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Adobe, A rant
 I have enjoyed using Flash for quite a while. Mostly I use it to make movies for work, but have been playing around with it lately to make more creative animations. So, when I heard the news that Microsoft Agrees With Apple And Google: “The Future Of The Web Is HTML5", I was a bit dismayed. Now I have long believed that flash was wrong for creating websites, but thought it would remain the standard for video and games. And, I believe that will still be true for a while. if you look at the demo page for html5, you will see that most of the demos are using things useful for building interactive websites, but not any of them demonstrate animation created by HTML5. Even the stuff that will eventually be used to create online games is pretty crude yet. Not sure what the Canvas demo does, since I couldn't get it to load with any of the 3 browsers I tried. So, I think we are a ways yet from animation and online games with HTML5. However, given my recent experiences with Adobe, I am thinking about learning HTML5 now anyway, even though I will be much more limited in what I can do, because I am sick of Adobe. Adobe Tech Support sucks! Not to mention their programs are getting to be so bulky and buggy they are painful to use. My Adobe saga: Part 1:Saving a pdf without comments.I thought this was pretty straightforward, but I had to repeat what I was trying to do 4 times before they gave me a solution. All I was trying to do was to hide/get rid of the comments in a pdf that was being sent in an email. They gave me solutions for how to use comments for an email review, told me how to hide comments from my current view, etc. They even wanted me to send a pdf with comments in it, because that was somehow going to help them understand what I wanted. Hello, you are Adobe, surely you have a pdf with comments in it laying around on your desktop?!? Finally, after 6 emails from Adobe, they gave me the solution. For those curious, here is the highly intuitive solution: Go To Advanced-> PDF Optomizer->Discard User Data->Check the Tab Discard All Comments , forms and multimedia.-> Click Ok. Now save this pdf with a different name, and you can send your pdf itinerary to your boss, without your comments about meeting your colleagues after the meeting for drinks. Are we really the only people who find this useful? Part 2:Upgrading the Organizer in AcrobatMy boss upgraded from Acrobat 8 to Acrobat 9. When he tried to open the organizer in Acrobat 9, the window was missing, and it was apparent from the menu that nothing from Acrobat 8 had been moved over. I sent in an email request for help, but was told this was not an installation issue, and I needed to have bronze support. I tried calling them, spent eons on hold, just to have them tell me, once again, that this was not an installation issue so I needed to pay for support. Not an installation issue? I installed the software, and it didn't work, and didn't import stuff from the last version. How can this be anything except an installation issue?!? So, I went off in search of paid support. Buying support from Adobe is convoluted, especially if you have a volume license. Supposedly there are support packages, where you get so many support calls per year, or maybe some number of support calls, but I never did figure this out. Nor did I figure out what bronze support is. Since there is a new version of Adobe products coming out, I decided it was probably best to just buy one support instance, especially since given the cost of my time doing research trying to figure this shit out, it would probably be cheaper to pay by the instance anyway. So, I spent another 2 hours on the phone, mostly on hold, during which I solved the missing Organizer window problem without any help from Adobe. When they told me the import problem wasn't an installation issue, I said fine, I'll pay. They ended up not charging me, although they lectured me on how this was an Acrobat 8 issue (since I was trying to export from Acrobat 8), so next time they would charge me. Like what, I didn't buy Acrobat 8 from them, and the reason I was trying to export was to have a WORKING INSTALLATION of Acrobat 9? WTF? But then, in the end, they told me it was impossible. You cannot get your Organizer settings from Acrobat 8 to Acrobat 9. I filed a bug report. I had already sent a letter to the CEO complaining about their tech support, but maybe I should send him an addendum? Adobe, A rant ~ Comments: 1
More disbelief in Science
Health, MyRamblings, Scienceby maria on 21 Apr 2010 - 21:20  Just read a very good article Convincing the Public to Accept New Medical Guidelines. It has me thinking about how to convince people to change their beliefs. It has long been obvious to me that people often discount or don't believe scientific studies if they conflict with their pre-conceived notions. Now we have research to back up that claim, not that it would matter to people who don't believe me. Plus, apparently people are more likely to believe what everyone else believes, regardless, or apparently in spite of, scientific evidence to the contrary, according to this article. Ugh. Not sure where this puts us. A very uphill battle, but says a lot about why people still believe that there is a connection between immunizations and autism. So, how can we take current scientific understanding and translate it into something that is popular? How can we use our understanding of why/how people believe things to get them to believe in scientific evidence, and to be willing to change those beliefs when new evidence surfaces? Tough questions. More disbelief in Science ~ Comments: 0
Red Herrings
Health, Politics, MyRamblings, Tech, Scienceby Maria on 13 Apr 2010 - 21:10  Herring (Kippered) I very much enjoyed the TED talk by Michael Specter on the danger of science denial. His main point is that we will continue to do real damage to our planet and our communities, if we continue to ignore what science tells us. His two main examples are the trend to not immunize because of the supposed link between autism and immunizations, and frankofoods, iow, genetically modified foods. I think both of these cases demonstrate the publics tendency to take a scary finding, latch onto the first thing that comes along to blame, and then ignoring science and facts and beat the hell out of the red herring. In the case of the autism and immunizations, study after study has shown there is no link. But the original study, however misguided, did demonstrate that we need to continue to put pressure on manufacturers and the government to ensure that vaccines are safe to use, as some things were brought up that were questionable. We need to learn to accept science and facts when they become undoubtable, stop beating a dead horse, and look to new places for answers. That second point is very important. There is much money and time now being spent trying to convince parents that autism is caused by immunizations, money that should be spent on coming up with the actual causes and cures to autism. Not to mention this misguidedness is causing a crisis in immunization that could cause many diseases that we have not seen in decades to return to the United States. If you are unconvinced that immunizations do not cause autism, check out this pdf from immunize.org. The second issue, genetically modified foods, is very interesting. In this case, the red herring is GMO's themselves. Although more research is needed, so far, it appears that the insertion of new genes does not, by itself, change the plant in a negative way. In Specter's talk he mentioned the noble ideas about adding vitamin A in rice and adding protein and vitamins in cassava, using genetic modification. He did not mention anything about adding resistance to pesticides or insecticides. These are the truly scary things, the things we should be up in arms about. The movie Monsanto's World is extremely interesting, and brings to mind the things we need to be extremely concerned about. First and foremost, are the ties between government and corporations. Monsanto has become a scary monopoly because the US government let it happen, and, in fact, encouraged it to happen. And, it can, and probably has, happened in other industries as well. It is the ties between industry and government that has caused the scientific data to not be scrutinized as it should be. Check out the wikipedia article about Monsanto, under Public officials formerly employed by Monsanto. Which brings up and interesting question. Who should be in charge of government agencies that oversee industries? In many cases, it seems the government decides that people from industry are the best choice, since they would presumably know the most about that particular industry. But, they also have the hardest time separating themselves from the corporations they use to be a part of, and present a real conflict of interest. Time after time, in many different industries, government has failed to enforce or enact the regulations it should in the interest of public safety, because of the ties with corporations. The other thing that we should be up in arms about is the abuse of patent law by Monsanto. Monsanto has used patent law to bully farmers, so that it now controls most of the U.S. corn and soy seed market, according to the non-profit Center for Food Safety. And there is no doubt that Monsanto and its connections in government have worked hard to suppress scientific evidence that its products are not as harmless as it claims. But, you shouldn't take my word on this, do your research. So, while I agree with Specter about there being good that can come from genetic modification, and while at its root, it is not much different from the modifications we have been making to animals and plants for hundreds of thousands of years by breeding, there is still some very scary stuff going on in the genetic modification industry, and most of it has to do with the corporation that controls a very large portion of the seed market, Monsanto, and allows farmers to completely douse their fields with herbicides and/or insecticides. And regardless of whether the food that has been modified to survive such dowsing is harmful, we already know that dowsing fields with herbicides and/or pesticides is terrible for the soil and the nature/people surrounding the fields. For the most common of these herbicides, Roundup, check out the wikipedia article. Which brings me to another interesting article I have read recently. In the article Is it okay to ignore results from people you don’t trust? by Ben Goldacre on badscience.net. He gives a nice example of industry scientists getting the results you would expect them to want, which was different from what non-industry scientists found. Repeated experiences like this makes it is easy for us to ignore results from people we don't trust. We have come to expect scientists from industry to get results more favorable to their industry (which is why the government should have been more critical of the data from Monsanto), but then he goes on to give an example of researchers you may not normally trust, publishing a study with a result that was both accurate and earlier then any other researchers. So, it appears that it is not enough that the public pay attention to scientific data, the public must learn to think critically about the data that they are given. Consider the source, but also consider the data itself. Ask questions. Be skeptical, but do not reject science simply because you want to believe in voodoo. And above all, do not look for studies to validate your opinion, because you will find them no matter how crazy your opinion is. Instead, look at everything you can find that examines the question with an open mind, consider the sources, the methods, the number of studies, and ask questions until you are satisfied. But when some new piece of evidence comes up, be willing to look anew at the question, and to reconsider your position. Yup, it is a lot of work, but it is so very important to our health and the health of our planet. Red Herrings ~ Comments: 0
Ada Lovelace Day
 Today is Ada Lovelace Day once again, and I thought today I would spotlight a modern day techie entrepreneur. Cathy Malmrose started her own business selling hardware running linux in 2007. She impresses me not only because I am awed by people willing to start their own business, but also because she was discouraged from anything technical or scientific as a child. It took her a long time to overcome this discouragement, but she has in a big way, and now is an inspiration to girls and women interested in science and technology. I just love her journal entry about her girls learning how to install linux on a computer. Nelson Mandela is an inspiration to her, and the name of her company, ZaReason comes in part from Za, the country code for South Africa, and Reason, "which translates well in many languages, and has many meanings". I love that she decided to include a screwdriver with all ZaReason computers to "communicate that we respect people's ownership of their new laptop or desktop and we respect their intelligence to be able to modify it." Cathy is also involved with charitable projects through a non-profit, http://www.Partimus.org. LInks about Cathy: Ada Lovelace Day ~ Comments: 0
Great Ad
Yup, it is an ad about preventing HIV transmission. very amusing, and hopefully effective.
