mrontemp

Not the last mrontemp post, but you may want to check out the Empoprises FriendFeed and Twitter accounts

2009-03-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, March 10 at 1:00 pm, I shared a post in this mrontemp blog entitled Of spans and series, or why I haven't written in mrontemp that much.

On Saturday, March 14 at 11:25 pm, I shared a post in my Empoprise-BI blog entitled Empoprise-BI temporarily focuses on self-referentialism. Toward the end of the post, I wrote:

...a lot of it boils down to the fact that my primary interface with the online world is under the "Ontario Emperor" name.

Well, until Saturday afternoon. I made one of those snap decisions and decided to change the precedence of the two personas, and formally make Empoprises (and thus John Bredehoft) my primary persona.

I'm not quite sure what this means yet. It probably means that some of the stuff that "Ontario Emperor" would do will now be done by Empoprises. It could mean a sharp decrease in "Ontario Emperor" activity. And it may also mean that I will spend less time looking at things like technology (unless there is a business focus), politics, and religion.

I've already done some shifting, moving many of my Google Reader subscriptions to my Empoprises Google Reader account, making "John Bredehoft" an administrator on the FriendFeed lastfmfeeds room, and making some other changes that will become more apparent in the coming days.

In essence, while I suspect that things will still pop up here and in my related "Ontario Emperor" properties from time to time, my interests have focused elsewhere.

If you want to follow what I'm doing, check out http://friendfeed.com/empoprises and http://twitter.com/empoprises.

Who is Rozita Swinton?

2009-03-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

A little over a week ago, a trial date was set for Rozita Swinton in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The charge against Swinton is only part of the story:

During a hearing in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday, a judge scheduled a May 19 jury trial for Rozita Swinton on a misdemeanor charge of making a false report. She is accused of calling authorities in February 2008, pretending to be a 13-year-old girl drugged, chained in a basement and being sexually abused.

But that's not the case that interests everyone. Here's what happened a couple of months later in 2008:

March 22: A caller to a Washington battered women's shelter gives her name as "Sarah Jessop" and describes physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her husband, Dale Barlow, who she says lives in an Everett, Wash., apartment complex. She calls 27 more times in the next three weeks.

March 29-30: A caller to the NewBridge Family Shelter crisis hot line in San Angelo [Texas] also giving her name as "Sarah Jessop" describes abuse and underage marriage at the YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County and says she is married to Barlow, who she says lived at the ranch.

This then launched the raids at the YFZ Ranch, but "Sarah Jessop" could not be found. However, the calls continued:

April 10: "Sarah" calls again to the Washington shelter, this time detailing her allegations on a three-way call with a Schleicher County deputy sheriff. She also says her "sister wives" are instructing her to lie about her identity to caseworkers interviewing the women and children removed from the ranch. Each time the deputy asks how he can identify her, she hangs up.

April 12: Texas Rangers meet with [Dale] Barlow in [Colorado City,] Arizona but do not act on the arrest warrant filed against him.

April 13: A request to the FBI for phone records of the number used on the three-way call is returned, showing the number registered to someone in the household of Rozita Swinton, who has been accused of making numerous false reports to police and women's shelters. The records show she called NewBridge 16 times between March 22 and April 12. A second number also traced to Swinton called NewBridge seven more times.

April 16: Swinton is arrested at her Colorado Springs home on a charge of making a false report to authorities in an unrelated case. Texas Rangers accompany authorities on the arrest and seize evidence from her home, calling her a "person of interest." She has not been charged with any crime related to the FLDS raid.

So who is she? Someone who suffers from a multiple personality disorder? Someone with a grudge? Digital Journal mused on this:

The psychotics and sociopaths among us rarely stand out as unusual characters. Most are actually quite socially affable and hide their mental illnesses well. For the most part. Until you hear the sensational news stories and the interviews of shell-shocked friends, co-workers, relatives and neighbors saying in disbelief, "he/she was the nicest, quietest, most sane person you'd ever want to meet.'...

The Dallas Observer blog 'Unfair Park' raised the following question on April 18th:

'How does a mentally disturbed Colorado woman become aware of a secretive polygamist sect hundreds of miles away in Texas? More importantly, how does she get the phone number of Flora Jessop?'

You could also ask, how did she obtain very hard-to-get stacks of FLDS materials, names and phone numbers, which Flora Jessop stated the Texas Rangers found during their search?

That blogger, Jesse Hyde, obviously never had to deal with an obsessed person. Every woman who's ever had to deal with a persistent stalker, or psychotic ex-husband or boyfriend, knows exactly how resourceful an obsessed psychotic can be....

Somehow she got the information, but Rozita Swinton's obsessions went far beyond the hoax 'Sarah' calls to the YFZ ranch, which continued long after the April 3 raid. Flora Jessop stated that 'Sarah' had called her AFTER she posted bail for last week's arrest, and finally admitted that her name was 'Rose.'

Merril Jessop - Normally you don't associate an FLDS leader with a fifth, but there are exceptions

2009-03-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've been remiss in my Merril Jessop reporting. This story comes from January:

Citing federal conspiracy and Mann Act investigations, YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 250 times....

So why did he refuse to answer the questions?

The deposition was conducted principally by Denton family law attorney Natalie Malonis, who has said she sought information about the sect's finances in the hopes of providing financial means for her 17-year-old client, a daughter of Jeffs who sect documents say was married at age 15 to Raymond Jessop, Merril Jessop's then 36-year-old son.

Jessop refused to answer all questions relating to the sect's finances - including those apparently based on sect documents referring to efforts to create a trust in Texas with funds taken from the Utah-based United Effort Plan trust.

When all else fails, go for the money. Remember that Al Capone was eventually brought down on tax evasion charges.

Oh, and I do stand corrected - Jessop's first name only has one L. Or at least Wikipedia says so, for what it's worth.

And by the way, the FLDS case has diminished significantly, according to this March 13 article:

The state's Child Protective Services agency has dropped a 17-year-old mother from its investigation of alleged abuse at the YFZ Ranch, leaving just one child of the 439 initially removed from the polygamous Schleicher County compound....

The only child remaining in the case is a 14-year-old girl that sect documents and pictures show having been married to sect leader Warren Jeffs at age 12.

CPS on Thursday filed a request that the girl, who has struggled to adapt to outside life with two foster families since 51st District Judge Barbara Walther gave the agency custody of the girl last summer, be placed with a distant relative, Bandera resident Naomi Carlisle.

Carlisle, 52, is an FLDS member but has never been a resident of the YFZ Ranch, and five of her 11 surviving children have left the sect upon adulthood, according to investigation documents filed Thursday with the agency's request.

And I thought the Jolt cola was bad - NASHE "youth group" executes denial of service "defense"

2009-03-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

When I hear the phrase "youth group," I end up thinking of things such as church youth groups. I was a member of one when I was a youth, and later as a young adult I was a counselor for another such group. The worst situation that I ever had to deal with as a counselor was when one of the junior high kids drank some Jolt cola before coming to youth group. Afterwards, we decided that this particular youth should be banned from drinking Jolt cola before meetings.

Well, youth groups can do a whole bunch of things, as HS Daily Wire noted in its story 2007 cyber attack on Estonia launched by Kremlin-backed youth group.

Now that's heavy.

A country being outwitted, overwhelmed, and paralyzed by a group of teenagers? Apparently, yes. Members of a Kremlin-backed youth movement have claimed responsibility for May 2007 cyber attacks that crippled Estonia's Internet in the midst of a diplomatic argument with Russia....

Russia has consistently denied any involvement. Yesterday, however, Konstantin Goloskokov, a "commissar" in the youth group NASHE, which works for the Kremlin, told the Financial Times that he and some associates had launched the attack, which appears to be the first time anyone has claimed responsibility. "I wouldn't have called it a cyber attack; it was cyber defense," he said. We taught the Estonian regime the lesson that if they act illegally, we will respond in an adequate way."

For the record, the Russians were defending themselves from Estonia's belligerent act of...um...removing a Second World War Soviet memorial from Tallinn. Considering the way in which Estonia joined the Soviet Union in the Second World War, Estonia's cool feelings about the memorial are understandable.

HS Daily Wire also discussed the technology used in the cyber attack - I mean cyber defense.

Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks, an Internet security company, is an expert on the Estonian attacks and said they measured about 100 MB per second of traffic, compared with the largest recorded attacks of 40 GB per second. He said that generating such an attack was quite simple, requiring "just a lot of people getting together and running the same tools on their home computers".

Sounds like a fun way to spend an evening. Back to Konstantin Goloskokov of NASHE:

"We did not do anything illegal. We just visited the various Internet sites, over and over, and they stopped working. We didn't block them: they were blocked by themselves because of their own technical limitations in handling the traffic they encountered."

Well, I guess that's one way to look at a distributed denial of service attack - I mean defense.

Of spans and series, or why I haven't written in mrontemp that much

2009-03-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

It is now March 10, 2009, and this is only the seventh post that I've written at mrontemp this month.

Compare this with January 2009, during which I wrote 59 posts in this blog, or almost two posts per day.

Or how about January 2008, when I wrote 202 posts?

One could reach the conclusion that I've quit writing in the long form and have instead reverted to just shooting the breeze on FriendFeed.

But actually, that's only part of the equation. I've been blogging up a storm - just not here.

I've talked about my Empoprises project before on this blog. For those who aren't aware, I author a series of four blogs under the "Empoprises" banner. Unlike the "all-encompassing" blog mrontemp, the Empoprises blogs are each devoted to a specific topic.

Far from restricting me creatively, the existence of four separate blogs has actually given me more freedom.

For example, I will often make a game of taking the same event and spanning it across as many Empoprises blogs as possible. Take my weekend visit to the Wal Mart in Chino, California - a business in the Inland Empire that sells music. Yeah, I milked that one.

But I'm having just as much fun writing various series of posts in the blogs. My longest-running series, Empoprise-NTN High Noon, takes a look at various restaurants and bars that offer NTN Buzztime trivia. And I'm getting close to wrapping up a series entitled When Madonna Was Hot. And I just wrapped up A Piece of the P.I.E. (Professionals of the Inland Empire).

But sometimes, rather than planning a series, I just fall into one. For example, on Monday I wrote a post entitled Payola, pay per post, or the 1984 commercial? An inconsistency of moral outrage re product placement business practices. Today, I followed it up with Or perhaps I am outrageous - an opposing view on disclosure and pay per post. Although this doesn't have a cutesy title, I hope to pursue the topic in the future.

If I hold up.

You see, I've been able to keep these blogs running by writing scheduled posts at odd hours (for example, unless I change the schedule, I've already written a Thursday post for Empoprise-BI, "Words aren't only cool, they make you money"). But time is finite, as Steven Hodson noted in a post entitled "Think long and hard before starting that second or third blog." An excerpt:

The problem is that time and energy are never kind to us – especially if our work on our main blog is our primary concern. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence as the web is littered with blogs that have been long forgotten for one reason or another. We only have so much time and/or energy and no matter our first rush of getting that new blog up and running at some point we run out of steam.

So perhaps this may falter along the way, and Empoprises may give me nightmares in the future. But at the moment I'm having fun.

P.S. Steven Hodson wrote his cautionary post on March 2. I've wanted to write a formal response to it, but it's taken me eight days to do it. Although this post is a non-scheduled post, one problem with writing scheduled posts is that they often aren't all that timely. But what does that matter to me? I am not trendy.

Where's Willard? All over!

2009-03-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

I'm working in my hotel room, typing up notes from two days of meetings.

And I actually turned my last.fm off, and turned the TV on.

And there was Jim Vance.

You have to understand that when I was growing up in the Washington area in the 1970s, Jim Vance was the newscaster back then. Of course, his Afro was big, and his hair wasn't white, but he was still around on NBC.

Along with a weathercaster who got a bit of national fame later, in the 1980s - a man named Willard Scott.

So where is Willard today?

He'll be celebrating his 75th birthday on March 7, 2009 (or so Wikipedia tells me). And MSNBC still promotes Scott's centenarian birthday greetings.

Scott's wife died in 2002, resulting in an emotional interview with Larry King in 2003. But, according to PARADE, as of August 2008 he was seeing someone else.

Q Has the Today show’s Willard Scott remarried since the death of his wife? —Melody Perry, Newport Beach, Calif.

A Not yet. “But I have a lady that I squire around a lot,” says Scott, 74, whose wife of 43 years, Mary, died in 2002 from breast cancer. “I like my new lady so much that I bought a house in Connecticut to be closer to her.”

Going a bit back, if you go to The Joy Boys website you can see a YouTube video with excerpts from the last Joy Boys radio broadcast.

Ed Walker, by the way, is still on the radio at WAMU.

Here are some recent articles about Willad Scott from Guilford, Connecticut and Alexandria, Virginia.

But Scott has also participated in P.D.Q. Bach concerts (as part of "New Horizons in Music Appreciation"). See Daily Kos, and this piece.

Wait a minute?

A Copland parody?

More later.

Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter - What does it don't?

2009-03-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

One of my FriendFeed buddies, Chris White, has been busy this evening.

I was sharing some things in Google Reader a little earlier, and White has responded to a couple of them.

For example, I shared something that postulated that Facebook's just-announced changes are an attempt to counter Twitter. White commented via FriendFeed:

What is Facebook, what is Twitter?

A few minutes later, I shared Dana Franks' post "Why Twitter Matters to Me." White commented on the FriendFeed share for this item also:

What is Twitter?

I figured that White was executing a master plan - and frankly, I think that master plans are stupid things unless I'm the one executing them. And, with apologies to Jim Bakker, I was right:

I am going to respond to every Facebook and Twitter post with the question "What does it do?" I'm sure you will be annoyed, and then you will know how I feel.

I might use some variation, such as "What is it?"

Actually, White is asking a valid question, especially since Facebook and Twitter tend to get a lot of press. But you can ask yourself, do the applications do anything?

In an attempt to answer that question, I'd like to invite you to dinner with me. The dozen or so diners who gathered at the restaurant earlier this evening came from different backgrounds - some were scientists, others were forensic people, and others were salespeople or marketers. But all of us were interested in technology. Which meant that several of us brought out our phones at some point in the evening.

Now, as Louis Gray happens to know, my current phone is a 2 1/2 year old Motorola Q (or, as Gray lovingly calls it, an "8-bit rotary phone") with the equivalent of Internet Explorer 4. But Gray will be happy to know that I associate with people that have more modern phones, such as the Apple iPhone that Gray likes. Perhaps you've heard of this phone. And perhaps you've heard of some of the applications that you can get for the iPhone.

You can get an application that allows the iPhone to act like an ocarina.

You can get an application that makes irritating noises, like the sound of a dentist's drill.

You can get an application that imitates a glass of beer - you hold the iPhone upright to pour the beer into the "cup," then you tilt the iPhone to "drink" the beer.

Actually, you can get three applications that imitate a glass of beer - and one of my fellow diners knew someone who had all three.

Now when you hear about these applications, you're forced to ask a probing question about the iPhone:

What does it do?

The answer, whether you're talking about the iPhone, Twitter, Facebook, or a hammer, is that the item in question does whatever you want it to do.

Let me share something more serious from that same dinner. My day job is as a product manager, and part of my responsibility is to set overall direction for my product. As part of my job, and because of my fifteen years in my particular industry, I sometimes pretend like I know what the product should do.

But I've learned something over the years. As soon as I use my imagined knowledge to make a statement such as "This product will never need feature X," I will receive a request from a customer asking for...you guessed it; feature X.

You see, I don't determine how my product will be used. Steve Jobs doesn't determine how the iPhone will be used. And the Facebook and Twitter people don't determine how their products will be used. (Although Jobs and Zuckerberg try to dictate uses.) In the end, it's the users that determine how these products will be used. I say it again, it's the users that determine how these products will be used.

Just like Google doesn't determine how Blogger will be used. This post was originally entitled "What does it don't?" But then I changed the title to "Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter - What does it don't?" knowing full well that the title of the post would eventually end up on FriendFeed...and that Chris White would see it...

Told you that my master plans were brilliant.

Gaithersburg (Maryland) History Park

2009-03-04T10:16:00.001-08:00

Using the winter coat, part 2

2009-03-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

I am NOT going swimming this evening!

Using the winter coat, part 1

2009-03-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned in some other forums, I had to take a business trip to Maryland today (Tuesday). Luckily I didn't have to fly on Monday, because it was still snowing in the area at the time. (I was monitoring the @insidecharmcity Twitter account very carefully on Monday.)

After a four-hour layover in Denver (I like to not be rushed), I landed at BWI early this evening East Coast time. The roads are clear, and I made it to my hotel.

See the next post for something I found at the hotel.

Clinton 2.0

2009-03-02T12:15:00.000-08:00

The President of the United States isn't the only government official trying to display some electronic communication savvy. Look at what's on the Department of State website.

Yes, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is waiting for your texts.

Wonder if Barack recommended that she use a Blackberry.

Yes, hell has frozen over...I've joined Facebook

2009-02-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

(This picture is from Flickr user billums and is used under this license)

Back on October 9, 2007 I blogged the following:

So I'm thinking that I may have to set up a Facebook account at some point if I want to be only slightly non-trendy. I know I'm supposed to be the "I am not trendy" guy, but my MySpace account is so non-trendy that it's like leeches.

Of course, trendiness is not the sole reason to join Facebook. It's potentially an excellent way to contact people you know.

But, over the years, I've been reluctant to join Facebook for a couple of reasons:

Their view on pseudononymous accounts. Basically, they prefer that you use your given name on Facebook, even if you market yourself under another identity. Until recently most of my online interactions were under the Ontario Emperor name, and I didn't want to jettison my brand just because Facebook wanted me to do so. If you really want to explore my thoughts on this in detail, check out my link-heavy song parody that I wrote on January 9, 2008.

The horror stories about Facebook policies. There are numerous examples of these, the whole thingie about the terms of service being the latest example.

Lately, my attitude has been changing on both the counts. I have started several projects (such as Empoprises) that use my real name, so I am establishing an online presence under that "brand" for better or worse. And, while Facebook may have onerous terms of service, so does everyone else.

Last night I spent some time on LinkedIn, and ended up sending connection requests to two people that I knew from high school. This in itself was unusual, because I have only maintained regular contact with one person from my high school. Not because I hated the school or anything like that, but because I left town in 1979 and have rarely been back since, so I've naturally lost touch with a lot of folks. So anyways, I sent the two connection requests, and got the following response from the second person when my request was accepted:

John, get on facebook

Well, when that person talks, I listen. (I'd tell you the name of the person who sent this message, but if I did that, I'd be violating that person's privacy, wouldn't I?)

So I signed up for Facebook and was immediately befriended by Jan McInnis, as well as by a former co-worker who is very social media-savvy. I've sent out a few more friend requests and gotten two responses, but have not yet heard from the classmate who urged me to join Facebook in the first place.

So how will I use Facebook? I've read the suggestions in this FriendFeed thread that I started, and my initial thought is that I will use it in conjunction with my LinkedIn and Plaxo accounts (and, to a limited extent, with my MySpace account). I won't be following over a thousand people like I do in Twitter or FriendFeed, but the Facebook account may not just consist of people that I've physically met either.

In essence, I've provided the answer to my own question:

Has Facebook become one of the services that you must join, whether you like it or not?

Perhaps. Theoretically you could use one service to do everything that you want to do, but there are going to be people who are on Facebook and not on LinkedIn, or vice versa. (This is one of the reasons that I maintain my MySpace account; certain people are only reachable there.)

The only disturbing part of this is that the number of "must-use" services could potentially mushroom out of control. Think about it; in addition to various Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo properties, I have a presence on a ton of services, including:

Allmusic
Am570radio
Amazon
Chumby
del.icio.us
Disqus
Excite
Facebook
Frappr
FriendFeed
Getsatisfaction
Gospelr
InfoWorld
Inside the IE
Jaiku
last.fm
Mojipage
Monster
Mychurch
Myheritage
MySpace
Ning
Pandora
PBwiki
Perplexmi
Scrine
Soup.io
Stumbleupon
Technorati
Tripod
Twit2Fit
Twitter
Velvet Rope
Wetpaint
Wikipedia
Yelp

And that's probably just one third of the services to which I have memberships. There are some memberships that I have for corporate reasons, and there are some memberships that I just plain am not going to talk about (for a variety of reasons).

Frankly, some of the services listed above haven't been visited by me in months, if not years. Some I use every day. But what happens if a situation arises where I have to use five of these services every day? Ten? Twenty?

But I'm not concerned about that now. The immediate concern in my mind is this - what the heck is a poke, and what is the etiquette to follow if I get one? Belgrade and Beyond has expressed some thoughts:

How many times you have been poked by a friend, colleague, and affiliate? And what was your reaction? I had to write few lines on this as I am recently (massively) poked on Facebook. It was regular, surprisingly massively poking (not superpoking), not explicitly poked, but – just regular poke with two choices given: to poke back or remove poke....

In social networking terms, poke is contextual, and the context of poke is dependent upon the current level of familiarity between the ‘poker’ and the ‘pokee’. I remember last year I was invited to a group “Enough with poking, let’s just have sex “, and ignored request for the membership as I observed then poking as friendly virtual gesture with friends and colleagues , usually denoting verbal phrase: “Hey , what’s up?” , or “Look at me!”, saying” ”Hi”, to someone you already know well or screaming background form: “Hey, I’m here, online!,” or “Hey, I’m busy but just poked you to say I didn’t forget this and that or will be back soon’, followed usually by message/email. And there are pokes that are expressing more than friendly, primarily school behavior with connotation: “I poke you and now you have to poke me back”.
Poking for fun? “I won’t pull your hair/ponytail – but I’m poking you” - elements of (naïve) and light weighted flirtation. Therefore, poke can be flirting. Poke can be “I am shy but won’t to say hi”.

There are numerous possible meanings and interpretations behind the poke....

Oh boy. Learning a new culture and its terminology is complex.

#TINOSP.

The exclusionary and self-justifying nature of hashtags #DYSP

2009-02-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

Earlier this morning, in complete compliance with California law, I entered the following message into fftogo:

stopped at a train track. #dysp

All industries and societies, probably including your own, have their own jargon which not only makes it easier for people within the industry or society to communicate, but also serves an exclusionary purpose by ensuring that outsiders have no idea what you're talking about.

Among the other things that hashtags such as #dysp do, they also serve these two purposes. In this case, the second purpose (exclusionary) is beneficial, because if I had spelled out the words in the acronym "dysp," people unfamiliar with the phrase in question would probably misconstrue it.

"What do you have against Steven Perez?" they would ask. "Why are you slamming Steven Perez? What has this guy ever done to you?"

Now perhaps you're one of the readers of this blog who has no idea what "dysp" stands for. The acronym stands for a phrase which took currency on FriendFeed and elsewhere, the phrase being "Damn You Steven Perez!" (often typed in ALL CAPS, but it's early in the morning so I'll spare you). This phrase was used frequently in FriendFeed, and eventually led to the creation of a (then-)private FriendFeed room, the sole purpose of which was to assemble a video of people saying the golden phrase.

The video was released mid-day on Perez's birthday, but he did not have a chance to watch it until later, so his reaction was delayed. (Oh, and be sure to watch past the first minute and 30 seconds.)

For me, use of #dysp instead of the full phrase also confers another benefit. You see, I have a problem saying, or even typing, the word "damn." Even when it is not preceded by the name of a deity, the implications of the term are truly harrowing when you think about them. So I'll use this substitute or another substitute here and there, and when referring to the golden phrase I'll use #dysp and feel better about myself, telling myself that I'm not damning anyone, but just d'ing them.

Of course, that is a danged crock, and my self-justification of my actions isn't fooling anyone. Or Anyone with a capital A.

Oh well...so should I just say, "This is not optimal, Steven Perez"? TINOSP?

Fundamental rights, one more time - can two fathers marry their two sons?

2009-02-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

I've previously blogged about this on October 25, 2008 and December 23, 2008, and it's time to revisit it.

As you may know, California's Proposition 8 is being challenged in the California courts, and a hearing will be held on March 5, 2009. One of the arguments against the proposition is worded as follows:

Proposition 8 Is An Ultra Vires Amendment Because It Abrogates Fundamental Rights Protected By Article I, Section 1 Of The California Constitution Without A Compelling Justification.

There are those words "fundamental rights" again. For the record, here is how Article I, Section 1 of the California Constitution reads:

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

SECTION 1. All people are by nature free and independent and have
inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and
liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing
and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.

Note that this states that all people may pursue happiness - not just all straight people, and presumably the 2008 decision of the California Supreme Court is based upon this idea that "all people...have inalienable rights...[for] pursuing...happiness."

Um...all people?

On February 23, Randy Thomas linked to an MSNBC article by Kathleen Lewis. The title of the article? "I have two husbands."

...My first husband was Alan.

We fell together like a couple of old shoes, somehow instantly comfortable with each other. We had similar opinions about plural relationships, and neither of us was averse to the idea. Around a year and a half after we were married, we met Eric. He and I were instantly attracted to each other and, as Alan had no objection, we began getting to know each other better. Over time, I found myself falling in love with Eric. Alan certainly wasn't blind to this, so we all got together to discuss it. This turned out to be one of the most important conversations of my life, and led to an increase in my family’s size.

Alan and Eric let me make the sleeping arrangements, and I worked to make sure I spent time with both of them. To all outward appearances we were a married couple with a male friend living with us. While some found it awkward when the three of us occasionally attended parties and such together, very few people attempted to pry. To avoid legal troubles, I remained legally married to Alan, and we all decided a larger house was in order when we met Leslie.

Fast forward to today, and our family is now composed of Alan, Eric, Leslie, Amber, and myself, plus our children: Todd, Steve, Jennifer, Lisa, and Amber is currently pregnant.

The MSNBC article goes on to describe the logistics of the marriage, and then criticizes the restricted worldview of "Big Love":

When ‘Big Love’ came out, we all thought it was pretty silly. To start with, we all consider ourselves to be one family, not three separate but connected families. The ideas that plural marriage is restricted to the one man and several wives model — and that it has to have a religious basis — are both ridiculous. We also don't consider the political jockeying, the backbiting, and the attempts to get more of the husband's attention or money, to be loving behavior.

Lewis then concludes:

With all the traditions we have coming from other cultures and various parts of the country, who's to say what is or isn't mainstream? Kind of makes "non-traditional" lose its meaning.

So presumably this family has a fundamental right to be recognized as such in the state of California. And anyone who disagrees is an oppressor.

But let's take this a step further. What if the two dads - Alan and Eric - decide that they want to marry a couple of the children - let's say Todd and Steve?

After all, why not? It's not like Leviticus 18 has any binding force in the state of California. And anyone who would try to apply Leviticus 18:6 and the rest would be extremely insensitive. Take Barney Frank:

"Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest. I found that deeply offensive and unfair."

Or, in other words, Barney Frank is displaying his hateful attitude toward people who, in the words of the California Constitution, "have inalienable rights...[for] pursuing...happiness." Sounds like a fundamental right to me. You know, if people would just be accepting and not be such haters, Michael Jackson might still be living in Neverland today.

But let's go back to Randy Thomas, who has a different view:

Because I am a Christian I believe a family should be a Husband and Wife coming together as one. Both Husband and Wife have very specific, wonderful roles and responsibilities that complement each other. The blessing of their unique gender roles and giftings add to a level of healthy interdependency that helps both become more together than they would ever have been alone. They don’t mirror each other in bland “gender neutral” definitions. They celebrate each other’s equal capacity to bear the Image of God uniquely as well as when they bear His Image together. Their union is transcendent in that it bears the Image of God in a way that no other union can. If the Lord chooses to allow them to have children or adopt … great! The family increases to Gramps, Gramma, Mom, Dad … Punkin’ and Dot! And of course it goes without saying … uncles, aunts … cousins. I believe that God created that to be His ideal “version” of family so, I am biased.

Thomas concluded his post as follows:

My question is this, do same sex couples condone polyamorous/polygamous relationships? I will offer my view (from my past experience and current ear to the ground) either in the comments below or in a follow up post. But I want to give you all some time to respond too. Don’t be shy :). Oh and I hope that there may be other things in this post you might want to chime in on so … go for it.

As I write this Thomas has only received one comment to his post, but a spirited discussion has broken out in this FriendFeed thread. In the conversation, Mark Trapp pointed out how the California Supreme Court may evaluate different proposals to limit marriage:

The ruling also provides two standards by which the state must determine any (not just same-sex marriages) marriage validity: "Under the strict scrutiny standard, unlike the rational basis standard, in order to demonstrate the constitutional validity of a challenged statutory classification the state must establish (1) that the state interest intended to be served by the differential treatment not only is a constitutionally legitimate interest, but is a compelling state interest, and (2) that the differential treatment not only is reasonably related to but is necessary to serve that compelling state interest."

