Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the boilerplate:
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* simply prints "Hello World!" to standard output.
*/
class HelloWorldApp {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello World!"); // Display the string.
}
}
Chicago has seen its hottest temperatures in years this week, with more coming today:
Not since July 24, 2005 when O'Hare hit 39°C and a reading of 40°C occurred at Midway, has a triple-digit [Fahrenheit] reading occurred at the city's two observation sites. The entire 83 year observational record at Midway includes only 84 38°C or higher temperatures—and just 26 have occurred in the nearly half-century period since 1960.
Good thing I'm not in Chicago this week. No, I'm in San Antonio, where the temperature has stayed a cool and delightful 37°C. Every day. Except yesterday, when it rained for half an hour.
I fully expect this business trip to balance out in January when I get sent to Manitoba.
Because only in the United States do we have, enshrined in our basic law, the right to establish a city populated exclusively by religious nutters:
Kiryas Joel is an enclave of ultra-orthodox Jews who belong to the Satmar Hasidic sect. Members of this group believe in separating themselves from others – they’d rather not be around non-sect members. Thirty-four years ago, they won the right to create their own village from the surrounding community of Monroe.
The village’s founders might have envisioned an idyllic community where people of a shared faith lived in harmony. It hasn’t worked out that way. As often happens when people live in insular communities, factions emerge. Dissidents in Kiryas Joel don’t like the way the town of about 20,000 is being run. The dissidents, who by some accounts now make up 40 percent of the community, say religious discrimination is rampant. They say if you don’t belong to the right synagogue, you’re a second-class citizen.
Money quote:
A sign at the village entrance admonishes visitors to dress modestly. Cleavage-revealing tops for women are verboten, and both sexes are told to cover arms and legs. Couples are advised to "maintain gender separation in public places." ... Imagine the reaction from the Religious Right if this were a town of fundamentalist Muslims and they erected a sign reading, "Women are welcome to visit if accompanied by a male relative. Please respect our values by wearing a burqa."
Of course, the same constitutional language giving people freedom of religion also takes a little bit back. In fact, the establishment clause comes before the free exercise clause. We adopted the first amendment to prevent having the head of state also be the head of the official church, as it was (and still is) in England. What does this mean for Kiryas Joel? Well, you see, if the village government and the biggest synagogue are the same people...yeah. Thus, the lawsuit.
I'll keep my eye on this.
The Khas Mahal, Delhi, India:
30 January 2011, Canon 20D at ISO-1600, 1/125 at f/5.6, 18mm, here.
The Daily Parker may miss a couple Photos of the Day over the next week or two as I'm ramping up a new project. I've got a few photos in the queue for the feature, but it takes time to find them, edit them, and post them, time I won't have lots of until probably the end of July.
Here, however, is Four Courts, Dublin:
22 June 2008, Canon 20D at ISO-100, 1/125 at f/8, 18mm, here.
Whiting, Vt.:
17 October 1992, Canon T-90, Kodachrome 64, exposure unrecorded, here.
Last one (I think) from Pittsburgh, from the Duquense Incline, inside the machinery room:
9 July 2011, ISO-100, 1/320 at f/5.6, 18mm, here.
Yet another view of PNC Park, from the Warhol Bridge, after the fireworks:
9 July 2011, ISO-1600, 1/30 sec. at f/5.6, 29mm, here.
Continuing the Pittsburgh theme, a view of PNC Park as the groundskeepers set up for the .38 Special concert:
ISO-3200, 1/15 at f/2, 50mm, here.
The indefatigable Paul Krugman smacks down the excuses for why the government has failed to get the economy going:
[A] destructive passivity has overtaken our discourse. Turn on your TV and you’ll see some self-satisfied pundit declaring that nothing much can be done about the economy’s short-run problems (reminder: this “short run” is now in its fourth year), that we should focus on the long run instead.
This gets things exactly wrong. The truth is that creating jobs in a depressed economy is something government could and should be doing. Yes, there are huge political obstacles to action — notably, the fact that the House is controlled by a party that benefits from the economy’s weakness. But political gridlock should not be conflated with economic reality.
This is the frustration: the GOP does not want the economy to improve. I hope Americans understand this by next November.
As TPM's David Kurtz puts it:
Republicans are taking the country to the brink of default demanding spending cuts that will signify their commitment to fiscal responsibility, smaller government and austerity—but for reasons that are political in the macro- and micro- sense, they can't come up with a list of cuts that actually gets the job done. It's not that they can't do the math.
One begins to feel like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis...