Octopodial Chrome

Why ere eight high school students killed and more injured last week? It wasn’t the tornado; it was the emergency planners who didn’t allow the students to flee. After all, blind adherence to The Plan is the new American way.

We should attach a dynamo to Patrick Henry’s coffin; he could supply the energy needs of the entire continent.

Is this discussion of the iTunes license agreement correct? Does it really forbid the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons? Does this mean that one cannot listen to music on iTunes whilst working on missiles, or that one cannot play audio files about nukes on iTunes?

It’s in a section about not violating US law, but the phrasing would seem to indicate that it applies no matter what. It’s not against the law to develop, design, manufacture or produce any of those things; you just need to do so under the proper auspices.

And of course it’s not illegal to develop, design, manufacture or produce missiles, period. Fletchers do it all the time.

MacWorld UK reports that Microsoft used Macintosh Office users as guinea pigs for Office features; the company also considered killing the product entirely in order to damage Apple. This is what happens when one is beholden to proprietary software. After all, Apple can test features out on its users, too. The only way to be free is to use free software.

Well, for the fifth year in a row I’ve managed not to make it to Estrella War (an SCA war between the kingdoms of The Outlands, Atenveldt, Caid & Artemisia. Pictures & videos are slowly making it onto the web, though; here are a few good ones I’ve managed to find so far:

Calontiri & Outlands Forces

A nice pic of soldiers from Calontir and the Outlands milling about prior to battle. Calontir has the distinctive purple tabards, while my own Outlandish fellows wear the green tabards with the white hart. I don’t know any of this particular bunch, I think, as these are from al-Barran, as one can tell from their standard (see, heraldry is useful!). Incidentally, if you’ve ever seen a deer crossing sign with a little green crown sticker pasted over its head—then you know that someone from the Outlands has been nearby.

Bridge Battle

A short clip of a bridge battle. Not the greatest fighting in the world, but still…

A lady in German dress

It’s really nice to see someone make an effort, particularly with such a complex and time-consuming style. There are quite a few folks who don’t even really try. From the look on her face, I suppose that she’s singing.

Coursing Hounds

Some folks in Caid have done a fair amount of research into hunting & coursing with dogs. It’s a pretty new area for the Society, but looks like great fun.

Maybe I’ll manage a trip next year.