Great Ad ~ Comments: 0
Week in Review
Lots about death this week, but lets start with autism. Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who supposedly linked MMR and autism, is closer than ever to being banned from practicing as a doctor, according to NewScientist. Apparently the ban (on him and two co-authors) doesn't actually have to do with the autism claims, but has "concerned itself with the conduct, duties, and responsibilities of each doctor". However, the findings of the investigators does seriously call into question his integrity as a scientist as well, apparently peppered with words such as "dishonest", "irresponsible" and "misleading". It is so sad the panic this mans irresponsible claims have caused over immunizations. While true that the attention over this has caused manufacturers and regulators to pay more attention to the safety of vaccines, which is very important, it has also meant much valuable time and resources have been spent disproving this link. Time and resources that should have been going to investigate other, more likely links. Continuing on to the death theme, we move on to a very concerning development with the "suicides" in Guantánamo back in June of 2006. I highly recommend reading the Harper's article in full, but if you want the short version, watch the video at the bottom of the update. I am sickened by our government, and hope that the Obama administration will do the right thing, and come clean with all that has happened, before and since, they came to power, regarding Guantánamo and the policies of torture by the USA. This afternoon I read an article in The New Yorker about dying and mourning. I had already been thinking about death after hearing an amazing podcast from Radio Lab. The 8th segment, at about 13:30, is a story by David Eagleman from his book, SUM, read by Jeffrey Tambor. I recommend listening to the entire hour, but this is the story that got me thinking down this particular line. It is sort of an echo of something that I had been thinking about, although better articulated then I could have done, and it's kind of a natural continuation of my thoughts about emergence. It is the thought that there is a connection that we all have at many levels. There is the connection between our atoms, molecules, cells and cell structures, organs, organisms, planets, etc, which form groups at various levels. Maybe it is true that at each level there is some awareness of the interconnectedness, and some feeling like loss when the group breaks up. Strange that a type of mourning that may happen to my atoms when I die is a comfort to me, and whose to say there is no awareness in atoms or planets? Next thing you know, I'll be following the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I do recommend the article in The New Yorker about dying and mourning, and which has nothing to do with the flying spaghetti mosnter. I agree with Meghan O’Rourke, I think we do not do the death and mourning thing well in the USA. Before we leave the death theme, I'd like to take a moment to join many fans, friends and family in the mourning of Howard Zinn and J. D. Salinger. Both made amazing contributions to our society, and I am very grateful for their lives, loves and works. On the tech front, a scary thing happened with Facebook on AT&T phones. Apparently last weekend, some people with AT&T phones logged into Facebook, and found themselves in someone else's account. There is a good, but somewhat technical, article about what happened and what needs to be done about it at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As a reaction to the crazy ruling recently by the Supreme Court, Murray Hill Inc. is running for congress. Hmmm. Interesting article about skunk weed. According to the article, "studies have shown that pure, synthetic THC causes transient psychosis in 40 to 50 per cent of healthy people". Apparently, there is normally a compound in weed, cannabidiol (CBD), that counteracts the psychosis producing effects of THC. Guess we should stick to the other strains... Finally, time for some fun. Start with the Ultimate Graphic Novel (in Six Panels). The first comment was almost as good as the novel. Also discovered a great music site, http://digital.thinkindie.com, and found a cool new video, Anna Rose "Picture":
Week in Review ~ Comments: 0
Migraines
The bad news is that my daughter has another migraine. The good news is that I think we have discovered a major trigger. It appears she most often gets migraines when she doesn't get enough sleep. I've thought for years that it is very important for children to get plenty of sleep, and certainly this is the case for Tanika. Here is a great link about children and sleep: http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/sleep.htm We have found that we need to put Tanika to bed at 9pm on school nights. She gets up around 6:30, so assuming it takes her 15 min. or so to go to sleep, she sleeps around 9 hours. This seems to be about right for her, as she usually gets up pretty easily on this schedule. I use to think that when she had a big assignment at school that she wasn't going to get finished in time, I should let her stay up to finish it. I'm rethinking this now. Since she is still in Middle school, I think it is probably better that she takes the hit on not having her assignment done, and gets her full sleep instead. And we teach her how to plan out her homework and not wait to the last minute, because school work is important, but school work is going to suffer without sleep, and sleep needs to take top priority, or else she literally suffers. While it is true that the migraines seem to occur when her sleep is seriously deprived (they seem to follow sleepovers most often), I think that even small losses in sleep are bad for her. Migraines ~ Comments: 2
Potato Knishes
Foodby Maria on 24.01.2010 - 01:48  So I tried to make Potato Knishes the other day, and was not entirely successful at it. (No, the picture above is definitely not what I came up with, this is from the broke gourmet, where the recipe is from.) I ended up with rather yummy potatoes mashed with onion, cheese and thyme. The bread wrapping is where things went wrong. I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour. I was surprised to learn that pastry flour makes pastry dough. My dough broke apart easily, and would not roll into anything. I sort of thought that it would be the different ratios of dough ingredients that made the biggest change. Apparently, the grind of the flour makes a huge difference. I do wonder why. May have to investigate this further. In the meantime, I definitely want to make these again, but going to try the all-purpose flour this time. I can confirm that the insides of these knishes are really great; in fact, I'm going to have another bowl of knish innards right now. http://brokeassgourmet.com/articles/cheddar-thyme-potato-knishes Potato Knishes ~ Comments: 0
Global Scrub Down
Politicsby maria on 14.01.2010 - 01:21 Wow, this is completely fascinating, if true: Climate Change Catastrophe took Just Months. I read this article a while ago, and I've let it brew a bit. The article explains how the most recent ice age may have come on quite suddenly, like in about 6 months, as opposed to the many years previously assumed. Researcher William Patterson and colleagues believe a large, very cold lake in North America called Lake Agassiz burst its banks, and the large volume of freezing fresh water disrupted the Gulf Stream emough to cause lots of ice to form, which then kept the air cold, preventing the flow to return to its pre-ice age currents. So, thus was a born a mini-ice age of 1,300 years. My first thought was, if it is true that such dramatic climate change can happen so quickly and so relatively easiely, we are really fucking lucky we haven't triggered something crazy, with all of our mucking about with the earth. Think of all of the things we have done in our short time on earth. We have transformed vast treks of land from forests and mixed vegetation to farmland, cities, pastures, etc.; we have dumped all kinds of chemicals (including tons of crude oil) into the ground and waterways; damned rivers; and poured smoke and chemicals into the atmosphere, including not just the usual suspects, but the occasional nuclear bomb, test, or accident. Those are just the things that poppped immediately into my head. Somehow, it seems like some of that has probably done some harm. The findings in this study mean interesting things for our future. Strangely, it can be used as an argument either for mucking about more or less. One argument goes, well then it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to counteract global warming, all we have to do is empty a big vat of cold water in a water current to disturb the flow, and we can reverse the warming we have caused. We can create all kinds of models to figure out the precise amount and place to do this. Obviously, this sort of thinking has some flaws. Most obviously, we are quite likely to get it wrong, or find it practically too difficult to get enough water, at the right temp. to the right place at the right time. So maybe instead we should do all we can to neutralize the changes we have made in/on the earth, so we don't accidentally provoke another drastic change in temperature? Apparently the earth is good enough at doing that on its own, without our help. Maybe we can at least stop more warming, while we figure out whether we want to go into the mucking about with the climate intentionally business? And since it is likely, given all of the changes we have made to the earth, that we have changed more than just the temperature, trying to reverse the most egregious changes we have made could stop any other crazy outcomes we have not yet forseen, but in our ignorance, directed the earth toward. I'm thinking of things like acid rain. It isn't like we don't have evidence that we have drastically changed certain places/aspects of the earth already. So, in conclusion, we should clean up our messes already (air, land, and water ones), regardless of whether we have caused actual harm to the climate (yet), becuase the planet could use a good scrub down after our mucking about on it for centuries. Global Scrub Down ~ Comments: 4
Dophins and a Hero
FunStuffby maria on 06.11.2009 - 21:21  Plus they are just so darn cute! And a big hurrah to Sergeant Munley, who's amazing performance at the Ft. Hood shooting undoubtedly saved lives. NYTimes arcticle. Must agree with William Saletan of Slate that if women can defend Fort Hood in such a brave and heroic showing, then they should definitely be defending the USA in the military.  Picture from NY Daily News. Dophins and a Hero ~ Comments: 0
