Still more to peruse - 03 November 2007
Nov. 3rd, 2007 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptThe great big Web has so many things. I know it’s impossible to get all of it, not even on a daily basis, and of course, there’s always the realization that my viewing audience may not be as interested in all the stuff available as I am. Or may be opposed to it. It’s become a neat habit, and I wonder if as the amount of work and preparation done every day increase, whether this will suffer. Probably not. Become more discerning? Maybe.
The padded rugby squad won again, despite looking significantly shaky for much of the game. And then the playcalling decided to open up, and the pass game started clicking. And then #86 channeled #18/#1, and there was much rejoicing. Never let it be said that the alma mater doesn’t shorten your lifespan when they play sport.
And happy birthday to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greenhornline, who reached a milestone age today. And to martizac tomorrow, just for being awesome.
Unfortunately, some of her countrymates are in serious trouble, as three hundred thousand people in Mexico are dealing with severe floods.
Pakistan's President-General Musharraf has declared a state of emergency, blacking out non-government media and placing the police and the military on the streets. The Supreme Court of Pakistan is due in a few days to make a ruling on whether Musharraf is legally able to be both head of the military and the executive, so the timing on this is strongly suspect.
From AlterNet, some companies in Iraq have such low morale that they don't actually do active patrolling, even though they say they are. Admittedly, that kind of behavior could be low morale and high self-preservation, or high boredom because nothing’s actually happening around them. It also comes to light that Blackwater's parent company also contracts intelligence services, and that there are former CIA operatives on its rolls. I suppose that’s just taking market research to a much bigger level, but then there’s also the tendency of the American government to outsource things, and then I wonder how much classified, personal, and sensitive data is currently in the hands of outside companies.
More regarding the general election - Red Rabbit wonders why everyone suddenly is talking about Hillary's gender, considering that Hillary’s not been doing a whole lot of talking about it herself. Even if they’re talking about how it shouldn’t affect anyone’s vote, of course. I sense a narrative forming...
Into technology news, a study commissioned by Industry Canada finds that those Canadians who use P2P are more likely to buy CDs. Try out an album for a bit, decide you like it, purchase it. It’s a fantastic sort of system, isn’t it? Certainly not some sort of emergency-measure problem. Following on that idea, the Oregon Attorney General has asked that an RIAA subpoena served to the University of Oregon to be crushed, because it does not identify specific infringers. The infringement may be trackable to a room, but it cannot identify a computer specifically, nor can it know whether a regular resident or a visitor to the room is the one engaging in the infringement. If specific identification is required like this, that might shield a large amount of potential infringement, especially with services that rotate their IP addresses among subscribers, or those who have one connection for an entire household. Coupled with the information from Industry Canada above, it might finally sink in that P2P sharing is at least some part of a good thing for those who want to increase sales.
Ah, and on that retroactive telecom immunity on spying? It also immunized (would immunize?) e-mail providers, search engines, and instant-messaging providers, too. So just about any communication method could have illegally cooperating with the security agency, without a warrant, and there’s no way anyone could go after them. Isn’t it nice to know that we’re all being spied on and that there will likely be no legal recourse for anyone who wants to say that it was done illegally?
The Tacoma, Washington Anarchist Bookfair has been classified a "homeland security threat", which means that police will be monitoring the event the whole time. Because anarchists selling books and protesting is so very worthy of a strong police presence. Even more, the other persons around the book store are being encouraged to report any “suspicious activity”. When did peaceful protest and differing ideologies deserve this kind of response?
Cracked actually does something relatively serious and posts five scientific reasons why a Zombie Apocalypse could happen, taking advantage of parasites, chemicals, and processes that are all already potentially scientifically viable to see what sort of zombies they would produce.
Quiche territory ahead - we start with a firm that's major asset is bought patents deciding to sue several corporations, including retailers, for patent infringement on wireless and power-saving technology. Yep. Even Best Buy and Circuit City are named in the suit - because retailers should obviously check to make sure their suppliers aren’t violating patents.
