11 Oct 2005
In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated “covert propaganda” in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.
What next? Buying of News by Bush’s Aides Is Ruled Illegal – New York Times In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated “covert propaganda” in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.
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09 Oct 2005
I’m not a big fan of legislation of any kind but this one is a doozy. Apparently a new energy bill passed by Congress will also add 4 weeks to Daylight Savings Time. This should not be a big deal
Still, no one in the industry is expecting Y2K-bug-like chaos and expense. Representatives from research firms Gartner and Forrester Research said none of their analysts are studying the impact of a DST schedule change, while several major vendors says the effects would be slight. “We view the proposed change in DST as minor,” says Computer Associates spokesman Bob Gordon. “Most of our products rely on the operating system DST determination. When the operating systems are updated to recognize the new dates, most of our products would automatically use the updated information.”For savvy developers, the looming DST change could even present a business opportunity. A discussion on technology news site Slashdot about DST effects drew hundreds of comments, including one from a consultant who, having missed the Y2K gravy boat, was determined to snag a piece of the DST market. “You might say there is nothing to really worry about here, but all the more reason to sell yourself to clients,” the poster wrote. “If there is no real threat, there is no danger you will fail.”Time change poses no Y2K replay by Stacy Cowley and Idg News Service, Network World, 08/01/05
but may produce some interesting ‘inconveniences’ and/or perks.Mike DeMaria of Network Computing, says that we may have to ‘set the clock manually, just like [we] did in the 1970s’, and Anick Jesdanun says “Cell phone companies could give you an extra hour of free weekend calls, and people who depend on online calendars may find themselves late for appointments.”Of course, many people have expressed an opinion on the matter,
Frankly, I wish they’d just cancel Standard Time and switch to Daylight Savings Time year round. I always prefer more light late in the evening to less light. Any economic or other social benefit that would also occur is just gravy. More Daylight Savings Time by James Joyner
That’s right, the companies that already are making billions of dollars in profits on rising energy costs are being given a $10 billion “bonus” by the government. And, the taxpayer, who is paying through the nose for gasoline and energy costs, gets more time to garden.Kukla: National energy bill will make us all feel ‘sunnier’ by Myron Kukla
but my favorite idea was posted by Mitch Tulloch
But instead of passing legislation to extend daylight savings time, why not legislate something really useful instead? Like making pi exactly equal to 3.14? link
Finally, here are two interesting points from More Daylight Savings: Energy Boon or Scheduling Snafu? by Brian Handwerk.
“In addition to the benefits of energy saving, less crime, fewer traffic fatalities, more recreation time and increased economic activity, day light saving just brings a smile to everybody’s faces,” Congressman Markey said in a press statement.
Some of the bill’s boosters cite U.S. Department of Transportation studies from the 1970s.
The 1970s ??
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09 Oct 2005
I’m clearing out some old drafts on my blog and I noticed that my links are ‘goofy’ again.Looks like somebody forgot to escape his amperstands!
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09 Oct 2005
I am very tired of the evolution/creation debate for a lot of reasons, but here is quick glimpse at my real problem. This post was written in reaction to this post. I have read both of these posts and I cannot help think that the authors actually agree. You should read both posts and see for yourself, but the following quotes illustrate what I mean.
“Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense — an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection — is not. Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science.”Finding Design in Nature by Christoph Schonborn July 7, 2005
“The theory of evolution can be disturbing to Christians because it seems to clash with the idea of divine creation,” said Nicola Cabibbo, president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a 78-member body of academics who advise the pope on scientific matters. Cabibbo is a professor of particle physics at Rome’s La Sapienza University.”However, this clash is false. What clashes with divine creation is an extension of the theory of evolution into materialistic interpretations, so-called ‘evolutionism,’ ” Cabbibo told NCR July 18. “That’s not science, it’s metaphysics.”Catholic experts urge caution in evolution debate by John L. Allen Jr.
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09 Oct 2005
Jay at Stop the ACLU reads this:
About 20 gay inmates were forced to remove their clothes in a busy hallway July 19 at the Men’s Central Jail while being called names and taunted with vulgar sexual language by some deputies, the ACLU said in a letter to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, citing inmates’ claims.
at The Java Report and says this in response:
Didn’t I just have someone in the comment section saying that ALL speech should be protected no matter how much you dislike it? Something about a slippery slope, I think.
