April 2004 | Main | June 2004
May 29, 2004
Bang! Bang! The Economy Is Dead
This
sets a very bad precedent.
The anti-gun lobby thinks they will be able use decisions like these
to wrest guns from the hands of law-abiding citizens -- and they may be
right.
However, like most organizations with but one goal (the RIAA being
another), they will gladly plunge the economy into ruin to achieve their
one pet goal. The success of a lawsuit against gun manufacturers can be
parlayed by trial lawyers into successful suits against any product
used in any illegal (or, even, non-authorized by the manufacturer) way.
If these sorts of suits are allowed, it will mean very bad things for
the American economy.
Posted by Mike at 10:46
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GI Bill For All
I am not a libertarian. There are some projects, such as highways and
road building, municipal planning, basic services such as phone and
power provision, that I do not believe can achieve maximum societal
benefit in the hands of private corporations driven solely by the profit
motive.
I am beginning to wonder if, in the tradition of some European
countries, we should not provide $20,000 - $40,000 to all students who
attend accredited universities and achieve a certain grade point average
(say, 2.5) till they graduate. The societal benefits, just as with the
GI Bill, would be enormous.
The reason most people do not attend (or, more accurately, finish)
secondary schooling is due to lack of money. While the price of this
proposed subsidy to the taxpayer would be considerable, and it would
necessitate a near-complete revamp of the university system, the
benefits to society over the long term would be manifold greater than
any possible cost.
And if the program produces even one more Douglas Engelbart, it will
have paid off on that alone.
Posted by Mike at 10:04
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May 28, 2004
In The Henhouse
Hen-pecked? No, more like hen-peckered.
Posted by Mike at 05:09
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Big Diaper
Aww, how cute. A baby
planet. Only a million years old.
Posted by Mike at 02:30
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May 27, 2004
F-150 Of Doom
Comparison
of the results of a head-on crash in a Ford F-150 and Mini Cooper. The
results are susprising, unless you know the difference between truck and
car construction standards.
Posted by Mike at 07:34
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How Close Is Alexandria
There are very few places I'd care to go back in time and visit, but
the great library and, later, the university in Alexandria is
one of them.
Polish archaeologists have unearthed 13 lecture halls
believed to be the first traces ever found of ancient Egypt's University
of Alexandria, the head of the project said Wednesday.
"This is the oldest university ever found in the world," Grzegory
Majderek, head of the Polish mission, told The Associated Press.
The lecture halls, with a capacity of 5,000 students, are part of the
5th century university, which functioned until the 7th century,
according to a statement from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
I always like to imagine what would happen if great civilizations
hadn't fallen, if for instance the Roman civilization had continued
uninterrupted. I believe the Romans were on the verge of some major
technological breakthroughs, and thus we'd likely be about 2,000 years
ahead of where we are now.
Too bad.
Posted by Mike at 10:32
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More Flowers
Posted by Mike at 01:13
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May 26, 2004
Nanoprepare
Prepare for the prefix "nano" to precede just about every new product
name for 10 years or so, even if the product has nothing at all to do
with nanotechnology.
This is an old trend, the co-opting of technological prefixes into
inapplicable fields, that really caught fire when the first so-called
Hi-Fi stereos hit the scene -- suddenly, there were Hi-Fi camera stores,
Hi-Fi vacuum cleaners, Hi-Fi everything.
This was seen most recently with the grafting of .com as an affixture
on the end of innumerable companies in recent memory, and several other
more minor outbreaks of such silliness.
Get ready for "nano" everything.
Posted by Mike at 11:25
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Al Qaeda Promises Not Just To Rock Da House, But To
Blow Up Da House
Ashcroft warns of
imminent danger from Al Qaeda. This isn't terribly surprising, as I
am surprised an attack hasn't occurred sooner.
But the U.S. isn't Spain; we won't immediately roll over, vote for
Kerry, and pull out of Iraq in two months. If they intend to swing the
election, as they did in Spain, it will be to Bush, and not to Kerry.
