August 31, 2007

Friday Ark #154

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....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Invertebrates

Birds

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

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. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 179th edition, 8/26, is up at The Scratching Post . The 180th edition will be hosted on 9/2 by This Blog is Full of Crap. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #117 hosted on 9/1-2 by Paul Chen's food Blog. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 56th edition is up and hosted by Big Spring Birds. The 57th edition will be hosted on 9/6 by A DC Birding Blog.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 23rd edition is up and hosted by Words & Pictures. The 24th edition will be hosted at the end of August at the Naturalist Notebook.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on August 31, 2007 | Comments (7)

August 28, 2007

Quote of the Day #2 ~ Politics

On politics:

This is politics and nothing even remotely cleaner.

Richard Morgan, WOKeN FURIeS, P 396

Posted by Steve on August 28, 2007

August 24, 2007

Friday Ark #153

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....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Invertebrates

Dogs

Birds

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

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. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 178th edition, 8/19, is up at Strange Ranger . The 179th edition will be hosted on 8/26 by The Scratching Post. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #116 hosted on 8/25-26 by Belly Timber. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 56th edition is up and hosted by Big Spring Birds. The 57th edition will be hosted on 9/6 by A DC Birding Blog.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 23rd edition is up and hosted by Words & Pictures. The 24th edition will be hosted at the end of August at the Naturalist Notebook.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on August 24, 2007 | Comments (8)

August 18, 2007

Do You Have A Right To Work?

You might agree with Justice Douglas who in dissent said:

The right to work, I had assumed, was the most precious liberty that man possesses.
This, though, is not the case in the United States where, for example, in California you can't help folks keep pigeons off their roofs with spikes without spending two years learning about pesticides.

A constitution that does not protect the right of consenting humans to employ or perform work for others is no constitution at all. Governments that use their monopoly power to protect one class of people, absent fraud or force, from competition by another class of people has no legitimacy. Its agents, the courts, elected officials and hirelings who enforce such practices are perpetrating crimes against humanity.

Via The Volokh Conspiracy.

Posted by Steve on August 18, 2007 | Comments (2)

August 17, 2007

San Francisco Surveillance Camera Debate

Buried in an article reviewing the debate over the efficacy of security cameras in San francisco is this paraphrasing of a statement from the head of the housing authority:

Fortner said he knows that criminals don't like the cameras, because someone in the Sunnydale public housing development recently ripped one off a telephone pole with a rope tied to a car. When the camera returned, vandals turned to an electric saw, cutting through concrete, steel and finally the camera's wiring.
I suppose that someone becomes a criminal by definition when they destroy public property else what justification is there for this generalization.

However, this seems like perfectly fine behavior for anyone who thinks it is not appropriate for governments to be spying on them. Which should be, well, everyone except the government big brothers. Even they should know better.

Posted by Steve on August 17, 2007

Friday Ark #152

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....?

Visit all the boarders, ;font color="maroon">Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Alert: The link to the trackback URL at the bottom of the post is returning an error message. I don't know when I'll be able to get this fixed. Please use Blog Carnival, comments or email to notify us of boarders.

2:42 PM EDT: This problem should be fixed. Please let us know if you continue to have problems.

Cats

Invertebrates

Birds

Other Vertebrates

Dogs

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

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. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 177th edition, 8/12, is up at Momma Grace & Company . The 178th edition will be hosted on 8/19 by Stranger Ranger. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #115 hosted on 8/18-8/19 by Catsynth. 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 55th edition is up and hosted by Birdfreak Birdig Blog. The 56th edition will be hosted on 8/23 by Big Spring Birds.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 23rd edition is up and hosted by Words & Pictures. The 24th edition will be hosted at the end of August at the Naturalist Notebook.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on August 17, 2007 | Comments (5)

August 16, 2007

How long is your phone bill?

I get a fairly lengthy statement from Sprint for the 4 wireless phones in our family. Often 20-30 pages.

But 300 pages....

You'd think the default for $.00 cost items might be....don't print it. Hell, don't even report it!

Oh, how long will AT&T be retaining all those details?

Possible benefits:

1. maybe they will generate enough data to fry the fed's data-mining operations.