Health Care
I think there are serious flaws with our (USA) health care system currently. I think all people should have basic health care, and our current system fails to do that. Not only do not all people have health insurance, but those that do can lose it when they need it most, all too easily. I believe the basic reason for this is the people who are suppose to be providing access to health care (the insurance companies) have an incentive to to NOT GIVE ACCESS TO CARE. If they give insurance to people who end up in the hospital for a long time, it costs the company lots of money, so they would rather spend the money figuring out how to not hold up their end of the bargain (usually cheaper to find a way to reject a claim/deny coverage), or spend the money figuring out how to only sell their insurance to primarily healthy people who are unlikely to cost them loads of money, not to mention advertising how great they are, to entice a large pool of people to choose the healthy people from. Oh, yes, and then there is all of the money they've been bloody spending to stop congress from changing the status quo. Hmm, wonder why they would want to keep the status quo? Their primary goal is to make money. For businesses where making the vast majority of customers happy means more business and more money and happy owners, this is okay, but when it is advantageous for a company to only keep the customers happy that do not require much, and advantageous to discourage other customers from even doing business with them, because this is what makes the most money and keeps the owners happy, this is problematic. And when it is a business that we as Americans think all people should have access to, this is doubly problematic. Medicare is successful largely because it does not have these incentives. They spend their money figuring out how to get the most people health care for the smallest costs, not in how to get out of paying for health care. So, how to solve the problem? What about regulation? What if we say, okay, you can't deny someone coverage because of pre-existing conditions? Okay, that's easy, just charge them lots more money. Chances are they won't be able to afford it, and will still be out of insurance. So, how do you regulate a company to provide everyone who asks for it insurance at a reasonable price and force them to pay all reasonable medical bills? I don't think it is possible. I think unless you break the incentive to make money, insurance companies will find the loopholes, and continue to spend lots of money on not providing health care, and there will continue to be people without insurance and denied claims. One thing I have wondered about is what would happen if you required all health insurance companies to be non-profit. I think it probably makes more sense to have a public option, based on the medicare option, but I would not rule out the non-profit idea. I wonder if there are other solutions. I also believe that having health care tied to your employer is a bad idea. Maybe it made more sense when people stayed with one employer for years, but I think it makes no sense today, where for years, the average person has been with their current employer for only 4.1 years As of Jan 2008. Why should we have to change insurance (and quite possibly doctors) when we change jobs? I once changed doctors four times in two years, because of various health insurance shenanigans. Not one of those times was because I was actually unhappy with my doctor. And why should health insurance be a factor when choosing a job? It seems crazy to me. I know people who hate their insurance, but can't change insurance companies because they don't want to change jobs. And, worse, I know people who have stayed in jobs they hated for years because they were afraid of losing their health insurance. It can't be good for your health... I think if there were a public option there would be less incentive for employers to use health insurance to entice people, and less incentive for people to choose jobs based on health insurance. At any rate, I think we need to try something that is actually different then what we are doing now, and not just a couple of reforms or regulations, because what we are doing now just isn't working, and I don't believe it can be properly patched. Addendum: It appears at least some experts believe the current bill (which has no public option) could make things worse for patients LATimes Article. </health care rant> Health Care ~ Comments: 0
Such a Ho
I was hanging out with some friends recently, when they began talking about someone they knew in high school. They called her a ho. I did not call them on it. Maybe because I did not know said girl. But it should not have mattered. It really doesn't matter whether she fulfilled some criteria for being a ho. The term ho is offensive. Very. Should not be used to refer to anyone. The old double standard. It would never have even crossed their mind to care about a label for a guy from high school who slept around. I wish I would have said something. I don't understand why it took so long for the offense to even register. Why it wasn't until much later that night that I said to myself, 'wait a minute, they called some girl a ho; I should have said something'. Next time I hope my brain isn't in such slow motion. Such a Ho ~ Comments: 0
LDAP
Techby maria on 27.05.2009 - 16:30 What a struggle. Normally I post things like this in my Work directory, but I wanted people to be able to post comments, so I'm posting here. Consider it a constant work in progress, as I will continue to learn about ldap. ldap running on port 389 can use tls or not. This is so you can do anonymous binds (as far as I can figure, there is no reason to require an encrypted connection to find out public information when not using a password). So what I want to figure out is if the ldap server can require tls for all queries that require a password. Presumably, we have already decided which ldap entries are private enough to require a password with slapd.conf ACLs. rootdn can be used for initial setup, but best to setup a user in the database to be admin, and then get rid of rootdn. Adding test gnutls: on server: gnutls-serv --x509certfile /etc/ldap/certs/server.crt \
--x509keyfile /etc/ldap/certs/server.key
on a client (needs gnutls-cli and cafile):
will give cert info:
test tls with ldap:
ldap error codes: http://www.zytrax.com/books/ldap/ch12/ LDAP ~ Comments: 0
Road Trip
myLifeby me on 25.05.2009 - 23:20 We are done with our roadtrip! Well, I'm still in California for a couple more days, but Tanika is now back in Washington. Below was our final itinerary. We had a really great time, and pictures are on the web. http://www.shadlen.org/~maria/pmwiki/Pics/SWtrip09 The times are approximate driving times, but we found them to be pretty close. Current tentative itinerary:
Road Trip ~ Comments: 2
marriage
myLifeby maria on 30.04.2009 - 01:43 Before I got married I had no intention of getting married. I got married because otherwise I had to separate from my boyfriend for a year and a half. My suspicions about marriage were confirmed, and I myself fell into a couple of marriage traps. The biggest one is complacency. We will be together no matter what, so I can let loose. Nothing like taking a relationship for granted to cause it to fall apart. It has since come to my attention that there are other reasons for complacency in relationships, but I still maintain that marriage is the biggest and baddest. The second marriage trap is the expectation. At the same time that you are starting to take the relationship for granted, your expectations of the relationship suddenly increase. Weirdly enough, not just your expectations for the other person. Suddenly you think you need to give up this or the other thing, or make some sacrifice that has never been requested, because wives do x or husbands do y. Or maybe you think you are suppose be spending time or money on something, but turns out the other person has entirely different expectations, and may not even notice you bending over backwards for something they couldn't care less about. We find ourselves acting as if there is some model that we must all follow. Some model based on fairytales and tv shows and our own baggage... Of course I thought I could get around all of this by just not marrying again. Silly me, don't know what I was thinking. Becoming a nun might have saved me from it, but that would have landed me in a padded room instead, I expect, or I would be like one of the priests photographed with a woman. Celibacy, shmelibacy. marriage ~ Comments: 2
Email is Evil
Techby maria on 22.04.2009 - 01:45 Recently I came across this blog post, The Email Problem and How to Solve it. I wouldn't say there were a whole lot of solutions presented, but it got me thinking about how much time I spend checking email. Part of the problem is that many of us are tied to email in a fundamental way for our jobs. Right now I am having problems with computers overheating, so if I am not right next to the computer room, and checking the temperature as regularly as I check my email, then I do need to be checking my email often, to make sure I am not getting an email from the server telling me, "hey, I'm overheating, do something!" My job being computer admin, there are all kinds of reasons why I have to be checking my email regularly. But it is a major distraction, and it is often difficult to get back on task after checking it. I think one solution that the author did not really touch on is to expand the tagging ability of emails and the filtering of alerts. Right now we can tag emails after we have read them as important, but other than using capital letters in the subject, it is difficult to tag an email before you send it. It would be great if I could filter my email alerts to critical sometimes, kind of like a 'do not disturb except during emergencies' sign, and only be told about servers overheating or other true emergencies when I am in the middle of some programming that takes all of my concentration. Or even creating different levels of alerts would be a good start, for example, when I am in critical work mode, I only want to know about emails from my computers and my boss. Email is Evil ~ Comments: 1
Ada Lovelace Day
