Category — General

Bloglines Broken (Not Anymore): “

Like many others, I use Bloglines RSS Reader to both read RSS feeds and provide a blogroll for my blog. Well, the mobile version is now having errors, with seemingly someone forgetting to close a tag:

An error occured:

Traceback (innermost last):
File “cgi.c”, line 1391, in cgi_display()
File “csparse.c”, line 291, in cs_parse_file()
File “csparse.c”, line 438, in cs_parse_string()
ParseError: [/var/bloglines/current/content/web/myblogs_subs.mobile.cs:29] Missing end ?> at evar:Lang.subXNew)

The Lesson Is: Check your code before putting it in production environment.

UPDATE: Five minutes after contacting Bloglines, I received a response that the problem has been fixed. Double checking it, indeed it has. Thanks guys!

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(Via NetWizard’s Blog.)

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i think that conceptually bloglines has always been broken because it allows readers to make private their blogroll, which they could always do, but i find it more interesting to see blogrolls in public. so for me, bloglines is always broken.

The great Social Security swindle: “”You’re thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money’s not here. Your money’s in Joe’s house . . .(to one of the men) . . . right next to yours. And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin’s house, and a hundred others. Why, you’re lending them the money to build, and then, they’re going to pay it back to you as best they can.”

Christmas season is “It’s a Wonderful Life” season, and anyone who has seen that movie — which ought to be pretty much everyone by now — will remember Jimmy Stewart’s plain-spoken explanation of banking, delivered to angry customers who have begun a run on the bank where he works.

Today it’s the Bush administration that’s started a run on the institution of Social Security. And so far no one in Washington has had the gumption or the forthrightness to get up, like Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey, and tell the American people what’s really going on.

Maybe seniors — and the rest of us — should be scared.”

(Via Scott Rosenberg’s Links & Comment.)

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yes we should be scared, concerned, etc. but you know as a voting block, we are nothing in comparison to the boomers. their policies will govern ours well past the point of no return…. you can see this with the deficit spending. it is not that we have to pay it back, but we do have to pay interest…. it can’t go on forever and it can’t be allowed to outpace our theoretical productive growth, which…. should fall as the boomers retire.

Butterflies and Wheels Article: “”

(Via .)

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i’m no fan of derrida, never have been. But here is my issue, Leiter says that Derrida strikes out in American philosophy, etc.(traditional analytic philosophy) This might be true, but from my perspective…. most of what passes for philosophy from leiter’s geographically defined schools generally should not be considered philosophy, but methodology and its application to a set of historically defined philosophical problems(which to me is not philosophy, but yet one more instance of academics making the means to knowledge the ends of knowledge). Now, Derrida is no better in proposing a methodology, but at least he tried to do something interesting and he opened up for some people a way of thinking, and that encouraged their pursuit and love of wisdom. Most current philosophy, go read a highly respected philosophy journal as evidence, does not encourage people to to think, or to love wisdom and learning, contrarily it establishes a territory and viciously defends borders against interlopers….. as all disciplines do…. nothing new there….

The New Yorker: “”

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there is nothing a bit of kindness can’t kill

selkie’s encounter with the tsa. “

tsa needs to know that not everyone handles there intimidation well…. or thinks their humor is funny.

Photos of the Week – Index of Previous Photos: “”

(Via .)

some people just do not have common sense… but then again in certain circumstances neither do i.

Graduate students and publication: “There are interesting discussions going on at Leiter Reports about if, when, and where graduate students should publish and, on a related note, which philosophy journals are “responsible.” (There’s more on the latter issue here.) In English studies, at least, there are all sorts of fantasies about what the “typical” aspiring junior faculty member’s CV looks like. Thirty articles! A book contract with Yale University Press! Her very own fan following, complete with newsletter! (Er, you’re confusing AJFM with Judith Butler.–Ed.) From both my own experience on search committees and what I’ve gathered from friends at other schools, these fantasies (or more moderate versions thereof) have little to do with what actually shows up in the search pool. Book contracts? Almost never, unless AJFM has been holding down a visiting professorship somewhere. Book reviews? Perhaps a couple, more if–once again–AJFM is not fresh out of the graduate school oven. Conference presentations? Often plentiful, but I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that they’re often too plentiful, especially if they haven’t been revised into something more substantial. (A former professor of mine once suggested that it’s a good idea to keep a ratio of one article for every three or four conference papers; otherwise, it looks like you’re just scattering ideas around like rice at a wedding.) Encyclopedia or other reference entries? Usually one or so. Articles? At least one, maybe two, rarely three–again, more for someone who has been teaching for a bit.

