[PHOTO: George Hernandez]George Hernandez
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09

2004-09 posts.

  1. Amy Arrives. RE: Amy . Family .
  2. 2004-09-11t03:19:47Z. RE: aaBlog . Activities, Animation, Video . Artistry, Design, Form . Computers, Programming . Cyber Life . Fauna, Flora . Gadgets, Engineering, Technology, Function . Food . Games . Green . Humanity . Images, Photos . Jokes . Local . Martial Arts . Math . Movies . Pop Culture . Science . Sex . Terror . US . US Elections . WarCraft . Writing .
  3. 2004-09-16t02:23:32Z. RE: 2D, Images, Photos . 2D-t, Activities, Animation, Video . Audio, Music . Computers, Networking, Programming . Cyber Life . Engineering, Technology, Function . Faith, Philosophy . Food . Games, Play . Fauna, Flora, Green . Humanity . Local . Martial Arts . Movies . Science, Science Fiction . Sex . Terror . US Elections . Words, Writing .
  4. Making aaBlog v2, Part 1. RE: aaBlog . Blogging . Programming .
  5. 2004-09-17t17:00:50Z. RE: 2D+text, Comics, Sequential Art . AI, Robotics . Clothes, Fashion . Computers, Networking, Programming . Cyber Life, Surfing . Engineering, Function, Technology . Drink, Food . Fun, Games, Play . Healthcare, Medicine . Housing, Money . Local . Math, Science, Science Fiction . Pop Culture . Sex . Terror, War . US Elections . Web Development, Web Standards .
  6. Making aaBlog v2, Part 2. RE: aaBlog . Blogging . Programming .
  7. 2004-09-23t15:23:54Z. RE: 2D, Images, Photos . 3D, Architecture, Sculpture . Clothes, Fashion . Computers, Networking, Programming . Cyber Life, Email, Surfing . Entertainment, Movies, Radio, Show Biz, TV . Environment, Fauna, Flora, Green . Ethics, Faith, Philosophy . Fun, Games, Play . Healthcare, Medicine . Humanity, Psychology, Sociology . Journalism, Media . Linux, Open Source . Love, Relationships, Sex . Math, Science, Science Fiction . Space . Stories, Words, Writing . Terror, War . US Elections .
  8. 2004-09-28t18:24:50Z. RE: 2D, Images, Photos . 2D+text, Comics, Sequential Art . 2D+time, Activities, Animation, Video . Clothes, Fashion . Color . Computers, Networking, Programming . Cyber Life, Email, Surfing . Drink, Food . Economy, Finances, Money . Engineering, Function, Technology . Entertainment, Movies, Radio, Show Biz, TV . Environment, Fauna, Flora, Green . Ethics, Faith, Philosophy . Fun, Games, Play . Humanity, Psychology, Sociology . Journalism, Media . Local . Love, Relationships, Sex . Math, Science, Science Fiction, Space . Money . Terror, War . US Elections . World .
  9. 2004-09-28 FMAs Weekly Class. RE: Martial Arts . Practice Notes . FMAs .

2004-09-06t03:51:02Z | RE: Amy . Family .
Amy Arrives

Our new girl was born yesterday, Saturday, the 4th of September, at 10:29 in the morning at St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Amy Jule Hernandez was 2942 g (6 lb 7.8 oz), 50 cm (19.7 inches) long, and 32 cm (12.6 inches) around the head.

Julia's water broke at 6:30, we arrived at the hospital at 7:00, Julia got prepped and a spinal epidural shot (which, btw, Julia liked so much that she wishes she could use it every day). After I was satisfied that everything was good, I took the kids out to the playground which was just a bit north on the busy runner's path. Soon I got a call to come and I scooted the kids over (of course they had some distractions such as having to run up and down a few slopes of grass).

We arrived literally minutes before the delivery. Connie wanted to see Amy but was grossed out by the delivery so she kept herself distracted with the hospital's baby doll for nursing training. York on the other hand wanted to see everything and he did. In his analysis the delivery was "stinky" (his recent word for anything the least bit offensive like a carrot on his plate) and that Amy had a good color.

It took just a few pushes to see Amy's head, and a few more to pop out her head. At that position Amy's head was purplish and the very efficient hospital team did some suctioning of goop and stuff. Through this there was hand holding all around and some rah-rah-rahs of "Go Mom! Go Mom Go!" from me and the kids. After a push or two for the shoulders, Amy slipped right out like a bar of soap. Her purple color left quickly, I snipped the cord, and then it was time for clean up.

Amy is not a big crier but she gives out a few cries here and there to let us know that she's here. Of our kids, Amy had the nicest shaped head because of the quick deliver. She has a wide and round head. At birth Connie had a very pointy chin and York had no chin, but Amy was right in between. Amy has been nursing fairly well, she likes to yawn and to be swaddled. She can open and close both eyes but she also likes to close and open one eye at a time --as if she's peeping around.

Julia and Amy will rest a bit and come home on Monday morning.

1 day old Amy held by Connie

2004-09-11t03:19:47Z | RE: aaBlog . Activities, Animation, Video . Artistry, Design, Form . Computers, Programming . Cyber Life . Fauna, Flora . Gadgets, Engineering, Technology, Function . Food . Games . Green . Humanity . Images, Photos . Jokes . Local . Martial Arts . Math . Movies . Pop Culture . Science . Sex . Terror . US . US Elections . WarCraft . Writing .
2004-09-11t03:19:47Z

aaBlog

  • I'm way behind on blogging because of work and the new baby Amy who arrived on 2004-09-04 (or 09/04/04 in US shorthand).
    • Metafilter from 08-14 through 09-10 has been skipped.
    • Blogdex, DayPop, etc. have been been skipped since 07-01.
    • Bush and the RNC have had a free pass for a few weeks but no more.
  • I will once more restate that I will try to just stay on top of blogging but I also refuse to let it become a chore.
    • There is stuff to do at work.
    • I want to change my blog archives so that permalinks will retrieve just the post instead of an entire month.
    • I've been busy working on my Martial Arts section and I will continue to do so.
    • I still haven't entered stuff from my 2004-05 trip to the Philippines!

Activities, Animation, Video

  • Home.datacomm.ch/marco.fernando/fla/bozzetto/olympics.swf [Flash animation]. Spoof of the Olympics. Sort of like Looney Tunes with a bit more blood.
  • Nigel Hendrickson's Cheech Wizard Project Page. You can download their practice of computer animation. Not much as far as story and the look is no longer novel. I'd say that at least some kids might want to see it except for the mild profanity.
  • The Giants of Anime are Coming
    • 'The three titans of Japanese animation are all about to unleash monster new films. Watch your back, Shrek.'
    • This article is also an excellent piece on manga and anime in general
    • Coming soon:
      • Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence by Mamoru Oshii via DreamWorks
      • Steamboy by Katsuhiro Otomo (of Akira fame) via Sony
      • Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki of Spirited Away fame via Disney
  • A Glimpse into the World of Japanese Animation. 'During my time working at Production I.G from early 2001 to the end of 2003 on Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, I had the extraordinary chance to experience first-hand what it was like to work in a Japanese animation studio.'

Artistry, Design, Form

  • "Tricks of the Trade" by Matthew Baldwin. "Trick of the trade" from multiple trades. Fun and useful!
  • FryFonts.com. 'Everyday, webmasters everywhere are looking for the perfect free font to complete there latest project. Our Collection covers a broad range of styles and variety's. We hand pick every font in our collection to insure that you have the highest quality of free fonts on the web! '
  • Xample.net. Some HTML tutorials and resources.
  • Bullet Madness. Cool! Publicly submitted images to use for bullet lists.
  • NeoKaiju.com. Art/Toys that look like kaiju, i.e. Japanese monsters as featured in The Power Puff Girls. My kids will probably enjoy just seeing the Flash animated intro.

