2/20    Is Obama anti-Asian-American?
        \_ link:tinyurl.com/26zx2v
        \_ Are you an idiot?
        \_ No, but I sure met a lot of Asian-Americans while canvassing that
           seemed to be vehemently anti-Obama. Funny, they would never explain
           *why* though.
           \_ Maybe it has something to do with this S.B. Woo spam I keep
              getting.
              \_ I googled that and man, to quote Clay Davis on The Wire,
                 "that is some shameful shit."
              \_ Between this and the spurious accusations linking Obama with
                 Farrakhan, I can already see what tact the GOP plans to take
                 against him in the general election. As pp said, "shameful
                 shit."
                 \_ This sounds more like Billary than the GOP, but it is
                    hard to tell... maybe they are working togethere?
                    \_ I highly doubt it; I just mean that it's liklely that
                       the GOP will target Obama by exploiting ethnic/racial
                       tensions.
                       \_ The Farrakhan thing is coming from the Israel
                          lobby.  Pretty sure that they're bipartisan.
                          \_ What are you talking about? URL please.
           \_ It's because Obama had refused to respond to 80-20 Initiative's
              questionnaire on Asian American issues until after they gave up
              and endorsed Hillary.
              \_ That questionnaire was some dumb shit.  Somehow I doubt
                 this is really the reason.
              \_ No, he did not refuse, he asked for the questions to be
                 clarified, which every other campaign asked for and got.
                 Once the questions were clear, he answered them just like
                 everyone else.
                 \_ Hmm.  Hillary responsed on 12/10/07, while Obama responded
                    a whole 7.5 weeks later on 1/31/08.
                    http://www.80-20initiative.net/news/preselect2008.asp
                    \_ When did they clarify his questions?

2/20    Shot at satellite unlikely Wednesday: official - Yahoo! News:
        http://www.csua.org/u/ktq
        "The U.S. military does not anticipate trying to shoot apart a defunct
        spy satellite on Wednesday due to rough seas ..."
        Aha!  Didn't know that all the Iranians and the NKs have to do to nuke
        us is to wait for bad weather.
        \_ So our Infallible Missile Defense system will always work
           provided that:
           1) The skies are clear.
           2) We know the exact trajectory of the target.
           3) The target is the size of a school bus.
           I for one feel safer!
        \_ Since this is not an emergency then why not wait until odds improve?
           For instance, we know we *can* launch rockets during bad
           weather but why when you can just try again when the weather
           improves in most cases?
           \_ Ummmm....
           \_ Because the govt has been saying the first shot might miss the
              target and they might need a second shot.  Now if they don't take
              the first early enough, there might not be another window for a
              second shot.
        \_ missiles cost money.. so why not put the odds in our favor
           instead of messing around with clouds? also, the difference
           here is that it contains poisons instead of an defensive
           situation where just shoot it down asap is required.
           \_ We clearly need to spend more money on this project. How
              much have we spent on Star Wars so far?
              \- the SDIO bought my ex-ex-ex-ex boss a VAX 11/780
              \- the SDIO bought us a VAX 11/785 ... superstar!
                 we put it to good use.
        \_ And if they took a shot during bad weather you'd be saying they
           should stop cowboying and wait for good weather.  There's just no
           winning with some people.
           \_ We clearly need to spend more money on this project. How
              much have we spent on Star Wars so far?
           \_ Well, this time the govt has already admitted that they are
              cowboying by saying something like "first shot might miss and we
              might need a second shot" in its announcement.  So people
              probably wouldn't complaining about that.
              \_ No, that isn't cowboying.  That is "this is something we've
                 never done before so we're doing it as well as we can and
                 giving ourselves the best odds of success".  How is that
                 the same as cowboyism?  They aren't taking the shot because
                 it would be fun.  They are doing it because they don't want
                 to drop a bus load of hydrazine on anyone and they've also
                 probably already calculated that their snazzy spy sat. is
                 going to fall over unfriendly territory and don't want that
                 tech falling into foreign hands.

