May 31 2007
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it is unusual for me to post flowers.. but this kindles to my fancy. for this peculiar flower is akin to a woman so familiar to me, an exotic species growing amongst congested air and with little or no sunshine, but still endures these harsh factors and manages to stand out and be beautiful, bold and admired. *.*
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update: also my entry for LensDay: Springpub-7079080684070653
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May 31 2007
“br />
it is unusual for me to post flowers.. but this kindles to my fancy. for this peculiar flower is akin to a woman so familiar to me, an exotic species growing amongst congested air and with little or no sunshine, but still endures these harsh factors and manages to stand out and be beautiful, bold and admired. *.*
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update: also my entry for LensDay: Springpub-7079080684070653
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May 31 2007
That’s the title of this first photograph by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison. They have created this very cool ironic Everyman character whose activities play out somewhere between ambition and despair.
I would love to see this type of “re-enactment” play out at Turcot Yards because it is the sleeping giant of abandoned space in Montreal. Such a vast stage/canvas that may only be appreciated when it no longer is available, when it is what could have been. Interested? Email me at neathatturcot@yahoo.ca.
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May 31 2007
I read an interesting article forwarded to me by my blog-happy sister. You can read it here, which I would suggest or the following will make no sense. I find a few things interesting about this article. First of all, Americans should not complain. They are paying $4 a US gallon, which works out to $1.05/L, less than I am currently paying ($1.18/L). In fact, one of the reasons American energy & environmental policy has lagged so far behind the rest of the world is the absurdly cheap cost of energy in America. There is literally no financial incentive to be green in the United States. The subsidies handed out to the oil and gas industry keep the prices artificially low. Furthermore, they pay almost no tax. 18% of the price of gas?! HA! We’ve got you beat Uncle Sam. Taxes make up roughly 35% of the cost of Canadian petroleum. Second, Americans have only themselves to blame for the increasing cost of fuel. As supply diminishes in any commodity, the price will always rise. The production peak of oil occurred in the US in the 1970s and so ever since, demand has steadily overtaken supply. The remainder of the worlds oil is in the confines of shaky nations run by autocratic or theocratic governments. They are also conjoined through OPEC, so at the flick of a switch they could cut off supply to the rest of the world. However, they usually play nice, except when the US develops bogus foreign policy like the war on terrorism, trade embargoes against Cuba (a supplier of highly-trained physicians to Venezuela in exchange for oil; see below), and hate-filled slandering of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (Venezuela has one of the world’s largest oil reserves). Third, numerous independently funded studies have failed to prove that oil companies collude to keep prices high. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Governments have kept prices artificially low, and have only compounded the problem, as people then use energy recklessly, thereby further diminishing supply, and therefore, further raising the price of oil. The average gasoline price in Western Europe is currently over $6 per gallon, or roughly $1.60 a litre. Why do you think they all drive around in tiny little cars and mopeds? Why do you think they have walkable cities and mass public transit? Make sense? Americans can bitch all they want about the high price of gasoline, but little do they know they have it pretty damn sweet. (Qualifier: When I say “Americans” I refer not to the American people as a whole, but to those running the country.)
May 31 2007
>I came across this video and I just thought I would post it as I believe that these people have been forgotten, and we must make sure that such an incident doesn’t occur on this planet again. > How sad, oh how very sad.
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May 31 2007
Environmental Movement Timeline
A history of the american environmental movement.
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May 31 2007
On the couple of occasions that I have driven up to Big Basin, I have always wondered what the dirty old HP sign by the side of the road was for and now I know.
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May 31 2007
Technical news
[Hope] - "Stable versions", a function in the wiki so that the readers can see some form of approved version of an article, that was announced to go live very soon almost a year ago, is not forgotten. A developer is hired to work on that function. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/30700 Notice: people who read the Wikipedia Signpost and Wikizine will notice that the Signpost reports much more technical news in their B.R.I.O.N section than Wikizine, and mostly also a lot earlier than Wikizine. There are two reasons for this. Some changes are considered too trivial or technically obscure so that it is not likely that there is a benefit in informing the target audience of Wikizine about it. Also many of the changes listed in the Signpost are not (yet) live on the Wikimedia websites but only present in the code. In general Wikizine chooses to report only technical changes when they are live on the projects. Major technical changes that are known in advance will be reported before they are live. But those are rare and even more almost never known in advance enough to report it.
