Movie: National Treasure 2

Hey, I'm back in San Antonio after visiting my parents for the holiday. To celebrate, I saw "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" today.

What a fun movie. As usual, "Nat'l Treasure" is like a a piece of crack!fic written by an American History buff....But it's quality crack!fic. Very enjoyable with several laugh out loud moments including the scene from the trailer with the hand (apparently seeing it beforehand didn't lessen the humor at all). Also, bonus points for casting Helen Mirren as the Gates matriarch; she was brilliant! She & Jon Voight had some of the best lines of the movie. All in all this was just a fun ride of a movie.

Link to full post.

One Billion Bulbs Initiative

I realized I had never (b)logged my switch to Compact Fluorescent Bulbs back in October. So today I registered my 5 bulbs with the Instapundit group at the One Billion Bulb Initiative. I really like this initiative as it focuses on something small but concrete the average consumer can accomplish. And they make sure to let you know that. When I registered my switch, here's the blurb that came up:

Thank you for taking the time to change 5 lightbulb(s). Your total annual savings are estimated to be $65.15. Your actions will help prevent approximately 736 lbs of greenhouse gases from being spewed into the atmosphere each year.

Totally aside from any greenhouse gas reduction, these bulbs do reduce your electricity bill. One of the light fixtures I switched is on pretty much all the time (I use it as my light that's on when I'm not at home) so it had an instant effect on my electricity bill. Not to mention, the money saved on purchasing light bulbs all the frickin' time. I only have the lights in my bathroom and I'll be completely switched over. If you want to know what switching could do for you, there's a calculator at their website.

Also, can I just say that I love the attitude towards environmentally sound behavior the sponsors of the OBB Initiative take. They're part of some group call Energy Trek. Here's some notes from them:

For members and viewers of this group, the spirit of the Energy "Trek" means:

* We focus on any positive step people take. Most people are energy abusers in some way (cars, TV's, appliances, etc), and Energy Trek wants to encourage everyone to start taking steps to save energy - no matter the size - without being concerned of being criticized for being hypocritical or taking just token steps.
* Energy Trek and One Billion Bulbs comments and usage should not be political in nature. We want to bring people together to save energy regardless of their ideology or motivation - environment/global warming, national security/energy independence, saving money, convenience, or some combination thereof. As a matter of fact, we'd like you to encourage others you know, whatever their political persuasion, to help out.

Positive attitude toward change, small steps and encouraging of a variety of viewpoints so long as we can all work together? Awesome.

Link to full post.

Recent Reading: Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom

“Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow is in my opinion the very best kind of sci-fi novel: the kind that makes you think. It’s enjoyable of course. Well-plotted, good characters but there’s something else. The society shown, the effects of this culture of the people you grow to care about, it forces you to wonder…..How long would I last in a world like this?

See full post for answer and a very rambling summary of my thoughts after reading this story.

For myself, the answer is Not Long. While the tech enhancements and body modifications would have their appeal, I don’t know if I’d enjoy a world built in reputation and public opinion. To me there are few rights more sacred the the right to be left alone, to be unpopular, to be unlikeable. And those rights do not truly exist in this world. “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”* The problem as demonstrated by the main character is that when you have an unpopular opinion most people cannot tell the crazy from the crazy-but-true. And consensus while tolerant isn’t the same as liberty. The individuality of this world is an affected state not a state of being individual.

Even someone like Zora, the crazy transhuman ex-wife, with all her mania for wonderful body modifications: What Does She DO? Constantly changing herself but not really accomplishing anything by it. So far gone that to lose easy physical modification, to work for the more demanding mental changes into a partner/wife drives her mad. She exists to change but not to strive. To be unique without purpose.

I simply cannot get over how listless these people were. Lil especially seemed to lack any driving passion, any of the zing! that greatness truly depends on. Even her parents who thought themselves so above others because of what they had accomplished, they too were focused more on change than value. Perhaps this is the yet another step toward the observation that “The American lives for ambition, the future…. Life for him is always becoming, never being”**.

And I wonder….The story repeatedly makes the point that the Bitchun Society didn’t have to convince people, just outlast them. But it also makes a point that those raised in Bitchun lack some ability to act against the crowd. Those that do still have it are relatively isolated from the crowd like the Saneep character and even then he would only act when he had a socially acceptable alibi. What would a society like this do when faced with something like John Ringo’s Posleen or Stargate’s Gou’auld? What about the people that actually do things like compose symphonies or design spacecraft? How do people whose pursuits depend on being challenged and building on past failures as well as successes exist in a society built solely on comfort? Would they all gravitate to the edges where they can be a part of the crowd without submitting to it?

Another weird connection my brain made while reading: The rebooting into a cloned body reminded me vaguely of Pensieves and Obliviates in the Harry Potter Universe. A year or so ago, I read an absolutely brilliant fanfiction about a Muggle woman that Charlie Weasley falls in love with. The author did a brilliant job of showing the latent and pervasive prejudice of the Wizarding world; how even a family like the Weasleys doesn’t really react well to a full-on Muggle in their midst. There’s also an interesting sub-plot about how Wizards are using Pensieves to remove memories of the War against Voldemort. The couple have an acrimonious break-up and according to the rules of the Wizarding world she has to be Obliviated. The Muggle love interest made more than a few scathing comments about how Wizards just remove unpleasant memories or things they can’t deal with instead of, well, dealing with them. She is Obliviated but takes steps to record her knowledge before losing her memory. As she finds the clues she left for herself, she starts to piece together her lost memories and feelings for Charlie. I don’t quite remember how it ends but I found the story quite engrossing at the time.

Julius’ insistence at not re-booting, not losing the recent terrible experiences he’d had reminded me very much of that story. And the character of that Muggle woman. Both had terrible experiences but couldn’t give them up, not even if if would make them happy. I very much understand that motivation. My life thus far has been for the most part one remarkably free of strife or trouble. I have not sought out adventure or daring nor risked true failure. However, I would not erase any bad, embarrassing or humiliating experience of mine. Some of those I deserved, some I did not and perhaps, the self-knowledge to know the difference is worth the cost to me. But if that cost goes up, what would I do?

In conclusion, read this story. It prodded uncomfortable thoughts and left my mind whirring in a way I’m not entirely sure of but it was a very good story.

*George Orwell
**Albert Einstein – Full Quote: “The American lives for ambition, the future, more than the European. Life for him is always becoming, never being.” – “Some Notes on My American Impressions” from The World As I See It, 1949

Link to full post.

Recent Reading: Mayer Alan Brenner

Earlier in the year, I checked out “Spell of Catastrophe” by Mayer Alan Brenner. Well, I finally got around to reading the other books in the series, “Spell of Intrigue”, “Spell of Fate” and “Spell of Apocalypse”. Short Version: Whoa.

Every good thing about the previous book is compounded in the other three. The characters are all present, added on to with others and expanded quite enjoyably (Note: Z.Shaa is still awesome). Also, relating to the crises at hand the books reveal an interesting twist on this particular magical world. I won’t give it away but it’s good and in keeping with the techno-magical sensibility cultivated by the first book. The plot had several twists, u-turns and switchbacks only one of which I guessed correctly (but that one was heavily hinted at). I don't know if I'll do it soon but I think I want to re-read this series to see if there were any hints I missed the first time around. These three books were all a good, witty, fast-paced read whose only serious fault is the abrupt ending. I’m not quite sure why the author chose that particular way to close out the final book. But I found it a bit unsatisfying after all the build up. Still, I’d recommend these books for anyone that likes Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams; there’s definitely a similar sense of humor in play.

