Funky image link button borders in CSS

If you're using a functioning modern web browser (e.g., Mozilla, Safari,...), the graphics at the bottom of this page will "pop-up" with "3D" borders when you move the mouse cursor over them, and will "press in" with reddish "3D" borders when you press the mouse button on them.

This effect is done entirely in CSS - not JavaScript.

Basically, when an image element "img" is directly contained by an anchor (link) element "a href=...", I assign it a 2 pixel border:

a[href] > img{

	margin:2px;

}

Then, for when the same image element is being "hovered" over, I drop the margin and replace it with a 2 pixel-wide border. The border is black, except for the top and left which are white - to give it that "3D" look.

a[href]:hover > img{

	border:2px solid black;

	border-top-color:white;

	border-left-color:white;

	margin:0px;

}

Finally, for when the mouse button is down (being pressed) on the image, I change the border color to a light red, with the top and left color being a dark red.

a[href]:active > img{

	border:2px solid #F99;

	border-top-color:#900;

	border-left-color:#900;

	margin:0px;

}

Heavy innuendo on old kids' show

The Innuendo Episode of Rainbow [16MB MPEG] is a nasty bit of business (definitely nsfw). There's also a transcript of the whole naughty thing available.

Seen on Metafilter.

Help save "Angel"

Angel, my current favourite television show (and I don't even have a television) is being cancelled by the WB tv network.

There's an online petition to save the show and a postcard campaign for the show. These campaigns are targeted at either having WB change their minds to renew the show, or to have the show picked up by another network (such as UPN which picked up Buffy after the WB dropped it a few years ago).

Please support these campaigns - if for no other reason than to ensure I still have a reason to visit my friends and family who have televisions.... [insert smiley here]

Scary animal stories - or yet another reason why I'm glad to be vegetarian

Personally, I fundamentally oppose genetic modification. My general rule is that we shouldn't do things that we aren't sure couldn't lead to mass destruction (e.g., messing with nuclear power, messing with genetics outside of extremely secure and isolated labs) or that we don't know how to clean up after (e.g., nuclear power, introducing modified genetics into the wild).

Further to that, Stephen Strauss reports that an important story, about experimental GM pigs being accidentally mixed in with food livestock feed, was largely overlooked.

Thanks to buddy Glenn for forwarding this.

On framing the provincial finances

A CBC news report on the Alberta provincial budget surplus opens with:

Higher than expected oil and gas revenues will help the province record a surplus of $3 billion this year....

That makes it sound like everything is great, that we're a super-rich province, and that we've got more than enough money for everything.

The reality is that we have a rapidly growing homeless population, healthcare and education spending have been slashed, our resources are being given away, etc. The reason there's a surplus is that money which should be spent on the health and future of our province, of the people, is being greedily held back by the provincial government.

But the framing of the CBC report paints right over that reality.

Problems in activism

The following comes from part of an email I recently wrote:

I have long figured that since a big part of what we [social justice activists] are doing is asking those with power and privilege to question their beliefs, what they are doing and what they have, we must always do the same of ourselves.

When an 'activist' takes an ideal, a method, a process, an ideology etc. as an unquestionable given or absolute, then we have a problem.

The most common problem I see in activist organizing is when people place the interests of an organization before the ideals or purpose for which that organization was set up.

Anyway, I'm starting to rant so I'll leave it at that.

Observant readers will note the lie in the above: I'm always ranting, so to say that "I'm starting to rant," is patently untrue.

Science is being suppressed in the U.S.

The Union of Concerned Scientists have released a report on the Bush Administration's suppression of science in policy process and decisions. Now a group of "60 leading scientists--including Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, former federal agency directors....," have issued a statement signing-on to the report and calling for an "end to scientific abuses."

Thankfully, the statement and report are receiving some media attention (Scientists: Bush Distorts Science, Bush 'bending science to his political needs' Scientists accuse US of manipulating research, Bush administration fudging data, top scientists warn, Scientists Challenge U.S. on Scientific Distortions, Scientists Accuse White House of Distorting Facts, Laureates say Bush is twisting science)

Here's hoping the people of the U.S. overthrow their dictatorial regime before it finishes wrecking our world.

Now there's an idea - knitting cafes

The idea of knitting cafés gets me excited. The social space of a café, combined with a knitting boutique.

My favourite quote from the article: Knitting is the new yoga. How about: Knitting is the new black.

Knitting in the news

The Knitting Revolution continues to draw media attention. The Calgary Herald has published Shelley Boettcher's interview with me in an article titled "Knitting goes Revolutionary: Activists make their point with needles".

Can you understand this?

A selection from a recent chat:

Grant: Maybe I should be going to bed or something, but I can't remember the octal for chmoding the sticky bit on a directory.
3:20 AM
M: i'd man chmod, i don't remember it either
M: but i think you mean g+s
Grant: Ah - I didn't realize there was a letter constant way of setting it. I've always used the octal in the past. Thx!
S: I eschew the octal
Grant: I do, too, except when I don't know an alternative.
Grant: And am too lazy to dig through the man.

Now, if you understand that, you're either a certified geek or in some sort of otherwise mind-altered state. Really, it does actually make sense (it's about setting what happens when a file is added to a particular directory/folder on a computer).

Crazy busy

Things have been crazy busy - even by my standards - for the past couple weeks.

Video production, newspaper publishing, web development, survey development, watching the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, working on an activism-related project I'm not allowed to discuss publicly until sometime next month, meetings, knitting, dealing with email, studying Macromedia Flash, studying Adobe After Effects, watching old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a friend has been loaning me the various seasons on DVD), reading magazines, fantasizing (and dreaming) about Lego, went to a rave (and am still a little sore from overdoing it on the dance-floor), laundry, ignoring my dirty dishes, upgrading a bunch of Mac's at home and work, setting up a bunch of new (on my systems, at least) and updated server and database software, ... and probably other stuff that my currently fatigued brain isn't recalling offhand.

Like I said, crazy busy.

Not good

Fortune magazine, of all places, is reporting the very real possibility of an extremely rapid massive climate change/collapse - perhaps within the current generation.

Bush limiting 9/11 investigation?

Bush to 9/11 Families: 'Enough Already', by Bill Berkowitz, explores some of the non-cooperation by the Bush regime with the 9/11 investigation. In particular, the failure to grant any of the additional time requested by the commission heading the investigation.

It may just be electioneering (the delay could bring the report 'too close' to the November election), but it also leaves open questions about whether there might have been complicity or a cover up by the regime.

How come...?

Ramblings from a recent online chat:

How come it's the future and none of our comptuers have a proper self-destruct sequence?

I wonder how many *nix users are growing up not learning how to debug config/make/install procedures these days?