This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on June 5, 2009). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.
Sometime between June 1st and June 5th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- Goths in Hot Weather: "There's one thing that troubles me about our cheery friends: what to do they do in summer? All that makeup, long black leather and rubber must get very sticky. I think we should show our respect for these poor unfortunates, struggling to stand out from the vanilla crowd despite blazing temperatures and sunshine that puts the rest of us in shorts and vest tops. Join me in celebrating the majesty of the Goth, who, eschewing any practicality whatever, still has the commitment to don a full length leather trenchcoat, stupid New Rock boots, and half a Superdrug counter of makeup. All hail the Hot Goth!"
- Behind the Scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen: "Twenty years ago, on June 5, 1989, following weeks of huge protests in Beijing and a crackdown that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, a lone man stepped in front of a column of tanks rumbling past Tiananmen Square. The moment instantly became a symbol of the protests as well as a symbol against oppression worldwide — an anonymous act of defiance seared into our collective consciousnesses."
- Creating New Documents: "There is a very basic problem with this arrangement: How do you create new files? On the one hand, since you use the Finder to manage your files, it would make sense to create new files in the Finder – right where you actually want them. On the other hand, since each individual application typically has at least one unique type of file, the Finder can't create new files – only individual applications can."
- Geotracking Your Photos With the AGL 3080: "Small and unobtrusive, all you need to know is that if the green light is blinking, it's recording GPS data. It's one of many similar devices, such as the GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr and Sony GPS-CS1KASP, that all function in virtually the same ways — they are either on or off, recording data or not, and they tend to do a pretty good job."
- What Plagiarism Looks Like: "Some enterprising readers (faculty? student-journalists?) have gone through the dissertations of Carl Boening and William Meehan, highlighting every passage in Meehan's that can be found, word for word, in Boening's. Neither the University of Alabama (which granted Boening and Meehan their doctorates) nor Jacksonville State University, where Meehan is president, has chosen to take up the obvious questions about plagiarism that Meehan's dissertation presents. As another recent story suggests, plagiarism seems to be governed by a sliding scale, with consequences lessening as the wrongdoer's status rises."