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Month: March 2006

Passages

The world’s oldest known animal has died at about age 250. Addwaita, which means “the one and only” in the local Bengali language, was one of four Aldabra tortoises brought…

The world’s oldest known animal has died at about age 250.

Addwaita, which means “the one and only” in the local Bengali language, was one of four Aldabra tortoises brought to India by British sailors in the 18th century. [Calcutta] Zoo officials say he was a gift for Lord Robert Clive of the East India Company, who was instrumental in establishing British colonial rule in India, before he returned to England in 1767.

Long after the other three tortoises died, Addwaita continued to thrive, living in Clive’s garden before being moved to the zoo in 1875. “According to records in the zoo, the age of the giant tortoise, Addwaita, who died on Wednesday, would be 250 years approximately,” said zoo director Subir Chowdhury.

(via GeekPress)

Cityscapes

The Top 15 Skylines of the World, with some very pretty pictures thereof. (via GeekPress)…

The Top 15 Skylines of the World, with some very pretty pictures thereof.

(via GeekPress)

Talkin’ about freedom

Remarkably enough, a regulatory agency has decided, correctly, that it doesn’t need to regulate everything. Regulators brought Internet political advertising under the nation’s campaign finance law Monday but declared that…

Remarkably enough, a regulatory agency has decided, correctly, that it doesn’t need to regulate everything.

Regulators brought Internet political advertising under the nation’s campaign finance law Monday but declared that all other political activity on the Internet would be untethered by federal rules.

The three Republicans and three Democrats on the Federal Election Commission unanimously adopted a rule requiring anyone placing a paid political ad on a Web site to abide by federal campaign spending and contribution limits. But the rule also updates existing FEC regulations to make it clear that all other Internet political activity, such as blogging, e-mail communications and online publications, is not covered by the campaign law.

“Individual online political activity will be protected from FEC restriction regardless of whether the individual acts alone or as part of a group, and regardless of whether the individual acts in coordination with a candidate or acts independently,” said Commission Chairman Michael E. Toner.

[…] Under the new rule, bloggers on the Internet would be entitled to the same exemption from the campaign finance law that newspapers and other traditional forms of media have long received. “There will be no second class citizens among members of the media,” Toner said.

I think that’s a good thing.

Toy safety

As much as folks pooh-pooh the overzealous protectiveness of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, a glance back at a 19th Century Encyclopedia indicates why such things came about: CHEMICAL TOYS,…

As much as folks pooh-pooh the overzealous protectiveness of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, a glance back at a 19th Century Encyclopedia indicates why such things came about:

CHEMICAL TOYS, which in the course of recent years have been brought prominently before the public, deserve a brief notice. ‘Pharaoh’s Serpents,’ which have been already described in the article SULPHOCYANOGEN, are highly poisonous, and dur­ing combustion evolve dangerous vapors. Larmes du Diable or ‘Crocodiles’ Tears,’ are formed of metallic sodium, burn with ex­treme violence if thrown into water, or even if moistened with water, or heated, and scatter particles of caustic alkali, which may inflict serious burns. ‘ Sunshine in Winter Evenings,’ ‘ Fiery Swords,’ &c. are formed of magnesium, and, like the pre­ceding, may cause serious burns. Pyroxylin, which is identical with gun-cotton, is the active agent in the various toys known as ‘Will-o’-the-wisp Paper,’ ‘Parlor Lightning,’ ‘Fireflies,’ &c. The use of these toys in teaching rudimentary chemistry to chil­dren and young persons is quite incommensurate with their danger.

Yes, buy some sodium metal for your children! Hours of fun, laughs, and crippling injuries!

Remember, kids — don’t try this at home.

The slow return to analog time

Time zones were created in order to facilitate the railroad, so that schedules could be set and train arrivals and departures tracked. The division of the world into roughly 24…

Time zones were created in order to facilitate the railroad, so that schedules could be set and train arrivals and departures tracked. The division of the world into roughly 24 different time zones makes for some amusing incongruities, especially when the line gets shifted around to match geographical and political boundaries.

The introduction of Daylight Savings Time (Summer Time off in Europe and elsewhere) further complicated things, especially when it was not universally adopted (even within the US). Margie used to joke about when she was liviing in Indiana that part of the year she was on New York time, the rest of the year on Chicago time.

