Josh
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Posts posted by Josh
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I think it's the Mac doing this, not the browser. Sorry that wasn't clear. Apple hates Europe, after all.
I think they're just set to US English by default because that's the most likely language that a Mac will be used in.
From messing with a friend's Powerbook, it appears that Macs are as readily localizable as any Linux system, including to UK English.
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Another thing I hate is the tests I have to take online. I had to spend an hour last night staring at the screen because the fucking tests are timed, and at the end of it my eyes felt like I was wearing 3D glasses the entire day and ended up really bothering me. In fact they are starting to bother me now just for doing the stupid mini test training. This will most likely be a reason I barely past this fucking class.
Wolvy, I don't remember where you said you were going to school, but if it's to a California community college, they might let you have more time on tests as an accomodation for your vision problem. I say this because at my school I could get increased time on tests for my ADHD. If the system is the same in both places, you apply for disability-related accomodations at the school's disability center.
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I've lately been reading science fiction novels by Melissa Scott and Ursula Le Guin.
I also am reading Star Wars novels.
And here's a book I've put a reserve on at the library:
The Girl with the dragon tattoo / by Stieg Larsson ; translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland.224 of 276 holds
Popular book. I might be waiting for a while. :)
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Tourists that slow down traffic to a crawl.
When you are trying to get somewhere or to work, it doesn't help things when a tourist or old couple decide to drive 5 mph and cause 5-8 cars to be backed up behind them. You'd think these people would have the the thought process to go "Hey, there is a huge line of cars behind us. I think we should pull over to the side of the road and let them go." nope, they don't think like that. Which ends up pissing off just about EVERYBODY behind them.
Wolvy, you're talking about two lane winding mountain roads in the Sierras, right?
For those who aren't familiar with them, they generally have a steep grade up one side and a drop-off on the other, both very close to the edge of the road. Passing is impossible on most of the length of these roads.
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Here's one:
Is it a characteristic of at least some methamphetamine abusers that they can be wide awake and talking to you and obviously quite alert, but very soon after, when in a physical posture of repose or at least resting against something when they are not standing, can nod off quickly, especially during nighttime hours when most people would be sleepy? I'm not talking about methedrine users who have just done a whole bunch of the stuff and couldn't sleep if they wanted to, but probably ones who last got high a fair number of hours ago.
What I'm trying to point to that's different from most non-speed users' behavior is the being indisputably alert but then falling asleep very quickly thereafter, not quite at a moment's notice but within a minute, say, as opposed to most non-user showing signs of weariness, placidness or sleepiness before nodding off.
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Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert [Frank's son] and Kevin J. Anderson.
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
Women in the Shadows by Ann Bannon.
And in the non-fiction category (though some might disagree):
Barry Goldwater's influential Conscience of a Conservative.
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Great find, Husamuddin!
And while I don't know what will happen, I'm very much looking forward to Sombath kicking the river goddess's ass.
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Christian and Jessie, you're talking about wildly different issues. I agree with Jessie that basic math and being literate are life skills, and need to be compulsory. That, on the other hand is something entirely different from the science ("science"?) of economics, which is what Christian talks about. Also, while I agree that the education system is politically slanted, stating that people are becoming dumber is simply not true. The reverse is - at least in all measurable forms of intelligence.
On what do you base that conclusion?
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I'm really sorry to hear that, Avaunt!
Good luck on finding a better place with less witless roommates.
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Having to take English or any other college I have no interest in. Just found out my Midterm grade and it's a D, though it will likely move up to a C by the end of the semester.
Next Year I'll just be taking online classes. The college can go blow themselves if they want me to take Algebra or Public Speaking.
What's wrong with algebra (besides textbook cost)?
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Even so 20% casualties in a six month period is high if you consider that many, if not most, of the casualty wounded will be permanently unable to resume combat roles. I'm assuming someone rates as a casualty if their injury is relatively serious, since many others probably are injured in combat but those are minor injuries that don't degrade their combat abilities even in the short term.
