Jon's Notes
| Manufacturer | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Foreign | Domestic | ||
| Candidate | Bush | 2 | 15 |
| Kerry | 7 | 8 | |
Work in Madison was also successful, despite an unnatural number of equipment failures. At the left you can see a picture of the network section of the wiring closet. The ethernet switch is a new one that we had to run out and buy to replace a switch that suddenly died. I reorganized the network shelf while we were replacing the network switch. The photo is of the shelf after reogranizeation. I am quite happy with how the cleanup turned out.
Look at how a country treats the thinkers and whiners to see where it's heart lies.
Scientists are afraid of publishing. Whiners are being locked up. I'm not sure which bothers me more, that these events are taking place, or that they are not being reported on by the media. The same media that presents a skewed view of everything it covers. Take under-reporting of Israeli civilian casualties or of successes in Iraq for an example. Or even closer to me, geographically, the suffocation death of a local troublemaker. It seemed to me that the media avoided the case until a inquest found the death to be accidental.
2004-06-26 19:22
So, here I am. Sitting outside in a shady cove surrounded by brick and glass.
The builders of this school left several areas with grass and trees. These areas provide sheltered quiet from all the activity at this facility, where a few thousand normally live and work. I wonder what will become of this place in a few hundred years. An aphid and a fly are sitting on my knee right now, separated by a fold of cloth. It has been ages since I rested outside. One could argue that I'm not resting since I am writing this note. Ahh, my notebook, back from the factory after only a week. Granted, it has been effectively gone since Christmas. You see, it suffered from a design flaw and was abandoned without hope until the manufacturer relented by agreeing to fix the defect without cost. I suspect that some of my coworkers are enjoying a fantasy role-playing game in a nearby building. I think I see one of their vehicles in a nearby parking lot. I think that I’ll go take a look, especially since the mosquitos seem to have found my resting place.
2004-06-26 19:39
I’ve found a new resting place. The back soccer field. It will remain unused until this fall when the soccer team arrives with the rest of the students. A bird is calling from somewhere in the sky. A sparrow skimmed over the grass a mere 15 feet away. The quiet is broken by a train horn, sirens, and the constant drone of the highway. A red ladybug now rests on my left knee. It is bright red, like the stereotypical ladybug, not faded orange like the ladybugs back home. A nice stead of trees is off to my left, just past the other end of this soccer field. The buildings of school are to my right. Lake michigan is behind me. The highway is in front of me, just past some trees and the football field. I never realized how pleasant it is to sit outside in the grass. I was content to rot in my little room. The stimulation to my senses is wondrous, not overbearing and forced like “modern” environments. A gentle breeze twitches the grass. Bugs annoy my skin. The grass smells fresh, so unlike the antiseptic smell of institutional buildings. There are a few fluffy clouds in the sky, artwork on a pale blue sky. I could have my computer play music, but somehow that doesn't feel right. The music of birds calling is music enough.
2004-06-27 08:49
The fire alarm went off again. Supposedly it goes off because of the humidity.
I need a shower. Heh, a whole six people out here after the fire alarm, and me the only guy. I guess I am unusually risk averse.
The safety person just arrived. It should not take her long to reset the fire alarm. Okay, the fire alarm is now quiet.
My dorm, Augsberg, is separated gender/floor. Male downstairs and Female upstairs. One of the upstairs RAs turns towards me before everyone went back inside. She asked if the fire alarm went off downstairs as well. Yes, I replied. She asked a rhetorical question about only one person from downstairs listening to the fire alarm, muttered something, and went inside. The way I see it, fire drills are announced way ahead of time. Fires are not. I assume that an unannounced sounding of the fire alarm indicates a fire. After all, it is better to wander outside in fresh air for a few minutes than to stay inside and possibly fry.
2004-06-27 20:00
I write this while sitting in what some local residents call “The Jungle.” The jungle is a terraced area with several potted plants, some real and some not. The jungle takes up one side of a intersection of corridors. It marks the junction point of the building where the ordained faculty work. It is just rained and is still quite wet outside, which it why I’m indoors today. I was heading back to my room, but I felt the devil calling me to my room so I stopped in this garden. The security guy is making his rounds. Now he is making sure that the doors to the faculty offices are locked. How am I supposed to sleep if the devil is calling me to my room? Is it even the devil? It could be this terrible headache. Go back to my room or go to the office and watch the telly, what a choice. The telly sucks my life away, and so does what the devil wants me to do in my room. Hrumph. Which evil do I choose? Perhaps I can choose not to choose and simply stay here; writing in the jungle. Naah, I will run to my room, check the telly schedule, and download my email. Perhaps I will pick up the Holt Handbook. I really should check my writing for structural errors.
