Monthly Archives: November 2005


Touch Me, Feel Me

It won’t be a surpise to the average scifi reader that someone has developed a networked “hug suit.” Tim Worstall is, though, amazed by what is unsaid :

They manage to get all the way through the report without mentioning what it’ll actually be used for. How long before the first spam email asking whether you have such a suit? And would you like to be squeezed by that 18 year old Ukrainian girl you can watch on the webcam?

Perhaps Oprah will take an in depth look at how this might impact pron addiction on tomorrow’s show. (I’ll update the link on Thursday after the show runs)
And, yes, it does seem like a good investment opportunity…the mind simply boggles at the possible variations and add-ons. Of course, there is no reason that this has to be a one way thing either.


More Competence in government

Here is what USAID does:

USAID works in agriculture, democracy & governance, economic growth, the environment, education, health, global partnerships, and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries to provide a better future for all.

Here’s the qualifications of the new USAID director deputy assistant administrator:

More significant to the administration, perhaps, is the fact that Bonicelli is dean of academic affairs at tiny Patrick Henry College in rural Virginia. The fundamentalist institution’s motto is “For Christ and Liberty.” It requires that all of its 300 students sign a 10-part “statement of faith” declaring, among other things, that they believe “Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, is God come in the flesh;” that “Jesus Christ literally rose bodily from the dead”; and that hell is a place where “all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.”
Faculty members, too, must sign a pledge stating they share a generally literalist belief in the Bible. Revealingly, only biology and theology teachers are required to hold a literal view specifically of the Bible’s six-day creation story. Bonicelli has stated, “I think the most important thing is our academic excellence, [and the fact that we] combine it with a serious statement about our faith and values … I believe in six literal days, but I remain open to someone persuading me otherwise.”

This is certainly consistent with this view of bush and is a perfectly good reason to toss out both bushies and government as we know it. It is simply too risky to have so powerful an institution susceptible to occupancy by bushies or, for that matter, the other 535 534(click through).
Via Columbia Libertarians.
Update: Kip noted in a comment that bonicelli was not appointed director. I fixed that. Kip also points out that bonicelli has a more extensive resume than implied above. You can read more here but I’m still not impressed.


Friday Ark #62

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?
We will add your post to the list if you do one of the following:

  • Leave a comment or trackback to this post,
  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,
  • Email Modulator or
  • Our extensive staff finds it during our weekly search of the web

Of course, if our staff goes on strike then we will link only those posts someone tells us about.
Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders. And do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.
Dog folks:
remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings.

Cat folks:
remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 88th edition will be hosted this week by IMAO. There are more weekly cats at eatstuff’s Weekend Cat Blogging which has many participants who may not be familiar to Ark or Carnival participants.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. Send your links for the 12th edition to Mike. The 11th edition is up and hosted by the The House & other Arctic Musings.
New for the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The second edition is up at Snails Tales.
The 3rd edition is scheduled for November 30 and will be hosted by Urban Dragon Hunters. Mail submissions to nannothemis AT gmail.com
Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.
Slow Updates This Week: Thanksgiving is this week and like last year we will be traveling and will have limited time and bandwidth. This wasn’t too much of a problem then. There were only 22 boarders. Now there are often over 100. Friday updates probably won’t begin until noon or later eastern time. Be patient and click through comments and trackbacks if it looks like things are way behind.
Cats

InvertebratesDogsBirdsOther VertebratesIn MemoriamDidn’t Make It
Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat’s Carnival Page and The TTLB Uber Carnival
Note for Haloscan Users: Haloscan started (the end of July) rejecting trackbacks if they were submitted “too rapidly” by the same host. I don’t know what the timer is but it is long enough so that it was very difficult to ping everyone that is using Haloscan for trackbacks. I’m sure that they are doing this to try to hold back the tide of trackback spam but it makes the service pretty useless for carnival type posts. Perhaps you can contact them and urge some different solution. Update: Typepad appears to be doing the same thing. Everytime I update the Ark it appears the timers are reset and the long list of MT autogenerated pings fail. Yecchhhh….