Racism — fact or faith? – Los Angeles Times
More happy thoughts for the holidays.
10 myths — and 10 truths — about atheism – Los Angeles Times
Obligatory christmas reading :).
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
So when a high resolution image in a medical situation is degraded by this content protection, and an important feature is missed by the doc leading to a medical mistake, will Microsoft take the fall?
As the year once again draws to a close,
What have we done? Only goodness knows.
January began with a loud bang
I went back to work teaching first grade again
Exposed to young children and their excretions
I longed for good health and a vacation
At the end of March two heroes came to our rescue
To help out with Tomi, Wendie and Erin did join our crew
In addition to various other talents, Jere on his own
Did learn how to play the clarinet and saxophone
In April at last I went on Spring Break
A road trip to SF did Jere and I take
We packed up Tomi snug in the car
And enjoyed four days of sight-seeing that rain could not mar
With another school year gone and done
We all looked forward to a summer of fun
In July to Minnesota we packed up and flew
To visit Jon, Brenda, Grant (and Noah, too).
Next in the Big Apple did we arrive
It was great to see Jac in the place where she thrives.
The famous sights did we see (and got back alive).
Jere then gave us quite a surprise
He converted to Mac and to PCs said his last goodbyes
Now there are iPods and Apples all over the place
Never again will Windows our house disgrace
September brought us the start of another school year
I in half-day kinder with a partner who is dear,
Cam in third grade who now walks to his school very near.
Our dear little Tomi on the twentieth turned one
We thank all that joined in the celebration
To celebrate our second anniversary in November
Jere and I packed up for a weekend to remember
Just on a whim and ’cause it was cheap
We went to Salt Lake City and to our room did we keep
And now here we are and we’re doing quite well
Hoping you and your families are all doing swell
We’ll be off to Oahu for our holiday cheer
Happy holidays we wish to those far and those near
May the New Year be kind and gentle to you,
May peace and good will be known through and through.
1990-1995: Microsoft’s Yellow Road to Cairo
Very interesting history lesson. My money is on Apple and OSX to dominate over the next decade, with Microsoft being a minority player in desktop OSes by 2017.
Small nuclear conflict could affect globe, report says – Los Angeles Times
Sounds like they found a solution to “global warming” :).
“Stenchikov estimated that 5 million tons of soot could be thrown into the air by the explosion of about 100 15-kiloton nuclear weapons.
The smoke and soot would ascend into the stratosphere and stay there for up to 10 years, causing temperatures to fall several degrees, the researchers said.”
Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Environmental Hysteria – Google Video
Ah, the joys of watching the environmentalists save us from dihydrogen monoxide! :)
Speaking frankly about Israel and Palestine – Los Angeles Times
Wisdom from a peanut farmer.
ROTFLMAO!
New Life for the “One Drop” Rule
Interesting article on the hypocrisy of the use of racial classifications.
So apparently, if your daddy is the CEO of a major RIAA company, you don’t have to worry about getting sued to the gills for “stealing” music online.
Talk about casting the first stone…
Kamehameha Schools gathers at prayer service – The Honolulu Advertiser – Hawaii’s Newspaper
Great. So now every kid at Kamehameha knows that any dissent from the party line of necessary racism is a sign that you’re going against God. Argh.
Next time, they should pray for forgiveness of their sins, in perpetuating racist practices and behaviors in admissions.
Court rules 8-7 for Hawaiians-first admission policy – The Honolulu Advertiser – Hawaii’s Newspaper
Absolutely ridiculous, and one can only imagine it will be overturned by the Supreme Court. I love how they try to use the weasel word “Hawaiians-first” instead of “Hawaiians-only” – it is clear that there is a de facto absolute bar to non-Native Hawaiians admission, as evidenced by the reaction of KSBE to the last time a student not of the preferred race was able to get in.
Auwe!
There’s little to like about hate-crime laws – Los Angeles Times
Every crime is a “hate-crime” on a certain level. Trying to punish someone for what they might have been thinking is stupid and ultimately irrelevant.  Sadly, it takes a case like this to expose the dangers of such legislation – maybe next some gay guy will have hate-crime added on to assault for attacking someone for being straight…