I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be gunned down by one of these guys!

“…jibblie jibblie jibblie jibblie…”

1. Since all American citizens are not required to vote, are our elections really that much different from web polling (where the passionate have a disproportionate turnout)?
2. Along those lines, would you say it’s good for elections to be decided by the more passionate (ie. the apathetic would make the results unreliable), or bad (ie., fewer voters means a decreased likelihood that the “right” candidate is elected to represent the people)?
3. If you think this aspect of the electoral process is bad, then do you have ideas to improve the system?
4. If, however, you think it’s good, then why are “gimmicky polls” not to be trusted?

I’ll share my own thoughts later, but I’d like to hear what you think, too.

“For God so loved the [universe], that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the [universe] to condemn the [universe], but in order that the [universe] might be saved through him.” — John 3:16-17 (ESV)

And no, I’m not talking about universalism–that’s a whole different beast. What I’m talking about is this idea that’s grabbed me—that maybe John 3:16 has less to do with God loving “each individual person” and more with loving his entire creation and seeking its redemption. Like Paul told the believers in Corinth:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. — 1 Corinthians 8:19-24 (ESV)

The entire universe was “subjected to futility,” “its bondage to corruption”–that is, entropy–along with us, so that it will also be restored along with us! It is an unbiblical notion that God only sent Jesus to redeem people. When man sinned, the universe cracked under the weight of our guilt. Jesus has come, and is coming again to make all things new!

And he said to them, “Go into all the [universe] and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” — Mark 16:15 (ESV)

And what has NASA done with the Hubble telescope? And what of all the many television and radio signals shooting off into the ether? Whether they intended to or not is beside the point; the gospel is being proclaimed by the whole creation and to the whole creation.

“And then the end will come.” The end where he says,

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.“

Just think about that for a minute: a day is coming when living a life apart from God… and tears… and death… and mourning… and crying… and pain will all be “former things.”

That’s a Sabbath rest worth getting excited about!

Now I was suspicious, especially since there’s nothing but a login box at cdlounge.com (Strike #1 in my book). So I started digging around a bit.

BMG Music Service’s FAQ section states:

Q. How do I know an email is from BMG Music Service?
A. BMG Music Service will send you emails about your orders and account as well as special sales and promotions, and these emails will come from bmgmusic@bmgmusicservice.com. Occasionally you may receive a fraudulent email that appears to be from BMG Music Service but is actually an attempt to trick you into providing personal information that can be used for identity theft. These emails are often called spoof or phishing emails.

BMG Music Service will never ask you to confirm account information like passwords or credit card information through email. If you receive suspicious email, please forward it to us immediately at emailspoof@bmgdirect.com and we will investigate it.

The e-mail I received says it came from cs@bmgmusic.com, so that’s Strike #2 (it should be coming from bmgmusic@bmgmusicservice.com, according to the FAQ). I looked at the questionable e-mail’s headers, and its Return-Path is soneill@103637-litigation1.yourmusic.com—Strike #3 (Yourmusic.com looks as if it may be owned by BMG Music Service, but like CDLounge.com, it could just as easily be a competitor).

I tried to forward the e-mail to emailspoof@bmgdirect.com like they said, but it failed in a “this account does not exist” sort of way. So I’ve forwarded the thing to bmgmusic@bmgmusicdirect.com now, and I’m waiting to hear from them. If this isn’t an instance of phishing, the folks at BMG really need to get their act together. You just don’t tell people that you’re one site on the logo (BMGMusicService.com) but link it to another site (CDLounge.com) and have your e-mail originate from yet another site (YourMusic.com). So it’s either really fishy or really tacky.

UPDATE: Looks like it’s legit. See my recent update for more details.

“Here I am, stuck in the middle with flu.”

Okay, okay, so that was a groaner. That’s what happens when the congestion makes my head feel stuffy. Anyway, Katie’s basically got bronchitis at this point, and Nicole and Joshua are getting over it themselves. (Yesterday was loads of fun.) It’s not really the flu… at least, I don’t think it is… but it’s still not very enjoyable. Especially when Katie wakes up coughing around midnight and can’t stop… then she starts bawling because of that, which makes her cough more, which makes her cry more… praise God we got through that one! (Parenting Tip: a bubble bath and a small cup of Sprite can work wonders! )

The bathroom sink has turned into a small pharmacy, and I’m sucking down the aforementioned cough drops (Eckerd Pharmacy-brand Honey Lemon drops, to be precise) like they’re candy. Still, this one doesn’t look like it’ll get any worse, so hooray!