It has become obvious that women need to see female role models, in order to persevere and thrive in male-dominated fields. So, Suw Charman-Anderson announced that she would post a blog if 1000 other people also promised to post a blog about a woman they admire who has excelled in technology. She is calling it Ada Lovelace Day in honor of one of the world's first computer programmers. So, I signed the pledge, and talked to my daughter Tanika about it. She told me that a woman invented the dishwasher, which I did not know, and recommended I look into that. Josephine Cochrane did invent the first workable mechanical machine to wash dishes. Apparently she had grown tired of her servants breaking her dishes, and is quoted to have said, "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself." I love it. She designed a wheel that set inside a copper boiler, and held several different compartments made of wire to hold different types of dishes. A motor turned the wheel and pumped hot soapy water from the bottom of the boiler. I love the image I have in my head of her in the early 1880's at work in the shed behind her house, hammering pieces of hardware to a copper wash-boiler. She received a patent for it in 1886, and founded the Garis-Cochran Dish-Washing Company to produce it, which later became the KitchenAid part of the Whirlpool Corporation. Another great quote: “Women are inventive, the common opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. You see, we are not given a mechanical education, and that is a great handicap. It was to me—not in the way you suppose, however. I couldn’t get men to do the things I wanted in my way until they had tried and failed in their own. And that was costly for me. They knew I knew nothing, academically, about mechanics, and they insisted on having their own way with my invention until they convinced themselves my way was the better, no matter how I had arrived at it.” Things were definitely difficult for women in the late 19th century, both as inventors and business owners, and she should be applauded as much for her bravery in getting into business as she was for the invention itself. Another quote, regarding the first sale she made, to a large hotel in Chicago, “You asked me what was the hardest part of getting into business,” Mrs. Cochrane recalled for the reporter for the Record-Herald. “That was almost the hardest thing I ever did, I think, crossing the great lobby of the Sherman House alone. You cannot imagine what it was like in those days, twenty-five years ago, for a woman to cross a hotel lobby alone. I had never been anywhere without my husband or father —the lobby seemed a mile wide. I thought I should faint at every step, but I didn’t—and I got an $800 order as my reward.” picture and some background from Hall of Fame inventor profile Ada Lovelace Day ~ Comments: 1
Charities
Charitiesby maria on 19.03.2009 - 00:41 Since my employer does not have a charity donation program, I have been struggling to deal with donations. Mostly I've been unsuccessful, and my donations have been erratic at best. But, recently I have discovered two sites that make life easier, and my donations more consistent and thoughtful. Network for Good is a nonprofit that is set up to distribute donations to other nonprofits. They make it very easy to make regular donations to charities you like. The other useful web site is Charity Navigator. This web site makes it easy to see how well charities do at being charities, so you can somewhat objectively narrow down which charities you want to donate to. Charity Navigator is itself a nonprofit, but does not accept funding from the charities it evaluates. Here I discovered that two the organizations I have been supporting are vastly different in their use of funds. Heifer International is not nearly as efficient as Mercy Corps, and I have decided that for now it makes sense to send more money to Mercy Corps than to send each less money. There is another nonprofit that has recently come to my attention. It is not listed in Charity Navigator, and I think that is because of its unique status. It is Kiva, and it is currently the only nonprofit international microlender. So you don't really donate (although you get the opportunity to donate to Kiva itself when you lend money), but give loans to people. You get to choose the people you loan to from a bunch of selected entrepreneurs, and can loan amounts as small as $25. When your loan is paid back (and it appears that most of them are, but there is some risk that they won't be, of course), you have the opportunity to re-invest, donate to Kiva, or pull your money. You do not receive interest for the loans (and neither does Kiva). Charities ~ Comments: 2
Coward
Politicsby maria on 07.02.2009 - 23:21 I'm with the the stranger slog on this one. Pot smoking should not be illegal, and Phelps should not be apologizing for smoking it. I love this quote "Here’s the implication the swimming team makes and Phelps's apology upholds: If you smoke pot, you can’t grow up to be a great athlete, star, success, etc. Well—lo and fucking behold—you can." Not only that, but whoever heard of anyone dying from smoking too much pot? I think that makes it a safer bet than alcohol (the total number of deaths with any mention of alcohol poisoning is 1,393 per year), possibly even safer then gambling (and certainly less likely to ruin you financially). We waste a bunch of money and resources chasing down pot smokers, when we could be making money off taxation of it, as we do with so many other vices. Not that I am trying to say that pot smoking doesn't have negative effects, of course, it does. But, if we are going to allow vices that do marginal harm, then it seems to me that marijuana is a great candidate, and making it illegal hasn't done much of anything towards making it less harmful. Another good quote from the slog, "About one-third of the country has smoked pot, and those stoners who act like it's a sin are part of the reason we're so reluctant to fix pot laws". Now, where are those corn flakes? Coward ~ Comments: 0
Dangerous Attitudes
From the attack on Matthew Shepard and many others we learned how it can be dangerous, and even deadly, to be gay. Now it is becoming clear that this danger isn't just from the hate crimes of bigots. A new study has linked suicide attempts, riskier sexual behavior and higher drug use to gay adults whose families rejected them compared to gay adults whose families were accepting of them. True, correlation does not prove causation, and better studies should be designed and carried out, but in this case, I think it is a fair assumption that the rejection played a role in the increased numbers. After all, it doesn't seem crazy to assume that someone rejected by a parent, for any reason, would be more depressed as an adult. I find this so incredibly sad. These parents can't or won't recognize that their prejudices are literally hurting their children, and setting them up to be unnecessarily more miserable in their adulthood. This is why I believe our society's attitude towards gay marriage is not just immoral, but dangerous. Some may say that we can be accepting of gays and gay relationships, and still not allow gay marriages, but I believe this is equivalent to saying we can believe that women and men are equal, but still require women to stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Wrong, wrong, wrong. As long as we are saying, one must do something or cannot do something based solely on one's race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. we are being prejudiced, and furthermore, we are endangering people by promoting prejudice. I think the links found in this study should really have been already somewhat obvious (like I said earlier, who doesn't believe that a child rejected by a parent, for any reason, is more likely to be depressed as an adult), but I understand not being able to see the forest for the trees, and I hope that having studies that confirm what many of us were suspicious of already will help to change attitudes. One can hope. Dangerous Attitudes ~ Comments: 0
The battle to marry *
It has been a while since I have posted anything. November and December sort of blindsided me. Lots going on. Somehow between dealing with craziness, ;-) I did run across an interesting article about the question of whether sexual orientation is a lifestyle choice or a biological trait. The article compares sexual orientation to handedness, and it seems a very apt comparison, and makes very good arguments as to why sexual orientation is a biological trait. I assumed that this would be the end of the story, but recently I was part of a discussion with a person from the religious right persuasion, who thinks that even if sexual orientation is a biological trait, and even if there is nothing a person can do about which sex they are attracted to, practicing homosexuality is still a sin. Apparently, according to her church, some people are unlucky enough to be born having to fight their sexual urges their entire lives. I can sort of see the logic, I mean I guess there are people who have an urge to murder people, and they probably have to fight this urge their whole life. But, murderers are clearly infringing on other people's right to life, if they give in to their urge, and consenting homosexual adults are clearly not. And on the more common end of the comparison spectrum, it seems to me a bit more intense then say, a married person having to battle wanting to cheat on their spouses occasionally (adultery, interestingly enough, is illegal in about 20 states, according to myfamilylaw.com, and is arguably infringing on the spouses rights). According to this church, it seems some people are given homosexuality as their cross to bear. I'm guessing there aren't a whole lot of gay men and women in her church. But the worse bit is that apparently she is obligated by her religion to push for legislation against giving gay people the right to marry each other. So, it isn't just wrong for her, and people with the same beliefs that she has, but it is also wrong for people who worship the flying spaghetti monster. While I can see where this argument comes from, it just seems a bit ridiculous to me. My first hurdle is getting past my 'if it isn't infringing on someone else's rights, then leave well enough alone' tendency. And then, I just completely don't understand the leap from, 'my religion states that this is wrong so I shouldn't do it' to 'I must do what I can to make sure this becomes against the law'. Is there going to be legislation soon that we cannot work on Sundays or that we aren't allowed to eat pork?
