Greetz - 07 January 2008

[silveradept]

Welcome, one and all, to the show that hopefully doesn’t end for many years to come. I seem to have picked up another reader, so would sisterblonde introduce herself and explain why you decided to friend this journal? I’m curious as to the hows and whys that people find this corner of the Internet. No need for great amounts of specificity, of course. Spent today helping a friend clean house and yard and a lot of those odd tasks. I didn’t have anything else to do, so it was good, got me out into the yard and reacquainted with tools like push brooms and rakes.

Not too soon before her assassination, PARADE magazine interviewed Benazir Bhutto and asked her about her desire and drive to lead Pakistan toward modernity.

Tomorrow, the first United States Presidential Election Primary occurs in the state of New Hampshire - Cogitamus has the Republican lineup, with their appropriate Buffyverse villain beside them. Those are the candidates. George McGovern says we should still impeach members of the current administration, for all the harm they’ve done to the Constitution, to American honor, and to the rule of law. I’d be behind that. Impeach the current lot, elect a new set. To be “fair and balanced”, I’m also including Right Wing News's 20 most annoying liberals in the U.S. for 2007.

John Whitehead, a founder of what has become the religious right, says the current leaders don't have the brains to rule. Which means Mike Huckabee is definitely out, as he was stumping for people to join God's Army.

Sadly, No! points out how horrible democratic socialism is, in that all those Americans can't get up to the standard of living of their UK counterparts. So awful, those poor English, with their higher standard of living, socialized medicine, and other benefits.

Mexican boy adheres himself to his bed to avoid school. It worked, for a couple hours, and then the paramedics were finally able to dissolve the adhesive. No word as to whether the child gets a sanity break from school.

IO9 fires up the TARDIS and takes us back to a 1992 where women rule the world and have outlawed male-female sexual intercourse. Even the consensual stuff.

Just a little while after purchasing it, a couple found a note in a hidden room in their new house detailing the presence of a lot of mold. They hired someone to check it out, and as it turns out, the house had the molds, and lots of them. So the new homeowners sued Fannie Mae, because they didn’t tell them about the mold room. Fannie Mae has agreed to refund their purchase price of the home. So things end well in this case.

In technology, GM thinks it will be unveiling self-driving cars in ten years. The fruits of the Pentagon’s driverless car races, but it would have to be able to navigate inner-city traffic and those nuts on the highways that do 100. From large to small, inhibiting a particular hormone may assist in defeating diabetes and obesity. Said inhibition supposedly changes the manner or the amount of fat metabolized in the body.

Collaborative computing might have a new method - Napkin PC, where a square of flexible e-paper and specific pens can be used in the same way that doodling on a napkin would be. When the collaboration is done, zip it off to the pocket printer. Sounds like a good idea. Going from handhelds to laptops, Intel and One Laptop Per Child have called it quits, after an Intel salesperson tried to convince the Peruvian government to buy Intel, not OLPC. Much more positively, a 12 year old boy's nonprofit organization teaches computer skills to homeless students. That’s the right kind of spirit.

The Happiness Project tackles this issue of whether money can buy happiness. The answer is yes, but only when spent in the correct sort of ways.

Last for tonight is gorgeous wildlife photography. Site requires Flash, though. I really don’t like it when it’s a Flash-only site. The pictures are great, though. And now, bed. Work in the morning and all that.

Comments

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

The Happiness Project tackles this issue of whether money can buy happiness.

That article reminds me of something from The Science of Discworld:

"Some years ago, at a science-fiction convention held in The Hague, four writers who made lots of money from their books sat in front of an audience of mostly impecunious fans to explain how they'd made such huge income from their books (as if any of they really knew). Each of them said that 'money isn't important', and the fans became quite rude at this perfectly accurate statement. It was necessary to point out that money is like air or love - unimportant if you've got enough of it, but desperately important if you haven't. Dickens recognised this: in David Copperfield Mr Micawber remarks 'Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six*, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery'.

There's no symmetry between having money and not having it - but the discussion had gone off the rails because everyone had assumed that there was, so that 'having money' was the opposite of 'having no money'. If you must find an opposite, then 'having money' is the opposite of 'being in debt'. ... In any event, making the comparison between money, love, and air lowered the debating temperature considerably. Air isn't important if you've got it, only if you haven't; the same goes for money."

