Title, verbatim: Another Demonstration of the Cliff-Guibert Fire Horse Reel, Showing a Young Girl Coming from an Office, Detaching Hose, Running with It 60 Feet, and Playing a Stream, All Inside of 30 Seconds (1900)
From: Internet Movie Data Base
Message on Bomb reads:
"From: Queen of the Sky
To: Wong Foo
Re:Thanks for Everything!"
THE WAY THINGS REALLY WORK: Pink Fighter-Bombers January 30, 2004: During the Iraq war, army and marine helicopters were all over the place, and troops had plenty of opportunity to see both types together. You could easily tell them apart. The army choppers are painted dark green while the marine helicopters are painted "Haze Gray."One thing everyone noted was that the marine helicopters were always harder to see. If a marine and army helicopter were flying close together and approached you from a distance, you would always be able to pick out the army chopper first. The marines changed the color of their helicopters after the Cold War ended, when they realized that their most likely opponents would be looking up at them, not down from the sky. For protection from enemy aircraft above, a green paint job gives you more protection. But from below, a gray paint scheme works better to hide you.
Deciding what color to paint aircraft has always been a contentious issue. Many different color schemes have been tried over the years. At one point, the U.S. Air Force ran some extensive tests and concluded the color that best hid an aircraft in flight was a shade of pink. The results of this effort were never implemented.
-- StrategyPage
Candidate Cartoon Law I :
Any hopeless Democratic candidate in the race will remain in suspended in the race until made aware of personal bankruptcy by his campaign finance manager.
Howard the Duck steps off a cliff on the plains of Iowa, expecting to run along in front until the nomination. He loiters in midair, soliloquizing flippantly, until he chances to speak to his supporters. At this point, the familiar principle of 32 feet per second per second takes over.
Candidate Cartoon Law II:
Any Senatorial Candidate will tend to remain in the race until solid matter intervenes suddenly.
Whether shot out of a cannon in “Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam” or in hot pursuit of a President who “f***ks up” in the pages of Rolling Stone, candidates resembling a Botoxed Lurch are so absolute in their ambition that only a primary in South Carolina retards their forward motion absolutely. Professor Teresa Heinz Kerry has called this sudden termination of motion the “No more money for honey” effect.
Candidate Cartoon Law III:
Any candidate passing through a losing primary enroute to the "really significant primary" will leave a perforation conforming to his perimeter.
Also called the "Silhouette of Passage," this phenomenon is the specialty of candidates so eager for power they attempt to bypass the electoral process and, stating "When I am President!," try to run directly through the wall of the Whitehouse, leaving a cookie-cutout-perfect hole. The threat of eternal tax cuts or the American Invasion of Syria often catalyzes this reaction.
Candidate Cartoon Law IV:
The time required for a candidate to fall from the “Front Runner Ledge” into the waters of oblivion is equal to the time it takes for the media source that knocked it off the ledge to Photoshop the word “Loser” across their previous “Winner” graphic, save to disk, and put it up on the screen.
Candidate Cartoon Law V:
All previous political principles and policies are negated by fear of losing.
The psychotic ambitions of candidates are sufficient in most for the shock of losing to propel them directly away from their previous positions. A primary where they gather 2% less than the expected vote or an adversary's superior showing will induce candidate motion in random directions, usually to the Larry King show, 20-20, or a whining, begging phone call to the Clintons. The feet of a candidate who is running away from a previous position need never touch the ground.
Candidate Cartoon Law VI:
As primary elections proliferate, candidates can be in several places at once.
This is particularly true of tooth-and-claw elections, in which a candidate’s head may be glimpsed emerging from the cloud of altercation at several places simultaneously. This effect is common as well among bodies that are spinning lies to cover old lies now declared to be in non-denial denial turnaround.
A wacky candidate with a belief in space aliens and cattle mutilation has the option of self-replication only at manic high speeds and may ricochet off walls to achieve the velocity required.
Candidate Cartoon Law VII:
Certain candidates can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot. This is known as the "Come-Back-Kid Effect."
This trompe l'oeil inconsistency has baffled generations, but at least it is known that whoever paints an entrance on a wall's surface to trick an opponent will be unable to pursue him to the nomination.
Candidate Cartoon Law VIII:
Any violent rearrangement of candidates’ positions is impermanent.
Democratic candidates in 2004 are so numerous that, collectively, they possess even more deaths than the traditional nine lives. They can be decimated, spliced, splayed, accordion-pleated, spindled, or disassembled, but they cannot be destroyed. After a few moments of blinking self pity, they reinflate, elongate, snap back, or solidify.
Candidate Cartoon Law IX :
In the actual election any Candidate who has become the Democratic nominee will fall faster than an anvil.
A clear understanding of this law explains why the Democratic element "Clintonium" will not be rediscovered in 2004.
Candidate Cartoon Law X: For every Primary there is an equal and opposite Reprimary.
(Apologies to Original Cartoon Laws )
"Welcome aboard the New Air Iraq. Today we will be cruising
at an altitude of a foot and a half."
TAIPEI (Reuters) - The decomposing remains of a 60-tonne sperm whale exploded on a busy Taiwan street, showering nearby cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours, local newspapers say.--Decomposing whale explodes on Taiwan streetThe 17 metre (56 foot) dead whale had been on a truck headed for an autopsy at a university earlier this week, when gases from internal decay caused its entrails to explode in the southern city of Tainan
• A film review in Weekend on Friday about "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!" misstated the location of the first meeting between the characters Tad (played by Josh Duhamel) and Rosalee (Kate Bosworth). They meet in Los Angeles, not in Rosalee's West Virginia hometown. (NY Times Correction)
"Mmm. Lost a statue, Master Lucas-Wan has. How embarrassing. How embarrassing. "
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Someone lifted a 170-pound bronze statue of Yoda, the "Star Wars" Jedi master."Hard to see, the dark side is. Clear your mind must be, Pope, if you are to discover the real villains behind this plot. "The theft from a flatbed truck was reported to police last weekend and artist Lawrence Noble, 55, of Crestline has offered a $1,000 reward for its return. The limited-edition bronze is worth up to $20,000.
"It's a real high-end collectible," Noble said.
Police spokeswoman Janet Pope said, "We are treating this as a burglary and we'd appreciate any information the public might have."
-- Adios Yoda
Both Michael Totten and Jim Hake of Spirit of America are endorsing Friends of Democracy - Iraq Election News as the top source of on-the-ground information on the Iraq Elections.
Totten notes in :
My New Gig -- Iraqi Election CoverageGood enough for me. You might want to bookmark them and blogroll them as well.We have more than a dozen local Iraqi correspondents, at least one in each province, filing daily reports. These reports include news, interviews, quotes, photos, whatever they can get in a day. They aren't professional journalists. They are more or less ordinary Iraqis. Some of them you already know -- Omar and Mohammed from Iraq the Model, for example. Others you don't know because they don't speak or write in English. Their reports are translated from Arabic before they are uploaded to the reports site.