You can find all four books in the series here.

Link to full post.

Why Signing Kyoto is Irrelevant

Via Instapundit, here's a post describing progress made by the United States in reducing emissions versus signers of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Guess what?

If we look at that data and compare 2004 (latest year for which data is available) to 1997 (last year before the Kyoto treaty was signed), we find the following.

* Emissions worldwide increased 18.0%.
* Emissions from countries that signed the treaty increased 21.1%.
* Emissions from non-signers increased 10.0%.
* Emissions from the U.S. increased 6.6%.

In fact, emissions from the U.S. grew slower than those of over 75% of the countries that signed Kyoto.

Not to mention most of the countries that increased CO2 emissions more than the US are significantly smaller than the US. That includes Finland (+15%), Italy (+16%) and Japan (+11%). China is up 55%. But that's no surprise because one of the great flaws of the Kyoto Protocol is not placing any emission reduction requirements on developing countries (like China and India). These countries were some of the first people to sign on because they were basically voting in favor of restricting their economic competitors.

The article posts a link to the absolute figures so you can compare them for yourself.

But this article points out another great flaw in the environmental movement besides their gloom-and-doom message, too many people care more about being seen signing a treaty versus actual results in reducing emissions. They want to look like their doing something as opposed to actually doing it.

Link to full post.

Palladium's Wacky Carpets

While at the movies yesterday, I managed to get pictures of some the carpet inside the Palladium 19 Theater. Ever since my first visit to this faux Greco-Roman masterpiece, I've been writing myself notes, hoping one day I would remember to take my camera with me to the theater (in a totally not copyright/piracy kinda way).

Yesterday, I remembered. Here's the pattern that first caught my eye, from the stairs:

It burns! The only forgivable thing about this print is the fact that you get to walk all over it. There is something viscerally satisfying about stomping up and down these stairs.

The other areas of the theater are decorated quite tastefully with mainly sculptures and lots of geometric prints:

Sorta like a hyper-colored art deco. That's not so bad is it? Especially compared to the last one. I apologize for the white specs but the clean areas of carpet had people on them.

On a side-note, I got significantly fewer weird looks taking pictures of carpet at the theater than expected.

Link to full post.

"Enchanted" = Fun

I saw "Enchanted" last night. Lovely movie. I mean this is total cotton candy but it is some of the most well-constructed, delicious cotton candy you'll ever enjoy. Amy Adams proves once again she's one of the most consistently funny people in movies today. James Marsden was surprisingly hilarious. I don't recall seeing him be so unabashedly comedic before. Also, whoever selected Julie Andrews* to narrate should be promoted immediately. I had a great deal of fun watching Disney both make fun of itself and justify its hokey optimism. Worth the matinée price and one I'll seriously consider buying (It was just so darn fun!).

*If you need a link for her, I hereby forbid you for reading my weblog. EVER.....Seriously, go away.

Link to full post.

Office Christmas Luncheon

My office's Holiday luncheon was today. This year : TAMALES!!!

There was a brisk “Tamales Futures” business going on this week. You’re guaranteed 3-tamales but some people don’t like them. So they would “give” their tamales to those of us for whom three tamales is a trifling and pitiful snack. Some were thoughtful enough to write documents verifying the transfer in ownership. Actual sample:

“I (insert name here), employee number 1, would like to donate said tamales to the following employees:
(list members my dept).
By signing this statement I acknowledge that I forfeit all current and future claims to any tamales distributed by (insert company name).”

Only 4 more work-days until I'm DONE for the year.

Link to full post.

Overheard at Work, pt 10

“Tofu is soybean. Same raw material.” – Japanese co-worker.

Link to full post.

Ubuntu And Women

I’ve been checking out some of the more social parts of the Ubuntu forums lately. There are several threads discussing Ubuntu and women. In one of them, someone links statistics stating that approximately 1.5 to 2.4% of Ubuntu users are female……Really!?

That’s so odd. I talk about it with my female friends often and, while I don’t think any of them would attempt some of the stuff I do, they ask questions and appear interested. In fact, they’ve shown more interest than certain technically inclined men like for instance my father who is an engineer also. Although it’s entirely likely they’re just humoring me.

Still, there are quite a few girl-techies around nowadays. It really surprises me that more of them aren’t using Linux.

Several places in the forum people are discussing what people can do to encourage more women to try Ubuntu. In terms of girl-geeks, I don’t really know. I chose to Ubuntu because it got mentions on techblogs like Engadget and Ubuntu-related articles are on Digg all the time. When I looked into it, the my selling points were the hardware support and the help forums. No other distribution was able to come close to matching those forums in terms of the variety of troubleshooting and the quality of assistance provided. In terms of women in general, the only thing I can think of is selling more computers with Ubuntu pre-installed. Installation and set-up are things that non-geek women tend to shy away from. If that’s taken care of and they have the opportunity to try something in a store, I think that would lead to more women users.

Link to full post.

Hollywood Rumble

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Unintended Consequences - Mars Edition

One of the things I love about engineering, ones of the reasons it's such an enjoyable career is that it provides some really wonderful opportunities to take a problem and make it into a solution.

Turns out, this is true no matter what planet you're on.
(1) Mars Rover breaks (lame wheel)
(2) Engineers find a way around it (go backwards instead)
(3) Because Rover is functioning differently, they find something they weren't looking for (evidence of past water)

Very cool.

Link to full post.

Texas Tradition Gone Weirdo

Texans, especially in the Southern part of the state, usually eat tamales around Christmas time. My grandparents always have them for their Christmas Eve dinner. Well, at work today one of my managers gave us....Chocolate tamales!

The wrapping is quite pretty (in a craft fair sort of way). Still, what prompted someone to look at a tamale and say “Hmmmm, this needs to be more chocolaty.”?

In addition, the chocolate was cherry-flavored. I have no idea why...

Link to full post.

Hillary Nutcracker

One of my co-workers exchanges joke political gifts with his cousin (who is of the opposite party affiliation). He gave her “The Reagan Diaries” because he couldn’t find a joke gift.* According to him, the Republican candidates are "too bland". Her gift to him this year:

I had heard about these but it’s even funnier than I thought it would be. The quotes on the back of the box are comedy gold!

My favorite is Kim Jong Il.

*Considering his history of cross-dressing, I’m surprised no one has made a Rudy-Guiliani-in-drag doll. Although that’s more scary than funny.

Link to full post.

Krav Maga - Yoga Class

Last night, I drove through the fog to attend my first KM Yoga class since Thanksgiving. With the holidays (and associated eating), I decided to start attending two KM classes (Yoga and Strength/Cardio). Yesterday's class was great but one thing has really struck me about these yoga sessions.

In the past, I’ve purchased yoga DVDs. My thinking was that I’m not really a gym person and know I’m more likely to complete the exercises if I can do them at home. However, the yoga DVDs never held my interest. Even though some of the same positions are covered, I find the classes much better.

The instructor is very conscientious about provided multiple versions of the same pose to accommodate different body types and levels of flexibility. Before, after and during the sessions she asks about any discomfort or pain. For a couple of others she’s spent a few extra minutes going over corrections to their form to avoid pain and provided some additional guidance. Also, she goes around the room, pushing on us to go further than we would go alone. There have been several times she’s started correcting my position or “challenging my body”. At first I sort of tensed up expecting it to hurt. But I usually end up bending further and more completely than I thought I could.

