Monday, April 11, 2005

Silent Cardinals Prepare to Choose Pope (AP). AP - Cardinals began "an intense period of silence and prayer" before their conclave to choose the next pope, saying they will stop speaking publicly to protect the strict secrecy surrounding the centuries-old tradition. [Yahoo! News: Top Stories] I saw a headline on a New York paper this morning that said something to the affect that the world deserved to know how the cardinals voted.  Not only do I disagree with that statement in principle, I really do not care to know how they voted. The Pope is not supposed to be a political position (it is, but that is a different story) and the election of same should be done by secret ballot, just as all true should be done for all the same reasons. Further, the influence of the Pope on most people's lives is minimal at best.  Yes, there are segments that live and die on his word, but frankly the Roman Catholic church's time has come and gone.  Clinging to sexist ways of thinking and doing business have no place in the 21st century and are only serving to stir the problems that society needs to put behind itself in order to advace and evolve.  If we continue following these outmoded religious ideals as being the way to do things then we only have proved we do not know how to grow as a species, let alone a sentient one. 8:46:52 AM    comment []

How do i prevent end users from connecting to the database other than my application?. Hi Tom, Thanks for your help. We have a client/Server and a web interface. We want our end users to connect to the database only through our applications. How can we prevent the user from connecting to the database using SQL*PLUS or Microso... [Ask Tom MOST RECENT ARTICLES] Geek post on Oracle Security... 8:39:02 AM    comment []

DeLay Draws Fire From Fellow Republicans (AP). AP - Embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is drawing heat from some fellow Republicans who say his continuing ethics problems are harming the GOP. [Yahoo! News: U.S. National] Drawing heat?  Needs to answer questions about his ethics? People, the man needs to be recalled or impeached or arrested outright.  This man represents his constituents in the Congress of the United States and you are saying he needs to answer questions about what is well documented fraud and waste?  Didn't the Republican party try and impeach a President because he lied about something not related to running the government?  Is defrauding the pubic not a criminal act?  If a President can be impeached for having sex, why are they not lining up a firing squad for wasting my tax dollars?  Oh, that's right, because that is their job. 8:27:32 AM    comment []

Students Use 125 Steps to Change Batteries (AP). AP - Purdue University students won the national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on Saturday by proving that changing the batteries in a flashlight isn't always simple. [Yahoo! News: Top Stories] Rube would be proud...too bad Microsoft cannot enter... 8:16:51 AM    comment []

Obese Shoppers Say Clerks Not Helpful (AP). AP - Even though she's been a model, an author and small-business owner, Catherine Schuller said some sales clerks still only see her as an overweight woman who is out of place in their stores. [Yahoo! News: Top Stories] While I am opposed to discrimination in general, I am getting a double standard message here.  On the one hand, we have an entire nation upset because our children are overweight, which in general leads to adults that are overweight, and as a result, suffer from all the maladies that come with that. On the other hand, we have a psychology professor that has studied attitudes to towards the overweight and he says we need: "To reduce anti-fat prejudice, we have to tell people how much the problem is due to genetics and physiology and how it has less to do with willpower," he said. "But that flies against the American way of thinking about things." Further, another expert states: "Overweight people feel embarrassed when discriminated against and they want to forget it. "We as consumers have to connect with the businesses and make our needs known," he said. Now, that to me smacks of a serious double standard.  I keep hearing about genetics this and physiology that.  And yet we do not apply these same mind sets to the problems of childhood obesity.  So which is it?  Are we fat because we eat too much, exercise too little and generally have no willpower or is it because we are genetically and physiologically predisposed in that direction?  You cannot have it both ways people, that is hypocrisy, and that is the American way of thinking. 8:14:20 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2005 David Lane.