Some of the e-mail forwards at My Right Wing Dad could certainly qualify for quiche (and I think I’ve linked to this site before. But it’s dynamic, so it’s different every time.). Some of them are plain awful, some of them are probably untrue, but they’re all very much in favor of the conservative way of life, in all its Christian-supremacy, anti-immigrant, English-first (or only) glory. But our quiche winner is yet to come. For now, though, we’ll turn to other things.
Better and neater stuff than those depressing materials are new candy-themed reader bookmarks, and yet another admission that toys and model vehicles are for adults as much as children. Then there’s also Brainbows, fluorescent maps of our neural pathways. Which makes for some pretty pictures indeed.
First lasers to kill viruses, and second (although I think I’ve linked to this before), radio waves that can kill cancer? Are we seeing resurgences of old techniques with new spins? Are these any more possible than they would have been before? Something that is certain is that a treatment for human pinkeye can also obliterate a fungus that attacks frogs.
In a women's prison, "marriage"-like ceremonies are described as common, despite, of course, there being no permission for sexual contact and the law forbidding same-sex marriages in Florida, where the prison is. Even in prison, love and/or lust blossoms, and people want to partner up. The guards at the prison were suspended while there was investigation, one guard was fired, and another resigned. Such freedoms are denied to them. I’m sure there’s some sort of allegory involved about how much current law is much like prison to homosexuals, but that’s to someone else to discover. All I do is display Wonkette's findings of two more closeted gay men seeking sex.
The recycling mentality is everywhere, including the proclamation that a service that recycles sex toys has reached its first tonne. Which, actually, is a god idea, considering many of them are high-tech devices that requires significant amounts of energy to create and operate.
Our closing remarks tonight begin with two lists, to show our great nonpartisanship - the most influential United States conservatives (a list of 100), and the most influential United States liberals. Both of these by the United States definition of liberal and conservative, I note.
In what is most important from tonight’s postings, I echo Exploding Aardvark in putting two things side-by-side for comparison. The first is Tim Boucher seeing Halloween as a product of Harvest Culture, where the excesses we have are given away freely and unreservedly, so that everyone has enough to feed themselves, and those who need something are able to find it or obtain it because someone else has more than they want. The contrasting remark, and tonight’s quiche-winner, is Sean Hannity deriding a "liberal" Halloween where kids are taught "to knock on other people's doors and ask for a handout.", Instead of seeing it as gift-giving, like say, the VEWPRF, he considers it training for children to beg. Personally, I prefer the former interpretation, as that seems to jibe more with the roots of Halloween and Samhain - community gathers, harvest festival, much food and merriment to be had, and making sure that the stores one has are sufficient for winter. Also, respect paid to those who died in the previous year and are no longer here to celebrate at the feasting table. Miss you.
Lest we end on a down note, however, I have to say that I like my co-workers lots, and that if we didn’t all share a fairly similar sense of humor, we probably would have problems by now. I’ve already been jokingly accused of being the token male hired for his good looks rather than his skills, for which there was much witty banter, and I think I came out on the losing end of that repartee. I might survive my six months yet. As I said, I figure that if they get to see me at my worst and still decide to keep me on, then it’s their own fault. Work tomorrow, so I can’t stay up too late.
Oh, and just to add insult to injury, I’m working the day of the Michigan-Ohio State game. If they do as they did last year and make it a very late start Eastern time, I might be able to see it in its entirety. Considering that at this point in the season, only Michigan or Ohio State will win the conference this year, there’s a good chance this one goes for primetime and nationwide. If that’s the case, I might have enough time to get to a television after work.
The padded rugby squad won again, despite looking significantly shaky for much of the game. And then the playcalling decided to open up, and the pass game started clicking. And then #86 channeled #18/#1, and there was much rejoicing. Never let it be said that the alma mater doesn’t shorten your lifespan when they play sport.
And happy birthday to
greenhornline, who reached a milestone age today. And to martizac tomorrow, just for being awesome.Unfortunately, some of her countrymates are in serious trouble, as three hundred thousand people in Mexico are dealing with severe floods.