Little things like these are making these yoga sessions a great deal more rewarding than I expected....

Link to full post.

"Zombie Robert Heinlein"

Or Why John Scalzi is AWESOME (and has the best commenters on the 'Net)

My favorite quote:

"Being politically incorrect is not actually a liability in science fiction."

Link to full post.

#^*#*)%! AMPTP

Well damn....It looks like the AMPTP was just screwing with the writers (and us TV viewers). Per Nikki Finke, the talks are over (for no damn good reason).

Look, I'm generally pro-corporation. I think for the most part, corporations are reasonable entities and there is no shame in making money or in making hard decisions to make money intelligently. HOWEVER, there is a real and critical difference between hard decisions and heartless decisions. I beleive the AMPTP has crossed that line.

After reading their statement to the WGA (available here) and the comments, I feel a bit conflicted about some of the WGA's demands. Most especially on the issue of the reality and animation writers. The comments include stories pro & con for adding those writers to the WGA umbrella. I don't like or support the fact that when writers for America's Top Model wanted to join the WGA, they were fired. However, I don't agree to any situation where people are required to be members of unions in order to even get a job. The comments also mention several of those instances. I don't really know enough of the industry to side one way of another on this issue.

I know that adding the animation and reality writers has actually been on the table longer BUT I feel the internet residuals issue is the one where the WGA has the strongest and clearest moral case. Speaking to my friends who do not particularly care about the strike beyond it's affect on new episodes for their shows, the internet residuals issue has the broadest public appeal. People really do understand that issue and the writer's perspective with minimal entertainment industry know-how. These other issues are understandably part of the negotiating process but the internet issue to me is the most glaring injustice of the current situation.

But the AMPTP made a critical error I think. What these guys don't appear to realize is that in the age of weblogs, YouTube and webforums, their ability to control broadcast (ie - MSM) news is kinda useless. Anyone with an internet connection can read Nikki Finke or United Hollywood and go to the Fans4Writers forums. I'm a prime example of how badly these guys have miscalculated. I'm NOT in favor of unions in general. I think they are a relic of a dying age. The ONLY reason I am supporting the WGA is because the entertainment industry has one of the most dated and stagnant business models around, so an old-school solution like a strike makes a lot of sense. When 6 companies control the industry, you've got a situation where it's unions or submission. I get that. I don't agree with everything said at the pro-strike web-sites. But even I totally understand that writers deserve to be paid for internet work and $250 is ridiculously ridiculous.

I sincerely hope for the day when the entertainment industry joins the 21st century. When, their economic model doesn't lean so heavily toward the kind of oligarchy that makes unions necessary. Perhaps that day will never come. But how much would the average writer, hyphenate and teamster benefit if they had more options? If they had the power to set their own terms a la Silicon Valley?

The AMPTP asked the WGA to "trust them". They issue press releases like we're supposed to trust them. Considering their behavior before the strike, I find that a reprehensible tactic. What have the AMPTP done to deserve that trust? Nothing. They have acted like every bad cliche of industrial moguls. For that, I hope they drown in pencils.

Link to full post.

My Desktop - 12/8/2007

I liked one of the upholstery pictures from Thursday so well that I decided to build a desktop around it. This is the result:
Clean

Busy

Info & Links:
Wallpaper: Chair in My Apt Offices
Emerald Theme: Modified Beryl Default – I made the window shadows bigger and more orange, rounded the corners and changed the reds in the title bar to match the wallpaper better.
Controls Theme: Glider with yellow/green coloring to match wallpaper
Icon Theme: Suede
Cursor Theme: Lila - Black
Firefox Theme: Ubuntu Human
Thunderbird Theme: Default
XMMS Skin: Cathedral by regener8ted

This was an interesting challenge in several ways. Red is not a preferred color of mine so I had a concern about making something I could stare at for hours. Also, building a well integrated red desktop was remarkably difficult. While there are red emerald, controls, Firefox and cursor themes, getting them to match and appear like they belong together...is not so easy.

On a side note: I decided to modify the theme of my XP desktop at work. One, it sucks to look at the same thing every day for five years. Two, I was curious if XP allowed me to do some of the things I’d been doing in Ubuntu. When I had XP at home, I will admit that I didn’t try to get the most out of it. My assessment: XP does provide for a great deal more tweaking than I was aware of but it’s not as well done as Ubuntu. The lack of a color picker is a key deficiency. Also, XP had a tendency to bundle things I wanted to do separately and to separate things I wanted to do together. Both of these faults make it much more difficult to get a unified looking theme.

Link to full post.

Movie - "Dear Frankie"

I watched “Dear Frankie” last night. What a wonderful film! It’s very quiet and restrained in that British character-study way. All the actors were fantastic and the little boy did a stellar job portraying “Frankie”. On another casting note, I love British cinema because they more frequently include people who actually look real instead of like supermodels. There were several things that struck me as awesome: Gerard Butler was mesmerizing (just as good looking fully clothed as half-naked and slaughtering Persians); the motivations of the Mom were superbly revealed and consistent; they didn’t include a lot of crowds and background characters, this gave the whole movie a very intimate focus; and the ending which was neither saccharine-happily-ever-after nor depressing but bittersweet in a way that made you believe these people were one day going to be happy but not quite yet. It felt very real and earned. Needless to say, go see this film. You won’t be disappointed.

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Overheard at Work, pt 9

My supervisor: “You’re a fan-boy because no matter what anyone says Rush is always the best band ever.”
Accounting Guy: “That’s not because I’m a fan-boy. That’s because I’m right!”

(cough)fan-boy(cough)

Link to full post.

B&G Crepes – San Antonio

Today, my co-workers and I went someplace new for lunch: B&G Crepes. It is a Japanese-style crepe restaurant. Check it out!

We all ordered the lunch special. You get 2 crepes for $5.50. Two crepes were almost too much for me (they are a good size). Everybody took bites of everyone else’s food so we tried a good variety of stuff. I can vouch for the tuna, ham&cheese, Hawaiian, chocolate and banana chocolate crepes. Also they have rice bowls (the teriyaki is good). I thought this place was a fantastic and interesting spin on the usual sandwich fare.

How to get there:
NW area of San Antonio
On loop1604 exit Bandera (S.H 16) / Helotes
Turn on Bandera towards outside the loop
U-Turn at 1st light
Turn Right at the Silverado 16 Theater sign (into shopping center)
Take 1st Right into 1st mini-strip center parking lot
It’s on the opposite end next to Rooster’s Barber shop.

Link to full post.

My Apt Offices - Upholstery Goldmine

Usually, I'm only in my apartment offices to pick up packages. Today I was waiting for some paperwork in the offices when I noticed the furniture. Suddenly, I glance down at one of the chairs....Next thing I know I'm taking pictures of everything. Some of these patterns are just out of control. They had so many different kinds on just the chairs!

Teaser:
More pictures in the full post.




And my favorite of the day:

This was actually in someone's office. When I asked if I could take the picture, the guy gave me such a look. I tried to explain I collect these things because it's something to do when I travel. He then asked me, "Do you frame them or something?"
"No."
Another look. "Um, OK."

Link to full post.

Bash Aliases - Cool Trick

I spent part of the last couple days studying command-line stuff via LinuxCommand. They have several helpful example scripts and even walk you through developing a script to generate system information on your computer. I found it very helpful.

