Another step closer to the end - 23 January 2007
Today, I put in all of my paperwork. It’s official - if I survive the semester, I get the degree. Now, for resume evaluations and the hunt for a job to commence (in a mostly automated manner, I suspect, since my attention will be elsewhere for a really big majority of the time.). So, keep your ears to the ground if you hear of jobs opening up in your area for kids librarians... I’ll want to take a look at them, if you can find a posting.
And now, the links.
From the folks at Anime News Network, if you’re into classic 80’s robot shows and keeping good tunes going, then the Soundwave transforming MP3 player may be right up your alley. Works in both modes, robot and player, and has a mini SD card reader, if you’ve got lots of other things you want to play. Wonder if it’ll come painted in the right colors to show off for all your friends.
It appears that today was also National Pie Day. Not pi, but Pie. Most people like Pie in some way, regardless of their feelings about pi. So have a slice of good pie and share some with other pie fans.
Cindy Sheehan says Hillary is not a fit Presidential candidate. The Senator’s waffling, fence-sitting, and unwillingness to commit to peace strikes her off of the potential candidate list for the icon of many. Hillary may still garner lots of support for being a female, but she will probably garner as much, of not more, opposition because of her policies and track record.
Microsoft has filed for a patent on an "immortal computing" device - a way of storing digital information about a person or a civilization, with instructions for the future on how to access it. It could be used to e-mail descendants and wish them happy birthday long after the e-mailer is deceased. It could document the human history of this time to the archaeologists of the future. It could do quite a few things. How will we be immortalized? We’ll see if we answer that question in our lifetime.
Dr. Dino gets ten years for tax fraud. Kent Hovind will spend ten years of his life in prison serving sentences for fifty-eight federal counts. His wife, convicted in 44 counts, is scheduled to be sentenced in March. In the comments are people who are pleased to see him go to prison and those that are totally distraught that such a good Christian minister should be sent to jail. The comments section is worth a read here to get the range of opinions.
Bernard Chazelle, writing at Common Dreams, lays forty lashes on the American people, the mainstream media, and all the architects of the conflict in Iraq in Bush, the Empre Slayer. It’s an indictment of how the world’s last superpower was run into the ground by Bush and Co. For more examples of the punctual wisdom of Mr. Bush, Defective Yeti has a list of quotes where Bush mentions Iraq and a punctuation mark. If still not convinced, have a look at the Democrats' laundry list of Bush Administration military failures (although, seeing that makes me wonder what the Dems are planning on doing with regards to current troops and vets - hopefully making sure the vets are adequately taken care of and finding plans to ensure that those already engage arrive home safely. With as far as things have been going on, some are starting to suspect that chaos and instability was the goal from the beginning - to put a few troops in that get slaughtered, wait for the country to destabilize and kill most of the people themselves, then sweep in, conquer the last fragments, and set up shop. Either that, or all this seeming boneheadedness has been a plot by the neocons, the effects and ends of which we do not yet see.
Other ideas possibly being floated by the Administration may be a gigantic dirigible with a camera that can supposedly take good pictures of a circle 600 miles in diameter. Lockheed Martin, the venerable military supplier, may be building high-altitude spy camera. Now that I think about this, though, if you wanted to have a look from high up, why not just put good cameras on the satellites already there?
I suspect this was some time in coming, but now that it’s happened, I’m not sure whether to take it completely seriously or think of it as a one-off. Greek Pagans held a ceremony honoring Zeus, Hera, and the pantheon of myth. They wanted to use the temples, but the buildings are off-limits as historical treasures - apparently the ceremony was held on the grounds, which are also off-limits, but nobody reacted to move the pagans off. Perhaps if this becomes a regular event, with sufficient priests and priestesses for the temples to appear, I might think of it as something more than just a one-off.
A warning for those flying or otherwise seeking out wireless access available for no cost - peer-to-peer networks set up by nefarious persons may be masquerading as free wireless points. You might still be able to use the ‘Net, but you could be keylogged, have trojans and viruses dumped onto your computer that will turn it into a zombie or perpetuate the scam, or have your hard drive rifled through and important data stolen. Definitely not the kindest of things to have happen to your computer.
Going from selfishness and malice to altruism, Duke University Medical Center claims to have found a region of the brain that predicts how altruistic a person is. Of course, with each potential new learning about the brain and its chemistry could mean new drugs - a generosity-inducer for those in not-for-profits? A selfishness drug to help climb the corporate ladder? Or maybe something else entirely. Maybe Lem’s The Futurological Congress isn’t so far off...
