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Friday, Jun 30, 2006
HateTalk 560 KSFO
By tuning to 560 on the AM dial, I can easily monitor the transmissions of the American Taliban. I'm usually not on the road early enough to hear Melanie Morgan. But other people listen, so I don't have to.
Below, Morgan extends the remarks she made over the air in an email to Greg Sargent.
Ned would ;make such an improvement over droopy.
The Impaired Intellectuals of the Right
Two psuedo-intellectuals of the right that I like to puncture are David S. Broder, who darkens NPR and NYT with his presence, and local boy Victor Davis Hanson ... um ... DOCTOR Victor Davis Hanson.
Sadly, No! takes on Mr. Broder's finely elocuted nonsense..
And Victor Davis Hanson battles wits with a fictional character, sometime last year. I don't know how I missed this. I think this calls for a three way smackdown, Spartan-style: El General, Patriot Boy! vs. the Fresno street fighter, War Nerd! vs.
El Doctor!
VIC-torrrrr Daaaavis HANSOOOOON! .
[My own take on Hanson: He regularly issues columns in which he dicusses 21st century events in the Middle East without reference to anything that occurred before 2 August 1990. And I'm supposed to believe he's a brilliant military historian? Right-ee-o there.]
Wednesday, Jun 28, 2006
Digital TV Appliance
Cisco has an interest in increasing network usage, and has placed an investment with Akimbo. Their box (or SW on a MSFT Media Center PC) provides a walled-garden pay TV service, using background download over broadband.
Update: More at Motley Fool
Non-traditional Digital TV
I've been blogging a bit about mobile video, but it's part of a larger class of video delivery for which I haven't seen a very good name. Here's a news item on that topic ...
NBC strikes deal with YouTube
From: mark
Subject: What's wrong with our country
To: pinkerton@newamerica.net
Mr. Pinkerton,
I would like to congratulate you on distilling into a
single sentence the horrible thing that is gripping
and destroying our country at the moment. Your
statement is a masterpiece of concision.
I'd rather lose our civil liberties than losePatrick Henry must be so very proud.
the war.
cheers,
-Mark
Sunday, Jun 25, 2006
Cookery
In keeping with the random themes of late: a recipe I found, tweaked and executed yesterday afternoon for a BBQ. I originally promised a pie, but it was way too hot all this week to try a deal with pie crust.
Filling
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. water
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. sugar
3 c. blackberries
Crust
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter (cold)
1/4 cup water
1 egg, lightly beaten
1. In saucepan combine water, butter, cornstarch, sugar and berries. Cook over medium heat until liquid just begins to thicken.
2 In a medium bowl, combine 2 Tablespoons of sugar, the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter in with a fork or pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the water and egg until just moistened.
3. Pour filling into a 9x5 loaf pan. Drop batter on the fruit. Bake for 20 minutes in a 425 oven, or until crust is golden brown.
4. Let cool. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Thursday, Jun 22, 2006
Mobile TV Subscriptions To Soar: Study
Mobile TV (again)
ITWire on iTunes movies
Just this week, I became aware of a device called PocketDISH. It's a re-branded hard-disk-based player/viewer that integrates with DISH PVRs. Clever idea. Don't know if there's any real market for it.
Apple may have the mind share to light up this segment in a way that the PocketDISH didn't. If they build an iPod-like device with a decent screen size and a big disk, people might go for it. But, as mentioned in the article linked at the top, the $9.99 price per video is whack.
Monday, Jun 19, 2006
Mobile TV
Mobile TV is heating up, with trials and limited services cropping up in Europe, Asia and the US. Turns out there are a lot of competing standards. Qualcomm is in the mix with TDtv and MediaFLO. DVB-H and two flavors of DMB are competing standards.
I need to read more, but my first impression is that H.264 is common across these different standards as the video layer. What varies is the transport layers (i.e. spectral band, modulation, etc.)
Some wikipedia links ...
Some blogs
Dialing for Net Neutrality
A: She is for it.
Q: Great.
A: While she does not have a statement on the specific bills before congress, she has stated in the past that net neutrality is essential to the economy of California.
Q: I agree.
Friday, Jun 16, 2006
Bicycle Report
This past Sunday, I picked up a Specialized Sirrus Comp.
.
Thirtyfive miles so far on the new machine. I was thinking about rounding it out to a nice even fifty for the week, but the knees want a couple of days off.
