So is this the thread where I talk about how psyched I am to be going to my first Worldcon, or are we to have a dedicated thread where I can gibber about that?

This needed to be linked here of all places:

In which, perhaps, Plums are eaten

Skwid, Avram and I just recently decided we were going to Denvention, mainly because I have a major birthday that Wednesday and wanted to do something neat. It'll be my eighth.

The other day I was wondering if there was a good one-volume history of India anywhere. Recommendations for something that's reasonably accurate and a good read?

March 2, 1891, Wednesday

WATERTOWN, N.Y., March 1. -- The largest pulp mill of the Remington Paper Company, about two miles below this city, was almost totally destroyed late last night by the high water, causing damages requiring about $50,000 to repair and killing John Murphy, an employe, aged sixty-eight. Eleven pulp grinders, the wheel, and various other machinery were carried down the river. [ END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH ]

Oh, and right now on my Livejournal I have a picture from 1913 of a man climbing down a rope from an airship onto a speeding steam train. Awesome!! I found it here.

People who enjoyed the Discovery Channel ad will also appreciate Where the Hell is Matt?, which charmed its way through my personal blogocircle last week. I have watched it a dozen times and still mist up a little over it.

I hadn't realised that there's a Wikipedia entry for '111'

I haven't read his India: A History, but I have read John Keay's The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Trading Company. His India is the first single Vol. history of India since the 1950's. He's a popular writer, not an academic, so it's narrative history, and should be readable.

Love, C.

I have read John Keay's India: A History, and reccomend it unreservedly. I intended to say more, but seem to have lost coherency, so am going to bed.

Really, I was just looking for an excuse to share the shiny tooling.

That's right: a federal appeals court liked the Bush admin argument to something out of Lewis Carroll.

Farewell, Hammond of Texas.

You could almost imagine the XKCD/Discovery channel song being sung to the same tune. That was how I heard it in my head, screechy voice and all.

Ïa, ïa, ïa made the best pun, and opened the door for the nameless ones.

R'lyeh, I can only prostrate myself in front of the master and beg for mercy.

It'll be in tomorrow's update for The Online Books Page. (And I'm always happy to get suggestions for more titles to add)

Congratulations! WorldCon is a blast! This will be my third... my second for the whole weekend.

Please join the Church of the Great Washed and pack your shower supplies!

Might have to do a matinee. Or guys night. or something.

I'm describing it to fannish types as what might result from a Robert Sheckley novel taking advantage of The Velveteen Rabbit. Mixed with a bit of "Silent Running" and "2001."

I sat through the credits partially because I'm not sure I could walk straight if I'd try to leave right away. In any case, the visuals behind the first third of so of the credits are a kind of coda to the story, one that could be influenced by All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.

I'm doing a straw poll of advice from fans (and or slans, or even flans) on the expat experience. I've been offered a plum of a job opportunity...in Munich. Sounds cool, but what about the books? The movies? The fan community? Advice and help from anglophones living in old Yurp would be massively appreciated...Vielen dank!

And in the spirit of semi-on-topic-ness, I wanna be there when they switch on the LHC. Worth being around if the universe ceases to exist...I can say:

"I -

As if the Bush Administration had "anti-terror policies." God.

(2) See Wall-E. I kid you not. "Try blue! It's the new red!" is the new quote around the house. Also, "I don't want to survive. I want to live!" It's all good! Also, given that sometimes I seem to be aware of some Internet traditions others haven't seen yet, you can visit the the Website of the Buy-n-Large corporation. I especially got a kick out of the privacy policy.

In 1992 and 1996, I did so with the Fan Lounge; in 1992 and 2000, I did so for Minneapolis in '73. (So you noticed that doubling up in '92 did you? Yep, me, too. 'Twas fun...once. I learned that running one party suite every night of the Worldcon is plenty for even my party platter. Parties all day and all night doesn't leave enough time for...shopping.)

This year the Big Fun is on behalf of the Reno in 2011 Worldcon bid. Whether you're at your first Worldcon or your 31st, after each great day with Making Light regulars and other erudite folks on the program, please come and party with friends old and new in the Reno suite. Good times, and All That Jazz....

See you on the Funway.

But what I was really going to say is - It's my first Worldcon too! I'm in Denver right now for work, and I'll be back next month.

Be ready for lots of people complaining about figuring out the elevators and towers in the AdamsMark/Sheraton. Oy.

Turns out Mensa is having a meeting here as well. I was wearing my XKCD t-shirt this evening, and someone asked me if I was here for the Mensa convention. Hee.

Thank you . . . . that is a work of genius. ("Anti-Consumer Groups are 'Opportunities'.", "BnL Acquires World's News Headlines.") I've seen lots of tie-in websites, but this one is deep, both in terms of links and in its versimilitude.

B. Durbin, you'll be pleased to hear that, though my geekly tendencies be legion, my hygeine tends towards the fastidious when there's running water available. If I'm camping, it goes out the proverbial window.

Speaking of camping, I know one of the chief pieces of advice (for Denver in specific for us Sea-level folk, and for WorldCons in general) is to stay hydrated...I was thinking of bringing my Camelbak, but it seems like it would be slightly odd. Perhaps being concerned about "slightly odd" is well on the absurd side regarding accessorizing at WorldCon, but, well, you know.

Still kind of pouty about not having figured out a way to get my big Djembe up there.

Very excited!

But if there's a Making Light party, and anyone has a webcam and a Skype account, I can stay up till silly times with my laptop...?

Occasionally we miss out on some great things through not doing TV. I watched it yesterday morning, as I was up a little earlier than the rest of the household. When my 6-year old son got up, a bit later, I showed it to him.

About 10 minutes later he came running back asking me to play the video again. Then again. Then he got his astronaut figure and asked me to play it again while he held the astronaut up in orbit around the globe to act it out. We probably played it about 20 times more for him, before I had to declare a moratorium. Damn it, the world is awesome, and it's delightful when kids and adults can recognize it together.

(But a quibble, because I obsess about things like this: in the video for the first verse, that looks like it's obviously an orca to me, not a great white shark. If they couldn't find any pictures of great whites breaching, couldn't they have changed the lyric to "I love when orcas fly"?)

There will be a Making Light party*, and my Significant has been doing all sorts of nifty things with an HD camera, a laptop, and skype accounts.

We can has Talking Pictures. We can carry Abi around the room to join in on conversations, making them better, sonnet'r, faster... we can have the 6 Million baud party.

(Does anyone know what type of input jacks the TVs in the party hotel have?)

---------
* I'm volunteering to host it. Day and time not set-- we don't quite have our schedules scheduled for panels, dinners, etc.

Not so sure of the faux bid party (as in 2006), because we have a regular room, not a suite. (If I/we can co-host it elsewhere (as happened at Westercon), that might also exist, but would be mostly to entirely separate from MLgatherings.)

With any kind of luck, the Virtual Tucker Hotel video chat room should be operating during the convention.

I will do my level best to furnish a pitcher of Scurvy Cure.

I went to Denver with my lab group-- driving, even, because there were so many of us-- and we had a great time. Three of us skipped a conference session and lunch to go to the art museum, which turned into half a day out because it is a fun art museum with a lot to talk about. It's a fun place.

I have a webcam, but I do not think I shall use it. I wouldn't want to shatter anyone's illusions.

Yum.
Or should I say 'yum'?
Will it help with Skwid's forgetting what to gibber, and with Ginger's prostration after her having the Punwich Horror revealed to her?

Anyway...How come the availability of US editions of Neal Asher's books published by Tor is so spotty? Amazon seems to be selling the UK hardback of Line War, though they are currently out of stock. I can't find any indication of a US edition on the Tor website (http://us.macmillan.com/TorForge.aspx). As far as I can tell, only the first and third (of five) books of the Cormac series are available in US editions. What's up? When will there be a US edition of Line War?

A move may be coming up in my future. Anyone know what the fannish community in St. Louis is like?

I am still happy about it, though I am sorry to miss Denver this year.

Wait. There will be Mensa members there who will have trouble figuring out the elevators? Why does this make me think of a Gary Larson cartoon?

There were the obligatory nods to Blade Runner, without being too heavy-handed; there was a Very Familiar Start-Up Noise which had us ALL bouncing in our seats; and the story line hooked us without provoking a lot of cynical eye-rolling, which doesn't happen so much any more with animated movies.

I'd go see it again.

Since this is an open thread, I'd also like to mention, completely off the Denvention topic, that a donation site has been created to help author advocates who have been sued by a certain literary agent. I don't know how much more I should say here on ML - but if you want to donate you can either visit Absolute Write and click on the button in my signature ( if that link doesn't work because you're not registered - although I think it should - just look for posts by Dawno) or visit my sadly not up to date blog for the donation button in my sidebar.

Alternatively, just go to PayPal and donate to the email "authoradvocatedonations@gmail.com"

FWIW: I am apparently the only person in the world who found _Iron Man_ boring, but I did. The only thing that I didn't see coming a mile off was that a character _wasn't_ revealed to have done something. And that's not even getting into some of the not-very-subtext.

Oh, damn. I always liked him, and wary though I am at assigning character's attributes to actors, he always seemed a very warm and decent man. I first remember him as Scully's dad, and always smiled when he showed up in other shot-in-Canada movies/shows.

And *65*! So young!

I'm doing a straw poll of advice from fans (and or slans, or even flans) on the expat experience. I've been offered a plum of a job opportunity...in Munich. Sounds cool, but what about the books? The movies? The fan community? Advice and help from anglophones living in old Yurp would be massively appreciated...Vielen dank!

Munich is a lovely place in many respects, thought it does apparently have the highest cost of living of any German city.

Books: there are two or three English-language bookstores, at least one of which has a (small) SF/fantasy section, and one of the main German bookstores actually has a (smaller) English-language SF section next to its German-language SF section. Also worth noting is that you can order English-language books from the German division of amazon.com (amazon.de), and they don't charge for shipping. You can also order books from British web sites without paying customs fees. Ordering from US web sites is certainly possible (and getting cheaper and cheaper as the dollar keeps sinking relative to the euro...), though shipping costs are higher and you will (sometimes) have to pay customs fees. A nifty tool in this regard is bookfinder.com, which will calculate total costs for books, including shipping charges to whichever country you specify (though they won't attempt to estimate customs fees).

Movies: Germany is, alas, one of those countries that dubs foreign movies. Since Munich is a relatively large, cosmopolitan city, however, there are some theaters that show movies in "original version" (with subtitles in German at some theaters, without subtitles at others). So it's possible to catch most major movies -- and some more obscure ones -- in English, though they may not stick around. I saw Iron Man when it played here, and I certainly expect to see Wall-E when it gets around to opening here....

There's also an annual "Fantasy Film Festival" which hits several cities in Germany, Munich included.

The only general problem related to movies that I can think of is non-English-language films, which will usually not have English subtitles, not even in the DVD version.[*] For the latter, you'd need to order a DVD from the UK or the US.)

Fan community: I'm afraid I've never been very directly involved in the fan community, so I don't know how to evaluate it for you. Munich does have two universities and a bewildering array of physics-related research institutes (including the one I work at), so you've certainly got the potential community there.

[*] Imagine the fun my friend and I had when we went to see David Lynch's Inland Empire and discovered that roughly a quarter of the film was in Polish. (Though I rather doubt the film would have made any more sense if we had been able to keep up with the German subtitles.)

I can't stand to watch anything with Jason Alexander because Philip Stuckey was mean to Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman.

Oh, this con is going to be so frustrating on some levels because I'll be toting around the Dude and who knows how he's going to behave.

P.S. Don't forget that alcohol hits you faster and harder at altitude.

(Actually, I hadn't seen that and it made me giggle. Thank you.)

