Albert Hoffman passed away yesterday.

Albert died of a heart attack on Tuesday morning, April 29, at the age
of 102, fully lucid and deeply satisfied that LSD psychotherapy
research had been permitted to resume. He spoke several months before
he died about the renewal of LSD psychotherapy research, sponsored by
MAPS and conducted by Dr. Peter Gasser in patients with anxiety
associated with end-of-life issues, as the "fulfillment of my heart's
desire."

Albert died several months after his wife Anita died on December 20,
2007, demonstrating that their love affair of over 70 years was the
primary motivation for both of them to stay alive so long.

So. I am in San Francisco.

No, I don't have a place yet. I am staying with servered_rose while I look for one, who's absurd levels of generosity I am extremely grateful for.

I'm making new filters for localthings.

Poll #1057617
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

In the physical world...

Also, if you are in the Bay Area and have interest in interacting with me in the physical world, give me your contact information here. Comments screened.

I'm bizzybizzy these days, and my internet access is kind of sketchy. (That means, only 8 hours a day, plus severed_rose's computer, plus the web on my phone. Man, I've got it rough.) Therefore, I'm not keeping up with elljay much. All that pesky life stuff.

A man named Aaron "Shorty" Hall was brutally beaten to death over the course of several hours in April. The two teenage assailants kicked Hall at least 75 times, jumped up and down on his body, dragged him down the stairs careful to ensure that his head bounced on every step, and -- this is my favorite part -- took a picture with their phone and sent it to a friend, before driving him to the ditch where he would eventually die. The three suspects defense is that they thought (mistakenly,) that Hall was gay.

This post details what is known of the initial altercation, the six hour beating, and the events occurring in the ten days to follow until the body was found. (Scroll down to the bolded text that says "Note: The following descriptions are graphic and disturbing, and may not be appropriate for sensitive readers.".)

Many people, including the family, are calling this a hate crime, and point to it as a reason for further hate crime legislation. I personally feel that a brutal murder, for whatever the reason, should be punished because it is a brutal murder, regardless of the intent. However, bookshop points out that the "gay panic" defense has worked before. One of the goals of hate crime legislation would be to render that defense as useless as it should be already.

I just don't understand how human beings can become so deeply and thoroughly fucked up, that they are capable of committing an act like this with such obvious lack of remorse. Perhaps I am thinking about it the wrong way -- perhaps it is not that they become fucked up, but rather that humans naturally start out with no value for the life of others, no sense of empathy with humans we deem to be not like us, and only some of us have learned to develop a respect for human life.

I feel ill.

There's trouble in elljay land. Here's my take. (Note, this is what I have surmised and has a fair amount of speculation. I suggest you do your own homework and come to your own conclusions. Always.)

1. An organization called Warriors for Innocence, (WFI) who "hunts monsters [pedophiles] on the web" reported several accounts to LiveJournal who they claim were blatantly engaging in illegal activities or violating the LiveJournal terms of service, specifically in the area of child sex content.

2. LiveJournal responded by deleting hundreds of journals. Some of these were what WFI would call "legitimate pedophile sites", while others were of more ambiguous content. Rumors are flying that journals have been deleted for having even a vague connection to pedophilia in their interests, fiction stories, role playing communities, or icons. Additionally, there are rumors that many rape survival groups were deleted due to having phrases like "rape" or "incest" in their interest list.

It would appear that, while this was a response to the issues brought up by WFI, LiveJournal chose to expand their deletion criteria of their own accord. LiveJournal has not, as of yet, made any official statements on the issue.

( but wait! there's more )

Regardless, it is advisable to back up your journal now, and regularly, in the event that you post something someday that society may find unagreeable.

Junkfood Science reports that nationwide health departments will begin mandatory tracking of HIV positive individuals, using their full names.

"The names of people infected with HIV will be tracked in all 50 states by the end of 2007....The states are bowing to federal pressure so they won't lose money for medications and health services for patients. This is the first year federal funding has been tied to names-based surveillance of HIV. More than $1.4 billion in federal money will be distributed this fiscal year based on new formulas that include numbers of people with HIV counted by states using names. In some states, including Illinois, millions of dollars are at stake.

