GYWO takes on the transfer of sovereignty. Scroll down for his take on Rumsfeld's performance.
Not sure if this would have made him feel better as well, but it did wonders for me.
The title of the next Harry Potter book has apparently been revealed, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince." So let the speculating begin...Rowling says that neither Harry nor Voldemort is the Prince. My guess is that it's someone along the lines of Draco Malfoy, or if not him then someone that the Slytherin gang would be shocked to learn was a "mudblood." No word of a release date for the book, though, so we're all going to have to wait a while to find out...
Hmm...mental note to watch this later:
In 1999, Macromedia paid Trey Parker and Matt Stone $2 million to create 39 episodes of a Shockwave cartoon. The result was "so unfathomably sick that they couldn't even be shown on the Internet." [Cruel Site of the Day]
Saw Fahrenheit 9/11 yesterday. The theater was full, but not sold out. Just a couple of more or less random thoughts:
I suppose this is one of the benefits of living in a college town:
Sure to strike fear in the hearts of all doting fathers in the metro area is Men's Journal magazine's designation as the No. 1 singles town in the nation.That's right Athenians - as of the magazine's June 2004 ''Best Places to Live'' issue, we're living in Hottieville, U.S.A.
Of course, judging from some of the conversations you hear around town, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was Dumbasapost City, USA...
Heard about this on the radio this morning, and just found some more details. Yes, more people are taking advantage of the security problems in Internet Explorer. The best part is that there's no patch, so any and all Windows Internet Explorer users are vulnerable.
The researchers believe that online organized crime groups are breaking into Web servers and surreptitiously inserting code that takes advantage of two flaws in Internet Explorer that Microsoft has not yet fixed. Those flaws allow the Web server to install a program that takes control of the user's computer.
As is often the case, there's also this sentence towards the end:
Meanwhile, the average Internet surfer is left with few options. Windows users could download an alternate browser, such as Mozilla or Opera, and Mac users are not in danger.
Now I know I shouldn't do this, because as soon as I do someone is likely to find some nasty way to go after Mac users, but I see this sentence (or a variation of it) often enough that as a Mac/Safari/Mozilla user I just have to say:
Neener.
Neener.
Neener.
Brief excerpt re: the big Dick's recent attack of potty-mouth:
These are serious allegations - matters for a grand jury, even. (Or at least the FCC.) If the vice president of the United States feels free to say the letter "f" followed by three hyphens (how do you pronounce a hyphen anyway?) on the floor of the U.S. Senate, there's no telling how deep the rot may go.
There was a radio ad for some sort of anti-acne cream when I was a teenager that intoned ominously about the constellations of zits on your face. "Across your forehead, the Big Dipper. And on your nose, the North Star!" I used to think that ad was completely over the top.
Well no more.
Where this beast came from, I don't know but I feel like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, or maybe W.C. Fields if you took his massive alcohol-induced monster of a schnozz and concentrated all the red intensity right on the tip instead of spreading the wealth around a little bit. I swear I can't even see around the damn thing without using a cardboard periscope, it's so blinding.
So, if you hear about some weird astronomical anomaly today, don't panic. It's just me.
From a Salon piece on what some of the folks waiting in line to get Clinton's book are saying, I quote Benjamin the bouncer:
We got people losing heads, and they were worried about someone getting head? Come on!
Apparently Bill Clinton's been noted wearing something akin to what were called "friendship bracelets" back in my jr. high days. Interesting story behind it...
Well, "Failing the Dover Test" had its theatrical debut last Friday as part of the "Athens Picture Show." I was a little unhappy at the presentation of it, but despite the problems it more or less got the reaction I was expecting-- a couple laughs, some polite applause, and at least one murmur of recognition as the mention of "Bush in 30 seconds" came up in the credits. Unfortunately, much of the audience wasn't ready for it when the casket appeared onscreen. The first two films had a brief "Athens Film Foundation" animation before them, but my piece (third on the program) started immediately after the credits of the one before it. So, people were still clapping for the previous video when the casket appeared and the narration began. I think some people managed to catch everything, but I definitely sensed some confusion on the part of the audience at the whole thing.
Still, it was a fun experience, and pending a decent idea or two it's something I'd like to try again, except with something a little longer that has both opening and closing credits so that no one can blink and miss it.
