Life of a Space Ferret

Finally, we have had a GT victory over UGA in football. The first since I’ve been in college. It’s terribly exciting.

I think I’ve been having some issues with Firefox. It keeps crashing, and it’s been forgetting its cookies; usually I have a few things logged in, and it’s making me log in each time now.

Awesome joke. Mathemeticians and beer. Whoo.

Need this t-shirt at some point. It makes me happy.

A UK Guardian piece on a recent witch-hunt in the UK. Basically, someone broadcast a bad, tasteless something, and the Daily Mail (having had them do a story on MDRS a few years ago, we were unimpressed, although the Daily Mirror was much, much worse) got a bunch of people up in arms and now everyone is twitchy about what can and can’t be broadcast.Stuff like this has happened in the US, too, and it makes no sense to me. Slap ‘em with a fine if you need to, but move on!

Since I’m waiting to head to work until my foot straightens itself out (Tilly attacked the moving thing under the sheets this morning, so I’ve been bleeding like a stuck pig from the side of my foot), and I need to restart Firefox, I’m clearing out my tabs.

Aah, Sarah Palin. Yahoo points out that you’ve been stretching the truth in your speech, and CBS just calls you a liar. Seriously - quit making stuff up! A good AJC editorial points out that most of the criticisms they’re calling sexist (that seems to be their thing - you can’t criticize McCain ’cause he was a PoW, and you can’t criticize Palin ’cause she’s a woman) have been pointed at men before. Specifically, when they ask if she has time to give her family the attention it deserves while VP? They asked the same of John Edwards when he announced his run for the Democratic slot. And from before her speech, a Time article talks about her record, and all of the stuff that doesn’t quite match up with the line the GOP is trying to sell. And McCain throws a hissy fit because CNN called his spokesman out on avoiding the question. All of this, and the Democrats haven’t had to do a thing. They’re tearing themselves apart all on their own!

Another honor killing in Pakistan. This is soooo sad. I am strongly of the opinion that we should stop giving money to them until the Pakistani government comes together against honor killings. Killing family is never “honorable”.

This made my day, when I found the link on reddit. A group of students went on a field trip to Fermilab, and did a description and picture of a scientist before and after. They went in thinking of the traditional lab coated crazy person, and came out realizing that scientists are just people, and that anyone could be one. This is what needs to be happening in schools, to encourage science.

Loss of sleep leads to inflammatory issues. I suspect I am definitely a manifestation of this.

Movie preference venn diagram. Guess where I fall?

A real artist’s cafe. Little comic.

THIS is why I did so much anti-smoking work in high school. And why I still have no tolerance for smoking. NOT OK. And while, at this stage, I’ve mellowed out and am more tolerant of people who do it where it doesn’t bother me, there are a great deal of times when it DOES bother me. If you’re walking to class and smoking, you’re invading MY air. When your clothes have been permeated with smoke and you sit next to me in class, it makes me physically ill. And in a lot of cases, my taxes are paying your medical bills when it starts to kill you.

“I must not copy what I see on the Simpsons.”

McCain vs Edwards comic. Am highly amused.

I am appalled at the new trend of discouraging people from voting. It’s disgusting.

I am also appalled at the US policies on India and nuclear technology. We have signed a treaty, saying we will not share nuclear technology with anyone who hasn’t signed the treaty. India has not signed the treaty. And yet here we are. If we’re going to deal with India, we should withdraw from the NPT, rather than just ignoring it while still being a signatory.

And this guy is an idiot. First, anything that’s sensitive comes with 50 billion warnings on keeping it in your control and not having it on any computers that go out of the country (I have some software like that, from the RSICC, and it’s crazy the amount of warnings that come with it). He’s also accused of having one report e-mailed to him there through a Chinese professor’s Internet connection. Holy crap, dude! It’s China! We KNOW that they monitor everything coming and going through their servers.

OK, I think I’m done for the moment. Not sure when I’ll next return. Depends on when I find interesting things.

