Month: January 2004

uhrgh

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My node id stubbed up, my head hurds, my throad id raw…today’s gonna suck.

iTunes: “Erased, Over, Out” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Further Down the Spiral (1995, 5:58).

Kodak cameras no more

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How very interesting — Kodak, a company who’s name has been synonymous with photography my entire life, will stop selling traditional film cameras in America and Western Europe.

Blaming declining demand, the Rochester, New York-based company said it would by the end of this year quit making cameras that use the Advanced Photo System (APS) format, as well as reloadable cameras that use 35-millimeter film.

[…]

Kodak will still make film for existing Advantix and other cameras, and intends to introduce new high-performance 35 millimeter and Advanced Photo System films next month.

(via BoingBoing and /.)

iTunes: “When Love Comes to Town” by U2 from the album Rattle and Hum (1988, 4:15).

IMDB top 250

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The Internet Movie Database top 250 films, as voted by IMDB members.

Movies I’ve seen are in bold and prepended with “»” — exactly half, as it turns out.

  1. » Godfather, The (1972) 9.0/10 (85952 votes)
  2. » Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) 8.9/10 (107497 votes)
  3. » Godfather: Part II, The (1974) 8.8/10 (50123 votes)
  4. » Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) 8.8/10 (40590 votes)
  5. » Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) 8.8/10 (70481 votes)
  6. Casablanca (1942) 8.7/10 (49906 votes)
  7. » Schindler’s List (1993) 8.7/10 (73500 votes)
  8. » Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) 8.7/10 (114811 votes)
  9. Shichinin no samurai (1954) 8.7/10 (21004 votes)
  10. » Star Wars (1977) 8.7/10 (105325 votes)
  11. » Citizen Kane (1941) 8.7/10 (46642 votes)
  12. » One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) 8.6/10 (52255 votes)
  13. » Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 8.6/10 (47315 votes)
  14. Rear Window (1954) 8.6/10 (30471 votes)
  15. » Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 8.6/10 (81067 votes)
  16. » Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 8.6/10 (71871 votes)
  17. » Memento (2000) 8.6/10 (63647 votes)
  18. » Usual Suspects, The (1995) 8.6/10 (79025 votes)
  19. » Pulp Fiction (1994) 8.6/10 (95386 votes)
  20. North by Northwest (1959) 8.5/10 (27150 votes)
  21. 12 Angry Men (1957) 8.5/10 (20783 votes)
  22. » Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) 8.5/10 (39774 votes)
  23. » Psycho (1960) 8.5/10 (41388 votes)
  24. » Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 8.5/10 (23439 votes)
  25. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) 8.5/10 (18600 votes)
  26. » Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) 8.5/10 (70778 votes)
  27. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 8.5/10 (31918 votes)
  28. Goodfellas (1990) 8.5/10 (49407 votes)
  29. » American Beauty (1999) 8.4/10 (83671 votes)
  30. » Vertigo (1958) 8.4/10 (25776 votes)
  31. Sunset Blvd. (1950) 8.4/10 (11430 votes)
  32. » Matrix, The (1999) 8.4/10 (108909 votes)
  33. » Apocalypse Now (1979) 8.4/10 (47828 votes)
  34. Pianist, The (2002) 8.4/10 (16132 votes)
  35. » To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) 8.4/10 (22416 votes)
  36. Some Like It Hot (1959) 8.3/10 (18683 votes)
  37. » Taxi Driver (1976) 8.3/10 (34534 votes)
  38. C’era una volta il West (1968) 8.3/10 (9817 votes)
  39. Third Man, The (1949) 8.3/10 (13750 votes)
  40. Paths of Glory (1957) 8.3/10 (10303 votes)
  41. » Fight Club (1999) 8.3/10 (78071 votes)
  42. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) 8.3/10 (12419 votes)
