Vacation Bible School

More properly, The Vacation Bible School Fiasco. I say "fiasco" because I'm sure it was for the people running the school.

I try to picture the experience from their perspective. Two heathen children [twins! which has got to be a sin, somehow] of around, oh, age 10ish, show up one summer who have -- really -- NO CLUE WHATSOEVER about this Christianity stuff. No, really. Really. It's difficult to picture in America but squint hard and bear with me. No. Clue.

Not having any idea what we were getting into at the time, when Matt asked us if we wanted to go, we shrugged and said, "Sure".

So, heathen godless children, who've never seen the inside of Sunday School in their entire heathen godless little lives, much less know what Sunday School is, show up at this place for "vacation bible school".

We're going to pray to Jesus, now. Bow your heads.

Come again?

Jesus Christ, our lord and savior.

Jesus Christ? Wait, you mean, that guy my stepdad yells at when he hits his thumb with a hammer?

And we're going to what, pray to him? What's that?

Well, you ask him for stuff.

Why?

Does he have stuff? Why would he have stuff? He's dead. And this is a dead guy from 2000 years ago -- it's not like they had TVs back then.

You people are engaged in a bunch of seemingly useless acts.

Every time someone opened their mouths it was to inform us heathen godless children of some new, frankly incomprehensible, fact, that apparently made perfect sense to them. Being moderately bright children growing up in not the full-tilt boonies, but out in the woods -- we knew from experience that dead stuff doesn't come back to life. It stays dead, decomposes, and there's a gross smell. So, this coming back after three days business, oh, that just reeks of some "zombie" episode from The Twilight Zone. Pun intended.

What I remember about the experience best is the sense of utter and total confusion about the whole thing. There's this big old guy with a long white beard who lives up in the clouds -- well, where does he go when it's not cloudy, then? And then this dead guy stapled to some big sticks who died for my "sin" things. Bad stuff, only I haven't done the bad stuff yet, and it's not at all clear why he should get punished for my bad stuff.

This makes no sense.

And could someone please explain why I'm cutting fish out of construction paper? For children who've internalized the ideas of conservation of mass and energy at a tender age -- the tales of loaves and fishes sound like sheer fantasy. Or science fiction. I mean this is the point at which I'm liable to open my heathen godless little mouth and say "you people are making this up, aren't you"?

Pretty much the only thing I recall us being good at was memorizing bits of this Bible thing -- although I do recall being concerned that since I didn't understand everything we were being told to parrot, I might accidentally say something not entirely true. And I may not get this sin business, but lying? That's wrong.

the Beginning of the Future is Here

The first commercial lunar mission has been approved and is scheduled for launch in 2003. Trailblazer is a basic probe intended to capture biblical proportions of video up close and personal, during a lunar surface atlas survey. Trailblazer is on a one-way trip, after completing its mission -- which will include some even-more-detailed video of specific areas [Apollo landing sites and polar regions] -- will crash in a selected location and end it's glorious! wonderful! future-affirming! little life.

I am almost speechless. I've been waiting for the first commercial venture -- the first indication that outer space -- not just low-earth orbit -- can be business. Because that's what'll get humans off the planet. Not government space races. I'm so thrilled by this I can't actually type without fumbling.

I also have the distinct impression I attended a conference in LA with Karsten B. and saw a presentation from these people. I'm probably wrong.

More on the company, Transorbital: http://www.transorbital.net/index.html

Science Fiction as Romance

There. That ought to raise an eyebrow.

An intriguing article by Debra Doyle posits that SF novels fall in the category of "romance", a term guaranteed to make SF-girl-cootie-fearing readers run screaming from their dark glowing computer screens, into the night.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Fear not, Doyle simply [simply? simply!] brings up the dictionary definition of romance as involving heroic, adventurous or mysterious adventures in remote times and places, a definition that fits SF quite well once you think about it.

The bulk of her remarks address realism, and in SF, the two primary areas where one can strive for it -- physical realism [where "hard SF" shines] and psychological realism [where, to put it midly, "hard SF" can often fail to shine]. Great stories -- SF and otherwise -- can exist where either one or both of these are not met...the decision to not strive for physical or psychological realism is as valid an artistic decision as to strive for such. That's not her point.

What Doyle notes is that two ideologies are butting heads in an effort to look for methods of improving SF as a genre. One is a push to be more like "modern realistic prose fiction", and the other to recognize that SF is "romance", and to model that form. That's not the same thing as sprinkling sex croutons all over one's fiction, because romance, remember, in this context is not sex or personal relationships per se, it's the heroics, adventure, and mystery, in a different time and place. The whole point of an sf or fantasy story is to ask what-if?