I’ve been doing a great deal of nothing this weekend. But I’m about ready to kick into overdrive. I like getting things done, but sometimes it’s just necessary to CHILL. Although for some reason, we’ve got some weird behavior on the network. Tried restarting things, but it’s still behaving oddly. Stupid computers.

Way to go, Clayton County School Board! Instead of attempting to be competent, you were complaining that people were asking you to step because of your race, NOT BECAUSE YOU WERE LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR IMMINENT LOSS OF ACCREDITATION. I’m disgusted by the fact that part of the problems that led to the loss of accreditation were the secret meetings of the school board, and even after you were in serious trouble, you kept the secret meetings! I feel terrible for these poor students.

Article on George Takei (Sulu from Star Trek). I’ve got a lot of admiration for that man. He and his partner of forever are finally getting hitched. Quoth Takei: The wise men and women of the California Supreme Court [in May] said, “Oh right, boys. You have been living in sin all these years. It’s about time you made yourself legal!”

I always love news stories about idiots. In this case, these guys dressed up as ninjas and left threatening letters for some friends (and an ex-girlfriend) who smoked pot and distributed it. Of course, they did so under the noses of two policemen. And so they were promptly arrested. There’s some distinct lack of brainpower there…

Beautiful pictures of a Chicago lightening storm.

A bunch of bikers who do animal rescues. It’s awesome, seeing this huge, tatooed guy feeding a little kitten.

19 clever (ish, sometimes) inventions. I especially like the cup with a lock to prevent other people from stealing it for their coffee.

A demon barbarian’s illustrated guide to impressing a girl. This cracked me up.

A classic article from the Onion: Michael Phelps returns to his tank at Sea World. Hee.

A white Bengal tiger who likes to swim. Awesome pictures. Very big kitty.

Miyazaki has a new movie out. Can’t wait to see it. I also need to see his son’s adaptation of Earthsea. I really liked those books.

Rape charges have been dropped against a former teacher (although they’ve definitely already ruined his life). This was what really struck me: At one point, Assistant Prosecutor Andrea Dean tried to argue that movies found in Perry’s home, like “Star Wars,” the “Harry Potter” films and “Little House on the Prairie,” constituted “non-erotic pornography.” OK, WTF man? What is “non-erotic porn”?? Doesn’t that kinda kill the point of porn?

This article made me happy for humanity. An Atlanta policewoman, who has been out for a long time as a lesbian, has recently found out (and been very public about it) that she’s actually intersex - outside is mostly female, but has XY chromosomes. It’s a pretty upbeat article, and it’s clear that the officer has pretty good support within the police.

I’m back, I’m moved, and school’s started again. Got back from the Mars Society 11th Annual Convention, where I had 3 presentations. Kind of stressful, but re-encountered a guy that I always like talking to/hanging out with, which was nice. I strongly suspect it would go beyond talking/hanging out, except that we live 1000 miles apart. And now, the links!

If you’ve never visited/heard of hulu.com, I strongly recommend checking it out. They have full episodes of some tv shows, and a lot of clips of stuff. Some clips like random inventions from Wallace and Grommit.

An interesting point on McCain’s experiences while a PoW in Vietnam. According to the current policies, he wasn’t tortured. All he experienced were ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’…I am also bothered by the fact that the man doesn’t even know how many houses he and his wife own. This is not a man in touch with the financial situation of MOST of the US. Also, he feels that you go from middle class to rich at $5 million/year. Which is a really, really small fraction of the US. Honestly, I’d feel very rich if I could just hit $50k….And, finally, an article from a guy who was a PoW in Vietnam when McCain was, as well as having been a plebe at USNA when McCain was a firstie. Who also makes the point that being a PoW does not give you any qualifications to be president. Also, it means you’re more likely to die early…

Hmm. I thought I had more links than that. Oh, well. More to come, I’m sure.

Death approaches.

An inconvenient truth. A little political cartoon, not on the actual movie, but on the place of “inconvenient truths” in our society.

Wait, that guy doesn’t belong in that line!

