Decius wrote:

Rattle wrote:
I fully realize that recommending an Ann Coulter article about the withdraw of Miers is kind of like putting out a person on fire by pissing on them.

I'm not sure what you're going to get from her but it certainly isn't insight. I think I was wrong about Miers. She wasn't an attempt to fuck the system. She was a way of diverting attention. See Monica Lewinsky.

Now, rather than go on about how this is a good thing while stating that I half expect the next nomination to be just as laughable...

I expect the next nomination to be quite serious. Hopefully the radicals will be unhappy.

Tom and I were discussing this briefly last night at NIN. I agree that this was calculated. I believe that no one actually seriously thought Miers had a chance, and that she played sacrificial lamb for the sake of distracting the media away from the Delay and Plame situations.

The next candidate will be very serious indeed, but will have the same distracting effect as the real battles ensue.

RE: Ann Coulter on Miers Withdrawal: It's Morning in America!

Decius wrote:
Technically, these two exceptions exist in U.S. law as well, despite the fact that they aren't spelled out in the Constitution. You can be charged inciting a riot (public order) or with obsenity (immoral speech).

...

In many ways Iraq represents exactly the sort of state Conservative Christians in America would like to build. If it is successful, even for a time, look for it to be held up not just as a model for the middle east, but as a model for us as well...

I thought obscenity laws were left to the states? Is there a federal law against obscenity? The riots, yes, but that arguably has a basis in the constitution because large scale disturbances often result in dead innocents, which tends to go against the "life, liberty and pursuit" thing.

As for that last, I agree completely, and I find it disturbing as hell.

RE: Text of the draft Iraqi Constitution

Passport-embedded RFID tags are back with a vengeance, as the State Department has given the go-ahead for December testing of a new system with enhanced security features, following intense public pressure that forced them to scuttle their original design this past June. The new arrangement contains two key security upgrades: embedded anti-skimming material to prevent non-authorized personnel from stealing personal data and Basic Access Control, which requires user-certification before the RFID chip will broadcast its signal.

We'll have to wait and see if this added security is meaningful or not, but I'm still glad I got mine already. I *really* don't see what the problem was with contact based smart chips, assuming you absolutely must go electronic. The whole thing seems silly. By which I mean, it seems like someone got paid off big time.

State Dep’t. OK’s RFID Passports - Engadget - www.engadget.com

The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.

An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The miniature breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention obsolete.

...

Michael Bowers, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. That's less than 1/1000th the width of a human hair.

Sweet! Go Vandy Physics!

Accidental Invention Points to End of Light Bulbs

Mike the Usurper wrote:

When she finally did find a pharmacy with it, she said she was told the pharmacist on duty would not dispense it because of religious and moral objections.

If the pharmacy doesn't carry something (and in this case they comment later that a bit over half the pharmacies in the state don't carry it), then they don't carry it. If I owned a pharmacy, and I carried it, and I had an employee who refused to fill a prescription, I ask why, and if there is a medical reason (drug A, which the person is on, reacts badly with drug B) then we tell the person and we refer them back to their doctor based on that. That's a valid reason to defer filling the prescription.

If I have an employee who refuses to do it for "religious or moral reasons," I get a new employee. Kosher butchers don't carry bacon, and religious kook pharmacies don't carry RU-486. I can't get bacon at a kosher deli, they don't carry it. But if I go to a non-kosher butcher for bacon (which they have) and get told, "No, I won't give you bacon because it's against my religion," then that person is working in the wrong place.

Agreed. For the record I'm anti-abortion, but pro-choice. It's not inconsistent.

If I think war is immoral, I don't join the army. I *certainly* don't join the army, work myself up to quartermaster, and then refuse to issue ammo to the soldiers. That's the analogue here. If you don't like it, protest, lobby, vote your concience, pray, whatever. But bugger off when it's time for other people to make their choices.

Rape victim: 'Morning after' pill denied | The Arizona Daily Star

Decius wrote:

When students post their faces, personal diaries and gossip on Web sites like Myspace.com and Xanga.com, it is not simply harmless teen fun, according to one Sussex County Catholic school principal.It's an open invitation to predators and an activity that Pope John XIII Regional High School in Sparta will no longer tolerate, the Rev. Kieran McHugh told a packed assembly of 900 high school students two weeks ago.

Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to dismantle their Myspace.com accounts or similar sites with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension, students were told.

Stupid, and infuriating. Not the school's purview.

If they want to tell the parents that they believe X,Y,Z about weblogs, etc. and say "Hey, you might want to check up on your kids web activities," I still think they're dicks, but that's fine. And I'm talking about a general missive... not a direct letter to Susie's dad saying "Susie has a blog at ... and it's putting her in DANGER!" But for them to tell a student "You can't do this in your spare time, at home, not using school resources"?

100% bullshit.

The primary impetus behind the ban is to protect students, McHugh said. The Web sites, popular forums for students to blog about their lives and feelings about their teachers and schools, are fertile ground for sexual predators to gather information about children, he said.

McHugh, shut the fuck up. You can justify anything by saying it's to "protect the children." Protect the children by fucking EDUCATING THEM. THAT is your job. Censoring, limiting, and hassling them is not.

RE: MemeStreams banned by New Jersey Catholic School

You might have thought that the White House had enough on its plate late last month, what with its search for a new Supreme Court nominee, the continuing war in Iraq and the C.I.A. leak investigation. But it found time to add another item to its agenda - stopping The Onion, the satirical newspaper, from using the presidential seal.

The newspaper regularly produces a parody of President Bush's weekly radio address on its Web site (www.theonion.com/content/node/40121), where it has a picture of President Bush and the official insignia.

Protecting the Presidential Seal. No Joke. - New York Times

SOMETIMES, WHEN THINGS GET SUFFICIENTLY WEIRD, SUBTLETY NO longer works, so i'll be blunt: The gleaming device I am staring at in the corner of a machine shop in San Rafael, California, is the most audacious machine ever built. It is a clock, but it is designed to do something no clock has ever been conceived to do—run with perfect accuracy for 10,000 years.

I've been fascinated by this concept since i first read about it few years back. In a world where most people can't see beyond today, I think it's wonderful to contemplate what is essentially eternity.

I'll certainly make the trip to see it.

-k]

Time Machine - Discover Magazine - science news articles online technology magazine articles Time Machine

Decius wrote:
You want to lead the world in creating new innovations. The problem isn't that the economics of turning innovations into products aren't working out and so people aren't doing the innovation or they aren't doing it here. The problem is on the demand side and not the supply side.

I'd amend the above to say "The problem isn't only that..." Just my feeling. There's a problem on the supply side in the sense that many engineers are locked down in ways that prevent or discourage them from contributing.

You mention the options thing, and I agree with that. Another biggie for me is that I think the invention agreements I signed with my employer minimize my incentive to create new innovations. The possibility that they will fall under one of the provisions of that document and be summarily claimed by the employer makes me want to avoid interesting projects and conversations. That both reduces my value as an innovator and reduces my capacity to grow and expand my knowledge and my network.

Ultimately, that means I'm a cog and not a cog-designer, and it damages the competitiveness of the country.

RE: Rising Above The Gathering Storm

janelane wrote:

Bill Clinton was most certainly not impeached. And your last statement pretty much sums up the quagmire of deception that is the Bush Administration. Or, maybe Bush is just that stupid. The jury is still out.

-janelane, politically

Bush may be stupid, but that's not what this is about anyway. This is about all the very smart and very unethical people who surround him. It's about how those people craft a reality in which they get to do what they want and get away with it.

These people know what they're doing. I don't think any of them doubt what happened, or it's overall seriousness. I think they do know and don't care, because political power is more important than doing the right thing. I've become that level of cynical. And that's worse... if you're a zealot and a True Believer and just don't think anything wrong was done, then you're just foolish. If you downplay it because you know just how wrong and thus damaging it is, that's evil. It should disqualify one from public service.

sidenote, I'm 99% sure BC was actually impeached. IIRC it just means congress formally charged him. Removal from office is only one outcome, and dependent upon the revelations and truths that come from the proceedings. he was eventually censured, but not removed from office.

RE: Lawyers see charges this week in CIA-leak case