I'd say that's a rather more succinct summary of it that her somewhat rambling article; money may not buy you happiness, but it's harder to be happy if you don't have enough.

* this is the old English money system, so nineteen nineteen six means 'nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings and six pence'. In the old system there were 12 pence in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound

[silveradept]

Yep, makes sense. Thus, I could always use more money. Right up to the point where all of my debts are settled and I can take care of all the other ones that appear. Past that point, it's usually just numbers.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me. I think most people would be happy to be able to pay off all their debts (college, car, house) and still have enough leftover to live with, but probably if you got to the point where you had a huge excess of money you wouldn't really care so much.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Why is the media still so down on Obama? Even the democrat-leaning writers seem to have nothing positive to say about him. Funny, when he's slated to winin NH today, too.

Last night, I was watching the Critics Choice Awards (for lack of anything else on TV. YAY strike) and Sicko won for best documentary. The person announcing the win named every single country that has subsidized heathcare and the list went on for quite some time and mentioned practically every other country in the world. And then! There was a commercial by the AMA stating that they are caring for uninsured individuals.....sure, they are. They're just charging said uninsured an arm and a leg.

Any type of car technology that can prevent accidents is a good thing.

a portable printer that does 2x3s doesn't help me. Come back when I can print 4x6s.

[silveradept]

The media hates Obama because he's a potential front-runner. The narratives of the Democrats are starting to be shaped - Obama's lack of experience but ability to draw out the young and hopeful, Clinton's large amounts of experience but lack of personality and using Bill to try and boost her own popularity, et cetera.

The uninsured are cared for - at full price, of course, because "it's their own fault" if their employer doesn't provide enough and they don't make enough to pay the premiums. And the government paying something like that is just socialist, and here in AMERICA, we shoot socialists, not put them in power.

Preventing accidents is good - so long as the cars aren't say, vulnerable to a drive-by hack.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I didn't think about the cars being hackable. Do you think that will be a problem?

Yes, well, then write me down as being a socialist. Darn it, I want universal healthcare.

[silveradept]

It will be, because any self-driving car will be programmed to obediently pull over when the police want them to, for good reason or no. There's an in there, and someone will eventually discover how to do it.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I'd like a car that can avoid police, thanks. My luck, they'd find some reason to pull me over for no real reason.

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

As it happens, the British Media seems to quite like Obama. But then, of course, their readership isn't as affected by the result as the American Media's.

[silveradept]

That's true. I should say "The American Media hates Obama" rather than just "the media" in general.

I know that people run sort of "world elects" surveys to see who people in other countries would like as the American President. I would like to see how the results between Americans and world citizens stacked up with each other, and whether the world's picks for President would have been better across time than what the Americans actually did.

[przxqgl.livejournal.com]

"It's not your job to try to influence public agenda, that's what my job is, I'm a pastor." said Rev. Ken Hutcherson, a black pastor who is trying to "influence public agenda" at microsoft to discriminate against gays...

[silveradept]

Wow. Black pastor plays race card, "God Hates You" card, fully intends on trying to influence public policy, urges people to buy up Microsoft stock so they can influence Microsoft policy, and then has the audacity to say that Microsoft shouldn't be able to influence public policy. If he were arguing in from the standpoint that any corporation trying to influence public policy is bad, then I might at least give credit for a sane position to start from. But all of the anti-homosexual rhetoric and his intent to do unto Microsoft what he perceives Microsoft did to the state undoes any sort of willingness I'd have to listen to him.

[sisterblonde.livejournal.com]

Greetings :) Noticed your request for an answer to your query: One of your entries was listed on the front page of myYahoo "Latest LiveJournal.com posts" feeds, checked out your profile, enjoyed your writings and decided to add you as a friend :)

[silveradept]

Just about as random as things get, then. No problem, just curious. Welcome aboard, jump into the comment pool.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

wow, I didn't even know there was a "latest lj posts" type feed.

[sisterblonde.livejournal.com]

Yep :) I created a MyYahoo page and used this link to set up the RSS feed: Latest Post (http://www.livejournal.com/stats/latest.bml)