Pakistan's President-General Musharraf has declared a state of emergency, blacking out non-government media and placing the police and the military on the streets. The Supreme Court of Pakistan is due in a few days to make a ruling on whether Musharraf is legally able to be both head of the military and the executive, so the timing on this is strongly suspect.
From AlterNet, some companies in Iraq have such low morale that they don't actually do active patrolling, even though they say they are. Admittedly, that kind of behavior could be low morale and high self-preservation, or high boredom because nothing’s actually happening around them. It also comes to light that Blackwater's parent company also contracts intelligence services, and that there are former CIA operatives on its rolls. I suppose that’s just taking market research to a much bigger level, but then there’s also the tendency of the American government to outsource things, and then I wonder how much classified, personal, and sensitive data is currently in the hands of outside companies.
More regarding the general election - Red Rabbit wonders why everyone suddenly is talking about Hillary's gender, considering that Hillary’s not been doing a whole lot of talking about it herself. Even if they’re talking about how it shouldn’t affect anyone’s vote, of course. I sense a narrative forming...
Into technology news, a study commissioned by Industry Canada finds that those Canadians who use P2P are more likely to buy CDs. Try out an album for a bit, decide you like it, purchase it. It’s a fantastic sort of system, isn’t it? Certainly not some sort of emergency-measure problem. Following on that idea, the Oregon Attorney General has asked that an RIAA subpoena served to the University of Oregon to be crushed, because it does not identify specific infringers. The infringement may be trackable to a room, but it cannot identify a computer specifically, nor can it know whether a regular resident or a visitor to the room is the one engaging in the infringement. If specific identification is required like this, that might shield a large amount of potential infringement, especially with services that rotate their IP addresses among subscribers, or those who have one connection for an entire household. Coupled with the information from Industry Canada above, it might finally sink in that P2P sharing is at least some part of a good thing for those who want to increase sales.
Ah, and on that retroactive telecom immunity on spying? It also immunized (would immunize?) e-mail providers, search engines, and instant-messaging providers, too. So just about any communication method could have illegally cooperating with the security agency, without a warrant, and there’s no way anyone could go after them. Isn’t it nice to know that we’re all being spied on and that there will likely be no legal recourse for anyone who wants to say that it was done illegally?
The Tacoma, Washington Anarchist Bookfair has been classified a "homeland security threat", which means that police will be monitoring the event the whole time. Because anarchists selling books and protesting is so very worthy of a strong police presence. Even more, the other persons around the book store are being encouraged to report any “suspicious activity”. When did peaceful protest and differing ideologies deserve this kind of response?
Cracked actually does something relatively serious and posts five scientific reasons why a Zombie Apocalypse could happen, taking advantage of parasites, chemicals, and processes that are all already potentially scientifically viable to see what sort of zombies they would produce.
Quiche territory ahead - we start with a firm that's major asset is bought patents deciding to sue several corporations, including retailers, for patent infringement on wireless and power-saving technology. Yep. Even Best Buy and Circuit City are named in the suit - because retailers should obviously check to make sure their suppliers aren’t violating patents.
Some of the e-mail forwards at My Right Wing Dad could certainly qualify for quiche (and I think I’ve linked to this site before. But it’s dynamic, so it’s different every time.). Some of them are plain awful, some of them are probably untrue, but they’re all very much in favor of the conservative way of life, in all its Christian-supremacy, anti-immigrant, English-first (or only) glory. But our quiche winner is yet to come. For now, though, we’ll turn to other things.
Better and neater stuff than those depressing materials are new candy-themed reader bookmarks, and yet another admission that toys and model vehicles are for adults as much as children. Then there’s also Brainbows, fluorescent maps of our neural pathways. Which makes for some pretty pictures indeed.
First lasers to kill viruses, and second (although I think I’ve linked to this before), radio waves that can kill cancer? Are we seeing resurgences of old techniques with new spins? Are these any more possible than they would have been before? Something that is certain is that a treatment for human pinkeye can also obliterate a fungus that attacks frogs.
