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if a picture is worth 1000 words, this is extremely valuable.
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Iraq’s modern history has been imposed on it by Western powers: what will be the result of this exercise?
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the message I take away is that no one should be able to run unopposed. democracy is not a spectator sport, after all.
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“Here lies the American republic, victim of modern communications technology and its own sexual puritanism.”
Month: October 2006
plague
Would we be ready for a recurrence of the diseases that wiped out the Americas’ native populations 400 years ago?
It’s been a hard day’s night …:
Here’s the deal. In about 1913 a flu virus “jumped” from one species (probably swine) to another (people) and by 1918, more than five million persons [Actually, it was between 20 and 40 million] had died from it. That virus has been recreated in labs for study within the past two years, and one of its nifty effects, technically termed a “cytokine storm“, is to turn your body’s immune system into a self-targeting ninja horde. It was, and is, the deadliest single disease on record since the flea-borne “Black Plague” that decimated Europe in the days of rats, mice, open sewers and “miasmatic transference.”
In the rising tide of theocratic oligarchism sweeping around the globe, it’s worth remembering that science exists and has proven some things.
Preventing communicable diseases isn’t rocket science.
1. Wash your hands.
2. Stay home when you’re sick.
3. Keep your kids home when they’re sick.
4. Cough into your shoulder or elbow, not your hands.
5. Wash your hands. Use warm water and soap, or an antibacterial gel.
what’s wrong with these pictures?
So I read the cover story in today’s PNW magazine on cycling and Critical Mass, and came away with diminished respect for what should be a laudable effort. To see a prominent local cycle aficionado riding with a can of beer in his hand and no helmet (I thought those were a requirement now?) makes me a lot less sympathetic as well as angry.
I can’t expect their agenda — I could say our agenda if I didn’t feel like dissociating myself from such cluelessness — to gain a lot of traction when there is such uncivil disobedience.
I couldn’t help thinking of Orwell’s Animal Farm — Some Animals are More Equal Than Others — when I saw that.
And it turns out we have had a local case of an impaired cyclist involved in the death of a local pedestrian[*]. So what happens to the idea of equality of cyclists and motorists? Granted, cyclists are allowed to ride on the sidewalk, as in this case, but drunk driving, no matter where it takes place, is unacceptable.
The whole thing stinks. Critical Mass, if these people are representative of it, is crap. From what I can learn from this article, it’s just a bunch of anti-social misfits claiming rights when they really mean entitlements. Rather than demonstrating maturity and building mutual respect, they think society will accommodate them if they complain loudly enough and act out, in hopes the rest of us will give in to keep the peace.
On the other hand, if I see an outpouring of letters and condemning these yahoos as not being representative of the two-wheels-good crowd, that will help straighten things out.
For the record, I think the people pictured and quoted are the minority, and the bone-headed end of the curve; they should not be poster children for the cycling public.
Update: since too much of this debate seems to come down a discussion about photo cropping/editing, I scanned the cover image from the magazine to better capture the product placement aspect that I found more irritating. This is just a thumbnail: the larger image might be more informative.
Virginia creeper
fall color here at Thistle Dew. This is the first thing to change each fall and now, just a few days later, there is not a leaf left. Just bright red vines.
links for 2006-10-22
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I dropped my annual sub to the Economist last year: at $100+/year, I expected better than conservative talking points.
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first attempt at family movie night: everyone hated it, so I watched it on my laptop while everyone else watched Elf.
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history? who cares about that? symbolic victories and cultural resonance? that doesn’t mean anything. Does it?
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Tim O’Reilly on how the hacker frontier advances for each technology. In the 50s, car hacking/hot rodding was popular, not so much now. Likewise, the personal computer?
never met any of them.
| HowManyOfMe.com | ||
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Though I did get some cranky email from someone who thought I had usurped his preferred gmail.com address. I told him to get over himself.
The only other one I know of is the guy who makes guitars. Never heard of this dude.
links for 2006-10-21
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in the event someone steals your *Book, you can make it obvious that it’s hot.
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Time was, you didn’t have to legislate against self-centeredness. Are we that far removed from anything resembling a society or community?
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“Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.”
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“What would Al Qaida and Republicans do without each other?”
links for 2006-10-20
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DOES TELEVISION CAUSE AUTISM?
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is B&W photography the absence of color or a different aesthetic? Discuss.
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it aired today, just one day later. Desperation or confidence?
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Wil Shipley takes the bait, chews it up, and spits it in the eye of its creator . . . .
what do you think and why?
Worldview Quiz Results via [PZ]:
Your rating on science vs. non-science: 8
Your rating on progress for humankind: 8
Your position on the worldview spectrum: (8,8)
Where I ended up on the grid:
Read on to see how more famous types are placed:
Continue reading “what do you think and why?”
omnibus
Applecare is money well-spent. My iBook returned today, with some components replaced (the work order details an “invester” which I take to mean an “inverter”). All seems to be well with it.
Between this repair and a new 30Gb drive last year, I have gotten my money’s worth from AppleCare and would not hesitate to buy it again on my next portable. It helps to have a Genius Bar so close (10 minutes away, with two others within a half-hour).
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drawing class has improved from the first week. this means I learned a lot. broken down to its essentials, drawing is a. making marks and b. deciding what marks to make and how. given my lousy fine motor skills (ever seen my handwriting?), this is suspect terrain. but it’s worth the effort to work through the decision-making process and the physical mark-making.
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camera-making goes slowly. I need to start over, it seems. The work I have done so far has been instructive but not good enough to use. So I take the lessons and apply them to the next iteration.
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some ebay auctions have gone my way, so I now have a lens and shutter for my 4×5 camera and a new tripod and geared head on its way. a friend who works for a government agency that deals with documenting historical landmarks suggested I could perhaps get some work if I can demonstrate some proficiency at large-format photography. All the incentive I need.
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some traffic came from Gruber’s dope-slap last week. I can’t help wishing he would turn his attention to a more meaningful problem. I’d like someone to work out how to create encrypted tunnels for http or email traffic without having to create a separate process as I do now. And if you haven’t seen them, check out the Other Feeds he provides for subscribers (I am not one, but happy to send readers his way).