Of course, it all depends upon what the compelling state interest is. For example, if the compelling interest is to encourage procreation, then gay marriages may not be valid, but marriages of eight teenagers who have hit puberty may be valid. After all, as I've noted before, marriages of young people existed well before the California Constitution was written. If, on the other hand, the compelling interest is to create stable relationships, then the only valid marriages may be ones in which people have certain beliefs opposing divorce, and in which the married participants have income levels that lend themselves to stable relationships (not too poor, not too rich, but just right).

This will be an interesting ruling when it comes out.

P.S. If you have comments specific to polygamy and polyamory and whatever other poly- word you can conceive of, you may want to enter your comments into Randy's post directly.

Those who are condemned to repeat history are bound to remember it

2009-02-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Louis Gray was interviewed in Sociosophy, and something that he said caught my eye:

I would like to find a way to...make it easier to find older content that is relevant. I know that 95% or more of my posts from 3 months ago and before get very little visibility now, even if they are still extremely relevant.

I was musing on this as I was getting my hair cut (hey, you gotta do something), and I figured out three ways in which older content can be highlighted again:

The Ann Landers way. Matthew and Sarah Gray aren't the only twins around; the most famous Ann Landers was a twin of the most famous Dear Abby (Ann was really Esther, while Abby was really Pauline). At one point, Ann Landers got into a bit of trouble for re-running old columns without advertising them as such.

The Unclutterer way. There is a blog called the Unclutterer (I can definitely use it), and they'll often run a post with the title "A year ago on Unclutterer." (Here's the February 22, 2009 version, which looks at posts from February 2008.) This serves to remind you of good stuff from the past.

The "Where Are They Now?" way. Normally used in music and entertainment (whatever happened to Foghat???), this potentially provides a way to recycle the old content and update it, making it wonderful and fresh and relevant.

The last way is the most intriguing, since it actually adds value to the content. For example, what would happen if Gray added value to his earlier content? Let's pretend that he wrote a post like this back in January 2006:

Portable computing devices just keep on getting smaller and smaller. I don't have kids, but someday I may have a kid, and I wonder if the portable devices that are around at that time will be small enough to fit in my infant child's hand?

Well, Gray (to my knowledge) never wrote a post like that, but certainly he could update the post today and speculate on devices that TWO kids could hold.

I'm am not Louis Gray, but I'm intrigued about using this "where are they now" method myself. I've done it here and there on occasion, but perhaps I could make a concerted effort to recycle my content. And it would definitely require a concerted effort, because I've generated a lot of ~~quality~~ content over the years. I contributed 3,072 posts to my first main blog, the Ontario Empoblog, between October 2003 and February 2007. My current main blog, this very mrontemp, already has 2,925 posts (not counting this one). Plus I've written a few hundred in various other blogs, ranging from my fake radio and TV station blogs to my current series of Empoprises blogs.

So I've got a lot of recycling and updating to do, should I choose to do so.

Perhaps Empoprise-MU is due for a post on Fred Smith. I've covered Patti Smith pretty well already.

If he had used the name "John Doe," no one would have suspected anything

2009-02-23T17:15:00.000-08:00

Normally I don't post work-related stuff in my personal blog, but this one was too good to pass up. Put this in the dumb crime category.

From the Manchester, New Hampshire Police Blog:

Manchester Police Officers conducting a routine traffic stop on Hanover St. [on the afternoon of February 15, 2009] were greeted by a local man who provided the name John Brown and claimed to have a Maryland driver's license. When no record of the license was found, the man was arrested and brought to the Manchester Police Department. Despite his insistence that he was giving his true name, the officers sensed a problem.

Now I don't see why the police were jumping to conclusions. Just because a local guy claims to have a Maryland driver's license, which he doesn't have, is no reason to think that any hanky-panky is going on. After all, he gave his name, John Brown. What more do you want?

Well, for whatever reason, the police decided to investigate a little further:

They then brought the man over to the department's Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) machine and entered his fingerprints. The officers then made contact with NH State Police, who were able to provide an immediate identification of the subject. As it turns out, the officers' instincts were correct and the subject had in fact provided a false name. He was identified as:

John Hilliard DOB: 9-7-1973 of 45 Bradley St. Manchester

Through further investigation, it was found that subject Hilliard had two outstanding Bench Warrants and an active Arrest Warrant for a Parole Violation. Along with the warrants, Hillard was charged with Disobeying a Police Officer and Unsworn Falsification.

Oops.

View Larger Map

As you can see rom the map, Brown's - I mean Hilliard's residence is right next to Nutts Pond.

Sounds about right.

P.S. While there have been cases over the years that have challenged the accuracy of fingerprint searches, it should be noted that tenprint searches - i.e., searches in which a person's complete set of prints is compared to a previously captured complete set of prints - are very accurate. The cases that have come under question, such as the Brandon Mayfield case, have involved searches of latent prints, or prints (or partial prints) that are recovered from crime scenes. Since the criminal is not courteous enough to leave a high quality print at the crime scene, these prints are much more difficult to search. Chris in Utah explains the difference:

While it is pretty technical, CSI isn’t really rocket science. And while fingerprint evidence isn’t nearly as reliable as DNA, it IS reliable. What your article was talking about is what is called a partial fingerprint. If you are lucky enough to find what is called an "AFIS" (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) quality fingerprint, and it matches your suspect, it is so close to the reliablilty of DNA that the difference is not worth mentioning. But we very very rarely get that quality of fingerprint. We do find partial prints. They say that they are of comparison quality, if you find a suspect, you can match it to that person, but you can’t run it through the AFIS system. Those prints are not nearly as reliable as DNA. Those prints are the ones that cause problems.

If you're interested in the subject of latent print examination, from both a forensic and a legal basis, I highly recommend Ed German's website at onin.com/fp.

Disclosure - my employer provided the Automated Fingerprint Identification System to the state of New Hampshire, but this case would have resulted in the same outcome had John Brown - I mean Hilliard lived and committed crimes in a state with an AFIS from another company, such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New York.

On Saturday's FriendFeed meetup, and on meetups in general

2009-02-22T17:50:00.000-08:00

Some people may think it odd that communicating via computers can lead to increased non-computer communications, but I've known that for decades.

I've previously blogged about some of my BBS experiences in the early 1990s (see this list of BBS systems I frequented), but some of the most fun from that time would be when the people from The Grotto and other WWIV boards would gather at places such as Benjie's (long gone), drink cold brown thingies, and shoot the breeze about Ralph the iguana and other topics that were the BBS generation's equivalent of bacon/mango conversations.

After that, most of my online communications remained strictly online until I began going to Oracle OpenWorld and blogging about it. When I first went to Oracle OpenWorld I'd only stay for a day or two, so it's wasn't until 2007 that I got to personally meet the other Oracle bloggers at the Thirsty Bear. I've joined them again in 2008 and, depending upon what transpires in my future, I hope to join them again at Oracle OpenWorld 2009.

So over a week ago, Anika Malone began planning a FriendFeed meetup for FriendFeed users in the Los Angeles area, at the Five Guys in Cerritos, California. While part of the attraction was the chance to sample a Five Guys burger (my parents had told me about them), obviously another part was the opportunity to meet Anika and other FriendFeeders, none of whom I had met before (other than the Oracle people, of course).

So my wife (who is not on FriendFeed or Twitter, but who did get active in the Grotto and some other BBS systems back in the day) and I drove down to Cerritos, a little later than usual (tips: make sure you leave on time, and that your just-repaired car seat actually works, and that you have money for food). After I got my lunch, I got a chance to visit with some other FriendFeeders: not only Anika (faboomama), but also adrianculici, krynsky, geekandahalf (Derrick), elzbeth (Pea), and faithx5 (Jandy).

While my wife and I skipped out on post-burger geek store goodies, we had a fun time.

Incidentally, I've written three additional posts which are at least tangentially related to the FriendFeed meetup:

Buffalo in Hovercraft, or Why I Don't Direct Videos (Empoprise-MU)

Five Guys Burgers and Fries (Empoprise-BI)

Van Hagar and the stringless phenomenon (Empoprise-MU)

And no, I couldn't think of any way to work the experience into my other two blogs, since Cerritos isn't in the Inland Empire, and since Five Guys doesn't have NTN Buzztime trivia.

But this isn't the last meetup that I'll be attending; the LinkedIn group Professionals of the Inland Empire will be getting together on Tuesday, and I hope to stop by there for a little bit (although I have another commitment later that evening).

Lunch.

2009-02-21T15:34:00.001-08:00

The Lausanne Covenant, business, and religion

2009-02-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

I noticed that one of my LinkedIn contacts had joined a LinkedIn group called "Christian Professionals." The group includes a statement, part of which reads as follows:

The Christian Professionals Group exists to be:

- a welcome place where God's Kids, at all levels of maturity, and from all walks of life can encourage and be encouraged to grow in relationship with Jesus and each other.

- a growing place where Christian principles are taught, caught and internalized, leading to application in interpersonal relationships in the home, the business world and all of life.

- a disciplined place - where respect for God and each other is accepted and exemplified.

It then goes on to say:

The statement of Beliefs we agree to can be found at: http://www.lausanne.org/lausanne-1974/lausanne-covenant.html

Having not previously been familiar with this covenant, I went ahead and read it.

The Lausanne Covenant

INTRODUCTION

We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, from more than 150 nations, participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, praise God for his great salvation and rejoice in the fellowship he has given us with himself and with each other. We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in our day, moved to penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished task of evangelization. We believe the Gospel is God's good news for the whole world, and we are determined by his grace to obey Christ's commission to proclaim it to all mankind and to make disciples of every nation. We desire, therefore, to affirm our faith and our resolve, and to make public our covenant.

1. THE PURPOSE OF GOD

We affirm our belief in the one-eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ's body, and the glory of his name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission, by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that even when borne by earthen vessels the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.

(Isa. 40:28; Matt. 28:19; Eph. 1:11; Acts 15:14; John 17:6, 18; Eph 4:12; 1 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 12:2; II Cor. 4:7)

2. THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF THE BIBLE

We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We also affirm the power of God's word to accomplish his purpose of salvation. The message of the Bible is addressed to all men and women. For God's revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the Holy Spirit still speaks today. He illumines the minds of God's people in every culture to perceive its truth freshly through their own eyes and thus discloses to the whole Church ever more of the many-colored wisdom of God.

(II Tim. 3:16; II Pet. 1:21; John 10:35; Isa. 55:11; 1 Cor. 1:21; Rom. 1:16, Matt. 5:17,18; Jude 3; Eph. 1:17,18; 3:10,18)

3. THE UNIQUENESS AND UNIVERSALITY OF CHRIST
We affirm that there is only one Saviour and only one gospel, although there is a wide diversity of evangelistic approaches. We recognise that everyone has some knowledge of God through his general revelation in nature. But we deny that this can save, for people suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. We also reject as derogatory to Christ and the gospel every kind of syncretism and dialogue which implies that Christ speaks equally through all religions and ideologies. Jesus Christ, being himself the only God-man, who gave himself as the only ransom for sinners, is the only mediator between God and people. There is no other name by which we must be saved. All men and women are perishing because of sin, but God loves everyone, not wishing that any should perish but that all should repent. Yet those who reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to eternal separation from God. To proclaim Jesus as "the Saviour of the world" is not to affirm that all people are either automatically or ultimately saved, still less to affirm that all religions offer salvation in Christ. Rather it is to proclaim God's love for a world of sinners and to invite everyone to respond to him as Saviour and Lord in the wholehearted personal commitment of repentance and faith. Jesus Christ has been exalted above every other name; we long for the day when every knee shall bow to him and every tongue shall confess him Lord.

(Gal. 1:6-9;Rom. 1:18-32; I Tim. 2:5,6; Acts 4:12; John 3:16-19; II Pet. 3:9; II Thess. 1:7-9;John 4:42; Matt. 11:28; Eph. 1:20,21; Phil. 2:9-11)

4. THE NATURE OF EVANGELISM
To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Saviour and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship. Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into his Church and responsible service in the world.

(I Cor. 15:3,4; Acts 2: 32-39; John 20:21; I Cor. 1:23; II Cor. 4:5; 5:11,20; Luke 14:25-33; Mark 8:34; Acts 2:40,47; Mark 10:43-45)

5. CHRISTIAN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all men. We therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, colour, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he or she should be respected and served, not exploited. Here too we express penitence both for our neglect and for having sometimes regarded evangelism and social concern as mutually exclusive. Although reconciliation with other people is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty. For both are necessary expressions of our doctrines of God and man, our love for our neighbour and our obedience to Jesus Christ. The message of salvation implies also a message of judgment upon every form of alienation, oppression and discrimination, and we should not be afraid to denounce evil and injustice wherever they exist. When people receive Christ they are born again into his kingdom and must seek not only to exhibit but also to spread its righteousness in the midst of an unrighteous world. The salvation we claim should be transforming us in the totality of our personal and social responsibilities. Faith without works is dead.

(Acts 17:26,31; Gen. 18:25; Isa. 1:17; Psa. 45:7; Gen. 1:26,27; Jas. 3:9; Lev. 19:18; Luke 6:27,35; Jas. 2:14-26; Joh. 3:3,5; Matt. 5:20; 6:33; II Cor. 3:18; Jas. 2:20)

6. THE CHURCH AND EVANGELISM
We affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people into the world as the Father sent him, and that this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the world. We need to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non-Christian society. In the Church's mission of sacrificial service evangelism is primary. World evangelization requires the whole Church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. The Church is at the very centre of God's cosmic purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel. But a church which preaches the cross must itself be marked by the cross. It becomes a stumbling block to evangelism when it betrays the gospel or lacks a living faith in God, a genuine love for people, or scrupulous honesty in all things including promotion and finance. The church is the community of God's people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology.

(John 17:18; 20:21; Matt. 28:19,20; Acts 1:8; 20:27; Eph. 1:9,10; 3:9-11; Gal. 6:14,17; II Cor. 6:3,4; II Tim. 2:19-21; Phil. 1:27)

7. COOPERATION IN EVANGELISM
We affirm that the Church's visible unity in truth is God's purpose. Evangelism also summons us to unity, because our oneness strengthens our witness, just as our disunity undermines our gospel of reconciliation. We recognize, however, that organisational unity may take many forms and does not necessarily forward evangelism. Yet we who share the same biblical faith should be closely united in fellowship, work and witness. We confess that our testimony has sometimes been marred by a sinful individualism and needless duplication. We pledge ourselves to seek a deeper unity in truth, worship, holiness and mission. We urge the development of regional and functional cooperation for the furtherance of the Church's mission, for strategic planning, for mutual encouragement, and for the sharing of resources and experience.

(John 17:21,23; Eph. 4:3,4; John 13:35; Phil. 1:27; John 17:11-23)

8. CHURCHES IN EVANGELISTIC PARTNERSHIP
We rejoice that a new missionary era has dawned. The dominant role of western missions is fast disappearing. God is raising up from the younger churches a great new resource for world evangelization, and is thus demonstrating that the responsibility to evangelise belongs to the whole body of Christ. All churches should therefore be asking God and themselves what they should be doing both to reach their own area and to send missionaries to other parts of the world. A reevaluation of our missionary responsibility and role should be continuous. Thus a growing partnership of churches will develop and the universal character of Christ's Church will be more clearly exhibited. We also thank God for agencies which labor in Bible translation, theological education, the mass media, Christian literature, evangelism, missions, church renewal and other specialist fields. They too should engage in constant self-examination to evaluate their effectiveness as part of the Church's mission.

(Rom. 1:8; Phil. 1:5; 4:15; Acts 13:1-3, I Thess. 1:6-8)

9. THE URGENCY OF THE EVANGELISTIC TASK
More than 2,700 million people, which is more than two-thirds of all humanity, have yet to be evangelised. We are ashamed that so many have been neglected; it is a standing rebuke to us and to the whole Church. There is now, however, in many parts of the world an unprecedented receptivity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are convinced that this is the time for churches and para-church agencies to pray earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to launch new efforts to achieve world evangelization. A reduction of foreign missionaries and money in an evangelised country may sometimes be necessary to facilitate the national church's growth in self-reliance and to release resources for unevangelised areas. Missionaries should flow ever more freely from and to all six continents in a spirit of humble service. The goal should be, by all available means and at the earliest possible time, that every person will have the opportunity to hear, understand, and to receive the good news. We cannot hope to attain this goal without sacrifice. All of us are shocked by the poverty of millions and disturbed by the injustices which cause it. Those of us who live in affluent circumstances accept our duty to develop a simple life-style in order to contribute more generously to both relief and evangelism.

(John 9:4; Matt. 9:35-38; Rom. 9:1-3; I Cor. 9:19-23; Mark 16:15; Isa. 58:6,7; Jas. 1:27; 2:1-9; Matt. 25:31-46; Acts 2:44,45; 4:34,35)

10. EVANGELISM AND CULTURE
The development of strategies for world evangelization calls for imaginative pioneering methods. Under God, the result will be the rise of churches deeply rooted in Christ and closely related to their culture. Culture must always be tested and judged by Scripture. Because men and women are God's creatures, some of their culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because they are fallen, all of it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic. The gospel does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness, and insists on moral absolutes in every culture. Missions have all too frequently exported with the gospel an alien culture and churches have sometimes been in bondage to culture rather than to Scripture. Christ's evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of all but their personal authenticity in order to become the servants of others, and churches must seek to transform and enrich culture, all for the glory of God.

(Mark 7:8,9,13; Gen. 4:21,22; I Cor. 9:19-23; Phil. 2:5-7; II Cor. 4:5)

11. EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP
We confess that we have sometimes pursued church growth at the expense of church depth, and divorced evangelism from Christian nurture. We also acknowledge that some of our missions have been too slow to equip and encourage national leaders to assume their rightful responsibilities. Yet we are committed to indigenous principles, and long that every church will have national leaders who manifest a Christian style of leadership in terms not of domination but of service. We recognise that there is a great need to improve theological education, especially for church leaders. In every nation and culture there should be an effective training programme for pastors and laity in doctrine, discipleship, evangelism, nurture and service. Such training programmes should not rely on any stereotyped methodology but should be developed by creative local initiatives according to biblical standards.

(Col. I:27,28; Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5,9; Mark 10:42-45; Eph. 4:11,12)

12. SPIRITUAL CONFLICT
We believe that we are engaged in constant spiritual warfare with the principalities and powers of evil, who are seeking to overthrow the Church and frustrate its task of world evangelization. We know our need to equip ourselves with God's armour and to fight this battle with the spiritual weapons of truth and prayer. For we detect the activity of our enemy, not only in false ideologies outside the Church, but also inside it in false gospels which twist Scripture and put people in the place of God. We need both watchfulness and discernment to safeguard the biblical gospel. We acknowledge that we ourselves are not immune to worldliness of thoughts and action, that is, to a surrender to secularism. For example, although careful studies of church growth, both numerical and spiritual, are right and valuable, we have sometimes neglected them. At other times, desirous to ensure a response to the gospel, we have compromised our message, manipulated our hearers through pressure techniques, and become unduly preoccupied with statistics or even dishonest in our use of them. All this is worldly. The Church must be in the world; the world must not be in the Church.

(Eph. 6:12; II Cor. 4:3,4; Eph. 6:11,13-18; II Cor. 10:3-5; I John 2:18-26; 4:1-3; Gal. 1:6-9; II Cor. 2:17; 4:2; John 17:15)

13. FREEDOM AND PERSECUTION
It is the God-appointed duty of every government to secure conditions of peace, justice and liberty in which the Church may obey God, serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and preach the gospel without interference. We therefore pray for the leaders of nations and call upon them to guarantee freedom of thought and conscience, and freedom to practise and propagate religion in accordance with the will of God and as set forth in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also express our deep concern for all who have been unjustly imprisoned, and especially for those who are suffering for their testimony to the Lord Jesus. We promise to pray and work for their freedom. At the same time we refuse to be intimidated by their fate. God helping us, we too will seek to stand against injustice and to remain faithful to the gospel, whatever the cost. We do not forget the warnings of Jesus that persecution is inevitable.

(I Tim. 1:1-4, Acts 4:19; 5:29; Col. 3:24; Heb. 13:1-3; Luke 4:18; Gal. 5:11; 6:12; Matt. 5:10-12; John 15:18-21)

14. THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent his Spirit to bear witness to his Son; without his witness ours is futile. Conviction of sin, faith in Christ, new birth and Christian growth are all his work. Further, the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus evangelism should arise spontaneously from a Spirit-filled church. A church that is not a missionary church is contradicting itself and quenching the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization will become a realistic possibility only when the Spirit renews the Church in truth and wisdom, faith, holiness, love and power. We therefore call upon all Christians to pray for such a visitation of the sovereign Spirit of God that all his fruit may appear in all his people and that all his gifts may enrich the body of Christ. Only then will the whole church become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice.

(I Cor. 2:4; John 15:26;27; 16:8-11; I Cor. 12:3; John 3:6-8; II Cor. 3:18; John 7:37-39; I Thess. 5:19; Acts 1:8; Psa. 85:4-7; 67:1-3; Gal. 5:22,23; I Cor. 12:4-31; Rom. 12:3-8)

15. THE RETURN OF CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly, in power and glory, to consummate his salvation and his judgment. This promise of his coming is a further spur to our evangelism, for we remember his words that the gospel must first be preached to all nations. We believe that the interim period between Christ's ascension and return is to be filled with the mission of the people of God, who have no liberty to stop before the end. We also remember his warning that false Christs and false prophets will arise as precursors of the final Antichrist. We therefore reject as a proud, self-confident dream the notion that people can ever build a utopia on earth. Our Christian confidence is that God will perfect his kingdom, and we look forward with eager anticipation to that day, and to the new heaven and earth in which righteousness will dwell and God will reign forever. Meanwhile, we rededicate ourselves to the service of Christ and of people in joyful submission to his authority over the whole of our lives.

(Mark 14:62; Heb. 9:28; Mark 13:10; Acts 1:8-11; Matt. 28:20; Mark 13:21-23; John 2:18; 4:1-3; Luke 12:32; Rev. 21:1-5; II Pet. 3:13; Matt. 28:18)

CONCLUSION
Therefore, in the light of this our faith and our resolve, we enter into a solemn covenant with God and with each other, to pray, to plan and to work together for the evangelization of the whole world. We call upon others to join us. May God help us by his grace and for his glory to be faithful to this our covenant! Amen, Alleluia!

Cephas Library has published a very long denunciation of ecumenicism in general and the Lausanne Covenant in particular. And Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) noted that there are different versions of the Lausanne Covenant (they prefer the 1974 version). The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is apparently silent on the Lausanne Covenant, but International Cooperating Ministries supports it, as does the Lausanne Committee on Jewish Evangelism.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave. And this post just touches the surface.

Deep Springs revisited...or not (I never went there)

2009-02-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last night I was at a college night, during which various college/university representatives spoke about their institutions.

One of the speakers was Peter Osgood, Director of Admission at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. Osgood was not merely there to represent Harvey Mudd; he was charged to represent ALL private colleges and universities. (Other speakers spoke about the UC system, the Cal State system, community colleges, and the like.)

While Osgood noted that the median size of a private school is smaller than the median size of a public school, there is still great diversity in private schools. He cited the University of Southern California as an example of a very large private school, and then asked if anyone knew what the smallest private college in California was.

Out of the crowd of a couple of hundred people, yours truly ventured to guess, "Deep Springs College?"

And yours truly is now the proud owner of a Harvey Mudd banner for getting the answer right.

I didn't get a chance to talk to Osgood afterwards, so I couldn't tell him how I came across this bit of trivia. (Hmm...another case in which a post could have gone into another of my blogs. But I don't see this as an NTN Buzztime question.)

So anyways, back in the dark ages of the 1970s, when Robert Plant was all the rage and the Pittsburgh Steelers dominated football - wait a minute, THE FIRST TIME when Robert Plant was - let me start again.

So anyways, back in the dark ages of the 1970s, when there were only three commercial television networks, I was back in Virginia, getting a lot of mail from colleges and universities. I forget whether I got this in the mail or read about it somewhere, but one of the colleges that I heard of was Deep Springs. My impression at the time was that the college was an interesting place, to say the least. Located in one state with an address in another state, the students (all male, I believe) read the classics for two years, when they weren't working on the ranch at which the college was located. I decided that was a little too far out for me, so I went to Reed College instead, where I read the classics for four years and worked on the Reed College Quest. (Any educator who reads this post is probably smirking right now.)

Well, Deep Springs is still around today. Still two-year, still all-male. But, unlike the 1970s, you can read about the college on its website:

Deep Springs is an all-male liberal arts college located on a cattle-ranch and alfalfa farm in California's High Desert. Electrical pioneer L.L. Nunn founded the school in 1917 on the three pillars of academics, labor, and self-governance in order to help young men prepare themselves for lives of service to humanity. The school's 26 students, along with its staff and faculty, form a close community engaged in this intense project.

Deep Springs operates on the belief that manual labor and political deliberation are integral parts of a comprehensive liberal arts education.

Each student attends for two years and receives a full scholarship valued at over $50,000 per year. Afterwards, most complete their degrees at the world's most prestigious four year institutions.

View Larger Map

But not everyone has the most positive experience at Deep Springs:

n 1975-76, I attended Deep Springs College, arguably the strangest college in the world. It was an interesting place; the academics were actually much tougher and more challenging than anything I had to do in graduate school....

I hated my time at Deep Springs, actually. The year I was there I was the only vegetarian, and the cooks were hostile, cooking even corn in pork fat. As a result, I ended up with some serious nutrition-related medical problems and a bad attitude, and I ended up leaving early. Nonetheless, you can't go to Deep Springs without having it shape you in some significant way.

I could say more about very small schools...but I won't.

But small private schools, as well as large private schools, have similar challenges in some ways. Osgood noted one obvious difference between private and public schools: namely, that private schools are much more dependent upon non-government sources of funding. And fund-raising issues hit Deep Springs also, as this January 2008 article shows:

Louis Fantasia — an acclaimed Shakespeare scholar and theatrical director — has been ousted as president of Deep Springs College after only six months in the position.

Fantasia’s sudden departure, announced with little detail on New Year’s Day, stunned many alumni and others who have since learned of it. Fantasia would not comment, and board members released only a vague statement indicating a “divergence of visions” for the college by Fantasia and the board.

Sources familiar with the conflict at Deep Springs say that the difference of opinion had to do in part with fund raising....

According to those who are sympathetic to what the board did, Fantasia did not understand the unique nature of Deep Springs governance (although he had taught there several times) or of the role of its president, and was too focused on fund raising....

Critics of Fantasia said that his interest in fund raising risked setting up a situation where donors’ views might take precedence over those of students, potentially endangering the self-governance of which alumni are so proud.

Supporters of Fantasia talk about similar issues, but with a different take. They argue that he has correctly identified a need to significantly increase the college’s endowment (currently about $15 million) and to make the institution more visible. By keeping fund raising ambitions more modest, these supporters say, the current board leaders are placing a higher priority on preserving the status quo than on improving the college.

The whole thing is odd when you consider the state of education today. I could be wrong, but it's possible that Deep Springs is the only private educational institution in which the board has criticized the president for doing TOO MUCH fund-raising.

Pass the alfalfa sprouts - the branded alfalfa sprouts, please.

Hmm...maybe this belonged in my business blog...

Christian Behavioral Medicine Practitioner?

2009-02-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

I was checking my email to see who was disturbed enough to follow me on Twitter, and I found that I am now being followed by @mdcounselor. So I followed @mdcounselor back.

It turns out that @mdcounselor is George Trimble, M.D. of Dallas, whose Twitter profile says he is a "Christian behavioral medicine practitioner."

I followed the link on his Twitter page...and ended up at an "under construction" notice. But Trimble wrote it in good humor:

Under Construction -- please drop back by. I know. I'll never see you again. C'est la vie, mon ami.

Trimble sounds depressed. He should see a Christian behavioral medicine practitioner.

Which reminds me - what IS a Christian behavioral medicine practitioner?

A Google search shows that Trimble is the only person who advertises himself in this way.

So, taking a step back, let's see what a behavioral medicine practitioner is. Here's what the state of Minnesota says:

Under administrative direction, provides technical consultation and direction to a broad spectrum of other clinicians, including medical specialists, psychologists, nurses, therapists and community health care providers in a specialized field of clinical psychology such as Adolescent Psychology, Behavioral Psychology, Neuro-Psychology or Forensics. Designs, develops, implements and evaluates psycho-social based treatment programs for clinically complex clients, including those with multiple diagnoses, conflicting diagnoses and unidentified disabilities. Testifies in court proceedings as an expert witness. Performs related work as required.

