Month: April 2007

The Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind has only one deadly enemy: the skeptic. Check out John Stossel’s latest. A sample:

What do you think is more dangerous, a house with a pool or a house with a gun? When, for “20/20,” I asked some kids, all said the house with the gun is more dangerous. I’m sure their parents would agree. Yet a child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming pool than in a gun accident.

Parents don’t know that partly because the media hate guns and gun accidents make bigger headlines. Ask yourself which incident would be more likely to be covered on TV.

Growing up, the first child I knew that died managed that feat (no feat, really, cos we’ll all do it sometime) in about 3″ of water… No gun in sight. Yeh, yeh, I know: no statistical relevance.

Made me careful (and encouraged me to become competent in) around water, though.

I blame life and all that… this week is eaten by locusts. *sigh*

Call this a “meta thirteen,” 13 13s, or “The First 13 twc Thirteens in Review”:

1.) T-13, 1.1

2.) T-13, 1.2

3.) T-13, 1.3

4.) T-13, 1.4

5.) T-13 1.5 “To-Do List”

6.) T-13, 1.6: Thirteen Things I Hate About John Kerry Politicians

7.) T-13, 1.7–13 Reasons Why the Republican’ts Got Dopeslapped

8.) T-13, 1.8: 13 “To-dos” while WW is at a conference (yeh, I’m still whittling away at this list… :-))

9.) T 13, 1.9: 13 things that make me glad to be growing older

10.) T 13 1.10–Thirteen Things About Cats

11.) Thursday 13 1.11: 13 Things I Love About Christmas

12.) Thursday Thirteen, 1.12: 13 Christmas Carols (one link’s broken–no time to fix right now… )

13.) T-13, 1.13: Revolutions (Making surprising progress on this list)

Posted to the BB at the Thursday Thirteen Hub

More about today’s linkfest below.

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Yesterday, I had occassion to drop by my Wonder Woman’s library. She was at a meeting, so I twiddled my thumbs at her desk for a while, noodling around doing random searches of the card catalog. [Telescoping the story… ] I ended up quickly reading a Louis L’Amour book–something I’d not done in many, many years. It reminded me why I read all his books, despite the fact that the plots are predictabe to the point of being hackneyed, all his characters are complete sterotypes, dialog is frequently didactic to the point of being “preachifying” on traditional American virtues, etc. So why did I read darned near everything the guy wrote, lo those many years ago?

The guy could write descriptive narrative. I’ve been many of the places he describes, and some of them I recognized on my first visit from descriptions in his books, others I knew well I knew better after reading his descriptions. That’s something.

But more than that–and the reason one of the most learned men I know once told me he read L’Amour and considered him his favorite “theologian” *heh*–the “preachifying” on traditional American virtues are a welcome anodyne to the pain of viewing the steady erosion of those virtues in contemoprary culture.

So, I may dig out those old paperbacks and skim ’em for some of that preachifying didactic dialog from time to time whenever I begin to be nauseated by contemporary culture. Because some “light reading” just shines more light than some more “substantive’ reading.

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(Every thime I read/hear “Do you want to take a survey?” I think of the Animainiacs. Great cartoons.)

Nah, this isn’t a survey about anything important or even significant. Heck, it’s not even a survey about anything all that interesting to most of my readers, for that matter, so if you have no real interest in compgeeky stuff, just toddle right along to another post, ‘K?

How Long Did It Take to Install Your Home Network?

My answer (because it was the shortest time allowed) was “Less than an Hour”–though of course I didn’t include my first peer-to-peer network between two computers using just a crossover cable (the time for that was essentially just the time it took to plug the cable into both computers and tell ’em they were on the same workgroup. What? 5 mins max?).

My first home network using some sort of switch/hub and two separate segments of cable between two computers in different rooms took about 20 minutes, because I had to run cabling in the attic, down walls, etc.

Real hard. *yawn*

Other computers added on usually take about the same amount of time, unless using wireless access. Running the cable’s the time sink. Well, that and building the cables from a bulk roll.

Nowadays, using a wireless router and wireless cards, one could easily set up a buncha computers on a home network in 15-20 minutes, assuming familiarity with the hardware and different operating systems (if using different OSes). Heck, just assuming the ability to read directions. What really flabbergasted me was the percentage of folks who answered that it took more than an hour: 43%. Heck, 18% (part of the 43%–25% took between 1 hour and 1 day) took longer than a day to get their home network up and running. If it takes that long, someone ought to think to have a literate person read a manual and explain the process using small words, spoken s l o w l y. *heh*

And then there are the folks not dealt with in the survey who are like my (bad) neighbors. They set up their wireless network wrong. But I’m not telling them that their unsecured network leaves them wide open. Nuh-uh. *heh*

Charles Brumbelow, in an email published in Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Maor Mail points to an Opinion Journal (WSJ) snippet listed under, “The Religion That Dare Not Speak Its Name,” that touches on a subject that’s too difficult for “nuanced” thinkers to resolve easily, but which seems pretty darned simple to me:

There is a genuine problem here of choosing language that distinguishes between Muslim terrorists and plain old Muslims. But circumlocutions designed to avoid acknowledging the former’s Islamic nature cannot possibly help clarify matters.

Let me help “clarify matters” a bit.

“Plain old Muslims” claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.