Recent examples of how Fox News isn’t racist! For instance, New Orleans was just whiny, since Iowa’s not complaining as much, and we didn’t even NOTICE what color those people were; we can make funny jokes about whether or not it would still be the WHITE House if Obama were president because we’re so un-racist; and addressing the implications of a greeting (which may be a terrorist fist jab, you never know) is just good reporting.

Aaaaand, the AP has shot itself in the foot. They’ve been going after bloggers for quoting more than 12 words from any AP articles without paying money, but they quoted 22 words from this guy’s blog. And, oh, yeah, he’s being an ass about it. As well he should.

Evidently Messianic Jews are being persecuted in Israel. Now, I totally don’t understand what makes Messianic Jews not Christian. But this is further evidence of the fact that Israel really just wants to throw everyone out who isn’t ‘Jewish enough’. Everyone else is just a second class citizen. I don’t care what they want - they’re welcome to it, but the US should not be supporting a discriminatory regime. This is just one of many things that annoys me about the whole mess over there. We need to quit funneling obscene amounts of American money and weaponry into this country, and defending their right to destabilize the entire region because no one respects their country that was created by throwing other people out of their homes and ghettoizing them on the West Bank, then beginning to encroach on even those areas. And have I mentioned the fact that they’re doing PRACTICE ATTACKS ON IRAN, while Iran can’t even look at Israel sideways without the rest of the world jumping on them? Now, I’m not a fan of Iran, but we’re making this situation much, much worse by our double standard.

A skyscraper near a fault line has a HUGE stabilizing ball in the middle. Seriously - as the building starts to sway, the hanging ball absorbs a lot of the energy. They’ve got a nifty little animation that shows how it works, and a video of a recent earthquake’s impact on the building.

A cool tool for creating “word clouds” from a provided text, with more frequently used words larger than less common words (usage within the provided text, not the language as a whole).

I am intrigued - this looks like one of those pointless gadgets that you could quickly forget how to live without. And it looks fun. I’m sure there are practical uses, but I’d just want to play.

An amazing letter to the government about how they do not have the right to give away our rights and freedoms. “These rights are inalienable, which means they are non-negotiable. You are not free to use them as chips on some political poker table.”

The UK is developing a program to microchip prisoners. Boy am I glad I don’t live there. Big Brother seems to be growing quite healthy. It’s one thing to use it on stray pets. It’s quite another to use it to watch where people are. Unlike ankle trackers, will these be removed once the parole period is over? I doubt it.

Interesting article on the tendencies of people to live in communities with similar political leanings. If you think about it, it makes sense and is kind of “d’uh”, but this walks through it and actually looks at it from a more scientific/psychological point of view.

Cat in bowl. Shadow does this. It’s pretty amusing.

Mugabe’s rival quite the Zimbabwe elections. I’m shocked, in the most sarcastic way possible. I’d quit too - Mugabe isn’t going to let go of power, even if he loses the election. It took a lot of guts to step in as Mugabe’s opponent in the first place, so I can’t blame him for wanting to get out while he’s still alive. It’s a lot less fun to be a martyr than many people seem to think.

The MPAA doesn’t seem to think they actually need proof of wrongdoing to convict on copyright infringement cases. From their attorney: “It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement.” But if you don’t have proof, you shouldn’t be able to convict. That’s not how our legal system works. There’s a lot of LEGAL p2p and other types of filesharing going on, especially in the open source community. By this logic, someone could be seeding a torrent for a Linux distribution and get caught by the MPAA on copyright infringement for something completely unrelated…

Flutterbys! Well, blue butterflies covering a tree, anyway.

