More, more, more - 22 April 2008

[silveradept]

Lots of stuff happening today - the games of Smash are getting harder, now that a troop of young gentlemen who make Smash some part of their lives have invaded. I’m kind of used to being a bottom feeder, so It’s okay when I end up not really doing all that well in those games. Plus, I’m really just the facilitator, so if and when necessary, I can just step out and let them do their thing. Anyway, onward to the whole news thing. Like a Darth Vader-dressed person attacking a founder of a local Jedi chapter and an unintended consequence of EU membership that's trying to quiet the bagpipes of Scotland.

Getting to material here in the United States, yes, there was another primary today. I don’t think anything major has changed, and all my sources tell me the vote was fairly evenly split. Of more interest to the blogosphere is the apparent inability of the votes to be verified in the primary, which could result in hacking and messing with the votes, and of course, nobody would know.

The Pentagon Channel is rapidly becoming the Pentagon Propaganda channel, and why not? It’s a really easy way to make sure that the information the government wants to put out gets out. Further along, the military is investing large sums of money in regeneration technology. Possibly to get soldiers who have suffered loss of limb back up to fighting strength and back into the fray?

The General gives us proud moments in our campaign to spread democracy and combat terrorism. CNSNews gives bits to the Center for Security Policy’s "onoes!" that banking and finance compliant with the laws of Islam is allowing terror groups to infiltrate, attack, and sway financial markets. Because the radical idea of Christian-compliant funds and investments has obviously caused great upheavals.

A potential bill in the Arizona state legislature would bar teachers from practices that "overtly encourage dissent" from "American Values" like democracy, capitalism, and religious freedom. It would also bar groups from operating on the campuses if they are based in any part on race, so goodbye to the Latino Students Association, in addition to just about every alternative theory class in the curriculum, or critical writings on those subjects. In short, it would ruin education by not permitting teachers to teach their students to think and about the alternatives.

PETA has created a $1 million USD prize for the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012". Hrm. Enough lab-grown meat to be able to feed the populace? That would be cool. And if it ended up being really cheap, then a lot of the world’s poor might be able to experience and consume larger quantities of meat, should they desire it.

According to Steven D. Martin, the United Methodist Church has been endangered by a lawsuit from right-wing "renewal groups" that want to have the court tell the UMC that all of the money they have in the Methodist Building and Board of Temperance funds can only be used for alcohol-related material, as a way of stopping the church from lobbying for “favored liberal political causes.” What causes are those, I wonder. Because there’s nonprofit status to worry about in some of them, and in others, I think it’s rather nice to have a church that actually wants to liberalize itself. Like a church that held a service in a bar to reach out to new populations.

theferrett attempted an experiment in microcosm. It did not translate well to macrocosm. And thus, has been discontinued. But, the idea behind the Open-Source Boob project, with essential clarifications as well, was run at a couple of conventions. And it had successes when access-controlled. Judging from the comment stream, however, the idea provoked several reactions, many of them strong and accusatory. As greyweirdo noted, there was a lot of potential for things going wrong. And for interpretation that wasn’t germane to the project’s continuation. But, it would be nice if people were comfortable enough to not be offended if someone asked, and that there weren’t a whole lot of creepy people such that asking didn’t put you in the lech category. Maybe in some future.

Wandring into the opinion realms, Bret Stephens praises the Afghan army as willing to fight and take their country back.

Austin Hill attributes both Democratic candidates' successes to the free-market capitalist systems that he says they want to interfere with. Just because they’ve made money on capitalism doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want to help everyone else make a little more money, or at least be a little less worried that costs will eat them alive. Although Mrs. Clinton's campaign is running defecits again, which makes us wonder about how she’d run the country. Star Parker decries academia as a place where liberals run amok without the "truth" of Christianity and/or experience in life that would keep them conservative. Brian Fitzpatrick finds the character attacks during the Democratic debate right and necessary, considering character to be more important than actual proposals on issues. I think that’s the attitude that elected the current administration.

In science (SCIENCE!) and technology, Cyberdine creates HAL to help people stand. At least, that’s what I can gather from the article. Other robots are competing to rescue dolls from simulated wreckages, all using their own programming and sensors. Additionally, a curious modulation has been detected in an experiment attempting to measure dark matter directly. It may not be dark matter, but it’s worth investigation. There’s also more bionic eyes for ocular diseases, brain scanners that can pick up when we're going to make mistakes before we actually make them,

PC gaming is really contracting to the realms of FPS and MMOs, and the FPS are probably dying away. EA has decided not to release next year's Madden for the PC, making even fewer reasons to own a PC for gaming. Perhaps, instead, we should read what scientists consider "life-changing" books? Or take on Stephen Hawking and try to build Moon and Mars colonies?