When you combine 1 bike, 1 PowerBook, 5 cans of spray paint, and a cellphone? A mobile dot matrix printer, that's what.
The US president insists former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein did have a relationship with al-Qaeda.
Apparently there's at least one group trying to organize a campaign against "Fahrenheit 9/11," and they're contacting movie theaters trying to pressure them to not show the film. For whatever good it will do, I wrote the following note to Carmike in the hopes that I might be able to offset some of the right-wing freakazoids:
I have just learned that there is an organization trying to prevent theaters from showing "Fahrenheit 9/11." This organization has Carmike listed on their website (http://www.moveamericaforward.org/MichaelMoore/) as "undecided" with regards to this film. I don't know if this is accurate or not. If you are already planning on showing the film, great. If you are undecided, I am offering my voice of support for this film, and asking that you please exhibit it. My wife & I will be there opening weekend, and we always buy popcorn.Jason
One of Chandra's friends was in town this weekend, so yesterday was spent playing in Atlanta. First stop was the Apple store so that I could check out the Timbuk2 bags. I liked the bags, but they only had boring colors, so I'll probably purchase something online. I also resisted buying half a dozen other things in the store...sigh.
Next stop was to go see "Supersize Me," which is a fun movie, if a little disturbing. I hope the guy didn't do any long-term damage to himself. Aside from the funny and alarming bits in the movie, one of the things that struck me was that the kid's meal portions at McDonald's are what the regular portions used to be back in the day. It's no wonder Chandra and I are usually satisfied with those most of the time (and hey, a toy!). Anyway, I highly recommend the movie.
The last part of the day was the Shins concert. Rogue Wave was the first act, and I could have sworn we were transported into an episode of "Smallville." Granted I've only heard the one set, but their vibe seemed to be that of the very earnest music you tend to hear on WB shows all the time. Opening act #2 was The Glands, who are actually a local band. Very tight outfit. Unfortunately, I got a little restless towards the end of their set, so don't know that I enjoyed them as much as I might have otherwise. Both opening acts played for about an hour each, which to my mind was a little long.
Anyway, once the Shins came out they put on a pretty good show. I was surprised that James didn't do the audience patter, but I guess that's not his thing. Instead, a spastic little monkey of a keyboard/guitar/bass player (and I mean that in the nicest way) chatted up the audience between songs. This was the first time I've really been able to listen to the Shins music without my brain doing something else, so I was pleased to notice that the songwriting seems to be really pretty good (interpret that as if it came from a Minnesotan).
And to cap it off, Chandra's friend went to high school with Mr. Shin (yes, I know that's not his real name), so we went backstage to chat for a couple minutes. We didn't talk about much of anything in particular, but I did come away from the conversation with a new bluegrass guy to check out...
Any time a gift-giving event for shnookie-boogums comes around, one of the things I have to be careful of is that I get something said shnookie wants, not something I might be keen on. Apparently I'm not the only one who struggles with this.
Tomorrow, June 12th, is the birthday of my beau. I was trying to find an original idea for a gift and thought that maybe a day at this very special spa would be perfect.On second thought, maybe not...
There's not much there yet, but I'll be curious to see what folks post here:
We all have them: tny, often fleeting moments from an otherwise second-rate movie (or even third, fourth or fifth-rate) that just stay with us. A humorous line, a simple gesture, a breathtaking shot, a glance, the way a line of dialog is delivered — anything, really. Filmbrain thought he would call attention to such moments from time to time as he comes across them. [Like Anna Karina's Sweater] [Cinema Minima]
I've been trying to think of examples myself, but haven't come up with anything yet. Hmm...
Normally I agree with the sentiment that once you compare someone to Hitler you've lost the argument, but this is a little different...
Link:
Today many Americans celebrate a ''strong'' leader who, like Woodrow Wilson, never wavers, never apologizes, never admits a mistake, never changes his mind, a leader with a firm ''Christian'' faith in his own righteousness. These Americans are delighted that he ignores the rest of the world and punishes the World Trade Center terrorism in Iraq. Mr. Bush is our kind of guy.
He is not another Hitler. Yet there is a certain parallelism. They have in common a demagogic appeal to the worst side of a country's heritage in a crisis. Bush is doubtless sincere in his vision of what is best for America. So too was Hitler. The crew around the president -- Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Karl Rove, the ''neo-cons'' like Paul Wolfowitz -- are not as crazy perhaps as Himmler and Goering and Goebbels. Yet like them, they are practitioners of the Big Lie -- weapons of mass destruction, Iraq democracy, only a few ''bad apples.''