Most children effected by age based curfews were born in the United States, and everyone born in the United States is a citizen. These statements are based on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” The preceding quote makes it quite clear that citizenship is conferred at birth. Therefore children have all the rights and responsibilities that citizenship entails. It is true that there are some extraordinary age requirements for holding office and voting for electors, but those are exceptions and not the rule.
All citizens are guaranteed equal protection under the law. Laws discriminating on the basis of age violate equal protection under the law. Thus age based curfews are illegal because they are designed to discriminate against a particular class of people—young people.
I think that I'm missing something to do with minor status. I suppose it is either left up to the states, hidden somewhere in the U.S. Code, or based on common law. Last, but not least: I am not a lawyer. These are semi-coherent musings, not advice.
I am thinking of leaving school to code some of my ideas. I just know that I probably won't return once I leave. On the other hand, I'm tired of only having enough time to do the most basic testing of concepts (pre alpha level or so.) Perhaps after the end of this, my second year at college. Ideally I would be able to work part time, go to school part to quarter time, and implement some of these ideas. Unfortunatly, I probably won't find a part time job around here that will pay enough and still let me attend school.
I looked over the bill section in question. The section seems to be tacking exceptions onto ratification of the torture ban treaty. Why do we even want exceptions to a ban on torture? Granted, this is not about the police torturing confessions, instead it is an attempt to bestow legitimacy on the deportation of suspects to countries where they will be tortured. That we, a country of refuge, would even consider such a law shows how far we have fallen on the moral supremacy scale.
Lawyerly loophole jumping in order to make outsourcing torture legal is shameful. I am shocked that Rep. Hastert would even think of introducing such a bill.
I am taking the political party of the instigators of this stunt into consideration Re: my previous post on presidential candidates.
I had reservations about President Bush back in 2000. I was not old enough to vote back then, but I still followed the candidates and their claims. I saw President Bush take advantage of the usual post-terrorist hysteria to get very wrong laws passed. I saw the Republican Congress refuse to pass many of those same laws after the Trade Center and Oklahoma city bombings. The reason for their refusal was supposedly because President Clinton would abuse those laws. I fail to see how the current situation is any different with the PATRIOT act. Even if President Bush were a perfectly wise and benevolent president his successors would likely not be as sublime.
The long and short of this is that I am wondering if voting for President Bush after all that he has (and has not) done would be compromising with my conscience. I think that I will have to create a Pro vs. Con sheet for President Bush and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik. I will vote for whichever one comes out on top.
This is why I don't allow anonymous comments over here. I just wish that Blogger would respect TypeKey for comment authentication.
I will gladly give gifts, but people claiming that they have a right based on fairness to what I have earned have earned themselves nothing but a lecture.
Rich people, like most other people, make charitable contributions. I am willing to bet that people with lots of money give proportionally as much as people with a moderate amount of money. Proportionally rich people have more money to toss around. They can afford fancy houses and cars. They can also support larger charitable enterprises.
Andrew Carnegie created the modern steel industry. He was criticized for being stingy with worker wages. I did not know about the role he played in the steel industry until recently. I knew him as the guy who funded libraries. He has been criticized for funding libraries and music halls instead of raising his workers’ wages. I have to wonder, which would have had the greater positive impact, raising wages or building libraries? I suspect that it was building libraries.
Bill Gates started Microsoft, a multi-billion dollar software company which is often criticized for its anticompetitive behavior. Microsoft has succeeded in creating a common consumer computing platform, thus speeding the adoption of computers at the individual level. He has created a foundation which provides health, education, and library funding. Their focus on small schools is promising.
Sarah McLachlan is a Pop/Rock singer from Canada. I can't really find much about her. Fan site signal/noise is rather low and media companies don't know how to craft web sites. What I know is this, and it is not much: One of her music videos was created on the cheap and the difference was donated to various charities for third-world improvement.
Perhaps I will have money to spare some day. If so, I'd like to start Montessori schools and a group to produce Creative Commons licensed SCORM modules.