On April Fools Day 2013, Off on a Tangent was re-branded as the cat-oriented I Can Has Tangent. It was based off the well-known I Can Has Cheezburger site and memes, but featuring our own cats, Mei Mei and Vincent.
Click to see how it looked, or read on to see the series of photos I posted.
I’m deep into the process of developing the next major update to Off on a Tangent, which has been taking up a fair amount of my free time (and is a big part of why I haven’t been posting very much the last couple of weeks). On top of that I’ve been working on two other web development projects—a major update for Melissa’s site, and another little project I’m working on (stay tuned).
Juggling these projects got me thinking about technology code-names. It is fairly commonplace in the tech industry that major projects in development get code-names, and they usually follow a pattern of some sort. For example, Microsoft generally uses the names of ski resorts for major Windows versions. Apple uses the names of large cat species for OS X releases. These names rarely become part of the public marketing of a product. Apple, which started including the cat names in their marketing beginning with Mac OS X 10.2 ‘Jaguar,’ is the major notable exception to this rule.
When I built my first web site, it didn’t have a code-name. In fact, it didn’t even really have a name. It was called Website 1.0, and I continued to refer to my site with little more than a version number through its eleventh iteration. Beginning with its twelfth version, the site picked up the Off on a Tangent moniker it has had ever since, although the version number is always there. You see it even today, tucked down in my footer: Website 23.0. If you peruse the sometimes-embarrassing old versions of my site, you’ll always find it (although sometimes it has been pretty well hidden).
Any of you who have followed Off on a Tangent for some time are probably aware of this. You are probably not aware that, in addition to the ‘public’ Off on a Tangent name and the now-traditional version number, I also refer to each major update of my site (since the eleventh version) with a private code-name while it is in development. For reasons now lost to the dark recesses of my memory, these names follow the pattern of . . . women’s names. I’ll let the armchair psychiatrists among you try to figure that one out.
So, without further ado, here are the code names I’ve used for each version of the site from the eleventh onward. I will update this post when new versions come around.
During the First World War, the most fearful weapons on the battlefield were characterized not by explosive power, but by clouds of poison gas. First, French and German armies began using non-lethal tear gasses with catchy names like ethyl bromoacetate and xylyl bromide. Then the Germans began bombarding enemy trenches with chlorine gas that could kill hundreds at a time, and soon the British were responding with chlorine weapons of their own. The allied powers escalated to phosgene, an even more potent and deadly poison. The axis powers soon followed suit.
Finally, the Germans introduced mustard gas to the battlefield—a chemical that would cause your skin to burn, your eyes to sting, your lungs to bleed, and your mucous membranes to inflame. If you had received a fatal dose, you would likely languish for weeks in agonizing pain before finally succumbing to your wounds. If your exposure was less severe, you would likely survive . . . but only after an excruciating period of recovery, and you would likely be left permanently disfigured. Following the now-familiar pattern, the allies soon began producing and using mustard gas as well, and developed an even more ‘improved’ chemical called Lewisite. Fortunately, the great war came to an end before it could be deployed on the battlefield.
War is never a good or pleasant thing, but it is rarely worse than when chemical weapons are deployed in the battlefield. In the aftermath of the First World War, people all around the world wanted to make sure that poison gas would never be used again. The victorious allies immediately prohibited Germany from ever again using, manufacturing, or importing chemical weapons (Treaty of Versailles, Article 171). In 1925, representatives from thirty-eight nations signed the Geneva Protocol, which prohibited the use—but not the manufacture or storage—of chemical or biological weapons. Today, a total of 137 countries are party to this agreement.
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, 76, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been elected Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. Bergoglio has taken the name Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi. He is the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit pope, and the first to take the name Francis. He is also the first non-European pope in about 1,200 years.
The election was announced at 7:06 p.m. in Rome (2:06 p.m. Eastern) with traditional white smoke from the chimney of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel and bells ringing in Saint Peter’s Square. The dean of the College or Cardinals announced the name of the new pope just over one hour later.
Pope Benedict XVI stepped down at the end of February, becoming the first pontiff to resign in nearly six hundred years. The conclave to select his replacement began on Tuesday. Popes must be elected by a two-thirds majority of cardinal-electors, a threshold that was met on the fifth ballot cycle.
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.—U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 1
I have a state-issued driver’s license and motorcycle endorsement. It was issued by the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and it authorizes me to operate an automobile or motorcycle on public roads. It also authorizes me to operate an automobile or motorcycle in the neighboring jurisdictions of Washington, D.C. and Maryland. In fact, it authorizes me to operate these types of vehicles anywhere in the United States, as it should. Imagine the chaos if Illinois decided it wouldn’t recognize Virginia driver’s licenses, or if California wouldn’t recognize Oregon’s, or if Texas wouldn’t recognize New Hampshire’s.
Each of the fifty states are required by the U.S. Constitution to afford ‘full faith and credit’ to the official actions of each of the other states. When I travel to any other state in the country, their governments have no authority to question my Virginia-issued driver’s license. It is perfectly valid, no less so than if my license had been issued by the state in-which I am traveling. And that is that.
This recognition is not, and should not be, completely unlimited. For example, if I actually move to a different state, my new state government has every right to require that I get a new license issued by them, and that I follow their rules. For example, let’s say (for the sake of argument) that South Dakota will only issue driver’s licenses to people over the age of twenty-one, while Virginia will issue them to anybody over sixteen. If I happen to be a Virginia resident with a Virginia license, South Dakota must recognize it if I happen to be passing through . . . even if I am only eighteen. But if I move to South Dakota, they may require that I obtain a South Dakota license within sixty days (or whatever) to maintain my driving privileges. As a resident of South Dakota, they have every right to refuse to issue a new license until I comply with their requirements—that I be twenty-one or older, in this example.
Although it is not explicitly stated by the U.S. Constitution, it is certainly implied that the ‘full faith and credit’ clause must also apply to federal acceptance of state records and decisions. For example, the federal government must accept a state-issued birth certificate as evidence of a political candidate’s age and citizenship. The federal government must also accept my Virginia-issued driver’s license as valid identification, and as valid authorization to operate an automobile or motorcycle in national parks, military bases, and other federal properties.
Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.