The carbon fiber fork does a funky vibration under low speed braking. At speed, this amount of vibration would be very ugly, but I haven't seen that. I suspect the geometry of disk brakes would eliminate this issue.
The widest tire I can fit is a 32, which is a good touring tire width. I went with the Specialized cyclocross tire -- BOROUGH CX. It has a flat, solid section of tread on the center line for minimum rolling resistance, and semi-demi knobs on the edges to give it a little better grip on dirt.
There's an alternate 32 x 700 tire I saw on a Bianchi cyclocross, the WTB Cross Wolf This tread pattern looks to be slower on asphalt, but would dig in better.
Changes I would make to perfect the bike: disk brakes, about an inch longer chain stay to increase wheel base, bigger clearance at chain stay to allow 38 mm tires, two sets of wheels (city bike, trail bike), a bit more granny in the granny gear. And a ding-y bell for the creek trail.
Changes I have made: swapped tires, added Specialized MTB bar ends, added Planet Bike tubular aluminum rear rack..
Thursday, Jun 15, 2006
Dog Whistle Politics
There's a form of political communication called "dog whistle" or "code word" politics. It has to do with using terms that are packed with meaning for certain recipients of the message. A prime example was Reagan's espousal of state's rights at a county fair just outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1980.
So what do you make of this section of Elizabeth Dole's NSRC web site?
Hmmm. Fancy Ford. What white southern phrase might Lizzie be echoing? Could it be, oh, I don't know, Fancy N-word?!
Nice job Lizzie. It takes a genuine, born-and-raised cracker to come up with something like that. And your Yankee friends will never know what an atavistic, racist hick you are.
Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006
Comment of the Day
A comment attached to a post at "Sadly, No!" about Wingnut All-Star, Jeff Goldstein:
Tuesday, Jun 13, 2006
Map-o-rama
Most on-line mapping sites are lousy for determining directions for bicycles routes. Mapquest allows an option to avoid highways, which helps.
I was playing around with yahoo maps beta, and realized it supports multiple destinations. I can at least use it to determine the length of a route I select by giving enough way points to guide the software.
My commute from D's work to my work is about 14.3 miles. I don't feel so bad about the elapsed time for last night's ride. In addition to the slight uphill and an atypical head wind (rather than the prevailing tailwind at that time of the day) , I went almost two and a half miles further than I thought. So I was just north of 10 mph. Pretty damn slow, but at least in the double digits.
Selected excerpts from the NewsMax review of Godless by Ann Coulter
"The truth," Coulter writes, "is the truth whether we like it or not."
[Editor's Note: Get Ann's new book for just $4.99 – Save $23! Go Here Now]
Killing Him Softly
To keep the story alive for yet another news cycle, the US government has released additional details about a dead terrorist, Abu Musab Zarqawi. Seems that the overpressure from a bomb blast trashed his lungs. He lasted almost an hour, probably in intense pain. News it is, but a leading story for yet another day?
Bully for the troops for whacking this guy. But fuck Bush for letting him operate for four more years than he should have. Bush let Abu Z get away in 2002 in order to bolster the case for taking out Saddam.
If only the media could keep that story alive. Ultimately, these facts are more important to the future of this nation than are the death throes of a terrorist.
March 2004
NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.
The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.
“Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.
Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.
The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.
“People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of preemption against terrorists,” according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.
In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.
The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.
Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.
Sunday, Jun 11, 2006
Re-Elect Gore!
Spoiler alert
I think Gore's new movie, which D and I saw last night, may do much to rehabilitate Gore's image -- along with raising awareness about the carbon issue.
One of my favorite parts was when he was picking apart a slide presentation by skeptics (the White House?). One slide showed a balance with stack of gold bar on one side, and the planet Earth on the other. I'm paraphrasing, and exageratin' now, but Gore said something like this ... "Lookee thar. Gold bars. Mmmm-MMM. Gold. I loves me some gold. Mmmm. Gold is nice. But what's that on the other side? The entire planet. Hmmm."
Very nice use of Southern attitude. I was about dying during that scene.
And, on a tangent, I'm getting into some more bicycling. I've got a mountain range to cross to get to work. Okay, small mountains. One thousand foot climb from here to the ridge line, and about a two thousand foot climb from the valley side. Still, that's considerable. But with a combination of car-pooling over the ridge, roof-top racks, and some flat land riding across the valley, I should be able to eliminate a couple of days of driving.