What if we colonized Mars?

What if it was a gazillion years in the future and the sun was going out?

What if a girl followed a white rabbit down a hole?

To deliberately and consciously seek out/create a remote time and place to set adventures in. That's unrealism at its very core, none of which absolves an author from keeping their let's-pretend world from being internally consistent -- it seems counterintuitive, but in order to get a reader to believe in your off-kilter world, you must answer the other side of the what-if, and then ask and answer again.

I think Doyle has hit the nail squarely -- SF is romance. We don't read it to see Joe Blow, CPA, walk to work in the morning looking at his loafers, thinking about his upcoming divorce...unless of course it's 2173 and he gets hit by a bus on the way to work and has his brain transplanted into the body of a surgically modified dog with a larynx and oppposable thumbs and then has to steal a spaceship with the help of his soon-to-be-ex so he can get away from the HMO before they repossess the dog's spine because a now-dead genetics researcher hid a new form of life in an inactive viral shell in the dog's spinal cord somewhere, only now the "inactive" virus got turned on after exposure to some nasty solar radiation during the escape and so Joe the Dog is fighting to keep control over his body from the new "intelligence" trying to spread through it.

That, friends, is an adventure in a remote time and place.

I might just have to write that story, too.

Now Appearing: "A Footfall of Cats"

Peridot Books Vol XVI is out and includes a fantasy, "A Footfall of Cats", by yours truly. This is my first [of many, one hopes] fiction sale.

New Look

Oh, because I felt like it. Images from NASA, by way of Kokogiak Media's "300 Miles" collection. Just the blog at the moment, so if you go surfing my oracularities or some such, you'll see the usual black on white format. Timeless, yet cheesy.

Ming At Lunch

So, Janis and I had a terrible time going to lunch today. The place we normally go to was PACKED, as in spilling-out-the-door packed. So, we started for a different place, then realized we were close to another different place, and headed there. And never got there. Construction, traffic, all conspired against us. Finally, we opted for yet another dining location, i.e., the first non-fast-food joint we saw. This wound up making for a very irritating experience, but there were two items in the plus column:

1. Good sushi.

2. A "Ming's Upholstry" van.

I kid you not. So, I spot this van, and I swear, the words just TRIPPED out of my mouth:

"Well, that's a bit of a step down from Emperor of the Universe, isn't it?"

Which led, in swift succession, to...

"The only one that's merciless at Ming's is you! Make me an offer I won't refuse!"

"You don't have to be Flash Gordon to get a good deal at Ming's!"

"We're mercilessly slashing prices at Ming's Upholstry!"

So, y'know, all in all, lunch sort of evened itself out.

Waves

From my latest AIP Physics News Update (#602):

A NEW KIND OF OCEAN WAVE HAS BEEN DISCOVERED by geophysicists in the US and Mexico (Rhett Butler, IRIS Consortium, rhett@iris.edu and Cinna Lomnitz, UNAM, cinna@prodigy.net.mx). At the Hawaii-2 Observatory, an unmanned research laboratory sitting on the seafloor between Hawaii and California, ocean waves of many varieties are observed. Some are acoustic waves, underwater cousins of sound waves in the air, and consisting of pressure waves that alternately expand and compress water as they propagate through the ocean at the speed of sound in water. Others are Rayleigh waves, seismic waves that propagates near the surface of the earth. Triggered by earthquakes, Rayleigh waves propagate as horizontal and vertical motions in the sediments and underlying crust. Researchers have now detected a new kind of wave created by seismic events. For example, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake 10 km below the Pacific Ocean in June 2000. The newly discovered wave, the researchers have concluded, is a "coupled" acoustic and Rayleigh wave that swaps energy above and below the seafloor. Propagating at the sound velocity of water, the wave both induces horizontal and vertical motions in the seafloor sediments and creates regions of expansion and compression in the water. This coupled wave, the researchers found, carries more energy than conventional deep-Earth waves observed at the Hawaii-2 Observatory. (Butler and Lomnitz, Geophysical Research Letters, 24 May 2002)

How intriguing. I didn't even know there was a Hawaii-2 Observatory.

For some interesting stuff on different types of waves [and some spiffy animations], check out Dan Russell's Wave Motion web page.

Faz!

Happy Birthday, Faz!

Regrets?
Escribitionist asks, which is worse, regrets for things you have done, or regrets for things you haven't?

I think the latter. If you make a choice and it's a mistake, you pick up, learn from it, and move on. But the things you didn't do, the roads you didn't travel -- you carry them around with you always, thinking, "what-if-I?".