And either way, we won't be pulling out of Iraq anytime soon. If that
is their intent for the timing of the attacks, it won't work out like
they hope.
Posted by Mike at 06:27
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May 24, 2004
Rowing the Boat
About a month ago, I wrote about
the biological components of religious belief. The more I've
thought about it since then, the more I've come to believe that the
predisposition to religious belief is strongly genetically determined,
but is not asbolutely genetically ordained (hehe).
Which is to say, I believe most humans have a strong tendency to
believe all sorts of religious claptrap, and it merely takes childhood
indoctrination to push most irretrievably over the edge.
On that theme, here
is a much more in-depth exploration of that topic.
Posted by Mike at 08:48
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May 23, 2004
Tricksy Mindses
Good
NPR piece on the tricks the human mind plays on itself.
Posted by Mike at 01:14
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The Hard Stuff
Something light for the weekend: Die
Hard trivia.
Richard Gere was considered for the role of John
McClane.
The scene where McClane falls down a shaft was a mistake by
the stuntman, who was supposed to grab the first vent, as it originally
was planned. He slipped and continued to fall, but the shot was used
anyway; it was edited together with one where McClane grabs the next
vent down as he falls.
Richard Gere? Richard Fucking Gere? I don't think so.
Posted by Mike at 12:45
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Helsinki
What a writer in
Helsinki thinks of U.S. involvement in Iraq.
I think it is always a good thing to examine yourself through
another's eyes, even if after that, you still disagree.
Posted by Mike at 12:22
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May 21, 2004
Kool Karate Kids!
Having the Ku Klux Klan banned
as a terrorist group would only serve to lend them an air of
legitimacy they no longer possess.
Right now, they are but a joke, and if you've ever met any KKK
members, you'd know why. Paying the group as little attention as
possible is the best approach.
Posted by Mike at 10:30
AM
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Doghuman
Welcome
to 2340.
Posted by Mike at 03:06
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Three Cars
If I could pick any three cars to own, they would be the 1954
Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing, the 2004 Ferrari 575M Maranello, and the
1995 300ZX Twin Turbo with Stage III upgrades.
The Z would be my daily driver, as it's one of the few (or perhaps,
only) 400HP, sub-five-second 0-60 cars in the world as dependable as a
Honda Civic. The Ferrari would be my weekender, and the Mercedes --
well, I'm not sure I'd drive that, as much as drool near it on occasion.
Posted by Mike at 01:43
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May 20, 2004
Sun Fire
Colors not altered in this image -- it's just what happens when red
morning sun hits a red tree (taken last fall).
Posted by Mike at 03:20
AM
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May 19, 2004
If Birds Live In Birdhouses, What Lives In
Roundhouses?
Taken with semi-fisheye lens, 15% 82 blue cooling filter applied in
processing.
Posted by Mike at 02:53
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May 16, 2004
I'm Ready When You Are
It constantly amazes me, with so many people who have served in the
military, how abysmally clueless major
news outlets can be about the armed forces.
Note to the L.A. Times: In the military, the concept of readiness
has an extremely specific meaning. It does not mean the unit is
incapable of carrying out any mission -- it means that the unit is not
ready to carry out all of the possible missions to which it could be
assigned, up to and including the land invasion of Russia.
Also, a unit can categorize itself as "unready" for reasons that
might seem trivial to a clueless civilian reporter, including that it
does not have enough cooks or enough entrenching tools. Could the unit,
the 101st in this example, still go out and outfight, outmaneuver and
outgun any unit twice its size in the world? Yes, it could -- but in the
very specific military parlance, the unit would still judge itself
"unready."
In my former unit, whose mission was to be wheels-up within 18 hours
of notification from the President, we could be judged unready just
because we had too many soldiers on leave (as could happen near
Christmas, for instance), despite the fact that there was nothing
otherwise wrong with the unit at all.
I wish the press would make more of an effort to actually hire people
who knew anything at all about the military, because for the millions
who have served, stories like the one in the L.A. Times read more
like a 5th-grader's class project -- except the research there tends to
have more rigor.