Computers, Programming

Cyber Life

Fauna, Flora

Gadgets, Engineering, Technology, Function

  • Hamster-Powered Night Light With Custom Low-RPM Alternator
  • Amazing Money Jar Bank. 'This unique jar recognizes coins as they go in and keeps a running total of their value. A special LCD display in the lid tells you exactly how much you've saved.'
    a money jar bank that counts
  • Space houses on Earth
    • 'The spherical form of the SpaceHouse is the result of the use of high-tech composite materials developed for rigid, strong spacecraft structures. It uses highly efficient solar panels from spacecraft to generate electricity, which is then stored in lithium-ion batteries, further optimized by the use of a special energy-management system power-point tracker developed for satellites. The house is super-insulated and uses advanced heating, cooling and ventilation concepts. The SpaceHouse concept is a novel proposal for sustainable housing based on advanced materials and technologies developed by Europe for its space programmes.'
    • 'The SpaceHouse has a spherical shape with the basic dimension of from 12 to 40 metres in diameter allowing for 80 to 2000 m2 on up to five floors. It is designed to cope with:
      • wind speeds of up to 220 km/h (10 second gusts)
      • flooding to depths of up to 3 metres
      • earthquakes of up to 7.5 on the Richter scale
      • subsidence of up to 1.5 metres during the lifetime of the building
      • severe hail and exceptionally heavy rain
      • bush-fire resistance (to a certain extent) '
    • I want one!
    • model of a spaceship based house
  • In Praise of My UPS Shirt. I love simple useful features. So UPS has great service, green cars, and efficient shirts!
    The virtues of a UPS shirt
  • A Flying Leap for Cars: That's right, efforts to take personal transportation airborne are progressing rapidly. It's been easy to ignore reports of commercial flying cars but it looks like they're actually making progress.
  • The Bose electromagnetic suspension system for cars [/.]. Almost as good as a flying car! This is a much more impressive engineering development than the usual boring stuff that they rave about in the auto industry.
  • NC State engineers patent methods for 3-D nanostructures [/.]
    • 'The new methods are a breakthrough in nanotechnology that opens the door to creating new materials for a myriad of applications, including super-dense data storage, solid-state lighting, super-strong materials and advanced detection systems. According to Narayan, three-dimensional self-assembly is the key to being able to use the nanostructures.'
    • ' "The grand challenge is to be able to use the nanounit in the form of nanodot, nanowire or nanodisc," said Narayan. "In the past we could make only one layer of the nanostructure with these units. There was only two-dimensional self-assembly, which is not usable for applications. We couldn't control the properties of the medium. Now, with this development, we can control the medium and do three-dimensional self-organization. More importantly, we can change the size in different layers and change the functionality at different depths." '
    • 'The patented processes can be applied to almost any material. To create nanostructures for the different applications, the material used for the nanodots and the matrix are changed. For example, to create structures for data storage, Narayan uses nickel; for solid-state applications, gallium nitride or zinc oxide is used; for superstrong materials, copper, tungsten carbide and nickel aluminide are used; and for ceramics, aluminum oxide is used.'
    • 'Narayan anticipates that the first applications of his nanodots will be available to consumers within the next five years. He predicts that data storage and solid-state lighting will be the most likely consumer applications to be developed during that time.'
  • Smelly robot eats flies to generate its own power [/.]. ^^

Food

  • FoodGeeks.com. Geeks have to eat too! Scale recipes and convert ingredients to metric and decimals. Not as good as it could be because although they convert between pounds and kg, why didn't they convert between cups and liters? Tablespoons/teaspoons and milliliters?

Games

Green

Humanity

  • Brain Scans Reveal That Revenge Is Sweet
    • ' This sort of causal relationship may explain why people are willing to discipline a stranger even when there is no immediate gain in it for them. "Emotions play a proactive as well as reactive role," remarks Brian Knutson of Stanford University who penned an accompanying commentary. He notes that "passionate" forces may need to be included in economic models because, as this research shows, "people show systematic deviations from rationality." '
    • One, revenge is pleasurable.
    • Two, the pleasure from the passion of revenge drives people more than the rational reasons of revenge. Yes, although people like to think of people as rational, we are really more emotional beings than rational beings. Rationality and passion can produce saints. Irrationality and passion can produce people fooled by Republicans. Rationality, passion, and greed produces Republicans and devils. It's one of the reasons why the freak Bush is anywhere: he and his rich, politically vested pals take advantage of people that are emotional sheep. That's why political arguments tire me so: I can argue rationally, but I don't have the persona, the political and psychological skills to convince emotionally. It's not about hate: It's about love. It's not xenophobia: It's about philoxenia. It's not just about loving ourselves: It's about loving others too. Why did we do destructive vengeance when we could have constructive, cooperative vengeance?
  • Hypertaskers do things faster but not better [/.]
    • Alas! I feel ever so guilty. However, I still get into the "zone" sometimes and focus on one particular task while almost ignoring everything else. The problem and the answer is this: Do you have technology? Or does technology have you?
    • 'In addition, Kelly often has multiple screens open on two computer monitors and an active cellphone and pager. It puts him in what experts describe as a technological cocoon, "connected" but oblivious to the real people around him.'
    • 'In a recent study at Harvard University, psychologist Yuhong Jiang studied the brains of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as they performed "extremely easy tasks." When the students were asked to identify a letter and a color simultaneously, it took twice as long as when they did each task separately. In addition, brain activity diminished. "When the brain tries to do two tasks (at once), instead of increasing activity it has decreased activity," Jiang says. "It's not as efficient." '
    • ' When you do too many complicated things at once, for too long under stress, you risk damaging the very part of your brain that allows you to juggle those activities. It's the same part of the brain we rely on to prioritize, plan and do higher-level thinking, Grafman says. Weil puts it this way: "Human beings are built to multitask to a certain degree but not to the degree technology has built." The results are sleeplessness, job burnout, aggressive behavior and irritability. "Society is kind of in meltdown," she says. '
  • Cracking Under the Pressure? It's Just the Opposite, for Some
    • 'Chronic stress has been linked to an array of illnesses, including heart disease and depression. But people who cope successfully, studies have found, punch in at work with normal levels of stress hormones that climb during the day and drop sharply at night. Their coworkers who complain of being too stressed have consistently higher levels of hormones that rarely dip very far, trapping them in a constant state of anxiety.'
    • 'People's attitudes toward their jobs and the degree to which they feel they make a difference by showing up each day have long been considered powerful indicators of how well they will do. Being just another cog in a machine with no say over what happens is almost guaranteed to cause burnout. But even in the most grueling work environment, people can cope if they feel they have some control.'
    • 'People who exhibit hardiness are reluctant to cede control. They are also less likely to feel victimized by their bosses or by unpredictable life circumstances. When there is a crisis at work, they can tough it out because they accept a harsh workload or the occasional pink slip as an unsavory but inevitable part of life, psychologists say.'
    • ' Those who collapse under the pressures of the workplace are prone to envision every worst-case scenario, while resilient people think of how a greater workload, for example, might lead to a promotion. In studies, researchers have found that perhaps the only time pessimists thrive is when they become lawyers. "If you're drawing up a contract, the ability to see every foreseeable danger is something that goes along with pessimism, but it's also what makes a good lawyer," Dr. Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, said. "The problem is, not only are they good at seeing that the roof might collapse on you, they're also good at seeing that their mate might be having an affair, that they're never going to make partner." '

Images, Photos

  • LaurenHarman.com/alice/. A collection of Alice in Wonderland as rendered by various artists.
  • PostcardMan.net. Hundreds of 'Worldwide Vintage Postcards'.
  • How-To Tuesday: Make 3-D photos. Using a Photoshop.
  • Casio Exilim Card EX-S100.
    • 'The Casio Exilim Card EX-S100 is a super thin 3.2 megapixel digital camera. Casio are billing it as the world's smallest digital camera with a 2.8x optical zoom (with their new ceramic lens technology). It measures in at 88 x 57 x 16.7mm but still has a 2.0inch LCD screen. The Casio Exilim Card EX-S100 is due to be released in October 2004.'
    • Geez! That's like a thumb-thick credit card! 3.2 megapixels is good enough for some decent sized film-quality prints.
  • Nightmares 4. Just another public Photoshop contest. You'd think that they'd do this closer to Halloween.
    a nightmare rendered in Photoshop
  • PlanetDan's Senior Photo Collection Volume 1. Very funny but also pretty sad because most of the photos look better than my high school album photo. >_< .
    someone's choice for their high school photo

Jokes

  • I can't authenticate any of these but these blunders sound plausible:

    Olympic Medal Winners

    Here are comments made by NBC sports commentators, and one competitor, during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back. If there were medals for verbal gaffes, these would be gold.

