June 30, 2006

Friday Synchronicity

There's lot's of bio-partying happening today: the 10th Circus of the Spineless at Science and Sensibility and the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings join the Friday Ark in end of June celebrations.

Posted by Steve on June 30, 2006

Friday Ark #93

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 (moderated) or trackback (may be broken) to this post (Don't panic if you get back an "internal server error" message. Haven't been able to figure out why this is happening but comments still seem to post.).
  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,
  • Use the Blog 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. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (62 shouts as of 06/29)

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 118th edition, 6/25 is up at Life~Florida~Whatever. The 118th edition will be hosted by Watermark on 6/25. 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. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 26th edition is up and hosted by The Hawk Owls' Nest. The 27th edition will be hosted on 7/6 by 10,000 Birds.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The ninth edition is up at Burning Silo. The 10th edition will be hosted today by Science and Sensibility.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

DogsOther VertebratesInvertebratesBirdsIn MemoriamDidn't Make It
Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival 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....

Posted by Steve on June 30, 2006 | Comments (16)

June 29, 2006

Breastfeed the Military?

Sure, I know that she's using it as a metaphor but surely most members of the military would vomit or have some similar reaction, maybe like PZ's, to the idea of sucking on w's nips.

Noonan, in the same column, seems pretty reasonable in her take on the posturing around the recent congressional time wasting with the flag desecration amendment.

On the other hand she bashes the NY Times for reporting about the bushies privacy abuses which were also covered in her own paper when she really should be bashing the SWIFT folks for apparently providing this information to the administration without proper warrants.

Posted by Steve on June 29, 2006

June 27, 2006

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Performed by w.

Yea, just go watch and listen!

Via The Tree.

Posted by Steve on June 27, 2006

Who Will Die In the 7th Harry Potter Novel?

Apparently more than Voldemort who had damn well better be disposed of permanently!

Rowling has already said that the final chapter of the seventh book was written long ago.

"The final chapter is hidden away, although it's now changed very slightly," she said in an interview broadcast on Monday on Britain's Channel 4. "One character got a reprieve, but I have to say two die that I didn't intend to die."

When asked to be more specific, she added: "No, I'm not going to commit myself, because I don't want the hate mail or anything else."

The hate mail comment is rather ominous but there will be many unhappy fans if any characters die who are not part of Voldemort's crowd. Ok, there are probably some folks who identify with Voldemort and company as well. Your speculation can run amok on this idea.

There is a link to a video of the full Rowling interview at Mugglenet.

What I'd really like to know is when the 7th volume will be published. If it is June/July 2007 then I can complete my rereading of the first 6 at the leisurely pace of one every two months.

Then again, one per week over the 6 weeks prior to publication may be a better level of immersion.

Posted by Steve on June 27, 2006

June 26, 2006

Dead Right

It has been no secret that Ann Coulter is a longtime Grateful Dead fan. Now there is more in this Jambase interview:

But whatever their myriad interests, clothing choices, and interest in illicit drugs, true Deadheads are what liberals claim to be but aren't: unique, free-thinking, open, kind, and interested in different ideas.
Yep, kind of like what AC's ilk can't even claim to be.

Natalie Davis has posted an excellent riff on the interview which closes with:

...be open to hearing all views Listen to what everyone says -- even the person you find most reprehensible probably has an interest or two in common with you. If both sides are on equal footing, that is great news: It opens possibilities for friendship or at least civil acquaintance, for building bridges, for establishing some sort of understanding -- or, perhaps, for ultimately changing minds. I can't imagine that the latter outcome is possible when dealing with the supposed She-Devil of the Right Wing, but who knows?
I suspect all you head's know right, left, anarchic, socialist, communist, libertarian, and, well, you name it....listening to the music play.

Both the interview and Natalie's post are well worth your time.

Posted by Steve on June 26, 2006

June 25, 2006

Sunday Cats

Carnival of the Cats #118 is up at Life~Florida~Whatever.

Give'm a skritch.

