Category: Hmmm

Back on December 3, I placed a “Give One, Get One” order with OLPC. I knew that demand had been high, so I checked in at laptopgiving.org occasionally to see how things were going. Each time I’d enter my email address and confirmation number, and get a message about “sometime in January”. No problem.
Today the message had changed: “Most laptops to US based donors have already shipped.” Puzzled, I tried again — but this time I entered only my confirmation number, with no email address. This took me to a page with a FedEx tracking number; one more click, and I saw that a package with that number had been delivered on December 28 to a residential address in St. Paul, MN.
Needless to say, I do not live in St. Paul, MN.
Sigh…..
UPDATE, Jan.21, 7am EDT: I just received an email from OLPC saying that my “donation was in the queue”, and that I should expect to receive a further email on Wednesday with shipping details.
UPDATE, Jan.24, 6am EDT: From the “further email”:

We are awaiting the arrival of new inventory so that we may ship your laptop to you. We will send you another update in the next few days when we have specific shipping information.

As I was heading out to a New Years party this evening, I checked the time on my iPhone. Here’s what I saw:

(Click to see full-size.)
The local time in Seattle was 8:45 PM on December 31, 2007. In London and Mumbai it was already January 1, 2008… or it should have been!

Shucks. I wish I could be in England in mid-January, so I could attend the first conference being organized by the Center for Inquiry in London. The theme is “Secularism in the Multicultural Society: The Civil Limits of Tolerance.” The roster of speakers is impressive: Paul Kurtz, Julian Baggini, Stephen Law, Polly Toynbee, Nigel Warburton ((Co-host of the excellent Philosophy Bites podcast.)) and others.

Terry poses a rhetorical question that should be repeated.

So, torture mongers and apologists explain that torture (according to the sources they choose to believe) works.
They also say that because it works, and it saves lives, we need to use it.
We are also told that it is only used when the case is so strong that it justifies the moral quandaries of little things like breaking the law and violating the norms of the civilised world and the principles we used to hold countries like the USSR and PRC accountable for, because such things were evil.
It is further explained that because such careful decisions are made those who engage in torture can always depend on the courts to vindicate them. They will just explain that it was needful, they were certain the guy had the info, he gave it up, and lives were saved.
The, inevitable, result, so they say, is the jury will acquit.
Given all of those things; one wonders why the CIA felt it had to destroy the evidence, and commit a completely different crime, not one against people but against the rule of law.

I’ve been reading – and listening to – one of my favourite poems: Robert Hunter‘s “Flight of The Marie Helena”. I got a cassette copy back in 1985, when it first came out, and played it so often that the tape wore out. Fortunately I found an MP3 version a few months ago. ((But if it were re-released, I’d buy a copy in a heartbeat.)) I love the strange and gently surrealistic journey that Hunter invites us on…

The Marie Helena glides upon
the bright white ocean of
our second day.
Everyone aboard her is
a stowaway. There were
no tickets for the passage.

… and the way he returns to the real world:

After a week’s unfolding
many things have changed.
It is time now to
change them back again.
It is still true, in spite of
the flight of the Marie Helena,
still true, that it rarely,
very rarely, rains in dreams.

Mmmm. That was a good way of putting the world on hold for 37:30. Of course, the world may have something to say about that!

Tossing my wristwatch
into the snapping sea,
my timepiece is returned by an
indignant wave, rewound.

Indeed.

Exhibit A:

NEW YORK – Girls swept a prestigious high school science competition for the first time Monday, winning top prizes of $100,000 scholarships for their work on potential tuberculosis cures and bone growth in zebrafish.
It was the first time girls had ever won the grand prizes in both the team and individual divisions of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.

Exhibit B (From Melissa at Shakesville):

Almost exactly one year ago to the day, I wrote about the Discovery Channel Store’s curious gender segregation—and, this morning, I got an email from Shaker Mariah complaining of the same thing. In other words, another year passes, and it’s still Same Shit, Different Day.
[…]
The first five items offered for girls ages 8-12 are:
~ Rainbow In My Room
~ Discovery Sew Fun Sewing Machine
~ Discovery Pink Slide and Text Messengers (“Chat with your friends wirelessly and transmit text messages up to 15′ away.”)
~ Discovery Diamond Dust Microscope
~ Discovery Fashion Design Studio
What a “Fashion Design Studio” has to do with science is something I cannot explain to you.

Click through to see the difference between the boys‘ and girls‘ microscopes.
OK, I know that the Discovery Channel is a symptom, not a cause. For all of their noble rhetoric, they’re just another entertainment company with a retail operation that’s trying to make a buck from cheap Chinese imports with bling. But it’s still frustrating.

From today’s New York Times:

Senator Charles E. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating six prominent evangelistic ministries to determine whether they have illegally used donations to finance opulent lifestyles.

What a suggestion! I’m shocked!!! In other news, the pot and kettle argue about the rights to Black®, and woodland bears discuss their bowel movements.

Ed’s reporting that the Belgian Police have been investigating Scientology since 1997:

Now, 10 years and 76 cartons of documents later, prosecutors say the evidence points to one conclusion: The Church of Scientology in Belgium is a “criminal organization” that has used fraud and extortion to separate members from their money.

But we already knew that, didn’t we?

Boing Boing has just posted a warning for all Mac users:

Malware for OS X is rare, but here’s a new trojan that Mac users should know about:

It’s on porn sites today (surprise, surprise) but it’s likely to pop up elsewhere – YouTube clones, blogspam, etcetera. Be careful.

King Kaufman, Salon’s sports correspondent:

So I was thinking to myself, “What’s the deal with all this schlocky movie music Fox has been using on its postseason broadcasts?” Wednesday when the Fenway Park public address announcer introduced John Williams, the guy who writes all that schlocky movie music. He was there to conduct a subset of the Boston Pops for the national anthem.
The announcer called Williams “the epitome of our culture.”
And that’s when I decided to go live among the howler monkeys.