    1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."
    2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."
    3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."
    4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."
    5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."
    6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."
    7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."
    8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."
    9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them...Oh my God, what have I just said?" '

Local

  • Chicago in Science Fiction. Someone's compiled a list of science fiction stories with settings in Chicago.
  • MusicBoxTheatre.com is showing a lot of Cary Grant movies in September. This is the centennial of his birth but I wonder why they're doing this in September when Cary was born 1904-01-18.
  • Baby gorilla debuts with prized pedigree [2004-09-08]
    • 'Like a newborn princess, the baby gorilla girl [currently unnamed] who arrived Wednesday at Brookfield Zoo already has a well-planned and privileged life ahead of her, including the best upbringing money can buy and eventual betrothal to a carefully selected silverback leader.'
    • 'She will receive royal treatment because of her bloodlines. Her father is Ramar, who at 36 is an elderly, wild-born lowland gorilla who, up until now, has sired only one other baby. Her mother is 9-year-old Koola, the only offspring of another wild-born male, Abe, who died soon after Koola's birth in 1995.'
    • Pretty funny considering that I had a daughter on 2004-09-04!
  • Camera network to watch over city
    • 'Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday announced a major expansion of the city's video surveillance system, adding 250 cameras and tying more than 2,000 existing cameras used by the city, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Housing Authority and other local governmental agencies to the city's 911 center.'
    • Of course, we'd have to do a lot more to match the number cameras all over London.
    • For some reason I don't feel that my privacy is invaded. I'm actually more concerned about City workers slacking off poring over the video looking for hot babes.
  • An apple a day (or more). This article covers apple-picking in the Chicagoland area.

Martial Arts

  • The War Room. 'Inside the fully immersive proving ground where tomorrow's soldiers are being trained by coalition forces of the Pentagon, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley.'
  • My current morning exercise routine before I take my shower. It takes roughly 30 minutes.
    • 2 minutes of general overall stretching, loosening, and "stretching like a dog" (anything I feel like in anyway).
    • 40-60 pushups in a row.
    • 20 repetitions of 12+ kinds of abdominal exercises.
    • 4 sets where I hold a bridge position for 10 seconds at a time.
    • 100+ butt exercises where my feet are flat on the floor, my knees are bent 90 degrees, and my shoulders, head, and arms touch the floor but not my back; The repetition involves raising and lowering my hips. I find it easy to do these reps if I imagine that I am doing the repetitions sexually. It is one of the best butt exercises but not one to do in public and for a class.
    • 30-50 Indian squats. Start by standing upright, hands cocked to the side of the chest. Lower the hands to the floor --avoid bending the knees too much--while keeping the feet flat and the back as upright as possible. Then straighten up while reaching forwards with your hands.
    • 3 sets of calf raises (for toe pointing straight, inward, and then outward) for 20-40 repetitions per set. Stretch the calves immediately after the sets!
    • 3-5 minutes of shadow boxing using all sorts of hand and foot techniques.
    • 5-10 minutes long deep stretching.

Math

  • Is Encryption Doomed? [/.]
    • 'Our entire information society rests on a fragile foundation that mathematicians are racing to dismantle.'
    • 'The problem--independently formalized by the mathematicians Stephen Cook and Leonid Levin in 1971--remains one of the central unsolved questions of modern mathematics. It is a problem about other problems. Cook and Levin asked whether there exist mathematical puzzles that are hard to solve, but that have solutions that are easy to verify. As the problem is commonly phrased, the mathematicians asked whether P [Polynomial] is equal or not equal to NP [Nondeterministic Polynomial].'
      • The usu. shorthand is P ?= NP.
    • 'what Cook and Levin realized simultaneously back in 1971 is that there exists a large number of NP problems that can be thought of as "perfect" or "complete." Each of these so-called NP-complete problems encompasses everything that it means to be an NP problem. That means that if a solution for any NP-complete problem could be found that could be solved in polynomial time, then a short-cut solution could be found for every NP problem. In practical terms, that would spell the end of encryption as we know it. The Internet would be vulnerable to hackers and computer viruses.'

Movies

Pop Culture

  • GreatBigStuff.com. Just in case you need to by anything over-sized.
  • BloodRayne-TheMovie.com. Video game becomes movie again. Related: BloodRayne2.com.
  • Twilight Zone: Planet of the Apes. 'Planet of the Apes "re-imagined" as an episode of The Twilight Zone. Why? Both were written by Rod Serling!'
  • Tokyo Damage Report 'hi, i'm an American jerk. I live in Tokyo, have a messed up sense of humor, and a keen eye for the absurd. 1-- This page is about interesting (meaning, fucked up) things that one can do in Tokyo. punk, visual, cosplay, s/m, gothic, street trends, capsule hotels, bizarre magazines, random subcultures, and bad Engrish. . . . .also it is about tokyo's urban legends: square watermelons, Sanrio condoms, politically incorrect vending machines, etc. . . '
  • Should Star Trek Die? [/.]. This is a /. thread in response to a NYT article.

Science

  • Two Muppets named top scientists
    • 'Muppets Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker defeated Dr. Strangelove, Dana Scully of "X Files" fame and Star Trek's Mr. Spock to be voted Britain's favorite screen scientists.'
    • They're all heroes of science because every field needs fresh young blood.
    • The Muppets Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker
    • Oh that poor assistant Beaker!
  • Genesis Capsule Crashes; Chutes Blamed [/.]. Alas! I saw this live while I was doing my morning exercises. Failure is always a possibility on missions like these. No one was killed so we can console ourselves with humor. The first post in the /. thread points to Khaaan!

Sex [assume NSFW]

Terror

  • Bush Leak Allowed Terrorists to Escape. 'the White House blew the cover of a U.S. intelligence mole in order to publicly justify raising the terror alert level one week after the Democratic National Convention. In the process, it allowed terrorists who threaten America to evade capture.'
  • Linguistics professor George Lakoff dissects the "war on terror" and other conservative catchphrases. It's important to see and understand framing not just because it works but because it is often invisible.
  • "How Long Can the Country Stay Scared?" by Bruce Schneier
    • 'A terrorist alert that instills a vague feeling of dread or panic, without giving people anything to do in response, is ineffective. Even worse, it echoes the very tactics of the terrorists. There are two basic ways to terrorize people. The first is to do something spectacularly horrible, like flying airplanes into skyscrapers and killing thousands of people. The second is to keep people living in fear. Decades ago, that was one of the IRA's major aims. Inadvertently, the DHS is achieving the same thing.

      European countries that have been dealing with terrorism for decades, like the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy, and Spain, don't have cute color-coded terror alert systems. Even Israel, which has seen more terrorism -- and more suicide bombers -- than anyone else, doesn't issue vague warnings about every possible terrorist threat.

      These countries understand that security doesn't come from a scared populace, and that true counter-terrorism occurs behind the scenes and away from public eye. For earthquakes, the long term security solutions include things like building codes. For terrorism, they include intelligence, investigation, and emergency response preparedness.

      The DHS's incessant warnings against any and every possible method of terrorist attack has nothing to do with security, and everything to do with politics. In 2002, Republican strategist Karl Rove instructed Republican legislators to make terrorism the mainstay of their campaign. Study after study has shown that Americans worried about terrorism are more likely to vote Republican. Strength in the face of the terrorist threat is the basis of Bush's reelection campaign.'

