suckafree138: Hi, davehill, how are u? long time no chat lol, Ne way i came acrross this free dating site, and thought u might wanna check it out, [redacted], let…
suckafree138: Hi, davehill, how are u? long time no chat lol, Ne way i came acrross this free dating site, and thought u might wanna check it out, [redacted], let me know what you think if it
i am fine. i wanna think if it not at all. u r bad spellr lol. Ne way dont spam my IM k? Plzthx. Now i report u lol.
Cool post over at “I did not know that yesterday” on whether blowing on food actually makes it cooler — and, if so, why….
Cool post over at “I did not know that yesterday” on whether blowing on food actually makes it cooler — and, if so, why.
Taking a serious look at the Fast Search plug-in for Movable Type, which, by using a fulltext index for entries, promises (and, based on comments out there, fulfills) much faster…
Taking a serious look at the Fast Search plug-in for Movable Type, which, by using a fulltext index for entries, promises (and, based on comments out there, fulfills) much faster searching than the built-in MT search. It also has some nice features like sorting by relevancy and highlighting search terms.
Only two problems I see:
It looks like it replaces the MT search functionality, which is unfortunate. If it didn’t, then I could have a “Fast Search” and “Normal Search” option for, say, this blog (which has tons of comments), while having just the “Fast Search” for some place like WIST.
I have a couple of questions in to the developer, so we’ll see how that goes.
No, not that “Law & Order” candidate — I’m talking about Rudy Giuliani, who famously (if dubiously) “cleaned up New York City.” Here’s a little ditty of his view…
No, not that “Law & Order” candidate — I’m talking about Rudy Giuliani, who famously (if dubiously) “cleaned up New York City.” Here’s a little ditty of his view on Freedom, from 1994, at a forum about urban crime.
We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don’t see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.
I get it now — Freedom is Slavery. It all makes sense now.
The 100 Most Frightening Ice Cream Flavors Yes, most (though by no means all) are from Japan or elsewhere in the Orient, where ice creams other than spicy or…
The 100 Most Frightening Ice Cream Flavors
Yes, most (though by no means all) are from Japan or elsewhere in the Orient, where ice creams other than spicy or fruity are considered “normal” eating.
“Raw Horseflesh” (complete with chunks) may be among the more, um, grotesque unusual (and, one assumes, distinct from “Cooked Horseflesh”). “Squid Gut” is a bit more, ah, visceral in its description. “Whale” may be the most ecologically unpalatable. “Silk” may be the most unfoodlike, though “Charcoal” comes close. “Pit Viper” is … just wrong.
“Stout,” on the other hand, would probably find some potential takers in the West (it’s beer, not a description of what you become if you eat too much of it), as would “Wine.”
(via J-Walk)
Rat leaving a sinking ship? Liability being finally pushed out of the pre-election-year limelight? No more political mountains left to climb raze? Karl Rove will resign at the end…
Rat leaving a sinking ship? Liability being finally pushed out of the pre-election-year limelight? No more political mountains left to climb raze? Karl Rove will resign at the end of the month.
For a variety of reasons, we didn’t end up going to see (the highly touted and much enjoyed as a book by me) Stardust this weekend. One of the outstanding questions…
For a variety of reasons, we didn’t end up going to see (the highly touted and much enjoyed as a book by me) Stardust this weekend. One of the outstanding questions is whether we bring Katherine (age 7) along with us when we do so.
While the reviews I’ve seen have indicated that the sexy bits (the couple of which I ad hoc bowdlerized a bit as I read it aloud to Margie and Katherine in the car trip to/from SoCal over Christmas) are similarly off-screened in the film production, there seems to be some concern over the graphicness or general ickyness of the on-screen fantasy violence. Solonor, for example, pooh-poohs waiting until the kid’s 11, but avers a 6-year-old might have problems with it.
As a guideline, Katherine found Prisoner of Azkaban tolerably (but only just) scary (with its Dementors and so forth), but we’ve held off on the first Pirates of the Caribbean film because of various bits of on-screen violence.
So, for those who have seen it — thoughts?
Per Dick Cheney himself. Heck, he even uses the “quagmire” reference. Albeit in 1994. Even if — even if — one grants the necessity of doing in 2003 what Cheney…
Per Dick Cheney himself. Heck, he even uses the “quagmire” reference. Albeit in 1994.
