The Digerati Life recently ran a fascinating article on name discrimination, and how the name you choose for your child could affect their prospects in job and housing markets. On the one hand, name seems a terribly shallow, arbitrary and completely unfair way to judge people. On the other, racism aside, I can see how name may affect hiring decisions.

The popularity of different names vary over time and according to socioeconomic status (say, Britneys born around y2k or Marilyns in the 50s) so at the very least a name says something about the group of people with that name, and may hint at ones parents values. Suppose an employer receives 100 equally qualified resumes, has time to interview ten people, preferring a female for the job. Customers generally like and like being around attractive people, so all else being equal the employer is imagining an attractive, poised, professional-looking person with a musical voice and an air of efficiency. Not imagining an overweight person with coarse accent, grating voice, ugly shoes and tent-like floral print dress.

Cut to Google facial recognition search for: Dolores, Bertha, Regina and Jessica, Kayleigh, Summer. A Rose by any other name would probably be fuglier, which surprised me.

A name doesn't say anything conclusive about an individual but the employer does not have time to throughly evaluate all the applicants and is forced to gamble with interview time, so stereotypes and generalizations may be used to estimate odds.

Even more interesting, research shows that names affect people's view of themselves as reflected by other peoples expectations of them. Teachers, for instance, could not help forming impressions of students before meeting them based solely on their name.

Link: Name Discrimination! How It Affects Job and Career Choices, Life Status, Overall Success.

It's good to be called Stricky, no-one has an abusive ex or was beaten up in school by someone with my name. It's completely unusual, few presuppositions can be formed based on it, and its near impossible to remember first time round, which suits me. Spell checkers highlight it in documents and spambots and data miners probably don't have it in their 'male first names' database. So I'm not sure I agree with the reports recommendation to give your kids 'normal', white-sounding names.

This evening I was ironing some shopping bags, usually I'd turn them inside out... but not today, so the printing on the bags fused with the card I use to keep the iron off the plastic. I like the effect. Greyscale scan:

Sometimes I rip on CNN for being by turns biased or asinine. I hold CNN to a pretty high standard because, well, it's CNN. But the 2007 Impromptu Award for Selling Paper goes to... (drumroll) ... The Guernsey Press and Star!

You know those miniature Chinese-Language driver CDs which come with eBay electronics? I had too many floating around my place. This is what they look like after a few seconds in the microwave :-)




Note: Arcing will likely scorch whatever's under the CD, so do it on an old plate or somesuch. Place a glass of water in the oven at the same time as the CD. Water will soak up unused energy and prevent a standing wave from forming, potentially damaging the magnetron.

In 1941 Walt Disney, powerful man-about-Hollywood, reputed anti-semite and FBI spy would embark on his most grandiose and ambitious project. A long-term experiment in eugenics. Walt had already had many successes, he had worked hard, worked smart and was the central node in a network of powerful people.

The rights bestowed upon the Walt Disney Company through the Reedy Creek Improvement District include the right to levy and collect taxes, to control totally the planning and zoning of anything built on the property, with its own building codes and inspectors, the right to run its own utilities and fire department and to control the infrastructure. It maintains its own security force, and has the right as yet unused to build its own airport, schools, cemeteries, police department and nuclear power plant. [about that]

"Enough of your words. Take your people, your cattle, your God, and your pestilence. Take what spoils from Egypt you will, but go!" - Pharaoh Rameses

..and that's what I'm going to tell the next door-to-door theist I encounter. Who remebers the 1956 biblical epic 10 Commandments [IMDB]? The one with Charlton Heston parting the red sea:


...when the Lord commanded a fish to swallow Jonah, and it was *THIS BIG*

Anyhoo, a couple months ago a prop from the movie came up for sale on eBay, and it is *beautiful*. I can't afford a 30k golden meat-animal, nor do I have a use for one, but if I ever get into Second Life, I'm sculpting me one of these:


Lets all worship Ba'al! (image used without permission)

Link: Script of 10 Commandments Movie (1956)

I'm finally making the switch from The Goodtimes Virus Windows XP to Ubuntu on my desktop (I use Debian for my laptop and server boxen) Installation is effortless and straighforward, even with my quirky ancient hardware. With XP I'd be reading those lame blue screens right now. The ones about how Windows XX is the Best Windows Yet! With extended support for sound and games, and will make your life easier for work and play, and will enable the business models of spyware like never before, and will store roadkill in your freezer. With Ubuntu I'm reading BoingBoing instead, even as the OS installs :-) *Sweet*