    • I'm still very proud that on the actual day of 9/11, I kept working even though I was just a few blocks from the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the US. If al Queda doesn't scare me, I'll be damned if I let a devil like Bush make me a coward.
  • The Russians have been having a number of terrorist attacks lately (planes and the school). Russia will now copy US's method of pre-emptive force anywhere in the world to fight terrorism. A fine excuse for Russia and any country to justify increasing their military budgets.
  • U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Pass 1,000. Well, it had to happen sometime.
  • A moment of silence for the anniversary of 9/11.

US

  • Fascism Anyone?. ' Dr. Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, identifies 14 characteristics common to fascist regimes. His comparisons of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet yielded this list of 14 "identifying characteristics of fascism." '
  • All That Secrecy Is Expensive. 'Some of the rise is understandable, with the government's increased focus on security since 9/11. But even some of Washington's leading authorities on government secrecy were caught off-guard by just how fast classification is increasing -- and just how much money it's taking to keep all that information locked away.'

US Elections

  • The RNC (Republican National Convention) is upon us so the RNC are going to kick this election into high gear with a lot of dirt. I think the Democrats should fling back. The problem is that the Republicans, like Puritans, are better at making everyone appear so dirty when they themselves are the dirtiest.
  • "Smear and Pivot: Bush's Campaign Strategy" by Andrew Sullivan. 'Last week, in this space, I crunched the numbers and found that, from the polling so far, this race was John Kerry's to lose unless the dynamic of the election suddenly changed. It appears that the Bush campaign has realized the same thing. And when the Bush family finds itself in difficult political waters, they have a long-established, sure-fire tactic. They find a way to detect their opponent's strongest card and discredit it. They do so using surrogates to keep their patrician hands clean, and they are absolutely not above the vilest of smears. And so last week, they made their move.'
  • RNCNotWelcome.org
  • NY Times chart on the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth", which I've reproduced here because it'll disappear shortly. The "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" is such a transparent dirty political trick by the Bush campaign but it works because people are sheep. The Bush administration smears, and then when the smearing unravels and the truths are known, they let it fade away --but by then the damage is done and enough of their useful idiots remember what they want to remember. [Hmm... the URL looks hacked to me]
    click to see the full size chart on the Swift Boat story
  • "Cheney Speaks to the Reptile Brain" by Thom Hartmann. ' "America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive," Cheney said, firing first the thinking brain ("too many wars") and then the limbic brain ("for our wishes[/hopes/ideals]"). And then he went for the reptile brain: "...but not one of them was won by being sensitive." '
  • OnTheIssues.org. 'Our mission is to provide non-partisan information for voters in the Presidential election, so that votes can be based on issues rather than on personalities and popularity.'
  • John Kerry interview on the Daily Show [Quicktime video, 12 min.]. Ha ha! George Bush doesn't have the what it takes to do an interview like this. After Bush's few lousy interviews, Bush will only face interviewers who will stick to Bush's script, his talking points.
  • The GOP doesn't reflect America
    • Michael Moore hanging out at the Republican National Convention.
    • 'I asked one man who told me he was a "proud Republican," "Do you think we need strong laws to protect our air and water?"

      "Well, sure," he said. "Who doesn't?"

      I asked whether women should have equal rights, including the same pay as men.

      "Absolutely," he replied.

      "Would you discriminate against someone because he or she is gay?"

      "Um, no." The pause -- I get that a lot when I ask this question -- is usually because the average good-hearted person instantly thinks about a gay family member or friend.

      I've often found that if I go down the list of "liberal" issues with people who say they're Republican, they are quite liberal and not in sync with the Republicans who run the country. Most don't want America to be the world's police officer and prefer peace to war. They applaud civil rights, believe all Americans should have health insurance and think assault weapons should be banned. Though they may personally oppose abortion, they usually don't think the government has the right to tell a women what to do with her body.

      There's a name for these Republicans: RINOs or Republican In Name Only. They possess a liberal, open mind and don't believe in creating a worse life for anyone else.

      So why do they use the same label as those who back a status quo of women earning 75 cents to every dollar a man earns, 45 million people without health coverage and a president who has two more countries left on his axis-of-evil-regime-change list?

      I asked my friend on the street. He said what I hear from all RINOs: "I don't want the government taking my hard-earned money and taxing me to death. That's what the Democrats do."

      Money. That's what it comes down to for the RINOs. They do work hard and have been squeezed even harder to make ends meet. They blame Democrats for wanting to take their money. Never mind that it's Republican tax cuts for the rich and billions spent on the Iraq war that have created the largest deficits in history and will put all of us in hock for years to come.'

  • What If Bush Wins: Predictions on the likely consequences of a second term for President Bush. By a panel of 16 writers.
  • Anti-Bush or Pro-Kerry slogans. I'm sure there are many more out there and new ones coming but here are some for now.
    • 9/11 != Iraq
    • </bush>
    • Bush Lied, Soldier Died
    • Asses Of Evil
    • Buck Fush
    • Yes Trees, No Bush
    • George Bush: Words Speak Louder Than Facts
    • kerry us
    • Vote for Change
    • We can do better
  • The text of a letter former President Carter sent to Zell Miller over the weekend.
    • Zell Miller is the Senator and fake Democrat who gave a speech at the Repbulican Naitonal Convention.
    • 'Zell, I have known you for forty-two years and have, in the past, respected you as a trustworthy political leader and a personal friend. But now, there are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral preemptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth, and the political technique of personal character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause. These are not the characteristics of great Democrats whose legacy you and I have inherited.'
  • Cheney Warns Against Vote for Kerry
    • I am continuously floored that so many people cannot see how Bush and key people related to his administration are so blatantly evil.
    • ' "It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Cheney told about 350 supporters at a town-hall meeting in this Iowa city.'

WarCraft

  • I somehow managed to squeeze in some games of WarCraft. It's sort of odd because a v 1.17 should be coming out any day now.
  • What I've been doing lately is making melee and light air. This works best for Night Elves, then Humans, then Orcs, and then the Undead.

Writing

  • "Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully - in Ten Minutes" by Stephen King
  • "The Age of the Essay" by Paul Graham.
    • The essay in history, literature, and modern life.
    • 'The other big difference between a real essay and the things they make you write in school is that a real essay doesn't take a position and then defend it. That principle, like the idea that we ought to be writing about literature, turns out to be another intellectual hangover of long forgotten origins.'
    • 'In the things you write in school you are, in theory, merely explaining yourself to the reader. In a real essay you're writing for yourself. You're thinking out loud. But not quite. Just as inviting people over forces you to clean up your apartment, writing something that other people will read forces you to think well. So it does matter to have an audience.'
    • 'The Meander (aka Menderes) is a river in Turkey. As you might expect, it winds all over the place. But it doesn't do this out of frivolity. The path it has discovered is the most economical route to the sea. The river's algorithm is simple. At each step, flow down. For the essayist this translates to: flow interesting. Of all the places to go next, choose the most interesting. ... Fundamentally an essay is a train of thought-- but a cleaned-up train of thought, as dialogue is cleaned-up conversation. Real thought, like real conversation, is full of false starts. It would be exhausting to read. You need to cut and fill to emphasize the central thread, like an illustrator inking over a pencil drawing. But don't change so much that you lose the spontaneity of the original.'
    • 'How do you find surprises? Well, therein lies half the work of essay writing. (The other half is expressing yourself well.) The trick is to use yourself as a proxy for the reader. You should only write about things you've thought about a lot. And anything you come across that surprises you, who've thought about the topic a lot, will probably surprise most readers. ... So if you want to write essays, you need two ingredients: a few topics you've thought about a lot, and some ability to ferret out the unexpected.'
    • 'Collecting surprises is a similar process. The more anomalies you've seen, the more easily you'll notice new ones. Which means, oddly enough, that as you grow older, life should become more and more surprising. When I was a kid, I used to think adults had it all figured out. I had it backwards. Kids are the ones who have it all figured out. They're just mistaken.'

