I wanted to use my website as an OpenID authentication source (I’m pretty sure I have OpenID through other public service providers, such as Yahoo! and LiveJournal, but no one with an ounce of sense should be relying on third party providers for his identity), and as usual the easiest way to do it was to install a WordPress plugin.
Incidentally, the plugin also provides for visitors to authenticate themselves using their OpenID from elsewhere (the website URL when you enter comment is the same URL that can be used for OpenID), so that’s for your use, if you please—practically, there’s no real difference; all comments are held for moderation anyway (how else would I squelch dissent in my little paradise?), and is not your self-described nick proof enough of your identity? But in any case, I just wanted to get on some bandwagon and the OpenID bandwagon seems to be a … convenient one.
Oh, BTW, for those of you who hesitated on making an account, well, now you actually can’t make an account without a valid OpenID. Don’t you wish you had done it earlier?
This is why I follow polls:
Is Daylight Savings Time worth the hassle? Forty-seven percent (47%) of adults say yes. That’s down slightly from early March when this year’s Daylight Savings Times began but is fairly consistent with previous years. Forty percent (40%) say it’s not worth the hassle, and 12% aren’t sure.
I guess this explains why we haven’t repealed the daylight savings time yet, despite all the academic and elitist snobbery about how daylight savings time was for WWII (we won, right?) and how it is unnecessary and it hurts agriculture than helps.
Well, all of that may be true, but the fact is, I suppose, daylight savings time is part of American culture, and at least as the polls stand today, it’s here to stay. Maybe in 10 years the opinions will shift, but that’s then.
I have a new resolution for this year: meet the minimum standard for Marine Corps. The criterion listed at about.com seems a bit more lenient than others I have seen before, but, well, it would be a good start to be able to run 3 miles in 28 minutes, do 50 crunches in 2 minutes, and do 3 pull-ups. At the moment, I am at the bottom rung of mediocrity: less than 3 miles in 30 minutes, too tired after 20-some crunches, and I don’t ever remember being able to do a pull-up in my life.
As far as personal development goes, if I could accomplish adequacy here and do my other resolution (um, learn how to use and obtain a gun, probably a handgun), I would have had the best year so far in my life.
Professionally speaking, of course, that’s a different matter, but I’m working on that. 
Update: Um, I forgot to mention: I am mainly motivated by this book
. I know, it has nothing to do with exercise (and given that it’s published under a pseudonym, I am not sure if I … trust everything in the book), but it was … very inspiring.
It’s been my position as long as I can remember: I hate exercising. 9th grade P.E. class was all I could handle. After that, I took a P.E. summer school so that I can get out of 10th grade P.E. and I was done with exercising after that.
But recently, I’ve found three very convincing reasons which convinced me that I need to exercise in a gym (as an example, run on a treadmill):
1) Running on a treadmill, unlike running on a track, uses electricity. This helps cycle the electrons through our power grid and helps release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere—I’m not just warming myself up, but I’m warming up the earth, too!
2) Running on a treadmill, unlike, well, not running, helps me breathe out more carbon dioxide. As everyone knows, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that we have in our atmosphere only in minuscule amount (some hundred parts per million), and everyone needs to do their part to increase it.
Anyways. I guess it’s good thing RSF is open at 6 a.m. I mean it doesn’t help so much since it is still relatively full even at that hour, but at least when I’m out of RSF, I don’t see too many people walking around at 7 a.m.—I just hate people so much.
I watched I Am Legend, and I want 2 hours my life back. I hated it. I mean, maybe the novel will be better, but as far as the film goes, they left out all the good parts—sci-fi stuff that explains the existing situation (did they have to leave out so many details in the flashbacks?) advances plot lines—and put in an extra serving of all the gross, nasty, psychotic episodes.
In fact, I don’t even know why they cast Will Smith for the part: there is absolutely nothing humorous about Robert Neville. In fact, the character of Robert Neville is at best confusing, and at worst shallow, poorly developed, and contradictory.
Anyways. I so hated losing 2 hours of sleep last night for this movie (and waking up too late), that I had to vent somewhere—and it had to be you.
Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me …
…
Just kidding. I don’t celebrate my birthdays—although I do plan on celebrating my imieniny starting this year—and today is not my birthday.
But it does happen to be Groucho Marx‘s birthday, so happy birthday, Groucho Marx!
Mary Baker explains why she chooses not to have any qualifiers to her identity: American.
Amen to that.