Another cool discovery was this thread in the forums on bash-aliases. Apparently, you can create a file with all your preferred command line shortcuts. All you have to do is save it under a particular filename (“bash_aliases”) and then un-comment a few lines in another script. I found this incredibly handy. Some of my favorite aliases are below.

Most of these are from the help thread (some I modified for my use):

alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'

Sets interactive mode ("Are you sure?") before copying, moving or deleting files

alias google=’firefox http://www.google.com/'
alias ubuntu-help='firefox http://ubuntuforums.org/'

Opens Google and the Ubuntu help forums in Firefox

alias ed-alias='gedit home/jessica/.bash_aliases'

Open alias file in text editor (original used nano text editor but I don’t like that one)

alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias lal=’ls –al’
alias ll=’ls –l’

These are for listing files in a directory. The first automatically colors the files based on type and read-write permissions. The second is a shortcut for listing in long-format all the files in a directory including hidden files. The last one is for listing all files except hidden files in a directory in long-format.

alias today='date +"%A, %B %-d, %Y"'

Displays the date.

The other cool thing is that if you forget what your aliases are, you can just type ‘alias’ at the terminal and it lists all the aliases allowed (ie - in your ".bash_aliases" file).

After setting this up, I spent a little bit moving files around and changing the read-write permissions from the terminal. I think I’ll be spending a few hours a week until Christmas just working on my command-line skills. That way during my Christmas time-off, I can (hopefully) start to really work on my scripting.

Link to full post.

Errors in Employee Training

My company just opened a company-wide “University” of sorts. Looking through the course catalog this morning, my initial skepticism started to fade. There’s several engineering and accounting classes that appear interesting. However, I came across one entry for a remedial skills class that was unintentionally hilarious....

Class: Internet Explorer
Purpose: To teach employees how to browse & find info on the Internet.
Format: On-Line

Link to full post.

The Ten Tenors!

I just got back from seeing "The Ten Tenors" LIVE at the Majestic Theater. FANTASTIC!!!!

They did several songs that I'd seen on YouTube when looking into them for my original post. They also included a nice blend of Christmas music. But the best song of the night was "Bohemian Rhapsody"....Most of the theater stood up after that one.

In addition to a great show and two encore songs, the guys were nice enough to come out in the lobby after to sign programs. My friend and I got 9 out of 10. We couldn't get the last guy because of the crowd. If these guys come to your town, you have to go check them out!

My signed program:

Link to full post.

Ubuntu Tricks

After lazing away my Friday, I finally decided to do something constructive with my day. The Ubuntu help forums have a section on Tutorials....

Here's some really useful ones that also aren't too hard:

1) How to prevent a forkbomb: Those symbols I was talking about in yesterday's post? This is how to stop them. Simple & easy.
2) How clean up all those junk files: He covers multiple methods of getting rid of files you no longer need. Even though my install is less than 9 months old, I did a LOT of installing, trying out & removing so I actually had more orphaned files than I expected.
3) How to Download Videos Off YouTube: I didn't actually end up using the suggested way BUT the comments include multiple methods of accomplishing the same goal. I went with Unplug, a Firefox addon. But I may also give youtube-dl a try in order to improve my terminal skills.
4) This isn't strictly a "How-To"....Know Your Terminal Commands post contains links to several sources and tutorials on the command line. I'm definitely book-marking this sucker.

Link to full post.

Cowboy - Ninja - Pirate - Knight Quiz

I have today off. Am I doing anything constructive with my time? Do on-line quizzes count? Because this isn't telling me anything I don't already know.....

Your Score: a Pirate

You scored 4 Honor, 6 Justice, 3 Adventure, and 10 Individuality!

Arr matey. You may belive in honor, and justice, and you certainly have a sense of adventure. But mostly, you play by your own rules. Your code is your own and you are flexible in most situations.

Dress flamboyant and look into a parrot. I think you'll do fine.

Link: The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test written by fluffy71 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

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*Is Impressed* Eon MC

Whoa. Via Smallest Minority, I was reading the commentary here. There's a lot of talk about blaming hip-hop music for the state of the black community. BUT there's also talk about blaming a lack of parenting. It's kinda a "Which came first?" argument to me. However, I'm a white woman from the Houston suburbs so what do I know, right? Anyway, someone linked this artist's MySpace.....

WOW. I've never been a huge fan of hip-hop or rap. I believe it can be a really interesting and exciting form of music because when certain artists have stopped singing about beating women and killing each other, their work can be really, really good. Unfortunately, those instances are few and far between. This artist, Eon MC, he is a revelation.

From "Chip on My Shoulder" to "Under Pressure", his lyrics are just wonderful. Please go and listen...

Link to full post.

Thursday Night Movie

Due to the lack of a new "Supernatural" episode, I decided to watch a movie last night. Good call.

Ratatouille: FANTASTIC! This was so enjoyable. Brad Bird makes just about the best movies all around. And one of the reasons they are so good is that he is unafraid to include moral stances. His characters have values (not "family" values but rather each has things they care about enough to risk for and those are presented in emotionally honest ways). When Remy makes the decision to leave his family, he explicitly states he doesn't want to live of the scraps of others' achievements but that he wants to make something himself. AND it's not sold as something he "has to do" but as a very difficult choice. This movie was just fantastic from start to finish. I especially loved Anton Ego's character who was played with great relish by the indispensable Peter O'Toole.

On a side note: The two short films that come with the DVD are also fantastic. "Your Friend the Rat" is a pro-rat film with Remy & his brother. It's a wonderful flash-back to the education Disney cartoons of the 1950's: A little bit of history, a few jokes, and wildly amusing. The second short "Lifted" was HILARIOUS!!! There is no speaking but who cares? From the premise, set-up and characters, I could not stop laughing.

Link to full post.

Talent vs. Effort in Education

Scientific American has an absolutely fascinating article up about the differences between kids who succeed at school versus kids who fail. Their reasoning is summarized in this quote:

Praising children’s innate abilities, as Jonathan’s parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and even marriages from living up to their potential. On the other hand, our studies show that teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.

Over the years, I've seen many tech-bloggers state that upcoming developments in genetic engineering will make it easier for parent to design smarter, better behaved children. But, what if that isn't enough? If a parent specifically planned for a kid to be smart, which do you think they are more likely to say to their child? "You are very talented/special." or "You worked hard."?

Not to mention, these results sync quite well with my own experiences. My default mind-set is unfortunately in the “innate talent” category. At one point in high school, I actually tried to convince my parents to move me to a lower level “Algebra II” class. I was barely passing the honors level class and actually told them “only stupid people had to study”. Thankfully, my parents didn’t listen. They instead grounded me until my grades improved.

Even today, I’m not a self-starter in the traditional sense. I can make myself start but it requires very conscious effort. If I quit that effort, I quickly slide into a rut. That’s one of the reasons why I created my Personal Enrichment Goals at the beginning of 2007. I realized that I had created for myself a very narrowly-defined comfort zone. The PE goals were about challenging myself in ways that will help be able to accomplish my long-term goals.

Right now, I’m in the process of writing my Personal Enrichment Goals for 2008. These goals are much more demanding than the 2007 list. But this year was a trial run, proving to myself I could do more and enjoy it. My experiences with installing and learning Ubuntu are a prime example of that. Next year’s list is about really challenging myself. Hopefully, in time I can train myself to have more of a growth-mindset.