[Note: This item will remain at the top of the page until after the Iraq Elections.]
Today, the Junior Varsity is at their never-ending rumble in the jungle in New Hampshire. The voters go in and the exit poles come out, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, to see which dreamboat will still float.
It is our way and our ritual. But at this point, wake me when it's over and include me out.
I'm in awe of the discriminating votes of New Hampshire. They know that this is the one time in four years that anyone outside of the state remembers that it's capitol is.... I forget. Still, you can't blame them for trying to get a little time in the sun during the dead of winter.
I'm in awe of the various voices online that are rolling along with this [primary season] -- tilting one day towards this one and the next day towards that one -- as if there really was a dime's bit of difference between them; as if any one of them is worthy of running the United States of America.
Watching these sad captains who were sane enough a few months back to say "goodbye to all that" warming to this, that, or the other Bozo bobbing to the surface of the tank is depressing. It's like watching a drunk who has finally wised up to the dangers of drink; who's gone on the wagon
None of these men are worthy and nothing about their "ideas" and "policies" have the least element of promise. It will never be morning in America, September 10, 2001 again. Deep down, we all know this. Deep down "they" all know it, but they would be king and they would have their primary season.
It is our way and it is our ritual. There's no help for it. We are doomed to spend the next year with "Stuck Inside of Mobile" jammed in the CD player and, in the end, discovering there is no way to get out of going through all these things twice, thrice, ad infiitum... It's our rabbit hole and we've got to fall all the way to rock bottom.
There's the issue of "the economy" -- Up? Down? In? Out? Over? Around? Through? There's the issue of Iraq" -- Never gone in, Gone with Kofi, Gone with permission, Gone with the French, and Get Out Now, Get Out Later. There's the issue of "taxes" -- More Now (from someone else), More Later, More Later Retroactive to Now. And there is always the issue of "Bush" -- Liar? Dictator? Hitler redux? Evil genius or callow deserter? And a sheaf of faintly ripe local issues trumped up at the last minute to appeal to the vanity of these benighted voters who are actually playing along with the game.
It is our way and it is our ritual. Wake me when it's over and include me out.
But there is really only one question that, when all is said and done, must be asked of these men who would be King. But we know their answer as well as we know that their part has become the last refuge of those with fatally short attention spans.
To my mind, the problem with this silliest of seasons, and the problem with the candidates and the games that they play with all these voters in all these states is that they have no policy with an answer to this.
"Come nigh them awhile and though they neither speak or advise you shall learn the faithful American lesson. Liberty is poorly served by men whose good intent is quelled from one failure or two failures or any number of failures, or from the casual indifference or ingratitude of the people, or from the sharp show of the tushes of power, or the bringing to bear soldiers and cannon or any penal statutes.-- Walt Whitman :The Preface to the 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass"Liberty relies upon itself, invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, and knows no discouragement.
"The battle rages with many a loud alarm and frequent advance and retreat . . . the enemy triumphs . . . . the prison, the handcuffs, the iron necklace and anklet, the scaffold, garrote and leadballs do their work . . . . the cause is asleep . . . . the strong throats are choked with their own blood . . . . the young men drop their eyelashes toward the ground when they pass each other . . . . and is liberty gone out of that place? No never.
"When liberty goes it is not the first to go nor the second or third to go . . it waits for all the rest to go . . it is the last. . . When the memories of the old martyrs are faded utterly away . . . . when the large names of patriots are laughed at in the public halls from the lips of the orators . . . . when the boys are no more christened after the same but christened after tyrants and traitors instead . . . . when the laws of the free are grudgingly permitted and laws for informers and bloodmoney are sweet to the taste of the people . . . . when I and you walk abroad upon the earth stung with compassion at the sight of numberless brothers answering our equal friendship and calling no man master---and when we are elated with noble joy at the sight of slaves . . . . when the soul retires in the cool communion of the night and surveys its experience and has much extasy over the word and deed that put back a helpless innocent person into the gripe of the gripers or into any cruel inferiority . . . . when those in all parts of these states who could easier realize the true American character but do not yet---when the swarms of cringers, suckers, doughfaces, lice of politics, planners of sly involutions for their own preferment to city offices or state legislatures or the judiciary or congress or the presidency, obtain a response of love and natural deference from the people whether they get the offices or no . . . . when it is better to be a bound booby and rogue in office at a high salary than the poorest free mechanic or farmer with his hat unmoved from his head and firm eyes and a candid and generous heart . . . . and when servility by town or state or the federal government or any oppression on a large scale or small scale can be tried on without its own punishment following duly after in exact proportion against the smallest chance of escape . . . . or rather when all life and all the souls of men and women are discharged from any part of the earth---then only shall the instinct of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth.
Your name is Hamlet. Until recently, your life has been great, because you're young, you're good looking, and your family is not only mega-rich, but royal. In fact, you're the Prince of Denmark. You grew up in a big palace in a little town called Elsinore, you were pampered, and you were happy.But a few weeks ago, things started to go rather badly wrong.
Sung to the tune of "If the Election Were Held Today" -- Election Projection - 2004 Edition
Current Tally - 01/24/04Via: Michael Totten
2000 Adjustment: Bush 6.11%
EV's: Bush 370, Dem 168
Pct: Bush 53.98%, Dem 45.02%
This site keeps a running projection for the 2004 US Presidential Election. Using the most recent polling data, state-by-state voting totals from 2000 will be updated to project a 2004 outcome
A Hole Punch Cloud Over Alabama
What could create a huge hole in the clouds? Such a hole, likely hundreds of meters across, was photographed last month from a driveway near Mobile, Alabama, USA. Very unusual to see, hole-punch clouds like this are still the topic of meteorological speculation. A leading hypothesis holds that the hole-punch cloud is caused by falling ice-crystals. The ice-crystals could originate in a higher cloud or be facilitated by a passing airplane exhaust. If the air has just the right temperature and moisture content, the falling crystals will absorb water from the air and grow. For this to happen, the water must be so cold that all it needs is a surface to freeze on. The moisture lost from the air increases the evaporation rate from the cloud water droplets so they dissipate to form the hole. The now heavier ice crystals continue to fall and form the more tenuous wispy cloud-like virga seen inside and just below the hole. Water and ice from the virga evaporates before they reach the ground.
"The power that I envisaged, that presided
Ultimate in its abstract devastations,
Is merely change, the atoms it divided
"Complete, in ignorance, new combinations.
Only an infinite finitude I see
In those peculiar lovely variations.
"It is despair that nothing cannot be
Flares in the mind and leaves a smoky mark
Of dread.