The battle to marry * ~ Comments: 1
A New Day
Politicsby maria on 05.11.2008 - 11:56 It is a great day to be an American. 43 years after the Voting Rights Act was passed outlawing discriminating voting practices that were often used to prevent blacks from voting, we have elected a black president. 40 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot for having a noble and inspiring dream, we are one giant step closer to seeing that dream fulfilled. I want to thank Barack Obama. He has given me hope. Hope that this country can overcome its prejudices. Hope that we can become a great nation. A nation that helps to promote peace and justice. A nation that helps to make this world a better place to live in. Hope that we can work together to get things done, instead of calling each other names. Imagine people doing things because it is the right thing to do, instead of because we are scared and threatened. Hope that we can change the world by teaching, instead of by bullying. And hope that we stop torturing and having our civil rights stolen and trampled upon. Hope that science will once again be used to inform policy, instead of policy being used to manipulate science. Hope that we can clean up our messes, and educate our children more effectively. Hope for a better future and cleaner world for our children. Maybe that is a lot of hope to put on one man, but like Barack says, all of this happened because of us, and we can work with him to make the rest of these dreams come true as well. A New Day ~ Comments: 2
Bobbie Hort
myLifeby Maria on 22.10.2008 - 01:26  Bobbie and Harold Hort My aunt died a few days ago. It was not unexpected, as her health was poor, but it was still too soon. I had hoped to visit her again before she passed, but it seems I waited too long. I hope she knew how much I loved and appreciated her. We never lived very near each other, but I always enjoyed visiting her. I always thought it was quite special that my daughter was born on the same day as Bobbie, November 14. I left for the army when I was just 17 years old, and after training I was stationed in Korea for a year. I then moved to Fort Hood, Texas. I lived there for two and a half years, and the only person from my family that ever visited me there was Bobbie, who came down from Nebraska and stayed with us for a few days. I was so grateful to have that contact, as my time in the army was far from easy. Thank you Bobbie. Bobbie's old farm holds so many wonderful memories for me. When I was young, playing on the farm, surrounded by family and animals, was like a little piece of heaven. Until my brother and I discovered that red ants bite. Being city folks, the farm was an infinite source of new intrigues. Bobbie is always central to that memory. She always had a fun story and words of wisdom. Not to mention a bit of candy. Thank you Bobbie. She was an inspiration. First woman firefighter in the state of Nebraska. I remember learning that and thinking how cool, that's my aunt. She weathered some mighty storms, and helped others to weather theirs. Thank you Bobbie. It is very unfortunate that I don't believe I ever told her these things. I hope she knew that she was an inspiration to me, that I very much appreciated having her as an aunt, and that I love her and will miss her. I have posted some pictures. Bobbie Hort ~ Comments: 1
Video War
I read this article and this one in Slate a while back, and they have been needling me ever since. The articles are about drones that the military uses. They are remote controlled weapons. The military has worked with video game technicians and programmers to make the experience, well, more video game-like. I find this concept so much more scary than cloning or gene therapy or any of the other 'scary' technologies that are currently being explored. How can anyone understand the ramifications of what they are doing, if killing just looks like a video game? Both articles brings up lots of good points about how scary it is to have combat military that doesn't truly see the damage that it is doing, so I won't go into that, except for one point. Since other countries are developing the same technology, it seems that future wars could be fought by people that are hidden away in various locations, while the countries at war are blown to smithereens. And to the people fighting, it will all be video images. But here is some more food for thought: I have no idea what the range of these things are currently, but one can imagine that it won't take too long before they can be very long range. And if they aren't already small enough to go undetected by radar, one can also imagine that not being far away. The damage that a terrorist could do with a drone, once the range is large and the size is small, would be incredible. And, it is hard to imagine any border control that could do much about it. I realize that we will never get rid of terrorism completely, but clearly we need to start really dealing with the breeding grounds, and the rampant growth of terrorism. We need to attack the root causes of people choosing to become terrorists, because the weapons that they can get a hold of are only going to get more sophisticated and scary. According to one of the Slate articles France, Germany, Greece, India, the Philippines, Russia, even Switzerland are all building or buying drones; soon enough, someone will start selling them to terrorists. I think Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea) is on the right track, and I would encourage everyone to donate whatever they can to help his organization, the Central Asia Institute. It is imperative that we do all in our power to promote peace, so I hope that everyone reading this will take a look at his work. From the CAI website: The best hope for a peaceful and prosperous world lies in the education of all the world’s children. Video War ~ Comments: 0
Global Warming
I was reading an article about Sarah Palin, and one of the topics brought up was that Sarah Palin doesn't believe global warming is man-made. I think that her opinion is actually irrelevant to the debate, (although a bit disturbing, but we'll save that for a different post). I think the global warming controversy generally presented in the media is a bit off. The two questions that I hear being disputed are 1) Is gobal warming real? and 2) are humans responsible for it? I think the first one has been shown to be quite believable, and we need to stop debating it already. But, I think the second question is just the wrong question, and should be instead, Can we, and should we, do anything about it, no matter why it is happening? To answer the should question, we need to ask, how much damage is global warming really doing to our planet and to our children's futures? But, let us set aside the question of damage for a minute, and assume we believe the effects of global warming will be catastrophic. Can we do anything about it? To find out the answer to that we need to know what is causing global warming. From Wikipedia: The Earth's climate changes in response to external forcing, including variations in its orbit around the Sun (orbital forcing),[15][16][17] changes in solar luminosity, volcanic eruptions,[18] and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Ok, so of those, the one that we could possibly affect is atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Next question: do we want to change the volume of greenhouse gases we are putting into the atmosphere? That is the million dollar question. Changing the amount of greenhouse gasses we are putting into the atmosphere is the most likely way that we could affect global warming. So, if global warming is a serious problem, regardless of whether we caused it, we probably should do something about it. Currently, what we are doing is something that could only make it worse or have no effect (best case scenario, however improbable...). Since none of the other plants or animals on the planet are likely to start trying to do anything about greenhouse gas levels, and waiting to see if they just goes down by themselves seems a little optimistic given the current trend, we should probably try to slow way down our outpouring of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, assuming it is doing serious damage. Let us now go back to our big unknown. Is global warming a catastrophe? We don't know. So, what do we do? One problem is that changing climate is kind of like trying to turn a very large freighter. There is a lot of lag time between starting the turn and actually having any noticeable affect. So, if we wait until it becomse obvious that we are on a path to catastrophe, it may very well be too late to do much about it. If we then add in that a lot of the the human activities responsible for green house gases are also responsible for smog and pollution, which are well documented to be causing problems to our health, it suddenly becomes a no-brainer. Why should we continue to pour these gasses into our environment at such a phenomenal rate, when we know they are harming the air we breathe, and that if we cut back we could be (maybe, of course) helping to prevent a disaster of global proportions? I like this quote from Bruno Giussani, who is quoting Bjorn Lomborg's new book "Cool It", and then adding on his own two cents: "It's time to put the debate over whether human-driven climate change is happening behind us and instead focus on technologies to decarbonize the economy," writes Anderson. But climate change is only one of three strong reasons to do this, he adds: the others are economics (rising direct and indirect costs of oil and carbon fuels) and geopolitics (oil revenues prop up bad governments around the world). There is a fourth reason that Anderson forgets, and which has been convincingly put forth by Al Gore in his TED2006 speech: it's a moral imperative. Amen. Global Warming ~ Comments: 0
West Coast Trail