Link to full post.

Why People Don’t Care About Global Warming

That’s the title of a very intelligent op-ed discussing how the environmental movement’s apocalyptic outlook damages its credibility with the average consumer. They also mention new advocacy for a more optimistic and progressive mind-set.

I would be absolutely in favor of that. There’s something quite masochistic and self-hating about how certain environmentalists look at the world. Most especially repugnant to me is their refusal to acknowledge mankind’s capability to solve problems as well as cause them. Thankfully, it appears some environmentalists are embracing approaches which focus on innovation and technology development.

The op-ed author also gets points for mentioning an insightful monograph entitled "The Death of Environmentalism" by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. Their new book “Break Through” is at the top of my Christmas list.

Link to full post.

People Are BASTARDS – Ubuntu Edition

While perusing Digg, I come across this announcement in the Ubuntu Help Forums: Malicious Commands

Apparently, instead of helping new Ubuntu users solve problems, some people are posting false advice including commands which permanently damage or delete a person’s hard drive!

Once I looked at them a minute and read the explanation of their functions, most of the posted example commands were understandable. But there’s one that I think is worth mentioning because I had NO IDEA a command could even look like that! It’s just symbols and such but the damage it could do...(shudder)

Teaching myself the command line just became a lot higher priority. As for the bottom-feeders posting these commands, my opinion of you may be best expressed by the following:

Link to full post.

Unusual Approach to Take-Out

Today, my co-engineers informed me that there is a pizza take out restaurant called “Papa Murphy’s”. Instead of making & cooking the pizza, this place makes it and then sells you a raw pizza to cook yourself...WHAT?!

Isn’t the entire point of take out that you don’t have to cook anything?! They cook so I don’t have to. I pay them for this fantastic bit of modern civilization. How do these people make money?

*is baffled, shocked and planning to order dinner from Pizza Hut to re-establish a sense of normalcy*

Link to full post.

What I Got In the Mail Today

My Wee Ninja!


Already he stealthily guards my bookcase. Burglars BEWARE.

Thank you ShanaLogic!

Link to full post.

Thanksgiving Reading

While I fully intended to finish a rather hefty history tome, instead I read several fantasy novels and finished up lighter fare. In full post, my comments on:

1) Stardust by Neil Gaiman
2) The Novice & The High Lord by Trudi Canavan
3) The Lost Fleet: Fearless by Jack Campbell
4) Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe by Peter D. Ward & Donald Brownlee


1)Stardust by Neil Gaiman: I bought this because I'd enjoyed the movie so much (see here). The book is different on several key points. The final confrontation is very much different. But, both the tone & major characters were essentially the same people as in the movie (except Victoria Forrester who is a more rounded character in the book). The ending is also more sad & bittersweet. Generally a good read, but this is one case where I think I preferred the movie.

2)The Novice & The High Lord by Trudi Canavan: After being quite impressed with the first book in this trilogy (see here), I bought the other two. Man, this didn't turn out at all like I thought (and that's a very good thing). The second book did an excellent job of showing Sonea's trouble being accepted by the other Magicians AND did a wonderful job of both explaining the High Lord without giving away too much about his motivations. The third book finally gives the reader some insight into what and why the High Lord has been doing what he's doing and setting up the huge confrontation at the end of the series. This is not a series with unearned happy endings or even a happy ending exactly but for a world of magic and such, Trudi Canavan does a really good job of making the resolution make sense and feel earned given how over-powered the heroes were. Overall, I'd recommend this trilogy highly. A very good fantasy read.

3)The Lost Fleet: Fearless by Jack Campbell: This is the second in “The Lost Fleet” series (first book reviewed here). A good continuation of the story. The characters & action were good. But the plot was...unexpected. I guess I’m stuck in a more formulaic military sci-fi mode. I expected a bit more of a grand battle climax. It had battles but they were throughout the story. Also, there’s an interesting side development that hints at a possible non-human intelligence in this universe and some technical history that could totally change the on-going war that forms the backdrop of the series. The only complaint was the relationship between the main character and the female politician. I don’t get her motives here. But that’s largely a function of point-of-view (only the main character’s, since he doesn’t understand her motives neither do we). Overall, this is a solid addition to the series but one that arose some conflicting opinions for me.

4)Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe by Peter D. Ward & Donald Brownlee: An incredibly interesting book! It systematically outlines the current thinking on how life evolved on Earth and how much a easier microbial life was compared to multicellular animal life. Fascinating and I discovered several things I was unaware of (like the Earth was covered in glaciers at least twice in its history and the importance on continent-forming for higher life forms, even aquatic ones). I went into this book expecting to be unimpressed but it was informative, well-presented and well thought-out. It also has some interesting implications for programs like SETI and the search for terrestrial planets. The only thing that didn’t fly for me had nothing to do with the author’s ability to convince. It just so happens there’s been research since the books publication that I know affects the validity of one part of their argument. The authors present many points as evidence so their overall argument is not weakened by this. In all other respects, this was a wonderful and enjoyable read.

Link to full post.

Back in San Antonio

*whew* Thanksgiving DONE.

Not that my holiday was terrible. Far from it. My parents gave the dinner for the family this year so I had to help out with the preparation. My contribution...pies!


My parents aren't used to little kids anymore. While Mom & I were waiting on the oven, a basket of gourds caught my eye. She has all sorts of antiques and decorative stuff lying around. Unfortunately, these particular gourds were getting a bit moldy.

Not exactly something you want in reach of my precocious 6-yr old and 2-yr old cousins.

After the dinner, Mom & I did some shopping Friday. I got new jeans, 3 CDs and another #^@^*! cold. (sigh) I'm really ready to go back to work.

Link to full post.

Krav-Maga Yoga - Trial Class

I've missed going to the Krav Maga gym recently. Either I've been too sick or too tired from being sick. So I decided to go today before the holiday.

KM Core Mix: This is a fusion of yoga & pilates. I've never actually taken a yoga class before so I don't really have anything to compare it to. Still, it was a surprising work-out. The only part I have trouble with was when the instructor took us through several iterations of this Relaxed-Cat / Downward-Facing-Dog / Something-Else-I-Don't-Remember sequence. That was challenging. By the end I wasn't as sweaty but I definitely felt relaxed. I think I might try to get to this class again...I had planned to go only to the Saturday classes but I really enjoyed this one.

It was really amusing though. The instructor was being all "Ommmm.....Extend your heart out. Allow your energy to descend into the Earth." but in the class next door we could hear the instructors yelling "You're being ATTACKED! Hit HARDER! Really punch his lights out!". After class was over, even the instructor mentioned that she was suppressing giggles about it.

On an unrelated side-note, a homeless person approached me when I was pumping gas to ask for change. I didn't have a single penny to give him! (I rarely carry cash much less change - I empty it out of my purse the second I get home). I felt terrible!

Link to full post.

Amazon Music Downloads

I tried out Amazon's DRM-Free Music Download service this weekend. The whole experience was quite dangerous to my checkbook. Between how easy it was to download & search for songs, I spent a LOT more than I intended. In the future, I should only use this service when I have either a much smaller list of songs or the discipline to stick to my list of songs.