Today I am having an odd remix of Boom-de-ah-da and O Canada playing in my head. Happy Canada Day, y'all.

(It is interesting that there are two Worldcons in a row in early August. Is this a function of availability of function space?)

There appears to be three main types of files, 4.2, 5.1, (possibly 5.2 as well) and 6 on, but I could use files from any version.

Does anyone have some old documents that are sufficiently impersonal (directions or something) that they don't mind them being tossed into a company directory for QA tests? My email is tavella@gmail.com.

To reiterate, 111 is NOT the emergency number in Japan.

The Center Cannot Hold.
There ain't nobody in the middle of the road but a bunch of dead armadillos, slouching towards Bethlehem to be born.

Little closer.

Yeah. Right there.

*SMACK!*

It was an interesting day in terms of art classifications-- okay, so there's art, meaning Western art-meant-as-art. Then there's archaeology art, which is things which are artsy but not Art-- nice pots, carvings, et cetera. This bleeds into really nice furniture and cabinets, jewelry, things like that.

But then... Native American art. Which is everything from blankets made of feathers to puppets to tapdancing Coyote to saddles full of embroidery. African art is the gorgeous Ogundipe hung next to tribal masks.

I really wish I had written down whether or not the 'modern art' section had a geographical note. 'Modern European/White North American' would not make me as wary and annoyed as simply 'Contemporary Art'-- because where do the extant, currently-working artists who happen to fit two galleries go? Does an artist being Nigerian mean that his work will always go into the African Art wing, and never into the Modern Art? It has two contexts.

This is a weird extension of genre, but art isn't books. You can shelve Nalo Hopkinson in SF, African-American Literature, Fiction, Women's Studies, anywhere you like, all at once. You can't hang a painting on two walls.

It kind of makes me want to design an art museum like a starfish, oldest at the outside, reflecting how artistic traditions began isolated, but have mingled and continue to do so as it became possible.

You have any favorites?

While in high school (early 90s), we read a short story which kinda stuck with me-- except for that whole title and author thing. It took place in a society where every person was born with 3 chances and every time you were a victim (of anything), one of your chances got used up. I remember the main character was female and there was a bit about how she doubted that some neighbor kid (I think?) was unlikely to live very long since he'd already used one of his chances so young. Some classmate slapped him, or something.

I think the main plot of the story was someone from another complex (who might have been an unintroduced friend-of-a-friend or something), who was eager to see an execution since they were pretty rare and there was one scheduled for Main Character's complex/building/whatever. I vaguely remember this being risky for MC as well as the other woman, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, the story ended with the execution, with the audience watching in rapt silence as the executioner stalked the condemned around a giant stage for a while and then slit her throat or something.

I know we read "Harrison Bergeron" at about the same time, but it was out of an anthology so probably not also by Vonnegut. I hope one of you lovely and well-read souls can end my misery. I really want to reread it, and then maybe toss it at victim-blamers.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/01/right-wing-hates-wall-e/

Right Wingnuts don't like WALL*E

I've been making a version of this recipe. (The font color/background choices are unfortunate there, sorry.) I have problems with step 2 every time. Step 2 says: "Heat the curry paste and oil in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Cook the curry paste, mashing it and mixing it with the oil until well mixed and bubbling."

I can't figure out how to do that without it popping and spattering all over my hands (ow!) and the stovetop. Is there a trick to it, or should I just invest in a really long spoon and plan to clean the stovetop every time?

Glenn Beck: I can’t wait to teach my kids how we’ve destroyed the Earth. … Pixar is teaching. I can’t wait. You know if your kid has ever come home and said, “Dad, how come we use so much styrofoam,” oh, this is the movie for you.

I don't actually see this one as a bad thing. Beck (whoever that is) may think so, but it sounds like praise to *this* ecobaby. Okay, "Teach my kids how we've destroyed the Earth" is unbearably negative. But teach them what we're doing wrong so we can STOP? Oh yes.

Pollowitz just makes me laugh. I hope his campaign to boycott all the tie-in junk is
very successful.

Maybe I should be worried that these people will create enough of a noise that Disney and Pixar will listen, but mostly my reaction is, "Heh. Idiots."

Well, you know, sup with the devil and all that.

In general, for best results, curry pastes should be cooked in oils until fragrant (the spices cooked enough to release aromas). If you can't smell it, it hasn't been cooked long enough.

R M Koske @89 I'd invest in the long soon (and an aloe vera plant) and clean the stovetop everytime, but that's generally how I cook. On the other hand, despite what it says I'd probably cook it in a casserole dish which would reduce splatter; that's because I was given a cast iron Le Creuset when I was 19 and use it at every opportunity.

* if you come from a tradition where the ground floor is the first floor, forgive me

Glenn Beck is yet another of the AM Radio right-wing ranters.

I think my ideal museum is huge, almost-perfectly organized (meaning that there's still room for a database conversation) and is populated by lots of friends who know things that aren't on the placards and wander around geeking out. Small games, do-it-yourself bits, and interesting architecture make everything better, too.

Saw Iron Man and adored it. Will be seeing Wall-E on Saturday. Will be reading Steve C.'s link after that.

R. M. Koske @90: I don't actually see this one as a bad thing. Beck (whoever that is) may think so, but it sounds like praise to *this* ecobaby. Okay, "Teach my kids how we've destroyed the Earth" is unbearably negative. But teach them what we're doing wrong so we can STOP? Oh yes.

"We'll tell our children's children why
We grew so tall, and reached so high
We left our footprints in the Earth
And punched a hole right through the sky"
-Marillion, "Season's End" (Pop music warnings about global warming in the '80s? Why yes!)

If you breathe food and water, you have worse problems. Just moving that 'the' would fix it.

--Margaret Cho

Okay. I thought as much, but it was worth asking. Thanks!

#97, James D. Macdonald -

That's about what I expected.

The really impressive part is, it worked.

Later this month, I'm going to Tales of the Cocktail, a bartending convention, with a focus on liquors and mixed drinks: history and how-to. [My husband tends bar; I'm going largely because it sounds like a lot of fun]

Problem is, I have very low alcohol tolerance, and don't want to make myself sick and thus miss out on panels (or worse).

Any tips on things I can do to help get thru the tastings?

I was thinking it would be helpful to bring along some snack foods, to avoid drinking on an empty stomach, but any specific foods to gravitate towards or avoid (proteins, carbs, etc)?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Were I doing this myself, with low alcohol tolerance AND my own poor sugar metabolism, I'd be going for high protein rather than high carb snacks, because I know that alcohol and crashing blood sugar heterodyne for me. Maybe there's a reason besides the high salt content that peanuts are a traditional bar snack.

Bringing bottled water and drinking more water than you do alcohol will help to keep you hydrated and forestall hangovers.

Other than that... I guess I'd be trying to taste in little sips, not full drinks or even large mouthfuls.

With winetastings, I'd spit the wine out* after tasting. Failing that, you could reduce alcohol intake by either getting you husband to pour you a smaller portion, or alternatively, don't feel obliged to finish every single drink.

*But not if it's a really good wine. Spitting is standard practice at formal winetastings, but 'civilians' tend to prefer to swallow.

"your husband."

I don't know how liquor/mixed drink tasting works -- is it Done to spit? If not, sip just enough to taste, and don't be ashamed to leave some behind (or donate it to someone else).

Finally, avoid carbonated beverages as much as possible, since carbonation tends to speed alcohol absorption.

Sometimes I think this IS Bizzarro World.

Xopher, #101: It's not just the Satanists. And look who's running that website mentioned in the article!

Hey, apropos of completely nothing, I was wondering about sociopathy. M. Scott Peck tells a story about two clients on Guam, both deathly afraid of snakes, which is a bad thing to be on Guam because it basically ends your life. One client said she knew she had a problem and needed to change, and that was a neurosis that Peck could treat. The other ranted about the lazy natives who wouldn't get rid of the snakes and the sloppy military contractors who wouldn't build houses that kept out snakes and blah blah blah, and that was a personality disorder that he couldn't treat.

So: Have there ever been any self-aware sociopaths? People who are stunned to realize that they fit the definition of "sociopath," that there really is a hidden connection between speech and action that is clear to everyone BUT them, that when people behave as if their consciences prick them they are being neither duplicitous nor dupes, that their emotional landscape is lacking some landmarks, etc.? And if so . . . is there any therapy that can help a willing sociopath learn how to operate in socially acceptable ways?

I happened to be talking with someone online who insisted that he was a diagnosed sociopath and that he was struggling hard to change, and ever since then I've wondered.

The Chicago Tribune article has a serge-worthy headline. Court ruling poetic justice for detainee

The ML-ish party for Canada Day was great fun. Faces to names. David: I did the same thing... scheduled the one free day we had to go... for the wrong day. It was greatly depressing.

I will not be at Denvention. I will be at Montreal if I have to beg money and hop freight trains.

Tavella @ 81: I might have access to some older versions of WP.

Jim: I wish Beck was limited to Radio, but some one of the cable networks has given him a chunk of mid-day time.

Lis: Take sips. Eat something between sips. Fats slow absorbtion. You still get as affected, but it takes longer. Chocolate is good, if you don't feel like packing a bunch of sausage/bacon.

Drink Water, or juices to prevent hangovers.

And there are too many topics floating around blogs that I don't want to touch with the proverbial 10-foot pole.

Oh well. I guess it's back to making weird CGI porn.

(Humanoid, sentient, and willing: the rest is commentary.)

Personality disorders - and that is what "sociopathy" is, officially labeled "antisocial personality disorder" - are extremely difficult to change. They're deeply integrated into a person's character. They used to be considered nearly untreatable, but there are some therapies now which seem to make headway.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is considered the therapy of choice for borderline personality disorder; I don't know whether it's also applied to treat antisocial personality disorder. Some psychologists seem to think the latter is pretty much untreatable, but I don't know that that's the official line.

I have some indication that DBT is effective on personality disorders. Our foster daughter ranks very high on test scales for both borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder, along with a bunch of other problems like mood disorders, possibly bipolar. Thankfully, we did not write her off. The last six months of DBT has seemed to make a big difference. She still has a tendency to be very self centered and think as though the world revolves around her, to blow off thing that's not immediately appealing, and to see everything as absolute good/bad - but now she's doing these in a way closer to how an average teenager can be like that. She is definitely less manipulative and more willing to engage honestly than before. (Note this is following hospitalization and nearly two years of other therapy. She turned out to be a much more troubled kid than we had any idea when we took her in.)

Some of that may be simply that we had the faith to stick with her even when we didn't want to, and to agree to take her back in when she was done with the various residential and group-home treatment programs, even after 18.

I am a bit suspicious of M. Scott Peck in general; some of what he writes rings very true, but at other times he seems prepared to see the Hand of Satan in ordinary human bad behavior, and I wonder how much that clouds his observation and interpretation.

P.S. I'm not a psychologist, I only play one on the Internet.

For that matter, why are there two full-length talk/rant programs on what's billed as a Headline News Service in the first place? Never have figured out that logic either.

Even with a lot of the studio set being virtual, these days, I suppose they need some time to sweep the floor and such.

I get the impression that they're grabbing for as much as they can get now, in the anticipation of having a less greed-oriented administration to deal with after the election. Sort of like the oil companies.

I think it was slightly better than IronMan, and I gave IronMan a 7.5. Hm. But if I go 7.6, it's an evening price. Think I might have to drop IronMan to 7.0.

Didn't take a counter with me to figure out the warpr0n score, but it's probably on par with V for Vendetta. The main difference is the movies infatuation with showing bullets go through people in super slow motion. But the body count is probably on par with V for Vendetta, so, probably around the same score.

I'll have to go through the DVD to tally the full score though.

Rare? Maybe not.

