That about says it all. For those who don’t mind seriously creeping out the visiting tykes — or who seriously want to. (via Marina)…
That about says it all.
For those who don’t mind seriously creeping out the visiting tykes — or who seriously want to.
(via Marina)
The White House is having an uphill climb with its request for reconstruction funds for Iraq. Everyone on Capitol Hill seems pleased as punch to spend $60-odd billion on military…
The White House is having an uphill climb with its request for reconstruction funds for Iraq. Everyone on Capitol Hill seems pleased as punch to spend $60-odd billion on military needs related to Iraq (and Afghanistan), but is caviling at the $20b request for Iraqi reconstruction; the Senate is instead pushing to make it a loan.
Hmmmm.
On the one hand, a basic twofold argument is:
1. We could certainly use $20b in additional domestic spending. Why just give it to the Iraqis?
2. Iraq sits on gazillions of dollars in oil reserves, so isn’t likely to be short of money in the long-term.
Still, it worries me. Third World debt is a hot ticket item, and it’s ironic that many of the Administration’s foes, ordinarily lobbying to forgive debt, are now pushing to saddle an effectively newborn economy with still more debt — especially one that already owes $200b to other countries (like France and Russia). Folks who criticized the destruction of Iraqi infrastructure during sanctions and the war are now unwilling to make the US foot the bill.
(And it isn’t just Dems, by any means, though they’re the ones beating the domestic aid angle most strongly.)
And if that proposed debt is tied to oil in one fashion or another, it’ll sure make it look like “it was all about oooooiiiillllll”! Odd that the petrocratic White House would be fighting such a proposal, then, in the case (especially since their ostensible cronies in Halliburton, etc., get paid regardless, right?).
So I don’t know. I don’t want to throw money away, but I sort of feel like we owe it to the Iraqi people, for the (justifiable) wars, for the (ultimatley ineffective) sanctions, and, heck, for going along with Saddam Hussein (as pretty much everyone else did) for decades. And if the EU were willing to pony up more than just the pittance (or, hell, forgive some of the massive debt owed), it would also go a long way to helping.
Hrm. Pity if, after all the bloodshed and debate over freedom, democracy, sovereignty, diplomacy, and terror, we blew it over money.
What are the “Ugliest Five Words in the English Language”? Doyce has a suggestion, and a competition….
What are the “Ugliest Five Words in the English Language”? Doyce has a suggestion, and a competition.
Huzzah. Unlike, say, the folks who own and license the Dewey Decimal System, ISO has ruled out rumored plans to start charging for its widely-used country, currency, and language codes….
Huzzah. Unlike, say, the folks who own and license the Dewey Decimal System, ISO has ruled out rumored plans to start charging for its widely-used country, currency, and language codes.
A key standards organization distanced itself from a controversial proposal to charge for commonly used country, language and currency codes, following an uproar over the potential fees.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced that it had no plans to start charging for the use of the codes, an idea that had riled other standards organizations including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Unicode.
Those standards groups, along with developers of software and markup languages, depend on the codes and have implemented them free of charge.
In a press release, ISO said the controversy had mischaracterized its plans and practices, but it did not say how. A representative for the organization was not available for comment.
Except to say, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
Ouch. A voluntary “climate survey” of over 3,500 Air Force Academy cadets (out of 4,100) comes up with some disturbing results. Fewer than half of female cadets at the Air…
Ouch.
A voluntary “climate survey” of over 3,500 Air Force Academy cadets (out of 4,100) comes up with some disturbing results.
Fewer than half of female cadets at the Air Force Academy say they would report being sexually assaulted.
[…] Those unwilling to report cited the same reasons as in the inspector general’s survey – fear of threats and reprisals, belief that the attacker would not be punished, ostracism and social isolation.
[…] One male cadet in every five believes women don’t belong at the school. And two of every five cadets – male and female – say that differences between the sexes make the complete acceptance of women in the service impossible.