The Behavioral Medicine Practitioner provides specialized consultation to treatment teams in multiple programs serving a specific disability group (e.g. Mental Illness, Chemical Dependency, DD, etc.) at multiple facilities within a geographic region of service. It designs specialized treatment programs and directs the implementation of these strategies in multiple facilities within a region. It is also responsible for directing outcome analysis for programs within the specialty area, developing and delivering training in specialized assessment or treatment strategies for medical staff; directing and implementing quality improvement strategies and developing and monitoring utilization management.

The level of technical knowledge required for this position is typically acquired through additional specialized experience and educational training beyond that required for a Ph.D. in Psychology. Specialized certification is preferable.

You can probably tell that a human resources specialist (with appropriate degrees) wrote the text above. But the text below was written by an actual BMP - in Texas, no less. Dr. Greg Hupp:

Behavioral Medicine is the interdisciplinary field concerned with the
development and integration of behavioral, emotional, psychological, social, and medical knowledge and techniques relevant to the understanding of health and illness, and the application of this knowledge and these techniques to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.

So presumably my good Twitter buddy Trimble also integrates Christian belief into his practice. He's not the only one - Phil Monroe is a Christian psychologist who has a blog.

But he's not from Texas.

Senator Ontario Emperor, revisited #DYSP

2009-02-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it, I previously blogged about my unrealistic goal that I set for myself on December 31, 2008:

I want to become a U.S. Senator from Illinois in 2009. (Even though I haven't lived there since 1970, I'm not rich, and I'm a registered Republican.)

As time went on, however, Rod Blagojevich appointee Roland Burris became more and more acceptable both inside the Beltway and inside the Land of Lincoln, I was forced to concede that my chances of realizing my dream were becoming increasingly unlikely.

But that was January. This is February. And now Burris is running into a little bit of trouble. Outsanity tweeted about it this morning:

#Chicago's #Roland #Burris is in hot water. #DYSP

AMERICAblog linked to a Chicago Tribune editorial. Here's an excerpt:

Let’s see if we have it right: Burris had zero contact with any of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s cronies about his interest in the Senate seat being vacated by President Barack Obama— unless you count that conversation with former chief of staff Lon Monk, and, on further reflection, the ones with insiders John Harris, Doug Scofield and John Wyma and, oh yeah, the governor’s brother and fund-raising chief, Robert Blagojevich. But Burris didn’t raise a single dollar for the now ex-governor as a result of those contacts because that could be construed as a quid pro quo and besides, everyone he asked refused to donate.

The story gets worse with every telling.

Enough. Roland Burris must resign.

So this may work out after all. I'd better start following the Cubs and/or White Sox or something.

Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins' no news is good news #DYSP

2009-02-18T12:25:00.000-08:00

TechCrunch (yeah, the blog that TIME says is no longer relevant) posted this on February 17 regarding Twitter's ongoing search for someone to tell them how to make money:

At around 11 AM...the company sent out a rejection notice to many of the candidates who had applied for its open Product Manager position. But instead of using BCC to hide the identities of the applicants from each other, Twitter HR goofed and sent them all the message using a standard Carbon Copy, allowing everyone else to see who the other 185 applicants were.

But there's good news in this, as Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins noted:

What is interesting is the fact that I wasn’t on the recipient list for those rejected.

Pandora on the outs in copyright deal #DYSP

2009-02-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

From Silicon Alley Insider:

The federal Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which sets royalty rates for recording artists and labels, and the National Association of Broadcasters have resolved a dispute that threatened to shutter thousands of Internet radio stations as well as Web music sites....

The CRB did not reach a deal with the Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents Pandora, RealNetworks (RNWK) and MTV. Those negotiations failed to resolve before [the February 17] deadline.

We'll see if we have a bunch of Pandora alerts again.

Steeler Blood-Doping? #DYSP

2009-02-18T12:05:00.000-08:00

Sports by Brooks links to a New York Times article:

Two of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ biggest stars, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu, used their own blood in an innovative injury treatment before winning the Super Bowl. At least one major league pitcher, about 20 professional soccer players and perhaps hundreds of recreational athletes have also undergone the procedure, commonly called platelet-rich plasma therapy.

I guess it's your own blood, not a foreign substance that your cousin gave you, but it's still a little slimy.

For Mona...

2009-02-17T21:36:00.001-08:00

As the Lakers win, Mona responds to the latest picture meme, and I respond to Mona.

My Tracy Simers post for 2009

2009-02-13T19:00:00.000-08:00

After reading a ReadWriteWeb post on Wikipedia's policies regarding blogs, and thinking back on Wikipedia's removal of my Tracy Simers article (she didn't meet the notoriety guideline or some such), I ended up doing a search for Simers. In the process, I found a Google cache of what might have been her last blog post at the AM 570 radio site. Dated May 18, 2008, it begins as follows:

With Roggin & Simers Squared off the air, I have now returned to a normal life. I'm back to my 10-key working as an accountant and that's okay with me. I check in with Fred every now and then through email and he's always got some new project that he's working on. Thankfully my dad and I are no longer co-workers and have found our way back to having the best father/daughter relationship of anyone I know. I was thrilled to see that Ginger Chan is now doing traffic on tv. Since the show's been off the air, I've taken a bit of a break from my sports watching. Would you believe I haven't seen all four quarters of any Laker game this season? And as for the Dodgers and Angels - are they playing? I did follow USC basketball - love Tim Floyd and Dad and I made our annual trip to Vegas for the first and second rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament. And I can definitely promise that my mini sports vacation will come to an end when football season comes back around.

For those who haven't heard of Tracy Simers - which, by definition, would be most of you - Simers is the daughter of Los Angeles Times sports columnist T.J. Simers. Tracy herself was not in the limelight until she joined her father for a weekend radio show a few years back. Eventually, the two Simers joined Los Angeles television sportscaster Fred Roggin, replacing Mancow, on a morning drive-time show on Los Angeles radio - a show that was eventually replaced by Dan Patrick (amid comments that T.J. Simers was tiring of the show anyway).

From the post, Tracy Simers appears to be happy with the way things turned out, both professionally and personally. This is good.

More evidence that I am not trendy

2009-02-13T12:46:00.001-08:00

We were cleaning out an office, and I wanted to save this. I was overruled.

Why to stop listening to a press conference after five minutes

2009-02-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

(Let me precede this with an advance warning - this post concerns the Buffalo plane crash on Thursday evening, and some of the reporting of said crash, and gets a bit graphic toward the end. If you are a squeamish person, or if you have a connection to any of the deceased, I recommend that you read some other account of the plane crash reporting.)

I first heard about the Buffalo plane crash via a FriendFeed share from The Music Freak Molly. Unlike Molly, I chose to leave the television off last night. Therefore, the first TV coverage that I saw of the plane crash was this morning, when CNN televised a live press conference at approximately 9:00 am Eastern time.

A few things to bear in mind at the time of the press conference:

It had been less than twelve hours since the plane had crashed.

At the time, no list of the deceased had been released. However, reports at the time were stating that one person on the ground had been killed, and that everyone on the plane had died. Reports had been stating that 48 people were on the plane (44 passengers and 4 crew), but I had also heard an on-the-plane count of 49 (an off-duty pilot).

There was a fire at the crash scene which severely limited access to the site. Except for some NTSB personnel who were permitted to look for the black box, the only people on scene were emergency personnel trying to put out the fire.

The press conference started with a local official, then the NTSB spokesman was introduced. Because of the issues above, the NTSB person was limited to saying what they planned to do later in the day, provided the fire was extinguished.

Then the questions came. Bear in mind that you had people from competing organizations asking questions, all trying to get The Scoop. If you think bloggers are cutthroat, they have nothing on journalists, who have had a few hundred years of practice in this regard.

Taking that into account, the initial questions were intelligent, clarifying points that the NTSB spokesman had made. For example, after one question, he had to clarify that all that the NTSB really knew at this point was that a plane had crashed and hit a house. The NTSB still had to conduct a formal investigation, using information from the site, from the black box, from eyewitnesses in Buffalo, from personnel in Newark (the origin of the delayed flight), etc. It would be inappropriate for the NTSB to begin to draw conclusions until they had actually examined all of the evidence.

Then someone asked a question along the lines of "what exactly did you find on the scene when you arrived?"

And yes, the questioner used the word "exactly."

Perhaps it's just me, and perhaps I'm interpreting it wrong, but that question really drove me up a wall.

All of the people at the press conference already knew that regarding the plane, it appears that only the tail of the plane was really intact in any way. So I don't think the reporter was asking about the plane.

I think - and I'll put it as delicately as possible - the reporter was asking about the people.

For whatever reason, the NTSB spokesman refused to answer the question. But afterwards, it appeared that the NTSB spokesman began to get irritated with some of the questions that were being asked.

Let's face it, this was a "we only have a limited amount of information" press conference. Unless you can trick the spokesperson into revealing something that he or she shouldn't have revealed, you're not going to find out a lot during the question and answer period.

Yet that doesn't stop people from trying to get an NTSB spokesperson to say something on camera about the dead bodies on scene.

Sometimes, we can be a bunch of ghouls.

[UPDATE 8:25 PST - I HAVE SINCE FOUND A VIDEO OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE AT ROCHESTERHOMEPAGE.NET. THE NTSB SPOKESMAN IS STEVE CHEALANDER, AND THE RELEVANT QUESTION - ACTUALLY, MULTIPLE QUESTIONS - CAN BE FOUND FROM 14:00 TO 14:30 ON THE EMBEDDED VIDEO.]

In which I criticize Steven Hodson's home country for geotarding

2009-02-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

Two of the bloggers that I read frequently are Steven Hodson and Duncan Riley. There are some similarities between the two.

Neither Steven nor Duncan are American. Hodson is from Canada, Riley from Australia.

Both work for The Inquisitr. Well, Riley has a slightly higher position at The Inquisitr than Hodson.

Both hate geotarding.

Geotarding, as the term is often used, refers to the practice of an American company to restrict online content so that it can only be shown to people within the United States. See what Hodson has said about the practice (see point 3), as well as what Riley has said about the practice (namely, why he won't link to an ET story).

In my capacity as an ugly American, I often forget about this. For example, there are often discussions about the pros and cons of last.fm vs. Pandora. To much of the world, the decision between the two services is a no-brainer, since Pandora isn't available outside of the United States. (Too bad for Caroline.)

So it was with great interest that I discovered that I, an American, am now the target of a geotarding effort. And I have Steven Hodson's home country to thank for this. NewTeeVee:

Canadians really know what they’re doing when it comes to showing people the Olympics online, it seems. This morning we spoke to Alon Marcovici, vice president of digital media from the country’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, after reading that “every single moment” of next year’s Winter Olympics would be available live online.

NewTeeVee's Liz Gannes describes the comprehensive online coverage that's being offered - but then notes that there's a catch:

None of these feeds, however, will be available in the U.S. — they’ll be geo-blocked for viewers outside of Canada.

But before I call Joe Baca, Dianne Feinstein, and Barbara Boxer to demand that President Obama invade Canada, I should note that Liz Gannes then mentioned an American company that has an interest in seeing these events be geotarded:

NBC still owns the American rights to the Olympics, and from all appearances they think their on-demand approach to coverage à la Beijing — delaying airing key events until primetime broadcast — is the way to go.

Don't get me started on delaying broadcasts of live events. It makes me...um...cranky.

Various assertions of God's judgment on the United States

2009-02-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

Apparently a group in Australia believes that the bush fires in the state of Victoria are God's judgment on the Australian state for legalizing abortion.

But since I live in the United States, I'm going to be an ugly American and concentrate on allegations of God's judgment against my own country.

let's start with one that was talked about in great detail several months ago - Reverend Jeremiah Wright's "God damn America" sermon.

The Chicago Tribune provides a transcript of what Wright said. This is an excerpt of what Wright said in his July 2003 sermon, leading up to his "God damn America" remark:

"Prior to Abraham Lincoln, the government in this country said it was legal to hold Africans in slavery in perpetuity. Perpetuity is one of them University of Chicago words that means forever. From now on.

"When Lincoln got into office the government changed. Prior to the passing of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, the government defined Africans as slaves, as property. Property. People with no rights to be respected by any whites anywhere. The Supreme Court of the government, same court, granddaddy court of the one that stole the 2000 election. The Supreme Court said in its Dred Scott decision, in the 1850s, no African anywhere in this country has any rights that any white person has to respect at any place any time.

"That was the government's official position backed up by the Supreme Court—that's the judiciary, backed up by the executive branch, [and] that's the president, backed up by the legislative branch and enforced by the military of the government. But I stopped by to tell you tonight that governments change.

"Prior to Harry Truman's government, the military in this country was segregated. But governments change. Prior to the civil rights and equal accommodations laws of the government in this country there was backed segregation by the country, legal discrimination by the government, prohibiting blacks from voting by the government. You had to eat in separate places by the government. You had to sit in different places from white folk 'cause the government says so. And, you had to be buried in a separate cemetery. It was apartheid American-style from the cradle to the grave all because the government backed it up. But guess what! Governments change.

"Under Bill Clinton, we got a messed up welfare-to-work bill. But under Clinton, blacks had an intelligent friend in the Oval Office. Ooh, but governments change. The election was stolen. We went from an intelligent friend to a dumb Dixiecrat, a rich Republican who has never held a job in his life, is against affirmative action, against education—I guess he is, ha!—against health care, against benefits for his own military, and gives tax breaks to the wealthiest contributors to his campaign. Governments change—sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad.

"But I'm fixing to help you again. Turn back and say: 'He's fixing to help us again.' When governments change, write this down: Malachi 3:6, Malachi 3:6: 'Thus said the Lord,' repeat it after me, 'For I am the Lord, and I change not.' That's the King James Version. The New Revised says: 'For I the Lord do not change.' In other words, where governments change, God does not change. God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. That's what his name 'I am' means. You know, he does not change. There is no shadow of turning in God. One songwriter puts it this way: 'As thou has been, thou forever will be. Thou changest not. Thy compassions, they fail not. Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me.' God does not change.

"God was against slavery on yesterday and God who does not change is still against slavery today. God was a God of love yesterday, and God who does not change is still a God of love today. God was a God of justice on yesterday, and God who does not change is still a God of justice today. Turn to your neighbor and say: 'God does not change.'

"Where governments lie, God does not lie. Where governments change, God does not change. And I'm through now. But let me leave you with one more thing.

"Governments fail. The government in this text, comprised of Caesar . . . [and] Pontius Pilate, the Roman government failed. The British government used to rule from East to West. The British government had a Union Jack. She colonized Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Hong Kong. Her navies ruled the Seven Seas all the way down to the tip of Argentina in the Falklands. But the British government failed. The Russian government failed. The Japanese government failed. The German government failed.

"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on the reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating the citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains. The government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton fields, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of the racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness. The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America'?

"No, no, no, not 'God Bless America,' 'God Damn America.' That's in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating its citizens as less than human, God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent."

You may recall that Wright's comments created a furor in 2008. But Wright isn't the only one who says that God is damning America. On Monday, the Crime Examiner quoted from a Westboro "Baptist" Church press release that explains why the church is protesting at the memorial service for murdered child Caylee Anthony:

This picket will be educational in nature, in respectful and lawful distance, in religious protest and warning; to wit: ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked.’ Gal. 6:7. This poor child has been murderously abused by America and her American parents and grandparents. We live in a nation that is cursed and abandoned by God, whose hands drip with the blood of millions of aborted babies, whose citizens are wallowing in sodomic morals – Whose new Pres. Obama has promised more sins! GOD HATES AMERICA.

And while just about everyone agrees that Westboro is a bunch of kooks, there are people on the political right of the spectrum who argue, just as fervently as Rev. Jeremiah Wright on the political left of the spectrum, that God has judged this country. Christianity Today:

Was 9/11 God's judgment against America? Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell said so. They blamed God's wrath on abortion and promiscuity, and they were promptly skewered by the media—as much for raising the uncomfortable topic of divine judgment as for using the occasion to deplore America's sexual excesses.

But that same Christianity Today article also speaks of a 2007 book that looks at God's judgment a little more carefully.

In God's Judgments: Interpreting History and the Christian Faith (IVP Academic), Steven J. Keillor argues [Falwell and Robertson] had the right idea but the wrong reasons. His new book is a sophisticated defense of their theological instincts....

He first sifts through the tragedy of 9/11, looking for evidence of what the United States had done to anger radical Islamists. He then asks if any of these items might also have angered God: economic greed, immoral cultural exports, and "use of terrorist guerilla units against the Soviets" in Afghanistan.

Keillor's conclusion—that God used terrorists to punish us for national sins—is a theological spin on "blowback," a word the political Left popularized during the aftermath of 9/11. Blowback suggests that America, by abusing its power abroad, got what it deserved.

For Keillor, however, blowback does not happen of its own accord. God, not Osama bin Laden, ultimately was blowing back at America when the terrorists released their whirlwind that tragic day....

He also deepens his case by retrieving judgments of the Old Testament prophets that scholars call "oracles against the nations." The words of are especially poignant: "When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?" These oracles, however, generally target nations that have mistreated Israel, something that can hardly be said of America.

However, one cannot explain all calamities as God's judgment, as a reading of John 9:1-3 or Job demonstrates. And, more importantly (and I am speaking to Christians here), I do not believe that any claim that a calamity resulted from God's judgment negates what we as Christians are to do for the people. I know that "WWJD" is a trite trademark, but there's a kernel of truth in it.

The Finnish right to privacy?

2009-02-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

This is a followup about something I last discussed in March 2008 - namely, the case against Susan Ruusunen, formerly Susan Kuronen, who was hauled into court after publishing a tell-all book about her former boyfriend, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. (You'll recall that Vanhanen dumped then-Kuronen via text message, which may be the thing for the younger crowd, but is not often seen in older people.)

Here's the update, again from Finland for Thought:

A woman writes an autobiography about her life which happens to include dating our Prime Minister. Finland’s PM makes an ass out of himself after their breakup and decides to get his revenge by taking her to court. The lower courts rule in her favor, but he’s wealthy and powerful so he decides to appeal to the upper courts, and wins...

So, if my publisher's reading this, I think we're going to have to put that "tuna fish pizza" book on hold.

More information on the Ruusunen case is here. Thankfully, it's in English.

Revisiting Charles Sophy's medical degree

2009-02-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

Back on June 22, 2007, I wrote a post on Charles Sophy that noted, among other things, that Sophy is a D.O. and not an M.D. This was taken from a Radar Online post:

Sophy has been mistakenly referred to as an M.D. (specifically by Men's Health). He's a D.O., a doctor of osteopathy, a slightly different classification, though D.O. schooling and training mirrors that of M.D.s. Osteopaths focus on alternative treatments, prevention, and patients' total wellness rather than specific symptoms. And osteopathic psychiatrists make up about 10 percent of the American Psychiatric Association, of which Sophy has been a member for more than a decade.

My post just prompted the following comment:

Anonymous said...

You might want to do your research a little more responsibly and profesionally. Dr. Sophy is the Medical Director of Los Angeles County D.C.S.F. (Dept. of Children and Family Services) He is most certainly an M.D. I know; he was my son's psychiatrist at the L.A. County D.M.H. (Dept. of Mental Health) for two years.

Your ramblings are absolutely pathetic.
06 February, 2009 01:05

So, what does Interactive Dad Magazine say about Sophy's degree? Nothing. Here's the relevant portion:

His professional training includes medical residencies in family practice at Metropolitian Hospital (Philadelphia), and adult psychiatry at Norristown State Hospital, and a fellowship in child/adolescent psychiatry Hahneuman University Hospital ( Philadelphia), as well as, other massive government-run psychiatric institutions around Philadelphia.

And HealthGrades has a listing for Dr. Charles J. Sophy, MD, but with this interesting wrinkle:

Medical School, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Med

Now perhaps I should be...um...professional and specifically investigate how many MD degrees the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Med grants, but there are better ways to spend one's time.

But does it make any difference? Here's what [CORRECTED 2/19] the American Osteopathic Association says:

DO's and MD's are alike in many ways:

* Applicants to both DO. and M.D. colleges typically have a four-year undergraduate degree with an emphasis on science courses.

* Both DO's and MD's complete four years of basic medical education.

* After medical school, both DO's and MD's can choose to practice in a specialty area of medicine such as psychiatry, surgery, or obstetrics. They both complete a residency program, which takes typically two to six years of additional training.

* Both DO's and MD's must pass comparable state licensing examinations.

* DO's and MD's both practice in fully accredited and licensed hospitals and medical centers.

* DO's comprise a separate, yet equal branch of American medical care. Together DO's and MD's enhance the state of health care available in America.

* However, it's the ways that DO's and MD's are different that can bring an extra dimension to your family's health care.

DO's bring something extra to medicine:

* Osteopathic schools emphasize training students to be primary care physicians.

* DO's practice a "whole person" approach to medicine. Instead of just treating specific symptoms or illnesses, they regard your body as an integrated whole.

* Osteopathic physicians focus on preventive healthcare.

* DO's receive extra training in the musculoskeletal system - your body's interconnected system of nerves, muscles and bones that make up two-thirds of its body mass. This training provides osteopathic physicians with a better understanding of the ways that an injury or illness in one part of your body can affect another. It gives DO's a therapeutic and diagnostic advantage over those who do not receive additional specialized training.

* Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is incorporated in the training and practice of osteopathic physicians. OMT allows physicians to use their hands to diagnose injury and illness and to encourage your body's natural tendency toward good health. By combining all other medical procedures with OMT, DO's offer their patients the most comprehensive care available in medicine today.

Of course, these are only my pathetic ramblings. What are your thoughts?

Perhaps I am at a deficit - caffeine and ADHD

2009-02-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

So anyways, on Thursday afternoon I was paying a visit to a Flavia machine when I ran into one of my co-workers, who commented that she couldn't drink coffee that late in the afternoon or she'd be up all night.

I remarked that sometimes coffee actually relaxes me and puts me to sleep.

She then remarked that she knew people with ADD/ADHD who took coffee instead of Ritalin. "Not that I'm saying that you have ADHD," she added.

Well, I'll refrain from self-diagnosing myself at the moment...but I will read newideas.net:

Caffeine is a mild CNS stimulant that can be used with ADHD children, teens, and adults, if used purposefully and in moderation. All stimulants are vaso-dilators, meaning that they allow the blood vessels to increase in size and increase the blood flow in the brain. One of the primary physiological problems causing ADHD seems to be a lack of blood flow to certain regions of the brain, and stimulants help to improve blood flow and reduce symptoms caused by this problem, at least temporarily.

It is estimated that 100 mg of caffeine is equivalent to 5 mg of Ritalin, which is the lowest therapeutic dose, and the usual starting dose for children. It is similar to Ritalin in that caffeine is absorbed and begins working in about 45 minutes, and the benefits wear off after about three to four hours. And, of course, caffeine can have the same kinds of side effects as other stimulants.

I did find a dissenting view:

[I]t is supposed to help if you drink caffeine an hour or so before an important test, but in the long run it is harmful. In the long-run it makes you dependent and makes the ADHD worse. It does the same with Asperger's. You should limit your caffeine intake to the times you absolutely need a boost rather than have it regularly. Ritalin and Adderall are different kinds of stimulants than caffeine and that's why they work better for ADHD. Adderall too is prescribed if you have both Asperger's and ADHD.

Then again, the same anonymous person then went on to post the following:

Nicotine in cigarettes it is not addictive. It is not addictive! You smokers don't believe me, do you? (laughter) You non-smokers don't want to believe me (more laughter). It is not addictive. Nicotine by itself has an incredible hypnotic effect. Anything that it is applied to, it tends to exaggerate. So, if somebody says nicotine in cigarettes is dangerous, it intensifies that, and it makes them dangerous. Nicotine is one of the most responsive substances on Earth. It fulfills your belief systems. It is wonderful.

Wait - it gets better:

The government helps to regulate the hypnotic effects of foods, of activities, of money, of morals. The government creates this incredible hypnotic effect. Now, you can particularly feel it when you go to any center of government, whether it is your city government, whether it is your national government. Go to the capital of your country, and just hang there for a while. You're going to feel its hypnotic effect. You are going to feel yourself buying into it. You are going to feel the intensity of the duality all around that your government is exaggerating duality in every way.

Now, isn't it interesting that the churches and the government are sometimes the same, even when they say they're not? Even when they pretend there is a separation, they work together. Again, this is not a conspiracy. It is just simply something that happens.

I'll grant that this is an unscientific survey, but I think I trust the first opinion a little more than I trust the last.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm tired of writing this and want to do something else.

I'm sorry, but we still think they're too...sniff...Reformed

2009-02-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

I've posted about the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (here are three sample posts), and I've posted about the recent unpleasantness in the Episcopal/Anglican community in the United States (here is a sample post on that).

So this post warranted a chuckle:

Issue #3 of our Steadfast Quarterly is printed....Included in the “Church Watch” section is a derisive comment that editor Jeniffer Jordan dug up about the new conservative Anglican denomination which mocks the new church as “The Episcopal Church Missouri Synod” because of its [Scriptural] approach to the authority of the Bible.

It turns out that the phrase was also used, again derisively, in a 2006 post by the Rev. Grant Gallup:

The high mountain of metamorphosis is where we as Church find ourselves today -- it is the place where we may be in this moment transfigured, it is our chance for a miracle of change. But as with Peter, some of disciples today are stuck, wanting to settle down into irrelevancy, into the last century or the last decade, with "personal" religion, with The Prayer of Jabez and prosperity religion, with the Anglican Mission to 19th Century America, into "the Episcopal Church Missouri Synod." They're into fixing up tomorrow with the blueprints of yesterday. Jesus makes it clear that his ecstasy, his mystic moment of truth, is for the purpose of seeing into the deepest meaning of the historical project of God's people, the Exodus to be accomplished. In our own moment, we must see there on the Mount with Jesus not only Moses and Elijah, but Muhmmad and Gautama and the Hindu pantheon there as well, for there can be no human future which does not make room for new departures, a new Exodus, a new despedida for all of humankind, and new summit meetings to chart the future of the species.

But before you reach the conclusion that the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Anglican Church in North America will band together against the Grant Gallups of the world, note that even when Gene Robinson is not involved, the LCMS has significant issues with Anglican theology:

While there are a number of significant theological differences between the LCMS and the Episcopal Church (e.g., the issue of authority in the church, especially as it relates to the doctrine of Scripture as the inspired and inerrant Word of God; the nature of the sacraments as means of grace; the precise understanding of the doctrine of justification; the question of what it means to be a "confessional" church), perhaps the most obvious difference has to do with the Episcopalian view of apostolic succession (which pertains equally to more "conservative" offshoots from the Episcopal church). This difference is summarized as follows in Lewis Spitz's booklet "Our Church and Others":

Episcopalians attach great important to the theory of the apostolic succession. They insist that the apostles ordained bishops, these in turn ordained their successors, and so down through the centuries, so that the present-day bishops are the successors of the apostles through an unbroken chain. Scripture knows nothing of such a theory. Episcopalians hold that only bishops who have received their authority in this way can properly ordain ministers and that without such Episcopal ordination a minister cannot validly perform the sacraments.

Or, in Lutheran terms, the new Anglican church is not the true visible church.

Mongoloid, the Portgrass Oregano version

2009-02-04T21:50:00.000-08:00

Several years ago I threw away all of my cassette tapes.

That's probably a good thing, because I not only threw away a vast music collection (including the first tape I ever purchased, John Lennon's Walls and Bridges), but also several tapes that I made during my years at Reed College, either on my own or with various college roommates.

For some unknown reason, my mind flashed upon one song from one of those tapes a few minutes ago. It was made with a roommate who shall remain nameless, primarily because he now has a PhD and is presumably pictured as a pillar of the scientific community. We borrowed some musical instruments from a third college roommate and slapped a few songs together. My favorite was our musical arrangement of "Kill Bond Now!" I also hold a warm spot for our Tri-Met (at the time, a bus system in Portland) version of "A Day in the Life" - my roommate contributed the line "He didn't notice that the fare had changed."

Ironically, I was reading Barry Miles' book on Paul McCartney a few minutes ago when a song from that cassette flashed through my mind - not our Beatles parody, but our Devo parody. If I remember correctly, I was the one who came up with the new lyrics for "Mongoloid." Two things require explanation:

"Theaters Three" was the name of another cassette that I had assembled, on my own. Years upon years later, after I got tired of my BBS handle of Wasp the Houseboy, I adopted Theo Tres Thr3 as a pseudonym, then eventually junked that and became Ontario Emperor.