Also, I think you're probably neglecting gur cnffratref bs 4 be 5 pbzzhgre genva pnef from your bodycount tally, which I suspect the Loom of Fate did not...

Love, C.

Strangely enough, I do... former Satanist, actually.

I have a lot of strange friends.

In other satanist news, we have a real live satanic panic going on. That story, from my hometown newspaper, is a triumph of the bizarre. Rape and assault are serious charges, but -- satanic rituals? Really?

See, as an example from the British legal system, the "Operation Spanner" case. Essentially, in English law there are precedents for the idea that you cannot lawfully consent to some activities.

And, having said that, it could easily be as blatantly criminal as the story implies.

But the odd thing is that the Satanic element, if it is truly present, makes more sense as sexual role-play.

Really, it's far too early to say, but my five cents is teetering towards it being something weird that went wrong, rather than it being deliberate criminal abuse.

We got our answer rightly on the nose:
the world, we found out now, is very small,
in clarity of noon the forest glows.

There is no reason for the gate to close,
you note the light upon the garden wall
and see in proper place a single rose.

Praise of the moment would seem grandiose,
there is so much that we have to recall;
in clarity of noon the forest glows.

This is no time for slumber or repose,
you have to set things up within the hall
and see in proper place a single rose.

Now is the time for one who thinks he knows
the meaning of the days when they are tall;
in clarity of noon the forest glows;
and see! in proper place, a single rose.

Reason I'm asking: My partner was watching it on DVD, and wondered whether it had come out pre-2000. I said no, it was quite recent, within the last couple of years. He said absolutely not. We looked it up on IMDB, and apparently it came out in 2005.

But... I remember the huge fuss about it roughly a year ago! We had a long discussion here, which was the genesis of Greg's warp0rn scale, and half of my friendslist on LJ was suddenly using V icons. So what happened last year to stir it up again? Was that when the DVD came out, or what?

I remember a discussion about torture somehow linked to a long side-discussion about "V". Maybe that was it?

This was at NYU, by the way.

Including bonus interview with the actual Church of Satan!

* I and the horny problem student were the B+ students in stats.

Effect:
1. Something brought about by a cause or agent; a result.
2. The power to produce an outcome or achieve a result; influence.

So, those principles are causing the existence of the minorities?

My wife and I have been watching the Hercules Poirot movies. I've noticed that Suchet's Poirot is a big romantic (in a small package). Also in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe(*), he outright says that the fate of nations concerns him far less than that of the individual. How close is his Poirot to Agatha Christie's?

----------

(*) "Hey, that is Chritopher Eccleston!"

But it now seems that a complete print was sent to Argentina in 1928, eventually buried in a museum collection until it was realised that it was much longer than expected.

Well, it is the case, if you measure angles by the bend* – how much each deviates from a straight line – rather than the interior; e.g. 90, 135, 135 instead of 90, 45, 45. (Subtract the angle from 180 degrees to convert.) Not only that, but every polygon's angles add up to (some multiple of) 360 degrees when measured this way, not just triangles'.

* If there's a standard mathematical name for this, I don't know it.

"Well, naturally; I majored in Blasphemous Hyperborean Geometry." (Ph.D., Cornell, 1979; Ph.Nglui, Miskatonic, 1984.)

I think I may have mentioned the student (female) who said that "the bust of Nefertiti had been arousing to art historians".

It wasn't easy either. My dog, Tyndalos, kept eating my assignments before and after the deadlines.

This was the same professor who declared that notes should never be taken in pencil, and would defenestrate any pencils thus used.

"Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804. Put it in your shorts so it's the last thing you see."

Kevin Reid @149: I think the term you don't know is "external angle".

Random open thread question: can somebody tell me how necessary it is for F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack novels to be read in order. I have acquired two of them (Conspiracies and Hosts) from a local second hand shop and am wondering whether I should read these to find out if I like the series and then order the rest, or just bite the bullet and pay full price for the first one. I tried to skim the wikipedia article, but it seems a bit too spoilery for my tastes. I've been left with the impression that it might be OK for some of the books but not others... does that sound sensible?

Problem with the writing?

Example of the song (with cheesy video!) here if tubing is your thing.

Alas those words go in one ear and out the other?

In regard to TNH's campaign scam article.

I live in the 13th District of Georgia, and I'd noticed a little while back, on the eminently useful OpenSecrets.org, the anomaly of a no-hoper Republican challenger having a war chest nearly three times as large as that of the Democratic incumbent in a safe Democratic district. I'd wondered about it. Especially since I'd seen no activity by the candidate, and her web site was standard Republican pap. I've seen no yard signs, no bumper stickers, no advertising of any kind. I grant, it's a long way to the general election, but I'd have expected some visibility.

One of my colleagues, who has campaigned for some candidates (including a challenger for the Democratic nomination in the district two years ago) wondered if it was because the fact that the incumbent, David Scott, having been challenged two years ago, might have been seen as vulnerable by someone in the Republican Party. But, as is now clear, that doesn't seem to be the case. I am amazed at the naïveté of Ms Hunnicutt and her campaign staff (especially at the idea that she can manage with a sum that's less than half of Congressman Scott's funds in her war kitty). I'm less amazed at what this scam says about the current state of the Republican Party. This is the post-modern KKK: korrupt kriminal klowns.

You will have to Aton for that. Amun, well, really ...

I'd say Suchet's portrayal is pretty accurate, but it's been many years since I've read the books.

My flaky memory also tells me that Poirot was a huge romantic who had a penchant for auburn-haired women.

Anubis would cause a problem.

And yes, being "more interested in the fate of individuals than in the fate of nations" hews pretty closely to the way book!Poirot is written.

Margaret Rutherford was about as far as you could get. Joan Hickson was *perfect*. The more recent Geraldine McEwan entries were interesting, but I thought the character was a little too, well, obviously knowing, with a slightly malicious overtone. I always got the feeling from the books that any knowlingness on Miss Marple's part was always carefully hidden and came as a big surprise to others. Even when they were being reminded, gently, for the 49th time.

I always aim for the heights of Luxor. That way everyone else can Giza and despair ... no, wait, that's another category.

Serge @ #175:
I don't remember seeing Rutherford's Marple, but I like Joan Hickson's work very much.

Oddly enough, my favourite Christie book is The Mysterious Mr Quin, a one-off collection of short stories. Some of them have that quality of enchantment that I've found in the works of Elizabeth Goudge and Gerald Durrell.

You can see a discussion of this on Obsidian Wings. I saw it on the front page of a couple newspapers yesterday. Incredibly, it doesn't seem to be front-page news on BBC or El Pais today. (Embarrassing revelations about American torture of detainees has ceased to be news, sort of like unrest in the Middle East or corruption in Mexico.)

I simply cannot wait to see how this is spun by the right as still more evidence that they somehow backed the good guys. Because the hard core of the right is so invested in believing in their guys, they're like the victim of a con who is so convinced, he's ending friendships with people who point out to him that he's being conned.

[1] Which we weren't really doing, because Americans Don't Do Those Things. Besides, the bastards had it coming, even the 14 year olds sold to us by their families' enemies in Afghanistan. And what we're doing is not torture, it's just harsh interrogation techniques that cause hardened terrorists facing a death sentence to crack, beg for mercy, and spill everything they've ever even imagined doing. And besides, what're you, some kind of pinko liberal that wants to give Osama Bin Laden a chance to re-enact the OJ trial?

I haven't seen direct links to the study in news accounts, but it's online. You can read it here.

The issue of the medical journal it was published in has a bunch of related papers on Chinese Communist coercion as well (including one by Robert J. Lifton, and one dealing with the legal background of the Chinese "interrogation" methods). Links to the full issue, the journal, and a few other online resources can be found in a recent blog post of mine.

Not that growing tomatoes is a new thing, but it's never been more than four varieties in any given year. (I dropped into the Community Gardens next the Kaiser hospital, after the final check of my lens-replacement, and they had a vacant plot for a Senior Citizen ....)

Whether I will celebrate, tomorrow, the anniversary of the establishment of my country's Ideals, and its Achievements over the years, or wear Mourning, is still an open question.

Speaking of peeing, I just came across (on Wikipedia) this great quote from Dmitri Shostakovich, about one of my all-time favorite pieces of music, his 8th String Quartet: "It is a pseudo-tragic quartet, so much so that while I was composing it I shed the same amount of tears as I would have to pee after half-a-dozen beers".

As for celebrating the 4th, I'm going to do what I always do, which is watch Elvis movies. Every year since the late 90s my oldest friend and I have watched The Trouble With Girls and one other Elvis movie--the second one changes every year, and is usually terrible, although some of them (notably Harum Scarum and especially Speedway) are pretty damn fun. This year I rented Kissing Cousins, in which Elvis plays two different people. I'm guessing that, despite the title, hot Elvis-on-Elvis action is too much to hope for.

The new house has a flagpole mounting. By this time next year, we'll have a pole for it, and a Stars and Stripes*. But not yet.

I miss the Fourths of July from my childhood, with street parties and parades (small town stuff). Tell me tales of my home country, people. What are you Americans up to?

-----
* Also, a saltire for St Andrews Day and Burns Night, and a Dutch flag for Koniginnedag and similar occasions.

I'm crossing my fingers that I don't need to sedate my 16-year-old dog this year, since she's already taking enough meds and I worry about interactions. Who knew there were anti-dementia pills for dogs? (Selegiline, if anyone's curious.)

abi, #189, I'll likely watch The Twilight Zone while I do regular things. Although I'm considering hacking back the ivy while sitting in the chair on the porch if it doesn't rain. I was at the post office today and the flag was too low and loose and then I realized they were putting up the POW-MIA flag for the holiday. Too bad they can't leave it up all the time.

I will probably enjoy some more of the West African Ginger Beer made from the recipe that Joel Polowin shared recently. Excellent stuff, and very easy to make. Thanks again, Joel.

The Campaigners!

At the K Street office of legendary campaign consultant Max "Mudflap" Bialystock, a plot takes shape...

-- "Why, Mr Bialystock, it's funny, but you could make more money from a failed campaign than you could from a victory."
-- "Say that again?"
-- "All you have to do is raise a lot of cash from every interest group there is, and do whatever you want with it. You could spend some on the campaign, but the rest you could just, you know, keep. As long as the candidate loses, no one's going to ask to be repaid. But you'd need to be sure you'd lose; otherwise your donors would start asking for favours as soon as your candidate got into office, and you'd never be able to repay them all."
-- "All you'd need would be a candidate who was certain to lose. A dud. A hopeless, catastrophic, clinically insane dud. Leo, you're brilliant!"

And while Leo interviews a succession of no-hoper extremists, Max departs on his money-raising trip into Little Old Bigot Land...

abi: I am not working a show, because I am afraid I will be called out to deal with forest fires. That will be a royal pain, because odds are it will be for 30 days, and there is no one home but me, company expected before 30 days are up and a host of animals, plants, problems to attend.

So I'll be at a friends, hoping to see a good show from the roofs of Century City.

Well, Sue and I will go have a picnic at a park somewhere. (I'm not sure of the details, as my involvement mainly was to buy some baloney - or rather, very thinly sliced ham.) Tonight, we'll probably watch our DVDs of 1776 (see the Founding Fathers dance!) and/or of Yankee Doodle Dandy (see James Cagney dance!). Then, at about 8:30pm, we'll walk to the top of our backyard, from where we'll be able to see the fireworks going off around town.

This whole week, our goddaughter is out here visiting, and so we've been doing things that will be fun for both a 13 year old[1] and our much younger (7,3) sons. (The teddy-bear factory was a big win.) Tonight, we'll all go watch fireworks and hope not to get rained on too much.

[1] It still messes with my mind that my goddaughter is now old enough to be interested in boys, and that she will hop between being excited by the clothes for the cute teddy bears and wanting to flirt with the cute boy that walked by.

