Back from the weekend - 09 June 2008
Jun. 10th, 2008 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptAll things considered, a good weekend. Getting everything ready in anticipation of family arriving to see the digs and what I’ve made of myself (not that much). Hoping that the place passes muster, really. First impressions and all that. Did another talkie part with the intermediate schools today, with appropriate laughs and attempts to sell them on something that is essentially keeping up their skills over the summer break. Might have hooked a few, with the expanded definition of “reading” that we use, others perhaps with the lure of a possible iPod, and hopefully a few with the funny title of a book I booktalked. Beyond that, it was a normal sort of catch-up day for me.
Let’s go international to kick the news off. Guantanamo personnel told to erase the evidence and destroy their notes, lest they be used to prove mistreatment of prisoners, according to allegations made by one of the defense lawyers for Omar Khadr, the United States has withdrawn itself completely form the U.N. Human Rights Council, and Japan has finally recognized an indigenous people of the island.
Let’s play a juxtaposition game. I’ll provide the Anglican bishop who entered into a civil union with his longtime homosexual partner, and someone will produce the MP who recommends "ex-gay" conversion therapy for someone who was assaulted for being a homosexual.
Oil prices are going to shock the world - and if they happen too fast, we won't be able to make the switchovers we need. Not only that, but an oil shock like $200/barrel will probably kill whatever remains of Michigan’s economy. While there are going to be talks about the price of oil, the nature of consumption has to change. And it is, some. And probably will more as prices continue to walk up the scale. Of course, we may start seeing strikes by truckers and transporters over the rising fuel costs start to spring up in places other than Spain, too.
A Hindu god has been made administrator of a school in India. Well, no meddling superintendent, but also, I wonder what his proposals will look like.
Hitting domestic shores, Kucinich introduces Bush impeachment resolution. Not that it will go anywhere. But 35 counts is a pretty good set of charges.
A proposed deal between Habitat for Humanity and Planned Parenthood has fallen through, after Habitat’s donors decided they didn’t want a Planned Parenthood office in the area, despite the face that Habitat would get the rest of the land for a mere $10. PP would benefit from the deal, because the city of the story has decreed that there must be buildings between the proposed office and the street, to hide the PP office. Having affordable Habitat housing would have fit the bill.
The TSA and some airports now have body scanners with good enough resolution to pick out the naughty bits. The scans are supposedly deleted immediately afterward, faces are supposedly blurred out, and this is supposed to be for your security and done in place of pat-downs, but I’m waiting for the first suit from someone that says they were detained so that the screeners could ogle the body afterward. I also find it interesting that they’re saying the people being screened don’t mind and accept it. Well, it’s not like they have a real choice to accept or deny and invasive procedure. It’s the scanner or the pat-down, and most people are less wigged out at the possibility of someone seeing them nude, than they are with someone actually patting them down in the view of everyone else.
High School valedictorian receives interesting graduation present: deportation. Immigration decided that he and his mother had to go home after their asylum appeals failed. He does get to stay around for graduation, but after that, he’ll have to go home. Yet there will be a report complaining that we don’t have enough bright people in the country to make it competitive. Here are some examples of the not-so bright: a mother who was drunk let her one year-old son steer the car, and two people left the scene of an accident they called. There may be a case to be made about how the bystanders didn’t help, but there were 911 calls made. Perhaps nobody had first aid training. In a case like that, it may have been wiser to avoid moving the person as much as possible.
BEES! Angry, angry, single-minded rage bees! Sufficient force and violence to knock the climber off the hill and send him down, stinging all the while. Yikes. Even politicians aren’t that vicious.