[Advocates] still worry that collecting names will deter some people from getting tested and seeking treatment, and about the possibility of names being released due to security breaches."

Apparently it has been effect in California for some time.

"And last spring in California, with more than $50 million annually in federal funding for HIV/AIDS care at stake, the Governor signed into law its HIV reporting law. In it, the “California Department of Health advises that health care providers, laboratories, and LHDs report cases of HIV infection by name if an HIV-related laboratory test has been performed on or after April 17, 2006.”"

I feel ill.

It would appear that Nathan Fillion, the actor who played Mal in Firefly, has a myspace profile. On it, he posts his results of a "which firefly character are you" quiz. His results? Kaylee.

Jewel Staite who plays Kaylee, continues the trend on her myspace profile, where she is pegged as Wash.

Milton Friedman passed away today at age 94.

Western Union announces they will no longer be sending telegrams!^(*) How shall I ever communicate with anyone?!


* Amusingly enough, their sponsored link is still #2 in the results of a google search for "telegram".

BlackBerry faces potential shutdown due to patent lawsuit. Woah, where have I been!?

I would love to see a more detailed analysis of the case itself, particularly of the patent in question. Most of the articles I have seen focus on the falllout of the lawsuit, glossing over things like analysis of the laws, patents and interests involved. What I was able to dig up is (surprise, surprise) in blog comments.

A commenter on one blog says,

"The patent in question is something to the effect of 'Delivering email using RF signals'. RIM [seller of the BlackBerry] is just the first target - but any wireless company will soon be guilty of violating this patent."

Yet another says,

"It appears that the priniciple assets of NTP [the alleged patent holder, suing RIM] was a collection of patents obtained from multiple sources and its existence is on the assumption that it will get something from lawsuits.

The success of NTP spells the failure of the US justice system and a patent system discouraging innovations but rewarding lawyers and patent hunters."

• Kansas adds Retarded Intelligent Design to their "science" curriculam. About which hutta writes an eloquent letter to the school board.



• Texas banns gay marriage. Ok, no huge shock there. In fact, what took them so long?



• New "Google Print" service under attack. Yes, because having all the worlds libraries available at your fingertips would be a terrible, terrible thing. Peoples shortsightedness astounds me sometimes.

Rosa Parks died yesterday.

Google Earth

Damn them. It's Windows only.

Plant Derivative Blocks MDMA's Hyperthermic Effects

Via psylion

And also, um what? Since when did the NIDA start doing anything useful?

Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was declared unconstitutional, again.

via hutta

Gah.

"Sen. Maria Cantwell says she will introduce legislation later this week that would grant President Bush broad new powers to investigate whether oil companies are gouging consumers and to impose price controls if necessary."

Will everyone please take Economics 101? Price floors and price celings just don't work. As the president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association said:

"[Similar] price controls in the 1970s resulted in a shortage of gasoline and long lines at the pump.

'Price caps and other forms of price regulation are no more effective in the 21st century than they turned out to be in the 1970s," Slaughter said. "Interference in market forces always creates inefficiencies in the marketplace and extra costs for consumers.'"

Via vonmisesblog

This is really scary.

"Police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here.

No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. 'Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons,' he said."

2nd Amendment anyone?


It's just amazing how much the tragedy stricken people of New Orleans are being treated like criminals.

"[Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggers] press secretary, Margita Thompson, issued the following statement at just before 5:30 p.m.: ...

'The Governor believes the matter should be determined not by legislative action -- which would be unconstitutional -- but by court decision or another vote of the people of our state. We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote. Out of respect for the will of the people, the Governor will veto AB 849.'"

The article and bugmenot.com for a login

The Next Mother Lode: Mars on Wired

"[A] new company, 4Frontiers, plans to mine Mars for building materials and energy sources, and export the planet's mineral wealth to forthcoming space stations on the moon and elsewhere. The company also wants to build the first permanent human settlement on Mars, using strictly Martian materials, as early as 2025."

The California Legislature made history Tuesday as the Assembly passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

Ok, so I'm getting the impression that people are upset with the government for Katrina being as damaging as it was.

What do you feel they should have done? What specific sector of government should have done something? And why should it be the government?