Thoughts and things

Ever wondered about why we, as a race, can act like such complete assholes to people we don't know?  It's all about the monkeysphere.

Ever wanted an invisibility cloak, or a cloaking device?  Now you can have one... just so long as whatever you want to make invisible is the size of a single wavelength of light, and you only need to make it invisible in monochromatic light.

Thankfulness?  Sure, for unexpected words of appreciation when you really, really need them.  Compensated for by frustrations including having to decline an interview for a job because it paid so little I could not have stayed at it anyway, because I couldn't possibly have supported cymrullewes and the girls on it in the Bay Area.

Happy birthday Captain Oblivion!

May your toes never rot, attack cows never stalk you, and small children never again use convenient handholds for climbing.

Dumb and dumber: Silly legal case of the day, from midiamin

Dumb:  An Internet dating site whose gimmick is conducting background checks on the service's members wants a law passed mandating that all other dating or other "social referral service" sites that do not do so be required to put a banner at the top of every page ans every email, stating in no less than 12-point type: "WARNING: WE HAVE NOT CONDUCTED A FELONY-CONVICTION SEARCH OR FBI SEARCH ON THIS INDIVIDUAL.", on pain of fines that could easily run into millions of dollars per day.

Dumber:  California, Texas, Virginia and Michigan are actually buying into the idea.  That kind of inane, sheeplike stupidity is what we've come to expect from the California state legislature, but Texas?  Virginia?

The voice of sanity:

"They're trying to legislate their business model, and quite frankly it's a weak business model," says Match.com spokeswoman Kristin Kelly.  It would be just as easy to argue that True.com should be required to post labels on each page: "WARNING: TRUE.COM'S BACKGROUND SEARCHES WILL NOT IDENTIFY CRIMINALS USING FAKE NAMES, AND THE COST TO RUN THEM MAY BE PASSED ON TO YOU."

Yo, buddy, this may come as a surprise to you, but the US legal system, contrary to your apparent belief, does not exist for the purpose of nobbling your already-established competitors and giving you an unfair business advantage over them so that you can take over the market they've built.

rough day

following a rough night.  I only managed to sleep about two hours last night.  Gave up and crawled out of bed a half hour before my alarm went off, spent about 30 minutes in the shower hoping it'd jumpstart me, and went in to work for the 8am weekly IT staff meeting only to find the main conference room already in use for a customer meeting, and the videoconferencer unavailable.  Caught myself several times falling asleep at my desk, and eventually gave up and called it a day around 4pm, an hour and a half to two hours before I normally leave.  Got home, made a pot of tea, drank one mug of it, and now feel slightly sick.

ugh.

Attention ilcylic

....A crucial question just occurred to me.

Would a poseur singing frog be pop-ribbit?