The Religious Wrong

I'm reading The Republican War on Science© by Chris Mooney.

It talks of the "cynical collusion of special business interests with the anti-intellectualism of the religious right."

"In the White House and the US Congress, research findings are reported in a politicized manner, spun or distorted to fit the speaker's agenda or, when they're too inconvenient, ignored entirely. Federal science agencies are increasingly staffed by political appointees who know industry lobbyists and evangelical activists far better then they know the science."

"This is not purely a Bush administration phenomenon, but it is largely a Republican phenomenon, born of a conservative dislike of environmental, health, and safety regulation, and of evolution and legalized abortion."

"[Ronald] Reagan fail[ed] to acknowledge and speak out about the AIDS epidemic until 1987, at least in part out of deference to religious conservatives in his administration ... who recoiled at the notion of educating children about safe sex and condoms."

More to come ...

By the way, saying that sex education and condoms cause people to have sex is like saying that seat belts cause car accidents.

Say What?

I had a manager who was fond of the phrase "having said that." This always meant that he was about to contradict himself, but it was OK because he had entered a plea of "having said that." Sometimes, for variety I guess, he would say "that being said" or "that having been said."

Another manager liked to say "going forward." I presumed that he was confirming the direction of time's arrow, in case Stephen Hawking hadn't brought enough weight to bear on that subject.

When I programmed for the Sales and Marketing Group at another company, the manager introduced a new project, and told us what had to happen at "end of day." "End of day ?" I thought. "I'm just learning to say 'bottom line!'"

The management at the last place that I worked for used the phrase "push back." I guessed that it was about sexual positions, and decided not to get involved.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my lovely wife's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Ramona!

I love you more than ever!

Had 'nough?

Background:
e-mail, e-commerce, e-talk

Customers are being overwhelmed by a flood of ebusinesses, according to Lou Gerstner, chief executive of IBM.

Gerstner surprised delegates at Telecom 99 by saying that the multitude of ecommerce startups are making ebusiness more confusing for customers, rather than more efficient.

"There are already so many ebusinesses vying for your attention. Etoys, Etrade, Eshoes, Ebay... soon we'll all be crying e-nough," he said.

In 2000, IBM said e-nough.

imac, ipod, iphone

I've had i-nough

Flak Day II

The Los Angeles Dodgers® have agreed to review a stadium policy that bans the waving of national banners after security attempted to confiscate a Canadian® flag from an expat fan during the June 9th game between the Jays® and Dodgers®.

The brouhaha started June 9 when a group of Canadian fans got tossed from a Dodgers game for waving the Maple Leaf® during the California club's game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Dodgers, it seems, have a policy restricting all flags, banners and oversized posters in the stands.

"I think they got slammed," Pembroke's Lee Fraser, the owner of the flag and president of Canadians Abroad®, said of the aftermath of the controversy. The group's website was flooded with traffic and Fraser received hundreds of angry emails after the incident was reported in the Toronto Star®.

A week later, fans waving a Taiwanese® flag got the same 'lose it or leave' treatment from stadium security.

In light of the two incidents, the Dodgers announced yesterday they are rethinking their policy. Said Dodgers PR director Josh Rawitch®: "We are reviewing our policy on permitting flags into the stadium to try and help fans show pride for their home country."

The Dodgers have offered to treat the members of Canadians Abroad who were at the park that night to another game. Once there, they will meet with the Dodgers' Toronto®-born catcher Russell Martin®.

The nearby Oakland A's® have gone a step farther, inviting one of the group's members, Tammy Laverty of Ottawa®, to perform both national anthems at a future game.

Fraser expressed satisfaction at the result and hopes that a review of the ban has resulted in a new set of rules.

"The most important thing is that this bone-headed policy is repealed," he said.

For this, let's applaud the Dodgers brass. Common sense has won out on this day.

While teams must worry about insurance and safety concerns, you can't turn the stands into a library. Imagine trying to pull that move at an English Premier League soccer game?

Attending sporting events in North America is, compared to much of the rest of the world, a safe outing, and letting fans cheer on their countrymen poses no real hazard

You Talkin' to Me?

I was sitting in Winners' today, trying on sneakers. A teenaged girl came into sight on my right side. She was talking - I could hear only one side of a conversation - and there was no cell phone visible.

Ah ha, I thought, I know this one! She's talking into a headset, or a bluetooth, or something. She turned toward me - no headset or blue teeth or anything. Hmmm. Whom could she be speaking to?

Then, a second teenager came around the corner. The first girl was talking to a live person!

What are the odds?

Flak Day

June 14th is Flag Day® - aka National Flag Day - in the United States. Isn't every day Flag Day in the United States?

That's like National Beer Day in Germany ;o)

Except:

During last Saturday night's baseball game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the L.A. Dodgers, at Dodger Stadium®, a security guard attempted to confiscate a Canadian flag from a fan, Lee Fraser, a native of Pembroke, Ontario.

Upon entering the ballpark, he was warned by Dodger security not to wave the flag. He said he was permitted to hold it up during the national anthem.

During the sixth inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases with two out. Toronto pitcher Shaun Marcum got L.A. slugger Luis Gonzalez to pop up to end the inning. Fraser stood up and began waving his flag.

"The security guard ran up and said, `Get that flag down,'" Fraser recalled. "They tried to confiscate my flag."

