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Two firefox tips
While doing some reseach, I discovered that the “leak” is acually a costly feature (aren’t they all). It has something to do with cacheing closed tabs.
Anyway, to fix it, just follow the instructions on this LifeHacker page. Also, I’ve heard good things about about Tab Mix Plus.
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Videotaping police
Radley Balco, in a column on FoxNews.com has an interesting and scary article video taping police at work. Basically there have been a string of incidents recently where people videotaping police at work (in uniform, in public, performing their duties) have been charged with crimes.
It’s ridiculous. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy for a private citizen in public view, which is why traffic cameras and the legion of private security cameras are legal (recording audio is considered different by the law). Why on earth would public servants (who are supposed to work for us mind you) be immune from this?
All this would change if we made all government agencies were funded from the public treasury and weren’t self-supporting, but that’s a topic for another time I suppose.
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Quick Friday roundup while uploading
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Bashing the education system
Reading the AJC’s education articles are always a source of malicious fun for me. The articles can be tedious, but the forums are always fun. For some reason people like to pretend that if only we could crack down on some group (the parents, the taxpayer, the students) the problem would solve itself. Grammar and spelling tend to leave quickly as well. This one was my favorite
I’m a career educator with more graduate degrees that the detractors of public education.
Let’s put it in a sports analogy so the neo-luddites can understand, break the legs of the starting offense of the GA Bulldogs and complain about why thy can’t win a championship.
He starts off with a misspelling, and then misuses “Luddite”. Luddite is a proper name, and has no sports meaning.
When one thinks about it, it’s amazing public education works as well as it does. When you have a system where the producer, the consumer and the financier are all different people, why should it work at all?
One other thing that annoys me is the pejorative refrain of “teaching to the test”. Of course, teachers should teach to the test the same way drivers should “drive to the road” and cops should “enforce to the law”. That’s their job after all.
As I’m in rant mode, I suppose I’ll share the other annoying shibboleth of the teaching establishment, which is saying someone is a good student “but doesn’t test well” which is like saying someone is very tall, “but doesn’t measure well”.
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The view from my window
I think the metering was a bit off, but it’s hard to get it right when you shoot into the sun. Anyway, the coloring turned out well. The shot below is PhotoShopped very little. I have no idea why the blimp was there.
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Life, satire engage in passionate embrace
Via NRO comes this article
I am both Muslim and Christian
Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.
She does both, she says, because she’s Christian and Muslim.
Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for more than 20 years. Now she’s ready to tell people that, for the last 15 months, she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved.
I suppose she’s a vegetarian that eats veal as well. If an atheist is some who believes in no God, then what do you call someone who believes in all available Gods? Judaism and Zoroasterism await I suppose.
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The Tree
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Department of horrible statistics
Case in point today, Jay Bookman of the AJC
the influx of good-paying, high-tech jobs has had an enormous impact. Twenty years ago, per capita income in Ireland was 60 percent of the average in the European Union. Today, on a per capita basis, Ireland is the second-richest nation in the EU.
Think of how meaningless that is. Were they already the second richest country per capita? Did they have a meager rate of growth and the rest of Europe went down? Who can tell?
Bookman goes on cite things he approves of (of course) but doesn’t anyone edit these things?
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Quote of the moment
“That’s the problem with religion: you beat your way past the clerics, fight your way through the demons, stand before the holy of holies, and when you rip away the veil, there’s nothing there but a mirror.”
— Owen Rowley
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The first meaningful, non scandalous news from the Catholic church in a while
From Time.com
Joe Kennedy’s First Marriage: Still On
The most controversial “marriage that never was” in recent U.S. political history is back. Sources tell TIME that the Vatican has reversed the annulment of Joseph P. Kennedy II’s marriage to Sheila Rauch. The annulment had been granted in secrecy by the Catholic Church after the couple’s 1991 no-fault civil divorce. Rauch found out about the de-sanctification of their marriage only in 1996, after Kennedy had been wedded to his former Congressional aide, Beth Kelly, for three years.The annulment was the subject of Rauch’s 1997 book Shattered Faith, which lambasted her ex-husband and was severely critical of the Catholic Church’s proceedings, which made the marriage (which had produced twin boys) null and void in the eyes of the church. Rauch argued that Kennedy was able to unilaterally “cancel” nearly 12 years of marriage because of his clan’s influence in the church. Kennedy argued at the time that the annulment was the right thing to do in religious terms.
Now that I think about it, it’s been a couple of years since any Catholic priest molestation revelations have come to light.
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Quick roundup while uploading
- A nice article on the Golden Section in design
- China and Demography from Coming Anarchy
- Making engines more efficient – using steam of all things – very cool
- Cutting Edge Designers
- Prediction Markets – nice graphics
- Woman jailed for testicle attack
Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: “That’s yours.”