The CRU Data Leak

I began to have doubts about the whole global warming *ahem* climate change thing since becoming exposed to the arguments on the other side, but what has tilted the scales firmly is the recent exposure of the internal CRU emails. No, not the contents of the emails themselves -- damaging as they are -- but the deafening silence from the mainstream media about this. Hopefully they're waiting for confirmation that the contents are not fake (which, by the way, is already available).

Update: Call me paranoid, but it looks like the Star Tribune story on this has been taken down. Google cache to the rescue. The doofuses forgot to take down the comments page for the story, however.

When play becomes work

I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
-- Jerome K Jeorome

We've all heard of situations (and have probably even experienced them ourselves) where someone liked their work so much that it was almost like play. Well, the reverse happened to me recently: I was working on my entry for the Intel Threading Challenge, and I was nearing the contest deadline, with my entry still missing the key bits of the algorithm. I was almost at the point where I thought I'd put in as much time as it took -- even if it meant staying up half the night -- and finish the damn thing, when it suddenly hit me: I'm supposed to be enjoying this; I'm working on this in my spare time, after all. I switched off the computer, and next morning, well past the deadline, when I thought I'd experience a pang of guilt at missing the submission, all I experienced was the thought of hacking together the code at my own pace, enjoying myself, and well, having fun.

Rukhsana appointed special police officer

I think this is an acid test -- how well we're able to protect Rukhsana and her family from the militants' vengeance will have a significant impact on the efforts to contain the militancy. Here's a thought (armchair punditry notwithstanding): provide her and her family with Z category security right in her home, instead of hauling her off to Delhi. If we're short of personnel, we can always pull them from our dear netas' entourages -- the cost of this protection is well worth the message this sends.