h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am a bit angry at both of the aformentioned articles.

In the first instance, the kid has every right to draw whatever he wants to. Art is a form of speach protected by the constitution and upheld as such by the supreme court. The art teacher was plain wrong in turning over the work to school officials and the school was wrong to involve the federal authorities.

In the second instance, we have due process in the US as a means to ensure that people are not falsely imprisoned. All of the "Anti-terror" laws passed since that terrible day are just as bad as the one that was used against the man in question. I know any number of people who would make such a concoction just to see if they could. That is not a smart thing to do by any estimation, but it is also not inherently a crime. The man could have disposed of the ricin after it was made. If due process could not prove that he had intent to kill his wife, then that should have been the end of the issue.

Sporky, thanks for the gmail invite. My new (hopefully permanent) e-mail addy is marvwhite[AT] gmail <dot) com.

I officially know more about the Alteon content switch than I ever wanted to. It is still fun to learn a new product, however, and I look forward to next week.

My high school age daughter has a friend that was drawing in class to pass the time. It was a picture of Santa Claus. The teacher confiscated it and reported the kid on the grounds that as a Jew, she found it offensive. I believe the boy got detention. There was another doodling incident with the same boy, I'll have to ask my daughter later when she gets home.

I know that Santa is actually Saint Nicholas but, when was the last time anyone seriously thought of Santa in those terms?

The prohibition on religious speech in the schools is meant to protect the children from the teachers, not the other way around! And it is not really a prohibition, but a limitation on the *official* practices of the school that the children cannot opt out of realistically. It's supposed to *protect* the child's religious freedom! If I was that kid's father...

Hmm...

Now, I agree that the drawings, if they were an isolated incident, are definitely protected by the first amendment.

However, I don't think that the manufacture of chemical agents is something that should be protected as free speech. First of all, he shouldn't have been doing that at work. He had no business doing that, and I think he got what he deserved. What if someone took it and used it to "season" someone else's coffe, whether they knew what it was or not? That's a really stupid thing to do, whether he meant to use it or not. He should've done it in the privacy of his own home where no one was going to turn him in for being a terrorist.

That's similar to an issue that was debated in one of my classes last semester. Immediately after 9/11, a group of anti-American people were in central park dancing and celebrating while the towers fell. The police arrested them, and there was a huge hoopla about whether or not that was a violation of their First Amendment rights. But no one thinks about the right of the people in the immediate vicinity to not be caught in a riot. New York City on 9/11 was a cesspool of anger and fear and violence, and those men were just *asking* to incite a riot. The police took them in to keep them safe, and to keep the peace.

How did Mr. Chemical weapons manufacturer know that his homemade Weapon of Mass Destruction wouldn't emit toxic gases in his workplace while he made it? While it sat on his desk throughout his shift?

That's dumb. That's really dumb.

I've heard both of these things, and both of them make me angry. It smacks of totalitarianism.

*the service lift doors open to reveal a group of CLI bots with shopping trolleys full of bags of groceries*

*they wheel the trolleys into the kitchen, then seem to follow Matina's radio'd instructions. One bot becomes pastry chef. Another is assigned vegetables and salads. And so on. A message is sent to Wolfgang*

*meanwhile, the doors of the SWIFT open to reveal still more bots and a load of catering equipment, tables and chairs. They enter the exhibition space beyond the atrium and begin setting up a number of round tables and chairs, and decorating the space, setting out linens, flowers, silver and china. Chafing dishes are lined up along one wall*

* a banner is strung high up against the wall, over the row of chafing dishes*

5 YEARS OF HOOTOO -- 4 YEARS OF ATELIER

*Matina leaves the kitchen long enough to count heads for the coming thread, then returns to her preparations*

Matina, did you remember the radish whatchamawhoozit? It wouldn't be a party without little radish roses...

Everything I hear on the news scares me, nowadays. It's gotten to where I don't really want to turn the tv on or read the newspaper. But I'm compelled to - I think perhaps if I keep myself forewarned, I won't be taken by surprise when Big Brother comes to get me...

There really is an undercurrent of totalitarianism running through our society. It's that neo-conservative influence, led by Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld. I'm hoping that the Patriot Act and other First Amendment violations will evaporate with a regime change.

