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Monday rapid fire
- Prediction Markets
- Shutter Speed
- Carter: Bush Israel’s ‘worst ally’ in D.C. – this is American Politics at its most vapid. Two parties, or in this particular case, one party, arguing over who can better serve a foreign government? Is it so much to ask what we get out of it? Israel does have a knack for drawing the proper enemies, but this is a country that has spied on us and sank one of our warships, must we be this servile?
- Jack Handey’s Art Ideas
- The Pickin’ Barn
- Half of U.S. Still Believes Iraq Had WMD – Journalism at it’s most vapid. It’s bad enough the author uses the horrid acronym “WMD” but then he contradicts himself in the article. Half of the US still believes that Iraq had WMD, chemical weapons in this case, because they did, just not in meaningful quantity. The poll gave an accurate answer, but the author uses that as a mini rant, and it’s billed as news, not commentary.
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21 Inch Monitor – Free To Good Home
Hello all
I’ve just found a good deal on a new LCD, and now no longer have any use my old 21″ CRT monitor.
It’s a Viewsonic Professional Series P815. No problems with it at all. It’s free to anyone who wants it, must be in the Atlanta area, I’m not going to ship it anywhere.
Anyone want it?
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Friday rapid fire
- NutritionData.com – very good site
- Lebanon Metaphor One
- Web Photo School
- Lighting 101
- More on Kyoto
- Building the $14 steadycam, you can buy it here
- GPS Article One, Article Two, Windows Media Info
- Alt Energy Blog One
- WindHunter – a good idea, but like most energy ideas, doesn’t exist
- Supacam
- An angry analysis of the current Business Week cover story (about Digg) over at 37 Signals.
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Odd quote of the moment
From an article about solar powered wi fi on GizModo
even the poorest folks enjoy sick fetish porn from time to time
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Yet more reasons to hate environmentalists
I just saw the creator of “Who Killed the Electric Car” on the Daily show. He did not address the problems raised by David Friedman (mainly cost), or any of the range argument. Instead it was the usual anti-corporate spiel.
That’s to be expected. What I found reprehensible was his not mentioning the new vehicle by Tesla Motors, or plug in hybrids from CalCars. Too many people in the alt-energy environmental front prefer a great excuse to a modest accomplishment and the director was no exception.
I suppose that’s why Solar Towers (CNN article here, WikiPedia here) don’t actually exist yet.
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Mike and I go along with the Black Rider
Last night was the first Tom Wait show in Atlanta since 1978, and it was quite interesting. The AJC has a nice review of it, along with photos.
I was quiet impressed by the band, two discreet percussionists and a discreet bass player make for a very smooth sounds where the instance of the sound doesn’t vary much from the concept of the sound. It was surprisingly true to the albums. Tom Waits in person sounds exactly as raspy and rough as all of his records.
He did most of the songs with a band, doing only one acoustic (with the band) and about three on the piano. It had much more in common with a play than the average rock show (which it wasn’t). The lighting and shadowing was well done and gave me many ideas for photography.
On the whole a good time. The only downsides were the oppressive heat inside the Tabernacle and the long (anti-scalper supposedly) lines. We spent a little over an hour outside in line, and about that inside waiting for him to start, which meant that we spent more time waiting for the show to begin than the show itself.
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War quote of the moment
…Thomas Ricks’ says the war on Iraq and subsequent occupation was ill-conceived, incompetently planned and poorly executed. I have no quarrel with that. What dismays me is that anyone expected any different. All wars are full of incompetence, mendacity, fear, and lies. War is big government, authoritarianism, central planning, command and control, and bureaucracy in its most naked form and on the largest scale. The Pentagon is the Post Office with nuclear weapons.
I’ve always thought that the odds of the government getting some large conspiracy right were much smaller than the odds of them getting some basic assumptions wrong. The complaints of “Bush didn’t get the war planning right” crowd is baffling too. How else was it going to look. In many ways Iraq is much better managed than any of our other wars, only better lit. How else is it going to look?
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It almost writes itself
Somehow I came across the book page for this book “Why Mommy is a Democrat“. There is a link to a review from some outfit called “The National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature“. To quote some of the review
Mommy is a tufted-ear squirrel who embodies and makes visual all the good things Democrats like to think they do, like playing by the rules, treating everyone fairly, and sharing their toys.
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Little lovable animals inhabit the very finely done colored-pencil illustrations, exemplifying abstract beliefs like tolerance and accessible health care.
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the representative multicultural-looking down-and-out young man who is barred from an expensive school, sleeps under a tree in the park, or looks in trash cans for dinnerThe jokes for write themselves. What I found strangest was the phrase “representative multicultural-looking”.
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Quote of the moment
A happy childhood is the worst possible training for life
Kinky Friedman -
Give your tickets to the dog faced boy
Mike and I are going to the Tom Waits show this evening. I’ll have a scouting report soon.