2004-09-16t02:23:32Z | RE: 2D, Images, Photos . 2D-t, Activities, Animation, Video . Audio, Music . Computers, Networking, Programming . Cyber Life . Engineering, Technology, Function . Faith, Philosophy . Food . Games, Play . Fauna, Flora, Green . Humanity . Local . Martial Arts . Movies . Science, Science Fiction . Sex . Terror . US Elections . Words, Writing .
2004-09-16t02:23:32Z

2D, Images, Photos

2D-t, Activities, Animation, Video

  • Codec-Download.com. All the video codecs, old & new, for free.
  • Hefner, Stan Lee team for 'Superbunnies'. 'MTV has ordered an animated pilot for "Hef's Superbunnies," a collaboration between cartooon veteran Lee's newly launched Pow! Entertainment and Playboy's Alta Loma Entertainment division. Hefner's name and likeness will be featured in the pilot, and he also might provide the voice of his cartoon alter ego.'
  • ColorCalm.com. Now you can buy a DVD to use your TV to provide visual and audio background, sort of like a screen saver and Muzak.

Audio, Music

Computers, Networking, Programming

  • CSS Media Types Create Print-Friendly Pages. Nothing terribly new here but a good little summary on making CSS for print as opposed to screen viewing.
    • General rules for print CSS:
      • ' Change colors to black on white.
      • Change the font to serif.
      • Watch the font size.
      • Underline all links.
      • Remove non-essential images.
      • Remove navigation.
      • Remove some or most of the advertising.
      • Remove all JavaScript, Flash, and animated images. '
    • Make sure these items show up on print. You may hide this for screen.css but show them for print.css.
      • A byline (to indicate who wrote the article)
      • The original URL.
      • Copyright notification.
    • Sample print.css:
      body{
  color:#000;
  background:#fff;
  font-family:"Times New Roman", Times, serif;
  font-size:12pt;
}
a{
  text-decoration:underline;
  color:#00f;
}
#navigation,#advertising,#other{
  display:none;
}
    • Link to print.css in the <head> element. EG: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="print.css" media="print" />.
    • I don't make a print.css for my personal site because my screen version is essentially a print version.
  • A Guide To Firefox Extensions [/.]. Not just for the IE-to-Firefox converts but also the Mozilla-to-Firefox switchers. I just wish they could commit themselves to producing Firefox v1.0 instead of the current 0.9 version.
    • Oops! I almost spoke too soon! (Look a few bullets down.)
  • Building A Lo-Fat Linux Desktop
  • Merlin.blogs.com/43Folders/. By Merlin Mann. A blog about tricks and hacks.
  • Tutorialized.com. Tutorials, How-To's, etc. on various computer tech stuff.
  • The Best of Eyetrack III: What We Saw When We Looked Through Their Eyes
    • 'While testing our participants' eye movements across several news homepage designs, Eyetrack III researchers noticed a common pattern: The eyes most often fixated first in the upper left of the page, then hovered in that area before going left to right. Only after perusing the top portion of the page for some time did their eyes explore further down the page.'
    • general pattern of the eyes on a typical web page
    • Lots of other good info on the page too.
  • Wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-tan. 'A small internet phenomenon on Futaba Channel, the OS-tan (OS for Operating System, and -tan as an overly cute Japanese honorific for a person, specifically a child slurring "-chan") or simply OS Girls are the personification of several OSes, most famously Windows, by various amateur Japanese artists. A pure fan creation, the appearance of each character is generally consistent among artists. OSes are almost always portrayed as women, the Windows girls usually as sisters, despite sometimes seeming the same age.'
    The OS Girl for DOS
  • Firefox 1.0 Preview Release (0.10PR) Released! [/.]
    • 'The Firefox 1.0 Preview Release has been released. The 1.0 final release won't be out for another month or so, and as such, the version number for this release is 0.10PR. For those who still count in decimal, 0.10 is larger than 0.9, despite what you were taught in school.'
      • Well, I'm still waiting waiting for 1.0 then.
      • Bah! They should have called it "0.9.9" instead of "0.10PR".

Cyber Life

Engineering, Technology, Function

  • $14 Steadycam: The Poor Man's Steadicam. Look Ma: No duck tape!
    different configurations of a home made steadycam
  • The Flapper
    • 'As far as I know, this is the only paper airplane that flaps its wings when it flies. No motor, no rubberbands. Just a piece of typing paper, a penny and an inch of tape.'
    • BRB: I'm going to build the plane myself.
    • ...
    • Back: It took around 10 minutes and there might be some flapping but it's hard to tell. I do like how the weight of the penny allows it to fly fairly decisively though.
  • AquaDom. 'Positioned in the center of the hotel complex, the base of the AquaDom rises 26 feet above the ground floor. Visitors have the unique experience of ascending through the water's depths as they ride a split-level glass elevator from the ground floor up seven floors, through the center of the AquaDom. As they rise they experience an array of colorful corals, rock formations and a myriad of over 2,000 fish. The AquaDom breaks all records as the largest cylinder aquarium in the world, at over 52 feet in depth by 36 feet in diameter. This engineering marvel took 150 tons of acrylic to complete.'
    The AquaDom has an elevator through it
  • 21 Century Hobbit Hole. It can also double as a bomb shelter.
    floor plans for a subterranean home
  • Your brand new U-Lock is not safe. Please read this RIGHT NOW. [MeFi]
    • Apparently you can open U-locks like the Kryptonite locks with a Bic pen. They have videos like this proving it.
    • The MeFi thread has other good tips such as 'use different kinds of lock'.
    • I've had a friend open my lock with a drill and he said it was pretty easy.

Faith, Philosophy

Food

  • CookingForEngineers.com. More than just "a can of Coke" --this site presents recipes and cooking information in a fresh, efficient way. Engineers are super!
  • Restaurant Customer Arrested For Tipping Under 18%. I've never questioned the legality of restaurants billing large parties a fixed tip automatically. I consider that stuff to be part of the expense of eating at such an establishment.

Games, Play

  • NoGravity.com [Boing Boing]. Boing Boing says: 'For about $3,000 US, passengers will be able to experience about 20 doses of parabolic weightlessness during a 90-minute trip. Nothing like this has ever been offered to American consumers before. ZERO-G is the only company with FAA approval to conduct weightless flights for the public within the US. '
  • Ye Olde Disciplinary Punch-and-Judy Show
    • ' So the "ludology" vs. "narratology" debate has flared up again, along with accompanying feuding over whether "game studies" really is or should be a discipline. '
    • 'So I thought I'd take a crack at this old chestnut myself. On one hand, I think the ludologists are if anything being too generous to some of what has been said about games by scholars who come more from the narratology end of things--the problem with some narratological accounts isn't that narrative is somehow intrinsically different in games, it's that some people coming out of literary or cultural studies have a tendency to write about genres and texts that they know little or nothing about. On the other hand, I don't have much sympathy for the desire to make "game studies" a discipline, partly because that's not where my bread is buttered, but also because I think academic writing about games provides a good opportunity to practice a new middlebrow form of academic cultural criticism that consciously avoids the insular norms of scholarly writing.'
  • 'Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks tried to do Choose Your Own Adventure books one better with D&D-style rules. These massively single-player games, released in Britain, absorbed '80s nerds into the kind of murky, dead-serious fantasy recently parodied by Trogdor, in a decade when interactive fiction was on the rise. A bunch of the Gamebooks are now available to play online. Hang on to those healing potions. ' [MeFi]

Fauna, Flora, Green

  • Capsulamundi.com.
  • FisheryCrisis.com [MeFi]. There are many sites that go over the problems with the sea and this is one of them. People think that disappearing fish won't affect them but it does. Fish is the greatest source of protein for people on the planet. The fact that they can't catch fish as big as they used to harms my soul as well. Sometimes you need a scientists, public outcry, and courageous governments to step in because if the "free markets" are allowed to run wild, people will eat themselves to harm.
  • Wind Power - Up and coming blow [/.]
    • 'The cost for wind power is more expensive than other options, but the cost has recently decreased. The price used to be 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, but as of June it dropped to 1 cent per kwh.'
    • I keep pounding and pounding that the next economy is a Green Economy.
    • There are people who are willing to pay more for things that are greener: more renewable, more ethical.

