subversive

There's something about Peace Tonight that feels marvously subversive. I think it's that I first heard it at a 2005 concert and I didn't catch the verses so well - but the chorus came through loud and clear:

Let's make peace tonight
The moon is bare and shining bright
Let's make peace tonight in a good time

Of course the arrangement had something to do with that too; the chorus was done almost prayer-like.

my book club

People look at me funny when I mention my book club.

Maybe it's because I call it "Lord Peter" or "the Lord Peter list". It is a mailing list, yes. Or rather, it's a book club that meets in email, centered on the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries set in Britain from 1922 through the early 1940s.
Naturally, being a mailing list, we discourse on many related topics, including the life of author — and Oxford grad, copywriter, novelist, essayist, playwright, translator, etc — Dorothy Sayers; Britain during the period; shell-shock; even change-ringing. But the heart of the "club" is when we read through all the books, one book a month, and discuss them. It's partly that different people see different things on re-read. It's also that the folks on the list all have different experiences to add. It's cool to discuss the book set at Oxford University with Oxford grads. The change-ringers on the list help a lot when we get to that book. And so on.

So, yes, I have a book club. Y'all are welcome to drop by if you want - we're reading Clouds of Witness this month.

Popups aren't just an annoyance

Something tells me the jurors who convicted a technologically incompetent substitute teacher of showing porn to 7th graders haven't had to deal with adware. Julie Amaro now faces up to 40 years in prison; sentencing will be on March 2.

It's also rather stupid that the defense counsel didn't provide full disclosure of its forensics evidence, preventing it from being presented during the trial. Not to mention that the school's firewall software had expired. As had the antivirus program. And the computer had no anti-adware tools. Win98 and IE 5 don't need any of that - just ask Microsoft. (Pop-ups? What are those?)

So, of course, the only way for the adult-themed images and Web pages to come up would be for her to intentionally visit the sites by clicking on a link or typing the address into the browser address bar. 'Cause the prosecution's expert, a local police officer, said so.

Right.

Something tells me Julie Amaro isn't the only technical incompetent in the group. She's the just the only one who admits it.

-o-

And if you're wondering why I linked to Microsoft's info on security and spyware — the school is using Microsoft software. One would think the "experts" running the school computers and/or police forensics would be aware of the vendor's information on the subject.