I have held the same position for about a year now (i.e. as long as I have been a naturalized American citizen). I am an American. Any other adjectives or qualifiers demean my proud United States citizenship. I am an American. There is no other group of people to whom I belong or to whom I owe anything. I am an American and whatever I may come to accomplish reflects on Americans and no one else.
America is the Greatest Melting Pot, not a salad bowl. I do not feel that anyone who wants to retain their distinct cultural identity and flock together among the birds of a feather can honestly call themselves “American”. Sure, each group of immigrants do bring their unique culture and enrich us: but as they enrich us and we assimilate to them, they need to be enriched by us and assimilate to our American culture. As much as I like Mexican food, I don’t want Chicanos deluding themselves that they are Americans. Go back to Mexico if you want to separate yourself from the mainstream America.
I just wish that everyone would stop playing identity politics and focus on this great country and how we can make it better together, as Americans—or not, as “loyal opposition” is one of the greatest American (well, and British) ideas.
Update: Lloyd Marcus is another proud American.
The O’Reilly Factor comments on Jack Welch’s comment:
It’s in the second part of the segment. It quotes: “There is no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices.”
He’s absolutely right. “Work-life balance” is as silly as “study-party balance”. You either study or you party. You either work and be productive or lazily “enjoy life”. There is no balance between being pregnant and not being pregnant. There is no balance between being dedicated to work and not being dedicated to work.
I frankly don’t see what’s so hard to understand, but then, I’m probably underestimating the liberal sophistry.
On Slashdot:
“Retired University of Tennessee Professor Dr. John Reece Roth has been sentenced to four years in prison after he allowed a Chinese graduate student to see sensitive information on Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. In 2004, the company Roth helped found, Atmospheric Glow Technologies, won a US Air Force contract to develop a plasma actuator that could help reduce drag on the wings of drones, such as the ones the military uses. Under the contract, for which Roth was reportedly paid $6,000, he was prohibited from sharing sensitive data with foreign nationals. Despite warnings from his university’s Export Control Officer, in 2006, Roth took a laptop containing sensitive plans with him on a lecture tour in China and also allowed graduate students Xin Dai of China and Sirous Nourgostar of Iran to work on the project. ‘The illegal export of restricted military data represents a serious threat to national security,’ says David Kris of the US Department of Justice. ‘We know that foreign governments are actively seeking this information for their own military development. Today’s sentence should serve as a warning to anyone who knowingly discloses restricted military data in violation of our laws.’ During his trial, Roth testified that he was unaware that hiring the graduate students was a violation of his contract. ‘This whole thing has not helped me, it has not helped the university,’ said Roth. ‘And it has probably not helped this country, either.’”
If the facts as represented are accurate, it seems clear enough: the professor is guilty, if not of actual treason against this country, then of extremely poor judgment. Even naturalized U.S. citizens (to my great dismay) have betrayed this country before either for the sake of money or for the sake of their “motherland” (as if after they took the naturalization oath, they belonged to any country other than United States of America). Foreign graduate students are not U.S. citizens. They are not even permanent residents. Their stay in the U.S. is contingent not only on the visas we issue them, but on the validity of their passport. They can not only be persuaded by their home government but even pressed into service against their will, given how much control over their life the foreign government has. As brilliant as these people are, they cannot work on sensitive projects, and they cannot be allowed access to sensitive data, even inadvertently.
No one said that we cannot hire foreign graduate students—that would be great tragedy indeed, as they are some of the brightest people in American graduate schools (at least judging by test scores and classroom grades). We just cannot hire them for sensitive projects (at least before they decide to stay in this country and become naturalized). This professor was an idiot for not properly shielding his graduate students from sensitive information that would be too tempting for them—or even if not, the access itself, whether they actually used it or not, could be brought against them to arouse sufficient suspicion.
On About.com:
Many people do not want to get a flu shot because they are concerned they may get the flu from the flu shot. Is there any truth to this concern? Find out if it is possible to get the flu from the flu shot.
Call me crazy, but the side effects of the vaccine, such as, “Runny nose, Sore throat, Headache, Cough, Nausea and vomiting (in children), Fever (in children), Muscle aches,” sounds awfully similar to symptoms of the flu. And not only that, you might even be contagious afterwards, according to the article, “Because the nasal flu vaccine is a weakened live virus, people in close contact with people who have severely weakened immune systems should not get the nasal flu vaccine.”
So, what do they mean by, “Well, the short answer is, no, there is no truth to it. It is NOT possible to get the flu from the flu shot”? Is this one of the cases where it really depends on what the definition of “is” is, or maybe “possible” is?