Hitler's war was quantitatively different from the Iraq war, but qualitatively both were foolish, self-destructive and criminally unjust. This is a time of great peril in American history because a phony patriotism and an America-worshipping religion threaten the authentic American genius of tolerance and respect for other people.
The ''real'' America is still remembered here in Berlin for the enormous contributions of the Marshall Plan and the Berlin airlift -- America at its best. It is time to return to that generosity and grace.
The strongest criticism that the administration levels at Sen. John Kerry is that he changes his mind. In fact, instead of a president who claims an infallibility that exceeds that of the pope, America would be much better off with a president who, like John F. Kennedy, is honest enough to admit mistakes and secure enough to change his mind.
[Eschaton]
Now this is worth a week's mourning. Bye, Ray.
Wired touched on this a while ago, but I just came across a new article that offers a little more detail. The idea is when you're working with non-human representations of humans (robots, cartoon characters, 3D characters, etc.), as you try to get more and more natural or "real" looking, you hit a certain point where the flaws in the representation overwhelm the illusion. As a result, instead of looking more real, such representations actually look less real. The phenomenon is called the "Uncanny Valley."
I was previously exposed to this idea in the realm of 3D graphics and the challenges of creating realistic humans, where this valley is a major obstacle to be overcome. What hadn't occurred to me at the time was that this curve can also be used to think about things like undead, monsters, zombies, etc. where you might actually want the characters to be just creepy enough to not look real.
The other thing I hadn't considered is what might lie on the graph at the peak just before you hit the valley. Characters at that point would be highly appealing, but not necessarily hugely human. As the article notes, "Here are fairylands and alien empires that never were, beautiful and terrible, in all their myriad variety." Think of all those Pokemon characters, Mogwai, and maybe even EB here.
Tom Tomorrow has a post up referring to some of the kinds of garbage people like him (and Ted Rall, who's ignited the storm this time) get when they say something the FOX crowd doesn't like. He includes this quote from one irate winger:
I was born in 1978 .... and I was a child when Reagan was president, but I read about him and his great work. He is the one who established a Department of Education. He turned this country around for the better.
[You like that one, Chandra? I knew you would.]
Here's my question: has this guy really read something that told him Reagan created the Department of Education, or is his reading comprehension just so bad that he didn't follow the story?
If conservatives get their way...
You wanna get to the White House? Okay, here's what you do-- head down Reagan Avenue until you hit Gipper Street, and turn left. Go straight for a while past the Reagan Memorial, and take a right at the Reagan Mint. Go straight for a while until you get to the Bonzo bust, and go right again. You should see the Reagan National Pool off to the side. From that point you should see signs taking you the rest of the way. You can't miss it. Oh, and by the way-- while you're in town you should check out that new exhibit on Nancy Reagan's exquisite taste in china. I hear it's supposed to be really good.
And of course, you would then want to tip the helpful person with a freshly-minted Ronald Reagan ten-dollar bill.
They're torturing American citizens, too:
After American Taliban recruit John Walker Lindh was captured in Afghanistan, the office of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld instructed military intelligence officers to "take the gloves off" in interrogating him.The instructions from Rumsfeld's legal counsel in late 2001, contained in previously undisclosed government documents, are the earliest known evidence that the Bush administration was willing to test the limits of how far it could go legally to extract information from suspected terrorists.
The Pentagon and Congress are now investigating the mistreatment of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in late 2003 and trying to determine whether higher-ups in the military chain of command had created a climate that fostered prisoner abuse.
What happened to Lindh, who was stripped and humiliated by his captors, foreshadowed the type of abuse documented in photographs of American soldiers tormenting Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
At the time, just weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. was desperate to find terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. After Lindh asked for a lawyer rather than talk to interrogators, he was not granted one nor was he advised of his Miranda rights against self-incrimination. Instead, the Pentagon ordered intelligence officers to get tough with him.
The documents, read to The Times by two sources critical of how the government handled the Lindh case, show that after an Army intelligence officer began to question Lindh, a Navy admiral told the intelligence officer that "the secretary of Defense's counsel has authorized him to 'take the gloves off' and ask whatever he wanted."
