May 31, 2007

Birding Break

Hey, time to take a break and check out the 50th edition of I and the Bird at Bora's place.

Posted by Steve on May 31, 2007

May 30, 2007

Midwest Mob Announces New Scam

The Iowa and Kansas lotteries announced a joint effort to fleece folks of $3.12 million: an instant-scratch lottery game called Midwest Millions. 1.2 million scratch tickets will be sold for $10 each:


Click image to enlarge.
What are your chances? 64.7% of the tickets will get nothing. The other 35.3 % will share the 74%, $8.8 million, payout. The mob rakes in a cool $3.12 million.

Hey, if this isn't theft or fraud perhaps we should set up a private business to operate a few of these upstanding scratch ticket games?

Posted by Steve on May 30, 2007

Virtual Street Walking

No, I'm not talking about something you might do in Second Life.

Rather, check out Google Map's new Street View capability for parts of San Francisco, Denver, New York, Las Vegas and Miami.

For instance, go to 76 Broadway, New York, click on the new Street View button in the upper right of the map and then click on the small human icon on the map: up pops a street view of that locaton. Drag the icon to a different location for another view or expand the Street View image for a more detailed look.

If Street View is not available for an area the Street View button will not appear on the map.

Definitely a nifty upgrade though some of the images are a bit fuzzy.

The map wars are heating up. This is a neat response to Microsoft's 3D maps and does not require you to load extra software to use.

Via Primate Labs Blog.

Posted by Steve on May 30, 2007

May 28, 2007

Price Gouging Quote of the Day

On the critters who passed the price gouging legislation:

We are not dealing with "men of common intelligence." We are dealing with politicians. That's precisely the problem.
Kip explains why the bill should be considered unconstitutional and has plenty of links to discussions of the broken price gouging bill that just passed in the house of republican party and democratic party representatives.

Yes, they represent their parties and only pretend to represent their local electorates.

Posted by Steve on May 28, 2007

May 25, 2007

Try On This Display

Well, you can't try it on just yet but Sony has just announced:

...a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-color video.

capt.tok10505250445.japan_sony_thin_display_tok105.jpg
"In the future, it could get wrapped around a lamppost or a person's wrist, even worn as clothing," said Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa. "Perhaps it can be put up like wallpaper."
I like the wallpaper idea! "Repainting" becomes as easy as changing the wallpaper on your computer monitor.

If they can form this into a durable enough material you might be able to dramatically reduce the size of your dressers and closets. Imagine how difficult this could make deciding what to wear to the party tonight. You could have millions or billions of complex image choices. On the other hand, you will probably be able to load most if not all of them into the terabyte compact flash that you slide into the outfits network connector.

Posted by Steve on May 25, 2007

Friday Ark #140

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Birds

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 165th edition , 5/20, is up at The Cat Blogosphere. The 166th edition will be hosted on 5/27 by ..??... There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #103 hosted on 5/26-27 at House of (Mostly) Black Cats . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 49th edition is up and hosted by Via Negativa. The 50th edition will be hosted on 5/31 by A Blog Around the Clock.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 19th edition is up and hosted by Burning Silo . The 20th edition will be hosted by milkriverblog.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on May 25, 2007 | Comments (10)

May 24, 2007

Microsoft Update Alleviates But Does Not Fix Responsiveness Problem

Microsoft swears that the two patches they have released fix an ongoing problem caused by Windows Update:

Microsoft Corp. said that patches for a Windows Update lockup problem do fix the flaw, even though users still see their computers' CPUs maxed out at 100%.
They are wrong. At least from where I am sitting.

I installed the fixes manually two days ago. Things do seem to have improved however programs still become unresponsive from time to time. This does not seem to happen as frequently and the program does not seem to stay unresponsive for as long but the problem still occurs.

Microsoft clearly fixed part of the problem but they need to do some more followup.

On a related note...only a few more weeks until the MacBook Pro family is upgraded.

Posted by Steve on May 24, 2007

Keith, It's a Feature Not a Bug

Olberman provides a shorter Olberman:

For, ultimately, at this hour, the entire government has failed us.
Unfortunately, Keith, it is not just at this hour.

These are for the most part the same pathetic folks who have been supporting the Iraq invasion from the beginning.

Betrayal, Keith. Nope, they are doing what governments, in particular the US government, do and seem to have always done: wage war. If not on others then on their own people.