Posted by Mike at 05:09
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Soot In Mouth
Another reason why
nuclear power plants are safer than coal-fired plants, which are by
far the most common.
Due to the agit-prop of the anti-nuclear movement, and because of
Chernobyl, most people are sorely misinformed about the reliability and
safety of a modern nuclear power plant. A meltdown in a modern plant is
basically impossible -- even a fully-loaded 747 slamming into one at
500mph would do this: nothing -- oh, the technicians inside would die,
but the plant would simply shut down. No meltdown. No Chernobyl.
Chernobyl, a Russian-designed reactor, melted down because it used
discredited technology long-known to be unsafe. It was a disaster
waiting to happen, and happen it did.
The energy needs of the future will likely only be met by nuclear
power. It's time to learn to love the atom again.
Posted by Mike at 04:40
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May 14, 2004
Time
Amazingly, there is still a
living widow of a Civil War veteran.
Posted by Mike at 11:17
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Tonight, Today
Interview
with Billy Corgan, where he discusses success, selling out, and
individuality in music.
Is all this completely different now?
I'm not romantic about the notion of "selling out." People who are not
in your position deciding what is and isnt selling out I always thought
was a crock of s---. The song I wrote, "Today," which ended up being a
pretty big song that song literally saved my life. I was completely
suicidal, and I wrote that song in a cold bedroom on a day where it was
like, "I'm either going to kill myself today, or I'm going to live
because I'm sick of thinking about this." When I played it, it was an
intense, extreme feeling. Last year, I was offered heavy, heavy money to
license that song. I actually turned down two huge, huge,
seven-figure-plus deals last year for two songs.
For "Today" and for which other song?
"Tonight, Tonight." Thats a fundamentally difficult position to be in.
At this point, it's just free money. Song's already been played. It's
been exploited. The record company's literally begging me: go ahead and
take these commercials. At this point in my life, I don't feel
comfortable. Those songs are the reason I'm alive. If your music is not
sacred to the point where it's a really, really, really heavy decision
about whether or not you would allow somebody else to exploit it, then
what's not for sale? For a long time there was this dream that you could
hit this utopian point The Beatles hit. "All you need is love." You'd
write that song that would change the world. That seems to have gotten
lost. Now songs are just vehicles for personality. The song is not the
sacred thing anymore.
I am glad that Corgan didn't license the songs, especialy as
"Tonight, Tonight" is one of my favorite songs of all time, but I must
say if someone offered me a seven-figure deal for anything of mine, I
can already tell you the answer is "yes."
So...any offers?
Posted by Mike at 05:59
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Performance Is Everything
Something that I've meant to write about for a while, but hadn't
though of until I read this
post, is that the military is probably the greatest example of
complete racial integration in all American society.
Additionally, the military is one of the few places
where no one thinks it worthy of mention, positive or negative, if a
unit of anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand has a command
structure composed almost exclusively of minorities.
In the military, performance is everything. Even in non-combat jobs,
mistakes and missteps in the course of duty can (and do, every day)
kill. And you are just as dead whether a black person or a white person
made the mistake.
Especially in a commander of higher rank, say Captain or above for
officers, and staff sergeant or above for non-coms, there is little
doubt that most of them got there because they deserve their job. If
not, they would've, for the most part, been booted out on their butts
due to, at the least, poor reviews, and, as sometimes occurs, because
they get someone (or themselves) killed.
If you want to see a color-blind society, join the Army or the
Marines. In an environment where performance is everything, and screwing
up can get you and many other people dead real quick, skin color turns
out not to matter much at all.
Posted by Mike at 01:25
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Introvertster
I have found the service for me: Introvertster.
You can use Introvertster to:
Avoid invites to chat, filter out annoying invitations for Meetup,
birthday parties, or after-hours get togethers.
Packet flood a friends Internet connection making it impossible
for them to send you an instant message.
Help your friends get a clue that you really don't like people
or care for idle chit-chat.
Now if I could just get an automaton to do my job, I'd be set.
Posted by Mike at 12:41
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May 13, 2004
Let's Do It In The Road
What
the fuck?
