THE FATAL FREEDOM (The Tragedy of the Commons)

THE FATAL FREEDOM (The Tragedy of the Commons): "Coercive force which is centered in the modern state cannot be sustained in the face of the active resistance of some 10 percent of the population unless the state is willing to embark on a deliberate policy of genocide directed against the value dissident groups. The factor that sustained the myth of coercive force in the past was the acceptance of a common value system. Whether the latter exists is questionable in the modern nation-state"

What's truly bad - I sit here reading this horrible text, well backed up with quotations from Locke, Hobbes, Goffman and Dawkins, while I eat cheezy potato chips and drink a cold brewski. I am an American! Pass the dip, please...

PS - don't even go to this website if you're feeling a bit down about things. It is incredibly depressing.

Saturday at the Zoo

Carol, Alec and I decided to take a trip to the zoo this afternoon. Perfect weather and the trees are at the height of their fall colors. I took a few photos and posted them to my photo gallery. Click on the image (below) to see the rest!

Comparison between scp and sftp

The good people have created a comparison between the protocols - including technical details and a comparison grid. Nutshell: SCP is faster, SFTP is more feature rich.

another zit on the arse of the universe from warrenelliscom

shots of a Space Shuttle launch as seen from the International Space Station.

A Picture Share!

Warning Sign Generator

Warning Sign Generator -- Make your own warning signs!

Also, Warning Label Generator -- perfect for sticking to your luggage before handing to the nice TSA people.

Dead links 2015.  Sigh.

Inside the Worst Congress Ever

Rolling Stone : COVER STORY: Time to Go! Inside the Worst Congress Ever: "One could go on and on about the scandals and failures of the past six years; to document them all would take . . . well, it would take more than ninety-three fucking days, that's for sure. But you can boil the whole sordid mess down to a few basic concepts. Sloth. Greed. Abuse of power. Hatred of democracy. Government as a cheap backroom deal, finished in time for thirty-six holes of the world's best golf. And brains too stupid to be ashamed of any of it. If we have learned nothing else in the Bush years, it's that this Congress cannot be reformed. The only way to change it is to get rid of it."

Clean Up PHP Form Input

Clean Up Form Input [php] [forcodegrrl]: "Basic cleanup of user form input."

Sprint / Cableco partners new purchase

Sprint and the cable companies have made a joint venture to do something wierd with wireless and wired communications. So, step one: Spend 2.37 Billion - with a B - to buy up honkin big chunks of new radio spectrum. And, what are they going to do with this?

Comcast Investor Relations: Investor News: "While no plans have as yet been finalized, including no specific plans to build out the networks at this time[...]"

Outch. Very nice. They dropped 2.3 billion and have no idea what they want to do with it.

More detail at the link above, and you can read all about cellular phone radio spectrum and the recent auction at PhoneScoop in their in-depth guide.

21 protests in 5 hours!

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Mark Thomas on demonstrating near the Houses of Parliament: "I really should get a proper job."

Four Days in 30 Seconds

Nathan has set up a web cam for CornerBanks.com pointed at 9th and Main streets in Winfield. He takes an image about every 15 minutes and has combined them into a quicktime timelapse movie.

It's really amazing, watching the traffic and shadows and daylight move across in such a short time.

Check out the video!


(Quicktime, opens in new window, about 10 MB)


More neato-wizardry: Overland Park has put the feeds from their traffic cameras online. You can view it on a map with neat mouse-over images from around town, or as a list - you can also view live video from some of the intersections. 119th and Glenwood is the Sprint Campus entrance / exit.

Kansas City DOT has the "KCScout" traffic cameras on all the busy highways around the area. Note that most of em are the ones by my house. Sigh. Anyway, check the 'camera' box on the left of that page to see the camera locations.

Fun with public surveilance!

HSTA STAR Photos

Finally uploaded the photos from the trip to the HSTA STAR rally in Avon Colorado:



Click the photo for the gallery!

Alec Fall Photos

Alec and I have had a busy month - we went to a birthday party at the end of September:



Then, he made a book to keep his Yu-Gi-Oh cards in:



And went to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival:



Then this weekend we played out at Shawnee Mission Park:



(Click any of the photos to see the Gallery at Mylanders...)

TexSTOC Motorcycle Trip Photos Online

Back from TexSTOC, great ride - 2500 miles, 4 days and a bit. Must see country. To see more of the photos, check out the TexSTOC 2006 Photo Gallery at Mylanders. 42 of the best photos from the trip, even a few of the people!

Baby Panda Sneezes! - Google Video

Baby Panda Sneezes! - Google Video

Response from Dennis Moore

In my previous post, I sent a letter to my congress man, Dennis Moore asking about the defnition of terrorism in HR 6166. I got a reply back - a pre-printed meom with "Here is the material you requested" and a printoff of the Congressional Quarterly fact sheet on the bill. More than likely, all that he knows.

And, no, it never did address the definition of a terrorist, as specified on para 24 of section 950v, HR 6166.

It did mention that hearsay evidence is now allowed in military tribunals, until the defense can prove it's wrong. . .

Y'all best be voting come November, Mmm Kay?