...and in other news, the Pot vs. Kettle debate continues, with the consensus tending towards "black".

Just got a call from one of the local papers, asking my opinion about Obama and McCain.

Criticizing people for not wearing lapel pins is character assassination.

I was just on the phone with a client, who was going on at length about a relatively serious topic.

Meanwhile I got an e-mail from another client and cut-up replying to a request for information (in which I teased him for writing a word in French), and he signed it:

Au revoir (translation: I surrender),
Pierre

I was sitting there biting my lip and desperately trying not to laugh or even snort or chortle.

I've seen some nonsense floating around the Web that John McCain supposedly doesn't qualify to run for the Presidency. Whatever you may think of him, it's simply untrue -- the result of a common misconception.

The premise of this is that McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone and not on US soil. To wit:

7 FAM 1116.1-4 Not Included in the Meaning of "In the United States"

(TL:CON-64; 11-30-95)

a. A U.S.-registered or documented ship on the high seas or in the exclusive economic zone is not considered to be part of the United States. A child born on such a vessel does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of the place of birth (Lam Mow v. Nagle, 24 F.2d 316 (9th Cir., 1928)).

b. A U.S.-registered aircraft outside U.S. airspace is not considered to be part of U.S. territory. A child born on such an aircraft outside U.S. airspace does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of the place of birth.

c. Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of birth.

Sounds damning, doesn't it? Well, it isn't.

Ius soli, the "right of the soil", is only one way to become a natural-born American citizen. The other way is ius sanguinis, "the right of the blood". Since McCain's parents were/are American citizens, he therefore is a natural-born citizen.

Similarly the Confessor is a natural-born American citizen and has American citizenship because I'm an American citizen. See US Code § 1401 (g):

(g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years...

Won't BoE be pleased to know she is an alien. Well, I always knew that, but I married her anyway. As for McCain,US Code § 1401 (c) says:

(c) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person...

German citizenship law is pretty much ius sanguinis only, but since his mother is German, he thus also gets German citizenship. Currently Gloriana only has German citizenship, but she is entitled to American citizenship as well (we just haven't bothered to go to the embassy to claim it). Should either child live continuously for 14 years in America, and reach 35 years of age (as per the US Constitution, Article II, Section 1), he or she would thus also qualify to run for President -- just as John McCain does now.

And they're all marked up with lurrrrrrve!

On Multiply, I'm definitely getting targeted as a resident Bible-thumper by its admuncher, and in particular an ad for this load of hooey keeps coming up.

That has to be the most outrageous waste of time and money I have seen in a long time. WWJD? Tell the morons demanding the money for such pie in the sky to give it to the poor instead and not inflame passions in the already unstable Middle East by planting a big freakin' cross in the middle of a bunch of Muslims.

Un. Be. Liev. A. Bull.

Dear Mutiply Advertiser: Your advertising dollars are being thoroughly wasted on my eyeballs. On second thought, please continue to waste them on my eyeballs so that some unsuspecting gullible sap doesn't see it and actually contribute to your heinous cause.

Telephone
*RING* Caller ID with country code for Sri Lanka)

Ethelred
Hello.

Telemarketer (in heavily accented English)
Hello, my name is Ted Johnson (or some other implausibly butch American-sounding name evoking wood chopping and gun racks and not hot curries with chai). I would like to ask you some questions about your personal opeeeeeen-yon as a perfessonal worker. I preee-soom you speak Eeeen-glish?

Ethelred
I should bally-o say so, my good man.

Telemarketer (audible pause)
...Ah. So can I ask you some qvesteeeons about your personal opeeeen-yon?

Ethelred
No, I don't participate in surveys out of principle, sorry.

Telemarketer
Ah. But can I ask you some qvesteeeons about your personal opeeeen-yon?

Ethelred
No, I'm sorry, I do not participate in surveys.

Telemarketer
But it's just qvesteeeons about your personal opeeeen-yon. It only take two meeenuts.

Ethelred
My personal opinion is that this is a survey. I'm not interested. Good-bye.

---

I mean seriously, what the double-you-tee-eff?

'Round these parts, free terrestrial digital broadcasting (DVB-T) has been available for some time. Because Hannover is host of CeBIT, it was one of the first regions to get it (one of the nice things about Hannover -- it's not a big city, but thanks to CeBIT we get a lot of the geek bells and whistles like ISDN or DSL early on). However, at first the channels on offer were a bit meager, and in particular the two English channels offered through the regular 32-channel analog cable package (BBC World and CNN International) aren't available through DVB-T. So even though it's free (aside from the aerial and set-top box, which cost from about 50 Euros on up to 150 Euros, or more if you want PVR-type functions) I put off getting it for some time.