  43. » Boot, Das (1981) 8.3/10 (21611 votes)
  44. Double Indemnity (1944) 8.3/10 (8656 votes)
  45. » L.A. Confidential (1997) 8.3/10 (54347 votes)
  46. » Chinatown (1974) 8.3/10 (18982 votes)
  47. Singin’ in the Rain (1952) 8.3/10 (15379 votes)
  48. » Maltese Falcon, The (1941) 8.3/10 (15057 votes)
  49. » Requiem for a Dream (2000) 8.3/10 (30066 votes)
  50. M (1931) 8.3/10 (8591 votes)
  51. » Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) 8.3/10 (17003 votes)
  52. All About Eve (1950) 8.3/10 (9819 votes)
  53. » Se7en (1995) 8.3/10 (64280 votes)
  54. » Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) 8.3/10 (45177 votes)
  55. » Saving Private Ryan (1998) 8.2/10 (76604 votes)
  56. Cidade de Deus (2002) 8.2/10 (7771 votes)
  57. Raging Bull (1980) 8.2/10 (19140 votes)
  58. » Wizard of Oz, The (1939) 8.2/10 (29356 votes)
  59. Rashômon (1950) 8.2/10 (7934 votes)
  60. » Sting, The (1973) 8.2/10 (17916 votes)
  61. » Alien (1979) 8.2/10 (47259 votes)
  62. » American History X (1998) 8.2/10 (40805 votes)
  63. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 8.2/10 (8687 votes)
  64. » Léon (1994) 8.2/10 (36366 votes)
  65. Vita è bella, La (1997) 8.2/10 (28985 votes)
  66. Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 8.2/10 (9860 votes)
  67. Touch of Evil (1958) 8.2/10 (8917 votes)
  68. » 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 8.2/10 (50844 votes)
  69. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) 8.2/10 (7720 votes)
  70. Wo hu cang long (2000) 8.2/10 (40663 votes)
  71. Great Escape, The (1963) 8.2/10 (14435 votes)
  72. » Clockwork Orange, A (1971) 8.2/10 (48619 votes)
  73. » Reservoir Dogs (1992) 8.2/10 (48741 votes)
  74. » Amadeus (1984) 8.2/10 (28249 votes)
  75. Annie Hall (1977) 8.2/10 (15702 votes)
  76. Ran (1985) 8.2/10 (8438 votes)
  77. » Jaws (1975) 8.2/10 (35421 votes)
  78. Modern Times (1936) 8.2/10 (7209 votes)
  79. On the Waterfront (1954) 8.2/10 (8989 votes)
  80. » Braveheart (1995) 8.1/10 (70455 votes)
  81. High Noon (1952) 8.1/10 (9106 votes)
  82. Apartment, The (1960) 8.1/10 (8123 votes)
  83. » Fargo (1996) 8.1/10 (50814 votes)
  84. » Sixth Sense, The (1999) 8.1/10 (73059 votes)
  85. » Aliens (1986) 8.1/10 (49225 votes)
  86. » Shining, The (1980) 8.1/10 (36774 votes)
  87. Strangers on a Train (1951) 8.1/10 (7568 votes)
  88. » Blade Runner (1982) 8.1/10 (59265 votes)
  89. » Metropolis (1927) 8.1/10 (8500 votes)
  90. Duck Soup (1933) 8.1/10 (7369 votes)
  91. Donnie Darko (2001) 8.1/10 (24871 votes)
  92. » Finding Nemo (2003) 8.1/10 (19004 votes)
  93. General, The (1927) 8.1/10 (4897 votes)
  94. » Princess Bride, The (1987) 8.1/10 (42145 votes)
  95. » Toy Story 2 (1999) 8.1/10 (30186 votes)
  96. City Lights (1931) 8.1/10 (5514 votes)
  97. Great Dictator, The (1940) 8.1/10 (6981 votes)
  98. » Lola rennt (1998) 8.0/10 (23936 votes)
  99. » Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 8.0/10 (24285 votes)
  100. Notorious (1946) 8.0/10 (7646 votes)
  101. » Full Metal Jacket (1987) 8.0/10 (34726 votes)
  102. Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) 8.0/10 (6501 votes)
  103. » Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1989) 8.0/10 (10365 votes)
  104. Rebecca (1940) 8.0/10 (8314 votes)
  105. » Mononoke-hime (1997) 8.0/10 (12922 votes)
  106. » Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 8.0/10 (15175 votes)
  107. Big Sleep, The (1946) 8.0/10 (7487 votes)
  108. » Graduate, The (1967) 8.0/10 (20785 votes)
  109. It Happened One Night (1934) 8.0/10 (5693 votes)
  110. Manhattan (1979) 8.0/10 (9389 votes)
  111. » Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 8.0/10 (59058 votes)
  112. Deer Hunter, The (1978) 8.0/10 (20594 votes)
  113. Patton (1970) 8.0/10 (10548 votes)