"Look upward. Neither firm nor free,
Purposeless matter hovers in the dark."
-- Thom Gunn, The Annihilation of Nothing
Today I received this unsettling, but wise, email. Others might do well to heed it.
From: The American Blogging AssociationWell, that’s it for me. I shall not risk the wrath of the ABA.
To: Gerard van der Leun, americandigest.org,
CC:David Winer, scriptingnudes.comSubject: This Is Your Final Warning
Sirs,
Over the past few years, we're happy that you've been able to put the new "Blogging" phenomena to good use (well, in Mr. Winer's case, "happy" is stretching the point a bit).While American Digest has served as an illuminating and sometime humorous signpost in today's media, other Blogs have served to keep nattering Jr. Naderites like Joi Ito off the street and out of the mainstream of society. Illumination, humor, and keeping the Joi Ito’s of the world either in their room or ruining all-you-can-eat restaurants are noble goals and we endorse them.
However, after receiving thousands of complaints both by email, letter bomb, and one person who actually set himself on fire in our reception area, we must insist the both of you cease and desist a writing a species of posts which are apparently driving millions of Web users right off their feed and right round the bend.
No, Mr. Winer, it's not your inane little habit of posting about every 12 lines of code you've written, each cigarette you didn't smoke, your TMI little medical details, or even your RSS feed of information on your bowel movements. And No, it's not your endless proclamations that you invented RSS, or blogging, or the internet, or four-day lithium holidays.
It's that both of you just won't leave the pathetic lame duck candidates alone!
Mr. van der Leun, PLEASE stop posting about Howard Dean. No more posts, no more songs, no more photo-shopped photos. Just stop it, now.
And Mr. Winer, STOP defending him, and, while you're at it, stop posting about internet democracy, "Vote Blog", and anything even vaguely inferring that your silly little blog has any more influence on the election than the color of your stools. Oh, wait, we take that back. New tracking data shows that 84% of Dean's supporters read your site, and were so distraught that you were supporting him and might receive an appointment if he were elected that they are switching their support to Ralph Nader.
In both of your cases, this is your final warning. We have friends in the browser business, and it would be very easy for your sites to become "invisible", or, worse yet, point to each others, in the near future.
Thank you for your cooperation.
I hereby declare that American Digest will now be a “Howard Dean Free Zone” from now until the last ding-dong of Doom. The name “Howard Dean” will henceforth not appear on this site. This is the last time you will read the words “Howard Dean.”
Set your search engines to “Howard the Duck.”
Old Candidate (Left) New Candidate (Right)
...and faster too.
”Each year, approximately 400 people die trying to beat an oncoming train at railroad crossings. More than 1,000 others are injured. Why is it that so many people misjudge the speed of an oncoming train? That's the question Theodore E. Cohn, a Berkeley professor of vision science and bioengineering, hopes to answer. Understanding why people think they can win the race at railways, Cohn says, may lead to better signals that prevent drivers from thinking they're faster than a locomotive.”Four hundred dead sounds like a lot, until one reflects that each year approximately 4,000 university professors are given grants to find out why stupid is as stupid does.From:Lab Notes:
Yes, yes, I know. I know. It is time, far past time to get over the Dean Scream. Everyone tells me this... And I am, I really, really am. I am really trying to resist Howard Dean. He's so Wednesday. He's something I want to forget, as I am sure he will become something many Deaniacs want to forget.
But then, just when I think I can get back to my life, just when I think I can forget...we get... this:
Bike Crazy :Why Howard Dean is unelectable!
And our whole new national nightmare starts again.
Marijuana fumes force Israeli cops to leave workPerhaps they could start storing it at a compound in Ramalla.January 23, 2004 (JERUSALEM) The fumes from several tons of marijuana stored in an Israeli police station were so strong that officers had to leave their work place.
The police station in the town of Dimona in the southern Negev Desert is used to store all the marijuana confiscated along the Israeli-Egyptian border, a busy smuggling route. Between three and four tons were seized in the past two months.
"The smell was overpowering," police spokesman Gil Kleiman said Friday.
Finally, it was too much for the officers working next door to the storage room, and they had to leave their offices.
"Every time I came to work I felt very bad, like I was high. The smell of the marijuana was killing us, we couldn't work," one officer told the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
Next week the marijuana will be destroyed, but the room is expected to fill up again in a couple of months, Kleiman said. -- ABC
"I can't believe my peace process
is down to seeds and stems again."
Don't get me started on the level of insect infestation in Macintosh software of late. (On the other hand, do get me started on the dead on arrival release of iLife 4.0 of which I will say more at a later date.
In the meantime, here's some bad news on Mac's new and infested Panther OS.
I was going to buy Running Mac OS X Panther by James Davidson at amazon.de, but is this is the book I was looking for?
From: Keys Corner: Panther just a "story"?
A stunning sound collage, montage, assemblage, potpourri, hodgepode, mismash-melange and pastiche, summing up in a mere 53 megs the trainwreck of the 20th century. If T.S. Eliot were alive and working today, this is how he'd create "The Wasteland" with the help of William Burroughs, the Beatles, Ed Sullivan, and Grandmaster Flash.
But be warned that it IS 53 megs, which is a good argument for getting broadband if you don't already have it.
Friday, January 23, 2004 One to catch quickly: "raiding the 20th century - (a history of the cut-up)" by DJ strictly kev. This 53mb download is the bootleg mash-up to end all mash-ups, a virtuoso 39 minute journey through pop, past, present and future. There are literally hundreds of artists sampled, layered, spliced, time-stretched, edited and compiled. It's quite amazing, although whether you'd want to listen to it on a regular basis is quite another matter. All human life is here: S-Club, Jimi Hendrix, the Strokes, Missy Elliot, U2, Pointer Sisters, Madonna, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pink, the JAMMS, etc. etc. etc. (full track-listing - you have to admire this guy's record collection if nothing else). The relentless switching between the tracks doesn't half inspire you to check out the originals again.-- From thingsmagazine
"This Is True" reports that some bottom dwelling slime has robbed Romper Room's Miss Mary and taken the Magic Mirror.
ROMPER, BOMPER, STOMPER, BOO HOO: Mary Ann King, 70, has been robbed. The Los Angeles host of the "Romper Room" children's TV show from 1966 to 1976, King had just left a restaurant in Industry, Calif., when she was accosted in the parking lot. Her purse and another bag were stolen; the bag contained her "magic mirror" prop from the show. The magic mirror, actually a frame with nothing inside, was used on the show to allow her to "see" the audience, calling out the kids' names. After the show ended, "people would recognize me and say, 'You never said my name'," King said. "I started carrying the mirror around with me so I could say their name." She figures the "hoodlums" discarded the prop, not knowing what it was...That's what happens when the "Don't Bees" grow up.If the magic mirror shows up on eBay, I'm calling in SWAT on the seller and the buyer. And eBay too while I'm at it.
