Who's the Cafeterian now?

The phrase "cafeterian" is usually used by religious (read Christian) types to accuse of those who don't agree with them (especially other Christians) that they are picking and choosing (as is commonly done in a cafeteria) which parts of the Bible they want to agree with, and which parts they want to ignore. I've heard it used most recently in the debate over same sex marriage. But let's step back and take a look at that from a different perspective, shall we?

The logic behind the Christian right's objection to same sex marriage (and I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide if the logic is flawed or not) is that homosexuality is a sin, and since homosexuality is a sin, society shouldn't endorse/condone anything based on that sin, such as gay marriage. (Yes, yes, there are also non-religious arguments against same sex marriage, but that's another topic for another day).

Now, I will admit that I haven't read the Bible in quite a while, but I did read it a lot when I was religious in high school and university, to the point of taking university courses about it, and according to the religious right, the message in the Bible is absolute and unchanging, so what I read then should still be just as valid now. And from what I remember, the first commandment is "You shall have no other gods before me".

That sounds pretty simple for a Christian to understand, and I would say that most Christian have no other gods, unless you get into the concept of the worship of materialism, but again, another topic, another day. However, to extend the logic of that statement, it means having other gods is a sin. So, using the same logic used against gay marriage, society shouldn't endorse/condone anything based on that sin (for which the punishment was generally death in some gruesome way like an earthquake or stoning) by allowing , like .. oh .. religious freedom.

In the cafeteria of Christianity, homosexuality as a sin is a mere side dish compared to the worship of other gods as a sin, and yet, Christians including Pope Benedict endorse religious freedom, endorse state-approved violation of the first commandment. They endorse it for selfish reasons, so that they can worship in peace, but applied fairly, it also allows all those other gods to be worshipped in peace.

So, who's the cafeterian now?

How to Go From Bum to Billionaire

WeHow.com

STEP 1: If you're a bum living on the street with no money and no hope, the first step is for you to get some kind of help. You can do so by finding and approaching any number of social service centers such as: YMCA, YWCA, churches, government social services, social organizations, homeless shelters, friends, relatives etc...Your first objective is just to find a place to stay where you can get a hot mean and a roof over your head. Get cleaned up, shaven, perhaps try to get a hair cut or at least comb your hair nice, and try to start to look and act normal again.

CLB: I've excerpted step one here. This self-proclaimed millionaire's advice continues on from bum on the street right through to running a publically traded multinational in step 22. Now, while I feel he's a tad flippant here, generally speaking I respect his viewpoint and the timeline, and have in fact lived through many of these stages myself. Worth a quick read. Bear with him. The end makes it worth while.

Words

Now, I'm not adverse to using dirty words. I strongly believe in the concept of "It's not what he said, but how he said it". In fact, sometimes, it is impossible to convey the proper meaning/emphasis without using "dirty" words.

Take, for example, the word, "fuck". If you stub your toe, you might say "fudge" because it's a relatively minor thing. If you run over your toes with a lawnmower, really, only, "FUCK!" will do, unless your last name is Flanders. The same is true when using "fuck" as an adjective. "My job sucks" and "My job fucking sucks" or "My fucking job fucking sucks" convey different degrees.

And that brings us to the strange case of Michael Richards. While I don't necessarily agree that a non-black person using the n-word automatically has some explaining to do, I believe that Michael Richards does. The fact that he was saying those things in anger, in a rage, means that's probably what he feels deep down. Just like being drunk doesn't make you convey feelings that aren't there, Mel Gibson. In excess, rage and alcohol only lower inhibition and good sense, and let all your deepest, darkest feelings come to the surface. They don't hide who you are. They hide who you want the world to think that you are. In fact, they expose the real you, and there are always part of the real you that should never see the light of day, or in this case, a cellphone camera.

Well, something seems to be working in Afghanistan

From the US GAO report on drugs and Afghanistan:

According to UNODC, in the three-year period, 2002 through 2004,
Afghanistan's opium harvest increased substantially. In 2005, the
number of hectares of opium poppy cultivation declined by over 20
percent, yet the crop yield per hectare rose because of favorable
weather conditions. Thus, the estimated amount of potential opium
produced declined only slightly. In 2006, poppy cultivation increased
to 165,000 hectares, yielding a record poppy crop estimated at a
potential 6,100 metric tons of opium, or more than 90 percent of the
world's illicit opium (see table 1).

Table 1: Opium Production in Afghanistan, 2002 through 2006:

Net opium poppy cultivation (hectares);
2002: 74,000;
2003: 80,000;
2004: 131,000;
2005: 104,000;
2006: 165,000.

Potential opium production (metric tons);
2002: 3,400;
2003: 3,600;
2004: 4,200;
2005: 4,100;
2006: 6,100.

Provinces where opium poppy is grown[A];
2002: 24;
2003: 28;
2004: 32 (all);
2005: 25;
2006: 28.

Source: UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Notes:

1 hectare equals 2.47 acres.

1 metric ton equals 2,204.6 pounds.

[A] In 2005, the Afghan Government reorganized the country's
administrative divisions into 34 provinces. However, the 2005 UNODC
opium survey was designed, and its results are presented, according to
the previous 32 provinces. The 2006 survey was based on 34 provinces.

Wow, way to go! We've doubled production of Opium in only 5 years - the Soviet Union would have been proud to have this kind of success in a 5 year plan!

Hey, did anyone hear the irony when Stephen Harpy quoted "In Flanders Fields" when he eulogized the brave Canadian Soldiers who had died in Afghanistan?

send more spam please

Here's my thesis: Heuristic and algorithmic filters work more effectively when they have more data. They learn patterns more quickly and accurately. Therefore, with a higher volume of spam hitting my spam filters, and more patterns to detect, there will be a lower the number of spam message leaking through them into my inbox. I mean lower in absolute sense, despite the increase in the number of spam messages.

If spam filter rules weren't heuristic, just hard-coded rules, then I'd understand that more spam requires more work constructing more rules. But spam filters are smarter than this. They learn.

For example, if I receive 200 spams and 10 intentional or desired messages, let's say the spam filter stops 190 spams. I receive 20 messages. But if I receive 2000 spams and 10 desired messages, the filter will increase its efficacy, filtering 1995 messages. Essentially, it will pick out the more unique spams for what they are. I will receive only 15 messages, or 5 undesired ones.

What am I missing?

Pet Diabetes hits the press...

My wiki at http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/ has finally hit the press. Here's the release:

Did You Know: Thousands of Beloved Pets Will be Diagnosed with Diabetes in The U.S. This Year

I'm so happy. The point of all this is that the disease is way easier to treat in cats than it is in humans, but most vets don't know it and tend to discourage people. Discouraged people get scared and have their cats put down. So spreading the word means more cats survive, and the latest techniques that save their furry butts get spread to more vets.

If anyone picks it up other than this blog I'll be surprised though, so to be safe, here's another link for Google:

http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/

And a picture of Jock, the poster boy for the cause:

Midwestern ethnic cuisine (as seen from Sweden)

Just bought some "american soup" in Sweden

...I saw this in the store nearby and had to have some, it was just too funny to resist. I'm sure the labels on "ethnic" food in America are just as funny to people from those places.



Check it out, with my certified translation:

"Straight from the American Midwest comes the idea for a soup that has, for generations, given the right energy to build barns, milk cows, and dance the square dance. The trick is simple: an exciting blend of vegetables, dumplings*, and hearty spices. Next, just let simmer in a pot, ring the farmyard bell, and expect them to all rush in! Yee-haw!"

Yee-haw?

It was right beside the "Mexican soup".

Note also the lovely statue of liberty on the front, under "Soups of the World":


Steve in Sweden
*Not really dumplings. Frikadeller, which are supposed to be Danish meatballs. But these were too small to be anything more than meat smarties.

How workers perceive their daily commute to work

The Daily

The daily commute to work for most workers is at best a necessary evil, at worst a daily nightmare, right? Not necessarily, according to a new study.

The study, published today in Canadian Social Trends, used data from the 2005 General Social Survey on time use to determine whether commuting is, in fact, an unpleasant experience, and to identify the factors that might make it pleasant.

It found that the proportion of workers who reported that they liked their commute to and from work (38%) was actually higher than the percentage who were negative about it (30%).

One out of every six workers, about 16%, even said they liked commuting a great deal. About 3% of all workers said the time they spent commuting was their favourite activity of the day. For many, the time they spent commuting was one of the few times in the day they had to themselves.

Commuting was not the most unpleasant activity for many people. A higher proportion of workers said they disliked any number of activities, such as cleaning the house and doing grocery shopping, more than they do commuting.

The study also found that workers who get to work by public transit are more likely to dislike their commute than those who commute by car.

In addition, the more you like your job, the more likely you will enjoy your daily commute and be willing to put up with the frustrations. This correlation was one of the strongest found by the study.

The workers who are really most likely to enjoy commuting are those who bicycle to work, the study found.

In 2005, 19% of workers who rode their bicycles to work reported that their commute was the most pleasant activity of their day. This was true of just 2% of workers who drove to work.

However, 2001 Census data showed that only about 1% of commuters rode a bicycle to work, whereas 81% used a car, truck or van.

Commuting time and place of residence both factors in level of enjoyment

The two major factors associated with the level of enjoyment of commuting were commuting time and place of residence, according to the study.

For example, workers who took 120 minutes or more for their round trip were only half as likely to enjoy their commute as those who took less than 30 minutes.

Workers who lived in larger cities were less likely to enjoy commuting than workers who resided in smaller centers. This may be because workers in larger cities are more likely than others to do their commuting under more stressful conditions. In general, the larger the city, the heavier the traffic.

The study also found that workers who liked their paid job a lot were six times more likely to enjoy commuting than those who disliked their paid work.

This may suggest that if these workers are more keen to get to work, they might also be more willing to put up with some of the unpleasant aspects of commuting, such as road congestion.

Public transit users less likely to enjoy commute than drivers

The study's results showed that on the whole, workers have a relatively positive attitude toward commuting. However, some important differences were found based on factors such as mode of transportation, age group, place of residence, and so on.

Users of public transit were less likely to enjoy commuting than drivers. In 2005, less than one-quarter (23%) of people who traveled between home and work on mass transit said they liked commuting. This compares with 39% of commuters using cars.

However, this is a complex situation, in which a number of factors appear to interact with one another.

Previous research has shown that the time it takes to commute has the biggest influence on the stress of commuters using a suburban train. The longer the trip, the greater the stress.

This study showed that this difference in the level of enjoyment between drivers and public transit users can be explained mainly by the fact that public transit users take on average a longer time to get to work and back than car users.

When the two groups were compared on the basis of equal commuting times, public transport users were just as likely to enjoy commuting as automobile users.

However, this was not the case for workers who had to use both their car and public transit to get to work. Taking travel time into account did not eliminate the statistical correlation. When compared to car users, given an equal commuting time, they were still less likely to enjoy their commute.

As a result, of all commuters, the people who have to take both the car and public transit are the ones for whom commuting is most unpleasant.

The fact that the majority of these commuters have to transfer from one mode of transportation to another, and therefore, endure additional waits or the frustration of missing a connection, may account for the difference.

CLB: The moral is bicycle to a job you enjoy in a smaller town.

Rats Flee Sinking Ship

Both Kroll and Bechtel are pulling their mercenaries out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Gee, looks like things are going well on the "Stay the Course" project.