  114. Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946) 8.0/10 (4519 votes)
  115. Searchers, The (1956) 8.0/10 (7644 votes)
  116. » Glory (1989) 8.0/10 (16893 votes)
  117. Yojimbo (1961) 8.0/10 (5840 votes)
  118. Ladri di biciclette (1948) 8.0/10 (5236 votes)
  119. » Philadelphia Story, The (1940) 8.0/10 (7994 votes)
  120. African Queen, The (1951) 8.0/10 (10810 votes)
  121. » Forrest Gump (1994) 8.0/10 (66094 votes)
  122. Bringing Up Baby (1938) 8.0/10 (6803 votes)
  123. » Cool Hand Luke (1967) 8.0/10 (10603 votes)
  124. » Ben-Hur (1959) 8.0/10 (15834 votes)
  125. » Green Mile, The (1999) 8.0/10 (42534 votes)
  126. » Shrek (2001) 8.0/10 (43296 votes)
  127. Once Upon a Time in America (1984) 8.0/10 (12557 votes)
  128. » Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) 8.0/10 (63418 votes)
  129. » Unforgiven (1992) 8.0/10 (22661 votes)
  130. Hable con ella (2002) 8.0/10 (7512 votes)
  131. Stalag 17 (1953) 8.0/10 (5119 votes)
  132. » Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) 7.9/10 (8502 votes)
  133. » Grapes of Wrath, The (1940) 7.9/10 (5750 votes)
  134. » Gone with the Wind (1939) 7.9/10 (21876 votes)
  135. Night of the Hunter, The (1955) 7.9/10 (5452 votes)
  136. Wild Bunch, The (1969) 7.9/10 (8046 votes)
  137. Straight Story, The (1999) 7.9/10 (10466 votes)
  138. Elephant Man, The (1980) 7.9/10 (11833 votes)
  139. Christmas Story, A (1983) 7.9/10 (14954 votes)
  140. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 7.9/10 (4890 votes)
  141. » Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) 7.9/10 (46461 votes)
  142. » Platoon (1986) 7.9/10 (25539 votes)
  143. Hustler, The (1961) 7.9/10 (6050 votes)
  144. » Back to the Future (1985) 7.9/10 (51627 votes)
  145. » Young Frankenstein (1974) 7.9/10 (16567 votes)
  146. » His Girl Friday (1940) 7.9/10 (4837 votes)
  147. » Monsters, Inc. (2001) 7.9/10 (26100 votes)
  148. » Die Hard (1988) 7.9/10 (44845 votes)
  149. Amores perros (2000) 7.9/10 (8940 votes)
  150. Grande illusion, La (1937) 7.9/10 (3686 votes)
  151. Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938) 7.9/10 (5145 votes)
  152. » Gold Rush, The (1925) 7.9/10 (4560 votes)
  153. » Almost Famous (2000) 7.9/10 (27984 votes)
  154. » Spartacus (1960) 7.9/10 (12390 votes)
  155. » Life of Brian (1979) 7.9/10 (24447 votes)
  156. Charade (1963) 7.9/10 (6386 votes)
  157. Conversation, The (1974) 7.9/10 (7325 votes)
  158. » Gladiator (2000) 7.9/10 (68872 votes)
  159. Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (1962) 7.9/10 (5236 votes)
  160. Festen (1998) 7.9/10 (8900 votes)
  161. Lost in Translation (2003) 7.9/10 (7081 votes)
  162. Magnolia (1999) 7.9/10 (33292 votes)
  163. » Being John Malkovich (1999) 7.9/10 (40325 votes)
  164. Sling Blade (1996) 7.9/10 (16093 votes)
  165. Smultronstället (1957) 7.9/10 (3359 votes)
  166. » Toy Story (1995) 7.9/10 (34938 votes)
  167. Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925) 7.9/10 (4074 votes)
  168. » Insider, The (1999) 7.9/10 (21327 votes)
  169. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 7.9/10 (3683 votes)
  170. Roman Holiday (1953) 7.9/10 (6796 votes)
  171. » Brazil (1985) 7.8/10 (23606 votes)
  172. Night at the Opera, A (1935) 7.8/10 (4411 votes)
  173. » Mulholland Dr. (2001) 7.8/10 (23334 votes)
  174. Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951) 7.8/10 (6955 votes)
  175. Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951) 7.8/10 (7618 votes)
  176. All the President’s Men (1976) 7.8/10 (9542 votes)
  177. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) 7.8/10 (5294 votes)
  178. » Exorcist, The (1973) 7.8/10 (24380 votes)
  179. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 7.8/10 (3854 votes)
  180. To Be or Not to Be (1942) 7.8/10 (2538 votes)