Ironically, that cassette name was unrelated to The Theatrical Event, which happened to be the name of a textbook that the third college roommate was using. He ended up majoring in theater, but he had the good taste not to be performing as I sang the words below.

So, without further ado...

Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid
And he looked just like me
He had no hair, and his head was air
He played for Theaters Three

And he...walked on water
And he...drank a lot of beer
And he...read "The Theatrical Event"
And he...he wasn't queer

Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid...

Hey, it was college. And at least my youthful banterings didn't get posted in News of the World.

Tech is tech - what happened to QuickVerse?

2009-02-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

I previously wrote a post (in Empoprise-BI) on how a wide variety of people are moving their domain registrations away from GoDaddy. My post was partly sourced from a Wired post entitled "Christians Bailing on GoDaddy Due to 'Immoral' Advertising." I shared the Wired post on FriendFeed, and a spirited conversation broke out. Several excellent points were brought out in that conversation, but I want to focus on a comment from Joey Gibson:

What's funny is that Bob Parsons was the guy from Parsons Technology that sold QuickVerse, one of the original electronic Bible programs.

I knew that, but had forgotten about it. See my 2005 Ontario Empoblog post, which quoted from a 2005 Bob Parsons post which included the following:

There's one more issue I want to address head on.

As many people know, the first company I started and sold to Intuit was called Parsons Technology. We had a number of product divisions at Parsons Technology. Our product divisions follow:

1. Financial (this included accounting, money management, and tax preparation products).
2. Legal (document preparation for home and small business).
3. Personal productivity (greeting card makers, address books, etc.)
4. Utilities (virus detection and removal, etc.)
5. Church Software (Bible lookup software, Map software, Sermon preparation, Congregational accounting).

It's true. I used to sell Bible software.

He then included a personal statement of belief.

To this day I consider myself a Christian, but I am not a fundamentalist Christian. I am also not a member of the religious right. I am not opposed in anyway to these groups. I am just not part of them. My beliefs today are exactly what they were back when I owned Parsons Technology. I'm still the same guy.

Parsons then talked more about the church software itself.

Our church software division was the brainchild of a man named Craig Rairdin. Craig, on his own, wrote the first QuickVerse program, and did it before joining Parsons Technology. When Craig showed me the program that he had written, I knew instantly that it was well done and would be a hit. Within a few weeks, Craig was our Director of Church Software, and QuickVerse was a Parsons Technology product.

Being a hard worker, Craig soon began hiring additional staff and developing additional Christian products. While Parsons Technology marketed QuickVerse, Craig owned the rights to the product, and after I sold Parsons Technology to Intuit, Craig later sold the rights to QuickVerse to another company.

Today, Craig Rairdin owns his own company. He specializes in Bible lookup and Christian software for hand held computers. His company is called Laridian Electronic Publishing and can be found at http://www.Laridian.com

And QuickVerse has its own QuickVerse.com website, and is apparently now owned by FindEx.com, Inc., which is publicly traded.

I don't believe they ran a Super Bowl ad.

Latest from the Obameter, and the meaning of representative government

2009-02-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

Back on January 24, KChristieH shared some information.

I don’t think I’ve made 500 promises in my whole lifetime, but apparently that’s about how many promises Barack Obama made before he took office.

The St. Petersburg Times’ Politifact.com is tracking President Obama’s progress toward fulfilling his promises.

As of the January 24 post, Obama had already fulfilled 6 of his promises.

I just checked the Obameter, and here are the latest results:

As you can see, current statistics are as follows:

Promise Kept 6

Compromise 1

Promise Broken 1

Stalled 1

In the Works 18

No Action 483

I don't know if anyone's attempted this before, and obviously such a measure is open to interpretation, but it's fascinating.

Just out of curiosity, I wondered which promise Obama broke.

To reduce bills rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them, Obama "will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days."

So, what happened?

[T]he first bill Obama signed into law as president -- the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- got no such vetting.

In fact, the Congressional Record shows that the law was passed in the Senate on Jan. 22, 2009, passed in the House on Jan. 27, and signed by the president on Jan. 29. So only two days passed between the bill's final passage and the signing.

The legislation was not posted to the White House Web site for comment in any way that we could find....

Obama signed the measure at 10:20 a.m. About two hours later, the White House posted the bill on its Web site with a link that asks people to submit comments. But the bill was already signed at that point.

The whole issue gets into the tension between a republic and a democracy. As political students know, we are not a democracy, since in a political sense the term implies that all people are involved in making every decision. In a republic, people are appointed to make the decisions that need to be made. Specifically, in my case I'm represented by Joe Baca in the House of Representatives, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer in the Senate, and Barack Obama in the White House. (For brevity's sake, I'll refrain from further commment on my representatives.) So when we get the need to pass something like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Baca, Feinstein, Boxer, and Obama can take care of this for me.

Citizen review of legislation can occur at various parts of the process, but the idea of reviewing legislation after the legislative branch has passed it, but before the executive branch has signed it, is definitely a novel idea.

Perhaps when Obama found himself in the Oval Office, he determined that citizen review of passed legislation was silly, and decided to can the idea.

Even if it meant that he broke a promise.

Yes, Laura Lepistö DID win the European Figure Skating Championships

2009-02-02T20:45:00.000-08:00

Previously I posted and shared about Laura Lepistö's victory in the European figure skating championships, which were held in Helsinki this year.

However, there was a little hiccup after the event was over, which was noted when Carolina Kostner posted the following on her website:

We would like to inform you that the complaint submitted by the Italian Skating Federation (FISG) to the ISU concerning the marks Carolina received by the technical pannel for the long program at the European Figure Skating Championships HAS BEEN ACCEPTED and will be discussed by the ISU commission. The Italian Skating Federations (FISG) will update us as soon as the ISU provides the official release with the final decision.

So what was the problem?

A spin in Carolina's long program was not counted - not because she made a mistake but because of a debatable interpretation of the rules, therefore the "sit spin" was called a "combination spin". Carolina lost gold not for something she has not done but because of a quarter of revolution over the maximum of revolutions allowed in upright position at the end of her sit spin.

But now the ISU has reached a decision:

The “complaint” filed on Carolina Kostner’s behalf with the ISU regarding the scoring at the 2009 European Championships will not be heard.

In response to a query, ISU Media Coordinator Devra Pitt Getaz told International Figure Skating: “As per Rule 123 of the ISU General Regulations 2008, no protest is allowed for field of play decisions. Therefore the result as published is final.”

Kostner seems to have accepted the decision. Noting the original announcement of the complaint that was on her website, apparently the website has been updated:

The notice was posted on Kostner's official website after the competition. The post is no longer on her website. Instead the home page notes Kostner is the 2009 European silver medalist.

Kostner's website is here, by the way.

More later, I'm sure...

If this "Dr. Dobb's" thingie takes off, maybe it can become its own Journal!

2009-02-02T16:12:00.001-08:00

Page 39 of the January 26, 2009 InformationWeek. Print gets smaller.

All of my Super Bowl 2009 tweets

2009-02-01T19:55:00.000-08:00

Followup to my post on Empoprise-BI.

Here's a quick screen dump of my most recent tweets from my @oemperor Twitter account, in LIFO order.

too bad jack in the box missed the end of the game. #sb43 #superbowlads
18 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

pittsburgh wins 6th super bowl. excellent game to final seconds. 20 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

fumble? we'll see. 22 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

i've shushed 2 family members away in last minute. 26 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

ari has 35 sec and 2 time outs to score td. 27 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

review. play stands. pit needs extra point. 27 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

and now i'm seeing hardly any tweets. traffic 29 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

td td td td td ... well, they'll review. 30 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

actually on 7. i stand corrected. inc helped. 31 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

mouth open again. steelers on 5. 33 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

al michaels: it's windy. 34 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads godaddy enhanced. at least it mentioned the product. 2.5 stars. 36 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

my twitterfeed seems slow. fitzgerald overwhelmed twitter. 38 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

RT @CathleenRitt: Gordon Lightfoot just rescinded his new single "The Wreck of the Larry Fitzgerald" 39 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

@shey i may be wrong on this game. 41 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

uh...my mouth was literally wide open. ari now leading on fitzgerald run. 42 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

according to al michaels, last safety was in super bowl 25. i mean xxv. 44 minutes ago from m.slandr.net

safety. 20-16. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

@jack @ev @biz i've only had one brief access problem throughout the entire game. congrats to twitter. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

whoops, that was a retweet of an @anamariecox tweet. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

@anamariecox: ...Looking forward to FedEx's "maaakin' coopieeees" spot. #sb43ads about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads alec baldwin hulu good sense of humor. 4 stars. maybe i won't visit youtube. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads thank you ge for supporting your network. (the rainbow connection.) 2 stars. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads i'm watching on 13" tv. it's not a vizio. 1 star. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads question - if you don't know who mean joe greene is, what do you think of the coke zero commercial? about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads coke zero takeoff on mean joe greene appreciated by this geezer who remembers original. 3 stars. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

some of you may not remember, but jack in the box was was blown up in late 1970s. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

@biggjon in los angeles, jack in the box was a local sponsor. the chain is not national. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

just realized that jack in the box was not national #superbowlads - it has the most compelling story so far. must check website. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads before jack got hit by a bus, i was giving infiniti 2 stars. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads i haven't - oh my god they killed jack (again)! 4 stars. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads nfl ok. 2 stars. about 1 hour ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads sugar fr- i mean frosted flakes as health food defies reality. 1 star. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads coke ad seemed like pixar rip off. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads to careerbuilder.com - hey dummy, boring commercial. 1 star. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@venson pit couldn't score td, kicked fg again. 20-7. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

arizona's defense may have saved 4 pts. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@venson 17 pit 7 ari, penalty against ari on successful pit fg kick, pit may get 7 instead of 3. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@MiaD my problem is that i compare all #superbowlads against apple 1984. none measure up. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads witch mtn as action movie w the rock, who has already proven himself in kid's movie. 4 stars. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads the budweiser clydesdales have jumped the shark. 1 star. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads coke would like to teach the world to animate in perfect harmony. 1 star. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads i liked monster.com deer body 3 stars. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads bridgestone jump around ok. 2 stars. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@Tad next year a savvy #superbowl advertiser will say "please RT this tinyurl" about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads our local commercial in el-lay was for local furniture chain living spaces. 2 stars. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

RT @jdickerson: The chills I got from the Boss's performance were the kind associated with awkward rehersal dinner toasts. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

oooh, rebellion. plugging a disney property on an nbc universal tv show. that's...um...bad. #sb43 about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads lmao clinic gets one star for the acronym. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@BradHoward you are correct sir. they are deathly afraid of exposed nipples. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

oh dear. dialogue, referee actor about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

post janet/justin #superbowl halftime shows remind me of when i saw jan & dean in early 1980s. mostly nostalgically unsatisfying. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

just got back from fftogo - i was checking friendfeed comments on my slandr tweets. about 2 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads i don't have 3d glasses. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#sb43 17-7 pittsburgh at half, but they don't control game. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#sb43 ruling on field stands. touchdown. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

booth review??????? about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads cheetos got a LOL out of me. 4 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads teleflora good, establishes halfway believable need (flowers w/o boxes). 3 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

RT @vanhoosear: Yeah, I also noticed no American car companies mentioned in the Hyundai ad. Very smart. #superbowlads about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads pixar looks good. 4 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads hulu.com got the website name out. 4 stars. (but i'll probably go to youtube anyway.) about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads hyundai going for it. claim better than everyone. 4 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#cardinals you're supposed to go forward #sb43 about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@badbanana and the show claims the existence of a "hyundai" car and "bud light" beer. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

RT @nathanchase: did you see that home run? what a shot! can't wait for the 10th frame about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@4fthawaiian madden has not flown in decades. he used amtrak, then a custom bus to go to games. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads cars.com got my attention. 4 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads so what IS mission g? 2 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#cardinals good play #sb43 - this is a game. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

RT @anamariecox: Said it before, will Tweet it again: New Trek movie="Muppet Babies." about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@DaveMurr animals, FOREIGN cars, and movie trailers. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads star trek - i watched it twice, but the characters were nearly invisible. 1.5 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads bud horse love yawn. 2 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@Jesse why so low on pedigree #superbowlads ? about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads pedigree adoption drive conveyed message well. 4 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads godaddy now predictable, but leading people to product good move. 3 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads loud doritos fun. 3 stars. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads will ferrell 2 stars. "matt lauer can eat it" was good. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@CatchUpLady as i watched bridgestone #superbowlads i thought men would like it better. about 3 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads castrol, kept on looking at monkeys. 2 stars. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#sb43 end of 1st quarter already? about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

order of magnitude on pittsburgh yards #sb43 about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@vdegeorge tell your 5 y/o daughter the story of kurt & ben and their magical pig(skin). about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

ben r has THE POISE. #sb43 about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@ariedana live-blog my twitterstream if you like. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@outtacontext i think you and i are only ones who liked conan sweden #superbowlads about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads conan bud light 4 stars. if it had been finland rather than sweden i would have given 6. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@tiffanypr re companies monitoring twitter. hopefully. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

got a 502 error, but it passed. #twittout about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@dalecruse failure to score on 4th and 1 could have been psychologically devastating. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads doritos 8 ball good, painful at end 3.5 stars. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads pepsi forever young yawn 2 stars. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads audi 4 stars. foreign car companies taking advantage. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

oops, #superbowlads bud light 2 stars. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#suprbowlads bud light, i kept on thinking: what company serves beer at all meetings? 2 stars. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@mandyg madden-bashing is a patriotic american tradition. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@rondean i go with recent experience steelers in #sb43 about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#superbowlads hyundai again. corgan's voice wasn't too whiny. 3 stars. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

curious if matt leinert has been interviewed #sb43 about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@vanhoosear did i see that the nfl itself will air one of the #superbowlads in 3rd quarter? about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

well, hyundai can afford to advertise in pregame #superbowlads about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

#sb43 derived question - do singers sing soulful versions of "o canada" or "god save the queen"? about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

yes, world, #sb43 is a religious event. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

so are we doing america the beautiful and the national anthem before #sb43 ? (searches for lee greenwood) about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

hopefully getting payton award before #sb43 kickoff won't mess up kurt warner. about 4 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@Williamblake paris hilton has a british best friend show too? wonder how the american best friend feels. about 7 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@agersh i believe sporting events such as #superbowl get highest viewership as an evening program (east coast time). about 7 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@stevehall i'm a creature of habit. i tweeted to @superbowlads acct last year, so i like the similarly named #hashtag about 7 hours ago from m.slandr.net

haven't decided on other #hashtag - i like #sb43 and it's short, but everyone is using #superbowl instead. i may do #sb43 anyway. about 7 hours ago from m.slandr.net

my #hashtags for today? #superbowlads rather than #sb43ads and #superads09 about 7 hours ago from m.slandr.net

RT @mattearley: I propose that the hashtag for Super Bowl 43 should be #SB43 . If you agree, please retweet. about 7 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@vanhoosear 2008 #superbowlads were rated on a 1 to 5 star scale. about 7 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@vanhoosear i think there was a rating system for last year's #superbowlads (tweets to @superbowlads acct). have to dig it up. about 7 hours ago from m.slandr.net

@mvavrinak thx for tweeting about @spotcritic - hadn't heard about it. about 8 hours ago from m.slandr.net

And here are my replies from that period:

dcfemella @oemperor Shush! 9 minutes ago from FriendFeed in reply to oemperor

davidsinger @oemperor seems to have clobbered their server about 1 hour ago from Twinkle

MiaD @oemperor LOL! I m sure it's been all downhill since :) about 2 hours ago from Tweetie in reply to oemperor

goblinbox @oemperor LOL about 2 hours ago from TwitterFon in reply to oemperor

dcfemella @oemperor I said the same thing! Super cute about 3 hours ago from FriendFeed in reply to oemperor

mvavrinak @oemperor @vanhoosear smart and also pointed... few American brands are actually true luxury worldwide about 3 hours ago from web in reply to oemperor

DaveMurr @oemperor good point about 3 hours ago from twhirl

vdegeorge @oemperor I tried to get her to watch, but she's not interested because neither team is wearing pink. Sigh. about 4 hours ago from Tweetie in reply to oemperor

outtacontext @oemperor No, I saw other tweets who agreed. about 4 hours ago from TwitterFon in reply to oemperor

mandyg @oemperor LOL ...I think my own personal hell would be having to listen to Madden and Lou Holtz about 4 hours ago from web in reply to oemperor

vanhoosear @oemperor Heh. Do they have to pay for their own spots? about 4 hours ago from twhirl

RanchoVibe @oemperor - from one Canadian here - the answer is yes. about 4 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to oemperor

ScotMcKay @oemperor Should energize him, I'd say. about 4 hours ago from Twittelator in reply to oemperor

agersh @oemperor makes sense that #superbowl gets highest viewership as an evening program actually. about 5 hours ago from web

Williamblake @oemperor You can imaging now!!! ;) about 7 hours ago from web in reply to oemperor

stevehall @oemperor #hashtags for today? #superads09 and #sb43ads rather than #superbowlads :) about 7 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to oemperor

mvavrinak @oemperor welcome!! Hope to see you as part of the stream! about 8 hours ago from Tweetie in reply to oemperor

Now I just have to write up a history of Jack in the Box. A number of the commercials in the Super Bowl relied on historical precedent, and Jack was one of them. [8:20 PM - I'VE WRITTEN THE HISTORY, WHICH IS AT EMPOPRISE-BI.]

Oh, and I need to check that SocialToo survey. My 4 star commercials were the following:

Audi

Conan Bud Light (Sweden)

Pedigree adoption drive

cars.com

Hyundai ad that trumpeted how Hyundai was better than other car manufacturers

Earlier Hulu spot

Pixar movie

Cheetos with the bird

Witch Mountain movie

Jack from Jack in the Box being hit by a bus

Alec Baldwin's Hulu spot

For the record, my favorite commercials last year were the following:

So my highest rated ads were Diet Pepsi Max (What is Love), Budweiser (wine & cheese), FedEx (giant pigeons), Tide (the talking stain), the GMC Yukon (Sisyphus), and Coke (parade).

Rick Warren on the Super Bowl

2009-02-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

Knowing that 40% of my readers think that Pastor Rick Warren is a right-wing hate-monger, and that the other 40% think that Warren is a Satan-worshipping synthesist, this e-mail that I received from Warren is for the other 20%.

JUST FOR FUN! RICK'S RIDICULOUS SUPER BOWL STUDY

(The following spoof is NOT serious. Relax! The Bible does not work this way, although some people try to use Scripture in ways that are just this silly to prove their points.)

Dear Saddleback Family,

Some of you have asked me if the Bible gives us any clues as to who might win the Super Bowl between the Arizona Cardinals and the [Pittsburgh] Steelers. Here's my answer from my personal study today:

1. Does the Bible allude to either the Phoenix Cardinals or [Pittsburgh] Steelers?

YES! "I am like a wild bird in the desert." Psalm 102:6 (TEV)

"If a person is a stealer, he must stop stealing and start working. He must use his hands for doing something good!" Ephes. 4:28 (ICB)

2. Who will have the advantage playing in Tampa? Not the Cardinals.

"Anyone away from home is like a bird away from its nest." Proverbs 27:8 (TEV)

3. What verse favors victory on the field for the Cardinals?

"I will throw you on the ground and toss you in an open field. I will make the birds perch on you and feed on you!" Ezekiel 32:4 (GW)

4. What verses favor the Steelers?

"Just look at the strength of his back, the powerful muscles of his belly...his huge legs are like beech trees. His skeleton is made of steel, every bone in his body hard as steel. "
Job 40:16-18 (Mes)

"With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel nobody trifles with you!"
Psalm 89:13 (Mes)

"Wherever they turn, I will spread my net over them, and bring down the birds."
Hosea 7:12 (NJB)

5. Who is favored to win?

"The Lord told me to say: Just as you cannot break steel, you can't defeat the enemy that will attack from the north. I will give them everything you own." Jeremiah 15:12-13 (CEV)

The scarlet & white uniforms of the Cardinals may be overwhelmed by the team from Three Rivers stadium:

Shields flash red in the sunlight! The attack begins! See their scarlet uniforms! Watch as their glittering chariots move into position... but they stumble in their haste, rushing to the walls to set up their defenses. But too late! The River Gates are open! The enemy has entered!" Nahum 2:3-6 (NLT)

I'm kidding. Don't write me!

P.S. Yes, I am very aware that Warren quotes from several different translations. And yes, I am aware that Warren waxed poetic on a sport in which men tackle men. So don't write me, either.

An update on the now FOUR-blog Empoprises blog empire

2009-01-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

Perhaps some of the readers of this blog may know about my side project, Empoprises. In essence, while this blog, mrontemp, is "all-encompassing," the Empoprises blogs are much more vertically-oriented, and only deal with one topic per blog.

In fact, the first two "Empoprises" blogs that I started are VERY vertically-oriented:

Empoprise-IE, started in May 2008, is devoted to the Inland Empire of California.

Empoprise-NTN, also started in May 2008, is devoted to the NTN Buzztime trivia game that you find in various bars and restaurants.

Now those two blogs are clearly of limited interest; for example, a French person would have no interest in either of these two blogs, since France is clearly outside of the Inland Empire, and NTN Buzztime has no sites in France.

But then I began thinking about my own personal interests, and began to branch out a bit.

The third Empoprises blog that I started was Empoprise-MU, devoted to music. That blog had a soft introduction on August 6, 2008, and started posting real music stories the next day. Those who have read mrontemp know that I've posted a lot of music items on this blog - over 400, as a matter of fact - so I figured that I've have something to say about music. Plus, if I may say so myself, as the founder of the lastfmfeeds room on FriendFeed (currently with 108 members viewing 50 "recently played tracks" feeds), I've certainly demonstrated my interest in the topic.

But if I've posted over 400 music items in mrontemp, it should also be noted that I've posted over 1200 business items on this blog. And as I found myself writing more and more about subjects such as what Apple should and should not disclose about Steve Jobs' health (sample post here), I began thinking that it was the appropriate time to add a business blog to the Empoprises empire. Again, this blog had a soft launch on Thursday, January 29, with real posts beginning on Friday, January 30.

So, what happens to mrontemp if I start putting all the business and music stuff elsewhere? I can only share my thoughts as of today, and you need to bear in mind that they could very well change tomorrow. (If you had asked me last April whether I would ever start a business or music blog, the answer would have been an emphatic "no.") So, here's my thinking:

There will still be business and music posts in mrontemp, as well as some Inland Empire and NTN Buzztime posts also. Obviously there won't be as many, but they'll be there, though the ones that end up here will probably be more personal, such as the wrap-up of the story about my Oracle OpenWorld Unconference presentation.

Incidentally, it's very possible that the Empoprise-BI blog may be my main posting ground for Oracle OpenWorld 2009, assuming that I actually go to Oracle OpenWorld 2009. Over the years I've shifted my Oracle OpenWorld posts from blog to blog - for example, my first Oracle OpenWorld posts were in an old blog called the Ontario Technoblog.

Which brings me to my next point - if you were to ask me today whether I'll be starting an Empoprises technology blog, my answer would be an emphatic "no." Frankly, there are a ton of tech blogs out there and, other than user experiences, my best contributions to technological blogging are on the business end of things.

Let's talk monetization. As you can see, all of the Empoprises blogs contain ads, while the mrontemp blog does not. Presently I plan to keep it that way, since an "all-encompassing" blog doesn't really lend itself to targeted ads. Incidentally, that's also why I haven't started an Empoprises religion blog, despite my clear interest in the topic. At present I feel a little funny making money off of God. Not that I quibble with religious bloggers who do carry advertisements, and it's possible that I may change my mind someday, but not now. (And in case you're wondering, yes I used to have a religion blog also.)

So will mrontemp (and, for that matter, the "Ontario Emperor" name) become a mere personal blog/face to the world, with Empoprises becoming less personal? Yes and no. Frankly, I have more fun when I write Empoprises posts from a personal perspective. For better or worse, the Empoprises blogs will focus on my thoughts about business, music, and the like.

Well, that's about it for this point except for the RSS subscription links. Here are the feeds for the four (at present) Empoprises blogs:

http://feedproxy.google.com/Empoprise-bi (Empoprise-BI, business)

http://feedproxy.google.com/Empoprise-ie (Empoprise-IE, Inland Empire)

http://feedproxy.google.com/Empoprise-mu (Empoprise-MU, music)

http://feedproxy.google.com/Empoprise-ntn (Empoprise-NTN, NTN Buzztime)

I look forward to your subscriptions, your visits, and your comments.

No, I won't be "securing the Tampa Convention Center"

2009-01-30T12:45:00.000-08:00

This is a semi-amusing little postscript to a story that started several months ago. In fact, it began precisely on Friday, August 22, 2008.

That morning I was sitting in a presentation at a conference in Louisville, Kentucky, performing some free association on a notepad. Specifically, I was thinking about presentations that our company could give at the 2009 conference.

But then I began thinking about a presentation that I could give at the Oracle OpenWorld 2008 Unconference. The idea was that I could give the presentation at Oracle OpenWorld, then adapt it for presentation in 2009. (I'm green, so I believe that recycling presentations is good.)

As readers of this blog know, I eventually came up with a presentation idea for the Oracle OpenWorld 2008 unconference. After that I worked on the associated last.fm playlist, found Overlook 3A, went to the overlook, and gave my presentation.

That was 2008. This is 2009...and it's time to figure out how to revamp this presentation for an entirely different audience. As far as I'm concerned, there are two differences between the Oracle OpenWorld Unconference audience and the other audience:

The other audience is much more knowledgeable about automated fingerprint identification systems and biometrics. While there are people at Oracle OpenWorld who are knowledgeable about these topics, the vast majority of OpenWorld attendees have other interests. Therefore, my OpenWorld presentation included some basic information about AFIS which the average attendee at the other conference wouldn't need.

The organization hosting the other conference has some specific rules about presentations that are not found at the Oracle OpenWorld Unconference. The 2009 conference is dedicated to exploring the scientific disciplines that are followed by the practitioners who attend this conference. Therefore, it is acceptable to talk about ideas in general, but it is not acceptable to promote a particular vendor. If I were to go to the conference and exclusively talk about my product and the Oracle database, one of the conference executives would literally stand up and stop my presentation.

These differences in and of themselves were not a concern, because I figured that my 2009 presentation would be more of a generic look at three types of biometric systems:

Biometric systems that are designed to be used for a particular event.

Biometric systems that are designed to be used at a particular location (or to secure a particular perimeter).

Biometric systems that are designed for both purposes.

Now back in 2008 in San Francisco, I gave several examples of such systems, and concluded with the "what if" question reflected in the title, "Securing the Moscone Center" - or, in other words, using biometrics to control entry and exit to the Moscone Center during Oracle OpenWorld.

For the 2009 presentation (which would be held in Tampa), I would concentrate on real-life examples, such as biometric systems designed for jail entry/exit, systems designed for an election, and other types of systems. Whether the "perimeter" to be protected was the perimeter of a jail, the perimeter of a school lunchroom, or the perimeter of a country (e.g. a biometric-enabled visa/passport), I wanted to explore the commonality between different types of "event-based" and "perimeter-based" systems.

You see, biometric systems are already classified in some traditional ways, the most common of which is to divide them between criminal, civil, and commercial applications. But I was wondering whether, for example, "event-based" systems would have some commonalities regardless of whether or not the system was criminal, civil, or commercial. For example, would a system designed to investigate a crime be similar in any way to a system designed for the World Cup?

So I wrote a title and a synopsis, although I had difficulty with the title. Ordinarily I would have used the word "classification" in the title, but it turns out that classification has a particular meaning in the biometric world, so I had to find an alternate word that wouldn't mislead my audience. I played around with "taxonomy" (which explains my January 21 reading) but eventually decided that I needed a better word.

But before I found a better word, I read the synopsis of my proposed presentation. After reading the synopsis, I asked myself the following question:

So what?

I was forced to conclude that my presentation idea, as then conceived, didn't really benefit the attendees of the Tampa conference. I still think it's a good idea, and may pursue it someday, but with a different audience.

At this point I'm not sure what the takeaway from this is, other than to note that an idea, once conceived, may mutate into something entirely different from what you originally envisioned. Take the church choir singer who didn't realize that the solution to his problem would also solve my later problem about idea brainstorming.