Speaking of the pols,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks steps up to the candidate plate first with a curious appeal from Senator Obama to have his supporters donate to Seantor Clinton so that she can pay back the loans she lent her campaign legally, and then a possible reason why so many people continue to believe Obama is a Muslim - his name gives them one impression, and they never really seek to read things thoroughly enough to realize that it's not the case. The comment squad doesn’t give the people nearly that much intelligence, leaving it at “uncritical belief in something we heard from some unnamed source somewhere”, and finally, why a lot of people are going to fall in love with Barack Obama, assuming they get to hear him speak - because the hope he offers, while we’ll see whether it’s genuine, it’s the same stuff that Reagan used to get himself elected. Obama’s appeal will get bigger with his claim that he will tax oil companies for "windfall profits".
And, talking some about Senator McCain, he does have a first wife and some children, you know. And some possible reputation as a player, even though he and his first wife are still on good terms. Admittedly, they split because while the Senator was doing his POW thing, she also got in a disfiguring accident, and she and he probably had a cooling of ardor. If the Senator wants to be a “family-values” kind of guy, he may have to contend with being a divorcee. That doesn’t stop Fred Thompson from laying out what will likely be the most-used attacks by the Senator and the Republicans against Senator Obama, that the liberal march will lead to bigger government and conservatives being crushed underfoot everywhere. Mary Grabar's on board with the "Libruls are taking over colleges and making conservatism undiscussable" idea.
Medical marijuana may soon become a non-issue, if the trends continue, as more states set themselves up with ballot initiatives and the Democratic candidate has said he will not raid in states that have medical marijuana laws for cancer patients.
Things are getting so bad in the economy and around the world that even the IMF is trying to find new ways of funding itself - possibly by raiding the gold supply it has that was contributed by member countries.
Before we invoke Godwin's Law again, why not get to know the relatives of Adolf Hitler, who have been hiding under assumend names for the last six decades or so. As little as you can - after all, old wounds run deep with regard to Adolf. Michael Ledeen wonders why we're not treating Iran like we should have treated Adolf and Stalin, despite the clear resemblances, in his mind.
In technology, one site shuts down, another site opens, and in this case, all the stuff on the old one works on the new. The only difference is that the RIAA isn’t suing them at the moment, having tried and failed to successfully get judgment against the predecessor site many times.
Speaking of evil cabals doing things in secret, a treaty is being negotiated, without public input or comment, that would essentially outlaw peer-to-peer file sharing, regardless of whether it infringes copyright or not, region-free DVD players, and other items. This treaty’s language is also being created without the input of several countries, and is slated for presentation at the G-8 summit next month. First I’ve heard of this, but Wikileaks has the document and the metadata. I suspect Blizzard, among other corporations, would like to know that their method of distributing updates may end up being killed without their consent.
A top Pentagon science think tank worries about future cyborgs with man-machine interfaces, the possible creation of super-soldiers and such. So they recommend the U.S. get there first and watch everyone else to see how they’re doing. This seems like a bad idea, to encourage another potential arms race with grey goo potential, but until I can be sure that the world is past the “attack other nations” impulse, I suppose it’s a sensible recommendation.
The universe that we know of as our own may have had a time before there was time, based on studies of background radiation - we may have split off of a previous universe.
Finally, an MMO that helps you learn and interact in Mandarin Chinese. Developed by fine minds at Michigan State University and the Office of the Chinese Language Council International. Interesting way of learning a language, that’s for sure.
Last for tonight, the map of Heaven, the amusement park, as envisioned by persons like those who wrote Left Behind. Definitely worth a laugh or two. If that’s not your thing, some beautiful black and white photography. Or a rocket car. Or the 21-leaf clover - I think that covers beauty in man, beauty in technology, and natural beauty. Then there’s the beauty of ingenuity, like making a bullwhip out of duck tape or Paper Foldables.
Oh, and apparently, I'm a Dreamy Idealist. Eh. Fair enough.
Let’s go international to kick the news off. Guantanamo personnel told to erase the evidence and destroy their notes, lest they be used to prove mistreatment of prisoners, according to allegations made by one of the defense lawyers for Omar Khadr, the United States has withdrawn itself completely form the U.N. Human Rights Council, and Japan has finally recognized an indigenous people of the island.