In a women's prison, "marriage"-like ceremonies are described as common, despite, of course, there being no permission for sexual contact and the law forbidding same-sex marriages in Florida, where the prison is. Even in prison, love and/or lust blossoms, and people want to partner up. The guards at the prison were suspended while there was investigation, one guard was fired, and another resigned. Such freedoms are denied to them. I’m sure there’s some sort of allegory involved about how much current law is much like prison to homosexuals, but that’s to someone else to discover. All I do is display Wonkette's findings of two more closeted gay men seeking sex.
The recycling mentality is everywhere, including the proclamation that a service that recycles sex toys has reached its first tonne. Which, actually, is a god idea, considering many of them are high-tech devices that requires significant amounts of energy to create and operate.
Our closing remarks tonight begin with two lists, to show our great nonpartisanship - the most influential United States conservatives (a list of 100), and the most influential United States liberals. Both of these by the United States definition of liberal and conservative, I note.
In what is most important from tonight’s postings, I echo Exploding Aardvark in putting two things side-by-side for comparison. The first is Tim Boucher seeing Halloween as a product of Harvest Culture, where the excesses we have are given away freely and unreservedly, so that everyone has enough to feed themselves, and those who need something are able to find it or obtain it because someone else has more than they want. The contrasting remark, and tonight’s quiche-winner, is Sean Hannity deriding a "liberal" Halloween where kids are taught "to knock on other people's doors and ask for a handout.", Instead of seeing it as gift-giving, like say, the VEWPRF, he considers it training for children to beg. Personally, I prefer the former interpretation, as that seems to jibe more with the roots of Halloween and Samhain - community gathers, harvest festival, much food and merriment to be had, and making sure that the stores one has are sufficient for winter. Also, respect paid to those who died in the previous year and are no longer here to celebrate at the feasting table. Miss you.
Lest we end on a down note, however, I have to say that I like my co-workers lots, and that if we didn’t all share a fairly similar sense of humor, we probably would have problems by now. I’ve already been jokingly accused of being the token male hired for his good looks rather than his skills, for which there was much witty banter, and I think I came out on the losing end of that repartee. I might survive my six months yet. As I said, I figure that if they get to see me at my worst and still decide to keep me on, then it’s their own fault. Work tomorrow, so I can’t stay up too late.
Oh, and just to add insult to injury, I’m working the day of the Michigan-Ohio State game. If they do as they did last year and make it a very late start Eastern time, I might be able to see it in its entirety. Considering that at this point in the season, only Michigan or Ohio State will win the conference this year, there’s a good chance this one goes for primetime and nationwide. If that’s the case, I might have enough time to get to a television after work.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 09:07 am (UTC)Oh, and I like that real version of halloween. Even though I'm not a fan of the holiday itself (most people over here view it as an american tradition, and so get annoyed at it's growing popularity (which is largely due to OMG FREE STUFF and OMG LETS BE LIKE AMERICANS COS THEY'RE COOL!).
But this I can do. When I have more than I need, that is. ¬¬
:P
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 03:50 pm (UTC)(Conveniently, the authors forgot that there is already a virus that enters your brain, alters your behavior and makes you want to bite people until you die of insanity. It's called rabies. And yet, having satisfied the most dire predictions of the article, we don't have a rabies apocalypse.)
Also, OSU-UM will certainly be televised nationwide, they'd be stupid not to do that.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 08:14 pm (UTC)Aye, nationwide, but when is the question. If it's an afternoon EST game, I'm at work.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 11:19 pm (UTC)Could you explain that internet article so I understand it? I'm not trying to be flip, but first it seems to say that google, aol, yahoo, etc. are exempt, and then it seems to say that they aren't. So...are IM conversations over AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN suddenly going to be monitored by the government?
...I wonder if there will be an increase in tissue ordering...
So, an anarchist book fair, which probably will draw a lot of just plain old curious people is subject to be suspicious? *rolls eyes* don't they have better things to do?
Hmm. What about sex toys that aren't Rabbit? And at first I thought you were referring to used sex toys being sold, and I was going to say "ewwwwww", but recycling them as in disposing of them in a way that is environmentally friendly is a good idea.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 11:22 pm (UTC)U-M vs. OSU: "Big Game" Broadcast on ABC at Noon
The 104th renewal of college football's greatest rivalry, the Michigan-Ohio State game on Nov. 17, will be broadcast on ABC starting at noon (October 18).