Did she watch too much Caligula or something?
Shocking shots of sexcapades involving Pfc. Lynndie
England were among the hundreds of X-rated photos and videos from the
Abu Ghraib prison scandal shown to lawmakers in a top-secret Capitol
conference room yesterday.
"She was having sex with numerous partners. It appeared to be
consensual," said a lawmaker who saw the photos.
And, videos showed the disgraced soldier - made notorious in a photo
showing her holding a leash looped around an Iraqi prisoner's neck -
engaged in graphic sex acts with other soldiers in front of Iraqi
prisoners, Pentagon officials told NBC Nightly News.
If I ever need a torturer for my evil empire, I know who to call. She
was from West Virginia -- good way to disprove all those stereotypes,
there.
Posted by Mike at 12:27
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May 12, 2004
Choose
People used to make records
As in a record of an event
The event of people
Playing music in a room
Now everything is cross-marketing
It's about sunglasses and shoes
Or guns or drugs
You choose
-Ani DiFranco, "Fuel"
Posted by Mike at 09:23
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May 11, 2004
Warm It Up Criss
I am not sure the advantages of using an
apparently cross-eyed model in an advertising campaign.
Posted by Mike at 07:21
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Cant and Recant
I was wrong about the Abu Ghraib torture. I thought it was
interrogation-related, when in reality it was a unit gone mad, lacking
supervision and oversight, Three Kings without any of the
cleverness or denouement.
I still have no doubt that the soldiers accused of perpetrating the
crimes against the prisoners were not acting alone. I am quite certain
the CIA and DIA were behind it, at least set the ball rolling, and that
said people will face no retribution, instead using lowly privates
without the ability to decide even when to get up in the morning as
their fall guys.
When I thought the torture was interrogation-related, and designed to
extract valid information about insurgent actions against Americans, I
was ok with it. In my opinion, torture is a valid tool, if used
correctly (though it rarely is). However, now that I know it occurred
mostly at the caprice of unsupervised units acting on advice from DIA
and CIA spooks, and that it was mostly sadistic and pointless, I believe
everyone associated with it should be prosecuted.
Life is about intent. If the intent was to extract information from
the killers of Americans within 72 hours, let's commence to shockin'. If
the intent was merely to get some kicks by making Iraqis pretend to
suck each other off and taking trophy photos with pyramids of naked men,
then those people should rot in prison forever, and their commanders as
well. (I say "within 72 hours" because that is a golden rule, of sorts,
of human intelligence gathering. If it's not within 72 hours, the
information is probably outdated, plans may have changed, and at the
least, the enemy knows you have someone valuable, and may change
plans just because of that.)
Too many people have no sense of subtlety. All war is wrong. Torture
is never right. Violence is always evil. Whatever. If I thought I could
save the lives of millions by torturing someone to death, bring out the
pliers. If I thought I could prevent an unjust war by assassinating
someone, let me get my Winchester. Life is not that
simple, people.
But I was wrong about Abu Ghraib. And one of the reasons I was wrong
is because I did not realize at first that the units in charge of
running all the prisons in Iraq were reservists.
In the regular Army, reservists have a horrid reputation. "Real"
units despise training with reserve or National Guard units. In fact, we
always called National Guard units "Nasty Guard" for their lack of
discipline, their poor training, their lack of interest, and their
slipshod command structure. The same was true of reservists, though we
didn't have such a clever nickname for them.
I am not saying all reservists or National Guard members are sub-par
soldiers. I am merely asserting that there is a much higher percentage
of poor soldiers, commanders, and non-coms in these units.
Get a bunch of these poor leaders and followers together in a war
zone, and events like Abu Ghraib are almost bound to occur. I highly
doubt such things would have been long-tolerated in a regular Army unit.
But I've said my piece. I was wrong about Abu Ghraib, though I still
approve of torture if applied correctly and judiciously.
Posted by Mike at 06:42
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May 10, 2004
Highlight
Would have been a good photo, but for
the blown highlights, the most common mistake that I still make as
well from time to time.