I’ve got some more posts in the hopper, but until the clan’s recuperated, I don’t know that much is gonna get posted. In lieu of actual content, though, here’s a list of the nifty-cool gadgets that have been added to secondmouse:

• Technorati Blog Reactions. You can see at a glance whether anyone’s talking about a post I’ve written. Sure, there’s not much right now… but just wait until I start getting really controversial. )
• Add to Technorati Favorites. Apparently this is important. I’ll admit it sure is nice to see my favorites right up front when I go to Technorati.
• Bookmark this on del.icio.us. If you’re really going to do that, I figure you’ll just use the bookmarklet. I put this on the sidebar because when enough people bookmark a post in del.icio.us, it’ll show the tags they’ve used. I figure it could help new folks out, so go ahead (if you’ve got an account) and bookmark a post or two… please!
• Twitter Syndication. I’ve decided to get rid of the whole K2 Asides thing and use Twitter for my “asides.”

“I think the really interesting question here is the morality of our relationships with avatars and artificial lifeforms. If we seem to forge emotional bonds with artificial life—even against our will, even when we know the bots aren’t real—what does it mean when we torture and abuse them?” — collision detection: Scientists remount Milgram “shock” experiment using 3D avatars

Now to mix in a li’l bit of VideoDownloader and iSquint…

Yup, that’s right: a 30GB iPod G5. It’s great—I’ve loaded all my podcasts onto it, finally consolidated my home and office iTunes libraries, dumped in Address Book contacts and played around with the photo gallery. I can now listen to sermons (or American Radio) while I walk during my lunch break, and with the iTrip add-on I picked up, I now have my own truly conservative talk radio to listen to in the car.

The Downside: This means I’m now one of them.

I’m also working on decent descriptions for each category, since the category pages are probably going to start getting more traffic…

Kudos to the many brave souls blowing the whistle on the U.S. Government’s illegal domestic spying programs! Some of the more recent examples include:

• Daily Kos: All About NSA’s and AT&T’s Big Brother Machine, the Narus 6400
• Wired News: Wiretap Whistle-Blower’s Account (excerpt from this is below:)

In 2002, when I was working in an AT&T office in San Francisco, the site manager told me to expect a visit from a National Security Agency agent, who was to interview a management-level technician for a special job. The agent came, and by chance I met him and directed him to the appropriate people.

In January 2003, I, along with others, toured the AT&T central office on Folsom Street in San Francisco — actually three floors of an SBC building. There I saw a new room being built adjacent to the 4ESS switch room where the public’s phone calls are routed. I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room. The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room.

In October 2003, the company transferred me to the San Francisco building to oversee the Worldnet Internet room, which included large routers, racks of modems for customers’ dial-in services, and other equipment. I was responsible for troubleshooting problems on the fiber optic circuits and installing new circuits.

While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal. I saw this in a design document available to me, entitled “Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco” dated Dec. 10, 2002. I also saw design documents dated Jan. 13, 2004 and Jan. 24, 2003, which instructed technicians on connecting some of the already in-service circuits to the “splitter” cabinet, which diverts some of the light signal to the secret room. The circuits listed were the Peering Links, which connect Worldnet with other networks and hence the whole country, as well as the rest of the world.

One of the documents listed the equipment installed in the secret room, and this list included a Narus STA 6400, which is a “Semantic Traffic Analyzer”. The Narus STA technology is known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets. The company’s advertising boasts that its technology “captures comprehensive customer usage data … and transforms it into actionable information…. (It) provides complete visibility for all internet applications.”

My job required me to connect new circuits to the “splitter” cabinet and get them up and running. While working on a particularly difficult one with a technician back East, I learned that other such “splitter” cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.

(HT: Aaron at TheNotSoFreeState, for one…)

UPDATE: Ooh! Here’s another, from The New Yorker:

But the point, obviously, was to identify terrorists. �After you hit something, you have to figure out what to do with it,� the Administration intelligence official told me. The next step, theoretically, could have been to get a suspect�s name and go to the fisa court for a warrant to listen in. One problem, however, was the volume and the ambiguity of the data that had already been generated. (�There�s too many calls and not enough judges in the world,� the former senior intelligence official said.) The agency would also have had to reveal how far it had gone, and how many Americans were involved. And there was a risk that the court could shut down the program.

Instead, the N.S.A. began, in some cases, to eavesdrop on callers (often using computers to listen for key words) or to investigate them using traditional police methods. A government consultant told me that tens of thousands of Americans had had their calls monitored in one way or the other. �In the old days, you needed probable cause to listen in,� the consultant explained. �But you could not listen in to generate probable cause. What they�re doing is a violation of the spirit of the law.� One C.I.A. officer told me that the Administration, by not approaching the FISA court early on, had made it much harder to go to the court later.

Silly headline, perhaps? Don’t jump to conclusions, though; I think it was just a one-time thing.