Are you home at 9AM PST on a Saturday?
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 11:45 pm (UTC)And then some people would joke, and others be serious, about whether menopause/PMS would result in Hillary bombing or invading someone in anger. Bceause being a politician has nothing to do with it - those silly women are always subject to their female hysterias. And with women being more likely to vote than men, in their perception, the men-first zone fears that with the woman in charge, she'll go on some superfeminist tear and make all the men worship women or require them to put women in charge of things or other sorts of stuff that might upset the male privilege.
It's a hell of their won making, because I doubt anyone would run and succeed on such a nakedly gender-gentric platform.
Regarding the bill, the bill would make them immune from any extralegal sharing they might have done. Many companies, however, are denying they've done anything, or at the worst, no-commenting.
The police certainly have better things to do, like catching actual criminals, than to police a gathering of potential dissidents. If they actually believed something would happen there that was not of their own making, then perhaps some police presence would be likely. I doubt, however, that anarchists would cause problems at their own book fair.
I suspect that more than just a particular brand can be recycled, and that the discount offered would still apply. A pretty good incentive, I would say, to get one's used toys somewhere that can reclaim the materials and possibly make better toys.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 11:53 pm (UTC)It's dumb. I've also read a lot of feminist stuff saying that they don't consider her to be the first female candidate because she does know how to think like a man (no offense to men)
Are women really more likely to vote than men? or do you mean women are more likely to vote for Hilary? I'm loyal to my party - so if she were to win the primaries, I would probably vote for her, but so would a good number of democratic men. But I stll haven't made a descision about the primaries, and I probably won't until April or May.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:18 am (UTC)I might be able to capture the stream through MPlayer or something like that and save it to a file, but it would probably capture everything, and I don't think I have the space on my HD for that.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:20 am (UTC)I wish i had the capabilities to do it, cos I still have a boatload of space on the external, plus there's sort of 70GBs hanging out over in LinuxLand that still needs to be upgraded. (I'm terrified of doing it, by the way)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:23 am (UTC)Women are more likely to vote for Hillary because of her being a woman, according to the CW. And her candidacy might get more women to vote than usual. And women vote Democratic anyway, so Hillary could represent such a gynocentric voter's block that none could stand in her path.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:27 am (UTC)Which CW?
I suppose there are probably a lot of women who will vote for her on the sheer fact that she's a woman, but what if Hilary really is the "best" option? People keep making it sound so negative about Hilary running, but really, she might be the best candidate we've got. She might do a bang-up job of running the country. She also might muck it up....but Obama could muck things up just as easily, or one of the other candidates...or god, Mit Romney.
Funny how England has no problems with having a Queen, yet we have such issues with a female president. (okay, I realize currently being Queen is really just a formal title and she doesn't do a lot of the leading the country stuff, but still....)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:53 am (UTC)I'll start it tonight then, but not this very second...I'm still watching downloaded stuffs.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 12:56 am (UTC)If Hillary wins the nomination, then I can almost guarantee you that it will shape up to be chest-thumping MANLY MEN CEKSM conservatives whose platforms will account to about "Dark men bad. Smash dark men! Uppity women bad. Smash uppity women!" versus limp-wristed special-rights beggar-socialists who want to tax everyone so they can give welfare queens more money and let the country be turned into either the Islamic States of America or the United States of Mexico. And even more, they made a woman, who can't be trusted, or a darkie, who doesn't know his place, as their candidate. At least, that's the message I expect to see.
I might be surprised, and both sides might actually decide to forget the personal attacks and strike at each other on the issues. But with the way the populace voted in the down-homey act over the policy nerd, and then the Decider over the flip-flopper, I don't think that issues are going to be as important as figuring out how much someone's haircut cost.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-05 01:00 am (UTC)Oh, I'm sure there will be personal attacks. It's not a political race without personal attacks. It just sucks when Hillary and Obama aren't trying to use their differences in their points, that someone else has to point it out.