They climbed up the ramp to the ship. It was already filled with American soldiers returning home. They ran to the railing, and Kicsi thought how odd it was that they were all so anxious to get a last look at the land they were leaving. Vörös's hair was a small dot of color among the people on the dock. He waved at her.

The ship left the dock. She waved back to him and continued to wave until he was out of sight. The coastline faded as slowly as a smile fade.

She turned and looked to the west, to America.

Gur genva jerpx jnf pnhfrq ol n aba cynlre punenpgre fynzzvat ba gur oenxrf, pnhfvat n qrenvyzrag, nf n erfhyg bs gur svtug tbvat ba orgjrra cynlre punenpgref, juvpu dhnyvsvrf nf pbyyngreny qnzntr. Vg jbhyq or jne ce0a vs gur zbivr qvq ABG fubj pbyyngreny qnzntr, guhf zvavzvmvat gur pbfg bs jne. Vs gur qrnguf ner gur erfhyg bs pbyyngreny qnzntr naq gur zbivr fubjf gubfr qrnguf, gura vg qbrfa'g pbhag nf jne ce0a.

Vg jbhyq unir orra qvssrerag zngu vs gur crbcyr ba gur genva unq nyy jbexrq sbe bar fvqr bs gur cynlre punenpgref be bgure. Gura gurl jbhyq unir pbhagrq nf cncre gnetrgf rvgure sbe be ntnvafg gur gbgny jne ce0a fpber.

Ohg orvat pvivyvnaf pnhtug va gur pebffsver bs n onggyr npghnyyl fubjf ernyvfgvp qnzntr sebz n jne. Gur hygvzngr jne ce0a irefvba bs mreb pbyyngreny qnzntr vf jura fhcreurebrf unir n znffvir onggyr va n pvgl naq gur tbbq thlf ner fubbgvat jrncbaf naq guebjvat ohffrf ng gur onq thlf, ohg gubfr cebwrgvyrf naq jrncbaf nyjnlf snyy ba rzcgl cnegf bs gur fgerrg be ba n "pbairavragyl rzcgl jnerubhfr".

My father, who's read a lot of Christie, watches the new Geraldine McEwan Marples primarily in order to find out what strange new way they've found to warp the story *this* week. (There's at least one where they changed the identity of the murderer, and I think even one where they changed the identity of the *victim*.)

I try to be a receptive audience for his snarking, but not having read any of the Marples myself, the only episode I was able to join in on was 'By the Pricking of My Thumbs'. ("Item one: Since when has By the Pricking of My Thumbs had Miss Marple in it..?")

Last year, the fireworks fizzled-- the computer setting them off crashed hard. I'd just had my wisdom teeth out and was happy to have recovered so quickly.

Before the explosions begin, a friend and I are planning to see WallE.

Thus this group has attempted to raise pubic interest on the idea of constitutional protection to sexual minorities as well as several other topics but seemingly is closely correlated to some of the same principles currently effecting minorities in the United States as well.

To quote the former head copy editor at The New Yorker: "If you tapped this sentence on end it would never stop rocking."

Linkmeister:

I would be more impressed with The Robot Hall of Fame if they had inducted Huey, Dewey, or Louie--if for no other reason than it might get someone to cough up one of the drone suits (I remember seeing an article that said Trumbull had one sitting under the CE3K Mothership in part of his office) long enough so I could measure it. In college I found an account of a simple bipedal robot that had been rejected in favor of Lunokhod 1 that would fit perfectly into a drone body, and I'd really like to have a body to put it into. Oh, and my wife would like to get it fully assembled and out of the way...

Thomson: [calling for a vote] Where's Rhode Island?
McNair: Rhode Island's out visiting the necessary.
Hancock: Well, after what Rhode Island has consumed, I can't say I'm surprised. We'll come back to him, Mr. Thompson.
Thomson: Rhode Island passes.

James Bond: I always thought M was a randomly assigned initial, I had no idea it stood for...
M: Utter one more syllable and I'll have you killed.

Ha ha ha.

Ha.

...Actually, could someone just go and check?

Xopher #213: Clean up, man, and send out the invitations!

He won't be having beer and BBQ with Adams and Jefferson. He's more likely to be having warm Coke and burnt (and also undercooked) grits, where he's going.

I have that issue. There's an actual measured dimension that helps in the article: drones 1 and 3 have two-inch deep bottom pans. If you take an opaque projector and the pictures in that issue and in the photo spread in Esquire when the film came out you can adjust the projected image to get the measurements correct. (This is why I want an opaque projector, which my wife, the artist who uses Photoshop daily, never quite gets.) The problem is that there aren't really any nice close shots of the fittings used on the body (and now that Boeing Surplus is closed I can't search through the bins) or the arm that Trumbull's father built for them--it would make life much easier if I could just arrange access to one of the suits with a ruler and 35mm camera in tow...

I don't believe I've seen a Rutherford Marple.

I've just lately begun to look at Poirots, since there are no more Marples for me to see.

Love, C.

Been over for decades. The South won.

Just look around.

Love, C.

(full lyrics)

The day is a bit brighter than it was.

That momentary chill you are feeling, that brief whiff of stale and musty air, is the restless shade of Terry Carr, haunting you for abusing "hopefully."

By the powers invested in me (OK, I invested myself, but that's my prerogative) I hereby decree that absolution has been given (in advance and in perpetuity) to all those who defy de mortuis nil nisi bonum in the case of Jesse Helms.

Feel free, in other words. Don't hold back out of misguided superstition.

I can only hope there’s some sort of affirmative action program in Heaven, and he loses his spot there because they had to give it to a minority.

A Win.

(I'm not a Johnson fan, but I do have to give him credit as ex-Senate leader for figuring out Fulbright was the key to limiting cloture and that Humphrey could work with the old bigot--which Johnson couldn't after Fulbright decided Johnson was a traitor to the South over the 1957 Civil Rights Bill. I still don't understand how Humphrey pulled it off...)

I really ought not be so chipper, but you know... I can't feel any sorrow. Like Xopher, I can't help but think the world is better off for his absence.

I'm also pleased that he lived long enough to see two states legalize same-sex marriage. It must have eaten him alive to realize that he could no longer hold back the tide of change.

Will be eating bratwurst, cheese, bread, beer, and waching same.

Going to that museum and seeing all the rows of Buddha heads and hands made me think of generations of pith-helmeted Europeans and Americans, dashing off of boats and rushing to prize pieces off of all the native deities. And perhaps a class of native artisans who specialized in replacing such pieces after the boats left.

There were a lot of other things I liked, of course. An elaborate dollhouse. Painted wooden crucifix. Racing a friend up the stairs, laughing and gasping and nearly losing my equilibrium (and breakfast) at the top.

Evening of the 4th of July -- right now -- I'm listening to NPR, Scott McClellan, about how the Bush administration told lies to get us to go to war with Iraq and when it was done, could not acknowledge the mistakes that are keeping us there. F**k.

Have I said recently how much I despise these guys?

Did you see the map made of words? That one held us still for a while.

Lee @ 234: "I'm going to be looking at tomorrow's crop of political cartoons with extreme interest. I want to see how many of them feature Helms being "sent downstairs" by a big black God."

I think I'd prefer a shocked Helms standing before an enthroned, decidedly Middle-Eastern/North-African-looking Jesus, who is arching an eyebrow at him. The caption: "Didn't see this coming, did you?"

"I am obnoxious and disliked."

They must be an East Coast thing because I don't remember seeing such a sign during the 12 years I lived in California.

My most amusing memory of NY City in 1982... Coming to an intersection, and seeing the whole bunch of pedestrians crossing even though they didn't have the right of way.

Remind me to say something nice to our Ginger.

Oops. I didn't mean to say that out loud.

I'm just trying to help my son with his math homework, and golly gee whiz, you'd think it was the end of the world as we know it.

As a 0th generation gay Chinese-American (I moved to the US when I was 6), I wasn't his prime target. However, I got enough splash effect to make me amazed at the sheer dignity how those who got the full force of his his hate comported themselves.

Hmm... must avoid the news media for the next few days. I don't think I can bear the hagiography which inevitably follows the death of political figures this time.

P.J. Evans @ #212: no. "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." --Faulkner

Linkmeister @ #229: I refrain not out of "misguided superstition" nor out of regard for Helms but because I think it's cheap to kick people who can't kick back. Also, the man had family.

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/day-the-earth-stood-still/teaser-trailer

Teaser trailer

My first reaction: Reeves is no Michael Rennie, but that's hardly a surprise. Still, I'm curious.

You mean that it's not the end of the world as we know it?

"Xopher #213: Clean up [your lodgings], man, and send out the invitations!"

No, no -- as Karen Anderson once put it, mock-incredulously, "You mean ... you clean house _before_ hosting a FanParty?"

We need to get our perspective & priorities straight, here.

Having now seen the full version of 1776, I know why Nixon didn't like that song.

I haven't seen mention of this yet (I did a quick search to check), and I think it would be of interest to many of you here in the fluorosphere.

LJ users of many fandoms have banded together to create a charity auction in support of Marriage Equality, and inspired by George Takei and his lovely fiancé. Live Long and Marry!

From the userinfo: "The auction will raise money for the fight against the California initiative which will legally destroy existing same-sex marriages and ban any further ones. If the initiative passes, it will write discrimination into the state constitution, annul existing marriages, and make Mr. Sulu cry."

Up for auction are a wide variety of items and services -- from specialized fiction critiques, to hand knit items, to care packages from all over the world (including Iceland and Estonia), to made-to-order fan or original fiction, art, baked goods, and much more. Oh, and let's not forget the ironic offers of books autographed by Orson Scott Card and Anita Bryant.

The auction is still open to new offers if you get inspired. Bidding closes at 12:01am PST on July 15th.

Tanks. Great big tanks. The Dude didn't much care for the backfiring engines, but they were still pretty cool.

Other groups of note: The Pini Hardware Plunger Brigade, the Nave Patrola (comedy marching), Basset Rescue, an electric guitar brigade playing "Smoke On the Water"... fun stuff. Very much a family-friendly parade (not too long, lots of candy and other kid-oriented handouts.)

Then we went to my sister's for a barbecue and everybody was lovin' the Dude (well, my three-year-old nephew was unimpressed.)

Then we drove home and after dark went to my parents to set off the tiny little thing of fireworks I bought last year before finding out that my apartment complex doesn't let you set them off. Sheesh. You'd think it would be smarter to rope off part of the back parking lot (where nobody parks) and let all the residents set them off there.

I know it's high fire danger, but there's acres of concrete available for use and "safe and sane" fireworks don't travel.*

Incidentally, Evil Rob— who once got his pyrotechnicist's license for stage work— is plotting about next year, when the Dude will be old enough to appreciate the fireworks. Ought to be interesting.

*Yes, people can injure themselves with "safe and sane" fireworks. They just have to ignore all sensible safety precautions, such as "light fuse and step away."

In fact the ONLY thing the New Jersey motor vehicle code requires of pedestrians is not to "jump out in front of a vehicle in such a way that it is impossible for the driver to stop in time." Note: that word is 'impossible', not 'inconvenient', 'annoying', or even 'scary'.

Traffic lights control cars (and all motor vehicles and to some extent bicycles). Walk/Don't Walk signs are advice, and have no legal force AFAICT (IANAL). So if you have the green, and I'm in the crosswalk, technically you're required to let me cross "against" the light.

This is the law (as I read it, keeping in mind that IANALATINLA), not the common practice, of course. Most drivers appear to assume that the law is "pedestrians better get outta my way." But then they also seem to think stop signs mean "slow down to the point where you can blame it on the other guy if you hit someone."

