Day: May 29, 2005

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What’s Blogger Up To???

 OK, I’m officially stumped .  OK, “stumped” but quasi-“fixed.  See Update

It’s the same on every computer available to me. On Win98/2000/XP, ditto all of them. As of about 2:00 this afternoon, right after a short 2-line post-upload, Blogger displays third world county properly ONLY in Firefox. Internet Exploder? Nope. Opera? Nope. Only Firefox.

What the heck was different? A change in my template? Nope. (I even restored a former template to check that hypothesis: no joy.) I can see nothing corrupted in the html. All seems proper from this end, and it displays properly in Firefox! But not in other browsers.

Anyone know what’s gpoing on?

*drums fingers impatiently*

Well? Anyone?

*sigh*

OK, Update: Apparently the scripts (which had been working for weeks JUST FINE up until about 2:00 this afternoon) about Jean Fraud sKerry’s SF-180 were the problem. Apparently, I said… Although it’s still unclear why they were a problem now, after all this time, a problem, and then ONLY in Internet ExploDer and Opera, where they had NOT been a problem before… I dunno!

Weird.

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Shred Before Flushing…

…Newsweak, that is
 
Cao’s Blog has all the poop on how to dump Newsweak. Read it and rage on.
 
I’ve never been a subscriber to Newsweak. Once, nearly 40 years ago, I had a “student” subscription to Time (“The Weekly Fiction Magazine”), but that was for a class. If I did have a subscription to Newsweak, I would definitely shred it before flushing. heh
 
As it is… hmmm… I do get snailmail inviting me to “re-subscribe” to Newsweak (riiiiight–“resubscribe” when I’ve never had a subscription.  Desperate measures or just more typical disingenuity?).  I really ought to type up a form letter informing the marketers of my displeasure with Newsweak, print off copies to have on hand and send it (and nothing else) back in the subscription envelope… I’ll have to look into that.  Seems I recall something about bar-coding on such envelopes for tracking purposes.  Have to see what I can do to retaliate if they misuse that.
 
Meanwhile, go on over to Cao’s Blog and get going on the “Flush Newsweek” [sic] (heh) campaign.  Even if you’re not a subscriber, there’s a poll being taken to get feedback at one of the linkson how folks feel about Newsweak.
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Golly, another one-a those WoW “Huh?” words

Yeh, I loved French in college (you shoulda seen the French prof in hot pants! Oo-la-la!), but since then?

Sissy’s WoW #6 is “aperçu,” yet another word in English taken directly from French, so we can have our revenge by mispronouncing it horribly—usually as something like “ape-ur-KOO.” Go ahead: give it your best shot in backwoods, Ozarkian Redneck speech. It’s good for the French to hear their language mudered like that.

But anywhoooo… Aperçu vous le présente:

“An Approach to Assimilating the French into the Ozarkian Borg: a brief outline of the basic principles”

I. Assimilate French cuisine so as to have a point of contact with French culture (common points of reference help cushion the initial contact). Greet the French assimilees with “Ya want French fries with that?”

II. Be gentle with the French assimilees’ inferiority complex when it evidences in snooty behavior by gently commenting, “Y’all better back off. Booger’s got him an itchy trigger finger.”

III. Show the runty little snots some hospitality at local sporting events. “Hey Frenchy! Stand up when you hold them targets” is an inappropriate reference to normal dwarf-sized French height. Better: “Hold that target right in front o’ yur ugly puss, shorty.”

IV. Make sure they know how to pronounce words in proper American English. For sure none of those runts can say “abstinent,” “affable,” “brusque,” “discordant,” “explication,” “exposition,” “ferment,” “garage,” “machination,” or “serpent” correctly. A few whacks on the head with (empty) beer bottles will serve to gain what little attention their tiny lil brains can lend to your elocution lessons.

More in Part II of “An Approach to Assimilating the French into the Ozarkian Borg: a brief outline of the basic principles” once enough Frenchy runts survive parts I–IV…

Coming soon from Bubba Booger’s Books, Ink.

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Let’s not get behind the curve on this one!

Blogfathers Day is fast approaching.  Don’t forget to send your blogfather a Blogfathers Day eCard
 
Blogmothers Dayâ„¢ was a modest success, and I’m hoping for broader participation next year.  But those who have Blogfathers should at least consider taking the occasion of “Fathers Day” to make note the blogger who “blogfathered” them. My blogmother is a “single blogparent” so I have no blogfather—makes this appeal all the more poignant for me. *tears up manfully* heh
 
So, an appeal to both of my regular readers 🙂 —get the word out: June 21 is not just Fathers Day.  It’s also Blogfathers Day.
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Edu-blogging for the smart set

Yeh, that sounds elitist, doesn’t it? S’all right.  I’m really just one of the “dumb set” bystanders.
 
I know there’s a Carnival of Education (recent carnival linked), and I’ve read some of the posts.  Some pretty good stuff, and I’ll be reading more. Still… here’s something I’ve been waiting for. Speaking of public schools, Jerry Pournelle (like you’ve not seen that name here before) write,
 
…Whatever modern education has done for the averages, the effect of No Child Left Behind is that No Child Gets Ahead — which is in fact the only way to assure the No Child Left Behind result.
 
Next week I will start a new page (or pages) dedicated to what can be done. One section will be devoted to homeschooling: materials available, recommended reading, and the like. I know there are home schooling networks, and it may be that those are Good Enough, so that all that’s really needed is to link into them. I will also look into supplementary reading and supplementary education materials for those who can’t do home schooling.
Oh, there’s more viewpoint in that post, including the nearly-agreeing-with-my-assessment,
 
In my judgment the failure of education in the US has reached a crisis stage: one could almost say that compulsory education in the public schools comes very close to child abuse.
Where Pournelle falls short in that statement, IMO, is “one could almost say.”  Prisons for kids is more like it. *sigh* Still, pop on over for a read.
 
And note the last sentence in this snippet.  It’s one reason why polemicists are often at cross purpose with folks like Dr. Pournelle: he’s open to reason.
 
…there are pockets of excellence left in the public school system but increasingly No Child Left Behind==No Child Gets Ahead is destroying those in the name of equality and diversity. I’m open to refutation of that hypothesis also.
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