Day: June 15, 2006

For those of y’all who are scifi readers (no, the real stuff), this in from a correspondent to Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor Musings

…from Steven Barnes’s blog…

Thursday, June 15, 2006 Bad News- Supereditor Jim Baen in hospital

I just heard that Jim Baen, one of the most influential editors in the science fiction field, had a stroke, and has been in a coma for the last twelve hours. No more information at this time, but those of us who consider ourselves friends, or have admired the vast contribution he has made to the field, well…if you believe in prayer, this would be a good time.

While i do not know Jim Baen—have not even corresponded with him— I have benefitted from his editorial and publishing work. He has been a leader in opening scifi publishing up to new voices, and I very much appreciate that. He appears to be one of the good guys.

Yeh, I’ll be praying for him. It may be selfish of me to do so, but I will be anyway.

UPDATE: another alternative view. CLICK HERE, put your browser i full screen mode and THEN clik “Load”. Yeh, it’s a bit jerkier and more apparently pixelated, but it’s still cool.

N.B.—if for some reason the video below doesn’t load, try this link to a posting of it at my old twc site.

I don’t care if this doesn’t perfectly fit in my center column. Can’t stop the grins, all the way through this!

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(Of course, I do have to wonder what the cryptic word “KANKE” at the end of the vodeo means… “Kanke is a place in Ranchi , Jharkhand , India ; and is the location of one of the largest mental asylums in the country.” *LOL* :-))

h.t. Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor Musings

Update: A couple of folks have mentioned/asked about the music. Try “Era: the Mass”–The Champions

The Mass

I’d like to, but I can’t. As if this were a real surprise to anyone.

*sigh*

Genuine Advantage is Microsoft spyware

By Brian Livingston

Windows Genuine Advantage — the controversial program Microsoft auto-installed as a “critical security update” on many PCs starting on Apr. 25 — not only causes problems for many users but has now been proven to send personally identifiable information back to Redmond every 24 hours.

For years I have found Brian Livingston to be reliable. Sure, he’s a Microsoft Windows cheerleader, but his information is always good. When he details specifically, step-by-step why, in spite of Microsoft’s denials, it is accurate to call Microsoft genuine Advantage software spyware, he’s well worth listening to. More at the link.

My Wonder Woman’s taking a coupla classes that are ostensibly to enable her to use “technology” (Heads up! Buzzword!) to be a better librarian. One, in “ed-tech: curriculum development,” has a rather confusingly-worded assignment that seems to boil down to selecting goals for a n ed tech curriculum (supposedly for student achievement in the school) and assigning those goals to one of four categories, or “domains”

Intellectual
Verbal
P-sycho-motor
Attitudinal

I have no idea why she didn’t want to use my suggestions…

“For the lil darlings who like to feed library books to the pooch, use them as frisbees and otherwise destroy elements of the catelog, rebind and repair all the materials thus destroyed.” (P-sycho-motor AND Attitudinal–two “domains” with one stoned goal!)

And another Intellectual/P-sycho-motor: “Using the tuba, piccolo and dilithium crystals provided, build a functioning transporter system to transport me outa this assignment.”

They seem perfectly valid to me. One deals with “old tech” and the other with “bleeding edge” tech.

Still trying to come up with a Verbal domain goal for the kids who just hafta give the librarian lip… Yeh, it’d be Verbal/Attitudinal… and by the time I finished with ’em P-sycho-motor and Intellectual as well.

*heh*

Checking out the warp drive card catelogs over at Is It just Me? and TMH’s Bacon Bits.

UPDATE: Making this my “Open All Weekend Long” Open Trackbacks Post. Link to this post and track back. See below the post body for more.

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Blogfathers Day is Sunday.

Have you got your Blogfather a (virtual) case of beer or some (virtual) porterhosue steaks or some such, yet?

Better get crackin’, cos ya don’t have a lotta time left, ya know…

🙂

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As I said, this is an open trackback post open all weekend long. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU

Via Miami Herald

The recently passed Florida law that essentially bans state academic travel to Cuba promised to escalate into a constitutional battle when Gov. Jeb Bush signed it into law last month.

…….snip…

The American Civil Liberties Union, representing several professors from state universities, filed a lawsuit against Florida officials in federal court, claiming the travel ban is unconstitutional. The group also demands a temporary injunction to prevent the law from taking effect while the case is in court.

”This act is terribly misdirected,” Randall Marshall, legal director of the ACLU of Florida, said of the new law. “This is unconstitutional, and we hope to have this law struck down very shortly.”

The Florida Masochist has the right question:

Tell me Mr. Marshall where it says in the constitution that taxpayer money must be used to support travel? Anywhere in the world? I’ll await your reply but I doubt I’ll get one.

Continue reading “Stop the ACLU”