Reader Tips

Vit

That's funny as hell...a medieval/norse/pythonseque take on technofear.

Great find!

Syncro

Video of an Israeli soldier using a human sheild to protect himself from a grenade...not what you think!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cd6_1232019761

Yet it's fear from misunderstanding, Syncro, not fear from understanding, and thus it is relatively easily remedied by providing education in the name of understanding. It is when one both understands and is still in fear: that is the tougher row to hoe.

My favourite part of tonight's video is where the customer notes that it's faster to use the scroll than to change the page in the book. One of the reasons I'm a developer, and not in support (much as I appreciate and try to support support), is that at that point I would have launched off into some explanation of the difference between sequential access and random access, as illustrated by the two-bookmarks problem (mathematical analysis included), which, at that point, would have just pissed off the customer. So I don't do support, except for a core group of engineers who represent my customers by proxy and who happen to be willing to put up with my proclivities in the name of the greater good.

Thus it remains that I celebrate tonight's video as an example of how grateful I am to those who work to educate the users of technology, especially when it's technology I've developed ;-)

Vit

Fear with understanding is a cop out. Fear of misunderstanding is natural to those who seek quality.

Regardless, the key for both is to seek knowledge, either technical or personal.

To be a decent educator ..... technical or psychological is to meet your students where they are.

Good IT support folk are a bridge from one kind of intelligence to another and as such are rare.

God bless em'.

Syncro

Five guesses - which Federal leader said this today ?

"The Alberta oilsands will allow Canada to stand up to the U.S. on everything from Arctic sovereignty to rewriting NAFTA"

"We’ve got oil reserves there that are just staggering in size. It changes everything about our economic future. It changes everything about Canada’s importance in the world.”

" .. former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion’s Green Shift platform “killed” the party in last October’s federal election."

"“What happened was, everybody who ran a tractor, everybody who ran a boat, everybody who drove a truck for a living said, ‘There’s only one thing I understand about this – you’ve just added to my cost of living.’ ”

That was part of an article in The Tyee of all places !

Doesn't enviro nut-case Michael Byers own The Tyee ?? Funny, too, that Tyee Hee didn't call for the jailing of this unrepentant Politicaian.

These public comments - in a Gastown Pub ! In Suzuki's back yard, no-less !!

Something must be amiss. Who is that masked man !?

http://www.thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Federal-Politics/2009/01/15/IgnatieffOil/

Hope for the future...

http://www.machosauceproductions.com/

Lurch has the potential to be more fun than Steffy!

Syncro

Generally agreed, Syncro. After teaching a couple classes of 200 undergraduate engineers, about thirty years ago, I realized that I really wasn't that good at it (fair, perhaps, but not good, modulo the keeners, who I got along with fine). Thus it is that I agree with you on the value of those who are actually good at teaching.

Yet it remains for me to ask, is there nothing you
understand that you have no fear of, Syncro?

Ron:

But didn't I read somewhere in this blog that the greenshift was originally iggy's idea? If some one could point me to documentation of that fact I would greatly appreciate it.

Vit

That's the best question I've ever been asked....As it stands now the answer is a qualified No as I don't think that there is anything I fully understand.

Hence no fear.....respect where warranted but no fear.

Syncro

Hard to get into but even as a non-tech guy funny as hell Vit.

Aha! The deny the antecedent ploy! Brilliantly argued, Syncro. Yet you
realize, of course, that if you get to use that argument, then so do I ;-)

Still it's an interesting question. To be perpetually prematurely afraid is to not live, yet to be too late to appreciation of a valid life- or even species-threatening fear severly risks to be dead. Or, at least, that's what my forebrain systems and my limbic systems have agreed to jointly report to me, so far.

Vit

Perception is a fluid thang...therefore today's proof expires tomorrow.

Syncro

Only if it's open at high temperature, in which case all the ethanol evaporates.

Vit

Keeping the lid on is important.

Syncro

Research has led to discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science.
>
> The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neuron, 25 assistant neurons,
>
> 88 deputy neurons and 198 assistant deputy neurons, giving it an atomic mass
> of 312.
>
>
> These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons,
>
> which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called
> peons.
> Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however,
>
> it can be detected because it impedes every reaction with which it comes
> into contact.
>
> A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that normally takes
>
> less than a second to take as long as 4 years to complete.
>
> Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years; it does not decay,
>
> but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant
> neurons
>
> and deputy neurons exchange places.
>
> In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time,
>
> since each reorganization causes more morons to become neurons, forming
> isodopes.
>
> This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that
>
> Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.
>
> This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.
>
> When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium,
> which has half as many peons but twice the number of morons.
>
>
> AND now you know.
>

Yes, but then you need a pressure relief valve to be in code, Syncro, and I really don't want to talk about work here. More importantly, we should probably put a lid on this tangent, 'cause we're no longer talking about Reader Tips or even tonight's SDA LNR show, as a result of which we are skating on thin ice in terms of the on-topic clause relevent hereto.