  181. Quatre cents coups, Les (1959) 7.8/10 (4348 votes)
  182. Killing, The (1956) 7.8/10 (4732 votes)
  183. Mystic River (2003) 7.8/10 (6971 votes)
  184. Ed Wood (1994) 7.8/10 (15336 votes)
  185. » Terminator, The (1984) 7.8/10 (45057 votes)
  186. Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994) 7.8/10 (7787 votes)
  187. » Stand by Me (1986) 7.8/10 (23046 votes)
  188. » Adaptation. (2002) 7.8/10 (14009 votes)
  189. » Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) 7.8/10 (5735 votes)
  190. » Twelve Monkeys (1995) 7.8/10 (47687 votes)
  191. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) 7.8/10 (10389 votes)
  192. » This Is Spinal Tap (1984) 7.8/10 (14517 votes)
  193. » Harvey (1950) 7.8/10 (5761 votes)
  194. Right Stuff, The (1983) 7.8/10 (10181 votes)
  195. Gandhi (1982) 7.8/10 (11787 votes)
  196. » Trainspotting (1996) 7.8/10 (38817 votes)
  197. Network (1976) 7.8/10 (6855 votes)
  198. Miller’s Crossing (1990) 7.8/10 (10096 votes)
  199. Midnight Cowboy (1969) 7.8/10 (9605 votes)
  200. Ying xiong (2002) 7.8/10 (5199 votes)
  201. Lion in Winter, The (1968) 7.8/10 (4297 votes)
  202. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) 7.8/10 (9249 votes)
  203. » Groundhog Day (1993) 7.8/10 (32166 votes)
  204. » Minority Report (2002) 7.8/10 (35042 votes)
  205. » Rain Man (1988) 7.8/10 (32212 votes)
  206. » Others, The (2001) 7.8/10 (25521 votes)
  207. King Kong (1933) 7.8/10 (7367 votes)
  208. Laura (1944) 7.8/10 (3414 votes)
  209. Stagecoach (1939) 7.8/10 (4080 votes)
  210. 8½ (1963) 7.8/10 (5605 votes)
  211. » Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) 7.8/10 (23790 votes)
  212. » Snatch. (2000) 7.8/10 (29700 votes)
  213. 39 Steps, The (1935) 7.8/10 (5571 votes)
  214. » Traffic (2000) 7.8/10 (31902 votes)
  215. Whale Rider (2002) 7.8/10 (4151 votes)
  216. » Untouchables, The (1987) 7.7/10 (22841 votes)
  217. Hotaru no haka (1988) 7.7/10 (3922 votes)
  218. Strada, La (1954) 7.7/10 (3443 votes)
  219. » Beauty and the Beast (1991) 7.7/10 (18809 votes)
  220. » Big Lebowski, The (1998) 7.7/10 (34322 votes)
  221. » Henry V (1989) 7.7/10 (6772 votes)
  222. Rio Bravo (1959) 7.7/10 (5216 votes)
  223. In the Heat of the Night (1967) 7.7/10 (4720 votes)
  224. Thin Man, The (1934) 7.7/10 (3438 votes)
  225. Todo sobre mi madre (1999) 7.7/10 (9705 votes)
  226. Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, La (1928) 7.7/10 (2176 votes)
  227. » Planet of the Apes (1968) 7.7/10 (15050 votes)
  228. Die xue shuang xiong (1989) 7.7/10 (6670 votes)
  229. » Fantasia (1940) 7.7/10 (11720 votes)
  230. » Good Will Hunting (1997) 7.7/10 (47630 votes)
  231. Being There (1979) 7.7/10 (7884 votes)
  232. » Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) 7.7/10 (31423 votes)
  233. » Clerks. (1994) 7.7/10 (30777 votes)
  234. Beautiful Mind, A (2001) 7.7/10 (30319 votes)
  235. Red River (1948) 7.7/10 (2676 votes)
  236. Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 7.7/10 (3016 votes)
  237. » E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) 7.7/10 (34144 votes)
  238. MASH (1970) 7.7/10 (11881 votes)
  239. » Man Who Would Be King, The (1975) 7.7/10 (6294 votes)
  240. Road to Perdition (2002) 7.7/10 (20995 votes)
  241. » X2 (2003) 7.7/10 (23029 votes)
  242. Sleuth (1972) 7.7/10 (3522 votes)
  243. Quiet Man, The (1952) 7.7/10 (5455 votes)
  244. » Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) 7.7/10 (10818 votes)
  245. JFK (1991) 7.7/10 (20430 votes)
  246. » Heat (1995) 7.7/10 (31817 votes)
  247. » O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) 7.7/10 (28294 votes)
  248. Birds, The (1963) 7.7/10 (15314 votes)
  249. » Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) 7.7/10 (21030 votes)
  250. Killing Fields, The (1984) 7.7/10 (7391 votes)

