Monthly Archives: May 2008
Happy Birthday Spam
On May third, 1978, Gary Thuerk, working for the Digital Equipment Corporation Marketing Department, sent 393 unsolicited emails to users of Arpanet (arpanet would eventually become The Internet).Thuerk and Digitial Equipment Corporation were both chastised for this, and the official Arpanet administrators reprimanded DEC. Nobody liked the fact that Gary Thuerk had done this, and it was all round considered to be a bad idea, an abuse of the system, and something that should never happen again.Check out this page at New Scientist, on Spam.Also on this day, in 1491 Kongo leader Nkuwu Nzinga accepted Christianity from the Portuguese, thus rapidly accelerating the rate of development of the African Slave Trade; 160 were killed and nearly 300 injured in a freakish freight/passenger train wreck in Tokyo, in 1962; And 42 people were killed by a Tornado in Oklahoma City, in 1999.
PC vs Mac: Upgrading
My Television Is Attacking Ben Stein!!!!
I’ve been laid up with a nasty disease the last few days, so I’ve not been doing much productive. But I have gotten some TV watching in.Just in time, too. Has anyone else noticed that House (last night) and Numbers (tonight, in fact, airing this very moment) contain thinly veiled attacks on Intelligent Design, Expelled, and/or Ben Stein?
Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine Awarded
I almost literally grew up in the shadow of the Albany Medical Center. Many of my family members were at one time or another employed there, perhaps cleaning the floor while in high school or in a clerical position as a part time job, etc. I have been in and out of the emergency room there countless times (though hardly ever as the patient). Some of my favorite stories begin or end at AMC.Well, I never realized it before, but the Albany Medical College (part of the center) has a thing called the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research which is, according to many, up there with the Nobel Prize in importance. And just now, the prize was awarded to two women doing important research … Elizabeth Blackburn and Joan Steitz. Continue reading Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine Awarded
Latest Campaign News
Thumnail Cheats, the real story
I was just recently annoyed by a large female human bosom with a cat on it. Never mind the details. Anyway, I looked into it and discovered this:
‘Sodans and Sconsinites, Sharpen your Quills!
Vaccine denialism and related issues is something that I took a great interest in many years ago with the publication of Laruie Garret’s “The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
PC vs. Mac, overclocking
PC should check out this cooling system.
Carnival
The Carnival of Space – the anniversary edition is at Why Homeschool.
Carnival
Tangled Bank #104 is here, at Dammit Jim!
Unpatriotic Missouri Academic”Freedom”Bill Advances Through Committee
A Missouri House Committee has just approved for consideration of the House an Academic Freedom Bill drafted with the aid of the Discovery Institute.The bill has a nice twist to it in that it prohibits the consideration of any boundary or difference between religion and non-religion in regards to what to teach or how to teach it. In other words, the bill requires that state agencies, school administrators, and teachers ignore the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America in deference to state law. Therefore, challenges to this particular form of the bill would be a challenge to state’s rights.Such a challenge would result in the bill being struck down as clearly as any with any other challenge, but it could take longer. If there are sympathetic judges in the right places, a school district that obeys the higher level Federal law (or a teacher or a particular school) could be forced into the court system for one or two rounds of slash and burn lawyering.The best way to fight this sort of thing? Probably to make sure that individual legislators who introduce such bills, and who chair the committees that approve them, and so on, are held accountable for the legal fees that will be paid by cash-strapped school districts. Of course, such elected officials can’t be held accountable in any pecuniary way, but they can be made to pay by being tossed out of office by disgruntled taxpayers.The stamp of the Discovery Institute is obvious in both the wording of the bill and the fact that not a single news outlet has coverage of this event, but it is covered on the DI web site. They really ought to be a bit more discrete as I’m sure they will later want to deny involvement in this particular effort (at about the time the legal bills come in).This is just more of the Wedge Strategy, more of the Trojan Horse approach, and more of the same attack on our public school system, it’s children, and their teachers.Here is the main text of the bill: Continue reading Unpatriotic Missouri Academic”Freedom”Bill Advances Through Committee
Happy May Day
May Day is the day that we traditionally get our military hardware out and parade it around Moscow and Havana. It is also International Worker’s Day and International Labor Day. As with all holidays, there are spooky ancient origins as well. May Day is the half way point between Solstice and Equinox, so it is a good day for a blood sacrifice, ritual sex, or repainting the temple. Whatever suits your particular “world view.” Continue reading Happy May Day