Lost track of where I found this, but nevertheless this scatterplot of liberal/conservative views is interesting. However, while I can't speak to the methodology, I would have reversed the scales to give liberals the positive side, and conservatives the negative side seeing as how they tend to be the more backwards-thinking of the pair.
Just sayin'.
Our marriage has been saved!
Dear Jason,
You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.
We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.
-Your friends at Netflix
Marriages are about compromise. For the most part, I think Chandra and I do a decent job with that. We manage to negotiate things where necessary, and sometimes let things go. Of course, there are points of intense disagreement, which is why the following note from Netflix sent a chill up my spine:
Dear Jason,
We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.
Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.
While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.
We could alphabetize the CDs, and our book collection has quietly segregated itself into chick lit and quality reading. However, I'm not sure that we're going to be able to negotiate a Netflix combined queue without professional intervention.
Kevin Drum has some cheery thoughts regarding Afghanistan. If Iraq is a disaster and a quagmire, I can only think that Afghanistan is revving up to be an epic fail of monumental proportions. The kind of failure that will make the Iraq debacle look good in comparison.
Via Wordle, a cloud of words from the last 2500 lines of this blog, give or take.
Via Salon.com, the following quote from 1950:
For it is the plain fact that nowadays there are no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation … the conservative impulse and the reactionary impulse do not … express themselves in ideas but only … in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.
INT. basement office
JASON is sitting at his computer watching a progress bar stall out and stop. A message pops up on the screen indicating that the download has failed.
Jason
Argh. What the hell is up with the network?
He gets up and walks over to the DSL modem and shuts it off, followed by the Airport hub sitting next to it and two routers on the other side of the room. He pauses after unplugging the last piece of hardware.
JASON (CONT'D)
One...two...three...four...five...
He then reverses the process, plugging everything back in and checking to be sure that all the lights are green and happy. Once satisfied, he sits back down at his computer and tries the download again. After a few moments, it times out with an error message.
JASON (CONT'D)
Aahh...dammit! Alright, what's the tech support number?
INT. bASEMENT OFFICE, 20 minutes later
JASON
Ah-- there it is.
Jason picks up the phone and dials it. After navigating the interface, he gets a recording.
Tech support recording
We are sorry for the delay. Your business is important to us. Your call will be answered in...ONE...minute. Please stay on the line. While you are waiting, did you know that many technical issues can be solved by simply cycling the power on your DSL modem?
INT. baSEMENT OFFICE, 10 MINUTES LATER
Jason is cradling the phone under his ear as he plays absently with a Slinky.
TECH SUPPORT RECORDING
...business is important to us. Your call will be answered in...ONE...min--
Tech support
AT&T Internet, how may I help you?
JASON
Yeah, my network speeds have gone in the toilet.
TECH SUPPORT
Okay sir, I'd like to have you cycle the power on your modem and PC.
JASON
I've already done that, and it didn't do any good. I've got something like six machines on the network, and don't really want to go through the voodoo of turning them all off. Can we just skip to the next step?
TECH SUPPORT
Uh...that's the only step I've got.
To be fair, we did ultimately get the problem here resolved, but the phone guy really didn't have much to offer.
echo "excellent, not spectacular" ;}
On Kung Fu Monkey today, I found the following:
...I should be so lucky as to be "hustled" off the national stage after 54 goddam primaries and caucuses. Many, many, many of us who wanted Senator Clinton "hustled" off the stage wanted her gone not because a hotly contested primary race was the issue, but because of the way she ran it.
I didn't want a female senator out of the race. I didn't want a universal health-care advocate out of the race. I wanted the weirdly Republican-lite, crazy rules-changing, stereotype-reinforcing panderer that had somehow burrowed into Hillary Clinton's skull out of the race. Hell, the Republicans are actually using her "Commander-in-Chief threshold" argument in one of their ads against Senator Obama.
In short, Senator Clinton had my respect, based on her accomplishments and independent of her gender -- then she spent it, tossed it away in fistfuls, in trade for dirty borrowed blades with which to cut her way to the nomination. She Liebermaned on us.
Vermont you big doof.
Chandra
On Jun 2, 2008, at 1:19 PM, Jason Orrill wrote:
Virginia Tech? That's not really what I meant when I suggested something shotgun-themed.
On Jun 2, 2008, at 12:33 PM, Chandra Orrill wrote:
We're going to VT for our anniversary -- well, actually for Vanessa's wedding, but it's all the same. I'll mark out some days on your calendar. We can fly out of SC.
me