Howard Dean says Alan Greenspan should be replaced - Jan. 23, 2004
LONDONDERRY, N.H. (CNN) - Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean tried out a new tactic Friday while campaigning in New Hampshire, accusing Federal Reserve Bank chairman Alan Greenspan of making decisions that were "too political" and suggesting it may be time to replace him.Oy! First the 'I Have a Scream" speech and now this.At a second campaign stop Friday morning, the one-time front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination said that Greenspan, who has been chairman of the Fed board since 1987, has had a "long and distinguished career" but his decisions lately have been "troubling."
...snip...
But Dean is not the first political candidate to take Greenspan to task. Former Vice President Dan Quayle and other GOP candidates did the same in 1999, accusing him of assuming too much power and manipulating the stock markets. Bush was notably absent from the criticism, and in fact announced his unqualified support for Greenspan. "
It can no longer be denied. The truth will out. And the truth must be that Howard Dean's main guy Joe Tessi has been taking large sacks of small change in various men's rooms over the past year from Karl Rove. Tessi then takes these wheelbarrows full of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies to the local supermarket's change machine where they are laundered. This stealth Republican then returns to DeanLand and whispers more sweet suggestions into Dean's ear: "Howard, go out there and give the troops a rebel yell. It'll help you in the south." "Howard, stand right up there and tell the stock market that you'll give Greenspan the boot." "Howard, just say no to steroids."
If ever we had a way-new metrosexual Manchurian candidate, Dean is it.
The League of Women Voters should immediately launch an investigation into Joe Tessi's foreign bank accounts and recent purchase of a marina in the Bahamas.
==
Via: Roger L. Simon: Uh-oh, now he's done it!
==
Update: In email, a reader takes me to task for failing to notice Karl Rove's real job.
One of Rove's collateral duties is the acquisition and maintenance of large stocks of rope in (minimum) thousand-foot coils, and supervision of the small corps of dedicated staffers who ensure that it pays out smoothly, without jerking or noticeable drag.
In preparation for its impending annihilation by U.S. Forces, the Government of Iraq Syria is liquidating its entire stock of Weapons Grade Plutonium-239. VillainSupply is acting as broker for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Act NOW!!
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With Ted Turner down to last billion and his $4 billion pledge to the UN sent to a collection agency in Atlanta , Bill Gates has stepped up to the plate with the opening move of Microsoft's plan have itself declared a nation-state: Gates Announces Partnership With U.N.
Whether
Whatever ensues, Microsoft is taking the old-fashioned route towards becoming a nation-state; bribery. And what better place to grease the global palm that at that crucible of client states, the World Economic Forum?
DAVOS, Switzerland Jan. 23 -- Microsoft Corp. and the United Nations will work together to bring computer technology and literacy to developing countries, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said Friday.“...[T]hat is quite popular and happens to belong to Microsoft. You gotta love this guy.Microsoft pledged software, computer training and cash to establish computer centers in poor communities, starting with pilot projects in Egypt, Mozambique and Morocco.
The initiative will draw from a $1 billion Microsoft Unlimited Potential fund, which the U.S. software giant launched last year.
The company has already donated nearly $50 million to 45 countries, and Gates said he hoped to "ramp it up" to $200 million a year through the new partnership with the U.N. Development Program.
At a news conference at the World Economic Forum, Gates said the computer centers won't be restricted to using Microsoft products.
"There's no exclusivity, but our role is to help with the expertise and curriculum around software that is quite popular and happens to belong to Microsoft," he said.
Back when I used and bought Microsoft products I always thought that after I paid for them they belonged to me. More fool I. Now I know that they will always "happen to belong to Microsoft." Must have been something in that 15,000 licensce agreement I failed to notice.
Still, I suppose America can come to some sort of non-aggression pact with
The 6.3-Richter earthquake in Bam city in southeastern Iran has flattened five tombs belonging to religious figures and 38 mosques. He added that the tragic quake has only spared one mosque and one Imamzadeh from damage.-- Via Rantburg
... courtesy of Hugh Hewitt.
"On Monday night I spent 15 seconds trying to fire up my volunteers who had a disappointing night --congratulations John and John, but overconfidence is a dangerous thing, as I've learned-- I spent 15 seconds pointing at signs and recognizing people from faraway states who'd driven thousands of miles in some cases to stand on corners in sub-zero temps, and I fire them up and try to show that I am not down for the count because they're not down for the count, and television, radio, Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh and your network, Brit, try to turn me into a deranged psycho. Fred Barnes called me cracked, for goodness sake. I've been a medical doctor treating crisis cases in emergency rooms for twenty years, and a governor making life and death decisions for ten years, and the American media, threatened by my message that big corporate interests are out of control--and there is no bigger corporate interest than Fox-- decides to marginalize me using a quarter minute of tape."... but, alas, he did not.
Wall at Camp Pendleton
Click to Enlarge
Within an hour of writing the item below, the wires bring us: Military Copter Crash Kills 4 in Calif.
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. Jan. 23 -- A military helicopter crashed during a training mission at this base north of San Diego, killing all four Marines aboard, officials said.Brave men and brave women, each and every one. Each one missed and all mourned.
"Small moves, Sparks.... Small moves..."
-- from the movie Contact
Organized chaos amidst organized clutter and the distinct sense that somewhere there was a war on.
Driving from the main gate to the mustering area you glance in your side mirror and notice two Apache attack helicopters cruising just above you right down the center line. Very persuasive looking machines. Youre glad theyre on your side and you are on theirs. Just before you park you pass a road sign reading, Drive Carefully. Tank Crossing.
The distant reports of cannons and star shells drifting down onto brown scrub-daubed California hills. Around the edge of the parade ground, one unfortunate Marine walks slowly in helmet and flack jacket with a full clip in his rifle. Somewhere nearby dull thuds of .50 caliber machine guns echo off the barracks all day. If you look up from the work, youll be comforted to see that fifty yards up the hill is a Taco Bell.
Camp Pendleton. 1st Marine Division. Theyre going back to Iraq and theyre training hard. When we gathered at the main gate at 9:00 AM somebody mentioned that theyd read the military was getting short on ammunition. If so, the news hadnt reached the Marines. They seemed, in the catchphrase of the day, to be keeping it real. Everywhere you looked they were training hard.
We werent working all that hard really. We were there as a kind of witness. We were there because its one thing to say you support our troops and quite another to show up and help them with your own hands if only for a day. You put on your Spirit of America tee shirt since every event these days needs a tee shirt to make it real. You slap on your Spirit of America baseball cap, an unexpected bonus, and you find a place at one of the tables.
