The court in Italy has cleared Amanda Knox of murder, she is free to go.
Yearly Archives: 2011
The Future Winner of the XFactor Singing Contest!
Software Needed: WordPress Linked Comments Plugin
Threaded comments have advantages but they also have disadvantages. I won’t mention the disadvantages because if you don’t know what they are already than they aren’t disadvantages to you. The advantages are: 1) You can keep track of a sub-conversation in a comments stream; 2) You can refer to a specific upstream comment easily (which in non-threaded contexts often uses a reference to a comment number, which has the disadvanage of not being fixed if old moderated comments are inserted prior to the numbered comment); and 3) at least in some cases, you can subscribe to a specific comment (like on you just made) to see only responses to it and not to the entire comment stream.
It seems to me that we can have our cake and eat it too.
What is needed is a convention by which a comment can be linked to a prior comment. So, when you are making the comment. This can be done in several ways, including:
1) You hit “reply to comment” on the comment to which you are replying, and you make your comment. However, visually, your comment will not be threaded under that comment … it will just go at the end of the comment stream as the most recent comment. However, it will have a header that indicates what comment it refers to and you can click that to go right back to it.
2) You simply use a particular bit of text using as standard format referring to the number of a numbered comment. Like [123] for comment 123. Later, if the comments are renumbered that reference gets changed appropriately (or changed to a [comment removed] if it is removed. This code also supplies the data for the linked comment navigation referred to already in 1) above.
3) Some kind of menu that lets you access a list of prior comments.
This would prompt a comment navigation system which would have the following features:
1) User can fold the comments into threaded form or unfold them into sequential form;
2) User can find a link to the next sub comment at the bottom of any comment to which a referal was made, and follow through all the threads this way, using a simple visual navigation system;
3) Since this will get confusing no matter what, the user can mark a comment “read” and thus, later on, look at the comments that are not read in any of the available layouts; and
4) The user can see a visual tree of all comments with the usual annoying ballons popping up out of nodes on the tree.
OK, WordPress coders, let’s see what you can do!
Are psychics for real?
There has been some controversy in relation to Psychic Sally. Or is that Psychic Psally.
Hey, look what I found: Part Five:
Continue reading Are psychics for real?
Florida eases penalties for teen sexting
Before Saturday, a Florida teenager who sent or received nude photos or video could have been charged with a felony and forced to register as a sex offender.
But they fixed it. Now you get community service and a fine, but if you keep getting caught, you eventually get charged with a felony.
In related news, it turns out that a main cause of sexting is “peer pressure.”
Both young men and women experience peer pressure to share sexual images via the new phenomenon of ‘sexting’, preliminary findings from a University of Melbourne study has found.
‘Sexting’ is the practice of sending and receiving sexual images on a mobile phone.
The study is one of the first academic investigations into ‘sexting’ from a young person’s perspective in Australia. The findings were presented to the 2011 Australasian Sexual Health Conference in Canberra
I need your help to CRUSH all the other bloggers!!!!
Remember last summer’s tornado in North Minneapolis? North is one of the more challenged neighborhoods in the region, with a high poverty rate and where the schools are struggling against all odds. One of the schools in North Minneapolis that needs your help is one of the schools damaged by that tornado. So they got a double hit. I’ve hand selected all of the schools based on my interaction with local and regional schools, with a focus on supporting doable project related mainly to science or math. In addition, DonorsChoose carefully inspects budgets and proposals to make sure they are reasonable.
Please Visit My Donors Choose Donation Page!
More information is also available here. Thank you very much.
“It’s just a big old tree … with moose heads.”
Oh great, it’s got healing powers. Thank you news person for reporting that as though it wasn’t insane.
2011 Nobel Prize for Medicine: Beutler, Hoffmann, Steinman for work on the Immune System
The prize went to Bruce Beutler, Jules Hoffmann, and Ralph Steinman for their work on the immune system.
Beutler and Hoffmann’s work enhanced our understanding of the activation of innate immunity in humans. In other words, the link between cytokine and swelling and related issues. Among other things, this work resulted in the development of Etanercept, a treatment for Psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn’s disease.
Steinman discovered dendritic cells and the role they play in adaptive immunity. These are part of the mammalian immune system. They mediate between antigens (molecular clues carried by invading or unwanted objects such as bacteria) and other immune system cells. Among other things, this is part of the process that ultimately causes your lymph nodes to swell up.
So the whole Nobel Thing this year as all about swelling up!
I need your help to CRUSH all the other bloggers!!!!