[…] Almost two in five underage cadets admitted drinking, and one in five cadets said they would buy alcohol for cadets under 21 if they thought they wouldn’t be caught.
[… M]ore than 90 percent of freshmen respondents said they would confront another cadet for violating the honor code, which governs cadet conduct. But that fell to 85 percent for sophomores and juniors and 81 percent for seniors.
The survey is meant as a baseline to chart the success (or failure) of leadership and process changes at the Academy.
Some minor housekeeping over on the Blogroll. I’ve created a “Me” list, with the dynamic blogs I run (I almost added Chrysalis, since I participate in that, but it’s not…
Some minor housekeeping over on the Blogroll. I’ve created a “Me” list, with the dynamic blogs I run (I almost added Chrysalis, since I participate in that, but it’s not really mine, so I didn’t).
I’ve also deleted the “Daily” blogroll, which had various weekly memes. One of them (Thursday Thumb-Twiddler) got moved up to “Me,” of course. The others — well, I just haven’t been doing them for a while. The “meme” ran its course for me. Heck, I haven’t been doing TTT, and I do the questions for it every week. (Its fate remains in the balance — I get 8-10 players a week, which is just enough to make me think I should continue it, for the moment).
Heck, when went to save the URLs, I found one had been passed on to another author, and another had been closed down (rather vehemently).
Ah, well — everything changes over time. And I have stuff bookmarked so that if I want to do the questions sometime, I can.
I keep being tempted to serious trim back the blogrolls anyway. The frequency that I visit a lot of the sites keeps going down, except in the Gotta range. But I do, occasionally, make a point of doing so, and then it’s nice to have them all there.
We’ll see.
The Department of Defense is looking to put in place an electronic Internet-based voting system for absentee military personnel and overseas Amercans. All well and good, a solid rationale for…
The Department of Defense is looking to put in place an electronic Internet-based voting system for absentee military personnel and overseas Amercans. All well and good, a solid rationale for the pilot, and kudos all around.
Of course, then there’s the company that DoD has chosen (via its consulting firm, Accenture) to secure this little application: VeriSign.
Yes, the same company that’s gotten rebukes from the FTC for “slamming” domain owners, and that recently came under intense fire for changing the way the Internet works, breaking any number of anti-spam and security tools, and essentially hijacking all unpurchased domains, will be in charge of the secure servers for the pilot program.
I guess if someone mistypes a candidate’s name, Veri$ign will be glad to suggest an alternative — or, failing that, offer to let you buy the candidate …
(via BoingBoing)
A broadcast e-mail from this morning from the office manager: I’ve been told a valve broke and leaked glycol into the elevator shaft and cooling pad. The elevator does not…
A broadcast e-mail from this morning from the office manager:
I’ve been told a valve broke and leaked glycol into the elevator shaft and cooling pad. The elevator does not work and we do not have any cooling in the building at this time. They are trying to assess the problem and determine what is needed to fix it.
Thank you for your patience.
Loosely translated:
The south side of the building, especially the south end of wing B, which has both an eastern and western exposure, right where Dave’s office is, will heat up 82 or so, much warmer than the outside temp, which is actually quite comfortable right now, thank you for asking.
Feel free to use the stairs to come down to the lobby where it’s nice and cool.
Fortunately, I have a little fan to blow the warm air around with, sort of like a convection oven.
I often mistrust sociology-in-a-nutshell articles, especially when there are concerns about axes to grind (as well as a “look at the strange furriner ways” smell about it), but this NY…
I often mistrust sociology-in-a-nutshell articles, especially when there are concerns about axes to grind (as well as a “look at the strange furriner ways” smell about it), but this NY Times article is still at least an interestnig side-bar:
“It is safer to marry a cousin than a stranger.”
