It's not like we actually use the dictionaries on a regular basis. A lot quicker to use the version that comes w/ the OS or go here. In theory we were to cull out the books that haven't been touched in the past five years to make space for baskets like those seen on the bottom shelf giving me a tidy way to store ongoing/current projects/designs. Excellent in theory, practice..not so. I've pondered getting another bookcase but can see it becoming one giant thing of yarn in less than a week.

The problem is the stash itself. My containment system is falling apart. Not the closet itself but the boxes inside. A series of plastic see thru boxes w/ lids would be great but big plastic boxes w/ lids over here cost an arm and a leg. The other night I had a thinky thought - suitcases! Suitcases! They are abundant here and cheap! 5 smackers will get you a standard (Italian standard which are usually too big to go under the seat but will go in the overhead) in which I can store the yarnnnnn. Then I could just stack 'em in the closet. Bet I can fit 14 of 'em in there, if not more. And and and I could just tie a piece of whichever yarns are inside to the handle and I'll be set. Still pondering it, there must be a downside to it somewhere.

Right after I finish the next thing I gotta finish I shall get a move on w/ the vest for my FIL. Using the grey wool something blend, alpaca? Non fluffy. Have to wash >the swatch before I start calculating and contemplating.

I was going to post about the amount of time designers say it take to design something and about costs of the pattern once it is published. But I won't.

**end of knitting related content**

Clearing out the Reads of Note links.

(by way of Dr. Sanity) On the Weekly Standard Charles Krauthammer writes of The Truth about Torture

Let's take the textbook case. Ethics 101: A terrorist has planted a nuclear bomb in New York City. It will go off in one hour. A million people will die. You capture the terrorist. He knows where it is. He's not talking.

Question: If you have the slightest belief that hanging this man by his thumbs will get you the information to save a million people, are you permitted to do it?

Now, on most issues regarding torture, I confess tentativeness and uncertainty. But on this issue, there can be no uncertainty: Not only is it permissible to hang this miscreant by his thumbs. It is a moral duty.

Also on Dr. Sanity - It's All Bush's Fault!, yeah, I've noticed that trend myself. This newsbit on CAGE mildly alarms me... for some reason - ‘Europe’s biggest mosque’ planned for London Olympics

A MASSIVE mosque that will hold 40,000 worshippers is being proposed beside the Olympic complex in London to be opened in time for the 2012 Games.

According to The Globe and Mail the Big, Bad Guys have designated Queen Elizabeth II as “one of the severest enemies of Islam.”

Sultan Knish had a rather fine post on Thanksgiving - What Do You Have Left to Lose

When a bomb goes off in Israel it is accepted in the media that dead Jews, whether they are citizens of Israel or America, are unfortunate but acceptable. By contrast when a wedding in Jordan was bombed, the media spilled more tears over the attack going into detail with human interest stories while as in WW2, stories on dead Jews are banished to the back pages if they are printed at all. And so the dehumanization of the Jews as people whose lives have value and right goes.

Then there was the more recent case in Brooksville, Florida, on Nov. 5, when a legally blind man, David Bearden, tried to enter a convenience store with his dog to buy a cold soda, but was thrown out by the clerk, Mike Hamed. As Hamed explains, he looked up from the counter "saw this big dog." Bearden picks up the tale: "As soon as we got inside the door, the clerk yelled at us to stop." Bearden says he tried three times to explain that state law not only requires access for seeing-eye dogs but treats denial of access as a criminal misdemeanor. Bearden quotes Hamed telling him nonetheless "Get that dog out of here; it's going to eat my food." Bearden says he plans to file a claim against Hamed. No word yet of CAIR defending Hamed's actions.

That last one, unfuckingbelievable. Reminds me the premise behind The Man's poster contribution to the Independents Day: Project 1210 - International Human Rights Day Project. Click thumb for full poster. Yes, it's braille, yes it says Human Rights for All. Now, does a blind man have more of a right to buy a can of soda or does a muslim man have more of a right to uhm remain pure? Why is it the systematic obliteration our rights and freedoms is perfectly acceptable by the world at large?