Take a light white cotton bag off the top of a bale of them. In blue lettering it says Friendship in English and Farsi bracketing a Spirit of America logo. Friendship / America. This marketing element will be repeated elsewhere all day. Its a good thing were doing but theres no sense not getting a little propaganda value out of it at the same time. You don't want these things to pass through some distribution point in Iraq and get slapped with an "Allah Cares" sticker. It can happen. We're labelling the elements of the kits as well.
Shake the bag open and drop in a packet of pens, hand it to the left where a box or two of pencils go in. Then down the line for markers, notebooks, and other items that are likely to be thin on the ground in the schools of Iraq. In the afternoon, were going to do medical kits.
And there are Frisbees.
Frisbees?
Sure thing. We got thousands of Frisbees.
Frisbees, in dump truck quantities, were the backdrop to the day as surely as the cannons and .50 caliber machine guns provided the soundtrack. In several bright colors, each one in the stack had the Friendship logo printed on it. We had more Frisbees than we had bags and a lot of them ended up being bulk-shipped.
Somebody said, Now were bringing in the big guns, were attacking with our popular culture.
A Marine who had been there said, Or giving them plates.
Someone else said, Dont be too sure. I can imagine a day, say the 2012 Olympics, when the Iraqi Frisbee team podiums for the Frisbee gold.
Yeah, said another, right after kicking the Berkeley teams ass.
Bag, pens, pencils, notebooks, markers, box, container. Bag, pens, pencils, notebooks, markers, box, container. The volunteers and the Marines working next to each other around the tables in the courtyard. T-shirts and camo. All ages, all sizes, men and women. Just standing and stuffing bags with the word Friendship on them on a Wednesday morning in Southern California. Some of the volunteers had been there since 6:00 which meant, for those that came down from Los Angeles, up at 4:00 and into the traffic that never sleeps.
It wasnt a large group. At times there were more Marines assigned to the duty than volunteers. They came, like the Marines, in all shapes and sizes but with a greater spread in their ages. Retired military, techno-nerds, people with family in the military, people who had lost relatives in one or more of our wars. Beards, bangs, boots and Birkenstocks.
And blogs. Always blogs. Blogs had organized this effort, and the bloggers who believed and who could came. Blogs and blogging rose up and fell away in conversation all day long. If you werent recognized the question about the name of your blog was offered tentatively lest the person asking hadnt heard of it or read it lately. Bloggers tacitly recognize that for most the level of notoriety and or circulation of ones blog can be a sore point or a source of pride. Its a counter dependent addiction and stature can be inferred from numbers alone. As a result, the subject surfaced and then submerged again as the mantra of bag, pens, pencils, notebooks, markers, box, container continued.
The Marines we worked with, of course, had no idea what blogs were, but they were pleased to have this strange group helping them with this particular duty assignment. And with a couple of officers moving around and keeping the whole process on track the Marines didnt spend a lot of time in chat.
The Marines were mostly privates and corporals with a few of sergeants sprinkled in. From the very short to the very tall. From the pale and slight to the high-school linebacker. Did I say they were young? They were young in the way that lets you know just how old youve become. In a word, kids. Kids whose first job out of high school will be in a war zone.
You know that theyll be trained as well as they can be trained. You know that they will be equipped as well as they can be equipped and led as well as they can be led. But you still know that theres a chance that one or more of these Marines standing beside you assembling hostess bags for Iraqi school children will be dead within the year. You dont mention this. Not to anyone, especially the Marines. Compared to what these Marines are doing it makes the small thing you are doing to seem that much smaller. But you do it just the same because it is what you can do.
Open a bag marked Friendship and put in some pens and pencils, maybe a Frisbee, maybe even a small prayer that it will help some other kid half a world away grow up wanting to be like a Marine rather than kill one. Small moves but thats how a world is changed.
"When I'm rushing on my run
And I feel just like Jesus' son
And I guess that I just don't know
And I guess that I just don't know"
-- Op.cit.
Blogland and the Established Pundocracy is a buzz this morning wondering "Whatever got into Howard?"
Nobody can seem to lay a finger on what caused him to sound his barbaric "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" over the roofs of the political universe.
They seem to forget that:
1) It is "Howard Dean, M.D."
2) Married to "Judith Steinberg-Dean, M.D."
3) Who flew in to Iowa last Sunday because the campaign needed a boost.
4) An M.D. can write prescriptions.
5) For just about anything.
6) Plus all those samples that have been piling up at the office all these years.
Put them all together they spell "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
Godwin's Law states: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
I propose Dylan's Law: "As a baby boomer's political campaign implodes,the probability of pundits homilizing "campaign's not busy being born are busy dyin'" approaches one. (Op. cit.:Josh Marshall
Of course, the Devil or the Doofus can quote Dylan to their purpose. But it might behoove Marshall to spend a few moments in meditation on the sacred text of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" which descends to us from Dylan's classic methedrine period:
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.
...
While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.
Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.
Perhaps my inner ear is too keen but when I read the Deanista's hyperventilating blog posts tonight, some sounds amiss. There's an historical echo coming through that, since most Dean bloggers are young and unschooled in any history other than that of their formative years in the malls of America, they don't seem to hear it.
1)generation dean || official weblog"The Perfect Storm showed other candidates and campaigns what you are capable of. 3,500 Stormers knocked on 48,000 doors in a single day. That is a record. You have broken barriers, set new records, soared to new heights -- and you will do it again. "
2)Blog for America: BloggerStorm!"The Perfect Stormers are all scrambling around Iowa headquarters looking for laptops to buy tickets to New Hampshire."
3)Blog for America: BloggerStorm! As Dean said to the Perfect Stormers, "Who would have thought? We have a ticket to New Hampshire. And we have just begun to fight!"
4)Blog for America: BloggerStorm! "Perfect Stormers, staff and volunteers alike are out in force, providing Dean visibility across Des Moines, and across the state. It's two degrees here. we're all in orange, red and yellow Storm hats."
"The Stormers" -- 3,500 -- spread out -- knocking on doors --- everywhere -- the morning stormers -- Dean visiblity --- 48,000 doors --- looking for laptops...
It sounds like... a bit... but I'll stop now lest I break Godwin's Law. That would never do.
I'll go back to blogforamerica where they're always talking about "filling the Big Bat."
"And you know something? You know something? Not only are we going to New Hampshire, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico! We're going to California and Texas and New York! And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan."-- Howard Dean
Mon Jan 19,11:48 PM ET
Democratic presidential hopeful former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean
(news - web sites) accepts a victory shawl from, and the endorsement
of, the Permanent Palestinian Mission to the United Nations during
his caucus night party in West Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Jan. 19, 2004.