Posted by Mike at 01:02
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Far Star
Possible first
photo of an extrasolar planet.
Wow, that happened about a decade or so earlier than I expected, if
it proves true.
Posted by Mike at 12:40
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Science Is Not Objective
I keep seeing this idea that science is "objective." Science is not
objective at all, at least not in the sense most people use the word
"objective."
Most use the word to mean "uninfluenced by emotions or prejudice,"
when in fact scientists are strongly prejudiced and emotional about
describing how the observable world really works.
The other sense of the word "objective," meaning "based on observable
phenomena," is a more accurate depiction of how scientists attempt to
glean their knowledge, but in press accounts and common usage, this
sense of the word is little-used.
So, as most people use and understand the term, science is not
objective at all. It is very strongly biased to describing the actual
workings of the real world.
Posted by Mike at 10:23
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May 09, 2004
When Good Grannies Go Bad
Ouch.
And it doesn't even look like she's aware that she hit anyone. Looks
like it happened in Germany to me.
Posted by Mike at 12:13
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Kickin' It On The Indus River
As expected, Indian wages are moving to achieve parity
with workers in the First World.
Infosys is hardly the only Indian company making a
serious effort to attract and keep employees. Over all, according to a
recent survey by Hewitt Associates, the consulting group, wages in the
country's major outsourcing sectors have been rising by close to 15
percent a year.
If my math is correct, at that rate, and depending on the job, it
will only take most Indian worker's wages roughly 15 years to equal
average American wages.
So much for the benefits of outsourcing -- but as with most
speculative trends, the first in are the only ones who make (or save)
much money.
(And no, I don't think offshoring will disappear as a long-term
trend, I think it will just come to be viewed as another option that might
have some benefits for certain jobs, not the cost-savings panacea a lot
of companies now view it as. Capital will flow to where it can best be
used in most cases. With offshoring as it is now, that's not happening a
large percentage of the time, because right now, it's primarily a
management trend.)
Posted by Mike at 12:04
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The Oven, Your Head
This
is a good post about the root causes of suicide.
Does anyone know if humans are the only animals that commit suicide?
I've never see any research on this. I'd guess that humans are the only
creatures that do, but that's just a SWAG.
Posted by Mike at 11:08
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Stem Bush
Even Nancy Reagan is lambasting
the science "policy" of George W. Bush and his administration.
In rare remarks aimed at influencing national public
policy, former First Lady Nancy Reagan told a star-studded crowd
Saturday night that stem cell research must be pursued "to save families
from the pain" of debilitating illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease,
which afflicts her husband, former President Reagan.
"I am determined to do whatever I can," she said after receiving a
standing ovation at a gala fundraiser in her honor at the Beverly
Wilshire Hotel.
We are already far behind other countries in critical areas of
research due to Bush's short-sighted science policies. With four more
years of Bush, much science will move overseas, and with it, the money
and jobs it would bring Americans. And more importantly, this policy is
dooming millions of people to death and debilitation.
Maybe I'll move to Chicago, so I can vote against Bush four or five
times. Hehe.
Posted by Mike at 10:50
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Mini
I have found my new
love.
Posted by Mike at 03:38
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A Crinkle In Rhyme
Interesting interview
with Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time, among
other novels.
What are you working on at the moment?
A
book about aging: enjoy it, you might as well. And it's not all bad. I
can say what I want, and I don't get punished for it.
Such as?
Such as I
sometimes think God is a s--t and he wouldn't be worth it otherwise.
He's much more interesting when he's a s--t.So
to you, faith is not a comfort?
Good heavens, no. It's a
challenge: I dare you to believe in God. I dare you to think [our
existence] wasn't an accident. Many
people see faith as anti-intellectual.
Then they're not
very bright. It takes a lot of intellect to have faith, which is why so
many people only have religiosity.
She makes a good point. I have no problem with religious people who
do not try to force their views on me, or condemn me for my lack of
faith.
