31 Aug 2004
GOP Speakers Looking to Reach Moderates (AP)

Good luck. Hopefully, anyone considering themselves "moderate" on social issues will read the party platform before deciding to support this collection of religious zealots.

This is no longer the party of Lincoln, TR, Goldwater and Reagan - this is now the party of Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, James Dobson and Rick Santorum. Add to it that Bush has seemingly abandoned even fiscal conservatism, driving the deficit to new highs while cutting taxes and increasing spending, and I, lifelong libertarian/Republican that I am, can no longer support in any way this bunch of wackos.

This year, the Republicans are decidely the greater of the two evils we're presented with every four years.

AP - Republicans at their party's convention were turning Tuesday to conditions at home after saluting President Bush as a wartime leader. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets star billing as the GOP extends its outreach to moderate Democrats and independents.

(link) [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

30 Aug 2004
Redactions Run Wild

Follow the link to see the evidence: it's pretty convincing, as well as pretty scary.

Anybody who has read many official documents—including those making headlines in the last year or more—has seen plenty of redactions (those portions that are blacked out or otherwise made unreadable). This, we're told, is for legitimate reasons, such as "national security" or "protecting intelligence sources and methods." But now we have absolute, incontrovertible proof that the government also censors completely innocuous material simply because they don't like it.

(link) [The Memory Hole]

via Antipixel|Blog

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Office of Tomorrow Has an Address in India (Los Angeles Times)

How depressing ... what's going to be left here? We've shipped manufacturing overseas in the 70's, 80's and 90's, and now it looks like the the information economy will be best informed from India.

What pisses me off the most about this whole situation (other than being something of a victim myself) is that there's essentially no way US workers can compete - not only does the standard of living here demand higher wages, but the taxes (including social security) and regulations (overtime, workman's comp, enviromental, etc.) drive the cost as well. Over the long haul the net effect of these changes will be to turn the US into a "Third World" country - high unemployment, no jobs and no hope. It will leave us ripe for political exploitation by demagogues who'll have the capability to start a class war the likes of which we've never seen.

But the saddest thing of all is that we're doing it to ourselves: we are a society seemingly driven by nothing more than bargain basement shopping. We always go for the lowest price, and those of us who do appreciate value find ourselves squeezed out of the market by forces way beyond our control. America is well on it's way to becoming a giant "McWal-Mart" - lowest prices (and quality) guaranteed.

Los Angeles Times - MADRAS, India — Task by task, function by function, the American office is being hollowed out and reconstituted in places like this, a makeshift facility on the sixth floor of a shopping arcade.

(link) [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Crafty sheep conquer cattle grids

Not only do sheep pine for lost companions, they may also be useful to train as "special forces" ...

Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire moors have taught themselves to roll 8ft (3m) across hoof-proof metal cattle grids - and raid villagers' valley gardens.

(link) [BBC]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

29 Aug 2004
Officially August

Yesterday at the market, the thermometer reached 97° F, and the humidity was 97%: an "exact match". Finally. It's August in Indiana, just in time for September.

Despite this end of month surge in temperature, I'm certain this will go down as the coolest August on record for this area, and possibly one of the wettest as well: we've had five inches of rain the last few days around here, and we're supposed to get up to another three inches overnight.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

27 Aug 2004
A Heathen Code

All the Olympic hoopla has certainly brought forth the analysis and commentary on ancient Greece, but none so clearly captures the spirit of the Heathen soul as this bit by William Race, a classics professor at UNC Chapel Hill. Here's a bit of what I mean:

In praising Hieron, he [Pindar] recounts how Pelops won his bride Hippodameia by defeating her father in a chariot race at Olympia. Before the race, in which 13 suitors had already been killed, Pindar has Pelops articulate the Greek heroic code: "Great danger does not call for a coward. Since men must die, why would anyone sit in darkness and coddle a nameless old age to no use, deprived of all noble deeds? No, this contest shall be mine!"

This thoughtful look at Pindar and his poetry in praise of the Olympics provides a deep insight into what the Heathen Greeks (and indeed, all Indo-European cultures) thought most important: courage, honor, reputation.

Why would Pindar, the greatest lyric poet of classical Greece, compose a quarter of his poetry to honour athletic victors? And why did those 45 victory odes, alone of all the classical Greek lyric poetry, survive intact? Because athletics were at the institutional heart of Greek life - and are of continual fascination to all cultures touched by ancient Greece.

(link) [Athens News]

via rogueclassicism

00:00 /Asatru | 3 comments | permanent link

26 Aug 2004
Winamp Skin Exploit in the Wild

This isn't really a WinAmp exploit, though. It's a cunning way to cicumvent Internet Explorer's 'zone' restrictions. Nobody's sure if SP2 fixes it or not - but this is one more reason I'm glad I run Firebird on my Windoze box.

Secunia.com has announced an exploit (derived from xml escaping the Internet zone into IE's local zone) that exploits Winamp's habit of automatically installing skins. Currently all versions of Winamp are affected. Details on the Winamp forums - apparently an exploit is already in the wild, and spreading.

(link) [Slashdot: ]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Man milks cow for free 'Moolatte'

Hey: it's a Highland! Too bad CNN couldn't find a picture of a Highland to go with the story. Bonus points if you can identify the breed of cattle shown in the graphic.

