Dirac Angestun Gesept

(Yeah, like that’s a surprise.)

Today’s Boston Globe has an article The Geek Mystique that (triggered by a trademark lawsuit between The Geek Squad and Geek Housecalls) talks about the term and how it’s become “so cool”.

“Geek” has a long history in the English language, and, until the technological age, was the term applied to carnival performers whose talent consisted of biting off the heads of live chickens and snakes. It later became part of the technical lexicon, describing the technologically astute who just as voraciously ate computer bugs, said Brian Jepson, an editor at the technology book publisher O’Reilly Media Inc.

Jepson said he first noticed the term geek gaining positive connotations in 1993, with the introduction of the “geek code”, a method used to compress data to speed up e-mail when modems were painfully slow.

So, if you’re not used to the Globe, you might wonder whether Jepson actually said that the “geek code” was a data compression mechanism or if the Globe reporter screwed up somehow.

Well, Jepson’s blog entry makes it pretty clear:

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. A free copy of one of my books to the first person who posts a comment reconstructing what I originally said.

Conservatives seek to help Ralph Nader

The Oregon Family Council also has been working the phones to boost attendance at Nader’s event — with the idea that it could help Bush this fall.

“We aren’t bashful about doing it,” said Mike White, the group’s director. “We are a conservative, pro-family organization, and Bush is our guy on virtually every issue.”

Yup; the anti-gay folks are out there pushing Nader onto the ballot.

How does the Nader camp feel about this?

The head of Nader’s Oregon campaign, Greg Kafoury, said he’s had no contact with the two conservative groups that have been calling people this week. But he said he’s not bothered by their actions, either.

Great. He’s not bothered. Does anyone need any more evidence that Nader running again is just going to hurt the causes he claims to promote?

Wired News covers the post-9/11 regulation problems affecting hobby rocketry. Basically, chalk up another casualty of the War on Things People Might Possibly Do Bad Stuff With Somehow.

I think the timing of the article is probably due to the success of SpaceShipOne; I’d heard grumblings about this before, but the juxtaposition of “private industry gets to space” and “government stomps on folks trying to do rocketry” is new.

I suspect Homer Hickam is not too happy about the situation; good thing these regs weren’t around in the late 1950s. Note another of his books, written after 9/11: We Are Not Afraid.

Where junk food rules, Food Access is bringing fresh vegetables.

As the Guardian puts it, “Fresh fruit and vegetables are so scarce in parts of London that mobile supermarkets have been set up”. London’s poorest areas have such bad options for buying anything but junk food that thirteen East London wards are considered “food deserts” by the Capital Eats study.

Other information from the study shows that 25% of London’s businesses sell food, but 4/5 of that food is imported into London…and London has over 30,000 acres of farmland! Presumably they aren’t counting Hyde Park.

Food Access buys the fresh food at New Spitalfields market, then sells through their mobile supermarket and at schools in the areas that need the food, with lower prices than in the shops to encourage people to eat more healthily.