Gyruss

While I certainly cannot say "I'm back!" (as, after todays post, I likely won't post again for another year or so), I certainly can say "I missed you, and hope that time and fate have treated you well these past months."

As we're together again, albeit briefly, allow me to share this with you.




Until autumn's winds blow again, take care.

To Whom it May Concern

For the 7 people that have purchased the PC game version of the kick-ass board game Puerto Rico, developed by Dartmoor Softworks (no longer in business), here is the information you (may) have been looking for!

To play a network game, the host should allow alter hardware and software firewalls to allow inbound UDP traffic to port 2302 on the PC hosting the game.

Good luck, intrepid traders!

Destroyers and Usurpers, All!

So - I didn't think I was an animals' rights activist, but this article has me all worked up...

Apparently, California state wildlife officials have issued a permit to exterminate a single beaver for felling nine trees near a bike path near Bakersfield, California. Ok - the beaver is messing up an area developed for human use. I can see how that is frustrating.

My thoughts while reading the first portion of the article were: Why not move the beaver somewhere else? That's what you do with unwanted pests, right? Drive them out to the middle of nowhere and drop them off?

Well - the author of the article was kind enough to answer my unvoiced query:

When asked why officials couldn't just relocate the little vandal, they said that is not an option because the animal’s nature is to stop the flow of water, which could ruin an irrigation canal or destroy more trees at another location.

Correct me if I'm misinterpreting, but doesn't that mean that the beaver is being exterminated for no other reason than because it's a beaver?!

Is this an act of laziness? Of cruelness? I just don't see that killing the beaver is necessary. Arg!

2008 Election Issues

Poll: Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Thanks for the dose of medicine, ONN.

Soothes the Savage Beast

Wow - this guy should play in the streets of Chicago (maybe he already does?).

Fran Holland has created these lovely sounds from copper plumbing, balloons, a foot pump, and what look like garden hose spray nozzles.

Enjoy.

Another Good Day

I'm happy to report that this morning is another beautiful one in Chicago. Misting rain on the face, a light wind, cold hands with a warm cup make things just right.

News:

Dondi and I saw Stranger than Fiction the other night - very nice. I didn't know anything about this movie, and didn't expect too much from a "Will Ferrell flick," but I was pleasantly surprised. It's not the standard Ferrell fare. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to go get a copy right now! (On a side note - Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays Ana in Stranger than Fiction, is replacing Katie Holmes in the role of Rachael Dawes in The Dark Knight. Nice! (On an embedded side note - Curse you, Wikipedia, with your power to force me to continue clicking through article after article!))

Also - Dondi and I and a couple of others are headed to an orchard outside the city tomorrow to pick some apples and a few pumpkins. I hope the weather holds up - I'm looking forward to remaining mostly dry when picking...

Olive Drab

While I am generally a pacifist, I'm all for other nations developing their own unique weapons and techniques of war. Maybe I should say, rather, that I am not in favor of the bad-mouthing and policing that typically comes along with independent groups using whatever means they deem necessary in order to combat those viewed as oppressors. Where would the United States be if its founders had denounced "terrorism" and guerrilla warfare as invalid or unfair methods?

Enter the vacuum bomb, developed by the Russian military. Although it's described as "a vacuum device capable of emitting shockwaves as powerful as a nuclear weapon," and, within its blast radius, "all that is alive merely evaporates," Gen Alexander Rushkin, the Russian deputy chief of staff, has this to say: Despite its destructive qualities, the bomb is environmentally friendly. At least the Russian military is Green.

Maybe I'm more comfortable with guerrilla warfare...