Posted by Steve on June 25, 2006

So Out of Touch,,,

...that I didn't get the Kenny Chesney joke at the Paperboys show tonight.

Then again it may be the 50,000 or so at the Chesney show that were out of touch.

The few hundred we were with had, as usual, just a great time with Tom Lambda and the rest of the Paperboys!

Posted by Steve on June 25, 2006

June 24, 2006

Empowering Children

Peter Tatchell argues that we are ignoring a key element of preventing sexual predation of children:

Cracking down on paedophiles is surely only one dimension of a necessarily two dimensions solution. The current hue and cry one-sidedly prioritises action to identify and exclude actual or potential abusers. This strategy overlooks a key element in the child protection equation: helping young people protect themselves.
Whether this is done in the schools (should they even exist?) or at home which will take a large cultural shift it should be done. There is no excuse for not preparing children for the world they must live in.

Via The Sideshow.

Posted by Steve on June 24, 2006

June 23, 2006

Friday Ark #92

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 (moderated) or trackback (may be broken) to this post (Don't panic if you get back an "internal server error" message. Haven't been able to figure out why this is happening but comments still seem to post.).
  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,
  • Use the Blog 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. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (61 shouts as of 06/22)

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 117th edition, 6/18 is up at Mind of Mog. The 118th edition will be hosted by Pets Garden blog on 6/25. 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. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 26th edition is up and hosted by The Hawk Owls' Nest. The 27th edition will be hosted on 7/6 by 10,000 Birds.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The ninth edition is up at Burning Silo. The 10th edition will be hosted at the end of june by Science and Sensibility.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

BirdsDogsInvertebratesOther VertebratesIn MemoriamDidn't Make It
Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival 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....

Posted by Steve on June 23, 2006 | Comments (15)

June 22, 2006

Interesting Photos

flickr users probably already know about the Interesting Photos of the Last 7 Days. The rest of us might find some enjoyment in checking them out from time to time. For gluttons there is an RSS feed available though not directly from flckr.

Via the future is yesterday.

Posted by Steve on June 22, 2006

Let's Protect the Children...

...from those nasty opiates by.....

closing all the schools.

Posted by Steve on June 22, 2006

Birds of the World Cup

The I and the Bird World Cup is up at The Hawk Owl's Nest.

Fly over and meet the teams.

Posted by Steve on June 22, 2006

June 21, 2006

bush's Support Team

Billmon makes an argument that bin ladin was key to w's election success:

Considering the narrowness of Bush's margin in the electoral college -- a 60,000 vote swing in Ohio, and we're talking about President Kerry's failed Iraq War policies right now -- it doesn't seem unreasonable to argue that Osama bin Ladin did more to perpetuate Shrub's reign of error than Karl Rove and the RNC propaganda machine from hell put together. And he didn't even demand a cut of the Bush-Cheney ad budget in return.

Now that's a consultant worth keeping around.

He seems to understate the case.

First, bin ladin and others received US support at least as far back as the Afghan - Russian conflict. Second, without 9/11 w would likely have been outed after one term as the most ineffectual, least popular president ever. Third, and a bit on the ragged edge: bin ladin is still loose; is there any good reason not to think this is intentional or that perhaps he is still getting plenty of funding from the ad budget. If not directly, more subtley via laundering through Saudia Arabia and others via high oil prices?

Posted by Steve on June 21, 2006

June 20, 2006

In Your Sleep

Amongst other things folks snore, walk, eat and possibly have sex in their sleep (sexomnia):

More than 92% said they had experienced multiple episodes of sexomnia, and a variety of sexual behaviors were reported, including 105 respondents—24 women and 81 men—who said they had had sexual intercourse while sleeping.
These are results from an anonymous internet survey so they may not be worth any more than spam.

I think these folks are just reporting fantasies, conflating sleep with the results of drinking and/or drug use, or remembering their wet dreams.

Posted by Steve on June 20, 2006

June 16, 2006

Friday Ark #91

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....?