On the other hand: Canadian pioneer werewolves!

There's plenty of good bits in the season finale.

The actual ending has the feel of a good story, but it seems tacked on, even rushed. And it's a cop-out.

I'm not sure I'd call the thing a Mary Sue, but almost everything which happens is what a Mary Sue would be blamed for.

(I like fireworks--under controlled conditions and at reasonable hours.)

Do they like maple syrup? No matter what, it sounds like I should pass, even though there's someone called Ginger in it.

Serge, #264: Yes, exactly. Especially where cellphones are involved.

A lot of the main plot was a gaudy mess.

Also, I propose a new term for trolls on Making Light: Quencher, or Collisional Quencher.

A quencher absorbs light and prevents fluorescence, turning light into heat. When the quencher is removed from the normally fluorescent, fluorescence is returned. A quencher quenches, removing light. A quencher perturbs.

The fluorosphere can experience a decrease in fluorescence upon collision with collisional quenchers.

Used in a sentence
"This thread has become heated and angry, and $Username has posted the same text to 5 different blogs: I think we've been quenched."

The rules here are.

Pedestrians have the right of way at all times.
All corners are crosswalks

Traffic Controls (defined as a light) control ALL traffic.

Pedestrians may assert their rights of way at crosswalks (so long as they don't violate a Traffic Control Signal)

Crossing a street which has Traffic Controls at both intersections is Jaywalking.

If there is not a oontrol at BOTH ends of a street, a pedestrian; so long as they do not interfere with the flow of traffic may cross at anyplace they like. If they do interfere with the flow of traffic, they are guilty of jaywalking.

The most obnoxious enforcement example of this I know of was the cop who set up across from Arcadia High School. The street there is 1/2 mile between intersections, both of which have lights. After he started writing up the first kids, others crossed to see what was going on.

Sola (who was, along with her boyfriend, one of those caught because of curiosity) said there were about 40 kids at the arraignment.

They might be able to pay for the police presence from the fines.

Of course, this is Fox News, which I am almost certain is run by children.

They don't, so far as I can tell change the duration of the signal... annoying enough.

But nasty... if you hit the button one side (going N/S, you use the E side of the street) the other side (W) gets a don't walk signal.

The signs show the Vehicle Code about lights and pedestrian travel (enter a crosswalk with a "don't walk" signal and you are jaywalking).

It's a trap, if you see some one hit the botton on the opposite corner you have every reason to expect to be able to legally cross at the same time they do.

Phew.

So tomorrow's page should be even more fun.

There's one crosswalk that has an on-demand walk signal that basically... as long as the light has been green at least twelve seconds or so, you hit the button, the light turns yellow right that instant. Other than that one, I think they're mostly to give pedestrians something to do.

Shay, #253, I'd looked when it first started and today have not only bid, but offered a custom necklace. I'm out of my mind.

Wesley, #275, wow, that's hard to believe.

Terry, #276, we mostly have demand walk signals in Old Town and they make all the lights red. Probably not long enough for me to cross, but for most people.

I still can't fathom why.

I'd say that Russell T. Davies is excellent at setup, less so at resolution. With luck Steven Moffat will be better.

I don't know about Ellay, but, I'd say yes, considering how crowded the BART trains could be. And there were times, when we'd get out of the trains and onto San Francisco's Market Street, where I'd think of the opening scenes from North by Northwest, except that I never bumped into Cary Grant or Alfred Hitchcock. I did once come across Newt Gingrich.

And what of the nudes tan?

And I want to see a certain Radio Times cover personality performing "Anarchy in the UK" for Children in Need

That reminds me of the ST-TNG episode where Q had been stripped of his powers. By the end, upon his regaining them, he was so happy that he conjured up a mariachi band on the bridge of the NCC-1701-D.

It struck me that reading this in 2008, many of the comments hold up quite well. In particular, revelations from the last five years make #1 (Bush and company made up the justification for the war for political reasons) look rock solid. #4 is pretty much confirmed by the mishandling of the Katrina disaster. #5 tracks quite well with my memories of the use of the terrorism threat level, though I don't have hard data about how it was used. #6 is transparently true, and has been for a long time.

As an aside, one of the many reasons why we get such misleading and crappy coverage of political issues by the MSM is that they so rarely look back at old news stories and claims, and check to see how they held up. This makes it easy for professional liars to simply come up with a different lie each month, knowing that no reporter or MSM news source will ever bring up the past.

It says he has 14 kids; he should have gotten over that by now. (The Texas GOP party is busy trying to turn the clock back at least as far as the late 19th century; they don't like the modern world. Except when it's convenient: if they ever had to actually deal with the world they're trying to create, they'd be completely lost.)

Come now. In a blog universe that contains Gary Farber, Avedon Carol, Vicki Rosenzweig, and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, among others, Cosmic Claude's name shall be forever green.

None of you are old enough to have been active in Fandom when Degler was. Or born yet. He vanished in 1951, with one possible brief reappearance in 1981.

How can his name be yet green in the minds of people who never knew him?

Re: on-demand walk signal...I think they're mostly to give pedestrians something to do.

Like the "Close Doors" buttons in elevators?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgYwTELj-fs

Hilarious!

I think that's because, when someone hits the button at one of those, it actually lengthens the signal. (I've actually gotten out of the car and hit the button at one intersection where the pavement sensor wasn't working and the light wouldn't change. Not exactly what they intended, but it worked.)

Not quite. It does happen that, on my way down and out of the building where I work, my elevator stops on the way down - possibly because someone accidentally pushed the 'down' button instead of 'up'(*). I usually wait 5 seconds, then I push the 'close' button.

(*) How does the Federation deal with that?

"What happened, Odo?"
"He beamed down, but he pushed the 'down' button."
"There's nothing downward other than vacuum."
"I know. You should see the mess where he intersected with that shuttle."

And there also should be a back-up timer system in case the vehicle sensors fail. Though the fail-safe option should surely be "vehicle-present"?

By the way, I should say that I don't particularly deserve credit (or blame) for that thread; it was started and moderated by my co-blogger Ben Webster.

abi: the paper says Boston had its usual blast; my wife and I don't do crowds of half a million, so it's been a long time since we've gone (and the last time we made use of museum memberships to get restricted seats on a nearby rooftop). Instead we listened / watched as a friend's neighbors set off cannon crackers and small rockets, had indoor-grilled burgers, watched a bit of the pre-fireworks Pops concert (Irish stepdancers accompanying the theme song from a local movie, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", and the traditional 1812 Overture, with howitzers and maroons but no tower bells I could find), and played a couple of rounds of a silly board game. (We were moving slowly enough that we completely missed the ritual showing of 1776; \someday/ I'll see the first half-hour....)

JESR@256: that's great when it works. There was a San Jose Westercon where the suite patios were placed so we could see SJ downtown, Moffett AFB, Marriott's GA, etc....

(Found via Weekend Stubble.)

Reading that prompted me to track down "The Two Dicks," a short story by Paul McAuley (F&SF, November 2001) that I'd never read before. If you have an appropriate library card, you can read it online here through "Access My Library."

It's a pretty savvy scam. As a colleague of mine said, 'Why didn't it occur to people like you or me. My response was 'We're cursed with a basic honesty.'

news story.

In other news, it looks like one of the neighborhood cats has sdopted us. It's a young male, who lives next door; but the woman who lived there has left for the summer and rented the house out, and apparently told the renters (and her mother, who comes in to take care of the grounds) that it's an "outside cat". I don't think even the cat believes that one; he drops by every once in a while to get a drink of water and be rubbed behind the ears for an hour or so. It's not like he's been abandoned; they do leave out food for him; but he's taken to crossing some heavily-traveled streets, and was found about half a mile away once. I've managed to trade voicemails with the mother, and she's dead-set on the "outdoor cat" notion, so all we can do is say hello to the cat when he comes around, and hope he's not hit by a car.

Mind you, it's a bit startling when she wakes you up by grooming your moustache.

Interview with Jeff Sharlet. Mostly on the Family, a radical christian group that aims at converting the politically powerful, and has succeeded depressingly often. But check out The Revealer, which is like Media Matters for religion in the media.

LACMA and I guess the Getty are accessible by public transportation, but getting to, say, the Huntington, or Descansos Garden without a car is pretty much impossible, and unless things have changed a lot, the Zoo and Hollywood Bowl are off the RTD map.

I've never had a driver's license, and spent a lot of time in LA a moderately long time ago, dealing with normal life sans car- it's doable, but not as easy as Seattle was at the same time, nor Thurston County now: most of that due to scale rather than density. (I'm biased about LA as a bike town; one of my husband's friends was a bicycle-only LA person, and died in a car-bicycle accident last summer).

The Bowl is easier to get to now than it used to be - they put a subway stop not too far from it, and there are buses that go there especially for performances: I'm having to dodge them when I'm leaving the train station in the evenings. I don't know how many routes actually go there, because it's not a full-time route, and the MTA site isn't really very friendly.
The Getty, either of them, is more difficult. I think there might be a bus on Sepulveda that can get you to the main museum, but I wouldn't want to bet; I've heard there are also shuttles from somewhere on the West LA side of the hill. The one in Pacific Palisades is likely less accessible than that.

Our first non-US Socrates Cafe contact!

While it's not yet on the website I link to here (and in my name/profile above), the Socrates Cafe Minnesota webmistress (my wife) just got contacted by a couple in Dubai, U.A.E. that they've been running a Socrates Cafe group there for about 4 months now!

Philosopher.org is the home website for the Society for Philosophical Inquiry (SPI), the "parent organization" for Socrates Cafe. SPI is a global thing, but they unfortunately don't list the available groups directly on their website - you have to e-mail them and/or become a (paid) member. Socrates Cafe is a book written by Christopher Phillips, and is what the group I moderate at the Ridgedale Public Library/Hennepin County Government Building in Minneapolis (Every Thursday evening at 7PM, on the second floor, between the Dunn Bros. and the DMV, in case you want to drop by) is based on.

Our site has links to all the MN-based Socrates Cafe groups we know about and for which the group organizers would permit us to list them, plus a number of out-of-state groups, and perhaps soon the U.A.E. group. We've gone global!

Oh, and just in case you go and notice, yes, the forums (under Amphitheatre, just to be cute) are rather slow/nearly dead. Just in case you needed somewhere else to read/post...

Thanks,
-cajun

Not that GWB doesn't deserve his very own memorial building.

That's information few are privvy to.

It will pass.

Serge @ 326: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be a stool pigeon.

...who works for the power behind the throne?

Marilee @ #317, I bet you can guess which of her product sections caught my eye...lovely stuff!

Since I live right next to the ocean now, it seems like a good idea to put some sort of sealing finish on them, but I can't figure out what sort of finish would work. I have three contradictory opinions from three different sources, none of which seems trustworthy:

- A clerk at the store where I bought the chairs thought that the factory-applied oil should be sufficient by itself.

- A guy selling beeswax-based furniture polish at the San Diego County Fair assured me that his product would do exactly what I wanted.

- A clerk at an ISO standard hardware store (Ace brand) recommended scrubbing and sanding down the wood to get rid of as much of the oil as possible, then applying primer and spar varnish. (This option seems especially ill-advised.)

Help?

65,000 pounds plus VAT.

Anyone want to go in with me?

I think tung oil is the preferred finish for this sort of thing - my parents had a teakwood dining table with an oiled finish, and it needed to be re-oiled once in a while - but a furniture place would know more than I do.

I got four automatic Windows updates earlier today, clicked to install them, rebooted, and discovered the updates had killed my ZoneAlarm firewall. Every single program I try to access, be it e-mail (and all the links in e-mail) or Firefox, is refused by ZoneAlarm. No opportunity to bypass the alarm is available. Even ZoneAlarm's website is blocked by its own firewall. The only way to get access is to shut down the Zone Alarm firewall and rely on the built-in Windows firewall.

