Ever since the dude from Preshrunk stopped updating regularly, there has been a t-shirt-shaped hole in my RSS reader. But no more. Ever since BoingBoing pointed me towards the list of blogs that I’m not cool enough to be reading already, I’ve added Tcritic to my daily reads. Awesome t-shirts, not too much commentary (You know how some of us bloggers get long-winded and rambling. I mean, not me, of course).
Were just going to take our God and go over here
Episcopal Churches To Vote on Departure – washingtonpost.com
Many Episcopal churches are voting very soon on whether or not to leave the umbrella of the U.S. Episcopal church because the U.S. church has allowed a gay bishop in New Hampshire. I’m a little torn. First, I fully support the right of a church to decide that they want to leave the organization because the organization did something they don’t believe in. But it’s sad that two churches in Fairfax County, VA, where I live, are so upset over a gay bishop that they want to ally themselves with an African Reverend, Peter Akinola, who thinks holding hands with your gay partner in public should be punishable by jail time.
I assume that most people voting to leave will say that it’s not just one gay bishop in a state most of them will never visit, but rather the direction the church is heading by allowing him to become a bishop, and that’s certainly valid.
I wish some positive stuff about religion would make the news. I know there are religious groups doing good things out there. But the only ones that make the news are the intolerant ones.
I’m going to stop here, because I’ve lost my train of thought.
Saturday afternoon
It’s actually quite a nice day out. It was a little cold this morning as we lost our flag football game, but it’s 47 and sunny now. Excuse me for a moment . . . Ahh, that’s better. Sorry, just had to take a quick break and drink a little Bell’s Oberon that we got from Whole Foods just half an hour ago. We were there trying to find key limes for a pie, but had to settle for regular limes. Hopefully our hosts this evening won’t notice. The wife will probably tell them.
Anyway, I took a little detour down the beer aisle, because I knew they had Bell’s, and wanted to see if they had anything new. Turns out they did, as they did not have Oberon last time. It’s out of season now, so this is maybe the dregs of the summer run, but, contrary to what Budweiser might tell you, beer doesn’t have to be bottled in the last week to taste good. And honestly, lukewarm skunked Oberon is better than freshly bottle Budweiser anyway.
So we picked up a little sushi, and a little Bell’s, and even a new flavor of Odwalla bar. It’s so new it’s not even on their website yet. It’s called Choco-Walla, and I haven’t tried one yet, but it’s sure to be delicious.
The cat is currently trying to drink my beer. I might have to lock her in a closet.
Complaining through song
Treehugger: The Complaints Choirs of The World
Global Warming got you down? Wish your city had better recycling programs or more bike lanes? These are some of the issues that the Complaints Choir of Helsinki and the Complaints Choir of Birmingham are singing about.
If I could sing, I would totally want to do this. These two groups sing about their complaints. I’m sure my compatriot over at VentBox will be interested to see this, as well.
Score one point for those of us who call it complaining rather than venting.
And you thought you were old
Carbon globules in meteorite may have seeded Earth life – space – 30 November 2006 – New Scientist Space via Kurzweil AI
Now, analysis of atomic isotopes shows that the globules could not have come from Earth and must have formed in very cold conditions, possibly before the Sun was born.
It’s crazy to think about little bits of carbon that have been hanging around inside a rock since before the sun was born. I mean, that’s, like, a long time ago, and stuff.
But to think that, maybe, some carbon got stuck inside this rock, where it was more or less protected, way back before the sun. Then that rock flew around space until it eventually crashed into earth, where the conditions were right for life to emerge. Eventually, that life became us, and koala bears, and fruit bats.
They aren’t sure that’s what happened, but it’s a good theory. Makes you feel really small and insignificant, doesn’t it?
Its about time
Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned – washingtonpost.com
The recommendations endorse “optical-scan” systems in which voters mark paper ballots that are read by a computer and electronic systems that print a paper summary of each ballot, which voters review and elections officials save for recounts.