The Black Calvinist went to T4G and loved the sound of 3000 male voices praising God, so he caught it on his cell phone and e-mailed it to himself. He loved it so much, in fact, that he wanted to share it with those of us who weren’t able to attend. Wonderfully sporting of him, right? (I thought so!)

Well, as Bob Kauflin pointed out in the comments section, this was apparently a T4G no-no (which, to his credit, TBC was unaware of). And where most would then demand that the file be removed, what does Bob do? He simply asks that the song be properly credited.

Now that’s dealing graciously! Way to go, Mr. Kauflin: I commend your thoughful response!

(Photo by Sola Lumina Captura.)

Okay, this is about the coolest thing I’ve seen this year!

Blumpy.org : In-Brain 3D shows how you can see any ol’ regular movie in 3-D, simply by playing two copies side-by-side and offset by a fewframes, then crossing your eyes like with a stereogram. (Like this cute little Paddington Bear… but in motion!)

Now let’s sit back and watch, as 15 million Americans all sit cross-eyed at their computer screens…

Does my blog have the kiss of death or something? Why is it that my implementation of some tool (for instance, YouTube) happens shortly before their site goes down? That can’t be good for my credibility.

Oh well, once they’re back up you should see unique user icons in the comments section of my posts (rather than the “favatar” site icons I had before). Those user icons are called Gravatars (Globally Recognized Avatar), and you can use them anywhere. All you need to do is go to their website and set up an account (e-mail address and a unique password). Then you upload an image, and each time you comment on a gravatar-enabled site (providing your e-mail address) your gravatar will appear.

One more reason to not comment anonymously: if you do, you get the angry “I need a gravatar” monkey beside your comment, and all your friends will mock you nercilessly!

I thought for sure that Jordan would post this… but perhaps he’s forgotten he has a blog?

I love a capella music, and I love the soundtracks to games for the Nintendo Entertainent System; but oh, how I adore the two put together!

Who’s the coolest guy in town? Who turns heads whenever he’s around?

iGuy! Now available at Amazon…

(HT: Alissa Clark.)

There’s my boy!

Daddy’s been busy making preparations for the little guy, and Katie has offered her booster seat to her little brother — on the condition that she can sit in a “big chair” at the kitchen table, of course.

Meanwhile, “Shu-shu” (Katie insists on calling him that!) has been happily kicking his mommy for a few weeks now, and Katie and Daddy have written our first song about him:

Little brother Shu-Shu />Crawling ‘cross the ‘partment />Scooping up the dollies />And bopping ‘em on the head!

(Along came the big sister and she said…)

Little brother Shu-Shu />I don’t want to see you />Scooping up my dollies />And bopping ‘em on the head!

I’ll give you three more chances, />And if you don’t behave, />I’ll tell Mommy on you!

Or perhaps “squidone?” Whatever — I’ve set up a Squidoo lens on Gemstone’s Disney comics and I’m having a blast!

What’s a squidoo lens? It’s essentially about.com on steriods, chain-drinking espressos. Anyone is welcome to sign up and create a new lens (or sponsor an existing one), filling it with info, links, amazon products, blog feeds — there so much you can do with ‘em!

“I spent some time last weekend working on changing the hyper-concordance to a MySql backend. The current implementation simply generates a large number of static HTML files: easy to implement, but a pain to move that much data around. Since there’s a file for each term, that’s about 3000 files, and 30+ Mb of data.

[...]

But my recent ruminations on Web 2.0 buzz got me thinking that it might be time to try building on the ESV Web Service API instead.

Sounds like it’d be great; I can’t wait to check this out!

Ooh, it’s pretty.

Don’t get me wrong; the WordPress Team has put an awful lot of work into a free resource that’s loved by many (including yours truly). Still, the Admin Panel was always lacking in aesthetics.

Until now. Yep, I’ve just got me a copy of WP Tiger Administration by Steve Smith at Ordered List. This is lightyears beyond the default layout � and I actually enjoy writing in here again!

Much thanks, Steve!

Happy birthday, indeed!

Hey everyone, help me out in celebrating Tim’s birthday! If you’re looking for web hosting from someone who’ll take you seriously, check out Cross PC, Tim’s tech support / software / web hosting company. He’ll give you a good deal without giving you a hard time. (He’d better, or I’ll go down to Knoxville after him!)

…where was I? Oh yeah. There’s all these plugins… but it ain’t so easy to figure out what folks are using; and without knowing the lingo, it can be hard to figure out what you’re supposed to be searching for. So, here’s the plugins I’m currently running:

• Popularity Contest
• Weighted Categories

So… if you’re on WordPress, which plugins do you use?