I personally believe the universe has no point, and no maker, and is
essentially an accident. It has no purpose. It just is. I would be
angry if there were any conclusive evidence showing that a god or gods
did exist. I do not wish to live in a universe with a god. However, were
such evidence presented, I'd accept it. For me, evidence is everything.
I take nothing on faith, because I don't need the comfort.
However, I feel that others are entitled to whatever they want to
believe as long it does no harm to me, and L'Engle embodies this ideal
well. She's an interesting person, and we need all of those we can get.
Posted by Mike at 01:59
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May 08, 2004
Thunderbird
Thunderbird
0.6 is out, and it has a few new features and seems to start up a
bit faster.
Funny how a 0.6 product is better than every e-mail client, some of
which are on 10.0 and above releases.
For those of you who don't know much about tech, Thunderbird is an
open-source e-mail client that is designed to compete (and far exceed)
consumer-level e-mail clients like Outlook Express, Eudora, etc. It
includes a spam filter, the ability to use multiple identities easily
(unlike Outlook Express), and is much more stable and resilient.
If you value your time at all, give Thunderbird a shot. I can almost
guarantee you will never think about Outlook Express or any other e-mail
client again.
Posted by Mike at 11:48
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Delicate Color
Posted by Mike at 05:09
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Spire
Dell says
that about 12 percent of the tech support calls in their consumer
hardware division are due to spyware/adware.
Sounds right to me; as a rough guess, I'd say about 15 percent of the
issues I handle on client machines are due to, or exacerbated by,
spyware/adware. In my opinion, spyware/adware authors and distributors
are no different from virus-writers, and should be thrown in jail just
the same.
But, and this is a big but (though probably not as large as Camryn
Manheim's), most spyware/adware is installed due to user ignorance and
often wilfull cluelessness.
But you can't throw people in jail for being idiots, so the only
choice is to target the spyware/adware distributors.
Posted by Mike at 04:31
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May 07, 2004
Not A Nice Post
I find it interesting, and more than a little apropos, that
apparently a large percentage of the soldiers meting out torture in Abu
Ghraib were women.
I don't think my reaction is right, though I can't exactly help it.
It's more vengeful, but my brain keeps thinking small thoughts like,
Well, about time some of those Arab men got what they deserve for
treating their women as they do.
How does it feel to be on the other end, guys?
Fuck cultural relativism. How Islam treats its woman is a crime
against humanity.
Posted by Mike at 05:07
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Minimal
Government contractor seeking POW
interrogators in Baghdad.
"Minimal supervision," says the listing.
You can say that again!
Posted by Mike at 04:57
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May 06, 2004
CIA, DIA, KIA USA GI
Seeing the photo in
this post and reading the little bit excerpted leaves little doubt
in my mind that the CIA (and DIA) were behind pretty much everything
that occurred in Abu Ghraib, and that a lot of soldiers who otherwise
would not have done such things will take the fall for it.
Still, it is the responsibility of the individual solider not to
violate the Geneva Convention, and to disobey unlawful orders -- but
that is a harder task than people who have not been in the military can
even imagine.
Posted by Mike at 05:33
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Fragility of Modernity
Turns out that CDs and DVDs don't last nearly
as long as thought, or nearly as long as the industry asserted on
release, in part, to justify the higher prices.
Part of the problem is that most people believe that
it's the clear underside of the CD that is fragile, when in fact it's
the side with the label. Scratches on the underside have to be fairly
deep to cause skipping, while scratches on the top can easily penetrate
to the aluminum layer. Even the pressure of a pen on the label side can
dent the aluminum, rendering the CD unreadable.
The best way to make a CD last is to not label it at all -- not even
with a magic marker. The acids in a paper label and its glue, and the
chemicals in a magic marker, penetrate to the aluminum layer and
dissolve it over time.
Funny that a record will likely last hundreds of years, while a CD
may not even make it 10.
Posted by Mike at 12:05
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May 05, 2004
Moore Mon
Despite the fact that I think Michael Moore is a nutsack, I think
it's ridiculous that Disney is attempting
to block the release of his film, Fahrenheit 9/11.
