Boobs Making Breast-Feeding Laws? February 23, 2006
Posted by TimTheFoolMan in Family, Politics, Stupidity, Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Well, proving that some of the biggest public boobs are not being showcased in this past week’s Sports Illustrated, the Kentucky legislature is now considering a law that would prohibit anyone from interfering, in any way, with a mother breast-feeding in any public or private place. The behavior is not to be subject to any obscenity laws, period.
Now, as a man, I have to admit that I have never been in the situation of wanting to breast-feed my child and unable to do so because of shame or fear of social retribution. Likewise, I’ve never experienced fear of the local porn club asking if I can pole dance and breast-feed at the same time.
(more…)
Oops! Maybe eBay is Solar Powered? February 19, 2006
Posted by TimTheFoolMan in Computers, Technology, Windows.add a comment
Perhaps it’s just a nasty coincidence, but it appears that eBay’s move from Windows boxes to Sun servers is not quite complete. A post from Boing Boing about a 17″ G4 iMac going on sale has the following link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5869550238
It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to recognize that that the URL appears to be calling into an ISAPI DLL on a Windows box of some kind (ISAPI, or Information Server API, was Microsoft’s pre-ASP answer to creating CGI applications). However, in the upper right corner of this page, you’ll notice this logo. Java Technology? Powered by Sun? Is it possible that Sun made a bit too much noise about this move?
Well, to be fair, they didn’t say exactly what the Sun systems were powering. Maybe they’ve got the Sun Fire x64 boxes monitoring the UPS. Anybody got a better explanation?
More on Monoculture February 18, 2006
Posted by TimTheFoolMan in Computers, Family, Morality, News, Politics, Race and Prejudice, Religion, Religion, Philosophy, and Science, Science & Technology, Technology.add a comment
Since posting a discussion about the inherent dangers of monoculture in the areas of faith, I’ve had several interesting discussions (online and off) about possible flaws in the original premise: that the “Microsoft monoculture” poses an inherent threat to computer systems, and therefore our information infrastructure. Dan Geer posed this argument at the Usenix 2004 conference.
As quoted by SearchSecurity.com, Geer’s argument was countered by Microsoft Strategist Scott Charney, who posed an analogy of Southwest Airlines, which relies on Boeing 737 airplanes exclusively. Charney argued that there are benefits to a monoculture, in terms of deployment costs and procedures, that make up for any possible risks due to common weaknesses.
Charney’s point is valid, but in the same way that he accused Geer of misapplying the agricultural analogy of how the American South’s cotton economy was devistated by the boll weevil or how the Irish potato farmers reliance on a single crop put their nation at risk. I would like to counter that Charney’s 737 analogy is similarly flawed, and furthermore that a monoculture of political ideology has some of the same risks as the monoculture of theology I described earlier.
(more…)
News: No Booze in Vietnamese Karaoke Bars? February 17, 2006
Posted by TimTheFoolMan in Humor, Morality, Music, Politics, Stupidity, Theater.1 comment so far
The headline got my attention, but the AP story gives even more interesting tidbits in the details:
HANOI, Vietnam – Karaoke bars in Vietnam will no longer be allowed to sell or have alcohol on their premises as part of the country’s continued campaign against so-called ‘social evils,’ a government official said Friday.
…”The decree will definitely help reduce negative activities in karaoke bars and discotheques,” he said.
…authorities have discovered 600 people using the drug ecstasy and 60 women offering striptease dances to customers at karaoke bars and discos over the past nine months.
Perhaps karaoke is more entertaining in Vietnam, but the term “ecstacy” is rarely used in the same sentence with “karaoke” here in the U.S. Between the ‘social evils’ listed, I would be more likely to ban karaoke in bars than to ban alcohol in a karaoke establishment.
On the striptease issue, is this really a problem? Are you likely to hear “Sir, I have never heard someone sing sappy Barry Manilow songs the way you do. May I take off my clothes?”
Perhaps we’ll see a new crop of Nude Karaoke Lounges, where you can karaoke all you want, but you have to do so in the buff. (Unfortunately, the same individuals who are unable to accurately perceive that they should not sing in public probably don’t realize that nobody wants to look at them naked either.) As far as sins go (speaking as a Southern Baptist), I’ve heard some karaoke that may exceed public nudity in terms of offending my sensibilities.
A more serious question is whether or not any of the karaoke singers are dressing up like religious icons? If they do, then they might consider banning cheese danish too.
Irony, at its Best February 16, 2006
Posted by TimTheFoolMan in Computers, Politics.add a comment
As we near the renewing of the USA Patriot Act, it strikes me as more than a bit ironic that the same group is actively interrogating various Internet-related companies such as Google, over alleged Human Rights violations.
I suppose what’s good for the Goose, isn’t good for the Google.
A Fool and his Words are Soon Parted 
