Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"There are definitely instances where nondiplomatic behavior can send a message in a more correct manner." -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak

• Some people will see this as silly. Others will understand why I find it significant and touching: Family of slain teen seeks posthumous name change (CNN/AP) "'She's Gwen to me, and I'm her mother,' Sylvia Guerrero said outside the courthouse. 'This is who she was. She's transgender and she's Gwen.'"
• Unfortunately the link got stale before I got around to posting this, but I can still point to where I found out about it: "A Polish-Egyptian team has unearthed the site of the fabled University of Alexandria"> (Oakland Tribune; pointed out by redaxe)
• HIV counter-virus -- fighting fire with fire (Wired). The good: it could be an important treatment, and pave the way for new medical developments. The little, worried voice in the back of the head: the treatment itself is transmissible just as HIV is, which is a good thing if it works and is safe, but could be a bad thing if it turns out to have nasty side effects down the road (or mutates in a bad direction). The downright scary: it took just three people (the two researchers and a grad student) and $200,000 to design a custom virus. As the article says, "bad guys can be brilliant too." (URL pointed out by Fred)
• An image, small (31K), worksafe, possible to read various meanings into.
• silmaril pointed out this entertaining list of disclaimers from a math textbook. "In the unlikely event of a water landing do not use this book as a flotation device." (I'm not going to give away the best ones, or you wouldn't need to go look.)
• Most people who care have probably seen this already, but just in case: Teacher fired, student disciplined, parent threatened, and poetry club shut down over political peom. Note that the incident was in 2003, though the editorial is from this month. (Some people have used this as an example of the Bush administration's effects on freedom of speech; unless it's happening in lots of other schools and can be shown to be a recent trend, I'm more inclined to call it "merely" a case of one power-mad principal, but it's still infuriating.) [Edit: See additional links in comments.]
• Whoa -- is this for real? According to The Moscow Times, the "secret launch codes" for U.S. nuclear missiles was 00000000 for the duration of the Cold War, because the SAC was "worried that a bunch of sissy safety features might slow things down." (link from Fred)
• An S&M perspective on Abu Ghraib by Robert Davolt: "[...] their sloppy, stupid and juvenile antics give the art of sadomasochism a bad name. If they insist on making such awful, clumsy incursions into our territory, the least we can do is lend a little expertise." The expertise he offers includes advice on tops' responsibility. Also, a telling quote: "Some will justify any method of interrogation as long as it yields life-saving intelligence. Very well, except that in this case, no such vital information has been identified. There was reportedly little potential in these prisoners for the sort of overwhelming result that made it all worthwhile. The damage done by this scandal weighs against ... what? For the end to justify the means, there actually has to BE an end."
• In the "so wrong it must be right" category, Echoart, a program to draw crude ASCII art in the results when someone pings your machine, assuming they're using Cisco's ping program or Nikhef ping.
• And finally, a web site exposing the dark side of cicadas: Cicadaville.com, which reveals that contrary to what the television news has been telling us, cicadas actually eat human children, are often three feet tall, and can be altered to look like Ryan Seacrest. Be sure to check out the "anatomy of a cicada" diagram. (But what amused me most was the fact that they felt the need to include the disclaimer at the bottom of the page.)

And just as I was about to post this entry, a message on a mailing list arrived: A man who sent 850 million junk e-mails through accounts he opened with stolen identities was sentenced to up to seven years in prison on Thursday (AP) "Carmack told the judge he believed the case against him was overblown, saying there were no victims."

I knew there was something I'd forgotten to write about...

Wednesday night, driving up I-95, there was lightning flashing over Baltimore. It was backlighting clouds. You know how sometimes parts of a cloud in front of a sunset will block the light completely while other parts glow, emphasising the three-dimensional shape and making it look ... sculpted? Sort of how you can carve a pumpkin to have thin glowy areas as well as intact opaque sections and holes clear-through? That's what the lightning was doing with these clouds.

Well I did see one yellow flash and one white flash, but the others were all orange. Orange sculpted glowy bits in a backlit black cloud.

So I was cruising north towards the world's largest Hallowe'en decoration (yeah, in May). Have I mentioned that my life has some cool special-effects? It's a good thing I like the surreal, eh?