Great. Anyone know a workaround or fix?

"Get a Mac" is not an option.

Zack, #336, stick with the oil. Some woods are better with oil than polishes or varnishes.

Linkmeister, #339, Ack. I have the same updates waiting for installation. Good thing I don't have Zone Alarm. I don't know anything about Zone Alarm, but the best thing I can think of is to uninstall it and then reinstall it (over the new updates).

There are drying oils and non-drying oils.

Raw linseed is non-drying; most linseed sold for furniture these days has stuff in it to make it a drying oil.

Walnut oil and tung oil are drying oils.

Anything you are going to sit on, you want a drying oil.

If the furniture is already oiled, you've got an oiled finish unless you want to go the 'disassemble; re-machine one quarter inch smaller in all dimensions' route.

Heavily oiled acacia wood ought to be good for anything short of pouring bleach on it; tung is probably what you will find most easily. Remember to store the closed container upside down so you don't get the top side where you pour from oxidizing and skinning over in the container.

You can -- this is what the original French polish is -- mix bee's wax and non-drying oils. Doing it with a drying oil is dis-recommended. Since you've probably got tung oil on there, don't go with the wax top coat.

Remember to wipe the excess oil with something lint-free.

It's a really quite low-maintenance finish; not quite as tough as modern polyurethanes, but, well, generally tough enough.

Where on ZA's site could I find that discussion?

Thanks, it worked like a charm.

Lizzy L @ #345, I'd go look at Trend Micro's forum, if any. The patch was Windows-wide, so if it's going to be a problem for your system, I'd imagine it would have created an outcry there.

I'm cruising with built-in Windows firewall right now.

On a related note, the new AVG antivirus version 8.0 appears to have an interesting new ability: it can activate a modem to do its scheduled updates even if the Windows settings have auto-dialing disabled. It may be unable to negotiate the password, etc., with the machine at the other end; I infer this from multiple failed attempts to complete the connection. There's a setting in the AVG configuration which enables this use of modems, turned on by default.

I was not happy to be awakened on Saturday morning by the sound of the modem dialing, without my having told it to do so. That's my cue to lurch to my office and yank the modem cable out of the wall.

http://bunsen-h.livejournal.com/16889.html

Go to Add/Remove Programs (in Control Panel).
Make sure "Show Updates" is checked.
Remove update KB951748
Reboot.

One of the things that Security Update KB951748 apparently does is inform Microsoft every time you start MS Word, even if you've told your firewall not to allow MS Word to access the internet.

A security issue has been identified that could allow a remote attacker to misrepresent a system action or behavior unbeknownst to users on Microsoft Windows systems. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Either Microsoft's testing is so incredibly slipshod that they didn't know about this problem, or they're so uncaringly stupid that they thought somebody, whose firewall they'd buggered, could look up the answer in the internet.

Neither is a good advert for Microsoft.

Gods, man, why?

More Open-Threadedness: I finished Jhegaala this morning, and it was delicious, but I noticed a typo/copyedit error. I know it's been mentioned before, here, but I can't recall who at Tor I'm supposed to send those to...

But the dialup modem had better not try calling out on its own ....

From what Linkmeister says, that seems not to be the case. I'd be rather surprised if the installation management system didn't keep track of software versions, and would ignore a later attempt to re-install an earlier-version file. Assuming backward compatibility, one would always want to have the most recent file version.

Skwid @ 365: Joel...wait...you have a modem plugged in?

Gods, man, why?

Well, it doesn't work if it isn't plugged in. Leaving it plugged in shouldn't be a problem unless something activates the modem inappropriately.

Or was that "why a modem"? Well, see, a number of months ago I decided that I was overdue to upgrade to a higher-speed connection, which would also not tie up my phone line. Ideally, it would just be a matter of upgrading the service from my current provider, so I wouldn't have to go through the hassle of changing addresses, moving my website, etc. Unfortunately, the published terms of service for my current connection specify that the service includes hosting my webspace, and the published terms of service for the higher-speed connections don't mention it. And I have spent hours and hours trying to get someone from Sympatico to send me some kind of official document (or link to same) which specifies that the higher-speed service includes the site hosting. A couple of their North American droids -- when I managed to talk with someone in North America -- told me that they were pretty sure that the higher-speed service included the site hosting, but they were honest enough to admit that they couldn't find an official document. I've had about eight of their droids in India (judging from the names and accents) assure me that the hosting was included, but despite my requests for documentation of that -- phrased as clearly as possible, in as many ways as I've been able to think of -- they haven't sent documentation, and I'm unwilling to accept the mere word of a semi-illiterate flunky with no authority. (Maybe in Hindi or something, he's a lit major and poet. This is not relevant to my getting useful information in English.) I've been pointed to non-existent web pages, and to web pages that don't actually say anything about terms of service, and to the general Sympatico help system. I've been told that "this email is a document".

And this nonsense hasn't been quite enough to push me to the hassle of finding another ISP. But it has come pretty close.

Anyway, I was surprised to learn that there's such a thing as a Gay Chamber of Commerce*, and pleasantly surprised to find out that McD has a seat on it.

*my "friends" have been known to pronounce my last name as "Clue-less", ok?

As for Ronald McDonald, good for him.

If your 'friends' pronounce your family name 'Cluless', I'd hate to hear what your ennemies do to your name.

It will make a firm bond with an oil treated surface; I've got a quarter-sawn white oak table top that needs refinished again after an unfortunate incident with acrylic lacquer and bad reflexes, and am going the carnauba route this time because part of the table top has a tung oil finish but the leaf is unfinished. (Cheap antiques with flood water damage, what can I say?)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080708.fox09/BNStory/International/home

...Mr. Steinberg's boss, Steven Reddicliffe, was a former employee of the Fox media empire and reportedly had “an axe to grind” with the company.

...Fox ran modified pictures of both men. Mr. Steinberg's teeth had been yellowed, his nose and chin made more bulbous, and his ears jugged. Mr. Reddicliffe was given black bags under his eyes....

Me, I'm doing a system restore of last night.

It struck me that a villain could pull an epic sadistic stunt by sneaking into the movie theater, scurrying up to the projection room, and substituting a reel of a certain 1966 movie for the Christian Bale film. Imagine the audience seeing this pop up:

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da

Deliberately, as later documented. Now if only we could have learned this from China instead:

A Chinese court has jailed a former anti-graft prosecutor for life for torturing a suspect to death, while his superior was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to cover up the case....

*Dear god this sentence is a horrific mash of verb tenses. I don't know what I'm doing.

Assorted photos of varied quality of large roses.

There are other photos of roses from this year in other posts in my journal.

The Gold Line will get you to within a mile and a half of the Huntington (I used to walk there from my house, unawares it was a 6 mile trip; but I like to walk). For decades the RTD (now the MTA) has had busses which go to the Bowl. You have to get to one of the hubs they depart from, but it's on the map. I don't know about the Zoo.

P.J. Evans. The Getty are both pretty easy. The Malibu Getty (what I think of at, The Getty) has a bus from Ocean and Santa Monica, and there is one to the train from the parking lot which runs around Westwood. Both of those areas are something of a pain to Mass Trans to, but the endpoint is doable.

What's the source of this information? I've been looking around, and can't find it.

A Chinese court has jailed a former anti-graft prosecutor for life for torturing a suspect to death, while his superior was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to cover up the case. Another two law enforcement officials involved in the torture were sentenced to 15 and 10 years in jail respectively, the newspaper said.

Are we seriously getting our asses kicked by the Chinese in who has better human rights around not torturing people?

Not to be cynical about it, but I wonder how much of this reflects an internal state change, and how much of it is PR for the olympics.

No, that was cynical.

gads, I'm depressed by the whole thing.

Well... best ask the Tibetans, and whoever survived Tiananmen Square. On the other hand, the Uighurs might declare it a tie.

An updated version is avialable fomr the Zonelabs site.

So far, two download attempts have failed to produce a usable copy.

Now she asks for the Bill of Rights every day when I get home from work, and I think we might start on the Constitution too - at least she thinks we should, and I can't really come up with a reason not to. It's been instructive. (And for anyone else with small children (or who needs to win bar bets), I heartily recommend The Constitution Translated for Kids by Cathy Travis. I actually need a second copy now, since the kid seems to think that "for kids" means she gets to keep it, but it's a perfect size for tossing in a bag and carrying everywhere with you - you never know when you'll need to prove that "America shall be a Christian Nation, founded on the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ" isn't actually in the text anywhere.)

Your kid might like to see something that Tania posted on her own blog on the Fourth. It's a YouTube of
Muppets sort-of singing "Stars & Stripes" while Sam the Eagle interprets the Constitution as designed to protect the Nation from weirdos.

Reason #10782 why ML is Like Callahan's.

Do you know what I love about you guys? That you have the patience, empathy and fierce desire to nurture the kindred souls who stumble in here. In the spirit of paying it forward you take the time to help them shed their bad intellectual and emotional habits they've built as defenses through years of dealing with the willfully, blissfully ignorant who don't like "smart people".

I just wanted to tell you that it takes a special kind of wonderful to do that, and you should take a moment today to acknowledge that truth and accept that you have "some wonderful goin' on."

That is all, carry on.

Anyone with even a slightly passing interest in soul music who hasn't heard Al Green's The Belle Album (from 1977; his first album without Willie Mitchell producing, and one of his last secular albums for quite a while) should track it down and listen, right now. It's beautiful. I think some sort of supernatural deity, master of all that is lovely, plays bass.

Hate to rain on your parade, but I think the folks here are motivated entirely by the selfish desire to have the world they live in be the way they want it to be, combined with the disillusioned realization that it won't get that way on its own.

On the other hand, this is not incompatible with your rendering of the matter, either.

Got it downloaded the first time. Not bragging, just saying it can be done. Transatlantic connection may be at fault?

(Managed to figure out the basics of the problem yesterday from first principles: I could, from the cmd line, ping mit.edu . Housenet was working fine. Attempting to fiddle with my dns stufff didn't work. Other applications besides browser were also busted. What have all those applications got that dos-box does not? Oh. Firewall. Turn off ZoneAlarm, which is mildly OK for a few minutes because housenet also has a firewall. Gee, everything works. Turn on the much-maligned Windows firewall as a temporary measure. Google for problem; I could have done this last bit from spouse's computer, but I thought I'd see if I could debug it myself.)

The WashPost had an article on a young boy who is now a teen who developed gluten-free recipes for his sister and has a cookie, bread, etc. cookbook out.

Had that person left, never to return, I would not have been surprised.

To our credit we backpedaled from the hostilty and snippiness of our replies, but we could have been better.

Not to say we can't be as good as you see us; but we aren't what we ought to be (which is ever the way of the good people in the world)

There's a place we really should be
If we really could be
(Even though we couldn't);
And a place we really shouldn't.

All of us are seen
Stuck somewhere between,
Running hither, thither,
Or sitting in a dither.

I think it means a lot
Which way we're going, not
How far we just now seem
From the distant dream.

_________________________________

(And in case #398 was too clumsily put to be funny, it was meant to be a sour-faced rephrasing of "compassion is enlightened self-interest".)

"There are things that go bump in the night. We bump back."

HellBoy II: The Golden Army premieres today.
Yay!

Also Yay!

I won't be able to go tody because of the local SF club's monthly meeting, but tomorrow night...

My wife and I will be going out Saturday night as well, thanks to an AMC gift card from my sister and my Mom's willingness to watch our daughter for the night.

"There are things that go bump in the night. We bump back."

"You woke up the Baby!"

hehehee!

