A picture's worth...

One of the things that I remember from 2001 was pictures of the dead from the WTC. They were quite horrific. So, I have a question: why is it ok to do the same sorts of things to other people? Take a look at RadGeek's post on White Phosphorus.

Email Incident

I just received another ememo in my inbox. This time, it's about a hate email. The chancellor wants to assure us that "[s]uch hate-filled words do not reflect the values of this campus community."

Good, I suppose, but what about the recent queer hate grafitti on a bench? What about the anti-asian graffiti in the downstairs UMC restrooms? Why was someone told not to discuss her sexual harrassment case? Why, when someone wrote a lewd message on an RA's door, it was investigated fully, and with forensic experts, but when someone writes "learn to like dick you fucking dyke" on a (straight) woman's door because she has a "safe zone" sign up, nothing happens?

Why is it that these "efforts to build a welcoming and supportive environment for all members of the campus community" 1) only seem to occur when there is a bias-motivated "incident" and 2) only seem to be aimed at the black population? (With all due respect and sympathy to Ms. Gebre-Michael and other members of the black community... but you're not the only ones.)

Why is it that these ememos seem to be damage control; a way to (try to) avert further scandals, rather than tools to actually discover the root causes of the incidents? (That's not the same as figuring out whodunnit... cops can do that just fine. The administration at this school should be examining _why_ these occur in the first place, and working to end them.) Why do they only come out after the press gets involved?

Why do I feel that, to paraphrase Mr. DiStefano, such hate-filled words _do_ reflect the values of this campus community?

Because change doesn't come because those in power say it does. Change comes when you and I make it happen.

Truly a Musician's Joke

Just thought this was funny...

A C, an E-flat and a G go into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, but we don't serve minors." So the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished and the G is out flat. An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough.

A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, "Excuse me, I'll just be a second." Then an A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor.

Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims, "Get out now! You're the seventh minor I've found in this bar tonight."

The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company downsized) says, "You're looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development." This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit, and everything else, and stands there au natural.

Eventually, the C sobers up, and realizes in horror that he's under a rest. The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility. On appeal, however, the C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bassless.

The bartender decides, however, that since he's only had tenor so patrons, with the soprano out in the bathroom, and everything has become alto much treble, he needs a rest, and closes the bar.

SIDDS - Sudden Instant Disk Death Syndrome

So, I've spent the evening, not working on homework or finding other amusing things to do, but dealing with a massive hard drive failure on my server. The server which houses my mailserver, the psp brothers-only website for my chapter, not to mention years of work by me and miscellaneous other things.

I'm kinda unhappy right now. It wouldn't be so bad, except that I don't have a recent backup. (Shut up.)

I guess it's not as bad as it could be, though. The mediawiki that acts as the psp brothers-only website was on a seperate drive, so it should be fine. Also, a number of other files were there, so that's not so bad.

Nevertheless, I bought a new harddrive and now have to completely (or mostly) reinstall Gentoo on it, which will take a long time. I'm going to focus on getting the brothers-only site up first, though, so that's Apache, MySQL, PHP. Maybe when I build the mailserver this time, I'll do it right. ;-)

Collapsing Menu Thingies!

Yay! So, I just added collapsing menus to my blog, using the code from http://www.dustindiaz.com/dhtml-expand-and-collapse-div-menu/. It was relatively easy, but it took a little tweaking to get it right. Anyway, enjoy the new collapsiveness, unless you don't have javascript enabled, in which case, enjoy the non-collapsiveness!

Scott's Blog

A quick update to let you know that my good friend and PSP Brother Scott has started a blog here on blogspot, so check it out! http://ortmage.blogspot.com/.

Why why and why?

Why is it illegal to pay someone to have sex with you, but not illegal to pay someone to have sex with someone else and then photograph it?

Petition for M$ to support ODF

Hey there, do you like being able to exchange documents with people all over the world? Do you like to be able to read these documents 5, 10, 50 or even 100 years down the line? Then, sign the petition to Microsoft to support the OpenDocument Format:

http://opendocumentfellowship.org/petition/

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism

I would like to introduce you all to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, to which I am now a subscriber. The head of the church has written to the Kansas City School Board (apparently controlled by a six-member Majority of Stupidity [think "Axis of Evil" only less likely to invade France, South Korea or Iran]), informing them that, if they are going to teach the so-called "theory" of intelligent design alongside evolution, they should also teach the theory that the universe and everything in it was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Because, after all, if it's better for students to hear two ideas about the Origins of Species, three would be even better. And we wouldn't want the students to not get a well-rounded education, would we?

Of course, if they used these 'theories' to teach critical thinking skills (they won't), then it might have some justification.

We've got another Nobel Lauraete!

Well, John Hall, who works here at the University (in JILA) and in NIST, has won the nobel prize. Hooray for CU/NIST!

RIAA Countersuit

Recording Industry vs the People has an article about a woman, Tonya Anderson, who is countersuing the RIAA. Not that I expect it to have much good come of it, but...

Oh, dunno whether anyone's coined this yet, but seeing as the RIAA and such are working so hard to dampen inovation and creativity and such, I shall now refer to it as the Recording Undustry.