Saturday, July 26, 2008

Google Doesn't Like Webcomicsnation.com?

So when I went to visit today's 'director's cut' of Narbonic I got the following message.
Reported Attack Site!
This web site at www.webcomicsnation.com has been reported as an attack site and has been blocked based on your security preferences.
Attack sites try to install programs that steal private information, use your computer to attack others, or damage your system.
Some attack sites intentionally distribute harmful software, but many are compromised without the knowledge or permission of their owners.

But when I go to look at the specific information about webcomicsnation it says,
Of the 11 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 07/15/2008, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days.

Wha? So it's blocked because zero pages had evil/bad code? WTF? I'm sure that whoever is in charge at webcomicsnation is working on this, but anyone know what the heck is up?

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Weather Commentary

It has been quite hot lately. Not weirdly hot, but in past years I remember more thunderstorms to take the edge off in the afternoons. Maybe I'm misremembering in this and I certainly do remember long sweltering stretches without a drop of rain. I note this because today it actually was a bit cooler. I think this is the most pleasant day we've had for about two weeks, but still no rain. I've yet to see a proper drown the frogs thunderstorm this summer here in my little corner of Denver.

Don't try to connect this up to global warming. A month's weather has a relationship to the global climate, but it is far too soon to say exactly what that relationship is yet. Though I would not be surprised if in retrospect this was part of a trend towards drier summers I would also be equally unsurprised if we got more thunderstorms rather than fewer. This would be due to the heat producing low pressure over the mountains that would draw in the monsoon flow over Colorado.

I'm just commenting that so far I'm disappointed. I want the monsoon flow to start to take the edge off this heat. It is certainly active down in Arizona. Searching for monsoon using Google news finds numerous stories about the start of the monsoon season including one about how the frogs emerging after storms are poisonous to pets.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

A Question to Ask Conservatives

"Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?" -Ripley in Aliens

She was pointing out that she'd never said the creature was from that planet when asking the quoted question of the company and government goons, but this is the sort of question that I would like to ask of most conservative commentators. Why? Because they never seem to 'get it'. Take for instance the recent 'gay controversy' over a Heinz commercial in Britain. Check it out on YouTube if you want to see what they're blathering about. My first comment is, "This is a gay commercial??" Seems pretty obvious to me that the joke, the premise, of this commercial is that it makes an average British housewife seem like a stereotypical NYC deli man. Don't you people get it? This is about as gay as another commercial I remember when some girl from Brooklyn started talking in a French accent because she ate some potato chip. IT'S A JOKE!

I particularly love how one of the conservative bloviators, AH Dowden on Blogcritics, used this whole thing as a jumping off point to change the subject on his own commentary about attacks on James Dobson. Not only is he wrong about what the commercial is about (I suspect he never watched what he's commenting on, surprise, surprise), but he's also trying to pull a logical fast one. Saying that Wayne Besen's commentary on Dobson is invalid because this other unrelated thing is 'fraudulent'. Ha!

I'd be willing to bet that most people would get this commercial if they saw it. They might laugh or ignore it, but they wouldn't start screaming, "OH my lord! Think of the Children! I don't want to have to explain the gay to my CHILDREN!" I used to be a conservative and I'm positive even I, a self hating homosexual who looked suspiciously at everything for possible gay content, would have shrugged my shoulders and wondered why everyone was so upset. So conservatives, did IQs just suddenly drop while I was away from the movement? Or did I just not see how stupid you all are while I was one of you? Or maybe you're just saying anything to try to score a point no matter how far fetched? Intellectual mad libs trying to fill in the outrage of the day with anything that might fit if you cross your eyes and squint at it.

(Oh and in case anyone is wondering I used the "nofollow" attribute in the link to Dowden so search engines won't think that I think that opinion should be promoted.)

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Pointless Stories: Watermelon Disaster

Today it was exceptionally hot. Early in the morning all the windows and shades were closes up and late in the day I could not stand it and turned on the air conditioner for a while. I'm sure that it was at least 37 C today (98F) and with the merciless sunshine that is to be expected of summer. So this evening we had water as a snack and later with dinner, quite refreshing, but every time I cut a watermelon I am especially careful because I saw it go quite wrong once.

My family was at Great Sand Dunes National Park, though in those days it was only a national monument. We had a nice (if hot) day exploring the sands. We hiked up one of the lower peaks and decided that was enough, we were not going to go all the way in to climb the highest dune. Instead we returned to Medano Creek and played in the sand, all five of us. Mother, Father, Stefan, Christine, and myself. A bit of playing in the sand especially in the creek was followed by Christine returning to the fifth-wheel to cut up a watermelon.

Watermelons have a nice tough rind and she was probably working with a knife that was not exceptionally sharp so she gave it a really good push. Unfortunately her hand was in the way of the knife and she gave herself a severe cut. Nothing life or limb threatening, but enough to ruin her day and also the melon. Ever since then if possible I go after melons with a serrated knife so I can saw through instead of exposing myself to the sudden failure of the rind and the knife flying through what previously seemed quite tough.