(via kalyx and prettyman63)

iTunes: “900° (Cool Down)” by Pooley, Ian from the album Essential Chillout (2000, 6:47).

‘cuddling’

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I’ve been reading Something Positive for a while now, since Royce showed it to me, but yesterday’s strip has two of the best quotes I’ve seen from it yet.

If masturbating was supposed to be cute, pink bunnies would do it in meadows and they’d ejaculate rainbows and flower petals.

I’m an artist and mindfucks are my medium.

iTunes: “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2 from the album Rattle and Hum (1988, 4:27).

Electronic Grassroots

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Much has been made over the past few months of how political campaigns are more and more turning to electronic means of communication and organization to connect and interact with voters, usually pointing to the Howard Dean campaign as the leader and trendsetter for this new approach to politicking. But how did Dean’s online juggernaut get kicked into high gear? It all boils down to three essential people and two websites: Jerome Armstrong and Mathew Gross, of MyDD.com, and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos.

How did it start? Well, with inadequate political coverage and two political junkies who wrote like sportswriters.

[…]

Armstrong and Kos were both deeply interested in ‘the conventional wisdon’, and how it was formed. What Armstrong liked about Dean was that Dean was a fighter, very early on. As he wrote, “This brings up another point, Dean is the only Democrat who is calling Bush to the mat on his budget-busting tax-cuts.” Armstrong and Kos believed that a candidate needed to stand for something, but, as self-confessed amateurs, held back from making claims about being able to do politics better than the party itself.