He goes on to explain that he does not condone what was done, BUT blah blah…I just wanted to put in my two cents – calling gay inmates names should be protected by the First Amendment. Forcing them to remove their clothes in a public place (or any place, in fact) should not be protected. Any questions?
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08 Oct 2005
As many of you know, September is a busy month for me, but I’m back. I have some old drafts to clear out.
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08 Oct 2005
Late in July, I caught this post at Christian Conservative. My first reaction was anger. I thought it was inappropriate and very much out of context. My plan was to re-read and thoughfully mark it up with comments, but when I returned to it I was upset once again. Now that I return to my blog after a brief vacation, I would like to get this finished. Problem is – I no longer feel like expending the effort. I read through it again, but all I have to say is the obvious. President Truman’s comments were not in reference to our current war and I find it disrespectful to presume what Truman would say about this ‘war.’ One of the comments to this post is worth quoting too:
For now, I’ll just point out that Harry Truman was the originator of the phrase “The Buck stops here.”So there’s no way I see him allowing people as genuinely and arrogantly incompetent as Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al, bungle something as important as managing a conquered country.– jim b
BTW, does anyone else think that asking if Truman would approve of dropping bombs is begging the question.
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11 Aug 2005
I’ve always been a supporter of the electoral college. Probably because I understand the founders’ intent. Maybe it, like other good ideas, is no longer a useful thing. Perhaps it does more damage than good. For 16 of the 21 years I’ve been voting age, I’ve lived in states where I felt as though my vote would not count one bit. That’s not right, is it? This is one of those topics I would love to post more about, but probably won’t. Chris Bowers and Ruy Teixeira provide some good analysis of a study on the subject. See also Chris’ interesting partisan index chart.
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11 Aug 2005
My son tied for 2nd place on the verbal section of the test given by Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.News in pdf or check Google’s HTML version. Good work Billy!
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10 Aug 2005
President Bush has been in the news lately for making these comments about the teaching of intelligent design in public school:
I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought, and I’m not suggesting — you’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes.
transcript
Of course people are talking, but what are they saying?
William A. Dembski thinks the president should be commended for his courage, wisdom and foresight. I disagree, but Mr. Dembski does point out an important distinction between
intelligent design and creationism.</p>
…intelligent design should be understood as the evidence that God has placed in nature to show that the physical world is the product of intelligence and not simply the result of mindless material forces. This evidence is available to all apart from the special revelation of God in salvation history as recounted in Scripture.
Creationism, by contrast, takes a particular interpretation of Genesis (namely, it interprets the days of creation as six consecutive twenty-four-hour days occurring roughly 6,000 years ago) and then tries to harmonize science with this interpretation.
Why President Bush Got It Right about Intelligent Design
Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called Bush’s comments “irresponsible.” He said the president, by suggesting that students hear two viewpoints,
“doesn’t understand that one is a religious viewpoint and one is a scientific viewpoint.” Lynn said Bush showed a “low level of understanding of science,” adding that he worries that Bush’s comments could be followed by a directive to the Justice Department to support legal efforts to change curricula.
Bush Remarks On ‘Intelligent Design’ Theory Fuel Debate
Woah, settle down! A directive to the Justice Departmennt? Don Singleton’s thoughts, while not directed at Mr. Lynn, would be an appropriate response to this kind of alarmist reaction.
… and remember, this is not a New Initiative the White House decided to lauch, he was just answering a reporters question. And I guess the press stupidly hoped he would say something they could use against those who want Intelligent Design taught.
Designing an Intelligent Debate
Charles Krauthammer had this to say about President Bush’s comments:</p>
To teach faith as science is to undermine the very idea of science, which is the acquisition of new knowledge through hypothesis, experimentation and evidence. To teach it as science is to encourage the supercilious caricature of America as a nation in the thrall of religious authority. To teach it as science is to discredit the welcome recent advances in permitting the public expression of religion. Faith can and should be proclaimed from every mountaintop and city square. But it has no place in science class. To impose it on the teaching of evolution is not just to invite ridicule but to earn it.
Let’s Have No More Monkey Trials
Very well said Mr. Krauthammer (as usual), I could not agree more. I’m a bit confused, though. Does President Bush support the teaching of intelligent design as a scientific theory? I’m not sure his response indicates that.
