Yearly Archives: 2003

Nemo Found, Nemo Stolen

This entry was posted in Blogging on by

A while back, as some of you may remember, I posted this picture of Nemo.
It was linked by a number of folks: some linked to my post, some used the picture and provided the usual courteous acknowledgement but several others linked the picture directly from my server on to their bulletin board systems without the courtesy of an acknowledgement and generated hundreds of unacknowledged downloads.
So, enough is enough, I am breaking the link these folks are using. I apologize for any incovenience to the rest of you. The link to the original post is still good…just the link to the picture has been changed.

The 2003 Ignoble Prizes

This entry was posted in Capitalism Culture Humor on by

One of the great things about the blogosphere is how many things even a modest reader can learn about that never make their way to network news, fair and balanced fox, your local paper, etc.
The most recent for me is the Ignoble Prize which has been presented since 1991:

Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people LAUGH, then makes them THINK. Technically speaking, the Igs honor people whose achievements “cannot or should not be reproduced.”

The The Apostropher’s favorites of 2003 are listed here and my personal favorite for the last two years is the 2002 Ignoble Prize in Economics:

The executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hauspie [Belgium], Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International [Pakistan], Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom [Russia], Global Crossing, HIH Insurance [Australia], Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications [UK], McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. [NOTE: all companies are U.S.-based unless otherwise noted.]

arnold’s Amendment

This entry was posted in Constitution on by

Thank goodness these constitutional amendments have a high approval bar and usually take a while to get the necessary state ratifications:

Now, as Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger chases the governorship of the most populous state, the House and Senate are weighing proposals for a constitutional amendment that would allow a naturalized citizen to become president. But Schwarzenegger’s candidacy is only a side issue in the debate.
The question turns on whether a decision by the framers of the Constitution more than 200 years ago remains relevant in today’s more inclusive America, one in which the foreign-born population is at an all-time high.

Arnold should be old, frail and limp by the time this gets its final vote.
The proposed amendment does have bipartisan support:

Conservatives such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and liberals such as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) favor opening the presidency to immigrants. Hatch’s bill would allow people who have been citizens at least 20 years to hold the office, while Frank is supporting a House bill with a 35-year citizenship requirement.
“I think it’s a mistake to have that in the Constitution,” Frank said of the current limitation. “It’s reflective of a double standard that somehow immigrants aren’t fully equal with people born here.”

It is reflective of a standard and I don’t thank it is any more problematic a standard then the age limitations. The debate should be interesting and I think I will start out with the conservative position that this isn’t broken so we don’t need to fix it.
On the other hand what a delicious thought: watching how his rightside supporters respond to arnold’s behaviour as president. I suspect he’d make clinton look like an innocent.
Via Body and Soul.
Oh, and go over to Skippy’s to see ‘a movie poster for ah’nold’s latest flick.’