Digital cable has also been available for some years, and within the last couple of years, they started offering a small package of English channels, including a few that I would like to have -- NASN (a sports channel that has NFL, NCAA, MLB and other American sports live), National Geographic, BBC Prime, BBC World and some others. Unfortunately at first they would only offer it in conjunction with a full package, which I didn't want.

Well, recently I saw that they unbundled the English package, so now I can get it for EUR 14 a month. We now pay EUR 19/mo for the analog cable. So if we got a DVB-T box, then got digital cable and the English package, and cancelled the analog contract, we'd have many more channels overall, much more English channels, and save five Euros a month.

Schweet. :-)

So I went on eBay and got a good Sony DVB-T receiver. I almost thought I was going to get lucky and get it for a Euro, but some scumbag swooped in at the last minute and started bidding, so I ended up paying a bit over 70 Euros...but new it's worth about 150, so I figure it's still a good deal.

I was rough on Iamthefallen yesterday, and today in the local newspaper I have the explanation as to why.

It reports that there was a Lionel Richie concert in Hannover last night. The vibes must have made me severely aggressive.

I'm sure Fallen will understand and forgive me.

[root@heorot bin]# uptime
8:43am up 13 min, 1 user, load average: 2.31, 1.15, 0.57

:-(

And it was getting back up to 150 days again, but suddenly the last few days each daemon started dying one by one. Then finally today it just froze. *sigh*

I'm not a sysadmin, I just play one on the innernets.

The US State Department issued an urgent warning to US citizens abroad, with a link to the State Department website. (See the image at right.)

It must be super-secret or something, like in invisible ink. Whoa. This must be important.

It's even for Internet Explorer only! Your taxpayer dollars at work!

For some time I have had a bike. (Woo, TMI!)

The thing about this bike is that it is a mountain bike. Not just a mountain bike, but a woman's mountain bike. (I prefer the woman's MTB frame. Why bang my balls on the man's frame, anyway?) Not only a woman's MTB frame, but a 26" frame with a seat post that is far too short for me.

So yes, people point and me and laugh as I ride by. I don't care, because I'm a goofy one anyway. (I did at least take off the pink tassels from the handlebars. OK, it never actually had any.) I'm also, unfortunately, a tad paranoid about riding bikes ever since I went flying off of my bike when I was 15 or so, slammed into a concrete wall and broke my wrist. So for years I have been leery about riding them, and since coming to Germany I never got around to buying one until about a year or so ago.

When I finally did, I bought a used one. Actually at first it was at an auction (some of you may remember the JE about that, where I got totally ripped off) and I traded in that bike for the one I have now. Thing is, I actually rather liked the fact that I could stand flat-footed while sitting on the bike, because I just felt more comfortable and safe (yes I am a pussy, yes I am a wuss).

However, unfortunately my knees have started to inform me that a person who is a hair under 6' (or 183 cm) riding such a small bike is Not A Good Idea. A British friend who used to be a bike repair guy has been on me about that for some time, and I finally broke down today and went out and got a new, much longer seat post. Unfortunately my bike has a rather weird frame that only takes a 25 mm post -- the smallest size -- and posts in that size are a bit rare-ish. But I did find one that even has a shock absorber built-in. (With the many cobblestone streets 'round here, that's nice to have.)

So I ran out this evening, bought it, installed it and took it for a spin. And I have to say, yeah, I feel the difference.

(And now half the audience collectively says, "No shit!")

The interesting thing about being a graphic designer is how you pick up on the language of symbols. There is a sort of international language of symbols that has developed over time, which is useful to know for developing user interfaces, signage and so on.

One symbol, though, is used a bit differently outside North America. A red circle on traffic signs in most countries means "whatever is inside the circle is forbidden after this point".

As an example, this sign:



means "anything over 5.5 tons is not allowed". Or this sign:



means "vehicles longer than 10 meters are not allowed". Or this sign:



means "within this area, driving faster than 30 km/h is not allowed". Simple enough, right?

Well, consider that the word "Umwelt" means "environment" and that a new sign was introduced to demarcate new low-emissions zones on heavily traveled roads, and the bureaucrats came up with this:



So the solution to helping the environment is to ban it in certain areas. Why didn't anyone else think of that!