June 2008 Archives

Barack Obama, caving on FISA: 15 electoral votes...

On January 29, 2008, Obama said:

I strongly oppose retroactive immunity in the FISA bill.... No one should get a free pass to violate the basic civil liberties of the American people - not the President of the United States, and not the telecommunications companies that fell in line with his warrantless surveillance program. We have to make clear the lines that cannot be crossed.

In late June of 2008, Obama changed his mind:

By me:

If it's tourist season, does that mean we can shoot the tourists?

I often ponder, several times of the year -- mostly Christmas and summer -- the fact that the residents of Alaska, every single one of them, get a check every year from the state, their cut of the state's income from oil revenues. Because we New Yorkers are supposed to believe, during those seasons when the sidewalks and subways are clogged with people from Iowa or wherever who don't understand the etiquette of navigating a crowd, that it's Good For The Economy that we get frequently inundated with people who don't know to move the fuck to the right on an escalator so those of us who are in a hurry and cannot freakin' stand to stand still just because the stairs are moving at a snail's pace can get by because we have somewhere to be. I ponder Alaska and its oil-revenue checks to citizens because it never happens that I get a check for the State of New York for my cut of the tourist income. And since I'm the one who has to deal with a herd of slow-moving Nebraskans spread out across the entire width of the sidewalk and gawping up into the air because they've never seen buildings more than three stories tall, I think it would be only fair if I were to get a sliver of the hotel taxes they're paying.

One time, not more than a year or two ago, I pointed out to a group of tourists that they were blocking the sidewalk. And one of them had the nerve to ask me what I was doing in Times Square if I wasn't a tourist. And I, being the polite New Yorker than I am, refrained from reminding her that Times Square is not Disneyland, and that people actually live and work there.

I cannot wait till the kids go back to school, because then I will be able to move on the sidewalk again at a pace that assures I will arrive at my destination before 2029.

(Technorati tags: New York City, tourists)

I was wondering why this blog was getting few comments, and I figured it was because it was new. But it seems there was an issue with avoiding registering by logging in anonymously. I think that problem is fixed now, and you should be able to post a comment without going through the hassle of email confirmation. (If the lack of email confirmation seems to be causing a problem with spam or trolls, I may have to turn it back on, but for now, it's off.)

This was the news last December, and it was alarming:

The hot Northern Hemisphere summer sharply increased the rate at which Arctic ice is melting and scientists now believe summer ice could be gone completely within five years.

Six months later -- not five years, six months -- we hear this:

My rent went up this month, and just today one of my major freelance clients cut me back to half the work (and half what they were paying me). My other major freelance client hasn't raised my hourly rate in four years.

Forget about getting ahead: I can't even stay in the same place. Which I wouldn't be doing anyway today when the prices in the supermarket keep jumping from week to week.

But hey! My cat just died, so think of all the money I'll save on cat food and cat litter... after I pay off the vet for the job of sticking a needle in her and killing her. So why should I be complaining?

Boy. I thought these numbers, from August 2005, were horrific. They're looking damn good today:

You know who else is making a ton of money these days, besides the oil companies? Whoever makes those numbers for the gas price signs. I bet they're running up the 5's and 6's now, getting ready for the summer driving season...

(Technorati tags: gas prices)

The Doctor (of Doctor Who, that is) in "Silence in the Library":

I'm thick! Look at me, I'm old and thick, head's too full of stuff. I need a bigger head!

(Technorati tags: Doctor Who)

Oh my god:

US musician and writer David Rothenberg has recorded a whale's response to the sound of his clarinet - and says that sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.

You can listen to a recording at BBC News. It amazing and eerie and beautiful.

I've always figured that there's no way we're ever gonna be able to figure out how to talk to any extraterrestrials we may encounter if we can't figure out to communication with whales, elephants, and maybe dolphins, too. I mean, we're so closely related to these creatures -- certainly infinitely more so than we will be to any ETs -- and if we can't even talk to them, with whom we have so much in common, relatively speaking, surely the chasm between us and aliens will be unbridgable.

I sometimes think that, because we've had to stop using tool-usage as a way to divide us humans from "the animals," one other clearer dividing line -- because obviously there is something that distinguishes homo sapiens from other animals -- may be that we make art, that we tell one another stories. And then, as a corollary, I sometimes imagine that whalesong is actually whales telling stories to one another... and that, when we discover that, instead of attempting to move that bright line again, we'll finally give in and acknowledge that whales are "people" too. (Is "elephant art" art? I don't know... but I know it like it.)

duet link via Americablog

(Technorati tags: whalesong, interspecies communication)

I'm in this book. I think. I mean, author Lisa Chamberlain interviewed me while she was in the process of writing Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age of Creative Destruction, and I was invited to the book launch party, so I'm figuring something of what I spoke to her about being an independent thirtysomething creative person in the 2000s ended up in the book. Even if I didn't end up in the book, though, I'm looking forward to reading it, because Lisa and I are definitely sympatico on the whole Gen X thing. From her intro (which is available on her blog for the book):

Slackonomics is not an academic white paper; it is written for people who, for example, understand family dynamics from watching "Married With Children" and "The Simpsons." It is written for women who got in touch with their post-feminist rage through riot grrrl music and Thelma and Louise. It is written for people who might have dabbled in Corporate America, but found themselves working at one time or another in an entirely new arena or as free agents without having exactly planned for it. It is written for people who, regardless of whether they have taken a traditional route to marriage, parenthood, and homeownership, still don't exactly feel (or look or act) like "grown-ups." It is written for people with a sense of humor, who long ago developed an appreciation for the absurdity of life. (Pardon me if this is starting to sound like an Internet dating ad.) In other words, this book is a portrait of a generation, not a screed; it is descriptive not polemical. It is written for people interested in understanding the context that shapes our lives and how this generation will influence the future.

