Posts from 2002

Molly, like us and just about everyone we know, is going through a very difficult period in her life.  In a block of text that blurs the line between prose and poetry, she pours a small portion of that turmoil into her Web site.

For some reason Molly’s words made me think of a painting that, without her, I would never have seen: Lu Jian Jun‘s oil-on-canvas work “Deception” “Ear Drops”.  The small image of the painting cannot hope to convey the subtle, exquisitely vibrant luminosity of the original, which I saw at the Weinstein Contemporary Artist Gallery in San Francisco two weeks back.  They have a number of other paintings by the same artist, every one of them beautiful.  If you have the chance, go see the paintings, and do it quickly.  There is a show dedicated to Jun’s work coming soon, and I would not be surprised if every piece is gone by the end of the show.  I didn’t buy “Deception” myself because it would have cost more than the averaged value of an entire floor of my house… but I very much wished that I could.

• Monday, 13 May 2002 was published on Monday, May 13th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the General category.
• There have been no replies.

Issue 144 of A List Apart (“for people who make websites”) has been published and contains an article by yours truly.  Title: “Going to Print”.  Subject: creating print-specific styles for A List Apart, thus illustrating how to style documents for print so that no “click here for a printer-friendly version” page is needed.  In tone, “Going to Print” is very similar to the projects in my forthcoming book, Eric Meyer on CSS, so you could consider it a very short preview of what to expect there.

• Friday, 10 May 2002 was published on Friday, May 10th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Writing category.
• There have been no replies.

A long couple of weeks, including a trip to California that got cut a little short.

I fixed the link to the orbit debris story, which disappeared shortly after I linked to it.  Here’s what I find interesting: I linked to it on 23 April.  The URL of the story indicates it was published on 3 May.  So far as I’m aware, I haven’t been time-traveling, so what happened?  In addition, the text of the article is very different than it used to be, including (among other things) a removal of any information about the closing of the Orbital Debris Program Office.  Why would an article literally disappear for ten days and then come back with a much different tone?  I don’t mind writing followup pieces that incorporate new information, of course, but this isn’t a followup.  It’s a replacement.  What happened to the original?  I wish now that I’d saved the original to my hard drive, just to be able to compare.

I’m feeling a little paranoid about this.  Of course, that might be due to watching All the President’s Men last night.

I also notice that the links to the “pure evil in Macs” Web site aren’t working.  I seem to have the ability to evaporate pages and sites just by linking to them.  Boy, if that were true, I’d start linking to so many extremist sites it would make both our heads spin.

• Thursday, 9 May 2002 was published on Thursday, May 9th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the General category.
• There have been no replies.

Apparently my recent posts have lead some people to think that it’s time to resurrect my former title of Mr. Bitter, so the following two items come just in time.

• How weird is the world?  Try Mr. Elmo goes to Washington.  This is one of those news items that proves to me that I didn’t really miss anything by passing on recreational chemical use.  Is it a sign of the End Times that we have unkempt sock puppets testifying before Congress?  (Besides Rep. James A. Traficant, I mean.)  Speaking of the Apocalypse…
• How weird are people?  Try publishing an article claiming that PURE EVIL lurks in every Apple Macintosh.  (Scroll down a bit to get to the largest section, titled “Apple Macintosh.”)  I haven’t laughed this hard in weeks.  What makes it even better is this: read through the whole article, taking special note of the points about how the core of Apple’s new OS is a type of Unix and thus runs “daemons” in the background and contains the “secret code” chmod 666.  So obviously Unix is a tool of Satan, and no God-fearing Christian could possibly consider associating themselves or their data with any such operating system.  Got all that?  Now go to the root level of the server, and check out the OS information at the bottom of the page.  Now that’s funny!

So don’t worry: the world is too amusingly surreal for me to stay permanently bitter.  I get outraged sometimes, but that’s because I want the world I inhabit to improve, not deteriorate—and I want it now more than ever.

• Wednesday, 24 April 2002 was published on Wednesday, April 24th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Mac and Politics categories.
• There have been no replies.