The 2002 midterms changed the rules. Because of the intense sports race tenor of the race – and Kos’s proclivity to muse and post on nearly every race – Kos regularly got upwards of 80 comments on each post. The Iraq war later kicked up Kos’s traffic to yet another level, but the midterms were the first hints that a special community was forming. Shortly after the electoral losses, the community started discussing a new slogan for the Democratic Party. The anger at the party that would spark Dean’s rise was evident. Kos mused dejectedly after the losses: “None of us are Democratic Party consultants (as far as I know), but ideas have to start somewhere and this is as good a place as any. God knows whatever focus-group testing the Dems have conducted haven’t given us squat.”

It’s an excellent retrospective of just how all of the current blog-centric political campaigns got their start. Not with pundits sitting in back rooms scheming and grasping at straws, trying to come up with any desperate plan to get their candidate on the news and a household name — but with people who felt strongly that this country was in trouble, could do better, and needed a change, and decided that they had the ability and drive to do something about it.

It’s a wonderful thing we’ve gotten started here.

iTunes: “Kiss, The” by Cure, The from the album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987, 6:14).

Changing my habits

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NetNewsWire grouped

As sloppy as my apartment can get (and believe me, it can get quite sloppy — though it’s usually just “extremely cluttered” as opposed to “disgustingly messy”, a small but important difference), I tend to be extremely organized in many other areas of my life. My occasional rants about metadata and .mp3 tags have probably clued a few people in to this aspect of my personality. I also tend to keep my movies, books, and music alphabetized, files on my computers all in their appropriate places, and so on. Heck, part of my drive to ensure that my web pages validate as clean, standards-compliant code stems from this innate desire for simple categorization and the ability to find things quickly.

To that end, since I started using NetNewsWire to keep up with the various weblogs and news sites that I like to read, I’ve used its grouping function to assign each RSS feed to a specific category — technology, macintosh, personal, and so on.

About a month ago, Rand was asking about RSS reading habits, and after a bit of thought prompted by his post, I’ve been wondering for a bit if this categorization is really the best approach for me to take. As my list of subscribed feeds grows (currently hovering right around 100 or so, give or take a few I’m reading on a trial basis — nowhere near Scoble’s 600+, but still fairly respectable), I’m finding it harder and harder to get through all my feeds on a regular basis. I’ve been doing very well at keeping up with sites that were in the groups at the top of the list (usually Personal and Macintosh), but not so well with groups towards the bottom (usually Links and Political). If I get bored, hungry, or distracted during my reading, the ones at the bottom get fairly regularly neglected.

NetNewsWire ungrouped

So, starting tonight, I’m going to try to vary my reading habits a bit to see what that does. I’ve deleted all the groups I was using before, and instead have all the feeds listed in more-or-less alphabetical order, top to bottom in a single group, ordered by date posted. While the amount of information doesn’t really change, the presentation is different enough that it might make a difference in what I find on any given day. I know I’ve missed a few breaking stories over the past few weeks, especially in the political arena, simply because I wasn’t getting far enough through my reading to see them until they’d already been blogged to death by everyone else on the ‘net.

I’m hoping that this little adjustment will be enough to help me keep up with everything a little bit better. No way to know until I try, of course.

iTunes: “She Cries Your Name” by Orton, Beth from the album Who Will Be Big In ’98? (1997, 4:47).

Army War College blasts ‘War on Terror’

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Wow.

A scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an “unnecessary” war in Iraq and pursuing an “unrealistic” quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat.

The report, by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, warns that as a result of those mistakes, the Army is “near the breaking point.”

It recommends, among other things, scaling back the scope of the “global war on terrorism” and instead focusing on the narrower threat posed by the al Qaeda terrorist network.

“[T]he global war on terrorism as currently defined and waged is dangerously indiscriminate and ambitious, and accordingly . . . its parameters should be readjusted,” Record writes. Currently, he adds, the anti-terrorism campaign “is strategically unfocused, promises more than it can deliver, and threatens to dissipate U.S. military resources in an endless and hopeless search for absolute security.”

The full 56-page report can be found on the Strategic Studies Institute website.

(via Al-Muhajabah)

iTunes: “Memories of the Future” by Edge of Motion from the album Essential Chillout (2000, 13:02).

