Think life in your little cubicle warren is stark and dehumanizing? Things look pretty damned cushy compared to the olden days….
Think life in your little cubicle warren is stark and dehumanizing? Things look pretty damned cushy compared to the olden days.
Perhaps there’s a lull in prosecuting folks being held in secret, or a shortage of wiretap applications to fill out, but clearly Attorney General Ashcroft has plenty of time on…
Perhaps there’s a lull in prosecuting folks being held in secret, or a shortage of wiretap applications to fill out, but clearly Attorney General Ashcroft has plenty of time on his hands. Thus his further appeals against Oregon’s Assisted Suicide law.
(via Reenhead)
Visit the Medieval Names Archive. Good stuff, especially for RPG characters and creative writing. (via Quiddity)…
Visit the Medieval Names Archive. Good stuff, especially for RPG characters and creative writing.
(via Quiddity)
Looking for some nice color combinations for your web page? Check out ColorMatch. If nothing else, it’s a good starting point for blog redesign. … uh … Oh-oh. (via Weblog…
Looking for some nice color combinations for your web page? Check out ColorMatch. If nothing else, it’s a good starting point for blog redesign.
… uh …
Oh-oh.
(via Weblog Wannabe)
If I lived in Middle Earth, it would be in The Shire The rolling green hills, the springtime weather, and especially being surrounded by the ones you love makes…
Yeah, true, but there are plenty of other places I’d love to visit. And still more, if I had an army at my back …
(via Random Ravings)
So you think that a war on Iraq would be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Or you think it would be a horrible disaster. Or you think it would…
So you think that a war on Iraq would be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Or you think it would be a horrible disaster. Or you think it would be a regretful necessity. Or you think it is only allowable if the UN says so.
Who have you told?
Your friends don’t count. Your family doesn’t count. Your co-workers don’t count. Your blog readers don’t count.
The folks we have selected to represent us, in Congress, are the ones who will vote for one resolution or another, who will obstruct, enable, or direct the President in this.
So, have you written?
SDB suggests:
Go to this page and find the entry for the senators from your state, and send them a short (no more than three line) and polite letter clearly stating your point of view.
Let’s make sure you know what happens to your mail. The senator won’t see it. Some clerk or secretary or aide is responsible for reading through the mail stream, and what they do is to pick out key phrases from the hundreds or thousands of email messages received each day and make a tally of how they land, e.g. umpteen for, umpteen against. So there is no point in writing at length, or in trying to explain why you feel what you do, or sending URLs to supporting evidence. Your message will only be processed into about four bits worth of information and the rest will be discarded.
But if you’re abusive, the clerk will discard your message and not include you in the tally, and it will also be discarded if it takes more than ten seconds for the clerk to figure out where you stand. Be brief, be polite, be clear. A single sentence is best.
We do still live in a representative democracy. If you want your representatives to do what you want, you have to tell them. If there is a resounding shout in one direction or another, it can have an influence.
Of course, if you’re not thinking about Iraq at all, then don’t worry. Somebody else will make the decision for you, one way or another.
Forget the Wish List. Forget this. I know what I want for Christmas … Moller International has developed the first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing…
Forget the Wish List. Forget this. I know what I want for Christmas …
Moller International has developed the first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle the world has ever seen.
You’ve always known it was just a matter of time before the world demanded some kind of flying machine which would replace the automobile. Of course, this machine would have to be capable of VTOL, be easy to maintain, cost effective and reliable. Well, we at Moller International believe we have come up with the solution. That solution is the volantor named M400 Skycar.
Honey, you can make it my Christmas and birthday gift, if you want.
(via BoingBoing)
Heaven help that I should ever be in so great a national tragedy that, should someone satirize or poke fun at it, even inadvertently, I don’t need to turn to…
Heaven help that I should ever be in so great a national tragedy that, should someone satirize or poke fun at it, even inadvertently, I don’t need to turn to Jesse Jackson to voice how “deeply insulted” I am, and how the very existence of such fun-poking must be expunged from the pages of history.
(via Xkot)
The UK has released its case for the danger posed by Iraq. What I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt is that Saddam has continued to produce chemical…
The UK has released its case for the danger posed by Iraq.
What I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt is that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, that he continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and that he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic missile programme. I also believe that, as stated in the document, Saddam will now do his utmost to try to conceal his weapons from UN inspectors.
My first question is, why is it the UK is always the one publishing this stuff, not the US?
My next question is, why are there still folks who think that weapons inspections are going to succeed without Saddam facing a strong, unequivocal threat if he obstructs them in any way? After all, it took just that sort of threat (roundly condemned by the “international community”) to get him to agree to talk about allowing inspectors back in in the first place.
My last question is, why are there people who still say, “Hey, Saddam doesn’t have nukes yet, so we don’t need to do anything”? Do they still question whether Iraq is trying to join the “Nuclear Club”? Do they really want Iraq to be a nuclear power? Do they really want to wait until that point to try to act?
The new head of the TSA is thinking of phasing out random screening at the gate for air travel, in an effort to make flying more convenient. Okay, I certainly…
The new head of the TSA is thinking of phasing out random screening at the gate for air travel, in an effort to make flying more convenient.
Okay, I certainly applaud his goal. But, just to be contrarian, let me point out that good security is usually security in depth. A computer security expert will tell you that simply putting a kick-ass firewall up still leaves you vulnerable to attacks from within, from connections you didn’t know you had, from things that manage to slip through that outer wall. Just like the Maginot Line, there’s only so much you can do to harden the exterior, and only so much benefit you can get that way.
If your only checkpoint is the main one, then you’d better be rock-solid certain that there’s absolutely no way for it to be bypassed. And even then, it’s a subject worth thinking twice about.
