26 Apr 2007
Hogs given tainted feed may be in human food supply

If there's anything positive that could come out of the recent spate of pet poisonings, it's raising the public awareness of exactly what and how commercial livestock is fed.

Several hundred of the 6,000 hogs that may have eaten contaminated pet food are believed to have entered the human food supply, the government said Thursday.

(link) [CNN]

20:26 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Court sez music downloads aren't performances

A Battle of Acronyms... RIAA beat ASCAP this time, but the real hit was taken by the PUBLIC (Pay Up Big, Loser, In Cash)...

ASCAP isn't enjoying the tune that came out of a federal district court in New York yesterday.

(link) [The Register]

20:08 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

25 Apr 2007
Text reveals more ancient secrets

Has anybody else noticed the other subtext here? That the works of Archimedes, Aristotle and other greats were erased by the monks to make a prayer book?

How can anyone still believe that these religious recyclers "saved civilization" during the "Dark Ages"? Only in very rare instances (Snorri in Iceland comes to mind) did Christian chroniclers preserve anything - most of their time was spent copying obscure religious arguments and erasing the greatest philosophers the world had yet produced.

Experts find a 13th Century prayer book has yielded yet another key ancient text buried in its parchment.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

22:22 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Apr 2007
I've got some sawdust: can I call it chocolate?

It's pretty bad when a British technology rag goes on a rant about American ag policy - but, this is a pretty egregious policy. "Truth in Labeling" is proving to be as much of an oxymoron as "military intelligence" or "advanced BASIC".

Terrible things afoot across the pond: the Chocolate Manufacturers Association wants to change how chocolate is defined so that crappy imitation chocolate-flavoured stuff can be reclassified as actual chocolate.

(link) [The Register]

19:41 /Agriculture | 1 comment | permanent link

23 Apr 2007
Quantum Physics Parts Ways With Reality

Drat, there goes Life, imitating Art again!

"The principle of generating small amounts of finite improbability by simply hooking the logic circuits of a Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a strong Brownian Motion producer (say a nice hot cup of tea) were of course well understood-and such generators were often used to break the ice at parties by making all the molecules in the hostess' undergarments leap one foot simultaneously to the left in accordance with the theory of indeterminacy. Many respectable physicists said they wouldn't stand for that sort of thing, partly because it was a debasement of science, but mostly because they didn't get invited to those sort of parties."
  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

PhysicsWeb has news guaranteed to induce headache in those wedded to the reality of, well, reality. Researchers from the University of Vienna have shown the violation of a stronger form of Bell's inequality known as Leggett's inequality. The result means that we must not only give up Einstein's hope of "no spooky action at a distance," we must also give up (some of) the idea that the world exists when we are not looking. From the article: "[Studies] have ruled out all hidden-variables theories based on joint assumptions of realism, meaning that reality exists when we are not observing it; and locality, meaning that separated events cannot influence one another instantaneously. But a violation of Bell's inequality does not tell specifically which assumption — realism, locality, or both — is discordant with quantum mechanics." From the Nature abstract: "Our result suggests that giving up the concept of locality is not sufficient to be consistent with quantum experiments, unless certain intuitive features of realism are abandoned." Only subscribers to Nature, alas, can know what features those are, as PhysicsWeb doesn't tell us.

(link) [Slashdot]

22:22 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Study: Fat workers cost employers more

Move over, smokers, here comes the Fat Brigade! How long before the FDA seeks regulatory authority over portion sizes, on the grounds that doing so would help control health care costs?

Far-fetched? We'll see.

AP - Overweight workers cost their bosses more in injury claims than their lean colleagues, suggests a study that found the heaviest employees had twice the rate of workers' compensation claims as their fit co-workers.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

22:07 /Politics | 2 comments | permanent link

Iraqi Yazidis targeted in Mosul

Anybody out there still think the current run of Islamic fundamentalism is about Muslim vs. Christian,. or Muslim sect vs. Muslim sect?

The ultimate goal here is to convert people to the worship of their god - and they consider Christians and jews (to some extent) to worship that god. They're "People of the Book". Us heathens ain't. For us the choice is simple, and stark - convert or die.

Attackers kill 23 people - all members of a religious minority - in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police say.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

22:01 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Many Pols Ignore 'Click It or Ticket'

There was a proposal floated a few years back to invalidate medical insurance in cases of auto accident where a seat belt was not worn. Now I understand why it failed ...

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine isn't the only politician who shuns seat belts. He's just the unlucky one who got caught violating his state's seat belt law when he suffered severe injuries as his SUV crashed while doing 91 MPH. We're told that seat belts aren't a priority even at the top, though President Bush tries to click in. Few aides recall former President Clinton using them often. And it's typical for top lawmakers to ride unstrapped. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert didn't use them. One top aide explained the leadership's poor habits this way: "They trust their security." But we're told that Speaker Nancy Pelosi does "75 percent of the time" and that Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean is religious about strapping in.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

06:22 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

22 Apr 2007
Health Inspector Calls and Chef’s Pride Cracks

If you seek the finest expression of raw, naked State power, look no further than the so-called "health and safety laws". Ask yourself how long this same "inspection service" ignored a real health and safety issue, one that was reported by patrons, and compare with their actions in this case.