Despite being a techogeek of the second order, I’ve long been opposed to the Strategic Defense Initiative.  It never made sense to me that a few satellites, or even a few hundred, could protect the country from a missile attack by the Soviet Union.  Suppose the SDI system managed to survive an opening-round EMP pulse (which is highly unlikely) and had to defend against a first strike of 5,000 ICBMs and 30,000 decoys.  Now suppose that the SDI system somehow managed to shoot down 99.5% of the incoming vehicles, warheads and decoys alike.  In that case, 25 missiles would make it through, not to mention 150 decoys, all of which will do at least some kinetic damage when they land.  Oops.

Even today, SDI makes little to no sense no matter what you call it.  If a “rogue state” obtains a nuclear weapon and wants to hit us with it, they’re going to smuggle it into (or even just really close to) America and then set it off.  Why leave a very obvious ballistic trace on NORAD’s radars when you can fly/sail/drive/walk the device up to your target?  The only real purpose to SDI seems to be propping up a few aerospace companies, and maybe making the Chinese more tense.

Now we have one more reason to avoid putting weapons in orbit: post-battle debris.  If you blow up stuff in orbit, it doesn’t just vaporize like in Star Wars—all the shrapnel has to go somewhere.  Like into orbit around the Earth.  We’d get pretty meteor showers for a while, but is that really worth taking down the entire global communications and positioning infrastructure, not to mention imprisoning ourselves on this increasingly stupid planet for several centuries?

What I find really depressing is that it’s probably too late: the technology is available today, assuming you’re satisfied with putting up comparatively crude weapons.  If it hasn’t been done already, it will be done by somebody within the next 50 years or less.  Then everyone else will have to follow suit.

And just to top off a bad situation with a pitch-black cherry: the Orbital Debris Program Office, which is the agency that keeps track of the small-scale junk we’ve already put in orbit, is due to be shut down this year for lack of funding.  Now there’s a good idea.  Hey, why not shut down the air traffic control system while we’re at it?  I’m sure nothing could possibly go wrong with that plan, either.

I’m beginning to see how Earth eventually becomes the Planet of the Apes.  I just wish the apes weren’t already running the show.

• Tuesday, 23 April 2002 was published on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Politics category.
• There have been no replies.

My God, has nothing been learned?

• Thursday, 18 April 2002 was published on Thursday, April 18th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the General category.
• There have been no replies.

Hooray!  It’s Income Tax Day in the United States, which means that carping and whining about our tax burden will be at an annual high.  Boy oh boy, what could be more fun?  How about griping about a closely related topic?  I’m here for ya!

Personally, I don’t get most of my fellow Americans.  Compared to most countries in the industrialized world, we have a fairly small tax burden, while still expecting basically the same level of service from our government.  In addition, our gasoline is incredibly (some would say criminally) inexpensive compared to most countries.  Our income tax averages around 30% of direct income, with some shifting on either end of the wealth/poverty scale.  I can’t speak to capital gains taxes, but my general thinking has always been that if you’re well-off enough to have capital gains at all, then you can darned well afford the taxes on them.  Ditto the inheritance tax, only more so.

If we want government services, then taxes are inevitable.  If we don’t want those services, then enough people need to elect enough representatives to cut the unwanted services.  Then the taxes can drop.  (Assuming the debt’s been paid off, which of course it won’t be any time soon, but that’s an entirely different gripe of mine.)  If there aren’t enough such representatives, then the “will of the people” must be to keep the services.  Ergo, the taxes need to be able to support the expenditures on those services.  It all seems kinda simple to me.

And hey, if you don’t like the value received for the money you’re required to pay, then nobody’s forcing you to live here.  Find a better country.  Ever think you’d hear a liberal say that?

• Monday, 15 April 2002 was published on Monday, April 15th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Politics category.
• There have been no replies.

This just in: a large area of nightfall was spotted over west central Lake Erie late this morning, reducing visibility and confusing the heck out of everyone in the area.  Doppler radar registered the following at 10:52am local time:

By early afternoon, the unexpectedly large area of nightfall had developed into a line of thunderstorms that moved slowly out of the area.

In a development that surprised nobody, Youngstown area Representative James A. Traficant phoned in from the planet Mars to blame the entire situation on vindictive federal prosecutors out to get him and anyone near him.  The U.S. Department of Vindictive Prosecutions could not be reached for immediate comment.

• Friday, 12 April 2002 was published on Friday, April 12th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Humor category.
• There have been no replies.