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Compare and contrast:
Dean Speaks (long version)
Dean speaks (mercifully short version)
The creator of worlds has a link to the video. Click here and scroll down to the Dean entry in the "You Decide" section. Load the video. The first thing you'll see is an ad for Fox's state of the union coverage, so just fast forward through that. You can also fast forward through the first 20% or so of Dean's speech.Once you get to 20%, let it play. Don't stop until he lets out that piercing, nuts-in-a-vise shriek of "Yeah!"
Where have we seen this kind of enthusiasm before?
Oh, yes, RIGHT HERE!
There's always room for more reality at Reality Check!
But while new! improved! magazines are popping up like strange mushrooms in the compost heaps of the fevered publishing mind, other older and less cutting edge magazines are grasping for readers with every conceivable offer. Esquire recently saw fit to send us an offer so low that we doubt we'll be paying for the postage. So desperate is it to add circulation that our current 'Professional Discount' would allow us to subscribe to a year of Esquire ("Cover Price: $36.00") for $5.99!
But wait! That's not all! If we want to "lock in the savings," we can check the box that gives us 2 years for $10.99!
But wait! That's still not all! We can be billed for 3 monthly payments of $2 each. That works out to $6.00 which leaves Esquire owing us $0.01. No mention of how they plan to square this subtle ripoff.
The current editor of Esquire, David Granger, is noted for blathering here and there about the industry on the miraculous rise in Esquire's circulation since he took over. If these are the deals he's cutting there's no miracle involved.
As for us, we'll wait for the next offer from Esquire which, judging from this one, will offer to pay us $1000 a year to subscribe to the magazine.
And that's just around the corner in the magazine industry. Not an "if," but a "when."
(Sing Along)
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Spam in my mail box announcing new kinks,
These are a few of my favorite links.
In the first in what will be a continuing Palestinian hit series, the infection of human beings by the insect mind of the Hamas borg continued last week with this verision of "Mommy Dearest":Homicide Bomber-Mom Kills Four at Gaza Border
JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian homicide bomber -- and mother of two -- blew herself up Wednesday at the main crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip (search), killing four people and injuring seven, emergency officials said.Authorities believe this was the first mother to act as a homicide or suicide bomber. She was identified as Hamas member Reem Al-Reyashi, 22, of Gaza. Family members said she had a 3-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl....
Reyashi left behind a 1-1/2-year-old daughter and a 3-1/2-year-old son. "God gave me two children and I loved them so much. Only God knew how much I loved them," she said in the video, asking that her children study in religious schools.
This loving mother, who left her children to a rich and full intellectual life inside the local maddras, seemed to think nothing of the four Jewish mothers from whom she took:
As soldiers they were between her and killing even more Jews and so, frankly, they had to go. It was the least she could do for a God that knew how much she loved children.
Newspapers, television, and the Internet were awash in amazed commentary on the "tragedy" of the incident, but few noted the connection between this caring mother and "The Loving Terrorist Father of Two," seen below in an article here from last year.
Looking at the two pictures of these proud and beaming parents, you can see the same insect mind chittering behind the eyes.
Here's a variation of that article with only the picture and pronouns changed:
Try to imagine, if for only a moment, the insect mindset that gibbers and crawls behind the smiling and proud face above. She's getting ready to "live the dream," to 'Just Do It,' to launch herself on "a mission from God." Her calling? To strap on a belt of explosives, kiss her two children on the forehead, bid her husband goodbye, and head downtown to kill Jews. Men, women, children, infants, babes in the womb .. it is all grist to the chittering insect soul of this woman and her supporters and compatriots. Who is she? Why she is a "a woman of God", an exponent of the religion of submission and peace. She is the mother of two children, but that doesn't stop her from viewing Jewish chidren as just so many vermin to be exterminated.
You've got to hand it to the Hivemind of the Palestinian Insect Masters, they've finally come up with a new take on an old show. Call it, All in the Family.
And people like this are said to be "owed" a state of their own?. Really? Where? Is there a Hell deep enough for those whose conception of God's work is this?
Sign at the trailhead, Top of the World,
Laguna Beach, California
Riprap
Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way.
straying planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles --
and rocky sure-foot trails.
The worlds like an endless
four-dimensional
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.
-- Gary Snyder
It is said, and not without a smudge of truth, that the history of soap is the history of advertising. For a quick tour of this concept, you might spend a bit of time scouring the new onlline exhibit, Soap In America , at the Smithsonian.
All sorts of small items of information have been pressed into this cake. Not the least of which is the item linked here, a 1972 ad featuring Ann & Kim Basinger. If you follow the link and supersize the graphic you'll find that Kim "was the winner of Breck's annual Hairstyling Contest which is a special feature of America's Junior Miss Pageant."
Sadly, she's let her hair care slip a bit in the intervening years.
"You're the first man in five years who didn't tell me I look like Veronica Lake inside of a minute. "
====
UPDATE: In one of those common moments of synchronicity, within two hours of writing the above, I stumbled across the fact that "The Breck Girl," thought to be an emblem of a kinder and gentler time, is still with us on the campaign trail:
Senator John Edwards has a somewhat different issue to combat -- that he is, for lack of a more appropriate phrase, too pretty. Teased early on in the campaign for his perfectly coiffed hair and dubbed the Breck Girl....-- Dress for Hoped-For Success
12/19/03:
Stuck on Calypso’s Island
I'm sure that the Europeans are light-years ahead of us in the use of public transportation. They probably are wiser in their per-capita energy utilization, and their primary and secondary education may be superior. But there is also something of Calypso's island about them. For all their professed enjoyment of food, shelter, and lovemaking, the Europeans are bored silly with their listless routine and are increasingly timid -- this from a great people who should not, but really do, live in terror of their own past. Like Odysseus in his comfy subservience to Calypso, these mesmerized and complacent sensualists sometimes contemplate leaving the comfort of their fairyland atoll and in boredom weep nightly, gazing out at the seashore. But as yet they lack the hero's courage to finally build a raft and sail rough seas to confront suitors who are trying to crash their civilization.12/30/03
The Western Disease
The so-called Arab street and its phony intellectuals sense that influential progressive Westerners will never censure Middle Eastern felonies if there is a chance to rage about Western misdemeanors. It is precisely this parasitic relationship between the foreign and domestic critics of the West that explains much of the strange confidence of those who planned September 11. It was the genius of bin Laden, after all, that he suspected after he had incinerated 3,000 Westerners an elite would be more likely to blame itself for the calamity -- searching for ‘root causes’ than marshalling its legions to defeat a tribe that embraced theocracy, autocracy, gender apartheid, polygamy, anti-Semitism, and religious intolerance.