Her reaction was typical in a country where nearly half of marriages are between first or second cousins, a statistic that is one of the more important and least understood differences between Iraq and America. The extraordinarily strong family bonds complicate virtually everything Americans are trying to do here, from finding Saddam Hussein to changing women’s status to creating a liberal democracy.
“Americans just don’t understand what a different world Iraq is because of these highly unusual cousin marriages,” said Robin Fox of Rutgers University, the author of “Kinship and Marriage,” a widely used anthropology textbook. “Liberal democracy is based on the Western idea of autonomous individuals committed to a public good, but that’s not how members of these tight and bounded kin groups see the world. Their world is divided into two groups: kin and strangers.”
Iraqis frequently describe nepotism not as a civic problem but as a moral duty.
(via Cronaca)
Margie and have … um … organizational difficulties. In other words, we have a problem with the house being a mess. This is not genetic. Both of us come from…
Margie and have … um … organizational difficulties.
In other words, we have a problem with the house being a mess.
This is not genetic. Both of us come from very neat and tidy households. We just have … challenges. Or, for the business-speaking of you in our studio audience, “opportunities.” Lots and lots of opportunities. Opportunities stacked up all over the place. Tons of —
But I digress.
So Margie and I have been talking about it, and done some brainstorming, and come up with some ideas that I think will help us (a) get stuff put away around the entire house, and (b) help us maintain that relative state of cleanliness.
But Margie reports a problem with our plan. One that gives us a seductive “out.”
See, since we were doing Nobilis at our house on Saturday, I had to clean up the family room so that the floor, coffee table, and hearth were clear.
From an IM session this morning.
Margie says: There is a problem with our cleaning.
***Dave says: What’s that?
Margie says: Now that the hearth is cleaned off, Katherine keeps wanting to climb, stand, jump on it.
***Dave says: 😛
Margie says: That’s about it.
***Dave says: So what we need to do is cover every part of the house with papers and crap, and then Kitten will be safe.
Which, of course, gives us the great motivator to maintain our current level of messiness:
Do it for the children!
Safety is, after all, Job One.
Hrm.
The hubristic perqs of being being a best-selling author: After the publication of the The Queen of the Damned, I requested of my editor that she not give me anymore…
The hubristic perqs of being being a best-selling author:
After the publication of the The Queen of the Damned, I requested of my editor that she not give me anymore comments. I resolved to hand in the manuscripts when they were finished. And asked that she accept them as they were. She was very reluctant, feeling that her input had value, but she agreed to my wishes. I asked this due to my highly critical relationship with my work and my intense evolutionary work on every sentence in the work, my feeling for the rhythm of the phrase and the unfolding of the plot and the character development. I felt that I could not bring to perfection what I saw unless I did it alone. In othe words, what I had to offer had to be offered in isolation. So all novels published after The Queen of the Damned were written by me in this pure fashion, my editor thereafter functioning as my mentor and guardian.
“Let her edit cake.”
Amen, sister. Stop the insanity….
Amen, sister. Stop the insanity.
People often talk about the universality of religious thoughts and beliefs. “Everyone has a variation on the Golden Rule,” they say. Or, “These various faiths around the world give their…
People often talk about the universality of religious thoughts and beliefs. “Everyone has a variation on the Golden Rule,” they say. Or, “These various faiths around the world give their believers purpose, a moral code for good behavior, and a faith in the afterlife.”
Me? I think the one universal among many strong religious believers, regardless of their particular persuasion, is a noted lack of sense of humor. (Read first, then continue.)
A new trailer for Return of the King is out. Pardon me, while I wipe the sweat off my body. Yowzers. (via GoaF)…
A new trailer for Return of the King is out.
Pardon me, while I wipe the sweat off my body.
Yowzers.
(via GoaF)
There were 217 of the little buggers in my inbox this morning. Yeesh! Some highlights: No need to worry about wrinkles! – Thank goodness, because I was about to buy…
There were 217 of the little buggers in my inbox this morning. Yeesh!