That being said, the ugly truth of the matter is that there is no agreed-on standard for “how much is enough.” People can get hired at Research I campuses with no publications whatsoever, but get tossed out of a “lesser” school’s search pool for precisely that reason. A campus with a 5-5 teaching load may look askance at someone who has already knocked out four articles, while one with a 3-3 may be pleased. Publishing a seminar paper that’s out of your field may earn your brownie points over here, but eliminate you over there. Nevertheless, most search committees don’t expect or even want a graduate student who has already been responsible for the death of several trees, especially if said graduate student has published in journals with poor or non-existent reputations.

Now, “should graduate students be publishing?” is an entirely different question altogether. In an ideal world, my answer, in fact, would be “not until they’re near the end of their dissertation research.” (Before you ask: no, I didn’t publish anything as a graduate student, although I did attend a couple of conferences.) This isn’t an ideal world, unfortunately, and efforts to alter the current state of affairs don’t seem to be catching fire.”

(Via The Little Professor.)

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i am wholy against this strategic approach and consideration. look, either you have it… or you don’t…, go for it if you do, don’t if you don’t. what will matter in then end is whether you are actually who you are aspiring to be or not…. that will either get you published or not, likewise a job or not. there is nothing out there that will get you ahead or behind of the game other than your own work and that really probably matters quite a bit less than you think it does. everything else is already set in other people’s minds…… or so i’d estimate.

Untitled Document: “”

(Via .)

Kevin reports on this amazing, one-person-can-make-a-difference story…: “Kevin reports on this amazing, one-person-can-make-a-difference story
from Ukraine:

IN A SIGN OF THE TIMES, UKRAINIAN TV INTERPRETER MAKES BOLD ON-AIR MOVE

Ukraine’s state TV channel wasn’t broadcasting demonstrations by
hundreds
of thousands of supporters of Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western
candidate
who believes that the presidency was stolen from him through
government-sponsored fraud, so the channel’s sign-language interpreter
adopted guerrilla tactics to break the information blockade. Conspiring
with her makeup artist, Ms. Dmytruk tied an orange ribbon inside her
sleeve. Orange is the color of Mr. Yushchenko’s campaign, and of the
spreading protest movement that many Ukrainians now call the Orange
Revolution. Then after interpreting the news broadcast for the deaf on
Nov.
25, Ms. Dmytruk bared her wrist. “Everything you have heard so far on
the
news was a total lie,” she says she told viewers in sign language.
“Yushchenko is our true president. Goodbye, you will probably never see
me
here again.” But a funny thing happened on her way to oblivion… she
was
greeted with hugs from her shocked colleagues and even the station’s
technicians and the staffs of the daily children’s show and other
nonpolitical programs decided to join the strike over the coverage,
some of
them inspired by Ms. Dmytruk’s broadcast. A few hours later, the evening
newscast opened with a pledge to resist censorship in the future. Ms.
Dmytruk was also back on the air the next morning. Management at the two
other main television networks caved in the same day and allowed
balanced
reporting. The break of the government’s stranglehold over mass media
proved a turning point in Mr. Yushchenko’s campaign to annul the
official
results of the Nov. 21 election.
[SOURCE:
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110168408811185171,00.html?
mod=todays_us_page_one">
Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Yaroslav Trofimov
yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com]
(requires subscription)
See also:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/international/29media.ready.html?
oref=login

“

(Via A blog doesn’t need a clever name.)

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we need more people like this person in the world.