Moore's own films discredit him well enough in the eyes of most
Americans. No reason to give him more publicity (which may well be the
intent of this "block").
Posted by Mike at 11:59
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Abu Ghraib
Perhaps I'm just a heartless bastard, but I don't see the
interrogation-related torture that happened in Abu Ghraib as that big of
a deal, at least not as much as others are making it.
First of all, I believe the CIA was behind it, using those soldiers
to do their dirty work. The CIA spooks who sanctioned it will never take
the fall for it.
Second, I do not understand the pundits saying this incident was as
bad as anything Saddam did. We haven't executed in cold blood millions
of people. The U.S. has not thrown people bodily into plastic shredders.
No one even came close to dying of the torture. The claims of moral
equivalence with Saddam's actions are idiotic.
Third, when you capture someone known to be an insurgent, you have a
limited useful time to get useful intelligence out of him. At the behest
of the CIA (and their commanders, I am sure), these soldiers were using
effective methods to extract information, especially as nudity and
homesexual acts among Arab men are seen as one of the worst desecrations
possible. Photographing these acts and showing them to others is an
enormous humiliation. This is an effective method of breaking
down your Arab prisoners who might have vital intelligence.
Fourth and last, the longer you fight a war, the more like your enemy
you become. These torture methods were used because they work.
Had I ever, by some off chance, been captured by the enemy if I'd ever
made it to combat, I would've expected to be tortured.
War is war. War is not playtime. It does not surprise me that such
things happened. I don't believe those things should have happened, but I
do believe the wrong people are taking the fall. But as for my feelings
about some insurgents being tortured in a non-lethal, non-disfiguring
way to possibly save U.S. soldier's lives -- well, it's war. War is
hell.
Posted by Mike at 10:30
AM
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Tillman
Good article
that talks about the memorial service of Pat Tillman. I won't spoil it
for you -- but great conclusion. I love when I find good newspaper
writers. So rare.
Tillman's youngest brother, Rich, wore a rumpled white
T-shirt, no jacket, no tie, no collar, and immediately swore into the
microphone. He hadn't written anything, he said, and with the starkest
honesty, he asked mourners to hold their spiritual bromides.
"Pat isn't with God,'' he said. "He's fucking dead. He wasn't
religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's fucking dead.''
What? This didn't happen for God, as well as country? A professional
athlete turned soldier, and we're supposed to believe that he'd have no
use for piety? Robbed of a cliche, where does that leave us?
Challenge yourself.
What I like about Tillman, is that he succeeded in something I have
always attempted myself -- to be good at a lot of things, not just an
expert in one small arena. To be intelligent, athletic, well-read, to
travel, to be interested in the world and not just one narrow area of it
at the exclusion of all else.
Posted by Mike at 09:30
AM
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Tommy J
Here is something the hellhounds (RIAA, MPAA), SCO, the
USPTO, et. al, could take note of, from Thomas Jefferson:
"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction
himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine,
receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread
from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction
of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly
and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire,
expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point,
and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical
being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation."
Posted by Mike at 08:14
AM
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Fido
Why is a stereotpyical name for a dog "Fido" when I've never
personally seen a dog named thus?
I haven't had time to adequately research the etymology of that
weird, minor bit of sociological and linguistic trivia, but in Latin,
"Fido" translates literally to "I am faithful." I imagine that has a
great deal to do with the lineage of the name as a neutral identifier.
Posted by Mike at 07:01
AM
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May 04, 2004
Those Evil Women
Is it just me, or is the basis of modern Islam pretty much the fear
of, and the desire to control, the sexuality of women? Maybe I'm wrong,
but looks that way to me.
Posted by Mike at 03:31
PM
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May 03, 2004
Jane
Quote below from an interesting
article on Google.
"On the more exciting front, you can imagine having your
brain being augmented by Google. For example you think about something
and your cell phone could whisper the answer in your ear."
Anyone who has read Orson Scott Card probably recalls Jane. I love
Jane. I want Jane. I would never turn Jane off. That is all.
Posted by Mike at 07:34
AM
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