Dangerous Ideas

As I was reading articles about Danica Patrick, I came across a mention of ethanol. It’s so cool that the Indy 500 will be trying to switch to 100% ethanol by 2007! Like bio-diesel, alcohol is a sustainable fuel.

Bio-diesel is great and really flexible. Gaba was telling me how she and Evan chose bio-diesel over alcohol since they can alternate that with un-bio-dieselized (okay, I realize that’s not a word!) vegetable oil. But the cool thing about alcohol is that it’s pretty easy to make yourself … it’s a little easier to grow corn and then ferment it than it is to extract oil from it, then convert it to bio-diesel. At least that’s what I thought when I listened to various presenters at SolFest a couple years ago. I donated money to Alcohol Can Be a Gas to help them get their book out, and am still looking forward to getting a copy (they need help since they had to part ways with their publisher, by the way; if you’re interested, head of to the site and make a donation to get a book when it comes out).

It’ll be great to have a high-profile racing league endorse a sustainable fuel!

The Indy 500 is tomorrow, and it wouldn’t take an expert to prodict there’s heaps of expectations on Danica Patrick. I’ve never been a big fan of racing (heck, I didn’t even realize what the difference was between NASCAR and Indy last year), but I tuned in to the 2005 Indy 500 to see Danica race. I think it’s great to see women competing against men in sports, and not just do well but be contenders to place first (see also 16-year old Michelle Wie). One of the big things for me is that although a lot of sexism and racism is a lot subtler these days (and can therefore be dismissed by people who don’t want to see it), people like Danica really bring make some people express themselves plainly, if stupidly (from the SJ Mercury/Knight Ridder):

”I just don’t think it’s a sport for women,” Petty told the Associated Press. “And so far, it’s proved out. It’s really not. It’s good for them to come in. It gives us a lot of publicity. It gives them publicity. But as far as being a real true racer, making a living out of it, it’s kind of tough.”

That quote is especially ridiculous since there are probably more people who know who Danica Patrick is than this Petty person, even if he is some sort of big champion.

A victory by Danica tomorrow would certainly (okay, hopefully) put these sorts of comments to rest, and maybe do change the minds of some less outspoken people with similar views about what’s proper for women, and what our limits are.

I’m rootin’ for you, Danica!

I just got Akkana’s new book, Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional. I haven’t done much more than skim sections, but what I’ve seen is looks pretty good. There are sections that show how to do particular tasks with step-by-step instructions, which is really helpful for someone like me who has always found the GIMP interface confusing (and who only uses GIMP infrequently). Plus, it’s great that Apress splurged on the glossy pages so the images really stand out! It’s also great to see another addition to the list of books written by LinuxChix!

For those in the area, Akkana will be giving a presentation on GIMP and her new book at the Micro Center in Santa Clara this Saturday (5/20/2006) at noon.

When I went to the immigrants right march, I marched with the Asian contingent. We had a fair-sized group, but it came far short of representing the proportion of Asians who are affected by the current immigration debate.

There’s a pretty good article on the SF Gate about Asian undocumented immigrants, who are the second largest group of undocumented immigrants. According to the article, there are as many as 180,000 Asian undocumented immigrants in the Bay Area.

The article mentions a some reasons why Asians haven’t taken as visible a role in the debate. One of the reasons is there isn’t the same kind of support from media outlets:

Also important is that, unlike Spanish-language radio stations, the Bay Area’s Asian media – which include a multitude of newspapers, radio stations, magazines and television shows – has not tried to mobilize its diverse readership and viewership, which does not share even a common language.

It would be great if the media could take a role in getting the word out on marches. They wouldn’t even need to be advocates; if they just provided more coverage, more Asians would be aware of what’s at stake. Right now, there’s a perception it’s someone else’s issue:

But Asians’ interest in the issue is driven in part by how the debate has been framed, said Luna Yasui, policy director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, a civil rights group.

“People have deemed it a Latino issue. That has created a misperception among Asian Pacific communities that somehow nothing is at stake,” she said.

Of course, those of us who don’t have major media outlets can help, too, by spreading the word to people we meet. And who visit our blogs. ;-)

I haven’t had time to check this out, but SqueakNOS was recently re-released. In this context, NOS stands for “No OS”, although that could also be “as OS”. It’s a project to enable Squeak to run on bare metal (or, in the case of VMWare, virtual metal).

From the SqueakNOS project site at SourceForge:

Squeak is an open, highly-portable Smalltalk-80 implementation, it runs on almost every operating system, and in bare hardware. What we gonna do with SqueakNOS is getting rid of the OS under Squeak, and we’ll implement all the functionality in Smalltalk

Just saw this on a mailing list …

Craigslist Foundation is hosting a “Nonprofit Boot Camp”. That link is to the Acteva page; they also have a page on the event on the Craigslist Foundation web site, but it strangely does not have a link to sign up (that I saw as I was posting this).