We loved the first one, and with Del Toro in on this one we just have to see it on the big screen. (Still haven't worked through the NetFlix queueueueue far enough to see Pan's Labyrinth, more's the pity.)

I remember a 2004 interview with del Toro where he talked about how the studios wanted the Rock to play HellBoy, but del Toro held firm and went for Perlman even though he's not a box-office draw. Mind you, the original movie didn't do well and the studio execs probably went nyah nyah. So, why is there a big-screen sequel out now? The sequel was originally going to be a direct-to-video release with the same cast, and pretty much the same story. What happened? Pan's Labyrinth happened.

the original movie didn't do well

More proof that we live in decadent and debased times.

410: Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) needs to get involved with "The Atrocity Archives". I can think of no better Bob Howard. And Edward Fox as Angleton. Oh yes.

Hackshaw: Do you realize how long they've waited for me? Centuries! Millennia!
Lovecraft: How long is that in dog years?

Shatner began his musical career with the spoken word 1968 album The Transformed Man. Delivered with orchestral backings with the odd "psychedelic" flourish, his exaggerated, interpretive recitations of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" became instant camp classics.

The latter can be heard and seen in YouTube with a montage mashing up Star Trek and I Love Lucy.

Be sure you get the download labeled:
ZoneAlarm version:7.0.483.000
TrueVector version:7.0.483.000
Driver version:7.0.483.000

Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com.

Ye cats; talk about taking trolling to a new level. While I in no way condone the threats of violence against him, I have to say that my respect for PZ Myers has now dropped below what I had for William Sanders.

(Besides, I like the Friday cephalopod pictures.)

Basically, because Myers seems to see no problem in gratuitously going out of his way to stomp on the feelings of millions of his fellow citizens by stealing and desecrating something they hold extremely dear.

I don't have a problem in principle with Myers speaking his mind about religion, including him arguing vehemently that my beliefs are nonsensical or harmful. (I'll disagree with him, but respect that people have differences in belief, and should feel free to express those differences.) But he's going well beyond that.

Here's an analogy that might give some idea of the sort of thing he's doing: Suppose I have an item I cherish-- like, say, a doodled self-portrait left behind to me by a sister who died. It has no economic value, but it means the world to me. I take it with me frequently to remind me of her. One day I leave it on a bench for a moment, and someone who's been waiting for me to do this takes her drawing, and announces loudly that he is now going to slowly stab her, scrawl over it, draw someone raping her, and eventually destroy it, all in public so that I and anyone else who cares to watch can get a good look. If I complain, I'm told haughtily that my attachment to my dead sister is misplaced, and it's only a drawing anyway, so I should just grow up already.

Now imagine it's not just me he's doing this to, but millions of other people who feel the same way.

Putting aside for a moment the problem of him swiping the drawing (which has an analogue in the present situation), does he have a first amendment right to do this? Yes. Can I still consider it a thoroughly contemptible thing to do? You bet.

(It's actually worse from a Catholic point of view, since for us the Eucharist is not merely a beloved symbol but the very body and blood of Christ. But I also have a low opinion of US personnel intentionally and flagrantly desecrating a Koran in front of a Muslim, or the Taliban seizing and destroying Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.)

Aside from that, I do that your point, but destroying a transient object meant to be eaten isn't, for me, in the same class of outrage as destroying a statue meant to exist for centuries.

I also thought giving the guy who burned the Burning Man ahead of schedule all that time in jail was excessive.

John@427: "I thought they gave the wafers away."

Not unconditionally. Communion is reserved for Catholics with proper disposition (in part to try to avoid desecrations), and there are guidelines printed in the mass books of Catholic churches that state this explicitly. Such Catholics in turn, are expected to know and respect what the Eucharist is, and what recipients are supposed to do with it. ("Take this... and eat it," to quote the liturgy, not "Take this and do what you like with it.")

Intent matters, as you yourself note with respect to the Buddhist statues "meant to exist for centuries". And the intent here is pretty clear.

Two... they are more dangerous (in theory) because they, unlike a mortar, can be fired remotely. When one fires a mortar, one has to be present. If counterbattery radar is up, then the track back to the mortar can be read; and someone sent to deal with it.

This set-up, not so much.

For all that I like PZ Meyers when the subject is biology/evolution, the place is toxic when religion comes up. The disdain diplayed, and the bigotted stereotyping which so often appears is the main reason I only read it occaisionally.

Thank you.

If PZ wants someone to steal a wafer so he can descerate it, although it shouldn't cause the level of threats he's getting, that's into the 'evangelical atheist' stuff that they get into over there... and which does keep me from visiting as often as I otherwise might.

(I got raised Methodist; it's looser, but that sort of thing isn't done there either. Cubes of peasant-type bread and tiny glasses of grape juice, passed along the rows for each person who wants to, to partake.)

Uh, I think the initial post was more pointing out the reaction to stealing a communion wafer was that the guy got a bunch of death threats. I don't think the bible or catholic church authorizes execution of communion wafer thieves.

But since he was aware of what reaction one person got for stealing a communion wafer, I'm not exactly sure what he thought would happen if he suggested someone steal a communion wafer for him. Science being based on observation and repeatability, you'd think he could have seen it coming.

Not that it makes the death threats OK, but it does make me wonder what he thought would happen.

Ah. That's odd. That's not new technology, and it's not a new tactics. It's just "new" to Iraq. We use unmanned predators to remote launch hellfire missiles at targets, and we're surprised when they use remote launched dumb rockets?

Are we talking about line of sight RPG kind of thingy or indirect fire rocket artillery thingy?

After all, you can buy the wafers by the caseload if you want to.

I don't condone death threats, of course, and Bill Donohue of the Catholic League or whatever it is (makes me think of The League of Red-Headed Gentlemen) is a narcissistic self-promoting idiot.

I've enjoyed PZ Meyer's blog but AFAIAC he's just crossed a line.

Around 2:20, you see a glimpse of Rorschach.

Given that the rules for Burning man says "There are no rules about how one must behave or express oneself at this event", I'd agree.

Apparently, there's a "Well, everything but that" attached as a footnote somewhere.

My cynical self says this is an adminstration attempt to make Iran look more active, and so ratchet the rhetoric and make McCain more effective a candidate.

Paula: One cannot buy consecrated host. The whole thing is purely provocative. P.Z. Meyers has to know that it's something catholics feel strongly about (hell, I am recusant, and more than a trifle lapsed, but this bothers me; at a gut level it pisses me off), and with idiots like Donohue more than willing to stoke the flames (and a huge streak of religious intolerance/persecution complex in this country) it's not surprising some of them are going to go way beyond reasonable in their responses.

To then hold them up, and have the entirety of the faithful treated as if they are cut of the same cloth which certainly seems the tenor of a lot of the comments), well it's a cheap shot, and dirty pool.

Greg: re burning man. I thought the "premature" attempt to burn the man was perfectly in keeping with the core idea of getting rid of attachments to things (which was, it seems, the purpose of the whole thing).

Yeah, I read that article, and it sounded like some super high tech stuff that couldn't possibly come from insurgents with surplus weapons, and they said that the guys who were using them were extremely well trained to the point that one military official compared them to our delta force, and my bullshit detector set off flags. So, then I tried to figure out what the hell kind of weapon they were actually talking about, and damned if they didn't say anything specific about it.

Based on the title "lob bombs", I guessed dumb, unguided, indirect weapons, and I was thinking what in hell is so special about that that it's suddenly the biggest threat US troops face in Iraq?

The whole thing smells like Niger yellowcake.

By the way, Cthullu, squid in the desert? Not a good idea.

What seems to be a little more ingenious is that the guerillas involved are copying the IRA, and putting their rocket launcher inside a small truck, fired on a timer, so all they have to do is park in the right place, pointing in the right direction, and walk away.

The IRA managed this in Whitehall, though they had to build their own missiles, which didn't work very well.

And a range of 8000 metres. Against a target the size of one of the American bases you should be able to keep the bangage inside the perimeter, though park-and-shoot probably doesn't give enough pointing accuracy for a long-range shot.

Really, this is nothing new, and the way it's being painted, with the Lob Gun label, looks damned suspicious.

Think of it as evolution in action.

Indeed, this article mentions that

A U.S. explosives expert, Maj. Marty Weber, confirmed in April 2007 that most 107mm rockets found in Iraq were Chinese-made.

Chinese, Yugoslav and Pakistani 107mm rockets have also been the weapon of choice of Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan, according to U.S. military officers there.

There are several examples in that article of US officials making statements about Iranian origins for insurgent weapons in Iraq, which they are later unable to back up.

Myers picked up on this incredibly violent reaction as a measure of how the Catholic church retains a lot of the good ol' fashioned Inquisitionary spirit.

As the man said, Traditiooooooon!

After a certain point, I expect biologists to have something more interesting to talk about.

Having now seen a trailer for the film, I feel moved to relate a remarkable discovery that the characters make (and which the Salon review neglects to mention, perhaps because the characters themselves take it entirely in their stride): apparently it's possible to travel hundreds of miles into the earth's crust and still get pretty good mobile phone reception...

JimR at 448: so this foolish college student received death threats from bishops? The College of Cardinals? The Jesuits? The Pope? Opus Dei?

No. He got threats from stupid people who happen to be Catholic, and from Donohue, who in NO way represents the Church, except in his own mind. AFAIK, the institutional church has stayed out of this whole thing. As Myers should have.

He got threats from people who were taught that the wafer was *human* by the Catholic Church. I don't think this is one of the Church's better teachings, personally.

That one was big (more than knee-high to my fourth grade self) and apparently WW1 vintage. I've always wondered what its official description was.

(It's also the #1 situation in my youth when a cell phone would have been good to have, given that we were two miles from the trail head and five from the nearest phone).

However, civilization will survive. By this time next year no one will remember any of it.

Pat Boone starred in a 1959 version of "Journey to the Center of the Earth"? Oh wow....

Indeed, this article mentions that

A U.S. explosives expert, Maj. Marty Weber, confirmed in April 2007 that most 107mm rockets found in Iraq were Chinese-made.

and that

Chinese, Yugoslav and Pakistani 107mm rockets have also been the weapon of choice of Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan, according to U.S. military officers there.

(Barring catastrophe, etc., I expect to be there. I also have next Friday off, I'm on a alternating Fridays off work schedule now, my employer implemented that this week.)

How do y'all feel about an expedition over the weekend to the new Batman flick?

All The Right Factors: characters I love and can identify strongly with, a compelling setting, and things that I perceive as holes, gaps, or unanswered questions that I'm not content to just let sit there until the author gets around to it. This often means that I get the urge to write fanfic about stories that aren't as well-constructed as stories I enjoy more!

Sounds good to me!

Oh, as regarding dining near the hotel--there are three restaurants on the other side of 128 that are about half a mile away (back of hotel driveway head west, turn left onto the street and go under 128, take the second left after going under the highway, into the center-of-area-is-parking-shops-are-around-the parking, and there's a Not Your Average Joe's, a restaurant with the name "Ginger" in it, and a Fresh City, on the southwest corner of the parking lot. (the east side of the parking lot has a two story Borders. There's another restaurant, which I think may be an expensive one, The Capital Grill, on the other side of another parking lot which is on the east side of the Border's. )

The nearest cinemaplexes, of course, are the one in Woburn three exits east (2-3 miles) of the hotel off 128 on the southwest corner of 128 & route 38, and the one in Burlington, a mile or so east, up the hill on the west side of Middlesex Turnpike (Mall Road, which is the street the hotel is one, is parallel to route 128 and extends from Cambridge Street (3A north of 128, route 3 south of 128)on the east side and intersects with the Middlesex Turnpike, heading west, with the Burlington Mall bordered by 128, the Middlesex Turnpike, and Mall Road).