Humanity

  • DimensionsMagazine.com. This site concerns itself with heavy people. Some of it borders on fetish but I think the site is serious. Self-esteem, sexuality, etc. should be a separate issue from weight but it is hard to do sometimes. Some people who have a high BMI are actually quite healthy but it can get quite dangerous.
  • "This I Believe! - Tom's 60 TIBs" by Tom Peters [leads to a PDF]. I understand that these are very abbreviated notes. But sometimes I find PowerPoint presentations too airy; sometimes I find corporate-speak/catchy-phrases offensive; sometimes I don't have the patience to hear something restated in a different way. I had to continuously get over these internal mental hurdles to actually listen to what he was saying because much of it is actually quite good.
  • Key words. I put key words at the top of my home page but it changes frequently so I want to take a snap shot of it now and then.
    • Athens > Sparta. Real Earth > Real Estate. Science > Superstition. Honest Questions > Blind Faith. Philoxenia > Xenophobia. Meter > Yard. Problems = Opportunities.
    • Explore. Fun. Self-Integrity. Urgency. Respond. Beauty. Non-Fixation. Grace. Joy. Challenge.  Kindness.
    • Everything is easy. Be present. Mistakes happen. Do you have X or does X have you? Out your inner world. Respect and Dignity. Invest and give more than just money. Study then use your instincts. The emotional and spiritual world are as real as physical one.
  • Hypnosis really changes your mind
    • 'But under hypnosis, Gruzelier found that the highly susceptible subjects showed significantly more brain activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus than the weakly susceptible subjects. This area of the brain has been shown to respond to errors and evaluate emotional outcomes. The highly susceptible group also showed much greater brain activity on the left side of the prefrontal cortex than the weakly susceptible group. This is an area involved with higher level cognitive processing and behaviour.'
    • ' Peter Naish, at the UK's Open University, says this moves the understanding of hypnosis away from the popular misconceptions created by showy stage hypnotists. "We have a technique that has now moved towards evidence-based treatments," he says. "Gruzelier's work is showing for sure that the brain is doing quite different things under hypnosis than in normal everyday existence." '
  • NeuroDiversity.com.
    • 'Honoring the variety of  human wiring'
    • Site on autism and the like.
  • "The Future of Free Speech" by Cass Sunstein
    • A long piece but very relevant given how polarized the country is and how we can pick and choose what we want to hear. Which came first?
    • 'My purpose here is to cast some light on the relationship between democracy and new communications technologies. I do so by emphasising the most striking power provided by emerging technologies: the growing power of consumers to "filter" what it is that they see. In the extreme case, people will be fully able to design their own communications universe. They will find it easy to exclude, in advance, topics and points of view that they wish to avoid. I will also provide some notes on the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech.

      An understanding of the dangers of filtering permits us to obtain a better sense of what makes for a well-functioning system of free expression. Above all, I urge that in a heterogeneous society, such a system requires something other than free, or publicly unrestricted, individual choices. On the contrary, it imposes two distinctive requirements. First, people should be exposed to materials that they would not have chosen in advance. Unanticipated encounters, involving topics and points of view that people have not sought out and perhaps find quire irritating, are central to democracy and even to freedom itself. Second, many or most citizens should have a range of common experiences. Without shared experiences, a heterogeneous society will have a much more difficult time addressing social problems; people may even find it hard to understand one another. '

    • elated: Listening to both sides

Local

  • Chicago's Biograph Theater Sold. I usually drive by the Biograph Theater (2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657) almost everyday but today I noticed that there was a huge dumpster in front of it and their marquee stated "THAT'S ALL FOLKS" instead of listing what movies they were showing. I was worried for minute there but it turns out that the Biograph was sold. I hope the new folks do this Chicago institution justice.
  • Oprah gives away 276 cars. Apparently these were all people who had written about how they really needed a car.

Martial Arts

Movies

  • 'Star Wars' emerges from darkness. The link is not so much about the upcoming Star Ward DVDs but about the restoration process.
  • 'You know you've had one hell of a year when you get promoted from Jesus to Superman.' [MeFi]. James Caviezel as Superman? The only thing that counts is if it'll be a good movie.
  • Blade Runner Brilliance. An essay on one of the best science fiction movies ever.

Science, Science Fiction

  • Global to Local: The Social Future as seen by six SF Writers [/.]. The /. thread starts off with Right v Left SF writers.
  • Is science fiction finished?
    • 'Poetry, it seems, is forever writing its own elegy. The novel, yet again, seems to be flipping pages to its last chapter. Now science fiction appears on the verge of getting beamed up to the great Enterprise in the sky, with sci-fi writers concerned that they are facing the unique irony of looking at a future where their writing could be a thing of the past.'
    • ' "I would not be encouraging a young person today to be entering science fiction as a profession. I do have a fear that the science-fiction novel is as much an artifact of the 20th century as Victorian literature was of the 19th," said Sawyer. "No matter how hard you yell 'clear' and go for the defibrillator paddle, you still can't get that spark of life going again." '
    • Setting aside concepts of 'The Singularity' aside, the problem has to do with lack of good old storytelling. There is too much focus on gimmicks and special effects but not enough on stories with twists, captivating emotive characters, and ideas and problems relevant to our current lives. The trick is of good science fiction and fantasy is that real problems are abstracted in a fantastic = safe way.

Sex [assume NSFW]

  • Zentai Woman [Fleshbot] There's a fetish for almost anything. Zentai is a fetish for women that are completely encased in skin tight clothing.
    a Zentai Woman
  • VintagePBks.com
    • 'Vintage Paperbacks & Digests'
    • There restraint of the 1950s makes the stuff even naughtier.

Terror

  • Bloody Sunday: 110 Dead in Iraq, 200 Wounded
  • "Chapter Operation Ignore" from Al Franken's book: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them [Amazon].
  • Well, Thank GOD We Liberated Them
    • 'Who would have thought that "bringing democracy to the Middle East" didn't include due process or an adherence to military regulations or international law?'
    • 'We're stuck in this bad movie and we will be for another four years if John Kerry loses this election. America has a chance to oust this corrupt administration on November 2, but I fear that we won't.'
  • N.Korea blast probably not nuclear. But a mushroom cloud  4 Km wide gets you edgy.
  • Why al-Qaeda is winning
    • 'Three years after September 11, President George W Bush's crusade is a failure. "War on terror" is a meaningless myth: you can't combat a supple attack machine like al-Qaeda with shock and awe. What should have been a long, meticulous police operation was turned by Bush - instigated by his foreign policy adviser, God - into an illegal, preemptive attack on a nation that had nothing to do with terror. '
    • 'It should be very easy for the slumbering John Kerry campaign to smash that armory. Before Iraq turned into a quagmire - before the 1,000th dead American soldier, the 7,000th wounded American soldier, the 14,000th or maybe even 22,000th dead Iraqi civilian - Bush kept insisting that Iraq was "the new front in the war on terror". Now Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are doing everything in their power not to make the connection - because a majority of Americans seem to view Bush as relatively strong on terror, but a failure in Iraq. '
    • 'Two related facts are undisputable: more Americans are facing death and destruction in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was captured than before; and now there are increasingly more global terrorist attacks than when Bush proclaimed his "crusade", or "war on terror". The Bush administration always sold the war on Iraq as part of the "war on terror". Reminding Americans about it is to fully certify Bush's overall failure. '
    • 'The bottom line: since Bush proclaimed his "crusade" or mission from God against terror, the United States, the Middle East and the world are immensely less safe.'
    • 'As nihilistic as it may be, al-Qaeda, from a business point of view, is a major success: three years after September 11, it is a global brand and a global movement. The Middle East, in this scenario, is just a regional base station. This global brand does not have much to do with Islam. But it has everything to do with the globalization of anti-imperialism. And the empire, whatever its definition, has its center in Washington. Bin Laden is laughing: Bush's crusade has legitimized an obscure sect as a worldwide symbol of political revolt. How could bin Laden not vote for Bush? '
  • ' Sept. 7: Righteous indignation. Sept. 13: The million dollar question. Sept: 14: The beginning of the answer? '. [MeFi]
    • So earlier Russia is following Bush's example again. Just a few days ago they were copying Bush's pre-emptive, pro-force polices by saying they'd fight terrorist anywhere anytime. Now they are copying Bush's reduce  freedom and democracy for the sake of security.
    • Any country can become more fascist to preempt terrorism. What a nice world Bush has brought upon us.
  • Russian-Chechen War Turns into Bounty Race. Russian President Putin offered a multi-million dollar bounty for Chechen rebels, and the Chechen rebels answered by offering a multi-million dollar bounty for Putin because of his war crimes.
  • Colin Powell in Four-letter Neo-con 'crazies' Row
    • 'A furious row has broken out over claims in a new book by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq. Powell's extraordinary outburst is alleged to have taken place during a telephone conversation with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The two became close friends during the intense negotiations in the summer of 2002 to build an international coalition for intervention via the United Nations. The 'crazies' are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.'
    • True or not, it's fun to visualize Powell banging his head and saying "Those fucking crazies!".