I'm talking to you now - the Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification

2009-01-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, January 24, I wrote a post entitled Talk to me - barriers to communication affect everybody. As part of that post, I reproduced some of the jargon that I spout every day:

BCA needs ESB support, and since we know this now, we don't need to CCB it in. We can start with FEC and write the appropriate STRQs and MRs to get us to M-11. Of course, we'll follow P_RGP in the SPP to do all this. And of course BCA will need all the ANSI/NIST and EFTS stuff we do - you know, WSQ and all that. But the ADS handles that with no problem, as does the DES, of course.

Now that was probably cruel of me to spout all that stuff and not explain a word of it. Following Elvis Google's mandate of "Don't be cruel," I'm going to be a little less cruel about it. I'm not going to explain every one of those acronyms, many of which are only meaningful in a particular office building in Orange County, but I'm going to take a few minutes to explain the acronym EFTS, and why you should never use it again.

You see, the EFTS is the Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Specification, which has since been superseded by the EBTS, the Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification. Both of these specifications were written by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and (to simplify things) dictate how the FBI's criminal system will receive and transmit biometric data that is used in solving crimes, and for other purposes.

And there's a definite need to receive and transmit biometric data. You see, the FBI isn't the only police unit in the United States. There are state organizations, county organizations, city organizations, and various other kinds of organizations that are all occupied in taking fingerprints, palmprints, facial images, and other types of biometric data. And all of these organizations, or many of them, take all of this biometric data and store it in a biometric system (the common term used is AFIS, or Automated Fingerprint Identification System, although many of the systems store more than fingerprints).

And guess what? There are multiple manufacturers of AFIS (I work for one of them), and the FBI system (currently called IAFIS, or Integrated AFIS) is manufactured by another company.

Let's say that my home city of Ontario, California gets some fingerprints at a crime scene, searches its AFIS (which includes fingerprints from previously arrested criminals), and can't match the crime scene prints to any person's prints. The regular procedure is that Ontario will then submit the prints to the state of California, so that California can search its AFIS. If California can't match the prints, they'll go on to the FBI's system. Well, those three systems are manufactured by three different vendors, and the FBI needed to set some rules to make sure that the systems can communicate with the FBI system, and send the right data in the right format to the FBI system.

Hence we have the standard now known as the Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification, which is available for your reading pleasure at http://www.fbibiospecs.org/. But this web site doesn't only have the EBTS, but also has a lot of related standards from a lot of related agencies. If you want to know how to format XML for fingerprint transmissions, then this is the place to go.

Oh yeah...XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. But that's a whole other topic...

We're not doing this because we're greedy (the Chicago Bears on leadership)

2009-01-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

Even if I weren't trying to become a U.S. Senator from Illinois in 2009 - a goal which has become immeasurably harder to achieve - I would have been attracted to a story shared by Steven Perez Monday - namely, an item from chicagobears.com entitled Bears shuffled to lopsided victory in Super Bowl XX.

You see, the title of the item reminded me of this:

And who was the first of the stellar rappers who soloed in this video? The late Walter Payton.

Which got me wondering about something that I may have once known, but have since forgotten - who were the leaders on that Super Bowl-winning Chicago Bears team?

My memory is still alive enough to realize that Refrigerator Perry was probably not the leader of the Bears, but it got me wondering whether DA Bear was the MVP who led off the video, the quarterback Jim McMahon, the coach who didn't appear in the video, or someone else.

The chicagobears.com article calls out the defensive leaders - Mike Singletary and Dan Hampton - but does not try to characterize the offensive or overall leadership of the team.

Another article positions Ditka in the leadership position:

There was something in the air in Platteville, WI, in August 1985. Throngs of new tourists suddenly showing up to watch the team practice....Mike Ditka set the tone, as he told the team that this was their year. "Put a chip on your shoulder, and don't let anyone knock it off until we win the super bowl!", became the team's rallying cry.

But there is another candidate whose name is bandied about:

The NFC Championship game featured some high drama of its own in the final seconds. Down 17-0, Los Angeles was desperately trying to put points on the board. As QB Dieter Brock dropped back to pass, he was sacked by Richard Dent, and fumbled the ball. Just as Wilbur Marshall picked up the ball and ran in for a touchdown, it started to snow. Many surmised it was George Halas giving his mark of approval on the team.

And perhaps that's the secret. Perhaps it wasn't Ditka (or Halas) imposing their vision upon the crowd, but the group of people deciding to achieve a common purpose together. In fact, the video itself, with its variety of "stars," musicians, and people dancing in the back, attests to this team togetherness.

Almost:

In the next 3 games, the Bears were clearly on a roll. They beat up on Detroit, Dallas, and Atlanta by a combined score of 104-3. The pinnacle was a 44-0 defeat of the Cowboys in Dallas, their worst loss at home ever. These 3 losses set up disappointment at Miami on December 2nd. The Dolphins defeated the Bears 38-24, and ensured they would remain the only unbeaten team in the modern era.

Ironically, Bears players gathered the following day to record the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video and single. Some players were invited, but refused to participate.

The article doesn't say why some people refused to participate - perhaps they felt this was inappropriate after a loss - but those non-participants are now the ones who weren't in the video. And, for what it's worth, the Bears performed well after the video was shot:

After the Miami loss, the team did turn it back around, with 3 wins over Indianapolis, the New York Jets and Detroit, to finish the regular season. The playoffs were upon the Bears, and they controlled their destiny with home field advantage throughout the post season.

Incidentally, if you want to practice your wicked rapping skills, the rhymes can be found here. Here are Payton's lines, as recorded at lyricsmode:

Well they call me Sweetness
And I like to dance
Runnin the ball
Is like makin romance
We had the goal
Since training camp
To give Chicago
A Superbowl champ
We're not doing this
Because we're greedy
The Bears are doin it
To feed the needy
We didn't come here
To look for trouble
We just come here
To do the Superbowl Shuffle

P.S. Back in October 2008, I Stumbled Upon a Chicago Tribune article that documented William "Refrigerator" Perry's fight with Guillain-Barré syndrome. A January 25, 2009 Washington Times article offered no update on his condition. Both articles quote him as saying, "I'm doing fine." Hope so.

Oh yeah, that Don Martin takes over the world thingie

2009-01-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

You know how you want to blog about something, start collecting material on it, and never get around to it?

You know how you think about all of the previous blog posts you're gonna cite, and then you never search for them?

Well, perhaps some day I'll document several years' worth of blog posts about Los Angeles sports radio station KLAC (what's the frequency, Kenneth?), but for now I'm just gonna do a linkdump of some stuff I shared a week ago.

Let's start with Tom Hoffarth on January 20:

Talking to Vic "The Brick" Jacobs at last night's Lakers-Cavs game, it seemed like something was going down today in the land of KLAC-AM (570). We heard several rumors/reports/more rumors during the day ... phone calls starting as early at 7:30 a.m.

But there was some other event going on in Washington DC, so some people missed what was happening. Sports by Brooks gave the blow-by-blow:

[Fox Sports Radio's] Craig Shemon and James Washington Show (9a-noon ET) show has been dropped. Dan Patrick’s Show will fill the void, now syndicated by Premiere Networks.

FSR’s Andrew Siciliano and Krystal Fernandez Show (7p-10p ET) show has been dropped. Show will be replaced by KLAC’s “PMS” Show (Petros Papadakis and Matt “Money” Smith)

KLAC’s Steve Hartman and Vic Jacobs, formerly the station’s “Loose Cannons”, will now co-host national FSR show with Chris Myers from 3-7p ET. Myers’ former co-host, Sean Farnham, moves to FSR weekends. Mychal Thompson, part of the Loose Cannons L.A. show, has been dropped.

So who was responsible? Hoffarth names Don Martin ("Don Martin has emerged from a merger as head of both KLAC and Fox Sports Radio"), while Brooks goes higher up ("Clear Channel corporate stepped in and forced the merger - and subsequent clearance" [of talent]).

By January 21, Duncan Riley was blogging about the latter:

After days of speculation, America’s largest radio station owner Clear Channel has announced 1,850 jobs will go, or 9% of its total workforce.

And he concluded by noting

If you thought the loss of local content was bad before, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

On the 21st, Hoffarth also tied the radio moves to the problems of the corporate parent, and also added this speculative tidbit:

The Chicago Tribune's Phil Rosenthal even reported that some believe Clear Channel timed it all during President Barack Obama's inauguration "in the hope that the news would be lost in the shuffle."

And frankly, if you live in Los Angeles, the news could very well be lost in the shuffle. The morning programming from 6:00 am to noon is exactly the same as it was previously. The early afternoon show has less of a Bahamas flavor, and the late afternoon show has done away with the advertorials - you know, those uncomfortable radio dialogues where Petros and Matt would suddenly start talking about my boy Barry.

Needless to say, people in other parts of the country have a different perspective:

What will Fox become? The Lakers, Dodgers, and USC network?

And no, I haven't listened to Tony Bruno's replacement yet, but my perspective as someone who watched the Channel 13 sportscaster many years ago is that the true "Brick" is the one with a reduced role on KLAC. Feeling you a bit less.

P.S. If you're interested in my mentions of "KLAC" in the old Ontario Empoblog, here they are.

It's the publicity, stupid - why any economic stimulus package will target big business

2009-01-27T07:55:00.000-08:00

You probably haven't heard the story of the U.S. firm that decimated nearly FIFTY PERCENT of its workforce by a combination of actions:

The outright layoff of full-time workers.

The outright layoff of part-time workers.

The reduction of full-time workers to part-time status.

There are three reasons why you haven't heard the story of this U.S. firm.

First, this U.S. firm is not a publicly traded company, and thus does not fall under SEC disclosure regulations. (If Steve Jobs headed this firm, you'd know less about his health than you do now. This may or may not be a good thing.)

Second, this U.S. firm is actually a non-profit. As far as public perception is concerned, non-profits don't do real work, so when economic devastation hits them it doesn't count.

Third, and most importantly, this U.S. firm is very small, probably no more than a dozen employees. Thus the devastating losses to this firm are easily discounted in the mind, since I'm only talking about a few employees here. And because this firm doesn't have a high-powered marketing department, no one is hearing its story.

So bear this in mind when you think about the carnage of the last few days. The New York Times story that documents the layoffs of 75,000 people at Home Depot, Caterpillar, Sprint Nextel, "and at least eight other companies" was good, as far as it went. But even the Times didn't bother to name eight of the large companies impacted by the layoffs. And New York Times reporter Catherine Rampell, as good of a reporter as she is, doesn't have the...um...time to document the complete total of economic devastation.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. General Motors and Chrysler can send their chiefs to Capitol Hill. Even if the head of this non-profit could afford the trip to Washington, the only way that head could get to Capitol Hill would be to join one of the tours for the public. Even Feinstein and Boxer can't get this non-profit head into a hearing.

And it's not just a Democratic thing to satisfy the unions. The Republicans also are only going to listen to the heads of large organizations - organizations whose job losses (and, truth be told, political contributions) are easy to quantify.

So bear in mind that the words being spoken on Capitol Hill and the White House are only part of the story. Save for some numbers that will appear in statistical reports after the fact, the true picture of our economic meltdown is invisible from within the Beltway.

But perhaps we can see it in the world around us.

On batch processing (still more from David Risley)

2009-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm squeezing one more post out of a January 16 David Risley post, in which he said:

I tend to write posts several at a time. It works for me and I find that I can get into a frame of mind for writing and just bust out stuff quickly that way.

Obviously this works best when writing a series of posts with similar content, since you can ensure that the posts are thematically consistent. Perhaps Risley is using this in other instances, when he writes several posts which are not connecting together. I guess that can work, since you get into the writing mood.

Hey, whatever works.

Wandering WiFi's Proactive Customer Service

2009-01-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

A few of you may know that mrontemp is not my only blog. While mrontemp is...um...all-encompassing, I actually write several other blogs (under the "Empoprises" banner) that are targeted toward specific topics. For the most part these are niche blogs, and aren't read by a huge number of people (not that mrontemp is read by a huge number of people, but you know what I mean).

One of my blogs targets the Inland Empire of Southern California (the region where the city of Ontario is located), and is called Empoprise-IE. Back on November 2, 2008, I wrote a post about a visit to the Vons in Upland, California. It turns out that the Upland Vons offers free wi-fi for people who are shopping in their stores. When I E Food asked about the point of offering free wi-fi in a grocery store, I replied that this Vons has a seating area near the deli, and that one could conceivably use the service from the chairs there.

But by the time I had responded to I E Food (incidentally, the I E Food blog is here, and it talks about...food), I had an opportunity to try out the service myself - not on a laptop, but on my old Hewlett Packard PDA. I wrote about this on November 18:

I happened to be using my PDA just before I had to go to the Vons in Upland, so I brought it with me to test the "Wandering Wifi" service.

My browser displayed terms of service, and a Login button. I clicked the button and got...a blank screen.

Apparently Wandering Wifi's login process is incompatible with my PDA's browser.

So much for that...

Normally this would be the end of the story. Writer at a small-time blog tries a service, and the service doesn't work.

Fast forward to January 14, 2009, when Robert posted a comment at my second blog entry:

Sorry that you had some issues with our service. There are some occasional quirks with some PDA browsers and the login screen. We can fix that quickly for you with a call to our service department. You are probably not too interested now, just thought I would throw that out there. Our number is 866-926-3374 if you ever need it.

Robert's comment points out the importance of having the full context behind a post, and something that I failed to do when I wrote the post. If Robert had access to my full lifestream of posts over the years, he would have realized a few things:

My PDA is an old PDA. How old is it? I first blogged about it in December 2005 (in yet another blog, the Ontario Technoblog).

My PDA is even older than my phone, which is itself pretty old and uses the browser equivalent of Internet Explorer 4. When I admitted how untrendy my cell phone's operating system was, Louis Gray was downright embarrassed and wanted to disassociate from me. (Gray was joking...I think...)

So I should have made it clear in my November 18 post that I didn't really blame Wandering WiFi for the failure of the service to work with my older PDA. Heck, if there are companies who won't support Internet Explorer 6, I can't really fault a company for not supporting Internet Explorer 4.

So I figured I'd send some praise in Wandering WiFi's direction. And since my Empoprises empire doesn't have a business blog - yet - I figured I'd put the praise here in mrontemp.

And if you'd like to know more about Wandering WiFi, go to http://www.wanderingwifi.com/. In addition to Safeway (and Vons) locations, Wandering WiFi has also implemented free wi-fi access for customers of Caribou Coffee; WellStar Health Systems, Ardent Health, and Blessing Health System (for hospital patients and visitors); and First Watch Restaurants. They have targeted specific vertical markets, both for solutions for customers and secure solutions for the businesses themselves. Here is what they say about providing Internet access to restaurant customers:

Whether you’re the hottest new restaurant in New York City or a reliable roadside diner, we know you’re always in search of ways to enhance customer service. Reliable Internet access is one amenity to consider....

Some restaurateurs fear however that providing their patrons with high-speed, Internet access will be an expensive proposition as historically, owners had to make significant capital outlays for cabling, computers, space and custom software. This is not the case with a solution from Wandering WiFi. Whether you’re a ‘mom and pop shop’ or a national chain, we can help you develop a HotSpot strategy that fits your needs. Free, free with purchase, limited time sessions or restricted peak hours – whatever model works for you can be worked out by us.

Oh, and Robert...thanks again.

On idea files (more from David Risley)

2009-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Remember that David Risley post that I wrote about a few days in the future - I mean yesterday? He offers another good idea in that post - the idea file:

If you’re anything like me, you probably think up good ideas for blog posts all the time – even when you’re not in “writing mode”. The answer is to keep a list of ideas for future posts.

I keep online idea files in all sorts of places, including my ontarioemperor FriendFeed stream, my ego FriendFeed room, and my two Twitter accounts. For example, this entry in my oemperor FriendFeed room served as partial source material for a series of four posts on marketing techniques by three companies.

Of course, I'm not writing national security classified stuff, so I don't see the need to keep my post ideas secret until I write them.

And, for the record, Shel Israel is crowdsourcing a whole danged book before it's published. Here's his latest entry (well, the latest entry at the time that I'm writing this post, which is January 21 - I need to remember to adjust my style for these scheduled posts).

Well, I need to loot one more idea from Risley, and that will give me a third pre-scheduled post, so I'd better get cracking.

Foto Fun Strips Fail

2009-01-25T16:57:00.001-08:00

Montclair Plaza, Montclair, California (by Macys).

Change...23 cents' worth

2009-01-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

From Premier Label Water Company, http://plwc.net/

See followup.

Proving the point (David Risley's "How to Never Run Out of Content For Your Blog Again")

2009-01-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've been a huge fan of Blogger's "scheduled post" feature ever since it was introduced. For example, (almost) every Friday at noon I publish an item called Empoprise-NTN High Noon that features one or more locations where you can play NTN Buzztime trivia.

But that's just part of the equation, as David Risley points out in a January 16, 2009 post, although Risley does it a little differently than I do:

I recommend that you have some posts already written which remain in draft on your blog. If something comes up and you are short on content, you can always publish one of your draft posts you had sitting there....

I would recommend having at least 5 good posts in draft so that you can pull them out when time is tight.

Proving the point, I'm writing this post on the evening of January 21, 2009. I still haven't decided when I'm going to schedule this post yet.

David Risley says some other good things in his post, but hey - I still have to come up with four future posts, don't I?

(Incidentally, the one drawback of scheduling a series of posts in Blogger is that you can't pre-establish links between the posts. In Blogger, the link isn't created until the post is actually published.)

Anyone seen this movie?

2009-01-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

The casting is intriguing...

Talk to me - barriers to communication affect everybody

2009-01-24T16:35:00.000-08:00

I just ran across a podcast, available on Eddie Awad's blog, that was the first part of a discussion between Awad, Bob Rhubart of the Oracle Architect Community, and Jeff Davies, a Senior Principal Product Manager for Oracle. Rhubart moderated the discussion, which focused somewhat on communication between developers and architects. While I can't really comment on that part of the discussion, part of the discussion was more general, and concerned barriers to communication.

Jeff Davies cited an example that he previously blogged about in October 2008:

Last week at Oracle Open World I had the opportunity to meet a number of folks interested in Oracle products in general and SOA in particular. One gentleman that I spoke with was very technical, but asked me to explain what I meant by, “point-to-point integration”. At first, the question surprised me. Then I realized that I use terms like “point-to-point” and, ‘EAI” so often that I’ve simply come to assume that everyone knew what they meant. This is a hazard of specialization in any field: you assume that everyone you speak with not only recognizes your particular jargon, but also that they have the same definition for those terms that you do.

Eddie Awad went farther back, taking an example from 2006 when he had to start a new project and had to learn service-oriented architecture - not just the technical sections, but also the language that was spoken. This proved to be a challenge, even to someone like Awad with extensive technical experience (Awad has been recognized by Oracle as an "ACE Director," or an expert in Oracle technologies):

I have found the tutorial to be very useful and essential to getting started with SOA and especially BPEL and ESB....

Notice that in the short paragraph above, I used three acronyms: SOA, BPEL and ESB. Well, if you want to dive into SOA, you will be swimming in a sea of acronyms.

Both of them used their blogs to communicate some of the terms and acronyms that they had encountered. Hopefully their blog posts have helped others who are faced with the same situation.

Well, I'm not an Oracle developer or architect, but I certainly run across enough acronyms and special terms in my line of business - some from the industry in which our products compete, and some from our internal processes. For example, the following phrase is extremely meaningful to me:

BCA needs ESB support, and since we know this now, we don't need to CCB it in. We can start with FEC and write the appropriate STRQs and MRs to get us to M-11. Of course, we'll follow P_RGP in the SPP to do all this. And of course BCA will need all the ANSI/NIST and EFTS stuff we do - you know, WSQ and all that. But the ADS handles that with no problem, as does the DES, of course.

Of course.

Of the billions of people in the world, there are at most a few dozen people who understand all of the acronyms that I cited. Several of them are industry standard acronyms (I assume more of my more technical readers know that ESB = Enterprise Service Bus), but some of them are very specific to the building in which I work.

And you can't assume anything. I work for a Fortune 500 company that produces many, many products. My particular group writes software, but some of our software runs on other products that the Fortune 500 company produces. One of these products - let's call it the 57CM - was recently featured in the media, and one of our marcom people let everyone know that the 57CM would be featured. He received e-mails from three people, including people with extensive experience in our products and industry, who had never heard of the 57CM. All of us who work with the 57CM just assumed that everyone in our building knew what it was...

...just like I recently assumed that all of you reading this blog post are aware that "marcom" is shorthand for "marketing communications."

When we're writing for others, we need to remember to look at the communication from their eyes and make sure that it's comprehensible.

Outline skating, cheek by jowl in a riot (lost in translation)

2009-01-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to follow the results of the ladies' events in the European Figure Skating championships in Helsinki, but some of the first reports that I saw were in Finnish. I can't read Finnish text, but I can read Finnish numbers.

Taitoluistelun EM-kilpailut, naiset, tilanne lyhytohjelman jälkeen:

1) Laura Lepistö Suomi 56,62
2) Susanna Pöykiö Suomi 56,06
3) Carolina Kostner Italia 51,36
4) Jenna McCorkell Britannia 50,00
5) Katarina Gerboldt Venäjä 48,62
6) Ivana Reitmayerova Slovakia 48,00
7) Kiira Korpi Suomi 47,60
8) Irina Movtshan Ukraina 46,48
9) Tugba Karademir Turkki 46,26
10) Nella Simaova Tshekki 45,24

Since Laura Lepistö is my second favorite Finnish figure skater (you don't know my favorite Finnish figure skater), I'm naturally pleased with the results.

And I was even more pleased when I found an English language account of the short program.

Until I actually read it.

Once you start looking at the account, it's obvious that the account was actually written in another language, then translated to English via automatic translation software. It's pretty obvious that no human reviewed the translation, especially after seeing phrases like this:

HELSINKI, Finland: Laura Lepisto and Susanna Poykio of Finland gave the hometown fans a 1-2 finish Friday in the pointed program, in which case Carolina Kostner indispensably to make a good use of to bring over a third straight denominate at the European outline skating championships....

Later Friday, Russia'session Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski possibility of good to gain over their earliest inscription in ice-cream dandle....

Kostner was heavily favored to make it three European titles in a riot, something that hasn'cheek by jowl been granted since France'session Surya Bonaly won five upright from 1991-95....

Poykio's literary work was a scrap of redemption. Runner-up at the 2005 Europeans, the 26-year-old didn'familiarily on a level contribute the Finnish lot ultimate year. But she looked relaxed and cocksure, and is 4 minutes from some other European medal.

And yes, we laugh at things like this, but it does point out a serious flaw in my eventual plan for world domination (which will occur after I secure the vacant U.S. Senate seat from Illinois). I am reputed to be able to speak English, and I have some very small ability to read Spanish and German, but there are (give or take) 6,912 living languages in the world today. And, as the example above proves, we aren't even able to master a greatly reduced subset of these languages, such as the 34 languages supported by Google Translate.

The ideal solution in the past (and present) has been for everyone to adopt a common, universal language when communicating with people from other parts of the world. As Omniglot notes, previous and current candidates for a universal (or semi-universal) language have included Greek, Latin, French, English, and Chinese. And the Omniglot article didn't even mention everyone's favorite universal language. But even this language has its drawbacks:

Desperanto
(with apologies to The Eagles)

Esperanto, why don't you come to your senses,
Your simplified tenses aren't enough anyhow,
Oh you're a hard one, but I know that you've got your reasons,
The cases that were pleasin' you, accuse you now

Don't you call the queen reg^ino boy, she'll king you if she's able
You know what kind of queen wants a name that ends in -o
Now it seems to me extreme things have been set out in that table,
You should corral your silly schemes, you know

Esperanto, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger,
You age and you hunger, and you're all but unknown,
And English, oh English, well that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don't your circumflex now circumscribe
The speed we type and the speed we write,
It's hard to circumcise it either way,
And you're writin' X or H or gripes,
Ain't it ASCII you were plannin' for, I say?

Esperanto, why don't you come to your senses,
Stop manning those fences- open the gate
You may be failing, but there's ways to rearrange you
You'd better let somebody change you,
Let somebody change you
You'd better let somebody change you,
Before it's too late...

Taquito to the person who wrote that song parody.

Sharii, won't you draw out tonight?

2009-01-22T18:20:00.000-08:00

If you would like to see some wonderful illustrations, visit sharii.com, the website of Shari Chankhamma.

Born 1980, in Thailand where I currently reside. I have been drawing comics for 10 years, I have worked with publishers from the US, UK and also Thailand

I speak both Thai and English, I’m trying to learn Japanese but that’s going slowly.

I work mostly with sequential art (comics, manga, graphic novel, pick your poison), but also do illustrations, character designs and merchandise designs.

So how did I hear about Shari?

She turned Michael Hanscom into "Valiant Camera Warrior."

Is Twitter the new Apple?

2009-01-21T21:15:00.000-08:00

Incidentally, I promise that this post has nothing to do with Steve Jobs' health.

Louis Gray wrote a post which decried Twitter's recent changes to API access. Turns out those changes adversely impact SocialToo, and Gray happens to be an advisor to SocialToo, so he naturally shared his opinion on it.

Dave Winer also caught Gray's post and linked to it via a tweet. But his preface to the link was interesting:

The problem with Twitter is it's both a company and a platform. It can only be both for so long.

Now I realize that conversation is for sissies, but Winer's tweet provoked a thought in my brain.

Name one other Silicon Valley firm which has consistently been a company and a platform. Well, there are probably several, but Apple (formerly Apple Computer) has been well-known (or notorious) for this behavior.

I worked for a developer of Macintosh educational software in the 1980s, so I was around for the first years of Apple and the Macintosh. And, although I had left the company by the early 1990s (ironically, as they began to port their software to Windows), I followed Apple's next steps:

At the shareholder meeting on January 26, 1994, Apple announced that it would license its upcoming Power Macs by the end of the year. Apple had trouble signing up even one licensee. Potential cloners questioned Apple's commitment to long-term licensing. After a number of concessions and much hand wringing, licensees finally came onboard and began selling Mac clones in 1996. Cloners included Umax, Motorola, and Power Computing.

But then Apple acquired NeXT, and Steve Jobs (who had left the company in the 1980s) came back.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, many of the cloners began to worry about their future. During a fireside chat at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) on May 16, 1997, Jobs asserted his belief that clone vendors should pay more for the privilege of making Macs. Instead of a flat fee of $50 per unit, the price should be based on the volume and price of computers sold. He referred to cloners as "leeches". It was clear that Jobs was no fan of licensing.

So Apple pulled back from licensing, and because of strong customer sentiment for open systems, Apple died a miserable death.

Not exactly. Apple seems to have done pretty well in the years since Jobs' return, despite releasing other closed products such as the iPod and the iPhone.

So it certainly is possible for a company to be both a company and a platform. And there are advantages to such a strategy, namely the fact that you dominate your sector in the market. And while your sector might be small, Twitter use has been increasing dramatically (nearly 1000% in the last year), so perhaps they can keep things locked up and still survive.

Or Winer (and others) might be right, and Twitter is throttling itself.

What do you think?

Who should respond to questions about an employee's health?

2009-01-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

The whole Steve Jobs/Apple thingie has raised interesting questions about key employee privacy, and whether an employer or the key employee is responsible for providing information about health to the public.

I've talked about Jobs and Apple before; see my posts from 1/5, 1/7, 1/14, and 1/16. The whole episode has now caused someone to initiate an action within the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Silicon Alley Insider links to a Bloomberg article:

Apple Inc. faces a government review of its disclosures about Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs’s health problems to ensure investors weren’t misled, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s review doesn’t mean investigators have seen evidence of wrongdoing, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public.

So what is the potential nature of the review? Bloomberg reviews the disclosures that were made:

The company’s stock whipsawed this month after Jobs, who battled pancreatic cancer in 2004, said he would remain CEO while seeking a “relatively simple” treatment for a nutritional ailment. Nine days later, Jobs said he would take a five-month medical leave after learning his health issues were “more complex.”

“The good news flipped by the bad news makes one wonder what Apple knew,” said James Cox, a law professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina....

To bring any case, the SEC would probably have to show the company tried to benefit by withholding information about an unambiguous diagnosis, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and SEC lawyer who now teaches at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

From the information that we have, it's unclear whether the SEC is only investigating the information that Apple did provide, or is also looking at the information that Apple didn't provide.