Furthermore, research has lead to the discovery of the most
annoying bad behaviour in blog comments: bad formatting.

When newspapers are gone, what will you miss?

Years and years after some pundits began predicting the end of newspapers, the newspapers themselves are finally realizing that it's over. Huge debt, high costs, declining subscription rates, plummeting ad base--will the last one out please turn off the lights.

H/T
Meeker on Media

Vit

To paraphrase Forest....Tangents do as tangents are...Those are still some funny Nord's though.

Syncro

Couldn't get video. Apparently has been pulled.

Concerning the big "O", a lefty columnist trashes him in a lefty newspaper. Who'd a-thunk-it? **http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/Columnists/NewsViewsAttitude/** Can there be a tiny light just visible at the end of the tunnel.
Just hoping and praying.

Gunney99,

Try
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buHmE_8UmJA&feature=player_embedded

CONTRASTS

Today I was watching a National Geographic documentary entitled "Martian Robots". It was about the two exploratory robots on Mars. Here's a short, related video.

Later in the day, following the news from the Gaza Strip, the following occurred to me:

Americans have fired rockets into outer space, which traveled hundreds of millions of miles to Mars, deployed robots onto the planet's surface and are now exploring vast stretches of the Martian landscape.

On the other hand, Palestinians have elected the Hamas government which thrives on firing rockets a few dozen miles away, solely to kills Jews.

Throughout many of the large cities in the West we have tens of thousands of screaming people telling us that America is bad & evil and Hamas is good & righteous.

Can someone please wake me when seriousness returns to society?!

ural; the video starts but when I click the start button the video displays " this video is no longer available".
My Firefox doesn't like your link either. Says it will be unending.
Thanks for the try though.

What about this one, Gunney99:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMTucfad9u8

Gunney99 - it is a Firefox thing (link didn't work for me either) ... I played it in IE. I did play it in Firefox with the link provided - it's there.

Give it another go with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buHmE_8UmJA

Decent interview with John Ivison @ NP with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

I think it is unwise for any federalist to suggest that somehow criticizing the Bloc is criticizing Quebec. That’s separatist propaganda. The separatists don’t represent Quebec. If the separatists represented Quebec, Quebec would be a separate country. When push comes to shove, Quebecers always reject them.

So look, I have a lot of regard for Mr. Duceppe personally — that’s not a secret. I listen to his opinions. But I also know he’s not a friend of Canada — his objective is to break up the country. If you find common ground and some things he can support, that’s one thing. But never fool yourself about what his objective is. And that’s why no prime minister, no sensible prime minister, would ever allow himself to be put in a position where the Bloc would have a veto on the decisions of the government. This Prime Minister won’t do that, this government won’t do that, no government has ever done it before. I quite frankly think Mr. Dion, one of the reasons people saw fit to replace Mr. Dion is that obviously he failed to understand that. The message from Canadians was loud and clear.

No, it's not a Firefox thing, it works fine for me in Firefox. Anyway, I've updated the entry with the alternative link to a different copy of the same video. Welcome to the third millenium. Good night.

Drill baby drill!

Stimulus ideas you never hear about.

Even though the Texas-based company is prepared to spend more than $100 million on an exploratory well in the Laurentian Basin — the first of its kind in the region, off Newfoundland's south coast — ConocoPhillips cannot find a rig able to carry out the work.

"The main reason being that we need a rig capable of drilling in 2,000 metres of water in a harsh weather environment." Only a few rigs in the world are even capable of such work, and most are already committed to long-term contracts.

Vitruvius: "No, it's not a Firefox thing ..."

You're right. I disabled all the flash in my Firefox a couple months ago (added an extra click to play). Your first link showed as unfirefoxable because of this.

Don't forget about the newly discovered Warmanite, it has no stable isotope but when exposed to light, breaks into a myriad of trolls. Meanwhile, Kinsellium has a half-life.

Do-not-call list made situation 'worse,' says group

....with nearly 6 million numbers registered, many Canadians who signed up are feeling duped because they're receiving more telemarketing calls than ever before. That's because the do-not-call list may have gotten into the wrong hands.
To access the list, a telemarketer simply has to go to the National Do Not Call List website, enter the appropriate information and pay a small fee....

ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090115/Dont_call_090115/20090115?hub=TopStories

...If you are a telemarketer you can use this Web site to register your business information, obtain and buy a subscription to the National DNCL, and download or query the National DNCL....

www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/index-eng

GORE LIED.
...-

"Without Delay: [US] Congress to Fast-Track Climate Legislation

"In his November 18 address to a bipartisan conference of governors, Obama said, "Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option.""
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165626/posts
...-

"Extremely Cold Weather Grips Nation

-43 Degree Temps Recorded In North Dakota

Much of the country is in winter's icy grip and forecasters said it won't be letting go anytime soon"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165662/posts

Hezbollah and Hamas are listed as banned terrorist organizations under provisions in our criminal code.
Why do we allow their supporters to wave their flags and spew hatred in our streets?

Does our criminal code not give authorities the right to arrest these hate mongers or at least take them off the streets?

The Cons are stimulating the economy, by stimulating their friends first....

Senate wages adding up
New appointments could cost taxpayers extra $57 million By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF

Canada's youngest incoming senator stands to reap more than $9 million in taxpayer-funded salary if he remains in the post until he's forced to retire at age 75.

According to figures calculated by the NDP's policy and research unit, 34-year-old Patrick Brazeau would earn $9.265 million if he sits in the red chamber -- as allowed under current rules -- for the next 41 years. The total cost for salaries of all 18 incoming senators would be nearly $57 million, based on the current annual pay rate of $130,400 a year indexed with projected increases.

Thank heavens the Conservatives are in power, and not those Liberals. I mean, the Libranos are all tax and spend. Where the Cons are....oh...umm....dang.....

Librano or Con, it's the same old game....unless you are a partisan moron, and think it's really different...

(Higher employment insurance and Canada Pension Plan payments will wipe out skimpy tax cuts for many Canadians in 2009, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.)

The Great Canadian Robbery by "civic leaders".

This is a stick-up. Hand over your money.

Our Enemy, The State.
...-

"City's reputation at stake, mayor warns
Globe and Mail - 5 hours ago
VICTORIA -- While the City of Vancouver is racking up $87000 a day in interest costs to bridge the financing for the Olympic village project, civic leaders can only sit back now and watch how quickly the BC Legislature will approve a rescue scheme."
...-

"Let federal money flow freely, mayors urge
Globe and Mail"

"The battles waged by our troops are part of a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems. Under one, a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology, condemns women to subservience, and marks unbelievers for murder. The other system is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God and that liberty and justice light the path to peace." - Bush, final address

Too bad he didn't correctly name Islam "an oppressive ideology" in the beginning, rather than "the religion of peace."

And I don't think correct definitions are going to get any better under Obama.

Mini and Max enjoy the Sun with Spot and his Cycle.
Here, Spot. See Mini and Max jump over the Lapse.

Seriously:

"JDS (22:56:00) :

If this turns out to presage an extended period of below-average global temperatures, I hope it is called the “Gore Minimum.”"

...-

"Sunspot Lapse Exceeds 95% of Normal
15 01 2009

A guest post by Jeff Id

Well John Christy gave me a lot to think about in satellite temp trends as far as an improved correction over my last post. Steve McIntyre pitched in some comments as well. It is going to take a bit to work out the details of that for me but I think I can produce an improved accuracy slope over my last posts. In the meantime, I downloaded sunspot numbers from the NASA.

Cycles are interesting things."
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/01/15/sunspot-lapse-exceeds-95-of-normal/#more-5117

(Via Contentions) Save Gaza by Destroying the Heart of Terror: Natan Sharansky

Israel’s war in Gaza has been met with cries of protest around the world. They come from two sources.

First, there are those who oppose any Israeli effort to defend itself, mainly because they don’t believe a Jewish state should exist at all. This is a form of anti-Semitism, and such a view should be rejected outright rather than argued with.

Second, there are those who support Israel’s existence, but believe it is wrong to wage so harsh an assault on the Gaza Strip. This argument also takes two forms: First, that Israel’s response is disproportionate and therefore wrong; and second, that there are less violent ways to handle Hamas -- through international pressure, sanctions or negotiations.

Both of these claims, as logical as they may sound, ignore the lessons of history, including Israel’s recent history in fighting terror. In the 10 years I served as a minister in Israel’s security cabinet, I learned just how mistaken such arguments can be...

Are you wearing red today? Show your support for our troops!

