We love the weekend - 22 August 2008

[silveradept]

My professional self is quite interested in how France's ban on television intended for children under three is going to play out. I don’t know the intended audience for Rue Sesame these days, but I do understand the developmental worries about sticking a child in front of a screen as a baby-sitter, rather than having an active adult around to play with them.

Internationally, terror strikes at Pakistani munitions plants, which always generates the possibility that the people supposedly not looking too hard in certain autonomous regions will start using the fine-toothed comb, and ask their friends for help.

We have a deadline for troop withdrawal - 2011. The part where the U.S. wants all its contractors and soldiers to be immune from Iraqi law is still a sticking point, of course, but with the way that the government is doing its best to make itself and its contactors immune to U.S. and international law, I suppose this isn’t that surprising. Nor are opinions saying that contractors need to be immune from Iraqi law, or the quality of contractor will suffer. Considering some of the work the contractors have already done, I’m not sure that it’s a credible argument. Also, it’s not actually a complete withdrawal, and it is, of course, “conditions-based”, which means that nothing might happen at all, if both sides agree the conditions are just not right for withdrawal. Still, at least they’re talking definite times. All of which will help General Petraeus receive the credit he should get for his work to this point, even though others, like the WSJ opinion here, also try to claim that it is a vindication of their overarching philosophy and a justification of the invasion and “surge”.

If you’re going to embark on massive data mining and storage and hoarding and analysis... make sure the barrel you're holding it in doesn't leak. Four million people’s data lost and likely compromised because of it, and that’s without spectacular blunders like the 25 million name CD lost earlier in the year. Most of these losses are the losing or stealing of hardware that has the data on it, so I suppose it’s unavoidable that data will potentially be lost if stolen, but I wonder how the encryption and countermeasures are on the laptops, so as to make it difficult for someone who has the physical machine to actually obtain the data. Unencrypted discs, however, should not happen.

Domestically, the new HHS regulations are now available for public comment. The official press release of the new regs, and then, probably the very important part, the official text of the proposed regulation. So, if you want to tell the Department of Health and Human Services that they are potentially cutting off a woman’s access to birth control or abortion services because the doctor or pharmacist, out of “conscience” refuses to fill them, and there aren’t any other places around that will, and exempting any health care service provider that chooses to so deny this from punishment, whether diplomatically or colorfully, see the following paragraphs.

First, the subject for comments submitted should be “Provider Conscience Regulation” - If attaching files, they prefer Word formal, but will take Wordperfect format.

The electronic comment form should be available from www.regulations.gov or by searching the Federal Register, but I have not been able to find the proposed rule yet in either place (and this is with using their keywords, “provider conscience”.) When the item actually appears, I will do my best to update this notice. (I may need to be nudged to do it, though. If you can find it, linkies, please!)

The e-mail address is consciencecomment at hhs dot gov

And the snail-mail address is (will require one original and two copies - and there’s no guarantees it will get in in time):

Office of Public Health and Science
Department of Health and Human Services
Attention: Brenda Destro
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue S.W,
Room 728E
Washington, DC 20201

The comment period lasts for only thirty days after the triggering notice, so compose well but quickly.

Letters of inquiry have been issued after allegations were published in a book that the White House ordered the CIA to fabricate a letter intended to prove the links between Iraq and al-Qaeda, as well as a nuclear possibility for Saddam Hussein. It remains to be seen whether “executive privilege” or the other boilerplate justifications will be used to ignore the Congressional letters.

Another John McCain sound bite - a member of his campaign insults the geeks. On the Internet. Cue hilarity.

In the opinions, the Wall Street Journal things an automaker bailout is a bad idea, and that Detroit is as good a place as any to start turning people away from government bailouts. If Detroit collapses, it may be the best thing for the whole state of Michigan in the long run, but it will hurt like hell for a while untill the economy there can re-tool and the automakers finally have to admit that they really can make high-tech, fuel-efficient, hybrid and plug-in type cars cheaply enough to sell. At that point, of course, we’re hoping the economy has rebuilt into something more robust, so that if the automakers drag their feet again, Michigan can keep going without them.

Bob Ewing talks about what people mean when they say "special interests" - cabals designed to keep competition out and their own profits high.