2/20    The First Jedi Academy is opening in the UK:
        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/20/jedi_academy

2/20    Adios, Fidel; khuda ha-fiz, Pervez; zdravo, Belgrade.
        Tzai chien, Beijing? Do svidanya, Moscow?
        \- re: "ha-fiz", do you write "pro-tection"?
           \_ Would it be more correct to write it "hafiz"? I don't actually
              speak Urdu.
              \- hafiz, from arabic word for protection. urdu is basically
                 hindi written in arabic script. urdu speakers in practice
                 use more middle eastern than sanskrit words. big con-
                 troversy in some places over allah hafiz replacing khuda
                 hafiz.
                 \_ You know, this is really interesting. Thank you for posting
                    about it.
                    \- shukria/dhanyabad.

2/20    Ah, so it's just Billary that's putting out the anti-Obama slimes eh?
        http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmM2NDQ3ZWQ1YWM0Y2QyZTUxMDdkY2M2OTJlNGE5MWE
        \_ Billary.  Why must we use cutesy little names for people in
           politics?  The freepers do this.  The DU/Kosians do this.  We
           don't need this on the motd.
           \_ exactly which MOTD have you been reading where this doesn't
              happen?
              \- it think there is actually some smarts to names like
                 BUSHCO, BILARY etc. BUSHCO reflects: the whole CEO-
                 President idea, the corporate backgrounds of CHENEY and
                 RUMSFELD, and most relevantly today, their diffuse and
                 limited "liability". similar BILARY, the two-for-one,
                 the looming presence of Bill in the background etc.
                 [and of course ALGOR = robot].
                 \_ Almost every politician has a corporate background.
                    Hillary spent many years on the Walmart board and as a
                    corporate lawyer/partner but we don't call her HILLARYCO.
                    \- if you think your example are comparable, you dont
                       know what you are talking about ... and you clearly
                       think it is comparable ...
                       \_ If you could explain why then we'd have something
                          to discuss instead of just stating your opinion
                          as fact.
                    The two-for-one BILLARY is 'cute' but again unnecessary
                    for what is supposed to be a group of intelligent and
                    aware people who shouldn't need that constant reminder.
                    I don't care which party or what beliefs any of these
                    people have.  I just find all the little grade school
                    names silly and for me they detract from what might
                    otherwise be a more intelligent discussion.
              \_ I didn't say it doesn't happen here.  I said we don't need it
                 and can/should do better.  I like to think that the typical
                 motd poster is smarter and can make a better point than
                 resorting to childish name calling like a freeper or kosian.
                 \_ AssUMe.
        \_ I like how none of you even commented on the ridiculous article
           this link points to, which basically argues that "since Obama's
           mother was Jewish, and his dad was black, and since I went to a
           school where any couple like that were DIRTY COMMIES, Obama must
           also be a COMMIE."
           \_ You have bad reading comprehension. It didn't claim his mother
              was Jewish. But what's there to comment about? It's just some
              blog entry.
           \_ Sorry, wasn't really interested in the article as much as the
              discussion it generated.

2/20    Lunar eclipse poll:
        Totally magnificent:
        Worth seeing: ...
        Don't care, irrelevant to my life: .
        Lunar Eclipse?  What Lunar Eclipse?: .
        Cloudy, pretty much missed it: ...
        Was busy at home whining about latest herpes outbreak: .
        \_ hahahaha this is pretty hilarious
           \_ ha ha!  I kill me.  fuck.
                \_ The problem is that in the grocery store, the person who
                   is moving the aisles around is a grocer who knows his
                   customers.  On the Web, redesigns are often controlled
                   by people who have no clue what web customers need.
                   Particularly when the web site has a print publication
                   side; print design and web design are two completely
                   different things.  It's like having the grocery aisles
                   laid out by someone whose only experience is in
                   warehousing.  -tom
                   \_ What the hell are you talking about?
        There is no dark side of the moon, it's all dark: .
        There is no dark side of the moon. As a matter of fact, it's all dark:.
        There is no dark side of the moon. Matter of fact, it's all dark: .
        \_ that's for living in the city, you smartass city slicker
        Do care, but forgot about it: .