Let’s play a juxtaposition game. I’ll provide the Anglican bishop who entered into a civil union with his longtime homosexual partner, and someone will produce the MP who recommends "ex-gay" conversion therapy for someone who was assaulted for being a homosexual.
Oil prices are going to shock the world - and if they happen too fast, we won't be able to make the switchovers we need. Not only that, but an oil shock like $200/barrel will probably kill whatever remains of Michigan’s economy. While there are going to be talks about the price of oil, the nature of consumption has to change. And it is, some. And probably will more as prices continue to walk up the scale. Of course, we may start seeing strikes by truckers and transporters over the rising fuel costs start to spring up in places other than Spain, too.
A Hindu god has been made administrator of a school in India. Well, no meddling superintendent, but also, I wonder what his proposals will look like.
Hitting domestic shores, Kucinich introduces Bush impeachment resolution. Not that it will go anywhere. But 35 counts is a pretty good set of charges.
A proposed deal between Habitat for Humanity and Planned Parenthood has fallen through, after Habitat’s donors decided they didn’t want a Planned Parenthood office in the area, despite the face that Habitat would get the rest of the land for a mere $10. PP would benefit from the deal, because the city of the story has decreed that there must be buildings between the proposed office and the street, to hide the PP office. Having affordable Habitat housing would have fit the bill.
The TSA and some airports now have body scanners with good enough resolution to pick out the naughty bits. The scans are supposedly deleted immediately afterward, faces are supposedly blurred out, and this is supposed to be for your security and done in place of pat-downs, but I’m waiting for the first suit from someone that says they were detained so that the screeners could ogle the body afterward. I also find it interesting that they’re saying the people being screened don’t mind and accept it. Well, it’s not like they have a real choice to accept or deny and invasive procedure. It’s the scanner or the pat-down, and most people are less wigged out at the possibility of someone seeing them nude, than they are with someone actually patting them down in the view of everyone else.
High School valedictorian receives interesting graduation present: deportation. Immigration decided that he and his mother had to go home after their asylum appeals failed. He does get to stay around for graduation, but after that, he’ll have to go home. Yet there will be a report complaining that we don’t have enough bright people in the country to make it competitive. Here are some examples of the not-so bright: a mother who was drunk let her one year-old son steer the car, and two people left the scene of an accident they called. There may be a case to be made about how the bystanders didn’t help, but there were 911 calls made. Perhaps nobody had first aid training. In a case like that, it may have been wiser to avoid moving the person as much as possible.
BEES! Angry, angry, single-minded rage bees! Sufficient force and violence to knock the climber off the hill and send him down, stinging all the while. Yikes. Even politicians aren’t that vicious.
Speaking of the pols,
bradhicks steps up to the candidate plate first with a curious appeal from Senator Obama to have his supporters donate to Seantor Clinton so that she can pay back the loans she lent her campaign legally, and then a possible reason why so many people continue to believe Obama is a Muslim - his name gives them one impression, and they never really seek to read things thoroughly enough to realize that it's not the case. The comment squad doesn’t give the people nearly that much intelligence, leaving it at “uncritical belief in something we heard from some unnamed source somewhere”, and finally, why a lot of people are going to fall in love with Barack Obama, assuming they get to hear him speak - because the hope he offers, while we’ll see whether it’s genuine, it’s the same stuff that Reagan used to get himself elected. Obama’s appeal will get bigger with his claim that he will tax oil companies for "windfall profits".And, talking some about Senator McCain, he does have a first wife and some children, you know. And some possible reputation as a player, even though he and his first wife are still on good terms. Admittedly, they split because while the Senator was doing his POW thing, she also got in a disfiguring accident, and she and he probably had a cooling of ardor. If the Senator wants to be a “family-values” kind of guy, he may have to contend with being a divorcee. That doesn’t stop Fred Thompson from laying out what will likely be the most-used attacks by the Senator and the Republicans against Senator Obama, that the liberal march will lead to bigger government and conservatives being crushed underfoot everywhere. Mary Grabar's on board with the "Libruls are taking over colleges and making conservatism undiscussable" idea.