Storm Warning: As noted yesterday:

Well, not exactly a storm but there will be rough weather for this week's Ark. The crew will be on the road with limited or no network access Thursday-Monday.

The Ark will start boarding as usual in the wee hours Friday but updates will be even less timely than usual and may be delayed as much as a day...or longer.

We will add your post to the list if you do one of the following:

  • Leave a comment (moderated) or trackback (may be broken) to this post (Don't panic if you get back an "internal server error" message. Haven't been able to figure out why this is happening but comments still seem to post.).
  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,
  • Use the Blog 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. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (61 shouts as of 06/15)

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 116th edition, 6/11 is up at Gigolo Kitty. The 117th edition will be hosted by Mind of Mog on 6/18. 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. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 25th edition is up and hosted by Rob's Idaho Perspective. The 26th edition will be hosted on 6/22 by The Hawk Owls' Nest.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The ninth edition is up at Burning Silo. The 10th edition will be hosted at the end of june by Science and Sensibility.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

Update 9:24 MDT June 16, 2006: Probably no more updates until tonight.

Cats

DogsBirdsOther VertebratesInvertebratesIn Memoriam
  • Why Now?: Friday Cat Blogging: In Memoriam - Festus
Didn't Make ItExceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)
For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival 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....

Posted by Steve on June 16, 2006 | Comments (11)

June 14, 2006

Does She Have a Mind?

Well, let's check some evidence.

Here is her blog which says Ann Coulter speaks her mind. It has been up for a while, possibly three years since in this interview which occcurred when her book Treason was newly published she is asked about the blog. Her blog has no content.

Conclusion: her mind has been empty for at least three years.

Interview link via Pharyngula.

Posted by Steve on June 14, 2006 | Comments (1)

Friday Ark - Storm Warning

Well, not exactly a storm but there will be rough weather for this week's Ark. The crew will be on the road limited or no network access Thursday-Monday.

The Ark will start boarding as usual in the wee hours Friday but updates will be even less timely than usual and may be delayed as much as a day...or longer.

Posted by Steve on June 14, 2006

Post Leno Cleansing

You may feel a strong need for cleansing after watching tonights Leno show.

To help out City Hippy reviews 10 Green soaps for you.

Via Carnival of the Green.

Posted by Steve on June 14, 2006

A Reason to Watch Leno Tonight

George Carlin and Ann Coulter should make for a dynamite show.

Enjoy the Carlin video at the above link and remember to bring your barf bags to Leno.

Via Pharyngula.

Posted by Steve on June 14, 2006

June 13, 2006

Bacteria Chit Chat

This may be common knowledge to you biologists but I, and I suspect many others, had no idea that those nifty and sometimes nasty little prokaryots could communicate amongst themselves and sometimes between species:

...the ability bacteria have to communicate across species using a small molecule called autoinducer-2 (AI-2). This simple sugar, produced by scores of microbes including Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Vibrio cholera, and several species of bioluminescent marine bacteria, allows bugs to assess the density of the local prokaryotic population and to adjust their behavior accordingly: throwing off light, spewing out toxins, or forming slimy biofilms.
Bonnie Bassler who is the expert on this stuff is working toward developing a broad-spectrum antibiotic based on these systems.

Cool!

Posted by Steve on June 13, 2006

Child Abuse: Training US Martyrs

Well, that is certainly the way this reads:

The star of the film is Pastor Becky Fischer, who explains the startling mission of her “Kids on Fire” camp: “I want young people to be as committed to laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are in Pakistan.” At the camp, the children are asked: “How many of you want to be those who will give up your life for Jesus?” Little hands shoot up from every direction. They are told: “We have to break the power of the enemy over the government.” At one point, Becky yells: “This means war! Are you a part of it or not?” More little hands.
If you are not one of Fischer's Pentecostal believers you might want to be a bit worried that these kids will be coming after you when they strap on the dynamite.