Besides the health benefit and saving gas, I went through a set of tires on my daily driver in 10 months. That's pretty quick even for me.
I've decided I need to expand my bicycle collection to include something less than 40 lbs. I'm fixing to get me one of these in extree large.
My target was a cyclo-cross style bike with gearing and geometry close to a touring bike, and flat handlebars like a mountain or commuter bike. Disk brakes would have been nice. This one seems to be as close as I can get without going custom.
It's got cantalever brakes, which is good. They'll give me clearance to upgrade to semi-nobby tires. The cable routing is road-bike style, meaning I've got to keep an eye on the gunk if I play in the dirt. I was leaning towards chromoly (how retro), but aluminum frame with carbon fiber forks should be fine. The slanted top tube is good for step over height. The gearing range isn't as extreme as I was hoping for, but it does have a granny. I think I may have to resort to walking on extreme uphills on the fireroads.
In general, I continue to be amazed at how good bicycles are these days.
Presented Without Comment
UPI
Okay, okay, I couldn't resist. Here's something from a couple of years ago about a relationship in the early 1980's ...
Making them work for it
Although Busby lost CA-50, the Republicans spent $11M to keep a "safe" seat.
I just tossed a little money to Zack Space, who's up against Ney -- one of Abramoff's pet congressmen. In his most recent campaign ad Ney attacks Space for doing an interview on Air America with a lesbian -- a cross dressing lesbian -- because wimen-fold oughta be wearing dresses not pants! What an asshole.
Whoops! I didn't mean to be uncivil. Sorry about that slip into vulgar language. Let's try that again, using words that even George Will would approve of:
Bob Ney: human rectum.
Monday, Jun 05, 2006
Saturday, Jun 03, 2006
Random Musical Interlude
|
to the tune of "My Favorite Things"
My Favorite Taunts Moonbats and traitors, and haters of freedom, Naughty word users, and crazy Dean lovers, Angry, dirty lefties who smell like last week, These are a few of my favorite taunts! ... When my brain hurts When the facts sting When I'm feeling m-a-a-a-d I simply remember my favorite taunts And then I don't feel so bad! |
As you were.
How can he still have a job?
found image
Then ... and Now
Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003
Authorities say the more than 100,000 people who fled sectarian strife are straining resources. U.S. officials dispute the extent of the problem.
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006
KARBALA, Iraq — The Hotel Karbala has kept pace with Iraq's changing times. In its halcyon days, it housed Shiite Muslim tourists visiting the shrines of this southern Iraqi city. It later became a base for Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, and played host to foreign troops after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
But in a sign of the current troubles, the ramshackle two-story concrete building and its weed-strewn lot have become housing for more than 70 Shiite Muslim families who fled violence elsewhere in the country.
"We were driven from our houses when we were attacked by terrorists," said Ali Jaffar Hussein, 35, a formerly prosperous Shiite merchant who moved his family here from the religiously mixed city of Tall Afar, about 270 miles to the northwest, fearing attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents.
"Now, we don't know our destiny," he said. "The government is not capable of protecting us."
Net Neutrality
Okay, I'm officially concerned about net neutrality. KAZU airs On Point, which covered the topic today.
Scott Cleland of n3tc0mp3tition.org kept lobbing vapid talking points that should have been easily swatted aside by the moderator (who is generally good). But Tom Ashbrook had call on the opposing side, turning it into a he said - he said, in the worst tradition of American news.
The part that really chapped my hide was when Cleland described net neutrality as "socialism". Net nuertrality is about preserving some common ground in the marketplace for innovation by new entrants -- and that's where innovation comes from.
Is the next HotMail going to come out of Microsoft? Hell no. The first one didn't, although Microsoft saw fit it acquire it -- after others had taken the risks and done the innovation. That's how modern American capitalism works, and if Cleland doesn't understand that, then he doesn't understand much. He's an ignorant, biased flack, and should be treated as such by journalists.
Allowing the internet to be dominated by monopolistic walled gardens would be bad for innovation, bad for capitalism and bad for the US economy.
The opposite of oligarchy is democracy.
Sloganeering
Now that America realizes that Bush and his war are problems, I wish there was an easy way to help them understand ...
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