War with Iraq is a decision that, in my opinion, is being made for the wrong reasons. The rhetoric coming from the White House is that allowing Saddam Hussein to possess weapons of mass destruction is an immediate threat to the security of the United States. However, Bush and his supporters have been unable to show any conclusive evidence to back their claims.

I don't argue that Saddam should or should not have weapons of mass destruction. Iraq agreed to dismantle these happens at the conclusion of the first Gulf War. I don't argue that Iraq is or isn't a security threat to the U.S., though I think the evidence presented by the Bush administration supporting this claim, so far, has been extremely weak. What I find unacceptable is the hasty and arrogant manner in which the Bush administration is approaching the issue. If it can be persuasively demonstrated that Saddam's power represents an immediate threat, then I would back immediate regime change. Until that time, I feel it is in our best interest to support the U.N.

In the end, it may be necessary to go to war with Iraq. However, if that day comes, it should be as a member of a U.N. sponsored military force. To pursue any other course will likely have a huge destabilizing effect that will be far more detrimental to our national security interests than the current policy of containment.

If you are opposed to the Bush administration's stated intention to act with or without the U.N., show your support by participating in a petition opposing immediate war that will be sent to the U.N. Security Council [Move On]. Then, talk to your friends and get them to join in the petition. 3:16:03 PM    comment []  

The Internet, by allowing like-minded people to find and communicate with each other almost instantaneously, has made it possible for anti-war advocates to assemble in three months numbers that took three years to assemble during the Vietnam era [New York Times]. 2:52:31 PM    comment []  

A friend of mine, having read my color blindness post [Mar 6], decided to doctor up one of the tests to show how a completely color blind person and a red-green color deficient person might see the image [Corpse Divine]. That's very cool! I've always tried to explain to people how the whole thing works, but have found it very difficult. Using Chris' method, you can show to a completely color sighted person how the same image might appear to a color blind or color deficient person. 1:41:14 PM    comment []  

A couple of years ago, I started encoding my CD's into MP3 format. At first, I only encoded the CD's that I listened to most and I stored them on a PC that I kept at work. I listen to music at work more than anyplace else, so it was an obvious place to keep them. Since I also had a web server and Samba on that computer, I could stream the files to my desktop computer over the LAN.

About a year ago, I found myself unemployed. This turned out to be a great opportunity to mess around with some things that I hadn't had time to mess with. So, I bought an 80GB hard drive and began systematically ripping and encoding my entire CD collection. I now have over 60GB of MP3's encoded at 128kbps.

Just as I did a couple of years ago, I keep these MP3 files on a Debian Linux box. This offers a number of advantages over simply storing them on a Windows workstation.

First, the Linux box is always available on my home network. If I choose the play a game or do some other resource intensive task on my PC, I don't have to worry that I might be inadvertently affecting the availability of the MP3 files. Plus, since Linux is so reliable, I never really have to worry about my little Linux fileserver. It is setup in a bedroom closet in my house, connected to the LAN and has no monitor. When I want to connect to it, I simply ssh in with no problems.

Second, I have Apache and andromeda installed to make it easy to navigate the files over my LAN through a web interface. Andromeda provides a very simple interface for navigating MP3's on a filesystem. With it, you can create simple playlists by selecting entire albums, artists or individual clips. Plus you can easily navigate the files regardless of how you have them organized. For instance Andrea and I organize our files first by a high level categorization (e.g. Brazil, Latin, Pop, Eighties), them by artist name, then by album.

Third, by using Samba, Linux allows me to make the files available to standard Windows computers through the Windows Explorer utility. This is how I actually manage the files themselves. Organizing my files and directories is as simple as copy and paste. When I am ripping and encoding, I am able to employ both of the workstations in my house at the same time. Since they both have the MP3 Samba share mounted, I was able to configure them to rip and encode locally and save the encoded files directly onto the network share. This doubles the number of CD's that I am able to rip and encode in a given time period.

To round out my use of MP3 files, there are several ways that I can listen to them.

First, I took an old Sony Vaio sporting a Pentium MMX processor, installed Linux, X Windows, xmms and Mozilla on it. I connected its headphone jack to my home stereo RCA inputs and set it up on my LAN. This setup might not appeal to the audio purist, but then the audio purist wouldn't be using 128kbps MP3's, however, it works just fine for me. I am able to browse my collection using the web browser and andromeda and stream the files for playback. The result is that I have been able to breathe new life into on otherwise useless laptop. Since the files are not stored locally, there are no concerns about disk space on the laptop and as I add new files to my collection, they are immediately available for playback.

Next, I now own a portable CD player with MP3 support [Panasonic]. A single data CD can store about 10 hours worth of MP3's encoded at 128kbps. So, instead of using audio CD's in my car, I am now able to create 10 hour long "mixes". This has the side benefit that if anyone steals the CD's from my car, they aren't getting the originals.

My conversion to MP3 is now complete. Though I don't yet own an iPod or any of the other MP3 only devices, I find that I don't need them. Not that I wouldn't mind having one. So, CD's have become simply the means of acquiring and distributing music. As soon as I get a CD home, I immediately rip and encode it. I rarely listen to a CD in CD form anymore, I now use MP3's almost exclusively. 11:39:29 AM    comment []  

"Half of the most infectious bacteria strain in the United States -- a cause of everything from ear infections to fatal pneumonia and meningitis -- will be resistant to antibiotics just over a year from now, creating an urgent need to cut our use of antibiotics, doctors say" [Canada.com].

This is a scary situation that is bound to get worse. The article goes on to say that flu shots and frequent hand washing are the most important first steps to slowing the resistance of these bacteria to antibiotics. Why? Because by preventing infections from taking hold the need to use antibiotics is greatly decreased. 10:27:48 AM    comment []  

We've all experienced the annoyance caused when the shower curtain gets sucked into the shower. I've often wondered about what forces cause this to happen. I had always thought it had something to do with the hot air in the shower rising and creating a low pressure area within the shower. The high pressure cold air outside the shower would then force the curtain inward. Now, a researcher at MIT has performed a computer simulation of the problem and has come up with a solution [Unversity of Massachusettes][via Corpse Divine].

"What makes the shower curtain suck in is that you have low pressure on the inside and high pressure on the outside," he said. Schmidt discovered that there is a strong vortex circulating in the shower. Though the drops are being accelerated by gravity, they are actually slowing down due to aerodynamic drag, Schmidt said. "And for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the opposite reaction is the air has to start moving. That is what makes this whole flow go."

I'm glad that's all cleared up. 10:07:15 AM    comment []