Songs I Didn't Mean to Download I Swear!
Thea Gilmore "Call Me Your Darling"
Transmutator "God Moving Over The Face of the Waters"
Louis Armstrong "Alexander's Ragtime Band"
Etta James "St. Louis Blues"
David Byrne "This Must Be The Place"
Neko Case "Alone & Forsaken"
Angelzoom (feat. Apocalyptica) "Turn The Sky"
Sukhwinder Singh & Sapana Awasthi "Chaiyya Chaiyya"
Widespread Panic "Down (Live in Austin, TX)"
Tomayasu Hotei "Katana Groove"

Link to full post.

Percussion Ensembles ROCK

This all started when a blogger at Reason linked this video of the Poteet High School Precussion Ensemble. Intrigued, I clicked the "Related Videos" tab.

HOLY MOLY! My high school only had lame-o Orchestra and the fruity jazz people. Nothing this cool. Check out full post for videos of precussion ensembles rocking out.

Teaser: SUPER MARIO!



The Exam


Ill Rosauro's Concerto


Portsmouth HS


The Shadow Precussion Project


Sinister Minister (WOW)


Ok, this isn't a Precussion Ensemble but it's AMAZING. There's trumpets & flag dancing!
DCI Blast's Malaguena

Link to full post.

Friday Miscellany

I missed this earlier in the week due to illness so here ya go...

1) Testing new rockets. It really seems like the next 5-10 years will see some wonderful experimentation in different types of rocket engines and spaceship configurations.

2) Why Congress Just Cannot Be Trusted! Apparently, they are more concerned with doing the entertainment industry’s dirty work than educating American students. PUNKS.

3) Go watch this...Kurt Loder participates in a conversation and Q&A on technology and freedom. Very interesting. He does appear to have his ear on the ground for rampant nanny-statism. Best line: “It’s ridiculous for a band to say 'We're going to change the world' or ‘Down with the MAN!” and they're working for Time-Warner.”

4) I do not often use this word on my blog but I feel the article warrants it. FUCKING SAUDIS.

Link to full post.

My Desktop - 11/14/07

I've been playing again. Seriously, I can't leave this alone for a full week!

Clean:

Busy:


Details
Wallpaper: Great Wave by captainslug
Emerald Theme: I heavily modified Blue Satin to be darker and have a lighter glow/shadow
Icon Theme: YattaBlues
Controls: Crux (colored blue-gray)
Firefox Theme: Phoenity Modern
Thunderbird Theme: Default (colored blue-gray)

Sorry for the lack of links.

Link to full post.

Small Adventures in Translation

Occasionally, I have to dig through documentation from my company’s Japan offices for information. Since I do not speak or read Japanese, I use an on-line translator (& some leaps of intuition) to read the material.

Sometimes, I get these weirdly anthropomorphic translations back.

For instance, today I was translating a bit of Japanese text which was followed by “(N/mm^2)”. So we would expect the text to be translated “Strength” or maybe “Young’s Modulus”, right?

Translator’s response: Tenacity.

Today, I've generated several possible heavy-metal band names:
Tenacious Powdered Metal
Stubborn Plastic
Anxious But Unbroken Steel (my favorite)

Link to full post.

Overheard At Word, pt 8

I have been sick this week. Today, I blow my nose & my co-worker asks “Are you still producing lung butter?” Ugh, boys.

Link to full post.

YouTube on The Writer's Strike

Now, there is of course the OFFICIAL WGA YouTube channel. While that's good, there's commentary from all corners being posted. In 1988 the best the average TV fan could hope for was being interviewed on local news. Nowadays, they have other options.

See full post for some truly amusing commentary on the Writer's Strike. (Lots of embedded videos)

First "Ask A Ninja" Speaks out:


The Very Official AMPTP Position


Evil Mickey Mouse Supports the AMPTP


The Guys from Zoomilk


Some good criticism of both sides

Link to full post.

Mutant Caterpillars Return!

My current emotional state:


Previous encounters have been limited to work. But this morning, I open the door to find mutants caterpillars at my very doorstep!

See full post for disturbing details (and photos)

So, it's Sunday morning, right? Perfect time for a post-breakfast stroll around the apartment complex. So I opened my door and casually glanced down. And I froze in abject terror. I quickly removed my sunglasses, certain I just needed to clean the lenses....But no, there it was:

My first attempt to get a close-up picture was slightly blurry (because I was freaking out):

Finally, I dug around in my entry desk for something to provide a sense of scale. I was hoping for a ruler but the best I could do is a sharpie pen:

What's even more disturbing: This sucker can MOVE. He was like the caterpillar version of the "Little Engine That Could". While taking the pictures, I had to constantly move to keep up with him.

Between the scorpions and spiders out here, you would think I'd become used to bugs (especially after the Apocalyptic Millipede Battle of 2003). But no, they still freak me the f*ck out.

I will be spending part of this afternoon treating my patio and door with bug spray.

Link to full post.

New CDs for Me

I just bought three new CD’s. I expect more to come. With my TV boycott, I know I’ll be transferring some of my enthusiasm to books and music.

Anyway, see full post for comments on:
1) Demon Days by Gorillaz
2) Wolfgang's Big Night Out by The Brian Setzer Orchestra
3) Long Road Out of Eden by The Eagles

1) Demon Days by Gorillaz : Fantastic. I bought it because several songs from this CD had been cropping up on my Last.Fm playlist. The title track of the CD is just excellent. I have liked & downloaded singles by the Gorillaz before but this is the first CD from them I’ve purchased. The songs are catchy, in a variety of styles and very well-arranged. This was definitely worth my money.

2) Wolfgang's Big Night Out by The Brian Setzer Orchestra: Unusually good. Basically, the BSO took several classical pieces and rearranged them in a big band style. The transition is for the most part seamless. For some of the songs, they added vocals but most are instrumentals. I’m a big fan of both classical and big band music so this fusion was very enjoyable for me. Brian Setzer has made a career out of reviving older song styles so it almost makes sense he uses classical pieces as the basis for this album. The best tracks in my opinion were “Honey Man" (originally "Flight of the Bumblebee") and “The 1812 Overdrive” (Based on "The 1812 Overture"). Again, this is a good buy.

3) Long Road Out of Eden by The Eagles : I’d been exicted about this for a while. The Eagles sold a crazy amount of CDs last week and were only denied #1 on the Billboard charts by a stupid technicality. Needless to say, I was ready to be impressed...I don’t know if I was. There’s definitely some catchy songs and every band member gets a chance to shine. There are several gems. “How Long”, their single, is just a wonderful rock-country song. And “Guilty of the Crime”, a surprisingly bluesy song on the first disc, is really good. But this is a more contemplative and mellow collection than I was expecting. It doesn't by any means suck but it takes a couple of listen-throughs to appreciate. Overall, this CD is a good buy I think. You’re getting 20 tracks in an age when most releases have 10-15. And honestly, the worst Eagles song is better than 85% of what plays on pop radio.

All in all, these CDs will definitely making appearances on my portable music player. And I’m preparing to give the Amazon MP3 service a try. I’ve got a list of songs from my Last.Fm listening that I’d like to have in a portable format.

Link to full post.

Overheard At Work, pt 7

Wow, I haven't done one of these in a month....

“Captain Half-ass, you may fire when ready.” – Spoken during an impersonation of Grand Moff Tarkin.

Link to full post.