One of my favorite Mac games, long since abandoned, is back up in GPL and available for free download on Mac, Linux, BeOS, or Win platforms. Sweet!…
One of my favorite Mac games, long since abandoned, is back up in GPL and available for free download on Mac, Linux, BeOS, or Win platforms. Sweet!
Which lunch meat are you? (via SfAD)…
Can you join the hive mind of the Internet in designing a typeface? Almost as interesting as the exercise is the inspiration behind it. (via BoingBoing)…
Can you join the hive mind of the Internet in designing a typeface?
Almost as interesting as the exercise is the inspiration behind it.
(via BoingBoing)
Thoughts and wit on flying (particularly military flying), via Blogatelle. An excerpt: If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it’s probably a helicopter and therefore unsafe. When one…
Thoughts and wit on flying (particularly military flying), via Blogatelle. An excerpt:
If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it’s probably a helicopter and therefore unsafe.
When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.
Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers.
The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: “Why is it doing that?”, “Where are we?” and “Oh, shit!”
It’s the Saturday Scruples….
It’s the Saturday Scruples.
Here’s a nice little compendium of plot lines you can turn to in a game when you’re stuck for what to do this episode. Of course, sometimes the problem isn’t…
Here’s a nice little compendium of plot lines you can turn to in a game when you’re stuck for what to do this episode.
Of course, sometimes the problem isn’t a shortage of plots.
(via ToaFD)
It’s the Monday Mission….
It’s the Monday Mission.
The mom who was videotaped in a mall parking lot punching the hell out of her daughter is, of course, appealing to the public. What does she have to say?…
The mom who was videotaped in a mall parking lot punching the hell out of her daughter is, of course, appealing to the public. What does she have to say?
“I did look like a monster,” she says, but adds, “I don’t abuse my children.” Except when she acts like a monster, that is.
“I just lost it,” she notes, noting the the incident was “the worst mistake of my life.” Which explains why she is pleading not guilty, of course.
Authorities said Toogood left the department store angry because she was denied a cash refund for two pairs of blue jeans; she denied that the failed refund attempt was connected to the beating.
Rosen said he believed Toogood beat her daughter because Martha misbehaved in the store, taking toys out of packages and wandering away, prompting store employees to page Toogood twice.
Yeah, take it out on the kid when you’re too busy trying (unsuccessfully) to return some clothes to watch where the kid is and what she’s doing. That takes priority. And whether you’re torqued about not being able to get a refund, or embarrassed by being paged twice by the store to come retrieve your daughter, suck it up and accept your responsibility — just like you need to do with what you then did in the parking lot.
Toogood has told reporters she lost her temper because she was having a bad day, and that she hit Martha in the head and back and pulled her hair — but did not punch her.
In the video, Toogood appears to make punching motions toward her daughter, who is mostly hidden within Toogood’s car.
Oh, well, as long as you only hit the kid on the head and back, not punch her, I guess that’s okay. We’ll let the hairpulling slide.
“Martha didn’t deserve what she got. I just lost my temper.” Just lost your temper? Oh, well, if that’s all.
I am aware as anyone else who has actually been a parent how anger can explode in how you treat your child. I do hope, though, if I ever cross over that line, that (a) someone sees me and stops me, and (b) I’m honorable enough to take my punishment.
I got cylindrical forms for the post footings. It was recommended someplace I was reading (which doesn’t say much, because everything I read had slightly different recommendations, from how wide…
I got cylindrical forms for the post footings. It was recommended someplace I was reading (which doesn’t say much, because everything I read had slightly different recommendations, from how wide a hole to how deep to how high the concrete should come), and it made a certain amount of sense given our freeze-thaw cycle here.
The forms, which come in 4′ lengths, are measured by diameter. We got the “10 inch nominal” ones.
nominal \Nom”i*nal\, a.
[L. nominalis, fr. nomen, nominis, name.]
1. Of or pertaining to a name or names; having to do with the literal meaning of a word; verbal; as, a nominal definition.
2. Existing in name only; not real; as, a nominal difference.
I think this was meant as in defn. 2, since there was, in teeny-tiny print, the note “+/- 0.5 inches.” That means they could (and did) run from 9.5″ to 10.5,” which works out to 57 sq. in. to 87 sq. in. Or, in other words, the smaller tubes were 2/3 the area in cross-section of the larger tubes.
Which is why, I suppose, they could nest up to three 10″ (nominal) tubes inside of each other. And why some tubes were very difficult to fit into the 10″ (nominal) holes we bored, and why were way too easy.
As I noted later in the day, clearly this is not rocket science. Something useful to remember when sweating over the slightest variation.
My original impulse was to hire someone to build the fence. Really. Doyce kept saying, “No, my Dad and I used to do this all the time. It’s doable, dude.”…
My original impulse was to hire someone to build the fence. Really. Doyce kept saying, “No, my Dad and I used to do this all the time. It’s doable, dude.”
Well, I’m a big believer in not figuring I’ll get something done in a timely fashion, so I went ahead and got quotes on the fence from three different sources.
$2,500. Yeesh.
“Dude, we can do this.”
And so we did.
Now for the rest of the story.
But, as we worked on the fence, I would start to remember things like “wow, this hole digging goes a lot faster when the augur’s attached to the back end of a tractor” and “oh yeah, there were two guys that were doing just this the whole time, that sped things up a lot” until, by the end of the weekend, I clearly remembered the six people who had all worked on the farm fencing, whereas I had before dimly recalled only myself and Dad.
Heh. Yeah, that (and the whole sprinkler line episode) might explain it.
(Which, having been said, does not in any way take away from the above-and-beyond physical effort and moral support that Doyce, not to mention Justin and Jackie, put into this. “Pish-tosh”s notwithstanding, we owe those guys big time.)