Some highlights:
Don’t go here and search for “angel” as the subject. Not unless you are already diabetic and have nothing to lose. I mean, you’d think there would be at least…
Don’t go here and search for “angel” as the subject. Not unless you are already diabetic and have nothing to lose.
I mean, you’d think there would be at least a few, out of the two hundred plus, that weren’t cute little kids with halos and wings, cute little babies with halos and wings, or cute little kittens/piglets/puppies with halos and wings.
I mean … yeesh.
FRIDAY Margie was off at D&D, and returned home well-sated with slayage — even though it sounds like she’s run out of magic arrows, and is running pretty low on…
FRIDAY
Margie was off at D&D, and returned home well-sated with slayage — even though it sounds like she’s run out of magic arrows, and is running pretty low on mundane ones.
SATURDAY
Nobilis at our house, which worked out nice and comfy. In the sort of stuff that warms the cockles of any GM’s heart, I was just a few moments late of of averting a couple of Bad Things Happening. Ah, well.
SUNDAY
Wrapped up the second Spycraft serial. Doyce managed to break the scenario, a bit, by his Dylan (a) being outside when the another set of opposition attacked, and (b) starting up the car and engaging in an automotive firefight with them — one-sided, as they were armed with AK-47s and plenty of action dice, and he was armed with two perpetually-jamming pistols.
Still, his being active gave the rest of the team, having completed their half of the mission, an extraction route. Randy’s Gina got to flirt with a dark, mysterious stranger, Stan’s Lola got to shoot some Russian thugs, Jackie’s Lou got to use a grenade launcher and a flame-thrower, and Margie’s Calvin got to lay his head in Lou’s lap. A good time was, evidently, had by all.
Why, yes, that was a rather full weekend, wasn’t it?
October looks to be a pretty intense month. Various functions, parties, and get-togethers. Along with a visit from Margie’s folks (and her birthday, not-coincidentally). Time to take a deep breath…
October looks to be a pretty intense month.
Various functions, parties, and get-togethers. Along with a visit from Margie’s folks (and her birthday, not-coincidentally).
Time to take a deep breath and get to it.
I’m not quite sure how the subject came up, but it was one of those jaw-dropping, staring-in-disbelief moments. “What?” “Your car, man,” said Doyce. “It’s turquoise, right?” The Saturn? Turquoise?…
I’m not quite sure how the subject came up, but it was one of those jaw-dropping, staring-in-disbelief moments.
“What?”
“Your car, man,” said Doyce. “It’s turquoise, right?”
The Saturn? Turquoise?
“Yeah,” agreed Stan. “Turquoise. Isn’t it?”
Okay, Stan, I can imagine, because he’s never been to the house that much. But Doyce? I’ve had the car longer than we’ve known him.
“It’s pink,” I said, emphatically. “Silver pink. There’s not a bit of turquoise anywhere on it?”
“Are you sure?” Stan asked.
“No, it’s turquoise,” said Doyce, like I was pulling some sort of stunt.
About that point, I needed to go remind Katherine is was time for her to be in her room, asleep. When I came back down, the door to the garage was open, as was the garage door, and Stan and Doyce were looking at my Saturn.
“Huh.”
“There,” I said. “I told you.”
“Huh.”
“Because it’s not like you’ve never been in the garage to get a soda or something while the Saturn was there.”
“Dude, I never looked at the car.”
As I said, surreal.
Postscript: Jackie came over later with cookies. “Hon, what color is Dave’s Saturn?” Doyce asked her. “Lilac,” was the response. “Metallic lilac.”
That’s at least in the ballpark. Go, Jackie.
Justin gets The Talk. And not from the source one would initially expect. High comedy which I can chuckle over until I think about Katherine in seven or eight years…
Justin gets The Talk. And not from the source one would initially expect. High comedy which I can chuckle over until I think about Katherine in seven or eight years …
Hopefully Aunt Jackie will be available for that one, too … 🙂