If the British military has to replace a major proportion of those casualties with new people, I would think that could be a significant problem for it. Even if they only had to replace 10% every six months, that would be 20% per year of their combat troops. Now that would be a high attrition rate, or so it seems to me. Even 10%/year would be consequential for an organization with finite human resources and political capital, especially if that attrition rate continues, or worsens, in a war that goes on year after year after year.
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Short term political expediency coupled with political/civil service greed.
As a taxpayer, I am deeply ashamed whenever I see our fighting men and women jammed into squalid, crumbling barrack blocks with paint peeling off the walls, buckled steel lockers and clapped-out heating systems and where the showers run cold more often than hot.The entire furniture pack, including bed, for a single soldier is worth just 15% of the £1,000 cost of the Herman Miller Aeron chair provided for every MoD bureaucrat.
. . .
Our troops are the bravest and the best. They will not be beaten on the battlefields of Afghanistan. But they could be defeated at home by a government that fails to value them as they deserve.
For a conflict where not that many NATO troops are supposedly being killed, a 20% casualty rate over a six month period seems high.
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Not quite the done thing I believe, to say such an interesting thing and not provide a link, or title!.
Sorry, that'll be the irritated insomnia. It's Songs of the Black Würm Gism. Includes such delights as a cover by Alan Moore, stories from Grant Morrison and David Britton, and a quantity of anatomically-detailed octopus porn.
That's quite a cover! I hadn't realized Alan Moore was an artist as well as a writer.
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Anyone still watching Girl Genius?.
Fooey says I [ Spoiler : The Unstoppable Higgs is merely a construct. How fucking trite could you get?. Why not make the entire cast constructs while you are at it. ] http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100217
I am, but I can let it slip for weeks at a time. They've been in that castle fussing with the same stuff for far too long now.
Btw, good superhero strip, Red, and great one, Husamuddin! (I don't think Red will feel slighted by this, since he might agree with it.)
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Windows Vista, and spring cleaning.
Have you personally experienced Vista?
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Far better to just skip over the debate with, "Yeah the guy was a crum, but he was a great writer. We read his work for his writing talent and imagination not because he was a sterling human being we wanted to go to the bar with.
I've found that highly creative people, including many people in the performing arts, often have things in the non-creating parts of their lives that are pretty unappetizing. They can be politically horrible, bigoted, criminal in ways that aren't fun, abusive to others emotionally and/or physically, crankish or just total assholes. It seems to me that these people are often wiser in their art then they are in any other part of their lives.
And in general, it's a good idea not to know a lot about an artist, very much including any performing artist, whose work you really like. I've had this lesson confirmed again and again.
In general, I just want them to work their magic, and I really don't want to know them.
None of which addresses how to deal with unintentionally finding out something ugly about an artist whose work you like. I don't have any suggestions there. Try to maintain perspective, but beyond that, go with your feelings. If you're put off by her/him after learning the unpleasant fact(s), that's the tough one.
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Altogether very funny, though MSNBC Harball anchor Chris Matthews' remark was just mind-boggling:
The Daily Show Slams Cable News' Reactions To State Of The Union (VIDEO)On The Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart took aim at the cable news networks' responses to President Obama's State Of The Union address, taking Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN equally to task for their completely different, yet characteristic, takes on the speech.
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Scary symptoms that manifest on a Friday night.
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Scary symptoms of something or another that manifest on a Friday night.
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I love skiing. Just bought myself a set of cross-country skis today, and I'm looking forward to a fine weekend in the mountains with some friends, and some whisky.
I live in the middle of world class alpine and nordic skiing, and have done for the past 4 years now. How many times have I gone skiing, you may ask? Zero. I either suck or am very wise with my money. *shrugs*
But isn't cross-country skiing cheap after buying the equipment?
I love a tight band totally in the groove.Yes.
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Migraines.
You too? I had one the other day. I'm fortunate though, that mine start with the flashers before the pain starts. The flashers wind up being my alarm because if I take 3 aspirin right when I notice them, I'll be OK in less than half an hour. If I wait too long or don't have aspirin, it can last half a day.