OK, my women’s rights alarm has gone off like whoa. Pharmacies are actually being created based on the premise of NOT PROVIDING BIRTH CONTROL (but guys needn’t worry - they can still get viagra). This freaks me the hell out. Not only am I of the opinion that medical health professionals have an obligation to do their job regardless of personal feelings (or they can get another job), but the pill is used for so many more things than JUST birth control. It greatly reduces cramping, which allows many women to function during that time of the month when they wouldn’t otherwise. Some medications (Accutane springs to mind) REQUIRE females taking it to use 2 forms of birth control. And since just doubling up on condoms doesn’t count, the girls typically go on the pill and pledge to use a condom for sex (which, in the case of at least one person I know, is just a formality - she’s not sexually active, but birth defects are guaranteed with this medication, so they don’t take any chances). Still others take it to let the hormones in the pills balance out their own whacked-out systems (for instance, I have a condition that gets worse with every period I have, but the pill slows this process down). But since it’s still a contraceptive, all of these people are out of luck. They also seem to be ignoring the fact that contraception reduces abortions…

Yup, I’m awake at 5am, sitting in Megan’s room in Marietta, wishing I could sleep. Since I can’t, I’m going to clear out some tabs.

An amazing editorial from a conservative on why gay marriage is none of his (her?) damn business. This person doesn’t agree with gay marriage, and really seems to be a bit of an ass, but at least he accepts that individual liberty trumps his dislike of gay people together.  Whoo! Finally, someone actually GETS that gay marriage is about the people involved, not random heterosexual people who don’t even KNOW any gay couples (at least, that they know of).

And on the subject of gay marriage, a picture of some awesome parental support for a lesbian couple.

This robot is the MOST AWESOME THING EVER. It wanders around looking for things to use as drums. And actually plays very well. I particularly like his eyes and tail.  He is cute. I want one.

While the Iranians are blustering about their dislike of Israel and being generally vocally obnoxious, Israel is REHEARSING AN ATTACK ON IRAN. Seriously. On one hand we have a country with a freaking obnoxious president (who doesn’t really have as much power as the US seems to like to think) and a nuclear program that might EVENTUALLY create nuclear material that could be used in weapons, but it’s going to take at least 5-10 years. On the other, we have a country with the backing of the US and an arsenal of ALREADY EXISTING nuclear weapons. I’m kind of thinking that maybe we’re not looking at this from the right perspective most of the time, in our extreme unhappiness about the fact that Iran doesn’t like Israel. They don’t seem to be exactly extending an olive branch or white flag or anything.

I want this stamp. It is awesome.

Yet another example of the media ignoring things it doesn’t want to see - in this case, it’s Fox editing transcripts of an interview with McCain in an effort to hide a remark. One about the time when he really felt a strong bond and love for his country. Kind of like Michelle Obama’s comment about when she finally really became proud of her country. Except this is the actual candidate saying that he didn’t always love his country, rather than the candidate’s wife.

An article on the Google Lunar X-Prize. I’m actually working with a group putting a team together. I should have the website for the foundation up and running soon, and I’ll post more. But the idea is cool - getting people together to be the “garage bands of the space exploration world”.

It’s a form for a formal apology! It amuses me greatly. And it pretty much covers any situation…

25 Hi-Tech Pranks to drive the people in your office completely insane. I’ve seen some of these in action, and they are hilarious.

A Brooklyn cook steals frozen lobster tails by stuffing them in his pants. It’s like dinner AND a good cold shower.

A woman is suing Victoria’s Secret because she was injured while putting on her thong. Seriously. I couldn’t make something like this up. But if I were her, I’m not sure I’d actually want to admit to being injured by a thong. That would rank higher on my embarrassing story scale than most of the other things I’ve done, like faceplanting into a sidewalk for no reason.

A restaurant in China will not serve prostitutes. And if you’re not sure if you’re a prostitute or not, they’ll help you figure it out.

A political cartoon from Mike Luckovich that perfectly illustrates my feelings regarding the objections to gay marriage. I’m still trying to figure out how it can harm heterosexual marriage, and this is the only thing I can figure.