And Albert Mohler had this to say about Krauthammer’s comments:</p>
Strangely, Krauthammer seems to believe that ‘science’ is independent of any prior worldview. This usually clear-headed columnist needs to think this issue through again. Every worldview includes a religious element — faith in some reality, idea, or deity. The naturalistic or materialistic worldview is just as religious as Christianity. There is no way to separate science from the larger worldview or from prior intellectual commitments.
Intelligent Design in the News Again
I’m confused again. Science is independent of a prior worldview. I concede that there are people whose worldview is based on materialism or naturalism, but this is not the same as saying that ‘science’ is a worldview. Science is a method of learning based on the scientific method. People of all worldviews may participate in this pursuit. Certainly a persons worldview may taint the quality of a hypothesis, but the beauty of the scientific method is that this hypothesis will be tested!
Ron Hutcheson adds this:
The claim that equity demands balanced treatment of evolutionary theory and special creation in science classrooms reflects a misunderstanding of what science is and how it is conducted,” the academy said in a 1999 assessment. “Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science.
Bush Endorses Teaching ‘Intelligent Design’ Theory in Schools
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see how everyone is making the jump to teaching these things in the science classroom. If President Bush is referring to teaching these concepts in a science classroom, then I agree with this and some of the other comments here, but I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt.
The NSTA issued this statement:
The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the world’s largest organization of science educators, is stunned and disappointed that President Bush is endorsing the teaching of intelligent design – effectively opening the door for nonscientific ideas to be taught in the nation’s K-12 science classrooms.
“We stand with the nation’s leading scientific organizations and scientists, including Dr. John Marburger, the president’s top science advisor, in stating that intelligent design is not science. Intelligent design has no place in the science classroom,” said Gerry Wheeler, NSTA Executive Director.
On Monday, Knight Ridder news service reported that the President favors the teaching of intelligent design “so people can understand what the debate is about.”
“It is simply not fair to present pseudoscience to students in the science classroom,” said NSTA President Mike Padilla. “Nonscientific viewpoints have little value in increasing students’ knowledge of the natural world.”
NSTA strongly supports the premise that evolution is a major unifying concept in science and should be included in the K-12 education frameworks and curricula. This position is consistent with that of the National Academies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and many other scientific and educational organizations.
NSTA is “stunned and disappointed”
Intelligent design is not science. Agreed, but again this statement is addressing the ‘science classroom.’ Is there a place for this discussion in other classes?
An open letter to President Bush by Prof. Robert P. Kirshner:
As President of the American Astronomical Society, I was very disappointed by the comments attributed to you in an article inthe August 2nd, 2005 Washington Post regarding intelligent design. While we agree that “part of education is to exposepeople to different schools of thought”, intelligent design has neither scientific evidence to support it nor an educational basis for teaching it as science. Your science adviser, John H Marburger III correctly commented that “intelligent design is not a scientific concept.”
Open Letter to President Bush
Okay, so we are all in agreement. Maybe it should be presented, but not in a science class. Sounds good to me.
If some public school teachers are using evolution as a vehicle for atheist propaganda, that’s outrageous, and a proper matter for school boards to deal with. If schools want to offer classes on religion and philosophy that explain religious views of the origins of life, fine. But to make science classrooms a platform for a pseudoscience whose sole intent is to counter ”godless” natural selection is a travesty of both science and faith. And this effort may well alienate many scientifically literate people from the Republican Party and conservatism, making the caricature of evolution as left-wing dogma a self-fulfilling prophecy.
God vs. Darwin: no contest
Right! It’s not science, but schools certainly have a right to offer opposing viewpoints. Couldn’t have said it better myself! 
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More …
Don Singleton adds this:
One could also teach Evolution from an Intelligent Design perspective, acknowledging the fact that a Supreme Being was involved, but that adaptation and evolution were tools He used.
Designing an Intelligent Debate
Of course one could. Perhaps this is why the NABT no longer uses the word ‘unguided’ in its description of evolution:
The diversity of life on earth is the outcome of biological evolutionâ€â€Âan unpredictable and natural process of descent with modification that is affected by natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, migration and other natural biological and geological forces.
NABT’s Statement on Teaching Evolution
An editorial from the LA Times reminds us that President Bush is not the only person to think this way:
Bush is far from alone. In 1999, soon after Bush said “both [creationism and evolution] ought to be taught,” Vice President Al Gore said through a spokesman that schools should teach evolution but local boards “should be free to teach creationism as well.” Gore backtracked, but he deserved all the scorn aimed his way by scientists and teachers.