Medical marijuana may soon become a non-issue, if the trends continue, as more states set themselves up with ballot initiatives and the Democratic candidate has said he will not raid in states that have medical marijuana laws for cancer patients.
Things are getting so bad in the economy and around the world that even the IMF is trying to find new ways of funding itself - possibly by raiding the gold supply it has that was contributed by member countries.
Before we invoke Godwin's Law again, why not get to know the relatives of Adolf Hitler, who have been hiding under assumend names for the last six decades or so. As little as you can - after all, old wounds run deep with regard to Adolf. Michael Ledeen wonders why we're not treating Iran like we should have treated Adolf and Stalin, despite the clear resemblances, in his mind.
In technology, one site shuts down, another site opens, and in this case, all the stuff on the old one works on the new. The only difference is that the RIAA isn’t suing them at the moment, having tried and failed to successfully get judgment against the predecessor site many times.
Speaking of evil cabals doing things in secret, a treaty is being negotiated, without public input or comment, that would essentially outlaw peer-to-peer file sharing, regardless of whether it infringes copyright or not, region-free DVD players, and other items. This treaty’s language is also being created without the input of several countries, and is slated for presentation at the G-8 summit next month. First I’ve heard of this, but Wikileaks has the document and the metadata. I suspect Blizzard, among other corporations, would like to know that their method of distributing updates may end up being killed without their consent.
A top Pentagon science think tank worries about future cyborgs with man-machine interfaces, the possible creation of super-soldiers and such. So they recommend the U.S. get there first and watch everyone else to see how they’re doing. This seems like a bad idea, to encourage another potential arms race with grey goo potential, but until I can be sure that the world is past the “attack other nations” impulse, I suppose it’s a sensible recommendation.
The universe that we know of as our own may have had a time before there was time, based on studies of background radiation - we may have split off of a previous universe.
Finally, an MMO that helps you learn and interact in Mandarin Chinese. Developed by fine minds at Michigan State University and the Office of the Chinese Language Council International. Interesting way of learning a language, that’s for sure.
Last for tonight, the map of Heaven, the amusement park, as envisioned by persons like those who wrote Left Behind. Definitely worth a laugh or two. If that’s not your thing, some beautiful black and white photography. Or a rocket car. Or the 21-leaf clover - I think that covers beauty in man, beauty in technology, and natural beauty. Then there’s the beauty of ingenuity, like making a bullwhip out of duck tape or Paper Foldables.
Oh, and apparently, I'm a Dreamy Idealist. Eh. Fair enough.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
friggin quality.
Date: 2008-06-10 06:04 pm (UTC)weapons inspectors...err Family visit.I think Detroit is starting to suspect how fucked they may well be. there was I think an NY times article on fark last night that gave a focused cost analysis on the new f250. which in short estimated out that if you were to buy one and then operate it regularly over a five year period. the overall cost of purchase, upkeep and fuel would breakdown to about $20,000 per year of $100,000 over the five year life span (or payment period) of the vehicle.
while those number are very, very slanted they still further illuminate the fact that domestic truck and SUV manufacturers are not adapting fast enough to current market and economic trends. Personally i'll be shocked if Ford in it's current form survives this.
Re: friggin quality.
Date: 2008-06-10 06:49 pm (UTC)Although it amuses me to no end that my visit has been compared to a weapons inspection. Hmm, what other hilarious comparisons can we come up with....? Silver? Care to contribute?
Re: friggin quality.
Date: 2008-06-11 03:17 am (UTC)Re: friggin quality.
Date: 2008-06-11 03:16 am (UTC)Re: friggin quality.
Date: 2008-06-11 03:25 am (UTC)The Big Three have slit their own throats, it's just taking them a long time to bleed out. I feel sorry for Michigan, but they should have seen this coming.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 08:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 12:19 pm (UTC)