"Don't they violate the Toronto board's policies of respect and tolerance?"

Who dares question Margy's literary output?
Margy is a CanLit Icon.
Watch sales of Margy's claptrap surge.
Margy* who you ask?

...-

"Atwood novel too brutal, sexist for school: parent
Committee reviews 'fictional drivel' alleged to violate board policy on respect, profanity
January 16, 2009

Comments on this story (29)

Kristin Rushowy
EDUCATION REPORTER

Robert Edwards says if students repeated some of the words from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale in the school halls, they'd be suspended, so he questions why it is okay in the classroom.

And what about the foul language, the anti-Christian overtones, the violence and sexual degradation, asks the parent who launched a formal complaint about the Canadian novel. Don't they violate the Toronto board's policies of respect and tolerance?"
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/571999
...-

*Atwood backs Bloc on arts defence | Steven Mansour
Asked whether she would vote for the Bloc if she lived in Quebec, Atwood gave a resounding: "Yes, absolutely. What is the alternative?" ...
stevenmansour.com/en/quebec/2008/october/05/atwood_backs_bloc_arts_defence

Nuclear is back....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090116/wl_csm/onuclear

vitruvius - many thanks for the IT video. Marvellous.

In answer to your question about 'fear from understanding', which is indeed of more concern than fear from misunderstanding, I'd say it's our human capacity, a necessary capacity, to 'imagine'.

Our species requires this capacity for it enables us to interact with our environment with knowledge rather than by mechanical reaction. So, we can 'imagine' that there is something in the water that is causing illness; then, we investigate; then we come up with a solution. Or we can 'imagine' what is needed to make a bridge stand up..and so on.

At the same time, we can 'imagine' that other people are basically, genetically, evil and are out to destroy us; we can 'imagine' that so-and-so said 'such-and-such' and can even convince ourselves of the veracity of our belief.

This tremendous ability to imagine, to symbolize, to create Y from X - that's frightening.

charles macdonald - much as I respect Natan Sharansky (see his 'The Case for Democracy'), I don't totally agree with his view that the only way to deal with Hamas, ie, a fascist ideology, is by force. That's one tactic but it can't be the only tactic.

That's because an irrational ideology, one that emerges within a fictional account of reality, can't be stopped by stopping the current expression of that ideology, ie, killing off its current articulators, its current expressors. That's like thinking that you can stop a volcano by blowing the smoke and ashes away. You can blow the smoke and ashes away, to enable the villages below not to be covered, but what about that volcano?

A fictional ideology must be dealt with, not merely by disabling the current expressors of that ideology, but by stopping the 'essential cause' of that ideology, In the case of Hamas, my view is that the radicals in Palestine have to be separated from the non-radicals. The way to do that is for Israel to 'speak to' and assist the non-radicals; create an ever-widening gap between the two sectors of the society.

That means, as I've said so many times, that Israel must enable the Palestinians to have a sovereign democratic state, with an economy embedded within that of Israel. This two-state solution actually would strengthen Israel for the two states would, as democratic, as economically linked, create a Palestinian population hostile to Islamic radicals both internally and externally.

These two democracies, one Muslim and one Jewish, would work to diffuse democracy further in the ME - which is being diffused now, because of the tremendous achievement of such in Iraq.

This first step has to be carried out by Israel. No-one else can do it; Israel has to do what it has so far refused to do - acknowledge the Palestinian state. Get out of the West Bank. Enable, rather than disable, a Palestinian economy in both places.

Can I see Israel doing this? At the moment, no, because its long term agenda has always been to settle and own the West Bank. It has no interest in Gaza. But although this original agenda may seem valid within the short term, and it's a political agenda as well, for the Orthodox and Conservative political parties do play an important role in Israel...this is unconstructive in the long term.

The long term means that Israel acts to enable the spread of democracy in the ME, by enabling a Palestinian democratic state - Such a long term agenda creates an Arab population hostile to radicalism, and focused on economic prosperity.

Kate,
Is there nothing Obama can't do?

This will be the moment the climate changed back ...

