Quotulatiousness

November 25, 2009

Rule 34, Stross version

Filed under: Books, Humour, Media — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 13:08

I can hardly wait until 2011:

If you’re wondering what this week’s excuse for scanty blog updates could possibly be, it might have something to do with me being 40,000 words into the (projected) 100,000 word first draft of 2011’s novel, “Rule 34”. It’s a sequel to “Halting State”, set some five years after the earlier novel, and focusing on the way our definitions of crime and morality (not to mention the practice of policing) change over time. (Yes, the title is an explicit call-out to you-know-what. The term “Hitler Yaoi” has been used with intent … but only after I googled, rubbed my eyes, and concluded that rule 34 was in effect.)

For the three of you who don’t know what Rule 34 is . . . don’t Google Image search for it. It’s a very short rule, but I suspect it’s true for most values of “true”: If it exists, there’s a porn version of it.

Rule-34

I thought Obama was going to be better than Bush on privacy issues

Filed under: Government, Law, Technology, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 13:04

Perhaps I was misinformed:

The Obama administration is seeking to reverse a federal appeals court decision that dramatically narrows the government’s search-and-seizure powers in the digital age.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Justice Department officials are asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its August ruling that federal prosecutors went too far when seizing 104 professional baseball players’ drug results when they had a warrant for just 10.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-2 decision offered Miranda-style guidelines to prosecutors and judges on how to protect Fourth Amendment privacy rights while conducting computer searches.

Kagan, appointed solicitor general by President Barack Obama, joined several U.S. attorneys in telling the San Francisco-based court Monday that the guidelines are complicating federal prosecutions in the West. The circuit, the nation’s largest, covers nine states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

QotD: Why Canadian-style healthcare won’t succeed in the United States

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Cancon, Health, Quotations, USA — Tags: — Nicholas @ 12:59

Speaking from immediate personal experience here: Many Americans have romantic visions of Canadian health care but Canadian health care works as it does only because Canadians are deferential to authority and unwilling to complain loudly no matter the situation. The shock of a visit to an ER department will not dent a Canadian’s feckless stoicism. Loud complaints are just another way of drawing undue attention to yourself, this considered extremely rude north of the border; so much so that queue jumpers earn little opprobrium while the man kicking the queue jumper out of line earns frowns of disapproval (again, personal experience as the line enforcer). Consequently, wait times, waiting lists and twelve hours of nothing at the emergency room are just another government thing to be endured.

Like the winter, supposedly.

I am reminded of an observation to the effect an armed society is a polite society. Obama can enact his shitty little elitist plan as he likes; I doubt it will change the American character, at least not before Obama’s shitty little elitist plan is revoked. In the meantime, I pity the fool American medical resident who talks to his or her patients the way I saw patients dealt with at one of downtown Toronto’s elite hospitals yesterday.

Nick Packwood, “Why socialist medicine will fail in the United States”, Ghost of a Flea, 2009-11-24

Tonight on Iowahawk Geographic

Filed under: Environment, Humour, Science — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:19

This is a fascinating show on a topic of great public and scientific interest:

Narrator

This is the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, home of one of the largest nesting populations of climate scientists in Europe.

Gentle ant’s-eye scene of idyllic campus lawn, strewn about with drunken mating undergraduates

Each year it attracts magnificent migratory flocks of graduate students, adjuncts and visiting faculty from across the northern hemisphere.

Shots of jumbo jets landing at Heathrow; herds of climate researchers busily milling at Duty Free shops, retrieving baggage, phoning for prearranged limo service

Within minutes of arriving on campus, the migratory researchers approach the entrance of the Climate Research Unit and perform the secret credential dance, fiercely displaying their prominent curriculum vitae. This signals to the security drone that they can be trusted with the sacred electronic lanyard badge that will grant them entrance to the hive’s inner sanctum.

During the upcoming research season, this hive alone will produce over 6 million metric tons of grant-sustaining climate data guano, but until recently little was known about the elusive genus of homo scientifica living inside. Where do they come from? What strange force draws them here year after year? In order to unravel the mystery, Iowahawk Geographic documentary filmmaker David Burge undertook a painstaking one-week project to finally capture the climate researchers in their native habitat.

Zygi Wilf goes guerilla in war for new Vikings facility

Filed under: Economics, Football, Government, Politics — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 08:26

Having been rebuffed by state legislators and blackmailed by the Metrodome administrators, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf takes his case on the road:

Making his most expansive comments yet on the need for a new stadium, Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf chastised politicians Tuesday for dodging an issue that “doesn’t serve their political purposes” and said they should not “run away” from a project many Minnesotans want to see happen.

Calling himself not only the owner but the “guardian” of the state’s most popular sports franchise, Wilf posed for pictures with fans clad in Vikings jerseys, autographed footballs and, in general, took on a public persona he has largely avoided as the team’s principal owner.

For all that the Vikings are the top sports franchise in the state, not everyone in Minnesota is a fan. The habit of other NFL cities — handing out hundreds of millions of tax dollars to provide stadia for “their” teams — has not been a popular topic even before the recession started. The Wilf family is quite rich, perhaps not rich enough to build a new stadium all on their own, but they certainly could be majority owners in a consortium to build one.

The state has more than enough other things to pay attention to, so politicians of all stripes are unwilling to provide public money for a private undertaking . . . and they’re quite right. They were not elected to favour certain groups or individuals and they certainly weren’t elected to force all Minnesotans to support the sports interests of only some Minnesotans.

I don’t really have a dog in this fight, as I’m a long distance Vikings fan and I’ve never set foot in the state. I’d be very sorry to see the team leave, and it might take me a while to adapt to the “Anaheim Vikings” or the “LA Vikings” or the “Toronto Vikings” (maybe less time for that one), but I’m sure I’d eventually cope with it. It’s not like other teams haven’t moved to new cities.

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