On a more serious note, though, this is a great way to get a little free publicity. We do similar thinjgs by taking our livestock to farmer's markets and other venues.

Rancher Skip Hougland figured it was an offer he couldn't refuse. Bring in a cow, get a free "Moolatte."

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

25 Aug 2004
Sheep pine for absent friends

Certainly not the normal venue for contributions to my agriculture category, but hey: maybe they're looking to set up an online Registery (pun intended) of sheep pix!

The Cambridge University team which discovered that sheep prefer happy, smiley people has once again pushed back the envelope of ovine understanding with the revelation that sheep cheer up when they see snapshots of friends and relatives.

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Cheney rejects gay marriage ban

Cracks in the wall ...

US Vice-President Dick Cheney opposes a federal ban on gay marriage - seemingly contradicting George Bush.

(link) [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

More Google Bombing

Google "bastards" and hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Guaranteed to bring a smile, at least for as long as it works (and you'll know it's working if you get to a certain software firm's web address)!

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Aug 2004
Where You At?

From Hardscrabble Creek comes this link to a link to this quiz from Coevolution Quarterly 32 (Winter 1981). I've taken the liberty of reproducing it in it's entirety below in case a link eventually disappears. It's a fascinating look at how much you know about where you are. For the record, I got all 20. I think most anybody who farms would get them all. But for you city slickers ...

Where You At? A Bioregional Quiz

  1. Trace the water you drink from precipiation to tap.
  2. How many days til the moon is full? (Slack of 2 days allowed.)
  3. What soil series are you standing on ?
  4. What was the total rainfall in your area last year?
    5. (July-June)? (Slack: 1 inch for every 20 inches.)
  5. When was the last time a fire burned in your area?
  6. What were the primary subsistence techniques of the culture that lived in your area before you?
  7. Name 5 edible plants in your region and their season(s) of availability.
  8. From what direction do winter storms generally come in your region?
  9. Where does your garbage go?
  10. How long is the growing season where you live?
  11. On what day of the year are the shadows the shortest where you live?
  12. When do the deer rut in your region, and when are the young born?
  13. Name five grasses in your area. Are any of them native?
  14. Name five resident and five migratory birds in your area.
  15. What is the land use history of where you live?
  16. What primary ecological event/process influenced the land form where you live? (Bonus special: what's the evidence?)
  17. What species have become extinct in your area?
  18. What are the major plant associations in your region?
  19. From where you're reading this, point north.
  20. What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom where you live?

Scoring

  • 0-3 You have your head up your ass.
  • 4-7 It's hard to be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all.
  • 8-12 A firm grasp of the obvious.
  • 13-16 You're paying attention.
  • 17-19 You know where you're at.
  • 20 You not only know where you're at, you know where it's at.

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Vote count at mercy of clandestine testing

We are setting ourselves up for a repeat of the 'Fiasco of 2000', this time with dangling bits instead of hanging chads:

"I find it grotesque that an organization charged with such a heavy responsibility feels no obligation to explain to anyone what it is doing," Michael Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist and electronic voting expert, told lawmakers in Washington, D.C.
"Grotesque" is an understatement ... if this mess isn't resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned by November, we could easily enter a situation where every election is determined not by voters, but by lawyers, courts and judges.

The three companies that certify the nation's voting technologies operate in secrecy, and refuse to discuss flaws in the ATM-like machines to be used by nearly one in three voters in November.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

BugMeNot Gets Booted, Restored

I actually noticed this when it happened: BugMeNot is a great resource, which let's me avoid thinking up new bogus data (and setting up new bogus email accounts) just to read the news. I mean, I still see the ads - and actually respond every once in a while. I know why sites want to know all the marketing data they can get for me: to target ads specifically at me. But why sites need to know this is beyond me: advertiser supported broadcast television has worked quite well for years even though viewed by faceless, nameless couch potatoes, and there's no reason the 'Net should be any different.

The site that helps people evade registration roadblocks on websites couldn't evade trouble itself. Its server host, perhaps bowing to pressure, pulled the plug last week. But a new host is found and BugMeNot is back up. By Rachel Metz.

(link) [Wired News]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Ability to create nothing could revolutionize nanocircuits

If you can't figure out why I put this (rather seriously "cheerleading tech") article in my 'Humor' category, read the headline again. Slowly. Think: 'Creation of nothing' is an oxymoron. Creating requires an object - something to be created. Removing something doesn't create anything. Uh, wait a minute ... isn't that really the same as "creating nothing"? Or is it just a double negative in disguise? Only the English professors know for sure. Except at Cornell.

Time is fast running out for the semiconductor industry as transistors become ever smaller and their insulating layers of silicon dioxide, already only atoms in thickness, reach maximum shrinkage. In addition, the thinner the silicon layer becomes, the greater the amount of chemical dopants that must be used to maintain electrical contact. And the limit here also is close to being reached. But a Cornell University researcher has caused an information industry buzz with the discovery that it is possible to precisely control the electronic properties of a complex oxide material -- a possible replacement for silicon insulators -- at the atomic level. And this can be done without chemicals. Instead, the dopant is precisely nothing.

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link