Even if — even if — one grants the necessity of doing in 2003 what Cheney considered a potentially grave error in 1994, to do so with so little attention or planning for any of the factors that Cheney himself identified less than a decade earlier, when Cheney himself was very clearly one of the key players in the Iraq War run-up, borders (at least) on criminally negligent.
(via DOF)
A mildly busy, somewhat unfocused weekend. Had Jackie over for dinner Friday evening — or, rather, went out with her to the Claim Jumper. It was both uncrowded and of…
A mildly busy, somewhat unfocused weekend.
Not a bad weekend, at that, upon consideration.
Chinese authorities have imposed new restrictions on Tibetan Buddhists: no identifying new reincarnations of Buddha without approval from Beijing. Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from…
Chinese authorities have imposed new restrictions on Tibetan Buddhists: no identifying new reincarnations of Buddha without approval from Beijing.
Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and deeply Buddhist people.
“The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid,” according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1.
The 14-part regulation issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet’s exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing.
Worth remembering when all that 2008 Olympics paraphernalia comes on sale.
China already insists that only the Government can approve the appointments of Tibet’s two most important monks, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama’s announcement in May 1995 that a search inside Tibet — and with the co- operation of a prominent abbot — had identified the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, enraged Beijing. That prompted the Communist authorities to restart the search and to send a senior Politburo member to Lhasa to oversee the final choice. This resulted in top Communist officials presiding over a ceremony at the main Jokhang temple in Lhasa in which names of three boys inscribed on ivory sticks were placed inside a golden urn and a lot was then drawn to find the true reincarnation.
The boy chosen by the Dalai Lama has disappeared. The abbot who worked with the Dalai Lama was jailed and has since vanished. Several sets of rules on seeking out “soul boys” were promulgated in 1995, but were effectively in abeyance and hundreds of living Buddhas are now believed to live inside and outside China.
In the course of describing events at October’s ISKF National Karate Tourney in San Francisco, Sensei mentioned that there were competitions in both katas and, for those over forty-four, katas…
In the course of describing events at October’s ISKF National Karate Tourney in San Francisco, Sensei mentioned that there were competitions in both katas and, for those over forty-four, katas at the “senior level.”
Another yellow belt in my class — who has a daughter only a few years younger than Katherine — exchanged looks with me. “I’m not old enough,” she said, echoing my own thoughts, “to be in a senior competition.”
Had fun this morning catching the last half of Doyce’s “Highlands Ranch Splash-Mash-Dash Sprint Triathlon”, a 2-hour-odd-long swim-bike-run extravaganza that would have had me dying any number of grizzly…
Had fun this morning catching the last half of Doyce’s “Highlands Ranch Splash-Mash-Dash Sprint Triathlon”, a 2-hour-odd-long swim-bike-run extravaganza that would have had me dying any number of grizzly ways along the path, but which he took with lots of self-deprecating aplomb. Good show!
I did learn a lesson that everyone could probably use: Offering encouragement and appreciation to utter strangers in the midst of their struggles is almost always welcome and draws a smile. In this case, as we were waiting for Doyce on the final leg, I made a point of applauding and offering lots of “Almost there!” huzzahs to the runners as they jogged / trotted / staggered by. And I got more smiles and various breathless thank-yous than I do in any given week of day-to-day life.
It’s cheap good karma and feel-good. I need to give it more of a try in other contexts, too.
The conservative voices in support of Rev. Don Armstrong have been ridiculing the Diocesan court for their “evil” “persecution” of Armstrong and noting that no criminal investigation has been…
The conservative voices in support of Rev. Don Armstrong have been ridiculing the Diocesan court for their “evil” “persecution” of Armstrong and noting that no criminal investigation has been started and that the Diocese hasn’t dared refer the “crime” to the authorities for proper investigation, thus proving that the charges were trumped up by a “kangaroo court” under “satanic influence.”
Oh, by the way, the Diocese has in fact referred the crime to the Colorado Springs police, who are investigating.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (1997) Overall Writing Info Re-Readability Audio Info: Diamond’s book is subtitled “The Fates of Human Societies,” and attempts to address a basic…
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (1997)
| Overall |  | ||
| Writing |  | Info | |
| Re-Readability | | Audio | |
Info: Diamond’s book is subtitled “The Fates of Human Societies,” and attempts to address a basic — yet potentially inflammatory — question: Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate the Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? For much of the past centuries the answer has usually been (even if politely) racist, nationalistic, or even reliant upon “God’s favor” — and for the past decade or two, even asking the question could get you stoned as either a cultural revisionist or a bigot .