2/20    Solar variability is almost certainly not driving global warming:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/yof847 (arstechnica.com)
        \_ This is useful.  Hope this settles the issue.
        \_ "probably." You know how to tell the difference between a
           liberal and conservative agenda? Liberal languages are weak.
           liberal and conservative language? Liberal languages are weak.
           "Probabily. Probabistically speaking. It is possible that...
           There may be a contributing factor..." etc etc.
           As for conservative agenda? It's always "It is certain that"
           "many people think" and "experts believe..."
           Guess which language appeals to the common people? ding ding
           ding, the conservative language!
           \_ It is undoubtedly absolutely 100% certain that solar variability
               is probably not driving golbal warming."
              definitely is probably not driving golbal warming.
              \_ Indenpendent speak
           \_ "Many people think" and "experts believe" are what are called
              "weasel words."
              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_words
              \_ That is what FoxNews uses a lot.
           \_ I replaced "probably" with "almost certainly." Is that better?

2/20    McCain bimbo eruption:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/3792gm (nytimes.com)
        \_ Yes, this is just as effective of a charge against being Prez
           as it was for Bubba, JFK, Lincoln, and etc.
                                                  \_ Gary Hart?
           \_ The issue is not that he may or may not have had an affair, but
              that he had a close relationship with a lobbiest for Bud Paxon,
              from whom he accepted gifts, and then later used his
              position to enact legislation favorable to Paxson.
              \_ There's nothing new about this. McCain's pattern is to do
                 unethical stuff and then act like he's a crusader against
                 those things. "I steal stuff all the time. I'm here to
                 put a stop to that, it's too easy to steal things in America."
        \_ McCain eruption inside bimbo.
        \_ 1) Not news at all, this is all old, 2) We've known since the
           Keating5 days that McCain is corrupt, 3) Clinton taught us that
           politicians' private lives are private and we should respect that
           privacy.  This is just the NYT doing their standard hit piece on
           whoever the (R) candidate is.  Business as usual.

2/20    Does anyone else think that the new http://sfgate.com web site sucks?
        Did they _really_ have to redesign the old one, which seemed just fine?
        \_ Be boring like me and use this instead:
           http://newsbuffet.org/sfchronicle.htm - danh
        \_ I hate this facet of the WWW. People redesign just to look like
           they are doing something and be 'fresh'.
           \_ you think that's limited to the WWW?
              \_ No, but it's more annoying than when, say, the grocery
                 store decides to move the aisles around.
                 \_ The problem is that in the grocery store, the person who
                    is moving the aisles around is a grocer who knows his
                    customers.  On the Web, redesigns are often controlled
                    by people who have no clue what web customers need.
                    Particularly when the web site has a print publication
                    side; print design and web design are two completely
                    different things.  It's like having the grocery aisles
                    laid out by someone whose only experience is in
                    warehousing.  -tom
                    \- often when groceries move stuff around they are
                       doing it to sell more stuff, not for customer
                       convenience. lots of research on the path people
                       take thro stores, effect of placement, getting
                       paid for placement etc.
                    \_ On the other hand, sometimes there is value when a web
                       site bears some resemblence to the print publication
                       side.  Old-fashioned print subscribers will feel more
                       comfortable using the web site.
                       \_ Having the web site bear resemblance to the print
                          edition, and having the web site be usable, are
                          not mutually exclusive goals.  But you need to
                          have a real web designer in charge of the project
                          if you want to reconcile them.  -tom
                          \_ Good luck finding a 'real web designer'.
        \_ Lipstick on a pig.

2/20    McCain - I was against torture until I was in favor of it:
        http://www.csua.org/u/ku2

2/20    In python, say I have a function:
        def hello(a,b,c): ...
        and I have a list l that contains 3 entries (l[0], l[1], l[2]),
        how can I pass it easily in the following manner?
        hello(l)
        \_ hello(*l)
           \_ Oh cool, thanks!!!