According to a recent news article,
Approximately one ram in 10 prefers to mount other rams rather than mate with ewes, reducing its value to a farmer.Whoa, does it matter much to farmers whether 90% or 100% of their rams are straight? Sheep aren't monogamous; 90% of the males should have no trouble servicing 100% of the females.
I think someone is just rubbed the wrong way by gay rams.
By varying the hormone levels, mainly by injecting hormones into the brain, [researchers] have had "considerable success" in altering the rams' sexuality, with some previously gay animals becoming attracted to ewes.Coaxing gay rams into porking ewes might only increase the prevalance of homosexuality in the ovine gene pool.
Well, maybe we shouldn't call them gay rams; I mean, we don't know whether they're gay-identified. We could be pedantic and call them RSR (by analogy to MSM).
So "one ram in 10 prefers to mount other rams". How many are bottoms? And do they hold their tails out of the way to facilitate anal penetration, as bison bottoms do? So many questions.
Friday 22 Dec 2006 5 comments
I'm 47 years old. 47 is prime. It's more of a treat to have a prime age than it was when I was younger, what with how prime numbers thin out.
I poked around on the web to see what people had to say about 47, and came across The 47 Society, whose members claim (tongue-in-cheek?) that 47 crops up disproportionately often. From their FAQ:
Aren't You Just Seeing 47 More Because You're Looking For It?I get the impression such experiments are proposed a lot more often than they're ever carried out. Ask me some time, and I'll tell you what happened when I once tried to compare occurrences of two (similar) integers. Heh.
No.
Still not convinced? Try this simple experiment. Pick another number. For the next three to six months keep your eyes open for both. 47 will show up more. If you find out otherwise, please let us know!
More from The 47 Society's FAQ (emphasis mine):
What about OTHER numbers?What does it all mean? Not much, probably.
Our research indicates that numbers have lives of their own. 47 appears to be the most playful number, frequently showing up in unusual and/or surprising ways. Other numbers have their own characteristics, and we have heard heated testimonials from followers of some of these numbers, including 3, 11, 19, 23 and 42.
Saturday 16 Dec 2006 2 comments
A few days ago, I wrote to a software vendor asking for help in interpreting their EULA (End User License Agreement--the terms you agree to when
The good news: they wrote back promptly, they were gracious, and they said that a particular use of their software was OK with them.
The bad news: what they told me informally in email was at odds with the written terms of their EULA. Guess which would hold up in court.
I'm not identifying the vendor because the point I want to make isn't about them, it's about EULAs in general. Licenses may have provisions that are unenforceable or are untested in court, most users don't read them, and users often want to do things that EULAs forbid. It's a strange dance, with vendors asking you to at least pretend to have read and agreed to terms that they don't necessarily mean anyway.
If toasters were sold like software, the toaster would come in a box that said you're only buying a license to toast bread with it, and that disassembling the toaster or any other reverse engineering was prohibited.
Friday 15 Dec 2006 comment?
Yet another headline with a double meaning:
Leahy wants FBI to help corrupt Iraqi police force
(seen, of course, at Language Log)
Tuesday 12 Dec 2006 comment?
Books.
I like books. The web hasn't changed that. I like being able to take a book anywhere. I like fine typography. I like what a shelf full of books does for a room--visually and acoustically. I like reading the CIP data in books (way geeky, I know).
Ever since I first heard about lulu.com (a low cost print-on-demand service), I wondered how well made a Lulu book is--how sharp the printing is, what the paper is like, how well it's bound, and so on.
I finally got to see a Lulu-printed book today, a 6"×9" paperback with about 200 pages (written by a friend of mine). The printing's sharp, it looks like at least 1200dpi resolution. The cover stock and text stock are both decent. Width and height are both trimmed to about 0.1" smaller than the nominal 6"×9", but that's no big deal. The only real flaw in the sample I have is that the binding is a little crooked (not enough to cause any annoyance while you're reading). I can't say how well the binding will hold up, I don't want to abuse the book just to test the glue. For a production price of under $9 per copy, even in quantity one, it's not bad at all. It makes me want to publish a book--if only I had something to say.
Meanwhile, I've been reviewing draft chapters of a book that another friend has been preparing. Sigh. The subject matter is good (it's a biography) but the writing is weak in several ways. If I mentioned every comment that came to mind, I'd be rewriting a lot of the text. I'm limiting my comments to the obvious stuff.
Monday 04 Dec 2006 1 comment
I wonder, was the dog thinking:
- They don't pay me enough to do this.
- Don't worry, I'm colorblind and can't see how ugly this car is.
- I know, the lighting under the door frames is tacky. It wasn't my idea.
- _____________________ (readers?)
Saturday 02 Dec 2006 2 comments
Now and then, people hotlink to image files on the Tommyjournal web site. I have tolerated this so far, because I'm not close to hitting the bandwidth limits for the web hosting service I'm using.
Recently, though, I got annoyed by how many hits a particular image file was getting from other pages. But rather than pull the rug out from under those sites (i.e., disable that hotlinked image), I substituted a different rug (image). So--until people notice what I've done and stop hotlinking to that file, their pages are showing an image unlike the one they'd intended.
For example, this (Arabic language) page is now showing a candid photo of two young men (a photo I took at a distance with an SLR body attached to a 1200mm focal length Newtonian telescope).
Friday 01 Dec 2006 4 comments
On the occasion of World AIDS Day, a few comments:
While antiviral drugs are better than they used to be, not everyone tolerates every drug well. For example--I don't like the side effects of efavirenz, and I'll be ditching it (in favor of nevirapine) once I use up the supply I have on hand. My point is: being HIV+ isn't as bad as it used to be--but if you can stay negative, all the better.
Discussions of how to cope with HIV infection often touch on spirituality. I don't use that word in talking about my approach to life because spirituality (in its etymology and in its meaning) implies dualism, and I don't see a compelling reason to believe in dualism. I also don't think it's OK to hold an unsupported belief just because it makes you feel good, as that strategy tends to divide the world into tribes with different belief systems. So when a well-meaning organization like Project Inform says
What matters isn't what your personal spiritual choices are, but that you're living your life consistent with your beliefs.I have to ask, is that good advice in the long run.
I have no problem with spirituality to the extent it refers to paying attention to one's sense of purpose, commitment, integrity, compassion, and so on. I just think that all those goals can be furthered without many of the unsupported and divisive beliefs that tend to go along with popular notions of spirituality.
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