...before I speculate too wildly, I think I’m going to go to bed. It’ll be that much easier. to dream of the world, rather than imagine it.
And now, the links.
From the folks at Anime News Network, if you’re into classic 80’s robot shows and keeping good tunes going, then the Soundwave transforming MP3 player may be right up your alley. Works in both modes, robot and player, and has a mini SD card reader, if you’ve got lots of other things you want to play. Wonder if it’ll come painted in the right colors to show off for all your friends.
It appears that today was also National Pie Day. Not pi, but Pie. Most people like Pie in some way, regardless of their feelings about pi. So have a slice of good pie and share some with other pie fans.
Cindy Sheehan says Hillary is not a fit Presidential candidate. The Senator’s waffling, fence-sitting, and unwillingness to commit to peace strikes her off of the potential candidate list for the icon of many. Hillary may still garner lots of support for being a female, but she will probably garner as much, of not more, opposition because of her policies and track record.
Microsoft has filed for a patent on an "immortal computing" device - a way of storing digital information about a person or a civilization, with instructions for the future on how to access it. It could be used to e-mail descendants and wish them happy birthday long after the e-mailer is deceased. It could document the human history of this time to the archaeologists of the future. It could do quite a few things. How will we be immortalized? We’ll see if we answer that question in our lifetime.
Dr. Dino gets ten years for tax fraud. Kent Hovind will spend ten years of his life in prison serving sentences for fifty-eight federal counts. His wife, convicted in 44 counts, is scheduled to be sentenced in March. In the comments are people who are pleased to see him go to prison and those that are totally distraught that such a good Christian minister should be sent to jail. The comments section is worth a read here to get the range of opinions.
Bernard Chazelle, writing at Common Dreams, lays forty lashes on the American people, the mainstream media, and all the architects of the conflict in Iraq in Bush, the Empre Slayer. It’s an indictment of how the world’s last superpower was run into the ground by Bush and Co. For more examples of the punctual wisdom of Mr. Bush, Defective Yeti has a list of quotes where Bush mentions Iraq and a punctuation mark. If still not convinced, have a look at the Democrats' laundry list of Bush Administration military failures (although, seeing that makes me wonder what the Dems are planning on doing with regards to current troops and vets - hopefully making sure the vets are adequately taken care of and finding plans to ensure that those already engage arrive home safely. With as far as things have been going on, some are starting to suspect that chaos and instability was the goal from the beginning - to put a few troops in that get slaughtered, wait for the country to destabilize and kill most of the people themselves, then sweep in, conquer the last fragments, and set up shop. Either that, or all this seeming boneheadedness has been a plot by the neocons, the effects and ends of which we do not yet see.
Other ideas possibly being floated by the Administration may be a gigantic dirigible with a camera that can supposedly take good pictures of a circle 600 miles in diameter. Lockheed Martin, the venerable military supplier, may be building high-altitude spy camera. Now that I think about this, though, if you wanted to have a look from high up, why not just put good cameras on the satellites already there?
I suspect this was some time in coming, but now that it’s happened, I’m not sure whether to take it completely seriously or think of it as a one-off. Greek Pagans held a ceremony honoring Zeus, Hera, and the pantheon of myth. They wanted to use the temples, but the buildings are off-limits as historical treasures - apparently the ceremony was held on the grounds, which are also off-limits, but nobody reacted to move the pagans off. Perhaps if this becomes a regular event, with sufficient priests and priestesses for the temples to appear, I might think of it as something more than just a one-off.
A warning for those flying or otherwise seeking out wireless access available for no cost - peer-to-peer networks set up by nefarious persons may be masquerading as free wireless points. You might still be able to use the ‘Net, but you could be keylogged, have trojans and viruses dumped onto your computer that will turn it into a zombie or perpetuate the scam, or have your hard drive rifled through and important data stolen. Definitely not the kindest of things to have happen to your computer.
Going from selfishness and malice to altruism, Duke University Medical Center claims to have found a region of the brain that predicts how altruistic a person is. Of course, with each potential new learning about the brain and its chemistry could mean new drugs - a generosity-inducer for those in not-for-profits? A selfishness drug to help climb the corporate ladder? Or maybe something else entirely. Maybe Lem’s The Futurological Congress isn’t so far off...
...before I speculate too wildly, I think I’m going to go to bed. It’ll be that much easier. to dream of the world, rather than imagine it.