 Lessons learned while on the West Coast Trail, in no particular order: 1. Do not wear new boots for the first time on this trail. When we were getting ready to head out at the trailhead, we ran into some people who were just finishing their trip on the trail. One of the guys literally had his boots completely wrapped in duct tape. The boots were defective, and within the first few miles, the soles had begun to fall off. He had managed to hike the entire trail on his duct taped boots, but I imagine most people would have chosen to bail. Note: Duct taped boots should not be considered waterproof. 2. If you find yourself saying, 'I don't have time to read the map', it is probably a good time to find somewhere safe, and find time to read the map. 3. Spaghetti straps are not a good idea under a heavy backpack. 4. Two pairs of socks, even if clean and dry, but especially if not, is not really enough for a five to eight day hike that takes you continuously either through either a rain forest or along a beach. 5. Mole skin doesn't work particularly well while hiking over difficult terrain, especially when feet are wet. Bandaids with duct tape is probably a better option. 6. Always bring duct tape. See #1 and #5. 7. If you are going to be backpacking on a beach and through a rain forest, make sure you check that your stuff that is suppose to be waterproof, say boots or a tent, really is waterproof before said trip. Along the same lines, don't expect stuff to dry out when hiking in a rain forest. 8. Time is somewhat less reliable on Vancouver Island. Locals definitely operate on their own time, and it may or may not coincide with yours. 9. Olive oil, shallots and garlic are worth their weight in a backpack. They make everything taste better. 10. Double bag everything that is in the slightest bit liquidy. Use stuff sacks and dry bags to compartmentalize your pack and keep everything dry. Have extra bags. Probably best not to ask how I learned most of these, but I will say I did learn from other's mistakes as well as my own. ;-) A word of advice about reservations for the WCT: Don't bother spending the non-refundable deposit to try to get a reservation. Chances are you won't get one anyway. Instead, go directly to the trailhead and put yourself on the waitlist. Go ahead and sit through the orientation, and you should be able to get on the trail within a day or two. The waitlist rolls over, so if you don't get on the trail that day, you move up to the top of the list for the next day. This is without a doubt the best book about the trail: http://members.shaw.ca/blistersbliss/ To see the pictures, and read about our adventure, go to my WCT photo page Also, I've posted some videos. West Coast Trail ~ Comments: 0
Obama
Politicsby maria on 27.08.2008 - 21:31 All this uproar about whether Obama is qualified to be commander in chief. Well, good grief, can he possibly do worse than our current president who sat for several minutes in a classroom after he learned about the 2nd attack on the twin towers? Apparently he was waiting for his aids to tell him what to do. Ah, yes, marvelous leadership. This on top of his scandalous military record, it would seem to me we can hardly do worse. It seems to me that what is most important in a president is his willingness to lead when called upon to do so, and to seek out the best advice, even if it conflicts with his preconceived notions, in all situations. Just because we have elected someone as president doesn't mean they have all of the answers. Obama seems to me much more likely to do this than McCain, but I would be happy to be proved wrong. Loved this quote from the NYTimes: It was largely overlooked, but the former Republican congressman from Iowa, Jim Leach, now an Obama supporter, framed it well in a speech on Monday. “Nothing is riskier than more of the same,” he said. Obama ~ Comments: 0
Choice
It is strange how we humans like to draw lines. From the time we are small, and draw the imaginary line down the middle of the backseat of the car to keep our sibling away from us, we seem to think we can draw lines to separate things. And, usually we seem to want straight lines. But nature is not that way. Our lines twist and turn, become blurred and erode away. We create laws and rules based on what we think is black and white. But it isn't. Life seems to be a continuum. We start out as a single cell, not much more than amoebae, really. When do we become a human? There are so many ifs along the way. If the egg is fertilized. If the egg is implanted. If the placenta develops correctly. There is no magic moment when suddenly this cell has multiplied and grown enough to be considered human. There is no magic moment when an embryo becomes a fetus or a fetus becomes a baby. There is no magic moment when the fetus can survive outside of the womb. There are only likelihoods. So, what does this mean? It means we do not know, and to me, that means that each woman has to decide for herself what is best for herself and her fetus. Sure, a fetus has the potential to become a human. But the woman is here, now, and has needs and thoughts that I cannot possibly know or judge. It is her life that will be turned upside down, and she needs to decide which way to turn it. But, the legislature in South Dakota thinks it knows when we become a human. They apparently believe that pretty much as soon as the egg is fertilized it is a "whole, separate, unique living human being". South Dakota is now requiring that medical providers present a statement (written by all of those medical doctors and researchers in the legislature, presumably) to women that are seeking abortions. This statement will inform women that an abortion "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being." Where did they get that from? Last time I checked separating a fetus from its mother will kill it, so how can it be a separate human being? The Human Nature Blog at Slate.com has a great essay about the whole separation thing. The doctor is also suppose to inform the woman that she has "an existing relationship" with the fetus, that is protected by the U.S. Constitution, and that "her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated" if she has an abortion. I have no idea what that is suppose to mean. Does that mean that if she keeps the fetus than the government will help pay for the medical cost of delivery and child rearing? No, I suspect it means, well, nothing. The statement also goes on and on about the possible repercussions to the woman's emotional and mental health if she has an abortion, and requires the woman be given "A statement setting forth an accurate rate of deaths due to abortions, including all deaths in which the abortion procedure was a substantial contributing factor". Funny how it doesn't mention the dangers to her emotional and mental health if she has a baby, and last time I checked, there is a higher risk of death and complications in childbirth than abortions. So, having written this, I went on a google quest to see if it is really the case that abortion is safer than childbirth. Turns out, it depends on whether you ask someone who is pro-no-choice or pro-choice. No surprise there. What was surprising was the lack of statistics in general. The only scientific paper I ran across, gave these statistics (for maternal death): * 1/1,000,000 with surgical abortion through 63 days gestation
* 1/100,000 with medical abortion through 63 days gestation
* 1/100,000 with miscarriage
* 1/10,000 with a term delivery
This was in a paper called 'Mifepristone-Misoprostol Medical Abortion Mortality' published in MedGenMed. 2006; 8(2): 26. Choice ~ Comments: 0
eleven
The year I was eleven was a big year for me and my brother. That was the year my grandmother died. The year we missed a couple of months of school. That was also the year my brother and I lived with friends in Rochester, NY for a month or two while our parents got settled in our new home in Steilacoom, WA. That was the year Mt. St. Helens blew. That was the year we moved across the country. Things were never the same after that year, not even remotely. The next ten years were the most difficult of my life. I had a lot of fun, but it was also the school of very hard knocks. So, now my daughter is eleven. And now I wonder, what should I do? She can't really learn from my mistakes, but maybe she can, a little. What do I tell her, what do I not tell her? Should I try to protect her as much as possible while I can? She has already had more knocks than I, at eleven. When is the best time to first encounter the real hard school of knocks? And how can we be best prepared (or prepare our kids)? a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q, Ahrrr! eleven ~ Comments: 1
living where I walk
myLifeby me on 09.07.2008 - 15:19 I love where I live. Yes, it would be nice to be a block or two closer to the water, away from the rentals and abandoned houses, but overall, I love where I live. Today, I was frustrated with work, and didn't know how to proceed. I walked three blocks from my house to the University's horticulture center. I didn't solve my work problems, but, man, their gardens are really beautiful right now. Flowers blooming, everything very lush and green, sumptuous smells, birds singing. More gorgeous gardens are on the other side of the horitulture center. Beyond the gardens is the Union Bay Natural Area, which ages ago use to be a dump, but is being restored to wetlands. These days it is a lovely place to take a walk, right next to the water, and with its fair share of wildlife. This and a gym separate me from my place of work. Not bad. Additionally, there are tons of restaurants, cafes, and various stores in easy walk of my house. And, one of the largest bike trails in the city, the Burke-Gilman bike trail is a block away. The biggest drawback to where I live? My boyfriend's commute, which he has put up with for about 7 years now. I wish I could make his commute go away, but the city isn't helping me with that one. Too bad we can't exchange work places, and I could just take the commute for a while; it would only be fair. living where I walk ~ Comments: 0
the killing fields