Diamond, an evolutionary biologist, rejects arguments that the peoples of any particular continent or region are somehow inherently better than others, and instead goes back to first causes. He presents a persuading case that environmental and geographical factors — ease of communication and cultural spread, population size potential, and availability of suitable candidates for domestication of plants and animals — gave Eurasia with its broad temperate latitude east-west a catalyzing leg up on other parts of the world that they simply could not overcome before Eurasians brought “guns, germs, and steel” to decimate and conquer the other populations of the world.
It’s actually fascinating stuff, especially as factor after factor builds on one another. Along the way, Diamond presents interesting info on evolutionary biology (of course), ethnology, and the history of agriculture, technology, and trade, While there may be room to argue with some of his points or whether he’s disregarding other factors (especially since his emphasis is on the macro, not the variations of the micro, on factors measured in millennia, not decades or even short centuries), anyone considering this overall question in the future will have to take into account the information he presents here.
Writing: Jared writes like an academic, piling evidence on top of evidence, often with lengthy lists of animals and plants and cases to demonstrate his various arguments. At times, it gets to be a bit much, especially when he recaps previously demonstrated points. The slow, steady pace is both convincing and, at times, maddening.
Re-Readability: I’m not sure how likely I am to want to re-listen to the book — it does get a bit much at times with its catalog of supporting evidence. However, I actually have an urge to read the book itself, which would allow a bit more selectivity in the data dump, as well as focus on the parts I found most interesting..
Audio: This is an abridged recording — six hours on five CDs. Grover Gardner’s narration is dry and pedantic and perfect for the subject matter. The recording quality is clear and crisp. The writing style is such that the arbitrary interruptions of audiobook listening in the car worked just ifne.
Overall: I liked this book. It was interesting info, if sometimes a bit slow and repetitious. It’s garnered a lot of criticism as being “politically correct,” which I really don’t see, and on ignoring IQ tests (right) and social/cultural movements of the past few centuries (which had little effect on the events leading to Eurasian conquest of the world) or just those who want to impose a value judgment on who “won” or “lost.” While Diamond expresses his opinion in places, he identifies it as such, and generally he rests his conclusions on facts and fact-checkable assessments — and it’s there that folks who disagree with him ought to be focusing their attention, agreeing or disagreeing as they will.
I found the book well worth the time, though, reading/listening to, and recommend it to others who are willing to plow through a lot of broad science and history and listen to a lot of lists in order to gets some very intriguing and entertaining nuggets of understanding.
Joe Straczynski brings back Babylon 5, arguably (by me) the best SF TV series of all time, in the first of a planned series direct-to-DVD tales (assuming the sales of…
Joe Straczynski brings back Babylon 5, arguably (by me) the best SF TV series of all time, in the first of a planned series direct-to-DVD tales (assuming the sales of this one do well enough for WB to go along with the idea). The “Lost Tales” are meant to be stories sandwiched between the end (proper) of the series and “Sleeping in the Light” decades in the future. The stories in this volume are set in 2271, several years after the series end,
(No spoilers below, but I can’t promise anything in the links.)
Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales (2007)
| Overall | | Story | |
| Production | | Acting | |
Story: There are two stories on this volume (subtitled “Voices in the Dark”). The first is an oddly supernatural tale centered on Elizabeth Lochley; it’s a fun story, but, honestly, didn’t feel like a B5 tale as much as a Twilight Zone episode. The second, longer episode involves Sheridan, Galen the Techno-Mage, a young prince of Centauri, a terrible prophecy, and an awful decision to be made. This story is much more B5-ish — a done-in-one, but with potential for future ramifications in the B5 universe.
It’s a nice 72 minutes, worth watching and the second ep is a decent addition to the B5 canon.
The disc also has a good set of special features — most of them with JMS talking with the actors, answering questions, showing the production. There are also two nice memorials to Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs.
Production: The CG is very, very nice. For a show that introduced extensive use of CG for SF, B5 continues to do some cutting edge work. There are great cityscapes, Starfury close-ups, space wars, and, of course, some very nice B5 shots.