But at least it was a twice-a-year disconnect (with maybe a week or two between North America and Europe to be out of sync, as Margie and I discovered on a trip to the UK a few years back). But politicians keep screwing around with things, as is their wont, and the whole system is beginning to unravel in a way that everyone think will be handled neatly by computers — but will not be.

So now the US, for example is, arbitrarily changing its DST dates, despite the impact on other countries that try to stay in sync with us. Australia — well, some of Australia — delayed their DST by a week to accomodate the Commonwealth Games, which has led to computer calendar mishaps. And that same story mentions that next year, some Canadian provinces are changing their own DST cutover dates (apparently to stay in sync with the US), but not others.

Yeesh. Maybe we should just go to reckoning things based on where the sun is in the sky. Or else by what’s on TV.

Assessment

Ah, the joys of a building permit. Getting the new deck in led to a visit from the a county assessor appraiser yesterday, who left a note on our door…

Ah, the joys of a building permit. Getting the new deck in led to a visit from the a county assessor appraiser yesterday, who left a note on our door asking to call.

Did so this afternoon, and was told that, with the building permit, he had to take measurements of the new deck, etc. (Ch-ching.) I gave him permission to go in our backyard, rather than setting up an appointment with him.

He also asked about details of the interior of the house, confirming their figures on the basement (70% finished), bathroom count (2½, with nothing having been added to the basement), bedroom count (four, upstairs), and … oh, yeah, we have air conditioning now (ch-ching).

I’m sure we’ll see the outcome of his visit on our next tax assessment …

Protecting your image (with .htaccess)

As part of tracking the current spam problem (and the changes I made to the MT cgi directory yesterday did abruptly cut off all the error log messages — and,…

As part of tracking the current spam problem (and the changes I made to the MT cgi directory yesterday did abruptly cut off all the error log messages — and, I’ll note, all the junk trackbacks that have gotten through — more on that later), I noted in my access logs a lot — I mean a lot — of image theft. Folks — mostly in myspace.com — linking directly through to images on my blog, rather than hosting the images on their own site (and using their own bandwidth).

Now, most of those images were copied down here by me for fair use purposes, so I can’t object too strenuously on IP grounds. But it’s not their using the images per se, but the “bandwidth theft” and server traffic impact on me that’s a problem. Someone is, essentially, making their page all pretty on the back of my account’s bandwidth, interfering to some degree with your ability to come here and see my pretty page.

I have no idea of the impact of this, though, anecdotally, it can be a serious problem on some sites. But it’s a known discourtesy, and folks have come up with any number of ways to prevent it.

Continue reading “Protecting your image (with .htaccess)”

Dig dug

They’re digging out the silt and mud that’s accumulated over the past several years in the catch pond by our office. As you can see by how deep the skiploader…

They’re digging out the silt and mud that’s accumulated over the past several years in the catch pond by our office. As you can see by how deep the skiploader has gotten in the back, they’re going down some 7 or 8 feet worth. Given that the water was previously about a foot or two deep at most, that’s pretty significant.

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Life and death

I’d rant and rave about the move to get March 31st designated as “Terri’s Day,” but Les does it all for me….

I’d rant and rave about the move to get March 31st designated as “Terri’s Day,” but Les does it all for me.

The science that dare not speak its name

Discussion with administrators at a science educational facility in Arkansas about why certain topics (by name) are taboo when teaching “science”: Both of the directors welcomed me warmly and were…

Discussion with administrators at a science educational facility in Arkansas about why certain topics (by name) are taboo when teaching “science”:

Both of the directors welcomed me warmly and were very forthcoming in their answers to my questions. They were, however, quite firm in their insistence that they and their facility be kept strictly anonymous if I was to write a story about Bob’s issue. We talked for over an hour about the site’s mission, their classes, and Bob’s situation specifically. Both directors agreed that “in a perfect world” they could, and would, teach evolution and deep time. However, back in the real world, they defended their stance on the prohibition of the “e-word,” reasoning that it would take too long to teach the concept of evolution effectively (especially if they had to defuse any objections) and expressing concern for the well-being of their facility. Their program depends upon public support and continued patronage of the region’s school districts, which they felt could be threatened by any political blowback from an unwanted evolution controversy.