Islamic terrorists claim the Koran (choose your own trendy spelling) is their literal guide to a holy life.

“Plain old Muslims” revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc,) as worthy of emulation in all of life.

Islamic terrorists revere Mohammed and view his life and teachings (of which the Koran, Hadith, etc,) as worthy of emulation in all of life.

Now, THE distinction: Islamic terrorists honestly, forthrightly and openly seek to actually emulate the bloody Butcher of Medina, while “Plain old Muslims” are either just not all that serious about actually following Mohammed or are living lives of lies, decieving the Dar al Harb.

There. Now you know the single most significant differential between “Plain old Muslims” and Islamic terrorists.

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The best April First pranks…

Inigo Montoya: Let me ‘splain.
[pause]
Inigo Montoya: No, there is too much. Let me sum up…

OK, just one: Google TiSP, a plan by Google to offer wireless internet service to homes through local sewage systems and home plumbing… Bringing together the best of Google with the best of many internet users.

In the typical Google datamining style that has caused privacy concerns in the past, Google said of the free/low cost service,

To offset the cost of providing the TiSP service, we use information gathered by discreet DNA sequencing of your personal bodily output to display online ads that are contextually relevant to your culinary preferences, current health status and likelihood of developing particular medical conditions going forward

Of course, this was April 1, wasn’t it? It’s not as though this were a newsflash from Congress where one expects this kind of nonsense to be seriously proposed…

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I’m soooo far behind in my reading, that I’d been nominated twice for a “Thinking Blogger Award” before I actually read one of the nominating posts.

*sigh*

Now, that’s something to think about.

*heh*

At any rate, both Angel, of Woman Honor Thyself, and Stanford, of MoreWhat.Com have extended the honor to me. Angel, complaining that I make her head hurt *LOL* and Stanford lattering me beyond bounds with “unmistakable stand on issues with a complete absence of hype“.

Now, as I understand this particular blogosphere meme pool tag game, it goes like this:

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. The participation rules are simple:

1.) If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2.) Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3.) Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Thanks, Stanford and Angel! You’ve both given me much to think about, and though you both deserve tag backs with noms of your own, since you’ve both been tagged, I’ll try to go further afield with my own tags. Of course, there are many others I could tag, save that so many, like blogsis Kat or G.M. Roper, have already been tagged or like Jerry Pournelle, who began “blogging” years before there was any such thing as a blogging platform, and so still uses software that doesn’t easily deal with links in and has NO way of noticing trackbacks at all (hey! as “The Original Blog” he can do it any way he wants to, I guess. :-)). But apart from so many deserving folks already mentioned or who kinda fall between the cracks in the system, there are five notables I’d like to list:

1.) The Random Yak. Whether it’s one of the Maniyak’s biblical exegesis posts or one of Random Yak’s squint-eyed views of modern cluture or current events, there’s always something to think about there.

2.) Every post–whether by D.L., Bergbikr or The Mary Hunter–at the eponymous TMH’s Bacon Bits is worth reading and thinking about. Here’s one of D.L.’s wide-ranging Top Ten (Profound) Headlines as an example.

3.) Curt of Chaotic Synaptic Activity can bend my mind. He not only has a sharp, well-honed mind but a wealth of experience and an unique viewpoint to bring to the table, and he invariably lays out a feast for thought ranging between humorous and serious, including the major and commonplace in between. Anchors away!

4.) Layla’s started a new group blog, The Dhimmitude News Network. Strong stuff from someone who knows Islam from an unique perspective who has invited others to share in the task of unmasking the global evil that is Islam. Take for example, “Christian Jihad.” Strong! Do read it! (Note: Yes, I have an interest. I’ve contributed one post, making me about one week behind on my committments there–apologies, folks.) UPDATE: Note, folks, that DNN shares a domain with Layla’s frontline blog: The Hill Chronicles, where you can find as much thought-provoking material (like this wood-shedding of Saudi “King” Abdullah) as you want. 😉

5.) Jake, at Freedom Folks, is never at a loss for thought-provoking words, as his Jackass Quotes of the Day demonstrates.

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Trackposted to Stageleft, guerrilla radio, stikNstein… has no mercy, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Today, the first two verses of the hymn,

No Tramp of Soldiers’ Marching Feet
Timothy Dudley-Smith

No tramp of soldiers’ marching feet
with banners and with drums,
no sound of music’s martial beat—
“The King of glory comes!”
To greet what pomp of kingly pride
no bells in triumph ring,
no city gates swing open wide:
“Behold, behold your King!”

And yet he comes. The children cheer;
with palms his path is strown.
With every step the cross draws near—
the King of glory’s throne.
Astride a colt he passes by
as loud hosannas ring,
or else the very stones would cry
“Behold, behold your King!”

Read the rest where it’s “reprinted” with permission at WQOTW

UPDATE: The tune associated with the lyrics by the author is the venerable KINGFOLD. CLICK below to play (if you have an mp3-capable plugin for your browser), or CLICK on the tune name to open in your fav media player. Sing along with the instrumental if you wish.

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Trackposted to Right Pundits, Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Allie Is Wired, Right Celebrity, Stageleft, guerrilla radio, stikNstein… has no mercy, Walls of the City, basil’s blog, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Pursuing Holiness, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.” Mark Twain