Month: September 2007
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Happy Constitution Day
Working on a military base for six years has given me a certain reverence for the American flag. Many mornings I’ve watched the morning flag-raising from my truck as base police stop traffic to prevent it interfering with the ceremony, noticing those days it peaks briefly before descending to half-mast on remembrance days or the…
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Software Freedom Day
In honor of Software Freedom Day, I am making a concerted effort to install Ubuntu on one of my computers. I would much rather be hanging out at Bug Fest in Raleigh, but I don’t have the gas money or time this weekend. Unlike all my previous attempts to install that stupefyingly complex OS, Linux,…
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You Know It’s Bad When the Computer Starts Mocking You
So we’ve been training a new programmer at work on VBScript and ASP for our logistics software at the Coast Guard base, and this week my team leader and I thought it was a good time to give him a JavaScript-intense task to accomplish. JavaScript is one of the more frustrating web-based solutions because it’s…
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EFF RIAA vs The People Report
Robotic Intergalactic Astro-Artists (RIAA) Let me begin this post with the following caveat: P2P Sharing of Copyrighted Music is WRONG. It is stealing, and there is no rationalizing our way out of it even though most of us, myself included, have done it from time to time. That being said, I’d also like to add:…
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Creationist Answer Wheel
Dear Creationist Friends, Are you tired of all those troubling questions Evolutionists are always throwing at you? Rebuking questions like, “What’s with all the fossils?” and “Why do we have appendixes?” and “Genesis chapter one and two contradict each other, which is the real story of creation?” can really push a believer to sell their…
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Anniversary of the 9/11 Tragedy of 1857
Today marks the 150th anniversary of a dark and tragic even in American history, when a group of religious fanatics brutally slaughtered unarmed men, women, and children. On Sept. 11, 1857, at the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Mormon fanatics murdered more than 120 settlers who were passing through Utah on their way to California. The Mormons…
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Letter to the Editor About Michael Vick: Vick shouldn’t play in NFL again
Heard last week on NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” on what Leona Helmsley’s dog, Trouble, is going to do with the $12 million she’s inherited: “She’s going to buy a bunch of professional football players and angry them up.” After reading the letter to the editor “Anger at Vick disproportionate” in my local paper…
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Black is the New Black
I couldn’t take it anymore. Yes, I know white text on black background really cheeses off some people, but I find it easier on the eyes once the pupils open up and adjust to the diminished brightness. I tend to agree with the reasoning that black text on a white background works on paper because…
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The Eat Local Challenge
Whoops! I’m a week behind on this one, but apparently September is Eat Local Month, an effort to get people to think about where their food comes from by eating food produced within 100 miles of where you live. Why eat local? See 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food. “Local” is better than “Organic.” Waitaminute!…
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Venusday Haiku: Flea-Ridden Feline
My Felis catus Has Ctenocephalides he itchy kitty For those of you who enjoy science and enjoy haiku, like I do (Rhymes! Ha!). The Science Creative Quarterly is seeking a few hundred phylogeny haikus.I submitted about two-dozen a month ago, and I recieved an e-mail this week thanking me for the contribution and assuring me…
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Jupiterday Humor: Who are the NPC’s in this Game of Life?
Okay, so I can’t seem to get the whole life is a simulation meme out of my head. It’s simultaneously liberating, because life is all B.S., and fascinating, because of all the potential implications. Thinking about life as just a really advanced video game begs the obvious: Who are the Non-Player Characters? The bots? The…