Gather round, dear hearts, and let us gawp and point giggling fingers at the backwardsness or yore. The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates, written around 1853:

One of my neighbors cats which hangs around in the street outside my house. Check out the little kitler mustache :-)



You can see many many more at the official website: CatsThatLookLikeHitler.com

Today I found myself looking for a public domain, Wikipedia-style blank map of Zimbabwe. Could I find one? Could I buggery. So... I the author of this work, hereby release this map of Zimbabwe into the public domain, worldwide. No guarantee is made or implied of completeness, correctness or fitness for any purpose. All possible liability is disclaimed, blah blah blah:



Ditto huge version and this small one:



Based mostly on a UN map and some reading I did, may not be entirely up to date due to gerrymandering.

The Yazidi are a sect of Yazdanism, also known as the Cult of Angels, a pre-Islamic Kurdish religion, sharing some common mythology with other middle-eastern religions - Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity. Wikipedia describes their creation story:

The tale of the Yazidis' origin found in the Black Book gives them a distinctive ancestry and expresses their feeling of difference from other races. Before the roles of the sexes were determined, Adam and Eve quarreled about which of them provided the creative element in the begetting of children. Each stored their seed in a jar which was then sealed. When Eve's was opened it was full of insects and other unpleasant creatures, but inside Adam's jar was a beautiful boy-child. This lovely child, known as son of Jar grew up to marry a houri [pure/heavenly/delightful being] and became the ancestor of the Yazidis. Therefore, the Yazidi are regarded as descending from Adam alone, while other humans are descendants of both Adam and Eve.

According to this proxy test strix.org.uk is now banned in China. Hooray! I'm a dissident!



Actually, this site is banned all over the world, from UAE to Boston. As many readers will be aware, Boston was recently a victim of a heinous plot to blow up the city, and everyone in it, using D batteries inside Mooninite Lite Brites. Police responded swiftly and decisively by blowing up a city traffic counter that treacherous actors unknown (in the transit department) had chained to a lamp post. So I understand why its necessary to take certain dangerous freedoms - such as reading this blog - away from the Boston public. I'm actually quite pleased to be Banned in Boston, even if only on municipal WiFi; it's a longstanding accolade of porn and progressive writing:

Boston was founded by Puritans in the early 17th century. Puritans held highly negative views regarding public exhibitions of sex. Boston's second major wave of immigrants, Irish Roman Catholics, also held conservative moral beliefs, particularly regarding sex.

In the late 19th century, American 'moral crusader' Anthony Comstock began a campaign to suppress "vice." He found widespread support in Boston, particularly among socially prominent and influential officials. Comstock was also known as the proponent of the Comstock Law, which prevented "obscene" materials from being delivered by the U.S. mail. Some critics have pointed out if the list of banned words were strictly enforced, then even the King James Version of the Bible would be unmailable.

Following Comstock's lead, Boston's city officials took it upon themselves to ban anything that they found to be salacious, inappropriate, or offensive. Aiding them in their efforts was a group of private citizens, the Boston Watch and Ward Society. Theatrical shows were run out of town, books were confiscated, and motion pictures were prevented from being shown; sometimes movies were stopped mid-showing, after an official had "seen enough". [Wikipedia Link]

James Ferman, newly appointed secretary of the BBFC, was very influenced by [sensationalist] advance publicity. He convinced himself that there was no way that the sustained terrorisation of a young woman could have a beneficial effect on the British public. Well, correction here. He was worried about the effect on the British working class. After the film had been shown, uncensored, to members of the British Film Institute at the London Film Festival, Ferman got up on stage and, thinking he was among friends, said,

"It's all right for you middle-class cineastes to see this film, but what would happen if a factory worker in Manchester happened to see it?"

When they heard this gaffe, the audience became hostile, and Ferman was visibly shocked. He never again referred to the true nature of his job as a censor - to stop working class people being stimulated by controversial films. [link]

Jerry Falwell is dead. Oh well. All over the blogosphere there is much jubilation, as well as a sense that we don't really want to be celebrating the death of a fellow human being, even one so very foul and hateful. Falwell spread the most homophobic and intolerant interpretations of Christianity and helped shackle the Republican Party to religious fundamentalistm. PositiveAthiesm has a collection of quotes.