OK, I’ve got nothing against drinking in airports or on planes. I have friends that do. I would join them except for the unfortunate effects of alcohol combined with my other medications. However, one should not drink so much that, when a flight attendant refuses to let you smoke on an airplane (d’uh, there are only 50 billion signs and reminders on every plane about the fact that you CAN’T SMOKE), you punch said flight attendant. I’m not sure how that seems like a good idea, even drunk…

A couple of articles that are actually really hard to read. The first is on the abuse of women around the world. My head knows this stuff happens, but it’s hard for it to sink in that it’s real. The second is a photo-narrative on the ShipBreakers of India and other places. These people work in dangerous conditions with no safety gear, simply because “they say it is better to work and die than to starve and die.” It’s just unreal. and makes me so grateful that I grew up in a place where that’s not something that has any prospect of being in my future. Because it’s terrible.

A Wall Street Journal article on the growing restriction of free speech by labeling it “hate speech”. Now, I’m pretty dead set on live-and-let-live. However, I reserve the right to comment on and criticize a group, whether justified or no. I do not have the right to advocate violence in such a way that it will be interpreted as a call to action by any reasonable person. If a group does something that I find offensive, dumb, evil, incredible, good, bad, beneficial, whatever, I want to be able to say that. And y’know what? People can talk about me, or groups that I am a part of, without fear of me suing them because I interpret criticism as “hate speech”.

A guy talks about why his video card won’t work. This cracked me up. Greatly.

And now, I’m going to try to get some sleep. Hopefully my computer will be much happier having cleared out some of my tabs. A couple more things are open that I want to read, but I should be able to completely shut Firefox down shortly and flush the memory drain. And then maybe look into downloading and installing Firefox 3. I’ve been seeing a lot of buzz about it, and it looks nifty. I need to look into whether or not they fixed that memory leak…

So I’m going to clear out all my tabs and let it take a deep breath. Or something like that.

Colorado robbers use women’s thongs as masks. Seriously. And the article has a picture, which makes it the greatest article ever.

A company has made exoskeletons. I want one. Birthday? C’mon, I might be able to run with one of these things! Without breaking myself! Also, I’m excited for anyone with serious disabilities that this might help. I can’t imagine how awesome it would be to be able to walk after years in a wheelchair or such.

Some of the world’s strangest looking animals. And some are cute in addition to strange. Others are confirmation of evolution, because if a deity created them, he’s either on crazy drugs or has a sick sense of humor.

Guy places a bet (against the odds) that he’ll survive his lung cancer. He wins in both ways - he lives AND gets money! This is awesome. And kudos to the bookie who took the bet. And to the guy, since he’s donating half to charity.

A blog of Things Younger than McCain. Some of these are disturbing - nachos, the magic 8 ball, duct tape, the zip code, Kraft Mac&Cheese, Scrabble, velcro, plutonium, and Bugs Bunny. And there’re a lot more, too.

The first hurricane of 2008 is gender-confused. Yup -  Pacific and Atlantic storms of the same letter have opposite genders, and this storm survived the crossing, but only as a tropical depression, so there was a name change when it got back up to hurricane strength. And that, boys and girls, is how Alma became Arthur.

This is the kind of work environment I need. Seriously - I work in this sort of way, where my schedule one day may not be the same as the next, and it certainly doesn’t line up with a traditional 9 to 5.

And I think I’ve got other tabs open on the laptop, so expect another post before I leave for MDRS at an ungodly early hour on Wednesday (I’m engineering support for the Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge).

A man is driving down a deserted stretch of highway when he notices a sign out of the corner of his eye….It reads:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
10 MILES

He thinks this is a figment of his imagination and drives on without second thought….

Soon he sees another sign which reads:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
5 MILES

Suddenly he begins to realize that these signs are for real and drives past a third sign saying:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
NEXT RIGHT

His curiosity gets the best of him and he pulls into the drive. On the far side of the parking lot is a stone building with a small sign next to the door reading:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS

He climbs the steps and rings the bell. The door is answered by a nun in a long black habit who asks, ‘What may we do for you my son?’

He answers, ‘I saw your signs along the highway and was interested in possibly doing business….’

‘Very well my son. Please follow me.’

He is led through many winding passages and is soon quite disoriented. The nun stops at a closed door and tells the man, ‘Please knock on this door.’

He does so and another nun in a long habit, holding a tin cup answers the door.

This nun instructs, ‘Please place $100 in the cup then go through the large wooden door at the end of the hallway.’