US Elections

  • The other president
    • 'For the past four years the two men have been inseparable. Most vice-presidents have to fight for time with their boss; Mr Cheney sees his several times a day. Most vice-presidents spend their days at state funerals; Mr Cheney, more than anyone else, picked the members of the current administration. Thereafter he helped to shape the administration's policies on everything from energy policy to the invasion of Iraq.'
    • 'Mr Cheney also brought to his job a sharp sense of how dangerous the world is. Thomas Hobbes used to remark that "fear and I were born twins". The same can be said of Mr Cheney. As a congressman, he boasted that he never met a weapons system he didn't vote for; as defence secretary, he fiercely resisted pressure for a post-cold-war peace dividend. He tried instead to focus America's armed forces on "new sources of instability" such as terrorism and renegade regimes. This combination of a mastery of Washington bureaucracy and a Hobbesian view of the world should have been perfect for the post-September 11th world.'
    • 'But few people would now argue that Mr Cheney has lived up to his promise as a wise man. The biggest mistakes of this administration, from the blithe acceptance of soaring deficits to the insistence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, have Mr Cheney's fingerprints all over them. He resisted attempts to get both congressional and UN approval for the invasion of Iraq. He has repeatedly favoured secrecy and "executive privilege" over consultation and compromise.'
    • 'The cumulative effect of all these mistakes not only suggests a worrying preference for ideology over common sense, but an arrogant indifference to the checks and balances that are the glory of the American constitution. During the Ford administration, the Secret Service gave Mr Cheney the codename "Backseat". One of the big questions facing America is whether this particular backseat driver is taking his boss in the right direction.'
  • Did Kerry Oppose Tanks & Planes? Not Lately. 'Kerry voted often against nuclear missiles and bombers in the '90s, but GOP claims that he opposed a long list of conventional weapons are overblown.'
    • Yes, but people will still fall the GOP bullshit claims of flip flopping.
  • Tentacles of Rage: The Republican propaganda mill, a brief history
  • The Curse of Dick Cheney: The veep's career has been marred by one disaster after another [Rolling Stone].
    • This article goes over Cheney's history.
    • 'This pattern of misplaced confidence in Cheney, followed by disastrous results, runs throughout his life -- from his days as a dropout at Yale to the geopolitical chaos he has helped create in Baghdad. Once you get to know his history, the cycle becomes clear: First, Cheney impresses someone rich or powerful, who causes unearned wealth and power to be conferred on him. Then, when things go wrong, he blames others and moves on to a new situation even more advantageous to himself.'
    • ' Those who have known him over the years remain astounded by what they describe as his almost autistic indifference to the thoughts and feelings of others. "He has the least interest in human beings of anyone I have ever met," says John Perry Barlow, his former supporter. Cheney's freshman-year roommate, Steve Billings, agrees: "If I could ask Dick one question, I'd ask him how he could be so unempathetic." '
    • I've been posting links for months that show what a freak Dick Cheney is. Bush and Cheney are unimpressive in both ability and character. Powell and Rice, on the other hand are impressive but they are so marred by Bush and Cheney. The only thing impressive about Bush and Cheney is their audacity.  Audacity is fine --when it is preceded or followed by results. I wonder if the masses will ever open their eyes about this stuff.
  • Visual timeline of Bush's Air National Guard service
    • The timeline is a nice way of condensing the information.
    • Boing Boing on the above link:
      • ' President Bush had a lot of fun as a pilot in the Air National Guard. He got to fly really cool jets, while maintaining the lifestyle of a rich playboy with plenty of upstairs connections that allowed him to ignore direct orders from his commander and come and go as he pleased. And now, the President has a team of folks dedicated to smearing Kerry for volunteering for hazardous duty in Vietnam. And it's working! Most people now believe Bush is a military hero while Kerry is a shirking, wobbly liar. The president is a lot smarter than I thought.'
      • ' Simon sez: "I put together this visual explanation of Dubya's Air National Guard service (or lack thereof) based entirely on the released documents to date. My goal was to put the confusing mixture of events and records into some kind of order." '
  • Just One Question... "How many times have you been arrested, Mr. President?".
    • The site is collecting a bounty 'to the first person to ask George W. Bush this question in a public forum.'.
    • At the moment the bounty is up to $1,852.62.
    • 'If it is unclaimed by 11/2/04, the total donations will be given to the DNC.'.
  • Bush vs. Jesus. The link has a scan from Mad Magazine. I'm including it here so it doesn't disappear. It's reminiscent of Al Franken's "The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus" mini-comicbook.
    A Bush commercial if he were running against Jesus
  • These arguments about how dangerous it is to switch Presidents during these times is absurd. If an avocado were President, then wouldn't it be a good time to replace the President?
  • a few reasons why not to vote for Bush

Words, Writing

2004-09-16t18:45:02Z | RE: aaBlog . Blogging . Programming .
Making aaBlog v2, Part 1

aaBlog v1, the blogging system that I created from scratch seems to be working pretty well so far. However I want to upgrade it to version 2 and just for the fun of it I am going to blog my notes as I make this system.

The primary change I want to make is allow my blog archive to be accessible on the post level. Currently when you access one of my permalinks, you get sent to the anchor of the post on a page that contains a whole month of posts. Giving access to my archive on the post level instead of the month level is good for 2 reasons:

  • Faster download. When you click on the permalink it will bring up just the post instead of a whole month of posts. Of course I will retain the ability to access all my posts on a month level too.
  • Better searching. My archives will be better indexed by search engines since there will be permalinks to just the post. The permalinks will be more topic specific and will rank higher than if the post was just one post in a month of posts.

