Dec. 16: LOTR Marathon

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It’s official: the Lord of the Rings Marathon will be at the Seattle Cinerama on Dec. 16th.

Leading up to the December 17 release of The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King, the final film Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy, New Line Cinema will bring moviegoers an exclusive, One-time-only in-theater event: The Lord of the Rings Special Extended Edition Screening Engagement.

The schedule for this special theatrical screening series is as follows:

December 5-11
Special Extended Edition The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
December 12-15
Special Extended Edition The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Tuesday, December 16
One-time-only marathon of both the Extended Edition prints followed by the first screenings of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Tickets available October 9th!

Now comes the question — am I crazy enough to do this? I think so…

Search the web?

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Search the web button

A question for Windows UI gurus — why in the world is there a “Search the web” button right next to the “Up one level” button in open/save dialog boxes in Windows XP?

I never realized that it was there before — or if I’d noticed it, I’d never given it much thought — but a few minutes ago, I was switching directories to open a file, when suddenly Excel switched into the background, my web browser came up, and I was dumped into an MSN search page. Now, I’m no newbie with computers, I’ve been using Macs since System 6, Windows since v3.1, and have experience with CP/M, MS-DOS, UNIX, etc. Even with many years of computer use behind me, for a few moments I was completely baffled — I didn’t have the faintest clue why I wasn’t in the open/save dialog box anymore, and was instead staring at a search box on the web.

Firstly, I’ve yet to come up with a good reason why an open/save dialog even needs a “Search the web” button. Secondly, though, and more importantly, why is that button placed a mere seven pixels away from the navigational “Up one level” button, and smack dab in the middle of a collection of navigational buttons? Any other choice in that menu bar relates to actions you can take on the computer — navigational movement, creating new folders, or switching your list view choice — but then there’s this one button, right in the midst of the rest, that ends up moving you from navigating your file system into a web search.

I can’t come up with a scenario or thought process in which that might be useful, or make any kind of sense — and while I’m no UI expert, if someone with my level of computer experience can be confused that quickly as to what just happened, it’s almost mind boggling how a new computer user must feel when faced with situations like this.

And this is a surpise to…who?

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Remember all those weapons of mass destruction that Bush et al assured us were all over Iraq, just waiting to be found? Funny thing, that — apparently, they don’t exist after all.

The U.S-led team hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found no stockpiles of biological or chemical weapons, six months after the United States launched a war against Baghdad to remove such a threat, CIA adviser David Kay said on Thursday.

Gee, imagine that.

Not that Bush cares.

The Bush administration is seeking more than \$600 million from Congress to continue the hunt for conclusive evidence that Saddam Hussein’s government had an illegal weapons program, officials said Wednesday.

The money, part of the White House’s request for \$87 billion in supplemental spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, comes on top of at least \$300 million that has already been spent on the weapons search, the officials said.

Um, Georgie-boy? They’re not there. Let’s just take our toys and go home before the other kids really get sick of our stomping around in the sandbox and gang up on us. Nobody likes a bully.

Shmuck.

(via Kos)

Graham out?

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It’s a little unclear, but it looks like Bob Graham is abandoning the Democratic nomination race.

Democrat Bob Graham told a Senate colleague Thursday that he would abandon his struggling presidential bid, a Democratic source said, but in a day filled with mixed signals, aides said he will continue to campaign.

One down…nine to go.

(via Atrios)

A marriage made in heaven

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…If Yoko Ono married Sonny Bono, she’d be Yoko Ono Bono.

…If Dolly Parton married Salvador Dali, she’d be Dolly Dali.

…If Bo Derek married Don Ho, she’d be Bo Ho.

…If Ella Fitzgerald married Darth Vader, she’d be Ella Vader.

…If Oprah Winfrey married Depak Chopra, she’d be Oprah Chopra.

…If Cat Stevens married Snoop Doggy Dogg, he’d be Cat Doggy Dogg.

…If Olivia Newton…John married Wayne Newton, then divorced him to marry Elton John, she’d be Olivia Newton…John Newton John.

…If Sondra Locke married Elliott Ness, then divorced him to marry Herman Munster, she’d become Sondra Locke Ness Munster.

…If Bea Arthur married Sting, she’d be Bea Sting.

…If Liv Ullman married Judge Lance Ito, then divorced him and married Jerry Mathers, she’d be Liv Ito Beaver.

…If Snoop Doggy Dogg married Winnie the Pooh, he’d be Snoop Doggy Dogg Pooh.

…G. Gordon Liddy married Boutros…Boutros Ghali, then divorced him to marry Kenny G., he’d be G. Ghali G.

…If Jack married Andy Capp, then married Jack Paar, then moved on to Stephen King, he’d be Jack Handy Capp Paar King.

…If Woody Allen married Natalie Wood, divorced her and married Gregory Peck, divorced him and married Ben Hur, he’d be Woody Wood Peck Hur.

…If Ivana Trump married, in succession, Orson Bean (actor), King Oscar (of Norway), Louis B. Mayer (of MGM), and Norbert Wiener (mathematician), she would then be Ivana Bean Oscar Mayer Wiener.

(via Prairie)

Genetic Engineering

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NZ billboard protesting genetic engineering

Here’s an eye opener for you — a New Zealand billboard from Mothers Against Genetic Engineering protesting genetic engineering experiments that asks “Why not just genetically engineer women for milk?”

Aside from the obvious (and brilliant) attention-getting shock tactics of the image, there’s some interesting questions being raised here.

New Zealanders are allowing a handful of corporate scientists and ill-informed politicians to make decisions on the ethics of GE. Our largest science company, AgResearch, is currently putting human genes into cows in the hope of creating new designer milks. The ethics of such experiments have not even been discussed by the wider public. How far will we allow them to go?

Unfortunately, it’s time for me to head out the door to get to work. Discuss amongst yourselves.

(via MeFi)

Democrat fundraising outdoing Bush

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Very interesting tidbit in the midst of this MSNBC look at Democratic fundraising:

Taking the party-wide view, [Democratic fund-raiser Simon] Rosenberg pointed to what almost no one else has noticed: Based on the preliminary estimates for the third quarter, the 10-person Democratic field collectively will have outraised the Bush campaign, an indication of how fired up Democratic donors are.

“If Bush is this supposed fund-raising king, then this so-called ‘weak’ Democratic field — to use Karl Rove’s word — is outraising him,” Rosenberg said.

(via Mathew Gross)