Part of the CG innovation was also extensive use of green screen and virtual sets. They are impressive and flashy and even useful — but the combination of restricted movement within the sets, limited foreground interaction, and the very limited cast, adds a strange element of visible budget limits.
It also meant that the stories tend to be a bit wordy and talking-heads — though the dialog is, as usual, interesting and entertaining (the talking-headedness was probably not helped by JMS himself directing the eps). Future productions will need to figure out how to balance the whiz-bang CG and virtual sets with something more than people standing around, talking with each other.
Acting: The acting is all competent and up to B5’s normal standards, especially the three “regulars” (Scoggins, Boxleitner, Woodward); Scoggins remains a bit of a lightweight (and she doesn’t solidly carry the episode she’s the focus of), but by the time the disc is over, it’s all good.
I just wish there had been more actors — there are maybe six others besides those folks, despite being on large starships and the B5 station itself. It makes for an oddly empty (if nicely rendered) universe.
Overall: Good stuff — not spectacular or anywhere near B5’s best, but that was always a build-up of multiple episodes, “whams!” and epic arcs. These eps are definitely in the middle of the bell curve for B5’s history, and were worth the wait. I just hope the disc does well enough (and Joe’s schedule is free enough) to get more, better editions of the “Lost Tales.”
(Wikipedia – IMDB – Lurker’s Guide – Official WB site)
Kitten enters second grade in just a couple of weeks. Hard to believe. It’s going to be a bit different of a school. Her first grade teacher is no longer…
Kitten enters second grade in just a couple of weeks. Hard to believe.
It’s going to be a bit different of a school. Her first grade teacher is no longer there — shuffles in the grade demographics as the school district slowly contracts. Her speech therapy teacher has left, which is a real shame — I suspect because funding has reduced hours for such things (see above), which may be reflected in other support/”bonus” educational things in the next year or two, like music and art. Her principal from the last two years is also gone — promoted, in this case, to a district job on primary education, which is a good thing from a meta standpoint, but a shame for the school (a new interim principal has been named who sounds good; actual interviews and hiring will occur
Heck, even the lady who was running her Brownie troop has moved; not sure what’s going to happen there, either.
All is higgledy-piggledy — the center cannot hold …
But Kitten progresses with sublime confidence, and a personality and cognition that has matured even over the summer months. She shall prevail.
Things have been a scosh … distracting of late. Work has been very busy — lots of big initiatives going on, both projects and overhead-management work (the joys of budget…
Things have been a scosh … distracting of late. Work has been very busy — lots of big initiatives going on, both projects and overhead-management work (the joys of budget season). And home has had a variety of distractions, both of Things That Need Doing and Things I Want to Do.
Heck, it’s been (as odd as it sounds) too busy for playing City of Heroes and the like. Just … hectic. And distracting.
As the summer winds up, and things begin to roll (in just a week or two) into the new school year for Kitten, I’m hoping an air of normalcy will return. In the meantime — apologies for the odd lapse, lack of update, or general left-fieldedness of the posting here.
Cable data’s out. Poop….
Cable data’s out. Poop.
Esquire gives us the Seven Wonders of the Totalitarian World — because nothing says “See, I was a monumental leader!” than a monument to your leadership! Love the rakish…
Esquire gives us the Seven Wonders of the Totalitarian World — because nothing says “See, I was a monumental leader!” than a monument to your leadership!
Love the rakish overcoat-over-the-shoulder look there.
I missed this when it was making the rounds a month ago. Yeesh. From the White House transcript of Pres. Bush’s comments at the Cleveland Clinic, 10 July, just prior…
I missed this when it was making the rounds a month ago. Yeesh.
From the White House transcript of Pres. Bush’s comments at the Cleveland Clinic, 10 July, just prior to his vetoing the expanded S-CHIP program to cover more uninsured children.
Let me talk about health care, since it’s fresh on my mind. The objective has got to be to make sure America is the best place in the world to get health care, that we’re the most innovative country, that we encourage doctors to stay in practice, that we are robust in the funding of research, and that patients get good, quality care at a reasonable cost.
The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.
Well, as long as all folks have to do to get access to health care is go to an emergency room, I guess we’re all set. Perhaps that’s where he should have had his colonoscopy done back in June, rather than having all the equipment and personnel shipped up to Camp David.