WGA Strike

As you may guess from the icon in the right-hand column, I'm doing something wildly out-of-character for me: I'm supporting a union during a strike. Specifically, the Writer's Guild of America against the studios. The guys from "The Office" explain it way better than I ever could:


For more info:
United Hollywood
(For fan-side) WGA Supporters on LiveJournal

My contribution:
-No viewing of streaming videos on ANY network site or any download service
-Once the LiveJournal guys post a form letter, both studios & advertisers will be getting letters from me
-I will not be viewing ANY of the replacement shows. I will watch the remaining episodes of my shows that were made before the strike BUT not the ones made after the showrunners went on strike. All replacement shows are OFF. This will include "Project Runway: Season 4" (sigh).

Link to full post.

TED Talk by Larry Lessig

Once again, the TED talks provide an opportunity for a great thinker to spread their ideas. In addition, I want to know where he found his example videos....Larry Lessig on the Read-Write Culture (I tried to embed the videos but it gave me errors...sorry).


PS - This is what the third TED lecture I've linked? If you're not checking out these talks, I think you're missing out on the cutting edge of modern thought.

Link to full post.

"300" Funnies

GO HERE NOW. And enjoy some absolutely brilliant photoshops of "300" (ya know that totally awesome movie full of battles and half-naked men?).

GO!!!!

Link to full post.

Monday Smorgasbord

1) Someone overloading in nerd-awesomeness built a Steampunk-Style Laptop that is actually a functioning computer. Seriously this is no end of awesome.

2) Thank you Bono! For consistently proving not all celebrities have to be divorced from reality or stupid:

I'm arguing for a demonstration to the world of what we're capable of in the West, with our technology, our innovations, our agriculture, our pharmacology. We've developed this unimaginable prosperity. Let's show the world what we can do with it. America, as I always say, is not just a country, it's an idea. The world needs to see right now what that idea means. Because there's an oncoming train on our track, and it's going to be met one way or another. It isn't going away.

3) Magenta: Owned by T-Mobile? What a world..

4) Ok, this is kinda old but I think it's useful. A Lifehacker Article on How To Improve Your Public Speaking. The article itself is short but the comments have some interesting discussion of what people find annoying or impressive in their presenters.

5) Gizmodo Talks about the new Google Phone Initiative. They make a lot of good points about how Google's work here could free up the US cell phone services (which would be awesome). I'm not really big on cell-phone & only got a cell when I had to because I was out of work unexpectedly for jury duty. With all the drama my family & friends had gone through, I opted to get a pay-as-you-go phone. It's a crap phone; hardly any gadgetry to speak of. BUT I'm not in a contract of any kind. If Google can change the situation, good for them.

Link to full post.

*Is VERY Awake*

This is what I get for browsing BoingBoing before bed.....

I will be sleeping with a camp ax under my pillow tonight....Possibly the adze I bought in case I developed a sudden frenzy for woodworking.

How do you pray to Cthulhu for mercy?

Link to full post.

Delaware - Where the Obsessive Totalitarians Live

No really....This is from last week but it's so infuriating I had to post it anyway. Read this and weep for modern education.

This is absolutely disgusting to me. Check out this quote:

The university suggests that at one-on-one sessions with students, RAs should ask intrusive personal questions such as “When did you discover your sexual identity?” Students who express discomfort with this type of questioning often meet with disapproval from their RAs, who write reports on these one-on-one sessions and deliver these reports to their superiors.

Apparently, your constitutionally protected right to privacy ends in a college dormitory. So much for the free-wheeling campuses of yore. Now we have communist-style indoctrination and spying on your fellow students.

What's really sad is the fact, this program was only halted because of FIRE and several bloggers who (rightfully) called them to the carpet for this bullshit. From FIRE's letter to the school:

FIRE reminded Harker of the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), a case decided during World War II that remains the law of the land. Justice Robert H. Jackson, writing for the Court, declared, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

“The fact that the university views its students as patients in need of treatment for some sort of moral sickness betrays a total lack of respect not only for students’ basic rights, but for students themselves,” Lukianoff said.

Hallelujah!

Link to full post.

Krav Maga, 6th Class

6th Class: Well, this is the last class through the school district....It was a really hard one. We did a LONG warm-up period. Seriously, the warm-ups are worst than learning the moves. But then we got into something interesting: being choked while on the ground. I thought I wouldn't be very good at this but I picked it up quickly (for me). My only problem is that once I got on top, I kept forgetting to hit my attacker before I ran away :). I'm gonna have to work on that....

And I will have plenty of opportunity because I joined the Krav Maga gym. This is the first fitness thing I've actually kept up with (attended most of the classes & not totally sucked at). There's a monthly fee but it's not too bad and I get to go to any class at ANY time except 2-3 of the advanced classes.

Next week, I've decided it's "Krav Maga Strength / Cardio". An hour earlier but I do need to work on both so it's a good fit for me.

My new "member shirt":

Link to full post.

Recent Reading

Both of these reviews are a bit long so I posted them behind a cut. Today, I discuss:
1) Napoleon’s Buttons: 17 Molecules that Changed History by Penny Le Couteur & Jay Burreson
2) The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffery Toobin

1) Napoleon’s Buttons: 17 Molecules that Changed History by Penny Le Couteur & Jay Burreson. This is a very interestingly structured book. The text is an intriguing combination of organic chemistry and history. It looks at various chemicals and how their chemical structure, availability and commercialization changed human history. Some of the chemicals discussed have been long acknowledged to impact history like salt, cellulose or cloves/pepper. But there were also sections on Oleic Acid (Olive Oil), "The Pill" and the chemistry of Witchcraft accusations. Thankfully, the chemistry is presented in a fairly straightforward manner; it’s nothing beyond what you would see in an AP Chemistry course. And the history is full of interesting facts and characters, some more well-known than others.

The chapters included little historical asides that provided greater context for certain historical events. One fact of particular interest to me was that many women convicted as witches may have really believed that they participated in dark rituals because of hallucinogenic nature of several commonly used herbal remedies. Another point in the book’s favor, the authors went to great lengths to demonstrate the fine line between usefulness and toxicity for a chemical. They discussed many of the trade-offs in using one chemical versus another and provided some good historical context for why chemicals now banned were once considered life-saving. On the whole, I thought this was a balanced, well-presented and entertaining look at the effect of chemistry on human history.

2) The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffery Toobin. Who says law is boring? This easy-to-read book covers the last twenty or so years of the Supreme Court history. It provides wonderful insight into the personalities, egos and politics surrounding the Court’s recent decisions. While I think it’s important to understand Supreme Court justices are real people with real lives, Toobin does a good job of embracing their eccentricities while showing the consequences of their all-too human mistakes.

Another nod in the author's favor is he succeeds in fairly portraying the complexity of certain decisions while still not leaving much doubt about the author’s opinions. For instance, I think Toobin has a little bit of a crush on Sandra Day O’Conner but doesn’t think much of Clarence Thomas. Interestingly, Scalia for all his strict constructionism and combative behavior got a much more favorable presentation. It doesn’t hurt that Scalia is a bit of a cut-up (seriously, this book had several LOL moments, mainly due to his quotes). The only downside for me was the focus on two points about the modern Court that disturb me:

(1) Certain justices becoming enamored with international legal precedents. While I’m not totally opposed to the idea, the international community is much more statist, collectivist and leftist than the US. I do not believe the United States would be well-served to duplicate those aspects of international law. Also important, most countries lack anything like the Bill of Rights which imposes quite specific restrictions on how governements can interfere with individual liberty. Using case law from both Britain and the EU especially has this flaw as both lack written constitutions. Accepting precedents from either ignores the lower burden-of-proof required for change in both legal systems. The issue of the death penalty is one area in particular where, even with the flaws in our process, I think the US has a proper stance.