With regard to Bob’s geologic time scale issue, the program director likened it to a game of Russian roulette. He admitted that probably very few students would have a real problem with a discussion about time on the order of millions of years, but that it might only take one child’s parents to cause major problems. He spun a scenario of a student’s returning home with stories beginning with “Millions of years ago …” that could set a fundamentalist parent on a veritable witch hunt, first gathering support of like-minded parents and then showing up at school board meetings until the district pulled out of the science program to avoid conflict. He added that this might cause a ripple effect, other districts following suit, leading to the demise of the program.

This tale of the politics of fear and the “least common denominator” teaching is full of anonymous anecdotes and accounts, so it’s hard to be absolutely certain of it. But it rings, sadly and infuriatingly, true.

Randy runs professional development science education workshops for public school teachers. He’s been doing it for a while now, and he has been taking information on the teachers in his workshops via a survey. He shared some data with me.

According to his survey, about 20 percent are trying to teach evolution and think they are doing a good job; 10 percent are teaching creationism, even though during the workshop he discusses the legally shaky ground on which they stand. Another 20 percent attempt to teach something but feel they just do not understand evolution. The remaining 50 percent avoid it because of community pressure. On an e-mail to members of a list he keeps of people interested in evolution, Randy reported that the latter 50 percent do not cover evolution because they felt intimidated, saw no need to teach it, or might lose their jobs.

By their own description of their classroom practices, 80 percent of the teachers surveyed are not adequately teaching evolutionary science. Remember that these are just the teachers who are in a professional development workshop in science education! What is more disturbing is what Randy went on to say about the aftermath of these workshops. “After one of my workshops at a [state] education cooperative, it was asked that I not come back because I spent too much time on evolution. One of the teachers sent a letter to the governor stating that I was mandating that teachers had to teach evolution, and that I have to be an atheist, and would he do something.”

Disgusting.

I promise to do it unless I think I don’t have to

The new PATRIOT Act renewal included a smattering of new oversight and reporting provisions to make sure that the government doesn’t overstep its bounds in ensuring our national security. Except,…

The new PATRIOT Act renewal included a smattering of new oversight and reporting provisions to make sure that the government doesn’t overstep its bounds in ensuring our national security.

Except, of course, those provisions don’t mean a thing if the President decides they, themselves, endanger natoinal security.

The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ”a piece of legislation that’s vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people.” But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ”signing statement,” an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.

In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law’s requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ”impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive’s constitutional duties.”

Bush wrote: ”The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president’s constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information . . . “

Signing statements are not new with the present administration. There is always a tension between the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch between how much Congress can dictate how the Administration behaves, and other presidents have used signing statements to note where they disagree or consider certain provisions of dubious constitutional worth, or to clarify how they will (or won’t) apply the law.

But the Bush Administration seems bound and determined to use “national security” and the in-retrospect-vaguely-worded “war authority” resolution of a few years back to basically do whatever they want, so long as they can tie it to the War on Terror. Which, even if one granted them the high morals and civic dutifulness of angels, would be a dubious and dangerous practice.

Indeed, if you look at the signing statement, “national security” isn’t even the sole basis for withholding info. If it might cause diplomatic troubles (“you did what?!“) or impairs the deliberative process of the executive (“hmmm, that might be embarrassing if the public or Congress learned about that”), then those are designated as legitimate excuses to not do what the law calls for.

Swell.

I have been willing to cut the Administration a lot of slack over the years, largely because I reject knee-jerk reactions and jumping to conclusions. But Bush and his White House continue to be so ham-handed at setting up dangerous precedents that will come back to bite this country that, frankly, I’ve long since joined those looking forward to the end of this term and the opportunityt to vote someone into office who can work and play well (and constitutionally) with others.

Super!

The LA Times is (rightly) annoyed by continuing efforts by Marvel and DC to lock down the term “super hero” with a trademark. Tickets to the California Science Center’s latest…

The LA Times is (rightly) annoyed by continuing efforts by Marvel and DC to lock down the term “super hero” with a trademark.

Tickets to the California Science Center’s latest exhibit, “Marvel Super Heroes Science Exhibition,” sell for $6.75 and up. But there’s one lesson the exhibition offers free of charge to anyone who wanders by the museum, and it’s not about science.

