Why is it that OS X seems to accept a right-click as a second left-click if done quickly? In iPhoto, if I left click an image to select it and then immediatly right-click on it (with my two-button mouse), it brings up the large view of the image as if I double left-clicked on it? I have to pause a full 1 to 2 seconds after left clicking before I’m allowed to right-click.
For me, more then anything else, this list makes me think the country is going to hell:
Google News – Top Searches in 2005 1. Janet Jackson 2. Hurricane Katrina 3. tsunami 4. xbox 360 5. Brad Pitt 6. Michael Jackson 7. American Idol 8. Britney Spears 9. Angelina Jolie 10. Harry Potter
The fact that Janet Jackson (Miss Jackson if your nasty) is at the top of the list gives me hope. It could have been Britney. Taken from the Google Zeigeist.
The President has unfettered power to do what ever he deems is necessary. At least, during wartime. This is logic that the President is using to justify wiretapping American’s regardless of the law. My problem with this is when the President declares an unending war on a concept, e.g. Terrorism. How do you define a victory in the War on Terrorism? Is it when the last terrorist is dead? It’s like Bush Senior’s War on Drugs. It’s a war on a concept, not a nation, not a leader. It’s taking on "Evil" and saying once we eliminate evil, we will no longer be at war. It won’t end because the concept, regardless of how many terrorists or drug dealers or "evil" people you kill, there will always be the concept.
Bruce Schneier talks a bit more on why unfettered power in executive office is bad.
Ah, marriage, an act that many would continue to limit between a man and a woman. Unless you are in Georgia, in which case it can be between a boy and a girl, if the girl is pregnant. Heck, in Georgia it can be between a boy and a woman. In Kansas a man can marry a girl. The important thing is that as long as the two people are not the same sex, they can be married. Unless they are of two genetic males and one has androgen insensitivity syndrome, in which case one of them looks like a female. That’s okay, but only if it hasn’t been caught at a young age and corrected. And don’t let that be an excuse to people who dress like women, or you know, have an operation. That’s still not the same. As for those people who have both sexes, they don’t exist! And if they do, well, they just don’t and leave me alone!
Does anyone else think the marriage prohibitions between adults in the U.S. are a joke?
Read the following excerpt from this New York Times Article:
In a major defeat for law enforcement officials, a jury in Florida failed to return guilty verdicts Tuesday on any of 51 criminal counts against a former Florida professor and three co-defendants accused of operating a North American front for Palestinian terrorists.
One of the things that bothers me about the media is the bias wording can deliver. The above statement is correct. Sami al-Arian was found not guilty of 8 of the 13 charges that were brought against him (the remaining 5 were deadlock), but the article reads as if his not guilty was the failure of the jury to return a guilty verdict. The wording is subtle, but dangerous. The article could have lead with:
Law enforcement officials were disappointed today when a jury in Florida found a former professor and three co-defendants not guilty on any of 51 criminal counts brought against them by the government. The four defendants were accused of operating a North American front for Palestinian terrorists.
Both headers convey the same information, but the former implies guilt, while the latter attempts relay information in an unbiased manner. Unfortunately wording is as critical to opinion formation as the text itself.
Now that’s just rude. She may not be bright, but don’t call her a dummy. Oh, wait, they mean as in mannequin. That’s just wrong. And painful. But I don’t think the guy needs to be registered as a sex offender. He didn’t harm anyone (except himself) and registering him as an offender stigmatized him as a threat to society and what may have been a stupid incident becomes a life changing event. The punishment may, in the end, be worse for society because of the detrimental effects being labeled "Sex Offender" might cause on this guy.
"My friends, each of you is a single cell in the great body of the State. And today, that great body has purged itself of parasites. We have triumphed over the unprincipled dissemination of facts. The thugs and wreckers have been cast out. And the poisonous weeds of disinformation have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Let each and every cell rejoice! For today we celebrate the first, glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directive! We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thought is a more powerful weapon than any fleet or army on Earth! We are one people. With one will. One resolve. One cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death. And we will bury them with their own confusion! We shall prevail!"
- 1984
Happy Birthday. Probably make good soup.
Spammers use nonsense wording to get around spam filters. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to me. Got this email today:
Hello,
Q
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uit overpay
or your Meddicat
sit our Pha
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V X C A P V
I a I m r A
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69,95 99,95 85,45
I think it’s for medications. Silly rabbit.
When I was a kid, I got a book on mysteries of the sea (the Bermuda Triangle, Flying Dutchman, etc.). The only real story that stuck out to me was the Mystery of Oak Island. Located in Nova Scotia, this tiny island has what is called euphemistically a money pit. In this pit is supposed to be a treasure of unimaginable value, but at the price. People have died trying to find it. As a kid it had all the elements of a good adventure story: an island in a remote location, pirates with buried treasure, and traps to catch the unwary. It was a perfect tale.
Over the years, I have read more about the island, finding out the stories of those who attempted to reveal it’s treasures. Franklin Roosevelt, 32nd President of the U.S.A., was involved in a 1909 expedition to uncover any treasure. He also failed. Since then there have been numerous attempts to find the treasure, none succeeded.
So, image my delight when I found out that the island is up for sale. The idea of dropping a cool eight million and owning the island of my childhood is too tantalizing to pass up. Except for the eight million part. Ah well, probably better that I never actually look for the treasure. Childhood fantasies are so much more exciting then reality.