Lindh was being questioned while he was propped up naked and tied to a stretcher in interrogation sessions that went on for days, according to court papers.
In the early stages, his responses were cabled to Washington hourly, the new documents show.
I can only hope that after the media is done with its Reagasm that they start blasting this instead:
...and of course, they're trying to hush everything up. I can't help but think that if it wasn't for the Gipper biting it this past weekend, that this story would be everywhere. As far as I can tell, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and NY Times have been covering the story, but I've barely seen any mention of it on the CNN homepage, so I suspect that the story is not getting the play it should, which is insane. This kind of thing should send chills up your spine. It sure as hell does mine.
Check this out. Here's a brief summary:
Joe Previtera, a twenty one year old student at Boston College, was arrested Wednesday and charged with felonies after dressing as a hooded Iraqi prisoner in front of a military recruitment center on Tremont St. in downtown Boston. In his arraignment today a Suffolk County District Attorney suggested that Mr. Previtera's bail be set at $10,000. However, a National Lawyers Guild attorney and Mr. Previtera's mother, also an attorney, persuaded the judge to free Previtera on personal recognizance.
The photos (see first link) don't indicate that this guy was causing any particular problems for anyone, but that took some nerve to pose like that in front of a recruitment office.
If he just wears this and this all the time, he can't lose. Of course, just to be safe he might want to always wear a clean pair of these, too.
My email's down, and it apparently won't be back for "hours." Arrgh...
Apparently there's a proposal to ban photographs of the subways in New York. Photographers are not pleased, and staged a protest:
The photographers - about 100 of them - gathered to express their outrage at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed ban on taking pictures in the subway system. Meeting at Grand Central Terminal, they rode the trains for upward of an hour, shutters clicking, flashes popping, in a filmed rebuke to the idea that photography is somehow a national security threat.
When I took a trip to the Soviet Union back in the late 80s, one of the things we were told was that taking pictures of bridges was strictly forbidden. So...among my photos of the Kremlin, Red Square, etc. I have a very blurry picture of a bridge off in the distance, taken from the moving train. It's a little known fact, but that photo is what brought the Soviet Union to its knees.
Saw footage at lunch today of dubya meeting with the Pope. My first thought was that Bush looked like he'd been caught dropping smoke bombs in the rectory toilet. He looked more than a little freaked out. I haven't been able to find good video online, but here's a good description, and if you check out the gallery here you can get a rough idea of Bush's body language.
Oh, and just for grins this is the song that's been popping in my head all day. No, I don't understand the lyrics either.
Ok, so the kid was stupid, but man this seems mean:
This EBay seller auctioned his son's PlayStation 2 as punishment. Considering the final price, buyers evidently valued the chance to deprive a child of his most prized possession. [Cruel Site of the Day]
From TPM:
Mike Allen has some good follow-up on the president and his decision to bring on a personal lawyer in the Plame matter. Allen quotes the president as saying, "This is a criminal matter. It's a serious matter. I met with an attorney to determine whether or not I need his advice, and if I deem I need his advice I'll probably hire him."This follows the White House line from last night. The president 'consulted' Jim Sharp to advise him on whether or not he needs Sharp's advice. And based on that advice, if the president decides he does need Sharp's advice, he'll probably retain him so he can get the advice.
ok, I'm too lazy to type in the rest. Suffice to say that it's officially summer, and the various camps at UGA have begun. This week must be cheerleading camp, because the grass around Stegeman is filled with chicks in matching tank tops, shorts, ponytails and white bows (thus "bowheads") flouncing around. The only thing appearing to differentiate them is the word emblazoned across their buttocks: "CHEER!", "TITANS", "EAT AT JOE'S", etc. All that perk wafting off them can't be good for the ozone layer.
Well, the Palme d'Or was unexpected, but Disney got its black eye, and Michael Moore is getting his film released. Opens June 25, and the trailer's available on the web.
From Atrios:
Jeff Greenfield just did a report on the Polier/Kerry thing. He concluded the piece by saying that news outlets could learn a lot from the incident, but they probably won't. Indeed. Let's go back to my favorite Jeff Greenfield moment:
Even more damning was a "Nightline" report broadcast that same evening. The segment came very close to branding Hillary Clinton a perjurer. In his introduction, host Ted Koppel spoke pointedly about "the reluctance of the Clinton White House to be as forthcoming with documents as it promised to be." He then turned to correspondent Jeff Greenfield, who posed a rhetorical question: "Hillary Clinton did some legal work for Madison Guaranty at the Rose Law Firm, at a time when her husband was governor of Arkansas. How much work? Not much at all, she has said."