1/09/04
The Same Old Thing
Downsizing in Europe, seeing a wall rise on Israel's border, and trying to create democracy in places like Afghanistan and Iraq are not pleasant, easy solutions. Indeed, such tough efforts to end the familiar status quo will prompt greater outrage. Expect more adolescent "I hate Bush" articles, gloomy, end-of-the-world scenarios in the New York Review of Books, and hysterical appearances from an array of ex-NATO apparatchiks, worried former Saudi ambassadors, out-of-work Clinton State Department "crisis-managers," and frowning Washington insiders. Anticipate also more invective about "neoconservatives," "unilateralism," "ideologically driven policy," "hegemony," "squandered good will" -- and all the other meaningless buzz words and third-hand catch-phrases that now are regurgitated daily in lieu of thoughtful analysis.
1/16/04
Our Primordial World
[T]he stuff of collective ego and insecurity is often a uniform race, religion, or class that only fuels sensitivity to nationalist insults and perceived slights. America in contrast has always been a brew of faiths, colors, and ethnicities, united by shared values and concerned more with money than with accent, birth, or pedigree. So again, while we are patriotic and don't like bullies, most Americans don't much care about a national ego that must be fed and coddled by other countries. On almost any given day we turn on the television, surf the news channel, see here an Arab burning an American flag, there a European anti-globalization protester torching an effigy of George Bush, yawn, perhaps mumble out loud "Can't these losers get a life," and then plug in a DVD or hit HBO.As Mr. Bush has grasped, every time we have humiliated our enemies we have gained respect and won security. By the same token, on each occasion we have shown deference to a Mr. Karzai, the Iraqi interim government, and our Eastern European friends, we have helped to create security and stability. Apart from the model of our forefathers who crushed and then lifted up the Germans and Japanese, we could find no better guide in this war than William Tecumseh Sherman and Abraham Lincoln -- in that order. The former would remind us that our enemies traffic in pride and thus first must be disabused of it through defeat and humiliation. The latter (who turned Sherman and Grant lose) would maintain that we are a forgiving sort, who prefer restored rather than beaten people as our friends.
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Subject: Mailfailure Delivery
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COULD GALACTIC FIND BE ANDROMEDA'S FOOD?
Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reveals Giant Clump of Stars Near Andromeda Galaxy
Atlanta -- A international team of astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey collaboration has discovered a giant clump of stars near the Andromeda Galaxy that could be a previously unknown satellite galaxy of Andromeda or could be the last remnants of a galaxy torn apart by Andromeda's tidal forces.
The clump of stars, named Andromeda NE by the researchers for its location to the northeast of the Andromeda Galaxy, is enormous. It covers a larger area on the sky than the full Moon. If added together the total light from the stars in Andromeda NE would rival many nearby galaxies in brightness. Yet because these stars are so spread out, Andromeda NE appears 10 times dimmer than the faintest known galaxy.--[snip]--
While analyzing data from an SDSS scan of Andromeda, Zucker and his team used special filtering techniques to select objects with specific colors and brightness typical of Andromeda's stars. When the SDSS team mapped the distribution of these stars they detected a number of features previously noted by other astronomers. But SDSS researchers didn't know what to make of a large concentration of stars - what they described at first as a giant, ghostly shape ....
"One of the most important questions about Andromeda NE is its distance. Although our findings don't allow us to measure this precisely, our data indicate that it is roughly at the same distance as the Andromeda Galaxy," said Bell.
That means that the clump of stars is gravitationally bound to the Andromeda Galaxy, in orbit around its larger neighbor and possibly is in the process of being torn apart by Andromeda's tidal forces. These forces arise because Andromeda's gravitational pull is stronger on the near side of Andromeda NE than on the far side, pulling the stars away from each other. "For most small companion galaxies it is ultimately only a matter of time until they are shredded by the tides of the parent galaxy," explained Hans-Walter Rix, director of MPIA.
Over the past decade astronomers have found increasing evidence that the distant, outer reaches of normal spiral galaxies like Andromeda and the Milky Way are not quiet backwaters, but rather arenas of ongoing galaxy disruption. As satellite galaxies are ripped apart by tidal forces, they lose stars in great streams along their orbital paths. Researchers have detected such stellar streams around both the Milky Way and Andromeda, suggesting that this kind of galactic cannibalism is commonplace.
Brainburgers! Yup, it's Time to eat!
Gopnik's Learning Curve
The ability to learn is inversely proportional to years of school, adjusted for hormones.
Gopnik's Gender Curves
The male curve is an abrupt rise followed by an equally abrupt fall. The female curve is a slow rise to an extended asymptote. The areas under the curves are roughly equal. These curves apply to all activities at all time scales (e.g. attention to TV programs, romantic love, career scientific productivity).
-- The World Question Center, 2004
Pöppel's Universal-- The World Question Center
We take life 3 seconds at a time. Human experience and behaviour is characterized by temporal segmentation. Successive segments or "time windows" have a duration of approx. 3 seconds. Examples: Intentional movements are embedded within 3 s (like a handshake); the anticipation of a precise movement like hitting a golf ball does not go beyond 3 s; if we reproduce the duration of a stimulus, we can do so accurately up to 3 s but not beyond; if we look at ambiguous figures (like a vase vs. two faces) or if we listen to ambiguous phoneme sequences (like Cu-Ba-Cu-Ba-.., either hearing Cuba or Bacu) automatically after approx. 3 s the percept switches to the alternative; the working platform of our short term memory lasts only 3 s (being interrupted after 3 s most of the information is gone); spontaneous speech in all languages is temporally segmented, each segment lasting up to 3 s; this temporal segmentation of speech shows up again in poetry, as a verse of a poem is embedded within 3 s (Shakespeare: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day"); musical motives preferably last 3 s (remember Beethoven's Fifth Symphony); decisions are made within 3 s (like zapping between TV channels); and there are more examples. Thus, the brain provides a temporal stage that last approx. 3 s, which is used in perception, cognition, movement control, memory, speech, or music.
Did life ever exist on Mars? If so, the best evidence may be fossils preserved in the rocks. Geologists and biologists will one day explore Mars, piecing together the history of the planet and perhaps its ancient life.-- Exploring Mars
Artwork for NASA by Pat Rawlings.
Kill the Fwanken! Kill the Fwanken!
Rush wasn't built in a day. That's Michael Harrison's take on this week's announcement by Progress Radio that it had signed comedian/author Al Franken for a daily show intended to provide a liberal challenge to the medium's 600-station gorilla, Rush Limbaugh. The founder and editor of Talkers magazine, the industry's lead trade journal, says that if Progress Radio fails it will be because of the impossibly high expectations it has set for itself. ...[snip]... [W]e suspect that Mr. Franken is likely to find the daily grind of direct competition--a three-hour radio show--a tad more strenuous than writing "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot."-- OpinionJournal - TasteIn short, Messrs. Walsh and Franken have set a high bar for themselves. We wish them well in the rough-and-tumble of the market. And if they do beat the odds, maybe we could finally get Congress to stop using taxpayer dollars to subsidize NPR.