Wow. The International Space Station is almost starting to look like a real place:

In fact, it's almost starting to look like the ISS at the moment in the opening credits of Star Trek: Enterprise when the history of humanity's quest to explore shifts into humanity's future:

(That montage always makes me cry. Always. Even with the Russell Watson song.)

ISS image via Astronomy Picture of the Day

(Technorati tags: International Space Station, Enterprise)

Just came back from jury duty -- my first subpoena in a little over four years. And I gotta tell ya, I just about burst into tears watching the little juror-orientation video, which is, I think, the same one they showed us four years ago, but I don't remember it making me want to cry last time. There was all sorts of nonsense about our wonderful Constitution and the rights it extends to all humanity regarding justice and trial by jury and all that rot, and how the Baby America encoding these rights in its very DNA in the 18th century was A New Thing, and how it protects us all from dictatorish rule (kings used to tell juries how to vote, you know!), and stuff like that.

From George Carlin (1937-2008):

I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

It's official:

TUCSON, Ariz. - Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.

"It must be ice," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that."

There's water on Mars. Say it again: There. Is. Water. On. Mars.

Can we please pack up the Conestoga wagons now and get our asses out there?

And hey! Now I can finally write that story that's been kicking around my head for years, the one about the first Irish bar on Mars. Cuz you know that'll be, like, the second business we establish there.

(Technorati tags: water on Mars)

My cat Cassie died last night. I took her to an emergency vet and had her put to sleep. It was a kindness: she was no longer enjoying her life, and a tumor that she'd had in one her feet since at least last autumn, which had not been bothering her much at all, suddenly became infected. She was suffering, and I was haunted by the fact that she had been suffering, for at least a couple of days, and there was nothing else to do.

From Rebecca West, who said this in 1913:

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.

And it's still true almost a century later.

Spotted at zombieswan, who seemed to take a bit of heartening from the fact that the bias meter at FlickFilosopher.com resulted from an embracing of a negative criticism, instead of letting said criticism bring me down. But that's the only way you can take some negative criticism: as an indication that you've hit a raw nerve. And that's a good thing to do, sometimes.

(Technorati tags: feminism)

I want to throw stuff at the TV every time a damn commercial for the Honda Pilot SUV comes on and the announcer (I'm pretty sure it's Kevin Spacey) informs us that, at 23MPG, the Pilot is "surprisingly fuel efficient."

23MPG is not "surprisingly fuel efficient." 98MPG would be surprisingly fuel efficient. 64MPG would be surprisingly fuel efficient. Even 42MPG would still -- alas in these crazy days -- be surprisingly fuel efficient.

But not 23MPG. That's like saying that Twinkies are surprisingly nutritious because you don't actually keel over dead immediately after eating one.

(Technorati tags: Honda Pilot, fuel efficiency)

There's a commercial for the insurance company Geico that features a woman lamenting:

You know where I am? The intersection of "My inbox is out of control" and "Haven't had a day off since the third grade."

That's me.

Or such seems to be the suggestion of this Newsweek article:

As geeks become chic in all levels of society, an unlikely subset is starting to roar. Meet the Nerd Girls: they're smart, they're techie and they're hot.

Translation: It's unlikely that females could be both brainy and attractive, because everyone knows that brainy women are ugly, and attractive women are morons, but we won't hesitate to play up their hotness at the expense of their smarts anyway.

Here's how the piece starts:

Ohmygod, it's almost like time travel:

Times Online has rolled out an elaborate digital newspaper archive stretching back more than 200 years.

The archive includes more than 20m articles from every edition of the Times, bar a small number of damaged issues, from 1785 to 1985.

It includes the Thunderer's coverage of events such as the Battle of Waterloo, the first convicts arriving at Botany Bay and the execution of Marie Antoinette. Other issues cover the 1851 Great Exhibition, the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888 and Amelia Earhart's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1932.

The archive also includes letters to the editor, photographs and adverts, with each page presented as it was printed in the paper on a parchment-coloured screen.

Ironically, I heard about this in the Guardian.

Look at this:

With my laptop and my cellphone, my office can be wherever I can get online. More places where I can do that that is a Good Thing. And the blog Eater -- which covers dining in New York City -- is seeing a new trend in coffeeshops doing away with their wifi and bars starting to offer it.