He puts $100 in the cup, eagerly trots down the hall and slips through the door pulling it shut behind him.

The door locks, and he finds himself back in the parking lot facing another sign:

GO IN PEACE.
YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS. SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU SINNER.

A lost parrot tells the vet that found him his full name and address. African greys are so cute and smart.

This is what your sleep-deprived brain is trying to do to cope. It’s pretty cool - talks about attention vs focus, and how the brain uses one to compensate for the lack of the other.

A naked man stole a truck and then led the police on a chase. Like, it’s a semi stolen from a farm. And the man was naked. I can only wonder what recreational pharmaceuticals that man was on…

The poor birdies, they don’t have quite enough room! Except, y’know, for the other branches. But this one is special.

A magic eye. This one’s a lot harder than most to resolve, but it’s really hilarious if you can get it to work.

A story about the Afghani who disseminated some printed materials that described the Prophet Muhammad and Islam as misogynistic, and was then sentenced to death for it. It goes really into depth regarding what he did, the fact that his family was already on the radar (his brother’s a reporter), and the conflict between the Afghani constitution and Sharia (religious) law. It’s really interesting.

New webpage created by the Health Physics Society. It’s just information on radiation. Since most people don’t know much about it, and there’s a wealth of inaccurate information already out there.

A nice warning sign. There are more reasons than just the fall not to jump the barrier…And they have teeth.

This is war. Someone posted this on reddit with a tag like that, and it really struck me. It’s difficult for me to look at. It’s not graphic or anything, but deeply moving in its simplicity.

A bit of Fry and Laurie. Hugh Laurie as a redneck, singing about kicking ass. And it does, indeed, kick ass.

A large-scale AP article on the church and racism. It talks about division in churches, and also how they bring people together. There are different stories of how people have bridged the gap between races, and the role of religion and the church. They’re really interesting stories. And shows that there’s hope.

There’s a huge biomass almost 2km under the ocean floor! It’s prokaryotic life, and is living down there without light or oxygen. Very cool, and gives hope for life on other planets.

An interview with a few people regarding gay marriage. And Jesse Ventura makes an excellent point regarding the fact that civil rights issues are typically NOT decided by voting. ‘Cause I’m sure that all of the states would have independently voted to end slavery and integrate schools. Courts have no business deciding something like that…

Jon Stewart on the psychotically ignorant and unbelievable interviews in West Virginia on why people would vote for McCain over Obama if Clinton doesn’t get the democratic nomination. I think he has a pretty good reaction - drink, ’cause it’s unbelievable that people actually think that about him, and that people would come out and SAY that they wouldn’t vote for Obama because he’s black.

Well, I definitely wouldn’t want to go to Oklahoma for health care that might be even slightly related to the fact that I am female. I mean, c’mon, people. Now, if a woman gets raped, in order to have an abortion, she gets to get violated AGAIN. Because I just know that the required ultrasound would end up being vaginal. Because you’re not quite violated enough until the state makes a doctor do it.

A list of the movies, books, and music available on the International Space Station. This list amuses me greatly. Since it includes books I love (Piers Anthony, Lois McMaster Bujold…) and movies that crack me up (A Christmas Story, Blazing Saddles, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Secondhand Lions, Super Troopers…).

Coziest bed EVAR. And it purrs.

Cute mouse. “OMFG! For Me?!?”

A guy finally figures out why his water bill is so high. And it’s his cat’s fault.

Bodies in space, as compared to each other. You know that the sun is much larger than the earth, and the sun’s a small star itself, but this actually gives you a better perspective.

A guy is pushing for a Denver commission on how the city would deal with space aliens. I kid you not.

An article on the use of sexual images and innuendo in wartime propaganda. Really fascinating. Of course, it completely backfired, but it’s still interesting.

Dan sent me this link to the story of a smart-ass raising a child. And telling the world of it. Haven’t read it all, but what I’ve read is hilarious. Because freaking out your inlaws by having “Don’t boil the baby” on all of your pots is awesome.