It's becoming crystal clear that one of the central issues that Americans will vote on this November is whether they side for the party that wants everybody to have more money, or the party that wants everybody to have less money.
It's hardly news that Americans save too little. Yet for the past two decades, while the personal savings rate has headed mostly down, politicians have mostly only remarked (or despaired, depending on temperament) on that fact.-- Lead Editorial, Wall Street JournalBut now it looks like somebody is going to do something about it. Our good friend, Mr. Rumor, has it that on Tuesday night President Bush will revive the proposal for two new tax-exempt savings accounts in his State of the Union address.
The first, a lifetime savings account, would allow individuals of any age and any income to contribute up to $7,500 a year. Interest and investment income would accumulate tax-free and withdrawals could be made at any time, for any purpose, without a tax penalty. Permitting tax-free withdrawals distinguishes this account from the current, more specialized, medical or education savings accounts by offering savers immediate, penalty-free liquidity.
The second, a retirement savings account, would be similar to a Roth IRA but much more powerful. Like current IRAs, withdrawals would not be permitted until a certain age is reached. Interest and investment income would grow tax-free and withdrawals would also be tax-exempt. But the new account would more than double the contribution to $7,500 a year, per individual, and has no income caps for eligibility. (Currently, to be eligible for a Roth IRA, joint income cannot exceed $160,000.)
"This is Ron Suskind's book," Mr. O'Neill told Katie Couric Tuesday morning. "This is not my book." Not his book? I'm not sure I follow that. Mr. O'Neill gave Ron Suskind CD-ROMs containing 19,000 documents for the book. Mr. Suskind then turned over these 19,000 documents to a 23-year-old former college newspaper editor who he says "dove into the documents . . . and then began the process of assessing the worth of each." Mr. Suskind wrote what he calls "a work of narrative nonfiction" that "relies on the power of story." The primary source for this "story" is Paul O'Neill, whose picture is on the cover with the blind president, but who is now at pains to put distance between himself and the product.-- Daniel Henninger, WSJ--[snip]---
Amazon.com's remarkable software has the ability to herd together like-minded readers and point them at each other. It reveals that the book Mr. O'Neill says isn't his is being bought by people who've also purchased "The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception" by David Corn, "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth" by Joe Conason, "The Clinton Wars" by Sidney Blumenthal, and "American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush" by Kevin Phillips. Among the multitude of apparently unanticipated consequences Mr. O'Neill is just now discovering, falling in among this group must be the one that hurts the most.
The Kerry for President makeover committee today announced a new look for their candidate.
"Nobody can any longer deny," said Kyan Douglas , the campaign's grooming guru, " that John Kerry is a man of the people, by the people, and for the people."
Weblogging is growing up. Oh wait, you thought that would be a good thing? You must still be young. -- Mark Pilgrim
Like most other people working in this medium, I like the idea of open and unfettered comments. Like most sane people, however, I really dislike the reality of over 3,500 comment spams in less than 24 hours.
That was the reality here over the last day and, after spending hours reading about and installing a blacklist and other gizmos I’ve concluded that, for now at least, it really isn’t worth the aggravation and wasted time.
Until such time as Movabletype comes out with a fix for this, or until such time as some unknown hero develops a killer plugin, or until such time as the comment spammers are located and fed into industrial shredders feet first while ringed with web cams, I’m disabling comments here.
SpamCop I am not. Neither am I SpongeBob. The idea of maintaining a page with a big “Spam Me!” sign printed on it fills me with inertia.
Should you wish to comment on anything posted here, please mail it to me at
publisher-at-americandigest.org.
I’ll put it in an update.
For those who want to read the article that made up my mind for me, please check Mark Pilgrim’s take no prisoners article: Weblog Spam .
He’s right, you know.
===
UPDATE: SB writes: "The problem with weblog comments is probably why the Blogfather himself, Glenn Reynolds, doesn't have comments. He also pointed out that it was like having spraycans available for people to put graffiti on your site as well, or words to that effect.
"I just wish that those who still have comments would have the software automatically remove the idiotic "First!" posts, but not necessarily the first posting. "
Now that's a software we could get behind.
-- As found onFear This Factor
Allison Jester, a sous-chef at Rippe's
restaurant on Pier 70 in Seattle, seasons
and coats a filet mignon with Starbuck's
espresso grounds before grilling it.
The entree, which sells for $29.95,
has become a hit.
"Other chefs have used coffee as a marinade or coating. Putting coffee in a recipe was a natural for Jester, a self-confessed java junkie who starts each day with a triple iced mocha and has straight shots of espresso later in the day. "Well, now we know where she gets the grounds.
Ever wonder where the term RTFM came from? An excerpt from a paper on Socialization in Open Technical Communities:-- From Joseph Reagle"One of the oldest open communities maxims I'm familiar with is RTFM: "Read The Fucking/Fine Manual." The Google Group archives are an extensive archive of Usenet messages, a pre-Web bulletin board type system on the Internet, from 1981 to the present. The first instance of "RTFM" usage in the archives is a 1983 message referring to the VMS mainframe computer community:
"Try looking in the Master Index to the VMS volume set. There, under BACKUP, you will see a pointer off to appendix B of manual 4A. This appendix describes the BACKUP tape format in some detail. The VMS people have a cute little piece of advice for people who are too slug-headed to read the manuals: RTFM. (Reason 1983)"
Bush OKs new moon missionsOuter SpaceWASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- American astronauts will return to the moon early in the next decade in preparation for sending crews to explore Mars and nearby asteroids, President Bush is expected to propose next week as part of a sweeping reform of the U.S. space program.
by
Robert Frost
"But outer Space,
At least this far,
For all the fuss
Of the populace
Stays more popular
Than populous."
Once the Rover Crew has their watches, look for this to become the must have uberGeek watch of the year:
Pasadena (JPL) Jan 12, 2004 They said it couldn't be done. But in the sleepy little town of Montrose, California, nestled in the hills surrounding JPL, master watchmaker Garo Anserlian of Executive Jewelers is perfecting a timepiece for hundreds of Earthlings bound to Mars' irregular day. Past the glass cases of what looks like an ordinary jewelry store is a workshop where watches are losing 39 minutes a day.Rover controllers have to monitor Spirit (and soon, Opportunity) all the time; this doesn't just mean 24 hours a day " it means 24 hours, 39 minutes a day. The martian day is longer than Earth's, but this minimal variance can amount to physical and mental fatigue. Every day, team members are reporting to work 39 minutes later than the previous day.
Garo acknowledged that the Mars watch request is the strangest he has ever received. It took him about two months to design, fine-tune and streamline the process that would keep the watch on Mars time.
"Since I was a young child I