Community is where you make it

Tag: rants

  • AssignMine.com

    AssignMine.com is a place for students to post their work product from assignments and to see others’ work product. In other words, need a term paper? AssignMine just might have one for you. However, from AssignMine’s usage Guidelines:

    Plagiarism is not condoned at AssignMine.com.

    We created AssignMine.com to be a resource like books, reports, past papers or the internet.

    Through our website, we want to see better quality work and greater understanding of the issues posed in assessment. *wink* *wink* ;-)

    Oh, wait. I added the winks. But they might as well be there.

    Reminds me of the lame excuses given by the original Napster, Kazaa, LimeWire, etc. We didn’t create this site so our users could do anything wrong. If they do, it’s their issue and certainly not why we are doing this. Yeah, right…

    I feel sorry for college students these days. When I was in college, TV and magazines were the big distraction (music was not, it was my savior). These days, video games, the Interweb, chat, MySpace, downloaded movies, YouTube, and all the rest are the distraction. And sites like AssignMine.com facilitate plagiarism.

    I’ll believe AssignMine truly doesn’t want its users to plagiarize when they provide professors with the ability to compare students’ papers with those available on AssignMine.

    Actually, that sounds more like a project for Google labs.

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  • Too Busy to Notice Beauty?

    How often are we oblivious to beauty right in front of us?

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  • American Idol — Voting for the Worst

    Vote for the Worst is an interesting attempt to make American Idol entertaining, and maybe encourage Simon to quit. Is it working?

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  • Buy (Less) Crap

    In a parody of Gap’s participation in Bono’s Red campaign, BuyLessCrap.org urges you to “Buy (Less). Give More.”

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  • God Bless the Whole World — No Exceptions

    I saw a bumper sticker saying “God Bless the Whole World — No Exceptions” this morning on the way to work. Ignoring context, it seems like a nice message. After all, similar to the beauty pageant contestant’s wish for “world peace,” wishing for God’s blessing on the world would seem admirable.

    God bless the whole world, no exceptions

    However, we live in context. This bumper sticker is being presented as an alternative to the “God Bless America” bumper stickers. I suspect that someone with a “God Bless the Whole World” bumper sticker plastered on his car believes it is wrong, maybe even “un-Christian,” to ask for God’s blessing on America.

    I disagree. After all, when I learn that a friend or family member is going through difficult times, my response is not, “I’ll pray for everyone in the world.” No, I respond, “I’ll pray for you.”

    Think about it. Suppose you tell a friend you’re going in for surgery, and he responds, “I’ll pray for everyone in the world — no exceptions.” How would you feel? What message would you get from your friend? Probably that he doesn’t value you, your relationship, and that he doesn’t see anything special about you.

    Intentional or not, that’s the message the driver with the “no exceptions” bumper sticker is giving America.

    Update: Rather than delete posts I no longer agree with, I hope my comments below show my slow change of opinion. Change is good.

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  • News flash: Pentagon makes plans!

    Feb 24, 2007 — NEW YORK (Reuters) – Despite the Bush administration’s insistence it has no plans to go to war with Iran, a Pentagon panel has been created to plan a bombing attack that could be implemented within 24 hours of getting the go-ahead from President George W. Bush, The New Yorker magazine reported in its latest issue. Source

    Is this a surprise? Is this even news?

    Making a plan does not equate with intending to follow the plan. Sometimes plans are created to see whether an action is feasible. If the plan requires unavailable resources, then the action cannot be successful. That’s useful information to have.

    Sometimes plans are created in advance of an threat or opportunity so that when the triggering event occurs, no time is wasted in responding. Again, planning in advance is useful.

    I wouldn’t be surprised in we had plans to invade Canada. I would be surprised if we had present intention to implement them.

    I think I’ll go plan what to do when I win the lottery.

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  • Makeup equals airbrushing?

    The “Dove Evolution video” is making its rounds through the blogosphere. The video shows a woman before and after makeup and getting some amazing hair work, and then before and after digital photo manipulation including puffing up her lips, lengthening and slimming her neck, and moving and enlarging her eyes.

    It brings to mind the masterful photo editing displayed by Greg Apodaca aka Floyd that hit the blogosphere a while back. Floyd has more disturbing examples of digital manipulation. Don’t miss the amount of “work” done on the bikini model. You won’t look at a Cosmopolitan or Shape magazine cover the same again.

    Yet, however well-intentioned the campaign’s goal is, I believe the video sends a mixed message. By starting the video before the model puts on makeup, the video implies that putting on makeup and fixing your hair is as fake, as harmful to a woman’s self-image, as airbrushed pictures of models. Is that true? I don’t think so and I don’t think the target audience buys it, either. Instead, they are just as likely to get the opposite message: digital manipulation is no worse than putting on makeup.

    Time to buy one of those Hewlett-Packard cameras with the “slimming feature.”

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  • North Korea nuclear test: Choose your theory

    Rather than blaming North Korea, there must be some other cause for North Korea’s claimed nuke test. Choose your favorite.

    It’s particularly enjoyable that the two following inconsistent theories come from the same article.

    • “North Korea is living under constant threat from mentally unstable Bush regime since he included North Korea and Iran in his famous axis of evil speech.” The “NK is afraid of the US” excuse.
    • “The US is in no position to take any military action against North Korea to pursue their regime change policy or air strike on its Nuclear facilities because that will bring death and destruction in millions.” The “NK isn’t afraid of the US” excuse.

    I’m sure there will be more theories proposed. How about:

    • It’s Iran’s fault. They talked North Korea into the test to distract the world.
    • It’s Israel’s fault. They talked North Korea into the test to justify their own possession of nukes.
    • It’s Hugo Chavez’s fault. The devil made him do it.
    • It’s the shadow government’s fault. They want us to give up more civil rights are on our relentless march to a one world government.
    • It’s Dennis Hastert’s fault. He had an e-mail warning of the test for two years and did nothing about it.

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  • Who’s a lonely blogger?

    Oh, come now. There’s no need to perpetuate such hurtful stereotypes, regardless of how accurate they may be. ;-)

    Hat tip: realVerse

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  • Intentional provocation or fishing expedition?

    On Saturday, South Korean soldiers fired 40 warning shots at a group of five North Korean soldiers who crossed the centre line of the shared Demilitarized Zone.

    It is unclear if North Korea sent the group as an intentional provocation or if they were going fishing at a nearby stream, an anonymous South Korean official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff told The Associated Press. (Source)

    This, on the same weekend the world is watching to see if North Korea will test a nuke! Maybe the whole country is crazy.

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