"There are even fears that crowds planning to watch Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration next week could suffer hypothermia and frostbite in sub-zero conditions"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1118244/Americans-suffer-record-cold-temperatures-plunge-40C.html

O hasn't yet swOre, even.
O's "ecOnOmic stimulus package" is wOrking aready-O.
Check Out O's injectiOn.
OTOH, would you buy a used rifle from O?
...-

"Obama Named Gun Salesman of the Year

Barack Obama's election has definitely stimulated one segment of the economy:

Outdoor Wire Names Obama "Gun Salesman of the Year"­

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In recognition of the unprece­dented demand for firearms by nervous consumers, The Outdoor Wire, the nation’s largest daily electronic news service for the outdoor industry, has named President-elect Barack Obama its “Gun Salesman of the Year”. With the selection, Outdoor Wire publisher Jim Shepherd says it is time the firearms industry recognizes the fact that without President-elect Obama’s frightening consumers into action, the firearms industry might be suffering the same sort of business slumps that have befallen the automotive and housing industries."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165726/posts

The Press doesn't grasp that it's a religious conflict. Neither does (a) certain commenter(s) on this blog.

"One on One: It's religion, stupid!"

(Jerusalem Post)

'Most people in the world take their beliefs very seriously," says Roberta Green Ahmanson. "Some deadly so." Which is precisely why the 59-year-old, California-based writer and philanthropist bemoans what she calls the media's "blind spot" in relation to religion. Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion, in fact, is the title of her newly released book (published by Oxford University Press, and co-edited with Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert).

Indeed, warns the award-winning former religious-affairs reporter and editor, and co-author of Islam at the Crossroads (Baker, 2002), there is a tendency on the part of the Western press to pooh-pooh faith as a motivating force. As a result, she asserts, citizens and voters are basing their choices and decisions on false premises.

Interview:

You arrived in Israel a few days before Operation Cast Lead was launched. How do the events in Gaza tie in to the thesis of your book?

The events that led to the operation in Gaza illustrate how people are motivated by their religion. An organization like Hamas latches onto certain things that are deep within the history and teachings of Islam, and it uses them in the modern world - by shelling Israel, for example - because it believes that this land once was Muslim land, and it's its duty to take it back. Within the Muslim community, this is going to be part of the issue forever, because its goal, of course, is to have the entire world living under Islam.

And you are certain that the press doesn't really grasp that this is a religious conflict?

In the American media, you often see the conflict reduced either to land-ownership issues or to issues related to poverty - that people who call themselves Palestinians are poor, and that Israel is largely responsible for their plight. In this respect, it doesn't seem like the Western press grasps the real story.

During what has come to be called the "second intifada," the media usually attributed the phenomenon of suicide bombing to desperation - though it often emerged that bombers and their dispatchers were educated and affluent. Is this what you mean by reducing the issue to poverty issues?

Yes, which brings us to the original point that this conflict is religious first. It is about reestablishing Islamic control. It's pretty much that simple - and that scary.

Correct headline:

"Toronto Muslim and father of three savagely murders an 81 year old infidel woman."

But, we'll have to settle for this:

"Suspect arrested in murder of woman, 81"

(Toronto Star)

A man who recently described his suddenly deceased elderly neighbour as "always friendly" has been charged with her murder.

Mohammed Hamadeh, who lives doors away from the slain woman and is the father of three children, was taken into custody today and charged with first degree murder.

Marion Lyons, 81, a sprightly senior citizen, was discovered with multiple injuries last Thursday. But detectives said this afternoon that Toronto's third homicide victim of the year had been dead since a week ago yesterday - Jan. 6.

Homicide Det. Pauline Gray would not comment on whether the suspect had a key to Lyons' apartment on the 12th floor of 5 Shady Golfway in the Flemingdon Park area of North York or if anything was removed from it.

.........

Flemingdon Park is a Muslim stronghold in Toronto. A 'no go zone' as the cowardly British Police would call it.

"ISLAM: The Way of Life of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad." Says an ad put up by CAIR on 290 buses in South Florida.

Yup. That's going to create a lot of good will. These arrogant thieves are too stupid for words:

"Muslim ads on county buses drive Jewish group to protest"

Muslim group says reference to Abraham, Moses and Jesus not intended to offend, but Americans Against Hate activist says message is misleading

By Robert Nolin | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 15, 2009

There's a new front in the conflict between Jew and Muslim: Broward County buses.

Fifty of the county's 290-bus fleet have been chugging around area streets for the past several weeks with a message that might seem more oblique than inflammatory. Black letters on a white backdrop proclaim, "ISLAM: The Way of Life of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad."

The $60,000 ad was paid for by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"We owe it to our fellow Americans to let them know that Islam stands for peace," said Altaf Ali, director of CAIR's South Florida chapter. "Muslims are here and Muslims are part and parcel of the United States."

...........

The jury is out on that.

Well, so much for the Muslim Obama love in.

Obama pictures burned and dragged through the streets:

liveleak.com/view?i=a8a_1232034037