Flag waving "causes the fans, at times, to become aggressive toward each other." I guess he means American fans. "It's a zero tolerance policy," Dodgers vice-president of stadium operations Lon Rosenberg said, adding that the same rule would apply to the U.S. flag. Banners featuring the L.A. Dodger logo are exempt.

Would this have happened on (National) Flag Day?

Next?

As an avid - that's diva spelled backwards - amateur cryptographer, I've recently written some encryption/decryption programmes in Visual Basic®, using Microsoft's® CryptoAPI®, whose protocols, I think, were originally formulated in the late 90's. As with most cryptographic software of the times, the MS CryptoAPI allowed for weak cryptography. Now, with the release of Windows® Vista®, Microsoft has introduced Cryptography API: Next Generation® (CNG), the replacement for the CryptoAPI.

I look forward to CryptoAPI DS9, strong cryptography for the International Space Station, and CryptoAPI Voyager, strong cryptography for SUV's.

Nice Hair

Now that I'm retired, I've grown my snow-white hair to more or less shoulder-length, and counting.

Today, as I was having my returns checked in by a guy at the library, a young girl from the neighbouring parochial school walked up to the counter, and said to the guy, "Excuse me, can you ... oh, I'm sorry. Are you helping her?" Meaning me.

"Her?" he asked.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't look."

What Ever!

24/7 = 3.4285714285714285714285714285714

I'm really not a fan of clichés and shortcuts. The cool-belonging verbal-laziness of 24/7 and triple w [how hard is it to say 'www'?] makes me want to puke!

So, in that vein, I offer some shortcuts to avoid:

1. 24/6: The orthodox Jewish businessman offers customer support and service 24/6.


2. 24/7: It's not equal to Π - that's approximately 22/7.


3. 24/8: The clichéing of the Beatles' song Eight Days a Week.

For those who keep track, the values are:

1. 4


2. 3.4285714285714285714285714285714


3. 3

Happy Birthday!

Today is my brother's 56th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Love ya.

Season of the Which?

A mere five weeks into baseball, the sports networks are starting to advertise the upcoming football season. To paraphrase Tom Hanks, "There's no football in baseball!"

Books IV

I've just read Thirst by Ken Kalfus, a book of short stories.

It would be lazy to label them 'weird;' rather, they are ... unconventional. They end, and then it's up to the reader to say, "What happened?"

I enjoyed them. They made me think. I'm going to read more of his books.

Make Up Your Minds

Bring in your film and we'll give you digital images on a CD-ROM.

OR

Send us images from your digital camera and we'll print them out for you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch TV and movies on the screen of your mobile phone.

OR

Watch TV and movies on your 50" flat screen plasma TV.

Happy Birthday

Today is my sister's 50th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Joy!

I love you always!

Sub Marine

Recently, my wife and I saw a TV announcement that the movie Das Boot would be shown later this week.

"Oh," she said, "that's the film with the theme song 'Ve all live on a Cherman submarine, a Cherman submarine, a Cherman submarine ... '"

Important Books III

Everyone should read this book by Chris Hedges:

Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America

Pack Up All Your Cares and Woe, Yo, Yo, Yo

Several years ago, I was on the Subway, and observed an [East] Indian lady talking to a Canadian lady. The Indian lady was punctuating her conversation with Eh wherever she could, obviously to fit in with her, I'm guessing, less articulate Canadian colleague. After a while, she stopped doing it, because she couldn't keep up the charade.

I saw a white teenager on the bus yesterday, sprawled on a seat, feet on his skateboard, talking on his cellphone, punctuating his conversation with Yo, without any of the Indian lady's hesitation or discomfort. I thought that maybe Yo had replaced like in his limited vocabulary, but he used both words.

There is a genuine Black culture in North America, but I've rarely been exposed to it, instead to the manufactured hip hop subculture. This would seem to be what this guy was imitating or assimilating. Why?

Many people of his generation are emulating the cool, successful, sexy images of black rappers, rapperesses, musicians, athletes, and other non-typical, one-in-a-million black people - a similar percentage to those people of other races, as far as I know - without questioning the images presented to them by the media. They do both themselves and the black community a disservice by this servile imitation.

Recently, I watched a black author being interviewed on TV. He had written a book, the title of which escapes me, bemoaning the fact that the high salaries and public success of black athletes was detrimental to the black struggle for equality. He suggested that black people look at the examples of these athletes, and conclude that black equality has arrived, that the struggle for equality is over, and that there's nothing left to fight for. Obviously, this is not the case - as Chris Rock said, "Shaq is rich, but the man who signs his cheques is wealthy!"

Watching him reminded me of a late 60's University of Toronto Psych. class, where the professor told us about a book, listing American Jewish professionals, and other successful Jewish people. He informed us that the book had been published not by the B'nai Brith as a celebration of Jewish success, but by the Klan as a warning that "the Jews are taking over America!"

Baseball

The Blue Jays won their season opener in Detroit last night, by a score of 5 - 3. Today is a day off.

Do you know the difference between American government® and baseball? In baseball, a W is a good thing.

Piano Man?

My wife and I were sitting in the living room - she was knitting, and I was weaving.

"Would you ever want to learn to knit?" she asked.

"No, just weave," I answered.

"Well," she said, "you could learn both. One day, I'm going to learn to spin, and to dye yarn."

I replied, "Only the good dye yarn."