It will never be too soon to say no to war; to say no to the thugs who would wage war.

Around the world, toss'm out!

Posted by Steve on May 24, 2007 | Comments (1)

May 23, 2007

Are Voyeurs and Predators Rushing to Apply For Jobs

On the left is an image of Susan Halloway that we first reported on in 2003. It uses a high energy x-ray techologoy.

On the right is an image created using millimeter wave technology that has been implemented at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

Both types of scanner are still under evaluation by the US based TSA.

capt.1056584283.see_through_security_bbp108.jpgsecurity-theater.jpg

How useful will these screening devices be? This will partly depend on just how big a problem they are targeting. Does anyone have a pointer to documentation on how many folks have been prevented from hijacking or downing a commercial plane in the past 1, 2 or 3 years? As noted at Happening Here:

It's still just theater -- anyone seeking to harm an aircraft will figure out ways around the system. But every time we fly, we'll be reminded we should be very afraid and need protection.
And, if Americans, should only vote for a tough on security republican...

Maybe, just maybe, all this security money should be focused on something that takes many lives on a daily basis. Something like auto related fatalities.

On another aspect, if screeners are not archiving these images already they will as soon as the first perpetrator gets through with some problem device. If for no other reason than to prove that they did due diligence. Of course, when governments archive something it usually does not ever get thrown away and it is eventually shared with other government agencies and their private subcontractors.

Posted by Steve on May 23, 2007

May 22, 2007

Google Searches I'm Not Interested In Today

Any of the current1 top 100 searches on Google's new Hot Trends page. These aren't the most popular searches. Rather:

Google analyzes search queries and presents searches that are deviating the most in relationship to the past traffic. So, if a search term paddles along with a few hundred queries a day and suddenly jumps to a million queries a day, it's deviated significantly from its past search pattern and might pop up on Google Hot Trends.
Sticklers amongst you might say that by default I'm interested in #93: google trends.

Apparently I am out of touch with important things.

15/22 7:34 PM GMT

Posted by Steve on May 22, 2007

May 18, 2007

Friday Ark #139

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Birds

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 164th edition , 5/13, is up at This Blog Is Full of Crap. The 165th edition will be hosted on 5/20 by, well, The Cat Blogosphere . There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #102 hosted on 5/1219-20 by Paulchen's Food Blog?! Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 49th edition is up and hosted by Via Negativa. The 50th edition will be hosted on 5/31 by A Blog Around the Clock.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 19th edition is up and hosted by Burning Silo . The 20th edition will be hosted by milkriverblog.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on May 18, 2007 | Comments (9)

May 17, 2007

A Birders Poem

Poetry.

It is everywhere!

To find out for yourself visit I and the Bird 49: the Wordchaser at Via Negativa and check out the bird behind each phrase of the poem.

Posted by Steve on May 17, 2007

May 15, 2007

The New czar...

...will be as successful as the current czar.

Posted by Steve on May 15, 2007

May 14, 2007

More Heroes!

Sweet!!

Heroes be back for a 2nd season and we will get 6 episodes of a spin off called Heroes Origins during the summer hiatus:

While the focus this spring centered on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy"spin-off, NBC was quietly developing one of their own - and announced this morning that "Heroes" has spawned a second series of its own.

"Heroes: Origins" will air in "Heroes'" Monday night time slot when that smash hit takes a hiatus. The net has ordered six segs of "Origins," which, combined with "Heroes," makes for 30 hours altogether.

"Heroes: Origins" will center on characters not yet seen on the original show. Peacock has also added an interactive element to the show: Viewers will be asked to pick their favorite character from "Origins," who will then join the cast of the full-blown "Heroes" skein the following year.

The initiative to keep the "Heroes" franchise in originals for as long as possible harkens back to the golden age of TV, when series aired 39 weeks worth of originals, then took a break.

We don't own a TIVO yet so off to get some more VHS tape so I'll be able to watch these in the time slot of my choice at a leisurely, let's go back an watch that scene again, pace!

Via Cinerati.

Posted by Steve on May 14, 2007

May 12, 2007

Still the Same After 201 Years

In an 1806 letter Benjamin Latrobe writes:

The want of learning and of science in the majority is one of those things which strikes foreigners who visit us very forceably.1
I don't know if today's visiting foreigners have the learning and science to make such an evaluation but if they did they would say the same.