Currently the guid of the post looks like this in the rss+xml file:

<guid>http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/aaBlog/post.asp?ts=2004-09-06t03:51:02Z</guid>

and a part of the post in the final HTML looks like this:

<a title="Permanent link to this post in archive"
   href="http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/aaBlog/post.asp?ts=2004-09-06t03:51:02Z">##</a>
<a name="2004-09-06t03:51:02Z">2004-09-06t03:51:02Z</a>

Except for the colons, an ISO 8601 formatted date-time stamp is an excellent 2nd part of a guid (globally unique identifier). The first part of my guid is simply some location in my domain. One simple change I'd like to make is consolidate the permalink with the post anchor thus: 

<a title="Permanent link to this post in archive" 
   href="http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/aaBlog/post.asp?ts=2004-09-06t03:51:02Z"
   name="2004-09-06t03:51:02Z">2004-09-06t03:51:02Z</a>

Now here comes the big change. I want to change the permalink or guid from pointing to an anchor on a month of posts. So the rss+xml file will look like this:

<guid>http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/aaBlog/post.asp?ts=2004-09-06t03:51:02Z</guid>

and the final HTML will look like this:

<a title="Permanent link to this post in archive" 
   href="http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/aaBlog/post.asp?ts=2004-09-06t03:51:02Z"
   name="2004-09-06t03:51:02Z">2004-09-06t03:51:02Z</a>

These simple changes should produce the primary change. I'll have to create post.asp, which will take the parameter of ts from the query string and extract the post data from the appropriate rss+xml file. I will also have to modify both the source rss+xml files plus the xsl files used.

I'll go make those changes now and blog about a secondary change later.

2004-09-17t17:00:50Z | RE: 2D+text, Comics, Sequential Art . AI, Robotics . Clothes, Fashion . Computers, Networking, Programming . Cyber Life, Surfing . Engineering, Function, Technology . Drink, Food . Fun, Games, Play . Healthcare, Medicine . Housing, Money . Local . Math, Science, Science Fiction . Pop Culture . Sex . Terror, War . US Elections . Web Development, Web Standards .
2004-09-17t17:00:50Z

2D+text, Comics, Sequential Art

AI, Robotics

Clothes, Fashion

Computers, Networking, Programming

Cyber Life, Surfing

Engineering, Function, Technology

  • Bulbs promise to last 10 years.
    • 'For years, companies have worked to solve this vexing problem, but the bulbs have been expensive and often lacked durability. But what if you could buy a bulb that will last for 10 years, use about a tenth of the electricity and cost no more than three times that of a standard bulb? And it can bounce.'
    • ' At [Jack] Goeken's company--PolyBrite International Inc.--inventors discovered a way to take the light from a single LED and disperse it through a plastic ribbon to enhance the light's effect. After several years of work, Carl Scianna, PolyBrite's president, has packaged LEDs along with the electronics that power them in a plastic bulb-shaped product. "In a few months we'll have our light bulbs on the market," he said. '
    • Good engineering!
  • Let a Thousand Ideas Flower: China Is a New Hotbed of Research [/.]. It is astonishing that the US (Bush) is letting China, India, and Asia in general catch up to us in technology.
  • Make.OReilly.com.
    • 'The First Magazine for Technology Projects'
    • It just started.

Drink, Food

Fun, Games, Play

  • Xeni Flies Zero G #10: goodbye, gravity [BoingBoing].
    • After days of build up, Xeni finally got her zero gravity flight. It's a good joyous read.
    • 'And then, when the weight is worst, the invisible hands cramming your spine into the plane's padded floor lose interest and lift away. What was concrete becomes cotton. The hands reach beneath you, and lift you up into nothing, and you float. And all there is to do when this happens for the very first time is to laugh. Because it's impossible. Because it's unnatural.

      But the joke in your bones is that it feels perfectly natural, like all your life you were intended to float. After all, just before you came into the world, that's what you were doing in liquid. And when your life ends and you leave, there you are again, becoming vapor. Breaking down from matter to dust to air. Floating. '

  • OtherKin.net.
    • 'Otherkin is a collective noun for an assortment of people who have come to the somewhat unorthodox, and possibly quite bizarre, conclusion that they identify themselves as being something other than human. It is also the label used by a number of communities both on and off line.'
    • A wee bit more than having a favorite animal.

Healthcare, Medicine

Housing, Money

Local

Math, Science, Science Fiction

Pop Culture

Sex [Assume NSFW]

  • Easy targets: Female freshmen are particularly vulnerable to acquaintance rape. Here are the tips that they give at the end of the article:
    • 'Alcohol affects judgment. Getting drunk will always make you more vulnerable to sexual assault or assault of any kind.
    • If you choose to drink, pace yourself to one or fewer drinks an hour.
    • Keep track of how many drinks you've had.
    • Avoid someone who makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
    • Make a pact with friends that no one goes to or from a party alone.
    • Don't accept open container beverages from anyone but a bartender or trusted friend.
    • If you're not sure a drink is yours or if you've left it alone for any time, get a new one.
    • A sign that you have been slipped a date rape drug is that your level of intoxication/impairment is disproportionate to the amount of alcohol you have consumed.
    • The first few times you go out with someone, meet only in a public place.
    • Always carry money for transportation in case you need to get home on your own.
    • You have a right to say what does or does not happen to your body.
    • You have the right to say yes. You have the right to say no. You have the right to change your mind at any time.
    • Just because someone begs, asks or spends money on you does not give him or her the right to have sex with you.'

Terror, War

US Elections

  • Foreign Polls Favor Kerry.
    • 'Of 35 countries polled, survey participants in all but five said in overwhelming margins that they'd rather see John Kerry report for duty as President of the United States.'
    • Related:
      • Poll Of 35 Countries Finds 30 Prefer Kerry, 3 Bush. 'The exception for Bush in Europe was a new ally, Poland, where he was preferred by a narrow plurality of 31% against 26% for Kerry. Another new ally, however, the Czech Republic, went for Kerry (42% to 18%), as did Sweden (58% to 10%)'
  • Bush Voters v. Voight-Kampff
    • This fellow has set up a little quiz that's a cousin of the type used in the movie Blade Runner. I'm curious if pro-Bush folks will find it provocative (and will ignore it) or just plain old Liberal bullshit (also to be ignored).
    • 'In the film Blade Runner (with which more people are familiar than its literary forebear, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), there's something called a Voight-Kampff test, which is used to winkle out replicants walking among the humans. It measures empathy by asking a series of questions designed to evoke an emotional response. Get too many of the questions wrong, and you're a replicant, and the next thing you know Harrison Ford's on your ass. It's always something.

      Polling hypocritical Bush voters for empathy would be a fool's errand, of course, so I won't even bother. However, what I would like to do is set up a series of questions which I feel will rather effectively bring the hypocrite issue to the fore. So, if you're planning to vote for George Bush, believe you are reasonably smart and informed, and in fact are not aware of being a contemptuously hypocritical waste of meat, please answer the following questions as truthfully as you can.'

  • Why Bush Left Texas [MeFi] 'Growing evidence suggests that George W. Bush abruptly left his Texas Air National Guard unit in 1972 for substantive reasons pertaining to his inability to continue piloting a fighter jet.'

Web Development, Web Standards

2004-09-17t18:38:25Z | RE: aaBlog . Blogging . Programming .
Making aaBlog v2, Part 2

I started making aaBlog v2 yesterday, but I didn't give any specifics about secondary changes so I'll do some of that now.

An aaBlog v1 post has 6 visible parts:

  1. A '##' link or permalink which points to the post in a page which has a month of posts.
  2. A timestamp. This is currently an anchor as well as visual metadata about the post.
  3. A 'Comment' link which points to a page where the user can see comments as well as a form to make a comment.
  4. A 'RE: ....', a period separated list of categories that the post belongs to.
  5. The title of the post.
  6. The description or actual content of the post.

An aaBlog v2 post would only have 4 visible parts:

  1. A 'timestamp comments' link that will serve as an anchor, provide visual metadata, points to the permalink of the post, i.e. a page that displays the post, comments, and a form to make a comment. This page will also have links to the previous post, next post, current month of post, previous month of posts, and next month of posts.
  2. A 'RE: ....', a period separated list of categories that the post belongs to.
  3. The title of the post.
  4. The description or actual content of the post.

I also have to make sure that aaBlog v1 permalinks are taken cared of. I thought that perhaps I would leave the old pages as is so that the old links will still work. However, now I think I will transform the aaBlog v1 content into aaBlog v2 content, while making a page that will catch aaBlog v1 permalinks redirect them to the new aaBlog v2 URL.