2. More folks will migrate to electronic billing thus putting more postal workers, loggers and paper mill employees out of work.

Via Computerworld.

Posted by Steve on August 16, 2007 | Comments (1)

August 12, 2007

How Many Dead Americans Was Saddam Worth?

cheney provides the correct answer!

Via the Volokh Conspiracy.

Posted by Steve on August 12, 2007

August 11, 2007

Who Has the Rights?

In a recent article discussing a ruling that terminally ill people do not have a right to access to experimental drugs is this quote from one of the judges:

"We conclude there is no fundamental right ... of access to experimental drugs for the terminally ill," said Judge Thomas Griffith, an appointee of President Bush.
Beginning at the end:
  1. Why should we care that the Judge drafting the opinion is a bush appointee?
  2. The terminally ill do not have any fundamental rights that other humans do not also have. Thus, this ruling appears partially correct.
  3. Unfortunately, it is also very wrong. All humans have the fundamental right to voluntarily exchange goods and services with one another.
  4. Any government that interferes with #3 should be replaced.
  5. A corollary to #3 is that even though you, I and anyone else have the right to buy and use experimental drugs the manufacturer has no obligation to sell them to us.

You can find background on and discussion of this case in this Reason article.

Posted by Steve on August 11, 2007

August 10, 2007

Friday Ark #151

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....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

Arkive page.

Cats

Birds

Invertebrates

Other Vertebrates

Dogs

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

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. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 176th edition, 8/5, is up at Life From A Cat's Perpective . The 177th edition will be hosted on 8/12 by Grace and Kittens. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #114 hosted on 8/1-8/12 by What Did You Eat. 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 55th edition is up and hosted by Birdfreak Birdig Blog. The 56th edition will be hosted on 8/23 by Big Spring Birds.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 23rd edition is up and hosted by Words & Pictures. The 24th edition will be hosted at the end of August at the Naturalist Notebook.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on August 10, 2007 | Comments (4)

August 8, 2007

Resurfacing...or back in muggleworld

No spoilers here....

Late June through this early part of August have been the lowest posting 6-8 weeks since Modulator entered the blogosphere....tch, tch.

Reasons abound: heavy work load; quite a bit of family traveling; beginning to plan a new house and, yes, rereading the first 6 years at Hogwarts and Deathly Hallows. I finished the latter today and immediately want to reread it.

The tension between reading slow enough to figure out the clues to the grand scheme of what is going to happen and having needing to read very rapidly to find out what will happen next was delectable!

I chose the latter approach; I could not slow down. I don't think you will be able to either!

In a few days I will reread the last couple hundred pages and then hand it over to Mrs Modulator.

I do not plan to post any discussion of specifics related to Deathly Hallows for some time. Everyone needs an opportunity to read it spoiler free. Happy, though, to discuss in email.

Posting volume should start rising though it may be some time before I get back up to a 2-3 post/day average.

Posted by Steve on August 8, 2007

August 3, 2007

Friday Ark #150

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....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Alert: Another long weekend for the staff. Somewhere in the 1-2 PM EDT time frame we will be on the road to a place with very limited net access. After that time boardings will likely be delayed for extended periods of time and it is possible that we will not get boardings caught up until Sunday night.

Cats

Birds

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

Dogs

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

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. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 175th edition, 7/29, is up at This, That & The Other Thing . The 176th edition will be hosted on 8/5 by Life From A Cat's Perspective. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #113 hosted on 8/4-8/5 by Masak-Masak. 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 54th edition is up and hosted by The Egret's Nest. The 55th edition will be hosted on 8/9 by Birdfrak Birding Blog.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 23rd edition is up and hosted by Words & Pictures. The 24th edition will be hosted at the end of August at the Naturalist Notebook.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on August 3, 2007 | Comments (8)

August 2, 2007

This is Comforting?

He may be a very cute kitty but I'd just as soon he not come visiting.

Posted by Steve on August 2, 2007 | Comments (1)

August 1, 2007

Lovely Weather for Molluscs

Go crawl around with a few as well as a wonderful assortment of other spineless thingies at the 23rd Circus of the Spineless hosted by Words & Pictures.

Posted by Steve on August 1, 2007