Politicsby me again on 06.07.2008 - 00:57 I recently finished reading "First they Killed my Father". It was a beautifully written story about times so sad I cannot put myself in the author's shoes. What a horrible place and time to live. Just unimaginable. What were all of those soldiers thinking? How were they blackmailed or brainwashed to do such terrible things? What is the best way to stop calamities like this from happening? Reading about this tragedy got me thinking of the various places and times around the earth that huge numbers of people are/were killed in decidedly one-sided killing sprees. And then I thought about the ordeal not that long ago as to whether we would help in Rwanda or whether we shouldn't because someone said it didn't qualify as a genocide. But we knew thousands of people were being killed. Do we really believe that people who say "never again" are only referring to the case that the motivation is race hatred? No, of course not, we need to stop all mass killings of human beings, period. What part of "this is wrong" on all levels do politicians not get? The world has to start policing itself. We can no longer tolerate "governments" killing people living in their states, regardless of the motivation. All countries should participate in the policing, not any of this unilateral crap. I believe this intolerance should be applied to the death penalty as well, (but I know this is a long-term goal). If there is one thing that has been proven continuously as long as there has been recorded history, it is that we are imperfect beings. Death is irrevocable; this is compelling. To anyone in a position of power in the world today: Grow the hell up, I mean, really. the killing fields ~ Comments: 0
Girls finish last
Politicsby me on 23.06.2008 - 12:54 Recently, there was an article posted in the New Scientist titled 'Bad guys really do get the most girls.' The article tries to explain how some antisocial personality traits persist in the human population despite "their potentially grave cultural costs" and is based on two recent studies. Their first mistake is that they attempt to explain why these traits persist in males, ignoring the fact that these traits also occur in females. No surprise the studies seem to have both been done by males. Typical. If we can explain it in males, problem solved. But the worst part of the studies is how they went about it. They determined that males that are likely to have these traits: "the self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism" are more likely to have a prolific sex life, and they determined this by asking these people about their sex lives. Um, aren't these the very people you would expect to LIE ABOUT THEIR SEXUAL PROWESS? Great study. What were they thinking? Don't these people have better things to do then try to justify their inability to get women? Something tells me it isn't them being a nice guy that keeps them from getting a date. It is probably their misogynist attitudes. And, it appears to me that it is MEN who are abetting the stereotype of the bad guy getting the girls, not actual behavior of girls. Last time I checked it wasn't a woman who wrote all of those James Bond books, directed all of the bad guy films, or wrote this ridiculous study! Girls finish last ~ Comments: 3
Cool new toy
This just looks like a bunch of fun: In completely unrelated news, I also liked this post about the theory of evolution: http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/nov05.html Finally, here is a cool black hole demo. http://www.thinktechnologies.com/portfolio/demos/Blackhole.html Cool new toy ~ Comments: 0
emergence
I've been thinking about emergence intelligence lately. Emergence intelligence is basically the idea of the whole is larger than the sum of its parts. For example, looking at the way an ant colony works, or how birds fly in flocks or birds swim in schools. There are no leaders in these groups, and individuals aren't particularly smart, and yet somehow the group solves complex problems and seems more intelligent than one would expect looking at the individuals. Other people have already compared this behavior to the cells in our brain. There is no one brain cell where we do our thinking or that is controlling the rest of the cells. Somehow, we think using all of our brain cells working together, although individual cells seem to have little intelligence. Recently I've been thinking about applying this idea to entire species, or the earth in its entirety. What if we are also all part of a greater intelligence. We don't realize it, in much the same way our brain cells don't know that they are part of a more intelligent being. Or think about the ant. The ant is just following signals, and although it may realize it is in a colony with other ants, it doesn't really realize that the problems that the colony as a whole are solving are much more complex then those that that ant could solve on its own. It is busy solving its own individual problems, and somehow by doing that is working with other ants to solve much greater problems. I believe we are all part of a greater intelligence, and are collectively solving problems that we are only vaguely aware of, if at all. We are all intricately connected in ways we don't really understand. When I think of god, this is what I think of. We are all part of an intelligence that is taking care of us, but there is no individual guiding anything. We are all part of it, but none of us is particularly important. There is no single guiding individual. Which is a humbling thought. emergence ~ Comments: 2
GI Bill
Politicsby maria on 11.04.2008 - 00:14 In the off-chance that someone actually reads this blog, I am hoping to convince my reader(s) to sign the petition asking McCain to support the new GI Bill being proposed by Sens. Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel. It would bring back WWII-era standards of providing vets with full tuition, room and board. So far 51 senators have signed on as co-sponsors. But the bill remains nine votes short of the supermajority necessary to dissuade a filibuster. The link to the petition is at the bottom of this post. The GI Bill that I used when I got out of the army was not very helpful, and the GI Bill now has barely changed since then. I believe it would be a great benefit to both the current service members and the country to pass this new GI bill. Military.com has a good article in support of the petition. One reason that critics say this might not be a good idea, is because they claim that this will encourage more soldiers to leave after their commitment is over. I think this blogpost addresses this well. And a link from The American Conservative for those who prefer a more conservative bent on things. From the American Conservative article: I believe doing something like this now would be especially helpful since we now have an all-volunteer army. This means that there are many poor people and minorities enlisted today. One might say, why mix our programs, why not just help the poor people and minorities directly, instead of picking the ones in the military. Of course, we already have some programs to help minorities and the poor (although it is not nearly enough, imo). But two reasons we should additionally help veterans, first to thank them for serving our country by giving them a chance at a greater future, and second because I think the people who volunteer for the military and do their time are also more likely to succeed in college. So, not only are we rewarding them for serving our country, but we are helping out people that we all too often shit upon. For a history of the GI Bill. And finally, Wes Clark's message and link to the petition. GI Bill ~ Comments: 0
Tanika's poem for Ella
AloneI am the hot sun reflecting on a sparkling lake Tanika's poem for Ella ~ Comments: 4
Phone Scam
myLifeby Maria on 20.03.2008 - 17:36 I got a phone call the other day that was a recording explaining how I was about to miss out on an opportunity to get a lower interest rate on one of my credit cards. The recording did not say which credit card or company, but wanted me to press a button to talk someone about my account. I hung up the phone and started laughing. The day one of my credit card companies decides to call me and offer me a lower rate is the day I eat my shorts. They will, however, send me a long letter with lots of fine print and legaleeze and bury in it that they are about to raise my interest rate, and to protest I have to write a letter to protest the action within about a week. The scammers seem to have better customer service. Phone Scam ~ Comments: 0
Children's Hospital
Politicsby maria on 19.03.2008 - 22:26 Children's hospital near us (about 4 blocks away) wants to expand a whole bunch. I love that their goal is for each kid to have a room to themselves and their family. My niece spent many, many weeks in hospital rooms, many shared, and it is so difficult. When kids are in the hospital, one or both parents pretty much live there, so having a child in the hospital when you have to share a room is like sharing a small hotel room with another family. Except the rooms are crowded with equipment, parents are usually sleeping on uncomfortable couches, and there are many crying fits, various tantrums, and its the place where kids get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected at all times of the day and night. It is definitely not a lot of fun, even for a short stay, and being in the hospital is already no fun, under the best of circumstances, so I am all for private hospital rooms for children, even if it means I have to put up with a bigger facility near us. Apparently a lot of the neighbors are "concerned" about the expansion. I knew I was moving into a city when I moved here, and I can think of a lot of things I would be way more upset about moving into (or expanding into) my "backyard". I do get that it will be a long-term construction project, and not fun to live near for quite some time. That is the negative of living in a city. I love that I can walk to restaurants, stores, coffee shops, doctors offices, and yes the hospital. But someone had to build them, and I am willing to put up with the building of them, because I want to live near these things. That is why I live in a city. I must add that I do understand, and agree, that it is good for the neighborhood to put some pressure on Children's to make sure they are looking out for the neighborhood, but sometimes I think what many of the protesters really want is to live in suburbia. Speaking of a pain to live near, Husky football games are loud, attract a lot of loud, purple people, and they cause huge traffic jams as well, but I'm probably not going to get many takers on tearing down the Stadium. All a matter of perspective, of course, but football causes many more disturbances in my book, then Children's Hospital, and for a less nobler cause. Children's Hospital ~ Comments: 0