The lesson is in the giant sign looming over the center’s entrance archway: “Marvel ® Super Heroes(TM) Science Exhibition.” The “TM” stands for trademark, signifying that Marvel is claiming exclusive rights to use the term “super hero” as a marketing term for, well, superheroes. The company and its largest competitor, DC Comics, jointly obtained the trademark from the federal Patent and Trademark Office in 1981.

The government’s action means that any company wishing to market a comic book, graphic novel or related item with any variation of “super hero” in the name or title must get permission from Marvel and DC. Dan Taylor, the Costa Mesa-based creator of the “Super Hero Happy Hour” comic, learned about this absurdity two years ago when he was contacted by lawyers for Marvel and DC, prompting him to rename his series to the more pedestrian “Hero Happy Hour.”

The notion of superheroes goes back at least to 1938, when Superman made his debut in Action Comics. The term’s first commercial use, the trademark holders say, was in 1966. Still, it’s hard to think of “super hero” as anything more than a description of the entire category of characters, not a particular brand. As a familiar DC series so aptly puts it, there is an entire legion of superheroes, and their ranks extend far beyond the rosters created by those two companies.

It’s a really stupid trademark claim, and I seriously doubt it would hold up to a serious (deep pockets) legal challenge (which may come about via Sega). But what makes it particularly idiotic is that it’s so unnecessary. People who think of Marvel and DC as the only purveyor of “super heroes” only think that because those are the leading publishers of same. Anyone who sees the term doesn’t think of Marvel and DC per se, but of the metahuman characters they know — for most of the public, that means Spider-Man and Captain America and Superman and Batman and maybe Wonder Woman. They de facto own the reference due to the success of their franchises, which is how it ought to be. But to de jure demand such kow-towing is not only unnecessary, but unseemly. Folks who are familiar with the super heroes from other publishers are going to continue to lump them into the same category, and Marvel and DC just making a legal stink about it will make them seem increasingly petty.

Which won’t make them (or their characters) appear all that heroic at all.

(via BoingBoing)

Spring break

Kitten’s off this week, so we have her in a “spring break camp” through the local parks and rec district. Fun and games, plus a daily field trip: Skate City…

Kitten’s off this week, so we have her in a “spring break camp” through the local parks and rec district. Fun and games, plus a daily field trip:

  • Skate City
  • Swimming
  • Paradise Playground
  • Family Fun Center
  • And, best of all (to her) Chuck E. Cheese.

I am green with envy. 🙂

WIST makeover thoughts

Had a eureka moment this morning, and I’ve done some noodling on the white board and I want to write this down before I forget it (and so that I…

Had a eureka moment this morning, and I’ve done some noodling on the white board and I want to write this down before I forget it (and so that I can let it percolate in the backgrouind and get on with my real work).

I have a quotations page, WIST that suffers from a fair amount of neglect. The problem is, I’ve wanted to keep things on a database basis, and it’s been a bitch to move from the Access DB on my PC to the output pages. I’ve simplified it a fair amount, but it still is an irksome task (run an export by a letter of the alphabet, do some text manipulation, export it into the appropriate WIST page, view it, clean it up, etc., repeat 20-odd times). Part of that is the difficulty in doing an HTML-based report out of Access (which really wants you to generate a Windows server DB out of it if you’re going to do something with it), part of it is my own technical limitations, and part of it is my perfectionism as to the output.

Regardless, right now it’s so irksomely difficult that I just don’t do exports often enough. As a result, the data out there hasn’t been fixed in a couple of years. And when people point out where I’ve made a goof, I either have to manually fix it online or make a big effort to change it in my DB and online or simply leave it be until the next export. Which is greatly irritating, whichever direction I go.

Okay, epiphany time: I think I’ve sort of figured out how to do it via Movable Type. I might even be able to do it all online, which would be fabulous.

Continue reading “WIST makeover thoughts”

A chilly day at the zoo

But fun. UPDATE: Spent the day with Jackie and Doyce (and Kaylee) at the Denver Zoo. The weather was cool with the sun out and the breeze blowing, and a…

But fun.

UPDATE: Spent the day with Jackie and Doyce (and Kaylee) at the Denver Zoo. The weather was cool with the sun out and the breeze blowing, and a scosh (or three) chilly when the sun went behind clouds. A nice time had by all.