Faith vs. evidence
“Interesting” Comments
orangeclouds115 at livejournal explains intelligent design:
… the dominant current challenger to evolution in education is intelligent design, which asserts that there is a scientific argument that some complexities of nature, unexplained by Darwin’s theory, cannot be the result of random mutation, but must be the work of an unnamed intelligence. Some critics call it “creationism lite.”
Dinosaur Museum Shows Dinos Sharing Eden With Adam and Eve
Creationism Lite. I love it!
A cynical writer states:
The sole purpose of “Intelligent Design” is to make creationism look like a scientifically credible theory, so that it can be perpetuated in public schools, among other places. Intelligent Design, however, is not supported by scientific evidence, and is invalid as a scientific theory.
The Pseudoscience of Intelligent Design (Op-Ed)
Another good one:
I believe we should base all our conclusions on solid logic, which the opponents to God and “Intelligent Design” falsely claim to do; they usually do not have the faintest idea of what they are talking about, and have not studied anything, but simply want to fight and oppose. You can figure where that draws its power and origin from . the Opposer/Satan.
blitzer from 100777.com
Well, where do I begin? Evolutionists “usually do not have the faintest idea,” they “have not studied anything,” yet they claim to base all their conclusions on logic. We “should base all our conclusions on solid logic?” No, we shouldn’t, and as far as I can tell there is no evidence for stating that most “opposers to God” claim to do that. Science and logic are no the same thing!
More Posts You Should Read
What is ID?
Source
This is where I intended to give credit to the Boston Globe for bringing this news to my attention. Unfortunately, they require you register to read the story. I will link to it anyway, but I wouldn’t register. I’m sure you can find the story referenced elswhere.
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07 Aug 2005
Some time ago Billy and I tried to watch all three LOTR extended editions in one sitting. If you caught my post last time you'll remember that a carpet cleaning interrupted us. We are starting again. About 2 p.m. ET.I'll let you know if we make it.
See more progress on: spend an entire day watching the extended version of all three Lord of the Rings movies back-to-back-to-back
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31 Jul 2005
I haven’t posted too many links the last couple days. I have a bunch of guitar links to post – like I said before, my links come in waves, but I’m not sure I want to post them all. Some of them generate popups. I have nothing against the responsible use of popups, mind you. Some sites rely on them for revenue. I used them myself on the first two web projects I created (here and here – Both are under different management now.), but I don’t like the way some publishers use them.
Anyway, I did a search for guitar tablature and starting opening up results in tabs.1. As I clicked through the tabs it was clear that some sites were using popups onLoad and/or onExit. The interesting thing is that I couldn’t tell which sites. When I clicked one tab I would see another tab open with an ad, but I wasn’t sure if the ad was triggered by the site I was leaving or the one I was entering. It was an interesting (and somewhat annoying) experience. I don’t see a lot of popups partly because I use FireFox, and partly because I don’t normally visit the kinds of sites that typically use them. I began to wonder if I wanted to link to these sites at all.So where do I draw the line? On the one hand, I don’t put much effort into ‘reviewing’ sites before I post. My linkblog is not intended to be a set of recommendations. Normally I find a site I think someone may find a site interesting and I just click a toolbar button and tag it in del.icio.us. Don’t think too much about it. I click, pick a tag I think someone may use to search and I’m done. If I want to Furl the site for my benefit, I also attach the 2furl tag.On the other hand, I want the visitors to not hate the experience when they follow a link from my site. Will my readers hold a grudge for my behavior in this regard?I guess if I have a few extra minutes tomorrow I’ll load the pages one at a time and see which ones are the offenders.
FireFoxFireFox is the world’s best browser and is available for linux, windows and mac. It is highly customizable, has built-in RSS support, tabbed browsing and stops many of the popups (but not all obviously) you are destined to endure with inferior browsers.
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28 Jul 2005
The Entrepreneurial Mind: Washington is Paying Attention to Entrepreneurship
All real entrepreneurs need to create businesses and jobs (as we know from almost all of the research on this topic) is less government involvement and a fairer and simpler tax system.
Less government, fair taxes – or no taxes This is really what everyone needs, right?