Hey!

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Hey!

On its face, that expression is neither offensive nor disturbing. “Hey!” is an informal way to say hello. It indicates kindness, simple courtesy and an economy of words.

But a 13-year-old boy at Richland Middle School in Richland Hills was suspended for three days in December because he sent that simple message to every computer in the school using an archaic form of instant messaging. The software was created years ago in the old disk operating system used in earlier versions of personal computers.

This story has been making the rounds on the ‘net for the past few days (see MetaFilter, /.). It’s got all the hallmarks of something bound to catch the interest of a lot of geeks: a kid exploring and discovering how his computer actually works beyond simple point-and-clicking, an innocent mistake when demonstrating capabilities to friends, and an overbearing school administration. It might not have raised as much of a ruckus as it did, except that in the course of writing his article about the events, the columnist received an e-mail from one of the school administrators involved in the incident questioning the right of anyone not involved directly in the school system to criticize teaching and discipline techniques.

Too often, people who do not know the real world of public education feel that they are the ‘experts’ who have all the solutions and that their opinions are as valuable as those who live in this world daily.

…

I invite you, parents, our state representatives, and anyone else that thinks they know how a teacher or a district should react to ANY situation to come live with us for a while — be a substitute teacher for a few weeks and learn the real world of public education.

…more troubling is the notion that Sweeney does not believe that the rest of us have any right to question the decisions made by public educators.

Remember, we pay the salaries of the teachers and staff. We buy the computers. We pay for the buildings in which they are used. As long as public school is public, the Beverly Sweeneys of the world need to know that it is our right and duty to look over their shoulders and question what they do.

In this case, the punishment of Carl Grimmer was overkill, but the response of the school’s computer liaison shows that public education really does demand greater oversight from us outsiders, certainly not less.

Many of the discussions spurred by this event and the various responses from the people involved have been very interesting to read. It turns out that the kid and his parents have put up a page detailing their view of the events and the responses to them. It’s an entertaining read — everyone (except the school) seems to be handling everything quite reasonably.

iTunes: “Go” by Moby from the album Hackers 2 (1997, 3:59).

Kevin and Emily, sitting in a tree…

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…K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first come love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage!

A few days ago, I got word that my brother and his fianceé had just discovered that they’re going to be having a baby, due to show up in early August. Yesterday parents let me know that the long-awaited wedding has been scheduled — for next month!

This has been an exciting week! Kev & Emily are getting married Feb 15, with the baby due early August.

The wedding will be at a botanical garden in Memphis, outdoors if the weather is good, or indoors if necessary.

That’s about all I know. They didn’t want any fuss, but Emily’s aunt convinced her today that a small family wedding would be ok, so they “booked a place” then came home and told Kevin!

We’ll be there, of course.

I’ll be there too — I fired off an e-mail to my manager last night, and got confirmation this morning that I’ll be able to get a few days off to head down there. Tennessee, here I come: my lil’ brother’s getting married!

Of course, given that the wedding was announced after the baby was announced, and the ceremony is going to be in Tennessee…well, one has to wonder whether I’ll come back with wedding pictures featuring a shotgun-wielding father in the background…;)

Why I’ve missed IRC

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Pertinent parts of a #joiito conversation just after I walked in…

Tantek: Clinton did pay down the debt with budget surplus.
rojisan: of course he did. during the clinton administration, blowjobs were FREE
michaelh: sounds good to me
michaelh: get that boy back in office
Tantek: term limits
michaelh: details, Tantek — if he can debate the meaning of “is”, I’m sure he can debate “term limits” ;)
adamhill: or surplus or blow job ;)
michaelh: he’s a master debater, he is
adamhill: <rimshot/ >
adamhill: michaelh, he’ll be here all week, try the prime rib
michaelh: don’t forget to tip the waitresses
michaelh pushes a waitress over
rojisan: try the waitresses? tip the prime rib?
rojisan: sorry. clinton flashback

iTunes: “Get Down, Make Love” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Sin (1990, 4:19).