I haven't eaten at any of the restaurants near the Borders, but at least one of them in the southwest corner of the parking lot, smells wonderful. (I got out of the habit of going to restaurants during my long bouts of red ink cashflow due to employment (or lack thereof) status).

To be slightly picky: the Taliban's theology -- such as it is -- derives from the Deobandi movement, which originated in British colonial India and isn't directly related to Wahhabism. (Though in practice there end up being some similarities.)

Of course, the Saudis did provide the Taliban with significant financial (and possibly military) aid during the late 1990s, before they got fed up with the Taliban's hosting of bin Laden.

Busa Liquors, a mile or two north on Cambridge Street (go onto Mall Road east from the hotel, turn left (north) onto Cambridge Street at the light (the other two choices are turn right, or illegally go straight and hit the cars coming off the exit from 128....) and drive past the Burlington High School football field on the left, drive past the town green on the right, drive past Building 19 on the right, at the bottom of the hill there's a traffic light and either turn right then turn left into the parking lot for the Shaw's with Busa on the western side of the Shaw's.

Busa generally has wine tasting on Fridays from 4 PM to 7 PM.

In the running for second nearest is a package store at 128 & route 38 in the sort of strip mall (has a Stop & Shop which regrettably is no longer a 24 hour store, an AC Moore, a small branch bank, remnants of the Middlesex Canal, and a statue of Col Baldwin, father of the founder of civil engineering. His house is still standing, across the street, by a Middlesex Canal remnant--he had a private landing on it for visitors--with a Chinese restaurant occupying the building. Nope, never eaten there, either) at the northwest corner of the intersection (there's also a traffic circle aka rotary involved...)

Caveat: I can't find any confirmation of this in a mainstream news outlet. But if the facts are substantially as described... how tacky.

They need to make 30 second tv ads so I can make an informed decision

Right, it was the Taliban's strange bedfellow, Osama bin Laden himself, who was the Wahhabi.

That distinction made, geekosaur's point remains: more 9/11 hijackers were Saudi than any other nationality (none were Iraqi), yet GWB's Saudi ties are prominent; the Bush family and bin Laden family both had common financial interests (Carlyle Group); GWB gave the Taliban a substantial financial boost early in his term; the bin Laden family were quickly and discreetly flown out of the USA while all other flights were grounded after the 9/11 attack; and note the inexplicable diversions of US efforts away from tracking down the bin Laden network, both before and after 9/11.

Not going to happen, more's the pity. Sigh.

He may not represent the Church, but he isn't a lone nutcase. He's a nutcase with tons of clout, lots of supporters, and clear connections to the Catholic Church in the US.

she said the animals roost anywhere that appears dark and safe

HERE is the signup.

Here is her LJ entry, reproduced at her request:

The Making Light party shall be on Friday [the best date according to the calculometermancy]

--starting at around 9 or 9:30ish.

--going on until ?? unless there's the rare event of the Masquerade starting and ending Late, and then it would end at ??+Late.

--It will be in a regular room at the Denvention Party Hotel.

--It will be announced on ML, but not postered and announced much at Denvention itself. Subtle pointers, there.

--Abi can be at the party through the magic of technologies.

Lizzy L @471ff: The reactionaries in this country are all over anyone liberal who doesn't immediately disavow anyone making radical noises (see: Obama & Wright). It seems appropriate to me to chastise organized Catholicism for not speaking clearly about Donohue's errors. "The Church" has slapped down its own members when they get too far off the beam (usually on the liberal side (cf VotF), but IIRC also on the severely-reactionary side). I wonder whether they find him too useful an idiot to counter?

Yeah, and 14 months in prison for "spoiling a party" seems pretty harsh.

1 day of the sentence might be for changing the party.

99 percent is for lighting the roof of a complicated tent that has people in it constantly. Even if he was certain no people were in--and you can't be, people can be asleep in hidden corners--the *firefighters* had to go in to check. That's always risky.

The pyrofolks do lots of prep to set a burn up right, removing all the tents, art, machines making algae generated hydrogen, mazes, etc. before the Burn.

i.e. What's the harm of lighting off a fireworks display early-they're going to be burned anyways...? preparation, competence, making sure there's a safety boundary to keep out the drunk or tired...

Setting a structural fire is always going to be treated harshly vs mere malicious vandalism and laziness--heck, why didn't he bring his own man to burn?

If he isn't compos, then he should get medical help. But his action did include some callous disregard.

Also, do you really want the Church (whatever you might mean by that) to "admonish" Donohue for engaging in right wing political speech? Because I absolutely do not, any more than I want the Church to admonish me for left wing political speech. IMO Donohue is engaging in idiotic public discourse which is bringing the name of the Church into disrepute, I suppose he could be privately admonished by his pastor for that -- but that's not my business, or yours.

Please feel free to click on my name to contact me by e-mail if you are interested enough to take the topic off-thread.

I was out of line for that one, Lizzy.

Hunh? Myers has received death threats because Donohue is out there trolling for violent psychotics. It's not the political speech that I'm concerned with, it's the encouragement of violence. That's something I wish the Church would stand against.

Bill Donohue's relationship with his pastor -- who might admonish him in a spiritual context -- is none of anyone else's business.

Randolph, you want "the Catholic Church" to make a statement against the encouragement of violence with specific reference to Bill Donohue and PZ Myers? I truly don't know who could or would make such a statement. I suppose it would be the bishop of whatever diocese Bill Donohue belongs to, or perhaps the bishop of the Minnesota diocese where Myers lives. But why make the whole sorry incident even bigger than it is? According to Myers, about 10 of the supposed individuals who sent him ugly comments are in fact all the same person. Lots of sock-puppetry going on over there. So there are a few somewhat wacko Catholics out there. Not a surprise.

So maybe.

To a non-Catholic, this must seem like complete nonsense.

If someone were to "steal" a consecrated wafer it would not trouble me at all. It is, after all, a piece of bread. But I don't appreciate PZ Myers' rather ugly contempt for my faith, and I don't have to feed it by continuing to read his blog.

I'm sort of bemused by the whole thing. When my Father-in-Law, an Episcopal priest, was hospitalized after a heart attack, one of the things he was most worried about was disposing of the consecrated wine and wafers he kept at the rectory for giving communion to the sick and dying. Just destroying them was a neutral act; he was afraid they'd be stolen and used in a Black Mass. As it was explained to me, the key to desecration was a belief in the spiritual "charge" given by consecration and that where there was no belief, there was no desecration. So I don't know if there's anything that P.Z. Myers could do to a wafer that would desecrate it, under that line of thinking.

The Real Presence is a mystery. The Council of Trent named the change that occurs during Mass "transubstantiation." ASAIK, this word is never used for any other kind of change or transformation that occurs on the face of this earth, except metaphorically. We truly don't understand how it happens, we simply believe and trust that it does.

Torahs can be rescued and reconsecrated, as I read recently about Torahs that survived the Holocaust. IIRC, they are cleaned and rededicated for a temple to use again. So I would expect that someone who steals a Torah (as the Nazis did, in large quantities) would be left to the civil and, er, higher authorities; the main focus of the congregation would be the rescue of the Torah.

As for PZ Myers, I find him to be an optimistic and humane writer, as evidenced by this little children's story waiting to be drawn.

By the way, I would have sworn I saw that comparison made earlier in the thread before we left on a family trip yesterday morning. I saw the wire story I linked to this morning, and thought it an appropriate reply to that argument, so I hunted down a copy and linked it when we got home tonight. On looking back through the thread, I don't find that reference.

I think I answered an argument no one had made. Straw man or burning man? You be the judge.

Straw man, I think.

In fact, I just checked email and he's answered. He thought it's a great website (although I thought I made it clear it was Patrick and Teresa's) and that he would try to come by when his kids let him.

That's right. As it burned, the outer shell fell away to reveal the inner mystery of a burning cross. NOT well thought out. Especially since we were all prostrated before it, and there were pictures. Greaaaat. It was very upsetting.

I didn't walk out of that one. I did walk out of a ritual where the fire was so huge it bade fair to light the tree canopy on fire...also they started it with GASOLINE. Idiots.

Me, as an avowed Christian, there are still aspects of ritual and belief which firmly fall on the side of magic rather than spirit in my mind. Transubstantiation is high on that list.

Of course. And there's a whacko Catholic leader named William Donohue who encourages and directs them. He isn't just attacking Myers, though. He's spewing hate, and encouraging other people to express their hatred and he's doing it to a wide audience, thereby with a good chance of reaching the whackos and encouraging them to commit the mortal sin of murder and various lesser sins of violence. I would very much like to see the Church speak against this practice.

You write, "the Catholic Church" as though the Church is a democracy, containing multiple views. As I hope you know very well, the Catholic Church is an absolute monarchy, with Christ at its head and the Pope as His agent ("vicar").

I never have, but I keep wanting to write a story about the wretched and horrible life of Yeoman Rand, and another about the fishing trip Audrey and Pete go on, but that we don't see, towards the end of Twin Peaks. Like everything else I keep wanting to write, I...um...haven't.

It is true, the Catholic Church is not a democracy, but it is an extremely complex and delicately balanced hierarchical institution functioning within a democratic secular society, and even within itself it has multiple points of view.

There is, however, a very historic mirror-image significance to the Host. A traditional Catholic anti-semitic claim in the Middle Ages was that the local Jewish community were involved in the theft and desecration of the Host, using them in Black Masses etc. I think this allegation was often involved with blood-libels against the local Jewish community, but there must be people who know more than me about this here.

See Uccelo's Miracle of the Host for a well painted version of this disgusting little fable. There's also a particularly biting response by R B Kitaj.

Xopher, #505: That's my favorite rebuttal to people who conflate paganism and Satanism: "No, Satanism is a Christian sect, and I'm not Christian."

Seriously, though, there are places where a hunting rifle is an appropriate gift for a teen, but semi-auto guns are usually for hunting humans.

I don't mean to minimize the issue of violence, however. How serious is it, really? (I am not worried about PZ losing his job: the U of Minn is not going to be intimidated by Bill Donohue and his six friends.)

You think of us as merely made for fun,
beings whose nature is lacking in shame,
mere creatures of the torrid tropic sun;
you do not want to give us too much blame.
Our greatest actions don't deserve acclaim,
that's what you say, and slavery was fine.
To liberty we should not yet incline
and in the servile tasks a while partake,
to be in bondage for our sort is fine;
but when we stand the world itself will shake.

Of gentle qualities you say we have none
and your desire is to make us all tame;
a worthy task, you think, and easy done
if you could only teach us proper shame
and learn to douse our anger's ready flame
so that our strength would with your wit combine
and you could rise above us all divine
the universe in your image to make,
all of the stars in your name to align;
but when we stand the world itself will shake.

Prince, you have looked above us for a sign
that you could our natures with your chains confine
but hearts and bodies do not simply break.
You think us just another sort of swine,
but when we stand the world itself will shake.

Now I'm trying to think of people to wave my copy tantalizing in front of.

This is the issue that sparked Myers to call for someone to bring him the Host to desecrate.

Someone needs to have a talk with that young man...

Otherwise, quite honestly, I think way, way too much attention is being paid to this whole thing, and I'm way way bored with it. Let's talk about some other mishegas.

1. When there are death threats and, probably, actual assault, I think discussion and reflection are appropriate.

2. The Catholic Church can speak out against violence without taking a political stand.

3. Someone needs to have a talk with that priest.

I think there's more to be said; I also think that there's no way to say it. So, then, enough.

I hope there has been no actual assault, that would be very much too bad.

Peace.

Unfortunately there is little you can do to prevent scraping without making life difficult for real users.

Way too many eggs in a couple of badly mis-managed baskets.

And this is way different from the assumed spherical free market of unit radius and uniform density which is going to save us all, hallelujah!