(2) Modern Legal thought has such a weird focus on the abortion issue. I know it’s a really big deal in political circles and no book discussing conservatives’ relationship to the Court could ignore it. But this issue just seems like a big deal out of nothing to me. My opinion of abortion is that it is morally wrong but it should be legal. So while I would never get one myself, I don’t want it to be banned outright either. As far as I’m concerned while Roe v. Wade was a poorly-constructed decision*, it got us to a more reasonable place in terms of the law. The whole focus in selecting both Justices Roberts & Alito was on abortion. This struck me as unsound and more than a little off-putting regarding how the Republican party makes decisions on social issues. Alito’s previous opinions especially came off as mindlessly dogmatic to the point of willful ignorance about how spousal content might relate to domestic violence issues.

Neither of these two points were covered unfairly by the author. Although, I thought Toobin glossed over the reasons why people would be opposed to using international precedents in Supreme Court cases. The abortion issue was presented much more fairly. In the end, I would recommend this book as interesting and informative. Only I don’t think it will necessarily make you feel better about decision-making in the upper levels of the United States government.

*Based on the analysis of someone who took "Constitutional Law" as her second government elective requirement in college (ie - no expert).

Link to full post.

Monday Miscellany

1) Gene Therapy Reduces Death Due To Radiation in Mice. Since it’s looking less and less likely that we’ll be able to stop nuclear proliferation, this means if some nut job does try to set off a bomb we’ll be able to do something proactive to minimize the effect of the fall-out. Good news.

2) So, last week Comet 17P/Holmes got enormously brighter. No one’s really sure why...Although, many people have their eyes on the sky and there are theories. The link also contains some fantastic pictures showing the scale of the event and links to photos from all over the planet. Several people at work have been sky-watching to get a glimpse.

3) 5 Scientific Reasons A Zombie Apocalypse Could Happen. I have a sudden desire to take up camping and stock up on “boom-sticks”. I particularly like this quote:

Scientists have already created a nano-cyborg, by fusing a tiny silicone chip to a virus. The first thing they found out is these cyborgs can still operate for up to a month after the death of the host. Notice how nano scientists went right for zombification, even at this early stage. They know where the horror is.

4) 5 Ways Environmentalists Can Be Less Annoying. "There are some people that, for whatever reason, you can agree with completely about political, environmental, or social issues, but still just want to hit in the face repeatedly." Hallelujah! My personal favorite is number four - "Read A Book [on statistics]". Oh thank you. Poor understanding of the science is one of my long pet-peeves with die-hard environmentalists.....I had some poor experiences in college. Have you ever tried explaining the intricacies and fallibility of climate modeling to Spanish majors? (shudder)

5) THIS MAKES ME FURIOUS. Not only is ComCast “shaping traffic” by interfering with and cutting off P2P traffic (including the wholly legal LotusNotes), they are instructing their service representatives to LIE about it to their customers. WHAT PUNKS. It sounds like their employees aren’t really happy about the situation either. Why else would so many of them be risking their jobs to rat out the company? Hopefully, someone will hit upper management with a clue-by-four soon. More information here and here.

Link to full post.

Ubuntu Tweaks: Mainly Desktop-Related Stuff

Now that my Ubuntu install is complete and my major glitch corrected, I’ve been tweaking Ubuntu. Between the Ubuntu Help Forums "Tips And Tutorials" and "October 2007 Desktops" threads, in the last week my desktop has undergone an evolution of sorts. Below is information on some handy tricks. They range from the simple to the complicated.

In the full post are the following:
1) Automatically Importing Photos with F-Spot
2) Using WinAmp Skins with XMMS
3) Installing Avant Windows Navigator and Beryl
4) Adding Applications to Start-Up

1) Automatically Importing Photos with F-Spot: The tutorial covers three steps:

(1) Changing your photo import program: Took <30 seconds. Works no problem.
(2) Changing where imported photos are saved: I skipped this step. My photos are saved by category/type on my external HD so I prefer having them in my “Home” folder and re-organizing them after importing.
(3) Ensuring you properly delete files from your memory card: Ubuntu’s default stance isn’t to delete files but to “Move to Trash”. On removable media, it creates a hidden trash folder. Since you can’t see it, you think you’ve gotten rid of files that are still around. Not only did it help with the camera but I finally got rid on the Trash folder on my flash drive.

2) Using Winamp skins for XMMS: I’m glad I found this. The XMMS skins package in the Ubuntu repositories is only OK. It turned out being less work than the tutorial even shows. The only trick is knowing where to put the skin files you download. XMMS does the rest. The folder already exists but it’s hidden so you have to mark “show hidden files” in Nautilus. But then you just download skins from the websites provided and switch out as desired. And there’s tons of skins available. I liked the selections so much I spent several hours Thursday customizing desktop themes to match the new skins. My first attempt at this, didn't go so well. I went from this.....

to this.....
It looks like the Easter Bunny threw up on my computer. I quickly went back and ended up with a green theme....


Fortunately, at this point I found out about the October 2007 Desktops thread in the forums. Basically, people post screenshots of their desktop layouts along with info about how they set it up. WOW. After browsing through the thread, I traveled over to Gnome Art and indulged in a downloading frenzy for wallpapers, windows borders, application themes, you name it. At first I attempted to keep the green theme:

But I got over it. After all this downloading, this was my desktop:
Clean (nothing open)

Busy


3) Avant Window Navigator: While flipping through the Desktop thread, I wondered what was the really cool taskbar panel on the bottom of everybody's screens? Thankfully, someone linked to their page explaining how to build desktops. They in turn linked the AWN Forums which in turn linked some detailed instructions on how to install this supremely cool panel.

Looking at these instructions, at first I thought this WAY beyond me. The install involved a LOT of command line stuff (which I'm not that experienced with). But, it was mainly cut-and-paste so I gave it a shot. After two tries, it installed with one problem. There was this unsightly black bar at the bottom of my desktop.

What the hell? The help forum had the answer though. Apparently, you need to install the beryl windows manager & effects package. I'd heard about it but again it seemed a bit out of my current league. Nevertheless, I wanted this taskbar perfect. So, I attempted to install the beryl package from the command line. Unfortunately, this did not make the unsightly black bar go away. After some investigating, I came across these handy instructions for installing Beryl. It turns out, I had only installed the Beryl package but not the other two support packages necessary for beryl to run (beryl-manager and emerald themes). Once I got those and activated Beryl, the ugly black bar went away. After all this tweaking, my final desktop is this:
Clean

Busy


4) Adding Applications to Start-Up: After installing AWN & Beryl, this is really easy. You have to make this modification to open Beryl & AWN each time you log-in. But it takes about ten seconds. All you have to do is go to "System" --> "Preferences" --> "Sessions". There is a "Start-Up Programs" tab, just click "New" to add AWN, Beryl and Beagle (installed with AWN). After that, your new taskbar should appear automatically when you log-in.

PS - Can I just say how awesome Beryl is? I put off installing this because it is a bit above my current proficiency with Ubuntu. And I've only used it a couple hours, but this is a seriously cool feature. I love the semi-transparent windows that wobble when you move them! It's probably going to take me weeks to really figure out how to get the most out of this application but I'm definitely looking forward to the experience.

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