Via Truthdig

Posted by Steve on June 13, 2006

June 12, 2006

Punishing Sex Offendors: A Modest Proposal

Five states now have laws that allow the death penalty for perpetrators of multiple sex crimes agains children. The age limit of the children varies from 11 to 14. The death penalty has been determined to be unconstitutional in the case of mutlple rapes of adult women.

According to this NYT article there does not appear to be a strong consensus on the potential value of the death penalty in these cases. Here are some examples:

Mark Sanford, a Republican, said in a statement that the law would "be an incredibly powerful deterrent to offenders that have already been released."
But Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a research group that opposes capital punishment, said the new laws were largely symbolic, would impose disproportionate punishment and were probably unconstitutional.
There are more arguments both ways in the article.

As heinous as these crimes are the disproportionality argument seems correct. But what to do? We do not want repeat offendors and I'm not partial to paying to keep them locked up forever though this may be required if there is not something that will help assure a significantly reduced recidivism.

Which there is. A straight forward part of the solution should be castration. I do not mean chemical castration I mean snip off their testicals! This seems reasonably proportional and given the nature of the crimes there is nothing cruel about it and if done regularly it won't be unusual. Oh yea, no reason to allow these perps to store sperm.

It isn't 100% perfect and some effects can be overcome with testosterone treatments but as part of a comprehensive program for dealing with repeat sex offenders it seems like a reasonable part of the minimum package.

Posted by Steve on June 12, 2006

June 11, 2006

These Are Good Kitties

Well, except maybe one....

The 116th Carnival of the Cats is up at Gigolo Kitty's palce!

.
Posted by Steve on June 11, 2006

June 10, 2006

Functional Design

Taking a lesson from nature Des Moines city engineers and consultants designed and built an efficient detention system:

The nearly four-acre basin was constructed about two years ago and "took some of the load off of the pipe downstream" and helps prevent flooding...
You decide for yourself if this is a functional design.

Some may consider this NWS or in poor taste.

Via Maru.

Posted by Steve on June 10, 2006

June 9, 2006

Friday Ark #90

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 (moderated) or trackback (may be broken) to this post (Don't panic if you get back an "internal server error" message. Haven't been able to figure out why this is happening but comments still seem to post.).
  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,
  • Use the Blog 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. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (61 shouts as of 06/08)

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 115th edition, 6/4, is up at TacJammer. The 116th edition will be hosted by Gigolo Kitty on 6/11. 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. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 25th edition is up and hosted by Rob's Idaho Perspective. The 26th edition will be hosted on 6/22 by The Hawk Owls' Nest.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The ninth edition is up at Burning Silo. The 10th edition will be hosted at the end of june by, well, ...stay tuned.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

DogsBirdsOther VertebratesInvertebratesIn Memoriam
  • The Hair Ball: In Loving Memory: Blackie died May 12, 2006
Didn't Make ItExceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival 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....

Posted by Steve on June 9, 2006 | Comments (15)

June 8, 2006

Fly On By

Rob Miller of Rob's Idaho Perspective is hosting the 25th edition of I and the Bird: I and the Bird's of Idaho.

Swoop in and join the birding.

Posted by Steve on June 8, 2006

Big Brother Is Watching You

Today is the 57th anniversary of the publication of Orwell's classic 1984.

This is timely (re)reading given the global focus on security, the proliferation of cams, security letters, data mining and perpetual war. Do it this month!

Reminded by Fergie.

Posted by Steve on June 8, 2006 | Comments (2)

June 6, 2006

She's Been Turned On Her Head

Sweet liberty is being turned on her head in the 21st century United States.

Make your own modest statement by turning Lady Liberty upside down when you affix her to your envelopes:

lady_liberty39.jpg

Participants email or comment to be included in participants list:

Posted by Steve on June 6, 2006 | Comments (2)

Chemistry Experiments

Scientists must experiment and kids will have fun!