The cost is $50 per person, and the event takes place at UC Berkeley. From the sign-up page:

Boot Camp Highlights:

• 1300 emerging nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs
• Seminars and workshops on how to to start and run a nonprofit
• The involvement of leading local and national nonprofit support organizations as track co-presenters
• An Exhibit Hall featuring organizations that serve nonprofits and social enterprises
• Community Lounge, featuring Career Counseling and Ask the Experts
• Networking Reception with complimentary hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and entertainment
• Eco-friendly event

Speaking of eco-friendly, I was pretty impressed that they have both vegetarian and vegan meal options!

Judge Robert B. Freedman finalized his preliminary decision on Friday to block the use of the exit exam for the class of 2006 (although the fate of seniors is still not entirely clear). From the SJ Mercury:

A California judge suspended the state’s high school exit exam as a graduation requirement Friday, saying California public schools don’t fairly prepare all students – a decision that calls into question whether the state can enforce a test of basic math and English competency for a diploma.

The ruling could allow thousands of seniors who haven’t passed the controversial exam to receive diplomas in the coming weeks. But they can’t be sure: State Superintendent Jack O’Connell said he will appeal quickly and seek a court order to keep the exam requirement in force until the legal battle is resolved. And for educators, students and parents, the decision deepens uncertainty about the exam’s future.

Freedman’s Friday ruling only affected the class of 2006; another challenge from Californians for Justice would have delayed the exam from being implemented for future classes as well. Unfortunately, Freedman rejected this second suit against the California Exit Exam. From the LA Times:

An Alameda County Superior Court judge Tuesday dealt a defeat to activists hoping to further weaken the embattled state high school exit exam.

Judge Robert B. Freedman, who last week handed a major victory to opponents of the exam by clearing the way for thousands of seniors who failed the test to graduate, rejected another lawsuit with similar aims.

The basis of the two suits differed, however. Unlike the plaintiffs involved in last week’s decision, who had argued their case on the basis of the state Constitution, Californians for Justice Education Fund, a grass-roots advocacy group, argued its case on the basis of state laws.

Just saw this article about a Web site that can name a tune through keyboard taps to the rhythm. Nifty!

Ever have a song stuck in your head, but can’t remember what it’s called, or even who sang it? If you at least know how it goes, try this astonishing Web site, suggested to me by a reader: It’s SongTapper.com.

One of the reasons I use a PC as my main computer is because Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the best speech recognition software I’ve used, only runs on Windows. Of course, now Macs can run Windows, and it turns out that NaturallySpeaking runs great on a MacBookPro. Not quite as nice as a native port, but very promising for those of us with sore hands (and other RSI).

As if it wasn’t bad enough that same-sex marriage still isn’t legal in the U.S., a Missouri town wants to evict unmarried straight couples w/ kids.

BLACK JACK, Mo. - The city council has rejected a measure allowing unmarried couples with multiple children to live together, and the mayor said those who fall into that category could soon face eviction.

Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving were denied an occupancy permit after moving into a home in this St. Louis suburb because they have three children and are not married.

AYPAL and Youth Together present “Dr. Randy Ward Step Up To The Plate So We Can Graduate Accountability Session”. This will be a discussion about the California High School Exit Exam addressed to State Administrator Randy Ward.

For those who don’t know, Oakland’s school system was taken over by the state of California, and Ward was appointed by the state to take charge. His official bio at OUSD doesn’t tell the whole story – check out Stop Randy Ward for more information (it’s a Web site that was built in protest of his policies).

Here’s more about the event and artwork for a flyer. If you want, click on the image to get a bigger version of the flyer.

You are cordially invited to AYPAL (Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership) and Youth Together’s next big event of the year! This accountability session is a community-wide event that will make sure that Williams settlement money does go to our schools.

STEP UP TO THE PLATE SO WE CAN GRADUATE!
AN ACCOUNTABILITY SESSION WITH DR. RANDY WARD OF OUSD
Next WEDNESDAY, May 17th
4:15-5:30 pm

At Lincoln Recreation Center at 10th and Jackson Streets in Oakland’s Chinatown (near Lake Merritt BART center)

Frustrated Oakland students, community members, concerned parents, teachers and the public demand equal resources for the Oakland Public Schools. Hundreds of Complaint forms have been collected and will be submitted to the School District to demand concrete changes in the Public Schools in Oakland.