1quoted by Gordon Wood in The Radicalism of the American Revolution, 1991, 295

Posted by Steve on May 12, 2007

May 11, 2007

Friday Ark #138

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Birds

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 163rd edition , 5/7, is up at When Cats Attack. The 163rd edition will be hosted on 5/13 by, well, Laurence hasn't said yet . There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #101 hosted on 5/12-13 by What Did You Eat? . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 48th edition is up and hosted by Greg Laden. The 49th edition will be hosted on 5/17 by Via Negativa.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 19th edition is up and hosted by Burning Silo. The 20th edition will be hosted the evening of May 6th by milkriverblog.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on May 11, 2007 | Comments (8)

May 9, 2007

This is Wiretapping?

We should have a reasonable expectation of privacy when we are in a private place. Say our home, in our car with the windows closed, etc.

There is no way, though, that police should ever have any expectation of privacy while performing duties on behalf of their public employers. It is pretty ludicrous that in one jurisdiction police have charged someone with wiretapping when he recorded them while being investigated for drunk driving:

Police say they were patrolling the downtown area at 2:54 a.m. when they discovered Christopher A. Power of 52 Chestnut St. sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle with its motor running at the Rochester Common.

After speaking with Power, police began investigating him for driving while intoxicated and arrested him. During the arrest an audio recording device was discovered.

"During a search after the arrest an audio recorder was discovered on the driver's seat cushion," Capt. Paul Callaghan said. "The officer noticed that the recorder was recording."

Power was charged with driving while intoxicated and wiretapping, which is a Class B felony.

Perhaps they were doing their investigation via cell phone. Or perhaps they live in an alternate universe where wiretapping means something very different.

That aside, police must always expect to be audio- or videotaped when they are on duty.

Via Balko.

Posted by Steve on May 9, 2007

May 8, 2007

Were the Kent State Shootings Murder?

Recently released audio tapes suggest that the 4 Dead In Ohio were murdered 37 years ago:

The 1970 killings by National Guardsmen of four students during a peaceful anti-war demonstration at Kent State University have now been shown to be cold-blooded, premeditated official murder.
....
For 37 years the official cover story has been that a mysterious shot rang out and the young Guardsmen panicked, firing directly into the "mob" of students.

This week, that cover story was definitively proven to be a lie.

Prior to the shooting, a student named Terry Strubbe put a microphone at the window of his dorm, which overlooked the rally. According to the Associated Press, the 20-second tape is filled with "screaming anti-war protectors followed by the sound of gunfire."

But in an amplified version of the tape, a Guard officer is also heard shouting "Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!"

The sound of gunshots follow the word "Point."

If true this is not a big surprise. I doubt that there are many who were active at the time who accepted that it was anything other than government sanctioned murder.

Yea, it was 37 years ago but this cold case deserves a rehearing and any perps who are still available should be nailed. Including any of the folks that were pulling their triggers!

Via The Distributed Republic.

Posted by Steve on May 8, 2007

Streaming Today: 5/8/77 Barton Hall

It is the 30th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead's classic performance at Barton Hall, Cornell Univeristy.

You can stream it here.

Update: As Scott says the Morning Dew at the end of the 2nd set is a killer!!

Posted by Steve on May 8, 2007

May 7, 2007

What, tenet Should Have Resigned?

Nora Ephron is right that we set our expectations too high if we expect government officials to resign as a matter of principle:

The notion that George Tenet -- or Colin Powell, to take another example of a person we keep asking this question about -- would have resigned just because he knew that the administration was lying about weapons of mass destruction, is truly laughable. ...
...
We have such affection for the idea that people will quit on a matter of principle that it's almost sweet. We believe that they quit for moral reasons, that they quit because they want to take a stand against impropriety, that they quit, willingly quit, because they know right from wrong. Once again, let me say this: no one quits.
This administration doesn't even fire people until the last ounce of incompetence is wrung out of them.*

Unfortunately she becomes an apologist for the bush war when she says:

And in fairness to Tenet and Powell, what's clear now wasn't so clear back in the day. That image of the two of them at the United Nations is today such an indelible marker on the road to war. But they couldn't have known at that time that the war would be such an unmitigated disaster; they surely couldn't have known that there wouldn't even be a July 4th sparkler found in all of Iraq;
Sure, the full scope of the bush administration's incompetence was not yet obvious but, yes, they should have known the sparkler bit. That was tenet's job....