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In the lead

That’s Kitten (in pink) away out front. Natch. She’s doing great in her “Pre 1” skating lessons. (I do need, obviously, to bring a bit better camera than my cell…

That’s Kitten (in pink) away out front. Natch. She’s doing great in her “Pre 1” skating lessons.
(I do need, obviously, to bring a bit better camera than my cell phone.)

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Yes, sir, yes, sir …

… four cans full. First garden clean-up of the season. I feel virtuous. this post enabled by airblogging.com….

… four cans full. First garden clean-up of the season. I feel virtuous.

this post enabled by airblogging.com.

Moderation

A quote for today (bold and italics mine): KABUL, Afghanistan, March 23 – Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity…

A quote for today (bold and italics mine):

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 23 – Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to “pull him into pieces.”

“Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die,” said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hard-line regime was ousted in 2001.

[…] Raoulf, who is a member of the country’s main Islamic organization, the Afghan Ulama Council, agreed. “The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled.”

“Cut off his head!” he exclaimed, sitting in a courtyard outside Herati Mosque. “We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there’s nothing left.”

Okay, so mad props to cleric Abdul Raoulf for standing up to the Taliban and getting jailed three times for it. But, dude, is Allah so weak that something a human can do can actually humiliate Him?

Of course, maybe he is a “moderate,” in comparison to some.

[Raoulf] said the only way for Rahman to survive would be for him to go into exile.

But Said Mirhossain Nasri, the top cleric at Hossainia Mosque, one of the largest Shiite places of worship in Kabul, said Rahman must not be allowed to leave the country.

“If he is allowed to live in the West, then others will claim to be Christian so they can too,” he said. “We must set an example. … He must be hanged.”

I guess moderation is in the eye of the beholder.

War of Words

A war has been brewing in Europe — in the EU, in particular. And it’s beginning to come into the open … A trade war? A military war? Nah, those…

A war has been brewing in Europe — in the EU, in particular. And it’s beginning to come into the open …

A trade war? A military war? Nah, those are peanuts. This is a language war.

Yesterday it was reported:

French President Jacques Chirac briefly walked out of a European Union summit on Thursday when the French head of the EU’s industry lobby addressed leaders of the bloc in English.

A French official said Chirac, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Finance Minister Thierry Breton left the room when Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, head of the UNICE business lobby, began speaking in “the language of business” at a summit session with the EU’s so-called social partners — employers and unions. […] Chirac returned after Seilliere had finished to hear another Frenchman, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, addressing the leaders in French.

Trichet, a former Bank of France governor, almost always speaks English at the Frankfurt-based ECB.

Innocent enough?

English, French and German are the working languages of the 25-nation bloc which has no single official language. All 20 languages of the member states are used at summits, ministerial meetings and in the European Parliament.

French once dominated the EU, but English has overtaken it since the bloc expanded to take in Nordic countries in the 1990s and east European members in 2004.

Paris has fought a rearguard battle to preserve French as a main working language in Brussels, sparing no expense to offer free or heavily subsidised language courses to officials and diplomats from the new member states as well as journalists.

And today, Chirac took the offensive.

President Jacques Chirac said on Friday he had been so shocked to hear a fellow Frenchman speak English at a European Union summit the previous day that he had felt compelled to leave the room. “I have to say I was profoundly shocked to see a Frenchman express himself in English at the (EU) Council table. That’s why the French delegation and myself walked out rather than listen to that,” Chirac told reporters.

Well, as long as it was for a good reason.

Chirac said France had fought for a long time to ensure that French was spoken and used within multinational institutions, from the European Union and United Nations to the Olympic Games. “It is not just national interest, it is in the interest of culture and the dialogue of cultures. You cannot build the world of the future on just one language and, hence one culture.”

“Unless, of course, it is ours,” Chirac did not actually add.

Milestone

Somewhere a few days ago (here, actually), I broke through 9,000 posts here at DDtB. Wow. Actually, that’s misleading, since there are another 205 posts at Doing Write and 496…

Somewhere a few days ago (here, actually), I broke through 9,000 posts here at DDtB. Wow.

Actually, that’s misleading, since there are another 205 posts at Doing Write and 496 over at Blog of Heroes.

If only I were this diligent at novel-writing, I’d be famous by now. 🙂

DDtB turns 5 this August. That’s older than I am, in blog years.