Yes, the CPSC, your local city nannycrats and the narcothugs work hard to keep you from learning chemistry, shooting off fireworks and stopping your runny nose. In spite of these ill conceived efforts a little ingenuity and a trip to your local supermarket or convenience store can get you plenty of explosive goodies!

For instance here is what you can achieve with some Diet Coke and Mentos Mints. If they try to stop ya, well, just spray in their face.

How soon do you think the swat teams will be coming for these guys or for you? If you think never then perhaps you should consider Patri's thoughts on the subject.

Via Tegan.

Update: Chemistry gone wrong--mixing Pepsi and Mentos. Via Solonor's Inkwell via The Tree.

Posted by Steve on June 6, 2006

June 5, 2006

Purring Time

The 115th Carnival of the Cats is up at TacJammer.

Posted by Steve on June 5, 2006

June 4, 2006

bush Gets Something Right

As shocking as it might seem bush was right in his radio address yesterday when he said:

....in a free society, decisions about such a fundamental social institution as marriage should be made by the people...
Yes, they should. These decisions should be made by individual people voluntarily arranging their lives with other individuals.

There are a lot of folks, though, including bush who, contrary to his own words, do not believe we should have a free society.

In our free society, people have the right to choose how they live their lives.
Instead they advocate taking the freedom to live their lives by their voluntary choices from the people and put in its place amendments, laws and regulations that take freedom from the people.

A constitutional amendment does not

....put a decision that is critical to American families and American society in the hands of the American people, which is exactly where it belongs.
It, in fact, takes it out of the hands of the people. Again, it is the involved free individuals who should make the voluntary decisions about how to arrange their lives with others.

In a free society federal, state or local legislative bodies have no business being involved in these voluntary arrangements.

Posted by Steve on June 4, 2006

June 2, 2006

It's A Long Way To Go Home

Rest In Peace: Vince Welnick, February 21, 1951-June 2, 2006!

Dead Net (Click through and very slow right now- 22:48 EDT):

Our Grateful Dead prayer for the repose of his spirit:
May the four winds blow him safely home.

IUpdate: never understood the rift between Vince and the rest of the band after Jerry passed. Clearly, it created a lot of unhappiness on Vince's part and for a pretty raw and direct take on the impact on Vince.

Update: Scott and Vince

Update (6/10): Kim and Vince

Update (6/8): From Hunter....read the rest:

But people demand answers. Failing answers they go away. Please don't do that. Just don't expect golf balls from a walnut tree. All I can offer is perspective; a limited one at that. Answers are a different matter.
I may personally believe the only answer is to continue creating one's art while being careful not to live beyond one's means, physically or psychically. Sure. But that's not what people twant o know. What they want to know is: who's to blame? Not the music. If the music were to blame they wouldn't be asking the question in the first place. Play the recordings. I put as many clues there as I could. In a way, they are one long letter to the Grateful Dead. The tensions involved created art. I think that art lives. Go there for answers.

Posted by Steve on June 2, 2006 | Comments (2)

Friday Ark #89

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 (Don't panic if you get back an "internal server error" message. Haven't been able to figure out why this is happening but comments still seem to post.). Also note that all comments are now moderated,
  • Use the Carnival Submission Form,
  • Use the Blog 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. Time permitting we will continue boardings until the Carnival of the Cats goes up on Sunday.

Do link to the Friday Ark whether you use trackbacks or not.

Visit each border and come back regularly Friday-Sunday to visit new boarders.

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (61 shouts as of 06/01)

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 114th edition, 5/28, is up at Niobium. The 115th edition will be hosted by TacJammer on 6/4. 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. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 24th edition is up and hosted by Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding. The 25th edition will be hosted on 6/8 by Rob's Idaho Perspective.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The ninth edition is up at Burning Silo. The 10th edition will be hosted at the end of june by, well, ...stay tuned.

Arkive editions of the Friday Ark.

Cats

DogsBirdsInvertebratesOther VertebratesIn Memoriam
Didn't Make ItExceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)
For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival 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....

Posted by Steve on June 2, 2006 | Comments (12)