More importantly even if they had found sparklers that would not have provided a moral excuse for the invasion, for the wasted Iraqi and American lives.

*Given how many of the incompetents are left this is a truly depressing thought.

Posted by Steve on May 7, 2007

Historical and Current presidential Approval Ratings

Orin Kerr found this interesting set of Presidential Approval Rating graphs over at the Wall Street Journal.

w still has the honor of not yet falling as low as truman, nixon or carter.

Posted by Steve on May 7, 2007

Catching Up With the Cats & Dogs

Go skritch the kitties:

Weekend Cat Blogging's 100th Birthday
The 163rd Carnival of the Cats
and pet the puppies:
The 84th Weekend Dog Blogging
Carnival of the Dogs

Enjoy!

Posted by Steve on May 7, 2007

May 4, 2007

Friday Ark #137

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Invertebrates

Birds

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

    Adventures An Eclectic Mind: Feline Friday: Sad Edition - Rest in Peace D.K. 1995 to April 15, 2007

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 162nd edition , 4/29, is up at Catymology. The 163rd edition will be hosted on 5/6 by When Cats Attack . There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #100 hosted on 5/5-6 by A Byootiful Life . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 48th edition is up and hosted by Greg Laden. The 49th edition will be hosted on 5/17 by Via Negativa.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 19th edition is up and hosted by Burning Silo. The 20th edition will be hosted the evening of May 6th by milkriverblog.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on May 4, 2007 | Comments (5)

May 3, 2007

Bird Posts!

This is the 48th edition of I and the Bird a biweekly collection of birding posts.

In this issue Greg Laden presents a taxonomy of birding posts: picturesque, science and ecology, behavior and reproduction, life lists and exotics.

Does the mating dance of the Olive-backed Sunbird remind you of anyone?

Posted by Steve on May 3, 2007

May 2, 2007

w Had Two Good Reasons to Veto the Iraq Supplemental Funding Bill

There are two good reasons for bush to have vetod the Iraq Supplemental Funding bill.

First, as he noted in his veto remarks:

...the bill is loaded with billions of dollars in non-emergency spending that has nothing to do with fighting the war on terror. Congress should debate these spending measures on their own merits -- and not as part of an emergency funding bill for our troops.
He is absolutely correct. No bill should include spending not directly related to the subject of the bill. The dems should be ashamed of themselves for continuing this behavior.

w should also be ashamed of himself for calling this out given his abysmal failure to use this as a valid reason to wield his veto for the past 6 years.

The second, which he forgot to mention, is that the money won't be needed. That he is ending this misbegotten invasion and occupation immediately.

Since he forgot, congress should not.

Rather, congress should do the only just and reasonable things that they can do: withdraw their approval for the use of military force in Iraq and provide no additional funding.

Posted by Steve on May 2, 2007

Boost Your Libido

The Orgasmic Diet would make great coffee shop reading. However, I suspect that Starbucks and the rest will not be stocking it.

Here's one of the key recommendations for raising your libido:

Seratonin is another important brain chemical. It enhances alertness, improves mood and makes people feel cheerful. High levels of seratonin help us to handle stress, regulate appetite and give us energy.

Avoiding caffeine and other stimulants, such as cigarettes and sugary, starchy foods, will help keep your seratonin at the right level to boost libido, she said.

Emphasizing an improved sex life in anti-smoking and weight management campaigns might be an effective message.

Posted by Steve on May 2, 2007

Our Troops Do Deserve Better

w in his veto remarks:

Without a war funding bill, we add to the uncertainty felt by our military families. Our troops and their families deserve better -- and their elected leaders can do better.

Here in Washington, we have our differences on the way forward in Iraq, and we will debate them openly. Yet whatever our differences, surely we can agree that our troops are worthy of this funding -- and that we have a responsibility to get it to them without further delay.

Our troops do deserve better.

Our troops do deserve the best we can give them.

Yes, george, our troops deserve to be brought home now!

Posted by Steve on May 2, 2007

View From The Freeway

Impeach.

Posted by Steve on May 2, 2007

May 1, 2007

Seattle on the Edge

Perhaps after that long awaited 9.x earthquake or using a new approach to keep rising sea levels at bay:

Seattle%20Medium%20475270221_90a23d2174.jpg

The original larger version is available here and there is some discussion over at Digg.

Posted by Steve on May 1, 2007