"Arbitrary" is too polite a word. "Exercising power for the sake of political cover" would come closer to the mark.

A restaurant owner cannot bring himself to reopen Brasserie LCB, which city officials had temporarily closed.

(link) [New York Times]

09:08 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Microsoft Is Sued For Patent Violation Over .NET

Do patent trolls roost? And have they come home?

As reported by Info World, Microsoft was issued a cease and desist order on February 7 of this year by Vertical Computer Systems. The order was for patent infringement by the current implementations of the .NET framework. Both the .NET framework and Vertical Computer Systems' SiteFlash use XML to create component-based structures that are used to build and operate web sites. Vertical Computer Systems is requesting a full jury trial. If VCS prevails, .NET technology implementations as we know them may completely change and Microsoft would probably have to pay out a hefty sum.

(link) [Slashdot]

09:03 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Rangers beg volcano visitors not to leave offerings

In heathen practice, food offerings or libations are supposed to attract things that will eat them - it's a sign of acceptance of the offering by whatever powers were paying attention. The rangers at the park are worried about attracting rats, but methinks I smell rats of a different sort here.

If the park management were that concerned with "cultural sensitivity", they could easily set up a special area for such offerings. And there's no explanation as to how, exactly, the small quantities of rotting food left on the top of a volcano are endangering the nene goose.

in fact, I think that allowing any organized group of Hawaiian pagans to set up a small temple on the site might be completely appropriate.

Rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are launching a program to stop people from leaving religious offerings at the summit of Mount Kilauea -- including food they say attracts rats and cockroaches.

(link) [CNN.com]

08:59 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

20 Apr 2007
The Name Seems to Have Changed

Ya know, this's pretty funny. 'Cause not too long ago using economic policy to influence public behavior was called socialism.

Maybe we need a non-economic new word for this. How about statism: the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty. Because the underlying economic system is irrelevant in this case - the important factor is State control.

"Using economics to influence public behavior is something this country is built on — it's called capitalism." — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is considering a mandatory fee to drive in the heart of Manhattan

Quoted in Time.

22:12 /Politics | 2 comments | permanent link

Let's Not

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Ben Franklin

Plate: Let's lay down our right to bear arms

(link) [CNN]

21:51 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Solving the Wireless Conundrum

Well, I believe that I've solved my wireless issues with my Winbox. And you ain't gonna believe this ...

I described the problem here. But I was unable, due to time constraints, to run the cable I really wanted. So I reverted back to the atrocious Netgear USB dongle, and was immediately disappointed again. That blasted thing would take hours to connect. Once it got connected, it was pretty stable, but this is a Microsoft operating system we're talking about here, and Patch Tuesday almost always means a reboot. It was gonna make me crazy - or at least crazier.

After a particularly frustrating bit of keyboard banging against it, I gave up and retired to the living room to listen to some tunes - on my old Bose system that's hooked up to an Airtunes. So down comes my beloved Little Mac G4 Powerbook, and down goes my butt into the easy chair. Up comes iTunes, and if I recall correctly I started off with the Rolling Stones playing "You Can't Always Get What You Want". It seemed appropriate.

Mick hadn't finished the quiet opening when I hear a "ding!" from the dining room - the Netgear had found the network at last, after only a couple of hours. That was a record.

But I wrote it off as coincidence until tonight. Tonight I pulled the D-Link card so I can return it to Best Buy on the morrow. This time I didn't even try to futz with the wizard to get it to connect - I went straight for Little Mac and my easy chair.

Pure Prairie League hadn't finished the guitar pickin' that opens "Aimee" when I heard the amazing "ding!". Within 5 minutes of the Windows reboot.

The short answer is that the Netgear connects normally only in the presence of network traffic. It can't be the SSID broadcast interval or signal strength - the Netgear dongle always finds the network, it just can't seem to connect. And once it gets connected it stays that way until I take the system down.

Any electrical engineer types out there care to take a stab at this one? What the Hel could Netgear be doing in that dongle? And why?

But for the time being I'm back online more or less as is my habit. And that's not a bad thing.

21:42 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

18 Apr 2007
Judges reject appeals from webcasters

Well, I gotta wonder how much moola and payola the RIAA funneled into this - but I'm afraid that no matter how much cash (if any) was actually spent, they've only succeeded in killing the goose before she laid any golden eggs. With this ruling, Internet radio is essentially dead.

AP - Internet radio broadcasters were dealt a setback Monday when a panel of copyright judges threw out requests to reconsider a ruling that hiked the royalties they must pay to record companies and artists.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

21:39 /Copywrongs | 1 comment | permanent link