One can only hope Lentilla. Myself, I turn on the TV to watch movies and that's it.

[Hyp] staying out of the bots way and looking forward to the anniversary party

If I weren't so tired I would have a lot to contribute to the discussion, but I really ought to get to bed so I can stay awake through another amazingly boring day.

Mercury will station during the morning hours, and recommence forward motion after that.

[MTG]

The effects are beginning to be felt, H landed a large contract they had been working towards for nearly 4 months yesterday afternoon.

Cassie is really bored with another day of rain. She came in wet and cold, meeeuuuwing to make sure I knew all about it. She found a bit of paper that H had dropped on his way out this morning, ran halfway up the stairs, turned round, pelted back down, sprang onto the paper, sliding off into the kitchen where she scrabbled at the paper briefly before going back up the stairs and doing it over again twice!

I'm off to the gym.

[k] - still feeling rather flat. Actually, scratch that - feeling downright blue. Don't know why though, maybe the change in the weather?

I've stopped reading the newspapers and watching the news on TV, because it's all about violence, war, murder, killing, terrorism and catastrophes nowadays, and it just makes me - I don't need to get more worries, I've got enough of my own already...

I do read the text-TV news - short, just the bare facts, no photos. That, and h2g2 keeps me at least fairly updated on what is happening in the

Kelli

Congratulations to GDZ for the new job

I'm officially off until Tuesday - but have to go in to wo*k today to finish off some important stuff.

The Guy in the Wedding Dress gave me a good laugh - what an enterprising fellow.

MR's posh dress looks lovely - it's great to get dressed-up occasionally.

Hoping for better weather this weekend so we can sort out the espalier arrangement on the new peach tree. We had to take off all the canes to get it home from the nursery - wouldn't fit in the car.

Realise this is a bit disjointed - still half asleep and have just got through my backlog.

[p] Not much to add right now.

{ltp}Nor me .But i find it interesting ,re art ,heads on sticks,and all that, was this a very good likeness, would he have been given credit if it was hussain head on stick, or any other person that the current administration was opposeing.Doubt it.

It also perfectly ok for polititans to go round giveing speachs of such ilk that are likely to incite riots,yet this has rarely if ever been done, goverment scientist can invent new weapons to kill yet not be accused of plotting to murder,(or manslaughter~) in the case of noncombatents killed,in "policeing-actions ,by armed forces)ect.


seems i did have something to say

What Teuchter said.

Kelli, could you be feeling a bit like a let down baloon because you have got a new job and handed in your notice, but nothing has actually *happened* yet? The other thing to check out if you get unexpected s is your hormonal levels. Random acts of oestrogen can have a devestating effect on how one is feeling.

GDZ, and for the new job. I have been keeping a worried eye on you, you know, and it is really good to know that things are looking up for once.

Nice Frock MR. Nothing wrong with being girlie every now and again. Nothing wrong at all. I keep on thinking I should get more in touch with my feminine side.

Loved the guy in the Wedding Dress. If his intelligence and sense of humour is general, then more fool the Texas Airhead for passing him up.

The news? Scares me s**tless every single day. We are living in the sunset of the golden age, my dears. I thank the goddess daily that I am no younger than I am.

Do any of you know anything about creating and serving media files? My next website is going to be for a voice and singing coach, and we want it to be really text-light, with about four or five pages tops, but with an audio video clip on each page. I would quite like the audio to be streaming, with the option to turn it off, but the video to be 'click here to watch'.

I know nothing about serving them, (other than that you need a specialist hosting service), and less than nothing about making them.

On the other hand, it is going to be a fun project, and she explicitly does not want the inverse-L navigation, which is great!

And guess what?

Its the weeeeeeeeeeeeeeekend!

And gues what else?

Monday is a ban collie dai!



B

If you want the media (audio) streamed to the user then yes, you'll need some fancy hosting stuff and software to get the audio into the right format that the hosting service uses. If you want just a click here download then not so hard. I guess the hardest part will be getting the clips together and in the right format (compression, bitrate, filesize) that is usable for the intended application.
Other than that I know nothing.