Up came a video clip from Hillary's April 22, 1994, Whitewater press conference. "The young attorney, the young bank officer, did all the work," she said. "It was not an area that I practiced in. It was not an area that I know anything, to speak of, about." Next the screen filled with handwritten notes taken by White House aide Susan Thomases during the 1992 campaign. "She [Hillary] did all the billing," the notes said. Greenfield quipped that it was no wonder "the White House was so worried about what was in Vince Foster's office when he killed himself."
What the audience didn't know was that the ABC videotape had been edited so as to create an inaccurate impression. At that press conference, Mrs. Clinton had been asked not how much work she had done for Madison Guaranty, but how her signature came to be on a letter dealing with Madison Guaranty's 1985 proposal to issue preferred stock. ABC News had seamlessly omitted thirty-nine words from her actual answer, as well as the cut, by interposing a cutaway shot of reporters taking notes. The press conference transcript shows that she actually answered as follows: "The young attorney [and] the young bank officer did all the work and the letter was sent. But because I was what we called the billing attorney -- in other words, I had to send the bill to get the payment sent -- my name was put on the bottom of the letter. It was not an area that I practiced in. It was not an area that I know anything, to speak of, about."
ABC News had taken a video clip out of context, and then accused the first lady of prevaricating about the very material it had removed. Within days, the doctored quotation popped up elsewhere. ABC used the identical clip on its evening news broadcast; so did CNN. The New York Times editorial page used it to scold Mrs. Clinton, as did columnist Maureen Dowd. Her colleague William Safire weighed in with an accusatory column of his own: "When you're a lawyer who needs a cover story to conceal close connections to a crooked client," he began, "you find some kid in your office willing to say he brought in the business and handled the client all by himself." Safire predicted the first lady's imminent indictment.
The producer of that segment? Chris Vlasto.
My emphasis added. This is something that happens all the time, and most people never think about it. I would wager that the vast majority of the time when you see the reporters face (or any other cutaway), the audio is being somehow edited. Unfortunately, there's no way for the viewer to know how much has been cut, or whether the cut is substantially changing what the interviewee said. Think about that next time you're watching the news and you see shots of the interviewer nodding politely while the other person is talking.
Cute Dead Things. Not as creepy as it sounds.
From TPM:
Now that some of the dust has settled, we can see one thing pretty clearly: the IGC basically hijacked the process. The IGC essentially reconstituted as a caretaker government. The new President, Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, was the current president of the IGC. Hoshiyar Zebari, who was the foreign minister in the IGC, is now the foreign minister under the interim government. Allawi was a member of and choice of the IGC, etc. And so on down the list. The only key issue is that Chalabi, if not his crew, has been purged. Brahimi agreed to a laying on of hands. But he didn't make the choices. He was sidelined.
When I heard this morning that the IGC had disbanded, I thought it seemed a little weird. This would explain it-- they're not disbanding, just taking a little vacation until they reconvene with a new name. I'm sure the whole handover thing will play well here in the U.S., since most people aren't familiar enough with what's going on to recognize the Iraqi players, and with everyone pretty much staying in place no one's likely to make a big fuss over the "transition." Still, I can't imagine that this is a good thing, since my understanding is that Iraqis see the IGC as American puppets. With them pretty much staying in place and America troops not going anywhere, who's going to think that anything significant has happened on July 1 outside the 50 states?
Today's lesson is that royalty rates for audio clips can be awfully expensive. I've got a CD of sound effects that had street traffic and applause that I was going to use for my Stock Stock entry, and wanting to be a good doobie I checked on what I needed to do to use the audio clips legally. I got my answer today. 100 pounds sterling, or $183.47 according to my currency converter. To my mind that seemed pretty steep for a video clip that may not get any public exhibition beyond getting posted to this web site, and that I expect to earn me a grand total of $0.00 (that's £0.00 at current exchange rates).
So, a little digging led me to soundfx.com, where I was able to grab a three files for right around $30, which I can use royalty-free.