christian god
So, when I was in Uganda, these very nice girls were braiding my hair for the wedding, and one of them asked me if I was born again. I told her no, well, actually I had been born again when I was in sixth grade, but I no longer believed. She asked me why, and I explained how I got very turned off of Christianity, because I had met so many that were horrible hypocrites, and some that were just plain mean. We kind of left it at that. I thought about bringing up the inherent unfairness of Christianity, but decided that her religion seemed to be doing her good, and if she wanted to drop pressing her religion on me, then I wasn't going to try to dissuade her from her religion. But, I do have to wonder what born again Christians think about the inherent unfairness of being born again. I remember being bothered by it as a child, and I would think it would bother adults enough to dissuade them, but clearly I'm wrong. There I go again, assuming people make choices like this rationally. So, I was taught that even if someone had never met a Christian or heard anything about Christianity, if they failed to somehow decide to take Christ into their hearts, even having never heard of him, then they would go to hell. This was why it was so important to proselytize to anyone and everyone you possibly could. Which I also found unbearable, as I am not a saleswoman, but that is a side point. My point is that it just seems so random. So, if I grow up in a muslim family, surrounded by other muslims, never hear of Jesus (Ok, this was a bit more realistic a few years ago, but still, it could happen!), and then die, then that's it, I go to hell? Doesn't matter that I was an outstanding muslim, and that I lived a godly life? Maybe I was a better Christian (ie, lived according to the teachings of Christ, just by coincidence), then Jimmy Swaggart (I mean, how hard is that?), but I still go to hell, and Jimmy goes to heaven? What kind of grace is that? Oh, wait, even better. I am a completely despicable person. Someone teaches me about the invisible pink unicorn, and I see the error of my ways, beg forgiveness, and become a loving, wonderful person. Ok, maybe not the unicorn, but this does happen to people with religions other than Christianity, but they are apparently also screwed, because they called the god that they prayed to for forgiveness the wrong name. So much for grace. I don't get the whole faith bit either. I am suppose to believe in Christianity, even though I have no proof, because of faith? But if I choose to believe in the flying spaghetti monster based on faith, and also no proof, then I am screwed. Humph. But, since I was taught that once you are born again, you are always born again, I'm ok, because I really was sincere in sixth grade. :-p christian god ~ Comments: 0
Uganda
 My very dear friend Dorothy married a wonderful man from Uganda last year in New York city. They had a fantastic wedding, and I have some pictures from that wedding on my old web site. Unfortunately my camera was not behaving well for that particular trip, so the pictures are limited, and not the greatest. This year they had another wedding, this time in Uganda, following Ugandan traditions as much as possible. Calvin runs a charity called Pilgrim, which assists Ugandans who are in need. It does this using a multi-armed approach. They help in several of the IDP camps, giving assistance directly to families. This assistance comes in many different flavours. They help the people in the camps to begin to pick up their lives, often by helping them to farm by providing seed and other necessities for farming. As well as the direct assistance of food, shelter, clothing and medical attention for people in the camps, they have created groups to help people with trauma, as many of these people have seen family members killed or abducted by the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) or the Karamojong or have themselves been abducted. They work to help to get the children back into school. When there was extreme flooding at the end of last year, they were one of the first aide groups to respond, ferrying people out of the flood zones, and working with other organizations to bring food, clothing, and medical aid to the people displaced by the flooding. They also run a secondary school, which is targeted towards children from the camps, and most of which are sponsored by Pilgrim or their sister organization Three Loaves, which Dorothy directs. Currently they are involved in a radical program to eliminate malaria in the Teso region. Most of their work is done in an area of the country called Teso, which includes the village where Calvin's family is from, and is now one of the poorest regions of Uganda. Click on Dorothy's picture for more pictures and commentary from our trip to Uganda to attend her wedding, and to see the work that Pilgrim is doing in Uganda. Uganda ~ Comments: 0
geeking out
Techby Maria on 21.11.2007 - 03:19 The other day, David told me that there existed some sort of external tray that you could set internal drives into so you could access them easily. I got very excited about this, so I looked around. I found something very sweet: http://www.cooldrives.com/ide-ata-adapter-sata-hard-drive-adapter.html You can hook up the hard drive to this cable and plug it into a usb port. How cool is that? That will tremendously cut down on the time I spend opening computer boxes and moving hard drives around! Can't wait to get it. Speaking of playing with hard drives, I finally did some research about ide/ata hard drives and cables. I use to think there was something wrong with some of my motherboards and/or cables, because of strange behavior regarding what drive was being considered the boot drive, or even whether drives would show up in bios. Turns out there are two different kinds of ide/ata cables. Some of them don't respect the cable select setting. Sometimes adding a hard drive to a cable causes the position of the master to change. So, if you thought you could just add in a second hard drive, boot from the original, and check to see what was on the second hard drive, nope, now it will try to boot from the second hard drive. There is a good reference about how the cables work here: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCS-c.html I am deeply embarrassed by how long it took me to look this up, but very glad I finally did. Explains a lot... I think part of the reason that it took so long is that most of the time when I am dealing with moving drives around it is when I am dealing with some failure, and so I assumed it was part of the failure. It looks like www.pcguide.com has a lot of good information about all kinds of computer hardware. geeking out ~ Comments: 0
Can I piss you off? Or give you compost?
by maria on 14.11.2007 - 01:50 It is probably dangerous for me to blog. It is apparently dangerous for me to email, and blogging is open to that many more people to annoy and piss off. I guess it is a sign of what a geek I have become that every time I start to write a blog entry, I end up tweaking the code that makes the blog instead of actually writing anything. Probably better that way, less likely to piss people off. I wonder if I use to piss people off with letters too, or if this is just an email phenomenon? I've been trying to figure out how to compost. I just can't get in the habit of emptying the bucket in the kitchen regularly enough. Probably it would help to have the compost container outside closer to the door, but I'm not sure there is really anyplace for it there. I wonder how disgusting it would be to have a larger, interim bucket outside by the door, and then I wouldn't have to walk out to the back corner of the yard as often. Can I piss you off? Or give you compost? ~ Comments: 0
so this is blogging
by maria on 09.11.2007 - 03:01 I'm curious if 1 will work for a blog name. I don't think I can come up with page names and titles for every entry. That seems ridiculous, a bit demanding of my blogging software. So, here we are at my first blog post. After screwing around with a couple of different blog setups, I'm hoping this one will work for me. See where it takes me... It seems weird to start with the past, but my ex-husband got in touch with me recently, and it got me thinking about all kinds of stuff. He seemed nice. It is weird that at one time I knew him so well, but now, I don't think I would have recognized his voice if I hadn't already known it was him. The last time we had talked was around 12 or 13 years ago. That was a short phone call with several uncomfortable pauses, some months after the divorce was finalized. It was easier talking to him this time. He reminded me of someone I once knew. It was really good to hear from him. The past sometimes seems to me almost as open as the future. So much about the past changes as we keep getting further away from it. There is so much I have forgotten, and so much I don't remember correctly (or maybe its other people that don't remember correctly, heh, heh). Not just events, but emotions. What was I feeling when we left Texas for Pennsylvania? Probably happy, since I was out of the army, but was I excited or dreading it? I can remember feeling happy at times, angry at times, sad at times, but I don't feel the intensity. Things that were poison at the time seem not very menacing now. It is hard now to imagine my anger and frustration when my commander in Korea tried to kick me out of the army. It still makes me angry, but it is more like I am angry for a character in a book. When my niece died, I remember feeling like a knife was cutting through me, and I also remember feeling a little bit sad, and a little bit happy, that the feeling would fade. It is funny the things you think about in times of intensity. Sometimes I think, I shouldn't feel a certain way, but of course I do, and I must. I think I usually have no choice about how I feel. If it is just the way I am, why do I feel like the way I feel is wrong sometimes? XKCD had a cartoon along these lines http://www.xkcd.com/58/. Ella, I still miss you, and I will try to laugh at least once every day in memory of you. Is this bloody working yet?
by maria on 09.11.2007 - 01:13 Help, I'm being oppressed! Is this bloody working yet? ~ Comments: 2
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