It was a serious annoyance the other day when I had to go to three different Starbuckses before I found one that still offered T-Mobile wifi -- which I signed up for at 30 bucks per month purely because of the fact that there are Starbuckses all over Manhattan, which means lots of office space for me. (Starbucks dropped T-Mobile earlier this year, though we were told that T-Mobile service was still going to be available; looks like that's not the case everywhere. Starbucks also now has a limited daily free wifi deal for customers.) I didn't see any bars offering wifi in my roaming around the Times Square area looking for access, but I did come across a couple while I was at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, most of which was actually taking place in the East Village (and not in Tribeca), a hip neighborhood that often generates new trends.

And it was nice to be able to have a glass of wine while I worked. More expensive that a cup of coffee, of course, but nice.

(Technorati tags: wifi, Starbucks, bars)

Ronald E. Osborn:

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

I knew some people were making some decent money blogging, but this is ridiculous. Perez Hilton, aka Mario Lavandeira, writes about celebrity dumbness and is raking in the dough:

Advertisers pay as much as $54,000 to run a one-day ad package on the site.

from the Los Angeles Times

(Technorati tags: Perez Hilton)

The AP reports:

NEW YORK - AT&T Inc., the country's largest Internet provider, is considering charging extra for customers who download large amounts of data.

"A form of usage-based pricing for those customers who have abnormally high usage patterns is inevitable," spokesman Michael Coe said this week.

Bullshit, it's "inevitable." How many monthly subscribers to Internet services barely use their service at all? More than enough to make up for those who use a lot of bandwidth, I bet.

(Technorati tags: metered Internet, AT&T)

...and wasting time writing Doctor Who fanfic. Just posted the third installment of my latest opus.

I must confess that part of why I've been so consumed with writing this tale is that I forgot how much I love writing fiction. This endeavor has really reminded me what I've been missing during the break of many long years since I tackled anything like this. This story is, I think, going to have to be a warmup for other, original stories that have been knocking around in my head for years. Because I can't not have this feeling all the time.

Did you know that Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 articles of impeachment against George W. Bush on the floor of Congress this week? Of course you didn't: It's not like this was something newsworthy or anything. It's not like it was Brangelina's babies or anything. Sheesh.

No, wait: it looks like the corporate media did bother to cover Kucinich... once it could spin him as having been knocked down.

Talk about a catalogue of crimes: Kucinich's articles [PDF] are a breathtaking synopsis of the last seven years in the White House. Read 'em and weep.

via This Modern World

(Technorati tags: Dennis Kucinich, impeachment, George W Bush)

Plus, he hasn't seen a movie since the 1950s:

via Huffington Post

I concede that on the long list of reasons not to vote for McCain as president, "he doesn't know how to use a computer" is low on the list, but still: Wake up and smell the 21st century, dude.

(Technorati tags: John McCain)

I'll have what she's having:

Antarctica base gets 16,500 condoms before darkness

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday...

About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.

16,500 condoms divided by 125 scientists equals one big orgy. Who knew Antarctica was so much fun?

(Technorati tags: Antarctica, McMurdo, condoms)

Had tomatoes with my dinner. I love living on the edge. You can't stop me. I'm going to hell and taking you all with me.

Who says America is no longer the home of adventurous souls?

(Technorati tags: tomatoes)

I bet these guys know all about UNIT and the multitude of nefarious alien invasions Earth has been subjected to in recent years:

About this time each year, the Bilderberg group convenes a weekend conference in a hotel or resort somewhere in North America or Europe in which 120 or so billionaires, bankers, politicians, industrialists, scholars, government officials, influentials from labor and education, and journalists assemble to discuss world affairs in private.

This year, the 56th Bilderberg meeting took place over the weekend at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Va., seven miles from Washington Dulles International Airport. As in previous years, Bilderberg critics are berating the mainstream press for observing a "blackout" of a group they believe directs a secret, shadow government.

from Slate

(Technorati tags: Bilderberg)

...it clearly still is not meeting the needs of those who most want to use it. From Bloomberg:

Customers will be required to activate the iPhone at AT&T or Apple stores to discourage the practice of "unlocking" the device for use on other networks, said Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T's wireless unit.

I'm sure Apple believes there are good business reasons why the iPhone should be officially functional only on AT&T's mobile phone network, but how can the company not see that it's cutting off lots of potential customers who would love to use the device but don't want to switch to AT&T?

To apply some computer jargon to the marketing here, discovering that people want to use something you're selling in more ways that you think you're selling it for? That's not a bug: it's a feature. Your customers are telling you what they want. Why aren't you listening?

(Technorati tags: iPhone)

Someone is actually studying sarcasm, and figuring out where in the brain the ability to cope with it resides:

There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin's study of sarcasm -- at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrus

What you may not have realized is that perceiving sarcasm, the smirking put-down that buries its barb by stating the opposite, requires a nifty mental trick that lies at the heart of social relations: figuring out what others are thinking.

Ugh.

I'm trying to be green and cheap, so there's no AC in my apartment...

This actually made me cry:

Not just the science stuff, the whole thing. Don't miss it.

I've gotten so despondent over the state of the world that the prospect of things working out for the better seems so remote...

via This Modern World

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, speaking at the Harvard commencement yesterday:

We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better.

(Technorati tags: JK Rowling)