Regardless, the issue in general has prompted a couple of FriendFeed threads that have touched on the issue of employee privacy. The most extensive thread is the one that Kevin Fox started last Friday. In this thread, Fox and other FriendFeed users such as Alex Scoble have discussed the corporate obligations, if any, to disclose health issues regarding key employees. Here's a sampling of the discussion:

Medical privacy is our strongest privacy. (Kevin Fox)

Investors have a right to know the health of top execs and other key personnel in a company that they are investing in. When someone takes a position like that, they have no reasonable expectation to privacy in matters that can affect shareholder's investments. (Alex Scoble)

Without knowing about this thread, I started a different thread based upon the Silicon Alley Insider post about the SEC review. Scoble and Fox joined that conversation also, and Kevin Fox made an interesting observation. In response to a statement I made about how Apple could answer the question "Is Steve healthy?" Fox replied:

I think the best answer to the question "Is Steve healthy?" would be "We respect the privacy of all our employees. If you have questions about an employee's health you should direct those questions to the employees personally, though we encourage you to respect their right to privacy as well."

This response interested me, for a couple of reasons:

While corporations usually like to control statements about themselves, Fox's formulation means that the health of a key employee (or any employee) is specifically outside of the area of interest of the corporation.

It also means that employees, who are usually insulated from the press by a corporation's communications organization, now become responsible for their own communications.

In the FriendFeed thread I cited a theoretical extreme example of how this could be applied.

In the theoretical extreme, reporters could ask every worker entering an auto plant if they have a hangover.

Yes, it's an extreme example, but often the outliers help to illustrate potential ramifications of this proposed policy, both for the employee and for the corporation. On the one hand, the so-called unwashed masses may be inexperienced in dealing with the press, and may respond, "Yeah, I have a hangover, but I just smoked a couple of joints before I got here. Let's build some cars, man!" On the other hand, the corporation, who decided that they didn't want to breach their employees' privacy, suddenly discovers that they are faced with something that IS a corporate issue.

My argument throughout this is that if a key employee is engaged in day-to-day operations, and is unable to perform his/her day-to-day duties, then that is a material issue that should be disclosed. (Therefore, when Jobs was actively engaged in Apple day-to-day issues, his health was an issue; now that he has taken a leave of absence, it is not.)

Then again, why not take my formulation to its theoretical extreme? Let's say that Kevin Fox and Alex Scoble are the co-leaders of a pop band called the FriendFeeders, and that they had a scheduled gig in San Francisco on January 20. They're late to the gig, and the press asks why. Rather than insisting that this is a private matter, Kevin Fox concludes that the late arrival to the gig is a material issue, and he replies, "Well, we would have been on time, but Alex insisted on finishing a game of Fallout 3, which made us late."

Unfortunately, let's say that the FriendFeeders' gig was sponsored by EA, a competitor to Bethesda Softworks (publisher of Fallout 3). The EA rep, angry at the mention of a competitor's product, refuses to book the FriendFeeders ever again. Eventually the band is reduced to performing at kids' birthday parties...all because Rose [WHOOPS, "FOX"] was forced to disclose something that should have been kept private.

OK, so we've explored the outliers, and I've personally concluded that extremism in the defense of a blog topic is no virtue. (Yeah, I stole that from my boy Barry.)

So I'll ask you:

Should questions about a key corporate employee's health be directed to the corporation, or to the employee?

SUBSEQUENT POSTSCRIPT: So I wrote this whole dang thing, and then read something else on FriendFeed:

I'm honored that you confused me with Kevin Rose in that post. :-) - Kevin Fox

Yes, at one point I did type "Rose" instead of "Fox." I've corrected it.

Perhaps before I post this, I'd better scan the post for the word "Robert"...

Rick Warren's prayer - Why should the Muslims have all the good phrases?

2009-01-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Decades and decades ago, Larry Norman released a song "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" that basically said that yes, Christian music can have loud guitars and stuff. And while there are some pockets of objection, most Christians have agreed that the existence of an amplified musical instrument does not necessarily mean that a Christian is prohibited from using said instrument.

Earlier today Rick Warren spoke a prayer at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Perpetua of Carthage linked to a YouTube video of the prayer.

While there are some who objected to the presence of anyone praying to God at a state event, and while there are probably some who don't really want to hear the Lord's Prayer, there was another thing that Rick Warren said that angered some.

The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God; the LORD is one." And you are the compassionate and merciful one....

Yes, Rick Warren used the "c" and "m" words. John at True Discernment points out the significance of the words:

“The compassionate, the merciful” is, of course, a reference to the invocation at the beginning of every chapter of the Qur’an except one: Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, “In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful.”

Making sure everyone feels included — terrific. But the prayer indicates yet again that there is little general awareness of the reasons why the term “Judeo-Christian-Islamic values” is a misnomer.

John's point, which I believe is valid, is that the Muslim god is in no way to be equated with the Christian God.

And yes, I believe that Warren probably included the words "compassionate" and "merciful" to make the words sound inclusive.

But, in the old Lutheran phrase, "what does this mean?"

Personally, I have no problem using the words "compassionate" and "merciful" in prayers to my God, the Christian God. Just because someone came along a few hundred years later and applied them to his god doesn't mean that I have to quit using them. Or that I have to take verses such as this out of my Bible for fear that Christians may be offended by them:

Exodus 33:19 (New International Version) And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

Psalm 51:1 (New International Version) Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

James 5:11 (New International Version) As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Next thing you know, people are going to complain if Rick Warren uses the term "Christian." "Ah, an obvious attempt to incorporate the philosophy of Mary Baker Eddy," they will proclaim.

Of course, we need to ask the question - where is Rick Warren going? Over the past century, there have been several Christian pastors - Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell come to mind - who have tried to maneuver themselves into the role of "America's pastor." Rick Warren is apparently following in their footsteps. One can ask whether Warren, or Falwell, or Graham, or whoever is doing this to promote the kingdom of God, or to promote the kingdom of America, or perhaps both. I can't read Warren's heart, so I guess we'll have to see.

25 things (it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood)

2009-01-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

To keep things succinct, let's just say that the first 14 items in this post came from three previous posts. But now that FriendFeed has upped the ante and people are posting 25 things about themselves, it looks like the 14 items that I had previously posted were insufficient. So I've taken those 14 items and added 11 more. This allows me to compete with the other 25 things crowd, such as the Bohemian Sparkly Penguin, alphaxion, pea, Helen Sventitsky, and probably everybody else on FriendFeed. Yes, I'm getting to this late. No, I'm not trendy.

Incidentally, I have made minor edits to the original fourteen points (wow, sounds Wilsonian), including combining items 2 and 6 from the first post. And to get the links that I originally embedded in the first 14 items, you have to go back to the original posts; I was too lazy to reproduce them here.

About twenty years before I became "Ontario Emperor," I was hobnobbing with Presidents. Sort of. I didn't tell the whole story when I referenced this back in 2006, so I'll tell it now. During the 1977 Virginia governor's race, the Republican candidate got some heavy hitters at one of his campaign rallies. Not only did he get Bob Dole, U.S. Senator and former Vice Presidential candidate, but he also got former President Gerald Ford. I got a chance to shake Ford's hand that day (left hand, if I remember correctly). Hey, how many Presidents have YOU met?

I was probably using the Internet before Al Gore was. As I've mentioned in a couple of MySpace posts, I had access to Usenet while at Reed College. Reed was one of the pioneers on the Usenet network (scroll down to the summer 1980 map in this article), and Professor Richard Crandall included Pascal and UNIX use in his labs for freshman Physics. I didn't really do a lot of physics work on that DEC PDP-11/70, but I acquired some experience that has stood me in good stead to the present day. And it's been more useful to me than Professor Nicholas Wheeler's lectures on the 17th dimension. While on Usenet, one of my favorite Usenet groups was alt.non.sequitur. A sample post is here (my contribution is at the bottom of the post; true to alt.non.sequitur, it is not a sign). I eventually left Usenet after an unfortunate pizza delivery accident, and have never returned. Paddy O'Furniture is probably sad about my departure.

Let's continue with an explanation of the "audio artist" phrase that I've thrown around here and there. When I started as "Ontario Emperor," I used the name to post various synthetica songs on the web - originally MIDI songs generated on the Mac, then mp3 songs generated on the Mac (and released on CDs via the old mp3.com), then MIDI songs generated in Windows after I moved away from the Macintosh platform. Since mp3.com changed formats in December 2003, the only mp3 of mine that remains online is the song "Non Sequitur 15," available here. This song holds the dubious distinction of being the only Ontario Emperor song that is not an instrumental. MIDIs, by the way, can be found here, although since MIDI is (like HTML) dependent upon the presenting device, the MIDIs that were composed on the Macintosh don't sound that good on Windows. (Frankly, the MIDIs composed on Windows may not sound that good on Windows, but that's another matter entirely.)

As my old biography indicates, I have been published in the dinosaur traditional media. This occurred when I wrote something or another to Inland Valley Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen, who proceeded to publish it in his September 13, 1998 column. I'm vague about what was published because I have since forgotten what wise words I provided, the article is no longer available online, and I haven't taken the time to go to the library and look it up in the archives. I'm sure it was fascinating, however.

Ditto with my call to Poorman's "Anti-Radio" show that was referenced in my old biography; can't remember what I said. Jim "Poorman" Trenton originally came to fame by writing "poorman" restaurant reviews. He eventually became a deejay at KROQ, most famous for his participation in the "Loveline" program. He parted with KROQ, not on friendly terms, and has drifted from radio station to radio station since. In 1999 he was championing the idea of a radio show for unsigned bands; the only song that I remember from that show was the classic "I Gotta Poo." He's still around somewhere on local radio or TV, but I'm not sure where.

You may know that mrontemp is not my original blog, and that I've created a number of other blogs since October 2003, most notably the Ontario Empoblog. But did you know that I was a contributor to a blog that was reading through the New Testament? The blog was called Word Search, and although the blog itself no longer survives, the posts are still available as part of A Human Bean's blog. Although the identities of the individual post writers are no longer preserved (we'd rotate amongst ourselves), I found a post that was obviously written by me (it links to a bad joke in one of my old blogs).

I am an actor who regularly appears on stage, performing for thousands. It's true. There is a southern California performing arts organization called Children's Theatre Experience, and after my daughter had performed in several shows with the Claremont group, she let me know that they needed adult men for their production of "Fiddler on the Roof." Apparently a lot of kids approached their fathers, because several of us formally joined the cast at that point. In addition to appearing in "Fiddler on the Roof," I have also appeared in "Big River", "The Music Man", "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", and other productions. Our performances are at the Bridges Auditorium in Claremont, California, which does hold well over 2,000 people and has played host to a number of more prominent people than myself.

I have found that once I am at an area, I am just very very happy to stay there and not move at all. I moved into my current home in 1997 and have no desire to leave, but if I do, and I end up in Olten, Switzerland, I'll probably never want to leave there until I have to move and end up in Barrow, Alaska, and I'll never want to leave - I'll just buy bright lights in the winter.

We didn't get our Christmas tree up until mid-December, and wouldn't have done it except for my daughter who just started dragging it out.

Some of you may already know that my employer is selling my division to another company. The potential sale was announced in October, but hasn't happened yet.

I did not attend my usual church right before Christmas. It was still a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod church, but it was a different congregation, a different pastor, and a different type of sermon. I missed my regular pastor, who always makes a great point of having us look at the Bible reading during the sermon itself. This pastor showed a video, and while Charlie Brown is meaningful, it wasn't the same.

Despite my pseudonym, I have not been to Canada in a few years. Previously I would make fairly frequent business trips to Canada - mostly to Ottawa, but I have also been to Toronto, Montreal, and Orillia. Having not been there in a while, Tim Horton's actually sounds like an exotic place. You may laugh now.

My home computer disk was over 90% full, but we've worked on reducing it.

I've mentioned that I didn't avail myself of the chance to see Depeche Mode (and OMD) at the Rose Bowl, but I also missed a chance to see Jonathan Richman, even though I could have seen him for free by taking a thirty-second walk. This is again a Reed College story, but it's outside of the classroom or the lab. Every year Reed closes its spring semester with a Renaissance Fayre which has hardly anything to do with the Renaissance, but it does emphasize the "Fayre" part. One year Jonathan Richman was scheduled to play at the event. This was years after his ground-breaking work, and occurred at about the time he was singing about being a little airplane, but it was certainly a show worth seeing. Unfortunately, there was a Ferris wheel at this Ren Fayre, and after going around the wheel one time...the operator decided to send us around a second time. After that experience I wasn't up to doing anything, so I missed my chance to see Richman.

So how did I get to Reed College? In first class! For some unfathomable reason, when I flew out to Reed College for a campus visit, they flew me out first class. The plane was pretty much a local, because after Minneapolis it stopped in three different cities in Montana (this was the only time I ever visited Bozeman, whose airport is even smaller than the 1980s-era Ontario, California airport).

While that was my most interesting westbound trip, my most interesting eastbound trip was made by train in May of 1980. I left Portland and took the train to Chicago, where I visited my childhood home during a brief layover (I would not return to my boyhood home until the summer of 2008), then took the train from Chicago back to my home, arriving on Saturday. The next day Mt. St. Helens blew up.

I previously mentioned my early involvement in UNIX, but I was a little confused about who did what in the UNIX arena. I was first exposed to the operating system before the AT&T breakup, so the phrase "UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories" was embedded in my brain. However, the ramifications of this didn't penetrate said brain. A few years later, I was at some trade show looking at some UNIX material, and an AT&T salesman walked up. In his salesman-y way, he said something like "I'm from the company that brought you UNIX." A little confused on the concept, and thinking of the PDP-11/70 hardware, I replied, "DEC?"

I mentioned this in a comment to a Queen of Spain blog post, but if I say it again here I'll be one step closer to my 25 items total. My cluelessness about things goes way back. In elementary school, we were given an assignment to interview someone. I (and another girl in my class) hit upon the idea of interviewing President Richard Nixon, who lived a few miles away from us at the time in a white house in the city. I think we seriously believed that the President would sit down and talk to us, but all we got is an official letter of regret from the White House.

My greatest regret in life is that I didn't go to the Depeche Mode/OMD concert at the Rose Bowl (the "101" concert).

I was an active BBS'er in the early 1990s, visiting several Inland Empire blogs such as Deep Thought in Mt. Baldy (the first BBS I ever joined) and the Grotto in Rancho Cucamonga. I've lost touch with Starfish who ran the Grotto, but her daughter is now a webmaster for the union in which her stepfather (Bloose) works. See these posts from 2007 and 2008 for related information.

I have attended United Methodist and Lutheran churches during my adult life, but for a couple of years in college I attended a Pentecostal church known as World Outreach and/or Gospel Outreach. The senior pastoral family, Scott & Ellie Snedeker, had their roots in the Lighthouse Ranch, and have apparently since left Portland and gone to Eureka. The most famous member of the church was former Guatemalan President Efrain Rios Montt, who was either a hero or villain depending upon how you looked at him.

I'm running out of ideas, so I'll close with my attendance at games from the four major American sports. Unless there's a Cubs game in my early childhood that I don't remember, the first major league baseball game that I attended was a Washington Senators game. Frank Howard didn't get a hit.

Not too long after that, I attended a Baltimore Bullets game in Cold Feet House.

It took me a while to make it to a National Hockey League game. In fact, I didn't go to one until 2004, and that was primarily because we were hosting a Finnish exchange student who really liked hockey. The L.A. Kings lost the game.

Which brings me to the NFL. I have never seen a National League Football game live. Of course, I have two excuses: (1) when I was growing up, Redskins games were always sellouts, and (2) the closest NFL team to me is the San Diego Chargers.

Well, there's 25 items (unless I counted wrong). I just hope that nobody comes up with a 50 items meme.

P.S. I'd tell you the story behind the title, but that story really doesn't have to do with me.

Here the LCMS stands on Warren, Robinson, etc. Part Three

2009-01-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

part one | part two | part three

In the last post I linked to C.F.W. Walther's argument that the Evangelical Lutheran Church, known today as the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, is the true visible church.

And while Lutherans are fond of asking "What does this mean?" it's also appropriate to ask "What does this not mean?"

Cyberbrethren:

[E]ven some Lutheran pastors seem a bit confused...for when they hear that the Lutheran Church alone teaches the Gospel in its truth and purity [which is true!] they assume this must also mean that a person is declaring the Lutheran Chuch to be the alone-saving Church [which is not true!].

Cyberbrethren then quotes from...you guessed it, C.F.W. Walther:

May God keep you from becoming entangled with this false teaching concerning the Church, viz., that the Lutheran Church is the true visible Church of Jesus Christ in the sense that one can be saved only in this Church! The Lutheran Church is indeed the true visible Church; however, only in this sense, that it has the pure, unadulterated truth. As soon as you add the qualification “alone-saving” to the Lutheran Church, you detract from the doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and confound Law and Gospel.

And if you'd like to read some more about the visible church, here's a post from Don McMaster:

The Church is holy, though some of her members are not. Likewise, the Church is visible...

Ah, the visible church.

...though some who appear to be Catholic are not so in heart and mind.

Wait a minute. Was that a capital C?

A logical fallacy--the "fallacy of composition," if I recall correctly--would be involved in doubting the visibility of the true Church as a whole on the basis that some people who appear to be part of the Church are not truly so in the sight of our Father who sees in secret (while others are).

A further logical fault appears in the effort to establish a real doubt about the visibility of the Church on the basis of merely conjectural doubts about unspecified people who, to all outward appearances, are Catholic. Merely conjectural doubts arise from the fact that we do not know all that God knows about who is a Catholic at heart and who is not. It doesn't follow that there is any real doubt that the Catholic Church is the one, true, visible Church of Christ, for this can be ascertained without knowing all that God knows.

The quote above is taken from the Traditional Catholic Forum, and happens to respond to a question from a Lutheran seminarian (from a discussion over a few drinks; Lutherans and Catholics agree that abstinence is not mandated for all in Scripture). Interestingly enough, later in the thread DJR discusses the concept of the invisible church.

The concept of an "invisible church" is not taught anywhere in Sacred Scripture; therefore, it should be problematic to someone who claims to believe in Sola Scriptura.

Our Lord taught that the Church is quite visible.

DJR then quotes from Daniel 2:44, Matthew 5:14-16, and other verses.

And the argument that the Roman Catholic Church is the true visible church is obviously not unique. Phil Porvaznik:

The resolution I will be defending is "The Roman Catholic Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures."...

So in Catholic understanding the Church is a visible society and organization on earth, but has spiritual and heavenly components; she is both hierarchical and the Mystical body of Christ. And according to the Bible, there is only one Church and one Faith (Matt 16:18f; Eph 4:4f), not multiple churches teaching different doctrines and contradictory faiths....

While there are many local churches (e.g. "the church of God in Corinth," 1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1; "the churches in Galatia," Gal 1:2; etc), they are united as ONE universal or Catholic Church according to Christ, teaching ONE universal or Catholic Faith (Eph 4:5; Jude 3). That is the Church Christ founded against which He promised the powers of death (or gates of hell) cannot prevail. There are not many Christian "faithS" -- division and schism is sin and utterly intolerable in the universal Church according to the Scriptures (Matt 12:25; John 17:20-23; Acts 4:32; Rom 16:17ff; 1 Cor 1:10ff; 3:3f; 14:33; Gal 5:19ff; Philip 1:27; Titus 3:9f; etc).

Porvaznik was opposed by Jason Engwer:

We're told by Catholic apologists that an oak tree grows from an acorn. Nobody denies that it does. The question with the teachings of Catholicism, in some cases, is whether an oak tree can grow from an apple seed or no seed at all. In other cases, the question is why Catholic apologists are looking for an acorn where the Catholic Church tells us we should see an oak tree.

When we read the Bible, do we find the Roman Catholic Church? Do we find a papacy, private confession of sins to a priest, and a sinless Mary, for example? No, we don't. But the modern Catholic apologist will tell us that such differences between the Bible and Roman Catholicism are consistent with Catholic teaching. We're told that if we can find an acorn, or just something that might be an acorn, then the oak tree of modern Catholicism is thereby justified. If you can't see the alleged acorn, or it looks more like an apple seed to you, you'll be told that you can't trust your own fallible eyesight. You need the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to look into the microscope for you and infallibly assure you that it's an acorn.

And the LCMS obviously does not agree that the Roman Catholic Church is the true visible church.

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, Lutherans do not believe that the office of the papacy as such has any divine authority, or that Christians need to submit to the Pope's authority to be "true" members of the visible church.

And obviously there are other churches that claim to be the true church. Take this statement:

Why are we members of the only true Church? Even though I cannot answer this question for all 13 million members of the Church, I would like to express from my heart some answers....

The author, Elder Enrique R. Falabella, continues:

Riches were not a part of my childhood. We were a family of five: my father and four siblings. My mother had passed away when I was five years old. My father’s meager income was used to buy our food....

As time went by, a pair of missionaries taught us the riches of the restored gospel, of the doctrine of the plan of salvation, and of eternal families. We were baptized, and when my father began his calling as district president, his first objective was to journey to the temple and receive the blessings which would come because of that sacrifice....

Upon arriving in the city of Mesa, Arizona, we headed down an avenue at the end of which we could see the house of the Lord, gleaming and beautiful. I remember the joy which filled our hearts; we all broke out in songs and praising, and tears ran down the cheeks of many Saints.

Later in the temple, we knelt as a family to hear the beautiful promises about an eternal family, with the certainty that our mother, though absent, was now our mother forever, and we felt the peace which comes from knowing that we are an eternal family.

The promise of life eternal thus gave us the riches of eternity! “Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich” (D&C 6:7).

"D&C," by the way, refers to "Doctrine & Covenants" - which is part of the LCMS issue with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:

[T]he official writings of Mormonism deny fundamental teachings of orthodox Christianity. For example, the Nicene Creed confesses the clear biblical truth that Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, is "of one substance with the Father." This central article of the Christian faith is expressly rejected by Mormon teaching -- thus undermining the very heart of the scriptural Gospel itself. In a chapter titled "Jesus Christ, the Son of God: Are Mormons Christian?" the president of Brigham Young University (Rex Lee, What Do Mormons Believe? [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992] summarizes Mormon teaching by stating that the three persons of the Trinity are "not... one being" (21), but are "separate individuals." In addition, the Father is regarded as having a body "of flesh and bone" (22). Such teaching is contrary to the Holy Scriptures....

And then there's Darwin Fish:

If you are involved with the kind of Christianity that views the "church of Christ", or Billy Graham, or Rick Warren, or Joel Osteen, or James Dobson, or Pat Robertson, or John MacArthur, or Tony Evans, or Greg Laurie, or Charles Stanley, or Chuck Smith, or Fred Price, or J. Vernon McGee, or Charles Blake, or Chuck Swindoll, or Gene Scott, or Harold Camping (Family Radio), or John Piper, or T. D. Jakes, or David Jeremiah, or Charles Spurgeon, or Dave Hunt, or David W. Cloud, or Perry F Rockwood, or Neil Anderson, or Robert Schuller, or Jack Hayford, or Benny Hinn, or Miles McPherson, or Ray Comfort, or Jim Cobrae, or Chuck Colson, or C. S. Lewis, or Pope John Paul, or Hank Hanegraaff, or Paul Chappell, or any of the like (or any of the likes on "Christian" TV or radio) as godly men, you are not saved. Why? Because, you are on the broad way (Matthew 7:13; 2 Peter 2:2; 2 Timothy 4:3). You have not the characteristic of Christ's sheep (John 10:5). And, men such as these are wells without water (2 Peter 2:17).

And what's wrong with - well, with everybody? Let's look at a few examples:

Spurgeon lies and speaks the exact opposite of Christ when he says, "the road to heaven may be sufficiently wide to have several different paths in it." Spurgeon believed both Calvinists and Arminians were on this wide path to heaven (see our report Spurgeon, An Ecumenical False Teacher). Jesus says it's narrow. Spurgeon says it's wide. Such teaching is damning....

False teachers...[hold] to some form of creed, creeds, essentials, fundamentals, or core belief that supposedly unifies all true believers. If one stays within the bounds of this central belief, often called "orthodox Christianity," or "historic Christianity" (e.g. Christianity In Crisis, p. 31, 43), then a person is considered to be in the truth. And, other doctrines that the Bible addresses are counted as peripheral issues (or "secondary" or "non-essential") and are perceived as matters that do not pertain to salvation (e.g. ibid., p. 47). As the phrase that's been attributed to the Catholic of old (Augustine) puts it,

"In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, charity. (Christianity In Crisis, by Hank Hanegraaff, copyright 1993, p. 47)"

These words well sum up the broad way (Matthew 7:13).

For what Fish's church does believe, you need to see their statement of faith. For the record, here's what they say about Holy Communion (see my first post):

That's right, there's nothing in their statement of faith about what we are supposed to do in remembrance of Jesus Christ.

For more on Darwin Fish, see my Ontario Empoblog post from July 26, 2005.

Here the LCMS stands on Warren, Robinson, etc. Part Two

2009-01-17T15:25:00.000-08:00

part one | part two | part three

Continued from previous post.

But a more interesting point can be found in the official Lutheran view of the world. To most non-Christians, and in fact to most Christians, Lutherans are considered as the vanguard of the Protestant movement. But we Lutherans consider ourselves unique among Christian groups. Regarding Holy Communion, for example, everybody else is wrong.

The Lutheran church believes, teaches and confesses that the Lord's Supper is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, given to us Christians to eat and to drink. We hold that the bread and the wine in the Supper are the true body and blood of Christ and that these are given and received into the mouths of all who commune. Those who believe the promise: "Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. This promise, along with the bodily eating and drinking, is the main thing in the Sacrament.

The Lutheran church rejects and condemns incorrect understandings of the Lord's Supper, such as the view that the sacrifice of the Mass delivers man from his sins, or that the substance of the consecrated bread and wine is actually changed into the body and blood of Christ. We also reject and condemn the view that in the Lord's Supper the true body and blood of Christ is not received by the mouth of the communicants, under the bread and wine, but is received only spiritually in the heart by faith, or that the bread and wine are only symbols of the far-distant body and blood of our Lord.

In essence, the Lutheran worldview assumes that there are Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Reformed views about the Lord's Supper, and that the other two views (addressed in the second paragraph above) are wrong.

Not that Lutheran belief can be rightly called consubstantiation. C.F.W. Walther (note: when an LCMS person cites Walther, he or she is supposed to pause and observe a momentary reverent silence):

First of all, what do these terms mean? Consubstantiation, as the word indicates, means a combination of two substances in such a way that by being mixed together they are fused into one substance or mass, consisting of different ingredients. For example, pouring the substances of water and wine together produces a watered wine (Weinwasser); blending honey and water produces mead; mixing meat and flour produces meat pies. Hence, in the Lord’s Supper consubstantiation would involve the concept of a spacial combination, mixture, and fusion of the body and blood of Christ with the consecrated elements as a new dual mass, as Eutyches once asserted the fusion of both natures in Christ into one nature.

Impanation signifies the spacial inclusion, concealment, incapsulation of an item within the bread, as in a capsule containing and enclosing the item. Hence, in the Lord’s Supper impanation would express the idea that the body of Christ, compressed into a very small body, lies concealed under the consecrated bread and is enclosed by it as by its container.

These conceptions of the presence of Christ, that is, of His body and blood, in the Holy Supper are thoroughly unbiblical, materialistic, unworthy, and self-contradictory, and they are equally un-Lutheran and in contradiction to the Confessions of our church....

Our church. This brings us to a Lutheran doctrine, that of the true visible church. Walther (pause) wrote a series of theses that touched upon both the invisible church and the visible church. The invisible church is described in Thesis I:

The one holy Christian Church on earth, or the Church in the proper sense of the word, outside of which there is no salvation, is, according to God's Word, the total of all that truly believe in Christ and are sanctified through this faith.

After discussing various visible churches and their possible beliefs (e.g. churches "erring obstinately in fundamentals"), Walther gets to Thesis VIII:

Though church-writers sometimes call communions holding God's Word essentially true, i. e., real, churches over against non-churches, yet over against erring churches, or sects, a true visible Church in the absolute sense is that only in which God's Word is preached right and the holy Sacraments are administered in accordance with the Gospel.

So which church does C.F.W. Walter, the accepted founder of what became the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, believe is the true visible church? You could read Theses X through XXV, or you could take a wild guess. Hint: it's not the United Methodists.

So, what does this mean?

Here the LCMS stands on Warren, Robinson, etc. Part One

2009-01-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

part one | part two | part three

There was a story that Red Stick Rant (obviously) picked up on, but it also appeared in two Lutheran blogs, CyberBrethren and Steadfast Lutherans (I hadn't heard of the latter). And a couple of these religiously conservative blogs link to...a story in the New York Times.