Foundation
[New hire] - The Wikimedia Foundation has hired [[ meta:User:Bastique]] for the position of " Volunteer Coordinator".http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/15190 [Exit] - Danny Wool, Grants Coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation in the Florida office, from September 2005 has left Wikimedia. Danny has also resigned from all his functions on EN Wikipedia, Meta and as steward. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Former_staffhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Danny
Community
[South Asia] - Interview with two users about the Bengali and Indonesian Wikipedia’s http://wikipediaweekly.com/2007/03/14/wikipedia-weekly-15/[Abuse] - On the Dutch language Wikipedia it was noticed that a user had placed a link "Donate to Wikipedia" inside an article pointing to a PayPal donation form to donate to a stranger. The page [[Special:Linksearch]] can be of use to find this type of fraud. Also because some companies give money to people who bring to them new customers some users try to add to some links a referrer - a special code so that they can gain profit from the traffic that comes from Wikipedia. [Sinbad] - Vandalism on the article [[w:en:Sinbad (actor)]] declaring this person deceased has been used to start a hoax sent by email linking to that article, even making it to the mainstream media. The problem is that when the link used to point to the article is a , a link pointing to a specific revision, people only see the old version and may not be aware that the most current version is different form version the are reading. The specific revision can be deleted by a sysop by deleting the article and restoring it selectively. Or by a user with oversight rights. What also can help is to make it more clear to the reader that the page the are seeing is an old version. Edit your local page [[MediaWiki:Revision-info]] to modify the text displayed on the top of an old revision. http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10520/1103/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Revision-info
Its functionality is extensive, taking you time to get to know before passing judgment about it and reading the manual is recommended. WikiEd is also available in other languages besides English or you can translate it. To install it you only need to include some code to your
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cacycle/wikEd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cacycle/wikEd_international
Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
Number of subscribers: 630, Unique Visitors website last week: 377 , Editor(s): Walter , Corrector(s): Gary Kirk
Thanks to: Cacycle , Contact: reply or http://report.wikizine.org , Website: http://en.wikizine.org , Wikizine.org
May 31 2007
It’s been a while since I’ve put up a post. Here are some things that have been on my mind the last two weeks.
1. Memorial Day should be about remembering those who died. It is not about politics, war, terrorism, or shows of military force.
2. It’s about time the President acknowledged Global Warming and that we must do something about it. Now let’s see those words backed up with action. He still has time to change his legacy on this issue.
3. May has been the third deadliest month for US troops in Iraq. This is a quagmire, we need to get out now.
4. President Bush referred to he conflict in Darfur as a “genocide.” Colin Powell did the same thing several years ago. This label carries a mandate for action. The international community has been shamefully negligent in this area. Our troops should be there, not in Iraq. They should have been there years ago.
5. In New York State hearings are being held about the proposed power corridor that would lead to a power line from Marcy to New York City. The State is holding hearings in New York City and Rochester. It appears they don’t understand which communities will be effected by this plan.
Back to regular posting soon.
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May 31 2007
Most reasonable people understand that substantial action to reduce greenhouse emissions will require some short-term economic cost. All signs indicate that Howard’s climate policy will be an exercise in tokenism with the worst of all outcomes - maximum economic damage with little or no impact on reducing greenhouse emissions. From past form, why would we expect anything less than half-baked, half-arsed, too little and too late?
It is likely that our biggest greenhouse emitters will be given generous concessions to continue to pollute, little incentive to reduce emissions in any environmentally useful way, with all costs being passed directly to the consumer. The worst offenders will pay the least, and those least able to will pay the most. Net result - reduction in consumer spending and confidence with a negative impact on the economy, bugger-all reduction of greenhouse emissions.
Another example of looking after your mates and populist tokenism brilliant economic management by HowardCo.