Tying in science and the opinion columns all together, there’s some more material regarding Richard Dawkins, Ben Stein, Expelled, and evolution. The opening salvo: Dinesh D'Souza rehashes ID arguments, including the improbability of evolution-by-chance to our current state, including parroting Ben Stein’s swipe at Richard Dawkins - You believe in the possibility that highly-evolved aliens could have seeded life here on earth? Why, you completely believe in Intelligent Design! You just replaced God with an ET! See? Believe in me, Ben Stein, as a rebel against the mean scientists! And if you believe that, then perhaps you’ll also believe the assertion that evolution is a religious belief. Striking back at such assumptions and errors, 24 myths and misconceptions about evolution, including the one that D’Souza remarks on.

And then, Dawkins loads up his own shotgun and starts hunting misconceptions. Namely, after a colleague of his received a flame-tastic letter accusing atheists of being okay with Jews being killed in the Holocaust. The movie apparently inspired the flame, and Dawkins pens a reply pointing out that Hitler and Darwin had no connection, most of the good Germans doing Hitler's business were Christians, and that anti-Semitism did not originate with Hitler.

Last for tonight - want to be a licensed grower of marijuana in California? Here's the class you have to take. And now, time for bed.

Comments

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Holy shit that boob project wank is all over my f-list. I have a headache. Man, okay, so, I found his original post a bit skeevy, all right, some of the things he said made me feel a bit uncomfortable. But people are raging on and on about things he did not say. Things which he in fact said the opposite of. And that is just really bothering me. I have seriously been feeling a bit queasy all day just watching this go by. It's like, look, I have no problems with you disapproving of what he said, but disapproving of someone for things they did not say is really fucked up. If you're going to rage about something you read, read the whole damn thing first and read it fucking carefully and with a level fucking head. And I am really getting pissed about all the people implying that any woman involved was some deluded nitwit with no self esteem, especially since there was an author (a FEMINIST author) involved that I am a huge fan of (who, I might add, can grope me any time she wants).

Sorry about that, this may not be the appropriate place for that spiel but god I needed to get that off my chest. And call me a coward for not saying it to people directly, but I have naively tried that before, and nothing good came of it.

[droewyn.livejournal.com]

Here's my take.

1. NOT FOR ME, KTHX.

2. You (generic 'you') want to have something like this confined to a room party, with set boundaries and someone checking ID at the door, go for it. Hell, put up some flyers in the elevator. But don't let it stray to public spaces where someone who doesn't want to be exposed to sex play or have their kids exposed to sex play (or worse, some MUNDANE who has no reason to even expect that they or their kids might even encounter sex play) will have to deal with it. To do so is to make the ConCom and hotel liable for what you're doing, which is NEVER a good thing. Keep it in private, like the rest of the play parties. And if you can try not to pretend that you're some kind of magical soul healing movement, that'd be nice too.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

I think your take is just fine. Not for me either, for that matter (with the exception of aforementioned author-person, because, well, yeah.) I don't have a problem with people disapproving of what he DID and what he SAID, just that people are having fits about things that DIDN'T happen and that he DIDN'T say. In general, I think this thing was ill-thought out, although I can see how it seemed like a good idea at the time because cons are full of crazy spontaneous shit. I also think some of the things he said in his post were kinda skeezy. But the fact that people are not just misinterpreting his words but saying he said things that he actually said the opposite of? Is really, really bothering me.

[droewyn.livejournal.com]

I haven't personally seen too much of the reading between the lines, but given that every single person on LJ seems to have vented their opinion on this subject, it's not too surprising that I haven't managed to get to that.

I'll also admit that I've done a lot of skimming. 'Cause, wow that's a lot of opinions.

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

The open source boob project and its inferno-like spread over livejournal is precisely why the Internet will never replace news. There's journalism, there's gonzo journalism, there's investigative reporting, there's even editorializing and then there's LJ-wankery.

As for the Original Post... I suppose being male, I have no right to speak on the actual project but it struck me as amusing the sheer ... childlike wonder (is that the right term, it sounds wrong when referring to public groping)... with which it was all written... like he was on heavy doses of drugs and/or alcohol at the time.

[silveradept]

Well, the childlike wonder there is probably because most people don't experience a situation like that, where people are willing and don't immediately look at people who ask like perverts. Of course, there may have been alcohol involved, too. I would probably have pretty childlike wonder at the matter, too, just because you wouldn't think that Puritannical Americans would be willing to partake in such a thing.