President-elect Barack Obama has asked V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, to deliver the invocation at an inaugural event on Sunday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

But that isn't the part that got to the religiously conservative bloggers. This is what Gene Robinson said:

Bishop Robinson said he had been reading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”

“I am very clear,” he said, “that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”

Bishop Robinson said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings”....

The most interesting reaction to this came from the aforementioned Steadfast Lutherans:

The big stories leading up to the inauguration...have surrounded President-elect Obama’s choices for which clergy will be involved in inaugural festivities. Purpose-Driven Life author Rev. Rick Warren is doing the big one but in a sop to gay rights activists, Obama just picked Bishop Gene Robinson to kick things off.

When you add in the other two clergy who will be participating, it’s a uniquely Protestant affair, which is sort of interesting.

But note how Steadfast Lutheran defines the word "Protestant":

I never realized how different Lutheranism was from American Protestantism until the weeks and months following the horrendous acts of terrorism on New York City, over the skies of Pennsylvania and in my city of Washington, D.C.

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod people know where this is going. There was one 9/11-related event that caused a big furor in my denomination:

When the Atlantic District President prayed a nebulous civil religion prayer at the Oprah Winfrey-led interfaith “Prayer for America” service at Yankee Stadium — with the full blessing and approval of President Gerald Kieschnick — it wreaked havoc on the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. When those with a proper understanding of the confessions called the syncretizers on their commandment breaking, noted theologians such as Bill O’Reilly took the syncretizers side and questioned whether the LCMS could rightfully be called Christian.

It was a shameful and difficult period and it’s hard not to lose respect for President Kieschnick for just how poorly he handled the situation — from a managerial or leadership position even if not a doctrinal one.

Interestingly enough, the author equates "American Protestantism" with "civil religion." I'm sure that there are some old-line Baptists and some Quakers that take deep offense at the insult, and in fact would say that it's hardly proper for a Lutheran to be lobbing the civil religion criticism, considering the state of many Lutheran churches in Europe.

And the LCMS view of the 9/11 interfaith service did not escape the attention of a Huffington Post commenter using the name ArthurTwoShedsJackson (heh):

Now, look at the other end of the religious spectrum: the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS - not to be confused with the much larger Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, ELCA). The LCMS forbids -- repeat, FORBIDS -- interfaith prayer with non-LCMSers. The LCMS calls this "syncretism." When an LCMS representative participated in the interfaith service shortly after 9/11, the LCMS hierarchy suspended that representative for "syncretism"! It gets uglier than that -- google LCMS 9/11 yankee stadium when you can.

To be continued...

The fiduciary perspective revisited

2009-01-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, before I entered my vow of semi-silence, I wrote a post entitled "From a fiduciary perspective, Jobs' leave of absence is a good thing." However, after I wrote it, I realized that I was probably not as clear as I could have been on my basic point. For the record, this is what I said:

I'm taking Jobs at his word and assuming that when he issued the first statement, he didn't know that his condition was, in his words, "more complex." Based upon the first statement, I'd assume that he isn't going to say any more about why the issues are more complex.

However, by taking the medical leave of absence, all of these issues are moot. Until June, or perhaps longer, Jobs is not involved in the day-to-day operations of Apple, so from a fiduciary perspective the state of his health does not matter. Tim Cook's health is the issue now.

I have been looking at things from the perspective of Apple, and from the perspective of a shareholder of Apple or someone who does business with Apple. If you're looking at it that way, then a corporate official who is unable to perform his duties is of a concern to a shareholder. However, if the official has no duties - which would be the case of someone who is on a medical leave of absence - then, as I said, the issue is "moot."

Mitch Wagner addressed the issue on Thursday. This is what he said:

By taking a leave of absence as CEO, Jobs has made his health a private matter....

Apple and Jobs have already done the right thing by investors, when Jobs stepped aside....

When Steve Jobs stepped aside yesterday, he gained the right to tell busybodies to buzz off when they wanted to pry into his medical condition. He became a celebrity. Until he returns to pick up the reins at Apple once again, he'll stay that way.

This is why Wagner writes for InformationWeek, and I write for...well, mrontemp.

And why Patricia Resende writes for CRM Daily:

So what does a company built around the iconic Jobs do? Does it take a very personal health situation and make it everyone's business? Or does it guard the man who built Apple and upset investors?

"At the end of the day, the board has the responsibility to Apple employees and Apple shareholders and will have to constantly balance between what are their fiduciary responsibilities vs Steve's right to privacy," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president for mobile strategy at Jupitermedia. "My guess is along with the board and Apple's general counsel, they will figure out all of those things."...

Apple's board has stood by Jobs and hasn't bowed to pressure from investors to outline a succession plan. But if the board decides Jobs is irritating investors, it could push him out again like it did in the mid-1980s....

"What people should probably remember when they think about Apple is that there is a lot more to Apple than just one individual," Gartenberg said.

Apple has more than 24,000 employees and Cook must run day-to-day operations in Jobs' absence. He previously ran the company in 2004 when Jobs underwent pancreatic surgery.

On the other side, it should be noted that Mitch Wagner was responding to Joe Nocera.

The most indispensable chief executive in the United States, beloved by customers and investors for his magnificent turnaround of the company he founded — and for the amazing gadgets his company produces — can no longer be trusted on the subject of whether he is healthy enough to continue running the company. Although Mr. Jobs says he will return in June, Mr. [Charlie] Wolf [at Needham & Company] wrote in his note that investors were likely to “assume the worst — at the extreme, the possibility that Mr. Jobs will never return to Apple as full-time C.E.O.”...

There are certain people who simply don’t have the same privacy rights as others, whether they like it or not. Presidents. Celebrities. Sports figures. And, at least in terms of his health, Steve Jobs. His health has become a material fact for Apple shareholders. His vagueness about his health, his dissembling, his constantly changing story line — it is simply not an appropriate way to act when you are the most important person at one of the most high-profile companies in America....

The time has come for Apple’s board to take control of this subject from Mr. Jobs and do the right thing by the company’s investors. Tell us, once and for all, what is going on with Mr. Jobs’s health. Put the subject to rest. End the constant rumor-mongering.

Actually, I have to admit that there is a valid point in there. While Jobs is not involved in day-to-day operations now, it is possible that investors and others may rely on one particular statement Apple made in its announcement. Let's re-examine it:

I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

Now I guess it's theoretically possible that an investor could interpret that statement to mean that Jobs is absolutely, positively going to come back to Apple on July 1, 2009.

However, would a reasonable investor assume this?

Headlines of the future regarding the miracle on the Hudson

2009-01-16T12:04:00.000-08:00

NTSB Finds Causes of Hudson Crash

The National Transportation Safety Board, after examining the US Airways plane in the Hudson River, has determined that the plane's failure was due to fish, rusted beer cans, and 17th century Dutch sailors.

PETA Demands Sullenberger Arrest

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals demanded that Mayor Bloomberg arrest US Airways pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III. Sullenberger was responsible for the deaths of an undetermined number of birds on Thursday, January 15 when his plane encountered a flock of birds.

Enjoyed the semi-silence?

2009-01-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

Late Wednesday night, after a post and a stumble), I decided to take a 36-hour vow of semi-silence, which would end Friday at noon when my weekly "Empoprise-NTN High Noon" appeared. (In truth, it only lasted 33 hours; see below.) No posts, stumbles, tweets, shares, or scrobbles that would show up on my ontarioemperor or empoprises FriendFeed pages. However, I was going to make two important exceptions.

I reserved the right to continue to converse about the Eddie Murphy song "My God is Color Blind." And I certainly did.

I reserved the right to use FriendFeed's "like" facility. If you want to see all 13,000+ items that I've liked, check my "Likes" page.

But those were the only two exceptions. For example, while I'd like stuff, I wouldn't comment on it.

In essence, I'd be listening to the Murphy song (since I wouldn't be scrobbling), I'd be listening to what other people say (and liking it, literally), and (with the exceptions above) I wouldn't be creating any online output.

What I envisioned would happen was that

I'd learn a lot of stuff from what I was reading.

Anyone visiting my FriendFeed page would be treated to the amazing wonder that is the song from Eddie Murphy's first serious music album, since those were/would be the last things that I posted to FriendFeed.

I would be missed terribly, and Steve Jobs would even issue a press release, asking, "Hey, where did Ontario Emperor go?"

OK, I didn't really envision the third thing would happen, but I didn't realize that I'd have so much trouble with the second. I figured that, since anything that I entered since Wednesday night would have to do with Eddie Murphy's song, the Murphy material would always be at the top of my feed. I even planned it so that if (as) I wrote additional Murphy material, I'd also bump up the older stuff I wrote.

But I forgot that other people can like and comment on my stuff.

Specifically, on Wednesday afternoon I shared something via Google Reader on how Facebook shut down Burger King's Facebook promotion. If you didn't hear about it, Burger King designed an app that would reward you if you de-friended people on Facebook. As part of its operations, the app would notify the de-friended people, thus helping to propagate the app. Facebook didn't like that, but a few of my FriendFeed readers "liked" it in FriendFeed. And people commented, also:

you had me at "blows a whopper" - Lindsey in Love

that's what she said - RAPatton

So a sublime moment was ruined. I mean, here's the young Eddie Murphy, vaulted to higher levels of success than I will ever achieve, taking the opportunity to express himself in a new way, and taking the opportunity to offer some serious thoughts on racism. But before you can hear Murphy's soft, pleading voice, you have Lindsey laughing at the phrase "blows a whopper." Oh well, 99% of the people who have heard the song think that the Whopper is better than Murphy's voice, so I really can't complain.

And the liking continued, when Seltoon liked my share of a Ray Parker Jr. vs. Nine Inch Nails mashup. Well, it got bumped to the top, and you can't change that.

Meanwhile, I was liking stuff. Here's just a few of the things that I liked, even though I didn't comment upon them.

Leo Laporte's bad, bad page

Jeff Quinton's tweet about "Luke Steelerstahl"

Richard Walker's share of a South Carolina move to outlaw profanity

RAPatton's share of "Star Wars Retold by Someone Who Hasn't Seen It" (classic!)

Another RAPatton share (follow him!) about Depeche Mode's "Sounds of the Universe"

And, needless to say, there were many more.

And for once, I didn't blog about them, or add commentary to them. I just liked them.

In fact, because of that there are certain FriendFeed entries that I just plain passed up because they DEMANDED comment:

“would you support a single unified world government? Under any circumstances?”

Does Obama's Presidency End Racism in the U.S?

Steve Jobs a 'national treasure'

Oh well, now that the experiment is obviously over (if you're reading this post, the experiment is by definition completed), I can follow up now. But I have to tell you - it was almost literally painful to stop myself from commenting on things. If FriendFeed were to remove the comment facility, I'd definitely miss it. Or I'd blog more, just to get my comments in.

But back to the experiment. As I was finishing up lunch on Thursday afternoon, things got really interesting.

You'll recall that Wednesday was the day that Steve Jobs announced his leave of absence; I ended up blogging about it. So Wednesday was a pretty busy news day, especially since I was following stories about layoffs (and other things) at Google, Motorola, and Oracle. I knew that Jobs wasn't going to take another leave of absence on Thursday...but then as I was finishing lunch, a plane crashed in the Hudson River.

And I had taken my vow of semi-silence.

But this was probably a good thing, since everyone and their grandmother were opining about the Hudson plane crash. The world had no pressing need to hear what I thought about it. Although maybe now that my vow of semi-silence is done, I might say a couple of things.

But then things fell apart on Friday morning. I had literally listened to Eddie Murphy all day on Thursday, and by Friday even I was tired of it. Then I began to wonder - is ComaR's "Mr. Jones in a Forest" downloadable? It turns out that it was, so I downloaded it and played it - then realized that the last.fm software was on and had scrobbled it, which sent it to the lastfmfeeds room in FriendFeed. So much for the 36 hour semi-silence.

But back to this "the world had no pressing need to hear what I thought" thingie that I cited earlier. As I've previously noted, I primarily blog for myself. (No, I know of no demographic segment that wants to see THREE posts about Eddie Murphy's "My God is Color Blind.") So, if I blog for myself, then are there times that I shouldn't blog...again for myself?

Something to mull over.

From a fiduciary perspective, Jobs' leave of absence is a good thing

2009-01-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

I argue that Steve Jobs' medical leave of absence from Apple is actually a good thing, from a fiduciary perspective.

But first, let's catch up.

As it happened, the first announcement that I saw was in the Inquisitr (solely because it came up first in my feed). I subsequently saw posts from Robert Scoble and Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider.

In these initial reports, people pretty much presented the Apple Media advisory:

January 14, 2009
Apple Media Advisory

Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

Press Contacts:
Steve Dowling
Apple
dowling@apple.com
974-1896

Katie Cotton
Apple
katiec@apple.com
(408) 974-7269

I figured that it was appropriate to revisit my January 5 post and see if I still agreed with whatever garbage I spouted at that time. (I'm older and wiser now, I figure.) This is what I said at the time:

Apple did have an obligation to share what it knew about Jobs' health, even if it didn't know everything at the time. And, at the very latest, that information should have been shared when the Macworld speaker choice was revealed....

I believe that anything that affects one's ability to be a corporate officer should be addressed in some way. At the very minimum, the company should acknowledge that the executive in question is undergoing a personal matter, but is still able to perform corporate duties.

Well, it now turns out that Jobs is unable to perform corporate duties. He cited two reasons:

"[T]he curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well."

"[D]uring the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought."

Frankly, the first reason is a non-reason. If people thought that the curiosity was a distraction after Jobs' announcement earlier this year, that distraction isn't going to go away because of the second announcement. And the family won't be spared either; I'd be willing to be that reporters disguised as yogurt salespeople are lining up outside Jobs' home right now.

Regarding the second reason, I'm taking Jobs at his word and assuming that when he issued the first statement, he didn't know that his condition was, in his words, "more complex." Based upon the first statement, I'd assume that he isn't going to say any more about why the issues are more complex.

However, by taking the medical leave of absence, all of these issues are moot. Until June, or perhaps longer, Jobs is not involved in the day-to-day operations of Apple, so from a fiduciary perspective the state of his health does not matter. Tim Cook's health is the issue now.

P.S. I'll grant that an argument can be made, and has been made, that Jobs is the corporate face of Apple, and in that respect his absence affects Apple's long-term prospects. In one of those weird coincidences, Mitch Wagner wrote about Steve Jobs' health a few hours before the latest announcement. This is what he said on the topic of Jobs as the public face of Apple:

Is Jobs' health anyone's business? Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg, and other Apple defenders, say no, it's a private matter. I disagree. Jobs' health is relevant as long as he has chosen to make himself a public figure. He is the face and spokesman for Apple, credited with its current success, and the company has no visible plan for succession. Investors identify Apple's success with Jobs, and they're afraid every time they think Jobs might become incapable of running the company. We see those fears when Apple's stock drops every time Jobs sneezes or stubs a toe....

Jobs isn't just any CEO of any public company. Jobs has chosen to make himself the public face of Apple. He has worked to build a mystique around Apple, and focused that mystique on himself as its charismatic leader.

Ironically, with the announcement that Apple made a few hours later, the "visible plan for succession" issue has been addressed, after a fashion...

P.P.S. Regarding whether or not Jobs' presence at Apple is critical to its future, please see my responses to posts by Louis Gray and Robert Scoble.

P.P.P.S. Dan Frommer, again:

Apple...has a deep, talented executive bench, including COO Tim Cook...; marketing head Phil Schiller...; design guru Jonathan Ive; and iPhone software head Scott Forstall. This won't change before June.

But Apple will gradually lose its lead -- especially if it doesn't quickly put in place a plan to move forward without Steve. Pundits will argue all day that Apple is more than Steve Jobs. Fine. But Steve Jobs is Apple.

People who talk cellular might talk to someone else

2009-01-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

safety | studio | scared

So if one takes the recommendations of the National Safety Council to their illogical conclusion, you end up living, or not living, like the person being addressed in Paul McCartney's song "Waterfalls."

Yet, as Gary Coleman would say, there are different strokes for different folks. If you're the boy in the plastic bubble, perhaps you might pursue a more risk averse lifestyle than, say, Robbie Knievel.

Who should determine the level of risk that is acceptable for any one person? There are, of course two extremes:

The libertarian extreme that states that as long as you're not harming anyone else, you can consume all the meth you want, blast your headphones at 11, and have unprotected sex with any consenting sentient being that you can find.

The societal extreme that states that you must remain in the best possible condition to contribute to society at large. In this case, you wouldn't only ban the cell phone in the car, you'd probably ban the car.

However, the world does not consist of one society. If you think we are truly one, I'll say you're a dreamer, and a misguided one at that. There are many societies, and we are members of multiple societies. My FriendFeed circle, for example, is a society, and this particular society is outside the purview of the U.S. government. To a point, Duncan Riley really doesn't care what the U.S. Federal government or the Ontario, California City Council implements.

So, what do you think? How safe should we be, and who should determine this?

Don't go talking cellular...

2009-01-12T12:20:00.000-08:00

safety | studio | scared

So the National Safety Council wants to ban the use of cell phones in cars. This is what they said (excerpts below):

The National Safety Council today is calling on motorists to stop using cell phones and messaging devices while driving, and is urging businesses to enact policies prohibiting it and governors and legislators in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to pass laws banning the behavior.

“Studies show that driving while talking on a cell phone is extremely dangerous and puts drivers at a four times greater risk of a crash,” said Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the NSC. “Driving drunk is also dangerous and against the law. When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away. It’s time to take the cell phone away.”

A study from the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimates that cell phone use while driving contributes to 6 percent of crashes, which equates to 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries, 12,000 serious injuries and 2,600 deaths each year. The study also put the annual financial toll of cell phone-related crashes at $43 billion.

Talking on a cell phone may be less distracting than some other activities people may engage in while driving, but the use of cell phones and texting devices is much more pervasive, making it more dangerous overall, Froetscher said. The NSC also points to studies from researchers at the University of Utah that show that hands-free devices do not make cell phone calls while driving safe. Another study demonstrates that talking to passengers, as opposed to talking on a cell phone, actually makes adult drivers safer, because passengers help alert drivers to potential driving risks.

Valid points, but even without searching for the study, I can tell you that factors other than cell phone use contribute to 94 percent of crashes. Let's take a look at some of them, shall we?

On Monday morning I was driving south on the 57 and barely avoided a driver in a white car who rapidly swerved around me. This was one of those drivers who like to swerve from the left end of the freeway to the right and back again, but since the freeway was crowded, the driver could only swerve from the right to the middle to the right to the middle. When I last the the driver, his/her car was stuck in traffic and couldn't move. Good.

During that same drive I was drinking from a cup of iced tea. Now not only can the act of drinking be distracting, but there is always the danger that the straw will somehow go up my nose, which would be distracting indeed.

Oh, and I was playing with my new CD, playing a particular song over and over. The song is "Tombstone," by Midnight Juggernauts, from their "Dystopia" CD. And I was in one of those moods where I was playing a song over and over and over. That can be distracting - you don't want me yelling "is it a freakshow" and plowing into the car in front of me. (And no, I wasn't yelling, even when I was mouthing obscenities at the driver mentioned above.)

I'm sure that you can think of other examples of things that can distract you in the car that the National Safety Council hasn't sought to ban. Maybe they'll ban rain, too.

This clearly sounds like a case of overcaution...

Silicon Valley P-CAMP 2009

2009-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

This was posted in the Product Management View almost a month ago, but the camp hasn't happened yet so it's still timely.

Event: Silicon Valley P-CAMP 2009
Date: Saturday March 14, 2009 from 9:00am - 3:00pm
Location: Yahoo!
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, California CA
Website: http://www.enthiosys.com/news-events/pcamp09/

Join more than 300 friends, colleagues and perfect strangers at the second annual Silicon Valley P-Camp Unconference for product managers.

What is P-Camp?
The world's largest free get-together of product managers. Based on the successful BarCamp and Open Space formats, it is an intense ad hoc gathering of product folks to share, present, network, learn, laugh and discuss. Much of the agenda will be created by you on the morning of the event, so bring ideas for discussions that you want to participate in.

Jason Poyadou grieves, and a MySpace account remains unused (more on Andre Jenkins)

2009-01-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

You'll recall that Steven Hodson of the Inquisitr made me aware of the story of the late Andre Jenkins, and that I subsequently wrote a post about him.

While nosing around the tubes, I found this Facebook wall, created by Jason Poyadou. The name of this group is "In Memory of Andre Jenkins."

This group is dedicated to the Memory of Andre Jenkins, my nephew. Only 5 months old, Andre was murdered by the babysitter after she placed him in the DRYER on September 11, 2008 at 11:00 a.m.

The wall includes several photos of Andre (you probably figured this out, but the photo that accompanied the Inquisitr post is not a photo of Andre), and a note about a fund set up for Andre's family. I have no idea if the fund is still active, since some of the information is dated. (The September 17, 2008 funeral is spoken of as a future event, for example.)

The wall itself contains a number of heartfelt sympathetic notes from various people who were touched by the story. One exception - at the time I viewed the wall, someone had posted an anti-black rant ("why would white parents leave their child with a ...?"), but if Jason keeps to his moderation policy, it should be gone by the time you view the wall. I hope.

And there's a MySpace profile that could be the profile of the killer. The woman is named Ari, she's (now) 19 years old, she's from Harvey, Louisiana...and she hasn't logged in since September 9, 2008. Luckily for her, her profile is set to private.

H/T for both of these items from the commenters of People You'll See in Hell, a site from which I previously quoted. The page also includes a comment from a woman who purports to be a deputy at the JPCC. She contributed a couple of comments. Here's an excerpt from one of them (obviously, I don't know if this person is truly a deputy, and if she is, she obviously can't reveal her identity if she wants to keep her job):

ARIELLE SMITH IS IN THE JPCC IN ISOLATION TANK 2-1. I AM A DEPUTY AT THE JPCC, AND I’VE BEEN WATCHING HER IN THE ISO FOR A FEW WEEKS NOW. SHE PLAYS CRAZY, BUT EVERYONE KNOWS SHE IS FAKING IT. SHE SHIVERS AND SHAKES, AND REFUSES TO EAT OR SHOWER, BUT IT’S ALL AN ACT.

Then again, she might have been placed in the isolation tank for her own protection.

P.S. You may have seen me wondering about the woman who drowned her own children. That woman was Andrea Yates. Originally convicted in 2002 for the deaths of the children, the conviction was later overturned (due to errant testimony by an expert witness) and Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Continuing my "I am not trendy"-ness - Google Chrome today!

2009-01-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

I just installed Google Chrome (1.0.154.43) a few minutes ago on a computer from which I normally use Internet Explorer version 7.

Surprise - Google Chrome works well with Google Reader.

Surprise - Google Chrome works well with Blogger (so far).

I've also tested with FriendFeed and Twitter.

Things do seem faster than they did with IE7, but we'll see what happens when I try to do other things - like StumbleUpon. I couldn't get the virtual StumbleUpon tool trick to work.

Andre Jenkins, 2008-2008 (plus 1st vs 2nd degree murder)

2009-01-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

There are certain stories that will strike parents to the core. Then again, there are certain stories that will strike ANYONE to the core.

Steven Hodson, writing for the Inquisitr, just shared this story about the death of Andre Jenkins in Harvey, Louisiana. He linked to this Daily Mail story. Excerpts:

A babysitter has been charged with murder after putting a baby in a tumble drier so she could watch television undisturbed.

Arielle Smith, 19, has been told she faces a second degree murder charge after the horrific incident in Harvey near New Orleans, Louisiana.

Prosecutors say Smith put five-month-old Andre Jenkins in the tumble drier because he would not stop crying.

Smith, who was babysitting two other children including her one-year-old son and Andre's 18 month old brother, switched on the machine and watched as the baby span round.

Jenkins died from a skull fracture and horrific burns caused by the 175C temperature inside the drier.

More here.

Hodson's question:

I wonder if Louisiana has the death penalty?

And he wasn't the only one who thought this way. AJ Kohn, on FriendFeed:

I'm a liberal and I have no qualms with removing this woman from the gene pool.

I thought I'd check the (Louisiana) local papers, and I discovered that the incident itself happened several months ago, according to this Times-Picayune article from last Friday:

Arielle Smith, 19, is accused of killing Andre Jenkins, 5 months old, on Sept. 11. Smith was watching the infant, his 18-month-old brother, and her 1-year-old son in her home....She was caring for the two brothers for her friend, who was at work, authorities said.

"She was trying to watch something on television," Assistant District Attorney Amanda Calogero said. "She put the two older kids in a room, and she put the baby in the dryer" and turned it on.

The Daily Mail didn't document all of the stories that Smith told after the baby stopped breathing:

Smith initially told detectives that a pot of boiling water fell on the infant, Calogero said. She changed her story to say she hid Andre in the dryer as they played a game of hide-and-seek and that her son must have turned the dryer on.

Pressed further by detectives, Smith admitted that the children "were rambunctious and interfering with her television show," according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office probable-cause affidavit.

Smith told detectives she removed clothing from the dryer, put the child in it and started the machine. Smith later removed the unresponsive baby, put the clothing back in the dryer and called her boyfriend and the baby's mother before calling authorities....

Incidentally, Smith is not eligible for the death penalty:

Detectives booked Smith with first-degree murder Sept. 11, a charge that allows the death penalty, but a magistrate judge last year found evidence sufficient to hold her on the lesser charge, records show. If convicted of second-degree murder, Smith would face a mandatory life sentence in prison.

She is held in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in lieu of a $500,000 bond set Thursday by Judge Glenn Ansardi of the 24th Judicial District Court.

The Times-Picayune's September archives are not available for free, but there are certainly free stories about Smith from that period. Hodson and I might have missed the story the first time around, but People You'll See in Hell posted an entry on September 12, 2008.

Ariel Smith...made a little extra money doing some babysitting work for neighbors and friends. One of those friends was Brandy Dozier....

Brandy Dozier had a job, and like millions of other mothers throughout the United States, she couldn’t take her children to her workplace.

On the 11th of September, 2008, Brandy Dozier went to Ariel Smith’s residence and dropped off her 5-month-old son, Andre Jenkins, and his 18-month-old brother before heading on over to work.

A short time later, at about 11 in the morning, Ariel Smith called Brandy to let her know that Andre Jenkins wasn’t breathing anymore....

Brandy Dozier told Ariel Smith to call 911 and that she would be right over. Ariel called 911, but by the time emergency services arrived on the scene, Andre Jenkins was sprawled out on the floor and obviously dead.

Medical personnel were curious as to how the 5-month-old had come to receive some nasty burns all over his body, however. Police were also curious, and homicide detective Keith Locascio decided to ask Ariel Smith if she knew anything about it. She insisted that those burns had developed after Andre’s 18-month-old brother knocked a pot of boiling water from the hot stove onto Andre.

Detective Locascio, not being born yesterday, didn’t fall for that explanation and pressed Ariel Smith a bit more. During the interrogation, Ariel Smith finally admitted that Andre and his brother had gotten on her nerves to the point where she decided to put the baby into her clothes dryer, turn it on and leave the room for a while....

Ariel Smith was arrested and charged with one count of first-degree murder. If convicted, Ariel could possibly receive the death penalty.

But, as I previously noted, at some point this charge was reduced from first-degree to second-degree murder. It appears that this reduction happened very quickly - in fact, it was being written about on September 12 by The Dreamin' Demon:

[Smith] was initially arrested and charged with one count of first-degree murder. This charge carried a death penalty, but a magistrate judge found evidence sufficient to hold her on the lesser charge of second-degree murder which could mean she would spend the rest of her life in prison. Arielle now sits in the Parish Correctional Center in lieu of a $500,000 bond.

So what's the difference? I caution you that the quote below was taken from Yahoo Answers, but it at least sounds legit. From the_doc_man:

In Louisiana, 1st degree murder is premeditated with malice aforethought, but has some extensions. For instance, if there is a robbery and a shooting occurs such that someone dies (even an accomplice of the robber), it is possible to charge the robber with 1st degree murder.

In LA, 2nd degree murder is usually not premeditated, but rather is the spur-of-the-moment thing.

I'm not going to guarantee that LA even HAS 3rd degree murder because we have a full list of homicides as well, including negligent homicide. Which is what I think some other states would call 3rd degree murder.

If the_doc_man is right, then, from a legal viewpoint, the reduction from first to second degree murder makes sense, provided no other evidence emerges. Presumably Arielle Smith didn't wake up on the morning of September 11 and decide, "I'm going to kill Andre today." From what has been presented, this sounds very much like a "spur-of-the-moment thing." And if Smith were taken to trial on first degree murder, there's always the danger that a jury would find her innocent and she would go free.