So... Some are making jokes. Some are having parties. Some are undecided. Some are writing pornographic gay fanfic starring the Rev Falwell to mark the occasion. The last seems to me to be the most appropriate. I'm no good at gay fanfic, instead I took all the fundamentlist crap out a Chick Tract. [toast] Here's to a more tolerant world [/toast].

Made with Ze Frank's scribbler thing, a fantastic example of how computers can be used to enhance creativity, rather than confine or suppress it. Anyone can make an attractive drawing with this, even with a nipple mouse :-)

Related: Ze Frank speaking at Ted

And you heard it first on CNN. This just in: CNN uses Markov chain to generate headlines. Celebrity bacon orphan shock! Ruminant is pants fire. And now back to our main story: Person's Noun Emotive!. Poor CNN, I remember using it for news, but in recent years it's just entertainment, opinion and rhetoric masquerading as news (ie, the domain of blogs), with a tiny bit of actual news mixed in, like the drop of real orange juice in 'Real Orange Juice(tm)'. Oh well. Nice to know GW is all huggy-kissy today.



Y'know, rage is like a cat playing the piano...

Hilarious: WTFCNN Blog
Via: The New Freedom

The Caspian Sea Monster was a secret Russian vehicle devloped during the cold war, a type of Ekranoplan or 'Ground Effect Vehicle'. They are a form of aircraft that fly a few meters above the surface, close enough that vortices cannot form under the wings. Very fast, stable and efficient. This one pictured had (has?) a lifting power of 1000 tonnes, could travel over 400km per hour and was effectively invisible to RADAR and SONAR, being above water but below the radar floor.



[google maps link]


There's another, smaller one nearby. This type was kitted out as a missile platform and was intended to provide a serious hazard to shipping. Just a thought - aren't there organizations besides the Russian military who might want to move large quantities of stuff quickly and cheaply over great distances while being invisible to radar? The radar of those meddlesome coast guard people for instance, and their nosy friends at customs and immigration? (continues after the jump)

I have no attribution for this, found over at LolCats Generator. Asking yourself WTF? Wikipedia Explains Kittah. And while I'm at it, let's make today a Caturday.

You ever notice that the followers of any arbitrary religion will never believe that is what they are? 'You all share a belief system that we have chosen at random', 'No, our beliefs are not random, we are the only ones who will get to paradise after we survive our deaths.' A quick search of the Catholic encyclopedia for the word 'arbitrary' seems to show that the authors believe that random action is characteristic of groups other than themselves, and I think other faiths will share this conceit. Which causes me to wonder, if you or I were a God, would we care to make sense and behave logically? I don't think I would.

I likes me some cam hacking; random webcams used for building security or just attached to an unsecured network somewhere. The best ones are often found right out in the open, via a special Google search. I've seen some wonderful stuff over the years - from hundreds of Chinese people ballroom dancing to sunrise over Los Angeles - but few are as cool as the Dollcam. At least, that's my name for it. 85.235.16.148 is the IP address used by a single Axis brand webcam to stream video of a a doll on a turntable. Specifically, a blonde doll in national costume spinning endlessly in front of a picture of mountains. That's it. Some person or persons set up this scene in front of a $200 camera, hooked it up to a Swedish broadband connection and keeps it supplied with electricity. In the weeks I've been watching it the camera has moved once, so its now closer to the doll. There must be a motive, a static IP alone would cost me GBP 20 or so, but I'm absolutely stumped as to what its purpose is. Googling turns up some comment about this cam from last November when (shock!), it apparently stopped spinning.



A fertile imagination could turn a few possibilities, maybe the doll's part of a window display in a travel agency, and it's nobodys job to fix a broken camera mount that should face the other way. Maybe its not a camera at all, it's a web server with a loop of video that's emulating a webcam, but is really a disguised front door to some sort of private service, not for public consumption. Maybe it's a demonstration model, or a honeypot. Security people do that sometimes, they'll set up a system with no apparent purpose to the public in the hope that they'll get hacked or infected with viruses, so that they can catch samples of wild malware for study and learn of new exploits on their firmware. Maybe its an art project, and in some gallery somewhere is a big projected map of the world with little people icons that light up to show the location of humans and robots watching the doll. (continues after the jump)

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