The competition is fierce. This isn’t only Free Thought Blogs vs. other blogging networks. This is also blogger against blogger. I need you to visit my donation page and GIVE MONEY TO WORTHY SCHOOLS.
Remember last summer’s tornado in North Minneapolis? North is one of the more challenged neighborhoods in the region, with a high poverty rate and where the schools are struggling against all odds. One of the schools in North Minneapolis that needs your help is one of the schools damaged by that tornado. So they got a double hit. I’ve hand selected all of the schools based on my interaction with local and regional schools, with a focus on supporting doable project related mainly to science or math. In addition, DonorsChoose carefully inspects budgets and proposals to make sure they are reasonable.
Please visit my donations page and give a few bucks to one of these schools. Or more than one. The X Blog is already behind some of the other blogs in donations! Get in there and show them we aren’t going to be left behind!!!!
Thank you very much. Please pass this on to rich people you may know.
The Vikings are 0 in 4. The Twins Fizzled. The Gophers Suck. But we don’t care …
Because we have the LYNX!!!!
Church-State Separation Case Impending
Mark your calendars. October 5th is the scheduled oral argument before the Supreme Court of the United States for Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The long and the short of it: The EEOC has rules about hiring and firing designed to avoid discrimination. Churches claim that they need to be able to discriminate (or at least not be held accountable for discrimination) because it is their religious thang to hire and fire who they want because they are churches. More specifically, from one perspective, pastors and such are “called” not really hired, and from another perspective (leading to the same outcome) church communities, they say, need to be able to chose their own religions.
Like if they wanted to fire Jesus, back in the old days, the Roman version of the EEOC would have no case if it claimed that the church was being, say, antisemitic.
There is a law that has been on the books for decades that seems to provide this exception for churches, but that is being challenged.
Yet Another Teen Dies Because Daddy Did Not Lock Up The Guns
This one is here in Minnesota, in Chisago County, near the town of Lindstrom.
A 15 year old was found bleeding from the neck by the Sheriff deputies who were called to the shooting. He was pronounced dead a short time later at the hosptical.
He was shot accidentially by his 16 year old friend. It appears they were playing with a .22 caliber rifle. There were no adults around at the time. The Sheriff notes that this could have been avoided had the gun been locked up.
True. But future instances could also be avoided if the owner of the gun is charged with endangerment.
Bachmann’s Political Future?
It is possible that Michele Bachmann could become the next President of the United States of America.
OK, that made me throw up a little in my mouth.
But more and more people are talking about her campaign crashing, even though she seems to have plans to go to New Hampshire.
From AP:
“Congress is too small for Michele,” said Jack Tomczak, a former political director for Bachmann’s congressional campaign. “Leadership has never given her the opportunity to do much. So I think she’s going to be looking for other avenues where she can be more successful.”
Maybe. But she does seem to be pressing forward:
The Minnesota Congresswoman will be in the Granite State from Oct. 9-12, including stops in Nashua, North Conway, Moultonborough, Henniker and then Hanover for the Oct. 11 debate at Dartmouth College, said Jeff Chidester, the candidate’s senior campaign adviser for New Hampshire.
My strong preference is that she stays in the presidential race long enough to not be able to run for Congress, embarrasses herself and her Tea Party a whole bunch, then fizzles.
Virtual March on Wall Street
Join us on Wednesday to create a huge show of support for anti-Wall Street actions nationwide. Together, we’ll add hundreds of thousands of voices expressing our solidarity with the protests at Occupy Wall Street and across the country targeting the bankers who wrecked our economy.
The Three Best Halloween Costumes
With a science connection. OK, I admit not much of a science connection, but really, it’s hard to find them.
I’m trying to cover all the bases here, so I’ve got a suggestion for an adult, a child, and a dog.
For the adult, the obvious choice is this “Man in a Cage” costume, wherein a gorilla holds you in a cage. I’m not sure how much you have to pay the gorilla or if there are other options such as, maybe, an orang-utan. I’m sure this can easily be adapted to be a “Woman is a Cage” as you wish.
It is called the Man in a Gorilla Cage Costume
For the dog, the obvious choice is the Animal Planet Raptor Dog Costume
And for the little one, this frog costume should do the trick. It is called the Little Frog Infant Costume
For intermediate age children, you don’t need a costume. Do what I did when I was a kid, ever year and year after year: Get a cork and burn it. Let it cool down. Get your dad’s oldest and most beat up jacket. Smear the black stuff all over your face to make you look like you have been out in the woods too long and haven’t shaved, and wear the coat. If some wise-ass adult asks you what you’re supposed to be, you say “Your worst nightmare. Just give me the damn candy!” and you’ll be fine.