P.S. Under the circumstances, I really shouldn't add this quote to THIS post, and I won't, but in that same Yahoo Answer, the_doc_man also defines "negligee homicide."

[10:40 PM FOLLOWUP.]

Perhaps there IS a wrong way to use Twitter

2009-01-11T07:30:00.000-08:00

Before beginning this tale, I guess I should note something. Perhaps (perhaps?) it sounds egotistical, but it's worth mentioning.

When I write in one of my blogs, or on one of my Twitter accounts, or in one of my FriendFeed accounts, or on one of your blogs, or whatever, I am effectively contributing to a canvas of communications. When I contribute to this canvas, my ultimate goal is not to please you, or to please Matthew and Sarah Gray, but to please myself.

Bear this in mind as I describe what I wrote yesterday, and remember: it was Saturday night. I guess that makes it alright.

So anyways, late Saturday night I was suddently inspired to tweet the following:

is it a warzone

At about the same time, Twitter user and Arizona Cardinals fan @clintus was in the midst of issuing his own series of tweets, read as follows:

Beer pong has ended. The girls are attempting to dance to the radio.

I replied:

@Clintus is it a freakshow

Before I continue, I have to acknowledge that some of you know where this is going. However, I have to note that 24 hours previous, if I had seen either of those tweets, or even both of them, I would be scratching my head.

If you're scratching your head, read on to find out that Twitter user @bluestbutterfly was online also. And she had found something - luckily:

Glad I have not lost my library card. I have a habit of doing that. Librarians get mad at the littlest fine or lost card-not kidding.

I sympathized with her:

@bluestbutterfly is it a terrordome

Then I said:

is it a radio

Appropriate time to take a break from Twitter, yes? I thought so.

lesson. if you are tweeting a predefined series that partially depends upon semirandom input, don't do it late sat night.

You see, there was a method to my madness. FriendFeed user WorldofHiglet either knew what I was about, or was attempting to humor a madman.

...but that is part of the fun

So inspired, I eventually continued:

is it a firewall

But Twitter user @tagstrance was stirring, and tweeted the following:

Swen Weber - Smith And Wesson (Original Mix)

So I replied:

@tagstrance is it a deathtoll

I mean, you'd ask that too, wouldn't you?

At about the same time, Twitter user @doctorlinguist was encountering a nasty technical problem:

VMware has just made a big mess out of my Windows 98 image. great.

Again, I sympathized:

@doctorlinguist is it an atombomb

Pretty quickly (for it was getting late) I followed up with this:

is it a tombstone

So, eight tweets, all beginning with "is it a." The middle two tweets in the first half were replies, and the middle two tweets in the second half were replies.

Why?

You see, earlier that evening I found a CD that others could not find for me, even though it was on my Christmas list. At the time that I bought the CD ("Dystopia" by Midnight Juggernauts), I had already heard seven of the songs on the CD:

Ending of an Era 4:50 9
Dystopia 2:54 6
Into the Galaxy 4:53 5
Shadows 4:13 2
Road To Recovery 6:19 1
Tombstone 3:58 1
Worlds Converged 2:02 1

I had only heard "Tombstone" once before buying and listening to the entire CD, and I actually added it to my last.fm "Loved" tracks, but obviously once is not enough:

got to track 10, "tombstone." haven't heard this before, i don't think. like it!

(Incidentally, note that a slightly different placement of the last comma and last period would result in an entirely different meaning to the sentence above. I should communicate more clearly.)

The lyrics are somewhat simpler than some of the other lyrics on the CD. In fact, the lyrics consist of only eight lines.

Now do you get it? I guess you missed my final tweet of the evening:

the previous 8 tweets were brought to you by "tombstone" by midnight juggernauts. yes, i like the song.

Wesley Willis I ain't.

Gerald Casale on the Kent State shootings

2009-01-10T00:35:00.000-08:00

Well, THAT was an interesting evening.

After several people (including myself) posted 1980s era pictures of ourselves, I began posting links to a number of 80's era videos.

And the conversation flowed around my sharing of a video of the Clash's performance of "Straight to Hell" at the US Festival.

First, I was talking about the performance of "Straight to Hell" that I really wanted to see:

Good performance, but the one I *really* want to see is their performance from Saturday Night Live. They owned Studio 8H that night.

Incidentally, that was the same night that Eddie Murphy, in character as Raheem Abdul Mohammed, referred to the mustached Ron Howard as "Opie Cunningham."

Then Larry Kless contributed his memories of the Clash:

Thanks for sharing this. I was lucky enough to see them live in Kent, Ohio at the student center when they were on their Combat Rock Tour. I remember wearing army fatigues head to toe, army boots and painted my face army fatigues too. They made the 80's bearable!

I replied:

Larry, I never saw the Clash live, but I did see Devo around 1981-1982.

Larry certainly had a contribution to make at that point:

Thats cool Ontario, I didn't see Devo but they got their start at Kent State in Ohio where I went years later. That must have been a fun show.

Yes, Devo definitely got their start at Kent State University, and what Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis saw there helps to explain the rest of Devo's career.

Yes, Bob Lewis was definitely there:

Lewis played basketball briefly for Bobby Knight at Cuyahoga Falls High School, was a National Merit Scholar at Kent State University, and the first student at the university to earn a degree in anthropology, graduating shortly after the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970.

But Lewis no longer speaks for Devo any more, and now lives in Independence, Missouri, home to Dave Winer's hero Twitterin' Harry Truman.

Gerald Casale, of course, has no reluctance in speaking, and has spoken about his experiences in Kent State. In 2008, Alan Canfora interviewed Casale. This is (part of) what he (Casale) said:

By 1970 there seemed to be evidence to suggest that about 1200 students belonged to and/or participated in various anti-war groups on campus. That would still account for less than 10% of registered students at Kent State at that time. SDS, of which I was a member, was certainly the most threatening of those groups by virtue of their somewhat militant, politically and socially astute, articulated attacks on the hypocrisy of our federal, state and local government in a supposed free, democratic society. Their ideological, Gestalt type analysis went way beyond passively opposing the Vietnam War. To us, that war was just a symptom of the corrosive power of the military-industrial complex married with corporate capitalism. The co-option of true freedom and the dissolution of local community power were points of serious contention. In light of present day culture all we can say is "I hate to say I told you so"....

There is an indescribable lifelong bond between so many of us who survived that day. Imagine being 18 or 19 years old at noon on a sunny day in May attending a student rally against President Nixon's unlawful expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia after being subjected to Martial Law type, Banana Republic tactics by local police and deputies in town on the weekend before. You're standing on a grassy hill known as The Commons on campus with many of your friends listening to various activist luminaries ranting against our tone deaf leaders. Suddenly you are surrounded by National Guard troops who have been hiding in non-classroom buildings on campus as well as many more who pour onto campus in military jeeps. They announce your assembly is unlawful and thereafter start shooting tear gas at you when you defy their order to leave your own campus....

Like some Civil War parody, the first row of soldiers kneel and the second row stand. To the side a commander yells something and drops his arm. They all shoot!

As I ran from them I wheeled around in the direction of hideous, mass screaming to see Allison Krause laying on the ground, a huge pool of blood spreading out around her, coagulating in the bright heat of the sun. My mind snaps. The guns are LOADED WITH LIVE AMMUNITION!...

We were marched off campus single file after what seemed like hours. No campus buses were operating so I walked home 3 miles crying and taking back streets to avoid the locals, many of whom were out for blood having heard false radio reports that students had shot at guardsmen.

Casale then said:

People thought that what I did and said with my band, Devo, was just a silly prank. True we employed humor and irony to get our message out. But, unfortunately, Devolution is real.

More here.

P.S. Although audiography got Mothersbaugh and Casale mixed up, it's interesting to know that Devo covered the Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young song "Ohio." You can hear it here on last.fm.

Evening Prexy Piece (my contribution to FriendFeed's 80's Photos Weekend)

2009-01-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

Apparently it's 80's Photos Weekend on FriendFeed. There are already contributions from Queen of Spain (who was presumably Princess of Spain back in those days), Pete D, The Bohemian Penguin, The Amber, Mattie Kenny, and Adriana.

So, against my better judgement, I dug up my college photo album.

No, not the one that served as Reed College's 1983 yearbook, which included a picture of a naked guy, a picture of someone being crucified with the word "Aerbo" over his head (people who were at Reed circa 1981 will understand completely), and a picture of an economics student, in jacket and tie in the pool hall, busily reading his first year economics book from several years previous.

No, these are the photos that my friends and I took, and yes, there's a nude one in there too. Actually, it's a moon. No, it's not of me. And no, I'm not going to scan it.

But this picture is probably embarrassing enough.

A little explanation is in order. As you can see, this picture was taken in approximately April 1981, which would have been toward the end of my sophomore year. The picture was taken in Prexy, Reed College's music building. No, I wasn't taking any music courses, but I'd sneak in there at times and mess around on the pianos a bit. (Until I threw out all my old cassettes, I had preserved a number of tapes that I made in Prexy, including one with my version of Talking Heads' "Drugs.")

This is not the way that I normally dressed at Reed; it's actually somewhat fancier than my usual attire. The psychedelic top was something that I had gotten from a friend in Virginia, but rarely wore. The shades were my shades (these days I just use clip-ons when the future's so bright).

Actually, I'm looking at some of the other pictures now. This one's relatively tame.

Ellie Nesler, 1952 - 2008

2009-01-09T17:10:00.000-08:00

There were certain things that had built up in my Google Reader feed that I never got around to writing about, and this is one of them.

It's kind of odd that I never got around to this, because one of my old blogs (the Ontario Empoblog) would print things about Ellie and William Nesler with some frequency.

For example, here are excerpts from something that I wrote in July 2004:

Well, I hadn't heard what happened to Ellie after she was released:

"But in July 2002 she was back in prison, sentenced to six years after pleading guilty to two drug charges -- furnishing methamphetamine to an undercover police officer and possessing ingredients to make the drug. She is still in prison."

Over the last few days, additional material has come out about the son who was molested in the first place:

"SONORA -- William Nesler, the 22-year-old son of courtroom slayer Ellie Nesler, is wanted on suspicion of attempted murder."

William Nesler eventually surrendered to a California gubernatorial candidate.

By 2005, Ellie Nesler's cancer had returned, and that she was receiving treatment in Chowchilla prison. She was initially diagnosed and treated during her first stint in prison, resulting from shooting and killing William Nesler's molester (back when Willie was much younger). Shortly after that, William Nesler's trial began, clouded by his violent nature. William Nesler was convicted, and then made a statement:

David Davis, I didn't know the man. He's dead now. That's all I really have to say about him.

Around this time, I actually received contact from the Nesler family. It resulted from a blog post that I wrote called The Other Nesler, which talked about Ellie Nesler's daughter, Rebecca (Becky) Nesler. I quoted from an article (no longer online) about Rebecca, and concluded as follows:

I purposely entitled this post "The Other Nesler" rather than "The Good Nesler." Not knowing any of the three of them, I can't make a value judgment and say that Ellie and Willy are "bad" and Becky is "good." While acknowledging that Ellie and Willy have done bad things, who am I to value one over the other? And, as a parent, I wonder if I would have done what Ellie did....

Almost two years later, this comment was posted:

Thank you for NOT judging someone you don't know! You have a rare look on things, which MANY people lack...
posted by Anonymous Rebecca Nesler : Tuesday, June 05, 2007 5:12:00 PM

On the other hand, I recorded a comment that I had received earlier:

Ellie Nesler was given a compassionate release from her initial imprisonment due to breast cancer - not because of sympathies for her actions. Instead of thanking her lucky stars, flying low and avoiding the radar, she thought she was above the law, and was caught with 10,000 sudafed tablets believed to be intended for the manufacture of drugs (methamphetamine). Even during her second incarceration, Ms. Nesler still believes she is above the law. I know, I served time with her at Valley State Prison for Women in California. She is still there, continuing to make life miserable for everyone she comes into contact with. I also had to endure working with her in a job assignment. She would push rules to the limit, act as though the regulations did not apply to her and generally create tension with all staff and inmates she interacted with. She is the instigator of many fights, has had to have her housing moved because of the dissension she causes, and is generally not a pleasant human being. It is of no surprise to me that her own son has been arrested for murder. I don't believe for a minute it was the molestation he endured that shaped him into an angry young man, he is merely modeling behavior that was exhibited by his mother, presumably, the entire time she was present in his life.

posted by Anonymous : Monday, October 11, 2004 7:21:08 AM

I have not mentioned Ellie Nesler publicly since February 3, 2006.

But toward the end of last year, Crunchy Con linked to a Los Angeles Times article. Here are excerpts:

Ellie Nesler, the mother who took the law into her own hands in a Northern California courtroom by shooting to death the man who allegedly molested her young son, has died. She was 56.

Nesler died Friday morning at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, said Phyllis Brown, the hospital's public information officer. The cause of death was not revealed, but Nesler was known to have been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994.

The story of Nesler and Daniel Mark Driver, the 35-year-old Christian camp employee who in summer 1988 allegedly sodomized then 7-year-old Willie Nesler, became national news after she shot Driver several times in the head and neck in the Tuolumne County community of Jamestown on April 2, 1993....

The sympathetic portrait of Nesler painted by her defense team began to erode within weeks of the crime, when tests found Nesler to have been high on methamphetamine at the time of the shooting. It also came to light that Nesler had a criminal record with a conviction at 18 for auto theft and served several months in a California Youth Authority facility....

She was sentenced to 10 years in prison but won an appeal based on juror misconduct and was released after three years.

But her problems with the law did not end. In July 2002, she was convicted of buying 10,000 pseudoephedrine tablets used to make methamphetamine and was sentenced to six years in prison. She was granted an early release from the Central California Women's facility in Chowchilla in 2006....

Willie Nesler later had his own trouble with the law. Raised by an aunt while his mother was in prison for killing Driver, Willie repeatedly landed in juvenile hall, in teenage work camps and in jail as an adult. During a five-year period, he was arrested by sheriff's deputies and booked into county jail at least 18 times on charges that included robbery and drug-related offenses.

In 2005, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for stomping to death a man whom Willie Nesler had let live on the family property, in a dispute over tools. Nesler killed David Davis within an hour of being released early for good conduct from a 60-day sentence for an earlier assault on Davis.

Now incarcerated at High Desert State Prison near Susanville, Nesler was aware of his mother's declining health, according to Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

"He knew she was very ill, and he was in communication with her -- as long as she was able to talk -- and then with family members the night before she passed away," Thornton told The Times.

Willie Nesler has requested temporary community leave to attend his mother's funeral. Prison officials are reviewing that request.

In addition to her son, Nesler is survived by her daughter.

In the end, Willie Nesler did not attend the funeral; he remained at High Desert Prison near Susanville. The funeral was attended by about 50 family members and friends, and two television crews - and, presumably, one Modesto Bee reporter.

In front of the lectern was a collage of photographs, most of them snapshots of a beaming Nesler with her family. The only exception was a Modesto Bee photo from her 1993 arraignment, when she wore a jail jumpsuit and a worried look on her face.

Personally, I prefer the IHONKY

2009-01-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Steven Hodson wrote an excellent post earlier today entitled How to tell PR jerks don’t have a clue who you are. Sometimes it seems like some (not all) PR folks are intent on blitzing the message of the day to as many people as possible, in the hopes that someone will pick the message up and run with it. Unfortunately, sometimes they send the message to someone who has absolutely no interest in helping them push the message that they want to push.

Hodson got a message from a PR person regarding an Apple iPhone product. This is what he said:

After all I have written before about what I think of the iPhone and it even came up as a subject on a podcast or two. So please explain to me then why a PR firm wouldn’t be able to figure out that the iPhone or any applications for it are not a big subject of discussion here....

If anyone from the PR firm had taken even a few minutes to do even the simplest search of the blog they would have seen that it wouldn’t be worth sending me anything to do with the iPhone.

For the record, if you do a simple search of WinExtra, you'll encounter posts with titles such as WTF Is Wrong With Apple? and The iPhone fails the First Use test. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Hodson is not an Apple fanboy.

But that's not my hot topic. My hot topic is the name of the product that the PR jerk wanted Hodson to promote.

The name? ICOON.

Yes, ICOON. I couldn't figure out how any American company could come out with a phone called the ICOON.

But I should have realized two things:

Hodson is Canadian.

The product is German.

ICOON is a universal phrase book no savvy traveler is complete without.
You don’t need dictionaries in different languages to communicate on your journeys.
Just use ICOON! This collection is as hands-on as it is humorous and divides essential
everyday symbols into twelve different categories: from clothing, hygiene products
and health to administration and leisure activities. Regardless of whether you need a
toothbrush, safety pin or swimsuit, or want to explain hay fever without using words.

ICOON speaks the world’s most universal language: pictures....

IMPRESSUM

AMBERPRESS
Malgorzata Warrink
Münzstr. 18
D-10178 Berlin (Germany)
Fon: +49 (0) 30 288 84 85 - 90
Fax: +49 (0) 30 288 84 85 - 99
info@amberpress.eu
www.amberpress.eu

Well, ICOON may speak the world's most universal language, but they obviously aren't familiar with some of the interesting things in American English. Take the I off of ICOON, and what do you get?

The coon caricature is one of the most insulting of all anti-Black caricatures. The name itself, an abbreviation of raccoon, is dehumanizing. As with Sambo, the coon was portrayed as a lazy, easily frightened, chronically idle, inarticulate, buffoon. The coon differed from the Sambo in subtle but important ways. Sambo was depicted as a perpetual child, not capable of living as an independent adult. The coon acted childish, but he was an adult; albeit a good-for-little adult. Sambo was portrayed as a loyal and contented servant. Indeed, Sambo was offered as a defense for slavery and segregation. How bad could these institutions have been, asked the racialists, if Blacks were contented, even happy, being servants? The coon, although he often worked as a servant, was not happy with his status. He was, simply, too lazy or too cynical to attempt to change his lowly position. Also, by the 1900s, Sambo was identified with older, docile Blacks who accepted Jim Crow laws and etiquette; whereas coons were increasingly identified with young, urban Blacks who disrespected Whites. Stated differently, the coon was a Sambo gone bad.

The prototypical movie coon was Stepin Fetchit, the slow-talking, slow-walking, self-demeaning nitwit. It took his character almost a minute to say: "I'se be catchin' ma feets nah, Boss."

Now, regardless about how you personally may feel about political correctness and the like, if you are marketing a product then you want to make it attractive to people who might want to buy the product. And while GoMoNews may enthuse about the product, it is an odd name.

Or is it? iAppCat describes the origins of the product:

The book bestseller ICOON global picture dictionary, is now conveniently available for your iPhone and iPod touch!

ICOON is a universal phrase book no savvy traveller is complete without. You don’t need dictionaries in different languages to communicate on your journeys: Just use ICOON! This collection is as hands-on as it is humorous and divides essential everyday symbols into twelve different categories: from clothing, hygiene products and health to administration and leisure activities. Regardless of whether you need a toothbrush, safety pin or swimsuit, or want to explain hay fever without using words. ICOON speaks the world’s most universal language: pictures.

This special digital version offers a selection of the most important symbols from the bestselling designer icon collection. 500 symbols from bandage to broccoli.

Or perhaps this just means that the ICOON folks are culturally insensitive in two media.

I didn't need Elvis' sweaty towel for my quick, dirty fix to the odd Twitter API request

2009-01-08T16:49:00.000-08:00

Thanks, FriendFeed and Twitter users.

After my previous post, I started a thread in FriendFeed that not only linked to my previous blog post, but included an additional graphic that focused on the dialog box itself (I began to suspect that the message at the bottom left wasn't related to the issue).

In addition to the wise messages urging me NOT to pass my credentials to this suspicious dialog box (I didn't), I also got a couple of comments from FriendFeed user Chacha:

They are having problem with it. A lot of sites are getting this problem.
It has to do with an error in the badge

And Chacha was right. Other people were reporting the problem.

“@twitter - All of a sudden, my website's Twitter badge is asking vistors for a name and password (Twitter API). What's going on?”

“@johnbattelle twitter has screwed up something and is password protecting user timeline calls from the twitter badge on your site (and o ...”

“@dacort ah - problem solved, ty "Twitter made a change to the api that the badge is calling". will reinstall in the morning :)”

“a few people saying that my site is newly asking for twitter credentials. no idea why. have blown out twitter badge for now.”

“@josiefraser Twitter made a change to the api that the badge is calling. Not sure if they're aware yet...”

“If your blog is asking for Twitter credentials, try commenting out your Twitter badge javascript (for now)”

Well, I couldn't figure out how to comment out Javascript, so I did the next best thing.

At one point the widget included the URL

http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/oemperor.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=5

I simply changed that URL to

http://xxxtwitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/oemperor.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=5

and that quick & dirty fix seemed to take care of the errant login requests.

[UPDATE 9 JANUARY]

Hold on that thought. Two users on getsatisfaction.com said that was a really bad idea.

Eric commented

Do not replace twitter.com with some domain that is not Twitter, or your own site! Doing so gives that site access to your user's cookies, and generally allows that site to run any JavaScript they want to on your site. It's better to just remove or comment out your badge for the time being.
alanjcastonguay commented

That's not a fix, or even a workaround. You're sending every visitor's browser to do an extra DNS lookup on xxxtwitter.com (which does exist, appears to be a pornographic parking page), and then make an HTTP request to that server, which returns a chunk of html instead of a 404 or javascript blob. User's browser sees script errors trying to execute it. Recommend to instead comment out the script.

We can't go on together with suspicious minds (odd "Twitter API" request)

2009-01-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

[4:49 PM - CHECK MY FOLLOWUP.]

I just saw this message when I visited my blog a few minutes ago.

Considering the recent unpleasantness with Twitter credentials over the last few days, it's a rather suspicious message.

And if this message is literally from my Twitter widget, it definitely needs a redesign.

I don't know a lot about this yet, and it could be nothing, but I wanted to share it just in case.

Old People News - Clifford, I think this is for you

2009-01-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Have you just reached the age of 50?

Well, I guess it's time for you to start listening to Old People News.

Old People News

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Spoofs | TV & Movie Spoofs

H/T The Zeray Gazette, which notes:

[O]ne of the best things of not being a pastor anymore is not getting barraged with insipid and conspiracy-theory touting e-mail forwards every day....Here's a satirical take on the phenomenon: a news faux program composed entirely of e-mail forwards.

For more information on the video, see this entry on Kevin Maher's blog and the details from the January 2009 Iron Mule Film Festival (the video won the audience award).

Mobility - Reading FriendFeed via Google Reader

2009-01-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

Introduction | Preliminary Results | Mobility

The experiment continues.

For those who haven't seen my previous two posts on the topic, let me summarize my setup as follows:

I am sending various feeds from FriendFeed into Google Reader. (Currently it's just the entries, comments, and likes for 11 selected people, but it could be any feed from FriendFeed, including rooms, searches, "best of," etc.)

I am then using Google Reader to choose which items to pursue further. (See this post for a screen shot.)

Finally, I am going from Google Reader into FriendFeed (or, alternatively, into the original item such as a blog post) and interacting with the item from there.

This system seems to work well on desktops and laptops, but I knew that I was going to have to test this on a mobile phone at some point or another.

My mobile phone that I bought in October.

October 2006.

As I've noted previously (in a Disqus response to a December 19 Daniel Pritchett post on louisgray.com), my first-generation Motorola Q phone includes a browser that is equivalent to Internet Explorer 4.

This causes some problems with the "Finally, I am going from Google Reader into FriendFeed" step.

Specifically, I click through the Google Reader entry to the individual FriendFeed item, but the "Comment" and "Like" buttons don't work on my old browser.

At this point I had the bright idea, "Why not just edit the URL and change "friendfeed" to "fftogo"? Benjamin Golub's wonder application would certainly let me interact with the material to my heart's content.

Fine in theory, but for some reason it didn't work for me on Tuesday night.

I'm trying it again a second time to interact with this item.

The first thing that happened when I clicked through was that I didn't go to the FriendFeed page, but to Google's mobile-adapted rendering of the FriendFeed page, which meant that I had to click the "View in HTML" button that Google provided.

This got me to the FriendFeed page, but with "?login=1" appended to the URL. I tried to click on "Like," but as usual nothing happened. (At this point the end of the URL read "?login=1#" because of my click.)

Now it's time to bring out the manual editing tools. I edited the URL to read "http://fftogo.com/e/68c0b027-b3fd-4c46-b81c-aa1028d333d9/Bug-clicking-211-more-comments-when-this-thread/?login=1#" instead of "friendfeed." I got a 404 Not Found error.

I removed the entire "?login=1#" string. I got a 404 Not Found error.

Just to test, I tried using the same URL "http://fftogo.com/e/68c0b027-b3fd-4c46-b81c-aa1028d333d9/Bug-clicking-211-more-comments-when-this-thread/" on my laptop (instead of my mobile phone). I got a 404 Not Found error.

Finally, after some more poking around, I tried something today that I didn't try yesterday - namely, editing the URL so that it read "http://fftogo.com/e/68c0b027-b3fd-4c46-b81c-aa1028d333d9/" (i.e., removing the title). That worked.

So, as of this afternoon, I figured out the steps necessary to use Google Reader as a front-end to FriendFeed via my old mobile phone:

I am sending various feeds from FriendFeed into Google Reader.

I am then using mobile Google Reader to choose which items to pursue further.

Next, I am going from mobile Google Reader into FriendFeed. (I'm ignoring the "go to the original item" case for now.

Next, I am manually editing the resulting URL to (a) change "friendfeed" to "fftogo" and (b) lopping off everything after the hexadecimally-encoded part of the URL.

So it theoretically can be done, but it's an awful lot of work. In this case, it's probably easier to go to fftogo and find and read the stuff in there.

For a while, I was theoretically entertaining another possibility - changing my FriendFeed feeds in Google Reader to fftogo feeds (if such feeds exist). But even if such feeds exist, interacting with fftogo restricts me to things that are supported in the FriendFeed API, which is just a subset of FriendFeed's total functionality. For example, if I am adding a comment to a tweet in fftogo, I am unable to also send my comment to Twitter as a tweet.

So, what can I easily do with my "friendfeed" folder in mobile Google Reader?

I can star stuff and interact with it later.

Coincidentally, last Sunday night I began starring other stuff while in mobile Google Reader. As I discussed here, this was designed to overcome a mobile Google Reader deficiency - namely, the inability of mobile Google Reader to "share with note." The idea is that, rather than sharing without a note, I star it while in mobile Google Reader, then share with note the next time I am at a laptop or desktop.

And if I'm starring an item from one of my Christian feeds, I guess that makes it a heavenly star.

Musings on Corporate Change

2009-01-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

I'm a Lutheran, and years ago a Lutheran school put on a play about Martin Luther. If you were to sum up Luther's life in one sentence, I guess you could say that Luther left the Roman Catholic Church and (along with others) started the Protestant movement, a movement which has affected Europe and the rest of the world ever since. So anyways, this school play required one of the young actresses to deliver this line:

Change?

I was musing about change as I arrived at work this morning and punched my security codes into the various doors. These security codes were originally set up by a man named Tom. Tom was responsible for all of our facilities needs in the office building, but one day he decided to retire. At the time I had the impression in my mind that he was irreplaceable, and how can someone else do what Tom did? Well, it's been several years now, and Ricardo is doing just fine, thank you very much.

Then, of course, there's my personal situation, to which I've alluded briefly. In short, my company has announced its intent to sell my division to another company. We've been briefed by the old company, we've been briefed by the new company, and we've completed all sorts of paperwork - but in this case the change hasn't happened yet. It was hoped that the transaction could be completed on December 31, but there are certain things outside of either company's control that are delaying the change. So I guess this would be an example of change deferred - which in fact is its own change. "I am now announcing to you that you WON'T be working for a new company on January 1." Change deferred is another change that we need to deal with.

Which brings us to Steve Jobs. Yeah, I've talked about him also, or about his company. I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say the the following:

At some point in the next forty years, Steve Jobs will no longer head Apple.

(If my prediction is wrong, feel free to contact me.)

Who knows how this departure will be implemented? Perhaps he'll die. Perhaps he'll start a charitable foundation (even though Bill and Melinda Gates have a bit more money than the Jobs family). Perhaps he'll decide to go back to Reed College and get that bachelor's degree that he never got. So we know that the change is coming, but we don't know the circumstances, or when it will happen, or who would be best to take over at the time that it does happen. So we just have to be prepared.

This is clearly a musings post. If you have any observations of your own, feel free to share them in Disqus or in FriendFeed (and no, I haven't synced the two comment facilities yet - I am not trendy).