Just 24 hours after I wrote about my photo appearing on Wikipedia, this notice went up on the page:

This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion. The reason given is: This item appears to be a copyright infringement of http://dailytroll.com/?p=538 (Also take a look at http://dailytroll.com/?p=1671 - apparently the author would perhaps be willing to upload the photograph under a free license anyway, but this stolen web image still qualifies for deletion), and no assertion of permission has been made. (CSD G12)

I’m really impressed. All I did was write that post, and edit the credit line on the photo to include my name and the page it came from. I didn’t contact anyone to complain.

Thanks, Wikipedia people! I have a new respect for your professionalism.

First I lost Kucinich. Today John Edwards is dropping out.

Now what am I going to do at caucus in less than 2 weeks?

From ABC News:

Researchers at Harvard University and the University of Toronto surveyed 92,106 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study, asking each of the participants to recall her bra size at the age of 20. The average age of the women participating in the study was 38.

Results showed that, compared with women who recalled having an A cup or smaller at the age of 20, women who recalled having a D cup or larger had about three times higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

The results also showed that women who reported wearing B cup and C cup bras experienced a higher risk for the development of diabetes than women who wore an A cup — even after figuring in age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, eating habits, family history of diabetes, physical activity level and pregnancies.

The findings were published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Great. I guess the grooves in my shoulders aren’t enough. It’s a conspiracy.

In looking through my link stats this morning, I found one from Wikipedia. When I went to page, I found this photo, which I took and posted over 2 years ago. Someone had adjusted the levels on it (I didn’t have Photoshop at the time) and posted it in the entry for Washington, as an example of eastern Washington weather.

In a round about way they did sorta credit me - if you click through on the image, they listed the direct path to the image on my server, but not to the post from which it was pulled. Nor did anyone ever ask permission to use it. I’m not a professional photographer (obviously) and I won’t write and ask them to take it down, but this does bug me a little. I would have expected better from the Wikipedia people than to just browse through Google Images and grab whatever they liked.

This was on the page showing only my photo: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

So I guess they gave away my copyright to everyone else, too. I suppose I should be glad they didn’t hot link it.

Mostly, I just wish they had asked. I would have said sure, go ahead. But they didn’t.

UPDATE: see this post for details on how they made it right.

I’ve had a membership on sff.net, an online group for science fiction/fantasy writers, for about 12 years now. Last night I got a reminder of why I’ve kept my account, and my primary email, there, even though I no longer write SF.

About 7:00, the phone rang. “This is Jeffry Dwight from SFF,” a man I’ve known as Jade since the pre-WWW days on GEnie network said. “Did you just ask me to reset your email password?” I hadn’t. Someone had emailed him from my address via the online contact form and asked to reset it. He thought that was suspicious, since I’ve been changing my own password periodically for over a decade, so he picked up the phone and called me to verify, protecting me from a hijacked account.

I challenge you to get that kind of service from Comcast. Or Gmail, for that matter.

Now the puzzle to be solved is who did it. Since it came from a web form, Jade couldn’t trace it. Immediately I checked to make sure my Paypal account hadn’t been broken into (again), thinking someone might be trying to divert verification notices. So far I haven’t discovered anything, but I know to be alert for problems.

You don’t have to be a writer, or even a fan, though that does make it more valuable. If you’re interested in signing up with this great group, membership including email, web space, private IRC, and private newsgroup access is $9.95 a month/$99.50 a year. It’s worth it just for the incredible spam filters - with an address I’ve used publicly for 12 years, I get 1 spam a week. That’s it.

Great service, great people. Can’t beat that at any price.

Curious about how caucus works? Watch this informational video from the Washington State Democrats.

This comes from a post CG Hill had yesterday that really got my hackles up. Not at him–his response was great. At the guy he quoted. I couldn’t let it go at just a comment on his site.

Dr Helen answers a letter from someone whose dance card is empty, and draws this sort-of-mournful comment:

As yet another old virgin, I already know the problem isn’t that women don’t want to have sex, it’s that they don’t want to have sex with someone as ugly as me. Why would they, when there are a million George Clooney clones out there who will bang even the ugliest girl on request, or even the hint of a request? Those of us who didn’t win the genetic cleft-chin lottery are thus left with no dates besides our right hands.Experience has taught me the reason women tend to freak out over things like pornography is because they project onto men the same “trade-up-until-I-get-the-hottest-guy” attitude they themselves have, and can’t comprehend that even the fattest and ugliest real-life girl is better to most guys than the sexiest porn star that only interacts with you through the TV screen.

This guy is 40+ years old and still refers to sex as “banging?” Gee, I wonder why women aren’t interested.

For someone who claims women don’t want him beause of his looks, he does an awful lot of judging himself. That “fattest, ugliest real-life girl” who’s not interested in him no doubt doesn’t want to be with someone who considers her ugly. She’s too uppity to be grateful to be considered better than nothing and thank him for overcoming his revulsion long enough to “bang” her. How dare she expect that her partner in a relationship find her attractive? That privilege is reserved to those he considers beautiful women.

As for “trading up,” he’s doing an unhealthy bit of projecting here. While he’s so busy rating women on their looks, he can’t believe that women aren’t doing the same thing. Yes, women do end relationships; so do men. But I’m willing to bet that in 99% of cases, what the other looks like has nothing to do with it.

He’d do better to focus on seeing women as human beings rather than as objects who withhold from him the sex that he deserves. Maybe then he can grow a relationship that leads naturally to intimacy on multiple levels.

I had a new experience last night. I dreamed I was a paramedic and delivered a baby. I woke up with a smile. What’s so big about that? Other people take dreaming for granted, but I don’t. Most nights I wake up in a cold sweat, afraid to go back to sleep, and this was the first fun dream I’ve had in longer than I can remember. Of course, I went back to bed only to confront another nightmare, but this was a flash of hope.

I’m up to 100 mg of Zoloft now, and I think that’s making the difference. It took a long time to find this drug, but I’m so grateful I finally did. I’m feeling better every day.

From the Sunday Mail (UK):

A Spanish driver who fatally collided with a cyclist is suing the dead youth’s family 20,000 Euros (£14,830) for the damage the impact of his body did to his luxury car, a Spanish newspaper reported.

Businessman Tomas Delgado says 17-year-old Enaitz Iriondo caused 14,000 Euros (£10,384) of damage to his Audi A8 in the fatal 2004 crash in La Rioja region, the El Pais newspaper reported.

Delgado, who has faced no criminal charges for the incident, wants a further 6,000 Euros (£4,450) to cover the cost of hiring another vehicle while his car was being repaired, El Pais said.

He wants the money out of the 33,000 Euros awarded to the boy’s parents by Delgado’s insurance company after the company acknowledged that Delgado had been driving at excessive speed. Yahoo News reports he was doing 100 mph in a 55 zone.

Delgado is quoted as saying, “I’m also a victim in all of this, you can’t fix the lad’s problems, but you can fix mine.”

Now that’s a scumbag.