"non-monetary/trans-monetary" economic activity

Free/Libre and Open Source Software: Survey and Study

Technological and socio-economic changes known as the "New Information Society/Economy" are re-introducing the notion of production, consumption and trade of goods and services without the direct or obvious involvement of money. Such "non-monetary/trans-monetary" economic activity is difficult to measure through usual monetary indicators. This project aims to remedy this situation by identifying and developing indicators of such activity through a case study of OS/FS: Open Source/Free Software.

I'm just starting to read this myself...

A Chuckle from the Programming Department

I was reading some of the code for Boa [a small-footprint, single-tasking HTTP server] and was amused by the ifdef variable below

#ifdef FASCIST_LOGGING
{
int i;
for (i = 0; i < req->cgi_env_index; ++i)
fprintf(stderr, "%s - environment variable for cgi: \"%s\"\n", __FILE__, req->cgi_env[i]);
}
#endif

The code inside the ifdef isn't inherently funny, it's just the FASCIST_LOGGING flag.

That's a great name for a flag -- easy to remember, easy to grep for, and of obvious intent to the casual code reader [me, natch], or maintainer. It has the added value of being funny.

Amend XX-XXVII to the US Constitution

Amendment XX: ratified Jan 23, 1933

Section 1

The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall be President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly, until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4

The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5

Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

Amendment XXI: ratified Dec 5, 1933

Section 1

The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2

The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Amendment XXII: ratified Feb 27, 1951

Section 1

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2

This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

Amendment XXIII: ratified Mar 29, 1961

Section 1

The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XXIV: ratified Jan 23, 1964

Section 1

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Section 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XXV: ratified Feb 23, 1967

Section 1

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death orresignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2

Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the power and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within fourty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, ir Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Amendment XXVI: ratified July 7, 1971

Section 1

The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied, or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age.

Section 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XXVII: ratified May 7, 1992

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.


There, that wasn't such a painful experience, now, was it?

Moon urges Dialogue to Prevent War

After weeks of headlines [US Wants Pre-Emptive Strike Against Moon, President Doesn't Need Permission,Who Backs a Moon Attack?] about the possiblility of war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld responded to questions from the media regarding concerns expressed by the US's allies on the apparent direction the US is headed with regard to the moon.

From NPR:

"Pentagon officials have offered briefings to other lawmakers about the general threat of weapons of mass destruction around the world. But Defense officials argue that the US should not have to provide detailed evidence.... The officials warn that... the US cannot wait for perfect information. That argument is enough for some key officials. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay declared his support for war several days ago. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has argued forcefully for action, even though he avoids questions about whether the US has the legal right to attack."

[...]

Sec Rumsfeld:

"...of course, the advantage of not acting against the moon would be that no one could say that you acted. They would say, `Isn't that good? You didn't do anything against the moon.' The other side of the coin of not acting against the moon in the event that the moon posed a serious threat would be that you then suffered a serious loss and you're sorry after that's over."

Now, let's consider a hypothetical case, here on Earth, suppose there's a country, let's call it "Iraq"...

Amendments XI-XIX to the US Constitution

Amendment XI: ratified Feb 7, 1795

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

Amendment XII: ratified June 15, 1804

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President, and they shall make distinc lists of all persons voted for as President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;-- The President of the Senate shall, in the presenc of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.[And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President--] {Superseded by section 3 of the 20th Amendment.}

Amendment XIII: ratified Dec 6, 1865

Section 1

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime wherof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIV: ratified July 9, 1868

Section 1

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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligation, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article

Amendment XV: ratified Feb 3, 1870

Section 1

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XVI: ratified Feb 3, 1913

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Amendment XVII: ratified Apr 8, 1913

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive therof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Amendment XVIII: ratified Jan 16, 1919, repealed 1933

[Section 1

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2

The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforece this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.]{repealed by 21st Amend, Dec 5, 1933}

Amendment XIX: ratified Aug 18, 1920

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Picture This

82 years ago, in this country, women didn't get to vote. Now, before you [that's the christian fundamentalist knickers-in-a-twist you] get those knickers any more twisted about Biblical Suh-per-iority, reflect on something your God once said, in that book you love thumping:

Do unto others as ye would be done by

Do you think he meant 'only when it's easy'? Only when it's what you, yourself, want to do? No, no, no.

So, picture this. You get up every day and you pray and you work hard and you try to be a good citizen of your community and your faith, and you tend your children and your work and your home. You sweat, every day, in the name of your God. Because you believe. Gimme an amen, brother!

Hallelujah.

But you don't get to vote. You don't get to participate fully in political discussions because what you say "has no weight". You don't get a say in who runs your country. You are ignored. What you have to offer is cast aside. Can you still give me an amen, brother?

Is that how you'd like to be done by?

Is it?