2015 — 20 December: Sunday
In the greater scheme of things1 the observation that the widgets on the bottom panel of my Linux Mint system have been exhibiting, for a week or so, the freedom to swap positions, or move around, is merely irritating. But it does show a certain instability creeping in from somewhere. Still, the same thing used to happen on my Ubuntu system back in 2008, so I shall try not to worry about it.
:-)
As I sup...
... my cup, I note in no particular order, but won't bother to provide links to, a bizarre set of "news" items:
- A homeless shelter in Williamsburg will no longer accept women as a way to stop people from having sex (unfortunate wording, perhaps?)
- A man accused of burglary reportedly used GPS data embedded in Facebook and Instagram photos to break into people's homes and steal their underwear
- Toronto's fat-bottomed squirrels are feasting on an unseasonably warm fall season
- Sydney has Australia's first Hangover Clinic
- When women were given a drop of testosterone under their tongue ... their ability to orient themselves along the four cardinal directions improved
- A motion demanding a vote to restrict the sale of guns from anyone on a federal terrorism watch list was slung out
Actually, on that last item there's a fascinating and depressing report on the Firearms Industry.
Trump...
... is not, it seems, a new phenomenon:
Both the allure of Trump's candidacy and the dread it provokes at home and abroad stem from the same impulses, which run deep in U.S. political culture. A rich man whose name is familiar to everyone bashes people whom many citizens either fear or mistrust and makes vague promises to fix whatever ails the nation. And he does all this with a smirk, a threat, and yet also with a yearning for respect, even from those he routinely assaults in speeches.
It must be a primate hierarchy thing. I'm forever amazed at the wisdom buried in a National Lampoon cartoon many years ago. It shows a hippie up before a clearly-disapproving judge, who is delivering advice: "You better show me some respect, boy. I had to lick a lot of ass to get where I am." Quite so.
Last time...
... I mentioned John Searle he (indirectly, I admit!) crashed my UltraEdit session. This is a nice line (from Aeon):
People think, he says, that if they simulate the mind on a computer it'll be conscious; but you know what? When they run a computer simulation of a rain storm, nobody gets wet.
He made exactly the same point in his 1984 Reith lectures. It's the difference between duplication and simulation. (The latter is easier.)
Kodi video listing
I'm not saying this is anything but a work in progress at this stage. But here is an initial stab at a list of my films — sorted by title — and all produced without going anywhere near the Invelos DVD Profiler server. It's what happens when a few lines of Brian's Python is let loose on my Kodi SQLite DB. My CSS clearly needs work, too! I have not let the Python encircle my TV Shows just yet. Speaking of which...
The task of...
... the mildly obsessive completeist doesn't quite end with these...
... though at least I've refrained from reading them until after my viewing. In fact, Peter borrowed them at one point. I've now read (and enjoyed) the first of these only slightly-too-sycophantic (should that be sicko-fan-tic?) "official" companions. But what's this also still lurking in the wings?
