From Beyond the Grave (Well not Really…) 42

From Google Groups:

From: Douglas Adamsview profile
Date: Wed, Nov 3 1993 2:51 am

In Article <2b4asr$@syzygy.socs.uts.edu.au>, mjche@socs.uts.EDU.AU

(Mark J Cherkas) wrote:
>I am new to this group so bear with this beginners question:
>Why is the answer 42 ?
>Has Douglas Adams ever explained this ?

The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an
ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations,
base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk,
stared into the garden and thought ’42 will do’ I typed it out. End of story.
Best,
Douglas Adams
London, UK | d@dadams.demon.co.uk (dormant)
Currently in Santa Fe, NM | ada@nic.cerf.net (current)

Finally a useful extension for Firefox (just kidding)

But, seriously, there is a great extension out there for researchers, writers, students, any one who needs to keep stuff organized, and referenced. It sure beats 3×5 cards. 😀

It’s called Zotero:

Zotero in action

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.

You can save whole webpages, pdfs, images, citation sources from webpages, etc. It works with Amazon, Google Books, Library of Congress, many university libraries, (here’s a list of compatible sites) and if used with the book burro extension helps find books cheap. You can even save notes in EndNote format with it.

Academics rejoice!!!!!

(Hat tip to BoingBoing for this)

Make it Two

One Citizen’s Bill of Impeachment
by STUART MARKOFF

A DECLARATION OF DIVORCE FROM, AND IMPEACHMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THESE UNITED STATES CURRENTLY IN POWER AS OF THIS OCTOBER, 2006 IN THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY FIFTH YEAR OF THE PROMULGATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

When in the course of the history of this Republic, survivor of Rebellion, of the Great Depression, and of many wars, an Executive violates its contract with its citizens to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, and fails to so uphold and defend its basic principles, putting the nation itself in jeopardy, and subverting its very purposes, then the citizens must exercise their right to reject such governance not only by the power of the vote but by petitioning the Legislative to institute proceedings of Impeachment against the Executive to reclaim the balance of the three branches as invisioned by the Authors and enshrined in the words of the Constitution itself.

To that end, We draw up this bill of high crimes and misdemeanors not only multitimes manifest but continuing, to the great harm, and maiming of this Republic, whereby we urge that the current President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of the Interior be impeached, removed from office, and rendered subject to prosecution for crimes against both the domestic and international order at trials by a jury of their peers, the ordinary citizens of the United States of America.

Wherefore, we list the wrongs inflicted upon us:

  1. Waging war by lies, distortions, and a secret agenda;
  2. Basing domestic policy on various grandiose usurpations of both the Legislative and Judicial functions;
  3. Suspending basic rights as enumerated in the Bill of Rights and in Common Law;
  4. Refusing to carry out the express intent of legislation by invoking the expediency of sign-off statements;
  5. Misusing the Armed Forces, and subjecting troops to retaliatory punishment by an Enemy;
  6. Creating new enemies, and destroying American prestige with aggressive, hegemonic, and destabilizing policies;
  7. Subverting the freedom of the press with paid propaganda disguised as open journalism;
  8. And in general, exercising an Incompetence so willful that its consequences may take generations to repair.

THEREFORE DO WE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM OBEDIENCE TO SUCH UNLAWFUL AUTHORITY, EXCEPT AS CONTINGENT UPON SUCH TIME AS THEIR IMPEACHMENT, REMOVAL, AND TRIAL, in the trust we still have in the wisdom of the Founders and in the courage of the Legislative and the Judiciary to document and to pass judgment, and to rectify the CRIMINAL wrongs enumerated.

Herewith we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor:

Stuart L. Markoff, Baltimore, MD

Keith Perkins, Bucksport, ME

Military Commissions (Torture) Act Destined to Become Law

From http://www.bordc.org/threats/s3930.php

Rogue Regime Rides Roughshod over Human Rights

Military Commissions Bill (S. 3930)

The Senate voted 65-34 in favor of S. 3930 on Thursday evening, September 28. Vote on the measure followed the defeat of five amendments. The Senate bill will go to the House for a final vote, to replace a nearly identical bill, H.R. 6166, which the House approved Wednesday by a vote of 253 -168. The House is certain to approve the Senate bill in order to avoid the need for a House-Senate conference.

In the Senate, only 34 Senators voted against the White House-crafted Military Commissions bill that

  • re-establishes President Bush’s military tribunals, which were rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional,
  • legalizes U.S. war crimes committed before December 30, 2005,
  • disallows any person harmed by the U.S., in violation of the Geneva Conventions, from filing a claim in U.S. court,
  • strips legal residents of the U.S. of their right to challenge their detention in court if they’re accused of being enemy combatants,
  • abolishes the right of Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention, which in effect pre-judges all of them as guilty,
  • approves the CIA program that allows waterboarding and other forms of torture,
  • and names any individual, including citizens, as an unlawful enemy combatant if they provide material support to those engaged in hostilities against the U.S.

What’s next Generalissimo Bush–Dictator for life?! Why not, he, and his cronies are already wiping their asses with the constitution.

Get your Enemy Combatant T-shirts here

Robert Anton Wilson

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea. In an evolving universe, who stands still moves backwards.

RAW

These words seem appropriate for our times, don’t they? Brought to us by a man of wit and intelligence, and brought back to me by a visit to his website, after reading news of his present difficulties.

I learned a lot from Mr. Wilson, and his writings (The Illuminatus Trilogy, etal., Cosmic Trigger, Prometheus Rising, etc.), and was saddened to hear that not only is he ill, but couldn’t even pay his rent for the few months he has left (he can now, thanks to the generosity of his fans), and thought I’d post this to get it out a little more. (It even hit /. I see, but that’s the usual troll/moron fest that /. seems to have become lately). If you’d like to contribute checkout the BoingBoing posts above, they tell you how.

Peace out.

Art Managment Software

So, I’m an artist, and I use Linux as my OS.

Is there any interest out thee for an art management program like the following ones for Linux? Or is there something out there that I haven’t found?

Program Price OSs Supported
Studio, Gallery-Pro, etc. $800-$2500 W, M?
eArtist $125 W,M
ArtWorks $39 (“promotional”) $69 (“regular”) W
My Art Collection $50 W,M

How ’bout it, any interest, or is it just something that I need to develop for myself?

Paint

What (sometimes) amazes me is how different the different manufacturer’s paints are.

F’rinstance–today I went looking for some Pthalo blue acrylic paint, which I haven’t bough in several years, but decided that I needed for some paintings that I’m working on/thinking about. At my local craft/art store they carry three brands of artist’s acrylics–Liquitex, Winsor-Newton, and Golden–all very fine paints, and I use all of them, but… Here’s something to note, Golden is more expensive than W&N (about $2 for the Pthalo–and W&N calls their pthalo blue “Winsor blue”), and W&N is about $2 more expensive than Liquitex. W&N only has one shade of the pthalo blue, where Liquitex and Golden have 2 a “red”, and a “green”, which just means which way they slide on the color scale, and which way they go if you mix them with white.
All OK so far. Open the tubes up, and compare them. W&N and Liquitex look about the same for richness, and plastic-y look that acrylics have. So not too much difference there. Not so with the Golden. It has a richer blueness about it, and doesn’t have that plastic look to it. It’s beautiful. There’s definitely more pigment in it, and the acrylic polymer formula is obviously different then the other two brands.

Yes, it costs more, but with all that pigment in there, it’s obviously worth it.

So there you have it, sometimes more costly does mean better, and always comparison shop.

acrylics