December 2002
Year-end and Christmas Stuff
Posted by on Monday, December 30, 2002 - 7 comments
Despite advice to the contrary, I hereby confess my weakness for Dave Barry humour. I even own one of his books (which lead to much confusion as it caused my father to laugh out loud while giving blood). • Despite the use of a poorly formatted bullet list, I did enjoy Dave Barry's Year in Review …
Bullet lists of Good and Evil
Posted by on Sunday, December 29, 2002 in
I'm working on getting out of this glass house so I can throw more stones. In the meantime, a great pet-peeve of mine is bullet lists that don't indent properly when lines wrap. • A stupid bullet list: • “ • • Divitias alius fuluo sibi congerat auro et teneat culti iugera multa soli,quem …
Crusaders for health
Posted by on Saturday, December 28, 2002 in - 15 comments
A recent article from SFWeekly argues in favour of a ban by the San Francisco city council of the Segway from sidewalks and bike paths with the argument that people need more exercise. This has been one of the most common criticisms of the Segway; that it will allow lazy people to avoid even more …
Bah, Humbug!
Posted by on Monday, December 23, 2002 - 7 comments
I saw a commercial this week that started with a voice-over about a man who thought that Christmas was an excuse to get people to spend their money. Exactly!, I thought. • As the commercial went on, I found myself agreeing more and more with the sentiments of this man. • Then, it said …
Juvenile Art Rock Legally Unleashed
Posted by on Wednesday, December 18, 2002 in - 17 comments
The Creative Commons organization gives artists the tools they need to release their work into the public domain with limitations. • As a nod of support to the organization, my old band, Horton's Choice, has released our recordings under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike …
Pot Logic: Affirming the Consequent
Posted by on Sunday, December 15, 2002 - 18 comments
Canada is debating the decriminalization of the personal possession of small amounts of marijuana. I heard a representative of a police association on the CBC the other day make an argument that I recognized from my Practical Logic philosophy course. • Unfortunately, I don't have a link to the …
Beyond Justice
Posted by on Sunday, December 8, 2002 - 3 comments
I have a friend and co-worker who is, among other things, a recovering lawyer (where is there a snare drum and hi-hat when you need it?). Writing about the recent Canadian Supreme Court ruling denying a patent on a genetically modified mouse, he tells me that "each ruling usually has a key …
Garrity's Law of Inverse Congregational Intelligence
Posted by on Saturday, December 7, 2002 - 24 comments
“ • The intellect of individuals in a group decreases exponentially as the number of individuals in the group increases. • ”