Hooray! An editor for Struts configuration files! It even integrates with JBuilder! Go get some!

Ars Technica has published their new system guides. I'm in the midst of buying new pieces-parts these days, so I'm extra-happy to see these come out.

A quick puff-piece on a guy who's built a BattleBot from a Mathematica model.

I'm really conflicted about this. The bullet is that there is a mentally retarted kid playing for Northwest Ohio (I think). Just like "Rudy", he showed up for all the practices, and dressed out for all the games for four entire years. (It was high-school ball, so there weren't any issues about walk-on v. scholarship to muddy the waters). The coach decided he'd let the kid take the final snap of the game and take a knee so he'd get his football letter or something. Maybe there was nothing more than just "Rudy"-style feel-goodism.

The game was a 42-0 blowout, so there appeared to be no difficulty in letting the kid take the knee. The winning coach offered instead to tell his guys to stand down and let the kid score a touchdown (so Northwest would lose 42-7 instead). They all agreed this was a good plan, so off it went. The ball was snapped, the kid got the ball, and after a bit of confusion eventually ran it down for the T.D.

Hooray for the kid, I suppose, but my disquiet comes from the self-congratulatory "victory for us all" tone of what was really nothing more than naked condescension. If the kid wanted to play football, then let him play football. He went to practice, he's wearing his pads, let him hit somebody (or get hit by somebody). Put him in on the last series so he can hit or get hit a couple of times; it's not like the game was on the line anyway. At least then he'd be being a player instead of just play-acting. Crap. Empty gestures drive me nuts.

Ralph Peters lights into Rumsfeld for being a wilfully clue-resistant SecDef. Generally speaking, I'm still a supporter of Rummy, but that may be left over from his decidedly anti-Powell stance on Iraq. I must admit to being ignorant of the wrangling between Rumsfeld and the Army, but perhaps I'll have to add more of that to my reading list.

Yet more on the travesty that was masquerading as Senator Wellstone's funeral.

"Let everyone have a gun" he says. Not nearly so inflammatory here, but in Australia? Right after, and indeed about, the shooting at Monash? Some people are much braver than I am, and he's one of them.

Sure, it's just a clock, but it sure is hard-working. (found via Glenn Reynolds)

The America Institute of Graphic Arts interviews Virginia Postrel about her new book on aesthetics and design. I can't wait for the book, myself.

BWA-hahahaha! Jim Treacher lets us all know the real story about decriminalizing marijuana. (If the link isn't working for you, as it isn't for me, scroll down a bit. You'll know it when you see it).

Ummm ... bleah. Now do you believe that Saddam is guilty of crimes against humanity? Cripes, that thing is ugly.

Well said! Lee and I have had our moments arguing over the impending Iraqi conflict without ever coming to a conclusion (he's hard-headed, you know). Certainly no single 1000-word essay is going to convince everybody (or even Lee), but this is an excellent summary of the current situation.

According to the media doctrine established during the sniper attacks in D.C., the killing of the U.S. envoy in Jordan is not terrorism. I assume the thinking is that since Osama bin Laden didn't show up for a press conference to claim in English that he himself pulled the trigger, that we can't really "be sure". Fah.

I know I don't get out all that much, but damn, that's bizarre. Apparently, there is a serious problem in Japan of young twenty-somethings, who in America would be out drinking and puking with their friends nightly, are instead sequestering themselves in their parents houses, and only sneaking out for food when the 'rent are alseep. What gives? Rob, do you have an expert opinion?

Another t-shirt I need to buy.

Oh my word. You decadent moderns with your new-fangled ipsemobiles and self-propelled cheese straighteners! Back in my day, we had to actually press a key to make marks on paper. You have it so easy.

I can't tell if the permalink is b0rken for everybody, or just me, but Godless Capitalist posts a completely non-P.C. observation about guns and crime in the U.S.

Really just hours of click-inducing time wastage (found via Corsair the Rational Pirate)

It just goes to show that there's nothing new under the sun, that human nature doesn't change, and that the play repeats itself with a new cast every so often. <sigh/>