from Europe, the US health 'care' system is a sick joke, only without any joke part.

[silveradept]

Well, as best I can tell, there's a schism between those who worship Jesus as the Savior and Redeemer of mankind, and those that worship YHWH as the Destroyer and Punisher. While both of them can claim to be worshipping the same god, it certainly changes their outlook toward their fellows which one they profess faith to.

[silveradept]

Neat. These days, I'm sure that the same amount of disks in that array would add up to many terabytes - maybe they can get to an exobyte if they just filled a server room wtih drives all linked to each other?

[silveradept]

Well, a significant number of the people in this country believe that the United States is the best at everything, regardless of what comparative studies or their own eyes and news programmes tell them. It's that kind of mentality that produces such strange ideas like "the President should always be supported and never questioned", regardless as to whether he's being effective in office. This view is often coupled with the idea that YHWH specifically designated the United States as his Special Place, and that automatically makes us the best country in the world.

I'm sure you can hear the massed voices with their heads in the sand.