Odds and ends, evens and starts

[pyesetz]

I have a text file where I dump items that might make for a good journal post.  Some of this stuff has been sitting in the file for months!  So today I'm cleaning out the file and declaring that none of this will ever make for a good post.  Therefore, this post is hereby declared a *bad* post.  Nothing to see here, move along.

I. Simple Plan — Untitled

A lovely if downbeat Canadian song I heard on my local JACK-format radio station.  Simple Plan's website offers a download of the award-winning music video in QuickTime and WindowsMedia formats (not Linux-compatible) and also RealPlayer (compatible but I didn't have the player installed).  Here is a copy transcoded to Macromedia Flash format.  How nice that such a transcoding service exists!


II.  Minimum quality level for "art"?

Former Congressman James Traficant (D, OH) is in jail serving time for accepting bribes.  He drew pictures of horses and such, which were sold online.  The government was embarrassed by the prices his pictures were fetching, so they prohibited him from drawing any more.  This pundit (who probably couldn't draw a "HELP!" sign to save his life) claims that Traficant's work isn't good enough to be called "art".  I think it's better than some of the furry drawings I've come across online.


III.  What Science doesn't know

Here is Science Magazine's article on 125 open questions in science.  I don't know why I saved this link.  Perhaps it was because of the question "Do Deeper Principles Underlie Quantum Uncertainty and Nonlocality?"  I'm with Einstein on this one: quantum mechanics is wrong and will eventually be replaced by something even more inexplicable.


IV.  A computing Niemöller-ism

Saved this from a comment by huskyteer:

• First they came for the hackers. But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn't speak up.
• Then they came for the pornographers. But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn't speak up.
• Then they came for the anonymous remailers. But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn't speak up.
• Then they came for the encryption users. But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway, so I didn't speak up.
• Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

V.  Quiz-memes

My stupidity level = NEXT EINSTEIN.
Moral Minority = MOBOT.
Inner Demon = RAVEN.
D&D class = BARD.

The Stupid Quiz said I am "our next Einstein!" How stupid are you? Click here to find out!


Which Moral Minority persona are you?


RAVEN - Your daemon may be a member of the crow family. You are intelligent, observant, and gregarious. Just as a crow or raven picks shiny objects out of the dirt, you pick up tidbits of information or ideas and store them away. You have a good sense of humour, but sometimes lose patience with people who are antipathic to your nature. You are swift to alert others when you find the truth, and you have no tolerance for those who would hide it.

What Is Your Daemon?
brought to you by Quizilla

Bard You scored 82 Holy, 87 Tactful, 72 Natural, and 60 Arcane!

Well hellooooo Mr. Fancy-Pants. Aren't you just something special? You can do everything to an extent, but nothing really well. You can pull off a spell or two, fend off a warrior in a fight for a minute or two, and you've been known to pick a lock or two, but chances are someone in your party can do these things better. You have one of two options... go it alone or in a small group and fill all the niches that are uncovered, or join up with a really huge group. You are the best of all worlds when it comes to leadership... you've got perspective on every person's strengths and weaknesses, you are a master at planning and cunning, you are in tune with the natural world, and you may have your God, but the last thing you want to do is impose it upon everyone else. Lastly, you can really whip a crowd up into a fenzy when you're wailing on your guitar. The trade off for being so cool is that you get beat up... a lot. And I mean this both in elementary school, middle school, and high school if you made it that far, as well as the rest of your life. Okay, well, maybe not, but bards do, so don't get caught in one of them trans-dimensional vortexs if you don't want a good drubbing now and again.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 94% on Godliness You scored higher than 99% on Tact You scored higher than 35% on Harmony You scored higher than 88% on Arcane

Link: The Which D & D Class am I Test written by effataigus on Ok Cupid