It’s amazing that the electronic voting systems have lasted this long. We all know that computers have problems. I mean, I’m a software engineer. I know better than most how buggy software can be. But still, we let the computer count the votes with no way to check the results? That’s insane.
Instead, we really should be using the system that this study recommends. You use a touch screen to cast your vote, then it prints out a piece of paper with your vote on it, which is both easily readable by you, and by the machine. You then stick that piece of paper into the counting machine, and you’re done. Yes, election officials have to make sure you don’t take the paper home with you. If that’s a big deal for your election officials, you need new election officials. This way, everything is quick because it’s done by a machine. But if you have any questions (Like the county in Florida that seems to have lost 10,000 votes or something in this most recent election), you can count the ballots by hand.
This system combines the best qualities of both paper ballots and electronic voting, and it makes it very hard to interfere with an election. At least, to interfere by messing with the votes. Messing with voters is a different story, but it can’t be helped if people are dumb.
Edited to add: A coworker mentions the problem here, that it’s difficult to change a vote. Let’s say you vote, and the card that prints out is wrong. What do you do? We don’t really want poll workers to be able to change the vote, or to be able to throw votes away and make new ones.
Maybe the machine will accept your old ballot, destroy it, and allow you to make a new one. If you destroy one without replacing it, the machine sounds an alarm that can be heard from space.
_NB: Any comments about Bush stealing an election will be marked as spam and deleted. _
Wine and women
The Wine Collector: Practical Wine Collecting Advice
Women are more disciplined drinkers and physically smaller. This in turn leads to less consumption and a lesser need to collect.
Disclaimer – a good friend of mine works for Vinfolio, the source of this post. That probably doesn’t matter, but I thought I’d let you know anyway.
So, why is wine collecting male-dominated? I don’t think it’s because women are smaller. The first (currently only) comment on the post suggests that collecting in general is more of a male thing_. _I certainly know more males who collect stuff. And I think women collect stuff more as decoration. Maybe that’s just the impression I get from the women collectors I know, and doesn’t accurately reflect women overall.
__
Warning – box contains decapitated pony
This Is Broken – Warning on Hasbro pony toy
“Adults take note: Pony comes unassembled in box with head detatched. You may wish to not open the box around your children if they may be frightened by a box with a decapitated horse inside.”
I guess it’s nice to warn parents that their children may be scarred for life when they open the box and see that their wonderful new pony is headless. Although, I’m not sure it’s really the box that’s frightening. I mean, if you are frightened by a headless pony, I don’t think the placement of the pony inside or outside of a box will make much difference.
Ive always wanted to do this
In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate’s Limits – washingtonpost.com
“How’s your boy?” Bush asked, referring to Webb’s son, a Marine serving in Iraq.”I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.
“That’s not what I asked you,” Bush said. “How’s your boy?”
“That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.
This is an exchange between new VA Senator Jim Webb and our intrepid leader. I’ve always wanted to be a total dick to the President, although I realize that it’s kind of childish.
I hope Webb takes a bit of this fire and desire for change and actually does something constructive with it. Going to a White House reception, avoiding the President, then being rude to him when he seeks you out is a little counterproductive, I think. Like it or not, Bush is going to hang around for another two years, and anything that happens is going to involve him. Being rude to him in public will probably endear you to the loons at Daily Kos and whatnot various liberal whackos, but it’s not exactly advancing the cause.
Edit: I realized after I posted this that it’s a little hypocritical to call Jim Webb childish, then take cheap shots at Daily Kos. So, I apologize to the Daily Kos and the surrounding community.
Wait, the Post DOES get it
Rob Pegoraro – Missing the Big Picture – washingtonpost.com
In doing this, they seem to be giving in to two of their least-appealing instincts: a need to regulate every single aspect of the mobile-phone experience and an irresistible urge to nickel-and-dime the customer.
Should have known that I can’t expect the front page guy to know what’s going on. You have to look to the tech columnist for tech news with a basis in reality. This is actually a pretty good explanation of why the Verizon/YouTube deal is dumb for Verizon.