silveradept | And go forth

It kind of sucks that the Olympics are going on a world away - admittedly, it makes for some good primetime live coverage (if you have a network that is actually showing them live, like the CBC), but it also means that because I’m a dutifully employed member of society, I can’t just zip back and forth between the various channels, keeping track of two or three different events simultaneously. I have to go to work, so I can afford the ability to do it when I get home. Ah, well. Them’s the breaks.

My professional self applauds the Massachusettes Library Association for generating an Excel sheet for calculating one's library value, and then to the Chelmsford Library for putting a calculator on-line, and then to the Maine State Library for making it pretty and customizable. Shouldn’t every library have something like this? It would make it really easy for the person who says “Why should my taxes support this library?” to show how easily even casual use of the library over the course of a month or a year creates an impressive multiplier of total value of services compared to the amount of taxes put into the library’s coffers. Libraries generate seriously kickass returns on investment, even if you visit them in person only to pick up your holds. Even more so if you ask questions over various services or use the library’s database access.

And now, the n00s.

Internationally, well, the conflict between Russia and Georgia is supposedly over. But that doesn’t mean there is a lack of calls for the United States to wage war on Russia (with what army?), or at least to tell them in no uncertain terms to back off. There’s also complaints about Georgian troops moving back home from their Iran border duties. Of course, even with a cease-fire signed, there isn't necessarily a cessation of hostilities. In the interim, the president of Georgia appeals to Europe and the West to stop Russia from continuing their current course of action. All in all, it's a really confusing situation when looking for justifications and results. One thing we do know, however, is that Georgia guessed wrong on who was going to retaliate, and now the question is whether this is a flashpan incident, or the beginning of another attempt at rebuilding the USSR.

The Middle East continues to churn around, wih accusations that Hamas and Fatah are engaging in human-rights violations in crackdowns on political opponents, King Abdullah of Jordan visits Iraq and urges strength and solidarity to Iraq from other Arab nations, which they will probably need, as Iraq begins offerings refugees free flights home.

And finally, new leader, S.S.D.D., according to the publication of a human rights group in Cuba, technically illegal but tolerated (which probably means they can’t say what they really want to).

In the domestic sphere, the current administration has decided that federal agencies can decide for themselves whether or not their projects will affect endangered species, deliberately positioning the rule changes as a block to using the effects of greenhouse gases on endangered and threatened species as a way of forcing projects to reconsider their environmental impact. As regulation changes, it requires no Congressional approval to go into effect. Liberal Beagle considers this rule change a brazen "screw you" to not only the environmentally concerned, but to the entirety of non-human life on the planet. It’s nice to see that the current administration is so anti-global warming that they’ll change regulations and potentially put many species at risl just to make sure someone can’t use any climate change rationale to stop them. If elected, a President Obama will have a lot of work to do just to undo much of the damage already done.

Our “How many cults are there, anyway?” department has another tragic tale of religion-based discipline ending in a child fatality. This time, because a toddler refused to say "Amen" after meals, he was thought of as a demon, starved until dead, then left in a room, and finally packed into a suitcase when cult members moved on. May we please have some sanity?

Our “robbery gone strange” file has the assailant's gun being dropped and breaking into pieces on the floor. The robber did escape with cash... and a dye-pack, so likely, not as much cash as he thinks.

On the opposite end, an investigation is going into a police raid that went into the wrong house and supposedly left their calling card in fridge magnets. And a ruined door, which the police have made no effort to compensate the owners for.

Candidate matters says Bobby Jindal doesn't want to be Senator McCain's vice-president, claiming that he has the job he wants. With the way the McCain campaign is running, though, I don’t know if anyone would want to be associated with it.

In opinions, a different model for carbon sales, designed to stop pollution at the power company level, leave most of the fuels in the ground, and finance alternatives - a single cap for carbon emissions, sold in chunks at auction to the companies themselves, no trading permitted. Alan Caruba, on the other hand, feels that nuclear power is a good solution to coal and oil, and then lambasts the Democrats for not embracing it. Nuclear has its own problems, and they do last a little longer in teh soil, as opposed to emissions in the air. Caruba also feels that no amount of wind and solar will ever be able to actually cover the electrical needs of the country, so we shouldn’t build lots of them - nuclear or nothing, it appears to be for him. Cornelia Dean highlights the pressing need to have serious ethical discussions about the rapid advances of our technology, because impacts to the environment may not be predictable or reversable, especially if they go sour.

the Wall Street Journal mocks the folly of Maryland raising their cigarette tax to fund the coffers, and then wondering where all the smokers went - to Virginia, apparently, which has less taxes. Of course, if cought with foreign cigs in the state, there’s a fine to be had. Less tobacco smokers is a good thing, of course, but the idea of raising the taxes only really works if the people can’t get their cigs for cheaper elsewhere, and are willing to pay the new price for them. Maybe with a little more tax, all the cigs will be bought from elsewhere, and the state will still ahve to deal with budget shortfalls... but there may be a lot fewer smokers, too.

For candidate opinions, Mark Hillman paints Senator Obama as someone with no conviction or willingness to commit troops and lives to his principles, on which the comment squad take this idea and runs with it to paint the Senator as anti-American, anti-white, a racist, an empty suit, a socialist, a Muslim messiah, and someone who would rather protect terrorists than fight them. The populace is rather vicious in their opinions. Not that liberalism doesn’t have its own acid to spit, but they also have the benefit of eight years of the current administrator to draw upon when making unfavorable comparisons of the Republican candidate to the Demorcatic one, or in decrying what would be the continuation of the policies of the current administrator.

In science and technology today, the tetrapod beaches of Japan, where concrete designed to stop erosion has created a rather interesting coastline, the beginnings of trying to link together virtual worlds, light hybrids as the fuel-efficient cars fo the future, fine-tuning laboratory growth so that muscle transitions to bone on the same segment, better polymers and plastic materials that can be used as coolants, and software for robots to permit them to learn how to move, gyrate, and do tricks all by themselves.

Last for tonight, our weird news includes the rampage of a gigantic inflatable piece of excrement, contact lenses that give you the wide-eyed anime look, and one more reason not to shop at Wal-Mart.