Our Schools are in a State of Emergency with inadequate resources, apidated facilities, unqualified teachers that are the root causes of many issues in Oakland.

The Williams Settlement provides up to $1 billion for the lowest-performing schools base on Academic Performance Index (API) deciles 1-3, in which 62 Oakland public Schools are eligible to get these funds.

(Click on image for larger size.)

I know very little about Chevy’s, except up until recently, I had a vague dislike of them. I think it’s because a few years back they ran a radio commercial making fun of vegans (a man takes his girlfriend to Chevy’s, says they have all sorts of things, and names them; when she says she’s vegan, he tells her to order the “air burrito). It wasn’t particularly bad, just a small turn off. I mean, it’s not as annoying as “the other white meat” and definitely far less evil than the milk industry telling women to drink more milk to avoid osteoporosis when the people who drink cow’s milk get their bones broken more than people who don’t.

But now Chevy’s has given a much stronger reason not to patronize them. Chevy’s decided to fire workers who participated in the May Day march for immigrant rights and immigration reform. So, I guess I won’t be having any “air burritos” any time soon. Granted, this is an individual franchise in Tracy, so maybe this is a bit much to judge the entire chain by, but it certainly isn’t helping them out any.

Judge Robert Freedman just issued a tentative ruling today blocking California’s school exit exam. This exam has been controversial since it was first introduced since the ones least likely to pass it are poor minorities. It’s also questionable wehther the exam is a better test of someone’s knowledge than the other criteria for graduation. This is the first year that passing the test is a requirement for getting a diploma. From the article in the Mercury:

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Freedman said he found merit in the plaintiff’s argument that the exam is unfair because not all California public school students have access to the same quality of education. He is expected to issue a final ruling after a hearing today.

“What all this is about is equal education,” said Arturo Gonzalez, lead lawyer for a group of struggling students who sued the state claiming the exam is unfair to those still trying to master English and low-income students attending underfunded schools. “Until you have that, you can’t deprive students like these of the prize of education, the diploma.”

At first glance, the idea of a diploma representing proof of a sound education sounds great. But if the students who are failing the test come from the same schools, generally poorer, and generally are learning English … is it fair to hold back their degrees if they pass based on other criteria? Immigrants will continue to learn English in their new country. Why put an arbitrary deadline on that?

Also, if schools are graduating students that can’t pass the test, is that a fault of the students or the schools? Not everyone is a great independent learner (heck, otherwise why have schools?). If students from a school aren’t doing well, then shouldn’t you try to fix the school rather than penalize the students?

Another question is – if California were to deprive students of their diplomas, how many of them are going to keep going to school until they pass? I don’t think it’s going to be huge incentive for them to go to summer school or repeat the 12th grade. Kids who don’t get a diploma might just end up dropping out. How does that help anyone?

Judge Freedman said he plans to finalize the ruling tomorrow (Thursday, May 9).

I’ve run across several mentions of Stephen Colbert’s appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner, so I finally looked at the transcript and at video of the event. Wow! That must have been the most difficult performance ever in the history of the event. I’ve done some performance, and it’s hard enough getting in front of any old audience. But Colbert took things to a whole new level: he verbally skewered the administration sitting just a few feet from the president.

I just checked YouTube, and, apparently, the video has been removed now due to copyright infringement. From C-Span? I didn’t think a non-profit would care so much, and would even enjoy the extra publicity. According to Mark Morford on his blog, video is still available at a few sites.

I read the news online almost every day, and I didn’t see mention of this event for a couple days, at least. I would have at least expected to see this on the front page of the SF Gate (Morford’s blog is hosted there; I just didn’t see anything in the main section). Some people have wondered if there was a media blackout.

I wonder who made the decision to have him be the guest? And whether this person was being subversive or just not doing their homework? And whether this person has a job any more? ;-) Of course, there is the cynical view that the appearance helped Bush.

I was at yesterday’s May Day march in San Francisco. Quite a turnout! And a very different demographic than the ones against the Iraq war (although, of course, there’s noticeable overlap). I marched with a group of Chinese immigrants and children of Chinese immigrants, including some friends from CJWP. I also met my friend Thu at Civic Center – that was an interesting challenge!

Here’s a photo of marchers (from my cell phone camera):

!Photo of march for immigrant rights.

I read a few news articles after the march. It sounds like several businesses were affected, including a few that had to close down operations. Hopefully, this will ultimately result in positive change, such as HR 4437 being replaced with something saner (e.g., something that’s not as crazy as deporting 11 million people or charging teachers as criminals because their students might be undocumented immigrants). Of course, there’s always danger of backlash. And, in an election year, some politicians may be using some pretty weird logic in coming up with their positions.