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23 Jul 2005
I’ve been using Furl and del.icio.us for some time now. I use them in combination much like recommended by Amy Gahran and Saurier Duval. I used de.lirio.us instead of del.icio.us at first, but have moved to del.icio.us. It’s been more reliable and I like the to be able to grab my links via the api. I post them to my link blog using a daily cron job.
About a month ago, I ran into this post by Michael Wexler 4/28/2004 (who hates tags) comparing some other services. I decided to search for more info and see if I had missed a better site. I found a good list by Clay Shirky, and a great set of reviews by Kossatsch (version 2, version 3, and pdf chart). I’ve played with most of these sites over the last month and I’ve decided to stick with the system I’ve been using.
I’ve had fun though, and did some interesting reading about tags, tag literacy, folksonomies and controlled vocabularies.
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21 Jul 2005
I mentioned earlier that I have been working on my linkblog. Here is a quick update on the goings on. First, I am grabbing my links from del.icio.us and posting them into a database for my WordPress powered linkblog. As I play with this, you may see links that don’t make sense, links that disappear and re-appear, etc. If you subscribe via RSS, you may see an ocassional refresh. I apologize for this. I will get it the way I want it soon. Second, my links come in topical waves. It just so happens that I pointed out my new linkblog to the world and then I started on a project that caused my linkblog to look like the ravings on an mlm junkie. I’m not. A wave more interesting to you may be coming soon. Thanks for listening.
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19 Jul 2005
I know I’ve raved about TiVO before but I thought I would take this opportunity to review it after some real use. We’ve had ours for about 14 months now and we all love it. It cannot be overstated how different TV viewing is now. We don’t know what we’d do without it. In the first place, we never pay any attention to when a show is on. Day, time, doesn’t matter. TiVO gets it for us and we watch it when we want. This was the driving reason behind our decision to get it. We have always liked to follow certain shows. We’ve had people snicker at us in the past when we’ve ‘admitted’ this, but to me our viewing habits have always been normal behavior. Many of the same people who snicker will plop in front of the tube and watch whatever is on. We have never done that. Nothing on? TV off. Now before you think I am talking about ‘worthwhile’ TV, let me set you straight. I am not trying to claim that I watch ‘good TV.’ I watch junk just like most people. I just like to select my junk. In the past we would have to think about what we might miss and/or tape to see later. No more!
My second favorite feature is more of a surprise to me. Rewind. This is awesome! We knew we’d like the pause and fast-forward, but rewind is much better. Sometimes I reach to rewind TV when I am watching at someone else’s house. I knew I was really hooked when I went to see Star Wars – Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. I wanted to see a good part again and I actually thought I could reach for the remote. I’m tellin’ ya, I am hooked. There are some things I would change if I could, and I’ll probably write about those later. It is still the best way to watch TV – no question. You gotta get one!
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17 Jul 2005
I just took this little survey. I’ll be interested to see the results compiled. 
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14 Jul 2005
A while back I toyed with de.lirio.us for my link blog. I pulled the feed and transformed it into html. I used the html from my blog so it would have the same look. I was becoming less satisfied with de.lirio.us and started itching to use del.icio.us instead. I thought I could pull the feed and post each item to a real wordpress blog by dropping the data into the database. My solution is not pretty, but it works. I run a cron job daily to do the ‘pull and post.’I like it. I’ve poste the code in case you’re interested.
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14 Jul 2005
Well, it’s been a while since my last post. I was planning on posting about some of my previous work, and I got distracted fooling with my link blog. Then I wanted to post all about that and Google announced its API for the maps. How cool is this?!!So, I have been busy (obsessed) with doin’ the Google maps thing. Loads of fun! Some quick updates:
Mom is all moved in to her new place. Billy did get a chance to visit Famous Daves (Terri and Becky did too) Billy was accepted to the People to People program. Becky graduated from Kindergarten. Billy graduated from 6th grade. He won several academic awards and the PTF award.
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14 Jul 2005
Tell me this is not cool! The night it was announced my son and I began brainstorming what we should try. We came up with about two dozen ideas and decided I should try about 8 of them. Here are two maps I threw together as a learning experience. They are not finished yet, but it shouldn’t take much more
UPDATE: I forgot to post the links to the maps.
This one actually works. It may not work well, but you can actually do searches. I have to click on one of the panel items to make the map show, but I am looking into that. This one is a mock up of the next one I’d like to finish. It doesn’t work yet. I plan to pull all the data and store in on my server.
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