Candidate-wise, Peggy Noonan thinks the polls are drawing even because the American people are starting to finally pay attention, and that they find John McCain someone to relate to, a known quantity, while Senator Obama still remains mostly unknown. On the strength of that, Noonan thinks McCain could win it, especially with a one-term pledge. Vote for the devil you know, even though you know he’s a devil. bradhicks has a different spin on the Warren sit-down - for him, it’s confirmation that a significant part of the country, or at least of Warren's audience, has not yet moved beyond Vietnam. I wonder if the current climate on Iraq and the “surge” isn’t contributing to buoying the idea that all we need to succeed is good resolve and no liberals sabotaging the military with their traitorious words and protests. If that mentality really takes hold, though, we’ve already seen in the news and on the blogs what happens when people convinced that you have to die because your point of view is treasonous finally feel they've been backed into a corner. A corner of illusion, of their own making, but a corner nonetheless, and so the response to follow is not a kind one.

Following on an earlier matter, reporting on a story that doesn't burnish the Chinese image during the Olympics apparently earns oneself harrassment and attempted intimidation for the reporters, and potentially worse fates for those who cooperate.

In scitech, the FCC tells Comcast they can't throttle BitTorrent traffic, although possibly not getting it completely right, as Comcast could instead use it as an open invitation to censor all content they think isn't legal, so long as they don’t target one particular protocol.

Speaking of large-scale attacks, China's biggest ISP has had a DNS-poisoning, redirecting typos and mistypings to a malware server rather than to the correct place, an attack-type that an end user can’t defend against, possibly even if they know their DNS server ahs been poisoned and can specify a specific server to do their DNS lookups with

Further beyond this, pictures of what happens when a space capsule doesn’t inflate the parachutes properly, robots training so as to interact with humans better, the odor of cancer, free radicals contributing to overeating by killing the "full" signals before they get to the brain, automatic associations helping point out when someone has become decided, even if they don't consciously acknowledge it yet, robot aircraft that can sense and use thermals for lift without expending fuel, and getting every drop of bandwidth you can our of your connection.

Winning scorn, derision, and probably a Worst Persons from Mr. Olbermann tonight, comedian Rush Limbaugh sticks his foot in his mouth again, attributing the entirety of Senator Obama's nomination to the fact that he's black and nobody in the Democratic Party had the nuts to stand up and say that he wasn't qualified. The comedian further went on to say that this nomination process was a perfect example of affirmative action, by which the unqualified (black) people end up at the top, and all the qualified white guys stayed silent because they would be accused of being racist if they said no. If Rush Limbaugh seriously thinks the Democratic Party didn’t nominate a qualified candidate, especially after the infighting that the primary was, then I wonder who he would consider qualified. Hillary Clinton? (she was). Or does Rush think any white guy would be automagically qualified, while women and black men are never qualified?

Last for tonight, a name often makes a headline work or fail. In this case, it’s up to you to decide. After putting you through that pun, proof that art derived from photographs can turn out looking nothing like their source.

Comments

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

I cannot handle another 4 years beneath a repuglican's iron-shod boot. @_o

[silveradept]

I would say that a lot of the people who have been paying attention during the last eight years would feel the same - but that would mean I would be saying nearly half the populace wasn't paying attention, according to the polling.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

This evening I was over at C's house, and J, C, and myself were all in the living room and what was Baby C doing? Watching a Little Einsteins DVD. I offered to play with him, but he apparently "really likes" the DVD....he's 6 months old!

I'm really glad that even though my doctor wouldn't give the prescription for EC, he'll give me my BC because of it being used to regulate my cycle (or at least, that's what he has down in my file it's for).

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I am less worried about access to abortion than the idea that someone wants to take away my birth control. I am perfectly fine with the idea that we shouldn't *force* anyone to violate their beliefs to treat us, but when was the last time you heard of a doctor performing an abortion against their will anyways? The idea is a little absurd.

I have been lucky enough to not have any birth control accidents. Should it ever happen, I will find a way.

[silveradept]

And for you, luckily, that's an option. I wish it wasn't true, but there are way too many people for whom that isn't an option.