I get the aura too--and the last one was a doozy. Popped three ibuprofen, drew the shades in my office, and took a nap for 30 minutes. Driving home was not an option. No headache came, but they leave me right dull in the head.
This was the first one I've had in a couple of years. Bright, reflected light, especially if there is a spectrum associated (like surgical lights reflected of stainless steel dissecting tables, say) trigger me--so I try and avoid the triggers. Fortunately our new dissection lab has such good lighting that the students don't usually use their surgical lights.
Ugh, migraines, hate em!
I found that if they are BAD, throwing up helps a great deal. It's as though the contents of the stomach go bad somehow due to the migraine and continue to poison the system as long as they remain in it. And if your nausea isn't causing you to throw up by yourself, then MAKE yourself throw up. (Finger down throat works great.)
But there are ways of forestalling them.
I've taken heavy concentrations of B vitamins and stopped them that way, as the visual phenomena (the first stage of a migraine), got going.
And I've used an orthodox remedy, lots of caffeine and aspirin. That can work well as the beginning of a migraine too.
Once, removing myself from a stressful situation that had apparently triggered one caused it to disappear before it really got started.
But I'll readily admit that my migraines, especially in my adult years, aren't nearly as bad as those that some others experience, so what works for me might not be sufficient or work at all for others.
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I think his death might have caught people by surprise. It seems like less than a week before it he was commenting on recent news to an interviewer. And just last year he'd put out an updated edition of his classic, A People's History of the United States. So no one had any pre-written obits ready for the occasion, or the emotional readiness to jump into popping out a quick one.
Another thing may be that he was supposed to have been against orthodoxies of any kind. Maybe no specific tendency felt that close to him, so no party newspapers were automatically ready to sing his praises, which again would have made cranking out a quick resume much easier. Okay, I'm just speculating at this point, but given Zinn's importance to the American Left, it is kinda odd that his death has caught the Left so flat-footed.
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Another thing to love the Obama administration for:
]Honduran Coup d'Etat a "Win" for the US?Thursday 28 January 2010
by: Tom Loudon, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis
Today, Pepe Lobo will be inaugurated as the new president of Honduras in what many consider to be an institutionalization of the coup d'état, which took place seven months ago. Lobo comes to the presidency as a result of a highly disputed election process carried out by the coup regime. The elections, which have been widely condemned as illegitimate, were boycotted by a large percentage of the Honduran population.
US Undersecretary Thomas Shannon, in a maneuver that totally subverted an extended negotiation process, announced that the US would recognize the election, even if there was not a return to constitutional order. The US celebrates today's inauguration as the "way forward" for Honduras and has aggressively pressured other Latin American countries to recognize Lobo's government.
While the United States is eager to normalize the situation and to get on with business as usual, the June 28 coup d'état has yielded unexpected consequences for Washington, both inside and outside of Honduras. Unforeseen by the coup plotters and the United States, the military takeover of Honduras unleashed a broad based, sustained resistance movement inside the country. A spirit long dormant in Honduras was awakened, transforming the country into a hub of political activity previously unimaginable.
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A prescient idea for a post, Mark, given succeeding events. Campaign finance has been fixed alright, by the U.S. Supreme Court taking whatever few limits remained on corporations donating to political campaigns or doing campaigning themselves. The majority's decision even said quite openly that giving money to a campaign and getting rewarded by some action by the campaigning politician is a perfectly normal and acceptable quid pro quo arrangement that's something like the relationship that voters and REAL people (are supposed to) have with politicians.
There has been a great deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth over this by liberals and progressives. But one very well-known and respected Left intellectual, Howard Zinn, said in response that government had been bought and paid for by the corporations before, and it's bought and paid for now, so in his view there's no big change.
That was just after the Supreme Court decision.
Now since I haven't seen it anywhere else on StH, which surprises me, I need to say that since that time, Howard Zinn has died:
http://www.truthout.org/howard-zinn-a-public-intellectual-who-mattered56463
I dislike greatly.
in Bring the Noise
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I think due to the Americans with Disabilities Act they might have to build an accomodation in of some sort. Anyway, you won't know if it's possible until you ask, and your school's disability center would be the place to start.